Unmask would have been nice if you only discarded to your graveyard:/
But now you effectively Hymn yourself. It should hurt extra much if it is countered since the casting cost still is paid!
BTW, I see you have virtually no win conditions. Good luck...
Right! (I forgot to mention the Rack)
Old school control pox also should run mishra's factory, in addition to the Racks.
eh, the win con is Underworld Dreams. I would love to stick Tombstalkers in the main, but I cannot win against any deck that wins with creatures. So Ensnaring Bridge is a must have. Pox generally kills off a lot of the opponents creatures, but rarely all of them.
I have a play set of Foreign Racks from Antiquities that I would love to use, but really, Pox prevents the opponent from casting spells, by getting rid of lands. With Hymn, Duress, Smallpox, Pox, Liliana I do have 19 total discard spells, and Liliana's can force the opponent to discard every turn.. Hmm, I have not played Rack in years (I love Underworld Dreams) Maybe I'll try it at my local store this Tuesday.
The best bang since the big one!
*You have no way to tutor for your win cons. Since there are only four of them you may not draw one the entire duel!
*If your opponent is not using any draw cards, then it will take quite long before he dies to underworld dreams. Especially if you draw Underworld dreams lategame.
*You have lots of discard, but that does not have any synergy with UD.
*You have one SDT, but no fetch lands to make it effective.
*No sinkhole or wasteland means you don't slow down your opponent much. Eventually he will have mana to play around trinisphere. That makes Trinisphere a dead card in the deck.
Out of the pox lists i've seen at the open series since mental misstep's banning, all but 1 were all liliana pox, more importantly, 1 of those lists ran 4 bojuka bog, and while most didn't, i couldn't resist trying it out, and now bojuka bog is a staple for the main deck for me, my local metagames it helps a ton against rug, keeping their creatures small'er, as well as never hurting against "i do stuff from my graveyard" type decks.
Last edited by feline; 08-12-2012 at 05:05 PM.
Primary legacy deck High Tide primer
Hi, I'm new on this forum :)
I am currently testing a(nother) B/G version for this deck...
Sorceries:
3 inquisition of kozilek
3 thoughtseize
4 smallpox
2 life from the loam
4 innocent blood
3 maelstrom pulse
1 worm harvest
Enchantments:
3 pernicious deed
Planeswalkers:
3 liliana of the veil
Artifacts:
3 mox diamond
Creatures:
4 bloodghast
Lands:
4 verdant catacombs
4 bayou
4 mishra's factory
4 wasteland
2 barren moor
1 tranquil thicket
2 forest
6 swamp
I know it strays a bit from the pox archetype, but so far its giving me nice results. I read about the necroplasm, and it seems a really great card, also.
Maybe this deck is a blend between pox and rock? I don't know... I also lack the courage (and skill) to play a monoblack pox, although I liked the creatureless version
Oh, I see, there was a specific thread for that. Thanks!! :)
Right now I am going mono black running something like this
4 sinkhole
4 hymn
4 inquisition of kozelek
4 small pox
4 deaths shadow
4 dark confidant
4 dark ritual
3 senseis divining top
3 lurking evil
2 ratchet bomb
24 swamp
Seems to be doing well so far
Last edited by Top Deck; 07-28-2012 at 03:08 AM. Reason: Wrong card name
interesting build. good that people try new ideas. I have never played deaths shadow myself. it seems it would only be good if you are within bolt range. also, as it would need to be cast late it fit better in a control deck.
I'm not sure this is the case. Doesn't it lose the ability once its not longer an enchantment? Even if I'm wrong, you can respond to the ability though since the life loss is part of the cost.
Lurking Evil is pretty boss. I'm currently trying to get it to work in another deck, random pet deck. It trumps Vendillion Clique and Delver, which are usually the biggest creatures that come down early that fly (outside of Reanimator).
I've had a lot of fun with Death's Shadow and Sylvan Library. Its a good alternative to playing both Bob and Sensei's Divining Top. With Bob, sometimes you really, really need a way to sacrifice it before it kills you.. usually not a problem in Pox but Sylvan Library will never have this problem. If they counter your Pox's, you can just draw into your Doom. Granted, there's usually less life loss with Dark Confidant but with Sylvan Library you can ramp down your life total really fast, unlike Confidant, when you aren't sitting on a Lurking Evil. -8 life +2 cards a turn is pretty boss. It lets you recover from Pox's extremely quickly, and you won't lose your Library when you play Pox, but you will lose Bob. Using it to recover quickly post-Pox makes it much stronger than Confidant in that respect. Also, you don't need mana to activate it for those occasions when you Pox yourself out of lands.
And, of course, cutting 7 cards for 4 cards that accomplish the task of both seems good. Then you can run some Bloodghasts.
Also, what do you guys think of Lightning Greaves in Pox? You won't ever need to pay mana to equip it so it retains its use in most situations. Making stuff like Death's Shadow and Lurking Evil hasty seems pretty good. Also, you could always equip it to Confidant if you don't want to drop him.
