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Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Card of the Day

Daily Since November 2001!


Image from Wizards.com

Birthing Pod
New Phyrexia

Reviewed May 4, 2011

Constructed: 3.25
Casual: 3.75
Limited: 2.90
Multiplayer: 3.30

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst.  3 ... average.  
5 is the highest rating

Click here to see all of our 
Card of the Day Reviews 

BMoor

Birthing Pod

This card just screams combo at the top of its lungs, doesn't it? Build your deck around a chain of creatures, and work your way up one link at a time? I have no doubt that I'll be seeing Birthing Pod decks in my garage in the near future. 
But the Pod is a good card even in decks not specifically built around it, as long as they have lots of creatures. Chump block an opposing attacker with a 1/1, and Pod the blocker to trade up-- turning a chump blocker into a upgrade. Game turned into a war of attrition? Make your opponent's kill spells fizzle by Podding them in response to get incrementally better creatures, and with an Elixir of Immortality or two, you can keep fueling the Pod near-indefinitely. That 5 life off the Elixir will really help too, what with the paying 2 life for the Phyrexian mana-- you don't have to, but being able to use the Pod with only one mana up is a big help. Creatures with leaves-the-battlefield or enters-the-battlefield help make the Pod even more powerful.

But if you use Birthing Pod in a deck that isn't built around it, such as in Limited, make sure you know what creatures you have at each CMC and which ones are left in your deck-- you do NOT want to activate the Pod and whiff.

Constructed- 4
Casual- 4
Limited- 2.5
Multiplayer- 4.25

David Fanany

Player since 1995


Birthing Pod
 
So it's like Survival of the Fittest but with more chances to interrupt the chain, or Hibernation's End but you spend somewhat less mana? Sounds pretty good to me. Both of those cards were and are a lot of fun to play around with, and Birthing Pod now extends the opportunity to every color. It might be fun to combine it with something that works while it's in your graveyard, like Wonder or Glory. It might be a little slow for high-level constructed play, but the promise of a free, uncounterable Primeval Titan could yet end up being too much even for that scene to resist.
 
Constructed: 3/5
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 4/5
Multiplayer: 3/5
Michael "Maikeruu" Pierno

Today's card of the day is Birthing Pod which is a four mana green spell or three mana and two life for any other color that requires a creature sacrifice to activate.  As this can only be activated at sorcery speed it doesn't have as many applications as other summoning tricks, but can be used more than once and isn't as vulnerable as a creature like Elvish Piper.  A few creatures with specific traits that weaken them like Triskelion can work very well with this after most of the counters are used up.  Deck construction to make the mana curve of creatures exactly one mana above whatever might be in play is critical.  The issue is paying mana and possibly life and the creature just to get another creature that will likely have summoning sickness, barring Haste, may not be worth it.  This card seems useful and could have some serious combination potential, but as the effect taps and there with the costs involved it just doesn't have enough going for it.
 
In Limited the chances of drafting an appropriate build to maximize the potential of this are somewhat slim as it depends on exact mana costs and your cards will be quite random by nature.  It can pretty safely be passed in Booster and left in the sidedeck in Sealed unless your pool just happens to include an amazingly worthwhile combination.
 
Constructed: 2.0
Casual: 2.0
Limited: 1.0
Multiplayer: 2.0

John
Shultis
Phoenix
Gaming

     Welcome to Pojo.com’ Card of the Day. Today we take a look at Birthing Pod. Birthing Pod is a green artifact that costs three generic and one green Phyrexian mana, meaning either one green or two life, to cast. Birthing Pod’s ability is: Pay one generic and one green Phyrexian mana, tap, sacrifice a creature: Search your library for a creature card with converted mana cost equal to one plus the sacrificed creatures converted mana cost, put that card onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library. Play this only anytime you could play a sorcery.

    Phyrexians are all about compleation. And if something is not working, it should be destroyed and rebuilt. Green Phyrexians in particular take Charles Darwin’s theories about natural selection and survival of the fittest to the extreme. If you are weak, something else will eat you. So your little 1/1 that you paid two mana for can be consumed for a 4/5 Leatherback Baloth that costs three, which could then be consumed to put out a Phyrexian Obliterator, a 5/5 that costs four, and so on.

    Birthing Pod is sure to see some play, but more than likely not make an impact on pro play out of the gate. It may take some time, and proper combinations before it makes its way there. However, Vintage decks have a new engine to speed things up.
 
Limited: 4/5
Casual: 5/5
Multiplayer: 4/5
Constructed: 4/5


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