This is a creature based deck that, despite it using no reanimator cards to bring from graveyard into play, it uses the creature's ability that only triggers when in graveyard. These creatures are the driving source of the kill or win condition of the deck, making it an aggro aspect for such conditions. Let me point out that traditional Pox does not usually base aggro as a kill condition, thus using non-creature builds and certain key cards within the Pox paradigm to make win condition from the kill condition such as permanent spell cards of The Rack and Shrieking Affliction (Rack Pox) due to hand disruption and the infamously (and can be your last ditch effort to a vaneglorious demise) Kaevek's Spite. Grave-hate can disrupt this deck, but with the help of hand disruption spells like Raven's Crime comboed with Dakmor Salvage, would whittle the opponents hand to a halt in the draw advantage, or in this case, disadvantage with competition strategy and/or synergy. There are multiple combos in the deck which also brings in many synergies during game play, but not totally complex to the point it henders gameplay from the deck's player, thus either would hold his own giving the impression that it's anybody's game and perhaps even achieving victory on matches. Thus should answer to alot of Grave-hate, and Inquisition of Kozilek being in the side-board, should hold up against early game grave-hate hijinx as well.
Gone is the heavy use of hand disruption, due to it relying on Raven's Crime and Dakmor Salvage combo (I recommend it being played late game and not be ballsy to use it to dredge creatures into the graveyard, a mistake I learned a long time ago using a variant of this proposed deck), and when I realized I left out the much desired Waste Not, I came to a conclusion that it is not necessary as well because of the lack in focus of the original hand disruption synergy offered in traditional Pox. Only three copies of
Hymn to Tourach
are needed, due to game play aspects of being usually played once or twice through out the game from personal experiences, but it is mandatory for a Pox deck to have a good number of Hymn to Tourach, which I agree. Dark Ritual, which is also mandatory, but it is necessary to have a full play set with, is placed as a maximum of 3 in this variant. Buried Alive is nontraditional introduced to this Pox variant so one would bury the maximum number of afformationed creatures given by that card's spell effect (all 3 target creatures in your library will be placed into the graveyard), it is recommended not to jump into getting 1
Ashen Ghoul
, 1 Gravecrawler and 1 Bloodghast into the graveyard in the order given, burying the Ashen Ghoul first to do his effect, not even 1 Ashen Ghoul and 2 Bloodghast in that order as well, but only 3 (since we have four in the deck for maxium strike) Bloodghast for a turn 4 auto-summon due to landfall, and maybe haste on a well strategized 2nd
Pox
assault making it the kill and win condition of the game.
Strategizing your creature removal, and I must stress this at most importance, is a MUST. You do have a lack of single target spells, that must be strategized at the begining of the game, thus having more board wipes, which more single creature removability has been added to the sideboard. Since the coming of the full Theros block, I took out
Infest
and put in Drown in Sorrow, due to it's extra scry ability as a semi-cantrip. I limited the play-set to 3 copies of Drown in Sorrow, and added just 1 copy of Black Sun's Zenith, due to it's permanent crippling if not it's recycle into deck effect when cast from hand into the graveyard. In which makes it the exception in my logic and experience, as a good suppliment with board wipers like Drown in Sorrow and Infest. However, to do the necessary spell cast of the Zenith, one must be able to play at four of the converted mana cost from the two black and paying the X colorless, to do any effective and crippling results, thus blunting future assaults.
I opted not to put in Sinkhole, wastland and other "poor man's" land removals (
Rain of Tears
,
Befoul
, Icequake,
Choking Sands
, Dust Bowl, Tectonic Edge, Ghost Quarter, etc) and/or Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth due to not only financial cost, cmc, futility and/or deck placement, but because I felt it unneccesary to use these popular but contrary cards that supposedly and popularly defines the more traditional Pox variant of make. Using Smallpox along with Pox in itself is enough to control mana resource. I even decided after experienced gameplay after gameplay, 3 copies of Pox is more then enough, at least for this make, one Pox played early for a crushing blow to life, and another for late game to balance the board. The other Pox is always in hand in case of losing a copy due to answers.
Three Mutavault and Dakmor Salvage are enough for manland and combo as forementioned. Due to Pox traditionally having less then 6 (if at most 8) creatures, I felt 13 (including activated Mutavaults) creatures in the deck was more then plenty if not overkill for an aggro kill and win condition. Hey why no Urborg? Well, since it's Legendary, and oft times limited or or two, sometimes at most three, it only helps the non-Swamp land (basic and non) to become Swamps in addition to what they originally are. True it is a boon but not necesarily a huge one for victory in this variation. None of the creatures in this deck has swampwalk either, which is what the idea of Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth was to do in the first place (and seemingly a poor man's Blood Moon and essentially a global
Evil Presence
but in made into a legendary land).
