[Deck] Ponza

[Rops]

I've been testing Ponza lately and I really like it. As most of you know I'm a budget player so my list is tweaked for my own purposes. Feel free to post and discuss your own though. Anywho, here's what I've been running.

// Lands
4 Rite of Flame
16 Mountain
3 Ancient Tomb
3 Barbarian Ring

// Creatures
4 Slith Firewalker
2 Razormane Masticore

// Burn
4 Seal of Fire
4 Pyroclasm
4 Lightning Bolt

//Land-D
4 Molten Rain
4 Pillage
4 Tremble
4 Stone Rain

Card Choices
Rite of Flame: Has always been good for me to help speed up the deck.
Mountain: Always a good way to start off a deck...
Ancient Tomb: Speed, the drawback isn't very bad.
Barbarian Ring: More of a "just incase" but it's been helpful.

Slith Firewalker: Massive beat and awesome.
Masticore: Drawback isn't that bad, gets rid of pesky critters, beat if needed.

Seal of Fire: Makes aggro players think because they no the threat is there, then if they hold off, you destroy their land and they're even farther off. That or just average burn.
Pyroclasm: Shouldn't really need an explenation.
Lightning Bolt: See Pyroclasm.

Molten Rain: 3cc Land-D seems to be good enough. A fun perk for destroying unbasics.
Pillage: Land/Artifact-D for 3. Always good.
Tremble: cheap and usually ends up with advantage anyway because of the other land-D.
Stone Rain: Solid land-D.

So far it's been able to hold it's own pretty well. My only problem is that depending on the opening hand it can be slow.

Thanks for any and all help.

[Volt]

Note sure if Wastelands are in your budget, but 4 of those is a given in this type of deck.

Gotta make room for 4x Molten Rain.

Magmatic Core seems horribly slow and mana intensive, like you said.

The shrapnel blasts have to go, since you're only running 2 artifacts.

Flametongue Kavu seems like it would be a good fit in this deck.

That's just off the top of my head.

Good luck with it. Ponza has always been one of my favorite deck archetypes.

[Rops]

Molten Rain...wow, never thought of that. Well it's good that I see it now because that means I don't need to play Earth Rift anymore eh?

-3 Earth Rift
-3 Magmatic Core
-2 Shrapnel Blast

+4 Molten Rain
+4 Seal of Fire / Incinerate.

Wastes I haven't been able to find very easily, but the second I do I'm adding them. Yeah, they're insane no matter what you play eh? Flametongue Kavu seems good for when it comes into play, but I'm not sure I need to keep it. Aren't Slith/Masticore enough? If I can grab a playset I'll swap out the Seals for them.

[wrshp666]

Adding green to the deck seems like a great addition. You get wreack havoc, ice storm, winter's grasp and mainly plow under.

Adding G means you have acces to birds, and other mana accel so you will have a gurrenteed turn 2 land destruction.

Plow under seems amazing though, even with the cost of 5, making them skip 2 turns just to play lands seems really good.

[slylie]

I've been testing Ponza lately and I really like it. As most of you know I'm a budget player so my list is tweaked for my own purposes. Feel free to post and discuss your own though. Anywho, here's what I've been running.

So far it's been able to hold it's own pretty well. My only problem is that depending on the opening hand it can be slow.

Thanks for any and all help.


This is the Ponza Deck i run (mostly casual, but its strong enough that it can perhaps do OK if you get good opening hands)

The Crust:
4 Rishadan Port (hold down that land you can't blow up just yet)
4 Wasteland (big suprise here)
2 Ghitu Encampment (you have pretty much no turn 1 play so the come-into play tapped doesnt usually matter... plus it's a mishra's factory that has first strike, and produces red mana instead of colorless)
16 Mountain

The Sausage:
4 Avalanche Riders
3 Lightning Dragon (could be masticore... but for casual i like the dragons)

The Cheese:
4 Pilliage
4 Molten Rain
3 Tectonic Break

The Sauce:
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Incinerate
3 Chain Lightning

The Napkin:
3 Cave-In
4 Earthquake

Vs: aggro strategies, its not bad as the sweepers obviously help alot. I like cave-in because The Lightning dragons are big enough that they are not easily burned. The bolts really help against aggro's first drops, or for reach later. Cave-in doesnt look the greatest but its great when you are being sinkholed by deadguy or ported by goblins. As you know, Ponza has allways been really coin-flippy. You either blow up their lands and they can't recover, or they keep drawing land and your strategy ends up sucking. Best suited for playing casual against people you want to annoy. :)

[Brushwagg]

I've been messing around with Ponza myself. I found Magma Jet to be very helpful. The Scry is well worth it. Helps out alot when top decking. Another usful card for me has been Tangle Wire. Blowing up the lands makes it even better.

