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rooneg
08-13-2011, 01:41 PM
This deck (called Project Melira in the overextended forums) has been pretty successful in overextended, and while it loses a few cards in the translation to modern none of them are show stoppers. The core combo is Melira, Sylvok Outcast + (Kitchen Finks / Murderous Redcap / Safehold Elite) + A sacrifice outlet. Finks gives you infinite life, Redcap gives you infinite damage, Elite just gives you an infinite loop, so you need your sacrifice outlet to provide the useful effect.

There are a few questions as to how best to build the deck. One approach just builds the combo into a Rock style shell that can win via Goyf/KotR/whatever beatdown but occasionally can combo off for the "oops, I win" effect. Another loads up on tutor effects and just tries to go for the combo immediately.

A few options for sacrifice outlets have been proposed:

Viscera Seer - At 1CC it's among the cheapest, lets you scry through your deck to look for a kill condition if your opponent isn't going to fold to infinite life.
Bloodthrone Vampire - Can become infinitely big and swing for the win. This is a poor excuse for Carrion Feeder from overextended, since the pump doesn't stick around past the end of the turn, but it's still a viable 2CC option that can actually help win the game itself.
Blasting Station - Not a creature, which is nice, and actually lets you win the game.
Scarland Thrinax - This makes the cut mainly because it's green, so you can tutor for it with Green Sun's Zenith
Greater Gargadon - An uncounterable 1 mana sac outlet. You can use it infinitely many times by stacking more sacrifices in response to the first one.

Regardless of whether the combo is your primary win condition or not you're probably going to want some tutor effects. In Overextended or Legacy that would have probably been Living Wishbut we don't have that here. There are some other options though:

Green Sun's Zenith - The premier tutor in green. With Scarland Thrinax all three parts of the combo are available via GSZ, so you probably want at least 3 or 4.
Summoner's Pact - Pact needs a green target, just like GSZ. It also sticks the card in your hand instead of into play, which means you actually have to cast it, and if you don't actually win this turn you need to be able to pay for the pact on your next upkeep. Worth considering, but it's not as flexible as GSZ even if you're getting the card on the battlefield for one less mana.
Beseech the Queen - Heavy on the black mana, which is unfortunate, but lets you tutor for non-creature and non-green cards. I'd probably leave this out but it's worth keeping in mind if you're heavier in black.
Birthing Pod - You need to build around it, keeping your CMCs in mind the whole time, and it's sorcery speed which is unfortunate, but it has a lot of potential and isn't limited to green creatures.
Fauna Shaman - Summoning sickness sucks, but this'll get you any of your three creatures for the win.

Once you've got the combo pieces and some tutors to find them you'll need to figure out what to do with the extra slots. If you're going all in on the combo that probably means disruption. Thoughtseize, Duress, Inquisition of Kozilek, etc. If you're putting the combo into a more typical rock shell you'll want removal and more creatures, etc. In many cases you may want to split the difference.

And now, a virtually untested decklist:

4 Melira, Sylvok Outcast

4 Kitchen Finks
2 Murderous Redcap
1 Safehold Elite

4 Viscera Seer
1 Blasting Station
1 Scarland Thrinax

2 Tarmogoyf
4 Dark Confidant

4 Green Sun's Zenith

4 Thoughtseize
2 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Go For the Throat

1 Birds of Paradise
1 Dryad Arbor

22 other lands

This version leans on GSZ for tutoring and Bob to draw into anything you can't tutor for. There's a fair amount of removal and disruption to keep people occupied, and if you can't find the combo pieces you can always beat down with a Zenith'd up Goyf. The BoP and Arbor let you use GSZ for mana ramping if necessary.

SpikeyMikey
08-13-2011, 07:33 PM
I started in Modern playing Persist before switching to 12-Post (which was just better). I used Viscera Seer as my primary sac outlet and alternated between Blasting Station and Jinxed Idol as my secondary sac outlet. Idol had the benefit of being a mana cheaper and being an excellent alternative win condition against control decks but Blasting Station was an immediate win regardless of the persist creature used. I think when I started playing 12Post and dumped Persist, I was using Blasting Station.

I was also using a creature split of 4 Kitchen Finks, 2 Murderous Redcaps and 1 Heartmender. Heartmender is very useful when chaining into the combo with Birthing Pod. Sacrificing a Finks to get a Heartmender, then the Heartmender the next turn for Juniper Order Ranger gave me a way to infinitely recur the persist creature I'd already landed. The biggest problem I ran into with this deck was that I often wanted to use the persist creatures to block or to fuel Pod but couldn't use them to combo with after that. My basic shell is:

4 Viscera Seer
2 Blasting Station

4 Kitchen Finks
2 Murderous Redcap
1 Heartmender

3 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1 Juniper Order Ranger

4 Fauna Shaman
3 Birthing Pod
3 Green Sun's Zenith

After that, I alternated between two different sets of complimenting cards. One set was a Vengevine package with mana critters (Birds/Elves) and the other was a discard package with Thoughtseizes and Tidehollow Scullers. I was also tinkering with a utility package with Eternal Witness and Reveilark that could go off with just a resolved Birthing Pod (chaining up from Dryad Arbor into Reveilark) without ever having to resolve another spell. Control was too weak to make it worthwhile then and has only gotten worse since.

Edit: By the way, Scarland Thrinax was one I missed and makes for a decent tutorable sac outlet. Not being able to GSZ directly into any of my outlets (Seer and Station/Idol) was always a minor irritant. Seems like a decent card to run, I'm glad you listed it.

rooneg
08-14-2011, 07:47 AM
Jinxed Idol and Heartmender are both interesting. I'll add them to the initial post the next time I update it.

How do you feel about Juniper Order Ranger? I like the interaction with persist creatures, but I'm kind of skeptical of its high CMC. If you Birthing Pod a 4CMC persist creature into the ranger is the ranger there in time to give the persist dude a +1/+1 counter?

Another tutor that occurred to me last night: transmute cards. There are two cards with transmute that have CMC 2, Muddle the Mixture and Shred Memory. Muddle is pretty much out unless we make a serious left turn and start playing heavy blue. Shred kinda sucks on its own, but its on color and you can get Melira, Sylvok Outcast, Jinxed Idol or Safehold Elite. The transmute cost is slightly cheaper than Beseech the Queen, with less flexibility. It'd mean playing either Idol or Elite, both of which provide zero benefit from the infinite loop on their own, but if you had a sac outlet or persist creature that did something useful plus one other combo piece it'd get you there.

RainbowPenguin
08-15-2011, 12:15 PM
If you Birthing Pod a 4CMC persist creature into the ranger is the ranger there in time to give the persist dude a +1/+1 counter?


No, persist will trigger while the pod ability is still on the stack.

Gavin Verhey mentioned this deck in an article on scg. The list he presented:

Artifacts
4 Aether Vial

Creatures
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Dark Confidant
4 Kitchen Finks
1 Murderous Redcap
1 Scarland Thrinax
4 Viscera Seer

Instants
3 Punishing Fire

Legendary Creatures
4 Melira, Sylvok Outcast

Sorceries
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Thoughtseize

Basic Lands
4 Forest
2 Swamp

Lands
1 Blood Crypt
4 Grove of the Burnwillows
2 Marsh Flats
4 Overgrown Tomb
1 Stomping Ground
4 Verdant Catacombs

Land Creatures
1 Dryad Arbor

GV was showcasing decks from his Overextended project that could be directly ported to Modern, or could easily be adapted. This is probably an adapted version, since overextended Melira would presumably include Living Wish.
Between GSZ for Dryad Arbor, Birds and Vial, this deck packs serious acceleration.
The combo part has been slimmed down to just the essential parts, it seems: just one Redcap, no Safehold Elite.

