Good Evening Pyro Prison Players!
I know I have been out and about for awhile now in the month of February. I've been taking care of some personal things, but intently watching the meta when able and practicing when I can. I see we have many new faces, and although I cannot get quite back as far as I need to in order to catch up I tossed myself back 3 pages and thought I'd quote you guys and say hello and give some comments as I see them (which many have been answered by the likes of Raystack, Caligula, Zayl, Nate, and others!).
Hey guys, fairly new to the prison strategy and love reading through this stuff to learn. Hopefully after some more experience I can give some input/ideas.
Welcome! Fresh eyes are always welcome. As some of the semi-veteran players are settling in we can lose sight of what may be another angle to tackle! By all means take all our suggestions to heart but bring your own also, especially if you have some of that sweet sweet data of results to back it up!
Congrats! I believe you were also taking this to a Badlands reward type of event this past (or previously past) Sunday! Hope that went well, and great run to start things out!
It is called sun and moon becasue the sun emblem on the white pips + blood moon, our RW list has very little resemlance to it though so we are far enough away to be considered a separate deck.
Like Ray said Grafdiggers cage is a necessary evil, Though often times decks that want a grafdiggers you want chalice on 2 more than three weird how that works out.
Koth of the Hammer is a very powerful card yes. and playing +ulting him early is insane. but right now bolt is very highly played so getting him to stay out is the problem especially since we cant protect him with giving ourself hexproof anymore. plus you have to run atleat 14 mountains to make him practical as well.
I'd like to back both Ray and Zayl here. The funny thing that is mentioned is sometimes you 'skip' Chalice on 1, this is understanding your meta opponent and what is likely to disrupt you from winning. Many points in modern you'll find that yes we are non-bo'ing as people call it, but if you don't have the effect in play by T4 anyway you're falling behind. Many will note our deck is 'inconsistent' and while this may have some truth to it we tackle the meta like a control deck does. A control deck wishes for the game to exceed past 8+ turns in order to aseemble pieces. We do similar things at times where we try to limit our opponents resources to give us the attempt to 'draw 8 (8 turns)'. Albeit we are giving out opponent that opportunity to draw out. Many will say that is not a way to play magic, but I'd fire back that my deck has a larger probablity to draw out my win condition as I retain X win conditions within the size of Y deck, where you have Z outs to get around my locks or limiting spells out of your deck.
Sorry, new to the deck, why is Eidonlon good against burn?
Am afraid that your own eidolon may end up locking up yourself?
Would some kind of sweepers better in its place?
I’m glad you asked AvalancheRiders! You’re right in questioning the Eidolons against burn. The reason it works is that they won’t lose us the game unless we play an ensnaring bridge, but in a situation where you have an eidolon out against burn you wouldn’t play the bridge anyway! Eidolon gives us more pressure against burn since every single spell in their deck will become a shock to their face, and also allows us to have a blocker when It gets close. At the very worst it gets hit with a lightning bolt or they have to block it with a goblin guide or an eidolon of their own, which essentially turns it into a 3 for 1, as it shocks them, and reduces the amount our face would’ve taken. At the very best against burn, it can win us the game, either by providing a win con or by giving us time to find a chalice or moon to lock them out further.
This is a great response, well done Nate. I want to add my own words which may just simply echo this. My best example was actually an upset opponent. My opponent (on MTGO) slammed their messages in chat of the typical lucky, bad deck, etc. What was the most satisfying thing to read though was the comment "And you kept Eidolon in versus burn, what an idiot." What was satisfying about this is that we understood the matchup more then our opponent. What do I mean by this? Firstly, the deck I was running had x4 Eidolon sideboard, and x4 Bridge mainboard. G2 and G3 (I forget if it went to G3), involved the typical swaps of Anger of the Gods/Eidolons in and things like Ensnaring Bridge and probably some other shenanigans. What is not understood though is we are not hiding behind a bridge, which my opponent has to assume - Most will assume you are "Free Win Red" made popular by Saffron Olive of MTGGoldfish. This is where most get their data, and nothing wrong with that. Just something to note, when deciding if you are the "Aggo" or the "Control" matchup, it is important to know to give you the best edge. In the case of Eidolon, we are applying pressure. You won't get behind a bridge fast enough so you must rely on removal packages and aggression. Goodluck in your burn matchups! They can be quite 50/50 G1 not knowing what your opponent is on.
This is what I've been thinking open to suggestions. Not 100% on the sideboard yet. I like the main. Only switch to that might be switching the Chandra in the board for the Koth in the main. I had thought about the "Light up the Stage" build that Fluffy had a few weeks back but I feel that I could play the traditional style pyro prison a bit better.
Let me know what you guys think.
I know I am late for this response but wanted to say I hope it went well, and always consider playing something you are familiar with and understand the ins-and-outs! This rewards players much more then making last minute changes. Only when firmly comfortable with the deck would I recommend last minute changes. For the record, I cannot decide if I like Light up the Stage, and still cannot. I feel it may be the bait card like Sarkhan was a few sets back.
Been messing around with the deck again; out of curiosity, what are our worst matchups?
Great question, and I believe this is opinionated a touch between the community, it will also rely on your build and how you are approaching the meta. I'll break it down to three versions you could run, and then give from the "Classic" list what the matchups that are bad are.
Aggro List: Includes 6+ Rabblemasters and sometimes Eidolons in the Main. May consider Pia & Kiran or Hazoret and may go the extra mile with an additional one or a Koth. This list tends to lack a bit of removal for more power, and will be suited for Control, Burn, and Jund metas, though Jund may still give the creature dense list a run for its money.
Control List: This list will favor a heavy reliance on the planeswalker kill. It will possibly run the x4 Rabble but that would be it for creatures. It may choose to try and play something sneakier like Trinisphere or more sweepers. This list will do well in Creature/Midrange type of metas.
Classic List: Balances Moons/Locks/Creatures/Walkers. This is what we call the 50/50 and sometimes suffers from the "Drawing the wrong side of the deck" however with an appropriate sideboard G2/G3 should be well tuned and G1 should challenge Greedy Manabases. It will suffer to Combo drastically at times. This one is well suited for a GP or Large event, due to a more 'balanced' approach and the 'unknown' meta.
What are the bad matchups?
Jund - This deck has the most removals for Bridge/Moon/Chalice, and can typically function on 1 Forest/1 Swamp. If they sniff you are Blood Moon based in G1 it is an uphill battle.
UW Control - This deck runs the gambit of basics, and can get ahead of us if we are not careful. Please note that UWx control decks are not unfavored, but the straight UW one is.
Hardened Scales & KCI... Just kidding =) - But I'll note a combo deck ignoring you and not heavily reliant on the mana base will be difficult. Hardened Scales can fit into this category due to the range of attack points.
Dredge - This deck just wins, and our graveyard in the Mono Red version is weak.
Eldrazi Tron - Ratchet Bomb, T1 TKS (yes I've seen this), A Waste. Ugh this deck... I'd almost rather see just Tron then Eldrazi Tron
Devoted Druid Combo (Only for Fluffy) - I'm up to losing to this about 15 times on T3. I dunno, its my luck. This shouldn't be a hard matchup...
