Budget Smallpox

[Amber VII]

Hi Gang!

Here is my budget smallpox deck. The deck is called Smallpox because it began as a Pox deck running the same small creatures as Suicide Black. This was in contrast to the Pox builds of the time, which were more control oriented and relied on Nether Spirit and Phyrexian Totem as the primary kill cards.

One of the problems Smallpox had was that, while it was great at dealing damage, it often ran out of gas late. This changed with the printing of Tombstalker, which I believe was developed specifically with Pox in mind. Now, with the appearance of Nyxathid, Smallpox has a creature base almost worthy of the name "Big Pox."

Budget Smallpox

Creatures – 18

4 Carnophage B
4 Ravenous Rats 1B
2 Skittering Skirge BB
1 Nantuko Shade BB
4 Nyxathid 1BB
3 Tombstalker 6BB

Disruption – 12

4 Hymn to Tourach BB
4 Smallpox BB
4 Pox BBB

Utility – 6

4 Call to the Netherworld B
1 Demonic Consultation B
1 Demonic Tutor 1B

Mana – 24

4 Wasteland
20 Swamp

Sideboard

4 Duress
4 Smother
4 Tormod's Crypt
3 Engineered Plague

Creatures

Carnophage – Smallpox's only one-drop. Never thrilling, but usually enough

Ravenous Rats – Discard and Pox fodder

Skittering Skirge – A 3/2 flyer. Its drawback is rarely an issue

Nantuko Shade – Currently a placeholder for something else(?)

Nyxathid – This creature, whose name I still cannot pronounce, revitalized my interest in Smallpox. In playtesting Nyxathid rarely stooped below a 4/4 and usually homered as a 5/5. The potential for a 6/6 or a full 7/7 was not uncommon, especially during the late game.

Tombstalker – The second reason to play Smallpox. Pox provides more than enough acceleration.

Disruption

Hymn to Tourach – Makes Nyxathid bigger

Smallpox – Namesake

Pox – Namesake

Utility

Call to the Netherworld – A peculiar choice. Non-threatening on its own, but it has great synergy with Smallpox and Pox. It is anti synergistic with Tombstalker, lacking a target after Tombstalker robbed the graveyard

Demonic Consultation, Demonic Tutor – Yes, but it's casual play, right? No complaints.

Questions:

1. Is there any better substitute to Nantuko Shade?

2. The deck seems to lack one-drops. Any suggestions?

3. Do you think the deck could benefit from having Dark Ritual?

4. What other pieces would you add or take away from it?

Thanks for all the help! :wink:

[Seriously]

Utility -
1 Demonic Consultation B
1 Demonic Tutor 1B


huh ? whats the point of making it 'casual', just to use banned/restricted power cards ? isnt that kind of like cheating ? why not just stick to the legacy B&R list ?

[Captain Hammer]

There's a lot of good cards you can play and still keep the deck budget.

I suggest these...

4 Wretched Banquet B
4 Duress B
4 Hymn to Tourach BB
4 Smallpox BB
4 Pox BBB

3 Chimeric Idol 3
3 Tombstalker 1BB

4 Wasteland/Mishra's Factory
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
18 Swamp

as a starting point.

[rufus]

There's a whole slew of reasonably strong 1-drop discard. Cabal Ritual and Blackmail come to mind.

[Captain Hammer]

I don't think either spell is very good here.

Cabal Therapy will end up missing and not making them discard anything more than half the time you use it in this deck. And you don't have any creatures that you actually want to sacrifice to it.

And Blackmail isn't very good anywhere if you want my honest opinion. Discard is at it's best on turn one. And Blackmail tends to suck on turn one. You don't get to either see, or make them discard the four most powerful cards in their hand. You're stuck looking at the three least powerful ones instead. And this deck already plays enough discard as it is.

What the deck needs to survive to the late game is to have more answers to resolved threats. So I would almost certainly play this list, card for card...

4 Dark Ritual

4 Duress
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Smallpox
4 Pox

4 Wretched Banquet
3 Powder Keg/Edict
3 Infest/Smother

3 Chimeric Idol
3 Tombstalker

4 Wasteland/Mishra's Factory
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
18 Swamp

If you want my opinion, that's as good as Budget Pox gets for a generic metagame with a decent number of creature based decks. Try out the deck and I think that you would agree.

