[Primer/Deck] Pox

[TravisParsley339]

Legacy POX deck tech and 6 game series on youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...NGih_H3gdoKaas

[naynay666]

Legacy POX deck tech and 6 game series on youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...NGih_H3gdoKaas

Thank you for creating this content. 2 To the Slaughter main and the Witchbane Orb in the side are pretty spicy.

[naynay666]

Diabolical Edict got worse.

Liliana’s Triumph.
Instant 1B
Each opponent sacs a dude. If you have a Lili, opponents also discards a card.

Available in full art Open House promo.

Our Queen looks lovely.

[ronco]

Just came here to post that, naynay. I don't run any in my current build but it may be something to consider as a tool.

I may be in the minority, but I really like the promo full art.

[naynay666]

Just came here to post that, naynay. I don't run any in my current build but it may be something to consider as a tool.

I may be in the minority, but I really like the promo full art.

Diabolic Edict main has been pretty fun for me as it helps with Chalice, Thought-Knot, Marit & so forth. I am looking forward to trying out To the Slaughter for a little bit. It's been mentioned here but I never foxed with it before.

But at 3 mana is Hero's Downfall worth considering? Is targeting Jace more reliable than edicting him when a Snapcaster is possible? I suppose Snappy grabs a Counterspell which beats either. Merely destroying Marit Lage doesn't do a whole lot.

Promos are cool beans by me.

[kombatkiwi]

Legacy POX deck tech and 6 game series on youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...NGih_H3gdoKaas

I watched the first round against UR, I think you make good videos and the gameplay was ok but that has to be the most hilarious justification for 61 cards I've ever heard

In unrelated news, there is also a 3 mana black PW spoiled

Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage 2B
Leegendary Planeswalker - Davriel
At the beginning of each opponent's upkeep, if that player has 1 or fewer cards in hand, Davriel deals 2 damage to them
-1: Target player discards a card
Starting loyalty: 3

It seems maybe a bit too fragile to play maindeck but definitely looks good as a sb option in creature-light matchups (e.g. Storm, some control decks) especially for the versions of pox that are playing Dark Ritual

[Pittplayer]

I watched the first round against UR, I think you make good videos and the gameplay was ok but that has to be the most hilarious justification for 61 cards I've ever heard

In unrelated news, there is also a 3 mana black PW spoiled

Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage 2B
Leegendary Planeswalker - Davriel
At the beginning of each opponent's upkeep, if that player has 1 or fewer cards in hand, Davriel deals 2 damage to them
-1: Target player discards a card
Starting loyalty: 3

It seems maybe a bit too fragile to play maindeck but definitely looks good as a sb option in creature-light matchups (e.g. Storm, some control decks) especially for the versions of pox that are playing Dark Ritual

This would only be brought in vs Storm if you are intentionaly trying to lose the match. And Liliana of the Veil is better then this card in every single way.

[kombatkiwi]

This would only be brought in vs Storm if you are intentionaly trying to lose the match. And Liliana of the Veil is better then this card in every single way.

It's not a case of "hmm I have 1 more SB slot and I want to beat storm, what is the best option? This card!" because that's obviously not true, you would rather have Trinisphere or Nethervoid or Lost Legacy or whatever.
But it's clearly better vs storm than several cards in most Pox maindecks and it may have additional application in other matchups as well, such that it warrants a sideboard slot

And of course Liliana of the Veil is better than this but you are only allowed to play 4 of them

[Pittplayer]

It's not a case of "hmm I have 1 more SB slot and I want to beat storm, what is the best option? This card!" because that's obviously not true, you would rather have Trinisphere or Nethervoid or Lost Legacy or whatever.
But it's clearly better vs storm than several cards in most Pox maindecks and it may have additional application in other matchups as well, such that it warrants a sideboard slot

And of course Liliana of the Veil is better than this but you are only allowed to play 4 of them

Cemetery Gate is better than Innocent Blood vs Dredge, so obviously we should be sideboarding it. Also Plague Rats is better then Fatal Push vs Storm, so of course we better have that in the sideboard too.

[kombatkiwi]

Cemetery Gate is better than Innocent Blood vs Dredge, so obviously we should be sideboarding it. Also Plague Rats is better then Fatal Push vs Storm, so of course we better have that in the sideboard too.

New card for my pox deck! I run a Bloodghast aggro Pox deck. Cabal Therapist is absolutely going in my sideboard. Vs spell heavy combo, out 4 Innocent Blood, in 4 Cabal Therapist.

