It was great to see Project M played by the creator of the format that we all love. Also good to for me to see my favourite thing in magic (land destruction) working in Old School. I have always been told it wouldn't work because of all the artifact mana and fast starts, but it worked here. In the deck photo there are six cards that are face down - are these lands (maybe some Taiga and something else)? The thing that surprised me about the deck was no Llanowar Elves or Birds of Paradise to get that turn 2 Stone Rain / Ice Storm. It didn't seem to be required here, but I've always thought that turn 2 land destruction was something you needed to aim for, it just surprised me.
Hi. The face down cards are just empty sleeves. Why he did not go for Llanowar and turn 2 ice storm, I do not know. That was the first thing I thought of when I saw the list. But he needs fast creatures to end the game.
Thanks for the answer. On the deck photo if the right hand column curving round at the bottom is the sideboard (which I think it is), then I only counted 54 cards in the main deck, unless some are hidden, so it looks like something is missing, but it doesn't matter. With Llanowar / Birds it is difficult, as you still need to win the game, as you said, and Erhnam Djinns plus Factories isn't enough. It could be possible to take out the Chain Lightnings and the single Black Vise for Llanowars / Birds? Still good to see land destruction working in Old School, and a very enjoyable match to watch. I used to play a land destruction deck quite a bit in Modern, and some people would scoop to a turn 2 Blood Moon which destroyed their deck, others would get very annoyed and salty - it was great!
@@phildevey6302 The sleeves are 4 taigas and red + green mox. I've tried many versions of this deck, most of them as a full control build, but that didnt really work. Just changed it to this tempo/stompy version, and it works the best in my opinion. I'll try your suggestion with replacing the chains and wise with birds/elf. Seems like it would be better :) There are a lot of t1 Specters in my community, think that was my thought with the chains.
@@olamoum3695 - great to hear from you, thank you for the answers. I thought the other cards must be mana sources, as there didn't seem to be enough in the picture. I really like this version of the deck, as I have always found with ponza decks that you have to destroy their first few lands, or maybe land a blood moon, then hit them hard with something before they recover. If you give them time they will draw too many lands, and also draw answers to your deck, so it has to be quick, like with your erhnam djinns. There are some other creatures you could consider like dragon whelp, su-chi, even rukh egg, but it can't be all expensive creatures of course. If it was my deck, I would like to see a total of 6 birds / llanowar elves, and with two moxen and a sol ring that gives an excellent chance of a turn 2 ice storm / stone rain / blood moon. I don't know if you can fit 6 in the deck without weakening it too much however. Last thing I would like to mention is a unusual card that I don't own at the moment, but have been thinking about - golgothian sylex. It is a good sideboard card against robots decks, if you see many of them, but it also kills multiple factories in one go. So with ponza you could pick off their other lands, leave them with a couple of factories, then kill them in one go. It would destroy your own factories, so you would have to hold them back. I'm not sure if this is any good, I've never seen the card played in old school, but I just wanted to mention it. There are a load of other cards that are good against robot decks, they are quite popular in England at the moment, but I don't know if you see many of them. Good luck with the deck, I'd like to hear what happens with it.
@@phildevey6302 Thanks for the good words, and good input :) Ill try the mana elves, think that will be a great boost, maybe combine them with a couple of pendelhavens. It is as you said with the control variant, i was able to stabilize but was never able to close out a game. At that time my only wincons were black wise. the creatures im not so sure about in my current list are the archers. Though they combine neatly with bolts. Maybe ill try to exchange a couple for su-chi's. golgothian sylex is intriguing, think ill print up a couple and see if they are any good. Seems good in theory though, especially for the sideboard :)
@@farmsteadmtg4014 and for being “budget” it’s quite effective. I could easily make my own version of this deck… the other one not so much considering I don’t have a single Guardian Beast
Guardian beast is such an awesome card I'm glad I have one copy 😃
Great match! So cool to see Project M in action, and RG ponza...love it!!
Good games!
