Did anyone see the Dutch Open Series this weekend? If not, check them out on Twitch. There's a lot of good Ponza videos, and the deck even takes down the whole tournament.
Cheers!
I echo the BBE success. Even with occasionally hitting dorks I feel the power ceiling of the deck has simply shot up.
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Modern Decks
------------ URW Jeskai Control GUWRB Amulet Titan GR Ponza
My local meta is still in flux, but there are a ton of blue Jace deck, Bloodbraid decks, and Tron, and a few Valakut, Storm, and Ensnaring bridge artifact decks. Aggro has always been quite light, though sometimes some Affinity people show up. Thoughts?
If aggro is not prevalent you can consider the Courser a flex slot. Its still fine MD though. I would feel uncomfortable relying on Scooze as my only graveyard hate though, maybe add a relic? I don't think huntmaster is strong enough as a sideboard card. You could move Courser to the SB and open up a MD slot there, or just replace huntmaster with a relic and leave courser MD. I would also go -1 MWAM +1 Molten Rain for BBE hits.
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Modern Decks
------------ URW Jeskai Control GUWRB Amulet Titan GR Ponza
@NoobKing - "Finks are pretty bad". Please explain? I am not running them but, objectively, Kitchen Finks is a good magic card.
They don't really play a part in what ponza is trying to do. They are a very midrangy grindy kind of card. Ponza wants to end the game quickly by denying our opponent their resources while we beat them in the face for 4+. Finks does not promote this kind of gameplay. I can see arguments to be made to play the card against burn, but in my experience, Trinisphere does this MUCH better. Finks is not a Ponza main deck card. Heck, you already play a "better" card in courser.
It's a fair call that of you want your draws to be explosive then Finks doesn't fit the category. You've solidified my belief that between courser and Trinisphere I won't need Finks against burn.
I do feel Finks had a resiliency that courser doesn't, so that had to come in to consideration in metas full of fatal push and abrupt decay (we'll see how far Jund rises with BBE I guess).
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Modern Decks
------------ URW Jeskai Control GUWRB Amulet Titan GR Ponza
I was wondering one thing lately: what if we cut Bolts and Slagstorms (in my case) and basically give up swarm creature decks alltogether in game 1 to focus on our primary gameplan (ramp->denial and value/bombs) and just board in 3x Anger in game 2 for those MUs? I found these burn cards to be just underwhelming in this deck more often than not. They make our game 1 hands weaker and reduce our busted starts.
Yeah, giving up swarm/aggro MU's is a viable way to build the main-deck. We would want to then construct the MD to have high %'s midrange and control (I don't think our Storm and Spell Combo MU's have current MD solutions outside trinisphere, which isn't viable in a MD with BBE).
If we give up on Bonfire of the Damned then I think this is probably the way to go. Cards like courser, scooze, and Finks then become premium to ensure we have some resiliency Vs. Aggro while maintaining good MU's with control and BGx.
I'm trying to find room for 2x Scooze and 1 more Courser in my MD. I would love Finks too but can't imagine where the space would come from for all that, even if I dropped Bolt. Bolt had been performing well for me so far though... I think a couple of games would have gone very differently for me last night had I not been able to bolt the Dark Confident or bolt the Lili after a -2.
4-0 at my local LGS, around 25 players on Tuesday night.
Field was predominantly GBx and UBx (people hyping over BBE+Lili or Jace+lili here it seems).
Quite a competitive store, but Tuesdays are no RPTQ.
BBE cascade targets recorded (10)
Blood Moon x 2
Stone Rain x 1
Molten Rain x 2
Lightning Bolt x 1
Ancient Grudge x 1
Arbor Elf x 2
Utopia Sprawl x 1
I resolved a turn-2 BBE twice, the first time into Molten Rain and the second into Arbor Elf. I won both games. The arbor elf let me curve t3-stormbreath t-4 monstrous so there was a silver lining.
