Red-Green Ponza - Modern | Channel Reid

[@solidmasterdante]

I love seeing all the hate for this deck in comments. It's just so funny to see how much people hate all the different decks out there. Sometimes people hate Eldrazi, sometimes it's Tron, or maybe it's Lantern, Hollow One, Dredge, etc. If your deck tries to do ANYTHING "unfair", it'll have people rollin' up to unload their salt. I dig it :p

[@IsaacACTUALLYPunts]

Reid is by far my favorite player on this channel

[@viktorfalk1988]

I hate this deck but I love reid so here we go

[@user-nc4mz4pu3b]

I've been snap-liking Reid videos for so long I developed a habit of liking any video that starts with R and E that comes across my peripheral.

[@Diotialate]

1:25:30 Engineered Explosives catches the deck on fire, and it falls into a sack of crap. Your engineering degree at work. Major props to Reid for sticking it out.

[@Midnightv]

God I love ponza. Thank you for highlighting this.

[@Midnightv]

Also I get to absorb the tears in the comments (^_^)

[@josieskocik632]

Reid's a pro. I like that there isn't 15-20 minutes of blah blah before the match starts. A tight 2.30.

[@matthewgutro3696]

Reid what hair product do you use?

[@stephenlofton5403]

Hairspray 100%

[@raisedabove05]

The tears of his opponents misted into a fine aerosol spray.

[@robertogomez2932]

JJ Jackson best answer

[@norigib6186]

It’s natural.

[@bconrad217]

The 4-for-1 EE at 1:25:35 .... Brutal.

[@JR-xv6mv]

I really don't understand why you killed the signal pest in g1? Why not kill the thopter and then force them to spend mana to equip the signal pest?

[@wingsof5stack390]

Thats what i was thinking

[@Spaccaspecchi]

1:46:53 - Reid getting sassy

[@locustkllr]

There have been a couple eras of Magic when Ponza was my favorite deck, it's still a casual favorite, but it retains the same basic problem- inconsistency and lack of card draw/advantage. You can crush an opponent quickly by crippling their resources, but your mid and late game draws of accelerant or land are painful. Something like Tireless Tracker was always what this deck wanted a way to refill.

[@sneakz2930]

Interested as to why no cage vs Mardu pyromancer. Seems good to stop back half of souls and looting at the least

[@funnyjuk]

My favorite matchup when playing Burn

[@WargamersShutUpJamGaiden]

I'm not sure I understand why you board out the ponza cards just about every time. Isn't the strategy to get ahead of your opponent via land destruction?

[@TalesOfDylan]

Yeah he doesn't get the deck it makes sense to take out blood moons sonetimes but there is NO matchup where you go oh I'm gonna take out all my land destruction when you do that you become just a mediocre red green deck. The whole point is land destruction land destruction inferno Titan or some other bomb if you're not playing land destruction you shouldn't be playing the deck.

[@WargamersShutUpJamGaiden]

That's kind of my thought process too. Like, I saw this video and want to pilot the deck, but there were just a lot of decisions I would have made differently. I recognize Reid as a better player than myself, but I think with this one he was off base.

[@TalesOfDylan]

Wargamers Shut Up & Jam Gaiden true I pilot the deck its fun and consistent. It wins allot, people don't give the deck enough credit

[@Murkglow]

I'm sure a player of Reid's caliber "gets" a deck as basic as Ponza. It's not a new innovative deck nor is it a tricky intricate combo deck, it's one of the most basic decks out there. The reason he takes out the land destruction so often is because land destruction is only effective in certain situations (and is even less useful after game 1 because now the opponent knows not to keep land light hands for games 2/3). Just going over the first two matches, Stone Rain vs Affinity is very often a blank card. Affinity rarely needs more than two mana ever and often can get that mana from non-land sources (or its land is indestructible). About the only utility LD has vs Affinity is in removing the Nexuses as attackers, which is fine but spending 3 mana to do it and having 10-12 cards in the deck for it frankly is madness. Likewise, Mardu Pyromancer can play just fine on two lands (or at least it does well enough to disrupt the Ponza deck's ability to win). It also runs a fair bit of cheap card filtering, thus being able to recover from LD very easily. Again, the LD cards are a liability in the matchup and get removed even if that does make the deck into a weak R/G midrange deck, it's still better than having 10-12 weak/situational cards. Ponza can win games, sure... If the meta favors it, it gets good matchups/has a good sideboard for what it faces, and it gets good hands/opponent gets bad hands, but it's by no means a robust deck, able to be taken to any tourney and expected to do well. It's a deck that feeds on decks/hands that are weak to it and folds when the meta turns away from it and its luck runs out.

