The Smallpox Siege

Modern Control Pox WUB (Esper)

Nef

Land (24)

• 2x Field of Ruin
• 4x Godless Shrine
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 4x Marsh Flats
• 2x Plains
• 2x Polluted Delta
• 4x Shambling Vent
• 3x Swamp
• 2x Watery Grave

Sorcery (17)

• 2x Collective Brutality
• 3x Inquisition of Kozilek
• 4x Lingering Souls
• 1x Raven's Crime
• 4x Smallpox
• 1x Supreme Verdict
• 2x Thoughtseize

Planeswalker (7)

• 3x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
• 1x Gideon of the Trials
• 3x Liliana of the Veil

Creature (6)

• 3x Court Hussar
• 3x Haakon, Stromgald Scourge

Instant (6)

• 4x Fatal Push
• 2x Nameless Inversion

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Sideboard

Enchantment (8)

• 4x Leyline of the Void
• 1x Rest in Peace
• 3x Stony Silence

Creature (3)

• 3x Eternal Scourge

Sorcery (3)

• 3x Supreme Verdict

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Gideon of the Trials

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Maybeboard

Planeswalker (3)

• 1x Dovin Baan
• 1x Gideon of the Trials
• 1x Sorin, Solemn Visitor

Creature (2)

• 1x Jace, Vryn's Prodigy  ^Flip
• 1x Tomb Robber

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Playing a Pox deck is like sieging a city. You slowly drain their resources and watch as they die from disease and famine. Then when they're weak, you send in your forces.

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Pox control using Haakon and other knights for extra value.
Sideboard is a WiP and I'm looking for suggestions :)

I've wanted to build a deck utilizing Haakon, Stromgald Scourge + Nameless Inversion for a while. I tried it out in different shells and eventually wound up here. Pox.

I used Channel Fireballand MTG Goldfish as a guide for a base B/W pox shell.

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The Symptoms

(Your opponent won't be able to hold any cards!)

Thoughtseize - Very strong discard spell in modern. This deck struggles against non creature threats and this can help us deal with them. There are only 2 at the moment due to the life loss this causes. It makes us more susceptible to burn and aggro decks. Life is very important in a Pox style deck.

Inquisition of Kozilek - Modern is currently a very fast format and this card works almost always as a Thoughtseize that doesn't cost life. It's very important.

Raven's Crime - While being a pretty poor discard spell, it allows us to drain an opponent's hand if we don't care about ours. It is a discard outlet for Haakon, Stromgald Scourge.

Collective Brutality - The discard mode on this card can be fairly useful. Getting to grab any instant or sorcery is very useful especially in control matchups or against CoCo decks.

Smallpox - The discard portion of this card is fairly weak but it helps dwindle down our opponent's resources

Liliana of the Veil - Similarly to Smallpox, the discard portion of this card is fairly weak but it lowers opponent's resources while giving us a discard outlet

(Your opponent's army will be wiped out by this silent killer!)

Collective Brutality - The creature killing portion of this card isn't that strong but being able to kill a small creature along with another mode can be pretty nice.

Smallpox - Making an opponent sacrfice a creature is generally poor if they're going wide. If they aren't, however, being able to kill a hexproof or indestructible is nice.

Liliana of the Veil - Same as Smallpox except we don't have to sac a creature.

Fatal Push - One of the best creature kill spells in modern. 1-mana hits a lot of important creatures. You'll kill a lot of Tarmogoyfs with this.

Nameless Inversion - On it's own this card is decent. There are a lot of creatures in modern with 3 or less health that this can hit. With Haakon, Stromgald Scourge it is pretty nuts. You can cast it as many times as you want as long as you have mana for it. This allows you to kill bigger creatures with it, or just continuously take down opponent's creatures as they draw them

(The final symptom of the Pox virus. The dead rise from the grave to wreak havoc on the city. Even their King Haakon, Stromgald Scourge!)

Haakon, Stromgald Scourge - The opponent's city has fallen and their king has become a zombie working for us. He is a great discard target to Liliana of the Veil, Collective Brutality, and Raven's Crime. A 3/3 body I can keep getting back proves useful in many different matchups. It allows to be super grindy and get a lot value. I already discussed the combo with Nameless Inversion.

Lingering Souls - The souls of the dead from our opponent's city are coming to life and fighting with us. Creating 4 flying 1/1s gives a lot of chump ability or they can poke down our opponent over time. This can also be discard fodder for our discard cards.

The Siege Crew

Court Hussar - He is our scout. He does a run through of the city to see if it is ready for the main force. Haakon allows him to be cast over and over again to help dig through our deck for win conditions or more answers. The main reason for the blue splash.

Gideon of the Trials - Little Gideon suppresses the remaining forces. 3 drop planeswalkers are very good. The +1 buys us time. He can then turn into a 4/4 body to beat with. His emblem aids in defending ourselves from combo decks mainboard.

Gideon, Ally of Zendikar - Big Gideon brings the army and the final push to take the city. Being able to create a 2/2 every turn at 0 is very nice in a siege game. He can +1 to beat face if we need to pressure our opponent immediately. His emblem can be useful with Lingering Souls and reoccurring creatures but probably won't be used as much as his other abilities.

Date added	6 years
Last updated	6 years
Splash colors	U
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	9 - 2 Mythic Rares 23 - 13 Rares 20 - 0 Uncommons 3 - 0 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.33
Tokens	Emblem Gideon of the Trials, Emblem Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, Knight Ally 2/2 W, Spirit 1/1 W
Based on	Knights of the Pox Nef MDN