mono u tron is another matchup i would jester's cap in for. they do have a lot of reactive cards that an dirupt our lock, but not much in the way of threats. one cap activation could be all we need to make there deck useless.
Jester's Cap activation; Ruins recursion; Jester's Cap activation, GG?
If you can get a 4 drop to resolve, wait a turn, pop it, have the 5th land (or opal and one must be academy ruins) to recur it that turn then wait another turn get it to resolve again and if you have a 6th land drop you can resolve it, pop it and probably win. If they have no threats in their hand. And none in the GY yet for them to Academy Ruins back themselves.
If you have Crucible of Worlds and Ghost Quarter you can also keep them from doing anything super broken.
so it sounds tough to do this, but look at it this way, if they counter the cap that's a counter they haven't used on one of your lock pieces. second one cap activation is going to severely reduce their number of threats or answer depending on what is right for you to take. this will inevitably buy you more time so that you can get to the point where you recur it every turn. the jester lock is not something you try to establish right off the bat, but rather becomes your end game against decks that have a high density of relevant cards, but do not have the means to apply early pressure. for instance i would bring cap in against grixis control, but not against grixis delver. and the fact that it is a literal bomb in the mirror, pretty much speaks for itself. when all the pithing needles have been cast the man with the cap is king.
Jester's Cap is worth bringing in for the match up, but it's most useful as a late game closer. It's definitely better than a Ghoulcaller's Bell for example. The problem is that without early disruption they can still just walk all over us. Ghost Quarter + Surgical Extraction is the easiest way to win in my experience.
Thanks for advice. Unfortunately, I think I'm going to have to put Lantern aside until my local meta changes. I don't know why everyone around me plays such garbage, but I suppose I can bring my Infect/Affinity back to keep the meta honest. I'll live my Lantern dreams vicariously through you guys, which is a shame since I'm almost done foiling out my Lantern deck. Woe is me.
Jank Corner! I played against this person online that was running a Lantern build that was incredibly ******* weird, and yet kind of worked. It ran 3 mb Glimpse the Unthinkable, 3 mb Surgicals, 1 mb Tasigur, and 1 Grim Lavamancer. It was hilariously janky, but actually played pretty well. Just thought I'd throw that out there, for those of you weirdos that love jank.
Lastly, what are the group thoughts on Pia's Revolution? I'm torn on its usefulness. It seems great, but do we want those artifacts coming back to our hands if we have Bridges out?
I played against this person online that was running a Lantern build that was incredibly ******* weird, and yet kind of worked. It ran 3 mb Glimpse the Unthinkable, 3 mb Surgicals [...] It was hilariously janky, but actually played pretty well. Just thought I'd throw that out there, for those of you weirdos that love jank.
Especially Blue jank! #CraneClub
(is it ok to use #hashtags round here? )
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MODERN Blue Lantern, UBx Tezzerator. OLD SCHOOL 93/94 «The Pain Train» Black Sligh, Esper «Machine Gun» Artifacts, Jund «Psycho» Ponza-Disko.
I've made a sideboard list against the most common decks.
My deck list has 14 sideboard cards, I think I'm going to use another pyroclasm, but I'm not sure if that is a good idea.
What you guys think about this sideboard plan and which card would be the most useful to finish my sideboard?
mono u tron is another matchup i would jester's cap in for. they do have a lot of reactive cards that an dirupt our lock, but not much in the way of threats. one cap activation could be all we need to make there deck useless.
Jester's Cap activation; Ruins recursion; Jester's Cap activation, GG?
If you can get a 4 drop to resolve, wait a turn, pop it, have the 5th land (or opal and one must be academy ruins) to recur it that turn then wait another turn get it to resolve again and if you have a 6th land drop you can resolve it, pop it and probably win. If they have no threats in their hand. And none in the GY yet for them to Academy Ruins back themselves.
If you have Crucible of Worlds and Ghost Quarter you can also keep them from doing anything super broken.
so it sounds tough to do this, but look at it this way, if they counter the cap that's a counter they haven't used on one of your lock pieces. second one cap activation is going to severely reduce their number of threats or answer depending on what is right for you to take. this will inevitably buy you more time so that you can get to the point where you recur it every turn. the jester lock is not something you try to establish right off the bat, but rather becomes your end game against decks that have a high density of relevant cards, but do not have the means to apply early pressure. for instance i would bring cap in against grixis control, but not against grixis delver. and the fact that it is a literal bomb in the mirror, pretty much speaks for itself. when all the pithing needles have been cast the man with the cap is king.
