Tournament Report Undefeated (2nd Place) at my local Modern Weekly
I went to a different shop this time, just because I missed the tournament at my local shop. There were about twenty people there. Honestly, the tournament itself was unremarkable.
Finally got my last Glimmervoid! I used my winnings from the 1K I attended in Seattle. It felt nice to get a card in the mail and not have to shell out $$$$ for it.
After taking a look at the metagame online, I decided to replace Extirpate with Fatal Push. Overall, I'm happy with this choice, since I sided Push in three matches out of the four I played in, and probably would have not sided in Extirpate at all. Now I never got to cast it, since I was able to just mill past it when I established the lock, but hey, it felt nice to have.
I decided to replace a Padeem, Consul of Innovation with a Noxious Revival. Don't ask me why; I just got some sort of bug earlier in the day that told me to make the swap. I did end up using Revival one time, when it was already well past its relavance... but I suppose that counts for something.
Also, I won every single die roll this night. Talk about lucky!
Match 1
2-1
Merfolk
On the Play
Yes! A match that I'm 95% favored to win! My opponent knew this as well. Game 1: Won after a mull to five gave me a timely turn 4 Bridge. I stabilized at one life. I probably would have lost this game if I had still been playing Spire of Industry. Game 2: Denying my opponent Islands kept them off the Spell Pierce and Hurkyl's Recall they had in hand. I couldn't find a Bridge even with a well-established lock and Ancient Stirrings. Turns out the first Bridge was over 30 cards deep. That's variance! Game 3: I cheesed this one with an early basic lock. When my opponent tapped out on turn 2 to play a lord, I was able to use double Opal on my turn 3 to play Infernal Tutor and grab Bridge, still at 19 life. A surgical on Hurkyl's Recall prompted a concession. OUT: 3x Pithing Needle, 1x Pyxis of Pandemonium, 1x Crucible of Worlds, 1x Surgical Extraction IN:
Match 2
2-1
Revolt Zoo
On the Play
My opponent had never played Lantern before. Their plan of attack was to simply go as fast as they possibly could. Game 1: Turn 4 Bushwhacker from them sealed the deal on this one. I was hedging on the Abrupt Decay I had in hand to buy me an extra turn, but alas, it was not to be. Game 2: Turn 1 Inquisition removed what would have otherwise been a turn 1 Stony Silence powered with Simian Spirit Guide. I killed off my opponent's early threats, and successfully bought myself enough time to establish Bridge and a lock. Game 3: An early Goblin Guide threatened to gum up my hand, but fortunately my opponent tapped out turn 2 for a Stony that I was able to Decay at my leisure, which took the pressure off my life total. I stabilized at four life.
Match 3
2-1
Infect
On the Play
My opponent is an employee at the store I usually go to, and is very familiar with how my deck operates. It sounds like he's borrowing someone else's deck. He says that normally, Lantern is quite easy for him since he just needs to mull into Nature's Claim, but of course my four sideboard Welding Jars put a quick stop to that. Game 1: He takes the win even through double Brutality; he Spell Pierced one and used Vines of Vastwood for the second. Game 2: A Claim on Spellskite meets one of my two Jars, and I play a third to buy myself time before finally landing a Bridge. I use the Pyrite Spellbomb loop to close this game quickly. Game 3: My opponent tried to go with the double Noble Hierarch beatdown plan, but a timely Inventors' Fair combined with me keeping him off pump slowed him down considerably. I was able to land Spellskite and use it as a blocker. With two unknown cards in my opponent's hand, I dig myself into an Inquisition of Kozilek, prompting my opponent to play an ill-timed Hurkyl's Recall in response. I'm still able to replay the lock and Skite in the same turn. Eventually, I allow him to draw Glistener Elf, and take six infect before landing a Bridge.
Match 4
2-0
EldraziTron
On the Play
I've never seen this person before. He's very serious during the match (which I like), but quite friendly afterward. Game 1:Ghost Quarter into Surgical Extraction cripples his mana base, and the Ghost Quarter & Crucible of Worlds lock finishes what I started. I'm able to bring him down to a single land throughout the course of the game, fighting through both Wastes he runs mainboard and preventing him from ever being able to cast his outs. I then mill him to death without ever seeing a single Lantern. Game 2: Turn 1 IoK whiffed on double Reality Smasher, double Endbringer, and two non-Tron lands. Turn 2, I topdecked Mechanized Production, then I played a Lantern. On turn 3, seeing a third Smasher on top, I was able to use Pithing Needle on his Endbringer and Thoughtseize his Smasher. Then on his draw step, I Extracted the smashers, rendering his hand completely useless. A couple turns passed with me playing out my hand (including Crucible) and him drawing Walking Ballista and playing it on two. I topdecked Ancient Stirrings and played it. This was probably my most interesting predicament. Stirrings revealed Swamp, Ensnaring Bridge, Mox Opal, Pithing Needle, and Ghost Quarter. I had Inventors' Fair, a tapped green land from Stirrings, and two other non-rainbow lands in play, as well as an untapped Opal. I had only Production in hand, and my opponent had Thought-Knot Seer on top of their deck. So I figured I would take Opal and go for the Production win, take beats for a couple turns, and fetch out a Bridge later on. My opponent caught onto what I was doing within a couple turns, and conceded the game.
The first-place player (who only got first because he had a bye for round 1) came over and started spouting on about how "Tron doesn't lose to Lantern". Then he looked down, saw my opponent scooping his cards up, and saw Production on my side of the field, and said "Well I don't lose to Lantern, because I play green and have Nature's Claim for enchantments. Colorless doesn't have anything like that for enchantments." This really annoyed my opponent, obviously...
Besides that, though, it was a good night. I've made friends with a Living End player (the same one that I played against in the finals for the City Champs tournament), and we frequently talk about ways we can prepare for our inevitable next match. He ended up giving me a ride home.
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Hey everyone. Been playing Lantern Control for the last year. Took it to GP houston and GP san antonio and I play during weekly tournaments. I also work at a wizards sanctioned game store where we have a dedicated team of modern players to playtest with daily. The meta here is very diverse and includes: Elves, RB Tron, Eldrazi tron, Jund, Deathshadow variants (grixis and jund), Bogles, Affinity, Naya burn, Big zoo, little zoo, collected coralhelm, infect, WB hatebears, and me playing lantern.
Thursday was my first undefeated tournament (ironically, the only two players that went undefeated were myself and another lantern control player who i had never met before) and I wanted to share my list and my thoughts on lantern's more recent evolution and future prospects.
