Financial Fallout of Pod Ban
Economics forum
Posted on March 30, 2015, 10:45 p.m. by CuteSnail
So I'm writing a research paper on the financial impact of Birthing Pod focusing in modern, but covering all relavent formats.
I've never played modern so I need all the help I can get.
When was the ban?
What where the prevalent pod decks and some of the tertiary cards that may have had a financial drop after the banning?
Are there any sites other than tcg that track card prices?
Have any of you picked up or sold pieces of pod decks since the ban?
I'm excited. I just hope I actually get answers and/or help.
March 30, 2015 10:55 p.m.
Didgeridooda says... #4
You might want to use this site if you don't use it already.
Also, there were a few different variations of pod. Mtgtop8 might have history. That will really help giving you the cards you need to look up.
Just curious about what class this is for? Are you tying it into another idea?
March 30, 2015 10:56 p.m.
FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #5
Tagging some people might help. ChiefBell especially.
March 30, 2015 10:56 p.m.
ThisIsBullshit says... #8
Ban was in January, search around and you'll find the exact date
I think there were a few different kinds of pod, one was Melira pod where they used Melira, Sylvok Outcast and Kitchen Finks to gain a billion life, so those cards may have dropped. I think Archangel of Thune may have dropped some also
I'm not sure if there are any that track prices, but you could try SCG or Channelfireball
One of my friends immediately went out and bought a bunch of pods for his EDH decks as soon as the prices dropped
Seems like an interesting paper topic.
March 30, 2015 11 p.m.
SoggyGecko says... #9
Ban list was release on 1/19/15, effective 1/23/15. The early version of Pod involve a more combo strategy, with Kitchen Finks + Melira, Sylvok Outcast + Viscera Seer . Later versions leaned towards a value plan, with just powerful creatures, such as Siege Rhino. Pod was mostly a Junk deck, with a few variations. It was it's own archetype. I don't know if you are interested in its legacy implications, but I think one deck called Nic Fit uses it. Many of the singletons that Pod had are not really used outside of Pod, such as Orzhov Pontiff, Shriekmaw, Reveillark and Sin Collector. I can't tell you much else about the rest of your questions.
March 30, 2015 11:03 p.m.
Thank you for all the feedback!
Didgeridooda the paper is for Economic Geography. The guidelines are super lax, literally "write on any topic" it just has to be 8 pages and have at least 7 sources.
March 30, 2015 11:07 p.m.
I would pick up pod if I were rich enough to build the Domri Obliterator pieces.
(Domri Rade Phyrexian Obliterator playset of Deathrite Shaman... Mostly for casual lolz. Aint got that kinda funds though.. if I did Id already have several tier 1 decks.. o.o)
March 30, 2015 11:08 p.m.
Summoning Ohthenoises as it was his favorite deck. Unless I'm thinking of someone else.
Pod started off as a combo deck. There were two iterations: Kiki Pod and Melira Pod. I can't say much about the early versions, but Melira Pod used Kitchen Finks + Melira, Sylvok Outcast + Viscera Seer to gain infinite life or Melira, Sylvok Outcast + Murderous Redcap + Viscera Seer to machine gun the opponent to death.
It's most recent form kind of morphed into a powerful midrange toolbox deck with Archangel of Thune + Spike Feeder as a backdoor combo. Occasionally, however, the combos would be omitted completely in favor of a pure midrange plan.
A few cards whose price history I would look at are Chord of Calling (more heavily used during the combo days),Gavony Township (not sure on this one, but it was heavily played in all variations of Pod), Orzhov Pontiff (plummeted in value), and, of course, Birthing Pod.
March 30, 2015 11:16 p.m.
Ohthenoises says... #14
I have been summoned!
Nope, pod wasn't a pet deck sorry.
I deal in 8 rack, Tron, and Zoo primarily.
March 30, 2015 11:20 p.m.
When was the pod ban?
Are there any sites other than tcg that track card prices?
