4cPantherPodNotes

The main concept of the deck is just to be an extremely threat heavy pod deck, that utilizes time walk as a kind of "Yeah, I win" card, and abuses the power of cards like neoform and finale of devestation with cards like Kess to go from a board state of one or two bridge creatures (mana dorks for instance) to a Kefnet+Kess out of absolutely nowhere. It's riddled with cards like Vial Smasher and Yidris, which demand immediate answers, or quite frankly, they'll kill you, and supplements them with cards like leovold and Phyrexian Delver to make it hard to actually make me stop asking you "got any answers?" It doesn't have a way to infinetely loop time walk (that I know of), but instead satisfies itself with taking up to 6/7 turns during a pod cycle and developing a massive advantage, only expending about 2 slots to doing so (mancer and delver), both of which are capable of producing value outside of time walk games. Just casting Time Walk once can also just win you a game if you slip it in at the right moment (baiting a counterspell vs control, and then time walking and slamming two threats, for instance).

I refuse to cut the Cascade cards. So help me god I'll never get rid of them I love them. (I also think they're just genuinely good in this list)

Manabase. I've fiddled with the deck for a bit, but I'm not a master of balancing 4c manabases at the moment. I apologize in advance for the Karakas.

I'm a little torn on how hard on the "Time walk" plan I should go. Right now I'm only really dedicating the Mancer+Phyrexian Delver to getting more timewalk castings with pod out, and I'm only running literal actual time walk. I don't know whether I should be going harder on that plan, and whether I should do so via (1) more clones. (2) Untap creatures (+kiki?) (3) More Time walks. I feel like I like how the deck performs right now, as a super threat heavy midrange deck that can just go from zero to 100 if it ever gets to timewalk, and including more cards to do harder timewalk loops, or having more expensive timewalks, is slots that have to remove more threats. That said, if I can improve the consistency of the times the deck goes "oh timewalk, I win" without majorly sacrificing other parts of the decks consistency, I'd love to.

Matchup wise, I feel like the deck does well vs other value fair decks, being that it's shoved to the brim with nothing but "oh fuck" creatures, and outright "destroy x creature" removal, backed up by card selection and a time walk. Similarily, I've felt really comfortable vs control decks, especially the list I've sent you with the Cat Snake and Thrun. Cascade, Ancestral Visions, all the cantrips, uncounterable threats like cat snake and thrun, so many creatures with solid etbs, or that are difficult to cleanly deal with. Almost every test vs control has ended up with me just spending the whole match feeling on top of the world, keeping up (or ahead) on cards in hand, while having enough powerful threats that I almost get to pick and choose what I want to resolve because my "bait" spell almost has to be dealt with, and while I haven't jammed *nearly* enough matches with any/all  control decks to say "yea I think I have a great control matchup", I'd be suprised if after I've jammed the list for a while I come away from it thinking "wow this deck sucks vs control". I'm fairly concerned about the decks matchups vs ramp and aggro, for similar reasons (card wise). The deck doesn't currently run *any* forked bolt effects, and my 1 cmc removal is lightning bolt and fatal push, and then it gets spread out between 2 and 3. I haven't gotten to jam against either a ton, but my concern is that I can't really stop ramp decks from ramping, at which point their threats will just naturally outclass mine, and vs aggro decks, I'm worried about how reliably I can find a hand that actually can stem the tide vs aggro decks.

I'm not 100% on whether I've hit the right number of mana dorks, and if I want more, whether I want them at 1 or 2. Wall of Roots, and the 0/4 (tap for 1 green for each defender you control) could be good choices if I want more 2 mana dorks, and they would improve certain aggro matchups by virtue of having high toughness, but I don't want to over saturate the list.

I'm a bit concerned about the double pips in my deck, they're almost all green, which is the base of the deck, but I'm still wary about how many I have in a 4c list.

Dack Fayden may not actually be quite what the deck wants. It's a really nice engine, but I'm not sure whether it's really good enough, or if I should be adding something like Lili of the veil instead.

I'm also concerned about my decks threats, and whether they're all actual threats that have earned their place, vs dopey cards that cool (leave my cascade children alone).

Notes on Neoform shenanigans:

If you have 2 3's and the mana for two neoforms, you can get kess+kefnet for two flyers with a +1/+1 counter on each.
Really, any 3 plus anything else can lead to serious shenanigans with Kess, but it's not like your struggling to find good creatures at any cmc.

Neoform can also just get you a True-Name Nemisis. Which can be pretty fucked.

I'd like to see about squeezing a monarchy card in here, but I don't know how much the deck desires the options available to our colors.

Cards that have been MVPs:
Phyrexian Delver has suprised me with how much I've liked it. It's rough vs aggro, but an absolute bomb in grindy midrange matchups (to the point I'm wondering about re-adding reanimate)
Neoform, shocking no one, might actually be the best not pointed card in the whole list. It's a 4/2 true name, a Kess+another, an on demand hate creature, a value "eh, this creatures meh here" card, an "oops, it's thrun". It's just great, and spellseekering for neoform (usually when I already have timewalk in hand) has been insane. Like, its absurd to say, but while Timewalk does still win the competition, Neoform actually manages to put up a fight for "best 2 drop sorcery" in the deck.
Tainted Pact, I don't know why I *ever* wasn't on this card.

Cards I've cut that I'm not sure should stay out (and why I cut them to begin with):
Dire Fleet Daredevil (They felt a bit dopey, and I ultimately cut them to keep Vryns Prodigy in here, as I felt that a merfolk looter that can recur instants/sorceries is far better in this deck than a 2/1 that I can rarely play on 2 if I want to abuse it's ability)
Reanimate (Reanimate was cut when I was still cutting fat like Fblthp from the deck, as the deck gets more "dense", it may be right to bring it back)
Vannifar (She's felt a bit slow, needing another creature to have value, costing a whole 4 no matter what, and not being a "threat" without other creatures, but it's possible her highs are just good enough to justify dealing with her lows)
Dark Confidant (I'm just not sure how much I want Bob. I do have a healthy amount of ways to get rid of him if things go sour, but I have a thick density of 3/4s, so he adds up fast)
Chain Lightning (I'm still trying to balance the removal properly, if I don't have enough early removal chain lightning could come back in).

Cards that have occured to me after making this 100
The GB delerium 2/2 with trample (grim flayer)