Jester's Cap is worth bringing in for the match up, but it's most useful as a late game closer. It's definitely better than a Ghoulcaller's Bell for example. The problem is that without early disruption they can still just walk all over us. Ghost Quarter + Surgical Extraction is the easiest way to win in my experience.
if your talking about mono u tron, then i really have to disagree. we have plenty of ways to disrupt them. finding tron is not a must for them, so a gquarter into surgical is a lot less relevant than against gx tron. and im not running a 60 cap deck. i have 3 surgicals, 2 gquarters, 1 crucible, and one jester's cap in the 75.
^
Agree on this. Mono U Tron works differently in terms of hitting online Tron compared to an RG build. In an RG build you'd want to disrupt them as fast as possible but of course this doesn't mean disrupting Tron in a Mono U build won't help you. They are like reliant on countering your spells while the other races its threat.
Anyone have any experience against bant knightfall? I'm having a real hard time against them. Guy I'm playing against plays 2 tireless tracker main and seems to draw it every game. Their clock with knight queller ooze tracker Thalia hurts if I don't have a t3 bridge or if it gets quelled and I have to find a decay. Post sideboard they have negates stony silence and ancient grudge. I'm currently running a pretty stock blue list so any tips would be appreciated.
Also bant eldrazi in my area is running 4 sideboard chalice and it sucks... Could use some sb advice when expecting 2 stony 2 claims 4 chalice and a second ee.
Anyone have any experience against bant knightfall? I'm having a real hard time against them. Guy I'm playing against plays 2 tireless tracker main and seems to draw it every game. Their clock with knight queller ooze tracker Thalia hurts if I don't have a t3 bridge or if it gets quelled and I have to find a decay. Post sideboard they have negates stony silence and ancient grudge. I'm currently running a pretty stock blue list so any tips would be appreciated.
A tip to resolve your Bridge through Quellers is to slowroll your discard spell until the last possible moment so that you can effectively force it out. Same goes against countermagic. Lesson learned the hard way here.
M1 vs UG Infect (tied 1-1): G1 I put all my ressources in successfully keeping him off Infectors, but then lose to some pretty loose plays; I set my 2nd Needle on Foothills rather than Pendelhaven (it didn't help that he then drew all the Windswept Heath) and then I didn't dare to crack a Codex to rebuy a milled Bridge when I had a window of opportunity to do so, and in retrospect I should've. Pendelhaven, Dryad Arbor and Become Immense got me dead within in two turns. Then I Win G2 off the back of chained C-Bruts, so good. G3 I have the Lantern lock, a Bridge and a Skite but he wouldn't concede; timed out.
M2 vs UWR Nahiri (tied 1-1): G1 I outcontrol him easy and get rid of all the Cryptics and Snappies so I figure I've got him dead like. So since I have him dead, I carelessly main phase tap all my rocks to mill him down to 5 cards, except his top card to reveal itself as big bad Emrakul! He says the look on my face was priceless. Fortunately I get to sac my Lantern before he draws it, scramble a bit and blind Pyxis the baddie out. Looking forward I'm going: minus one Ghoulcaller's Bell, plus one Pyxis of Pandemonium. I suspect that the «setup power» of Bell (+Ruins) is less essential, to our already über consistent deck, than the ability to exile topdeck Kommands from Snapcaster mages, Ancient Grudges and Emrakul away from the grave where they can still hurt us.
G2 I keep a disruption heavy hand featuring no Bridge nor dig and figure, whatever. I shred his hand appart pretty quick, except he throws all the Bolts and Helixes and Snappies at my face and races. A Tec Edge is threatening my Inventors' Fair but I topdeck a Crucible of Worlds, pretty awesome stuff. Oh but wait, I die to Snappy beats before I get a chance to crack the Fair and tutor for a Bridge. Time is called before G3 even begins.
M3 vs UWR Control no Nahiri (win 2-0): G1 I lock him out no questions asked but he wants to play it out so we proceed. G2 is real interesting: I open on T1 Inquisition and take his Stony Silence away. Then T2 I go for Lantern + Shred something away to reveal and incoming T3 Blood Moon, and I opt to straightforward tackle it. I dig myself into an Opal within two turns, and cast Seal of Primordium but don't actually crack it as his topdeck is a Leyline of Sanctity and I've seen his deck with Surgical Extraction; he is only running one Plains! So I drop a Bridge and navigate between all this hate somewhat well until I get to resolve and activate Jester's Cap. «Good game» he said. Woohoo!
