The Pox Report

Although I'm a week late, I finally made it out to play some Legacy. 

Match 1
vs Brandon on Changeling combo

Won game 1, Lili and poxes helped keep the board clear and I mopped up with Stromgald Crusader

Games 2 & 3 though I couldn’t get enough disruption going in the early game, and I got run over. Hex Parasite DID show up in both games! But I was stuck on 2 mana so I couldn’t actually use it to make a dent in the Aether Vial or the Grist, the Hunger Tide.

Match 2
Vs Zach on UW Standstill
Game 1: got stuff countered and eternalized Timeless Dragons got to to me. My deck really does need Pox spells to resolve...

Game 2: an aggressive start for me with some discard and Crusaders bringing him down to 9, but I couldn’t follow it I up with any board control, and eventually eternalized dragons worked me over again.

Match 3
vs Dennis on GW Maverick

Game 1: hand played out perfect, with a discard hitting Solitude and Swords to Plowshares. With a Stromgald Crusader and a Smallpox to follow, he saw the writing on the wall.

Game 2; I spent my turns casting removal through a Deafening Silence, and then settled into a actual Pox, followed up by 2 Stromgald Crusaders and a Tombstalker.

Match 4 

 Vs Matt on Parfait homebrew 

Game 1: I was able to Hymn out his early win conditions (Dark Depths and Urza's Saga), but I couldn't get enough pressure going afterwards. Eventually, Urza's Saga tokens got there. 

Game 2: I had a Null Rod to stop his artifacts from artifacting, which was great until Blast Zone cleared it away. It looked like it wouldn't matter, as I had a Liliana I was going to ultimate-until Urza's Saga got a Pithing Needle. From there, he was able to grind the rest of the game out. 

So what did I learn? 

First, when I fell behind, I didn't have a way to catch up. I either had hand disruption or I had a Pox/Smallpox but rarely both-the games I won are when they both appeared. I didn't have enough pressure without this combo to win. 

Second, Pithing Needle. That is a card I need to account for in my sideboard. It's a very popular card to use to solve a bunch of problems.

Third: Protection from White is relevant! At least, it was until it wasn't-eternalized tokens are Black. This suggests that a card like Surgical Extraction, one I'd thought wouldn't be helpful, has a place in the Sideboard. Or, maybe graveyard removal is just useful enough to maindeck?

Possible adjustments to the Sideboard include: Ratchet Bomb, Unlicensed Hearse, and Bontu's Last Reckoning. 

Updates

 I have a couple decks in the wings to talk about, including a crack at updating a Skullbriar, the Walking Grave Commander deck.

But I've been running tests on updating Starve, for the Friday Night Legacy games, which I hope I can get to this week. No promises, things have been needing attention that aren't Magic stuff. That's life, right?

But the tests have been pretty solid, and the list currently looks like this:

3 Tombstalker

3 Bloodghast

4 Stromgald Crusader

3 Gravecrawler

4 Shambling Ghast

3 Dakmor Salvage

18 Swamp

2 Castle Locthwain

3 Liliana, the Last Hope

3 Pox

4 Smallpox

2 Innocent Blood

4 Duress

4 Hymn to Tourach

// 15 Sideboard

SB: 3 Null Rod

SB: 2 Dauthi Voidwalker

SB: 4 Leyline of the Void

SB: 2 Engineered Plague

SB: 4 Sudden Edict

The last 25%

I has just finished a game with Fuz and, while talking about what else could be done to Starve, I mentioned to him I was thinking about adding Gravecrawler. In conjunction with Haakon, it would allow me to recurr more creatures. But, I told him, I didn't want to make it so mean.

"You're already about 75% of the way, man."

Touche.  So what is my resistance to making this deck really, really good? That other people won't have any fun when I play against them.

However, I've been telling people I play against that Starve is good, and a little mean, so feel free to bring their best deck. I think I worry too much. One of the things I like about this game is, after playing a good deck (either with one or against one) I like to brainstorm to make a deck better. I want to help people have good decks that give them a shot.

So I pulled the trigger. Unfortunately, I only went 99% of the way, until after last night's matches.

Newest, greatest list:

3 Black Knight
2 Haakon, Stromgald Scourge
3 Gravecrawler
3 Stromgald Crusader (a zombie knight!)
3 Tombstalker
2 Dauthi Slayer
3 Bloodghast
3 Gatekeeper of Malakir

3 Lurking Jackals

4 Pox
3 Smallpox
2 Innocent Blood
3 Blackmail

3 Dakmor Salvage
20 Swamp

Prior to last night, the only difference was that I had 2 Smallpox and 1 Order of the Ebon Hand. The thinking goes thusly: Gravecrawler is as aggressive as Carnophage and with a Crusader or Haakon out, I can afford to swing with it, lose it, and bring it back. Blackmail allows me an edge of control when I need that, but also can be cast on myself when I need to get a Haakon into the graveyard and don't have a Pox effect! It all seemed to come together perfectly.

