I have been trying to create a pox deck that threatens all types of extended decks from reanimator all the way to Illusions-donate.
POX
2x Nether Spirit
4x Chimeric Idol
4x Duress
4x Funeral Charm
4x Gerrard's Verdict
4x Pox
4x Vindicate
4x Swords to Plowshares
4x Cursed Scroll
4 Scrubland
4 Caves of Koilos
3x Wasteland
5x Plains
10x Swamp
Currently I need alot of help with a sideboard. Right now I am worried about creature removal and artifact and enchantment removal but any constructive criticism would help.
Thanks in Advance
Your best bet for artifact/enchantment removal is Seal of Cleansing, I run 2 maindeck and 1 in side but I may move to 2 in side. Planar Void wreaks havok on Reanimator, I run 3 in side. Sanctimony makes for good times vs. any red deck but especially against Sligh type decks. Diabolic Edict and Perish in side are good. I don't run Funeral Charm and I only run 24 land. I use Vamp Tutor and Powder Keg in the Funeral Charm slots. I'm still debating Ebony Charm for the Reanimator match for any creatures that make it into the grave before a PV hits. Email me with any other questions maybe I can help.
Here's my pox, it's quite similar to yours but I decided to post it anyway:
-main-
2 Nether Spirit
4 Chimeric Idol
4 Duress
4 Funeral Charm
4 Gerrard's Verdict
4 Pox
4 StoP
3 Cursed Scroll
1 Vampiric Tutor
2 Seal of Cleansing
4 Vindicate
2 Smokestack
4 Wasteland
4 Scrubland
4 Caves of Koilos
7 Swamp
3 Plains
-sideboard-
2 Perish
3 Phyrexian Negator
4 Contamination
1 Nether Spirit
3 Vampiric Tutor
2 Planar Void
As you can see, I run the Contamination lock in my sideboard - It has actually worked many times, winning me matches against Secret Force and such critter decks. The sb Planar Voids are fun against Donate and Reanimator. I'm not quite sure about Smokestack and having only two Seals available, I might make some space in the sb for more Seals. A friend of mine suggested running Mox Diamonds in the main, what do you guys think about it?
TheAvatar:
I think I would not run Cursed Scroll. It doesn't kill elephants. I would run Scalding tongs in place of it. You've got Vindicate to take out targetable things anyhow. I would use Seal of Cleansing for enchantment control. I also like Urza's Bauble in Pox decks, but that may be a bit of old thinking. If you're really worried about critters, run Wrath of God in the side. You will also need some Phyrexian Furnaces to deal with Reanimator or Oath. You might try Planar Void, but it will mess up your spirits. Forsaken Wastes is a fun stunt against Trick.
I see what you are saying David, but, wouldnt it be better to have all seals sideboarded? I mean, it seems like mostly a sideboard card. I may be wrong though.
But from what I here from the sideboard, I like it, sanctimony would be a really nice touch against red considering its probably sligh.
Planar void would also be a very nice side board, completely getting rid of any oath or reanimator.
Phyrexian Negator would also be a nice card to run against donate considering they dont have anything that hurts the negator.
Perish would add a nice touch also, destroying those pesky squirrel tokens as well as a good verdant force killer so I dont have to feed my opponent 7 life with StoP.
Diabolic Edict would be great also, considering pox doesnt have much creature destruction.
Funeral charm is a very nice touch in my opinion though, because sligh, as well as secret force have many 1/1 creatures.
Cursed Scroll would be more for dealing damage to them then killing creatures. If i had a scalding tongs out, and a cursed scroll, that is a potential 4 damage a turn from those two artifacts alone.
So far im thinking this as my sideboard:
3x Seal of Cleansing
3x Planar Void
2x Sanctimony
2x Diabolic edict
2x Perish (Not much against SF in my SB)
1x Wrath of God
2x Phyrexian furnace
Also thinking moving lands to:
4x Scrubland
4x Caves of Koilos
3x Wasteland
4x Plains
9x Swamp
Love the ideas so far. Please keep em rolling in.
More advice on the sideboard would be great.
More advice on the main deck would be awsome also.
Thank you again.
Seals are a must for maindeck now. You run seal maindeck and you have a much better chance at winning first game against Trix or any other combo deck. Planar Void is crap if your using Nether Spirit. One card that you maybe should run main is Spinning Darkness
Spinning Darkness
4BB, Instant, Weatherlight Common
You may remove the top three black cards in your graveyard from the game instead of paying Spinning Darkness’s casting cost. Spinning Darkness deals 3 damage to target nonblack creature. Gain 3 life.
