Solitary Confinement

Enchantment

At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice this unless you discard a card.

Skip your draw step.

You have shroud. (You can't be the target of spells or abilities.)

Prevent all damage that would be dealt to you.

Discussion (45)

DrukenReaps on Changing Commanders

3 days ago

So I had this pillow fort group slug deck led by Queen Marchesa for a long time. She had a few good synergies with the deck like Solitary Confinement and Chandra's Ignition but the deck really didn't do well if peeps killed off a few good enchants. It is now led by Ghen, Arcanum Weaver . I made some changes to better take advantage of him but to me it is pretty much the same deck.

I've only done this one other time where I decided to change my colorless deck from Karn, Silver Golem to Kozilek, the Great Distortion . In that case the change was made because I find Karn too oppressive by easily wiping out lands. Though I'd say that deck is significantly different from the original.

What decks of yours were led by one commander and then after some play time you changed to a different one? Do you do this a lot? Do you think of it as the same deck now or did it change too much?

legendofa on No Damage Troll Deck - Budget as well

1 week ago

Hub suggestions: Drop Chaos, add Turbo Fog

Card suggestions: Ethereal Haze prevents noncombat damage from creatures, if you see Grim Lavamancer or whatever. Elixir of Immortality can replace Blessed Respite , since you have a lot of Fog effects already. I would switch the Pure Intentions with two Leyline of Sanctity in the sideboard.

Solitary Confinement is most useful with Squee, Goblin Nabob , but you don't have any way to assemble that without drawing into it. Similarly, I'm not sure Peace of Mind is doing much for you here.

Mana_Mythic_Legendary on Pursuing Perfection, Part 6: Azorius …

3 weeks ago

Here’s something interesting: while there are over 120 mono-colored legendary creatures, there are less than fifty to each color pairing. As the pool has grown limited, we’ll need to shake up the format of these articles going forward. I’ll be grouping playstyle-linked generals where possible, but where that's not an option we’ll instead discuss generals who match the color pair’s themes overall. And today, we discuss Azorius!

Maybe you came here to build a deck build around flying. Maybe. Assuming you’re not Peter Pan, you probably came sniffing after a combination of White stax and Blue control. Maybe this is about enchantments for you. Maybe this is about blink. But in summary, this pairing has a general slant toward prevention and manipulation rather than offensive power.

White, when played defensively, comes across as a big, solid castle that central catering forgot to stock with anything but a vat of sour cream and the world’s blandest potatoes. Thick walls, but comparatively little offense or subtlety. This ties into stax in part, but also touches on themes which weren't covered in the white article: potent life-gain a la Rhox Faithmender and friends, shockingly powerful barriers such as Solitary Confinement and sweeping control of the board like the Aven Mindcensor . One of White's inherent disadvantages, however, comes to mind: besides a handful of "I win" cards like Felidar Sovereign and Near-Death Experience , white has no teeth outside the combat phase, and relatively little draw to dig for them. Test of Endurance and Celestial Convergence are made more reliable by white's fine pile of enchantment tutors, but personally I'd rather not depend on cards that give your opponents time to prevent your win.

Blue, on the other hand, isn’t so much defensive or offensive (in one sense, anyway), skipping that spectrum in preference of sidestepping problems until you can strategery your way to victory. It's great, in theory, and generally in practice. Blue, so long as we're lampooning, is a brilliant, twerpy engineer. A pest so frail they’d crumple under a breeze, so agile you’ll never tag them, and so annoying they’ll leave you begging for the clean killing blow they're too reedy to actually fetch you. The glaring problem, though, is that if an opponent can ignore a blue player's tricks and actually land a few hits, said blue player is probably screwed.

Combine them, though... Combine them, and they shore up one another's weaknesses in a big way. Combine them, and you potentially have the most solid, strategic defense in the game. Suddenly you have all the draw you could want for your Approach of the Second Sun , your Sphere of Safety will have an Enchanted Evening , and you can actually, feasibly win with Azor's Elocutors ... which will probably see you dying alone, unloved, and undoubtedly quite pleased with yourself.

For today, we're discussing Blink/Flicker, Control (again), and the Miscellaneously Themey. As always, please bear in mind that our focus here is not necessarily competitive but rather on thematic, archetypical commanders.

