[Deck] Pox

Here is an article I wrote for SCG with development help from a friend of mine in Columbus roughly a month ago. We were told it was going to be published, but it wasn't for a few weeks. When we resubmitted it the moment Tomb of Yawgmoth was spoiled, we simply never heard back. So in an effort to get this topic moved to Open, I thought the article would make a decent primer here...

Legacy on a Budget - Small Pox: Design and Construction

There are two common misconceptions about Legacy. Legacy is a format with only three truly competitive decks. And even playing fairly strong rogue decks requires investment in multiple very expensive dual lands. Is it any wonder why so many players just decide to build goblins, the cheapest of these three? Is it any wonder that goblins makes up a full third of most reasonably sized tournaments? Is it any wonder that many players choose not to invest several hundred dollars into building rogue decks they already falsely perceive as unviable? This article is the first of what we hope will be a series of articles popularizing viable budget decks that are not among the overplayed three: Goblins, Threshold and Solidarity.

Smallpox is a monoblack deck with a heavy focus on discard, land destruction, and many inherent synergies. The deck draws it’s roots from Pox, a deck which first reared it’s head in 1995, but which in it’s prime relied upon cards such as Pox and Hymn to Tourach and creatures such as Hypnotic Specter and Mindstab Thrull to heavily disrupt the opponent. Pox has always remained under the radar since then, slowly evolving to incorporate newer cards such as Chimeric Idol and Nether Spirit in the mix. But it is the recent printing of the cards Smallpox and Phyrexian Totem in Time Spiral, and the hot off the presses spoiling of Tomb of Yawgmoth from Planar Choas, that we believe can put this deck back on the map.

Smallpox BB, Sorcery

Card text: Each player loses 1 life, discards a card, sacrifices a creature, then sacrifices a land.

This recent addition from Time Spiral adds an additional element of both creature removal and land destruction working extremely well in a deck that was already designed to abuse the more powerful, but more mana intensive Pox. For comparison, here is what the original did.

Pox BBB, Sorcery

Card text: Each player loses 1/3 of his or her life; then chooses and discards 1/3 of his or her hand; then sacrifices 1/3 of the creatures he or she controls; and then sacrifices 1/3 of the lands he or she controls. Round each loss up.

Phyrexian Totem 3, Artifact

Tap: Add B to your mana pool.
2B: Phyrexian Totem becomes a 5/5 black Horror artifact creature with trample until end of turn.
Whenever Phyrexian Totem is dealt damage, if it's a creature, sacrifice that many permanents.

This card provides this archeatype with another win condition that is immune to Innocent Blood, Smallpox and Pox to the already steller options, Nether Spirit, Chimeric Idol and Mishra’s Factory.

Tomb of Yawgmoth, Legendary Land

Card text: Each land is a Swamp in addition to its other land types.

This land allows this deck to mitigate one of it’s biggest problems, mainly, that running colored sources like Mishra’s Factories and Wastelands made it sometimes difficult to cast Pox without casting four mana sources thus breaking the ability to maximize Pox by making certain you also have multiples of three in terms of lands in play and cards in hand. Just how successful adding one to two copies of this card will be in mitigating this issue will not be determined until more testing with the card is done.

There is one last card that has recently been spoiled and warrants mention.

Expirate B, Instant

Split second (As long as this spell is on the stack, players can't play spells or activated abilities that aren't mana abilities.)
Choose target card in a graveyard other than a basic land. Search its owner's graveyard, hand, and library for all cards with the same name as that card and remove them from the game. Then that player shuffles his or her library.

It yet remains unclear whether this card warrants inclusion in the deck. The card by itself rarely generates card advantage. But in a deck such as this, that easily gets cards into your opponents graveyard and that runs into a few cards in certain matchups that greatly hurt it's game plan, cards such as Exalted Angel, Standstill and Goblin Matron. Being able to remove all additional copies from the game can be a massive boon.

The main strength of the deck is that with proper tuning, it can be designed to beat just about anything. The two major weaknesses of the deck are that it can be a little inconsistent at time, and that when tuned to consistently perform well against one archetype, the maindeck becomes weaker against others and must rely on it's sideboard.

Here is a sample decklist…

Variant One - Nonbudget

8 Swamp
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Wasteland
3 Mishra’s Factory
3 Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Cabal Pit

3 Dark Ritual
4 Duress
4 Hymn to Tourach

4 Innocent Blood
4 Sinkhole
4 Smallpox
4 Pox

3 Crucible of Worlds
3 Nether Spirit
3 Phyrexian Totem

Sideboard:
X Expirate
X Pithing Needle
X Powder Keg
X Engineered Plague
X Infest

It is also possible to increase the land count a little bit and run maindeck Mox Diamonds over Dark Rituals in such a build. On the same token, it is perfectly viable to cut Mishra’s Factories and even some Crucible of Worlds and instead utilize Chimeric Idols as a win condition. Chimeric Idol has two very relevant advantages over the alternatives Mishra’s Factory and Phyrexian Totem. It does not use up a land drop, and it does not require mana to activate thus allowing you to actively Pox and play out your other disruption all while attacking at the same time. Attacking with Mishra’s Factory eats up the equivalent of two mana each turn, and attacking with Phyrexian Totem eats up three but with the advantage of offering a mere four turn clock. Thus, it’s difficult to play out your disruption while at the same time chipping away at your opponent’s life total.

Here is an example…

Variant Two - Nonbudget

(Mana)
18 Swamp
2 Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Wasteland
4 Dark Ritual

(1cc Disruption)
4 Innocent Blood
4 Duress

(2cc Disruption)
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Sinkhole
4 Smallpox

(3cc Disruption)
4 Pox

(Win Conditions)
3 Nether Spirit
3 Chimeric Idol
2 Phyrexian Totem

Variant Three - Budget

(Mana)
18 Swamp
2 Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Mishra’s Factory
4 Dark Ritual

(1cc Disruption)
4 Duress
4 Innocent Blood
2 Cabal Therapy/Funeral Charm

(2cc Disruption)
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Smallpox
2 Powder Keg

(3cc Disruption)
4 Pox
2 Infest

(Win Conditions)
3 Nether Spirit
3 Phyrexian Totem

The only two cards that need be removed in order to budgetize the deck are Wastelands and Sinkholes. The loss of Wastelands while generally bad, actually makes the deck stronger in certain matchups. Wastelands are usually a liability against two of the three most prevalent decks in the format, Solidarity and Goblins.

