Gearing up for the starcitygames invitational.
I qualified for it with lantern at regionals (5th place at columbus)
But now I'm starting to get worried.
The amount of death shadow and tron variants I have been seeing is giving me pause.
I have been having a really bad time with eldrazu tron. The combo of chalice, tks, and karn has been rather hard to overcome.
Especially when backed by a solid clock like walking balista and reality smasher.
Bridge hasn't been as effective due to the tks, maybe I'm just having super bad luck vs it but I am 0-4 vs it at the last 4 fnm, most of the time my only loss.
Also my fnm has started preparing for me a great deal, most people have 5 to 8 side slots ment for me and the one affinity player.
A little over the top but I normally can maneuver through the hate.
I just been having serious issues with tron.
Been thinking of trying out a few cerimonius rejections and try to catch the tks or karns.
Can you post the list you've been running? Maybe we can offer some constructive criticism
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Modern Decks: UBG Lantern Control GBU BRG Bridge-Vine GRB
Commander Decks UBG Muldrotha, Value Elemental GBU BRG Windgrace Real-Estate Ltd. GRB
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Certainly, should of done that in the first place but brain is fried from a 16 hour shift plus 3 hours of playtesting a day, hopeing to pick that up to 5 a couple weeks before the event. Been focusing mostly on standard atm because tbh, I have no clue wtf I'm doing there haha.
I been just getting my ass handed to me by eldrazu tron.
Every other match up feels good.i either feel favoured or 50/50.
Just can not seem to get the hang of the eldrazu tron match up.
Eldrazi Tron is an extremely skill-intensive matchup. You need to really figure out what the strengths and weaknesses of their opening hand are, and attack them at their weakest point.
I wish I could offer you more specific advice, but there's not much that I can think of. Just practice a lot against the deck, and you'll start seeing all sorts of new and unusual paths to victory open up to you.
I do have a couple deckbuilding suggestion for you though:
Main: -1 Leyline, +1 Needle. Honestly, I'd suggest to cut all the leylines as I outline in my Noxious Revival post above, but that's neither here nor there. Needle helps out a ton in this matchup, since it shuts down their scarier cards like Endbringer and Karn.
Side: +1 Mechanized Production. I'm serious. EldraziTron goes bigger than you, so you need some extra oomph to make yourself bigger than them. Also, Production on Needle is GG (and also hilarious to behold).
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Eldrazi Tron is an extremely skill-intensive matchup. You need to really figure out what the strengths and weaknesses of their opening hand are, and attack them at their weakest point.
I wish I could offer you more specific advice, but there's not much that I can think of. Just practice a lot against the deck, and you'll start seeing all sorts of new and unusual paths to victory open up to you.
I do have a couple deckbuilding suggestion for you though:
Main: -1 Leyline, +1 Needle. Honestly, I'd suggest to cut all the leylines as I outline in my Noxious Revival post above, but that's neither here nor there. Needle helps out a ton in this matchup, since it shuts down their scarier cards like Endbringer and Karn.
Side: +1 Mechanized Production. I'm serious. EldraziTron goes bigger than you, so you need some extra oomph to make yourself bigger than them. Also, Production on Needle is GG (and also hilarious to behold).
I actually had the productions in at one time. Have a foil prerelease stamped one.
It just felt clunky a lot of the time.
Often it would get stranded in my hand of I would be forced to kill it because I needed a top deck specific card.
I'm not sure about cutting the leyline entirely. The amount of deaths shadow decks I expect is pretty high. Not to mention the splash damage it gives to burn and storm.
Maybe move them back to side. But I really like them right now.
Honestly crexalbo, I disagree with taking any of the Leyline of Sanctitys out of the sideboard. As warwizard87 said, it's likely there will be a lot of Death's Shadow decks, and Leyline has a lot of splash damage. To name a few decks where having Leylines main helps....
