[Deck] Nic Fit (GBx Explorer Zenith Control)

Latest list of mine ^_^ still in testing, but like Arianrhod said, white adds more potency in terms of sideboard options.

4C0R Legendary Nic Fit (Shorthand for Four-Color No-Red)

60 Main/15 Side
4 Veteran Explorer
4 Deathrite Shaman
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Eternal Witness
1 Captain Sisay
1 Thragtusk
1 Primeval Titan
4 Green Sun's Zenith
3 Brainstorm
2 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Thassa, God of the Seas
1 Diabolic Intent
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Pernicious Deed
3 Abrupt Decay
2 Golgari Charm
2 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Misty Rainforest
1 Windswept Heath
2 Bayou
1 Tropical Island
1 Savannah
2 Forest
2 Swamp
1 Island
1 Plains
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Karakas
///
1 Gaddock Teeg
2 Enlightened Tutor
3 Surgical Extraction
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Pernicious Deed
2 Pithing Needle
2 Venser, Shaper-Savant
1 Engineered Plague
1 Rest in Peace

Theoretical Notes:
4-3-1 Split with Fetches: Miracles and combo, I think, are the matchups I would need the white mana for, and most of those lists do not run wasteland. Therefore, all eight fetches can safely fetch a Savannah against those decks.

Captain Sisay Main: I did a bit of goldsinning* with this list as a pure Junk version with KotR, Cap'n, and PrimeTime, and found that combo of Cap'n and PrimeTime did pretty well in terms of assembling potent loop enablers such as Stronghold+Tower.

Gaddock Teeg Side: My goal with this is to bring it against Miracles and certain forms of combo to shut their win-cons down. As far a Miracles goes, once it hits the board, the only outs they have are StP, Venser, and Karakas.

Venser-Shaper Savant+Karakas: My hard-lock against Show and Tell: sure they do whatever they want with Griselbrand or Sneak Attack, but whatever touches the board will not stay (Venser-bounces everything that isn't Sneak Attacking; Karakas bounces pretty much everything that's Sneak Attacking).

I'll post a more comprehensive set of notes once I playtest this, but I'm liking how fun yet powerful this little pile works ^_^

*Goldsinning: Goldfishing with a decklist that requires extended interaction with your opponent to be viable.

Sissy seems sweet, but your targets are meh. There are already enough ways to fetch up the towers with out playing a slow card.

Some thoughts for ELC:

-) Why no Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale? It's legendary (either main or side).

-) Why Thassa with like, no way to ever activate her?

-) The biggest sin in my estimation: why is there no Sigarda in this deck?

-) Why Golgari Charm over Council's Judgment? It's not like Nic Fit cares that CJ costs 3 mana, and it solves literally anything. If you're maining the Charms because of a flex spot that can handle TNN, CJ seems better for that purpose.

-) I'd split 1-1 Vindicate/Pulse (or maybe even run 2 Vindicate + 2 CJ if you really want that much removal). Sometimes you're going to need to have an answer in your deck to a problem land, like a Glacial Chasm or an Academy Ruins.

-) My biggest problem with this deck is that it feels very low-power to me. Like, you have Sisay so you're looking to set up big engines, but you don't really have anything other than Two Towers. Adding Sigarda would help that, but even then I kind of feel like you're drowning in removal and don't have enough bombs. I'd consider shaving ~2 removal spells for additional bombs of some kind -- either legends or planeswalkers, depending on which way you want to go with it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Megadeus

Sissy seems sweet, but your targets are meh. There are already enough ways to fetch up the towers with out playing a slow card.

---

True ... the only things it can fetch that others can't are Thassa in the main and Venser in the side. Might use Wickerbough Elder again, especially since it plays well with both Thassa and our own Tops while also answering Batterskull and other Tops (made a post a while back about how to play around both with Pridemage/WBE, but the jist is to activate the ability in response to them trying to save it).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Arianrhod

Some thoughts for ELC:

-) Why no Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale? It's legendary (either main or side).

-) Why Thassa with like, no way to ever activate her?

-) The biggest sin in my estimation: why is there no Sigarda in this deck?

-) Why Golgari Charm over Council's Judgment? It's not like Nic Fit cares that CJ costs 3 mana, and it solves literally anything. If you're maining the Charms because of a flex spot that can handle TNN, CJ seems better for that purpose.

-) I'd split 1-1 Vindicate/Pulse (or maybe even run 2 Vindicate + 2 CJ if you really want that much removal). Sometimes you're going to need to have an answer in your deck to a problem land, like a Glacial Chasm or an Academy Ruins.

-) My biggest problem with this deck is that it feels very low-power to me. Like, you have Sisay so you're looking to set up big engines, but you don't really have anything other than Two Towers. Adding Sigarda would help that, but even then I kind of feel like you're drowning in removal and don't have enough bombs. I'd consider shaving ~2 removal spells for additional bombs of some kind -- either legends or planeswalkers, depending on which way you want to go with it.

---

1. My experience with Tabernacle has been pretty meh so-far: definitely not that impressed by it. Not saying it isn't powerful, but when I was running it, the only decks it did well against were Tribal swarm decks like Gobbos, Fish, or Elves!: that is, most other decks were content with sticking a few high-powered threats on the board and keeping them alive.

2. Hmm ... well, originally the thought was that non-destructive enchantment removal was rarely played in Legacy, but that might have changed with Council's Judgment, so ... the primary reason I run her is as a recursive card quality engine and a way to enable big beats to swing through blockers. If I wanted a 5/5 for 3, I'd run Goyf or KotR :P.

3. Trust me: I would love to fit a Sigarda in here somewhere. I'm just not convinced I'd be able to hit the double white for her consistently without making my manabase vulnerable.

4. Point taken: though my concern with Judgment is the same with Sigarda - hitting that double white to use it.

5. Again, point taken: to be honest, I'm surprised this slipped my mind.

6. True ... how bout the following changes then?

-2 Golgari Charm
-1 Captain Sisay
-1 Maelstrom Pulse
+1 Wickerbough Elder
+1 Vindicate
+1 Pernicious Deed (from Side)
+1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
///
-1 Pernicious Deed (to Main)
+1 ??? (not sure tbh)

Those are reasonable changes if you want to stay away from the double white costs, but I'm not actually convinced that you should. Like, I look at your deck, and it looks a lot more like a Rock (gbw control, specifically) variant which is splashing blue for Brainstorm and sideboard, than it does a BUG-splash-white list. Let's break down the original list:

4 Veteran Explorer (G)
4 Deathrite Shaman (g/b)
1 Scavenging Ooze (G)
1 Eternal Witness (GG)
1 Captain Sisay (GW)
1 Thragtusk (G)
1 Primeval Titan (GG)
4 Green Sun's Zenith (G)
3 Brainstorm (U)
2 Sensei's Divining Top (x)
1 Thassa, God of the Seas (U)
1 Diabolic Intent (B)
4 Cabal Therapy (B)
3 Pernicious Deed (GB)
3 Abrupt Decay (GB)
2 Golgari Charm (GB)
2 Maelstrom Pulse (GB)
///
1 Gaddock Teeg (GW)
2 Enlightened Tutor (W)
3 Surgical Extraction (B/2)
2 Engineered Explosives (x)
1 Pernicious Deed (GB)
2 Pithing Needle (x)
2 Venser, Shaper-Savant (UU)
1 Engineered Plague (B)
1 Rest in Peace (W)

You have 6 blue cards in the 75 (of these, the Vensers are the only double-cost).
You have 5 white cards in the 75 (of these, 0 double-cost). *Note if you swap 1 Pulse -> 1 Vindicate you have 6 white.
You have 24 black cards in the 75 (of these, 0 double-cost).
You have 29 green cards in the 75 (of these, Primeval + Witness are double-cost).

Okay, so your deck is actually just GB with U and W splashes.

The Vensers aren't actually intended to be cast, I don't think -- they're more for Show and Tell you said, right? That reduces you to 3 Brainstorm + 1 Thassa for blue cards to consider. You also have the 4 DRS to help with the fixing.

Hmm.

How about something like this:

4 Veteran Explorer
4 Deathrite Shaman
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
2 Eternal Witness
1 Thragtusk
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Primeval Titan

4 Cabal Therapy
4 Green Sun's Zenith
2 Council's Judgment
1 Vindicate

3 Brainstorm
3 Abrupt Decay

3 Pernicious Deed

2 Sensei's Divining Top
2 Batterskull

4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Windswept Heath
2 Bayou
1 Savannah
1 Scrubland
1 Tropical Island
2 Forest
2 Plains
2 Swamp
1 Island
1 Karakas
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Phyrexian Tower

//sb
2 Flusterstorm
2 Thoughtseize
2 Rest in Peace
1 Gaddock Teeg
2 Engineered Plague
2 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Pithing Needle
1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
1 Kiora, the Crashing Wave

That's my first effort at this type of deck, but it's a good place to start discussion, I think.

At its core, your desired version seems to be basically an old-school style Rock deck. You want lots of flexible removal, some recursion, some hard-to-answer threats, and a lot of powerful hate for the things that you otherwise can't handle.

Let's break it down:

4 Veteran
4 DRS
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder

The ramp core. DRS is industry-standard when you go over 3 colors and is a generically strong card. 1 Sakura-Tribe helps smooth things out for when you don't have access to a 'going-exploring' Explorer (Explorer + sac outlet), or when you don't want to set off an Explorer (ie Miracles).