Tron & Burn (Ad Naus) - I'll note Tron as a 50/50 matchup - If you are on the right side of the tracks you will have x2 Games to win it, fall in the first game and it is an uphill battle. I would not call this unfavorable and actually may come down to the dice roll for who is first, it is the Honorable Mention of difficulty
What are the good matchups?
Wow that's a lot of bad matchups? So what is good and why?
Grixis Death Shadow - Chalice on 1, Blood Moon, Ensnaring Bridge. We are literally built for this. The more seasoned opponent will make it difficult appropriately countering what we have with Stubborn Denial, and the more seasonsed Pyro Prison player will know when to wait or when to go with it (when you can't wait anymore or the risk of losing something to thoughtseize is too much).
Humans & Spirits - Probably more Humans on this but both fold hard to Blood Moon and Bridge. Chalice is a littel bit of an awkward card but you should be clear for take off against these.
Affinity (Normal) - If you run into the little robots and they're not flinging things with Hardened scales your Bridge and Chalice should be enough, we also tend to have enough artifact removal.
4C Prison - I actually believe this matchup is an oddball easy one unless your opponent is seasoned. Typically a Moon stops them from casting Whir, and if they haven't drowned you in lock pieces by the time your Moon is down our more proactive plan should get the job done. I call this one favored, but a lot will disagree.
Pheonix - This deck is an oddball. It is "Us as a counter" and what I mean by that is they pivot also. I've won because of Bridge, and then lost cause they turned into Pyromancer Ascension, but then my opponent has not and staid with Thing in the Ice and we win. This one is a battle that turns into some heavy hitting mind games. I'll list it as favored though as Chalice on 1 and Bridge work wonders here, and Bridge in game 1 can sometimes just be it all.
Amulet Titan - Gobble Gobble, next game.
Other decks not listed? Either more 50/50 based, or just something I haven't thought of.
How's the control matchup? Seems like you just want to be on the aggro Rabble plan. Chalice on 1 should be good, but the other lock pieces (Moon/Bridge) not so good depending on the mana base of the control deck.
Anyone else think that Trinisphere is really good right now? I know the deck is filled to the brim with 3-drops, but this could be yet another lock piece that could shut the opponent out while we do our thing. I think the ritual count would need to be increased so that turn 1/2 3-drops are more likely. Something like this perhaps:
I'm sorry to report that Modern is not like Legacy. I'll try 3-ball (Trinisphere) from time to time, but I'll shelve that one. It may be decent against Pheonix and that would be about it. If your FNM meta is Pheonix all night, slam it in the main, if it is not leave little 3-ball at home.
Resident prison experts Fluffywolf2 and Stickballruss have been testing it, and it's spicy indeed! Bedevil has been raved about in particular.
As a final note (I'll have a follow up at some point), but I think the deck list is decent and solves a problem or two that we have while hurting other matchups. My prime example is the lack of Eidolon of the Great Revel - missing from Storm based or "Multi-spell" decks. The pro of the deck, man Dredge just dies when you slam Leyline, and the combo of Chandra and Liliana is bone chilling and maybe more powerful in some cases then Jace and Teferi.
I'll have more in a future post, it is dinner, but look for the 5-0 lists from Competitive League tomorrow (Tuesday posting).
Re Humans matchup: really not sure the matchup is good in my limited testing. Yes before sideboard, they are cold to Bridge and Moon.
But meddling mage, thalia all makes reducing hand sizes difficult.
Also humans usually has either Noble or Vial to start with and thus not completely dead to Blood Moon.
I believe the matchup to be slightly less favorable
On a random note, to play devil's advocate, how does a GBx player beat Prison? I finally finished building the Rock and got crushed by a buddy who runs Red Prison as well. On a side note however, he got out a turn one Chandra second game which was too fast for me to deal with, also had to mull to 6 both games.
I do plan on going back to Prison at some point, just excited to be playing a deck with black in it again.
We love GBx decks SO much, we would be happy to help you beat us! Here are some tips!
-ALWAYS take the draw!
-ALWAYS fetch non-basics!
-game 1, T1 Thoughtseize, ALWAYS take Rabblemaster. Don't bother taking Moon, Bridge or Chalice!
-side out ALL Ass Trophies and Goyfs! They're dead cards. You don't need them.
-when ulting Lilli, ALWAYS leave them with Bridge and 4 lands!
Hope this helps! Good luck, and I hope to play against you soon!
On a random note, to play devil's advocate, how does a GBx player beat Prison? I finally finished building the Rock and got crushed by a buddy who runs Red Prison as well. On a side note however, he got out a turn one Chandra second game which was too fast for me to deal with, also had to mull to 6 both games.
I do plan on going back to Prison at some point, just excited to be playing a deck with black in it again.
We love GBx decks SO much, we would be happy to help you beat us! Here are some tips!
-ALWAYS take the draw!
-ALWAYS fetch non-basics!
-game 1, T1 Thoughtseize, ALWAYS take Rabblemaster. Don't bother taking Moon, Bridge or Chalice!
-side out ALL Ass Trophies and Goyfs! They're dead cards. You don't need them.
-when ulting Lilli, ALWAYS leave them with Bridge and 4 lands!
Hope this helps! Good luck, and I hope to play against you soon!
Actual advice, not trolling, smh. Didn't realize I'd trigger people lol.
On a serious note, I figured that learning how to take on Prison with GBx would help me learn both decks while also knowing what to do in the matchup if I played either, didn't realize it was a taboo to ask.
Current Modern Decks BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends." BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved." RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros." BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?" C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."
Lol wasn't sure. And I got smashed by my Prison buddy, which I chalk up to my total inexperience with Dwayne Johnson. xP
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Current Modern Decks BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends." BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved." RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros." BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?" C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."
Re Humans matchup: really not sure the matchup is good in my limited testing. Yes before sideboard, they are cold to Bridge and Moon.
But meddling mage, thalia all makes reducing hand sizes difficult.
Also humans usually has either Noble or Vial to start with and thus not completely dead to Blood Moon.
I believe the matchup to be slightly less favorable
Hey Avalanche!
So yes Humans have a lot of disruption, no question, but you also noted they’re cold to bridge and moon. Thalia and meddling mage make reducing hand size difficult, but usually we can drop one of our lock pieces before they can drop both of there’s, and in my decklist at least, I have 7 removal spells (if you count Chandra) that can deal with Thalia or meddling mage, while they can’t do anything to our pieces! On the play, chalice on 1 into moon or bridge means “I win.” Turn one moon also just means “I win” because even though they can cast vial, you usually have time to kill with rabblemaster before they can get to vialing, or if you run Abrades those work too! f they spend all they’re time locking your pieces up with mage it only takes one sweeper to get out of it. I can’t prove to you that this matchup is favorable for us, I can only mention my own results. I’ve played Pyro Prison for a little over a year now and while I’ve lost a few games to Humans, I’ve never lost a best-of-3 Round to them. If you’re worried about them torpor orb is good sideboard tech, and I almost lost a round to a Humans player but won off the back of Pia and Kiran Nalaar with some well placed blocks and shocks!
Wish you luck in your future matchups and I hope this helped!
GB Rock has usually been a tough matchup for me because discard will destroy certain hands. Sometimes you keep a dream hand of double ritual, SSG, Chalice, Chandra, and Mountain, only to get Chandra Thoughseized and your Chalice getting blown up by Trophy. Now they have an active Liliana or a big Goyf and now your only out is Bridge and a finisher. Discard and mainboard removal that kills anything is good. Some games, Moon does nothing and is close to a dead card.
