…or How I have learned to love Phyrexian Rager.
A little more than a month ago, my local store hosted their first big Standard tournament featuring Innistrad and I found myself in a bit of a predicament…I had no idea what to play! Me and my friends only managed to open two copies of [card]Snapcaster Mage[/card] by then, so playing UB Control, UW Blade and even Solar Flare was pretty much nothing more than a beautiful, yet impossible, dream. GR Wolf Run Ramp had just exploded and everyone seemed really excited about the second coming of Valakut, but I was never that much of a fan of the Molten Pinnacle. Humans and token decks seemed to also be doing pretty well and looked like they would be fun to play, but they’re just not my style, so I kept exploring…until, while looking through some friend’s binder, I found myself staring at a foil [card]Phyrexian Rager[/card].
OMG! Could this be it? The missing piece? The card that ties it all together?
You see, everyone who knows me, knows I love toolbox decks. I have built dozens of decks with a [card]Trinket Mage[/card] package, I have built decks with an unhealthy amount of one-ofs for [card]Fauna Shaman[/card], I have built decks that used [card]Ranger of Eos[/card] to get [card]Flamekin Harbinger[/card] in order to get [card]Crib Swap[/card] on top of my library (that was, probably, going too deep…) and what is my current bet for the Modern format? Surprise, surprise…[card]Mystical Teachings[/card]. I hadn’t cracked the [card]Birthing Pod[/card] code yet, but I sure as hell wanted to.
Right after Zendikar block and M11 rotated out of Standard, I toyed around a bit with the Phyrexian mana artifact. Bant Pod was my first try, then RUG and after that, BUG, firmly believing that blue was an absolutely necessary color to any Birthing Pod list, but the truth is that, without [card]Sea Gate Oracle[/card] and [card]Preordain[/card], all that blue really has to offer is [card]Phantasmal Image[/card], and with all the Kessig Wolf Runs roaming around, the little illusion that could is not even that impressive anymore. [card]Ponder[/card] in a format without fetchlands is also not a reason to go into blue and [card]Skaab Ruinator[/card], sadly, to me, only ended up being “cute” instead of “great”.
However, the biggest problem I found while building these UG/x decks was the awful mana. Building a three-color manabase in this format is so not what it used be in the good old days when we used to have fetchlands and awesome manlands fixing our mana. Without [card]Misty Rainforest[/card], we can’t choose between casting [card]Birds of Paradise[/card] or [card]Ponder[/card] in the first turn and we lose the ability to find pretty much whatever land we want when peeling off the top.
Losing the mandlands hurts even more because with no [card]Celestial Colonnade[/card], [card]Creeping Tar Pit[/card] and particularly [card]Raging Ravine[/card], not only have we lost another great angle of attack that also happened to smooth our mana, but an amazing mana dump for the times when we got dangerously flooded. Additionally, with Wolf Run displaying the sheer power of the [card]Inkmoth Nexus[/card] + Kessig Wolf Run combo, UB Control milling us via [card]Nephalya Drownyard[/card] and the white token decks giving us nightmares with both [card]Gavony Township[/card] and [card]Moorland Haunt[/card], we are forced to play with the poor man’s [card]Tectonic Edge[/card], [card]Ghost Quarter[/card], and the three-color manabases in this format don’t really support that decision all that well. A 2-color Birthing Pod deck looked like it would be the best option.
I started by discarding GW Pod because it just seemed like a worse version of GW tokens and also discarded RG Pod because even tough it seemed to have a pretty decent early game and [card]Inferno Titan[/card] to dominate the late game, it just felt a little underpowered when compared to the other decks in the format. I dismissed UG too, due to being soft to aggro and to the fact that the archetype’s lack of removal was forcing me to play [card]Mana Leak[/card] and I was never able to figure out how many should be in the deck. Zero? Two? Three? The Fantastic Four? How about we try BG instead?
