The Aftermath of Pro Tour Born of the Gods

If you read my previous post located here, you know that I am currently on Kiki-Pod for Modern. The Pro Tour has happened and I feel like the deck was well positioned. Despite showing up in much smaller numbers than Melira Pod, Kiki-Pod had a higher percentage of its pilots make it to day two. Here was the final list I settled on before the Pro Tour started.

Kiki-Pod v3
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 Fauna Shaman 1x Phantasmal Image 1x Qasali Pridemage 1x Scavenging Ooze 1x Spellskite 1x Tarmogoyf 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 Ethersworn Canonist 1x Aven Mindcensor 1x Fulminator Mage 1x Harmonic Sliver 1x Izzet Staticaster 1x Avalanche Riders 1x Huntermaster of the Fells 1x Thragtusk

In the end I decided I did want access to Tarmogoyf in the main deck. Even though my prediction of Jund being a non-factor came through and combo decks were all over the top tables, Tarmogoyf does such a good job slowing down Zoo. The matchup is winnable without, but you gain a bunch of percentage points by being able to search up the big body. I wish it provided a better clock but this is not the deck to grow everyone's favorite Lhurgoyf.

The more I thought about it the more I realized that Sigarda, Host of Herons is fine but Thragtusk is better right now and I wanted a good 4 drop to Pod into for value (against fair decks I pretty much play a midrange game and only combo when they are tapped out or if I have to). Enter Huntmaster. The life gain is nice but being able to find with Birthing Pod, then flip it that turn (you don't technically don't cast cards you find with Birthing Pod) is a big game. The minute you flip this card twice you have gained a ton of value, life, and have a quick clock on the table. Due to Huntmaster of the Fells and Thragtusk coming in, I find myself keeping in both Restoration Angels after board a lot more.

So my interests have shifted towards tuning in at post Pro Tour world now that everyone is going to start adjusting for a new metagame. Even though I will not be able to attend Grand Prix Richmond, I could be attending another Modern Grand Prix closer to summer.

While the deck can go off pretty quickly and has a lot of ways to interact, the matchup with unfair decks can be improved. Without having access to Thoughtseize, there is a limit to how much combo hate we can really have and a limit to how good it actually is. So instead, I wanna be faster. Time to bring back an old friend.

This is not my first time playing with Lotus Cobra, in fact, I've run it in past versions of this deck. It lost its place however when every UR deck was running 4 copies of Electrolyze. Lately however, they have been cutting down to about 1-2 copies since the card does nothing against Zoo. Adding it back to the deck can allow us to combo as early as turn 3.

One thing that does happen with Lotus Cobra is that you happen to dump your hand on the table extremely quickly. All of a sudden, we need more mana sinks. Time to take another page from the ghost of Kiki-Pod's past.

This card is a lot better in Melira Pod since their combo pieces cost 1, 2, and 3 mana but it has to utility in the Kiki-Jiki version of the deck as well. The biggest thing this card can do is allow you a slow but effective kill over 3 turns once you can Chord for x=3. Simply Chord for Eternal Witness, returning Chord of Calling, then next turn Chord for Restoration Angel, blinking Eternal Witness, returning Chord of Calling, then Chord for Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and win. The card gets a lot better when we can very easily put all our creatures in play by turn 3 or 4 and provides us instant speed interaction with the unfair decks of the format.

With this kind of massive overhaul some stuff has to get cut. I have worked out the current list.

Kiki-Pod v4
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 2x Lotus Cobra 1x Phantasmal Image 1x Qasali Pridemage 1x Scavenging Ooze 1x Spellskite 2x Voice of Resurgence 2x Deceiver Exarch 1x Eternal Witness 1x Fiend Hunter 1x Izzet Staticaster 3x Kitchen Finks 1x Glen Elendra Archmage 1x Linvala, Keeper of Silence 2x Restoration Angel 2x Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker 1x Zealous Conscripts	4x Birthing Pod 2x Chord of Calling	3x Path to Exile 1x Ancient Grudge 2x Negate 1x Bant Charm 1x Ethersworn Canonist 1x Spellskite 1x Tarmogoyf 1x Fulminator Mage 1x Harmonic Sliver 1x Huntmaster of the Fells 1x Murderous Redcap 1x Thragtusk

