Hi all. It was a quite busy week. First Major reason: my girlfriend went home for a short vacation so I had to do some bf duties, and second Major reason: preparation and start of AI Expo. I had to attend a meeting for the booth setup of Magic Iloilo Community and gather the necessary materials and make a few like banner ads, flyers, how-to and guides, etc.

Anyhow, it is currently Day 3 of the Expo and so far it was good. We had attracted some curious mall goers but only a few actually inquired on learning the game. Hopefully tomorrow, there’s more players to go by and more potential fresh recruits.

Going back, I’ve decided to join the next scheduled World Magic Cup Qualifiers which will be on the May 20th (this Sunday). As to what deck to pilot, I’ve decided to pilot Red Green White Birthing Pod, but the present concern is the appropriate list for the current metagame. Red Green Aggro has been on-fire lately so I had to turn my attention on beating those turn-two Swords.

Here is my current list I’ve been working on:

Naya Pod by Mark Ian Alloso

Lands
4 Copperline Gorge
4 Razorverge Thicket
5 Forest
2 Gavony Township
2 Rootbound Crag
2 Sunpetal Grove
2 Cavern of Souls
2 Plains
1 Mountain

Creatures
1 Acidic Slime
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Zealous Conscripts
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Fiend Hunter
4 Birds of Paradise
1 Silverblade Paladin
2 Borderland Ranger
2 Blade Splicer
3 Restoration Angel
3 Huntmaster of the Fells
4 Strangleroot Geist
3 Avacyn’s Pilgrim
1 Inferno Titan

Spells
4 Birthing Pod
1 Red Sun’s Zenith

I am thinking the deck’s weakness is starting slow when early mana critters are killed. Gut Shot from Delver decks is being popular lately so the birds & pilgrims are somewhat inefficient. My solution is to add Borderland Ranger to the Pod chain. Ramping up also filters your land draws late game and helps power up a deadly Red Sun Zenith.

Another thing I like about the zenith is its reusability. You can cast it early to kill an opponent’s Birds of Paradise or unflipped Delver and later on target it to the dome.

Restoration Angel is another flyer waiting to be exploited by Birthing Pod. It bounces your other creatures, a lot, and benefits surprise block or can go past counterspells with its Flash.

Zealous Conscripts is your trump card versus Ramp, and you have to be careful in maneuvering the game to lure your opponent into casting his/her Titan.

Sigarda is another stand-alone win condition and renders “edict” effects useless.

The sideboard, well, is pretty much messed up right now. I am still debating if it is a good choice to include Swords (particularly the War and Peace) or not. The auto-includes so far are the Ancient Grudge, Ray of Revelation, another Thalia, and Celestial Purge.

We’ll see what I can come up with this coming last days of preparation. Until next post and thanks for reading.