MTG Salvation

How did everyone's FNMs go? I played at my old home shop and this is the first time they've ever fired modern. I won 4-0, only game drop was game 1 to Goblins in the finals.

Round 1: Slivers 2-0. I didn't really wasn't his win. Kid was like 8 and had no idea what he was looking at with my deck. Easy 2-0. In: 1x mechanized production, 1x magus of the tabernacle. Out: 2x pithing needle

Round 2: Mono-red burn 2-0. Game 1 was close but I stabilized at 3 with an empty hand, dropped a bridge and just kept him off burn spells. Game 2 he scooped to turn 0 leyline. In: 3x leyline, 2x Padeem. Out: 3x Needle, 2x surgical

Round 3: Aetherflux Reservoir 2-0. Basically the standard deck and he upgraded the mana base. We already knew what the other was on. Turn 1 needle on reservoir then early bridge game 1 prompts the concession. Game 2 he has plenty of counters but I'm able to bait enough with meaningless things that I resolve leyline and bridge. He scoops quickly when my top card shows Production. In: 3x leyline, 1x mechanized production, 1x Gaddock teeg. Out: 3x surgical, 1x aether grid, 1x collective brutality.

Round 4: Goblins 2-1. Kept a super bad 7 game 1, and paid for it. Game 2 was close but turn 0 leyline was a huge help. Got caught with a leyline in hand one turn and took massive damage but miracles the Glimmervoid the next turn to slam it and get my hand empty again. Game 3 showed turn 0 leyline again, turn 2 bridge, and a mox Opal on board so I didn't care about his blood moon. Scooped in response to surgical on Smash to Smithereens. In: 3x leyline, 1x magus of the tabernacle, 1x Golgari charm. Out: 3x needle, 2x surgical,

All in all a good night. My second FNM win with lantern and my pack pulls were above average.

I'm playing a 3.5k Open today. As the day progresses I will edit this post with my Round results if there is time so that I can give you guys a better tournament report.

Round 1 - VS GW Tron
Lost 0-2
Honestly the round wasn't that close. Game 1 he gets natural Tron on Turn 3 and casts Karn before I have any real control over the game. He lands an Ulamog on turn 5 and I concede. As I said before Tron is a coin flip on who gets the better draws and he definitely got the better one here.

Game 2 starts out pretty good. I thoughtseize a World Breaker to stall for time and Lost Legacy away his Karns. I'm wondering if I should have named Ulamog honestly as I had the game kind of under control for a while bit I got stuck on a single mill rock and he was drawing like Chromatics like no tomorrow. So if he wanted to draw something, he was drawing it. Ended up losing to Ulamog exiling my lands so I couldn't land bring on the next turn.

Hopefully Round 2 goes better.

UPDATE: Round 2 did not go better. Nor did Round 3. I ended up dropping after going 0-3

Round 2 - VS KCI Combo

So this was an interesting match up. Game 1 I get the lock set up but he keeps playing because he has Engineered Explosives as an out. When I exile it with Pyxis he concedes.

Game 2 he goes off on turn 4 and kills me with an Aetuerflux Resevoir. I had to mull down to 6 this game and the hand I kept had lock pieces but no hand disruption which ended up being my downfall.

Game 3 is going well. We're close on time but I'm positive I can do alright. The problem is my opponent has the most random card ever in his sideboard Culling Scales. I at one point had a Seal on top of my deck I could have used to get rid of the scales but I made a mistake and activatrd my Pyxis to exile his Emrakul. It was foil, and thus shiny and I fell for the taunt. He ended up winning the game on turn 5 of turns after the round timer had ended.

Round 3 - VS WB Death & Taxes

Game 1 got me annoyed. 5 minutes into the round I had Surgicalled his Flickerwisps, which are his only way to deal with me having a Bridge in play. But he proceeds to play the game out for another 20 minutes. Some people need to learn when to concede :|

Game 2 I manage to Surgical his Flickerwisps again but I never saw a Bridge so I was overrun by his creatures. I also noticed when I used Surgical that he wasn't running any Stony Silence. Odd.

Game 3 I see no Lantern and I end up losing to not being able to control his draws. Flickerwisps get rid of my Bridges while I'm stuck on 3 mana. Another tournament down the drain

Here's the 75 I've been running with for the last month or so. I've got a lot of Death's Shadow and various flavors of Eldrazi/Tron decks in my meta as the big pains, which is why Crucible is in the main for now. Mechanized Production tries to come in on a Needle to just shut down the big mana decks while I hide behind a Bridge and delay threats as best I can. Does anyone have suggestions on my build to better deal with these decks aside from lots of practice? Thankfully, I have a playtest buddy who has Bant Eldrazi and E-Tron so I get lots of reps against those two decks as my tuning fork of sorts. Thanks in advance.

