Moar Contaminations, less GY hate. Only flopping around with my sideboard for now, but the local meta I'm in has almost no black in it so Contamination is poisonous...Originally Posted by zenitramleirdag
Three Lilianas to rule them all. One Pox to find them. Smallpox to bring them all and in the Sinkhole bind them!
Doesn't this list look reasonable?
4 Bloodghast
4 Bloodsoaked Champion
3 nihilith
4 Pox
4 Smallpox
4 Hymn to Tourach
3 Toxic Deluge
4 inquisition of kozilek
4 Liliana of the Veil
4 The Rack
4 Bloodstained Mire
12 Swamp
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Wasteland
Looks balanced doesn't it? I have put back Inquisition of kozilek to be more prepared for combo.
THAT may be why i went 1-3 this tuesday.
My first opponent played Shardless control. I got problems with my starting hands and never really recovered.
Second round I met a guy playing belcher. He goes of turn one playing a million goblins. Duel two he makes a million goblins but i am a turn ahead playing Ratchet Bomb and kill them.
Turn three he empties his hand to put belcher into play. I play Ratchet bomb and start add counters. Regretably he draws a spirit guide before i get discard to destroy his hand.
I consider dropping but decide to continue. At last then i get to play magic.
Next i get beaten by Death and Taxes. Toxic Deluge was supposed to be a solution to creatures but it is too slow vs death and taxes.
0-2 This should be an EASY opponent.
Eventually you get to fight someone worse than yourself, and you win.
He played Blade something and lost to me by 0-2.
Nothing to learn there. :/
So improvements that turn out to be dis-improvement(?). Haven't seen that before;-)
On the whole i like the deck, Aggro-pox. Fine tuning is all it needs, but that may mean big changes.
"Pox early, Pox often, and Pox hard!" - Le_Lepreux
@hardcore
"Looks balanced doesn't it? I have put back Inquisition of kozilek to be more prepared for combo.
THAT may be why i went 1-3 this tuesday."
-i don't think your inclusion of inquisition of kozilek is the reason why you went 1-3 yesterday since IOK is a good card against ALL the deck you went up against..
"My first opponent played Shardless control. I got problems with my starting hands and never really recovered."
-did you mean shardless BUG? speaking from experience, our problem against this deck is ancestral visions..(Pox's weaknesses are noncreature nonland permanents, graveyard interactions, and Ancestral Vision.- reid duke http://www.starcitygames.com/article...n-Prophet.html ), since it helps them recover and beat us in card advantage..its the reason why reid once ran bottled cloister at some point, to match BUG's card advantage..
"Next i get beaten by Death and Taxes. Toxic Deluge was supposed to be a solution to creatures but it is too slow vs death and taxes.
0-2 This should be an EASY opponent. "
-toxic deluge is NOT slow, perhaps you found it slow since you're not running rituals in your build..its the cheapest, most versatile sweeper mono-black has access to in legacy, unless you're considering nausea or shrivel which, IMHO, is too narrow..
Last edited by zenitramleirdag; 09-04-2015 at 05:01 AM.
i've always wanted to try contamination in pox but i'm too chicken to use it in a tournament because i feel its too clunky, what cards do you run other than nether spirit to sustain it in play and keep the lock? are you running crucibles again? my friend suggested i try Ophiomancer and reassembling skeleton, though i feel the latter is too mana intensive in a deck that destroys its own lands, i haven't tried it so i can't comment on the card yet, what do you think? if i hadn't sold my bitter blossoms, i think i might test it with contamination too, although i might take out big pox because of fear of too much life loss..Moar Contaminations, less GY hate. Only flopping around with my sideboard for now, but the local meta I'm in has almost no black in it so Contamination is poisonous...
in a casual game, i'd run it with breeding pit, until i buy my bitterblossoms back..
Death and Taxes is a bye for Engineered Plague and Night of Souls' Betrayal maindeck. Ultimately, I did experiment with an Aggro-Control Pox running 12 threats, I've learned it does better against control, but worse against combo and aggro. For me, that improvement isn't worth it in a meta where aggro combo is prevalent. (my local)
For Contamination, I've noticed using it as a 3 mana Time-Walk is actually significant. I run 2 Nether Spirit, 1 Crucible, and 4 Mishra's to feed it. Just casting it for 'the hell of it' and then stalling out to top deck a creature/man-land makes it totally worth it. Why? Because you auto-win vs. most decks with it, that's why!
My last (and only) tournament with it I REALLY should have just thrown away my 2 Mishra's Factories to it since I top decked my Crucible the SAME TURN I sacrificed the damn thing. Running it as a 4 of after Sideboard is great for me. (very few mono-black decks in meta)
Decks that splash also suffer heavily. Can't Abrupt Decay if your lands only make Black and your DRS is Pithing Needled huh?
