Mono Black Pox
About Mono Black Pox
Mono Black Pox is the most widely used variant of Pox as it is both a budget-friendly Legacy deck and is a nostalgic deck for those who grew up playing older variations of the deck in the past, both in Extended and in Legacy.
As of now in 2023, Karn Pox is the most performing subtype of Mono Black Pox as it is the most versatile option for Pox, utilizes card selection, card advantage, and does a decent job closing games both by locking out the game with Karn, the Great Creator or winning via combat with Urza's Saga. Other variants include, but are not limited to is Bloodghast Pox, Ashiok Pox, and Legends Pox (most expensive variant of Mono Black Pox). All of which, while not the most performing, have their own merit that appeals to those who play them.
Building Karn Pox
BlogBoy's Karn Pox Deck
This is my Karn Pox deck that I play in paper and on MTGO blinged out.
Tyler Jung / BlogBoy Karn Pox Decklist Overview
PLANESWALKERS
SPELLS PART ONE
SPELLS PART ONE
- 4 Liliana of the Veil: She is the main Pox Planeswalker as she disrupts either through discard or sacrificing a creature. Her ultimate will also be helpful in removing the opponent's permanents.
- 3 Karn, the Great Creator: My main finisher of the Pox decklist, Karn is a powerhouse having a built in one-sided Null Rod that gives me access to not only a card advantage engine, but also to sideboard cards game one which leads to having answers to specific scenarios which I may not want to dedicate main deck space to.
SPELLS PART ONE
SPELLS PART ONE
SPELLS PART ONE
- 4: Dark Ritual: A mana accelerant that helps enable this deck to keep up with the speed of Legacy and a reason to play Mono Black. There are many 3 mana permanents, you want out early, as turn one, so you have the early lead and for turn two it can help cast a Karn.
- 4 Thoughtseize: One mana discard that can discard any non-land card at the mere cost of 2 life. I will not play Inquisition of Kozilek because it blanks too much on some high impact 4+ mana cost cards.
- 2 Innocent Blood: The most efficient removal available for Pox based on mana cost. It can take out something as big as a Show and Tell'd Emrakul or a little pest like Delver of Secrets. The main reason to run 4 one drop creature removal cards is so Pox's removal lines up on the draw against matchups like Delver, Death and Taxes, and Elves. If any of these decks stick one too many threats against Pox, the edicts become significantly worse.
- 2 Fatal Push: Targeted removal for Pox which is ideal in a meta full of Orcish Bowmasters, this ensures you destroy a creature you want instead of a 1/1 token your opponent created. Wastelands and Urza's Saga's can also help revolt the card.
SPELLS PART TWO
SPELLS PART ONE
SPELLS PART TWO
- 4 Smallpox: The core card of the deck and a good one at that. It is a single card that attacks multiple resources at once on a single card. Discard, Creature Removal, and Land Destruction all in one!
- 2 Hymn to Tourach: A great randomized discard card all the way from Fallen Empires. This is a 2 for 1 discard for the deck that helps diminish the opponent's hand. I prefer to stay at 2 copies as it makes the deck more consistent, not being too reliant on 2 (Black/Black) mana cards and the card progressively gets worse later in the game.
- 2 Sheoldred's Edict: Pox's latest staple card that was released early 2023, this card is a must-play in a deck list like this where the interaction of Planeswalkers is limited. Choosing between a non-token creature, a token creature, or a Planeswalker, the spell is rarely dead. It's a good answer to the Planeswalkers and Marit Lage issues.
- 1 Toxic Deluge: A well-positioned board wipe in the format due to the sheer number of decks able to stick out more than 2+ creatures out on the board.
ARTIFACTS
LANDS / MANA BASE
SPELLS PART TWO
- 1 Retrofitter Foundry: Urza's Saga's top goal is to choose either offensive or defensive, which is a feasible choice for the developing board. Artifact token generation is the perfect way to boost the Urza Saga's Construct tokens.
- 1 Nihil Spellbomb: A cantrip that can also exile a grave. It gives Pox some games vs some graveyard strategies. The only reason why it is ran though is that it can be tutored with Urza's Saga.
