When one door closes, another one opens.
This deck is centered around the old combo of Melira, Sylvok Outcast + Kitchen Finks + Vicera Seer to gain infinite life. However, Melira has a new friend to play; Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit.
Anafenza is great in multiple areas. Not only can she completely replace Melira as the engine in the Infinite lifegain combo but if both are together with Finks and Seer, they have a new combo; infinite bolster counters. It works just like the infinite life combo but when Kitchen Finks comes into play, with the bolster trigger on the stack, sac it again. Anafenza's bolster counter no longer needs to go on finks to keep it coming back from the graveyard because of Melira's presence allowing you to have an infinitely huge team. Anafenza is also just fine on her own without a combo, making any creature draw more potent.
Of course, as everyone knows, what made the Melira combo possible at all was Birthing Pod. This deck would not be any good without a way of stitching the pieces together, even with another fancy enabler.
However, there is a hope. Its name is Collected Company.
This card is crazy. This is the card that makes the deck possible. If you have one combo piece, Collected Company allows you to go from certain defeat to certain victory if you manage to rip the rest of the combo off the top. Regardless of how likely that may be, any card that can win on the spot should be given another look.
It may not be as consistent or powerful as Birthing Pod, Collected Company does a pretty decent impression. Like its predecessor, it does well even without a combo. Putting two guys on the battlefield at instant speed is super strong as it is and works well with the new Anafenza.
There are some definite trade offs however. The 3 cmc or less clause on Collected Company means that it is not possible to play some of the cards that made Pod decks such a force, like Siege Rhino, Archangel of Thune, Reveillark, Restoration Angel and more. You also can't use Collected Company over and over again like Birthing Pod.
Despite the drawbacks, this deck is very promising and with some tweaks, can potentially be a force to reckoned with.
