[Primer/Deck] Pox

Sounds to me like Marit Lage and Lands is your most common opponent. I know that feeling, I have the same paranoia with Miracles to a degree.

I've never heard of being able to kill creatures as being a disadvantage.

Is you're maindeck designed to fight Lands as a strong game 1 or is your sideboard designed to cover it? I always fashion the main deck to deal with 'every scenario' possible to the best of my ability and then use the sideboard for those nightmare matchups where losing is too lopsided.

On a very high note, I may be getting Tabernacle of Pendrall Vale for my deck and coupled with Wasteland/Sinkhole, and the terror inducing Nether Void, my "Fortress of Solitude" Pox is just about complete... :b:

Nice! I have faith in Nether Void since i noticed the decks placing best in tourneys run two of those i main deck. Have fun :-D

Speaking of main deck my thinking is to construct it to be viable vs most decks: Contagion and big monsters vs Delver. Hymn, Pox and Liliana vs Miracle, and many others.
Bloodghasts are also a problem for many decks. However the defense, or threats, for some decks is too much niche to have a place in main deck. Or perhaps they turn the deck away too much from its aggressive plan. A typical example is Engineered Plague vs Goblins.
Of course, i could make a compromise and run one NoSB, but no. We have only one Gobbo player after all.

Nether void is tremendously powerful, but I don't think I condone 2 main unless you expect a VERY large amount of combo. I get to play the classic in the morning, and am registering

2 bayou
1 cabal pit
1 forest
1 marsh flats
4 Mishra's factory
4 swamp
3 urborg, tomb of yawgmoth
4 verdant catacomb
4 wasteland

1 nether spirit

4 abrupt decay
1 chains of Mephistopheles
2 crucible of worlds
2 cursed scroll
3 dark ritual
1 grim tutor
4 hymn to tourach
4 liliana of the veil
2 mox diamond
1 murderous cut
1 nether void
1 night of souls betrayal
1 pox
4 smallpox
4 thoughtseize

Sb
2 black sun's zenith
3 chalice of the void
2 ensnaring bridge
3 pithing needle
4 surgical extraction

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Quitrex

Nether void is tremendously powerful, but I don't think I condone 2 main unless you expect a VERY large amount of combo. I get to play the classic in the morning, and am registering

2 bayou
1 cabal pit
1 forest
1 marsh flats
4 Mishra's factory
4 swamp
3 urborg, tomb of yawgmoth
4 verdant catacomb
4 wasteland

1 nether spirit

4 abrupt decay
1 chains of Mephistopheles
2 crucible of worlds
2 cursed scroll
3 dark ritual
1 grim tutor
4 hymn to tourach
4 liliana of the veil
2 mox diamond
1 murderous cut
1 nether void
1 night of souls betrayal
1 pox
4 smallpox
4 thoughtseize

Sb
2 black sun's zenith
3 chalice of the void
2 ensnaring bridge
3 pithing needle
4 surgical extraction

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How has running the 3 ritual and 2 diamond been for you? I never really consider running both but it seems interesting. Greedy from my point of view to have 5 cards which are not great top decks later in the game, but awesome early game. Turn 1 Nether Void vs combo seems like it would be good.

I notice yesterday that Eldrazi lists run no basics and should be another good target for PoP. I hope i recieve those i ordered before the tourney tomorrow.

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Originally Posted by Hardcore

I notice yesterday that Eldrazi lists run no basics and should be another good target for PoP. I hope i recieve those i ordered before the tourney tomorrow.

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I love the new Eldrazi decks. Wasteland Sinkhole spamming has never been so much fun! :cool: The only problem I guess is if they draw the tits and you draw no disruption for the opening grip, the match up is that good in our favor. Even more so for the LD focused like myself.

