4 Stone Rain
4 Pillage
4 Creeping Mold
2 Earth Rift
2 Tremble
2 Frenzied Tilling
4 Magnivore
4 Wild Mongrel
2 Terravore
4 Shower of Coals
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Llanowar Elves
8 Mountain
8 Forest
4 Karplusan Forest

SB
4 Price of Glory
4 Molten Influence
4 Urza's Rage
3 Hull Breach

Land Destruction:
This build swings hard, packing 18 land destruction (nearly a third of the deck). Plus, it fits land destruction into every critical point of the mana curve. Using birds and elves, Stone Rain and Pillage are cast second turn quite often. If the opening hand is slightly weaker, Tremble can still be cast on turn two. Tremble is also excellent as it slides around Divert preventing you from losing that critical mountain or forest early game. Third turn the deck continues casting Stone Rain, Pillage, Earth Rift, or Creeping Mold. Fifth turn, Frenzied Tilling or more of the other spells are cast as the opponent wonders if he/she will ever play a critical spell. Earth Rift is very nice as, mid to late game, it gets flashed back netting the deck two more LD and saving the deck from stalling out for a turn or two. Frenzied Tilling needs no explanation! After sufficiently reducing the opponent's land count and a sufficient number of lands are in play, creatures begin to hit the board and they are powerhouses.

Creature Base:
Obviously the four birds and 4 elves provide the deck with critical acceleration to cast those turn two Stone Rains and Pillages. Or, they get the deck to a third turn Frenzied Tilling which provides even more acceleration. After testing several times I have cast 2 four casting cost spells on turn four. Granted that was due to a perfect hand for such, but it shows the speed of the deck. I should also state that Elves often swing for a few early points of damage before the big guys hit the table while the deck plays LD.
Wild Mongrel is simply amazing! In draft or Contsructed he is one of the best green weenie's ever. When played, excess lands can be discarded to power up a later Terravore or, in the case of mana screw, excess sorceries can be discarded to power up later Magnivores. In other words, due to this little guy, if the deck doesn't destroy enough land to call itself Ponza, it turns itself into a pseudo-stompy deck and serves up damage effectively.
Recently I have tested with a Dwarven Landslide and Epicenter in place of the Terravores, but they often are the finisher in a game. While Mongrel and Manivore can be chump blocked, how does the opponent deal with a 6 or 7 trample staring him/her down and with only one or two or no lands?
This build brings 22 sorceries with it... why? Because Magnivore is huge and so is Price of Glory. The red vore packs a huge punch and does it quickly as it has haste. Mid game, after casting one more sorcery, the deck plays Magnivore and serves. After sideboarding, the deck has no problems as it only uses sorceries, while the opponent grinds his/her teeth as they realize that a Stone Rain is now either a critical must counter or a 2, 3, or even four for one. It brings tears to a blue players eyes like mine, but if playing to win, it's the card to use.

A/E Removal:
With eight artifact hate maindeck, the deck has little problems taking care of a problem Static Orb. Also, should the opponent cast an irritating, mid-game enchantment, four Creeping Molds gang up on it until it is no more. After sideboarding, enchantments are even less of a problem.

Other:
Shower of Coals is broken in Constructed as well as in draft. Either it picks off three weeenies or it picks off three fatties. I can't argue with that. Besides, it can pick off the opponent as well. It nets more damage than a single Urza's Rage (without Kicker and this deck doesn't have to worry about that) and can't be Diverted. Hopefully, against blue, a lack of land or a Price of Glory will stop it from being countered. Also, when threshold is achieved, and this deck does so nearly every game, it will take out that pesky Shadowmage Infiltrator.

Mana Base:
The mana base is really quite simple. It utilizes the only available painland--the invasion dual is somewhat sub-par as it wastes tempo. The rest is split evenly between forests and mountains. The four birds and elves make the deck shine however for the reasons I stated above. See--simple!

