Standard

The Rogue Road – Building Steps to CawPod

I have been thinking about writing some articles for quite a while now, because doing so allows you to not only share your thoughts, but focus on what they actually are.  I feel that expressing yourself is a way to clarify what you are really thinking and makes you understand yourself on another level.  Some of you may have encountered situations where you are trying to focus so hard on finding a solution to a problem that you are unable solve it. You then forget about it and simply happen to find the solution later on.  I am hoping that these articles will help me to find solutions by focusing on another angle of the game.  In magic, as in life, some of the hardest problems turn out to have the easiest solutions when you find the right approach.  Mark these words as words that will try to make you understand magic with out of the box thinking.

I recently top 8ed the Ottawa’s Philly PTQ with a Rogue deck some people have been asking questions about.  For my debut article, I will simply take you on a journey of the steps to that deck’s creation.  I won’t focus on a tournament report but really on steps of the deck’s creation. I will focus on the Rogue aspect of Magic in my upcoming articles.

Step 1 – The idea

As with every project, this deck started with an idea.  It all started at my local game store with a Scars Block draft.  My first pack happened to be underwhelming having only a [card]Volt Charge[/card] as primer draft pick.  Usually I would have taken the removal without hesitation, but the pack also contained a [card]Pith Driller[/card], a [card]Sensor Splicer[/card] I believe and a [card]Birthing Pod[/card].  Phyrexian mana and enter the battlefield abilities creating golems where a good enough reason to encourage my deck building skills and chose the Pod.  You just can’t refuse a cool challenge when you see one.  Lucky as I am, the second pack contained another [card]Birthing Pod[/card].  Long story short, at the end, I had a pretty decent draft deck with a decent curve but went 3-1 in the event.  Some noticeable cards in the deck were both Trinket and [card]Treasure Mage[/card] having 2 targets each.  Fetching them felt nuts!  Would that kind of interaction make [card]Birthing Pod[/card] constructed playable?  To be honest, in the previous weeks I haven’t played a lot of Standard.  We’ve been mostly testing Legacy for GP Providence and so, at this point, I really had no clue of whether it really was playable or not…

Step 2 – Thinking and Researching

That same night arriving at home I turn on the laptop and check out if any new mail is in.  Nothing.  I open my draft box to start unsleeving.  Arriving to [card]Birthing Pod[/card], I stop.  [card]Birthing Pod[/card] seems to have major flaws, it needs to be tapped and so probably only can be used once a turn, it can only be used at sorcery speed and appears to be a card disadvantage doing nothing on its own.  However, tutoring for a low cost is always good in any format, so I align my thinking on this aspect and search for cards that could complete it.  Standard happens to have [card]Fauna Shaman[/card], [card]Green Sun’s Zenith[/card], and [card]Birthing Pod[/card] all of which happen to be Green.  Three tutors in a standard deck seem crazy enough for me to start thinking about building a deck.  Obviously, I begin by searching for green cards to go with those.  I think about [card]Vengevine[/card], which as seen some play with [card]Fauna Shaman[/card], I think about [card]Acidic Slime[/card] which seems very powerful with Caw-Blade being so popular, but I also think of him as a land destructor having been played in Conley Wood’s Magical Xmas Land last year.  Is land destruction any good in Standard right now?  [card]Beast Within[/card] seems to be efficient and [card]Frost Titan[/card] seems to be a good addition to the Slime with a [card]Birthing Pod[/card] out.  Frankly at this point, I really think I found something with chaining a Slime into…a Titan, is it the best Birthing can offer?  It’s time to build and test this idea out…or sleep.  Yeah, it’ll still be time tomorrow.

