How to beat Gruul Ponza | MTG PAUPER | Beating the Meta Ep 9 |

Today we take the fight to Gruul Ponza! The deck is absolutely everywhere right now and it's time we fight back against the recent mtgo league menace!
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[@Azr1th1]

Just what I needed! They're everywhere right now!

[@savinobalducci6148]

one year from the video this one is more actual than ever!

[@saltandpauper]

i like to see that they age well at least!

[@xboxgamer474246]

I hate fighting Ponza with Mono U Faeries. Maybe Spreading Seas is worth sideboarding?

[@saltandpauper]

That matchup is pretty rough in my opinion. And spreading seas is a cute sideboard option but Im general I think boomerang might be a bit more versatile

[@lenlee14]

Sweet!! Here for the lessons! 💪🏼

[@PhoemaKill]

Nice time

[@saltandpauper]

Glad you enjoyed! Hope it helped!

[@davidroyale14]

Excellent breakdown! Very good stuff :D

[@saltandpauper]

Thanks so much!

[@saltandpauper]

Big fan of your content

[@wademiller2376]

Probably a silly question but why is the deck called ponza?

[@saltandpauper]

Great question! I had to look up the answer actually but have wondered the same thing! The story is a little unreliable depending on who you ask but the deck is named after the meal (a ponza rotta aka deep fried calzone like pizza-dish) that the original pilot/brewer of mono red land destruction either before his first tournament with it. Or while he first built the list. There's also some versions that say it was named after the dish because it always burnt the roof of your mouth and was super annoying but really good. And the name just kinda stuck tbh lol. Originally designed by Brian Kowal. So he could probably explain it truthfully. The other explanation is that it was named after the dish because it had burning hot cheese "burn" meat "big creatures" and secret sauce "land destruction" source -www.pojo.com/magic/Featured%20Writers/History/060401.html

[@wademiller2376]

@@saltandpauper wow thanks 🙂

[@Dracomandriuthus]

Bring in your land destruction against Ponza. If you aren't on land destruction in your side you should be. Raze for red, and Thermokarst, Rancid Earth, and Boomerang otherwise

[@saltandpauper]

Definitely!

[@kinderoreo7857]

gl getting to 3 lands

[@saltandpauper]

@@kinderoreo7857 well red and blue only need to get to 1 and 2 respectively lol

[@kinderoreo7857]

@@saltandpauper well, if you thought about it for more than 2 sec, you would know i was refering to thermokarst and rancid earth

[@matthewmagda4971]

This deck beats itself. Play the correct number of lands and keep good hands. You have seven or so turns out to deal with Boarding Party and Altosaur.

[@saltandpauper]

While I think his deck suffers in the consistency aspect, I can definitely understand why people are frustrated by it. So it was worth dedicating a video to those players to give them a new way to view the problem. And option for how to target it.

[@malte54]

7 turns? I usually face a boarding party / hunter turn 3 ...

[@micahemerson388]

This deck is not a problem.

[@saltandpauper]

If it hasn't been a problem for you you're one of the lucky ones! A lot of people talking about it these days.

[@micahemerson388]

@@saltandpauper if any decks are a problem they are the mono red kuldotha decks. I played this ponza stuff for a bit and it is punishing to some strategies but kuldotha red, mono blue fairies, dimir terror and strategies of the like don’t seem to have too hard of a time with it.

[@saltandpauper]

@@micahemerson388 you're not alone in saying that red is a problem. I disagree but I understand that opinion. But it's been discussed and analyzed by several people more knowledgeable than myself and the data shows it isn't actually winning events. So I'm not convinced it's an issue that needs to be addressed. But there is definitely something to be said about it's popularity making things boring.

[@LolAsdOmgWtfAfk]

A "problem" means that the decks represent consistently a very large portion of the meta, has a winrate far above 50%, dominates the top8s of major tournaments. The data say that the portion of the meta is 4-10% depending on the week, the winrate at the last March Italian Paupergeddon (8 players over ~600 total players in the event) was 47%, the last challenges top ranks were 11 and 20 and no other recent good results were recorded apart maybe a few 5-0 in leagues, best ranks in main and side event of the most recent Paupergeddon were top16. If MonoR is not a problem, RGx ponza is very very far from being a problem.

[@saltandpauper]

@@LolAsdOmgWtfAfk thats fair. This video was more in response to other players acknowledgements/comments on its recent rise in popularity and how the meta can respond to deal with it. Personally I can see both angles as my local paper meta has a bunch of them and they do very efficiently stifle several decks just by being present and force a meta shift by invalidating several strategies and being a very good "fun-police" type gatekeeper to pauper. But I will fully admit the data doesn't show them being an issue long term and as I explain in the video and the series in general: All I'm trying to do is give players the information and angles to identify how to target the decks they are struggling against. Hopefully it helps.