The throttling of products was pretty stupid. Stores were getting around 1 to 2 cases (and some planeswalker decks/fat packs) per week in my area for the first 2 months. All it did was making us as consumers wait weeks for our prize packs. As the other standard legal packs, value was through the floor so no one wanted to open them.
People wants better reprints but masters packs are the only way currently. Every little bit of reprint helps in lowering prices for the eternal formats.
With supply back to normal, Dominaria prices are dropping across the board with only 1 rare value, Chainwhirler, being higher than a pack price.
do you keep a hand with no Arbor Elf, Sprawl or Birds??
So as i ve been playtesting this i wondered if you dont have any of the 10 mana accelerants in your hand its not worth keeping... agreed?
It depends. In game 1, if you have a 3 Moon and a good hand, having a slow hand is decent. If its G2/3, it may be keep-able depending on what decks your opponent is on.
If you are SBing in Trinisphere or Damping Sphere in, don't worry about the non-bo with BBE. You want it out asap and having a BBE cascading into one helps.
Since we are in the market for some high impact 3-drops to compliment our current options, I thought I'd ask for the opinions of my fellow salt miners on the following gems;
Note that at the moment I'm considering these as possible replacements for Courser of Kruphix and Nissa, VoZ.
I was reminded about Jayas original incarnation after the spoiler of her new Planeswalker card. I don't think the walker has a slot in Ponza, but the 3CMC version offers re-usable burn that can give free wins against Humans, or deal with any number of annoying Noble Heirarchs. 3 damage on a stick is nothing to scoff at. She also hoses Jace, and sweeps the board.
Scab-clan is too slow and only useful if you can get her out early. A similar card that I've tried and not like is Shaman of the Great Hunt
Jaya is also too slow. We also dont have cards to discard to activate her abilities that often.
I'm not too worried of 3CMC cards, ponza already play at least 12 of them between the moons, rains and trackers.
From DOM, I'm testing Howling Golem. The 3 toughness is a huge concern. Damping Sphere is interesting too as another way to slow burn down. My meta is burn, humans and hollow one infested currently.
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.
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.
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.
I like to add in Trinispheres for these matchups too. Also add in lifegain against titanshift decks. Keeping above 18 life is good against titanshift.
Out: 3 Bolt (this only deals with BoB), Courser (pumps goyf is bad).
In: Obstinate Baloth, Thrun, 2 Relics of Progenitus.
Other Rogue decks:
The simple sideboard plan stratedgy is just figure out what cards in your maindeck seems to be awful againsts the opponents deck in G1, then deside on what sideboard options are good to combat against your opponents deck.
Keep bolts in. Bob is a kill on sight card. You dont want jund to outgrind you. Having bolts forces them to play scooze and lili with shields up. I like having bolts on hand just to killa bob when it lands.
Why is everyone bolt-able? But at least everyone of them are stronger than a typical human on MTG. The legendary frame needs getting used to especially for black.
hello guys! I would like to give my cents about the burn match up discussion that was taking place in the last days. I faced yesterday burn twice at the same FNM (round 1 + top8). I won G1 stabilizing the board and with a blood moon in play which turned off some spell he had. Then I lost G2 and G3 for not seeing lands at all (G3 I mulled to 4 and keep double sprawl and bolt but did not see ANY lands :S). Then I made a friendly match siding out blood moon and keeping LD inside and I think it worked much better. I faced the guy again in top8 and, despite losing both matches due to terrible draw and amazing topdeck from his side, I think LD is better than moon cause it may forces him to play only 1 spell each turn.
In both cases I think it depends a lot on the drawings of burn player. There can me matches where we have moon in play but the opponent has plently of bolt/lava spike/rift bolts and he is able to play his entire hands quickly. But also there can be matches where he has only coloured spells.
After these few matches I agree though is better to side out Moon and keep in LD!
Having moon or LD is dependent on your sideboard plan and the type of burn your opponent is playing. Mono red, boros, naya, radkos have their own ways of dealing with ponza.
As I board in Trinisphere in G2/3, keeping moon in is better as it removes enchantment/artifact hate if they don't have green mana when moon resolves. My courser has gotten destructive revelry too many times.