Land (18)
2x Academy Ruins
2x Blackcleave Cliffs
3x Blooming Marsh
2x Darkslick Shores
1x Duskmantle, house of shadow
1x Forest
1x Ghost Quarter
4x Glimmervoid
2x Inventors' Fair
Creature (2)
2x Glint-Nest Crane
Artifact (22)
4x Codex Shredder
4x Ensnaring Bridge
2x Ghoulcaller's Bell
4x Lantern of Insight
3x Mox Opal
3x Pithing Needle
2x Pyxis of Pandemonium
Sorcery (12)
4x Ancient Stirrings
2x Collective Brutality
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
2x Thoughtseize
Sideboard (15)
1x spellskite
1x Ancient Grudge
2x Grafdigger's Cage
1x Leyline of Sanctity
1x Nature's Claim
1x lost legacy
1x Pyroclasm
3x Sun Droplet
3x Welding Jar
1x ashiok, nightmare weaver
Before each weekly tournament I find out which players are coming for that night and I tune my sideboard and 1 mainboard flex spot accordingly. I tend to take out the pyroclasm in the mainboard for an extra abrupt decay if i know there will be less aggro and I tend to put in a crucible if I know there will be more than 1 tron deck. Likewise before each big GP I attend, I spend a couple weeks learning the wider meta. For instance at GP San antonio I ran a mainboard nihil spellbomb and that single card won me a game 1 against jeskai nahiri and a game 1 vs grixis control.
My thoughts on the future of this deck are positive. The deck can run any card that wizards releases with a beneficial and relevant rules text and low cmc. Harsh Mentor looks like it is going to be played in a few modern sideboards when amonkhet drops and does not bode well for Lantern. However we have the tools to deal with it already - abrupt decay, pyroclasm, hand disruption, and of course mill. What I love about this deck is that it has no auto lose matchups. It can fight its way and win through every meta if you pay close attention to what people are playing and why.
Anyways, just wanted to share my love of this deck and join in the conversation for once instead of lurking. Keep it up boys.
Any chance you have a quick and dirty sideboarding guide for your Whir list,Skitzafreak?
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Vintage: Blue Belcher, Mentor Remora, Burning Long
Legacy: ANT, Sneak and Show, Omnitell, Oops All Spells
Modern: Grishoalbrand, Infect, UR Storm, Ad Nauseam, Lantern Control
It's a rough matchup for sure. The big help I've found is to hit them with discard turn 1 to get rid of a noble or a pridemage, then turn 2 set up Lantern + Mill rock. Optimally you hit a mox opal in there somewhere so you can have 2 rocks. Then you just really have to hope they don't hit a string of live cards. Pithing needle has a lot of play here as well. You can name spellskite, pridemage, knight, etc which is a huge help. Spellqueller is the big pain in the match really since we don't run heavy on removal.
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Standard: GR Pummeler
Modern: Mono-Red Control, Lantern Control, Eldrazi Taxes, Skred Infect
Pauper: Affinity
EDH: Gaddock Teeg Kithkin Tribal, Meren
Legacy: 8 Rack, Omnitell (Both in progress)
Any chance you have a quick and dirty sideboarding guide for your Whir list,Skitzafreak?
Sure
So one of the benefits of playing with Whir of Invention is that you can set up a toolbox in your sideboard if you want to. I didn't have one set up with the list I posted but among the cards I give myself access to are:
Has anyone tried 2 or more maindeck revivals? I kind of want to test out a substantial number of them to see if they improve my game plan any when the lock is still soft. I'm prompted to try it mostly because I find myself losing an unreasonable number of games where I have access to a winning bridge with ruins, but not the 6 mana to drop it again in one turn, but there are other benefits. In theory it sounds great, you can buy a valuable turn for a green, reset your topdeck without ruins, return crucial discard/removal spells without gross amounts of mana for shredder, it's really versatile and does a lot of things that lantern should like. I'm just wondering if this is territory that's already been explored with the current card pool and overall meta.
On a (slightly) off-topic note I have a pretty slick lantern control list built for EDH I can share elsewhere if anyone wants to see it.
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@Skitzafreak, I would rather board out a few bridges thann Inquisitions in the tron matchup. Bridge is barely even needed, you of course want one to tutor for it in case they will get to five or six mana to start thragtusk or wurmcoil beats, but otherwise, it barely does anything. Inquisition gets better postboard.
You know ... I never thought of that before.
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With this discussion; does anyone have a Whir of Invention list they've had success with? I'm curious what changes to the manabase you had to make to get it working.
Quoting our discussion from Reddit, in case some other Lanterners wanna chime-in on that:
@Crexalbo: I receive a steady stream of salt from my opponents when playing the deck. Strangers will throw their hands up in frustration and say "Well I'm not waiting for this dumb game to play out, all you do is draw anyway." My friends at my LGS will hold conversations with me in the early game, then fall into a silent despair as the game goes on, and avoid me after the match ends. The owner of my LGS gave me a five-minute rant about how Lantern would turn away business at his store when I beat his Atarka Goblins deck. A player at my LGS calls me an ******** every time he sees me, even though I've been nothing but nice to him and have never even played a game against him. I even actually had an opponent laugh at me when I played Production during a televised match.
Discrimination against Lantern players is a very real problem, and it's not one that my attitude can change. I feel defeated. It doesn't matter if I'm playing against friends or strangers, in a large event or FNM. I receive salt and adverse treatment whether or not I'm acting like an angel or a demon. My thoughts on the matter: If the MtG community wants a villain, then a villain is what they're going to get.
EDIT: This got very real very quickly. I didn't realize how sick I am of this sort of treatment until typing it out.
@Radouf: Hey James. Liking your token work and advocating for both Production and the Lantern archetype. I got two things to say:
1- The issue you're raising in this particular comment about the hatred Lantern players got to face day in day out is very concerning to me, and it's the main reason I've put the deck aside for a while (still foiling it out and loving the heck out of the concept, mind you). Dealing with saltstorms had grown real heavy on me. One particular shop I attend (even been their modern league champion) had become so hostile to the deck & me making the choice of bringing it that it was really costing much energy to keep a positive attitude. I've written about this a couple of times on the MTGS thread, about how I couldn't believe how mean people (even friends) could get in the face of the Lantern lock, but all I seem to get from the thread was silent nods, as if this was a fatality, inevitable. I really believe it's a social conception issue that should be adressed by the Lantern community first, then out to the broadest MTG community. Like, the problem really lies outside the game here, it's in asocial behaviour people adopt in the face of it. Anyhow, to my second point;
2- I'm not sure getting further provocative with the rules quote is the best course of action if your goal is to fix the perception people have of Lantern. I know after months of effort I've convinced at least 5-10 people that Lantern is awesome and interactive and action packed but mainly in dealing with the topdeck of the opponent more than with the hand and board, which it aims at locking out. So a couple of regulars have come to appreciate this when I showed them all the awesome synergies; game-winning [[Mechanized Production]] and al. It's never worst than dying T3 to Infect, ya know. And they agree. But somehow, people hatehatehate the deck despite the marvel of engineering it is from a game perspective, winning off harmless trinkets and little wincons. Prison-control at its best.
