Have you considered including Illusionist's Bracers or Unbound Flourishing ? Both of those can go infinite with Marath.

SmokeyMcPot I have! Those are two great enablers for going infinite, thank you for the suggestion. The reason I only have the two Altars for infinite combos is due to preferences of the local meta.

So long as I am required to sacrifice the tokens being generated, so the only way to really combo out with them is to have Purphoros or Tremors out as well, it is not pushing the line too far. I guess I'm not allowed to be TOO degenerate. Also, it's harder for me to tutor for and protect artifacts.

With free rein, I'd run Idyllic Tutor and Mana Echoes / Earthcraft over Gamble and Phyrexian Altar , and Unbound Flourishing for either Fires or possibly Nissa.

And yes, I know Ashnod's Altar can go infinite with Cathars' Crusade and Marath, but again, the fact that it's an artifact seems to sit better with everyone concerned. At least that's how I convinced them.

Update: Got the OK for Illusionist's Bracers as it falls into the same category as Ashnod's Altar : difficult to tutor and protect. Great suggestion, SmokeyMcPot! I removed Wear / Tear , as I prefer Krosan Grip for spot artifact/enchantment removal.

I like Seedborn Muse and Wilderness Reclamation in Marath to get more chances to do his abilities and so you don't need to worry about using all your mana during your own turn.

Joe_Ken_ I like those suggestions a lot. Where would you suggest putting them in? I could see taking out Squirrel Nest , but it's really nice to have a way for the combo to go off without Marath.

thinkoriginal I would say that you could get rid of Once Upon a Time in the deck since it is almost just like playing a leyline card in the deck. Great when it is one your first turn but just average later in the game.

Maybe also Reclamation Sage since you have Aura Shards in the deck which you should be able to machine gun rapid fire with Seedborn Muse out.

Joe_Ken_ I was waffling on Once Upon a Time in this list, and Seedborn Muse would be able to be tutored by multiple cards, making the infinite mana-enablers less necessary. Great suggestion, I really appreciate it!

You may want to consider Felidar guardian in place of resto--enables single-turn wins with pod (if that's something you'd want).

Example chain would be 3 drop into Guardian, reset pod, pod guardian into Karmic guide, reset pod, pod guardian into kiki-jiki, copy guide, reanimate Guardian, reset kiki-jiki, rinse and repeat.

mattr2013 Yes I do want that. I was unaware of this chain and I love it. I can cut Resto for Gaurdian, and I think that while a neat trick, Nightshade Peddler just isn't quite good enough anymore, so Karmic Guide can go there. Thank you for that idea.

Marath is one of my faves. this deck is spicy.

Looks really good!

Mana Echoes is another card that can go infinite with Marath and Hardened Scales.

Could you please explain the Ashnod's Altar + Earthcraft + Hardened Scales and Marath to kill with Marath's pinging/tokens combo please? Sorry for the dumb question.

WarSpaniel

Of course! And that's not a dumb question; it's a weird interaction between cards.

Let's suppose we are tapped out, but have Scales, Earthcraft, Marath, and the Altar in play. Usually not directly, but through playing them for the value they represent, we can incidentally contruct the combo. One land also needs to be Basic, but can be a Forest, Mountain, or Plains.

1. Tap Marath using Earthcraft to untap the Basic, then tap the Basic for mana. Using this mana, pay 1 to activate Marath, removing a +1/+1 counter and creating a 1/1 Elemental token.

2. Use Earthcraft with that token to untap the Basic again, pay 1 to activate Marath and remove a +1/+1 counter, having Marath target himself to add a +1/+1 counter. Scales then adds an extra +1/+1 counter, bringing Marath back to where he started.

3. Sacrifice the token to Ashnod's Altar, generating 2 mana. Use one of the mana to create a token, and the other to get Marath's counters back. Each time you do this, Untap the Basic with Earthcraft and the token to add infinite floating mana to your mana pool.

4. Once you have enough mana floating, you can make add enough counters to Marath and make enough tokens to sacrfice to the Altar for you to use Marath's ability's damage mode to kill the entire table.

Love it +1 from me!

Do you think Impact Tremors or Purphoros, God of the Forge would ever find a home here?

greyninja

Those cards certainly have great synergy with Marath, and when paired with Cathars' Crusade/Ivy Lane Denizen and Earthcraft, Ashnod's Altar, or Phyrexian Altar, can become the primary kill condition. The previous build of this deck ran those very cards.

This version is much more focused on the Kiki-Jiki/Splinter Twin combo, as it is much faster and can be fired early and with very little boardstate. The combo version telegraphs itself quite a bit, while this Pod version is tuned for a cEDH meta and tries to win as quickly and efficiently as possible.

The Earthcraft/Scales/Altar combo is a backup in the event that Kiki-Jiki and Splinter Twin both get exiled, and the beatdown route is not feasible.

I like your thinking, though!

Would you possibly be able to break these combos down for me please?Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker/Felidar Guardian/Karmic Guide combo. Also, what creature do you normally Target with Splinter Twin? Thank you for answering my last question.

WarSpaniel

Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker makes a copy of Felidar Guardian. When that copy enters the battlefield, it triggers, targeting Kiki-Jiki, flickering it. You can then repeat this loop infinitely, creating enough Felidar Guardians with haste to kill all of your opponents with one combat swing.

The easiest way to assemble this is by using Birthing Pod (hence the archetype name, Pod. The "Blood" part of Blood Pod comes from Blood Moon, or in this case Magus of the Moon, commonly played with Pod). With any 3-cmc creature in play (conveniently, Marath is such a creature) and 3 mana available, you begin the chain by:

1. Sacrifice the 3-cmc creature to Birthing Pod. Search for Felidar Guardian, flicker Birthing Pod with Guardian to have it return to play untapped.