So you would prefer something which only attacks for 1, and needs sac fodder to disrupt (which cuts into your own clock), and dies to your own smallpox, rather than 2/3 of a Shrieking Affliction with a mind rot tacked on, got it
I just went and searched the thread and the only list you've posted had 0 Liliana and 2 Noxious Revival which tells me just about everything that I need to know

[naynay666]

Jesus Christ grow up everybody. Drop it and move on.

[kombatkiwi]

Such an idiotic strawman doesn't warrant a serious response, but in case anyone somehow thinks I'm the troll:

For the sake of argument I'll pretend that instead of Cemetery Gate he said Leyline of the Void and that instead of Plague Rats he said Trinisphere

Imagine for whatever reason that rest of a sideboard is these 13 cards:

4 Surgical Extraction
2 Pithing Needle
2 Collective Brutality
1 Night of Soul's Betrayal
1 Underworld Dreams
1 Ensnaring Bridge
2 Chains of Mephistopheles

And your maindeck is built such that you want to bring in 2 extra cards (in addition to whatever is already in this 13) against both Dredge and Storm.
You could
a) Make a decision on which of the matchups is either going to be more common or which is more difficult, and play 2 Leyline 0 Trinisphere or 2 Trinisphere and 0 Leyline
b) Hedge by playing one copy of each
c) Play two copies of an entirely different card that is solid against both Dredge and Storm but not as good as the 'targeted' cards. (Extirpate perhaps, or Lost Legacy, feel free to suggest your own alternative)

Whether option a, b, or c is correct depends on the maindeck and the metagame and exactly which cards are being considered. My suggestion is that Davriel can is this kind of "option C" kind of card. In the above example you could decide that Davriel is similarly good as a wincon vs control that it can replace Underworld Dreams. Then you have an extra card that fills the role of supplementary discard, so maybe you decide to cut one of the Collective Brutalities. Now you have 3 open SB slots instead of 2 so you can play 2 Leyline and 1 Trinisphere, which might result in an overall better deck than what you had before.

Obviously Davriel has significant flaws:
- Against combo a mindrot split over 2 turns is very mediocre as disruption
- Against control decks if you mindrot it down to 1 loyalty it becomes very vulnerable to e.g. Kolaghans commands or endstep Snapcasters

And I have tried and ultimately rejected similar swiss-army-knife sb cards in the past for doing many things but not being good enough at any of them. (e.g. Barbarian Ring in RUG Delver). So it's possible that Davriel falls into this camp and is not really playable. But a rack effect combined with discard seems like an effect that this deck could take advantage of, and I don't think 2B is an entirely prohibitive manacost, so it seems at least worth discussing



With regards to the Hero's Downfall question, I'm not sure that the instant speed is very useful for this deck, so I think I prefer the Aftermath one from Amonkhet that you can flashback to make a zombie. But whether that is better than To the Slaughter I'm not sure

[Hardcore]

Tl;dr

[Pittplayer]

Tl;dr

I take it your not putting Dav in your pox deck Hardcore?

[naynay666]

Mythic Champion Andrea Mengucci made his second video about Pox.

https://www.channelfireball.com/vide...el-mengucci-2/

I haven't watched it yet but the list is fun. Mox Diamonds over Rituals. Tabernacle and Nether Void, but no Chains or Abyss. Only two pieces of GY hate in the board.

1 Bojuka Bog
1 Maze of Ith
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
4 Mishra's Factory
4 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Wasteland
10 Swamp

4 Mox Diamond
2 Cursed Scroll
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Phyrexian Totem

1 Nether Spirit

3 Innocent Blood
4 Thoughtseize
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Sinkhole
4 Smallpox
1 Bontu's Last Reckoning
1 Toxic Deluge

4 Liliana of the Veil
1 Liliana, the Last Hope


Sideboard
2 Faerie Macabre
1 Bontu's Last Reckoning
1 Ensnaring Bridge
2 Duress
1 Bitterblossom
1 Lost Legacy
1 Nether Void
2 Pithing Needle
2 Ratchet Bomb
2 Tombstalker

[kombatkiwi]

I'm extremely skeptical of Mox Diamond and I think I would cut one of the Wraths for Bridge but I like a lot of the other things

I like 4/4/4/4 Hymn/Sinkhole/Smallpox/Veil
I like 1/1/1 Spirit/Crucible/Last Hope
I like 2 Cursed Scroll

I don't know if 1 Phyrexian Totem is good (compared to e.g. Beseech the Queen) and I would probably cut 1 Swamp for Tomb of Urami or try to get a Cabal Pit in there somewhere

From there you just have to tweak the numbers on TS/Blood and whether you want to sub some of them for like Raven's Crime or Funeral Charm and then I think this list is pretty good (at least the maindeck)
Without having watched the video I would swap Diamond for Rituals though

[Hardcore]

I take it your not putting Dav in your pox deck Hardcore?

