BUG Birthing Pod Deck With 4 Frost Titans

July 9, 2011 | Posted by Dee

Update Nov. 7, 2011: This deck is no longer Standard legal but here’s a similar Pod deck that is legal for Standard.

I started working on Birthing Pod decks again after the Standard bannings. However, I could get anything to win more than 50% of the time. This was disappointing because I had a 67% win percentage with GWB Pod pre-bannings.

I realized the old GWB Pod deck was good not only because of Pod but because of Stoneforge Mystic. Even if I didn’t draw Pod, I could still win games with Stoneforge. With that knowledge, I tried to find an alternate win condition in my new Pod decks.

I tried GB with six fatties, or creatures that cost six or more mana. That didn’t go very well. The fatties in GB just didn’t do enough. Grave Titan was vulnerable to mass removal and died easily to Go for the Throat. Sheoldred was powerful but too easy to kill.

Wurmcoil Engine was actually the best performing fattie and I tried out a build with 4 of them. However, that still wasn’t enough. I couldn’t crack the 50% win barrier.

GB didn’t feel very powerful, so I added a color. I built GWB decks with Fauna Shaman, Vengevine, and Squadron Hawk as the alternate win conditions. However, those cards did not perform very well. I kept losing to Valakut and Splinter Twin. Fast aggro decks gave me problems too.

Then, I tried a RUG Twin Pod deck. I went 5-2 so I was happy. Also, I was impressed with Frost Titan. Along with Acidic Slime, Frost Titan could quickly lock up the game by attacking your opponent’s mana.

While I won with RUG, the deck seemed inconsistent. I wondered if Frost Titan could work in a BUG shell. I built a list and so far, I’ve gone 12-3.

Frost Titan has proven to be the alternate win condition I was looking for. In fact, you could argue that the deck is not really a Birthing Pod deck even though it has four Pods. It’s more of a Frost Titan deck since Frost Titan is better in this deck than Birthing Pod.

Here’s the list.

BUG Frost Titan Pod

Creatures (24)

Spells (11)

Lands (25)

Sideboard (15)

The addition of blue has had many good benefits. First, you get to play with Preordain, which makes the deck more consistent especially with the mana. Preordain helps you avoid mana flood and mana screw. Also, it can fix your mana.

Second, you can play a solid three-drop for Pod, Sea Gate Oracle. I’m still not completely happy with this card but it beats most of the alternatives. The three drop spot is really lacking for Pod decks.

Third, you can play the new M12 card, Phantasmal Image. This card is great because it’s a two-drop that clones. This is very relevant with Birthing Pod. For example, you play Frost Titan. You can then sac Birds of Paradise to Pod and clone your Frost Titan.

Fourth, you can play counterspells and Jace Beleren to fight control decks. Counterspells are also good against Valakut and Twin.

Let’s go back to Frost Titan.

Frost Titan

The main reason I like Frost Titan is because it’s good in virtually every matchup. I’ve never sideboarded it out yet.

Many decks have shaky mana bases so tapping down a land can be huge. For example, against Twin, you can tap down a red mana source to keep them off of Splinter Twin mana. Valakut decks can’t afford to play too many green sources so tapping down a Forest early is often enough to win the game.

Also, six mana, or Titan mana, is the magic number for many decks and Frost Titan keeps your opponent off that number as you mana ramp with Birds of Paradise and Lotus Cobra. Control decks need a lot of land to function. Every land you tap down can slow down a control deck.

Many decks depend on manlands but Frost Titan shuts them down.

Against other Titans, Frost Titan wins the battle. You can lock down other Titans and keep them from using their triggered ability.

Frost Titan is hard to kill because of his pseudo-shroud ability. While you’re tapping down lands and destroying them with Acidic Slime, your opponent will struggle to have enough mana to kill Frost Titan; not to mention, you can also make your opponent discard removal with Entomber Exarch.

Against aggro, Frost Titan is a hard-to-kill blocker that can also shut down a creature. I remember playing against Red Deck Wins (Mono Red Aggro). He was winning comfortably until I dropped Frost Titan. Suddenly, he had to stop attacking. Koth of the Hammer couldn’t even save him.

Plus, with all these abilities, Frost Titan is fast clock. It kills quickly so your opponent has to find an answer right away or he will lose.

[Buy Frost Titan on eBay]

Other Cards

The main role players are Entomber Exarch and Acidic Slime. Entomber Exarch protects Frost Titan and Birthing Pod while Acidic Slime makes Frost Titan’s tap ability more effective by destroying lands. Slime also has good non-land targets like Tempered Steel, Pyromancer Ascension, and equipment.

The mana ramp package is also important. I used to have less than 4 Lotus Cobra but when you don’t draw Pod, you want to land a quick Frost Titan. With eight fetchlands, Cobra is usually more explosive than Birds of Paradise.

I split Viridian Emissary and Nest Invader because I’m not sure which one is better.

I added three removal spells main deck because aggro decks can be a tough matchup.

The mana base is pretty sweet. You definitely want 2 Island and 2 Swamp. Sometimes you won’t draw a Darkslick Shores or a Creeping Tar Pit but you will draw two Misty Rainforest or two Verdant Catacombs. You want to be able to cast double black or blue spells (Entomber Exarch’s 2BB and Frost Titan’s 4UU) with fetchlands alone. You can’t rely on Cobra and Birds because they are easily killed.

Match Breakdown

Full matches: 12-3 (80%)

Here’s a breakdown of the different decks I’ve played against. Anything that is 2-0, 2-1, 1-2, or 0-2 was a full match with sideboarding for games two and three.

Valakut: 2-1, 2-1
UW Puresteel: 1-0
UB Control: 2-1, 2-0
UR Pyromancer Ascension: 2-0
Mono Black Control: 2-1
Mono Green Ramp: 2-1
Mono Blue Illusion Aggro: 2-0
UW Control with 4 Phantasmal Image main deck: 1-2
UW Control: 2-0, 0-2, 2-0
RDW: 1-1, 2-1
Mono Green Aggro: 1-0
GB Glissa Midrange: 1-2
GW Ramp: 1-0, 2-1

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