Pox

[limitedwhole]

Here is a decklist of the current Pox build I am working on.  It does a couple intersting things.  First it attacks much more consistently and early due to the use of more acceleration in the form of Cabal Ritual.  Secondly, it removes the glut in the two mana slot and displaces it mainly into the one mana slot and three mana slot.  Thirdly it uses some unconventional cards, The Rack and Mindstab Thrull. 

Cabal is very good, turning our turn two into a turn three much like Dark ritual does for our turn one.  It also runs off colorless allowing us to make three mana plays off a wasteland and swamp which is important.

The Rack is labelled as conditional and terrible but I have found it to be the most efficient damage source and very reliable considering the amount of venom this deck spits.  Mindstab Thrull due to Cabal Ritual's inclusion is a reliable turn 1 or two play and terribly difficult to deal with in time often drawing force of will.  I have found it very good against traditional multicolored control, mono-blue, and even Workshop (a matchup that I thought would suck initially).  The main idea of this deck is to attack 1-2-3 to take advantage of all the 2-3-4 decks out there right now. 

Although I think this deck is pretty tight and descent I posted it here in the newbie forum because I knew it would get moved as soon as osmeone saw the words Pox and Rack.  I also don't really have a metagame because I don't play in tournaments.  If you like mono-black try this deck out because The Rack is way more reliable than one is led to believe and Mindstab Thrull is sick.  Being the only critter in the deck makes him just that much sicker.  Sideboard is small as it is difficult to swap out cards in a Pox deck.  Likely includes would be Chains and Coffin Purge? Perhaps, a large switch against aggro decks?  Another possibility is to change the tempo of the deck via sideboard for when you are playing second.

4 Duress
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Sinkhole
4 Pox
4 Mindstab Thrull
Demonic Consultation
Vampiric Tutor
Imperial Seal
Demonic tutor
Yawgmoth's Will
Mindtwist
4 Engineered Explosives
4 The Rack

Mana Sources and Accelerants: 26
Black Lotus
Mox Jet
4 Dark Ritual
4 Cabal Ritual
11 Swamp
4 WAsteland
1 Strip Mine

[Dipstik]

I'm not sure you really understand what Pox is supposed to do. I don't see any creatures that survive your Pox, and mindstab thrull sucks. Your only kill seems to be The Rack, and that's probably not the best strategy.

Here are some suggestions to help maximize the one-sidedness of your Poxes:

Mishra's Factory (A *must* in Pox decks)
Nether Spirit (discards to pox and then comes back)
Chimeric Idol (I used to run this long ago... probably not as good now, but it lives through pox and then beats for 3 afterwards)
Cursed Scroll (Mana intensive, but you empty your hand quickly, and it survives pox)

Also, you really need some creature kill aside from Pox itself, especially since you're not running any blockers like Factory or Idol. I'd suggest diabolic edict or maybe cursed scroll. What's with the Explosives? Are you really worried about 1cc stuff? There are better answers to welders in a monoblack deck.

Finally, while sinkholes were great back in 1999 or so, they're a little slow for today's T1. In a powered environment they're almost useless, and in a casual environment, you'll probably be facing too much beatdown. I'd suggest cutting them.

Now for my questions on modern Pox... I've tried splashing white for balance and maybe a couple vindicates or even gerrard's verdict, but I'm not sure I like running duals and saclands in pox. Also, I've been trying to fit in a couple Death Clouds. They're a little expensive, but there are situations where they are even better than pox. Thoughts?

[vartemis]

another card i used to run in my black house deck was mindslicer.

Mindslicer  2BB
Creature - Horror [4/3]
When Mindslicer is put into a graveyard from play, each player discards his or her hand.

Yes you dump your hand, but you should also be running some kind of draw like necro or even night's whisper.  If you are running nether shadows you can bring em back anyways, and this creature allows your racks to do some dammage.

just a thought.

j

[BigMac]

I like the idea to try and make a new pox deck. However, when you make such a deck you need to understand that the current metagame has a lot of graveyard use. If you make your opponent discard many cards at least be sure he will not be able to cast them again. (withered wretch or tormod's crypt are cheap and black examples)

Next is your inability to deal with an early oath, which to me is a bad plan as many people can play an early oath and than simply win, as your only critterremoval seems to be the pox. The only way i see you could deal with that is a nev disc or including green or white. (for seal of cleansing, disenchant, naturalise or pernicious deeds)(dystopia could be played as a sideboardcard here as well though)

The last thing is that you have only 1 real damage base. As many decks with artifacts are played nowadays it is very likely many people play with artifact removal. Try and include some other forms of damage.

A few notes. An early necro is very good, even with a pox deck as you can regulate your lifeloss a bit more even and even draw cards for life you would otherwise lose due to rounding up. If you complement this with 2 or 3 tendrils you could be in for a sure win situation as you allready play lots of mana acceleration. cards put aside by pox are not susceptible to the pox, so you could empty his hand while filing yours at the same time.

