pox knights

[nitewolf9]

Okay, so for lack of a better name I just used two concepts that this deck uses; breaking small pox's symmetry and knight recursion. This is just a draft of an idea I had that wanted to get some feedback on. I'm going to try to test it this weekend at some point and it seems like it would be a lot of fun to play. Here is the list:

mana sources (26, 22 land 4 diamond):

4 mox diamond
4 mishra's factory
4 scrubland
3 polluted delta
3 bloodstained mire
1 tainted field
7 swamp

creatures:
3 haakon, stromgald scourge
4 mercenary knight
4 silver knight
4 dark confidant

spells:
4 smallpox
4 vindicate
4 swords to plowshares
3 crucible of worlds
3 umezawa's jitte
1 sword of light and shadow

SIDEBOARD:
3 pithing needle (needle may actually be superior here over e. plague, even against goblins...fights yard hate and answers their vials)
4 duress
4 cabal therapy
4 tormod's crypt (possibly jotun grunt)

Basically this deck uses recurring threats along with the haakon engine and equipment to win the game. Small pox becomes very one sided with crucible and haakon. Some notes on card choices:

mox diamond: used here over ritual because of both crucible and the fact that it can produce white (silver knight and swords...)

smallpox: very strong here, no explanation needed

vindicate: versatile removal and complements the land d. element nicely.

swords to plowshares: amazing removal.

crucible of worlds: helps you recover from small pox, mox diamond, gives you recurring threats again through factory and makes therapy retarded post board.

umezawa's jitte: helps the goblins matchup and is just stupid, period.

sword of light and shadow: used here over SoFI because it helps offset life loss from your own cards, but more importantly has great synergy with small pox and mercenary knight.

haakon: already explained

mercenary knight: this guy is undercosted fat with really no drawback here; he is another discard outlet for haakon along with smallpox, and is a knight to recur.

silver knight: great against goblins once again, with equipment he's crazy...and he recurs through haakon. I think this guy and equipment may let you get away without running plague and running needle instead in the board...I could be wrong though; the goblin matchup should be tested thoroughly.

dark confidant: your only source of draw, although you have other sources of card advantage. He is good here because the deck should play more control-ish than something like suicide, where he sucks. Equipment can turn him into something attack-worthy.

mishra's factory: I chose this over wasteland simply because I think the deck would benefit from more threats. It's hard to fit in both so I think this is the better choice here. Pretty stupid with therapy and crucible once again.

The sideboard:

pithing needle: This is to combat graveyard hate mainly. The deck can operate without the yard but crypt seems to potentially really hurt at the wrong time. Plague may be a better choice, especially with tes becoming more popular, but for now I'll see what happens without it. TES and goblins are the 2 matchups I really want to test.

duress/therapy: in here for combo and control. Therapy seems amazing in this deck and would be run main if I had the space. This should really make your solidarity matchup amazing post board, as well as storm combo.

tormod's crypt: You should already have a great grow matchup but this comes in as a nail in the coffin. Mainly here against storm combo and loam style decks. Just a great, versatile piece of yard hate that is never out of place in any sideboard.


So that's my initial write up, let me know what you guys think of the deck. I'll try to get some testing results but from playing decks with similar styles the thresh/aggro control matchup should be great, the goblins matchup should be okay/maybe good even, storm combo will be an issue but the board may shore it up, and solidarity will probably be favorable but I'm not sure. Board control is really an unknown but recurring threats are probably going to give them headaches.

[Tacosnape]

My first thought is that you have a risky manabase to be supporting Silver Knight. WW and 11-12 Nonwhite lands = problems ahead.

[nitewolf9]

A valid concern on the white in the manabase...but remember this deck runs mox diamond and crucible of worlds. With silver knight being the only ww spell in the deck I think it is manageable, especially with 11 white sources not counting diamond...15 white sources should be enough.