The 3-2 split is surprisingly effective, but I think ima jump over to a 4 diamond list for a bit. I lost two matches to drawing terribly (turn 2 nether void an aluren deck only to have them hit 6 of their 20 before I find a third land so I never actually get to cast another spell? Ok) one to a misplay (lands) and one to mis-boarding.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Quitrex

The 3-2 split is surprisingly effective, but I think ima jump over to a 4 diamond list for a bit. I lost two matches to drawing terribly (turn 2 nether void an aluren deck only to have them hit 6 of their 20 before I find a third land so I never actually get to cast another spell? Ok) one to a misplay (lands) and one to mis-boarding.

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It is interesting. I know edelman was running 3 ritual for a while and no diamond. In my splash builds I tend to run 3 diamonds for the ramp and color fixing. In my mono black builds I stick with ritual all day.

Poxtress of Solitude - ver. Alpha

Lands (25)
12 Snow-Covered Swamp
4 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Wasteland
4 Mishra's Factory
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrall Vale

Creatures (1)
1 Nether Spirit

Spells (30)
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Sinkhole
4 Innocent Blood
4 Smallpox
1 Pox
2 Funeral Charm
1 Dark Ritual
1 Contagion
1 The Rack
1 Cursed Scroll
1 Underworld Dreams
1 Syphon Life
1 Nether Void

Planeswalkers (4)
4 Liliana of the Veil

Sideboard
1 Pithing Needle
1 Ratchet Bomb
1 Powder Keg
2 Spinning Darkness
1 Massacre
1 Dread of Night
1 Night of Souls' Betrayal
2 Shrieking Affliction
1 Nihil Spellbomb
4 Leyline of the Void

Inspired originally by Reid Duke's original 3rd place tournament Pox deck and then updated/modified with ideas from Tom "The Boss" Ross's video I posted earlier, this is an amalgamation of well, crazy weird shit. My combat rival and test subject, Miracles UW says this is not only my weirdest flavor of Pox that he's ever faced, but probably one of the scarier ones. I don't have The Tabernacle yet but I will soon... :cool:

No time to type up stuff yet as I'm in the middle of some work but I'll explain the wackiness later when I get the time to. For now, this Alpha version Fortress of Solitude control deck is a placeholder.

new pox player here (played 8rack for a while). Starting to get into the legacy scene and there is a large local tournament next week (80 pre reg players).

Current list (flakmonkey sent me this list)

Sorcery (20)
4x Hymn to Tourach
4x Innocent Blood
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
1x Raven's Crime
4x Smallpox
3x Thoughtseize

Instant (1)
1x Contagion
Planeswalker (4)
4x Liliana of the Veil

Land (24)
4x Mishra's Factory
12x Swamp
4x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4x Wasteland

Artifact (5)
1x Cursed Scroll
4x The Rack

Enchantment (2)
2x Shrieking Affliction

Creature (4)
4x Bloodghast

Sideboard (15)
2x Contagion
2x Darkblast
2x Duress
3x Leyline of the Void
2x Ratchet Bomb
1x Raven's Crime
3x Spinning Darkness

Ive read a few pages of the forums (not the full 13x) im looking for some sideboard help and some match up tips, ive only played 15ish competitive legacy matches and that was with a chalice deck. What decks can i expect to struggle against (besides lands), which are fair and which are great? I know ive picked a rough deck to pick up and play with out knowing the format but, have to start some where right?

Loam decks for sure. I would remove duress and raven's crime and increase the graveyard hate.

Contagion and Darkblast is best replaced by engineered plague, or ensnaring bridge.

I have had problems playing Tombstalker lately. I rarely have enough cards in the graveyard and he ends up being discarded to contagion or pox. I am thinking of maybe rat pack and mishra's as replacement. But it is not ideal as i tend to nuke my own lands a lot...

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Originally Posted by Hardcore

I have had problems playing Tombstalker lately. I rarely have enough cards in the graveyard and he ends up being discarded to contagion or pox. I am thinking of maybe rat pack and mishra's as replacement. But it is not ideal as i tend to nuke my own lands a lot...

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If you are playing Pack Rat, Mutavault may be better than Mishra's Factory.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jredelstein

If you are playing Pack Rat, Mutavault may be better than Mishra's Factory.

