Pox has seen many forms throughout the years. Since the early days of Magic, Pox has waxed and waned in favor. Pox can be run as mono-black, green splash, white splash as well as other variants. Many people do not play well against Pox, and many more cannot control Pox properly. So what is the point of playing it? Pox introduces an element of play that forces the opponent to second guess themselves. By altering the board and sometimes the win conditions, one can force the opponent to make hasty decisions that cost them a match. As a black control deck, Pox shows what boardwide attrition can do to most decks.

The earlier versions of mono-black Pox relied heavily on Sinkhole, Dark Ritual and Hymn to Tourach. Not much has changed since then, other than the printing of Small Pox. With the inclusion of Small Pox, we can now see that sometimes a series minor losses are worse than one or two major ones. Most Pox decks rely on a base now that includes the original Sinkhole, Dark Ritual and Hymn to Tourach set with the inclusion of Duress and Small Pox.

This article is targeted primarily at the green splash version of Pox. There are many reasons one would choose green splash vs. white splash vs. mono-black, but mostly it boils down to personal preference. In legacy, Pernicious Deed is a great bomb early, mid or late game. With this in mind, many people have come to the conclusion that replacement of a couple of Poxes with Pernicious Deeds allows more control of the targeting of the attrition. Much like warfare of today, Pox has transformed from using nukes and blanket bombing to now using a more surgical strike destruction.

First, I give you my background as reference. Not everything in this article may be correct but I will attempt to portray the facts to the best of my knowledge. I have been playing Magic since right before Beta was phasing out and Unlimited was phasing in. I was about 13 at the time and didn't know much about the game or have much money. Back in the days of a $50 Beta Black Lotus, the game played much different. With the conception of "types", sometime around Mirage block, I decided to stay with Type 1. Back then, locally, Type 1 played out much like today's Legacy does. After leaving the game around Urza's block and then coming back in Mirrodin block, much has changed. Affinity was at it's prime then and the game seemed too slanted to me. So leaving again during Kamigawa and returning during Time Spiral, we are now to today. I have a lot of catching up to do but here we go for the Pox article.

The most current version of an alternate Pox that is currently being developed and played, seems to be "Vaka Pox". Why the name was chosen, I'm not really sure. The inclusion of white into Pox has been going on since the printing of Pox. No need to argue semantics though, you can view the development of the current leading BW Pox here: http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...ead.php?t=5496

The BG Pox you are about to view was originally developed using the Loaming Pox build by André Bärlin and can be viewed here: http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...ead.php?t=7823

Here is a current list that seems to work well against many decks that I play against. Many of the concepts found in other Pox decks and Life from the Loam decks are employed here. Using Threshold's land count as the basis for the mana, I was able to speed up the deck with more acceleration. Recursion creatures were dropped in favor of a faster clock.

BG Pox - [Legacy deck suggested by Dylan Fleming]
Land [17]:
4x Bayou
3x Bloodstained Mire
2x Polluted Delta
2x Swamp
2x Barren Moor
2x Mishra's Factory
2x Wasteland

Clock [4]:
4x Tarmogoyf

Acceleration [14]:
4x Dark Confidant
4x Dark Ritual
3x Mox Diamond
3x Sylvan Library

Attrition [20]:
4x Duress
4x Hymn to Tourach
4x Sinkhole
4x Smallpox
2x Pox
2x Pernicious Deed

Recovery [5]:
3x Life from the Loam
2x Zuran Orb

-------------------

Sideboard [15]:
2x Infest
4x Thoughtseize
3x Krosan Grip
3x Extirpate
3x Pithing Needle


Sylvan Library helps to dig deeper in the deck for better dredging and to find the right answer at the right time. Sylvan is very synergetic with the recurable fetchlands and in a pinch can provide that extra card draw you may need.

Zuran Orb helps to stabilize your mid-game life total. Many losses in old lists were due to simply running out of steam mid-game or losing too much life. Once again, recursion of the lands helps to increase the usefulness of the Orb.

Tarmogoyf is probably one of the most abused cards printed recently. Generally, he hits the table as a 4/5 or 5/6 on turns 3 or 4. Adding such a fast clock to the already disruptive attrition has finished many games quicker than any earlier versions could achieve.

Many of the lands were dropped due to the numerous times mana flooding occured. Instead of the deck being based off of Life from the Loam, it now uses LftL as a support card to gain an advantage. LftL could be stripped from the deck completely with Extirpate or the like, and still run just fine.

Mishra's Factory was maintained for chump blocking anything that the goyf and attrition can't handle. It also allows for some damage to still hit the opponent even with the board blowing up turn after turn.

Wasteland provides a great lock for many decks, but against others it is nothing but a detriment to yourself. Generally, a single Wasteland is sufficient to provide the lock, and with the discussion of low dual land supplies, Wasteland may in the future wane in favor. Two seem sufficient to still include this powerful mechanic without sacrificing deck integrity.

The sideboard has not changed much in design, only some of the particulars differ.

Extirpate is a very useful card in conjunction with discard in the deck. Many decks cannot handle the pre-board attrition, adding RFG on top of that post-board is generally devastating. The new Split Second mechanic is very useful as well, making it hold up well against Thresh and Dredge decks.

Many of the older listings included Innocent Blood as a replacement for Duress versus a creature heavy deck. With the printing of Thoughtseize, you may now still provide the same ability of Duress as well as the added creature removal of Innocent Blood. The new life gaining and non-recurring creatures work better with Thoughtseize as well.


Some postings of tournament and testing results from other players in the community would be appreciated in hopes that the green splash Pox may be listed one day as a Deck to Beat.