MTG Salvation

I guess I'm not in the majority, but I use a custom with a photograph I like by Jacob Aue Sobol, cropped a bit to fit the normal dimensions:



Some other ideas I had when ordering it were a photo of a crematorium window by a Czech photographer named Milan Bures, I'd probably have it made if I played dedicated Burn:



And since I play legacy Pox a lot, I also want to get some customs of old European paintings about the smallpox and Black Death epidemics, or the god awful stuff people got up to about them:

Quote from Dromar »

A 2-2 finish is actually good, nothing to be ashamed of, especially since you're new to the deck... and maybe competitive legacy?
It'd be a little crazy to expect to show up and crush everyone. The deck is reasonably good but can only push win percentages so high.
Deciding when and how to play around counterspells isn't easy, even when you know what to expect. Playing slower isn't always the thing to do; sometimes we need to bait out counters or just try to jam spells to wear them down.

I like the reports; keep 'em coming!

Oh, I was quite happy with the 2-2, considering that yes, I'm new with the deck, and new to Legacy in general. I've been playing Magic for a long time, but have never been good at the game itself. Poor decision making, impulsiveness, etc. On the other hand, I enjoy rogue decks and am reasonably good at deck tuning, curves, mana bases, etc. Getting to play a deck I truly like (like Rack Pox here) and win a few games in the meantime is awesome. I especially like that I occasionally whomp $3k+ piles of cardboard with my $600 pile of cardboard, makes me feel like a hobo who wandered into the yacht club and started socking people

Quote from Darth Bunny »

Advice

That one was a rough couple of games. We did some for funs afterwards and I did get him 3 out of 4, so I'll just have to play more carefully when I face it in the future and mulligan more aggressively. Thanks!

Any basic tutorials or videos on making white border cards black? I'd like to do it with a minimum of bleed on the borders of the card so I don't get some officious little snot calling a judge on me about my Nether Spirits.

Thanks!

I'm running a pretty orthodox Spy list, but I'm wondering about my sideboard. My local meta is mixed, I've dealt with Storm, Elves, BUG Shardless, Food Chain, White Stax, RUG Delver, Stoneblade, Jund, Pox, High Tide, Infect, and others.

Currently I have

• 3x Ashen Rider
  
• 4x Contagion
  
• 4x Leyline of the Void
  
• 4x Mindbreak Trap

But I'm wondering if a Dryad Arbor with a Ray of Revelation and Ancient Grudge list might be more useful. I'm also quite new to the deck, and have to get in a lot more goldfishing before I actually take it in for a tourney.

Thanks!

edit: Wait, the Arbor would stop the Spy, right? So it would be -4 Spy and some others, then +4 Arbor and anti-hate?

This week did 2-2, beating Elves and White Stax and then losing to a Food Chain deck disguised as Shardless and then RUG Delver. I felt the Food Chain deck was me never playing against the deck and not knowing what to hit, and RUG was just unfortunate draws, plays, and a lack of research on my part. I got two Lilys Dazed two turns in a row in one game

Apparently countermagic is something I'll need to learn to deal with. I would say going slower and planning ahead, but that's tough when there's two delvers whacking at me, or seeing the guy put three Mistborns in exile and then FOW'ing my followup discard. I'll keep working on it.

Sideboard went:

• 3x Extirpate
  
• 3x Null Rod
  
• 2x Pithing Needle
  
• 3x Ratchet Bomb
  
• 2x Sadistic Sacrament
  
• 2x Tombstalker

The Sadistics are considered suboptimal and jank, I realize, but I figured they would take care of Storm well enough, and help against Miracles if I could get them off.

Well, I still got him consistently. Not sure what was going on, but yeah the Dakmor/ Crime thing was dumb of me.

