Sorry I’ve lurked here a while but never posted before, so I don’t know how to make a proper linked decklist but I figured I would share my twist on Ponza. I don’t have mtgo or even a computer, so I’ve yet to test this much, but from watching people play it seems like Ponza tends to overwin, or do nothing before getting crushed. So this is my attempt to even out some matchups and just have some fun.
So here are where I differ and hopefully my reasoning makes sense
4 boom/bust I feel this is a flexible card and can be quite useful early if we keep our mana costs low and if we have a decent board state using bust to destroy all the lands is a great finisher also worked great with Chandra’s plus one. Sadly since the rule change with split cards it can’t be hit with Bloodbraid Elf
Other strong 2 drops that work well with Chandra and boom/bust are
2 tilonalli’s summoner. Easy to play and late game with extra mana can create lots of tokens
3 heart of Kiran. Strong with Planeswalkers and tireless trackers that aren’t ready to attack yet
To help take advantage of heart of Kiran, and boom/bust we need another Planeswalker
3 garruk relentless. Heart of Kiran is awesome to flip him the turn he enters and he has some spot removal for those fast creature decks, also makes tokens to protect himself
Finish off with one main deck trinisphere to help with those other matchups like storm and affinity.
You can also build a deck here, and then afterwards just use the deck export option (which uses the same deck tags, but only a 4-digit number instead of the full list). This is handy if you have a current list you keep updated, and just want to easily repost it when asked. Eg:
Played 4-1 Competitive League yesterday, 5th game was against Jund. He won the toss and totally distrupted my great hand with Utopia and Moon in game 1 with 3 Inq in a row... 2nd game I won, then lost in 3rd to another awesome Jund hand.
Then I lost league 1-3 to Storm, Boggles and Humans. Every league I see Boggles at least one time. Storm is also popular, and so are aggrodecks like Humans, BR Hollow One etc. So I changed deck, here is actual list. Payed 24 Tix for 2 Trini. =(
Added one Huntmaster (bought brilliant new-arted woman version =). Huntmaster is one of my favorite cards in Magic, and it's great against Burn and various aggro. Stormbreath went to rest.
Added BtN to fight Boggles. Also added 2 Trinisphere in side in the place of Choke. What do you guys think of Trini? Awesome vs Storm, but where else will you side it? Tried it against Boggles, but he played a land on each of his turns and killed me with Kor. Boggles are terrible, even Turn 2 Moon often is not enough. How can we fight them, what do you think?
Thanks for the tip, @Lord_darkview. I didn't know about the deckbuilder tool. Here's what I'm currently on. Gonna bring something pretty close to this at the Clash at the Cradle 2 tournament held by team MGG in a few weeks.
I think its one thing to look at tried and tested cards to affirm their continued playability, and another to use this data to discount new tech that is being tested by your peers.
2 months ago, someone on storm decided to start using 1-of Unsubstantiate in their starting 60. Can you guess how that was received?
"If it were good it would be in mtgtop8"
"No proven results"
"Its just a worse remand."
"The draw is too important"
"storm is a brutally efficient engine that has no time/space for an answer in the main"
"look, another top 8 with no unsub"
It looks familiar, because it is. Not everyone is a bandwagoner that netdecks and avoids new cards. But this is where tech comes from. 2 months later, Caleb Scherer begins posting results with Unsubs in the main, and quickly, it begins showing up in netdecks. The tune of the forum changes so fast its like walking into an airconditioned mall from the outside on a sunny day.
Some people have resorted to screenshots of their very well stocked hand thanks for tracker, as a case against Haz. Let me point out a couple of things:
1. That opponent is tron. He doesn't have many early ways o deal with your tracker, so of course it is going to rack up clues.
2. You don't have Haz in your 60, so why on earth would you sandbag clues? You draw them on end steps when you have the mana.
3. You seem to have forgotten that Haz is herself a discard outlet. That the amount of mana on board in that screenshot? Your hand is a flurry of burn. Its expensive burn, but that's not really an issue for us is it? 6 mana, burn to the face for 4, swing in for more.
