I knew a long time ago exactly which decklist I would be on for the Pro Tour (provided an essential piece wasn't banned) if I had been able to qualify. Maybe not the exact numbers, but I knew for a fact I was playing Kiki-Pod. I have been playing the deck for nearly a year now and I haven't considered playing anything else. Modern is a format where knowing your deck and knowing the matchups is incredibly important. Players who have been playing Birthing Pod decks tend to try to preform better.
The other reason I didn't consider any other deck is because Kiki-Pod is an incredible deck. For those that are in experienced with the deck I will do my best to give a quick primer. The deck is designed to assemble the combo of Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and either Zealous Conscripts, Restoration Angel, or Deceiver Exarch. It does this with Birthing Pod, and it does so with incredible speed and consistency. Here are some example of ways you can "go off" with a Pod in play.
1-Drop and 2-Drop
Sacrifice 2-Drop, find Deceiver Exarch, uptap Birthing Pod; sacrifice 1-Drop, find Phantasmal Image, copy Deceiver Exarch, untap Birthing Pod; sacrifice Phantasmal Image (which is a 3-drop now), find Restoration Angel, blink Deceiver Exarch, untap Birthing Pod, sacrifice Restoration Angel, find Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker.
4-Drop with Persist
Sacrifice 4-Drop, find Zealous Conscripts, untap Birthing Pod; sacrifice persisted 4-Drop, find Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker.
Kitchen Finks (2 turns)
Sacrifice Kitchen Finks, find Restoration Angel, blink Kitchen Finks. Following turn, sacrifice Restoration Angel, find Zealous Conscripts, untap Birthing Pod, sacrifice Kitchen Finks, find Restoration Angel, blink Zealous Conscripts, untap Birthing Pod, sacrifice Restoration Angel, find Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker.
There are plenty more but all the other lines are either shorter or sometimes more complicated versions of those. Knowing when you can "go off" becomes really easy to see. Sometimes you won't go for it because you want to dodge removal. Sometimes you simply cannot go off and are better off trying to advance your board state. Once you have a Pod in play, if you cannot win on the spot, try to do whatever you can to delay the game (though try to think through lines in advance so you do not lose a creature that you need alive in order to "go off"). Luckily the deck has so many cards that many decks are just cold to.
On to the list I am currently on.
| Kiki-Pod | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Lands | Creatures | Non-Creatures | Sideboard |
| 4x Arid Mesa 1x Breeding Pool 1x Forest 2x Gavony Township 3x Grove of the Burnwillows 1x Hallowed Fountain 4x Misty Rainforest 1x Mountain 1x Plains 1x Rugged Prairie 1x Sacred Foundry 1x Steam Vents 1x Stomping Ground 1x Temple Garden |
4x Birds of Paradise 4x Noble Hierarch 1x Ethersworn Canonist 1x Fauna Shaman 1x Phantasmal Image 1x Qasali Pridemage 1x Scavenging Ooze 1x Spellskite 2x Voice of Resurgence 1x Wall of Roots 2x Deceiver Exarch 1x Eternal Witness 1x Fiend Hunter 1x Izzet Staticaster 2x Kitchen Finks 1x Glen Elendra Archmage 1x Linvala, Keeper of Silence 1x Murderous Redcap 2x Restoration Angel 2x Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker 1x Zealous Conscripts |
4x Birthing Pod 1x Domri Rade |
3x Path to Exile 1x Ancient Grudge 2x Negate 1x Bant Charm 1x Voice of Resurgence 1x Aven Mindcensor 1x Fulminator Mage 1x Harmonic Sliver 1x Izzet Staticaster 1x Avalanche Riders 1x Sigarda, Host of Herons 1x Thragtusk |
I don't believe in stock lists for a deck like this but they are an excellent place to start if anyone wants to pick up the deck. The deck needs to be suited to its pilot's needs and the metagame. If you know you struggle against control and you expect to see it in the field, then you may want to run more copies of Voice of Resurgence. I am not going to talk about every card since that would take forever with a deck that has so many singleton tutor targets. I am mostly going to talk about things that are different from the average Kiki-Pod list.
At the 2-drop, I am not running Tarmogoyf anywhere in the 75. Though that could change at the Pro Tour since they are mostly in there for the B/G/x matchup (which I feel like a huge favorite in even if I don't draw Birthing Pod) and that matchup just got a lot better with the banning of Deathrite Shaman. I include Ethersworn Canonist in the main deck since I believe combo is going to make a rise at this Pro Tour. It doesn't do much in a lot of matchups but the matchups that it matters in, it is back breaking. The matchups it happens to be good in are also nearly unwinnable without a quick combo kill.