Against Goblins, except for hitting the occasional dual land, Rishidan Port, or Wasteland at a critical moment, Wasteland usually just takes up slots that could be devoted to either more threats or more discard and creature removal, all while not producing the on color mana needed to cast Pox, Smallpox, or Hymn. As land destruction itself is only occasionally fruitful against goblins, the replacement of Sinkhole with a card like Cabal Therapy also serves to make the deck stronger in this particular matchup. Even Rancid Earth is quite potent against goblins once this deck attains threshold.

Against Solidarity, Wasteland once again serves little purpose beyond Smallpox fodder while taking up slots better spent on discard. Sinkhole however is a significant loss in this matchup, as Solidarity is very depending on reaching four lands in order to combo off, and land destruction when combined with the Poxes, Duress and Hymn to remove critical card drawing elements is often sufficient to secure victory.

Threshold is the one matchup where you will most bemoan the loss of Wasteland and Sinkhole. These two cards, when combined with the remainder of the disruption elements, can in many games make short work of Thresholds fragile manabase even enduring a free counterspell or two. Wasteland of course has the very notable advantage of being uncounterable. With the loss of these two cards, the matches can be a bit longer and more drawn out with your discard often trading with their countermagic, your win conditions being dealt with their Swords, and their win conditions being dealt with by your Poxes and Smallpoxes. A threshold player who makes very intelligent use of his countermagic and Meddling Mages usually has the upper hand over a budget build that is not running multiple Cabal Therapies.

If you are looking to replace the land destruction that Sinkhole provides, but wish to do so on a budget, neither Blight nor Rancid Earth are terrible options. Infact, in certain matchups, loading up on all three cards and thus effectively running 24 land destruction options maindeck, is the right call. But both cards unfortunately have very significant disadvantages over the original which will be covered in greater detail in the next section.

The sideboard will be covered in the next section.

Card Analysis

For a card to be considered for inclusion in Smallpox it needs to get around cards such as Innocent Blood, Smallpox, and Pox and in addition needs to produce mana, disrupt the opponent, or deal damage. There is a surprisingly large number of potent cards to choose from. No one build is ever optimal for two different metagames. No card is an automatic four of, not even Pox and Smallpox. The specific card choices and numbers are heavily dependent on the particular metagame, and to a lesser degree, the preferred playstyle. Nevertheless, certain cards though they may seem strong on the surface, are in fact poor choices in this deck, and those cards in addition to getting an explanation as to why they are poor choices will be marked with a * to allow people to easily skip past them.

Mana

Due to the tendency of cards like Pox and Smallpox to destroy your own lands, this deck needs to play a good bit more mana than would be indicated from a simple analysis of the mana curve.

Swamp – Due to the heavy black dependence of cards such as Pox, Smallpox, Sinkhole and Hymn to Tourach, you will need to play a bare minimum of 18 permanent black mana sources but preferably 20, and a lot of land in general.

Wasteland – This card may make more sense in the Disruption section as that is the general purpose this card serves. As good as this card is, the only reason to play it is if your meta packs atleast a moderate amount of nonbasic lands. The reason for this is that it is absolutely critical that your disruption begins early on with a deck like this, especially when facing a blue mage who if left unchecked will likely build up sufficient card advantage to put you in an unwinnable position, and against who your massive pseudo reset button, Pox is unlikely to resolve. And yet the only disruption element in this deck that can be cast with colorless mana is Infest, which usually is a more a turn three and later type of card, and which is often of little use against blue mages. Where as with just three swamps in play, you can usually Pox without much hesistation, but if a colorless land was played within the first three turns, Poxing early will require you to either sacrifice two lands, or use up a Dark Ritual, both of which are disadvantagous to you as well.

Tomb of Yawgmoth – Being a brand new spoiled card that’s hot of the presses, testing with this land has been limited. But it seems to be a great way to get away with running lands that don’t produce black mana, such as Mishra’s Factory, while still enabling you to Pox early without losing more than one land at a time.

Mishra’s Factory – This card may make more sense in the Kill Conditions section as that is generally the purpose that this card serves. As a kill condition, it’s major weakness is that uses up a land drop.

Dark Ritual - A very solid choice. ability to set up explosive plays early on, and it's equally important ability to let you cast a threat off of just one land, after having used up some combination of Pox and Smallpox or Wasteland to nuke all of your opponents lands but leaving you with only one land in the process. Nevertheless, some players may opt to cut this card in favor of more disruption and more consistent mana sources.

Cabal Pit - The lifeloss that this land causes in a deck that depletes it's own life total rather quickly makes this a tough card to recommend. Nevertheless, it is a black mana source that doubles as removal and has excellent synergy with Crucible.

Mox Diamond - Some suggest running these in place of Dark Ritual. It does have synergy with Crucible of Worlds and allows you to pitch Wastelands in matchups where they are not worthwhile. Even then, that this card is better than Dark Ritual is doubtful. An opening hand with 2 Swamps and 1 Dark Ritual leaves you with many more options than a hand with 2 Swamps and 1 Mox Diamond. With the former, you can opt to a play both Duress and a 3cc Threat turn one, only to follow it up with a Sinkhole or Hymn next turn and a Smallpox the turn after should they miss their next land drop indicating that they are vulnerable to mana screw, all while your Idol reduces their life total.

Mana That Should Not Be Played

Flagstones of Trokair - Only viable in nonbudget versions that opt to splash White. Any splash is advised against however as it makes the deck too vulnerable to Wastelands. But if White is indeed splashed for cards like Vindicate, then this card is easy to recommend due to it's inherent synergy with Pox and Smallpox. Tomb of Yawgmoth in specific gives this card a significant boost.

Chrome Mox - Some suggest running these in place of Dark Ritual. But the extreme card disadvantage it creates in a deck where it's own spells cause it to discard cards and that has no means to draw extra cards makes a very difficult card to recommend.

