Hello all,
long time reader here (and long time player too...).
I would like to show you my verion of mono B Pox. Due to budget issue I don't own (nor i can afford to buy) PW or old Legends cards. So please don't judge me to hard.
The idea is try to be competitive still having fun.
4 smallpox
4 duress
4 hymn to tourach
3 pox
3 dark ritual
4 sinkhole
1 bontu's last reckoning
4 chimeric idol
1 phyrexian totem
1 haunted plate mail
1 nether spirit
3 bloodghast
3 torment of scarabs
20 swamp
4 wasteland
Some explanations:
all my closers are immune to my sac effects and can be activated mostly without mana (the good old idol).
The mana base is very solid but still run 4 wasteland to support the disruption package in the main. On this I still maindeck 4 sinkhole to grab that basic or just to screw up more on non-basic. I saw a lot of decks run on 18/20 lands total. No fetchland, even if they give some pseudo haste to our ghasts, because i want the highest number possible of "real" lands due to the 3 big poxes.
The dark ritual are a necessary evil to cast the cc4 permanent.
And here are the two controversial cards:
- Plate mail : a "big" idol that coul be activated in response to nether or before to play a land to recur ghasts
- Torment of scarabs: a budget but still effective replacement for The Abyss that , otoh, hit not on only creature and help a lot our denial strategy.
The only cards i still miss is good old innocent blood (and in general a 1cc effective removal).
Speaking of sideboard I'm not very sold about nothing in particular, I don't have a defined meta.
So, those are my 2 cents, fell free to suggest!
Thanks
Bye
Something like 1-2 Ashiok, Dream Render would be good, turn 1 Dark Ritual into Ashiok can be lights out for many decks, and doesn't present many outright downsides in normal casting situations. Budget friendly.
Also 2-4 Castle Locthwain would help overall, there isn't much better card draw in Pox right now. Is also budget friendly.
Lastly, 2-3 The Elderspell will help deal with Planeswalkers. You'll lose lots of games where they keep lands long enough to cast Oko, then no amount of your hate cards will save you from an Elk-y death. A friend of the budget as well.
Originally Posted by GreatWhale
How budget are you trying to be? I think fetch lands would go great with the bloodghast.
Having outs to some dead cards down the line might be useful. Cursed scroll, for example or perhaps even scroll of fate?. You have a lot of ways to get the opponent hellbent quickly, and then eventually you will keep drawing more and more discard/LD/whatever with nothing to do with them. Collective Brutality in the board may help here too. Life gain might help a touch vs burn (which is not a good matchup vs big pox), and gives you more discard/targeted removal for little guys. Just some thought there.
Shrieking affliction might be of interest to you as well. Plays especially well with your Torment of Scarabs.
Also, what PirateKing above said as well.
@jafar Pox has trouble keeping cards in hand so synergy with hellbent spells work in awkward ways.
Since you don't run 8 colorless lands, no Mishra's factory, you could sideboard Blood Scrivener for longer games when you're both just topdecking. It'll keep you ahead by a card consistently as long as you're constantly casting and can clock your opponent. It's a Poxed Bob in a manner of speaking. The lack of Innocent Blood works in his favor.
If you include Mishra's factory, Sea Gate wreckage with Scrivener draws you 2 cards every other turn. I run them with Liliana though. You could replace her with Bottomless Pit if you're feeling evil.
Three Lilianas to rule them all. One Pox to find them. Smallpox to bring them all and in the Sinkhole bind them!
Omni you still on Sea Gate Wreckage? I dropped mine for Castle Locthwain and haven't looked back.
Been bolted too many times for my enjoyment. Burn, Canadian Thresh, fast agro can cause you to treasure HP a bit more than most. I'm against Thoughtseize because of this. But that's a meta call. If you have a durdle meta, then use that HP asap!
I'm a fan of synergy and some cards counterintuitively benefit you on hellbent. Draw more when you're out? I'll take some. Unlike Bob, it's always 1 HP only. However, some Pox builds are on 27+ lands. Siding in Bob works against grind matches. Gotta ditch the Innocent Bloods though.
Three Lilianas to rule them all. One Pox to find them. Smallpox to bring them all and in the Sinkhole bind them!
It's mostly tapping for black. Not having to worry about T2 Hymn or Smallpox casting is a big relief.
The life isn't the worst, since 95% of the time it's 1 life anyway since by the time you have 4 lands our you're pretty empty anyway. But in the circumstance when you Castle a land and draw a land for turn, you're not cut off from taking 2 damage to dig one deeper.
But I can feel the frustration from losing to Burn, that's not an easy matchup for us
To piggy back on the scrivener suggestion, Asylum Visitor works similarly, can be "cast" off a smallpox discard (avoiding the sacrifice, assuming 2 extra mana is up), works on opponents being hellbent, and adds an extra power to the stats. Not saying its strictly better, but I think an argument can be made if Jafar wants to go that route.
Oh. I forgot about her. A massive boon for Liliana of the Veil addicts & 3 power is the sweet spot for a creature @ 2 CMC.
