Hey everyone! I've been workin on a Smallpox deck for quite a while now. I used to play Br with Blood Moons, which I really liked to pilot; Funnily enough when I saw Horror of the Broken Lands and realized the potential with Street Wraith and Call to the Netherworld. To keep things short for now, I'll post the list right here and begin some discussion!
Overview
This deck is designed to work off of low resources, while keeping your opponents low on resources whether they like it or not. Acting aggressive in the early game is very important, as you want to limit them to as few options as possible. Setting up a devastating Smallpox requires some work and insight, thinking about what you would like to allow them to have in hand AND on field for when you get down with the sickness (yeah, sorry about that). Keeping the resources low will allow your strategy to flourish, as the creatures have alternative methods of battlefield entry. ALWAYS attack with anything outside of Avatar of Woe, since they can't block! The life total is the most effective resource, so don't be afraid to start scraping the bottom of the barrel if it means inching closer to a well earned W.
HORROR OF THE BROKEN LANDS: Horror is used only as a filtering mechanic for the deck, as it's the next best thing to running 4 more copies of Street Wraith. Call to the Netherworld allows you to rebuy this one with its' Madness trigger, so you'd be able to get a second cycle in for good measure. AVATAR OF WOE: When running 8 cycle creatures and 7 more that basically live in the yard, Avatar of Woe can come online in almost every matchup. The tap ability will always be relevant, and the 6/5 body makes it a hefty foe for any deck to deal with. Casting Avatar, and playing a land the following turn can allow you to destroy a threatening blocker and crack in with some Bloodghasts Nether Traitor: Shadow creatures are always fun to play with, especially when they have Haste. Not only is the synergy with Bloodghast evident, Nether Traitor plays incredibly well with Ensnaring Bridge, allowing you to go in for chip damage even when you're fiddling around with a single card in your grip. Surgical Extraction: Surgical has a ton of uses, my favorite of which being the classic no-permanents-on-board fetchland extraction. Seriously, target those Misties and Catacombs. Immediately! Screwing with a manabase can ruin anyone's gameplan, as mana is universal. If you can't pop off that spicy play, make sure to pull a relevant midgame threat out of their hand (or counterspell) with a discard spell. And what the heck, might as well use the Surgical on anything you pick out as well! Smallpox plays well with Surgical as well, allowing you to get rid of other lands such as any Urza's, or Celestial Columnade if you're lucky.
CALL TO THE NETHERWORLD: Is here for our nonrecurrable friends in this deck. It doesn't get much sweeter than pulling a felled Avatar of Woe from the graveyard for free (!) off of a Liliana discard trigger. The play of: Street Wraith cycle --> Liliana Discard, discarding Call ---> Cast, Targeting Street Wraith ---> cycle Wraith enemy EoT is a pretty incredible way to cycle your way into putting more and more pressure on your opponents' resources.
Early/Mid/Late Game
Opening with a surgical extraction, discard spell, two lands, and a smallpox is the most explosive start in this deck regardless of the other two cards in hand. If you're on the draw, any fetch the opponent uses should be surgically removed ASAP. Like while they're searching for their shock, might as well get the other 3 Misty s out of there too buddy! Following with a Discard spell t1 is great, as it allows you to see what you're getting into the following turns. I leave them something to cast, to open themselves up more to the effects of the next turn's Smallpox. By this time, you have disrupted their mana base, their hand twice, and their land most importantly. All by turn 2! Dropping a few Cyclers or a Bloodghast into the yard on these turns will allow you to set up for the mid/late game as well.
By this point, you have hopefully drawn into more discard, another smallpox, cyclers, etc... but what you're really looking for turns 3-6 are a Liliana of the Veil, or the Ensnaring Bridge. Since the deck uses cyclers and not draw spells that gain you cards, your hand will be kept relatively low along with your opponents'. Ensnaring bridge won't let anything above 2 power through regularly, and Liliana of the Veil can be used after you cast anything juicy you peel off the top. Now your discard should be targeting relevant mid and late game threats, which you can pitch a Surgical on as well. Anything you feel threatened by at this point; don't risk it, and get rid of it. Planeswalkers are especially difficult to stop, so if you can get one of those exiled it will go a long way towards the W.