Kill Conditions

While the disruption below paves the way, these are the cards that must end the game, and unfortunately, for the deck to work well, no more than 8-10 maindeck slots should be devoted to them. This means that consistency is key, these few cards must work well every single game. A kill condition that sticks around and consistently damages your opponent each game is preferred over one that works extremely well in some games, but does next to nothing in others. This is the underlying reason why some very popular and disruptive kill conditions such as Cursed Scroll, Hypnotic Specter, and the Rack are not recommended. They are either too slow for the mana investment they require each turn, have poor synergy with many of your own cards to stick around, or simply don’t deal damage in all situations.

Nether Spirit - The best tempo swing you could ask for. Discarding this card to Smallpox not only nets you a card over your opponent but also puts creature into your graveyard thus bringing it to play under your controller during your next upkeep, all without costing you a single mana. Not only does this creature not go away to anything short of Swords to Plowshares, but it can chump block till the end of time and also combos beautifully with Cabal Therapy and Contamination. The only disadvantage is that each time it returns to play, it has summoning sickness which makes it rather slow at times. Regardless, we would gladly run four if not for the fear of having multiple Spirits wind up in my graveyard. When initially learning to play this deck, you must get into the habit of declaring your upkeep step and making certain there isn't a Nether Spirit you could return to play at this time.

Chimeric Idol - Chimeric Idol is a very easy card to compare with Phyrexian Totem. It has the advantage of activating for free thus allowing you to play your disruption and then attacking, and attacking when you only have two lands in play, where as Totem ties up your mana and requires three mana in order to attack.

Phyrexian Totem - This win condition can end the game very quickly after a pox, and can be tapped to produce mana as well, allowing you to recover quicker. But when active, a surprise burn spell could cost you all of your land and probably the game. In addition, Totem takes a full three mana to activate which is a very big disadvantage since this usually means playing a piece of disruption the same turn as you attack is out of the question, as is activating Totem when you go down to two land. All in all, Chimeric Idol seems to have an advantage, due to it’s ability to block but if there is room, there is no reason not to run both.

Kill Conditions That Should Not Be Played

Cursed Scroll - This is likely going to be the most controversial point in this article, but a great deal of playtime went into Cursed Scroll before it was determined that the card just was not consistently good enough to beat out the above options. The reasons are multifold. 1.) The activation cost is too high. The three mana it takes to activate Cursed Scroll can just as easily activate Totem, and deal a full five points of damage rather than two. With such a high activation costs, it has the same disadvantages that make Totem less appealing, it doesn't let you cast disruption the same turn you activate it, and it also can't be used when you only have two land. 2.) The fact that you will rarely be able to activate Scroll the same turn that you play your disruption, means that unless you keep drawing lands, you only have a 50% chance of hitting something with Scroll the second time, a 33% the third time etc. The only alternative is to alternate between casting out your hand and activating scroll. 3.) Your opponent usually ends up knowing exactly what's in your hand and what to expect each time you use Scroll. They'll be able to brace for impact for that upcoming Pox, and will likely change their gameplan based on this. All this work and mana, just to deal two damage every other turn is not a very sound investment for this deck.

The Rack - In a build dependent on mana disruption, the above options are unquestionably better. Mana screwing your opponent prevents your opponent from playing cards, which itself makes The Rack worthless. But in a build of the deck that has more in common with the budget version of the deck. This isn't a terrible win condition due to it’s low casting cost. Even then, to use it well, you would have to load up your deck with discard even more so; and you are still most likely better off with the above options which can all block and kill off weenies, a very significant aspect to making this deck work in an aggressive metagame.

Hypnotic Specter/Mindstab Thrull/Necroplasm - These creatures harken back to years ago, at the height of Pox's success, but also back when not nearly as many noncreature alternatives existed. Now that Smallpox has become a mainstay, it’s best to abandon all traditional creatures with the exception of the very abusable Nether Spirits.

Dark Confidant/Nantuko Shade/Phyrexian Negator/Jotun Grunt - Once again, the addition of Smallpox makes running traditional creatures less desirable and also allows you to instead run cards like Innocent Blood. Phyrexian Negator however remains a decent sideboard option in a metagame filled with combo, due to it’s ability to end games quickly after firing off several bouts of disrutption.

Guardian Idol - Considering how little use this deck has for colorless mana, and the high activation cost for such a small creature, Mishra's Factory, Phyrexian Totem and Chimeric Idol are all far superior choices.

Disruption

Innocent Blood – Simply the best creature kill this deck could ask for. At a casting card equivalent to Swords, it gets around both untargetability and protection from white, all while not gaining any life for your opponents. It works well with Pox and Smallpox clearing away any creatures left behind, and also has excellent synergy with Infest, allowing you to clear away all your opponents weenies, and then force them to sac the one piece of fat they have left.

Funeral Charm – This card is versatile enough that we would at the very least run 2 in either the maindeck or the sideboard, in every Pox build. Not only can it kill first turn lackey, but it can also let your Nether Spirit trade with Werebear (only to return to play next turn), can deal a few points of extra damage ending the game a turn sooner than your opponent anticipated. Swampwalk can be useful at times as well, especially if your build runs Phyrexian Totem. And last but certainly not least, once you empty your opponents hand, instant speed discard can be a very potent tool.

Infest – This card is the strongest weapon you have against all manners of aggro and single handedly wins games if used properly, and especially if your opponent overextends out of fear of losing their threats to your discard. It also works well with Innocent Blood and Smallpox to enable such game altering plays as clearing away all your opponents weenies, thus forcing them to sac their Exalted Angel. Three is the bare minimum number of these that should be run between the maindeck and sideboard, four is recommended.

Duress – In a deck that has access to a multitude of tools to deal with creatures and land but little else, and that is highly dependent on being able to anticipate your opponents future plays, Duress is a no brainer. If you anticipate facing mostly straight forward aggro, then relegating this card to the sideboard may be acceptable. But the only reason to cut this card entirely is if you play in very underdeveloped metas dominated by creatures and little else.

Cabal Therapy - Can be flashed back using Nether Spirit, or Mishra's Factory with a Crucible in play. Has great synergy with Duress as well. If you anticipate facing a decent bit of combo, or simply have a little room to spare in your decklist, this is a solid inclusion either in the maindeck or the sideboard.

Hymn to Tourach – This card is an absolute automatic four of. Not only does it create card advantage, but fear of it can push your oppoents to overextend, only to leave them vulnerable to a well timed Infest or Pox. Lastly it can also can cause your opponents to discard away critical lands.

