“Remember the moral of the fireslinger fable: with power comes isolation.”
—Karn, silver golem
Behind the Player - A History of why I chose Pyro Prison - (Skip to red text if you'd like to get to the Pyro Prison content)
You may be wondering, why are we approaching my history within this community? This has been talked about Ad Nauseum on my stream, but let me Bring to Light why maybe red decks have been my Beck // Call. Why maybe I'm simply a Dragonmaster Outcast though I'll admit I try to have a Cryptic Command over "U" (Blue) decks. There may be an Ancient Grudge about the banning of Birthing Pod that made my decisions tough. So let's Rally the Ancestors in due Collected Company for a little reading of the Martial Law and pass the Knowledge Pool of why FluffyWolf settles to not be an Eternal Witness to his Primal Command of Green, nor Blue, nor White, nor Black. Let me tell you, why of all cards, I like Blood Moon, but... first... Backt o Basics.
In 2012, I returned to magic. This was after Return to Ravnica where I built a BW Exalted Deck, which I believe I still have at least the 60 maybe even the 75 saved off of what I played. I entered my first local tournament, and although I did not win I remember beating one of the top players after exalted triggers, Rancor, and Ajani, Caller of the Pride. I took this, and made the hasty swap to include some Restoration Angel in the deck for a GP. I did poorly. I obtained the playmat I hold cherished to me, and then I read up on Melissa Detora's Wolfrun Bant deck. I built it, I was struck, and Bant has been my thing since day one.
I explored and played heavily in Standard. Rotations came and this 'must rebuy cards' was eating at me. I am a man of investments, this format did not fit me. I explored into Modern, found a reddit post, and bought Scapeshift. I had read how powerful Cryptic Command was, I really liked the Lands Legacy deck, and was proficient at combo-control. I skipped over Birthing Pod as the deck, for cost reasons at the time. I knew I'd get that deck soon, but I needed to get into the format to see if I wanted to be that way.
I returned briefly to standard as Modern had not picked up enough in our area. KTK brought about the time where I carried two decks, Jeskai for Standard & RUG Scapeshift for Modern. Keep in mind I initially started my more competitive side as BW and Bant, but if you take me all the way back to when I began... I had things like Volcanic Dragon, Crimson Hellkite, I thought Firestorm Hellkite looked awesome and thought Jokulhaups was one of the strongest cards I had (Ice Age printing please). I also had a thing for equipment, specifically the Kaldra series. Big green creatures were obviously powerful, and the finer things of Tokens interested me (My first commander was Ghave, Guru of Spores) you can call me a "Junk" player, thank you. If you actually asked me, Bant, and Junk are some of my favorite combinations, but there was something missing, was it "Blue"?
Here I am, running Jeskai and RUG Scapeshift, and boy when Dig through Time showed up I knew what I was missing. Remember that I mentioned I wanted to play Pod, and the ban hammer was upon us. Regret, I missed out on the toolbox, what is this? Bring to Light yes! What was my favorite deck currently? Legacy Taxes, give me that Rishanda Port but not because it was oppressive to the opponent, no... because it required extensive knowledge of the decks your opponents were playing. You had to know their deck just as much as yours.
I explore options, I play Rally Fenza deck to a Top 8 and finish First. I explored Free Win Red, and the idea of controlling and locking my opponent out was great. The Chalice of the Void being on 1 or 2, but, I needed to know more about my opponents. It was also too slow. Scapeshift... Narset Cannon... Omnithragdoor was back in the day... Wolfrun Bant... Rally Fenza... BTL Scapeshift... Green Devotion Combo... During my development of Green Devotion combo, I noticed that time walking my opponent for a turn by picking their most useful land was amazing... what if they just couldn't use that land period? I stumble back to FWR, something told me this deck was more, that there was more power here, the meta and people over all these years were so greedy, I knew this, a Scapeshift player, everyone was at 18, 15, or even less. I found this community. I knew the power of a T3 Rabblemaster in Standard, how many times did I play Mantis Rider or Goblin Rabblemaster to hear my opponent go "Yep... that's a Mantis..." "Yep... that's a Rabblemaster..."
Reading... reading... T1 Blood Moon - Most would be sold on this. T1 Rabblemaster! - Most would be sold on this... Below, is what sold me on this.
A "Sideboard Deck" doesn't have a bad matchup . Owing to our reactive nature, we are best suited to defeat linear, singularly focused decks. When pitted against opponents who also seek to control and overwhelm with selective denial and card advantage, our shrewd use of pro-active win conditions shine. Important Note: we are already partially 'pre-sideboarded' against our opponents in game 1, and then adapt into a full-on Bad Matchup for them after sideboarding. Opponents, on the other hand, rarely have a favorable Game 1 matchup against Red Prison, because they are building against Tier 1 decks. Even worse for them, their sideboards will typically blank on answers. Sure, they'll have some Affinity hate which applies to us as well, but otherwise Pyro Prison is very difficult to sideboard against.
...
Did you catch it? We are a Pre-Boarded deck. Many are going to say that's great. I see a mathematical problem to solve that is ever changing but pits your statistical odds in favor of your own pre-preparation, build, and understanding of your deck, and (check mark) the decks of the meta and format. Bingo, I could now understand all decks in the format that I chose. And as an aside, you will hear so many people tell us how terrible this deck is, how awful and how no skill is required. There may be the concept of 'auto-pilot' but I'll be damned if someone will tell me my preparation into the deck is not without some level of skill or effort.
I've built spreadsheets and done top 25 deck analysis to determine when prompted with the option to play any of our locks on T1, which statistically is the best, which mathematically hits the most decks, which will give me the best chance of winning. That pre-effort makes the mulligan choices simplistic at times and horrifically difficult at others, and yet my opponents at times will rant on about the lack of skill to play the deck. My friend, if only you knew the equations, stats, and other info I did. The test is easy, I make it look easy, I just did my homework beforehand... did you?
What have I check-marked now in my needs for a deck? Why was this likely the deck for me?
[x] - Competitive when built correctly (this can be said for everyone's decks that do well)
[x] - Required meta knowledge (not just knowing how to play your deck)
[x] - Tickles that inner Johnny combo, that token enjoyment, and feels inherently powerful
[x] - Fits in the realm of more Combo, Control, Midrange - You'll notice I am terrible at Aggro.
[x] - Not one dimensional - This may be my issue sometimes with aggro
[x] - Combo - Let me explain this one a step further. If you've watched you'll notice if I can find multi-card interactions this works wonders for me. Teferi & Knowledge Pool. - Rally Fenza & Graveyard with Persist Creatures, Scapeshift/Lands/Math, Bridge/Chalice/+Lock Piece. My combo is nomrmally assembling an unbeatable strategy. The pure adrenaline rush to getting there is... yep, awesome! If my opponent realizes an interaction that is going on I feel 1: I've taught my opponent something which is awesome 2: Gives me some pride that I have a depth of game knowledge aiding me with being a better magic player. (Notice this is a rather big checkbox, but I thought I'd explain it cause it essentially explains why the piece below fits in perfectly).
[ ] - Toolbox Deck and "Options" during gameplay - I missed Dig through Time, and unfortunately Pod was banned and BTL was not competitive... hmmm... Chord of Calling Decks? These have tempted me for so long.
Skip here if you are into more about Pyro Prison and less into FluffyWolf2
Redefinition of a Synonymous Card
Karn - When spoken in the world of Magic meant "Tron" and with "Tron" meant "Turn 3 Tron" - Groan. Newer players did not understand than learning the ability to cast a 7 Mana Spell that literally has on the text the ability to restart the game, awestruck.
Karn - The defining terminology to the Eldrazi. The keeper of Ulamog, the Buddy of Ugin, and owning a pet of Wurmcoil.
Karn - Tower... Mine... Plant...
Karn - An Anti Artifact Card. A Utility. Perhaps not dawning the Wizard who slings the spell and carries the back of the deck on his shoulders, but no... perhaps instead the Planeswalker providing foresight into the realm beyond, the sideboard, and expanding your deck to beyond the 60 with the efficiency of the 60.
Karn - Once synonyms with Tron, may soon be Synonymous with Toolbox, or... Maybe synonymous with Prison.
“Everything the wise woman learned she wrote in a book, and when the pages were black with ink, she took white ink and began again.” —Karn, silver golem
Once was a household name to one particular archetype has now been broken of the mold. Time will tell how long Karn, the Great Creator expands his ever reaching hand, but keep this in mind, he is certainly shaping modern as we speak.
Red Prison - Today
There has been quite the shake-up in Modern. I'll dare say that even those among us would indicate Blood Moon is bad. Perhaps even magic planeswalkers have more foresight then we give them credit?
“The tides have begun to ignore the moon.” —Tamiyo’s journal
Either way, Red Decks are some of, if not THE most powerful cards in Modern at the moment. UR Phoenix, Storm, Burn, Hollow One, Dredge (The Red cards tend to finish it), GDS, Jund & Affinity have their smattering of them, even Mardu was prevalent, and let us not forget our good friend Ponza and Scapeshift/Titan Shift. Certainly, there are others on the rise, but you cannot deny Red has power and backing. So where do we fit?
Modern is extremely fast, we as a Prison deck restrict powerful decks from executing their plan 'on time' we slow the game down but in a restrict manner compared to control which seeks to control within the moment of spells, we simply seek to control the game itself. With the expanse of modern though, this becomes extremely difficult, and if we do not adapt and learn, we may be just like our fiery red head planeswalker.
“I see you’ve learned nothing, Chandra. You’d still put a match to something rather than understand it.”
But we shouldn't be alarmed, in fact, we have a great following here to iterate the game plays and optimize the deck. We abound on our vast knowledge, past experiences, and the legacy of this deck to determine new lines, but we welcome all brought into our community for the fresh eyes.
“We are kinfolk,” explained Karn to the sliver queen. “Just as you need your progeny to complete you, so do I need the pieces of the Legacy to make me whole.”
Toolbox - Something Different
Let me be the first to say this is going to be a challenge for many here. Toolbox decks are not accustomed to red players necessarily. Maybe the graveyard, maybe something with artifacts, but not toolbox. Some will play this deck to no end and have no luck, and others will dominate and find it steps from a perfect middle ground of exactly enough power and just enough edge. We will define the premises of a toolbox, and the initial 'how do I sideboard' here.
“Optimists see the world as they wish it to be. Pessimists see the world as it is. Must these roles be mutually exclusive?” —Evo Ragus
What is a Toolbox Deck
A toolbox deck utilizes tutors. In tutoring the player is given the option to find pieces necessary or deemed correct in a situation to further their gameplan. Typical tutor based decks in modern include cards like Chord of Calling, Summoner's Pack, Whir of Invention and Inventor's Fair, Mystical Teachings, Glittering Wish, Bring to Light and Tolaria West to name a few. Depending on the instantaneous nature of the tutored card determines the strategy to imply in your thought process when obtaining a card.
How a Toolbox Deck Sideboards
This one is difficult, and always be. There will be arguments in both camps to 'maintain your toolbox' and others to say 'your toolbox does not matter, go with gameplan B.' We must remember what our Gameplan A was prior to any toolbox action, and determine if Gameplan A was better then technically our Toolbox B plan. What do I mean with this?
When evaluating your cards, determine if a T3 Karn fetching what you need will help you. You will likely play that card on T4, and will you be dead? Here we are, if you read from the beginning you will have at least heard me say "Modern is a Turn 4 format" somewhere. This holds true to our beefy 4 Walker tutor. Not factoring London/Vancouver mulligan, deciding if the deck is 'slow enough' that is your opponent to warrant the toolbox may be critical to victories or losses. Let me provide an example.
Humans - Although you may say "3 Karn, YES! I have "3 More Bridges" in my deck" - Do you really? How many have lost to a T2 Thalia. Now your Karn is a T5 Karn, your Bridge is a T6 Bridge, and you're not playing efficient spells to ritual out your Karn quickly. T6 - T7, bridge good enough? Maybe if you board wipe, so leave it in, if you have more spot removal or minimal removal, maybe not. On this decision point you can decide, do I look for and bring in and 'neglect my sideboard toolbox' or do I split the difference.
This will be determined on playstyle - Which I hate to say, but is true.
If you see the deck in one light, or another, you will naturally mullgain in a certain fashion. Here I would likely tell you to drop 2 Karn, drop the package all together for a Bridge/Torpor Orb - but consider leaving a chalice out or consider leaving spellskite out. You may do the reverse where you bring in the torpor orb and the bridges and spellskite, and neglect Karn also - Both of these are correct. Both of these will come down to the mulligan, and BOTH of these will come down to your understanding of your opponents deck.
I'll have more on this later, maybe, maybe I'll do a video, maybe I won't have time, maybe maybe. I want to leave you this though that the deck is powerful, it is doing powerful things, but will be very frustrating to many people initially. Just like the learning curve initially of Pyro Prison, this is a new learning curve. Don't be frustrated immediately if it doesn't work, but find if it does work. Keep in mind original Pyro Prison is just as powerful, and don't be discouraged. We have a lot going on in Modern right now, we'll see how War of Spark and Modern Horizon's shake things up! Till then, sling spells Kinfolk!
Magic has main categories for their deck definition which are defined here on MTG Salvation, but also are defined within the community Deck Archetypes defined by MTG Gamepedia. These range from essentially, Aggro, Combo, and Control. That being said there are 35 breakdowns within the wiki linked.
A Prison deck is a deck which tries to slow down the opponent or bring his gameplan to a complete halt and preventing him from regaining any momentum. Cards such as Winter Orb, Kismet and Opposition are popular to construct such decks as they heavily rely on tapping down the opponents resources and other permanents. Early decks used Icy Manipulator to tap the one land the opponent had available.
In essence, we seek to limit our opponent from playing their gameplan. I define their gameplan as to define 'playing magic' as our goal would be near impossible and untainable, but I will give an example of a deck which attempts to do this. There is also the essence of what can be a 'True Lock' and in the world of magic that can be extremely difficult, and I'll give an example that may be confusing but provide also an example of why it is not a true lock, and once again provide the deck that attempts to establish this.
Finally I will link an old article (there are certainly newer ones) The Art of Transformation. This article talks about sideboards that transform. I add this to the discussion as a talking point for later.
If you'd like you may skip ahead to the Deck headers, but if you'd like to hear my comments on locks and transformation, then please continue reading
==Locks==
We define a lock as the moment in which an opponent should have No Outs to the board state, and it is a matter of drawing a win condition or decking out the opponent of cards. A very primitive example would be a Burn opponent having only spells that target an opponent and you playing a Leyline of Sanctity. The card itself is not a "Lock" however if the totality of cards in your opponents deck lacks interaction to remove the card, along with then dealing the appropriate damage, you have essentially locked your opponent out. Other examples can include:
Lock Examples
A hexproof creature Troll Ascetic and Worship - against an opponent with no sweepers and targeted removal.