Moving on to the 3-drops, I have a lot of random utility creatures between the main deck and sideboard. I am running 1 less Kitchen Finks than most lists but that is simply because I needed to make room for Eternal Witness and Finks are usually one of the first things cut during sideboarding (unless life gain matters in the matchup). I mainly wanted to make this switch so that I could rebuy Qasali Pridemages and Fulminator Mages when I really need them.
My 4-drops are pretty stock. Maybe one less Restoration Angel than most lists, mostly just to keep the curve down. I run both the 4-drop persist creatures, Murderous Redcap and Glen Elendra Archmage. I find that in most matchups you want a particular one of those two and many times you want to pod directly into a 4-drop with persist because that sets up a combo kill next turn (barring you don't draw a combo piece).
At five mana, I do have only two Kiki-Jiki's in the deck and frequently side out one of them during sideboarding. I really don't want to draw the card. It is hard to cast, costs five mana and needs another creature in play to be anything other than a 2/2 haste creature for 5..... This is Modern, that is nowhere near good enough. I know there are plenty of times that I have played a Kiki-Jiki with a Voice or Thragtusk in play and took a trip straight to value town but more often than not it either sits in my hand or forces me to pay a ton of life to get the lands necessary to play the card. If Noble Hierarch tapped for red I would probably run three copies. The only reason I run a second copy simply to avoid not being able to find one with Birthing Pod.
I have upped the fetch lands in the deck but I am guessing that will be a trend for all non-Deathrite Shaman decks since now you don't have to worry about powering up opposing Deathrites. Instead you have to worry about powering up opposing Knight of the Reliquary's. This deck doesn't really care that much about Knight of the Reliquary, simply since it is just a giant dude. By the time it is big enough to be really a threat, we have plenty of dorks that have been sitting around doing nothing. If we have a Pod then we can find Scavenging Ooze or Fiend Hunter to deal with it for a moment.
The sideboard is really split into two halves. The creatures and the non-creatures. The non-creature spells are spells that are meant for more general match ups. These cards are extremely versatile and you will always end up grabbing a few since between Negate and Path to Exile, one of them is live. Ancient Grudge is just insane in the matchups that you want it in. Bant Charm is an overcosted and worse version of each of the other 3 but being able to do any of them is incredibly powerful.
This is one area in which the deck shines. Thanks to Birthing Pod, playing single copies of these cards is enough. Thus it gives you a lot more sideboard slots. We have the traditional "deal with this permanent" cards in Izzet Staticaster, Harmonic Sliver, Fulminator Mage, and Avalanche Riders. There are your go to cards against fair decks, Voice of Resurgence, Thragtusk, and Sigarda, Host of Herons. Then there is Aven Mindcensor which doesn't really fit in either of those categories and is strictly a hate-card.
I have been bouncing around some ideas for the deck. Right now my biggest one is fixing my sideboard numbers based on CMC (Converted Mana Cost). In other words, I don't know if I like have two 5-drops in the sideboard especially since I want them both for a lot of matchups. It might be better if Thragtusk was Huntmaster of the Fells. If can function a similar role. Provides a 2 for 1 with some life gain. It is also easier to get to 4 mana than any other CMC with a Birthing Pod simply because Deceiver Exarch can let you go again. The thing is though, very few cards stabilize you like a Thragtusk. The combination of the life gain and the resilient body make it very tough to profitably attack into. I will probably test Huntmaster the next time I play. It also seems like Murderous Recap can fill a very similar role (minus the life gain) but doesn't die to Pyroclasm.
Another major change I have considered is actually going up to 81 cards. I say 81 because it can give me nice math to covert the old deck from. The reason for this is because one of the weaknesses of the deck is drawing your silver bullet cards in the wrong matches. By increasing the number of cards in the deck, you can slightly increase the amount of tutor targets but more importantly, draw them less often. You will start drawing your multiples more often if you don't add too many more tutor targets. In order to this though, I think you need to run Chord of Calling so that you still have ways to find the combo pieces since you will now draw fewer Birthing Pods.
Originally, most Kiki-Pod lists ran Chord of Calling. However, it is kinda lackluster in the deck. The problem is that for Chord to be good, it means your opponent isn't killing your creatures and doesn't have a counter spell. If that is the case then you are probably ahead. It is still a powerful card though and one the deck would probably need if it moved up to 81 cards. It could be one of the reasons to just stick to 60. I worked out a list that I want to try out.
This might just be bad but it is worth testing. How will I know it is bad without putting it through its paces? If anyone gets a chance to try out any version of the deck and has some feedback, feel free to post it in the comments section.
Until next time.
That's what I like to see. Magic everywhere. I posses the Brimaz, King of Ozreskos.
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