Thoughts on UG Control?

Modern Deck Help forum

Posted on March 27, 2019, 9:09 a.m. by clayperce

Here's my latest weird Ponza(ish) brew; I'd love your thoughts and suggestions!


Flash Ponza

Modern clayperce

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The deck is built around my new favorite Land Destruction spell, Repudiate / Replicate . Yeah, it's conditional, but stifling an opponent's Fetchland is spectacularly evil in the early game. Plus the card offer a bunch of value in the late-game, unlike traditional Ponza spells such as Stone Rain .

Keeping 2 mana up is a VERY real cost though in a Sorcery-speed deck like Ponza, so I shifted to Flash creatures and Instant-speed effects.

Thanks in advance for your comments!

APPLE01DOJ says... #2

March 27, 2019 1:50 p.m.

clayperce says... #3

APPLE01DOJ,
Yeah, maybe ... though the deck generates enough mana that it's probably better to use a three-drop that will also hit triggered abilities (e.g., Nimble Obstructionist , Disallow , Voidslime ). I'll definitely keep Squelch in mind though once I start testing!

Thanks much!

March 27, 2019 4:42 p.m.

APPLE01DOJ says... #4

I run a similar deck, although a bit different. It shares some ideas (like mana hate).

Kefnet The Mindful

Might be worth glancing at for ideas, I've been refining it for a while now.

March 27, 2019 10:26 p.m.

PlatinumOne says... #5

it basically just looks like a weird mashup of ramp into semi-big threats with suboptimal control elements. besides fetchlands, what activated or triggered abilities are you hoping to stop with Repudiate / Replicate ?

March 28, 2019 2:28 a.m.

heckproof says... #6

@PlatinumOne Pretty sure that Repudiate / Replicate hits planeswalker abilities. Sniping an ult or stopping an emblem seems like big game.

March 28, 2019 12:50 p.m.

APPLE01DOJ says... #7

Also hits ETB/LTB abilities which is important for stoping combo/advantage.

Also can stop stuff like Sanctum of Ugin

March 28, 2019 12:59 p.m.

PlatinumOne says... #8

heckproof: planeswalkers rarely ult in modern. but i don't really see any value in temporarily stopping a planeswalker that the opponent can just use again later, unless the walker can be attacked and destroyed the following turn

March 28, 2019 8:49 p.m.

APPLE01DOJ says... #9

It's highly relevant against Saheeli Rai .

March 28, 2019 9:51 p.m.

heckproof says... #10

@PlatinumOne That’s a fair point. I was speaking more from personal experience; my meta runs a surprisingly high amount of Nahiri, the Harbinger , and in many cases a stifle effect is literally the only thing that will save you from hasty Emrakul, and in many cases the Nahiri opponent goes directly for the ult, meaning that stifling it will just straight kill the Nahiri without ult.

I sorta assumed from the build that OP’s meta has enough grindy planeswalker decks to warrant repudiate

March 28, 2019 10:56 p.m.

clayperce says... #11

APPLE01DOJ,
Thanks much; I'll give your Kefnet deck a hard look, for sure.

heckproof and APPLE01DOJ,
Yeah, those are all good examples.

PlatinumOne,

> weird mashup of ramp into semi-big threats with suboptimal control elements.

That's actually a great definition of what Ponza is all about! I usually describe the deck more like "aggressive ramp into bulk rares that you would never expect could be good in Modern, with an overlay of annoying mana-denial Control", but yours will certainly do. The thing is, it works surprisingly well in many metas.

> besides fetchlands, what activated or triggered abilities are you hoping to stop with Repudiate / Replicate

I actually laid that out in the deck description, but in case you missed it here it is again:

  • Opponent transforms a Thing in the Ice? Repudiate the triggered ability and our team stays on the field.
  • Opponent wants to make us sac' a creature with Lili, put a Terminus on top with Jace, or ultimate whatever random Planeswalker they have? Repudiate the activated ability and we've totally turned the game around.
  • Opponent tries to Modular a ton of +1/+1 counters onto their attacking Inkmoth Nexus, wipe our board with an Oblivion Stone, Equip a Batterskull, Crew a Smuggler's Copter, etc, etc, etc? Repudiate gives us answers (or at least options) we never had in 'normal' Ponza.

Here are more details though, looking at the top meta decks in turn ...

All that said, it's clear that in many cases a 2-mana counterspell (e.g., Negate or Mana Leak ) is better than a 2-mana stifle effect ... certainly UW Control has found that to be the case! What's not clear to me yet is if that's the case in UG Control as well ...

March 29, 2019 11:11 a.m. Edited.

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