In the comments, someone mentioned RUG Melira, including Glen Elendra Archmage, which sounds intriguing. The deck would lose Confidant and and Seer, but gaining countermagic and cantrips (and perhaps Muddle the Mixture) could be worth it.

SpikeyMikey
08-15-2011, 02:11 PM
When I first posted my listing at MTGSalv a couple of months ago, someone suggested blue for Kelpie and Archmage. I think it's a much weaker pairing than black. Black gives you Viscera Seer, which is arguably the best sac outlet there is for the deck (the only other one on par is Greater Gargadon which won't help you dig for a kill condition the way Seer will but makes up for it by being unkillable). Blue gives you ??? There's no Force of Will in this format, your tutoring needs are handled entirely in Green and the blue combo pieces are worse as combo pieces than the Green/White and Red/Black ones. Slow and bad control measures aren't going to cut it.

This is still a combo driven format and playing midrange with a side of combo (like the Dark Confidant listing) is asking to get run over. Imagine Legacy without Force, Daze, Misstep or any other free counter. That's Modern. Since ~ Onslaught or so, Wizards has pushed strong threats while toning down control cards. This leads to threat dominated Standard formats, but you don't REALLY see that effect until you start stacking multiple sets together and strong threats get paired in interesting ways. Counterspell is just counterspell, no matter how many you have in a deck. There is no critical mass for "UU, Counter target spell". There is definitely a critical mass for something like Wild Nacatl. 30 Counterspells in a deck would make the deck unplayable, 30 Wild Nacatl's would be a glass cannon (vulnerable to CotV, EE, etc.) but significantly more scary. My point is that the strength of threats is multiplicative but the strength of answers is additive.

Right now, I would say the top 8 decks, in order, are:

GreenPost
Jund
Hive Mind
Splinter Twin
Zoo
All in Red
Persist
Turbo-Land

Of those, 4 are pure combo decks (Hive Mind, Splinter Twin, Persist and Turbo-Land). One, GreenPost, is a pseudo-combo deck. It's slow, but anything that's that focused is basically combo and Emrakul is pretty much a 1-card combo the way Tendrils of Agony is a 1-card combo. The only "fair" decks that really function in the format are hyper-aggressive decks with decent disruption. There is no playable control. There is no playable aggro-control because Faeries was nerfed into the ground (not that I think Faeries would've been a tier 1 strategy anyway, since it loses its ass to GreenPost and All in Red). The only thing that could stand between combo and the rest of the format is discard based Junk decks and given the number of tutors available in the format, discard is a weak answer to combo. Try using discard to beat Hive Mind/Ascension when it's packing 4 Ponder, 4 Preordain, and 4 Serum Visions. You Thoughtseize it one turn, the next it digs 8 cards into the real threat.

Maveric78f
08-18-2011, 04:44 AM
The only sacrifice outlet that is tutorable with GSZ is Scarland Thrinax. R can remain a light splash, and I think U can also be another slight splash for Glen Elendra Archmage and/or Deceiver Exarch, which is synergistic with birthing pod.

Creatures: 20
4 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
3 Kitchen Finks
1 Murderous Redcap
2 Safehold Elite
4 Viscera Seer
4 Birds of Paradise
1 Deceiver Exarch
1 Scarland Thrinax
1 Glen Elendra Archmage

Tutoring: 7
4 Green Sun's Zenith
3 Birthing Pod

Control: 11
3 Thoughtseize
3 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Duress
2 Inquisition of Kozilek

Lands: 20
1 Dryad Arbor
4 Verdant Catacomb
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Forest
1 Swamp
3 Overgrown Tomb
2 Breeding Pool
1 Stomping Ground

Also somebody wondered how to chain Pod from 2 to 6, I've got this:
1/ sac some random 2CC to search for Exarch which untaps pod.
2/ sac exarch for Fatestitcher, find a way to sac it and unearth it, untap pod.
3/ sac Fatestitcher for a 5CC card, although this 5CC card can't be Kiki-Jiki for the Exarch combo since this latter will be in the graveyard. So that you'll have to search for Body Double which will copy Exarch and then untap pod.
4/ sac Body Double for Gleancrawler and get all these people back.

This is completely casual since you're probably going to pay 4U+8life in this process for something that does not kill.

Kich867
08-26-2011, 03:09 AM
I think for once I might actually be able to add something relevant to a deck. Bitter Ordeal states that it's storm trigger occurs for how many permanents entered the graveyard in this turn. Would that not apply to Kitchen Finks? It doesn't say they need to be there, it doesn't refer to the actual number of cards in your graveyard, just the number of permanents that hit the graveyard at some point during the turn, in Infinite Persist's case: infinite numbers of Finks hit the graveyard.

It may be a little redundant, but unlike the persist creature that you can't GSZ for, costs 1 black more, and can get Path'd, Bitter Ordeal exiles your opponent's library on their turn, forcing a game loss their next turn, and can be run side-by-side the persist creature asking your opponent to be able to answer both a creature based threat and a storm based threat. The gravestorm count will always be infinite in this case or as many as you are so inclined to hit.

Unless I'm horribly mistaken and repeatedly sending the same permanent to the graveyard doesn't technically count towards this, but I feel that's not the case, this should work.

I would lean more towards the combo aspect of the deck:

4x Melira, Sylvok Outcast
3x Kitchen Finks
1x Murderous Redcap
1x Scarland Thrinax
4x Viscera Seer
4x Birds of Paradise
4x Fauna Shaman

4x Green Sun's Zenith
4x Duress
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
3x Go for the Throat
2x Maelstrom Pulse
2x Bitter Ordeal

20x Land

That's just off the top of my head, more sac outlets are required like the tutorable one but I forgot it's name and it's more just a list to give an example.

Maveric78f
08-26-2011, 03:35 AM
It works but I just don't understand why you would need a non creature, non tutorisable kill when Murderous Redcap just does the job. Instead of Bitter ordeal just play Birthing Pod, it's going to be more useful in many ways.

Kich867
08-26-2011, 04:02 AM
Would you not agree that Birthing Pod is equally non-creature, non-tutorable? It doesn't exactly kill them, but it inadvertently does given that the turn / the turn after it resolves, you win the game, barring any exile / artifact removal.

I guess it would just come down to this, bitter ordeal is inherently more resilient of a win condition. Birthing Pod can be countered, unless they have a mindbreak trap in hand, Bitter Ordeal can't be conventionally countered. Pod holds all the problems with being a permanent in an already very permanent reliant deck.

I also don't agree that it would always be more useful; just to support birthing pod you slip in an extra 3 cards: 2 safehold elite (which are otherwise useless and are only really there to easily hit the exarch or carry you over with a pseudo-combo to find necessary cards) and the exarch who is a dead draw. I would say Pod actually moves a little too close to being in danger of cool things.

SpikeyMikey
08-30-2011, 02:49 AM
Would you not agree that Birthing Pod is equally non-creature, non-tutorable? It doesn't exactly kill them, but it inadvertently does given that the turn / the turn after it resolves, you win the game, barring any exile / artifact removal.

I guess it would just come down to this, bitter ordeal is inherently more resilient of a win condition. Birthing Pod can be countered, unless they have a mindbreak trap in hand, Bitter Ordeal can't be conventionally countered. Pod holds all the problems with being a permanent in an already very permanent reliant deck.

I also don't agree that it would always be more useful; just to support birthing pod you slip in an extra 3 cards: 2 safehold elite (which are otherwise useless and are only really there to easily hit the exarch or carry you over with a pseudo-combo to find necessary cards) and the exarch who is a dead draw. I would say Pod actually moves a little too close to being in danger of cool things.

