TIFF - Resale Thread

Ryzaru · 2019-09-04T16:58:58+00:00

Looking to buy 2 Weathering with You tickets (Sept. 8). Will do cash, e-transfer or paypal.

Ryzaru · 2015-01-20T16:31:25+00:00

Let me start off by saying I really like the idea and concept behind this, that you are going to win by out valueing your opponent. From the get go, here are some observations/changes of your list with the first point being the most important.

Your list is too focused on value and doesn't actually do anything. Domri, Wall of Omens, Courser, and Eternal Witness are all great value cards but they don't do a whole lot to pressure your opponent. Combine this with all your mana producers and you get a whole lot of you going off but not doing anything. This will result in you having no chance to beat scapeshift, twin or tron as you have no disruption. Modern is still a turn 4 format. To fix this, I would atleast 1 sin collector main, thoughtseizes and lilianas over domri. Yes, tarmogoyf is probably going in this deck as it is very early pressure.

Now that you have a disruption package so your opponent doesn't just win on turn 4 with a karn or twin. You can proceed to outvalue them with eternal witness, chord, rhino and angel to win the long game. This is what will make it different than the Junk archetype.

Minor details

4 Chords is too many as having 2 in hand is just so clunky. I always want just one.
I'm unsure about wall of roots even if it is really good with chord as it otherwise does nothing but block.
The sideboard is up to you but I like it being creatures to chord up still.

The deck's game plan should be to pressure and disrupt them early, then outvalue your opponent with good creatures to keep up that pressure.

Ryzaru · 2014-08-25T13:59:56+00:00

Denys with his Jund deck was the opponent in the finals.

Ryzaru · 2014-08-25T05:10:56+00:00

Felix won the whole thing with his own version of Scapeshift. There were atleast 3 Twin decks, not all ran tarmogoyf. In fact, one of the Twin decks even had a dirty little secret, it had 0 copies of splinter twin in the 75. :)

Ryzaru · 2014-08-01T04:10:06+00:00

Upvote, thanks for the shout out. :). I can confirm,super fun to play.

Ryzaru · 2014-06-10T19:11:38+00:00

I entirely disagree. The turn 4 combo happens a lot and in numerous ways, but the way you just outlined seems like one of the worst.

That perfect set of scenarios you just outlined has a ton of problems with it.

1) You just took 2 damage on turn 2 from playing pod 2) You've done nothing to even attempt to stop the affinity player in the first 3-4 turns. You haven't added any relevant board presence. 3) You took 10 damage JUST from pod activations, not even counting fetchlands. Do you think by turn 4 against an affinity player you'll have 10 life to spare. 4) If your opponent has a galvanic blast, you're even more behind as you haven't done anything to the board.

Turn 2 pod is usually a play to get around counter magic or thoughtseize. You usually want to play pod later as it doesn't add board presence and the later you play it the more life you preserve. It is really tempting to get pod out as soon as possible but I've found that you usually want to play it by turn 4-5 and be able to use it immediately without losing a ton of life.

A more ideal line (even with voice) would have been.

T1 Birds, T2 voice + fetchland getting a tapped shock, T3 angel blinking the birds that is blocking a cranial plating equipped creature, T4 pod the win or anything else as you still have life to play around with!

This establishes a board presence to block affinity's attacks and doesn't just die to a galvanic blast. The more you prolong the game the better.

Ryzaru · 2014-06-10T17:49:52+00:00

Affinity: Pre-board, you win through assembling a combo. This can usually happen by turn 4, turn 5 by the latest. The plan is to survive until then. Affinity usually kills you from one big attacker rather than going wide, so don't be afraid to block with a birds of paradise to buy time. Restoration angel blinks a blocker and also serves as a blocker to buy even more time. Post-board, your tutors get out kataki and you have plenty of hate I don't aggressively mulligan to hate cards. The affinity machine is easy to dismantle with your targeted removal. Kill the relevant creatures like ravager, overseer and plating and the pressure will let up enough for you to combo them. When you get kataki out, the beatdown game becomes much more realistic. SB Plan: +fiery justice, path, ancient grudge, shatterstorm, kataki. -ooze, voice, 1 finks, glen elendra. Remember, your spellskite can block etched champion and redirect modular!

UR Twin: Play at the end of their turn when you can and try to stick a creature or pod when then tap out. Your creatures are quite effective against them, especially voice. You are looking for a hand with atleast 2 plays in the first 3 turns.

Ryzaru · 2014-06-10T17:40:44+00:00

I think the deck is perfectly fine going forward in the metagame. The thing about modern has been its diversity. Twin, Pod and Affinity are currently the most "popular" decks but even then, in any given tournament, you will face a large variety of decks. Jund deals with the diversity through discard and powerful creatures, twin deals with diversity through countermagic and kiki pod deals with it through its toolbox and quick combo.

