Birthing Pod, Winter Orb, and Swords?
Deck Help forum
Posted on March 14, 2014, 12:38 p.m. by Saljen
I'm getting into Legacy for the first time and I love building unique decks, and this is what I've come up with so far.
The idea is pretty simple. Throw down Winter Orb and use non-land mana generation so I can still play smoothly while they have 1 land opening per turn, hopefully greatly slowing them down. Mana-dorks can be sac'd with Birthing Pod to get either Puresteel Paladin if I need him or to grab Stoneforge Mystic in order to get more Swords on to the field. Once I've got a Sword out, toss it on a peasant and swing away!
Any ideas or suggestions are greatly appreciated, whether its good or bad criticism. Trying to make this a legitimate deck for Legacy play.
@-Logician - Thanks for the suggestions! I added a Karakas and 2 Geist of Saint Traft . I love the geist because I can sac the tokens to Birthing Pod after they deal damage to grab a mana dork. Mishra's Workshop would be an amazing addition, but it is not legal in legacy :(. I'm hesitant to drop Birds of Paradise from the deck because I'm running so few lands and I need the non-land mana generation. I do see the benefits of Mother of Runes though, and it would work wonders in here. I'll play test around with different numbers of MoR and BoP to see if I can fit it in without getting mana screwed.
I appreciate the advice, this is exactly the kind of stuff I was looking for, thanks!!
March 14, 2014 1:31 p.m.
Oh yeah. Mishra's is vintage... I've been watching a lot of Vintage tournaments lately. Sorry. :/
The token that Geist of Saint Traft makes is exiled at the end of combat, and Birthing Pod can only be activated at sorcery speed (read the last sentence of the ability). So that interaction doesn't work, sadly.
It looks like you dropped a land and a deathrite for two Geists, but you only need one geist. Get that land back. With Pod, you don't even wanna draw Geist. You want to pod off your Stoneforge for it.
You could honestly just drop Birds of Paradise altogether for more fetch lands. The lightning greaves with Mother of Runes is disgusting btw. I would truly be sickened if I had to play against that combo.
Considered AEther Vial ? That may or may not be the direction you want to take.
March 14, 2014 1:49 p.m.
@-Logician - I had not considered AEther Vial ... Though that is an excellent suggestion. Do you think dropping BoP and adding 3 AEther Vial and 1 Deathrite Shaman would be a good move?
March 14, 2014 2:10 p.m.
You should understand that AEther Vial should be considered an "all or nothing" card. When you put that into your deck, you need to commit strongly to it. In the decks that Aether Vial is ran in, they run four, and a turn one Aether Vial actually just their best play by far.
They take advantage of tapping it during their opponent's turn to surprise them with an Aven Mindcensor , Stoneforge Mystic , Spirit of the Labyrinth , Flickerwisp etc, or if their playing merfolk, they're just holding it at 2 charge counters to drop their hand as fast as possible. If you're playing Aether Vial, it's not going to be as fast and as powerful as an opponent's Aether Vial in a good Death and Taxes or Merfolk deck.
That doesn't exclude it from a possibility, however. I think that the more creatures you take away, the less powerful it becomes. I would consider dropping some lesser-value artifacts instead if that is the route you're interested in.
March 14, 2014 2:20 p.m.
If you're interested in just having more consistency in your draws, consider Sylvan Library or Sensei's Divining Top .
March 14, 2014 2:21 p.m.
I ended out dropping Sword of Vengeance, Lightning Greaves, and Batterskull to make room for AEther Vial. I also swapped Wasteland with Rishadan Port so I can make a full lock down by tapping the single mana that they are able to untap. That way I can still have the BoP to get faster mana and have more opportunities to use Birthing Pod.
March 14, 2014 2:27 p.m.
I like Rishadan port because you have so few lands and you don't want to be sacrificing them when your opponent is probably playing more than you, and you likely only have one or two in your opening hands.
When you're only untapping one land per turn, it's not always guaranteed that you'll be able to spent the one other mana to use your Rishadan Port. You'll have to use your mana dork in play. If you only have one, then that's basically your whole turn. Just some food for thought. Rishadan is good, but it does cost you two mana to keep them off their one mana.
March 14, 2014 2:32 p.m.
@-Logician - What do you think about Etched Champion instead of Geist of Saint Traft ? Not sure which I like better, trying to go over the pro's and con's of each in my head.
March 14, 2014 2:55 p.m.
I'd drop that Heartseeker and maybe the Sword of Light and Shadow . Although free Heartseeker shenanigans do seem fun. I would double up on Sword of Feast and Famine , mainly because it's my favorite sword. Oh yeah and it makes Winter Orb all the more painful.
Land Grant might deserve some consideration. Chrome Mox would also work wonders in addition to (or in place of) Mox Diamond .
March 14, 2014 3 p.m.
Without an explosive artifact start, Etched Champion could be a sitting duck. For that reason, I like Geist better.
-Logician says... #2
Nice start.
Consider Steelshaper's Gift .
Most decks running white have one or two copies of Karakas . In Legacy, it is very strong against some unfair decks that run Show and Tell to put down Griselbrand or Emrakul, the Aeons Torn , both of which get wrecked by Karakas . It doesn't even come into play untapped... it's just all kinds of good. If you ran Thalia, Guardian of Thraben in the sideboard, then Karakas has the secondary use of returning Thalia to your hand in order to save her from removal. I would trade out the Birds of Paradise for Mother of Runes . MoR is the most unfair "fair" creature. Consider Mishra's Workshop too for a turn one Birthing Pod . Also, I would have a three-drop of some sort to pod up to. Geist of Saint Traft is a unique one, but if you're looking to stay within the realm of Selesnya, then I'd first like to immediately tell you to steer clear of Knight of the Reliquary in this build. Not enough lands to support that. But Brimaz, King of Oreskos seems pretty good. Mirran Crusader would be really badass against the right oppponent, especially if you put the fire and ice sword on him, because then the only thing he isn't protected from would be white. Hitting twice with the swords is always really good, and he's the guy to do it because he has double strike. A lot of people are a fan of the Sword of the Meek + Thopter Foundry combo, which is actually really good. You'd have to splash blue to do that, which isn't too bad because you have Noble Hierarch and Deathrite Shaman Already supporting that. With the addition of blue to the mana base, you can open yourself up to many more possibilities, even with just a splash.
March 14, 2014 1:19 p.m.