Sinkhole – In addition to providing a huge tempo swing, this card wins games. Many players design their deck to open with 2-3 land. If one of these lands falls victim to Sinkhole, another to Hymn or Wasteland, and yet another to either Pox or Smallpox, your opponents often have no real chance of winning.

Smallpox – You can kill off both a creature and a land. Easily the best piece of disruption that black has seen in a very long time. Yes, the only time this provides actual card advantage is when a Nether Spirit is involved, or when hand is already empty. But if there is one thing that Vintage Fish has shown us, it’s that the importance of tempo should never be underestimated. This also serves to be a critical piece of the mana disruption puzzle.

Pox – This card does everything that Smallpox does, but can do it far better, all for just one more mana. It also very quickly brings down life totals, bringing all your threats within striking range. As a very quick rule of thumb, one that will be elaborated upon in the followup article, you are best served when your lands and cards in hand are in multiples of three and when your opponent’s creatures, lands and cards in hand, are not.

Powder Keg - This is a very powerful and versatile card, one of the few good cards that allows black to deal with artifacts including mana producers, and the card is useful against goblins, affinity and many other matchups as well. A couple warrant being run in either the maindeck or sideboard.

Crucible of Worlds - While not disruptive in and of itself. This card can greatly supplement your disruption engine, by letting you recycle Wastelands, and by letting you play Poxes and Smallpoxes with impunity without fear of manascrewing yourself. Recycling lands pitched to Mox Diamond and reincarnating Mishra's Factories, including those that served as Cabal Therapy fodder can also be huge boons.

Sensei's Divining Top - One of the few means to help keep the threats coming in black, without taking lifeloss. Unfortunately, this still doesn't change the fact that the deck is very tight on free slots as is. May well be worthwhile in the budget version since it has a few extra slots to spare. Of course, the addition of fetchlands can put such a build on a relatively high budget as well.

Expirate - It yet remains unclear whether this card warrants inclusion in the deck. The card by itself rarely generates card advantage. But in a deck such as this, that easily gets cards into your opponents graveyard and that runs into a few cards in certain matchups that greatly hurt it's game plan, cards such as Exalted Angel, Standstill and Goblin Matron. Being able to remove all additional copies from the game can be a massive boon.

Braids, Cabal Minion – Variants of this deck, utilizing it’s mana destruction core along with a card like Braids to give the deck a more Stax type feel are popping up in various forms. Many such variants opt for a white splash for Vindicate and some even run Sphere of Resistence. Of course, utilizing a creature like Braids mandates that Nether Spirit be cut and the heavy stax theme mandates that the decks plays a large number of lands utilizing cards like Mox Diamond for acceleration and Mishra’s Factories to deal damage. This in turn also makes Chimeric Idol unviable due to the inherent disynergy between Idol and Mishra’s Factory.

Smokestack - Combos with Crucible of Worlds and Nether Spirit. But can be slow and mana intensive especially against a deck like goblins. This card is geared for a slower more controllish metagame but in those situations, it can indeed work and work well as long as you are running atleast six Crucibles and Nether Spirits.

Blight – We certainly don’t advocate running this card, as it has its share of problems, but it can act as a budget Sinkhole replacement for some, and can supplement the land destruction route for those that find that this is the main means through which they win games. However, this card is no where near as good as Sinkhole for three reasons. 1.) Your opponent gets one last use of their land, which means that they can still save up mana to cast that Exalted Angel they've been saving up for. 2.) Your opponent can wisely choose not to tap the land and wait for you to topdeck and eventually cast a Pox or Smallpox at some point, only to sacrifice the Blighted land to that. 3.) While this is a minor point, Blight can be destroyed with a Disenchant, Naturalize etc.

Rancid Earth - Another candidate for the budget Sinkhole replacement, or Sinkhole supplement slot. It costs a little more mana which messes with the mana curve a bit, but it also can act as a one hit pestilence once you attain threshold, which can be quite potent at times.

Night's Whispers - Not a disruption slot per se, but this does help replenish your hand and allows you to draw into more disruption especially after your initial disruption spells are used up. Unfortunately, the fact that this deck has little spare room, can't afford to cause much self life loss, and is often tight on mana, often using up whatever mana it has to cast disruption and threats, means that running it probably not worthwhile. Often you would rather that this were an additional piece of disruption rather than a card that eats up one of your turns to cast.

Skeletal Scrying - Refer above.

Phyrexian Arena - Refer above.

Sideboard Slots

Many of the aforementioned cards are just as viable in the sideboard as they are in the maindeck. But in addition to them, here are some sideboard choices that are a bit too narrow to be suited for the maindeck.

Spinning Darkness – Creature destruction plus life gain all without paying a single mana, this card is a great supplement to your existing creature destruction.

Engineered Plague – This card is sideboarded in every other black deck over Infest because it sticks around and stacks and because Infest has the drawback of hitting your creatures. This deck doesn’t care about that drawback, and Infest is generally good against a much larger number of decks. So I would start off any sideboard with 4 Infest due to it’s utility against a much larger range of decks, and supplement it with as many Engineered Plagues as possible, preferably a full set of 4, in order to turn the Goblins matchup into a favorable one postboard.

Damnation – The single best sweeper black has to offer. Unfortunately, a tad bit above the decks general curve, and I’m not yet convinced that there any particularly difficult matchups that this card would improve. Infest already does a fine job of removing all weenies, and Innocent Blood, Pox, and Smallpox do a fine job of cleaning up the one or two fatty that many decks run that is big enough to survive Infest. But the card is so inherently powerful in a deck like this that the deck itself may warrant tweaking in order to allow you to abuse it.

Diabolic Edict – It is an instant speed Innocent Blood that doesn’t set your Nether Spirit attacks back by a turn. It works well for the same reason Innocent Blood works well, because you have cards like Infest, Smallpox and Pox to deal with the others and because it dodges protection and untargetability. But you have so many other cards that have a similar effect that you are probably better off playing something else. Some people however may opt to simply maindeck this card instead of Innocent Blood due in large part to it’s instant speed.

Smother – Yet another card that supplements your creature destruction well. It’s fairly versatile and it couldn’t hurt to have atleast some targeted removal.

Darkblast – An early Lackey killer that can kill 2/2s as well at the expense of a draw. While Dredge does combo well with Crucible and Cabal Therapy, this deck has many better options in my opinion.

