"Pillow Fort" is the name given to white enchantment based prison decks that aim to lock the opponent out of the game, before delivering a coup-de-grace or getting the opponent to scoop when they acknowledge that they have no way to win. It is a prison deck, i.e. one that stops the opposition playing not by destroying and countering but by putting permanents down that slowly reduce the opponent's ability to do anything. Like many Modern prison deck it is not tier one. Wizards does not really like this type of deck, primarily because newer players, especially those who have less idea about conceding the game, have been found to dislike such strategies. That said these decks can be effective, taking down the odd SCG type event from time to time, and certainly having enough to take down a PPTQ or FNM.
Other prison decks in the format include Lantern Control, Skred Red, 8 rack and various RW lockdown decks. However, decks such as Martyr Proc, Deathcloud, Blue Moon and even Norrin/Martyr decks retain strong prison elements whilst not being out-and-out prison decks. The closest deck to Pillow-Fort is Enduring Ideal, which uses a similar core of cards in the early game but wins via the namesake card taking over the late game.
In this primer a large number of parts are hidden under spoilers in order to make it reasonable length. If you are familiar with the deck then this should make it easier to find the bits you are looking for without trawling through stuff you already know. Please note that I have tried to avoid duplicating stuff in this primer, so the sections entitled "Card Choices" won't be extensive as much of the material is covered elsewhere in the appropriate sections such as "Win-Cons".
So why would you want to play this deck? Good question. Firstly, let us deal with the reason some people may give for not playing the deck- the lack of interaction issue. This might seem like a odd thing to say about a prison deck, but games vs. removal heavy decks can be very swingy and interactive, and have a lot of decisions in them on both sides. For some players playing constructed Magic is not about turning creatures sideways and launching a bunch of burn spells. There will be some players who feel they did not get to play Magic after a match with you, especially if they only turn creatures sideways like a Merfolk or Token deck. The "I did not play Magic" feeling is pretty much how players felt when being Remand/Exarch/Twinned too, and strangely enough t3 Karn does not feel like much of a match either. Whatever happens our deck gives the opponent chances to play lots of spells, which is more than can be said for a few decks in the format.
The biggest issue with this deck in terms of frustrated players is that finishing the game is more prolonged than Legacy prison decks, and newer players often do not know when to sweep, which can lead them to sitting there for a while doing nothing. Whilst Legacy prison decks can finish a game quickly with a Helm/Rest in Peace combo, a Marit Lage, host of 4/4 Angels or even the odd hard Waste-lock, we don't get that luxury, and that can lead to the odd player, especially newer ones, feeling hard done by. That is unfortunate, just try to be empathetic to them if they are new.
Reasons to play this type of deck are wide ranging and may include novelty, the chance to use pet cards that can't see place elsewhere, the desire to hark back to days gone past where creatures were not everything, and perhaps most importantly the ability to deck-build without all the best cards being known as they are in Jund, for example. It is a brewer's delight, and there is almost an EDH feel to a deck that legitimately asks "Can you pay 15 to attack?" the turn after they get to 14 mana. Another reason is that it has some exceptionally favourable matches, and does well against a few top tier decks, so that it might just take down your local "win a Goyf" or FNM event. So, get brewing. And remember, it is now 25 to attack.....:)
A final note about running this deck locally and the "hate issue". We are easy to hate out- Back to Nature and Fracturing Gust are obscene against us. Neither card gets much play but if you want to turn up to FNM weekly or even monthly and play this deck time-and-time again expect reprisals. As a deck that relies on a single card type this is always going to be a problem- ask a local FNM Affinity player and you will see what I mean. My recommendation is to get more than one deck if you only want to run this in small metas, preferably one without too many enchantments.
W Winning:W
Assuming the deck does not win via scooping, the deck has a few choices of wincons.
W Enchantment based wincons:W
He is big, indestructible, and makes men that are enchantments that can block and more importantly make Sphere of Safety obscene. With or without Nykthos mana this guy can get out of hand quickly.
One especially great trick with him is to Wrath of God and swing for 5. A second and nastier idea is the lock with Porphyry Nodes .Nodes eats the smallest powered critter on your upkeep, regardless of Hexproof, and with Heliod around is basically a death sentence for everything below 6 power. Nodes never goes away as Heliod is always present. Heliod is a creature of course, and this format can deal with creatures, Heliod being especially vulnerable to Path to Exile or any bounce effect.
This vulnerability to common spot removal spells explains why Greater Auramancy is a genuinely maindeckable choice.
The minus two ability of Liliana of the Veil is also a problem if Heliod has not made any men, although a Leyline of Sanctity or Halo set to Liliana will stop this from happening.
Most importantly for us burn and destroy effects don't touch him, however, and there are almost no common -x-x abilities that can deal with a 5/6, so as your enchantment defenses grow Heliod becomes increasingly hard to deal with.
The other Gods all present similar types of benefits, and whilst squeezing Keranos in sounds lovely, the mana base would be stretched if we refrain from fetches ourselves. Most of the others offer less value than Heliod, but are still nonetheless reasonable options.
For five mana you get to make effectively uncounterable 4/4 Angels (unless you hit triggered abilities) every time you cast a defensive piece. That is a pretty fair deal in anyone's language, especially in a flying-light format. Casting Wrath of God is no issue when our army is replaceable with the next couple of enchantments, whilst 4/4 flyers are respectable blockers. The biggest issue with this card is the cost- at five mana the time walk you get if it is Remanded can be lethal, whilst five man means that it won't be doing much until t6 unless Nykthos mana gets lucky. Compared to Heliod, who is often active the turn he is dropped, Sigil can seem expensive. That said most wincons in our list are expensive, and Remanding most of them can hurt or it can do nothing depending on how our other defences line up.
This is a one mana more expensive Opalescence with an upside- apart from the fact that it is Modern legal, that is. The upside is that it is a re-animation mechanism, thus doubling as a control card and wincon simultaneously.
This card is probably the best Theros themed enchantment card despite not actually being in Theros block. Using this card does present us with some issues, however. Firstly, switching on the team is an issue in itself- often making our own mass removal unattractive, and making theirs potentially game winning. In the case of a single enchantment keeping their deck from working, such as a Leyine or Runed Halo stopping a Scapeshift , there is little more depressing than watching your Greater Auramancy biting a bolt, followed by Bolt/Snappy on the bolt to make Leyline of Sanctity disappear for the turn they need to combo. Dropping Starfield early in order to abuse the re-animation effect can backfire if you end up trying to not switch your team on. The reanimation is optional of course, and can provide an infinite blocker, so it is not to be sniffed at. Personally I love this card, but I feel it is best when it is cast to win the game there and then, making it feel situational. Enduring Ideal certainly likes this card- the ability to search stuff out making it a superb one of. We do not get as much luxurious card selection, and so care needs to be taken when using and playing with this one.
Probably the original wincon in decks like this, it has been somewhat replaced by more modern options in some lists, at least in terms of the main deck.1
The problem with the card is twofold- firstly it comes down turn two and does nothing against some decks that can just chip away. Secondly our second turn is a pretty huge turn- we need something down before t3- and given the choice it is normally better to get down other options. For example..... Runed Halo Suppression Field
Or Luminarch.
Well here there are a number of decks where the optimal play will be Halo or Field. Vs. Living End, Melira Combos, Scapeshift, Ad Nauseam or most fetch heavy decks the Field is often life saving turn 2. Vs aggro and Burn decks the Halo shines on that second turn. So given the choice the Ascension won't be cast t2 a lot of the time, and for a card that takes a while to kick in that says something.
The later this card comes down the worse it is. It can work, and shines against some decks when it can make an end of turn game winning army that would do Miracles proud, let alone Modern decks. Its main upside is that it can be slipped down t2. That said I would personally not use it main deck very often. As a sideboard option it shines, a great card vs any deck that does not deal damage early- control decks, tron etc.
This might seem a little crazy, because it is.
Karma is a card barely remembered, a relic from the days of real colour hosing. It costs 4, and against a normal fetch/shock-heavy W,B, G deck will kill them in about 3-4 turns if dropped mid-game. The reason we don't see more of it in sideboards is simple- when was the last time you saw mono-black, or even "Rock" at any table, top or otherwise? The card is still powerful in a vacuum, but compared to anti Island tech like Choke it does not see much play. That is where Urborg comes in, turning the card into a super Primal Order for every land.
The obvious downside- that it kills us- can be mitigated by our staple card Runed Halo or even Story Circle .
Of course they can kill Karma, but it is Abrupt Decay proof, and will not die to the swathes of targeted critter kill. Their answer has to be pretty quick, and for good measure the damage can be redirected to planeswalkers. This might sound like crazy Christmas land, but it actually got itself included as a transformational sideboard plan in a 3rd place deck at a 1K event. Not sure I would ever want to play it as the full on game plan, but as a way of increasing win cons from the board it seems reasonable.
This is the premier wincon in RW lockdown decks using Ensnaring Bridge . The main thing about those decks is they can't attack with anything greater than a 1/1, hence ATL is the non-burn kill card of choice. That benefit is largely absent here, although the interaction with Wrath is as sweet as ever- blow ten of my guys away, wipe your guys out, next turn- swing for ten. The triangular number pattern of soldiers is obscene. The card is very good, although for the same cost you could use Sigil above and produce slightly beefier threats, although ATL comes without the need to cast fresh enchantments after a board wipe. IF you splash artifacts for an Ensnaring Bridge ATL is the way to go.
and
These make for a powerful combo, normally seen in Enduring Ideal. Without selection the Unlife is decent by itself game one vs a chunk of the field. Remember that swinging for a million won't kill you until the next swing, but which time the Form will reset your life total. To be honest the combo is fine, it can be included and against aggro decks the Unlife does work by itself, so it only really costs you one dead card. Against control decks if I am going to have 8 mana then Obliterate will win the game for you damn near on the spot, though. You will get to high mana often with this deck, and this combo will win the game, but the combos and single card wincons above offer more in their own right, with each piece doing something by itself- e.g. Heliod.
Helix Pinnacle is a possibility if you want to get creative and have time on your hands.
It has a measure of self-protection- Abrupt Decay, Reclamation Sage et al. can't touch it.
Nykthos Mana can make it a reasonable win con. That said in itself it does nothing other than add to the enchantment count for sphere, and when you are 1-1 with ten on the clock this is not going to be winning it for you, unlike our fast beating Heliod or a Karma type damage card. Barren Glory is even more insane in a permanent based prison deck, effectively being counter intuitive with the idea of a prison. The prison would have to be instant based and have sac options like Claws of Gix . Does not sound possible to me, but others may have different ideas. Near-Death Experience has a chunk of potential- if you like living dangerously. Phyrexian Unlife, and Leylines might back this one up along with the usual taxes, making it a possible with pain lands to control life.
Hondens, such as Honden of Infinite Rage synergise to produce some ridiculous effects. the problem is that they require multi-mana and are quite expensive for what they are. If there were two mana Shrines to go in there these could become very powerful. As it is they are unlikely to be troubling the top tables. even at FNM, although both the red or white ones represent very decent effects.
These are basically all crazy off the wall win cons that are enchantment based. Fundamentally these are harder to work than the one card combo "good cards" listed above, in that they can't make threats/blockers. That said, if you like brewing, and are after more deck creation than Deck Creation normally offers, well these might be your guys, eh?
W Other wincons:W
Basically any planeswalker with a decent ability or two could be used in this deck, with the ability to protect itself being highly desirable.
Two issues exist with the use of planeswalkers. Firstly, we have a fair few cards that prevent damage to us but only Sphere of Safety prevents attacks against planeswalkers. Ghostly Prison, Runed Halo and Story Circle/COP type cards don't ever protect our planeswalkers.
If you do go down the planeswalker route it pretty much rules out using Suppression Field , one of our better t2 plays that inhibits everything from infinite Melira style sac combos, Kiki, Fetches, opposing Planeswalkers, Equipment and even Lightning Storm in Ad Nauseam.
Another consideration is that a large number of Planeswalkers have a very specific set of abilities, and several relate directly to creatures, of which we have none. Liliana is the sort of controlling planeswalker we would like but at double B it is not going to be easy.
If you do plump for the Planeswalker route then Gideon Jura and Elspeth, Knight Errant are two of the older and better planeswalkers who fit in well with some aspects of our plan and offering some measure of protection for themselves.
There are many potential walkers. Here are just some.
Manlands and lands that generate men offer a fair deal to a deck that stalls and wipes the board a lot. Suppression Field is again antagonistic with man-lands, although we can benefit from Nykthos mana and go long so in the later part of the game it is less of an issue. I personally don't rate too many of these- our coloured mana is important, and when it comes to tapped lands in a deck with some binary cards like ours scrying from Temples is probably more important than the odd chump or post-Wrath beat. Mutavault offers the ability to do 2 damage for just 1 mana activation, and can block Etched Champion, although that is only a minor consideration given our likely Runed Halos. Celestial Colonnade offers a great body and evasion, although limits us to a blue splash and we are limited when it comes to CIP tapped (ETB tapped for all you youngsters). I would probably run a copy or two of this in a blue splash shell. Forbidding Watchtower - an overlooked card that provides a very defensive body at a reasonable cost, although it is less of a wincon and more of a blocker. That said CIP tapped is again a huge drawback. Blinkmoth Nexus . Psuedo-mini Mutavaults that fly. Keldon Megaliths. Slow but can shoot Mana Dorks, players (and thus Planeswalkers) and Bobs. Its great apart from the fact that we are sometimes just too slow as it is, and not producing white can be an issue in our deck.
We really don't want to be dabbling in critters, unless they are enchantments as well that gain protection from Greater Auramancy and synergise with Sphere of Safety. If we do run them their power is often secondary to their main abilities and their status enchantments, and including them switches on creature-only kills like Terminate, but in the case of, say, Courser of Kruphix it should replace itself. One thing to remember is Fetch-Courser synergy is again limited if we use Suppression Field, although it does work well with Temples.
The ability of the Eidolon of Rhetoric is very powerful vs a narrow range of decks- cascade based Living End and Restore Balance, Storm, Ad Nauseam and decks like Tron that cycle through to get what they want. For that reason its a good board card, especially with the 4 toughness making it a reasonably priced blocker.