But my point I guess is I believe there's hope but it's hard to flip the hatred on its head if you're working alone on it.
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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.
Hi guys, here is probably a weird question, but it occurred to me in one game. How does one beat a Turbo Fog deck, or any deck heavily relying on enchantments or some kind of lock on their own (Enchanted Evening)? With my 2 green Seal of Primordiums in the sideboard, there was nothing i could do really against the Turbo fog deck. He played 4 white Leyline of Sanctitys in main, drop one its only a matter of time when he drops a Sphinx's Tutelage and wins the game with ease...
I've found what I feel is a pretty good way to handle that sort of behavior from my opponents, and I'll provide an example of how I did it.
There is a player at my LGS who hates Lantern, and is very toxic about it. Most people there know me, and they know exactly what I play, having played the deck for years there now. I've always been very nice and respectful, always have my son there with me. Most people will play against me, at least for practice against the deck.
But that one dude. We had a conversation about Lantern, one that I'm sure pretty much everyone else here has had as well. He stated that he would always force the Lantern pilot to play it out. That's understandable, and I hold no issues with that. The problem was his tone. He stated it in such a way as to convey that he would purposefully go to time. That's something that I felt needed addressed, but I had to do it in such a way that he couldn't try to argue from a sense of righteousness.
So I said that I have no problems playing it out completely. I said that I do see an issue with people trying to stall, though, as that is, as per the rules, cheating. I opened up that line of argument for him, which he of course took. He said that he'll stall all he wants, because it wasn't his choice to play the deck, it's the Lantern pilot's choice, and they deserve it if they choose to play it. I used that opportunity to explain that the behavior that he was supporting is, in fact, an offense punishable by a DQ in a tournament setting, and furthermore, it reflected more on the inadequacies of his content of character than it did on any Magic deck.
My argument basically boils down to the content of a player's character. If they decide to act in an unsportsmanlike manner, then I make them own it. I state, in no unclear terms, that their behavior is not one that I would ever teach my children to emulate, and I would be ashamed if they did. That especially helps if my son happens to be in the vicinity
The game is simply that: a game. I'm not playing this to try to show how smart I may or may not be, I'm just there to have fun. I recognize that the primary indicator of fun in any game is whether a player's actions have any relevant effect on the game. Every single competitive deck's purpose is to minimize the relevance of the opponent's actions until they are zero. They just do it differently.
That's one of the reasons why I prefer to use the zugzwang analogy when it comes to this deck. I prefer to use the picture included in this post as a perfect example. The black player loses, no matter what. Sure, the game isn't "over", but so long as the white player knows what they're doing, the result of the game is predetermined at this point. It's well within black's rights to make white play out the game. But to do so, and then blame the white player for "being boring", or choosing a tactic that makes the game "unfun", is absurd. The game is a game, and so long as the actions are within the rules of the game, the line of play is legitimate.
TDLR: I make toxic people own their toxic behavior. I use the attached example of zugzwang to explain why their behavior is absurd. Rather than them shaming me for playing a legitimate deck, I make them own the shame of their attitudes. They usually either shut up or change their behavior, both wins.
Hey guys, been playing lantern for about 2 years. Everyone has their pet deck, and we all wear rose colored glasses when testing. The truth is, lantern can never be tier 1. If it attracts attention, it is too easy to hate out. The more diverse the field is, the better lantern does because everyone's sideboards are stretched thin. Right now is a pretty good time because Death's Shadow is up, which pushes down burn. Affinity is always solid, so there is never a time when people won't have artifact hate in the boards. But like I said, at a big tournament there is enough diversity for you to pilot through. It doesn't change that every game against burn will be by the skin of your teeth.
If you are just playing a local FNM and know your meta, ignore the following advice. But if you are looking at a bigger field, here is where I am at:
1) Run Leyline main. The advantages outweigh the cost. Discard is at an all-time high. The matchups where leyline is useless are generally matchups you will be favored anyways (not always true, but true enough).
2) Collective brutality is over-rated. I wouldn't run more than 2 in my 75. Inquisition is better. There are too many things you need to grab with it, and being able to use it turn 1 is a huge deal. In that game 2, grabbing stony silence or chalice before they drop it is crucial. Yes, you can use it to get bridge online faster, but few decks are threatening you that quickly. Burn is again better served by leyline, and affinity can get through bridge reliably. I still like the card, but enough testing tells me inquisition is still a better pick in the majority of my games.
3) On an entirely different note, I like skitzafreak's direction and have also been testing with whir to see if I can get the mana to work. Here are the considerations: Have enough blue sources to reliably cast whir. Have enough turn 1 black to reliably cast inquisition or sieze on turn 1. Have enough green to cast stirrings, decay, and seal of primordium by turn 2-3.
See my first attached graph. In order to have a 60% chance to cast whir by turn 3 (which is 9 or 10 cards deep), you need 18 blue sources in the deck. This math does not take into account the ability for Stirrings to get another mana source (improves our odds), or an early lantern and rock to filter draws (improves odds, but if you have the natural lock, you are in a great spot anyways), nor does it distinguish mox opals as incompatible (lowers our odds, but I guess you can string them out 1 at a time in the same turn, which I've done before). I certainly would never run whir with less than 17 blue sources.
Black is the color we can least afford to sacrifice. See my second attachment. This is the probability you have the black source to cast that (often critical) turn 1 discard. So for a 60% chance to do this, you need 7 black sources that can be activated turn 1. It is a sketchy thing to know 40% of the time you won't be able to use your discard before they cast that Stony Silence or Eidolon. This brings up the question of what is considered "reliable" turn 1 black. I don't count Glimmervoid or Mox Opal or Spire of Industry, because it is very rare you can cast discard off them turn 1. Yes, you can have glimmer and an opal (14% chance) and if you run main welding jars or baubles, this goes up. If you have 4 glimmer and 2 spire, with 4 opal and 2 jars, the chances of being able to activate glimmer or spire for black on turn 1 is 29%. Not insignificant, but incorporating that combination of events makes math harder and I don't want to do that right now. For most lists, assume about a 22% chance.
