A Primer on Melira Pod

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GlistenerAgent

16 July 2014

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Introduction

One of the many decks you need to be prepared for in order to do well in the increasingly popular Modern format is Melira Pod. The goal of this strategy is to use tutor effects such as the namesake Birthing Pod and Chord of Calling to assemble the three-card combination of Kitchen Finks + Melira, Sylvok Outcast + Viscera Seer or Melira, Sylvok Outcast + Murderous Redcap + Viscera Seer to gain infinite life or deal infinite damage. Despite this combo aspect, the deck can also function as a remarkably resilient midrange deck, using value creatures such as Voice of Resurgence, Ranger of Eos and Reveillark alongside Gavony Township to repeatedly two-for-one the opponent until they have no resources left to beat your growing horde of creatures. The deck is full of powerful interactions between creatures and spells, and contains so many tricks that it is difficult to completely outperform a competent pilot.

While playing this archetype, you are looking to search for key creatures that are potent in certain game situations, such as dealing with important artifacts or enchantments with Qasali Pridemage or killing a key creature with Shriekmaw. In this way, the deck is capable of answering many situations without losing too much advantage.

The strengths of the deck lie in its great resiliency and value capability, as well as its nearly unbeatable long game. When one is able to repeatedly activate Birthing Pod turn after turn whilst sacrificing creatures like Kitchen Finks that add even more value, the opponent will be forced to deal with single threats using more than one card. The most apparent weakness in the archetype is that the deck can often lack explosiveness. Matchups like Affinity and fast, disruptive combo decks like Splinter Twin can pose great problems for the Melira Pod player, as many of the deck’s resources are just plain bad creatures. Orzhov Pontiff can sometimes simply be a 3 mana 1/1, and Linvala, Keeper of Silence in certain matchups is a 4 mana ¾ flyer. However, a wide range of options at any given moment in the game makes Melira Pod a very powerful choice in Modern.

Deck Construction

Below is a sample Melira Pod decklist, which contains many of the most common card choices and quantities. It is by no means strict, but provides a very useful basis for our card analyses.

deck-large:draft-pod

It’s truly incredible how many powerful cards you have access to in the black-green-white colors that typically compose a Melira Pod deck. Let’s begin with our landbase.

Landbase

As we will see when it comes to the spells and creatures, Melira Pod plays a lot of green cards. As such, we must build our manabase according to this necessity.

The beginning for doing so is with Zendikar “fetchlands”, namely Misty Rainforest and Verdant Catacombs. These cards both provide access to green mana for turn one mana accelerators, and so are our best options. Marsh Flats, while it may seem more apt for our colors, requires more paying of life to get the necessary colors, as we’ll see.

The lands that we search up with our fetchlands are Overgrown Tomb, Temple Garden and Godless Shrine. The most common numbers are 2 Overgrown Tomb, 1 Temple Garden and 1 Godless Shrine, because these lands can easily be searched for by our fetchlands.

The rest of our colored lands are Razorverge Thicket, an M13-Innistrad dual land and basics. Razorverge Thicket allows us to cast mana creatures while still having other colors available. The M13-Innistrad dual of choice is Woodland Cemetery or Sunpetal Grove, allowing access to green mana as well as another color. Finally, basic Forests and Swamps fill out the basic lands, as we need basic Swamp to fetch with Verdant Catacombs for Thoughtseize in later games.

The last land slots are occupied by one of the most important cards in the deck, Gavony Township. When you are overloaded on mana creatures and don’t have much action, this card allows you to turn any creature into a threat. It also interacts favorably with Kitchen Finks and Murderous Redcap, as it cancels out any -1/-1 counters that may be on the creatures, and allows them to be sacrificed or killed one more time.

Note that the above choices correspond with fairly standard landbase construction procedures, and these rules are not hard and fast. If your particular build of Melira Pod has different demands on its mana, your landbase should be changed accordingly.

Non-Creature Spells

Being a heavy creature deck, you don’t have a great deal of space for noncreature spells. The four Birthing Pod are mandatory, as they are your deck’s most powerful card advantage tool, allowing you to access any creature in your deck most of the time. Chord of Calling serves as additional tutor power, and it’s instant speed and convoke allow you to ambush opponents with a backbreaking creature like Spellskite to redirect a vital spell, Qasali Pridemage to destroy a Cranial Plating or Orzhov Pontiff to destroy a Splinter Twin player’s combo. The final spells in the deck are generally Abrupt Decay, allowing you to deal with most any cheap, troublesome permanent.

