Primer: BluePod 2.0

Commander / EDH* Competitive Multiplayer Primer RGWU Tempo Twin

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Creature (30)

• 1x Arbor Elf
• 1x Avacyn's Pilgrim
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Fyndhorn Elves
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Noble Hierarch
• 1x Quirion Ranger
• 1x Bloom Tender
• 1x Collector Ouphe
• 1x Corridor Monitor
• 1x Dockside Extortionist
• 1x Drannith Magistrate
• 1x Gilded Drake
• 1x Vexing Shusher
• 1x Aven Mindcensor
• 1x Barrin, Master Wizard
• 1x Deceiver Exarch
• 1x Faeburrow Elder
• 1x Goblin Sharpshooter
• 1x Reclamation Sage
• 1x Renegade Rallier
• 1x Village Bell-Ringer
• 1x Yisan, the Wanderer Bard
• 1x Zirda, the Dawnwaker
• 1x Felidar Guardian
• 1x Linvala, Keeper of Silence
• 1x Oakhame Adversary
• 1x Karmic Guide
• 1x Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
• 1x Seedborn Muse

Enchantment (10)

• 1x Carpet of Flowers
• 1x Deafening Silence
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Training Grounds
• 1x Utopia Sprawl
• 1x Survival of the Fittest
• 1x Sylvan Library
• 1x Freed from the Real
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Splinter Twin

Land (30)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Forbidden Orchard
• 1x Forest
• 1x Gaea's Cradle
• 1x Gemstone Caverns
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x Island
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Savannah
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Stomping Ground
• 1x Taiga
• 1x Tarnished Citadel
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Tropical Island
• 1x Tundra
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Volcanic Island
• 1x Waterlogged Grove
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Foothills
• 1x Yavimaya Coast

Sorcery (7)

• 1x Gitaxian Probe
• 1x Meltdown
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Preordain
• 1x Finale of Devastation
• 1x Neoform
• 1x Eldritch Evolution

Artifact (5)

• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mox Diamond
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Birthing Pod

Commanders (2)

Instant (18)

• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Chain of Vapor
• 1x Dispel
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Flusterstorm
• 1x Mental Misstep
• 1x Nature's Claim
• 1x Noxious Revival
• 1x Red Elemental Blast
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Dovin's Veto
• 1x Eladamri's Call
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Chord of Calling
• 1x Deflecting Swat
• 1x Fierce Guardianship
• 1x Force of Will

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List updated 4/12/20

HUGE UPDATE INBOUND! This will take some time but it will be up shortly and added to Redddit and Discord servers!

Introduction:

Over the past few months I have caring for BluePod as my baby. Continually tweaking and changing it frpm what was originally brewed, from Lerker and I. The original brew has since changed around quite a bit and I feel the deck deserves a better write up than what I had done for it before. Adding multiple sections to the deck and card breakdowns, this primer will have more detail and updates added to it.

BluePod came to be out of trying to make my Riku Kiki-Jiki combo deck the best it could be. The deck was super fun, but it had always felt like it was missing somersetting. Riku was always a mana hungry deck and would always get shut down one way or another. The thought was to add white as color to add resiliency to the combo lines and adding some hate pieces to the deck. The first brew started out choppy but had a general plan to it. Looking more in depth to the cEDH meta, I came to see how similar the deck would be to Blood Pod. I contacted Lerker and the project started.

The deck has gained a ton of fun cards from current sets and is gaining even more heading into Modern Horizons.

Commanders:

BluePod is Thrasios deck at heart and 99% of games Bruce Tarl be will never cast. Bruce is there for the added colors of Red and White. In our combos and hate pieces Red and White add consistency and the win-conditions to the deck. There is a fringe line where we can have both commanders in play and pod them away for the win, or Pod away Bruce for a Seedborn Muse.

Thrasios is one of the most used commanders for a reason. His colors are fantastic, his ability is key, and he is bound to be broken in several different ways. Slap all the utility on a 1/3 body that can profitably block most creature in the meta and he becomes one of the best cards in the game. Many of the brewers in the format have just been throwing together Thrasios + X decks and they have been winning, and that is what we are doing her as well.

Land Base:

The land base of the deck is the most basic function of the deck. Without it, we cannot cast our spells and play the game of Magic. Playing 4 colors we need our mana to be perfect to achieve all of our colors when we need them. Luckily for us, the spells skew our mana base towards 2 colors that are needed frequently and early (green and blue). The Green mana is needed to get our early plays on the board. Blue mana is to protect us and slow down our opponents. Both white and red are splash support colors to slow down our opponents and to work on our combo lines.

