Smallpox

Sorcery

Each player loses 1 life, discards a card, sacrifices a creature, then sacrifices a land.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (46)

wallisface on

4 months ago

Some thoughts:

• 20 lands feels really low for a deck running Smallpox, that also needs 3 mana reliably, and ideally 4 mana for Tourach, Dread Cantor. Personally, i'd go up to 24 lands, and then run a playset of Raven's Crime so that you can still make use of any excess lands you might draw later in the game. (i'd drop the Hypnotic Specter for those extra lands, as the card just validates your opponents killspells too much)

• I'd suggest running the full playset of Smallpox as it can just prove soo valuable for messing with your opponent, particularly if you're on the draw (which 8rack decks often want to be).

• I'd ditch Megrim in place of some kind of killspell. between Shrieking Affliction, The Rack, and Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage you already have enough ways to punish an empty hand - and the opponent might not even have any cards in hand to discard after turn 3 anyway. You also want to be able to killspell the opponents board to force them into having to play more cards and get lower on resources. I think Fatal Push would be a lot more useful than Megrim here.

• Duress can be really problematic in that it might not find a card to discard. I'd suggest running 3x Blackmail instead, and then 1 copy of Bontu's Last Reckoning. Blackmail is a lot stronger in that it will at least be guaranteed to force a discard, and the single copy of Bontu's Last Reckoning can come in clutch for getting out of gross situations (though I don't think you want to be running more than 1 copy because drawing 2 in a game is probably not helpful)

Delphen7 on Venerated Rotpriest Combo Discussion

7 months ago

Having been competitively playing the list since its spoiling, I'll share some thoughts.

Discard

As nbarry223 noted discard is absurdly good against the deck. My LGS has a couple of 8Rack floating around, and I've discovered its a horrendous matchup. Smallpox is also awful.

Chalice

I run Cavern of Souls so I can cast Rotpriest through Chalice and Rotpriest doesn't care if the spells are countered. Most decks don't have Caverns though, so Chalice would be good, unless more people pick up on the tech.

Leyline of Sanctity

Leyline is good against it as plakjekaas mentioned, but no one really plays it. I'm personally running Glistener Elf which doesn't care about it, but most versions, especially the Breach variants, will probably just fold to it.

Speaking of Breach, it's the most popular iteration right now, and it's fairly weak to graveyard hate, as Breach is how it tries to build up storm. Some lists aren't on it though, so antigraveyard is not a catchall.

Removal

Bolt and Heat often can't kill Rotpriest (Gather Courage and Mutagenic Growth), but Fury usually does enough damage and Solitude just eats it. Prismatic Ending/Leyline Binding work as well, but it seems to not be as heavily played right now.

Countermagic

Eh. The only things I actually care if they resolve are Rotpriests, and most decks aren't countering that t1 (Unless Minor Misstep picks up play).

Combo

Combo has been one the better matchups thus far. Fire / Ice is usually not enough to kill the Rotpriest, and the deck tends to move faster than Rhinos, Creativity, Prime Time, and Hammertime. TBH I don't know if there's any deck that can win as fast as it can on a good hand, especially since stock Hammertime no longer plays Ornithopter.

Melira

I don't think the deck could function through either Melira, but I doubt it's worth the sideboard slots right now. I'd say if your local meta has a fair share of Rotpriest, the slots could be worth it, but just entering a tournament blind I wouldn't run them.

---

TL;DR The MH2 elementals are the best ways to remove Rotpriest once its on the field. Preventive measures work best though. Chalice, Leyline, Discard etc.

Dead_Blue_ on 12-Rack Ribeye

10 months ago

If you’re running Smallpox then 21 lands probably isn’t enough.

I also think Go Blank is worth MBing in today’s meta

DreadKhan on Indestructible Visions

10 months ago

Master of Etherium is a nice good generic Affinity card, as are Thoughtcast and Thought Monitor. Over Buried Ruin you might look at Treasure Vault, it's an artifact land that can make a bunch of artifacts for something like Nettlecyst or Cranial Plating.

