Thank you! I love the deck to and I am really one of the creators. I tried souls, but I didn't like it main. It was sea in enough m atchups to justify a board slot.
Dont knock sin collector untill you try it. Its good against literally almost everything. It has been insane at stopping other souls , against control, even combo.
I did, and the plansewalkers didn't do anything for me. The best one was lili, but we are an aggro deck and it made the deck way slower and have worse late game topdecks. The way my list is, the only lategame bad topdecks are th oughtseizes. Basically, GBx minus the nonsense topdecks and all efficiency.
Thanks for writing on here! Would you mind giving us match up guides and how you would board against other decks? Thanks!
Of course! It will take a while to work on, but I will write it this weekend. I also playtest people from all over the world on skype. If any of you want to talk about the deck and test let me know! Put your skype name and we can make a big group of players of the same deck
I will say none of the losses were due to the deck choices; all my match losses were either mana flood, screw, or my opponents topdecking their one out to the situation they were in with one topdeck left. After extensive testing, it rarely happens. Varience is a part of magic and my few match losses have been variance no bad match-up yet.
Mindcensor don't have to be BAD but I think that you will turn off your own fetches so maybe when I will have it in my hand,play it when I will have 3-4 feches fetched and 1-2 mana creatures... But that's just my point of view,maybe somebody could disagree with me...
Mindcensor says target opponent.
If you want to deal with infect, boggles etc, engineered explosives has been amazing. Spellskite isnt needed in my experience. The life is to much.
Hi everyone! I am the creator of the deck and just saw there was a forum here.
I played pod for two years. The day pod got banned, I called up my buddy who is the best player I know, and he said one sentence that would change my MTG life; "Wilt leaf liege pumps siege rhino..."
When that sentence was said, we got to work and spent days tweaking and tuning the list and we found out it was the real deal!! We both posted our own ways to get the deck publicised (mine was a reddit post his was an article on the deck), and the people who tested it loved it but some were skeptical. Jacob Wilson then top 8ed a pro tour, and the deck jumped in value.
I have played over 100 competitive matches in playtesting and tournaments with my list, and I have lost 5 of them total.I played against a plethora of decks extensively, all with pilots that are very good with their deck (I playtest against people who write MTG articles, have made the pro tour multiple times,are IQ winners, and\or grand prix grinders). I wanted to share my list: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/14-02-15-POf-podless-pod/
the main difference is the lack of mana dorks. Essentially, the way the exact decklist is set, there are no dead topdecks. Dorks lead you to keep sketchy hands and are terible topdecks. In addition, I did test the dorks and found there was very little I needed to do turn 1. Either seize or just fetch for a tapped shock. I dont care about the turn 1 plays by my opponents as I either get rid of it immediately like against infect, or its low impact. A turn 2 anything isnt needed. This curves very well as well.
Instead of mana dorks, I run more disruption. This particular disruption lategame isnt dead and is super effective early game. Sin collectors 99 percent of the time hit something and at worst is a body. Sculler is insane: late game, hes a body. He forces opponents to stretch removal thin by removing that over a threat. In addition, I have gotten many people in a 2 for 1 by them killing sculler with the trigger on the stack or even playing something in response to force them to do uncomfortable things. Against the decks without removal its killer. Against the ones with, you take the most profitable removal spell for them or most of the time their only impact spell or removal spell.
I never didn't want a liege or smiter, so he becomes a 4 of. In addition, the sideboard is meant so you can board against as many decks as possible. It works very well as there are few decks I have nothing to sideboard. Everything else should be explanatory. I have found this list is very good against literally anything. The only match-up on paper that's bad is tron, and A. I never have lost a game against it due to the disruption suite, and B. its terribly positioned anyway so its not like it will be seen much.
Overall, I recommend giving this decklist a try. I think it will amount very well for you, and if there are any questions, let me know :). I was going to write an extensive primer, but as there is already a thread, I guess thats not needed. However, if you are interested in matchup guides, hand walkthroughs, tips and tricks, reasoning of all of my choices, and\or a board guide (what was going to be in my primer) let me know!
I wrote a tournament report for my first standard tournament with this deck. I wanted to share it here to show how good the deck is (this is copied and pasted from my reddit post):
This is my first tournament report so I appoligize if its bad, but I really liike tournament reports and thought I would have a crack at it.
I played UW soulblade from PT Khans but cutting the stratus walks for 2 aqueous form and 2 more singing bell-strike and I cut the flooded strands andd confluences not for budget reasons, but I found online testing showed that the life I was losing would lose me games, and I found I dont need fetches as I mostly have single mana symbols. After though I got two to run to add more consistency without being to mean on the life total.. My fnm is super competitive normally with 40 modern palayers and anywherefrom 70-100 standard players average. Because of the GP though, there were only 50 standard players. I decided to give it a go with the standard deck, not expecting what occcured.