Establishing a Platinum Angel and hooking up Lightning Greaves to give it that 'hexproof' style - against an opponent with no artifact removal/no sweepers.
A favorite, Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir and Knowledge Pool prevents opponents from casting any cards as the resolving Knowledge Pool trigger is at instant speed - Note this is not a lock against Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger cast trigger which can exile the components of the lock.
Example of a Non-Lock but perceived as a Lock
Infinite Combos - Gaining absurd amounts of life may be a way to define that you are now 'unkillable' but this does not eliminate other win conditions or an equally infinite damage combo in return.
Infinite Loops with No Progression - If your opponent can infinitely take turns, it does not mean they have won. They may lack a win condition. A great example of this was the recent Arena issues with Nexus of Fate.
There is a critical line to play between online and paper though. The Clock or Time in the Round. Unlike online where you have the ability to time out your opponent, paper if you cannot complete a game it becomes a draw and the person with the most wins does win. This doesn't mean you must concede as soon as an appeared lock is established. In many cases, you can attempt to play on for some time but then allow your opponent to play 'another' card and then scoop up your cards to save time. What this does is allows you to acquire more knowledge if your opponent is playing cards, while giving your opponent more cards to consider in your pull of playable cards. Keep in mind time in the round though, you do not want to give yourself too little time to complete the rounds, and Enough of a Lock may be sufficient grounds to concede versus waiting for a Full Lock.
==Transformational Sideboards==
I simply want to note this briefly before the analysis. Many people find cute and fun ways to 'transform their sideboards' to try and trick their opponents by going a different line of attack. Keep in mind that transformational sideboards tend to be one dimensional. The critical piece for a transformational sideboard is to determine the weak matchups and tune the transformation around these. If you are heavy control, you play against an opponent that is heavy control, and transform into a midrange, it likely is not a good idea. If you instead trasnform into an aggro package it will work wonders. That being said if you are a softer control deck with an aggro tansformational sideboard, and play against a fast linear deck, you may have minimal extra disruption. This is what I'd call a under prepared, bad matchup, or a narrow focus of the deck building strategy. There is nothing wrong, in fact having an exact mission is great, just note your focal mission, if it has a flaw or a bad matchup, nothing much is going to change and you will have a higher percentage chance of taking a match loss due to this building decsion.
For what you are all here for the analysis, review, commentary, and discussion on the deck types below.
Red Prison AKA: Pyro Prison, Mono Red Prison, Red Prison, (Legacy) Dragon Stompy
The deck is what most people here are familiar with. We have several variations of the deck to include Aggro packages (+ Legion Warboss and +Eidolon of the Great Revel main), and Control packages (usually planeswalker or more sweeper based). The deck hinges on fast explosive starts to get ahead of an opponent regardless of the dice roll. The package can have elements of 'all-in' but attempts in the Prison Fashion to limit the opponent's ability to play on curve to bide time in our all-in approach.
Pros
Fast and Explosive to apply pressure or apply locks
Proactive end game. Established locks usually have good quick follow up to minimize opponents time to draw out
Meta Targeting - When tuned can establish easier wins against Top Tier Decks while not straying far from the main focal gameplan.
Cons
All In Strategy - If you put your resources all in one line, and it is easily removed the battle becomes uphill.
Consistency - I only put this here as people argue it frequently. It may have some issues here, but the principal of lengthening a game out provides the ability to draw out. Yes it may not have filtering, your opponent should not have much either once you've put a lock piece out.
Single Color - This I'll put more in the con section then pro for now. The con being the limited access to an alternate sideboard, the pro being you should rarely have mana issues.
Card Decisions
Pyro Prison's fundamental approach is a stronger lock piece and a fast finish. The card choices to help this include:
Ensnaring Bridge - Preventing large creatures attacking gives planeswalkers or hordes of goblins to be created to swing in for victory
Blood Moon - Limiting the opponent's ability to play magic or ability to remove threats
Rabble Master or Planesalker - These are the finishers, and many planeswalkers Emblem quickly or Rabblemaster + Tokens finish the game quickly if unanswered.
Chalice of the Void - With Modern's overall Mana curve reducing for efficient spells, the more the deck becomes susceptible to fast Chalices.
Ritual/Fast Mana - You'll note in the decklist I call these fast mana. Their only purpose is to power things out ahead of curve. This is a downfall later in the game but is a card and deck building decision to get ahead of the curve.
The other cards not highlighted depend on your flare or version and your meta. Because this deck attacks the meta probably the strongest of the three examples tuning your utility is important. In this example, it is Abrade the Sweepers and Walking Ballista. This final card can be a win condition or removal for pesky bigger creatures/planeswalkers.
The Sideboard
Because of limited access to colors targeting specific matchups is important. A concession for Leyline of the Void is Ravenous Trap as many decks interacting with their graveyard do attack via creatures, thus having an uncastable card, not in the opener conflicts with your main lock pieces of Ensnaring Bridge. There are additional sweepers, aggro pieces, and artifact-based lock pieces. The downside to this and not branching to Enchantments or other abilities is your opponent's artifact removal packages will be coming in for games 2 and 3. This is a deck building concession for staying in a singleton color, but you'll note that some of these along with mainboard locks do present a difficult time for our opponents to cast their necessary removal.
RW Prison AKA: White Pyro Prison (Only in this thread really), Sun & Moon Prison, RW Taxes, PLATEAU PRISON (By Raystack), Eclipse Prison
The common theme among any white based deck or proposal of white based decks is the sideboard. Sun & Moon presents incredibly powerful threatening sideboard cards, but becomes softer with the locks and proactive gameplan mainboard. The deck itself functions on two axis one is the Prison "Sun & Moon" utilizing similar strategies to Red Prison while attempting a planeswalker (control) based finish. The other entirely different build lends itself more to the "Tax" variant, not necessarily limiting the resources for which an opponent may attack, but rather, providing decision choices for your opponent because the curve has been adjusted due to the taxing/higher cost imposed on performing actions during the game.
Pros
Diversification into another color allows a great card pool for deck building
Powerfull top end can allow for a more diverse Mid/Late game then a more all-in prison build
Typical builds are not as tuned to one set of 75 cards, leaving some unknowns for your opponent, the deck can be tuned towards a meta, albeit it goes extremely hard on that tuning, example Supression Field.
Cons
Locks tend to be softer. The list provided making a Top 8 finish happens to use Bridge but many have opted for Ghostly Prison.
Multi Colors, Multiple Pips, and Blood Moon do not always go to gether nicely.
Locks without aggro or midrange threats tend to give opponents longer to find solutions. The version linked to me removes this con by going more Red Prison like.
Sideboard tends to be in one direction (control), removing typically threats slowing the deck down for stronger lock pieces. You can say this is a pro or a con, based on meta.
Card Decisions
Sun & Moon's fundamental approach is a softer lock piece broader flexibility for matchups and control based finishes. The list provided has done well recently and is melding towards Pyro Prison/Red Prison. I'll note card choice differences below.
Lack of Rituals - Gives the deck not as explosive of a start, but removes air for top decks. The deck performs closer to "Mid Range Prison" then "Aggro Prison"
Planeswalkers - There are typically more planeswalkers or top end. Once you get to these land counts your threats are that much more important for an opponent to deal with.
The Sideboard
I pick three cards to talk about from the sideboard noting they are strong, some of the strongest shut downs to decks that care about Targeting a player, graveyard, or artifacts. Because typically there is removal of speed and proactive cards for this controlling piece you are on a hinge for if your lock piece stays in. Remembering your opponent is bringing in ways to unlock their deck the sideboard has to be one of the strongest hate cards in magic, and white does this very well compared to most. The sideboard though is filled with strictly control based cards, alternatively going another route post board becomes that much more difficult, and if you need to step on the gas you've lost this. Although the sideboard is not strictly transformational, it focuses on answering issues which inherently pushes it one direction.
RB Prison AKA: Master Prison (Creator's name), Red Black Prison, Dark Pyro (I disagree to some extent this name, but know some are calling it this).
This is the new kid on the block for some, for others, it is a tried and old tale of a variation we've yet to master or establish within the community. I believe many people will actually start to consider this list as an alternative to their Mono Red Variants for a taste of something 'with more'. Whether you want to call it a splash from Pyro, or a side page of Jund the deck features a mid-range prison style with powerful answers while taxing the mana base to the fullest in any prison archetype (I'm ignoring you 4c Whir, you just cheat stuff in). This list I'll go a touch more in depth I think in my analysis strictly as Red Prison is the thread, and RW has been talked about frequently.
Pros
Power level of cards has been upped to the next level. Concessions for staying in one color are thrown out the door deliberately in the main deck
Heavy creatureless build blanks a large portion of removal, and many lists will retain creature removal post-board due to Red Prison's Rabblemaster side effect
Black provides a level of interaction to the opponent that Red or White does not provide. Red interacts typically with the field of play, White typically reacts with the state of the board or protecting self. You'll have heard me say this Pyro Prison presents a proactive solution attempting to end the game with our card options. White variants try to be reactive. - This version does both
Flexibility of card choices and targets is widened. Abrade versus Kohlagan's Command. It could be deemed as RB's version of Cryptic.
Cons
The mana base is brutal. There are a significant number of double black pips that have to be considered, and this can awkwardly strand cards in hand when using a bridge lock.
The kill for the game tends to be a bit slower, but this is countered with the lock pieces have a lot more help staying afloat in many cases.
Self Inflicted damage or card discard can make lines of play more interesting but much more detrimental to the end game result. Fetching/Shocking is giving your Dredge or Burn opponents a free spell, versus simpler mana bases avoid this.
The elements don't always work 'together' as optimally as you think, but there is a fine line between knowing 'should I activate' or 'should I wait' and this many people picking up the list to try out will argue is the reason they lost. Essentially the learning curve I'd put almost higher then Pyro Prison.
Card Decisions
RB appears to try and answer the Red Prison's flaws with the decks. Creatures too big to kill, just enough interaction, and ways to prevent the runaway of our opponent's control on the game. Below I'll give card discussion and then talk sideboard with a final note of an opinion on this newcomer versus Pyro Prison. I will ignore card choices that overlap (The lock pieces) as these should be apparent.
Graven Cairns and Bloodstained Mire - Notably missing Gemstone Caverns - This is a nod to "I do not need to be fast." Actually starting with a fetch land or a dual land usually intices your opponent to not fetch basics, at least for now while the deck is not as obvious. This likely will change. Specifically, these cards though give you the "Double Black" without Blood Moon, or give you the opportunity to fetch a Basic Swamp. The 9 swamps are critical though and you are looking at double pips on both red and black. There is no room for Gemstone in the greedy manabase, versus RW where it is not as heavily reliant on double pips.
Bedevil - The card is hyper flexible, kills the creatures we tend to struggle with, and picks off a few artifacts on route. Planeswalkers that establish and we get stuck under (LOTV, Jace, Teferi, Other Chandra's) are problem cards. We attempt to deal with them by swinging in Goblins or picking them off with Walking Ballista. This card just says "No thanks" and can be left open. It is a card you don't wish to dump to get to 0 for bridge, and it is a card you hold and don't uptick with Liliana of the Veil if you don't have to. This card if I could just take it and splash for it in Red Prison... I probably would. Assassin's Trophy is just better some will say. I'll pay 1 more and prevent the search of a basic land. Blood Moon thanks you for your extra pip.
Kolaghan's Command has been discussed. I've heard time and time again "There are no creatures to recur with it" and... that's correct. Artifact removal, small creature removal, and discard removal. Against Tron this is amazing. We get to top decking and you can just clear a turn out because very little is at instant speed. Review this card like a utility swiss army knife, and know when it doesn't do enough, but know when it does just more.
Collective Brutality - is an odd one to help with Bridge, to remove or check for counters and clear the way, or remove spells/gain a little life. It helps undo the fetching we are doing to correct manabases, and is a nice premium removal with flexibility. We praise Abrade and this just has an extra mode while enabling our bridge. Oh, it backs the rule of thumb, no 1 CMC spells.
Master of Cruelties - The first card I'd cut before playing the deck. The absolute last card I would cut now. Incidental life gain, difficult opponents, needing to 'flip the switch' in a turn or two. This card is for you. It is a wall, it blocks, it threatens, its small enough for bridge, yet big enough to miss Bolt/Fatal Push. It falls short to Disemember & Path to Exile, as does Hazoret. If it connects, you have numerous cards that just win you the game, and it didn't matter how much life your opponent was at. It blocks big things and small things. Basically, give it a try... don't just cut it before you get a game or two with it.
The Sideboard Ravenous Trap is considered a lot for our graveyard-based decks. It is like firing a bullet on target and hitting home. That being said they reload the target and move forward. This can be the case. I would call this card just shy of a silver bullet. Silver bullets are in the forms of shutting a deck down. Stony Silence as an example for artifacts. So what does this deck do? Leyline of the Void just does this. I have personally scooped against dredge showing no cards to just put this card in. Because we spoke to the no-air rituals and power level of the cards being higher you can normally find enough win conditions post board to risk the Leyline silver bullet.
The other card is a pet card of mine in BTL Scapeshift. Many a times BTL Black Scapeshift I can get away with casting BTL, they want to counter the next card. Fine, I'll go get Slaughter Games oops you can't counter. Let me tell you the power level here. The opponent is Ad Nauseum. On T3 I opt to use SSG (which cannot be countered) and cast Slaughter Games. I name Ad Nauseum, opponent scoops. Against Amulet Titan I've named Primeval Titan... I took 4 shots from Azusa, Lost but Seeking before finally finding removal for it, but that was 4 turns extra. The card just eats important cards in opponents decks. To boot, it is a sorcery (so what?) it doesn't stick around, no removal, no getting those cards back, they're gone.
An Opinion
Pyro Prison struggles against some of the more powerful and flexible midrange decks. It also falls to Dredge though I know some are working to get that to work. This deck seems to answer those issues, this is why I'd call it the Yin/Yang to Pyro Prison. If you can navigate the tricky manabase, appropriately cement powerful cards, and put your opponent on the back foot, this deck can just roll over them.
Alternate Prisons
I'm not going to list decklists here, but talk briefly about the two I can think of.
Whir Prison (4c Prison) - Is an extremely good toolbox based deck. It looks to take any of those hard/soft locks, and find them in time. If you needed 6 cards to lock it out, this deck will do it. This comes close to the 'true lock' but falls short to board wipes aimed at artifacts.
