B/W Prison

Prison decks are decks that try to slow down your opponent enough to a point where planeswalkers will take over the game. However, instead of trying to just slow down our opponent, this deck tries to go for the complete lock out. There is no greater feeling then knowing your opponent has 40 plus cards in their deck and that they are all completely useless.

Early Game:
It is all about the discard. Thoughtseize, Inquisition of Kozilek and Collective Brutality all give us information about what our opponent is playing as well as slow their game plan down. To make our discard even more powerful, we also have a playset of Surgical Extraction. This gives us complete information about our opponents deck. Surgical Extraction is also a great card in that it can really win games on its own against specific decks. We also have a play-set of Path to Exile to round out our early game plays.

Mid Game:
This is where we start to put our lock pieces into play. Ensnaring Bridge is the key piece to our deck. Once we lock down our opponents creatures, the game becomes all about protecting our Bridge. Using the information gathered with Surgical, we can really shut down our opponents deck with Gideon's Intervention. Bottled Cloister is also a great card with Ensnaring Bridge. Because it exiles our hand on our opponent's turn, Bottled Cloister makes it impossible for our opponent to attack us with a Bridge in play. It's also a card advantage monster. Drawing 2 cards a turn is backbreaking against any deck. We run a full suite of board wipes in Damnation, Wrath of God, and Day of Judgment to get back in the game. A single Timely Reinforcements rounds out the mid-game.

Late Game:
So how exactly do we close out the game. In all honesty, we don't really plan on closing out the game in a traditional fashion. Gideon of the Trials is truly our main win condition. Planeswalkers are inherently difficult to get rid of outside of combat. Since we can lock down combat very well, it makes our planeswalkers even harder to deal with. With the Gideon of the Trials Emblem, it allows us to completely mill out our opponent and not worry about decking ourselves. (Which will happen with Bottled Cloister.) Gideon Jura works fantastic with Gideon of the Trials for the simple fact that Gideon Jura is even harder to get off the battlefield. Sorin, Grim Nemesis is in the deck because it is another way to win. Every deck needs an alternate win condition. Sorin is ours.

Sideboarding:
Our matchup against any creature based deck is good enough that we don't really have to sideboard against them. This is why our sideboard is super dedicated against any noncreature based deck. Don't be surprised when you find yourself sideboarding out 10 plus cards against a combo player. It's completely normal. Our sideboard cards are pretty self explanatory except for one. Sadistic Sacrament is a crazy card. For triple black mana, you can search your opponents library for 3 cards and exile them. The great thing about it is that they don't need to be the same card. Against a deck like Amulet Titan, you can get rid of their Walking Ballista, Engineered Explosives, and Reclamation Sage all with one card. It's fantastic. It's also a card that you end up bringing in against some creature decks to get rid of their answers to Ensnaring Bridge.

Conclusion:
Its pretty simple.

Step 1: Play a Bridge.
Step 2: Protect your Bridge.
Step 3: Play Gideon of the Trials.
Step 4: Wait for your opponent to mill out.

Other than that, I believe that's everything I have to say about this deck. It's infuriating to play against but incredible fun to play. I hope you enjoyed my in depth breakdown of the deck.

• Prison
• Control
• B/W