Illus. John Coulthart
Free removal = good stuff
Only problem is that it also doesnt work with Planar Void at all. Even though Funeral Charm may be good at killing weenies and making them discard the card they drew, I would take some out because they frankly dont do a whole lot. They are really good against PT Junk, Sligh, and 3 Deuce though. Really depends on your metagame.
I have played a ton of pox over the past few months and here are a few comments.
1 - remove the wastelands, they are really not needed and will tend to color hose you more than them. the deck is looking to have access to sold white and black mana in the first few turns. you want the ability to do things like, duress, then verdict then pox etc.
2 - planar voids in the board are actually a great idea, sure they dont work with nether spirit thats why you board them out.
3 - sanctimony is amazing. the joke around here is that the deck becomes sanctimony.dec in second game vs sligh because basically the only changes you make are pulling the 4 poxes for 4 sanctimonies.
4 - wraths are very strong in the board and are quite strong against a lot of the decks tougher matchups.
5 - definately keep 4 funeral charms main. they are amazing vs sligh, and against boas/lynxes/elves/birds etc.
6 - vampiric tutor is definately an option for the maindeck. if you are running it you might also want to consider running one cursed totem main, it is a beating against most every deck out there right now.
7 - i dont really think the seals maindeck are worth it, i would run 1-2 if i had vampiric tutors in the deck but otherwise they become dead weight too often. seals are really only strong against trix if you can get multiples of them into play. otherwise they will simply bounce it and combo you. the trix matchup is quite tough basically you need heavy discard backed up by multiple idols to win. otherwise they will topdeck an intuition or something, draw a ton of cards and combo you out.
vindicate just doesnt cut it in extended since what ur removing with it is nomally cheaper (mana wise) than the vindicate itself...
A little question: Is Pox better against creature-heavy decks or creature-light decks?
Just in case anyone cares this is my version, it has issues with sligh before sideboard and even after Sanctimonies come in that's one of my hardest matchupts.
4 Scrubland
4 Caves of Koilos
2 Wasteland
9 Swamp
4 Plains
3 Mox Diamonds
2 Phyrexian Furnace
3 Cursed Scroll
2 Scalding Tongs
4 Diabolic Edict
4 Duress
4 Pox
4 Gerrard's Verdict
4 Chimeric Idol
3 Nether Spirit
4 Vindicate
sb
2 Perish
3 Wrath of God
4 Sanctimony
4 Seal of Cleansing
2 Swords to Plowshares or Scalding Tongs
Obviously it needs some fine tuning but I've come to love the Diabolic Edicts over the Swords, especially vs reanimator and Trix's transformational sideboard. The sideboard could probably go with one less Wrath and one more Disenchant type card but we'll see what the metagame is in 2 weeks when the ptq rolls around.
Tim
Thank you all for the information so far. Please keep it comming.
This is what i have so far:
2x Nether Spirit
4x Chimeric Idol
4x Duress
4x Funeral Charm
4x Gerrard's Verdict
4x Pox
4x Vindicate
4x Swords to Plowshares
2x Vampiric Tutor
4x Cursed Scroll
2x Scalding Tongs
4x Scrubland
4x Caves of Koilos
4x Plains
10x Swamp
Sideboard:
4x Seal of Cleansing
2x Planar Void
4x Sanctimony
2x Diabolic edict
2x Perish
1x Wrath of God
The main deck is looking really strong. I love the card search and the scalding tongs for a little extra damage. The sideboard is getting better but im still not too sure if i have the right number of the cards in there. Should I add more Wraths and take out something?
Help please!
Tim's idea is looking very appealing also. I'm also thinking of maybe putting in two edicts and taking out 2 StoP. Someone please comment on this, its kind of a big one.
Thank you again!
Any more criticism would be greatly appreciated by me and other pox fans out there.
Long live Pox.
Avatar, I'd very much suggest dropping the 2 Perish from the side for two more Wrath, reason being Wrath is universally useful. Also drop the Edicts (Enough non-targeted removal already) for the last two Planar Voids, as Turn 1 Void against Reanimator and Trick is usually game. They decrease in value the longer the game goes. I'd probably drop a Vamp for another Tongs, just too good when you've already unloaded on the opponant. Otherwise, I really like the deck.
