Which Pod should I take? This is my current dilemma as to what build of the Birthing Pod should I look up and to test which one is the winning list. Dark Ascension introduced the Undying mechanic which is very essential to the core theme of the deck.

This mechanic at most supported almost all of the colors in the set, though I think Green is the most beneficial in the form of Strangleroot Geist. This spirit is just the current powerful two drop for Green.

With that, we look on the two versions of the Birthing Pod archetype. These lists I’ve found through the various websites and articles (both free and premium).

First of is the Bant Pod. This list was suggested by Jeremy Neeman.

Bant Birthing Pod
Maindeck
2 Acidic Slime
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Blade Splicer
1 Fiend Hunter
1 Hero of Bladehold
2 Phantasmal Image
2 Skaab Ruinator
4 Strangleroot Geist
2 Sun Titan
1 Tower Geist
3 Viridian Emissary
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Solemn Simulacrum

4 Birthing Pod
4 Ponder

5 Forest
3 Island
1 Plains
4 Evolving Wilds
3 Hinterland Harbor
4 Razorverge Thicket
3 Seachrome Coast
2 Sunpetal Grove

This build suggests an aggressive version of Bant Pod with the four Strangleroot Geists (far from the typical gameplay of Bant Pod which is midrange control-ish type). Ponder and Evolving Wilds make sure you hit the right mana base for the early beats. One thing I don’t like in the list is its lack of main deck answers to big critters and Planeswalkers. Maybe one or two Oblivion Rings should be included.

Another thing I would edit is the change of one Skaab Ruinator to Stormbound Geist. Ruinator sure is a fatty but is weak against Vapor Snag while the blue geist can hold off Spirit Tokens and can even block Chandra’s Phoenix and live.

Here is the Naya version of Pod, from Dee’s article in Magic Game Plan.

Undying Naya Pod
Maindeck
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Avacyn’s Pilgrim
4 Strangleroot Geist
2 Viridian Emissary
1 Spellskite
3 Blade Splicer
1 Fiend Hunter
1 Daybreak Ranger
1 Huntmaster of the Fells
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Hellrider
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Vorapede
1 Acidic Slime
1 Geist-Honored Monk
1 Inferno Titan
1 Flayer of the Hatebound
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite

4 Arc Trail
4 Birthing Pod

4 Razorverge Thicket
4 Copperline Gorge
1 Sunpetal Grove
3 Rootbound Crag
1 Evolving Wilds
5 Forest
2 Plains
2 Mountain
1 Gavony Township

I think it is with the same aggressive level with Bant, except the inclusion of the four Arc Trails main deck which I personally like. The two-mana sorcery in my opinion is a good answer to hault the Delver assault in the early turns, kills almost all of their critters and can single handedly answer a Midnight Haunting. Huntmaster of the Fells and Daybreak Ranger are good inclusion in the deck though I am not sure with Vorapede. It’s because of the same problem of Vapor Snag.

To conclude, I am thinking of auto including Sunblast Angel in the mainboard, as the deck still can’t cope up with Delver and RDW (based on the playtest earlier). I am also planning on switching Oblivion Rings and Mortarpod, though the final list may still look vague.

We’ll just see in the coming weeks. Until next post.