Why no Liliana's, and where's the Tutors or Tops? Well as far as the new traditional Pox goes, Liliana of the Veil being the sole Planeswalker that can whip some boo-tay on a broad scale when she is Ultimate, or
Sensei's Diving Top
for tutoring (or maybe a Beseech the Queen for maximum tutorage), and being a popular one at that, I find it overrated, and expensive if not just ineffeciant against other decks such as RDW and Dredge. Even going Pox against a well devised budget Pox, it will be anyone's game then! The only saving grace from Liliana and Top is that Top will get the deck going quickly, but Liliana from my experience, will not do so well against this variant of Pox (unless Grave-hate is involved, that is different story). Even if she survived past her being Ultimate, which half of the chance is she won't, the next couple of waves of creatures will dispatch the unwarranted player anyways.
Here are some answers to different decks and strategies that are played in tournaments:
Dealing with Grave-hate:
Leyline of the Void - Turn 1 Leyline, don't sweat it, just keep your creatures fighting only when there are no creatures on the board if few on the opposing side, limit yourself in groups of three in lands, cards in hand and creatures (that is a GOOD rule of thumb when dealing with Pox for board wiping), automatically say goodbye to Zenith, but do concentrate on putting as much as effort as possible for four to five lands for a wipe, crippling if not near whipe crippling to permanently blunting any assault with the Zenith. When you lose your creatures, it's game over for them, so manage them carefully. Play aggressively as much as possible, the idea of a deck using this enchantment means that you will need to get in as much kill as possible and using bombs that ratchets to zero to wipe any number of tokens or even zero casting non-land permenants.
Bojuka Bog, Tormod's Crypt,
Ravenous Trap
and other such Grave-haters - If you are attacked by Leyline of the Void, you are most likely are going to be attacked by not all but one or two of these answers that give a new problem. Albeit that some people think of most of them as a timed or strategized Grave-hate mechanism, such as
Faerie Macabre
, there are some that aren't too bad if not worse to wear compared to the infamous Leyline of the Void (causing the opponent to concede on turn one in manaless non-LED Dredge unconditionably). Try your best to do blows to that players hand as much as you can with Hymn to Tourach, then whittle him down to zero cards as much you can with the Dakmor Salvage and Raven's Crime combo (make sure you do this on round 2 in order to answer his/her Leyline play with Inquisitions added to the deck as well). If the opponent has the Grafdigger's Cage, Tormod's Crypt and Bojuka Bog (make it Ravenous Trap also) all at once, treat this multi-combo as a make shift Leyline if anything else. After round 1 be sure to add just the three Inquisition of Kozilek in your deck, no need to even take out anything in particular! Use this to scout his hand before or after a blow to his hand with Hymn to Tourach, if it is a Bojuka, whittle him down as much as possible with Raven's Crime and Salvage combo.
I cannot stress this hard enough, on 2nd round or even 1st round having previous knowledge of oppositional Grave-hate, keep from using Buried Alive and having creatures go into the graveyard at most to a minimal!
None Grave-hate answers that will cripple if not just utterly crush the Grimjerr Reanimator Pox variant:
Turn 1 Leyline of Sanctity - No biggy, just use aggro, pox, smallpox, since you are using aggro it negates the protection due to combat damage, while Pox and Smallpox is due to global loss of life (among it's other utilities), that doesn't target any set player in prejustice, but there's justice in it though (haha). Do to this kind of deck strategy, be on guard for Bant Control, Pillowfort, TurboFog, White Wheenie, and any such decks that demand a "prison" hijinx and antics that just will eventually put Pox into lockstep giving the opponent an upperhand!
Dredge and other Graveyard Based Answsers:
Reanimator based decks usually depend on such cards as Dread Return, Reanimate, maybe even creature reanimators like
Doomed Necromancer
and the like and also using their graveyard as summoning for their big lofty fatties (which are small in number believe it or not)... Destroy them (the Reanimator player) as quick as possible with your aggro, take advantage of all of your creature's graveyard abilities and make good sense in destroying your opponents hand as LITTLE as possible. Trust me, then on round 2, supply for single creature removal (which includes Dismember), maybe adding just the one Zenith for crippling if anything else, removing all other board wipe, remove your hand disruption at ALL cost, putting in all 7 grave-hates (Leyline of the Void and Ravenous Trap) and adding both copies of
Soul Spike
(Kaevek's Spite's turn zero and if not better brother!). I would also crank the numbers of Smallpox down by 1 or 2 (thus the deck will be to solid 60 or 61 count). Keep the Pox at the same number of 3 given. And also use the same strategies given on Pox itself, but limiting Smallpox due to creature removal rather than it's other shared components due to Reanimator and the like (and even Dredge) to be limited to a finite if no land based mana.
