[Deck] Pernicious Pox

[Waikiki]

As I am always a big fan of pox. I felt the deck simply wasn't good enough nowadays and needed some
change. I've tried the white splash and it just didn't felt right to me.

So here I come with a Green splash for deed! YEAH!
With a new splash new tricks also became possible.

I present to you: "Pernicious Pox"


// Lands
1 [AQ] Mishra's Factory (4)
5 [TE] Swamp (4)
4 [TE] Wasteland
1 [AQ] Mishra's Factory (3)
2 [ON] Polluted Delta
3 [ON] Bloodstained Mire
4 [A] Bayou
3 [PLC] Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

// Creatures
3 [FUT] Tombstalker
2 [MM] Nether Spirit

// Spells
4 [AP] Pernicious Deed
3 [TE] Mirri's Guile
4 [OD] Innocent Blood
4 [US] Duress
2 [IA] Pox
4 [TSP] Smallpox
4 [Unl] Sinkhole
4 [FE] Hymn to Tourach (4)
3 [RAV] Life from the Loam

// Sideboard
SB: 3 [CH] Tormod's Crypt
SB: 4 [UL] Engineered Plague
SB: 4 [PLC] Extirpate
SB: 4 [ON] Infest



This might give you some questions about card-choises I've made.


Mirri's Guile Why the hell would I run this over Sensei top with all the dissynergie with deed?
Well Simply because this card doesn't need mana to use it and this deck likes to outtap on its own turn.

Pernicious deed Not only does it get rid of heavy aggro creature swarms, it also destroys
annoying vials/needles and whatever thing that is bothering you.

Life from the loam This card has so many nice tricks with the deck:
-Together with mirri you can see what you dredge away.
-Together with Tombstalker you can easily fill your grave with food.
-It will dredge spirit in the grave sometimes.
-Recurrable waste/factory.

Duress Why no thoughtseize? Cause I believe with all the creaturekill this deck packs
the lifeloss does matter.

The Kills 3Tombstalker 2Nether spirit and 2 Mishra's Factory.
Because this deck doesn't run more then 2 pox the life total will be pretty high and most of the time
Tombstalker is really needed to do a bunch of damage.


The Sideboard

Plague's: vs Goblins/Elves
Extirpate: vs Loamdecks and other decks that will use the graveyard.
Crypt: really the same where extirpate is usefull in more matchups.
Infest: I really hate aggro swarms!


The matchups


Thresh In your favor. With all this disruption it's okay to overcome thresh.
first turn duress into 2nd turn hymn or smallpox will give them a hard time.

Goblins This is a hard matchup for you. THey will often disrupt you which makes you unable
to cast deed in time. and with lackey/vial you will have a hard time dealing with these green men
that don't seem to stop coming. Try to get boardposition fast!

Combo With this I mean TES/Iggy (I haven't played breakfast yet)
If you can get the early handdisruption going you have a good chance. Together with sb extirpate
this is mu is doable. But if they kill you on the first turn, well bad luck.

Dredge Decks Ichorid & Loam decks are getting very popular in my meta. Just extirpate their
keyspells g2 and 3 and get a nicely timed crypt and you will do just fine. G1 Is much harder. But
deed and the disruption is sometimes good enough. Still it's in their favor.

Landstill I haven't played this match alot but I haven't lost one so far. I can't really tell
much else about it since I haven't done enough testing vs it yet.


Cards I've considdered

Cycleland, dismissed because it was too mana intensive.
Sensei top, Reason explained allready.
Traditional Pox kills, Don't seem to work with deed that much.


Feel free to help develop this deck, Critism or suggestions are helpfull.

[Kundalini]

Mirri's Guile??????

Sensei's divining top can dodge removal (and pernicious deed's activation) and can be relevant the turn it comes into play!

But, since you run some dredge card (Loam), isn't Sylvan Library also a better choice? Its sinergy to dredge is great (replace your draws with dredging loams and you won't need to put cards back, then draw again with cycle lands!)... maybe worth including some more dredge effect (darkblast! ... golgari brownscale) AND cylclelands.

[technogeek5000]

I dont want to sound negative but its not like this is new. People have been splashing green in pox for a while. Also Mirri's guile is inferior to senseis top.

[porcupinetreeman]

This looks like a very solid decklist. I'm glad to see a deck with green and no tarmogoyf. Life from the loam in a pox deck is a great idea.

Do you ever have a hard time getting green ? It seems that wasteland could cut you off from green pretty easily.

