** GENERAL TIPS **

a) Matches against blue control/midrange decks with Cryptic Command and Snapcaster Mage are almost always a cue for avoiding the combo kill, as the pieces required to combo off are extremely fragile.

b) The most common situations for a combo kill are against decks that dont have a great deal of removal such as Affinity, Tron and some situations in the mirrormatch.

c) In more grindy matchups, where creatures trade with each other and are destroyed left and right, players will often be reduced to topdecking threats. This is the type of situation where having a Birthing Pod in play makes you the favorite to win, as you can generate a great deal of value even from a topdecked Birds of Paradise. Such grindy situations are perfect for a value-based gameplan, as a failed attempt to combo will result in almost guaranteed loss due to expending so many resources trying to do so.

d) Seeing a blue land is generally an indicator to attempt to get a Birthing Pod or Voice of Resurgence into play under countermagic as quickly as possible, while green lands generally signify that you should attempt to search for your midrange, grindy creatures as soon as possible.

e) Not having a Birthing Pod or Chord of Calling requires you to play with only the creatures you have access to. Not seeing these cards mandates that you play a midrange game, getting as much value as possible out of repeated attacks and activated abilities of creatures while you generate value.

** ASSEMBLING THE COMBO **

Once you determine that it is correct to attempt to combo off, there are several ways to go about assembling the proper pieces. It is important to note that in order to successfully combo, either the Kitchen Finks or Murderous Redcap being used cannot have a -1/-1 counter on it. Your combo works by sacrificing one of the creatures to a Viscera Seer, having it persist back but not receive the -1/-1 counter from doing so because of Melira, Sylvok Outcasts effect.

The most common sequence of attaining the combo requires a Birthing Pod, but can also be accomplished with multiple Chord of Callings. The most consistent way to Pod to the combo is to make your way up to Ranger of Eos via sacrificing a two-drop for Kitchen Finks, then sacrificing Kitchen Finks for the Ranger. The Ranger allows you to tutor directly for Viscera Seer in addition to a mana creature, which often can be cast the same turn Ranger of Eos enters the battlefield. Your Kitchen Finks can be sacrificed for a Murderous Redcap, then subsequently the mana creature can be sacrificed for Melira, Sylvok Outcast. If you have access to an additional two-drop creature, you can Pod that instead of the Finks for a second Kitchen Finks to gain infinite life instead. Make sure that Melira is the last part of the combo that you tutor for, as having her in play prior to that is a red flag to the opponent to remove her.

** GAME 1 **

The beginning of an average game for Melira Pod is a turn 1 mana creature into a turn 2 two-drop, three-drop or Birthing Pod. Having plenty of mana is important in this deck, as you will need it for cards like Gavony Township, Birthing Pod and Chord of Calling.

It is important to identify your opponents deck choice as early as possible in the game. Sometimes, this is as easy as seeing a turn 1 Urza's Mine and putting the opponent on Tron or a turn 1 dumping of artifact creatures and putting the opponent on Affinity, but many times it can be much harder. Knowing what cards are commonly played in certain decks goes a long way to doing this. Seeing all of an opponents colors as early as possible can help identify them as a UWR player or a Jund player, but is a very common situation that you see a turn 1 Steam Vents and have no less than three decks to choose from: UWR, Scapeshift and a Splinter Twin variant. Seeing a blue land is generally an indicator to attempt to get a Birthing Pod or Voice of Resurgence into play under countermagic as quickly as possible, while green lands generally signify that you should attempt to search for your midrange, grindy creatures as soon as possible.

Once you have identified your opponents deck, you should immediately identify the most powerful cards in your deck for that particular matchup. Against a Splinter Twin deck, Qasali Pridemage, Spellskite and Orzhov Pontiff are your best cards, whereas against UWR Control your best cards are Voice of Resurgence, Kitchen Finks and Scavenging Ooze. Playing towards the cards that you believe are best in individual matchups goes a long way to actually winning the game. However, not having a Birthing Pod or Chord of Calling requires you to play with only the creatures you have access to. Not seeing these cards mandates that you play a midrange game, getting as much value as possible out of repeated attacks and activated abilities of creatures while you generate value. Having a good sense of what cards from both players will make the most impact will allow you to deal with them more efficiently, and to hold the fort until you are able to draw a tutor and start a card advantage engine.

** SOME INTERACTIONS **

Chord of Calling for Eternal Witness:
essentially gives you a free 2/1 creature, as you can return the Chord to your hand with the Witness. Having instant speed access to an Abrupt Decay or a Shriekmaw is strong especially in the middle of a complicated combat situation, where you can blow out an opponent who was not expecting their key blocker to be destroyed.