Step 3- Deck Building

Waking up, I open up Workstation and start building the deck.  [card]Acidic Slime[/card], [card]Frost Titan[/card], [card]Beast Within[/card], [card]Jace, the Mind Sculptor[/card], [card]Birthing Pod[/card]…what else?  I open up Gatherer and start searching mostly for low drops to work with [card]Birthing Pod[/card].  My goal is to Food Chain these creatures but also want to be able to accelerate into those [card]Frost Titan[/card] and [card]Acidic Slime[/card]s.  [card]Birds of Paradise[/card], [card]Joraga Treespeaker[/card], [card]Lotus Cobra[/card], and [card]Overgrown Battlement[/card] all seem to be possible choices.  They accelerate and then can be eaten by the Pod. What about the 3-4 cmc slots. [card]Sea Gate Oracle[/card] was played before and seems to be a nice cantrip in UG. [card]Viridian Corrupter[/card] is Infect but can deal with Caw Blade’s equipment. [card]Oracle of Mul Daya[/card] seems awesome; gaining card advantage before being eaten by a hungry [card]Birthing Pod[/card].   These seem good, but the big flaw is the 4 drops for [card]Birthing Pod[/card]’s food chain, realizing the deck would be centered on the [card]Acidic Slime[/card] into [card]Frost Titan[/card] pod combo.  [card]Mold Shambler[/card] was okay in Conley’s deck; it can be played non-kicked and sacrificed to Pod in the worst case or bounced with Jace and kicked as a lock for the best scenario.  I also consider [card]Vengevine[/card], but at this point playing two creatures doesn’t seem to match the deck’s plan.  Guess Shambler’s worth a try.  Other than creatures, I find [card]Tectonic Edge[/card]s and [card]Spreading Seas[/card] that will surely find a place in the list.

Step 4 –Testing

After building decks, I usually take them for a run on MWS.  Lots of players will tell you that MWS players are bad and for several opponents I will tend to say as they do.  Although, it is a perfect place to get a feel for new decks you are trying to build and analyze what cards to play in the deck and certain moments of the game that could screw you over.  In deck testing, which I think is most important, you’ve got to be able to analyze what could be played and how your deck would mostly react to it.  In this precise testing, I so happened to play against a Boros deck that placed a [card]Sword of War and Peace[/card] pretty quickly and made me think again about my life point perspective.  Thinking outside the land destruction aspect, I know that [card]Birthing Pod[/card] can be used as a toolbox and that [card]Wurmcoil Engine[/card] could be a good life point stabilizer.  Also, MWS is great when you are going Rogue, because you will get to see plenty of different decks and different cards in a short time.  It can be inspiring quite a bit.  Anyways, here’s how the deck looked back then.

[deck title=UG ManaPod]
[Land]
2 Verdant Catacombs
2 Halimar Depths
5 Forest
4 Island
1 Scalding Tarn
3 Tectonic Edge
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Khalni Garden
[/Land]
[Creatures]
4 Joraga Treespeaker
4 Lotus Cobra
2 Viridian Corrupter
1 Sea Gate Oracle
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
2 Mold Shambler
4 Acidic Slime
3 Frost Titan
1 Wurmcoil Engine
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Spreading Seas
3 Beast Within
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Birthing Pod
1 Jace’s Ingenuity
[/Spells]
[/deck]

Step 5 – Analyzing the results

Playing this deck through a couple of other games, I realize quickly enough that the format is fast and that I just don’t have the tools to come back in games I’m losing.  The mana curve is too high and even though the Pod eaten [card]Acidic Slime[/card] into [card]Frost Titan[/card] looks cool, it is too mana intensive to be good.  Also, lots of decks are prepared to deal with a [card]Stoneforge Mystic[/card] on turn 2, so [card]Joraga Treespeaker[/card] isn’t the best creature to put out there.  Land destruction isn’t a good choice for Standard in my opinion, at least not in this list.  So, it was time to go back to the design table.