[@garagavia]

in g1 against Mardu, would not cracking the fetch to thin increase his chances of drawing into a relevant threat? I think it would increase his chances of a good draw by 2-4% but maybe I'm off, or its not worth the life loss.

[@joaocustodio8279]

1:30:00 no land drop???

[@du_gall]

It’ll be better to use ponza engine to rump. 8+ land destruction spell to slow an opponent. You ramp classically utopia - elf- garruk = cast spell to get two creatures and put them into the battlefield (Emrakul + r/g god who gets haste + trample).

[@toddoman7198]

Its really interesting to hear your thought process on your plays. The deck is whatever, unless you are playing against Tron or some 3 color decks.

[@tarjeidavidsen7611]

Maybe (very likely) I'm being stupid but in g1 why not bolt the ornithopter to be able to at worst chump the non-flier and cast another Bloodbraid?

[@garlicfan23]

White boarder blood moons ;)

[@ranaude]

Happy Friday everyone!

[@sackreis9799]

how do you recognize to be an oldschool-player?first thought about green-red-deck: kird ape...

[@viniciuslorenzini7195]

Looking at the deck, it seems like it has VERY few victory conditions, BBE midrange beatdown is kind of iffy, and tireless tracker growing out of proportion is so slow, maybe more inferno titans?

[@sackreis9799]

Hello, my friends. This is Reid...

[@ian.demusis]

on 23:05 why bring stone rain over molten rain? Isn't Molten rain just straight up better?

[@Seergun]

Double red, most likely. And you don't super care about the damage, molten rain is just the only other 3 mana stone rain available. Fulminator mage doesn't hit basics.

[@adolfosabino]

I think the ability to hit basics is more valuable than the 2 damage. Also single red cost helps.

[@spamarmor6598]

Reader Rabbit was an awesome game, we must be of a similar age.

[@ChocciAdam]

It may not be a veedio, but it’s still Reid

[@vivistaples]

For people that play this deck, how good is Stormbreath Dragon in it? Is it better than Chandra or does it not really add much?

[@Flashpoint3373]

Blood moon is one of the best cards to have against affinity

[@lilorange9300]

Decklist?

[@davidguidry9875]

newer versions of the deck have a Fracturing Gust in the board.

[@fatolaf]

If you like watching a deck flood constantly then this is the video for you. A smidge of quality control needed here before uploading an hour of topdecking mana....

[@MakeThisPlaceIgnite]

got my beta stone rains this week!

[@dervakommtvonhinten517]

dude, do you have your mic right next to your exhaust?????

[@mikael6043]

Yikes, that flooding! The deck loses to its own draws alot of the time which is why I’ll never touch the deck. But you did your best, Reid! At least Temur and Elves both went to good finishes

[@888ian2]

Mike burgess he should have kept some hands

[@HalloQwertz]

offtopic noob question: If you cast Supernatural Stamina on a creature with a triggered effect (like Necroped) that triggers when it dies, does the effect trigger?

[@Tuomothi]

Yes, it still dies

[@HalloQwertz]

ok, thanks :) wasn't sure "dies" = is put into the gravyard but ye makes sense xD

[@solarmanatee4667]

so like over half this deck is mana sources with a third of that being acceleration and I just don't think this deck has the kind of payload you want with that amount of devotion to mana ramp. I understand that this is to get out molten rains and stone rains out on turn 2 and that utopia sprawl is probably the safest way to do that what with bolting the bird being a thing. Also once you have utopia sprawl arbor elf looks amazing but I just don't think the deck can support that many mana sources given that after turn 3 assuming everything went as you wanted you have no hand and a slow clock and nothing to look forward to except the small possibility that you randomly topdeck an inferno titan and the only consolation is that you got out a molten rain and your opponent has cast like one spell. idk i'm just not impressed by the mana from this deck and I think it would actually be better without the arbour elfs and more action instead.

[@KSechrist]

I'm @30:00 ish, and you have a handful of land some of which are fetch lands, Why aren't you pulling land out of your deck to thin it to more spells? You're not playing a super fast aggro deck, so why not thin the deck?

[@TheAcidBrn]

You don’t have a clue then, eh?

[@KSechrist]

Thus I asked a question to learn the answer. Thanks for the not very helpful reply.

[@TheAcidBrn]

LoL! Tireless Tracker creates clues! He’s not playing & cracking his fetches because he hopes to get clues in the future. If you look at the math behind it more in depth , “Deck-thinning” is marginal. Fetchlands do not thin anywhere near enough to be statistically significant until more than half your deck has been drawn and you’ve effectively traded around 4 life for a card. However, I am of the train of thought that believes any small percentage increase to “thinning” your deck is better than not when life totals are not concerned. The clues are a different matter in that they are an added bonus on top of the arbitrary thinning belief. Sorry to confuse you, and good luck.

