this card is combotastic. im sure it will have a niche spot in some deck. casually, this guy screams to be played with scornful egotist.
Mekh
★★★☆☆ (3.7/5.0)(7 votes)
ALL HAIL THE LORD EGOTIST.
And even without him, this is a pretty stupidly powerful card. Not only can this become hell in limited, it can be easily splashed into other colors for some more fun.
healingbolt
★★☆☆☆ (2.5/5.0)(6 votes)
Might be used in some combo decks , but will get hated out of the meta.
Really cool how you can kind of work your way up your creature curve, turn after turn. A little like Aether Vial, nowhere near as broken though.
God_Of_The_Smurfs
★★☆☆☆ (2.5/5.0)(3 votes)
Remember that ardent recruit? He's a myr superion. lololololol
Narim
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I'm thinking about using this and Bloodbond March for tutoring your creatures and reanimating them. Maybe even use Necrogenesis to control your opponent's graveyard... Sounds quite funny.
Awakener druid lets you swing for 4 on turn 3 if you pay life for casting and using the pods abilities, Greenweaver druid, or palladium myr lets you cast and use the pod without paying any life assuming you hit all 3 land drops.
Stray_Dog
★★★☆☆ (3.3/5.0)(3 votes)
Green gets some cool toys in this set :)
Donovan_Fabian
★★☆☆☆ (2.9/5.0)(8 votes)
Aside from how everyone is yelling about the egotist.. you really need to read this card. It's not very good. Remember ooze garden? Sac. a creature, put an equivalent ooze into play, and people found some ways to continously use it or make those oozes bigger.. but like that card, this one has all the same weaknesses and is the same reason it wont see heavy play.
For starters you can't do this as an instant. It would be best if you could sac a creature to it in the middle of a removal spell, which you can't. Secondly it costs at least 3 mana if you are willing to pay the 2 life, so you are not even playing it until you probably out cmc 4 cost creatures. Following that up, you then need multiples of each type of creature at each cmc to hit them in good numbers. Then you are really replacing the creature you had with another one, and when was the last time any 1 creature dominated a board so much that it won you the game? The days of simic skyswallower are long gone. It will be a fun casual card, but it's no aether vial.
Having said that, some fun combos obviously include things like splinter twin then sac. the copy. Mitotic slime and myr sire or propagator and wurmcoil engine for making lots of tokens. Any form of creature steal, probably roil elemental, although that wont work against every deck or have the correct mana costs, but it couldn't hurt to try. You will most likely want to load up your deck with creatures that have enters the battlefield effects like the exarchs, starting at the white one and ending at the green one. Lastly, remember that you can sac. a token to get a 1 mana creature
Kryplixx
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
My favorite card from the set... not even close to being OP - yet extremely fun to use.
FaltonOV
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Hehehe... wait, did your Llanowar Elves just become a Superion? Sure did. ... Well, then...
Polychromatic
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This is a classic case of trading card advantage for tempo advantage. In the right deck; devastating.
Plus, the art for it is really awesome.
Luke_BPC
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Instant speed sacking would make this broken, but it's not bad at all the way it is. This allows you to tutor up beasts from your deck, and to have the right enter and leave battlefield effects when you need them. And you can always swing with your creature before sacrificing it, doing away with those weakened by -1/-1 counters. It's an utility card, that allows you to play less copies of what you need. And of course it's not broken like Aether Vial, but it still gives you some uncounterable creatures, pushes you up the curve even without the mana for it, even more if you play something with Phyrexian mana... In general it's a solid card, I got to play with it on the pre-release, fetching the Obliterator...
Combolulz
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Works really well with a nice creature curve in your deck buildup , tried this in the prerelease and it did phenomenal.
darkgnosis
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I can't resist. My Savra deck never quite worked in the way that I wanted it too. It's time to dust the old cards off and rebuild.
