MTG Salvation

Boarding in all of your plagues is a must. With a list like yours I'd probably cut the Pox, the SDT, a cursed scroll, and a dark ritual (or the 2nd top, rit allows for turn 1 plague which is a nightmare for elves if they don't have abrupt decay in hand).

Pox doesn't seem all that fantastic against elves. If they have 1-3 elves they only lose 1 , 5-6 they only lose their two worst elves and still have 3 on board (plus not many cards in hand). If they have 6+, you're probably dead.

I could also see cutting nether void for ensnaring bridge, but you need to be really careful to not get too comfy behind the bridge, a single abrupt decay can end you on the spot. There are also times where you just can't empty your hand quick enough and die to something stupid like 3 nettle sentinels.

Nice report.

I don't think boarding out you IoK's and Hymns against elves is in your favor. Pithing needle isn't all that strong either (it only stops quirion ranger, and wirewood symbiote). Your primary goal is to stop them from flooding and/or comboing off. Early hand disruption is pretty strong against them, as they're pretty bad at topdecking. Powder Keg/Ratchet bomb is always good tech against this deck too, and might be worth including, seeing how many delver matchups you found yourself in.

Also, how often is big pox good for you in paper? I mess around with it in my MODO mono B list, but it's usually not all that strong for me as a 1 of.

Looking forward to more reports

Quote from BadTouch

Hmm sometimes everything runs smoothly and sometimes the otherway...

I think your first 5 matchups were not that easy, especially with the first and second MUs vs the two-card combos...

Would you regard DRS as such valuble in the list to also run Bitterblossom for protecting him? I mean basicly you just play 4 symetrical sac-effects so probably we need another way of thinking...
Would you see Tombstalker in a similar spot than DRS or is the versatility of DRS just more valuable than a fast finisher?

LftL has also it advantages, but probably not in this list (though it feeds DRS manaramping).

Keep up the good work and thanks again for the nice report.

Greetings,

Badtouch

The worse matchups were agro loam and maverick. Everything else is fairly even. I'd like to tweak the SB though for a little more versatility.

DRS, bitterblossom, and mox diamond were probably the best parts about the deck (like a rug that brings the room together). When I revisit the list, I'm probably going to find room for another blossom. DRS is just way too good. You get 3 fantastic things with him; Early ramp and synergy with wastes/ sinkholes/other LD, Cursed Scrolls 3-6, and maindeck graveyard hate. All of this at turn 1 is better (at least I think so) than tombstalker. The downside is not playing innocent bloods. Adding more BitBloss might help with that.

Thanks!

Giving up the turn 1 discard wasn't really a huge deal. In most cases I'd like to skip turns 1 and/or 2 by starting off with a deathrite shaman, or diamond into stuff like sinkhole or bitterblossom.

I do not approve of LFTL in this list. It's something I'd like to switch over to crucible. A split may be reasonable too.

Garruk was pretty unimpressive. Granted he's only a 1 of in the deck, but when I've had him in hand I'm not usually able, or wanting to cast him.

3 color is an option. I can easily see the Garruk and 2 Maelstrom pulses turning into vindicates. The mana will be weak though, but the tradeoff might be worth it. I've definitely considered junkPox before. Maybe sometime in the near future I'll try it out.

Thanks!

Quote from gigapatrick

Congratulations on getting married. I've been married four years now and I think it's pretty great.

Anyway, without looking at your previous episodes, I'd like to ask a question: Have you faced Miracles yet with both Mono-Black and with B/W Pox? If so, has Vindicate really made the matchup any better?

Additionally, any strategy advice for beating Miracles with Mono-Black? I figure dropping Pithining Needle, Chains, and getting LilyVoid online are your best bets--but am I overlooking anything?

Thanks! Yes I've faced miracles (counter/helm) with mono B, BG, and BW. It's not a good matchup, but it's not a blowout either. It really depends on how much early countermagic they have. All of my games vs the deck have been close. They're also really capable of digging themselves out with little resources. I haven't had an opportunity to chains them, but there's not much more than what you've listed short of hymn that we can do against them. Vindicate is really nice in that it blows up Jace, any of the combo pieces (except top) and can usually also hit counterbalance, as 3's aren't that plentiful in their deck.