- 1 Crucible of Worlds: This card is great for recouping mana sources Pox may have lost from Smallpox, but the main appeal is self-sacrificing lands like Wasteland which can lead to a mana destruction lock, or it helps link multiple Urza's Sagas together to create an army of constructs that can get out of hand while also being an artifact.
- 1 Ensnaring Bridge: Great card to combat against go wide strategies when you stabilize and can stop your opponents' creatures from attacking. It is also good to combat the big creature combo decks of Legacy.
- 1 Karn's Sylex: A generic tool for Pox that is great to Dark RItual out on the play to turn off cards like Fetch Lands and Force of Will so your impactful spells can resolve. This card is also great for sweeping the board of almost anything. The card is also exiled when activated, which means that Karn, the Great Creator, can use it again.
LANDS / MANA BASE
LANDS / MANA BASE
LANDS / MANA BASE
- 4 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth: 9 colorless lands makes up 1/3 of the manabase of the deck to keep the deck consistent. The Urborgs are maxed out to ensure Smallpox is consistently cast.
- 4 Mishra's Factory: A classic Pox creature land that is as old as Antiquities. This is a win condition that dodges Smallpox and puts in some slow beats. It also assists Urza's Saga by being an artifact.
- 4 Wasteland: Land destruction tacked onto a mana source when paired with 4 Smallpox, which is 8 land destruction cards in the main.
- 3 Castle Locthwain: The best Black utility land for the deck as it generates lots of card advantage. With all the self-discard Pox plays, this card becomes very spammable in grindy match-ups.
- 2 Urza's Saga: A super powerful self-destructing land from Modern Horizons 2. This land has a built-in virtual card advantage engine and win condition in one. Card is an insane power level, but easy to hate out.
- 1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire: The card basically slots in at basically next to no deckbuilding cost and can sometimes be helpful in recovering Planeswalkers or even creatures when they're sideboarded in. Best of all it is tacked onto a Black Mana source that enters untapped and doesn't cost life.
- 1 Karakas: An Anti-Meta tech card which has the primary use of keeping Minsc & Boo and Dark Depths from running away games. The card is able to get other Legendaries out of the way when you need to either push through damage or discard them.
- 8 Swamps: A stable number of Basic Lands is necessary to play through basic land hate like Wasteland, Blood Moon, and Back to Basics.
SIDEBOARD
LANDS / MANA BASE
LANDS / MANA BASE
- 1 Tormod's Crypt: Almost always used as a free mana spell accessible by Karn to exile a grave.
- 1 Pithing Needle: Helps shut off activated abilities from permanents that Pox has trouble interacting with. (Player advice against Aether Vial decks. You should board this in since Karn hoses artifacts anyways).
- 1 Liquimetal Coating: Fantastic card with Karn can be used to help destroy lands with Karn's plus one ability and can turn things like Planeswalkers and Enchantments into Artifacts, which Karn can turn into creatures afterwards, which can be killed with creature removal.
- 1 Torpor Orb: An artifact that is good at hoses entering the battlefield abilities from the likes of Death and Taxes and Thassa's Oracle. (Player Advice, I recommend boarding this in for Doomsday as relying on Karn will be too slow to pull this out.
- 1 Ensnaring Bridge: An additional copy for Karn to retrieve. This ensures Pox can see the Bridge consistently without taking a lot of deck space.
- 1 Mycosynth Lattice: With Karn and this card in play it creates a hard lock. Make sure Karn can survive though.
- 3 Leyline of the Void: A graveyard hoser that can come down turn 0. It's also castable in this deck.
- 2 Orcish Bowmasters: The newest tool for Black decks from The Lord of the Rings set that hates out draw cards in Legacy. This card is great at punishing your opponent for drawing cards outside of draw step and is also good at developing the board.
- 2 Plague Engineer: Tribal sweeper creature card that also clears the coast of death touchers like Baleful Strix. Great in a format full of Orcish Bowmasters.
- 1 Opposition Agent: A card that can single handily win games on it's own by being a beater with an Anti-Tutor effect. The possibility of flashing this means that you may punish the opponent for tutoring too much and is also good for trading creatures.
- 1 Ashiok, Dream Render: Great card for hating graveyards and hosing the opponent by cutting off their ability to search. Can be great for a variety of unfair decks like Storm and Doomsday, but also fair decks that utilize Uro.
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