[Primer/Deck] Pox

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Epeirogeny

What is your list by the way? I have noticed that you have been on this thread for awhile playing pox. You play black/white pox?

---

This is roughly my default list when I do play pox. I used to have 3 Tombstalker and 2 Nether spirit. I have since dropped crucible of worlds.

// Deck: pox b/w (61)

// Lands
3 Flagstones of Trokair
1 Karakas
3 Marsh Flats
3 Mishra's Factory
1 Plains
3 Scrubland
3 Swamp
4 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Wasteland

// Creatures
1 Nether Spirit
2 Tombstalker

// Spells
3 Bitterblossom
1 Chains of Mephistopheles
3 Hymn to Tourach
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Liliana of the Veil
3 Mox Diamond
3 Sinkhole
4 Smallpox
3 Swords to Plowshares
1 Toxic Deluge
2 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Vindicate

// Sideboard
SB: 1 Circle of Protection: Red
SB: 2 Engineered Plague
SB: 2 Enlightened Tutor
SB: 2 Helm of Obedience
SB: 3 Leyline of the Void
SB: 1 Nether Void
SB: 1 Oblivion Ring
SB: 1 Pithing Needle
SB: 1 Toxic Deluge
SB: 1 Vindicate

^Looks great, so many of my favorite cards! Will give this a go sometime.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Wotkenmendo

^Looks great, so many of my favorite cards! Will give this a go sometime.

---

I will note that the Leyline/Helm package out of the board is old tech and I would not recommend it to anyone. Maybe with additional lands or something but it wasn't appealing when I tested it.

With the white and the Enlightened Tutor, why not just run Rest in Peace? Yeah it hurts our graveyard, but you get a more castable card that's less dependent on turn zero effects. BW Pox has run Night of Soul's Betrayal alongside Lingering Souls and the like, so we're familiar with bad synergies lol.

Why IB over StP? Is it just for eldrazi? Lily and smallpox is enough sac as it is, I would think that targed removal would be welcomed. It must suck to rely on IB with a Tombstalker out...

How have the 3 blossom 2 jitte worked for everyone?

Rest in Peace may be better. Since it works as an additional win condition I could just side out tombstalkers and Nether Spirit for it.

I do run Swords to Plowshares over Innocent Blood mostly because of Tombstalker. It limits the amount of symmetrical sacrifice effects that I have to run.

I love the Bitterblossom and Jitte together. Jitte works great in creature match ups and the tokens carry it well. Not to mention it gives us some potential life gain to recoup lost life due to blossom.

Should we really care about losing card advantage sometimes? I have noticed myself using smallpox aggressively even if it means i 3 for 2 myself. (Small pox, land, discard versus opponents land, discard).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Epeirogeny

Should we really care about losing card advantage sometimes? I have noticed myself using smallpox aggressively even if it means i 3 for 2 myself. (Small pox, land, discard versus opponents land, discard).

---

Really depends on the board, knowledge of what your opponent is trying to do, etc. If you are against sneak and show I 100% agree with aggressive smallpox casting.

The latest expansion was a dry well for mono-B players. Still my deck is quite changed with the inclusion of an older card all the way from Timespiral: Gemstone Caverns. Against decks that strive for tempo, like delver, this is quite useful card, but going first in close to 75% of all games is good in itself of course:)


4 Bloodghast
1 scourge of nel toth
1 nether spirit
1 necroplasm
3 nihilith

1 buried alive
4 Smallpox
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Pox
4 liliana of the veil
2 sensei's divining top
3 darkblast
3 collective brutality
3 shrieking affliction

11 Swamp
3 urborg, tomb of yawgmoth
4 gemstone caverns
4 bloodstained mire
1 polluted delta


This is a draft and have not been tested. It is close enough to my ordinary builds that i can be confident bad deck building won't ruin it. Of course "the only valid test is combat", so i will bring it to the local tourney tomorrow.



I have been toying with the idea of adding Chalice of the Void or Ankh of Mishra to it. (The later would be insanely fun!)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Hardcore

The latest expansion was a dry well for mono-B players. Still my deck is quite changed with the inclusion of an older card all the way from Timespiral: Gemstone Caverns. Against decks that strive for tempo, like delver, this is quite useful card, but going first in close to 75% of all games is good in itself of course:)


4 Bloodghast
1 scourge of nel toth
1 nether spirit
1 necroplasm
3 nihilith

1 buried alive
4 Smallpox
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Pox
4 liliana of the veil
2 sensei's divining top
3 darkblast
3 collective brutality
3 shrieking affliction

11 Swamp
3 urborg, tomb of yawgmoth
4 gemstone caverns
4 bloodstained mire
1 polluted delta


This is a draft and have not been tested. It is close enough to my ordinary builds that i can be confident bad deck building won't ruin it. Of course "the only valid test is combat", so i will bring it to the local tourney tomorrow.



I have been toying with the idea of adding Chalice of the Void or Ankh of Mishra to it. (The later would be insanely fun!)

---

Not sure that I can approve of Nether Spirit in this decklist since you have a lot of other creatures that you want to put into your yard. I like the scourge with bloodghast interaction. It would be interesting to see fetch lands so you could potentially play a fetch to return 2 ghasts and then sac them to return scourge then sac fetchland to return 2 ghast again. would give you a very aggressive line. Maybe Dakmor Salvage since you are very heavy on the Pox effects.

Bear in mind that the only creatures he has that stay in his yard are the three nihilith, so that's less of a concern for me, and 5 fetch lands is probably plenty. You don't wanna open yourself up to stifle and blood moon more than you have to. I've been impressed with collective brutality, how's it been for you?

I recently saw a BR Reanimator running collective brutality. Force the opponent to discard answers and put Griselbrand in the graveyard at the same time.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Hardcore

I recently saw a BR Reanimator running collective brutality. Force the opponent to discard answers and put Griselbrand in the graveyard at the same time.

---

The problem with Collective Brutality in Reanimator was always Escalate being an additional cost, so in most cases, the answer you're hoping to remove gets used with Collective Brutality on the stack and Griselbrand in your graveyard.
It has more appeal in a Pox build, we're built for discarding cards to our own Smallpox, if it's a Nether Spirit or a Bloodghast, all the better, but it's not required.

Duh, missed that.

I don't see how them using their answer on brutality is a bad thing for reanimator, as since the discard is a cost the griselbrand gets to the gy anyways and the answer is still out of their hand. Only way that seems mediocre is if the other mode is 'kill target death rite shaman.' That said, I've put it on the stack a few times and been impressed every single one of them, so I'm not going to complain about seeing it. Unrelated note, recently had a few co-workers drag me into a five-player pod and start talking trash, so I re-tuned my pox deck, chqllenged them to 4-v-1, and cleaned house. Made my night and had one of them swearing that they refuse to play against that deck again. Made me smile.

I don't want to derail the thread into Reaninmator, but typical answers against us are Deathrite Shaman, Scavenging Ooze, Knight of the Reliquary fetching Bojuka Bog, Crop Rotation fetching Bojuka Bog, Surgical Extraction, Extirpate & Faerie Macabre. All these will eat your Griselbrand with Collective Brutality on the stack.

The only answers that we actually remove are stuff like Swords to Plowshares and Smallpox. Or a resolved Containment Priest.

Ya, if I'm expecting a gy heavy meta (reanimator, lands, dredge, storm to an extent) I'll usually pack a few extirpates in the main, and still keep my 5-6 board slots. Have made a dredge player Rage scoop when I paused him in his draw step, hit his narcomoebas with the trigger on the stack, then untapped and hit his ichorids. Have also pulled delver players off a color when they didn't do anything productive turn one, and I don't think there is quite a feeling like pulling miracles off of entreats with a miracle trigger on the stack.

What are the best extirpate targets against dredge? I usually take the dredgers but maybe that is not optimal.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Hardcore

What are the best extirpate targets against dredge? I usually take the dredgers but maybe that is not optimal.

---

Narcomoeba and Ichorid are prime targets. They don't get free creatures otherwise.