Subject: [Strat] Schneider Pox Date: Sat, 6 Dec 1997 08:40:57 +0100 From: "Lindohf, Tomas" Being a long time Pox player I almost got over-excited the first time I saw Jay Luo's report about the brilliant Schneider Pox deck. Here was a Pox deck that not only worked, but was competative as well. I decided to put it together and try it out, and then I found out that it was also extremely fun to play. After playing it a while I've come to a couple of conclusions about the deck. First of all, in it's current incarnation it's very dependant of being a rogue deck, since it's quite easy to sideboard against. Most sideboards used today are not equiped to handle this deck, and since it's still a rogue deck most people won't bother to take it into consideration. Otherwise, being almost creatureless and very artifact dependant most decks can find something to put in it's sideboard against it. White have Aura of Silence and Serenity, red have Shatterstorm, black have Pillar Tombs of Aku (ouch), green have that Crumblestorm (Seeds of Innocence I think it's called) and blue also have something, but I don't remember what at the moment. Second, mana-denial like Worb and 'Geddon almost completely hoses this deck, and that's not a forgiving feature in todays environment. The way around this is of course artifact mana, but that only makes it more artifact heavy and easier to hose with artifact killers. Dark Ritual is one alternative, but being a one shot spell it won't help in the long run. One solution could be to splash in Elamdri's Vinyard, but I've not tried this approach, so I won't go into that now. So, why should I play it then? Well, it's a hard-soft deck, and those of you who visit Rob Hahn's War College at the Dojo will recognize this expression. It's a deck that's aimed at disrupting the opponent and preventing him from setting up his strategy. In todays environment this means that it's heavy meta-gamed against creature decks, and crushes most decks of this kind, including Sligh (another Schneider deck). Since Pox is generally disrupting it also have a chance against control decks, if you just manage to get of a Pox and a Stupor or two. Another reason to play it is that it's very fun to play. I would like to conclude this article by providing my version of the Schneider Pox: 4 Pox A key card, as you might have guessed from the name of the deck. Also interacts perfectly with most of the other cards in the deck. 4 Diabolic Edict Pox and Edict makes Protection from black and untargetability almost useless. 3 Drain Life OK, you won't be able to get any huge drains of against you opponent, but it should be used as a anti-creature card in any case. 3 Evincar's Justice Wrath is good ;-) Weenie killer and damage dealer. 4 Funeral Charm Instant discard(!), and it kills all those */1 creatures like Ball Lightning and River Boa. If your opponent is at zero hand size you can cause him to discard the card he draws before he gets a chance to cast it, unless it's an instant or interrupt. 3 Spinning Darkness "Let me get this straight... I get to bolt a creature, and I will also get three life... and all this for zero mana! So why shouldn't I play this card?!" 4 Stupor It's not Hymn, but it's good all the same. Pox followed by a Stupor should give you control of the game. 4 Cursed Scroll Another key card, and one of the main reasons mana-denial hurts this deck. This is an amazing card, one of the best from Tempest. 3 Steel Golem Being the only real creature card in this deck makes it's drawback almost nonexistent. Great weenie blocker as well. 2 Chimeric Sphere Unaffected by Pox and Steel Golems drawback. Don't interact too well with Worb though. 2 Charcoal Diamond Worb is huge at the moment, and I prefer these before Dark Ritual. 2 Mind Stone (uncertain) I'm not sure about these, maybe I should use Fellwar Stones instead. Fellwars won't provide mana after a 'Geddon though. 1 Stalking Stones A bit expensive to activate, but well worth it when you do. 3 Quicksand Mostly against Protection from Black and black weenies, but works just fine against creatures like Ball Lightning and Viashino Sandstalker as well. 2 Undiscovered Paradise Good under the Worb, and provides the necessary mana for some of the Sideboard cards. 2 Gemstone Mine No great drawback with Pox and non-black mana for Sideboard cards. 14 Swamp Sideboard: 3 Touchstone Mainly against Worb, but works against many other nasty artifacts. I will probably side out the Spheres and one Scroll for these. 3 Coercion (uncertain) Against control instead of Spinning Darkness (if creatureless). Maybe I should use Lobotomy instead. 3 Perish xCG is very big here, and I will probably side out 3 Justice for these when playing against green. 2 Dread of Night I prefer these before Gloom, since most WW uses Slight and if they Slight this it won't hurt me. 2 Pillar Tombs of Aku (uncertain) Against creatureless, I may decide to use Forsaken Wastes instead. 2 Disenchant I really don't like Worb... or Karma. -- // Tomas Lindohf // tol@hermes.prog.se // http://hermes.prog.se/~tol/Magic/index.html