I find GBx to be our worst matchup, actually. They just really don't care about any of our lock pieces unless we're on the play and land a T1 Moon. Even then, strictly GB usually has a number of basics.
GB Rock has usually been a tough matchup for me because discard will destroy certain hands. Sometimes you keep a dream hand of double ritual, SSG, Chalice, Chandra, and Mountain, only to get Chandra Thoughseized and your Chalice getting blown up by Trophy. Now they have an active Liliana or a big Goyf and now your only out is Bridge and a finisher. Discard and mainboard removal that kills anything is good. Some games, Moon does nothing and is close to a dead card.
I agree that the discard package coupled with removal can turn good hands into steaming piles real quick, but I actually have more trouble with straight UW than GBx. I guess it just depends on what you have in the side though. Mine is more focused on beating graveyard strategies than I would like, but there are just so many decks abusing the yard it kinda seems like you have to pack more than just one form of grave hate to make absolutely sure you get some alongside a decent hand within a couple mulls.
Edit: Also, I recently came upon the card War's Toll and was thinking it could be very powerful. What do you guys think?
War's Toll seems neat! Might be worth playing around with.
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Current Modern Decks BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends." BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved." RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros." BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?" C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."
They can still tap all their lands for mana in response to the trigger, but they lose it all in the next phase and won't be able to do anything on your turn if they play anything on their own.
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Decks: Modern:
Pyro Prison
Sun and Moon
Eldrazi Stompy
[quote from="joymonger »" url="/forums/the-game/modern/established-modern/control/663335-pyro-prison-goblinized-mono-red-control-the?comment=3318"]Also, I recently came upon the card War's Toll and was thinking it could be very powerful. What do you guys think?
That looks interesting, unfortunately it's not modern legal.
It was printed in Dissension as well. I had to check because I thought the same thing. Lol. Does the card really do anything that crazy, though? Like can't the opponent just float the mana?
On a random note, to play devil's advocate, how does a GBx player beat Prison? I finally finished building the Rock and got crushed by a buddy who runs Red Prison as well. On a side note however, he got out a turn one Chandra second game which was too fast for me to deal with, also had to mull to 6 both games.
I do plan on going back to Prison at some point, just excited to be playing a deck with black in it again.
We love GBx decks SO much, we would be happy to help you beat us! Here are some tips!
-ALWAYS take the draw!
-ALWAYS fetch non-basics!
-game 1, T1 Thoughtseize, ALWAYS take Rabblemaster. Don't bother taking Moon, Bridge or Chalice!
-side out ALL Ass Trophies and Goyfs! They're dead cards. You don't need them.
-when ulting Lilli, ALWAYS leave them with Bridge and 4 lands!
Hope this helps! Good luck, and I hope to play against you soon!
Actual advice, not trolling, smh. Didn't realize I'd trigger people lol.
On a serious note, I figured that learning how to take on Prison with GBx would help me learn both decks while also knowing what to do in the matchup if I played either, didn't realize it was a taboo to ask.
@Joker
GB Matchup (Non Jund) is not always difficult for us when we take them off a color. Obviously in this variant they are just looking for Green / Black, versus Jund has this weird need to have a few red spells also. So typically if the Prison player is able to get a moon down before a single forest AND single swamp are down we're good. GB obviously does play sets of double black spells, and Dark Confidant is a bit of a problem card for us when established early. Usually if Prison is running the Bridge/Chalice/Moon out quickly they likely do not have a "Fast" follow up (top decks or necessary lands do happen).
The race is on from there, Chalice on 2 to protect things (with the adoption of Assassin's Trophy) and a threat, versus the biggest card that we can't beat. Tarmogoyf. Why I bring this little fella up? We are likely to have a land (GB's land), a sorcery, an instant, probably someone's creature, and then are sitting there with either Planeswalker/Enchantment/Artifact. If we are ever stripped of our lock pieces and Tarmogoyf swings in, goyf is usually big enough for 2 swings. The other problem card is actually Liliana, we have usually 2 sideboard cards to deal with it, aside from attacking. Lilly ult (can usually wait till 7 so you don't lose her) just crushes the deck because they strip lands/lock pieces accordingly and we are typically staring at a big Scooze/Tracker/Tarmogoyf, and typically they only need 2 creatures to win quickly.
Russ will say "Tarmogoyf is unkillable for red" and he is not entirely wrong. In my testing of the RB version the Bedevil hits Goyf's so much to avoid this downfall to straight Mono-red.
Thoughtseize also typically can ruin us, and like mentioned if you have the appropriate fetches, the Moon may be totally worth skipping. Free win red does not win often because of 'lack of pressure' and the same can be true for Pyro Prison (albeit it - usually it has more pressure).
That's how GB should attack our deck. Caligula does make a bit of a joke mainly cause the GBx matchup is more difficult and unfavored for us. Man do we hate T1 Thoughtseize. On that note, fetch a basic swamp, even if you have some Green. You're likely to draw it and you can determine if a moon threat was a big thing or not, but if you "Go for it" and get Overgrown Tomb, we are a top deck away from stopping you completely - versus you just inherently slowing down.
Also T1 Chandra is busted, so that's just variance.
Happy slinging spells!
@Avalanche
We can in some cases have x4 Anger, Torpor Orb, a few extra abrades, and have removed our creatures. This makes us heavy removal and looking for lock pieces. Typically a fast start from an opponent can get us, but we are usually favored. We typically lock them out yes, and they do have noble, but you're looking at a lot of ways to kill a lot of their creatures post board. We can minimize win conditions to literally chandra.
Russ notes Walking Ballista is a great killer of Thalia and completely fine to put on 1 turn 2 with the idea that it is sacrificed to pick off a Thalia.
Before getting into Pyro Prison: Apologies as I have been a bit absent lately. I took out a pet deck, 4 years in development, on the battlefields of MODO competitive leagues. Iron Souldiers 1st time outside my lgs. RESULTS: 8 Leagues.
18 Wins // 22 Losses
I am perfectly happy with that. First, the meta couldn't be worse as I am trying to out-aggro the fastest decks that Modern has EVER seen. Second, that's reasonably close to 50/50 with a 100% homebrew.
@FluffyWolf2 crafted an absolutely stellar analysis of how Pyro Prison handles its opponents: GOOD MATCHUPS vs. BAD MATCHUPS. I'll include it in the Official Primer under strategy guide heading. Outstanding work as usual. He's also in the midst of working up a Rakdos Pyro Prison tutorial that I'm anxiously awaiting. I ran out my own version at a 20 person FNM a couple nights ago: 3-1 finish.
Regarding the recent success and publishing of Pyro Prison
It's all about branding. Consider that Merfolk/Fish is not known as Mono-Blue Aggro. Pyro Prison is far more distinct than the generic label of Mono-Red Control.
Actually, it's worth noting that although some major Magic publishers don't rightfully recognize our pedigree: Pyro Prison, they HAVE stopped calling the overall archetype 'Mono-Red Control'. Now they call it 'Mono-Red Prison'.
Coincidence???
Magic has main categories for their deck definition which are defined here on MTG Salvation, but also are defined within the community Deck Archetypes defined by MTG Gamepedia. These range from essentially, Aggro, Combo, and Control. That being said there are 35 breakdowns within the wiki linked.
