Hi fellow Pox players!

I’m a long time lurker here, but I’d like today take the opportunity to share my thoughts on my current list and write down a little report following my recent success in a local tournament.

I have been toying with Pox since september 2015 after a break of several years without playing Magic. Since then, Pox has been my pet deck and in spite of being able to build most of the legacy decks, I eventually come back to Pox every few months or so.

Since the ban of top, which caused a huge resurgence of delver.decks of all sorts and of some wacky builds of 4 or 5 colours good stuff decks (4c leo, czech pile, 4c stoneblade and so on), I have the impression that Pox is getting better and better positioned in the current metagame.

Over the last months, I kept putting correct / good records in our weekly tournament with regular 3-1 records (though no perfect 4-0 :( ), as well as some decent results in the side events of the last two GPs I attended.
I chose to play the deck during the French legacy championship at the end of March this year. I went 5-3 during the trial the day before, losing a round to lands following a huge misplay while I was in a winning spot (being too greedy playing a helm a turn too early, without being able to activate it… They were able to destroy it during their next turn - should I have waited for another turn, I would have won that game and the round). The main event did not go very well though, as I faced many combo matchups - I went 3-3-1.

Fast forward to last week end. Some friends where organizing a tournament with good prizes to have a bigger event than our usual 12-18 player weekly event.
With Dominaria being out, I tweaked a bit my sideboard to add Damping sphere. I was not able to find Karns at a decent price, so it is not yet included in my list. Below is what I brought to the tournament:

Maindeck:
12 Swamp
1 Maze of Ith
4 Wasteland
4 Mishra's Factory
3 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Innocent Blood
1 The Abyss
1 Chains of Mephistopheles
1 Nether Void
1 Beseech the Queen
1 Crucible of Worlds
3 Toxic Deluge
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Smallpox
4 Sinkhole
4 Hymn to Tourach
1 Nether Spirit
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
3 Liliana of the Veil
2 Ratchet Bomb
2 Cursed Scroll

Sideboard:
1 Nether Void
1 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Helm of Obedience
3 Leyline of the Void
2 Diabolic Edict
2 Ensnaring Bridge
2 Pithing Needle
2 Damping Sphere

I think this is pretty close to the stock classical lists. Some comments regarding my choices:
- No dark rituals as I believe this card is really overrated in this deck, if not being actually bad. This is a dead draw if that’s not in your opening 7, and even when it is in your starting hand, even if I have to admit doing a turn 1 Lilliana is powerful if it is resolve, being forced or dazed put you so far behind… And a dark ritual into inquisition + tourach is 3 for 3, and that is not what we want to do. I prefer being a little bit slower, but having better draws in the long term. Plus, having your opponent exhausting their resources trying to deal with our early spell is exactly what the deck want to do to allow your mid/late game spells take over the board. That’s not what Dark ritual does.
- No thoughtseize as the 2 pv loss is too dangerous for the deck. I prefer Inquisition, as it will take almost all the cards in the format, and those which are not in its range should anyway never reach the board.
- 4 sinkholes: I really love the land destruction aspect o f the deck, and I believe this is one of its strength in the current metagame. Being able to cut a colour to an opponent playing a greedy manabase or slowing them down enough to land a Nether void that will allow our factories to go uncontested is really sweet and contributes to the strength of the deck.
- 3 toxic deluges maindeck: this is rarely a dead card, and I like being able to sweep a board of young pyro & co or to be able to deal with a TNN although there is also another creature on the eboard.
- The Legends package with The Abyss, Chains and Nether void main deck: they are key cards in the deck’s strategy. In most of the cases, when one of them hits the board, the game is almost over.
Beseech the queen: a good tool in that deck, as it allows you to fetch the best solution to any problem you may face.
- Ratchet bomb: my only maindeck solution for planeswalkers (aside for factories, spirit and scrolls, obviously). It can also deal easily with boards of tokens.
- In the sideboard: bridge + edict are there for decks that aim to stick a giant indestructible 20/20 flying monster or to sneak a 15/15 spaghetti monster on the battlefield. Needle is another tool mainly for planeswalkers (though it can also shut opponent’s fetchlands down). Damping sphere is here for combo (either show&tell.decks or storm variants). The leyline and the cage are here for graveyard decks, and since I play leyline, why not playing helm, heh!


