Welcome to Mono Red Prison. Mono Red Prison is not a new deck or concept, but it is now positioned quite well in the legacy format. The basic premise of the deck is to punish you're opponent for playing a greedy mana base, playing cost efficient or free spells, and gaining board state advantage through soul land acceleration. Your game plan with Red Prison is usually very linear and strait forward. Using soul lands, moxen, and spirit guides,you want jamb 1 or 2 back breaking lock pieces on your first turn or 2 then follow it up with a threat that generates fast closing speed. Depending on the match up, the deck can quite easily change gears and get down an ensnaring bridge and win out behind that.
Mono Red prison is a unique deck in the fact that depending on your opening hand and your opponent you can take 2 very different lines of play. Your primary game plan, especially in the blind, is to look for an opening hand that will generate a T1 Moon effect, followed up with further lock pieces the following turns. Thus creating a narrow path for your opponent operate with in and hopefully locking them out of the game all together. What makes Red Prison Unique is that it is a control deck that can operate on a totally different axis and play a hard core aggro game plan. If you know your opponent is on a control or combo game plan, it's totally reasonable to keep and play an opening 7 that results in Turn 1 2 and 3 threats that will generate mountains of pressure and close the game out quickly.
What Red Prison requires to pilot more than anything is a knowledge of the format. In all likelihood the deck will pilot itself. What it needs from you is an understanding of what lock pieces are pertinent and the sequence with which to play them. If you have the requisite knowledge of the meta, and an understanding of what lock pieces are required to cripple a deck, Red Prison will give you the tools with which to do it.
As you may have noticed from the various deck lists about, the card selection has very little variance. The deck runs a very tight list of required cards to make it function. There is room for meta choices, but even in the board, there isn't much room. Here we will go over the cards and their value.
Prison Pieces Blood Moon / Magus of the moon: Moon effects are your go to T1 lock piece in the blind. The vast majority of the format operates on a greedy and or fragile mana base. Pushing a turn 1 moon effect against many decks is GG. Even if it isn't the end of the game, it is often enough to buy you several turns with which to push a win further out of reach of your opponent or give you the time to drop a threat and push damage.
chalice of the void: Chalice of the void is often on par with blood moon as far as back breaking. Spells with a CMC of 1 and 2 make up a staggering portion of the meta game. Red Prison is very capable of putting down turns one and two chalices that shut your opponent off from playing those spells. Thus our deck is designed to function off of three and four CMC spells to be able to go over the top of our own chalice.
Ensnaring Bridge / Trinisphere: These are our back up and situational lock pieces. unlike chalice and moon effects, these lock pieces aren't game breakers, but in the right circumstance, they can be. These lock pieces are often more designed around buying you turns and or creating some breathing room for you to execute your game plans.
Threats Goblin Rabblemaster / Legion Warboss These cards are very similar in effect. Often, on their own, these creatures aren't enough to blow a game out. But when behind multiple prison pieces protecting them, these creatures can generate significant pressure and close the game out quickly.
Chandra, Tourch of defiance: this is one of your most powerful cards in the deck. it can give you the versatility to dig through your top deck and find more lock pieces and threats. It can give you removal for pesky creatures your opponent managed to resolve under or around your lock pieces. It can also end games behind your bridge and other pieces by send damage upstairs in 2 or 5 at a time.
Hazoret the fervent / Pia and kiran nalaar: these are your situational and versatility creatures. hazoret can hit the board and smash face for 5 at a time, or he can sit behind a bridge and go upstairs. Pia is a nice mix of removal, damage, and bodies. when you are in a long game match, Pia is a fantastic piece to have hit the board. When you are trying to close a game with maximum velocity, hazoret brings the pain.
Fiery confluence: This is probably the best card in the deck. Once you have a game plan in action, this card can be used to clear the board of creatures, remove problematic artifacts, or just sending 6 upstairs. more often than not, you'll find yourself praying for a confluence off the top to end the game.
Lands and Mana Sources city of traitors / Ancient Tomb: The soul lands are critical to our game plan. They will help generate you critical mana turn 1, but at a very real cost.
chrome moxlotus petalsimian spirit guide: as above, these cards are critical to generating 3 mana on turn 1, but at a very real cost in the form of card disadvantage. provided you enact your prison pieces, this disadvantage becomes less of an issue. if your lock pieces get stuffed, then it can become a very real problem.
Sideboard
Faerie Macabre: this is a very critical board card. When dealing with decks that use a graveyard game plan, like dredge, reanimator, or loam, to name a few, you need to have an answer to rebut those strategies. The primary problem is the vast majority of available graveyard hate is affected by your own chalice or trinisphere. That's where Faerie Macabre comes into play, it gives you tools against graveyard decks that lets you go around you prison pieces.
ensnaring bridge / Trinisphere: For the decks that these cards do provide value against, like Reanimator, Storm, OmniTell etc, you will want to have access to more copies of them to go in the main. Also you will have matches where moon effects have little value due to your opponents use of basics. So having prison pieces with low value is better than having pieces with no value.
Sulfur ElementalKozilek's Return: UW Miracles and DnT are very bad matches for you. These cards provide you a very real answer to those problems. Sulfur Elemental wipes out half the creatures that DnT plays, dropping a second wipes out all their creatures. Also against UW, this card provides you an uncounterable threat and one that hampers Monestary Mentor, which is their primary win condition. Kozileks return provides another sweeper that isn't as valuable in those particular matches, but has more wide ranged application to other decks in the format like maverick or goblins.