Lantern Control - This my friends is the only deck in my opinion which can create the true lock. What is meant by this is that we can play 4 of cards. Lantern control utilizes deck knowledge, top deck information, and controlling your opponents draws. It is essentially "Mind Slaver Lite" but establishes a true lock by preventing enough consecutive answers from being potentially drawn. It takes patience to not 'attempt to mill faster' and suffers from time management by newer pilots. A seasoned pilot though, a quick thoughtseize, and a pair of mill stones with lantern out and game is likely locked out.
Green Land Destruction - I'll place this in prison only because it tries to Plow Under or Primeval Command the opponent enough to time walk them into losing from creature attacks. It restricts mana similar to taxing but falls under prison/control by limiting resources. It is an honorable mention.
Stax Lists - not as prevalent in modern, but do the same concepts and something to watch for. At FNM level they are a blast! Have fun, honorable mention #2
Concluding Prison
There are many archetypes, versions, variations, and styles of magic decks. This is the beauty of magic. I always recommend you determine the style of player you wish to be, and build towards that or find the deck that does this. Prison offers a lot of styles. Finally, prison decks are tuned towards metas in many cases and sideboard plans will vary drastically on the style of play you wish to attempt to manipulate your opponent into playing. Have a blast trying these, talk, discuss, and find that sweet card you want to run at FNM, find that optimized list for a GP, and good luck as you lock'em out of the game, and lock in the wins. I'll see you in discord, on stream, on twitter, in here! Happy Locking Mountainfolk!
On a random note, to play devil's advocate, how does a GBx player beat Prison? I finally finished building the Rock and got crushed by a buddy who runs Red Prison as well. On a side note however, he got out a turn one Chandra second game which was too fast for me to deal with, also had to mull to 6 both games.
I do plan on going back to Prison at some point, just excited to be playing a deck with black in it again.
We love GBx decks SO much, we would be happy to help you beat us! Here are some tips!
-ALWAYS take the draw!
-ALWAYS fetch non-basics!
-game 1, T1 Thoughtseize, ALWAYS take Rabblemaster. Don't bother taking Moon, Bridge or Chalice!
-side out ALL Ass Trophies and Goyfs! They're dead cards. You don't need them.
-when ulting Lilli, ALWAYS leave them with Bridge and 4 lands!
Hope this helps! Good luck, and I hope to play against you soon!
Actual advice, not trolling, smh. Didn't realize I'd trigger people lol.
On a serious note, I figured that learning how to take on Prison with GBx would help me learn both decks while also knowing what to do in the matchup if I played either, didn't realize it was a taboo to ask.
@Joker
GB Matchup (Non Jund) is not always difficult for us when we take them off a color. Obviously in this variant they are just looking for Green / Black, versus Jund has this weird need to have a few red spells also. So typically if the Prison player is able to get a moon down before a single forest AND single swamp are down we're good. GB obviously does play sets of double black spells, and Dark Confidant is a bit of a problem card for us when established early. Usually if Prison is running the Bridge/Chalice/Moon out quickly they likely do not have a "Fast" follow up (top decks or necessary lands do happen).
The race is on from there, Chalice on 2 to protect things (with the adoption of Assassin's Trophy) and a threat, versus the biggest card that we can't beat. Tarmogoyf. Why I bring this little fella up? We are likely to have a land (GB's land), a sorcery, an instant, probably someone's creature, and then are sitting there with either Planeswalker/Enchantment/Artifact. If we are ever stripped of our lock pieces and Tarmogoyf swings in, goyf is usually big enough for 2 swings. The other problem card is actually Liliana, we have usually 2 sideboard cards to deal with it, aside from attacking. Lilly ult (can usually wait till 7 so you don't lose her) just crushes the deck because they strip lands/lock pieces accordingly and we are typically staring at a big Scooze/Tracker/Tarmogoyf, and typically they only need 2 creatures to win quickly.
Russ will say "Tarmogoyf is unkillable for red" and he is not entirely wrong. In my testing of the RB version the Bedevil hits Goyf's so much to avoid this downfall to straight Mono-red.
Thoughtseize also typically can ruin us, and like mentioned if you have the appropriate fetches, the Moon may be totally worth skipping. Free win red does not win often because of 'lack of pressure' and the same can be true for Pyro Prison (albeit it - usually it has more pressure).
That's how GB should attack our deck. Caligula does make a bit of a joke mainly cause the GBx matchup is more difficult and unfavored for us. Man do we hate T1 Thoughtseize. On that note, fetch a basic swamp, even if you have some Green. You're likely to draw it and you can determine if a moon threat was a big thing or not, but if you "Go for it" and get Overgrown Tomb, we are a top deck away from stopping you completely - versus you just inherently slowing down.
Also T1 Chandra is busted, so that's just variance.
Happy slinging spells!
@Avalanche
We can in some cases have x4 Anger, Torpor Orb, a few extra abrades, and have removed our creatures. This makes us heavy removal and looking for lock pieces. Typically a fast start from an opponent can get us, but we are usually favored. We typically lock them out yes, and they do have noble, but you're looking at a lot of ways to kill a lot of their creatures post board. We can minimize win conditions to literally chandra.
Russ notes Walking Ballista is a great killer of Thalia and completely fine to put on 1 turn 2 with the idea that it is sacrificed to pick off a Thalia.
Good Evening Pyro Prison Players!
I know I have been out and about for awhile now in the month of February. I've been taking care of some personal things, but intently watching the meta when able and practicing when I can. I see we have many new faces, and although I cannot get quite back as far as I need to in order to catch up I tossed myself back 3 pages and thought I'd quote you guys and say hello and give some comments as I see them (which many have been answered by the likes of Raystack, Caligula, Zayl, Nate, and others!).
Hey guys, fairly new to the prison strategy and love reading through this stuff to learn. Hopefully after some more experience I can give some input/ideas.
Welcome! Fresh eyes are always welcome. As some of the semi-veteran players are settling in we can lose sight of what may be another angle to tackle! By all means take all our suggestions to heart but bring your own also, especially if you have some of that sweet sweet data of results to back it up!
Congrats! I believe you were also taking this to a Badlands reward type of event this past (or previously past) Sunday! Hope that went well, and great run to start things out!
It is called sun and moon becasue the sun emblem on the white pips + blood moon, our RW list has very little resemlance to it though so we are far enough away to be considered a separate deck.
Like Ray said Grafdiggers cage is a necessary evil, Though often times decks that want a grafdiggers you want chalice on 2 more than three weird how that works out.
Koth of the Hammer is a very powerful card yes. and playing +ulting him early is insane. but right now bolt is very highly played so getting him to stay out is the problem especially since we cant protect him with giving ourself hexproof anymore. plus you have to run atleat 14 mountains to make him practical as well.
I'd like to back both Ray and Zayl here. The funny thing that is mentioned is sometimes you 'skip' Chalice on 1, this is understanding your meta opponent and what is likely to disrupt you from winning. Many points in modern you'll find that yes we are non-bo'ing as people call it, but if you don't have the effect in play by T4 anyway you're falling behind. Many will note our deck is 'inconsistent' and while this may have some truth to it we tackle the meta like a control deck does. A control deck wishes for the game to exceed past 8+ turns in order to aseemble pieces. We do similar things at times where we try to limit our opponents resources to give us the attempt to 'draw 8 (8 turns)'. Albeit we are giving out opponent that opportunity to draw out. Many will say that is not a way to play magic, but I'd fire back that my deck has a larger probablity to draw out my win condition as I retain X win conditions within the size of Y deck, where you have Z outs to get around my locks or limiting spells out of your deck.
Sorry, new to the deck, why is Eidonlon good against burn?
Am afraid that your own eidolon may end up locking up yourself?
Would some kind of sweepers better in its place?
I’m glad you asked AvalancheRiders! You’re right in questioning the Eidolons against burn. The reason it works is that they won’t lose us the game unless we play an ensnaring bridge, but in a situation where you have an eidolon out against burn you wouldn’t play the bridge anyway! Eidolon gives us more pressure against burn since every single spell in their deck will become a shock to their face, and also allows us to have a blocker when It gets close. At the very worst it gets hit with a lightning bolt or they have to block it with a goblin guide or an eidolon of their own, which essentially turns it into a 3 for 1, as it shocks them, and reduces the amount our face would’ve taken. At the very best against burn, it can win us the game, either by providing a win con or by giving us time to find a chalice or moon to lock them out further.
This is a great response, well done Nate. I want to add my own words which may just simply echo this. My best example was actually an upset opponent. My opponent (on MTGO) slammed their messages in chat of the typical lucky, bad deck, etc. What was the most satisfying thing to read though was the comment "And you kept Eidolon in versus burn, what an idiot." What was satisfying about this is that we understood the matchup more then our opponent. What do I mean by this? Firstly, the deck I was running had x4 Eidolon sideboard, and x4 Bridge mainboard. G2 and G3 (I forget if it went to G3), involved the typical swaps of Anger of the Gods/Eidolons in and things like Ensnaring Bridge and probably some other shenanigans. What is not understood though is we are not hiding behind a bridge, which my opponent has to assume - Most will assume you are "Free Win Red" made popular by Saffron Olive of MTGGoldfish. This is where most get their data, and nothing wrong with that. Just something to note, when deciding if you are the "Aggo" or the "Control" matchup, it is important to know to give you the best edge. In the case of Eidolon, we are applying pressure. You won't get behind a bridge fast enough so you must rely on removal packages and aggression. Goodluck in your burn matchups! They can be quite 50/50 G1 not knowing what your opponent is on.
This is what I've been thinking open to suggestions. Not 100% on the sideboard yet. I like the main. Only switch to that might be switching the Chandra in the board for the Koth in the main. I had thought about the "Light up the Stage" build that Fluffy had a few weeks back but I feel that I could play the traditional style pyro prison a bit better.
Let me know what you guys think.
I know I am late for this response but wanted to say I hope it went well, and always consider playing something you are familiar with and understand the ins-and-outs! This rewards players much more then making last minute changes. Only when firmly comfortable with the deck would I recommend last minute changes. For the record, I cannot decide if I like Light up the Stage, and still cannot. I feel it may be the bait card like Sarkhan was a few sets back.
Been messing around with the deck again; out of curiosity, what are our worst matchups?
Great question, and I believe this is opinionated a touch between the community, it will also rely on your build and how you are approaching the meta. I'll break it down to three versions you could run, and then give from the "Classic" list what the matchups that are bad are.
Aggro List: Includes 6+ Rabblemasters and sometimes Eidolons in the Main. May consider Pia & Kiran or Hazoret and may go the extra mile with an additional one or a Koth. This list tends to lack a bit of removal for more power, and will be suited for Control, Burn, and Jund metas, though Jund may still give the creature dense list a run for its money.
Control List: This list will favor a heavy reliance on the planeswalker kill. It will possibly run the x4 Rabble but that would be it for creatures. It may choose to try and play something sneakier like Trinisphere or more sweepers. This list will do well in Creature/Midrange type of metas.
Classic List: Balances Moons/Locks/Creatures/Walkers. This is what we call the 50/50 and sometimes suffers from the "Drawing the wrong side of the deck" however with an appropriate sideboard G2/G3 should be well tuned and G1 should challenge Greedy Manabases. It will suffer to Combo drastically at times. This one is well suited for a GP or Large event, due to a more 'balanced' approach and the 'unknown' meta.
What are the bad matchups?
Jund - This deck has the most removals for Bridge/Moon/Chalice, and can typically function on 1 Forest/1 Swamp. If they sniff you are Blood Moon based in G1 it is an uphill battle.
UW Control - This deck runs the gambit of basics, and can get ahead of us if we are not careful. Please note that UWx control decks are not unfavored, but the straight UW one is.
Hardened Scales & KCI... Just kidding =) - But I'll note a combo deck ignoring you and not heavily reliant on the mana base will be difficult. Hardened Scales can fit into this category due to the range of attack points.
Dredge - This deck just wins, and our graveyard in the Mono Red version is weak.
Eldrazi Tron - Ratchet Bomb, T1 TKS (yes I've seen this), A Waste. Ugh this deck... I'd almost rather see just Tron then Eldrazi Tron
Devoted Druid Combo (Only for Fluffy) - I'm up to losing to this about 15 times on T3. I dunno, its my luck. This shouldn't be a hard matchup...
Tron & Burn (Ad Naus) - I'll note Tron as a 50/50 matchup - If you are on the right side of the tracks you will have x2 Games to win it, fall in the first game and it is an uphill battle. I would not call this unfavorable and actually may come down to the dice roll for who is first, it is the Honorable Mention of difficulty
What are the good matchups?
Wow that's a lot of bad matchups? So what is good and why?
Grixis Death Shadow - Chalice on 1, Blood Moon, Ensnaring Bridge. We are literally built for this. The more seasoned opponent will make it difficult appropriately countering what we have with Stubborn Denial, and the more seasonsed Pyro Prison player will know when to wait or when to go with it (when you can't wait anymore or the risk of losing something to thoughtseize is too much).
Humans & Spirits - Probably more Humans on this but both fold hard to Blood Moon and Bridge. Chalice is a littel bit of an awkward card but you should be clear for take off against these.
Affinity (Normal) - If you run into the little robots and they're not flinging things with Hardened scales your Bridge and Chalice should be enough, we also tend to have enough artifact removal.
4C Prison - I actually believe this matchup is an oddball easy one unless your opponent is seasoned. Typically a Moon stops them from casting Whir, and if they haven't drowned you in lock pieces by the time your Moon is down our more proactive plan should get the job done. I call this one favored, but a lot will disagree.
Pheonix - This deck is an oddball. It is "Us as a counter" and what I mean by that is they pivot also. I've won because of Bridge, and then lost cause they turned into Pyromancer Ascension, but then my opponent has not and staid with Thing in the Ice and we win. This one is a battle that turns into some heavy hitting mind games. I'll list it as favored though as Chalice on 1 and Bridge work wonders here, and Bridge in game 1 can sometimes just be it all.
Amulet Titan - Gobble Gobble, next game.
Other decks not listed? Either more 50/50 based, or just something I haven't thought of.
How's the control matchup? Seems like you just want to be on the aggro Rabble plan. Chalice on 1 should be good, but the other lock pieces (Moon/Bridge) not so good depending on the mana base of the control deck.
Anyone else think that Trinisphere is really good right now? I know the deck is filled to the brim with 3-drops, but this could be yet another lock piece that could shut the opponent out while we do our thing. I think the ritual count would need to be increased so that turn 1/2 3-drops are more likely. Something like this perhaps:
I'm sorry to report that Modern is not like Legacy. I'll try 3-ball (Trinisphere) from time to time, but I'll shelve that one. It may be decent against Pheonix and that would be about it. If your FNM meta is Pheonix all night, slam it in the main, if it is not leave little 3-ball at home.
