Mono Red Prison at MagicFest Atlanta

This past weekend, I played the Legacy Grand Prix at MagicFest Atlanta. My deck of choice was Mono Red Prison. I went 4-3 (2-3 not counting byes) in the main event on Saturday and 5-1 in the PTQ on Sunday. I think the deck is very good and I wanted to share my thoughts about it.

The Decklist:

4 Karn, the Great Creator

4 Chandra, Torch of Defiance

4 Blood Moon

4 Chalice of the Void

4 Chrome Mox

3 Ensnaring Bridge

3 Trinisphere

4 Magus of the Moon

4 Simian Spirit Guide

4 Goblin Rabblemaster

3 Legion Warboss

4 City of Traitors

4 Ancient Tomb

11 Mountain

Sideboard

4 Faerie Macabre

3 Eidolon of the Great Revel

1 Winter Orb

1 Ensnaring Bridge

1 Trinisphere

1 Walking Ballista

1 Mycosynth Lattice

1 Liquimetal Coating

1 Sorcerous Spyglass

1 Tormod's Crypt

For the PTQ, I played -4 Faerie Macabre -1 Winter Orb +4 Leyline of the Void +1 Helm of Obedience in the sideboard.

Why is it good?

With the rise of various Dark Depths strategies, as well as Wrenn and Six four-color strategies, I decided that playing 8 Blood Moon effects is very effective. I'm already annoyed about losing to Lands, so being able to have a great matchup against that deck is nice. Ensnaring Bridges in the main help against Hogaak and Dark Depths. Trinisphere is still the strongest play on turn one when going first. Most of the bad matchups for this deck were on the downswing, with the exception of Sneak and Show that you just have to accept losing to.

I don't understand lists that play fewer than 4 Magus of the Moon. Lightning Bolt is a common card, but that doesn't mean a turn 1 Magus isn't good a lot of the time. I also think with the rise of Force of Negation you can play Magus instead of Blood Moon on turn 1 given the option to have a better chance of it resolving. It also helps after sideboard when players rely on Force of Vigor to get out of Blood Moon lock.

I didn't play any Fiery Confluence. The sweeper effect could be easily replicated by Ensnaring Bridge. Wrenn and Six is keeping Death and Taxes to minimal numbers. The damage to players is also rarely important now that you have more robust win condition in Karn. I did miss having some artifact removal against Pithing Needle and other Karn decks, so I could see going back to playing two copies of Confluence somewhere.

I'm still not sure about some of the sideboard choices. I rarely wished for anything besides Bridge, Lattice, and Coating. I think the Crypt, Spyglass, and Ballista are worth having, but the 4th Trinisphere should probably be main. Winter Orb is nice to have sometimes but is a luxury. The Helm of Obedience is similar. You can play Leyline without Helm. Eidolon gets the nod over Scab-Clan Berserker because it is slightly cheaper and doesn't need to hit to be on. It also works against decks like Elves, but does have some liabilities in some more interactive matchups where your other hate cards aren't as effective.

I also think this is one of the best decks at exploiting the London Mulligan. My decision point for the event was to mulligan until I had a turn 1 play. This actually didn't lead to as many mulligans as I thought it would. Maybe I was running hot which makes the main event performance a bit more disappointing.

The Games

R1 Bye

R2 Bye

2-0

R3 BG Depths - I have enough Blood Moon effects to ignore the Thoughtsieze and Duress, and win easily both games. 

3-0

R4 Eldrazi Aggro - My hand is turn 1 Chalice on the draw, but this doesn't line up well with his deck. I win a game two with multiple Moon on the play. Game three I manage to stick a Blood Moon but die to a couple of Endless Ones and Eldrazi Mimic with my hand too full to deploy Ensnaring Bridge effectively

3-1

R5 4 Color Control - I win easily because all my cards force him to Force of Will or Force of Negation, and eventually the card advantage comes back to me. I did steal a game one by going for turn 1 Rabblemaster instead of Blood Moon and the extra early damage was worth at least a turn later on.

4-1

R6 BG Depths - I win game one with Chalice and Blood Moon. Game two he's able to Duress my Blood Moon and gets out the combo the turn before I can draw another. Game three I have Ensnaring Bridge and two Magus of the Moon in play. He has Elvish Reclaimer and a Mox so he's able to still cast some spells. Eventually he shows me 3x Abrupt Decay from his hand before I'm able to draw another lock piece and I die.