Now the report:
We are 31 players, so there will be 5 rounds + top 8.

Round 1 - 4 colours stoneblade
I have the toss. My opponent starts with a hierarch, then a second one. I wipe them out with a ratchet bomb, while I put it down on lands with sinkholes and wastelands. He struggles a few turn, trying to put some menaces on the board but I manage to deal with them with innocent bloods and toxic deluges quickly. He will never be able to put on the battlefield the equipments he fetched with his stoneforge. I eventually lock him up with a nether void while I have two factories on the battlefield. He scoops.
I side in the two needles for one tourach and one inquisition. The second game is the same, without the land destruction. So he eventually lands a Jace and tries to fateseal me, but my factories are good enough to keep his Jace low. I eventually manage to kill the Jace and keep the board under control long enough to kill him with the same factories.
Record:1-0-0 - 2 victories, 0 defeats

Round 2 - 4 colours Leovold
He has the toss. I do not have detailed notes on that game, but it seems that I only take two damages from a snapcaster swing. I remember casting a chains that got decayed immediately, and pinging him with a cursed scroll while keeping him out of resources with a Liliana of the veil long enough to kill him.
I side in two needles vs 2 Inquisition. I start the game with an inquisition (the third and last one remaining in the deck) removing a sylvan library. I sinkhole him once, then wasteland and smallpox him. I land a Nethervoid, then I struggle on lands while he keeps drawing them. I manage to kill his creatures with innocent’s bloods, but he lands a Jace that fateseal me to death as I fail to draw an out.
I switch the two inquisitions I sided out with two hymns, and I remove an additional hymn for the second nether void. I open again with an Inquisition, taking a ponder. I see double strix, verdant catacombs, badlands and polluted delta. He opens with the delta. Next turn I draw needle, and put it on verdant catacombs. I then go on a mana denial heavy plan, wasting / smallpoxing him several times, even fetching a wasteland with a beseech the queen. I close the game with a nether void with both a factory and a cursed scroll.
Record: 2-0-0 - 4 victories, 1 defeat

Round 3 - Grixis delver
I face the best player in the room for this 3rd round, and I know he is either playing 4colours control or grixis delver.
He wins the toss. He goes with a DRS, then a second one while I try to sinkhole his first land (which get dazed). I crack a toxic deluge to remove his shamanes, and the next turn he lands a young pyromancer. I draw the beseech the queen that would have allowed me to find a second toxic deluge one turn to late. I die swarmed by the elemental tokens.
The second game is quite similar, except that he kills me with his two TNN that he manages to protect by sacking shamans on my innocent’s blood and smallpox.
Record: 2-1-1 - 4 victories, 3 defeats

Round 4 - Mono red stompy
He wins the toss, and start with chrome mox, sol land into chalice @1 while my hand is inquisition and double innocent’s blood… On his second turn, he goes for a magus of the moon, then a rabblemaster the turn after. That’s too much to handle for me, I die quickly under the assault of the goblins.
I side out my sinkholes, the chains, and some discard. I bring in the leyline/helm package, the two bridges, the needles and the second nether void. He goes turn one with a sorcerous spyglass, naming liliana the last hope and does nothing really impacting for a turn or two. I land an early nether void with two factories and a maze. I manage to get him stuck on five lands, so he cannot do anything relevant. I land a Liliana of the veil that will strip his hand, and I take him down to 4 before he lands an ensnaring bridge, preventing me to attack. The game stalls a bit until I draw a leyline then a helm. I drop the leyline, but wait to draw an additional land before playing the helm, to be able to activate it. I can do this just in time as my opponent eventually played an hazoret…
The third game is pretty similar to the second one.I put him low in mana cracking a bomb to remove a mox and I stick a nether void. He will manage to get a rabblemaster, but I can block the tokens with two factories. I cannot attack due to an ensnaring bridge. He lands a chandra, the next turn i draw needle and shut it down. I eventually whipe his board with a toxic deluge. The game stalls a bit until he lands a Hazoret, which get sacrificed to innocent’s blood immediately. I eventually find a liliana of the veil and a cursed scroll which close the game quickly.
Record: 3-1-0 - 6 victories, 4 defeats

