Chord of Calling in Melira Pod
Modern forum
Posted on Jan. 5, 2014, 8:11 p.m. by PrimeEpoch
I've been looking at some protour Melira Pod decks, to get some ideas on how to tech my own(The Melira Pod!), and I've noticed that a lot of them only run 3 Chord of Calling . I was wondering if there was any reason for this, or if that's just how the tech went for most of them.
PrimeEpoch says... #3
If you say so... I was kinda looking for an answer though...
January 5, 2014 8:23 p.m.
PrimeEpoch says... #5
Fair enough, but I was talking about the forums tbh.
January 5, 2014 8:29 p.m.
Yeah, but I think I look better when I don't answer instead of saying "I don't know."
January 5, 2014 8:32 p.m.
PrimeEpoch says... #7
FacepalmI was saying that I was looking for an answer after your comment on the forums, implying that I thought that it's correctly placed in the Q&A part, because I'm looking for a direct answer.
January 5, 2014 8:35 p.m.
PrimeEpoch says... #8
There is supposed to be a paragraph between the facepalm and the I btw, just in case you can't read it lol
January 5, 2014 8:38 p.m.
hunter9000 says... #9
He means that the Q&A is for questions about game rules, not about deck building. But don't worry about it, an admin will sort it out shortly.
January 5, 2014 9:11 p.m.
Ohthenoises says... #10
Q&A section is for rules questions only, not just general questions. This type of thing needs to be asked in the Deck Help forum.
The reason that you only run 3x chord and not 4x (assuming that you're asking why not 4) is because with 4x Birthing Pod you have SO much tutor power already. The Chord of Calling s are to put the nail in the coffin. Since they are Instants you can pod on your turn then wait till their end step, tap everything for Chord, tutor out a combo piece, Pod on your turn, and go off. You don't NEED 4x and 2x is too few.
January 5, 2014 9:36 p.m.
Currently the Melira Pod lists are de-emphasizing the combo and focusing on being a little faster to the board, hence 3 Chord of Calling instead of the full suite of 4. Even with convoke it's a pretty slow card, and you can't really afford to have multiple in hand for some match-ups.
January 5, 2014 9:39 p.m.
Ohthenoises says... #13
gnarlicide I doubt it. As I said, they are instants and you can tap creatures to cast it. so at their end step you can effectively cast a creature for free.
However they are slow cards in general so as a general rule of thumb: If you want to see one in your opening hand run 4, If you want to see one at some point you run 3, if you want one late game run 2, if you are tutoring for stuff run 1.
January 5, 2014 9:49 p.m.
vampirelazarus says... #14
@gnarlicide You can try it, but I'll let you know that I use them all them time when I have them.
January 5, 2014 9:50 p.m.
im running a budget pod deck, but i don't have the cash to just deal out $75 for 3 of em, so is there any other good replacement for chord of calling? or should i just run more midrange birthing pod with the combo as an alternate win-con since i can't tutor for it as effectively?
January 5, 2014 10:04 p.m.
Ohthenoises says... #16
@pandabear that should be how you are playing the deck anyways. The combos are there as a "hey I just drew into Spike Feeder , I can play it and pod off my Ranger of Eos and get Archangel of Thune " interaction. It's not supposed to be played as a combo deck, but rather, a aggro/midrange deck with a combo backup.
Chordless Pod could work, in that case I would be running a different kind of creature base entirely, more akin to the BUG pod builds of the Standard of the time. (Phantasmal Image , Phyrexian Metamorph etc.) However, that may just be me.
January 5, 2014 10:15 p.m.
Chord of Calling is very helpful for melira pod... but you need to remember that its built as an aggressive aggro deck not a combo win deck like kiki-pod. that being said it can absolutely win you the game with infinite life / damge, but chord is really there to pull out your answer to other decks more than it is to instant win. pulling out Harmonic Sliver , Shriekmaw , Qasali Pridemage or Spellskite etc are just as important as getting your last combo piece.
January 6, 2014 7:15 a.m.
PrimeEpoch says... #19
I see what you guys are saying about being aggressive ect, but I have to disagree. I think that Chord of Calling is not only good at finding combo pieces as it's mostly used for, but is very good mid/late game because it can be used to find the perfect creature relevant to the situation, which is what I believe pod in general to be about. Yes, it's slow, but with all of those mana dorks, surely you can get away with it?
On turn 3 for example, you can have lots of relevant creatures on board, then chord for 3 on the right hand. I'm not saying that this will realistically happen a lot, but you should be able to make a good chord on turn 4/5. That's why I want to play 4.
January 6, 2014 5:41 p.m.
PrimeEpoch says... #20
Probably worth noting that with Hokori, Dust Drinker in side (which annihilates tron), Chord of Calling is made even better in the tron matchup.
January 6, 2014 5:59 p.m.
what about running Time of Need in place of 3 chords? its cheap and can help me tutor up a "4cmc melira'', or any other legendary in a pinch. its not instant but still seems better than nothing?
January 6, 2014 8:26 p.m.
Ohthenoises says... #22
It's not horrible but there aren't a whole lot of legendaries in the deck.
January 6, 2014 8:41 p.m.
Turn_Soonest says... #23
I'm not sure why you wouldn't run Chord of Calling
January 6, 2014 11:54 p.m.
vampirelazarus says... #24
@Turn_Soonest because the price is fairly steep.
That said, I would gladly buy them again, if I wanted to run two pod decks.
January 7, 2014 12:50 a.m.
PrimeEpoch says... #25
It's not better than Chord of Calling though, what if you only need Viscera Seer for the combo? Also, with instant speed, you can kill them in their combat which is quite funny ;)
January 7, 2014 4:36 p.m.
Hi. I know the original question was focused on Melira Pod, but do you guys see Chord of Calling as having a place in Kiki Pod decks? A number of decklists I've seen (and I'm pretty new to Modern) do not have them. Is it just not as valuable for it?
January 11, 2014 4:59 a.m.
PrimeEpoch says... #27
I'm not sure, I haven't looked into kiki pod tbh. I would recommend creating a new forum if you want to know the answer to that tbh.
Matsi883 says... #2
This shouldn't be asked in the Q & A. Epochalyptik should be along soon to move this to the Modern forum.
January 5, 2014 8:14 p.m.