Like you've said, it is also depend on your burn opponent draws. If they get a dream hand, it is very hard for us to deal with it.
For me, moon is better over a larger amount of games played. I used to remove moons and keep LDs but I'm keeping moon in now as I get more familiar with the match up. The best way is still to keep grinding out games and find what suits our personal play style the best.
Hey peeps, since I'm taking Ponza to GP Sydney I thought I might ask the hive mind for some thoughts on my current sideboard plan. I am particularly hazy on my Humans and Death and Taxes / Hatebears match-ups. Any advice or disagreement with my choices is more than welcome! The only thing ill ask is that if you don't agree with a choice, please provide an alternative plan from my list. My current list for reference.
Keep some LD in against Humans, Taxes variants. They run lesser lands and they may get screwed with just a T2 LD. Baloth are too slow in the matchups.
Remove some LD against Jund. KEEP ARBOR ELVES IN.
Remove all your moons against storm, keep titan and Chandra in for killing mana bears.
I prefer a 22nd land (or any card 4cmc and over) over Chandra, flamecaller. Not very hot on her.
Cheers! I can see myself running Hazoret or a Garruk, Primal Hunter in the Chandra, Flamecaller slot. But not because I think they're better, it's just the CMC.
Against humans - how much LD exactly to leave in though, and to what effect? I figure if I end up cutting the first stone rain it might just be worth cutting all stone rains.
With your current SB, I will bring in 1 Thrun, 2 Baloth, 3 Relic and 1 spyglass (7 cards). So siding out 7 cards, 2 BOP, 3 molten and 2 stone rains.
This week price changes came 1 day too early to see the most of the price changes for the challenger decks.
"Always look for what's not in a playable pre-constructed deck to see where gains are to be made, after all." This is so true. Maybe just maybe it will get people to play standard casually in FNMs.
People wants better reprints but masters packs are the only way currently. Every little bit of reprint helps in lowering prices for the eternal formats.
With supply back to normal, Dominaria prices are dropping across the board with only 1 rare value, Chainwhirler, being higher than a pack price.
It should temper the prices rise for a while. Until we get a return to return to zendikar.
This new toy looks good. It will replace some PtW/Temp mastery or just fail horribly. I believe its the former.
It depends. In game 1, if you have a 3 Moon and a good hand, having a slow hand is decent. If its G2/3, it may be keep-able depending on what decks your opponent is on.
Scab-clan is too slow and only useful if you can get her out early. A similar card that I've tried and not like is Shaman of the Great Hunt
Jaya is also too slow. We also dont have cards to discard to activate her abilities that often.
I'm not too worried of 3CMC cards, ponza already play at least 12 of them between the moons, rains and trackers.
From DOM, I'm testing Howling Golem. The 3 toughness is a huge concern. Damping Sphere is interesting too as another way to slow burn down. My meta is burn, humans and hollow one infested currently.
I like to add in Trinispheres for these matchups too. Also add in lifegain against titanshift decks. Keeping above 18 life is good against titanshift.
Keep bolts in. Bob is a kill on sight card. You dont want jund to outgrind you. Having bolts forces them to play scooze and lili with shields up. I like having bolts on hand just to killa bob when it lands.
Having moon or LD is dependent on your sideboard plan and the type of burn your opponent is playing. Mono red, boros, naya, radkos have their own ways of dealing with ponza.
As I board in Trinisphere in G2/3, keeping moon in is better as it removes enchantment/artifact hate if they don't have green mana when moon resolves. My courser has gotten destructive revelry too many times.
Like you've said, it is also depend on your burn opponent draws. If they get a dream hand, it is very hard for us to deal with it.
For me, moon is better over a larger amount of games played. I used to remove moons and keep LDs but I'm keeping moon in now as I get more familiar with the match up. The best way is still to keep grinding out games and find what suits our personal play style the best.
With your current SB, I will bring in 1 Thrun, 2 Baloth, 3 Relic and 1 spyglass (7 cards). So siding out 7 cards, 2 BOP, 3 molten and 2 stone rains.