Madcap is pretty much not gonna fly now that BBE is back, that's my guess.
I was thinking that as well, but after crunching the games against bloodbraid elf decks they are still dealing with it using maindeck terminate or maelstrom pulse at about the same rate. It still steals games against those over invested in fatal push as their main deck choice of removal.
sideboard still the same story for those colors, incomes the ancient grudges.
decks running jace, the mind sculptor are a bit different in that they have a bounce effect on a stick, but usually thats a blue white configuration and the emperion was already vulnerable to path to exile.
Old Ponza focused on ramp into big finishers which Acid Moss was apart of but because BBE can’t cascade into it we still need relevant land destruction targets and Molten Rain is the only other card to consider that is at 3CMC or under.
i know i'm eating my previous position, but as I've tested bloodbraid elf, i was also reminded of bring to light. now i'm having conflicting thoughts about whats a better ponza built. 5 mana tutor that gets any of our 3cc spells all for light splash of blue.
that one for example is 10 1cc cards to 14 3cc cards. bloodbraid elf has 41% chance to fail since we don't want 1cc spells. 59% to get something good (3cc).
clearly we can customize the deck a little and shift those to more favorable 70% or mabye as high as 80%.
the bright side is we get a body for 4 mana and if it doesn't produce one of our good 3cc spells, its atleast getting a dead draw out of the way. i think thats value in itself, no one wants to draw another bird or any of the 1cc when we are extablished by turn 4 and beyond.
BBE into a mana dork is just a risk we have to take. its not like they printed evoke or suspend farseeks to give us acceleration that would by pass the CC of the cascade.
Earlier iterations lacked any way to regain card advantage after setting up a LD/Moon lock, so if the opponent could maneuver around the mana denial the Ponza player struggled to retain momentum. Chandra, Tracker, and Courses offer both mana sinks and CA on bodies that also win games (less so for courser, but the life gain is real).
Mana sinks are also important. Pia and Kiran Nalar, chameleon colossus, stormbreath Dragon, in addition to tracker and Chandra let you land a single threat and amplify it's value if variance hides the rest of your threats from the top of your deck.
Chandra, Courser, and Tracker are huge consistency engines for the deck, and if you land a courser alongside either of the others after some regular land disruption, it's hard to lose.
Trackers also give an alternative curve from the standard dork into moon/rain. You can go dork into tracker into turn 3 moss and end the turn with 2 clues. Or you can use tracker as a pseudo 4 drop by playing it turn 3 after a moon/rain and playing land for turn to get a clue. Having multiple on-curve lines assists consistency.
P&K shores up some pretty weak MU's as well. And I still love me some inferno titan!
splashing for grim flayer, like a tracker flayer is another good card for keeping up pressure and consistency.
been play testing and adjusting my list. I don't have inferno titans at the moment, but realized I had 4 sire of insanity on hand. he feels like a strong 6cc drop to ramp up too. with all the land destruction, if it goes according to plan and opponents hand should have stuff they can't cast. with Sire landing on the field, that should wipe out what ever they are holding onto. plus I see it as relieving my need to constantly hit extra land destruction for keeping them off there game.
Sire + grim flayer dig should keep up the optimal top decks coming, though that should be more than enough creature power to to kill an opponent, where you don't need that duo working together for long.
trying to keep the deck some what balanced. usually i hit delirium consisting of land, sorcery, instant and enchantment, the unbridled growths are a good mana fixer and cantrip, as well as 4th delirium. birds of paradise often fill in as 4th as well, someone kills them. if the match ups allows i'll fatal push my own birds.
olivia voldaren felt like she fit in this deck, her 2nd only need 5cc to work, I hit that pretty consistently, her first ability isn't not bad, wish it could ping players. i like what she should be able to do in most match ups, steal the creatures that an opponent tries to squeeze through.
the temptation occured to me, but I haven tried it yet, but mindwrack demon might be playable in a delirium centric build such as mine. I'll leave him on the drawing board for now though.
I built my deck to splash , the value I see in it is putting grim flayer's ability to work. hitting people with grim flayer digs for the next land destruction. he also sets up chandra's ability to throw away cards that aren't relevant.
i've jammed some filler cards for getting Delirium online. unbridled growth and bauble, maybe there are better choices.