Massacre - Worse than Infest against goblins which is the main reason to run a sweeper such as this in the first place. Don’t bother with it unless your meta is packed with white.

Lose Hope – Scry is a very useful ability for a deck such as this that packs many bombs and no card draw. Nevertheless, it’s too narrow a card to play in a deck with so many better options.

Mutilate – The second best sweeper that black has to offer. But requires many swamps to use effectively. Only bother with this if your play style isn’t as reliant on land destruction and you thus frequently find yourself with a lot of mana to spare.

Sudden Death – A great card that just too mana intensive in a deck that has so many cheaper options.

Perish – Rather narrow compared to the other sweepers you have at your disposal. Only worth running if you see a lot of green.

Virtue's Ruin – See above, substituting green with White

Dystopia - The first permanent is destroyed without any lifeloss. And losing a couple of life to clear your opponents entire board is usually a worthwhile investment.

Leyline of the Void/Planar Void – Crucible, Dredge and Loam decks can really interfere with your gameplan. These cards shut them down. And they’re also quite potent against Reanimator, Threshold, Welder Survival and lots of janky combos, enough said.

Tormod's Crypt – See above.

Pithing Needle – This can deal with some of the randomness that interferes with your gameplan, especially artifact mana and Aether Vial. But Powder Keg does the same thing, and usually does it better.

Kaervek's Spite – This is quite the finisher, especially when your opponent is tapped out. Probably too narrow to devote slots to however. If you do, just remember never to bring this in against any deck playing Force of Wills.

Contamination - Combos with Nether Spirit (and Crucible + Factory) to screw over a lot of decks, a very potent strategy in certain metagames.

Dimir Machination – Supplements Contamination by letting you grab any combo piece you may be missing, while also letting tutor up bombs like Pox. Its normal effect comes in handy at times too.

Misinformation – A good way to ensure that your opponent won’t topdeck anymore lands anytime soon. *Props to Tannascurath for the tech.

Tangle Wire – A great way to supplement your land destruction. This would be an autoinclude if this deck ran more permanents. As it barely runs any, this card is probably not worth the effort.

Trinisphere - If your build is geared heavily towards land destruction, even at the expense of 1cc Discard spells, then this will supplement your gameplan against decks with very low curves very well.

Oppression – Very potent and not just in builds that use The Rack. This card can really devastate Threshold and most control and combo decks.

Chains of Mephistoteles – Another very potent weapon against Threshold, Control and Combo decks. Definitely a worthwhile investment if you can afford it.

Wrench Mind – If your build opts to run The Rack, and it needs more discard spells, this is one of your better options.

Persecute – In builds heavily focused on mana denial, especially if they are also running Dark Rituals, this can be an extremely potent means to decimate your opponents entire hand with a single spell.

Haunting Echoes - Often too mana intensive to be castable in time to matter.

Zuran Orb - Combos with Crucible to gain you life. But the combo is unlikely, especially in deck with no tutoring or card draw. Can provide some life gain as a buffer, but is too narrow a card to recommend devoting slots to. In short, don’t bother wasting slots on this.

Engineered Explosives/Null Rod - Both can destroy most artifact mana, and can hurt Affinity and even Goblins in the case Explosives. Both cards are less versatile than Powder Keg for all intents and purposes however so we would stick with Keg.

Splashes

As already covered, any splash is recommended against because of the increased vulnerability your manabase faces, but if you really must splash, these are your best options. In addition, the very idea of splashing runs counter to the idea of Budget deck.

The White Splash

Vindicate - This is just about the best card to splash for in builds running 4 Sinkholes. It works as one additional piece of land destruction, one that can deal with other problem permanents as well.

Gerrard’s Verdict – The one other contribution that white has to offer for this deck. Of course, selective discard is never be as strong as random discard, but this card may none the less be useful as two of in a White splash.

Swords to Plowshares - Do not run this card, even if you do opt to splash white. The life gain that your opponent gets when you Swords one of his creatures can cost games. Innocent Blood, Funeral Charm, Smother, Infest, and Spinning Darkness do the job of dealing with creatures just fine.

Wrath of God – Made obsolete in this deck due to the recent spoiling of Damnation.

The Red Splash

There are a decent number of cards that a red splash can offer this deck that work very well with the card Pox, Pyroclasm, Grim Lavamancer, and Lightning Bolt among many many others. Unfortunately, these cards all take up slots that are typically devoted to disruption and the focus instead becomes on abusing Pox to kill your opponent very rapidly. At that point we are talking about a different deck entirely, one that has more in common with traditional burn.

The Green Splash

Pernicious Deed – The only other splash worth considering is green, and this is the card that makes it worth considering. Deed is likely the strongest sweeper in the format, and it suits this deck very well.

Life from the Loam – This is another potent tool that green offers this deck. Not only can this card be discarded to Pox and Smallpox with impunity, but it can dredge lands (including Mishra’s Factories and Wastelands) into your graveyard and bring them back to your hand all for just two mana, a significant advantage over Crucible.

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For reference and to avoid confusion, here's how the thread began...

Black mages everywhere, Rejoice!!

Small Pox BB, Sorcery

Each player sacrifices a creature, discards a card, sacrifices a land and loses 1 life.

I think this card helps Pox tremendously, and a new build is in order...

20 Swamp
4 Wasteland

4 Dark Ritual
4 Duress
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Sinkhole
4 Pox
4 Smallpox

4 Innocent Blood/Infest
3 Nether Spirit
3 Chimeric Idol
2 Phyrexian Totem

There are literally about 50 billion cards that now work in Pox. The key is to find the very best combination of all of these to get at a build that has a shot against any matchup it may face game one, and completely wrecks that matchup post sideboard.

I really want to optimize the deck. Any advise would be appreciated.

I'm going to be ridiculous and vote for The Rack here. 1 Mana to get out, can't be stopped by Pithing Needle, Stifle, or anything short of flat-out Disenchant-or-Deed style removal, and does its thing without any sort of mana assistance in the slightest. I think its effectiveness is boosted tremendously in a deck where we now have eight Pox-like effects, in addition to Hymn to Tourach.

