TheBear

The variants with Zombies I had mentioned were related to the list in Eldrazi Winter using Squee and Loam to fuel Zombie Infestations.

The closest deck you can look at for a shell of some kind if Eldrazi Winter Zombie Loam lists if you are trying to draw parallels to other lists. The issue being those are extremely out of date given how long ago Eldrazi Winter was.

The use of exiling the spare Nether Spirit to the aftermath have Never // Return is plausable, the thing is there is a better alternative in Cling To Dust, which isn't a one shot option, is fueled by Smallpox and Loam, while also being a card advantage engine.

But as a whole I think moving off Nether Spirit will likely be better? I understand it being a favorite, but it's a creature that has really been power crept, and also strangles you on options to be effective in lists.

The thing is if you want a recurable threat, there are just better options that also have less restrictions to them. A large thing to also keep in mind is you don't want your threats to rely on other cards to be good. Akuta is relying on you to have a swamp to sacrifice, which this list only actually has 4, outside of Urborg, but then you are relying on Urborg now to provide fodder. Then you are also forced to rely on Loam to provide a hand size.

Which is also not realistic, since as you are loaming, you are likely playing out the lands to keep Akuta fed, using barren moor to cycle to get spells which will likely be cast immediately just in nature of pox decks with it's self discard,and also using the lands to fuel your retrace. It becomes alot of constriction on the cards in what they are asking you to do.

Murderous Rider is a 2/3 lifelink on the front, if it dies, goes on the bottom of your deck. Adventure is a Heroes Downfall that makes you lose 2 life. It's been seeing consistent play in legacy pox decks.

Akuta relying on you having more cards in hand is unrealistic, you are a deck looking to 1 for 1 often, and with liliana and smallpox, even less so.

Never // Return is ok? But it feels like a worse Murderous Rider.

If you were going to commit to Nether Spirit, then you can afford to run another if you run Cling To Dust still, you can exile the multiples with it so they don't get stuck.

The argument against Bitterblossom is fair, but if unless the tokens are getting killed every turn, they will race your opponent. And on top of that, paired with life gain sources such as Cling To Dust and Murderous Riders front half, you can mitigate the life loss.

Murderous Rider is also a good option as a threat to pair with Spirit. The only time it'll end up in the graveyard is if you put it there via discard, or it gets discarded itself by opposing discard. But the fact it's a threat that recycles and doesn't go to the graveyard lets Spirit still function.

If you are looking for a bit more punch still, other options that had been tried are God Eternal Bontu, if you are going to have excess lands or something, it's a source of cards and a threat that is recursive and avoids your graveyard. She is more speculative then anything but is an option.


If you are going to move away from Nether Spirit, the biggest inclusions are Plague Engineer, Murderous Rider, Rotting Regisaur. A simple start would be to fit 2 of each. I would also recommend Bitterblossom or Ghast just as good fodder options, Bitterblossom being much better as it isn't graveyard reliant.

When it comes to figuring out numbers, generally the number used for Pox Win Cons are normally around 8 to 10. So in the current iteration of the list you have that 8. Which are the Nether Spirit, Worm Harvest, Lili Last Hope, Lili Wakers, Hissing Quag, and the Treetop Villages.

In the topic of Spreading Algae issues, the Legacy Lands version was using 4 Crop Rots, which is something you do not get access to. So perhaps in Modern it's not possible to pull off? Unless you decide to run alternative methods to get utility lands. The cheapest or efficient one is Elvish Reclaimer, but Modern lacks good utility lands to really abuse with him. Bojuka Bog and manlands really only the ones that come to mind.

Also, an option that may be worth trying is Field Of The Dead, it's counter intuitive with Smallpox, but if your intention is to go long, it could be worth it.

Legacy Pox player here, a fan of the classic Nether Spirit plan but some comments that we've learned from the legacy take of the deck.

Biggest one is the inclusion of Cling To Dust, it provides you an element of card advantage, graveyard hate (Which is enormous if you want a chance against Uro decks), as well as a method to remove creatures from your graveyard to support your Nether Spirit. Because in Legacy we learned quickly that new black creatures are too good to not include, stuff like Murderous Rider and Plague Engineer being the two biggest. Rotting Regisaur also coming up as an insane clock for the deck. Alot of issues from us is we disrupt enough but can't pressure hard enough, so this should help. To note other good "fodder" creatures if you are concerned of smallpox interactions are Bloodghast, Skyshroud Shade and Bitterblossom, Bitterblossom likely being the best of the bunch in this case.

If you are planning to go on the Algae plan, I think you need 4 Algae main personally, and I wouldn't even say it's a specific pet card, I have been seeing it in some takes of Lands now in legacy alongside 4 Urborg, so it may actually be substantial tech. You can also afford to trim some Barren Moors for some Nurturing Peatland, having the untapped land is going to be important.

The other comment I would have to make is removal suite, in Legacy there isn't a need for as much removal. But I feel like you NEED to have more of the GB removal options, Decay, Trophy, Pulse being the big ones, at the moment you are relying on only 1 Pulse and 2 Decays to handle most issues, Smallpox and Darkblast aren't bad, but they are not the most versatile.

Other possible inclusions could be the new Nissa of Shadowed Boughs, had seen her in some aggro loam lists and currently trying her in a Jund take in legacy, being a constant threat, and a recursive element could be worth it here if you include more creatures.

I've tried Vraska, I haven't been entirely sold on her myself, outside of Algae and Spirit, there really isn't alot of fodder. This could change if you included stuff like Bitterblossom and the such mentioned above. But she has only been okay in experience.