Some creature removal other than engineered explosives are very much needed. Some cards work really well with pox. (spinning darkness and contagion)

Playing 1 or 2 crucible of worlds could prove very good indeed as you could lose the sinkholes and use the wastelands and stripmine over and over again. Together with the mishra's factory you could be in a winning streak.

I hope this helps you some as i really enjoy seeing pox again in a deck.

[Slack]

I have a little experience with Pox.  My thoughts are as follows.

Discard will, unfortunately only get you so far.  One reason for this is that Pox topdecks pretty poorly.  After erasing a bunch of land, a creature or two and both of your hands you suddenly run out of steam.

For this reason, I don't think that mindstab thrull would be worth it.  There are better things you could spend 3 mana on such as Phyrexian Negator, Skittering Horror or Dauthi Marauder.  That way, if you do get a creature out after pox, or early off a ritual it can put them on a decent clock.  This will of course vary depending on your metagame.  If there is a lot of straight aggro decks then you'll want something appropriate for that. (Maybe not the Negator for example).

In my pox deck I ran 3 copies of skullclamp.  In type 1 skullclamp is legal so you can abuse it as much as you want.  Skullclamp and Dauthi Marauder have horrible synergy.   Skullclamp and Skittering Skirge (or Horror) are slightly better when either you play another creature or you pox.  Too many copies of skullclamp though and you will be drawing more than are useful since pox isn't typically packed with creatures.  Night's Whisper is another idea for a draw engine as vartemis said.

I did run Necropotence in my deck, but I didn't like it most of the time.  Again, there aren't many pox hands that say "I win".  So once you are skipping your draw step, losing life to pox and paying life for cards, it gets worse.  I saw my deck as more of a control deck than a beatdown deck like sui black.

The rack I found to be a bit slow for the environment especially since type 1 decks usually have some way to draw cards and that they can typically win at low life levels.  However, your milage may vary.

Mind twist I also ultimately dropped because it is usually an overcosted Hymn as pox leaves you low on mana.

I ran 4 Chalice of the Void and 1 Trinisphere to try to contain brokenness as much as possible.

This may seem like a lot of negative things, but I'm really not trying to talk down your deck.  These are just the things that I found did not work well in my build.

I found Pox to be a good time all around to play even though it did get steamrolled by more popular decks some of the time.  So good luck with this and have fun.

Disclaimer: I played this deck without power, which obviously made it considerably worse.  Chalice may not be such a wise choice if you are using lotus and jet.

[pox_reborn]

I tend towards a prison-esque pox. chalice,crucible,and pox can apply tremendous pressure when set up right. (Granted this is for casual decks not tourney settings)

As stated before, pox burst out the gates but needs followup cards to capitalize on the momentary loss the opponent faces. I've been pondering geth's grimoire which states whenever an opponent discards a card,draw a card. This could be a good addition but bear in mind the prohibitive cost of 4 that it carries.

In general, the entire mindset around a pox deck is this: Taking a proactive response is better than a reactive one. You eliminate threats before they even become an issue.

Always nice to see other people interested in pox from time to time.

[emidln]

I've been playing with B/W Pox in the little Vintage I play and it seems to do okay. It was at least consistent, and provided outs to several threats. The usual kill was from Death Grasp for around 5. I used to run Skeletal Scrying in place of Chains and had Chains in the SB (1 for 1) but I was losing card advantage bad without chains. There is the obvious cruicble/strip mine present, necro is there to be abused (but carefully), and the will normally fetches dark rits and/or death grasp for a kill. I seem to remember playing Exaulted Angel in here at one time, but I don't remember how she fit.

I ran:

// Tutors
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor

// Pox Engine
4 Pox
4 Death Grasp
3 Crucible of Worlds

// Broken
1 Necropotence
1 Yawgmoth's Will

// Disruption
4 Duress
1 Balance
3 Vindicate
2 Swords to Plowshares
3 Chains of Mephistopheles

// Land and Acceleration
4 Dark Ritual
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Diamond
4 Mishra's Factory
1 Strip Mine
1 Plains
6 Swamp
5 Fetchland (4 Black, 1 White)
2 Wasteland
4 Scrubland

I think my sideboard ran kegs, chalice, engineered plague, serenity, planar void and a few other things. I don't really like this deck in type one. I see too many games lost due to a tendrils for 8 killing me. Player beware, this deck is as suicidal as they come.

[Revvik]

if you're looking for some efficient creature removal, you should give Snuff Out a look.  There are few creatures in Type One you want to get rid of, so the life loss is hardly an issue unless combined with several large Skeletal Scryings against an aggro deck.
A local player in my area racked up an impressive string of wins with a Suicide Black deck running a full complement of Snuff Outs between main and board.  I even use one myself as a singleton Wish target in my current deck.

You should so call the deck iPox.