Mirri's Guile looks like it doesn't belong. Maybe you could replace it with dark ritual or the rack.

Cycle lands? Maybe a couple of them.

Overall, very well done

[Maëlig]

Tormod's crypt and extipate over leyline of the void in SB? Can you explain this choice please?

[Waikiki]

As I said sensei top is too mana hungry, I simply can't afford to look at the top 3 if im casting smallpox/hymn etc all the time. I really need the mana during my turn. The card does the most in the early games where it's very strong.
And mirri is 1 more grave card for stalker to eat (altho that won't matter much).

I also haven't had a point where I couldn't get G easily.

Why I dont play sylvan is because I want to be casting sinkhole/hymn/smallpox t2 and that are alot of 2cc cards allready. Also the extra cards will not be used that often because of the lifeloss. pox/fetch/smallpox aren't that nice for my life aswell. The idea is nice to use it with dredge etc. , but it will change the goal of the deck too much.

Why I play extirpate + crypt over leyline is because leyline is dead when you draw it, also it doesn't always work with deed. Extirpate is just more useable in different matchups.

[Osse]

Leyline is bad here, it cuts off both of your win conditions. Good job at figuring that one out. How about Yixlid Jailer, or Phyrexian Furnace?

Mirri's Guile: I don't like this spot, at all. I'd much rather run SDT, or Dark Confidant.

[porcupinetreeman]

Leyline is bad here, it cuts off both of your win conditions. Good job at figuring that one out. How about Yixlid Jailer, or Phyrexian Furnace?

Mirri's Guile: I don't like this spot, at all. I'd much rather run SDT, or Dark Confidant.

Leyline is opponent only. Yixlid Jailer would cut off Nether Spirit.

Good job at figuring that one out.

SDT doesn't work in pox because it is too mana intensive.

Dark confidant doesn't work for obvious reasons. ( smallpox, pox, blood, casting costs)

[Aggro_zombies]

Epochrasite seems like it would be decent in here somewhere.

It looks interesting but I'm not sure how this deck solves any of traditional Pox's problems.

[strathe.]

It looks interesting but I'm not sure how this deck solves any of traditional Pox's problems.

We can argue the specific card inclusions all we want, but you can't get past Zombies point.

This isn't new. Its not even an original twist.

[AnwarA101]

Similar decks have made T8 in a few German tournaments. You might want to check the Historical T8 thread for more ideas. I do like the Stalker/Loam synergy. Why not cut Nether Spirit and just add 2 Genesis to bring back the Stalkers? You probably want the 4th Stalker. What about replacing Guile with Sylvan Library? Doesn't Library put 2 more draws for Loam (I'm not sure how the life loss works, do you pay life if you dredge those draws?)

[Waikiki]

I don't want the deck to focus too much on life from the loam. Since it's main goal is to just get some lands back or get a wastelock going.

The reason I still play the spirits is because I'd like to be able to cast innocent bloods etc when stalker is out aswell. Also it can block goyf all day.

Why I dont play sylvan is explained before.

The only list I've seen with a green splash is called Loampox and plays different imo.

[Maveric78f]

Don't confuse Loampox that includes deed and Pernicous Pox that includes Life. The decks are completely different!

[Windux]

Just as an input:
Place #7
http://www.planetmtg.de/articles/artikel.html?id=2929

Take it like you want to.

Also there is a synergy between Life from the Loam and...the deck.

[Waikiki]

Here are 2 decks from the germans that include green.
The deck seems to run much more dependant on the grave/lftl Something this deck doesn't.
(edit windus beat me)

BG Pox - [Legacy deck suggested by Dylan Fleming]
Land [17]:
4x Bayou
3x Bloodstained Mire
2x Polluted Delta
2x Swamp
2x Barren Moor
2x Mishra's Factory
2x Wasteland

Clock [4]:
4x Tarmogoyf

Acceleration [14]:
4x Dark Confidant
4x Dark Ritual
3x Mox Diamond
3x Sylvan Library

Attrition [20]:
4x Duress
4x Hymn to Tourach
4x Sinkhole
4x Smallpox
2x Pox
2x Pernicious Deed

Recovery [5]:
3x Life from the Loam
2x Zuran Orb

Loaming Pox by André Bärlin:
http://www.germagic.de/dc/deck.php?id=9382
Land [23]:
4x Bayou
2x Polluted Delta
1x Bloodstained Mire
3x Cabal Pit
3x Barren Moor
3x Mishra's Factory
3x Wasteland
3x Swamp
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Creatures [4]:
2x Nether Spirit
2x Undead Gladiator

