That's actually a close game... if you were able to C. Corrosion afffinity.. that would have been almost gg already. Saying this because my main deck used to be Affinity.. though I was forced to sell it to have some extra Christmas money.
I guess the reason Hazoret is expensive, is because she's the real deal.
Well I don’t think anyone is saying it is a bad card, just other cards are better.
So for starters let’s examine where Wildspeaker shines... making a bunch of mana. So if you have a 5 or 6 drop in hand then sure you could play it the following turn.
Here lies the problem, if you don’t have a payoff card, even Nissa VoZ makes a plant token as a plus so the chump supply will continue to be used until you can draw into something else. Garruk can only make 3 tokens before he dies.
Now let’s compare this to Huntmaster which you wanted to take out. Upon entry not only do you get 2 2/2s which is 1 more body than Garruk can on it’s first turn but it also gains you 2 life which can be relevant against plenty of decks (burn now needs an additional burn spell to try to close out the game, valakut which prefers the opponent to be at 18, aggro in general, and storm needs 2 more spells not to fizzle out with grape shot to name a few). Now since we blow up the opponents lands it is possible that they can’t cast a spell so Huntmaster would flip and thus you potentially removed a creature and did at the very least 2 damage to your opponent along with now having a 4/4 and a 2/2.
P&K also has similar merits to Huntmaster but Huntmaster is better than P&K (I broke this down comparing the 2 a couple of pages back). Both make more tokens upon entry than Garruk and P&K can do direct damage to the opponent just like Huntmaster. Being the format lacks flyers it is a good chance you can at least 2 damage a turn as well.
In a go wide strategy he is pretty good as the mana gained can go into mana sinks for token makers and stuff like that. Also that would make the overrun much better.
If his +1 and -1 abilities were switched then it would be a different discussion. It would have been too good actually because you would naturally makes tokens until you wanted to overrun.
I hope this helps.
This helped a great deal, thank you!
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Modern Decks
------------ URW Jeskai Control GUWRB Amulet Titan GR Ponza
Can somebody please outline why Garruk Wildspeaker is considered "bad"? In the early days while building the deck I used him as a budget placeholder for Chandra, and he always did good things, from creating crazy turns where you have enough mana to stormbreath+monstrous or giving a team of elves and birds overrun.
Just thought about him again since the topic of birds being bad topdecks was mentioned.
Wildspeaker can do amazing things in the right builds, you have to configure your other threats to synergize with him. Just as Pia and Kiran work well with Voice of Zendikar, they also work extremely well with Wildspeaker. If you drop Wildspeaker, uptick and follow up with Pia and Kiran, you're threatening 13 trample next turn + 4 reach damage for a total of 17, which will close most games.
As someone has mentioned, he works nicely in go wide builds. If you have a bunch of titans, thrags and trackers then his ult is mediocre and his token making is not sustainable as someone has pointed out. So you may end up with someone who just upticks to ramp for mana you don't need, or has to hurt himself and stay in bolt range to make tokens. That's why Torch of Defiance is viewed as superior; she does something relevant ALL the time - drawing cards or dealing damage when hellbent, ramping in the midgame, killing something if needed, and of course her ult is basically a soft win.
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BGW Elves BGW|BW Tokens BW|WBR Sword&ShieldWBR|BUG DelverBUG|UWR Kiki UWR | UR Storm UR
I've been testing my own variant. Spicier than Hazoret and the results vary just as wildly.
Across about 9 games, I had 1 turn 3 and 1 turn 4 kills, but most times people would be able to disrupt me. The element of surprise works here because people don't expect Kiki-Jiki after Stone rain.
The testing was carried across 1 FNM and also a couple of play sessions, so as much as I'd like to write a detailed report, I really don't have that fantastic a memory. So I'll just give you the experiences and anecdotes surrounding the cheese, since that's the exciting part. I'm sure you're bored of hearing how a ponza player locked out someone from a color and killed them with titan.
The Turn 3 Kill:
Was against a U Tron player who didn't think much of Combat Celebrant. To be fair, he probably just thought I was planning to use it in conjunction with Stormbae/Titan, which is not unreasonable.
Starting Hand was :
Forest
Foothills
Sprawl
arbor
birds
Kiki
Moon
I had the turn 2 moon so what was there to hesitate? I kept it.
