Midrange Without Pod
Modern forum
Posted on Jan. 20, 2015, 4:50 a.m. by ChiefBell
So now that we have the banlist we can start planning for the future.
My primary concern, as many of you will know, is midrange. I play BG, and BGW primarily. I have also dabbled a little in BGR, but not much. As far as I'm concerned there were 3 main midrange decks in modern - Tron, Pod, and BG/x. With Pod gone that leaves a large gap, that I think BG/x will quite happily fill. Both BG/x and Pod fell under the same sphere within the meta of slightly slower creature-based decks. Pod leaned a bit more heavily on creatures whereas BG/x leaned a bit more heavily on removal spells.
As far as I'm aware there will be no replacement for BG/x now that Pod is gone. I think it's still the best way to build a controlling midrange deck. I also don't think that Tron will be replaced, as it's still the best way to build a rampy cheat-y midrange deck. However, what will change is that there is now a large space for a greater variety of creature heavy midrange decks. This is the particular archetype that Pod played on.
I imagine creature heavy midrange would be much like Pod, but just less efficient due to the lack of a reliable tutor haha. It'll still be able to stabilise against aggro, it'll be about even when playing against control midrange (BG / BGW) etc, and it'll lose quite badly to combo or cheaty midrange like Twin or Tron due to the lack of interaction. These are statements that previously applied to Pod, it's just that with it gone I imagine new things will take it's place.
I predict, and this is my worry, that without an interesting way to tutor up efficient creatures the meta will fall back on decks that just ram in 4x Tarmogoyf, and we may see a lot less variety between the midrange decks, given that this is something that BG/x does too. Although on the other side of the argument, a true creature heavy midrange deck would perhaps avoid Goyf because they would probably have no more than 3 or 4 different card types (land, creature, instant, maybe sorcery).
What do you predict will fill the 'creature heavy midrange deck' vacuum? What will emerge to fill Pods place? Will it be a Goyf ridden hellscape? Or will we see decks built around Garruk? Around Leatherback Baloth? Around Voice of Resurgence? Will it still do well against aggro but lose to combo?
Sure, I understand that. I get that Pod going may leave a space for other decks to fill, and that's good.
My point is that I think that space will just become hundreds of goyf decks. Which is degenerate and irritating in its own right.
I like to see variety, and I like to see innovation. What I am afraid of is that this won't come - we'll just see a few narrow and predictable decks fill the void.
January 20, 2015 6:03 a.m.
Not everyone is going to run a playset of Goyfs because everyone went be able to even get them. They've already gone up in price, breaking $200. That's for a single card and this is Modern we're talking about, not even Legacy. Tarmogoyf should not be the equivalent of a Volcanic Island, but that's besides the point. We'll be seeing a lot more Naya/Gruul aggro and Affinity, considering how popular they were before Pod became the best creature deck ever, and Tron will likely come back as well. I imagine Courser of Kruphix might be really good in a lot of the midrange decks with green because he's great at stabilizing, so if anything Modern (not Standard) could drive his price up. The biggest problem I'm seeing right now is that WoTC banned cards that gave way to such popular deck and didn't really give Modern anything fun to play around with in FRF besides maybe Ugin and a few others. This is obviously better than introducing "format-breaking" cards, but not by much.
January 20, 2015 6:37 a.m.
Well Zoo and Afinity were always going to come back as aggressive decks once delver left. That was a given. Their presence isnt so dependent on Pod, but more so on other things just being better (Delver, for example).
Tarmogoyf being expensive wont affect the professional meta in any way. Budget isn't a concern for high level play.
I also think that Courser of Kruphix is fantastic. I think Quirion Dryad could be good. I'm already thinking about Mirran Crusader too. Mirran is nice because there are fewer decks playing PTE, more decks playing Abrupt Decay.
January 20, 2015 6:40 a.m.
APPLE01DOJ says... #6
I think 
midrange has enough tools to excel it just needs something to combat the unfair decks of the format
January 20, 2015 8:06 a.m.
CanadianShinobi says... #7
I concur with ChiefBell on the Goyf decks. I want to be proven wrong though. Actually, my hope is that we see the emergence of a midrange deck that isn't green, but it's a fools hope. It will be green and it will be Goyf.
January 20, 2015 8:33 a.m.
I'm expecting Doran, the Siege Tower decks, both tribal and otherwise, to see more play. The tribal version is cute, but a real high-toughness rock deck can be really strong I think. It's pretty resilient and can justify a fair amount of the same silver bullets Pod could, albeit with less reliability.
January 20, 2015 9:03 a.m.
Seems good. I've already seen Junk decks that run a few Birds of Paradise along with high toughness creatures. I actually built an Overgrown Battlement, Primeval Titan deck a few weeks ago, which would now be quite fun because with Pod gone there are fewer strategies that can swarm big beaters.
January 20, 2015 9:41 a.m.
slovakattack says... #10
I think that we'll see more Zoo based decks, and midrange-y decks that run alternative colors... so long as they splash for Goyf.
January 20, 2015 9:50 a.m.
SpartanCEL says... #11
Amazon modern masters is 185 which is an increase but not 200. Amazon usually has inflated prices as well. TGC Mid is 190 and high is that 210 you must be talking about. MTG price is also 193 so I guess amazon hasn't been hit? I think we'll see innovation and then people just go use 4x Tarmogoyf, unless other decks prove viable
January 20, 2015 10:22 a.m.
APPLE01DOJ says... #12
U don't have to use Goyf u can use Putrid Leech or Talara's Battalion and build elves. Or use Abyssal Persecutor to play Smallpox. U can play Vengevine or build a viable mono green stompy with discard and Abrupt Decay. Let's not forget that Scavenging Ooze is both a beast and affordable.
January 20, 2015 10:44 a.m.
APPLE01DOJ says... #13
Being on the receiving end of Mirran Crusader always sucks haha
January 20, 2015 10:46 a.m.
KrosanTusker says... #15
People talking about Courser of Kruphix have a good point. He's a good source of long-term advantage (not that he fills Pod's vacuum, but still) and I can see this being one of the first tools people turn to to build their new Pod-less midrange decks. This, in its own way, could also limit the variety of creature decks available. Off the top of my head, the only playable creatures CMC 2 or less that attack through it are:
So that could still limit Zoo and all the innovative creature decks we're hoping for.
I would like to see a mono- stompy deck that curves Expery One into Kalonian Tusker into Leatherback, or something similar, but that seems like the latent Green player in me just being overoptimistic.
January 20, 2015 11:41 a.m.
scottemery says... #16
I want/think the recent bannings will allow Mono-Green Stompy to become a thing, a competitive thing.
January 20, 2015 11:44 a.m.
Didgeridooda says... #17
I think modern green devotion could be a thing. Something like G/u/x I like the sound of a Gux deck.
Putrefy says... #2
I think you miss the important point ChiefBell. With Birthing Pod being so overly powerful, there was simply no point in playing any other midrange-creature deck. Because they were all worse than Pod. Now you can experiment with a variety of creature decks. I think banning Birthing Pod was the greatest move wizards could've taken.
Believe me, we will see a vast variety of different creature decks. Of course they have to include either black for discard, blue for countermagic or be overly aggressive to stand a chance against combo decks. I think right now is the time to experiment.
Sure a lot of Green-based creature decks will include Tarmogoyf. Just as many Blue-decks include Snapcaster Mage. What's the deal?
With Pod gone you will finally be able to play a durdly R/G Aggro deck or a Bant-Midrange deck. All the "bad" creature decks have suddenly become viable because the "best" creature deck left the format.
January 20, 2015 5:36 a.m.