A Prison deck is a deck which tries to slow down the opponent or bring his gameplan to a complete halt and preventing him from regaining any momentum. Cards such as Winter Orb, Kismet and Opposition are popular to construct such decks as they heavily rely on tapping down the opponents resources and other permanents. Early decks used Icy Manipulator to tap the one land the opponent had available.
In essence, we seek to limit our opponent from playing their gameplan. I define their gameplan as to define 'playing magic' as our goal would be near impossible and untainable, but I will give an example of a deck which attempts to do this. There is also the essence of what can be a 'True Lock' and in the world of magic that can be extremely difficult, and I'll give an example that may be confusing but provide also an example of why it is not a true lock, and once again provide the deck that attempts to establish this.
Finally I will link an old article (there are certainly newer ones) The Art of Transformation. This article talks about sideboards that transform. I add this to the discussion as a talking point for later.
If you'd like you may skip ahead to the Deck headers, but if you'd like to hear my comments on locks and transformation, then please continue reading
==Locks==
We define a lock as the moment in which an opponent should have No Outs to the board state, and it is a matter of drawing a win condition or decking out the opponent of cards. A very primitive example would be a Burn opponent having only spells that target an opponent and you playing a Leyline of Sanctity. The card itself is not a "Lock" however if the totality of cards in your opponents deck lacks interaction to remove the card, along with then dealing the appropriate damage, you have essentially locked your opponent out. Other examples can include:
Lock Examples
A hexproof creature Troll Ascetic and Worship - against an opponent with no sweepers and targeted removal.
Establishing a Platinum Angel and hooking up Lightning Greaves to give it that 'hexproof' style - against an opponent with no artifact removal/no sweepers.
A favorite, Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir and Knowledge Pool prevents opponents from casting any cards as the resolving Knowledge Pool trigger is at instant speed - Note this is not a lock against Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger cast trigger which can exile the components of the lock.
Example of a Non-Lock but perceived as a Lock
Infinite Combos - Gaining absurd amounts of life may be a way to define that you are now 'unkillable' but this does not eliminate other win conditions or an equally infinite damage combo in return.
Infinite Loops with No Progression - If your opponent can infinitely take turns, it does not mean they have won. They may lack a win condition. A great example of this was the recent Arena issues with Nexus of Fate.
There is a critical line to play between online and paper though. The Clock or Time in the Round. Unlike online where you have the ability to time out your opponent, paper if you cannot complete a game it becomes a draw and the person with the most wins does win. This doesn't mean you must concede as soon as an appeared lock is established. In many cases, you can attempt to play on for some time but then allow your opponent to play 'another' card and then scoop up your cards to save time. What this does is allows you to acquire more knowledge if your opponent is playing cards, while giving your opponent more cards to consider in your pull of playable cards. Keep in mind time in the round though, you do not want to give yourself too little time to complete the rounds, and Enough of a Lock may be sufficient grounds to concede versus waiting for a Full Lock.
==Transformational Sideboards==
I simply want to note this briefly before the analysis. Many people find cute and fun ways to 'transform their sideboards' to try and trick their opponents by going a different line of attack. Keep in mind that transformational sideboards tend to be one dimensional. The critical piece for a transformational sideboard is to determine the weak matchups and tune the transformation around these. If you are heavy control, you play against an opponent that is heavy control, and transform into a midrange, it likely is not a good idea. If you instead trasnform into an aggro package it will work wonders. That being said if you are a softer control deck with an aggro tansformational sideboard, and play against a fast linear deck, you may have minimal extra disruption. This is what I'd call a under prepared, bad matchup, or a narrow focus of the deck building strategy. There is nothing wrong, in fact having an exact mission is great, just note your focal mission, if it has a flaw or a bad matchup, nothing much is going to change and you will have a higher percentage chance of taking a match loss due to this building decsion.
For what you are all here for the analysis, review, commentary, and discussion on the deck types below.
Red Prison AKA: Pyro Prison, Mono Red Prison, Red Prison, (Legacy) Dragon Stompy
The deck is what most people here are familiar with. We have several variations of the deck to include Aggro packages (+ Legion Warboss and +Eidolon of the Great Revel main), and Control packages (usually planeswalker or more sweeper based). The deck hinges on fast explosive starts to get ahead of an opponent regardless of the dice roll. The package can have elements of 'all-in' but attempts in the Prison Fashion to limit the opponent's ability to play on curve to bide time in our all-in approach.
Pros
Fast and Explosive to apply pressure or apply locks
Proactive end game. Established locks usually have good quick follow up to minimize opponents time to draw out
Meta Targeting - When tuned can establish easier wins against Top Tier Decks while not straying far from the main focal gameplan.
Cons
All In Strategy - If you put your resources all in one line, and it is easily removed the battle becomes uphill.
Consistency - I only put this here as people argue it frequently. It may have some issues here, but the principal of lengthening a game out provides the ability to draw out. Yes it may not have filtering, your opponent should not have much either once you've put a lock piece out.
Single Color - This I'll put more in the con section then pro for now. The con being the limited access to an alternate sideboard, the pro being you should rarely have mana issues.
Card Decisions
Pyro Prison's fundamental approach is a stronger lock piece and a fast finish. The card choices to help this include:
Ensnaring Bridge - Preventing large creatures attacking gives planeswalkers or hordes of goblins to be created to swing in for victory
Blood Moon - Limiting the opponent's ability to play magic or ability to remove threats
Rabble Master or Planesalker - These are the finishers, and many planeswalkers Emblem quickly or Rabblemaster + Tokens finish the game quickly if unanswered.
Chalice of the Void - With Modern's overall Mana curve reducing for efficient spells, the more the deck becomes susceptible to fast Chalices.
Ritual/Fast Mana - You'll note in the decklist I call these fast mana. Their only purpose is to power things out ahead of curve. This is a downfall later in the game but is a card and deck building decision to get ahead of the curve.
The other cards not highlighted depend on your flare or version and your meta. Because this deck attacks the meta probably the strongest of the three examples tuning your utility is important. In this example, it is Abrade the Sweepers and Walking Ballista. This final card can be a win condition or removal for pesky bigger creatures/planeswalkers.
The Sideboard
Because of limited access to colors targeting specific matchups is important. A concession for Leyline of the Void is Ravenous Trap as many decks interacting with their graveyard do attack via creatures, thus having an uncastable card, not in the opener conflicts with your main lock pieces of Ensnaring Bridge. There are additional sweepers, aggro pieces, and artifact-based lock pieces. The downside to this and not branching to Enchantments or other abilities is your opponent's artifact removal packages will be coming in for games 2 and 3. This is a deck building concession for staying in a singleton color, but you'll note that some of these along with mainboard locks do present a difficult time for our opponents to cast their necessary removal.
RW Prison AKA: White Pyro Prison (Only in this thread really), Sun & Moon Prison, RW Taxes, PLATEAU PRISON (By Raystack), Eclipse Prison
The common theme among any white based deck or proposal of white based decks is the sideboard. Sun & Moon presents incredibly powerful threatening sideboard cards, but becomes softer with the locks and proactive gameplan mainboard. The deck itself functions on two axis one is the Prison "Sun & Moon" utilizing similar strategies to Red Prison while attempting a planeswalker (control) based finish. The other entirely different build lends itself more to the "Tax" variant, not necessarily limiting the resources for which an opponent may attack, but rather, providing decision choices for your opponent because the curve has been adjusted due to the taxing/higher cost imposed on performing actions during the game.
