“Legacy – The Final Frontier… these are the voyages of the…
Scrap that! – Even I’m not geeky enough to pursue a Star Trek theme…
For those of you who read my stuff (yes, both of you) you are probably aware of my previous adventures in outer Legacy. Having had next to no experience and next to fewer of the actual cards I previously attempted a run at Oxfords first Legacy tournament with a inbred, half-brained version of Threshold.
Suffice it to say it did not go well…
…but rather than be downhearted I was, instead, invigorated (is that the right word?) and driven to find something that not only was fun, competitive and I had the cards for, but also something different. Legacy may well have a defined “metagame” of the big three – Goblins, High Tide combo, Threshold – but with so many cards and so many interactions there are a multitude of decks just begging to be played.
To this end I started rummaging around forums and sites like Star City Games for something inspiring (ah… this is the word I was looking for). Preferably I wanted something I could play without any duals, or at least very few. And then I stumbled upon Pox…
…I have memories of a friend of mine at University (Will his name was, and still is) playing Pox back when it was legal in Extended. Then suddenly a few things fell into place:
1) I had bought Wills collection and hence owned Pox
2) Timespiral brought us Smallpox
3) I already loved Smallpox
4) I also love things that are medically related (other than work)
5) Someone came second in a Dutch Legacy tournament with Pox
To that end I found, tested and eventually acquired all the cards for a complete Pox deck with a view to taking it, as a laugh and with not that much seriousness, to the next Legacy event I could attend. The final list I ended up with and playing was as follows:
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Creatures Spells |
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Before I get onto the tournament report I want to talk through the deck and particular card choices.
Total Resource Denial - Pox & Smallpox
The deck itself is an extreme resource denial deck, with Pox and Smallpox hitting hand, land, life and creatures. The aim is quite simple – to strip the board and peoples hands to the bone. Pox more often than not hits only the same number of creatures and lands as Smallpox, but in the early game it can do serious damage to an opposing hand. A lot of decks find it very difficult to operate without a hand or land, but our deck is designed to ride that wave and win despite it all. Remember also that although fetch lands dodge Sinkhole, they do not dodge Smallpox.
Hand Denial – Duress & Hymn to Tourach
Arguably two of the best black cards ever printed and best discard spells going. A first turn Dark Ritual into Duress and Hymn to Tourach is often almost “Good Game”. If you can strip their early turn plays as well as counter magic, following up next turn with a Pox or similar you can really slow people down.
Creature Denial – Innocent Blood & Cabal Pit
Pox and Smallpox already do a good job as untargeted removal, but Innocent Blood is still needed as an ideal 1 mana answer to any lone creature. You either cast this pre-animation of your Factory / Idol or you gladly throw your Nether Spirit in the bin. He will be coming back.
Cabal Pit is a card I have seen some people prefer not to run, but be certain that this deck tends to reach threshold quickly! As with Wasteland this card combos very well with Crucible and recurring removal is nothing to be sniffed at, especially when killing annoying Meddling Mages. This is only run as a two of due to the pain when using it for mana. We already hurt ourselves enough as it is.
Mana Denial – Sinkholes & Wastelands
The most pricey card in the entire deck and for good reason. Sinkhole is the most efficient piece of land destruction for this deck and is always a good way to keep your opponent on a back foot. Many of the decks in Legacy run mana shy (such as Threshold) and this helps to prolong your opponents mana screw. Just be careful to avoid a bounced Island for a Daze and remember also that although fetch lands dodge Sinkhole, they do not dodge Smallpox.
Wasteland is very heavily played in Legacy and for good reason. We like to punish peoples mana bases and this land can deal with any dual as well as troublesome Factories. In the late game, with Crucible of the Worlds, this also forms a soft lock that many decks just lose to.
Win Conditions – Nether Spirit, Chimeric Idol and Mishra’s Factory
Let us not be mistaken – Pox is a control deck with a slow clock for winning. Pox itself can deal a good 5-6 damage to an opponent but rarely can you Pox someone out the game. To deal the rest of the damage we have these three cards, with a total of 8 win conditions – which is not many.
Nether Spirit is the ultimate thorn in any side. He may only be a 2/2 but he is almost (read Swords to Plowshares) impossible to remove permanently. He just keeps coming back for more. An ideal first turn play (on the draw) is ritual, Duress, Smallpox discarding Nether Spirit. Only three are in the deck because, as much as he is awesome, he is not good in multiples. If you do draw a spare you need to try and hold him until his friends gets the Sword.
Mishra’s Factory is a fall back beat down option doubling as mana production. However, most of the cards in the deck only have black in their cost and so it is only played as a pair. This is one of the few Wasteland targets in the deck, but at least they come back with Crucible.
Chimeric Idol, admittedly, has poor synergy with the Factory. To this end some people are playing Phyrexian Totem instead, but with an activation cost of 3 it is rare to be able to animate. Instead I’ll stick with the cheap activation of 0 for my 3/3 beat stick. It’s not like I do anything in my opponents turn – and hopefully they don’t either.