[Rops]

Oh wow, Magma Jet would be really good. Yeah, one of the worst things I've seen about the deck is you're really at the mercy of your own draws. That'd be a great help huh?

As for Slylie's list, Earthquake seems like it could be a really fun card to use. I was thinking, do you think it might be better than a pyroclasm? If you have the extra mana, why not just hit for more if you need it? The drawbacks don't seem that bad to me, although I haven't tested it yet. I guess I'll do some and report back later. Have any of you had experience otherwise?

[slylie]

I like earthquake in that it can hit larger (if not flying) creatures, and doubbles as a two-sided fireball (meaning its not dead vs. creatureless matchups)

Magma jet is a great idea... only reason i dont run them is i allready use my playset in another deck.

[noobslayer]

I don't want this to come off as a flame or anything, but, that would be your own choice then to run a sub-optimal build.

[Brushwagg]

Here's what I've been working on.

// Lands
5 [TE] Mountain (3)
4 [MM] Sandstone Needle
4 [TE] Wasteland
4 [ON] Bloodstained Mire
3 [OD] Barbarian Ring

// Creatures
4 [UL] Avalanche Riders
1 [JU] Fledgling Dragon
4 [MR] Slith Firewalker

// Spells
4 [FD] Magma Jet
4 [R] Lightning Bolt
2 [VI] Fireblast
4 [MR] Molten Rain
4 [CHK] Stone Rain
4 [AL] Pillage
3 [IA] Incinerate
3 [NE] Tangle Wire
3 [IA] Pyroclasm

// Sideboard
SB: 1 [NE] Tangle Wire
SB: 1 [IA] Pyroclasm
SB: 4 [U] Red Elemental Blast
SB: 3 [DK] Tormod's Crypt
SB: 3 [SC] Pyrostatic Pillar
SB: 3 [U] Winter Orb

I not sure about the board. I really haven't boarded yet.

Not much needs to be said I think.

@Tangle Wire:With the Land D, this can lock your opponent down, and let you get some draws in. The biggest problem is Top deck mode, which I really hate (which is conpounded because I play Gro).

Edit:I've been also considering Cutting the Incinerate for Burning Wish. Wish can give access to alot of hate.

[kicks_422]

Here's the build I'm testing out...

Mana
14 Mountain
4 Rishadan Port
4 Wasteland
4 Chrome Mox

Creatures
4 Slith Firewalker
4 Avalanche Riders
2 Rorix Bladewing

Spells
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Magma Jet
4 Pillage
4 Molten Rain
4 Stone Rain
4 Tangle Wire

SB
4 Pyroclasm
4 Pyrostatic Pillar
4 Pyroblast
3 Anarchy

SB's sketchy, but main deck is consistent... I used to have Sandstone Needles in there for acceleration, but being able to use them only twice really cramped the deck... Replaced it with Ports and then added Moxes to replace the lost acceleration... :tongue:

Tangle Wire has been great, and is a must-have for Ponza IMHO... It's an early-game tempo boost and a way to keep the opponent down during the mid to late game... :tongue:

[SuckerPunch]

I'm not sure if this is offtopic so I won't post a list here, but I'm currently working on a Ponza Stax type deck and posted a list in the black stompy thread.

It runs Stone Rain, Avanlanche Riders, Ancient Tomb, Trinisphere, Crucible of Worlds, Wasteland, City of Traitors, Chalice of the Void (I suppose this could be Tangle Wire) and some very nice fatties.

I was wondering if that particular direction, of adding 2 mana producing lands along with stuff like Trinisphere, has ever been considered or tried for Ponza. It could be quite strong.

It just seems like Ponza and Stax share such similar goals, why not take the best aspects of both and combine them into one deck.

[Koby]

SuckerPunch, consider Covetous Dragon - possibly the biggest threat u can get for 5 mana with no real drawback.

I believe that this archetype sorely needs Burning Wish + Chrome Mox. The acceleration is very handy and Burning Wish can get a multitude of answers, such as Rolling Earthquake and other fun sorceries.

I also feel that Powder Keg is a very worthy spot. It alone can remove Nimble Mongoose, which is very very very important for mono-red to be able to do. Also helps against Stax style decks and Faerie Stompy.