Other off-the-wall wincons that could work without attacking and if you could protect them include cards such as Azor's Elocutors
and Felidar Sovereign
Neither of these are recommended- fragile and lacking synergy with our other stuff, both could, however, find a home in someone's pet build, but not mine. Sun Titan is a legitimate consideration here, although I personally prefer it in a UW traditional control shell.
The other option is to use Nykthos elements to shove out a huge game ending Eldrazi. Spaghetti monsters, anyone? Emrakul, the Aeons Torn is the poster boy, but some of the smaller mates have some nice control elements in, Ully, Kozy etc. all hit hard.
W The mana base:W
Ideally we look at about 24 lands+/- 1, build depending. The lowest I have seen is 22 lands including 8 scry lands. Normal builds are 24, I have seen 25.
Essential One:
Hey, it is Blood moon Proof too! Does not deal damage and ETB untapped, plus taps for white. Broken!
Essential Two:
This makes Runed Halo and Leyline rather tasty, although the ramp element is not stellar early to mid-game given the nature of our deck, it becomes a nice option to combine Nykthos with Heliod, and mid game allows things like the inclusion of an Eldrazi, should you so wish.
Basically the Scry is our best "free" filtering mechanism. A lack of fetches really helps make this work well. We have many binary cards in our deck, and putting Leyline no 2 or 3 to the bottom on t1 is often the difference between winning and losing. These are uniquely good in Prison decks, where life is valuable and cards are hit and miss and tutoring is non existent, almost. They often feel like spells in this deck. It is one of those truths that is hard to believe, so I simply say "try them." Prison decks are unlike most other decks in the format, and fetch/shocking is the way to lose rapidly.
W Splashing W
Splashing for a color is a great option. White offers the core of the prison, but delving into another colour offers the chance to get stuff from the color pie that helps in some of the weaker matches. Personally I favour Red or Blue and then Green and Black. Blue is for me the best for Enduring Ideal, so given the opportunity I go for Red. If you do splash aim for Temples and shock lands before fetches, unless you have serious reason to use fetches. Fetches might be better, but that pain soon adds up in this deck. Each color offers different options, and these are outlined below.
This offers the ability to deal with land from the board. Crumble to Dust helps solve one of the deck's huge issues- Tron. Blood Moon is main deckable and an enchantment, although works against Nykthos, so perhaps as a one of with a Tutor effect it might work in the right meta. Contrary to popular belief dropping this vs Tron decks normally just delays them, but it can be brutal vs 4 color good stuff decks.
Also on offer are Bolt, Pyroclasm and Helix effects, although these again don't have much synergy with our deck as each one reduces the number of Enchantments, and so an argument can be made for these cards to appear in sideboards.
One card I do wish to mention is a pet one. Obliterate solves an issue with the deck in game 2 and 3 against Red/Blue shell control decks like Twin or Grixis control. Whilst we can often make ourselves immune to creature attack, these decks often eventually take control of the game, chaining Cryptics and Snappies to remove cards like Leyline late game, providing a window for them to finish us off with a Keranos and Bolt fest. Even if they do not they can sometimes get enough mana to keep our threats off the table forever. After it resolves, (and it nearly always resolves) Obliterate leaves us with a huge number of enchantments that become more effective when they have fewer mana resources. Given their reliance on fetches and shocks, by the time they are back in the game they are often dead. Suppression Field is excellent in this situation, as each fetch is not going to be activated till it has two shocks alongside. Even without this you can often get situations when they have just a few "real" lands left in the deck. In short it kills all of their permanents, and leaves us with several. You will note that Heliod is indestructible, and thus can beat straight after. Additionally the card is playable against Tron post board, and also devastating, especially against Blue Tron that can ramp up to mass bounce. For those sceptical, and I do not blame you if you are, I would simply recommend that you try it in the board- like Temples it needs to be seen in action. Outpost Siege is a superb card that is the best thing to happen to RW lockdown decks in ages. That said I don't think it works well for us- we have fewer one-for-ones to reduce damage to us in the early game than most lockdown decks running bolts et al, and without the acceleration of Spirit Guides or Signets the card is slower than we need; our turn four needs to be dropping stuff that slows them.
Red also offers us serious old style color hating such as Boil
as well as some uncounterable Rending Volley action, though pot Twin ban this is less relevant.
Neither red based Gods are going to help us sadly, as their abilities just do not match up. War's toll has been used, being solid vs most control/instant based strategies.
Not a huge amount to see here at first glance but a deeper look shows us hidden options. Thanks to Caspian for giving us his feedback. I have played Green myself and it was much better than I expected.
Green offers some flexibility in terms of spells. Beast within does pretty much everything, for example. Primal Command does a lot for its five mana too, but we really need to be looking at enchantments and not five mana spells. Life from the Loam gives some landkill/card advantage options when combined with grey lands and Horizon Canopies. Kruphix's Insight offers some much needed advantage/filtering, although the cost is a bit high, rather analagous to Idyllic Tutor. Kitchen Finks is a great blocker in the main or board option, and works well with Wrath effects and Nykthos, but does not synergise too much with the rest. If you do start playing with this there is a danger you add in townships et al and before long are just playing an enchantment heavy Rhino deck. Root Maze could be a build around card, but the second, third and fourth copies do nothing, and without filtering will lose us games.
The best reason to play green is Courser of Kruphix - a great blocker that benefits from being an enchantment in terms of Greater Auramancy and Sphere of Safety, it gives us card advantage. Sadly it is double green, but it is excellent.
The Green/White God is one of the more over-costed ones, sadly, and the Green one equally unexciting for us.
Off the wall ideas in green include land kill with Spreading Algae with Urborg, not tried it myself but Caspian, one the forum contributors, has.
Of perhaps most note is the fact that Green has the exceptionally rude Choke , an evil sideboard card that if resolved wins matches.
Blue offers a number of excellent choices, and the best man-land. Monastery Siege is superb in that both modes are highly relevant. Ideal for Enduring Ideal decks that need to hit their signature card it is still a fine option for us. Just be careful to avoid self-decking. Two cards you might want to consider if running this are Wheel of Sun and Moon
and Mistveil Plains
Spreading Seas offers some degree of anti-Tron potential from the board or even main, and bumps up the enchantment count to boot. Maindeckable, it has the potential to hurt a few deck's greedy manabases, draw a card. Copy Enchantment Pretty obviously decent but limited to what you have down, just don't copy Heliod. Detention Sphere . Potentially stronger than O ring, it offers flexibility. Zur's Weirding . A board card that can just be jammed down early against Tron, especially if you run a Ghost Qurter. It could potentially offer a lock with lifegain cards like Peace of Mind , so that they are forced to keep paying 2 life and you are able to keep denying them draws as eventually each card you draw stops 1.5 draws of theirs. As long as you have a Starfield down the effect is a non-issue for you, and at a push any wincon down can be protected by Zur's. That is all a bit Chritmas-land for my liking, although I have used the card in Enduring Ideal boards.
Sadly the White-Blue god, Ephara, is one of the best but its abilities just do not match up. Thassa, God of the Sea is super, although switching her on requires a large blue investment, and probably Spreading Seas.
Blue also offers counters with cards like Condescend , although our deck gets worse the fewer enchantments we play
One cc discard is superficially attractive, although it reduces enchantment counts and means we need t1 black sources, which is hard for us.
Neither black costing Gods look like they match up with our deck, sadly. That leaves us with a black's control spells, none of which offer much outside of Planeswalkers, which we have talked about earlier.
W The coreW
I won't spoiler this as it is fundamental to the deck. If you deviate from these cards you need a very good reason. The win cons offer a lot of wiggle-room and variation, but providing you are using Nykthos you should expect to be using the following, most of them as four ofs apart from maybe the Auramancy.
Leyline of Sanctity - instrumental in protecting from Clique, Liliana's down abilities (Junk/Jund/8 rack), Valakut (Scapeshift), Lightning Storm (Ad Nauseam), Gitaxian Probe (R/U/X decks and Infect), Grapeshot (Storm), 1 cc discard (4 colour good stuff decks, Tokens, Grishoalbrand, Loam Pox), Borborygmos Enraged (Grishoalbrand), Murderous Redcap (Podless pod), Karn's target player ability (Tron), Gifts Ungiven (4 color Gifts/UW Gifts-Tron) and a host of burn spells in R/U/X, Zoo and Burn decks. Also awesome in terms of mana ramping via Nykthos, it is Abrupt Decay proof
Ghostly Prison - do you want to live or not? Resolving this vs a Grxis style deck is great at reducing their countering capabilities, forcing them to attack or counter early on. Stops ANY Kiki-Resto style combos, and destroys token decks, hurts Living End, Dredge and Merfolk decks that can go wide, it is a serious roadbump for aggro including affinity and it's Signal Pests. Rubbish vs Trons, Jeskai combo and Ad Nauseam, not enough vs Elves.
Sphere of Safety . Just insanely good vs every critter deck, from making them pay an extra 2 or 4 to attack you with Ghostly Prisons you goes to making them pay 6,7,8 very rapidly, and then often far onwards of that to the realms of 20+ to attack with a pair of them.
Runed Halo . Strong two drop, normally a 4 of. It can name Liliana, Gifts or Valakut to act as a Leyline or can name a card with imminent board presence,say a Goyf, Insectile Aberation, or my favorite Eidolon of the Great Revel. Super with Nythos for getting that extra t4/5 mana.
Greater Auramancy Essential at keeping our stuff down, a pair give everything enchantment-based Shroud. I would not recommend less than two. Especially strong if you use creature enchantments.
W The Highly Recommended White Enchantment OptionsW
Again I will not hide this. These are the strongly recommended options, not all are four ofs but they all deserve serious consideration.
Nevermore . Awesome vs linear decks like Ad Nauseam (naming Ad Nauseam), Grishoalbrand (Goryo's, Through the breach) or Jeskai Ascendancy. It is very solid vs decks that need to resolve a bounce spell to beat your Leyline, and very strong vs Co-Co style decks, it is a skill rewarding card. It can be very binary, especially against decks like Lantern Control, but it is rarely dead. Yes there will be times when you name a chord and they Co-Co for what they want or vice versa.
I will be honest I was never that impressed till I tried it, and it made such a difference in certain matches that I would not play less than 3 in the 75, with two main minimum. In local metas it becomes more important- if you know the Elf player runs Fracturing Gust in the board, for example. It can act as a lock piece or as protection for your key lock pieces.
Oblivion Ring Removable removal is not where we want to be but this often fills a slot or two as it deals with almost anything.
and Banishing Light Oblivion Ring mark 2 for those playing in environs where echoing truth is common.
Porphyr Nodes An auto 4 of in Heliod builds, period, and in a few others to boot. This almost made it into the core section but some decks that splash may chose not to run it at 4 copies.
Rest in Peace All star board card, maindeckable given the Delve-, 'Goyf-, Knight of the Reliquary- and Snapcaster- heavy nature of the current meta. Ruins Dredge, impacts severely Living End, Loam Pox, mono-W Martyr-Proc, Grishoalbrand, Melira Combo and generally strong against aspects of the above named cards.
Nyx-fleece ram I do not favour it as I run Nodes, but it can be really good vs Aggro decks in non Nodes decks at least, blocking and gaining life from t2.
Stony Silence all-star vs Tron, Ad Nauseam, Lantern and Affinity, normally in the board as a 3-4 of. Switching off mana abilities is especially cruel vs Ghostly Prison taxes.
Ediolon of Rhetoric as discussed in the creature section, very efficient vs Storm, Cascade, Tron, Ad Nauseam combo aspects of Elves as well as hurting Snappy and being good blocker from the board. Rule of Law Same effect, but I prefer blocking especially with Greater Auramancy about.
Suppression Field Awesome card, but dead late on. Hurts fetches, Kiki combos, Lavamancers, Melira Sac combos, Expedition Maps, Equipment and, of course, planeswalkers. Especially great if you decide that cheeky sideboard Obliterate is for you. It even stops the t3 Karn activation.
Peace of Mind Life-gain for cards, does not play well with Field. Story Circle , maindeckable Circle of Protction effect. Not to be sniffed at, especially decent as it can be activated in response to destruction, saving you for the rest of the turn most likely, although again a nonbo with Suppresion Field.
Many of the colored options are discussed in the splash section above.
W The Non Enchantment Options W
This section is for white non enchantments that are not discussed in previous sections.
You can again see both the splash section and the wincons for more discussion of things such as Pyroclasm or Planeswalkers.
Idyllic Tutor Slow but it acts as copy 5 of Sphere of Safety gets those one ofs such as Blood Moon or Rest In Peace that creep into builds. Flexible if slow, a copy of this is always worth considering.
Wrath of God. Not all builds run these main, especially Starfield builds, but they do make for great removal, especially in Heliod Builds.
Disenchant effects such as Wear//Tear, Disenchant etc may often make the odd board, and we have already discussed the few creatures that might make an impact here along with Planeswalkers. The thing to remember is that they may not bring removal in for your surprise Kataki, War's Wage , and yes you might find your Stony being eaten by their nature's claim. But for every time this happen how many games will you have lost because your Kataki did not get shroud or make a Sphere even harder to beat through.
Path to Exile . Really? It is so bad vs taxes it does not bare thinking about.
I would use Dismember if I had to over this, but really I would avoid both or splash for Bolt/Helix/Echoing Truth from the board.
Artifacts such as Pithing Needle can be used too. In each case their presence reduces the synergy in the deck, so only use them if you absolutely have to.
W The MatchupsW
Relatively easy. Set Halo on Eidolon, look for Leylines, watch out for destructive revelry, go first as often as possible, keep Auramancies in. Eidolon of Rhetoric is a great blocker here. I like to use the odd helix in the board if I am playing red splash as they are more flexible than, say, Sanctimony. Phyrexian Unlife and Form of the Dragon are used in Enduring Ideal, and if you include that tech here then you will induce apoplexy when dropping t3 Unlife game one. Space is always tight in boards, so if you are having problems look for flexible cards. You can lose this, but its normally fine.
Easiest of all if they don't run Maniac game 1 you can't lose. Nevermore can get an autoscoop too.
Nevermore on the namesake card, look for Leylines if you know they are on it, try and grab removal for Maniac. Eidolon to slow them from the board, Stony Silence in from the board too in order to hurt the manarock based acceleration. Field hits Lightning Storm, watch out for Maniac from the board. Board out the 8 taxes.
