MB Abrades provide security against Bridges, Lanterns, and Hollow One, and Sc.Ooze works to shore up the matches against aggro, Burn, and GY strategies. I know that it's traditional to run Chandra or Nissa, but I'm not sure they really fit the approach here, though Chandra might provide an alternate vector for winning.
IMO, you'll want to keep both birds if you plan on running x3 Stormbreath, x2 Titans, & a play set of Mwonvuli. I'd also ditch the Cinder Glade for another Stomping Ground, Copperline Gorge or something else of the ilk. In addition, you can probably drop the Coursers if you're not running BBE or Chandra; getting hit off BBE and synergy with Chandra's +1 is what makes it such a value town card. I like Courser either way, so I don't think there's a right or wrong decision there, but just something to consider if there are other options you'd like to MB.
This was my first chance to play R/G Ponza since I finished building it, so I didnt expect to go 4-0, but to my surprise I went 3-1. It was a lot of fun, and I look forward to continuing to see how this deck does in my local meta.
Match 1 Vs Mono G Tron
Game 1- I Mull to 5 and kept a pretty bad hand, not wanting to go to 4. Opponent hits turn 3 Tron and drops a Karn before I drew any land destruction, so I scoop.
SB in 2 Ancient Grudge / Out 1 Chandra and 1 Lightning Bolt
Game 2- I mull to 5 AGAIN, keeping a very slow turn 3 blood moon hand. I drop the turn 3 Blood Moon, but draw no threats after that for many turns. The Tron player was able to make 7 land drops and play his Karn, exiling my Blood Moon. I bolt his Karn killing it. I draw a Tracker, play it. Opponent plays another Karn, exiles the Tracker. I peel an Inferno Titan, play it and kill the 2nd Karn. Opponent plays a THIRD Karn, exiles my Titan, I draw a land and scoop.
Match 2 vs Standard Mono Red Burn (Record so far 0-1)
This guy was just starting to play Magic again, so he had bought cards from the last couple sets, threw a bunch of red burn spells and creatures into his deck, and somehow made his way into our Modern tournament. I'm not sure if he didnt know about the Standard nights our shop runs, but Friday night at this particular shop is Modern, whereas the other shop does Standard on Friday. I didnt want to be rude so I never asked him why he was at a modern tournament with a standard deck, I assumed he knew about the difference and he just wanted to play. Needless to say I won 2-0
Match 3 vs 8 Rack (Record so far 1-1)
Game 1- Opponent has a pretty nutty draw. My hand was fairly decent, minus the 2 Useless Blood moons in my hand. He pushes by Birds and eventually has me discard all of my hand over the next couple turns. He finished me off with double Shrieking Affliction triggers and The Rack.
SB IN 2 Baloth, 3 Ancient Grudge, 2 Lightning Bolt / OUT 3 Molten Rain, 4 Blood Moon
Game 2- I draw a bunch of my sideboard cards in this game, both Baloths and an Ancient Grudge. He scooped pretty early.
Game 3- This was a long battle. He makes me discard my whole hand eventually, and kills most of my threats. It ends up where he has The Rack and Shrieking Affliction in play again, and I am going to die in another turn. I had been +1-ing my Nissa for a bunch of turns, and finally use her Ultimate, drawing me 6 cards and gaining 6 life. Since I am out of the range of both of his damage dealing permanents, and have enough cards in my hand so they wont trigger, I slowly take over the game. He tries to make me discard, but I have enough cards in my hand to pad me from going back down to The Rack/Affliction territory.
Match 4 vs Burn (Record so far 2-1)
Game 1 Opponent has a pretty crazy draw. He plays a Swifty turn 1, followed by double bolt turn two, into Boros Charm + Bolt turn 3. Obviously he top decks another burn spell turn 4, killing me.
SB IN 2 Baloth, 2 Scavenging Ooze, 2 Thragtusk, 2 Kitchen Finks / OUT 3 Molten Rain, 4 Blood Moon, 1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
Game 2- He drops a turn 1 Swifty that I bolt. Turn 2 I drop a Sprawl and an Arbor Elf. He gets me down low but I land a Thragtusk and a Scooze and he scoops soon after that.