As far as I'm concerned Edicts are great for this deck. You'll never get mana hosed out of black and it takes care of stuff like second turn Multani or something outragous like that. Also with a Pox deck it's a pretty rare occurance that they have enough creatures out to make the Edict significantly worse at removing a creature than Swords. Also why not run Mox Diamonds? They accelerate and the card disadvantage is made up for when you cast pox and sacrifice less lands. Anyway, it's a fun deck regardless of how it's played and that's the important thing.
Tim
Here is the deck I run:
4x Duress
4x Gerrard's Verdict
4x Pox
4x STP
4x Cursed Scroll
4x Vindicate
4x Chimeric Idol
2x Vampiric Tutor
2x Seal of Cleansing
2x Powder Keg
1x Mangara's Blessing
1x Nether Spirit
4x Scrubland
4x Caves of Koilos
4x Wasteland
2x Gemstone Mine
1x Thawing Glaciers
9x Swamp
SB
2x Diabolic Edict
2x Perish
3x Planar Void
1x Sacred Ground
4x Sanctimony
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Seal of Cleansing
1x Powder Keg
This deck is made with my local metagame in mind. Some changes would occur if I took this to a PTQ, etc.
I am contemplating several changes:
-1 to 4 Wastlands, I have been having some difficulty with color problems. I will most likly drop 1 for a Plains, at a minimum.
-1 Seal maindeck for another Powder Keg, these are too good vs Stompy, Sligh, and Manlands.
-1 Thawing Glaciers, this is a new addition and has proven usefull but not necessary. This may become a Plains.
I run 1 Nether Spirit because too many times I have one in play and one in hand and waffle on whether or not to Pox.
The Mangara's Blessing has won more games then I can recall against Beatdown and Burn, it is incredible.
Hope this helps. I was wondering when a Pox thread would pop-up again.
The information is really good, keep it comming.
Tracer made some great points. I agree that I should cut it down to one tutor and add another tongs. I still think I should have a few perish though. Not only is it one mana cheaper then wrath of god, it also uses black mana, which I should have alot of. (need more comments about this also)
The edicts are still kind of in my head. One question will make my decision change. If a player has a morphling out, or another cannot be targeted by spells or abilities creature, and that is the only creature out on the opponents side, can edict target it? because if edict can get rid of creatures that cannot be targeted, I think at least two should go in.
This is my deck so far:
2x Nether Spirit
4x Chimeric Idol
4x Duress
4x Funeral Charm
4x Gerrard's Verdict
4x Pox
4x Vindicate
4x Swords to Plowshares
1x Vampiric Tutor
4x Cursed Scroll
3x Scalding Tongs
4x Scrubland
4x Caves of Koilos
4x Plains
10x Swamp
Sideboard:
4x Seal of Cleansing
2x Planar Void
4x Sanctimony
2x Diabolic Edict
1 - 3x Wrath of God
2x Perish (If only 1 Wrath)
The sideboard still needs a little help. Im think alot about trix and donate. Sligh and Secret Force are covered pretty well. Trix only has the seals, same with donate. The SB is set for Reanimator.
Thank you again everyone.
Please keep the posts comming.
To address Dave about only running 1 Nether spirit out of fear of the whole graveyard lock thing.. Run 1 or 2 Phyrexian Furnaces maindeck. They are good against a vast majority of the decks that you'll face in todays extended environment, and worse case scenario they cycle. And to answer The Avatar's question, Yes edict can kill a morphling that's the main reason I run them.
Also if you want to run wrath of Gods in the Sideboard you should either have a couple mox diamonds or more plains maindeck. Having 12 sources of white mana 8 of which can be wastelanded away probably means you'll be stuck with a Wrath in hand a couple times during the course of a tournament but other than that it's a great card.
Also if you're looking for card space I think you could drop 1 Cursed Scroll. You almost never have enough mana to activate 2 of them so you almost never want to see two of them. At least that's my reasoning.
And 1 question on Funeral Charm, why is it run? Is there something I'm missing, or is it just like a mini terror vs Lynx's and Boa's? In which case it does it's job very well. Thanks,
Tim
Absolutely agree that you should drop one (or more) scrolls. More than one on the table is too much. I'd run 2 scrolls, 1 vamp. tutor and 4 x Scalding Tongs. Tongs is never a dead card, IMHO.
Edict is great against decks with one kill critter.
Funeral Charm is good in Pox because of the utility. It can kill small things, and force another discard too.
Phyrexian furnaces maindeck is probably a great idea. Have to test with that.
Has anyone run the old Blue Pox (still thinking of a name... "Babe, the Blue Pox")? Does it hold up today? Seems like I heard something about it about 11 months or so ago. Sounded interesting.
