[Modern] Some of that Azorious BullSh*t

[Mostlynotgay]

Some of that Azorious BullSh*t

I love, love, LOVE land control decks.  I know, i'm sorry.  I have a Mono Red, several R/W, a R/B, and a UB.  I built a mono-blue land control deck ( I guess they're called "Ponza" decks?), which I really like.  But I really, really wanted to squeeze white into the deck so I could run Venzer, the Soujurner.  Venzer's ULT is just so perfect with the deck (whenever you cast a spell, exile a permanent).  The addition of white makes the game plan change a little bit. 

First, I got rid of Frost Titan and replaced it with Venzer, Shaper Savant.  it's ETB is another bounce that can hit any permanent.  With Venzer, you do his +1 which will essentially blink Vanzer, allowing you an additional bounce every turn.  It also lets you run Mainboard Leyline of Sanctity. 

Your wincons are:
1. Beats with Colonnade
2. Beats with Venser
3. Jace

[MonteTribal]

Exhaustion

[Mostlynotgay]

Exhaustion

I thought about that card but the way the deck goes, the whole point is they're not tapping stuff because they're not casting stuff. Between bounces, counters, and trinisphere, it's very hard for them to get anything worthwhile going. But I agree it could be something to slot into a maybeboard and bring in meta-dependant.

[mimimmo]

do you need 1 land dops?

[mimimmo]

such as serum vision

[Inphyy77]

 I love the idea behind this deck! I have a huge soft spot for Prison/Ponza style decks, and it looks a bit like both here. Just a few observations off the top:

- If you're running zero one drops, it seems like a real shame to not run Chalice of the Void. I get you've got Trinisphere, but the Chalice shuts off a huge part of the meta while coming down a turn earlier.
- If you have no one drops, running Temple of Enlightenment also looks really solid.
- If you decide to keep on the Chalice/Trinisphere plan, Cast Out and Hieroglyphic Illumination are decent considerations as 1-2 ofs (Cycling remains unaffected).
- Monastery Siege feels really clunky. If you're using it to dig, it's better off being a Search for Azcanta. If you want to slow the opponent down, Suppression Field feels better, especially if you're mainboarding Leylines.
- Snapcaster Mage would a be huge boon, as it lets you reuse your spells while providing a clock.
- Consider cutting a Gemstone Caverns. Even mono red prison, a deck that needs 2-3 mana turn one, only runs three.

[Mostlynotgay]

I love the idea behind this deck! I have a huge soft spot for Prison/Ponza style decks, and it looks a bit like both here. Just a few observations off the top:

- If you're running zero one drops, it seems like a real shame to not run Chalice of the Void. I get you've got Trinisphere, but the Chalice shuts off a huge part of the meta while coming down a turn earlier.
- If you have no one drops, running Temple of Enlightenment also looks really solid.
- If you decide to keep on the Chalice/Trinisphere plan, Cast Out and Hieroglyphic Illumination are decent considerations as 1-2 ofs (Cycling remains unaffected).
- Monastery Siege feels really clunky. If you're using it to dig, it's better off being a Search for Azcanta. If you want to slow the opponent down, Suppression Field feels better, especially if you're mainboarding Leylines.
- Snapcaster Mage would a be huge boon, as it lets you reuse your spells while providing a clock.
- Consider cutting a Gemstone Caverns. Even mono red prison, a deck that needs 2-3 mana turn one, only runs three.

I see what you're saying, and I might actually take a few of these.  But let me go through my thought process on these:

Monastery Siege: Siege is here for protection.  It makes your opponent's spells that target you "or a permanent you control" cost more.  It makes any of your opponent's single-mana answers cost 5.  Typically what would happen is is they were able to get 3 lands, they'd just cast something to destroy trinisphere or my creature/manland.  Siege makes it almost impossible for the opponent to get out from under your lock. 

Chalice of the void: I've actually given thought to this plan.  I am basically guaranteed to have 2 mana on my first turn, every time.  I tend to find more use out of screwing a fetchland.  However, I haven't had the chance to playtest the idea of always slamming down chalice on 1 turn 1.  What I can say that I've seen is that once your opponent knows you can "counter" their fetchland, they play much more conservative, and that gives you an edge. 

As to not having any 1 drops, I don't have "one drops", but I have turn-1 drops.  many spells that I want to be able to cast turn one.  Shadow of doubt, boomerang, etc are all 2 cmc spells that I want to be able to guarantee a turn-1 cast.  Speaking of which:

Gemstone Caverns: I went down to three for a bit but it screwed with my turn-0 play a not-insignificant percentage.  4 all but guarantees I will have Gemstone Caverns + a relevant spell in my hand at start of game. 

Snapcaster Mage: i see a lot of the mono-blue ponza decks run him.  I like Venser, Shaper Savant a little more because it's a bounce or a counter, for the same CC as snap-bounce or snap-counter.  same clock, but can flicker with Venser to bounce every turn or bounce to hand with Jace and have a counter up opponent's next turn. 

Suppression Field: I actually like this card, and had completely forgotten it existed.  This might be better than Leyline.  I really just run leyline if I feel like i'm against a deck that will try to discard. 

I think I'm going to try a couple games swapping Leyline for Chalice, and a few swapping it for Suppression field.