MTG Salvation

Quote from h0lydiva »

Quote from artfranc007 »

i am excited about the combo but i just don't see how it adds anything to our deck and i'm afraid we might be taking valuable cards out to fit it in. honestly i think that the best news from these bans is not that we can jam a combo that we dont need into our deck. it is that burn will be virtually unplayable, and a whole bunch of blue control decks are gonna crop up which should be good for us. ancestral visions isnt good for us but it's not the end of the world.

If the combo proves to be not worth it and Burn is kept at low numbers, the deck is in an awesome position. Though, as I said, I've had some problems with UW control, but there's a great chance I'm just playing the matchup badly.

About the combo, the way I see it, it gives us something new. As it stands, the deck can only ever win when the game is basically locked indefinitely (which obviously, the deck is super fine-tuned towards achieving). Foundry combo makes it so you don't need a full rock-solid lock to win a game. You only need to have it under control for 4 turns. And there's many ways to have it "under control" for 4 turns. For example, if you have no Lantern but have a Bridge and are facing an aggro deck, the game is functionally under control until your opponent draws an answer to the Bridge. Against decks such as Tron, if you have a Bridge, a Lantern and a mill rock, the game is functionally under control until the Tron player hits a relevant 3 card streak, such as Sphere, Stone, Karn or whatever other combination. You are playing vs Storm and have Lantern and a couple mill rocks, game is "under control" until the Storm player achieves a critical mass of stuff in their hand/graveyard so they can go off no matter what. There's more examples such as these ones, you get the drill.

Having an option to win those games without needing to race towards the lock before your opponent gets his answers is something new. I mean, when people say "It doesn't really add anything to the deck", well, yes, it does, it adds another option to win that kind of games, so the question is not whether it adds anything or not, it does. The question is whether what it adds is worth it or not considering the costs. It will be worth it if and only if by adding the combo you don't dilute the main lock game, and having it wins you more games than the Pyrite/Surgical/Pyroclasm/Thoughtseize/Aether Grid/whatever you took out to make room for it. My point with this is you don't necessarily dilute the deck if you don't touch the core of it. You are only touching the support section, and we need to find out if having the combo is better overall than, say, 5 specific cards in that support section.

right what i am saying is that the games that i played it seems to become a problem not a solution.

Quote from h0lydiva »

So going further (and please bear in mind these are only my opinions, I'm not the expert here, other people are), this is what I would consider the untouchable core:

21 cards manabase
4 Lantern
8 Mill rocks (I played 9 for some months, recently went back down to 8, remember having played 7 at some point, but I think 8 is a good number)
4 Bridges
4 Stirrings
6 Discard (I currently play 7, but in terms of "untouchable core" I'd say you don't want to go under 6)
2 Pithing Needle (I've been playing 3 all along, but I've seen lists playing 2 so let's say you want at least 2)
2 Abrupt Decay (Wouldn't touch them, general answer plus almost always relevant vs SB hate)
1 Infernal Tutor (Not really part of the untouchable core, but I like it and it adds consistency, plus can get a part of the combo since we are talking about it)

Those are 52 cards that I personally consider non-negotiable. The other 8 are what we normally fill with Surgicals, Spellskites, Pyrite, Pyroclasm, Aether Grid, and optional extra discard, mill rock or the 3rd Pithing Needle. In the list I've been using as of late, those 8 slots are:

- 1 Thoughtseize
- 2 Surgical Extraction
- 1 Pyrite Spellbomb
- 1 Ghirapur Aether Grid
- 2 Pyroclasm
- 1 Pithing Needle

These are the 8 slots we can play with, seems to me. Aether Grid, Pyrite, and the last copies of discard, rock and Needle are the ones I'd cross from the list first, since they either are redundant slots or fill a role the Thopter combo can more or less cover. This would leave us with 5 slots for the combo (supposing we decide we play 5 cards) and 3 slots for a combination of Surgical Extraction, Spellskite and Pyroclasm, if I'm trying to find room for the combo causing the minimum possible dilution of the deck's strategy.

so if you'll refer to the list i posted a page back, the changes i made were along the same lines. first i took out the clasms then a duress and a surgical and a needle. thats 5 cards for a 3/2 split of thopter and sword. there were a couple of games i pulled it off and it was gravy, but there were a lot of games where they were dead cards in my hand or on the field that i could have used to play a spellskite or a pyroclasm.

edit: also surgical is going to be more important now with ancestral visions, because we can interact on their turn after they have drawn three cards.