Other Viable Cards
Hanweir garrisonWalking ballistachandra pyromaster: These are cards that have seen play in the main deck to some effect and 5-0 finishes in MTGO Comp Leagues. They provide some different lines for closing games out and applying pressure.
Karn, scion of Uza: this card is starting to see more play in the main deck as a split with chandra. it can be used to generate great card advantage to help you dig once you have your prison game enacted.
IV: Position in the format
What Red Prison is Strong Against
RUG
Storm
Goblins
Lands Merfolk
Punishing Jund
Eldrazi
Infect
Death's Shadow
Turbo Derpths
What Red Prison is Fair Against
Reanimator
Burn
Maverick
Dredge
Esper Stoneblade
Painters servant
What are Bad Matches for Red Prison
Sneak Show
Death and Taxes
UW Control
Stupid question, but why is this in developing?
Man we need a sort out- threads like this should be in the main, alongside Miracles etc. Last I looked infect was lurking in developing as well.
Why don't you pm a mod and get the deck moved to established (and call it dragon stompy as well as Mono Red prison, as that is what I have seen it referred to as most often)
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
People with belligerent signatures are trying to compensate for something....
Yea this should definatly be in the established section it is like 3% of the meta on mtgtop 8 also does anyone have thoughts on running great furnace instead of a few mountains to help with karns construct tokens and being able to throw them with p&k once they arnt needed anymore? I dont play any now but have thought about it. it seems like the upside is very high but not sure what the downside would be other than artifact destruction maybe post board they could be a liability?
Agree 100%. Only reason i wrote it up in developing is per forum rules any primers must start in developing then be moved. It is a tier 1 legacy deck further emphasized by the fact that it just took down yhe MTGO legacy challange on Sunday. Writing stuff lile this really isnt my thing anf I didn't feel like I did a fantastic job but someone needed to do it to get the ball rolling....
i disagree on some matchups like merfolk, burn, reanimator, dredge but else the primer seems solid...
Stupid question, but why is this in developing?
well there is/was a primer for mono red prison but it is/was super old and out of date. some people tried to update it and replace the entry post but cuz of some forum related reasons "and the original poster vanishing" it never happened. my post "new primer" got deleted this year and was in developing aswell.
(ya would still need an update but i kinda lost interest after all the silence)
But this whole anti-Legacy-stuff is also one of the...
All non-basic hate aka Moons just do nothing against decks with many basic lands. Chalice of the Void or Trinisphere doesn't do anything if the opponent always plays only spells which cost 3+ mana. That means AllInRed is only really good in a meta where many non-basics are played, or the mana-curve is quite low.
The second weakness is the inconsistency of the deck, as it is sometimes simply has no reasonable ratio of screw / mana acceleration / creatures in the starting hand.
The third problem which has been always there is that AllInRed has an incredibly bad mid- and late-game because it only plays from the top. Simple said, AllInRed plays like this: Resolve a card, that wins the game [usually a Moon-Effect]. If that is not enough, play additional cards that screw or stall the opponent and resolve large threats that kill the opponent as quickly as possible. If that does not work, just hope that your opponent misplays, can't calculate combat math, or does crappy things on his side of the field, because otherwise we will probably lose. [Ok the third part got a lot better cuz of quality improvements in the newer sets]
AllInRed is not easy to play... It punishes you really hard for each mistake @mulliganing or wrong imprinting + order of spells and if you screw up combat. Sure you can just yolo your stuff but then you have no winning record. Brainstorm what to do if things don't go according to plan!
Beatz – Meta choice Sin Prodder
Probably the red Dark Confidant.
Evasion + the potential to draw more gas is great. The downside of removing the card you really need is minimal in my eyes.
Note: can be awkward if you have a moon and your opp a deathrite or you sit behind a bridge and your opp generate tokens but you are unable to empty your hand. Pia and Kiran Nalaar
It drops 4 power on to the board, and being spread out among 3 creatures makes it very resistant to removal. The tokens even fly, and the activated ability is a powerful addition. This being legendary does matter somewhat, but you can still just jam 2 or 3 without fear.
Note: nice synergy with Karakas in your sb if you are playing vs a deck that ignores moon or if you have to sb them out like vs ranimator or show and tell. Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
Testing this atm but the main reason to play this was something sticky that is able to kill little stuff like Gaddock Teeg or shooting behind a bridge. Also nice with karakas in your sb if you have to play weird games.
Removal&Toolbox – Meta choice Chandra, Torch of Defiance
As a card, Chandra is absurd. She has four good abilities, and ticks the important boxes of "protects herself" and "draws a card each turn." It's relevant that her first ability doesn't let you play lands, but it's still close to drawing a card. Ramping you by 2 mana isn't a throwaway, either. Playing Chandra, torching their only creature, and ramping into something is a great sequence, and doesn't seem outside the realm of possibility by any stretch. Fiery Confluence
This solid allround-tool deals with a lot of stuff like goblin tokens vs combo or equipments or planeswalkers and the list goes on and on. Just playing 3 of this and Chandra cuz your hands get really cluncky otherwise. Sudden Shock
Can not count the good targets for this removal and split second is nuts.
