Additionally I could see a more natural adjustment of my existing list. Thought seize has been great for me, especially post board with everyone's artifact haymakers. Bridge has been great as well, but with urza you need it less.
Ive also found tolaria west and blast zone to be very good together. Blast zone has done a ton for me. Killing stony/leyline, killing humans, I've killed 4 planeswalkers with a single blast zone on 3 when I only had 2 colors for an ee. Not being counterable vs uw is great too.
So I've been thinking about post horizons decklists with thopter sword. Curious on everyone's take on this. Obvious game plan A is urza+thopter combo. Game plan B is urza + Sai or urza + paradoxical outcome. The whirs are weaker in this deck. I like astrolobe with Sai, whir, foundry and urza. It's significantly better than star. I like the cheap gy hate in the meta too.
Karn is a problem, and I think he best answer is thought seize not needle. Maybe even metallic rebukes.
Also, I like the idea of dead of winter in the board and probably a bridge.
The best part is if it works as a deck I can name is "Brown Snow"!
So I've been working on a newer brew similar to thopter sword roots. It's been interesting for sure. Currently I'm 15/1/3 in the past 2 fnms and 2 Saturday 1k in different metagames.
I've been making small changes, but the list has been great. My only loss was my own clear mistakes not the deck.
@thenobodys what's the rest of your Narset shell look like? I keep going back and forth between chalice, ramp, and discard/Nihil Spellbomb as the flex spots around normal thopter/whir/bridge/bullets pieces.
I really like Narset, but I'm a bit worried about getting to 0 cards, and I'm not sure having a bottled cloister is needed with enough card advantage on 4 Narset.
I haven't posted in a while because I was having success playing my lantern/thopter hybrid. The past few weeks however, I've played against many shatterstorms, cataclysmic gearhulk, and hurkyls recalls. My meta has also evolved to many surgical in the main, making self milling poor.
I've decided to brew a bit and think outside the box. I've actually been very impressed with Narset. I toyed with Teferi's Puzzle box, but it didn't lock out as many decks as I thought it might. I've also had a glimmervoid Manabase and cheap boardstall artifacts make it impossible to come back from an artifact wrath.
I tried 4 color whir for a bit and it felt too top deck dependant to me. You could never beat an opponent who was prepared with 2 hate cards in their sideboard, burn and uw weren't the easiest matchups, and there were many cards that just felt like air a majority of the time.
My newest brew is a bit strange, but my goal is to play more proactive prison based walkers that provide card advantage, still have the thopter combo for burn and uw control, and accelerate proactively my game plan quickly versus always playing full lock prison games. I also really wanted to be able to turn 2 Narset or turn 3 Karn. I've found mox opal struggles with this and the mindstones/talismans don't help with turn 2 Narset. I've also really liked the idea of ancient stirrings and Karn.
I haven't done any actual testing with this list, but I intend to try it later this week. I'm curious of some thoughtful criticism that's willing to think outside of the box from stock lists.
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Ancient Stirrings
3 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Grafdigger's cage
1 Engineered Explosives
4 Mishra's bauble
3 mox opal
3 Narset, Parter of veils
3 ensnaring bridge
1 Sorcerous Spyglass
1 Pithing Needle
3 Thopter Foundry
2 Sword of the Meek
1 Damping Sphere
4 Whir of Invention
3 Karn, Great Creator
So I haven't posted in a bit since my deck is very similar to lantern now. However, in my eyes it's a pretty strong hybrid. Lantern pieces help shore up the weaknesses against sideboard cards actually. People in my meta have moved beyond minor artifact hate like K-command and Abrade and play legitimate artifact hate like By Force/Shatterstorm/Spree/Kataki. Many games with normal UBG Tezz I'd get stuck not being able to beat them drawing a shatterstorm or a shattering spree etc.
In matchups where lantern pieces are bad (Coco/elves/Grixis Death Shadow/Jund) you get to play like UBg Tezz and grind.
Having 6 mill rocks I constantly mill myself and each time is +1 draw towards a sword of the meek basically.
Thopter Sword beats all of the fringe things Lantern has trouble with (Noble hierarch, Thalia, Burn,Jund, Blue control decks, winning in time).