[M_Pietrzak]

if u want something to discard but nor recurable


"Hidden Horror"
Info: Color = Black Type = Creature - Horror Cost = 1BB Edition = Portal Second Age (P2)

Errata: + 4/4. ; When Hidden Horror comes into play, sacrifice it unless you discard a creature card. [Oracle 2005/08/01]


he is really nice :)

[nitewolf9]

Hidden horror is strictly worse than mercenary knight in this deck. It doesn't recur and requires 1BB as opposed to 2B. I thought of it in passing but once again the non-knight thing really hurts (it would be a good replacement for silver knight if it were a knight itself).

[M_Pietrzak]

yep i forgot to wrote that this is my suggestion for silver knight replace

[outsideangel]

"I find your lack of combo game disturbing."

Maybe some MD discard?

[nitewolf9]

Definitly an option, as the deck really can abuse cabal therapy to it's full extent. I was actually thinking of cutting swords to plowshares for therapies, then sticking the duresses in the side. Or maybe run it all main. But yeah, MD therapy might be more than alright.

[Androstanolone]

I would squeeze in the 4th Haakon, since that's the deck's engine. Also, if your deck is designed to harness the power of Smallpox, why not run Big Pox? Finally, I'd run 4 therapies hands down, they are perfect. I'd run some Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth (probably 4) in place of swamps. Personally I think I'd cut silver knights and creature equips altogether. Moves it to a more controlling build, which is better because the deck already has powerful aggro/control cards and elements in it (crucible, vindicate, recurrable creatures, card draw on legs, STP). I would keep 4 duresses in the side for the combo match. Having Big Pox in the maindeck will help some with that. Also having therapy in the MD helps combo and frees up 4 slots for the board, possibly for E. Plague or even more combo hate. So, if I were to build this deck within the constraints of the original concept/design, I'd start with:

4x haakon
4x mercenary knight
4x dark confidant

4x swords to plowshares
4x cabal therapy
4x smallpox
4x vindicate
4x pox

3x crucible of worlds

4x mox diamond
4x scrubland
3x bloodstained mire
3x polluted delta
4x mishra's factory
4x urborg, tomb of yawgmoth
4x swamp

It's 61 cards. I often do this just for the sake of testing until I'm confident about what 4-ofs can be a 3-of etc.

[nitewolf9]

I would squeeze in the 4th Haakon, since that's the deck's engine. Also, if your deck is designed to harness the power of Smallpox, why not run Big Pox? Finally, I'd run 4 therapies hands down, they are perfect. I'd run some Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth (probably 4) in place of swamps. Personally I think I'd cut silver knights and creature equips altogether. Moves it to a more controlling build, which is better because the deck already has powerful aggro/control cards and elements in it (crucible, vindicate, recurrable creatures, card draw on legs, STP). I would keep 4 duresses in the side for the combo match. Having Big Pox in the maindeck will help some with that. Also having therapy in the MD helps combo and frees up 4 slots for the board, possibly for E. Plague or even more combo hate. So, if I were to build this deck within the constraints of the original concept/design, I'd start with:

4x haakon
4x mercenary knight
4x dark confidant

4x swords to plowshares
4x cabal therapy
4x smallpox
4x vindicate
4x pox

3x crucible of worlds

4x mox diamond
4x scrubland
3x bloodstained mire
3x polluted delta
4x mishra's factory
4x urborg, tomb of yawgmoth
4x swamp

It's 61 cards. I often do this just for the sake of testing until I'm confident about what 4-ofs can be a 3-of etc.

There is a problem with this build I think...not enough creatures. Everytime you recur or play mercenary knight you need to have a creature to discard. I definitly think therapy is strong main deck but I'm not sure cutting the creatures is the way to go. Maybe the equipment can go but I really don't want to cut jitte...it is too good, really.

This build loses to goblins, which I really don't want to do. It may have a better combo and control matchup with the big pox but this build is leaning towards full fledged pox with better finishers but a way worse mana base.