Game 3- This game was very close, it came down to the wire. We battled back and forth, but me sticking a Scavenging Ooze for a few turns and gaining a few life turns the tide long enough for me to stabilize. He plays a swifty and a Lavaman with me at 7 Life, he has 1 card in hand. I topdeck a land, play the titan thats in my hand, blow up his 2 creatures. He responds with a bolt to my face and activates Lavamancer, but he is 2 damage short. He scoops after losing his board and seeing that I peel a Thragtusk.
Overall I was pretty impressed with this deck. Pia and Kiran Nalaar gave some nice reach, and Inferno Titan was pretty absurd when i could stick him early. I did not expect to do so well, but then again it's not like this deck is super difficult to pilot. I probably did not sideboard 100% correctly or optimally. I am hoping to pick up a couple copies of Trinisphere in the next couple weeks, as my local meta is very heavy on aggro, with lots of Affinity, Bogles, and the like, plus several people playing Jund and other midranged decks. There are a LOT of people playing Tron around here, so hopefully I can make them miserable in the weeks to come! Let me know what you guys think of my list, I just kind of tweaked a stock list for what I thought was appropriate for my local meta (minus the Trinispheres obviously) Thanks!
Hello! New Ponza player here, having previously played WB Eldrazi Taxes. I've been able to pick up a lot of the core for this deck, but there's still some piece I am missing/having a hard time getting my hands on at my LGS or via trades (Tireless Trackers, Inferno Titans, and Windswept Heaths - holding off on Birds until I find one that is not HP quality). Below is a copy of my current MB - do you think this is worth playing as is or should I hold off until I get the above threats and utility?
I'm using MAM as an accelerator, but maybe it makes more sense to drop them and add another 2 Molten Rain and pair of Chandra ToDs.
Since you're not running BBE, Molten Rain doesn't necessarily have an edge over Acid-moss. Acid Moss ramps and Molten Rain is cheaper. It might be fine to run 2x Molten Rain 2x Acid-Moss and 2x Chandra.
Or hell, 4 moss, 2 dragons, 2 Chandra, 3 titan, no molten rain. That's an old school line up that was always pretty strong.
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Modern Decks
------------ URW Jeskai Control GUWRB Amulet Titan GR Ponza
Hello! New Ponza player here, having previously played WB Eldrazi Taxes. I've been able to pick up a lot of the core for this deck, but there's still some piece I am missing/having a hard time getting my hands on at my LGS or via trades (Tireless Trackers, Inferno Titans, and Windswept Heaths - holding off on Birds until I find one that is not HP quality). Below is a copy of my current MB - do you think this is worth playing as is or should I hold off until I get the above threats and utility?
The Jadelight Rangers make me want to add in Goblin Dark-Dwellers to be able to pitch my S/M Rains and flashback them with the ETB.
Your list is very playable even without the optimal cards. You have good replacements for Tracker and Titan in Glorybringer and Jadelight Ranger - these two are already fringe selections for Ponza and are sometimes run as 1-ofs anyway!
The birds are actually the most painful loss. Double Red on t2 for molten rain is very occasionally awkward, and while birds help solve this, llanowar elves would not.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern Decks
------------ URW Jeskai Control GUWRB Amulet Titan GR Ponza
Hello! New Ponza player here, having previously played WB Eldrazi Taxes. I've been able to pick up a lot of the core for this deck, but there's still some piece I am missing/having a hard time getting my hands on at my LGS or via trades (Tireless Trackers, Inferno Titans, and Windswept Heaths - holding off on Birds until I find one that is not HP quality). Below is a copy of my current MB - do you think this is worth playing as is or should I hold off until I get the above threats and utility?
The Jadelight Rangers make me want to add in Goblin Dark-Dwellers to be able to pitch my S/M Rains and flashback them with the ETB.
That's already playable in my opinion. This deck worked even when trackers were not printed yet, you try slowly get them one by one.. once they're available in your area. However, I do suggest you get a few copies of titan before any FNM.. he's not really an expensive card, and he's a good finisher for this deck.
