Birthing Pod Top 8s the Pro Tour!
Lately I’ve been on a Birthing Pod kick, building decks around it in both Modern and Standard. I’ve had quite a bit of fun with both, sad that I hadn’t found it sooner. Check out this decklist played by Lucas Blohon at Pro Tour Honolulu this weekend (still in progress):
Lukas Blohon
Pro Tour Dark Ascension Top 8 – Standard Constructed
Main Deck
4 Copperline Gorge
6 Forest
3 Gavony Township
1 Mountain
1 Plains
4 Razorverge Thicket
2 Rootbound Crag
3 Sunpetal Grove
24 lands
1 Acidic Slime
3 Avacyn’s Pilgrim
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Blade Splicer
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Fiend Hunter
1 Geist-Honored Monk
4 Huntmaster of the Fells
1 Inferno Titan
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Strangleroot Geist
1 Viridian Emissary
1 Wurmcoil Engine
28 creatures
4 Birthing Pod
2 Mortarpod
2 Oblivion Ring
8 other spells
Sideboard
1 Acidic Slime
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Autumn’s Veil
2 Hero of Bladehold
3 Mental Misstep
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Ray of Revelation
2 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Tormentor Exarch
15 sideboard cards
While exploring Birthing Pod options myself after Dark Ascension releases online, I was looking at White/Green/Black as the most likely to succeed, with G/W/Blue coming a close second. I hadn’t honestly looked too hard at Green/Red, figuring that it was more favored in beatdown strategies.
This deck takes only a small advantage of red, though, with 4 Huntsmaster of the Fells (my favorite card in Dark Ascension, and I’m glad it’s doing well, even though it’s going to be harder to get my playset now), an Inferno Titan, and an Ancient Grudge & Tormenter Exarch out of the sideboard. It’s almost as if red is an afterthought in this deck.
Perhaps this is correct, though, my B/G/W Pod list leans heavily on black for cards like Skinrender, Despise, and Massacre Wurm. I’ve run out of time today, but I’ll post my BGW Pod list next time!
