Been on Tilt Lately

Well, lately I’ve been on Magic tilt. I have only been doing so-so at the release events on MTGO, which is generally when I build up most of my set.  Luckily I’ve been able to chain events after an initial input of $120 (including the wife’s tournaments).

I have yet to finish building and running my Birthing Pod deck because I’ve simply been distracted with Modern (playing Birthing Pod there, too) and the Release Events.  Tonight I plan on finishing the deck on MTGO and to start entering events tomorrow or the next day.  Look for some upcoming reports as I’ll be doing not only Modern / Sealed Dailies but Standard now as well.

I will certainly try to be more consistent with my posting, even though school has started back up and it’s going to take quite a toll on my time.  Thanks for sticking with me everyone!

My New Dark Ascension Take on Standard Birthing Pod

With the release of Dark Ascension, the Undying mechanic has caught my eye as a great way to abuse Birthing Pod (much like it is abused in Modern with the Persist mechanic).

Here’s my preliminary decklist:

3 Evolving Wilds
6 Forest
1 Gavony Township
1 Isolated Chapel
1 Plains
4 Razorverge Thicket
2 Swamp
1 Vault of the Archangel
4 Woodland Cemetery

3 Avacyn’s Pilgrim
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Llanowar Elves
1 Reassembling Skeleton
4 Strangleroot Geist
1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Fiend Hunter
1 Geralf’s Messenger
1 Glissa, the Traitor
1 Sylvok Replica
1 Entomber Exarch
1 Molten-Tail Masticore
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Skinrender
1 Stonehorn Dignitary
1 Acidic Slime
1 Vorapede
1 Massacre Wurm
1 Sun Titan
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite

3 Green Sun’s Zenith
1 Ratchet Bomb
4 Birthing Pod

Sideboard:
3 Dismember
1 Gnaw to the Bone
1 Tree of Redemption
1 Sunblast Angel
1 Leonin Relic-Warder
2 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Ratchet Bomb
2 Viridian Corrupter
1 Suture Priest
1 Silverchase Fox
1 Inquisitor Exarch

So I built this deck strictly from the list of available cards, not accounting for any matchups. While it would probably not be correct to sleeve up this deck and run with it, we can use it as a basis for discussion of the archetype.

So now let’s break this deck down by Pod target casting cost.

Avacyn’s Pilgrim, Birds of Paradise, Llanowar Elves:
The one-drops are purely for mana acceleration to get to your Pod-chain faster.

Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Reassembling Skeleton, Strangleroot Geist:
The two drops are mostly just Pod-fodder to help get you up the chain, but Thalia has the added benefit of potentially postponing some board sweepers (Black Sun’s Zenith, Day of Judgment). And Reassembling Skeleton (can easily be cut, I imagine) is sometimes good against various types of decks that attack on the ground.

Fiend Hunter, Geralf’s Messenger, Glissa the Traitor, Sylvok Replica:
The three drops are where we start to get tricky. You’ve got Fiend Hunter to take care of opposing creature threats, Messenger to help ding the opponent and lean on the beatdown plan a bit more if you need to be aggressive, Glissa combos with artifacts, obviously, and the Replica takes out opposing Swords of War and Peace or Feast and Famine, which are a pain.

Exarch, Molten-Tail Masticore, Phyrexian Metamorph, Skinrender, Stonehorn Dignitary:
Now we get into the upper-echelon of Pod targets! Entomber Exarch will almost always return a creature from the graveyard, but don’t discount the Duress feature if you need to get a bigger creature through countermagic! Masticore is just all-around good, and it can block and kill a Titan for 6 mana! That’s pretty tough to beat for a 4-drop. The Metamorph is good in all kinds of situations (especially Legendary ones), allowing you to copy the best creature on the field or an opposing Equipment. Skinrender is just there for removal, not sure if he’ll make the cut (he does kill Huntmaster, though). Stonehorn is obviously for creature decks.

Acidic Slime, Vorapede:
The 5-drops are quite uneventful, but Acidic Slime is all-around good and Vorapede is large and hard to remove. *shrug*

Massacre Wurm, Sun Titan:
Ahhh, 6-drops. Now we’re getting to the heavy-hitters. Massacre Wurm can turn entire games around on his own, and Sun Titan allows for some pretty silly recursion effects.

At this point I’m thinking that the deck might be better off as U/W/G, but I like the removal-esque attitude that black brings. The real debate about Standard Pod decks is what the 3rd color should be, but more about that next time as I dive into Pod to explore its viability and options!