I run 4 GSZ, 3 Pod and 1 Fauna Shaman in my build. Pod opens up a lot of options by being so cheap. 1, I can sac a Finks to get a Heartmender and sac that to get a Juniper Order Ranger. By running Pod, I give myself protection from having Melira answered in some fasion (Meddling Mage, Extirpate, Surgical Extraction) as well as a way to chain without ever actually casting a spell, dodging counters. It lets me get utility creatures out of board more consistently than running GSZ alone (Pridemage, Teeg, etc.) and it lets me turn Birds of Paradise into Tidehollow Scullers to clear teh way for my combo. In short, Pod is probably the best card in the deck, as long as I'm not drawing multiples (which is too slow and clunky).

My list, for reference:


4 Birds of Paradise

4 Green Sun's Zenith
3 Birthing Pod
1 Fauna Shaman

4 Viscera Seer
3 Melira, Sylvok Outcase
3 Kitchen Finks
2 Murderous Redcap
1 Blasting Station
1 Eternal Witness
1 Scarland Thrinax
1 Heartmender
1 Juniper Order Ranger

4 Thoughtseize
3 Tidehollow Sculler
3 Path to Exile

4 Verdant Catacomb
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Marsh Flats
3 Overgrown Tomb
1 Temple Garden
2 Forest
2 Swamp
1 Plains
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Wooded Bastion
1 Twilight Mire
1 Dryad Arbor

Sideboard

4 Knight of the Reliquary
3 Aven Mindcensor
2 Qasali Pridemage
1 Path to Exile
1 Vexing Shusher
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Reveilark
1 Gigapede


The board needs some work, but the main is, I think, pretty well set.

Running a variety of each of the 3 combo pieces does slow you down a little, but less than a turn on average and it's worth the added resilience to removal/permission.

Smasher
08-30-2011, 02:25 PM
Dimir house guard has to be playable. He is a 4 drop transmuter which means you can find redcaps or birthing pods and he is also a sac outlet.

I haven't been building around this deck idea yet but was curious what others think of this idea. Specifically for builds running the birthing pod.

marit
08-30-2011, 02:31 PM
Have you guys not looked at the Melira Pod deck that's been doing really well in the daily events on MODO?

Jiggywiggy (4-0)
Modern Daily #2739364 on 08/29/2011

Main Deck

4 Forest
1 Gemstone Caverns
1 Godless Shrine
1 Golgari Rot Farm
1 Marsh Flats
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Sunpetal Grove
2 Swamp
2 Temple Garden
4 Verdant Catacombs

1 Acidic Slime
4 Birds of Paradise
1 Bloodthrone Vampire
1 Body Double
1 Dark Confidant
1 Eternal Witness
1 Fauna Shaman
4 Kitchen Finks
3 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1 Murderous Redcap
1 Noble Hierarch
1 Protean Hulk
1 Ranger of Eos
1 Reveillark
1 Spellskite
2 Viscera Seer
4 Wall of Roots
1 Yosei, the Morning Star

4 Birthing Pod
3 Chord of Calling

Sideboard:
2 Creeping Corrosion
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Harmonic Sliver
1 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Mogg Fanatic
1 Obstinate Baloth
1 Skinrender
4 Thoughtseize
1 Wall of Reverence
1 Withered Wretch


The deck is nuts, with this deck if you can stick a birthing pod you probably win. Also, every Melira combo deck should be playing 4 Kitchen Finks, the card is so good in so many ways. There's a reason it's an uncommon and going for 5 tix on modo.

SpikeyMikey
08-30-2011, 03:31 PM
Yes, I saw it when the results from the first DE were posted. It's far more reliant on Birthing Pod and exchanges redundancy and disruption for a second combo (Yosei lock). I was playing 4 Kitchen Finks main previously, but it's not a card you want in multiples of except against Zoo. With the ridiculous amount of Zoo on MODO, that's a legitimate reason to main the 4th one (along with the 4 WoRs), but I'm ok with only seeing 1 per game and I've got 8 ways to tutor for it in addition to the 3 copies I main.

marit
08-30-2011, 06:01 PM
Yes, I saw it when the results from the first DE were posted. It's far more reliant on Birthing Pod and exchanges redundancy and disruption for a second combo (Yosei lock). I was playing 4 Kitchen Finks main previously, but it's not a card you want in multiples of except against Zoo. With the ridiculous amount of Zoo on MODO, that's a legitimate reason to main the 4th one (along with the 4 WoRs), but I'm ok with only seeing 1 per game and I've got 8 ways to tutor for it in addition to the 3 copies I main.

It's not as reliant as Birthing Pod as it looks, and wall of roots and finks can stall until you find it. Chord of calling is better than GSZ, in that version at least because it fetches any creature, and you can fetch the last combo piece at instant speed when they tap out. There is no yosei lock, instead you sack yosei, tap them down, fetch hulk, and sac hulk next time and win. Also, the deck is very redundant too, primarily because chord fetches any combo peace you need. I have yet to see a non-pod version 3-1 a daily on modo.

SpikeyMikey
08-31-2011, 08:07 AM
A couple of thoughts: The MTGO Dailies are heavily innundated with Zoo. So if you can beat Zoo consistently, you'll do well in those events. But Zoo's not actually a contender; it loses its ass to 12Post. Against decks that don't care about early blockers (12Post, any combo deck, what passes for control in this format) Wall of Roots and Kitchen Finks don't matter in the least. And I don't think that the PT this weekend is going to have nearly as high of a saturation of Zoo. If it were a GP, I'd say yes, anti-Zoo is the way to go, but for the PT, GreenPost is the DtB and so what you'll want to be playing (and what the meta will probably look like in the wake of the PT) is something that beats GreenPost. The MTGO daily deck is reminiscent of ATS in that it uses an incredibly powerful strategy (Survival there, Pod here) but does all kinds of cutesy stuff with it, whereas a more consistent and faster deck using the same inherent strategy (tutor for bullshit creatures) is stronger. In a head to head competition, would you rather be playing Body Double and Acidic Slime or Thoughtseize and Tidehollow Sculler?

menace13
09-21-2011, 04:35 AM
Does this become the best deck post bans? I would be inclined to believe it is clearly. A Combo finish with all its cards unaffected by the bans.

SpikeyMikey
09-22-2011, 09:06 AM
I don't think so. The Pod/Chord version was weak to begin with, that's why it did so poorly at the PT. It was slower than the other combo decks and ran 0 disruption. The GSZ version was much, much better and it lost a lot of speed with GSZ being banned. I think Twin is still the best combo deck.

Sims
09-22-2011, 09:52 AM
Twin is easily the best combo deck, and that makes me sad. However, I do think it's possible to build Melira to at least a tier 1.5/2 deck if you really know your meta well enough. Know that your opponents will be playing tons of Twin? Meta the deck to have removal, discard, and teegs. Know there will be a lot of zoo? Stack up on removal and maybe Wall of Roots to stem the bleeding. Spellskite, Tidehollow, and any other discard (thoughtseize/Inquisition/Duress?) can steal their removal while you set up your win.

I think the deck has tons of options available to it, and while the toolboxy decks may not have done well at the GP (I think there was 1 deck with 24 points?) the deck has the options available to it to succeed. It just won't be as quick as when it had GSZ.

Perhaps a GBw deck with Fauna's and Pods, Vengevines, Goyfs, Disruption, and run a very small toolbox (1 melira, 1 finks/redcap, 1 sac creature, 1 bodydouble/graveyard recursion critter) amongst a b/g survival shell?

