[Primer/Deck] Pox

[feline]

If you like disruptve strategies, eliminating cards from your opponents hand, destroying their lands, making them sacrifice their creatures, & eating away at their life total while essentially controlling the game state with your resource attacking playstyle, then a Pox deck type strategy might be just what you're looking for.

1) Playing Pox
2) Successful decklists & trends
3) Card choices
3a) Maindeck
3b) Sideboard
4) Price guide
5) Awesome links
6) Previous Pox thread http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...?4300-Deck-Pox special thanks to Clark Kant
7) 20 match ups

1) Playing Pox:
You ultimate goal is to kill your opponent, in order to achieve that goal playing Pox, you want to take control of the board state to win the game. The avenue you'll take to do this will be in the form of the best disruption that Swamps have to offer. Against any deck, discard spells will remove vital cards from their hand, Land destruction will keep decks cut off from their larger spells & narrow their options in the gameplay, & creatures that hit the battlefield will be kept under control with multiple ways to make them sacrifice a creature. As far as the kill condition, once you've spend the first few turns destroying their hand & board state, you will win over the course of the following turns taking their life down with Nether Spirit, Mishra's Factory & Cursed Scroll, while continuing to prevent them from doing too much of anything relevant with your disruption that your deck is so full of.

Alot of your spells will be a "2 for 1" or even, potentially higher (Like Liliana of the Veil for example)
~Speaking of Liliana of the Veil, eating their hand apart and making them sacrifice creatures so much, this card can easily tick up against many opposing strategies in Legacy, getting to the point of a "soft lock." An example being that they keep a creature in hand, only to have it discarded, or put it into play, only to have it sacrificed, the whole deck compliments Liliana, & Liliana compliments the decks strategy as a whole very well, Liliana of the Veil can be noted as the card that finally brought recent Pox decks to the level of success they have had since the printing of the 1BB Planeswalker.
~Hymn to Tourach can nail 2 cards in their hand.
~Smallpox can nail an opposing land, creature, & card in hand, while you'll be ditching something like Nether Spirit, a useless card, or have an empty hand already. As far as sacrificing a creature yourself, your deck is setup to benefit further from such effects, since the Nether Spirit just comes right back on the upkeep, & Mishra's Factorys are only creatures when animated.
~Cursed Scroll can eat multiple creatures when the opposing strategy is filled with cheap creatures, not to mention that Nether Spirit can also do the same thing just by blocking & coming back every turn.

The emphasis here is the card advantage, this deck is setup to be disruptive, & play some of the most effective Swamp tapping cards you can throw at your opponent in the format that is Legacy.

Early game: Start out doing what Pox does best, disrupting the game state as much as possible, focus on eating away at their hand with your discard, keep their creatures down with your "make them sacrifice a creature" effects that Pox is so full of. Use your Nether Spirit as a blocker that can potentially take out opposing creatures just by blocking, worst case scenario it prevents damage like a wall that never goes away since it reanimate's itself on the upkeep.

Mid game: Stabilizing the board state, if you have a Liliana of the Veil at this point this is where it will start ticking up now that your opponents resources are dwindled by your strategy, continue keeping creatures off the board and cards out of their hand, Liliana is especially good here against combo decks, if you get it to the mid game and drop the planeswalker, it can prevent them from gaining too many cards in hand, sometimes you can get them to the point of having no cards in hand entirely, if that's the case, most combo decks at this point, especially storm combo based decks, will be under control & all you have to do is finish them off for the win.

Late game: Continue keeping control of the board state, the opponent can top deck stuff, but since some of your disruption is in the form of Land Destruction, they may not even be able to play their later game bombs because they just don't have the resources. As far as your side of the board, whenever you get the chance & the board state remains under your control, do 2 damage to them getting their life total down toward 0, whether it's with Nether Spirit and Mishra's Factory in combat, or a Cursed Scroll activation at the end of their turn.

