[Deck] Nic Fit (GBx Explorer Zenith Control)

@Svknoe

I have shaved a fetchland for the 4th DRS. How crucial is having 21 lands? I feel like 21 is too much, also I lack Polluted Deltas so... lol

Tried this deck out yesterday, I had a tough time vs Miracles due to him siding in his Pithing Needle and Grafdigger's Cage to my Birthing Pod.. I also managed to draw 3 of the Pods and a Recurring Nightmare when he placed down his RIP lol

I feel like the Decks sometimes shits on itself when you draw you expensive spells and none of your early spells in the opening hand.

I think that cutting a land is not a good way to go. You would leave yourself open to be mana screwed too much. If you havn't got the 9th fetch land, I would play the second Island or the third Bayou (given my list).

Miracles is tough, but beatable. Don't overextend into Terminus, and don't die to Entreat. Playing well with Deed is important. As you mention, their hate permanents can be troublesome. It is difficult finding a balance between destroying them and safe guarding against angles.

I think that that very rarely happens. Correct mulligan decisions and correct use of Brainstorm usually makes the problem go away. If the hand can't reasonably resolve early game spells, it's a mulligan. Almost always shuffle away two actively unwanted cards with Brainstorm.

Edit:

@UseLess

A big problem is that the creature base doesn't work with Pod. This is important for Pod to be good. Pod requires a lot of creatures that generate some advantage all over the curve. I think that 3 at each of cmc 3 and 4 is needed. Sigarda is good, but not worth having when you can't cast her. Having dead cards stuck in your hand is to great a cost.

@Qweerios

I have been very pleased with Shriekmaw. It is good as a Pod target, and very flexible when you draw it. I agree that Phyrexian Tower does not seem that appealing, but I am not so sure about Birds. They are much worse than Deathrite.

@Boarding: You can easly do -3/4 Veteran Explorer and -4 Cabal Therapy vs Miracle. If you use Recurring Nightmare, you can also switch it with another card if you face Rest in Peace.

@Cutting Lands: It isn't the right Way, Nic Fit need lands and you can't always do an easy Explorer Ramp if your Opponent plays well enough. For a couple of turns, soft counters like Spell Pierce are good enough vs Nic Fit. Sure sometimes it didn't matter and we can also can Deed for 5< but in this case we already in a winning position.
I try Phyrexian Tower at BUG Pod and i like it so far. Additional Sac Outlet (which i like) for Explorer and works good with persist stuff.

@Shriekmaw: You can also try an uncommon Noxious Ghoul if your meta isn't good enough for Shriekmaw. Last time i killed two True Name Nemesis, because my opponent didn't expect this tech. Works also with: Recurring Nightmare, Fleshbag Marrauder, Grave Titan or Phantasmal Image.

@BUG Pod: My main problem is, that you can't have more Game 1 options against Combo (no Slaughter Games/Burning Wish, no Liliana, no Thoughtseize, no Gaddock Teeg). I tried Liliana, Clique and Trinket Mage (with Needle). Liliana is flexible enough, because it also can catch some Creatues, but 1 is very random. Clique can disrupt, but without counters it isn't scary enough game 1. Trinket Mage works good enough vs Sneak Show, Dark Depths and Miracle (Sensei/Jace) but need 2-3 Slots...

I think that having a good game 1 versus combo is going to cost us more than it is worth. Post board is pretty favourable. BUG Pod has by far the best combo match up of the nic fit decks that I have played (rector, scapeshift, p fire, pod). I am no more concerned about facing reanimator than jund, for instance.

My Junk POD plays Teeg main and plays 3 thalia 1 canonist 4 thoughtseize in SB, making my combo matches much easier!

I have been wondering how good combo match up Junk Pod has. Is it any good? For me playing BUG Pod, combo overall seems positive.

@Svknoe,

Birds of Paradise doesn't compete with DRS. I am trying out a single BoP over the 3rd Explorer giving me 4 DRS 2 Explorers and 1 BoP. The more I play this deck, the less I want to draw Explorers and the more I want to draw T1 mana dorks.

I also cut the Phyrexian Tower and I am trying a Shriekmaw instead. I now have 20 colored lands (8 fetch, 5 basics, 6 duals, 1 Arbor) and 4 GSZ, 4 DRS, 1 BoP to kick start the deck.

As far as combo matchups go for Junk Pod, they have been very good for me. I recently beat T.E.S. 2-0 back when I played Teeg mainboard. I also played 6 games vs. SnT and won 3 out of 4 postboard games. Game 1 vs. SnT is almost hopeless. Having a Teeg mainboard goes a long way against Storm and High Tide during G1. Reanimator and Dredge are the combo decks I find the easiest.