Round 5 - Omnishow
The 4 players who were at 3-0 after round three agreed to ID round 4 and 5, securing their spot in the top 8. After round 4, we were 6 at 3-1. The players ranked 5 and 6 had very good tie-breakers and IDed as they were paired to play together. Meaning I had to play that game if I wanted to top8. I got paired against the person I did not wanted to play against, since show and tell decks are not a very good match up…
I had to cross my fingers and pray for my luck. I won the toss, which is a good start. I inquisition him on turn 1 and remove a show and tell. I then cast another spell, which gets forced, pitching a cunning wish. This will slow him down long enough for me to resolve a the abyss. With this on the table, his only out is a kill with enter the infinite and release the ants. He eventually resolves a first show and tell, dropping an emrakul. I pass the turn and it gets destroyed by the Abyss. He resolves another show and tell later, puting an omniscience into play. He plays a first emrakul, that gets destroyed at its upkeep during his extra turn. He plays another emrakul, a cantrip, then intuition fetching two enter the infinite and a cunning wish. I give him the cunning wish. At this point, I think I have lost the game, but I do not scoop since I want to see the actual release the ants kill. He gets a firemind’s foresight with the wish, and fetches another wish, an impulse and a brainstorm. He impulse, brainstorms, the wishes to get a noxious revival that gets back one of the enter the infinite from his graveyard. At that point, he starts thinking for a few moments, then scoops. Lucky for me, release the ants happens to be in his sideboard only, and he also happen to only play 3 wishes: two have already been casted, and the third one was exiled thanks to him pitching it to force of will… He had no way to get its release the ants, and the Abyss prevented him to kill me with Emrakul. He scooped!
For the second game of the round, I sided out the deluges and innocent’s bloods and some land destruction for the damping spheres, the leyline/helm package and the bridges. He mulls to five, while I keep a seven with two hymns and a damping sphere, as well as a smallpox and three black mana sources. He starts and passes immediately: no land drop! I play swamp and passes, he draws andnpasses again! On my turn I tourach him, and gets a wish and a sol land he did not play to protect it from wasteland. I play a sphere on my next turn, then chains hymn and smallpox to destroy the land he just played. On the next three turns, I see my two others hymns - perfect to put him way behind while I set up a leyline/helm kill. The sphere prevent him to combo out just the turn before I activate the helm for the win.
Record: 4-1-0, 8 victories, 4 defeats.

With this record, I am 1st of the standings, which gets me the toss for the top 8!

Quarterfinals:
Unfortunately, the player ranked 8th is playing dredge, which is basically immune to two of our game plans (discard and mana denial). It is tough to win when half of your deck is not more efficient than empty sleeves… As expected, I quickly lose the first game, swarmed by zombie tokens and ichorids. I side out my discard spells and add all my graveyard hate. I open a 7 with leyline, but he topdecks the serenity he needed on turn to to destroy the leyline. He dredges half of his deck in the next two turns and I cannot find the toxic deluge that would have bought me enough time to stabilize the game. I quickly lose the game.
Record: 4-2-0, 8 victories, 6 defeats.

I end up at the 5th place, and go back home with a nice force of will.

The deck felt good, with the abyss and nether void being the mvp of the deck, sealing away my opponents’ fate after having pressured their ressources down enough to prevent any comeback. Damping sphere is also nuts versus combo. I think it will stick in my sideboard for a long time…
However, it has some very tough choices (when perefering playing hymn over sinkhole, or vice versa? Waiting one more turn to cast a toxic deluge in order to catch another creature? Playing smallpox in a timely manner so it does not mana-screw you… etc) and mistakes are not forgiving.

I really like my list as it is right now, and I really have trouble to figure out what I can remove to make room for two Karn, scion of Urza… Any suggestion is welcome :)

Thanks for reading if you went through all this wall of text!