Resident prison experts Fluffywolf2 and Stickballruss have been testing it, and it's spicy indeed! Bedevil has been raved about in particular.
As a final note (I'll have a follow up at some point), but I think the deck list is decent and solves a problem or two that we have while hurting other matchups. My prime example is the lack of Eidolon of the Great Revel - missing from Storm based or "Multi-spell" decks. The pro of the deck, man Dredge just dies when you slam Leyline, and the combo of Chandra and Liliana is bone chilling and maybe more powerful in some cases then Jace and Teferi.
I'll have more in a future post, it is dinner, but look for the 5-0 lists from Competitive League tomorrow (Tuesday posting).
Any mathematicians out there know the difference between 8 rituals vs 9? I’m wanting to cut down to 8 to add another threat, because I feel like a lot of the games I lose are because I don’t present a fast enough clock.
Thanks for the write up, Midn8
EDIT:
Yes, Hazoret is a beast and getting her out ahead of curve against decks not playing Path sometimes feels unbeatable. Considering going down a Chandra to play 2 Hazoret main, but honestly both 4-drops are amazing.
Ratios of Lands, Ramp Spells (Fast Mana for us), and your CMC overall is critical to determining if you want to be running whatever combination of these cards. Hypergeometric Distribution Calculators can start to help you understand this and can be found at the link below. Channel fireball also talked about optimal lands and percentage points of how many to play when wanting to curve out. Links below for some... not so light reading
hi prisioners i have a question, how u resolve against phyrexian unlife and solemnity ?
Unfortunately for such a matchup, I would argue you just concede unless they have less cards then you do in the deck, in which case you can just work to prevent them from beating you. In paper you can simply count cards in deck and make them aware of this as your win condition now. Online just play quickly if you see you have more cards. This allows you to see another win condition, and if they have one other then a 'hard lock' - You have no obligation to scoop to a deck you believe has no win condition.
You'll see in the search I am searching for Red, Modern Legal, with cards that have "Enchantmnet" in the rule text. Obviously "Wear and Tear" does not show, which could be an out if you are dabbling with the concept of "White Pyro" which has been discussed very briefly in our discord. The White strictly for things like Rest in Peace (and the ability to cast if to avoid needing to play Leyline of the Void and hoping to spike in the opener).
Otherwise, we just don't have anything for it :(. Ratchet Bomb could be used if you are able to have it in the opener, and get it to 3 before a Solemnity shows up. If it is a local meta deck then I would actually advise you to splash a color. At a large GP I can't say you'd see this deck archtype that often.
Mountainfolk - Let's do an analysis of the SCG Baltimore meta game, and see how we are panning out. I'm asked frequently on stream 'how is Mono Red Prison (Pyro Prison) positioned in the meta?" The difficult thing with answering this is after saying either yay or nay I am then am asked about a particular matchup, and ironically the 'particular matchup' question seems to always be a different deck. So modern is diverse, but we are a percentages deck, so how are we looking?
Keep in mind analysis like this was done at the beginning of the year on the percentages of our lock pieces and their impact on the meta. During that time for example Grixis Death Shadow was about "Aggro Death Shadow" and attempted to pump and drill out everything on CMC 1. They've since added Gurmag Angler, K-Commands, and other cards that are not so hampered by Chalice on 1. Onto the listing:
[Good] 62 (43.7%) - Defined as a matchup that should be favorable
[50/50] 29 (20.4%) - Defined as a matchup that is likely to go 1 and 1 based on who is on the draw (leaving G1 up to who's on draw and 'if you have the right half of deck in the hand')
[Poor] 51 (35.9%) - Defined as a matchup that we likely lose in a Best of 3.
[Total] 142
Skia_AoP asks about Legion Warboss. What I've recently proposed in the discord and will note it here is that can we 'make our poor matchups' better G1 in the event we hit the matchup lottery and find ourselves across from them. Stickballruss will tell you that Warboss is just bad in the matchpus its bad in... which I'll say is true for any card. So what are we looking at? Luckily the individual on reddit has helped us by keeping the decks in largest to smallest. What do we have:
[50/50] Tron – 13
[Poor] KCI – 11
Both of these matchups would favor Legion Warboss in. Having more in Game 1 and starting there leans us more likely to draw threats, close the game out, and not lose to G1.
[Good] Bant Spirits – 14
[Good] Humans – 9
Both of these matchups are awful for Warboss and Rabblemaster. That being said our lock pieces are extremely strong I am tending towards favoring 'losing G1 to bring in more powerful hate cards G2 and G3' and put my percentage points towards the other two decks.
This same logic can be applied and evaluated across your local meta. So is Pyro Prison bad? YES! - We're only good against 43% of the meta! No! - We're only bad to 35% of the meta!
The real answer? My local meta is "All Jund" is Pyro Prison great? No... sorry, it is tough, but what can you do? You can play a list tuned for Jund. Play spellskite, play a welding jar if you like, be pre-boarded, heck locally you may keep Chalice completely out and go for eidolons. This is what I encourage a lot of people to do. I know this is not the 'pretty side' of magic, but this is also part of this deck.
If your local meta is all spirits... I'd probably put Torpor Orb in the main. "But its bad against ____" ... yes and you're hedging your bet because you just told me you have 6 Spirit players and 1 human at your local FNM of 20 people. You just main decked a answer to 1/3 of the field, I'm good with that blind on G1.
This is how we evalute the game. Right now I'd put Pyro Prison a bit of an underdog as "Red is King" in Modern at the moment. Does this mean drop Blood Moon? Take a look at decks 1,2,3,4,5,8,9,10,11 <<< I want blood moon (For those not wanting to scroll up, Bant Spirits, Tron, KCI, Humans, Infect, Burn, Jund, Jeskai Control, Grixis Death's Shadow).
Hello Mountainfolk!
We do not have set of games to talk about, but more a perception of the format as we've shifted out of modern season and into a quieter time but with some very impactful cards coming out of Guilds of Ravnica. I always personally had high hopes for sets like these, and this one has delivered but has not left us without a toy or two to play with. I believe now is a perfect time to begin talking about February/March Modern versus Today's modern, and there is an interesting deck that "Disappeared" and is "Reappearing" which we are happy to see. So what is happening?
History
Back at the beginning of 2018, GDS, Humans, and Hollow One were the busted decks of the format. After a Pro Tour where we saw a seemingly "Random" deck dominate, and people talking about "How can drawing then randomly discarding be effective?" and "Are we Hearthstone now?" as the Memes poured in we sat quietly as the primary counter to the three main decks of the format. There were many others trying to do things but let us focus on these. We had Chalice on 1 for GDS, and we had Bridge for all three. We had Blood Moon for the excessively greedy Humans, and we felt these were actually our three best matchups. So why does this matter?
Today
Guilds of Ravnica has brought us many toys, and there are certainly a range of decks that we are poised against. As always many people ask "Is Blood Moon" good enough in a meta where lots of decks run it. Absolutely. Take a look at the top 8 from this weekends Challenge. You'll notice that we actually would prefer to have Blood Moon in for 5/8 as the full 4 of, and then for two of those perhaps a cut or so. The only deck that is a maybe to actually fully pull Blood Moon out for is Gifts Storm. Check, Blood Moon looking good (btw the Top 8 did not include Dredge, which is another matchup we want it in, and the title of this post).
Chalice - how we looking? I've been told time and time again "Chalice is too slow, terrible, bad in the format." What a lot of people are referencing here is that there are multiples of things like Abrade, Kolaghan's Command, ETB Creatures that Destroy Artifacts, etc floating around. Certainly this is true. What people don't realize is that Chalice is our delay of the game, like a blue deck runs a counter, our chalice actually stops some opponents from playing cards. During Bridgevine days I ran the numbers, a Chalice on 1 hit 22 cards (not including the playset of walking ballista and playset of hangerback walkers which are played on 0 for Bridge from Below shenangigans). Chalice may die, it may be a speed bump, but it certainly is fine in the format.
Bridge - are there enough creatures? Absolutely. Although some may be starting to pack main deck ways to deal with bridge 5/8 top 8 decks care about bridge, two of which historically struggle to have a maindeck answer. Ironically the many creatures makes 8 rabble look bad, so why are we playing it?
Why Play 8-Rabble?
I've been playing a variety of lists. I won't claim to really pick any for my own, until now. I know others have probably provided an 8-rabble list, I won't say it is anything stellar, however, my reasoning may be quite different then others, so here's the claim. Let us take the example of Humans or GDS. Both of these are "Slam Dunks" in the sense I would call them a heavy favorite in our direction. Both of these matchups tend to go our way, and even on the sideboard plan their number of cards for hate is not enough to overwhelm our cards that can lock them. In this, I will drop my chances game 1 with utility cards to have a more explosive package which actually can cost me games 1 against these decks. So what? Let's look at the other side of the spectrum, G-Tron and UW Control - These matchups are difficult game 1 in old lists. This is due to the nature of us being a 50/50 deck. With these decks I want all 3 games if need be, and we need to be good all 3 games. So the aggro package is almost all there. We bring in a touch more to strengthen Games 2/3 but the hope here is we're ahead by going into Game 2. As such the list below is slanted in favor of trying to win the bad matchups game 1 and rely on the good matchups being able to close them out games 2/3 if necessary. So the list below displays this.
Graveyard - Ravenous Trap
There are a variety of people who have named this card as good, but I'll give a shout out to Stickballruss particularly. I was playing with Leyline of the Void a lot, and seeing what other cards to bring in (from black) to deal with Dredge. We've actually found a more interesting card. Let's look at Hollow One, Dredge, and Storm. All bring in things like "Nature's Claim", "Wipe Away", "Ancient Grudge" - etc. These hit artifacts and enchantments. These are hitting our Blood Moons, Leyline of the Void, Grafdigger's Cages, etc. We must draw our threat, but we must have it stick. We have an awkward interaction sometimes with our Chalices also. So the question is "When do we care about the graveyard" and in many times it is when the graveyard is about to do something too far reaching. Ironically for all these decks, that usually results in a faithless looting, a gifts ungiven, a dredging of a large creature, or having ritualed out many times and about to past in flames. - These all drop 3+ cards into the graveyard, and this is where Ravenous Trap can be triggered.
Give it a shot. Or... check a clip out, and I'll let the idea marinate.
T0 Win - I mean... we play Gemstone, why not add another card especially one that plays out without spending mana at the right time. We can ritual out to our hearts content and STILl do this, even if we draw it.
Glory Be to Red - The tag line of a Glorybringer spell slinging mega dragon build, and something that I'm a bit known for on the forums, case in point to Stickballruss he was the one that suggested some Glorybringer, but for whatever reason the deck clicks for me and... 'everyone thinks I'm mad for doing it.'
I've been looking at the possibility of playing what I call "Inverted Pyro Prison" - I won't really talk about deck lists here but to spin up a conversation on the forums (versus our discord) I wanted to propose the concept here. I think I can take data from earlier this year as reference and then apply to what we are seeing with the current meta-shifts as we approach Q4 2018.
Concept of "Invert Pyro Prison"
- There is actually nothing fancy, it is a re-evaluation of our 75. I've joked that we are the "Pre-boarded" deck, and so the question is always "What is the highest percentage of decks we will see, and how do we set up the 60 to beat them?"
- Invert takes this a slightly different route. Instead of looking at meta % points and trying to game G1 against my opponents, I actually try to 'give myself the best chance across 3 games' - What does this mean?
Matchups that are deemed unfavorable we need the best edge game 1.
Matchups that are deemed favorable we can lose percentage points game 1 for extremly powerful game 2 and game 3.
What do I mean by this?
Early 2018 - Hollow One, Humans, and Grixis Death Shadow - Were almost in the sense "Free Wins" a Blood Moon ruined these, and Bridge was basically an ace in the hole game 1. Game 2 you knew which two puzzle pieces you needed and could easily clean these up. So when you go to sideboard there was not much to grab, not much to add, usually 4 came out and 4 went in and you were just like "Yep lets go."
UW Control, Ad Nauseum, KCI - These matchups were difficult. We'd struggle not having "Quite enough pressure" game 1, and then usually are down a game trying to win games 2 and 3. We bring in silver bullets or more aggression, but now we're flipping a coin on 2 games, and the matchup still could be difficult.
So what would you change back in Early 2018? We talk about "Silver Bullets" in our sideboards, but in essence of a "Toolbox Deck" which contains silver bullets in the main, how do we - A Non Searching Deck - do this? We rely on card filter if possible, and we adjust the utility of our creatures and cards in order to compensate by putting our silver bullets to the sideboard and utilizing them for games 2 and 3. What would this look like?
Example
Ensnaring Bridge is exceptionally good against these favorable matchups. The question being do we need all 4 in the main? Blood Moon was also reasonable as was chalice. I joked about having the "12 Lock Pieces" when I present decks, so how do we shave the lock piece in favor of either bringing in the power G2/G3 or vice versa?
Right now I'm playing with Sarkhan Again, which ironically is just 'too slow' in the meta, and then I'm bringing back Glorybringer. A lot of matchups we're losing due to not having enough power, or not being able to remove enough creatures. So why not attempt both? We shave some Ensnaring bridge, and a fast Sarkhan is theroetically helping to find that 1 bridge. G1 against many decks you'll find redundant bridges are "Great" but in many cases not necessary because your opponent does not have THEIR silver bullets. So this got me thinking to slide ourselves in the spectrum closer to Skred Red. What does this look like, we're not sure but we're trying things.
Your thoughts would be appreciated. As of right now I am trying x3 Sarkhan, x3 Glorybringer, x1 Stormbreath, sometimes x2 Hazoret, and shaving some 'utility' but also shaving some of our lock. It is interesting. Results are still pending, but what do people think?
So, anyone got to play against AssTro at their FNM? How was it?
I don't go to FNM but online I have played against it a fair amount of times. It literally just hits everything that Abrupt Decay did previously. Yes on occasion it has hit a Chandra but the decks running it normally ran 2 Maelstrom Pulses anyway. With this idea when you run multiple Bridges out for example you are normally in better shape. Problem is they are likely still running a 1-of Maelstrom Pulse.
Worst card still remains to be Liliana of the Veil in the BGx decks, along with the quickness that a Tarmogoyf kills us because we offer more the average number of card types to end up in the graveyard.
Grab the Reins looks to be a great coup de grace card. I can see sacing a pumped up Goblin rabblemaster jsut as it inevitable dies to a 2/2 chump block.