Bottom line: had a blast, people even loved to watch us playing, though people still hate to play against us as they feel powerless. Speaking of which, in a friendly setting such as FNM, do you often offer your opponents (if vibe is somewhat good) to manage the milling and topdeck revealing of both decks yourself? While still announcing everything you do, obv; in order to save time.
Looking forward to FNM tonight!
/e: Went undefeated 3-0 at FNM; 2-0 vs UW Emeria, 1-0 vs UWR Titi (here I figured out that just keeping him off winning G2 was a perfectly viable strategy, yeah?), 2-0 vs Skred Red. MVP was Quiet Disrepair. Honestly this thang gained me over 40 life over the course of the night. Feeling confident enough to bring Lantern to tomorrow's RPTQ Last Chance tourney at Face to Face. Awesome stuff!
R1 up against Skred Red, grindy yet straightforward 2-0 win. Thank you 4x Needles. Matches 1-0.
R2 against Affinity, 2-1. Get run over first game, shred apart his gameplan G2 & 3 by raining Needles over all his payoff cards, including Aether Grid. Matches 2-0.
R3 vs Uw Merfolk, win 2-1. Amazing sequence G3 where as I ramp into T2 Ensnaring Bridge and she's tapped out I drop T4 Witchbane Orb. I soon found out she was already gripping onto two Hurkyl's Recall at that moment, setting up for a big blowout turn... That never happened! Matches 3-0. Feels awesome to be in this place.
As we're siding out and speaking about the game (still five-ish minutes left up on the clock), that huge prick of a top player spits uncalled for salt at me. "I hope your match slip has been filled" he says in the most passive agressive / condescending manner. Is this because Lantern? We're not even the last match playing out. That really unsettles me. Tilt and mental fatigue (stayed up late in the night to watch Paul Cheon playing out a Lantern control mirror all the way to the end, yesterday night after FNM) will make for a way less exciting second half of the swiss rounds, unfo. Gotta work on that.
R4 up against Bant Eldrazi, lose G1 on one major misplay. I get an early top lock and then bridge that I turn on just in time, and cast a Needle in the process. Naming Displacer because brainfart. He untaps, casually cast the last card in his hand that's an Engineered Explosives he cracks on three.
G2 I get him quick, through Stony Silence nothing less. For G3 I horribly punt again however; after all is locked up, I still get chipped at by double Hierarch, Fair gaining me one each turn so it's a slow clock. Then I firstly go to Brutalize one Hierarch, but forget about the Stubborn Denial I have likely mistakenly let him draw -- he hadn't Ferocious at that time, later on it eventually got turnt on. Ok then. So then at end of turn I go and crack the Fair to get me a Sun Droplet, thinking that should do the trick an stop Hierarchs bleeding me out. Oh but I've sided the Droplt back out. Ded. Matches 3-1. This guy will top 8.
R5 I play that awesome match against Affinity. Games swing back and forth (MVPs: Needle and Sun Droplet for 20+ life) but he ends up taking it 2-1 in a glorious moment G3 where he breaks out of my Bridge and top locks with the last card he was holding on being Wear//Tear, this after I miraculously both stabilize the board AND answer an Aether Grid with a Needle that I've been slowrolling ...on a mull to four. That was a heck of a (almost) clawback. We became facebook friends, for the record Matches 3-2. This guy not only top 8s but actually takes the gold.
R6 I'm up against the guy with the salty mouth. Tilt is back on, damn me. With the current standings and breakers, we're playing for 9th place. He's on Eldrazi Tron (MB Chalice of the Void, TKS, Smasher and Endbringer along the regular Tron suite of fatties and Walkers, SB Ratchet Bombs) -- an odd deck pretty consistently found around the top tables in Montreal. Well, long story short I'm upset and exhausted and go misplays into misplays. We're done, 0-2 after like 10 minutes. Matches 3-3.
Bottom line: learned A LOT. Deck feels strong and streamlined. Keeping focused has to be a priority. Glad I dared take Lantern to that LCQ even though I've only been actively piloting it since 10 days. I'll have another shot sometimes soon and will be more prepared and confident. Cheers.
On list changes: I've taken Crucible out because it feels too slow to me. Looking at how threatening every Aether Grid resolved against me was, makes me wanna run one. Also, Tezzeret. But I feel short on slots a this point.