Pros
Diversification into another color allows a great card pool for deck building
Powerfull top end can allow for a more diverse Mid/Late game then a more all-in prison build
Typical builds are not as tuned to one set of 75 cards, leaving some unknowns for your opponent, the deck can be tuned towards a meta, albeit it goes extremely hard on that tuning, example Supression Field.
Cons
Locks tend to be softer. The list provided making a Top 8 finish happens to use Bridge but many have opted for Ghostly Prison.
Multi Colors, Multiple Pips, and Blood Moon do not always go to gether nicely.
Locks without aggro or midrange threats tend to give opponents longer to find solutions. The version linked to me removes this con by going more Red Prison like.
Sideboard tends to be in one direction (control), removing typically threats slowing the deck down for stronger lock pieces. You can say this is a pro or a con, based on meta.
Card Decisions
Sun & Moon's fundamental approach is a softer lock piece broader flexibility for matchups and control based finishes. The list provided has done well recently and is melding towards Pyro Prison/Red Prison. I'll note card choice differences below.
Lack of Rituals - Gives the deck not as explosive of a start, but removes air for top decks. The deck performs closer to "Mid Range Prison" then "Aggro Prison"
Planeswalkers - There are typically more planeswalkers or top end. Once you get to these land counts your threats are that much more important for an opponent to deal with.
The Sideboard
I pick three cards to talk about from the sideboard noting they are strong, some of the strongest shut downs to decks that care about Targeting a player, graveyard, or artifacts. Because typically there is removal of speed and proactive cards for this controlling piece you are on a hinge for if your lock piece stays in. Remembering your opponent is bringing in ways to unlock their deck the sideboard has to be one of the strongest hate cards in magic, and white does this very well compared to most. The sideboard though is filled with strictly control based cards, alternatively going another route post board becomes that much more difficult, and if you need to step on the gas you've lost this. Although the sideboard is not strictly transformational, it focuses on answering issues which inherently pushes it one direction.
RB Prison AKA: Master Prison (Creator's name), Red Black Prison, Dark Pyro (I disagree to some extent this name, but know some are calling it this).
This is the new kid on the block for some, for others, it is a tried and old tale of a variation we've yet to master or establish within the community. I believe many people will actually start to consider this list as an alternative to their Mono Red Variants for a taste of something 'with more'. Whether you want to call it a splash from Pyro, or a side page of Jund the deck features a mid-range prison style with powerful answers while taxing the mana base to the fullest in any prison archetype (I'm ignoring you 4c Whir, you just cheat stuff in). This list I'll go a touch more in depth I think in my analysis strictly as Red Prison is the thread, and RW has been talked about frequently.
Pros
Power level of cards has been upped to the next level. Concessions for staying in one color are thrown out the door deliberately in the main deck
Heavy creatureless build blanks a large portion of removal, and many lists will retain creature removal post-board due to Red Prison's Rabblemaster side effect
Black provides a level of interaction to the opponent that Red or White does not provide. Red interacts typically with the field of play, White typically reacts with the state of the board or protecting self. You'll have heard me say this Pyro Prison presents a proactive solution attempting to end the game with our card options. White variants try to be reactive. - This version does both
Flexibility of card choices and targets is widened. Abrade versus Kohlagan's Command. It could be deemed as RB's version of Cryptic.
Cons
The mana base is brutal. There are a significant number of double black pips that have to be considered, and this can awkwardly strand cards in hand when using a bridge lock.
The kill for the game tends to be a bit slower, but this is countered with the lock pieces have a lot more help staying afloat in many cases.
Self Inflicted damage or card discard can make lines of play more interesting but much more detrimental to the end game result. Fetching/Shocking is giving your Dredge or Burn opponents a free spell, versus simpler mana bases avoid this.
The elements don't always work 'together' as optimally as you think, but there is a fine line between knowing 'should I activate' or 'should I wait' and this many people picking up the list to try out will argue is the reason they lost. Essentially the learning curve I'd put almost higher then Pyro Prison.
Card Decisions
RB appears to try and answer the Red Prison's flaws with the decks. Creatures too big to kill, just enough interaction, and ways to prevent the runaway of our opponent's control on the game. Below I'll give card discussion and then talk sideboard with a final note of an opinion on this newcomer versus Pyro Prison. I will ignore card choices that overlap (The lock pieces) as these should be apparent.
Graven Cairns and Bloodstained Mire - Notably missing Gemstone Caverns - This is a nod to "I do not need to be fast." Actually starting with a fetch land or a dual land usually intices your opponent to not fetch basics, at least for now while the deck is not as obvious. This likely will change. Specifically, these cards though give you the "Double Black" without Blood Moon, or give you the opportunity to fetch a Basic Swamp. The 9 swamps are critical though and you are looking at double pips on both red and black. There is no room for Gemstone in the greedy manabase, versus RW where it is not as heavily reliant on double pips.
Bedevil - The card is hyper flexible, kills the creatures we tend to struggle with, and picks off a few artifacts on route. Planeswalkers that establish and we get stuck under (LOTV, Jace, Teferi, Other Chandra's) are problem cards. We attempt to deal with them by swinging in Goblins or picking them off with Walking Ballista. This card just says "No thanks" and can be left open. It is a card you don't wish to dump to get to 0 for bridge, and it is a card you hold and don't uptick with Liliana of the Veil if you don't have to. This card if I could just take it and splash for it in Red Prison... I probably would. Assassin's Trophy is just better some will say. I'll pay 1 more and prevent the search of a basic land. Blood Moon thanks you for your extra pip.
Kolaghan's Command has been discussed. I've heard time and time again "There are no creatures to recur with it" and... that's correct. Artifact removal, small creature removal, and discard removal. Against Tron this is amazing. We get to top decking and you can just clear a turn out because very little is at instant speed. Review this card like a utility swiss army knife, and know when it doesn't do enough, but know when it does just more.
Collective Brutality - is an odd one to help with Bridge, to remove or check for counters and clear the way, or remove spells/gain a little life. It helps undo the fetching we are doing to correct manabases, and is a nice premium removal with flexibility. We praise Abrade and this just has an extra mode while enabling our bridge. Oh, it backs the rule of thumb, no 1 CMC spells.
Master of Cruelties - The first card I'd cut before playing the deck. The absolute last card I would cut now. Incidental life gain, difficult opponents, needing to 'flip the switch' in a turn or two. This card is for you. It is a wall, it blocks, it threatens, its small enough for bridge, yet big enough to miss Bolt/Fatal Push. It falls short to Disemember & Path to Exile, as does Hazoret. If it connects, you have numerous cards that just win you the game, and it didn't matter how much life your opponent was at. It blocks big things and small things. Basically, give it a try... don't just cut it before you get a game or two with it.
The Sideboard Ravenous Trap is considered a lot for our graveyard-based decks. It is like firing a bullet on target and hitting home. That being said they reload the target and move forward. This can be the case. I would call this card just shy of a silver bullet. Silver bullets are in the forms of shutting a deck down. Stony Silence as an example for artifacts. So what does this deck do? Leyline of the Void just does this. I have personally scooped against dredge showing no cards to just put this card in. Because we spoke to the no-air rituals and power level of the cards being higher you can normally find enough win conditions post board to risk the Leyline silver bullet.
