Shatterstorm is better because it says the artifacts can't be regenerated. Creeping Corrosion doesn't beat Welding Jar which is common in affinity and sometimes Lantern Control lists. Otherwise they function similarly. It's why people run Wrath of God over Day of Judgment.

Ah, ok. Thanks

kothax,
Thanks much for the kudos, and you've very welcome.

One of the blessings and the curses of Ponza though, is that there isn't really a stock list ... you know how on a "normal" deck you tweak the sideboard almost every week based on the expected match-ups? Well, Ponza is like that, but across the whole deck! So while I'm super-pleased (and frankly a little intimidated) that you chose this deck as your starting point, please understand that you're probably going to be tweaking the deck a LOT as your meta and playstyle change.

I've been testing with Chandra, Flamecaller in place of a Bonfire of the Damned because her -X fills a similar role.

And exactly what GeminiSpartanX said, on Shatterstorm. Though Fracturing Gust is a solid option too.

Thanks again and draw well!

RagingBuddha,
By the way, I didn't realize this earlier but Goblin Dark-Dwellers can no longer grab Bust out of the Graveyard. When Amonkhet released, Wizards updated the rules for split cards, and it's now CMC 8 when it's in the Graveyard. Here's a short article on the change from MTGgoldfish. Bummer ...

I like the update in general, but I'd like to pick your brain on some of the numbers. I'll start by saying that nobody likes Courser in Ponza lists more than me, but 3 seems like 1 too many. Courser isn't a great threat by itself, so I'd rather have another big threat like Thragtusk or the 3rd Stormbreath. Also, I'd like to know why you've chosen to MD Crumble to Dust over the 4th Acid-Moss or another threat? Finally, I've also been seeing more lists running Bolts in the SB. Which decks are you bringing those in against?

I had a pretty bad testing session last week that's made me worried that Ponza might not get me there in the RPTQ, but it was mostly against Affinity and Counters Company. I'm swapping out a relic in my SB for a Grafdigger's Cage to help out that matchup since I expect to see some number of those decks. I also decided that I should have a 2nd Shatterstorm if I want to beat affinity. Do you side in both Ancient Grudges against Eldrazi Tron, or only 1? I'm hoping to nail down my SB plan and write it out before this weekend is why I'm asking all these questions. Thanks in advance!

GeminiSpartanX,
3x Courser of Kruphix is partly for my Burn match-up and partly for the synergy with Tireless Tracker and Chandra, Torch of Defiance. I struggle with Burn a little, and was surprised to find Courser outperform Kitchen Finks in the match-up ... I think it's partly because Courser is a better blocker, but mostly because nobody is going to waste a Skullcrack or Kolaghan's Command on a Courser. Then I was surprised to find how good Courser was with Chandra and Tracker. Turns out that knowing exactly when to draw (via Clue), Exile (via Chandra), or just let the top card sit there is GREAT. That made me go up to 3x Chandras, which has been great as well, in all kinds of match-ups. Shaving a 5-drop threat though is definitely a bummer, so I could frankly argue it either way.

I went with a Crumble to Dust over a fourth Acid-Moss because I don't need as much Ramp now (partly because of the extra Chandra, and partly because my curve is a little lower). I went Crumble over a Tracker or 4-drop threat because of Tron and Titan Shift. I know that some people argue there's no need for us to make our good match-ups better, but I disagree ... I want maximum win percentage vs. the expected field, and they're a big part of my meta so I think it makes sense. Or maybe I'm just a bad person who loves how demoralizing Crumble can be to Tron and Valakut pilots! :-)

I've always loved Bolt, and sometimes even "pre-board" 1-2x into the main. It's superb vs. Storm and almost any deck with small Creatures (e.g., Hatebears, Abzan Vizier, Affinity, Humans). Any efficient Instant-speed removal will do though ... I like Sudden Shock for example much better against Infect, and it's also solid vs. Abzan Vizier and Affinity (since they can't combo off or Modular in response).

Affinity is my worst Top Tier match-up, so please take my thoughts on it with healthy skepticism. But for them I leave the Moons, pull every bit of LD and maybe some non-flying Creature, and add as many Bolts, Grudges, Abrades, Shatterstorms, and Angers as I can. I've been on 7x pieces of Affinity "forever", which has resulted in a 38% win percentage. Since Affinity has gone up in the meta lately though, I've recently shifted to 9x.

I normally bring in both Grudges vs. E-Tron (especially if I think they have frazzin' Wurmcoil), in favor of a Courser and a Tracker.

Good luck (and good skill)!

This looks like the deck that I played against with my Colossus deck? If so then lucky for me it looks as if it ran really slow for you that day. I certainly didn't see much or your ramp or land destruction. I also didn't deserve to win that second game either... Anyway, cool deck! Cheers!

Cragon18,
Yeah, this is my current "default" build ... the list I was playing the other day had more removal in the main (which is great vs. Humans and others, but lousy vs. you) and a higher curve (I had pulled out all the Stone Rain to make room for some additional 4- and 5-drop threats). I frankly went 0-2 twice with that list and deleted it :-)

Thanks much, and I look forward to our next match!