The hate is real against this archetype. I'm sorry that you had to go through that, and that it impacted your performance so much. :/ Sounds like you were doing just fine beforehand. I'm not sure if you can report players for making mean comments like that; i'd imagine it'd fall somewhere under Unsporting Conduct.
I've been working on a build without Surgical Extraction. I just kept finding that i side it out in almost every matchup in favor of better cards, so the idea behind it is "Why not just play those better cards?" Here's my experimental decklist.
I've made a lot of strange choices in preparation for a slower, grindier meta. (See Sylvok Replica, Phyrexian Revoker, the Tezz / Cap / Crucible package for grindy midrange/control decks, and double Infernal Tutor.) It's been working quite nicely for me so far, and i haven't really been missing Surgicals, except i'd maybe like a 1-of Extirpate just to look at their whole deck.
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made top 8 in the master yesterday, then lost in the first round. taking out witch bane, crucible, and extra ghost quarter for 3 leyline of sanctities. both of my losses were to bring to light scapeshift and both times a leyline would have come in handy. will post a new list soon after i finish testing. also considering going down to 17 lands. with 18 i just keep top decking lands to the point that it is extreme.
Agreed, 18 lands is definitely one land too many. Glad to hear you made top 8!
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I also agree on the change to put Leylines in the sideboard again. It appears that Jund and Burn are on the rise again, and Leylines are great against both of those. I played a game yesterday where I kept a no-land hand game 2 vs. Bring to Light Scapeshift, but it had a Leyline and I scry'd a land on top after a mull to five. I won that game, largely in part to Leyline, because the opp's only answer to it was to Cryptic it, which took a while. In the meantime I was able to mill them like crazy, and the opp ran out of Mountains to deal lethal and I was able to Extirpate their Bring to Light.
EDIT: On another note, I realized that it could be very helpful to us all if I went through my videos and recorded data on what cards I kept in my opener in games I won vs. when I lost. I figure I might have to be careful to note if I know what my opponent is on or not, too. Could make for some very useful data. It'll take me a little while, I have my finals on Wednesday, but I go on vacation on Friday.
I also agree on the change to put Leylines in the sideboard again. It appears that Jund and Burn are on the rise again, and Leylines are great against both of those.
In the process of learning and tuning the deck, I've really come back to this consideration that seems important:
- What's the weight of artifact synergy vs the higher impact of some alternative options?
For example, what's the weight of Witchbane Orb that can be grabbed off Stirrings, Crane, fetched off Fair and regen'ed with Jar and recurred with Ruins (uf!), when Leyline of Sanctity is potentially more impactful yet it is less synergistic?
Another example of this is the SB slot where I'm on on Jester's Cap as the ultimate controll instrument ATM, which benefits from all of the above, where Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas could potentially be more impactful, yet again it is less synergistic.
Thoughts?
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Witchbane has been less than stellar in my testing. To your point, radouf, I'm not sure that the synergy of Orb is worth the potential impact of Leyline. Most of the time we're dead to Burn/Jund/Jeskai if we can't get hexproof as early as possible. To me, that's why I'm still running Leylines. 3 feels about right, along with an extra Brutality to empty early Leyline draws. I'll take a no land hand with a Leyline against Burn over Orb on turn 3/4 any day of the week.
While I absolutely love Crucible, there are a lot of games where it feels bad drawing into it early on. So I'm running Red again for Grid, as I believe we want it to help control the board and close out games faster. It's just too easy for opps to milk the clock. I lost a tourney to intentional slow play, and I think Lantern needs to be respected for its ability to close out games in alternative fashion. It seems a lot of the saltiness comes from grinding as our only wincon. But I digress...
Jester's Cap has been pretty terrible in my testing of late. It's just too clunky and doesn't feel like it does enough. I've been running two Lost Legacy sb and have been quite pleased with it. Aside from its lack of artifact synergy, it's been amazing when I'm playing decks that have few hate cards. Not to mention that it can also be recurred, though at a higher cost.
As for Witchbane Orb vs. Leyline, I love the Orb, but the problem is that the matchups where Leyline/Orb is necessary are ones in which having the hexproof as soon as possible is key to those matchups. By the time we land an Orb against Burn or Jund, it could be too late. I really don't like having to devote 3-4 sideboard spots to an out-of-color enchantment that doesn't synergize with our Stirrings/Cranes/Welding Jars/Academy Ruins, but it seems like a necessary step to take against those decks.
