Help Me Hate: Urzatron, Melira Pod, Affinity
Modern forum
Posted on June 30, 2013, 5:40 p.m. by Bauhom
Hi all, I'm fairly new to Modern. My local meta is pretty small, but it includes an Urzatron deck, a Melira Pod deck, and an Affinity deck. Right now I've got Pithing Needle for Urzatron, Surgical Extraction and Torpor Orb and Grafdigger's Cage for Melira Pod, and 4x Ghost Quarter in mainboard for all three.
Here's the deck I'm currently playing with: Black Bob. I'm also brewing up a B/U deck with Bobs, Snapcasters, Delvers, and Creeping Tar Pits. Thanks very much for your help.
gnarlicide says... #3
Splash red for Sowing Salt
. It would ruin most tron mana bases. I do it often, and its pretty cheap.
June 30, 2013 6:13 p.m.
Man, Sowing Salt is awesome. It would completely change my deck, though.
Hurkyl's is nice, thanks.
June 30, 2013 6:50 p.m.
gnarlicide says... #6
I wouldn't change your deck that much really... just add 4x Blood Crypt and some dragon skull summits into your mana (maybe some other R/B duals) and play like normal. Then, in SB you would have access to Dreadbore , Sowing Salt and Slaughter Games . Just a thought.
June 30, 2013 7:02 p.m.
cards like Extirpate and Surgical Extraction can rain on the combo parade at times
June 30, 2013 7:27 p.m.
Tron - Probably the easiest to disrupt, Ghost Quarter , Tectonic Edge , any way to destroy lands + Surgical Extraction and Extirpate absolutely ruins them.
Melira Pod - Pithing Needle naming Birthing Pod , Mana Leak 'ing pod, basically pod is their lynchpin. Torpor Orb also helps. Be careful of their Restoration Angel and Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker . Kiki Jiki needs to be on the battlefield first, so you can just Doom Blade or Go for the Throat (those should be in your deck).
Affinity - Load up on removal, Hurkyl's Recall s, Dismember are good delay spells.
June 30, 2013 10:27 p.m.
gnarlicide says... #9
I once played Slaughter Games
in modern against a storm deck, naming Grapeshot
. I seriously watched a dude cry that day.
July 1, 2013 7:04 a.m.
gnarlicide says... #10
Another card to consider against Pod decks is Tumble Magnet , but then again, this was while pod was standard, we didn't have Pithing Needle . Be careful though. Some Melira Pod decks, (like mine) run a few enchantment removal creatures. I run 1 main (Acidic Slime ) and 1 sideboard Harmonious Sliver <<< no idea how to spell that this early. And sometimes I play 1 Ancient Grudge . For some reason, it just so happens that pod hate comes in the form of artifacts and enchantments that cost 3 or less. So I run 3x Abrupt Decay s accordingly.
Good Pod players will have decks that run similar to that. I would go as far as saying, the best way to win against infinite combo pod is to KILL Melira! Destroy her, and they won't have a chance. If anyone did that to me the last modern tournament I played at, things would have been different and I would have gone home without 12 MM packs. Birthing Pod is not really the threat, it is a tool. The threat is Melira. Without her, the combo is useless. Doom Blade and Surgical Extraction should get rid of that issue. Same goes with Kiki, but I played against kiki pod, its not as consistent as Melira pod.
July 1, 2013 7:14 a.m.
Harmonic Sliver is the speelling (no typo, phonetic :)) also another option that (my) melira pod runs is Qasali Pridemage .
July 1, 2013 11:11 a.m.
gnarlicide says... #12
Ah thanks. I was too lazy to look at the name in my deck. Yeah pridemage is pretty effective.
July 1, 2013 12:37 p.m.
For Melira Pod, I've only played it once but it seems like Melira, Sylvok Outcast and Gavony Township are the two key cards. If you can take care of those two, the deck practically folds, doesn't it?
July 11, 2013 6:30 a.m.
