Congratulations! Especially last Game was interesting with mull and nissa!
Could you post your Decklist?
Regards!
Thank you for your kind words.
I’m using my phone but my current decklist is:
Ponza with BBE:
Maindeck (60)
4 Arbor Elf
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Courser of Kruphix
3 Tireless Tracker
4 Bloodbraid Elf
2 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
2 Stormbreath Dragon
1 Inferno Titan
1 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
2 Lightning Bolt
3 Molten Rain
4 Stone Rain
1 Primal Command
4 Utopia Sprawl
4 Blood Moon
1 Cinder Glade
8 Forest
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Mountain
3 Stomping Ground
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
Sideboard (15)
2 Kitchen Finks
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Abrade
2 Ancient Grudge
3 Anger of the Gods
1 Beast Within
1 Fracturing Gust
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Trinisphere
If anyone is interested I have posted some matches from yesterday at my LGS. YouTube channel is called Decks Done Right tcg. Spoiler alert: went undefeated
And then is adjusted according to meta, style, flavour, and mana curve.
I disagree with this as being core to Ponza post the BBE unban.
This is what I believe is the core of the deck:
At least 21 Lands
4 Arbor Elf
4 Utopia Sprawl
4 Blood Moon
4 Stone Rain
4 BBE
At least 1 Birds of Paradise (I personally don’t agree with this but majority of people still believe it is core to the deck)
At least 3 Molten Rain
At least 3 Tireless Tracker
At least 1 Chandra ToD
At least 3 creature finishers (any number of Inferno Titan or Stormbreath)
Anything else is preference. There are a bunch of lists that play Pia and Kiran Nalaar as a 1-2 of, Courser of Kruphix as a 1 of, Nissa VoZ as a 1, and some number of Lightning Bolts. These cards have been debated off and on thus can be regarded as not core to the strategy.
are we really that hungry for more 3 drops? between 8 rains, 4 trackers and some of us are running voices and coursers, i think there are plenty.
I was looking at another aspect of the deck which our BBE doesn't play well with: the dorks.
They're so important on turns 1 and 2... and afterward we're not too hot on seeing them, or cascading into them. Side issue: 60% of them die to bolts and pushes.
I've been thinking of solving this problem by changing up 2 birds for Simian Spirit Guide.
Pros:
It enables 4 mana on turn 2 a lot more consistently. Arbor/Sprawl + guide in any combination will let you BBE or Acid-moss on turn 2.
It also makes the turn 2 blood moon/rain far more reliable, since they can't interact with it outside of discard.
When hit by BBE, its a 2/2 body.
Cons:
While it ignores removal in the early turns, the mana ramp is not repeatable.
For all its worth, 2/2 non-flying isn't the bee's knees. Still beats arbor elf or birds in terms of offensive power tho.
You forgot to mention 4 Moons which means typical lists play at least 14 3CMC spells if not more.
The SSG debate has been around from time to time in here but in short the answer is not worth it. It sounds good in theory but in actual testing most people find out that it isn’t great because not having the consistent mana source you can just stumble even more often. Example: you have 2 lands and a SSG with no other lands sure you can cast the Moon but then you are at 2 mana for your next turn and if you don’t hit your land in the next 2 turns you allow your opponent to climb back into the game. Now I can almost already hear your response saying well if the opponent bolts the bird or elf you are in the same boat. I will agree that is 100% true but not every game does your opponent have the removal spell. If they did this deck wouldn’t exist.
So let’s look at T3 in 2 land and a dork vs 2 land and a SSG. If dork lives you can play at least any 3 mana or less spell without drawing a land. If SSG is used then you are limited to 1-2 CMC spells (which some people do run a 1 of Scooze in the main now) if you don’t top deck a land.
But hey don’t take my word for it! I encourage you to do your own testing and to report back your findings.
Ok guess it is time to go over general sb strategies. There has already been disagreements with regards to how to sb against burn, but I will give my thoughts and encourage others to do so as well because collectively we can become better players if we help one another.
I will cover as many as I can but if you want me to address other decks or further explain reasons why I sideboard the way I do just let me know.
Burn: kinda covered already but Trinisphere and life gain cards in. Blood moons and PWs out.
Storm: Trinisphere and GY hate (if you play choke then also bring this in). Blood moon and big finishers out.