Blink/Flicker

ETB effects are wonderful, wonderful things. You get a body, sometimes even a good solid one like the Sun Titan and some nice, tasty effect that hopefully makes said body only the icing on a fine, fine cake. The classic example would be Palinchron : pair it with something repeatable like Deadeye Navigator and you have infinite mana. Then you can Meteor Golem the table's collective psyche straight into the nearest mental ward. Or, if you really want to emotionally cripple someone, blink their commander whenever they try to attack, attach some voltrony wincon, or... well, anything.

With White providing the protection keyword, Blue shelling out unblockable, and flying sourced from both, this pairing inarguably has the best evasion. Brago may not have the muscle to kill someone as is, but there are some great options for fixing that. Not that you need to: if you have a board of flickerhappy boyz, Brago's a great pick for commanding your blinking battalion.

Upon reading this card you may feel a great disturbance in the force, as though millions of token decks cried out in terror and were suddenly detained. Ask yourself: how many permanents cost less than 4 mana in a game? Assuming you're not playing an entire meta of leafy green lunatics, the answer is "most." This was my wife's first deck. Lavinia had herself a Conjurer's Closet , or something like, most games. I was grateful when she switched to slivers.

I like this guy. I like spirits. Rewarding the blink life with a swarm of tokens and supporting a neat mechanic with a number of good cards, Ranar's a great choice for someone who wants it all.

Control

Turtle up until you find your win, you spineless wart. Or, as Sun Tzu would say "Attack is the secret of defense; defense is the planning of an attack." Ghostly Prison AND Propaganda anyone? Nobody buys time like Azorius (blue extra turn shenannigans notwithstanding). The best spread of control options are tied up in these two colors, maintaining a proper hold on the battlefield to ensure you can, eventually, uninterruptedly, shamelessly legalese someone to death.

Simple. Direct. Rude. Terse? Resentful? Me? Absolutely. Do. Not. Want.

I have seen Gaddock Teeg a few times, to my discomfort. This feels like Teeg playing favorites. For someone labeled as a renegade, Lavinia certainly abides by this pairing's preference for smacking people in the kisser with a banhammer. Opponents can't cast anything large. Opponents can't cast anything free. Those fond of Izzet spellcasting combos must HATE this card. Hell, as someone who plays Rashmi, Eternities Crafter , I hate this card and haven't even seen it played.

Taking a step back from going wide, Gwafa reminds me of that scene in Robin Hood: Men in Tights where the sheriff tries to laugh his way though delivering bad news. "Your creature is worthless, haha. But you draw a card, hoho, isn't that nice? Hehe, aren't I nice?" Go to the darkest, dankest, smelliest hell, Gwafa.

Miscellaneous

Most of the removal tied to artifacts and enchantments works off of destroy effects, not exile, so if your focus isn't on commander-based synergies but rather your board state, Hanna may serve you well, especially considering how often tossing an artifact will get you a new one.

If you really want to flyspam, Kangee is a solid pick: blue-white has a whole mess of options to hose down the opponent with an airborne death swarm. Top marks if you manage to regularly play Dovescape and know the pleasure of watching your opponents try to process all their cool stuff turning into birds.

You like auras? Here you go. Avoid stuff like Reliquary Tower , overload your hand with goodies like Steel of the Godhead and All That Glitters , then gloat when you slap Bruna down and get everything you discarded into play without the bother of paying for it. Hell, put your auras on the creatures that tutored them. Bruna doesn't mind. She'll take them anyway, from anywhere. Thank God she doesn't have haste.

And, for my personal favorite...

This guy is a fantastic face to put on a political deck. Nobody wants to smash the guy who gives out free cards and life! At least, not until you find Mind Over Matter , or something like. You won't deck anyone thanks to this wascally wabbit's wording, but you'll have your entire deck in hand. That should be all, folks. The only reason Kwain doesn't have a deck in this house is because Rashmi and Pramikon got here first and stole all the good stuff.

That's it for this round. Thoughts and questions are welcome. I hope you enjoyed it, and will come back soon for Dimir!

Other Articles:

Mono-Green, with links to the other colors at the bottom

stellarnear on Take it it's yours

3 weeks ago

Jinxed Choker > Solitary Confinement
Teferi's Puzzle Box > Moderation

Guerric on [Primer] Enchantress's Pillowfort: A Tuvasa Guide

1 month ago

Update 6/21/2021 Modern Horizons 2

With Modern Horizons 2 we get the best update for this deck since Theros: Beyond Death. We have two fabulous new toys and a great reprint to add to the deck. Id I hadn't already picked up a copy of Solitary Confinement we'd have four, but if you haven't yet definitely do, as its one of the most busted cards you can get for this deck. Without further ado, here are the cuts and adds with justifications for them.