MTGstocks.com is literally a site for following the value of cards over time.
What where the prevalent pod decks and some of the tertiary cards that may have had a financial drop after the banning?
MTGtop8.com is a site that lists the performance of all decks and how they perform in tournaments worldwide. Here you can easily find which cards are run in Pod.
Staples in Modern Pod decks, let's see how the banning affected the prices!
Kitchen Finks (Incomplete Data)
Orzhov Pontiff (Honorary mention for only being played in pod and having a funny pricejump that died right after the ban)
From what I can see, the banning of pod has had little to no effect on the value of any of the cards in the deck, excluding Kitchen Finks and the pod itself.
The reason why the banning of pod has had so extremely limited effect on the price of cards is that pod was a "Toolbox" deck. Except for a few staples (Birds, Pods, Noble Hierarch, Voice of Resurgence and Kitchen Finks) almost EVERY card in birthing pod was a one of.
Let us take the creatures run by Magnus Lantto who won the GP Milan 2014 with a Pod deck.
Mainboard:
Sideboard:
As you can see there are very few duplicates. So the demand for the card is far lessened.
The multiples in this deck excluding Kitchen Finks and Pod see a LOT of play in other popular decks, so pod disappearing doesn't lower their value as they get put to use instantly.
The one-of cards may not see heavy play in many decks, but due to only needing one per pod deck, the demand was never high enough to drive up prices in the first place.
Hope this helped.
Since your project is basically finished already and you now have plenty of free time, check out my decks!
March 30, 2015 11:22 p.m.
ChiefWannaHacka says... #16
As an avid Modern player, and Econ undergrad major, if you need help trying to actually write the paper and connect ideas I'd be more than happy to help. Not sure what exactly your topic is since it's "lax", but the economic landscape of Modern before and after Pod's banning is definitely different.
March 30, 2015 11:23 p.m.
Now personally the best example I can find of indirect price changes due to banning is Deathrite Shaman and the subsequent price change of Noble Hierarch
Take a look at this: http://mtgstocks.com/prints/2137
Guess which day Deathrite Shaman got banned!
March 30, 2015 11:29 p.m.
Thanks for all the help guys! As an edh-only player, this suprisingly interests me! I'll be back tomorrow morning to actually start writing the paper. As an edh-only player, this suprisingly interests me!
But by all means continue the discussion.
March 30, 2015 11:42 p.m.
Oh and are there any scg articles on the topic? In need sources.
I could expand the topic to include meta change and thus decks (and as a result, cards) on the rise.
March 30, 2015 11:50 p.m.
ChiefWannaHacka the topic is pretty loose. The impact of birthing pod's ban on various cards and decks in the modern format and birthing pod's price and impact on other formats.
March 31, 2015 12:25 a.m.
Schuesseled says... #21
Your Economics professor is going to be all like "What the fuck is this bullshit."
Reminds me of a photo I saw once of a history essay someone had wrote about the nuclear war started by Julius Ceasar in response to Ghandi's aggressive troop movements. (Poor little guy probably played 'one more turn' too many when he should have been studying).
March 31, 2015 3:09 a.m.
TheAnnihilator says... #22
When was the ban?
Not sure, but google can help you with that one. I'm here for the other questions.
What where the prevalent pod decks?
Melira Pod -- The most prevalent version, an Abzan (or Junk, or GWB, whatever you prefer) deck that used a midrangey, value-you-out plan that had a combo of Melira, Sylvok Outcast, a sac outlet (usually Viscera Seer) and either of Kitchen Finks or Murderous Redcap to lock out the game.
Kiki Pod -- The least prevalent Pod deck, using 4-colors (all but black). Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker plus any of the three following one-ofs: Deceiver Exarch, Restoration Angel, or Zealous Conscripts were used to end the game as immediately as possible. I suppose you could think of it as "all-in" pod, and the games were made difficult by all of the possible pod chains that could lead to "Oops, I win!" types of plays. You had to look out for "Pod 2 drop, get Deceiver Exarch, untap pod with it, pod a 3 drop, get Restoration Angel, flicker Deceiver, untap pod, pod the angel, get Kiki-Jiki, and win with Deceiver Exarch + Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker ."