[@TheAcidBrn]

I should have said you don’t get clues.

[@dervakommtvonhinten517]

lol, according to reid pretty much any game is a tough matchup for him xD and WTF were those blocks at 1:31:23 why not one servo on bloodghast, one on a phoenix and pia on flameblade? would have been 2 dmg + bolt and you would have lived!

[@YSPFrogGod]

Ponza is a bad deck

[@solidmasterdante]

Around 1:45:00, I wonder if it was actually right to side out Pia and Kiran. They can sac Clues to shock creatures off the field. It'd be costly, but anything to get around that BS lock, right? Not that it ended up mattering of course. Just a thought. Anyways, that was pretty rough. I mean, sweet grammy's pajammies, you were just drawing ALL THE LANDS. What a bummer. Pretty sad showing from my current favorite deck, but I guess them's the brakes.

[@maripouze13]

Please Reid, do a 8 Rack modern primer! :D

[@HunterBelkiran]

2/3 Jund - classic Reid Duke

[@ChromaToneMusic]

Seems like the deck doesn’t have enough good match ups in the meta and you have a lot of air. Its a good choice if everyone plays tron?

[@phillk7522]

Reid Duke upload --- smash that thumbs up

[@garagavia]

In g1 could he not have bolted the thopter and blocked? What am I missing?

[@Jon-hd8ie]

Reid, you're the best! I think Blood Sun would be better in Ponza, since you can destroy the lands that would give mana, and the Blood Sun would make the fetchlands dead cards. It works just as well against Affinity, but maybe not as well against Tron. But then you have seven cards dealing with Tron.

[@vincentconstant3768]

Plow Under? Eternal witness?

[@Diotialate]

Plow Under and Eternal Witness are good in mono-green control, but sadly the deck just dies to Burn. Modern is a meta-dependent format. A Blood Moon or Stone Rain is needed to slow the game down enough, or else Inferno Titan just dies to Burn, too.

[@yamael14]

When Mantis Rider attacks, it gains flying until eot. /fixed

[@derrickschroepfer9173]

against last opponent....and that is why you never concede!

[@bigwig8657]

Sadly we got 4 mana version of pillage.

[@SP1rAlinGDowN]

I don't understand the mulligan against affinity in game 2. Seems like you shipped a 6 or 7/10 hand to try and get a 9 or a 10/10 hand. Greedy IMO but i'm not Reid Duke. Is it wise to mull aggressively like that against decks like affinity that present a lot of pressure?

[@tonywacholz6279]

SP1rAlinGDowN I agree 100%. Seemed like a really greedy mulligan. Seems like a really good hand to me

[@obbiem9274]

Playing ooze on 2 is not a viable play considering he will 95% of the time have to anger on three, so its a hand where he has no relevant play until turn 3, not even great plays after that and will lose vs any affinity hand that has big potential instead of wide potential with ravager, master of etherium or a etched champion. IMO its a snap mulligan as it's ability to actually win a game vs any reasonable affinity hand seems grim. Tracker and (most of the time) bbe are washes against affinity unless they are backed up with relevant interaction. That + the mana light nature of his hand functionally makes that a 5 card hand that is hedging on anger needing to be good and drawing lands (which means he isnt drawing things that keep him alive also); leading that hand to not really be in a good place. Edit: It also would likely lose to plating + man land draw as well(as blood moon seems like the turn 4 play here at it's earliest). It is specifically only good vs a wide steel overseer draw and thats it. Affinity players are more likely to want to keep draws with plating, master, etched champion over overseer because of the diffuculty ponza has of interacting with those cards over overseer. Also to note he needs to draw a mana source in two draws (one draw if its a dork) or his hand does litteral nothing. Just my two cents.

[@DRthunder16]

if anything this video persuaded me not to buy a ponza deck lol

[@jonathans9523]

Could've casted inferno Titan on 47;00 game..

[@DaMicahMan]

Nope meddling mage

[@Russell_Nash]

Ponza strats are medium in standard (when available). In modern, the format is too fast for potential 3 turns of nothing.

[@FlamingOverlord]

I just want to stick a harmonize at the top of reed's deck so he can draw that and stop drawing all those freaking lands

[@garyhickman1088]

2/3rds of jund! hahaha

[@Drew_2308]

Most of the issues with this video are not knowing what are and aren't keepable hands. At least one mulligan was awful and many of the keeps were really bad.

[@plagu3421]

All hail reid

[@snowy-g9p]

"plays land destruction" "sides out the land destruction almost every game"

[@krishnadhulipati9152]

lol, 30 seconds into g1 he sees one card and goes 'I have to hope to get lucky' #ModernIsPerfect folks where are you?

