I wonder if a one of Pithing Needle in the side would be good good option against decks like Gx tron.

Tanker12- Usually this deck's Blood Moons, Stone Rains, Mwonvuli Acid-Mosss and Beast Withins are all this deck needs against tron. SB slots would be better used for tougher matchups like affinity or living end.

GeminiSpartanX,
I hadn't really explained that well: The match I lost, the Cinder Glade was a top-deck after a bunch of land destruction on both sides. Any other land would have meant a win. And sure, that was a (very) high-variance game. But 2/9 great vs 7/9 indifferent or worse was enough testing for me :-)

Still, I'm super-glad it's working for you!

Ah, I guess I haven't tested it against another deck that destroys lands. I can see how that may affect the outcome. For me, I consider it like Kessig Wolf Run. Wolf Run can be pretty bad if it's in your opening hand as your 2nd land when you could have otherwise gotten 4 mana on turn 2, or pretty meh when you have a blood moon out, but sometimes is worth the inclusion.

Tanker12,
As GeminiSpartanX said, Tron is supposed to be a really good match-up for us. That said, I've found a ton of variance: Old-School Tron and RG have been really easy for me, but I'm currently 1-1 vs. Eldrazi, and 0-1 vs. BG, GW, and Mono-U. Since Blood Moon is REALLY good against the deck (and a bunch of others), I've recently put a Magus of the Moon back in the side.

All that said, Pithing Needle might be good sideboard tech, as it's a very powerful card and useful in a ton of match-ups. It rewards a deep knowledge of the format though, so it will frankly be a while before I could use it effectively. Lantern Control runs a bunch in the maindeck, so their primers are probably the best source for tips on how to best use it; here's a good (though somewhat dated) one.

Thanks though!

Tanker12, clayperce

I run a 1-of Pithing Needle in my sideboard (previously 2) and it actually does good work for me across a very wide variety of decks, including affinity and Tron variants. It is definitely one of the cards I am more iffy about in my sideboard, but it's good. It also has the ability to randomly act as a 1-mana LD spell against unsuspecting opponents with untracked fetchlands or fetchlands in hand, I once won a match against the mirror by naming Wooded Foothills to keep him on two mana while I accelerated to four. It's a tricky card to use properly and has high variance, but it does enough work against the metagame that I like to keep it in. It hits Lightning Storm well too, which is another great thing.

Hi all!! I must say this deck is very enjoyable to play. I went 5-4 today, and loved every moment of it. The first two games were tron which I destroyed. Lost to sultai shadow, then beat merfolk, goblins, and titan amulet( or whatever the deck is actually called. The other losses were bant eldrazi,and two burn variations. Overall this deck is solid, and I would highly recommend it. Just be sure to watch put for burn.

Tanker12 how did you beat merfolk but go 0-2 against burn, the former being our worst matchup and the latter being one of our better matchups lol...

Tanker12,
Congrats, and I'm SO glad it went well for you!

Bovine073,
Idk ... I'm never played Merfolk with this particular decklist, but I'm 1-1 overall. And while I'm 1-0 vs Mardu and Mono-R Burn, I'm 3-3 vs. Naya Burn and 0-1 vs. Jeskai Burn.

I guess it's just the old "Your mileage, of course, may vary" :-)

Merfolk hates Choke. As for burn decks.....well I'll be tweaking my ponza variant to fold to burn and ad nauseam, but hurt everything else.

I like the idea of Pithing Needle in the sideboard. It helps beat Ad Nauseum, which I like, and adds to a bunch of other random situations.

Most Ponza players have given up on Beast Within of late in favor of cards like Acidic Slime. Might want to look into that.

ALSO, there is a new Ponza Subreddit started by none other than me!

rothgar13,
Acidic Slime is a great card (Deathtouch in particular is just SO good) and I'll give it a hard look. But while I can see it competing vs. the 4- and 5-drops in the deck, I just don't see it competing with Beast Within (because Beast is faster on the mana curve, can also kill Planeswalkers, and is an Instant).

By the way, if by 'most' you mean adsav and Jon Elgan then sure. But in the other 10 competitive decklists I'm aware of (up in the 'Primers and other resources' section), there are 20x Beast Within and 0x Acidic Slime ... ;-)

Thanks though, tons!

Moonbar,
AWESOME!!! Thanks so much for getting that going! I'll see you there soon ...

By most, I mean lists that make it over to MTGGoldfish. I see 4 separate entries there, and only 1 of them has Beast Within. That's felt like the worst card in the 75 for a while now.

rothgar13, I would argue that it feels pretty damn good to have a spell that so cleanly deals with all the problem cards this deck has so quickly. I would think that Acidic Slime is the worse card in 90% of situations.

What problem cards for Ponza does Beast Within beat? Liliana of the Veil? I can't think of very many others. I think the card is flexible, but a 3/3 is not irrelevant on the board for a deck with such poor spot removal options, and I don't really think that there are that many "must answer" noncreature permanents for Ponza to begin with. The Slime is a 2-for-1 - the body will almost always be relevant thanks to deathtouch, and the destruction effect comes with no downside. The only issue is coming up with the mana for it, but I'd argue that Ponza's typically pretty clogged at the 3-spot, and doesn't have enough awesome payoff spells later on.

Beast Within being an instant and a piece of spot removal for important creatures is very relevant, and I think that it being so low costed is a benefit, not a bad thing. This deck also runs enough super value creatures and spells that it doesn't matter about the Beast token being a 2 for 1.

As of late I've been pretty low on Beast Within. I rarely want to see it in my opening hand as a LD spell, and there have been games where the token helped my opponent more than me. Against aggro I often use it as a 3 mana 3/3 to destroy one of my own lands in order to live another turn or 2, but that line never seems to work out. I think I'll be crazy and try siding them out completely for another threat or two just to see if it makes a difference in the optimal lines of play this deck normally takes. I mean, ideally you're not casting beast within until turn 4+ anyway.

rothgar13,
Maybe I'm missing something, but the two decks I see on MTGgoldfish with Acidic Slime are the two I already mentioned (by adsav and Jon Elgan). The other two (by Andrew Black and abombdiggity) each had 2x Beast Within in the main.

But either way, I personally can't imagine playing Ponza without The Beast. I don't like it as a four-of at all (since it's pretty gross in an opening hand except vs. Liliana of the Veil). But somewhere between 2-3x has been almost perfect for my playstyle and meta (so far).

As far as what it hits? In just the last week or so, I've won matches after killing a Tarmogoyf, a Gurmag Angler, a Cranial Plating, a 4/4 Angel from a Geist of Saint Traft, and most notably a Spreading Seas (on my own Stomping Ground, which allowed me to cast Chandra, Torch of Defiance and then +1 her for mana and an Inferno Titan on the next turn). Sure, I might have won those matches anyways, and I might have won other matches if I'd had a different card in the slot. But it's earned at least 2 slots in my deck for sure.

Seriously, thanks tons though! I always appreciate the chance to relook a card with fresh eyes, especially as the meta evolves!

All,
After thinking a LOT about Titan Shift and CoCo Counters, I'm actually moving to 4x Beast Within in the 75. Beast can kill Mountains with Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle triggers on the stack, and it can of course kill Devoted Druid or Vizier of Remedies in response to a cast (of the other one or a CoCo). I think that's going to be worth the ugh of having one in my opening hand.

Logic prevails as always. Maybe a good topic for the subreddit though yeah?

Moonbar,
Well I was being logical before, lol. It's just that I'm more worried about Titan Shift and GW CoCo Combo than I was a week ago. :-)

I know, I was kidding haha.