[Deathrite Shaman, Stoneforge Mystic, Delver of Secrets, Young Pyromancer, Mother of Runes, Monastery Mentor to name a few] Icy Manipulator
A tool to deal with Show and Tell that is not dead in other matchups. This card seems odd but deals with a lof of problems like basic-lands or protection. Think of it as the 4th more flex bridge.
Crystal Vein
The budget choice if you can't get City of Traitors. The problem with Vein is that it can give you 2 only once where City can give it to you as long as it stays on the field.
Goblin Rabblemaster
If your opponent doesn't have good blockers, this gets out of control extremely quickly.
Pia and Kiran Nalaar
It drops 4 power on to the board, and being spread out among 3 creatures makes it very resistant to removal. The tokens even fly, and the activated ability is a powerful addition. This being legendary does matter somewhat, but you can still just jam 2 or 3 without fear.
Hanweir Garrison
It doesn’t unload damage as quickly as Goblin Rabblemaster, but it has a similar ability to run away with a game if it goes unanswered. Does not die to Punishing Fire and 3 toughness is nice in combat.
Prophetic Flamespeaker
The interaction between his abilities is actually stronger than it might appear just by looking at the card.
That said, he is a beast with support like removal or equipments. Sadly RR is hard to cast turn 1. Scab-Clan Berserker
Agressive combo + control hate.
Umezawa's Jitte
Best legal equipment ever printed and a beast in a creature heavy metagame.
Quicksmith Rebel
This guy can turn dead artifacts into a wincon. Sitting behind an Ensnaring Bridge that pings your opp or his creatures seems decent.
The worst scenario i can think about would be you have no artifact in play with multiple of him sitting in your hand but then you probably lose anyways.
Thunderbreak Regent
A 4/4 flier for 4 that deals 3 to your opponent whenever they dare target it.
Masticore
Underrated in a creature heavy meta. Drop this early and watch Deathrite Shaman & friends cry.
Ok pretty rough if he eats removal after you had to discard + can not be imprinted but still powerful for offense and defense.
Avaricious Dragon
If you can play this with zero cards in hand, it is a threat, and the power level makes me take notice, but if you run into removal or with decent cards in your hand...
Firewing Phoenix
This card has a decent power + is able to return. There are stronger options but still ok i gues.
Flame-Wreathed Phoenix
Ok let's see... either 3/3 haste that can return if it dies or 5/5 beatstick... seems to be decent?
Moltensteel Dragon
Painful to cast or activate but it brings a nice body and can kill really fast.
Goldnight Castigator
Maybe... somehow... if... well the downside is probably too big in a race situation.
Taurean Mauler
Looks like an ok card but would have been so much better at 3/3 or with evasion.
Boil
Good vs Miracles or anything with a lot of Islands.
Ratchet Bomb
Can get rid of most nonland permanents.
Pithing Needle Phyrexian Revoker
Nice cards that shut down annoying abilities. Walkers, Vial, Top etc. are nothing when these hit the table. Revoker might be better for the deck as it can attack and it doesn't get countered by Chalice@1. Revoker can also deny opponents manastones (LED!). Needle on the other hand can get rid of annoying lands like Maze of Ith.
Faerie Macabre
The best graveyard hate for this deck in my opinion.
They have a hard time dealing with our Moon-effects in game 1. We can get in trouble if they have an agressive draw on the play and hit turn 2 Thought-Knot Seer IF we do not hit a turn 1 or 2 Moon-effect + good beatz. Endbringer or [cardGrim Monolith[/card] can also be really annoying.
[Keep in mind Dismember or Walking Balista vs Magus of the Moon can be devastating]
So basically we lose if we do nothing else we should win.
In g2 + g3 they probably bring in stuff like Ratchet Bomb or All is Dust and still get rekt by our gameplan.
Almost all our cards are great vs them. Ok a Tarmogoyf or Young Pyromancer or Deathrite Shaman with strong backup and specially if they are on the play can be troublesome to deal with. That said it is very possible that you win turn one if they are unable to Force of Will our disruption.
In g2 + g3 it depends on their colors and plan but probably cut the Planeswalkers and add removal. Maybe add more lands to not get Wasteland out of the game and to play around Daze. Cards like Grim Lavamancer or a timed Ancient Grudge can be devastating if your draw is mediocore.
Very Favourable
You have all the tools to lock them out g1 but they might get you if they are on the play on turn 1-2. After sideboarding you have the edge of a more focused gameplan.
[They probably sb Abrupt Decay or Echoing Truth or By Force or Hurkyl's Recall and slow down]
It is possible that they drop Lion's Eye Diamond + Lotus Petal before going off in fear of Chalice of the Void on zero or Trinisphere so Fiery Confluence can not just wreck their goblins kill or deal 6 dmg to prevent an Ad Nauseum kill.
If you have no pressure they can combo through your disruption but Mindbreak Trap is hot when there is a lot of storm so they also need discard.
Note: The % depends on which Version they are playing and your Sideboard = T1 kills or T2 kills if you are unable to lock on the draw really hurt.
Favourable
Most of them play green/black for some sideboard cards and a few have Natural Order.
