Can Thorn of Amethyst and Trinisphere make a viable prison deck in modern?
Modern Deck Help forum
Posted on Feb. 2, 2018, 5:03 p.m. by mikey__G12
Is it possible to use Thorn of Amethyst and Trinisphere in an effective prison shell in modern? Im not talking crazy vintage style prison decks, but maybe with some kind of r/g ramp shell that also utilizes blood moon?
mikey__G12,
Trinisphere is pretty much a staple in Ponza; it's very common for us to have 3x in the 75 for Storm, Burn, Grixis Shadow, and Bogles. Ponza's not a Prison deck though ...
The only place I've ever seen Thorn of Amethyst is as a sideboard card in Eldrazi Tron.
Bottom line: IMO, mana disruption effects like this are effective at slowing opponents down but not at stopping them. Because of this the're almost certainly better in a Tempo or Taxes shell than in a Prison deck.
February 2, 2018 5:33 p.m. Edited.
It's really hard to do because you don't have Cloudpost, City of Traitors, Mishra's Workshop, and so on. Part of the reason artifact Prison is possible in older formats is because you have a "symmetrical" effect that isn't symmetrical because one side has more mana than the other.
We also don't have anything close to Wasteland (or even Rishadan Port) in Modern. The closest thing is Ghost Quarter'ing your opponent and them failing to find after you've done it to them over and over via something like Crucible of Worlds or Life from the Loam.
Maybe we'll have a prison deck viable if WotC goes nuts and unbans Cloudpost or prints something that makes turn 2 Tron consistent. Or if we get some sort of new mox/Lotus Petal-style card that allows for a turn 1 Trinisphere.
February 2, 2018 6:29 p.m.
I agree with the above. One of the biggest things that make prison decks so good in Eternal formats is fast mana. T1 Trinisphere is very powerful. T3 Trinisphere is much worse.
February 2, 2018 7:31 p.m.
Pieguy396,
That's part of why Trin' works so well in Ponza. The deck is optimized for Turn 2 3-drops, which is good enough for Modern ... especially on the Play as sideboard tech for bad match-ups.
February 2, 2018 9:26 p.m.
clayperce That's absolutely true, but I was talking more about Trin in prison decks, which Ponza isn't.
Wurmlover says... #2
R/W prison does exist, but I don't know how you would do it without hindering youself too much. I also think that artifact hate (thanks to lantern control) is popular nowadays.
February 2, 2018 5:05 p.m.