With an added Top 8 (4-2), a near miss (3-1-1), and a casual standard (3-0) under the deck's collective belt, I've decided that this time around I'll skimp on the quick recaps.
The deck hasn't changed too much. Lent out one of the Wurmcoils, so the replacement has varied between tournaments (Creeping Renaissance, Increasing Savagery, and Steel Hellkite, respectably). After obtaining a Vorapede tonight, it's in the slot. Acidic Slimes have earned their keep enough to stick around. Considering how often I've sideboarded in Karn, he's replaced one of the Pods. So far, no complaints. Lastly, I've switched out a Forest for an Island. It's nice being able to fetch it up in non-Dungrove games in which I know they'll be a Phyrexian Metamorph coming soon.
So, in summary:
-1 Forest, +1 Island
-1 Wurmcoil Engine, +1 Vorapede
-1 Birthing Pod, +1 Karn Liberated
Monopod
---Lands (23)---
2x Kessig Wolf Run
18x Forest
1x Island
2x Mountain
---Creatures (32)---
2x Acidic Slime
2x Avacyn's Pilgrim
1x Birds of Paradise
4x Dungrove Elder
4x Llanowar Elves
3x Phyrexian Metamorph
1x Precursor Golem
1x Predator Ooze
1x Primevil Titan
3x Solemn Simulacrum
3x Strangleroot Geist
4x Viridian Emissary
1x Wurmcoil Engine
---Noncreatures (8)---
3x Birthing Pod
1x Garruk Relentless
1x Karn Liberated
2x Mimic Vat
---Sideboard (15)---
3x Autumn's Veil
2x Batterskull
3x Beast Within
3x Corrosive Gale
3x Surgical Extraction
1x Thrun, the Last Troll
Oh yeah, Beast Within in sideboard. Phyrexian Obliterator has been going around. It deals with him when I can't manage to copy it, in addition to having a little more control in the deck.
General Strategies
No recap, but I'll still go over a little of my local metagame/strategy.
Control: The hardest part of facing control are the variants going around. All I can really say is that tight play and timing my Autumn's Veils are key. Surgical Extractions go in if I see Dissipate or Phantasmal Image. Mana Leak's the easier play around. Dungrove Elder is key here, since Wrath-less variants have little solution to deal with him.
Zombies: Comes in two variants; Obliterator and non-Obliterator. Both I try to stay on the offensive with at all times. Metamorph gets saved for when Obliterator comes out, otherwise I try to make myself a Geralf's Messanger or big thing in general. Mimic Vat is boss here, giving some killed things chance for revenge, snatching a recurring zombie, or even catching the previously mentioned Obliterator.
French Rites: Are problematic, to say the least. Either I have to race them before Elesh Norn comes out, a hard task; or I have to catch her/it in a Mimic Vat. Post sideboard I can delay with Beast Withins and Surgical Extraction. Pods are out, given the abundance of Ancient Grudge. One of the best matchups to have a "Deus Ex Karn" in.
Red Deck Wins: Race race race. Bloodthirst is a bitch. Stormblood Berserker is hard to play against, when burn can eat my many little creatures. Dungrove is key, with Wurmcoil an objective in both stabilizing and turning the tide. Post sideboard, Beast Within cancels damage steps and Batterskull gives me a better chance of keeping my life up. If my mana dorks take hits to keep me from ramping, that's less burn for me to eat. As for Chandra's Pheonix, Surgical Extraction is too situational to deal with her, so I have to steal a red philosophy: Annoying things opponents have go away when they die.
Delver: I haven't seen it too much recently, but the goal is simple; Race, resolving a Dungrove if possible. The spirit-emphasized variants are where Corrosive Gale shines.
About all my mind can conjure up for now!
Showing posts with label Pod. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pod. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Friday, March 16, 2012
FNM Recap - MonoPod (4-1-1)
Just a quick recap this time around, as I'm prepping for tonight's FNM shortly. Top Four'd with MonoPod last week. Still enjoying the deck.
Minor changes to the deck from the last post:
-1 Myr Propagator, +1 Garruk Relentless.
Sideboard was the same, minus the Naturalizes.
That said, it was a rather absurd night, pairings-wise. Here's a quick summary.