2 Eternal Witness
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Phyrexian Tower

The recursion engines. I personally like the 2nd Witness in removal-heavy decks, because Witness is the green Snapcaster Mage. We had it first, and we still do it better (because we can re-use our target indefinitely as long as we can keep triggering witness). Two-towers is a standard package for Primeval Titan control decks and is better than Recurring Nightmare here due to the lower creature count.

2 Batterskull
1 Thragtusk
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Primeval Titan

The wincons. I've professed my love of 2x Batterskull for a quite now and am still on that page. Thrag is...well...everyone in this thread knows what Thrag does to legacy decks. Sigarda is the ultimate wincon for the manacost. Primeval Titan is our lord and savior. All hail Primeval Titan.

4 Green Sun's Zenith
3 Brainstorm
2 Sensei's Divining Top

The card advantage/selection. I've always liked the 3/2 Brainstorm/Top split in blue Nic Fits on principle. Zenith is standard issue. Nothing to see here.

4 Cabal Therapy
3 Abrupt Decay
2 Council's Judgment
1 Vindicate
3 Pernicious Deed

The disruption / removals. Council's Judgment is the defacto "best" removal spell in existence. It can't hit lands or multiples, but it can get rid of anything else, and the only real cost is the mana. But, come on. This is Nic Fit, and since when do we care that something costs 3? That's like, the bottom of our curve. Vindicate is for those problem lands -- I think that Judgment is actually better than Pulse, since the pulse effect is a corner-case at best and I'd rather have a wider answer than a more powerful one. Decay is strong vs Delver and Counterbalance, and I could see running the 4th in the board (I would run a 4th Decay before a 4th Deed for sure). Therapies, Deeds, we know these things.

[lands]

Manabase. We need these.

2 Flusterstorm
2 Thoughtseize
2 Rest in Peace
1 Gaddock Teeg
2 Engineered Plague
2 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Pithing Needle
1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
1 Kiora, the Crashing Wave

Sorin and Kiora are the strongest planeswalkers against Miracles. With the widespread adaptation of Council's Judgment, this might not end up being the long-term best way for Junk builds to fight against Miracles, but I would still like these 2 slots to be specifically for Miracles, Jund, Junk, [blade], etc.

Everything else here is pretty self-explanatory, I think. I don't like Enlightened Tutor as much at the moment -- I'd rather have more copies of powerful multi-deck hate cards in general at the moment, and especially in a deck with Brainstorm, I'd rather just have more hosers rather than waste slots with tutors for fewer hosers.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Arianrhod

Those are reasonable changes if you want to stay away from the double white costs, but I'm not actually convinced that you should. Like, I look at your deck, and it looks a lot more like a Rock (gbw control, specifically) variant which is splashing blue for Brainstorm and sideboard, than it does a BUG-splash-white list. Let's break down the original list:

4 Veteran Explorer (G)
4 Deathrite Shaman (g/b)
1 Scavenging Ooze (G)
1 Eternal Witness (GG)
1 Captain Sisay (GW)
1 Thragtusk (G)
1 Primeval Titan (GG)
4 Green Sun's Zenith (G)
3 Brainstorm (U)
2 Sensei's Divining Top (x)
1 Thassa, God of the Seas (U)
1 Diabolic Intent (B)
4 Cabal Therapy (B)
3 Pernicious Deed (GB)
3 Abrupt Decay (GB)
2 Golgari Charm (GB)
2 Maelstrom Pulse (GB)
///
1 Gaddock Teeg (GW)
2 Enlightened Tutor (W)
3 Surgical Extraction (B/2)
2 Engineered Explosives (x)
1 Pernicious Deed (GB)
2 Pithing Needle (x)
2 Venser, Shaper-Savant (UU)
1 Engineered Plague (B)
1 Rest in Peace (W)

You have 6 blue cards in the 75 (of these, the Vensers are the only double-cost).
You have 5 white cards in the 75 (of these, 0 double-cost). *Note if you swap 1 Pulse -> 1 Vindicate you have 6 white.
You have 24 black cards in the 75 (of these, 0 double-cost).
You have 29 green cards in the 75 (of these, Primeval + Witness are double-cost).

Okay, so your deck is actually just GB with U and W splashes.

The Vensers aren't actually intended to be cast, I don't think -- they're more for Show and Tell you said, right? That reduces you to 3 Brainstorm + 1 Thassa for blue cards to consider. You also have the 4 DRS to help with the fixing.

Hmm.

How about something like this:

4 Veteran Explorer
4 Deathrite Shaman
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
2 Eternal Witness
1 Thragtusk
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Primeval Titan

4 Cabal Therapy
4 Green Sun's Zenith
2 Council's Judgment
1 Vindicate

3 Brainstorm
3 Abrupt Decay

3 Pernicious Deed

2 Sensei's Divining Top
2 Batterskull

4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Windswept Heath
2 Bayou
1 Savannah
1 Scrubland
1 Tropical Island
2 Forest
2 Plains
2 Swamp
1 Island
1 Karakas
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Phyrexian Tower

//sb
2 Flusterstorm
2 Thoughtseize
2 Rest in Peace
1 Gaddock Teeg
2 Engineered Plague
2 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Pithing Needle
1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
1 Kiora, the Crashing Wave

That's my first effort at this type of deck, but it's a good place to start discussion, I think.

At its core, your desired version seems to be basically an old-school style Rock deck. You want lots of flexible removal, some recursion, some hard-to-answer threats, and a lot of powerful hate for the things that you otherwise can't handle.

Let's break it down:

4 Veteran
4 DRS
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder

The ramp core. DRS is industry-standard when you go over 3 colors and is a generically strong card. 1 Sakura-Tribe helps smooth things out for when you don't have access to a 'going-exploring' Explorer (Explorer + sac outlet), or when you don't want to set off an Explorer (ie Miracles).

2 Eternal Witness
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Phyrexian Tower

The recursion engines. I personally like the 2nd Witness in removal-heavy decks, because Witness is the green Snapcaster Mage. We had it first, and we still do it better (because we can re-use our target indefinitely as long as we can keep triggering witness). Two-towers is a standard package for Primeval Titan control decks and is better than Recurring Nightmare here due to the lower creature count.

2 Batterskull
1 Thragtusk
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Primeval Titan

The wincons. I've professed my love of 2x Batterskull for a quite now and am still on that page. Thrag is...well...everyone in this thread knows what Thrag does to legacy decks. Sigarda is the ultimate wincon for the manacost. Primeval Titan is our lord and savior. All hail Primeval Titan.

4 Green Sun's Zenith
3 Brainstorm
2 Sensei's Divining Top

The card advantage/selection. I've always liked the 3/2 Brainstorm/Top split in blue Nic Fits on principle. Zenith is standard issue. Nothing to see here.

4 Cabal Therapy
3 Abrupt Decay
2 Council's Judgment
1 Vindicate
3 Pernicious Deed

The disruption / removals. Council's Judgment is the defacto "best" removal spell in existence. It can't hit lands or multiples, but it can get rid of anything else, and the only real cost is the mana. But, come on. This is Nic Fit, and since when do we care that something costs 3? That's like, the bottom of our curve. Vindicate is for those problem lands -- I think that Judgment is actually better than Pulse, since the pulse effect is a corner-case at best and I'd rather have a wider answer than a more powerful one. Decay is strong vs Delver and Counterbalance, and I could see running the 4th in the board (I would run a 4th Decay before a 4th Deed for sure). Therapies, Deeds, we know these things.

[lands]

Manabase. We need these.

2 Flusterstorm
2 Thoughtseize
2 Rest in Peace
1 Gaddock Teeg
2 Engineered Plague
2 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Pithing Needle
1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
1 Kiora, the Crashing Wave

Sorin and Kiora are the strongest planeswalkers against Miracles. With the widespread adaptation of Council's Judgment, this might not end up being the long-term best way for Junk builds to fight against Miracles, but I would still like these 2 slots to be specifically for Miracles, Jund, Junk, [blade], etc.

Everything else here is pretty self-explanatory, I think. I don't like Enlightened Tutor as much at the moment -- I'd rather have more copies of powerful multi-deck hate cards in general at the moment, and especially in a deck with Brainstorm, I'd rather just have more hosers rather than waste slots with tutors for fewer hosers.

---

Alright ... taking a look at Council's Judgment again, I'm starting to like it a lot more than I initially did. Not because of TNN or Marit Lage, but because of it's potential to force a Batterskull or Top to save themselves without fizzling. (the jist is that since Judgment doesn't target and the voting happens upon resolution, they have to save the artifact in response to you casting the Judgment. However, if they do, you can literally nab any other nonland card of theirs).

Anyhow, I like your list: might tweak the sideboard a bit, and the main could be trimmed up as well, but overall it looks a lot better than my original list ^_^

Has anyone just said fuck it and played Rainbow Nic Fit?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Megadeus

Has anyone just said fuck it and played Rainbow Nic Fit?

---

Once or twice :wink:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Megadeus

Has anyone just said fuck it and played Rainbow Nic Fit?