Humans: Sweepers, 1-2 life gain, 1-2 Artifact hate (Abrade strong here). PW and couple Rains out (1 Elf if need be to make swap even)
G/B/x midrange or control: GY hate (if you play Finks and Scooze very strong here) (if playing against control Thrun). Flex cards out such as Courser and Lightning Bolt.
Affinity: All artifact hate and Sweepers in. PW (argument can be made for keeping Nissa in if playing P&K) and some number of Rains out.
Tron: Honestly nothing is worth bringing in to make the matchup better than it already is.
Valakut: Same as Tron.
Hollow One: GY hate and Sweepers with 1-2 Artifact hate in. PW and Blood Moon out.
Dredge: GY hate and Sweepers. PW and some flex spots out.
Living End: GY hate and Trinisphere in (if you play P&K don’t forget that it can shoot down your own creatures thus wait to crack clues). PW and some number of flex spots out.
Boggles: Trinisphere and 1-2 Sweepers in (if you play beast within great here to blow up the Daybreak Cornet) (if you play Fracturing Gust it is the typically the game ended). Chandra and some number of flex spots out.
Death Shadow: GY hate and Thrun in (Primal Command can come in clutch to give opponent life to kill Shadows). Chandra and some number of flex spots out (Courser not great).
D&T: Some artifact hate and Sweepers in. PW and a couple flex spots out.
U/W/x control: Thrun and GY hate in (if you play choke and Finks bring them in too). 1 Elf and some number of flex spots out.
I hope this is a good start for y’all. With all the outs mentioned above you can also take out 1 BBE if needed. Variance doesn’t always help.
Regarding Nissa VOZ no one has ever said she is crucial to the deck. Please keep in mind there are quite a few flex spots in Ponza which she is 1 of. If you don’t like her then don’t run her but I am glad to see people test cards and find out that they don’t like it rather than not try a card just because at first glance doesn’t look great.
For those interested in her merits, she is good against big creature decks and has the potential to make all the dorks into actual thread along with making cards like P&K or Huntmaster better as well. Her ult is basically game winning, but every ult should be. Pretty good hit off BBE.
I am not sure where an updated sb guide is but I am sure we can come up with something collectively. Question is are we going to use just generalizations or use a list for + and -?
For those unsure about the burn matchup (I switched from burn to play Ponza but I still play it about 25% of the time in Modern and 100% of the time in Legacy) Blood Moon isn’t that great. You can keep in the other Rain effects because Trinisphere is your friend here along with your life gain package.
Courser alone is a house against burn as the incremental life gain burn can’t deal with very well. Also never block with Courser unless you are facing down lethal as they can then just bolt or blaze it.
Kitchen Finks is also very good because of it having 2 triggers of life gain due to having persist and this one you always block with.
If you have played any of the other life gain thing above Thragtusk, Primal Command, or Wurmcoil have the potential to put the game out of reach for them but this is a situation where you are forcing them to have the Skullcrack or they lose.
As for what to on the lookout for Deflecting Palm can wreck you so trying to hit with a big finisher might not be wise.
Lastly any sweepers are good here as all of there guys are pretty small. Burn tries to stick creatures early to provide them with consistent damage.
Hopefully this helps.
Currently, if you deal direct damage to a player, you can choose to redirect that damage to a planeswalker they control.
This rule is going to be changed so planeswalkers are targeted directly. Many cards will receive errata. Cards that target a player will have planeswalker added to the list of potential targets (think Lightning Bolt). Cards that damage without targeting will work as written, and will lose the ability to incidentally damage planeswalkers (think Earthquake).
This is the current speculation (and seems the most logical) but we aren’t 100% certain what all the erratas will be for sure until the set release of Dominaria. That is when Rosewater said all cards older cards than Dominaria will be adjusted.
As for the humans and d&t matchup I board basically the same. Bring in all sweepers for early board control and Grudges for Vial then side out some of the Rain effects along with big mana spells. Specifically for your list would be something like:
In: 2 Ancient Grudge, 2 Anger of the Gods, 1 Slagstorm
Out: All 3 Chandra (Big Chandra is too expensive and Chandra TOD typically can’t live past 1 turn) 2 Molten Rain because Stone Rain you can more reliable to cast and Rain effects can still be useful.