T1: Forest, Elf, pass. Opponent goes Power plant, Map, pass.
T2: Draw Celebrant. Now here's a dilemma. I won the die roll, so I could totally get this if he doesn't play an island. Fetch Forest#2. Sprawl Forest#1 for red. Forest#1 + Arbor for RRGG. Spend G on Birds. Spend RRG on Celebrant. Keep poker face. Pass.
Opponent picks up Celebrant to read.
"Hmmm that's new. I didn't know ponza ran this."
"Yea just trying it out, I think its a good cheap beater that works well with dorks and titans." (not wrong)
Opponent plays Mine. Going for turn 3 tron, then. Oh well.
T3: Draw a Stone Rain. Well, who cares. Arbor + Forest#1 for RRGG, Birds for R (At this point I realized I should have fetched a dual for my second fetch, I had taken a huge risk here by hedging my third red on a very fragile 0/1 creature.) I cast Kiki-Jiki.
Presented my loop, and he scooped, said he didn't see that coming. Well who can blame him? Super cheesy, and I keep a pretty good poker face.
The Turn 4 kill:
I had roughly the same hand as above after a mull to 6 (i think it was one lander that i shipped);
Forest
Forest
Sprawl
Arbor
Moon
Celebrant
Well, turn 2 moon right there, snap-keep.
T1: Forest Arbor pass. Opponent Fetches Island (wise move, sir) and serum visions.
T2: Draw Arbor. Forest#2, Sprawl Red on Forest#1, Arbor + Forest1 for RRGG, Moon + Arbor#2. Opponent plays a fetch = mountain, passes. I smell a leak.
T3: Draw Stone Rain. Forest1 and 2 for RGG, Rain your island? Of course it gets leaked, you'd be crazy not to. Arbors 1 and 2 for RRGG, Celebrant. Opponent lays a Glacial Fortress = Mountain.
T4: Draw.... Yea, Kiki-Jiki. This should happen more often. I play it, he has 2 paths, 1 cryptic and 1 supreme verdict. No white mana = combo off.
Well the ancedotes above are very nice and all. But I'm not telling (though you can probably guess) that playing this cheese instead of just more meat like trackers and titans just makes the deck fragile to discard, more so than it was before. And yes, there'd be top decked kikis with nothing to copy - lightning bolts would make for very sad combat steps, and yea. It did more harm than good to the deck.
But one cheesy weekend later I can say I killed someone on turn 3 with a Ponza deck. That's alright for me. I'm going back to the regular Ponza now. I missed Tracker a lot during those games where removal and discard made comboing nigh impossible.
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BGW Elves BGW|BW Tokens BW|WBR Sword&ShieldWBR|BUG DelverBUG|UWR Kiki UWR | UR Storm UR
I don't have too much to add to the thread, but wanted to share a win that made me laugh. I added sword of war and peaceas a pet card because I had it lying around. I was up against Zoo. Turn 1 he fetched to 17, turn 2 to 14. I played:
T1: bird
T2: sword
T3: equip sword, swing for 8
T4: swing for 7, win.
He had no idea what I was playing so he didn't sideboard. Game 2 I played bloodmoon on turn 2, catching him on an awkward hand. Played anger of the gods into a wurmcoil engine -> scoop.
Doubt the sword will be a recurring thing, but still wanted to share. It also won me a game against burn and against eldrazi taxes. Went 3-1 overall, losing only to abzan because I kept a bad hand game 1 and misplayed game 2 (pinged his spirits with inferno titan instead of putting his lili down to 1 so he just killed it next turn. Very sloppy.) Tireless tracker was an allstar in every game.
Nice work with the sword
As for losing to lili with an active inferno titan, have a word with yourself hahahaha
I don't have too much to add to the thread, but wanted to share a win that made me laugh. I added sword of war and peaceas a pet card because I had it lying around. I was up against Zoo. Turn 1 he fetched to 17, turn 2 to 14. I played:
T1: bird
T2: sword
T3: equip sword, swing for 8
T4: swing for 7, win.
He had no idea what I was playing so he didn't sideboard. Game 2 I played bloodmoon on turn 2, catching him on an awkward hand. Played anger of the gods into a wurmcoil engine -> scoop.