Step 6 – Starting back with a new approach

Going back into the tutor idea, I stop on the aspect that [card]Fauna Shaman[/card] and [card]Birthing Pod[/card] both not only search for creatures but also place some in the graveyard.  Maybe using graveyard will be a better idea.  The first creature that comes to mind is of course [card]Vengevine[/card] which is awesome.  In fact, there was once a deck using [card]Fauna Shaman[/card] with [card]Necrotic Ooze[/card] and [card]Molten-Trail Masticore[/card] that was viable not so long ago.  Is it still?  [card]Mimic Vat[/card] also seems to go well with the Pod but appears to be more of an overkill.  As said before, sometimes getting another approach is the way to go.

Step 7 – Deck Building again and again, that’s the Rogue way to do

So the new approach was GB with a smaller curve while using [card]Birthing Pod[/card] as a toolbox. Looking through green creatures and starting to build with the Ooze-Masticore combo in mind with [card]Vengevine[/card] side plan as the big drops, I realize quickly that [card]Green Sun’s Zenith[/card] wouldn’t be needed in the deck as it can almost only get [card]Vengevine[/card] (getting a [card]Fauna Shaman[/card] being a bit awkward) and is expensive in mana cost for the lower drop toolbox.  Searching through black creatures I stumble upon [card]Cadaver Imp[/card], which seems really good to bring back your Shaman or low cost drops to bring back the Vines as well as bring back your Ooze for the Ooze-Masticore combo.  Once the cards are chosen, I quickly realize that the deck is unplayable due to the manabase.  The only good playable fixer for GB is [card]Verdant Catacombs[/card].  The fetches and ally colors would permit GBU with [card]Misty Rainforest[/card] or GBW with [card]Marsh Flats[/card].  Looking through those colors, White seemed to be the best.  Stoneforge and [card]Squadron Hawk[/card] have already proved their value in Cawblade and seemed pretty good through Pod.  White also brings [card]Kor Skyfisher[/card] which is amazing to bring back [card]Vengevine[/card] from the grave.  The black part of the deck now seems pretty bad keeping only [card]Corrupted Imp[/card] and [card]Necrotic Ooze[/card] both which require two black mana. I decided to bring this next decklist to testing anyways.  Finding what would be awesome and what I would want to get rid of in the list.

[deck title=UWB NecroPod by Charles Trottier]
[Land]
4 Marsh Flats
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Forest
2 Plains
3 Swamp
3 Sunpetal Grove
2 Stirring Wildwood
2 Inkmoth Nexus
3 Razorverge Thicket
[/Land]
[Creatures]
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Fauna Shaman
4 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Kor Skyfisher
4 Squadron Hawk
2 Cadaver Imp
1 Viridian Corrupter
4 Necrotic Ooze
1 Molten-Tail Masticore
3 Vengevine
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
1 Sword of War and Peace
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Mimic Vat
3 Birthing Pod
1 Batterskull
[/Spells]
[/deck]

Step 8 – Testing idea number 2.deck

The testing went good.  Although, [card]Necrotic Ooze[/card] could copy Molten-Trails’, [card]Fauna Shaman[/card]’s and Stoneforge’s ability, 4 copies was simply too many.  Hands were often stuck with 2 copies of it, when you simply wanted to tutor him when it was time.  I felt like I could also use some discard and removal similar to Darkblade to have a better interaction with my opponent’s game plan.  The next build tried including Inquisitions, [card]Despise[/card] and [card]Go for the Throat[/card]s, cut the Oozes down to 2 and tested again.  The results were clear, it had less power and [card]Necrotic Ooze[/card] was underwhelming most of the time.  The black color was maybe not the best color choice after all, as the Ooze-Masticore reason to play it appeared to be pretty bad.