Our disruption should be strong vs them but they can swarm us before we do anything and being on the play is huge. Magus of the Moon is stronger than your enchantment cuz of Reclamation Sage + Wirewood Symbiote and sometimes they also have Gaddock Teeg to shut down your Planeswalkers and massremoval.
Keep track of all onboard tricks they can do to avoid blowouts.
They are in big trouble if you drop an early threat supported by a combination of 1-2 removal or disruption even if they bring in Abrupt Decay.
Neutral
Normally they play two or three basic lands + they are slow. The less basic lands they have the better the matchup but it can be possible to drop fetchland pass and keep Abrupt Decay up for our Moon-effects. If they start with Tarmogoyf and strong backup on the play it is for sure troublesome but overall we are well suited.
If their plan is basic into basic a fast creature heavy start without disruption can seal the deal.
[Keep in mind they probably play Toxic Deluge]
Without Sulfur Elemental + Sudden Shock probably unfavorable cuz they are mono colored with Aether Vial and given enough time can deal with any threat + Stoneforge Mystic protected by Mother of Runes is scary.
[That said it is also possible that they start without basiclands]
Try to avoid that their equipments overpower you and do not run into their obvious tricks.
Slightly unfavorable
The Flagship of their deck with 1-2 support spells or cards like True-Name Nemesis with any of their equipments overpower us. They can have a slow start and perish cuz of our pressure but this is hard to do if they play like 3-6 basic lands.
Very unfavorable
We can do almost nothing if they get a turn 1-2 fatty and specially with backup. Tbh all depends on their draw.
[Karakas would be really strong i gues]
Very unfavorable
Most of your disruption does nothing vs them and Emrakul, the Aeons Torn + Griselbrand laugh about our clock.
You would have to devote too many sb slots to at best have a shot and that is why i just ignore that matchup.
[ok you probably can sb something decent vs reanimator + show and tell like Karakas]
Hopefully they just do nothing.
Not sure if this thread is the best/most active one, if not please link, but, what are the thoughts on Karn, the Great Creator?
To me he seems like an amazing tool for Mono Red Prison as he tutors for the exact cards we need for any situation and can just win the game with mycosynth lattice.
Now that Mono Red Prison has so many must answer cards Karn just puts the deck over the top an gives more angles of winning.
I play Rw/R painter, and sport the new karn as a 4-of.
He's VERY good. Basically pushed painter from the somewhat unplayable side to good/great. Still obnoxiously hard to pilot well though (i suspect like mono-R prison).
I'd say that he's a wincon all on his own, much like the other pieces in mono-R that aren't straight prison pieces. One thing though, my painter build is a lot more prisony compared to other painter lists, which is why i figured i'd drop a line here. I doubt the other prison/stompy pieces would work in mono-R, but on the off chance it's worth testing: liquimetal coating (works like a rishadan port with karn in play. Can also work like a strip mine against lands if you +1 karn), and gorilla shaman for those times when you have multiple coatings and/or lattice in play.
This is my first attempt this deck and card I haven't seen played much but seems to be a pretty decent finisher if ramped out early is Deus of Calamity so I decided to try and include him in the deck.
I'm not sure whether or not Koth is worth it in the deck (over P&K, F.Confluence or Rekindling Phoenix) but gettting him out early seems pretty good.
I don't have Chalice here as I wanted to use Faithless Looting to get rid of useless ramp later in the game and set up powerful early turn plays.
Having access to Bolt and Rite of Flmae (over Petal/Mox) seems decent as well for more interaction/reach and ramp.
I'm not sure what are the best cards for SB so I've tried to cover as much strategies as I could.
Welcome to Mono Red Prison. Mono Red Prison is not a new deck or concept, but it is now positioned quite well in the legacy format. The basic premise of the deck is to punish you're opponent for playing a greedy mana base, playing cost efficient or free spells, and gaining board state advantage through soul land acceleration. Your game plan with Red Prison is usually very linear and strait forward. Using soul lands, moxen, and spirit guides,you want jamb 1 or 2 back breaking lock pieces on your first turn or 2 then follow it up with a threat that generates fast closing speed. Depending on the match up, the deck can quite easily change gears and get down an ensnaring bridge and win out behind that.
Mono Red prison is a unique deck in the fact that depending on your opening hand and your opponent you can take 2 very different lines of play. Your primary game plan, especially in the blind, is to look for an opening hand that will generate a T1 Moon effect, followed up with further lock pieces the following turns. Thus creating a narrow path for your opponent operate with in and hopefully locking them out of the game all together. What makes Red Prison Unique is that it is a control deck that can operate on a totally different axis and play a hard core aggro game plan. If you know your opponent is on a control or combo game plan, it's totally reasonable to keep and play an opening 7 that results in Turn 1 2 and 3 threats that will generate mountains of pressure and close the game out quickly.
What Red Prison requires to pilot more than anything is a knowledge of the format. In all likelihood the deck will pilot itself. What it needs from you is an understanding of what lock pieces are pertinent and the sequence with which to play them. If you have the requisite knowledge of the meta, and an understanding of what lock pieces are required to cripple a deck, Red Prison will give you the tools with which to do it.