Wouldn't it be more useful to just pack in snow covered mountains and Skred over massive raid. One would need to have at least 4 goblins on board at 3 lands for it to be better and even then it's 3 vs 1 cmc. I think Skred will come in handy earlier and even mid late game the damage difference is likely not significant. Plus with the tight mana raid would likely be the only spell you cast that turn.
I think the reason to consider Massive Raid is it is a burn spell to face. Skred is strictly a control removal card, and that is not exactly where this deck lies. The deck lies in the pivot and proactive/aggressive side of Prison. I wouldn't necessarily say it is a good card, but that is why it differs from Skred.
If you guys don't mind, could someone glance over my list and see if I'm missing anything crucial? Any non-synergies I may not be aware of or something I'm missing? I think it's pretty close to a stock list for right now.
List looks fairly stock to me. I'd probably consider something different then Cratermaker and Bonfire personally but it is always worth seeing what your local meta is doing and what you like to play. List is fairly stock though =)
Edit: Also OMG Raystack with the post :O!!!!
Gonna read it through cause I've actually hit a pocket since GRN went live with doing... sorta bad (yet going one solid flawless 5-0 in Friendly leagues...) It is weird cause people are trying things at the moment, as am I.
I wanted to stop by to thank everyone that's put work in on this deck. After an abysmal start to the modern PPTQ season with Storm, I randomly stumbled upon FluffyWolf's stream and pyro prison. After a tenth place finish and losing a win and in, I finally broke through yesterday and got third in a PPTQ, losing to a friend that took it down on UW control. This community is amazing and I'm on board the Pyro Prison bandwagon!
Congrats on your breakthrough! It is always a great feeling. Glad that you were able to attain something Storm could not give you! =) Welcome!
And that is the wrap! I took 51st out of 354 people with a record of 6-3.
Great work! I was recently introduced to your stream and I really enjoyed the videos, especially as a newcomer to the deck. I'm running this deck in the Canadian PPTQ's this season (essentially your list from your most recent youtube video), the first of which was yesterday. I managed a 3-1-1 9th place heartbreaker. I wanted to ask about the Tron matchup which I'm finding quite tricky. I followed the advice of this thread and my plan was -4 Ensnaring Bridge, -2 Anger, -2 Goblin Chainwhirler, +4 Eidolon, +2 Damping Matrix, +2 Sorcerous Spyglass. I had an early Damping matrix which shut off expedition map, and followed with sorcerous spyglass revealing wurmcoil engine, thragtusk, TKS (sigh...). I named Karn, but of course was subsequently trampled from here.
I'm wondering what your thoughts are on maybe going a different direction with the sideboard. Maybe keeping in bridges instead of going the eidolon route. If Eidolon is not early, it can just become dead weight once they start throwing haymakers. I imagine the common sideboard plan for them is to bring in TKS and Thragtusk in anticipation of Bridges coming out. By keeping bridge, it seems like you're forcing Karn and O-stone to be their paths to victory, and maybe we can handle that with spyglass and damping matrix (or sphere?). This is a more reactive plan, but in my minimal testing against tron, I've lost to thratusk wurmcoil beats.
Thanks again and great work!
Thanks for the words and glad you are enjoying the stream!
Ahh Tron. Honestly, our best plans here are Aggro, and beat them out before a Karn. As an example Blood Moon doesn't even shut this plan out due to the inevitability of simply drawing 7 lands. Although the plan is decent (Bridge in for these big haymakers) we will simply lose to Karn, Ugin, Ulamog, Worldbreaker. Because of all of these threats our Bridges will need to be multiples, and we're basically asking for Blood Moon, Bridge, Spyglass, and then hoping they never get to 10 mana and cast an Ulamog as that will just ruin our day. This is a very reactive strategy and not what Pyro Prison is about. Indeed a late Eidolon is not the greatest top deck, but a late bridge really is not doing anything either (let's keep in mind Walking Ballista is also played which simply just gets around our bridge).
The reason we bring these in is not to top deck them late. In an opener against Tron you are looking for an aggressive piece to deploy on T1/T2 with a Blood Moon. You will want to run your Blood Moon out actually to avoid things.
Note, Eidolon unfortunately takes a [card]Nature's Claim[card] frequently, which is also a card against Bridge and against Moon. Although giving them more targets for this card we don't necessairly want to simply be on this plan. Tron many forget cantrips frequently into their answers. An Eidolon down on T1 will normally net you approximately 6 dmg (Map + Attacks; Star + Ancient + Attack; Ancient + Sylvan Scrying + Attack) are examples. This 6 damage plus a rabble or even Blood Moon + Chandra puts them at a nice 14 life. Two activations with Chandra = 10 and we are within that "10 range" which is 2 emblem shots with Chandra, 2 Swings with Hazoret, or very close to 2 swings with Koth. Being behind a Bridge slows all these options down.
You also have Shattering Spree and Abrade. These can knock off O-stone but also can take out Wurmcoil preventing life gain to allow you to swing in the following turn. There are different lines such as they attack in you block with Eidolon and shoot your Eidolon so they do not get a 3/3 life link to defend an aggressive rabblemaster etc.
If we play passively, we need to guarantee Koth/Chandra Emblem to win, and that has to be quick.
Played in the Modern PTQ Finals (not sure why they call it Finals) today on MTGO. In short the results are as follows:
Match 1: Jeskai 0-2
Match 2: GDS 2-0
Match 3: 8-Whack 2-0
Match 4: Tron 1-2
Match 5: UW Spirits 2-1
Match 6: Burn 2-0
Match 7: Mill 2-0
Match 8: KCI 2-0
Match 9: Humans 1-2
Overall: 6-3
The real short of it was Jeskai deck I got 0 lands, drew tons of lands game two.
GDS - Chalice on 1; Game 2: Didn't respect Blood Moon
8-Whack: Chalice on 1 (got a 'lol'); Game 2: Chalice on 1
Tron: Was a strange match. It involved my opponent mulling, and us duking it out with Walking Ballistas... The match eventually went to the 3rd game and a loss but this one was close.
UW Spirits: As you'd expect, one game I win from behind a bridge, another game they pump stuff out fast enough, and last game behind bridge.
Burn: Chalices do work both games, and in game two when I got chalice on 1 and 2 I then flood the board with rabblemasters.
Mill: Game 1 was close but Hazoret or Koth (can't remember) take this one. Game 2 is a no-content with chalices and appropriately being fast enough.
KCI: This was a Chalice on 1 game 1 with a rabblemaster right after. Game 2 was a Rabblemaster and Chalice on 0 (opponent did not play their Mox Opal) and results in a quick win with a Slagstorm to the face.
Humans: Game 1 was cake, game 2 lost after T1 blood moon and my opponent played (first) Noble, into Avacyn Pilgrim. Game 3 they took my bridge but I got it back, but not before taking a heft attack from Anazfenz the Foremost... It was a weird build to say the least.
And that is the wrap! I took 51st out of 354 people with a record of 6-3.
Just saw Uba Mask on Russ’ latest 5-0. Say what?! Sorry if I missed the discussion, but when is this used?
Yep we are certainly experimenting with it. UW Miracles needs to draw their cards to miracle, and also usually attempts to gain advantages. You can actually get through their counter magic when the rest of it sits in exile from draws. Aether Vial and Uba mask also do not get along, as cards never make it to their hand. Blood Moon + Uba Mask against say Humans can do odd things, as it can also against Wx taxes lists. It is still in experimentation phase but it does some strange things for sure and can have very nice effects on the game.
Behind the Player - A History of why I chose Pyro Prison - (Skip to red text if you'd like to get to the Pyro Prison content)
You may be wondering, why are we approaching my history within this community? This has been talked about Ad Nauseum on my stream, but let me Bring to Light why maybe red decks have been my Beck // Call. Why maybe I'm simply a Dragonmaster Outcast though I'll admit I try to have a Cryptic Command over "U" (Blue) decks. There may be an Ancient Grudge about the banning of Birthing Pod that made my decisions tough. So let's Rally the Ancestors in due Collected Company for a little reading of the Martial Law and pass the Knowledge Pool of why FluffyWolf settles to not be an Eternal Witness to his Primal Command of Green, nor Blue, nor White, nor Black. Let me tell you, why of all cards, I like Blood Moon, but... first... Backt o Basics.
In 2012, I returned to magic. This was after Return to Ravnica where I built a BW Exalted Deck, which I believe I still have at least the 60 maybe even the 75 saved off of what I played. I entered my first local tournament, and although I did not win I remember beating one of the top players after exalted triggers, Rancor, and Ajani, Caller of the Pride. I took this, and made the hasty swap to include some Restoration Angel in the deck for a GP. I did poorly. I obtained the playmat I hold cherished to me, and then I read up on Melissa Detora's Wolfrun Bant deck. I built it, I was struck, and Bant has been my thing since day one.
3 Aven Squire
4 Knight of Glory
4 Knight of Infamy
4 Sublime Archangel
Utility Creatures
2 Fiend Hunter
2 Obzedat, Ghost Council
3 Ultimate Price
Utility Spells
4 Lingering Souls
2 Oblivion Ring
Double Strike Utility
3 Ajani, Caller of the Pride
4 Silverblade Paladin
1-2 Cathedral of War
4 Godless Shrine
4 Isolated CHapel
12 Plains
3 Swamps
I explored and played heavily in Standard. Rotations came and this 'must rebuy cards' was eating at me. I am a man of investments, this format did not fit me. I explored into Modern, found a reddit post, and bought Scapeshift. I had read how powerful Cryptic Command was, I really liked the Lands Legacy deck, and was proficient at combo-control. I skipped over Birthing Pod as the deck, for cost reasons at the time. I knew I'd get that deck soon, but I needed to get into the format to see if I wanted to be that way.
I returned briefly to standard as Modern had not picked up enough in our area. KTK brought about the time where I carried two decks, Jeskai for Standard & RUG Scapeshift for Modern. Keep in mind I initially started my more competitive side as BW and Bant, but if you take me all the way back to when I began... I had things like Volcanic Dragon, Crimson Hellkite, I thought Firestorm Hellkite looked awesome and thought Jokulhaups was one of the strongest cards I had (Ice Age printing please). I also had a thing for equipment, specifically the Kaldra series. Big green creatures were obviously powerful, and the finer things of Tokens interested me (My first commander was Ghave, Guru of Spores) you can call me a "Junk" player, thank you. If you actually asked me, Bant, and Junk are some of my favorite combinations, but there was something missing, was it "Blue"?
Here I am, running Jeskai and RUG Scapeshift, and boy when Dig through Time showed up I knew what I was missing. Remember that I mentioned I wanted to play Pod, and the ban hammer was upon us. Regret, I missed out on the toolbox, what is this? Bring to Light yes! What was my favorite deck currently? Legacy Taxes, give me that Rishanda Port but not because it was oppressive to the opponent, no... because it required extensive knowledge of the decks your opponents were playing. You had to know their deck just as much as yours.
I explore options, I play Rally Fenza deck to a Top 8 and finish First. I explored Free Win Red, and the idea of controlling and locking my opponent out was great. The Chalice of the Void being on 1 or 2, but, I needed to know more about my opponents. It was also too slow. Scapeshift... Narset Cannon... Omnithragdoor was back in the day... Wolfrun Bant... Rally Fenza... BTL Scapeshift... Green Devotion Combo... During my development of Green Devotion combo, I noticed that time walking my opponent for a turn by picking their most useful land was amazing... what if they just couldn't use that land period? I stumble back to FWR, something told me this deck was more, that there was more power here, the meta and people over all these years were so greedy, I knew this, a Scapeshift player, everyone was at 18, 15, or even less. I found this community. I knew the power of a T3 Rabblemaster in Standard, how many times did I play Mantis Rider or Goblin Rabblemaster to hear my opponent go "Yep... that's a Mantis..." "Yep... that's a Rabblemaster..."
Reading... reading... T1 Blood Moon - Most would be sold on this. T1 Rabblemaster! - Most would be sold on this... Below, is what sold me on this.
Did you catch it? We are a Pre-Boarded deck. Many are going to say that's great. I see a mathematical problem to solve that is ever changing but pits your statistical odds in favor of your own pre-preparation, build, and understanding of your deck, and (check mark) the decks of the meta and format. Bingo, I could now understand all decks in the format that I chose. And as an aside, you will hear so many people tell us how terrible this deck is, how awful and how no skill is required. There may be the concept of 'auto-pilot' but I'll be damned if someone will tell me my preparation into the deck is not without some level of skill or effort.
What have I check-marked now in my needs for a deck? Why was this likely the deck for me?
[x] - Competitive when built correctly (this can be said for everyone's decks that do well)
[x] - Required meta knowledge (not just knowing how to play your deck)
[x] - Tickles that inner Johnny combo, that token enjoyment, and feels inherently powerful
[x] - Fits in the realm of more Combo, Control, Midrange - You'll notice I am terrible at Aggro.
[x] - Not one dimensional - This may be my issue sometimes with aggro
[x] - Combo - Let me explain this one a step further. If you've watched you'll notice if I can find multi-card interactions this works wonders for me. Teferi & Knowledge Pool. - Rally Fenza & Graveyard with Persist Creatures, Scapeshift/Lands/Math, Bridge/Chalice/+Lock Piece. My combo is nomrmally assembling an unbeatable strategy. The pure adrenaline rush to getting there is... yep, awesome! If my opponent realizes an interaction that is going on I feel 1: I've taught my opponent something which is awesome 2: Gives me some pride that I have a depth of game knowledge aiding me with being a better magic player. (Notice this is a rather big checkbox, but I thought I'd explain it cause it essentially explains why the piece below fits in perfectly).
[ ] - Toolbox Deck and "Options" during gameplay - I missed Dig through Time, and unfortunately Pod was banned and BTL was not competitive... hmmm... Chord of Calling Decks? These have tempted me for so long.
Redefinition of a Synonymous Card
Karn - When spoken in the world of Magic meant "Tron" and with "Tron" meant "Turn 3 Tron" - Groan. Newer players did not understand than learning the ability to cast a 7 Mana Spell that literally has on the text the ability to restart the game, awestruck.
Karn - The defining terminology to the Eldrazi. The keeper of Ulamog, the Buddy of Ugin, and owning a pet of Wurmcoil.
Karn - Tower... Mine... Plant...
Karn - An Anti Artifact Card. A Utility. Perhaps not dawning the Wizard who slings the spell and carries the back of the deck on his shoulders, but no... perhaps instead the Planeswalker providing foresight into the realm beyond, the sideboard, and expanding your deck to beyond the 60 with the efficiency of the 60.
Karn - Once synonyms with Tron, may soon be Synonymous with Toolbox, or... Maybe synonymous with Prison.
