Stranger Pods [Primer]

Commander / EDH Combo Infinite Combo Primer RGW (Naya) Twin

Scheer218

Creature (31)

• 1x Arbor Elf
• 1x Avacyn's Pilgrim
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Elvish Mystic
• 1x Esper Sentinel
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Mogg Fanatic
• 1x Quirion Ranger
• 1x Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
• 1x Torch Courier
• 1x Bloom Tender
• 1x Conspicuous Snoop
• 1x Dockside Extortionist
• 1x Drannith Magistrate
• 1x Fauna Shaman
• 1x Goblin Recruiter
• 1x Harsh Mentor
• 1x Priest of Titania
• 1x Vexing Shusher
• 1x Academy Manufactor
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Imperial Recruiter
• 1x Irencrag Pyromancer
• 1x Manglehorn
• 1x Runic Armasaur
• 1x Village Bell-Ringer
• 1x Yisan, the Wanderer Bard
• 1x Felidar Guardian
• 1x Karmic Guide
• 1x Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
• 1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Wrenn and Six

Land (33)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Bountiful Promenade
• 1x Cavern of Souls
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Clifftop Retreat
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Dryad Arbor
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Forest
• 1x Gaea's Cradle
• 1x Homeward Path
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Mountain
• 1x Plains
• 1x Plateau
• 1x Rootbound Crag
• 1x Sacred Foundry
• 1x Savannah
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Spectator Seating
• 1x Spire Garden
• 1x Stomping Ground
• 1x Sunpetal Grove
• 1x Taiga
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Enchantment (5)

• 1x Carpet of Flowers
• 1x Sterling Grove
• 1x Survival of the Fittest
• 1x Sylvan Library
• 1x Defense of the Heart

Artifact (5)

• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Conqueror's Flail
• 1x Birthing Pod

Instant (15)

• 1x Crop Rotation
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Noxious Revival
• 1x Pyroblast
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Veil of Summer
• 1x Worldly Tutor
• 1x Abrade
• 1x Eladamri's Call
• 1x Heroic Intervention
• 1x Reverberate
• 1x Chord of Calling
• 1x Deflecting Swat
• 1x Force of Vigor
• 1x Shared Summons

Sorcery (8)

• 1x Gamble
• 1x Green Sun's Zenith
• 1x Finale of Devastation
• 1x Eldritch Evolution
• 1x Jeska's Will
• 1x Sevinne's Reclamation
• 1x Natural Order
• 1x Tooth and Nail

Commanders (2)

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This is an updated version of my Marath, Will of the Pod with the new Stranger Things Commanders, we lose the plan B combo of Cryptic Trilobite but we gain 2 separate sources of card draw in the command zone.

Combo Lines Show

Plan A

Create infinite hasty creatures to eliminate our opponents, we accomplish this by using Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker with Felidar Guardian or Village Bell-Ringer.

Tooth and Nail // Defense of the Heart

• This simply will find and potentially put both combo pieces into play and win on the spot, however, these are typically pretty slow and they are very obvious "I win the game" cards that attracts a ton of interaction and hate

• Total Mana Cost / + Large opposing boards

Survival of the Fittest // Fauna Shaman

• For our first activation we will discard any creature to look for Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker

• For our second activation we will discard Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker to look for Felidar Guardian

• For our last activation we will discard Felidar Guardian to look for Karmic Guide

• Cast Karmic Guide, when it enters the battlefield return Felidar Guardian, Felidar's ETB effect will flicker Karmic Guide, the guide's new ETB effect will bring back Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker

• Note: Fauna Shaman is leagues slower than anything else on the list but still has won me several games.

• Total Mana Cost +

Birthing Pod

• Sacrifice Max, the Daredevil or any 3 CMC creature to Birthing Pod to find Felidar Guardian, Felidar's ETB trigger will flicker Birthing Pod untapping it

• Sacrifice Felidar Guardian to find Karmic Guide, the Guide's ETB trigger will return Felidar, Felidar's ETB will flicker Birthing Pod again

• Sacrifice Felidar Guardian a second time to find Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, use Kiki's ability to make a copy of Karmic Guide, the token Guide's ETB trigger will return Felidar, Felidar's ETB will flicker Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker

• Note: This is the fastest line of play.

• Total Mana Cost + any 3 CMC creature

Yisan, the Wanderer Bard

• For our first verse counter, we will find Quirion Ranger to speed up our verses

• Activate Quirion Ranger to untap Yisan

• For our second verse counter, we will find Bloom Tender to help cover mana costs

• After our next untap phase, with Chief Jim Hopper in play Bloom Tender will make the mana needed to activate Yisan, the Wanderer Bard. For our third verse counter we will find Village Bell-Ringer to untap Yisan and our Bloom Tender

• Using Bloom Tender make mana, activate Yisan for our fourth verse counter. This will put Felidar Guardian into play, it's ETB will flicker Village Bell-Ringer causing our Yisan and Bloom Tender to untap

• For our fifth and final verse counter we find Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker

• Note: This line doesn't use the graveyard and can avoid pesky grave hate!