Burn - for obvious reasons Counters Company - stock lists run Walking Ballista as their only combo win condition, and they have no artifact or enchantment hate in the mainboard. So once you land a Leyline you're half way to making your opponent unable to do much of anything. Land a Bridge and you're set Eldrazi Tron - Honestly, TKS is the only card that makes this match up really difficult. It can rip our Bridges out of our hand, as well as making us get rid of an Abrupt Decay we might have used to get rid of a Chalice of the Void on our next turn. Add to that the fact that it also turns off the win condition that is Endbringer and we've got something I want to have mainboard. Gift's Stor - Mainboard they kind of awkwardly try to win by attacking with Goblin Electromancer since they can't Grapeshot you. Dredge - I love turning off Conflagrate. Especially for free, in a match up where I need to land a Bridge ASAP Titanshift - GG Valakut
There are enough decks in Modern that target you as a player with mainboard cards were Leyline of Sanctity I think just need to be a 4 of in the deck going forward. When the metagame changes it can be up for debate whether Leyline should be moved back to the side, but as Modern is right now, I feel the Leylines should 100% be mainboard as a full playset.
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Modern Decks: UBG Lantern Control GBU BRG Bridge-Vine GRB
Commander Decks UBG Muldrotha, Value Elemental GBU BRG Windgrace Real-Estate Ltd. GRB
#PayThePros
Anyone else notice we got bumped down to "Developing competitive"? That's kind of a Buzzkill.
Went 2-2 friday. Didn't end up firing at my home shop so I went down to where I normally play. Beat white weenies and Drazi taxes, lost to Naya Burn and Kiki-chord.
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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)
Anyone else notice we got bumped down to "Developing competitive"? That's kind of a Buzzkill.
Went 2-2 friday. Didn't end up firing at my home shop so I went down to where I normally play. Beat white weenies and Drazi taxes, lost to Naya Burn and Kiki-chord.
I blame the algorithms on the website the mods use to determine what is Tier 1/2 etc.
We literally JUST had 2 decks in the Top 32 of 2 separate Modern GPs, with one of them being 3rd place
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#PayThePros
Any advice on the counters company matchup? I'm rusty with the lantern and just took a major pummeling, but I feel like we have all the tools to beat it. I know I misplayed heavily but I would love to get some input on this one
Discard is key, in particular Collective Brutality is your #1 best friend. If you can -2/-2 a Druid or Vizier and duress away a Chord or Company on T2 (on the draw) or T3 (on the play), then you're going to have a much, much easier time because you'll have seriously impeded their combo, which should give you time to get a lock in. Here are some general tips that I've found works very well:
-If you use a Collective Brutality or Thoughtseize and see both Company and chord in hand, take the Company. Company can randomly win the game, but ultimately Chord is more dangerous to you. However, Inquisition of Kozilek can't hit Company, so to hedge your bets I feel like prioritizing Company is better, just on the off-chance that you topdeck an Inquisition.
-Try to hold off on using Collective Brutality until they've played a combo piece if you can, but don't let them get to 4 mana without you using brutality if it's your only discard. T3 is really the sweet spot for the card. The 2-for-1 is stupidly powerful against their openers, but if they get to 4 mana without a combo piece in play then you know they're definitely going to play Company, so you have to beat them to it.
After the discard, Pithing Needle goes a long way, but it's going to be shaky after sideboarding, because they will have a lot of hate. The first target you want to name is Druid. DO NOT name Ballista. I cannot stress that enough. If you name Ballista, you are just asking to die at the hands of either a Rhonas pumping up a zero-power creature, or something spicy that you wouldn't expect, such as Murderous Redcap. In my list, I run a single Bloodrite Invoker in place of a second Ballista, because I like making people read the jank that kills them. But these are all non-issues, because if Needle is going to stop a combo, then cutting off the mana is the way to get the most mileage out of Needle. The second Needle in theory should go toward Viscera Seer, assuming your opponent is playing G/W/B.
If you're running Lost Legacy, then Vizier should always be your target if there isn't already one in play and you don't have removal. Likewise, if you have the option early to hit *anything* with discard + Surgical Extraction, then Vizier is your #1 priority target, because the loss of the card will eliminate the unlimited mana combos, which will be surprisingly resilient once they get the mana, and it will also hamstring any backup combos involving persist, as most decks will run only 1 or less Anafenza as a backup. Do not be fooled into thinking that Ballista is their wincon; it is merely a means to an end. The wincon is unlimited green mana.