4-2

R7 Hogaak - I have turn one Blood Moon game one, but he has the basic Swamp in his hand. I can't get a Bridge out in time before he kills me. Game two I have turn one Chalice and turn two Moon and easily win. Game three I have another early Blood Moon but he is able to fetch the Swamp first. I also have Faerie to exile a Bloodghast and a Vengevine, which delays his Hogaak by a turn. This lets me play Ensnaring Bridge and hopefully stabilize, but he also has Alter of Dimentia and easily mills me out with Hogaak and Bridge From Below

4-3

I hate losing matches in the deck building phase, but that is exactly what happened round seven. If I had played Leyline over Faerie, I would have easily won the last game. I decide to change to Leyline for the PTQ on Sunday.

R1 Jeskai Mentor - Game one is turn one Trinisphere, turn two Chandra and he concedes. Game two I stick a Rabblemaster for a couple of turns and force him to use his hand to answer all my follow ups while the three goblin tokesn slowly kill him.

1-0

R2 Blue Painter - I've been thinking about playing a Blue version of the Karn / Ancient Tomb decks, so it was cool to see one in action. I lose game one after he starts with turn one Defense Grid and I play Chalice on 0 thinking he was Mystic Forge deck. He followed up with Painter Servant and Grindstone and I was dead. I win game two with a turn two Karn. Game three he has a nifty The Antiquities War, which lets him attack my Karn. I still have two Chalice on 1 in play, but he draws Echoing Truth to bounce them and win before I can get another Karn in play.

1-1

R3 Dredge - Game one he has turn one Looting. I have turn one Trinisphere. His slow dredge plan doesn't find a Narcomoeba until I already have enough goblins to double attack through his triple Bridge From Below. Game two I have turn zero Leyline and turn one |Chalice for one and he concedes

2-1

R4 Blue Painter with Thopter Sword - Another Blue Ancient Tomb deck. I punt game one by letting him attack my Karn with Painter and Tribute Mage, thinking he would be dead if he activated Ancient Tomb but I had done my combat math wrong and he had the City of Traitors to punish me. I win the next two games with Karn and Blood Moon however.

3-1

R5 Lands - Game one is easy with Blood Moon and Chalice on one. Game two he manages to win with a Pithing Needle on my Chandra and then Force of Vigor on my Blood Moon and Ensnaring Bridge. Game three is really long and drawn out, but I eventually get too many lock pieces in play and he can't find enough answers.

4-1

R6 Lands - Game one is the weirdest game all weekend. He starts with Exploration and Wasteland. I had kept a one land hand, and decide to go for turn one Chalice on one. He wastes my Ancient Tomb, and then we play draw go for several turns. I'm discarding to hand size trying to find any mana, he's trying to find a Depths to go with his Stage but can't Gamble or Crop Rotation. He gets a Wrenn and Six up to 10 counters but I eventually find a couple of lands and a Mox for Blood Moon. Eventually I kill him with some goblins. Game two isn't that interesting as I get a few lock pieces in early and he has to dig for Force of Vigor with Sylvan Library and Life from the Loam dredges. There is a judge call here where the opponent, floor judge, and head judge all tell me the opponent only has to put one card back with Sylvan Library when he dredges with the second or third draw on the turn. This isn't how it works, but the HJ refuses to give me any supporting rules or documentation for his ruling. It ends up not mattering but was still very frustrating to see. It's a ruling that is easily accessible on the Gatherer page for Sylvan Library and not nearly as complicated as they all made it seem. 

5-1

Looking Forward

I was overall very happy with the decks performance. I would play it again without many changes. I found the game play to be very intriguing, despite not a whole lot of decisions they all mattered quite a bit. I would definitely play Leyline in the sideboard and 4 Trinisphere in the main. 

I'm not sure what my next Magic event will be before MagicFest Oklahoma City in December. Maybe I'll play some Arena again after taking a few months off. I may also start writing about Magic Theory again, with a focus on Old School.

