If this looks pretty stock, it's because it is. I keep trying new things, dropping some cards ( Phyrexian Metamorph ), adding other cards ( Scavenging Ooze ), moving cards from the sideboard to the main ( Linvala, Keeper of Silence ). In the end, the list that keeps working is the one that I'm going with.
I've looked at a number of things to arrive at this list.
First of all, I've experimented with Linvala in the main deck in place of Metamorph. I just can't help the thought that Metamorph is an okay card that is occasionally necessary (no better way to block an opposing Etched Champion than to copy it), while Linvala shines in some matchups and does nothing in others. Metamorph is not a flashy card, but it pulls so many surprises that I'm giving it another shot.
I also have tried Scavenging Ooze. My feeling was that I never wanted to save the mana to use for the Ooze. Josh McClain (GP Detroit winner whose deck contains 74 of the cards seen here) thought it just wasn't something you'd ever Pod for. I agree with that too. It's a good card, but it just doesn't fit that well here.
This list drops combo pieces, which I initially dropped my jaw at, but now it makes sense to me. There are six ways to get a Viscera Seer without a Pod, which makes podding into a sac outlet not so necessary, so I cut Cartel Aristocrat. Archangel of Thune actually duplicates Melira's function with Kitchen Finks, so I went down to one Melira, Sylvok Outcast. There are, of course, the full compliment of Kitchen Finks and Murderous Redcap because they're just good.
Spellskite had spent a long time in the board too, but I found that I just feel much better having it available going into a game against an unknown deck. (Also, Chording into it is a ton of fun.) It takes the spot I had given to Ooze.
I had played with the mana base too. This one runs a ninth fetchland instead of a checkland. Since I'm using double-white spells, I had also experimented with trading out one Razorverge Thicket for a second Temple Garden, giving Misty Rainforest two white sources to fetch. I found that it just wasn't necessary. You have six ways to get the Godless Shrine too, and with three Thickets, they get naturally drawn often enough. Two Gardens led to mana that was too good...I wasn't getting any extra benefit over what I had run before, but it was costing me more life.
