someone, not sure if here or somewhere else said that they run mizzium mortars over bonfire so i started trying it. I love it. When you get to 6 its still as much of a board wipe as bonfire no miracle. The added bonus of being able to take out a single creature can sometimes be the difference between eeking out a win and having a dead card in hand.
About the mízzium,do you have any problems with the RRR overload cost? It worries me.
That might have been me. Honesty, the {R}{R}{R} was only a problem in 1 game so far, and that was because my Utopia Sprawl was removed (always call red for Sprawl).
I replaced Bonfire with Mizzium Mortars when I started putting my Ponza build together. I hated how crap it was when you don't miracle Bonfire, which happens more than I'd like. It is easy to overload Mortars and most stuff you want dead in modern has 4 or less toughness. It's also nice to follow up with Goblin Dark-Dwellers and nuke something he played the turn after Overloading Mortars.
Moving on to Heaven // Earth, while I personally see it as a sideboard card at best, at least in my build because I can't use it off the Goblin, I will say that it's worth testing in the main deck and sideboard. It's another card that seems very reliant on the meta.
hey guys, how do u deal with UWx control on the draw? It seems once I lose the die roll to Negate, Mana Leak, Remand and Cryptic Command, there is no coming back. They just play a land, pass the turn with all mana up, and wait for your move. Its hideously frustrating knowing you've got 1 move per turn and they're more than ready for it. They know you're a moon deck and beyond their Colonnades and Mystic Gates they start fetching Basics, and concentrate their resources on stopping threats and land destruction and actually let your moon resolve to little effect.
So I lose game 1, start game 2 and have higher chance of winning, but game 3 I'm on the back foot again. This match feels so die-roll dependent.
I've thought about having Boseiju in the side, but I've never seen anyone resorting to that. Apart from having a Beast Within to throw EOT and then follow up on our own turn, is there any way to play against counterspells?
I took my modified Ponza up to WMCQ last year and only faced one WU control deck. It was first round of top 8, so not a sh***y WU control deck. I walked all over him by denying him access to white. Turn 2 / early Moon and / or LD won it for me. Goblin Dark-Dwellers helped too. A control player can only draw so many counters, and I like to think I'm good at drawing them out.
Did you win the die roll? My last 4 out of 6 matches against UW went basically: Lose die roll, get countered and snap-countered until opponent hits Snap-Cryptic Command mana. Then planeswalker or whatever wincon.
Its great if you can get them off white, but its the U thats the huge problem for me. They run an abundance of islands and Moon's ability to lock is significantly reduced. Not even that hard for them to grab a plains, either, so long as they draw a flooded strand/plains they can ignore moon. So on the draw I typically get leaked/negated the 2nd and 3rd turn, and then on 4th turn it goes quickly downhill as the opponent upgrades to cryptic commands, and then it becomes snap-negate or snap cryptic. On more than 1 occasion my Utopia sprawl start is heavily blunted by Spreading Seas. Then my turn 2 consists laying a land and passing and watching as my opponent goes on to lay the third land unmolested and leaves 2 mana up for me, while suspending AV or serum visions to set up more land draws.
It doesn't matter much who was on the draw, I walked all over him in both games, which means I was on the draw at least once. I never saw his decklist, but I get the feeling it was removal heavy, and counter light. That and almost none of my opponents at the tournament seemed to know how Ponza worked.
The trick I've learned about counter spells, you should bait them out with minor / medium threats. If you can get at least one out, 9/10 times you have the advantage. Thrun and Amonkhet's cat snake help here as they can't be countered in the first place. I'd even go so far as to lower the count of my finishers to board in more minor / medium threats (never remove Moon though).
