BW Pox Primer

[center][size=20][b]BW Smallpox[/b][/size][/center]

[center][img]https://img.scryfall.com/cards/art_crop/en/tsp/131.jpg?1517813031[/img][/center]

[BOX="LARGE"][SIZE=5]Table of Contents
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[LEFT][list]
[*][alink=Intro]Introduction[/alink]
[*][alink=Deck]Decklist[/alink]
[*][alink=Overview]Overview[/alink]
[*][alink=Cards]Card Choices[/alink]
[*][alink=Side]Matchups and Sideboarding[/alink]
[/list][/LEFT][/BOX]

[anchor=Intro][b]Introduction[/b][/anchor]:

BW Smallpox is a Black based control deck that is built around the card [card]Smallpox[/card] for early disruption. We play lands like [card]Flagstones of Trokair[/card] that reward us for sacrificing it and we play cards like [card]Lingering Souls[/card] to discard to break the symmetry of Smallpox. Smallpox punishes early starts and can set our opponent back a turn while keeping us ahead.


[anchor=Deck][b]Decklists[/b][/anchor]:

OG decklist that placed in a GP: https://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=15927&d=298107
[spoiler=decklist][deck]Lands (24)
4 Fetid Heath
4 Flagstones of Trokair
3 Godless Shrine
3 Marsh Flats
1 Plains
4 Shambling Vent
2 Swamp
3 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Creatures (4)
4 Bloodghast

Instants and Sorceries (23)
1 Anguished Unmaking
2 Collective Brutality
1 Damnation
4 Fatal Push
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lingering Souls
4 Smallpox
3 Thoughtseize

Planeswalkers (9)
3 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
4 Liliana of the Veil
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor

Sideboard (15)
1 Collective Brutality
2 Damnation
1 Darkblast
2 Fulminator Mage
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Shadow of Doubt
2 Stony Silence
1 Surgical Extraction[/deck]
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Tom Ross's List: http://www.starcitygames.com/decks/115634
MTGO Modern Challenge decklist: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/modern-white-black-smallpox-59590#paper
My personal decklist that placed in a PPTQ: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1334554#paper


[anchor=Overview][b]Overview[/b][/anchor]:

The general game plan of BW Smallpox is to disrupt our opponent early and win through small advantages over a long game often back up by a big planeswalker. The most exciting play the deck has is casting Smallpox on turn 2 with a Flagstones of Trokair in play and a card like Lingering Souls in hand. Smallpox will destroy an opponent's creature, land, and a card in hand, while we get a land back from Flagstones and put Lingering Souls in the graveyard.

Similar to BGx decks and 8rack, we play a lot of removal and hand disruption. Since we can only play 4 Smallpox we supplement it with the usual black disruption cards. Our primary win conditions are meant to dodge the drawbacks of Smallpox: Planeswalkers and Tokens. Since we are focused on slowing the game down powerful white sideboard cards are key to winning a lot of match ups.

The core of the deck usually looks something like:

4 [card]Smallpox[/card]
4 [card]Liliana of the Veil[/card]
6+ Targeted Discard ([card]Thoughtseize[/card], [card]Inquisition of Kozilek[/card])
4+ Targeted Removal ([card]Fatal Push[/card])

These cards are the backbone of our disruption.

4 [card]Lingering Souls[/card]
4 Other Planeswalkers ([card]Sorin, Solemn Visitor[/card], [card]Gideon, Ally of Zendikar[/card])

These cards are our primary win conditions.


