I can see how consistency might be an issue. You want threat density obviously. I would consider going down to 2x scroll rack and 3x fauna shaman, even better, lose Green Sun's Zenith. I love the card, but it loses to both pod and shaman in this deck, imo. Actually, I would also reduce scroll rack to two anyway, whether you opt to add a single
Life from the Loam
or not (I would.)
I would cut wispmare; pridemage handles enchantments well enough.
I would replace orangutan with
Ingot Chewer
. More castable, and the evoke sacrifice matters less with nightmare in the deck. In that vein,
Mulldrifter
might be great too.
I would think about
Trinket Mage
+
Grindstone
+
Painter's Servant
. The mage can get grindstone and then be sacced to pod to get painter, or painter can be disarded to shaman to get mage and then mage can get grindstone and then be sacced to nightmare to get back painter. All at instant speed. An ideal three card package. You could even add
Imperial Recruiter
if you have access.
I would seriously consider removing Reveillark. It is an amazing card, but completely dependant on other cards to be of any use, and you have few four mana outlets. Its best use here is recovering from wipes or enabling recurring effects, both which this deck already does well and more cheaply.
Architects of Will is suboptimal. The minor tempo gain is reduced in a format filled with fetches, and the cycling is redundant.
Chimney Imp
is literally better (don't play Chimney Imp.)
I've never said this before in my life, but
Academy Rector
sucks here. It only gets nightmare, and only if you already have pod out. You have no other targets and no other sac outlets. The only way I would keep her is if you find room for 4x
Cabal Therapy
and 1x
Omniscience
(latin for ALL THE SCIENCE!!!) or maybe
Day of the Dragons
or something. I would prefer to just cut her though.
Fierce Empath
is bad. I would always rather either play shaman or pod. He is a loss of threat density in an attempt to be more consistent, but I would rather play something that is a toolbox card, especially if your worry is that adding pod has mad the deck lose oomph.
Dryad Arbor
is meh without zenith.
Palakka Wurm
should be replaced with
Thragtusk
: infinitely more castable, so way more of a threat overall. If you add this,
Wurmcoil Engine
could then be replaced with something with more utility like
Steel Hellkite
or
Duplicant
.
Shriekmaw
seems only sort of okay to me, but I can't put my finger on why. I'll try to think of an ideal replacement.
And, as always, after making any revisions to a pod deck, make sure you have a really good balance of creatures per casting cost, probably not less than 3 at any given cost below six, with the most at the 2 mana level, likely.
Finally, cut vengevine, imo. It is not that great without survival. Maybe I sound like a crazy person, but how often will you both cast two creatures on one turn and have him in the grave as a one of AND have that happen when a 4 power vanilla beater that dies to lightning bolt is still relevant? Just sac him to nightmare/pod? Do you have the mana to have that ready to go the same turn you cast two creatures. This is a minor point, maybe, but I feel he doesn't work.
Overall I really like the deck.