Thanks,

Ty

Revisiting Magic Theory in Old School

I love playing Magic, but I also love thinking about Magic. One of the biggest appeals of the Old School formats is all the thinking you can do. There aren't many resources for deck lists and content available, so most of the time spent thinking about the format has been on my own. I've only played Old School in one tournament and one get together, as well as a few games in between rounds at a Modern tournament. I've spent far more time thinking about decks than I have playing games,

Another appeal of Old School is the static card pool. As much as I would like to have a certain card or certain tools available in deck building, I will always be limited to the cards as they are today. This can be frustrating when I don't have access to anything that does what I desperately need, but it does force me outside of my comfort zone as a deck builder to try things I'm not quite comfortable with. This has led me to spend more time thinking about the theoretical concepts behind deck building.

I want to start a series of posts about Magic theory with a strong focus on Old School. Given the nature of the format, much of the fun is in building decks as opposed to playing games. Games aren't quite as deep and interesting given the extreme swinginess of the restricted cards and lack of strategic options. Deck building is how you win the game before you play the game. I like to say "You never want to lose a game in the deck building phase."

I will hopefully cover most of the topics I originally discussed here. I don't expect anything to be groundbreaking or revolutionary. It will likely be refresher to things people already know, or possibly obvious things that don't necessarily need to be spelled out. I'm mainly going to do it as a way to organize my internal thoughts in a manner that hopefully flows logically.

I'll update this post below each time I add an entry in this series.

-Ty

Posts about Magic Theory

Definition of Terms (old)

Bant Stoneblade at SCG DFW

This past weekend, I played Bant Stoneblade* to a 10-5 record for 45th place at the Star City Games Open in Fort Worth. I had a great time playing the deck but even more fun scrambling to create it for the first week after the unbanning of Stoneforge Mystic. I want to use this post to go over how Collin and I created this deck.

Another Fruitless Attempt at Having a Good Time

I've tried to plan a Secret Santa blind deck swap with Collin at two other events in the past and circumstances always caused it to fall through. The idea is you build a 75 card deck for the other person and they don't find out what they are playing until round 1. I originally wanted to do this for the 2018 Hunter Burton Memorial, but the unbanning of Jace, the Mind Sculptor had me wanting to play the newly available card. Then again I planned on doing it for this year's Hunter Burton Memorial, but I messed around and qualified for the Mythic Championship in London and didn't want to waste a good testing opportunity for that event. At least Zac Elsik and friends managed to pull it off. 

Collin and I were planning on Secret Santa for this SCG. We assumed Hogaak would be banned, and nothing else would change. He didn't really need to do well since he's already qualified for the Players Championship at the end of the year, and I'm not trying to grind the SCG circuit, so it was the perfect opportunity. I decided I would give him Neoform, and even ordered the last few cards I was missing for the deck. He had planned on giving me an Esper Mentor list. This was all for naught as the Monday morning ban and restriction announcement really shook things up. I agree with almost every decision they made except maybe the unbanning of SFM, but I won't complain about getting my favorite card back.

The Starting Point

I was scheduled to take the GRE on Tuesday morning, so I wasn't going to have much time to brew at all. Then I got a call telling me the testing center was having network issues and my test would be rescheduled. This freed me up to do lots of brewing (and maybe even play some actual games!)

The UW shell is probably where most people started. Jace is still great with SFM. Batterskull is a great way to blank aggressive strategies, and the blue counters (especially Force of Negation) are strong against unfair decks. I looked at possibly adding SFM to Spirits, but the main question was what other creatures do you play with in UW.

I played a few games Monday night with a basic UW shell against Eldrazi Trona and Humans. Batterskull really shined against Eldrazi, but Humans still had enough interaction that it wasn't immediately game over by untapping with a SFM. You could still win, especially with Supreme Verdict, but the SFM wasn't a consistent way to close out games. This is probably a good sign that SFM isn't unhealthy on power level (but I'm still skeptical about white decks that choose not to play it).

Trying to find a second or third playable creature to pair with equipment was the tricky part in UW. Spell Queller is great, but a bit clunky when you start adding the Teferi you want to support it. Snapcaster is good but non-evasive. Squadron Hawk isn't exactly Modern playable (though I personally played it in Legacy as recently as 2016 so I'm not opposed). Ice-Fang Coatl was the discovery that seemed most promising.