In my testing I'm bouncing between molten rain and beast within. recent testing I had a problem with my opponent using the beast token against me to get out of the pressure of land destruction. So I moved over to molten rain, for less draw back. if delirium isn't online, grim flayer against a beast token that i couldn't answer sucked.
splashing delirium opens up taverse the ulvenwald as well. In in addition to grim flayer you also get Whispers of Emrakul and To the Slaughter, neither of which i'm using yet, I got slaughter pact in the sideboard which gets the job done. Whispers might be nice against storm or ironworks combo. also gives us fatal push, for a land destruction deck thats a good valued removal spell for the cards that slip through.
I can definitely get behind Kolaghan's Command since it can do more for you than lightning bolt. getting back fulminator mage or bloodbraid elf is typical jund value, I'm sure it will do wonders even in ponza.
I was thinking that as well, but after crunching the games against bloodbraid elf decks they are still dealing with it using maindeck terminate or maelstrom pulse at about the same rate. It still steals games against those over invested in fatal push as their main deck choice of removal.
sideboard still the same story for those colors, incomes the ancient grudges.
decks running jace, the mind sculptor are a bit different in that they have a bounce effect on a stick, but usually thats a blue white configuration and the emperion was already vulnerable to path to exile.
that makes sense.
As I've been building lists I've kept the Mwonvuli Acid-Moss in the deck alongside bloodbraid elf while running molten rain. maybe i'll drop acid-moss as well?......
is there a meta reason behind this?
that one for example is 10 1cc cards to 14 3cc cards. bloodbraid elf has 41% chance to fail since we don't want 1cc spells. 59% to get something good (3cc).
clearly we can customize the deck a little and shift those to more favorable 70% or mabye as high as 80%.
the bright side is we get a body for 4 mana and if it doesn't produce one of our good 3cc spells, its atleast getting a dead draw out of the way. i think thats value in itself, no one wants to draw another bird or any of the 1cc when we are extablished by turn 4 and beyond.
splashing for grim flayer, like a tracker flayer is another good card for keeping up pressure and consistency.
Sire + grim flayer dig should keep up the optimal top decks coming, though that should be more than enough creature power to to kill an opponent, where you don't need that duo working together for long.
My current deck build
5 Forest
3 overgrown tomb
1 blood crypt
1 Kessig Wolf Run
3 Stomping Ground
4 verdent catacomb
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Birds of Paradise
4 grim flayer
4 Sire of Insanity
2 goblin dark-dwellers
2 olivia voldaren
2 arlinn kord
4 unbridled growth
4 Stone Rain
3 Beast Within
4 Mwonvuli Acid-Moss
4 molten rain
2 fatal push
trying to keep the deck some what balanced. usually i hit delirium consisting of land, sorcery, instant and enchantment, the unbridled growths are a good mana fixer and cantrip, as well as 4th delirium. birds of paradise often fill in as 4th as well, someone kills them. if the match ups allows i'll fatal push my own birds.
Arlinn Kord is a filler for chandra, torch of defiance.
olivia voldaren felt like she fit in this deck, her 2nd only need 5cc to work, I hit that pretty consistently, her first ability isn't not bad, wish it could ping players. i like what she should be able to do in most match ups, steal the creatures that an opponent tries to squeeze through.
the temptation occured to me, but I haven tried it yet, but mindwrack demon might be playable in a delirium centric build such as mine. I'll leave him on the drawing board for now though.
i've jammed some filler cards for getting Delirium online. unbridled growth and bauble, maybe there are better choices.
In my testing I'm bouncing between molten rain and beast within. recent testing I had a problem with my opponent using the beast token against me to get out of the pressure of land destruction. So I moved over to molten rain, for less draw back. if delirium isn't online, grim flayer against a beast token that i couldn't answer sucked.
1 Thragtusk
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
4 Birds of Paradise
4 grim flayer
2 goblin dark-dweller
3 Mishra's Bauble
4 Mwonvuli Acid-Moss
4 Stone Rain
4 molten rain//beast within
4 Unbridled Growth
4 Utopia Sprawl
2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
Lands 21
splashing delirium opens up taverse the ulvenwald as well. In in addition to grim flayer you also get Whispers of Emrakul and To the Slaughter, neither of which i'm using yet, I got slaughter pact in the sideboard which gets the job done. Whispers might be nice against storm or ironworks combo. also gives us fatal push, for a land destruction deck thats a good valued removal spell for the cards that slip through.