---

4 Veteran Explorer
2 Birds of Paradise

4 Baleful Strix
1 Phantasmal Image
1 Scavenging Ooze

2 Kitchen Finks
1 Deceiver Exarch
1 Athreos, God of the Passage
1 Eternal Witness

2 Restoration Angel
1 Academy Rector
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Obstinate Baloth

1 Acidic Slime
1 Zealous Conscripts
1 Thragtusk
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker

1 Sun Titan
1 Progenitor Mimic

4 Birthing Pod
2 Sensei's Divining Top

1 Recurring Nightmare

4 Cabal Therapy

4 City of Brass
4 Mana Confluence
4 Reflecting Pool
1 Tropical Island
1 Bayou
1 Taiga
3 Forest
1 Swamp
2 Island
1 Plains
1 Mountain

//SB
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Harmonic Sliver
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Notion Thief
1 Thoughtseize
1 Duress
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Nether Void
2 Flusterstorm
3 Slaughter Games

------------

I played something akin to (worse than) this at a 40 duals event late last year or early this one....somewhere there's footage of me smashing Sneak and Show on camera with it. I still think it has potential, but I haven't had time to work on it lately.

Maybe it's because I've been drinking, but 5 color Nic fit sounds fucking sweet. Green Sun for Broodmate Dragon after casting Brainstorm. Or having the option of Green Sunning for Sigarda or Broodmate Dragon.

I compiled my results for the last weekly tournaments I attended in which I took two 1st place using Junk Pod:

2-0 vs. Aggro Loam
1-2 vs. BUG Pod
2-1 vs. Oops all Spells
2-1 vs. Punishing Jund

2-0 vs. Nic Fit
2-1 vs. Deathblade
2-0 vs. Team America

I used the same list I posted a few pages back with the same SB. I played 4 DRS, 3 Explorers, and no BoP. Sigarda (with and without Jitte) won almost every single game... Entomber Exarch saw some play but is still quite weak. I think I will replace him with either a 22nd land or the 4th explorer as I don't really need three 4-drops to gloom over my starting hand and both my 5-drops are accessible through GSZ.

I know that he does not provide any immediate value when he enters or leaves the battlefield, but have you considered Thrun as the third 4-drop? Of course he overlaps with Sigarda in function and I believe her to be the best hexproof finisher GSZ can fetch, but Thrun fills a gap as a GSZ-able 4-drop. And he might be the second best equipment-carrier.

Also, I have been wondering if Sylvan Library might be a good card to consider in order to increase consistency. With your E-Tutor-board one copy might be sufficient?

Reply@Konjester:

Sure thing. Let's see here...

Okay, so it's a Junk Pod build.

I'm going to go line-by-line and give thoughts as I go. Usually my deck critiques tend to be pretty stream-of-consciousness.

4 Vet - obv

3 DRS - I prefer 2 DRS in junk pod builds. 6 1-spots is usually sufficient since your 2-drops tend to be uninspiring and they're easy to Zenith up.

1 Ooze - yeah, he's a solid bullet to have.

1 Wall of Roots - I haven't actually thought about trying this guy, since I usually opt for things that put lands into play as opposed to just make mana. Sakura-Tribe Elder is my favorite of these options, but he doesn't synergize well with Pod. I'd say to give him a try, but keep an eye on him and be prepared to swap him out in the future if he underperforms.

1 Gaddock Teeg - staple hatebear. Probably maindeckable now with Miracles so huge, and you're west coast, which is usually somewhat combo-heavier. Just keep in mind that you can't deploy any Pods or additional GSZ once you have him in play, so he's kind of a double-edged sword.

1 Voice - I tried Voice and was profoundly unhappy with it. It just doesn't do anything in a format ruled by Swords to Plowshares. Like, in Modern, Bolt and Helix are still more common than Path is, but in Legacy, Swords is the end-all be-all for removal. Your whole deck is going to dump on RUG / BUG Delver anyway, so you don't even need Voice for against them (the only matchups where this guy might do anything). Cut this.

1 Kitchen Finks - yup. Pod staple in any format.

1 Eternal Witness - yup. Nic Fit staple.

1 Orzhov Pontiff - this is a meta call. I would 100% run him in the 76, but I'm not sure that the meta is correct for him to be maindeck right now. Basically you have to evaluate how many Elves and Death and Taxes you expect. You're favored enough vs Blade that you can wait to board him in for vs TNNs, and he's not going to do anything to Sneak, Storm (g1), Miracles, RUG/BUG/UWR Delver, etc. I would personally sideboard this guy.

1 Harmonic Sliver - meh. I would personally sideboard the Sliver and run another naturalize guy instead. Unfortunately the new Elf isn't out for another month. I'm always skeptical of Sliver in Pod decks because the potential exists to blow up your own Pod if they do some kind of trickery. Sliver is still a reasonable slot, but I'd just board it when you need it.

1 Murderous Redcap - this is the weakest of your 4-drops. The persist is obviously good, and it can always shoot a Deathrite or a Delver. That being said, I think that I would rather upgrade this slot to Wickerbough Elder, to replace the Sliver. More on that in a few.

1 Academy Rector - junk pod staple.

1 Restoration Angel - does all the things.

1 Thragtusk - ...yup.

1 Shriekmaw - pod staple.

1 Sigarda, Host of Herons - nic fit staple.

1 Grave Titan - I don't like this guy. Grave Titan just never really does anything. I like him in Reanimator, where I think he's tech. Here, though, you can do more powerful things with either of the other Titans, the Kamigawa dragons, or a few other options.

3 Pod, 3 Zenith - that's fine. I usually ran 4-2, but some of that is pilot discretion. An extra Zenith is a lot more useful than an extra Pod once the first Pod is in play. Either way, you want 6 total of this effect.

4 Decay - the full monte, eh. I can dig it. Delver of Secrets is the freest win in the format these days, so having the full grip of Decays to counter their full grip of Delvers is reasonable. Also good at picking off nuisance Counterbalances. I think that -ideally- I would opt for 3 Decay 1 Council's Judgment just to hedge a little bit, but I tend to prefer more diverse removal suites. Pilot discretion.

4 Therapy - duh

1 Diabolic Intent - I don't like this here. It's kind of counter-intuitive, but I haven't really liked Intent in Pod decks. You think, but why -- you have all of these creatures to sacrifice to it? The problem is that you would 9/10 rather sacrifice that same creature to Pod in almost any situation. You can Intent for a Pod, but then you lose out on things to actually do with that Pod once you've found it.

1 Pernicious Deed - Rector target.

1 Recurring Nightmare - Rector target.

I'll get to the manabase once the maindeck is shored up, since that'll affect the costs.

--------------------------

Here's what I would cut:

-1 DRS
-1 Voice
-1 Pontiff (to the board)
-1 Sliver (maybeboard)
-1 Redcap
-1 Grave Titan
-1 Intent

Here's what I would add:

+1 Stoneforge Mystic (Voice slot)
+1 Batterskull (Intent slot)

This is super free power. Being able to turn a Green Sun's Zenith / Veteran Explorer / DRS into a Batterskull via Pod is absolutely bonkers, and if you've been reading my posts, you know my thoughts on Batterskull in Nic Fit in general. The only reason not to run the 1-of SFM + Batterskull package would be availability. I'm going to write this message under the impression that availability is not an issue, though, and then we can adjust later if it is.

+1 Blade Splicer (DRS slot)

2 bodies for the price of one. Plays well with Nightmare and Restoration Angel, and applies a lot of pressure for its slot. Leaving behind a 3/3 while Podding is pretty potent.

+1 Knight of the Reliquary (Pontiff slot)

Helps tie together your manabase while providing a huge threat. Solid 3-drop. Kind of a non-bo-ish with Deathrite (yours and opposing), but the toolbox it adds is worth it -- especially the easy access to Karakas, which is critically important against Show and Tell and Reanimator.

+1 Kitchen Finks (Sliver slot)

Since we're not going to add the Thune combo, I'd like to see a 2nd Finks. It's strong with Pod and Therapy, provides good attrition against things like Liliana of the Veil, trades profitably with Monguise, and shores up Burn a bit (because there is always Burn).

+1 Wickerbough Elder (Redcap slot)

This gives you a GSZ-able 4-drop, which you were previously lacking. This guy's a bit better than Harmonic Sliver in a Pod deck, I think.

+1 Primeval Titan (Titan slot)

Primeval Titan is just over all much stronger than Grave Titan. This is primarily a nod to Swords to Plowshares, Terminus, and friends. Consider if your Grave Titan gets StP'd by Miracles. You're left with a pair of 2/2s. If your Primeval Titan gets StP'd, though, you've assembled an engine which Miracles cannot interrupt since they play no wastelands -- all they have to screw with lands is a Blood Moon somewhere between main and side, and bringing in Blood Moon against Nic Fit is laughable.

------------------------------

That gives us this:

4x Veteran Explorer
2x Deathrite Shaman
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Wall of Roots
1x Gaddock Teeg
1x Stoneforge Mystic
2x Kitchen Finks
1x Eternal Witness
1x Blade Splicer
1x Knight of the Reliquary
1x Wickerbough Elder
1x Restoration Angel
1x Academy Rector
1x Thragtusk
1x Shriekmaw
1x Sigarda, Host of Herons
1x Primeval Titan

3x Birthing Pod
3x Green Sun's Zenith
4x Abrupt Decay
4x Cabal Therapy
1x Batterskull
1x Pernicious Deed
1x Recurring Nightmare

+22 land

Let's set the manabase up like this:

3x Forest
2x Swamp
2x Plains
2x Bayou
1x Savannah
1x Horizon Canopy
1x Scrubland
1x Karakas
1x Phyrexian Tower
1x Volrath's Stronghold
1x Dryad Arbor
3x Verdant Catacombs
3x Windswept Heath

Industry-standard 7 basics. Smattering of duals to fetch for, 6 fetch is my usual for non 4x DRS.dec. Canopy acts as a 2nd Savannah while enabling KotR or PrimeTime to cantrip lategame. Volrath's is your backup recursion engine to Nightmare. All pretty standard stuff.