TheSwarm
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I really wanna play this card.. I don't think its overpowered or anything but damn would it be reeeeally fun to use. Toolbox decks where you can many options are my favorite kind, and this would just be sooo fun to play. Probably very very easy to disrupt though. Maybe Black Green for some reanimator action? I was skeptical, but I dig.
ToidiDiPuts
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I want to abuse this as much as possible by making a Birthing Pod Soulshift deck. That way every time I sacrifice a creature, I'll get one bigger one from my library and one smaller one from my graveyard.
Ava_Adore
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
goes good with Savra,
Alsebra
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Interesting synergy with the Incarnations of past sets (Genesis especially), but I'm thinking that I'll pair it with Jin-Gitaxias in my Eldrazi deck that can spawn a Hand of Emrakul on turn four.
1 drops should probably mainly be mana ramp, birds, llanowar elves, treespeaker (works well with myr superion) to get a turn 2 pod
2 drops, probably have myr superion's as a 4 of, can be played with the pod or off of treespeakers.
a very good 3 cmc card for this is trinket mage as it allows you to restart the system with a hex parasiteor similar (then potentially getting another myr superion)
4 drop entomber exarch for some nice disruption
5 drop acidic slime, more nice desruption.
6 drop frost titan seems nice if you like the disruption.
a pretty good 5 drop alternative is clone shell, as it can by itself get you big creatures, or just be a bridge from 4 to 6 that gives you an extra creature (card advantage and a restart if they kill your big creature).
a possibility with this deck is playing with furnace celebration, allowing you to kill opponents creatures while you use the pod, this is quite slow though, as furnace is quite expensive to activate.
Could be devastating if played in conjunction with Remembrance, effectively replacing the sacrificed creature with a copy. Even better if you also use a way to get the original card out of the graveyard, like Guiding Spirit or Volrath's Stronghold.
Now, I just have to figure out, what am I stairstepping to? Stalking Vengeance maybe?
El_Pared
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(5 votes)
Nobody's thought of Sprouting Thrinax into Savra? even Thrinax into Marsh Flitter wouldn't be too shabby. Really all this card needs is creatures that do cool stuff when they die, like Summoner's Egg, or MindSlicer, and/or the legendary dragons. Kokusho, the Evening Star comes to mind, but the others would be good too (Ryusei and Jugan would be in Thinax colors as well)
I'm already in love with this card. Chord of Calling is my top favorite card in all of Magic, and this seems to come really close.
Edit: Built a deck, and my is it powerful. Just pick three colors (I picked green white blue), put in some early acceleration, then pick the best enter-the-battlefield creature of every color and every casting cost from 3 to 6. And of course four of these Pods.
Cute, but too slow. Cheating creatures into play is only really valuable if you can break the curve. Semi-useful for finding bullets though.
apollogod
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@Vakyoom
When you pay the cost to activate the Pod, it's effect will resolve completely before any other effects placed on the stack can resolve. So, you pay to activate the Pod by sacrificing Viridian Emissary. Emissary goes to the graveyard, but you will not get to find a basic land until you first search for a creature and place it onto the battlefield. Then, you can find a basic land and put it onto the battlefield (tapped).
I am usually well-versed in rules involving the stack, but If I made a mistake interpreting the scenario, someone will correct me.
LiXinjian
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
You're almost right Apollogod
Once the Pod's ability cost has been paid (mana, tap, sacrifice), it's ability (search for a creature and put it onto the battlefield) is put onto the stack. Then, as each player would receive priority before the pod ability resolves, the emissary's trigger is put on the stack ON TOP of the already existing pod ability. Therefore, you would resolve the emissary trigger first, putting a land onto the battlefield, and then search for a creature.
Really, no functional change in the current scenario, but it could be relevant in another.
As for my thoughts on Birthing Pod: it looks cool, but also looks slow and will probably fall prey to the soon-to-be rampant artifact hate.