Mana & Land Recursion – Swamps, Rituals and Crucibles
There is little to really say about the land base, other than the absence of fetches. Generally this deck 1) destroys it’s lands quickly and 2) sacrifices life quickly. Although fetches thin the deck we don’t want to stop ourselves drawing land in the late game. We will need to have some mana to play the few spells we draw, which conveniently cost from 1-3 mana.
To that end every single spell in the deck can be cast off of a Dark Ritual – from Pox to Idol to Crucible. The ritual is one of the most abusive cards in this deck and allows you to rip apart boards and hands well before time.
Crucible is here as a two of and is one of the cards I am always happy to see. If it hits the table (and stays there) you can recur your creatures (Mishra’s Factory), land destruction (Wasteland) and removal (Cabal Pit). You can even get back the swamps you sacrificed to your own Pox to break the symmetry.
So that is the main deck in the completed form. It may well not be optimal and there are certainly a lot of different choices available – Some play Phyrexian Totem, some play Powder Keg main deck etc. etc. – but that is to be expected in a format where such a diverse card pool is available. As much as the card pool is diverse, so is the metagame, which has really yet to define itself in Oxford. To that end I don’t want to talk too much about match-ups but ultimately it breaks down to a few ways people have of beating you:
a) Lay more creatures than you can deal with (Goblins) – All of your kill spells say “sacrifice a creature” and if your opponent has many they will keep the best and lose the worst.
b) If you do not get control early enough – This just comes from bad draws. If you let people get into the game then it can be tricky to regain control.
c) They nullify your game plan – Pretty much what Crucible and Loam do – they allow players to get back their resources and stay in the game.
d) They topdeck better than you – Many games come down to empty boards and empty hands. Your aim here is to draw answers to their plans – Sinkhole the land, Blood the Creature, Hymn the Hand. Sometimes however you draw just lands while they draw the right mix. This is made worse if they play lots of cantrips to draw out of your denial.
In the end the sideboard is there to shore up your weaknesses, or more often than not replace the dead cards with better ones. To that end we have:
SB - Anti-Aggro:
4x Infest – Essential for the Goblin match and generally more flexible than Engineered Plague, if less permanent. When designing my sideboard I wanted limited redundancy and felt that I could bring this in against Goblins and any aggro deck, while Engineered Plague is next to useless outside Goblins.
3x Lose Hope – What we really need is more answers to a turn one Lackey and there are a lot of cards vying for this slot. Some decks play Funeral Charm, which can double as discard in the Combo match. Some people also play Darkblast due to the recursive abilities. I decided that what Pox lacks is card draw / selection and that Scry would allow me to make sure I draw into that Infest. There are arguments for all of these cards and I am still unsure as to which is the correct choice.
SB - Anti-Control / Combo
We already have a reasonable game against combo and control decks, as we can strip lands and hands with relative ease. What we do need are replacements for Innocent bloods which are often useless – how many creatures do Solidarity and IGGyPop play?
3x Oppression – Against any deck that tries to ramp a storm count, such as High Tide, this card makes it very, very difficult. Every draw spell costs them another card, every counterspell costs another card. I have yet to actually see this card in play but I can imagine a turn one Oppression off of a Dark Ritual will be hard to work around.
2x Cabal Therapy – To fill the last few gaps in the board we have a pair of the second best discard spell. This is so synergistic with Nether Spirit it is unreal. The reason, however, this is played in the board rather than over Duress in the main is because, more often than not, your opponent has only 1-2 cards in their hand when you topdeck a late game Duress. To that end hitting an accurate Cabal Therapy is going to be insanely hard, but a blind Duress is much more likely to be successful.
SB – The “Should This Be Main” Anti-Everything
3x Powder Keg – The last three slots in the board were very undecided for a period of time as I tried to figure out what cards the deck really has problems with. I boiled it down to Crucible of the Worlds and Aether Vial. The Crucible negates our denial by letting my opponents get lands while the Vial allows people to play creatures with no mana at all. In fact I pretty much scoop to turn one Aether Vial.
I initially was going to play Leyline of the Void in this slot to deal with Crucible and IGGy, until I stumble upon my Kegs. Then I realised that they deal with pretty much all of my problems:
Counters at 0 = Armageddon target Affinity Player
Counters at 1 = Destroy Goblin Lackeys, Aether Vials and Pithing Needles not naming Powder Keg.
Counters at 2 = Destroy Meddling Mage, Nantuko Shade, Goblin Piledriver, Jötun Grunt etc. etc.
Counters at 3 = Destroy my own Spirits, Idols and Crucibles.
Counters at 4 = Destroy Leyline of the Void
In fact the card seems so strong that if I could figure out what to take out to play it main deck I would. I am also contemplating adding some Chrome Moxen to the mix, probably taking out 1 Pox and two lands. I can imagine the permanent mana boost would be great post-Pox and you almost always have dead cards in a matchup. The ability to go turn 2 Smallpox with no ritual seems good and you can always pitch them to Smallpox / Big Pox in the late game.
Well, that seems to be enough to fill a whole article, so I will leave you there. Next time I will return with a report from my second Oxford Legacy event with bonus lists for the other deck I provided for the day.
Dr. Chunk
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