Normally I'm not a fan of Dryad Arbor in Nic Fit, but I have something specific in mind for this deck. Obviously turning a land into Nightmare fodder is value, and it has good synergy with Knight of the Reliquary, as well as enabling a t2 Pod via Zenith, but it does something else for us, too. Let's talk sideboard.

--------------------

The last time I played a Pod deck, the Pods were the focus of substantial hate. Like, people would bring in cards that they otherwise wouldn't bring in, just to shut Pod down. I decided that the next time I played Pod, I would sideboard Natural Order. So, let's start there:

3 Natural Order
1 Worldspine Wurm / Craterhoof Behemoth

This is another reason to run the Dryad Arbor.

I'm not sure which monster I want for the NOs. I'm skeptical about running Progenitus in a deck with no way to react to drawing it. I mean, I guess you can always NO for Primeval Titan, but I'd rather have a bigger monster to go with the package. There's advantages and disadvantages to each -- just go with what you think is correct, I'd say.

1 Orzhov Pontiff

As we said, this needs to be in the deck somewhere.

1 Nether Void

The best Rector target for against combo decks, bar none.

1 Umezawa's Jitte

Alternative Stoneforge target for some matchups; can let you play more aggressively with 1 creature threat in some matchups where this matters (see also: miracles).

1 Cranial Extraction
1 Memoricide

I never leave home without 1 copy of this effect in my sideboard, and usually more. Solves Punishing Fire forever, strips Miracles of their win conditions, strips Show and Tell of their monsters, etc etc etc.

2 Thoughtseize

Extra spot discard is strong against basically any combo deck barring dredge.

1 Bojuka Bog
1 Agent of Erebos

A little extra graveyard hate. You should be okay with 2 DRS + 1 Scavenging Ooze and like a million ways to tutor them up, but a little more never hurt.

2 Ethersworn Canonist

Default storm/elves hate.

--------------------

Final list:

4x Veteran Explorer
2x Deathrite Shaman
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Wall of Roots
1x Gaddock Teeg
1x Stoneforge Mystic
2x Kitchen Finks
1x Eternal Witness
1x Blade Splicer
1x Knight of the Reliquary
1x Wickerbough Elder
1x Restoration Angel
1x Academy Rector
1x Thragtusk
1x Shriekmaw
1x Sigarda, Host of Herons
1x Primeval Titan

3x Birthing Pod
3x Green Sun's Zenith
4x Abrupt Decay
4x Cabal Therapy
1x Batterskull
1x Pernicious Deed
1x Recurring Nightmare

3x Forest
2x Swamp
2x Plains
2x Bayou
1x Savannah
1x Horizon Canopy
1x Scrubland
1x Karakas
1x Phyrexian Tower
1x Volrath's Stronghold
1x Dryad Arbor
3x Verdant Catacombs
3x Windswept Heath

//sb
3 Natural Order
1 Worldspine Wurm / Craterhoof Behemoth
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Nether Void
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Cranial Extraction
1 Memoricide
2 Thoughtseize
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Agent of Erebos
2 Ethersworn Canonist

Hope that helps. If you have more questions (which I'm guessing you will), feel free to fire away =)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by The Winter Queen of Nic Fit

mind-boggling deconstruction and reconstruction

---

While you are dispensing wisdom, I've got a BUG non-pod nic fit list that I'm trying to shore up a little:



3 Pernicious Deed
4 Abrupt Decay
4 Brainstorm
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Green Sun's Zenith
3 Kiora, The Crashing Wave
1 Primeval Titan
1 Thragtusk
1 Acidic Slime
1 Eternal Witness
1 Starved Rusalka
3 Deathrite Shaman
4 Veteran explorer

And a bunch of lands including 2 creeping tar pit. The deck plays reasonably well, but I'm struggling with the brainstorm slot. It's nice and all, but I find myself wishing for a more permanent source of card-quality, namely Top. Furthermore, hands without cabal therapy tend to be a little slow. My inclination is to cut brainstorm for two top and two thoughtseize, but I need to keep my blue count fairly high for Force of Will out of the board, as there is a fair amount of combo that runs around my store. Any thoughts? I sometimes toy with the idea of squeezing in some Dimir Charms at the expense of Abrupt decay, before common sense prevails.

Thank you so much, and, that actually sounds a lot more stable than my cureent setup. I forgot to put what I had fof a sideboard up, but again, you covered that part really great.

I do have a couple questions about the sb though... In the side I have now, I have:

tsunami & choke for control/combo

aegis of the gods, spirit of the labyrinth, & thrun the last troll for combo/control as well.

The sideboard you posted seems really good, I like the natural orders a lot, never would have thought to try those in this list. I guess my only question are, Do think one of these other creatures would be better in that 2nd canonist spot?
And, do you think Ill be okay without the island hate from the sideboard?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Slag

While you are dispensing wisdom, I've got a BUG non-pod nic fit list that I'm trying to shore up a little:



3 Pernicious Deed
4 Abrupt Decay
4 Brainstorm
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Green Sun's Zenith
3 Kiora, The Crashing Wave
1 Primeval Titan
1 Thragtusk
1 Acidic Slime
1 Eternal Witness
1 Starved Rusalka
3 Deathrite Shaman
4 Veteran explorer

And a bunch of lands including 2 creeping tar pit. The deck plays reasonably well, but I'm struggling with the brainstorm slot. It's nice and all, but I find myself wishing for a more permanent source of card-quality, namely Top. Furthermore, hands without cabal therapy tend to be a little slow. My inclination is to cut brainstorm for two top and two thoughtseize, but I need to keep my blue count fairly high for Force of Will out of the board, as there is a fair amount of combo that runs around my store. Any thoughts? I sometimes toy with the idea of squeezing in some Dimir Charms at the expense of Abrupt decay, before common sense prevails.

---

Sure =)

So, your creature suite is this:

4 Vet
3 DRS
1 Rusalka
1 E.Wit
1 Acidic Slime
1 Thragtusk
1 Primeval Titan

That looks really anemic. Like, you have Thrag and PrimeTime as your power-hitters, but that's it. You aren't running any countermagic, so you have no way to protect them -- they're just going to eat removal (or Thrag'll get blocked by a moderately sized Goyf) and die.

-) Why Deathrite Shaman? What does that card do for you in this deck, aside from being generically good? Remember: Nic Fit is not "Junk." It's a synergy-based archetype which isn't centered around cramming as much goodstuff into one deck as humanly possible. Deathrite Shaman does two things for Nic Fit: it's good in Pod lists because it's the next-best 1-drop besides our signature guy + extra acceleration into t2 Pod, and it's good in 4- or 5-color versions which need the rainbow source to smooth out colors, as a sort of Birds++. I don't see what Deathrite Shaman does for you here, and I would cut it accordingly.

-) Rusalka does nothing for you. If you want a Zenithable sac outlet (which, only heavy Rector / Melira / spirit-based versions do), run Varolz instead. It costs 1 more mana, but is a 2/2 with regen which can make itself / other things into serious threats if you aren't running recursion.

-) Slime is actually fine, and will feed into my plans (more later).

4 Decay, 3 Deed, 4 Therapy, all fine. 4 Zenith is a little high for your current creature count, but we're going to do something about that. Brainstorm is rarely spectacular but is always reasonable. I'll talk some about Brainstorm in depth in a bit.

The first thing I want to get out of the way, though, is the Gitaxian Probes. Get rid of them.

Gitaxian Probe is a powerful card in decks which want to have fewer cards in them, because it's cantripping, "free," and gives information while 'thinning.' A deck with 4 Gitaxian Probes is a 56 card deck. This is insane in Storm, for example, because it gives them more ability to get to the cards that matter in their deck. In Nic Fit, though, the only thing it does is make your Therapies godly. This is a 2-card combo, though, and I know from my testing with Probe that Probe/Therapy rarely actually comes up in your opening hand. It feels kind of dirty when it does, but it's not worth dedicating 4 slots to. Besides, Probe is essentially a crutch for Therapy. With time and experience, you won't need Probe to have good Therapy snipes. We all must be interns before we can be surgeons.

Consider what those 4 slots will do. Would you rather have 4 semi-do-nothings, or 2 Jace TMS and 2 Glen Elendra Archmage?

Moving on.

Even for as high as I am on Kiora, I'd back her off to a 2-of. 3 is a little extreme.

Brainstorm in Nic Fit is an odd bird. It's usually good to have -some number- of Brainstorms, but we're not an auto-4-of deck. Since we're going to be adding a pair of Jace TMS, we don't need the full 4 Brainstorms, I'd shave to probably 2 copies, and add a Top as the "third Brainstorm." The Jaces will do most of the heavy lifting, as will something else...

