[Primer/Deck] Pox

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Originally Posted by blubberpompnao

Hey guys I really like Life from the Loam and I REALLY like Pox BUT I'm having trouble finding a good "stock" Loam Pox list. Anyone got any good recommendations?

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Since there's only really a few people playing pox Loam Its hard to say if there's truly a stock list
I wouldnt go so far as call this a true aggregate but it's my opinion on what's important in the deck.

I would say the carda you absolutely should play are

4 1 mana target discard
4 smallpox
3-4 abrupt decay
3-4 lilliana of the veil

3-4 hymn to tourach
3 loam
3-4 entomb
3-4 crop rotation
1-2 ravens crime
1 nether spirit

The lands that are neccessary in my opinion are
Wasteland
Mishras factory
Tabernacle
Bojuka bog
Dark depths
Thespians stage
Cabal pit
Actual gb mana base (fetch basics bayou)

After that I think the rest is up to play style, alternatives ranges from more graveyard, creatures, lands and different removal.

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Originally Posted by blubberpompnao

Hey guys I really like Life from the Loam and I REALLY like Pox BUT I'm having trouble finding a good "stock" Loam Pox list. Anyone got any good recommendations?

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Originally Posted by jredelstein

This is the list I have been playing

Spells
4 Liliana of the Veil
4 Smallpox
3 Abrupt Decay
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Hymn to Tourach
3 Crop Rotation
2 Life from the Loam
2 Cabal Therapy
2 Entomb
2 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Garruk Relentless
1 Raven’s Crime

Creatures
1 Bloodghast
1 Nether Spirit

Lands
4 Bayou
4 Wasteland
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Mishra’s Factory
2 Thespian Stage
2 Misty Rainforest
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
1 Dark Depths
1 Cabal Pit
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Forest
1 Swamp

Sideboard
2 Chains of Mephistopheles
2 Pernicious Deed
2 Disfigure
2 Extirpate
2 Golgari Charm
1 Garruk Relentless
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Glacial Chasm
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Duress

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Toxboy gave a nice overview above. Let me add some.

My older list before thespian stage was more grindy, winning with only Bloodghast and Mishra's Factory
http://sales.starcitygames.com//deck...p?DeckID=69791
Crop Rotation was in the sideboard and functioned as creature removal with Cabal Pit and The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale and also worked as graveyard hate with Bojuka Bog and to fetch Karakas against reanimator or sneak and show. I love this build and still think it is a better deck than the ones with Dark Depths but being able to win fast with Marit Lage was a necessary concession to time concerns at tournaments(I started 3-0-3 at a Legacy Open bc of slow Miracles players).

Entomb does a lot of things for us too, it can grab Life from the Loam, Bloodghast, a land, Cabal Therapy, or Raven's Crime allowing us to start attacking with creatures, attack their hand, or start an engine like Wasteland-Loam (Even better with Tabernacle).

Toxboy stated how important The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale is, I agree but if you don't have access to one just be aware that you need to gear you deck to it, Tabernacle does a lot of work answering multiple threats while keeping our opponent from adding to the board, if you don't have one I'd recommend playing Pernicious Deed main as it also helps clean up the board and answers almost everything. There are a lot of game when I fall behind but if I find I Deed I am right back in it or now very favored to win. I'd say about half our cards are objectively powerful but all become awesome as part of an engine. Liliana of the Veil is a powerful magic card as is Smallpox but when combined with Bloodghast and Life from the Loam they are even better. I could list 100 card interactions that make individual cards better than usual in our deck.

There are a lot of cards that fit, I probably have 200 cards in my binder just for my GB Pox.

Good luck with building, we are here to help and learn,
Josh

http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=11641&f=LE

This b/w list got 1st out of 83.

Ok, that b/w list looks like a blast. a touch aggressive for my taste, but very fun starting point.
also, one thing that i'm not getting: why do people go with the full graveyard exiling effects over the rest of your surgical or extirpates? personally, I feel like there's always something specific that I just never want to see again as opposed to just grabbing a club and hoping i get an opportunity to hit them with it.

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Originally Posted by mykatdied

http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=11641&f=LE

This b/w list got 1st out of 83.

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that big pox at the board though..

Armageddon vs Miracles. Nice

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Originally Posted by Hardcore

Armageddon vs Miracles. Nice

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true..
and miracles is also one of the few matches where i like big pox..
they have very few 3cmc spells in their deck, if im not mistaken its only vendillion clique and monastery mentor, and maybe a lone Izzet Staticaster at the side so its likely to resolve..big pox is also good in keeping them off 4 mana to prevent them from casting jace or entreat the angels..

I really like the list. Not sure I like the lack of urborg or flagstones since those have been soo good for me in my bw builds. Plus turn 2 you can flagstones, urborg smallpox discarding ghast and trigger stones to recur ghast and not get set back a land. Otherwise seems sweet to me. Would love to chat with the pilot if he sees this.

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Originally Posted by zenitramleirdag

true..
and miracles is also one of the few matches where i like big pox..
they have very few 3cmc spells in their deck, if im not mistaken its only vendillion clique and monastery mentor, and maybe a lone Izzet Staticaster at the side so its likely to resolve..big pox is also good in keeping them off 4 mana to prevent them from casting jace or entreat the angels..

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On top of my head most miracles list will also contain council's judgement and entreat the angels as other 3's, there should be 1-2 more potential cards they could have in sideboard

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Originally Posted by jredelstein

Toxboy gave a nice overview above. Let me add some.