I had one awkward moment against DnT where I cascaded into Blood Moon while having a stomping ground enchanted with a utopia sprawl. I had to elect not to cast. I lost that game very convincingly.
Dark Dwellers were strong but felt win-more perhaps.. There was a game against Abzan where I curved T2 Stone Rain in to T3 BBE+Molten Rain, into T4 Dark-Dwellers+Molten Rain. I feel like another Stormbreath would have been fine in this spot, but there were definitely plenty of targets for it in this shell so if it performs strongly then it could go up to 2 copies.
List as follows; Sorry for the formatting as I have no Computer currently and am forced to use my phone!
Ponza (R/G): Bloodbraid Elf / Goblin Dark Dwellers
Maindeck (60)
4 Arbor Elf
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Courser of Kruphix
4 Tireless Tracker
4 Bloodbraid Elf
1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Goblin Dark-Dwellers
2 Stormbreath Dragon
2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
1 Chandra, Flamecaller
3 Lightning Bolt
2 Molten Rain
4 Stone Rain
4 Utopia Sprawl
4 Blood Moon
9 Forest
1 Mountain
3 Stomping Ground
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
Sideboard (15)
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Mizzium Mortars
1 Roast
3 Anger of the Gods
1 Beast Within
1 Creeping Corrosion
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Sorcerous Spyglass
3 Trinisphere
Doesnt cards like Slagstorm just kill your own BBE?
Aside from Pistallion's point above, slagstorm specificaly has two modes to choose from, one of which doesn't kill your own creatures (or any at all) when cast from hand.
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Modern Decks
------------ URW Jeskai Control GUWRB Amulet Titan GR Ponza
@TheAller welcome to Ponza! Your list looks like a great value midrange list! The only thing i would recommended trying is molten rain instead of beast within in the main. Giving them a 3/3 really turns off BBE's 3/2 haste body so at max its a 1 for 1 cascading into Beast Within. I also think going below 6 MB targeted LD spells is inconsistent so Molten Rain would be the closest swap. I would try to sneak a Chandra in the main too, but your type of list might not want that?
Great list though! Happy hunting!
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Modern Decks
------------ URW Jeskai Control GUWRB Amulet Titan GR Ponza
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URW Jeskai Control
GUWRB Amulet Titan
GR Ponza
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URW Jeskai Control
GUWRB Amulet Titan
GR Ponza
Cheers!
I echo the BBE success. Even with occasionally hitting dorks I feel the power ceiling of the deck has simply shot up.
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URW Jeskai Control
GUWRB Amulet Titan
GR Ponza
Seems like all the things I want my fatty to do. Except I want him to do them ETB, or have haste. I think he's under the bar without one of those.
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URW Jeskai Control
GUWRB Amulet Titan
GR Ponza
If aggro is not prevalent you can consider the Courser a flex slot. Its still fine MD though. I would feel uncomfortable relying on Scooze as my only graveyard hate though, maybe add a relic? I don't think huntmaster is strong enough as a sideboard card. You could move Courser to the SB and open up a MD slot there, or just replace huntmaster with a relic and leave courser MD. I would also go -1 MWAM +1 Molten Rain for BBE hits.
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URW Jeskai Control
GUWRB Amulet Titan
GR Ponza
It's a fair call that of you want your draws to be explosive then Finks doesn't fit the category. You've solidified my belief that between courser and Trinisphere I won't need Finks against burn.
I do feel Finks had a resiliency that courser doesn't, so that had to come in to consideration in metas full of fatal push and abrupt decay (we'll see how far Jund rises with BBE I guess).
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URW Jeskai Control
GUWRB Amulet Titan
GR Ponza
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URW Jeskai Control
GUWRB Amulet Titan
GR Ponza
Yeah, giving up swarm/aggro MU's is a viable way to build the main-deck. We would want to then construct the MD to have high %'s midrange and control (I don't think our Storm and Spell Combo MU's have current MD solutions outside trinisphere, which isn't viable in a MD with BBE).