Harder than it looks, but if the build is right its fine. Leyline, Halo on Boby or GB, and Nevermore on TTB or GV can be awesome, the taxes can keep them out of it but remember the splicing shenanigans can generate them a lot of mana, a TTB costs only five. You are safe when Leyline is down and its twenty odd to attack. Rest in Peace is an all star. Watch out for them boarding in an Emrakul.
Hard. G1= probably dead 9 times out of ten, if you run Moons then you might nab an extra game or two for every ten, but not much more. I run Obliterate main, and steal the odd game with it. GW is often worse as it runs PTE for Heliod.
G2- still hard- you need to run red or blue splashes- Crumble to Dust, Obliterate(!), Moons, Stony Silence and surprisingly all star Eidolon all come in whilst Ghostly Prisons are dead and a Leyline or two can come out. In blue builds its Spreading Seas (and I have even tried Zurs Weirding!) and any extra Ghost Quarters come in, although Bribery is awesome if you want to dedicate a spot or two to this match- it can steal matches from under their nose. Often the issue is they can be slowed but we can't beat past the Wurmcoil. Watchout for harmless Wurmcoils being turned into Halo evading tokens thanks to your Wraths. How much hate you dedicate to this deck is key- if you don't have enough you will lose every time, but you knacker your chances up in the event as a whole by having too much, so just the odd non flexible card like Crumble to Dust and a bunch of Eidolon/Stonies might get there.
Very similar to red-green, game one is awful. The key here is to have the right splash- red deals best with this- Boil, Crumble to Dust, Obliterate, Blood Moon could all do some work. Nevermore on Cyclonic Rift is also decent, that is the card that beats us. Dropping taxes should find a lot of space in those 2nd and hopefully third games, and the match up is not unwinnable game 2 and 3. Basically you have a shot with red, and are pretty dead with the other splashes, this being the hardest tron.
The easiest of the Tron matches. Gifts does not work when we have Leyline down (no legal targets), Stony is nasty as hell for them post board, their Tron is harder to assemble. Their Wrath and Path effects won't touch a Auramancy Heliod combo, and Starfield can win it straight away. Those off the wall builds with Pinnacles etc. are equally hard for their removal suite to deal with.
It is a bye, shame it is not popular. Halo, Leylines, Auramancies to stop them being bounced and Nevermore on key cards (take your pick) plus Eidolons in some builds. Just remember to keep some taxes in for goblin tokens.
You can't lose this! Nevermore is good too.
RU-X decks are not that hard to shut out- with no twin combo to worry about you can lock them out. An early Leyline is superb. Daddy K, or Keranos to his mates, is their MVP if they can keep our Leylines off the table. IF they cannot then his mandatory ability has to target something, normally their men. Eventually they will be unable to attack.
They have many dead cards, such as Shackles and Threads, but we still have to be careful if running Heliod. They can be locked out from attacking, leaving direct damage the big issue, and once again Leyline is key.
Go first and win G1! Seriously, this match is about hitting Halo and Field t2. If they are a tad slo its game to us. If they are on god-hand mode on the play its game to them. I have died after a t2 halo t3 Prison, but it is amazingly rare, I have played the match a lot. The match is never easy on the draw. A fog effect or two can buy time if this is in the meta. Else Dismember, Celestial Flare and Sunlance are things from the board, but I personally use Lightning Helix from the board to increase the number of valid t2 plays. Helix does double duty, also coming in against burn. If the game goes long its ours.
Often hard to spot what is a Rhino list and what is a combo list at first glance, making sequencing hard. Rhino is not targeted, so Nevermore on it is not bad if they are straight up midrange. Auramancy and Leyline are MVPs regardless of their exact deck variety, a pair of Auramancies are golden. If they are all about Chords and Co-Co then Nevermore Chord before the Co-Co. If you use Karma this match becomes super good game 2, time is often an issue but not when Karma is about. Make sure you know the combo and practice with Halo. Naming goyf is great, but not if they drop a Melira and Finks and chord for the Seer.I never fear this match.
A very decent match. If they are slightly slow they are dead. Halo deals with Etched Champion, be careful naming anything else. Once Sphere resolves we tend to win. Field is great in this match, and Stony from the board is nastier than in normal decks. Nodes is especially viscous with Heliod.
A strong match, even if they run Pridemage.
It is often close but we tend to win. Wrath early, don't get greedy, always assume they can remove one lock piece next turn.
Thalia is their main route to victory, on the draw it is hard for us if that hits. Nodes is exceptional in this match if you run Heliod and fine if you do not. Eldrazi and T is different, but Nodes is exceptional here too.
Happy days, this is one of the easier matches. Like D and T or hatebears without the ability to remove our permanents. Their countering is just not enough to trouble us.
I always think this is going to be close and it ends up being easy. Leyline hurts discard, their attempt to go wide looks silly if you resolve prison and laughable if Sphere Resolves. Do not be afraid to Wrath early if you run them....your Sphere will be around the corner sooner or later. Nodes is strong here again.
Stopping them winning is easy but they can deck us with their Mistveil Plains. Field hurts the Proc forecast ability (Nevermore does not), but beating them down is hard from 100+ life. If you run RIP you are golden. Watch out for ultimated Elspeths.
There won't be a game two most likely, unless you are running alternate win cons.
The aggro cousin of Proc, this is easier and plays like Merfolk. Just don't get a slow start and it is ours.
We almost do not need to board for this
Nodes eats hexproofers, although Totem armor stops them dying temporarily. None of that matters if you make them pay multiple mana to attack. Unless you have cute tech like Favor of the Mighty in the board this game will often be touch and go early and grindy mid game. T2 Halo is the nuts and sets us well on the way. Halo into prison is a strong start, as is dropping Nodes after their t1 Boggle.
It is in our favour with most of our possible versions, especially if you run Eidolon of Rhetoric or Nodes, that stop the card draw getting out of hand.
Leyline and Halo are key. See neither and it is GG, see both and they are finished early on. Be careful- Koth does not deal damage- the mountains do, and watch out for Blasphemous act if you make an army of men.
Their mana is hurt by field, Gifts, lilly's downward abilities and discard all hate Leylines. Iona reanimated is a bugger, but even that can be beaten if Heliod is down with enough protection. They have to attack to win, remember. Game two show them some Karma love for quicker wins.
Hard one for us, sadly. We always have the issue that they can turn mediocre board states into great ones EOT and can Chord for exact kill cards. Eidolon is great t2, Leyline does nothing apart from stop the lethal BG Origins elf from killing us outright. Wrath is good, but they will always recover sooner rather than later. If they ever end up needing twenty to attack they can pay it, so you need to actually win. The main issue is that bits of ours match bits of theirs, we have stuff that stops small chunks of their decks and until Linvala turns into a 2cc enchantment or Humilty gets into Modern (no chance on either) we won't have cards that act against swathes of their stuff. They can genuinely run Fracturing gust too, so keep Nevermore in and cross fingers you get early control and a quick wincon.
Boarding- well in red bring those Pyroclasms in. Overall we can win but it feels like a 1-2 more than a 2-1
Same deck, different day. The easiest of these is R/U delver- less threats, most burn and sadly not seen anywhere for ages.
Grixis is OK, their mana is fragile, and vulnerable to Moon, early Fields or post board Karmas and Boils, and they can't pay 20 to attack. Leyline is the MVP, and any main deck Rest in Peaces will win the day hen combined with a tax or two resolving. Get the taxes down and their countering is reduced, leaving us to take over. If they play the counter game remember the later the game goes the more likely we are to imprison them. The hardest thing used to be identifying if they are Twin Grixis or Delver Grixis - sequencing tending to be different for the decks. Now we don't care!
RUG delver is slightly harder. The same applies as for Grixis, really, but their relative lack of targeted discard makes it harder as they have less dead cards against that t0 Leyline.
Overall I am never unhappy to play these matches, they are always close but we always have a shot. Eidolon is good against snappy flashbacks and Snapcaster itself, but switches on their removal, which they may have to keep.
Its quite easy, unless they pack excessive Back to Nature style hate in the board, and even then given that they actually have to dredge they may not draw it. Expect Abrupt Decay and then Maelstrom Pulse for those RIPs, Auramancy is the nuts here.
Its tight. Nevermore on ascendency G1 is a winner, but they game can be won regardless.
Eidolons do work, Leyline does work, Halo does work, RIP does work. Taxes don't do much but keep the odd ones in. Wraths ar still decent enough as clumsy BOP killers.
Overall it is in our favour, just.
A harder match than Ad Nauseam, say, the Leylines, Nevermore, Auramancies and Halos are key, the rest a bit pointless. Make sure you know how Valakut reads when naming Halo! Cryptic bounce is their normal way to beat our defenses. Game two those Eidolons look good, Moon too. It is losable, but slightly favourable for us.
Leylines, halos. See them to win and use Nevermore to keep lilly off the table if you can. T0 Leyline is a long way to a win.
If you have a bunch of anti attack cards and don't know your opponent is on this you will lose game 1 most likely.
Its like junk, really. Same cards are good for us, and basically they don't have Rhino which helps. BUGs conunters often don't work they way they want, their impression of a tempo deck looks pretty lame against a critterless deck. That said they have all the removal and there is no easy game against this type of deck.
Depends on which Zoo. KOTR, One drop, Coralhelm combo, Co/Co etc. It is always tighter than you think, Pridemage is a bugger and can win them matches.
They have two angles of attack- men and burn, so we need stuff to shut down both aspects. They also have a mana base that is vulnerable to Field early on and to Moon for most of the game if you run one. Their deck encourages a play style that helps us board wipe for big value.
Aggro green is fine, just watch out for Back to Nature game 2.
The only successful prison deck is hard to play, mercifuly. Leyline and Nevermore are presumably key (on Bridge). The Lantern player's Academy Ruins can deck us unless we run main Rest in Peace. A Starfield build which opens with a Leyline and Starfield in hand will win more often than not. Nevermore number two should aim at Surgical extraction. Game two Stony silence is king. I have played this once only, I did win but only thanks to me working out the importance of killing ruin.
Game one is solid, Nevermore is strong, early attack taxes seal the deal more often than not.
If they are not on the Avalanche Rider/Beast plan B then it is easy game 2. Field hits cycling, and they can't go wide if it costs millions to attack, even if their men are big. Again the only threat is them running Back to Nature for instawin.
This deck has evolved so much the matchup info is really out of date. The older hyper fast versions were fine, like playing infect but marginally easier. Halo is strong, and S Field slows them to wading through treacle, finished with Ghostly and Leyline the core is designed for these decks. Newer builds have more controlling elements. The more the deck can grind the harder the match.
I have not played or got data from anyone playing against USA control, Fae, Loam, Restore Balance,RW Prisons, Timewalk, Co-Co allies, Deathcloud, Norrin, Esper, Loam-Pox control or any of the other myriad of viable non-tier 1 decks. Practice as ever is key.
Forum or user decklists I have not yet included, I do not want to give undue prominence to my own, and will only include this section if others are willing to contribute their near-finished lists so that you get more than one guy's pet options. Thanks for reading, and if you are in any doubt about posting your deck please do post, and if there is a better forum we will point you to it! Check out my other Modern Primer- RW Prisons (Boros Bridge, Sun and Moon, and RW Stax).
Pillow fort! It's like the forts you made as a child out of millions of pillows and boxes but with magic cards and a little more rage instead.
Why play Pillow Fort? Pillow Fort's an incredibly fun to play, versatile and rewarding but very hard to play deck that is armed with a ton of hate against both aggro and combo that can easily be molded to fit your meta. Common SB cards, being enchantments, work with the deck easily with cards like Sphere of Safety, Sigil of the Empty Throne, Mesa Enchantress and can be fetched with Idyllic Tutor.
And because there's no better feeling than making your opponent have to choose whether to untap their lands or their creatures while forcing them to have to pay 15+ mana to swing with just one guy.
Faith's Fetters: Removal +life. This deck's not the fastest so you'll probably lose a lot of life against aggro before you stabilize. Works on planeswalkers.
Storage Matrix: Makes your opponent have to choose weather to untap lands or creatures. Extra brutal lock when you have Ghostly Prison or Sphere of Safety out. We don't play creatures like that so this doesn't affect us.
Mesa Enchantress: Keeps the flow going. Take it out against decks with removal though, this thing dies quick.
Serum Visions: I feel like a draw spell or cantrip like visions needs to be in the deck since we're playing blue to provide gas and filter what we don't need.
Fertile Ground: Same as Utopia Sprawl. Less restrictive on what it can enchant and the color it produces though.
Porphyry Nodes:amazing in general. 1 mana to put a ton of pressure on your opponent. Love it.
Endless Horizons: Works towards the same goal as Serum Visions but on steroids. Not only gives you a land every turn, but also ensures that you draw into a useful spell each turn instead of drawing a clump of mana when you need more prisons. You'll stabilize very easily once this is online. I like it.
Sideboard descriptions
Choke: Good against blue combo/control if you're splashing green and not running blue. Can be a replacement for Storage Matrix against hard control that doesn't run many creatures.
It's much faster with the ramp from Utopia Sprawl and Fertile Ground and cantriping from serum visions and focuses more on getting prisons up quickly which is great against aggro but worse on game one against combo. Game two against combo you side out the prisons and bring in specific hate like Nevermore and Runed Halo or whatever you need.
this deck looks so good, it has so much synergy and would be infuriating agenst any opponent, i love it. keep up the good work.
Thanks! I'm having a lot of fun with it and a lot of rage quits against it haha. There's a lot of directions to take the deck in with card draw, combo hate, aggro hate, mana ramp ect. There's a lot that has to fit in here but also a lot of options so I need to figure out a good ratio for everything. I'm probably going to be posting a few lists soon that are all a little different.
It's much faster with the ramp from Utopia Sprawl and Fertile Ground and cantriping from serum visions and focuses more on getting prisons up quickly which is great against aggro but worse on game one against combo. Game two against combo you side out the prisons and bring in specific hate like Nevermore and Runed Halo or whatever you need.
Maybe -1 land, +1 Idyllic Tutor with this list since there are 7 ramp enchantments. I'll have to see how it tests more, i'm sitting at 25 lands now.
i do not like green in this deck, as far as i can see it is just there to add ramp and more enchantments, but at the cost of a much shakier mana base. for a splash to be effective it has to actually do something. Curse of Exhaustion or splash red for Curse of the Nightly Hunt.
the latter would be could because it would drain them of mana each turn.
