[Primer] Masterminds Prison

Standard* Budget Competitive Control Cruel Control Primer WB (Orzhov)

MaxMania38

Enchantment (12)

• 1x Arguel's Blood Fast  ^Flip
• 1x Authority of the Consuls
• 2x Cast Out
• 4x Gideon's Intervention
• 3x Ixalan's Binding
• 1x Profane Procession  ^Flip

Instant (5)

• 2x Moment of Craving
• 3x Settle the Wreckage

Sorcery (12)

• 3x Doomfall
• 2x Fumigate
• 2x Harsh Scrutiny
• 2x Lost Legacy
• 3x Mastermind's Acquisition

Creature (1)

• 1x Tetzimoc, Primal Death

Land (28)

• 4x Concealed Courtyard
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 11x Plains
• 12x Swamp

Planeswalker (2)

• 2x Gideon of the Trials

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Sideboard

Sorcery (8)

• 2x Approach of the Second Sun
• 1x Boneyard Parley
• 2x Dispossess
• 1x Golden Demise
• 1x Hour of Revelation
• 1x Oketra's Last Mercy

Creature (3)

• 1x Aven Mindcensor
• 1x Kambal, Consul of Allocation
• 1x Tocatli Honor Guard

Instant (1)

• 1x Sanguine Sacrament

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Ashes of the Abhorrent
• 1x Consulate Crackdown
• 1x Solemnity

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Maybeboard

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Trespasser's Curse

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Before we get started on the decklist I would like to give a shoutout to asuper21. He has been a great help to me during testing and refining the decklist after games. Go check him out, he makes some really great stuff. So to start I will break down each card and choice. Then i will outline my matches and scores

Introduction

For the past couple of days i have been researching and refining this deck to make it the best possible to defeat every major deck in standard right now. This is essentially a prison deck at heart that wants to lock your opponent out of playing their major pieces and spells to win the game. it uses discard spells and cards like Lost Legacy and Gideon's Intervention to lock your opponent out of playing their spells. One of the best feelings you can get in magic is when you see the look of dispair and disgust on your opponents face when all of their main plays are Ixalan's Bindinged or uncastable with Gideon's Intervention. This is an acquisition deck so it uses the sideboard as an extension of the deck, so that is why there is not a normal sideboard but instead the almighty holy grail of VALUE. So here is my primer to my genius, Masterminds Prison.

Sorceries

Doomfall: Just an exelent card in every aspect. It is exile removal which is amazing to deal with The Scarab God and Hazoret the Fervent or it can exile any card in thier hand, more importantly, it nets you imformation. Information is great because we can use this to target gamechangers with our previously mentioned prison spells.

Fumigate: Boardwipes are extremely important to this deck as we really only have one creature so defending is crucial, and if not with blockers, then with lots of wipes, fumigate has the added advantage of gaining us life to get us out of reach of those pesky red decks

Harsh Scrutiny: Another great card, gets us information, gets rid of a problem creature, and controls our next draw

Lost Legacy: One of our most vital prison cards. Nothing is better than making a control player scoop on turn three by exiling all Approach of the Second Suns in their deck. Lost Legacy is most notably a sideboard card in pretty much all black decks, but it works amazingly in the mainboard of our deck. You get to search their whole library so you can identify problem cards that need to be dealt with. The potential of this card is insane and i cant stress enough to play this to get problems out of the way. Easily the best card in the deck besides Mastermind's Acquisition

Mastermind's Acquisition: Speaking of the best card in the deck, it brings us to acquisition. This the namesake card of the deck. the 3 of is perfectly logical because on its own its a Diabolic Tutor which is playable i guess, but the second mode is where it really shines. Grabbing any card out of your board to deal with any situation is just amazing and almost too good for standard. It can grab a prison card or a board wipe or anything else you need, i love it

Instants

Moment of Craving: Great card, can deal with Andanto Vangaurd easily, and nets life, what more could you want

Settle the Wreckage: Great wipe that exiles. Exiling is great to deal with major threats and graveyard srats. the land gain is negligable as most decks dont run many basics

Enchantments

Arguel's Blood Fast  : This will almost never flip with the amount of life gain in the deck but its our only way to draw extra cards and the 2 life to pay is negligable, can find answers at instant speed and drawing cards is always great

Authority of the Consuls: I was debating wether to put this in the sideboard or not for aggro but after a lot of testing i find myself boarding it in or grabbing it with acquisition most every game this is an absolute powerhouse aganst creatures and the lifegain can get out of hand as well

Cast Out: Man i love exile. gets rid of so many threats and its at instant speed and early game it cycles away for one

Gideon's Intervention: I love this card, its basically Nevermore for an extra mana, but u get the added benefit of being able to stop threats already on the board. This is another prison card that u can use the information from the Duress and Harsh Scrutiny to lock your opponent out of combo peices or all around gamewinnning cards

Ixalan's Binding: Did i tell you how much i like locking our opponents out of spells? cause its a lot. Ixalans Binding does everything we want it to do and more, exile removal and a prison card in one, can you get much better than that?