II: Deck Lists
Top 16 SCG Worcester Classic By JORDAN GOODWIN
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
2 Hazoret the Fervent
4 Legion Warboss
3 Magus of the Moon
4 Simian Spirit Guide
Artifact
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Chrome Mox
2 Ensnaring Bridge
2 Lotus Petal
2 Trinisphere
4 Fiery Confluence
Enchantment
4 Blood Moon
Planeswalker
4 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
Land
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
9 Mountain
3 Boil
2 Ensnaring Bridge
4 Faerie Macabre
4 Thought-Knot Seer
2 Trinisphere
Top 4 SCG Columbus Classic By ALEX HON
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
1 Hazoret the Fervent
4 Legion Warboss
3 Magus of the Moon
1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
4 Simian Spirit Guide
Artifact
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Chrome Mox
2 Ensnaring Bridge
2 Trinisphere
4 Fiery Confluence
Enchantment
4 Blood Moon
Planeswalker
4 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
Land
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
11 Mountain
2 Abrade
4 Faerie Macabre
2 Kozilek's Return
3 Scab-Clan Berserker
2 Sorcerous Spyglass
2 Sulfur Elemental
2nd GP Shizouka By HIROYUKI KAGA
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
1 Hazoret the Fervent
4 Legion Warboss
3 Magus of the Moon
1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
4 Simian Spirit Guide
Artifact
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Chrome Mox
2 Ensnaring Bridge
2 Trinisphere
4 Fiery Confluence
Enchantment
4 Blood Moon
Planeswalker
4 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
Land
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
5 Mountain
6 Snow-Covered Mountain
2 Abrade
4 Faerie Macabre
2 Kozilek's Return
3 Scab-Clan Berserker
2 Sorcerous Spyglass
2 Sulfur Elemental
III: Card Choices
As you may have noticed from the various deck lists about, the card selection has very little variance. The deck runs a very tight list of required cards to make it function. There is room for meta choices, but even in the board, there isn't much room. Here we will go over the cards and their value.
Prison Pieces
Blood Moon / Magus of the moon: Moon effects are your go to T1 lock piece in the blind. The vast majority of the format operates on a greedy and or fragile mana base. Pushing a turn 1 moon effect against many decks is GG. Even if it isn't the end of the game, it is often enough to buy you several turns with which to push a win further out of reach of your opponent or give you the time to drop a threat and push damage.
chalice of the void: Chalice of the void is often on par with blood moon as far as back breaking. Spells with a CMC of 1 and 2 make up a staggering portion of the meta game. Red Prison is very capable of putting down turns one and two chalices that shut your opponent off from playing those spells. Thus our deck is designed to function off of three and four CMC spells to be able to go over the top of our own chalice.
Ensnaring Bridge / Trinisphere: These are our back up and situational lock pieces. unlike chalice and moon effects, these lock pieces aren't game breakers, but in the right circumstance, they can be. These lock pieces are often more designed around buying you turns and or creating some breathing room for you to execute your game plans.
Threats
Goblin Rabblemaster / Legion Warboss These cards are very similar in effect. Often, on their own, these creatures aren't enough to blow a game out. But when behind multiple prison pieces protecting them, these creatures can generate significant pressure and close the game out quickly.
Chandra, Tourch of defiance: this is one of your most powerful cards in the deck. it can give you the versatility to dig through your top deck and find more lock pieces and threats. It can give you removal for pesky creatures your opponent managed to resolve under or around your lock pieces. It can also end games behind your bridge and other pieces by send damage upstairs in 2 or 5 at a time.
Hazoret the fervent / Pia and kiran nalaar: these are your situational and versatility creatures. hazoret can hit the board and smash face for 5 at a time, or he can sit behind a bridge and go upstairs. Pia is a nice mix of removal, damage, and bodies. when you are in a long game match, Pia is a fantastic piece to have hit the board. When you are trying to close a game with maximum velocity, hazoret brings the pain.
Fiery confluence: This is probably the best card in the deck. Once you have a game plan in action, this card can be used to clear the board of creatures, remove problematic artifacts, or just sending 6 upstairs. more often than not, you'll find yourself praying for a confluence off the top to end the game.
Lands and Mana Sources
city of traitors / Ancient Tomb: The soul lands are critical to our game plan. They will help generate you critical mana turn 1, but at a very real cost.
chrome mox lotus petal simian spirit guide: as above, these cards are critical to generating 3 mana on turn 1, but at a very real cost in the form of card disadvantage. provided you enact your prison pieces, this disadvantage becomes less of an issue. if your lock pieces get stuffed, then it can become a very real problem.
Sideboard
Faerie Macabre: this is a very critical board card. When dealing with decks that use a graveyard game plan, like dredge, reanimator, or loam, to name a few, you need to have an answer to rebut those strategies. The primary problem is the vast majority of available graveyard hate is affected by your own chalice or trinisphere. That's where Faerie Macabre comes into play, it gives you tools against graveyard decks that lets you go around you prison pieces.
ensnaring bridge / Trinisphere: For the decks that these cards do provide value against, like Reanimator, Storm, OmniTell etc, you will want to have access to more copies of them to go in the main. Also you will have matches where moon effects have little value due to your opponents use of basics. So having prison pieces with low value is better than having pieces with no value.