So I just noticed the specificity of what you can search for. It says "search for a creature card with CMC equal to 1 plus the sacrificed creatures CMC..."
So it makes me think that you can't search for any creature other than exactly one plus the sac'd creatures CMC. In other words you have to sac a 3 CMC creature for a 4 CMC creature, and you can't sac a 3cmc creature for a 1 CMC card... Is this news to everyone or just me cuz it looks like a few other people have been thinking what I had previously also.
And that scenario does change things, lixidaan. If the crab enters before the land does then I get to mill 3 cards... So that does matter lol.
If I can't search for my crab with the higher cost creatures then I guess ill put in ornithopters and memnites... And maybe mincrank? Idk I just don't draw the crabs enough... Any other suggestions?
Sironos
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Works well with splicer decks, you sac the artificer and keep the golem.
This is a fun card, worth building decks around.
pm11
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@Vakyoom: you can sac a token to get the Hedron Crab out since it would have a cmc of 0. Like one provided by khalni garden or something
what happens if you sacrifice a creature while its in morph? do you just search your library for another creature w/ converted mana cost 4? does the card flip, before you sacrifice it, so you can search for a creature whose converted mana cost is actually 1 higher than the aforementioned morph creature? if so, would flip abilities work? sorry - me = big noob; please go easy on me =) -andoroth
Use it with living weapon and you can tutor up anything with converted mana cost of {1} in your deck...also works well with any tokens (such as eldrazi spawn tokens)....also Mimic Vat...
Mode
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I might play this in a deck with artifact creatures and Semblance Anvil, so the card can be cast and activated for the first time for and 4 life. Then you can get yourself a creature that provides card advantage like Vedalken Archmage, and cast some more stuff for few or no mana thanks to the Anvil. Or something like Indomitable Archangel to protect your artifacts (for future turns only though, since the ability sadly only activates at Sorcery-speed).
Sidneyious
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
What about creature tokens do they retain the CMC of the card they were spawned from?
Every turn you destroy an opponent's land. Every turn you grab a Wurmcoil Engine or your favorite titan, all colorless.
NuckChorris
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(3 votes)
JaxsonBateman
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(3 votes)
With Birthing Pod being one of the best sac outlets in standard right now, I wouldn't be surprised to see this in a deck alongside the just spoiled Reaper of the Abyss. It'll basically cause him to be a new titan - except his titan ability will be DESTROY TARGET CREATURE. That's just insanely good.
FogRaider
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(3 votes)
I must rub it in all of your faces - this card is a HUGE force in standard ATM.
kashonismw
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Great card, I'm glad I managed to grab a playset back when they were 2.99.
Lyoncet
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
Pod decks may very well take a big hit with Innistrad. Yeah, Scars-oriented strategies will be more powerful because of Innistrad's power seep, but R&D seemed to notice that and littered the set with Scars block hosers in pretty much every color.
I really doubt it's the end of Pod, but it should put the deck through its paces. This is one to keep your eye on in the coming months.
From my understanding, the tokens have a CMC of 0, which means if you sac them, you have to search for a creature with a CMC of 1. This is true regardless of the token being made, but token COPIES are a different story (I'm not sure if the entirety of the creature is copied, especially with permanents that become copies of other things, so I don't know if it would still keep the same CMC).
Tsuichoi
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(3 votes)
Clearly this card is a powerhouse in competitive yet i also feel it has a place in casual- it has its limitations (by the required converted mana cost of the creature it is able to select) and the prospect of risk (loss of life, though minimal it adds up) with a functional and efficient cost and ability which also makes it a target for destruction- It has all the qualities a fair and fun card should have which is what makes it such a joy to play.
Truly balanced in my assessment and makes good use of Phyrexian mana- perhaps the only one that does...
5/5. Keep making us happy Wizards.
Arachibutyrophobia
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
this card encourages people to make interesting decks, because you don't need playsets of every card. birthing pod acts like a toolbox, letting you tutor the solution to anything your opponent is playing.
