With the London mulligan allowing for hand sculpting and the banning of Faithless Looting causing graveyard decks to not see as much play, how competitive would a mono red prison deck be that’s main focus is to wheel on turn 1 to disrupt the opponent?
Had a thought but havent tested yet: running a 1 or 2 of Curious Homunculus as an alternate win-con/more resilient mana bear. Might make the deck slower but it gets through most removal once it flips + prowess to minimize risk of fizzle mid combo. Any thoughts?
The deck can't do much without Proteus Staff, it has token beats, which aren't great, and Inkmoth Nexus. There's Opt to dig for it, but other than that, if you can't get Staff, then you don't do anything.
I've been trying to find a way to make Deploy the Gatewatch playable ever since it came out. I tried a planeswalker tribal shell with Samut, the Tested and Maulfist Revolutionary in HOD standard but that didn't really work, so I've moved on to Modern. This is a combo that uses Proteus Staff to stack the deck so that Deploy auto-hits any two planeswalkers you need. The current build can achieve this on turn 4 with an ideal start.
Basically,
Turn 1 - Suspend two Lotus Bloom
Turn 2 - Play Pentad Prism with two charge counters
Turn 3 - Play Proteus Staff
Turn 4 - You should have 12 mana available by turn 4, so you start by casting Dragon Fodder or Krenko's Command (10 mana left), activate Proteus Staff on one of the tokens (7 mana left), stack the deck with Deploy on top if you don't have one in hand, Opt into the Deploy (6 mana left), cast Deploy the Gatewatch into usually Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh and Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker, with Ugin, the Spirit Dragon and Chandra, Flamecaller as other maindeck targets. In the sideboard, it has Elspeth, Sun's Champion for creature decks like Elves or Merfolk. Sorin, Grim Nemesis is an alternate win-con because it is another combo with Proteus Staff, you get to stack the deck then use his plus to deal high damage to your opponent. Polymorph and Emrakul, the Promised End gives another combo if Deploy won't be able to close the game fast enough. Vraska, Relic Seeker provides chump-blockers and an insane ultimate if you can get to that.
The issue with this build is that there isn't any pre-combo interaction, so if the combo is disrupted or hosed, then it basically can't win. Also, it seems like kind of a glass cannon. The Staff can be hit or the tokens can be hit, and post-board artifact hate is intense. Stony Silence and Pithing Needle stand out as common sideboard hosers, also Leyline of Sanctity hoses the fastest win-cons.
Looking for other possible shells or improvements on this shell.
Alternate win-con:Fateful Snowdown Advantages, doesn't need critical number of lands in hand as it refills your hand, instant speed. Disadvantages, 4 cmc instead of Lightning Storm's 3 cmc,loses to counter spells
My initial thoughts for this card was to make a U/W prison build with Chalice of the Void, Leyline of Sanctity, and Leyline of Singularity with Jace, Memory Adept as a finisher. But from what I'm seeing here, it should be a U/B or Esper build for the hand attack?
4 Atog
4 Ravenous Intruder
Land
12 Mountain
Artifact
2 Chromatic Sphere
4 Darksteel Citadel
2 Pentad Prism
4 Chromatic Star
4 Implement of Combustion
4 Servo Schematic
2 Ornithopter
4 Myr Moonvessel
4 Memnite
2 Myr Sire
4 Temur Battle Rage
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Blood Moon
4 Implement of Improvement
4 Apostle's Blessing
4 Fling
Any input would be appreciated.
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Steam Vents
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Inkmoth Nexus
4 Flooded Strand
Artifact
4 Proteus Staff
4 Pentad Prism
4 Lotus Bloom
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Opt
Sorcery
4 Krenko's Command
4 Dragon Fodder
4 Deploy the Gatewatch
Planeswalker
2 Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
1 Chandra, Flamecaller
2 Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh
1 Emrakul, the Promised End
4 Erase
2 Wear // Tear
4 Polymorph
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
1 Nissa, Worldwaker
1 Sorin, Grim Nemesis
1 Vraska, Relic Seeker
Basically,
Turn 1 - Suspend two Lotus Bloom
Turn 2 - Play Pentad Prism with two charge counters
Turn 3 - Play Proteus Staff
Turn 4 - You should have 12 mana available by turn 4, so you start by casting Dragon Fodder or Krenko's Command (10 mana left), activate Proteus Staff on one of the tokens (7 mana left), stack the deck with Deploy on top if you don't have one in hand, Opt into the Deploy (6 mana left), cast Deploy the Gatewatch into usually Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh and Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker, with Ugin, the Spirit Dragon and Chandra, Flamecaller as other maindeck targets. In the sideboard, it has Elspeth, Sun's Champion for creature decks like Elves or Merfolk. Sorin, Grim Nemesis is an alternate win-con because it is another combo with Proteus Staff, you get to stack the deck then use his plus to deal high damage to your opponent. Polymorph and Emrakul, the Promised End gives another combo if Deploy won't be able to close the game fast enough. Vraska, Relic Seeker provides chump-blockers and an insane ultimate if you can get to that.
The issue with this build is that there isn't any pre-combo interaction, so if the combo is disrupted or hosed, then it basically can't win. Also, it seems like kind of a glass cannon. The Staff can be hit or the tokens can be hit, and post-board artifact hate is intense. Stony Silence and Pithing Needle stand out as common sideboard hosers, also Leyline of Sanctity hoses the fastest win-cons.
Looking for other possible shells or improvements on this shell.