----------

So what should we add:

4 Veteran Explorer
1 Eternal Witness
1 Thragtusk
1 Acidic Slime

4 Cabal Therapy
4 Green Sun's Zenith

4 Abrupt Decay
2 Brainstorm

2 Kiora, the Crashing Wave

3 Pernicious Deed

Here's what I'm maintaining of your original list. That's 26 cards.

My immediate gut reaction when I saw your list was: "wait, this is a BUG control list with 3 Kioras which is running 0 Baleful Strix???"

We can straight replace the Deathrites and Rusalka with 4 of those. That also ups your blue count, incidentally.

+4 Strix puts us to 30 cards. +2 Jace, TMS is 32, and the +1 Top is 33. Let's add a pair of Sakura-Tribe Elders to help accelerate to 4-mana, for 35. Next up, let's add a Future Sight. Future Sight is basically the ultimate blue card advantage bomb. An unchecked Future Sight basically wins you the game as soon as you untap with it. It's just a mise, but it's meant as a hedge in control mirrors more than anything, and you'll have time to draw into it there.

Progenitor Mimic makes 36. I like Mimic a whole lot more than I like Primeval Titan in this deck. You're not going to have the density to take advantage of the Two Towers, and while running a pair of Tar Pits is fine and all, they -do- hurt your manabase a bit. Zenith -> Primeval -> 2x Tar Pits is adorable, but you can do better things in BUG. Obviously Mimicking Strix, Witness, Slime, or Thrag is fine -- but don't forget that you can also Mimic your opponents' creatures. Spewing out a Goyf every upkeep is still perfectly reasonable.

That being said, we should have a couple of other abusive things for Mimic. I'd be comfortable with 22 land with this deck, so that means we have 2 slots left.

Let's use one of them as a Shriekmaw, since that's a flexible removal spell -and- an evasive creature which happens to be insane with Mimic. How about a 2nd Eternal Witness for the second slot?

That gives us this as a list:

4 Veteran Explorer
4 Baleful Strix
2 Sakura-Tribe Elder
2 Eternal Witness
1 Shriekmaw
1 Thragtusk
1 Acidic Slime
1 Progenitor Mimic

4 Cabal Therapy
4 Green Sun's Zenith

4 Abrupt Decay
2 Brainstorm

1 Sensei's Divining Top

2 Kiora, the Crashing Wave
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

3 Pernicious Deed
1 Future Sight

Let's add lands:

3 Bayou
2 Tropical Island
1 Underground Sea
3 Forest
2 Island
2 Swamp
1 Phyrexian Tower
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Misty Rainforest

If you're dead-set on the Tar Pits, that's fine -- just shave one of each fetch for a pair. I'd rather have the fetches here, though, with the Brainstorms, Jacestorms, Top, and Future Sight. You'll want to have the topdeck control.

I'll leave the sideboard up to you since I have no idea of the metagame you're preparing for. You have a 12-card blue count in the above list. Now, something like Future Sight will likely get boarded out vs decks you board FoW in for, so I'd advocate having a robust number of blue cards in your board. Something like 4 Force of Will, 2 Glen Elendra Archmage, 2 Venser, Shaper-Savant, 2 Flusterstorm would give more than adequate blue-card coverage while still covering a wide range of combos.

Hope that helps.

-----------Bonus list:

I'll re-iterate here my Cryptic BUG list, which was the conclusion that I came to when I attempted to build something similar a few weeks ago. I still haven't had time to test it yet, but if this direction tickles your fancy more than the one above, feel free to copy it down:

4 Veteran Explorer
3 Baleful Strix
3 Eternal Witness
1 Shriekmaw
1 Aetherling

4 Cabal Therapy

4 Force of Will
4 Cryptic Command
3 Abrupt Decay
4 Brainstorm

2 Jace, The Mind Sculptor
2 Kiora, the Crashing Wave

3 Pernicious Deed
1 Future Sight

3 Forest
3 Island
2 Swamp
2 Bayou
2 Underground Sea
2 Tropical Island
3 Misty Rainforest
3 Verdant Catacombs
2 Polluted Delta

::sb::
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Toxic Deluge
2 Glen Elendra Archmage
2 Vendilion Clique
2 Pithing Needle
2 Flusterstorm
2 Kitchen Finks
1 Thragtusk
1 Progenitor Mimic
1 Cranial Extraction

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Konjester

Thank you so much, and, that actually sounds a lot more stable than my cureent setup. I forgot to put what I had fof a sideboard up, but again, you covered that part really great.

I do have a couple questions about the sb though... In the side I have now, I have:

tsunami & choke for control/combo

aegis of the gods, spirit of the labyrinth, & thrun the last troll for combo/control as well.

The sideboard you posted seems really good, I like the natural orders a lot, never would have thought to try those in this list. I guess my only question are, Do think one of these other creatures would be better in that 2nd canonist spot?
And, do you think Ill be okay without the island hate from the sideboard?

---

If you'd rather relegate Canonist to a tutor target, I'd say Spirit of the Lab is probably your best bet for a second bullet.

That being said, keep in mind that all combo decks are aware of Canonist's power and run ways to kill it -- TES boards in Decays, as does Elves (+ a Viridian Shaman / Harmonic Sliver), etc. For myself, I would rather have a 2nd copy of Canonist because it both increases the chance that you'll draw it naturally (always better than having to jump through hoops tutoring it) and because then you'll have a backup copy for if/when they get rid of the first one.

Aegis of the Gods is awful because there are two scenarios where you would want it:

Either A: you're playing against Burn
or B: you're playing against Storm

A: they're just going to kill the Aegis and then you. You've spent 1W (or a creature + mana + life? via Pod) to counter 1 burn spell. Congratulations.
B: they're just going to bounce or kill the Aegis and then you. Alternatively, they could make 24 goblin tokens and just ignore the Aegis.

Thrun is a bad card for your deck. You have Sigarda, and Sigarda is better than everything. On her wings you will win games. Thrun just gets chumped by a $150 bill from now until someone mills out.

I used to run Tsunami and Choke, and I've thought on and off about trying to run them again -- but honestly, there's just better cards. Like, Tsunami and Choke are at their best when they are punishing slower blue decks (Miracles and Stoneblade in particular, can be relevant vs Delver sometimes, especially UWR). You have favorable matchups vs those decks already anyway. Well, Miracles is more of a toss-up, but they're very beatable. If you want to sideboard extra cards for vs Miracles, I would recommend a second Batterskull (probably in lieu of the Jitte) and maybe a couple of planeswalkers (Sorin and Elspeth [Knight-Errant -or- Sun's Champion] are legit). With your recursion, land engines, Sigarda, and creature density in general, though, you should be okay. Just don't overcommit into their sweepers, and remember that Gaddock Teeg is absolutely backbreaking for them. They -have- to have Swords or Council's Judgment (or their 1-of Karakas), otherwise they just lose to him.

That makes sense.... I dont have a lot of experience in legacy, so, I was unaware.
Like, Natural Order from the sideboard... When should/would I bring that package in?
Really.... Sideboarding in legacy is pretty daunting in and of itself...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Konjester

That makes sense.... I dont have a lot of experience in legacy, so, I was unaware.
Like, Natural Order from the sideboard... When should/would I bring that package in?
Really.... Sideboarding in legacy is pretty daunting in and of itself...

---

NO is good to bring in basically against decks that, if you resolve NO, they have no way to answer the Prog.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Megadeus

NO is good to bring in basically against decks that, if you resolve NO, they have no way to answer the Prog.

---

It's a little different here since we aren't running Prog in his version. It's more intended as a backup-plan for if the opponent brings in a ton of Pod hate, OR for if you're against combo and you need a faster threat density (IFF you run Craterhoof over Worldspine), OR if you just want more threat density in general (ie, Punishing Jund or Deathblade).

I'll draw up a rough sideboard plan for common matchups for you sometime tomorrow when I have time.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Qweerios

I compiled my results for the last weekly tournaments I attended in which I took two 1st place using Junk Pod:

2-0 vs. Aggro Loam
1-2 vs. BUG Pod
2-1 vs. Oops all Spells
2-1 vs. Punishing Jund

2-0 vs. Nic Fit
2-1 vs. Deathblade
2-0 vs. Team America

I used the same list I posted a few pages back with the same SB. I played 4 DRS, 3 Explorers, and no BoP. Sigarda (with and without Jitte) won almost every single game... Entomber Exarch saw some play but is still quite weak. I think I will replace him with either a 22nd land or the 4th explorer as I don't really need three 4-drops to gloom over my starting hand and both my 5-drops are accessible through GSZ.

---

woah woah woah! i got first in the four rounder you posted! ::tongue:

Okay, here's how I would sideboard that junk pod list that I posted yesterday. Here's the list again, for reference:

4x Veteran Explorer
2x Deathrite Shaman
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Wall of Roots
1x Gaddock Teeg
1x Stoneforge Mystic
2x Kitchen Finks
1x Eternal Witness
1x Blade Splicer
1x Knight of the Reliquary
1x Wickerbough Elder
1x Restoration Angel
1x Academy Rector
1x Thragtusk
1x Shriekmaw
1x Sigarda, Host of Herons
1x Primeval Titan

3x Birthing Pod
3x Green Sun's Zenith
4x Abrupt Decay
4x Cabal Therapy
1x Batterskull
1x Pernicious Deed
1x Recurring Nightmare

3x Forest
2x Swamp
2x Plains
2x Bayou
1x Savannah
1x Horizon Canopy
1x Scrubland
1x Karakas
1x Phyrexian Tower
1x Volrath's Stronghold
1x Dryad Arbor
3x Verdant Catacombs
3x Windswept Heath

//sb
3 Natural Order
1 Craterhoof Behemoth
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Nether Void
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Cranial Extraction
1 Memoricide
2 Thoughtseize
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Agent of Erebos
2 Ethersworn Canonist

I'm going to assume that we opt for Craterhoof for the NO-monster. I think it's probably slightly better than Worldspine.