The Miracles matchup for Junk Pod is better than the other Pod decks I have played. Having access to Choke, Pithing Needles, and a pair of Lilies postboard is a great asset. Rector, Pod, Enlightened Tutor, and GSZ put in a lot of work and I can easily side out my 2-3 Explorers and do a great job on mana development while I replace Therapies with Thoughtseize.

Some lists have blue.

Why not play True-Name Nemesis in the list?

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Originally Posted by DragoFireheart

Some lists have blue.

Why not play True-Name Nemesis in the list?

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If you're talking about pod lists, typically you want your creatures to generate some kind of value either when they enter or leave play, so that if you pod them away, they've done something already. True-name is just supposed to get into play and start attacking, which is not really what the deck is about. It's basically a control deck, and the creatures are expendable pieces that gain control of the game while also incidentally helping to win by virtue of having power/toughness. Without equipment, True-name doesn't really give you any control, except by being a really good blocker, but the pod lists already play 4X baleful strix to do that. So even though it's a good card, it doesn't really fit with the game plan of the deck.

I won't speak about the non-pod blue lists except to say that one reason not to play TNN is that since they are ramping so much, true-name might just be a worse alternative to the big creatures you could ramp into.

[QUOTE=somethingdotdotdot;796814]I've been tinkering with the depths/stage combo in a bug control shell for a while. Its been decent at closing out games in bug control--but the deck itself is fundamentally weak to certain matchups as well as the clock. Intuition seemed to make the deck too top heavy to smoothly transition into the midgame with certain draws. Then I stumbled onto the nicfit thread again (seems like I come here every 1-2 months to cuz I like the engine so much) and thought that a bug nic-fit shell might be good to incorporate stage/depths into. The pod lists are too jam packed to really change, but the acceleration of explorers seems to be beneficial to the depths strategy (which uses up your land drops as well as putting you back land drops when you try to go off). This a rough draft but just something to toss out there with all of the other nic-fit variants.

OOOH i have a similar build! here is my list:

1 Primeval Titan
3 Veteran Explorer
1 Eternal Witness
3 Trinket Mage
3 Pernicious Deed
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Expedition Map
3 Living Wish
3 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Academy Ruins
1 Wasteland
1 Creeping Tar Pit
2 Tropical Island
2 Bayou
4 Misty Rainforest
3 Verdant Catacombs
3 Forest
2 Swamp
1 Island
1 Thespian's Stage
1 Dark Depths
1 Life from the Loam
4 Brainstorm
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Sylvan Safekeeper
1 Intuition
1 Underground Sea
1 Pithing Needle
SB: 1 Bojuka Bog
SB: 1 Dark Depths
SB: 1 Thespian's Stage
SB: 1 Thrun, the Last Troll
SB: 1 Fleshbag Marauder
SB: 1 Vampire Hexmage
SB: 3 Negate
SB: 2 Golgari Charm
SB: 3 Thoughtseize
SB: 1 Nihil Spellbomb

I've only taken it in a tournament and got it into the final!

@Qweerios: It's great that Junk Pod also has a good combo match up. I feared that the lack of blue would make combo a bit to difficult.

@Nils Gutiérrez: Congratulations on doing well with the list! It looks interesting.

I agree that TNN does not fit into BUG Pod. Racing for 3 a turn is not a much needed function in the deck.

I made the change of cutting the fourth Veteran Explorer for the fourth Deathrite Shaman. I think that it is correct. My most recent list is:

4 Baleful Strix
1 Acidic Slime
4 Deathrite Shaman
1 Eternal Witness
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Grave Titan
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Murderous Redcap
1 Phantasmal Image
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Shriekmaw
1 Sower of Temptation
1 Thragtusk
3 Veteran Explorer
1 Wood Elves

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

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

Sideboard
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
3 Riptide Pilferer
1 Pernicious Deed
2 Envelop
4 Force of Will
1 Golgari Charm
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Venser, Shaper Savant
1 Thoughtseize

I won a small tournament 3-0 with it yesterday, beating ANT, Maverick and Reanimator. Today I won a 32 person tournament with the same list.
My matches were, in order: Miracles, Dredge, Shardless BUG, ID, ID. 3-0-2 Top8: Elves, Miracles, UWR Delver.