Rainbow Mana-

• Command Tower
• Mana Confluence
• City of Brass
• Forbidden Orchard
• Exotic Orchard

These 5 sources can provide us with all of our colors with the smallest of payback. Only one (exotic orchard) is based off of our opponents; and they will still usually always have at least one of our colors; and the downside is the cost of 1 life as an active cost.

Tarnished Citadel is the 6th source of rainbow Mana that could be run in this list, but has been cut for another land (Waterlogged Grove) as we need the Green and Blue mana more and the downside of citadel is the worst of the bunch

Fetch Lands-

• Misty Rainforest
• Scalding Tarn
• Wooded Foothills
• Windswept Heath
• Arid Mesa
• Flooded Strand
• Polluted Delta
• Verdant Catacomb

All our on color fetches plus the addition of Polluted Delta and Verdant Catacomb. The mana base is skewed to suit our Green and Blue sources which these 2 extra fetch lands provide.

Bloodstained Mire and Marsh Flats can be run in the list but are not worth the space or cost added to the deck. We do not fetch for Red or White often and want the Green and Blue sources.

Duals and Shocks (Fetchables) -

• Tropical Island
• Volcanic Island
• Taiga
• Savannah
• Tundra
• Breeding Pool
• Steam Vents
• Stomping Ground
• Temple Garden
• Hallowed Fountain

The best possible dual lands we can play in the deck. They are fetchable and fix the Mana to the sources we need. Often fetch Tropical Island or Breeding Pool first in games, but it may be a Taiga or Savannah based on hands (but is 98% always a Green land to develop our mana ramp package).

Plateau and Sacred Foundry are not in the list for space. We are geared towards Green and Blue and never need to fetch for these sources

Utility and Extra-

• Horizon Canopy
• Waterlogged Grove
• Flooded Grove
• Yavimaya Coast
• Gaea's Cradle

All these lands are “flex/utility” but add much more to the deck. They add the fact that we can fix our color to Green and Blue (Yavimaya Coast, Flooded Grove and Waterlogged Grove), they draw us cards when we are flooding (Horizon Canopy and Waterlogged Grove), or make us insane amounts of mana (Gaea’s Cradle). All these lands are fantastic. The most flexed land is Flooded Grove, but I like it in here. Opening up or mana to tap for double Blue or Green is huge. We can tap our Elves for a Green Mana but with Flooded Grove we can still play a Mana Drain or Narset's Reversal in a pinch.

Mana Ramp:

Non-Creature Ramp-

• Carpet of Flowers
• Utopia Sprawl
• Wild Growth
• Chrome Mox
• Mana Crypt
• Mox Diamond
• Sol Ring
• Mana Drain (not a ramp spell per-say but a counter that puts us ahead like a ritual)

Carpet of Flowers is the only Mana Ramp Enchantment we run that is dependent on the meta you play against. Blue is by far the best color in Magic and are bound to have at least 1 Blue player at the table. It can add up quick and put us far ahead. The Artifact Mana we run is because it is the best ramp in the game. They are harder to remove and place us turns ahead of our opponents. We do not have a large package as we are on the anti-artifact package, but these 4 are worth running. Wild Growth and Utopia Sprawl add to the Mana we already have and make our land enchanted tap for double a colored source.

Creature Ramp-

• Arbor Elf
• Avacyn’s Pilgrim
• Birds of Paradise
• Elvish Mystic
• Fyndhorn Elves
• Llanowar Elves
• Noble Hierarch
• Bloom Tender
• Priest of Titania

We run all the traditional one drop Mana Dorks (except Boreal Druid) in our colors. The best ones are Birds of Paradise and Noble Hierarch as they cover the most colors in our mana needs. Bloom Tender and Priest of Titania are the only 2 CMC ramp creatures we run but are always producing 2 or more mana on each tap. Arbor Elf as a 1 CMC can also make 2 mana on a tap with other affects as Wild Growth and Utopia Sprawl.

Both Arbor Elf and Bloom Tender come up in our combo packages as well.

Counterspells:

In the List

• Dispel
• Flusterstorm
• Swan Song
• Pyroblast
• Delay
• Dovin's Veto
• Mana Drain
• Narset's Reversal
• Mental Misstep
• Force of Will

The staple counterspells in the format.

