Best Budget Ponza

Modern Budget Land Destruction RG (Gruul)

clayperce

Land (22)

• 4x Copperline Gorge
• 8x Forest
• 3x Gemstone Mine
• 4x Karplusan Forest
• 1x Kessig Wolf Run
• 2x Mountain

Removal (3)

• 3x Lightning Bolt

Utility (1)

• 1x Courser of Kruphix

Versatile Threats (13)

• 4x Bloodbraid Elf
• 1x Boartusk Liege
• 4x Boggart Ram-Gang
• 1x Glorybringer
• 2x Inferno Titan
• 1x Xenagos, the Reveler

Mana Disruption (11)

• 3x Beast Within
• 4x Magus of the Moon
• 4x Stone Rain

Ramp (10)

• 2x Birds of Paradise
• 4x Elvish Mystic
• 4x Llanowar Elves

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Sideboard

Other (15)

• 1x Abrade
• 2x Ancient Grudge
• 3x Anger of the Gods
• 2x Courser of Kruphix
• 2x Damping Sphere
• 1x Mistcutter Hydra
• 1x Obstinate Baloth
• 2x Scavenging Ooze
• 1x Xenagos, the Reveler

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Maybeboard

Versatile Threats (4)

• 2x Arlinn Kord  ^Flip
• 1x Chameleon Colossus
• 1x Thragtusk

Mana Disruption (5)

• 4x Blood Sun
• 1x Choke

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The original goal of this deck was to build the best Ponza deck possible for $250 or less. However, after I started this project, competitive Ponza decks have broken the $300 barrier (see this list, for example). With that in mind, I would NOT recommend this deck. Just save up another $50 or so and get a real Ponza deck :-)

If you're looking for a Ponza-ish deck at $100 or less, I recomend SaffronOlive's Dark-Dwellers Stone Rain or Mono-G Land Destruction.

Thank you in advance for your comments and suggestions!

Card Selection

This deck uses Andrew Wolbers' GP Phoenix deck as its starting point.

LANDS AND RAMP: The most powerful play competitive Ponza can make against most opponents is a Turn 2 Blood Moon, and we want this deck to do that too. To make it happen, we need an untapped Green source and some ramp on Turn 1, and an untapped Red source on Turn 2 ... and to make it happen with the same percentages as competitive Ponza, we need 19x Green sources that enter untapped, 13x Red sources that enter untapped, and 10x dorks in our maindeck.

• 9x Fetchlands and 3x Stomping Ground → 4x Copperline Gorge, 4x Karplusan Forest, and 3x Gemstone Mine.
• Utility Lands: 1x Kessig Wolf Run → 1x Kessig Wolf Run
• 4x Arbor Elf and 4x Utopia Sprawl → 4x Llanowar Elves and 4x Elvish Mystic: Arbor Elf and Sprawl only work on Forests, so they're not really playable without also upgrading to Fetchlands and Stomping Ground.
• 2x Birds of Paradise: No change.
• 21x Lands total → 22x Lands total: We went up a Land partly because our mana dorks are more fragile than the mix of dorks and Sprawls in competitive Ponza, but mostly we needed 1 more Red source and 1 more Green source and 2x Basics (Forest and Mountain) is much less expensive than 1x more Gemstone Mine.

MANA DISRUPTION:

• 4x Stone Rain: No change.
• 3x Molten Rain → 3x Beast Within: Our Llanowar Elves and Elvish Mystic only produce Green mana, so Molten Rain is not really playable. Beast Within is a 3-drop (so it's also a Cascade target) and much more versatile (since it can target any permanent). The downside, of course, is the risk of dying to the 3/3 Token we just gave to our opponent ...
• 4x Blood Moon → 4x Magus of the Moon: Magus can periodically get in for beats, and multiples are more useful. The downside, of course, is it is much easier for an opponent to remove than Blood Moon. Blood Sun may be a viable option here as well.

VERSATILE THREATS:

• 4x Tireless Tracker → 4x Boggart Ram-Gang: Ram-Gang is much worse than Tracker (since it does not provide card draw nor does it run away with the game if unanswered), but is still very good in this deck.
• 4x Bloodbraid Elf: No change.
• 1x Chandra, Torch of Defiance → 1x Xenagos, the Reveler: This deck cannot reliably produce 2RR by Turn 3, so even if Chandra was much less expensive, she's not really playable. Xenagos is of course much worse than Chandra, but he's still very good in the deck. Arlinn Kord   is a good option too.
• 2x Pia and Kiran Nalaar → 1x Boartusk Liege and Glorybringer. This deck cannot reliably produce 2RR by Turn 3, so Pia and Kiran are not really playable. The Liege gets a slot due to the synergy with Boggart Ram-Gang, Bloodbraid Elf, and the Tokens from Xenagos, the Reveler. Glorybringer gets the other slot because the deck is otherwise very weak to Flyers. Chameleon Colossus and Thragtusk are good options for these slots too.
• 2x Inferno Titan: No change.

REMOVAL:

• 3x Lightning Bolt: No change.

UTILITY:

• 1x Courser of Kruphix: No change.
• 1x Nissa, Voice of Zendikar: Cut to make room for an extra Land.

SIDEBOARD:

• 1x Abrade: No change.
• 2x Ancient Grudge: No change.
• 3x Anger of the Gods: No change.
• 1x Chandra, Torch of Defiance → 1x Xenagos, the Reveler: Same as above.
• 2x Kitchen Finks → 2x Courser of Kruphix
• 1x Obstinate Baloth: No change.
• 2x Scavenging Ooze: No change.
• 2x Trinisphere → 2x Damping Sphere
• 1x Thrun, the Last Troll → 1x Mistcutter Hydra. Choke is a good option too.

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Shout-outs to ...

• michael921, for all his help and advice.
• Brian Kowal and Adrian Sullivan, who invented the original Ponza deck, Michael Nielsen and Matt Mendoza, who popularized Ponza in Modern, and Andrew Wolbers, who proved that Ponza can actually win.
• Everyone at PonzaMTG on Reddit and PonzaMTG on Facebook.

Please +1 Upvote this primer if you found it useful! :-)

Date added	5 years
Last updated	5 years
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	1 - 1 Mythic Rares 23 - 8 Rares 14 - 5 Uncommons 12 - 1 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.68
Tokens	Beast 3/3 G, Satyr 2/2 GR
Folders	Ponza, >> Modern Archive <<
Based on	Ponza.dec (Deckbuilding Primer) clayperce MDN