Domri Rade, Wall of Roots, Fauna Shaman, Murderous Redcap, Tarmogoyf
Domri Rade is still an amazing Magic card but just isn't as well positioned as it could be. Zoo can attack it and combo decks don't care about it. So the only matchup you actually want it for is UWR control and I would rather have another Voice of Resurgence for that matchup if I wanted anything more. That matchup is already pretty strong. Wall of Roots has its role taken by Lotus Cobra, I don't want to draw too many hands that produce a ton of mana with nothing to do with it. Fauna Shaman playing the role of Birthing Pod number 5 is also no longer necessary since we are bringing in Chord of Calling. The hardest cut to the main deck was Murderous Redcap but with 3 toughness being such a key number, Kitchen Finks is probably just better. I still have one in the board and it will see plenty of action from the sideboard. Tarmogoyf meets the same fate as Murderous Redcap but simply because it is the worst card left in the deck and I wanted access to the second Chord of Calling. It is a fantastic blocker against other Tarmogoyf decks but still doesn't do anything otherwise. This is easily the card I'm the most back and forth on because of all the times I draw a 1/2 (this deck is awful at growing a 'goyf) and my opponent doesn't even care.

The sideboard also had a couple more changes including the addition of a second Spellskite. It helps a really difficult Splinter Twin matchup and is the only card that matters in the entire 75 against the Boogles/Auras/Hexproof deck. It also has the important skill of being a 2 drop that does something against unfair decks (where do something is as simple as protecting a Birthing Pod). I found that I was sideboarding out a ton of 2 drops against unfair decks but then would draw a Birthing Pod and need two turns in order to get to my 3 and 4 drops that provide the high impact plays that swing a game.

I also cut Avalanche Riders, Aven Mindcensor, and the second Izzet Staticaster from the board. Avalanche Riders got the cut since I only needed the second land destruction creature against Tron and Tron isn't getting much play since its primary prey was Jund. Aven Mindcensor makes a lot of sense against Scapeshift still but that isn't a huge part of the field. Against other Birthing Pod players I either wanted Staticaster to kill mana guys, Harmonic Sliver to just kill the Birthing Pod itself, or Deceiver Exarch into Linvala, Keeper of Silence. I think it is a better hate card as a 2-3 of in the sideboard of non-Birthing Pod decks. The second Izzet Staticaster only came in against Robots and Infect. I also very rarely had to Birthing Pod up a second one when I have Phantasmal Image, Deceiver Exarch, Restoration Angel, Zealous Conscripts and Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker to do the exact same thing. With 2 copies in the deck you may be able to take down a Wild Nacatl or something with a lot of work but with that many Birthing Pod activations you are probably winning anyways.

As much as I love Modern I'm going to shift gears to a little bit of Standard. I had been running a Prophet Bant deck that used Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx to do silly things with Sphinx's Revelation and Polukranos, World Eater and I will probably keep working on the deck since they are few things as satisfying as a casting a Sphinx's Revelation for 15 and untapping at 37 life and 18 cards in hand with all the mana in the world to cast spells.

Then they printed this...

I saw thing and had a home for it immediately. I think this card is what can finally make the BWR decks tier 1. I had been playing a list like that for quite some time before Born of the Gods came out and was able to have some success with the deck. The biggest problem with the deck is that it couldn't stabilize the board before turn 4 with Desecration Demon but sometimes that was not enough. I will admit that Brimaz makes the bad mana worse but enough spike in power level could make it worth it.

Here's a list to start with.

BWR Control
Lands	Creatures	Non-Creatures	Sideboard
4x Blood Crypt 4x Godless Shrine 2x Mountain 4x Sacred Foundry 1x Swamp 2x Temple of Malice 4x Temple of Silence 4x Temple of Triumph	3x Brimaz, King of Oreskos 4x Desecration Demon 3x Blood Baron of Vizkopa 1x Stormbreath Dragon	4x Chained to the Rocks 4x Thoughtseize 2x Devour Flesh 1x Dreadbore 2x Mizzium Mortars 3x Anger of the Gods 2x Hero's Downfall 3x Read the Bones 1x Elspeth, Sun's Champion 2x Rakdos's Return	2x Duress 1x Wear // Tear 2x Last Breath 1x Revoke Existence 1x Anger of the Gods 2x Underworld Connections 1x Assemble the Legion 1x Rakdos's Return 2x Lifebane Zombie 2x Sin Collector

The hardest thing about playing this color combination is the amount of different cards you can run in it. This is where I want to begin though. A few other cards you may want to consider Chandra, Pyromaster, more Assemble the Legion, Whip of Erebos, Erebos, God of the Dead, and Warleader's Helix. The removal suite is also subject to change with your expected Metagame.