SkaerKrow
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(22 votes)
"Sheoldred, where do babies come from?"
gtamaster503
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@Lief098 That would TOTALLY work. If Birthing Pod happened at Instant speed.
Gcrudaplaneswalker
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Warpath Ghoul becomes Phyrexian Obliterator
Mike-C
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I like the thought of this in TezzaABolas/Transmuter deck with some affinity cards. Sac a 9 cmc that cost you only paid 4-5 to play & then search for your REALLY big guns.. Or nowadays cheap sluggers.
9TailedJackal
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Playing a couple of these in a self-mill deck. Turns Deranged Assistant into a turn-three Skaab Ruinator. Never before have I been the cause of so much ragequitting.
A3Kitsune
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(5 votes)
And Dark Ascension brings us Undying...
StreamHopper
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Birthing Pod decks are getting SHAFTED in Dark Ascension. Grafdigger's Cage, recently spoiled, says "Cards can't be played from Libraries or Graveyards. It's an artifact, so it can be played in any color, and it only costs 1.
So basically Birthing Pod, A lot of Legacy decks, and most of what the set it's printed in stands for.
Fantastic.
DarthParallax
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(1 vote)
So. Apparently this card is the new Survival of the Fittest. interesting.
I preordered New Phyrexia, and this is the only card I sold. Elesh Norn I traded because someone with a fetish for Lady Gaga insisted on way overtrading to get it.
Now I need to find a Pod playset for under $20.00. if such a thing exists...
Mr.Freshness-Timmy
★★★☆☆ (3.4/5.0)(6 votes)
i can change the colour of my sanctuary cat to black cat :'D i NEED for my lol cats standard deck.
....with elesh norn
Psychrates
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Quasi-Metamorphosis in a box? I dunno...This thing is too slow, late in the game,, but paying in life is sweet...
GolemEmperion
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Sac Vorapede into Gravetiller Wurm. Get Vorapede's undying and Gravetiller Wurm's morbid, all for 1 mana and two life. Swing and Sac Putrefax into Phyrexian Swarmlord. Let the games begin.
Havrekjex
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I just had my ass handed to me by a deck that combined this with creatures with comes-into-play and/or leaves-the-battlefield effects. That, and you can attack and swap a tapped creature for an untapped. This card is a lot better than I thought it could be.
Mentis_Materiei
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
It's been mentioned here, but definitely worth repeating... undying! Here's my chain...
The fact that they gave us cards like Grafdigger's Cage and Angel of Jubilation make me think that there's still something about this card we haven't figured out.
Airlacher
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I don't think this works the way I hope but can I target a creature to sac via birthing pod and then cloudshift that creature and still have the ability resolve whilst keeping my creature?
This kicks all kinds of arse in an eldrazi deck. Hear me out. 1- drop is birds, 2-drop is nest invader, 3-drop is pawn of ulamog, which kicks this into turbo mode by the way, 4 is kozilek's predator, 5 is emrakuls hatcher, 6 is rapacious one, 7 is sheoldred and/or elderscale wurm, 8,9,10, and 11 are whatever you want. Because eldrazi. It might not sound like anything special, but the board is suddenly flooded with tokens, and it allows you to hard-cast your eldrazi. Maybe not playable outside of casual, but I dunno.
adrian.malacoda
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@Airlacher, @The_Insaniac: No, the sacrifice isn't targeted. It's part of the cost to activate the ability. You activate the ability by paying the cost, which includes the mana/life payment, the sac, and tap. Once you have paid the cost, the creature is sac'ed, and Birthing Pod is tapped, the creature is already dead. From the moment you announce you are activating Birthing Pod, there is no room for you or any opponent to kill, bounce, or flicker the sac creature.
nier
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
if you sac a creature like Young Wolf you can get your Strangleroot Geist out of your deck? young wolf G + 1 = strangleroot geist is that correct?
j_mindfingerpainter
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@ djflo: This card with Aether Vial would be hilarious. Vial starts you off with creatures {1} behind curve, then sac them with Birthing Pod for an on-curve creature. Then you have the rest of your mana to do whatever you want!