I dunno. I think the deck can get there I'm just not sure where to start at the moment.

hi-val
09-27-2011, 01:34 AM
I don't think so. The Pod/Chord version was weak to begin with, that's why it did so poorly at the PT. It was slower than the other combo decks and ran 0 disruption. The GSZ version was much, much better and it lost a lot of speed with GSZ being banned. I think Twin is still the best combo deck.

I'm pretty hot on this deck right now, so I am biased -but- your comment about the GSZ versions doing better doesn't seem to bear out. Here's the relevant link:

http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/eventcoverage/ptphi11/topmoderndecks

Lukas Jaklovsky, 24 pts. 0 GSZ
Pawel Pedrakowski, 19 pts. 0 GSZ

And thaaaaaat's it! It posted a 61% win average against the other decks in the event, which initially made me pay attention to it.

I played Melira in a tournament recently and T8ed with it; I'll surely be posting about it soon. In short, I'll give these findings of mine.

-the Polish lists were misbuilt and full of too much extraneous tutor targets
-Chord is a fine card
-Wall of Roots is essential
-Melira is a solid, scary combo
-this deck owns the long game
-most games of Modern last at least 5-6 turns

So much more to say!

Sims
09-27-2011, 08:04 AM
I do agree with you, Doug.

I played this deck this past weekend playing a list similar to Lukas' from the PT, dropped a few of the tutor targets I wasn't feeling for either a better singleton or more redundant pieces. I played it in a small Legacy tournament this past weekend and won, going 3-1 in swiss to the top 4 cut and then winning out. The longer the game goes the more and more I felt the win was just a a matter of time.

I felt chord was amazing in the deck. Able to combo or pull the right card at instant speed in response to removal/sweepers or even just finding a toolbox creature in the appropriate situation is huge.

SpikeyMikey
09-30-2011, 01:20 PM
I'm pretty hot on this deck right now, so I am biased -but- your comment about the GSZ versions doing better doesn't seem to bear out. Here's the relevant link:

http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/eventcoverage/ptphi11/topmoderndecks

Lukas Jaklovsky, 24 pts. 0 GSZ
Pawel Pedrakowski, 19 pts. 0 GSZ

And thaaaaaat's it! It posted a 61% win average against the other decks in the event, which initially made me pay attention to it.

I played Melira in a tournament recently and T8ed with it; I'll surely be posting about it soon. In short, I'll give these findings of mine.

-the Polish lists were misbuilt and full of too much extraneous tutor targets
-Chord is a fine card
-Wall of Roots is essential
-Melira is a solid, scary combo
-this deck owns the long game
-most games of Modern last at least 5-6 turns

So much more to say!

Yes, but nobody, and I mean nobody, was running the GSZ version. Everyone was running the Pod version because that's what 4-0'd the first MTGO daily.

I agree with you that my real problem with the listing is the number of bullshit tutor targets. I've said before that the deck reminded me of Survival builds in the early days of Legacy. Too much cutesy silver bullet stuff, not enough meat and potatoes. No disruption in a format full of combo is just asinine. It frustrated me no end, but at the end of the day, we all know people would rather ape what they see than put any real thought into tweaking a deck.

My version actually started as an offshoot of Calosso's Melira Zoo from Magic League. I saw the interaction between Melira/Finks/Gargadon and said how can I make this competitive in its own right?

I would be interested in seeing your list. Maybe you'll change my mind. Because this dodges a fair bit of Twin hate. But Twin is still a turn 4 deck and I feel without GSZ, Persist just cannot be fast enough, consistently enough to be a tier 1 deck.

hi-val
09-30-2011, 03:48 PM
I'm in the process of writing my thoughts on the deck for 2 articles on Quiet Spec, and I'll definitely let people know when it's up. Melira can't exactly race Twin, which is why I didn't even run things like Sculler or Thoughtseize. Better to use that space for broader applications. It can, however, constrain Twin. Cards like Pridemage can make three turns of "find Splinter Twin with my cantrips" turn into "darn, now I need Kiki or Bolt instead." I am also really in love with maindecked Linvala, which is unanswerable by Twin. SOTF decks consistently had problems with combo, and I'm fine playing a game of who can develop more in the first three turns. At least we don't have to run solutions that answer turn-1 storm combos.

beelzeboss
10-02-2011, 08:44 PM
Hi!
First of all, sorry for my bad english. I can't do much with it right now ;)

I really like this deck, it's so much funt to play. It reminds me my old love- Aluren. Yes, they are different decks, but the strategies of both are somewhat simillar for me. Our comob pices are not dead without other combo pieces and are very interactive with opponent even alone. And there are many routes to combo off. We can defend against aggro with walls, finks and try to combo off as fast as posibble. Against Control we can play more aggro, and try to sneak our combo pieces through their permission(heh... how i miss intuition and cabal therapy ;P) and we got many ways rebuild after discard or removal. Finally against faster combos we play more like control disturbing their plans with discard, paths(if this is creature based combo) and utility creatures. Just like Aluren :)

Here is my current list:

1 Golgari Rot Farm
1 Horizon Canopy
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Sunpetal Grove
2 Swamp
1 Temple Garden
1 Twilight Mire
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Godless Shrine
4 Forest

4 Birds of Paradise
1 Noble Hierarch
4 Wall of Roots
4 Kitchen Finks
3 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
4 Birthing Pod
3 Viscera Seer
3 Chord of Calling
1 Acidic Slime
1 Protean Hulk
1 Eternal Witness
1 Murderous Redcap
1 Ranger of Eos
1 Reveillark
1 Tidehollow Sculler
1 Yosei, the Morning Star
1 Spellskite
1 Sun Titan
1 Archon of Justice
1 Obstinate Baloth

Sideboard:
4 Thoughtseize
4 Path to Exile
the rest depends on expected meta

Probably there are too many "Pod creatures" But this is experimental list- I'm trying different combinations and it will probably changed many times ;). I'm expecting a lot of aggro decks, that's why i cut dark confident(and in this list i have more big "pod creatures" and this can hurt much) for Obstinate Baloth(but i thinking about Loxodon Hierarch- could be better) Also i'm not sure if Archon is needed main deck, maybe Body Double could be better for instant win with hulk, but I don't rember when i last time use him. I will probably resign from both of them.
Now when i run Sun titan(I found it really great) Yoseii is probably too much. Maybe i will cut him, but i'm not sure. I like him, he can tap opponents lands before our combo and prevent him from disturbing it. Once i tap all opponents creatures and simplly kill zoo with my beaters :) I think I will play both for now.


As for the Splinter Twin(i think it is still good combo after bans) and other faster combos- we don't have to outrace them. I think the goal is to play more controlish. And in my opinion Splinter Twin is the easiest metchup of all UR combos. 4 Thoustseizes, 4 Path to exiles, Gaddock Teeg and Tidehollow sculler was enought for me. Of course I'm not pro player and I have not played hundreds of games, but i think this metchup is not so good in game one, but after that is even on our favor.

The hardest metchups for me was Storm decks but i'm not sure if they are still presence after banings.

Edit: how can I add card tags?

Maveric78f
10-03-2011, 08:35 AM
I'm pissed, I did write a lot of stuff but got firefoxed by some strange shortdcuts. I'll try to do as well as I did in the first place.


I really like this deck, it's so much funt to play. It reminds me my old love- Aluren.
You're absolutely right about that.


Probably there are too many "Pod creatures"
Absolutely. Actually, there should not be any "pod" creature at all. There should only be tutors, combo enablers and protection. You don't want to rely on Pod for doing anything. First, add consistency. Without GSZ in the format, Fauna Shaman is the best creature tutor. Chord is overkill. A card interesting only when you have 3 untapped creatures to do something cannot be good in anything that does not play Glimpse of Nature.


