I think this is a great constructed card. I have a deck with this as it's core synergy engine, but I can't imagine Cubing it. You need to be able to ensure the non symmetry for it to be good and I don't think you can do that reliably enough for this to be a good card. there are a lot of removal options I'd rather have, a lot of discard outlets I'd rather have and a lot of opponent discard effects I'd rather have. It's powerful, but I don't think a good Cube card.
It's not that difficult to ensure value from Smallpox. It's definitely a fringe card that will only see inclusion in larger cubes, but I don't think it's too hard to make things assymetrical on multiple levels.
I was never able to make it very good in my cube. Black has a plethora of good 2cc spells, and I personally think the BB cost is too prohibitive. You can make it asymmetrical, but even when it is it never felt like that much of a blowout. If you don't have a creature out, you're probably playing a deck that wants all of your lands and cards in hand. And if you're playing an aggressive/disruptive deck where the LD and discard will pack the most value, I want to be applying early pressure with creatures against an empty board and it kinda falls short there too. I think it's a fine card, but I think it misses the cut for most small to medium-sized cubes for the reasons above.
Wish it was better than it is. I do like it as a sideboard card against green on the play (taking out a land and a bird/elf is more than worthwhile), but that's pretty specific.
Smallpox is on my list of cards that I want to try at some point. I don't think we are quite there yet, but with an increasing number of creatures like Bloodghast, Reassembling Skeleton and Gravecrawler and black being the reanimation color I can see including Smallpox in cube decks.
I have to disagree with most people here. This card has been very good in my Cube. It was great in my Bw Braids/Lingering Souls/Sinkhole deck that I played a few days ago, and it is a stronger pick than most of the black 2-drop creatures.
Smallpox came into my cube a few weeks ago and has been surprisingly good. I think you really have to start pushing the deck it's good in for it to shine though. With Bloodghast, Gravecrawler, Geralf's Messenger, etc, it's a really good card. It synergizes well with Liliana, Braids, and Smokestack as well. I've had a lot of good luck with mono or close to mono black stax decks ever since I started including fringe cards like Smallpox, and I really think Smallpox is one of the reasons why.
My cube definitely supports graveyard interaction heavily. I try to include as many playable flashback cards as possible, and I run things like Squee, Loam, Crucible, etc.
I don't think it's for everyone, but if you decide you want a smallpox deck to be a valid draft deck in your cube, it's totally possible (at least in smaller cubes like my 455, larger numbers may have trouble getting density of relevant cards). I think it's a really fun direction to take black and I highly recommend it.
Enables reanimation and can be setup as non symmetrical very easy. Double black hurts, but the effect can be very strong.
My Peasant Cube: @ mtgsalvation---- @ cubecobra
http://cubetutor.com/cubeblog/993
http://www.cubetutor.com/cubeblog/23690
Blimpy's Aggro-Focused Cube (powered 360)
I'm always open to suggestions on how to improve my cube. Take a look and ask a question, or give a constructive critique whenever you can.
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
"What am I looking at? Ashes, dead man."
One sided pox
Sorcery
Target player loses 1 life, discards a card, sacrifices a creature, then sacrifices a land.
I'm guessing 3BB at least.
Juju Alters - Altered MTG Cards
Yeah, I was trying to find the absolute lowest cost for the card to be awesome, but not completely busted.
Juju Alters - Altered MTG Cards
My cube definitely supports graveyard interaction heavily. I try to include as many playable flashback cards as possible, and I run things like Squee, Loam, Crucible, etc.
I don't think it's for everyone, but if you decide you want a smallpox deck to be a valid draft deck in your cube, it's totally possible (at least in smaller cubes like my 455, larger numbers may have trouble getting density of relevant cards). I think it's a really fun direction to take black and I highly recommend it.
My MTGSalvation Cube Page (not always up to date, but sweet pics of my alters)
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.