Subject: Pox Variant Date: Wed, 7 Jan 1998 01:04:35 -0800 From: Caloy Alejandro Hey guys. I was playtesting with one of my friend's decks recently, a SchneiderPox variant, and it quite intruiged me. Not because of the deck concept, but how it executed its path to victory. It reminded me pretty much of the old Necro decks of last summer, with the Necros replaced by Poxes and the Disks with Scrolls... anyway, on with the deck. 4 Pox 4 Stupor 4 Rain of Tears 4 Funeral Charm 4 Diabolic Edict 3 Spinning Darkness 3 Evincar's Justice 3 Drain Life 4 Cursed Scroll 4 Charcoal Diamond 3 Steel Golem 4 Wasteland 16 Swamp Sideboard: 3 Touchstone 3 Essence Bottle 3 Perish 3 Dread of Night 2 Disrupting Sceptre 1 Phyrexian Furnace It turns out to be mono-black, no splash colors and hence eliminating the need for multi-lands which then turns out to negate all the Wastelands that are in decks all over the area here. Rain of Tears can be devastating after a Pox, or against a multi-color deck, the Wastelands work in tandem with the Rain to virtually stall a multi-color deck. Turns out that almost 90% of decks out on the field now have at least 4 non-basic lands, 50% are at least dual-color with the remaining 50% being mono-color decks. Touchstones eliminate the need for Disenchants and the threat of an enemy Winter Orb... or an enemy deck's Cursed Scroll (tap the scroll during his upkeep... does he waste mana to use it or risk getting his hand diluted?). Some may argue that Disks too are a threat. My friend's reply was that "Why the heck would I want to put down all my Scrolls at once? I only play with 1 or 2 on the board at a time anyway." Disks are not a threat to this deck if played conservatively. The Essence Bottles provide a pressure valve against red/Sligh decks. A Pox or two usually out along with maybe a Stupor. 2 CC with a 3 AC for 2 life is not that bad in this deck. Reusability is also a plus with the Bottle, yielding to card advantage in the long run against a blast deck. The rest of the sideboard is understood. Perish for Green, Dreads for White, Sceptres for Blue, and the Furnace for Dancing 187s. Questions are: is my friend correct in putting more of a control aspect in his deck, i.e. land destruction, instead of the standard 4 Golems or 3 Golem/2 Spheres? Is the Sideboard better than the multi-colored sideboard which often comes with this deck? Admittedly, there is no way to eliminate enchantments, but not many out there can hurt this deck aside from probably Karma. Any criticism of the above deck is welcome. -Caloy +------------------------+------------------------+ | Caloy Alejandro | IRC Nick: Phelan | | freeman@iconn.com.ph | ICQ UIN : 3718395 | | yue_lung@geocities.com | | |"Nowhere to go but up, nowhere to fall but down."| +------------------------+------------------------+