M1: Mono Black Aggro Man I really think this deck is not good. Game 1I had a turn 3 ensoul hand but she won after despising my heliods pilgram turn 2 and me not recovering. Game 2 I turn 2 ensouled an ornithopter and rode it to victory in quick fassiion. Game 3 was similar. 1-0
Match 2: Sultai Reanimator Right before the match he warns me saying "I think we might go to time since im kind of a control deck." I respond with "This evens out as im an aggro deck." Game 1 I turn 2 ensoul and its way to quick for him. Game 2 he doesnt disrupt me at alll and doesnt even sideboard and I make him pay for it. 2-0
Match 3: Mono Black Aggro Not this deck again! This time there was no despise or anything just a couple of cant block guys and removal. I won two quick games with ensouled darksteel citadel 3-0
Match 4: Abzan midrange Finally a top deck! I wrote myself a sideboard guide with my friends for the top decks and up till now its been useless. He plays turn 2 fleecemane Lions, I play turn 2 Phyrexian Revoker on fleecemane. I tutor with Pilgram to get ensoul, get it on ornithopter and hit him twice with it. At this point he removes it and passes the turn at 3 life I have Hero of Iroas and Ajani Steadfast. I aquaeous form Hero and win. G2: An ensouled citadel with gods willing backup gets me there. He applied no pressure and was holding back to much. 4-0
Match 5: Abzan super friends At this point a crowd of people are watching our match as the feature match of the store. Im excited to play against another abzan deck as I had playtested it extensively with my good friends and I had not lost. However, I didnt realise his deck was far from traditional. His deck was a couple plansewalkers no creatures and a plethora of removal. It was cool but unexpecteed. Game 1 I revoker ajani mentor of heroes while ghostfire blade ornithopter is doing a bit of work. He uses removall on the evasion guys im revoking more and more, and then he drops elspeth and has infinite chump blockers. Game 2: He sides in creatures and wins off the back of a tough call from me with two coursers bating down and removal clearing the way. I could turn 2 ensoul my ornithopter and if he doesnt have a removal spell that turn I win as I have 5 protection spells and can ride them to victory, or I can wait a couple turns to see if I can get a third land to do both. I decide I have to pressure him or else he will draw more removal, so I make him have it. He has it. 4-1
Round 6: Grixis control At this point, I dropped from 1st to 6h. I was determined to top 4, so I planned on playing it out. The opponent wanted to draw but it looked like we couldnt or else one of us wouldnt top 8, so I said no. I then go ornithopter ornithopter darksteel citadel springleaf drum ghostfire blade. At tiis point the opponent gets ridiculously *****ty and salty and just keeps repeating how *****ty of a person I am for "forcing him to play" after I get the nut draw in his eyes I then turn 3 ensoul with gods willing backup and at this point hes straight up calling me a *****ty person which I cant take the constant *****yness and say "You want a drawthis bad? Fine take it." He proceeds to leave after the draw and I get 5th and the douche gets 4th because of breakers. I was pissed that being the better person got me fifth and not fourth. I only faced one (technically two I guess if the other abzan deck counts) tier 1 deck, but a ***** ton of people were running Jeskai decks, Ub control and abzan, and I played them before the tournament but during I got more casual players for the rounds. I did only lose two games (different matches) out of 40 matches of testing before the tournament ( got to the store super early) I lost a game to jeskai tempo and a game to mardu control. I beat the rest pretty handily in testing (faced all the jeskai decks,mardu, abzan, and all the control decks. These are against GP grinders and even people who have been to the pro tour so I consider it legitimate testing)
Overall changes, with the store credit I won I got two flooded strands and I plan on keeping the two flooded strands and no more fetches as I feel two flooded strands adds slight more consistency without to much pain. I am keeping the rest of the deck the same. This all was from the top of my head so if its not detailed enough I appoligize.
Highlights of the Night:
Having an Abzan player (considered the best player in the area) say to me "I played when jund was in standard, and besides that, this is the best standard deck I have ever seen". This was after I won 10 straight matches sideboarded without dropping a game.
In counting, 20 people said its the best deck in standard and I dont neccesarily agree, but it is super nice to be the only one here playing this deck.
Converting people at my school who thought it was a "casual deck that isnt competitive" to getting this result.
My good friend called my buddy who game with me round 5 asking how I was doing. When being told I was 4-0, he asked if I was cheating.
Deciding that I wont exclusively play modern anymore as I love the format to much but this deck was way to fun not to at least play standard over pod once a month for fun.