And I'm sure it's obvious, but if you're playing Grafdigger's Cage in your sideboard, then you'll be elated to see it, because it shuts off everything except the infinite mana combo, including all their tutors to find the combo. And I can assure you, the earlier you can land a Cage, the more devastating it is. Dropping a Cage on turn 1 is painfully difficult for them to break out of if they don't naturally have the combo in hand, because the deck truly does rely on its tutors.
How on earth do we beat Grixis Shadow? They seem to have way too much discard and especially countermagic to punch through, not to mention those Kolaghan's Commands. They only need a single threat to stick in order to take a game... and traditional tools are not helping. Maybe a Terminate or counterspell or something would be useful?
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Grixis Shadow seems to have become increasingly more difficult to play against. I'm afraid that I still don't have a clear-cut method for battling them, just like Grixis Control. I have ideas, but not sure what will and what won't work. I'd love to get some dedicated testing in against it, like what I did a few months back against Tron.
Grixis Shadow seems to have become increasingly more difficult to play against. I'm afraid that I still don't have a clear-cut method for battling them, just like Grixis Control. I have ideas, but not sure what will and what won't work. I'd love to get some dedicated testing in against it, like what I did a few months back against Tron.
There's a ton of Grixis Shadow in my meta. It feels like about 15-18% meta share (grindy, stressful games that all take 50 mins... ugh). I've been about 50-50 against the deck with Lantern. In those matches, I've found Noxious Revival to be an absolute all-star, in that it almost totally invalidates their early discard, grants a little protection if they kill an early Bridge, and most importantly: saves your stuff from being Surgical'd away after sideboarding. Making sure to keep Lanterns and Bridges away from the graveyard until you've got them solidly locked is crucial. Additionally, I've found that the best target for our own Surgicals is Snapcaster.
Generally speaking, most of the Grixis lists run 2 Kommands maindeck and 1 Explosives out of the sideboard. That's not a lot to have to deal with once Snapcaster is out of the equation. So try to Extract him first. It will also take away the pressure of Bolt-Snap-Bolt, although most lists I see only run 2 Bolts lately.
I think I'm going to try a one- or two-of 1CMC removal spell in my sideboard. The options I'm considering are Fatal Push, Galvanic Blast, Dispatch, Path to Exile, and Condemn. Honestly, I'm thinking that Path to Exile is the best of the bunch, since it can interact with a number of other decks too, including the new Devoted Company list floating around.
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I've the same sentiments. You usually name Duskwatch Recruiter for Pithing Needle as your priority. But of course you have to consider what is in play as well. IMHO the order of Needle targets goes like this:
Again, this is just a general guideline and you have to adapt in the situation.
Game 1 is easy. If you have an extra Needle then you can name Qasali Pridemage as there are some lists that plays them as once off mainboard.
G2 is where you will be tested. Discard helps a lot. Be aware of sideboard cards: Kataki, Qasali Pridemage, Spellskite, Abrupt Decay. Be wary of lists with Renegade Rallier as they seem to be more resilient.
I haven't. I truly, sincerely despised the Leylines when they were in my sideboard; I would hate then even more mainboard. Now that I have them out of my life, I am really looking for ways around them. Noxious Revival helps a ton since it can also fight counterspells. I am also experimenting with 18 lands and a Path to Exile main and Dispatch side. Not sure what I think about Path/Dispatch... but the 18 lands is definitely too high.
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Just because they seem so swingy. I mean, I understand how they work well for people, but I hate how it works like "see me in your opener or bust". I do not like mulliganing for hate cards, and I feel like running Leylines encourages just that.
