Swedish premodern nationals pox report

Today was the Swedish premodern mtg nationals, and I took part in them, whooo! with 62 players in a cool house in a cool town it was set to be an event to be remembered. I brought a pet deck to the tourney, pox:

(the proxies were switched to real cards on site)

I had put in some reps by playing in another tournament the week before. In that one I went 0-4, not winning a single game, so I did not have any high hopes for the day, just get in, sling some spells, have people read my cards when I play them, which is really what premodern is all about.

That is not to say that no thought has went into this deck. For one, there are no dark rituals. Dark rituals really suck in this deck. Mox diamonds on the other hand, are really great. And they still allow you to pox on turn two which is relevant, since you want to punch out this oh so symmetrical effect all the time. And sometimes wait. But more on that later.

I also opted to run 3 innocent blood and 1 diabolic edict, the reasoning being that innocent blood is really good against a lackey, but sometimes you want some instant action going on. The difference between pox and pit is that you get to choose what cards you keep, meaning that instant speed actually means something here. Lurking jackals were tested instead of lurking skirge, but they were a bit slow to turn on, and honestly most decks actually play some kind of creatures to kill. But I have to say that the lurkers have been an awesome way to break parity with pox, and they don’t bother the nether spirit in the graveyard. After today though, I’m pretty sure I want to get up to 3 nether spirits again, I just have no idea what to cut.

I also opted to lean a bit more into the land destruction part of pox, after playing around with bottomless pit for a while. The problem for me with pit is that even if you deny your opponent their hand, they can still topdeck something and just kill you (more on that later), while if you take away their lands, they are free to draw whatever they want and you can just ignore that.

So how did the games go then?

Game one I got paired against Olof, we say hello, shuffle up, and keep our hands. It pretty quickly becomes clear that he is on Replenish. Well darn, how is this gonna go? I get all of my lands exiled something like three times, cards are replenished, but he just can not find an opalescence. After a while the counters run out, I get new lands, I snatch relevant cards from hand, but an opalescence still lands on the field. I play a lurking skirge and start beating down. It is joined by a lurking evil, and now the opponent plays a second opalescence. A quick diabolic edict takes out one of them, The skirge transforms, I transform lurking evil, and the last 7 points of damage are done.

In game two, I use a wasteland to destroy his first land, grab frantic search from his hand with duress, and pox away another land. A turn later he has a morph in play, not enough mana to flip it, and I’ve got an untransformed lurking evil. The race is on. I activate the lurking evil, feeling secure since my opponent doesn’t have any white sources, taking him down to six. He swings, taking me down to six. I edict one of his morphed angels, taking him down to 2. Finding no answers, we shake hands, game is in the bag.

Game two is against Steven on RG Zoo. There is an insane amount of creatures killed, jackals cursed scrolled, elephants poxed, and I stand as the winner after the first game with 3 life.

The second game is much the same, just trying to get the zoo under control, and in the end, timely drawn removal and cursed scrolls seals the deal, alongside some land destruction that kept him off green. I’m once again on three life and with a pulse that isn’t healthy at all. Try not to be on three life against decks with bolts and incinerates, it’s really stressful.

After these games that I were pretty sure I was gonna lose, I’m now at 2-0 with no games lost. What is even happening. But it’s time for lunch, and a beer. Everyone headed downstairs and got a fantastic boeuf bourguignon, with lots of chatting and nice vibes in the dining room. Then up we went, and time to play some more magic.

Game three, I faced David on tinker-welder-soldier spy, sorry, devourer. Black is really bad at handling artifacts. I wish we could at least have something like gate to phyrexia, just to be able to do SOMETHING against the brown tide that just swells over the board, creating value and locking things down. Game one ended with a devourer milling me out, while game two was a bit more interesting. He had a winter orb going, but I had two moxen, which meant I could keep cursed scrolling, having him down to four. That’s when he draws a second welder, playing them both. The turn after he gets Karn out of the graveyard, eating both my moxen, and the rest is, as they say, welded in history. 2-1.

Right, 2-1, this is still great, let’s get poxing, who are we facing in game four? It’s Martin Berlin and his zombos. Martin’s zombie deck deploys a bunch of zombies and beats you down. A big weakness for pox is decks that deploy a lot of creatures. Specially before sideboarding. So he promptly beats be down with a bunch of clerics and goblins of the zombie variety while I struggle to keep up. Game two, I get both cursed scroll and engineered plague on the field, controlling myself to a somewhat comfortable victory. Game three, I get yet another plague out, but no creatures and no cursed scrolls. After a while, with his bord filled with zombies, I manage to activate two lurking skirges and get a nether spirit out, but it is too late. Martin plays an undead warchief and seals the deal, leaving me in the dust. 2-2

Ok, so, I expected to not win a single game coming here, I won’t tilt after ending up on 2-2, time to head to game five! It’s against Mattias with shrimpy tinfins. He promptly beats me down with a turn 2 dreadnaught. I really need to mull to removal on the starting hand in unknown matchups. I think he’s on UB dreadnaught and play around counter spells. Apparently he has none whatsoever, and I manage to pick his board apart, killing shrimps, killing lands, poxing, taking him down to one, I even have an ensnaring bridge out. He untaps with one card in hand, and draws another. That smile tells me that something really bad is coming. The bridge gets reality rippled, and then he smashes the card he drew, shallow grave, in comes the giant and smashes me in the face. 2-3.

Last game is against madness, and this game had mostly everything going wrong. First game has me dying pretty quickly, second game my plan gets ripped apart by three circular logics in three turns. Some games are a little harder to win than others. 2-4.

Even though I ended up on a pretty bad record, I did win two games with pox, so that felt pretty great. I did better than expected, none of the games actually felt unwinnable, except maybe tinker, but another variant of that deck took down the whole tournament, so I guess I’m ok losing to that.

Until next time, play more premodern, play for fun, pox early, pox often.