Voice of Resurgence alongside Eternal Witness and Reveillark:
form a nearly unbeatable value engine. With a Birthing Pod or sacrifice outlet in play, these can be repeatedly cycled over several turns to create many large elemental tokens and returning any used creature from your graveyard to your hand. With these cards in play, your opponent will almost never be able to deal with so many large creatures in an efficient manner.

Gavony Township:
makes your persist creatures virtually indestructible, as putting a +1/+1 counter on a Kitchen Finks negates a -1/-1 counter that may be on it. Putting a +1/+1 counter on a 3/2 Finks gives it effectively three lives, as you can have it killed back to a 3/2 with no counters, then again down to a 2/1 with a -1/-1 counter.

Orzhov Pontiff haunting your creatures or your opponents creatures:
This can be used to render a team of X/1s dead at any time, and can let you get a lethal attack through by buffing your own creatures.

** SIDEBOARD GUIDE - GENERAL TIPS **

Thoughtseize (and Sin Collector / Entomber Exarch):
should be brought in against almost all blue controlling decks as well as combo decks, as stripping a key spell is very powerful in disrupting their game plan. If you bring in one, you generally will bring in all of them.

Removal Spells (Path to Exile / Shriekmaw):
the removal spells should come in against heavy creature strategies, as you always want additional ways to kill your opponents threats to get yours through.

Eidolon of Rhetoric:
Is very clearly for Storm matchups, and should be brought in nowhere else.

Burrenton Forge-Tender:
is generally good against any red deck, but is more specifically present as a Chord of Calling or Ranger of Eos target to protect from Anger of the Gods.

Scavenging Ooze and Thrun, the Last Troll:
should be brought in against more grindy decks, as having these in play for a long period of time will allow you to completely dominate the battlefield.

Aven Mindcensor:
is a card that can be brought in against a lot of decks to stop fetchlands, but should really only be brought in against the mirrormatch, as that is where the most searching is done.

Sideboard out:
Matchups where you are more commonly a beatdown deck often mandate that you remove the combo pieces (Melira, Sylvok Outcast, Viscera Seer,

Phyrexian Metamorph and more often than not Murderous Redcap), as well as some number of Chord of Calling, as you want to use your creatures to deal damage instead of tapping them to find value cards.
Removing the more niche maindeck cards like Linvala, Keeper of Silence, Qasali Pridemage and Spellskite where they are not needed is also a nearly failsafe way to sideboard.

** SIDEBOARD GUIDE - SPECIFIC MATCH-UPS **

Affinity
Tested: Post-Theros, pre-Born of the Gods
Pre-board: Even (~50% win rate) (10 wins – 10 losses in playtest)

Give Affinity a decent hand and it will roll you. See Affinity mulligan to 5 cards in hand or less and you will be substantially more likely to win. Pray Affinity can’t mulligan into a decent hand to save its life—it does that surprisingly often.

For your first few turns, aim to survive. Prioritize hitting their most powerful cards (Cranial Plating, Master of Etherium, Steel Overseer, Signal Pest) with your removal, but be prepared to sometimes hit some shifty stuff like Vault Skirge. Be prepared to make your Birds of Paradise block. You’d be surprised how often they fold to your larger swarm beats after your remove their first few guys—that’s consolation for the fact that you won’t often have time to combo off against them.
Beware of Galvanic Blast if you attempt to combo off or extract Persist value out of Melira. Just be thankful that she stops Inkmoth Nexus dead (with a Melira out, Inkmoth Nexus will still be an infect creature if it gets activated, and will deal a whopping zero points of damage to you).

MVPs: Kataki, War’s Wage, Qasali Pridemage, Harmonic Sliver, Orzhov Pontiff, Murderous Redcap, Eternal Witness, Path to Exile, Reclamation Sage
LVPs: Ethersworn Canonist, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Gaddock Teeg, Shriekmaw, Voice of Resurgence, Birthing Pod

Burn
Version: Angel Pod
Tested: Post-Khans of Tarkir, pre-Fate Reforged
Pre-board: Slightly favourable (~60% win rate) (12 wins - 8 losses in playtest)
Post-board: Even (~50% win rate) (15 wins - 15 losses in playtest)

With 6-8 lifegain cards in the maindeck, we can safely hope for a decent opening hand and/or good draws. we cannot do anything against an opposing goldfish unfortunately. Treasure Cruise is a strong addition to the deck as it allows Burn to set up pressure past turn 6.