Quote from valleysdai »

Quote from h0lydiva »

...I'm having this very bad feeling that if this works too well it might end up killing the deck :/

This is my thoughts exactly on the combo because a few months ago (maybe over a year) WotC said they wouldn't unban sword because it would make Lantern too powerful. But here it is, I can see 3 reasons why they'd give us sword:

1) to set Lantern up for a ban.

2) to show that a deck built by the community can be top tier.

3) to speed our games up.

It would stink if the deck god banned simply for the thopter combo. In my experience it is a strong deck, but the mill control set up is slow as it is. I think that the comment was perhaps just a thought experiment to see how much he could influence the meta by making that statement then unbanning sword. I would think the that it would be tough to run and would need to drop the bridges for the thopter sword combo for the main combo to remain intact.


Dang, just blew my own mind, what if they want to kill the deck buy making another interactive though combo within the deck that takes the deck so long to win that it runs out of time everytime in real tourneys.

admittedly only after a day of games vs Ancestral visions brews but I feel like sea gate does what we want out of the thopter combo better for less space.

basically the game is won and im running through the motions and when givin both options im always using the sea gate? is anyone else running into this?

ok after winning a couple mini's with this list i can confidently say that i was wrong about the combo. it gives us something that a lot of tier one decks have. multiple ways to win. jund can kill you with tarmogoyf or liliana, affinity has infect or damage, same for ug infect, tron has karn and wurmcoil etc. all i can say is that i won a game with out drawing a bridge or a lantern. i mean if that isn't comfort then you haven't been playing lantern control.

here is my list.



basically cut out all the red to make room for the combo, made changes to the mana base. running 3/2 thopter to sword ratio. i feel like this is optimal since you don't want to draw multiples of either foundry or sword, especially sword. one note that people should consider is that by cutting the red our infect match up gets markedly worse. from reading their forums i gather that they dont see the combo as a big issue. distortion strike, rancor, slip through space. since we're not casting clasm on turn 2 we need another way to interact with their creatures. my answer is sinister concoction, it answers a threat, mills of an unwanted card and gets a card out of our hand, which is crucial in that match up. what do you guys think? anyone else have a chance to seriously test with the combo?

I think that all new lantern lists including Thopter Foundry and Sword of the Meek be called something like "Lantern Foundry" or "Prison Foundry". It sounds nice and distinguishes Foundry/SotM decks from non-Foundry/SotM decks (which i will call "Lantern Prison").

I honestly believe that the addition of this second combo will be as influential to this deck's development as Ensnaring Bridge was so many moons ago. We are essentially designing a brand-new deck with two combos in it: the lantern combo (Lantern of Insight + Codex Shredder/Ghoulcaller's Bell) and the foundry combo (Thopter Foundry + Sword of the Meek). A lot of the original framework can be kept (using discard spells, Ensnaring Bridges, and Ancient Stirrings), but we'll need loads of new tech (Taigam's Scheming) to make it work.

I, of course, have modified my list to support the new combo, with a 2/2 split. I originally had just one of each, but i liked it so much that i added in a second copy of each card. It does help in the absence of a Bridge and can just outright win the game. We've been needing a source of lifegain for a while, and this combo does just the trick. I also like that the combos help each other out; the Foundry combo buys us time while we find our Lantern combo, and our Lantern combo can find us the Foundry pieces to win the game. I'm going to be testing this out, seeing what pieces work and what don't, and making adjustments as needed. I'll be testing a lot of tried-and-true rules (like do we really need 4 Ancient Stirrings now, or can we replace one with Taigam's Scheming?). It's time to question everything!



Quite frankly, this is a lot to cram into a single deck, but it's worth it in my opinion. We do have to keep in mind that Thopter Foundry's mana cost puts an additional strain on our already stretched mana base, my additions of Darkslick Shores and Mana Confluence are concessions to that fact. Also, the existence of Ancestral Visions makes our job of controlling draw steps much harder in the matchups that have that card. In these games, we might be better off focusing on defending the Foundry combo with cards like Welding Jar and Spellskite. In addition, i think we need to re-visit adding in Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas. The meta has slowed down considerably, and i think this planeswalker can win us games, especially with Thopter Foundry making tons of artifacts to power up his ultimate.

