"Esper Prison Control, 0/0/0"
After the banning of birthing pod, I became increasingly fascinated with the metagame shift. I hated treasure cruise and DDT as well, they were actually the main reason I quit modern, but now that their reign is over I think I'm ready to start up again.
Although I considered birthing pod to be my favorite deck in the format since it was always so interactive, it was oppressive in that it made creating new cards like siege rhino difficult, so I am happy they made the decision to drop the hammer on it.
I spent a lot of time analyzing various new strategies and takes on existing strategies including Living End, Martyr Life, Hatebears, Spirits, and even a number of turbo fog brews. But after all that testing, I eventually found myself dominating both burn AND junk with one of my old favorites: Ghostly Prison Lockdown. With the removal of BP from the format, the amount of decks running junk, Jund, and Zoo is going to go up and tool box starts in modern are going to be completely dead(making enchantments harder to deal with).
Here's the breakdown for each card:
[[banishing light]]/[[oblivion ring]]: I run 2 and 2 here for the purposes of being resistant to [[echoing truth]] and [[maelstrom pulse]] and that's pretty much it, no reason not to. As for the purpose of the effect, it's just incredibly versatile and sort of works as this decks [[abrupt decay]] and adds to the [[sphere of safety]] count. Specifically, it gets rid of liliana's, Karns, siege rhino's, emrakuls(lol), and any number of annoying permanents that may break my game plan.
[[Dovescape]]: This is the decks main win condition, and as silly as it seems, it's the only card that makes the tron matchup winnable. It counters every card that would get rid of it in tron and prevents the cycling effects, I need to drop nevermore before I play it to prevent emrakul, but it's GG the moment that happens as long as I don't get really unlucky, but it might take time. Dovescape is also unique in that it is the only card to my knowledge that can be used as an effective win condition that is virtually impossible to get rid of.
[[elspeth, suns champion]]: Just another win condition, it's an amazing card that's tough to get rid of and usually GG the moment it resolves depending in who you are facing and how lucky they are.
[[ghostly prison]]/[[Sphere of safety]]: Prison is sort of the main card in a the deck, it's the main lockdown mechanic in the deck and works very effectively as crowd control and early otk prevention from decks like infect, splinter twin, living end, dredgevine, and so on. It also combines well with sphere of safety that can effectively create a linchpin in the endgame vs junk and midrange decks, especially with [[mystifying maze]] in play. Not as good in the burn matchup, but the burn matchup is not something I'm worried about, leyline really slows them down and the deck itself is inherently good against them especially after board.
[[heliod, god of the sun]]: It's a newer card I'm trying, it can be tutored and can be activated really easily. It's also very hard to get rid of and provides a late game win condition with the tokens eventually. Most of all, it's a really good wall.
[[idyllic tutor]]: Self explanatory, tutors anything I may need in the moment, but most of all it let's me run less kill conditions in my deck to prevent dead draws. It's a little slower, but I'm still testing it.
[[inquisition of kozilek]]/[[thoughtseize]]: Combos well with[[nevermore]] and [[runed halo]], good vs Counter spells if I happen to be facing them. Most of all, it helps against twin, infect, and burn. At no point is this a bad card for me to draw so overall it's a great card, definitely worth the splash. I've considered removing TS for [[duress]] since it helps more with burn and creatures don't really worry me most of the time. The deck is really straining on the life total as well which is the main reason I sideboard TS instead of Kozilek.
[[nevermore]]: in the context of this deck, this card works wonders. I used to sideboard it, but I kept finding myself using it every game so I said screw it and just added 3 main board. Helps against virtually everything, it acts as a pseudo [[slaughter games]] that also adds to the [[sphere of safety]] count and feeds devotion for Heliod if that ever matters.
[[spellskite]]: Nuff said, this card is the bomb. I used to use [[wall of omens]], but this card is too good in too many matchups not to use.
[[path to exile]]: goes nicely with my play set of [[ghost quarter]]. Early game spot removal for twin, burn, junk, infect, etc. Really it's never a dead draw, there is a reason almost every deck running white runs this card.
[[runed halo]]: a very important card in the deck, sort of works as a psuedo [[despise]]+[[surgical extraction]] that can be abruptly decayed. At its worst, it's a [[journey to nowhere]].
[[wrath of god]]: it can stall in the early game or clear the field to make room for a win condition late game, definitely not running more than one of these, but definitely never running less than 1.
Sideboard:
[[chalice of the void]]: Very tempted to main board this, but there are just too many important card in the deck to make room for it. It's better after board since it helps deal with [[natures claim]] and [[wear//tear]]. Mostly targets infect and burn, but it also helps with living end and dredgevine.
[[leyline of sanctity]]: This Card should be in almost everyone's sideboard, burn is just too good to not use it against them. Storm is also still lurking, you never know when it will start showing its face again.
[[stony silence]]: Tron, that's about it. Maybe I will find more uses for it, but tron is a really tough cookie and stony silence really helps against it.
I play this on untap.in under the game name "Competitive Modern" and that is what my record is based on, I am still working on tweaking the deck. Suggestions welcome(but only from people willing to prove their point with context).
11/2/0
(Infect: 2-0)
(Bloom Titan: 1-0)
(Junk: 2-0)
(DredgeVine: 1-0)
(Zoo: 1-1)
(Tron: 0-1)
(Merfolk: 1-0)
(RDW/Burn: 2-0)
(Boros Brew: 1-0)
(Splinter Twin: 1-0
[After a lot of testing, I have concluded that tron is borderline impossible to deal with and is just something that I have to be ok with losing to a lot. Oh well, can't beat everything.]
This statement is now obsolete all thanks to [[dovescape]], my new favorite card,