So if I want to use Whir, I want 17-19 blue sources, and 7-8 turn 1 black sources. You can sacrifice some green, which hurts your ability to turn 1 or 2 ancient stirrings all the time, but if I had an inquisition and a stirrings in opening hand, I'd rather be waiting to cast stirrings than the discard. I could be wrong on this, and should drop a black source for another green. But I do feel absolutely convinced that if you run whir, you must give up the ghost quarter package. You just hurt your odds far too much.
I don't believe I have an optimal whir list yet, and am trying to see if its benefits can outweigh what you are giving up for it. Hopefully my math proves useful to some of you.
So my list has 18 total blue sources, and 8 reliable turn 1 black. The green count is all conditional, but is at 10. This means that your chance of having green mana on turn 2 is 79%. That is good enough for me. I suppose I could drop 1 River for 1 more Spire, or 1 Spire for a Botanical. Yes, you are weaker to blood moon and ghost quarter, but those are never the problem for me. Mox Opal lets you still kill moon. The ghost quarter weakness is real, but the question is if an instant speed tutor for anything in your deck is worth that vulnerability. For the record, I can't find games I lost because I got ghost quartered so far.
While I like the work you've put into it, I disagree with a few points you make.
First, I do feel that it can be tier 1, but there are hurdles for that. There's the complexity of piloting the deck. This is not a deck that can just be picked up by anyone and piloted. Pilots must be absolutely aware of how to combat each other deck in the metagame. There are small plays that I still see some people make that are mistakes, but they aren't always aware of them. I still make plenty of mistakes. If any deck is immune to hate cards, it's this one. No other deck can control whether hate cards are drawn, or even played (discard spells) as much as this deck. The win % in the spreadsheet speaks for itself here. Even after a pilot has managed to grasp more intricate plays, there's the matter of doing so quickly, so that even if an opponent who decides to be a bad sport exists, the games are over within a decent amount of time. Then, there's the monetary cost. That's a huge cost to make a deck that isn't just going to give the pilot free wins on a dish.
Second, I disagree with running a blanket Leyline in the main. I tested that route, and while it worked great against some decks, it was abysmal in too many matchups. Maybe if the metagame became nothing but lots of 8rack or something.
Third, what you state about Collective Brutality, and especially when looking comparing it's performance vs. Leyline. If you look at the spreadsheet, the data shows that Collective Brutality correlates with a weighted increase in win % of 0.16%, whereas Leyline has a weighted decrease of -0.01%. Note that these numbers are weighted, so the sample sizes of the data are accounted for. For an average, it's +0.06 vs. 0.00. Unweighted, we see a +6.07% increase in win % correlation with Brutality vs. a -5.45% with Leyline (or, an average of +0.21% vs. -9.21%). I also already run a full playset of Inquisition in my list
I do like the idea of Whir, but so far I've been happy with my success with my current build. I wouldn't mind trying out a new version with Whir, but that would mean sacrificing the Ghost Quarters, as you mention. It would also mean that you'd have to cut down on Inventors' Fair, which you seem to have done. Our win % started going way up once we started including Brutality and Fair. Unless I were to see evidence of an even higher win % without them, in another build, I don't know that I'd make the trade.
I would be very interested in any videos of gameplay that you might have. I would absolutely add the data to the spreadsheet, and we can watch how that data trends
I've found what I feel is a pretty good way to handle that sort of behavior from my opponents, and I'll provide an example of how I did it.
There is a player at my LGS who hates Lantern, and is very toxic about it. Most people there know me, and they know exactly what I play, having played the deck for years there now. I've always been very nice and respectful, always have my son there with me. Most people will play against me, at least for practice against the deck.
But that one dude. We had a conversation about Lantern, one that I'm sure pretty much everyone else here has had as well. He stated that he would always force the Lantern pilot to play it out. That's understandable, and I hold no issues with that. The problem was his tone. He stated it in such a way as to convey that he would purposefully go to time. That's something that I felt needed addressed, but I had to do it in such a way that he couldn't try to argue from a sense of righteousness.
So I said that I have no problems playing it out completely. I said that I do see an issue with people trying to stall, though, as that is, as per the rules, cheating. I opened up that line of argument for him, which he of course took. He said that he'll stall all he wants, because it wasn't his choice to play the deck, it's the Lantern pilot's choice, and they deserve it if they choose to play it. I used that opportunity to explain that the behavior that he was supporting is, in fact, an offense punishable by a DQ in a tournament setting, and furthermore, it reflected more on the inadequacies of his content of character than it did on any Magic deck.
My argument basically boils down to the content of a player's character. If they decide to act in an unsportsmanlike manner, then I make them own it. I state, in no unclear terms, that their behavior is not one that I would ever teach my children to emulate, and I would be ashamed if they did. That especially helps if my son happens to be in the vicinity
The game is simply that: a game. I'm not playing this to try to show how smart I may or may not be, I'm just there to have fun. I recognize that the primary indicator of fun in any game is whether a player's actions have any relevant effect on the game. Every single competitive deck's purpose is to minimize the relevance of the opponent's actions until they are zero. They just do it differently.
That's one of the reasons why I prefer to use the zugzwang analogy when it comes to this deck. I prefer to use the picture included in this post as a perfect example. The black player loses, no matter what. Sure, the game isn't "over", but so long as the white player knows what they're doing, the result of the game is predetermined at this point. It's well within black's rights to make white play out the game. But to do so, and then blame the white player for "being boring", or choosing a tactic that makes the game "unfun", is absurd. The game is a game, and so long as the actions are within the rules of the game, the line of play is legitimate.
TDLR: I make toxic people own their toxic behavior. I use the attached example of zugzwang to explain why their behavior is absurd. Rather than them shaming me for playing a legitimate deck, I make them own the shame of their attitudes. They usually either shut up or change their behavior, both wins.
I feel like I should quote your entire post here, this is an absolutely perfect explanation. I'll think about this and see where your advice takes me.
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I think there's just a miscommunication about what Tier 1 means. I am using it in terms of popularity, not a measure of how good the deck is. There have been Tier 1 decks at times that had barely 50% win rates, but it was Tier 1 because it made up so much of the metagame. My point is that Lantern works best when its representation is low. It is similar to Affinity in that way.
