It's Like A Calzone

Ok, I think I'm going to start today's lesson with a tangent. First, I'm sure a lot of people are wondering why I haven't written any articles as of late. Well, there are a few reasons for that. Reason the first, I've been having connection problems as of late. Getting your internet connection terminated from right under you is beyond sucky. Second, my computer crashed and a large amount of my saved decklist files got corrupted. Luckly, I had most of them backed up on disk. The last reason is that school just ended for me, and I had to deal with finals. I would also like to take some more time out from my article (stop whining, I'm almost finished) to applaud Scott Geinhardt and the rest of the guys here at Pojo Magic for keeping up with the constant new articles. Makes my lack of writing not look as bad. Ok, I've droned on long enough, let's get to why you are reading this, Ponza.

The history of Ponza Rotta Red (the deck's little used full name) starts not with ponza, but Wakefield Sligh. The Wakefield Sligh deck, also known as Phoenix-haups, was a control deck that Jamie Wakefield (yes, the same guy from the Pojo Magic special) played to a top eight finish at the Vermont State Championships in 1997. The deck was built around Bogardan Phoenix and Jokulhaups, and used various beatdown creatures and burn to nail the other player until the Phoenix took over.

WakeField Sligh

Vermont State Championship, 1997

4x Bogardan Phoenix

4x Suq'ata Lancer

4x Talruum Minotaur

3x Ball Lightning

3x Orcish Settlers

2x Lava Hounds

4x Incinerate

3x Disintegrate

3x Fireblast

3x Guerilla Tactics

3x Jokulhaups

2x Dwarven Ruins

4x Crystal Vein

20x Mountain

Sideboard

4x Dwarven Miner

4x Anarchy

3x Thunderbolt

1x Fireblast

2x Pyrokenisis

1x Omen of Fire

Ponza's first true appearance as an actual deck was during the Rath Cycle Pro Tour qualifiers for Pro Tour Rome. The deck was designed by Brian Kowal, and was based on Wakefield's Phoenix-haups design. Adrian Sullivan, one of Kowal's teammates, once said "A ponza Rotta is like a calzone, but deep fried instead of baked." Kowal named it Ponza because it had all the key ingredients to a Ponza Rotta: the chesse (burn), the meat (big creatures) and the sauce (the land destruction). Kowal called the Ponza Rotta the finest delicacy in Waukesha, Wisconsin. BBeing from Milwaukee, which isn't very far from Waukesha, I've had a Ponza Rotta and I have to agree.

Ponza Rotta Red

PTQ Rome, 1997

4x Mogg Fanatic

4x Fireslinger

4x Flowstone Giant

2x Ogre Shaman

3x Shard Phoenix

4x Shock

4x Kindle

4x Lightning Blast

2x Seismic Assault

4x Stone Rain

4x Wasteland

4x Stalking Stones

19x Mountain

Sideboard

4x Seething Anger

4x Boil

3x Ancient Tomb

1x Shard Phoenix

3x Torture Chamber

In 1998, team VGC (Virtual Gaming Center, THE game store in Milwaukee, where I happen to play) took a modified version of Ponza to the 1998 Wisconsin State Championships. Team VGC player Jake Welsh won the tournament, going thru several Academy decks (at that time the strongest type two deck) and beat Pro Tour great Bob Maher Jr in the finals.

Ponza Rotta Red

Wisconsin State Championships, 1998

4x Cursed Scroll

4x Shock

4x Incinerate

4x Stone Rain

1x Aftershock

3x Apocalypse

2x Wildfire

4x Mogg Fanatic

4x Fireslinger

4x Lightning Dragon

2x Orgg

4x Wasteland

4x stalking Stones

18x Mountain

Sideboard

1x Grizzly Bears

2x Wildfire

1x Aftershock

4x Meltdown

4x Pyroblast

3x Nevinyrral's Disk

The deck was played by Team VGC over the next few months, using this deck as the general configuration. The next major event that the deck made an impact at was Pro Tour New York 1998, where various Midwestern players played the deck. Adrian Sullivan played a ponza deck to a 10-3-1 record, but was kept out of the topeight due to tie-breakers. He finished in tenth place, which is his best Pro Tour finish ever.

Cafe Ponza

Pro Tour New York 1999

2x Shower of Sparks

2x Parch

4x Arc Lightning

4x Goblin Welder

4x Molten Hydra

4x Wildfire

2x Viashino Heretic

2x Lay Waste

3x Avalanche Riders

1x Crater Hellion

4x Ring of Gix

3x Worn Powerstone

1x Phyrexian Tower

4x Ghitu Encampment

20x Mountain

1x Shivan Gorge

Sideboard

1x Mishra's Helix

3x Thran Lens

1x Crater Hellion

1x Goblin Welder

1x Karn, Silver Golem

3x Rack and Ruin

2x Heat Ray

2x Shivan Hellkite

1x Viashino Heretic

The next major tournament in which Ponza made an impact was the Midwest Regionals, where Adrian Sullivan played a variant of the deck to a top eight finish. The variant's name was Vegetarian Ponza, and it lacked the big creatures that were in most other Ponza decks. His deck instead went for pure board control.

Vegetarian Ponza

Midwest Regional Championships 1999

4x Avalanche Riders

4x Mogg Fanatic

1x Shard Phoenix

4x Stone Rain

4x Wildfire

3x Nevinyrral's Disk

1x Apocalypse

4x Shock

4x Incinerate

3x Arc Lightning

16x Mountain

4x Ghitu Encampment

1x Shivan Gorge

3x Stalking Stones

4x Wasteland

Sideboard

1x Apocalypse

1x Arc Lightning

1x Jokulhaups

1x Nevinyrral's Disk

4x Pyroblast

3x Shattering Pulse

4x Ticking Gnomes

The next major tournament in which Ponza played a major role was at the German Nationals. Maro Blume used a version of the deck to become the German National Champion that year.