--T. Ray
From the following two posts from Tim and Tim Ray(Tim). I have come to this so far.
2x Nether Spirit
4x Chimeric Idol
4x Duress
4x Funeral Charm
4x Gerrard's Verdict
4x Pox
4x Vindicate
2x Swords to Plowshares
2x Diaolic Edict (should I run them main deck?)
1x Vampiric Tutor
2x Cursed Scroll
4x Scalding Tongs
1x Phyrexian Furnace
4x Scrubland
4x Caves of Koilos
4x Plains
10x Swamp
Sideboard:
4x Seal of Cleansing
2x Planar Void
4x Sanctimony
2x Diabolic Edict
1x Wrath of God
2x Perish
If anyone has any more ideas, please post them. I'm sure alot of people out there are also making a pox deck.
I also would like to know if I should run 2 of the 4 edicts main board or just have 2 sideboarded?
Thanks in Advance.
Pox in this form just wont work in the current environment. Counterless control does not work in any environment where combo is a possiblity little lone a tier 1 deck. If you want to play pox you need to go aggressive. Drop the spirits. They are great in a control deck but you just dont have the time for them. Add planar void. This card hurts every tier 1 deck in the environment. Add more creatures. Yes I know pox kills them but you just have to learn to live with that. A good pox deck for the current extended needs to be a 4-5 turn killer unless you intend to go UU/BBB counter/pox???
Eric R. Reitz, as a well-versed 1.x Pox player, I officially declare you the weiner of this thread.
/me piledrives you through a flaming pile of nether spirits.
Know your role and please go back to playing stompy.
The Avatar:
I would run 2 Edicts main and two in the board, just as you have it. Not sure about the single Wrath though. It's hard to make WW. Also, if you run Void, I'd plan to run more than 2 SB. I would replace the Wrath with another Void in the SB. I would also test the viability of Perish. Again, with just two, it might not be enough to get it when you need it. Good luck, and happy holidays.
--T. Ray
Well Benson I am glad you are well-versed in a deck that has been proven not to work. Have you noticed that there was a deck very similar to this played at the Pro Tour? Did you notice that it lost to trix? Have you noticed that it has not started to pop up everywhere? The reason is simple. It is not a viable deck type in the current environment. You simply can not play any form of control withouth counter backup in the current environment. If you disagree by all means play the deck, but Its not going to get you anywhere. If you wish to give some concrete arguments as to why you feel it can work by all means do. But if you are simply going to flame me please save us all the bandwidth.
The problem I have with Pox right now (and the reason I don't run it currently) is that it dies horribly to decks with Pernicious Deed. Junk is just a horrible matchup for Pox right now (4 Seals/Pernicious Deeds maindeck with more artifact/enchantment removal sideboarded). Really, to stand a chance you need to have Seals maindeck. I know that the Vindicates can act as Seals, but I find they are just too slow. So looking at Avatars deck I would make the following changes:
-2 Edict (sideboard material)
-1 Vampiric Tutor (to me this is a 2+ or none card)
-1 Furnace (great idea but the deck has other needs)
-1 Tongs
-1 Vindicate
+3 Seals of Cleansing (Pernicious Deed, Zombie Infestation, Illusions, etc. The list of stuff to blow up is long...)
+1 Scroll (this is damage control)
+2 StP (Edict is really only better against Morphs)
This version gives you a little more enchantment removal to deal with the Pernicious Deeds that are a massive threat.
Quote
"You simply can not play any form of control withouth counter backup in the current environment"
Seriously, did you think before you typed that? Counterless control is extremely viable. I mean yeah, The Rock is just a terrible deck because it doesn't run counterspells and can only blow up the board 4 times right? Yeah, keep typing, eventually you'll hit a combination of keys that make you look a little more intelligent.
But anyway, back to the original intent of the thread. If you want to run wrath/perish in the side I'd run one or the other as running Wrath definately requires a bit of a tweak to the mana base. At least 1 or 2 plains need to be added or some combination of plains and mox diamonds.
Regardless of whether it's sideboard or maindeck I think that having access to 4 edicts is a must. There's nothing more sickening than to be in complete control of the game when your opponent topdecks a morphling and rides it all the way.
Tim
Tim I did think before I typed that. You can not say with a straight face that Malka is a control deck. Yes it has some control elements, but it has just as many aggressive elements in it. If it needs to it can hit you in the face. And do not forget that Malka just happens to have alot of cards that attack the most popular combo deck. Malka is a Aggro/control deck. That is a much different animal then the deck being discused here.