Quote from jimminormann

Hi TheJGits,

Congratulations on the marriage. I am also running on four years now, and it only seems to get nicer and nicer.

Gigapatrick. Vindicate is a HUGE boost to the pox LD build. The 4 Vindicate adds the responses we need (vs. equipment, artifacts, planeswalkers, extra LD for Nether Void etc.) Even though 4x Vindi is my only main deck splash, it was worth it.

My current pox deck is B/w - and I am loving it. I have added a few more win conditions, playing 2x Bitterblossom main deck. However, they seem to hurt me a lot, so I am thinking of cutting one.

Ideas for tweaks:

Mr. Jimes' B/w Pox

DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
Land(24): 5 Swamp 4 Wasteland 3 Mishra's Factory 1 Plains 4 Marsh Flats 4 Scrubland 3 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth Artifacts/Enchants(6): 2 Cursed Scroll 1 Sensei's Divining Top 1 Crucible of Worlds 1 Bitterblossom 1 Nether Void Creatures(2): 2 Nether Spirit Other permanents(4): 4 Liliana of the Veil Instants & Sorceries(24): 4 Inquisition of Kozilek 4 Smallpox 3 Sinkhole 2 Duress 4 Innocent Blood 2 Disfigure 1 Diabolic Edict 4 Vindicate		2 Shadow of Doubt 1 Disenchant 3 Engineered Plague 2 Pithing Needle 3 Leyline of the Void 1 Ensnaring Bridge 2 Surgical Extraction 1 Extirpate

The one main-deck card that I am mostly concerned about is Crucible of Worlds. To me, it seems like a win-more card - i.e. we need to be ahead and have our lock established before it truly shines. I am considering 1 extra Factory instead, or something completely else. The reason I have 2 Duress mainboard is due to $ constraints for Thoughtseize.

Most games I lose because I cannot seem to establish the lock fast enough, or becaue I cannot respond to the creatures on the board. Therefore, I have chosen to be quite aggressive on the creature removal side. Also, this allows me for easier sideboarding against decks that are low on creatures.

Questions:

How many games has Crucible of Worlds won you?

Is Mox Diamond really that great?

Crucible has won a few games, but I wouldn't play the list without it. Our mana base isn't strong, and the ability to recover lands from our graveyard with colorless mana is priceless. A hand with crucible, and a fetch can enable all of your spells if you're stuck on colorless. It's not fast, but it'll get you casting your spells.

Mox diamond is great acceleration. I never want to have a turn 1. Diamond does that for me, and fixes mana. Dark ritual works to the same effect, but I think it's better saved for the mono B lists.

I'm also a big fan of bitterblossom, the pressure it puts on is easily worth the life loss.

Quote from jimminormann

Hi TheJGits,

Greetings from Denmark. I have been fascinated about the B/W Pox, and really like your list. Mine is slightly different, utilizing lingering souls and bitterblossom along with Jitte and sword of fire and ice.

I notice that you SB Sinkhole out often. I am considering cutting them. Villian often waits with 2 fetch lands until he needs to get them, and often sink is a dead card mid/late. Also, we can avoid the 2 black mana symbols to smooth things out.

So, Sink Hole. Can we live without it? (we have 4 waste, 4 smallpox, 4 vindicate and crucible all-day long.)

That sounds like it can be a really neat list, almost a mix of Junk and Pox. I've be very interested in seeing it if you care to share.

As far as sideboarding is concerned, with my list, there are essentially 3 "go-to" cards to cut based on matchup. Sinkhole, Innocent Blood, and sometimes Thoughtseize/IoK. I trim 1 Nethervoid in some matches where I feel that I need to focus on staying alive first, and establishing a lock later, or if the opponent's deck can play through it easily (like the Metalworker Deck).

Sinkhole is a fantastic card. Can we live without it? Ya I suppose so. In all honesty, I don't enjoy cutting sinkhole during SB. A 2 or 5 mana sinkhole (nether void on board) can be a crushing play. It's capable of putting your opponent pretty far behind, sometimes to the point where they can't recover. On the other hand, it can be played around, as you said, by not cracking fetches, and sometimes our opponents manage to draw the lands they need anyway. So does sinkhole belong maindeck?