Round 1 - Lost 1-2 vs U/W Delver (swords focused). Something about a game one early Body and Mind and a game three major-mana screw really impeded my ability to race him.
Round 2 - Won 2-1 vs U/B Zombies.
Round 3 - Won 2-1 vs U/B Zombies. This one played an excessive amount of Obliterators, each matched with my own Metamorphed/Mimic Vat copies. Good games all around when each attack from either side can carry more risk than reward.
Round 4 - Won 2-0 vs U/B Zombies. My deck was sick of zombies at this point. It stomped hard. Game two even had two Dungroves in opening hand followed by two drawn shortly after.
Round 5 - Took my chances with an ill-advised draw. It worked somehow.
Top 8 - Won 2-0 vs an Esper control build. I played around his counters and board wipe magnificently. Not bad for a fool galloping through a minefield.
Top 4 - We split the prize.
Now to see how tonight fares...
Until next brains!
Minor changes to the deck from the last post:
-1 Myr Propagator, +1 Garruk Relentless.
Sideboard was the same, minus the Naturalizes.
That said, it was a rather absurd night, pairings-wise. Here's a quick summary.
Round 1 - Lost 1-2 vs U/W Delver (swords focused). Something about a game one early Body and Mind and a game three major-mana screw really impeded my ability to race him.
Round 2 - Won 2-1 vs U/B Zombies.
Round 3 - Won 2-1 vs U/B Zombies. This one played an excessive amount of Obliterators, each matched with my own Metamorphed/Mimic Vat copies. Good games all around when each attack from either side can carry more risk than reward.
Round 4 - Won 2-0 vs U/B Zombies. My deck was sick of zombies at this point. It stomped hard. Game two even had two Dungroves in opening hand followed by two drawn shortly after.
Round 5 - Took my chances with an ill-advised draw. It worked somehow.
Top 8 - Won 2-0 vs an Esper control build. I played around his counters and board wipe magnificently. Not bad for a fool galloping through a minefield.
Top 4 - We split the prize.
Now to see how tonight fares...
Until next brains!
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Decklist - MonoPod [G]
So, the FNM after I posted that quickly-made list, my friend's Birthing Pods were free to use, so I tossed my loyal U/B Heartless deck to the wind and assembled the build. After a month's worth of FNMs, I'm still royally digging it, especially the fairly frequent Top 8 scores. Here's how it is now.
Monopod
---Lands (23)---
2x Kessig Wolf Run
19x Forest
2x Mountain
---Creatures (32)---
2x Acidic Slime
2x Avacyn's Pilgrim
1x Birds of Paradise
4x Dungrove Elder
4x Llanowar Elves
1x Myr Propagator
3x Phyrexian Metamorph
1x Precursor Golem
1x Predator Ooze
1x Primevil Titan
3x Solemn Simulacrum
3x Strangleroot Geist
4x Viridian Emissary
2x Wurmcoil Engine
---Artifacts (6)---
4x Birthing Pod
2x Mimic Vat
---Sideboard (17*)---
3x Autumn's Veil
2x Batterskull
3x Corrosive Gale
1x Karn Liberated
2x Naturalize
3x Surgical Extraction
1x Thrun, the Last Troll
2x Ratchet Bomb
Breakdown:
- Kessig Wolf Runs, Forests, and Mountains: Forests are the primary fuel of the deck, with Mountains in only to support the game-ending potential of the Wolf Runs. And while it is annoying to run into either of the non-green sources early in some games, most of the deck only cares about having just one green symbol anyway, and the redundancy has dashed at least three opponent's plans to date.
- Avacyn's Pilgrims, Birds of Paradise, and Llanowar Elves: Provide the early game support. Blue hates it when I turn two Dungrove Elder. The Pilgrims would be Birds, but they're on loan and I don't mind the early aggro nor really need the color fixing.
- Viridian Emissaries and Solemn Simulacrums: Give me ramp, and decent Pod fodder.
- Strangleroot Geist: Early aggro and not a bad Pod target, since he can swing after it, unless he's busy with having been killed earlier by removal or previous sacrificing.
- Dungrove Elder: The tastiest critter in the deck. He provides the most of the beats, wins, and opponent disliking. Especially when it's an Emissary providing Pod fodder for him.