You make good points about brutality and leyline. Is the spreadsheet for just paper, or online? I had a long run on MODO with Lantern, and burn is massively over-represented there. I didn't feel safe queuing up without the leylines.
I think I'll add the 18th land for the 2nd Inventor's Fair. It's probably the mechanized production that would be cut, but I'm curious to see if it and Revival are worth it. Revival seems to regain some utility when you are running Whir.
I think there's just a miscommunication about what Tier 1 means. I am using it in terms of popularity, not a measure of how good the deck is. There have been Tier 1 decks at times that had barely 50% win rates, but it was Tier 1 because it made up so much of the metagame. My point is that Lantern works best when its representation is low. It is similar to Affinity in that way.
Tier 1 is a combination of both how popular a deck is, in addition to how well the deck performs.
If a deck has a lot of people playing it, but it can't win many match-ups, it will not be a Tier 1 deck.
If a deck is only played by a marginal part of the player base, but is a very good deck, in this way too it is a deck that is unlikely to become Tier 1.
We're in the second scenario, and that isn't to say Lantern is a bad deck. Rather because of the various hurdles with the deck that thnkr posted about above the number of us playing it are quite small. I honestly think I may be the only person playing Lantern Control in the entire Toronto area (if there are any more of you out there, hi :D). Because of it's lack of popularity it will without a doubt put up less successful numbers than other decks.
But honestly, I'm okay with that. I'm more than happy for us to stay consistently Tier 2. To strike out and show the world we exist when one of us crushes a GP. And so people will dislike us. People will act cruel towards us as pilots, and while we may not have done anything wrong, we are the Control deck Modern deserves. People just think we aren't the one it needs right now. But it's alright, because we can take it. Because aren't stereotypical control. We are a prison archetype. A sect of the fun people. We are Lantern Control.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern Decks: UBG Lantern Control GBU BRG Bridge-Vine GRB
Commander Decks UBG Muldrotha, Value Elemental GBU BRG Windgrace Real-Estate Ltd. GRB
#PayThePros
I think there's just a miscommunication about what Tier 1 means. I am using it in terms of popularity, not a measure of how good the deck is. There have been Tier 1 decks at times that had barely 50% win rates, but it was Tier 1 because it made up so much of the metagame. My point is that Lantern works best when its representation is low. It is similar to Affinity in that way.
Tier 1 is a combination of both how popular a deck is, in addition to how well the deck performs.
If a deck has a lot of people playing it, but it can't win many match-ups, it will not be a Tier 1 deck.
If a deck is only played by a marginal part of the player base, but is a very good deck, in this way too it is a deck that is unlikely to become Tier 1.
We're in the second scenario, and that isn't to say Lantern is a bad deck. Rather because of the various hurdles with the deck that thnkr posted about above the number of us playing it are quite small. I honestly think I may be the only person playing Lantern Control in the entire Toronto area (if there are any more of you out there, hi :D). Because of it's lack of popularity it will without a doubt put up less successful numbers than other decks.
But honestly, I'm okay with that. I'm more than happy for us to stay consistently Tier 2. To strike out and show the world we exist when one of us crushes a GP. And so people will dislike us. People will act cruel towards us as pilots, and while we may not have done anything wrong, we are the Control deck Modern deserves. People just think we aren't the one it needs right now. But it's alright, because we can take it. Because aren't stereotypical control. We are a prison archetype. A sect of the fun people. We are Lantern Control.
Would you be mad if I framed this and put it up on my cubicle at work or something?
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
CRUGGCCCCCCCGBGBGBCCCCCCCBBUWC 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
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Undefeated (2nd Place) at my local Modern Weekly
I went to a different shop this time, just because I missed the tournament at my local shop. There were about twenty people there. Honestly, the tournament itself was unremarkable.
4 Lantern of Insight
4 Codex Shredder
2 Ghoulcaller's Bell
2 Pyxis of Pandemonium
Hand Control (9)
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Thoughtseize
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Collective Brutality
Board Control (10)
2 Abrupt Decay
4 Ensnaring Bridge
3 Pithing Needle
1 Pyrite Spellbomb
4 Ancient Stirrings
2 Mishra's Bauble
1 Infernal Tutor
1 Crucible of Worlds
Mana Sources (21)
4 Mox Opal
4 Glimmervoid
4 Blooming Marsh
1 Swamp
1 Forest
2 Inventors' Fair
2 Academy Ruins
3 Ghost Quarter
4 Welding Jar
2 Spellskite
1 Noxious Revival
1 Padeem, Consul of Innovation
1 Thoughtseize
1 Duress
1 Lost Legacy
1 Fatal Push
1 Nature's Claim
1 Quiet Disrepair
1 Mechanized Production
After taking a look at the metagame online, I decided to replace Extirpate with Fatal Push. Overall, I'm happy with this choice, since I sided Push in three matches out of the four I played in, and probably would have not sided in Extirpate at all. Now I never got to cast it, since I was able to just mill past it when I established the lock, but hey, it felt nice to have.
I decided to replace a Padeem, Consul of Innovation with a Noxious Revival. Don't ask me why; I just got some sort of bug earlier in the day that told me to make the swap. I did end up using Revival one time, when it was already well past its relavance... but I suppose that counts for something.
Also, I won every single die roll this night. Talk about lucky!
Match 1
2-1
Merfolk
On the Play
Yes! A match that I'm 95% favored to win! My opponent knew this as well.
Game 1: Won after a mull to five gave me a timely turn 4 Bridge. I stabilized at one life. I probably would have lost this game if I had still been playing Spire of Industry.
Game 2: Denying my opponent Islands kept them off the Spell Pierce and Hurkyl's Recall they had in hand. I couldn't find a Bridge even with a well-established lock and Ancient Stirrings. Turns out the first Bridge was over 30 cards deep. That's variance!
Game 3: I cheesed this one with an early basic lock. When my opponent tapped out on turn 2 to play a lord, I was able to use double Opal on my turn 3 to play Infernal Tutor and grab Bridge, still at 19 life. A surgical on Hurkyl's Recall prompted a concession.
OUT: 3x Pithing Needle, 1x Pyxis of Pandemonium, 1x Crucible of Worlds, 1x Surgical Extraction
IN:
Match 2
2-1
Revolt Zoo
On the Play
My opponent had never played Lantern before. Their plan of attack was to simply go as fast as they possibly could.
