Ponza

[Daenen]

Well, hello all. Did you miss me? I have been in the Army for the past several months. While I was out, Magic seems to have gone stagnant. Nothing really super new came out of Planescape, and 7th Edition seems to have killed just about every major archetype out there. Hmm, who would have ever thought that Armageddon, Crusade, and Dark Rit would leave? Oh, well. Life, and Magic, goes on.

I have a deck idea for your review. It is fairly standard. Please remember, I have been out for several months, so I don't know how well it will perform. It is just a standard Ponza deck, but I always liked those. Without further adieu, her it is:

Ponza, ver 1.0

24 Mountains
4 Fire Diamonds
4 Pillage
4 Stone Rain
4 Urza's Rage
4 Shock
4 Seal of Fire
4 Rhystic Lightning
3 Shivan Dragon
3 Wildfire
2 Skizzik

As I said, pretty standard. Please tell me what you think. Thank you in advance.

 

[Griffith_se]

Check out this R/B version and see what You think.

"Dark Ponza"

- Creatures 8 -
3 Thangarth, Talruum
4 Phyrexian Scuta
1 Thrashing Wumpus

- Land Destruction 15 -
4 Stone Rain
4 Pillage
4 Rain of Tears
3 Tectonic Break

- Burn 8 -
4 Seal of Fire
2 Shock
2 Ghitu Fire

- Mana 29 -
4 Dark Ritual
4 Rishadan Port
4 Sulfurous Springs
3 Urborg Volcano
8 Mountain
6 Swamp

 

[Griffith_se]

What is the difference between "Wildfire" and "Ponza" anyway?

 

[Gizmo]

Wildfire has Wildfire. Ponza has Jackal Pups.

The basic chronology came about after Legacy, people were playing this terrible Wildfire LD deck, then there was a good tournament won by some Pro guy who pointed out that Wildfire was ok, but wasn`t as good as a Jackal Pup.

Wildfire tried to bury it`s opponent`s under a big LD blast, Ponza tried to serve for 2 while blowing up a land every turn.

Ponza was better.

 

[Firestorm]

Ponza= Basic L/D deck using Stone Rain, Tectonic Break, Rishadan Ports, and Fire Diamonds.

Wildfire=Horribly speedy deck which uses artifact mana like Monolith to set of Wildfires all over the place and cast big, ugly red dragons. It hurts, bad. Kinda like a Red Tinker deck.

 

[RabidKimba]

You might want to try Sisay's Ring for artifact mana, and definatly Scoria Cats. (Mmm.... Blastoderm.)

 

[galtwish]

If you want Ponza, you have to smashy-smash every turn.

4 Kris Mage
4 Flailing Soldier
4 Rogue Kavu
4 Chimeric Idol
4 Skizzik
4 Stone Rain
4 Pillage
4 Tangle Wire
4 Shock
4 Volcanic Hammer
4 Rishidan Port
16 Mountian

oh wait, there's only 16 LD type spells. And the creatures suck compared to Jackal Pups, Mogg Fanatics, and Avalanche Riders. Have to add Black


4 Kris Mage
4 Foul Imp
4 Rogue Kavu
4 Volcanic Hammer
4 Tangle Wire
4 Rain of Tears
4 Stone Rain
4 Despoil
4 Skizzik
4 Rishidan Port
4 Sulferous Springs
8 Swamp
8 Mountian

oh, wait this deck sucks possibly even worse.

well, Ponza's creatures die to Earthquake and Pyroclasm, which are needed to control Fires mana producers, and there aren't any 187 land-d creatures with playing (Nightscape Battlemage doesn't count), and R/B control can't really deal with Blastoderm and Saproling Burst. Where is Abomination when you need him? In all seriousness, I am hard pressed to find a good way to make R or B/R land-d work. Here's my latest, which is far too slow:

4 Kris Mage
4 Nightscape Apprentice
4 Terminate
4 Chilling Apparition
4 Nightscape Battlemage
4 Skizzik
4 Ancient Hydra
3 Shivan Wurm
4 Dark Ritual
4 Karpulsian Forest
4 Sulferous Springs
6 Mountian
11 Swamp

and no land destruction, cause it's just too slow. It can take advantage of the Dark Ritual in the first 7 cards draw, but uses the Ritual to better effect in the mid game. Thoughts?

Erik

 

[jcredberry]

LD really sucks and I have tried in every way it is...
The best version I have tried is the G/R No-Fires:

4 Stone Rain
3 Pillage
4 Creeping Mold
2 Tectonic Break
4 Tangle Wire
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Blastoderms
2 Saproling Burst
2 Flametongue Kavu
2 Ghitu Fire
4 Rhystic Lighting
11 Forest
10 Mountains

I like the No-Ports version because is totally oriented to land destruction and it's faster, but the Ports version is totally oriented to land control, slower but equally mortal...

Your thoughts???

 

[Mundungu]

Welcome back Daeneen

Can anybody give me a valid reason why Veteran Brawlers isnt part of Ponza ?

With a lot of LD and the ports, they can attack quite often.

To have them as blocker, pair them with Chimeric idol.

The only point against them is that they cannot kill blastoderm.

 

[Turtlewax Joe]

your deck suck sucks!!! Ponza is meant for ultiment destruction, 2 things are wrong, Wild fire is now legal...USE IT!! and you don't have enough beefy creatures.
Sorry but the deck blows, After the artifact Cycle went away Ponza has only been a flicker in T II like i said wildfire an d more beef and the deck should work.

on the Dojo go to deck histories and lock for Ponza Rotta Red, this should give you a better feel for the deck.

good luck! Keldon Necropolis is a good card too