Legacy GB Prison by MatsOle

Buy This Deck

When most people think of Legacy, they think of Brainstorm, Wasteland, unfair decks and fast combos. While there is some of that, there are also decks grinding out a fair living and casting Tireless Trackers, Scavenging Oozes and… Trinispheres? 

Yup, Green-Black Prison is a deck, and it just recently 5-0’d a Legacy League in the hands of MatsOle. Let’s take a look!

Play a fast Chalice of the Void or Trinisphere to slow down the opponent, then value them out with a huge Green Sun’s Zenith toolbox and a steady stream of Wastelands.

This deck is the next evolution of GB Rock, where instead of hand disruption, you use these punishing artifacts and make it so they can’t cast their spells at all. It’s tricky playing a deck that wants ramp and Chalice at the same time, but this deck makes it work and it’s got a lot of fun things going on.

These two cards make the opponent’s life very difficult. Chalice on one is brutal against most Legacy decks, and a turn one or two Trinisphere is great against everyone save Eldrazi.

These accelerate you to two or three mana early, enabling the artifacts to hit the board in a timely manner. They also work very nicely with Green Sun’s Zenith, which wants lots of colorless mana.

Speaking of which, GSZ has a ton of options here. Ramunap Excavator is a common one, as is Tireless Tracker, but there are many more to choose from (and they all do something the deck wants). Titania, Protector of Argoth is especially brutal with fetchlands and Wastelands, as she gives the deck a nice finishing punch.

The green Necropotence is also critical. It’s how this deck out-cards other midrange/control decks and when it comes down on turn one, it can set up some really nice turns.

If this deck doesn’t have a quick Trinisphere, Chalice or good creature, it’s likely a mulligan. It has a lot of ways to make early impactful plays and can’t wait around to find them if it doesn’t have them in its opener.

Keep. I’m keeping a turn one Sylvan, especially with Wasteland and Karakas as pseudo-spells.

Keep on the play, mull on the draw. This is too slow on the draw, but barely passable on the play. A turn two Chalice with removal and an Ooze is okay without acceleration, but just when you’re not going second.

Keep. You can get Dryad Arbor on turn one and then a three-drop on turn two, which is a pretty good start. This is light on disruption, but it sets up enough stuff early to keep.

• Keep a shuffle on hand for Sylvan Library – it’s a lot less painful to crack a fetch than take eight damage to clear the top three.
• Chalice on one is the most common number, but this deck does alright with a Chalice on two in play if you need to. Note that it won’t stop Abrupt Decay, as it’s uncounterable.
• When in doubt, pay more life to Sylvan Library. Drawing extra cards is awesome.

This is a sweet take on GB Rock, and I especially like how it’s built to withstand its own Chalice on one. That’s not a card most people would expect out of a deck like this, and I like those kinds of twists when people find ways to utilize them. Good luck playing this, and may you always have a first turn Trinisphere.