Deck building is great. It’s the thing that keeps m
e coming back to M:tG. As such my favourite types of deck are those where the deck-building aspect has the most impact. Those deck types that require you to specifically build around an alternative strategy or techy card. The last article I wrote was on those lovable Warp World decks I used to tinker with (LOVABLE!); a deck that requires inch perfect design in curve, mana and card-type ratio to get the most out of the eponymous 8 mana sorcery. The card that has currently seized my imagination in a similar fashion is Birthing Pod.
I’ve been tinkering with the ‘Survival of the Fittest’ clone since the lead up to nationals this year. At the time I was hooked on a ‘rock’ GB version that focused on removal creatures to generate incremental advantage. The mana was horrible though (only one fetchland) and I eventually figured out that RUG Splinter Twin/Pod was the best version of the deck. After getting cold feet the night before nats I decided to run a UW control list instead. Needless to say Aaron Nichol went on to went the whole thing with a highly tuned version of the aforementioned RUG deck and the rest is history.
Right now I am one of a few who trumpet the deck type in a format that is allegedly unfriendly to the strategy. This is just not true. The deck has so many options-so many ways to fight specific problems-that I would put money on any well-prepared pod player to win a standard event right now. Consider my current Bant Pod build:
MAIN
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Avacyn’s Pilgrim
4 Ponder
3 Viridian Emissary
1 Phantasmal Image
1 Azure Mage
3 Blade Splicer
1 Skaab Ruinator
3 Oblivion Ring
4 Birthing Pod
2 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Wing Splicer
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
2 Acidic Slime
2 Venser, Shaper Savant
1 Consecrated Sphinx
1 Sun Titan
1 Elesh Norn
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Razorverge Thicket
4 Hinterland Harbour
1 Glacial Fortress
5 Forest
2 Island
1 Plains
2 Buried Ruin
SIDEBOARD
3 Mana Leak
2 Flashfreeze
1 Master Thief
1 Viridian Corrupter
1 Sylvok Replica
2 Stonehorn Dignitary
1 Razor Hippogriff
1 Peace Strider
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Moltentail Masticore
1 Spellskite
Every card has been painstakingly selected to synergize with the Birthing Pod plan. The ‘Pod chain’ is designed to provide toolbox utility and enters-the-battlefield card advantage. Any change to the main deck results in a sometimes vastly different experience. I love this stuff! On to some issues:
Mana
Bant is the best three-colour choice for no other substantial reason than its reliable mana base that includes blue. Assuming you are playing three colours, green is a given due to the importance of Birds of Paradise. BOP needs to come down on turn 1 so we need green Scars Duals. Razorverge Thicket and Copperline Gorge suggest that Naya (WRG) is the best option but I believe that blue offers enough value over red that bant becomes superior. The relevance of blue leads to the next issue:
Reliability
Many people wrote off Pod with the rotation of fetch lands, Wall of Omens and Sea Gate Oracle. These cards combined with Ponder and Preordain to make Pod a formidably consistent deck. It is true that our card drawing and selection options have been nerfed but it surprised me to see Pod lists omitting the sole survivor from rotation, ponder. The loss of fetchlands reduced its effectiveness but ponder is still an indispensable card in a deck that essentially relies on one artifact to kick ass and chew bubblegum. In terms of raw reliability, though, the deck relies on two robust men to get the job done. Viridian Emissary and Blade Splicer provide a consistent curve of resilient beaters that can put pressure on control and stop aggressive decks cold. It is essentially these two creatures and ponder that define the bant strategy. (Venser is a powerful sub-theme that expands on the enters-the-battlefield strategy.)
Silver Bullets
I think an easy mistake to make is to shove a long list of ‘perfect answers’ into this type of deck and then hope to beat all comers. You actually need to focus on your own end-game plan first and then sprinkle in one or two dudes you think might get you out of a tough spot in the metagame. My plan is Emissary-Splicer-Simulacrum-Slime-Sun Titan-Elesh. You’ll notice that the respective card counts reflect this plan. Even my one-ofs tend to accentuate Plan A. (Ruinator and Wing Splicer continue the beats from the air.) The true potential of Pod’s pinpoint hate lies in the sideboard. Just briefly in my list I have:
RDW: Strider-Hippogriff-Wurmcoil
Control: counterspells-Hippogriff-Masticore
Tokens: Dignitary
Artifacts: Corrupter-Thief-Replica
Wolf Run: Spellskite-dignitary-counterspells
I recommend this deck to anyone who likes to spend time tuning a decklist. Most of the current options don’t allow for much creativity as the most refined decklists tend to be discovered quite quickly thanks to the StarCityGames events. Birthing Pod allows you to endlessly tinker and change a list that best suits your style or expected metagame. Get brewing! (and trade me your foil Birthing Pods!)