Edit: after asking the rules section it turns out that curse of the nightly hunt does not work with your "pay to attack" cards
I see, but with the high average cmc cards in the deck I feel ramp's pretty useful. You need to get those prisons out fast against an aggro deck.
Here are some more interesting cards I found that may have a place here.
Might be a rough splash for this deck, but I had a deck in the same vein that was doing really fun things with Predator Ooze and Porphyry Nodes. Using Manlands as finishers accomplishes a similar thing, but the Ooze gets big. You also might think about Worship.
The big thing I see this deck having trouble with are ramp into fatties decks. I also am not convinced that Detention Sphere is worth running over Oblivion Ring.
I agree, they both hose combo and fast swarm aggro decks like elves and affinity. Let's try making a list with Rule of Law and maybe Porphyry Nodes. I like nodes because of its extremely low cmc, we can get it out quick against aggro so ramping may not be as important. I do like Soul Tithe though too just because it's a worst case permanent removal like Detention Sphere for 2 mana. Both of these cards are 1 and 2 mana too unlike the rest of them which are 3+ cmc.
Idk. I would need convincing that 4 sphere of safety is needed here. I can see 2 of them as a fetch with tutor, but 4 is not good for modern. Too expensive.
A good sb could be steal creatures. Like the old standard deck iminate domain did. You play threads of disloyalty, the gain control of a tapped perm, mind control cards with faith's fetters and copy enchantment. Basically steal your opponent's wincons.
Idk. Just a thought. They will be taking out all or most of the creature removal. So you can take a few important guys and just win.
Rest in peace should maybe be a main as 1 of to tutor for. There are a ton of graveyard based synergies.
Nodes play very nicely with Forbidden Orchard to soft-lock the board
How? It just gives them something to destroy that is not a critical creature. Sure it allows Nodes to stick around longer, but it will cease to shred their board if you have to use Orchard too often. Having an Indestructible creature, on the other hand, means Nodes remains in play till it is removed by opponent.
Serum Visions:amazing early game to set yourself up and late game to keep you from drawing lands when you need more lock or vice-versa.
Porphyry Nodes:amazing in general. 1 mana to put a ton of pressure on your opponent that's trying to build quick board presence. Love it.
Endless Horizons: Works towards the same goal as Serum Visions but on steroids. Not only gives you a land every turn, but also ensures that you draw into a useful spell each turn instead of drawing a clump of mana when you need more prisons. You'll stabilize very easily once this is online. I like it.
ED: and yeah nodes + orchard doesn't work very well, I've tried it.
I'm gonna have to disagree about matrix. 4 is too many but they can seriously slow down an opponent trying to get board presence and beat into you. Matrix only lets them do one at a time while you stabilize and settle in. Definitely one of the cards that makes the deck work. Just board em out asap against control/combo.
something like this maybe?
im really bad at building decks but this is the general idea
4 Luminarch ascension is overkill. Have 2 or so that you can fetch when you're stabilized. No point in trying to squeeze them out when they take up spots in the deck for more prisons. When you get to the point where it's impossible for them to touch you, you can take as much time as you want winning.
Might be a rough splash for this deck, but I had a deck in the same vein that was doing really fun things with Predator Ooze and Porphyry Nodes. Using Manlands as finishers accomplishes a similar thing, but the Ooze gets big. You also might think about Worship.
The big thing I see this deck having trouble with are ramp into fatties decks. I also am not convinced that Detention Sphere is worth running over Oblivion Ring.
Idk. I would need convincing that 4 sphere of safety is needed here. I can see 2 of them as a fetch with tutor, but 4 is not good for modern. Too expensive.
A good sb could be steal creatures. Like the old standard deck iminate domain did. You play threads of disloyalty, the gain control of a tapped perm, mind control cards with faith's fetters and copy enchantment. Basically steal your opponent's wincons.
Idk. Just a thought. They will be taking out all or most of the creature removal. So you can take a few important guys and just win.
Rest in peace should maybe be a main as 1 of to tutor for. There are a ton of graveyard based synergies.
Yeah, I started dropping 1 sphere of safety. They're still incredibly good though, a big part of our game plan is to get one out in every game. Having too many does get expensive and slow to cast so 4 probably is too many. It also probably depends on if you're playing with ramp or not.
The thing with cards like threads of disloyalty is they take up slots for combo hate. I'll try and whip something up though.
Also... all your decks dont have the greatest prison of all: Suppression Field! How could you forget them?! It works on fetchlands, taps, combos, planewalkers and TONS of other things! If you get it turn 2 against control or Pod, they`ll be slowed for life, specially if they play fetchlands ;D
I also liked your ideas of Storage Matrix and Worship. Definitely interesting stuff here.
3 colors seems too much of a splash for me, but maybe it`ll work with those signets. I just feel it makes the deck slower overall. Also I dont see much of a win-condition except Tezzeret`s ultimate...
If I`d make such a deck, I`d cut white and red completely (for what, Wildfire?) and would focus on more artifacts to disrupt your opponent. Also would play Thoughtcast. Im not otherwise too knowledgeable on artifacts, but I think there are some which would be really interesting to play, like Eternity Vessel, Platinum Angel, Mindslaver. Of course those are high-cost, but then you would probably have some ramp for artifacts.
So I have been tweaking this deck for the last couple of months, playing it in two FNM's both to a 2-1-2 finish. Well tonight, after more tweaking, I went 5/0! Here is the list and my matches:
Round 1: Merfolk 2/0 (I was lucky this round because he was not experienced with the deck)
Round 2: UR Delver 2/1 (very tight game, Sphinx of revelation helped a lot, as well as nevermore and runed halo's shutting down threats and cards. Defense Grid came down game 3 and swung it in my direction)
Round 3: BW Tokens 2/0 (I drew too many answers to his threats to keep up. Ghostly Prisons plus Sphere of Safety x2 with 5 enchantments in play caused him to scoop game 1)
Round 4: GR Tron 2/0 (he had slow draws first game, second game I had turn two stony silence followed up with two nevermore to shut down his answers)
Round 5: BW Tokens 2/0 (same as round 3. Started both games with leyline of sanctity which shut down his thoughtseizes).
I had been using Prophery Nodes but they've been too slow. The Supreme Verdicts have helped a lot. The Sphinx's usually win me the game when they resolve. The Serum Visions seem to be a must have. They get me the mana a lot faster, or answers. Before I had included them I would go into top-deck mode quite a bit waiting for either the 5th mana or to draw an enchantment.
Brought this up in a another enchantment matters deck
Myth Realized seems aweeeesome. With man lands as a win con?
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Kekule_the_Magician on the inclusion of Devouring Light in a TurboFog Deck:
Quote from Kekule_the_Magician »
As a person who typically plays very creature oriented decks, I HATE when an opponent has Devouring Light. It is infuriating to finally get through with a creature on to have it exiled.
I've come to hate White in general now because it gets everything to the point where it is almost unfair. White has boardwipes (Wrath of God, End Hostilities), targeted exile and removal (Devouring Light, Banishing Light, Last Breath), lifegain spells, lifelink, low cost/high power enchantments and auras, flying creatures; my goodness what don't they get!?
Brought this up in a another enchantment matters deck
Myth Realized seems aweeeesome. With man lands as a win con?
People seem to be undervaluing this card but I think it will make some sort of splash. I really like the idea of the prison deck and maybe this could be the perfect win on along with Sigil of the Empty Throne
Kekule_the_Magician on the inclusion of Devouring Light in a TurboFog Deck:
Quote from Kekule_the_Magician »
As a person who typically plays very creature oriented decks, I HATE when an opponent has Devouring Light. It is infuriating to finally get through with a creature on to have it exiled.
I've come to hate White in general now because it gets everything to the point where it is almost unfair. White has boardwipes (Wrath of God, End Hostilities), targeted exile and removal (Devouring Light, Banishing Light, Last Breath), lifegain spells, lifelink, low cost/high power enchantments and auras, flying creatures; my goodness what don't they get!?
I'm not particularly sold on Myth as it gives our opponents a target for their removal which otherwise is dead in their hand. I tested playing with 4 Leylines and most of the time they just stood in my hand while I already had one on the field that's why I've cut them down to 2. Nevermore is too good of a card to sit in the sideboard, after the first few turns you should definitely know what you are up against and what's their win con/combo/important card which they play probably 4 of and you can eliminate all of them with a single Nevermore. Same goes for Runed Halo. Late game Sphin's Rev + Nykthos refuels our hand and can gain us tons of life. As for monastery siege two are enough as you mostly will be using them to loot and stacking that effect isn't very profitable. I'm currently testing out Nyx-Fleece Ram as they are quite beefy which helps us stabilize and can block a lot of creatures early on (I think they might be REALLY good against infect but I haven't tested it yet) while providing some nice life gain against burn and are an enchantment. Storage matrix + Ghostly Prison/Sphere of Safety is just brutal for most aggro decks and they can't handle it. For the sideboard I've found that my toughest matchups are the ones that have counters and don't let me resolve any of my enchantments and Defence Grid is just an amazing answer. Rest in Peace vs goyf/snapcaster/lingering souls/scooze and dredge is awesome as well. Stony Silence vs affinity which is one of our best matchups. I know the sheep also eat removal but are tougher I think. Sooo yeah umm Idk... I've managed to lose the finals at an FNM twice in a row vs Junk with this deck. Criticism is always appreciated! Bout that telepathy... not sure what to play in its place any suggestions?
I like your list a lot. I keep coming back to this deck because I love prison style decks and this seems to be the most effective one in modern. Anyway I too have had a history of problems facing Junk. I'd almost call it my worst match-up. I have thrown in 3 copies of spreading sea's to see if I could screw with their manabase a bit, in addition to runed halo and nevermore's, but that was too slow and ineffective. I think I will try your idea of going with a full set of nevermore, typically I would run 2 maindeck and 1 sideboard. I have had success with greater auramancy but that's a 1 of, so adding the siege along with it, would probably help.
Junk hasn't been much of a problem the times I've playtested against it. Leyline is relatively key in the match, which stops their discard, while Nevermore should always name Abrupt Decay(Sometimes Maelstrom Pulse). I am running a lot more removal in the form of Journey to Nowheres and the full set of D Spheres though. Suppression field is also good in the matchup as they run a good amount of fetchlands, it slows down Liliana, and makes their manlands extremely inefficient.
I haven't playtested with Myth Realized, but it doesn't seem all that good to me, It still dies to most creature removal in the format besides burn spells and lacks any form of evasion to really seem worthwhile as a wincon. As for Sigil of the Empty Throne, I've played it a lot and it isn't horrible, but it gums up the 5 mana slot with Sphere of Safety and doesn't do anything itself when you play it, effectively wasting the turn. Emrakul I will fully admit is a little too cute as a win con, but it's enjoyable to hardcast in a deck that has no business in hardcasting it. Besides Emrakul, my main (horribly inefficient) way of winning is extort triggers off of Blind Obedience.
I'm not sure about the Journey to Nowhere as it cannot hit anything that has hexproof on it, which is why I'm running the Porphyry Nodes they kill everything even thought a turn later. Have you considered playing Storage Matrix to go along with Blind Obedience? Also are 23 lands enough for you? I tried running 23 but the mana seemed to inconsistent and 4 Nykthos are just too much I feel we need double white way too often. If I had an Emrakul I'd be tempted to play him as a wincon as well
The problem I have with Nodes is you can't actively target with it, it doesn't do anything the turn you play it, and it eventually leaves the battlefield so it doesn't tick up the cost for Sphere of Safety. Chalice hurts Boggles while hitting other problematic decks, and generally Boggles one way of enchantment/artifact removal also gets hit by Chalice(Nature's Claim). Journey is useless in the matchup, but it acts as removal for a lot of other decks, and ticks up Sphere as well.
I might go down to 3 Nykthos but overall I haven't found 23 lands to be overly detrimental. I will point out that the overall mana curve of my deck(minus Emrakul of course) is lower than yours which does make a difference as well.
Storage Matrix has definitely been on my radar, but the matchups it does well in(aggro) I already don't have much a problem with. Not sure if I'd really want to cut anything to add it and feel like I've made a worthwhile improvement.
I like the idea of emrakul along with the shrines. I need to pick up a play set of Nykthos to try that out. I was thinking that 1 copy of open the vaults from the sideboard would be good for my local metagame, because a few people have started making a habit of running enchantment sweepers like back to nature in their sideboards just for my deck. The celestial colonnade's have always been good, despite the suppression field making it costlier. I suppose I don't really need the islands, I've just been nervous about blood moon screwing me out of blue. I have been trying 3-4 copies of serum visions for quite some time, and they are usually good. But I was going to try the nyx-fleece rams in their place to see if that gives me more of a leg up against the harder matchups.
Regarding nodes, I had given up on them a while ago, they never did well enough against decks that populate the board with creatures quickly, and while they helped against midrange decks, I felt that wrath of god was just as effective.
Also, I have tried Chalice of the Void when I splashed red. It was very good. That was back when Treasure Cruise was legal and delver was everywhere. I've not tried it since they banned Treasure Cruise.
"Pillow Fort" is the name given to white enchantment based prison decks that aim to lock the opponent out of the game, before delivering a coup-de-grace or getting the opponent to scoop when they acknowledge that they have no way to win. It is a prison deck, i.e. one that stops the opposition playing not by destroying and countering but by putting permanents down that slowly reduce the opponent's ability to do anything. Like many Modern prison deck it is not tier one. Wizards does not really like this type of deck, primarily because newer players, especially those who have less idea about conceding the game, have been found to dislike such strategies. That said these decks can be effective, taking down the odd SCG type event from time to time, and certainly having enough to take down a PPTQ or FNM.
Other prison decks in the format include Lantern Control, Skred Red, 8 rack and various RW lockdown decks. However, decks such as Martyr Proc, Deathcloud, Blue Moon and even Norrin/Martyr decks retain strong prison elements whilst not being out-and-out prison decks. The closest deck to Pillow-Fort is Enduring Ideal, which uses a similar core of cards in the early game but wins via the namesake card taking over the late game.