Dredge - The antithesis of Pox, or more likely the Ultimate Nemesis of Pox, and Reanimator's more popular, if not infamous little brother. From minimal mana to non-mana based variants, Dredge is almost to near impossible to defeat with the likes of Pox (and this varient as well) at first Round. The whole idea of Dredge in my experience is that the Dredge player (at least 99% of the time, the other 1% is usually ballsy or is incompetent with Dredge, but one these will do with the 1% is just plain daft) goes SECOND, always. You may smirk that when you play against a Dredge player, but your smirk will be one that will become of cynicism for humankind instead of assured victory when you hit turn two or three with Dredge, usually the victory is assured to the Dredge player by turn three (which is turn second turn for the Dredge player in essence, but if you want to go with rules, it makes it the apex legacy 3rd turn if not 2nd turn player kill deck ever). So it's all up to the roll of the dice, the pregame, to hint that when playing the Legacy format, and the opponent player wins the roll and says "You GO first..." Prepare for a cold sweat of fear when you hear those three words, they're the obvious clue to that he is going to play DREDGE of any variant. BUT DON'T LOSE YOUR SHIT! Nor if you are inexperienced or even near experienced in fighting Dredge, DO NOT LOSE FOCUS! Cause when you do, inexperience, losing your shit or not, with losing focus, will lose you the game on Round 1 for sure! Take your time and FOCUS. Nothing can piss off a Dredge player more when you get past third turn because of playing it as Mr. Cool! That's when the heat gets hotter and that's when he goes World War Z with all the zombies he created. But playing it as Mr. Cool to stimy his efforts in third turn will not always guarrentee a positive win, EVEN right now it's difficult to even say it's anyone's game now! Just that you still need to keep focus for each turn past five makes it ANYBODY'S game if not turn 8 would be your victory for sure! But if you get cocky and/or over confident it would seem like you are so close to victory that, one false move would end that with a bitter defeat, and the opponent offering crow pie!
Here are tips to playing as Mr. Cool:round one... FIGHT!
Turn 1 - lay down a land, if it's a Mutavault, lay that as your one land NOW. End Turn.Turn 2 - lay down another land, this time a swamp... End Turn. Prepare to use the Mutavault more like fodder and defense for
Ichorid
, because if you block that, which is used for usually aggro on the Dredge player, not only you make him less available to Dredge, but you have a chance of destroying two or more Bridge from Below, thus reducing if not lockstepping one of the few synergies of Dredge. If you are lucky that is. But for the love of God, unless you have three or more creatures on the board (I doubt you would by then) DO NOT USE SMALLPOX! Use the Pox only once and most likely to late game! That will definitely slow the onslaught of zombies that will plague you and do hefty damage to the opponent (which will sustain some damage from to time to time). If you are lucky, you will get close to victory.
round 2... FIGHT!
This is definitely time for a swap from the side-board! Follow my directions as follows with using side-board with main deck appending and dismisal, save for the board wipe, keep that in there, and switch out the innocent blood with Dismember. Remember how turn 1 goes? You are going to be first anyways! HOWEVER before doing anything, check your HAND! If you have a bad hand muligan, if you DO NOT see a Leyline in your hand and maybe a Ravenous Trap or Two, MULIGAN! Muligan at a sensiable rate too, idealy you would want to have a starting hand of a Leyline, a Trap or two, a Soul Spike or two, a Smallpox or a Pox (more like Smallpox) and a Gravecrawler if not Bloodghast. That's ideally and if you have that hand, that's your GOD HAND for this round! KEEP IT, but if you don't, you want at least a Leyline, Smallpox, Pox (if any), two to three land, Dakmor Salvage and/or Mutavaults suggested, two creatures being one of each or both of Gravecrawler and/or Bloodghast for your opening hand. If not, muligan until you see the Leyline. Plain and simple! As a rule of thumb, Muligan aggressviely to five, at least until you find the Leyline, if no Leyline, you should have land to play anyways. Play it as Mr. Cool then as well for sure.
