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Thread: Pox: Mono-Black, Budget

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    Pox: Mono-Black, Budget

    Long story made short, I have decided to work on a Pox deck. I feel like it is a style that would be condusive to me, and funny in our play group (a lot of long-game heavy control and some aggro including Elves, Shadowclysm, and Soldiers).

    I'm trying to come up with a list which is both budget and decent in the playgroup. I'd prefer to keep the price per card under $4 where I can. This is one of the main reasons I'm going mono-black, as well.

    Onto cards I'm considering.

    Lands

    Swamp - Obviously. The question is how many, I feel like 20 wasn't quite enough.

    Wasteland - Besides being expensive, our playgroup has a rather low non-basic count. I think that 80% of the decks in our circle play less than four non-basics. As a result, I doubt the wisdom of the choice in a deck where the bulk of the spells cost multiple black mana.

    Threats

    Nether Spirit - Seems like a good choice, and a long-used standby. Suffers from being small, but stands head and shoulders above because he's frequently lowering card disadvantage from Pox and Smallpox. I might want to run four due to the amount of Swords to Plowshares and Condemns at our table.

    Chimeric Idol - Seems like another solid choice. Not much to say here.

    Phyrexian Totem - While on paper these were cool, some playtesting made them feel a bit slow. Activating them rarely came up, reducing them to low efficiency mana artifacts.

    Epochrasite - Powerful, and I play four copies in MWC. That said, he feels totally at odds with Nether Spirit. He's also slower to get running, more heavily affected by your symmetrical removal. I feel like the choice between him and Nether Spirit is a matter of power versus card advantage.

    Tombstalker - I read some threads which use this guy and Epochrasite, however I don't think he's particularly dis-synergistic with Nether Spirit either, due to Delve removing excess copies. I keep thinking I wanna play three or even four.

    On total threat density, I feel running less than ten might be a mistake. Any deck with white (and there's a lot of them) in our group has a minimum of four StP and three Disenchants.

    Disruption

    Duress - Yes.

    Hymn to Tourach - Yes.

    Rancid Earth and/or Rain of Tears - Budget means no Sinkholes. However, quick math says that assuming Pox and Smallpox each kill one land, a minimum of eight more spells is probably required, assuming no effective Wastelands, in order to pin the other guy to the ropes. I don't know if the deck has slots to spare, or if these are quick enough to really tax the other guy, so some insight would be good.

    Innocent Blood - Seems less necessary with a bigger threat package (which doubles as defense), these are still awesome, but seem like they might be what moves aside for a second set of land destruction. However they're very strong in our group, especially with Cataclysm decks around. That match might be easy anyway though.

    Cabal Therapy - Borderline budget, and really synergies well with Nether Spirit, but this may be overkill on hand disruption.

    Others

    Urza's Bauble & Mishra's Bauble - Been bouncing back and forth on these. The point is these allow a smaller deck, allowing a better chance of finding Pox, as well as allowing the deck to "hide" cards from Pox math that it can draw after the spell is cast. The trade is of course not seeing the card quite as quickly. Not sure how much it's worth.

    Dark Ritual - The deck feels more control than aggro, so I'm not sure how well card disadvantage for mana fits.

    One possible build I'm toying with:

    23 Swamp
    1 Wasteland

    4 Nether Spirit
    4 Tombstalker
    4 Chimeric Idol

    4 Duress
    4 Hymn to Touracy
    4 Smallpox
    4 Rain of Tears
    4 Rancid Earth
    4 Pox

    Overall mana costs seem a bit high. This is partially the result of lacking Sinkholes, but I really wish something could be done to cut it down a bit in other ways.
    Last edited by Lord Darkview; 02-25-2009 at 04:12 PM.

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