The other card is a pet card of mine in BTL Scapeshift. Many a times BTL Black Scapeshift I can get away with casting BTL, they want to counter the next card. Fine, I'll go get Slaughter Games oops you can't counter. Let me tell you the power level here. The opponent is Ad Nauseum. On T3 I opt to use SSG (which cannot be countered) and cast Slaughter Games. I name Ad Nauseum, opponent scoops. Against Amulet Titan I've named Primeval Titan... I took 4 shots from Azusa, Lost but Seeking before finally finding removal for it, but that was 4 turns extra. The card just eats important cards in opponents decks. To boot, it is a sorcery (so what?) it doesn't stick around, no removal, no getting those cards back, they're gone.
An Opinion
Pyro Prison struggles against some of the more powerful and flexible midrange decks. It also falls to Dredge though I know some are working to get that to work. This deck seems to answer those issues, this is why I'd call it the Yin/Yang to Pyro Prison. If you can navigate the tricky manabase, appropriately cement powerful cards, and put your opponent on the back foot, this deck can just roll over them.
Alternate Prisons
I'm not going to list decklists here, but talk briefly about the two I can think of.
Whir Prison (4c Prison) - Is an extremely good toolbox based deck. It looks to take any of those hard/soft locks, and find them in time. If you needed 6 cards to lock it out, this deck will do it. This comes close to the 'true lock' but falls short to board wipes aimed at artifacts.
Lantern Control - This my friends is the only deck in my opinion which can create the true lock. What is meant by this is that we can play 4 of cards. Lantern control utilizes deck knowledge, top deck information, and controlling your opponents draws. It is essentially "Mind Slaver Lite" but establishes a true lock by preventing enough consecutive answers from being potentially drawn. It takes patience to not 'attempt to mill faster' and suffers from time management by newer pilots. A seasoned pilot though, a quick thoughtseize, and a pair of mill stones with lantern out and game is likely locked out.
Green Land Destruction - I'll place this in prison only because it tries to Plow Under or Primeval Command the opponent enough to time walk them into losing from creature attacks. It restricts mana similar to taxing but falls under prison/control by limiting resources. It is an honorable mention.
Stax Lists - not as prevalent in modern, but do the same concepts and something to watch for. At FNM level they are a blast! Have fun, honorable mention #2
Concluding Prison
There are many archetypes, versions, variations, and styles of magic decks. This is the beauty of magic. I always recommend you determine the style of player you wish to be, and build towards that or find the deck that does this. Prison offers a lot of styles. Finally, prison decks are tuned towards metas in many cases and sideboard plans will vary drastically on the style of play you wish to attempt to manipulate your opponent into playing. Have a blast trying these, talk, discuss, and find that sweet card you want to run at FNM, find that optimized list for a GP, and good luck as you lock'em out of the game, and lock in the wins. I'll see you in discord, on stream, on twitter, in here! Happy Locking Mountainfolk!
Red Black Prison looks evil and beautiful. Well written post and thanks so much for the mini-primer!
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Current Modern Decks BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends." BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved." RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros." BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?" C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."
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Re Humans matchup: really not sure the matchup is good in my limited testing. Yes before sideboard, they are cold to Bridge and Moon.
But meddling mage, thalia all makes reducing hand sizes difficult.
Also humans usually has either Noble or Vial to start with and thus not completely dead to Blood Moon.
I believe the matchup to be slightly less favorable
We love GBx decks SO much, we would be happy to help you beat us! Here are some tips!
-ALWAYS take the draw!
-ALWAYS fetch non-basics!
-game 1, T1 Thoughtseize, ALWAYS take Rabblemaster. Don't bother taking Moon, Bridge or Chalice!
-side out ALL Ass Trophies and Goyfs! They're dead cards. You don't need them.
-when ulting Lilli, ALWAYS leave them with Bridge and 4 lands!
Hope this helps! Good luck, and I hope to play against you soon!
Actual advice, not trolling, smh. Didn't realize I'd trigger people lol.
On a serious note, I figured that learning how to take on Prison with GBx would help me learn both decks while also knowing what to do in the matchup if I played either, didn't realize it was a taboo to ask.
BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends."
BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved."
RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."
UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros."
BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?"
C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."
BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends."
BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved."
RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."
UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros."
BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?"
C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."
Hey Avalanche!
So yes Humans have a lot of disruption, no question, but you also noted they’re cold to bridge and moon. Thalia and meddling mage make reducing hand size difficult, but usually we can drop one of our lock pieces before they can drop both of there’s, and in my decklist at least, I have 7 removal spells (if you count Chandra) that can deal with Thalia or meddling mage, while they can’t do anything to our pieces! On the play, chalice on 1 into moon or bridge means “I win.” Turn one moon also just means “I win” because even though they can cast vial, you usually have time to kill with rabblemaster before they can get to vialing, or if you run Abrades those work too! f they spend all they’re time locking your pieces up with mage it only takes one sweeper to get out of it. I can’t prove to you that this matchup is favorable for us, I can only mention my own results. I’ve played Pyro Prison for a little over a year now and while I’ve lost a few games to Humans, I’ve never lost a best-of-3 Round to them. If you’re worried about them torpor orb is good sideboard tech, and I almost lost a round to a Humans player but won off the back of Pia and Kiran Nalaar with some well placed blocks and shocks!
Wish you luck in your future matchups and I hope this helped!
I agree that the discard package coupled with removal can turn good hands into steaming piles real quick, but I actually have more trouble with straight UW than GBx. I guess it just depends on what you have in the side though. Mine is more focused on beating graveyard strategies than I would like, but there are just so many decks abusing the yard it kinda seems like you have to pack more than just one form of grave hate to make absolutely sure you get some alongside a decent hand within a couple mulls.
Edit: Also, I recently came upon the card War's Toll and was thinking it could be very powerful. What do you guys think?
Modern:
Pyro Prison
Sun and Moon
Eldrazi Stompy
BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends."
BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved."
RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."
UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros."
BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?"
C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."
Modern:
Pyro Prison
Sun and Moon
Eldrazi Stompy
That looks interesting, unfortunately it's not modern legal.
Modern:
Pyro Prison
Sun and Moon
Eldrazi Stompy
@Joker
GB Matchup (Non Jund) is not always difficult for us when we take them off a color. Obviously in this variant they are just looking for Green / Black, versus Jund has this weird need to have a few red spells also. So typically if the Prison player is able to get a moon down before a single forest AND single swamp are down we're good. GB obviously does play sets of double black spells, and Dark Confidant is a bit of a problem card for us when established early. Usually if Prison is running the Bridge/Chalice/Moon out quickly they likely do not have a "Fast" follow up (top decks or necessary lands do happen).
