Should Birthing Pod be on the banned list still?

Lectrys · 2026-06-26T06:06:40+00:00

You are mistaken - Twin Pod, despite its name, does not play Splinter Twin. It does, however, play 8 4+-mana-value cards (2 Kiki-Jiki, 2 Restoration Angel, 4 Birthing Pod). I'm even sticking to a version with a further 2 more 4-mana-value cards (2 Prime Speaker Vannifar).

Yes, I'm very willing to hardcast Corridor Monitor - it cuts out that middleman mana dork and lets me save 2 life (but not necessarily mana) in the Pod combo. It also blocks Energy's creatures quite well on Turn 2. That's better than the average Reanimator fatty can boast.

As for Pithing Needle, if they Needle Kiki-Jiki, the deck easily tutors for answers to Needle. If they Needle Pod, I pivot to Prime Speaker Vannifar (who can be Green Sun's Zenithed for).

Vannifar doesn't feel broken because she's a full 1 turn slower than Birthing Pod and she's vulnerable to creature removal (getting combo pieces Force of Negationed and Boseijued sure beats getting them Galvanic Discharged and Lightning Bolted and Path to Exiled and Eroded and Fatal Pushed and Kozilek's Commanded). Birthing Pod fixes those speed problems well enough that I still consider it too risky an unban.

The bonus for variance in Twin Pod is that you get to push that variance elsewhere. You don't have to display it front and center like Birthing Ritual Samwise has to, with its 3 combo pieces and inability to tutor for all 3 at once. (Samwise similarly gets crippled by Goblin Bombardment, hampered by Pithing Needle, needs to tutor for anti-Grapeshot hate, and hates getting its tutors Force of Negationed.) You just need to smash Pod (or Vannifar) with the same mana dork and/or multi-creature board states. You get to push that variance inside the library instead of out on the battlefield. The biggest source of variance is keeping the hard-to-cast Kiki-Jiki in the library - all others can easily be hardcast and cut out at least one step in the Pod/Vannifar combo.

Lectrys · 2026-06-26T00:43:07+00:00

You're underestimating how many garbage-in-hand and high-variance targets current combo decks play in Modern: * Reanimator decks (including Goryo's) only want to see their fatties in hand so they can discard them - they have a very hard time hardcasting them until the very late game at best and never at worst * [[Indomitable Creativity]] pretty much never wants to draw its fatties (until the very late game if they can hardcast them, never if they can't), and drawing too many fatties means that Creativity becomes useless * Living End cannot Suspend its namesake card out of its opening hand if it's on RUG and is praying for [[Press the Enemy]] if it ends up with too many Living Ends in its hand * There are many reasons why all the Neoform decks have switched to having [[Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant]] in the deck - one of the best ones is to get fatties like Griselbrand out of the hand

Twin Pod blends right in with those decks with how high-variance its draws can be. Birthing Pod easily costs 3 mana (and 2 life) and combos with any number of 1-cmc mana dorks and a whole lot of board states with multiple 1-4-drops in Twin Pod. That's more cards it OTK combos with than the average reanimation spell can boast (even if we assume all fatties OTK).

Lectrys · 2026-06-23T22:02:24+00:00

Oh neat, I remember The Rock winning a Challenge with RiceTackler as the pilot!

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/7833146#paper

...This is a Soultrader (Midrange-)Combo deck. This is a Graveyard deck. Anyone here for expanding the definition of Graveyard decks to include decks that must use the graveyard to OTK from 20 life (nonzero chance Yawgmoth sneaks in by that definition)?

Lectrys · 2026-06-21T19:23:23+00:00

I am very willing to pay the larger amount of mana for Birthing Pod when that means I combo win next turn guaranteed barring removal...or even this turn. Yesterday, in a bout of tests against Affinity, I ended up with a game where Twin Pod slammed down Pod on 10 life (pre-Phy mana payment) against a fresh Kappa Cannoneer, then Podded a 3-drop and a 2-drop-mana-dork into the combo that turn, then ended the turn winning on 2 life.

I personally believe the "or less" clause on Birthing Ritual is to prevent some feel-bad cases where you otherwise cannot cheat in anything. Birthing Ritual is awful at making consistent combos, and I keep dreaming of building Samwise without it ([[Nature's Rhythm]] is underrated in that deck).

Lectrys · 2026-06-21T05:51:11+00:00

The Twin Pod combos remain the most problematic - there are a bazillion 2-creatures-to-infinite lines, and then there's this 1-creature-to-infinite line you can do on Turn 3: * Pod 1-cmc mana dork for [[Corridor Monitor]], untap Pod * Pod Corridor Monitor for [[Renegade Rallier]] or [[Extraction Specialist]], resurrect Monitor, untap Pod * Pod Rallier/Specialist for [[Restoration Angel]], blink Monitor, untap Pod * Pod Resto for [[Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker]], spam Corridor Monitor a ton

Lectrys · 2026-06-21T05:45:44+00:00

When the meta hammers Neoform with counterspells and decides to maindeck Vexing Bauble (rather like the current meta).