- Wurmcoil Engine: Doesn't show up as much as the Elder, but still provides a decent amount of beats.
- Phyrexian Metamorph: Jack-of-most trades. Kills opposing legendaries. 85% of the time becomes Dungrove Elder and doesn't afraid of anything. Especially in this artifact hate-filled environment.
- Precursor Golem: Fun against light-removal decks. Mostly only a bridge between a Simulacrum and a Wurmcoil, though. Never hurts when he leaves behind his posse!
- Acidic Slime: Only removal in the deck pre-sideboard. Loves to eat swords and long walks on unique locales.
- Myr Propagator: Occupies a very chaotic spot in the deck. Used to be a Pyreheart Wolf until I disliked the lack of early game red for it. Then was a Daybreak Ranger, but wasn't relevent / alive for enough games. Almost became a One-Eyed Scarecrow until Spirits got lucky and I thought better of it. Knowing my luck will become a Jar of Eyeballs, but more likely will become a Garruk Relentless until I get a better three-drop in color in Avacyn Restored. Assuming I don't take it out now that I've noticed there's 61 cards in the deck. Fingers crossed.
- Predator Ooze: A convenient one-of. Rarely shows up in games he shouldn't participate in, and can be Podded into when he is needed. Blocks opposing Dungrove Elders on the defensive, and offensively can swing all day long until they run out of chump blockers or I hit a Wolf Run. So basically, an anti-mirror / Timmy deck tech inclusion.
- Primeval Titan: Purely in the deck for fetching up a Wolf Run and a mountain. If he lives to swing, good for him; the Dungroves are sure to appreciate it.
- Birthing Pod: One of the key bits of the deck, but not vital. Generally only used as a tool to turn cmc 2s into Dungroves and cmc 4/5s into Wurmcoils.
- Mimic Vat: Defensively, keeps an expendable blocker around at a low cost. Offensively, lets me swing and Pod if the fake critter survives. Douchebaggingly, can steal a Chandra's Pheonix or a Gravecrawler if need be. Serves 'em right for depending on graveyards instead of their deck for more critters.
What's Missing:
- Predator Ooze: One's out, since it's intentional use is veeeery specific so far.
- Woodland Sleuth: I took her out after rarely ever seeing her hit play, much less have time to fetch / abuse it. Sadly, I haven't missed her.
- Vorapede: No access. Acidic Slime seem to be doing fine in their place.
- Bellowing Tanglewurm: A casualty of never showing up. Podwise, I always felt more of a need to pull acidic slime instead.
Sideboard:
Note: I listed 17, because I've been switching between the two Naturalizes and Batterskulls. Both have merits and have won me games, so it's tough.
- Autumn's Veil: For screwing over control. Especially if it's to play a hexproof creature. A resolved Elder just eats them alive.
- Batterskull: For when the Pods come out and I go into pure ramp mode. They evade artifact hate, and that can really matter.
- Corrosive Gale: For stalling Delver decks and the occasional Spirit-focused token deck. Since I can't always draw a needed Dungrove for racing them.
- Karn Liberated: Another ramp mode choice. Slower decks don't appreciate his bulky exiling bullying.
- Naturalize: Mostly intended for busting Oblivion rings and Swords.
- Surgical Extraction: For the French Rites deck that's going around, mostly. With that, I almost feel like I need two Nihil Spellbombs as well to screw it over. Not sure, since it's probably the toughest matchup. Anyways, I also have a bad habit of exiling counterspells after they've annoyed me, with the added bonus of seeing my control opponent's hand.
- Thrun, the Last Troll: Another anti-control measure. Resolving hexproofers has been what's allowed me to eat them alive in most of my matches. He makes it easier, and (although I haven't needed it), can survive the rare board wiping.
- Ratchet Bomb: Disentegrates tokens. That is all.
That's about it. Most of the strategy involved is covered in the breakdown. Lastly, I do want to know how deceptive I've noticed the deck can be. With Dungrove Blade and Wolf Run metagame decks running around, I've noticed the more "internet-informed" players jumping to the conclusion that this deck's one of those, only to see "the other half" appear shortly after.
Tldr; Dungrove Elder beats.
Until next post!
