Prison style strategies in MTG have long been some of the most infuriating decks to play against. If your opponent is able to land a healthy mix of disruptive elements, it can become extremely difficult to cross the finish line. Mono-red prison remains a tier one archetype in Legacy, so you’d better be prepared for the possibility of a turn one Magus of the Moon if you’re going to play the format.
While Prison decks aren’t as prevalent in Modern, they do pop up from time to time. In fact, mono-red Prison in Modern just put up a strong performance last week, making it to the top four of a 47-player event in Japan. The Modern version may not have access to quite as much broken acceleration as in Legacy, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t capable of some strong draws.
Prison Elements
Just like in Legacy, a big part of this deck’s gameplan revolves around land denial. Casting a card like Blood Moon ahead of schedule can have devastating consequences for those that are unprepared.
In a format with tons of red removal, such as Galvanic Discharge, this decklist leans more heavily on Blood Moon than Magus of the Moon. This does have consequences against Amulet Titan and other strategies with Force of Vigor in the sideboard, which is noteworthy considering this deck appears to have been defeated by Amulet Titan in the semifinals in spite of all of the hate pieces present.
To supplement the Moon effects, Sundering Eruption plays an important role. Obviously, you can always play it as a land when necessary. However, once you’ve stuck Blood Moon or Magus of the Moon, if you’re opponent managed to land a basic land prior, Sundering Eruption can be used to blow it up.
Some archetypes, such as Domain Zoo, typically only play one non-Mountain basic, making Sundering Eruption quite problematic if the opponent doesn’t have Leyline of the Guildpact in play. Sundering Eruption is one of your best tools against Belcher, too, since they play no basic lands in the maindeck.
Rounding out the land destruction are a couple copies of Obsidian Charmaw and a one-of Pillage. It’s a bit surprising to not see more copies of Pillage given how well it pairs with Blood Moon in its own right, but this deck eshews them in favor of other tools.
The last prison worth mentioning is Ensnaring Bridge. Ensnaring Bridge is one of your strongest cards against creature decks. Once you get down to zero cards in hand, your opponent won’t be able to attack in a meaningful capacity. From there, you may be able to ride one of your Planeswalkers to victory.
Rituals and Interaction
In order to fully take advantage of Blood Moon and your Planeswalkers, you need ways to get them into play early. You don’t have access to Ancient Tomb or Chrome Mox like the Legacy variant of mono-red prison, so you need to dig a little deeper.
Both Desperate Ritual and Strike it Rich allow you to cast your three and four-mana plays a turn early. This can be the difference between winning and losing, especially if you’re able to sneak in a Blood Moon under a Counterspell on the play.
Your best early game play, however, definitely goes to Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer. Ragavan is banned in Legacy, yet you have full access to it here. If left unchecked, it will run away with the game. Even one hit with it will net you a Treasure token to get you to your game-breaking plays. Curving Ragavan into Fable of the Mirror-Breaker is one of your best play patterns.
To make it easier for Ragavan to connect, you do want access to some removal. Lightning Bolt unsurprisingly makes an appearance. On top of that, three copies of Shatterskull Smashing show up, providing some strong versatility. Your excess Treasures work to fuel Shatterskull Smashing, which has the potential to act as a double removal spell in one card.
Top End
Once you’ve stabilized the board and have your opponent in a bind, you need big plays to take over games with. After all, Ragavan is unlikely to cross the finish line by itself.
Your main path to victory rests with your Planeswalkers. Karn, the Great Creator is an incredible piece of top end that further enhances your prison strategy. Your sideboard is built to abuse Karn as a powerful tutor. The fourth copy of Ensnaring Bridge lies in the sideboard, making it more likely you’ll have access to it in a game by either drawing the other three copies or Karn.
Liquimetal Coating is a card you will search for a lot if you’re confident Karn will stay in play. Between Coating and Karn’s +1 ability, you’ll start mowing down your opponent’s lands in no time. You’ll also find pieces of graveyard hate, Chalice of the Void, and various hate cards for combo matchups in the sideboard.
Beyond Karn, both Chandra, Torch of Defiance and Koth of the Hammer let you close games. Sitting behind Ensnaring Bridge and threatening either Planeswalker’s ultimate ability is a fine line of play in some matchups.
A Dicey Position
Ultimately, mono-red prison is still far from being a top tier archetype in Modern. The deck’s inconsistencies and reliance on specific prison pieces to pull their weight makes it a bit of a dubious deck choice.
Mono-red prison shells in Legacy are capable of using busted accelerants to land Blood Moon, Chalice of the Void, Trinisphere, and other key cards turn one, potentially before the opponent even has a chance to fetch a basic land. You don’t have that luxury here, and some decks are able to play through Blood Moon just fine. Plus, due to a recent rules update, Blood Moon doesn’t blow up copies of Urza’s Saga in play like it used to. This just makes the Amulet Titan matchup worse.
Boros Energy, one of the premier creature decks in the format, can apply tons of pressure before you’re able to empty your hand for Ensnaring Bridge. Burn from Goblin Bombardment makes the Ensnaring Bridge plan less reliable, too.
The one thing about the current state of Modern that goes in this deck’s favor is the fact that Karn is extremely well positioned. Since the printing of Pinnacle Emissary, Affinity decks have gotten very popular, which are soft to Karn’s static ability.
As a whole, I wouldn’t expect mono-red Prison to break out in Modern quite yet. Nonetheless, it’s a deck that’s worth keeping your eye on, and may continue to make some noise when you least expect it.
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