As for AEther Grid, I think that might come down to our meta of opponents more than our meta in terms of decks. If your meta has a relatively high number of salty people who will slow play out a draw out of spite, then Grid might be necessary, but against decent human beings who are just there to play the game, it might not. There are some steps we could take that could also mitigate that problem, like working to keep the opponent on cards that have zero activated or triggered abilities, so they can't use that to draw out time. For example, keep them on only land, or only vanilla-style creatures (Tarmogoyf, etc). It's difficult to do sometimes, but it's entirely possible. Of course, we could also focus on milling ourselves into more mill rocks and just let them have dead cards, and once we get to three or four mill rocks (two of them being Ghoulcaller's Bells) we can start going all-out on the mill at their end step (keeping in mind cards like Ancient Grudge, of course).
@AIRchrist: my local meta is way heavier in Valakut decks than Burn or Jund.
To me, Orb is more of a Valakut silver-bullet. I don't have much experience against Jund yet, so I can't say if my list can hold its ground against it. However I do think I've got the Burn match-up *somewhat* under control or at least it's not auto-lose, as my current iteration is packing a full playset of Collective Brutality (2/2 board split; also an Infect bullet, Infect being VERY prevalent in my local meta) along 3x SB Sun Droplet and 1x SB Quiet Disrepair.
Of course I'll need to keep playing to find out; I understand that Leyline coming in turn zero is HUGE. Speaking of playing more, heading out to Face to Face games for monday night modern right now. Cyas!
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Jester's Cap is worth bringing in for the match up, but it's most useful as a late game closer. It's definitely better than a Ghoulcaller's Bell for example. The problem is that without early disruption they can still just walk all over us. Ghost Quarter + Surgical Extraction is the easiest way to win in my experience.
Jank Corner! I played against this person online that was running a Lantern build that was incredibly ******* weird, and yet kind of worked. It ran 3 mb Glimpse the Unthinkable, 3 mb Surgicals, 1 mb Tasigur, and 1 Grim Lavamancer. It was hilariously janky, but actually played pretty well. Just thought I'd throw that out there, for those of you weirdos that love jank.
Lastly, what are the group thoughts on Pia's Revolution? I'm torn on its usefulness. It seems great, but do we want those artifacts coming back to our hands if we have Bridges out?
(is it ok to use #hashtags round here? )
OLD SCHOOL 93/94 «The Pain Train» Black Sligh, Esper «Machine Gun» Artifacts, Jund «Psycho» Ponza-Disko.
My deck list has 14 sideboard cards, I think I'm going to use another pyroclasm, but I'm not sure if that is a good idea.
What you guys think about this sideboard plan and which card would be the most useful to finish my sideboard?
2x Academy Ruins
4x Blooming Marsh
1x Botanical Sanctum
2x Darkslick Shores
1x Swamp
2x Ghost Quarter
4x Glimmervoid
2x Inventors' Fair
4x Mox Opal
Utility (14)
2x Abrupt Decay
4x Ancient Stirrings
2x Collective Brutality
3x Inquisition of Kozilek
1x Surgical Extraction
2x Thoughtseize
3x Glint-Nest Crane
1x Spellskite
Artifacts (20)
4x Codex Shredder
4x Ensnaring Bridge
3x Ghoulcaller's Bell
4x Lantern of Insight
3x Pithing Needle
1x Pyxis of Pandemonium
1x Crucible of Worlds
3x Leyline of Sanctity
2x Grafdigger's Cage
2x Surgical Extraction
2x Welding Jar
1x Pithing Needle
1x Abrupt Decay
1x Spellskite
1x Thoughtseize
1x Pyroclasm
Agree on this. Mono U Tron works differently in terms of hitting online Tron compared to an RG build. In an RG build you'd want to disrupt them as fast as possible but of course this doesn't mean disrupting Tron in a Mono U build won't help you. They are like reliant on countering your spells while the other races its threat.
Also bant eldrazi in my area is running 4 sideboard chalice and it sucks... Could use some sb advice when expecting 2 stony 2 claims 4 chalice and a second ee.
OLD SCHOOL 93/94 «The Pain Train» Black Sligh, Esper «Machine Gun» Artifacts, Jund «Psycho» Ponza-Disko.