The race is on from there, Chalice on 2 to protect things (with the adoption of Assassin's Trophy) and a threat, versus the biggest card that we can't beat. Tarmogoyf. Why I bring this little fella up? We are likely to have a land (GB's land), a sorcery, an instant, probably someone's creature, and then are sitting there with either Planeswalker/Enchantment/Artifact. If we are ever stripped of our lock pieces and Tarmogoyf swings in, goyf is usually big enough for 2 swings. The other problem card is actually Liliana, we have usually 2 sideboard cards to deal with it, aside from attacking. Lilly ult (can usually wait till 7 so you don't lose her) just crushes the deck because they strip lands/lock pieces accordingly and we are typically staring at a big Scooze/Tracker/Tarmogoyf, and typically they only need 2 creatures to win quickly.
Russ will say "Tarmogoyf is unkillable for red" and he is not entirely wrong. In my testing of the RB version the Bedevil hits Goyf's so much to avoid this downfall to straight Mono-red.
Thoughtseize also typically can ruin us, and like mentioned if you have the appropriate fetches, the Moon may be totally worth skipping. Free win red does not win often because of 'lack of pressure' and the same can be true for Pyro Prison (albeit it - usually it has more pressure).
That's how GB should attack our deck. Caligula does make a bit of a joke mainly cause the GBx matchup is more difficult and unfavored for us. Man do we hate T1 Thoughtseize. On that note, fetch a basic swamp, even if you have some Green. You're likely to draw it and you can determine if a moon threat was a big thing or not, but if you "Go for it" and get Overgrown Tomb, we are a top deck away from stopping you completely - versus you just inherently slowing down.
Also T1 Chandra is busted, so that's just variance.
Happy slinging spells!
@Avalanche
We can in some cases have x4 Anger, Torpor Orb, a few extra abrades, and have removed our creatures. This makes us heavy removal and looking for lock pieces. Typically a fast start from an opponent can get us, but we are usually favored. We typically lock them out yes, and they do have noble, but you're looking at a lot of ways to kill a lot of their creatures post board. We can minimize win conditions to literally chandra.
Russ notes Walking Ballista is a great killer of Thalia and completely fine to put on 1 turn 2 with the idea that it is sacrificed to pick off a Thalia.
18 Wins // 22 Losses
I am perfectly happy with that. First, the meta couldn't be worse as I am trying to out-aggro the fastest decks that Modern has EVER seen. Second, that's reasonably close to 50/50 with a 100% homebrew.
@FluffyWolf2 crafted an absolutely stellar analysis of how Pyro Prison handles its opponents: GOOD MATCHUPS vs. BAD MATCHUPS. I'll include it in the Official Primer under strategy guide heading. Outstanding work as usual. He's also in the midst of working up a Rakdos Pyro Prison tutorial that I'm anxiously awaiting. I ran out my own version at a 20 person FNM a couple nights ago: 3-1 finish.
Regarding the recent success and publishing of Pyro Prison
It's all about branding. Consider that Merfolk/Fish is not known as Mono-Blue Aggro. Pyro Prison is far more distinct than the generic label of Mono-Red Control.
Actually, it's worth noting that although some major Magic publishers don't rightfully recognize our pedigree: Pyro Prison, they HAVE stopped calling the overall archetype 'Mono-Red Control'. Now they call it 'Mono-Red Prison'.
Coincidence???
To quote mtg gamepedia:
In essence, we seek to limit our opponent from playing their gameplan. I define their gameplan as to define 'playing magic' as our goal would be near impossible and untainable, but I will give an example of a deck which attempts to do this. There is also the essence of what can be a 'True Lock' and in the world of magic that can be extremely difficult, and I'll give an example that may be confusing but provide also an example of why it is not a true lock, and once again provide the deck that attempts to establish this.
Finally I will link an old article (there are certainly newer ones) The Art of Transformation. This article talks about sideboards that transform. I add this to the discussion as a talking point for later.
If you'd like you may skip ahead to the Deck headers, but if you'd like to hear my comments on locks and transformation, then please continue reading
We define a lock as the moment in which an opponent should have No Outs to the board state, and it is a matter of drawing a win condition or decking out the opponent of cards. A very primitive example would be a Burn opponent having only spells that target an opponent and you playing a Leyline of Sanctity. The card itself is not a "Lock" however if the totality of cards in your opponents deck lacks interaction to remove the card, along with then dealing the appropriate damage, you have essentially locked your opponent out. Other examples can include:
Lock Examples
Example of a Non-Lock but perceived as a Lock
There is a critical line to play between online and paper though. The Clock or Time in the Round. Unlike online where you have the ability to time out your opponent, paper if you cannot complete a game it becomes a draw and the person with the most wins does win. This doesn't mean you must concede as soon as an appeared lock is established. In many cases, you can attempt to play on for some time but then allow your opponent to play 'another' card and then scoop up your cards to save time. What this does is allows you to acquire more knowledge if your opponent is playing cards, while giving your opponent more cards to consider in your pull of playable cards. Keep in mind time in the round though, you do not want to give yourself too little time to complete the rounds, and Enough of a Lock may be sufficient grounds to concede versus waiting for a Full Lock.
I simply want to note this briefly before the analysis. Many people find cute and fun ways to 'transform their sideboards' to try and trick their opponents by going a different line of attack. Keep in mind that transformational sideboards tend to be one dimensional. The critical piece for a transformational sideboard is to determine the weak matchups and tune the transformation around these. If you are heavy control, you play against an opponent that is heavy control, and transform into a midrange, it likely is not a good idea. If you instead trasnform into an aggro package it will work wonders. That being said if you are a softer control deck with an aggro tansformational sideboard, and play against a fast linear deck, you may have minimal extra disruption. This is what I'd call a under prepared, bad matchup, or a narrow focus of the deck building strategy. There is nothing wrong, in fact having an exact mission is great, just note your focal mission, if it has a flaw or a bad matchup, nothing much is going to change and you will have a higher percentage chance of taking a match loss due to this building decsion.
For what you are all here for the analysis, review, commentary, and discussion on the deck types below.
Red Prison
AKA: Pyro Prison, Mono Red Prison, Red Prison, (Legacy) Dragon Stompy
The deck is what most people here are familiar with. We have several variations of the deck to include Aggro packages (+ Legion Warboss and +Eidolon of the Great Revel main), and Control packages (usually planeswalker or more sweeper based). The deck hinges on fast explosive starts to get ahead of an opponent regardless of the dice roll. The package can have elements of 'all-in' but attempts in the Prison Fashion to limit the opponent's ability to play on curve to bide time in our all-in approach.
Pros
Cons
4 Ensnaring Bridge
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Blood Moon
1 Magus of the Moon
Creatures (5)
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
1 Hazoret the Fervent
Planeswalkers (5)
4 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
1 Koth of the Hammer
Sweeper Removal/Utility Removal (7)
3 Abrade
1 Anger of the Gods
1 Slagstorm
2 Walking Ballista
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Desperate Ritual
1 Pyretic Ritual
Lands (21)
14 Mountains
3 Gemstone Caverns
3 Ramunap Ruins
1 Scavenger Grounds
3 Ravenous Trap
3 Anger of the Gods
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
2 Torpor Orb
2 Sorcerous Spyglass
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Damping Matrix
1 Spellskite
1 Witchbane Orb
Card Decisions
Pyro Prison's fundamental approach is a stronger lock piece and a fast finish. The card choices to help this include:
The other cards not highlighted depend on your flare or version and your meta. Because this deck attacks the meta probably the strongest of the three examples tuning your utility is important. In this example, it is Abrade the Sweepers and Walking Ballista. This final card can be a win condition or removal for pesky bigger creatures/planeswalkers.