Creature Options

If you took a look at that sample decklist, you saw no less than eighteen different creatures in the maindeck, and eight more distinct creatures in the sideboard. Needless to say, this deck allows for a great deal of customization in the creatures you play, and will vary greatly depending on the archetypes you play against most frequently. What follows is an analysis of the most commonly played options, and their utility in maindeck or sideboard against various decks. It should be noted that for this primer, I have chosen to leave out the infinite combo of Archangel of Thune + Spike Feeder due to its relative lack of competitive play.

The Essentials

These creatures are mandatory in a Melira Pod deck, and the only ones you are willing to play multiples of.

Birds of Paradise, Noble Hierarch - Remember all those green lands? This is what you’re usually doing with them on turn one. Mana ramp is an important aspect of any Birthing Pod deck, as in a turn-four format you want to get your powerful cards out as early as possible. Turn one mana guy into turn two Birthing Pod is surprisingly powerful, and these guys also help fuel Chord of Calling and Gavony Township later in the game. Most decks will play seven one-mana accelerators, but if you opt for options higher on the mana curve this number could rise to the full eight.

Kitchen Finks - Kitchen Finks is the all-star of any Melira Pod deck. It’s incredible how much value can come of its ETB lifegain effect. The card also synergizes well with your Birthing Pod, as it can be sacrificed multiple times for four-drops. Kitchen Finks is also one of your strongest tools when you are forced into the beatdown plan instead of unleashing your infinite combo. Lifegain is quite potent in keeping aggressive opponents like Affinity out of the game, while your Finks is also a 3 power attacker. I recommend playing four, but the final number is the deckbuilder’s choice.

Voice of Resurgence - Did you think this card was good in Standard? It’s ridiculous in this deck. For only two mana, you get a very strong card against control decks that inhibits their responsive game plan, and provides you with a large attacker upon being sacrificed. Creating incredible value alongside Reveillark is one of the deck’s best ways to outgun midrange and control opponents. Most lists will play 3 Voice of Resurgence, and going below two does more harm than good most of the time.

Melira, Sylvok Outcast, Viscera Seer, and Murderous Redcap - Melira is in the deck for the sole purpose of the combo, as otherwise she is a lowly Grizzly Bears. Viscera Seer is also in the deck for comboing off, but can also provide residual value by sacrificing creatures that have become targets for removal spells for deck manipulation. Murderous Redcap also has residual value in killing small creatures or dealing small amounts of damage to the opponent. Note that Cartel Aristocrat is another choice for a sacrifice outlet, but usually provides less residual value than Viscera Seer and is less easily accessed.

Supporting Creatures

These creatures are all generally one-ofs, and having access to them allows the deck to deal with a larger variety of board states.

Eternal Witness - This card gives the deck an easily-accessible way to recur lost combo pieces or value creatures, adding to the shell of resilient, advantageous creatures. Using the ETB effects of sacrificed or destroyed creatures multiple times is extremely powerful.

Linvala, Keeper of Silence - Linvala is a hoser in the mirrormatch, as well as in the quite common Splinter Twin matchup. While she is just a ¾ otherwise, these matchups are prominent enough for her to earn a maindeck slot.

Orzhov Pontiff - Potent against weenie strategies such as Affinity as well as opposing mana creatures. Pontiff can also be sacrificed (along with the haunted creature) to a Viscera Seer to deal with problematic X/2 creatures. Pontiff is one of several creatures in the deck that are much better at instant speed via Chord of Calling, as stopping the Splinter Twin combo by killing Pestermite or giving Deceiver Exarch 0 power is an amazing way to blow out an unsuspecting opponent.

Phyrexian Metamorph - When the versatility of the rest of the deck just isn’t enough, the Metamorph literally does anything. Copying opponent’s strong creatures or your own creatures for their ETB effects is a very powerful ability to have access to. Phyrexian Metamorph is also part of an infinite combo alongside Reveillark and a sacrifice outlet. A Metamorph copying your own Reveillark can be sacrificed to return itself and another creature (say, a Murderous Redcap) to the battlefield, copying the Reveillark once again and repeating this cycle to recur the same creature over and over again to reuse its effect. It’s versatility makes it very powerful in the deck’s game plan.

