Uro and Kroxa are in different decks, so you end up immediately playing from behind versus the legacy format if you're on Kroxa. Knowing that you're against Uro, and Uro is that much better, your Kroxa should be Cling. So Kroxa is worse than Uro, and playing Kroxa over Cling is a doubly worse decision.
Pox is not a deck with an inherent way of dictating how a game will go, so you really don't have any tempo reservoir to pull from when you pull out a janky 6/6 that attacks a resource you don't care about (life total). The early game is the problem for Pox, and Cling is the card that will provide disruption and consistency towards the 3-4cmc plan. With Pox you're already critically low on CA and lifegain, and you know where people are going for value looping: the GY (Uro, Sanctuary, Dreadhorde, SCM, etc).
Any time someone brings up Kroxa we really need to point out that Delver plays Bolt (life total under pressure), Wasteland (vs Badlands for Kroxa, so falling especially far behind), and the card they discard is just going to get flashed back by a Dreadhorde. If you never wanted to survive to cast a 3-4cmc spell [right into Daze], then Kroxa has your back.
Technically, Kroxa is a 2 turn clock after Mishra's Factory or Cursed Scroll hits you and both players are hellbent. And if you're running Kroxa, there's nothing stopping you from running lightning bolts either.
I tested Kroxa Pox and a few variants of it. It didn't take long to just abandon the idea and go Hogaak Pox.
Three Lilianas to rule them all. One Pox to find them. Smallpox to bring them all and in the Sinkhole bind them!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GmejbCdAqc
Here is a recent video of me playing old fuddy Pox to middling success. I still think the deck has answers to just about everything, but with exactly zero was to sequence those answers, you're left at the mercy of the deck to RNG you up the cards in order... something I've always struggled with, if that could even be considered a thing. Either way; I'll continue to defiantly yell at clouds, so if anybody is interested in this stuff, let me know.
Always cool to see Pox on camera. Surprised by the amount of random one ofs and low land count normally Pox does best with redundancy of some sort because there isn't quality card selection in the archtype, you have to rely on just drawing them. Deck self taxes itself so 21 lands really becomes a liability. Congrats on the win though.
No comments for nearly two weeks? Anyways I’m going to talk about my results this year with Smallpox decks.
Coming into 2021, I’ll still be playing Smallpox decks in Magic.
Highlights of this year:
Modern
1st Place Weekly Event - 8 Rack
ManaTraders Phase Two Qualification 8-2 - Orzhov Smallpox
Legacy
2 1st Place Weekly Event - Pox
ManaTraders Phase Two Qualification 14-6 - Pox
MTGO Leagues 5 4-1s (no 5-0 unfortunately)
Also recently due to poor performance in 3 Leagues in a row I have dropped under a 50+% win rate I had in MTGO Leagues. People have even discussed how MTGO Leagues are like day one of a MagicFest so I’m not too surprised how I lost so many in my last 3 events.
Last edited by BlogBoy; 12-25-2020 at 03:53 PM.
Treasure Map and Sunset Pyramid are so close to being exactly what Pox needs. I was so frustrated with Pox's inability to filter cards that I went down the rabbit hole of Lantern of Insight. It's certainly fun, but it's challenging to balance out the synergies and still look somewhat like a Pox deck.
Brainstorm Realist
I close my eyes and sink within myself, relive the gift of precious memories, in need of a fix called innocence. - Chuck Shuldiner
Mazemind Tome is what you're looking for @Mr.Safety. Has lifegain as well, while putting itself back into the Karn wish zone.
That is indeed a better option, I actually kinda like it. It's even at 2 mana so if I wanted to play Chalice of the Void I could.
Brainstorm Realist
I close my eyes and sink within myself, relive the gift of precious memories, in need of a fix called innocence. - Chuck Shuldiner
Went 3-1 again tonight with the same old list.
Played against TinFins that transformed into Doomsday and lost in 3.
Beat Eldrazi in 3 with Nether Spirit being the bestest blocker evar with Liliana coming in to mop up afterwards and The Abyss making an appearance one game to keep him for keeping any creatures
Beam Turbo Depths in 2 with quick pressure on lands and lots of running sacrifice effects to match up well with his discard. Maze of Ith in the opening hand game 1 was welcome.
Game 4 was a crazy close game against Death's Shadow, we hit each other a bunch in game 3, with Blast Zone coming down to wipe his board and a Winter Orb slowing up both down. Eventually he is at 1 and a clutch Cling to Dust on upkeep to dodge Force of Negation keeps me alive. He's stuck with unplayable Force of Wills and a Thoughtseize putting me to 2 shows the coast is clear for a lethal Smallpox. Lots of different lines could have gone either way, so hardly a decisive victory, but definitely finished the night in Pox style.
Still happy with the list.
No greater thrill than winning with Smallpox when they are at 1 life. Nicely done! Gone are the days of Pox blowing out other decks, there is just too much resilience in the format and truthfully there is just too much value in all of the modern cards. I think if you want to be successful with Pox it will have to be in leveraging small advantages over the game. Were you playing Ensnaring Bridge? I'm convinced that card is fairly crucial to locking up games with Pox in the current metagame.
Brainstorm Realist
I close my eyes and sink within myself, relive the gift of precious memories, in need of a fix called innocence. - Chuck Shuldiner
I am not running it currently.
I would need to adjust out of combat win conditions to avoid self inflicted losses (besides the usual ones). I currently have only a single Cursed Scroll, and no way to leverage Ensnaring Bridge profitably like a Karn build could.
That being said I would not call this local meta a healthy representation of decks, if there even still is a thing. There are a few mainstays, but lots of new "meme" decks like Curse Stompy (4~5 of 30 players) compared to just UR Delver or SnOko Goodstuff. It's basically all the youtube MODO players with their weekly donation decks, except instead of playing against the format, they're all playing each other. When the Zendikar Rising lands came out, I'd say a quarter of the room was on Oops All Spells.
If there are any observations that can be extrapolated out, it is that for a lot of weeks now, Veil of Summer is not a common sight. Out of the sideboard for some decks, but usually those that leverage them akin to Pact of Negation to win counterwars on game ending stacks like Eureka Tell or Rainbow TES. But even then it's 2-3 copies since they're not looking for them in opening hands. So the most used answer to Hymn remains Daze and Force of Will, sometimes Spell Peirce. That's just been good news for Pox.
A modified Andrea Mengucci deck design. Sideboard was tweaked a bit, but with the current bannings, it's more effective now. Eliminate lost some of it's fire in an environment without Oko. Uro is still a problem and you'll want more GY hate. I'll swap one Cling to Dust for Surgical Extraction depending on more tests.
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3506677#online
It feels weird with so many lands but the cantrip power is undeniable.
Three Lilianas to rule them all. One Pox to find them. Smallpox to bring them all and in the Sinkhole bind them!
That is the style of list I think is good (well, good for a Pox deck)
With the Oko ban it's more reasonable again to play stuff like Cursed Scroll, Ensnaring Bridge, Crucible of Worlds etc e.g. instead of the second Last Hope or trim 1-2 discard/removal
Hi guys.
Do you think that 0 copies of Hymn to Tourach is correct?
Thanks.
Three Lilianas to rule them all. One Pox to find them. Smallpox to bring them all and in the Sinkhole bind them!
Last edited by OmniStrata; 03-04-2021 at 07:27 PM. Reason: details
Three Lilianas to rule them all. One Pox to find them. Smallpox to bring them all and in the Sinkhole bind them!
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