Ghostly Prison

Enchantment

Creatures can't attack you unless their controller pays {2} for each creature they control that's attacking you.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Freeform	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Historic Brawl	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Modern Beyond Horizons	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
PreDH	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (51)

Tippycat on Aura-Farming with Galea, Kindler of Hope

4 days ago

Seems like Penance and Hidden Retreat might be interesting includes here. Would allow you to manipulate your top-decking of the right enchantment and stop a threat at the same time.

Your removal / protection seems pretty light. Propaganda or Ghostly Prison would slow your opponents(s). Maybe include a few counterspells? Louisoix's Sacrifice or Disallow would stop both spells and abilities like Bane of Progress.

What about some recursion if your enchantments get destroyed? There's Replenish but it's pricey or Resurgent Belief. Or Open the Vaults which gets your artifacts too.

hyalopterouslemur on Ode to the Old Commanders: Ta-ta-ta Tokens!

4 weeks ago

I'll treat yours as a Bracket 2 with no tutors.

Okay, so replace Savra, Queen of the Golgari with Grave Pact or Dictate of Erebos. I'm assuming you want the card advantage, but this is better because 1) any of your creatures dying triggers it, and 2) it doesn't cost you life. At the same time, it won't gain you life either the way Savra will, but since lifegain is negligible...yeah.

Anguished Unmaking > Mortify Sure, you shock yourself, but you exile (which is permanent except for like, two cards that no one ever plays) any nonland permanent.

Morbid Opportunist is insane in Ghave. There is no reason you shouldn't be able to draw on each turn (not "each of your turns", each turn). The same goes for Welcoming Vampire.

Have you considered No Mercy? Ghave is kind of a KOS commander because of his potential for combos and Stax. No Mercy punishes players for attacking you.

Fertilid is just bad. I'd rather play Explosive Vegetation than Fertilid, and there are like, five strictly betters for Veggies.

Viscera Seer and Jar of Eyeballs are nice for consistency.

Blade of the Bloodchief gives you more +1/+1 counters.

Spike Weaver is another "just try and attack me" card. I like it more than Spike Feeder, which is only good in that it goes infinite with Archangel of Thune. Since you're trying to avoid infinite combos, I would avoid going that way.

Corpse Knight, Bastion of Remembrance, Cruel Celebrant, Zulaport Cutthroat, just pick a couple of these because they add a win condition in case an opponent uses Ghostly Prison and friends, or worse, Moat.

dr.kronski on

1 month ago

Going 100% Angel tribal is clearly a challenge, not only because of the high average CMC, but also due to the strategic limitations. A broader card pool would allow you, among other things, to streamline the deck and make it faster and more consistent (Bishop of Wings, Esper Sentinel, Mother of Runes, Selfless Spirit, Starnheim Aspirant, etc.). That said, there are a few other (not many) options worth considering, such as Lightstall Inquisitor or Inspiring Overseer, just to name a couple.

Pariah seems like a good idea to me, although I personally prefer Mithril Coat, as it’s more solid and less restrictive, to accompany it. If Pariah is staying, then Metropolis Reformer should definitely be taken into account.

I believe the creature count should be significantly reduced and replaced with more cheap interaction and possibly some assorted stax pieces (Aura of Silence, Ghostly Prison, Rest in Peace, among others — white has no shortage of options). This would slow down faster decks (which is almost all of them) and help you manage the game until you can either set up board wipes or reach the point where your Angels are established and fully online on the battlefield.

On top of that, Folk Hero would fit here like a glove. The same goes for Archaeomancer's Map, Akroma's Will, The Seriema (even if it strays a bit from the theme), and Throne of Eldraine.

Feel free to check out my Giada's deck as well if you'd like on my profile's page.

Go for it — cheers!

Crow_Umbra on Lightning, Pillowfort Commando

2 months ago

No prob, always happy to lend some suggestions. I've been playing Isshin since he debuted, but mostly as a tokens Go-Wide build with some Group slug and Goad mixed in. Nelly Borca was my first fully dedicated Goad deck. Squall, Gunblade Duelist is the closest that I'll get to a Mardu Goad commander that isn't Isshin, for now.

• Land counts are def one of those personal preference details that I don't lean on super heavily for suggestions unless someone is on thr lower side with a high curve. Def an "art meets science" aspect of deck building lol. For Isshin specifically, I've cut down on 2 cmc rocks to swap for newer 2 cmc creatures. In non-Green decks I usually rely on the color relevant "Talisman of __" cycle, Arcane Sig, maybe Fellwar Stone. For land edits I try to cut back on tapped lands without a condition that allows them to enter untapped.