This is what I have so far.
2x Nether Spirit
4x Chimeric Idol
4x Duress
4x Funeral Charm
4x Gerrard's Verdict
4x Pox
4x Vindicate
4x Swords to Plowshares
3x Cursed Scroll
2x Scalding Tongs
3x Seal of Cleansing
4x Scrubland
4x Caves of Koilos
4x Plains
10x Swamp
Sideboard:
3x Planar Void
4x Sanctimony
4x Diabolic Edict
4x Perish
Well, this deck is looking better by the day. Not only is there plenty of enchantment removal, which in my opinion from what I have read is a must for almost every deck in extended at this time, but the sideboard can handle alot of creatures, and of course, reanimator and the dreaded morphling.
Keep these excellent ideas comming.
Merry Christmas to everyone, and I hope everyone has a happy New Year.
Thanks in advance.
Quote
"You can not say with a straight face that Malka is a control deck. Yes it has some control elements, but it has just as many aggressive elements in it. If it needs to it can hit you in the face. And do not forget that Malka just happens to have alot of cards that attack the most popular combo deck."
I'm sorry but I really have to say you're way off on this one.
The following is a basic Malka decklist.
8 Forest
5 Swamp
4 Bayou
4 Treetop Village
2 Dust Bowl
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Wall of Roots
4 Spike Feeder
4 Yavimaya Elder
2 Spike Weaver
4 Spiritmonger
1 Phyrexian Plaguelord
4 Duress
2 Vampiric Tutor
2 Phyrexian Furnace
4 Pernicious Deed
1 Recurring Nightmare
1 Living Death
The way I see it there are 4 Aggro creatures
15 creatures used for control and 4 accelerators.
For spells there are 11 control elements, 1 aggro(living death) and 2 search cards. The goal of this deck is to survive into the late game where it's card advantage and early deck thinning break the back of the opponent. If you've ever played the deck or against the deck you know it plays much more like a control deck than an aggro deck.
I don't want this to degenerate into a flame war but I think you need to be a little more openminded about potential deck choices that are available in what is a pretty wide open 1.x environment.
Hello, its me again.
I see that we are going a little off topic here. Can we please keep the posts to Pox related? like maybe a comparisson between Malka and Pox?
Sorry to be a bother.
Sorry for using up bandwith also :/
Thank you in advance.
Avatar that is an excellent idea. I think tim's last post is a good starting point. He claims that Malka only has 4 aggresive creatures. Well last I checked although they are not very good offensive threats spike feeder, yavimaya elder, spike weaver and the plaguelord all have more than 0 power and thus can deal dammage. That makes 16 threat cards far more than most control decks, and I did not even count the Treetop villages. Admittedly many of them can also act as control cards but that is its advantage. The pox deck being discussed just does not have this kind of duality. When it runs into combo it just plain goes belly up because it can not kill before the combo goes off consistantly. Malka does not have as big a problem as this version of pox because many of its control elements are aggresive also. Add to that that malka tends to generate very good card advantage in the late game if there is a late game unlike pox. The pox deck here has to many cards that only do 1 thing. In fact most of the deck is rather limited. A pox deck, in deed any deck, needs to have cards that fullfill multiple purposes. The card Pox is perhaps one of the best cards in this capacity, but the rest of the deck just does not have versitility. For this reason the pox deck is almost always going to be in long controlish games where without counters it will lose to combos. Malka does not worry about this since it can just swing with alot of its defenses. Just look at all the cards in the posted malka deck that serve more than one purpose. I count 24 just with a quick scan. The Pox deck that is being worked on here has about 15 if it is lucky (vindicates may serve as disruption if the opponent is mana screwed). The pox deck is simply going to get into top deck mode and be drawing cards that it just does not need at the time. For pox to really work well you either need to make sure you do not get into top deck mode, or that the cards you draw in top deck mode are versital so you can use them more ofton. The best bet thanks to pox's life draining effect is simply to go aggressive so the game is over once you reach top deck mode. I could probably write an entire book on why the current build just wont work and many just would not listen. All you have to do is look at the fact that this is no new idea. It has been tried and has failed. If you want to build a pox deck you are going to have to come up with something new not just copy a current deck with a couple of changes.
Well now, lets take a look at the versatality of Pox.
Nether Spirit -- a chumpblocker that never dies/2-dam creature
Funeral Charm -- takes out loads of 1/1s /discard is always good
Gerrard's Verdict -- discard again/in a pinch, gain life vs Trix
Pox -- duh.
