New Phyrexia is in full swing, so I thought I’d take one of the most malleable cards in the set and do something around it, I’m talking about that weird green artifact: Birthing Pod!
Check out this here deck:
4 Verdant Catacombs
9 Forest
7 Swamp
——————–
20 Lands
3 Essence Warden
4 Viridian Emissary
1 Savra, Queen of the Golgari
4 Farhaven Elf
4 Elvish Harbinger
3 Wildheart Invoker
1 Nath of the Gilt-Leaf
1 Elvish Hexhunter
——————
21 Creatures
4 Prowess of the Fair
4 Birthing Pod
3 Putrefy
2 Cauldron of Souls
2 Pennon Blade
2 Harmonize
2 Profane Command
—————-
19 Other Spells
The point of the deck is to have Prowess of the Fair, Birthing pod and any elf. You activate birthing pod to get another elf from your library, thus getting a token elf + a new elf + whatever enter-the-battlefield ability the elves come with. The prime combination here is to eat a Viridian Emissary to fetch a Farhaven elf, netting you two lands out of the deal plus an elf token (per Prowess of the Fair you have out) But that’s not all the deck does.
Old Tech
I went all the way back to Time Spiral and Ravnica to get some life out of the deal. Savra, Queen of the Golgari and Essence Warden will net you life whenever you chomp and get a new elf, respectively. This means that with a hefty life buffer you can always cut the cost to activate Birthing Pod in half (not that mana will be a huge problem). Elvish harbinger is there both as a mana generator, stepping stone AND a way to get more Prowess of the Fair encantments into your hand (That’s right, it’s an Elf Enchantment). I threw in Wildheart Invoker and Pennon Blade as finishers, when you have two dozen elf tokens and a ton of Mana all you have to do is attack. Nath of the Gilt Leaf is mostly there to look scary.
But Wait! There’s More!
You might also notice the inclusion of cauldron of souls. You might say “But Rodrigo, most of these elves have 1 toughness, won’t that just kill them as soon as they come back?” Yes, yes it will which will net you twice the triggers, twice the life and twice the tokens from the other combo pieces.
What Else?
I debated throwing in some Elvish Visionaries to smooth things out, it’s certainly an option, Maelstrom Pulse is another card that is a little stronger than Putrefy, but is not an instant. Also you could consider throwing in some other toolkit creatures like Elvish Hexhunter depending on what people in your hood like to play.
I hope you have as much fun playing this deck as I did building it, if any of you get a chance to rock it let me know how it goes.
5 Comments
… I actually have the cards to build this deck, or something close to it. I’ll have to try it out this weekend.
Neat, I wanna try this one out. I love birthing pod!
I love these articles, Rodrigo! Keep ’em up! =]
I Dunnow I would consider replacing 2 of the Wildheart Invoker’s for 2 Heartmender’s this way not only would you be protected from the rampant infect running around these days but your Cauldron of Souls would effectively make your creatures invulnerable although they aren’t elves.
Another card to consider would be Might of the Masses replacing Pennon Blade its cheaper and faster sure its not a permanent buff like the Blade is, but if your going to boost some thing biased on the number of creatures you control youl want to kill them quick before they have time to react with removal on the blade, creature, or board.
On a side note if I’am not mistaken the old Dual Lands like Bayou for example have gone Proxy legal in Legacy maybe Vintage too not sure.