T2 Blue Ponza

[Mars]

The whole idea is to mess with their lands, early and often. It's hard for target opponent to win if they can't cast anything.

BLUE Ponza

4 Overburden
4 Tangle Wire ...slow the game down
4 Ankh of Mishra
4 Parallax Tide ....slow it down some more

3 Wash Out
3 Seal of Removal
4 Boomerang .... think: lands
4 Waterfront Bouncer
2 Viseling .... becomes High Seas vs R/G
4 Chimeric Idol
3 Sky Diamond .... a bit of speed

4 Rishadan Port
2 Saprazzan Skerry ... a bit of speed
15 Island

This deck is highly susceptable to Void (assuming they can cast Void) with 19 2cc spells, and needs major boarding vs CounterWrath. Don't take this to a serious tourney, it's a FUN deck. But....it plays out its hand quickly. Try it and see and tell us how you do.

With the results from States coming in, your gauntlet should be as follows:

1) R/G Fires
2) Lin-Sivvi White Weenie
3) U/W CounterWrath
4) U/B NetherGo
5) B/R ZombieRageHammer
6) G/W PantherWaveGeddon

 

[Zero]

Artifact (16)
4 Tangle Wire
4 Ankh of Mishra
4 Chimeric Idol
4 Sky Diamond

Blue (22)
4 Counterspell
4 Parallax Tide
2 Rising Waters
2 Daze
2 Foil Or Thwart
4 Boomerang
4 Indentured Jjin

Land (22)
4 Rishadan Port (Risky with Thwarts/foils/dazes , maybe not.)
18 Island ( I would like to include the Sapprazzn thing-a-jigs for the acceleration, but this new list is to Island reliant, I hesitate to include even the ports.)


Indentured Jjin: An awesome card, few people relize how good it is in the right type of deck. Hopefully a combination of Ank damage and a few beatings with this and the idol (Remeber theres only 8 creatures in the deck...) will be able to smack down the oppenent before he can recover from a tangle wire and/or Tide.

I hope this helps!

 

[Mars]

Sorry to hear you're a Satan-worshipper, Zero. My sympathies to your parents.

Yes, I fully agree that Indentured Djinn is wholely unappreciated. I wouldn't want more than two, but you may be right. In the Masques/Nemesis PTNY4 environment that saw Eskelund's Waters deck defeat Marsh's Lin-Sivvi Rebels, I orginally posted a deck idea called Drowning Waters to Meridian Magic that had two of them. Playtesting revealed they outraced a Blastoderm, which had the bad habit of inflicting only 15 points of damage max if unimpeded. However, Blasty can now swing for 20 thanks to Fires of Yavimaya. But I will keep the Djinn in the back of my brain as playtesting continues.

I see you have no respect for Overburden. I like it, and reserve the right to be wrong. It's worthless vs CounterWrath (in which it goes away for Meekstone), but has great utility elsewhere if cast early, hence four.

The Skerries I like very much, and playtesting has revealed their worth, especially in this slower environment. Only two though. And Ports help slow the game down just enough. Mine is a very subtle deck as well as very Parisable. It's not easy to play, but can be devestating with the proper draw.

My Viselings were orginally Waters, but I took them out because they were a bit counterintuitive with fat like Tide and Wash Out. Viseling is a BAD card, I admit, an artifact creature Black Vise with a toughness of merely 2, and may often just draw a counterspell out of opponent's hand or be shocked or disenchanted.....but if this this sees play against a slow deck???

I'll keep the Waters idea in the back of my brain as well. Thanks.

Counters are something I either want a lot of or none of. I choose the none-of route for now.

Bounce, in and of itself, is not all that good, but when combined in large numbers with Overburden and Tangle and Tide, it can be devastating.

 

[Mars]

OK, Griffith, I'm making it easier for you by responding to my own post and making it easier to you to find as I singlehandedly jump it to the top of this page. Comments, anyone?

 

[Landkiller]

What about Hoodwink as an extra boomerang?

 

[Mars]

It's funny you should mention that, Landkiller, because preliminary playtesting has revealed that this deck needs a bit more oomph, and that Hoodwinks (3) for 3 Sky Diamonds is the answer. I love the Diamonds, but they often get in the way and you don't want to topdeck them midgame when you need an "action" card.

 

[Mars]

I've done some preliminary playtesting versus Fires, letting Fires go first, and although Fires usually ekes out the win (dayam that's a powerful deck), it does so just barely and almost always with a very full hand. The Waterfront Bouncer just isn't good enough, and Meekstones would be better, especially against Blastoderm. Saproling Burst is virtually worthless with an Overburden in play, as well as being virtually uncastable when their mana is kept around 4cc at midgame. Jade Leech will be hurt, I'm sure, with a High Seas (or three) in play.
Washout is a star player. Thanks for that suggestion, phantomjkr.

