One of the most common mistakes in deck building is the mana curve itself. It’s common to see an over-reliance on cards that cost three or more despite the deck running insufficient ramp or lands (34 or less) or too many cards at one converted mana cost. Let’s take a look at a decklist that isn’t particularly high in power level but still stays very conscious of its mana curve with a heavy reliance on one, two and three mana spells with very little going over. As well, the focus on Birthing Pod makes the curve more important than ever.
Breaking Down the Deck
As mentioned before, Birthing Pod is the name of the game with an additional copy of the card in the form of Prime Speaker Vannifar. Now the point of these cards is to cycle our way through our creatures in the name of sweet value until we can hit our win conditions. This is a tutor a turn grabbing our silver bullets out of the deck. A lot of the cards in this deck can be switched around for what you enjoy doing in the game more or to modify to your meta. If you want to make the Birthing Pod more powerful, consider thinning the curve even further to more two drops with some card draw. Some options for this are Fblthp, the Lost or Elvish Visionary.
Slowing Down our Opponents
The way this deck stays powerful is various cards that will help take your opponents down by attacking their mana (without being too oppressive which means no Strip Mine + Crucible of Worlds in this list but feel free to add them to your iterations). Blood Moon is simply here to punish more greedy decks than we are, given that we have so many mana rocks and mana creatures, and the Deafening Silence and other mana taxing effects are there to prevent spell-slinging decks from getting drastically ahead of us or being able to answer multiple threats from us.
Land Destruction
A big way to take control of the board in this deck is mass land destruction for everyone. There’s a huge reliance on mana rocks and creatures as I mentioned before, and these cards also work incredibly well since they won’t set you back the way it will your opponents. Unfortunately the number of effects similar to this in the decklist are rather low. This is another choice to keep the power level of the deck relatively low, but if you wish to really power up this deck, cut some of the mana rocks and these effects and include some additional creatures that untap each other or permanents to keep the Birthing Pod chain going.
Efficiency is Key
A high number of cards that either affects the board at a low converted mana cost keeps the deck capable of playing multiple spells every turn that you have multiple cards in hand or cast a spell as well as activating your Birthing Pod. Efficiency even for your removal spells and tutors goes a long way to helping your curve stay low. Life gain or life loss in the name of mana efficiency is a small price to pay.
Our Win Conditions
Last but not least, efficient ways to win the game. Splinter Twin tutorable with Enlightened Tutor but more likely than anything, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker will be found with one of the many ways you can tutor creatures. You can Birthing Pod for it, Worldly Tutor, Neoform, Eldritch Evolution, or the most efficient way is Defense of the Heart. Defense of the Heart manages to grab both halves of the combo. If you haven’t played against it or played with it, the combo with Splinter Twin or Kiki-Jiki is to have one of the two with a creature that untaps another creature. Pair either with a Deceiver Exarch, Village Bell-Ringer or Zealous Conscripts to make infinite creatures on the spot by using each token copy to untap the creature with Splinter Twin enchanted to it or untap the Kiki-Jiki. You can then swing out for lethal on each opponent.
That’s all for the list this week. I hope looking at it helps you have a better idea of how you can lower your curve when approaching your next list or helping you smooth out your plays in your current deck. This list isn’t the most powerful list ever but it’s efficient while having a fair number of cards that can easily be upgraded to increase the power level. I hope you enjoy Birthing Pod lists as much as I do!