Acceleration [9]:
3x Mox Diamond
2x Phyrexian Arena
4x Dark Ritual

Attrition [18]:
2x Pox
4x Smallpox
4x Duress
4x Hymn to Tourach
4x Sinkhole

Recovery [6]:
3x Life from the Loam
3x Pernicious Deed

Sideboard [15]:
2x Infest
3x Pithing Needle
4x Innocent Blood
2x Krosan Grip
4x Leyline of the Void

[Mr. Safety]

I still feel that you should play 1x Tranquil Thicket and Barren Moor

They can do a couple things for you:

1) Activate Loam at instant speed, side-stepping your opponent's Surgical Extraction/grave hate activations
2) Give you added draw with Loam mid-late game when you need it. It turns Mirri's Guile into a painless Sylvan Library

[Land]

I still feel that you should play 1x Tranquil Thicket and Barren Moor

They can do a couple things for you:

1) Activate Loam at instant speed, side-stepping your opponent's Surgical Extraction/grave hate activations
2) Give you added draw with Loam mid-late game when you need it. It turns Mirri's Guile into a painless Sylvan Library

i like barren moor for that purpose, although i dont like top/mirri/sylvan usage, i prefer blind dredging and packing more useful cards in their place

[Mr. Safety]

i like barren moor for that purpose, although i dont like top/mirri/sylvan usage, i prefer blind dredging and packing more useful cards in their place

Blind dredging can be useful with Eternal Witness or a reanimation package. In here, you're essentially dredging to get Loam back...meaning you miss your draw for the turn. Cycling allows you to still draw that card for a turn AND get Loam back. This is the essential Loam engine, and can create not only continuous land denial (Wasteland) and acceleration (Verdant Catacombs) but can be directly used for card advantage (reusable cycle lands.) With Mirri's Guile, you can look at the top 3, arrange them, draw for the turn, then use the CYCLER to dredge loam back. It gives you some pretty awesome options, for sure.

Regardless, the cycle lands allow you to work around hate at instant speed by saving your Loam in response.

One of the biggest differences between traditional Pox and this list is the use of Loam to create card advantage...which is kind of the whole reason for using Guile/Sylvan Library/cycle lands in the first place. It takes the board control of Pox and merges it with the card advantage that Aggro Loam uses. Great stuff, and even borrows Dark Confidant from Aggro Loam...

[Land]

ive found Bob to be dangerous in my own testing and the 2 damage he provides is not enough to warrant the life loss and non-recursion. yes, i do use barren moor to instant dredge. i just dont use the 'top' effects, as i prefer having things like inquisition or innocent blood instead is what i was saying.

[Mr. Safety]

Ahhh...Now I understand what you meant.

Bob is most likely the most powerful creature in the format...but if you have enough cycle lands, you get the added draw with Loam without the pain. I like that approach myself. I'm trying to figure out the right mix of Barren Moor/Tranquil Thicket (most likely a 4/2 split respectively.) I also like the approach of using targeted discard and early creature removal...this is after all a control deck.

I'm tempted to use Eternal Witness and Profane Command, too...and Kitchen Finks.

[bruizar]

I'd consider replacing Mirri's Guile with Basking Rootwalla.

[Freggle]

I've Tried Pox before...

I'm scratching my head at the lack of Bloodghast over Nether Spirit. I mean you are running Life from the Loam and he / they will keep bouncing back for lethal barring a STP / PTE.

Also, less of an auto include for me have you considered Sedraxis Specter? The Unearth was fun when I was trying to Pox / hand hate.

[Freggle]

What about some Black Sun's Zeniths in conjunction with the Bloodghast plan.

Maybe something like this:

// Lands
4 Mishra's Factory
5 Swamp
4 Wasteland
2 Polluted Delta
3 Bloodstained Mire
4 Bayou
3 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
3 Mutavault

// Creatures
4 Bloodghast

// Spells
4 Pernicious Deed
3 Black Sun's Zenith
2 Pox
4 Duress
4 Smallpox
4 Sinkhole
4 Hymn to Tourach
3 Life from the Loam

// Sideboard
SB: 3 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 4 Engineered Plague
SB: 4 Extirpate
SB: 4 Infest

Your More focused on holding the board with BSZ's and Deeds & Poxings to clear the way for your man lands and Bloodghasts.