• Yeah, I had fun with Etali in Isshin for a bit, but it ate removal more often than not without Lightning Greaves or something similar. I think you could swap Patron of the Kitsune for the Righteous Cause in your Maybe Board. It's slightly cheaper, but also more removal resistant.

• On the note of Goad enablers, something I've picked up on from playing Nelly, and against various Goad decks in my main playgroup, is that combat incentives can "encourage" folks to fight rather than force them. Donating creature tokens via the Hunted cycle & Combat Calligrapher can be risky. Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor and Frontier Warmonger are more examples of combat incentives in the vein of Karazikar & Breena that everyone can benefit from. The Firemane Commando in your Maybe Board is also solid. Carrots vs sticks. Give people carrots, then beat them over the head with them.

• On that note, the Hissing Miasma effects are def a "Your mileage may vary". Folks i regularly play with will tank the damage to kill whoever. The Ghostly Prison effects seem to be a bigger deterrent.

• Promise of Loyalty and Split Up can be interesting semi-symmetrical removal options that also allow for political wheeling & dealing.

Happy to provide feedback & chat. Isshin is easily my favorite commander, and Goad is something I enjoy playing with and against. If you're ever interested, The Rani is also a solid Goad commander. One of my friends runs her, & she's a lot of fun.

Chaise on Not Your Typical Sythis, Harvest's Hand Deck

6 months ago

Sphere of Safety or Ghostly Prison

Balaam__ on Balaam__

7 months ago

@Andramalech I thought it was fake at first, but it looks like it’s from a future set soon to be released. If it’s real, it’s definitely one of the more potent threats. Looking at it now it seems it’ll enter play without issue, but it would still be affected by Authority of the Consuls and it could be easily removed with Path to Exile. It makes me sad that both of those answers don’t fall under the ‘You Can’t’ umbrella the deck is built around, though Ghostly Prison does adversely affect the Baloth. It’s highly unlikely, but if I somehow had an Iona in play beforehand, she would also prevent it from being cast—at least I think so?

One thing I’m not clear on, and this is the perfect instance to bring it up: Suppose the opponent casts the Baloth. Next turn, I cast something like Statecraft (not modern legal, doesn’t matter, we’re playing legacy or something, whatever). Does Statecraft prevent combat damage or not? Since Baloth was there first, does its text take precedence? If so, then that means if Statecraft was there first it would override the Baloth, true? I’m really, really bad at these nuanced rule interpretations. My gut tells me whichever card is down first determines whether combat damage will/won’t work. If I’m wrong, I find that irritating because that seems arbitrary—like one overrides the other for no real reason.

kamarupa on Cumulative Fire

10 months ago

hmm, I'm not sure I see what you see, Cloudy2024. I can't know how familiar you are with the Turbo Fog archetype, but typically, it relies not just on packing a ton of Fog spells, but also a lot of draw card (usually group draw), which are an essential component to keeping your hand full of Fog spells. It's just not enough to have lots of Fogs in a deck. A deck must also have a way of getting all those fogs into our hand. There's simply no avoiding the need for land, so even if a deck had 40x Fog and 20x Land, there's a 33% chance every draw step yields a land. Which means that it's likely an opponent is going to get to hit us eventually. Unless we can draw more cards each turn. So in my mind, adding more Fog spells at the expense of draw card will actually make the deck work less well.

I did consider dropping Ghostly Prison or cutting it back to fewer copies, but that doesn't yield a lot of slots and more importantly, the advantage Ghostly Prison gives the deck is a static defense that allows us to have a chance of tapping more mana on our own turns without being completely defenseless. I'm not 100% sold on that strategy, namely because I really don't like dropping 3 mana on it, but I know it works, so the real question is how much weight can it pull in this brew.

When it comes to other non-fog spells, the most slots are devoted to Ashling, Flame Dancer and Leyline Tyrant, which are basically 33% of the combo. Without those creatures, the cumulative mana we get from Braid of Fire evaporates before we can use it to cast Banefire at Sorcery speed. Since neither red nor white really have anything I'm aware of for creature tutoring, there's no way I can see cutting them.

I really don't like Idyllic Tutor as it's not only quite narrow in a deck that requires more than just an Enchantment to win, but it also costs 3 to cast. At least with Ghostly Prison we can a static defense. With Idyllic Tutor, we get a single use out of that 3 mana while also exposing the card we need, which, in many cases, won't get cast until the next turn. If I could grab anything and not reveal it (like Mastermind's Acquisition, I could see the possible value of adding more tutors. But it's just too inefficient to add more tutors that are so specific. I'd have to devote space in the deck for Sorcery, Enchantment, and Creature tutors. Which bring us back to the value of simple card advantage spells. I need all the spells in the deck. United Battlefront gets us slightly closer than Idyllic Tutor, but still misses on creatures (and my essential creatures are too big anyway). So my verdict is still out on that spell, but I'd likely not choose to run a full set if I thought there was even room for it at all.