Hi guys! I want to build melira pod. What to you guys is the ideal list and why? What is the new manabase going to look like for you guys? What are your guy' opinion on resto vs metamorph? In testing online, resto kitchen finks army is nice to me. My meta is combo and midrange,
I am looking for a new deck to make that is skill intensive,interactive, and consistent. Is this a deck for me potentially? My meta is mostly combo and midrange. What is the ideal list to you guys? (tempo cant afford tarmo)
Dont knock sin collector untill you try it. Its good against literally almost everything. It has been insane at stopping other souls , against control, even combo.
I did, and the plansewalkers didn't do anything for me. The best one was lili, but we are an aggro deck and it made the deck way slower and have worse late game topdecks. The way my list is, the only lategame bad topdecks are th oughtseizes. Basically, GBx minus the nonsense topdecks and all efficiency.
Of course! It will take a while to work on, but I will write it this weekend. I also playtest people from all over the world on skype. If any of you want to talk about the deck and test let me know! Put your skype name and we can make a big group of players of the same deck
I will say none of the losses were due to the deck choices; all my match losses were either mana flood, screw, or my opponents topdecking their one out to the situation they were in with one topdeck left. After extensive testing, it rarely happens. Varience is a part of magic and my few match losses have been variance no bad match-up yet.
Mindcensor don't have to be BAD but I think that you will turn off your own fetches so maybe when I will have it in my hand,play it when I will have 3-4 feches fetched and 1-2 mana creatures... But that's just my point of view,maybe somebody could disagree with me...
Mindcensor says target opponent.
If you want to deal with infect, boggles etc, engineered explosives has been amazing. Spellskite isnt needed in my experience. The life is to much.
I played pod for two years. The day pod got banned, I called up my buddy who is the best player I know, and he said one sentence that would change my MTG life; "Wilt leaf liege pumps siege rhino..."
When that sentence was said, we got to work and spent days tweaking and tuning the list and we found out it was the real deal!! We both posted our own ways to get the deck publicised (mine was a reddit post his was an article on the deck), and the people who tested it loved it but some were skeptical. Jacob Wilson then top 8ed a pro tour, and the deck jumped in value.
I have played over 100 competitive matches in playtesting and tournaments with my list, and I have lost 5 of them total.I played against a plethora of decks extensively, all with pilots that are very good with their deck (I playtest against people who write MTG articles, have made the pro tour multiple times,are IQ winners, and\or grand prix grinders). I wanted to share my list:
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/14-02-15-POf-podless-pod/
the main difference is the lack of mana dorks. Essentially, the way the exact decklist is set, there are no dead topdecks. Dorks lead you to keep sketchy hands and are terible topdecks. In addition, I did test the dorks and found there was very little I needed to do turn 1. Either seize or just fetch for a tapped shock. I dont care about the turn 1 plays by my opponents as I either get rid of it immediately like against infect, or its low impact. A turn 2 anything isnt needed. This curves very well as well.
Instead of mana dorks, I run more disruption. This particular disruption lategame isnt dead and is super effective early game. Sin collectors 99 percent of the time hit something and at worst is a body. Sculler is insane: late game, hes a body. He forces opponents to stretch removal thin by removing that over a threat. In addition, I have gotten many people in a 2 for 1 by them killing sculler with the trigger on the stack or even playing something in response to force them to do uncomfortable things. Against the decks without removal its killer. Against the ones with, you take the most profitable removal spell for them or most of the time their only impact spell or removal spell.
I never didn't want a liege or smiter, so he becomes a 4 of. In addition, the sideboard is meant so you can board against as many decks as possible. It works very well as there are few decks I have nothing to sideboard. Everything else should be explanatory. I have found this list is very good against literally anything. The only match-up on paper that's bad is tron, and A. I never have lost a game against it due to the disruption suite, and B. its terribly positioned anyway so its not like it will be seen much.
Overall, I recommend giving this decklist a try. I think it will amount very well for you, and if there are any questions, let me know :). I was going to write an extensive primer, but as there is already a thread, I guess thats not needed. However, if you are interested in matchup guides, hand walkthroughs, tips and tricks, reasoning of all of my choices, and\or a board guide (what was going to be in my primer) let me know!
This is my first tournament report so I appoligize if its bad, but I really liike tournament reports and thought I would have a crack at it.
I played UW soulblade from PT Khans but cutting the stratus walks for 2 aqueous form and 2 more singing bell-strike and I cut the flooded strands andd confluences not for budget reasons, but I found online testing showed that the life I was losing would lose me games, and I found I dont need fetches as I mostly have single mana symbols. After though I got two to run to add more consistency without being to mean on the life total.. My fnm is super competitive normally with 40 modern palayers and anywherefrom 70-100 standard players average. Because of the GP though, there were only 50 standard players. I decided to give it a go with the standard deck, not expecting what occcured.