I'm also a fan of both Chrome Mox and Innocent Blood. In fact, I'm a fan of Chrome Mox in ANY deck packing Smallpox, be it Pox or Deadguy. It allows you, on the DRAW, to cast, say, a turn one Smallpox, wrecking a Land, a Lackey, and a card, in one fell swoop, and it leaves you with a mana source on the table still.

This could also be Mox Diamond. With green. Imagine LoamPox.

I think we might start to see a resurgence in the popularity of Pox after TimeSpiral is released. Not only because of Small Pox, but also because of the new card Phyrexian Totem.

The problem would be with the synergy of Pox and keeping 3 land on the table to activate the totem-you can only run so many dark rituals.

Phyrexian Totem doesn't exactly tickle my fancy in Pox. I mean, yeah, it's nice, but it takes 3 every time you activate (EDIT: See above. Curse your ninja-like stealth posting speed, laststep!). The nice thing about, say, Chimeric Idol, is that it doesn't tie up your mana to turn into a 3/3 beatstick, freeing you up to Pox and Hymn and Sinkhole to your heart's content.

I'm working on two builds currently. One is standard Pox with kills of Chimeric Idol, Nether Spirit, and The Rack. The other is a build with Squee and Zombie Infestation, which seems very attractive right now based on the fact that Pox will already have 8 self discard mechanisms in Pox/Smallpox. Zombie Infestation will double as a control mechanism and a kill condition, and allow you to balance your hand out for an optimal Pox. In addition, Squee and Nether Spirit's triggers can stack so that Nether Spirit still returns if Squee is in the graveyard.

14 Swamp
4 Mishra's Factory
4 Dark Ritual
4 Chrome Mox

4 Smallpox
4 Pox
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Sinkhole
4 Innocent Blood
2 Buried Alive

4 Squee, Goblin Nabob
4 Zombie Infestation
2 Nether Spirit
2 Chimeric Idol

SIDEBOARD:
4 Leyline of the Void (Graveyard recursion, Loam)
4 Duress (Combo, Landstill, any deck where Innocent Blood is useless)
4 Engineered Explosives (Kills Needle and other random annoying CMC 1 drops, as well as opposing Moxen should you face them.)
3 Pithing Needle (Stops Aether Vial)

This is tenative so far. Buried Alive might raise a few eyebrows, but it can fetch 3 Squee or 2 Squee/Nether Spirit. It makes cards like Pox and Smallpox significantly more in your favor.

The build I'm currently messing with looks something like this:

Weezing

17 Swamp
4 Wasteland

3 Nether Spirit

3 Pox
3 Smallpox
4 Dark Ritual
4 Funeral Charm
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Sinkhole
3 Smother
3 Diabolic Edict
4 Infest
2 Phyrexian Totem
3 Chimeric Idol

SB:
4 Leyline of the Void
4 Duress
3 Cabal Therapy
3 Oppression
1 Phyrexian Totem

It's nice to see some pseudo-bumpage on the Pox thread. I'm currently trying to retool my deck to be better in meta that's about 60%/40% combo/aggro, with a few random control decks thrown in to the mix and no aggro-control to speak of. The problem is, if I modify the maindeck to have a good game one combo matchup, I get steamrolled by aggro, and vice versa. Also, I really miss the draw of Phyrexian Arena, but...it makes you lose life, what can I say.

EDIT: one thing I noticed at the last tournament I played at was this deck's problem dealing with loads of fat. It can easily deal with x/2's and less, but if it's got an ass of 4 or more, a cmc of 4 or more, and they have other men to back it up, you're hosed. I wonder if that new Split Second Last Gasp-like card would be of any use here? It's worth a try.

EDIT2: updated the decklist with a theoretical new build. Geared towards beating aggro in the maindeck, but you can switch some things in and out to have it beat combo and control game one, depending on the meta. I played the anti-combo version of the deck at the last tournament and spent the day getting my ass handed to me by aggro decks. T_T More than half of the field was combo, and how many combo decks did I play? None! Oppression is anti-tech against Gobs, btw. >.>

When i think of decks that can REALLY take advantage of Small Pox, I think Ichorid..

Ichorid doesn't care if it loses lands, cards, or creatures. Now if only it could deal with grave-hate...

The point to Pox is that every spell you play should be able to be cast with Dark Ritual alone, making Ritual your MVP. Heres the list I ran at Philly.... as you can tell from reading it, I auto-won against Goblins.

17 Swamp
4 Wasteland

3 Nether Spirit
3 Chimeric Idol
3 Cursed Scroll

4 Pox
4 Dark Ritual
4 Hymm
4 Sinkhole
4 Duress
3 E. Plague
3 Funeral Charm
2 Smother
2 Infest


SB:
3 Oppression
3 Haunting Echoes
3 Tormod's Crypt
2 Infest
1 E. Plague
3 Massacre

Something like that. I can't remember exactly because it was almost a year ago. Unfortunatly, my teammate Bane_of_the_Living was playing it the night before in a tournament to get the 2-round bye when it got stolen. He was 2-0 in it too, his 3rd opponent was Goblins. He would have tromped them, but when he looked up, it was gone. Foil Wastelands, Beta Sinks, altered Infests, pretty much a money deck.

Anyways, The amazing thing about Pox is its flexability to the format. If you know your meta has a lot of combo, maindeck Oppressions, Cabal Therapy, Duress, Hymn to Tourach, and Racks. Playing a lot of Aggro? Throw in Infests, Smother, Nether Spirit, Chimeric Idol, Cursed Scroll, and whatever else may tickle your fancy.

A really underestimated card is Contamination. Solidarity literally cries if that thing hits the board. Bait out the FoWs with some discard, then drop that card on them with Spirit in play and that equals GG 99% of the time. Some people are crafty enough to float mana, Wish for bounce yadda yadda yadda, but most people just scoop. Its also a house against Threshold, although its harder to cast because they play 10-12 counters. The other thing about Threshold is that they really dont mind discard as long as its not on their creatures. Discard = Quicker Threshold. Which blows, especially if your not packing Diabolic Edicts. Mongoose will smash your face all day if you can't pwn him early.