At one point I managed to beat Progenitus, with me at 10 with Strix and Witness, versus his 16 life. It was very close, with me ending the game at 1 life. Kitchen Finks and Phantasmal Image did work.

http://www.tcdecks.net/deck.php?id=12965&iddeck=95127

Deck gets another top finish. I have already built this deck and i find it powerful. Only issues are some inconsistencies.

Very nice! Swan Song together with Riptide Pilferer seems like it has to be problematic.

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Originally Posted by Svknoe

Very nice! Swan Song together with Riptide Pilferer seems like it has to be problematic.

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I tried out a list with the 3 veteran explorers yesterday at a small tournament and it seemed to work ok. I did have one game where my land got wasted and deathrite killed vs BUG but it's not even clear explorer would have helped in that situation. Any further experience testing with 3 explorers?

Thanks for the replies all. I tested yesterday again and apart from bad luck and bad plays my list is getting better everytime I tweak it. I got a couple of questions more regarding SB strategies, creature packages and how you beat combo 'favorably' after sideboarding.

1. Is 6 counterspells really enough? I find myself running low already with only 7/8. Then again, I do not run a thoughtseize.
2. How has a single thoughtseize in de SB been for people? Do you use it for both control or combo?
3. Is beating combo just a combination of discard + counters, or is there something more going on? I noticed that I boarded out part of the Pod package to make room for all the counters (I played vs Sneak and Breach, Painter and Omnitell).
4. If I run a 4-drop package of Glen elendra archmage and redcap main, and another archmage in the side, would a sower of temptation or a venser be better suited in the mainboard as third 4-drop?
5. My 3-drops are a witness and true-name nemesis (I do not play recurring nightmare and hence wood elves seems very mediocre). Is kitchen finks really the best additional 3-drop?
6. While I agree that Sigarda is not nice to draw, she is the best 5-drop I can think of. Acidic slime doesn't fit my build/play style and I can't think of any other very good 5-drop. Any ideas?

Liliana was very good overall in testing her. I would like 2 of her somewhere in main and SB, together with 4 Abrupt decay. Currently I'm thinking of 2/1 split in both MB and SB. How has the lack of abrupt decays been for other Pod players? I notice most people play 1 or 2 somewhere in MB/SB.

@UseLess/BUG Pod
1. My current sideboard is 2 Flusterstorm, 4 Force of Will, 1 Negate which works good so far.
2. I also play with 1 Thoughtseize and it helps to have access to more active spells. Every Comboplayer know how to play around some counters, so you aren't save with only some blue defense in your hand. Against Miracle i also board out the VExplorer+CTherapy Package and add 1 Thoughtseize along with some Counters.
3. Yeah you have to board out some stuff which depends on the combo you face. Birthing Pod is really slow if you fight combo decks and you only need pod if you managed to survive long enough and gain control over the game. I like to splitt my answers to combo, so Counter (see above) + Discard (1 TS, 4 CT) + Creatures (2 Clique, 1 Archmage, 1 Venser) + Walkers (1 Liliana, sometimes 1 Jace)
4. I use the same 4-drop Maindeck package as Skvnoe, Archmage, Redcap, Sower which feels very good so far. My sideboard includes a 1off Venser.
5. Finks and Witness are both very good. As others mentioned True-Name Nemesis isn't good enough in Pod. I use 1 Vendillion Clique in the last slot. But you can also chose between Bone Shredder, Viridian Shaman, Wood Elves or Stuff like Fleshbag Marauder, Hag Hedge-Mage etc. - but yes, besides Finks and Witness BUG hasn't good stuff. (with Junk you can also use Harmonic Sliver and Orzhov Pontiff)
6. I got some nice runs with The Mimeoplasm as a 5 drop (especially if you shot one down with a big Redcap), but my current build only runs 1 Shriekmaw and 1 Thragtusk.

@Liliana: I also included a 1off at maindeck, because she is very flexible against Creatures and reducing Combo and Control Hands, but sometimes double Black isn't so easy to achieve.
@Decay: I also play 2 maindeck, but no additional copy at sideboard (but 2 Engineered Explosives). Decay can be very good, but it is also only a single target spell. For single targets we also have some nice Creatures and Pod+Brainstorm to find the stuff, which is one of the reasons most maindecks only run 1-2 Decays and 2 Deeds and a few other sideboard cards.

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Originally Posted by GtF

I tried out a list with the 3 veteran explorers yesterday at a small tournament and it seemed to work ok. I did have one game where my land got wasted and deathrite killed vs BUG but it's not even clear explorer would have helped in that situation. Any further experience testing with 3 explorers?

