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The Tip Of The Spear: Birthing Pod In Standard

Bennie went 5-2 before having to drop at Richmond with his Pod deck. Combine the power of Glissa and Ratchet Bomb. With some elbow grease, this baby could shine!

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It’s interesting contemplating what a difference two rounds can make.

If you read my write-up last week, then you know I was planning on having the Power of Irony on my side when I showed up at the StarCityGames.com Open in Richmond last Saturday. I could play Magic until around 6 pm, but then I’d have to drop and go take Anna Marie to her girl scout Father-Daughter semi-formal dance, regardless of how well I was doing.

We had a great time, and I got some great pictures, including one of Anna Marie laughing that is one for the ages.

I started the day 2-0 and was indeed feeling that I had the Power. The deck was kicking ass and powering through my opposition despite my best efforts to throw away games. Then I lost the next two games and began to doubt the Power, but I remained confident because I didn’t think I could chalk those losses up to problems with my deck choice. I went on to win the next three matches before dropping.

I finished 5-2, 69th out of 300 despite not being able to play the last two rounds. If I’d been able to continue playing and won the next two matches, I’d have earned 21 points in the Swiss, which would have put me somewhere between 10th and 20th place and put my decklist high on the Top 32 decklists that get posted. I might have even earned a Deck Tech considering I might have been the only one running Birthing Pod in the room, or at least the only one that was also a Glissa/Ratchet Bomb deck. Who knows? Maybe some Pros might have picked up the decklist, tuned it, and won some serious cash at the Pro Tour in Hawaii this week?

Alas, this good deck remains under the radar to everyone except my opponents (each one of whom seemed surprised and impressed by the deck whether they beat me or lost) and you, my dedicated readers. You all know the secret: that this deck concept seriously kicks ass!

I went 5-2 despite zero playtesting and fielding what I realize now was a suboptimal decklist. The concept and strategy behind the deck design is a very powerful way to attack the metagame, and I expect to continue playing and refining the list in the coming weeks and months. For my reasons and logic behind wanting to utilize Glissa + Ratchet Bomb, and Birthing Pod + undying, please read my column from last week, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Ratchet Bomb… With Glissa. I go into great detail supporting my conclusions.

The list I posted last week is essentially the list I registered, with some last-minute tweaks I made based on conversations with friends and fellow Pod players. The biggest impact was buying into a line of play that sounded like a perfect complement to the aggressive capabilities of my Pod build.

Turn 1 Young Wolf, turn 2 Strangleroot Geist, turn 3 Glissa is very strong curve that not only does a great job of holding the ground until you can start using Birthing Pod, but it also lets you “go aggro” against slower decks. Outside of that start, I didn’t really have much in the way of “closing the deal” on that aggro start until someone mentioned to me the idea of playing Geralf’s Messenger.

Now, I wasn’t really enamored with Messenger in this deck because of the intense mana cost and the fact that he comes into play tapped and can’t block for a turn. But then it was pointed out to me that you can Pod Messenger into Phyrexian Metamorph, copying Messenger and draining your opponent for four more life. If you had a sac outlet and a Hex Parasite in play, you could also just keep draining life over and over and over. I could fit one into the deck, couldn’t I?

This seemed like a great way to finish off an aggressive start, so after settling on a searchable sac outlet—Grimgrin, Corpse-Born, one of my favorites—I was fairly excited about having that line of play available. Unfortunately in the seven matches I played, this line of play never really came up as something I wanted to do.

The second change was relatively minor—swapped in Massacre Wurm for the Grave Titan—but man it made a huge difference! Turns out that Podding up to Massacre Wurm is incredibly powerful in this metagame, and it won me several games on the spot with massive life loss or enabled me to reverse board dominance and win within a few turns. Massacre Wurm was definitely my MVP on the day and has definitely earned a spot at the six-mana slot.

I know I’ve gotten some resistance from people questioning the efficacy of Vorapede, who at first (and second) blush seems a little underwhelming in a world of Titans. Let me tell you, having trample and vigilance and undying is just a fantastic combination of abilities, and he caused problems for my opponent all day long. But that’s not even the best part! The best part is that he’s a resilient five-drop that you can Pod into Massacre Wurm.