To every Ponza player viewing this deck and liking what you see, a bona fide expert on the Ponza deck, Ryan Shaner, is currently looking to give advice and answer questions about the deck over on our subreddit!

Check it out!

Hey!! I love the list. How do you feel about the soon to be unbanning of Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Bloodbraid Elf?

It seems like BBE could fit well into Ponza!! What are your thoughts on the matter? And how do you think the arrival of JtMS will affect Ponza? Will the introduction of a more 4-costed meta make our three drops that much more powerful?

DEER,
Thanks much! (I love it too, but I'm pretty biased)

I've really no opinion yet about Jace, the Mind Sculptor, as his unban was a total surprise. Gruul has lots of good tools against Control though, so I'm guessing that as it goes up as a percentage of the meta we'll be able to adjust along with it. But my Crystal Ball is notoriously unreliable, so idk ...

Bloodbraid Elf is going to be interesting though. A few thoughts:

• It's definitely going to be good in Ponza, but I'm not sure it's going to be great. We really need the 10x accelerants, and Cascading BBE into them is pretty meh. And Molten Rain is a poor substitute for Mwonvuli Acid-Moss. With that in mind, I'm guessing BBE Ponza is just going to be WorseJund. There's a ton of folks trying to break it though, so I'm certain that if there is a deck there it will be found!
• Speaking of Jund, I'm going to be bummed if BBE Ponza ends up using Tarmogoyf, as I don't have any. And with BBE Jund almost certain to be a thing, the price of Goyf is going to go up ... maybe way up :-\
• Jund rising is a good thing for Ponza though ... we have a REALLY good match-up vs. the deck. Well, the old deck, anyways. :-)

There's some great discussions and early BBE decklists over in the PonzaMTG subreddit ... if you haven't already been checked it out, I'd encourage you to do so!

Thanks again, and draw well!

been a while since I checked out your list. Little surprised to see 3 coursers and no huntmaster or Pia and Kiran. Meta call or have you not found success with them?

wylie72,
I've been on 3x Courser of Kruphix for a while now, for a bunch of small reasons...

• She's a great early blocker.
• I love the card filtering.
• The incidental lifegain is superb ... it's almost always more than Kitchen Finks, because nobody ever bothers to Skullcrack a land drop.
• The synergy with Tireless Tracker and Chandra, Torch of Defiance is always good, and often insanely good.

All that said, with Jund rising (due to Bloodbraid Elf) we're sure to see a bunch more Tarmogoyf soon, and Courser is pretty terrible in that match up, since it gives them an Enchantment and a Creature for Goyf. So a few weeks from now, I could easily see having some mix of Finks and Jadelight Ranger in those slots. And without 3x Courser, I might drop one of the Chandras too ...

I've never been a fan of Huntmaster of the Fells  ^Flip. I mean, it's a great card (it's a 4-of in my Modern Wolves funsies deck) and I know a lot of folks love it. But it's just never worked for me in Ponza.

I really like Pia and Kiran Nalaar; not running them is just a meta call. I'm on 2x Obstinate Baloth for now (due to Burn and Lili), and Chameleon Colossus and Thrun, the Last Troll are both regulars in those slots. But I could easily see running P&K there ... especially if Affinity becomes a big part of the meta, since Thopters are one of the few tools we have to stop Etched Champion.

Hope that helps!

...I think this list just changed my life.

iischris,
Thanks so much! :-D

The deck looks goood, i just don't like molten rain mainboard, it doesn't fit a turn 2 play like stone rain because of the double red, and at this point why not running mwunvuli acid moss? Overall the deck seems sweet to play

MrBreeze,
I 100% agreed with you ... up until Bloodbraid Elf was unbanned.

The deck only has a 55% chance of 1RR on Turn 2 (and it's lower of course in real life due to opponent interaction and hand disruption). That was good enough for some people to run Molten Rain but just too unreliable for my playstyle. Especially since we needed the extra ramp from Mwonvuli Acid-Moss, especially in the cases where we didn't draw dorks/Sprawls early.

But with BBE, Molten Rain is definitely the better choice for Stone Rain #5-6: It's a Cascade target and the extra 2 damage can make a big difference, while Acid-Moss isn't and we dont really need the extra ramp any more (since we Cascade into dorks/Sprawls now).

Thanks much though!

Sup Clayperce.

Few questions, why the exclusion of a 7th rain?

Do you prefer Courser over a second P&K?

How's Primal Command been treating you?

:-)

gnathion,
6x Rain effects is mostly just a playstyle call, but it's a little bit of a meta call too. LD is a ton of fun of course, but it's not a wincon, so I usually run a little lighter than the average. And that's especially true whenever decks which don't require much mana to operate (e.g., Humans, Hollow One) are on the rise.

Yeah, I'm a big fan of Courser of Kruphix. Playstyle-wise, I just love the synergy between her, Tireless Tracker, and Chandra, Torch of Defiance. And meta-wise, I'e been facing more opps on Burn lately than on Flyers.

