For those who are unfamiliar, Birthing Pod is a really cool card that lends itself towards a toolbox-style, creature-heavy deck that benefits from immediate value creatures. In addition, it is important to have a range of CMCs so that Birthing Pod can always improve your board. Because of this, the possibilities of a Birthing Pod list are practically endless. Below, I will go through each of my choices as well as other possibilities.
My goal for this deck is to be as competitive as possible. I am new to legacy but am familiar with the archetypes of the format, and so I wanted to make a deck that was competitive, original, and fun, while also remaining on a budget (literally anything but blue).
The deck has a nic-fit base, a midrange-y style deck based around the cards Veteran Explorer and Cabal Therapy that attempts to maximize value. This is the most common shell for Birthing Pod, (however, recently a blue artifact-based pod list put up some numbers). In my build here, I have two primary combos that I use Birthing Pod to fetch up that win the game on the spot. The first is the Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and Zealous Conscripts combo to make infinite copies of Zealous Conscripts with haste (a popular combo in modern). The second uses Melira, Sylvok Outcast to ignore the negative effect of persist on Murderous Redcap. With these two in play all you need is a sacrifice outlet such as Viscera Seer or Falkenrath Aristocrat.
The toolbox
Starting with the multiples:
3x Birds of Paradise: It's no Deathrite Shaman but it's an acceptable replacement for now.
4x Veteran Explorer: A nic-fit essential. Sac him for extra goodies. Works particularly well with the many sources of "sacrifice for value" cards including Cabal Therapy, Birthing Pod, and Recurring Nightmare
2x Murderous Redcap: This fella is great here because it helps both of my main combos. Untap with one and Birthing Pod and you can get both 5-mana Kiki pieces, and is itself included in the infinite damage combo with Melira, Sylvok Outcast. The multiple purposes of Redcap earned him the multiple spots.
1x Imperial Recruiter: Snazzy new reprint, now much easier to get! This guy is a great target because he gives you two creatures for the price of one, he is both a great top-deck to tutor up almost any creature and a good target to Birthing Pod out. He's the combo-maker!
2x Scavenging Ooze: The other part of toolbox is that you deal with your opponents threats as well as build your own. Scooze is great in this respect by making opposing Deathrite Shamans worse and other graveyard strategies worse as well, all the while becoming a bigger threat itself.
2x Viscera Seer: Down at the one-drop spot along with Shaman and Explorer, Viscera Seer is a combo piece, and a draw smoother.
1x Fauna Shaman: With toolbox decks like this you are bound to draw cards that are irrelevant in some matchups, Fauna Shaman gives you a way to recycle those cards for combo pieces or value pieces.
1x Melira, Sylvok Outcast: As I have already mentioned, she is an important combo piece and can also be used with some other possible inclusions for much more value.
1x Eternal Witness: My favorite 3-drop in the game. period. Lose a combo piece? E-Wit. Pitch a card to Fauna Shaman and need it back? E-Wit. I would have more if I could.
1x Reclamation Sage: A shoe-in, would also like more of these. Tutorable artifact/enchantment hate on a stick is excellent.
1x Kitchen Finks: I've got the infinite damage combo, might as well as infinite life with just one card (just replace Murderous Redcap for Finks.
1x Falkenrath Aristocrat: An additional sacrifice outlet but also a hastey 4 power flyer is pretty good! Kills planeswalkers pretty nicely.
1x Meren of Clan Nel Toth: A super cool card. When combo fails, these next few cards matter. With the amount of dying your creatures will do, this card provides some impressive value. A new addition to the deck and I'm excited to see how it plays.
1x Thragtusk: Life gain is relevant with the amount of phyrexian mana, and creating a token on death makes it a great sacrifice target.
1x Grave Titan: A big beater/token maker that can close out games if needed.
Possible additions include a lot of token makers: Sprouting Thrinax and similar creatures can provide a "go-wide" strategy and are valuable with Birthing Pod. Persist and Undying are also good value creatures because they can be sacrificed multiple times, persist is especially good if the idea is to abuse Melira, Sylvok Outcast. Finally, just more value creatures... Tireless Tracker is good friends with Veteran Explorer. This are all possible avenues for Birthing Pod in Jund.
The sideboard is a work in progress. Do you have any ideas for the sideboard or the mainboard? Please feel free to comment your thoughts below!
Flip