In this primer a large number of parts are hidden under spoilers in order to make it reasonable length. If you are familiar with the deck then this should make it easier to find the bits you are looking for without trawling through stuff you already know. Please note that I have tried to avoid duplicating stuff in this primer, so the sections entitled "Card Choices" won't be extensive as much of the material is covered elsewhere in the appropriate sections such as "Win-Cons".
So why would you want to play this deck? Good question. Firstly, let us deal with the reason some people may give for not playing the deck- the lack of interaction issue. This might seem like a odd thing to say about a prison deck, but games vs. removal heavy decks can be very swingy and interactive, and have a lot of decisions in them on both sides. For some players playing constructed Magic is not about turning creatures sideways and launching a bunch of burn spells. There will be some players who feel they did not get to play Magic after a match with you, especially if they only turn creatures sideways like a Merfolk or Token deck. The "I did not play Magic" feeling is pretty much how players felt when being Remand/Exarch/Twinned too, and strangely enough t3 Karn does not feel like much of a match either. Whatever happens our deck gives the opponent chances to play lots of spells, which is more than can be said for a few decks in the format.
The biggest issue with this deck in terms of frustrated players is that finishing the game is more prolonged than Legacy prison decks, and newer players often do not know when to sweep, which can lead them to sitting there for a while doing nothing. Whilst Legacy prison decks can finish a game quickly with a Helm/Rest in Peace combo, a Marit Lage, host of 4/4 Angels or even the odd hard Waste-lock, we don't get that luxury, and that can lead to the odd player, especially newer ones, feeling hard done by. That is unfortunate, just try to be empathetic to them if they are new.
Reasons to play this type of deck are wide ranging and may include novelty, the chance to use pet cards that can't see place elsewhere, the desire to hark back to days gone past where creatures were not everything, and perhaps most importantly the ability to deck-build without all the best cards being known as they are in Jund, for example. It is a brewer's delight, and there is almost an EDH feel to a deck that legitimately asks "Can you pay 15 to attack?" the turn after they get to 14 mana. Another reason is that it has some exceptionally favourable matches, and does well against a few top tier decks, so that it might just take down your local "win a Goyf" or FNM event. So, get brewing. And remember, it is now 25 to attack.....:)
A final note about running this deck locally and the "hate issue". We are easy to hate out- Back to Nature and Fracturing Gust are obscene against us. Neither card gets much play but if you want to turn up to FNM weekly or even monthly and play this deck time-and-time again expect reprisals. As a deck that relies on a single card type this is always going to be a problem- ask a local FNM Affinity player and you will see what I mean. My recommendation is to get more than one deck if you only want to run this in small metas, preferably one without too many enchantments.
Assuming the deck does not win via scooping, the deck has a few choices of wincons.
One especially great trick with him is to Wrath of God and swing for 5. A second and nastier idea is the lock with Porphyry Nodes .Nodes eats the smallest powered critter on your upkeep, regardless of Hexproof, and with Heliod around is basically a death sentence for everything below 6 power. Nodes never goes away as Heliod is always present. Heliod is a creature of course, and this format can deal with creatures, Heliod being especially vulnerable to Path to Exile or any bounce effect.
This vulnerability to common spot removal spells explains why Greater Auramancy is a genuinely maindeckable choice.
The minus two ability of Liliana of the Veil is also a problem if Heliod has not made any men, although a Leyline of Sanctity or Halo set to Liliana will stop this from happening.
Most importantly for us burn and destroy effects don't touch him, however, and there are almost no common -x-x abilities that can deal with a 5/6, so as your enchantment defenses grow Heliod becomes increasingly hard to deal with.
The other Gods all present similar types of benefits, and whilst squeezing Keranos in sounds lovely, the mana base would be stretched if we refrain from fetches ourselves. Most of the others offer less value than Heliod, but are still nonetheless reasonable options.
This card is probably the best Theros themed enchantment card despite not actually being in Theros block. Using this card does present us with some issues, however. Firstly, switching on the team is an issue in itself- often making our own mass removal unattractive, and making theirs potentially game winning. In the case of a single enchantment keeping their deck from working, such as a Leyine or Runed Halo stopping a Scapeshift , there is little more depressing than watching your Greater Auramancy biting a bolt, followed by Bolt/Snappy on the bolt to make Leyline of Sanctity disappear for the turn they need to combo. Dropping Starfield early in order to abuse the re-animation effect can backfire if you end up trying to not switch your team on. The reanimation is optional of course, and can provide an infinite blocker, so it is not to be sniffed at. Personally I love this card, but I feel it is best when it is cast to win the game there and then, making it feel situational. Enduring Ideal certainly likes this card- the ability to search stuff out making it a superb one of. We do not get as much luxurious card selection, and so care needs to be taken when using and playing with this one.
The problem with the card is twofold- firstly it comes down turn two and does nothing against some decks that can just chip away. Secondly our second turn is a pretty huge turn- we need something down before t3- and given the choice it is normally better to get down other options. For example.....
Runed Halo
Suppression Field
Or Luminarch.
Well here there are a number of decks where the optimal play will be Halo or Field. Vs. Living End, Melira Combos, Scapeshift, Ad Nauseam or most fetch heavy decks the Field is often life saving turn 2. Vs aggro and Burn decks the Halo shines on that second turn. So given the choice the Ascension won't be cast t2 a lot of the time, and for a card that takes a while to kick in that says something.
The later this card comes down the worse it is. It can work, and shines against some decks when it can make an end of turn game winning army that would do Miracles proud, let alone Modern decks. Its main upside is that it can be slipped down t2. That said I would personally not use it main deck very often. As a sideboard option it shines, a great card vs any deck that does not deal damage early- control decks, tron etc.
Karma is a card barely remembered, a relic from the days of real colour hosing. It costs 4, and against a normal fetch/shock-heavy W,B, G deck will kill them in about 3-4 turns if dropped mid-game. The reason we don't see more of it in sideboards is simple- when was the last time you saw mono-black, or even "Rock" at any table, top or otherwise? The card is still powerful in a vacuum, but compared to anti Island tech like Choke it does not see much play. That is where Urborg comes in, turning the card into a super Primal Order for every land.
The obvious downside- that it kills us- can be mitigated by our staple card Runed Halo or even Story Circle .
Of course they can kill Karma, but it is Abrupt Decay proof, and will not die to the swathes of targeted critter kill. Their answer has to be pretty quick, and for good measure the damage can be redirected to planeswalkers. This might sound like crazy Christmas land, but it actually got itself included as a transformational sideboard plan in a 3rd place deck at a 1K event. Not sure I would ever want to play it as the full on game plan, but as a way of increasing win cons from the board it seems reasonable.
and
These make for a powerful combo, normally seen in Enduring Ideal. Without selection the Unlife is decent by itself game one vs a chunk of the field. Remember that swinging for a million won't kill you until the next swing, but which time the Form will reset your life total. To be honest the combo is fine, it can be included and against aggro decks the Unlife does work by itself, so it only really costs you one dead card. Against control decks if I am going to have 8 mana then Obliterate will win the game for you damn near on the spot, though. You will get to high mana often with this deck, and this combo will win the game, but the combos and single card wincons above offer more in their own right, with each piece doing something by itself- e.g. Heliod.
Helix Pinnacle is a possibility if you want to get creative and have time on your hands.
It has a measure of self-protection- Abrupt Decay, Reclamation Sage et al. can't touch it.
Nykthos Mana can make it a reasonable win con. That said in itself it does nothing other than add to the enchantment count for sphere, and when you are 1-1 with ten on the clock this is not going to be winning it for you, unlike our fast beating Heliod or a Karma type damage card.
Barren Glory is even more insane in a permanent based prison deck, effectively being counter intuitive with the idea of a prison. The prison would have to be instant based and have sac options like Claws of Gix . Does not sound possible to me, but others may have different ideas.
Near-Death Experience has a chunk of potential- if you like living dangerously. Phyrexian Unlife, and Leylines might back this one up along with the usual taxes, making it a possible with pain lands to control life.
Hondens, such as Honden of Infinite Rage synergise to produce some ridiculous effects. the problem is that they require multi-mana and are quite expensive for what they are. If there were two mana Shrines to go in there these could become very powerful. As it is they are unlikely to be troubling the top tables. even at FNM, although both the red or white ones represent very decent effects.
These are basically all crazy off the wall win cons that are enchantment based. Fundamentally these are harder to work than the one card combo "good cards" listed above, in that they can't make threats/blockers. That said, if you like brewing, and are after more deck creation than Deck Creation normally offers, well these might be your guys, eh?
Basically any planeswalker with a decent ability or two could be used in this deck, with the ability to protect itself being highly desirable.
Two issues exist with the use of planeswalkers. Firstly, we have a fair few cards that prevent damage to us but only Sphere of Safety prevents attacks against planeswalkers. Ghostly Prison, Runed Halo and Story Circle/COP type cards don't ever protect our planeswalkers.
If you do go down the planeswalker route it pretty much rules out using Suppression Field , one of our better t2 plays that inhibits everything from infinite Melira style sac combos, Kiki, Fetches, opposing Planeswalkers, Equipment and even Lightning Storm in Ad Nauseam.
Another consideration is that a large number of Planeswalkers have a very specific set of abilities, and several relate directly to creatures, of which we have none. Liliana is the sort of controlling planeswalker we would like but at double B it is not going to be easy.
If you do plump for the Planeswalker route then Gideon Jura and Elspeth, Knight Errant are two of the older and better planeswalkers who fit in well with some aspects of our plan and offering some measure of protection for themselves.
There are many potential walkers. Here are just some.
Elspeth, Knight Errant
Manlands and lands that generate men offer a fair deal to a deck that stalls and wipes the board a lot. Suppression Field is again antagonistic with man-lands, although we can benefit from Nykthos mana and go long so in the later part of the game it is less of an issue. I personally don't rate too many of these- our coloured mana is important, and when it comes to tapped lands in a deck with some binary cards like ours scrying from Temples is probably more important than the odd chump or post-Wrath beat.
Mutavault offers the ability to do 2 damage for just 1 mana activation, and can block Etched Champion, although that is only a minor consideration given our likely Runed Halos.
Celestial Colonnade offers a great body and evasion, although limits us to a blue splash and we are limited when it comes to CIP tapped (ETB tapped for all you youngsters). I would probably run a copy or two of this in a blue splash shell.
Forbidding Watchtower - an overlooked card that provides a very defensive body at a reasonable cost, although it is less of a wincon and more of a blocker. That said CIP tapped is again a huge drawback.
Blinkmoth Nexus . Psuedo-mini Mutavaults that fly.
Keldon Megaliths. Slow but can shoot Mana Dorks, players (and thus Planeswalkers) and Bobs. Its great apart from the fact that we are sometimes just too slow as it is, and not producing white can be an issue in our deck.
We really don't want to be dabbling in critters, unless they are enchantments as well that gain protection from Greater Auramancy and synergise with Sphere of Safety. If we do run them their power is often secondary to their main abilities and their status enchantments, and including them switches on creature-only kills like Terminate, but in the case of, say, Courser of Kruphix it should replace itself. One thing to remember is Fetch-Courser synergy is again limited if we use Suppression Field, although it does work well with Temples.
The ability of the Eidolon of Rhetoric is very powerful vs a narrow range of decks- cascade based Living End and Restore Balance, Storm, Ad Nauseam and decks like Tron that cycle through to get what they want. For that reason its a good board card, especially with the 4 toughness making it a reasonably priced blocker.
Other off-the-wall wincons that could work without attacking and if you could protect them include cards such as
Azor's Elocutors
and
Felidar Sovereign
Neither of these are recommended- fragile and lacking synergy with our other stuff, both could, however, find a home in someone's pet build, but not mine.
Sun Titan is a legitimate consideration here, although I personally prefer it in a UW traditional control shell.
The other option is to use Nykthos elements to shove out a huge game ending Eldrazi. Spaghetti monsters, anyone? Emrakul, the Aeons Torn is the poster boy, but some of the smaller mates have some nice control elements in, Ully, Kozy etc. all hit hard.
Ideally we look at about 24 lands+/- 1, build depending. The lowest I have seen is 22 lands including 8 scry lands. Normal builds are 24, I have seen 25.
Essential One:
Basically the Scry is our best "free" filtering mechanism. A lack of fetches really helps make this work well. We have many binary cards in our deck, and putting Leyline no 2 or 3 to the bottom on t1 is often the difference between winning and losing. These are uniquely good in Prison decks, where life is valuable and cards are hit and miss and tutoring is non existent, almost. They often feel like spells in this deck. It is one of those truths that is hard to believe, so I simply say "try them." Prison decks are unlike most other decks in the format, and fetch/shocking is the way to lose rapidly.
Splashing for a color is a great option. White offers the core of the prison, but delving into another colour offers the chance to get stuff from the color pie that helps in some of the weaker matches. Personally I favour Red or Blue and then Green and Black. Blue is for me the best for Enduring Ideal, so given the opportunity I go for Red. If you do splash aim for Temples and shock lands before fetches, unless you have serious reason to use fetches. Fetches might be better, but that pain soon adds up in this deck. Each color offers different options, and these are outlined below.
This offers the ability to deal with land from the board. Crumble to Dust helps solve one of the deck's huge issues- Tron.
Blood Moon is main deckable and an enchantment, although works against Nykthos, so perhaps as a one of with a Tutor effect it might work in the right meta. Contrary to popular belief dropping this vs Tron decks normally just delays them, but it can be brutal vs 4 color good stuff decks.
Also on offer are Bolt, Pyroclasm and Helix effects, although these again don't have much synergy with our deck as each one reduces the number of Enchantments, and so an argument can be made for these cards to appear in sideboards.
One card I do wish to mention is a pet one. Obliterate solves an issue with the deck in game 2 and 3 against Red/Blue shell control decks like Twin or Grixis control. Whilst we can often make ourselves immune to creature attack, these decks often eventually take control of the game, chaining Cryptics and Snappies to remove cards like Leyline late game, providing a window for them to finish us off with a Keranos and Bolt fest. Even if they do not they can sometimes get enough mana to keep our threats off the table forever. After it resolves, (and it nearly always resolves) Obliterate leaves us with a huge number of enchantments that become more effective when they have fewer mana resources. Given their reliance on fetches and shocks, by the time they are back in the game they are often dead. Suppression Field is excellent in this situation, as each fetch is not going to be activated till it has two shocks alongside. Even without this you can often get situations when they have just a few "real" lands left in the deck. In short it kills all of their permanents, and leaves us with several. You will note that Heliod is indestructible, and thus can beat straight after. Additionally the card is playable against Tron post board, and also devastating, especially against Blue Tron that can ramp up to mass bounce. For those sceptical, and I do not blame you if you are, I would simply recommend that you try it in the board- like Temples it needs to be seen in action.