Qasali Pridemage - The three most commonly cited “best” decks in the format are Affinity, Splinter Twin and Birthing Pod, all of which revolve around artifacts or enchantments to win the game. Pridemage heavily disrupts these decks, and thus earns itself a maindeck place.

Ranger of Eos - Podding Kitchen Finks into this guy allows you to easily access Viscera Seer as well as your other mana creatures, and provides a strong card advantage engine against decks with lots of one-for-one removal.

Restoration Angel - This creature is incredibly powerful alongside your value ETB creatures. Gaining an advantage such as returning a card to your hand with Eternal Witness is very useful. This card is somewhat interchangeable with Phyrexian Metamorph, giving up some versatility for more interactive capabilities as well as having a (usually) larger creature.

Reveillark - Valuable in the aforementioned infinite combo with Phyrexian Metamorph, but also as a way to provide pressure that, when dealt with, will bring back even more pressure. If the opponent can’t completely deal with a Reveillark, they can easily be buried in value.

Scavenging Ooze - This creature is ridiculous. Plain ridiculous. It can exile Snapcaster Mage targets against blue decks, grow itself to enormous sizes against midrange strategies and completely dominate the board.

Shriekmaw - Interchangeable with Nekrataal. The deck needs a way to remove creatures reliably, and having a Doom Blade that also attacks is the perfect way to do that.

Spellskite - There are a lot of fun interactions with this card. Spellskiteing a Splinter Twin is backbreaking, and redirecting removal from combo pieces is also invaluable.The creature also provides residual hate against archetypes such as Infect and Hexproof.

Wall of Roots - The additional mana creature, as well as a solid speed bump for aggro decks. It is important to note that this card synergizes well with Chord of Calling, as it can be tapped for convoke and add a green mana to pay for the spell.

Sideboard Building

Sideboarding in Melira Pod is mainly an issue of metagame, and different cards are powerful against different decks. The cards below can easily be modified to deal with changing metagames.

Thoughtseize - This one is a four-of. It’s very powerful against many decks, especially combo and control. Stripping away removal or powerful spells helps clear the way for an aggressive game plan, and giving your opponent fewer options is always a great tool.

Dismember, Slaughter Pact, Path to Exile - These are the cheapest removal spells available to these colors, and are very helpful against high-creature count decks. Path to Exile is slightly more disadvantageous than the other two, as providing the opponent with a free land can be relevant.

Aven Mindcensor - A great hate-card in the mirror-match, and can ambush an opponent’s fetchland activation to stunt their mana development. The card’s utility is fairly limited, so it should be played as a metagame choice.

Burrenton Forge-Tender - This creature is an example of the cool levelling you can do in Melira Pod deckbuilding. Many red-containing decks that can afford it have turned to Anger of the Gods as a way to deal with your creatures, as it prevents persist creatures from returning to the battlefield and removes nearly every creature in the deck. The Forge-Tender effectively counters this spell, and Chord of Calling for it is a great way to protect your creatures from the spell.

Eidolon of Rhetoric - A great hoser against Storm decks. This is the better choice over Ethersworn Canonist because the three-mana slot is much more accessible than the two-mana slot (Podding away mana creatures is worse than podding away a Voice of Resurgence or Qasali Pridemage), and it survives Lightning Bolt.

Entomber Exarch - This card exists as a package with Sin Collector, providing a combination of discard spells against combo or control decks. It should be noted that this card can also hit lands if your opponent is mana-screwed.

Harmonic Sliver - Just like Qasali Pridemage in the maindeck, this card is here to destroy cards like Cranial Plating, Pyromancer Ascension and Splinter Twin.

Kataki, War's Wage - Another metagame choice, Kataki is clearly here for the Affinity matchup. If you see a lot of that deck, sideboard in this powerful hoser.

Obstinate Baloth - A midrange creature that is very good against Jund and aggressive decks. Less decks have chosen to play it due to the more versatile options that are available, but this creature is a great wall.

Sin Collector - Extremely powerful against Storm, completely denying access to the taken card (no Past in Flames can reach it), and a cheaper way to attack your opponent’s hand in creature form.

Thrun, the Last Troll - Thrun is a virtually unkillable creature, and comes in to deal with pure midrange strategies like Jund. A 4/4 defensive wall can easily stop Tarmogoyf and anything else the opponent may be trying to get through.

