Karnza?
"Savior."
Hey Ponza people! Gruul has come back in a big way in Modern recently with a new yet somehow old edition to the deck. Im talking of course about Karn the Great Creator. Karn adds a completley diffrent angle of attack to the Gruul family and shores up a lot of its weaker matchups. But before we go there we need to understand what forced Traditional Ponza out of the meta in the first place.
ZENDIKAR RISING
Zendikar Rising would release on September 25, 2020 and would more importantly be putting Scourge of the Skyclaves into the Modern format. The card immediatley slotted into agrresive Red Black Death's Shadow decks which would quickly rise to the top of the meta. You see decks like Grixis or Jund Shadow were never that bad for Ponza in the past due to their weakness to Blood moon and low threat count. But RB Scourge decks not caring at all about Moon and being way more agressivley built with a much higher threat count was very bad news for Ponza. Red Green colors dont exactly have many ways to interact with a 2 mana 12/12 either. I remember the Ponza Discord scrambling for weeks trying to come up with a solution to this macthup. We tested Engineered Explosives, Ratchet Bomb, Kitchen Finks, and even terrible cards like Inscription of Abundance at one point. The matchup was bad, really really bad and things were not looking promising for Gruul.
2/15/21 B&R ANNOUNCMENT
On February 15 Wizards announced the bannings of Uro, Mystic, Sanctuary, Field of the Dead, Simian Spirit Guide, and Tibalts Trickery from the format. As happy as I was to see all of these cards gone I knew it wasnt good news for Ponza players. You see modern day "Gruul Midrange" was born out of Uro's dominance in Modern. Gruul usually had a very good matchup if your deck had Uro in it and thus was a safe meta call weekend to weekend until Uro and his Zombie friends were booted from the format. Its a no brainer that Ponza preyed on these decks and losing this matchup was the final nail in the coffin for Gruul going forward.
HELIOD COMPANY
Post B&R Heliod Company would emerge the "best" deck in the format. Heliod was never a terrible matchup for Gruul but it was never good either. Having virtually no outs to infinite life and a plan of just play dumb creatures and bolt their spike feeder dosent exactly get there at the top tables. So to summarize in a 6 month period Ponza lost a great matchup and the two current "best decks" are an impossible matchup and a not so great matchup.
Fast forward to March of 2021 and players start making results with Karn the Great Creator in their Ponza decks. This of course has been done in the past and the deck was even nicknamed "Gruul Karn" or sometimes "Karnza". Karn is usually a meta call for Ponza that adds a few diffrent angles of attack to the deck. It was played a lot in the past along side main deck Ensnaring Bridge for a much more prison centric approach. So what does Karn add to Ponza today?
The Bullets
Karn sacrifices a majority of your decks sideboard for a whishboard of powerful bullet artifacts. Ponza's biggest strength has always been its mainboard. It's sideboard never majorly changes how the main deck functions so it is not hurt as much by having Karn in the deck. We replace cards like Glorybringer, Chandra Torch of Defiance, and Elder Gargaroth in our mainboard for Karn as the card gives us a lot to do with our mana on its own. In this current meta Karn aims to shore up our weaker matchups.
Ensnaring Bridge:
This is our go to wish target for any deck or situation where we need to stop bleeding. Bridge will give us time to gain an advantage over our opponents boardstate to a point where we can kill them with a Wrenn Emblem, Klothys damage, or just blowing up our Bridge with a Pillage and attacking for lethal. Bridge is one of the cards that greatly improves our horrid Scourge Shadow matchup we talked about earlier and its also a key piece in a 3 artifact combo plan to beat Heliod, more on that later :)
Liquimetal Coating:
Arguably the best wish target in the deck Coating allows us to blow up and lock lands with Karns passive and Karns +1 as well as locking anything with an activated ability. Blowing up lands pairs wonderfully with what Ponza is already trying to accomplish. This will be your most common wish target and it can not be overstated how strong the Coating Karn combo is.
Tormod's Crypt and Grafdigger's Cage:
These are your wishable grave hate artifacts. Crypt being 0 mana is a huge deal and cage being a more permanent effect for hitting the graveyard I believe gives it the edge over Relic in the wishboard.
Wurmcoil Engine:
Our wishboard needs some threats and it dosent get better than Wurmcoil. This card is an absolute house against any agressive deck while also being just a very solid beatstick on its own. The card is extremley versatile and Scourge decks can not beat a resolved Wurm.