As for the Splinter Twin(i think it is still good combo after bans) and other faster combos- we don't have to outrace them. I think the goal is to play more controlish. And in my opinion Splinter Twin is the easiest metchup of all UR combos. 4 Thoustseizes, 4 Path to exiles, Gaddock Teeg and Tidehollow sculler was enought for me. Of course I'm not pro player and I have not played hundreds of games, but i think this metchup is not so good in game one, but after that is even on our favor.[/cards]
You, sir, are completely wrong on that. First, with your build, you completely scoop game 1. You basically have 0 chance of winning. Then, you'll have to win games 2 and 3 but, second, your hate is not good enough to get more than 50% a game in my opinion. Seize is good, but it's only delaying the inevitable and you'll probably be too slow. Path, is quite bad, since it's reactive and it will slow you down very much and your game will be very readable. Once your opponent is going to play a creature, it's going to certainly be either because he's got protection or for baiting your removal. Also, know that you can't take the risk of 2 for 1 against Twin, because it plays pact of negation. Teeg prevents only half of the combo and does nothing against the Kiki Jiki kill. Finally, I will never repeat it enough bu Sculler is crap. The only good way of playing it would be to sacrifice it in response to its come onto the battlefield effect, so that it would guarantee the card is lot forever.

Spellskite is a much better hate since it's useful in most MUs (I even play it MD in several copies). It's a good blocker against zoo, it's a good protection for the combo and for the Twin matter, it hoses 75% of the combo (everything that is not Kiki+Exarch). It's also awesome against U-infect. The best creature in the Twin MU is Linvala, Keeper of Silence. It completely nullifies the combo and as importantly, it's out of reach of Lightning Bolt, which makes it very difficult to deal with in the Splinter Twin Deck.

To sum up, in my version (see the end the post), MD Spellskites will be very difficult to deal with for the Twin player. Assisted with Thoughtseize and the combo kill, it's going to be slightly positive. Post SB, the Twin player is going to bring in artifact hate and Firespouts. You bring in Path and Linvala. Your goal is to lock the kill with Linvala and the other disruption is just buying time to reach this state of the game. You don't need your combo kill to win. Just ways to find Linvala. Do not ever attack with it (flash Pestermite + bolt and your lock is down), do not ever block with it (for the same reason).

[quote]The hardest metchups for me was Storm decks but i'm not sure if they are still presence after banings.
Storm is dead with the loss of Rite of Flame. Only Ascension is a problem, and yes, it is probably the worst MU for the deck, because it's faster and the MD is not equipped at all to respond to it (Spellskite is a lame response to the kill, even if it might be a relevant answer to the Pyromancer's Swath storm kill). In SB, I don't have much response neither apart from surgical extraction, which is quite cool, and anti enchantment creatures.


Edit: how can I add card tags?
"cards" is the tag name. Quote reply to my message you'll see how I did.

Now, my list:

1 Marsh Flats
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Overgrown Tomb
2 Temple Garden
4 Forest
2 Swamp

4 Birds of Paradise
2 Noble Hierarch
4 Viscera Seer
4 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
4 Fauna Shaman
3 Spellskite
1 Bloodghast
4 Kitchen Finks
1 Quillspike
1 Dimir House Guard
2 Murderous Redcap
1 Reveillark
1 Shriekmaw

4 Birthing Pod
4 Thoughtseize

Sideboard
SB:1 Gaddock Teeg
SB:1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
SB:4 Path to Exile
SB:1 Plains
SB:3 Qasali Pridemage
SB:4 Surgical Extraction
SB:1 Wickerbough Elder

As I explained earlier, Spellskite is awesome in the Modern metagame (it's also pretty strong in Legacy, but this is another story). The 4th slot of Spellskite is directy in competition with the 4th Viscera Seer. I like to play an early seer because it offers a kind of cycling ability against removal.

The only "Pod" slots are :
- Bloodghast, for obvious reasons, it's very good with pod. It's also a creature that is difficult to handle for control, when you go the aggro route.
- Quillspike, better than Melira in some cases, when you control creatures that have already persisted. It can go really destructive with a sacrifice outlet and Redcap (5 damages from each B/G spent).
- Dimir House Guard, that's a find I got some time ago and I'm very happy about it. The first remark is that I wanted a 4CC creature sacrifying outlet, because, when you control Melira, Finks and Pod, that's what you need, not a 3CC one. When you have Fauna Shaman in play, you'll prefer Seer anyway, so no need to have a 2CC or 3CC sacrificer. The second remark is that it transmutes, meaning that Fauna Shaman can fetch it to fetch Pod. Or simply when you draw it it does not suck that much, because you can transmute it into Pod or Redcap.
- Reveillark: absolutely awesome. It's 5CC, but awesome.
- Shriekmaw: not absolutely necessary, but it's good to have a fetchable creature removal. Rarely useless and not a 5CC card that sticks in our hands.

The SB is still very experimental, so I won't bother defending it. It's just a SB idea, with only a very little reflection.

marit
10-03-2011, 03:20 PM
I think everyone is playing this deck wrong, including me. I've been playing this on MODO since the first day it came out, and I just T8'd a 68 man tourney in philly, going 5-0-2 in the swiss and losing to jund player I 2-0'd in the swiss already. I think the list above is especially terrible. Me and my friend discussed about the deck and after testing 2 different versions, the deck is better when you play as a BGW rock-ish type deck with a combo finish, rather than a BGW combo deck with a little control. I T8'd with a more combo oriented deck, but it didn't feel as strong as the control list I've been winning on MODO with. I'm still tweaking it, but I'll post when I'm happy with it. I just want to say though, there are a few cards the SB needs to have. It needs one Linvala to deal with twin and other stupid decks (mirror included). It also needs 4 Surgical Extraction. Every aggro deck (Jund and Zoo) is playing that stupid fires engine. I played Jund 3 times in the tourney, going 5-3 in games. Every game I lost was to a turn 3-4 fires recurring engine. Our deck doesn't really have any outs to that.

beelzeboss
10-03-2011, 07:53 PM
Maveric78f- thnx for your answer. For now i will stay with 'pod creatures' but i will cut some of them. I like the idea of adding more spellskite. They are very usefull.
I don't want to maindeck thoughtseizes for now. I'm expecting mostly aggro- Zoo and Affinty for sure, and maybe some Splinter Twins(but mostly aggro and agianst them seizes are bad) at least until meta will crystalized and pro players will design new combos and controls and more people will net deck them ;). I think Next Level Blue, RUG Gifts and some Teachings got potential but i don't expect them right now.

Shriekmaw is good but i think Nekrataal is better. Problably i will maindeck it- he can kill these frustrating zoo knights fetching Bojuka.

As for Linvala- how could i missed her?!. She is a star in this deck. That's what it needs. And yes it much, much better against Twin then Gaddock Teeg. She shutdown them completely. She also good in many other mutchups. I will add her definitely.

Quillspike can be good, i think I will try him. But i don't agree about chords. I have never had problems with them. They save my life many times. 3 is IMO optimal number.

Once i had Fauna shaman(but only one). I have cut him because I was not sure if he would be good in Zoo heavy meta. But that's still testing

I don't want to cut Tidehollow Sculler. Since i'm not playing discard in main, this is the only one card in game 1 against opposite combo. Not much, but as I said I'm expecting moslty aggro.

marit- I really would be happy to see your rock-ish version :)

marit
10-03-2011, 11:51 PM
This is the list I've been playing on MODO recently, with the stupid combo decks.