Sulfur Elemental Kozilek's Return: UW Miracles and DnT are very bad matches for you. These cards provide you a very real answer to those problems. Sulfur Elemental wipes out half the creatures that DnT plays, dropping a second wipes out all their creatures. Also against UW, this card provides you an uncounterable threat and one that hampers Monestary Mentor, which is their primary win condition. Kozileks return provides another sweeper that isn't as valuable in those particular matches, but has more wide ranged application to other decks in the format like maverick or goblins.
Other Viable Cards
Hanweir garrison Walking ballista chandra pyromaster: These are cards that have seen play in the main deck to some effect and 5-0 finishes in MTGO Comp Leagues. They provide some different lines for closing games out and applying pressure.
Sorcerous Spyglass Scab-Clan Berserker abrade Thought-knot seer Torpor orb: these are meta choices for your board that have seen play and shown success.
Karn, scion of Uza: this card is starting to see more play in the main deck as a split with chandra. it can be used to generate great card advantage to help you dig once you have your prison game enacted.
IV: Position in the format
What Red Prison is Strong Against
RUG
Storm
Goblins
Lands Merfolk
Punishing Jund
Eldrazi
Infect
Death's Shadow
Turbo Derpths
What Red Prison is Fair Against
Reanimator
Burn
Maverick
Dredge
Esper Stoneblade
Painters servant
What are Bad Matches for Red Prison
Sneak Show
Death and Taxes
UW Control
V: Resources
Mono Red Prison Discord: https://discord.gg/VSP3JHw
Channel Fireball Video : https://youtu.be/-lQzpyAD_KY
Pleasant Kenobi Video: https://youtu.be/PJyQFCYwk_E
Gabriel Nassif League Match: https://youtu.be/w6lRVlJlDVc
Man we need a sort out- threads like this should be in the main, alongside Miracles etc. Last I looked infect was lurking in developing as well.
Why don't you pm a mod and get the deck moved to established (and call it dragon stompy as well as Mono Red prison, as that is what I have seen it referred to as most often)
Good primer. If only I had some Blood Moons...
Fully-powered 600-Card "Dream Cube" https://cubecobra.com/cube/list/dreamcube
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well there is/was a primer for mono red prison but it is/was super old and out of date. some people tried to update it and replace the entry post but cuz of some forum related reasons "and the original poster vanishing" it never happened. my post "new primer" got deleted this year and was in developing aswell.
(ya would still need an update but i kinda lost interest after all the silence)
I. Introduction
AllInRed is mostly characterized by it's screw & Moon-effects. It plays Blood Moon and Chalice of the Void or Trinisphere and Ensnaring Bridge to impede the opponent and then quickly plays threats like Sin Prodder or Chandra, Torch of Defiance to smash him. The usually 4-8 Moon effects are pretty hard to deal with for the Legacy-format [when you see how many non-basics are played, you know what I mean]. Chalice of the Void is against the curve, since the cost of many keyspells in Legacy is usually 1 or 2. They can resolve 1st turn via Chrome Mox Simian Spirit Guide Ancient Tomb + City of Traitors and just win the game.
AllInRed is a meta-deck and has to adapt with 14-18 cards to be most effective.
AllInRed is not easy to play... It punishes you really hard for each mistake @mulliganing or wrong imprinting + order of spells and if you screw up combat. Sure you can just yolo your stuff but then you have no winning record. Brainstorm what to do if things don't go according to plan!
4x Magus of the Moon
4x Sin Prodder
1x Pia and Kiran Nalaar
1x Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
3x Ensnaring Bridge
3x Trinisphere
4x Blood Moon
4x Chalice of the Void
4x Chrome Mox
3x Chandra, Torch of Defiance
3x Fiery Confluence
3x Sudden Shock
1x Icy Manipulator
4x City of Traitors
10x Mountain
3x Phyrexian Revoker
3x Karakas
3x Mindbreak Trap
3x Faerie Macabre
2x Pyrokinesis
1x Ensnaring Bridge
4x Magus of the Moon
4x Hanweir Garrison
4x Sin Prodder
4x Prophetic Flamespeaker
2x Scab-Clan Berserker
4x Sudden Shock
4x Blood Moon
4x Chalice of the Void
4x Chrome Mox
2x Umezawa's Jitte
2x Icy Manipulator
4x City of Traitors
10x Mountain
2x Trinisphere
2x Scab-Clan Berserker
3x Fiery Confluence
2x Boil
2x Ratchet Bomb
2x Phyrexian Revoker
2x Karakas
Fast Mana - Core
Simian Spirit Guide
Chrome Mox
Ancient Tomb
City of Traitors
Beatz – Meta choice
Sin Prodder
Probably the red Dark Confidant.
Evasion + the potential to draw more gas is great. The downside of removing the card you really need is minimal in my eyes.
Note: can be awkward if you have a moon and your opp a deathrite or you sit behind a bridge and your opp generate tokens but you are unable to empty your hand.
Pia and Kiran Nalaar
It drops 4 power on to the board, and being spread out among 3 creatures makes it very resistant to removal. The tokens even fly, and the activated ability is a powerful addition. This being legendary does matter somewhat, but you can still just jam 2 or 3 without fear.
Note: nice synergy with Karakas in your sb if you are playing vs a deck that ignores moon or if you have to sb them out like vs ranimator or show and tell.
Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
Testing this atm but the main reason to play this was something sticky that is able to kill little stuff like Gaddock Teeg or shooting behind a bridge. Also nice with karakas in your sb if you have to play weird games.