History: Variants of Pox have been in Legacy as far back as it being called type 1.5, Mono Black being the most popular builds. For the more current incarnation of Pox, sometimes known as "Liliana Pox" in today's Legacy, we go back to the end of 2011, when Reid Duke piloted Pox with Liliana of the Veil for the Legacy portion of an SCG Invitational, going 5-1-1 in the Legacy portion:

2) Successful decklists & trends: from here http://www.starcitygames.com/pages/decklists/ & http://www.thecouncil.es/tcdecks/for...=Legacy&page=1
2011:
9th place - Greg Russell - SCG Seattle (184 players) Loam Pox
3rd place - Reid Duke - SCG Invitational (316 players)

2012:
15th place - Jason Brinkman - SCG Atlanta (191 players)
16th place - Michael Greene - SCG Atlanta (191 players)
4th place - Ali Antrazi - SCG Washington DC (234 players) Loam Pox
10th place - Paul Telkamp - SCG Richmond (118 players)
6th place - Enric Bertran - 4º torneo Lliga Catalana Legacy - Esplugues (103 players) B/W Pox
28th place - Kurtis Frazier - SCG St Louis (223 players)
14th place - Dustin Cristos - SCG Las Vegas (223 players)
16th place - Christopher Powell - SCG Providence (175 players)
13th place - Shawn Riggin - SCG St Louis (162 players)

2013:
24th place - Sean Nguyen - SCG Las Vegas (142 players)
13th place - John Prather - SCG Seattle (261 players) Loam Pox
12th place - David Nolan - SCG Cincinnati (277 players) Loam Pox
1st place - Roberto Tomelleri - Brescia, Gods of Olympus (116 players)
12th place - Matthew Everitt - SCG Providence (268 players)

2014:
6th place - Xavier Muntada - LCL 2014 - January (147 players)
8th place - Chris Arnold SCG Invitational (361 players) Loam Pox
5th place - Joshua Edelstein SCG Worcester (290 players) Loam Pox
13th place - Cary Austin SCG Columbus (259 players)

2015:
10th place - Kurtis Fraizer SCG Columbus (162 players)
16th place - Jason Deiss SCG Denver (80 players)

3) Card Choices:

3a) Maindeck: (average #, when ran)
Hand Disruption:
Inquisition of Kozilek (4) With the low mana curve of Legacy, this card almost always hits something, making it an almost perfect 1 mana discard spell.
Hymn to Tourach (4) 2 for 1, at random, & can even hit lands and slow the opponents opening hand down.
Thoughtseize non traditional Usually in sideboard when ran, other discard preferred because of the -2 life with Thoughtseize.
Duress non traditional Usually in sideboard when ran.
Raven's Crime non traditional Seen in rogue lists.
Funeral Charm non traditional Seen in rogue lists.

Creature Disruption:
Innocent Blood (4) Probably the best converted mana cost 1, creature removal available, doesn't target, great synergy with so many sacrifice a creature to the opponent effects.
Cursed Scroll (3) 2 damage to a creature, or a player's life total, acts as both removal & a kill condition.
Spinning Darkness (1-2) non traditional Usually in the sideboard, but sometimes there's a copy in the maindeck.

Land Disruption:
Sinkhole (4) Slow them down, cut them off of a color, answer problematic lands, etc. Can even cut them out of casting spells completely with so much Land Disruption in Pox.
Wasteland (4) Uncounterable nonbasic land hate.
Ghost Quarter non traditional seen in rogue lists.
Rishadan Port non traditional seen in rogue lists.

Multiple disruption from 1 source:
Pox (1-2) Even though the deck is called Pox, since the inclusion of Liliana of the Veil, the card Pox itself is usually just a 1 of in the deck when ran.
Smallpox (4) Your deck is setup to fully take advantage of "Pox" like effects that hit both players, almost always affecting them much more than it affects you.
Liliana of the Veil (4) Recurring discard, can be recurring creature removal as well, & even "ultimate" to cut the opponents remaining permanents in half.
Ratched Bomb non traditional Usually in sideboard when ran.
Powder Keg non traditional Usually in sideboard when ran.

Other permanents:
Nether Void Usually only a 1-2 of when ran, as a lockout taxing affect.
The Abyss Usually only a 1-2 of when ran, & more in the sideboard than maindeck.
Crucible of Worlds non traditional seen in rogue lists, can allow recurring Wasteland's / Mishra's Factory's.
Sensei's Divining Top non traditional seen in rogue lists.