Game 1: Turn 4 Bushwhacker from them sealed the deal on this one. I was hedging on the Abrupt Decay I had in hand to buy me an extra turn, but alas, it was not to be.
Game 2: Turn 1 Inquisition removed what would have otherwise been a turn 1 Stony Silence powered with Simian Spirit Guide. I killed off my opponent's early threats, and successfully bought myself enough time to establish Bridge and a lock.
Game 3: An early Goblin Guide threatened to gum up my hand, but fortunately my opponent tapped out turn 2 for a Stony that I was able to Decay at my leisure, which took the pressure off my life total. I stabilized at four life.
Match 3
2-1
Infect
On the Play
My opponent is an employee at the store I usually go to, and is very familiar with how my deck operates. It sounds like he's borrowing someone else's deck. He says that normally, Lantern is quite easy for him since he just needs to mull into Nature's Claim, but of course my four sideboard Welding Jars put a quick stop to that.
Game 1: He takes the win even through double Brutality; he Spell Pierced one and used Vines of Vastwood for the second.
Game 2: A Claim on Spellskite meets one of my two Jars, and I play a third to buy myself time before finally landing a Bridge. I use the Pyrite Spellbomb loop to close this game quickly.
Game 3: My opponent tried to go with the double Noble Hierarch beatdown plan, but a timely Inventors' Fair combined with me keeping him off pump slowed him down considerably. I was able to land Spellskite and use it as a blocker. With two unknown cards in my opponent's hand, I dig myself into an Inquisition of Kozilek, prompting my opponent to play an ill-timed Hurkyl's Recall in response. I'm still able to replay the lock and Skite in the same turn. Eventually, I allow him to draw Glistener Elf, and take six infect before landing a Bridge.
Match 4
2-0
EldraziTron
On the Play
I've never seen this person before. He's very serious during the match (which I like), but quite friendly afterward.
Game 1: Ghost Quarter into Surgical Extraction cripples his mana base, and the Ghost Quarter & Crucible of Worlds lock finishes what I started. I'm able to bring him down to a single land throughout the course of the game, fighting through both Wastes he runs mainboard and preventing him from ever being able to cast his outs. I then mill him to death without ever seeing a single Lantern.
Game 2: Turn 1 IoK whiffed on double Reality Smasher, double Endbringer, and two non-Tron lands. Turn 2, I topdecked Mechanized Production, then I played a Lantern. On turn 3, seeing a third Smasher on top, I was able to use Pithing Needle on his Endbringer and Thoughtseize his Smasher. Then on his draw step, I Extracted the smashers, rendering his hand completely useless. A couple turns passed with me playing out my hand (including Crucible) and him drawing Walking Ballista and playing it on two. I topdecked Ancient Stirrings and played it. This was probably my most interesting predicament. Stirrings revealed Swamp, Ensnaring Bridge, Mox Opal, Pithing Needle, and Ghost Quarter. I had Inventors' Fair, a tapped green land from Stirrings, and two other non-rainbow lands in play, as well as an untapped Opal. I had only Production in hand, and my opponent had Thought-Knot Seer on top of their deck. So I figured I would take Opal and go for the Production win, take beats for a couple turns, and fetch out a Bridge later on. My opponent caught onto what I was doing within a couple turns, and conceded the game.
The first-place player (who only got first because he had a bye for round 1) came over and started spouting on about how "Tron doesn't lose to Lantern". Then he looked down, saw my opponent scooping his cards up, and saw Production on my side of the field, and said "Well I don't lose to Lantern, because I play green and have Nature's Claim for enchantments. Colorless doesn't have anything like that for enchantments." This really annoyed my opponent, obviously...
Besides that, though, it was a good night. I've made friends with a Living End player (the same one that I played against in the finals for the City Champs tournament), and we frequently talk about ways we can prepare for our inevitable next match. He ended up giving me a ride home.
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
Thursday was my first undefeated tournament (ironically, the only two players that went undefeated were myself and another lantern control player who i had never met before) and I wanted to share my list and my thoughts on lantern's more recent evolution and future prospects.
Land (18)
2x Academy Ruins
2x Blackcleave Cliffs
3x Blooming Marsh
2x Darkslick Shores
1x Duskmantle, house of shadow
1x Forest
1x Ghost Quarter
4x Glimmervoid
2x Inventors' Fair
Creature (2)
2x Glint-Nest Crane
Artifact (22)
4x Codex Shredder
4x Ensnaring Bridge
2x Ghoulcaller's Bell
4x Lantern of Insight
3x Mox Opal
3x Pithing Needle
2x Pyxis of Pandemonium
Sorcery (12)
4x Ancient Stirrings
2x Collective Brutality
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
2x Thoughtseize
Enchantment (1)
1x Ghirapur AEther Grid
Instant (5)
2x Surgical Extraction
1x pyroclasm
2x abrupt decay
Sideboard (15)
1x spellskite
1x Ancient Grudge
2x Grafdigger's Cage
1x Leyline of Sanctity
1x Nature's Claim
1x lost legacy
1x Pyroclasm
3x Sun Droplet
3x Welding Jar
1x ashiok, nightmare weaver
Before each weekly tournament I find out which players are coming for that night and I tune my sideboard and 1 mainboard flex spot accordingly. I tend to take out the pyroclasm in the mainboard for an extra abrupt decay if i know there will be less aggro and I tend to put in a crucible if I know there will be more than 1 tron deck. Likewise before each big GP I attend, I spend a couple weeks learning the wider meta. For instance at GP San antonio I ran a mainboard nihil spellbomb and that single card won me a game 1 against jeskai nahiri and a game 1 vs grixis control.
My thoughts on the future of this deck are positive. The deck can run any card that wizards releases with a beneficial and relevant rules text and low cmc. Harsh Mentor looks like it is going to be played in a few modern sideboards when amonkhet drops and does not bode well for Lantern. However we have the tools to deal with it already - abrupt decay, pyroclasm, hand disruption, and of course mill. What I love about this deck is that it has no auto lose matchups. It can fight its way and win through every meta if you pay close attention to what people are playing and why.
Anyways, just wanted to share my love of this deck and join in the conversation for once instead of lurking. Keep it up boys.
Legacy: ANT, Sneak and Show, Omnitell, Oops All Spells
Modern: Grishoalbrand, Infect, UR Storm, Ad Nauseam, Lantern Control
Can you sense the pattern here?