Three Lilianas to rule them all. One Pox to find them. Smallpox to bring them all and in the Sinkhole bind them!
Lo and behold, I bring to you a rough sketch of the hotness that is...
KROX-A-POX
Krox-a-Pox
14 1-drops
2 Storm World
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Thoughtseize
2 Unearth
13 2-drops
4 Small Pox
1 Collective Brutality
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger
13 3-drops
4 Lightning Skelemental
3 Kolaghan’s Command
4 Liliana of the Veil
2 Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage
40
22 Land
4 Badlands
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Wasteland
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Prismatic Vista
2 Snow-Covered Swamp
2 Snow-Covered Mountain
62 cards! Yes, 2 must be cut. I told you it was rough!
The Plan
The idea is to pressure hand and life total and solve Pox's terrible topdeck mode. Kroxa can finally ensure that you have an aggressive game ender to capitalize on all the early disruption.
The Stuff to Consider
- Davriel and Storm World are playing the role of The Rack.
- If you Hellbent your opponent, Kroxa deals 3 damage from its ability
- Skelemental is a Blightning that deals 6 instead of 3 damage and can hit Planeswalkers
- Skelemental with Unearth is pure spice
- You can unearth a Skelemental that you discarded to Smallpox, Kolaghan's Command, Liliana of the Veil or Collective Brutality if you aren't in the position to hardcast it
- Kroxa's escape is tailor made for Pox's full graveyard and topdeck mode
- Kroxa can also be Unearthed for 1 mana to deal 3 damage or discard another card if you need to get to hellbent quickly
- The advantage of Storm World compared to The Rack is that it dodges artifact removal and deals a maximum of 4 damage every turn instead of 3, it is symmetrical but you should be able to race
- Dark Ritual cannot be played in a deck that requires RR for Kroxa's Escape and Lightning Skelemental
- Kolaghan's Command is your swiss-army knife. Usually played for a shock+discard, but also gives you maindeck artifact hate, more creature removal and the occasional end-of-turn raise dead on Lightning Skelemental. Drawstep discard buys you valuable hellbent turns.
- Lightning Skelemental is really good at punishing stupid cantripping Coatls!
- Lightning Skelemental one-shots a 6 loyalty Oko with haste!
2 Cards on the chopping block:
1 Collective Brutality - Reduces my hand size too quickly!
1 Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage - I got so many 3 drops already and Liliana also discards!
Suggested sideboard plan:
3 Leyline of the void
1 Surgical Extraction
2 Sphere of Resistance
1 Chains of Mephistopheles
1 The Abyss
1 Dead of Winter
1 Angrath’s Rampage
1 Engineered Plague
1 Darkblast
2 Blood Moon
1 Price of Progress
Leyline of the void - Sometimes life is leyline or bust
Surgical Extraction - When you don't want to side in leylines, but want to snipe away a dark depths, arcanist or snapcaster target
Sphere of Resistance - You should already have a good match against combo, but a Sphere to seal the deal is nice. Also considered Pyrostatic Pillar and Eidolon of the Great Revel. Couldn't really decide. What do you suggest?
Chains of Mephistopheles - Shutting down Brainstorms and Bedlam Revelers
The Abyss - Skelemental dies EOT and Kroxa can just recur every turn. Might need to be cut. What do you think?
Dead of Winter - Doesn't cost any life, so that's a plus against Toxic Deluge. Can't kill a gigantic creature though we don't want to pay that life anyway.
Angrath’s Rampage - Silver bullet against Oko, yet doubles as removal against artifacts, mainly Chalice of the Void. Better than Dreadbore or Bedevil.
Engineered Plague - Versatile permanent removal.
Darkblast - Dredge fills the graveyard for Kroxa and you don't need to draw a Kroxa if you mill into it. Good enough?
Blood Moon - Shut greedy Delver decks down, but be sure to fetch 2 swamps first
Price of Progress - The ultimate finisher against aggressive delver decks
Suggestions are welcome!
Last edited by bruizar; 01-15-2020 at 12:26 AM.
Looks fun! The only downside I see with storm world is it's world super type. So you cant get multiples out (in a very corner case youd also lose it to an opponent's enchant world, though I dont think many of those are running around). Any interest in shrieking affliction instead?
Edit to add that it's still a sweet excuse to play that card though!
I did consider Shrieking Affliction. I took a look at modern 8-rack, modern rakdos 8-rack, and bunch of monocolored and multicolored legacy pox variants. My issue with Shrieking Affliction is that it doesn't do anything unless the hand size is already at 1 or hellbent. I want it to hurt as soon and as hard as possible.
The nostalgia factor is strong with Storm World. I used to play with it many many years ago (Stormpox list with 4x The Rack, 2x Storm World, 4x Bolt+Blightning). Back then I was able to manage the self-inflicted life loss from Storm World, but I have no idea if Storm World is too aggressive on the life total in this list. If you are running up against a food token every turn, it's bad. If that happens then I'll try The Rack, Shrieking Affliction or more Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage.