I haven't played Haz either, but apparently that's not a strike against talking about the card. Personally, I'm still enjoying the PKN/Voice/Tracker/BBE house party too much. But if we're just reading the card? It's not a must play, but it can definitely carry weight.
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BGW Elves BGW|BW Tokens BW|WBR Sword&ShieldWBR|BUG DelverBUG|UWR Kiki UWR | UR Storm UR
Ponza beat Mardu Pyromancer, Ad Nauseam, and Living End to win the Modern Challenge. I'd say that's pretty impressive, considering the matchups! Congrats to SLAYDFTW!
It makes me feel both good and bad that Ponza is doing so well. I've been playing the deck for the better part of 2 years now and have gotten my share of success with it. It's kind of nice that it's being recognized as a genuine threat...however, it makes me sad because there are more and more players on the archetype and so it's slowly becoming less of an underdog. And then there will be less salt for all of us...
It makes me feel both good and bad that Ponza is doing so well. I've been playing the deck for the better part of 2 years now and have gotten my share of success with it. It's kind of nice that it's being recognized as a genuine threat...however, it makes me sad because there are more and more players on the archetype and so it's slowly becoming less of an underdog. And then there will be less salt for all of us...
Oh don't worry. I've been playing stone rain since 4ED. The salt will always be there. Just make sure you keep a turn 2 action hand and you'll taste it. The sweet, sweet tears of those who kept the risky 2-lander, or better yet, thought the 1 lander was ok because they have 2 serum visions.
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BGW Elves BGW|BW Tokens BW|WBR Sword&ShieldWBR|BUG DelverBUG|UWR Kiki UWR | UR Storm UR
It makes me feel both good and bad that Ponza is doing so well. I've been playing the deck for the better part of 2 years now and have gotten my share of success with it. It's kind of nice that it's being recognized as a genuine threat...however, it makes me sad because there are more and more players on the archetype and so it's slowly becoming less of an underdog. And then there will be less salt for all of us...
I feel you! I was hoping my deck choice for GP Sydney was going to take everybody by surprise, but I think most of my opponents will know what's up nowadays when I go arbor elf or sprawl then go
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Modern Decks
------------ URW Jeskai Control GUWRB Amulet Titan GR Ponza
Surprise? This deck exists for 2 years almost with no changes, I think everyone at least have heard about it.
Don't worry mate I know the deck has been around for a while... I played the Archetype when it was called R/G land destruction, I remember buying my full playset of Avalanche Riders and Argothian Wurms when they were first released in Urza Block!
Yes Ponza has existed in modern for a while. But a 6 months ago if you led with Arbor Elf most people thought a) WTF? Or B) Tooth and Nail.
It is only in the last say 2 months that you would sit down at a competative modern event and seriously look at your game 1 hand and say 'How weak am I to Stone Rain?'
Now the question is legit.
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Modern Decks
------------ URW Jeskai Control GUWRB Amulet Titan GR Ponza
For anybody interested; Jack Kiefer's GP Phoenix list, or something close to it. He posted it on his Twitter apparently. On my phone still so no screenshot available sorry, I wrote it up and created a list using TopDecked so just click the link.
As a Green Devotion player, I love the idea of that list, if not all its particulars. Command loops are amazing, and Witness is pretty strong even if it's recurring Stone Rain or a removed Tracker.
That said, I'm not sure if this list really has enough lands to run the Command loop at full effectiveness (I'm not crazy about just relying on the two extra Birds). A full 4x Command has often been too many in my experience, as well. I think I'd probably at least swap one Command for a Witness, because an extra Witness can keep the loop going longer when it's active, or recur Stone Rain or generate an extra fetch land drop when it's not.
The SB is also full of good ideas that are assembled weirdly. Some of the creatures seem a tad slow, especially considering he's depending on a Command to find them, which will only happen in time if his mana-acceleration lives.
