Mono-Blue Prison by Martin Müller (Modern)

WHAT’S THE GAME PLAN OF THIS DECK?

This deck is the essence of durdling. Basically, you do a whole lot of nothing while making land drops, gaining life, drawing cards, nullifying your opponent’s attacks, and seemingly accomplishing nothing at all. You’re never destroying an opposing permanent—you just make their cards ineffectual. Hence, it’s more of a prison deck than a control deck. And eventually, you win the game out of nowhere.

To win, you build toward a game state where you have 2 Jace’s Sanctum and 8 Islands in play and two 6-mana win conditions in hand. Assuming that you’ve just bounced your opponent’s board with Engulf the Shore, that’s lethal—either you get two attacks in with a 12/12 Island, or you get at least 10 Zombies and another turn. But the double-Part-the-Waterveil win is most common, and flavor-wise it can feel like pushing your opponent over a waterfall.

Main Deck Breakdown
Let’s go over the card groups one by one.

BUYING TIME

This trio of cards gives you the time you need. They don’t actually answer opposing creatures or planeswalkers permanently, but time is all you need with this deck.

Prism Ring is an excellent play on turn 1, and once you have multiples in play, you can easily get up to 40 or 50 life as long as you keep playing spells.

Hydrolash fills the dual role of drawing cards and Fogging opponents. I have been impressed by how relevant the -2/-0 effect is. So many decks in Standard right now flood the board with small creatures, so Hydrolash can save you a ton of damage.

Engulf the Shore typically bounces your entire opponent’s board. Even Ormendahl can be bounced once you have 7 Islands, and an attacking Gideon will also be swept up if you have 5. Engulf the Shore is one of the most important cards to find early against aggro decks.

CARD DRAW SPELLS

These are the card draw spells that allow you to dig deeper into your deck while triggering Jace’s Sanctum and Prism Ring. I have seen the term “velocity” pop up in Magic articles recently, and although I still don’t know what it means, it has some connotations with card draw spells for me, so it should describe this part of the deck adequately. (Seriously, if anyone can give me a definition of “velocity,” then please do!)

Anticipate is typically better than Nagging Thoughts, except when you discard Nagging Thoughts to Pore over the Pages for value. Once you have Jace’s Sanctum in play, Anticipate and Nagging Thoughts cost 1 mana and Pore over the Pages effectively costs 2 mana—pretty cheap!

Day’s Undoing offers a unique effect. Sometimes your hand size gets low and you need a way to refill. Sometimes, after bouncing your opponent’s board with Engulf the Shore, you want to force them to shuffle all of their creatures away. And Day’s Undoing is the perfect follow-up to Part the Waterveil, as you will get to play your 7 new cards first. You might think that Day’s Undoing has anti-synergy with Rise from the Tides, but that was never an issue in the games I played. You never want to draw multiples though, so more than three Day’s Undoing is not needed.

JACE’S SANCTUM

Jace’s Sanctum is arguably the most important card in the deck. Both abilities are relevant. The scry gives a lot of card selection, allowing you to dig for Engulf the Shore early on and for Part the Waterveil later. Making spells cheaper is also pretty important, as it allows you cast a lot of spells per turn. If you have 3 in play, then Pore Over the Pages is free, and a kicked Part the Waterveil only costs 6 mana, so the cost reduction adds up.

WIN CONDITIONS

Part the Waterveil is great. It is a fine play on turn 6 to hit an extra land drop before you cast Day’s Undoing, or just to gain a life or scry. And once you have enough lands on the battlefield, it becomes your main win condition. It is almost impossible for opponents to kill a 6/6 Island at instant speed, so as long as you cleared the board with Engulf the Shore beforehand, 2 Part the Waterveil are lethal. You need a bunch of lands or Jace’s Sanctum in play for that to work, but it’s often possible to set that up.

I would play a 5th Part the Waterveil over Rise from the Tides, but that’s not allowed. I view Rise from the Tides as a piece of insurance for games in which you have already exiled 3 Part the Waterveil to take extra turns earlier in the game. Your game plan at that point is to cast Rise from the Tides and Part the Waterveil on the same turn, so you can swing for lethal without giving your opponent a chance to cast Declaration in Stone, Chandra, Languish, or Radiant Flames. I have also cast Rise from the Tides and Day’s Undoing on the same turn, which is sometimes good enough to get there.

I don’t think the deck wants or needs a 6th win condition. You have to play tight and ration them, but adding, say, Sphinx of the Final Word is not necessary because it will make your opening hands so much worse.

The mana base is simple. You need all your lands to be Islands for Engulf the Shore. Using battlelands for a minor white or black splash (as I did) is an option, but you need those Islands. So Corrupted Grafstone or Mage-Ring Network wouldn’t fit this deck.