Ophiomancer... With her in play, all your Pox effects become totally nullified. Card advantage... ah... And the chumping OH glorious chumping. I'd have to remove my Night of Souls' Betrayal for her which would kill my Death and Taxes auto win games, so perhaps another Pox deck could run her.
Three Lilianas to rule them all. One Pox to find them. Smallpox to bring them all and in the Sinkhole bind them!
Thanks for the replies!
@Hardcore: Your lists were very influential, so if you say that Lili is not necesary then be it. My wallet will appreciate that for sure.
@Zenitramleirdag: I`ve played whit rituals instead of moxen in the past, and eventually ended taking them out. While they do provide some really explosive starts, they ofetn lefted me scrambling for an extra source of mana over the turns. In the long run mox provide more mana, and they are pox-proof to boot. I will retool the SB to make room for Drown in sorrow, and few ratchet bombs for hard to deal with permanents. i don`t know if the deck can support the lifeloss of toxic deluge, but I can try to test them in drown in sorrow`s place. IOK is something I will try to squeeze in the MD.
@Omnistrata: I took out The Rack, since it was dead in many games when my opp out drew me. DRS is very good, a decent one drop, late game reach, removal magnet, ramp, and lifegain with the mox.
My list now is the same as i posted but with -3 the rack and +2 extirpate (test slot until I can get some IOK) and +1 jitte.
Saludos
I really like your list and your new changes you've made, have you considered running 1-2 Crucible of Worlds for Wasteland recursion and synergy with Mox Diamond and Poxes?
I have played a lot of Ophiomancer in mono-black Stax. Can confirm that she is nuts - and honestly, if you resolve Night of Soul's Betrayal, why do you even care that you're not making snake tokens? In that case you're almost certainly winning the game. The times you DON'T have Night though, Ophiomancer feeds sacrifice effects and clogs up the board at the same time.
Lord of the Chalice
Stompy Discord: https://discord.gg/6cesvkz
Because... CONTAMINATION + Night of Souls' Betrayal!!*sniffle*
Snake Lady will end up getting Contamination fed instead of that sweet 1/1 death toucher. Granted, if I removed Night of Souls', then I can just squeeze 1-2 of her in the deck, but ultimately, I'd rather have less dissynergy and Death and Taxes has never beaten me yet. I hate dat deck with a passion.
Also, for 3 mana, being only able to generate just 1 snake token makes me sad. Would two of her in play stack the tokens? From the wording, I don't think it would.
Now that you mention Stax, I did run Smokestack at one time in Pox.
Three Lilianas to rule them all. One Pox to find them. Smallpox to bring them all and in the Sinkhole bind them!
Crucible is allways on my radar, wastes, factories, moxes... Wouldn`t know what to take out though.
No, you run an aggressive list. Crucible is for more control style decks.
"Pox early, Pox often, and Pox hard!" - Le_Lepreux
I like to play with 61 cards so I would add it right in but with your list its a tough fit, like Hardcore said your list is very aggressive so it may not be needed, worth testing at least
Illness in the Ranks
Anyone tried this? Seems good considering lots of decks plan on winning with goblins (Warrens), monks (Mentor), or elementals (Pyromancer). Along with other token decks. And its only 1cc.
Combined with E.Plague, not many other sweepers are necessary when you factor in the decks namesakes for sac effects (Pox & Smallpox).
could be effective versus lingering souls, Empty the Warrens, young pyromancer, bitterblossoms, etc.. but don't you think that at (3) mana we already have a better card in engineered plague? i would personally pay (2) more and cast engineered plague since its less narrow and is a card that also have other uses against many other matchups..but that's just my opinion..if i were going to a field expecting to see a lot of b/w tokens or belcher then i might run it too as a supplement to engineered plague and night of souls betrayal..
for that kind of effect, i think i'd rather go with dread of night to supplement my engineered plagues..though its dead against non-white decks..
but give it (Illness in the Ranks) a try and tell us what you think of it..
who among here has tried ensnaring bridge in the main?
I did, a long time ago. Used Nezumi Shortfang, The Rack and ran 4 Poxes. It also used Necrogen Mists since I was unaware of Bottomless Pit at the time.
Ensnaring Bridge is great if your intent is to go long. Non-creature threats tend to take longer, but nothing says "auto-win" like a Bridge. Biggest problem though is that you can't run Wasteland and Sinkhole with it since you want everyone to empty their hands swiftly so losing your own mana source [wastelands] and Sinkholing theirs hurts your game.
If you are going Bridge Pox, I'd suggest no less than four and sculpt the whole deck around it. Ultimately, it's probably the most annoying Control archetype to play since your enemy can have 10 trillion damage worth of creature on the field and can't do anything with it...
Three Lilianas to rule them all. One Pox to find them. Smallpox to bring them all and in the Sinkhole bind them!