2 Temple Garden
2 Overgrown Tomb
2 Sunpetal Grove
4 Forest
1 Godless Shrine
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Horizon Canopy
2 Swamp
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Wall of Roots
1 Nekrataal
2 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1 Ranger of Eos
3 Chord of Calling
4 Birthing Pod
4 Misty Rainforest
3 Viscera Seer
1 Harmonic Sliver
1 Reveillark
1 Tidehollow Sculler
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Eternal Witness
1 Fulminator Mage
1 Sun Titan
2 Thoughtseize
1 Gaddock Teeg
4 Kitchen Finks
1 Murderous Redcap
1 Noble Hierarch

Sideboard
1 Orzhov Pontiff
3 Path to Exile
1 Kataki, War's Wage
2 Shriekmaw
1 Essence Warden
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Tar Fiend
1 Obstinate Baloth
1 Spellskite
1 Fulminator Mage
1 Withered Wretch


What I want to change:
+1 Phantasmal Image
+1 Body Double
+1 Reveillark

Nekrataal is literally the nuts, it's won me so many games. Don't cut chords, we run 31 creatures, chord is also the tits. Phantasmal Image I played in Philly, it was nuts too. I like Sun Titan over hulk, the recurral is game-winning. Hulk was fun but unecessary, although a lot of fun to play. I want a body double back cause your yard is full of creatures, plus it plays well with persist. Same goes for image, and reveillark is probably the best creature in the deck. In a rockish version I think 2 would be good. SB needs to be changed for obvious reasons, and I'm unsold of thoughseize main (although I think there should be 4 between the main and the side).

Maveric78f
10-04-2011, 03:41 AM
I think everyone is playing this deck wrong, including me. I've been playing this on MODO since the first day it came out, and I just T8'd a 68 man tourney in philly, going 5-0-2 in the swiss and losing to jund player I 2-0'd in the swiss already. I think the list above is especially terrible. Me and my friend discussed about the deck and after testing 2 different versions, the deck is better when you play as a BGW rock-ish type deck with a combo finish, rather than a BGW combo deck with a little control.
I would like you to explain how your version is "rockish". What do you call Rockish? And why would it be better than my version (that you think is terrible)? I just see that you play a gazillion of 1-of and you can be sure you won't draw the right piece when you need it.


I T8'd with a more combo oriented deck, but it didn't feel as strong as the control list I've been winning on MODO with. I'm still tweaking it, but I'll post when I'm happy with it.
Once more, I don't get exactly why my version is supposed to be more comboish. It surely looks more aggroish and less controlish though.

Another thing, the bans are applied since 3 days. Before those bans, Melira was clearly a subpar deck in the combo-oriented metagame. I still think that the metagame is combo-oriented with Twin still being tier1. Can you explain how you could do that much testing on MODO in 3 days? I believe that your evaluation of both orientations of the deck is biased by those new bans. Melira got better after the bans. It does not really need GSZ.


Every game I lost was to a turn 3-4 fires recurring engine. Our deck doesn't really have any outs to that.
Once more, I can only recommend to play Spellskite.


But i don't agree about chords. I have never had problems with them. They save my life many times. 3 is IMO optimal number.
The more I think about them, the more you convince me to try them, in particular it synergizes well with Wall of Roots and Spellskites. I'm quite surprised that you don't play Dauntless Escort though. From my previosu list, I'll try:
-2 Nobles
-4 Fauna
-1 Viscera Seer
-2 Melira
-1 Shriekmaw (the anticreature slot is really not necessary in my opinion)
+4 Wall of Roots
+3 Chords of Calling
+1 Spellskite
+1 Dauntless Escort
+1 Doran, the Siege Tower (so good with Spellskite)

marit
10-04-2011, 02:07 PM
Multi-quoting messages gets annoying, so I'll respond to your points. When I say rockish, I mean to say doesn't depend on the combo to win. I rarely even have to combo out with the deck, often times the card advantage from persist+pod+titan+reveillark just overwhelms my opponent, and I win anyways. The deck doesn't need to combo to win, it's just a nice out to have. Your deck was very combo oriented, playing 4 Melira, 4 Shaman, 2 Redcap. You are rarely ever going to manage winning through CA and beatdown, your deck will only win with the combo.

The one of's cause no problem to me. Playing 3 chords helps in that regard, giving me effectively 4 copies of every creature (within reason I know, it's rare to chord for more than X=4). The list plays 27-31 creatures depending, I think chord is a must have, play with it and you'll see what I mean. Also, if I don't draw the right cards at the right time it doesn't really matter, because almost every card is a threat, plus finks and wall of roots are good for stalling, and this deck will win the long game.

I have not done testing on MODO with the new meta, the bans don't take effect until October 12 online. I'm talking about playing pod in the old meta with combo. Yes, I agree it was definitely worse than the other combo decks. But I build it day 1 and before people discovered the broken combo decks, Melira pod was the nuts. Even with the combo decks, it could still hold it's own. But I agree, in the new meta Melira pod is back to tier one, and the deck is nuts. Twin is no longer tier 1 though, losing ponder and prordain was a kick in the nuts for it. It's still a good deck and you need to prepare for it, but I think it's tier 2 at best.

I like the solution to fires though in spellskite, that's definitely something I'll have to test. The jund matchup is still brutal though, we have no way to kill a turn 2 dark confidant (which is pretty much game winning for them). And to solve spellskite all they need is fires+bolt. I feel like Surgical Extraction would just be better, but I'm gonna test it.

Sims
10-04-2011, 03:03 PM
Marit your list looks a lot like what I started with and moved away from. I don't really like having all the toolboxy creatures, but I did keep some of them. I'm also on the bandwagon of playing Chord, I think the card is simply head and shoulders above Fauna Shaman in this deck.

Now, admittedly, I do not play on MODO and the local modern meta has gone stale rather quick due to lack of tournaments. There is interest in the format, but the stores hold events at inconvenient times for some (myself included) and they have generally not had attendance worthy of keeping them going compared to legacy and standard. That said, i have been playing this deck in a local legacy environment. This particular environment is an interesting spot as it is competitive but doesn't play all of the tier 1 Legacy decks. The players are mostly old school brewers or newer players that don't have all of the legacy cardpool at their fingertips. So you get a good mix of Modern decks, standard decks with legacy cards, and decks from legacy's past that aren't viable in todays metagame. This has proven a good challenge to me because I get to play against what some would consider the jank of modern (standard decks + cards) as well as against some of the stronger strategies and legit legacy decks. I've beaten Legacy Stoneblade with Melria Pod, and that blew my mind.

All that said, my list is as follows


4x Verdant catacombs
2x Marsh Flats
3x Misty Rainforest
2x Overgrown Tomb
2x Godless Shrine
3x Forest
2x Swamp
1x G/w Filter
1x G/B Filter (don't remember their names)
1x Sunpetal grove
1x Gavony Township

4x Birthing Pod
3x Chord of Calling
4x Thoughtseize

3x Viscera Seer
3x Melira, sylvok outcast
4x Kitchen Finks
2x Murderous Redcap

4x Birds of Paradise
1x Noble Hierarch
4x Wall of Roots
1x Scarland Thrinax
1x Eternal Witness
1x Ranger of Eos
1x Reveillark
1x Acidic Slime
1x Sun titan

//board
4x Path to exile
3x Nature's Claim
2x Tidehollow Sculler
1x harmonic sliver
2x Maelstrom pulse
1x Linvala
1x Nekrataal
1x Entomber Exarch


Notable omission: Spellskite- Not because I don't want it, but because I don't own any. I traded them all away when the set was new and have not been able to pry any out of peoples fingers since. Soon as I get my grubby little paws on at least one, it will change. The sideboard Claims and Pulses are a nod to the fact that I do play against legacy decks. Sometimes i need to kill ETW tokens, Zombie Tokens, as well as random shit that can ruin my day. Scullers come in as extra, tutorable disruption in the combo matchups.

