works so well with bloodghast. lame they just stay together in standar for some months.
EvilCartographer
★★★★☆ (4.9/5.0)(5 votes)
Situationally brilliant.
PeabodyET
★★☆☆☆ (2.6/5.0)(6 votes)
Art upgrade fail. The old art was WAY better. This is just weird.
samwisel88
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
People keep mentioning this for MBC but I think a black-green strategy can use it better thanks to cards like Harrow andRampant Growth plus you can pitch Vengevine to the discard and/or creature sacrifice.
Gabriel422
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Oh no! This thing is back!!
majinara
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Small pox is fun. I like it most in aggressive 1vs1 decks. In multiplayer I prefer his X-cousin: Death Cloud.
NocteMundi
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Ouch..
Ferlord
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
What is with WotC making the Pox-related cards as ugly as possible?
Just tell me that Pox's art is good to look at. F**king amazing in EDH/Commander though...
Lash_of_Dragonbreath
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This card talks to me. It tries to convert me to B control.
DrDavyJones
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(13 votes)
The flavor text on this version is almost exactly the opposite of the flavor text on the time spiral version of small pox.
Cuervo_
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Best flavor text in the set...
Radagast
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Entertaining - the sacrifice a creature effect alone makes it worth considering in multi-player since everyone loses a critter.
luca_barelli
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
The flavour text is like the opposite of what the card does!
AngelPhoenix
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I love black.
Like people are saying, this can be MUCH more painful to your opponent than to you. In fact, team up with Reasembling Skeleton and get your creature back. Chuck a big dude then bring him back to your hand or to play with any one of black's many ways to do so. For 2 mana, this is serious busienss. And it's so black.
The_Trendkill
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
I used to wake up every day and think, "Man, life sucks, but at least I don't have smallpox!"
So much for that... Anyway, the Time Spiral artwork was much better than this version, but whatever, I guess. The key with this card is to time it correctly. Does your opponent have only one card in hand? Cast it. Does your opponent only have one creature? Cast it. Does your opponent appear to be struggling to make land drops? Cast it. Is your opponent showing any combination of the aforementioned conditions? Cast it.
The effect may seem underwhelming, but I guarantee you that you'll get a groan out of your opponent when you force them to sacrifice their last line of defense, discard their bomb they've been waiting to cast, and go down an additional land. It's no fun at all to be on the receiving end of that.
good.beats.for.all
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(3 votes)
Coming soon to a tournament table near you
badmallocx
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I second or third the opinion that the original art is better. Glad to see this reprinted though.
Khultar
★★☆☆☆ (2.5/5.0)(1 vote)
wheres my rise from the grave? ill just fetch it with Diabolic Tutor
RichardNixion
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(1 vote)
If you ever get a chance to see a foil of this its crazy. Each boil is sparkly. Disgustingly cool!
Oh, you spent your turn getting a vanilla 1/1 back? Sick play bro. Lets see some other popular recurring creatures in the format. Bloodghast. Doesnt cost any mana, can kill way more things, has conditional haste, and doesnt cost mana. Can also possibly be activated at instant speed. Vengevine. Vengevine is a four three with haste that rewards you for building a board presence.. and doesn't cost any mana to recur Both of these cards are very good on their own and can be recurred essentially for free. Reassembling skeleton is a one one. a one. one.
End aside.
As for the card, it can be busted. I truly believe that. Black has some of the best small creatures in standard, and thats what you want. You wanna be able to stay really low on the curve, aka bloodghasts (Which are sick, especially in conjunction with smallpox) and Vampire Nighthawks (Which are sick) and include equipments (swords, anybody?) to make all these tiny dudes huge. However, you need to be able to consistently play this card multiple times for a deck like this to work. You have to design around the card, and it isn't really consistent enough to truly work. I have tried a few rough versions of smallpox decks, one a control version and one an aggro version. The aggro version, admitedly, can be super sick. The control, not so much. So its possible that an aggro version with bloodghasts and mortician's beetles and a bunch of other really bad cards might just be the way to go, who knows.
If you're already drafting the awesome act of treason / sac deck, this is a mighty addition.
Salient
★☆☆☆☆ (1.8/5.0)(9 votes)
Tallpox
Each player discards a card, loses 1 life, sacrifices a creature, and sacrifices a land for each creature with power greater than 4 on the battlefield.