Went 3-3 drop at my 1k, will provide a write-up and actually interact with all you wonderful people later. Life is really getting in the way.

It's a shame that pesky life thing doesn't get out of the way for us Magic players

Quote from Jial »

LanternMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
Sorcery: 4 Ancient Stirrings 4 Inquisition of Kozilek 3 Collective Brutality 2 Thoughtseize Instant: 2 Surgical Extraction 2 Abrupt Decay Artifact: 4 Lantern of Insight 4 Codex Shredder 4 Ghoulcaller's Bell 1 Pyxis of Pandemonium 4 Ensnaring Bridge 4 Mox Opal 3 Pithing Needle 1 Crucible of Worlds	Land: 4 Glimmervoid 4 Blooming Marsh 2 Academy Ruins 3 Ghost Quarter 2 Inventors' Fair 1 Darkslick Shores 1 Swamp 1 Forest	Sideboard: 3 Leyline of Sanctity 2 Welding Jar 1 Surgical Extraction 1 Abrupt Decay 2 Padeem, Consul of Innovation 1 Mechanized Production 1 Nature's Claim 1 Quiet Disrepair 1 Lost Legacy 1 Grafdigger's Cage 1 Pithing Needle

Here's the 75 I've been running with for the last month or so. I've got a lot of Death's Shadow and various flavors of Eldrazi/Tron decks in my meta as the big pains, which is why Crucible is in the main for now. Mechanized Production tries to come in on a Needle to just shut down the big mana decks while I hide behind a Bridge and delay threats as best I can. Does anyone have suggestions on my build to better deal with these decks aside from lots of practice? Thankfully, I have a playtest buddy who has Bant Eldrazi and E-Tron so I get lots of reps against those two decks as my tuning fork of sorts. Thanks in advance.

Eldrazi Tron is what I normally play so I can offer some help.
Go for the Land base, either GQ a Tron piece or a temple and then use Surgical Extraction - maybe both depending on what's in play.
Karn is the major threat if you have a bridge out, remember that you can cast Pithing Needle even without th card you want to target it play.

Get a bridge out quickly as them deck doesn't have much for artifact removal. All is dust is the usual board wipe and only hits coloured.

What does everyone think of running one Maelstrom Pulse in the mainboard? I just picked one up and haven't gotten a chance to try it.. I feel like it's good if you're not able to set up the lock immediately as you can wipe out multiple death shadow's and whatnot?

Pulse is actually not bad against DS. They don't have really many small creatures so you are able to keep some cards in hand while a Bridge is out and still stop yourself from being attacked. And being able to clear a tasigur ir multiple anglers of shadows seems really good.

With as much grixis shadow running around, been thinking of testing deathmark against it.
Sure it is not a very personal card. But easier to cast then dispatch and kills angler and tasiquer unlike push.

Came 2nd at a small StarCityGames modern event in Sydney. Ran the main deck leyline build that topped recently but with -1 Crucible +1 abrupt decay in the side because I don't own crucible T_T.

Match 1 vs Jund 2-0
game 1 started with leyline and had a lantern into codex, kepy him off maelstrom and found my bridge and he concedes shortly after with a hand of discard
game 2 started with leyline, had a good opening again with lantern, ghoul, stirrings, lands. Kept him off answers, he resolved and ticked up a Liliana but scooped once I had control and he realized he couldn't ulti me.
(out 1 surgical, 1 ghoul, 2 brutality. In 1 Skite, 1 Welding Jar, 1 Spellbomb, 1 abrupt decay)

Match 2 vs BW Eldrazi control??? 2-1
game 1 opened leyline, into lantern, he scooped after I landed bridge
game 2 kept a 6 but sided out leylines???? bridge, lantern, lands, discard, but lost to a pummeling of discard, stony silence and constant land drops
game 3 leyline, this lasted longer kept him off threats for a while but couldn't find an answer to bride and eventually closed it out with back to back rocks.
(out leylines????, in seals and jars. Quickly put the leylines back in game 3 really not sure what I was thinking)