Skysovereign, Consul Flagship (Boat):
Another wishable threat that doubles as a removal spell. Personally I think Ponza utilizes this card better than Walking Ballista but I think the two are competing for the same spot as they both do similar things. Upticking Karn on Boat is a scary combo that will end the game on its own. I think Boat's evasiveness and ability to close games fast gives it the slight edge over Ballista but this is definatley a flex slot that you can toy with.
Engineered Explosives:
EE in our Utopia Sprawl Arbor Elf deck? Really Gigy? Yes this card is a meta call that is huge for overcoming the Shadow matchup as well as the Prowess matchup. It is awkward with Sprawl and Elf but if you're killing a Shadow or a few Swiftspears do you really care? Also a small note you can name an alternate color with Utopia Sprawl to get EE on 3 in this deck, this has won me a single game of Magic and one I am very proud of.
Torpor Orb:
This card is for the Heliod matchup mainly as it hits Skyclave, Ranger Captain, and Auriok Champion. It stops our Seasoned Pyros but it is necasary for assembling our Orb + Bridge + Elxir combo to beat infinite life.
Elixir of Immortality:
So this card kind of does a lot for our deck. First and foremost it is part of our 3 card combo for beating Heliod's infinite life. Essentially you want to grab Torpor Orb to turn off Skyclave Apparation, Then you want to wish for E Bridge to prevent our opponent from attacking. All you have to do now is pass the turn 40 or 50 times until your opponent draws their deck. If you end up having less cards in your library just grab Elixir of Immortality from your sideboard and shuffle them all back in. Yes this is a real way to beat infinite life and it does actually work. Im not a fan of Pithing Needle for the Heliod matchup as it is very weak to Skyclave and games usually drag on long enough for your opponent to reasonably draw one. Elixir is also adorable against Mill and quite good against Burn in a pinch. You can even use it sometimes to kill a Scourge of the Skyclaves.
Honarble Mentions / Meta Calls:
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Walking Ballista
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Relic of Progenitus
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Batterskull
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Esika's Chariot
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Pithing Needle
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Trinisphere
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Mazemind Tome
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Pyrite Spellbomb
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Witchbane Orb
Now we are left with 6 slots open on our sideboard. The cards you choose here will vary from meta to meta but you want versatile spells as you essentially have a much smaller sideboard. Right off the bat I cant imagine a world where you dont register at least 3-4 Removal spells such as Flame Slash or Abrade. There isnt anything more important to have access too then more removal. The last 2 slots are definitley the flexiest but Ive recently opted for 2 Elder Gargaroths. These help tremendously against a multitude of decks but are aimed at Prowess and Shadow. In short you want cards that are multi purpose in your actuall sideboard in this deck. Removal spells, more Blood Moon effects, versatile creatures like Obstinate Baloth or Gargaroth, these are the cards you want here.
The 75
Now once we cut the exspensive cards and replace them with Karn's the deck pretty much builds itself without much room for change. I would say everything in the main deck is pretty glue as far as im concerned with maybe fourth Bonecrusher and third Pillage being your flex slots but Gruul's threats and key pieces are so defined at this point that I dont think theres much room to move cards around once you add Karn to all of it. I think its worth mentioning this deck is a much better Wrenn and Six deck and to a lesser extent a better Klothys deck than traditional Ponza due to how well they both interact with Ensnaring Bridge. I also dont think the deck having less devotion for Klothys is much of a deal at all especially when half the time you'd rather not open your Klothys up to a removal spell anyways. Ive been toying with the idea of playing 2 more Flame Slash recently over the Abrade's to improve our Prowess matchup but this requires more testing. As per usual any Gruul Midrange pile can and should be tuned to your local meta but this is what ive been happy with in Modern as of late.
Sideboard Guide.
Heliod Company:
Difficulty: 2/5
In: 2 Abrade, 2 Flame Slash, 2 Elder Garg.
Out: 4 Blood Moon, 2 Klothys.