Keep in mind game 1:
- Avoid opening hands with 3+ fetchlands / shocklands,
- Shock yourself the least possible and search for basics or let lands enter the battlefield tapped, You need to conserve as much of your life total as possible
- Play around Skullcrack in all circumstances,
- Abrupt Decay your own Kitchen Finks if necessary,
- Don't hesitate to chumpblock if you have a Scavenging Ooze waiting for food,
- Avoid Birthing Pod turn 2-3, it's not worth the lifeloss,
- You generally can’t combo off fast enough

Game 2-3, Searing Blood and Volcanic Fallout may come in against us, and probably some artifact hate like Smash to Smithereens, Stony Silence, Wear // Tear or Destructive Revelry. We don't have much to bring in here, so these games tend to be harder.

Keep in mind game 2-3:
- Spellskite is under more pressure, use Abrupt Decay or another removal on it if you face Searing Blood (often happens after the redirection of a 1st burn spell) or Smash to Smithereens,
- Eidolon of Rhetoric is a card they can't answer at all,
- Board combo pieces out

MVPs: Scavenging Ooze, Spellskite, Kor Firewalker, Eidolon of Rhetoric, Spike Feeder, Courser of Kruphix, Kitchen Finks, Sin Collector, Obstinate Baloth, Siege Rhino, Restoration Angel, Phyrexian Metamorph, Archangel of Thune, Thragtusk, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
LVPs: Qasali Pridemage, Orzhov Pontiff, Reclamation Sage, Reveillark, Chord of Calling, Fulminator Mage

Gruul Zoo / Zoo
Tested: Post-Magic 2014, pre-Theros
Pre-board: Unfavourable (~30% win rate) (6 wins – 14 losses in playtest)

This is another blazing fast match-up. Birthing Pod and Chord of Calling also start being a little slow here. Again, use them wisely and creatively in Game 1 and be prepared to board some of them out. We want to come out fast and play Kitchen Finks. Their best cards against us are Ghor-Clan Rampager and path to exile. Be conservative with your life total here. Cutting a Pod is fine to preserve your life.

You’ll probably notice one thing in common between all the games you win—you traded off a ton of Kitchen Finks and/or Voice of Resurgence in them. Don’t be afraid to chump with Voice, and don’t be afraid to trade off just about everything in your deck with their guys, including Melira (except for Cartel Aristocrat, Varolz, the Scar-Striped, maybe Scavenging Ooze).
Early Ghor-Clan Rampager Bloodrushes tend to swing games and make them keep guys they would otherwise have traded away. Instant-speed removal like Abrupt Decay can turn those into blowouts in your favour, but you won’t always have the removal, even post-board (especially since they’ll start to Bloodrush only when you’re tapped out).
And yeah, if they play at least two Burning-Tree Emissaries on their Turn 2, be prepared to punt anyway later in that game. Their nuts hands are really hard to contain.

MVPs: Kitchen Finks, Obstinate Baloth, Voice of Resurgence, Scavenging Ooze, Eternal Witness, Cartel Aristocrat, Varolz, the Scar-Striped, Shriekmaw, Burrenton Forge-Tender, Path to Exile, Thrun, the Last Troll, Sigarda, Host of Herons
LVPs: Harmonic Sliver, Gaddock Teeg, Ethersworn Canonist, Aven Mindcensor, Cartel Aristocrat, Phyrexian Metamorph, Orzhov Pontiff, Chord of Calling, Ranger of Eos, Birthing Pod 

Exarch Twin
Tested: Post-Magic 2013, pre-Return to Ravnica
Pre-board: Unfavourable (~30% win rate) (6 wins – 14 losses in playtest)

This is a tough one. Melira Pod generally cannot win fast enough with beats or the combo, so it has to slow Exarch Twin down with hate bears. Linvala is the most effective one, as she cuts off Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, Splinter Twin (it grants creatures activated abilities), Spellskite, and Grim Lavamancer, but she is fairly slow to get out. Spellskite is the second most effective, as it hoses Splinter Twin and Grim Lavamancer, but it will not keep Kiki-Jiki from working his magic or opposing Spellskites from protecting him. Qasali Pridemage is not bad, as it hoses Splinter Twin and kills Spellskite, Gaddock Teeg at least hoses Splinter Twin, and Thalia can sometimes slow Exarch Twin down long enough for you to win.
However, the reality is that all those hate bears die to Flame Slash, and most of them die at instant speed to Grim Lavamancer or Electrostatic Bolt. The latter two can also effectively keep you from comboing off yourself. You need a critical mass of hate bears to guarantee a win, and even then, they can just off your most important one and combo off. The most embarrassing situation is when you swing with hate bears and they die to flashed-in spare Deceiver Exarchs or Pestermites.
Tutoring for your hate bears should be your first priority, but be prepared for Chord of Calling eating Dispel, Birthing Pod being Remanded all day, and both being hit by the occasional Spell Pierce.