Sterling Grove IN Open the Vaults OUT

I've wanted this fabulous little treasure for awhile as it definitely belongs in the deck. It combos with Privileged Position to make our entire board invulnerable, and ourselves too if we also have Solitary Confinement on the board. To top it off we can always sacrifice it in the later game to tutor any enchantment we want, which can often be game winning. Open the Vaults is at best an emergency card that most of the time does nothing. Wraths in general are declining in the format, and mass enchantment removal is even more rare. It still does nothing if they exile our enchantments, and we can still mass recur them with either of our planeswalkers, or stop the wipe in the first place with Arcane Denial . Its just not worth the slot.

Sythis, Harvest's Hand IN Rest in Peace OUT

We have a new enchantress on the block! And this isn't just any old enchantress, but a legendary one who costs two mana, is an enchantment creature (hence super tutorable) and has no restriction on cards that can be drawn per turn. Fabulous! Rest in Peace is only good as graveyard hate, and I'll probably just slide Scavenger Grounds into the mana base to replace it. It'll be better of in my Ranar the Ever-Watchful deck. :)

Sanctum Weaver IN Island OUT

We finally have an enchantments tribal version of Elvish Archdruid , or a non-land version of Serra's Sanctum . Amazing! All the mana this can generate will allow us to cast Omniscience easily, at which point we won't need it any more. As for the Island, this deck draws cards like mad and can definitely do with only thirty-six.

Oof_Magic on

1 month ago

Sometimes you venture into the salt mines. You find an opponent that wants nothing to do with what’s going on. Even when they’re in a solid state to win. I was playing a mono-blue Delver of Secrets  ^Flip deck that was running Murktide Regent . They also hit me with two Counterspell s. So obviously they know about Modern Horizons 2. So it struck me as off when my opponent sent me a link to Gatherer on Enchantress's Presence to show me that despite it being in MH2, Gatherer didn’t show it as Modern legal. I don’t know why they didn’t question my Invasion version of Sterling Grove but whatever. That’s just an issue of databases getting updated. They refused to agree but pressed on anyway. Once I established Solitary Confinement the opponent took a moment to comment that the game had gotten boring.

Please do that. That’s why I play this deck. So you can counter all my things and say my deck is annoying when you get shut out. The salt mines are the bread and butter of this deck and whether it’s good in the meta or bad, getting those reactions only embolden me to play it more. That salt is the seasoning of victory. It’s all the more delicious. I try not to be petty so it really helps when my opponent takes the mic. I play for those moments. So keep countering all my stuff and call my strategy annoying. I call it honest. At least you know what you can’t do against me rather than hiding behind dishonest counters.

I won’t be called a cheater because my accuser’s ignorance. Yes, I was using an Onslaught version of Presence. I did ask if this individual knew it was printed in MH2 and although they confined this, they adhered to the gospel of the Gatherer page’s outdated database. I looked into the link sent to me and to their credit the page did only read that Presence’s legal formats were Legacy and Vintage. So I looked up Murktide Regent.

As of 6/9/2021, according to Gatherer.com, Murktide Regent is NOT LEGAL IN ANY FORMATS.

Call my deck annoying. Delicious. Call my deck illegal? Discredit my skill, my play, my deck building? And with a resource that can’t even back up the legality of your own deck? You’re only making yourself look foolish. It taints the experience. I may prey on the misery of my opposition but beating an ignorant opponent is a hollow victory.

I’ve run into the salt mines plenty. It comes with the territory. I’ve had players discredit my deck building, calling this a pile of jank. I can walk away happy with the match win. I’ve had my game play discredited, told ‘that’s not how my deck wins’. I can walk away happy with a match win. I hadn’t yet run into someone questioning the legality of my deck. That one makes it hard to walk away happy with the win. But hopefully that’s just a matter of updating databases. Gotta take it in the meantime. I lost a game recently because I didn’t realize phased out tokens do still come back. I’m totally open to having my play rule-checked. But please don’t @ me with an outdated source that invalidates your deck with the very claim laid before me.