[@LaserfaceJones]

His deck had a bad matchup vs Affinity, some decks lose to others pretty hard. What's wrong with that?

[@krishnadhulipati9152]

There are tons and tons of matchups in modern where this is the case. That's not good Magic

[@krishnadhulipati9152]

Standard is quite different from this garbage

[@krishnadhulipati9152]

It's really not a question of being lazy or not. It's that Modern is so wide that there are naturally tons and tons of nongames. There is never an incorrect threat but there are often incorrect answers, so mainboard games turn into ignore the opponent and race and postboard it turns into 'draw your narrow hate card or die.' Which is bad gameplay. Variety is only good as far as it enhances gameplay imho, if it's just leading to more and more solitaire it's not a good thing, it's not what Magic is about. Just look at the top 8 of GP Hartford. Don't tell me that any of those matches were interesting to watch (or that they would have been interesting to play.) Don't accuse other people of being lazy just because they point out real problems in a format you like. I play Modern myself, it doesn't mean I have to delude myself into thinking everything about it is great.

[@krishnadhulipati9152]

I don't play standard, my main point of comparison for Modern is actually Legacy, where the games are highly interactive no matter the matchup (even atrocious matchups like Delver vs Lands have a lot of back and forth and decisionmaking) and all archetypes (aggro, control, combo, midrange) are equally viable, compared to Modern's 60% aggro meta. Standard right now seems quite enjoyable though from the looks of it--like you I'm waiting for Dominaria to drop before I jump in, though I might not do that and just draft a bunch instead (because imho draft is the best format of Magic.)

[@CommanderGinyu]

This gw-hexproof enchantment deck is so incredibly bad. Andrea played it once and went like 1:4... yeah caryatid + worship can yield some legit free wins but the rest of the pile is just garbage. And this ponza Deck kinda likes to lose against itself. It wrecks the opponent’s manabase but cannot Profit from the Tempo advantage because you’re just drawing lands or ramp...

[@bee6377]

This deck needs dryad arbor

[@myztik5716]

wtf at the r1g2 mull, you had 3 turns to get a land and if they're not playing a hand that folds to anger of the gods you don't care what they're doing

[@du_gall]

I don't see any strong finisher in the list. If an opponent manages mana well it’s a lose.

[@docpepperclassic]

Not trying to be antagonistic here but... Do y'all even *make* Standard content on CFB anymore. It's been, what? 2 or 3 Standard videos at all in 2018?

[@trains01]

docpepperclassic I would like to see some more standard too. :D

[@anonofyesterday4650]

Truth is, nobody likes watching Standard. Just look at views while keeping in mind that Type 2 is presumably the most played format.

[@wildwest8069]

Standard is a meme.

[@shidnfart]

Caring about standard in 2018 lul

[@jamess8014]

These responses show people have no idea what they are talking about, this standard format is sweet and more content would be good youre right

[@TalesOfDylan]

Yeah he doesn't get the deck it makes sense to take out blood moons sonetimes but there is NO matchup where you go oh I'm gonna take out all my land destruction when you do that you become just a mediocre red green deck. The whole point is land destruction land destruction inferno Titan or some other bomb if you're not playing land destruction you shouldn't be playing the deck.

[@racneus2837]

m ponza

[@lukeolsen7884]

I like ponza but I hate this list.

[@tylerrathburn6527]

Man gotta say, Reid piloted the deck like garbage. When you play 21 lands, you Crack those fetches as fast as possible. It means you won't top deck a land every turn. He lost by sitting on multiple fetches and letting himself draw land after land.

[@domoarigato9865]

i like ponza but this is sooo weak....

[@33shin33]

I play modern Miracles Countertop and I eat this deck for breakfast.

[@LeRobb3]

And how do you play top?

[@33shin33]

that's a Snowden top level secret

[@sidasdf]

LeRobb3 Crystal Ball

[@freddyreal13557]

Why do you keep siding out of the game plan? This is a terrible showcase of this deck.

[@AzemSP]

This deck looks fairly poor

[@javibelcebu]

Terrible deck, only wins with nut hands

[@BarginsGalore]

Then it must have a lot of nut hands

[@bradbradley3422]

This deck sucks

[@SnkHetz]

patelavache d'merda

[@RADIALPUDDLE]

it sucks so bad that its been putting up results in tournaments!

[@collinblair4115]

Ponza is absolutely disgusting. What are you talking about?

[@CommanderGinyu]

I kinda agree. It still bewilders me how this deck could win an mkm-series-event... the draws of that guy must have been godlike. But Reid’s draws were really underwhelming as well I might add. The deck often depends on good topdecks and Reid drew one land or useless ramp after the other

[@expressrobkill]

its win condition is blood moon.