Outpost Siege is a superb card that is the best thing to happen to RW lockdown decks in ages. That said I don't think it works well for us- we have fewer one-for-ones to reduce damage to us in the early game than most lockdown decks running bolts et al, and without the acceleration of Spirit Guides or Signets the card is slower than we need; our turn four needs to be dropping stuff that slows them.
Red also offers us serious old style color hating such as
Boil
as well as some uncounterable Rending Volley action, though pot Twin ban this is less relevant.
Neither red based Gods are going to help us sadly, as their abilities just do not match up.
War's toll has been used, being solid vs most control/instant based strategies.
Not a huge amount to see here at first glance but a deeper look shows us hidden options. Thanks to Caspian for giving us his feedback. I have played Green myself and it was much better than I expected.
Green offers some flexibility in terms of spells. Beast within does pretty much everything, for example.
Primal Command does a lot for its five mana too, but we really need to be looking at enchantments and not five mana spells.
Life from the Loam gives some landkill/card advantage options when combined with grey lands and Horizon Canopies.
Kruphix's Insight offers some much needed advantage/filtering, although the cost is a bit high, rather analagous to Idyllic Tutor.
Kitchen Finks is a great blocker in the main or board option, and works well with Wrath effects and Nykthos, but does not synergise too much with the rest. If you do start playing with this there is a danger you add in townships et al and before long are just playing an enchantment heavy Rhino deck.
Root Maze could be a build around card, but the second, third and fourth copies do nothing, and without filtering will lose us games.
The best reason to play green is Courser of Kruphix - a great blocker that benefits from being an enchantment in terms of Greater Auramancy and Sphere of Safety, it gives us card advantage. Sadly it is double green, but it is excellent.
The Green/White God is one of the more over-costed ones, sadly, and the Green one equally unexciting for us.
Off the wall ideas in green include land kill with
Spreading Algae with Urborg, not tried it myself but Caspian, one the forum contributors, has.
Of perhaps most note is the fact that Green has the exceptionally rude Choke , an evil sideboard card that if resolved wins matches.
Blue offers a number of excellent choices, and the best man-land.
Monastery Siege is superb in that both modes are highly relevant. Ideal for Enduring Ideal decks that need to hit their signature card it is still a fine option for us. Just be careful to avoid self-decking. Two cards you might want to consider if running this are
Wheel of Sun and Moon
and
Mistveil Plains
Spreading Seas offers some degree of anti-Tron potential from the board or even main, and bumps up the enchantment count to boot. Maindeckable, it has the potential to hurt a few deck's greedy manabases, draw a card.
Copy Enchantment Pretty obviously decent but limited to what you have down, just don't copy Heliod.
Detention Sphere . Potentially stronger than O ring, it offers flexibility.
Zur's Weirding . A board card that can just be jammed down early against Tron, especially if you run a Ghost Qurter. It could potentially offer a lock with lifegain cards like Peace of Mind , so that they are forced to keep paying 2 life and you are able to keep denying them draws as eventually each card you draw stops 1.5 draws of theirs. As long as you have a Starfield down the effect is a non-issue for you, and at a push any wincon down can be protected by Zur's. That is all a bit Chritmas-land for my liking, although I have used the card in Enduring Ideal boards.
Sadly the White-Blue god, Ephara, is one of the best but its abilities just do not match up. Thassa, God of the Sea is super, although switching her on requires a large blue investment, and probably Spreading Seas.
Blue also offers counters with cards like Condescend , although our deck gets worse the fewer enchantments we play
One cc discard is superficially attractive, although it reduces enchantment counts and means we need t1 black sources, which is hard for us.
Neither black costing Gods look like they match up with our deck, sadly. That leaves us with a black's control spells, none of which offer much outside of Planeswalkers, which we have talked about earlier.
I won't spoiler this as it is fundamental to the deck. If you deviate from these cards you need a very good reason. The win cons offer a lot of wiggle-room and variation, but providing you are using Nykthos you should expect to be using the following, most of them as four ofs apart from maybe the Auramancy.
Leyline of Sanctity - instrumental in protecting from Clique, Liliana's down abilities (Junk/Jund/8 rack), Valakut (Scapeshift), Lightning Storm (Ad Nauseam), Gitaxian Probe (R/U/X decks and Infect), Grapeshot (Storm), 1 cc discard (4 colour good stuff decks, Tokens, Grishoalbrand, Loam Pox), Borborygmos Enraged (Grishoalbrand), Murderous Redcap (Podless pod), Karn's target player ability (Tron), Gifts Ungiven (4 color Gifts/UW Gifts-Tron) and a host of burn spells in R/U/X, Zoo and Burn decks. Also awesome in terms of mana ramping via Nykthos, it is Abrupt Decay proof
Ghostly Prison - do you want to live or not? Resolving this vs a Grxis style deck is great at reducing their countering capabilities, forcing them to attack or counter early on. Stops ANY Kiki-Resto style combos, and destroys token decks, hurts Living End, Dredge and Merfolk decks that can go wide, it is a serious roadbump for aggro including affinity and it's Signal Pests. Rubbish vs Trons, Jeskai combo and Ad Nauseam, not enough vs Elves.
Sphere of Safety . Just insanely good vs every critter deck, from making them pay an extra 2 or 4 to attack you with Ghostly Prisons you goes to making them pay 6,7,8 very rapidly, and then often far onwards of that to the realms of 20+ to attack with a pair of them.
Runed Halo . Strong two drop, normally a 4 of. It can name Liliana, Gifts or Valakut to act as a Leyline or can name a card with imminent board presence,say a Goyf, Insectile Aberation, or my favorite Eidolon of the Great Revel. Super with Nythos for getting that extra t4/5 mana.
Greater Auramancy Essential at keeping our stuff down, a pair give everything enchantment-based Shroud. I would not recommend less than two. Especially strong if you use creature enchantments.
Again I will not hide this. These are the strongly recommended options, not all are four ofs but they all deserve serious consideration.
Nevermore . Awesome vs linear decks like Ad Nauseam (naming Ad Nauseam), Grishoalbrand (Goryo's, Through the breach) or Jeskai Ascendancy. It is very solid vs decks that need to resolve a bounce spell to beat your Leyline, and very strong vs Co-Co style decks, it is a skill rewarding card. It can be very binary, especially against decks like Lantern Control, but it is rarely dead. Yes there will be times when you name a chord and they Co-Co for what they want or vice versa.
I will be honest I was never that impressed till I tried it, and it made such a difference in certain matches that I would not play less than 3 in the 75, with two main minimum. In local metas it becomes more important- if you know the Elf player runs Fracturing Gust in the board, for example. It can act as a lock piece or as protection for your key lock pieces.
Oblivion Ring Removable removal is not where we want to be but this often fills a slot or two as it deals with almost anything.
and
Banishing Light Oblivion Ring mark 2 for those playing in environs where echoing truth is common.
Porphyr Nodes An auto 4 of in Heliod builds, period, and in a few others to boot. This almost made it into the core section but some decks that splash may chose not to run it at 4 copies.
Rest in Peace All star board card, maindeckable given the Delve-, 'Goyf-, Knight of the Reliquary- and Snapcaster- heavy nature of the current meta. Ruins Dredge, impacts severely Living End, Loam Pox, mono-W Martyr-Proc, Grishoalbrand, Melira Combo and generally strong against aspects of the above named cards.
Nyx-fleece ram I do not favour it as I run Nodes, but it can be really good vs Aggro decks in non Nodes decks at least, blocking and gaining life from t2.
Stony Silence all-star vs Tron, Ad Nauseam, Lantern and Affinity, normally in the board as a 3-4 of. Switching off mana abilities is especially cruel vs Ghostly Prison taxes.
Ediolon of Rhetoric as discussed in the creature section, very efficient vs Storm, Cascade, Tron, Ad Nauseam combo aspects of Elves as well as hurting Snappy and being good blocker from the board.
Rule of Law Same effect, but I prefer blocking especially with Greater Auramancy about.
Suppression Field Awesome card, but dead late on. Hurts fetches, Kiki combos, Lavamancers, Melira Sac combos, Expedition Maps, Equipment and, of course, planeswalkers. Especially great if you decide that cheeky sideboard Obliterate is for you. It even stops the t3 Karn activation.
Peace of Mind Life-gain for cards, does not play well with Field.
Story Circle , maindeckable Circle of Protction effect. Not to be sniffed at, especially decent as it can be activated in response to destruction, saving you for the rest of the turn most likely, although again a nonbo with Suppresion Field.
Sanctimony . Real burn hate.
Favor of the Mighty
Protection vs Boggles and stops the Kiki combo. Cute.
Many of the colored options are discussed in the splash section above.
This section is for white non enchantments that are not discussed in previous sections.
You can again see both the splash section and the wincons for more discussion of things such as Pyroclasm or Planeswalkers.
Idyllic Tutor Slow but it acts as copy 5 of Sphere of Safety gets those one ofs such as Blood Moon or Rest In Peace that creep into builds. Flexible if slow, a copy of this is always worth considering.
Wrath of God. Not all builds run these main, especially Starfield builds, but they do make for great removal, especially in Heliod Builds.
Disenchant effects such as Wear//Tear, Disenchant etc may often make the odd board, and we have already discussed the few creatures that might make an impact here along with Planeswalkers. The thing to remember is that they may not bring removal in for your surprise Kataki, War's Wage , and yes you might find your Stony being eaten by their nature's claim. But for every time this happen how many games will you have lost because your Kataki did not get shroud or make a Sphere even harder to beat through.
Path to Exile . Really? It is so bad vs taxes it does not bare thinking about.
I would use Dismember if I had to over this, but really I would avoid both or splash for Bolt/Helix/Echoing Truth from the board.
Artifacts such as Pithing Needle can be used too. In each case their presence reduces the synergy in the deck, so only use them if you absolutely have to.
Relatively easy. Set Halo on Eidolon, look for Leylines, watch out for destructive revelry, go first as often as possible, keep Auramancies in. Eidolon of Rhetoric is a great blocker here. I like to use the odd helix in the board if I am playing red splash as they are more flexible than, say, Sanctimony. Phyrexian Unlife and Form of the Dragon are used in Enduring Ideal, and if you include that tech here then you will induce apoplexy when dropping t3 Unlife game one. Space is always tight in boards, so if you are having problems look for flexible cards. You can lose this, but its normally fine.
Easiest of all if they don't run Maniac game 1 you can't lose. Nevermore can get an autoscoop too.
Nevermore on the namesake card, look for Leylines if you know they are on it, try and grab removal for Maniac. Eidolon to slow them from the board, Stony Silence in from the board too in order to hurt the manarock based acceleration. Field hits Lightning Storm, watch out for Maniac from the board. Board out the 8 taxes.
Harder than it looks, but if the build is right its fine. Leyline, Halo on Boby or GB, and Nevermore on TTB or GV can be awesome, the taxes can keep them out of it but remember the splicing shenanigans can generate them a lot of mana, a TTB costs only five. You are safe when Leyline is down and its twenty odd to attack. Rest in Peace is an all star. Watch out for them boarding in an Emrakul.
Hard. G1= probably dead 9 times out of ten, if you run Moons then you might nab an extra game or two for every ten, but not much more. I run Obliterate main, and steal the odd game with it. GW is often worse as it runs PTE for Heliod.
G2- still hard- you need to run red or blue splashes- Crumble to Dust, Obliterate(!), Moons, Stony Silence and surprisingly all star Eidolon all come in whilst Ghostly Prisons are dead and a Leyline or two can come out. In blue builds its Spreading Seas (and I have even tried Zurs Weirding!) and any extra Ghost Quarters come in, although Bribery is awesome if you want to dedicate a spot or two to this match- it can steal matches from under their nose. Often the issue is they can be slowed but we can't beat past the Wurmcoil. Watchout for harmless Wurmcoils being turned into Halo evading tokens thanks to your Wraths. How much hate you dedicate to this deck is key- if you don't have enough you will lose every time, but you knacker your chances up in the event as a whole by having too much, so just the odd non flexible card like Crumble to Dust and a bunch of Eidolon/Stonies might get there.
Very similar to red-green, game one is awful. The key here is to have the right splash- red deals best with this- Boil, Crumble to Dust, Obliterate, Blood Moon could all do some work. Nevermore on Cyclonic Rift is also decent, that is the card that beats us. Dropping taxes should find a lot of space in those 2nd and hopefully third games, and the match up is not unwinnable game 2 and 3. Basically you have a shot with red, and are pretty dead with the other splashes, this being the hardest tron.
The easiest of the Tron matches. Gifts does not work when we have Leyline down (no legal targets), Stony is nasty as hell for them post board, their Tron is harder to assemble. Their Wrath and Path effects won't touch a Auramancy Heliod combo, and Starfield can win it straight away. Those off the wall builds with Pinnacles etc. are equally hard for their removal suite to deal with.
It is a bye, shame it is not popular. Halo, Leylines, Auramancies to stop them being bounced and Nevermore on key cards (take your pick) plus Eidolons in some builds. Just remember to keep some taxes in for goblin tokens.
You can't lose this! Nevermore is good too.
RU-X decks are not that hard to shut out- with no twin combo to worry about you can lock them out. An early Leyline is superb. Daddy K, or Keranos to his mates, is their MVP if they can keep our Leylines off the table. IF they cannot then his mandatory ability has to target something, normally their men. Eventually they will be unable to attack.
They have many dead cards, such as Shackles and Threads, but we still have to be careful if running Heliod. They can be locked out from attacking, leaving direct damage the big issue, and once again Leyline is key.
Go first and win G1! Seriously, this match is about hitting Halo and Field t2. If they are a tad slo its game to us. If they are on god-hand mode on the play its game to them. I have died after a t2 halo t3 Prison, but it is amazingly rare, I have played the match a lot. The match is never easy on the draw. A fog effect or two can buy time if this is in the meta. Else Dismember, Celestial Flare and Sunlance are things from the board, but I personally use Lightning Helix from the board to increase the number of valid t2 plays. Helix does double duty, also coming in against burn. If the game goes long its ours.