I found this MTGS post talking about how Leylines work. Using the math from that post, let's assume you're mulliganing for a Leyline. Here are the chances you will see at least one Leyline if you mulligan down (using the numbers from the post):
Opening 7: 1 - 60.06% = 39.94%
Mull to 6: 1 - (60.06% x 64.38%) = 1 - 38.67% = 61.33%
Mull to 5: 1 - (38.67% x 69.94%) = 1 - 27.04% = 72.96%
Mull to 4: 1 - (27.04% x 75.32%) = 1 - 20.37% = 79.63%
Mull to 3: 1 - (20.37% x 81.01%) = 1 - 16.50% = 83.50%
Mull to 2: 1 - (16.50% x 16.50%) = 1 - 14.36% = 85.64%
Mull to 1: 1 - (14.36% x 14.36%) = 1 - 13.40% = 86.60%
I mean, having a 73% chance to open any one card is pretty nice, but now you're mulling down to five. It seems like a mull to six is the sweet spot here, by still giving you a 60% chance of opening it, but you're essentially gambling; you are burning a card from your hand for a ~20% increase of your chances of turning a card into a Leyline. I just really don't like how that works, especially considering how Leylines are a liability later in the game.
Again, maybe they're powerful enough to be worth it 60% of the time, but I just don't like the concept behind them. I play Lantern because I don't want variance to screw me over. Playing with Leylines just seems like praying to Lady Luck to give me a good card, and she always gives me snakes when I ask for bread, so I've learned to not rely on her at all and work with what I've got.
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I went to a weekly last night and actively considered when a Leyline would be better than whatever I had in my hand at the time. And my honest answer to myself was, "A lot." I feel like I have all this mainboard and sideboard space just begging to be filled, and maybe Leylines would do the trick.
I know I'll only have a free one maybe half of the time, but maybe I'm wrong and it is actually worth it. I would rather be wrong and win games than be "right" and lose games.
I have another weekly at another LGS tonight. I'll consider this again tonight, and if I realize that I'm really missing out, I will buy a playset of Leylines for the 1K I'm going to on Saturday.
(Omg Leylines are $25-30 each? I wish I had kept mine. Now I will need to trade my Baubles for them.)
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Just because they seem so swingy. I mean, I understand how they work well for people, but I hate how it works like "see me in your opener or bust". I do not like mulliganing for hate cards, and I feel like running Leylines encourages just that.
I found this MTGS post talking about how Leylines work. Using the math from that post, let's assume you're mulliganing for a Leyline. Here are the chances you will see at least one Leyline if you mulligan down (using the numbers from the post):
Opening 7: 1 - 60.06% = 39.94%
Mull to 6: 1 - (60.06% x 64.38%) = 1 - 38.67% = 61.33%
Mull to 5: 1 - (38.67% x 69.94%) = 1 - 27.04% = 72.96%
Mull to 4: 1 - (27.04% x 75.32%) = 1 - 20.37% = 79.63%
Mull to 3: 1 - (20.37% x 81.01%) = 1 - 16.50% = 83.50%
Mull to 2: 1 - (16.50% x 16.50%) = 1 - 14.36% = 85.64%
Mull to 1: 1 - (14.36% x 14.36%) = 1 - 13.40% = 86.60%
I mean, having a 73% chance to open any one card is pretty nice, but now you're mulling down to five. It seems like a mull to six is the sweet spot here, by still giving you a 60% chance of opening it, but you're essentially gambling; you are burning a card from your hand for a ~20% increase of your chances of turning a card into a Leyline. I just really don't like how that works, especially considering how Leylines are a liability later in the game.
Again, maybe they're powerful enough to be worth it 60% of the time, but I just don't like the concept behind them. I play Lantern because I don't want variance to screw me over. Playing with Leylines just seems like praying to Lady Luck to give me a good card, and she always gives me snakes when I ask for bread, so I've learned to not rely on her at all and work with what I've got.
This is all also true for ensnaring bridge (other than stirrings) and it's the entire lynchpin to the deck.
I ordinarily agree with you on white leyline and I've avoided in other decks (amulet, scapeshift, etc) but it is a necessity in lantern since it's still good late game.
