NetherPox

[BlackVise]

I've been trying to think of a use for Nether Spirit ( , Creature - Spirit, At the beginning of your upkeep, if Nether Spirit is the only creature card in your graveyard, you may return Nether Spirit to the battlefield. 2/2), and decided to go with a black control sort of a deck.

The idea of the deck is to use cards like Pox and Smallpox to deplete your opponent's hand, creatures, life points and mana, and when possible allow you to cheat Nether Spirit into play. It is actually proving to be quite fast when goldfishing, but I've not been able to test it against other decks yet, so I'm not sure how it would do in certain matchups.  

First, here's the deck list, and then I'll explain the inclusion of each card and mention some possible inclusions.

EDIT: This is the most up to date version of the deck list, the original one with card explanations etc is further down the post.

Creatures:
1x Nether Spirit
3x Bloodghast

Disruption:
4x Smallpox
1x Pox
4x Duress
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
2x Sinkhole
1x Null Rod
2x Stony Silence
2x Chalice of the Void
1x Balance

Tutors/Card Draw:
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Vampiric Tutor
2x Night's Whisper

Acceleration:
4x Dark Ritual

Utility:
3x Crucible of Worlds

Mana Base:
1x Black Lotus
6x Swamp
1x Plains
1x Scrubland
1x Polluted Delta
1x Bloodstained Mire
1x Verdant Catacombs
3x Marsh Flats
4x Mishra's Factory
1x Strip Mine
4x Wasteland

Sideboard:
2x Chalice of the Void
1x Pithing Needle
1x Bloodghast
4x Leyline of the Void
3x Disenchant
1x Plains
1x The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
2x Sinkhole

---------------------------

And here's the original list.

Creatures:
1x Nether Spirit

Disruption:
4x Smallpox
3x Pox
4x Duress
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
4x Sinkhole
3x Null Rod
2x Chalice of the Void
1x The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale

Tutors:
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Imperial Seal

Acceleration:
4x Dark Ritual

Utility:
3x Crucible of Worlds

Mana Base:
1x Black Lotus
8x Swamp
2x Polluted Delta
2x Bloodstained Mire
1x Verdant Catacombs
1x Marsh Flats
4x Mishra's Factory
1x Strip Mine
4x Wasteland

Sideboard:
3x Darkblast
2x Tendrils of Agony
1x Yawgmoth's Will
2x Chalice of the Void
4x Leyline of the Void
- Three free slots

So, now for the card explanations!

Main Deck
Nether Spirit - Can block Dark Confidants, Meddling Mages, etc, is resistant to removal, has great synergy with Pox and Smallpox, and can provide an early threat.
Smallpox - Acts as creature removal, land destruction, hand disruption and direct damage, all for two mana! Plus it allows you to cheat Nether Spirit into play very early in the game.  
Pox - Has the same uses as Smallpox but causes far more loss of life. The mana cost is quite high though, and sometimes the land destruction part can actually lock you out if you haven't got Crucible of Worlds out, so I decided to run it as a three-of rather than four.
Duress - First turn hand disruption and at the very least it allows you to see your opponent's hand. Brilliant card.
Inquisition of Kozilek - Allows you to get rid of creatures in your opponent's hand, which Duress doesn't, and hits most of the most dangerous cards in Vintage (i.e. Dark Confidant, Meddling Mage, Dark Ritual, Black Lotus, Moxen, Yawgmoth's Will etc).
Sinkhole - Early land destruction, great in conjunction with Pox and Smallpox.
Null Rod - Shuts down the opponent's artifacts, most obviously Black Lotus, Moxen, Sol Ring etc.
Chalice of the Void- Shuts down artifact mana if played early enough, and can be used to get around bounce cards like Hurkyl's Recall, or generally broken cards like Yawgmoth's Will.
The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale - Not always a necessary card, but can slow down decks that rely on creatures or at least benefit greatly from using them.
Demonic Tutor/Vampiric Tutor/Imperial Seal - These help make up for the deck's lack of a draw engine, and obviously are useful in nearly any situation in which you can play them.
Dark Ritual - The deck has very little mana acceleration other than these except for Black Lotus, so these make up for the lack of Moxen etc and can allow you to cause significant turn 1 or 2 disruption, and allow you to play an early Crucible of Worlds.
Crucible of Worlds - Creates a lock with Wasteland and Strip Mine, allows you to recur fetchlands and Mishra's Factory if it gets destroyed, and almost negates some of the effects of Pox and Smallpox.
Black Lotus - Doesn't need much explanation, I decided to use this as the only form of artifact mana acceleration in the deck though to decrease the drawback from using Null Rod and Chalice of the Void at 0.
Swamp - Immune to destruction from Wasteland.  
Fetchlands - Again, these help to make up for the deck's lack of a proper draw engine, are recurrable with Crucible of Worlds, and I've included all four that find Swamps just on the rare chance that someone is playing Pithing Needle.  
Mishra's Factory - Provides an early clock, immune to The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale, and provides a win condition if your opponent has got graveyard hate to deal with your Nether Spirit.
Strip Mine/Wasteland - Brilliant cards, especially when used in conjunction with Crucible of Worlds and the land destruction cards in the deck, need very little explanation really!