Modern: Mono-Red Control, Lantern Control, Eldrazi Taxes, Skred Infect
Pauper: Affinity
EDH: Gaddock Teeg Kithkin Tribal, Meren
Legacy: 8 Rack, Omnitell (Both in progress)
Sure
So one of the benefits of playing with Whir of Invention is that you can set up a toolbox in your sideboard if you want to. I didn't have one set up with the list I posted but among the cards I give myself access to are:
Grafdigger's Cage
Tormod's Crypt
Witchbane Orb
Sculpting Steel
Thopter Foundry + Sword of the Meek
Crucible of Worlds
Sun Droplet
Torpor Orb
Ethersworn Canonist
With that said you want to try to take out as many dead cards as possible. This means things like:
Burn:
-2 Thoughtseize, -2 Pithing Needle, -1 Mechanized Production, -1 Noxious Revival
+3 Leyline of Sanctity, +3 Welding Jar
Tron:
-3 Inquisition of Kozilek, -2 Abrupt Decay
+1 Surgical Extraction, +1 Crucible of Worlds, +1 Ghost Quarter, +2 Padeem, Consul of Innovation
In most cases I like to leave at least 1 Pithing Needle in the deck since I can search it up with Whir if I need it for anything.
Modern Decks:
UBG Lantern Control GBU
BRG Bridge-Vine GRB
Commander Decks
UBG Muldrotha, Value Elemental GBU
BRG Windgrace Real-Estate Ltd. GRB
#PayThePros
Lantern Control
Bogles (RIP)
Living Belcher (RIP)
On a (slightly) off-topic note I have a pretty slick lantern control list built for EDH I can share elsewhere if anyone wants to see it.
@Kharn: Honestly, I haven't. But I could see myself running one or two. I have one in my sideboard right now for exactly those reasons.
Also, I'll release a writeup for last night's 4-0 sometime today.
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
Quoting our discussion from Reddit, in case some other Lanterners wanna chime-in on that:
OLD SCHOOL 93/94 «The Pain Train» Black Sligh, Esper «Machine Gun» Artifacts, Jund «Psycho» Ponza-Disko.
There is a player at my LGS who hates Lantern, and is very toxic about it. Most people there know me, and they know exactly what I play, having played the deck for years there now. I've always been very nice and respectful, always have my son there with me. Most people will play against me, at least for practice against the deck.
But that one dude. We had a conversation about Lantern, one that I'm sure pretty much everyone else here has had as well. He stated that he would always force the Lantern pilot to play it out. That's understandable, and I hold no issues with that. The problem was his tone. He stated it in such a way as to convey that he would purposefully go to time. That's something that I felt needed addressed, but I had to do it in such a way that he couldn't try to argue from a sense of righteousness.
So I said that I have no problems playing it out completely. I said that I do see an issue with people trying to stall, though, as that is, as per the rules, cheating. I opened up that line of argument for him, which he of course took. He said that he'll stall all he wants, because it wasn't his choice to play the deck, it's the Lantern pilot's choice, and they deserve it if they choose to play it. I used that opportunity to explain that the behavior that he was supporting is, in fact, an offense punishable by a DQ in a tournament setting, and furthermore, it reflected more on the inadequacies of his content of character than it did on any Magic deck.
My argument basically boils down to the content of a player's character. If they decide to act in an unsportsmanlike manner, then I make them own it. I state, in no unclear terms, that their behavior is not one that I would ever teach my children to emulate, and I would be ashamed if they did. That especially helps if my son happens to be in the vicinity
The game is simply that: a game. I'm not playing this to try to show how smart I may or may not be, I'm just there to have fun. I recognize that the primary indicator of fun in any game is whether a player's actions have any relevant effect on the game. Every single competitive deck's purpose is to minimize the relevance of the opponent's actions until they are zero. They just do it differently.
That's one of the reasons why I prefer to use the zugzwang analogy when it comes to this deck. I prefer to use the picture included in this post as a perfect example. The black player loses, no matter what. Sure, the game isn't "over", but so long as the white player knows what they're doing, the result of the game is predetermined at this point. It's well within black's rights to make white play out the game. But to do so, and then blame the white player for "being boring", or choosing a tactic that makes the game "unfun", is absurd. The game is a game, and so long as the actions are within the rules of the game, the line of play is legitimate.
TDLR: I make toxic people own their toxic behavior. I use the attached example of zugzwang to explain why their behavior is absurd. Rather than them shaming me for playing a legitimate deck, I make them own the shame of their attitudes. They usually either shut up or change their behavior, both wins.
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
If you are just playing a local FNM and know your meta, ignore the following advice. But if you are looking at a bigger field, here is where I am at:
1) Run Leyline main. The advantages outweigh the cost. Discard is at an all-time high. The matchups where leyline is useless are generally matchups you will be favored anyways (not always true, but true enough).
2) Collective brutality is over-rated. I wouldn't run more than 2 in my 75. Inquisition is better. There are too many things you need to grab with it, and being able to use it turn 1 is a huge deal. In that game 2, grabbing stony silence or chalice before they drop it is crucial. Yes, you can use it to get bridge online faster, but few decks are threatening you that quickly. Burn is again better served by leyline, and affinity can get through bridge reliably. I still like the card, but enough testing tells me inquisition is still a better pick in the majority of my games.
3) On an entirely different note, I like skitzafreak's direction and have also been testing with whir to see if I can get the mana to work. Here are the considerations: Have enough blue sources to reliably cast whir. Have enough turn 1 black to reliably cast inquisition or sieze on turn 1. Have enough green to cast stirrings, decay, and seal of primordium by turn 2-3.
See my first attached graph. In order to have a 60% chance to cast whir by turn 3 (which is 9 or 10 cards deep), you need 18 blue sources in the deck. This math does not take into account the ability for Stirrings to get another mana source (improves our odds), or an early lantern and rock to filter draws (improves odds, but if you have the natural lock, you are in a great spot anyways), nor does it distinguish mox opals as incompatible (lowers our odds, but I guess you can string them out 1 at a time in the same turn, which I've done before). I certainly would never run whir with less than 17 blue sources.