I can understand people are looking for something that blue seems to get all the time. The last card we got was just a creature-kill; the Fatal Push.
However black already got a ton of powerful cards. More than blue actually.

As for the new pw it must compete with the ten three-mana spells I already got. Four Pox, four LotV and two LtLH.

[ntropy]

I'm playing in a medium sized tournament tomorrow and none of my decks are feeling terribly well positioned, so I'm going to run an untested build of Loam-Pox for the fun factor. I have lots of experience piloting Mono-Black and G/B versions of Pox, but I've always used Chalice in Loam Pox so I'm not used to having Crop-Rot and Entomb. Does anyone have any experiences to share or comments on the build? I don't have access to any of the Legends enchantments or Tabernacle, sadly, but I do have most other cards that I might want. I'm sure it will be functional, but I'm just fishing for ideas.


2 Bloodghast
2 Vampire Hexmage
3 Liliana of the Veil
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
2 Crop Rotation
2 Entomb
4 Thoughtseize
3 Abrupt Decay
4 Hymn to Tourach
2 Life from the Loam
4 Smallpox
2 Pox
4 Mox Diamond
1 Sylvan Library
1 Barren Moor
3 Bayou
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Cabal Pit
1 Dark Depths
1 Forest
1 Ghost Quarter
3 Mishra's Factory
2 Swamp
3 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Wasteland

sideboard

2 Vampire Hexmage
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
2 Toxic Deluge
4 Trinisphere
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Karakas
1 Maze of Ith

[FTW]

Mythic Champion Andrea Mengucci made his second video about Pox.

https://www.channelfireball.com/vide...el-mengucci-2/

I haven't watched it yet but the list is fun. Mox Diamonds over Rituals. Tabernacle and Nether Void, but no Chains or Abyss. Only two pieces of GY hate in the board.

With that many singletons, I have to ask if this is a paper list and how high is his Dexterity level?

I used to love Mox Diamond in old Pox lists years ago alongside multiple Crucibles and Pox and a high land count. Dark Ritual is card disadvantage anyway, so Diamond setting you back a card isn't a huge penalty. Crucible gets the land back. Mox also let you cheat an extra "land" in play through Big Pox (normally you do everything in 3s).

Mox also enables turn 1 Sinkhole, back when Sinkhole was more commonly played. Sinkhole is much less bad on turn 1. You could Dark Ritual into turn 1 Sinkhole, but it feels like a waste (Dark Rit + 1-for-1 1cmc spell + Sinkhole is spending 3 cards to kill 2 cards). Dark Rit is usually better for a 3-drop (Lili, Crucible) or Hymn. Mox is a smoother way to accelerate Sinkhole and still speed up your big drops. I don't know if it's good in that list, but the card can be good in Pox.

Bontu's seems really bad.

[DungeonShade]

Doing okay with this list (Mono-B) the last two FNM's:

u/r delver 2-1
b/r reanimator 2-0
sneak and show 2-1
u/r delver w/ pteramander 1-2

goblins 2-1
pox 2-1
ANT 2-1
grixis control 2-1

Quite happy with Faerie over Tombstalker at the moment. There are lots of cards I'd like to be playing but there isn't room.

4 Liliana of the Veil
4 Thoughtseize
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Smallpox
4 Bloodghast

3 Liliana, the Last Hope
3 Innocent Blood
3 Shrieking Affliction

2 Faerie Macabre
2 Collective Brutality
2 Inquisition of Kozilek

2 Mishra's Factory
1 Karakas
4 Wasteland
3 Bloodstained Mire
3 Polluted Delta
12 Swamp

SB:
1 Faerie Macabre
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Massacre
1 Marsh Casualties
1 Bitterblossom
1 Chains of Mephistopheles
2 Pithing Needle
2 Ratchet Bomb
2 Trinisphere
2 Ensnaring Bridge