Polymorph vs Pod decks
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on Feb. 5, 2020, 6:18 p.m. by TheDarkPlague
I'm not sure where to ask this questions but I saw a few video online and they were talking about different type of deck. Polymorph and Pod types were mentioned but with very little detail and both descriptions were almost identical.
Can anyone explain to me in depth what Polymorph and Pod decks are please ?
I think another good thing to note about these decks is they tend to function differently:
Polymorph decks are almost always U or Ux decks and always function as some form of combo.
Pod decks are almost always G or Gx decks and function as either tool box decks (such as decks that search for a specific card) or as straight combo decks.
February 5, 2020 9:17 p.m.
dbpunk: Forgot to mention that, good pickup.
Yeah, Generally Pod decks are giong to have a higher creature count and often times will be toolbox decks since you can search for cards but have CMC restrictions. So you will want to run effects at multiple CMCs to increase your exposure to those cards.
February 5, 2020 9:29 p.m.
Pod decks require a creature curve to either toolbox or chain some combo.
Polymorph decks tend to just have little creatures in the deck so you can cheat them iut cheaply and reliably.
February 7, 2020 2:13 p.m.
RNR_Gaming says... #6
Pod decks also tend to be more resilient to interaction. Where as polymorph decks usually go all in with high risk and high rewards.
enpc says... #2
Pod decks are designed to leverage Birthing Pod lines, i.e. creatures of increasing CMC. There is also Prime Speaker Vannifar and Yisan, the Wanderer Bard who fit into this category.
A really basic Birthing Pod line might be (using Thrasios, Triton Hero/Tymna the Weaver as your commanders):
play Thrasios
eat him with Pod to get Trinket Mage (who fetches Lion's Eye Diamond)
untap pod and eat the Trinket Mage getting Auriok Salvagers
From here you can generat infinite mana, recast Thrasios and combo off.That line is quite compact however has to be done over multiple turns or requires an external untapper. There are lines which include cards like Felidar Guardian which can combo off in one turn:
Eat guardian getting Karmic Guide (bringing back guardian and unttaping pod)
Eat guardian getting Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
Copy Karmic Guide getting back guardian and combo guardian and kik for infinite dudes
On the other hand, Polymorph or Mass Polymorph decks are designed with a very low creature count, however all of the creatures have huge impact (think Blightsteel Colossus). Then you use non-creature token generators (e.g. Lingering Souls) to give you fodder to polymorph into big stuff for cheap.
There is also Proteus Staff decks which can be polymorph decks, or can be completely creatureless except of the commander. Since staff lets you order the cards you put back (as opposed to it being random from most polymorph effects), you can stack your library basically let you play the whole deck in one hit. Elsha of the Infinite
is a good example of this, since she can play the top card of your library. So you stack your deck andthen use cost reducers/untap effects to let you play all of your mana sources (e.g. mana rocks) and make them mana positive.
February 5, 2020 6:52 p.m. Edited.