As a side note, i played a single game tonight against a GW Hatebears deck. Just about every single card here had its uses –
• Pithing Needle hit Qasali Pridemage.
• Ensnaring Bridge stalled the game until i was able to find other pieces.
• The lantern combo protected me against Ghost Quarters and Noble Hierarchs while digging for wincons. I had only a Ghoulcaller's Bell for most of the game.
• The foundry combo stabilized my life total and allowed me to considerably damage my opponent.
• Once Scavenging Ooze ate my Sword of the Meek, i was able to Infernal Tutor for Ghirapur Æther Grid to win the game.

I am really loving the new direction this unban is taking this deck in. I've always strongly believed that the power of Lantern Control truly comes from being able to handle any situation thrown at it and being capable of doing a wide variety of things. This new Foundry/SotM combo adds powerful, unique, useful functionality that we've always needed but never thought of.

It would stink if the deck god banned simply for the thopter combo. In my experience it is a strong deck, but the mill control set up is slow as it is. I think that the comment was perhaps just a thought experiment to see how much he could influence the meta by making that statement then unbanning sword. I would think the that it would be tough to run and would need to drop the bridges for the thopter sword combo for the main combo to remain intact.


Dang, just blew my own mind, what if they want to kill the deck buy making another interactive though combo within the deck that takes the deck so long to win that it runs out of time everytime in real tourneys.

.

Why would we drop bridges? I think bridges gets better with the addition of the combo. Once I empty my hand it becomes very asymmetrical. Make a bunch of thopters at the opponents end step, draw my card, attack with thopters, play my card to empty my hand. I haven't been playing this deck long but it feels like this change would speed up our clock and we would kill faster once we got the lock.

Since I've only been playing Magic since November, I'm still a bit confused on this Thopter/Sword Combo ..

Could someone explain this combo a little bit more to me? As of now, i know you target Sword with the Thopter Foundry, but you have to pay 1 mana every time ..yes? So it's not an infinite combo?

Here's a list I've come up with - been adjusting and trying to fit in everything, as much as i can.

Counts : 60 main / 15 sideboard

Creatures:1
1 Spellskite

Spells:43
4 Mox Opal
4 Ancient Stirrings
4 Codex Shredder
4 Ghoulcaller's Bell
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lantern of Insight
2 Pithing Needle
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Thoughtseize
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Infernal Tutor
2 Sword of the Meek
2 Thopter Foundry
4 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Ghirapur AEther Grid
1 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas

Lands:16
2 Academy Ruins
2 Blackcleave Cliffs
1 Darkslick Shores
1 Yavimaya Coast
1 Forest
4 Glimmervoid
1 Grove of the Burnwillows
3 Llanowar Wastes
1 Sea Gate Wreckage

Sideboard:15
1 Spellskite
3 Welding Jar
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Pithing Needle
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Ancient Grudge
2 Doom Blade
3 Leyline of Sanctity

One question ..it is a MUST to have 3/2 ratio of Foundry/Sword? Or is the 2/2 okay? Also, i feel like i need a little bit of a tweak on my mana base ..but possibly not either.

I'm not a huge player a Lantern myself, but I know the deck concedes nearly immediatly VS Leyline of Sanctity. Adding the Thopter-Meek combo seems like a good way to go under such SB techs. It naturally is an additional way to have game against Burn, Infect and Affinity G1.
On the other hand, GAG is a good way to kill faster than milling the opponent post-sideboard, when Stony Silence and Rest in Peace ruins the overall strategy.
The idea of playing both win cons sounds scary.

I bring Leyline on the table because the card might rise again in SBs (Burn, UBx decks will be around). Some decks usually run the card, like Bogles and Ad Nauseam.

Just 2 cents.

Quote from headminerve »

I'm not a huge player a Lantern myself, but I know the deck concedes nearly immediatly VS Leyline of Sanctity. Adding the Thopter-Meek combo seems like a good way to go under such SB techs. It naturally is an additional way to have game against Burn, Infect and Affinity G1.
On the other hand, GAG is a good way to kill faster than milling the opponent post-sideboard, when Stony Silence and Rest in Peace ruins the overall strategy.
The idea of playing both win cons sounds scary.

I bring Leyline on the table because the card might rise again in SBs (Burn, UBx decks will be around). Some decks usually run the card, like Bogles and Ad Nauseam.

Just 2 cents.

You should watch some of thnkr's mtgo games on youtube where they drop leyline. He still wins those games, Leyline doesnt stop ghoulcaller's bell's mill ability b/c it does not target. Games are super winnable even though leyline is a thing. It's like people siding in Rest in Peace and thinking its good.