Step 9 – Doing it all again

Since the GW seemed really good, I tried to build it as a 2 color deck.  The [card]Birthing Pod[/card] didn’t seem to fit very well because the 3 costs spot was almost empty.  Only [card]Viridian Corrupter[/card] seemed to do the job.  Looking at the mana base once again, Bant seemed to be the choice to adopt.  It would at least, quite possibly, bring in [card]Jace, the Mind Sculptor[/card].  What else could it bring?  I also needed more one drops in the deck, having [card]Fauna Shaman[/card] and Stoneforge sitting at the 2 cost to search for them through [card]Birthing Pod[/card].  An old time favorite, [card]Trinket Mage[/card], came to my mind. Searching for [card]Hex Parasite[/card] as a one cost drop seemed to fit what I was looking for.  [card]Trinket Mage[/card] was in fact a perfect addition giving me a two CMC target for Pod at cost 1 and 3 and having my higher cards value at cost 2 and 4.  [card]Sea Gate Oracle[/card] also seemed to do the job for the 3 CMC spot.  I had also seen some Caw Blade list run [card]Sun Titan[/card] and it seemed to do really well in the mirror.  Caw Blade being popular as it is, I decided to include one in the list to bring back my low drop creatures but mostly the equipments that everybody was prepared to deal with.  I thought about running an [card]Acidic Slime[/card], but testing showed me that it was unnecessary at this point. The Corrupter had been doing a perfect job in the previous deck lists.  The [card]Fauna Shaman[/card]s would do the job to get a [card]Sun Titan[/card] when I would need it.  Here’s the decklist I took to test.

[deck title=CawPod by Charles Trottier]
[Land]
2 Inkmoth Nexus
1 Seachrome Coast
2 Island
3 Razorverge Thicket
2 Glacial Fortress
2 Sunpetal Grove
3 Forest
3 Celestial Colonnade
2 Stirring Wildwood
4 Misty Rainforest
[/Land]
[Creatures]
2 Hex Parasite
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Fauna Shaman
1 Kor Skyfisher
4 Squadron Hawk
3 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Viridian Corrupter
2 Sea Gate Oracle
1 Trinket Mage
3 Vengevine
1 Molten-Tail Masticore
1 Sun Titan
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
1 Sword of War and Peace
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3 Birthing Pod
1 Batterskull
[/Spells]
[/deck]

Step 10 – Testing and analyzing CawPod

I went 12-0 on Workstation with this version playing against 9 cawblade/darkblade.  It just seemed to never run out of threats and out card-advantage them every game.  I decided to call out some friends, search the missing cards and sleeve this monster up for the upcoming PTQ.

Basically, your plan, by playing this deck, is to outdraw your opponent.  You will want either a turn 2 [card]Fauna Shaman[/card], [card]Stoneforge Mystic[/card] or [card]Birthing Pod[/card] using a [card]Birds of Paradise[/card].  With [card]Fauna Shaman[/card] on, you can either choose to go for Stoneforge/[card]Batterskull[/card] search on turn 3, Stoneforge/Sword on turn 3 followed up by [card]Squadron Hawk[/card] on turn 4, dig up for some tools ([card]Hex Parasite[/card], [card]Viridian Corrupter[/card]), or go for the [card]Vengevine[/card] Plan.  With [card]Stoneforge Mystic[/card], you will either want to go for the [card]Batterskull[/card] plan, or one of the Swords depending on the matchup.  With the [card]Birthing Pod[/card], you will want to get a bunch of free spells in the form of enter the battlefield triggered ability, probably starting with either [card]Squadron Hawk[/card] or [card]Trinket Mage[/card] to get multiple creatures to sacrifice to make a plan to get multiple [card]Vengevine[/card]s, equipment or a [card]Molten-Tail Masticore[/card] out.  The [card]Inkmoth Nexus[/card] are there to pick some equipment up and continue putting pressure on.  The manlands have a similar role, but can also deal the last points of damage even though you usually don’t need them.  [card]Kor Skyfisher[/card], [card]Trinket Mage[/card], [card]Squadron Hawk[/card] and [card]Sea Gate Oracle[/card] to a certain extent are your creatures to bring back [card]Vengevine[/card]s.  [card]Molten-Trail Masticore[/card] is a game-finisher that can pretty much deal with anything Titan-less in the format.  [card]Jace, the Mind Sculptor[/card], can rarely be used as a killing condition in this deck, it usually gets most of his value brainstorming into other threats, bouncing up your creatures to get them to trigger again or bring back [card]Vengevine[/card]s or bounce your opponent’s creatures to attack with a sword equipped creature.  Finally, [card]Sun Titan[/card], is your long term game plan to recover your early drops and equipment and gain a card advantage they most of the time can’t recover from.