Profane Procession  : Although its a little expensive, instant speed exile removal is great no matter what, then when it flips, their threats become your threats. All in all its instant speed removal and a source of creatures

Creatures

Tetzimoc, Primal Death Big old dino that is a wipe on a stick, one of our wincons if our opponent refuses to scoop from their lack of spellcasting ability.

Planeswalker

Gideon of the Trials: the one of Gideon is everything we want from a control deck like ours, he stops damage, beats for 4 indestructable, and makes it so we cant lose the game, if were even in a position to do so.

The SideBoard, (deck part 2)

this is what im dreading, ive been working on the board for a while and i still cant find a set of 15 cards that will help me in each situation, this is the main part of the deck ive been working on so if you have any suggestions pls let me know. I will provide the an example of scenarios to bring each in with acquisition

Approach of the Second Sun: I bring this in against the control matchup where the game has stalled out and someone needs to win, I suggest against UW control, name approach with legacy or intervention

Ashes of the Abhorrent This comes in against The Scarab God and God-Pharaoh's Gift

Aven Mindcensor: This comes in against ramp approach or any other type of ramp deck to prevent them from getting farther into their deck

Trespasser's Curse Great for aggro as it punishes them for playing their strategy

Boneyard Parley This card has won me several games, when you have enough mana, play it and grab the best creatures out of their graveyard and hit them with it, simple, one of our wincons

Consulate Crackdown comes in against any artifact or enchantment heavy decks to pretty much wipe their board

Tocatli Honor Guard What a great card absolutly turns off Panharmonicon decks and any other etb based cards like Torrential Gearhulk. Torpor Orb was always a great prison card, and here is a version in standard

Golden Demise Grab this against token deck or anything trying to go wide

Hour of Revelation Board wipe that hits everything, what else can i say

Kambal, Consul of Allocation This is a tank against control, a 4 point life swing everytime there is a noncreature spell, the value is insane

Oketra's Last Mercy Comes in as a last resort, this may be changed, i just need to find a replacement, but right now its the best of the cards that may change

Sanguine Sacrament All the lifegain

Solemnity absolutly hoses contrictor and energy, 9 times out of 10, you drop this after u grab it with acquisition and its an instant scoop

Dispossess the other half of lost legacy. Great for taking out problem artifacts like god pharoahs gift and any of the gearhulks or problem vehicles

Matches.4/8/18 I went to my store championship and actually top 8ed my first time testing this irl. i noticed a few problems but i have refined the list acordingly.

round one: GB acquisition. I've never played against GB acquisition before so i didnt know its main threatsand this ended up being my one loss, on a side note game 2 i got land screwed.

round 2: bye

round 3: black red pirates. I simply had enough removal to keep major threats off the board and named Dire Fleet Neckbreaker which completly slowed down his whole plan. game 2 i got land screwed... again

round 4: sultai constrictor. I first named Winding Constrictor with my Lost Legacy both games, which was a mistake, because i almost got killed by Hadana's Climb   game one and was killed by it game 2. Make that top priority against constrictor. I ended up winning in 3 but it was my toughest battle

Top 8 round one: I lost to green red dinos in 2 games, game one i missplayed with the sunmare and ended up getting blown out by his final castable threat, Regisaur Alpha, game 2, he sided in loooots of enchantment hate, and my bindings and interventions were torn to shreads.

After the store championship i realized my mistake with my deck, I only ran 22 lands, which is much too low for a control deck, and i got blown out by creatures. So i added more lands and wipes and took out some small spot removal.

Date added	6 years
Last updated	6 years
Exclude colors	URG
Legality	This deck is not Standard legal.
Rarity (main - side)	2 - 1 Mythic Rares 22 - 12 Rares 10 - 1 Uncommons 3 - 1 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	3.41
Tokens	City's Blessing, Emblem Gideon of the Trials
Folders	Standard as of Ixalan, For Reference, Neat, Standard???, Standard deck ideas, standard, wb control, Standard decks