Well if you have low interaction with our deck they are still decent answers. Not a free win though.

I mostly don't care about Leyline at all. It only affects Shredder, Grid, and our discard package. It has no impact on Lantern (except shuffling), Bridge, Bell, Pyxis, Surgical, or Needle. There are loads of ways to work around it.

We don't really auto-concede to... anything. I once played against a jank deck that used Platinum Angel along with a Lightning Greaves on a Leonin Abunas. So i waited patiently, ticking their life total to zero with Grid, ammassed nine mana sources, then cast Pyroclasm, sac'd Shredder to bring that same Pyroclasm to my hand, and then cast it again on the same turn. We have a really strong recursion engine that lets us do just about whatever we want, as long as we havr at least one card in our 75 that does what we want.



So what about this beauty? Foundry and SotM give us an advantage and let us stall. This card added in says "I win the game". I love cards that say that. Maybe it's a bit win-more, but it could prove its worth in slower, grindier matches lile against Tezzerator, any control list, or especially the mirror. I have it as a one-of in my sideboard now.

For the people who are using the new thopter/sword build, what is the general thought on land base?

Important to note that I use 4x Mox Opal in my current build and would plan to use the 4x in the new build with thopter in it as well. I think it shines even more as it can essentially make itself a thopter if you happen to draw into an additional one while you've got active Thopter Foundry.

I have been using this:


I know most decks have switched to Grove of the Burnwillows in the copperline slot, and they typically only use really one basic (tends to use forest, from what i've seen).

I was thinking, if we were to port this land base and essentially just switch red to blue (assuming most people use 2 blackcleave and not 1 like i do, simply because i get ghost quartered a lot in my meta), would this be the correct call?:



Changes are 2 blackcleave for 2 darkslick, and 1 grove for 1 yavimaya coast. If the life loss off of Yavimaya Coast is too much for us, should we still run a grove in that spot? I'd imagine it's negligible due to the fact that we are sacrificing that life for a massive amount of consistency in order to be able to cast thopter. I would be cutting the red win cons most likely and going to the lists that are mainly running the thopter combo. Don't have my perfect list thought up yet, but 2/3 sword/thopter split seems like a good fit right now in my mind.

Can I ask a major question? I find that I end up with the mill win con most of the time and I end up running out of time in many of my matches which makes all the hard work moot. Do you have any recommendations for speeding up the game? I made the deck after a two year haiatus and did poorly in three casual tourneys and moved on to azban company. I feel like now that control decks are going to be top dog due to AV unban, lantern will have a really good matchup and I have a little more experience playing the deck so I won't suck quite as hard. I'm just worried that I could play great and and up going, 0-0-3 in a three round tourney due to time. Do you guys have any tips for speeding up the process?

Quote from TheBullwark »

Can I ask a major question? I find that I end up with the mill win con most of the time and I end up running out of time in many of my matches which makes all the hard work moot. Do you have any recommendations for speeding up the game? I made the deck after a two year haiatus and did poorly in three casual tourneys and moved on to azban company. I feel like now that control decks are going to be top dog due to AV unban, lantern will have a really good matchup and I have a little more experience playing the deck so I won't suck quite as hard. I'm just worried that I could play great and and up going, 0-0-3 in a three round tourney due to time. Do you guys have any tips for speeding up the process?

Yes, this is an extremely slow deck, the slowest out there. This means it's all the more important to be lightning quick with your moves. You need to know what cards you can keep on top and what cards you can't afford to keep before they show up, requiring that you have an integral knowledge of your meta and what kinds of decks/cards you are going to see.

It's also important to know the capabilities of your own deck. You need to know what you can or cannot do in certain situations. At the same time, you need to be innovative. For example, it's nice to know that you have a built-in recursion engine in the form of Codex Shredder, Academy Ruins, seven mana sources, plus enough other mana sources to cast your card. However, it might not be immediately apparent that you can recur Surgical Extraction to remove additional cards from your opponent's library every turn. To this end, i highly suggest you diversify your card base. For example, we all know and love Seal of Primordium, but why not take one and replace it with Hide // Seek instead? It performs much the same functions as the Seal does, but lets you use it in other ways as well – for example, exiling the only copy of Keranos, God of Storms in an opposing URX deck (or tucking it when it's already resolved, something Seal can't do), which often times leads to a concession, even though you were going to mill it later on anyway. Also, it really helps to play a one-of Infernal Tutor in there. If you're looking to break stalled games, the tutor can fetch you whatever you need to end the stalemate.

