[Deck] Birthing Pod

[majikal]

This deck plays out a lot like Rec-Sur. You want to use your toolbox guys to survive long enough to lock your opponent down with Yosei + Sheoldred. You've got a shit ton of tutors to help you do this, too. Between Fauna Shaman, Birthing Pod, and GSZ, you won't ever really have a problem finding the right creature.

The actual list is still in its infancy, so if you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them. Just please make sure to keep them on-color or within reach of a very light splash, i.e. I don't want to see your sweet RUG Pod lists in this thread.

GWB Pod

4x Birds of Paradise
4x Fauna Shaman
1x Qasali Pridemage
1x Squee, Goblin Nabob
3x Kitchen Finks
1x Eternal Witness
2x Obstinate Baloth
1x Dross Scorpion
1x Phyrexian Metamorph
2x Shriekmaw
1x Acidic Slime
2x Yosei, the Morning Star
2x Sheoldred, Whispering One
3x Green Sun's Zenith
4x Birthing Pod
4x Thoughtseize/Path to Exile/Beast Within
4x Verdant Catacombs
2x Marsh Flats
4x Forest
2x Swamp
1x Plains
1x Dryad Arbor
3x Overgrown Tomb
2x Temple Garden
1x Godless Shrine
2x Twilight Mire
1x Wooded Bastion
1x Fetid Heath


I can't decide on which disruption to use, and the manabase probably needs a little work, but you get the idea.

I think the overall strategy is pretty complete in that there aren't a lot of other combos I'd rather be assembling with Birthing Pod, so let's try and streamline the Yosei->Sheoldred idea as much as possible. Some things that worry me are 12-Post and Splinter Twin. If we can tune to beat these matchups I'll be pretty happy with the deck, as Zoo doesn't seem very threatening with all the lifegain we have access to.

Anyway, here are a few explanations for what may appear to be odd card choices:

Birds over Noble Hierarch - Hierarch isn't in our colors, first of all, and though many decks don't really care about that due to Exalted, I'd rather have the right colors as we don't plan on attacking much until we can get our lock in place.

Squee - This might be more cute than useful. I like it with Fauna Shaman, but testing may prove it unnecessary. If I cut it, it will be another Kitchen Finks or a Pridemage unless I find something better.

Dross Scorpion - This gives an extra Pod activation, letting you jump ahead a turn, basically.

Phyrexian Metamorph - I may eventually go up to two of these. Crazy things tend to happen when you sacrifice a Kitchen Finks and make another Birthing Pod with the creature you find.

[routlaw]

I've played a good bit of Birthing Pod in standard-you are spot on with Birds over Hierarch and the Squee is actually really important, as one of the best ways that decks have to interact with Pod is to just keep you off creatures and Squee always gives you something to cast and then feed to Pod.

I'm pretty sure that you are going to want to play Thoughtseize over either of the other cards. It's cheap to cast, always gets something, and is way better against combo (which you are a total dog to, but you know that). My biggest worry is not finding a pod since you aren't in blue, but you have pretty high creature quality so you should be OK.

Fight Splinter Twin/combo with a Teeg and a Spellskite, and board in a Tidehollow Sculler (yeah you can't pod it, but it's an easy way to get another discard effect). Run an Aven Mindscensor and a Canonist in the board too. Hatebears and discard should buy you some time, but the nature of your kill is always going to somewhat be against you w/ combo decks. Honestly having a single Tarmogoyf option to beat them down might not be terrible just to put on a faster clock. You don't need the loop to kill combo decks.

12-post options are limited. You can go with Plow Under and keep them off their Cloudposts for a few turns, but ideally you'd have some kind of way to play another Acidic Slime from the board (or Metamorph the existing one) and then blow them out with Reveillark getting the Slimes back into play as you pod into your lock @ 6cmc. That might be too cute but that deck doesn't interact well with Birthing Pod at all.

[majikal]

I've played a good bit of Birthing Pod in standard-you are spot on with Birds over Hierarch and the Squee is actually really important, as one of the best ways that decks have to interact with Pod is to just keep you off creatures and Squee always gives you something to cast and then feed to Pod.

I'm pretty sure that you are going to want to play Thoughtseize over either of the other cards. It's cheap to cast, always gets something, and is way better against combo (which you are a total dog to, but you know that). My biggest worry is not finding a pod since you aren't in blue, but you have pretty high creature quality so you should be OK.

Fight Splinter Twin/combo with a Teeg and a Spellskite, and board in a Tidehollow Sculler (yeah you can't pod it, but it's an easy way to get another discard effect). Run an Aven Mindscensor and a Canonist in the board too. Hatebears and discard should buy you some time, but the nature of your kill is always going to somewhat be against you w/ combo decks. Honestly having a single Tarmogoyf option to beat them down might not be terrible just to put on a faster clock. You don't need the loop to kill combo decks.

12-post options are limited. You can go with Plow Under and keep them off their Cloudposts for a few turns, but ideally you'd have some kind of way to play another Acidic Slime from the board (or Metamorph the existing one) and then blow them out with Reveillark getting the Slimes back into play as you pod into your lock @ 6cmc. That might be too cute but that deck doesn't interact well with Birthing Pod at all.

I'm not sure I like Teeg against Splinter Twin. They can still go off with Kiki-Jiki, while we're stuck with all our Pods and Zeniths still in our hand. The reason I like Path is that it blanks their entire combo, but I think Linvala, Keeper of Silence might just be the best answer to that deck.

I think Beast Within is a must at least in the sideboard. It blows out 12-post almost by itself. We don't mind the 3/3's as we can establish the lock long before they can beat us to death with them.