Monopod
---Lands (23)---
2x Kessig Wolf Run
19x Forest
2x Mountain
---Creatures (32)---
2x Acidic Slime
2x Avacyn's Pilgrim
1x Birds of Paradise
4x Dungrove Elder
4x Llanowar Elves
1x Myr Propagator
3x Phyrexian Metamorph
1x Precursor Golem
1x Predator Ooze
1x Primevil Titan
3x Solemn Simulacrum
3x Strangleroot Geist
4x Viridian Emissary
2x Wurmcoil Engine
---Artifacts (6)---
4x Birthing Pod
2x Mimic Vat
---Sideboard (17*)---
3x Autumn's Veil
2x Batterskull
3x Corrosive Gale
1x Karn Liberated
2x Naturalize
3x Surgical Extraction
1x Thrun, the Last Troll
2x Ratchet Bomb
Breakdown:
- Kessig Wolf Runs, Forests, and Mountains: Forests are the primary fuel of the deck, with Mountains in only to support the game-ending potential of the Wolf Runs. And while it is annoying to run into either of the non-green sources early in some games, most of the deck only cares about having just one green symbol anyway, and the redundancy has dashed at least three opponent's plans to date.
- Avacyn's Pilgrims, Birds of Paradise, and Llanowar Elves: Provide the early game support. Blue hates it when I turn two Dungrove Elder. The Pilgrims would be Birds, but they're on loan and I don't mind the early aggro nor really need the color fixing.
- Viridian Emissaries and Solemn Simulacrums: Give me ramp, and decent Pod fodder.
- Strangleroot Geist: Early aggro and not a bad Pod target, since he can swing after it, unless he's busy with having been killed earlier by removal or previous sacrificing.
- Dungrove Elder: The tastiest critter in the deck. He provides the most of the beats, wins, and opponent disliking. Especially when it's an Emissary providing Pod fodder for him.
- Wurmcoil Engine: Doesn't show up as much as the Elder, but still provides a decent amount of beats.
- Phyrexian Metamorph: Jack-of-most trades. Kills opposing legendaries. 85% of the time becomes Dungrove Elder and doesn't afraid of anything. Especially in this artifact hate-filled environment.
- Precursor Golem: Fun against light-removal decks. Mostly only a bridge between a Simulacrum and a Wurmcoil, though. Never hurts when he leaves behind his posse!
- Acidic Slime: Only removal in the deck pre-sideboard. Loves to eat swords and long walks on unique locales.
- Myr Propagator: Occupies a very chaotic spot in the deck. Used to be a Pyreheart Wolf until I disliked the lack of early game red for it. Then was a Daybreak Ranger, but wasn't relevent / alive for enough games. Almost became a One-Eyed Scarecrow until Spirits got lucky and I thought better of it. Knowing my luck will become a Jar of Eyeballs, but more likely will become a Garruk Relentless until I get a better three-drop in color in Avacyn Restored. Assuming I don't take it out now that I've noticed there's 61 cards in the deck. Fingers crossed.
- Predator Ooze: A convenient one-of. Rarely shows up in games he shouldn't participate in, and can be Podded into when he is needed. Blocks opposing Dungrove Elders on the defensive, and offensively can swing all day long until they run out of chump blockers or I hit a Wolf Run. So basically, an anti-mirror / Timmy deck tech inclusion.
- Primeval Titan: Purely in the deck for fetching up a Wolf Run and a mountain. If he lives to swing, good for him; the Dungroves are sure to appreciate it.
- Birthing Pod: One of the key bits of the deck, but not vital. Generally only used as a tool to turn cmc 2s into Dungroves and cmc 4/5s into Wurmcoils.
- Mimic Vat: Defensively, keeps an expendable blocker around at a low cost. Offensively, lets me swing and Pod if the fake critter survives. Douchebaggingly, can steal a Chandra's Pheonix or a Gravecrawler if need be. Serves 'em right for depending on graveyards instead of their deck for more critters.
What's Missing:
- Predator Ooze: One's out, since it's intentional use is veeeery specific so far.
- Woodland Sleuth: I took her out after rarely ever seeing her hit play, much less have time to fetch / abuse it. Sadly, I haven't missed her.
- Vorapede: No access. Acidic Slime seem to be doing fine in their place.