I'm going to cover Jund, Deathblade, Miracles, Storm, Sneak/Show, Elves, and BUG Delver. Note that most of the same logic can be applied to similar decks within the general family -- ie, you sideboard vs Junk as you would sideboard vs Jund; RUG Delver and UWR Delver as vs BUG Delver, etc.

Jund:

+3 Natural Order
+1 Umezawa's Jitte

-1 Birthing Pod
-1 Gaddock Teeg
-2 Cabal Therapy

The rationale:

Natural Order finds Sigarda. Sigarda is better than Jund's entire 75. There are also situations where having extra Primeval Titans is worth it. You don't board in the Hoof here because you are not the beatdown. 9/10 you're going to be the control role in this matchup. Jitte can take over a game and is a strong anti-fair option to board in, in general.

You shave out a Pod because you're bringing in the 3 NOs, and you don't want to be overloaded on expensive tutoring options. Teeg does nothing in this matchup except help your opponent. These matches usually come down to who topdecks better, and while Nic Fit is generally favored in that, I still like shaving out 2 Therapies here. You don't really need them -- Jund has no way of getting around Veteran Explorer without setting it off, and the discard isn't that important vs Jund. I'd rather have better topdecks.

Wickerbough stays in because Jund likes to sideboard in extra Sylvan Libraries to try to out-grind us.

Deathblade:

+3 Natural Order
+1 Craterhoof

-4 Abrupt Decay

I'm of the opinion that Decay doesn't do much in this matchup. Usually the game state will come down to your creatures vs their TNNs / their planeswalkers, and Decay doesn't do anything to that. There is an argument that says that you can Decay their equipment, but I would rather have the NOs and the Hoof than the ability to kill their Jitte and the Sword of Feast/Famine. Good Therapy usage will render this need moot anyway. You are the beatdown this matchup, which is going to be amusing because most deathblade players are going to try to out-beatdown you, and then get Hoofed.

Miracles:

+1 Cranial Extraction
+1 Memoricide
+1 Natural Order
+1 Umezawa's Jitte

-4 Cabal Therapy

Miracles is a deck that is based entirely around topdecking, either with or without a Top in play. As such, you basically never want to draw a Therapy. In other versions I frequently sideboard out Veterans here as well, but this list has the sideboard Jitte, and Veteran is a good body to hold a Jitte. Basically your gameplan here is to run out a single threat, bolster it with equipment, and force them to react to it. Two threats is acceptable, in case they have Swords or Jace bounce, or some such -- but I would never go over 2 bodies in play unless you're purposefully trying to end the game as quickly as possible and damn the torpedoes.

Cranial/Memoricide can be used in two ways. You can either take their win conditions (Jace + Entreat) or you can take their protection (Terminus + Swords) and try to kidney punch them as hard as possible. I usually opt for the wincons, but there's something to be said for snapcalling Terminus with this deck. You have a lot of dangerous creatures, and if they can't derpsweep them away, things could get rough very quickly for them.

Storm:

+1 Nether Void
+1 Cranial Extraction
+1 Memoricide
+2 Canonist
+2 Thoughtseize
+3 Natural Order
+1 Craterhoof
+1 Orzhov Pontiff
+1 Umezawa's Jitte

-1 Batterskull
-1 Primeval Titan
-1 Sigarda
-1 Shriekmaw
-1 Recurring Nightmare
-1 Wickerbough Elder
-1 Birthing Pod
-1 Wall of Roots
-1 Knight of the Reliquary
-4 Abrupt Decay

13/15 baby. Basically, you're transforming into an aggro deck. Decays are useless here, as is your top-end -- you'll never live to get it out, and you don't need to get it out to win anyway. Wall of Roots and KotR are both do-nothings here, and open some space lower in your curve. The gameplan is to disrupt them, maybe make a few hate bears, and NO for a lethal Hoof as quick as you can. Jitte replaces Batterskull. Skull isn't that great against Storm, but Jitte is surprisingly reasonable -- it allows you to neuter Empty the Warrens, and represents both a quick clock and the ability to gain a bunch of life and make Tendrils harder. Pontiff comes in to pump your team and kill the enemy quicker, while also offering Empty the Warrens protection.

Note that if you're against TES, call Burning Wish on your first Cranial, but if you're against ANT, call Tendrils.

Sneak:

+1 Cranial Extraction
+1 Memoricide
+2 Thoughtseize

-4 Abrupt Decay

We don't have much for this matchup, but I'm not convinced that we need a lot. We have a LOT of ways to get to Karakas, which is good, and we also have Teeg to shut down Sneak Attack (although they can Snow a Sneak). Shriekmaw kills Emrakul, and Wickerbough kills Sneak Attack. I mean, they can very easily go t1 Tomb Petal Show Griselbrand kill you, but that's the price we pay for not being a blue deck. Belcher happens. There'll also be games where they sit there and cantrip for 5 turns while we just make them dead.

I don't board the Natural Order / Hoof plan here because we neither need the extra tutor nor wish to expose ourselves to Force of Will/Spell Pierce/etc needlessly. Sneak runs a lot of countermagic, and we're going to be more worried about taking their combo pieces with discard than their protection. Better to do it the old-fashioned way here IMO.

Elves:

+1 Cranial Extraction
+1 Memoricide
+2 Canonist
+2 Thoughtseize
+1 Orzhov Pontiff
+1 Umezawa's Jitte

-1 Batterskull
-1 Primeval Titan
-1 Sigarda
-1 Recurring Nightmare
-1 Wickerbough Elder
-1 Birthing Pod
-1 Wall of Roots
-1 Knight of the Reliquary

Pontiff and Jitte are gods. Everything else is just standard disruption to try to get one of those two things to happen. Decays are obviously insane here. We're more controlling in this matchup than we are against Storm, say, where we're balls to the walls aggressive. We're not going to out-hoof the hoof deck, so there's no point in burdening the deck with the NO plan. It could probably steal you a few games, but I'm inclined to believe that it isn't worth the slots.

BUG Delver:

+2 Natural Order

-1 Gaddock Teeg
-1 Wickerbough Elder

They might bring in a Library or two vs you, but that's what Deed is for. As with Jund, Delver decks have a very hard time beating Sigarda and Primeval Titan. Just be very careful when Ordering, because Delver decks play a lot of soft countermagic. Most of that will have probably been boarded out vs Nic Fit, but it's usually wise to still play around Daze and Spell Pierce anyway just in case. You -can- board in Jitte here if you really want to, but I don't find it worthwhile in this matchup. The biggest issue with Jitte here is that most of your cards are already really good against these decks. While Jitte is a fine card against Delver, it's not better than what you're already packing.

Hope that helps.

Ok, got some questions.

First great stuff Arianrhod.

Teeg: he's totally anti-synergistic with pod and zenith.

Anyone doing any testing with Archangel of Thune / Spike Feeder anymore?

What about thrun MB? No enter/dies effects but a reliable beater.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ish

Ok, got some questions.

First great stuff Arianrhod.

Teeg: he's totally anti-synergistic with pod and zenith.

Anyone doing any testing with Archangel of Thune / Spike Feeder anymore?

What about thrun MB? No enter/dies effects but a reliable beater.


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Teeg is fine. You can always bounce/re-cast him with Karakas if you need to -- Pod is awful in multiples, so if you have 1 pod in play already you don't care about the others. If you played Teeg at all, he's probably hurting the enemy worse than he's hurting you.

I'll still be working on Thune/Feeder versions here soon -- this was just because I was asked my opinion on a deck for SCG Vegas and my reply was too large for a private message. I do think that there's a lot of strength in that Junk Pod list, though -- it's very no-frills and no-nonsense, which I do like. The Thune/Feeder versions are just a different style of deck, really. I'm actually moving tomorrow/this weekend, so I should be able to actually test and such again soon -- my cards have been boxed up and packed away for almost a month now =(((

Thrun's bad. He's a reliable beater that is worse than Sigarda in almost every conceivable way. If you're playing Punishing or some such and you don't have access to Sigarda, then sure - but he's a just a poor man's Sigarda. MAYBE if you were running a heavy SFM version with multiple Sword of X and Ys/Jitte/etc...but that's about the only reason I could think of to run a Thrun alongside Sigarda.