[Mr. Safety]

I love the idea of Black Sun's Zenith in a b/g pox deck...I'm going to have to try that out and get me some Bloodghasts. I'm sort-of stratching my head at the lack of other beaters to make quick work once the deck has established positive control of the board (I think the man-lands are a decent option, but just slow as hell is all.) Tombstalker comes to mind, as well as the always-good Goofy.

[Freggle]

I love the idea of Black Sun's Zenith in a b/g pox deck...I'm going to have to try that out and get me some Bloodghasts. I'm sort-of stratching my head at the lack of other beaters to make quick work once the deck has established positive control of the board (I think the man-lands are a decent option, but just slow as hell is all.) Tombstalker comes to mind, as well as the always-good Goofy.

Tombstalker was in the OP's list that I butchered. I took him out since we can not know when he's going to the yard via a Life From the Loam dredge (after I took out Mirri's Guile) I replaced both of those with more man lands since they should be pretty annoying especially with the Bloodghasts

[Draener]

If you are already running loam, and also are heavy black... you should strongly consider running Raven's crime. The card wins games by itself.

[lyracian]

I like the Black Sun's Zenith idea too.

I would be tempted to try a couple of Abyssal Persecutor's. Even though they do not have any protection from being dredged they can cause a lot of damage and you have plenty of options for getting rid of them.

[Mr. Safety]

Tombstalker was in the OP's list that I butchered. I took him out since we can not know when he's going to the yard via a Life From the Loam dredge (after I took out Mirri's Guile) I replaced both of those with more man lands since they should be pretty annoying especially with the Bloodghasts

I agree, with Bloodghast and BSZ you have a creature control list that is really brutal...and with no dudes on the table, swinging for 4 with Bloodghast/Factory is fine.

You bring up a great point though about blind dredges: I just can't play Loam without Eternal Witness. Witness provides another body to beat with, even if all you do is play 1-2 of them. I've been using Profane Command and Witness together almost since Profane was printed. You can recure Profane and Witness endlessly with that 2-card combo, and Profane can give you recurrable life loss. Somewhat of a pet card for me...

@Draener:I like Raven's Crime, but it fights with Hymn to Tourach for space. You can go hog-wild with Crime and then get your lands back with Loam...but you need to really make it count. Hymn can be a lot more devastating for less mana investment (don't forget that your lands are getting binned by Smallpox/Pox, too) I think in such a black heavy list, Hymn gets the nod. Don't get me wrong, I've used Crime, and it can be great.

I think what would really be strong would be Worm Harvest. It doesn't matter if you dredge it to the yard, and it provides some pretty awesome inevitability. I like Worm Harvest better than Persecutor, even if it does cost 5 mana.

Potential List:

4x Wasteland
4x Verdant Catacombs
2x Marsh Flats
4x Bayou
4x Swamp
2x Forest
3x Barren Moor

4x Bloodghast
2x Eternal Witness
3x Sakura-Tribe Elder

4x Duress
4x Hymn to Tourach
4x Smallpox
3x Life from the Loam
3x Pernicious Deed
2x Maelstrom Pulse
2x Garruk Wildspeaker
2x Black Sun's Zenith
3x Profane Command
1x Worm Harvest


That's a list I would enjoy playing, and I play a casual list that uses more cycle lands and no Wastelands.

[bruizar]

Let me just restate what I was saying. You should consider Basking Rootwalla alongside Bloodghast. If you smallpox/pox, you remove their creatures, clearing the way for Basking Rootwalla, and put your opponent on 13. Pox costs 3 mana, so that means you had 3 land and after resolving the pox you will have atleast 2 lands left. This is just enough to pump Basking Rootwalla.

What you have done is blow up their threat and played a free creature (13/3=4.x). Your opponent is now on a ~4 turn clock after having to discard cards, sacrifice creatures and mana. After you Pox, 1 hit with Basking Rootwalla makes your Bloodghasts come back with Haste. You dodge subsequent Smallpoxes / Poxes on Rootwalla by returning Bloodghasts to play. Basking Rootwalla doesn't require creatures in your graveyard like Tombstalker, and doesn't cost mana. It doesn't even 'really' cost cards since you're discarding it to Pox effects anyway. It's infinitely faster than cards like Worm Harvest or Garruk.

Pox doesn't need expensive cards because its hard to play them anyway (since you're sinkholing yourself all the time.)

[lyracian]

Rootwalla is not a card I had considered, but it could be worth testing. I am not sure though how often it will ever be more than a 1/1 though. Mana gets tied up a lot with casting pox/discard effects.