The first Ice-Fang deck we made was very similar to the list Edgar Magalhaes played at the event. Flash creatures and Sword of Feast and Famine are obviously very synergistic, but the mana was a bit awkward with Field of Ruin and Cryptic Command. We thought about it more and decided to go a more proactive route.

The Main Deck

I'll be including chat logs from the conversation between Collin and I to show how we arrived at some of these decisions. Included are some screenshots of the deck along the way.

Ty Thomason 10:45
what about hexdrinker?
Collin Rountree 10:49
woah
it would be good
in my gw deck i think
Ty Thomason 10:49
you can also search him up with ranger captain if you need to
Collin Rountree 10:50
hmm gw ranger with teferi and quller
or is that too many three drops?
Ty Thomason 10:50
i think with mana dudes you can play a few more 3s
Collin Rountree:

Ty Thomason 10:52

okay i think 4 teferi 4 queller is just what we have to play

Collin Rountree 10:52

ok

im down to lock that in

i think green cards are just going to be the best pair with those right

like these other cards are just going to make you so clunky

Ty Thomason 10:53

yeah noble is just too good with teferi

The discovery of Hexdrinker as a Ranger target that can be decent with a Sword was the catalyst to move in the more midrange creature direction.

Collin Rountree 10:55

I like giver hexdrinker coatl ranger

all those are good

you like these pridemage?

also we could play a ballista, but probablyy not good

also bant has best sideboard

Ty Thomason 10:57

i like 1 ballista i think

is there a way to tutor artifact destruction with ranger?

Collin Rountree 10:57

really?

yeah casutic catapiller

Ty Thomason 10:58

i guess its same total mana to kill something as pridemage

Collin Rountree 11:01

i mean its much worse

for sure

but maybe you split

i'm looking at one drops right now

Ty Thomason 11:03

how many birds do we play

Collin Rountree 11:03

1-2

i think maybe 0-2****

we have enough good one plays

we might not want any

Caustic Caterpillar as a value tutor target was also key to the process (and very key to many of our match wins on the weekend)

Ty Thomason 11:05
do we want to play township
or horizon canopy/waterlogged grove?
Collin Rountree 11:06
i dont think so
well we need snow lands
Ty Thomason 11:06
i think we have to play path and then just enough snow basics to make coatl reasonable
and maybe SB some thin ice
Collin Rountree 11:07
why do you think this
i think the on thin ice is legit good
Ty Thomason 11:07
the early mana is demanding for teferi, ranger, etc on turn 2
Collin Rountree 11:07
oh you think its just a mana problem
i see
Ty Thomason 11:08
yeah we're going to probably want 2 breeding pool 2 temple garden
at least we don't have any double U
Collin Rountree 11:08
yeah those are all good points

The first glance at the mana led me to cut On Thin Ice for Path to Exile. Note: the mana here is still very very bad, but for some reason (not playing any games) we hadn't noticed yet.

Collin Rountree 11:14
these are the ones i've got for you:

Ty Thomason 11:16
k forge tender and parasite reasonable sb

the rest aren't playable

We didn't play any of these, but should have had the Forge-Tender in the sideboard.

Ty Thomason 11:18

okay witness is def better than 4th ranger

and rebuy on caterpiller

Collin Rountree 11:18

lol

we are playing catapiller

in a modern tournament

and i am excited

Ty Thomason 11:19

we going in as catapiller

and leaving as butterflies

Caterpillar Hype! At this point, the deck looks like this:

The Sideboard

After some brief discussion, we end up with the first draft of the sideboard.

Collin Rountree 11:28

Ty Thomason 11:29

i don't like 2 purge

Collin Rountree 11:29

wren and six is scaryyyyy

Ty Thomason 11:30

i know

can we spyglass?

Collin Rountree 11:30

lol no

Ty Thomason 11:30

or just side out some 1 toughness duds

Collin Rountree 11:30

we could winds of abandon

Ty Thomason 11:30

i like winds

i like 1 winds 1 purge to have vs death shadow

Collin Rountree 11:31

i mean i like needle

against urza

or spyglass****

Ty Thomason 11:31

no

need revoker to stop mana

maybe we just gotta linvala

do we need Rest in Peace?