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I think that it is very hard to properly evaluate the 3/4 split between Deathrite Shaman and Veteran Explorer. I have played 4 Deathrite over about 20 matches now, and been happy with it. I want to draw Deathrite more often than I want Explorer. Deathrite is often the better turn 1 play, barring Cabal Therapy. The Delver decks have gotten a bit more evasive lately, making Veteran Explorer a little bit less effective of a moat.

@Useless

1. I have been impressed with Envelop over a wide range of match ups, and I am considering playing a third one. I do think that the 6 counterspells with my current suit of support for the anti combo plan is enough to have favourable post board games against combo.

2. It's okay. I find that Riptide Pilferer often works best in combination with other discard, making a 5th discard spell nice to have. I use it against combo and Miracles.

3. My boarding versus Sneak and Show is something like this:

In:
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
3 Riptide Pilferer
2 Envelop
4 Force of Will
1 Golgari Charm
1 Venser, Shaper Savant
1 Thoughtseize

Out:
2 Pernicious Deed
1 Recurring Nightmare
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Acidic Slime
1 Grave Titan
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Murderous Redcap
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Shriekmaw
1 Thragtusk
2 others, perhaps an explorer

The Pod chain generally stops at 4, and most of it is gone. Make sure to keep at least 2 three drops so that the chain isn't broken if you draw one three drop.

Most of the time, beating combo is a matter of slowing them down with counters and discard, and then locking them out of the game. The deck doesn't have a great clock. Therefore I think that Riptide Pilferer and Glen Elendra Archmage are crucial for beating Show and Tell and Storm. Many of my main deck creatures are also very good against different combo decks. Sower crushes Sneak and Show, Acidic Slime is fantastic against Omnitell, Phantasmal Image is great against Sneak and Show as well as Reanimator and Scavenging ooze is crucial for the Dredge and Reanimator match ups, as well as being good against Storm. Omnitell is the easiest of them to beat, it may be my best match up overall. I regularly win on the draw with 5 cards. Storm is the most difficult of them. I have never lost a tournament match against Sneak and Show, Reanimator, Omnitell or Dredge (about 20 matches in total).

4. Yes. I prefer Sower main, but I guess that Venser is fine too. Having three four drops main is important. The Pod chain is far too fragile with less than three at any point on the curve except the end of it.

5. Kitchens Finks is the three drop I Pod for the most. It's excellent at stalling. But more importantly, it is a resilient 3 drop. A single Lightning Bolt won't stop you from podding to 4 the next turn. You can even Pod to 4 twice. Wood Elves is mediocre. I am trying out Fleshbag Maruader in its stead. Witness is good, but I prefer to save it until I need something specific. TNN seems very bad, as it doesn't offer anything to the game plan. By the time Grave Titan comes rumbling in, another 3/1 is irrelevant. More importantly, it doesn't offer any advantage when you are going through the Pod chain.

6. I would not play Sigarda in BUG. Having uncastable cards is not good, and you will lose many games to it. Margins are slim, and another dead draw is too costly. I also want all of my creatures to be good with Pod. Sigarda doesn't provide value when you Pod her away for Grave Titan. I want preferably want every step of the Pod chain to provide an immediate solution a wide range of problems. Thragtusk for a race, Shriekmaw to kill important threats and Acidic Slime to destroy any problematic permanent. Initially I thought that Acidic Slime was not good enough, but it is.

I have not tried Liliana. Abrupt Decay is a good, flexible answer. I would like another one main, but I think that all other cards in the deck are more important than the second Decay. I seldom want to draw more than 1 each game.

Hello Nic Fit players. I am a Merfolk player. Someone in my small local meta is going to be playing this (with pod, no blue). It looks like a nightmare match-up to me. Have you ever lost to Merfolk, and if so, how/why? I want to figure out how to sideboard against this. I am sure that TNN is going to be key here. How well do you deal with a T4 TNN that is equipped with a Jitte? So far, that is the best idea that I have. I'd really appreciate any help, I can splash if need be. Cheers

It is probably going to be a nightmare match up. TNN with Jitte can often be managed. I think that the most dangerous thing Merfolk can do, is the quickest possible kill with force back up for Pernicious Deed.

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Originally Posted by Svknoe

It is probably going to be a nightmare match up. TNN with Jitte can often be managed. I think that the most dangerous thing Merfolk can do, is the quickest possible kill with force back up for Pernicious Deed.

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I appreciate the brutal honesty! That changes how I was planning to sideboard.

They are going to be running G/B/W/R. What is the red for? And what gameplan/win condition do you think they'll aim for against me? I'm trying to picture how this will play out.