Grinding out a victory with Bloodghasts and Nether Traitors is great fun in the late game, as you have quite an arsenal to clear the board and find answers. Avatar of Woe will become relevant past turn 5, as your cyclers and recurring creatures count towards her cost reduction as well. If you can get 2 or 3 creatures into their graveyard, you could see this big baddie out by turn 6 or 7. With a large body and a tap effect that gets rid of bigger threats for the rest of the guys to bust in some chip damage.
Really think swapping the numbers of fatal push and extraction would benefit you the most. Other than that and knowing you like the horror thats about the only suggestion I have. Next suggestion would most certainly be to replace horror. Lol
Casting Horror of the Broken Lands seems very unlikely either with only 20x lands and Smallpox reducing that even more.
I'd go with Pack Rat (or Cryptbreaker) instead which also help with all the useless discard spells later in the game.
Dakmor Salvage seems a bit questionable here as well, sure you can mill Bloodghast but you should have enough ways of discarding it anyway.
Using it to power bad cards like Avatar of Woe and Nether Traitor doesn't seem like a good idea and also having 3x taplands in your 20x-lands deck can slow you down when you need to cast your spells on curve.
Casting Horror of the Broken Lands seems very unlikely either with only 20x lands and Smallpox reducing that even more.
I'd go with Pack Rat (or Cryptbreaker) instead which also help with all the useless discard spells later in the game.
Dakmor Salvage seems a bit questionable here as well, sure you can mill Bloodghast but you should have enough ways of discarding it anyway.
Using it to power bad cards like Avatar of Woe and Nether Traitor doesn't seem like a good idea and also having 3x taplands in your 20x-lands deck can slow you down when you need to cast your spells on curve.
-I'd be way more tempted to add Gurmag Angler over Tasigur, since I'd never be activating his ability anyways
-Pack Rat is a card I've always loved, but doesn't play well with Ensnaring Bridge, and you actually need to cast it from the hand.
- Horror of the Broken Lands isn't there for casting, only for recurrable cycling. Reducing it by 2, adding Pack Rats or something similar would be fine I'd say
- I could see moving a surgical for another Collective Brutality, but the main goal of the surgicals is to attack the other player's manabase, which helps this deck win tremendously.
-Dakmor Salvage always has been a love-hate sort of card for me. The low end is really low, and the high end is very high. Being able to have the option of bloodghasts on demand is always strong, but you're right in saying the etb tapped can do great harm as well. I'l try playing with 1, just for the versatility.
Yeah, Angler is probably the better option though 1-more mana to cast.
If you have Horror only as a 1-mana cycler I think that going with a draw spell like Sign in Blood (can also act as reach in the late game with 2-damage to the face) would be better.
Another good option is Grim Discovery which is a good card to cast after Smallpox.
The synergy with Call is nice but probably isn't really worth it as you don't have that many discard outlets anyway and Street Wraith fullfills the cantrip function better being free.
Liliana, the Last Hope seems like a better alternative to Call, sure it costs more but it has more utility by removing small creatures and ticking up to a game-winning ultimate while having the option to get back creatures from the GY as well if needed.
It is pretty decent with an Ensnaring Bridge as well as it can help her Ult' safely and then build a massive zombie army to close out the game.
Surgical against fetches sounds ok in theory but probably less so in practice as there are enough non-fetch lands for it not to be crippling. Pithing Needle can do the same without needing a target in the GY and having other applications as well.
Even straight up Rain of Tears to blow up lands is probably more effective (but a bit harder to cast with a low land count) if you want to really commit to mana denial.