Doubt the sword will be a recurring thing, but still wanted to share. It also won me a game against burn and against eldrazi taxes. Went 3-1 overall, losing only to abzan because I kept a bad hand game 1 and misplayed game 2 (pinged his spirits with inferno titan instead of putting his lili down to 1 so he just killed it next turn. Very sloppy.) Tireless tracker was an allstar in every game.
Haha, good work mate thanks for sharing! I actually used to run a Godo, Bandit Warlord package with batterskull and a rotating sword and used to love it. The fact the Zoo player had no idea what deck you were on after wimming with BoP beats is hilarious.
@NoobKing thanks for the report too!
And thanks to everybody for their inputs on Garruk Wildspeaker. I have had a couple of people tell me he is straight up bad a couple of times and I wanted to see if I was imagining his utility or not.
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Modern Decks
------------ URW Jeskai Control GUWRB Amulet Titan GR Ponza
I built my deck to splash , the value I see in it is putting grim flayer's ability to work. hitting people with grim flayer digs for the next land destruction. he also sets up chandra's ability to throw away cards that aren't relevant.
i've jammed some filler cards for getting Delirium online. unbridled growth and bauble, maybe there are better choices.
In my testing I'm bouncing between molten rain and beast within. recent testing I had a problem with my opponent using the beast token against me to get out of the pressure of land destruction. So I moved over to molten rain, for less draw back. if delirium isn't online, grim flayer against a beast token that i couldn't answer sucked.
splashing delirium opens up taverse the ulvenwald as well. In in addition to grim flayer you also get Whispers of Emrakul and To the Slaughter, neither of which i'm using yet, I got slaughter pact in the sideboard which gets the job done. Whispers might be nice against storm or ironworks combo. also gives us fatal push, for a land destruction deck thats a good valued removal spell for the cards that slip through.
Round 1 vs. Naya Burn. Good player here. Went 1 match better than me at GP Vegas at 12-3. In the first game, he starts slowly. I destroy some lands, but need to find something quickly to put a hurt on. I top deck ... Thragtusk and I survive at 2 life when I draw a Stormbreath Dragon next and put some pressure on him. In the next game, he puts too much of a quick start on me. I make an interesting decision of fetching and shocking for Stomping Ground on turn 2 for Kitchen Finks, but having Red for later on or saving 2 life, but having no Red mana. I lose at exact lethal, but honestly if 1 of his other 2 cards were burn, I was dead anyway. I couldn't draw something to pressure him. In the final game, I have the nuts. I play turn 2 Kitchen Finks. Then I play Primal Command 2 turns later, but he Skullcracks the lifegain. I get Thragtusk and he doesn't have Skullcrack for it this turn. I get there eventually with those creatures and a Stormbreath Dragon. He tells me he's never beaten me before, but I thought he had once before. I do remember taking advantage when he ran BW Eldrazi Taxes for a bit and I ran Bogles, but I could have sworn once he changed, he got me. Hmmm. Anyway, I was lucky to draw my 1 Thragtusk in game 1 or I lose 0-2. Modern, eh? 2-1.
Round 2 vs. GB Tron. This is the guy I usually drive with. In the first game, he misses turn 3 Tron and I start destroying lands. I Stone Rain a Tron piece, then Beast Within another and he scoops the match. He rage quit. He even admitted that he did. This one probably wasn't going his way, although he did beat me on Wednesday when I ran UR Breach (1 Blood Moon that got Nature's Claimed in 3 games). 2-0.
Round 3 vs. Infect. Lucky me. In the first game, I have 2 Arbor Elves, a BoP, and 3 lands by turn 3. I also have Inferno Titan in hand. I lose to Infect on his turn 4. Yep, Modern. In the next game, I end up playing 2 Bonfire of the Damned and 3 Anger of the Gods to keep killing creatures, but he eventually killed me with the Beast token that I used on his 4th Blighted Agent. Never drew any other win-con, other than Beast Within, which I needed to use or I lose. I had 11 lands in play and he was at 10 life from Bonfires and fetch/shocks, so the 3rd Bonfire, if miracled, would have been lethal. I had an Ancient Grudge in hand that was dead since he didn't see Inkmoth Nexus. 0-2.
