MTG Salvation

After Smallpox performed surprisingly well some users here suggested using Pox as a build around me card and a tool for black aggro. In theory it should hit more cards in hand in early game and overall should cause more life loss. In early game it may not hit their creature, though.

Honestly Pox performs better than Smallpox most of the time. Hitting two lands, a dude, ~7 life, and 2 cards is big. Most decks can't come back from it. You just have to test it to see its power.

Also, the Ice Age art is awesome:

I know there are cubers out there that have as much success as myself with this card. It's nearly an Armageddon that also hits your opponent's life.

It is so good when played properly/built around. No wonder it cost BBB, the broken-ness level is over 9000

It's always rounded up. 4 means you pox 2.

This one has me very interested too. It gives black another agressive outlet to dump a back-biting creature as well, or enabling morbid or some such.

without doing a gatherer search, i think pox is the only card that asks people to divide permanents or life totals by a number other 2 (ie, half).

If anyone wants some reading on the math or how to get all the advantages they can with Pox I suggest reading the legacy Pox primer:

http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=158085

If you would cube with this card, you should play Pox:

BBB
Sorcery
Each opponent loses 7 life, discards two card, sacrifices a creature, then sacrifices two lands. You lose 7 life, discard two cards, sacrifices a creature, then sacrifice a land.

Quote from MagicFever

The solved misunderstanding due to the wording actually wants me to bring this card in within my next little update.

I'm pretty sure most people misunderstand Pox the first time. I'm glad the word is out about Pox, it's been nothing but a beast.

Quote from xfollowthereaperx

If you would cube with this card, you should play Pox:

BBB
Sorcery
Each opponent loses 7 life, discards two card, sacrifices a creature, then sacrifices two lands. You lose 7 life, discard two cards, sacrifices a creature, then sacrifice a land.

My favorite thing about it so far has been the life loss; it is very good at that (and usually in black aggro, like any good aggro deck, I don't care about the life loss very much.)

Quote from Usman

My favorite thing about it so far has been the life loss; it is very good at that (and usually in black aggro, like any good aggro deck, I don't care about the life loss very much.)

Black is notorious for being bad at reach in their aggro decks. The life loss is very key, you're right. The first time I casted it in my cube I giggled like a child.

I think that once we get that next iteration of Bloodghast/Gravecrawler that we're all clamoring for, it'll get adopted more in cubes, but I think it's definitely great right now.

Does this count as thread necromancy? I hope so.

Pox isn't getting picked much in my cube. I run support for Stacks/Braids/Smallpox to some degree but don't go that deep. It may be the BBB that turns people off or the tiny text on my Ice Age edition.

I'm planning to cut it when my Toxic Deluge turns up. Does anyone want to try and dissuade me?

Don't cube spells your group hates.

But you should keep it because it's awesome.

Quote from wtwlf123

Don't cube spells your group hates.

Yeah, as usual, what wtwlf123 says. I've tried a few different things over the years that my regular group doesn't like, so out they go.

That being said, they picked up on Pox pretty quickly. Shame your group didn't.

I love pox. It's one of my favorite archetypes.

I'll just use this opportunity to say that I prefer this artwork instead.

I love Pox enough that even if my group hated it, I'd still cube with it so I could play it. It's hands down my favorite control card ever.

The pox package was a lot of fun when we ran it. Sadly the size of my cube and the fact that we only draft with 4 or fewer players made supporting such a high commitment strategy difficult. Due to the frequency with which the cards showed up, my players became less enamored with the intense color restrictions it placed on them in drafting and avoided the cards in order to stay flexible and creative in the draft. Still, playing pox is a total blast.

My environment has been running the Pox package for a while now. It has never had any major success. No player at the table has drafted it and been super impressed. What am I missing in my cube? http://www.cubetutor.com/cubeblog/4374

People just didn't take it when it was in my cube. I have no idea why, as Death Cloud, Smokestack, and Smallpox always get taken.

We tried it here and it was pretty horrible. I'd much rather draft storm and add in a ton of good black cards for it than have Pox as a black substrategy.

Pox hasn't been drafted too often in my cube but it's been awesome when it has. It's a great substrategy for black aggro and there are so many ways to skew it in your favor.

Cheers,
rant

I'm bumping all kinds of old threads lately.

It seems like Pox has fallen out of favor in the last two years. What gives? I have an irrational love for symmetrical effects, and this card is one of the reasons I wanted to build a cube, so I can't really picture taking it out. Plus, I love hearing other players go "what the piss is 1/3 of 17?" at the next table over?

Quote from MikePemulis »

It seems like Pox has fallen out of favor in the last two years. What gives?

For me, it was the BBB cost combined with the introduction of C cards. My mono-black decks are now generally playing lots of colorless utility lands to take advantage of TKS/Smasher and BoS. Making Pox a card that's really hard to cast, even for the decks that should want it the most.

When we get to the black top 20, you'll see Pox in my list. I love love love Pox. It's my favorite Magic card and one of my favorite cards to build around in cube. The triple black cost can certainly be challenging on your manabase, but I've not found that difficulty to be enough to warrant cutting the card. Pox is not necessarily a turn three card, so it's not like you want the three black on that turn. Granted you can cast it that early and have it cripple your opponent, but that's not always ideal timing. Pox decks with sacrifice and graveyard shenanigans are the decks I have the most fun playing in cube.