Oriss Prison Drift

Modern BGW (Abzan, Junk) Prison Reanimator

Majikthise

Land (24)

• 2x Barren Moor
• 1x Forest
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 1x Plains
• 4x Scattered Groves
• 2x Secluded Steppe
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Temple Garden
• 2x Tranquil Thicket
• 4x Verdant Catacombs
• 4x Windswept Heath

Creature (18)

• 4x Brain Maggot
• 4x Cadaver Imp
• 4x Eternal Witness
• 4x Oriss, Samite Guardian
• 2x Vesperlark

Enchantment (4)

• 4x Astral Drift

Instant (8)

• 4x Assassin's Trophy
• 4x Eladamri's Call

Sorcery (6)

• 2x Life from the Loam
• 4x Unearth

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Sideboard

Creature (4)

• 1x Fiend Hunter
• 1x Harmonic Sliver
• 1x Kami of False Hope
• 1x Spore Frog

Artifact (4)

• 2x Nihil Spellbomb
• 2x Pithing Needle

Enchantment (2)

• 2x Cast Out

Instant (5)

• 2x Gilded Light
• 3x Surgical Extraction

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Maybeboard

Creature (5)

• 1x Aegis of the Gods
• 1x Grand Abolisher
• 1x Kami of False Hope
• 1x Spore Frog
• 1x Vile Manifestation

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Rest in Peace

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Wander in Death

Artifact (1)

• 1x Aether Vial

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I'm always looking for a fringe mechanic to exploit and this list centers on the Grandeur mechanic. Specifically, the card Oriss, Samite Guardian.

The Challenge

You need one Oriss, Samite Guardian in play and at least one Oriss, Samite Guardian in your hand to discard for this deck to function. Once you do, you can lock your opponent out of their turn by discarding Oriss, Samite Guardian during their upkeep. This essentially gives you a kicked Orim's Chant and your opponent can neither cast spells nor attack you on that turn. But how do we keep Oriss, Samite Guardian in play and in our hand at the same time?

Support

Modern Horizons gave us some old favorites and new tools to help us find and recur creatures and their effects. So let's look at a few of those cards:

• Vesperlark - A reanimation effect that will hit our engine cards.
• Astral Drift - Blink effect to protect or pieces and get value off engine cards.
• Unearth - Another reanimation spell. It has cycling to go with Astral Drift
• Eladamri's Call - Fetches up your pieces to hand giving you instant access to what you need to keep recurring the lockout

Recursion

• Cadaver Imp - ETB returns a creature card to your hand. Importantly it has one power and 3 CMC meaning it can be hit by both Vesperlark and Unearth
• Vesperlark - Returns a 1 power creature from the graveyard to the battlefield when it leaves the battlefield. This means it can hit both Cadaver Imp and Oriss, Samite Guardian. It is also 3 CMC and can be hit by Unearth.
• Eternal Witness - E-Wit hits all card in the graveyard and can recur cycling lands and spells. It does suffer from not being able to be hit by Vesperlark, though.
• Life from the Loam - Return cycling lands to your hand and get more cards in the yard. Can replace and cycle draw effect with a loam trigger.

Interaction

• Brain Maggot - ETB hand attack. It is a weaker Tidehollow Sculler at 1/1 for 2 CMC but that is an advantage being able to be hit by both Vesperlark and Unearth
• Wasteland Strangler - With cards being exiled by both Astral Drift and Brain Maggot we generate a fair amount of targets on our own to use this as targeted removal. It is also hit by Unearth.
• Assassin's Trophy - For when something the opponent has needs to go.

Sideboard

Surgical Extraction for combo, Pithing Needle for planeswalkers, Angelsong for creature based strategies, Cast Out as extra exile removal and for Nihil Spellbomb graveyard strategies

Top Ranked	Achieved #47 position overall 5 years ago Achieved #6 position in Modern 5 years ago Achieved #1 position in Modern Prison 5 years ago
Date added	5 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	33 - 5 Rares 16 - 4 Uncommons 8 - 6 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.39