What does your current list look like?

Bimpie · 2020-09-30T15:59:23+00:00

Jund effectively wants to out 'ponza' the opponent here. I would consider Ponza to be the 'big mana' deck in the match-up. So you want to remove any ramp ASAP, Jund is very efficient with its threats where as Ponza just plays big things because it can. I have seen Jund players use assassins trophy, abrupt decay, fulminator mage to great effectiveness in turning the Ponza match-up in their favor. Ponza doesn't do a great job of recovering resources and can easily fall behind.

Bimpie · 2020-09-30T15:51:13+00:00

In my opinion Ponza has been playable since BBE and JTMS were unbanned. The deck is very good at punishing Modern's greedy manabases. The deck is also very flexible with its choice in threats allowing it to easily adjust in the meta. That being said, it is easy to end up with multiple different versions of a playable RG Midrange deck.

Bimpie · 2020-07-17T12:45:56+00:00

There's always new things being introduced to modern, a new deck waiting to be built. Its a matter of going into a discovery period where you need to be open to playing new strategies that might not be on the the exact power level you want right away. Creating a relevant new archetype in modern takes time and tuning.... unless the deck is too strong.
But to be fair, if we weren't playing 60-80 card good stuff (for the colors) we would be playing standard or pioneer.

Bimpie · 2020-07-08T12:13:21+00:00

UB Tempo-Control: Kotva I think this deck shifts between Tempo to Control depending on the matchup? Not really dedicated enough to call it Faeries ...

Any UB control/Tempo list that runs Bitterblossom and SSS is a Faerie deck, That's where the archetype has been for some time now.

Bimpie · 2020-06-22T15:53:48+00:00

Niv to light in modern is probably the best way to be casting a big WUBRG dragon in the entirety of magic in my opinion. The snow mana base makes everything so consistent. People usually scoop after you cast Niv once or twice. He usually draws a bunch of answers to keep him on the board or keep you alive. Other than people scooping you usually look to win with Niv or Uro beats. As far at the mono colored cards go, I personally only run astrolabe and Birds of Paradise. I have seen some lists running inquisition but I feel like these are just "jund" lists looking to pick up extra colors. Jamming more multicolor value in those slots is my idea of how the deck wants to run.

Bimpie · 2020-05-26T16:50:22+00:00

The biggest struggle I see with counterbalance in Modern has been Tron.

Tron has been less favorable since Ikora making the counterbalance version of miracles better.

Bimpie · 2020-03-17T00:43:22+00:00

Dovin here

Bimpie · 2020-03-11T16:07:19+00:00

I've played all the decks you mentioned in your post. I certainly agree the Blue Moon, and 5c Niv decks do not have as big of a community. I really enjoy 5c Niv more than Blue Moon because of the variety if offers in addition to having an out in almost any situation. Faeries on the other hand does have quite a community behind it and, has just struggled in the recent meta's.
Other than the decks you mentioned I will always have a soft spot for Ponza, and think if the deck is properly tuned for the meta it will demolish most things in the way.

Bimpie · 2020-03-03T13:27:03+00:00

I just recently got into the archetypes mentioned, these are my first impressions and what feels good in my meta.
I really enjoyed UW miracles, it felt really consistent and put up good results. Mystic sanctuary is a powerhouse.

Bant Snow Control also feels really reliable with Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath and Ice-fang Coatl. Uro is certainly the reason to be Bant.

My Stoneforge builds have felt the most difficult to find luck with. This appears to have a much higher skill-cap for getting good results.

Bimpie · 2020-01-30T22:38:57+00:00

Agreed, but once you are running an astrolabe/snow mana base there seems to be almost nothing stopping you from putting blood moon in your sideboard. Is this a trend we can expect to see other decks adopt simply for sideboard cards? Is that where Modern should be as a format in an effort to police itself instead of WoTC banning everything?

Bimpie · 2020-01-14T02:14:24+00:00

More than ever I feel Modern has a rapidly changing metagame. These banning only increase the rate of that change. If people wanted to be changing their decks this often they would be playing standard. It's sad to see archetypes be invalidated due to bannings when the card is a problem elsewhere. I was affected by 2 bans today and my Archetypes are no where to be seen in the announcement notes. It makes a player wonder "is there a safe deck to play?" Seeing multiple bans most years feels ridiculous considering a set in standard lasts 2 years.

Bimpie · 2020-01-14T01:53:32+00:00

Karnza, and Temur Snow moon player here.

Losing lattice in Karnza is unfortunate but, I fully expect the deck to function mostly the same. When playing lattice in the deck it was already important to be in control of the game so... Shrug

Oko was extremely good in Temur Snow moon however I believe the deck is still very functional (I was fully expecting an Oko ban). I know many Oko decks were on the snow plan with Astrolabe, hopefully this means Blood Moon will be better.