Why is Ensnaring Bridge here ? How can you win through it (only Nether Traitor) ?
Sure it is a strong lock card but I don't really see how it works with the rest of the deck.
It seems to work better with the cards from 8Rack: The Rack/Shrieking Affliction (or maybe Faith of the Devoted) and should probably be more than a 1x-of if it is a key card (unless you add tutors).
Only time surgical should be played main IMO is in turbo fog to give an out against emmy and ulma.
You can make a fun deck with it where you strip out every card but that's more kitchen table magic.
If you insist on running it I'd say no more than 2 of. Its dead way too often.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Overview
This deck is designed to work off of low resources, while keeping your opponents low on resources whether they like it or not. Acting aggressive in the early game is very important, as you want to limit them to as few options as possible. Setting up a devastating Smallpox requires some work and insight, thinking about what you would like to allow them to have in hand AND on field for when you get down with the sickness (yeah, sorry about that). Keeping the resources low will allow your strategy to flourish, as the creatures have alternative methods of battlefield entry. ALWAYS attack with anything outside of Avatar of Woe, since they can't block! The life total is the most effective resource, so don't be afraid to start scraping the bottom of the barrel if it means inching closer to a well earned W.
The Decklist
2x Avatar of Woe
4x Bloodghast
4x Horror of the Broken Lands
3x Nether Traitor
4x Street Wraith
Land (20)
3x Dakmor Salvage
17x Swamp
2x Liliana of the Veil
Sorcery (14)
2x Call to the Netherworld
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
4x Smallpox
4x Thoughtseize
Instant (6)
2x Fatal Push
4x Surgical Extraction
1x Ensnaring Bridge
3x Big Game Hunter
2x Bojuka Bog
2x Darkblast
1x Disfigure
1x Extirpate
2x Faerie Macabre
2x Hero's Downfall
2x Waste Not
Notable Card Choices
AVATAR OF WOE: When running 8 cycle creatures and 7 more that basically live in the yard, Avatar of Woe can come online in almost every matchup. The tap ability will always be relevant, and the 6/5 body makes it a hefty foe for any deck to deal with. Casting Avatar, and playing a land the following turn can allow you to destroy a threatening blocker and crack in with some Bloodghasts
Nether Traitor: Shadow creatures are always fun to play with, especially when they have Haste. Not only is the synergy with Bloodghast evident, Nether Traitor plays incredibly well with Ensnaring Bridge, allowing you to go in for chip damage even when you're fiddling around with a single card in your grip.
Surgical Extraction: Surgical has a ton of uses, my favorite of which being the classic no-permanents-on-board fetchland extraction. Seriously, target those Misties and Catacombs. Immediately! Screwing with a manabase can ruin anyone's gameplan, as mana is universal. If you can't pop off that spicy play, make sure to pull a relevant midgame threat out of their hand (or counterspell) with a discard spell. And what the heck, might as well use the Surgical on anything you pick out as well! Smallpox plays well with Surgical as well, allowing you to get rid of other lands such as any Urza's, or Celestial Columnade if you're lucky.
CALL TO THE NETHERWORLD: Is here for our nonrecurrable friends in this deck. It doesn't get much sweeter than pulling a felled Avatar of Woe from the graveyard for free (!) off of a Liliana discard trigger. The play of: Street Wraith cycle --> Liliana Discard, discarding Call ---> Cast, Targeting Street Wraith ---> cycle Wraith enemy EoT is a pretty incredible way to cycle your way into putting more and more pressure on your opponents' resources.
Early/Mid/Late Game
- Mono Black Pox BBB Modern:
Casting Horror of the Broken Lands seems very unlikely either with only 20x lands and Smallpox reducing that even more.
I'd go with Pack Rat (or Cryptbreaker) instead which also help with all the useless discard spells later in the game.
Nether Traitor is pretty weak and can probably work better as Dread Wanderer/Bloodsoaked Champion (or Scrapheap Scrounger) as Bloodghast 5-8x.