EvilDarkVoid
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Just some of the stronger choices I found/thought of:
{1} or {1}B} 5 drop for card advantage *every turn.* I enjoyed this trick with Consuming Aberration; but in dredge you can consider Golgari Grave-troll, many of the demigods/lieges from shadowmoor,
And that's just a few of the tricks. Neat little combo IMO
Hungerstriker
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Amazing, delightful, game-dominating card. I have a playset, but I want more.
Sac a five drop -> Massacre Wurm -> sac the wurm -> Sheoldred
ShatterPalm
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This is just kind of off the top of my head, but here goes nothing.
Turn 3: play Scornful Egotist face down. Turn 4: play this by paying the Phyrexian mana and turn lord Egotist up. Turn 5: Sac the egotist to this, bring out anything in your library CMC 9. Turn 6: Swing if you wish, then sac that for Progenitus.
A little roundabout, but it ought to work.
Petertracy
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Turn 4: Birthing Pod, sacrifice a 3 drop to fetch Solemn Simulacrum, fetch a land Turn 5: Sacrifice, draw a card, fetch Havengul Lich, recast simulacrum, fetch a land Turn 6: Sacrifice, draw a card, fetch Prophet of Kruphix The world is your oyster!
nayaftw
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Does birthing pod targeting phantasmal image mean that you won't get the pod ability?
TheShadow344
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(1 vote)
nayaftw wrote: "Does birthing pod targeting phantasmal image mean that you won't get the pod ability?"
Short answer: "Target" =/= affected by something. Birthing Pod does not target.
Long answer: The word "target" has a very specific meaning in Magic. In order for something to involve targetting, the word "target" has to appear in the card's Oracle text. Since the word "target" is not present in Birthing Pod's text, no targeting is involved. You will get to search your library for a creature card with converted mana cost equal to 1 plus the converted mana cost of the creature that Phantasmal Image copied.
MCcreator
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I didn't notice the sorcery speed restriction until just now.
Comments (83)
And even without him, this is a pretty stupidly powerful card. Not only can this become hell in limited, it can be easily splashed into other colors for some more fun.
t2, alloy myr, or greenweaver druid, or awakener druid
t3, birthing pod, sac the 3 cmc creature for obliterator
Awakener druid lets you swing for 4 on turn 3 if you pay life for casting and using the pods abilities,
Greenweaver druid, or palladium myr lets you cast and use the pod without paying any life assuming you hit all 3 land drops.
For starters you can't do this as an instant. It would be best if you could sac a creature to it in the middle of a removal spell, which you can't. Secondly it costs at least 3 mana if you are willing to pay the 2 life, so you are not even playing it until you probably out cmc 4 cost creatures. Following that up, you then need multiples of each type of creature at each cmc to hit them in good numbers. Then you are really replacing the creature you had with another one, and when was the last time any 1 creature dominated a board so much that it won you the game? The days of simic skyswallower are long gone. It will be a fun casual card, but it's no aether vial.
Having said that, some fun combos obviously include things like splinter twin then sac. the copy. Mitotic slime and myr sire or propagator and wurmcoil engine for making lots of tokens. Any form of creature steal, probably roil elemental, although that wont work against every deck or have the correct mana costs, but it couldn't hurt to try. You will most likely want to load up your deck with creatures that have enters the battlefield effects like the exarchs, starting at the white one and ending at the green one. Lastly, remember that you can sac. a token to get a 1 mana creature
Sure did.
... Well, then...
Plus, the art for it is really awesome.
That way every time I sacrifice a creature, I'll get one bigger one from my library and one smaller one from my graveyard.