I actually think that this is a metagame dependent question. Lets look at the Top 8 from the last SCG Open. 4 of the 8 decks run 20 or more land. It's pretty safe to say, that in those matchups sinkhole has less of a chance of being good. Well that's a pretty even split, lets look at the top 16...hmm, still a pretty wide variety. Everything form 14 to 36 lands. In think that in this meta, sinkhole is a great card to maindeck. It really punishes about half the field (assuming the top16 is an 'accurate' depiction of the field) and that's pretty good for a card. For the other half of the field, we can always side it out for better options. If the meta was shifted more so towards a deck like esper stoneblade, sinkhole becomes less good. The opposite is true as well, if RUG becomes popular, sinkhole gets better.

So I guess the real question is, what are we replacing sinkhole with and is it better than SH in the current meta?

Quote from smriggin

Nice report. I like the changes. I've been a fan of B/W pox but haven't been able to make it work well enough. I'm thinking 4 vindicates might be overkill, but w/ the mox diamond acceleration and mana fixing it may just be ok. I like it!

Shawn

Thanks! My biggest issue with the current list is how easily our mana base can be exploited. Mox diamonds are not difficult to remove, and %90 of our lands can be wastelanded. It's really important to think about the order you play your lands, and what you smallpox away.

I've never been disappointed drawing a vindicate though

Quote from Sockosensei

Speaking of Tutors though, Enlightened Tutor grabs your Nether Void, Crucible, Cursed Scroll, SDT, Humility, ...., ....
Just saying;)

I was considering enlightened tutor, and am still considering trying to add helm/RIP or Leyline combo as a sideboard option. Might be neat to play with as an alt win con.

Quote from Sockosensei

I tested your build after your post last week and meant to reply but I don't think I ever did.

I really like the spells you've included--choices and numbers of each. This feels like one promising route for Pox.
However, I had a lot, I mean A LOT of trouble getting the colored mana I needed consistently with the mana base as constructed.
Reading your report, I only noticed you mention that in one game. Could you talk more about it, i.e., how often you had to mulligan for colored mana and such?

A continuation of my comment above,

Maybe something like this

Land baseMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
4 Wasteland 4 Mishra's Factory 3 Scrubland 4 Marsh Flats 1 Verdant Catacomb 3 Swamp 1 Plains 1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale 4 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

You lose some of the value lands (sacking Flagstones to Smallpox is one of my all-time favorite F-you plays:tongue:) to add more black sources. That brings you from lands producing/fetching 12 black and 10 white, to 15 black & 9 white.

Perhaps you'd consider counting Tabernacle as a spell and add a 25th mana-producing land.

Just my thoughts. Good on you for trying different things and not giving up easily. I look forward to the write-ups each week.

My first attempt at the deck's manabase involved 1 Flagstones, 4 Fetches, and 4 scrublands, and I was running into a lot of situations where I was really needing the W for a vindicate or ghostly prison. I also want the deck to be able to hardcast leyline and humility games 2 and 3 if necessary. The mana in the list isn't perfect yet, but I generally don't have trouble getting BB. Dark ritual is also another good source of BB. I'm considering cutting the Nether Spirit again and adding in a Swamp or another SDT. I'm undecided at the moment on that though. Flagstones can be a cuttable card too, as the only situations where it's really awesome is turn 2 with an urborg and a smallpox, which seems a little narrow. It's also quite good when you're at 5 mana with a nethervoid on board, and want to smallpox, and still be able to cast your 2 cmc spells, or get to 6 lands. I don't think i'll be cutting it yet, but will consider if I start to have mana base issues.

Sidenote:

Quote from Obscurus

About the first game (against Merfolk). If you have Humility and Engineered Plague on the table, how can Mutavault hinder your Mishra's attacks? Mutavault would die instantly after activating it, regardless of what creature type you chose for the Plague...

The way the layering works with manlands and humility, when you animate the land the "this land is ____" overrides the "all creatures are 1/1's" from humility. This is a tread about that in detail.

The mutavault would animate as a 2/2, and the plague would bring it down to a 1/1.