Speaking of that, play as many alternate wincons as you can. I've switched over to the Lantern Foundry build like 90% of us on here have. The Foundry/SotM combo can not only keep you alive, but also outright wins games on its own. I've kept my one-of Ghirapur Æther Grid in addition to the Foundry combo, because not only does it close games faster with the combo live, but it can defend and win games on its own even without Ensnaring Bridge, just like the Foundry combo can. I've even taken this a step further and included a single Time Sieve in my sideboard, specifically against control matchups. If i can land this card in a grindy game and get the Foundry combo out, then i win.

Have you ever played an EDH game where that guy played Winter Orb into Frozen Æther into Luminarch Ascension? Remember how frustrating it was to wait a million turns for your lands to untap while you got pummeled by a couple angels? Well congratulations, you are now that guy – you should use it to your advantage. Players will often times concede when they see you've got the lock online or when you cast Ensnaring Bridge, and many will flip out after you force them to draw land after land after land (this is especially effective against fast or aggressive players). Putting people on tilt is an easy way to steal some games that you otherwise would have lost or stalled; go ahead and let them untap with their Natural State on top of their library, only to stop them on their upkeep and mill it away. Remind them who is in control of the game, and against some players, you will get a concession from them instead of going to time. Maybe this is a below-the-belt move, but hey, it works for me.

Quote from valleysdai »

Have many people tried running 1/1 of the foundry and sword? If so what are your thoughts on it?

Buddy a few posts ago said, the combo is too good to be only playing a 1/1 combo of the card.

Most people se to be running 3/2 combos of it.

Quote from crexalbo »

Quote from TheBullwark »

Can I ask a major question? I find that I end up with the mill win con most of the time and I end up running out of time in many of my matches which makes all the hard work moot. Do you have any recommendations for speeding up the game? I made the deck after a two year haiatus and did poorly in three casual tourneys and moved on to azban company. I feel like now that control decks are going to be top dog due to AV unban, lantern will have a really good matchup and I have a little more experience playing the deck so I won't suck quite as hard. I'm just worried that I could play great and and up going, 0-0-3 in a three round tourney due to time. Do you guys have any tips for speeding up the process?

Yes, this is an extremely slow deck, the slowest out there. This means it's all the more important to be lightning quick with your moves. You need to know what cards you can keep on top and what cards you can't afford to keep before they show up, requiring that you have an integral knowledge of your meta and what kinds of decks/cards you are going to see.

It's also important to know the capabilities of your own deck. You need to know what you can or cannot do in certain situations. At the same time, you need to be innovative. For example, it's nice to know that you have a built-in recursion engine in the form of Codex Shredder, Academy Ruins, seven mana sources, plus enough other mana sources to cast your card. However, it might not be immediately apparent that you can recur Surgical Extraction to remove additional cards from your opponent's library every turn. To this end, i highly suggest you diversify your card base. For example, we all know and love Seal of Primordium, but why not take one and replace it with Hide // Seek instead? It performs much the same functions as the Seal does, but lets you use it in other ways as well – for example, exiling the only copy of Keranos, God of Storms in an opposing URX deck (or tucking it when it's already resolved, something Seal can't do), which often times leads to a concession, even though you were going to mill it later on anyway. Also, it really helps to play a one-of Infernal Tutor in there. If you're looking to break stalled games, the tutor can fetch you whatever you need to end the stalemate.

Speaking of that, play as many alternate wincons as you can. I've switched over to the Lantern Foundry build like 90% of us on here have. The Foundry/SotM combo can not only keep you alive, but also outright wins games on its own. I've kept my one-of Ghirapur Æther Grid in addition to the Foundry combo, because not only does it close games faster with the combo live, but it can defend and win games on its own even without Ensnaring Bridge, just like the Foundry combo can. I've even taken this a step further and included a single Time Sieve in my sideboard, specifically against control matchups. If i can land this card in a grindy game and get the Foundry combo out, then i win.