Ponza

German Nationals 1999

19x Mountain

4x Wasteland

1x Shivan Gorge

1x Maze of Shadows

4x Cursed Scroll

4x Shock

4x Mogg Fanatic

4x Fireslinger

4x Stone Rain

4x Pillage

2x Hammer of Bogardan

2x Ticking Gnomes

4x Avalanche Riders

1x Balduvian Horde

2x Earthquake

Sideboard

4x Jackal Pup

1x Balduvian Horde

1x Lightning Dragon

4x Shattering Pulse

1x Earthquake

2x Ticking Gnomes

2x Fire Diamond

The first U.S. Open tournament was held at the Origins gaming convention that year, and Jamie Parke qualified for the U.S. Nationals usuing a deck called Sped Red, which is basically a more aggressive Ponza deck.

Sped Red

U.S. Open 1999

4x Shock

4x Cursed Scroll

4x Jackal Pup

4x Mogg Fanatic

3x Fireslinger

4x Avalanche Riders

4x Pillage

4x Stone Rain

3x Hammer of Bogardan

2x Arc Lightning

15x Mountain

3x Ghitu Encampment

4x Wasteland

2x Ancient Tomb

Sideboard

1x Arc Lightning

2x Shattering pulse

2x Torture Chamber

4x Spellshock

2x Balduvian Horde

3x Mountain

1x Hammer of Bogardan

The World Championships that year saw Sped Red put two players into the top eight (Jamie Parke and Mark LePine) and LePine taking second place. The decks they played were the same main deck as the Sped Red deck listed above, with slightly altered sideboards.

After Mercadian Masques was released, a powerful Ponza card was made tournament legal: Tectonic Break. Tectonic Break gave the deck the mass land destruction boost it had lost with the removal of the card Apocalypse from type two tournament play. The deck's most famous user during this time was Chris Benafel, who took second place at the U.S. Nationals with a Ponza deck, losing in the finals to "The Machine" Jon Finkel. His deck was designed to fight the rampant beatdown decks by maindecking Masticores, Earthquakes, and Cave-Ins.

Ponza

U.S. Nationals 2000

4x Avalanche Riders

3x Masticore

3x Cave-In

3x Earthquake

3x Fire Diamond

3x Hammer of Bogardan

4x Pillage

4x Seal of Fire

2x Shock

4x Stone Rain

2x Tectonic Break

4x Rishadan Port

3x Dust Bowl

4x Ghitu Encampment

14x Mountain

Sideboard

4x Boil

4x Cursed Totem

1x Earthquake

2x Tectonic Break

4x Thran Foundry

Benafel also played a similar deck at the Worlds tournament last year. The main difference was that he decided to run a Lightning Dragon to allow for a faster win card. In October of 2000, Invasion was released, and the losses that Ponza took were devastating. Ponza lost Avalanche Riders, Masticore and Ghitu Encampment. Invasion didn't bring in any answers for those losses, but brought in another problemsome card: Tsabo's Web. The Web devastated Ponza's ability to control the board against control via ports, and a formally excellent match-up for Ponza became a problematic one. Several attempts were made at a mono-red Ponza deck, but none of them were truely successful. The most promising of the new designs was a deck called "Thundercats", which was designed by Brian Kibler.

Thundercats

circa 2001 Regionals

4x Rishadan Port

2x Dust Bowl

18x Mountain

4x Scoria Cat

2x Flowstone Overseer

1x Tahngarth, Talruum Hero

4x Stone Rain

4x Pillage

3x Tectonic Break

3x Hammer of Bogardan

3x Earthquake

4x Seal of Fire

2x Ghitu Fire

4x Fire Diamond

2x Star Compass

Sideboard

4x Boil

3x Lightning Dart

4x Flametongue Kavu

2x Flashfires

1x Earthquake

1x Tahngarth, Talruum Hero

Currently, most players believe that mono-red Ponza doesn't work, but splashing in another color alsos the deck either better land destruction spells or a more aggressive creature base. The first deck is a black and red land destruction deck that works much like Ponza. It was played to a top eight finish at the Philippine Nationals by Bayani Manansla Jr.

Lovely Sunshine

Philippine Nationals 2001

2x Dust Bowl

4x Rishadan Port

4x Sulfurous Springs

4x Urborg Volcano

4x Shivan Oasis

3x Swamp

4x Mountain

1x Tahngarth, Talruum Hero

4x Plague Spitter

4x Skizzik

4x Terminate

3x Void

3x Earthquake

4x Assault/Battery

4x Stone Rain

4x Pillage

4x Despoil

Sideboard

3x Engineered Plague

4x Duress

3x Scorching Lava

3x Hull Breach

2x Boil

The second deck is an un-proven design, and is a green and red deck that uses green mana acceleration and red land destruction to quickly lock-down the game. The version I'm including was designed by Sean Mckeown.

Green/Red Ponza

Circa 2001 Regionals

4x Llanowar Elves

2x Birds of Paradise

4x Thornscape Familiar

4x Veteran Brawlers

4x Flametongue Kavu

4x Skizzik

4x Assault/Battery

4x Stone Rain

4x Pillage

3x Tectonic Break

4x Rishadan Port

4x Karplusian Forest

4x City of Brass

6x Mountain

5x Forest

I currently believe that while Ponza is weaker than it once was, it is still a good deck. Also, I think that Ponza will be around as long as Stone Rain (the king of land destruction spells) stays in print.

Matt "Hydramon" Ladwig

P.S. Join us next week for those little Crusaders of good themselves, the white weenies.

P.P.S. Congrats to Trevor Blackwell, the new US Champion!

P.P.P.S. There is no P.P.P.S.