The Prison , Chapter II: Jul '96 - Sep '96
After the release of Alliances, and the restriction
of Land Tax, the Prison was reworked and became much stronger with the
addition of Winter Orbs, and Arcane Denials in the sideboard, which were
often key to winning second and third games. The Jalume Tome was added to
cycle through cards faster, and the COP:Red's were dropped from the
sideboard. Chris has said that a deck like this does not need COP,
because if you are killed by red damage, the deck is not doing what it is
supposed to do, and loses anyways. The additional Strip Mine and Island became
necessary for consistent mana draws, especially with the prevalence
of the 8 Land Destruction Necro decks.
The deck is a virtual copy of Chris Cade's original Prison deck, with the addition of Titiana's to provide a fourth victory condition and Sol Grails for mana consistency. It is also, in essence, a reworking of "The Prison" with Baxter's "Orb Song" deck in mind. Sideboard is heavily slanted toward Anti-Necro. Necro decks.
[Credited to Chris Cade, Alan Kohler and TJ Pitts.]
Chris Cade on Playing Weenie, Necro, and Bolt decks: Well, people do play speed decks around here. Actually, those are the majority of the decks I've played against in Arena play. I beat a white weenie deck, a green weenie deck, a black/white weenie/control deck (twice), and a red/green weenie deck. "The Prison" is actually very strong against weenie decks (especially after sideboarding.) For Arena play however, I did modify the sideboard to include 4 Serrated Arrows, instead of two, after I had already won my first three matches. I figured this would be a good addition to the deck specifically for Arena play - however, outside of Arena, I play just two Arrows. It is still very strong, and I've even beaten a few NecroDecks since the Land Tax restriction. (I haven't played many though.)
Bolt decks (and Necrodecks) in theory should be the only decks that can beat
"The Prison" at least half the time. Why? Because the NecroDeck has Hymns,
and Bolt decks can deal enough damage quick enough that I need Ivory Tower
or Zuran Orb early in the game to win. However, I have found that against
this principle, I haven't lost to a Bolt deck yet because they are screwed
by Winter Orbs and Armageddon. I usually take tons of damage (near death
almost always) and then I finally get the Armageddon or Winter Orb, and the
Bolt deck cooks, because it can no longer Fireball me, nor kill any artifacts
- it has to rely solely on Bolts to kill me. By this principle, I no longer
play with COP Red, instead I have 3-4 Hydroblasts in the sideboard. These
are more for the artifact destruction that red has, and isn't intended for
the bolts and fireballs. Usually, Bolt decks don't plan on Hydroblast, because
they don't see enough blue to consider sideboarding in the Red Blasts. "ICICLE" - Ryan Scott Stubblefield R.S. Stubblefield: "Icicle" is my white control deck that I played for about 8 months, going back originally to December of last year. It used to be called "Winter," way back when it ran Lions, Tomes, and all that good stuff. Since Necro hit the scene, I moved from the Tome/Lion version to the Armageddon/Icy control style. With a primitive version of "Icicle" that I started to really develop while at PT2 in Long Beach, I got second at the California Regionals. Since then, the deck has morphed around and currently looks ALOT like the deck designed by Chris Cade, "The Prison," which I am sure you know. We both developed our decks separately, but lately we have kept in contact concerning deck technology, and our decks look quite similar now...most differences are due to personal preference and playing style. Well, here is the current version, set up for the Arena environment. It generally changes from week to week.. but the basics usually don't change much:
The other sideboard cards varies from day to day...yesterday it was an Exile. Sometimes it's a bauble, Reverse Damage, scepter, arrows, cap, insect, outpost, or whatever else is needed. Actually, the whole SIDEBOARD changes to adjust to the environment rather often... as do about 2-3 slots in the deck. I have always run 2 Insects... but I took one out for a land last night. Also, I ran a Bauble because there were a ton of LD decks circulating. But for the most part, it looks something like that... a Cap standard is also quite common.
Anyway, that is the deck as it looks now. You may question some, or many,
of my choices, but generally, they are there to fit my playing style.
Comments on `Wintergeddon' being vulnerable to caps by Tom Guevin: Having played a "White Ice" deck myself for the past six weeks, I think the issue of the Jester's Cap is overblown. Yes, with 3 or fewer victory conditions, these decks are vulnerable to a Jester's Cap. But with tons of black spells, a NecroDeck is vulnerable to a deck full of pro-Black creatures. So.....? Barring an amazing display of metagame proficiency, a deck full of pro-Black creatures is not going to win tournaments. (Ed. Note - Tom Chanpheng won the `96 World Championship with a WW deck, thereby displaying incredible luck or an amazing display of metagame proficiency.) And decks that can comfortably Cap a "White Ice" deck are simply NOT tourney-viable. Note I said 'comfortably'. Yes, any bonehead can sideboard in a Jester's Cap. But how many decks can afford to spend 6 mana on a Cap at the expense of more pressing concerns? A Cap that may prove useless if one of the "White Ice" finishers is already in hand? The fact is very few of them can. An early cap against a "White Ice" deck is a HUGE gamble. How often are you happy about tapping out completely for a one-shot artifact against a player likely to drop a Winter Orb? If your deck is designed to have lots of mana early (and to make use of that mana), it's unlikely to be able to operate in the Winter Orb environment. I know if I met another "White Ice" deck in tourney play, I would NEVER sideboard in a Jester's Cap. The number of times it would help me win are far outweighed by the number of times it would sit dead in my hand.
If the Jester's Cap is the answer to "White Ice" decks, why don't Caps appear
in virtually every tourney deck? Necro is vulnerable to the Cap. Turbo-Stasis
is vulnerable to the Cap. Heck, capping out the Crusades/Dude Ranches from
a White Weenie deck is worth the mana. EVERY good deck suffers from being
Capped. But top decks don't play with them standard, because they just aren't
maximally useful. The Magic Dojo© 1997 Frank Kusumoto. Please report bugs or problems to webmaster@classicdojo.org.
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