It really is a powerful list. It has a reasonable shot to win virtually any matchup. If you want more ideas beyond that, I suggest taking a look over at the Pox thread...

http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4300

[Amber VII]

Thanks for the advice! :)


Seriously,


huh ? whats the point of making it 'casual', just to use banned/restricted power cards ? isnt that kind of like cheating ? why not just stick to the legacy B&R list ?

We play casually, so there aren't card restrictions outside of the four-of-each rule. You can even play with ante cards if you like. The tutors don't break the deck, but if it gets unfair, you're right, I'll swap them out for something else. Suggestions?

Captain Hammer


I suggest these...

4 Wretched Banquet B
4 Duress B
4 Hymn to Tourach BB
4 Smallpox BB
4 Pox BBB

3 Chimeric Idol 3
3 Tombstalker 1BB

4 Wasteland/Mishra's Factory
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
18 Swamp

as a starting point.


Like I said, my intent isn't to recreate Pox as a traditional deck. Budget Pox is great. But I want to go faster. I like Wretched Banquet, but it conflicts with my own small creatures. Is Smother the best answer?

Have you tried Epochrasite? It's slow, but recurs as a 4/4. I don't know if it's worth it.


rufus,



There's a whole slew of reasonably strong 1-drop discard. Cabal Ritual and Blackmail come to mind.

I thought about cutting Carnophage or Call to the Netherworld for more discard. Don't you mean Cabal Therapy?

Perhaps,

- 4 Carnophage/Call
+ 4 Duress/Blackmail? (I don't have Therapies)

Also, has anyone tried Bitterblossom? It's too expensive for Budget Smallpox, but has anyone had success with it in Pox?

Tootles!

[Seriously]

Seriously,

We play casually, so there aren't card restrictions outside of the four-of-each rule. You can even play with ante cards if you like. The tutors don't break the deck, but if it gets unfair, you're right, I'll swap them out for something else. Suggestions?


yeah, but why even build budget decks at that point. why not just allow your play group to use X amount of proxies and play proxied vintage decks. wouldnt that help everyone to become better players. I just dont understand if you're going to play banned/restricted cards, then why not go all out and play the proper decks that they belong in.

but if you're wanting to play slow games for some reason, then just play type 2. and if you only want to use crap cards, then why not some peasant format. it just seems that there are better ways of doing whatever it is you're trying to do, that all stay within the guidelines of current magic formats.

[Amber VII]

It seems rather insular to believe magic has to be played a specific way, by adhering to a specific format. Why does a casual format have to be defined by such strict guidelines? Isn't it by definition casual?

Source is a legacy forum, but this is a casual board. Highlander, Peasant, and Extended decks are discussed here, so why can't this one? We play in a Budget format. If our format doesn't fit what is defined by other formats, should we not be allowed to pursue that option?

[Mall Security Guard]

The best card that this deck will ever see is Nihilith. let me give you my list which gives me pretty decent results in legacy, which also happens to be pretty budget.

Land
Swamp-18
Mishra's Factory-2
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth-2

Discard
Duress-4
Hymn to Tourach-4

Namesake
Pox-3
Smallpox-4

Removal
Wretched Banquet-4

Dudes
Tombstalker-2
Nihilith-2

Utilities (the expensive part)
Nether Void-2
Dark Ritual-3
Sink Hole-4
Crucible of Worlds-3
Bitterblossom-3


Nao, I realize you said budget, so we can switch the utility around, depending on what you do and don't have. I really really like Crucible in this deck, for obvious reasons, and it actually makes me really want to play Raven's Crime.

Nether Voids and Bitterblossoms are easily replaceable. In their place, run a contamination/nether spirit lock! If you plan on going that route, another really funny but really awsome utility card would be Grave Pact.

Might also want to take Phyrexian Totem into consideration. He's really fun, and stays on the table through a pox to continue to tap for B.

[Amber VII]

Nihilith is an interesting card. My main concern is that it looks pretty dreadful in a topdeck situation. Plus, assuming I suspend it on the second turn, the soonest I would see it is turn four. That's if I suspend, remove time counter, pox, remove a time counter, hymn. A more reliable estimate would be turn five. Which still isn't bad.