I don't have to test the card to know it has a built in failure rate in this deck- ponza plays multiple 4, 5, and 6 cmc cards- there are going to be times when hazoret isn't going to do anything. Even if hazoret worked say, 75% of the time, which seems fairly generous, it still would not be worth mainboarding as like I said, many other good, proactive options in the 4 cmc slot exist. Hazoret is better in a deck like jund or mardu as a midrange mirror breaker sideboard card because you can actively discard your hand to the likes of liliana and collective brutality to get her online.
I figured that you hadn’t which is why I asked. There are plenty of cards that on paper look bad but in actual testing turn out to be great cards. Posting in a forum when you don’t have experience with the card does no good to help further the discussion. There are quite a few people in here who have played with the card to great success. In short try it before you knock it.
There's no reason to ever play a 4 mana do nothing in modern- hazoret is a card with a built in fail rate- sometimes it's going to work and you'll be happy about it, other times you're going to spend 4 mana to do nothing because you have inferno titan and multiple other spells in hand. Modern is a format that punishes those who aren't trying to have a proactive strategy- and sometimes hazoret is not proactive at all. There's just no reason to include a card like this when there are so many other completely fine options available that readily impact the board when they come down- chameleon colossus, huntmaster, P&K, chandra, mwonvuli acid moss, etc.
Have you tested the card at all in the deck? If so how many times?
While KWR isn’t crucial to the deck giving a creature trample alone is pretty big. It helps with in dealing with chump blockers to get through damage. Is it a colorless land? Yep it is! But 1 out of the 21-22 lands is not a deal breaker to me.
With the current list I posted I have play about 30+ games but have been on Ponza for a few months now as my local meta hated out burn (my deck of choice) with stuff like playing main deck Leyline of Sanctity and Kor Firewalker along with people playing Soul Sisters. Since people didn’t want me to play magic I didn’t feel bad about blowing up their lands so they couldn’t play magic either.
I, much like some in here, was hesitant about Hazoret but she is the deal. It took like only 2 games of me seeing here before I was like yep this card is better than even I thought.
I am not sure what you mean about playing Stormbreath in the same deck as Hazoret though I have seen people in person and in this forum not realize that Hazoret stipulates 1 or less so you can keep 1 card in hand no problem.
I originally thought she was going to be clunky and I was going to have cards in hand and it would be useless. This isn’t the case really at all in actual play testing.
It is similar to that of Tireless Tracker. I was like that card from standard that literally does to every piece of removal is good? No Way! Well in testing the card out it is really strong and should be a 3 of at least.
Hopefully this answers the questions you had and I am willing to help answer any other questions.
Hazoret is nothing comparing to Inferno Titan. It's a big mistake not playing him.
Also Nissa is useless in general, but especially when you don't play Birds and Pia and Kirans.
While there is some backing of Nissa already in recent posts let’s discuss Hazoret vs Inferno Titan.
Hazoret has haste, Titan doesn’t. This is probably this biggest key difference in our current meta of Jace decks. Even if your opponent pluses Jace, an empty board means Hazoret can take him out while in that same situation with Titan Jace lives to bounce Titan if they draw a counterspell or brainstorm possibly into more answers.
Pinned behind an Ensnaring Bridge Hazoret can still do damage to your opponent while Titan just sits there to collect dust.
Titan can shoot down small creatures which does remove pesky chump blockers (best thing going for Titan). The problem here is anything with more than 4 toughness still lives and will chump the Titan.
Titan can pump himself but again a 4 toughness creature can chump block which removes this positive for Titan.
If staring down a 6/7 Goyf or large Shadow the Inferno Titan can’t really do anything yet the Hazoret can block all day long, or in the case of having a Kessig Wolf Run you can pump Hazoret and your creature lives while theirs would die vs just trading with the Titan.
Some games you never get to 6 mana (luck of the draw) so Hazoret being 4 mana means you will be able to cast it more often along with being able to come down earlier.
Inferno Titan can’t do anything with a bad top deck that turn like drawing one of our 1 mana ramp spells whereas Hazoret changes it into damage.
If you feel I missed something about Titan that should be further explored please add it to the discussion.
You are 100% right about firespout being a nonbo in the board with BBE. It should have been the 3rd Slagstorm. Thank you for reminding me to make the swap.
I bought 3 with every intention of taking out the firespout as I ran 3 of those in the board prior to the unban.
Thank you for your kind words.