I assume the Sol Rings are for THG, because I'm very sure it's banned in Legacy for being completely busted. There really isn't anything else as good you can substitute other than Ancient Tomb, which can kill you, but people definitely run for it's power. There are also Springleaf Drum and Moonsnare Prototype, which can ramp turn 1.

Not sure if it's truly relevant other than as bad 3 mana ramp, but Mirrormade exists. It's harder to cast than Copy Enchantment, but it can copy an Artifact if you want, which is pretty good value sometimes, copying a Land is funny.

In the event of a mirror match, you might like having access to Ravenform to remove opposing bodies that are indestructible or regenerate, it can also hit pesky artifacts, probably worth a look at for a sideboard.

This is going to sound a bit crazy, but you should consider Vault Skirge in here, making a 5/5 flying lifelink is very good vs some decks, and it also plays nice with Cranial Plating. I usually just cast it for the 2 life on turn 1 and try to get a Cranial Plating on it ASAP in my Affinity deck, it has won me plenty of tough games.

I wonder if the Blinkmoth Urns are too slow? I guess THG they make more sense, but if you want to play 1v1 Legacy, you should keep in mind how fast decks tend to be, as this deck packs essentially nothing to spoke an opponent's wheel. I'm not sure you could really fit in counters, but they are great in Legacy if your not going all-in on speed. Of particular interest, cheap/low mana counters can let you protect your indestructible creatures from Exile effects like Swords to Plowshares or edicts like Innocent Blood or Smallpox, these kinds of effects definitely see play in Legacy. I guess in THG you might have a partner packing the protection? I think you either want more creatures or some protection for your bodies. Some counters that are popular include Spell Pierce, Dispel, Swan Song and Flusterstorm, as well as free ones like Force of Will obviously. Good old Counterspell sounds good in theory, but it can be impossible to hold up UU to protect stuff, because getting out a 5/5 is time sensitive, too late and it won't be big enough, too early and the control player can just remove/counter your stuff and win later on.

Cool deck idea!

Dead_Blue_ on My zombie tribal deck

10 months ago

Smallpox Fatal Push Dismember Infernal Grasp Damn Legion's End Bloodchief's Thirst Force of Despair March of Wretched Sorrow Defile

If you wanted to keep it Legacy there is stuff like Do or Die Innocent Blood Sudden Edict and Snuff Out

Dead_Blue_ on

10 months ago

Turn 2 Pox into a turn 3 Lilly would be an amazing play but the stars would really have to align with Urborg & Flagstones lining up for it

The thing is you’ll do stuff like discard your Bloodghast to Lilly then bring it back for free with a land drop and still have mana open the same way you would with Smallpox but there will be many games where a turn 2 Smallpox is not an optimal play, often it’ll be a turn 4 play. And speaking from experience most decks can recover against a pox but Lilly single handed can take over, whatever they draw they discard, whatever they play you negative 2. It creates an unwinnable scenario for a lot of decks. It would go great with the Lingering Souls beat down

Mousemke on Persistent Archon

11 months ago

Skysurfer while true, it doesn't work toward getting things into the grave. Now, if it went to the grave instead of the bottom of library, it would be amazing. Founding the Third Path is the only way it would be cast from the grave and between Persist Unmarked Grave and Smallpox there are already plenty of targets

wallisface on

11 months ago

Dead_Blue_:

• i used to run 24 lands and have actually gone down to 23. I can run a much lower land-count due to the abundance of Cling to Dust. My games are faaar more likely to end up with me being mana-flooded rather than mana-screwed.

• Liliana of the Veil would be a really bad choice for this deck, as we don’t care about our opponents hand - we’re targeting their lands so that they can’t cast stuff. Lili would only serve to let them pitch stuff they wouldn’t be able to cast anyway, while also not presenting any kind of threat. Bloodghast is much stroner in that it creates card advantage via Smallpox… and even if it does get exiled it’s still usually no big deal.

• Bitterblossom could be a consideration, though the deck can often go pretty-low on lfe before securing a win, so is probably more risk than its worth. Sword of Fire and Ice doesn’t feel particularly useful here at all tbh, we’re tying to keep the opponent oppressed, so by the time we could play it we’re prolly already in a winning position