Many times grixis and other snapcaster decks try to rely on bolt snap bolt to end the game, leyline functionally shuts that off. I recently had a really fun game vs grixis control, it was a brutal build sporting 4 cryptics, 3 k comm, and even a basic mountain. He won one of the games with cryptic bounce leyline, ancestral vision comes off suspend and targets me to get under bridge. I generally feel very favored vs grixis but as with most lantern matchups, the more experienced pilot tends to prevail.
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Can you post the list you've been running? Maybe we can offer some constructive criticism
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
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Any way
2 Academy Ruins
4 Blooming Marsh
1 Forest
3 Ghost Quarter
4 Glimmervoid
2 Inventors' Fair
1 Spire of Industry
1 Swamp
// Spells
2 Abrupt Decay
4 Ancient Stirrings
4 Codex Shredder
2 Collective Brutality
4 Ensnaring Bridge
2 Ghoulcaller's Bell
1 Infernal Tutor
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lantern of Insight
4 Leyline of Sanctity
4 Mox Opal
2 Pithing Needle
1 Pyxis of Pandemonium
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Thoughtseize
1 Collective Brutality
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Ghost Quarter
2 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Lost Legacy
1 Padeem, Consul of Innovation
2 Pithing Needle
1 Quiet Disrepair
1 Seal of Primordium
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Welding Jar
I been just getting my ass handed to me by eldrazu tron.
Every other match up feels good.i either feel favoured or 50/50.
Just can not seem to get the hang of the eldrazu tron match up.
I wish I could offer you more specific advice, but there's not much that I can think of. Just practice a lot against the deck, and you'll start seeing all sorts of new and unusual paths to victory open up to you.
I do have a couple deckbuilding suggestion for you though:
Main: -1 Leyline, +1 Needle. Honestly, I'd suggest to cut all the leylines as I outline in my Noxious Revival post above, but that's neither here nor there. Needle helps out a ton in this matchup, since it shuts down their scarier cards like Endbringer and Karn.
Side: +1 Mechanized Production. I'm serious. EldraziTron goes bigger than you, so you need some extra oomph to make yourself bigger than them. Also, Production on Needle is GG (and also hilarious to behold).
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I actually had the productions in at one time. Have a foil prerelease stamped one.
It just felt clunky a lot of the time.
Often it would get stranded in my hand of I would be forced to kill it because I needed a top deck specific card.
I'm not sure about cutting the leyline entirely. The amount of deaths shadow decks I expect is pretty high. Not to mention the splash damage it gives to burn and storm.
Maybe move them back to side. But I really like them right now.
Burn - for obvious reasons
Counters Company - stock lists run Walking Ballista as their only combo win condition, and they have no artifact or enchantment hate in the mainboard. So once you land a Leyline you're half way to making your opponent unable to do much of anything. Land a Bridge and you're set
Eldrazi Tron - Honestly, TKS is the only card that makes this match up really difficult. It can rip our Bridges out of our hand, as well as making us get rid of an Abrupt Decay we might have used to get rid of a Chalice of the Void on our next turn. Add to that the fact that it also turns off the win condition that is Endbringer and we've got something I want to have mainboard.
Gift's Stor - Mainboard they kind of awkwardly try to win by attacking with Goblin Electromancer since they can't Grapeshot you.
Dredge - I love turning off Conflagrate. Especially for free, in a match up where I need to land a Bridge ASAP
Titanshift - GG Valakut
There are enough decks in Modern that target you as a player with mainboard cards were Leyline of Sanctity I think just need to be a 4 of in the deck going forward. When the metagame changes it can be up for debate whether Leyline should be moved back to the side, but as Modern is right now, I feel the Leylines should 100% be mainboard as a full playset.
Modern Decks:
UBG Lantern Control GBU
BRG Bridge-Vine GRB
Commander Decks
UBG Muldrotha, Value Elemental GBU
BRG Windgrace Real-Estate Ltd. GRB
#PayThePros
Went 2-2 friday. Didn't end up firing at my home shop so I went down to where I normally play. Beat white weenies and Drazi taxes, lost to Naya Burn and Kiki-chord.
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)
I blame the algorithms on the website the mods use to determine what is Tier 1/2 etc.
