Ponza servers as a good check to decks that are looking to cheat on lands or try to be greedy with their land base.
Typically opponents can’t come back from losing a land early in the game, granting this deck free wins. A 3 mana land destruction spell with no downside is incredibly powerful in the right deck. Most land destruction spells are either too costly to be effective or just allow your opponent to find a basic land. Land destruction has been around for quite some time, but in recent years the archetype as a whole has been watered down to a point of being pretty unplayable. Those players are out to get your lands, and their tool is Stone Rain. While most players were getting excited about Brainstorm and Inquisition of Kozilek being added to Historic, there was a small group a players getting overly amped up about a different card. RG Land Destruction (Ponza) Screenshot Taken from MTG Arena For any player looking to eek out fast wins, give Abzan Counters a shot. Crafting the lands is a bit annoying because it’s a three color deck that require black and green or green and white on early turns. Collected Company, Luminarch Aspirant, and Collected Company are all highly versatile and playable outside this shell. The best part about this list is that it contains plenty of rares that are very playable in different decks. Luckily for those players, Pelt Collector makes an excellent Wild Nacatl impression. Because Nacatl isn’t legal in Historic, players are going to have to get creative to make powerful, cheap green creatures. The one mana 1/1 put in plenty of work once Stomping Ground and Temple Garden were printing back in the original Ravnica set, and it pretty much an auto-include for any low-to-ground aggro deck.
It feels like forever since Wild Nacatl was banned in Modern for being too strong in aggressive decks. Collected Company and Lead the Stampede help against decks that do manage to boardwipe in time, and Skyclave Apparition is just an excellent catch-all for unexpected interaction. Follow that up with a Luminarch Aspirant or Basri Ket, now there’s a Pelt Collector trampling over for a bunch each turn going forward. Turn 1 Pelt Collector into a turn 2 Winding Constrictor or Conclave Mentor makes an attacking 3/3 on turn 2. The goal of this list is to create a board-state that moves too fast for the decks that are looking to stabilize on turn 5 and later.