Round 4 vs. GW Company. This one was a little different than the Todd Stevens' version, with more beatdown. He gets his lands destroyed in game 1 after missing his 3rd land drop and I get Inferno Titan online. He scoops. In the next game, I mistakenly keep a 1 lander. He Ghost Quarters my Forest with Utopia Sprawl and I don't find lands in time. I find 1 more to go with my Arbor Elf, but that makes only 3 total and I had 4 and 5 drops in hand. In the last game, I have another 1 land hand. I snap mull. He mulled to 5. He never played anything but a Ghost Quarter. I had a tough decision on to Primal Command it and search for a creature or leave it. I go for the bounce it to the top of his library and he Ghost Quarters one of my lands with Utopia Sprawl on it. After I win, he shows me a hand of 1 and 2 drops with 3 mana dorks. Modern. 2-1.
I finish 3-1, which is one of my best recent records. I'm happy to get out unscathed.
Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
I played several leagues on MTGO in the last two days (hence my results are not statistically relevant)
I noticed that having 3 mana on t2 heavily depends on elf/bird surviving (obv with sprawl is granted 100% of the times)...as the general rule od thumb of magic is “when in doubt...shoot the mana dork”...i started to play 2 simian spirit guide instead of the 2 birds and i am honestly impressed...
In the scenario when we have sprawl having a bird is useless...because on turn 2 i will not play it if i have a cmc3 drop...having SSG allows us to play t1 sprawl t2 land and chandra or t2 mwonvuli/monster...
Basically is an uncounterable/unkillable bird...worst case scenario i can even cast it and a 2/2 can trade better than a 0/1 (but does not fly)
Thoughts in SSG?
P.s to maximize land denial i i am playing 2 avalanche riders - is this card played?
The problem with the deck already is it is somewhat inconsistent. SSG doesn’t help it in any way. If there was another 1 mana land enchantment that would be the best but there aren’t any in modern other than Sprawl.
If you are having success with Riders cool but there are way better 4CMC cards we use currently. You can mull over the last 2 pages and see which cards are doing well for Ponza in general.
The problem with the deck already is it is somewhat inconsistent. SSG doesn’t help it in any way. If there was another 1 mana land enchantment that would be the best but there aren’t any in modern other than Sprawl.
If you are having success with Riders cool but there are way better 4CMC cards we use currently. You can mull over the last 2 pages and see which cards are doing well for Ponza in general.
sorry i do not get it...SSG is a free uncounterable mana dork...how is not better than BOP? why is BOP played instead of SSG? because gives green mana? because can be used more than once rather than only once?
to me SSG>BOP
T1 sprawl + T2 land + SSG = 4 mana
with BOP we have only T1 elf + t2 land + sprawl = 4 mana (assuming elf will not dye)
I faced situations where i played forest + sprawl t1...my opponent played fetch and pass...t2 I had my land destruction spell for cmc3 in hand doing nothing and a BOP...play land BOP and pass...SSG + chandra or SSG + any CMC4 spell of the deck would be hard to recover for any deck...
I will keep testing SSG and let you know but is unclear to me why BOP is played instead of SSG
Both are equally bad top decks. The problem isn't when you draw them, it's when you don't. If you read my posts you'll see that I've advocated cutting birds entirely a long time ago. I've had a ton of success with my list and the best 4 drop is hazoret, no questions about it imo.
You have to strike a balance between ways to play the game if you don't have a t3 blood moon/land d. Over loading on land leads to not being able to muster much of an offense. It's nice to blow up your opps lands and all but not when it's all you do while they beat u down with a 1/1.
Haxorz and chandra are the two best ways to end the game quickly in my opinion.
been play testing and adjusting my list. I don't have inferno titans at the moment, but realized I had 4 sire of insanity on hand. he feels like a strong 6cc drop to ramp up too. with all the land destruction, if it goes according to plan and opponents hand should have stuff they can't cast. with Sire landing on the field, that should wipe out what ever they are holding onto. plus I see it as relieving my need to constantly hit extra land destruction for keeping them off there game.
Sire + grim flayer dig should keep up the optimal top decks coming, though that should be more than enough creature power to to kill an opponent, where you don't need that duo working together for long.
trying to keep the deck some what balanced. usually i hit delirium consisting of land, sorcery, instant and enchantment, the unbridled growths are a good mana fixer and cantrip, as well as 4th delirium. birds of paradise often fill in as 4th as well, someone kills them. if the match ups allows i'll fatal push my own birds.
olivia voldaren felt like she fit in this deck, her 2nd only need 5cc to work, I hit that pretty consistently, her first ability isn't not bad, wish it could ping players. i like what she should be able to do in most match ups, steal the creatures that an opponent tries to squeeze through.
the temptation occured to me, but I haven tried it yet, but mindwrack demon might be playable in a delirium centric build such as mine. I'll leave him on the drawing board for now though.