Vindicate -- read it! destroy target PERMANENT.
Swords to Plowshares -- removal vs reanimator/life vs trix
That's about 20+ cards with multiple "abilities" plus there's lots of efficient cards too--Duress for example.
Dont diss Pox man. 
Keiran you miss the point. When I say duality I am talking about cards that can serve multiple purpouses as in "control/aggressive/disruption". Pox is great since it deals dammage, kills creatures, and discards/destoys land. That means it does all three in one. Vindicate can kill permanets or kill land and thus serves as contol/disruption. Verdict is simply disruption. Swords is only control. Keep going and it gets worse. Pox has some cards that the absolute only thing they can do is dammage the opponet and then only for a few a turn. Run the numbers and you will quickly see my point. Take the given pox deck and count how many cards fall under the control/aggressive/disruption areas (note some cards do fit more than one). Add up the numbers then do the same for Malka, 3-duece, Walabies, and Junk. What you will find when you run the numbers is that This pox deck is a control deck. It has no counters and as such dies to combo. The Malka deck is mostly balanced between aggression and control and as such does not automatically lose the combo matchup. Add to that the fact that Malka is full of donate hate and you can see why Malka is a tier 1 deck while this pox is tier 2. I believe pox is still viable in extended but it has to be more aggresive to break into tier 1 play.
Wow, Eric, for somebody who puts so much thought into the metagame, you'ev really missed the point. As a player of Pox in T1 for a year now, and extended for about 6 months, I can tell you, Pox does not die to combo. Pox doesn't even come close to dying, simply because Pox has the capability to beat any deck out there. When you're attacking a player on all fronts, destroying their hand, land, creatures and life, you'll come to learn that Pox doesn't try and gain full control over their opponent like most control decks. Pox tries to knock their opponent down with quick disruption like Duress and Verdict, and then proceede to kick them while they're down with Pox and Vindicate when necessary. Pox does not automatically lose the combo matchup. The Trick matchup actually hovers around 50% when played well by both players, and really gets better the more Planar Voids the Pox player sides. What causes people to under estimate pox is the fact that one, so few people play it, and two, the people who usually play it have sub-optimal builds/little to no experience with the deck. Try playing it. Try testing on apprentice. You'll soon find that it has powers unseen on paper.
Tracer I did not say that pox was a bad deck. Just that the build being toyed with here will not work. This build does lose to donate. This build just does not have the ability to kick them when they are down with enough consitancy. As I said I am quite convident that a deck based around pox can be built for the current extended environment. I just know that this build is not it. I agree that anouther problem pox decks have is that most do not know how to play them properly. That is true of any well balanced deck. It is easy to play SRB or any other single minded deck but when you play a deck with very balanced numbers of control/aggression/disruption is very hard to play. Knowing when to focus on what is an art.
I think a good sideboard right now would be:
4x Sanctimony
3x Edict
3x Planar Void
3x Wrath of God (better than Perish, period)
2x Massacre
As far as whether the deck is Tier 1 or not, I guess I haven't seen anyone run it at a tourney with an optimal build. It is therefore really hard to say. And Eric, I find your analysis completely off. Has been tried and failed? Just who has tried it like this. No one, that's who. If you recall, Pox once dominated the extended tournament scene, and really it was little different from the current deck (of course we don't now have the power of Yawgmoth). It is one of the few decks that has been played since the format started. Meanwhile, the Malka deck is simply a metagame deck that will change/die with a shift in the metagame. In my mind, the Malka deck is a pile of crap that wins due to the power of Pernicious Deed. Period.
Go ahead and write your book, and I will happily dispute you.
right drizzt, thats why youre a professional too, right?
Ah, so you can't post your opinion on this board unless you're a professional?!?! LOL! Nice one!
Donate is a pile of crap that wins due to the power of Illusions. Try running Trix and Donating the Islands instead of the Illusions and you'll see what I mean.
Anyway, with as much discard as the Pox deck has its going to have some good matchups against control. The deck runs more discard spells than many control decks run counters.
Has anyone tried Bosium Strip in a Pox deck? With the deck being mostly instant and sorcery utility cards, it might be interesting to recycle them. If nothing else it'd be another "must counter" card.
Quote:Ah, so you can't post your opinion on this board unless you're a professional?!?! LOL! Nice one!
Quote:Has anyone tried Bosium Strip in a Pox deck? With the deck being mostly instant and sorcery utility cards, it might be interesting to recycle them. If nothing else it'd be another "must counter" card.