Black is the color we can least afford to sacrifice. See my second attachment. This is the probability you have the black source to cast that (often critical) turn 1 discard. So for a 60% chance to do this, you need 7 black sources that can be activated turn 1. It is a sketchy thing to know 40% of the time you won't be able to use your discard before they cast that Stony Silence or Eidolon. This brings up the question of what is considered "reliable" turn 1 black. I don't count Glimmervoid or Mox Opal or Spire of Industry, because it is very rare you can cast discard off them turn 1. Yes, you can have glimmer and an opal (14% chance) and if you run main welding jars or baubles, this goes up. If you have 4 glimmer and 2 spire, with 4 opal and 2 jars, the chances of being able to activate glimmer or spire for black on turn 1 is 29%. Not insignificant, but incorporating that combination of events makes math harder and I don't want to do that right now. For most lists, assume about a 22% chance.
So if I want to use Whir, I want 17-19 blue sources, and 7-8 turn 1 black sources. You can sacrifice some green, which hurts your ability to turn 1 or 2 ancient stirrings all the time, but if I had an inquisition and a stirrings in opening hand, I'd rather be waiting to cast stirrings than the discard. I could be wrong on this, and should drop a black source for another green. But I do feel absolutely convinced that if you run whir, you must give up the ghost quarter package. You just hurt your odds far too much.
I don't believe I have an optimal whir list yet, and am trying to see if its benefits can outweigh what you are giving up for it. Hopefully my math proves useful to some of you.
4x Darkslick Shores
4x River of Tears
4x Glimmervoid
4x Mox Opal
2x Academy Ruins
2x Spire of Industry
1x Inventors' Fair
Artifacts (19)
4x Codex Shredder
4x Lantern of Insight
4x Ensnaring Bridge
3x Pithing Needle
3x Ghoulcaller's Bell
1x Pyxis of Pandemonium
4x Ancient Stirrings
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
2x Thoughtseize
4x Whir of Invention
2x Abrupt Decay
2x Surgical Extraction
1x Mechanized Production
1x Noxious Revival
1x Grafidgger's Cage
1x Thoughtsieze
1x Collective Brutality
3x Welding Jar
2x Padeem, Consul of Innovation
3x Seal of Primordium
1x Lost Legacy
2x Surgical Extraction
1x Pithing Needle
So my list has 18 total blue sources, and 8 reliable turn 1 black. The green count is all conditional, but is at 10. This means that your chance of having green mana on turn 2 is 79%. That is good enough for me. I suppose I could drop 1 River for 1 more Spire, or 1 Spire for a Botanical. Yes, you are weaker to blood moon and ghost quarter, but those are never the problem for me. Mox Opal lets you still kill moon. The ghost quarter weakness is real, but the question is if an instant speed tutor for anything in your deck is worth that vulnerability. For the record, I can't find games I lost because I got ghost quartered so far.
First, I do feel that it can be tier 1, but there are hurdles for that. There's the complexity of piloting the deck. This is not a deck that can just be picked up by anyone and piloted. Pilots must be absolutely aware of how to combat each other deck in the metagame. There are small plays that I still see some people make that are mistakes, but they aren't always aware of them. I still make plenty of mistakes. If any deck is immune to hate cards, it's this one. No other deck can control whether hate cards are drawn, or even played (discard spells) as much as this deck. The win % in the spreadsheet speaks for itself here. Even after a pilot has managed to grasp more intricate plays, there's the matter of doing so quickly, so that even if an opponent who decides to be a bad sport exists, the games are over within a decent amount of time. Then, there's the monetary cost. That's a huge cost to make a deck that isn't just going to give the pilot free wins on a dish.
Second, I disagree with running a blanket Leyline in the main. I tested that route, and while it worked great against some decks, it was abysmal in too many matchups. Maybe if the metagame became nothing but lots of 8rack or something.
Third, what you state about Collective Brutality, and especially when looking comparing it's performance vs. Leyline. If you look at the spreadsheet, the data shows that Collective Brutality correlates with a weighted increase in win % of 0.16%, whereas Leyline has a weighted decrease of -0.01%. Note that these numbers are weighted, so the sample sizes of the data are accounted for. For an average, it's +0.06 vs. 0.00. Unweighted, we see a +6.07% increase in win % correlation with Brutality vs. a -5.45% with Leyline (or, an average of +0.21% vs. -9.21%). I also already run a full playset of Inquisition in my list
I do like the idea of Whir, but so far I've been happy with my success with my current build. I wouldn't mind trying out a new version with Whir, but that would mean sacrificing the Ghost Quarters, as you mention. It would also mean that you'd have to cut down on Inventors' Fair, which you seem to have done. Our win % started going way up once we started including Brutality and Fair. Unless I were to see evidence of an even higher win % without them, in another build, I don't know that I'd make the trade.
I would be very interested in any videos of gameplay that you might have. I would absolutely add the data to the spreadsheet, and we can watch how that data trends
EDIT: Link to spreadsheet
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
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
You make good points about brutality and leyline. Is the spreadsheet for just paper, or online? I had a long run on MODO with Lantern, and burn is massively over-represented there. I didn't feel safe queuing up without the leylines.
I think I'll add the 18th land for the 2nd Inventor's Fair. It's probably the mechanized production that would be cut, but I'm curious to see if it and Revival are worth it. Revival seems to regain some utility when you are running Whir.
Tier 1 is a combination of both how popular a deck is, in addition to how well the deck performs.
If a deck has a lot of people playing it, but it can't win many match-ups, it will not be a Tier 1 deck.
If a deck is only played by a marginal part of the player base, but is a very good deck, in this way too it is a deck that is unlikely to become Tier 1.
We're in the second scenario, and that isn't to say Lantern is a bad deck. Rather because of the various hurdles with the deck that thnkr posted about above the number of us playing it are quite small. I honestly think I may be the only person playing Lantern Control in the entire Toronto area (if there are any more of you out there, hi :D). Because of it's lack of popularity it will without a doubt put up less successful numbers than other decks.
But honestly, I'm okay with that. I'm more than happy for us to stay consistently Tier 2. To strike out and show the world we exist when one of us crushes a GP. And so people will dislike us. People will act cruel towards us as pilots, and while we may not have done anything wrong, we are the Control deck Modern deserves. People just think we aren't the one it needs right now. But it's alright, because we can take it. Because aren't stereotypical control. We are a prison archetype. A sect of the fun people. We are Lantern Control.
Modern Decks:
UBG Lantern Control GBU
BRG Bridge-Vine GRB
Commander Decks
UBG Muldrotha, Value Elemental GBU
BRG Windgrace Real-Estate Ltd. GRB
#PayThePros
MODERN – LANTERN (aka Fateseal or Barbershop)
Primer – Subreddit – Facebook – Decklist – Gameplay
Thnkr's Content: Gameplay – Datasheet
Each eye sees a different possibility for tomorrow.
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