Angel Pod -- This one is a little dated, but it was coined by Louis Scott Vargas (I think?) to refer to a version of Melira Pod that was packing the Archangel of Thune + Spike Feeder combo as well as mainboarding Linvala, Keeper of Silence and some number of Restoration Angel. But it's otherwise very similar to regular Melira Pod.
And finally, Rhino-Pod (aka, Value Pod) -- Cue Siege Rhino! This was the version of Pod that eventually got the ban-hammer. After Rhino came down, Pod embraced it very openly and used it to gain reach and to improve its value-midrange game plan. It was also nuts with Restoration Angel, which became a part of the core of the deck for the first time (before, it was somewhat used, but not a mainstay). Now, the hate that people packed against the combo got stomped out by Rhino value, but anything brought in against a midrange plan would get valued/combo'd out.
Are there any sites other than tcg that track card prices?
Again, google, but you could try StarCityGames, MTGCardMarket, TCGPlayer, CardKingdom... etc. etc. Just google it.
Have any of you picked up or sold pieces of pod decks since the ban?
Yes, I'm actually still in the market for Voice of Resurgence, and Siege Rhino is still very good right now. If I didn't basically own the deck already, I'd prolly still be willing to pick up Voices, Rhinos, Restoration Angels, the lands in either deck colors, Gavony Township deserves special mention, Thoughtseize, Abrupt Decay, Qasali Pridemage, Scavenging Ooze, Kitchen Finks, Spellskite, Eternal Witness, and Noble Hierarch (all of these barring future reprints, etc.).
Cards that most likely dropped in price after the ban:
March 31, 2015 9:12 a.m.
Why did Melira, Sylvok Outcast jump AFTER the ban then drop off? that seems weird to me. is it because the market was flooded with them after people tried to offload their pod decks?
March 31, 2015 12:08 p.m.
OtakulordAndrew says... #26
Abzan midrange, mono red deck wins, and twin where the main ones to go up. Dredgevine went up after Golgari Grave-Troll was unbanned at the same time as pod's banning. Delver went down due to Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time's banning. I think gw hatebears also went up a bit but I'm not sure on this one.
March 31, 2015 3:20 p.m.
OtakulordAndrew says... #27
Oh and infect went up do to melira pod no longer being a thing.
March 31, 2015 3:22 p.m.
Chord of Calling dropped because of the M15 reprint. Notice the price drop in July 2014, at M15's launch.
Glen Elendra Archmage had a similar drop because of Modern Masters. It took longer to drop off because of the severely limited print run. The median is on the rise.
March 31, 2015 3:30 p.m.
TheAnnihilator says... #29
@suneater
Both Chord and Glen Elendra had time while they were still used in Pod even after their reprints, and then they fell even further after pod got the banhammer.
March 31, 2015 6:02 p.m.
I built a Pod deck over the summer of 2014. I built it before Siege Rhino was around, and it was good then. I knew as soon as Siege Rhino was spoiled it was fairly over powered and Pod was going to break through as the Tier 1 deck in modern. After playing competitively with moderate/great success for about 5 months, they dropped the ban. I was pretty annoyed, but I just switched back to Red/Green Tron post ban. I have not sold or traded any pieces of the deck as it still makes for a hell of a casual deck to whip out, which is what I play these days for the most part anyway. I think every card in the deck has some good value in the long term, and so after my analysis of the situation I elected to keep my Pod deck intact, with hopes that it will overall see an increase in value in the next 3 or so years, especially if they can ever manage to take Pod off the ban list. This is just my experience with the deck, card and ban, if you'd like to include that in your paper.
FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #2
1) Wow, really cool!!
2) I can't give help :( but I'm just going watch this conversation go around because it looks very interesting.
March 30, 2015 10:52 p.m.