Against the Odds: Teaching Arena Zoomers about Ponza (Timeless)

Thanks to the Timeless format, Blood Moon is finally legal on Magic Arena, which means it's time to teach Arena Zoomers about Magic's most iconic land-destruction archetype: Ponza! Despite the nonsensical name, Ponza's game plan is pretty straightforward: ramp into Blood Moon on Turn 2, blow up any basic lands with Stone Rain or Karn, the Great Creator with Liquimetal Coating to make sure our opponent can't play any spells at all, and win the game by beating down with Bloodbraid Elf, Wurmcoil Engine, and friends! What are the odds of winning with Ponza on Magic Arena? Can we teach a new generation of Magic players the joys of being unable to play Magic? Let's find out on today's Against the Odds!

Against the Odds: Ponza

Wrap-Up

Record-wise, Ponza was shockingly good! We went 7-2 with the deck for a 78% win percentage! More importantly, we managed to hand out some harsh life lessons to Arena Zoomers about Blood Moon and land destruction! We got some pretty devastating Blood Moon locks with the deck. Thanks to the combo of fetch lands and shock lands, Timeless players are super greedy with their mana bases, making it pretty easy to get them with a Blood Moon, especially if we can stick it on Turn 2. And as we saw in our last match against the discover combo deck, straight-up land destruction like Stone Rain can be devastating in some match ups! If you like making opponents miserable, locking them with Blood Moon, and blowing up tons of lands, give the deck a shot! Not only can you hand out some life lessons, but the deck also actually feels surprisingly competitive!

Conclusion

Anyway, that's all for today. As always, leave your thoughts, ideas, opinions, and suggestions in the comments, and you can reach me on Twitter @SaffronOlive or at SaffronOlive@MTGGoldfish.com.