Disruption - Core
Magus of the Moon
Blood Moon
Chalice of the Void
Removal&Toolbox – Meta choice
Chandra, Torch of Defiance
As a card, Chandra is absurd. She has four good abilities, and ticks the important boxes of "protects herself" and "draws a card each turn." It's relevant that her first ability doesn't let you play lands, but it's still close to drawing a card. Ramping you by 2 mana isn't a throwaway, either. Playing Chandra, torching their only creature, and ramping into something is a great sequence, and doesn't seem outside the realm of possibility by any stretch.
Fiery Confluence
This solid allround-tool deals with a lot of stuff like goblin tokens vs combo or equipments or planeswalkers and the list goes on and on. Just playing 3 of this and Chandra cuz your hands get really cluncky otherwise.
Sudden Shock
Can not count the good targets for this removal and split second is nuts.
[Deathrite Shaman, Stoneforge Mystic, Delver of Secrets, Young Pyromancer, Mother of Runes, Monastery Mentor to name a few]
Icy Manipulator
A tool to deal with Show and Tell that is not dead in other matchups. This card seems odd but deals with a lof of problems like basic-lands or protection. Think of it as the 4th more flex bridge.
More decklists and tournament results:
http://www.mtgdecks.net/decks/viewByArchetype/126
Crystal Vein
The budget choice if you can't get City of Traitors. The problem with Vein is that it can give you 2 only once where City can give it to you as long as it stays on the field.
Goblin Rabblemaster
If your opponent doesn't have good blockers, this gets out of control extremely quickly.
Pia and Kiran Nalaar
It drops 4 power on to the board, and being spread out among 3 creatures makes it very resistant to removal. The tokens even fly, and the activated ability is a powerful addition. This being legendary does matter somewhat, but you can still just jam 2 or 3 without fear.
Hanweir Garrison
It doesn’t unload damage as quickly as Goblin Rabblemaster, but it has a similar ability to run away with a game if it goes unanswered. Does not die to Punishing Fire and 3 toughness is nice in combat.
Prophetic Flamespeaker
The interaction between his abilities is actually stronger than it might appear just by looking at the card.
That said, he is a beast with support like removal or equipments. Sadly RR is hard to cast turn 1.
Scab-Clan Berserker
Agressive combo + control hate.
Umezawa's Jitte
Best legal equipment ever printed and a beast in a creature heavy metagame.
Karn, Scion of Urza
soon...
Blood Sun
Abrade
Kozilek's Return
Sorcerous Spyglass
Quicksmith Rebel
This guy can turn dead artifacts into a wincon. Sitting behind an Ensnaring Bridge that pings your opp or his creatures seems decent.
The worst scenario i can think about would be you have no artifact in play with multiple of him sitting in your hand but then you probably lose anyways.
Thunderbreak Regent
A 4/4 flier for 4 that deals 3 to your opponent whenever they dare target it.
Combat Celebrant
Harsh Mentor
Hazoret the Fervent
Glorybringer
Arc-Slogger
Thundermaw Hellkite
Kumano, Master Yamabushi
Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
Avalanche Riders
Goblin Settler
To deal with basics under a Bloodmoon effect or just to get rid of some lands if you have none.
Masticore
Underrated in a creature heavy meta. Drop this early and watch Deathrite Shaman & friends cry.
Ok pretty rough if he eats removal after you had to discard + can not be imprinted but still powerful for offense and defense.
Hound of Griselbrand
This hound is a nice persistent beater and doublestrike is deadly with Umezawa's Jitte.
Avaricious Dragon
If you can play this with zero cards in hand, it is a threat, and the power level makes me take notice, but if you run into removal or with decent cards in your hand...
Firewing Phoenix
This card has a decent power + is able to return. There are stronger options but still ok i gues.
Flame-Wreathed Phoenix
Ok let's see... either 3/3 haste that can return if it dies or 5/5 beatstick... seems to be decent?
Moltensteel Dragon
Painful to cast or activate but it brings a nice body and can kill really fast.
Goldnight Castigator
Maybe... somehow... if... well the downside is probably too big in a race situation.
Taurean Mauler
Looks like an ok card but would have been so much better at 3/3 or with evasion.
Seething Song
If your list includes cards like Thundermaw Hellkite or Stormbreath Dragon or Inferno Titan the way to go.
Lotus Petal
If you want to play a lot of artifacts or dislike losing a card to imprint.
Chandra, Torch of Defiance
Koth of the Hammer
Chandra, Pyromaster
Solid vs Control.
Magma Jet
Removal with nice utility but can be countered or responded to.
Batterskull
Good vs agressive and removal light decks.
Sword of Fire and Ice
Sword of Light and Shadow
Sword of Feast and Famine
Sword of War and Peace
Sword of Body and Mind
Personal preference in a specific meta.
Trinisphere
Good against combo and other decks with very low mana curve.
Scab-Clan Berserker
More agressive combo + control hate.
Mindbreak Trap
If you expect a lot of fast combo. Specially if they are on the play.
Pyrokinesis
Mostly this cards takes down 2 or even 3 creatures. Upside speed + out of nowhere.
Sudden Demise
Good against swarmaggro.