Mana sources:
Dark Ritual (4) A turn 1 Liliana can be alot of pressure against some decks, or turn 1 Hymn to Tourach + Inquisition of Kozilek, as an example.
Swamp (8-12) Whatever your land base, you'll want a minimum 24 lands.
Bojuka Bog (4) non traditional seen in few maindecks, basically a swamp that comes into play tapped, that can also give game 1 graveyard hate.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth (4) Make your Wastelands & Mishra's Factorys produce Swamp mana.

Creatures:
Nether Spirit (2) Reanimates itself when it's the only creature in your graveyard.
Mishra's Factory (4) make a 2/2 for 1 mana, also taps for 1 colorless.
Mutavault non traditional seen in rogue lists, Factory preferred for it's +1/+1 when 2 in play.
Bloodghast (4) non traditional seen in fewer lists, though has tricks with Landfall mechanics.
Gravecrawler (4) non traditional seen in rogue lists.
Filth non traditional seen in rogue lists.

Other kill conditions, though less traditional:
The Rack non traditional seen in rogue lists.
Tombstalker non traditional seen in rogue lists.
Bitterblossom non traditional seen in rogue lists.

Color splashes: non traditional, as most lists now are mono black/Liliana Pox.
Loam Pox: References for those that may want to splash green.
Pernicious Deed Board sweeper, doesn't hit Planeswalkers.
Maelstrom Pulse Removal that can 2 for 1 against multiple permanents of the same name.
Abrupt Decay Uncounterable removal, a B/G Legacy staple since printed in Return to Ravnica.
Crop Rotation Tutor for land, usually for versions running The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale.
~Dredge/Loam/Entomb tricks:
Dakmor Salvage Dredging land.
Darkblast Dredging removal.
Life from the Loam Dredging "Crucible of the Worlds."
Cabal Pit Removal with Threshold, recurrable with Life from the Loam.
Syphon Life Abuseable kill condition with Life from the Loam.
Worm Harvest Abuseable kill condition with Life from the Loam.
Entomb Tutor for any card to the graveyard, like a Nether Spirit.
Vampire Hexmage Tricks with "Dark Depths."
Volrath's Stronghold Can Entomb it to the graveyard, get it into hand with Life from the Loam, cast it, put Vampire Hexmage on top of your library, draw it, play Dark Depths, Vampire Hexmage, now you have a 20/20 indestructible.
Dark Depths Tricks with "Vampire Hexmage."
The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale Prevents opposing creature based decks from overrunning you like Goblins / Affinity / Elves that get out so many creatures so fast.
~B/G Lands:
Verdant Catacombs
Bayou
Barren Moor

B/W Pox: References for those that may want to splash white.
Lingering Souls 2 1/1 flyer's, whether to block opposing creatures or as a kill condition, also has flashback.
Swords to Plowshares Legacy staple removal for a single W mana.
Vindicate Destroy any permanent.
~B/W Lands:
Flagstones of Trokair
Marsh Flats
Scrubland

3b) Sideboard:
~Graveyard Disruption:
Leyline of the Void Starts in play from the opening hand.
Extirpate "Split second" Graveyard hate, almost uncounterable.
Nihil Spellbomb Graveyard removal that cantrips for a card.
Surgical Extraction Graveyard removal that removes all copies from the opponent.
~Hand Disruption:
Thoughtseize Usually not maindeck because of the -2 life.
Duress More common over Thoughtseize, almost all decks have pleanty of non-creature, non-land targets.
~Creature Disruption:
Ensnaring Bridge against larger creatures, Show and Tell decks, but also effective against creature decks because Pox can empty its hand fairly quickly.
Engineered Plague against tribal decks.
Perish against Green creature based decks.
Spinning Darkness "free" to cast against non-black creatures, +3 life & creature removal can help against fast decks.
Infest -2/-2 to all creatures for 3, effective against swarm/overrun type creature decks.
Smother Spot removal, prevents regeneration.
The Abyss Recurring removal.
Dystopia Recurring removal against Green & White permanent based decks, whether it's creatures like Maverick/Death & Taxes/Elves, or Enchantments like Enchantress.
Karakas Loam Pox A target for Entomb to Life from the Loam
~Other Disruption:
Krosan Grip Loam Pox Split Second Artifact/Enchantment hate.
Pithing Needle A cheap alternative to stop things like Planeswalkers, Equipments, or other artifact, creature based activations.
Ratchet Bomb "Sweeper" against non land permanents based on Converted Mana Cost.
Powder Keg "Sweeper" against Artifacts & Creatures based on Converted Mana Cost, doesn't hit Planeswalkers or Enchantments.
Nether Void A "taxing" effect that can lock the opponent out of the game after establishing control of the game state.

