Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Wacky Wednesdays: Modern Prison

Greetings! Since the recent Pro Tour, the Modern format has had a spike in its already growing popularity.  This month, I'd like to bring you a wacky deck that caught my eye and got me thinking as soon as I saw it.

Witness, The Modern Prison:


The Modern Prison

Deck by: David McElhaugh
7th in GPT at Atlantic City

Enchantments

x4 Runed Halo
x4 Suppression Field
x4 Leyline of Sanctity
x4 Ghostly Prison
x2 Sphere of Safety
x2 Porphyry Nodes
x1 Greater Auramancy
x1 Form of the Dragon
x1 Oblivion Ring
x1 Peace of Mind
x1 Phyrexian Unlife
x1 Privileged Position
x1 Dovescape

Other Spells

x4 Enduring Ideal
x3 Ensnaring Bridge

Land

x3 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
x3 Mistveil Plains
x3 Saltcrusted Steppe
x1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
x16 Plains

Sideboard

x2 Porphyry Nodes
x1 Oblivion Ring
x1 Aura of Silence
x1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
x1 Luminarch Ascension
x4 Stony Silence
x4 Silence
x1 Nevermore


Leyline of Sanctity  Ghostly Prison  Sphere of Safety

As you can see, David's deck is quite unusual.  The general strategy of this deck is to use enchantments to deny ones foes any and every way to win the game.  For example, Leyline of Sanctity shuts down burn decks, parts of Scapeshift decks, mill, and any other deck that must target you in order to acquire victory.  Ghostly Prison and Sphere of Safety, Ensnaring Bridge, and Porphyry Nodes take care of aggro strategies.  Greater Auramancy and Privileged Position protect all enchantments in play.  It even has Runed Halo for any odd or wacky cards that don't fall into the above categories. *cough* Battle of Wits *cough*

Ensnaring Bridge  Porphyry Nodes  Greater Auramancy
Privileged Position  Runed Halo

Building a pillow fort is only half the plan though.  Once this deck has ensured its opponent cannot win, it has to go find a win condition of its own.  In this case, that win condition is either Form of the Dragon or Dovescape.  It's harder to get more wacky than that.

Form of the Dragon  Dovescape

Once Dovescape has been cast, all future enchantments turn into birds.  Sure, the opponent gets birds too, but that hardly helps them if they have to pay 5+ mana per attacking bird.

This deck has to jump through a few hoops to play Form of the Dragon.  First, it needs to reach 7 mana, either normally or through ramping with Nykthos or Saltcrusted Steppe.  Next, it needs to cast Enduring Ideal.  At this point it can search up a Leyline of Sanctity, unless it began the game with one in play, and finally Form of the Dragon.  From here, all that's left is to blast the opponent for 5 each turn.

Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx  Saltcrusted Steppe  Enduring Ideal

There are a few weird cards that all have their uses,  Peace of Mind allows the pilot of this deck to discard Form of the Dragon or excess Enduring Ideals should they be drawn.  It can also be used to buy an extra turn or two against burn in a pinch.  Since the deck only runs two win conditions, it also runs Mistveil Plains to ensure it is never left without a way to win the game.  Lastly, Phyrexian Unlife is essentially 10 extra life in an emergency.

Peace of Mind  Mistveil Plains  Phyrexian Unlife

Well that is all for this month. Thanks for reading and be sure to let me know what you thought of this article in the comments below.

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