Modern is a format which is skewing more and more towards hyper efficient decks that play to the board, like Death's Shadow or Devoted Druid. On the flip side, there are decks that rely on hitting their land drops in order to be able to attrition out the more efficient decks by casting powerful two-for ones. In either case, Smallpox seems like a great card to be casting. You either get to prevent the efficient decks from having the critical mass of resources that they need, or you get to prevent the more midrange decks from having enough lands to really get off the ground. So what does Smallpox look like in 2017? QBTurtle15 gave us a pretty good look:

Black-White Pox - Modern | QBTurtle15, 6th MTGO Modern Challenge

• Creatures (4)
• 4 Bloodghast

• Planeswalkers (10)
• 2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
• 4 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
• 4 Liliana of the Veil

• Instants (4)
• 4 Fatal Push

• Sorceries (18)
• 2 Never // Return
• 4 Inquisition of Kozilek
• 4 Lingering Souls
• 4 Smallpox
• 4 Thoughtseize

• Lands (24)
• 1 Plains
• 1 Swamp
• 3 Godless Shrine
• 3 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 4 Fetid Heath
• 4 Flagstones of Trokair
• 4 Marsh Flats
• 4 Shambling Vent

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Rest in Peace
• 2 Collective Brutality
• 2 Damnation
• 2 Fulminator Mage
• 2 Shadow of Doubt
• 2 Stony Silence
• 4 Leyline of the Void

Buy This Deck

While your opponent is short on resources, you can utilize powerful Planeswalkers to pull further ahead on resources. Gideon and Sorin are great Planeswalkers for Modern because you want to cover both the air and the ground, as well as give yourself the ability to generate life in protracted games. Liliana of the Veil fits into the remainder of your plan, which is to trade resources as efficiently as possible with your opponent to leave them with as little as possible to work with. With Lingering Souls to help protect your Planeswalkers on key turns, plus Fatal Push to prevent big hits from cards like Temur Battle Rage or Cranial Plating, you’ve got a strong ability to grind the game to a halt and overwhelm your opponent with pure resources.

If you like trying to ensure that your opponent doesn’t really get to play, this seems like a great thing to be doing. Decks in Modern are incredibly soft to Smallpox right now, and this seems like one of the decks that’s best at breaking the symmetry of the effect, given the lack of creatures and density of cards that you want to sacrifice or discard anyway.