2. Sacrifice Guardian to Pod to search up Karmic Guide. When Guide enters the battlefield. Have it target Guardian in the graveyard to return it to the battlefield. Flicker the Pod again to reset it.

3. Sacrifice Guardian again to search up Kiki-Jiki. Use Kiki-Jiki to copy Karmic Guide, returning Guardian to the battlefield.

4. Flicker Kiki-Jiki to begin the infinite Guardian loop and win!

A similar line can be performed with Survival of the Fittest. Discard any creature to chain-discard through Guardian, Kiki-Jiki, and optionally Village Bell-Ringer (who also goes infinite with Kiki-Jiki), until you have them all in your graveyard and Karmic Guide in hand. Cast Karmic Guide, return Kiki-Jiki, copy Guide, return Guardian, reset Kiki-Jiki, go infinite.

Splinter Twin is used on Village Bell Ringer as an alternate infinite combo, as each copy untaps the enchanted Bell Ringer, making infinite copies with haste. This can be tutored directly into play with Academy Rector.

-Update-

I've put the above combo explanations into the the deck description for easier viewing.

Thank you for the quick responses and all the wonderful information so far. I was curious however, if this deck would be to difficult to pilot for someone looking to dip their toes into higher level EDH. I really like the stax pieces and this really appeals to me but I’m worried the concept is way over my head. I’m also curious as to what hands you normally keep and which ones you mulligan. Thanks again!

WarSpaniel

This deck is my favorite, so I love answering questions about it!

Blood Pod is one of those "easy to play, difficult to master" decks. The general idea of ramp/tutor into Birthing Pod/Survival of the Fittest as fast as possible is easy enough to grasp. The tough part is knowing the game plans of your opponents so you can play the appropriate stax pieces at the right time.

What helps is that most cEDH decks win with a set of fairly common combos. Thassa's Oracle/Demonic Consultation is the current go-to; Food Chain or Worldgorger Dragon combos powering out infinite mana; Aetherflux Reservoir or similar Storm finishers. Knowing what set of win conditions the most commonly seen commanders will be using is the first step to piloting a stax deck well.

How these decks get to their combos is just as important to interact with as the combos themselves. Flash/Protean Hulk, Ad Nauseam, fast mana like Moxen, Sol Ring, and Mana Crypt/Vault, and many tutors are all frequent ways to have turn 1-4 wins. Our stax pieces (including ways to break parity) and interaction spells are how we keep pace and control the game.

So what does a good opening hand look like for us? A general rule is we always want some form of ramp/fast mana, like a Birds of Paradise and/or Chrome Mox. On average, we are playing a slightly more fair strategy, and need to be able to keep up. We also want some form of interaction to stop your opponents from going off before you can establish stax, such as Angel's Grace, Pyroblast, Noxious Revival, or Swords to Plowshares, and two lands tends to be about right; one land hands are risky and almost never pan out. Beyond these 3-5 cards, there are three types of hands that I would consider keeping:

1. The stax hand. Knowing what our opponents are likely going to try to do, and if we have 2 or 3 relevant stax pieces, playing them early can completely disrupt our opponents, giving us time to draw/tutor for a combo.

2. The flexible hand. If we have a few tutors, maybe some protective interaction like Veil of Summer, we can play reactively to what our opponents decide to do. Search for an answer/interaction, a stax piece, or a combo piece; we have options with this.

3. The nuts hand. Sometimes we just draw into the win. There is something to be said about playing the aggressive role and going for the throat. It is not impossible to have our opener filled with fast mana, Pod or Survival, Faithless Looting and Guardian/Kiki-Jiki/Karmic Guide, or any combination of cards that we can simply play and win on turn 1 or 2. Sometimes taking the reins and dictating pace if play can pay dividends.

Throughout a normal game, the main goal for this list is mana-denial. Winter Orb, Static Orb, Tangle Wire, Collector Ouphe, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, and Magus of the Moon are how we slow down our opponents, while Dockside Extortionist, Lotus Cobra, Garruk Wildspeaker, Ramunap Excavator, Gaea's Cradle, and mana dorks allow us to break parity and come out ahead of our opponents.

Along with mana-denial, we also have a few other stax pieces to slow the opposing gameplans. Aven Mindcensor is crushing, as many decks rely on deck searching. Phyrexian Revoker is a silver bullet for many commanders. Ethersworn Canonist stops many combos, as does Spirit of the Labyrinth. Aura Shards can devastate the board, and Grand Abolisher is one of the best forms of combo protection we have.

With some practice and metagame study, this deck can be very strong, fast, and disruptive. I hope this helps!

Thank you so much for your in depth explanation as well as your time. I really appreciate all the answers and insight! However, I was wondering how you utilize Angel’s Grace? Is it in response to Thassa’s Oracle? I’m sure there’s quite a bit of utility I’m not following. Thank you again!

WarSpaniel

No problem! I'm happy to help.

Yes, Angel's Grace is useful against a few combos, and can buy you one more turn to win, but it is the best tool against Oracle. When Oracle enters the battlefield, its trigger goes on the stack. They then cast Consultation, exile their library, then you cast Angel's Grace and prevent them from winning. Now, they could also have Jace, Wielder of Mysteries or Laboratory Maniac and win with a draw, but we also have Pyroblast, Swords to Plowshares, and even Marath himself can ping them. However, more than likely Grace will seal their fate and they will lose on their next draw.

Any particular reason you run snow basics instead of regular basics? I didn't see anything that cared about snow permanents in the list?

LordPrism67

It's pretty much just a personalization thing. That, and I prefer old-border basics. There are corner cases where using them could make a difference, like if you were using Extraplanar Lens, but in this case it is just deck swag.