I'll likely wait to give this a whirl that FNM until I get those Titans. I found a few reasonably priced ones on TCGPlayer (I was surprised how many stores were marking them up). Also, I'm hoping to fill in the remaining gaps via trades this weekend at the Dominaria prerelease and at GP Dallas-Fort Worth. Fingers crossed!
I was surprised that Urabrask the Hidden has yet to be discussed in this thread. What do you guys think of the card in this archetype? It adds another tempo effect and if nothing else, its a solid hasty creature that dodges bolt/push. Also gives your other creatures a chance to punch through, which could potentially be better than just having a single flying creature (stormbreath slot).
I was surprised that Urabrask the Hidden has yet to be discussed in this thread. What do you guys think of the card in this archetype? It adds another tempo effect and if nothing else, its a solid hasty creature that dodges bolt/push. Also gives your other creatures a chance to punch through, which could potentially be better than just having a single flying creature (stormbreath slot).
Ubarask has poor stats for 5cmc. I would rather play Samut, Voice of Dissent, but even that is more fun than competative.
The second line of text on Ubarask would be better on a cheaper permanent.
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Modern Decks
------------ URW Jeskai Control GUWRB Amulet Titan GR Ponza
So recently I have been asked more and more what Ponza is. Which lead to this little exchange.
Me: So it's basically a tempo deck. But relies on preventing your opponent from doing stuff like a control deck. Oh! and it often feels like it comes down to how you play a few very significant early turns, like a combo deck.
My Friend: ...
Me: I have access to five mana, am ticking up Chandra to ultimate, and Dave is playing his second land for the third time.
My Friend: Gotcha.
Had a very successful prerelease (both for gameplay and trading hehe) so I was able to pick up several missing tools. The biggest opportunities to me are still the Trackers + phasing out some of my budget dual land choices.
My local meta tends to have a lot of Humans, Burn, Tron, Eldrazi, and Hatebear/Taxes decks. There's occasionally some storm/KCI type decks running around. Based on this, what do you guys think of my MB and/or SB choices below?
You're already set I think. Just pilot the deck in your next fNM, you'll get a feel on what to take out and what cards need to be added.. once you get experience playing the deck against decks in your local store. That lone Chalice in your side will gimp burn players players who don't expect it coming. Have fun. ^__^
If you enjoy piloting the deck, then you could start making improvements like buying 2 more Stomping ground to smooth the manabase.
Thanks, @The FLuff! I'm looking forward to it hehe. In my initial playtests, it's an incredibly fun deck to pilot.
Two quick questions on my end:
For the Chalice of the Void, should I try to rush it out on Turn 2 to try and block 1 CMC spells (Bolt, Spike, Guide, etc.) or hold until I can block 2 CMC (Eidolons, Skullcracks, Destructive Revelry, etc.)? Probably a noob question. I'm leaning toward CMC to throw them off tempo while I get my land destruction machine up and running.
I'm on the fence about Damping Sphere. It can certainly be powerful in a variety of match-ups, but it's going to hose my own BBE unless I have an extra 1 floating. We have enough ramp that this may be a non issue. What do you think?
If you are SBing in Trinisphere or Damping Sphere in, don't worry about the non-bo with BBE. You want it out asap and having a BBE cascading into one helps.
Thanks, @The FLuff! I'm looking forward to it hehe. In my initial playtests, it's an incredibly fun deck to pilot.
Two quick questions on my end:
For the Chalice of the Void, should I try to rush it out on Turn 2 to try and block 1 CMC spells (Bolt, Spike, Guide, etc.) or hold until I can block 2 CMC (Eidolons, Skullcracks, Destructive Revelry, etc.)? Probably a noob question. I'm leaning toward CMC to throw them off tempo while I get my land destruction machine up and running.
I'm on the fence about Damping Sphere. It can certainly be powerful in a variety of match-ups, but it's going to hose my own BBE unless I have an extra 1 floating. We have enough ramp that this may be a non issue. What do you think?