What's at 7 in the Control Hate Evolutionary Chain? Protean Hulk?
2 drops, probably have myr superion's as a 4 of, can be played with the pod or off of treespeakers.
a very good 3 cmc card for this is trinket mage as it allows you to restart the system with a hex parasiteor similar (then potentially getting another myr superion)
4 drop entomber exarch for some nice disruption
5 drop acidic slime, more nice desruption.
6 drop frost titan seems nice if you like the disruption.
a pretty good 5 drop alternative is clone shell, as it can by itself get you big creatures, or just be a bridge from 4 to 6 that gives you an extra creature (card advantage and a restart if they kill your big creature).
a possibility with this deck is playing with furnace celebration, allowing you to kill opponents creatures while you use the pod, this is quite slow though, as furnace is quite expensive to activate.
ok, lets take a leap into magical christmas land turn 1 birds of paradise, turn two, birthing pod, turn 3 scornful egotist, turn 4 iona, shield of emeria, or (much cooler) protean hulk and win with some crazy combo, possibly follow up with a turn 5 (or turn 4 with a voltaic key) jin grixis, core auger
Now, I just have to figure out, what am I stairstepping to? Stalking Vengeance maybe?
Edit: Built a deck, and my is it powerful. Just pick three colors (I picked green white blue), put in some early acceleration, then pick the best enter-the-battlefield creature of every color and every casting cost from 3 to 6. And of course four of these Pods.
My choices:
1 - Birds of Paradise x4
2 - Wall of Omen x3, Overgrown Battlement x4, Perilous Myr, Spellskite
3 - Seaside Oracle x3, Trinket Mage, corrupted Viridian Shaman
4 - Phyrexian Metamorph, Glimmerpoint Stag, Obstinate Baloth x2
5 - Acidic Slime x2, Precursor Golem
6 - Wurncoil Engine, Sun Titan, Sunblast Angel
7 - Elesh Norn
If you go into red you get the powerful Cunning Sparkmage and Tuk-tuk, as well as Priest of Umbrask which comboes well with the Birthing Pod. and with black you get Liliana's Specter, Phyrexian Rager, Skinrender, Entomber Exarch and Sheoldred. Of course any Titan is great here, as is Myr Superion.
When you pay the cost to activate the Pod, it's effect will resolve completely before any other effects placed on the stack can resolve. So, you pay to activate the Pod by sacrificing Viridian Emissary. Emissary goes to the graveyard, but you will not get to find a basic land until you first search for a creature and place it onto the battlefield. Then, you can find a basic land and put it onto the battlefield (tapped).
I am usually well-versed in rules involving the stack, but If I made a mistake interpreting the scenario, someone will correct me.
Once the Pod's ability cost has been paid (mana, tap, sacrifice), it's ability (search for a creature and put it onto the battlefield) is put onto the stack. Then, as each player would receive priority before the pod ability resolves, the emissary's trigger is put on the stack ON TOP of the already existing pod ability. Therefore, you would resolve the emissary trigger first, putting a land onto the battlefield, and then search for a creature.
Really, no functional change in the current scenario, but it could be relevant in another.
As for my thoughts on Birthing Pod: it looks cool, but also looks slow and will probably fall prey to the soon-to-be rampant artifact hate.
So it makes me think that you can't search for any creature other than exactly one plus the sac'd creatures CMC. In other words you have to sac a 3 CMC creature for a 4 CMC creature, and you can't sac a 3cmc creature for a 1 CMC card... Is this news to everyone or just me cuz it looks like a few other people have been thinking what I had previously also.
And that scenario does change things, lixidaan. If the crab enters before the land does then I get to mill 3 cards... So that does matter lol.
If I can't search for my crab with the higher cost creatures then I guess ill put in ornithopters and memnites... And maybe mincrank? Idk I just don't draw the crabs enough... Any other suggestions?