Sideboard
Darkblast - Deals with Goblin Welder, Dark Confidant, and Yixlid Jailer, and can allow you to get Nether Spirit into your graveyard, or lands when you've got Crucible of Worlds in play.
Tendrils of Agony - Provides an alternate win condition if the Nether Spirit/Mishra's Factory route isn't effective.
Yawgmoth's Will - This was in the main deck for a while, but didn't do much without Tendrils of Agony, so I decided to move it to the sideboard for situations where you would side in Tendrils of Agony.
Chalice of the Void - Good card to side in in games 2 and 3 once you know what sort of deck your opponent is playing.
Leyline of the Void - Dredge decks won't be as affected by your discard and land destruction effects as other decks, and may well even use the discard effects to their advantage, so Leyline of the Void is obviously a great way to get around their dredge effects and graveyard recursion.

That then leaves me with three empty slots in the sideboard, which I'm unsure of what to fill them with. Oath looks as though it could be a poor matchup for this deck, as they only need to get two mana and you're in trouble, so perhaps these three slots could go to stopping that. I'm not sure which card would be best, but Leyline of Sanctity could be a possibility if it interracts with Oath of Druids in the way that I think it does.

There are a few other cards I've considered adding to the deck that I'm not sure of, so I'll list them here too.

Dark Confidant - Brilliant draw engine, and the highest mana cost of any card in the deck is three, or four if you side in Leyline of the Void, so you're not going to lose much life from the draw effect. It isn't particularly synergistic with Pox, Smallpox, or The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale, or Nether Spirit, though, which is why I haven't included it in the deck so far.
Entomb - Allows you to tutor up Nether Spirit, or lands once you've got Crucible of Worlds out; I feel that that makes it quite situational, though!  
An extra Null Rod - Null Rod is pretty much key to the deck's mana disruption plan, but I'm not sure if adding a fourth one would be too much.
Ensnaring Bridge - Would provide an answer to Oath, and Stax as long as you can keep their Goblin Welders from destroying it. Could stop Nether Spirit and Mishra's Factory from attacking, though.
Skullclamp - Would function as a draw engine with Nether Spirit, and Mishra's Factory if you've got Crucible of Worlds out, and at the very least would allow you to pump them up a bit and win faster. Again, though, I feel that it's quite a situational card and would often be a dead draw.
Trinisphere - Would often cement a lock once you've depleted your opponent's lands and hand, but could also lock you out too, so I'm unsure of whether or not to include them. Also, the fact that it's restricted could make it too unreliable to draw.
Nether Void - Similar pros and cons to Trinisphere, but whilst it's not restricted and therefore a more consistent draw, the mana cost is high and as such quite prohibitive, especially in a deck with no Moxen/Sol Ring/Mana Vault etc!
Time Vault/Voltaic Key - Could provide an alternate win condition, but isn't very synergistic with the rest of the deck, though.