Drizzit do a search of this forum and you will find a post about a deck almost identical to this that was played in New Orleans. The auther details his various matchups. So yes it has been tried in a major event, and yes it did fail. In fact looking back on the thread you posted in it also. And yes I know it was once a dominate deck, and as you said it is little different from the original deck. That is the same problem SRB has. Neither has evolved with the rest of the environment. Being old does not mean it is good just outdated. As for Malka yes it is a metagame deck, but that does not mean it is not good. It is a solid deck that fights for all the major resources. Untill people start playing 2 color control or some new cards start to overpower it Malka will be a solid contender. And yes it does win due to the power of deed alot but it is not a 1 trick pony by any means. If you want to play pox you need to evolve the deck. It needs to change to fit the current environment. It needs to be a aggro/disruptive build. Drop most of the control rip a few cards and land from the opponets hand then kick them in the teeth.
I like what the people that posted ideas to the pox deck, the others suck (sorry =/)
Please dont flame! Jebus!
For the love of god, this is a POX post, not a MALKA post, DONATE post, or any other type of deck post.
Please only post information on the pox deck at hand, and if its a change that is very different (different color) dont leave a flame at the end of it flaming other people.
Thank all of you that posted deck information.
Just as a note, im not just talking about the guy that is saying pox doesnt cut it the way everyone help make it, im also talking about the people that are trying to stick up for pox. Be the bigger man/woman and stop. =)
My two cents.
I play U/B pox... i've only used it at once, i made it quick/fast and in a hurry the night before a tourney. After placing 5th place i decided to make some modifications to my deck. Here is my deck as it currently stands:
14x Swamp
4x Underground River
4x Salt Marsh [don't own dual lands]
1x Wasteland [only own 1]
1x Island
4x Chimeric Idol
2x Nether Spirit
4x Duress
4x Funeral Charm
4x Recoil
4x Choking Sands
4x Contagion
4x Pox
4x Cursed Scroll
2x Brainstorm
SIDEBOARD: just a bunch of random cards
this is kinda what i would like as my deck (once i buy a few more cards)
14x Swamp
4x Underground River
4x Underground Sea [own 0]
2x Wasteland [own 1]
4x Chimeric Idol
2x Nether Spirit
4x Duress
4x Funeral Charm
4x Recoil
3x Choking Sands
3x Contagion
4x Pox
3x Cursed Scroll
3x Brainstorm
2x Phyrexian Furnace
SIDEBOARD:
4x Chill
2x Phyrexian Furnace
3x Perish
1x Contagion
1x Cursed Scroll
1x Choking Sands
3x Engineered Plague
i really need some suggestions for my deck. the sideboard is a little rough, but i will run 4 Chill and I will run either the 2 furnaces or planar void, the rest is up for debate, but i think i will keep perish too (or is hibernation better)
Do your U/B Pox run well? I personally think BW is the best combination as White covers up for Black's total lack of good enchantment/artifact removal and also provides a host of wonderful cards. I do not think that Pox needs card-drawing. Its' cards fall into several uses:
Discard: Duress, Funeral Charm, Gerrard's Verdict, Addle
Removal: Vindicate, Swords, Seal, Edict
Kill, Creatures: Nether Spirit, Chimeric Idol
Kill, Artifacts: Scroll, Scalding Tongs
Everything rolled into one: Pox!!
DISCARD (10)
4 Duress
4 Verdict
2 Addle
REMOVAL (10)
4 Vindicate
3 Swords
3 Seal
KILL (12)
3 Cursed Scroll
4 Chimeric Idol
2 Nether Spirit
3 Scalding Tongs
POX (4)
4 Pox
LANDS
2 Wasteland
4 Scrubland
4 Caves of Koilos
14 Basics
As you can see, there are roughly equal number of cards dealing with each use in my build. Thus, Pox is (supposedly) consistent...
I was just looking at this against CotH. A BoP start, with an elephant coming out next turn and/or turn 4 looks inefficient to deal with. I think CotH gives the entire Pox build quite a problem, especially in a deck without search.
It seems everyone else dislikes Wasteland, but I have personally found them to be needed, especially against decks with man lands. Also, they do provide an extra way to land/color screw your opponent. Yes, they make colored mana harder to come by. I've tried to solve that by running 4x Salt Flats. In your build, I'd consider running at least two in place of 1x Swamp and 1x Plains, just to smooth the mana.
Also, Ankh of Mishra is another sideboard card worth considering, as it hoses Turbo Land and Thaws.