[Maveric78f]

Linvala is much more effective than Path or Teeg against Splinter Twin. It can't be tutored off GSZ and it's slower but it's definitely a strong lock.

[majikal]

Holy crap, I just discovered that Vengeful Pharaoh is a dick beating in this deck. You can pitch it to Fauna Shaman or Pod it into Yosei, but either way it provides some free removal and a disincentive to attack, as well as being a pseudo-Squee. More testing is warranted.

[Elle]

Using Pod for Devoted Druid (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Devoted%20Druid) -----> Quillspike (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Quillspike) -----> Necrotic Ozee (http://deckbox.org/mtg/Necrotic%20Ooze) seems funny...

[Nidd]

There is a Duress available you could pod into: Entomber Exarch

[Anusien]

Squee + Birthing Pod seems awesome, but your 4 drops are kind of crappy.

Is Zombie Infestation better than Birthing Pod? Gives you something to do with all those shitty Yoseis and extra mana dorks, plus there's a hot synergy with Squee. Plus then you can run Grave Scrabbler as a 4 drop.

Also, is Archon of Justice better than Acidic Slime?


P.S., having a Mountain to cast Squee is probably sweet.

[majikal]

Squee + Birthing Pod seems awesome, but your 4 drops are kind of crappy.

Is Zombie Infestation better than Birthing Pod? Gives you something to do with all those shitty Yoseis and extra mana dorks, plus there's a hot synergy with Squee. Plus then you can run Grave Scrabbler as a 4 drop.

Also, is Archon of Justice better than Acidic Slime?


P.S., having a Mountain to cast Squee is probably sweet.
Archon seems pretty good. I may split it up into 1 Archon, 1 Shriekmaw, 1 Vengeful Pharaoh.

I'm not sure what other 4-drops I would want, though. I don't really want Solemn, because I might draw a combo piece that I don't want in my hand. Dross Scorpion may be a bit win-more, and one of the Baloths is probably going to be another Metamorph.

Birthing Pod enables the Yosei-> Sheoldred lock. It seems like a poor decision to cut it for a crappy enchantment like Zombie Infestation.

A mountain might be a good idea too, although right now I'm toying with the idea of adding a couple of City of Brass and 2-ish Reflecting Pools.

[264505]

There was a really cool deck posted on brainburst (yeah, I know its not called that anymore) that could be an under the radar player in the metagame. I'll post the list verbatim and then throw some ideas out there.

4 Birds of Paradise
1 Deceiver Exarch
1 Entomber Exarch
1 Eternal Witness
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
4 Kitchen Finks
2 Lotus Cobra
1 Nekrataal
2 Noble Hierarch
1 Obstinate Baloth
1 Phantasmal Image
1 Reveillark
1 Shriekmaw
2 Spellskite
4 Wall of Roots

4 Birthing Pod
3 Path to Exile
4 Ponder

2 Breeding Pool
1 Exotic Orchard
2 Forest
1 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Razorverge Thicket
1 Stomping Ground
1 Swamp
1 Temple Garden
1 Twilight Mire
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Watery Grave

This list was tuned after the Zoo match up which it has a decent game against. He did not test against any combo deck, and while this deck can go off turn 4 with the nuts, there is little it seems it can do to disrupt a good combo draw. The curve tops at 5 which seems fine in a faster format (standard curve tops at 7), but bridging the gap up to 7 gives us some real win conditions (Protean Hulk for persist combo, Elesh Norn, Sheoldred, Rune Scarred Demon, Thraximunder). Phyrexian Metamorph seems like a huge game as well since it can be extra pods as well as creatures.

[4eak]

Birthing Pod threads merged.

-4eak

[majikal]

Interesting. My testing has yielded similar results to the list you posted, although I still opted for Yosei->Sheoldred as I find that combo to be far more hilarious as well as more resilient to hate (ie, you can just beat them to death with Yosei or Sheoldred if you have to).

Here's what I'm currently playing:

4x Birds of Paradise
2x Lotus Cobra
2x Spellskite
3x Wall of Roots
4x Kitchen Finks
1x Eternal Witness
1x Obstinate Baloth
1x Entomber Exarch
1x Phyrexian Metamorph
1x Nekrataal
1x Shriekmaw
1x Reveillark
1x Body Double
1x Yosei, the Morning Star
1x Sheoldred, Whispering One
4x Birthing Pod
4x Ponder
3x Path to Exile
2x Green Sun's Zenith
1x Dryad Arbor
4x Misty Rainforest
4x Verdant Catacomb
2x Overgrown Tomb
2x Temple Garden
1x Breeding Pool
1x Watery Grave
1x Razorverge Thicket
1x City of Brass
1x Reflecting Pool
3x Forest
1x Island

[264505]

How has GSZ worked out for you? Also, you could run the extra clone plan and put in a Phantasmal Image. Even though its more susceptible to removal, it can copy something with a 187 effect by podding a birds. Have you done much testing vs. the combo decks in the format? It seems like the deck lacks any real disruption (maybe Thoughtsieze/Duress might be better in place of PtE) and can't win terribly fast so how do you beat combo?

[majikal]

Most of the combos in this format are creature-based. I've found PtE to be more effective against them than any type of discard as it wastes their tempo as well as dealing with a combo piece. Also, with all the shocklands and Pod activations, Thoughtseize is just dangerous for you, while the other discard effects just aren't good enough.

GSZ has been pretty good in my experience. It serves as a mana critter with Dryad Arbor, and it can tutor up Kitchen Finks against aggro decks. Two is the right number though. I wouldn't consider more than that.