Wallpox
Each player discards a card, loses 1 life, sacrifices a creature, and sacrifices a land for each Wall under his or her control.
Maulpox
Each player discards a card, loses 1 life, gains one poison counter, and sacrifices a land for each creature that dealt damage to a player this turn.
Stallpox
If a player would cast a spell this turn, instead exile that spell. If you do, each player discards a card, loses 1 life, gains one poison counter, and sacrifices a land.
Voiceofallpox
Each player discards a card, loses 1 life, gains one poison counter, and sacrifices a land for each Angel that entered the battlefield since your last end step.
This card is almost like a reverse skill tester. New players don't appreciate how decisive that combined land destruction, hand destruction and creature destruction can be, even in small numbers. Mutual destruction of course, but the guy playing Smallpox probably has a deck full of Reassembling Skeleton and Vengeful Pharaoh, while their opponent does not.
mykatdied
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Hi yes I'll have a pox on a stick with my crucible in play... Completely effective, combos well in any type oe recursion and is well balanced.
Annoyingblueplayer
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I wonder how this would do as a two-of in solar flare. Also, I normally hate puns but...
Hey, remember how you devoured all your creatures and hit me for 18? DIE.
Sorta like Innocent Blood, but its a bit harder to take advantage of. I suppose if you didn't have any creatures or cards, you'd get something, but if you didn't have any creatures or cards I think you'd be in bigger trouble. Still, it combos nicely with abyssal persecutor.
@Dr.Davyjones Not really. This card says that if you take away some thing, after the pain passes they'd be ***ed at you. Not that it prevents rebellion. If you took away everything, people would get over the shock and get back to work.
blurrymadness
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I'm still having issues correctly using this card. I often screw myself just as badly...
Still, in the right deck, this thing will wreck opponents. Also.. it gets you focused in multi-player. You'd better have a damn good deck.
SAUS3
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This guy I met at my school had a legacy reanimator deck. It used this card as the primary discard outlet. He used fetid heath combined with flagstones of trokair to cast it (usually).
The discard furthered his plans, he basically didn't lose a land because his got replaced, and he never had a creature on turn 2 (or if he did, it was already game over). The life loss is mostly irrelevant. The main creature he reanimated was angel of despair. Cuts you down a land, and then destroys another one the next turn.
I like that a card this powerful exists and has been reprinted recently (as in wizards still thinks it's okay to have in the game). The effect is absolutely brutal and leads to really crazy decks.
5/5
j_mindfingerpainter
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Alright, now that everyone is figuring out that Flagstones of Trokair is so good with Smallpox, I suppose I'll just tell everyone how Smallpox is best used.
There are 3 elements (creature sac, land sac, discard) that are relevant and you have to recover from. You're not always going to have Flagstones of Trokair to sacrifice, and in light of the new legend rule, unless you're playing Death Cloud, too, I'd run only 3. How you compensate for the times when you don't have Flagstones is by running mana acceleration. Sakura-Tribe Elder is a good choice, unless you're going {W}{B}. Then I'd suggest Coalition Relic.
You can do a couple things to compensate for the discard. Generally, I'd suggest Lingering Souls or Bloodghast. Card advantage is the best way to recover from the discard, and I'd suggest Phyrexian Arena.
To recover from the creature sac, I'd suggest either not playing a creature yet or sacrificing Kitchen Finks or Bloodghast.
SirLibraryEater
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I like how this is intentionally a small version of Pox.
car2n
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Please don't use against red Human type creatures. They have it hard as it is.
EGarrett01
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This card is so perfectly black. A little bit stronger then it should be for its cost, and just the tiniest bit scary to put into your deck.
Comments (48)
Ew.
Just tell me that Pox's art is good to look at.
F**king amazing in EDH/Commander though...
Like people are saying, this can be MUCH more painful to your opponent than to you. In fact, team up with Reasembling Skeleton and get your creature back. Chuck a big dude then bring him back to your hand or to play with any one of black's many ways to do so. For 2 mana, this is serious busienss. And it's so black.
So much for that... Anyway, the Time Spiral artwork was much better than this version, but whatever, I guess. The key with this card is to time it correctly. Does your opponent have only one card in hand? Cast it. Does your opponent only have one creature? Cast it. Does your opponent appear to be struggling to make land drops? Cast it. Is your opponent showing any combination of the aforementioned conditions? Cast it.
