you dont need to waste slots on dark ritual since waste not has mana acceleration,
It's this kind of statement that makes it look like you're missing something important here.
Waste Not is what you need acceleration for. Yes, I see that it has the potential to give you mana once it's in play, but that's too late to matter. It doesn't matter how many discard spells you're able to chain if you have to wait until turn three to do it, because your opponent has already cast their best spells. Once you let them cast a Tarmogoyf or activate a Stoneforge Mystic, none of your discard spells are relevant anymore.
If you plan to cast your discard spells upfront, then what exactly do you expect Waste Not to accomplish? It won't come down until either you're out of discard spells or the opponent has no hand. Beyond turn four or so, the only way to trigger it will be to draw into discard spells while your opponent is not doing anything, in which case you could find a better card to win with.
you cant complain about not having enough discard and not being able to use it early if your not willing to cut something to run more discard. youll have to make a trade off to fit in more discard at some point.
for a long time the argument has been made that dark ritual is a bad card because its negative card advantage. if your going to run waste not and you want to be able to discard more often you have to cut somewhere, since waste not offers acceleration, i think cutting dark ritual is a decent option. if you dont then you wont have enough utility in the rest of the deck to make waste not as useful through mid to late game as it can be.
dont try to conformwaste notinto the standard style of pox, new cards means new strategies and a new way of playing pox. old pox is slow and deliberate where every trade is measured carefully. waste not allows for a more aggressive pox with a shorter clock.
these days alot of the top tier decks are mid game tempo (Most of which run off of two lands), with the few Turn 1's placing well. Turn 1's dont require alot of cards to counter. mid game is a big problem for cards like pox, because there is none. you either lock them out early or your done. with waste not you can play a completely different mid game, you dont need to rely on things like cursed scroll to close the game out either.
So, what would you take out of traditional pox lists to make room for all that? Few lists play Dark Ritual anymore and Waste Not versions seem to actually want it, to more quickly ramp into Waste Not and subsequently catch up the card disadvantage by chaining into other things. You can't just ditch all acceleration and expect a deck high on 2-CMC spells to beat fast aggro or combo. You say that Waste Not enables aggressive lists, but without Dark Ritual? That's about as contradictory as you can get.
Gravecrawler, Mutavault, and waste not give you alot of 2/* creature, you can actually afford to just trade other aggro decks, if not you can just play toxic deluge as innocent blood is hardly a good card to play into a fast aggro deck, especially since your creature base has built in recovery.
edit: the MWS easy update is out, im going to start play testing now ill let you know if i find a deck list that works well.
Let's let time figure this one out. People will definitely be trying this card at SCG Opens and smaller tournaments so let's see how it works out in practice. I really don't think it's going to be what Pox wants, but maybe there is a reworking of the deck that can make good use of it.
That's the thing about Waste Not: When it's good, it's good, but when it's bad, it's really bad. It's not the kind of card that has much if any impact if you topdeck it late in the game, but you want to run enough to land it reliably in the early game, thus opening up a higher probability of seeing it late when you don't want to.
Playing cards that are more consistent in their benefits is honestly a better idea than trying to force a card like Waste Not to work.
Waste Not is rather like Bitterblossom--both have the same mana cost and are somewhat bad topdecks--except Waste Not wants you to build around it, has an arguably better Christmas scenario, is likely significantly worse late-game, but at least Waste Not doesn't try to get you into burn/Deathrite range!
The Modern 8-Rack people were actually liking Bitterblossom better last time I heard--but then again, 'Blossom does play nicer with their Ensnaring Bridge.
I see waste not as decent if paired with instant speed or consistent discard (liliana and funeral charm), but I can't imagine playing it over any other discard spell on turns one or two. Having the ability to protect your liliana with zombie tokens is pretty cool though.
Waste Not is never going to get there. Discard spells are so much weaker on later turns that you aren't just spending 1B and a card on Waste Not, you are spending 1B, a card, and a good deal of the effectiveness of your Thoughtseize/Hymn/Duress as well.
This does not mean for a second that I do not *want* to see it work with Dack Fayden some time. It just won't be doing that in a competitive game.
Hushwing Gryff is the only thing I see having an impact.
The other card I am watching (and it isn't there yet but future cards might be printed that gets it there) is Soul of Innistrad. If you can get your whole graveyard into your library (Cephalid Breakfast style, or if Hermit Druid gets unbanned), then cast a Songs of the Damned, Soul's 'flashback' lets you win the game in a variety of ways without even being drawn. Narcomeba is proof that cards that have effects without ever being drawn can see play even if the effect is small and the card is terrible when drawn naturally - Soul merits watching. (What it is missing is a card castable with black mana that assists you in casting Laboratory Maniac - presently you need UB in the pool to win after dumping the library into the yard, or 1UUB if you are relying on Snapcasting your Songs of the Damned; that's just a little too much.)
The other card I am watching (and it isn't there yet but future cards might be printed that gets it there) is Soul of Innistrad. If you can get your whole graveyard into your library (Cephalid Breakfast style, or if Hermit Druid gets unbanned), then cast a Songs of the Damned, Soul's 'flashback' lets you win the game in a variety of ways without even being drawn. Narcomeba is proof that cards that have effects without ever being drawn can see play even if the effect is small and the card is terrible when drawn naturally - Soul merits watching. (What it is missing is a card castable with black mana that assists you in casting Laboratory Maniac - presently you need UB in the pool to win after dumping the library into the yard, or 1UUB if you are relying on Snapcasting your Songs of the Damned; that's just a little too much.)