On chalice. If there's a Bogles player in your store set chalice to 1. Against Burn, most of the time I will set it to 1. However, if it's midgame and have just drawn a chalice.. then I'm about to swing with a large creature or about to use a lifegain card.. I would set chalice to 2 in that situation, to prevent Atarka's Command, Deflecting Palm, and Skullcrack tricks that the Burn player might try to pull off.
Sorry, can't comment on Damping Sphere. I have no experience with that card.
I had a chance to pilot this last night at my LGS' Modern event. I was a bit nervous as it tends to be a bit more competitive b/c the cash prize instead of packs. Ended up going 2-2, which I am very happy with as an inaugural venture with the deck! I ended up dropping to 2 Inferno Titan to run 3 Lightning Bolts in the main, which saved my butt multiple times.
Match 1: 2-0 vs BW Tokens -- Hit some initial land d to throw them off tempo game 1, game 2 boarded out blood moon b/c they didn't actually run many duals. Instead added Bolt + Anger to clear tokens before my BBE/Titan pushes. Match 2: 2-0 vs Mono Green Stompy -- I actually felt quite bad about how this played out and the guy was visibly frustrated. Both games I kept him down to 1 land while I ramped out Titan. Literally cascaded into Stone Rain back-to-back. Match 3: 1-2 vs Burn -- Game 1 was a blow-out, but Game 2 I nailed the tempo control. Popped his Sacred Foundry early, then by the time he got another dual land I was able to drop Blood Moon to lock him out of his Helix/Charm. Game 3 I feel I lost to myself, having to mull down to 5 and no good turn 1-2 plays. Match 4: 1-2 vs Naya Zoo -- Game 1 I had a good start, but didn't have enough pressure to keep his board clear. His list ran Thalia which out-tempo'd me. Game 2 I sandbagged Anger until he had over-extended, chump blocking with my Elf/Bird to stall, which he couldn't recover from. Game 3 I lost to a misplay, where I should have just cast my Anger to buy time but instead I tried to wait it out for more value.
As mentioned above, I'm really pleased with this given that it was my first go-around. The clearest upgrade path is definitely lands - the Cinder Glade ended up being a costly play in my opening hand for both the loss matches. Jadelight Ranger also proved to be a stellar card, delivering immediate value even if she was bolted (whereas Tireless Tracker would have ended up being a dud.
I am also considering running 2x Siege-Gang Commander in the place of 2x Pia and Kiran Nalaar. P&K offers a little more reach, but SGC can get you more bodies and up to 4x instances of 2 dmg (compared to P&K's 2).
IMO, you'll want to keep both birds if you plan on running x3 Stormbreath, x2 Titans, & a play set of Mwonvuli. I'd also ditch the Cinder Glade for another Stomping Ground, Copperline Gorge or something else of the ilk. In addition, you can probably drop the Coursers if you're not running BBE or Chandra; getting hit off BBE and synergy with Chandra's +1 is what makes it such a value town card. I like Courser either way, so I don't think there's a right or wrong decision there, but just something to consider if there are other options you'd like to MB.
Link to Discord server where anybody from MTGS can keep up with thread topics while everything is being sorted out with the new site.
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
3 Stomping Grounds
8 Forest
1 Mountain
1 Kessig Wolf Run
Creatures (20)
4 Arbor Elf
2 Birds of Paradise
4 Tireless Tracker
4 Bloodbraid Elf
1 Courser of Kruphix
1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
1 Stormbreath Dragon
3 Inferno Titan
1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
1 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
Spells (9)
2 Lightning Bolt
4 Stone Rain
3 Molten Rain
Enchantments (8)
4 Utopia Sprawl
4 Blood Moon
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Obstinate Baloth
2 Thragtusk
2 Kitchen Finks
2 Anger of the Gods
3 Ancient Grudge
2 Lightning Bolt
This was my first chance to play R/G Ponza since I finished building it, so I didnt expect to go 4-0, but to my surprise I went 3-1. It was a lot of fun, and I look forward to continuing to see how this deck does in my local meta.
Match 1 Vs Mono G Tron
Game 1- I Mull to 5 and kept a pretty bad hand, not wanting to go to 4. Opponent hits turn 3 Tron and drops a Karn before I drew any land destruction, so I scoop.