I went to a more competitive legacy tourney last night and went 1-2. First match was Storm, which I just wore down in the first game, lost, and then Extirpated Infernal Tutor on the third and won. Second match was Storm as well, in which I made a very bad mistake of Extirpating Brainstorm, I think my reasoning was I had some discard in my hand and I wanted him to quit hiding stuff from me. Cost me the second game, match loss.

Third match was a strange midrange deck with all sorts of stuff in it, most importantly of which was Young Pyromancer. For some reason I forgot to bring in Necroplasm and Massacre from my board, and lost the third game. I think I've been overfocusing on Pithing Needle and need to think more carefully about my boarding (and stop being so impulsive, haha).

I went with two Pithing Needles versus Deathrite and Wasteland, and two Tombstalkers, taking out Liliana and a Bloodghast. His own Liliana didn't matter to me much of course, I would usually just dredge up a pre-Entombed Drakmor for her +1.

For Burn, I'll try the Spinning Darkness, and in the meantime I've put Trinisphere in my sideboard. Other ideas for life gain that I think would fit this version of Pox are the first part of Plunge into Darkness, and Crypt Incursion. They're not as cheap as Spinning, of course, but mid or late game, after Burn is out of gas, I think they'd make a topdecked Fireblast less, ah, impactful

I had a chance to do some extensive testing versus Punishing Jund, with and without sideboards, finding that I won 4 out of 5 or possibly 9 out of 10 games. Pox just seems to outdo it, even with 4 Deathrite Shamans. Since then, I have moved back to using a Nether Spirit instead of Filth, went to 2 Entombs instead of 3, and decided to replace the 1 Entomb and my 3 Innocent Bloods with 2 Disfigure and 2 Smother.

Up next is testing against a very orthodox legacy Burn deck I also have, with initial runs seeming to suggest Pox can deal with it pretty well.

Laser Brains, I like DC too but as it is I'm working on this version right now. Thanks though!

Dromar, I went and got two SDT and four Bloodstained Mire. Turns out that, yes, they and Entomb are very useful in conjunction with the SDT, allowing for finding that key card. Also I decided you're right about overkill with the Ratchet Bombs versus Lily, so I switched the sideboard a bit and have actually taken her out for a few games, when anticipating Needles. Twice I got people to name her, to no avail I did maintain the 4 Bombs though, as there is a heavy presence of Tarmogoyfs, Deathrite Shamans, Kird Apes, Wild Nacatls, Glistener Elves, etc. at my shop.

Here is my current build:



In the main 60, I wanted to try 2 Racks and 2 Shrieking Affliction to lessen the vulnerability to dedicated artifact hate like Smash to Smithereens and Ancient Grudge. I know plenty of cards can take care of either of them, but I figure the off chance of catching someone with an anti-artifact card in their hand cause they saw The Rack last game, but having Affliction working them this game would be great.

I'm taking this in next week, played a slightly different version last week, going 2-1-1 (win against Prison Pox and High Tides, draw to Zoo, and loss to Shardless). I really enjoy this more aggressive version of Pox, versus the Prison style I played before.

I think Filth will be more useful overall than Nether Spirit, considering Urborg's interaction and the gaggle of Bloodghasts. One of the problems I anticipate is burn, but I'm going to go with three Smother to handle an Infect deck that's been winning at the shop I go to, versus more Spinning Darkness. The Ratchet Bombs are for Needles, and the Tombstalkers are to speed up my clock versus Shardless.

I've recently gotten back into MTG, and noticed that a deck idea I came up with was Legacy legal. I'd like to get some feedback from the collective knowledge of MTGS here, with some points:

I'd like to stay creatureless.
I'd like to keep the Ensnaring Bridge / Null Brooch softlock in place.

Asides from that, the idea of the deck should be plain: Put down a bridge, Beseech a Brooch in, and then work from there, eventually winning with Sorin Markov, Sorin's Vengeance, Cursed Scroll, Drain Life, or Syphon Life retracing.

If this idea is wholly flawed, so be it. If there are better toolbox cards I could be using, let me know. Thanks!