The effect may seem underwhelming, but I guarantee you that you'll get a groan out of your opponent when you force them to sacrifice their last line of defense, discard their bomb they've been waiting to cast, and go down an additional land. It's no fun at all to be on the receiving end of that.
Dont ever play reassembling Skeleton outside of limited.
Ever.
Oh, you spent your turn getting a vanilla 1/1 back? Sick play bro.
Lets see some other popular recurring creatures in the format. Bloodghast. Doesnt cost any mana, can kill way more things, has conditional haste, and doesnt cost mana. Can also possibly be activated at instant speed. Vengevine. Vengevine is a four three with haste that rewards you for building a board presence.. and doesn't cost any mana to recur Both of these cards are very good on their own and can be recurred essentially for free. Reassembling skeleton is a one one. a one. one.
End aside.
As for the card, it can be busted. I truly believe that. Black has some of the best small creatures in standard, and thats what you want. You wanna be able to stay really low on the curve, aka bloodghasts (Which are sick, especially in conjunction with smallpox) and Vampire Nighthawks (Which are sick) and include equipments (swords, anybody?) to make all these tiny dudes huge. However, you need to be able to consistently play this card multiple times for a deck like this to work. You have to design around the card, and it isn't really consistent enough to truly work. I have tried a few rough versions of smallpox decks, one a control version and one an aggro version. The aggro version, admitedly, can be super sick.
The control, not so much. So its possible that an aggro version with bloodghasts and mortician's beetles and a bunch of other really bad cards might just be the way to go, who knows.
Each player discards a card, loses 1 life, sacrifices a creature, and sacrifices a land for each creature with power greater than 4 on the battlefield.
Wallpox
Each player discards a card, loses 1 life, sacrifices a creature, and sacrifices a land for each Wall under his or her control.
Maulpox
Each player discards a card, loses 1 life, gains one poison counter, and sacrifices a land for each creature that dealt damage to a player this turn.
Stallpox
If a player would cast a spell this turn, instead exile that spell. If you do, each player discards a card, loses 1 life, gains one poison counter, and sacrifices a land.
Voiceofallpox
Each player discards a card, loses 1 life, gains one poison counter, and sacrifices a land for each Angel that entered the battlefield since your last end step.
Also, I normally hate puns but...
This puts the TROLL in conTROLL.
Perfect for Black control, especially the Morbid, self-sacrifice variety.
Good for keeping your opponent from gaining too much momentum, especially if you're playing a control deck.
Now that we have Lingering Souls and Gravecrawler, I turned it into a really fun modern deck!
Sorta like Innocent Blood, but its a bit harder to take advantage of. I suppose if you didn't have any creatures or cards, you'd get something, but if you didn't have any creatures or cards I think you'd be in bigger trouble. Still, it combos nicely with abyssal persecutor.
4/5
Still, in the right deck, this thing will wreck opponents. Also.. it gets you focused in multi-player. You'd better have a damn good deck.
The discard furthered his plans, he basically didn't lose a land because his got replaced, and he never had a creature on turn 2 (or if he did, it was already game over). The life loss is mostly irrelevant. The main creature he reanimated was angel of despair. Cuts you down a land, and then destroys another one the next turn.
I like that a card this powerful exists and has been reprinted recently (as in wizards still thinks it's okay to have in the game). The effect is absolutely brutal and leads to really crazy decks.
5/5
There are 3 elements (creature sac, land sac, discard) that are relevant and you have to recover from.
You're not always going to have Flagstones of Trokair to sacrifice, and in light of the new legend rule, unless you're playing Death Cloud, too, I'd run only 3. How you compensate for the times when you don't have Flagstones is by running mana acceleration. Sakura-Tribe Elder is a good choice, unless you're going {W}{B}. Then I'd suggest Coalition Relic.
You can do a couple things to compensate for the discard. Generally, I'd suggest Lingering Souls or Bloodghast. Card advantage is the best way to recover from the discard, and I'd suggest Phyrexian Arena.
To recover from the creature sac, I'd suggest either not playing a creature yet or sacrificing Kitchen Finks or Bloodghast.