Sire seems wrong. We are a tempo deck first, midrange deck second and free win deck third. What is the good of discarding your opponents hand if they are already way behind, or can't cast any of those spells anyway?
The only 6 drops I think are worth a look would be wurmcoil, Chandra and maybe inferno titan.
If I was ging to test something silly it would be prime time, hornet queen or verduous gearhulk.
Regarding simian spirit guide, it's just terrible in this deck. Of course we run birds of paradise because we need to use them more than once. We play extremely expensive threats and we need mana to cast them, which simian spirit guide cannot provide. The only point in favor of simian spirit guide is that it lets you cast a turn two blood moon even if your opponent has a removal spell, or occasionally a turn one blood moon, but this is not enough of a reason to play the ape.
Did free booty take the moon or the anger? Surely with both you HAVE to win right? Takes moon, you sweep and get it back and cast it, or takes sweeper you moon and he can never cast another spell. Unless he has vial and you have no answer I guess.
Anyone else still having trouble with Tron? Or did I just get unlucky last night/not played it that well?
As far as cards go, the acid moss doesn't feel that powerful. Anyone else have that problem?
Post your deck list. Each ponza variant plays out differently.
Generally, Gx Tron should be easier as compared to Mono U or E Tron. Bloodmoon and LDs only slows them down. They will work once they get to 7mana and karn everything. You need to balance out your threats with LDs. A typical play will be T2 Moon, T3 trackers followed by LDs. There should always be a threat beating them down.
I'm toying with 2/3x of acid moss currently and I may cut it out completely to go a full monster build. The thing with acid moss is that it allows for a super explosive start if casted T2/3 but it loses its effectiveness as the game goes on. Play around with the number of mosses to see how it suits your playstyle.
That's actually a close game... if you were able to C. Corrosion afffinity.. that would have been almost gg already. Saying this because my main deck used to be Affinity.. though I was forced to sell it to have some extra Christmas money.
I guess the reason Hazoret is expensive, is because she's the real deal.
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Please come visit us at the Emeria Titan control thread
This helped a great deal, thank you!
------------
URW Jeskai Control
GUWRB Amulet Titan
GR Ponza
Wildspeaker can do amazing things in the right builds, you have to configure your other threats to synergize with him. Just as Pia and Kiran work well with Voice of Zendikar, they also work extremely well with Wildspeaker. If you drop Wildspeaker, uptick and follow up with Pia and Kiran, you're threatening 13 trample next turn + 4 reach damage for a total of 17, which will close most games.
As someone has mentioned, he works nicely in go wide builds. If you have a bunch of titans, thrags and trackers then his ult is mediocre and his token making is not sustainable as someone has pointed out. So you may end up with someone who just upticks to ramp for mana you don't need, or has to hurt himself and stay in bolt range to make tokens. That's why Torch of Defiance is viewed as superior; she does something relevant ALL the time - drawing cards or dealing damage when hellbent, ramping in the midgame, killing something if needed, and of course her ult is basically a soft win.
BGW Elves BGW|BW Tokens BW|WBR Sword&ShieldWBR|BUG DelverBUG|UWR Kiki UWR | UR Storm UR
Across about 9 games, I had 1 turn 3 and 1 turn 4 kills, but most times people would be able to disrupt me. The element of surprise works here because people don't expect Kiki-Jiki after Stone rain.
Yeap, that wasn't a typo.
