Birthing Pod is banned in modern, but Prime Speaker Vannifar was just spoiled a bit ago, and now we get another’s crack at the deck! I’ll explain the card choices later, once I’ve got the deck tested a little bit.
If you ever knew the old "Kiki-Pod" deck, my combo should look pretty familiar. The rest of the deck? eehhh...
This deck looks to rush out a quick T4 (and often T3 wins) by bringing out Prime Speaker Vannifar ASAP with ramp creatures and giving it haste with one of the other creatures in the deck. Then we can use Birthing Pod chains to bring out Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and Deveiver Exarch to combo off for the win. Here's why I built the deck the way it is:
Spell Choices
Bloodlust Inciter, Goblin Motivator, and Racecourse Fury- Prime Speaker Vannifar is much more fragile than Birthing Pod. Most (if not all) modern decks hold some form of creature removal, which is why we need to make sure the time between casting Prime Speaker Vannifar and winning is as short as possible. These spells do this by giving Prime Speaker Vannifar haste so we can combo out the turn we cast Prime Speaker Vannifar. Racecourse Fury is the worst of these spells, because it cannot be sacked by Prime Speaker Vannifar once we get our combo, but most decks don't run main-board enchantment removal, so that makes it good enough for this deck. All haste-givers need to be 1 mana so we can use the "1,2 Birthing Pod chain".
Sylvan Caryatid, Vine Trellis, and Wall of Roots- As a combo deck we want to initiate our gameplan ASAP, which we can do thanks to our manadorks here. All mana dorks need to be 2 mana so we can use the "1,2 Birthing Pod chain".
Phantasmal Image, Deceiver Exarch, and Restoration Angel- We use these to combo out way up with Prime Speaker Vannifar and play our beloved Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker. I'll explain this more when I go over Birthing Pod chains (or google it yourself- plenty of professional Birthing Pod players have explained already).
Prime Speaker Vannifar- Birthing Pod given legs.
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker- Combos with Deceiver Exarch or Restoration Angel for infinite tokens.
Pact of Negation- Protects us while we combo off. If we cast it and don't win that turn then we die.
Summoner's Pact- Allows us to play less copies of Prime Speaker Vannifar and Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, so we have more room for Pact of Negation.
Land Choices
Grove of the Burnwillons- The perfect land for this deck, since our combo does infinite damage we don't care about giving the opponent life.
Arid Mesa and Misty Rainforest- With these two fetch lands we can grab any of the four colors we need in order to play this deck.
Steam Vents, Breeding Pool, Hallowed Fountain, Sacred Foundry, and Stomping Ground- We can get any colors we need using our fetch lands, but we have multiples of Stomping Ground due to the first and second turns needing red and green mana.
Forest, Island, and Plains- Some basic lands to fetch if we get Ghost Quartered or Path of Exiled.
Why The Janky/Weird Card Choices?
In order to combo off ASAP, we need Prime Speaker Vannifar hasted and on the battlefield by turn 3. I addition, we need to use Birthing Pod chains (Specifically 1,2) to bring out Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker. AND NOW I c=can finally explain Birthing Pod chain. Basically, you ned a very specific combination of creature on the battle =field in order to combo your way into infinite Deciever Exarches. This is the card combination we need to play in order to pull off our combo.
Turn 1 Play- 1 red mana source, 1 haste-giver
Turn 2 Play- 1 green mana source, 1 mana dork
Turn 3 Play- 1 blue mana source, cast Summoner's Pact to find Prime Speaker Vannifar (if its not already in your hand), tap 3 lands and manadork to play Prime Speaker Vannifar, tap haste-giver to haste Prime Speaker Vannifar, and then initiate the following order of sacrifices:
1: Sac manadork for Deceiver Exarch, untap Prime Speaker Vannifar
2: Sac haste-giver for Phantasmal Image, copy Deceiver Exarch, untap Prime Speaker Vannifar
3: Sac Phantasmal Image for Restoration Angel (Phantasmal Image's cmc changes when it copies a creature), target Deceiver Exarch, when Deceiver Exarch enters the battlefield untap Prime Speaker Vannifar
4: Sac Restoration Angel for Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, copy Deceiver Exarch, and use each new copy of Deceiver Exarch to untap Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker for infinite tokens.
Unfortunately, because of this very specific order, the combo can easily be messed up, and parts may not always be drawn consistently. The worst card in this deck is Racecourse Fury because it cannot be sacced to Prime Speaker Vannifar. Unfortunately it is needed, as the only other 1 cmc creature to give haste either sac themselves or cost mana to give creatures haste.