I am still on the Fire version with 2 md Thoughtsieze. My last 4 weekly tournaments have gone :

2-0 Cephalid Breakfast
2-1 ANT
1-1 DnT
2-1 Dredge
--------------
0-2 SnS
2-0 Dredge
2-0 enchantress (stax)
1-2 enchantress (combo)
---------------
2-0 Dredge
1-1 SnS (went to turns, needed 1 more to win)
2-1 Shardless
1-1 Lands
---------------
2-0 Rug delver
2-0 Dredge (non-dread return version)
2-1 oops
1-1 Uw Blade

Waaaaayy to much combo match ups for me lately, especially dredge. 4 weeks in a row...Wtf! Our weekly gets about 25-30 ppl so not sure why so much of that deck but 4-0 against it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Arianrhod

Sure =)

I'll re-iterate here my Cryptic BUG list, which was the conclusion that I came to when I attempted to build something similar a few weeks ago. I still haven't had time to test it yet, but if this direction tickles your fancy more than the one above, feel free to copy it down:

4 Veteran Explorer
3 Baleful Strix
3 Eternal Witness
1 Shriekmaw
1 Aetherling

4 Cabal Therapy

4 Force of Will
4 Cryptic Command
3 Abrupt Decay
4 Brainstorm

2 Jace, The Mind Sculptor
2 Kiora, the Crashing Wave

3 Pernicious Deed
1 Future Sight

3 Forest
3 Island
2 Swamp
2 Bayou
2 Underground Sea
2 Tropical Island
3 Misty Rainforest
3 Verdant Catacombs
2 Polluted Delta

::sb::
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Toxic Deluge
2 Glen Elendra Archmage
2 Vendilion Clique
2 Pithing Needle
2 Flusterstorm
2 Kitchen Finks
1 Thragtusk
1 Progenitor Mimic
1 Cranial Extraction

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Better mana base than the previous one.
As promised, I tested it a bit last week against several Delver.decks.

Punchlines:
- 1) Not enough "black" color. I got stomped by delver.deck many times because I could not cast AD, Deed, therapy. You seem to have fixed this issue in your most updated list (So did I last week :D)

-2) Deck feels even slower than my punishing Vraska and I was playing at a decent pace... In sanctioned events, I can see having some issues to finish them-off in due time, even if ultimately, I have the board control.

-3) Finally, while powerful, the witness-cryptic combo is certainly what slowed games down. If the board state is in their favor, you keep blocking with witness to bounce it back and draw a card, looking for drawing into a true removal for their goyf or whatever.

-4) Anyway, I have yet to kill with Kiora and I did enjoy playing this version (might be the "blue" thing)

-5) True story: no life gain MD is a pain...

Take this with a grain of salt as I only tested it against delver.deck

I'll keep you posted after several more tests to come.

Cheers,

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tom4ik

I am still on the Fire version with 2 md Thoughtsieze. My last 4 weekly tournaments have gone :

2-0 Cephalid Breakfast
2-1 ANT
1-1 DnT
2-1 Dredge
--------------
0-2 SnS
2-0 Dredge
2-0 enchantress (stax)
1-2 enchantress (combo)
---------------
2-0 Dredge
1-1 SnS (went to turns, needed 1 more to win)
2-1 Shardless
1-1 Lands
---------------
2-0 Rug delver
2-0 Dredge (non-dread return version)
2-1 oops
1-1 Uw Blade

Waaaaayy to much combo match ups for me lately, especially dredge. 4 weeks in a row...Wtf! Our weekly gets about 25-30 ppl so not sure why so much of that deck but 4-0 against it.

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Not a very big surprise here. With "n" DRS and maybe 1 Ooze MD, dredge will always have a hard time against Punishing Fit.
I'm surprised by your draw against D&T ? Maybe you could give us a more detailed story ?
SnS is a bitch, no matter what.
Enchantress could be a pain and I am always struggling to find the perfect tempo to blow a deed and prevent them from recovering before I kill them.
Finally, congratz for such BIG figures, I am really impressed by your result against storm/oops, I guess the added 2 TS MD were the thing ?

@Ralf-
-I actually do not run any DRS. 1 ooze md and 2 surgicals and 2 slaughter games post.
-As for the DnT if i remember the game 1 was long as i got waste/port to keep me off of anything relevant but i wasnt getting killed so i kept playing. game 2 i crushed and didnt have time to finish 3rd. it is odd to lose to DnT but if i remember it was a 2 lander in game 1 so took me too long to actually get smth going.
- Game 1 SnT is miserable but post board its actually not too bad. i run 2 more duress in board as well as the rebs and exile effects and so it can actually be hard for them to build up a hand that wins. expecially as liliana actually provides another avenue of cutting them off. i beat turn 2 emrakul off of show. he had turn 2 show in em, me i had land vet. i put a land into play. next turn i cabal which he lets resolve and i say force leaving him with i think a pierce. drop lily.
- the combo enchantress deck ran the 3 mana white enchantment that when you destory a perm of theirs they can do it to you. it was a real tough card for me to pay around and one of the other games i had to mull to 4 but i still think enchantress is a pretty favorable deck. both versions.
- I think while this deck is never going to be a combo killer i think post board it is very underrated. slaughter games is amazing, and for me i get 8 1 mana discard plus 3 lily which can be hard for decks like storm or oops to build up enough of a hand to go off out of. the rebs, surgicals and like also make it so they have a lot to fight through so while game 1s are pretty bad 2/3 can be good.

Tom4ik, what does your Punishing Fit list look like? That's what I run as well, so I'm curious what other people have going on with that these days.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tom4ik

@Ralf-
-I actually do not run any DRS. 1 ooze md and 2 surgicals and 2 slaughter games post.
-As for the DnT if i remember the game 1 was long as i got waste/port to keep me off of anything relevant but i wasnt getting killed so i kept playing. game 2 i crushed and didnt have time to finish 3rd. it is odd to lose to DnT but if i remember it was a 2 lander in game 1 so took me too long to actually get smth going.
- Game 1 SnT is miserable but post board its actually not too bad. i run 2 more duress in board as well as the rebs and exile effects and so it can actually be hard for them to build up a hand that wins. expecially as liliana actually provides another avenue of cutting them off. i beat turn 2 emrakul off of show. he had turn 2 show in em, me i had land vet. i put a land into play. next turn i cabal which he lets resolve and i say force leaving him with i think a pierce. drop lily.
- the combo enchantress deck ran the 3 mana white enchantment that when you destory a perm of theirs they can do it to you. it was a real tough card for me to pay around and one of the other games i had to mull to 4 but i still think enchantress is a pretty favorable deck. both versions.
- I think while this deck is never going to be a combo killer i think post board it is very underrated. slaughter games is amazing, and for me i get 8 1 mana discard plus 3 lily which can be hard for decks like storm or oops to build up enough of a hand to go off out of. the rebs, surgicals and like also make it so they have a lot to fight through so while game 1s are pretty bad 2/3 can be good.

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- I get what you mean as with Scapeshift (1 Ooze MD, no DRS) I'm like 8-1 against dredge in sanctioned events.
- OK against D&T, that makes sense.
- Enchantress is kind of fifty/fifty. If you don't get to see a quick Deed you lose (the "quick" thing depends on your ability to snipe or not their draw engine -> do you get your discard going/AD or are you screwed by an early leyline of sanctity)
- Having 8- 1 cmc - discard + 3 lily is sure great against a lot of combo.deck until you meet combo.deck packing 4 leyline of sanctity in SB. But it is rather linked to your meta !

Are you on the "Protect the Troll" bandwagon with your punish list ?

@benofzongo
List is:

4 veteran explorer
1 scavenging ooze
2 eternal witness
1 huntmaster of the fells
1 thrun, the last troll
1 thragtusk
1 primeval titan

4 cabal therapy
2 thoughtsieze
2 gitaxian probe

4 green sun's zenith
3 sensei's divining top
3 pernicious deed
2 abrupt decay
3 punishing fire
3 liliana of the veil
1 garruk, primal hunter

My land base is the normal 6 fetches, 4 groves, 4 duals, 6 basics and tower and wolf run.
My SB is very skewed to meta but here it is:

2 abrupt decay
2 duress
2 surgical extraction
2 slaughter games
2 golgari charm
2 blood moon
3 red elemental blast


The reason for probe is not so much to 'crutch' the therapy hits but more there because with this version of the deck I love being able to see the hand to help decide on how I want to sculpt the game. I don't want more discard but probe fills that niche. I have tried it in the last 2 weeklies and i am still undecided. What I like is that in my opening hand it allows me to make the best choice in spell sequencing. What I dont like is that it makes those hands less stable as you do not know what that new card is.

It kind of ties back into my thinking that the way I play this deck is not as a tool-box style where I want tons of different cards but that I want a certain subset of cards every game. Liliana + Fire, Deed, and a big guy/green sun is what your looking for. I have already considered cutting Ooze (I have seen way too much graveyard based combo though) and/or Huntmaster but he has dominated games as well.

