The most successful decks at the previous week's Grand Prix Birmingham had been Grixis Delver and other blue Deathrite Shaman strategies. But in the end, Mono-Red Prison defeated them all and finished first. The Spheres and Moons were of course invaluable in such a field, Chalice of the Void dealing with most of the blue players' spells and Blood Moon taking care of their lands.

Now that Mono-Red Prison had established itself as one of the major players in Legacy, we wanted to know: How do you beat it?

Nicolas Crepelle, MKMS Rome Legacy champion: “Play a combo deck that doesn't rely as much on 1 mana spells. So don't play Storm but rather some Show and Tell deck.”

Julian Knab, veteran of seven MKM Series Top 8s: “A core feature of Legacy is that, when in doubt, you probably want to be greedy with your deckbuilding but conservative in plays. Playing against Moon Stompy requires a complete reversal of this approach, which is why I think adapting to its presence in the metagame will be too hard for most decks. Since it's still not widely played you will probably just hope for the best when you face it and make only minor changes to your deck.

“Deckwise, Miracles has an okay matchup against Moon Stompy—especially the more Council's Judgment and Counterspell they play. I also really like Omni Sneak here, and Maverick can also be surprisingly fine against them as Gaddock Teeg presents a huge problem in Game 1; though Game 2 you'll have to protect it with Jitte and/or Sword of Fire and Ice because of Kozilek's Return.”

Arne Huschenbeth, Standard champion of MKMS Hamburg 2017 and winner of GP Rimini 2016: “You beat it with Death and Taxes and Sneak and Show.”

Thoralf “Toffel” Severin, veteran of two MKM Series Top 8s and three GP Top 8s: “Use a lot of basic lands, or have removal spells for Blood Moon/Magus of the Moon that you can cast off of one basic.”

Philipp Krieger, WMC semifinalist and veteran of three MKM Series Top 8s: “Do not fight the deck but rather play with it, use what the deck is doing for your own purposes. For example, with Lands, you'll have so much red mana that Molten Vortex becomes much better. Maybe also include some off-curve cards like Seismic Assault so you don't lose to Chalice. You can run more dedicated hate against the deck, but that will leave you vulnerable in other matchups.”

Andreas Müller, Grand Prix and MKM Series champion: “To be honest, I don´t have enough experience with Mono-Red Prison to give good advice, but I think Death and Taxes should do well against it. At least as long the red player doesn't draw Fiery Confluence.”

Felix Bolland, second in the race for the 2018 MKMS Power 8: “Through the eyes of a nonblue player: Pray that they do not have turn one Blood Moon on the play. In my case: Pray that they play Chalice on one on turn one, so I do not have to play my own Chalice! Besides that, nonland sources that produce mana like Mox Diamond are good. Planeswalkers like Liliana of the Veil are good. Gaddock Teeg is very good against them. Stops Fiery Confluence and Chandra; it's basically a soft lock.”

Nicklas Krull, veteran of four MKM Series Top 8s: “You beat Mono-Red Prison by ignoring some of their lock pieces. Playing tons of basics to basically blank their Moon effects is the most obvious example, but just casting a Show and Tell into their Trinisphere, Chalice of the Void on one, et cetera also works. Dealing with their few relevant business spells is the easy part.”

Hans Joachim Höh, Ph.D., quarterfinalist Pro Tour New Orleans 2003: “Many of the cards in that deck are relatively fair and/or less efficient than what other decks are trying to do. Mono-Red wins most games with Blood Moon successfully disrupting the opposing ability to cast their spells. This means that decks with lots of basic lands have a much better matchup against Mono-Red. Therefore Miracles should wreck that deck, and Sneak and Show should do fine as well. Three- and four-color decks can improve their odds by at least running those basic lands which allow them to cast their answers to Blood Moon and Magus of the Moon. Of course you need to fetch your basics as soon as possible, hoping to dodge turn one Moons or Force of Will them.”