Notes: The Heliod matchup is quite intresting as we have two approaches. You can operate as a normal Gruul beatdown deck and just try to put bodies on the board and race them while taking out their key combo pieces with removal spells. While I think this is plan A its is important to realise when you are better off letting your opponent go to infinite life and pivoting to plan B by assembling Torpor Orb + Ensnaring Bridge + Elixir of Immortality via Karn to deck them. Karn is going to be your best card in this matchup for this plan and getting him out as quickly as possible should be what you're aiming to do. Its important to know that if youve assembled Torpor Orb + Bridge but your Karn dies your opponent has the out of killing you with Ballista + Heliod so protecting Karn or dealing with Ballista is important. While I dont think Elder Gargs is a great card in this matchup I dont think Klothys does much of anything here so I like swapping those. Its also worth noting Engineered Explosives on 2 can come up as a way to blast Auriok Champions. Try to keep hands that have a high density of removal spells or fast Karns.
Lurrus Shadow Piles:
Difficulty: 3/5
In: 2 Abrade, 2 Flame Slash, 2 Elder Garg, 1 Engineered Explosives.
Out: 3 Pillage, 2 Wrenn, 2 Arbor Elf.
Notes: Shadow decks have actually gone back to 3 color and even 4 color variants in Modern today. This is huge for Ponza as Moon is now a very real and threatening card in the matchup. Im not sure im ready to call this a good matchup just yet but the combination of Moon to disrupt them, Klothys to keep Scourge in check, our high density of chump blockers, and now Karn just gives our deck many diffrent angles to attack this matchup. Your goal here first and foremost is Moon, an early Moon is often lights out for them or will slow Shadows and Scourges down so much that you can gain a winning advantage. After Moon Karn is our next best option. Wurmcoil Engine, Ensnaring Bridge, Engineered Explosives, and Even Elxir to sometimes kill Scourge. These are all very real options that can give us a huge edge against this deck. I think we can mainboard the EE since we have so many good bullets already and Bridge usually buys us enough time to stabalize. You are not the agresser in this matchup, you want to Moon or Karn as quickly as possible and stop as much bleeding with your bodies until you have a real advantage and then take over the game.
Prowess Variants:
Difficulty: 4/5
In: 2 Abrade, 2 Flame Slash, 2 Elder Garg, 1 Engineered Explosives.
Out: 3 Pillage, 4 Blood Moon.
Notes: Your goal in this matchup is similar to the Shadow matchup. We just want to survive long enough to stabilize with Karn or a Gargaroth. Bridge is good but sometimes they will be able to burn you out. Wurmcoil is going to be our prime bullet here. You want your opening hands to have a high density of interaction but a turn 2 Klothys is still very threatening for Prowess as well. You want to spend the early turns removing their threats to clear way for some beaters which will hopefully protect us long enough to stick Karn or a Garg.
Burn:
Difficulty: 4/5
In: 2 Abrade, 2 Flame Slash, 2 Elder Garg, 1 Wurmcoil Engine, 1 Skysoverign, 1 Elixir, 1 Engineered Explosives.
Out: 3 Pillage, 3 Blood Moon, 4 Karn.
Notes: So against Burn we are never going to survive long enough to stick a Karn into a Wurmcoil and if we could survive that long we would probably be winning anyways. We actually have quite a few bullets that function pretty well as just cards in our deck for Burn and Karn is just way to slow to ever get there. I also like to leave one Moon in the deck as i feel turning off Helix, Boros Charm, Path, and Lurrus is relevant enough to have a single Moon in the deck but you would never want to draw two of them. Turn 2 Klothys is still probably the best way to win this matchup but having some cute mainboard bullets that can sometimes go the distance is nice. This matchup at its core though is just a race, slam some bodies and turn them sideways and if youre lucky enough to jam an early Klothys or Gargaroth those are going to be your best options.
G Tron:
Difficulty: 1/5
In: 2 Abrade.
Out: 2 Klothys.
Notes: Not much to say about G Tron. Your plan here is the same as traditional Ponza. Mulligan aggresivley to turn 2 PIllage and Moon. Karn if you can resolve it early is pretty cute against some of their artifacts like O Stone or E map and Coating is obbviously very good here if you have time to set it up.
E Tron:
Difficulty: 2/5
In: 2 Abrade, 2 Flame Slash, 2 Elder Garg.
Out: 4 Bolt, 2 Wrenn.