The Sideboard
Because of limited access to colors targeting specific matchups is important. A concession for Leyline of the Void is Ravenous Trap as many decks interacting with their graveyard do attack via creatures, thus having an uncastable card, not in the opener conflicts with your main lock pieces of Ensnaring Bridge. There are additional sweepers, aggro pieces, and artifact-based lock pieces. The downside to this and not branching to Enchantments or other abilities is your opponent's artifact removal packages will be coming in for games 2 and 3. This is a deck building concession for staying in a singleton color, but you'll note that some of these along with mainboard locks do present a difficult time for our opponents to cast their necessary removal.
RW Prison
AKA: White Pyro Prison (Only in this thread really), Sun & Moon Prison, RW Taxes, PLATEAU PRISON (By Raystack), Eclipse Prison
The common theme among any white based deck or proposal of white based decks is the sideboard. Sun & Moon presents incredibly powerful threatening sideboard cards, but becomes softer with the locks and proactive gameplan mainboard. The deck itself functions on two axis one is the Prison "Sun & Moon" utilizing similar strategies to Red Prison while attempting a planeswalker (control) based finish. The other entirely different build lends itself more to the "Tax" variant, not necessarily limiting the resources for which an opponent may attack, but rather, providing decision choices for your opponent because the curve has been adjusted due to the taxing/higher cost imposed on performing actions during the game.
Pros
Cons
4 Ensnaring Bridge
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Blood Moon
Creatures (10)
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
1 Hazoret the Fervent
4 Legion Warboss
1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
Planeswalkers (7)
1 Ajani Vengeant
4 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
2 Sarkhan, Fireblood
2 Abrade
Rituals/Fast Mana (8)
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Desperate Ritual
Lands (21)
4 Arid Mesa
3 Gemstone Caverns
4 Inspiring Vantage
4 Mountain
3 Plains
1 Rugged Prairie
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Wooded Foothills
2 Anger of the Gods
1 Damping Sphere
3 Leyline of Sanctity
3 Rest in Peace
1 Sorcerous SPyglass
2 Stony Silence
1 Torpor Orb
2 Wrath of God
Card Decisions
Sun & Moon's fundamental approach is a softer lock piece broader flexibility for matchups and control based finishes. The list provided has done well recently and is melding towards Pyro Prison/Red Prison. I'll note card choice differences below.
The Sideboard
I pick three cards to talk about from the sideboard noting they are strong, some of the strongest shut downs to decks that care about Targeting a player, graveyard, or artifacts. Because typically there is removal of speed and proactive cards for this controlling piece you are on a hinge for if your lock piece stays in. Remembering your opponent is bringing in ways to unlock their deck the sideboard has to be one of the strongest hate cards in magic, and white does this very well compared to most. The sideboard though is filled with strictly control based cards, alternatively going another route post board becomes that much more difficult, and if you need to step on the gas you've lost this. Although the sideboard is not strictly transformational, it focuses on answering issues which inherently pushes it one direction.
RB Prison
AKA: Master Prison (Creator's name), Red Black Prison, Dark Pyro (I disagree to some extent this name, but know some are calling it this).
This is the new kid on the block for some, for others, it is a tried and old tale of a variation we've yet to master or establish within the community. I believe many people will actually start to consider this list as an alternative to their Mono Red Variants for a taste of something 'with more'. Whether you want to call it a splash from Pyro, or a side page of Jund the deck features a mid-range prison style with powerful answers while taxing the mana base to the fullest in any prison archetype (I'm ignoring you 4c Whir, you just cheat stuff in). This list I'll go a touch more in depth I think in my analysis strictly as Red Prison is the thread, and RW has been talked about frequently.
Pros
Cons
4 Ensnaring Bridge
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Blood Moon
1 Magus of the Moon
Creatures (13)
1 Hazoret the Fervent
1 Master of Cruelties
Planeswalkers (4)
3 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
3 Liliana of the Veil
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
Utility (12)
1 Abrade
4 Collective Brutality
2 Anger of the Gods
3 Bedevil
2 Kolaghan's Command
4 Simian Spirit Guide
Lands (22)
3 Blood Crypt
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Graven Cairns
3 Mountain
9 Swamp
1 Temple of Malice
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Stormbreath Dragon
2 Crumble to Dust
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
2 Slaughter Games
1 Kolaghan's Command
Card Decisions
RB appears to try and answer the Red Prison's flaws with the decks. Creatures too big to kill, just enough interaction, and ways to prevent the runaway of our opponent's control on the game. Below I'll give card discussion and then talk sideboard with a final note of an opinion on this newcomer versus Pyro Prison. I will ignore card choices that overlap (The lock pieces) as these should be apparent.
The Sideboard
Ravenous Trap is considered a lot for our graveyard-based decks. It is like firing a bullet on target and hitting home. That being said they reload the target and move forward. This can be the case. I would call this card just shy of a silver bullet. Silver bullets are in the forms of shutting a deck down. Stony Silence as an example for artifacts. So what does this deck do? Leyline of the Void just does this. I have personally scooped against dredge showing no cards to just put this card in. Because we spoke to the no-air rituals and power level of the cards being higher you can normally find enough win conditions post board to risk the Leyline silver bullet.
The other card is a pet card of mine in BTL Scapeshift. Many a times BTL Black Scapeshift I can get away with casting BTL, they want to counter the next card. Fine, I'll go get Slaughter Games oops you can't counter. Let me tell you the power level here. The opponent is Ad Nauseum. On T3 I opt to use SSG (which cannot be countered) and cast Slaughter Games. I name Ad Nauseum, opponent scoops. Against Amulet Titan I've named Primeval Titan... I took 4 shots from Azusa, Lost but Seeking before finally finding removal for it, but that was 4 turns extra. The card just eats important cards in opponents decks. To boot, it is a sorcery (so what?) it doesn't stick around, no removal, no getting those cards back, they're gone.
An Opinion
Pyro Prison struggles against some of the more powerful and flexible midrange decks. It also falls to Dredge though I know some are working to get that to work. This deck seems to answer those issues, this is why I'd call it the Yin/Yang to Pyro Prison. If you can navigate the tricky manabase, appropriately cement powerful cards, and put your opponent on the back foot, this deck can just roll over them.
Alternate Prisons
I'm not going to list decklists here, but talk briefly about the two I can think of.
Concluding Prison
There are many archetypes, versions, variations, and styles of magic decks. This is the beauty of magic. I always recommend you determine the style of player you wish to be, and build towards that or find the deck that does this. Prison offers a lot of styles. Finally, prison decks are tuned towards metas in many cases and sideboard plans will vary drastically on the style of play you wish to attempt to manipulate your opponent into playing. Have a blast trying these, talk, discuss, and find that sweet card you want to run at FNM, find that optimized list for a GP, and good luck as you lock'em out of the game, and lock in the wins. I'll see you in discord, on stream, on twitter, in here! Happy Locking Mountainfolk!
BG Elves // "He's back. And he brought his friends. And their friends."
BG The Rock // "Dwayne Johnson approved."
RU Izzet Phoenix // "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."
UGW Bant Spirits // "Super Ghost Bros."
BUG Sultai Wildnerness Teachings // "How many turns did I just take again?"
C Colorless Eldrazi // "Smash you."