It's easy to look at a decklist that came in 1st place or made Top 8 of a major event and think that you've done your homework for that week's event. However, doing so will only give you a small picture of what the format was really like. There are often plenty of great decks just end up outside of Top 8 that had either slightly worse or even the exact same record as players that made Top 8. Margins at Magic events are very thin, and not checking these decks out would be a huge leak in your exploration of a metagame. Jacob Hagen was on the wrong side of those margins at SCG Dallas a few weeks ago, but he had something very interesting brewing.

Jacob took an established but accepted as underpowered archetype, Black/White Smallpox, and added the format's brand new element in Stoneforge Mystic. Stoneforge Mystic gives the deck an immediate jump in power level, and with both Batterskull and Sword of Fire and Ice playing so well with what the deck was already doing we've got something very nice brewing here. Throw in a few copies of the criminally underplayed Gideon, Ally of Zendikar and we're off to the races!

Time Stamps:

Match 1 - 00:06:25

Match 2 - 00:32:52

Match 3 - 00:52:42

Match 4 - 01:22:58

Match 5 - 01:47:42

Stoneforge Pox | Modern | Jacob Hagen | SCG Dallas 9th Place

• Creatures (8)
• 4 Bloodghast
• 4 Stoneforge Mystic

• Planeswalkers (7)
• 3 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
• 4 Liliana of the Veil

• Instants (4)
• 4 Fatal Push

• Sorceries (15)
• 3 Thoughtseize
• 4 Inquisition of Kozilek
• 4 Lingering Souls
• 4 Smallpox

• Artifacts (2)
• 1 Batterskull
• 1 Sword of Fire and Ice

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

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Plague Engineer
• 1 Ashiok, Dream Render
• 1 The Elderspell
• 1 Kaya, Orzhov Usurper
• 2 Damping Sphere
• 2 Collective Brutality
• 2 Stony Silence
• 3 Fulminator Mage
• 1 Damnation

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Not too bad!

Despite facing a number of matchups that seemed like they'd be quite difficult on paper, we were able to run the tables. Stoneforge Mystic was basically everything the deck could ever want - A great early threat, a card that could end the game quickly while our opponents were off balance, and card advantage. The fear with any disruptive deck is that they'll be able to recover before you can finish them off, and Stoneforge Mystic and Gideon, Ally of Zendikar did a great job of speeding up the clock.

Speaking of Gideon, if you're looking for a good fair threat that kills fast Gideon is an excellent option in Modern. Both Stoneforge Mystic and Gideon pair extremely well with discard spells, as you strip away your opponent's answers and slow them down, then take them out before they can draw what they need. When it comes to low resource games, Gideon and Stoneforge are very resource rich.

If you're looking to play fair in Modern or just love Smallpox decks, give Stoneforge Pox a spin!