Goblins is by far the most fun deck to play against. When I played at Philly, I opened a hand like this: Swamp, Dark Rit, Dark Rit, E. Plague, Swamp, Spirit, Pox. I kept and went first, playing swamp, Rit, E. plague on goblins. My opponent got up and yelled judge because he thought I was cheating. The judge walked over and got my decklist, then laughed and said everything was fine. The kids face turned bright red and he went, playing mountain, vial. I drew into another E. Plague and it was GG. The kid was bullshit at me but whatever. THIS DECK TROMPS GOBLINS SOOO BAD! If you have a lot of Goblins in your meta, this is the deck to bring. You play Infest, Funeral Charm (lacky tech), Smother, and E. Plague. Hymns throw away their Gobs at a pretty fast rate if you see multiples. This deck is probably Goblins worst matchup. Pox = MVP too. They lose it all if they dont have Vial on the board.

As for Control, thats a tough one.... Its like facing the mirror. Whos going to make the first move? Nether Spirit is the man in this matchup. The only card you dont want to see is StP, but between Duress, Hymn, and Funeral Charm, you should be ok on that deal. Spirit can chump block ALL day and just laugh about it. Poxing against control is also nice, considering control only gets scarier the more land it has. LD is pretty key here, as is discard. You drop Idols late game with Spirits and beat face from there. Luckily though, there isn't too much pure control anymore.

Small Pox seems pretty nifty. Its definatly VERY powerful for its CC, and definatly warrants use. Its a house against Solidarity and Threshold, which is nice because those seem to be the DTB nowadays.

So, now I think i'll post a decklist of a solid Pox list from what I think.

17 Swamp
4 Wasteland

3 Chimeric Idol
3 Nether Spirit
3 The Rack

4 Pox
4 Hymm to Tourach
4 Sinkhole
4 Dark Ritual
3 Cabal Therapy
3 Duress
3 Small Pox
3 Diabolic Edict
2 Contamination

SB
3 Tormods Crypt
3 Oppression
3 Haunting Echoes
3 Engineered Plague
3 Infest


The list has a pretty strong maindeck against both Threshold and Solidarity, with an even better sideboard. The deck packs 15 LD effects, 10 creaure kill effects, and 17 discard effects. The Echoes is in there to completely own Threshold. They call it the Scoopmeister in Germany for a reason. Oppression puts the hurt on Combo. Crypt is there for Thresh and IGGy pop. E. Plagues and Infests round out the goblin matchup pretty easily.

Overall, Pox has the tools to become quite a contender, and hopefully Small Pox will be the extra oomph needed to make it viable. Just remember people, Pox Hard, Pox Fast!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tacosnape

In addition, Squee and Nether Spirit's triggers can stack so that Nether Spirit still returns if Squee is in the graveyard.

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Just so you know, that doesn't work. Nether Spirit has an intervening-if clause, which means that if there are any other creatures in the graveyard, the triggered ability doesn't even go on the stack.

A main thing that people have to keep in mind is that between Pox and Small Pox, we're going to be losing a ton of land ourselves. This means running 24 black sources counting chrome moxes plus 4 dark ritual is a must if we want to be able to cast the many 3cc cards in the deck like Chimeric Idol and others.

Another key question we have to answer is if it's better to run Dark Confidant and Hypnotic Specter, both of which have mad synergy with the deck, or if it's better to run Chimeric Idol and Nether Spirt which serve no disruptive role at all.

Also important to answer if Cursed Scroll is worth it. It eats up a ton of mana.

Other possibilities...

The white splash has always been amazing in Pox. Vindicate would allow for a full 20 land destruction cards while giving you a great out against everything.

So I'll definately squeeze that in somewhere.

I've been playing this decklist:

//Discard Spells
4 Duress
4 Hymn to Tourach
//Land Destruction
4 Sinkhole
4 Wasteland
//Creature Destruction
4 Diabolic Edict
//Mass Disruption
4 Pox
//Creatures
4 Mindstab Thrull
4 Hypnotic Specter
//Damage Sources
4 The Rack
3 Cursed Scroll
//Mana Sources
17 Swamps
4 Dark Ritual

Total : 60 cards

I've always had close games which I often lost because I wasn't able to kill my opponent.
Props:
- Pox: Always MVP. I never draw enough of them. Small Pox seems a nice addition
- the Rack: cheap and effective, a must have
Slops:
- Mindstab Thrull: I've never damaged anyone with it, every opponent has a way to kill/bounce/... him

I felt the need for something recurring like Crucible of Worlds or Ichorid (but I have too few creatures for it).
Maybe Nantuko Shade or Mishra's Factory are worth a try but I haven't tryed them.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tacosnape

This could also be Mox Diamond. With green. Imagine LoamPox.

---

Mox Diamond is worth a try. Loam would be great but you cannot rely only on the Mox to cast it. I'd go with the Crucible instead.

Just my 0.02

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Clark Kant

A main thing that people have to keep in mind is that between Pox and Small Pox, we're going to be losing a ton of land ourselves. This means running 24-26 black sources plus 4 dark ritual is a must if we want to be able to cast the many 3cc cards in the deck like Chimeric Idol and others.

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This isn't true. The thing that people need to know is when is the right time to Pox. The magic numbers for Pox are 1, 4, and 7. This means that if your opponent has 1, 4, or 7 cards in hand, lands in play, or creatures in play, you've maximized your Pox. If they have 1 of anything, they lose it. If they have 4 of something, they lose 2 of them. If they have 7 of anything, they lose 3. Remember to do things like hold land in your hand if your going to Pox, so you can at least recover. The other thing I noticed is that its typically not a good idea to play more than 3 swamps at a time, as this makes Pox that much worse for you. All you need is 3 lands in play to really be able to play any spell you topdeck.

As for the debate about Cursed Scroll, you only use it when your in topdeck mode... Its used as a kill condition.

I ran a build of Pox for a little while that ran Hyppie and Confidant, and it really comes down to your comfort level. Confidant makes the deck a lot more scuicidal, but increases consistency. Nether Spirit makes the deck more controlish, but also makes it more graveyard dependant, which may be something you want to steer clear of with all the Crypts being run as of lately.

Nether Spirit does in fact have synergy with Pox because it comes back from Pox aftermath, which is one of the reasons I don't run Confidant. Now the problem with using Scroll and Idol are that they leave 2/3rds of your kill conditions vulnerable to Needle, which can make for a REALLY bad day. Black also doesn't have artifact removal really, which could prompt for a white splash. The thing with Pox is that one of its strong points is its immunity to Wasteland. Adding white to the deck would give you more cards to use, but at the risk of getting wasted.... which isn't a good thing for this deck. at all. White also gives the deck StP, which I know I wouldn't complain about having.