My older list before thespian stage was more grindy, winning with only Bloodghast and Mishra's Factory
http://sales.starcitygames.com//deck...p?DeckID=69791
Crop Rotation was in the sideboard and functioned as creature removal with Cabal Pit and The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale and also worked as graveyard hate with Bojuka Bog and to fetch Karakas against reanimator or sneak and show. I love this build and still think it is a better deck than the ones with Dark Depths but being able to win fast with Marit Lage was a necessary concession to time concerns at tournaments(I started 3-0-3 at a Legacy Open bc of slow Miracles players).

Entomb does a lot of things for us too, it can grab Life from the Loam, Bloodghast, a land, Cabal Therapy, or Raven's Crime allowing us to start attacking with creatures, attack their hand, or start an engine like Wasteland-Loam (Even better with Tabernacle).

Toxboy stated how important The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale is, I agree but if you don't have access to one just be aware that you need to gear you deck to it, Tabernacle does a lot of work answering multiple threats while keeping our opponent from adding to the board, if you don't have one I'd recommend playing Pernicious Deed main as it also helps clean up the board and answers almost everything. There are a lot of game when I fall behind but if I find I Deed I am right back in it or now very favored to win. I'd say about half our cards are objectively powerful but all become awesome as part of an engine. Liliana of the Veil is a powerful magic card as is Smallpox but when combined with Bloodghast and Life from the Loam they are even better. I could list 100 card interactions that make individual cards better than usual in our deck.

There are a lot of cards that fit, I probably have 200 cards in my binder just for my GB Pox.

Good luck with building, we are here to help and learn,
Josh

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Luckily for me, my other deck is RUG Lands so I have the Tabernacle.

Do you have a decklist I could look at? Preferably what your current list is. I just want to compare and contrast as many I can so I can proxy something up and see if I like it or not.

One sideboard card that I've latched onto is Engineered Plague over Pernicious Deed. I still play one deed main, but its often too slow where plague does some immediate work.

Current list, but I haven't played it on a few months:

4x vampire hexmage
4x smallpox
3x inquisition of kozilek
3x thoughtseize
2x hymn to tourach
3x liliana of the veil
1x garruk relentless
3x abrupt decay
1x pernicious deed
1x maelstrom pulse
4x crop rotation
2x sylvan library
3x life from the loam
4x verdant catacombs
1x marsh flats
1x windswept heath
1x bayou
3x swamp
2x forest
4x urborg
3x barren moor
4x wasteland
1x dark depths
1x thespians stage
1x cabal pit

Sideboard

3x engineered plague
2x krosan grip
2x surgical extraction
2x choke
2x disfigure
1x glacial chasm
1x bojuka bog
2x pithing needle

I've essentially swapped out mishras factory and bloodghast/spirit for hexmages. They allow for quick combos with rotation, have first strike so they block well, and they basically preboard against opposing pws. There are other fringe benefits (hosing chalice and ratchet bomb) but they still just beat for 2 with a nut draw into rotation ending games fast. The lands look funny...but I minimize opposing wasteland effectiveness and I can have better odds against blood moon, hence the 5 basics and only one bayou.

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Originally Posted by blubberpompnao

Luckily for me, my other deck is RUG Lands so I have the Tabernacle.

Do you have a decklist I could look at? Preferably what your current list is. I just want to compare and contrast as many I can so I can proxy something up and see if I like it or not.

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http://mtgtop8.com/archetype?a=88&meta=16&f=LE

Contains a lot of old lists, there is at least my new lists here, I made some small uppdates but I usually change about 1 card per week

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Originally Posted by Toxboy

On top of my head most miracles list will also contain council's judgement and entreat the angels as other 3's, there should be 1-2 more potential cards they could have in sideboard

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oh yeah, i overlooked that..thanks Toxboy..

So, am I the only one that looked at the open this weekend and thought that it might be time to start finding room for Pox again?

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Originally Posted by Quitrex

So, am I the only one that looked at the open this weekend and thought that it might be time to start finding room for Pox again?

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Nope, I will likely be sleeving up shardless pox for serious testing in the months coming up to SCG Worcester.

Has anyone tried the eldrazi matchup? I want to try it but unsure how bad or good It is.

From what i seen it should a LOT of Cards that are really good vs them especially if they don't have chalice.

GB should be decent since we can always abrupt chalice giving us a clean answernif we need to

I have a friend who built about 71/75 Gerry's list from the open independently, and we jammed a few matches. From the way the eldrazi matchup seems to look, your primary angle of attack should be their mana. It's basically like playing against Mud, except they're faster and they're less resilient to edicts. They also periodically peel you off rituals and one mana hand disruption. I've found that the abrupt decay are more likely to point at the sphere of resistance effect than the chalice, unless they wise up and drop chalice on two. He was regularly in a position where Pox would have just dragged him all the way out of the game, kicking and screaming. Given that the metagame feels like it might be spiraling into a miracles/eldrazi/lands rock paper scissors variant, I feel like slotting one to two pox into the deck might not be a terrible thing, as long as you can keep your game against the rest of the field mostly even, and make sure your board can slaughter lands without losing a few choice tools for miracles. I also don't feel like Toxic Deluge or Damnation in the 75 is a terrible idea, even though I still like BSZ, because it feels like the more 'go wide' creature decks such as merfolk or goblins aren't terrible against the Eldrazi that might be cropping up. but that's just my two cents.

Black sun's zenith seems like a good meta call right now to me as well. At the very least if we are running top it does give us an additional reusable shuffle effect that can come back over and over again, especially in the longer grindy games.

what is this eldrazi deck you are speaking of?

http://sales.starcitygames.com//deck...p?DeckID=99286, got second and put 3 more copies into the top 16.s