Collin Rountree 11:32

instead of purge

yeah we need it

for urza and jund

Ty Thomason 11:32

okay

and ravager

any good answer to ballista?

Collin Rountree 11:33

linvala

ceremonios

Ty Thomason 11:34

ok

knight is reasonable too to stop early ones

Collin Rountree 11:34

Ty Thomason 11:35

okay i like that

maybe we don't need 2 teeg? its so good though right?

Collin Rountree 11:35

its probably not needed with so many blue cards in our board

and i was thinking maybe i wanted another card for burn

Ty Thomason 11:36

yeah get the forge tender back in

The Swords

Ty Thomason 11:36

okay are we playing the right swords
feast and famine is great
i don't even know what the 2 new ones (from MH1) do but remember thinking they weren't playable
Collin Rountree 11:37
i could be down for double batterskull + sofaf
Ty Thomason 11:37
i don't want double skull in this deck
but might want light and shadow
its better vs burn right?
Collin Rountree 11:37
i mean its hot
with ranger
and pretty much just wins
against uw right
like teferi ranger

Collin discovers the SoLS + Ranger-Captain lock.

Ty Thomason 11:38 
when do we want fire and ice?
against jace only?
Collin Rountree 11:38
thopter sword i guess?
Ty Thomason 11:38
oh sure
thopters are blue
Collin Rountree 11:38
killing goblin engineeer
shooting other sfm
thats about it

We start to figure out (as did a lot of other people) that SoFI isn't as good outside of Legacy. Back when I won the Legacy Open with True-Name Nemesis on the first weekend it was legal, I was replacing SoFF with SoFI to beat other TNN that didn't show up. SoFI became the standard as TNN caught on, but wasn't widely played before that.

Ty Thomason 11:40
okay lets list decks
and which 2 swords we want vs each
Collin Rountree 11:41
tron
Ty Thomason 11:41
feast and famine, light and shadow?
Collin Rountree 11:41
humans
Ty Thomason 11:41
fire ice, light shadow
Collin Rountree 11:42
jund
Ty Thomason 11:42
both black ones
Collin Rountree 11:42
yeah
Ty Thomason 11:42
and clearly both black ones vs abzan
Collin Rountree 11:42
urza
Ty Thomason 11:42
fire ice, light shadow?
Collin Rountree 11:42
i think you want those yeah
it seems we want light and shadow in all of them
Ty Thomason 11:43
yeah
Collin Rountree 11:44
and your guy is just unblockable against humans if you have bg
and bw sword
so we are cutting sword of fire and ice

We moved the SoFI to the SB, but eventually it got cut for something higher impact.

The Mana Base

At this point, we have most of a maindeck and sideboard. Our mana is awful, but we don't know it. Eventually we figure it out.

Ty Thomason 11:52

its never time to cut a teferi right

it might be time

i know we started at 4 teferi 4 queller but i'm happy with 3 teferi 1 jace

Collin Rountree 17:35

Collin Rountree 17:37
Our mana is close to close to correct right?
Ty Thomason 17:47
Yeah
I thought maybe cut a forest for a vista when talking about supreme verdict but probably not worth it
Could also see maybe wanting 2nd island post board
Collin Rountree 17:49
Pass
Collin Rountree 06:13
Also let’s not play three sac draw lands
I think I like two
Ty Thomason 07:02
Ashiok is neat
Do we have enough blue for force
vista sucks you are right, and concern about needing two islands you can just fetch duals post board because you won't need deathtouch
i'm also down to cut a horizon land, but for what? a vista?
Ty Thomason 10:43
okay we just gotta be ready to fetch shocks and also never have deathtouch
Collin Rountree 10:43
i already thought that was the plan
Ty Thomason 10:43
it is
Collin Rountree 10:43
thats why i could neverunderstand
all these vistas
the vista is
a big yikes
Ty Thomason 10:44
flooded strand?
Collin Rountree 10:44
yeah we should just be playing 11 fetches
or 10 at least
and one canopy

I start thinking about Flooded Strand and how often we want to be fetching forests.