Bauhom not really, because it is also an aggro deck with 25+ creatures all with special abilities and interactions on their own. Sure most are a 1 of, but it's quite easy to make it all work regardless, because you still have Birthing Pod available to get the cards you want/need. You will slow it down, but you will not stop it by removing those things. Will it be enough? Depends on the pilot of the pod deck.
July 11, 2013 10:26 a.m.
gnarlicide says... #16
True without pod, it is slower. With mine I can still get all of my pieces out by scrying with viscera seer. I have won a few times like that. Going aggro is also another option, watch out though, some builds use Sun Titan to get their Meliras, finks and redcaps back. It may be a good idea to run some gy hate. Mine has some reanimator aspects to it in that respect.
July 11, 2013 12:06 p.m.
Re Melira Pod: Beating this one is pretty complex. It's been a successful deck lately precisely because it doesn't rely on any one strategy and therefore can't really be hated out with any one card. It can combo you out, but if you stop that, it can just beat you to death in a fair game with its value creatures. I think Bauhom above has the right idea in that he's looking at killing a combo piece and getting rid of beatdown enablers like Gavony Township , but that's kind of hard to do in reality, especially with the deck's recursion.
Even killing off Birthing Pod doesn't necessarily do much. It can win with natural draws, and it still has creature tutors in Ranger of Eos , Chord of Calling and can recur things that die with Reveillark and Eternal Witness . In fact, if Wizards decides some day that this deck is too good, I'd expect Chord of Calling to get the banhammer before Birthing Pod does.
Having played against it a lot and now having joined the dark side to play with it, I think the two best cards to play against Melira Pod are Grafdigger's Cage and Faerie Macabre (particularly if you don't play white). Both can be played in any sideboard. The former prevents all of the creature tutors/recursion except for Ranger of Eos and the latter stops the combo dead. Again, neither stops all aspects of the deck by itself, but both are tremendously helpful. Many of the other suggestions in this thread are also quite good, but I don't think any of them can top these two for total effect.
July 12, 2013 9:12 a.m.
Even if they ban Chord of Calling , Genesis Wave and possibly Primal Surge will be a good drop in replacements for it. That ban wouldn't be that big of a deal. I probably would use Genesis Wave in replacement of Birthing Pod as a 3 of and add the 4th Chord of Calling if they banned that.
What this says, killing off the pod decks with bans, won't happen because it would take too many bans to do it. I also don't think it's an 'unfair' deck either, it is not time consuming to play (like eggs) nor is it a turn 1-3 automatic win allowing the opponent enough time to do what he/she wants to try and win also.
It probably is too good, but it's because it's a solid deck, those two solutions you suggest and Torpor Orb are easily beaten with the stock (netdeck/common, including sideboard) line-up.
The only thing it has real problems with is control matchups with plenty of removal and counters in a tempo setting. i.e. Pyroclasm , Lightning Bolt , Pillar of Flame , Cryptic Command , Remand , Mana Leak , Gitaxian Probe , Electrolyze , board wipes and man lands or Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle , scapeshift comes to mind and something I played last week (that won the modern fnm). But even then, it still always has a chance, based on it's creatures abilities.
July 12, 2013 11:52 a.m.
With all due respect, Genesis Wave would be horrible as a replacement for Chord of Calling . There is one reason for Chord being in this deck: to help assemble combo pieces. It does help the "toolbox" aspect as well after game one, but Wave fails for that purpose too.
Genesis Wave isn't sufficient in either regard for two reasons. First of all, in a deck full of one- and two-ofs, using Genesis Wave as a tutor is just bad. Secondly, you can't even cast Genesis Wave for the amount of mana that is most usually used to cast Chord of Calling (three, plus one or two tapped creatures). Wave is too slow because of the lack of Convoke and the need for a large X.
Other than that, I completely agree with the rest of your post.
