I Can't Believe It's Not Pod
Commander / EDH
SCORE: 56 | 57 COMMENTS | 20364 VIEWS | IN 37 FOLDERS
Not Dead! And other interesting developments. —June 20, 2019
So I've been pretty bad about making any updates here, although my list hasn't substantially changed in the last few months. I had declared my Vannifar brewing as largely complete, as I didn't feel the potential of the deck as a competitive option was going to be substantially improved without new printings. We got a few interesting options through the Ravnica not-block, but nothing that I felt actually made the final cut in the deck. MH1 brought Force of Vigor, which I'm quite happy to slot in over Natural State, which has long felt like a "necessary evil" in a deck so hosed by Cage, Totem, RIP, etc. MH1 also brought Tribute Mage, which, while it doesn't do much in this build, has opened up interesting possibilities for a Thornbite Staff-focused build which has gotten a bit of brewing action on the discord, but I've taken a back seat on.
However, today we got a really interesting and exciting spoiler, the innocuous Spectral Sailor. This 1-drop Azure Mage is the missing piece of a decent hulk pile in UG, consisting of Vigean Graftmage, Incubation Druid, and the Sailor. It still has the problem of not winning at Flash speed, but I'm much happier to consider playing a hulk-based build of Vannifar today than I was yesterday because of this card. Going to spend a bit of time thinking on it and brewing and seeing where I end up, but I'll probably make a fork of this build with a hulk focus. We live in interesting times, and each new printing brings new opportunities. Keep your eyes open.
Why do you have so much card draw (not really that much but 5 pieces including a 3 mana and a 2 mana enchantment) when your commander is a tutor? Also, in my experience, Crossroads has been a big feelsbad in hand.
February 25, 2019 8:48 a.m.
Soren841 Vannifar isn't a utility tutor when your deck wins when it taps her. The enchantments let us play a longer game and enable things like haste lines, not to mention drawing into interaction, which is necessary for such a fragile combo.
February 27, 2019 10:21 a.m.
You also draw your combo pieces, and she actually can utility tutor if you cant win for whatever reason
February 27, 2019 11:42 a.m.
Soren841 there's sufficient options in the deck to play around drawn combo pieces, between Brainstorm, Whirlpool Warrior, Timetwister, etc, plus Elvish Piper and Selvala offering backup lines. It's rare you'll draw into a hand that stops you dead, and the extra cards let you play the long game.
February 27, 2019 1:10 p.m.
Soren841Hey man, you're the guy playing Memnite in your deck.
February 27, 2019 2:53 p.m.
Right, and it actually adoes more than those. Crazy, isn't it?
February 27, 2019 3:06 p.m.
You're crazy if you think Memnite is better than those.. lol.
Selvala, other than being an amazing contingency/alternate win-con (that has won me games with this deck,) is also a top tier cEDH Commander.. Can't say the same for Memnite.
The decks are doing different things; this kind of Vannifar build aims for contingency/redundancy, whereas yours is more focused on the Flash/Hulk plan. To each their own.
I personally feel that Flash/Hulk was too clunky, and was hoping for more of a "magical christmasland" hand to actually be worth it, and in actual practice you rarely end up with lines that lead to a Flash win.. so in that case why waste deck slots on a combo that's more trouble than it's worth, when we could make the main Vannifar lines better and more redundant?
February 28, 2019 5 p.m.
Main Vannifar lines are plenty redundant in my deck, and end in Protean Hulk. So Flash is one extra card. I definitely do not need "magical christmasland" to win. Selvala being top tier has nothing to do with Selvala in this deck. She's a 3 drop mana dork with a weak draw effect that is affected by summoning sickness. Memnite is free, can start Vannifar chains, and is part of my wincon.
February 28, 2019 6:29 p.m.
If you start your ezuri hulk pod chain from one of your 0drops doesn't that mean you don't get enough experience counters to win?
March 1, 2019 3:28 a.m.
Yeah, can just get Dryad Arbor with Hulk for the 5th Counter. ~.^
March 1, 2019 2:06 p.m.
In one of the combos it says to pod to Spellseeker what do we get with it cause it doesn’t say what to get.
April 18, 2019 6:45 p.m.
sdgundum990 says... #15
Spellseeker is in many combo lists in order to get Flash for the Hulk combo.
April 19, 2019 12:24 p.m.
BotBotBotif it doesn't say, then it doesn't matter what you get at that point. feel free to grab relevant interaction.
sdgundum990perhaps, but this list doesn't run either until there's a hulk pile that's not terrible in UG
April 20, 2019 3:10 a.m.
sdgundum990 hermit druid requires haste to be able to activate. also the mana base has to be atrocious to hermit in 2 colors.
April 28, 2019 8:31 p.m.
I have a question. I don't have a "Timetwister", what is the best alternative card?
May 26, 2019 6:46 p.m.
With Riftsweeper in the deck, you don't even need Timetwister, since you have enough redundancy to get E.Wit back, honestly..
d3sden0va says... #1
Sheriff_K Shift is a good removal spell in general, and can still be used as a backup finisher with Forbidden Orchard. Ooze is a 2drop (to start pod chains) with good additional utility, and Winds is also a good removal spell that also disrupts topdeck tutors. Beast Within is clunky at 3 mana. Winds/Shift/Scooze are all good cards on their own, beast is a bit less good.
February 5, 2019 11:51 a.m.