Luck is a residue of design.
I'm an aspiring Psychedelic Trance musician. Please feel free to enjoy my sense of life:
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Expect me or die. I play SI.
in a build dependent on few big monsters, sure. in my deck jitte is better (I run 19 creatures; Bob, grave crawler, bloodghast, faerie macabre and messengers).
no lurking evil doesn't lose the ability. i play it all the time on magic online and it works that way. lurking evil just gains the horror and creature trait along with flying and 4/4, but it retains its primary ability.
think of how mishra's factories work... they become 2/2's but still retain their ability to become 2/2's and to pump up other mishra's factories.
i used to run libraries as well, but what i found is that pox has a very shaky manabase when you go multicolor. you are already knocking out your own lands with smallpox and occassionally pox, and you can't afford a single wasteland to take you out of the game since pox is basically a top decking deck. if dark confidant becomes an issue i suppose cabal therapy might be a nice add.
Hi guys,
I know this is very subjective;
But is there something of an optimized "best" list for POX?
Is Liliana of the Veil considered a "must-have"?
Is Contamination still a good option for Pox decks running Crucuble and Mishra?
And a quick question - since lifeloss is something Pox decks care about a lot, why don't they run Jitte, a sword etc.?
Also, since we're making our opponent discard so often, why do most lists not run extraction effects like Extirpate, even at least in the SB?
Both of these things seem like useful strategies, and I have seen some lists run them, but I haven't seen them often.
1. No. Many have netdecked Reid Duke's deck, but it is crappy if you ask me.
it is useful as a starting point for your own build however.
2. Liliana belong in control Pox decks, IMHO. I tried run it in my aggro deck but soon replaced.
3. Contamination is an underused card. It certainly fit in control decks.
Mishra and crucible works, but since mishras are you win conditions you should find other ways to feed it, like Bitterblossom and netherspirit.
4. Jitte is nice, run it myself in my aggro deck, but not because of lifeloss issues.
It is the reverse of 2 above. You need creatures to equip, something control decks don't have in abundance. Also Lifeloss was never a worry for me in either control or aggro.
5.12 of my creatures comes back from the grave, and I also have 4 cabal therapy in my deck
However I am pleased when opponents remove, for example, a bloodghast from the graveyard.
They could have sideboarded In USEFULL cards.
I have seen attempts to build UB land destruction with sinkhole and surgical extraction.
A pet deck obviously, loses to any deck that is Mono color.
Extraction card look powerful, but the question is: will this card help me win?
Hardcore is right, most take Reid Dukes list as a starting point, you can see his list here http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/l..._Week_Pox.html .
Basically there are 2 distinctions in Pox, one which goes the heavy discard route featuring The Rack (budget) or the land destruction route as Duke was taking.
I lately ran the following list with great success (2 finals-entries out of 3 events):
Land
4 Wasteland
4 Mishras Factory
4 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Verdant Catacombs
8 Swamp
Creatures
1 Nether spirit
1 Bloodghast
Spells
4 Duress
1 Inquizition of Kozilek
1 Thoughtseize
3 innocent blood
1 The Rack
1 Darkblast
3 Entomb
2 Cursed Scroll
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Smallpox
4 Sinkhole
2 Pox
4 Liliana of the Veil
I find it rather optimized as the list evolved with every participation. I tried splahing green for LftL, but concluded that it isnt needed anymore since the printing of Liliana of the Veil, so she is defintaly a 4-of.
Contamination, in theory, costs to much, is to hard to set up, wastes a lot of deckspace + you can't tutor for it which makes the deck unstable. Pox is all about consitency, I was never tempted by that card.
As for Extirpate, I run 5 (split with Extraction) in the SB just to not lose to Dredge again ;)
Nice list.
Cheers for the advice.
I'm well aware the land destruction theory has it's problems when decks like Delver can function on one land quite happily. Most of the top tier decks run lots of fetches, which is to POXs' liking I assume?
I remember seeing a BW list with all the land dest. effects you have, 4x Vindicate, plus 3 or 4 Sadistic Sacrement, I assume to take out basic lands from the deck leaving only fetches for the opponent.
It seemed a nasty way to go, but because the mana-curve was fairly high with a lot of three drops I don't know how successful it may be against counter etc.
Thoughts?
RE: Extraction.
How much is too much for POX?
I'm always curious, as when I used to run a discard deck I ran 6 - it absolutely KILLED combo decks if/when they ran out of counter, and gave a lot of storm decks trouble if they couldn't win turn1, but of course it ran into probems against creature based decks with lots of varied threats.
So with POX, because you're looking to target their resources, and limit their creature potential too, what is a good number of extraction to run for any random match?
Does Sadistic Sacrement deserve a spot to kill three lands/anything else from their deck?
On that.... Jester's Cap. LOL
Old cards are funny!
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