M1: Mono Black Aggro Man I really think this deck is not good. Game 1I had a turn 3 ensoul hand but she won after despising my heliods pilgram turn 2 and me not recovering. Game 2 I turn 2 ensouled an ornithopter and rode it to victory in quick fassiion. Game 3 was similar. 1-0
Match 2: Sultai Reanimator Right before the match he warns me saying "I think we might go to time since im kind of a control deck." I respond with "This evens out as im an aggro deck." Game 1 I turn 2 ensoul and its way to quick for him. Game 2 he doesnt disrupt me at alll and doesnt even sideboard and I make him pay for it. 2-0
Match 3: Mono Black Aggro Not this deck again! This time there was no despise or anything just a couple of cant block guys and removal. I won two quick games with ensouled darksteel citadel 3-0
Match 4: Abzan midrange Finally a top deck! I wrote myself a sideboard guide with my friends for the top decks and up till now its been useless. He plays turn 2 fleecemane Lions, I play turn 2 Phyrexian Revoker on fleecemane. I tutor with Pilgram to get ensoul, get it on ornithopter and hit him twice with it. At this point he removes it and passes the turn at 3 life I have Hero of Iroas and Ajani Steadfast. I aquaeous form Hero and win. G2: An ensouled citadel with gods willing backup gets me there. He applied no pressure and was holding back to much. 4-0
Match 5: Abzan super friends At this point a crowd of people are watching our match as the feature match of the store. Im excited to play against another abzan deck as I had playtested it extensively with my good friends and I had not lost. However, I didnt realise his deck was far from traditional. His deck was a couple plansewalkers no creatures and a plethora of removal. It was cool but unexpecteed. Game 1 I revoker ajani mentor of heroes while ghostfire blade ornithopter is doing a bit of work. He uses removall on the evasion guys im revoking more and more, and then he drops elspeth and has infinite chump blockers. Game 2: He sides in creatures and wins off the back of a tough call from me with two coursers bating down and removal clearing the way. I could turn 2 ensoul my ornithopter and if he doesnt have a removal spell that turn I win as I have 5 protection spells and can ride them to victory, or I can wait a couple turns to see if I can get a third land to do both. I decide I have to pressure him or else he will draw more removal, so I make him have it. He has it. 4-1
Round 6: Grixis control At this point, I dropped from 1st to 6h. I was determined to top 4, so I planned on playing it out. The opponent wanted to draw but it looked like we couldnt or else one of us wouldnt top 8, so I said no. I then go ornithopter ornithopter darksteel citadel springleaf drum ghostfire blade. At tiis point the opponent gets ridiculously *****ty and salty and just keeps repeating how *****ty of a person I am for "forcing him to play" after I get the nut draw in his eyes I then turn 3 ensoul with gods willing backup and at this point hes straight up calling me a *****ty person which I cant take the constant *****yness and say "You want a drawthis bad? Fine take it." He proceeds to leave after the draw and I get 5th and the douche gets 4th because of breakers. I was pissed that being the better person got me fifth and not fourth. I only faced one (technically two I guess if the other abzan deck counts) tier 1 deck, but a ***** ton of people were running Jeskai decks, Ub control and abzan, and I played them before the tournament but during I got more casual players for the rounds. I did only lose two games (different matches) out of 40 matches of testing before the tournament ( got to the store super early) I lost a game to jeskai tempo and a game to mardu control. I beat the rest pretty handily in testing (faced all the jeskai decks,mardu, abzan, and all the control decks. These are against GP grinders and even people who have been to the pro tour so I consider it legitimate testing)
Overall changes, with the store credit I won I got two flooded strands and I plan on keeping the two flooded strands and no more fetches as I feel two flooded strands adds slight more consistency without to much pain. I am keeping the rest of the deck the same. This all was from the top of my head so if its not detailed enough I appoligize.
Highlights of the Night:
Having an Abzan player (considered the best player in the area) say to me "I played when jund was in standard, and besides that, this is the best standard deck I have ever seen". This was after I won 10 straight matches sideboarded without dropping a game.
In counting, 20 people said its the best deck in standard and I dont neccesarily agree, but it is super nice to be the only one here playing this deck.
Converting people at my school who thought it was a "casual deck that isnt competitive" to getting this result.
My good friend called my buddy who game with me round 5 asking how I was doing. When being told I was 4-0, he asked if I was cheating.
Deciding that I wont exclusively play modern anymore as I love the format to much but this deck was way to fun not to at least play standard over pod once a month for fun.