4x Blooming Marsh
1x Botanical Sanctum
2x Darkslick Shores
1x Forest
1x Ghost Quarter
4x Glimmervoid
2x Inventors' Fair
4x Mox Opal
1x Swamp
2x Abrupt Decay
4x Ancient Stirrings
2x Collective Brutality
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
2x Surgical Extraction
2x Thoughtseize
1x Spellskite
4x Codex Shredder
4x Ensnaring Bridge
3x Ghoulcaller's Bell
4x Lantern of Insight
3x Pithing Needle
1x Pyxis of Pandemonium
1x Ghost quarter
2x Collective Brutality
1x Grafdigger's Cage
1x Quiet Disrepair
1x Seal of Primordium
3x Sun Droplet
1x Surgical Extraction
2x Welding Jar
1x Witchbane Orb
1x Crucible of Worlds
1x Jester's cap
M2 vs UWR Nahiri (tied 1-1): G1 I outcontrol him easy and get rid of all the Cryptics and Snappies so I figure I've got him dead like. So since I have him dead, I carelessly main phase tap all my rocks to mill him down to 5 cards, except his top card to reveal itself as big bad Emrakul! He says the look on my face was priceless. Fortunately I get to sac my Lantern before he draws it, scramble a bit and blind Pyxis the baddie out. Looking forward I'm going: minus one Ghoulcaller's Bell, plus one Pyxis of Pandemonium. I suspect that the «setup power» of Bell (+Ruins) is less essential, to our already über consistent deck, than the ability to exile topdeck Kommands from Snapcaster mages, Ancient Grudges and Emrakul away from the grave where they can still hurt us.
G2 I keep a disruption heavy hand featuring no Bridge nor dig and figure, whatever. I shred his hand appart pretty quick, except he throws all the Bolts and Helixes and Snappies at my face and races. A Tec Edge is threatening my Inventors' Fair but I topdeck a Crucible of Worlds, pretty awesome stuff. Oh but wait, I die to Snappy beats before I get a chance to crack the Fair and tutor for a Bridge. Time is called before G3 even begins.
M3 vs UWR Control no Nahiri (win 2-0): G1 I lock him out no questions asked but he wants to play it out so we proceed. G2 is real interesting: I open on T1 Inquisition and take his Stony Silence away. Then T2 I go for Lantern + Shred something away to reveal and incoming T3 Blood Moon, and I opt to straightforward tackle it. I dig myself into an Opal within two turns, and cast Seal of Primordium but don't actually crack it as his topdeck is a Leyline of Sanctity and I've seen his deck with Surgical Extraction; he is only running one Plains! So I drop a Bridge and navigate between all this hate somewhat well until I get to resolve and activate Jester's Cap. «Good game» he said. Woohoo!
Bottom line: had a blast, people even loved to watch us playing, though people still hate to play against us as they feel powerless. Speaking of which, in a friendly setting such as FNM, do you often offer your opponents (if vibe is somewhat good) to manage the milling and topdeck revealing of both decks yourself? While still announcing everything you do, obv; in order to save time.
Looking forward to FNM tonight!
OLD SCHOOL 93/94 «The Pain Train» Black Sligh, Esper «Machine Gun» Artifacts, Jund «Psycho» Ponza-Disko.
Couple of tweaks made to my list:
2x Inventors' Fair
2x Academy Ruins
2x Ghost Quarter
4x Blooming Marsh
2x Darkslick Shores
1x Botanical Sanctum
1x Forest
4x Glimmervoid
4x Mox Opal
Spells
4x Ancient Stirrings
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
2x Thoughtseize
2x Surgical Extraction
2x Abrupt Decay
2x Collective Brutality
2x Glint-Nest Crane
1x Spellskite
Artifacts
4x Ensnaring Bridge
4x Lantern of Insight
4x Codex Shredder
2x Ghoulcaller's Bell
2x Pyxis of Pandemonium
3x Pithing Needle
2x Welding Jar
1x Pithing Needle
2x Collective Brutality
2x Grafdigger's Cage
1x Surgical Extraction
1x Seal of Primordium
1x Quiet Disrepair
3x Sun Droplet
1x Witchbane Orb
1x Jester's cap
Report:
R2 against Affinity, 2-1. Get run over first game, shred apart his gameplan G2 & 3 by raining Needles over all his payoff cards, including Aether Grid. Matches 2-0.