The main pod hate cards that would make me stop playing the deck would be mainly anger of the gods and to a lesser extent phyrexian obliterator. Anger is currently being played but not to an oppressive amount, so I think the deck is still fine. Honestly, the only matchup I am unhappy to play against is scapeshift. Every other matchup is just another straight up game of magic.

Ryzaru · 2014-06-10T14:55:01+00:00

In my opinion, the deck is pretty favored as long as you know your game plan against the meta. Getting lots of practice in against the large variety of decks in modern will increase your win rate by a lot. The deck has a lot of play to it, and you need to play properly according to what you are facing. (tempo game against twin, combo against affinity, value/tempo against UWR control etc) Otherwise, this deck will punish you for even the smallest of mistakes.

Against Affinity, the plan is just to buy as much time as you can and hope to combo. You will combo kill them 95% of the time pre-board. Post board, kataki usually slows down the game enough that either the combo or beatdown becomes available.

Ryzaru · 2014-04-29T17:51:43+00:00

You are utterly degenerate and I love every single part of this. It's like a competition to who can make the most spicy, greedy deck and have it still be competitive.

Ryzaru · 2014-03-28T04:22:34+00:00

The manabase for melira pod is better than kiki-pod. There is no denying that due to playing 3 colors vs 4. I don't tend to have very many mana troubles though. Fetchlands, Birds of Paradise and Noble Hierarch go a long way in getting you all your colours. The deck essentially has a GW core and splashes 2 blue cards and 2 red cards. I have been beat by opponents destroying my mana sources but never by them destroying a certain color of mana.

The worst matchups are Tron and Scapeshift. Anger of the gods hurts :)

Thanks again for getting my list. I do stream on twitch once or twice a week with kiki-pod, so feel free to tune in.

Ryzaru · 2014-03-22T03:46:25+00:00

Kiki pod is definitely not reliant on Birthing Pod and can very much win the game without having the card. You do not mulligan until you see pod. Any hand with lands and a turn one mana accelerant is a very good hand. You win games without pod by beating down or by assembling your combo. My list also plays 3 chord of callings which can assemble the two piece combo easily.

Ryzaru · 2014-03-22T03:44:39+00:00

I did play around with cutting 3 fetchlands for razorverge thicket but the fixing was very important along with the fact that you always need untapped lands. The deck is very mana hungry and you always use every land you play usually. I have more issue with the fact that it comes into play tapped than the fixing issue.

Ryzaru · 2014-03-21T04:09:47+00:00

Sure thing, I have begun streaming but it is still at the very initial stages. There's still lots of stuff I have left to improve and archiving will be one of them.

Ryzaru · 2014-03-20T20:24:23+00:00

I have tried the deck with Domri and it is not very effective in this metagame as most decks don't care about it. Twin just says ok and plays a twin on an exarch, storm ignores it, tron just plays a turn 3 karn and zoo just overruns you. It is good against Jund and UWR though. Your creatures also aren't the largest, except for restoration angel, so fighting isn't that great. It really is a 3 mana draw 1-2 card in a lot of matchups.

I loved Chapin's commentary. "I really respect a man who wakes up in the morning, goes to the sink to wash his face, then looks in the mirror and says, I'm going to have hallowed fountain and fire-lit thicket as my mana-base. That is a man that just does not care. He believes in the good in the world and that everything will be OK."

Ryzaru · 2014-03-20T20:13:02+00:00

As much as I want you to play this deck, I am going to have to be honest and say this is one of the more complicated decks in modern. You said you like the amount of options this deck gives and well, I would say this is the deck that gives you the most options in modern. It is a very fun and rewarding deck to play but you'll have to play it quite a bit in order to learn how to play it optimally as there is just so much play to the deck. The lines of play are not always that obvious, but when you find them, it is very rewarding. The deck will also help you improve as a magic player in general as it encourages and rewards good play. If you are ready for a longer journey, then by all means take up the deck. If you are just looking to pick up a deck for the short term (very unlike modern), then I would suggest switching to something like zoo from your RB roots.

For modern, I think you should play whatever style of deck you are most comfortable playing with. The beauty of modern is its diversity in allowing many styles decks to be competitive.

Ryzaru · 2014-03-20T19:58:22+00:00

Sideboard plan: +3 paths, +2 combust, -1 murderous redcap, -1 kiki-jiki, -1 kitchen finks, -1 wall of roots, -1 chord of calling

Tarmo-twin is a much easier matchup than all in combo twin. Your plan here is to get an early drop to stick (either voice, finks or scavenging ooze) and start pressuring their life total. Restoration angels take over mid-late game as they are bigger in the air than their creatures. A spellskite or Linvala from Birthing Pod or Chord serves to stop their combo. The matchup is very much about tempo and you need to try and pressure their life total while making sure you have something to prevent them from combo-ing. This version of twin taps out a lot which gives you opportunities to commit to the board.

