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Land Prison

Modern Control GW (Selesnya) Lands Primer Prison Theme/Gimmick Toolbox

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Land (33)

Creature (13)

Sorcery (5)

Artifact (6)

Instant (3)

Sideboard

Artifact (6)

Instant (6)

Land (2)

Sorcery (1)

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Artifact (2)

Instant (1)

When calling a deck land tribal, Treasure Hunt is usually what comes to mind. But this land tribal is not combo, rather it's a control deck. We're out to play the long game, eventually winning with Urza's Saga or Titania, Protector of Argoth value.

This deck has roots in its legacy counterpart, but doesn't have the fast combo finish; it plays grindy games and eventually ekes out the win.

While lands are generally at the heart of all decks, this deck relies on them a lot more than your typical deck.

  • Boseiju, Who Endures is probably the most powerful land in the deck. It allows us to remove troublesome lands, most sideboard cards, and even has utility against a lot of decks Game 1. It is a well positioned card in the format right now and it also doubles as a green source, which is important
  • Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire lets us remove most of the relevant attackers in modern
  • Urza's Saga is an amalgamation of a land that is somehow still legal. This is usually how the deck wins, and can grab Expedition Map, Zuran Orb, and Soul-Guide Lantern, all of which are relevant in the main deck
  • Desert kills X/1 creatures, and two can destroy most creatures in modern
  • Bojuka Bog is sorcery speed graveyard removal, but it can be instant speed with Elvish Reclaimer or Knight of the Reliquary on the battlefield
  • Ghost Quarter is poor man's Wasteland. It is currently not as effective due to the prevalence of basics, but power can vary between personal metas. With Azusa, Lost but Seeking and Crucible of Worlds it turns into hard removal pretty quickly. It's very effective against money pile as they have a lot of dual colored lands and enchantments on those lands
  • Radiant Fountain's lifegain is occasionally useful, but it's often the first land boarded out
  • Forest: Generic land. 2 copies provides us with green mana, a buffer for Blood Moon, and lets us safely Ghost Quarter ourself
  • Plains: Generic land. 2 copies for Path to Exile
  • Razorverge Thicket provides green and white and is relatively budget friendly. Windswept Heath is an optional replacement
  • Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth is what lets this deck function with 20 colorless lands. The ability lets us tap all of our lands for green, but is worth noting that it lets opponents tap for green too
  • Quicksand removes initial attackers and lets us get set up better. Multiple of them can also take out bigger threats
  • Argoth, Sanctum of Nature  : Melds with Titania, and provides 2/2 bears while running on empty. Can also mill into Life from the Loam.
  • Arboreal Grazer ramps us a land, and is a nice blocker
  • Elvish Reclaimer is the first of our toolbox enablers and becomes a threat after a few turns. Few things are scarier than knowing you're playing a toolbox deck ready to counter your every move
  • Titania, Voice of Gaea   nets us a profit off sacrificed lands. She has decent stats and reach, and if she melds she gets a massive boost as well.
  • Azusa, Lost but Seeking is absurd with Crucible of Worlds in play; we gain instant access to a massive boost that pulls us extremely ahead in advantage. She is also not bad when played normally
  • Knight of the Reliquary is the second of our toolbox enablers. It lets us turn basics into value while growing through the whole game. Once Yavimaya is in place we can sacrifice any land
  • Explore draws a card and lets us play an additional land. Multiple land drops allow us to continually sacrifice Quicksand and Ghost Quarter while still playing on curve
  • Path to Exile removes big threats easily, but does thin the opponent's deck
  • Life from the Loam works similarly to Crucible of Worlds in this deck, but allows us to continually reuse Boseiju. We usually only want to see one throughout the whole game, so there's only two copies
  • Expedition Map finds us any land, and it can be found with Urza's Saga. It can even find another Saga for many constructs in the late game
  • Zuran Orb lets us sacrifice lands for life, and lets us get the most out of Azusa + Crucible land drops. We can sacrifice Urza's Saga in response to its third chapter as well
  • Soul-Guide Lantern main deck graveyard hate that also cycles if it's not relevant. Graveyard shenenigans are common enough that I've moved it mainboard
Most suggestions will probably go here as I test them out, but they could also be relevant to personal metas, so definitely feel free to tinker :)

  • Chalice of the Void: It was pointed out that the current list would struggle against specific cascade decks (Rhinos/Glimpse). Since Living End and Restore Balance are also decks that see some play, I'll be testing this
  • Eladamri's Call: If other maybeboard testings become part of the main deck, this becomes an interesting card. Being able to fetch Titania if I have Argoth, Azusa turn 2 for turn 3 shenangians, or a Knight of the Reliquary is worth merit. In personal metas with less graveyard stuff, I'd move Bojuka Bog and Soul-Guide lantern to the sideboard, and run these in the main instead
  • You can sacrifice Urza's Saga to Zuran Orb in response to its third chapter ability, as Saga only sacrifices after the third ability resolves

    • 715.4: If the number of lore counters on a Saga permanent is greater than or equal to its final chapter number, and it isn’t the source of a chapter ability that has triggered but not yet left the stack, that Saga’s controller sacrifices it. This state-based action doesn’t use the stack
  • Since dredge (Life from the Loam) is a replacement effect, players can't respond to you deciding to dredge