SB in 2 Ancient Grudge / Out 1 Chandra and 1 Lightning Bolt
Game 2- I mull to 5 AGAIN, keeping a very slow turn 3 blood moon hand. I drop the turn 3 Blood Moon, but draw no threats after that for many turns. The Tron player was able to make 7 land drops and play his Karn, exiling my Blood Moon. I bolt his Karn killing it. I draw a Tracker, play it. Opponent plays another Karn, exiles the Tracker. I peel an Inferno Titan, play it and kill the 2nd Karn. Opponent plays a THIRD Karn, exiles my Titan, I draw a land and scoop.
Match 2 vs Standard Mono Red Burn (Record so far 0-1)
This guy was just starting to play Magic again, so he had bought cards from the last couple sets, threw a bunch of red burn spells and creatures into his deck, and somehow made his way into our Modern tournament. I'm not sure if he didnt know about the Standard nights our shop runs, but Friday night at this particular shop is Modern, whereas the other shop does Standard on Friday. I didnt want to be rude so I never asked him why he was at a modern tournament with a standard deck, I assumed he knew about the difference and he just wanted to play. Needless to say I won 2-0
Match 3 vs 8 Rack (Record so far 1-1)
Game 1- Opponent has a pretty nutty draw. My hand was fairly decent, minus the 2 Useless Blood moons in my hand. He pushes by Birds and eventually has me discard all of my hand over the next couple turns. He finished me off with double Shrieking Affliction triggers and The Rack.
SB IN 2 Baloth, 3 Ancient Grudge, 2 Lightning Bolt / OUT 3 Molten Rain, 4 Blood Moon
Game 2- I draw a bunch of my sideboard cards in this game, both Baloths and an Ancient Grudge. He scooped pretty early.
Game 3- This was a long battle. He makes me discard my whole hand eventually, and kills most of my threats. It ends up where he has The Rack and Shrieking Affliction in play again, and I am going to die in another turn. I had been +1-ing my Nissa for a bunch of turns, and finally use her Ultimate, drawing me 6 cards and gaining 6 life. Since I am out of the range of both of his damage dealing permanents, and have enough cards in my hand so they wont trigger, I slowly take over the game. He tries to make me discard, but I have enough cards in my hand to pad me from going back down to The Rack/Affliction territory.
Match 4 vs Burn (Record so far 2-1)
Game 1 Opponent has a pretty crazy draw. He plays a Swifty turn 1, followed by double bolt turn two, into Boros Charm + Bolt turn 3. Obviously he top decks another burn spell turn 4, killing me.
SB IN 2 Baloth, 2 Scavenging Ooze, 2 Thragtusk, 2 Kitchen Finks / OUT 3 Molten Rain, 4 Blood Moon, 1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
Game 2- He drops a turn 1 Swifty that I bolt. Turn 2 I drop a Sprawl and an Arbor Elf. He gets me down low but I land a Thragtusk and a Scooze and he scoops soon after that.
Game 3- This game was very close, it came down to the wire. We battled back and forth, but me sticking a Scavenging Ooze for a few turns and gaining a few life turns the tide long enough for me to stabilize. He plays a swifty and a Lavaman with me at 7 Life, he has 1 card in hand. I topdeck a land, play the titan thats in my hand, blow up his 2 creatures. He responds with a bolt to my face and activates Lavamancer, but he is 2 damage short. He scoops after losing his board and seeing that I peel a Thragtusk.
Overall I was pretty impressed with this deck. Pia and Kiran Nalaar gave some nice reach, and Inferno Titan was pretty absurd when i could stick him early. I did not expect to do so well, but then again it's not like this deck is super difficult to pilot. I probably did not sideboard 100% correctly or optimally. I am hoping to pick up a couple copies of Trinisphere in the next couple weeks, as my local meta is very heavy on aggro, with lots of Affinity, Bogles, and the like, plus several people playing Jund and other midranged decks. There are a LOT of people playing Tron around here, so hopefully I can make them miserable in the weeks to come! Let me know what you guys think of my list, I just kind of tweaked a stock list for what I thought was appropriate for my local meta (minus the Trinispheres obviously) Thanks!