And then I played Noah. Cue dramatic music!

Just kidding: he's a great guy, a solid player and a very good opponent. I took the matchups I played against his R/B deck, because it couldn't get going and I would Pox before he could get out Rakdos, Lord of Riots. I was a little lucky in the first game, with a great deal of discard hitting my key cards but turn 3 came, I cast Pox and that was all I needed to do to give my deck the advantage.

Then came the W/B clerics deck, which I put up a good fight against (I believe the match ended 2-1 in his favor) and my losses came when I could not get a Pox effect soon enough, nor any removal. I knew I was in trouble when he was able to cast a Battletide Alchemist with three clerics on the board, then cast Conspiracy the next turn. When the opponent has that much mana out, my deck isn't working. My protection from white creatures didn't seem so awesome then, I tell you what.

The deal was sealed when Rotlung Reanimator came out but Noah didn't have enough to win (yet) and Pox causes life loss, not damage. This meant that I was able to get him down to one...but I drew Swamps instead of a win condition.

The rule of a Pox deck is....That's right. Pox early and Pox often and if there's ever a question of what one should do, Pox is the answer. Unless you can win, right there.

Order of the Ebon Hand came out because when I got home, I found another Smallpox in my binder. I need that more than I need a creature that doesn't quite fit in like it used to.

Less and Less

I didn't get any games in with Starve: instead I was in a very long four-player Commander game, vs Momir Vig, Rubinia Soulsinger and a UBR commander I didn't catch with me using Dakkon Blackblade in order to fuel a Living Death theme.

It was a pretty good game and it made me think two competing issues exemplified by multiplayer: you have to play the board and you have to play the player.

There's some good thoughts on multiplayer here; I imagine I will be saying something similar but the thoughts help provide context. In addition, playing the player enters the equation more when you play with a regular group of people, like I do, who don't play a lot of multiplayer.

For me, any game of Magic breaks down two to central pillars: First, threat assessment. This cannot be emphasized enough. Knowing which brick to pull to make the stack collapse (and that brick might be a different one, depending on the deck I'm playing) is one of the most difficult skills to learn and it gets exponentially more difficult in multiplayer games. Nevertheless, I have seen and still make the mistake of misidentifying what was going to kill me/stall my plan and thus, lose a game. I've also made the right decision and won as a result.

The mistake I see made most often in multiplayer, hands down, is Delayed Vengeance; namely, carrying the loss in game one into game two. This is a failure of threat assessment and leads me into the second point.

The second pillar is: who is this person and what do they like? This question is less relevant against strangers because the answer is always: To win and there are few ways for me to know more about them than that under the circumstances.

With people I know, however, the question becomes far more interesting. Matt likes to play hordes of green dudes. stonethorn likes building massive resources and controlling games. Jason wants to hit you from a direction you can't see. Fuz likes extremely redundant and resilient decks. The girlfriend likes creature themes and synergies. Merrick likes honing a theme that seems to have little use into a sharp point that kills you.

And so on. 

Because building decks in Magic can be a very personal act, it can be easy to invest more emotionally, than you ought to. I've certainly done it and I still do: if I wasn't emotionally interested in the deck then I wouldn't bother to build it, nor write about it.

HOWEVER, you have to know who you are playing against. Always. A bunch of new players is not an appropriate group to bring Starve out against. Because that deck does horrible things. And not just because I'm all that concerned about 'ruining their good time,' although that is a consideration.

It's because in subsequent games they will abandon the first pillar and come after me whether I am the appropriate target or not, even if I have changed decks. This was one of the most difficult things for me to do: remember that game two is a brand new game and it was now time to re-evaluate everyone. Is Jason's deck working? Can I stop it from working at a future date to apply pressure? If the answers are No and Yes, then I can continue doing what I'm doing. These questions are equally relevant in single or multiplayer games.

Now, what I may decide is to apply pressure to Jason (who in this example is helpless) in order to a] make him a more appealing target (in multiplayer) and/or b] force him into plays that he would not like to make. Or as they call them in normal speak: mistakes. But I should never be applying that pressure on Jason simply because he won the last game.

Why? Because doing so will cause me to violate the first pillar and worse, ignore the second pillar. I will stop doing appropriate threat assessment and I will forget what I know about that player and their playstyle in order to make my point.