BG Pod looked to be very promising with a decent early and middle game, a good selection of silver bullets and [card]Sheoldred, the Whispering One[/card] at the top of the [card]Birthing Pod[/card] curve, but it was quite lacking in the three-drop department. [card]Sylvok Replica[/card] was a shoe-in, but then what else? Glissa, the Traitor? Seems good, but good enough? [card]Cemetery Reaper[/card]? Isn’t it too narrow? Oh, Magic Gods! If only [card]Phyrexian Rager[/card] was legal…wait, what?
[Deck title=BG Birthing Pod]
[Lands]
10 Forest
8 Swamp
4 Woodland Cemetery
2 Ghost Quarter
[/Lands]
[Creatures]
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Llanowar Elves
3 Viridian Emissary
1 Spellskite
1 Perilous Myr
2 Phyrexian Rager
1 Sylvok Replica
1 Glissa, the Traitor
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Entomber Exarch
1 Skinrender
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
3 Acidic Slime
1 Precursor Golem
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Grave Titan
1 Massacre Wurm
1 Sheoldred, the Whispering One
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
2 Doom Blade
2 Beast Within
[/Spells]
[Artifacts]
4 Birthing Pod
[/Artifacts]
[Sideboard]
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1 Sylvok Replica
1 Cemetery Reaper
1 Skinrender
1 Peace Strider
1 Stingerfling Spider
1 Bloodgift Demon
1 Bitterheart Witch
1 Brutalizer Exarch
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Go for the Throat
1 Curse of Death’s Hold
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]
The Creatures:
4 [card]Birds of Paradise[/card], 2 [card]Llanowar Elves[/card], 3 [card]Viridian Emissary[/card]: These are pretty much necessary to fix your mana and help you play your [card]Birthing Pod[/card] and your expensive threats one turn earlier. The Emissarys are particularly good vs Monored and UB Control.
1 [card]Spellskite[/card]: Great card to search for, blocks well, protects both your Pod and your threats and deals with the [card]Inkmoth Nexus[/card]+ Kessig Wolf Run combo.
1 [card]Perilous Myr[/card]: Helpful one-of. Great vs Monored and other aggro decks, good way to beat a [card]Mirran Crusader[/card]. Has a nice sinergy with Glissa.
2 [card]Phyrexian Rager[/card]: ALL-STAR! 2/2 body, draws a card…fill a much needed slot in the deck.
1 [card]Sylvok Replica[/card]: Great against [card]Tempered Steel[/card], Tezzeret decks, [card]Inkmoth Nexus[/card], [card]Batterskull[/card], [card]Oblivion Ring[/card], [card]Torpor Orb[/card]…also has a great sinergy with Glissa.
1 [card]Glissa, the Traitor[/card]: Most definetely good enough and an amazing roadblock. A 3/3 first-striking deathouch creature for three mana would likely be good enough to make the deck, but there are some nice times to be had with this lady and a couple of other creatures in the deck.
1 [card]Solemn Simulacrum[/card]: Fixes your mana and draws you a card when you Pod him away. Great vs aggro and it’s also a pretty nice one to return with Glissa if it comes up.
1 [card]Entomber Exarch[/card]: [card]Gravedigger[/card] or [card]Super-Duress[/card], either one is pretty good. This kind of deck loves a [card]Gravedigger[/card] and also loves to know if the coast is clear to cast a game-ending threat or to get one with [card]Birthing Pod[/card].
1 [card]Skinrender[/card]: [card]Shriekmaw[/card] 0.5 is still quite good against the aggro and the token decks.
1 [card]Thrun, the Last Troll[/card]: Amazing one-of against the blue decks and just a big nightmare for UB Control.
1 [card]Phyrexian Metamorph[/card]: Incredibly versatile card. Great as another fatty, another Slime, another Pod or also as just another answer to [card]Mirran Crusader[/card]. Yet another great card to return with Glissa.