- Bellowing Tanglewurm: A casualty of never showing up. Podwise, I always felt more of a need to pull acidic slime instead.
Sideboard:
Note: I listed 17, because I've been switching between the two Naturalizes and Batterskulls. Both have merits and have won me games, so it's tough.
- Autumn's Veil: For screwing over control. Especially if it's to play a hexproof creature. A resolved Elder just eats them alive.
- Batterskull: For when the Pods come out and I go into pure ramp mode. They evade artifact hate, and that can really matter.
- Corrosive Gale: For stalling Delver decks and the occasional Spirit-focused token deck. Since I can't always draw a needed Dungrove for racing them.
- Karn Liberated: Another ramp mode choice. Slower decks don't appreciate his bulky exiling bullying.
- Naturalize: Mostly intended for busting Oblivion rings and Swords.
- Surgical Extraction: For the French Rites deck that's going around, mostly. With that, I almost feel like I need two Nihil Spellbombs as well to screw it over. Not sure, since it's probably the toughest matchup. Anyways, I also have a bad habit of exiling counterspells after they've annoyed me, with the added bonus of seeing my control opponent's hand.
- Thrun, the Last Troll: Another anti-control measure. Resolving hexproofers has been what's allowed me to eat them alive in most of my matches. He makes it easier, and (although I haven't needed it), can survive the rare board wiping.
- Ratchet Bomb: Disentegrates tokens. That is all.
That's about it. Most of the strategy involved is covered in the breakdown. Lastly, I do want to know how deceptive I've noticed the deck can be. With Dungrove Blade and Wolf Run metagame decks running around, I've noticed the more "internet-informed" players jumping to the conclusion that this deck's one of those, only to see "the other half" appear shortly after.
Tldr; Dungrove Elder beats.
Until next post!
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Concept Decklist - MonoPod [G]
Had a few deck ideas once the Dark Ascension spoiler came out. Rather than solidify any of them (BW tokens, BRU Vengeance, BRU Curses, and most entertainingly, BW Myr), I decided to see how the Prerelease treated my thoughts. I'll talk about that later, I think.
So anyway, this has nothing to do with that. I just wanted to kick a monogreen Birthing Pod deck out of my head.
Monopod
---Lands (22)---
2x Kessig Wolf Run
2x Mountain
18x Forest
---Creatures (34)---
4x Birds of Paradise
3x Llanowar Elves
3x Strangleroot Geist
4x Viridian Emissary
4x Dungrove Elder
2x Predator Ooze
3x Solemn Simulacrum
3x Phyrexian Metamorph
2x Woodland Sleuth
1x Bellowing Tanglewurm
2x Vorapede
1x Primeval Titan
2x Wurmcoil Engine
---Noncreature Artifacts (4)---
4x Birthing Pod
The goal is to stomp hard. With seven one-drop rampers, chances are on your side that you'll have one in opening hand. Speaking of ramp, it's packing seven more just to up the Timmy Fury. Primeval's solely to get out a Wolf Run and / or Mountain if you need them, and Bellowing Tanglewurm's intended to be an End-of-Opponent's-Turn pod-fetch finisher. This build leaves problem solvers purely to the sideboard; Deal with it.
So anyway, this has nothing to do with that. I just wanted to kick a monogreen Birthing Pod deck out of my head.
Monopod
---Lands (22)---
2x Kessig Wolf Run
2x Mountain
18x Forest
---Creatures (34)---
4x Birds of Paradise
3x Llanowar Elves
3x Strangleroot Geist
4x Viridian Emissary
4x Dungrove Elder
2x Predator Ooze
3x Solemn Simulacrum
3x Phyrexian Metamorph
2x Woodland Sleuth
1x Bellowing Tanglewurm
2x Vorapede
1x Primeval Titan
2x Wurmcoil Engine
---Noncreature Artifacts (4)---
4x Birthing Pod
The goal is to stomp hard. With seven one-drop rampers, chances are on your side that you'll have one in opening hand. Speaking of ramp, it's packing seven more just to up the Timmy Fury. Primeval's solely to get out a Wolf Run and / or Mountain if you need them, and Bellowing Tanglewurm's intended to be an End-of-Opponent's-Turn pod-fetch finisher. This build leaves problem solvers purely to the sideboard; Deal with it.
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