R3 vs Uw Merfolk, win 2-1. Amazing sequence G3 where as I ramp into T2 Ensnaring Bridge and she's tapped out I drop T4 Witchbane Orb. I soon found out she was already gripping onto two Hurkyl's Recall at that moment, setting up for a big blowout turn... That never happened! Matches 3-0. Feels awesome to be in this place.
As we're siding out and speaking about the game (still five-ish minutes left up on the clock), that huge prick of a top player spits uncalled for salt at me. "I hope your match slip has been filled" he says in the most passive agressive / condescending manner. Is this because Lantern? We're not even the last match playing out. That really unsettles me. Tilt and mental fatigue (stayed up late in the night to watch Paul Cheon playing out a Lantern control mirror all the way to the end, yesterday night after FNM) will make for a way less exciting second half of the swiss rounds, unfo. Gotta work on that.
R4 up against Bant Eldrazi, lose G1 on one major misplay. I get an early top lock and then bridge that I turn on just in time, and cast a Needle in the process. Naming Displacer because brainfart. He untaps, casually cast the last card in his hand that's an Engineered Explosives he cracks on three.
G2 I get him quick, through Stony Silence nothing less. For G3 I horribly punt again however; after all is locked up, I still get chipped at by double Hierarch, Fair gaining me one each turn so it's a slow clock. Then I firstly go to Brutalize one Hierarch, but forget about the Stubborn Denial I have likely mistakenly let him draw -- he hadn't Ferocious at that time, later on it eventually got turnt on. Ok then. So then at end of turn I go and crack the Fair to get me a Sun Droplet, thinking that should do the trick an stop Hierarchs bleeding me out. Oh but I've sided the Droplt back out. Ded. Matches 3-1. This guy will top 8.
R5 I play that awesome match against Affinity. Games swing back and forth (MVPs: Needle and Sun Droplet for 20+ life) but he ends up taking it 2-1 in a glorious moment G3 where he breaks out of my Bridge and top locks with the last card he was holding on being Wear//Tear, this after I miraculously both stabilize the board AND answer an Aether Grid with a Needle that I've been slowrolling ...on a mull to four. That was a heck of a (almost) clawback. We became facebook friends, for the record Matches 3-2. This guy not only top 8s but actually takes the gold.
R6 I'm up against the guy with the salty mouth. Tilt is back on, damn me. With the current standings and breakers, we're playing for 9th place. He's on Eldrazi Tron (MB Chalice of the Void, TKS, Smasher and Endbringer along the regular Tron suite of fatties and Walkers, SB Ratchet Bombs) -- an odd deck pretty consistently found around the top tables in Montreal. Well, long story short I'm upset and exhausted and go misplays into misplays. We're done, 0-2 after like 10 minutes. Matches 3-3.
Bottom line: learned A LOT. Deck feels strong and streamlined. Keeping focused has to be a priority. Glad I dared take Lantern to that LCQ even though I've only been actively piloting it since 10 days. I'll have another shot sometimes soon and will be more prepared and confident. Cheers.
On list changes: I've taken Crucible out because it feels too slow to me. Looking at how threatening every Aether Grid resolved against me was, makes me wanna run one. Also, Tezzeret. But I feel short on slots a this point.
OLD SCHOOL 93/94 «The Pain Train» Black Sligh, Esper «Machine Gun» Artifacts, Jund «Psycho» Ponza-Disko.
4 Lantern of Insight
4 Codex Shredder
2 Ghoulcaller's Bell
2 Pyxis of Pandemonium
Lock Pieces (11)
4 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Spellskite
3 Pithing Needle
1 Tormod's Crypt
2 Welding Jar
Disruption (10)
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Galvanic Blast
3 Collective Brutality
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
4 Ancient Stirrings
2 Infernal Tutor
Mana Sources (21)
4 Mox Opal
4 Glimmervoid
4 Blooming Marsh
1 Aether Hub
1 Swamp
2 Inventors' Fair
2 Academy Ruins
2 Ghost Quarter
1 Nephalia Drownyard
3 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Welding Jar
1 Spellskite
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Seal of Primordium
1 Nature's Claim
1 Sylvok Replica
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
1 Jester's Cap
1 Crucible of Worlds
MODERN – LANTERN (aka Fateseal or Barbershop)
Primer – Subreddit – Facebook – Decklist – Gameplay
Thnkr's Content: Gameplay – Datasheet
Each eye sees a different possibility for tomorrow.
