haha you played 3 spells in the whole match.
I took the liberty of categorizing... hope you don't mind:
===== Aggro 6-8 =====
Death and Taxes: 1-3
Burn: 0-2
Bug Delver: 1-1
Napoleonic Delver: 1-1
Jund: 1-0
Goblins: 1-0
Burg Tempo: 1-0
Counterburn: 0-1
===== Control 6-5 =====
Miracles: 2-2
Nic Fit: 3-0
Jund Depths: 1-2
Lands: 0-1
===== Combo 5-10 =====
Elves: 1-2
Imperial Painter: 0-2
Sneak and Show: 0-2
Storm: 0-2
Oops! All Spells: 2-0
Dredge: 0-1
Reanimator: 1-0
Food Chain: 0-1
Cheeri0s: 1-0
I was thinking about other cards to go in but I haven't been paying much attention.
I think cards like funeral charm or collective brutality might have some benefit since they are useful for a wider variety of situations. In my list I might substitute another land and another win-con. I'll update the primer when I make a decision.
Cheers
I use mtgtop8.com to keep track of meta changes... I don't see anything that would really harm pox, though the relatively new eldrazi deck looks annoying. Take a look at newer lists to get a feel for what you might face before walking into a tournament.
You may have better luck posting on the budget or casual sections on the forum, as most users on this thread are generally more familiar with competitive cards.
Couple things though: 1. I would suggest running something like merfolk looter. 2. Don't run brainstorm if you don't have any fetchlands. 3. Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur is a great target for your list/budget.
Peace
Gate to Phyrexia is interesting, but probably less useful in general than ratchet bomb for dealing with chalice if that is a major concern in your meta.
I am no stranger to splashing colors in various styles of pox. However, I think it's clear that splashing a color in rack pox will cause more problems that it will solve. The deck is powered by casting a lot of BB, 1BB, and BBB spells and managing the lands is already difficult enough.
BW prison-style pox has the lower game one win percentage among styles of pox decks... (wins 44% of game one) based on data of collected from tournament reports. For what it's worth I have a large collection of duals and fetchlands, but still prefer the stability, consistency, and speed of mono-black rack pox over other variations. I also like chalice-loam prison pox and a particular brew of BG pox using synergy with spreading algae and urborg, tomb of yawgmoth.
Peace
If glass cannon decks appeal to you, i'd say give it a try. I prefer consistency myself. I posted a general shell for a mono-black variant as well, somewhere in the preceding pages... if you want a budget glass cannon reanimator
The thing about this deck is that we have a few bad matchups, but the majority are even to favorable... So practice will help push those win percentages to give you the edge you need to occasionally win some tournaments. Stick with it!
From the primer:
"We operate on 1-3 lands, so it is generally wise to hold lands in your hand if you have 2 on the board. Holding these lands gives you options when deciding what to discard to Smallpox/Pox. Furthermore, extra lands in hand provide additional fuel for Raven's Crime OR additional land drops to return Bloodghast.
Keep in mind that if you play a 4th land, you will now have to sacrifice 2 lands to Pox."
This is why we try to avoid running 4CMC cards, besides the obvious fact that we tend to run low.
Again I'd suggest running expirpate or surgical extraction in your meta... and just hope not to get matched against a Lands player!
Peace
Duress is also hurting your game against the aggro decks in your meta. Please refer to my list in the primer and the budget section for card ideas.
With a lot of graveyard decks in your meta I would suggest a combination of extirpate and surgical extraction as your cards of choice. Tormod's crypt is pretty lackluster against most players imo.
Hope this helps.
Leaning more toward racks opens your list up to more vulnerability from things such as life from the loam and chalice on 1. Plus the inconsistent draws without top lends the list toward running out of steam, unable to find a win-con, removal spell, or a discard effect when you need one. Some games you may even board out discard.. E.g. Vs. Dredge or reanimator. In that case you may have difficulty closing the game if relying on racks.
Big pox is the staple, and if you don't want to run 4, you should play a different deck.... Along those lines you should not run 4cmc spells, otherwise your advantage from casting pox is lessened.
Peace