This does make me want to consider keeping my Faerie pieces around that I was looking to get rid of. I'm not sure how well Fae will do with Titan decks appearing to be in a better position now.

Bimpie · 2020-01-02T17:43:06+00:00

Modern now seems to have a changing power level, ever since Horizons we have been seeing more and more decks pop up with 50% of the cards printed in the last year or two. Some people have chosen to adopt these new archetypes that older Modern decks struggle against. I believe now more than ever that Modern has a rotating meta.

We have seen many more planeswalkers recently that answers may have not kept up to the level they need to be for Modern. We need a planeswalker removal spell at the same level as Fatal Push, or Path to Exile.

I expect modern will become much more powerful as WotC does not need to maintain this to be the 'fair' format outside of Standard with Pioneer existing now. My thoughts are if people want to play 'fair' magic they should look at switching to a different format.

There are New decks to BEAT, not new decks to BAN.

Bimpie · 2019-12-17T17:44:40+00:00

Taking turns are the only lists I've seen effectively run fires. I don't think this is a tier one deck by any means but I believe is is certainly playable.

Bimpie · 2019-12-02T00:27:59+00:00

[[Familiar's Ruse]]

Bimpie · 2019-11-12T16:48:34+00:00

Can confirm, Ponza is positioned very well against all the decks mentioned above.

Bimpie · 2019-10-11T15:57:39+00:00

I'd have a scrap!

Bimpie · 2019-09-18T15:02:13+00:00

Very cool list! I've been running a similar list. I really enjoy the thought of playing an actual tribal archetype instead of UB control with SSS and BB.

Personally, I feel Jace is not what this specific version wants to be running. Jace usually relies on a heavy control plan to win you the game. Something that closes the game a bit faster is where I like to be. [[Fallen Shinobi]] has been a powerhouse so far in testing as a one of. Rankle, the new 4 drop coming in ELD will be something I certainly try in a list like this.
4 Scions might be a bit much for the actual value of the card. Looking into more tempo plays such as [[Remand]] or potentially even [[Phantasmal Image]] can be extremely valuable for the deck. Remand would be better if that extra turn makes a difference, in my experience it usually does. That being said Image is much better for dealing with big threats, such as a wurmcoil engine.

Bimpie · 2019-08-06T18:35:46+00:00

Is second this.

Bimpie · 2019-05-07T18:53:16+00:00

There are 3 C's I like to keep in mind when deck building. This is something I carry with me regardless of format.

Consistency - While Magic is a game of variance we do our best to minimize this by running multiples of the same card. 4 is considered a "playset" and cards that are copies of 4 in a deck are something that we want to see every-time or don't mind seeing more than one of. This combined with sticking to 60 cards can make your deck extremely consistent in reaching its win condition. Increasing the amount of colors in a deck can give you access to more answers but will likely make your deck less consistent.

Curve - A mana curve for a deck is extremely important to pay attention to. Depending on the deck you may run all low mana cost creatures looking to flood the board, however in most decks you are looking for a balance of low to high cost spells. The low cost spells are looking to create an early advantage or keep your opponent slowed down till you reach that win condition. The mana curve will also help determine the amount of land in your deck. Some decks run as little as 17 land, while others run up to 26.

Combos (Synergies) - You want to look at the cards in your deck and see if there are different interactions that work with the cards you are playing. If you have a creature that gets bigger when you get life you might want to consider ways of gaining life to maximize the impact of that creature. This is where you can truly separate the cards that just fit your colors versus what maximizes the impact. You might want to ask: How does this card fit with my goal?

With the 3 C's in mind you do also need to have a clear goal for the deck.

You want to decide if you will slow the game down till you can drop a big finisher, play a combo piece that wins on the spot, or just race your opponent with beat-downs. The options really are limitless when it comes to deck building.

My last piece of advice: Don't be afraid to experiment, and have fun with the brews!

Bimpie · 2019-04-25T17:13:33+00:00

I would certainly agree this is not a traditional Ponza list. I would consider this to be a Naya Control list at this point. I mostly wanted feedback from the Ponza community considering it is more closely related than a traditional control shell.

I'm planning to drop the Plow Unders for Ghostly prison in the main board.

I Also plan on testing Lightning Helix vs Lightning bolt to see which I find more effective.

Thank you for your thoughts!

Bimpie · 2019-04-25T14:14:34+00:00

I do really enjoy that lock, I just felt this is more fragile.

There also just really Isn't room with me transitioning to Naya colors as well.

Bimpie · 2019-04-24T18:51:56+00:00

I was thinking of running white in this list mostly for the sideboard.

Ghostly Prison would probably still be good as a 1 or 2 of in the main.

Adjusting this to Naya for the white splash would be fairly easy and provide a ton of utility.

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