Shattering Spree
Artifact-hate that with Chalice at 1 will only counter the original and not the replicates, so there is no downside here.
Fiery Confluence
Solid allround-tool.
Boil
Good vs Miracles or anything with a lot of Islands.
Ratchet Bomb
Can get rid of most nonland permanents.
Pithing Needle
Phyrexian Revoker
Nice cards that shut down annoying abilities. Walkers, Vial, Top etc. are nothing when these hit the table. Revoker might be better for the deck as it can attack and it doesn't get countered by Chalice@1. Revoker can also deny opponents manastones (LED!). Needle on the other hand can get rid of annoying lands like Maze of Ith.
Faerie Macabre
The best graveyard hate for this deck in my opinion.
Leyline of the Void
Ashen Rider
Karakas
Ensnaring Bridge
Gilded Drake
Stingscourger
Confusion in the Ranks
Icy Manipulator
All the hate vs Show and Tell decks.
Red Elemental Blast
Pyroblast
Ricochet Trap
Basic answers when playing against blue. Blast gets countered by Chalice@1 so be careful when playing these.
Sulfur Elemental
If you expect a lot of white creatures.
Thought-Knot Seer
Can be ok if you play with Cavern of Souls and sb your moon-effects.
more info soon...
4x Goblin Rabblemaster
4x Moggcatcher
3x Simian Spirit Guide
2x Goblin Settler
2x Siege-Gang Commander
1x Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1x Murderous Redcap
1x Stingscourger
1x Tuktuk Scrapper
4x Blood Moon
3x Trinisphere
3x Chrome Mox
2x Sword of Fire and Ice
3x Cavern of Souls
4x Ancient Tomb
4x City of Traitors
10x Mountain
2x Boil
2x Phyrexian Revoker
2x Thorn of Amethyst
3x Chandra, Torch of Defiance
4x Sudden Shock
4x Inferno Titan
4x Grislebrand
2x Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
2x Worldspine Wurm
2x Wurmcoil Engine
4x Sneak Attack
4x Through the Breach
4x Blood Moon
4x Chalice of the Void
4x Lotus Petal
4x Seething Song
4x City of Traitors
10x Mountain
4x Trinisphere
4x Defense Grid
2x Magus of the Moon
2x Shattering Spree
2x Sudden Shock
1x Pyromancy
4x Simian Spirit Guide
4x Prophetic Flamespeaker
4x Scab-Clan Berserker
2x Phyrexian Revoker
2x Avalanche Riders
4x Chalice of the Void
4x Chrome Mox
4x Blood Moon
4x Magma Jet
2x Umezawa's Jitte
2x Sword of Fire and Ice
4x Ancient Tomb
4x City of Traitors
8x Mountain
4x Faerie Macabre
3x Shattering Spree
3x Stingscourger
2x Sudden Demise
2x Sudden Shock
1x Avalanche Riders
and Werewolf Stompy...
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/werewolf-stompy-1/
still in work...
To me he seems like an amazing tool for Mono Red Prison as he tutors for the exact cards we need for any situation and can just win the game with mycosynth lattice.
Now that Mono Red Prison has so many must answer cards Karn just puts the deck over the top an gives more angles of winning.
He's VERY good. Basically pushed painter from the somewhat unplayable side to good/great. Still obnoxiously hard to pilot well though (i suspect like mono-R prison).
I'd say that he's a wincon all on his own, much like the other pieces in mono-R that aren't straight prison pieces. One thing though, my painter build is a lot more prisony compared to other painter lists, which is why i figured i'd drop a line here. I doubt the other prison/stompy pieces would work in mono-R, but on the off chance it's worth testing: liquimetal coating (works like a rishadan port with karn in play. Can also work like a strip mine against lands if you +1 karn), and gorilla shaman for those times when you have multiple coatings and/or lattice in play.
Do you have a current mono-R prison list?
Legacy - Solidarity - mono U aggro - burn - Imperial Painter - Strawberry Shortcake - Bluuzards - bom
I'm not sure whether or not Koth is worth it in the deck (over P&K, F.Confluence or Rekindling Phoenix) but gettting him out early seems pretty good.
At the top-end of the deck I wonder there are better options than Inferno Titan, maybe something like:
Chandra, Flamecaller, Chandra, Awakened Inferno or Etali, Primal Storm.
I don't have Chalice here as I wanted to use Faithless Looting to get rid of useless ramp later in the game and set up powerful early turn plays.
Having access to Bolt and Rite of Flmae (over Petal/Mox) seems decent as well for more interaction/reach and ramp.
I'm not sure what are the best cards for SB so I've tried to cover as much strategies as I could.
Here is the list:
4x Simian Spirit Guide
2x Magus of the Moon
4x Goblin Rabblemaster
2x Hazoret the Fervent
4x Deus of Calamity
2x Inferno Titan
Planeswalker (6)
4x Chandra, Torch of Defiance
2x Koth of the Hammer
4x Blood Moon
Sorcery (12)
4x Faithless Looting
4x Rite of Flame
4x Seething Song
Instant (4)
4x Lightning Bolt
Land (16)
4x Ancient Tomb
12x Snow-Covered Mountain
4x Red Elemental Blast
2x Surgical Extraction
2x Abrade
2x Chaos Warp
4x Pillage
1x Fiery Confluence