Never meet your heroes!
Or: How to lose with Ponza
Preface
I played this Ponza list and went 3-2. If you were one of my opponents and find mistakes in my descriptions, please correct me. I will now proceed to describe them biased.
Recap & Foreshadowing
I love Elves. I love playing Elves. When I started playing Pauper, Elves was my first “meta” deck, and it’s probably the Pauper deck I won the most local events with. I can recall countless Pauper games in which I only hoped to draw one single Quirion Ranger in order to duplicate my Titania or Timberwatch activations for lethal. Countless Lead the Stampedes and Winding Ways have I cast with that single hope in mind. And oftentimes he showed up to be my hero.
Matches
1. Izzet Skred (2-1)
I think I won the die roll and had 2 games on the play, won them both. Lost the one on the draw due to their great interaction suit. Rather close games.
2. Dredge (1-2)
I lost the die roll. Game1 my first 7 looked somewhat like this:
From the draw, this is basically unplayable. Might look okay-ish to the untrained eye, but these are the hands a Ponza player gotta throw away on the draw.
Next 7 looked somewhat like this:
I cracked a smile and shipped it.
Next 7 looked somewhat like this:
Next 7 looked somewhat like this:
I kept Forest, Forest, Utopia Sprawl and Thermokarst. I drew like Stone Rain, Land and Mwonvuli Acid-Moss and won from a Mulligan to 4. Look at me, I’m the captain now! This is my gruul turf and I’m doing Ponza things, I’m back, baby!
Game2 I had a smooth 7 with like Turn1 ramp, into 1 or 2 LD spells into Chrysalis, into Annoyed Altisaur, and a Relic of Progenitus. I used up every turns mana, so I didnt crack the relic at any point, I only tap-activated it. Then there was the crucial point. I was ahead on like Turn 5, I have a 4/5 Chrysalis as my only clock, my opponent has 3 tokens that could chump block it for a while and only like 2 lands in play. They have nothing spectacular in their GY: No Giant, no Dread Return, no Stinkweed Imp, no nothing, only like 6 basically irrelevant cards. I have 6 mana and a really annoyed Altisaur in my hand. I draw the Forest, so now I have exactly 7 mana and a decision to make: Do I play Altisaur here and basically win from there, because the trample is a great clock. Or do I not use my 7 mana only to keep an emergency Relic activation open? I play the Altisaur, cascade into Wild Growth. In my endstep my opponent cycles Generous Ent, goes into their turn, plays Scrapwork Mutt, discards Dread Return, I chuckle, because I’m in danger, they flashback Dread Return on their Generous Ent, which brick walls me for like 7 turns, I draw roughly 6 lands and an Avenging Hunter and I lose the lategame. 10/10, would do it again.
Game3 my first 7 looked somewhat like this:
Next 7 looked somewhat like this:
Next 7:
Jesus Christ. Next 7:
I kept Forest, Forest, Wild Growth, Thermokarst. Turn2 I destroyed a land. Turn3 I drew Acid-Moss with only 3 mana accessable and passed the turn doing nothing. They endstep cycled Ent for Forest, untapped, slammed a Masked Vandal, exiled my Wild Growth, then I drew the Forest, GG, match over. I’m not the captain anymore. The good thing is I have very precise ideas how to improve my deck for the next time. Obviously I’m just gonna cut the Mountain and the Highland Forest and replace them with Basic Forests.
In all honesty though, huge shout out to my Dredge opponent here. They played super tight as well and I loved the post match discussion.
*boss music starts playing*
Remember last Blog Post, when I said Quirion Ranger has always been an archenemy of Ponza?
Yeah…
3. Elves (0-2)
I lose the die roll. I mulligan to 5. They start with Forest, Llanowar Elves. I destroy a land. They cast Priest of Titania and Quirion Ranger and Im dead 2 turns later.
Game2 they start with Forest, Jasper Sentinel. I destroy a land. They cast Quirion Ranger and Presit of Titania. I’m dead 2 turns later.
The good thing is: I have had my bad draws and my bad matchup. It can only get better from here on. I thought.
4. Walls Spy (2-1)
Game1 I mulligan to 6 and keep a solid hand of Ramp, several LD and some lategame. They play Turn1 Quirion Ranger, which bricks half my hand and lets them develop freely. Somehow, and don’t ask me how, my Boarding Party and Avenging Hunter still pummel through in the end, eventhough I couldn’t play half my hand of LD spells.
Game2 I mulligan to 5. They play Turn2 Quirion Ranger which bricks *everything* that is in my hand. They proceed with their plan and the game is over.
Game3 I mulligan to 5. They play Turn1 Quirion Ranger which bricks all I have up to like Turn5 and lets them develop freely *again*. But their deck completely bricks on finding lands, which allows me to build up monsters slowly beat them down. Then suddenly, they draw for turn and go deep in the tank, thinking. They have found 3 lands so far, they have the Spy in hand, and suddenly they float 10 mana and slam a Generous Ent on the table. I am completely confused: Do I scoop up here? What is happening? They have cast their Generous Ent! I beat them down and win the match.
After the match they told me: They had boarded in their 5th land, that was their problem and they went for casting the Ent in order to survive.
5. Elves (2-0)
Game1 I mulligan to 6. They play Turn1 Quirion Ranger and I’m not gonna lie, something inside of me died that moment right there. It blanks both of my LD spells and lets them develop entirely uncontested. But the interesting thing is, they don’t find much gas and my ultra slow monsters eventually beat them down. That was a steal.
Game2 I mulligan to 6 again, but this time I see a “classic monster hand”, meaning no LD spells, just ramp into fatties. This is my only shot, mom’s spaghetti. They play Llanowar Elves into Priest of Titania and Quirion Ranger. My Rumble finds my 3rd Chrysalis. I build up 3 consecutive Chrysalis’ while both their Winding Ways find nothing but a single Vanguard each, and I beat them down with 3 Chrysalis. They didn’t find any Nyxborn Hydra, nor any Timberwatch Elf, absolutely nothing. I steal a 2nd game and the match, eventhough I missplayed a combat there.
TL;DR
Mulligan, Mulligan, Mulligan, Mulligan, Mulligan, Mulligan, Mulligan, Mulligan, Mulligan, Mulligan, Mulligan, Mulligan, Mulligan, Mulligan, Mulligan, Mulligan, Mulligan. Quirion Ranger, Quirion Ranger, Quirion Ranger, Quirion Ranger, Quirion Ranger, Quirion Ranger, Quirion Ranger.
I counted 17 Mulligans and 7 Quirion Ranger Games. I feel like a survivor.
It really is true what they say: Never meet your heroes.
About the Dredge situation where I could have not played Altisaur, I gotta think some more though.
Thanks
Thanks to all the organizers again. Absolutely love this league. Will try to bring in more players. See you next time around! Congrats to Max M for winning, and also thanks to Pit for generously keeping pace with me.