Another option can be Bitterblossom to generate flyers.
Surgical Extraction should not be in the maindeck, Collective Brutality (or more removal) is much better in this deck pitching dead cards and Bloodghasts.
Waste Not or even The Rack/Shrieking Affliction seems like better maindeck options as well.
Dakmor Salvage seems a bit questionable here as well, sure you can mill Bloodghast but you should have enough ways of discarding it anyway.
Using it to power bad cards like Avatar of Woe and Nether Traitor doesn't seem like a good idea and also having 3x taplands in your 20x-lands deck can slow you down when you need to cast your spells on curve.
-I'd be way more tempted to add Gurmag Angler over Tasigur, since I'd never be activating his ability anyways
-Pack Rat is a card I've always loved, but doesn't play well with Ensnaring Bridge, and you actually need to cast it from the hand.
- Horror of the Broken Lands isn't there for casting, only for recurrable cycling. Reducing it by 2, adding Pack Rats or something similar would be fine I'd say
- I could see moving a surgical for another Collective Brutality, but the main goal of the surgicals is to attack the other player's manabase, which helps this deck win tremendously.
-Dakmor Salvage always has been a love-hate sort of card for me. The low end is really low, and the high end is very high. Being able to have the option of bloodghasts on demand is always strong, but you're right in saying the etb tapped can do great harm as well. I'l try playing with 1, just for the versatility.
- Mono Black Pox BBB Modern:
If you have Horror only as a 1-mana cycler I think that going with a draw spell like Sign in Blood (can also act as reach in the late game with 2-damage to the face) would be better.
Another good option is Grim Discovery which is a good card to cast after Smallpox.
The synergy with Call is nice but probably isn't really worth it as you don't have that many discard outlets anyway and Street Wraith fullfills the cantrip function better being free.
Liliana, the Last Hope seems like a better alternative to Call, sure it costs more but it has more utility by removing small creatures and ticking up to a game-winning ultimate while having the option to get back creatures from the GY as well if needed.
It is pretty decent with an Ensnaring Bridge as well as it can help her Ult' safely and then build a massive zombie army to close out the game.
Surgical against fetches sounds ok in theory but probably less so in practice as there are enough non-fetch lands for it not to be crippling.
Pithing Needle can do the same without needing a target in the GY and having other applications as well.
Even straight up Rain of Tears to blow up lands is probably more effective (but a bit harder to cast with a low land count) if you want to really commit to mana denial.
Why is Ensnaring Bridge here ? How can you win through it (only Nether Traitor) ?
Sure it is a strong lock card but I don't really see how it works with the rest of the deck.
It seems to work better with the cards from 8Rack: The Rack/Shrieking Affliction (or maybe Faith of the Devoted) and should probably be more than a 1x-of if it is a key card (unless you add tutors).
Have you considered adding a tutor like Beseech the Queen (or Infernal Tutor) to the deck to help you find Liliana, Smallpox or some other (SB) card ?
Here is my idea for a tweaked version:
4x Bloodghast
4x Street Wraith
4x Pack Rat
2x Gurmag Angler
Planeswalker (4)
2x Liliana of the Veil
2x Liliana, the Last Hope
Sorcery (17)
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
4x Smallpox
4x Thoughtseize
2x Collective Brutality
3x Sign in Blood
3x Fatal Push
Land (22)
2x Bojuka Bog
20x Swamp
2x Ratchet Bomb
2x Fulminator Mage
1x Pithing Needle
2x Dismember
2x Surgical Extraction
2x Nihil Spellbomb
2x Hero's Downfall
2x Cryptbreaker
A version built around Ensanring Bridge would be pretty different and would probably be much closer to 8Rack.
You can make a fun deck with it where you strip out every card but that's more kitchen table magic.
If you insist on running it I'd say no more than 2 of. Its dead way too often.