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Tnx, i forgot about that.

Tomby is usually played as a 2-of because you disrupt like mad, then you drop him mid-late game when everyone's top decking and resources are slim. If you're running 4, Dark Rituals help a lot but that's probably the issue you're running into since Tomby can't logically be played early game and really shouldn't be.

There once was a goofy play off a turn 1 where one goes fetchland, swamp, double dark ritual, Tombstalker lolz but that's just wack. :eek:

Mutavault can be combined with Pack Rat and Mishra's for 12 threats that synergize through the Mutavault. Problem is weakness to Wasteland, Price of Progress, and other things.

Another option is running Tomby in the sideboard. Or get Assembly-Worker as a laughably bad backup for Mishra's Factory. :tongue:

Y'all are talking very threat-heavy. how do you have enough disruption to not die?

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Originally Posted by Quitrex

Y'all are talking very threat-heavy. how do you have enough disruption to not die?

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Hardcore has a very threat heavy build. I'd say it uses smallpox as more of a tempo play than a more traditional control build. You only need to disrupt you opponent long enough to not die, so if you are going to kill them slow with something like curse scroll or Mishra's factory then you need a lot of disruption to last that long, if you are killing them quick with bloodghast, Mishra factory, and tombstalker all at the same time then you don't need as much disruption. There are lists posted earlier from Hardcore that you can check out. Im sure he'd be happy to elaborate for you (and correct me if my statements are wrong).

Well, given that i actually play four pox i think i have plenty of disruption.

Threat update. 10 threats

4 Mishra's Factory, 1 Nether Spirit. The Heavy Infantry, NS is the bodyguard for Liliana who can never go down lolz

2 Cursed Scroll, 2 Underworld Dreams, 1 Syphon Life. The Artillery. 2 of them snipe annoyances or with 6 lands out, nuke a Jace along with Underworld Dreams punishing him for free Brainstorms. Syphon Life 'fixes' top decking useless lands and turns them into 4 life point swings. The Artillery are also somewhat resistant to Counterbalance [cept for the Cursed Scrolls]

I still feel 8-10 seem to be just right for my land destruction control play style. Though traditional land killer should normally be more Aggro Control along the vein of Threshold, where you play a cheap threat, or suspend it, then nuke every land they could play. Now that combo is no longer that big on the meta being held in check by the huge slew of decks with counter spells, perhaps pure LD w/rush down would work, and I have just the cheap threats that could work with it.

So I have been trying to come up with a list that uses 4 Chains of Mephistopheles as a central theme. I also like the interaction with Anvil of Bogardan. I tried a more traditional mono black pox list with Chains, Anvil, dark ritual, mox diamond, and Squee, Goblin Nabob to get the chain lock early. The problem I had was I would die to the 1 or 2 drops that made it to the board and since no one draws cards I'd die before finding a Squee.

I am now looking at a GB list that is more similar to Lands than Pox since the interaction between dredge of Life from the Loam and Chains is awesome(since dredge is a replacement effect Chains doesn't trigger!) I also am a fan of being able to run Urborg in lands rather than punishing fire. I've tried keeping Smallpox in but there is just not enough room and it is the first cut if I want to keep the Lands/Chains themes. I think my sideboard plan would be to side in more creature hate and take out the Chains package.

Here is what I got:
4 Chains of Mephistopheles
3 Anvil of Bogardan
2 Bloodghast
2 Raven's Crime
4 Mox Diamond
4 Exploration
3 Life from the Loam
3 Crop Rotation
2 Entomb

4 Dark Depths
4 Thespian's Stage
3 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Maze of Ith
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
1 Bojuka Bog
4 Verdant Catacomb
3 Misty Rainforest
3 Bayou
1 Forest
4 Wasteland
1 Cabal Pit

Possible Sideboard:
4 Smallpox
1 Bojuka Bog
2 Cabal Therapy
3 Thoughtseize
1 Crop Rotation
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Innocent Blood