Once was a household name to one particular archetype has now been broken of the mold. Time will tell how long Karn, the Great Creator expands his ever reaching hand, but keep this in mind, he is certainly shaping modern as we speak.
Red Prison - Today
There has been quite the shake-up in Modern. I'll dare say that even those among us would indicate Blood Moon is bad. Perhaps even magic planeswalkers have more foresight then we give them credit?
Either way, Red Decks are some of, if not THE most powerful cards in Modern at the moment. UR Phoenix, Storm, Burn, Hollow One, Dredge (The Red cards tend to finish it), GDS, Jund & Affinity have their smattering of them, even Mardu was prevalent, and let us not forget our good friend Ponza and Scapeshift/Titan Shift. Certainly, there are others on the rise, but you cannot deny Red has power and backing. So where do we fit?
Modern is extremely fast, we as a Prison deck restrict powerful decks from executing their plan 'on time' we slow the game down but in a restrict manner compared to control which seeks to control within the moment of spells, we simply seek to control the game itself. With the expanse of modern though, this becomes extremely difficult, and if we do not adapt and learn, we may be just like our fiery red head planeswalker.
But we shouldn't be alarmed, in fact, we have a great following here to iterate the game plays and optimize the deck. We abound on our vast knowledge, past experiences, and the legacy of this deck to determine new lines, but we welcome all brought into our community for the fresh eyes.
Toolbox - Something Different
Let me be the first to say this is going to be a challenge for many here. Toolbox decks are not accustomed to red players necessarily. Maybe the graveyard, maybe something with artifacts, but not toolbox. Some will play this deck to no end and have no luck, and others will dominate and find it steps from a perfect middle ground of exactly enough power and just enough edge. We will define the premises of a toolbox, and the initial 'how do I sideboard' here.
What is a Toolbox Deck
A toolbox deck utilizes tutors. In tutoring the player is given the option to find pieces necessary or deemed correct in a situation to further their gameplan. Typical tutor based decks in modern include cards like Chord of Calling, Summoner's Pack, Whir of Invention and Inventor's Fair, Mystical Teachings, Glittering Wish, Bring to Light and Tolaria West to name a few. Depending on the instantaneous nature of the tutored card determines the strategy to imply in your thought process when obtaining a card.
How a Toolbox Deck Sideboards
This one is difficult, and always be. There will be arguments in both camps to 'maintain your toolbox' and others to say 'your toolbox does not matter, go with gameplan B.' We must remember what our Gameplan A was prior to any toolbox action, and determine if Gameplan A was better then technically our Toolbox B plan. What do I mean with this?
When evaluating your cards, determine if a T3 Karn fetching what you need will help you. You will likely play that card on T4, and will you be dead? Here we are, if you read from the beginning you will have at least heard me say "Modern is a Turn 4 format" somewhere. This holds true to our beefy 4 Walker tutor. Not factoring London/Vancouver mulligan, deciding if the deck is 'slow enough' that is your opponent to warrant the toolbox may be critical to victories or losses. Let me provide an example.
Humans - Although you may say "3 Karn, YES! I have "3 More Bridges" in my deck" - Do you really? How many have lost to a T2 Thalia. Now your Karn is a T5 Karn, your Bridge is a T6 Bridge, and you're not playing efficient spells to ritual out your Karn quickly. T6 - T7, bridge good enough? Maybe if you board wipe, so leave it in, if you have more spot removal or minimal removal, maybe not. On this decision point you can decide, do I look for and bring in and 'neglect my sideboard toolbox' or do I split the difference.
This will be determined on playstyle - Which I hate to say, but is true.
If you see the deck in one light, or another, you will naturally mullgain in a certain fashion. Here I would likely tell you to drop 2 Karn, drop the package all together for a Bridge/Torpor Orb - but consider leaving a chalice out or consider leaving spellskite out. You may do the reverse where you bring in the torpor orb and the bridges and spellskite, and neglect Karn also - Both of these are correct. Both of these will come down to the mulligan, and BOTH of these will come down to your understanding of your opponents deck.
I'll have more on this later, maybe, maybe I'll do a video, maybe I won't have time, maybe maybe. I want to leave you this though that the deck is powerful, it is doing powerful things, but will be very frustrating to many people initially. Just like the learning curve initially of Pyro Prison, this is a new learning curve. Don't be frustrated immediately if it doesn't work, but find if it does work. Keep in mind original Pyro Prison is just as powerful, and don't be discouraged. We have a lot going on in Modern right now, we'll see how War of Spark and Modern Horizon's shake things up! Till then, sling spells Kinfolk!
3 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
3 Karn, the Great Creator
POWER LOCK SUITE (10)
4 Blood Moon
3 Chalice of the Void
3 Ensnaring Bridge
CREATURES (9)
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
4 Legion Warboss
1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
UTILITY (5)
2 Slagstorm
3 Abrade
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Desperate Ritual
1 Pyretic Ritual
LANDS (21)
11 Mountain
4 Ramunap Ruins
3 Gemstone Caverns
2 Cavern of Souls
1 Blast Zone
2 Anger of the Gods
1 Chalice of the Void
1 Walking Ballista
1 Welding Jar
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Sorcerous Spyglass
2 Torpor Orb
1 Spellskite
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Trinisphere
1 Liquimetal Coating
1 Mycosynth Lattice
https://www.streamdecker.com/deck/cjVSLMS_VX
To quote mtg gamepedia:
In essence, we seek to limit our opponent from playing their gameplan. I define their gameplan as to define 'playing magic' as our goal would be near impossible and untainable, but I will give an example of a deck which attempts to do this. There is also the essence of what can be a 'True Lock' and in the world of magic that can be extremely difficult, and I'll give an example that may be confusing but provide also an example of why it is not a true lock, and once again provide the deck that attempts to establish this.
Finally I will link an old article (there are certainly newer ones) The Art of Transformation. This article talks about sideboards that transform. I add this to the discussion as a talking point for later.
If you'd like you may skip ahead to the Deck headers, but if you'd like to hear my comments on locks and transformation, then please continue reading
We define a lock as the moment in which an opponent should have No Outs to the board state, and it is a matter of drawing a win condition or decking out the opponent of cards. A very primitive example would be a Burn opponent having only spells that target an opponent and you playing a Leyline of Sanctity. The card itself is not a "Lock" however if the totality of cards in your opponents deck lacks interaction to remove the card, along with then dealing the appropriate damage, you have essentially locked your opponent out. Other examples can include:
Lock Examples
Example of a Non-Lock but perceived as a Lock
There is a critical line to play between online and paper though. The Clock or Time in the Round. Unlike online where you have the ability to time out your opponent, paper if you cannot complete a game it becomes a draw and the person with the most wins does win. This doesn't mean you must concede as soon as an appeared lock is established. In many cases, you can attempt to play on for some time but then allow your opponent to play 'another' card and then scoop up your cards to save time. What this does is allows you to acquire more knowledge if your opponent is playing cards, while giving your opponent more cards to consider in your pull of playable cards. Keep in mind time in the round though, you do not want to give yourself too little time to complete the rounds, and Enough of a Lock may be sufficient grounds to concede versus waiting for a Full Lock.
I simply want to note this briefly before the analysis. Many people find cute and fun ways to 'transform their sideboards' to try and trick their opponents by going a different line of attack. Keep in mind that transformational sideboards tend to be one dimensional. The critical piece for a transformational sideboard is to determine the weak matchups and tune the transformation around these. If you are heavy control, you play against an opponent that is heavy control, and transform into a midrange, it likely is not a good idea. If you instead trasnform into an aggro package it will work wonders. That being said if you are a softer control deck with an aggro tansformational sideboard, and play against a fast linear deck, you may have minimal extra disruption. This is what I'd call a under prepared, bad matchup, or a narrow focus of the deck building strategy. There is nothing wrong, in fact having an exact mission is great, just note your focal mission, if it has a flaw or a bad matchup, nothing much is going to change and you will have a higher percentage chance of taking a match loss due to this building decsion.
For what you are all here for the analysis, review, commentary, and discussion on the deck types below.
Red Prison
AKA: Pyro Prison, Mono Red Prison, Red Prison, (Legacy) Dragon Stompy
The deck is what most people here are familiar with. We have several variations of the deck to include Aggro packages (+ Legion Warboss and +Eidolon of the Great Revel main), and Control packages (usually planeswalker or more sweeper based). The deck hinges on fast explosive starts to get ahead of an opponent regardless of the dice roll. The package can have elements of 'all-in' but attempts in the Prison Fashion to limit the opponent's ability to play on curve to bide time in our all-in approach.
Pros
Cons
4 Ensnaring Bridge
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Blood Moon
1 Magus of the Moon
Creatures (5)
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
1 Hazoret the Fervent
Planeswalkers (5)
4 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
1 Koth of the Hammer
Sweeper Removal/Utility Removal (7)
3 Abrade
1 Anger of the Gods
1 Slagstorm
2 Walking Ballista
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Desperate Ritual
1 Pyretic Ritual
Lands (21)
14 Mountains
3 Gemstone Caverns
3 Ramunap Ruins
1 Scavenger Grounds
3 Ravenous Trap
3 Anger of the Gods
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
2 Torpor Orb
2 Sorcerous Spyglass
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Damping Matrix
1 Spellskite
1 Witchbane Orb
Card Decisions
Pyro Prison's fundamental approach is a stronger lock piece and a fast finish. The card choices to help this include:
The other cards not highlighted depend on your flare or version and your meta. Because this deck attacks the meta probably the strongest of the three examples tuning your utility is important. In this example, it is Abrade the Sweepers and Walking Ballista. This final card can be a win condition or removal for pesky bigger creatures/planeswalkers.
The Sideboard
Because of limited access to colors targeting specific matchups is important. A concession for Leyline of the Void is Ravenous Trap as many decks interacting with their graveyard do attack via creatures, thus having an uncastable card, not in the opener conflicts with your main lock pieces of Ensnaring Bridge. There are additional sweepers, aggro pieces, and artifact-based lock pieces. The downside to this and not branching to Enchantments or other abilities is your opponent's artifact removal packages will be coming in for games 2 and 3. This is a deck building concession for staying in a singleton color, but you'll note that some of these along with mainboard locks do present a difficult time for our opponents to cast their necessary removal.
RW Prison
AKA: White Pyro Prison (Only in this thread really), Sun & Moon Prison, RW Taxes, PLATEAU PRISON (By Raystack), Eclipse Prison
The common theme among any white based deck or proposal of white based decks is the sideboard. Sun & Moon presents incredibly powerful threatening sideboard cards, but becomes softer with the locks and proactive gameplan mainboard. The deck itself functions on two axis one is the Prison "Sun & Moon" utilizing similar strategies to Red Prison while attempting a planeswalker (control) based finish. The other entirely different build lends itself more to the "Tax" variant, not necessarily limiting the resources for which an opponent may attack, but rather, providing decision choices for your opponent because the curve has been adjusted due to the taxing/higher cost imposed on performing actions during the game.
Pros
Cons
4 Ensnaring Bridge
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Blood Moon
Creatures (10)
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
1 Hazoret the Fervent
4 Legion Warboss
1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
Planeswalkers (7)
1 Ajani Vengeant
4 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
2 Sarkhan, Fireblood
2 Abrade
Rituals/Fast Mana (8)
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Desperate Ritual
Lands (21)
4 Arid Mesa
3 Gemstone Caverns
4 Inspiring Vantage
4 Mountain
3 Plains
1 Rugged Prairie
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Wooded Foothills
2 Anger of the Gods
1 Damping Sphere
3 Leyline of Sanctity
3 Rest in Peace
1 Sorcerous SPyglass
2 Stony Silence
1 Torpor Orb
2 Wrath of God
Card Decisions
Sun & Moon's fundamental approach is a softer lock piece broader flexibility for matchups and control based finishes. The list provided has done well recently and is melding towards Pyro Prison/Red Prison. I'll note card choice differences below.
The Sideboard
I pick three cards to talk about from the sideboard noting they are strong, some of the strongest shut downs to decks that care about Targeting a player, graveyard, or artifacts. Because typically there is removal of speed and proactive cards for this controlling piece you are on a hinge for if your lock piece stays in. Remembering your opponent is bringing in ways to unlock their deck the sideboard has to be one of the strongest hate cards in magic, and white does this very well compared to most. The sideboard though is filled with strictly control based cards, alternatively going another route post board becomes that much more difficult, and if you need to step on the gas you've lost this. Although the sideboard is not strictly transformational, it focuses on answering issues which inherently pushes it one direction.
RB Prison
AKA: Master Prison (Creator's name), Red Black Prison, Dark Pyro (I disagree to some extent this name, but know some are calling it this).
This is the new kid on the block for some, for others, it is a tried and old tale of a variation we've yet to master or establish within the community. I believe many people will actually start to consider this list as an alternative to their Mono Red Variants for a taste of something 'with more'. Whether you want to call it a splash from Pyro, or a side page of Jund the deck features a mid-range prison style with powerful answers while taxing the mana base to the fullest in any prison archetype (I'm ignoring you 4c Whir, you just cheat stuff in). This list I'll go a touch more in depth I think in my analysis strictly as Red Prison is the thread, and RW has been talked about frequently.
Pros
Cons
4 Ensnaring Bridge
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Blood Moon
1 Magus of the Moon
Creatures (13)
1 Hazoret the Fervent
1 Master of Cruelties
Planeswalkers (4)
3 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
3 Liliana of the Veil
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
Utility (12)
1 Abrade
4 Collective Brutality
2 Anger of the Gods
3 Bedevil
2 Kolaghan's Command
4 Simian Spirit Guide
Lands (22)
3 Blood Crypt
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Graven Cairns
3 Mountain
9 Swamp
1 Temple of Malice
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Stormbreath Dragon
2 Crumble to Dust
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
2 Slaughter Games
1 Kolaghan's Command
Card Decisions
RB appears to try and answer the Red Prison's flaws with the decks. Creatures too big to kill, just enough interaction, and ways to prevent the runaway of our opponent's control on the game. Below I'll give card discussion and then talk sideboard with a final note of an opinion on this newcomer versus Pyro Prison. I will ignore card choices that overlap (The lock pieces) as these should be apparent.
The Sideboard
Ravenous Trap is considered a lot for our graveyard-based decks. It is like firing a bullet on target and hitting home. That being said they reload the target and move forward. This can be the case. I would call this card just shy of a silver bullet. Silver bullets are in the forms of shutting a deck down. Stony Silence as an example for artifacts. So what does this deck do? Leyline of the Void just does this. I have personally scooped against dredge showing no cards to just put this card in. Because we spoke to the no-air rituals and power level of the cards being higher you can normally find enough win conditions post board to risk the Leyline silver bullet.