I play the deck somewhat conservatively.. Defensively and using my life total as the buffer it is until I can setup the combo and go off. I'm fine setting up Finks cause it's faster, without some kind of infinite combo I'm going to live to see my next turn, which will almost always be the redcap to just win. I do play the deck more as a combo deck than as an aggro-control deck with a combo finish, but I can see merit in going the other way. I just don't feel, for the type of environment I'm playing it in, that going Rock/control with a combo win is necessary. I actually don't even like having as many singletons as i do, but every one of them has pulled their weight enough to make me hesitant to cut them.

Maveric78f
10-06-2011, 06:20 AM
Any reason why, you all play more than 30 mana sources ? It looks too much for me.

Also Thrinax is really bad when you don't search for a green creature that sacrifice. As I said earlier, I love Dimir House Guard in this slot since it plays also the role of Pod#5.

Maveric78f
10-06-2011, 06:20 AM
.

Sims
10-06-2011, 07:41 AM
Any reason why, you all play more than 30 mana sources ? It looks too much for me.

Also Thrinax is really bad when you don't search for a green creature that sacrifice. As I said earlier, I love Dimir House Guard in this slot since it plays also the role of Pod#5.

It's on the curve. While true you can pod a Finks with Melira out into House Guard, I can just as easily pod a Wall of Roots into Thrinax. I have also used Thrinax's ability to swing in against an opponent who had Surgical Extractioned my Redcaps.

I would safely say I think this is a preference, as we'd probably all prefer to go off with Viscera Seer and know we need a backup just in case. 3 vs. 4 mana means little to no difference in this deck, I just find the Thrinax's +1/+1 counter ability slightly more relevant in corner cases.

Maveric78f
10-06-2011, 07:57 AM
Playing Thrinax is really a nonsense for me. First, I think that 4CC is the best casting cost. You might not agree, and I might be wrong, but anyway, why on earth would you play a sacrifice dude that is off-color.

The cards @3 or 4 CC, on colour and playable in modern that can repeatedly sacrifice as many creatures as we want:
Flesh-Eater Imp (it can kill quite easily without the combo)
Devouring Swarm
Dimir House Guard
Nantuko Husk
Nim Shambler (just to prove I did no selection)
Vampire Aristocrat

@5, there is Phyrexian Plaguelord which can be quite interesting.

To be fair, Ranger of Eos might be the only guy we need since it's a 4CC creature that tutors for the sacrifice outlet (and also another creature for fetching Melira the next turn).

Edit: What about 1*Yixlid Jailer in the board? It cuts dredge, squee, Emrakul trigger, vengevines, bloodghast (includes our if we play it), flashback, but not Snapcaster Mage or Past In Flame as far as I understand the rules. It does not affect the leave play abilities though such as persist or Reveillark. Given the current metagame, I don't think there is enough graveyard based strategies to justify this over a more generic hate.

Sims
10-06-2011, 09:04 AM
Relying on 4x birds to tap for red is weak, I'll grant you, and the argument "I haven't had a problem yet" really is a non-argument because it's more luck than anything. It was a hold over from GSZ since it was green and I liked the fact that the counters were permanent. I might try switching it for Swarm or one of the Husk variants.

Another reason I think that 3cc is important is because of Sun Titan. I've had to sacrifice my outlet in response to a Path and used Titan to recur it. Any of those outlets would be returnable by Reveillark, but I see no reason to use an outlet that can't be returned by all of your recursion methods in a pinch.

I'll switch it out for a husk and give that a whirl.

Maveric78f
10-06-2011, 09:35 AM
Another reason I think that 3cc is important is because of Sun Titan.
Oh, yeah, I did not integrate this parameter since I don't play it. As I said in the previous post, I think I'll stick with Ranger of Eos, used as a sacrifice outlet through Seer. It seems to be enough for what we need. My last list for reference:

// Main Deck:
4 Forest
2 Swamp
3 Overgrown Tomb
2 Temple Garden
1 Marsh Flats
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Verdant Catacombs

4 Birds of Paradise
1 Viscera Seer
4 Wall of Roots
4 Spellskite
2 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1 Bloodghast
1 Dauntless Escort
2 Doran, the Siege Tower
1 Eternal Witness
4 Kitchen Finks
2 Murderous Redcap
1 Ranger of Eos
1 Reveillark

4 Birthing Pod
4 Chord of Calling
4 Thoughtseize

// Sideboard
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
4 Path to Exile
1 Plains
3 Qasali Pridemage
4 Surgical Extraction
1 Wickerbough Elder

Sims
10-06-2011, 09:42 AM
Your deck is definitely looking more Rock-esque beat down to me with the bare minimum of combo pieces for the win. I kind of like it. I wish I had current access to Spellskites so I could do more testing in paper as they have served me well on MWS/'Trice.

How has the Doran/Skite beatdown backup plan worked out for you so far?

Maveric78f
10-06-2011, 11:40 AM
I generally win out from the combo. It's not difficult to assemble. Even if I play a very few combo elements, I have so many ways to tutor for them. I can also protect them. I found the Doran Win more sexy than efficient and sometimes, I don't like having Doran in hand and only X+1/X in play (witness/finks/ranger/ghast/Yark are all X+1/X), so I might come back to only 1 Doran. This trend is reinforced by the fact I never want to tutor for Doran if I don't control Spellskite, so that if one wants to deal with Doran, I can always protect him.

beelzeboss
10-06-2011, 01:08 PM
I'm not sure if playing only with one Viscera and 2 Melira is good option. I like Dauntless Escort and i will definitely try it. Also alternative plan with doran could be really fun :) I see you have been convinced to chords :) The are really great and with Wall of roots even better :)

My latest list:

1 Golgari Rot Farm
1 Horizon Canopy
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Sunpetal Grove
2 Swamp
1 Temple Garden
1 Twilight Mire
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Godless Shrine
4 Forest

4 Birds of Paradise
1 Noble Hierarch
4 Wall of Roots
3 Spellskite
3 Viscera Seer
3 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
4 Kitchen Finks
1 Murderous Redcap
1 Tidehollow Sculler
1 Eternal Witness
1 Ranger of Eos
1 Acidic Slime
1 Body Double
1 Reveillark
1 Sun Titan
1 Protean Hulk

4 Birthing Pod
3 Chord of Calling


SB: 1 Ethersworn Canonist
SB: 1 Gaddock Teeg
SB: 4 Thoughtseize
SB: 4 Path to Exile
SB: 1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
SB: 3 Qasali Pridemage
SB: 1 Nekrataal



As I said. I will not maindeck thoughtseizes until I will be sure that meta will be full of combos/controls. Until then they will be in sb.
Additional Spellskites are great. It's so simple and brilliant :) they are never dead cards. I'm still thinking about Body. Although i like the possibility to instantly rebuild after massive removal or disruption, I still use it only one time. Looks like Hulk is enough. Probably i will cut it for Escort or some additional 3cc sac outlet- Scarland Thrinax

Maveric78f
10-07-2011, 07:17 AM
I used to play Quillspike but I've never realized their was a cheap 2-creature combo with it and Devoted Druid. Quillspike is generally good with persist creatures, and is a quasi-kill with a sacrifice outlet in addition so that it's rarely a bad top deck. Devoted Druid is a respectable mana acceleration. Of course it's not combo with Melira, but still. None of them is a bad card. I'm going to try to integrate one copy of each in my previous list by removing 1 Melira and 1 Doran.