My current build looks something like this:
=Land (23)=
4x Wasteland
4x Caves of Koilos
4x Scrubland
4x Salt Flats
7x Swamp
=Artifacts (10)=
3x Cursed Scroll
3x Scalding Tongs
4x Chimeric Idol
=Creatures (2)=
2x Nether Spirit
=Spells (25)=
4x Duress
4x Gerrard's Verdict
4x Funeral Charm
4x Pox
4x Swords to Plowshares
3x Vindicate
2x Diabolic Edict
SB
2x Diabolic Edict
2x Wrath of God
2x Ankh of Mishra
3x Sanctimony
3x Seal of Cleansing
3x Phyrexian Furnace
actually that U/B version i have has done quite well... i only lost to Sligh/Burn, but that was before I added chill to the sideboard and before i added nether spirit.
I kinda like the U/B version for these reasons:
Overall I feel that Recoil is better than vindicate in this sort of deck. Both spells can target any permanent, but recoil is an instant and with all my other discard chances are whatever I recoil they will have to discard, meaning recoil can get rid of regenerators.
i could probably live with 2 brainstorm and will probably only run two, but since i'm running blue, i might as well use a little card draw right?
I will agree with you about enchantment removal though, and maybe i should add boomerang to my sideboard or something, but i normaly don't run in to any enchantments or atifacts i have to worry about that i cant deal with, with recoil.
the other reason why i don't run W/B is becuase as far as dual lands i only have 3 Caves of Koilos and i only own 1 Vindicate.
But in my area I don't think I'll ever have to worry about a mirror match. But I'll probably play this deck at one more tourney and if i don't place top 4 then i will make a new deck.
want some advice on pox in extended?
dont play it, it sucks bad
hahaha
Have you tried Lilting Refrain in Pox?
Babe, The Blue Pox
4 x Pox
4 x Duress
4 x Chimeric Idol
2 x Nether Spirit
4 x Scalding Tongs
2 x Cursed Scroll
4 x Recoil
4 x Funeral Charm
4 x Lilting Refrain
2 x Planar Void
2 x Brainstorm
3 x Wasteland
4 x Underground River
4 x Underground Sea
13 x Swamp
SB to taste, but probably will include 2 Planar Void.
Comments?
Planar void is not good in your main deck if you plan on running nether spirit.
I believe that having 2 Planar Void main deck is a little bit of goodness if I see an Oath or Reanimator deck, or any pesky Elephants. I'll side out the Spirits in game 2 for two more PVs. They might also leave for 2 Contagion, as I have little creature kill in here, save Charms and the two scrolls. Hmmm.
I still put my faith into Pox, as I like the concept of the deck - no matter what ppl like mox killer say.
Currently I play a b/w pox looking something like this:
2 Nether Spirit
4 Chimeric Idol
4 Duress
4 Funeral Charm
4 Gerrard's Verdict
4 Pox
4 Cursed Scroll
4 StoP
4 Vindicate
1 Wrath of God
1 Vampiric Tutor
2 Seal of Cleansing
4 Wasteland
4 Caves of Koilos
4 Scrubland
3 Plains
7 Swamp
-sb-
2 Seal of Cleansing
4 Diabolic Edict
2 Planar Void
4 Phyrexian Negator
1 Wrath of God
2 Perish
Why no Sanctimony? I haven't seen a Sligh being played in a tournament for ages (in my area).
Me and a friend of mine have been tossing around the idea of a b/r pox. What do you think about that? We had something like this in mind:
4 Pox
2 Firestorm
4 Incinerate
4 Zombie Infestation
3 Squee
4 Ashen Ghoul
4 Krovikan Horror
4 Duress
4 Stone Rain
2 Vampiric Tutor
3 Cursed Scroll
4 Wasteland
4 Badlands
4 Sulfurous Springs
x Swamp
y Mountain
The Stone Rains might be burn, and the Firestorms could be useless... My friend likes the idea, hows about you ppl???
I think that we ought to take a look at playing all the other colors with Pox, and what advantage might be derived.
I will predict what we'd find: Blue and White give the most benefits for the cost in consistency you pay with two colors. If you want a G/B deck, play The Rock. If you want Red, play Sligh or Burn, probably.
I don't think Red goes very well with Pox, but I have limited experience. Perhaps with Void? Pyre Zombie in place of Nether Spirit? Anyone else?
--T. Ray
PS: I also think a build of Pox designed to run Planar Void might not be a bad idea. I don't think Phyrexian Furnace is enough.