It was great to see Project M played by the creator of the format that we all love. Also good to for me to see my favourite thing in magic (land destruction) working in Old School. I have always been told it wouldn't work because of all the artifact mana and fast starts, but it worked here. In the deck photo there are six cards that are face down - are these lands (maybe some Taiga and something else)? The thing that surprised me about the deck was no Llanowar Elves or Birds of Paradise to get that turn 2 Stone Rain / Ice Storm. It didn't seem to be required here, but I've always thought that turn 2 land destruction was something you needed to aim for, it just surprised me.
Hi. The face down cards are just empty sleeves. Why he did not go for Llanowar and turn 2 ice storm, I do not know. That was the first thing I thought of when I saw the list. But he needs fast creatures to end the game.
Thanks for the answer. On the deck photo if the right hand column curving round at the bottom is the sideboard (which I think it is), then I only counted 54 cards in the main deck, unless some are hidden, so it looks like something is missing, but it doesn't matter.
With Llanowar / Birds it is difficult, as you still need to win the game, as you said, and Erhnam Djinns plus Factories isn't enough. It could be possible to take out the Chain Lightnings and the single Black Vise for Llanowars / Birds? Still good to see land destruction working in Old School, and a very enjoyable match to watch. I used to play a land destruction deck quite a bit in Modern, and some people would scoop to a turn 2 Blood Moon which destroyed their deck, others would get very annoyed and salty - it was great!
@@phildevey6302 The sleeves are 4 taigas and red + green mox. I've tried many versions of this deck, most of them as a full control build, but that didnt really work. Just changed it to this tempo/stompy version, and it works the best in my opinion. I'll try your suggestion with replacing the chains and wise with birds/elf. Seems like it would be better :) There are a lot of t1 Specters in my community, think that was my thought with the chains.
@@olamoum3695 - great to hear from you, thank you for the answers. I thought the other cards must be mana sources, as there didn't seem to be enough in the picture. I really like this version of the deck, as I have always found with ponza decks that you have to destroy their first few lands, or maybe land a blood moon, then hit them hard with something before they recover. If you give them time they will draw too many lands, and also draw answers to your deck, so it has to be quick, like with your erhnam djinns. There are some other creatures you could consider like dragon whelp, su-chi, even rukh egg, but it can't be all expensive creatures of course.
If it was my deck, I would like to see a total of 6 birds / llanowar elves, and with two moxen and a sol ring that gives an excellent chance of a turn 2 ice storm / stone rain / blood moon. I don't know if you can fit 6 in the deck without weakening it too much however.
Last thing I would like to mention is a unusual card that I don't own at the moment, but have been thinking about - golgothian sylex. It is a good sideboard card against robots decks, if you see many of them, but it also kills multiple factories in one go. So with ponza you could pick off their other lands, leave them with a couple of factories, then kill them in one go. It would destroy your own factories, so you would have to hold them back. I'm not sure if this is any good, I've never seen the card played in old school, but I just wanted to mention it. There are a load of other cards that are good against robot decks, they are quite popular in England at the moment, but I don't know if you see many of them. Good luck with the deck, I'd like to hear what happens with it.
@@phildevey6302 Thanks for the good words, and good input :)
Ill try the mana elves, think that will be a great boost, maybe combine them with a couple of pendelhavens. It is as you said with the control variant, i was able to stabilize but was never able to close out a game. At that time my only wincons were black wise. the creatures im not so sure about in my current list are the archers. Though they combine neatly with bolts. Maybe ill try to exchange a couple for su-chi's.
golgothian sylex is intriguing, think ill print up a couple and see if they are any good. Seems good in theory though, especially for the sideboard :)
Difficult to tell from the camera angle but it doesn't look like the orb flips. Looks like he just drops it on the card.
Blood moon is soo harsh sometimes.
Yeah. I like that the card exists, but it's never fun to play against it ;)
Cool decks 🤙
Agree. The ponza deck is a good budget deck. Project M looks so cool to play
@@farmsteadmtg4014 and for being “budget” it’s quite effective. I could easily make my own version of this deck… the other one not so much considering I don’t have a single Guardian Beast