Podding into Massacre Wurm is so important to your victories that you want to make sure your five sticks. Acidic Slime is a great option to have in Birthing Pod decks, but in a world full of Whipflares, Tragic Slips, Dismembers, Doom Blades, Galvanic Blasts, Go for the Throats, Arc Trails, and Black Sun Zeniths, expecting your 2/2 dude to stick around until you can Pod it away isn’t something you want to bank on. Barring something like Fiend Hunter or Vapor Snag, Vorapede is going to be there for you next turn and is more than happy to Titan-size himself to fetch up that Massacre Wurm.

Here’s what I played on Saturday:

Glissa Pod
Bennie Smith
Test deck on 02-12-2012
Standard
Magic Arena

Creatures (25)

Lands (24)

Spells (11)

Sideboard

Magic Card Back


My friend Josh needed our Swords of War and Peace, so I ended up playing a Beast Within in the maindeck and was very happy to have it.

Round 1 I played against U/W Humans and won in three games. I then played the new mono-green deck and won two straight. Off to a great start!

Round 3 I played against a midrange Jund deck featuring Liliana of the Veil, Garruk Relentless, a few Werewolves, and a ton of removal. We went to three games; the last game I had a great start and had him on the ropes but then drew blanks for too long, and he climbed back into control.

I made one decision that was questionable—I played Glissa but chose not to Pod her away because I had some artifact creatures and a Ratchet Bomb in the graveyard and removal spells in my hand. Glissa could finish the game in a couple swings, and if he played a creature, I could kill it, get back artifact creatures, and start Podding. He’d already played a bunch of removal spells to clear out my early undying offense, and with just two cards in hand, I gambled he had run out of removal (or maybe had a Doom Blade or two). Unfortunately, he had Go for the Throat and killed Glissa, leaving me with nothing but Birthing Pod and a hand with two Tragic Slips. In my mind, I was trying to figure out drawing some way to enable morbid so each Slip could take out something.

I then flat out made a terrible mistake; he played a Daybreak Ranger and played another creature. I was still drawing dead, so I played a Slip on the Ranger to keep it from flipping, holding the other one for next turn if I drew dead again, which I did…but then it was pointed out I could have just double Slipped the Ranger and just gone ahead and killed it. I was on tilt a little bit from going so long without drawing creatures, but that was just a really stupid mistake. If I’d played smart, it would have bought me at least one more turn to draw something. I can definitely chalk that up to having some serious Magic-playing rust.

Round 4 I played against Tempered Steel, and it was a 0-2 blowout. The first game I had to mulligan and kept what I thought was a decent hand but was just cold to the Tempered aggro draw. Game 2 I had to double mulligan, kept a hand with three lands, Ratchet Bomb, Glissa—pretty much the best five I could ask for—but he had the absolute insane nuts draw. I played turn 2 Ratchet Bomb and destroyed two of his artifacts, but he still killed me on his fourth turn even though I had Glissa in play. He seemed very relieved to have won the match and asked about my deck. When I told him about the maindeck Ratchet Bombs and my undying dudes, he said that he felt like he had to get lucky to win the match against me. I concur, though in retrospect (given Tempered Steel won the tournament), I probably should have considered the matchup a bit better in the sideboard.

I was a little down about dropping to 2-2 after such a great start, but I went on to win the next three matches. Round 5 was against Esper Control, where my “aggro draw” managed to apply enough early pressure so that Massacre Wurm (once when he had seven White Sun’s Zenith Cat tokens in play) could finish each game.

Round 6 was another U/W Humans deck that my deck is set up pretty well to handle. He seemed a bit miffed that I boarded in Witch/Curse, which he said is ineffective against him considering all the anthems he has, but I pointed out that I have infinite Sylvok Replicas to get rid of the anthems.

Round 7 was a hard-fought battle against U/W Delver, we went to three games, and each was a nail-biter, but I managed to pull it out. If for nothing else, this matchup makes me extremely glad Young Wolf/Geist/Glissa lets me either go aggro or go defensive depending on Delver’s draw. I’m pretty sure old-style Pod decks with Birds are just dead to Delver. Having Phyrexian Metamorph against Geist of Saint Traft is huge.