MVPs: Linvala, Keeper of Silence, Spellskite, Qasali Pridemage, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Gaddock Teeg, Thoughtseize, Sin Collector, Thrun, the Last Troll, Path to Exile, Sigarda, Host of Herons, Orzhov Pontiff
LVPs: Obstinate Baloth, Loaming Shaman, Withered Wretch, Scavenging Ooze, Archangel of Thune, Spike Feeder, Murderous Redcap, Kitchen Finks

Jund
Tested: Post-Magic 2013, pre-Return to Ravnica
Pre-board: Favourable (~60-70% win rate) (14 wins – 6 losses in playtest)

Melira Pod is built to be resilient to spot removal, and it shows in this match-up. Despite Jund’s 9 spot removal spells (4 Lightning Bolt, 3 Maelstrom Pulse, 2 Terminate) and 3 Liliana of the Veils, you’d be surprised how often you win by comboing off. Jund Charm is fairly problematic, though, and you should expect to lose more often if you come up against this card.
This is a match-up of card advantage. Overload them with recursive creatures and Gavony Township shenanigans and you should win. Their Bob is quite possibly the most valuable creature in the deck against you. Grim Lavamancer is very good, too, if they play it. Removing those guys should be your first priority over removing other creatures in this match-up.
Remember that you can royally screw over Liliana of the Veil if she -1’s immediately by sacrificing Murderous Redcap to her and pinging her after it Persists. Also remember every way you can abuse Birthing Pod with your build of the deck.

MVPs: Kitchen Finks, Obstinate Baloth, Reveillark, Eternal Witness, Burrenton Forge-Tender, Dauntless Escort, Spellskite, Restoration Angel, Abrupt Decay, Path to Exile, Obstinate Baloth, Scavenging Ooze
LVPs: Harmonic Sliver, Gaddock Teeg, Ethersworn Canonist

RG Artifact Tron/Karn Tron/RG Tron
Tested: Post-Magic 2013, pre-Return to Ravnica
Pre-board: Heavily unfavourable (~20% win rate) (4 wins - 16 losses in playtest)

This is a pretty ugly match-up. RG Artifact Tron runs around 16 outs to the Melira Combo (4 Pyroclasm, 4 Relic of Progenitus, 4 Karn Liberated, 2 Oblivion Stone, 1 Emrakul, 1 Ulamog), so you can’t count on comboing out to win. Even if you gain infinite life with Kitchen Finks, RG Artifact Tron can still stop you from pulling out Murderous Redcap profitably, stick an Eldrazi to continuously wipe your board, and then it can win by decking you out and discarding Eldrazi to ensure its library is bigger than yours, or it can restart the game with Karn, reduce you to 20 life, and still have an Eldrazi thanks to Karn. (Needless to say, RG Artifact Tron wins that game.)
You need to become hard beatdown to win. You won’t often be fast enough. Delay them for as long as possible with LD bears, Aven Mindcensor, and Thalia. Chord of Calling in Phyrexian Metamorph, Nekrataal, or Shriekmaw to kill Emrakul. Blow up Wurmcoil Engine, exposed Expedition Maps, and Relic of Progenitus with artifact-killing hate bears. Foil Karn with well-timed Restoration Angels or well-placed Spellskites.

Nullify Pyroclasm with Burrenton Forge-Tender or Dauntless Escort. It won’t be easy, but you might be able to steal a few games against RG Artifact Tron. (Don’t be afraid to Pod away Melira in this match-up.)

MVPs: Fulminator Mage, Knight of the Reliquary, Realm Razer, Hokori, Dust Drinker, Aven Mindcensor, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Gaddock Teeg, Phyrexian Metamorph, Burrenton Forge-Tender, Thoughtseize, Restoration Angel, Harmonic Sliver, Reclamation Sage
LVPs: Orzhov Pontiff, Ethersworn Canonist, Withered Wretch


UW Restoration Tempo
Tested: Post-Magic 2013, pre-Return to Ravnica
Pre-board: Even (~50% win rate) (10 wins – 10 losses in playtest)

For a deck with only 4-6 removal spells (4 Path to Exile, 0-2 Dismember), UW Restoration Tempo is pretty decent against you. It’s probably the 2-for-1s like Snapcaster Mage, Augur of Bolas, and Restoration Angel that do it. By the time they show up, they’ve already done at least half their job. Then their flying beaters kill you.
Birthing Pod gets around so many counterspells that it isn’t funny. It will win games for you against this deck. Sadly, it’s pretty prone to getting countered itself. Chord of Calling suffers similar problems against this deck, and pushes your tempo back to boot.
Lure their counterspells with everything that costs 3 or more mana and you may coast your way to victory. Turning your mana dorks into an army with the uncounterable Gavony Township is also pretty good against them.