Mind you, I don't think that there will be Pod-directed bans. Yes, Melira Pod has won the last two American Modern GP's, but it really shouldn't have this time (the Living End player completely punted the last game...if you want to see something unbelievable, check out the video). Also, that was the only copy in the Top 8. That's not oppressive.
For the other two decks that the OP mentioned...man, those are tough for mono-black and its utter inability to deal with artifacts. I really think the poster that mentioned splashing for Sowing Salt had the right of it for Tron. It's not too hard if you do it just with a playset of, say, Blood Crypt and Verdant Catacombs . It would also help against Affinity because Pyroclasm becomes available.
July 12, 2013 2:02 p.m.
My mono-black deck has done well against our Affinity player so far, but it's because the deck is great against creatures and has fliers to block if needed.
Based on my deck (Black Bob) this was my sideboard plan for Melira Pod. Take out Melira and Gavony:
+1 Surgical Extraction +2 Extirpate (I would do all Surgical Extraction, but I only put one in sideboard--I want the Extirpates for the Urzatron matchup)+1 Sadistic Sacrament (buh bye, Melira, Gavony, Gavony--and if the game goes long, play this with its kicker FTW)+1 Memoricide (name Melira on turn 4 if she hasn't been played--if she is in the opening hand, then I'd get her withThoughtseize , Smother , Dismember , or Pact of Negation )+1 Spellskite (protect my Bobs, etc.)
- 3x Inquisition of Kozilek
- 1x Despise (note: the deck still has two Thoughtseize)
- 1x Gatekeeper of Malakir
- 1x Vault Skirge
Since I run 4x Ghost Quarter and 1x Tectonic Edge in mainboard, the Surgical Extraction/Extirpate can take care of Gavony Township .
I was also ready for Tron with all of the land destruction (plus one more Tectonic Edge in sideboard), Extirpate , Duress , Pithing Needle , and Imp's Mischief . And Sadistic Sacrament and Memoricide for good measure.
I decided I was already pretty solid against Affinity, so I was just going to side in a Darkness , just in case.
Your thoughts are most assuredly welcome. :-)
July 12, 2013 5:48 p.m.
Those indented dots are supposed to be minuses. So IOW, it's -3 Inquisition of Kozilek , -1 Despise , etc.
July 12, 2013 5:50 p.m.
gnarlicide says... #22
The only real way to demolish melira pod is to ban Melira, Sylvok Outcast . It is the literal heart of the deck. If you splashed red in your black bob deck, you could run Slaughter Games in SB. With that, you own everything. It has happened to me once with my deck Goddamn Rule Changes... and ruined me inside and out. no combo. If you can exile all copies of Melira, you win. Nothing huge can happen without her.
July 12, 2013 9:13 p.m.
I disagree completely. Melira, Sylvok Outcast is a heart of the deck, not the heart of the deck. It enables the combo. This deck doesn't have to win by combo. It's perfectly capable of playing creatures for more value than the opponent gets and just beating down.
When two copies of the deck made the top 8 of GP Portland, they were piloted by two very different styles of players. Matt Nass, who lost in the quarters, favored the combo. Sam Pardee, who won the whole thing, favored board position and beatdown. Both were very successful, and the fact that both can be successful demonstrates the power of the deck. My favorite way to play is to plan for the beatdown and take the combo if it becomes available. Against some decks it never does become available, and that's fine. (This is also the reason why Scavenging Ooze won't kill this deck, incidentally.)
I mentioned the cards that I thought would be useful for OP's deck above, but undoubtedly the best card in the format against Melira Pod is Pyroclasm . Splashing red for that is almost infinitely better than splashing for Slaughter Games , unless you're playing against a Pod player that just doesn't know how to play the deck.
July 16, 2013 2:19 p.m.
I have a question about Melira Pod and Tron. How are the matchups for those decks against a fast aggro deck?
July 24, 2013 3:53 p.m.
melira pod will trade early on and do well. Melira pod itself is an aggro deck at heart.
