Pauper: Gruul Ponza Deck Tech & Sideboard Guide

Today we're going to talk about a deck that the players like, and the opponent hate. I'd rather have you counter my spells, destroy my creatures, but don't mess with my lands — but when I am doing it, it's incredibly fun.

A question I asked myself when I went to play with the deck, and I'm sure many must be asking, is: why play with this deck, if at the moment we have indestructible lands and one of the strongest decks of the moment, Affinity, are using them?

The answer is quite simple. I don't need to destroy these lands if I can shuffle them back into their library with Deglamer and Natural Obsolescence.

One situation that made me see this deck in a different light is the fact that there are a lot of Boros in the Metagame, and Gruul Ponza is good against it. Even though Boros runs 3 or 4 Rustvale Bridge, it also has Boros Garrison, and we know how good it is to destroy a Bounceland.

Let's look at our deck and talk about some important cards.

As we can see, it is a land destruction deck, but we only use 8 in the list:

The idea of ​​the deck is not only to give LD, but also to ramp up a lot to be able to cast the creatures that will win the game.

Ramp Cards:

After destroying their lands, naturally the deck will ramp up and have a lot of mana to cast the creatures to attack and end the game:

The perfect stance is to cast Arbor Elf on turn 1, then cast Wild Growth or Utopia Sprawl and already destroy some land. After that, just repeat or start playing the creatures to generate value. Of course, that would be the dream hand, we can't always start like that — but our stance is usually to have an Aggro line.

About mulligans, we need to pay attention to one very important thing. As I mentioned above, we want, in addition to the LD, to play creatures. But we need to remember that our creatures, for the most part, have a very high cost. Based on this, we need to be aware of the time it will take us to develop our game and, at times, perform aggressive and important mulligans.

vs. Affinity

I'll start by talking about Affinity because it must be one of the strangest games, as we want to destroy lands and our opponent has indestructible lands. But, oddly enough, I think it's an ok matchup, and it still tends to improve a lot post-side.

In game 1 we will try to destroy them as much as possible. But we have to keep in mind that, in this game, the best line is to cast our creatures and go for the race.

Now post-side, we'll use two great cards: Deglamer and Natural Obsolescence, which make indestructible lands return to their deck.

Side in:

Side out:

vs. Boros

This is yet another match where I was asked how it could be good for our deck, and I keep saying I think it's good. I've been on Boros' side a lot, and I always suffer against the LD's.

Two things make me wonder how good this match can be for us.

One is to delay Boros' game with the LD's. Another is to play many big creatures and pressure them — and this is another match that, post-side, tends to get even better for us.

Side in:

Side out:

vs. Elves

Elves is most likely our worst matchup.

I played several leagues with Gruul LD and fought Elves a few times. I always lose, and it's easy to understand, since, in addition to the deck having many creatures that generate mana, there's Quirion Ranger that returns the Forests to their hand, serving as a pseudo-counterspell.

Post-side, we try to improve with an area removal, but it's still bad for us, even taking all 8 LD cards and putting in whatever is better.

Side in:

Side out:

vs. Rakdos Burn

This is a weird matchup. It's a game that can be good, and it can be bad, but our game two options are good, both giving LD and the aggro line.

Post-side, we have a card that is Burn's nightmare: Weather the Storm. This can give us the time we need to develop the game.

Side in:

Side out:

vs. Gruul Ponza

Of course, I need to talk about the mirror, right?

Usually whoever is in play also has a lot of advantage, but it is necessary to have Thermokarst at 2 or faster than the opponent. If the opponent has it first, the game gets terrible for us.

Here's how I would sideboard. I talked to some friends who also play with the deck, and their side-in is also zero or minimum. Even so, I will leave here an option.

Side in:

Side out:

This is another deck that I nominate you to play. It's fun and has a lot of good matches to play. It has a practically defined line of play and there's not much to think about, just trying to destroy the first lands and make a strong board.

Any questions or suggestions, just leave it here in the comments, and I'll come back to talk about it!

Thank you very much, and I hope you enjoyed the reading.