Pox

Game Plan

Pox is a pure attrition machine that wins by collapsing the opponent's resource base faster than its own, then closing on the skeletal remains. The opening turns are devoted entirely to asymmetric hand attack: Duress strips the answer or the threat, Cabal Therapy names into a now-exposed hand and can flash back off a sacrificed Ravenous Rats (itself a forced discard on entry), while Funeral Charm and Innocent Blood clear early blockers at no real card cost. Dark Ritual accelerates the whole sequence a full turn, most critically enabling a turn-one or turn-two Pox while the hand is already nearly empty. That timing is the engine's central trick: Pox forces each player to lose a third of their lands, sacrifice a creature, and discard down, but a hellbent pilot with no creatures loses almost nothing while a developed opponent loses everything. Bottomless Pit then keeps the attrition running across subsequent turns with no additional mana investment.

Once the board is reduced to rubble, the win conditions self-select. The Rack drains up to three life per turn from any opponent who cannot climb back to three cards in hand, and the sustained discard plan keeps them well below that threshold. Cursed Scroll picks off blockers and threatens two damage per activation when both players are topdecking. Nether Spirit is the deck's most resilient threat, returning to the battlefield each upkeep as long as it is the sole creature in the graveyard; Phyrexian Furnace keeps that condition live by exiling redundant creature cards. Skittering Skirge and Mishra's Factory provide additional pressure immune to Pox's sacrifice clause, and Wasteland extends the mana-denial angle into a total lockout against greedy bases.