Other Counterspells to Consider-

• Negate
• Spell Pierce
• Force of Negation
• Pact of Negation
• Counterspell
• Red Elemental Blast
• Silence
• Autumn's Veil
• Vexing Shusher
• Grand Abolisher

All these are acceptable counters that have been in the list before but have been changed to the 10 above as the deck has been streamlined. Silence and Autumn's Veil are more protection spells than counterspells. Vexing Shusher and Grand Abolisher are good at protecting your spells you play during your turn, and have added utility of being creatures and repeatable.

Removal:

In the List-

• Cyclonic Rift
• Chain of Vapor
• Swords to Plowshares
• Gilded Drake
• Force of Vigor
• Pyroblast

Cyclonic Rift and Chain of Vapor are our catch all non-land bounce affects. Swords to Plowshares and Gilded Drake our our creature removal; Drake giving us control of the threat rather than removing it. Force of Vigor is the artifact and enchantment removal. Pyroblast is not only a counter but a removal spell for Blue permanents.

Other Removal to Consider-

• Manglehorn
• Nature's Claim
• Wear // Tear
• Rapid Hybridization
• Pongnify
• Winds of Rebuke

Card Draw and Advantage:

One of the things that separate casual and competitive EDH is the basis of card draw and advantage. Gaining a few cards on your opponents can be the deciding factor in the game.

Cantrips-

• Ponder
• Preordain
• Brainstorm

1 mana and filter our draws is the game of cantrips. These cards are almost all restricted or banned in multiple formats for a reason.

Extra Card Draw-

• Sylvan Library
• Mystic Remora
• Rhystic Study

Sylvan Library is more of a repetitive cantrip that gains us a ton of cards compared to the others. Rhystic Study and Mystic Remora depend on what our opponents play. If our opponents do not want to let us draw then they are slowing down their own game plan.

Thrasios-

Thrasios as a commander is one of the most valuable card advantage engines in cEDH. Drawing filtering cards and then ramping or additional card draws is a huge ability.

• Training Grounds
• Biomancer's Familiar
• Seedborn Muse

All add to the versatility of Thrasios, making him cost less or being able to activate multiple times a turn cycle. Doing so puts us ahead in the card advantage race.

Tutors:

Tutors add consistency and redundancy to the deck. Black is the main color for tutors and not playing Black adds a little difficulty to the deck, but where there is a will there's a way.

Non-Creature Tutors-

• Enlightened Tutor
• Open the Armory

These tutors fill more of the utility slots. Enlightened tutor will often grab a Training Grounds or Sylvan Library. Open the Armory is a 2nd copy of Splinter Twin or Freed from the Real that are our game winning combo pieces.

Creature Tutors (Non-Repeatable)-

• Eladamri’s Call
• Neoform
• Eldritch Evolution
• Chord of Calling
• Finale of Devastation

Finale is not only a tutor, but a recursion and a win condition in the deck. (Discussed later)

Creature Tutors (Repeatable)-

• Survival of the Fittest
• Yisan, the Wanderer Bard
• Birthing Pod
• Prime Speaker Vanifar

The Creature Tutors is what we get by playing Green and not Black. Pod is in the name of the deck and is the of the engine of the deck. In playing Blue we get a second copy of Pod in Vanifar

Stax and Hate Pieces:

Card Search-

• Aven Mindcensor
• Stranglehold

With a meta for of fetches, tutors and Protean Hulk Combos, we need a way to stop the affect and goals of those decks. Aven Mindcensor often catches people off guard because of flash, and limits the amount of searching to be done. Stranglehold straight says they cannot search at all. Both are oppressive and strong cards to run.

Cards per turn Limit-

• Ethersworn Canonist
• Eidolon of Rhetoric

There are a few cards that fill the namesake “Rule of Law” affects. In this list the creature package of these affects was chosen for the utility of being easier to tutor and blocking ability.

Other cards with the same affect-

• Rule of Law
• Arcane Laboratory

Artifact Hate-

• Stony Silence
• Null Rod

This is my personal favorite part of the stax effects we run. Running only 5 activated artifacts we barely take a hit from these affects, but the lock and speed slows down other decks. It's what makes this deck tick. Shutting off mana rocks against a scepter deck or turning off Aetherflux Reservoir completely.

*As new cards are being spoiled. there is a feeling the meta will shift and have either

• Broken Artifact decks
• Artifact hate in current decks

We will be on the latter strategy. With Kataki, War's Wage and Karn, the Great Creator ready to be put in the list.

Creature Hate-

• Linvala, Keeper of Silence

In a meta full of creatures there are going to be a ton of activated abilities. From mana dorks to opposing Thrasios, Linvala puts a damper on their plan and day all while letting us continue on happily.