BLUE Ponza
Version 2.0

4 Overburden .... become Mana Maze vs CounterWrath after sideboarding
4 Tangle Wire ...slow the game down
4 Ankh of Mishra
4 Parallax Tide ....slow it down some more

3 Wash Out .... become a Meekstone and 2 Viselings vs CounterWrath after sideboarding
3 Seal of Removal
4 Boomerang .... think: lands first, creatures later
4 Hoodwink .... think: lands
3 Meekstone .... good in a field of fat, and affects neither Chimeric Idol nor Viseling
2 Viseling .... becomes High Seas vs R/G
4 Chimeric Idol


4 Rishadan Port
2 Saprazzan Skerry ... a bit of speed
15 Island

Very Prelimary Sideboard

1 Meekstone....U/W
2 Viseling....U/W
4 Mana Maze....U/W
4 High Seas....R/G, G/W
4 Chill....R/G

High Seas are just Incredible vs G/W or R/G. Chill is obviously great vs any deck with Mountains.

versus R/G Fires
If I'm playing first, I'll keep the Boomerangs and Hoodwinks. If I'm playing 2nd, they become weak and are the replacements for Chill and High Seas.

If I'm playing first after sideboarding, however, The Chimerics and Viselings go out, and two more cards...hmmm.....any suggestions?

 

[Duel]

I think fact of fiction should definately be in the deck. It's a great card and a must have in this case. It'll get you exactly the card you need.

I hate to do this, but if you play g/r after sideboarding, your best move may be to either use millstone (There, I said it),

Or, if you use FoF, you might want to add 2 nether spirits...... it's really fun to see your opponent's face when he hits them.....

 

[Mars]

You may be right about the FoF, Duel. Here's what Will "Phantomjkr" Reiffer wrote about mono-blue decks with Ank and tide in them from his excellent article "The Definitive Ankh-Tide Sourcebook" at Star City:

The good. On a decent draw on the playside, this deck can beat ANYTHING. The bad. On the drawside, the struggle is increased. In this, I came up with what I called playside/drawside sideboarding. In its simplest form, this amounted to looking at the bounce cards first as replacements for sideboard cards WHEN ON THE DRAW SIDE. The Submerges, Chills, and other stuff that I boarded came in for the Hoodwinks first and then the Boomerangs, because a lot of the advantage of things that could be done was lost - especially first-land drop bounce. On the play side, you keep those things in, most specifically for that bounce of their first land.

Last season I ran mono blue versions of the deck that used Psychic Venom and Indentured Djinn for the most part, but I also had versions that were U/B and U/W, along with a unique U/G Version with Argothian Wurm. The U/B version was inspired by Chris Cade's Parallax Prison, and had a lot of maindeck hate that was pirated by me from Finkel's US Championship deck. The White versions had Enlightened Tutor and things like Blinding Angel or Wrath of God. Initially we toyed with some cards like Flicker as well... but last season was one that wasn't particularly keen on multicolor designs. Port was everywhere, and later Tangle Wire and the old mana problem crept into the picture. I generally stuck with mono blue.

Rule number one: You need another source of damage other than the Ankh. Ankh alone is much too flimsy to be relied upon for damage. It can get Disenchanted or Pillaged, Orangutan'd or Molded. You need something else. Usually, that is a creature. Last year, as I said, I used Indentured Djinn. That is a trade off. It worked against White and Green and against most blue decks. Blue mages would let the big flying clock hit and take the three cards... then find out that they couldn't deal with the on-board creature. Black was bad, as targeted kill netted them card advantage. Red was an iffy bargain. They usually got card advantage of one if they could kill it as it took two spells. One thing was that in a lot of cases the cards given up by the Djinn wouldn't see play, as I'd follow with Tangle Wire and the Tide wrecking their mana. But I digress some. Djinn is a horrible choice now, as removal is huge again with no real combo decks... We have to find another creature. The bad news there is that the pickins are slim...

Mono Blue Approach.

Blue Ankh Tide:
4x Ankh of Mishra
4x Parallax Tide
4x Fact or Fiction
4x Air Elemental
2x Hoodwink
4x Boomerang
2x Desertion
4x Wash Out
4x Counterspell
4x Tangle Wire
4x Rishadan Port
4x Saprazzan Skerry
16x Island
Sideboard: 3x Mana Maze
Sideboard: 4x Seal of Removal
Sideboard: 3x Chill
Sideboard: 3x Cursed Totem

The first version that I ran used Air Elemental. That wound up being a Morphling later on in a U/B version after a stint creatureless. Basically there isn't a creature that I like in blue for the deck now. The other choices are Troublesome Spirit and Ribbon Snake. You could use either of those. As this is NOT a counter-oriented deck, the Spirit should work well. Ribbon Snake gets points for the 3cc drop and the fact that it will "fly" a lot in this deck... Wash Out is a huge addition to the deck that can buy enough time to get the combo going. Fact or Fiction is hailed by the masses as the best of Invasion. In the sideboard, Mana Maze is for blue. Seal of Removal is for fast beatdown decks. Chill is obvious, and Totem is mostly for Rebels.