Often hard to spot what is a Rhino list and what is a combo list at first glance, making sequencing hard. Rhino is not targeted, so Nevermore on it is not bad if they are straight up midrange. Auramancy and Leyline are MVPs regardless of their exact deck variety, a pair of Auramancies are golden. If they are all about Chords and Co-Co then Nevermore Chord before the Co-Co. If you use Karma this match becomes super good game 2, time is often an issue but not when Karma is about. Make sure you know the combo and practice with Halo. Naming goyf is great, but not if they drop a Melira and Finks and chord for the Seer.I never fear this match.
A very decent match. If they are slightly slow they are dead. Halo deals with Etched Champion, be careful naming anything else. Once Sphere resolves we tend to win. Field is great in this match, and Stony from the board is nastier than in normal decks. Nodes is especially viscous with Heliod.
A strong match, even if they run Pridemage.
It is often close but we tend to win. Wrath early, don't get greedy, always assume they can remove one lock piece next turn.
Thalia is their main route to victory, on the draw it is hard for us if that hits. Nodes is exceptional in this match if you run Heliod and fine if you do not. Eldrazi and T is different, but Nodes is exceptional here too.
Happy days, this is one of the easier matches. Like D and T or hatebears without the ability to remove our permanents. Their countering is just not enough to trouble us.
I always think this is going to be close and it ends up being easy. Leyline hurts discard, their attempt to go wide looks silly if you resolve prison and laughable if Sphere Resolves. Do not be afraid to Wrath early if you run them....your Sphere will be around the corner sooner or later. Nodes is strong here again.
Stopping them winning is easy but they can deck us with their Mistveil Plains. Field hurts the Proc forecast ability (Nevermore does not), but beating them down is hard from 100+ life. If you run RIP you are golden. Watch out for ultimated Elspeths.
There won't be a game two most likely, unless you are running alternate win cons.
The aggro cousin of Proc, this is easier and plays like Merfolk. Just don't get a slow start and it is ours.
We almost do not need to board for this
Nodes eats hexproofers, although Totem armor stops them dying temporarily. None of that matters if you make them pay multiple mana to attack. Unless you have cute tech like Favor of the Mighty in the board this game will often be touch and go early and grindy mid game. T2 Halo is the nuts and sets us well on the way. Halo into prison is a strong start, as is dropping Nodes after their t1 Boggle.
It is in our favour with most of our possible versions, especially if you run Eidolon of Rhetoric or Nodes, that stop the card draw getting out of hand.
Leyline and Halo are key. See neither and it is GG, see both and they are finished early on. Be careful- Koth does not deal damage- the mountains do, and watch out for Blasphemous act if you make an army of men.
Their mana is hurt by field, Gifts, lilly's downward abilities and discard all hate Leylines. Iona reanimated is a bugger, but even that can be beaten if Heliod is down with enough protection. They have to attack to win, remember. Game two show them some Karma love for quicker wins.
Hard one for us, sadly. We always have the issue that they can turn mediocre board states into great ones EOT and can Chord for exact kill cards. Eidolon is great t2, Leyline does nothing apart from stop the lethal BG Origins elf from killing us outright. Wrath is good, but they will always recover sooner rather than later. If they ever end up needing twenty to attack they can pay it, so you need to actually win. The main issue is that bits of ours match bits of theirs, we have stuff that stops small chunks of their decks and until Linvala turns into a 2cc enchantment or Humilty gets into Modern (no chance on either) we won't have cards that act against swathes of their stuff. They can genuinely run Fracturing gust too, so keep Nevermore in and cross fingers you get early control and a quick wincon.
Boarding- well in red bring those Pyroclasms in. Overall we can win but it feels like a 1-2 more than a 2-1
Same deck, different day. The easiest of these is R/U delver- less threats, most burn and sadly not seen anywhere for ages.
Grixis is OK, their mana is fragile, and vulnerable to Moon, early Fields or post board Karmas and Boils, and they can't pay 20 to attack. Leyline is the MVP, and any main deck Rest in Peaces will win the day hen combined with a tax or two resolving. Get the taxes down and their countering is reduced, leaving us to take over. If they play the counter game remember the later the game goes the more likely we are to imprison them. The hardest thing used to be identifying if they are Twin Grixis or Delver Grixis - sequencing tending to be different for the decks. Now we don't care!
RUG delver is slightly harder. The same applies as for Grixis, really, but their relative lack of targeted discard makes it harder as they have less dead cards against that t0 Leyline.
Overall I am never unhappy to play these matches, they are always close but we always have a shot. Eidolon is good against snappy flashbacks and Snapcaster itself, but switches on their removal, which they may have to keep.
Its quite easy, unless they pack excessive Back to Nature style hate in the board, and even then given that they actually have to dredge they may not draw it. Expect Abrupt Decay and then Maelstrom Pulse for those RIPs, Auramancy is the nuts here.
Its tight. Nevermore on ascendency G1 is a winner, but they game can be won regardless.
Eidolons do work, Leyline does work, Halo does work, RIP does work. Taxes don't do much but keep the odd ones in. Wraths ar still decent enough as clumsy BOP killers.
Overall it is in our favour, just.
A harder match than Ad Nauseam, say, the Leylines, Nevermore, Auramancies and Halos are key, the rest a bit pointless. Make sure you know how Valakut reads when naming Halo! Cryptic bounce is their normal way to beat our defenses. Game two those Eidolons look good, Moon too. It is losable, but slightly favourable for us.
Leylines, halos. See them to win and use Nevermore to keep lilly off the table if you can. T0 Leyline is a long way to a win.
If you have a bunch of anti attack cards and don't know your opponent is on this you will lose game 1 most likely.
Its like junk, really. Same cards are good for us, and basically they don't have Rhino which helps. BUGs conunters often don't work they way they want, their impression of a tempo deck looks pretty lame against a critterless deck. That said they have all the removal and there is no easy game against this type of deck.
Depends on which Zoo. KOTR, One drop, Coralhelm combo, Co/Co etc. It is always tighter than you think, Pridemage is a bugger and can win them matches.
They have two angles of attack- men and burn, so we need stuff to shut down both aspects. They also have a mana base that is vulnerable to Field early on and to Moon for most of the game if you run one. Their deck encourages a play style that helps us board wipe for big value.
Aggro green is fine, just watch out for Back to Nature game 2.
The only successful prison deck is hard to play, mercifuly. Leyline and Nevermore are presumably key (on Bridge). The Lantern player's Academy Ruins can deck us unless we run main Rest in Peace. A Starfield build which opens with a Leyline and Starfield in hand will win more often than not. Nevermore number two should aim at Surgical extraction. Game two Stony silence is king. I have played this once only, I did win but only thanks to me working out the importance of killing ruin.
Game one is solid, Nevermore is strong, early attack taxes seal the deal more often than not.
If they are not on the Avalanche Rider/Beast plan B then it is easy game 2. Field hits cycling, and they can't go wide if it costs millions to attack, even if their men are big. Again the only threat is them running Back to Nature for instawin.
This deck has evolved so much the matchup info is really out of date. The older hyper fast versions were fine, like playing infect but marginally easier. Halo is strong, and S Field slows them to wading through treacle, finished with Ghostly and Leyline the core is designed for these decks. Newer builds have more controlling elements. The more the deck can grind the harder the match.
I have not played or got data from anyone playing against USA control, Fae, Loam, Restore Balance,RW Prisons, Timewalk, Co-Co allies, Deathcloud, Norrin, Esper, Loam-Pox control or any of the other myriad of viable non-tier 1 decks. Practice as ever is key.
4 Runed Halo
4 Suppression Field
4 Banishing Light
4 Ghostly Prison
3 Nevermore
2 Ajani Vengeant
4 Leyline of Sanctity
1 War's Toll
4 Wrath of God
3 Sigil of the Empty Throne
3 Sphere of Safety
2 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
13 Plains
4 Temple of Triumph
2 Chalice of the Void
2 Greater Auramancy
4 Kor Firewalker
2 Stony Silence
3 Blood Moon
2 Open the Vaults
1 Heliod, God of the Sun
4 Leyline of Sanctity
4 Nevermore
4 Oblivion Ring
4 Porphyry Nodes
1 Rest in Peace
4 Runed Halo
4 Sigil of the Empty Throne
3 Sphere of Safety
4 Suppression Field
3 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
10 Plains
1 Snow-Covered Plains
4 Temple of Silence
4 Temple of Triumph
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
3 Karma
2 Kataki, War’s Wage
2 Pithing Needle
3 Rest in Peace
2 Stony Silence
3 Wrath of God
Forum or user decklists I have not yet included, I do not want to give undue prominence to my own, and will only include this section if others are willing to contribute their near-finished lists so that you get more than one guy's pet options. Thanks for reading, and if you are in any doubt about posting your deck please do post, and if there is a better forum we will point you to it! Check out my other Modern Primer- RW Prisons (Boros Bridge, Sun and Moon, and RW Stax).
Pillow fort! It's like the forts you made as a child out of millions of pillows and boxes but with magic cards and a little more rage instead.
Here's the first list: (old)
4 Ghostly Prison
4 Sphere of Safety
4 Detention Sphere
3 Runed Halo
3 Faith's Fetters
3 Copy Enchantment
3 Leyline of Sanctity
3 Sigil of the Empty Throne
2 Story Circle
2 Idyllic Tutor
3 Storage Matrix
Lands
10 Plains
4 Tectonic Edge
3 Hallowed Fountain
3 Celestial Colonnade
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Mutavault
2 Island
3 Greater Auramancy
3 Rest in Peace
3 Aura of Silence
3 Nevermore
3 Holy Day
Card descriptions
Sideboard descriptions
G/W/U
4 Ghostly Prison
4 Sphere of Safety
4 Copy Enchantment
4 Detention Sphere
4 Utopia Sprawl
3 Fertile Ground
2 Sigil of the Empty Throne
Spells
4 Serum Visions
2 Idyllic Tutor
4 Storage Matrix
Lands
6 Plains
4 Forest
4 Temple Garden
4 Hallowed Fountain
3 Misty Rainforest
2 Island
2 Celestial Colonnade
3 Rest in Peace
4 Runed Halo
4 Nevermore
4 Leyline of Sanctity
It's much faster with the ramp from Utopia Sprawl and Fertile Ground and cantriping from serum visions and focuses more on getting prisons up quickly which is great against aggro but worse on game one against combo. Game two against combo you side out the prisons and bring in specific hate like Nevermore and Runed Halo or whatever you need.
W/U
4 Ghostly Prison
4 Leyline of Sanctity
4 Detention Sphere
3 Sphere of Safety
3 Copy Enchantment
3 Porphyry Nodes
3 Runed Halo
2 Sigil of the Empty Throne
2 Idyllic Tutor
4 Serum Visions
Artifacts
3 Storage Matrix
Lands
11 Plains
6 Island
4 Hallowed Fountain
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Celestial Colonnade
3 Greater Auramancy
4 Rest in Peace
4 Nevermore
3 Rule of Law
1 Runed Halo
Mono W
4 Oblivion Ring
4 Porphyry Nodes
4 Leyline of Sanctity
4 Ghostly Prison
3 Sphere of Safety
3 Idyllic Tutor
3 Runed Halo
3 Endless Horizons
2 Rule of Law
2 Sigil of the Empty Throne
3 Storage Matrix
Lands
21 Plains
4 Tectonic Edge
4 Rest in Peace
4 Nevermore
3 Greater Auramancy
2 Aura of Silence
1 Runed Halo
1 Rule of Law
Thanks! I'm having a lot of fun with it and a lot of rage quits against it haha. There's a lot of directions to take the deck in with card draw, combo hate, aggro hate, mana ramp ect. There's a lot that has to fit in here but also a lot of options so I need to figure out a good ratio for everything. I'm probably going to be posting a few lists soon that are all a little different.
4 Ghostly Prison
4 Sphere of Safety
4 Copy Enchantment
4 Detention Sphere
4 Utopia Sprawl
3 Fertile Ground
2 Sigil of the Empty Throne
Spells
4 Serum Visions
2 Idyllic Tutor
4 Storage Matrix
Lands
6 Plains
4 Forest
4 Temple Garden
4 Hallowed Fountain
3 Misty Rainforest
2 Island
2 Celestial Colonnade
3 Rest in Peace
4 Runed Halo
4 Nevermore
4 Leyline of Sanctity
It's much faster with the ramp from Utopia Sprawl and Fertile Ground and cantriping from serum visions and focuses more on getting prisons up quickly which is great against aggro but worse on game one against combo. Game two against combo you side out the prisons and bring in specific hate like Nevermore and Runed Halo or whatever you need.
Maybe -1 land, +1 Idyllic Tutor with this list since there are 7 ramp enchantments. I'll have to see how it tests more, i'm sitting at 25 lands now.
I think you might be right against fetters. I'm not really missing story circle too much either.
I think the basic shell needs to be
4 Sphere of Safety
4 Copy Enchantment
4 Storage Matrix
4 Detention Sphere / Runed Halo
With whatever amount of ramp/removal/draw/counters you want to have in the remaining spots with a combo hate SB.
I see, but with the high average cmc cards in the deck I feel ramp's pretty useful. You need to get those prisons out fast against an aggro deck.
Here are some more interesting cards I found that may have a place here.
Phyrexian Arena
Braid of Fire
Abundance
Porphyry Nodes
Teferi's Moat
Painful Quandary
Rule of Law
Endless Horizons
Prison Term
Soul Tithe
Trace of Abundance
Soul Tithe looks the most interesting being that it plays with our mana lock.
The big thing I see this deck having trouble with are ramp into fatties decks. I also am not convinced that Detention Sphere is worth running over Oblivion Ring.
Reprint Opt for Modern!!
FREE DIG THOROUGH TIME!
PLAY MORE ROUGE DECKS!
I agree, they both hose combo and fast swarm aggro decks like elves and affinity. Let's try making a list with Rule of Law and maybe Porphyry Nodes. I like nodes because of its extremely low cmc, we can get it out quick against aggro so ramping may not be as important. I do like Soul Tithe though too just because it's a worst case permanent removal like Detention Sphere for 2 mana. Both of these cards are 1 and 2 mana too unlike the rest of them which are 3+ cmc.