CWUBBCCCCCCCBGBGBGCCCCCCCGGURC
MODERN – LANTERN (aka Fateseal or Barbershop)
Primer – Subreddit – Facebook – Decklist – Gameplay
Thnkr's Content: Gameplay – Datasheet
Each eye sees a different possibility for tomorrow.
CWUBBCCCCCCCBGBGBGCCCCCCCGGURC
EDIT: On another note, I realized that it could be very helpful to us all if I went through my videos and recorded data on what cards I kept in my opener in games I won vs. when I lost. I figure I might have to be careful to note if I know what my opponent is on or not, too. Could make for some very useful data. It'll take me a little while, I have my finals on Wednesday, but I go on vacation on Friday.
Lantern Control
(with videos)
Uc Tron
Netdecking explained
Netdecking explained, Part 2
On speculators and counterfeits
On Interaction
Every single competitive deck in existence is designed to limit the opponent's ability to interact in a meaningful way.
Record number of exclamation points on SCG homepage: 71 (6 January, 2018)
"I don't want to believe, I want to know."
-Carl Sagan
- What's the weight of artifact synergy vs the higher impact of some alternative options?
For example, what's the weight of Witchbane Orb that can be grabbed off Stirrings, Crane, fetched off Fair and regen'ed with Jar and recurred with Ruins (uf!), when Leyline of Sanctity is potentially more impactful yet it is less synergistic?
Another example of this is the SB slot where I'm on on Jester's Cap as the ultimate controll instrument ATM, which benefits from all of the above, where Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas could potentially be more impactful, yet again it is less synergistic.
Thoughts?
OLD SCHOOL 93/94 «The Pain Train» Black Sligh, Esper «Machine Gun» Artifacts, Jund «Psycho» Ponza-Disko.
While I absolutely love Crucible, there are a lot of games where it feels bad drawing into it early on. So I'm running Red again for Grid, as I believe we want it to help control the board and close out games faster. It's just too easy for opps to milk the clock. I lost a tourney to intentional slow play, and I think Lantern needs to be respected for its ability to close out games in alternative fashion. It seems a lot of the saltiness comes from grinding as our only wincon. But I digress...
Jester's Cap has been pretty terrible in my testing of late. It's just too clunky and doesn't feel like it does enough. I've been running two Lost Legacy sb and have been quite pleased with it. Aside from its lack of artifact synergy, it's been amazing when I'm playing decks that have few hate cards. Not to mention that it can also be recurred, though at a higher cost.
As for AEther Grid, I think that might come down to our meta of opponents more than our meta in terms of decks. If your meta has a relatively high number of salty people who will slow play out a draw out of spite, then Grid might be necessary, but against decent human beings who are just there to play the game, it might not. There are some steps we could take that could also mitigate that problem, like working to keep the opponent on cards that have zero activated or triggered abilities, so they can't use that to draw out time. For example, keep them on only land, or only vanilla-style creatures (Tarmogoyf, etc). It's difficult to do sometimes, but it's entirely possible. Of course, we could also focus on milling ourselves into more mill rocks and just let them have dead cards, and once we get to three or four mill rocks (two of them being Ghoulcaller's Bells) we can start going all-out on the mill at their end step (keeping in mind cards like Ancient Grudge, of course).
Lantern Control
(with videos)
Uc Tron
Netdecking explained
Netdecking explained, Part 2
On speculators and counterfeits
On Interaction
Every single competitive deck in existence is designed to limit the opponent's ability to interact in a meaningful way.
Record number of exclamation points on SCG homepage: 71 (6 January, 2018)
"I don't want to believe, I want to know."
-Carl Sagan
@AIRchrist: my local meta is way heavier in Valakut decks than Burn or Jund.
To me, Orb is more of a Valakut silver-bullet. I don't have much experience against Jund yet, so I can't say if my list can hold its ground against it. However I do think I've got the Burn match-up *somewhat* under control or at least it's not auto-lose, as my current iteration is packing a full playset of Collective Brutality (2/2 board split; also an Infect bullet, Infect being VERY prevalent in my local meta) along 3x SB Sun Droplet and 1x SB Quiet Disrepair.
Of course I'll need to keep playing to find out; I understand that Leyline coming in turn zero is HUGE. Speaking of playing more, heading out to Face to Face games for monday night modern right now. Cyas!
OLD SCHOOL 93/94 «The Pain Train» Black Sligh, Esper «Machine Gun» Artifacts, Jund «Psycho» Ponza-Disko.