[SuckerPunch]

Covetous Dragon is an absolutely fantastic suggestion for Ponza Stax. Thank you for that.

My list currently opts to run Mox Diamond over Chrome Mox. I like Mox Diamond a lot more in this particular deck. That's because the deck is already so heavy on lands, runs more artifacts than colored spells and also Mox Diamond is a lot more flexible in what color it can generate. Diamond is also awesome in that it fixes your mana to get rid of excess color sources you drew on the first turn.

Power Keg could work too though I think Engineered Explosives is probably better.

Burning Wish to get a Stone Rain and Rolling Earthquake or other cards is a good suggestion, though the curve likes 3cc spells more than 2cc spells. The other problem with Wish is that it slows your disruption down by a turn in this deck esp since this deck rarely has more than one colored source in play. And Engineered Explosives can handle a lot of the same stuff as Rolling Earthquake does.

[Nightmare]

Moved to Developmental.

[alakar]

First, let me apologize for rainsing a semi old thread, but I love ponza, and I am working on a version myself. Here is the list I am doing fairly well with.

4 Stone Rain
4 Pillage
3 Avalanche Rider
4 Fire/Ice
2 Razomain Masticore
4 Slith Firewalker
2 Crucible of the Worlds
4 Thirst For Knowledge
4 Tangle Wire
4 Juggernaught (Not sure About this guy)
4 Wasteland
3 Rishadin Port
4 Mox Diamond
3 Ancient Tomb
4 Fetch Land
3 Volcanic Island
3 Mountain
1 Barbarian Ring

Card Choices

Stone Rain and Pillage are auto includes

Avalanche Rider- A LD spell attached to a body, yes please. I only run three because of the 4 CC.

Fire/Ice- I use this over bolt because it is more effective in the goblin match and the solidarity match

Razomane Maticore- This guy is nuts. Bolt a critter every turn, 5/5, first strike. We have ourselves a threat.

Slith Firewalker- I'm torn, this guys is either a game breaker, or just a bad late game draw. Nice play off a mox fallowed bye tagle wire.

Crucible of the Worlds- Recuring Wasteland is pretty good. Nor incredible though, could probably be cut.

Thirst For Knowledge- I've thought about fact or fiction in this slot, but TFK seems really good. Seems good when pitching uneeded moxes, lands, and other artifacts.

Tangle Wire- Just awsome in so many matches. Good if played after a slith fire walker early in the game.

Juggernaught- honestly, I didn't have a better threat to put here....

Wasteland- Uncounterable LD, I'll take 4

Rishadin Port- More land denial is good

Anceint Tomb- Hitting my three drops ealier seems good.

Mox Diamond- Blue source, has good synergy with crucible, slith come down turn one, seems alright

Fetch lands- Goes and gets blue if need be

Volcanic Islands- auto include in a deck with blue and red

Mountains-........

Barbarian Ring- Good with crucible, recurring shock.


Cards not included

Burning wish- This deck probably needs this card, Might cut Crucible for it. It improves game one vs goblin drasticly

Lighting Bolt- Fire/Ice seems a little better than this guy for the deck.

Masticore- I really Can't have alot of discarding critters

CHalice of the Void- Another card that seems good enough to play in the board or main, not sure how to fit it in though.


As far as the side board goes, only the Pyro Clasms and the Pyroblast are constant includes. This is still in development.



Here are the matches I have experience with.

Solidarity- This is a good matchup for you. Destroy lots of land early, use port liberally. They will force and counter, but keep on the pressure. Slith and A.Riders are your big threats in this match.

Goblins- The original version I had that included pyroclasms main did decent in this match. This version just seems to lose game one alot. Game two and three is a little more fair with pyroclasm Combined with fire/ice and razormane masticore.

Thresh- Decent, if they don't hit your guys with swords early on, put pressure on them and destroy there oh so fragile manabase. Port and Wastland are your friends in this match.

Black control variants- If hymn doesn't hit often in the early game, you will win. Destroy lands with reckless abadon. keep them off removal mana and beat thier face.

Pikula- Black control variant

Landstill- This is a terrible matchup. Even after boarding with blasts, boils, and whatever else I have thought of, I cannot beat this deck consistanly.

Affinity- Game one is slightly in your favor as blowing up there land also takes away from the affinity count. Meltdown, or shattering spree frmo the board is GG most of the time.


Thats all I have for now, I hope this rekindles some discussion on the deck!