@Ralf
-about the leyline, yea I agree. Leyline screws me pretty hard for a lot of my hate. I do usually trim decay/deed for golgari charm as that does hit a few relevant enchantments in some combo games (or against some decks stops the empty plan). Also, if they have to mull to oblivion looking for leyline that buys time for the exile effects anyway

- I am ideally on the crash with the Troll plan, but with the wolfrun it usually doesnt matter any creature will do when you have the ability to +5 it.I get more scoops to boardstate without a threat then actually needing to play it out actually.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Arianrhod

Final list:

4x Veteran Explorer
2x Deathrite Shaman
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Wall of Roots
1x Gaddock Teeg
1x Stoneforge Mystic
2x Kitchen Finks
1x Eternal Witness
1x Blade Splicer
1x Knight of the Reliquary
1x Wickerbough Elder
1x Restoration Angel
1x Academy Rector
1x Thragtusk
1x Shriekmaw
1x Sigarda, Host of Herons
1x Primeval Titan

3x Birthing Pod
3x Green Sun's Zenith
4x Abrupt Decay
4x Cabal Therapy
1x Batterskull
1x Pernicious Deed
1x Recurring Nightmare

3x Forest
2x Swamp
2x Plains
2x Bayou
1x Savannah
1x Horizon Canopy
1x Scrubland
1x Karakas
1x Phyrexian Tower
1x Volrath's Stronghold
1x Dryad Arbor
3x Verdant Catacombs
3x Windswept Heath

//sb
3 Natural Order
1 Worldspine Wurm / Craterhoof Behemoth
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Nether Void
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Cranial Extraction
1 Memoricide
2 Thoughtseize
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Agent of Erebos
2 Ethersworn Canonist

Hope that helps. If you have more questions (which I'm guessing you will), feel free to fire away =)

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Why is there no top in this list? In my junk pod I have been very reliant on topdecks and top helps quite a bit.

Is there anyone that has tried creating a Jund POD list (with or without Punishing Fire package)?
I have been reading back thru the thread, but was unable to find anything (useful). Also i have looked thru a large amount of G/B/R creatures and some of them where cute, but not to exiting (yet).

I do not think that red does much for a pod deck. Both blue or white add much more to the pod game plan as well as better side board options. What red creatures were you thinking of specifically?

So far i found these to be of some interest, but it's not groundbreaking material. I was exploring the idea of a Jund POD version because i enjoy playing my Punishing Nic Fit list and thought maybe i could find something to give it an edge. But like you said, both Blue and White offer the better options (so far).

As i said, i enjoy playing PFire Nic Fit, but i was exploring towards another Nic Fit list. I have been puzzeling between 4c RectorStrix, Junk pod and bug pod. Can't make up my mind. I would love to see both planeswalkers and a combo finish in the list...


Inferno Titan
Flametongue Kavu
Olivia Voldaren
Huntmaster of the Fells
Mogis, God of Slaughter
Purphoros, God of the Forge
Anathemancer
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
Xenagos, God of Revels
Master of Cruelties
Zealous Conscripts
Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
Sire of Insanity
Mindclaw Shaman

Is there someone who been playing the BUG walkers version of nic fit? Been slowly putting my list together. Haven't got many games in on it though. Here's my take

2 veteran explorer
1 scavenging ooze
1 eternal witness
1 baleful strix

4 jace, the mind sculptor
3 liliana of the veil
2 karn liberated

4 pernicious deed

4 brainstorm
4 cabal therapy
4 gitaxian probe
4 innocent blood
3 hymn to tourach
2 green Sun zenith
1 ponder

2 island
2 forest
3 swamp
2 tropical island
2 bayou
2 underground sea
2 polluted delta
2 misty rainforest
4 verdant catacombs

I like having GSZ since I'd rather draw them then the second explorer and because I run a little more creatures and the other walkers list.

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I am still thinking about a Jund POD list and did seem to find some cool ability's and am coming closer to a possible creature package. It is still very rough, but i have broken it down into CMC and for the "unknown" creatures have given very short explanation. I do think that Purphoros, God of the Forge is the best option in this deck where he has synergy with Pod, persist and token generators. So even playing Garruk, Primal Hunter with this one is an option.
So what are your thoughts on further breaking down the creature package to a small strong package?


CMC 0:
Dryad Arbor

CMC 1:
Deathrite Shaman

Dragonmaster Outcast
(has to survive...)

Vexing Devil
(pressure, but dies to easy. And will mostly be unusable for Pod)

Flamekin Harbinger
(digs up the evoke creatures)

Norin the Wary
(synergy with Purphoros, God of the Forge)

CMC 2:
Mogg War Marshal
(Generates tokens, synergy with Purphoros, God of the Forge)

Young Pyromancer
(Generates tokens, synergy with Punishing Fire and Purphoros, God of the Forge)

Wall of Blossoms
(Pod fodder)

Wall of Roots
(Pod fodder)

Scavenging Ooze

CMC 3:
Anathemancer
(Possible finisher or just pressure. At least it is Pod fodder)

Kitchen Finks

Eternal Witness

Tuktuk the Explorer
(Pod fodder which gets a 5/5 token)

Goblin Sharpshooter
(Can shoot down an army of x/1's)

CMC 4:
Mogis, God of Slaughter
(sort of The Abyss, but gives a choice. Which will always be the less good one for us. Indistructible and builds pressure)

Purphoros, God of the Forge
(with Pod, persist and tokens can deal big amounts of damage, Indistructible and builds pressure)

Huntmaster of the Fells
(An allstar, has ETB life gain and token generation. When transforms deals damage or more lifegain and a token.

Wickerbough Elder

Murderous Redcap
(persist, direct damage)

Anger
(When he is in the graveyard he gives Haste to everything. But is easely removed by DRS or graveyard hate).

CMC 5:
Mindclaw Shaman
(Steal an instant or sorcery for free from your opponents hand seems cute/awesome)

Zealous Conscripts
(Steal a creature for one turn. Like an Emrukal of an SnT, but do that trick in your own turn...)

Shriekmaw
Ingot Chewer

Thunderblust
(Persist, pressure)

Acidic Slime

Thragtusk


CMC 6:
Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
(Storms just has to scoop)

Sire of Insanity
(Near instant win end-of-turn?)

I've long theorized the potential of a Jund Pod list -- never actually put the work into creating one, though.

I see no reason why the core pod chain wouldn't be Redcap -> Conscripts untap Pod -> Kiki-Jiki go infinite.

Flame-tongue Kavu is still good enough, imo. 3-spot gives you Sprouting Thrinax, which I think is better than Tuktuk -- both are likely worse than Finks, though. Olivia is worth considering at 4, but I think that you'll find that for Jund-colored decks, the 4-spot is actually super clogged.

Xenagod is not good enough, sadly. Thundermaw is, though.

2-spot you'd likely want to consider Putrid Leech as a solid offensive and defensive ground-pounder.

Just some random thoughts -- I don't have time to go deep on this thought right now, but I do agree that Jund has its own unique tools and advantages over Junk and Bug (not the least of which is the ability to run Slaughter Games out of the board).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Arianrhod

I've long theorized the potential of a Jund Pod list -- never actually put the work into creating one, though.

I see no reason why the core pod chain wouldn't be Redcap -> Conscripts untap Pod -> Kiki-Jiki go infinite.

Flame-tongue Kavu is still good enough, imo. 3-spot gives you Sprouting Thrinax, which I think is better than Tuktuk -- both are likely worse than Finks, though. Olivia is worth considering at 4, but I think that you'll find that for Jund-colored decks, the 4-spot is actually super clogged.

Xenagod is not good enough, sadly. Thundermaw is, though.

2-spot you'd likely want to consider Putrid Leech as a solid offensive and defensive ground-pounder.

Just some random thoughts -- I don't have time to go deep on this thought right now, but I do agree that Jund has its own unique tools and advantages over Junk and Bug (not the least of which is the ability to run Slaughter Games out of the board).

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Nice catch with the Zealous Conscripts and Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker combo. I suppose these would be at the end of the pod chain, meaning we have some space to go just a little lighter on the creature package and get some spells in return.

When Reclemation Sage (or whatever) comes out there would be a good CMC 3. I think that Sprouting Thrinax is strong in conjunction to Purphoros, God of the Forge. But for the latter the entire list has to be build around this tactic to make it work (i guess).

For a CMC 1 i have found: Goblin Arsonist which serves as both POD fodder and can deal with a lot of early threats like a Delver.

For CMC 2:
Vexing Shusher (altough i don't want this a POD fodder, but when you get POD online its not that necessary anymore)

Wall of Blossoms
Wall of Roots
Ravenous Rats
Black Cat


For CMC 3:
Goblin Sharpshooter Goblins, elves, Empty the Warren or w/e swarms. And he can be used as fodder once dealt with the swarm.
Dragon Egg flying token.
Eternal Witness
Kitchen Finks

CMC 4:

Mogis, God of Slaughter Might just be cute, but he looks scary to me.
Wickerbough Elder Will be replaced ones Reclemation Sage comes out.
Murderous Redcap
Flametongue Kavu

There where some other option, but theres soo many cards to dig thru...

EDIT: Fleshbag Marauder can also be very useful

EDIT 2: incoorperate the Melira, Sylvok Outcast combo.

Murderous Redcap
Thermopod
Melira, Sylvok Outcast

Scorched Rusalka
Aerie Ouphes

I would look to include some number of these:

Veteran
DRS
E.Wit
Finks
Redcap
Nekrataal
FTK
Conscripts
Kiki-Jiki
Thragtusk
Primeval Titan
Sire of Insanity

Bolt
Decay
Therapy
GSZ
Pod

The 2-spot is probably the weakest for Jund -- Junk gets Stoneforge and BUG gets Baleful Strix.

Something that I noticed while assembling the rough list is that a lot of these creatures double as creature control. That suggests that we could run fewer actual removal spells in this deck (perhaps just 4 Bolts, say), and just really double up on the creatures and creature tutors.

Note that you don't want to run cards that are bad without Pod, Bobmans -- something like Black Cat is just bad, as is Dragon Egg. Synergy is good, but you don't want to force it. You don't want to NEED a Pod for your deck to function reasonably.