[anchor=Cards][b]Common Card Choices[/b][/anchor]:

[spoiler=Lands]Typically we run 24-25 lands. This is to support our expensive 4 mana cards as well as having extra lands to sacrifice to Smallpox when we can't pull off the combo with Flagstones. We have plenty of discard outlets to discard extra lands so it's suggest to play a lot of lands.
[card]Flagstones of Trokair[/card]: the graveyard trigger is the most important part of this card. The legend rule doesn't matter too much here since we get to search for a plains when it's destroyed.
[card]Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth[/card]: This card makes Flagstones into a swamp, enabling a turn 2 Smallpox. We should not play 4 because we need to hit four lands.
[card]Fetid Heath[/card]: This lets us produce double black on turn 2 with a Flagstones, enabling turn 2 Smallpox. I've seen decks with anywhere from 2-4 copies. The more you play the more you risk having a clunky land base just like with Urborg.
[card]Shambling Vent[/card] / [card]Mutavault[/card]: These are our "man lands" that give us threats when we draw too many lands. Shambling Vents fixes our colors but Mutavault can attack sooner and more often.
[card]Godless Shrine[/card]: Our usual fetch target with both Flagstones and Marsh Flats. We need more shock lands than the average 2 color deck because we sort of run 8 "fetch lands" if you include Flagstones. 3 is the usual number to run.
[card]Plains[/card]: Another fetch target. Works great with Urborg. Most lists play just 1.
[card]Marsh Flats[/card]: Triggers revolt and fetches basics against [card]Blood Moon[/card] decks. We don't auto include all 4 because sometimes we want the land density when we are liberally sacrificing and discarding our lands. Usually 3-4 are played.
[card]Swamp[/card]: Most of our deck is black so we want a good number of basic swamps.
[card]Concealed Courtyard[/card]: Produces colored mana turn 1 but means we probably aren't running fetchlands. The main drawback is that it can't be untapped on turn 4 which is still an important turn to have untapped mana. This is usually a budget replacement for our fetches but it can work in non-budget lists.
[card]Ghost Quarter[/card] / [card]Field of Ruin[/card]: More land destruction is always good. The deck is very color hungry so it's tough to put many of these in.
[card]Vault of the Archangel[/card]: Usually a good card in token decks but it costs too much to make me want to play it.
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[spoiler=Planeswalkers]This is the most common way for us to take over the game after a smallpox. Planeswalkers generate long term value and help grind the game out.
[card]Liliana of the Veil[/card]: the most important walker in our deck, kills things and discards cards.
[card]Gideon, Ally of Zendikar[/card]: Gideon is a great way to close out games. He can also make tokens and can pump our tokens.
[card]Sorin, Solemn Visitor[/card]: Very strong with lots of tokens and can create a Vampire in a pinch.  Sorin is pretty bad by himself but when we have a few tokens he is almost always game winning.
[card]Sorin, Lord of Innistrad[/card]: Can make more tokens than Solemn Visitor but doesn't give lifelink when pumping our team so it's played less. Still a very powerful option.
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[spoiler=Sorceries][card]Inquisition of Kozelik[/card] / [card]Thoughtseize[/card]: Our most common turn 1 play. These cards let us slow our opponent down and help us time our other spells against counters / creatures / etc.
[card]Smallpox[/card]: the cornerstone of the deck. We have ways to negate the symmetry of each effect on this card.
[card]Collective Brutality[/card]: This is the closest to Smallpox 5-8 we have access to. It lets us discard cards that want to be in the graveyard for extra effects.
[card]Lingering Souls[/card]: Our first choice when discarding cards to Liliana / Smallpox / Brutality.
[card]Damnation[/card]: Board Sweeper that we can use when we are falling behind. We don't want to overload on this since we end up with a lot of tokens but it's a good tool to have.
[card]Never // Return[/card]: This is a card that, like Lingering Souls, has value in the graveyard. It is very slow and Return is very weak so it is not a common choice.
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[spoiler=Instants][card]Fatal Push[/card]: The most efficient Black removal spell. We usually play 3-4 of these.
[card]Mana Tithe[/card]: Major blow outs are possible with this card. It fills a similar role as our targeted discard does so it fights for slots there. Our smallpoxes keep this relevant for longer than the average deck can but we can't hold it forever. There are many people that play 4 to great success. Other people play 0 Mana Tithe so it's a pretty contentious card. It's a difficult card to evaluate but basically it's a high risk / high reward card.
[card]Dismember[/card]: This is a removal spell for certain metas. It's most useful for delve threats like [card]Gurmag Angler[/card].
[card]Cast Down[/card]: This is a removal spell for certain metas. This is useful against big creatures like [card]Primeval Titan[/card].
[card]Anguished Unmaking[/card]: This is a painful catch-all that's usually a sideboard card. It's good for planeswalkers / artifacts / enchantments.
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[spoiler=Creatures][card]Bloodghast[/card]: This is a great card to discard to Liliana / Pox / Brutality. Recently many decks have moved away from Bloodghast because of its low impact. It's a very easy card to block and many decks have a plan to take care of it.
[card]Dark Confidant[/card]: This is one of our few ways to generate card advantage but it does not play nicely with Smallpox.
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[spoiler=Enchantments][card]Bitterblossom[/card]: It's a great way to make a bunch of tokens. A common replacement for Bloodghast in recent decks.
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[spoiler=Sideboard][card]Leyline of the Void[/card] / [card]Rest in Peace[/card] / [card]Nihil Spellbomb[/card]: Graveyard hate is a must currently in the meta and our discard and removal spells sometimes aren't very effective at slowing these decks down. Different metas require different answers. Rest in Peace is often a fine sideboard choice because our graveyard interaction is often incidental while our opponent's is mandatory.
[card]Stony Silence[/card]: Great against Affinity and Artifact combos. Also very powerful against Tron.
[card]Fulminator Mage[/card]: supports our land destruction plan and helps against UWx control and Tron.
[card]Surgical Extraction[/card]: More graveyard hate and also helps against combos.
[card]Zealous Persecution[/card]: Great against tokens where our edicts are bad. We can also win combat with tokens against aggro decks or just use it as an anthem. Very versatile card.
[card]Anguished Unmaking[/card] / [card]Disenchant[/card] / [card]Celestial Purge[/card]: These cards helps us beat problem permanents like [card]Blood Moon[/card], [card]Ensnaring Bridge[/card], and [card]Liliana, the Last Hope[/card].
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[b]Less Common Card Choices[/b]:

[spoiler=Threats][card]Myth Realized[/card]: This is a great turn 1 play but gets much worse as the game progresses. It's fine in slower metas but can sometimes be a difficult tempo loss when played turn 1 against aggro. Be wary of cards like Cryptic Command that can bounce it and remove all of your progress. Without card advantage I fear this card is too weak.
[card]Smuggler's Copter[/card]: good with tokens, helps filter past top decking lands. A bit awkward if we don't have tokens.
[card]Heart of Kiran[/card]: This card works well with our planeswalkers providing a great attacker and blocker. This is a pretty awkward card when we don't have planeswalkers since it would be hard to crew with tokens.
[card]Tombstalker[/card]: Having one or two delve creatures can give us a powerful late game threat as we tend to fill our graveyard. We can't get these out as quickly as other decks so playing Tombstalker is almost free since it's just one extra mana. Flying is very relevant in the meta too.
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[spoiler=Disruption][card]Start // Finish[/card]: a bit slow but it combos nicely with our self discard. This could be used as Lingering Souls #5.
[card]Condemn[/card] / [card]Oust[/card]: we can't play Path to Exile because we play Smallpox to disrupt our opponent's lands. Non-graveyard removal is good and the life gain generally isn't terrible but both cards have major draw backs as well.
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[anchor=Side][b]Match ups and Sideboarding[/b][/anchor]:

In general BW Smallpox is good against decks that have a few "puzzle pieces" they try to fit together because of the resource denial aspect of the deck. Decks that play a pile of "good cards" are generally more difficult to deal with. Decks that gain a lot of advantage out of the graveyard are also difficult to deal with game 1.