Have you ever played an EDH game where that guy played Winter Orb into Frozen Æther into Luminarch Ascension? Remember how frustrating it was to wait a million turns for your lands to untap while you got pummeled by a couple angels? Well congratulations, you are now that guy – you should use it to your advantage. Players will often times concede when they see you've got the lock online or when you cast Ensnaring Bridge, and many will flip out after you force them to draw land after land after land (this is especially effective against fast or aggressive players). Putting people on tilt is an easy way to steal some games that you otherwise would have lost or stalled; go ahead and let them untap with their Natural State on top of their library, only to stop them on their upkeep and mill it away. Remind them who is in control of the game, and against some players, you will get a concession from them instead of going to time. Maybe this is a below-the-belt move, but hey, it works for me.

The issue I come accross is that no one seems to be conceding even when I have the lock. Oh well, I ordered my thopter swords and im hoping that variant will be quick enough or will convince people its over more quickly. I definitely want to get back into the deck but I think I will have to practice the new variant on cockatrice a bit

Quote from TheBullwark »

Quote from crexalbo »

Quote from TheBullwark »

Can I ask a major question? I find that I end up with the mill win con most of the time and I end up running out of time in many of my matches which makes all the hard work moot. Do you have any recommendations for speeding up the game? I made the deck after a two year haiatus and did poorly in three casual tourneys and moved on to azban company. I feel like now that control decks are going to be top dog due to AV unban, lantern will have a really good matchup and I have a little more experience playing the deck so I won't suck quite as hard. I'm just worried that I could play great and and up going, 0-0-3 in a three round tourney due to time. Do you guys have any tips for speeding up the process?

Yes, this is an extremely slow deck, the slowest out there. This means it's all the more important to be lightning quick with your moves. You need to know what cards you can keep on top and what cards you can't afford to keep before they show up, requiring that you have an integral knowledge of your meta and what kinds of decks/cards you are going to see.

It's also important to know the capabilities of your own deck. You need to know what you can or cannot do in certain situations. At the same time, you need to be innovative. For example, it's nice to know that you have a built-in recursion engine in the form of Codex Shredder, Academy Ruins, seven mana sources, plus enough other mana sources to cast your card. However, it might not be immediately apparent that you can recur Surgical Extraction to remove additional cards from your opponent's library every turn. To this end, i highly suggest you diversify your card base. For example, we all know and love Seal of Primordium, but why not take one and replace it with Hide // Seek instead? It performs much the same functions as the Seal does, but lets you use it in other ways as well – for example, exiling the only copy of Keranos, God of Storms in an opposing URX deck (or tucking it when it's already resolved, something Seal can't do), which often times leads to a concession, even though you were going to mill it later on anyway. Also, it really helps to play a one-of Infernal Tutor in there. If you're looking to break stalled games, the tutor can fetch you whatever you need to end the stalemate.

Speaking of that, play as many alternate wincons as you can. I've switched over to the Lantern Foundry build like 90% of us on here have. The Foundry/SotM combo can not only keep you alive, but also outright wins games on its own. I've kept my one-of Ghirapur Æther Grid in addition to the Foundry combo, because not only does it close games faster with the combo live, but it can defend and win games on its own even without Ensnaring Bridge, just like the Foundry combo can. I've even taken this a step further and included a single Time Sieve in my sideboard, specifically against control matchups. If i can land this card in a grindy game and get the Foundry combo out, then i win.

Have you ever played an EDH game where that guy played Winter Orb into Frozen Æther into Luminarch Ascension? Remember how frustrating it was to wait a million turns for your lands to untap while you got pummeled by a couple angels? Well congratulations, you are now that guy – you should use it to your advantage. Players will often times concede when they see you've got the lock online or when you cast Ensnaring Bridge, and many will flip out after you force them to draw land after land after land (this is especially effective against fast or aggressive players). Putting people on tilt is an easy way to steal some games that you otherwise would have lost or stalled; go ahead and let them untap with their Natural State on top of their library, only to stop them on their upkeep and mill it away. Remind them who is in control of the game, and against some players, you will get a concession from them instead of going to time. Maybe this is a below-the-belt move, but hey, it works for me.

The issue I come accross is that no one seems to be conceding even when I have the lock. Oh well, I ordered my thopter swords and im hoping that variant will be quick enough or will convince people its over more quickly. I definitely want to get back into the deck but I think I will have to practice the new variant on cockatrice a bit

If you ever wanna play against me hit me up. I'm on Cockatrice too. I've got the mirror of course, and i am gonna be building a couple other decks too.

Not sure if this has ever come up but with the thopter combo, how bad would 1 or 2 of Tezzeret agent of bolas be? The +1 is good for assembling either the lock or the sword combo and his -4 late game could just end the game. Only concern is his CMC might be too high