This is a fun card, worth building decks around.
sorry - me = big noob; please go easy on me =)
-andoroth
That said, I would love to sac Wurmcoil Engine and drop either Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite or Sheoldred, Whispering One.
This could also be a fun artifact in EDH..
so the card can be cast and activated for the first time for
Then you can get yourself a creature that provides card advantage like Vedalken Archmage, and cast some more stuff for few or no mana thanks to the Anvil. Or something like Indomitable Archangel to protect your artifacts (for future turns only though, since the ability sadly only activates at Sorcery-speed).
Every turn you destroy an opponent's land. Every turn you grab a Wurmcoil Engine or your favorite titan, all colorless.
I really doubt it's the end of Pod, but it should put the deck through its paces. This is one to keep your eye on in the coming months.
From my understanding, the tokens have a CMC of 0, which means if you sac them, you have to search for a creature with a CMC of 1. This is true regardless of the token being made, but token COPIES are a different story (I'm not sure if the entirety of the creature is copied, especially with permanents that become copies of other things, so I don't know if it would still keep the same CMC).
Truly balanced in my assessment and makes good use of Phyrexian mana- perhaps the only one that does...
5/5. Keep making us happy Wizards.
So basically Birthing Pod, A lot of Legacy decks, and most of what the set it's printed in stands for.
Fantastic.
I preordered New Phyrexia, and this is the only card I sold. Elesh Norn I traded because someone with a fetish for Lady Gaga insisted on way overtrading to get it.
Now I need to find a Pod playset for under $20.00. if such a thing exists...
:'D
i NEED for my lol cats standard deck.
....with elesh norn
Swing and Sac Putrefax into Phyrexian Swarmlord. Let the games begin.
1 - Young Wolf
2 - Strangleroot Geist
3 - Pyreheart Wolf
4 - Lumberknot
5 - Vorapede
6 - Flayer of the Hatebound
Just be sure to run some Naturalize or Beast Within to take care of those pesky Grafdigger's Cages.
3 cmc: Sprouting Thrinax, Geralf's Messenger, Kitchen Finks
4 cmc: Flametongue Kavu, Solemn Simalcrum
5 cmc: Thragtusk
6 cmc: Broodmate Dragon, Wurmcoil Engine, Inferno Titan, Grave Titan, Primeval Titan (allows you to cast stuff stuck in your hand)
7 cmc: Pelakka Wurm, Protean Hulk (allows you to get back something to start the chain again after saccing it)
8 cmc: ALL HAIL THE GREAT LORD EGOTIST
{1} or {1}B} 5 drop for card advantage *every turn.*
I enjoyed this trick with Consuming Aberration; but in dredge you can consider Golgari Grave-troll, many of the demigods/lieges from shadowmoor,
Shriekmaw, Vengeful Pharoah, Bloodgift Demon, Woebringer, Halo Hunter, anowan.
And that's just a few of the tricks. Neat little combo IMO
Sac a five drop -> Massacre Wurm -> sac the wurm -> Sheoldred
Turn 3: play Scornful Egotist face down.
Turn 4: play this by paying the Phyrexian mana and turn lord Egotist up.
Turn 5: Sac the egotist to this, bring out anything in your library CMC 9.
Turn 6: Swing if you wish, then sac that for Progenitus.
A little roundabout, but it ought to work.
Turn 5: Sacrifice, draw a card, fetch Havengul Lich, recast simulacrum, fetch a land
Turn 6: Sacrifice, draw a card, fetch Prophet of Kruphix
The world is your oyster!
Short answer: "Target" =/= affected by something. Birthing Pod does not target.
Long answer:
The word "target" has a very specific meaning in Magic. In order for something to involve targetting, the word "target" has to appear in the card's Oracle text. Since the word "target" is not present in Birthing Pod's text, no targeting is involved. You will get to search your library for a creature card with converted mana cost equal to 1 plus the converted mana cost of the creature that Phantasmal Image copied.
And I've known about this card for like a year.