The other card is a pet card of mine in BTL Scapeshift. Many a times BTL Black Scapeshift I can get away with casting BTL, they want to counter the next card. Fine, I'll go get Slaughter Games oops you can't counter. Let me tell you the power level here. The opponent is Ad Nauseum. On T3 I opt to use SSG (which cannot be countered) and cast Slaughter Games. I name Ad Nauseum, opponent scoops. Against Amulet Titan I've named Primeval Titan... I took 4 shots from Azusa, Lost but Seeking before finally finding removal for it, but that was 4 turns extra. The card just eats important cards in opponents decks. To boot, it is a sorcery (so what?) it doesn't stick around, no removal, no getting those cards back, they're gone.
An Opinion
Pyro Prison struggles against some of the more powerful and flexible midrange decks. It also falls to Dredge though I know some are working to get that to work. This deck seems to answer those issues, this is why I'd call it the Yin/Yang to Pyro Prison. If you can navigate the tricky manabase, appropriately cement powerful cards, and put your opponent on the back foot, this deck can just roll over them.
Alternate Prisons
I'm not going to list decklists here, but talk briefly about the two I can think of.
Concluding Prison
There are many archetypes, versions, variations, and styles of magic decks. This is the beauty of magic. I always recommend you determine the style of player you wish to be, and build towards that or find the deck that does this. Prison offers a lot of styles. Finally, prison decks are tuned towards metas in many cases and sideboard plans will vary drastically on the style of play you wish to attempt to manipulate your opponent into playing. Have a blast trying these, talk, discuss, and find that sweet card you want to run at FNM, find that optimized list for a GP, and good luck as you lock'em out of the game, and lock in the wins. I'll see you in discord, on stream, on twitter, in here! Happy Locking Mountainfolk!
@Joker
GB Matchup (Non Jund) is not always difficult for us when we take them off a color. Obviously in this variant they are just looking for Green / Black, versus Jund has this weird need to have a few red spells also. So typically if the Prison player is able to get a moon down before a single forest AND single swamp are down we're good. GB obviously does play sets of double black spells, and Dark Confidant is a bit of a problem card for us when established early. Usually if Prison is running the Bridge/Chalice/Moon out quickly they likely do not have a "Fast" follow up (top decks or necessary lands do happen).
The race is on from there, Chalice on 2 to protect things (with the adoption of Assassin's Trophy) and a threat, versus the biggest card that we can't beat. Tarmogoyf. Why I bring this little fella up? We are likely to have a land (GB's land), a sorcery, an instant, probably someone's creature, and then are sitting there with either Planeswalker/Enchantment/Artifact. If we are ever stripped of our lock pieces and Tarmogoyf swings in, goyf is usually big enough for 2 swings. The other problem card is actually Liliana, we have usually 2 sideboard cards to deal with it, aside from attacking. Lilly ult (can usually wait till 7 so you don't lose her) just crushes the deck because they strip lands/lock pieces accordingly and we are typically staring at a big Scooze/Tracker/Tarmogoyf, and typically they only need 2 creatures to win quickly.
Russ will say "Tarmogoyf is unkillable for red" and he is not entirely wrong. In my testing of the RB version the Bedevil hits Goyf's so much to avoid this downfall to straight Mono-red.
Thoughtseize also typically can ruin us, and like mentioned if you have the appropriate fetches, the Moon may be totally worth skipping. Free win red does not win often because of 'lack of pressure' and the same can be true for Pyro Prison (albeit it - usually it has more pressure).
That's how GB should attack our deck. Caligula does make a bit of a joke mainly cause the GBx matchup is more difficult and unfavored for us. Man do we hate T1 Thoughtseize. On that note, fetch a basic swamp, even if you have some Green. You're likely to draw it and you can determine if a moon threat was a big thing or not, but if you "Go for it" and get Overgrown Tomb, we are a top deck away from stopping you completely - versus you just inherently slowing down.
Also T1 Chandra is busted, so that's just variance.
Happy slinging spells!
@Avalanche
We can in some cases have x4 Anger, Torpor Orb, a few extra abrades, and have removed our creatures. This makes us heavy removal and looking for lock pieces. Typically a fast start from an opponent can get us, but we are usually favored. We typically lock them out yes, and they do have noble, but you're looking at a lot of ways to kill a lot of their creatures post board. We can minimize win conditions to literally chandra.
Russ notes Walking Ballista is a great killer of Thalia and completely fine to put on 1 turn 2 with the idea that it is sacrificed to pick off a Thalia.
I know I have been out and about for awhile now in the month of February. I've been taking care of some personal things, but intently watching the meta when able and practicing when I can. I see we have many new faces, and although I cannot get quite back as far as I need to in order to catch up I tossed myself back 3 pages and thought I'd quote you guys and say hello and give some comments as I see them (which many have been answered by the likes of Raystack, Caligula, Zayl, Nate, and others!).
Welcome! Fresh eyes are always welcome. As some of the semi-veteran players are settling in we can lose sight of what may be another angle to tackle! By all means take all our suggestions to heart but bring your own also, especially if you have some of that sweet sweet data of results to back it up!
Congrats! I believe you were also taking this to a Badlands reward type of event this past (or previously past) Sunday! Hope that went well, and great run to start things out!
I'd like to back both Ray and Zayl here. The funny thing that is mentioned is sometimes you 'skip' Chalice on 1, this is understanding your meta opponent and what is likely to disrupt you from winning. Many points in modern you'll find that yes we are non-bo'ing as people call it, but if you don't have the effect in play by T4 anyway you're falling behind. Many will note our deck is 'inconsistent' and while this may have some truth to it we tackle the meta like a control deck does. A control deck wishes for the game to exceed past 8+ turns in order to aseemble pieces. We do similar things at times where we try to limit our opponents resources to give us the attempt to 'draw 8 (8 turns)'. Albeit we are giving out opponent that opportunity to draw out. Many will say that is not a way to play magic, but I'd fire back that my deck has a larger probablity to draw out my win condition as I retain X win conditions within the size of Y deck, where you have Z outs to get around my locks or limiting spells out of your deck.
This is a great response, well done Nate. I want to add my own words which may just simply echo this. My best example was actually an upset opponent. My opponent (on MTGO) slammed their messages in chat of the typical lucky, bad deck, etc. What was the most satisfying thing to read though was the comment "And you kept Eidolon in versus burn, what an idiot." What was satisfying about this is that we understood the matchup more then our opponent. What do I mean by this? Firstly, the deck I was running had x4 Eidolon sideboard, and x4 Bridge mainboard. G2 and G3 (I forget if it went to G3), involved the typical swaps of Anger of the Gods/Eidolons in and things like Ensnaring Bridge and probably some other shenanigans. What is not understood though is we are not hiding behind a bridge, which my opponent has to assume - Most will assume you are "Free Win Red" made popular by Saffron Olive of MTGGoldfish. This is where most get their data, and nothing wrong with that. Just something to note, when deciding if you are the "Aggo" or the "Control" matchup, it is important to know to give you the best edge. In the case of Eidolon, we are applying pressure. You won't get behind a bridge fast enough so you must rely on removal packages and aggression. Goodluck in your burn matchups! They can be quite 50/50 G1 not knowing what your opponent is on.
I know I am late for this response but wanted to say I hope it went well, and always consider playing something you are familiar with and understand the ins-and-outs! This rewards players much more then making last minute changes. Only when firmly comfortable with the deck would I recommend last minute changes. For the record, I cannot decide if I like Light up the Stage, and still cannot. I feel it may be the bait card like Sarkhan was a few sets back.
Great question, and I believe this is opinionated a touch between the community, it will also rely on your build and how you are approaching the meta. I'll break it down to three versions you could run, and then give from the "Classic" list what the matchups that are bad are.
Aggro List: Includes 6+ Rabblemasters and sometimes Eidolons in the Main. May consider Pia & Kiran or Hazoret and may go the extra mile with an additional one or a Koth. This list tends to lack a bit of removal for more power, and will be suited for Control, Burn, and Jund metas, though Jund may still give the creature dense list a run for its money.
Control List: This list will favor a heavy reliance on the planeswalker kill. It will possibly run the x4 Rabble but that would be it for creatures. It may choose to try and play something sneakier like Trinisphere or more sweepers. This list will do well in Creature/Midrange type of metas.
Classic List: Balances Moons/Locks/Creatures/Walkers. This is what we call the 50/50 and sometimes suffers from the "Drawing the wrong side of the deck" however with an appropriate sideboard G2/G3 should be well tuned and G1 should challenge Greedy Manabases. It will suffer to Combo drastically at times. This one is well suited for a GP or Large event, due to a more 'balanced' approach and the 'unknown' meta.
What are the bad matchups?
What are the good matchups?
Wow that's a lot of bad matchups? So what is good and why?
Other decks not listed? Either more 50/50 based, or just something I haven't thought of.
I'm sorry to report that Modern is not like Legacy. I'll try 3-ball (Trinisphere) from time to time, but I'll shelve that one. It may be decent against Pheonix and that would be about it. If your FNM meta is Pheonix all night, slam it in the main, if it is not leave little 3-ball at home.
Thank you
As a final note (I'll have a follow up at some point), but I think the deck list is decent and solves a problem or two that we have while hurting other matchups. My prime example is the lack of Eidolon of the Great Revel - missing from Storm based or "Multi-spell" decks. The pro of the deck, man Dredge just dies when you slam Leyline, and the combo of Chandra and Liliana is bone chilling and maybe more powerful in some cases then Jace and Teferi.
I'll have more in a future post, it is dinner, but look for the 5-0 lists from Competitive League tomorrow (Tuesday posting).
Ratios of Lands, Ramp Spells (Fast Mana for us), and your CMC overall is critical to determining if you want to be running whatever combination of these cards. Hypergeometric Distribution Calculators can start to help you understand this and can be found at the link below. Channel fireball also talked about optimal lands and percentage points of how many to play when wanting to curve out. Links below for some... not so light reading
https://stattrek.com/online-calculator/hypergeometric.aspx < One version there are others online, or you can do the awesome calculations yourself!
https://www.channelfireball.com/articles/how-many-lands-do-you-need-to-consistently-hit-your-land-drops/
Unfortunately for such a matchup, I would argue you just concede unless they have less cards then you do in the deck, in which case you can just work to prevent them from beating you. In paper you can simply count cards in deck and make them aware of this as your win condition now. Online just play quickly if you see you have more cards. This allows you to see another win condition, and if they have one other then a 'hard lock' - You have no obligation to scoop to a deck you believe has no win condition.
As far as true answers, considering both of these are in the "Enchantment" spectrum.
https://scryfall.com/search?as=grid&order=name&q=oracle:enchantment color=R legal:modern
You'll see in the search I am searching for Red, Modern Legal, with cards that have "Enchantmnet" in the rule text. Obviously "Wear and Tear" does not show, which could be an out if you are dabbling with the concept of "White Pyro" which has been discussed very briefly in our discord. The White strictly for things like Rest in Peace (and the ability to cast if to avoid needing to play Leyline of the Void and hoping to spike in the opener).
Otherwise, we just don't have anything for it :(. Ratchet Bomb could be used if you are able to have it in the opener, and get it to 3 before a Solemnity shows up. If it is a local meta deck then I would actually advise you to splash a color. At a large GP I can't say you'd see this deck archtype that often.
Keep in mind analysis like this was done at the beginning of the year on the percentages of our lock pieces and their impact on the meta. During that time for example Grixis Death Shadow was about "Aggro Death Shadow" and attempted to pump and drill out everything on CMC 1. They've since added Gurmag Angler, K-Commands, and other cards that are not so hampered by Chalice on 1. Onto the listing:
Reference: https://www.reddit.com/r/ModernMagic/comments/a2fibe/scg_baltimore_open_day_2_metagame_breakdown/
[Good] 62 (43.7%) - Defined as a matchup that should be favorable
[50/50] 29 (20.4%) - Defined as a matchup that is likely to go 1 and 1 based on who is on the draw (leaving G1 up to who's on draw and 'if you have the right half of deck in the hand')
[Poor] 51 (35.9%) - Defined as a matchup that we likely lose in a Best of 3.
[Total] 142
[Good] Bant Spirits – 14
[50/50] Tron – 13
[Poor] KCI – 11
[Good] Humans – 9
[Good] Infect – 9
[Poor] Hardened Scales – 9
[Poor] UR Arclight Phoenix – 8
[50/50] Burn – 7
[Poor] Jund – 5
[Good] Jeskai Control – 5
[Good] Grixis Death’s Shadow – 4
[50/50] Hollow One – 4
[Poor] Dredge – 4
[Poor] BG Midrange – 3
[Poor] UW Control – 3
[Good] Storm – 3
[Good] Runaway Red – 3
[Poor] Colorless Eldrazi – 3
[Good] Bogles – 3
[Good] Titan Shift – 2
[Good] Amulet Titan – 2
[Poor] Counters Company – 2
[Good] Martyr Proc – 2
[Good] Elves – 2
[50/50] Mardu Pyromancer – 2
[50/50] Mono-Red Hollow One (Arclight One) – 1
[50/50] Mono-Red Phoenix – 1
[Good] UW Spirits – 1
[Good] Grixis Whir – 1
[Poor] Titan Breach – 1
[50/50] Jeskai Saheeli – 1
[Good] Slivers – 1
[Good] Allies – 1
[Poor] Jund Death’s Shadow – 1
[Poor] GW Company – 1
Skia_AoP asks about Legion Warboss. What I've recently proposed in the discord and will note it here is that can we 'make our poor matchups' better G1 in the event we hit the matchup lottery and find ourselves across from them. Stickballruss will tell you that Warboss is just bad in the matchpus its bad in... which I'll say is true for any card. So what are we looking at? Luckily the individual on reddit has helped us by keeping the decks in largest to smallest. What do we have:
[50/50] Tron – 13
[Poor] KCI – 11
Both of these matchups would favor Legion Warboss in. Having more in Game 1 and starting there leans us more likely to draw threats, close the game out, and not lose to G1.
[Good] Bant Spirits – 14
[Good] Humans – 9
Both of these matchups are awful for Warboss and Rabblemaster. That being said our lock pieces are extremely strong I am tending towards favoring 'losing G1 to bring in more powerful hate cards G2 and G3' and put my percentage points towards the other two decks.
This same logic can be applied and evaluated across your local meta. So is Pyro Prison bad?
YES! - We're only good against 43% of the meta!
No! - We're only bad to 35% of the meta!
The real answer? My local meta is "All Jund" is Pyro Prison great? No... sorry, it is tough, but what can you do? You can play a list tuned for Jund. Play spellskite, play a welding jar if you like, be pre-boarded, heck locally you may keep Chalice completely out and go for eidolons. This is what I encourage a lot of people to do. I know this is not the 'pretty side' of magic, but this is also part of this deck.