The thing about Smallpox is that you don't have to run a completely terrible manabase and deck built around it because it doesn't matter how many cards or lands you have in play. Smallpox is so much better in a control deck than Pox it makes my mind hurt.

Just make a Monoblack control deck with a lot of land, and more land distruction and add Smallpox as extra disruption, so that you don't have to use frigging Nether Spirit and Cursed Scroll as your kill conditions. The problem with Pox has always been that you have to run an otherwise terrible deck to accomodate Pox, which is no longer the case.

If you don't believe me about the deck, just look at it in the absence of Pox, it's awful.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Alfred

The thing about Smallpox is that you don't have to run a completely terrible manabase and deck built around it because it doesn't matter how many cards or lands you have in play. Smallpox is so much better in a control deck than Pox it makes my mind hurt.

Just make a Monoblack control deck with a lot of land, and more land distruction and add Smallpox as extra disruption, so that you don't have to use frigging Nether Spirit and Cursed Scroll as your kill conditions. The problem with Pox has always been that you have to run an otherwise terrible deck to accomodate Pox, which is no longer the case.

If you don't believe me about the deck, just look at it in the absence of Pox, it's awful.

---

Without Pox, the deck looks like a monoblack build of Deadguy, Which is a pretty solid deck. I understand how you think Small Pox is better, but thats because its controlled. Half the reason you play Pox is because its a house. It has the potential to be 3 Small Poxes for 1 more mana. The creatures in the deck aren't exactly the best, but they get the job done.

^ in that list, I'd cut the thrulls for negators, and the scrolls for crucibles.
Negator ends the game quickly, while having great synergy with crucible.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by nitewolf9

^ in that list, I'd cut the thrulls for negators, and the scrolls for crucibles.
Negator ends the game quickly, while having great synergy with crucible.

---

Funny you should mention Negator. I was thinking and I don't know much about the card, but what about replacing Chimeric Idol with the new Phyrexian Totem? Granted if your opponent plays Burn he's going to suck, but he would certainly put pressure on White Thresh and Solidarity.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SillyMetalGAT

Without Pox, the deck looks like a monoblack build of Deadguy, Which is a pretty solid deck. I understand how you think Small Pox is better, but thats because its controlled. Half the reason you play Pox is because its a house. It has the potential to be 3 Small Poxes for 1 more mana. The creatures in the deck aren't exactly the best, but they get the job done.

---

It looks like Deadguy, yet without any of it's good threats, like Confidant or Nantuko Shade. In their places, a glacial clock of Cursed Scroll and Nether Spirit is added, which means that any deck has the potential of drawing out of the soft lock that it creates. Also, now you don't have to run the card disadvantage that is Dark Ritual.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Alfred

It looks like Deadguy, yet without any of it's good threats, like Confidant or Nantuko Shade. In their places, a glacial clock of Cursed Scroll and Nether Spirit is added, which means that any deck has the potential of drawing out of the soft lock that it creates. Also, now you don't have to run the card disadvantage that is Dark Ritual.

---

You can run Confidant. You can run Shade. Nobody said you couldn't. The reason people run Cursed Scroll is because in addition to being a kill condition (not to mention if you get 2 of your kill conditions on the board, your doing 4-5 damage a turn to an opponent thats already at 10-13 because you Poxed them) Cursed Scroll also picks off creatures. Dark Ritual may be card disadvantage, but its amazing to go 1st turn Swamp, Ritual, Duress, Hymm. That rips your opponents hand down to 4. While you might be at 3 cards, you just fucked Combo completely, or you just ripped valuable card advantage from Threshold. Dark Ritual is a much needed card in order to keep up with the speed of such decks as IGGy pop, Solidarity, and Goblins. The whole point behind a Pox deck is to recover from Pox faster than your opponent, then deny them the ability to ever recover. Until you do that, I normally wouldn't drop a threat. The only exception to this really is 1st turn Nether Spirit to get around Lacky if you have no other option. Nether Spirit is also the most amazing creature to have with Contamination if you try it. It works really well for me

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SillyMetalGAT

Funny you should mention Negator. I was thinking and I don't know much about the card, but what about replacing Chimeric Idol with the new Phyrexian Totem? Granted if your opponent plays Burn he's going to suck, but he would certainly put pressure on White Thresh and Solidarity.

---

I would run both for consistency, and cut Scrolls for the totems. They both cost the same to activate, but the Totem deals five instead of two damage and can double as a black mana source in emergeny situations. Imagine having three lands and an Idol and Totem in play. Activate Totem, then activate Idol, then swing for eight. Post-Pox, that's going to leave them at five life...for three mana. Granted, you can't normally activate the Totem the same turn you Pox, but you can the next turn, so that makes up for it.

One thing I haven't thought of before is running Therapy. That's hawt with Nether Spirit in play. I might try Therapies in my sideboard to strengthen the combo matchup, which is okay right now but not tremendously great because my maindeck is geared towards beating aggro, so unless I get lucky, I usually have an uphill battle game one.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Aggro_zombies

I would run both for consistency, and cut Scrolls for the totems. They both cost the same to activate, but the Totem deals five instead of two damage and can double as a black mana source in emergeny situations. Imagine having three lands and an Idol and Totem in play. Activate Totem, then activate Idol, then swing for eight. Post-Pox, that's going to leave them at five life...for three mana. Granted, you can't normally activate the Totem the same turn you Pox, but you can the next turn, so that makes up for it.

One thing I haven't thought of before is running Therapy. That's hawt with Nether Spirit in play. I might try Therapies in my sideboard to strengthen the combo matchup, which is okay right now but not tremendously great because my maindeck is geared towards beating aggro, so unless I get lucky, I usually have an uphill battle game one.

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Yeah, that does sound pretty rediculous. Swinging for 8, sometimes 11 if Spirits in the yard is friggin silly. Therapy + Spirit = amazing. Swing 2, then sac to Therapy, strip their hand. Replay Spirit next turn. My decklist is more geared toward Combo/Threshold so I maindeck Therapy, but they could definately go in the SB.

Im really glad to see people getting hyped about Pox. Everytime I tried to bring it up, it got shot down.