After playing the deck seven rounds and thinking about it all weekend, I’ve come to some conclusions. First, I’m not sure the blue splash is worth it. A couple times I got Phantasmal Image and Trinket Mage stranded in my hand. Now, in old-style Pod decks it would pretty easy to fix this, but in order to have Young Wolf/Geist/Glissa as an available early line of play, I don’t think you can also get away with the light splash of blue. Phyrexian Metamorph doesn’t need the blue mana, so going forward I’m just going straight green/black.

This leaves Hex Parasite in a bit of an awkward spot. I was almost always glad to see Hex Parasite Saturday; he did some great work munching on planeswalkers and even chewed on a few charge counters from Sphere of the Suns. It was nice to Pod him into Strangleroot Geist and get it back with Glissa.

But having just one copy with no real way to fetch him up seems questionable. However, against decks with planeswalkers I’m probably going to board 1-2 more Hex Parasites, so having that one in the main as a pre-board doesn’t seem like a bad idea.

Geralf’s Messenger was decent but still felt clunky given my mana, and I boarded him out a lot of the time—although one time I’d boarded him out and wished I hadn’t, gotten my opponent to two life with a Pod and a two-drop in play and was sad I couldn’t Messenger him to death on the spot. I love Grimgrin, but I never once Podded for him, so I don’t think he belongs in the deck, and I’m not sure I want Messenger either.

In fact, for the three-mana slot, almost every time I wanted to Pod into Glissa or Replica, and if I want to continue up the chain, I’m perfectly content to Pod away Replica, since I get value from having it in the graveyard to recur with Glissa. For now, Messenger is probably going to get bumped to the sideboard for matches where Replica might not be too necessary, but given how many anthems and Oblivion Rings are getting played, Replica has been fantastic.

Mirran Crusader is a huge problem for the deck, obviously (even more so without the few blue creatures). Masticore, Wurmcoil Engine, and Massacre Wurm certainly helped, and one game I used my clones to clone Crusaders and hold them off, but I want more answers so I’m adding Perilous Myr and an extra Metamorph to the mix.

I also realized that I’m really vulnerable to fliers, and after thinking a bit, I remembered Bloodline Keeper, an excellent way to hold the skies! I can even go aggro with it, copy with Metamorph to quickly ramp the Vampire count and flip the original Keeper.

I was so impressed with the one random maindeck Beast Within as flexible removal that can also synergize with Tragic Slip, Glissa, and Ratchet Bomb that I want to add another to the maindeck.

Lastly, I noticed a couple times I wish I could have Podded into a two-drop that could get me mana, so I’ve added a Viridian Emissary to the mix.

Here’s what I would probably play tomorrow:

Glissa Pod
Bennie Smith
Test deck on 02-12-2012
Standard
Magic Arena

Creatures (24)

Lands (24)

Spells (12)

Sideboard

Magic Card Back


As in any Birthing Pod deck, there are so many great value creatures I’d love to have available in the maindeck and sideboard. It pains me to have cut Spellskite from the mix, but with Wolf Run on the decline, his value has dropped considerably. I have agonized over each card in this list and feel pretty confident in my choices here, but playtesting and shifts in the metagame are likely to keep the list in flux.

I do know however that undying creatures have really powered up the Birthing Pod strategy, but the metagame requires outside-the-box thinking when building the deck. I’m convinced that right now, conventional Birthing Pod lists with Birds of Paradise and just a couple Strangleroot Geists are not going to put up good results, and I think a lot of people are dismissing the archetype too soon. By the time this article goes up, we’ll see if any of the Pros have caught on!

I’ve got a couple more Birthing Pod/undying lists I’ve been working on that are still pretty raw, so I’ll talk about them more later on. For now I’ll just tease you—one is B/U Heartless Summoning/Mikaeus, the undying list with three Birthing Pods, and the other is an aggro G/W undying/Puresteel Paladin deck with Birthing Pod ramping up to Sun Titan and Elesh Norn.

That’s it for this week!

Take care,

Bennie

starcitygeezer AT gmail DOT com

I’m still looking for a roommate, so if you know anyone looking for a place to live in the Richmond, Virginia area please get in touch!

Make sure to follow my Twitter feed (@blairwitchgreen). I check it often so feel free to send me feedback, ideas, and random thoughts. I’ve also created a Facebook page where I’ll be posting up deck ideas and will happily discuss Magic, life, or anything else you want to talk about!

I’ve started a blog, it’s not Magic-related but you may find it fun to read and comment on. I update at least once a week so check on it often and let me know what you think!

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