4 Wooded Foothills
1 Windswept Heath
3 Bloodstained Mire (substitute for missing WHeath)
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Stomping Ground
1 Sheltered Thicket
1 Cinder Glade
1 Mountain
8 Forest
4 Arbor Elf
2 Llanowar Elves (substitute for Birds)
4 Jadelight Ranger (substitute for Tracker)
4 Bloodbraid Elf
3 Glorybringer (substitute for Stormbreath/Inferno)
1 Hazoret the Fervent
1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
1 Courser of Kruphix
4 Blood Moon
4 Utopia Sprawl
4 Stone Rain
3 Molten Rain
2 Lightning Bolt
1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
1 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
The Jadelight Rangers make me want to add in Goblin Dark-Dwellers to be able to pitch my S/M Rains and flashback them with the ETB.
B/G Rock BG | Jund BGR | Mardu Pyromancer BRW | Ponza RG | Burn RW
Since you're not running BBE, Molten Rain doesn't necessarily have an edge over Acid-moss. Acid Moss ramps and Molten Rain is cheaper. It might be fine to run 2x Molten Rain 2x Acid-Moss and 2x Chandra.
Or hell, 4 moss, 2 dragons, 2 Chandra, 3 titan, no molten rain. That's an old school line up that was always pretty strong.
------------
URW Jeskai Control
GUWRB Amulet Titan
GR Ponza
Your list is very playable even without the optimal cards. You have good replacements for Tracker and Titan in Glorybringer and Jadelight Ranger - these two are already fringe selections for Ponza and are sometimes run as 1-ofs anyway!
The birds are actually the most painful loss. Double Red on t2 for molten rain is very occasionally awkward, and while birds help solve this, llanowar elves would not.
------------
URW Jeskai Control
GUWRB Amulet Titan
GR Ponza
That's already playable in my opinion. This deck worked even when trackers were not printed yet, you try slowly get them one by one.. once they're available in your area. However, I do suggest you get a few copies of titan before any FNM.. he's not really an expensive card, and he's a good finisher for this deck.
Nexus MTG News // Nexus - Magic Art Gallery // MTG Dual Land Color Ratios Analyzer // MTG Card Drawing Odds Calculator
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
I'll likely wait to give this a whirl that FNM until I get those Titans. I found a few reasonably priced ones on TCGPlayer (I was surprised how many stores were marking them up). Also, I'm hoping to fill in the remaining gaps via trades this weekend at the Dominaria prerelease and at GP Dallas-Fort Worth. Fingers crossed!
B/G Rock BG | Jund BGR | Mardu Pyromancer BRW | Ponza RG | Burn RW
Ubarask has poor stats for 5cmc. I would rather play Samut, Voice of Dissent, but even that is more fun than competative.
The second line of text on Ubarask would be better on a cheaper permanent.
------------
URW Jeskai Control
GUWRB Amulet Titan
GR Ponza
Me: So it's basically a tempo deck. But relies on preventing your opponent from doing stuff like a control deck. Oh! and it often feels like it comes down to how you play a few very significant early turns, like a combo deck.
My Friend: ...
Me: I have access to five mana, am ticking up Chandra to ultimate, and Dave is playing his second land for the third time.
My Friend: Gotcha.
Ponza.
My local meta tends to have a lot of Humans, Burn, Tron, Eldrazi, and Hatebear/Taxes decks. There's occasionally some storm/KCI type decks running around. Based on this, what do you guys think of my MB and/or SB choices below?