I’m using my phone but my current decklist is:
Ponza with BBE:
Maindeck (60)
4 Arbor Elf
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Courser of Kruphix
3 Tireless Tracker
4 Bloodbraid Elf
2 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
2 Stormbreath Dragon
1 Inferno Titan
1 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
2 Lightning Bolt
3 Molten Rain
4 Stone Rain
1 Primal Command
4 Utopia Sprawl
4 Blood Moon
1 Cinder Glade
8 Forest
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Mountain
3 Stomping Ground
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
Sideboard (15)
2 Kitchen Finks
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Abrade
2 Ancient Grudge
3 Anger of the Gods
1 Beast Within
1 Fracturing Gust
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Trinisphere
I disagree with this as being core to Ponza post the BBE unban.
This is what I believe is the core of the deck:
At least 21 Lands
4 Arbor Elf
4 Utopia Sprawl
4 Blood Moon
4 Stone Rain
4 BBE
At least 1 Birds of Paradise (I personally don’t agree with this but majority of people still believe it is core to the deck)
At least 3 Molten Rain
At least 3 Tireless Tracker
At least 1 Chandra ToD
At least 3 creature finishers (any number of Inferno Titan or Stormbreath)
Anything else is preference. There are a bunch of lists that play Pia and Kiran Nalaar as a 1-2 of, Courser of Kruphix as a 1 of, Nissa VoZ as a 1, and some number of Lightning Bolts. These cards have been debated off and on thus can be regarded as not core to the strategy.
You forgot to mention 4 Moons which means typical lists play at least 14 3CMC spells if not more.
The SSG debate has been around from time to time in here but in short the answer is not worth it. It sounds good in theory but in actual testing most people find out that it isn’t great because not having the consistent mana source you can just stumble even more often. Example: you have 2 lands and a SSG with no other lands sure you can cast the Moon but then you are at 2 mana for your next turn and if you don’t hit your land in the next 2 turns you allow your opponent to climb back into the game. Now I can almost already hear your response saying well if the opponent bolts the bird or elf you are in the same boat. I will agree that is 100% true but not every game does your opponent have the removal spell. If they did this deck wouldn’t exist.
So let’s look at T3 in 2 land and a dork vs 2 land and a SSG. If dork lives you can play at least any 3 mana or less spell without drawing a land. If SSG is used then you are limited to 1-2 CMC spells (which some people do run a 1 of Scooze in the main now) if you don’t top deck a land.
But hey don’t take my word for it! I encourage you to do your own testing and to report back your findings.
I will cover as many as I can but if you want me to address other decks or further explain reasons why I sideboard the way I do just let me know.
Burn: kinda covered already but Trinisphere and life gain cards in. Blood moons and PWs out.
Storm: Trinisphere and GY hate (if you play choke then also bring this in). Blood moon and big finishers out.
Humans: Sweepers, 1-2 life gain, 1-2 Artifact hate (Abrade strong here). PW and couple Rains out (1 Elf if need be to make swap even)
G/B/x midrange or control: GY hate (if you play Finks and Scooze very strong here) (if playing against control Thrun). Flex cards out such as Courser and Lightning Bolt.
Affinity: All artifact hate and Sweepers in. PW (argument can be made for keeping Nissa in if playing P&K) and some number of Rains out.
Tron: Honestly nothing is worth bringing in to make the matchup better than it already is.
Valakut: Same as Tron.
Hollow One: GY hate and Sweepers with 1-2 Artifact hate in. PW and Blood Moon out.
Dredge: GY hate and Sweepers. PW and some flex spots out.
Living End: GY hate and Trinisphere in (if you play P&K don’t forget that it can shoot down your own creatures thus wait to crack clues). PW and some number of flex spots out.
Boggles: Trinisphere and 1-2 Sweepers in (if you play beast within great here to blow up the Daybreak Cornet) (if you play Fracturing Gust it is the typically the game ended). Chandra and some number of flex spots out.
Death Shadow: GY hate and Thrun in (Primal Command can come in clutch to give opponent life to kill Shadows). Chandra and some number of flex spots out (Courser not great).
D&T: Some artifact hate and Sweepers in. PW and a couple flex spots out.
U/W/x control: Thrun and GY hate in (if you play choke and Finks bring them in too). 1 Elf and some number of flex spots out.
I hope this is a good start for y’all. With all the outs mentioned above you can also take out 1 BBE if needed. Variance doesn’t always help.