Sideboard:
Price of Glory really needs no further comment. Molten Influence, however, does.
When blue tries to counter that critical Pillage, it recoils as it is suddenly presented with four damage to the head. Or, a divert is suddenly not so bad as the mountain it attempts to retarget gets in one last hit.
Urza's Rage gets sided in against blue or weenie to eliminate either three utility weenie's or to guarantee the death of that Finkel smiling at you.
Hull breach takes out pesky white enchantments such as Sacred Ground. Or, it can take out pesky artifacts like Millstone or Static Orb (although Millstone is not that worrisome as it strengthens several of the deck's cards).

Hopefully, I have shown the finer points of "The New Ponza" (I like the sound of that for a name). Almost every spell has more than one use and the interworkings of all of the cards allow for variable play depending on the game situation. The only thing the deck loses to is mana screw (which doesn't happen often) or a lucky (or extremely hateful) control deck.

Bring it,

nice aricle though

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magicmaster5000, make free time!!!

First of all, the mono-red that seems to be getting a lot of publicity is actually an incredibly weak deck. Having seen it several times in the last couple of weeks, I redesigned my sideboard with 4 Galina's Knight, a U/W bear from Invasion with pro-red. The problem with the mono-red that this "New Ponza" doesn't have is speed. I can almost always Divert a LD card, get one or two bears down and it's good-nite. Mono-red is quite good against the unprepared, but mono anything has never, IMHO, been solid contention.

The speed of this "New Ponza" is huge trouble, and while I've never seen anything quite like the one listed here, I have a beatdown that has been awesome against just about anything I've come up against, as well as the duel color LD decks I've run across. Running Infestation/Bearscape with Birds, Elves, Mongrols, the key is to drop a third turn Iridecent Angel (or other hard to get rid of fatty of your choice via a discard with Infestation or Mongrol) with Death. WOG is always a problem, but Death can always bring it back.

I'm still tweaking and playtesting, but I am interested in comments and suggestions. I'd really be interested in playing one of these "New Ponza" decks to see how my fast beatdown would do. My U/W would have trouble all day long, I think. Looks like it might be back to the drawing board.

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I beat God with my version of Ponza. It was great Goddess vs. God = 2:1

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9.11.01

Slaves, Me, Thank You, Set Definition Tutorial

I think the problem with the mono red build is that one hate card hoses it. As you noticed a few pro-red guys won't bother me as I have plenty of Green Guys to fight back with. (Plus I can race).

As for decimate, the card is terrible because you must declare one target of each type. You only ever get to use it rarely. Problem creature?...can't Decimate it. Same gos for enchantments, artifacts and lands.

Everyone plays non-basic lands.
For 2 mana you can destroy it or do 6 damage to the opponent..

And with only 4 nonbasic land in your deck most of the time you dont have to worry about Divert.

quote:

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Originally posted by Trelocke:
... but mono anything has never, IMHO, been solid contention.

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One of the flaws that I see with this deck is how do you take care of your opponent's mana creatures. Shower of Coals is great, but at 5 mana gives your opponent several important turns to use their birds or elves. I think that the new Engulfing Flames or Fire and Ice would be really helpful early on.

David Jou,
You make some good points, Recoup sounds like it has great potential as I can flashback anything I need. Often, I can cast Recoup and flashback an LD for cheaper that the flashback of Earth Rift itself. I will test this out.
Tremble, although powerful since it does not target, tends to sacrifice tempo as you want to cast it early game and have to give up a land yourself. I've mana-screwed myself one time too many to play 4 of them.
I think you are correct about Implode; the card advantage is most likely better than the extra land. Plus the spell only takes one colored mana so I can cast it even when I am color screwed. I think I will replace these. (Plus it would be about the only card drawing in my deck!)
The reason I use so many Magnivores is because I like to go aggro when I find I am not drawing enough LD. Also, I'd like not to have all of my creatures be the same color (although Wild Mongrel can change). I get around Moat and other hate cards this way. Besides, Terravore pales in comparison to Magnivore. The Magnivore is usually bigger and he has haste.
Although Shower of Coals has been my friend, I think I am going to give in to better Wisdom and run Earthquake(not BoD) maindeck and perhaps a Fire/Ice or two. Mana creatures on the opponents side do tend to decrease the effectiveness of the deck and I would like to get rid of them more quickly than I previously have.