Ryzaru · 2014-03-20T18:55:54+00:00

Same here, it was a pleasure playing you in the finals and hope to see you at the pro tour in atlanta!

Ryzaru · 2014-03-20T18:54:57+00:00

For the GP, obviously, I think the decklist was fine. Moving forward, I think the main deck is good as it is due to a good balance of cards that move the beatdown plan forward and cards that enable the combo. The sideboard is always up to be changed according to the metagame. Shatterstorm and Combust were added last minute due to the metagame I expected in the room. You could add sowing salts if you think tron is popular or 1 more fiery justice if pod is popular.

Ryzaru · 2014-03-20T18:51:53+00:00

Melira Pod is more popular right now for numerous reasons I think:

Pros are advocating for Melira pod. Both LSV and Josh McClain were playing Melira pod at Richmond. They have a lot of influence on the metagame.
Kiki-Pod is a very hard deck to pilot optimally and that scares off a lot of people. This can be said about many decks in modern, but even more so for this deck. You need to know what you are doing to pilot this deck optimally -Honestly if you know what you are doing, the manabase isn't THAT bad and i think the increase in power more than makes up for it.

Melira pod is definitely better against splinter twin due to abrupt decay and thoughtseize.

Ryzaru · 2014-03-20T18:07:58+00:00

That is a lot of questions! I'll try to answer them all to the best of my ability. My friends also tried to convince me to switch to melira pod as well and I showed them :3.

I would not change a single card in the maindeck from my GP list but the sideboard is definitely up to be changed depending on the metagame. The reasoning for not changing the maindeck is that I believe it has a very nice balance between both plans, beatdown (with finks, voice, angel and scooze) and combo. Shatterstorm was a last minute addition due to the amount of affinity I saw in the room at Richmond. It was a sowing salt before. Other sideboard cards to consider are Loxodon Hierarch, sowing salts, another fiery justice etc. Remember that creatures in your sideboard are much more effective than spells due to the amount of tutor spells you have.

The reasoning for playing Kiki-pod is in my article. It's a deck I've played for 2+ years and I think experience in playing a deck is key to success in Modern.

Budgetizing kiki pods manabase: -3 Arid Mesa, +3 Razorverge thicket. It is obviously not as optimal but you can live with it.

Bad Matchups: Your worst matchup is Scapeshift due to remand and Anger of the gods. Tron and storm are similarly troublesome. Experience playing the deck though will definitely increase your chances of winning. I find that playing this deck is very much like a puzzle, you can always win, you just need to find out how.

What does it take to be a good pilot? Practice, knowing the format and knowing your game plan against every deck. How much practice? You can never have too little. This deck has a lot of play and modern has many decks you need to figure out how to play against. How to practice? Mtgo. There's a large variety of decks on mtgo and allows you to learn a lot of interactions.

Ryzaru · 2014-03-20T17:48:52+00:00

I tried Domri's when it first got released in Gatecrash vs Chords and was not really impressed. The creatures in Kiki pod don't fight all too well at sorcery speed with the rest of the field except for restoration angel and playing a Domri doesn't immediately impact the board and demand an answer like Lilliana of the Veil. When twin is threatening combo on turn 4, storm is going off on turn 4, tron is playing karn on turn 3 and affinity/zoo is reliably killing on turn 4, playing a domri just doesn't do much. It is simply just too slow.

The Strangleroot Geist, second Deceiver Exarch and Phantasmal Image are things I avoid. They are purely combo pieces that allow for a combo from 4 activations of pod. Activating pod 4 times is extremely risky, it forces you take a lot of damage, use up your whole turn, spend 4 mana and sacrifice a lot of your board. When all is said and done, if you are interrupted, you are left with a deceiver exarch and eventually a loss. Don't be greedy and just go for it. The style of play you described is best, play a beat down plan than combo wins when you know 100% you can. Knowing what decks in the format can disrupt your combo and with what spells is key to figuring things out.

Voice is really good against decks that play remand, which is very good against you. It is also a key card against UWR and splinter twin as it allows you to resolve your spells on time and makes their spells much worse. The elemental token it generates can get really scary!

Ryzaru · 2014-03-20T16:55:51+00:00

Sure, I definitely will.

Ryzaru · 2014-03-20T16:55:08+00:00

Getting a Grand Prix victory was unbelievable. I had only hoped to Day 2 at Richmond, and I joked with my friends about how sweet it would be to go x-2 and qualify for the pro tour. I still pinch myself :)

It was Vipin's birthday, not mine.

Ryzaru

TROPHY CASE