    • 614.1a: Effects that use the word “instead” are replacement effects. Most replacement effects use the word “instead” to indicate what events will be replaced with other events
    • 702.52a: Dredge is a static ability that functions only while the card with dredge is in a player’s graveyard. “Dredge N” means “As long as you have at least N cards in your library, if you would draw a card, you may instead mill N cards and return this card from your graveyard to your hand."
  • Since Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth gives lands the subtype forest, they gain the ability : Add

    • 305.6: The basic land types are Plains, Island, Swamp, Mountain, and Forest. If an object uses the words “basic land type,” it’s referring to one of these subtypes. An object with the land card type and a basic land type has the intrinsic ability ": Add [mana symbol],” even if the text box doesn’t actually contain that text or the object has no text box. For Plains, [mana symbol] is ; for Islands, ; for Swamps, ; for Mountains, ; and for Forests, . See rule 107.4a. See also rule 605, “Mana Abilities.”
  • Playing a land is a special action, meaning players can't respond to you playing a land (They can respond to triggered abilities though, like Radiant Fountain's). What this means is that if Azusa resolves, you can play lands and your opponent won't be able to respond

    • 117.3b: The active player receives priority after a spell or ability (other than a mana ability) resolves.
    • 117.1c: A player may take some special actions any time they have priority. A player may take other special actions during their main phase any time they have priority and the stack is empty. See rule 116, “Special Actions.”
    • 116.2a: Playing a land is a special action. To play a land, a player puts that land onto the battlefield from the zone it was in (usually that player’s hand). By default, a player can take this action only once during each of their turns. A player can take this action any time they have priority and the stack is empty during a main phase of his or her turn. See rule 305, “Lands.”
  • Players don't get priority during Urza's Saga's search. Since Pithing Needle says "As Pithing Needle enters the battlefield", you will choose the name as it enters, and it's still during Saga's search at this point. A notable application of this is opponents can't sacrifice fetchlands (Like Bloodstained Mire) in between letting Urza's Saga's ability resolve and Pithing Needle entering the battlefield. You can punish them for not fetching

    • 117.4: If all players pass in succession (that is, if all players pass without taking any actions in between passing), the spell or ability on top of the stack resolves or, if the stack is empty, the phase or step ends.
    • 614.1: Some continuous effects are replacement effects. Like prevention effects (see rule 615), replacement effects apply continuously as events happen—they aren’t locked in ahead of time. Such effects watch for a particular event that would happen and completely or partially replace that event with a different event. They act like “shields” around whatever they’re affecting.
    • 614.1c: Effects that read “[This permanent] enters the battlefield with . . . ,” “As [this permanent] enters the battlefield . . . ,” or “[This permanent] enters the battlefield as . . . “ are replacement effects.
  • Creatures are still attacking in the end of combat step, which is why Desert works

    • 511.3: As soon as the end of combat step ends, all creatures and planeswalkers are removed from combat. After the end of combat step ends, the combat phase is over and the postcombat main phase begins (see rule 505).
  • The mana value of Titania, Gaea Incarnate     is (Titania's + Argoth's ).

    • 202.3c: The mana value of a melded permanent is calculated as though it had the combined mana cost of the front faces of each card that represents it. If a permanent is a copy of a melded permanent (even if that copy is represented by two other meld cards), the mana value of the copy is 0.
I've been testing Titania, Voice of Gaea   over Titania, Protector of Argoth for a little while, and I've decided I like the change. PoA tends to get stuck in the hand, and VoG's   lifegain is helpful. Argoth, Sanctum of Nature   is a useful utility land, and the meld is extremely powerful if it occurs.

Mainboard:

youhoo2645 highlighted an issue in the previous iteration of the deck; that with 4 Arboreal Grazers it was highly likely that we draw one in the lategame; where we don't want it. Since we were a little light on the toolbox aspect, and Elvish Reclaimer is a better draw lategame anyways, I swapped the numbers around.

Mainboard:

  • -1 Arboreal Grazer: This card is often a terrible topdeck, and we usually want only one in our opening hands
  • +1 Elvish Reclaimer: An additional Reclaimer makes the toolbox aspect of this deck more consistent, and if we draw it in the lategame it's a strong 1-drop
With Yorion gone, hopefully there will be less etb decks in the format. That leaves a lot of decks that tend to focus on a singular threat.

Mainboard:

  • -2 Scavenger Grounds: Graveyard decks currently aren't as popular, and we already have main deck hate in Soul-Guide Lantern
  • -1 Razorverge Thicket: Needed room for a third Desert, this is currently the least effective card in the deck
  • +3 Desert: Snipes small creatures. The deck has been needed additional support for creature heavy decks, hopefully this does the trick

Sideboard:

  • -2 Torpor Orb: With Yorion gone I expect to see less etb piles
  • So I wanted +2 Surgical Extraction to better deal with combo decks and decks that heavily rely on one card.
If you've made it this far, thanks for checking out my deck! I hope you liked it :)

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Casual

94% Competitive

Top Ranked
  • Achieved #44 position overall 2 years ago
  • Achieved #32 position in Modern 2 years ago
  • Achieved #1 position in Modern Prison 2 years ago
Date added 2 years
Last updated 1 year
Legality

This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)

9 - 3 Mythic Rares

30 - 9 Rares

8 - 3 Uncommons

6 - 0 Commons
Cards 60
Avg. CMC 1.81
Tokens Bear 2/2 G, Construct 0/0 C
Folders Cool decks
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