Really awesome to hear about your PPTQ! Good luck in the RPTQ!

Thanks Bovine073! The RPTQ will also be Modern, so hopefully I can run it back for some more free wins with Blood Moon!

Congrats, GeminiSpartanX!!!

Thanks clayperce!!

GeminiSpartanX,
That's REALLY interesting on Cinder Glade; thanks much!

I saw you wondering about Garruk, Primal Hunter in your PPTQ update and wanted to share my $0.02: I've been testing him in the Tournament Practice room on MTGO (9 matches so far) and while I've found him to be very powerful, I personally like the other 4-to-6-drop options better. Getting can be a little tricky, and against Flyers he's somewhere between meh (in general) and bad (compared to Stormbreath Dragon).

Obviously, your mileage may vary :-)

Draw well!

clayperce,

Garruk just seems like it would be a good addition against our own Beast Within tokens. I had to follow up a turn 2 (during their upkeep) Beast Within with a turn 3 Chandra -3 to kill the token, which just felt bad. The token-spamming on Garruk feels like it would help against some difficult matchups like Living End or as a better threat against control decks. The only flyers I normally see are lingering souls tokens or random affinity dorks, so I'm not too worried there. The option to draw 6+ cards when you have a titan out also seems like it would put away most games. It's also a generally harder-to-remove threat, but I haven't tested with it to find out yet.

GeminiSpartanX,
Oh you're exactly right about Garruk: He's very good in a lot of ways. I've actually never lost a game where I've cast him.

But there have also been games where I've had him in hand but chose to not cast him because I had better things to do with the Mana,or couldn't cast him because I cast Blood Moon earlier so didn't have available. And in each case like those I wanted the card I had swapped out for him more :-D

He may just be a meta call though ... besides the Lingering Souls and Affinity flyers you mentioned, I've seen a bunch of Faeries, Spell Quellers, Geists (+Angels), and Copters (from Blue Steel) lately. Blurgh.

I'm still testing him btw; please take this as preliminary thoughts only!

Draw well!

Great build man, congrats on the PPTQ! R\G LD is my next modern build and i've come up with a rough list for it on here. Would you mind checking it out and giving me some feedback?

Moonbar, clayperce, Bovine073- I'm changing up my list based off of the Ponza list that top-8'd last weekend and would like to know what you think. I've never liked Beast Within, so I'm glad that finally left the deck. Bonfire is another issue though. It helped against some tough matchups like affinity and merfolk, but not as much if it was stuck in your opening hand. I'm hoping the ability to shock things with Pia and Kiran along with big Chandra's sweeper will be enough to keep the agro decks down. Wurmcoil should also theoretically help keep me ahead if I can swing/block with it, although it will be the first card I cut if I end up being too flooded on 6 drops. Is five 6-drops too many if I've also added more 4cmc threats?

GeminiSpartanX,
First, thanks tons for asking for my thoughts! I feel like with you earning a PPTQ victory and me earning a PPTQ thrashing it should be the other way around! :-D Nevertheless, here's my $0.02:

• I've tested with both Ryan Shaner's R/G Monster Ponza and with DJ West's list, and while I really like the concept of trading meh spells for value Creatures, I've not been that impressed with the results. I'm certain part of that it the meta (mine is extremely wide, and their decks are tailored for a much more competitive meta), and part of it is my unfamiliarity with the deck (especially when it comes to mulligans). But I've seen a huge drop (10-15%) in overall win percentage when I play Monster Ponza.
• I know realBorborygmos would say something like, "YOU DON'T NEED ANSWERS IF YOUR OPPONENT'S DEAD, HAR HAR!", but I personally can't stand not having Beast Within in the deck, especially as an answer for Lili and Gideons. I'm currently on 2x in the main and 1x in the side, and that's been pretty much perfect for my meta.
• I see Bonfire of the Damned as kind of a necessary evil, and VERY meta-dependent. I'm currently on 2x in the main and 0 in the side. But I've run anywhere from 0-4x in the 75, as my meta has shifted around. 1x Chandra, Flamecaller in the main and 0-2x Anger of the Gods in the 75 help fill that role for me too.
• I personally love Courser of Kruphix lately, really like Big Chandra (tip o' the hat to Moonbar for that), like Ma and Pa Nalaar (especially against Affinity), and pretty much hate Wurmcoil Engine (because it's even weaker than titan to Path).
• To make room for 2-3x Courser, I've been pulling out 2-3x Stone Rain. The idea is Stone Rain is great early, but meh late, wile Courser is good anytime. It's been working well so far, but I'm still deep in testing, so I'm not sure yet ...