I suppose I could try to run more creatures like Kami of False Hope and go the Tocasia's Welcome route, but that seems... I dunno... convoluted.

So to sum up - in my mind, "focus[ing] more on the strategy of the deck is probably the opposite of what you suggested - not more fog and white control spells but less. I could drop the Fog spells altogether and resort to creature based defenses. Not the worst idea, but I think it would come at a higher mana cost, which slows down Banefire.

The only other thing I'd add to all this is that the biggest issue Turbo Fog faces is decks that aren't creature driven. Things like Burn, Mill, Life-drain, etc go right through Fog. That's the primary reason I included Riot Control - because it doesn't just stop combat damage - it stops ALL damage. I mainboarded it because it also has the potential to result in a big lifegain, which is a good stall tactic against lifedrain (keep in mind this is intended to be a multiplayer brew, so it could very easily be facing threats from both creatures and lifedrain in the same game). And that's the other major issue with going in even harder with the Fog strategy (which is itself a secondary, defensive strategy). Granted, the sideboard can help a bit to shore up Turbo-Fog weaknesses.

Bottom line - While I really don't expect this brew to be top tier in any sense, I do like exploring with brews and try to make them the best I can. It's probably clear that I think about strategy, uh, let's just say, "enough." I want to be clear about this though - I'm not saying "I'm right and you're wrong" or that I don't appreciate your advice. It's quite the contrary - I write all this because I'm [overly] interested in these things and want to have conversations about all of it. I understand if you're not interested in that. I just don't want you to feel like I have any intent of antagonizing you, etc. It's just so easy to give/get the wrong impression over the internet.

Veghelia on Combat Superiority

11 months ago

Hey Crow_Umbra, sorry for the radio silence. Become a bit more busy with non-MTG stuff, so I got less time for brewing, sadly.

"Support" suspicions are just going to be part of playing this deck, so I've accepted that's going to be something I'm gonna run into. I do mostly play with a relatively consistent group of friends (read: like 5 different groups, some with some overlapping players, but all with similar vibes), and they do look at me with suspicion, but are most of the time greedy enough that they'll take advantage of my almost-symmetrical support cards. If they ever choose to destroy them or otherwise turn them off for the others, that tends to draw the table's ire, so most of the time they don't unless everyone agrees they're becoming an issue, in which case I can hardly blame them. I'm currently still mostly feeling that I'm going to try to leave goad out of it as much as possible, safe for a few choice cards (Taunt from the Rampart hasn't shined yet, but I'm feeling it will at some point).

Alright, now on to the card discussions.

• I'm leaving Xantcha, Sleeper Agent and Emberwilde Captain in the maybeboard. Your arguments are very valid, but I do feel like the don't vibe enough with the "support" idea.

• I had Nelly Borca, Impulsive Accuser in my deck before and removed her, because she's an odd play. With my lack of goad or other ways to force attacks, I have very little control over the amount of cards I draw with her, if I draw any. I imagine she'd work great as a commander, since you can reliably have her on the field in the early to mid game, where plenty of people attack each other, but I think she does a lot worse as a late-game topdeck.

• Kambal, Profiteering Mayor feels like a "one step too far" kinda card. If my entire point was to give my opponents tokens, then he'd be amazing, but I feel like he's going to not do anything far too often (although I will admit that I don't quite now how often my playgroups play tokens).

• Master Warcraft has one mayor flaw that I'm pretty sure a good chunk of my playgroup will notice: I can force an attack, but I can't force them to not attack me, and my playgroups are spiteful enough that that is exactly what will happen :P

• Batwing Brume is interesting. It's going on the maybeboard for now, since I'm not sure if the problem it fixes is one I run into all that often, but it does feel like a beautiful blindside.

Currently, Ghostly Prison and Brutal Hordechief are most likely going to be in the next version.

Besides that, I'm reviewing:

1. The beaters I have in the deck, since they don't feel strong enough. It's not like I didn't know Skysovereign, Consul Flagship and Tajic, Blade of the Legion weren't the best in slot, but the little hope I had for them has been dashed.
2. Different graveyard hate (I'm recently formed the opinion that Bojuka Bog really only works in a lands deck), and Kutzil's Flanker is currently my most considered option.
3. Lands and ramp. Thran Dynamo was way better when Endbringer was going to be a part of the deck, and the deck feels too color-heavy to run it otherwise. Similar thoughts about the pain-lands. Also, I've adopted the "Chromatic Lantern is bad" position.