We literally JUST had 2 decks in the Top 32 of 2 separate Modern GPs, with one of them being 3rd place
Modern Decks:
UBG Lantern Control GBU
BRG Bridge-Vine GRB
Commander Decks
UBG Muldrotha, Value Elemental GBU
BRG Windgrace Real-Estate Ltd. GRB
#PayThePros
Discard is key, in particular Collective Brutality is your #1 best friend. If you can -2/-2 a Druid or Vizier and duress away a Chord or Company on T2 (on the draw) or T3 (on the play), then you're going to have a much, much easier time because you'll have seriously impeded their combo, which should give you time to get a lock in. Here are some general tips that I've found works very well:
-If you use a Collective Brutality or Thoughtseize and see both Company and chord in hand, take the Company. Company can randomly win the game, but ultimately Chord is more dangerous to you. However, Inquisition of Kozilek can't hit Company, so to hedge your bets I feel like prioritizing Company is better, just on the off-chance that you topdeck an Inquisition.
-Try to hold off on using Collective Brutality until they've played a combo piece if you can, but don't let them get to 4 mana without you using brutality if it's your only discard. T3 is really the sweet spot for the card. The 2-for-1 is stupidly powerful against their openers, but if they get to 4 mana without a combo piece in play then you know they're definitely going to play Company, so you have to beat them to it.
After the discard, Pithing Needle goes a long way, but it's going to be shaky after sideboarding, because they will have a lot of hate. The first target you want to name is Druid. DO NOT name Ballista. I cannot stress that enough. If you name Ballista, you are just asking to die at the hands of either a Rhonas pumping up a zero-power creature, or something spicy that you wouldn't expect, such as Murderous Redcap. In my list, I run a single Bloodrite Invoker in place of a second Ballista, because I like making people read the jank that kills them. But these are all non-issues, because if Needle is going to stop a combo, then cutting off the mana is the way to get the most mileage out of Needle. The second Needle in theory should go toward Viscera Seer, assuming your opponent is playing G/W/B.
If you're running Lost Legacy, then Vizier should always be your target if there isn't already one in play and you don't have removal. Likewise, if you have the option early to hit *anything* with discard + Surgical Extraction, then Vizier is your #1 priority target, because the loss of the card will eliminate the unlimited mana combos, which will be surprisingly resilient once they get the mana, and it will also hamstring any backup combos involving persist, as most decks will run only 1 or less Anafenza as a backup. Do not be fooled into thinking that Ballista is their wincon; it is merely a means to an end. The wincon is unlimited green mana.
And I'm sure it's obvious, but if you're playing Grafdigger's Cage in your sideboard, then you'll be elated to see it, because it shuts off everything except the infinite mana combo, including all their tutors to find the combo. And I can assure you, the earlier you can land a Cage, the more devastating it is. Dropping a Cage on turn 1 is painfully difficult for them to break out of if they don't naturally have the combo in hand, because the deck truly does rely on its tutors.
MODERN – LANTERN (aka Fateseal or Barbershop)
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Each eye sees a different possibility for tomorrow.
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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.
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"I don't want to believe, I want to know."
-Carl Sagan
There's a ton of Grixis Shadow in my meta. It feels like about 15-18% meta share (grindy, stressful games that all take 50 mins... ugh). I've been about 50-50 against the deck with Lantern. In those matches, I've found Noxious Revival to be an absolute all-star, in that it almost totally invalidates their early discard, grants a little protection if they kill an early Bridge, and most importantly: saves your stuff from being Surgical'd away after sideboarding. Making sure to keep Lanterns and Bridges away from the graveyard until you've got them solidly locked is crucial. Additionally, I've found that the best target for our own Surgicals is Snapcaster.
Generally speaking, most of the Grixis lists run 2 Kommands maindeck and 1 Explosives out of the sideboard. That's not a lot to have to deal with once Snapcaster is out of the equation. So try to Extract him first. It will also take away the pressure of Bolt-Snap-Bolt, although most lists I see only run 2 Bolts lately.
