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Lord Darkview
05-18-2009, 08:32 AM
So, while the casual play group I'm in initially had some ideas as to fun versus unfun decks (unfun being decks that outright stopped the opponent from playing spells), the upswing in heavy control, soft-locking, aggro, universal land destruction, and even a dedicated discard deck has made me think Ponza isn't any more obnoxious. For those who are unaware, Ponza is a mono-red control deck based around creature-sweeping effects for anti-aggro, targetted land-destruction effects for anti-control, and a big monster to quickly take the game once some level of control has been established.

Without further ado, here is my initial prospective build:

17 Mountain
2 Dust Bowl
4 Ghitu Encampment

4 Avalanche Riders
4 Magnivore

4 Firebolt
4 Pyroclasm
4 Stone Rain
2 Hammer of Bogardan
4 Molten Rain
4 Pillage
4 Flamebreak
3 Icefall

First off, I will say adding Green (or any secondary color) is not a possibility here. There are numerous reasons, including the budget of the deck and the expense of the relevant manabase and potential inclusions. Just as importantly though, I do not want to sacrifice the deck's consistency.

It has the advantage of 19 targeted land destruction effects not including the Dust Bowl, as well as 8 sweeping effects to offset early aggro. Figuring most decks in our playgroup run 20-24 lands, this seemed appropriate. My primary concern was that it was too many. I noticed a lot of classic Ponza plays Stone Rain, Pillage, and Avalanche Riders, with just symmetrical sorceries or land-based supplements to this. That may be enough for color denial, but our playgroup has plenty of mono-chromatic, and it seems underwhelming.

Another point is I'm not sure if the creature base is too weak. Magnivore looks impressive, but there are other options. Countryside Crusher is interesting if I can get them cheaply enough, and I wonder how that might play. Shivan Wumpus is also a possibility. Also more critters at the lower end might also help with defense, though I don't want too much conflict with Flamebreak. Perhaps Mishra's Factories, but will that be too much colorless?

Finally, Icefall is an interesting card on so many levels. Does it get cut? It does have to compete with a 3-mana equivalent as well as Kastle to get the spot. On the other hand, it is recurring, and synergizes with Kastle amazingly (Icefall, Kastle, don't pay echo and Recover Icefall...), though it can be a drop mana-intensive. Still, if it stays, then it makes a case for more land, and other synergistic creatures like Mogg Fanatic, Ghitu Slinger, and such (which are solid anti-aggro). And of course, if enough sorceries get cut, maybe Magnivore isn't the right call anyway?

Either way, the number of options is overwhelming and I'd appreciate input. For reference, my environment includes but is not limited to:
Tribal Elves (with Intruder Alarm combo)
Tribal Soldiers (with Armageddon)
Tribal Slivers
Shadowclysm variants
Vigor + Red (with the player saying he will splash white)
Searing Meditation + Firemane Angel
Mono-Black Heavy Control
Discard/Rack Control
and other random things...