Here is a quick look at the creatureless version. As good as Port was it gets a whole lot better when there is a Psychic Venom on one of their lands...

AnkhTidePVMS
4x Ankh of Mishra
4x Parallax Tide
4x Hoodwink
4x Boomerang
4x Counterspell
4x Mana Short
4x Power Sink
4x Tangle Wire
4x Psychic Venom
4x Rishadan Port
20x Island

I guess you could chop it a bit and add two or three Wash Outs now... It will get some small advantage because so many will run a lot of creature removal... and this has no targets for that.

 

[Duel]

Perhaps better than Troublesome spirit is big brother: Extravagant spirit. and while I wouldn't suggest either to counter-oriented decks, Extravagant, even with an upkeep of 3 (or less) is worth it.

PVMS seems the best, rendering half of counter-wrath useless, and a great deal of removal in many other decks pointless as well. Worry? Card advantage. You need to out-draw counter-wrath. This means one of 2 things: play with 4 FoF, plus whatever you need in addition (You may need more), or play the mystical tutor engine
(4x tutor, 4x accumulated knowledge), Now, ankh-tide is nmoew for me, so bear with me as a mutilate this perfectly decent deck....

4x Ankh of Mishra
4x Parallax Tide
4x Hoodwink
4x Boomerang
4x Counterspell
4x Power Sink
4x Tangle Wire
4x Psychic Venom
4x Rishadan Port
4x FoF
20x Island

OR
Ankh-tide 2.0

2 Hannah, ship's navigator
2 Wave of reckoning
4 Conterspell
4 Power sink
3 Parallax tide
2 Parallax wave
4 Ankh of Mishra
3 Enlightened tutor
2 Boomerang
2 Wash out
4 Tangle wire
4 Psychic Venom
4 Rishadan port
20 Island

Okay, first off, the addition of hannah has a bonues and a drawback. The bonus: tide comes back! It will KEEP dealing damamge or tapping land!. So does Wave, and Wire, and the white allows Tutor and W. of Reckoning (look at me! I don't kill hannah!)

not sure how it will work exactly, but I think that the addition of hannah allows the deck a great deal more flexibility with other cards. I'd consider runnning more of her......

 

[Mars]

How bad is Viseling? Let me count the ways:
a) It has a toughness of 2
b) It's a creature
c) It's an artifact
but
d) it removes from opponent's hand counters and other anti-cr and anti-art/ench stuff to allow other things to get through.
e) It's the closest thing we have to Black Vise
Many people, many GOOD players, are examining Viseling quite closely, BTW. It's not as bad in this SLOWER Type 2 as first advertised.

I like your decks, Duel, but my original was NEVER mean to be an Ankh-Tide deck. Ankh in my deck turns Boomerangs and Hoodwinks into little shocks, and Parallax Tide is meant to slow the game down, as in Tangle Wire, to allow you to draw into cards naturally, rather than Fact or Fiction them into your hand.

And FoF is impressing me less and less, because I KNOW how to make the piles. Also, as we all get more tuned into the T2 metagame, making the piles becomes easier for all. Don't get me wrong, FoF is STILL a great card (especially in NetherGo), but I just like using cards with multiple uses, such as Tide for
a) slowing the game down, or
b) being part of the AnkhTide "I win" combo

More often than not, my deck, when it wins, wins with Chimeric Idol beats, or just gets an "I concede" from frustrated opponent. AnkhTide is a secondary way to win, and Viseling a tertiary way.

 

[Istanbul]

Rackling is simply better than Viseling, and it's easier to make it work. I actually use them in my discard deck...my TYPE 1 discard deck...to great effect.

 

[Mars]

I see can Rackling in Type 1, a format that empties its hand very quickly, but not in Type 2, where the hands are often full or near full, and my deck makes them even fuller. Too bad the discard cards in Type 2 are very bad (actually, that's NOT such a bad thing), and even if they were, WHY would you want to help target opponent discard the likes of Pyre Zombie, Hammer of Brokendon, Nether Spirit, or Squee?

 

[Killer Joe]

I played against a Pirate version of Ankh-Tide, the land bouncing and vanishing was scary at first then once I started getting mana I dominated (Counter-Wrath). I did lose the game though, because I frickin' Accumulated Knowledged and Fact or Fictioned too many times. Yuck-Yuck

 

[Duel]

Viceling is better, especially with bounce. Keep their hand full (And you CAN keep it full....) and it'll win by itself. I'm surprised I haven't used it yet.