If we give up on Bonfire of the Damned then I think this is probably the way to go. Cards like courser, scooze, and Finks then become premium to ensure we have some resiliency Vs. Aggro while maintaining good MU's with control and BGx.
I'm trying to find room for 2x Scooze and 1 more Courser in my MD. I would love Finks too but can't imagine where the space would come from for all that, even if I dropped Bolt. Bolt had been performing well for me so far though... I think a couple of games would have gone very differently for me last night had I not been able to bolt the Dark Confident or bolt the Lili after a -2.
Decklist;
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Shared via TopDecked MTG
https://www.topdecked.me/decks/e63594cf-d8b8-480f-9903-5ac1ca61f49f
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URW Jeskai Control
GUWRB Amulet Titan
GR Ponza
Field was predominantly GBx and UBx (people hyping over BBE+Lili or Jace+lili here it seems).
Quite a competitive store, but Tuesdays are no RPTQ.
BBE cascade targets recorded (10)
Blood Moon x 2
Stone Rain x 1
Molten Rain x 2
Lightning Bolt x 1
Ancient Grudge x 1
Arbor Elf x 2
Utopia Sprawl x 1
I resolved a turn-2 BBE twice, the first time into Molten Rain and the second into Arbor Elf. I won both games. The arbor elf let me curve t3-stormbreath t-4 monstrous so there was a silver lining.
I had one awkward moment against DnT where I cascaded into Blood Moon while having a stomping ground enchanted with a utopia sprawl. I had to elect not to cast. I lost that game very convincingly.
Dark Dwellers were strong but felt win-more perhaps.. There was a game against Abzan where I curved T2 Stone Rain in to T3 BBE+Molten Rain, into T4 Dark-Dwellers+Molten Rain. I feel like another Stormbreath would have been fine in this spot, but there were definitely plenty of targets for it in this shell so if it performs strongly then it could go up to 2 copies.
List as follows; Sorry for the formatting as I have no Computer currently and am forced to use my phone!
Ponza (R/G): Bloodbraid Elf / Goblin Dark Dwellers
Maindeck (60)
4 Arbor Elf
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Courser of Kruphix
4 Tireless Tracker
4 Bloodbraid Elf
1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Goblin Dark-Dwellers
2 Stormbreath Dragon
2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
1 Chandra, Flamecaller
3 Lightning Bolt
2 Molten Rain
4 Stone Rain
4 Utopia Sprawl
4 Blood Moon
9 Forest
1 Mountain
3 Stomping Ground
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
Sideboard (15)
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Mizzium Mortars
1 Roast
3 Anger of the Gods
1 Beast Within
1 Creeping Corrosion
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Sorcerous Spyglass
3 Trinisphere
Shared via TopDecked MTG https://www.topdecked.me/decks/e63594cf-d8b8-480f-9903-5ac1ca61f49f
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URW Jeskai Control
GUWRB Amulet Titan
GR Ponza
Aside from Pistallion's point above, slagstorm specificaly has two modes to choose from, one of which doesn't kill your own creatures (or any at all) when cast from hand.
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URW Jeskai Control
GUWRB Amulet Titan
GR Ponza
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URW Jeskai Control
GUWRB Amulet Titan
GR Ponza
Monster Ponza with MD Thrun, P&K, and Stormbreath Dragon. If a there is lot of Grixis, then play Chameleon Colossus main.
You want to make sure each threat is as hard to remove as possible, and that you don't run out of them.
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URW Jeskai Control
GUWRB Amulet Titan
GR Ponza
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URW Jeskai Control
GUWRB Amulet Titan
GR Ponza
Great list though! Happy hunting!
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URW Jeskai Control
GUWRB Amulet Titan
GR Ponza
Tireless Tracker + Courser + Chandra is the dream.
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URW Jeskai Control
GUWRB Amulet Titan
GR Ponza