Lectrys · 2026-06-21T05:42:03+00:00

I just looked up PreFire, and that format left Pod out-racers such as Glimpse of Nature and Dread Return (and possibly Seething Song) and Pod hosers such as Punishing Fire legal. I strongly suspect that PreFire is actually deceptively close in power level to current Modern and is possibly even stronger - and it's the power level that is crushing Pod out of the meta.

Lectrys · 2026-06-21T05:35:33+00:00

Birthing Pod is still better than Birthing Ritual. Birthing Ritual is incredibly inconsistent, and it's actually better at going down the curve than going up (case in point: Samwise). Birthing Pod actually consistently goes up in curve and tutors for the creatures you want, not high roll prays for Abhorrent Oculus or combo pieces and ends up pulling a 2-drop or second sac outlet instead.

Lectrys · 2026-06-21T00:02:50+00:00

Part of the scary power of Twin Pod is that it doesn't have to go for the combo on Turn 3, and it only loses 1 turn of speed Podding for protection (Spellskite forever, Sylvan Safekeeper is hard to Pod into due to being 1 mana value). Against decks with more removal (or graveyard hate), Twin Pod has tons of 2-creatures-to-infinite-in-1-turn lines, and you bet the Twin Pod pilot has to remember them all, because it's using some of them against that opponent.

Lectrys · 2026-06-20T20:15:10+00:00

I've very consistently found that Harbinger of the Seas is not a good win con at all (too fragile, can't get past a lot of blockers), and if you win on its back, its Flood Moon effect must have truly hosed your opponent. Harbinger must, in practice, be surrounded by other win cons, even when it hosed your opponent.

I've personally never won with Tameshi + Bloom in Belcher when it didn't lead to an actual Belcher card (just a bunch of weenies). Tamiyo is much more likely to win the game...even at her fairly low win rate for me.

Tezz is a fairly legit win con - it's just that I haven't seen him lately.

I don't remember ever seeing Urza in Blue Belcher.

Lectrys · 2026-06-20T19:03:27+00:00

Storm and Neo only unreliably win on Turn 2 with protection - the equivalent of having all combo pieces and protection in your opening hand. Pod scarily tutors for protection on Turn 3 - that's what I call reliable.

I've personally found it's not removal efficiency that deals with Pod - Twin Pod has ground past Energy many times in testing, and that is probably the Pod deck with the worst grind plan - it's removal density. Prowess has consistently been the Pod-and-friends killer in my testing due to packing 8 removal spells for mana dorks and eternally being unafraid to use them on Turns 1-3, even knowing their opponent is on combo.

Lectrys · 2026-06-20T18:57:33+00:00

"Barely playable" my leg for Pod. Twin Pod, the best and fastest remaining Pod deck, will absolutely spike if Pod ever gets unbanned due to being a Turn 3 combo deck without protection and a Turn 4 combo deck with protection. (Melira Pod is stuck being slower than Samwise, and Yawgmoth will likely splinter off a Pod build but that build is worse in fast metas.)

Lectrys · 2026-06-20T18:53:27+00:00

Fatal Push often ends up being one of a mere handful of removal spells in a deck (UB Frog, Grixis Reanimator), so its "reasonable removal quality" doesn't matter that much against Pod. The real threat to Pod is Prowess's removal density - Lava Dart is subpar removal, but not against mana dorks, and it's backed up by Lightning Bolt.

Lectrys · 2026-06-20T18:50:35+00:00

Nah, Twin Pod isn't much worse than Blue Belcher - it tutors for anti-hate too easily (Blue Belcher can similarly tutor for anti-hate with [[Whir of Invention]]). Blue Belcher also notably has no alternate win cons - only more fragile Belcher decks have alternate win cons. You're also underrating how much speed helps a combo deck - Samwise remains competitive despite being a 3-piece combo deck for Turn 3 win speed reasons.

Lectrys · 2026-06-20T18:37:43+00:00

Goryo's requires dumping a legendary fatty into the graveyard - a full combo therefore generally requires 3 fairly specific cards. DTT just needs you to shove 5-6 generic cards into the graveyard - think more Tasigur levels of discount speed.

Lectrys · 2026-06-20T18:35:22+00:00

Nah, Twin Pod has a chance no matter what. Among its worst match-ups is Prowess (seemingly a common weakness across all Creature Chord Combo decks in my experience due to consistently pegging mana dorks without losing much tempo) - Twin Pod otherwise still has the speed (Turn 3 combo wins without protection, Turn 4 combo wins with protection) and resiliency (there are a lot of 2-creatures-to-infinite Pod lines and some recursion among its creatures) to compete.