4 Arbor Elf
2 Birds of Paradise
4 Utopia Sprawl
Meat (6)
2 Inferno Titan
2 Tireless Tracker
2 Stormbreath Dragon
1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
Sauce (14)
4 Stone Rain
4 Mwonvuli Acid-Moss
2 Beast Within
3 Blood Moon
1 Magus of the Moon
1 Primal Command
2 Bonfire of the Damned
3 Combat Celebrant
2 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
Crust (21)
10 Forest
1 Mountain
4 Windswept Heath
3 Wooded Foothills
2 Stomping Ground
1 Cinder Glade
Sides (15)
2 Thragtusk
1 Obstinate Baloth
1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
1 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
1 Chameleon Colossus
3 Ancient Grudge
1 Vandalblast
1 Pyroclasm
1 Heaven // Earth
1 Anger of the Gods
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Relic of Progenitus
The testing was carried across 1 FNM and also a couple of play sessions, so as much as I'd like to write a detailed report, I really don't have that fantastic a memory. So I'll just give you the experiences and anecdotes surrounding the cheese, since that's the exciting part. I'm sure you're bored of hearing how a ponza player locked out someone from a color and killed them with titan.
The Turn 3 Kill:
Was against a U Tron player who didn't think much of Combat Celebrant. To be fair, he probably just thought I was planning to use it in conjunction with Stormbae/Titan, which is not unreasonable.
Starting Hand was :
Forest
Foothills
Sprawl
arbor
birds
Kiki
Moon
I had the turn 2 moon so what was there to hesitate? I kept it.
T1: Forest, Elf, pass. Opponent goes Power plant, Map, pass.
T2: Draw Celebrant. Now here's a dilemma. I won the die roll, so I could totally get this if he doesn't play an island. Fetch Forest#2. Sprawl Forest#1 for red. Forest#1 + Arbor for RRGG. Spend G on Birds. Spend RRG on Celebrant. Keep poker face. Pass.
Opponent picks up Celebrant to read.
"Hmmm that's new. I didn't know ponza ran this."
"Yea just trying it out, I think its a good cheap beater that works well with dorks and titans." (not wrong)
Opponent plays Mine. Going for turn 3 tron, then. Oh well.
T3: Draw a Stone Rain. Well, who cares. Arbor + Forest#1 for RRGG, Birds for R (At this point I realized I should have fetched a dual for my second fetch, I had taken a huge risk here by hedging my third red on a very fragile 0/1 creature.) I cast Kiki-Jiki.
Presented my loop, and he scooped, said he didn't see that coming. Well who can blame him? Super cheesy, and I keep a pretty good poker face.
The Turn 4 kill:
I had roughly the same hand as above after a mull to 6 (i think it was one lander that i shipped);
Forest
Forest
Sprawl
Arbor
Moon
Celebrant
Well, turn 2 moon right there, snap-keep.
T1: Forest Arbor pass. Opponent Fetches Island (wise move, sir) and serum visions.
T2: Draw Arbor. Forest#2, Sprawl Red on Forest#1, Arbor + Forest1 for RRGG, Moon + Arbor#2. Opponent plays a fetch = mountain, passes. I smell a leak.
T3: Draw Stone Rain. Forest1 and 2 for RGG, Rain your island? Of course it gets leaked, you'd be crazy not to. Arbors 1 and 2 for RRGG, Celebrant. Opponent lays a Glacial Fortress = Mountain.
T4: Draw.... Yea, Kiki-Jiki. This should happen more often. I play it, he has 2 paths, 1 cryptic and 1 supreme verdict. No white mana = combo off.
Well the ancedotes above are very nice and all. But I'm not telling (though you can probably guess) that playing this cheese instead of just more meat like trackers and titans just makes the deck fragile to discard, more so than it was before. And yes, there'd be top decked kikis with nothing to copy - lightning bolts would make for very sad combat steps, and yea. It did more harm than good to the deck.
But one cheesy weekend later I can say I killed someone on turn 3 with a Ponza deck. That's alright for me. I'm going back to the regular Ponza now. I missed Tracker a lot during those games where removal and discard made comboing nigh impossible.
BGW Elves BGW|BW Tokens BW|WBR Sword&ShieldWBR|BUG DelverBUG|UWR Kiki UWR | UR Storm UR
Nice work with the sword
As for losing to lili with an active inferno titan, have a word with yourself hahahaha
Haha, good work mate thanks for sharing! I actually used to run a Godo, Bandit Warlord package with batterskull and a rotating sword and used to love it. The fact the Zoo player had no idea what deck you were on after wimming with BoP beats is hilarious.
@NoobKing thanks for the report too!
And thanks to everybody for their inputs on Garruk Wildspeaker. I have had a couple of people tell me he is straight up bad a couple of times and I wanted to see if I was imagining his utility or not.