[spoiler=UR Pheonix] This deck has some very explosive draws that just can't be beat but we have enough disruption to make this a close match up. Mainboard we are able to deal with their low threat count fairly easily. We can keep their hand under pressure with all of our hand disruption spells keeping [/card]Arclight Pheonix[/card] at bay. Most graveyard hate is good in the match up. [card]Surgical Extraction[/card] is great because of their low threat count. There aren't many bad cards in our mainboard in the match up but cutting a big planeswalker or two may be beneficial because of how fast the game moves.
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[spoiler=Grixis Death's Shadow] This is a good match up. Again, the deck has a very low threat count so our edicts are great. The games we lose are usually because of a timely [card]Temur Battle Rage[/card]. After sideboarding they bring in [card]Liliana, the Last Hope[/card] so you should bring in [card]Anguished Unmaking[/card]. A little bit of graveyard hate can be useful.
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[spoiler=Burn] Another good match up. [card]Inquisition of Kozilek[/card] and [card]Collective Brutality[/card] put us very far ahead plus we have a lot of incidental life gain from things like [card]Shambling Vent[/card]. Be sure to side out [card]Thoughtseize[/card] and [card]Bitterblossom[/card] for anything meaningful in the match up.
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[spoiler=Bant Spirits] This match up is very draw dependent and is close to even. Game 1 it's important (and quite difficult) to keep pace with your opponent's threats. The tempo game plan of cards like [card]Spell Queller[/card] are very effective against us so timing is critical. After sideboarding we should have more board sweepers which help a lot.  You will want to board out hand disruption as they tend to dump their hand quickly.
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[spoiler=Dredge] This is a bad match up. Game 1 We help them discard their hand and most of our disruption is weak against them. Be sure to take out most or all of your [card]Smallpox[/card] and [card]Liliana of the Veil[/card] because they give our opponent a choice of which card to discard. Keep in your [card]Inquisition of Kozilek[/card] and [card]Thoughtseize[/card]. These will take your opponent's acceleration and sideboard cards. Board in any graveyard hate you have. Be aware that your opponent will have cards like [card]Assassin's Trophy[/card] to destroy your [card]Rest in Peace[/card] or [card]Leyline of the Void[/card]. Do not mulligan too low in this match up. Sometimes your opponent just has to keep a bad hand. Dredge tends to "lose to itself" once in a while.
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[spoiler=Humans] This match up is very similar to the Spirits match up: pretty even. They have less card advantage so it's easier as long as your have a good amount of removal. Again, board in sweepers and take out some hand disruption.
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[spoiler=Amulet Titan] This is a good match up. Usually a [card]Thoughtseize[/card] or two will buy you a lot of time. Be sure to take their [card]Primeval Titan[/card] and tutors as you can. Try to time your smallpox so it hits a karoo land such as [card]Simic Growth Chamber[/card]. This puts our opponent way back on mana. Bring in as much targeted removal for Titans as you can. [card]Surgical Extraction[/card] is also very good.
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[spoiler=BGx] This is a pretty even match up. Our deck is very similar to theirs with a little more disruption and more planeswalkers. The planeswalkers are the key to this match up: any incremental advantage puts us very far ahead. Smallpox is also very useful as it can cripple risky hands and slow down our opponent's 4 drops. Your opponent will have [card]Liliana, the Last Hope[/card] so you will want [card]Anguished Unmaking[/card]. You want to board out some amount of hand disruption but keep the [card]Thoughtseize[/card] for cards like [card]Bloodbraid Elf[/card].
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[spoiler=Storm] This is a good match up. Like UR Pheonix there are hands we can't keep up with but a few bits of hand disruption and removal and your opponent will slow way down. Graveyard hate is very good in this match up. Bring in board sweepers because of [card]Empty the Warrens[/card].
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[spoiler=UWx Control] This is a good match up with the right hands. Being able to keep our opponent low on lands is vital because they can't cast their important spells. [card]Fulminator Mage[/card] makes this match up favorable after sideboarding. Jeskai keeps our planeswalkers at bay so it's a bit harder to close games but tokens are very powerful in the match up.
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[spoiler=G Tron] This is a slightly bad match up. Smallpox isn't quite enough land disruption to slow them down enough. After sideboards the match up is quite even when you include [card]Stony Silence[/card] and [card]Fulminator Mage[/card]. Be sure to keep some hand disruption to take [card]Nature's Claim[/card].
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