Have you also tried Epochrasite? It's 2cc, protects other creatures from the pox, and comes back three turns later. It would be like play, pox, three turns later get Epochrasite back. That's five turns. But it's a guaranteed five turns. Whereas with the Nihilith the earliest you see it is turn four and that's a big IF, if you only plan on playing 2.

[Mall Security Guard]

well it's every time any card goes to the yard, so he comes in sooner if you remove critters, blow up lands, make them pitch, what have you. anyway, fourth turn for a 4/4 fear guy is still nice :) I don't really like epoch since it takes him 3 turns to come back. that just to me seems too long to wait.

Another big advantage that Nihilith has in my opinion, is that he a lot of times slides in after a big pox, missing the pox entirely.

[Amber VII]

If you draw Nihilith late, you generally don't have the cards in hand to do stuff. However, 3 turns is a lot to wait on Epochrasite.

Budget Smallpox

Creatures – 13

4 Ravenous Rats 1B
3 Nihilith 1B
4 Nyxathid 1BB
3 Tombstalker 6BB

Disruption – 16

4 Duress B
4 Hymn to Tourach BB
4 Smallpox BB
4 Pox BBB

Utility - 6

4 Smother 1B
2 Crucible of Worlds

Mana – 24

4 Wasteland
20 Swamp


Better?

[bowvamp]

-4 Nyxathid.
+4 Innocent blood.

It looks good...

[Mall Security Guard]

nyxathid is alright if you're running enough discard. Not sure about innocent blood though, not very synergistic with hardass bombs like stalker, nihilith, and nyxathid. On the other hand, since you're not running Bitterblossom... Wretched Banquet would likely be MVP.

EDIT: That new bad scepter thing from Flux, or Bottomless Pit? Something to keep cards out of their hand consistently, to keep nyxathid reliably big.

[Amber VII]

There is more than enough discard in this deck to warrant Nyxathid. Keep in mind Pox puts the opponent in a catch 22 position. Nyxathid would be one of the last cards I would cut.

Wretched Banquet is interesting, but as long as I play with Ravenous Rats or Carnophage, the card is limited in value. Is Smother not good enough?

I've been thinking of heading in a more non-budget "Big Pox" direction.


Creatures – 15

4 Ravenous Rats 1B
4 Epochrasite 2
4 Nyxathid 1BB
3 Tombstalker 6BB

Disruption – 20

4 Duress B
3 Cabal Therapy B
4 Hymn to Tourach BB
4 Smallpox BB
4 Pox BBB
2 Crucible of Worlds 3

Mana – 24

4 Wasteland
20 Swamp

How about this list?

(Maybe the Crucible should be replaced with the new Scepter from Conflux?)

[Lord Darkview]

I'm going a somewhat different route. As much of an undercosted big-hitter as Nyxathid is, it still can be removed relatively easily, blocked easily, and doesn't react well with Pox and Smallpox. Amber's deck handles that with Epochrasites and Ravenous Rats.

I love Tombstalker and Epochrasite, and while more power is good, I am fairly certain those are all the heavy threats you need. I'd sooner include Nihilith than Nyxathid due to its lower mana cost and evasive nature. Nihilith also likely gets in a bit easier since the Nyxathid requires you have three lands post-Pox/Smallpox, which may not always happen.

Instead, I went a more land-light version. I cut the Wastelands (lacking :b: made them spells, unimpressive without some type of Crucible, Sinkhole and/or Rancid Earth support). I boosted my disruption and anti-aggro on the back of Nether Spirit, which though not as impressive in combat, is a more removal-resistant creature that synergies well with symmetrical sacrifice effects and sacrifice-fueled disruption.

21 Swamp

4 Nether Spirit
4 Tombstalker
4 Epochrasite

4 Cabal Therapy
4 Duress
4 Innocent Blood
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Smallpox
4 Pox

3 [Secret Tech]

You can replace [Secret Tech] with anything you like, and is usually environment dependent. For me, this is one of three options: Powder Keg, Culling Scales, and (the big whammy) Contamination. Each of these thrives against different fields. Shrouded Lore is another choice I'm considering, in the early game it can perform well, and later on Tombstalker revives its relevance. My limited testing shows this has a fairly strong game all around regardless of the last slot, though admittedly the match against Burn decks is hopeless.