MVPs: Eternal Witness, Reveillark, Ranger of Eos, Restoration Angel, Spellskite
LVPs: Realm Razer, Burrenton Forge-Tender,  Chord of Calling, Abrupt Decay

UWR Wafo-Tapa Control
Tested: Post-Magic 2014, pre-Theros
Pre-board: Favourable (~60% win rate) (12 wins – 8 losses in playtest)

Playtest figures may be deceiving. This match-up is pretty rough and stressful—for both parties, actually. A single mistake can lead to a loss, no matter who makes it.
Prioritize sticking recursive guys like Reveillark, card advantage-making guys like Ranger of Eos, and disruptive guys like Thalia in this match-up. UWR Wafo-Tapa Control has oodles of removal spells, so you probably won’t win with the combo, but stick those guys and they just might die to beats. (Of course, don’t overextend unless you’re sticking only recursive/CA guys.)
Birthing Pod is pretty good in this match-up—turning all your 1-drops into 2-drop hate bears is pretty sick, and they die to goodstuffs Pod chains like Voice of Resurgence-Kitchen Finks-Ranger-Lark. Pod does look fairly silly when you run out of creatures, though.
It’s tough playing your important stuff around Mana Leak—their Cryptic Command back-up is brutal. Speaking of Cryptic, always play around it by attacking, then casting spells. Even if they have Celestial Colonnade up, you’d be surprised how often they don’t block with it. If they do, slam down an important guy while they’re mostly tapped out.
In Game 1, you can lure counterspells by casting Chord of Calling at their end of turn, then casting something important on your turn.

However, Chord is an expensive tutor for recursive/CA creatures in this match-up, so board it out for more threats.
If you’re really paranoid, you can try luring Spell Snare by casting other 2-drops first, then casting Voice. This may backfire, though, if they Leak your Voice.

MVPs: Reveillark, Eternal Witness, Voice of Resurgence, Ranger of Eos, Kitchen Finks, Tidehollow Sculler, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Gaddock Teeg, Birthing Pod, Path to Exile, Thoughtseize, Sigarda, Host of Herons, Thrun, the Last Troll, Sin Collector, Burrenton Forge-Tender, Gavony Township, Scavenging Ooze
LVPs: Harmonic Sliver, Orzhov Pontiff, Aven Mindcensor, Chord of Calling, Abrupt Decay, Siege Rhino, Linvala, Keeper of Silence

Melira Pod (mirror)

With so many copies of Kitchen Finks running around, winning by dealing 20 damage is pretty difficult. The surest route to victory is to get out Linvala. Linvala in play makes it impossible for the opponent to combo or tap creatures for mana, and flying is relevant for the inevitable ground stall. Note that copying an opponents Linvala with Phyrexian Metamorph ensures it can never die to a Shriekmaw.

MVP's: Path to Exile, Harmonic Sliver, Shriekmaw, Linvala, Keeper of Silence, Phyrexian Metamorph
LVP's: Wall of Roots, Viscera Seer

Boggled enchantments

In: 1 Harmonic Sliver
Out: 1 Phyrexian Metamorph

We don’t board much in this matchup, as we already have Spellskite to steal the enchantments. This is likely a race to see if you can combo before you die. Rancor is their best card against you, so if you can deal with that you should be able to beat down with Kitchen Finks for days.

MVP's: Spellskite, Kitchen Finks, Siege Rhino
LVP's: Path to Exile, Shriekmaw

Scapeshift

You want to pick apart their hand as much as possible, since none of our creatures really do a whole lot. Keep up Chord of Calling to get Forge-Tender in response to Anger of the Gods or Firespout. Beware ot Inferno Titan beatings.

MVP's: Thoughtseize, Aven Mindcensor, Sin Collector, Thrun, the Last Troll, Sigarda, Host of Herons, Burrenton Forge-Tender, Shriekmaw, Kitchen Finks, Siege Rhino, Archangel of Thune, Spike Feeder
Out: Abrupt Decay, Linvala, Keeper of Silence, Phyrexian Metamorph, Orzhov Pontiff, Scavenging Ooze, Viscera Seer, Murderous Redcap


** ARTICLES **

Angel Pod Analysis : http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/luck-skill-victory-angel-pod/