4) Price guide of more common Pox cards: As of March 2013 (For the most current prices, click on the link of each card) High-Mid-Low according to http://magiccards.info/ & http://magic.tcgplayer.com/all_magic_sets.asp
$50.00+ average:
The Abyss $199.00 $185.16 $171.20
Nether Void $175.00 $134.10 $119.99
Thoughtseize $69.97 $64.11 $58.49
Wasteland $55.95 $49.16 $38.00

$20.00 to $50.00:
Liliana of the Veil $41.97 $37.62 $34.98
Sinkhole $18.44 $30.86 $44.98

$10.00 to $20.00:
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth $24.98 $15.67 $13.50

$5.00 to $10.00:
Cursed Scroll $10.98 $8.58 $6.95
Inquisition of Kozilek $9.95 $7.64 $6.42
Bloodghast $7.97 $6.22 $5.05
Extirpate $10.29 $6.34 $4.99

$2.00 to $5.00:
Nether Spirit $5.14 $3.87 $2.99
Mishra's Factory $4.04 $2.86 $1.75
Pox $5.04 $3.75 $2.65
Powder Keg $5.15 $2.64 $1.49
Perish $4.62 $2.80 $1.80

$1.00 to $2.00:
Innocent Blood $2.88 $2.07 $1.38
Hymn to Tourach $2.00 $1.43 $1.04
Ratched Bomb $5.99 $1.42 $0.86
Leyline of the Void $2.69 $1.59 $0.86
Engineered Plague $2.06 $1.18 $0.25

$1.00 or less average:
Pithing Needle $2.05 $0.81 $0.48
Bojuka Bog $0.75 $0.35 $0.22
Dark Ritual $1.53 $0.90 $0.50
Smallpox $1.00 $0.27 $0.05
Duress $0.62 $0.17 $0.02
Spinning Darkness $0.49 $0.19 $0.04

Swamp $149.98(Guru) $7.98(Unhinged) $5.99(Unglued) $5.99(Beta) $1.00(Zendikar) $0.03(Basic)


5) Awesome Links: In relation to Pox & Legacy
Price trends of singles:
http://www.mtgprice.com/sets/Ice_Age/Pox

Pox articles/reports/etc:
2013:
http://www.starcitygames.com/article...In-Legacy.html Video, Pox, Starcitygames (Reid Duke)

2012:
http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/l...egacy-Pox.html Article, Loam Pox update for Return to Ravnica (Reid Duke)
http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...Pox&highlight= Tournament report, B/G Pox, 3rd place of 36 (Cthuloo)
http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/l..._Week_Pox.html Article with notes on both Liliana Pox & Loam Pox (Reid Duke)
http://www.starcitygames.com/events/...th_ali_ai.html Deck Tech from SCG Washington DC (Ali Antrazi)

2011:
http://www.starcitygames.com/article...In-Legacy.html Article after Pox top 8, 5-1-1 Legacy portion, SCG Invitational Charlotte (Reid Duke)
http://www.starcitygames.com/events/...ox_with_r.html Deck Tech from SCG Invitational Charlotte (Reid Duke)

Pox decklist sources:
Starcitygames.com Pox decklists
http://www.thecouncil.es/tcdecks/tip...ype=Pox&page=1

Legacy metagame:
http://www.starcitygames.com/pages/decklists/
http://www.thecouncil.es/tcdecks/for...=Legacy&page=1
http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...(started-2012)

For more on B/G Loam Pox: http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...35-Deck-BG-Pox Though started in 2007, it is more dedicated to B/G Pox builds, & saw some revival after the printing of Abrupt Decay with Return to Ravnica.

6) The previous Pox thread: http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...?4300-Deck-Pox by Clark Kant, special thanks to Clark Kant & everyone that filled the thread with valuable Pox discussion over the past 6-7 years.