Combos:

Thrasios Value Engine-

Thrasios + Training Grounds/Biomancer’s Familiar/Seedborn Muse

This combo isn’t a game winning combo, but a value engine. Thrasios is great at drawing cards and ramping alone, but pair him with any of these and you are drawing or ramping 3+ cards a turn cycle. The great part of the engine is that as a tempo deck we can hold up our counterspells or use the unused mana into Thrasios for cards.

Kiki-Jiki and Splinter Twin- These are the main combos of the deck and have multiple bottoms.

Bottoms for Kiki-Jiki-

• Pestermite
• Village Bell Ringer
• Breaching Hippocamp
• Felidar Guardian

Bottoms for Splinter Twin-

• Goblin Sharpshooter
• Pestermite
• Village Bell Ringer
• Breaching Hippocamp

Freed from the Real-

Freed from the Real is a combo all about making infinite mana. How we win off of the infinite mana is through Thrasios (he can be cast off the mana made and doesn’t need to be in play), drawing our entire deck. Finale of Devastation is the big payoff. Cast all the mana dorks in hand and then Finale for x=100000 and kill with all the hastey dorks.

Breaking Down the Combos:

Birthing Pod-

Birthing Pod + 2CMC Creature + 4 Mana + 8 Life

• Start by paying 1 mana and 2 life sacrificing the 2 CMC creature pulling out a 3 CMC; 3 CMC Creature is either Pestermite that untaps Birthing Pod on entry
• Pay 1 mana and 2 life (2 mana, 4 life) activating Pod sacrificing the 3 CMC creature to find Felidar Guardian that blinks Birthing Pod in Untapped
• Pay 1 mana and 2 life again (3 mana, 6 life) Sacrificing Felidar Guardian grabbing Karmic Guide, Trigger Karmic Guide to grab Felidar Guardian, Blink Pod again -Pay 1 mana and 2 life (4 mana and 8 life) Sacrifice Felidar Guardian to grab Kiki-Jiki Activate Kiki-Jiki to make copy of Karmic Guide returning or Felidar Guardian untapping Kiki-Jiki.
• Proceed to Kiki-Jiki Combo

Birthing Pod + 3 CMC Creature + 3 Mana + 6 Life

This line works exactly as above but is one step less and cost us 1 less mana and 2 less life!

• Pay 1 mana and 2 life (1 mana, 2 life) activating Pod sacrificing the 3 CMC creature 4 CMC Creature is Felidar Guardian that blinks Birthing Pod in Untapped
• Pay 1 mana and 2 life again (2 mana, 4 life) Sacrificing Felidar Guardian grabbing Karmic Guide, Trigger Karmic Guide to grab Felidar Guardian, Blink Pod again
• Pay 1 mana and 2 life (3 mana and 6 life) Sacrifice Felidar Guardian to grab Kiki-Jiki
• Activate Kiki-Jiki to make copy of Karmic Guide returning Deceiver Exarch or Felidar Guardian untapping Kiki-Jiki.
• Proceed to Kiki-Jiki Combo

Prime Speaker Vanifar-

Works exactly the same as Birthing Pod, but does not require life or mana. Vanifar does although require a turn of untaps.

Prime Speaker Vanifar + 2CMC Creature

• Start by sacrificing the 2 CMC creature pulling out a 3 CMC; 3 CMC Creature is either Pestermite or Village Bell Ringer that untaps Vanifar
• Sacrifice the 3 CMC creature to find Breaching Hippocamp untapping Vanifar
• Sacrifice Breaching Hippocamp grabbing Karmic Guide, Trigger Karmic Guide to grab Breaching Hippocamp untapping Vanifar -Sacrifice Breaching Hippocamp to grab Kiki-Jiki Activate Kiki-Jiki to make copy of Karmic Guide returning one of the untapping creatures that will untap Kiki-Jiki.
• Proceed to Kiki-Jiki Combo

Prime Speaker Vanifar + 3CMC Creature

• Sacrifice the 3 CMC creature to find Breaching Hippocamp untapping Vanifar
• Sacrifice Breaching Hippocamp grabbing Karmic Guide, Trigger Karmic Guide to grab Breaching Hippocamp untapping Vanifar -Sacrifice Breaching Hippocamp to grab Kiki-Jiki Activate Kiki-Jiki to make copy of Karmic Guide returning one of the untapping creatures that will untap Kiki-Jiki.
• Proceed to Kiki-Jiki Combo