Yeah waste not is "never going to get there" but this? Why in the hell would you cast song of the damned or anything like that. When you can get your whole library into the graveyard you already win with "Oops All Spells".
Oops All Spells requires you to not run land and make other sacrifices (like having 10 or so cards in the deck that do nothing when you draw them, and having to auto-mulligan hands that draw cards you need to be in the library or use resources dumping them into the yard). That makes the deck almost autolose to Force of Will or turn 1 Thoughtseize. Other Cephalid Breakfast style kills are less explosive but more resilient.
Soul isn't there yet, but it is a card that has a large effect that works without drawing it, and cards like that can do explosive things even when they are downright terrible. Case in point: Narcomeba, a card that is terrible but has an effect when not drawn that has such explosive synergy with other cards that it is an archetype enabling card in Legacy.
It's this kind of statement that makes it look like you're missing something important here.
Waste Not is what you need acceleration for. Yes, I see that it has the potential to give you mana once it's in play, but that's too late to matter. It doesn't matter how many discard spells you're able to chain if you have to wait until turn three to do it, because your opponent has already cast their best spells. Once you let them cast a Tarmogoyf or activate a Stoneforge Mystic, none of your discard spells are relevant anymore.
If you plan to cast your discard spells upfront, then what exactly do you expect Waste Not to accomplish? It won't come down until either you're out of discard spells or the opponent has no hand. Beyond turn four or so, the only way to trigger it will be to draw into discard spells while your opponent is not doing anything, in which case you could find a better card to win with.
for a long time the argument has been made that dark ritual is a bad card because its negative card advantage. if your going to run waste not and you want to be able to discard more often you have to cut somewhere, since waste not offers acceleration, i think cutting dark ritual is a decent option. if you dont then you wont have enough utility in the rest of the deck to make waste not as useful through mid to late game as it can be.
dont try to conform waste not into the standard style of pox, new cards means new strategies and a new way of playing pox. old pox is slow and deliberate where every trade is measured carefully. waste not allows for a more aggressive pox with a shorter clock.
these days alot of the top tier decks are mid game tempo (Most of which run off of two lands), with the few Turn 1's placing well. Turn 1's dont require alot of cards to counter. mid game is a big problem for cards like pox, because there is none. you either lock them out early or your done. with waste not you can play a completely different mid game, you dont need to rely on things like cursed scroll to close the game out either.
"If there is such a thing as too much power, I have not discovered it."
--Volrath
BGBGBGBGBGBGBGBGBGBGBGB
Gravecrawler, Mutavault, and waste not give you alot of 2/* creature, you can actually afford to just trade other aggro decks, if not you can just play toxic deluge as innocent blood is hardly a good card to play into a fast aggro deck, especially since your creature base has built in recovery.
edit: the MWS easy update is out, im going to start play testing now ill let you know if i find a deck list that works well.
"If there is such a thing as too much power, I have not discovered it."
--Volrath
BGBGBGBGBGBGBGBGBGBGBGB
RGoblinsR
RWerewolf StompyR
URU/R DelverRU
RGBelcherGR
BThe GateB
GBLoam PoxBG
WGBNic FitBGW
UHigh TideU
UMerfolkU
UFaerieNinjaStillU
WBUAffinityUBW
GSquirrelsG
UWGSliversGWU
Playing cards that are more consistent in their benefits is honestly a better idea than trying to force a card like Waste Not to work.
The Modern 8-Rack people were actually liking Bitterblossom better last time I heard--but then again, 'Blossom does play nicer with their Ensnaring Bridge.
Seems bad, but fun.
This does not mean for a second that I do not *want* to see it work with Dack Fayden some time. It just won't be doing that in a competitive game.
Hushwing Gryff is the only thing I see having an impact.
The other card I am watching (and it isn't there yet but future cards might be printed that gets it there) is Soul of Innistrad. If you can get your whole graveyard into your library (Cephalid Breakfast style, or if Hermit Druid gets unbanned), then cast a Songs of the Damned, Soul's 'flashback' lets you win the game in a variety of ways without even being drawn. Narcomeba is proof that cards that have effects without ever being drawn can see play even if the effect is small and the card is terrible when drawn naturally - Soul merits watching. (What it is missing is a card castable with black mana that assists you in casting Laboratory Maniac - presently you need UB in the pool to win after dumping the library into the yard, or 1UUB if you are relying on Snapcasting your Songs of the Damned; that's just a little too much.)
My thoughts as well. It's probably completely horrible as well.
Oops All Spells requires you to not run land and make other sacrifices (like having 10 or so cards in the deck that do nothing when you draw them, and having to auto-mulligan hands that draw cards you need to be in the library or use resources dumping them into the yard). That makes the deck almost autolose to Force of Will or turn 1 Thoughtseize. Other Cephalid Breakfast style kills are less explosive but more resilient.
Soul isn't there yet, but it is a card that has a large effect that works without drawing it, and cards like that can do explosive things even when they are downright terrible. Case in point: Narcomeba, a card that is terrible but has an effect when not drawn that has such explosive synergy with other cards that it is an archetype enabling card in Legacy.
Cephalid Illusionist + Nomad en-kor, but that deck hasn't been good for years.
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