I think this list is chock full of interesting ideas, even if I wouldn't quite play it myself.
Hello guys! does it ever take to you to side out some copies of blood moon against some decks that suffer it a lot (as for example Jund) just cause you know they will be playing around it and so play slower?
Short answer - no. Good card is good card.
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Modern Decks
------------ URW Jeskai Control GUWRB Amulet Titan GR Ponza
Even if they play around Blood Moon by fetching basics, we still run a bunch of land destruction spells. This means we can usually still take them off a color entirely, or at least prevent double-color spells.
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/modern-challenge-2018-03-18
4 Arbor Elf
2 Birds of Paradise
2 Tilonalli’s Summoner
1 Courser of Kruphix
3 Tireless Tracker
Spells (27)
4 Utopia Sprawl
4 Boom // Bust
3 Heart of Kiran
2 Blood Moon
1 Blood Sun
2 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
3 Stone Rain
1 Trinisphere
3 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
3 Garruk Relentless
1 Primal Command
9 Forest
1 Mountain
1 Raging Ravine
2 Stomping Ground
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
So here are where I differ and hopefully my reasoning makes sense
4 boom/bust I feel this is a flexible card and can be quite useful early if we keep our mana costs low and if we have a decent board state using bust to destroy all the lands is a great finisher also worked great with Chandra’s plus one. Sadly since the rule change with split cards it can’t be hit with Bloodbraid Elf
Other strong 2 drops that work well with Chandra and boom/bust are
2 tilonalli’s summoner. Easy to play and late game with extra mana can create lots of tokens
3 heart of Kiran. Strong with Planeswalkers and tireless trackers that aren’t ready to attack yet
To help take advantage of heart of Kiran, and boom/bust we need another Planeswalker
3 garruk relentless. Heart of Kiran is awesome to flip him the turn he enters and he has some spot removal for those fast creature decks, also makes tokens to protect himself
Finish off with one main deck trinisphere to help with those other matchups like storm and affinity.
[-deck]
Lands (20)
20 Mountains
Spells (20)
20 Lightning Bolt
Creatures (20)
20 Goblin Guide
Sideboard
15 Boil
[-/deck]
But drop the hyphens (-) in each tag, you get:
20 Mountains
20 Lightning Bolt
20 Goblin Guide
15 Boil
You can also build a deck here, and then afterwards just use the deck export option (which uses the same deck tags, but only a 4-digit number instead of the full list). This is handy if you have a current list you keep updated, and just want to easily repost it when asked. Eg:
[-deck]2256[-/deck]
1 Birds of Paradise
4 Arbor Elf
2 Scavenging Ooze
4 Tireless Tracker
3 Stormbreath Dragon
2 Inferno Titan
Enchantment
4 Utopia Sprawl
3 Blood Moon
2 Courser of Kruphix
2 Stomping Ground
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
1 Cinder Glade
2 Mountain
8 Forest
Instant
4 Abrade
Sorcery
4 Stone Rain
4 Mwonvuli Acid-Moss
2 Molten Rain
2 Obstinate Baloth
1 Blood Moon
3 Relic of Progenitus
3 Beast Within
3 Roast
3 Anger of the Gods
I'm not quite sure how this updates. I think the list that displays is based on the time you make your post.
Modern: Merfolk UU // Green Devotion GG // SkRed Red RR
Legacy: Death & Taxes WW // Burn RR // Death's Shadow Delver UB
Commander: Brago UW // Karlov WB
Then I lost league 1-3 to Storm, Boggles and Humans. Every league I see Boggles at least one time. Storm is also popular, and so are aggrodecks like Humans, BR Hollow One etc. So I changed deck, here is actual list. Payed 24 Tix for 2 Trini. =(
9 Forest
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Mountain
3 Stomping Ground
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
Creatures (19)
4 Arbor Elf
1 Birds of Paradise
4 Tireless Tracker
1 Courser of Kruphix
4 Bloodbraid Elf
2 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
1 Huntmaster of the Fells
2 Inferno Titan
2 Lightning Bolt
Sorceries (7)
3 Molten Rain
4 Stone Rain
Enchantments (8)
4 Blood Moon
4 Utopia Sprawl
Planeswalkers (2)
2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Shatterstorm
3 Anger of the Gods
2 Trinisphere
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Back to Nature
1 Chameleon Colossus
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
2 Kitchen Finks
Added one Huntmaster (bought brilliant new-arted woman version =). Huntmaster is one of my favorite cards in Magic, and it's great against Burn and various aggro. Stormbreath went to rest.