• Total Mana Cost (with all color identities on the battlefield) +

Plan B

Plan B is no longer the simple Dualcaster Mage + Heat Shimmer, this has been replaced with a Conspicuous Snoop pile that can be set up with 1 card thanks to Goblin Recruiter. Its important to note that we can Pod into this line by sacrificing a 1 CMC dork to find Recruiter or use creature tutors such as Eldritch Evolution that will put recruiter directly into play

The pile goes as follows

• Cast Goblin Recruiter finding Conspicuous Snoop Torch Courier and Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker

• Draw Conspicuous Snoop by cracking a clue or any other means

• Cast Conspicuous Snoop and reveal Torch Courier

• Cast Torch Courier off the top of your library and sacrifice it to give Conspicuous Snoop haste

• With Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker on top of your library, active Conspicuous Snoop using Kiki's ability to target itself creating another Conspicuous Snoop with haste

• Have the Conspicuous Snoop copy target itself to create another Conspicuous Snoop copy, repeat this step indefinitely

• After creating infinite Conspicuous Snoop clones, active Kiki's ability to have Conspicuous Snoop copy Goblin Recruiter

• The Goblin Recruiter copy will enter and trigger, allowing us to shuffle Kiki back into the library for the Pod pile if needed and will find Mogg Fanatic

• Using Mogg Fanatic's ability, sacrifice as many Conspicuous Snoop copies as you need to kill your opponents

Total Mana Cost

Plan C

We run quite a few creatures and Finale of Devastation for 10+ finding Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite can end games but deserves the Plan C title as its a true last resort

Note

I'm also cutting Emiel the Blessed from this list but you could definitely add him back in, he creates infinite mana with Dockside Extortionist but this on its own is no longer a wincon since Marath, Will of the Wild is no longer the commander and cannot be leveraged as a mana sink to deal infinite damage

Thoughts, Stats and Potential Changes Show

Pod decks have always had a special place in my heart and this iteration has the main combo feeling more consistent than ever. The deck feels more linear now that there are less lines to win but linearity has made this the easiest iteration for people to learn while also getting them consistent wins with its simple gameplan.

This is a strong and consistent list that I enjoy playing against other optimized decks (24/87 wins for a 28% W/L against '9s'), I have sat down against cEDH decks and still managed to win occasionally (2/11 wins for an 18% W/L against cEDH decks) but I think this particular list for Birthing Pod isn't at the cEDH level despite still being able to squeak out some wins. In a 4 player pod of equal strength decks your W/L should only be 25% so as is, the deck is preforming exactly how I'd like it to be. These W/L stats are including some testing I did with the new commanders before settling on the above decklist but the changes were nothing major only testing a few individual cards such as Irencrag Pyromancer or Academy Manufactor.

Snoop vs. Dualcaster: I don't play cEDH as often, because of that I often feel like I have time to play towards my pod lines and dont have to often rely on my plan B. If I don't have to rely on this to be a readily available line of play I think I prefer the dualcaster mage combo. The Snoop combo has more dead cards in my deck that I don't want to see when working towards my plan A. The cards in the dualcaster package are also just valuable on their own, copying an opponents tutor or draw spell or cloning a hatebear thats locking out an opponent before podding the real creature, these situations are few and far between but the cards feel better in the deck. The downside of this is we have zero tutors that can find Twinflame or Heatshimmer and simply have to hope we draw into that half of the combo after we draw or tutor up our dualcaster mage. The Snoop pile requires a single creature tutor that finds Goblin Recruiter and we win, which makes it feel a lot easier to set up when we need a plan B. I really am torn on what line of play is better for this deck, for now Snoop will stay in because of how easy it is to set up with all our creature tutors

Upgrade Ideas

• Make it 4 color. Tymna and Tana would likely offer better card draw than clues and more consistency with tutors

• Trim Lands for higher quality mana rocks

• Double down on the clues Audacious Reshapers Trash for Treasure Tamiyo's Journal Inspiring Statuary Ghirapur AEther Grid etc.

Date added	3 years
Last updated	3 years
Exclude colors	UB
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	11 - 0 Mythic Rares 67 - 0 Rares 12 - 0 Uncommons 7 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.30
Tokens	Clue, Copy Clone, Emblem Wrenn and Six, Food, Treasure