Pod-Ko (Haldan + Pako)

Commander / EDH* RUG (Temur) Toolbox

Ince_Velus

Land (37)

• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x Cephalid Coliseum
• 1x Cinder Glade
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Fabled Passage
• 1x Field of Ruin
• 1x Field of the Dead
• 1x Fiery Islet
• 1x Flamekin Village
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Forbidden Orchard
• 1x Hinterland Harbor
• 1x Ketria Triome
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Mystic Sanctuary
• 1x Rootbound Crag
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Skarrg, the Rage Pits
• 5x Snow-Covered Forest
• 3x Snow-Covered Island
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Stomping Ground
• 1x Sulfur Falls
• 1x Temple of Abandon
• 1x Temple of Epiphany
• 1x Temple of Mystery
• 1x Temple of the False God
• 1x Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
• 1x Waterlogged Grove
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Sorcery (9)

• 1x Gitaxian Probe
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Preordain
• 1x Nature's Lore
• 1x Regrowth
• 1x Cultivate
• 1x Windfall
• 1x Splendid Reclamation
• 1x Seasons Past

Instant (23)

• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Crop Rotation
• 1x Flusterstorm
• 1x Noxious Revival
• 1x Pyroblast
• 1x Rapid Hybridization
• 1x Veil of Summer
• 1x Abrade
• 1x Brain Freeze
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Growth Spiral
• 1x Muddle the Mixture
• 1x Reap
• 1x Thrill of Possibility
• 1x Deflecting Swat
• 1x Fierce Guardianship
• 1x Frantic Search
• 1x Intuition
• 1x Force of Vigor
• 1x Force of Will
• 1x Gush
• 1x Nexus of Fate
• 1x Dig Through Time

Enchantment (11)

• 1x Carpet of Flowers
• 1x Exploration
• 1x Mirri's Guile
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Cindervines
• 1x Psychic Surgery
• 1x Search for Azcanta  ^Flip
• 1x Steal Enchantment
• 1x Sylvan Library
• 1x Underworld Breach
• 1x Thousand-Year Storm

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Wrenn and Six
• 1x Vivien, Monsters' Advocate

Commanders (2)

Creature (12)

• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Bloom Tender
• 1x Dockside Extortionist
• 1x Vexing Shusher
• 1x Dryad of the Ilysian Grove
• 1x Spellseeker
• 1x Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath
• 1x Wavebreak Hippocamp
• 1x God-Eternal Kefnet
• 1x Oakhame Adversary
• 1x World Shaper
• 1x Ethereal Forager

Artifact (9)

• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Simic Signet
• 1x Talisman of Creativity

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A Pod Deck for a man and his dog

This deck came about for two major reasons; 1. I sold my entire collection about two years ago due to the sad state magic seemed to be headed and told myself I would only ever make decks that struck a serious chord...fast forward to two weeks ago and a buddy showed me his binder and damn did these two hit me hard. 2. I always loved theory crafting and making decks that on paper have zero synergy but work well in practice. This deck is a fine example of that.

The Package

Now this deck runs off three different 'trains' (a term I have always used when building decks) that each have their own win-con and play style. Now normally a deck, for me at least, only runs a max of 2 trains as too many trains and the deck starts to lose value/focus and ends up harming itself through bad draws or lack of synergy.

Train 1, The Pooch

Now this is the first win-con put into a nice little single card package, Pako, Arcane Retriever. A repeatable body that swings the turn it is played, pumps itself progressively each time it survives until my next combat phase, threatens lives through commander damage, and removes (slowly albeit) cards from my opponents decks that could potentially be cards they wished they drew. The fact that this pumps itself each combat means that while my opponents will probably use a single kill spell card on pako, as long as he hits a few decent cards, two swings at a full table often snags 1-3 really good cards for me to use later.

Train 2, Don't need a hand with Haldan

This is where all that Pako value gets seen three fold. Exiling cards from decks is a nice little bonus, getting the dog buffed because of it, also a great value. But what happens when a really nice card is exiled, or you just need more value in a turn and your hand is garbage? Haldan comes down, for 3 mana, and lets me sift through all the cards available. Maybe I have an Azusa, Lost but Seeking in hand and no lands to use it, no problem, I can haldan, play the exiled lands and maybe a few other cards. He often comes into play when I hit a few counter spells to be able to have a single card become this "hey, you sure you want to cast that?" and that can be more valuble than actually casting spells that turn.

Train 3, The Pod

The nicest part about the Pod, and its brother Neoform, is that Pako can remove them but I am able to cast them with Haldan if truly needed. Now this is where my game group gave me the "you are running a deck that exiles cards from your deck, and if it hits a creature you lose that card." and where my brain went "If I tutor creatures out and play smart Pako hits my noncreature cards more often than not. He also only exiles about 2-4 cards from my deck a game and that chance to hit a creature is fairly low and worth the value usually." The end result is a creature toolkit type deck, a classic pod deck shell, that runs like a normal pod deck and wins via just rotating progressively larger creatures with Birthing Pod value, mixed with two single cards that on their own grant repeatable value that of a totally different play style without having to change the inner workings of the main deck. The results are great, so far the deck runs smoooooth and Pako has yet to totally destroy me but there will be a game where the perfect card will be fetched by him. Outside of that the deck works well, and there are a list of cards I have been thinking about changing in and out and would input.

The game winners

After a handful of games the deck has evolved HEAVILY in just a few weeks, but this deck, I can truly say, prides itself on being a no-win-con deck. Such that there is no linear one direction type deck that game after game wins the same way. Does it usually win in similar fashion each time? Sorta. I mean this in that some games I win with a Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle and World Shaper with a Dryad of the Ilysian Grove in play to proc a 15-20 land valakut ETB, but other games its a field of the dead similar win, where I am then swinging the next turn. Other times its a Underworld Breach with Brain Freeze to mass fuel and hyper mill my opponents decks, and other times I use underworld breach but to get such large value in one turn that I can get a Comet Storm off for absurd damage. I love that this deck wins in many ways, each way a powerful table killer but none of them this infinite two card combo where my deck just tutors these cards out to insta-win. Does this pose a challenge? Of course, this deck would struggle in a Cedh setting by a long shot, but it also means in a non-cedh setting this deck is fair, in all regards of the term, and at no point do my players feel like I just "combo-won" showing every step and, albeit long turns, explain how I win step by step without saying "and then I repeat this fifty times" I have been told it is a blast to play against and most players dont feel I win too aggressively. It just feels nice.

Thoughts

I am definitely testing this deck and its strengths definitely lie in late game steam value, the mid game is just getting a board state to keep myself alive without threatening my opponents too much and early game trying to ramp and keep my hand stocked. Any input would be great and I would love to here different ideas for changes as well. I may comment to say why I run the things I do but again it is to figure out the best way to refine it.

Date added	3 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	14 - 0 Mythic Rares 47 - 0 Rares 20 - 0 Uncommons 16 - 0 Commons
Cards	105
Avg. CMC	2.47
Tokens	Beast 3/3 G, Emblem Wrenn and Six, Frog Lizard 3/3 G, Spirit 1/1 C, Treasure, Zombie 2/2 B