Pox Copter
Modern
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Update 1: Smallpox Vehicles —Oct. 14, 2017
After taking SaffronOlive's list to a 3-1 finish at Modern FNM, I've decided to alter the original list to make my own mono-black vehicles. This time, I'm turning it into a Smallpox Vehicles deck. With a suggestion from a friend at my LGS, I realized that Pox effects in this deck would be nuts because when you think about it, they don't hurt me much at all. The 1 life lost is recouped by Aethersphere Harvester and Night Market Lookout, cards that are damn good performers, consistently turn the tide, and steal wins. If I sacrifice and/or discard a Bloodsoaked Champion, Scrapheap Scrounger and Dread Wanderer I can get them back easily.
I'm also considering cutting Pain Seer, or at least a couple copies of it, from the deck (I know right? The namesake of the whole thing!). I almost never get his effect off, and almost every single time I do, I'm bothered by the loss of life (Especially if I hit an Aethersphere Harvester) because I find that it hurts me severely against midrange and other aggro decks. Plus, the first thing I use all of my open mana for is reanimating my crewers from the grave, not casting whatever it is I drew off of Pain Seer. Spending mana on graveyard effects for the turn means that my hand will naturally refill as I draw for turns. I actually found myself relieved when Pain Seer became a lightning rod for creature removal instead of my other threats. So, in a way, the wizard served an unconventional purpose and lived up to his name; however, I found that he isn't a consistent removal magnet. Pain Seer actually ENCOURAGED my opponents to remove my vehicles with it on the board: once the vehicle is dead, the Pain Seer is essentially useless unless I have another vehicle in hand, as the only way to trigger him at that point would be to attack and risk losing him to a block, which I won't do. I NEED the vehicles for consistent, maximum pressure.
I'm going to test Zulaport Cutthroat as a possible alternative to Pain Seer, to go all-in on the life gain I already have with Night Market Lookout and Aethersphere Harvester, which is turning out to be INSANE (I've won games at 30 life or more against control decks). The Cutthroat's ability is always online, unlike the Seer's. It'll give me extra value when I sacrifice a creature to Smallpox by undoing my life loss and making my opponent lose 2 life instead, plus I'll gain value if my opponent is foolish enough to block/kill one of my reanimators. He can crew, unlike the traditionally better Blood Artist, and my opponents will DEFINITELY prioritize the Cutthroat for removal to a much greater degree than Pain Seer. If I were playing against this deck, I would be torn over whether to use removal on Cutthroat or a crewed vehicle. Kill the vehicle and you save yourself from an aerial beating, but the Cutthroat triggers for a life drain and will continue to do so VERY easily until you get rid of him. Kill the Cutthroat and you've wasted high-dollar removal on a 1/1, but you slow the accumulating life swings which will surely beat you in the long run when coupled with Aethersphere Harvester and Night Market Lookout. It's a sticky situation for my opponent, and I love mind games.
Sacrificing stuff with Smallpox will allow me to trigger revolt on Fatal Push much more easily. The two cards played back-to-back will be devastating for my opponent, so I'm going to take out my other source of self-inflicted life loss, Dismember.
What remains to be seen is if Pack Rat will become a dead card in this new build, given the fact that I'm taking out the extra card "value" from Pain Seer and I'm discarding with the Pox. We shall see with extensive gameplay. If it does turn out to be a dead card, then I'll replace it with another reanimating creature, like Gravecrawler, Endless Cockroaches, or Bloodghast if I can afford them.
My sideboard will need changes too. Vampire Hexmage will replace Hex Parasite, since I won't have the mana needed to effectively use the Parasite's ability repeatedly if I'm reanimating stuff. Hexmage, while I'll only be able to get one good planeswalker kill/nerfed Chalice of the Void out of her, will definitely get the job done and first strike is a great deterrent for blockers. I'm also considering swapping Pithing Needle for Phyrexian Revoker. The Revoker has nearly the same ability but is a creature that can crew, simple enough. I need bodies on the field and additional anti-activated ability ammunition to assist the Hexmages since my deck has zero countermagic besides hand disruption.
I'll have to watch my land count when playing Pox, though. As long as I don't go below three swamps, I'll be fine. Blood Moon and land destruction are ineffective against me since I have zero non-basics, but that'll change if I do a color splash. Even if I do get Blood Mooned, those Mountains can pay for vehicles.