For those interested in her merits, she is good against big creature decks and has the potential to make all the dorks into actual thread along with making cards like P&K or Huntmaster better as well. Her ult is basically game winning, but every ult should be. Pretty good hit off BBE.
I am not sure where an updated sb guide is but I am sure we can come up with something collectively. Question is are we going to use just generalizations or use a list for + and -?
Courser alone is a house against burn as the incremental life gain burn can’t deal with very well. Also never block with Courser unless you are facing down lethal as they can then just bolt or blaze it.
Kitchen Finks is also very good because of it having 2 triggers of life gain due to having persist and this one you always block with.
If you have played any of the other life gain thing above Thragtusk, Primal Command, or Wurmcoil have the potential to put the game out of reach for them but this is a situation where you are forcing them to have the Skullcrack or they lose.
As for what to on the lookout for Deflecting Palm can wreck you so trying to hit with a big finisher might not be wise.
Lastly any sweepers are good here as all of there guys are pretty small. Burn tries to stick creatures early to provide them with consistent damage.
Hopefully this helps.
This is the current speculation (and seems the most logical) but we aren’t 100% certain what all the erratas will be for sure until the set release of Dominaria. That is when Rosewater said all cards older cards than Dominaria will be adjusted.
In: 2 Ancient Grudge, 2 Anger of the Gods, 1 Slagstorm
Out: All 3 Chandra (Big Chandra is too expensive and Chandra TOD typically can’t live past 1 turn) 2 Molten Rain because Stone Rain you can more reliable to cast and Rain effects can still be useful.
I figured that you hadn’t which is why I asked. There are plenty of cards that on paper look bad but in actual testing turn out to be great cards. Posting in a forum when you don’t have experience with the card does no good to help further the discussion. There are quite a few people in here who have played with the card to great success. In short try it before you knock it.
Have you tested the card at all in the deck? If so how many times?
With the current list I posted I have play about 30+ games but have been on Ponza for a few months now as my local meta hated out burn (my deck of choice) with stuff like playing main deck Leyline of Sanctity and Kor Firewalker along with people playing Soul Sisters. Since people didn’t want me to play magic I didn’t feel bad about blowing up their lands so they couldn’t play magic either.
I, much like some in here, was hesitant about Hazoret but she is the deal. It took like only 2 games of me seeing here before I was like yep this card is better than even I thought.
I am not sure what you mean about playing Stormbreath in the same deck as Hazoret though I have seen people in person and in this forum not realize that Hazoret stipulates 1 or less so you can keep 1 card in hand no problem.
I originally thought she was going to be clunky and I was going to have cards in hand and it would be useless. This isn’t the case really at all in actual play testing.
It is similar to that of Tireless Tracker. I was like that card from standard that literally does to every piece of removal is good? No Way! Well in testing the card out it is really strong and should be a 3 of at least.
Hopefully this answers the questions you had and I am willing to help answer any other questions.
While there is some backing of Nissa already in recent posts let’s discuss Hazoret vs Inferno Titan.
Hazoret has haste, Titan doesn’t. This is probably this biggest key difference in our current meta of Jace decks. Even if your opponent pluses Jace, an empty board means Hazoret can take him out while in that same situation with Titan Jace lives to bounce Titan if they draw a counterspell or brainstorm possibly into more answers.
Pinned behind an Ensnaring Bridge Hazoret can still do damage to your opponent while Titan just sits there to collect dust.
Titan can shoot down small creatures which does remove pesky chump blockers (best thing going for Titan). The problem here is anything with more than 4 toughness still lives and will chump the Titan.
Titan can pump himself but again a 4 toughness creature can chump block which removes this positive for Titan.
If staring down a 6/7 Goyf or large Shadow the Inferno Titan can’t really do anything yet the Hazoret can block all day long, or in the case of having a Kessig Wolf Run you can pump Hazoret and your creature lives while theirs would die vs just trading with the Titan.
Some games you never get to 6 mana (luck of the draw) so Hazoret being 4 mana means you will be able to cast it more often along with being able to come down earlier.
Inferno Titan can’t do anything with a bad top deck that turn like drawing one of our 1 mana ramp spells whereas Hazoret changes it into damage.
If you feel I missed something about Titan that should be further explored please add it to the discussion.
I bought 3 with every intention of taking out the firespout as I ran 3 of those in the board prior to the unban.