Match 3 vs Burn 2-1
game 1 Oppened 2x Leyline insta scooped after bridge landed
game 2 kept a 5 with no leyline, dealt with creatures but lost to the dmg eventually (maybe should have dug further???)
game 3 leyline, lantern, stirrings into codex, milled myself for bridge and once I milled the 4th answer he scooped them up
(out 2x surgical, in 2x welding jar. Realised after that he was only after the leyline so not sure what I should have brought in)

Match 4 vs Esper Control 0-2
Kept an ok hand of lantern, pyxis, brutality & lands, but got ground out super hard. Miss-played by forgetting he had a gearhulk under pyxis
Kept a reasonable 6 as he went to 6 2x thoughtseize, lantern, land, land, pithing. Long grindy game never found my cages to stop the buybacks, Not sure if I should have went deeper into a 5 card hand.
(out 1 surgical, 1 spire, 1 abrupt decay, 1 ghoul, 1 mox. In 2x graff, 2x AEther (game one went long and figured I need a clock?) 1x Spellbomb)

Came 2nd from tiebreakers won a cool looking Redcap/Karp mat???
Was not to happy with some of my side boarding decisions but 1st modern event this year so im happy. Very pleased with my pace of play having a great deal of time left in between rounds. Love the leylines mained. Looking forward to getting my hands on a crucible soonish. I am going to have to get some reps in for learing to sideboard I think.

I think it has HUGE potential. Definitely worth testing.

Yeah, sorcerous spyglass ups the curve but guarantees a hit and provides info on opponents hand. I don't think I would replace all my needles but maybe 1-2

Sorcerous Spyglass is basically a replacement for any sideboard copies of Pithing Needle. Mainboard it isn't as good as Needle since it costs the extra mana, but as a sideboard card it is better than extra Needles since it gives us information on what is in hand and needs to be named immediately.

How come I don't hear or see much of this deck anymore in competitive modern play? All I see are death's shadow etc.

There are a few reasons why you don't see mich Lantern.

1) It is a hard deck to pilot well. Lantern is one of those few decks in Modern where 1 or 2 mistakes in a game can cost you that game. Getting good enough to not make those mistakes takes practice.

2) It isn't the most fun deck in the world to play against or with. It takes a certain type of player do actually WANT to play Lantern Control.

Quote from Skitzafreak »

There are a few reasons why you don't see mich Lantern.

1) It is a hard deck to pilot well. Lantern is one of those few decks in Modern where 1 or 2 mistakes in a game can cost you that game. Getting good enough to not make those mistakes takes practice.

2) It isn't the most fun deck in the world to play against or with. It takes a certain type of player do actually WANT to play Lantern Control.

LOL @ Reason #2. I thought it wasn't as good anymore. I felt like decks have a lot of artifact hate and ways to get around ensnaring bridge.

Quote from Bluewindz »

LOL @ Reason #2. I thought it wasn't as good anymore. I felt like decks have a lot of artifact hate and ways to get around ensnaring bridge.

So Artifact hate has always been a thing of Modern because of Affinity. This means Lantern control has in same way had to always deal with some amount of splash damage since it's inception. However one of the most popular decks in Modern right now, Grixis Death's Shadow, does run Kolaghan's Command mainboard which can definitely be an annoying wrench in our side.

For a long time a lot of us here on the forums have discussed whether or not Welding Jar deserves a mainboard slot in the deck. Reason being, we bring it in against almost every deck, since basically every deck has artifact hate they bring in from the sideboard. The catch is that most decks don't actually have mainboard artifact hate, making them less useful in the main.

However with how popular Grixis Death's Shadow is now, it my be a topic with discussing and going over again.

One benefit Lantern does get from the current state of Modern is that the two "best" decks are Grixis Death's Shadow and Eldrazi Tron. Both of these decks win the game mainly through punching you in the face repeatedly with very large creatures. This means that against these decks if we land an Ensnaring Bridge we don't even need to empty our hand most of the time to get our desired use out of it.

Honestly I think Lantern's biggest problem as a deck (at least for me) is that in order to do well with it, you need to be able to accurately predict the meta you will be playing the deck in, and adjust certain deck slots and your sideboard in order to beat your predicted meta. I don't know if we mention it a lot, but when playing Lantern, sometimes Game 1 is your most important game in a round and if you lose Game 1 it puts you on a huge uphill climb to win the Round since you now need to win both Games 2 and 3.

If only we have a Boseiju or Cavern of Souls for Artifacts :\

Quote from Skitzafreak »

If only we have a Boseiju or Cavern of Souls for Artifacts :\

This.

The Cavern of Trinkets would definitely be in my sideboard, at least.