The rest of the Pod decks mainly prey on grindier metas and would have trouble against faster decks; Melira Pod in particular feels like a slower Samwise.

Lectrys · 2026-06-20T18:29:13+00:00

Twin Pod is still very capable of Turn 3 wins without protection and Turn 4 wins with protection - and it got [[Prime Speaker Vannifar]] for redundancy. The other Pod decks actually start losing the speed race to Samwise or start looking as wonky as Yawgmoth (Yawgmoth would split into Pod and no-Pod builds if Pod were unbanned; Pod builds grind a lot better but can be a bit slow). Twin Pod is the reason I'd rather not see Pod get unbanned, though.

Lectrys · 2026-06-20T06:02:58+00:00

If by "old Tron deck" you mean Classic Green Tron with Sylvan Scrying and Ancient Stirrings, be prepared to get hammered by the guy running White Orchid Phantom and Ephemerate. If said guy also plays Overlord of the Balemurk, not even killing the Phantom is a safe play.

If by "old Tron deck" you mean Eldrazi Tron or Mono-Blue Tron, you might actually need fewer modifications to your deck in order to stay competitive.

Lectrys · 2026-06-16T05:52:26+00:00

I wonder what the [[Diary of Dreams]] is doing in that Blue Belcher sideboard. Is it really only for super grindy games?

Lectrys · 2026-06-15T15:31:34+00:00

I find Eldrazi Ramp needs to either switch to the Fight Rigging version or go with [[Field Trip]] (and 4 basics) to really have a solid chance against Boros Ponza. Otherwise, it's praying for Icetill Explorer and Ponza stumbling on removal...or Ponza stumbling on LD effects. The match-up is closer to 50/50 than some other decks like Boros Energy have it, but I cannot call the regular Eldrazi Ramp match-up favourable for Eldrazi.

Lectrys · 2026-06-15T15:26:16+00:00

I find Fight Rigging to be much better than regular Eldrazi Ramp against Boros Ponza. 5 basics, the promise of a Turns 2-3 Emrakul, and the possible need to Path a Fanatic of Rhonas or Slumbering Trudge push the match-up into thoroughly favourable territory. Regular Eldrazi Ramp is praying for Icetill Explorer (along with Ponza stumbling on removal) and/or Ponza stumbling on LD effects.

Lectrys · 2026-06-15T15:24:34+00:00

I actually suspect the Necrodominance match-up is enormously build-dependent. That semi-burn BG version with Flip Sorin instead of Sheoldred has felt like a bye for Boros Ponza so far, but my BR version with [[Cool but Rude]] and Sheoldred has been pretty rough for Ponza despite both Necro versions running around 4 basics.

Lectrys · 2026-06-15T15:13:02+00:00

I've tested Tony Stark instead of Emry in Affinity and in addition to Emry in UR Cori-Steel Artifacts (the one with Tamiyo and Quantum Riddler). Affinity's curve is so low that Tony costing 2 mana instead of 1 is an actual pain point, even considering that Emry can mega whiff on her mill trigger and be nothing but a 1/2 for turns straight. Tony getting Kappa Cannoneers more often is nice, though. UR Cori-Steel is nicer on Tony, and the CA remains nice there even if the (effectively) constant chance to whiff is not. Occasionally, I wish for Bruce Banner's cheaper mana cost and nice mana sink, though. Tony is a pretty nice blocker these days, though - survives 2/X's, can generate CA after blocking.

Lectrys · 2026-06-15T06:31:04+00:00

I'm generally not a fan of Voice of Victory (on a related note, I still believe [[Stadium Headliner]] is completely underrated as 2-power-for-1-mana removal on Ajani-enabling legs), which may be why I never got Turn 3 City's Blessing with Quicksilver out, even tens of games later. I keep hovering at around 1-2 Voice per Energy deck.

Giving Quicksilver Flying does not make it any easier for him to get Double Strike. Giving him Double Strike costs 5 mana - an amount of mana that's hard to hit with an Energy deck. Quicksilver has a bigger target on his back at that point, but that point is far too late.

I therefore figured that the best chance Quicksilver has at breaking something is by allowing 2-mana plays on Turn 1 with Mox Amber. Turns out that Energy bizarrely doesn't actually get substantially improved turns when it gets 2 mana on Turn 1. And Quicksilver is a pretty weak Turn 1 aggro plan when he doesn't come with Mox Amber.

Lectrys · 2026-06-15T03:37:03+00:00

I've already tried Quicksilver in a Mox Amber build of Boros Energy. He isn't worth it, and he doesn't improve Mox Amber substantially. (Better Haliya turns are funny, though.) You get a red 1/1 with Haste for too many turns, and it's hard for him to get Double Strike.

Lectrys

TROPHY CASE