The reason being it totally untargetable, you don't have to worry about 2 willbenders mis-ding 2 stings from the masticore. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

On a serious note gigafat is a cool card one of my fave but he really needs to become riverboas, they alone shore up the U based deck match which is what 90% of the meta.

No dragon is an idiots nightmare.

The reason is 1 wizard draws cards another says lock out a card the last wizard says I have 12 more counters in my deck.

The biggest problem I have with this style of deck is it begs to be S3 a bad deck at best. The wire/ankh/Sblast/pyropillar all smack of control but the deck can't back them up with a real threat ie juggs and welders.  Honestly the decks threats are very weak at best, as I was playing ponza for a short time I ran a similar threat base vs the threat of a real deck you often flounder quickly and die. Hope I have been helpful.

The pretourney antics: Myself Aaron Mike D Matrix and Scott are suppost to meet at Aarons house at 12 so we have plenty of time to get down to cape cod, as usuall Matrix arrives 40 mins late so we force him to ride in the bitch seat on the way down. The trip itself to the cape was uneventful once we hit the cape trouble begins. I am driving at about 70 in a 45 zone (the usual) and directions are being yelled to me right after where we are suppost to turn so I slam the breaks spin the wheel and fish tail my way into another cards path which was avoided at the last second. From there on its pretty uneventiful picking up cards various your momma comments ect. So we wait for the tourney to begin and wait and wait it seems ben and adam were 1/2 way to boston before they realized they were going the wrong way WTF?.  The tourney can't wait anylonger and parings are posted:

1st round: Donny Goulart(local boy with bad elf.deck). Going into the match I am very confident my deck has 3 nev disks 2 earthquakes and other burn. 1st game he plays most of his hand out, I drop a disk and thats game he never recovers. Game two I side in FTKs and take out lava blisters. The game is quickly dominated by me dropping an ankh of mishra 1st and 2nd turn after that I just keep hitting him with LD burn and earthquakes he scoops with no land no guys and 1 life facing down 2 dwarven miners a gorilla shaman and 2 ankhs.

2nd round: Richard Kirchner playing 3 color dragon. Seeing who I am playing against I am vary wary and hope for a quick death so I can get to my sb and hate him out. My wish is granted as he kills me turn 2. Game two I sb in 3 tormods crypt and take out 3 nev disk. I draw my 7 cards do a double take and smile turn 1 I drop a tormods crypt and a dwarven miner turn 2 I hit him with an ankh and ride ld + ankh damage to victory. Game 3 I knew I pressed my luck with the 2nd game and figured I was going to lose I draw my 7 cards and do a double take same thing as last game except replace the miner with a mox monkey. The monkey gets afew hits and was soon joind by a miner who won me the game by keeping my opponent with no mana for the rest of the game.

3rd round: Rich Shay playing slaver control. I know this is going to be a terrible match slaver me make me eat my lands kill my guys ect. Game 1 we trade back and forth for awhile at one point he shows me 2 drain 2 FoW y will and a fat juicy grave with me having 1 card in hand I scoop. Game two I sb in 2 tormods crypts some rebs/pyros and hope for the best. Hoping dosent win games so I lose terribly.

4th round: sorry don't remember your name playing a weird version of gat. Game 1 I have him on the ropes at 3 life and he suprizes the hell out of me with a maindeck beserk for game WTF did he forget to de-sb? Game two I sb in 3 rebs 3 pyro and plan to munch the tog if he shows his ugly head. I am holding rebs and pyros the whole game but dryads beserked did me in.

5th round: Eastman playing some bad control deck (not unnormal for team hadly ) Game 1 I smash him with lots of LD and ankhs miner was so key in the match Game 2 as we are both 2-2 at this point this game is more fun than anything. Dave keeps 1 land and I do what ponza does showing a hand of strip waste waste miner andsome other ld.

I ended up going 3-2 with a pile I had finished putting together right before the tourney so I present to you ponza:

Guys: 8
2 magnivore*
3 mox monkey
3 dwarven miner

Mass Removal: 5
2 earthquake**
3 nev disk

LD: 13
1 stripmine
4 wasteland
4 lava blister
4 pillage

Burn: 10
2 hammer
4 lightning bolt
4 chain lightning

Here Comes The Pain: 4
1 black vise
3 ankh of mishra***

Dirt: 20
1 lotus
1 sol ring
1 lotus petal
17 mountains

SB: (made 5 min before the ride down)  
3 reb
3 pyro
3 null rod
3 tormods crypt
3 FTK

* These guys proved to be total ass and a lightning bolt at best so I am replacing them most likely with fork and something else.

** I decided to run these over slice and dice due to the fact CC has had a history of rogue aggro. Getting up to 6 mana to sweep is kinda hard and a pain in the ass when they have */3s, as you don't want to waste a disk. In a control meta I switch the slice and dice in for the earthquakes.

*** I only ran 3 which was a mistake given how many times they have won me games. The reason I ran 3 atm was I figured against control I was going to have to draw out the games and win with hammer so I couldent affor to take no much damage from my ankhs building a mana base.

The serenitys are for the artifact prision match, and the webs are for landstill. The maindeck itself lends to greens demise so non wishable removal becomes a hassle. Plz next time think before posting crap   .

As I have observed in many tourneys spoils is just not worth running as a 4 of. It ends up killing the player outright or just leaving them at to low on life to function correctly. I know the math says this shouldent happen but playing is always diffrent than what the statistcs show us. Another thing  I have observed is spoils mask in general plays more like a weak combo deck rather than aggro control like it should. my 2 cents

I beg to differ on the greaves they have been used to great effect in welder based deck. In this case we now have a 12/12 haste untargetable guy which is a bad thing   Also it helps keep negators from walking into more burn than they allready do which is also a bad thing  

My take on the deck: You are trying to mix 2 diffrent deck types and make them work this is rarely acomplished. The Shining died with the restriction of burning wish imo, unfortunatly mixing a suboptimal combo with a weakened control element isent going to bring it back. As for improvements on the deck I really do not see any give my all ready stated opinion, I would suggest thet if you have the power/drain ect. you aught to play a more *accepted* keeper build.

A personal take on this deck: You are trying to merge 2 diffrent deck types and *hope* that they meld together. Your decreased threat count is very odd given the rise of removal due to O. stompy and lack of a *true* way to protect them is harsh. IMO you can cut down on the random discard aka 2 cabal therapy and afew of the tutor effects lets say 2 spoils and a consult for 2 negators and 3 lightning greaves. This would boost your threat count and would give you a quicker win and a way to dodge the increased removal most decks pack.