Obviously, your mileage may vary. But thanks again for asking! :-)

GeminiSpartanX,

I don't really like DJ West's list at all. It seemed severely subpar for a Ponza list and felt kind of clunky. I'm certainly on board with cutting Bonfire of the Damned, and, in fact, I cut it a few weeks ago in favor of two more Trinisphere in the main deck. I have to say, Trinisphere in the main has been incredible. Sure, it's a dead card after #1, but the same can be said for Blood Moon, and Trinisphere can create just as hard of a lock. Like Blood Moon, it limits unprepared opponents to 1 spell a turn (or 2 late in the game), but unlike Blood Moon, people can't really play around 3-Ball. It has the chance of just hard locking opponents out, and is able to slow them significantly enough to close out the game with one or two fatties. I also believe that it makes late-game Stone Rains better, because it can hard-cut an opponent from 2 to 1 spells a turn, or 1 to 0.

Beast Within is a hard card to cut. I ended up doing so because I felt that I could deal with 'walkers well enough without them, and it hits all of the other issues without a problem and blocks big dumb creatures incredibly well. Its interaction with Kessig Wolf Run is also kind of sweet in that it can deal all but 1 of the damage straight to the opponent's face. I've not yet tested out P&K, but having played the card in Kiki-Chord, I can vouch for its efficacy. Right now, I've been playing more of a planeswalker heavy build that has been performing great. Garruk Wildspeaker is a card that I would highly recommend, since it allows for some insanely busted turn two and three plays, while also just allowing a win by -1ing three times.

Sorry about the ramble, just some of my thoughts on the deck recently.

clayperce- Something I couldn't help but notice about the 2 lists you've tested in your first bullet point above is that they both run many Tireless Trackers, which I'm not a fan of. I can't think of any decks that will just fold to trackers, and I'm not a fan of their impact on the board when they come down. I know you've been trying them out, so I'd like to know if you think they add something to the deck?

Moonbar- I really like the idea of 3ball in the deck keeping the LD spells relevant in the late game. I'm not sure I'd run all 4 since most people pack artifact hate in the side, but I think I'll try out 2 in the main over a Blood Moon and an Acid Moss to start with and see how it goes.

clayperce & Moonbar- I was looking at the inclusion of Nissa, Voice of Zendikar in some of the new lists, and thought of a different build of ponza that might take advantage of swarming the board. I have no idea if it would be good, but it likely would have decent matchups against most fair decks. It's probably complete jank, but it looks like it could be fun if you have the cards! -Swarming Ponza

I really don't like Nissa, Voice of Zendikar, because I feel that it just does nothing for many turns until it maybe pops its ultimate. Nobody cares if the team gets pumped, since Inferno Titan or Thragtusk being slightly larger doesn't matter in the larger picture. Now, Nissa, Vital Force on the other hand is an incredible card that beats control and aggro and midrange pretty easily. She provides a fast clock, great value, and the ability to straight beat control if you untap with her. I'd definitely try her out.

Trinisphere is a card I tried as a two-of. I found that it was so good in the opener that I wanted to see it as much as possible and as often as possible. The three-ball lock is a super real thing, and it's a very difficult lock to interact with since there's no such thing as floating mana and abrupt decaying or destructive revelrying if they only have 1 land.

Don't get me wrong Moonbar, I don't think small Nissa does much in traditional Ponza either. I just thought of a build that might use her better and made a quick deck using ponza's ramp/LD shell. It's not meant to be competitive.

GeminiSpartanX and Moonbar,
I actually like Nissa, Voice of Zendikar quite a bit for a meta filled with Go Big decks. She's pretty spectacular, for example, against GDS and Jund, where she can hit the battlefield early and then make chump blockers and Edict fodder for days. She's also solid as a back-up wincon vs. Control (kind of like Wolf Run plus a Bird or Elf) ... it's easy to sneak a 3-drop out, and a few plants with +1/+1 counters can totally win the game.