[nitewolf9]

I've also toyed with the idea of stinkweed imp instead of silver knight. He can be dredged back after pitching him to smallpox or mercenary knight, and he can put knights in the yard for haakon to raise up. It's dangerous to go overboard with the yard strategy though. If you go too far down that route you might as well play friggorid. The idea is to break small pox's synergy but not rely completely on the yard to go crazy. Imp could be a good addition though.

(maybe even a few filths with the tombs to go unblockable with equipment...hmm...probably a stretch though)

[Androstanolone]

There is a problem with this build I think...not enough creatures.

This is a good point, and one I didn't consider. Although to be fair, the original build didn't really guarantee meeting this condition by any mechanism other than 4 extra creatures. At this point I would probably just replace mercenary knight with something that didn't require I discard a creature. There are some solid knights out there. If you don't want to go with something WW there's Knight of Dusk, Sanguine Guard, Dauthi Mercenary, Skulking Knight, and Defender of Law are solid at 3cc. Fallen Askari is solid at 2cc. No they aren't powerhouses but combined with efficient disrupt (therapy, spox, pox, vindicate, sometimes STP) and recurrability they can get the job done. It's better to have a bit slower win condition that you can always succesfully cast than a really efficient one that you may not be able to cast immediately and also may cost you when you get to cast (don't really wanna pitch The Great One). But, I think in this case I would just take the risk with a WW one and run silver knight.


This build loses to goblins, which I really don't want to do.

The original build didn't really have any game against goblins either. Both builds have the same number of lackey answers. The new one doesn't have an infinite blocker in silver knight, but it does have a way to hit vial and a second pox effect to keep the lands/hand down for longer. The best chance the first one has is to equip a silver knight, in which case goblins may be in for bad times. My build does sacrifice a bit of win % against an already poor matchup for a stronger game against the field. Goblins can be shored up in the board.

You can think of pox as replacing mercenary knight. Merc Knight discards Haakon for you and swings for a good bit of damage. Pox discards your card(s) of choice, deals lots of damage, but it also acts as LD/discard. You can think of therapy as replacing the equipment. Equipment lets your creatures win a bit faster. Therapy lets you hit a key card to give your creatures time to win.

So, for reference:


4x haakon
4x silver knight
4x dark confidant

4x swords to plowshares
4x cabal therapy
4x smallpox
4x vindicate
4x pox

3x crucible of worlds

4x mox diamond
4x scrubland
3x bloodstained mire
3x polluted delta
4x mishra's factory
4x urborg, tomb of yawgmoth
4x swamp

[AnwarA101]

Why no wasteland? With Crucible you could lock certain decks down and plus it adds to your small pox, vindicate plan. The number of creatures looks low for Jitte. I think the random Sword of Light and Shadow can probably used to create another slot.

[nitewolf9]

The one random SoLS could in fact be the 4th haakon. I think the presence of jitte and silver knight alone in the deck does in fact give it some game against goblins, but plague may be just a necessity in the board. There are obviously a number of different ways this deck can go, but I think finding the optimal creature count would be a good start. I really wanted to run mercenary knight because he is a significant clock but who knows. I'm still going to try him out.

About wasteland: yes, wasteland is really strong with crucible and a good complement to the land d. I thought factory might be a better choice but with recurring knights they may be unnecessary. Perhaps wasteland would be more effective in the factory slots.

So maybe:
4 mox diamond
4 wasteland
4 scrubland
3 polluted delta
3 bloodstained mire
1 tainted field
7 swamp

creatures:
4 haakon, stromgald scourge
4 mercenary knight
4 silver knight
4 dark confidant

spells:
4 smallpox
4 vindicate
4 swords to plowshares
3 crucible of worlds
3 umezawa's jitte

Coupled with a board of 4 e. plague, 3 pithing needle, 4 cabal therapy, 4 duress. I want to try and fit therapy in the main but the only thing I would probably cut would be swords...maybe the jittes? That seems poor though.

16 creatures seems to be the magic number for 3 jitte :smile:.