G/W Birthing Pod by Tom Ellis

Editor's Note: Today we have a guest post by Tom Ellis. He's one of the stronger players at TOGIT and consistently comes up with powerful decks.  Today he talks about his G/W Birthing Pod deck.

GW Birthing Pod

It is officially one of my favorite times of the year… brewing time! New sets always
get me really excited to play with new cards and discover interesting and powerful
interactions. I am a rogue deckbuilder at heart, so I love to try strategies that are either brand
new or under the radar. The deck I am working on currently that I’m really excited about is
G/W Birthing Pod.

For reference, here is the list:

// Lands
4 [SOM] Razorverge Thicket
4 [M10] Sunpetal Grove
4 [WWK] Stirring Wildwood
6 [DM] Forest (1)
3 [MM] Plains (3)
3 [WWK] Tectonic Edge

// Creatures
1 [M11] Acidic Slime
4 [M11] Squadron Hawk
4 [ROE] Vengevine
4 [WWK] Stoneforge Mystic
1 [SOM] Precursor Golem
4 [M11] Fauna Shaman
1 [M11] Sun Titan
3 [NPH] Blade Splicer
4 [A] Birds of Paradise
1 [FNM] Llanowar Elves
1 [NPH] Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 [MBS] Viridian Corrupter
1 [SOM] Molten-Tail Masticore

// Spells
3 [NPH] Birthing Pod
1 [MBS] Sword of Feast and Famine
1 [NPH] Sword of War and Peace
1 [MBS] Mortarpod

// Sideboard
SB: 1 [M11] Acidic Slime
SB: 2 [NPH] Triumph of the Hordes
SB: 4 [NPH] Mutagenic Growth
SB: 1 [M11] Obstinate Baloth
SB: 1 [M10] Baneslayer Angel
SB: 1 [ROE] Linvala, Keeper of Silence
SB: 4 [SOM] Leonin Arbiter
SB: 1 [NPH] Batterskull

This deck is capable of some very powerful things, with the ability to audible plans
mid-game very easily. You have the often seen Hawk/Mystic plan of getting equipment on
birds and beating down. There is the Fauna Shaman/Vengevine plan, and, last but not least,
the Birthing Pod plan itself. Basically the plan with Birthing Pod is to climb the ladder with
your various creatures until you get out Sun Titan or Elesh Norn. Something that I really
like about this list is that you can play different roles very easily. You are able to adapt to
the strategy of the opponent, especially because you have the ability to recycle creatures that
are no longer helping you win the game. Birthing Pod/Fauna Shaman also make it even
easier to play singleton answers like Linvala in your sideboard because the chances of you
getting into play increase dramatically with all of the searching. What I think Birthing Pod
has really done is given Fauna Shaman decks something that they were lacking before –
redundancy. Before NPH, killing the Fauna Shaman often meant slowing the deck down 2-3
full turns due to not being able to discard Vengevines. Now, with Birthing Pod, you have
multiple ways of tutoring for your creatures/answers. Something I’m always a fan of in a
deck is versatility, and this deck has that in spades. The fact that your answers are also the
creatures you then beat down the opponent with is fantastic to me.
On to some technical aspects of the deck. Essentially you are trying to execute one
of your three main plans. The plan you attempt will differ depending on the deck you are
playing against. For example, against a deck like CawBlade, your Vengevine plan is pretty
excellent. For the sake of a breakdown lets look at the different “packages” this deck
contains.

CawBlade package:
4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Squadron Hawk
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sword of War and Peace
1 Mortapod
SB: Batterskull

This kind of package should seem really familiar to you by now, as it is one of the
most powerful things you can do in Standard currently. Sword of War and Peace is the real
deal, especially against slower decks or a deck like CawBlade where a successful equipping
of that sword can win the game by itself. Batterskull gets the SB treatment here, as it is very
good when it is good, but in this environment it seems a little bit underwhelming in the
maindeck.

Vengevine package:
4 Fauna Shaman
4 Vengevine
4 Squadron Hawk

Another familiar grouping of cards, you’ll notice the overlap of Squadron Hawks to
this package. This is pretty self-explanatory, with you pitching Vengevines to Fauna
Shaman then getting Squadron Hawk to single-handedly bring them back.

Bithing Pod/Toolbox package:
3 Birthing Pod
3 Blade Splicer
1 Acidic Slime
1 Viridian Corrupter
1 Sun Titan
1 Molten-Tail Masticore
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite

This is the new part of the deck, providing you the ability to search up a toolbox of
creatures as well as giving yourself a fantastic late game, using Sun Titan or Elesh Norn to
completely overwhelm your opponent’s board position. Sun Titan in this deck gets back
many of your creatures and all of your maindeck equipment. Elesh Norn is basically
unbeatable if you manage to get this plan off against CawBlade. Blade Splicer is exciting
here because you can continue your plan of “evolving” your creatures and still get a 3/3
golem out of the deal.

The Mana:
4 Birds of Paradise
1 Llanowar Elf
4 Razorverge Thicket
4 Sunpetal Grove
4 Stirring Wildwood
6 Forest
3 Plains
3 Tectonic Edge

You play a total of 30 mana sources in this deck, which may seem like a lot, but it is
very difficult to get mana flooded in this deck when you consider that you have creatures
that require large mana investments, like Masticore to use his abilities, or Elesh Norn simply
to cast her. Not only that, but once you are done with your mana creatures, you can simply
sacrifice them to Birthing Pod in order to turn them into a Squadron Hawk, Stoneforge
Mystic, or Fauna Shaman.

The Sideboard:
1 Acidic Slime
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Batterskull
1 Obstinate Baloth
1 Baneslayer Angel
4 Mutagenic Growth
4 Leonin Arbiter
2 Triumph of the Hordes

The Sideboard of this deck is still in the works and obviously is able to adapt fairly
easily to the metagame you expect. Some of the cards can even be substituted with cards in
the maindeck if they suit what you expect from the metagame better. Most of the cards are
fairly self-explanatory in application, except for Leonin Arbiter. Leonin Arbiter is your go to
guy to fight Valakut without sacrificing on your beatdown strategy. You should feel safe
boarding him in because you do board out most of your Birthing Pod strategy, as it is too
slow vs. that deck. You also board in Mutagenic Growths and Triumph of the Hordes vs.
them, as it is the best way to try and end the game quickly. Mutagenic Growths are also a
way that you can tap out vs. Valakut and not auto-lose to a Slagstorm or Pyroclasm.
Overall I think that this deck has a lot of potential and can be quite powerful going
into the new metagame post NPH. Give it a shot at your local FNM or online! Also, I’m
always looking for feedback and suggestions on my decks, so feel free to post them in the
comments section, as this deck is still very much a work in progress. But don’t be surprised
if you see me at one of the few PTQ’s I can go to this summer wielding this beast!
Happy Evolving!
-Tom