It could be correct then to just follow with the Mardu Bedlam shells then, just without running Liliana Of the Veil and Blood Moons.

List looks solid, have you thought about putting in a Punishing Fire Package yet? I found a list a few years ago that was a Mardu Deathblade shell but was running that package, alongside a pair of Vindicates over the Council's Judgements and Bolts.

Another inclusion could be Torch Of Defiance or Gideon, Ally of Zendikar as good top of the curve threats.

If you were going to go more of a control route with Rakdos, I would recommend looking up some of the BR Demigod Lists, they are probably the closest examples to what you are trying to do.

With that in mind, I feel if you are playing control you need some way to clear boards, Anger Of The Gods, Sweltering Suns and Damnation (If not Damnation, Languish can serve as a substitute)

Chandra, Pyromaster may also be useful as another walker, Torch Of Defiance is probably out of budget but a better upgrade if funds become available.

It isn't my list, this is someone elses who has been doing well with it, so I'll take his numbers. Main reason it's posted on here because it's interesting.
The deck doesn't need Recurring Nightmare, it's a good value card for most Nic Fit decks, but it isn't needed here as the deck is mainly a Haakon value deck, since a majority of the value creatures are Knights.

The deck doesn't need to run the Melira combo package, it is using Pod simply as a toolbox and value engine paired with the Haakon as I said before.

Leovold is a thought, but the original list never ran it so I would rather not change the list since it isn't mine to begin with.

Oh I know Hoogland has been on it for a while now, when it comes to legacy he just wants to goldfish as fast as possible. I think the difference is he runs Gitaxian Probes if I'm right.

But also the decks I tend to post on here I expect to be viewed by the competitive community as it's what I play, so I just think people know what it does or can figure out the idea of how it runs on there own.

I really hate how I don't see the notifications on decks, so I'm sorry to only getting to respond to this now haha.
I do appreciate the fact you like my Pox lists alot, does feel great knowing someone likes them alot.

When it comes to the questions you asked, yes I did have this list built for a little while, but about a week ago I've moved to a Jund Depths list, which is more or less the hybrid of a Lands Deck and a Pox Deck, with the recent tanking price of Grove of the Burnwillows I decided to pick up my missing pieces for it.

At the moment I'll probably stick to the list until some of the holes in Pox can finally be fixed, it constantly has issues closing out games once it's ahead and difficulty getting control once it falls behind, so here is hoping for generous Commander sets printing powerful black cards.

I've played a Loam strategy of deck in Modern, and the biggest issue I've always found is the lack of good utility lands, and with only 21 lands, there is a very good chance you'll mana screw yourself with the symmetrical land destruction effects.

Instead of being more aggressive with Shivan Wumpus and Scythe Tiger, I would recommend going a bit more controlling, playing cards like Liliana of the Veil or other Walkers as your primary win cons.

When I was playing I was around.. 27, 28 lands. I would take a look in the database here for the lands legal to Modern and try to find enough to make Loaming them back strong enough. At the very least you need 4 Ghost Quarters so you can attempt locks with peoples manabases, the issue still stands on a lack of good ones other then that. Since we lack a good Maze of Ith or spot removal spell like Barbarian Ring, or a reliable win con in our manabase like a Dark Depths.

A card I would also recommend for consistency would be Faithless Looting, if you depend on Life From The Loam, you NEED to find it, and without cards like Entomb or Gamble to find it you need to find ways to compensate.

It's cheaper but you can flip a Warren Pilferer off of the Skirk Sergents.

No problem.

I'm not 100% sure on the Ritual, but it looks solid.

The Enchantments I don't think you need. And you asked about Bone Splinters above.

I'm also not too hot on Brightstone Ritual, and I don't think you need Bone Splinters when you have access to Terminate and Weirding.

Well the Goblins that are bullets, such as Goblin Chirurgeon, Goblin Lookout and Sparksmith can all be 1x, since you can tutor them with the Matron.
I also don't see the need for Rager, because Matron+Sergeant should give you more then enough card advantage.
Warren Weirding can be trimmed to a 1x Bullet also since it's tutorable.

I also think you can go back to 4 Bannerets, and bring back Warren Pilferers, you need a way to beat Mulldrifter when it comes to card advantage, and I think it'll be one of your best options, being able to recur Matrons and continue to tutor up bodies seems far too important.

And if you pair Frogtosser and Prospectors, it shouldn't be an issue reaching 5 mana, especially in the grindy meta that is Pauper.

Well then.
Alright, really changes things then since I was looking up cards in paper. With those 2 it makes this deck ALOT more viable.

First off, to be honest. I don't know how worth it the artifact plan is. To make this deck work I think you just want to go super wide and constantly pump out bodies.

The way we can do this is to max out on the Goblins that generate several bodies, Beetleback Chief is the best example, but also Mogg War Marshal, and the way we'll abuse them with the Skirk Drill Sergeant would be Skirk Prospector, allowing you to sac constantly to ramp and giving you triggers with the Sergeant.

And if we are going away from the equipment aggro list into the more Legacy style of Goblins, which is more of a Control deck. We need to maximize our bullets and value Goblins. Here is a list after I did some research.

Goblin Chirurgeon, a way to trigger Sergeant and also protect your other more valuable goblins.
Goblin Lookout, probably the best way to alpha strike your opponent.
Sparksmith, A very good way to kill off creatures in the exchange for life.
Stingscourger, a tutorable bounce spell, seems very good against Delve threats.
Tarfire, being a tribal spell let's you have a tutorable shock, it's narrow but sometimes you just need a shock.

If there is any space left, small bits of interaction should be fine, stuff like Firebolt just to help out in the early game seems fine.