There is no point to make: you win or you do not win. You are having fun or you are not having fun. Making a point leads to bad play and that never works out for anyone, long term. 

I Go Without

I didn't really talk about it last time but there are a few really cool synergies with Starve that I have been developing over the years. It really did start out as merely a Pox deck with efficient black creatures, developing into something that has more resilience and thus (hopefully) a better ability to close the deal.

First, there's  Bloodghast and Dakmoor Salvage, which allows me to repeatedly landfall those vampires back. Dakmore Salvage also works nicely with the Tombstalkers, because super cheap beaters are very scary in this deck.

Next is the usefulness between Pox/Smallpox and Haakon: whenever I see Haakon in my hand, it's never a dead card. It's purpose is to be discarded to the Pox effects, then return to play from the graveyard. This is also why cards like Black Knight and Order of the Ebon hand have remained in the deck: because with Haakon out, they can be recast and continue beating.

Now that I've explained a few of the cooler workings behind the curtain, I can talk about how the first round of games went.

My first matchup was against a mostly Black Birthing Pod deck, going 2-1. There was some concern on Jason's part: his deck was using ETB effects and Undying and he figured he would outmatch me on a deck that I'm testing. I proceeded on, unafraid.

The rule of a Pox deck is: Pox early and Pox often. This is because the deck wins when you Pox and loses when you don't; if the opponent is allowed to recover from a Pox, then usually I'm in trouble. My plan to overcome this is with a weenie rush.

On the other side; the opponent is almost always trying to play out their resources as fast as they are able: in my wins in this matchup, I would cast Pox with only three lands and Jason would have four out. While this would feel like we would start over from the same point, both with two lands, my recovery to three and rolling on would happen faster than his recovery to four.

In a second match against a mono-Green deck, ramping up for deathtouch creatures and fight effects, I once again went 2-1. In the first game, I was a little fortunate: I didn't draw a Pox but Jason just drew mana ramp.

In this game I went with the alternate gameplan: weenie rush deck and it worked well. In this matchup the Guul Draz Vampire came in extremely handy. Although a weak turn one play, in the midgame when life totals are certainly below 10, the intimidate and power boost are pretty big deals. I was able to attack past a Predator Ooze to win.

Game two, as you might see, I attacked past a Predator Ooze with Guul Draz Vampire at two life...and forgot that when the Ooze attacks, it gets a +1/+1 counter. So that was bad. If I'd held back a single creature, I may have been able to hold out. I won the match though so I'm not going to be too bitter about it.

Still, I started this series with the idea that the GDV would be replaced, most likely with discard. I'm currently testing Blackmail in that slot on Cockatrice. I don't know if that will work but I have Blackmail so I'm going with it. However, if that doesn't work, the Vampires may go back in. There aren't any Knights at that converted mana cost and I don't know if any other creature in Black could give me that kind of power/toughness ratio so there aren't any other synergies I think I can exploit and extra damage is extra damage.

Starve

I feel  proud with the name I picked for this deck. Pox is a deck that has had a long history in Magic and I find that playing resource denial decks is something I really enjoy when I'm confronted with weird combo Jason decks.

But that's neither here nor there. A great deal of my original design deck is still in tact but after years of working with it, Smallpox was printed and I had to tweak this deck into it's current configuration.

3 Black Knight
2 Knight of Stromgald
2 Haakon, Stromgald Scourge
3 Carnophage
2 Order of the Ebon Hand
3 Tombstalker
2 Dauthi Slayer
3 Bloodghast
3 Gatekeeper of Malakir
3 Guul Draz Vampire

3 Lurking Jackals

4 Pox
2 Smallpox
2 Innocent Blood

3 Dakmor Salvage
20 Swamp

I'm fairly pleased with this configuration, with the exception of the Guul Draz Vampire which seemed like such a good idea! Life totals often dip below 10 pretty swiftly so a 3/2 with Intimidate seems like a really good idea. Still, I have to admit, it's the weak link in the deck. I'm thinking that a discard spell might be a better, neutering the possible cards (countermagic) that might make executing my plan difficult. Those cards were Bad Moon once upon a time but I realized I just didn't need to boost my creatures like that and a greater threat count was a better idea.

The card I'm really proud of is Lurking Jackals. Nobody ever expects it but it's a card that in its initial state, isn't affected by Pox effects which means that I'm more likely to have a threat on the board than my opponent once I've whittled away every other resource on the board. It's that kind of odd choice that really makes me happy.

The tests begin tonight. I'll see what happens.