Notes: Another matchup that hasnt changed too much with the addition of Karn. We want to cut bolt as it hits basically nothing besides Matter Reshaper and sometimes planeswalkers. Wrenn and Klothys are both very weak cards in this matchup but ultimatley I think Klothys has slighty more utility against E Tron than Wrenn. Early Moon and Pillage are great routes to winning this matchup in the early game but remember that E Tron cares a lot less about assembling Tron than G Tron does. You will win some games on the back of Moon and Pillage but a lot of games are going to grind here. Like the G Tron matchup Karn can be cute against some of their artifacts but since E Tron also plays 4 Karns investing mana into things like Coating can sometimes punish you. Thats not to say Coating + Karn isnt great in this matchup because it is and if given the oppertunity going for it is often correct, but something Like Wurmcoil is pretty tough for E Tron to beat, especially since it dosent die to All is Dust or Ugin. You're looking for early Moons and Pillages in your opening hands but solid grindy hands with interaction and good threats are not bad either as the E Tron matchup tends to go long.
Esper Control:
Difficulty: 1/5
In: 2 Elder Gargaroth.
Out: 2 Bolt.
Notes: Esper has emerged as the control deck to play in current day Modern. Karn makes any UWx Control matchup even better for Ponza than it was already since now we have 4 threats in our deck that dont die to verdict that generate immediate card advantage on entry. As for how to approach this matchup early Moons and Pillages are back breaking for any control deck to deal with. Bloodbraid and Karn are going to be your best threats but essentially were just trying to hit our normal Ponza curve of ramp into disruption into threats. Keeping threat dense hands or hands with fast mana disruption are what you're looking for here. For some reason most Esper lists dont actually play Path to Exile so I dont think Gargs is even as bad as i figured it would be in this matchup but generaly speaking against most control decks we would probably prefer having a Garg in our deck over a bolt, even if it is a bit slow.
Niv to Light:
Difficulty: 2/5
In: 2 Flame Slash
Out: 2 Klothys.
Notes: Niv has come back in a big way in Modern recently and is one of our matchups that we rely heavily on our disruption package to win. Mulliganing agresivley to early Moons and Pillages is the best way to beat this deck due to how greedy there manabase is. I like the Flame Slashes as they deal with Omnath very well and also get a few extra removal spells in the deck for Birds of Paradise. If my sideboard had more than 2 Flame Slash I would probably trim on some Bolts though. At its core Niv is a better Midrange deck than Ponza even with the addition of Karn and you will not win trying to out grind them, mulligan to early disruption, stick a threat, and race.
Scapeshift Bring to Light Piles:
Difficulty: 3/5
In: 2 Flame Slash.
Out: 2 Wrenn.
Notes: This matchup is quite similar to the Niv matchup but Scapeshift piles are much more resilient to Blood Moon due to Elvish Reclaimer and Dryad of the Ilysian Grove. If a Dryad is played after you resolve a Moon then there lands will tap for every color, you'll still have Valakut shut off but this often isnt good enough as they can eventually resolve Bring to Light grabbing a Tibalt or a Supreme Verdict or an Omnath. Reclaimer ramps our opponent with Flagstones, grabs basic lands under Blood Moon and eventually becomes a 3/4 which blocks most of our creatures very well. Since Reclaimer and Dryad are both must answers and we sort of need a Moon on the board to stop Scapeshift from killing us this matchup is actually a lot more tricky then it would appear on paper. Wrenn and Klothys are our weaker cards but I prefer Klothys as it can get us out of lethal Scapeshift range pretty quickly. Flame Slash is an all star killing Dryad, Big Reclaimers, and Omnath and if this deck starts to pop up more alongside Prowess I think replacing our 2 Abrades with 2 more Flame Slash could be correct. Try not to stack sprawls as this deck has started playing main deck Cleansing Wildfires. I think the best way to approach this matchup is to try and land Moon early and just play a grindy game. I dont like playing around Dryad at all as you cant afford the tempo loss. Kill Reclaimers on sight, jam Blood Moons as quickly as possible, and try to outgrind them.
Amulet Titan:
Difficulty: 1/5
In: 2 Flame Slash.
Out: 2 Klothys.
Notes: Karn dosent change how we operate in the Amulet matchup too much but wishing for Coating to pop some Bounce Lands can come up sometimes. Our plan for Amulet is still the same, agressivley mulligan to Blood Moon and Pillage. Flame Slash gets brought in as dealing with Dryad is very important.