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URW Jeskai Control
GUWRB Amulet Titan
GR Ponza
i've jammed some filler cards for getting Delirium online. unbridled growth and bauble, maybe there are better choices.
In my testing I'm bouncing between molten rain and beast within. recent testing I had a problem with my opponent using the beast token against me to get out of the pressure of land destruction. So I moved over to molten rain, for less draw back. if delirium isn't online, grim flayer against a beast token that i couldn't answer sucked.
1 Thragtusk
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
4 Birds of Paradise
4 grim flayer
2 goblin dark-dweller
3 Mishra's Bauble
4 Mwonvuli Acid-Moss
4 Stone Rain
4 molten rain//beast within
4 Unbridled Growth
4 Utopia Sprawl
2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
Lands 21
splashing delirium opens up taverse the ulvenwald as well. In in addition to grim flayer you also get Whispers of Emrakul and To the Slaughter, neither of which i'm using yet, I got slaughter pact in the sideboard which gets the job done. Whispers might be nice against storm or ironworks combo. also gives us fatal push, for a land destruction deck thats a good valued removal spell for the cards that slip through.
8 Forest
1 Mountain
1 Kessig Wolf Run
3 Stomping Ground
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Arbor Elf
2 Birds of Paradise
2 Stormbreath Dragon
1 Huntmaster of the Fells
1 Thragtusk
4 Inferno Titan
4 Stone Rain
3 Beast Within
4 Mwonvuli Acid-Moss
4 Blood Moon
2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
4 Bonfire of the Damned
2 Ancient Grudge
3 Anger of the Gods
1 Creeping Corrosion
3 Relic of Progenitus
2 Obstinate Baloth
1 Kitchen Finks
2 Primal Command
1 Tireless Tracker
26 Person FNM, 4 rounds
Round 1 vs. Naya Burn. Good player here. Went 1 match better than me at GP Vegas at 12-3. In the first game, he starts slowly. I destroy some lands, but need to find something quickly to put a hurt on. I top deck ... Thragtusk and I survive at 2 life when I draw a Stormbreath Dragon next and put some pressure on him. In the next game, he puts too much of a quick start on me. I make an interesting decision of fetching and shocking for Stomping Ground on turn 2 for Kitchen Finks, but having Red for later on or saving 2 life, but having no Red mana. I lose at exact lethal, but honestly if 1 of his other 2 cards were burn, I was dead anyway. I couldn't draw something to pressure him. In the final game, I have the nuts. I play turn 2 Kitchen Finks. Then I play Primal Command 2 turns later, but he Skullcracks the lifegain. I get Thragtusk and he doesn't have Skullcrack for it this turn. I get there eventually with those creatures and a Stormbreath Dragon. He tells me he's never beaten me before, but I thought he had once before. I do remember taking advantage when he ran BW Eldrazi Taxes for a bit and I ran Bogles, but I could have sworn once he changed, he got me. Hmmm. Anyway, I was lucky to draw my 1 Thragtusk in game 1 or I lose 0-2. Modern, eh? 2-1.
Round 2 vs. GB Tron. This is the guy I usually drive with. In the first game, he misses turn 3 Tron and I start destroying lands. I Stone Rain a Tron piece, then Beast Within another and he scoops the match. He rage quit. He even admitted that he did. This one probably wasn't going his way, although he did beat me on Wednesday when I ran UR Breach (1 Blood Moon that got Nature's Claimed in 3 games). 2-0.
Round 3 vs. Infect. Lucky me. In the first game, I have 2 Arbor Elves, a BoP, and 3 lands by turn 3. I also have Inferno Titan in hand. I lose to Infect on his turn 4. Yep, Modern. In the next game, I end up playing 2 Bonfire of the Damned and 3 Anger of the Gods to keep killing creatures, but he eventually killed me with the Beast token that I used on his 4th Blighted Agent. Never drew any other win-con, other than Beast Within, which I needed to use or I lose. I had 11 lands in play and he was at 10 life from Bonfires and fetch/shocks, so the 3rd Bonfire, if miracled, would have been lethal. I had an Ancient Grudge in hand that was dead since he didn't see Inkmoth Nexus. 0-2.