[Freggle]

Let me just restate what I was saying. You should consider Basking Rootwalla alongside Bloodghast. If you smallpox/pox, you remove their creatures, clearing the way for Basking Rootwalla, and put your opponent on 13. Pox costs 3 mana, so that means you had 3 land and after resolving the pox you will have atleast 2 lands left. This is just enough to pump Basking Rootwalla.

What you have done is blow up their threat and played a free creature (13/3=4.x). Your opponent is now on a ~4 turn clock after having to discard cards, sacrifice creatures and mana. After you Pox, 1 hit with Basking Rootwalla makes your Bloodghasts come back with Haste. You dodge subsequent Smallpoxes / Poxes on Rootwalla by returning Bloodghasts to play. Basking Rootwalla doesn't require creatures in your graveyard like Tombstalker, and doesn't cost mana. It doesn't even 'really' cost cards since you're discarding it to Pox effects anyway. It's infinitely faster than cards like Worm Harvest or Garruk.

Pox doesn't need expensive cards because its hard to play them anyway (since you're sinkholing yourself all the time.)

Your summation of piloting a Pox deck is very accurate. It is equally as taxing on you as it is your opponent you as the deck builder are just ready for the environment.

Most Pox decks run more than 20 land knowing that Poxings are coming. Having more than 3 in play at any given time (for your run-of-the-mill Pox deck) is simply wasteful as you will just have to sac 2 instead of 1. So any cards over CMC 3 are generally omitted.

About Basking Rootwalla I LOVE the concept. I really do. It's worth testing, but I'm pretty sure it will just come out to be a wishful build.

Lets say you get him in play off of a discard. and your opponent who also has approx. 2 lands goes Tarmagoyf Go. It should be at least a 2/3 to 3/4 at that point. So what do you do?

Pox and lose 'em? ...BSZ? ...Smallpox? All of those plays are now unfavorable to you. You could pas the turn if you have 3 Bayou sticking (good luck)

If you discarded a ghast you could go man land bring back the ghast and pass the turn for a block. Activate Man land and double block.

The slots IMO would be better spent on the man land, Bloodghast, Life from the loam strategy.

Man lands don't get hit by BSZ (unless you mess up), avoid creature sac on poxings, and miss deed.

Man lands trigger ghasts, and can be loamed. ...all of this just adds up to more man lands in the rootwalla slot.

This deck should be Bg not BG, and the mana should be fixed to just verdant catacomb, and basic swamps, a forest or two, and a single bayou.

Opponents wastelands could mess you up too bad otherwise.

[Freggle]

Let me just restate what I was saying. You should consider Basking Rootwalla alongside Bloodghast. If you smallpox/pox, you remove their creatures, clearing the way for Basking Rootwalla, and put your opponent on 13. Pox costs 3 mana, so that means you had 3 land and after resolving the pox you will have atleast 2 lands left. This is just enough to pump Basking Rootwalla.

What you have done is blow up their threat and played a free creature (13/3=4.x). Your opponent is now on a ~4 turn clock after having to discard cards, sacrifice creatures and mana. After you Pox, 1 hit with Basking Rootwalla makes your Bloodghasts come back with Haste. You dodge subsequent Smallpoxes / Poxes on Rootwalla by returning Bloodghasts to play. Basking Rootwalla doesn't require creatures in your graveyard like Tombstalker, and doesn't cost mana. It doesn't even 'really' cost cards since you're discarding it to Pox effects anyway. It's infinitely faster than cards like Worm Harvest or Garruk.

Pox doesn't need expensive cards because its hard to play them anyway (since you're sinkholing yourself all the time.)

Your summation of piloting a Pox deck is very accurate. It is equally as taxing on you as it is your opponent you as the deck builder are just ready for the environment.

Most Pox decks run more than 20 land knowing that Poxings are coming. Having more than 3 in play at any given time (for your run-of-the-mill Pox deck) is simply wasteful as you will just have to sac 2 instead of 1. So any cards over CMC 3 are generally omitted.

About Basking Rootwalla I LOVE the concept. I really do. It's worth testing, but I'm pretty sure it will just come out to be a wishful build.

Lets say you get him in play off of a discard. and your opponent who also has approx. 2 lands goes Tarmagoyf Go. It should be at least a 2/3 to 3/4 at that point. So what do you do?

Pox and lose 'em? ...BSZ? ...Smallpox? All of those plays are now unfavorable to you. You could pas the turn if you have 3 Bayou sticking (good luck)

If you discarded a ghast you could go man land bring back the ghast and pass the turn for a block. Activate Man land and double block.