Gameplay

In that Birthing Pod decks are highly customizable, with many creatures that can be swapped out between maindeck and sideboard for various intended game plans and metagames, piloting a given Melira Pod deck will vary based on the pilot’s choices and playstyle. For example, where one pilot may feel more conservative and have a greater tendency to begin a midrange beatdown plan, another pilot could be aggressively assembling the combo kill. The issue is that both of these lines of play can be correct. However, there are some guidelines to playing Melira Pod, and some interactions and sequences that one should be aware of when testing the deck.

Choosing a Gameplan

It has been mentioned many times throughout this primer that Melira Pod can take on different roles depending on the matchup or game state. As such, it is a vital skill to recognize when to try and combo off, to be as aggressive with your creatures as possible, or to build up a strong board with value.

Matchup-based decisions are the easiest to make, generally speaking. Identifying the opponent’s deck choice as early as possible is an important part to executing the game plan, as even their first land could influence the course of your plays. Matches against blue control/midrange decks with Cryptic Command *list* and Snapcaster Mage are almost always a cue for avoiding the combo kill, as the pieces required to combo off are extremely fragile. The most common situations for a combo kill are against decks that don’t have a great deal of removal such as Affinity, Tron and some situations in the mirrormatch.

Particular game states are also strong indicators to selecting a particular gameplan. In more grindy matchups, where creatures trade with each other and are destroyed left and right, players will often be reduced to topdecking threats. This is the type of situation where having a Birthing Pod in play makes you the favorite to win, as you can generate a great deal of value even from a topdecked Birds of Paradise. Such grindy situations are perfect for a value-based gameplan, as a failed attempt to combo will result in almost guaranteed loss due to expending so many resources trying to do so.

Assembling the Combo

Once you determine that it is correct to attempt to combo off, there are several ways to go about assembling the proper pieces. It is important to note that in order to successfully combo, either the Kitchen Finks or Murderous Redcap being used cannot have a -1/-1 counter on it. Your combo works by sacrificing one of the creatures to a Viscera Seer, having it persist back but not receive the -1/-1 counter from doing so because of Melira, Sylvok Outcast’s effect.

The most common sequence of attaining the combo requires a Birthing Pod, but can also be accomplished with multiple Chord of Callings. The most consistent way to Pod to the combo is to make your way up to Ranger of Eos via sacrificing a two-drop for Kitchen Finks, then sacrificing Kitchen Finks for the Ranger. The Ranger allows you to tutor directly for Viscera Seer in addition to a mana creature, which often can be cast the same turn Ranger of Eos enters the battlefield]]. Your Kitchen Finks can be sacrificed for a Murderous Redcap, then subsequently the mana creature can be sacrificed for Melira, Sylvok Outcast. If you have access to an additional two-drop creature, you can Pod that instead of the Finks for a second Kitchen Finks to gain infinite life instead. Make sure that Melira is the last part of the combo that you tutor for, as having her in play prior to that is a red flag to the opponent to remove her.

Game 1

The beginning of an average game for Melira Pod is a turn 1 mana creature into a turn 2 two-drop, three-drop or Birthing Pod. Having plenty of mana is important in this deck, as you will need it for cards like Gavony Township, Birthing Pod and Chord of Calling.

It is important to identify your opponent’s deck choice as early as possible in the game. Sometimes, this is as easy as seeing a turn 1 Urza's Mine and putting the opponent on Tron or a turn 1 dumping of artifact creatures and putting the opponent on Affinity, but many times it can be much harder. Knowing what cards are commonly played in certain decks goes a long way to doing this. Seeing all of an opponent’s colors as early as possible can help identify them as a UWR player or a Jund player, but is a very common situation that you see a turn 1 Steam Vents and have no less than three decks to choose from: UWR, Scapeshift and a Splinter Twin variant. Seeing a blue land is generally an indicator to attempt to get a Birthing Pod or Voice of Resurgence into play under countermagic as quickly as possible, while green lands generally signify that you should attempt to search for your midrange, grindy creatures as soon as possible.