// Main Deck:
4 Forest
2 Swamp
3 Overgrown Tomb
2 Temple Garden
1 Marsh Flats
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Verdant Catacombs

4 Birds of Paradise
1 Viscera Seer
4 Wall of Roots
4 Spellskite
1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1 Devoted Druid
1 Bloodghast
1 Quillspike
1 Dauntless Escort
1 Doran, the Siege Tower
1 Eternal Witness
4 Kitchen Finks
2 Murderous Redcap
1 Ranger of Eos
1 Reveillark

4 Birthing Pod
4 Chord of Calling
4 Thoughtseize
Now, I play a lot of 1-of but I feel I still have a lot of redundancy, both with my tutors and with my multiple synergies. For sure I need more tests to figure that out.

Maveric78f
10-07-2011, 07:17 AM
I used to play Quillspike but I've never realized their was a cheap 2-creature combo with it and Devoted Druid. Quillspike is generally good with persist creatures, and is a quasi-kill with a sacrifice outlet in addition so that it's rarely a bad top deck. Devoted Druid is a respectable mana acceleration. Of course it's not combo with Melira, but still. None of them is a bad card. I'm going to try to integrate one copy of each in my previous list by removing 1 Melira and 1 Doran.

// Main Deck:
4 Forest
2 Swamp
3 Overgrown Tomb
2 Temple Garden
1 Marsh Flats
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Verdant Catacombs

4 Birds of Paradise
1 Viscera Seer
4 Wall of Roots
4 Spellskite
1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1 Devoted Druid
1 Bloodghast
1 Quillspike
1 Dauntless Escort
1 Doran, the Siege Tower
1 Eternal Witness
4 Kitchen Finks
2 Murderous Redcap
1 Ranger of Eos
1 Reveillark

4 Birthing Pod
4 Chord of Calling
4 Thoughtseize
Now, I play a lot of 1-of but I feel I still have a lot of redundancy, both with my tutors and with my multiple synergies. For sure I need more tests to figure that out.

Choobak
10-07-2011, 09:52 AM
Hello, Mav ;)

You speak about Quillspike , but there is another card maybe in the same idea : hex parasite. What do you think about it ?

Maveric78f
10-07-2011, 10:38 AM
Hello, Mav ;)

You speak about Quillspike , but there is another card maybe in the same idea : hex parasite. What do you think about it ?

It looks less brutal than Quillspike, and it's not an infinite combo with Druid (or I miss something).

Choobak
10-07-2011, 11:18 AM
nop ;) you miss nothing. That's just a question.

About the kill, i love the idea to play bitterordeal. You can search him via viseara seer.

hi-val
10-07-2011, 12:14 PM
Druid + Quillspike doesn't work if you have Melira out, because you cannot pay with -1/-1 counters.

marit
10-12-2011, 09:07 AM
The bannings take place on MODO today =D! This deck is gonna be tier one again. This is the list I'm starting with.

2 Swamp
4 Forest
2 Sunpetal Grove
1 Temple Garden
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Godless Shrine
1 Horizon Canopy
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Breeding Pool

4 Wall of Roots
4 Birds of Paradise
1 Noble Hierarch
1 Nekrataal
2 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1 Ranger of Eos
3 Viscera Seer
1 Phantasmal Image
1 Harmonic Sliver
2 Reveillark
1 Tidehollow Sculler
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Eternal Witness
1 Fulminator Mage
1 Body Double
1 Sun Titan
4 Kitchen Finks
1 Murderous Redcap

3 Chord of Calling
4 Birthing Pod

Sideboard
1 Path to Exile
1 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Loxodon Hierarch
1 Shriekmaw
3 Surgical Extraction
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Spellskite
1 Fulminator Mage
3 Thoughtseize
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Withered Wretch

hi-val
10-12-2011, 02:05 PM
Marit, I get a sense that you're going to be unsatisfied with a lot of your draws. The deck doesn't have a lot of draw anyway, and it looks like you'll be drawing a lot of duds. Both Phantasmal Image and Metamorph kind of rely on the opponent to have a good creature, since Melira has few that are actually worth duplicating. I also really don't like Body Double or Sun Titan, since I think they're more cute than useful. I wrote two articles about Melira and I fully admit that I'm opinionated about the deck, though : ) You can find the articles in the Format Discussion forum for Modern on this site.

marit
10-17-2011, 11:49 PM
Marit, I get a sense that you're going to be unsatisfied with a lot of your draws. The deck doesn't have a lot of draw anyway, and it looks like you'll be drawing a lot of duds. Both Phantasmal Image and Metamorph kind of rely on the opponent to have a good creature, since Melira has few that are actually worth duplicating. I also really don't like Body Double or Sun Titan, since I think they're more cute than useful. I wrote two articles about Melira and I fully admit that I'm opinionated about the deck, though : ) You can find the articles in the Format Discussion forum for Modern on this site.

We have some very different opinions about Melira pod. I read your articles, they were well written, and congrats on the top 8. You are right regarding discard, it's really unnecessary MD or side. I do run a 1 of Skuller though, and he's proven to be the nuts. Image and metamorph are also amazing, I would never cut them. Metamorph can function as a second birthing pod (good if you expect artifact hate, or are going for the long game). I also have no problem copying a kitchen finks, especially because they both come back with reveillark. I am 18-3 in MODO headsup matches with my list, the matches I lost were 2 mirrors where he drew better (the mirror is very luck dependant), and the other one to sunrise eggs where I mulled to 5 g3 to finally see land. Body double I did wind up cutting, but I kind of want to put it back in, and add a mogg fanatic main. This gives the reveillark combo incase they surgical extraction Melira (although this is less of a problem, because I have no problem winning the game without the combo). The other function is a tutorable kill for dark confidant (if he resolves our only way to kill him is the one-of redcap). This needs to be tested though. And finally, Sun Titan is unbelievable. The list I play is more like a BGW toolbox card advantage Pod deck with a combo finish (If I need to use it).

4 Misty Rainforest
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Forest
2 Swamp
2 Sunpetal Grove
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Temple Garden
1 Breeding Pool
1 Godless Shrine
1 Horizon Camopy

4 Birds of Paradise
1 Noble Hierarch
3 Viscera Seer
4 Wall of Roots
2 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1 Phantasmal Image
1 Tidehollow Sculler
1 Spellskite
4 Kitchen Finks
1 Fullminator Mage
1 Harmonic Sliver
1 Eternal Witness
1 Murderous Redcap
1 Nekrataal
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Ranger of Eos
2 Reviellark
1 Sun Titan

4 Birthing Pod
3 Chord of Calling
Sideboard
3 Path to Exile
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Ethersworn Cannonist
1 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Withered Wretch
1 Loaming Shaman
1 Loxodon Hierarch
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Fullminator Mage


Eternal witness has also been really good for me, it's especially gravy with Sun Titan.

Sims
10-18-2011, 07:57 AM
Sun Titan had been really good to me in the events that I ran it, but in the interest of finding the best possible list I'm going to try out Doug's deck and compare it to my original list. I can understand the hesitation to run 6cc creatures, as you basically have to pod into lark or slime, and if you hit lark you're usually in good shape already. I actually ended up hardcasting him more often than I podded or chorded for him. But as always more testing will tell, I'll see if I can get people to put a gauntlet together in paper otherwise I might have to resort to MWS/Trice.

hi-val
10-19-2011, 11:17 PM
If I ran a Six, at this point it'd 100% be Tar Fiend. That thing is berserk in this deck. It's your Cruel Ultimatum.

Marit, have you tried House Guard? Also, when are you Podding for Phantasmal Image? If you're planning on mising it, I'd rather have another Sculler or Spellskite.

Also, I'm considering Consuming Vapors for the side; plonking two Zoo dudes is pretty good, and 4 mana is fine to get to. Thoughts?