Long story short, staying up to date on format legal sets isn’t a mountain of work. I try to see this isolated incident charitably on all angles. I was playing a new card to the format using an older print of it. They did take a step in the right direction by looking up my new card even if they didn’t check their own. So maybe when you look at a bunch of decks on this site and you see a bunch of red highlights that are all in the same set, maybe, just maybe the site is uploading the cards before they program format legality, as does Gatherer? So as new sets come out and players slot in upgrades (from any new set, this can happen with new Standard sets), just be mindful that the format illegal highlights are just a matter of databases updating and not new cards being banned in a format.

And be nice.

Oof_Magic on

1 month ago

Sometimes you venture into the salt mines. You find an opponent that wants nothing to do with what’s going on. Even when they’re in a solid state to win. I was playing a mono-blue Delver of Secrets  ^Flip deck that was running Murktide Regent . They also hit me with two Counterspell s. So obviously they know about Modern Horizons 2. So it struck me as off when my opponent sent me a link to Gatherer on Enchantress's Presence to show me that despite it being in MH2, Gatherer didn’t show it as Modern legal. That’s just an issue of databases getting updated. He wouldn’t see agree but pressed on anyway. Once I established Solitary Confinement the opponent took a moment to comment that the game had gotten boring. And not for slow play.

Yes. Please do that. That’s why I play this deck. So you can counter all my things and say my deck is annoying when you get shut out. The salt mines are the bread and butter of this deck and whether it’s good in the meta or bad, getting those reactions only embolden me to play it more. That salt is the seasoning of victory. It’s all the more delicious. I try not to be petty so it really helps when my opponent takes the mic. I play for those moments. So keep countering all my stuff and call my strategy annoying. I call it honest. At least you know what you can’t do against me rather than hiding behind dishonest counters. Keep feeding me.

I won’t be called a cheater because my accuser’s ignorance. Yes, I was using an Onslaught version of Presence. I did ask if this individual knew it was printed in MH2 and although they confined this, they adhered to the gospel of the gatherer page’s outdated database. I looked into the link sent to me and to their credit the page did only read that Presence’s legal formats were Legacy and Vintage. So I looked up Murktide Regent.

As of 6/9/2021, according to Gatherer.com, Murktide Regent is NOT LEGAL IN ANY FORMATS.

Call my deck annoying. Delicious. Call my deck illegal? Discredit my skill, my play, my deck building? And with a resource that can’t even back up the legality of your own deck? You’re only making yourself look foolish. It taints the experience. I may prey on the misery of my opposition but beating an ignorant opponent is a hollow victory.

I’ve run into the salt mines plenty. It comes with the territory. I’ve had players discredit my deck building, calling this a pile of jank. I can walk away happy with the match win. I’ve had my game play discredited, told ‘that’s not how my deck wins’. I can walk away happy with a match win. I hadn’t yet run into someone questioning the legality of my deck. That one makes it hard to walk away happy with the win. But hopefully that’s just a matter of updating databases. Gotta take it. I lost a game recently because I didn’t realize phased out tokens do still come back. I’m totally open to having my play rule-checked.

Long story short, staying up to date on format legal sets isn’t a mountain of work. I try to see this charitably on all angles. I was playing a new card to the format using an older print of it. They did take a step in the right direction by looking up my new card even if they didn’t check their own. So maybe when you look at a bunch of decks on this site and you see a bunch of red highlights that are all in the same set, maybe, just maybe the site is uploads the cards before they program format legality, as does Gatherer? So as new sets come out and players slot in upgrades (from any new set, this can happen with new Standard sets), just be mindful that the format illegal highlights are just a matter of databases updating and not new cards being banned in a format.

Oof_Magic on

1 month ago

Zoo is going control! I played a very interesting build of Zoo that incorporated a slew of one drops to recur with Abiding Grace . I was able to seal a quick game 1 with an incidental Rest in Peace backed by Sterling Grove s but ok some bleeding from Wild Nacatl and Vexing Devil . Eventually I got Solitary Confinement to seal the deal. In game two it looked very similar but I got surprised by Caustic Caterpillar which with Abiding Grace are my board up as they could sacrifice Caterpillar between reanimation triggers. Owie. I had to lean more heavily on those Sterling Grove s and mulled to six with double Grove. They had Ranger-Captain of Eos as a tutor but I had developed my engines behind some prisons and eventually was able to toss a spare Grove to get some angels for the finish.

That was a scary one and Abiding Grace alongside strong self-sacrifice creatures like Caterpillar and Spore Frog could really cause some problems for many decks. Very fun. I got my eye out for this graveyard based Zoo build.