GeminiSpartanX,
I go back and forth on Tireless Tracker, but right now I'm kind of down on her. Here's a bunch of thoughts, in no particular order:

• All those times when we hit a patch of Lands in the mid-game? She's EXACTLY what we want at that point.
• Opponents know she's a Threat that Must be Answered, so she's a total removal magnet. This is both good and bad ... she eats removal that would otherwise go to other Creatures/burn that would otherwise go to our face, but since she's much easier to remove than our other great three-drop options (Moon, Trin', Finks, Courser, maybe Nissa) she often "trades down" for no value at all.
• She's not a great three-mana play. She's MUCH better as a four-drop, when you can play her and then a land (especially if it's a Fetch) the same Turn. Obviously she can still be removed before the land ETBs, but there's at least some chance of getting a Clue off her. All this makes her a strangely disappointing play when we get our 4-mana Turn 2, but strangely nice when we have to get to four mana the hard way (e.g., with nothing but land drops).
• That also means she's in kind of a weird place on the curve ... I'm not honestly sure if she "competes" for slots as a three-drop or a four-drop. Similarly, I'm not sure if she "competes" as a support card (because she can provide a ton of card advantage) or a threat (because she can single-handledly win the game if unanswered).
• I tested her as a three-of, with 21 Lands. But thinking back on it, I really wish I'd tested with less Trackers or more Lands. My rule-of-thumb for using her in Standard was 3-4x Trackers and 24x Lands (including 3x "Fetches"), so 2x Trackers/21x Lands or 3x Trackers/22x Lands (including 8x Fetches that often lose half their value due to Blood Moon) is probably where I'd start today.

Bottom line: When she's good, she's AMAZING. But when she's bad, she's kind of a waste of mana and a card slot. If high-variance cards work for your play-style and meta, you'll probably love her. I'm personally looking for more consistency, so she's not a great fit for me at the moment.

Hope that helps!

In terms of Nissa, Voice of Zendikar, she still seems bad. The only playable part of her is her +1, which is not the spot you want to be in when you're looking to close out a game. Yay, 0/1s... Her -2 ability isn't stellar, since it only adds significant power to the board if there are lots of guys on the field, which again sucks if she's the only thing on our side of the table. And in general, her ultimate is nothing to write home about, since she'll die before she uses it most likely. No go for me.

Tireless Tracker is also not quite where the deck needs to be. I honestly would rather try out Courser of Kruphix at that 3-drop creature spot than Tracker, since Courser is good against aggro and Tracker really isn't.

GeminiSpartanX,
You may have already seen this on fb/PonzaMTG or r/PonzaMTG, but in case not: Ryan published a sideboard guide for his deck. Obviously he's running a different list than yours, but I thought his thoughts on sideboarding might be insightful anyways. Plus, if you have any suggestions for his guide, I'm certain he'd appreciate them!

Moonbar- those were pretty much my thoughts on Nissa, Voice of Zendikar and Tireless Tracker. Courser REALLY shines against burn and agro, and helps a ton against any hatebears/taxes decks by finding you land. I'm happy to see it in any grindy matchup.

clayperce- Thanks for the links! I'll check them out!

Did either of you check out the deck I linked earlier? It's not going to win GPs, but it seems like a fun take for a Modern FNM.

GeminiSpartanX,
I had tried but it's Err404'ing. I figured you'd deleted it ... though I now suspect you have it set to Private.

clayperce- Ah, sorry about that. It should be fixed now. It just seems like a fun idea with all the creatures in RGx that make additional creatures when they come into play. :)

GeminiSpartanX and Moonbar,
One more thought on Tireless Tracker: She's much better in a "monster" build than a more traditional build ...

• She makes Huntmaster of the Fells  ^Flip better, because Clues give you something to do with mana instead of casting a spell (flipping him to the back) and the extra card then makes it easier to cast two the next turn (flipping him to the front again).
• She makes Pia and Kiran Nalaar better, because you can turn Clues into a Shock and a +1/+1 counter.

Now please note I'm still not saying she's great (and I'm personally not running any of those cards, lol). But it's something to keep in mind ...

clayperce- Those are interesting points. It seems better in a meta that's pretty heavy on control decks or when the games are grindy. I'm going to test with some Huntmasters this week and if I'm impressed, I might just try out the exact list that top 8'd and see if I can't make use of some of those synergies.

CONGRATULATIONS!

what he said my dude