I swear this is actually an aggro deck!

Here's your task: build me an aggro deck. There's no rhyme or reason to it, just build be an aggro deck using all the best cards that we have available to us. The only requirement is that you cannot have any creatures at CMCs over 5. Maybe here are some of the cards you come up with:

Werewolves - all of them
Stromkirk Noble, and all other Vampires
Skaab Ruinator
Hero of Bladehold/Oxid Ridge
Urabrask, the Hidden
Glissa, the Traitor
Anything with Battle Cry
Goblin Chieftan + any goblins left
Geist of Saint Traft
Invisible Stalker + Swords
Delver of Secrets
Diregraf Ghoul
Mirran Crusader, and other assorted Humans
Everything Infect
Porcelin Legionare
etc

Now, what If I told you to add Bithing Pod to the list, and then just call it a day? Now we may consider a couple cards that interact favorably with Pod:

Birds of Paradise
Phyrexian Metamorph
Perilous Myr
Veridian Emissary

Now, we have to ask the question, why would we want Birhting Pod in an aggro deck? One of the great things about Birthing Pod is how it really helps you cheat on mana costs. I can very easily use Birthing Pod to turn my Glissa into a Hero of Oxid Ridge, and still only have 3 basic forest in play! So I decided to look at some of the best aggressive creatures in the format, pile them up together, throw in 4 Birthing Pod and call it a day! My colors of choice for this deck is Naya, because you get access to both of the heroes, the Werewolves, and the cards are naturally aggressive anyways so we're not losing any points. I did a gatherer search of creatures that could be good for the deck, and my list consts of:

Avacyn's Pilgrim
Birds of Paradise
Stromkirk Noble

Accorder Paladin
Cloistered Youth
Leonin-Relic Warder
Perilous Myr
Stormblood Berserker
Viridian Emissary

Blade Splicer
Daybreak Ranger
Fiend Hunter
Mirran Crusader
Porcelain Legionaire
Phyrexian Metamorph

Hero of Bladehold
Hero of Oxid Ridge
Instigator Gang

Acidic Slime
Falkenrath Marauders
Urabrask, the Hidden

Obviously this is way too many cards for an aggro deck to utilize, so we need to make some cuts. I think we're not going to need Falkenrath Marauders, because Urabrask is just better for the team, but I think one Acidic Slime is right up top with 2 Urabrasks to help everyone else out (have you ever considered the implications of giving Hero of Bladehold haste??). Going down from there, I like the 3 4-drops we have and I could consider 3 of each hero, and 2 of the Werewolf. The rest of the deck cascades down very quickly from there with various cards that may or may not be any good. One card that I can confidently say to cut is Viridian Emissary. Normally, this card is used to ramp into faster Praetors, but for us it's quite useless. Going down to the 1-drop slot, I don't particularly like Stromkirk simply because he is only good on turn 1, which we can't reliably expect in a triple colored deck. Here's a deck decklist mashup:

4x Birds of Paradise

4x Perilous Myr
2x Accorder Paladin
3x Porcelin Legionaire

3x Blade Splicer
2x Daybreak Ranger
1x Fiend Hunter
3x Mirran Crusader
1x Phyrexian Metamorph

2x Inistiator Gang
2x Hero of Bladehold
2x Hero of Oxid Ridge

2x Urabrask, the Hidden
1x Acidic Slime

4x Birthing Pod

4x Razorverge Thicket
4x Sunpetal Grove
4x Rootbound Crag
4x Clifftop Retreat
1x Mountain
4x Plains
3x Forest

It's clear that red is a soft splash color here, but look at the cards red offers! Hero of Bladehold, Initiator Gang, and Urabrask help make your entire team go completely over the top! They all also provide bonus advantages, with Hero shutting down their 0 and 1 power creatures (read: chump blockers), Initiator Gang helps you get VERY far ahead without having to overextend to Day of Judgement, and Urabrask prevents your opponent from settign up last-second blockers in a pinch! The rest of the deck is mainly full of 2 and 3 mana creatures designed to enter the red zone. We have 8 Battle Cry effects in the deck, and the 2 Daybreak Rangers + Fiend Hunter act as your active removal suite that let's us take complete control of the board while also never missing a turn of turning dudes sideways.

If you're looking for a deck that can very effectively attack for nothing but value, then I highly suggest trying out Naya Pod! I have been talking about how great the creature suite is without even mentioning the Birthing Pod itself! Birthing Pod just helps us gain tons of value everday! Maybe you turn a random Perilious Myr into a Mirran Crusader, killing their Grim Lavamancer in the process, or turn your blade splicer into a Hero of Oxid Ridge and attack for 8? Or turn a Instigator Gang into an Urabrask, then cast Hero of Bladehold? Attack for 12! Perilious Myr into Fiend Hunter? Nice blockers? There's just nothing but options!

This list is obviously raw, as I'm sitting here compelled ot write it at 1:15am, but I feel it has a ton of potential! If you want a unique and potentially busted deck to start working on, maybe Naya Pod is right for you! But until next time, Stay Classy!

Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack