[Primer/Deck] Pox

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Originally Posted by OmniStrata

https://www.mtgpics.com/pics/big/m21/108.jpg

HHNNGGHH... I could see replacing one Liliana of the Veil with her... I love how this one can kill you behind an Ensnaring Bridge.:cool::cool:

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I think Ensnaring Bridge is criminally underplayed right now. In my Lantern doodlings I have found it wins games singlehandedly. It's good early and late, and it shuts off the avenues of most decks to win. Storm and Burn are the only real enemies of a Bridge-based control deck. It lets me play my Bitterblossoms and Cursed Scrolls.

New Liliana seems pretty good, but if someone is locked under Bridge they will actually end up with a fairly large hand size. Liliana helps with that, but I don't think I would be getting that drain 3 as often as I would like. Bridge undermines the ultimate as well.

Between the depth of knowledge shown here and Mr. Safty's avatar (love Moxie almost as much as I love Pox).
My 60 hasn't been updated for like... 8 years or so? Need to get back on the saddle because seeing that new Lilly put a flame under my ass.

About half a year ago I entered a legacy tourney. I played Death and Taxes, Storm, Eldrazi Control, and Sneak and Show. While I didn't 2-0 all the matches, I did win them all and it was another 1st place for Pox (REPRESENT!)

So here is a link to my 60 because Idk how to make those fancy table things I saw everywhere. Is there anything that is obviously missing with the new world of MtG?
https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/merdocs-pox-deck/

I really like the Necropolis fiend, does this stack need any tweeks to potentially replace Nether Spirit with? Are they even recommended as a sub for Spirits?

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Originally Posted by Mr. Safety

I think Ensnaring Bridge is criminally underplayed right now. In my Lantern doodlings I have found it wins games singlehandedly. It's good early and late, and it shuts off the avenues of most decks to win. Storm and Burn are the only real enemies of a Bridge-based control deck. It lets me play my Bitterblossoms and Cursed Scrolls.

New Liliana seems pretty good, but if someone is locked under Bridge they will actually end up with a fairly large hand size. Liliana helps with that, but I don't think I would be getting that drain 3 as often as I would like. Bridge undermines the ultimate as well.

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We could run both Liliana of the Veil & Waker of the dead simultaneously right? The defender's hand should become empty quite often if the defender is using their own bridge. I crashed MTGO because my Last Hope Emblem generated over 70 zombies but I couldn't force my opponent's hand to fill up cause he had the mana to cast his top decks. Nether Void not coming up did hurt me as well.

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Originally Posted by OmniStrata

We could run both Liliana of the Veil & Waker of the dead simultaneously right? The defender's hand should become empty quite often if the defender is using their own bridge. I crashed MTGO because my Last Hope Emblem generated over 70 zombies but I couldn't force my opponent's hand to fill up cause he had the mana to cast his top decks. Nether Void not coming up did hurt me as well.

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It's easier to just play your own Bridge and Scroll/Bitterblossom them out, no Nether Void required.

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Originally Posted by ahg113

If we want to get super cute, it also pumps up Mutavaults. VALUE TOWN!

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more niche but still cute: Hissing Quagmire (elemental) is also pumped and vigilant by Kaheera

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Originally Posted by Mr. Safety

It's easier to just play your own Bridge and Scroll/Bitterblossom them out, no Nether Void required.

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Technically that is correct. But it was a game 3. I run Last Hope Main Deck. He probably boarded in his own bridge after getting steam rolled by her game 2. I couldn't Inquisition his bridge at the time and I don't run answers to an opponent's bridge as I was hoping to just LD. But sometimes RNG likes you, sometimes not. I suppose Gate to Phyrexia is an option with a horde.

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Originally Posted by Merdoc

Between the depth of knowledge shown here and Mr. Safty's avatar (love Moxie almost as much as I love Pox).
My 60 hasn't been updated for like... 8 years or so? Need to get back on the saddle because seeing that new Lilly put a flame under my ass.

About half a year ago I entered a legacy tourney. I played Death and Taxes, Storm, Eldrazi Control, and Sneak and Show. While I didn't 2-0 all the matches, I did win them all and it was another 1st place for Pox (REPRESENT!)

So here is a link to my 60 because Idk how to make those fancy table things I saw everywhere. Is there anything that is obviously missing with the new world of MtG?
https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/merdocs-pox-deck/

I really like the Necropolis fiend, does this stack need any tweeks to potentially replace Nether Spirit with? Are they even recommended as a sub for Spirits?

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Your deck's curve is low enough to do without the diamonds. The Dark Rituals are enough. Diamonds I think do better with 25 land bases. Nether Spirit is fine as is since you have the Leyline Obedience transformational "oops I win" sideboard.

https://www.mtgpics.com/pics/big/m21/125.jpg

For low mana curve LD approach that synergizes with Lantern and herself. Definitely considering as a cheap threat option with Last Hope Liliana as a way to keep her out of Nether Spirit's way.

It's cute, but altogether not good enough. The lantern/bridge plan is already good at creating card advantage by making creature removal useless and Ashiok, Dream Render offers so much more as a mill effect and lock piece. Ironically, I have been thinking about running a singleton Nether Spirit just to have an additional utility blocker/attacker in the Lantern strategy.

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Originally Posted by OmniStrata

Your deck's curve is low enough to do without the diamonds. The Dark Rituals are enough. Diamonds I think do better with 25 land bases. Nether Spirit is fine as is since you have the Leyline Obedience transformational "oops I win" sideboard.

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There are so many games that the transformational instant win combo in the side has stolen so many bad matchups for my main board. I'll defiantly look into seeing what happens without the diamonds. Though it will be a hard sell to pull the Daddy Pox. haha
What if I just pulled the Rits and did bump it to 25 lands and a putting in a Dark Realms or Last Hope?

I was excited by the new Waker of the Dead, however it seems almost just like Lilly of the Veil, but a little worse. + is discard, - kills a creature, and Veil's ult feels more useful unless you change the deck to fit Waker. However, then, is it really still a Pox deck? I've always felt what made a Pox deck was high resource control and low to no creatures.

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Originally Posted by Merdoc

There are so many games that the transformational instant win combo in the side has stolen so many bad matchups for my main board. I'll defiantly look into seeing what happens without the diamonds. Though it will be a hard sell to pull the Daddy Pox. haha
What if I just pulled the Rits and did bump it to 25 lands and a putting in a Dark Realms or Last Hope?

I was excited by the new Waker of the Dead, however it seems almost just like Lilly of the Veil, but a little worse. + is discard, - kills a creature, and Veil's ult feels more useful unless you change the deck to fit Waker. However, then, is it really still a Pox deck? I've always felt what made a Pox deck was high resource control and low to no creatures.

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Pox-Reanimator Hybrid? The emblem allows for pretty insane plays. But yes, having a gigantic win-con like a traditional control deck would be odd. But, it does increase the utility and safety of a Nether Spirit user. Plague Engineer goes up in strength as does Kaervek the Spiteful. So much for Night of Souls' Betrayal... :cool::cool:

I had a friend that played Smallpox in mono-black Reanimator and it was a really cool deck. It basically took these pox cards in playsets:

Thoughtseize
Hymn to Tourach
Smallpox
Liliana of the Veil
Dark Ritual

Added playsets of these:

4x Entomb
4x Reanimate
4x Griselbrand

And then rounded it out with some singleton threats like Iona, Shield of Emeria, Animate Dead, and additional discard (I think Inquisition of Kozilek) with somewhere around 20 lands, all Swamps. I think Collective Brutality would be very good in that kind of setup as a self-discard outlet/control piece.

To go the other way and take Pox and add in a small reanimator package seems really difficult. You would need at a minimum 4x Entomb, 1x Griselbrand, 1x Iona (for the free wins.) It's compact but without redundancy, or some way to draw into it like Faithless Looting, it will likely be unreliable.

Sadly I think that's correct. But, we now have 2 walkers that deal damage with new lily and Dave. Ash can punish fetches/gy synergy, lili LH can stop weenies and get an ultimate win con, karn stops artifacts, and we all know lili otv.

I dont know, is there enough density for a loaded PW pox now? I'm guessing not but it would be cool.

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Originally Posted by ronco

Sadly I think that's correct. But, we now have 2 walkers that deal damage with new lily and Dave. Ash can punish fetches/gy synergy, lili LH can stop weenies and get an ultimate win con, karn stops artifacts, and we all know lili otv.

I dont know, is there enough density for a loaded PW pox now? I'm guessing not but it would be cool.

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I do think there are enough powerful planeswalkers to make a powerful deck, especially if you're inclined to play Ensnaring Bridge. Factories get a little less useful as attackers, so you could probably stabilize your mana by cutting 1-2 of them in favor of Swamps. You'll still want them as blockers in case you don't draw Bridge/removal.

If I hadn't mentioned it 100 times already, I really like Ashiok/Bridge/Scroll/Bitterblossom. Bridge is so good at stabilizing your life total against most decks that it buys you multiple turns to dial up the pressure with PW's/disruption. Once the combat step is removed from the entire gameplay equation you can focus on dealing with the other aspects of the game, aspects that other decks rely on to win. Leaning into Bridge with an already creature-lite deck (like Merdoc mentioned) makes a lot of sense. Ashiok deals with the other primary axis' of Legacy: fetches, tutors, and the graveyard. You're left with one resource to actually deal with actively: cards in hand. If Pox is exceptionally good at one thing, it's discard. Scroll lets you pressure opponents under bridge.

I think about the majority of combo decks that would normally be problematic and Ashiok/Bridge solve a big part of them. Ashiok will deal with any slow graveyard combos (Dredge, Loam) while Bridge shuts off creature-cheat combos (Sneak/Show, Reanimator, Depths.) The only combo decks that are now a problem are Storm and Burn, anything that avoids combat. Now you can dedicate more resources in your sideboard to those particular matchups because Bridge does so much work maindeck. Witchbane Orb seems good for that. For PW-heavy decks like SnOko/Miracles you can likely afford 3-4 slots in your sideboard to PW hate like Pithing Needle, Murderous Rider, The Elderspell, Hero's Downfall, Noxious Grasp (Oko and Teferi are relevant), and the new cards Eliminate and Hooded Blightfang.

Ooh. Superfriends Pox.

4 Liliana of the Veil
4 Ashiok, Dream Render
2 Liliana the Last Hope
2 Liliana, Waker of the Dead
2 Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage

14 Planeswalker Base?

Removing the combat step from games via bridge. 4 Ensnaring Bridge seems too much as it's not very good turn 1 off a Dark Ritual unless a Marit Lage is threatening you. I'd probably have 2 in the MD and 2 SB for those degenerate creature matchups. Last Hope's Ultimate only needs a 2nd card in hand to lethal your opponent thank goodness.

It's damn good 2 Lilianas now exist that can out right win the game alone. Having all 5 planeswalkers on your side hiding behind a bridge is cruel and unusual punishment. Hooded Blightfang is amazing. That and the new Kaervek replacing Night of Souls' Betrayal.

if you are putting ensnaring bridge in your sideboard, I would run some number of Karn, the great creator
the ability to play Karn and put bridge in hand is huge or even get a pithing needle or other silver bullet.

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Originally Posted by non-inflammable

if you are putting ensnaring bridge in your sideboard, I would run some number of Karn, the great creator
the ability to play Karn and put bridge in hand is huge or even get a pithing needle or other silver bullet.

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I second this, Karn seems perfect for PW-Pox.

New jumpstart card. Tiny body, possibly unrealistically costed ability, but cool triggered ability. Is it better than Bob?https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...1090845200.jpg

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I don't think this cuts it. The card draw is conditional and the activated ability is too expensive. For six mana you get Sorin Markov.

For Bob fx, I've found Asylum Visitor to be perfect in Pox as a sideboard option for your grindy matchups. She dances around Discard effects and hits really hard all things considered.