I did, a long time ago. Used Nezumi Shortfang, The Rack and ran 4 Poxes. It also used Necrogen Mists since I was unaware of Bottomless Pit at the time.
Ensnaring Bridge is great if your intent is to go long. Non-creature threats tend to take longer, but nothing says "auto-win" like a Bridge. Biggest problem though is that you can't run Wasteland and Sinkhole with it since you want everyone to empty their hands swiftly so losing your own mana source [wastelands] and Sinkholing theirs hurts your game.
If you are going Bridge Pox, I'd suggest no less than four and sculpt the whole deck around it. Ultimately, it's probably the most annoying Control archetype to play since your enemy can have 10 trillion damage worth of creature on the field and can't do anything with it...
i just thought about it since i've noticed that my main deck singleton engineered plague has been disappointing me quite often lately, and often times i wish it was a bridge or a deluge i've drawn instead..the plague can sometimes one-for-one but often times i draw it when a goyf or something elso that has a toughness 2 and above is on the field..
i just feel like trying a singleton maindeck in lieu of the lone engineered plague because it can answer and protect us against certain cards/decks that would've been a tough match up for us like show and tell and reanimator where the plague would've been dead card..i can always pitch it to liliana or any pox effects when i'm ahead and have factories on the field beating face..
I love to play an ensnaring bridge main and one in the board. Furthermore I have an infernal tutor (main) to find it. I think it is very strong and gave me a few g1 free wins (vs. RUG delver and merfolk..). Maybe I have to add, that my list is very controllish and slow (i wrote a small report a few pages ago).
In my opinion you have to play a decent amount of disruption in pox (land and/or hand disruption) and creature removal. The lasts slots could be filled with agressive or controllish cards, but to be honest I have not seen any convincing aggro-pox list. (Even though I love to see people trying it @hardcore and friends)
I now play a one-of Bridge mainboard.
I run 5 singleton prison cards mainboard.
1 Night of Souls' Betrayal
1 Nether Void
1 Pithing Needle
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Trinisphere
I havent played in a tournament with that list yet.
I might try EtwasSteIne's idea with a tutor card.
Game 1 it means I get one more chance to get the prison card I need in the matchup at hand.
I registered with Pox to a small event last sunday (10 men event)
#1 Grixis Delver
G1 He tempoed me out with daze and a Young Pyromancer on turn 3
G2 I had it all, inquisition, smallpox a shaman, plague on human, lily, etc
G3 He cabal for smallpox and hits , he's left with an unanswered delver for too long, and he wins.
#2 Dead Guy Ale
G1 NoSB on turn 3 takes care of the matchup
G2 I jam a bridge turn 3, but he manages to win with a lot of Blitterblossom tokens backed with a timely Decay on bridge.
G3 is merciless with dark Ritual NoSB on turn two, I win.
#3 Maverick
G1 I lose to a big KotR equiped with a jitte
G2 take forever, I hide behind double bridge, NoSB and Plague on cats forever ( I ask opponent if he concedes a couple of time, but he doesn't answer)
He dies to scroll with 6 minutes left on the clock
G3 Same lock down with Bridge, NoSB, Lily and plague on Cat when they soon call the 5 turns, oh well. Draw.
#4 Miracles
G1 I get the nuts with inquisition and trinisphere early enough backed up with Mishra Beatdown
G2 He'like sensei turn 1, counterbalance turn2.
G3 I keep a triple mishra hand with swamp and thoughtseize. I manage to win with manland.
Didn't play Pox for a while, so that was fun.
Cards I loved to see were IoK, Sinkhole, Smallpox.
Didn't like the hymn at all, al day long.
I like to have information about an opponent's hand and chose accordingly.
Pure card advange(2 for 1) is not always something I want.
I like to disrupt an opponent to open the window for a lock piece.
A friend of mine is playing Rack Pox and I urge him to play the hymn, because it's great in his build,
but in a prison build, information and choices are my way to go.
your reasoning reminds me of shawn riggin's list: http://archive.wizards.com/Magic/mag...aily/deck/1112 that's why he eschewed the hymns for the thoughtseizes..i can definitely see the reasoning behind this and agree with it to a certain degree..i have tried both(4 hymns vs more spot discard), and they both have their merits/demerits..i would even say to go ahead and try and use them both at the same time, maybe a 2/2 split? yes, i'd do that..theoretically, that might even be a good configuration in a field where there's aggro, combo and control at the same time..i guess its just a matter of preference..
right now, i'm running with the 4 hymns..there are quite a number of burn players in almost all the LGS i am hanging so i've relegated the thoughtseizes to the board where i'd side them in against control and combo..against miracles, i prefer thoughtseizes over hymn..
i'm actually thinking of replacing a copy of hymn with a one-of thoughtseize..in that way, i can have more turn 1 action and will smoothen the curve a bit..pox' curve is sometimes clogged at the 2-mana slot..
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Reply With Quote