4 Wooded Foothills
3 Windswept Heath
1 Bloodstained Mire (substitute for missing WHeath)
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Stomping Ground
1 Sheltered Thicket
1 Cinder Glade
1 Mountain
8 Forest
Creatures - 20
4 Arbor Elf
2 Birds of Paradise
4 Jadelight Ranger (still a substitute for Tracker)
4 Bloodbraid Elf
1 Glorybringer
1 Hazoret the Fervent
1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
2 Inferno Titan
1 Courser of Kruphix
4 Blood Moon
4 Utopia Sprawl
4 Stone Rain
3 Molten Rain
2 Lightning Bolt
1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
1 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
3 Damping Sphere
2 Kitchen Finks
2 Anger of the Gods
1 Sweltering Suns
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Shatterstorm
1 Courser of Kruphix
1 Chalice of the Void (don't have/can't find Trinispheres)
B/G Rock BG | Jund BGR | Mardu Pyromancer BRW | Ponza RG | Burn RW
You're already set I think. Just pilot the deck in your next fNM, you'll get a feel on what to take out and what cards need to be added.. once you get experience playing the deck against decks in your local store. That lone Chalice in your side will gimp burn players players who don't expect it coming. Have fun. ^__^
If you enjoy piloting the deck, then you could start making improvements like buying 2 more Stomping ground to smooth the manabase.
Nexus MTG News // Nexus - Magic Art Gallery // MTG Dual Land Color Ratios Analyzer // MTG Card Drawing Odds Calculator
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
Two quick questions on my end:
B/G Rock BG | Jund BGR | Mardu Pyromancer BRW | Ponza RG | Burn RW
A. 3 inferno titan, 2 lightning bolt, 1 courser of kruphix
B. 2 inferno titan, 2 lightning bolt, 2 courser of kruphix
C. 2 inferno titan, 3 lightning bolt, 1 courser of kruphix
Thanks!
Option C in a blind meta. Option B in a burn or Hollow One meta. Option A if it's a midrange meta.
------------
URW Jeskai Control
GUWRB Amulet Titan
GR Ponza
On chalice. If there's a Bogles player in your store set chalice to 1. Against Burn, most of the time I will set it to 1. However, if it's midgame and have just drawn a chalice.. then I'm about to swing with a large creature or about to use a lifegain card.. I would set chalice to 2 in that situation, to prevent Atarka's Command, Deflecting Palm, and Skullcrack tricks that the Burn player might try to pull off.
Sorry, can't comment on Damping Sphere. I have no experience with that card.
Nexus MTG News // Nexus - Magic Art Gallery // MTG Dual Land Color Ratios Analyzer // MTG Card Drawing Odds Calculator
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
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
Link to Discord server where anybody from MTGS can keep up with thread topics while everything is being sorted out with the new site.
Match 1: 2-0 vs BW Tokens -- Hit some initial land d to throw them off tempo game 1, game 2 boarded out blood moon b/c they didn't actually run many duals. Instead added Bolt + Anger to clear tokens before my BBE/Titan pushes.
Match 2: 2-0 vs Mono Green Stompy -- I actually felt quite bad about how this played out and the guy was visibly frustrated. Both games I kept him down to 1 land while I ramped out Titan. Literally cascaded into Stone Rain back-to-back.
Match 3: 1-2 vs Burn -- Game 1 was a blow-out, but Game 2 I nailed the tempo control. Popped his Sacred Foundry early, then by the time he got another dual land I was able to drop Blood Moon to lock him out of his Helix/Charm. Game 3 I feel I lost to myself, having to mull down to 5 and no good turn 1-2 plays.
Match 4: 1-2 vs Naya Zoo -- Game 1 I had a good start, but didn't have enough pressure to keep his board clear. His list ran Thalia which out-tempo'd me. Game 2 I sandbagged Anger until he had over-extended, chump blocking with my Elf/Bird to stall, which he couldn't recover from. Game 3 I lost to a misplay, where I should have just cast my Anger to buy time but instead I tried to wait it out for more value.
As mentioned above, I'm really pleased with this given that it was my first go-around. The clearest upgrade path is definitely lands - the Cinder Glade ended up being a costly play in my opening hand for both the loss matches. Jadelight Ranger also proved to be a stellar card, delivering immediate value even if she was bolted (whereas Tireless Tracker would have ended up being a dud.
I am also considering running 2x Siege-Gang Commander in the place of 2x Pia and Kiran Nalaar. P&K offers a little more reach, but SGC can get you more bodies and up to 4x instances of 2 dmg (compared to P&K's 2).
B/G Rock BG | Jund BGR | Mardu Pyromancer BRW | Ponza RG | Burn RW