I won’t speak about my sideboard choices here.  The sideboard I sleeved was done pretty quickly and wasn’t good at all.  You’ll find a final decklist at the end with a decent sideboard I believe.

Step 11 – Being Confident

I started Ottawa’s PTQ with a 1-1-1 record, going to turns 3 consecutive times.  After game 3, I went outside and simply sat there and relaxed.  When playing Magic, you have to be in your game and be focused on what you are doing; play errors I usually don’t do were killing me.  After breathing a couple of time, I went back in there with only thoughts of playing the game.  Getting a good score is great, but Magic is a game and I had a blast working on the deck; it was time to be confident and simply enjoy.   I managed to win my 4 next rounds and place into top 8.  I managed to beat a [card]Splinter Twin[/card] combo in the rounds but realized that even with a couple of sideboard cards being there only for that deck, I wasn’t ready to face it and of course got paired against it in top 8.  I managed to win the first game on a 5 card mulligan, but was completely out-sided when I faced a [card]Grave Titan[/card] on game 2 and a combo on game 3 with him tapping my only green mana producing source and me having a [card]Nature’s Claim[/card] in hand.  Until next time, here’s the decklist of what I’d consider running as a CawPod deck for future events.

Major changes:

Sun Titan out.  You just get stuck with it most of the game and the deck can recover without having a giant monster to do that.

Mana Base Swap: The Scars lands are just that good.  You really want the most possible chance to have untapped lands in the first couple of turns, mostly a green one up on turn one for the bird.

Sideboard: This one actually makes sense to speak of it.  [card]Spellskite[/card] are mostly against decks running red ([card]Splinter Twin[/card] is red).  [card]Dismember[/card]s are against [card]Splinter Twin[/card] and [card]Soul Sister[/card].  [card]Obstinate Baloth[/card] is good against DarkBlade ([card]Despise[/card] to a certain extent but mostly [card]Sword of Feast and Famine[/card] for it being discarded) both also against Boros.  [card]Phyrexian Metamorph[/card] is good against CawBlade copying Stoneforge, Equipments or [card]Sun Titan[/card] and against RUG.  [card]Kor Firewalker[/card] against Boros.  [card]Mirran Crusader[/card] against [card]Vengevine[/card] type decks or [card]Grave Titan[/card].

Until next time, Peace,
Charles, The Rogue Driver.

[deck title=CawPod 2.0 by Charles Trottier]
[Land]
2 Inkmoth Nexus
2 Seachrome Coast
2 Island
4 Razorverge Thicket
2 Glacial Fortress
2 Sunpetal Grove
3 Forest
2 Celestial Colonnade
1 Stirring Wildwood
4 Misty Rainforest
[/Land]
[Creatures]
2 Hex Parasite
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Fauna Shaman
4 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Kor Skyfisher
4 Squadron Hawk
1 Viridian Corrupter
1 Sea Gate Oracle
2 Trinket Mage
3 Vengevine
1 Molten-Tail Masticore
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
1 Sword of War and Peace
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3 Birthing Pod
1 Batterskull
[/Spells]
[Sideboard]
1 Emeria Angel
1 Obstinate Baloth
2 Kor Firewalker
1 Mirran Crusader
2 Phyrexian Metamorph
4 Dismember
3 Spellskite
1 Viridian Corrupter
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

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