If your local meta is all spirits... I'd probably put Torpor Orb in the main. "But its bad against ____" ... yes and you're hedging your bet because you just told me you have 6 Spirit players and 1 human at your local FNM of 20 people. You just main decked a answer to 1/3 of the field, I'm good with that blind on G1.
This is how we evalute the game. Right now I'd put Pyro Prison a bit of an underdog as "Red is King" in Modern at the moment. Does this mean drop Blood Moon? Take a look at decks 1,2,3,4,5,8,9,10,11 <<< I want blood moon (For those not wanting to scroll up, Bant Spirits, Tron, KCI, Humans, Infect, Burn, Jund, Jeskai Control, Grixis Death's Shadow).
Just some thoughts =)
Hello Mountainfolk!
We do not have set of games to talk about, but more a perception of the format as we've shifted out of modern season and into a quieter time but with some very impactful cards coming out of Guilds of Ravnica. I always personally had high hopes for sets like these, and this one has delivered but has not left us without a toy or two to play with. I believe now is a perfect time to begin talking about February/March Modern versus Today's modern, and there is an interesting deck that "Disappeared" and is "Reappearing" which we are happy to see. So what is happening?
History
Back at the beginning of 2018, GDS, Humans, and Hollow One were the busted decks of the format. After a Pro Tour where we saw a seemingly "Random" deck dominate, and people talking about "How can drawing then randomly discarding be effective?" and "Are we Hearthstone now?" as the Memes poured in we sat quietly as the primary counter to the three main decks of the format. There were many others trying to do things but let us focus on these. We had Chalice on 1 for GDS, and we had Bridge for all three. We had Blood Moon for the excessively greedy Humans, and we felt these were actually our three best matchups. So why does this matter?
Today
Guilds of Ravnica has brought us many toys, and there are certainly a range of decks that we are poised against. As always many people ask "Is Blood Moon" good enough in a meta where lots of decks run it. Absolutely. Take a look at the top 8 from this weekends Challenge. You'll notice that we actually would prefer to have Blood Moon in for 5/8 as the full 4 of, and then for two of those perhaps a cut or so. The only deck that is a maybe to actually fully pull Blood Moon out for is Gifts Storm. Check, Blood Moon looking good (btw the Top 8 did not include Dredge, which is another matchup we want it in, and the title of this post).
Chalice - how we looking? I've been told time and time again "Chalice is too slow, terrible, bad in the format." What a lot of people are referencing here is that there are multiples of things like Abrade, Kolaghan's Command, ETB Creatures that Destroy Artifacts, etc floating around. Certainly this is true. What people don't realize is that Chalice is our delay of the game, like a blue deck runs a counter, our chalice actually stops some opponents from playing cards. During Bridgevine days I ran the numbers, a Chalice on 1 hit 22 cards (not including the playset of walking ballista and playset of hangerback walkers which are played on 0 for Bridge from Below shenangigans). Chalice may die, it may be a speed bump, but it certainly is fine in the format.
Bridge - are there enough creatures? Absolutely. Although some may be starting to pack main deck ways to deal with bridge 5/8 top 8 decks care about bridge, two of which historically struggle to have a maindeck answer. Ironically the many creatures makes 8 rabble look bad, so why are we playing it?
Why Play 8-Rabble?
I've been playing a variety of lists. I won't claim to really pick any for my own, until now. I know others have probably provided an 8-rabble list, I won't say it is anything stellar, however, my reasoning may be quite different then others, so here's the claim. Let us take the example of Humans or GDS. Both of these are "Slam Dunks" in the sense I would call them a heavy favorite in our direction. Both of these matchups tend to go our way, and even on the sideboard plan their number of cards for hate is not enough to overwhelm our cards that can lock them. In this, I will drop my chances game 1 with utility cards to have a more explosive package which actually can cost me games 1 against these decks. So what? Let's look at the other side of the spectrum, G-Tron and UW Control - These matchups are difficult game 1 in old lists. This is due to the nature of us being a 50/50 deck. With these decks I want all 3 games if need be, and we need to be good all 3 games. So the aggro package is almost all there. We bring in a touch more to strengthen Games 2/3 but the hope here is we're ahead by going into Game 2. As such the list below is slanted in favor of trying to win the bad matchups game 1 and rely on the good matchups being able to close them out games 2/3 if necessary. So the list below displays this.
Graveyard - Ravenous Trap
There are a variety of people who have named this card as good, but I'll give a shout out to Stickballruss particularly. I was playing with Leyline of the Void a lot, and seeing what other cards to bring in (from black) to deal with Dredge. We've actually found a more interesting card. Let's look at Hollow One, Dredge, and Storm. All bring in things like "Nature's Claim", "Wipe Away", "Ancient Grudge" - etc. These hit artifacts and enchantments. These are hitting our Blood Moons, Leyline of the Void, Grafdigger's Cages, etc. We must draw our threat, but we must have it stick. We have an awkward interaction sometimes with our Chalices also. So the question is "When do we care about the graveyard" and in many times it is when the graveyard is about to do something too far reaching. Ironically for all these decks, that usually results in a faithless looting, a gifts ungiven, a dredging of a large creature, or having ritualed out many times and about to past in flames. - These all drop 3+ cards into the graveyard, and this is where Ravenous Trap can be triggered.
Give it a shot. Or... check a clip out, and I'll let the idea marinate.
https://clips.twitch.tv/InexpensiveSarcasticCormorantPMSTwin
4 Blood Moon
4 Ensnaring Bridge
4 Chalice of the Void
Low End Win Con:
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
4 Legion Warboss
4 Desperate Ritual
1 Pyretic Ritual
4 Simian Spirit Guid
High End Finishers:
4 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
1 Hazoret the Fervent
1 Avaricious Dragon
2 Abrade
2 Slagstorm
Mana:
3 Gemstone Caverns
1 Scavenger Grounds
1 Mutavault
16 Mountain
4 Anger of the Gods
3 Eidolon of the Great Revel
1 Abrade
1 Damping Matrix
2 Torpor Orb
1 Grafdigger's Cage
Recent Modern Challenge 11/11 (Top 32)
I've been looking at the possibility of playing what I call "Inverted Pyro Prison" - I won't really talk about deck lists here but to spin up a conversation on the forums (versus our discord) I wanted to propose the concept here. I think I can take data from earlier this year as reference and then apply to what we are seeing with the current meta-shifts as we approach Q4 2018.
Concept of "Invert Pyro Prison"
- There is actually nothing fancy, it is a re-evaluation of our 75. I've joked that we are the "Pre-boarded" deck, and so the question is always "What is the highest percentage of decks we will see, and how do we set up the 60 to beat them?"
- Invert takes this a slightly different route. Instead of looking at meta % points and trying to game G1 against my opponents, I actually try to 'give myself the best chance across 3 games' - What does this mean?
Matchups that are deemed unfavorable we need the best edge game 1.
Matchups that are deemed favorable we can lose percentage points game 1 for extremly powerful game 2 and game 3.
What do I mean by this?
Early 2018 - Hollow One, Humans, and Grixis Death Shadow - Were almost in the sense "Free Wins" a Blood Moon ruined these, and Bridge was basically an ace in the hole game 1. Game 2 you knew which two puzzle pieces you needed and could easily clean these up. So when you go to sideboard there was not much to grab, not much to add, usually 4 came out and 4 went in and you were just like "Yep lets go."
UW Control, Ad Nauseum, KCI - These matchups were difficult. We'd struggle not having "Quite enough pressure" game 1, and then usually are down a game trying to win games 2 and 3. We bring in silver bullets or more aggression, but now we're flipping a coin on 2 games, and the matchup still could be difficult.
So what would you change back in Early 2018? We talk about "Silver Bullets" in our sideboards, but in essence of a "Toolbox Deck" which contains silver bullets in the main, how do we - A Non Searching Deck - do this? We rely on card filter if possible, and we adjust the utility of our creatures and cards in order to compensate by putting our silver bullets to the sideboard and utilizing them for games 2 and 3. What would this look like?
Example
Ensnaring Bridge is exceptionally good against these favorable matchups. The question being do we need all 4 in the main? Blood Moon was also reasonable as was chalice. I joked about having the "12 Lock Pieces" when I present decks, so how do we shave the lock piece in favor of either bringing in the power G2/G3 or vice versa?
Right now I'm playing with Sarkhan Again, which ironically is just 'too slow' in the meta, and then I'm bringing back Glorybringer. A lot of matchups we're losing due to not having enough power, or not being able to remove enough creatures. So why not attempt both? We shave some Ensnaring bridge, and a fast Sarkhan is theroetically helping to find that 1 bridge. G1 against many decks you'll find redundant bridges are "Great" but in many cases not necessary because your opponent does not have THEIR silver bullets. So this got me thinking to slide ourselves in the spectrum closer to Skred Red. What does this look like, we're not sure but we're trying things.
Your thoughts would be appreciated. As of right now I am trying x3 Sarkhan, x3 Glorybringer, x1 Stormbreath, sometimes x2 Hazoret, and shaving some 'utility' but also shaving some of our lock. It is interesting. Results are still pending, but what do people think?
I don't go to FNM but online I have played against it a fair amount of times. It literally just hits everything that Abrupt Decay did previously. Yes on occasion it has hit a Chandra but the decks running it normally ran 2 Maelstrom Pulses anyway. With this idea when you run multiple Bridges out for example you are normally in better shape. Problem is they are likely still running a 1-of Maelstrom Pulse.
Worst card still remains to be Liliana of the Veil in the BGx decks, along with the quickness that a Tarmogoyf kills us because we offer more the average number of card types to end up in the graveyard.
I think the reason to consider Massive Raid is it is a burn spell to face. Skred is strictly a control removal card, and that is not exactly where this deck lies. The deck lies in the pivot and proactive/aggressive side of Prison. I wouldn't necessarily say it is a good card, but that is why it differs from Skred.
List looks fairly stock to me. I'd probably consider something different then Cratermaker and Bonfire personally but it is always worth seeing what your local meta is doing and what you like to play. List is fairly stock though =)
Edit: Also OMG Raystack with the post :O!!!!
Gonna read it through cause I've actually hit a pocket since GRN went live with doing... sorta bad (yet going one solid flawless 5-0 in Friendly leagues...) It is weird cause people are trying things at the moment, as am I.
Congrats on your breakthrough! It is always a great feeling. Glad that you were able to attain something Storm could not give you! =) Welcome!
Thanks for the words and glad you are enjoying the stream!
Ahh Tron. Honestly, our best plans here are Aggro, and beat them out before a Karn. As an example Blood Moon doesn't even shut this plan out due to the inevitability of simply drawing 7 lands. Although the plan is decent (Bridge in for these big haymakers) we will simply lose to Karn, Ugin, Ulamog, Worldbreaker. Because of all of these threats our Bridges will need to be multiples, and we're basically asking for Blood Moon, Bridge, Spyglass, and then hoping they never get to 10 mana and cast an Ulamog as that will just ruin our day. This is a very reactive strategy and not what Pyro Prison is about. Indeed a late Eidolon is not the greatest top deck, but a late bridge really is not doing anything either (let's keep in mind Walking Ballista is also played which simply just gets around our bridge).
The reason we bring these in is not to top deck them late. In an opener against Tron you are looking for an aggressive piece to deploy on T1/T2 with a Blood Moon. You will want to run your Blood Moon out actually to avoid things.
Note, Eidolon unfortunately takes a [card]Nature's Claim[card] frequently, which is also a card against Bridge and against Moon. Although giving them more targets for this card we don't necessairly want to simply be on this plan. Tron many forget cantrips frequently into their answers. An Eidolon down on T1 will normally net you approximately 6 dmg (Map + Attacks; Star + Ancient + Attack; Ancient + Sylvan Scrying + Attack) are examples. This 6 damage plus a rabble or even Blood Moon + Chandra puts them at a nice 14 life. Two activations with Chandra = 10 and we are within that "10 range" which is 2 emblem shots with Chandra, 2 Swings with Hazoret, or very close to 2 swings with Koth. Being behind a Bridge slows all these options down.
You also have Shattering Spree and Abrade. These can knock off O-stone but also can take out Wurmcoil preventing life gain to allow you to swing in the following turn. There are different lines such as they attack in you block with Eidolon and shoot your Eidolon so they do not get a 3/3 life link to defend an aggressive rabblemaster etc.
If we play passively, we need to guarantee Koth/Chandra Emblem to win, and that has to be quick.
Match 1: Jeskai 0-2
Match 2: GDS 2-0
Match 3: 8-Whack 2-0
Match 4: Tron 1-2
Match 5: UW Spirits 2-1
Match 6: Burn 2-0
Match 7: Mill 2-0
Match 8: KCI 2-0
Match 9: Humans 1-2
Overall: 6-3
The real short of it was Jeskai deck I got 0 lands, drew tons of lands game two.
GDS - Chalice on 1; Game 2: Didn't respect Blood Moon
8-Whack: Chalice on 1 (got a 'lol'); Game 2: Chalice on 1
Tron: Was a strange match. It involved my opponent mulling, and us duking it out with Walking Ballistas... The match eventually went to the 3rd game and a loss but this one was close.
UW Spirits: As you'd expect, one game I win from behind a bridge, another game they pump stuff out fast enough, and last game behind bridge.
Burn: Chalices do work both games, and in game two when I got chalice on 1 and 2 I then flood the board with rabblemasters.
Mill: Game 1 was close but Hazoret or Koth (can't remember) take this one. Game 2 is a no-content with chalices and appropriately being fast enough.
KCI: This was a Chalice on 1 game 1 with a rabblemaster right after. Game 2 was a Rabblemaster and Chalice on 0 (opponent did not play their Mox Opal) and results in a quick win with a Slagstorm to the face.
Humans: Game 1 was cake, game 2 lost after T1 blood moon and my opponent played (first) Noble, into Avacyn Pilgrim. Game 3 they took my bridge but I got it back, but not before taking a heft attack from Anazfenz the Foremost... It was a weird build to say the least.
And that is the wrap! I took 51st out of 354 people with a record of 6-3.
Yep we are certainly experimenting with it. UW Miracles needs to draw their cards to miracle, and also usually attempts to gain advantages. You can actually get through their counter magic when the rest of it sits in exile from draws. Aether Vial and Uba mask also do not get along, as cards never make it to their hand. Blood Moon + Uba Mask against say Humans can do odd things, as it can also against Wx taxes lists. It is still in experimentation phase but it does some strange things for sure and can have very nice effects on the game.