Survival of the Fittest-

3 colorless mana + 2 white mana + 3 green mana + 1 creature in hand + Survival of the Fittest (This combo may seem mana intensive, but mana ramp in here makes it far easier, and the combo can be made over multiple turns)

• 1 Green mana (1G) pitch any creature to grab an “Untapper”
• 1 Green mana (2G) pitch untapper to grab Kiki-Jiki
• 1 Green mana (3G) pitch Kiki-Jiki to grab Karmic Guide
• 3 Colorless and 2 White mana (3C3G2W) casting Karmic Guide returning Kiki-Jiki
• Tap Kiki-Jiki to make a copy of Karmic Guide returning untapper, untapping Kiki-Jiki
• Proceed to Kiki-Jiki Combos

Freed from the Real-

There are two routes to go with this combo

Bloom Tender + Freed from the Real Have Bloom Tender in play and then cast Freed from the Real enchanting Bloom Tender. Bloom Tender will now tap for a Blue and a Green mana. Use the Blue mana to untap Bloom Tender and repeat this process for infinite Green mana. On the last activation save a Blue mana and cast Thrasios and draw our deck.

Arbor Elf + Utopia Sprawl (color Blue) + Freed from the Real Same process as the Bloom Tender route. Have a forest enchanted with Utopia Sprawl. Tap the land and untap it with Arbor Elf netting mana. Repeat the process using Blue to untap Arbor Elf.

Arbor Elf + Wild Growth + Freed from the Real Exactly the same as above, but Wild Growth must be on a Tropical Island or Breeding Pool.

Goblin Sharpshooter-

• Goblin Sharpshooter is in play and is then enchanted with Splinter Twin and will be tapped creating a second copy of Sharpshooter
• Copy Sharpshooter taps and pings a 1/1 creature killing it, triggers cause the original Sharpshooter and copy to untap (Forbidden Orchard gives and opponent a 1/1 creature that can be relevant here)
• Tap the original Sharpshooter to create a second copy. Tap copy 1 to deal 1 to an opponent. Tap copy 3 to shoot itself to die. Triggers untap the original and copy 1
• Repeat the process netting 1 damage each loop until all opponents are all dead.

Spell Loops:

Section in process. More to come

Conclusion:

BluePod is a Tempo deck aimed to target a place between the fast combo decks and slow stax decks between the tables. As a BluePod player you can play and adapt your game based on the situation at hand. Playing either the fast combo game off of one of your big pieces, slow control gaining card advantage with Thrasios, or the middle route with light stax affects and making the other decks play at your speed. Sitting down into a normal cEDH pod you are not seen as a threat and often a deck that wants to be kept in a little while longer as you can help others answer some threats, but you are not the full control deck. You are not a Thrasios/Tymna deck or a traditional Blood Pod list and people do not know what to often expect. The added Blue makes up for the lack of Black in Blood Pod as we are more resilient in the meta, BluePod does not need to tap out almost ever and can always represent an answer even if we are only holding out to draw cards with Thrasios.

Playing the deck you love to be in a pod with at least one other Tempo or stax deck. We are not the fastest deck out of the gate that wins T3 consistently and we only have so many answers. Having one other deck to help provide these answers is where we start to thrive. I feel like this would be normal in the metas most places as well. Pods where we are seen as not a threat are the best pods to play in. BluePod is not a Hulk deck but can still win almost out of nowhere all by holding up answers as well.

In conclusion, BluePod is a tempo deck aimed to sliding into the meta as a contender. Being a resilient deck that can win out of nowhere or can sit back and grind open the games up to a different situation every time you sit in a pod. The deck is super fun to play and is worth sleeving up.

The Maybe-Board:

This section is to come soon!

• the aim of this section is to break down the cards we have in the Maybe-Board and what metas we would like to play these cards in.
• will continue to add feedback on cards as they are played in the meta

Top Ranked	Achieved #27 position overall 5 years ago Achieved #15 position in Commander / EDH 5 years ago Achieved #2 position in Commander / EDH Primer 5 years ago
Date added	5 years
Last updated	4 years
Exclude colors	B
Splash colors	WR
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	3 - 0 Mythic Rares 59 - 0 Rares 19 - 0 Uncommons 19 - 0 Commons
Cards	102
Avg. CMC	2.10
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Copy Clone, Spirit 1/1 C, Treasure
Folders	cEDH, cEDH, Inspiration/ideas, Competitive decks, cEDH Templates, Blood Pod Variants, Pod, Plans EDH, EDH, CEDH