A good sb could be steal creatures. Like the old standard deck iminate domain did. You play threads of disloyalty, the gain control of a tapped perm, mind control cards with faith's fetters and copy enchantment. Basically steal your opponent's wincons.
Idk. Just a thought. They will be taking out all or most of the creature removal. So you can take a few important guys and just win.
Rest in peace should maybe be a main as 1 of to tutor for. There are a ton of graveyard based synergies.
How? It just gives them something to destroy that is not a critical creature. Sure it allows Nodes to stick around longer, but it will cease to shred their board if you have to use Orchard too often. Having an Indestructible creature, on the other hand, means Nodes remains in play till it is removed by opponent.
Reprint Opt for Modern!!
FREE DIG THOROUGH TIME!
PLAY MORE ROUGE DECKS!
This deck needs 4 leyline of sanctity MD.
ED: and yeah nodes + orchard doesn't work very well, I've tried it.
W/U
4 Ghostly Prison
4 Leyline of Sanctity
4 Detention Sphere
3 Sphere of Safety
3 Copy Enchantment
3 Porphyry Nodes
3 Runed Halo
2 Sigil of the Empty Throne
2 Idyllic Tutor
4 Serum Visions
Artifacts
3 Storage Matrix
Lands
11 Plains
6 Island
4 Hallowed Fountain
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Celestial Colonnade
3 Greater Auramancy
4 Rest in Peace
4 Nevermore
3 Rule of Law
1 Runed Halo
Mono W
4 Oblivion Ring
4 Porphyry Nodes
4 Leyline of Sanctity
4 Ghostly Prison
3 Sphere of Safety
3 Idyllic Tutor
3 Runed Halo
3 Endless Horizons
2 Rule of Law
2 Sigil of the Empty Throne
3 Storage Matrix
Lands
21 Plains
4 Tectonic Edge
4 Rest in Peace
4 Nevermore
3 Greater Auramancy
2 Aura of Silence
1 Runed Halo
1 Rule of Law
Just some quick thoughts:
Serum Visions:amazing early game to set yourself up and late game to keep you from drawing lands when you need more lock or vice-versa.
Porphyry Nodes:amazing in general. 1 mana to put a ton of pressure on your opponent that's trying to build quick board presence. Love it.
Endless Horizons: Works towards the same goal as Serum Visions but on steroids. Not only gives you a land every turn, but also ensures that you draw into a useful spell each turn instead of drawing a clump of mana when you need more prisons. You'll stabilize very easily once this is online. I like it.
I'm gonna have to disagree about matrix. 4 is too many but they can seriously slow down an opponent trying to get board presence and beat into you. Matrix only lets them do one at a time while you stabilize and settle in. Definitely one of the cards that makes the deck work. Just board em out asap against control/combo.
4 Luminarch ascension is overkill. Have 2 or so that you can fetch when you're stabilized. No point in trying to squeeze them out when they take up spots in the deck for more prisons. When you get to the point where it's impossible for them to touch you, you can take as much time as you want winning.
Definitely interesting. I'll whip something up
Yeah, I started dropping 1 sphere of safety. They're still incredibly good though, a big part of our game plan is to get one out in every game. Having too many does get expensive and slow to cast so 4 probably is too many. It also probably depends on if you're playing with ramp or not.
The thing with cards like threads of disloyalty is they take up slots for combo hate. I'll try and whip something up though.
4 Detention Sphere
4 Runed Hallo
4 Ghostly Prison
4 Porphyry Nodes
3 Copy Enchantment
3 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Sphere of Safety
1 Curse of Echoes
3 Terminus
3 Syncopate
Planeswalkers
2 Jace, Memory Adept
2 Gideon, Champion of Justice
Lands
13 Plains
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Glacial Fortress
2 Celestial Colonnade
2 Island
3 Nevermore
3 Rest in Peace
3 Greater Auramancy
2 Aetherling
1 Terminus
1 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Curse of Echoes
1 Entreat the Angels
I don't have fetchs but could go there also.
Comments?
Check in this link.
I slightly modified it to add some Endless Horizons, some Gitaxian Probe and some Journey to Nowhere, and a single Elspeth, Knight-Errant as well. I might change Journey to Story Circle. It seems pretty much like Leyline of Sanctity but without preventing mill or discard. It`s fine, though, since it prevents creature damage!
Also... all your decks dont have the greatest prison of all: Suppression Field! How could you forget them?! It works on fetchlands, taps, combos, planewalkers and TONS of other things! If you get it turn 2 against control or Pod, they`ll be slowed for life, specially if they play fetchlands ;D
I also liked your ideas of Storage Matrix and Worship. Definitely interesting stuff here.
My deck is:
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
3 Gitaxian Probe
2x Endless Horizons
4x Ghostly Prison
2x Story Circle
1x Leyline of Sanctity
2x Nevermore
4x Oblivion Ring
4x Porphyry Nodes
1x Rest in Peace
2x Runed Halo
4x Sigil of the Empty Throne
2x Sphere of Safety
4x Suppression Field
2 Tectonic Edge
18 Plains
2 Stony Silence
2 Runed Halo
2 Nevermore
3 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Rest in Peace
2 Worship
2 Blind Obedience
1x Heliod, God of the Sun
Sorcery (4)
4x Idyllic Tutor
Enchantments (31)
4x Porphyry Nodes
4x Suppression Field
1x Rest in Peace
3x Runed Halo
1x Nevermore
4x Ghostly Prison
4x Oblivion Ring
1x Story Circle
1x Phyrexian Unlife
1x Endless Horizons
1x Leyline of Sanctity
1x Sphere of Safety
3x Sigil of the Empty Throne
1x Privileged Position
1x Touch of the Eternal
1x Debtors' Knell
3 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
2 Mistveil Plains
18 Plains
2 Stony Silence
2 Runed Halo
2 Nevermore
2 Spirit of the Labyrinth
3 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Rest in Peace
2 Blind Obedience
If I`d make such a deck, I`d cut white and red completely (for what, Wildfire?) and would focus on more artifacts to disrupt your opponent. Also would play Thoughtcast. Im not otherwise too knowledgeable on artifacts, but I think there are some which would be really interesting to play, like Eternity Vessel, Platinum Angel, Mindslaver. Of course those are high-cost, but then you would probably have some ramp for artifacts.
1x Heliod, God of the Sun
Sorceries (6)
4x Serum Visions
2x Supreme Verdict
Instants (2)
2x Sphinx's Revelation
Enchantments (27)
4x Runed Halo
3x Copy Enchantment
4x Detention Sphere
4x Ghostly Prison
3x Nevermore
1x Oblivion Ring
4x Leyline of Sanctity
2x Sigil of the Empty Throne
2x Sphere of Safety
1x Arid Mesa
1x Celestial Colonnade
4x Glacial Fortress
4x Hallowed Fountain
1x Island
3x Marsh Flats
2x Misty Rainforest
2x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
4x Plains
2x Scalding Tarn
2x Path to Exile
2x Defense Grid
2x Sanctimony
2x Stony Silence
3x Suppression Field
2x Oblivion Ring
2x Rule of Law
Round 1: Merfolk 2/0 (I was lucky this round because he was not experienced with the deck)
Round 2: UR Delver 2/1 (very tight game, Sphinx of revelation helped a lot, as well as nevermore and runed halo's shutting down threats and cards. Defense Grid came down game 3 and swung it in my direction)
Round 3: BW Tokens 2/0 (I drew too many answers to his threats to keep up. Ghostly Prisons plus Sphere of Safety x2 with 5 enchantments in play caused him to scoop game 1)
Round 4: GR Tron 2/0 (he had slow draws first game, second game I had turn two stony silence followed up with two nevermore to shut down his answers)
Round 5: BW Tokens 2/0 (same as round 3. Started both games with leyline of sanctity which shut down his thoughtseizes).
I had been using Prophery Nodes but they've been too slow. The Supreme Verdicts have helped a lot. The Sphinx's usually win me the game when they resolve. The Serum Visions seem to be a must have. They get me the mana a lot faster, or answers. Before I had included them I would go into top-deck mode quite a bit waiting for either the 5th mana or to draw an enchantment.
4x Ghostly Prison
3x Leyline of Sanctity
3x Nevermore
2x Oblivion Ring
4x Runed Halo
1x Sigil of the Empty Throne
3x Sphere of Safety
2x Suppression Field
Instant (3)
2x Path to Exile
1x White Sun's Zenith
1x Mistveil Plains
2x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
16x Plains
4x Tectonic Edge
1x Urza's Factory
Sorcery (7)
2x Day of Judgment
1x Idyllic Tutor
4x Wrath of God
Creature (4)
4x Wall of Omens
1x Baneslayer Angel
1x Batterskull
3x Kitchen Finks
2x Luminarch Ascension
1x Nevermore
1x Path to Exile
2x Porphyry Nodes
2x Rest in Peace
2x Stony Silence
I'm running this list at the moment. For budget reasons, I prefer to stick it to mono-white. Let me know how the list looks
RIP: GWU Midrange (2012-2013) | GWR Ally (2014-2016)
Myth Realized seems aweeeesome. With man lands as a win con?
People seem to be undervaluing this card but I think it will make some sort of splash. I really like the idea of the prison deck and maybe this could be the perfect win on along with Sigil of the Empty Throne
Modern: RW Burn
Myth is being talked about as the New Goyf so pick them up quick lol
Because Myth has been added. I added the G-Probes and Visions in to the deck for easy leveling.
4 Ghostly Prison
4 Leyline of Sanctity
4 Detention Sphere
3 Sphere of Safety
3 Copy Enchantment
4 Porphyry Nodes
2 Sigil of the Empty Throne
3 Monastery Sieges
3 Myth Realized
3 Gitaxian Probe
Lands
4 Flooded Strand
4 Hallowed Fountain
7 Plains
5 Island
2 Celestial Colonnade
2 Mutavault
3 Greater Auramancy
4 Rest in Peace
4 Nevermore
2 Rule of Law
2 Story Cricle
I like your list a lot. I keep coming back to this deck because I love prison style decks and this seems to be the most effective one in modern. Anyway I too have had a history of problems facing Junk. I'd almost call it my worst match-up. I have thrown in 3 copies of spreading sea's to see if I could screw with their manabase a bit, in addition to runed halo and nevermore's, but that was too slow and ineffective. I think I will try your idea of going with a full set of nevermore, typically I would run 2 maindeck and 1 sideboard. I have had success with greater auramancy but that's a 1 of, so adding the siege along with it, would probably help.
11 Snow-Covered Plains
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
Enchantments:
3 Suppression Field
4 Runed Halo
2 Blind Obedience
4 Journey to Nowhere
4 Ghostly Prison
4 Sphere of Safety
4 Leyline of Sanctity
4 Nevermore
4 Detention Sphere
3 Monastery Siege
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
3 Chalice of the Void
3 Rest in Peace
3 Stony Silence
3 Ghost Quarter
3 Defense Grid
Junk hasn't been much of a problem the times I've playtested against it. Leyline is relatively key in the match, which stops their discard, while Nevermore should always name Abrupt Decay(Sometimes Maelstrom Pulse). I am running a lot more removal in the form of Journey to Nowheres and the full set of D Spheres though. Suppression field is also good in the matchup as they run a good amount of fetchlands, it slows down Liliana, and makes their manlands extremely inefficient.
I haven't playtested with Myth Realized, but it doesn't seem all that good to me, It still dies to most creature removal in the format besides burn spells and lacks any form of evasion to really seem worthwhile as a wincon. As for Sigil of the Empty Throne, I've played it a lot and it isn't horrible, but it gums up the 5 mana slot with Sphere of Safety and doesn't do anything itself when you play it, effectively wasting the turn. Emrakul I will fully admit is a little too cute as a win con, but it's enjoyable to hardcast in a deck that has no business in hardcasting it. Besides Emrakul, my main (horribly inefficient) way of winning is extort triggers off of Blind Obedience.
Commander
U Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive
RG Zilortha, Strength Incarnate
WB Amalia Benavides Aguirre
I might go down to 3 Nykthos but overall I haven't found 23 lands to be overly detrimental. I will point out that the overall mana curve of my deck(minus Emrakul of course) is lower than yours which does make a difference as well.
Storage Matrix has definitely been on my radar, but the matchups it does well in(aggro) I already don't have much a problem with. Not sure if I'd really want to cut anything to add it and feel like I've made a worthwhile improvement.
Commander
U Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive
RG Zilortha, Strength Incarnate
WB Amalia Benavides Aguirre
3 Nyx-Fleece Ram
Spells:33
1 Greater Auramancy
4 Runed Halo
3 Suppression Field
1 Detention Sphere
4 Ghostly Prison
2 Idyllic Tutor
1 Monastery Siege
4 Nevermore
1 Oblivion Ring
2 Sphinx's Revelation
3 Leyline of Sanctity
3 Wrath of God
2 Sigil of the Empty Throne
2 Sphere of Safety
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Flooded Strand
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Hallowed Fountain
2 Island
6 Plains
2 Rest in Peace
2 Stony Silence
1 Aura of Silence
1 Oblivion Ring
2 Rule of Law
3 Timely Reinforcements
1 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Supreme Verdict
1 Open the Vaults
I like the idea of emrakul along with the shrines. I need to pick up a play set of Nykthos to try that out. I was thinking that 1 copy of open the vaults from the sideboard would be good for my local metagame, because a few people have started making a habit of running enchantment sweepers like back to nature in their sideboards just for my deck. The celestial colonnade's have always been good, despite the suppression field making it costlier. I suppose I don't really need the islands, I've just been nervous about blood moon screwing me out of blue. I have been trying 3-4 copies of serum visions for quite some time, and they are usually good. But I was going to try the nyx-fleece rams in their place to see if that gives me more of a leg up against the harder matchups.
Regarding nodes, I had given up on them a while ago, they never did well enough against decks that populate the board with creatures quickly, and while they helped against midrange decks, I felt that wrath of god was just as effective.
Also, I have tried Chalice of the Void when I splashed red. It was very good. That was back when Treasure Cruise was legal and delver was everywhere. I've not tried it since they banned Treasure Cruise.