The Enchant Worldness conflicts with The Abyss which is kind of terrible, but luckily the more important card (Chains of Mephistopheles) is not an Enchant World. The list doesn't play dark rituals to power out Nether Void so I doubt that one belongs in this list.
I really wanted to play Ashiok, Dream Render as it self-mills Kroxa, exiles opponent's graveyard and shut down fetchlands but I thought Davriel was more important for the game plan as you want Kroxa's ability to inflict 3 life loss, and we're not playing dark ritual to power out turn 1 Planeswalkers anyway (which might be its biggest weakness compared to stock pox lists).
4 Kroxa is way too many because it's not a good card to cast (RB for ravens crime OR lava spike? Yuck) and you don't have enough self-mill to support escaping multiple
That's also a lot of 3drops for a smallpox deck (also you need to pay 4 to escape the titan)
Overall I think the list is maybe veering into the "Thoughtseize plus Burn" problem zone. (Would you play mindrot in pox? No, it's too mana inefficient. Would you play 1BB for a ball lightning in pox? No, you're an attrition deck and don't want to spew cards just to deal damage. Does combining these two things produce a card that you actually want? Unconvincing...)
Kroxa is kind of cool and if escaping it was just BBBB I might be interested in playing it in a stock list as a 1 of but I don't think this splash is worth it.
A couple of things come immediately to mind: Storm World, while being excellent as an older card, affects you as well as your opponent. Without a way to reward you for low life, like Death's Shadow, I think The Rack and Shrieking Affliction are the cards you want. I don't think either are necessary though, because I think you could be all-in on the Unearth plan.
I think a package of Faithless Looting, Unearth, and Pox-effects/creatures would be incredible. Smallpox turns into not only a control element, but an enabler of really powerful and efficient plays. Short list of potential playables:
Fleshbag Marauder
Fulminator Mage
Murderous Rider
Ball Lightning
Hellspark Elemental
Bloodghast
I think you could have a dedicated number of hand disruption spells (Thoughtseize, Hymn), Smallpox, Faithless Looting, Unearth, and value reanimator targets (Krox, Skelemental, Marauder, Fulminator.) Once you round out the deck with PW's and some dedicated removal like Fatal Push/Lightning Bolt/Collective Brutality you should have a pretty cool Pox deck that has a grindy plan.
I think playing Blood Moon maindeck would be incredible, if only the format wasn't trending away from non-basic manabases. It's definitely a sideboard card until something big changes.
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
We could up +1 Unearth but we would need the best creatures to Unearth, that's normally Fulminator Mage/Dreadhorde Arcanist/Snapcaster Mage/Monastery Mentor/Seasoned Pyromancer, Death's Shadow. However, I think Liliana, Heretical Healer would be more fitting because Skelemental and Kroxa flip it and the discard ability is a +2 and the -X ability brings back Skelemental. All the abilities are great for this deck but I'm not sure if you can reliably get her to flip because the deck is creature light. I'm not too comfortable in a pox deck to rely on a second creature on the battlefield. All in all I wouldn't go for this myself.
The card suggestions you made lack the oomph that Skelemental has. Murderous Rider doesn't really work unfortunately because you don't Unearth the Spellside, and if you cast it it's in exile so the card can't be Unearthed until it is in your graveyard. Then you get a 2/3 lifelink that goes to the bottom instead of your graveyard when it dies. If we could Unearth the spellside, I'd def try this.
Of the cards you mentioned,Seasoned Pyromancer and Fulminator Mage are by far the best one. Fulminator could work but you'd need to build a deck around Sinkhole and perhaps even Shadow of Doubt to 'sinkhole' fetch lands or Encroach and go all in on the mana denial plan. Death's Shadow could also be played alongside Storm World, but you're better of playing a dedicated Death's Shadow deck then.
2 or 3 Faithless Looting is the right card for this deck. With the lack of draw and the ability of looting to set up Kroxa, this looks pretty strong. Unfortunately it isn't card advantage but card disadvantage, but that might be ok because you can just cast it and mill yourself hoping to set up or hit a Kroxa.
Don't laugh me out here but if this is the plan, maybe we can dust off 1 off Squee, Goblin Nabob. It provides card advantage with Smallpox, Liliana, Faithless Looting, and Collective Brutality after all.
I had to make that work I'd go for:
-1 Collective Brutality
- 2 Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage
-1 Storm World
+3 Faithless Looting
+1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
Not sure if it reduces the decks aggression too much though. It seems to move away too much from emptying opponent's hand and punishing him for it.
Did anyone else see this pox-less 'Pox' deck?
https://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=24384&f=LE
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
Yes! Such an interesting list. I understand why he chose not to run small pox, the land sets you back a lot too. Between the 3CMC pw's and murderous rider, you really need your third land.
Interesting to note here too, that this discard heavy list did so well at a decent-sized tournament in a meta full of Veil of Summer.
Or a Dark Ritual. That list looks pretty cool but it seems to have a ton of things that make you pay life.
I guess the lifelink of Murderous Rider helps?
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