Added BtN to fight Boggles. Also added 2 Trinisphere in side in the place of Choke. What do you guys think of Trini? Awesome vs Storm, but where else will you side it? Tried it against Boggles, but he played a land on each of his turns and killed me with Kor. Boggles are terrible, even Turn 2 Moon often is not enough. How can we fight them, what do you think?
My YouTube MTG Channel
Temur Tooth and Nail (feat. Kiora, Master of the Depths) deck topic and reddit thread.
UG Infect
Modern
UG Infect
GW Infect
EDH
WB Teysa, Orzhov Scion
B Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon
1 Birds of Paradise
4 Arbor Elf
2 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
4 Tireless Tracker
4 Bloodbraid Elf
2 Stormbreath Dragon
2 Inferno Titan
Enchantment
4 Utopia Sprawl
4 Blood Moon
1 Courser of Kruphix
1 Kessig Wolf Run
4 Stomping Ground
3 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Mountain
7 Forest
Sorcery
4 Stone Rain
4 Molten Rain
2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
2 Scavenging Ooze
3 Kitchen Finks
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
2 Trinisphere
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Beast Within
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Shatterstorm
2 Anger of the Gods
UG Infect
Modern
UG Infect
GW Infect
EDH
WB Teysa, Orzhov Scion
B Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon
Modern: Merfolk UU // Green Devotion GG // SkRed Red RR
Legacy: Death & Taxes WW // Burn RR // Death's Shadow Delver UB
Commander: Brago UW // Karlov WB
I think its one thing to look at tried and tested cards to affirm their continued playability, and another to use this data to discount new tech that is being tested by your peers.
2 months ago, someone on storm decided to start using 1-of Unsubstantiate in their starting 60. Can you guess how that was received?
"If it were good it would be in mtgtop8"
"No proven results"
"Its just a worse remand."
"The draw is too important"
"storm is a brutally efficient engine that has no time/space for an answer in the main"
"look, another top 8 with no unsub"
It looks familiar, because it is. Not everyone is a bandwagoner that netdecks and avoids new cards. But this is where tech comes from. 2 months later, Caleb Scherer begins posting results with Unsubs in the main, and quickly, it begins showing up in netdecks. The tune of the forum changes so fast its like walking into an airconditioned mall from the outside on a sunny day.
Some people have resorted to screenshots of their very well stocked hand thanks for tracker, as a case against Haz. Let me point out a couple of things:
1. That opponent is tron. He doesn't have many early ways o deal with your tracker, so of course it is going to rack up clues.
2. You don't have Haz in your 60, so why on earth would you sandbag clues? You draw them on end steps when you have the mana.
3. You seem to have forgotten that Haz is herself a discard outlet. That the amount of mana on board in that screenshot? Your hand is a flurry of burn. Its expensive burn, but that's not really an issue for us is it? 6 mana, burn to the face for 4, swing in for more.
I haven't played Haz either, but apparently that's not a strike against talking about the card. Personally, I'm still enjoying the PKN/Voice/Tracker/BBE house party too much. But if we're just reading the card? It's not a must play, but it can definitely carry weight.