MODERN – LANTERN (aka Fateseal or Barbershop)
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Each eye sees a different possibility for tomorrow.
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Have you tried mainboarding 4 Leyline of Sanctity?
Modern Decks:
UBG Lantern Control GBU
BRG Bridge-Vine GRB
Commander Decks
UBG Muldrotha, Value Elemental GBU
BRG Windgrace Real-Estate Ltd. GRB
#PayThePros
Duskwatch Recruiter
Devoted Druid
Viscera Seer
Walking Ballista
Qasali Pridemage/Caustic Caterpillar
Again, this is just a general guideline and you have to adapt in the situation.
Game 1 is easy. If you have an extra Needle then you can name Qasali Pridemage as there are some lists that plays them as once off mainboard.
G2 is where you will be tested. Discard helps a lot. Be aware of sideboard cards: Kataki, Qasali Pridemage, Spellskite, Abrupt Decay. Be wary of lists with Renegade Rallier as they seem to be more resilient.
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 Decks:
UBG Lantern Control GBU
BRG Bridge-Vine GRB
Commander Decks
UBG Muldrotha, Value Elemental GBU
BRG Windgrace Real-Estate Ltd. GRB
#PayThePros
I found this MTGS post talking about how Leylines work. Using the math from that post, let's assume you're mulliganing for a Leyline. Here are the chances you will see at least one Leyline if you mulligan down (using the numbers from the post):
Opening 7: 1 - 60.06% = 39.94%
Mull to 6: 1 - (60.06% x 64.38%) = 1 - 38.67% = 61.33%
Mull to 5: 1 - (38.67% x 69.94%) = 1 - 27.04% = 72.96%
Mull to 4: 1 - (27.04% x 75.32%) = 1 - 20.37% = 79.63%
Mull to 3: 1 - (20.37% x 81.01%) = 1 - 16.50% = 83.50%
Mull to 2: 1 - (16.50% x 16.50%) = 1 - 14.36% = 85.64%
Mull to 1: 1 - (14.36% x 14.36%) = 1 - 13.40% = 86.60%
I mean, having a 73% chance to open any one card is pretty nice, but now you're mulling down to five. It seems like a mull to six is the sweet spot here, by still giving you a 60% chance of opening it, but you're essentially gambling; you are burning a card from your hand for a ~20% increase of your chances of turning a card into a Leyline. I just really don't like how that works, especially considering how Leylines are a liability later in the game.
Again, maybe they're powerful enough to be worth it 60% of the time, but I just don't like the concept behind them. I play Lantern because I don't want variance to screw me over. Playing with Leylines just seems like praying to Lady Luck to give me a good card, and she always gives me snakes when I ask for bread, so I've learned to not rely on her at all and work with what I've got.
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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I went to a weekly last night and actively considered when a Leyline would be better than whatever I had in my hand at the time. And my honest answer to myself was, "A lot." I feel like I have all this mainboard and sideboard space just begging to be filled, and maybe Leylines would do the trick.
I know I'll only have a free one maybe half of the time, but maybe I'm wrong and it is actually worth it. I would rather be wrong and win games than be "right" and lose games.
I have another weekly at another LGS tonight. I'll consider this again tonight, and if I realize that I'm really missing out, I will buy a playset of Leylines for the 1K I'm going to on Saturday.
(Omg Leylines are $25-30 each? I wish I had kept mine. Now I will need to trade my Baubles for them.)
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
This is all also true for ensnaring bridge (other than stirrings) and it's the entire lynchpin to the deck.
I ordinarily agree with you on white leyline and I've avoided in other decks (amulet, scapeshift, etc) but it is a necessity in lantern since it's still good late game.
Many times grixis and other snapcaster decks try to rely on bolt snap bolt to end the game, leyline functionally shuts that off. I recently had a really fun game vs grixis control, it was a brutal build sporting 4 cryptics, 3 k comm, and even a basic mountain. He won one of the games with cryptic bounce leyline, ancestral vision comes off suspend and targets me to get under bridge. I generally feel very favored vs grixis but as with most lantern matchups, the more experienced pilot tends to prevail.