MTG Salvation

Reveler seems interesting. I've also been considering a number of Faithless Lootings though I'm not sure how many. likely replacing Courser all together

One last thing about Reveler, I suggest not more than one of him in the deck if ever you will try to test. It's because he's a very dead card early game. However, turn 5 and above I like to topdeck him more than a tracker, because reveler would surely give 3 cards even if killed right away. Reveler is also not affected by fatal push, bolt, and abrupt decay to which tracker is vulnerable.

Have also been testing Hazoret's Monument as a one-of. Provides card filtering, makes titan + all red dragons a little easier to cast. However, the monument is bad topdeck, and it's competing for slot with the reveler I'm also testing..

I agree RE: Hazoret's monument. For card filtering, I prefer Chandra, Torch of Defiance and Chandra, Flamecaller. The latter is speculation - I've not been able to play with her yet but she seems to solve one of my biggest problems with this deck: being stuck with a hand full of dorks/ramp late game.

Something else worth considering may be Experimental Frenzy. We tend to have plenty of mana to play with and can get to the point where we're top decking anyway pretty fast especially if you consider that we're close to heckbent by turn 3 with an ideal hand (T1: Land + Dork, T2: Land, Sprawl,Land D/BloodMoon, T3: Land + Threat). Dropping Frenzy on T3/T4 could give us a bit more acceleration.

As I've said.. was only testing Hazoret monument. Was not satisfied with it as well. The Bedlam Reveler feel better because it immediately give the cards plus a body to block with. So for a few more weeks, I will have the single reveler in maindeck.

Quote from CrimsonPhoenix7 »

A Ponza list top 16'd the SCG Dallas Open this past weekend, so it's an example of how the deck is still relevant. It's just doesnt have new toys and ia not as sexy as something like Dredge or GBx/Jund right now.

The list itself is pretty close to stock. None of the newer Dragon tech.

Could you clarify on the dragon tech part?

There were some lists that were going heavier toward Dragons/dragon synergies like the M19 Sarkhan. The ones that've been succeeding lately more so are playing bombs that are individually good like Inferno Titan and Stormbreath dragon.

There was 1st Place finish from a Ponza list in the SCG Charlotte Open! Wahoo! REALLY tempting me to resleeve this bad boy after that and seeing a guy from my LGS get 10th @ at SCG Dallas. :-D

Quote from sold my family »

I like new versions playing around 4 bolts , i have been really liking the card.
Right now im looking to get some scoozes mainboard,lowering the curve may be a good idea...

Similarly, I'm considering Tarmogoyf MB to lower the curve. Easily a 4/5 at least for 2 CMC. Possibly remove BBE, as I don't think she's really that good in our deck...cascading into a mana dork or Utopia Sprawl feels bad and they make up ~40-50% of the possible targets she can hit. That's a pretty high degree of variance.

I'd definitely keep the big hitters though. It's why we run 10 dedicated ramp sources in the deck. A resolved Inferno Titan has to be answered before you untap, as it can spiral very quickly out of hand.

I don't think lowering the curve is the solution for this deck. We're not an aggro deck and we don't have the resources to play a grindy midrange battle.

We're essentially a Prison-style deck that uses Stone Rain/Molten Rain/Blood Moon to stall our opponents out and crush them with big threats. As I mentioned in my previous post, BBE has a roughly 40% of hitting a dud card with 10 ramp cards vs. 18 or so non-ramp cards with 3 CMC or less (the actual percentage is going to fluctuate based on your list/what you've already drawn, obviously). I can't help but think that slot could be better filled by something else, even if we haven't figured out what it is yet.

Quote from CrimsonPhoenix7 »

Quote from sold my family »

I like new versions playing around 4 bolts , i have been really liking the card.
Right now im looking to get some scoozes mainboard,lowering the curve may be a good idea...

Similarly, I'm considering Tarmogoyf MB to lower the curve. Easily a 4/5 at least for 2 CMC. Possibly remove BBE, as I don't think she's really that good in our deck...cascading into a mana dork or Utopia Sprawl feels bad and they make up ~40-50% of the possible targets she can hit. That's a pretty high degree of variance.

I'd definitely keep the big hitters though. It's why we run 10 dedicated ramp sources in the deck. A resolved Inferno Titan has to be answered before you untap, as it can spiral very quickly out of hand.

IMO, Goyfs are the right call, in addition to Noble Hierarchs. Noble's exalted trigger gives added utility to BoP and isn't a complete dud if cascaded into. This was briefly discussed around the time BBE was unbanned, but a lot of folks considered Ponza a budget option and forking over the cash for a set of Goys/Hierarchs was out of the question for many. However, with both cards being reprinted in UMA, running a build with Goyfs/Hierarchs will be much less cost prohibitive, at least during the first few weeks of set release.

Currently having fun testing a singleton Roiling Terrain. A worse Stone Rain in the early turns, but assuming they don't remove lands in their yard.. it can deal an average 6-7 damage if used in the mid-late game. I use it as a finisher after an opponent's life total has been lowered enough by stormbreath and titan.

After 4 straight games where the single Bedlam Reveler got stuck in my hand... out he goes, and in comes back the third Tireless Tracker.

About goyf.. I'm now going back and forth on the issue.. tried adding 4 of him the other day, and he did well in holding the fort against fast Hollow Ones and Anglers. I also had to add 4 mainboard abrades, as lightning bolt does not do anything against a 4/4 Hollow One. There are some matches where Abrade is dead card... like against uw control and GDS.. but Hollow One is the most numerous deck in my meta these days, so the abrades will stay for awhile.