Here's the list I played (posting with my phone, so no fancy links, etc.):
hey guys, how do u deal with UWx control on the draw? It seems once I lose the die roll to Negate, Mana Leak, Remand and Cryptic Command, there is no coming back. They just play a land, pass the turn with all mana up, and wait for your move. Its hideously frustrating knowing you've got 1 move per turn and they're more than ready for it. They know you're a moon deck and beyond their Colonnades and Mystic Gates they start fetching Basics, and concentrate their resources on stopping threats and land destruction and actually let your moon resolve to little effect.
So I lose game 1, start game 2 and have higher chance of winning, but game 3 I'm on the back foot again. This match feels so die-roll dependent.
I've thought about having Boseiju in the side, but I've never seen anyone resorting to that. Apart from having a Beast Within to throw EOT and then follow up on our own turn, is there any way to play against counterspells?
I took my modified Ponza up to WMCQ last year and only faced one WU control deck. It was first round of top 8, so not a sh***y WU control deck. I walked all over him by denying him access to white. Turn 2 / early Moon and / or LD won it for me. Goblin Dark-Dwellers helped too. A control player can only draw so many counters, and I like to think I'm good at drawing them out.
Although, both Thrun and Boseiju are great answers (I think I sided in my one Thrun for game two). I also found myself bringing in a second Stormbreath Dragon against every Wx deck, for obvious reasons.
Prowling Serpopard from Amonkhet might be worth considering for the sideboard.
I already posted my list on page 25
That might have been me. Honesty, the {R}{R}{R} was only a problem in 1 game so far, and that was because my Utopia Sprawl was removed (always call red for Sprawl).
Moving on to Heaven // Earth, while I personally see it as a sideboard card at best, at least in my build because I can't use it off the Goblin, I will say that it's worth testing in the main deck and sideboard. It's another card that seems very reliant on the meta.
It doesn't matter much who was on the draw, I walked all over him in both games, which means I was on the draw at least once. I never saw his decklist, but I get the feeling it was removal heavy, and counter light. That and almost none of my opponents at the tournament seemed to know how Ponza worked.
The trick I've learned about counter spells, you should bait them out with minor / medium threats. If you can get at least one out, 9/10 times you have the advantage. Thrun and Amonkhet's cat snake help here as they can't be countered in the first place. I'd even go so far as to lower the count of my finishers to board in more minor / medium threats (never remove Moon though).
Here's the list I played (posting with my phone, so no fancy links, etc.):
Main Deck (60 cards)
Creatures (16)
4xArbor Elf
1xBirds of Paradise
3xGoblin Dark-Dwellers
3xInferno Titan
2xObstinate Baloth
1xStormbreath Dragon
2xThragtusk
Sorceries (11)
3xMizzium Mortars
3xMwonvuli Acid-Moss
1xPrimal Command
4xStone Rain
Instants (3)
2xBeast Within
1xLightning Bolt
Planeswalkers (1)
1xChandra, Flamecaller
Enchantments (8)
4xBlood Moon
4xUtopia Sprawl
Land (21)
1xCinder Glade
9xForest
3xMisty Rainforest
1xMountain
2xStomping Ground
1xWindswept Heath
4xWooded Foothills
Sideboard (15 cards)
Creatures (3)
2xKitchen Finks
1xThrun, the Last Troll
Sorceries (4)
2xAnger of the Gods
1xBoom // Bust
1xCreeping Corrosion
Instants (6)
2xAncient Grudge
1xDismember
1xNatural State
2xSudden Shock
Artifacts (2)
1xEngineered Explosives
1xRelic of Progenitus
I took my modified Ponza up to WMCQ last year and only faced one WU control deck. It was first round of top 8, so not a sh***y WU control deck. I walked all over him by denying him access to white. Turn 2 / early Moon and / or LD won it for me. Goblin Dark-Dwellers helped too. A control player can only draw so many counters, and I like to think I'm good at drawing them out.
Although, both Thrun and Boseiju are great answers (I think I sided in my one Thrun for game two). I also found myself bringing in a second Stormbreath Dragon against every Wx deck, for obvious reasons.
Prowling Serpopard from Amonkhet might be worth considering for the sideboard.