The slots IMO would be better spent on the man land, Bloodghast, Life from the loam strategy.

Man lands don't get hit by BSZ (unless you mess up), avoid creature sac on poxings, and miss deed.

Man lands trigger ghasts, and can be loamed. ...all of this just adds up to more man lands in the rootwalla slot.

This deck should be Bg not BG, and the mana should be fixed to just verdant catacomb, and basic swamps, a forest or two, and a single bayou.

Opponents wastelands could mess you up too bad otherwise.

[catmint]

I played around with a deck like this including hexmage/depths as a wincon. However I found it annyoing that it can be disrupted that easily. Probably this much more disruption and CA heavy version has more potential.

My thougths:
isnt Sedraxis Specter sick? I never tested it, but clock/evasion/disruption is all much better than bloodghast and 1B is as easy as a land drop. It can't be cast, but in a situation where we cast a bloodghast, we are most likely in a bad shape anyway..

I would run 2 sylvan library to help with the top of the deck and build the deck more around 4 LFTL. maybe including 1 entomb to find LFTL or ravens crime/wasteland/specter/barren moor/worm harvest and use cabal ritual instead of Duress MD.

[Freggle]

isnt Sedraxis Specter sick? I never tested it, but clock/evasion/disruption is all much better than bloodghast and 1B is as easy as a land drop. It can't be cast, but in a situation where we cast a bloodghast, we are most likely in a bad shape anyway..

I would run 2 sylvan library to help with the top of the deck and build the deck more around 4 LFTL. maybe including 1 entomb to find LFTL or ravens crime/wasteland/specter/barren moor/worm harvest and use cabal ritual instead of Duress MD.

I haven't tested any of the proposed lists. What puts you in bad shape?

Sedraxis Specter isn't that great as the unearth mechanic isn't all that good.

It like a creature flashback for a turn. You have to remove it from the game after that, but in my testing months ago it does "get there" for 3 and a card very often.

[catmint]

I did not know unearth and foolishly assumed it sticks.

[Freggle]

I did not know unearth and foolishly assumed it sticks.
Well I never ran it along side Life From the Loam. That would increase the chances of you being able to use it. 3 damage and a card (more disruption) is pretty okay.

Couple that with Cabal Therapy for 2 cards (or one and a hand peak) and 3 damage. That's not too shabby.

Maybe this deck could use some Maze of Ith in a spell slot. ...and questionably a few Crop Rotation?

[Mr. Safety]

Let me just restate what I was saying. You should consider Basking Rootwalla alongside Bloodghast. If you smallpox/pox, you remove their creatures, clearing the way for Basking Rootwalla, and put your opponent on 13. Pox costs 3 mana, so that means you had 3 land and after resolving the pox you will have atleast 2 lands left. This is just enough to pump Basking Rootwalla.

What you have done is blow up their threat and played a free creature (13/3=4.x). Your opponent is now on a ~4 turn clock after having to discard cards, sacrifice creatures and mana. After you Pox, 1 hit with Basking Rootwalla makes your Bloodghasts come back with Haste. You dodge subsequent Smallpoxes / Poxes on Rootwalla by returning Bloodghasts to play. Basking Rootwalla doesn't require creatures in your graveyard like Tombstalker, and doesn't cost mana. It doesn't even 'really' cost cards since you're discarding it to Pox effects anyway. It's infinitely faster than cards like Worm Harvest or Garruk.

Pox doesn't need expensive cards because its hard to play them anyway (since you're sinkholing yourself all the time.)

I understand what you mean...Rootwalla could easily take the place of the ST-Elders (and maybe drop to 1 Witness) Basking Rootwalla will be tested in my casual list pronto, as I just have them laying around.

My thinking on the expensive spells like Garruk/Profane/Worm Harvest were because you can easily make the game go late, and more often than not it will if they get any answers to your board control. My experience has been that having those late game bombs really help you out-power whatever your opponent actually gets to play. Profane gives you re-curring card advantage and control with Witness, Worm Harvest can overwhelm the board with only 2 activations, and Garruk provides you the mana to make those spells happen (and coincidentally provides 3/3 dudes to clog the board as well.) Sure it's slow...but does it need to be fast?

EDIT: I am also toying around with Nevinyral's Disk...which provides a nice opportunity to use Garruk (Garruk ignores the effect, and then you can get 3/3's going)