Dredge:
Difficulty: 3/5
In: 2 Gargaroth, 1 Grafdiggers Cage, 2 Flame Slash, 2 Abrade.
Out: 4 Blood Moon, 3 Pillage.
Notes: With the printing of Thrilling Discovery Dredge has been popping up a ton in Modern as of late. Karnza can actually grind surprisngly well against Dredge. Klothys obviously is one of our all stars here but Dredge actually struggles if we can stick a Gargaroth or a lot of bodies. Karn grabbing Bridge or Wurm from the wishboard is going to be a great way to close the game but usually you will be grabbing the Tormods Crypt. I like to bring in the Cage since you will usually want to crab Crypt anyways and by the time your wishing again with Karn you'd rather be getting something like Bridge or Wurmcoil. Hands with fast Karns or hands that can vomit a lot of creatures quickly to gunk up the board are going to be ideal for navigating the Dredge matchup. As bad as spot removal is against Dredge I prefer having it in the deck over do nothing cards like Pillage. Blood Moon isnt terrible against Dredge as it stops Loam but I dont think paying 3 mana to turn off loam is ever better than just having a solid removal spell.
Hammer Time:
Difficulty: 3/5
In: 2 Flame Slash, 2 Abrade.
Out: 2 Moon, 2 Klothys.
Notes: You are the control deck in this matchup. You are going to spend a lot of the early and mid game removing Hammers and Threats from the board. Abrades and Pillages a lot of the time will be saved for Hammers. If you ever have a Window to resolve a Karn you should take it, he forces your opponent to need a Sigardas Aid to equip and can even +1 on a Hammer to get it to fall off a creature. After dealing with their early attackers slamming a Karn and grabbing Ensnaring Bridge is one of your best ways to win this matchup. Engineered Explosives can also be an absolute blow out and I like to leave it in the board for this reason. Its also important to know that if you're winning via Ensnaring Bridge the Hammer player can attack with an Ornithopter and flash in a Hammer with Sigardas Aid before damage so grabbing an Engineered Explosives on 0 or 1 can deal with that. Despite Moon being a weaker card here it does shut off Inkmoth and Blinkmoth Nexus so I like leaving a few in the deck. You could play Gargaroth instead of the two Moons but honestly I cant really imagine many situations against Hammer where you would have a window to play a card this exspensive, unless of course you are already massivley ahead.
Mill:
Difficulty: 1/5
In: 2 Flame Slash, 2 Abrade.
Out: 1 Wrenn.
Notes: This matchup is kind of free with the Elixir of Immortality in our sideboard. As long as you resolve a Karn at some point we can grab Elixir, wait until theres barley any cards left in our deck and then shove them all back in. Other than that plan Blood Moon is one of our best cards for Mill as it makes Crabs much much worse. Make sure you are playing around Archive Trap and cracking your fetch lands as early as possible.
Karnza Mirror:
Difficulty: Hell
In: 2 Flame Slash, 2 Abrade, 2 Gargaroth.
Out: 4 Blood Moon, 2 Arbor Elf on the Play, 2 Utopia Sprawl on the Draw.
Notes: Your best way to win the mirror is a turn 2 Pillage. This is why the die roll heavily decides the winner of the Gruul mirror so often. The player who is able to do something ahead of curve first will have a massive tempo advantage. If you can play fetch lands in the first few turns on the draw you can avoid Pillage. If both players make it past turn 2 without Pillaging eachother then the matchup is going to be a grindfest. Klothys and Elder Gargaroth are all stars who will end the game on their own if the match grinds. Karn + Coating is very strong against Utopia Sprawl as well. Take advantage of being on the play and mulligan to hands with Sprawl or Arbor Elf. On the draw your hands can be much more conservative as you are already at a massive tempo disadvantage.
Sideboard Guide last updated: 4/28/2021
Wrap Up.
Karn has done a fantastic job at shoring up a lot of Traditional Ponza's poor matchups. The sheer ammount of diffrent avenues of attack the card provides for diffrent strategies in the format makes Gruul a much more versatile deck as a whole and I dont see myself going back to Traditional anytime soon. As always if you have any questions regarding Gruul in Modern you can find me streaming daily on Twitch.tv/GiglioMTG or lurking somewhere in the Ponza discord. I hope this primer has been of some help to you :)
-Chris