3 [card]Acidic Slime[/card]: A must-have! Deals with pretty much everything and I always keep at least two in against every matchup after sideboard.
1 [card]Precursor Golem[/card]: Everyone seemed to have forgotten about this card…nine power for five mana seems great, and the ability to Pod away the Precursor and keep the golems around is just the icing on the cake. When the most common removal played is [card]Oblivion Ring[/card], [card]Dismember[/card] and [card]Beast Within[/card], I’m actually quite surprised that we haven’t seen more Precursors roaming around.
1 [card]Wurmcoil Engine[/card]: Another must-have! Possibly the best finisher in Standard.
1 [card]Grave Titan[/card]: The best Titan the deck can afford. Very good against the token decks.
1 [card]Massacre Wurm[/card]: A pretty nice one. Powerful body, can nearly win games on its own. Even better than [card]Grave Titan[/card] against the token decks and an answer to [card]Mirran Crusader[/card], [card]Geist of Saint Traft[/card] or [card]Invisible Stalker[/card].
1 [card]Sheoldred, the Whispering One[/card]: Because: “At the beginning of your upkeep, return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield. At the beginning of each opponent’s upkeep, that player sacrifices a creature.” I have lost exactly one game when a Sheoldred stayed in play for more than two turns and that was due to running out of cards in my library.
The Sidebord craziness:
[card]Phyrexian Revoker[/card]: Great utility creature. Stops Planeswalkers, [card]Mikaeus, the Lunarch[/card], [card]Ratchet Bomb[/card], Shrines, Swords and [card]Lashwrithe[/card].
[card]Melira, Sylvok Outcast[/card]: Great against Monoblack Poison, useful against the Wolf Run decks and consider it against pretty much any deck with [card]Inkmoth Nexus[/card] and Swords.
[card]Cemetery Reaper[/card]: A fringe card but helpful in some situations. It’s good vs Solar Flare, exiles [card]Chandra’s Phoenix[/card] vs Monored and UR Tempo, and it might be a decent way to combat [card]Moorland Haunt[/card].
[card]Peace Strider[/card]: The silver bullet against Monored. Gets the nod over [card]Tree of Redemption[/card] due to the immediate lifegain and the possible sinergy with Glissa.
[card]Stingerfling Spider[/card]: The best card vs [card]Consecrated Sphinx[/card] and fine against Monoblack Poison and other decks that also have [card]Inkmoth Nexus[/card].
[card]Bloodgift Demon[/card]: An awesome card to resolve against UB Control and other blue decks.
[card]Bitterheart Witch[/card], [card]Curse of Death’s Hold[/card]: Nice little combo against the token decks and it might also be a consideration against the Wolf Run decks.
[card]Brutalizer Exarch[/card]: Great vs Control as a bigger [card]Acidic Slime[/card] who has the ability to deal with Planeswalkers.
[card]Surgical Extraction[/card]: Quite helpful vs [card]Burning Vengeance[/card], Solar Flare, [card]Chandra’s Phoenix[/card] and pretty much every Snapcaster deck.
[card]Go for the Throat[/card]: More removal for the aggro and token decks, a needed alternative to [card]Doom Blade[/card] for the Monoblack Poison matchup.
Try it out! Wolf Run Ramp and RDW might be a little tough, but the blue control matchups are quite easy and interesting. The white token decks are also pretty fun because the matches always end up being a blowout in either direction and [card]Tempered Steel[/card] can be hard if they have a fast start but with so many answers to tutor up, you’re definetely favored. Look for [card]Sylvok Replica[/card] – [card]Glissa the Traitor[/card], they’re pretty sweet in that match-up!
If you would like to try a new thing and [card]Birthing Pod[/card] is right up your alley or you just love casting [card]Phyrexian Rager[/card] and stare at your opponents with a smile while they look at you in disbelief, this is the deck for you!
Thanks for reading,
André Mateus
André Mateus is Constructed specialist who was a finalist in the SCG Talent Search.