So, that's an outline of how the deck plays and the cards it uses, so any comments or suggestions on it would be much appreciated.  

Thanks!

BlackVise

[Delha]

I think Bloodghast would be a good fit here, especially in light of the fact that Pox helps turn on their haste. I'd probably go so far as cutting Nether Spirit, but he can always still serve as ghast #5.

[BlackVise]

Ah, I hadn't thought of trying Bloodghast, it would provide a quick clock and would be easy to recur with Crucible of Worlds; any suggestions on what to cut in that case? I've found Sinkhole to sometimes be a little useless, but I don't know how the deck would do without it... Only one way to find out! 

[tooMuchCoffeeMan]

I used to love playing pox - it would be great if it was playable again.  It can't make a come back until it can deal with Jace.

[BlackVise]

That's actually given me the idea of trying Jace in a deck like this... He'd get around BSC, provide a decent draw engine, isn't affected by Pox or Smallpox, and provides an alternative win condition. 

[Delha]

I'd lean towards a different planeswalker. It was even suggested in the linked thread that she'd be well suited to Pox.

[BlackVise]

Yeah I'd been thinking about trying her.  I've been messing around with Jace in the deck and he's actually pretty brilliant, but a little hard to cast. I'll give Liliana a try next! 

[StrongIslandRob]

looks fun lol

[BlackVise]

looks fun lol

It's fun, but I'm finding it has real consistency issues.

After some testing online I've tweaked the decklist to include a splash of white, some beaters, and some card draw, and it's definitely improved, but I think the deck has a long way to go. That said, I've found that early game this deck can really disrupt an opponent and give you time to reduce their life points significantly and take out a lot of their resources.

Here's the new list, which I shall put into the original post too:

Creatures:
1x Nether Spirit
3x Bloodghast

Disruption:
4x Smallpox
1x Pox
4x Duress
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
2x Sinkhole
1x Null Rod
2x Stony Silence
2x Chalice of the Void
1x Balance

Tutors/Card Draw:
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Vampiric Tutor
2x Night's Whisper

Acceleration:
4x Dark Ritual

Utility:
3x Crucible of Worlds

Mana Base:
1x Black Lotus
6x Swamp
1x Plains
1x Scrubland
1x Polluted Delta
1x Bloodstained Mire
1x Verdant Catacombs
3x Marsh Flats
4x Mishra's Factory
1x Strip Mine
4x Wasteland

Sideboard:
2x Chalice of the Void
1x Pithing Needle
1x Bloodghast
4x Leyline of the Void
3x Disenchant
1x Plains
1x The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
2x Sinkhole

I decided on the inclusion of white mainly for the Disenchants in the sideboard to deal with Leyline of the Void, Stax pieces, Moxen etc, but then found that Stony Silence fits the deck well and faces less hate than Null Rod at the moment, and that Balance is absolutely insane in this deck. It often leaves my opponent with very few cards in hand, no creatures in play, and a very small mana base.

Bloodghast has provided the deck with a more reliable clock, and the one in the sideboard is for matches where I need the additional creature to put pressure on my opponent.

I reduced the number of Poxes in the deck as it actually doesn't do that much unless the opponent has a big creature or multiple creatures I can't deal with, and I reduced the number of Sinkholes as having more than two often caused me to draw them when I didn't need them. I've moved the other two to the sideboard, though, as I've found it to be a great card early on against Stax and Gush decks.

[Bill Copes]

I think one of the benefits of running black is the absolute ease and luxury of casting Hymn to Tourach.  I'd consider cutting the sink holes and perhaps an inquisition or two -- or a crucible, to fit these in.  Misdirection is being played at an all time low.  People are running stuff like mental misstep and flusterstorm in favor of it, so resolving one of these shouldn't be difficult.

[BlackVise]

That's a really good suggestion, I'm quite happy with the two Sinkholes at the moment, so I'll try cutting 1 Crucible and maybe 2 Inquisition of Kozileks.

Thanks!