The mana screw that i most often encounter is not having R mana. For example, perfectly good hands but have 2 forest and 1 arbor elf.. no red source so I have to mull. Thinking of adding a ninth fetch land to remedy the situation.

Also testing two faithless looting.. taking up the two planeswalker slots. Ok I know we are already light on threats, but for some reason this deck seems obsessed on TOP DECKING LANDS. Funny, one game I looted it got two lands, then I flashed it back it got a land and a dork.. that would have been 4 dead draws if I did not have looting that game. So will keep testing for now. the 2 lootings have been good so far.

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EDIT: still not sure about the goyfs, might take them out again. Also want to test the new 6/6 hexproof beast in the goyf slots, but I don't have any of that card right now.

If you don't mind. Can I see what your manabase looks like. How many red mana sources do you run?

Asking because one of the problems I ran into is mana screw from not having R. I use the manabase of some stock lists. 21 land.. 1 mountain 8 fetch 3 stomping 9 forest.

Hmm, thanks. A second mountain does look useful. Might try doing that too.

Quote from CrimsonPhoenix7 »

I don't think lowering the curve is the solution for this deck. We're not an aggro deck and we don't have the resources to play a grindy midrange battle.

We're essentially a Prison-style deck that uses Stone Rain/Molten Rain/Blood Moon to stall our opponents out and crush them with big threats. As I mentioned in my previous post, BBE has a roughly 40% of hitting a dud card with 10 ramp cards vs. 18 or so non-ramp cards with 3 CMC or less (the actual percentage is going to fluctuate based on your list/what you've already drawn, obviously). I can't help but think that slot could be better filled by something else, even if we haven't figured out what it is yet.

I've actually been against BB Elf, a 3/2 Haste just doesn't add to what we want to do. It's very good, no question, but it doesn't progress our game plan.

I haven't posted much recently because I'm not really running Ponza. I cut the LD.

I've found that LD isn't where you want to be against many decks in modern and that Blood Moon had dropped below the 60% threshold of games where I want it in. Fundamentally changing the game plan with Goyfs might be the direction to go in, but I doubt it. We'd be like Jund except removing lands instead of relevant things.

Quote from sold my family »

Now im playing 2 abrade and 2 bolts , it feels very good blowing up random artifacts. Im also testing some fight with fire in place of some ld is a good cascade a kills a lot of difficult treaths. I have used the kicker a few times to wrath my opponent board or kill him , feels pretty good.

About the fight with fire card. Do you often reach 9 mana with this deck? In my meta, decks are very aggressive and I'm sometimes near death just having 5 or 6 mana. What decks do you usually play against?

Ok, fair enough. fight with Fire does kill the Hollow one and the zombie fish as well.

Flooding is an issue.. I've playtested a lot and this deck has a bad habit to draw lands midgame. So far my attempt to solve this is 2 lootings which works well. I've tried 3 lootings, but 3 is too many.. it felt like the deck is just trying to loot and not do anything else at 3, so went back to 2.

Another removal I'm going to test is lava coil, as it kills hollow one but also exiles bloodghast and phoenix preventing them from coming back for more. Though it does not kill zombie fish and large goyfs.

A lot of my cards are dead against control. The 4 abrades all do nothing against Teferi. Well, that's what the sideboard is for... game 2, the abrades come out and more useful cards come in. I'm willing to have 4 dead cards game 1 to UW control as that deck is rare in my meta, while hollow one is the more common deck here.

Also testing a Goblin Rabblemaster. If played early, an opponent is forced to answer him immediately, decreasing the removal the opponent has for our slower win cons like tireless tracker.

Hello, fellow land destroyers!

Went 4-0 with this list: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/970917#paper

Matchups were:

• Mono-Black Devotion (2-1, lost one to a big Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet)
• Sultai Midrange (2-1, lost one to land screw + discard on my ramp)
• Infect (2-0)
• Bant Spirits (2-0)

As you can see, i went to the dark side and cut all copies of Bloodbraid Elf. I played BBE Ponza for months, and BBE was actually great sometimes (a hasty 3/2 + Blood Moon / Stone Rain on turn 3 can win the game) but most of the time it was just meh. Many times you cascade into something almost-or-completely-useless in that moment of the game, and then you just spent an entire turn casting a vanilla 3/2.

There are many great options at the 4 or 5 mana slot:

• more Planeswalkers besides Chandra (i tried Arlinn Kord here)
• big mana spells like Primal Command
• more beasts Glorybringer, Stormbreath Dragon, Thrun, the Last Troll, Obstinate Baloth, Huntmaster of the Fells, even Shaman of The Great Hunt if you like your opponents going WTF, like I do

Right now, i feel like i'm better off casting one of these instead.

Don't get me wrong, Bloodbraid Elf is a great card, just maybe not for this deck. If only we had Kolaghan's Command or Liliana of the Veil

Quote from Flasp »

Hello, fellow land destroyers!

Went 4-0 with this list: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/970917#paper

Matchups were:

• Mono-Black Devotion (2-1, lost one to a big Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet)
• Sultai Midrange (2-1, lost one to land screw + discard on my ramp)
• Infect (2-0)
• Bant Spirits (2-0)

More details on how you won Infect and Bant Spirits? Those are rough for Ponza.