Ty Thomason 10:52
maybe plains is bad
okay we just don't have perfect mana (ed: DING DING DING!)
i'm down to just play jace and hope i can cast it
Collin Rountree 10:54
i mean the interent says 14 for one drop mana sources
so i think we can cut a forest for a flooded to help our other mana sources
and still keep the greeen
Ty Thomason 10:55
i also like these thickets
maybe 2 island is right
i got to go to a meeting i'll keep thinking
but maybe the 1 forest 2 plains 2 island is actually correct
we don't have scooze or anything
Collin Rountree 10:56
kk sounds good

I go to meeting then come back with the revelation:

Ty Thomason 12:10
maybe forest sucks so we should play lot of flooded strands
Collin Rountree 12:10
yeah that way we can aggro fetch basics lol
forest hollowed fountain
is the dream
lol its not
but you know what i mean
windswept is best land
Ty Thomason 12:13
i think 2 islands is reasonable
Collin Rountree 12:14
i think its reasonable but unnessecary
lets play first seachrome
Ty Thomason 12:14
i think i'd just rather have it than 2nd forest
Collin Rountree 12:14
over that
can we only play four basics lol
Ty Thomason 12:15
no we need at least 5
Collin Rountree 12:15
we are def going to want to fetch basic island a lot i agree on that for sure
Ty Thomason 12:15
i think we want to fetch basic island and plains a lot
so strand is best
Collin Rountree 12:15
It’s plains island then forest
But drawing forest
Is best right?
So that’s why forest best
Ty Thomason 12:16
i don't think so
Collin Rountree 12:16
Over island
Ty Thomason 12:16
you never want to draw the 2nd forest
Collin Rountree 12:16
same with island
maybe 1/3/1?
Ty Thomason 12:16
no plains is too bad with snake
Collin Rountree 12:17
yeah so we have to play an island or a forest for sure
ok
let me think
youre right
island is better than forest
by a good amount
i am just delusional
before
Ty Thomason 12:19
okay so last land is misty/breeding pool/waterlogged grove
one of those 3
misty better for snake so yeah makes sense
Collin Rountree 12:20
all of this
is much better for these sketch ashioks
in our board too
which is nice
Ty Thomason 12:20
right
and the jace
just our deck is UW splashing for noble hierarch
Collin Rountree 12:21
lol yeah
i love it
Ty Thomason 12:21
but thats actually fine
Collin Rountree 12:21
exactly

The last change we made was cutting the 4th Giver of Runes for 2nd Jace the Mind Sculptor the night before the event.

The Event

I went 10-5. I lost to RG Eldrazi, MonoRed Prowess, Jund, Grixis Death Shadow, and Amulet. I beat TitanBreach, Death and Taxes, UW Flash, Burn, Dredge, Bant Soulherder, UWg Stoneforge, Surge Nodes, Jund, and WhirZa. 

Collin also went 10-5. He lost to Burn, MonoRed Prowess, Tron x2, and UWg Stoneforge. He doesn't remember the victories.

Most of the matches were really interesting, but I'm running out of time to share all the stories. Maybe in a future post, but not likely.

The Deck Going Forward

Giver of Runes was disappointing. It was fine but didn't do enough to warrant playing 4 or even 3. I think playing just 2 going forward is reasonable.

Teferi was great, I should have played 4. Never let me play a Modern deck without 4 Teferi in the future, it just isn't fair.

Ranger was way better than I expected and could also see going up to 4. Hexdrinker won me some games so probably still makes the cut.

I didn't love RIP vs Jund and think a different SB plan is needed for that matchup. I also think you need to play the Forge-Tender

Collin played on camera round 2. You can watch the match here at about the 1:20:00 mark.

Thankful

I had a great time playing Magic this weekend. Playing SFM and Jace was very mentally exhausting, in a good way! It's why I keep coming back to this style of deck after all these years.

Thanks to Collin for helping me with the list. Thanks to Berni for going out of his way to come drive us to Fort Worth and back. Thanks to my wife for letting me spend the weekend playing cards. Thanks to Wizards for unbanning Stoneforge Mystic.

Thanks,
Ty



*I linked to Collin Rountree list because it accurately reflected what we played. The version on the SCG website with my name on it was our initial version before changing a Giver to a Jace the night before. When I resubmitted the list, it either didn't go through or I did it incorrectly. Either way, I'm lucky I didn't get deck checked. I wish SCG would use a similar process to ChannelFireball for deck submissions.