July 24, 2013 4:01 p.m.
Ensnaring Bridge works well against tron, survives its board wipe, and prevents them from attacking with annihilator creatures.
July 24, 2013 4:46 p.m.
Ohthenoises says... #27
Well, are we talking R/GTron or UTron? R/GTron is weak, as xzavierx said, to Ensnaring Bridge but UTron will just shrug and proceed to combo off with Mindslaver .
Although, R/GTron tends to run Karn Liberated so they can simply use his -3 to take away Ensnaring Bridge
July 24, 2013 5:48 p.m.
gufymike is 100% accurate about Melira Pod. It's an aggro deck that happens to be able to combo off sometimes (perhaps a third to a quarter of its wins come via combo, depending on who's playing it). It's better than pure Modern aggro decks because 1) there really are no Modern aggro decks other than Affinity, and 2) the creatures in Pod tend to trade very favorably with those in Affinity. (Also, Kataki, War's Wage .)
It's why eliminating Melira herself doesn't make you win, and it's why Pyroclasm is the best card in the format against it. It's also why Scavenging Ooze will slow, but not stop, it. (Also, Abrupt Decay and Linvala, Keeper of Silence .)
Tron tends to do pretty well against aggro, since if Tron gets to the mid-game without dying, it's pretty much game over. I think this is a big reason why you sometimes see Blood Moon in the sideboard of Affinity decks (it works well against other decks too, but I think Affinity is the main target).
July 25, 2013 8:44 a.m.
How about this? I'm working on a new modern deck: Modern Boros Humans Blitz-n-Burn. The main point of the deck is to play humans for Champion of the Parish and play a ton of humans that can be played off a Burning-Tree Emissary (along with burn spells). I want enough creatures to get battalions off with enough burn to finish. I even think 1 or 2 Young Pyromancer can be played in the deck. I'm wondering how to sideboard with red and white against Melira Pod, Tron, Affinity. I especially need help with white spells.
I'm not sure if I should sideboard Pyroclasm vs Melira Pod since it'll wipe my creatures too. Although, it wouldn't wipe Boros Elite if he's attacking with a battalion and it wouldn't wipe a Champion of the Parish that has grown to 3/3 or more.
Against Melira Pod, I'm considering 2x Skullcrack , 1x Surgical Extraction , 1x Sulfuric Vortex (siding out the 4x Lightning Helix ). How about Pillar of Flame ? It exiles, of course, but at sorcery speed. Pillar vs Pyroclasm?
Against Tron, I'm thinking 3x Blood Moon (side out 3x Lightning Helix ). How about Sowing Salt ? I'm more worried about him countering a 4 CMC card than a 3 CMC, but Blood Moon can also be bounced to my hand and then countered. Then again, with this deck I should be able to win fast enough so just buying some time with Blood Moon seems good. Maybe I should run 4x Blood Moon?
What kind of Affinity hate could I run? I just saw Kataki, War's Wage above. Seems good. Shattering Spree ?
Thanks again, y'all.
July 25, 2013 3:46 p.m.
And I just found Magma Spray . Also found Smash to Smithereens and Turn / Burn .
July 25, 2013 5:50 p.m.
Don't forget about Stony Silence . Better than Kataki, War's Wage unless you're running Pod (since Kataki can be tutored with Pod but Silence can't).
Note that Stony Silence even stops mana abilities (including off Darksteel Citadel and Mox Opal ), which is unusual for things that take away activated abilities. It also shuts down Arcbound Ravager nicely.
July 26, 2013 10:51 a.m.
Btw, I fixed up that Boros Humans-n-Burn deck. It plays well now: Modern Boros Humans Blitz-n-Burn II. Any suggestions for sideboarding in red and white are welcome, as well as how to work that red/white landbase (I don't have the Arid Mesa s).
Bauhom says... #2
I also put a Rain of Tears in the sideboard. Dunno if that's a good idea.
June 30, 2013 5:51 p.m.