BGW Elves BGW|BW Tokens BW|WBR Sword&ShieldWBR|BUG DelverBUG|UWR Kiki UWR | UR Storm UR
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/modern-challenge-2018-03-18
UG Infect
Modern
UG Infect
GW Infect
EDH
WB Teysa, Orzhov Scion
B Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon
So Ponza has won some large events recently and has done it against some pretty rough match-ups;
Dutch Open Series Winner (Kasper Zijl) - finals vs. Grixis Control
SGG Open Dallas Winner (Andrew Wolpert) - defeats E-Tron, Infect, Storm.
MKM Series Rome Winner (David Peretti) - defeats R/G Vengevine, Mono-Blue Living End, Temur Scapeshift.
MTGO Modern Challenge Winner (SLAYDFTW)- defeats Mardu Pyro, Ad Nauseam, Living End.
------------
URW Jeskai Control
GUWRB Amulet Titan
GR Ponza
Oh don't worry. I've been playing stone rain since 4ED. The salt will always be there. Just make sure you keep a turn 2 action hand and you'll taste it. The sweet, sweet tears of those who kept the risky 2-lander, or better yet, thought the 1 lander was ok because they have 2 serum visions.
BGW Elves BGW|BW Tokens BW|WBR Sword&ShieldWBR|BUG DelverBUG|UWR Kiki UWR | UR Storm UR
I feel you! I was hoping my deck choice for GP Sydney was going to take everybody by surprise, but I think most of my opponents will know what's up nowadays when I go arbor elf or sprawl then go
------------
URW Jeskai Control
GUWRB Amulet Titan
GR Ponza
My YouTube MTG Channel
Temur Tooth and Nail (feat. Kiora, Master of the Depths) deck topic and reddit thread.
Don't worry mate I know the deck has been around for a while... I played the Archetype when it was called R/G land destruction, I remember buying my full playset of Avalanche Riders and Argothian Wurms when they were first released in Urza Block!
Yes Ponza has existed in modern for a while. But a 6 months ago if you led with Arbor Elf most people thought a) WTF? Or B) Tooth and Nail.
It is only in the last say 2 months that you would sit down at a competative modern event and seriously look at your game 1 hand and say 'How weak am I to Stone Rain?'
Now the question is legit.
------------
URW Jeskai Control
GUWRB Amulet Titan
GR Ponza
Ponza (R/G): Jack Kiefer - GP Phoenix
Shared via TopDecked MTG https://www.topdecked.me/decks/cce81c11-229d-4ca3-8d52-3073059aa947
4 Primal Command, 2 Eternal Witness, 4 Bolts, 3 Birds.
Spicy AF. It's like the Command Loop green devotion lists blended with Ponza. Even in the sideboard he has Hornet Queen and Caldera Hellion!
------------
URW Jeskai Control
GUWRB Amulet Titan
GR Ponza
As a Green Devotion player, I love the idea of that list, if not all its particulars. Command loops are amazing, and Witness is pretty strong even if it's recurring Stone Rain or a removed Tracker.
That said, I'm not sure if this list really has enough lands to run the Command loop at full effectiveness (I'm not crazy about just relying on the two extra Birds). A full 4x Command has often been too many in my experience, as well. I think I'd probably at least swap one Command for a Witness, because an extra Witness can keep the loop going longer when it's active, or recur Stone Rain or generate an extra fetch land drop when it's not.
The SB is also full of good ideas that are assembled weirdly. Some of the creatures seem a tad slow, especially considering he's depending on a Command to find them, which will only happen in time if his mana-acceleration lives.
I think this list is chock full of interesting ideas, even if I wouldn't quite play it myself.
Modern: Merfolk UU // Green Devotion GG // SkRed Red RR
Legacy: Death & Taxes WW // Burn RR // Death's Shadow Delver UB
Commander: Brago UW // Karlov WB
Short answer - no. Good card is good card.
------------
URW Jeskai Control
GUWRB Amulet Titan
GR Ponza
Modern: Merfolk UU // Green Devotion GG // SkRed Red RR
Legacy: Death & Taxes WW // Burn RR // Death's Shadow Delver UB
Commander: Brago UW // Karlov WB