I would like to post an updated decklist, taking into consideration all the feedback I have received...

1 Shivan Wurm
3 Magnivore
2 Terravore
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Llanowar Elves
2 Earthquake
2 Fire/Ice
4 Stone Rain
4 Pillage
4 Creeping Mold
2 Tremble
2 Implode
2 Recoup
8 Mountain
8 Forest
4 Karplusan Forest

Sideboard:
4 Price of Glory
4 Molten Influence
4 Urza's Rage
3 Hull Breach

I think the sideboard may deserve a little attention; I will test and post my findings shortly.

4x magnivore - "this card is soo fun to play out"
4x terravore - "it's a big stick"
4x bops - "is there a deck i wouldnt put it in?"
4x stone rains - "traditional way to bring down the lands"
4x demolish - "mana isnt that big of a problem when u have bops"
4x mongrel - "strange enuff, this card can singlehandly win games, i personally dubb it, blastoderm replacement."
4x werebear - "i like this card a lot cuz it really comes in handy (2 for a 4/4)"
4x earth rift - "it's just another option"
4x pillage - "way to get rid of pestky mirari's"
1x mirari - "after u get rid of his, put one in, heheh"
2x ghitu fires - "ehh, gets rid of creatures"
2x savage firecat - "man, i was like WOHO when i pulled these babies"
other various land destroying cards...

Heat to 350 for 35 minutes, remove from oven, let cool. Serves well.

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quote:

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Originally posted by sugarv:
2 Terravore
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Llanowar Elves
2 Earthquake
2 Fire/Ice
4 Creeping Mold
8 Forest
4 Karplusan Forest

Sideboard:
3 Hull Breach

I think the sideboard may deserve a little attention; I will test and post my findings shortly.

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Ickies.

Look, if you want to make Ponza, chuck it full of land distruction/direct damage. Forget the extra race of getting as many weenie creatures into play as possible. Nice to have BoP's in some decks, but they're not meant to be in everything.

Perhaps you should check out what some other kids' versions are.

Or, I can challenge you to a match in Apprentice. :evil grin:

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9.11.01

Slaves, Me, Thank You, Set Definition Tutorial

quote:

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Originally posted by Valmtg:

Nice to have BoP's in some decks, but they're not meant to be in everything.

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Uh... BoP has a quite important part in this deck, making turn-two LD possible.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Jerh9e1k5:
Am I missing something? When Oddysey rotates in Masques Rotates out right? Then why are you able to use stone rain, pillage and other masques cards?

Thanks

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Um, because they were reprinted in 7th I suppose...?

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9.11.01

Slaves, Me, Thank You, Set Definition Tutorial

those maginivores and terravores are good in the deck as they get around the aegis of honor lockdown hed be in if he played just burn.

and i have been on the recieving end of a 16/16 terravor... not a nice place to be in.

and i mean look at teh combo. he goes declare attack. 7 cards in hand. discard 6 sorcerys to mongrel he = 9/9 play magnivore 6/6 attack wit both.

BANG j00 dead f00!

i seen him do it. he has in fact done almost that when we played.

teh deck is sooome good.

(^_____^)

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Magnivore is neat, but not killer in my opinion. Terravore is a lot more efficient given the deck construction.

I would consider using Thornscape familiars in place of an elf/bird or three. They accelerate the deck *and* deliver beats.

Turn 1: Forest, Elf
Turn 2: Mountain, Familiar, Tremble
Turn 3: Forest, Frenzied Tilling, Attack for 2, Elf

Same goes for werebears. Establish mana advantage, finish with some beats.

Personally, I favor B/R land D right now. Get the early advantage, drop Braids, watch opponent scoop. Keeps out early shadowmage, can splash a touch of green, which gives it access to an excellent sideboard of to tackle color hosers, enchantments and just about everything else.

I know it will never work, but I would LOVE to do Goblin Gardener/Malevolent Awakening...