Round 4 vs. GW Company. This one was a little different than the Todd Stevens' version, with more beatdown. He gets his lands destroyed in game 1 after missing his 3rd land drop and I get Inferno Titan online. He scoops. In the next game, I mistakenly keep a 1 lander. He Ghost Quarters my Forest with Utopia Sprawl and I don't find lands in time. I find 1 more to go with my Arbor Elf, but that makes only 3 total and I had 4 and 5 drops in hand. In the last game, I have another 1 land hand. I snap mull. He mulled to 5. He never played anything but a Ghost Quarter. I had a tough decision on to Primal Command it and search for a creature or leave it. I go for the bounce it to the top of his library and he Ghost Quarters one of my lands with Utopia Sprawl on it. After I win, he shows me a hand of 1 and 2 drops with 3 mana dorks. Modern. 2-1.
I finish 3-1, which is one of my best recent records. I'm happy to get out unscathed.
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)Just the last 6 cards before I complete this deck on paper... 2 moon, 4 sprawl. Gonna get the 2 moons by Jan.
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Want to play a UW control deck in modern, but don't have jace or snaps?
Please come visit us at the Emeria Titan control thread
The problem with the deck already is it is somewhat inconsistent. SSG doesn’t help it in any way. If there was another 1 mana land enchantment that would be the best but there aren’t any in modern other than Sprawl.
If you are having success with Riders cool but there are way better 4CMC cards we use currently. You can mull over the last 2 pages and see which cards are doing well for Ponza in general.
Both are equally bad top decks. The problem isn't when you draw them, it's when you don't. If you read my posts you'll see that I've advocated cutting birds entirely a long time ago. I've had a ton of success with my list and the best 4 drop is hazoret, no questions about it imo.
You have to strike a balance between ways to play the game if you don't have a t3 blood moon/land d. Over loading on land leads to not being able to muster much of an offense. It's nice to blow up your opps lands and all but not when it's all you do while they beat u down with a 1/1.
Haxorz and chandra are the two best ways to end the game quickly in my opinion.
Sire + grim flayer dig should keep up the optimal top decks coming, though that should be more than enough creature power to to kill an opponent, where you don't need that duo working together for long.
My current deck build
5 Forest
3 overgrown tomb
1 blood crypt
1 Kessig Wolf Run
3 Stomping Ground
4 verdent catacomb
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Birds of Paradise
4 grim flayer
4 Sire of Insanity
2 goblin dark-dwellers
2 olivia voldaren
2 arlinn kord
4 unbridled growth
4 Stone Rain
3 Beast Within
4 Mwonvuli Acid-Moss
4 molten rain
2 fatal push
trying to keep the deck some what balanced. usually i hit delirium consisting of land, sorcery, instant and enchantment, the unbridled growths are a good mana fixer and cantrip, as well as 4th delirium. birds of paradise often fill in as 4th as well, someone kills them. if the match ups allows i'll fatal push my own birds.
Arlinn Kord is a filler for chandra, torch of defiance.
olivia voldaren felt like she fit in this deck, her 2nd only need 5cc to work, I hit that pretty consistently, her first ability isn't not bad, wish it could ping players. i like what she should be able to do in most match ups, steal the creatures that an opponent tries to squeeze through.
the temptation occured to me, but I haven tried it yet, but mindwrack demon might be playable in a delirium centric build such as mine. I'll leave him on the drawing board for now though.
The only 6 drops I think are worth a look would be wurmcoil, Chandra and maybe inferno titan.
If I was ging to test something silly it would be prime time, hornet queen or verduous gearhulk.
Post your deck list. Each ponza variant plays out differently.
Generally, Gx Tron should be easier as compared to Mono U or E Tron. Bloodmoon and LDs only slows them down. They will work once they get to 7mana and karn everything. You need to balance out your threats with LDs. A typical play will be T2 Moon, T3 trackers followed by LDs. There should always be a threat beating them down.
I'm toying with 2/3x of acid moss currently and I may cut it out completely to go a full monster build. The thing with acid moss is that it allows for a super explosive start if casted T2/3 but it loses its effectiveness as the game goes on. Play around with the number of mosses to see how it suits your playstyle.
Thx!
-Rg valakut
-U/W control
-U/R storm
-G/W value town
Legacy :
-Storm
-Rg valakut
-U/W control
-U/R storm
-G/W value town
Legacy :
-Storm