Once you have identified your opponent’s deck, you should immediately identify the most powerful cards in your deck for that particular matchup. Against a Splinter Twin deck, Qasali Pridemage, Spellskite and Orzhov Pontiff are your best cards, whereas against UWR Control your best cards are Voice of Resurgence, Kitchen Finks and Scavenging Ooze. Playing towards the cards that you believe are best in individual matchups goes a long way to actually winning the game.

However, not having a Birthing Pod or Chord of Calling requires you to play with only the creatures you have access to. Not seeing these cards mandates that you play a midrange game, getting as much value as possible out of repeated attacks and activated abilities of creatures while you generate value. Having a good sense of what cards from both players will make the most impact will allow you to deal with them more efficiently, and to hold the fort until you are able to draw a tutor and start a card advantage engine.

Interactions

There are many interactions in a Melira Pod deck that are very powerful and can solve certain niche situations, and it is important that you understand them in order to pilot the deck to its full potential. This primer will cover some of the more important interactions, but not all of the more minor combinations of cards and sequences.

Chord of Calling for Eternal Witness essentially gives you a free 2/1 creature, as you can return the Chord to your hand with the Witness. Having instant speed access to an Abrupt Decay or a Shriekmaw is strong especially in the middle of a complicated combat situation, where you can blow out an opponent who was not expecting their key blocker to be destroyed.

Voice of Resurgence alongside Eternal Witness and Reveillark form a nearly unbeatable value engine. With a Birthing Pod or sacrifice outlet in play, these can be repeatedly cycled over several turns to create many large elemental tokens and returning any used creature from your graveyard to your hand. With these cards in play, your opponent will almost never be able to deal with so many large creatures in an efficient manner.

Gavony Township makes your persist creatures virtually indestructible, as putting a +1/+1 counter on a Kitchen Finks negates a -1/-1 counter that may be on it. Putting a +1/+1 counter on a 3/2 Finks gives it effectively three lives, as you can have it killed back to a 3/2 with no counters, then again down to a 2/1 with a -1/-1 counter.

Orzhov Pontiff haunting your creatures or your opponent’s creatures allows for many cool interactions. This can be used to render a team of X/1’s dead at any time, and can let you get a lethal attack through by buffing your own creatures.

Sideboarding

Sideboarding in a Melira Pod deck can be very straightforward and very troublesome at the same time. The choice of whether or not certain cards are good enough to bring in or take out is often very hazy, and is up to the pilot to determine their value. These suggestions are merely guidelines, and can be changed to suit the deckbuilder’s needs.

Thoughtseize should be brought in against almost all blue controlling decks as well as combo decks, as stripping a key spell is very powerful in disrupting their game plan. If you bring in one, you generally will bring in all of them. A similar philosophy should be followed with Sin Collector and Entomber Exarch.

The removal spells should come in against heavy creature strategies, as you always want additional ways to kill your opponent’s threats to get yours through.

Eidolon of Rhetoric is very clearly for Storm matchups, and should be brought in nowhere else.

Burrenton Forge-Tender is generally good against any red deck, but is more specifically present as a Chord of Calling or Ranger of Eos target to protect from Anger of the Gods.

Scavenging Ooze and Thrun, the Last Troll should be brought in against more grindy decks, as having these in play for a long period of time will allow you to completely dominate the battlefield.

Aven Mindcensor is a card that can be brought in against a lot of decks to stop fetchlands, but should really only be brought in against the mirrormatch, as that is where the most searching is done.

In general, cards in your sideboard will very clearly display their value in various matchups, and understanding where that value is worth bringing it in is important to playing Melira Pod.

When it comes to what you sideboard out, decisions can be difficult. Matchups where you are more commonly a beatdown deck often mandate that you remove the combo pieces (Melira, Sylvok Outcast, Viscera Seer, Phyrexian Metamorph and more often than not Murderous Redcap), as well as some number of Chord of Calling, as you want to use your creatures to deal damage instead of tapping them to find value cards. Removing the more niche maindeck cards like Linvala, Keeper of Silence, Qasali Pridemage and Spellskite where they are not needed is also a nearly failsafe way to sideboard. It is important to consider what game states you expect to face, and what particular cards would not be optimal in these game states when you make sideboarding decisions.

Thanks for reading this primer on Melira Birthing Pod! This deck is a very rewarding deck to pilot, but requires you to make many metagame deckbuilding choices as well as many decisions in the middle of the game. The many possible lines of play that can lead to victory make this deck very resilient and a strong choice to take to any Modern event.