The versatility of Primal Command is just unbelievable. I probably tutor just the right Creature 90%, gain life 60%, bounce a land or pesky thing 40%, nuke a Graveyard 9%, and give an opponent life to kill their Death's Shadows 1% (but priceless). All that said, a one-of is plenty, and it's the weakest card in the deck for sure. But I even like that, because it's a great litmus test when I'm testing new cards: "Would I rather see the Primal Command?" So far, the answer's been yes.

Why no Thragtusk or Stormbreath Dragon. I'm just curious since both those cards seem like good additions.

deltacobra,
Both cards are great, and I would never fault anyone for running them. Here's some details though ...

• Stormbreath Dragon: I actually run Strombreath pretty often ... I should really add it into the maybeboard as a 'Common Mainboard Option'. It's almost entirely a meta call vs. Pia and Kiran Nalaar. P&K synergizes just a little better with the rest of the deck (because they can sac' Clues from Tireless Tracker) but both attack with 4 power on Turn 5 (or earlier) and provide a some reach via a late-game mana sink (P&K by sac'ing Artifacts and Stormbreath with Monsterous). P&K is better vs. spot removal (since their 4/4 is spread across 4 bodies) and is the only tool we have to deal with Etched Champion, but Stormbreath is better vs. Lingering Souls and Path to Exile.
• Thragtusk: I used to run Thrag' all the time, because he's just so good in a removal-heavy meta. But I shifted to Obstinate Baloth a while back becuase it comes in a turn earlier, has comparable lifegain, and has a discard effect which is just priceless vs. cards like Liliana of the Veil and Burning Inquiry.

Again, though, both are good additions for sure.

Cheers!

clayperce

Had a friend borrowing my Ponza for a while, but I'm back on it now. Pretty stock list, but trying going back to Beast Withins for extra interaction, a Sweltering Suns main, with 4 Angers in the side to really help shore up Humans, Elves, and the newer Bridgevine decks. I'm on Relics, not cage in the side. How has cage been working for you?

I 4-0'd with this list last night, except I replaced 2 tireless tracker for 2 eternal witness and they preformed amazingly. Getting back bolts for creature matchups was key, and being able to chain a few primal commands together won me a game vs the hollow one deck. I also played 2 matches against infect, one g/b variant and the other was the standard g/u, with the former being the most difficult match of the night. He had thoughtsieze and IoQ which were able to take care of my blood moons, but stone rain on inkmoth and inferno titan sealed the match up. I also played vs tron but it was basically a free win with only 5-6 turns in the whole match, blood moon t2 both games. I also played relic in the sideboard over cage because it covers more matchups.

What are good/bad matchups and why? What makes you mulligan/how low can this deck mulligan?

Bovine073,
I love Grafdigger's Cage vs. BR Hollow One/BR Vengevine (for the gravehate) and Elves/Abzan Vizier (for the Collected Company hate). It's useless vs. KCI though, so I never run just Cage.

ThomasDurham,
So glad Ponza was working well for you! You might want to drop by the Ponza group over on Reddit too ... I'm certain the folks there would love a tournament report too.

Kadash,
Ponza is built around casting mana disruption (e.g., Blood Moon or Stone Rain) on Turn 2, and then following up with versatile threats on Turn 3 and beyond. So it's GREAT against decks that are weak to Moon/Rain (e.g., Tron, most three-color decks), and quite weak to decks that are not (e.g., Mono-color decks). The deck is EXTREMELY tunable (this is both a blessing and a curse), so individual lists will often have very different results based on the amount of mainboard removal, sweepers, gravehate, and lifegain.

FWIW, my personal best and worst match-ups are below. Obviously, your mileage may vary.

• 90%: UB Control
• 80%: Esper Control, Mardu Pyromancer, Lantern Control
• 70%: Grixis Shadow, UW Control, Ad Nauseum, BG Rock, Gx Tron
• 60%: Jeskai Control, Abzan, UB Fairies, Grishoalbrand, BW Tokens, Jund, BW Eldrazi and Taxes, 8-Rack, Mono-U Tron
• 50%: Bogles, Eldrazi Tron, Titan Shift, Naya Zoo, UR Storm, UB Mill, Grixis Control, Dredge
• 40%: RW Burn, 5c Humans, Vengevine, Affinity, Abzan Vizier, Mono-G Devotion
• 30%: Merfolk, Mono-W Death and Taxes, Hollow One, Grixis Delver
• 20%: 8-Whack, Living End
• 10%: UR Through the Breach

The general idea on mulligans is to get a Turn 2 play (e.g., Green source + dork/Sprawl on Turn 1, and a 3-drop on Turn 2) and a follow-on threat. I don't even hesitate to mul' to 6 to get that, and (depending on how much discard is in the meta) will often mul' to 5. Some folks run 2-drops in the main (e.g., Scavenging Ooze) to reduce the need for mulligans; others run extra Birds.

Hope this helps :-)