By running rainbow lands you get access to way sweeter sideboard cards like Grid/Leyline.
All of this being said. I've played in 3 FNMs, a $1K and 2 $2Ks in the past ~30 days and I've lost 1 match in total. That puts me around 25-1 in paper recently. That one loss match included me mulliganing to a non-functional 3 lantern 5 card hand versus a very strong humans draw. I will say in game 3 I found a sweet line. I played a foundry, he meddling maged thopter sword (because he free bootered my whir) and I thoughtseized my own sword to start making thopters. He off the top drew a way to kill foundry and quick aggression before my 6 looks could find a bridge.
I've played against basically everything, including beating green tron multiple times (looking forward to the matchup getting much easier).
Something different to consider. It is easily the hardest deck I've ever played though.
I also like the UR bridge deck, but it seems very weak to a top decked true artifact hate spell.
Also, Padeem has been nuts. I fully support playing 2.
What are thoughts of padeem versus spellskite. I like padeem as a KO versus death shadow/jund/ancient grudge decks a lot. So much so I intend to play 2 in the board after every time resolving 1 immediately won the game.
However, adding 4 drops in a land light deck does concern me. I've seen people say spellskite, but it's significantly worse versus Jund and grudge decks in general. You get some upside versus affinity, burn and boggles, but I feel those are already good matchups.
Im still running my thopter lantern hybrid to great success. Too often I feel normal lantern is too fragile and 1 dimensional while recent tezz brews are too clunky at getting a bridge to 0 and beating things like shatter storm/shatter spree/grudge.
with all the recent success others have been having i think it might be time to dust off our chalices and put them in the main in favour of our 1 CMC slot. between chalice, bridge, orb, crucible, and now sphere it would be super hard for anyone to try and not be locked out against us, especially if we have a welding jar as backup. thoptersword could just be a late game thing against non stony decks and otherwise i think there are now enough artifacts with no activated ability that we can just win with tezz ult.
i've noticed as well we're the only whir deck playing non-opal ramp (i.e. prism, talismans). are we over exaggerating their use? sure they allow super broken whirs but they're bad top decks and end up being sacced to a foundry in my experience to try and stay alive. i'd much rather have the 3rd bridge and some more lock pieces/better artifacts. after all any artifact we play will tap for at least 1 mana but things like sphere and chalice also help slow our opponents down to a much more manageable pace. lantern is a deck that plays less lands than us but still rocks the full playset of whir, if they can manage is i dont see why we can't also.
Prism was pretty terrible against the grindy decks. I'm happy to not run it anymore. Also, the lantern decks can run fewer lands because normally the lantern pieces control your own draw first to make sure you hit the right amount of lands. It's way more consistent than having cantrips and hate pieces.
I've been testing a bit with my version of Lantern/Thopters hyrbid versus Jace Jeskai control to get a feel for the new format. I 7-0d post board and pre-board. Opponent resolved 2 ancestral visions, and had active Jace in play for 10 turns cryptic commanding 5 times and I still won by search for Azcanta and thopter combo.
The Jace decks from what I'm seeing are WAY better than the BBE decks. I don't run any Jace's of my own because pithing needle on jace is critical. I don't think Jace is better than Tezz or even better than search in our deck.
Due to the uptick of jund and ancient grudge in sideboards I am definitely sideboarding a Padeem. Padeem is incredibly strong and I could see a world running 2. I still don't like jar maindeck, but we'll see. The lantern half is getting worse, but it is still very powerful in controlling your own draws. The biggest reason I like the lantern package is to self mill aggressively and improve your overall card quality.
I've also went down to 3 moxen versus 4 because you never want 2, and I wanted to make room for another impactful card in Search for Azcanta.
Molz7- Thank you. I have also been curious of playing a single Krark-clan ironworks in the MB instead of spyglass. This would allow an infinite thopter combo as early as T4 if you can get the thopter/sword in play. Have you tried this?
I definitely enjoyed a way to infinite the game like time sieve/KCI in the thopter only deck, but now lantern is your way to lockup the game against decks you'd want to go infinite. Another 4 drop would hurt the ability to get below bridge too much I think as well.
I likely don't want KCI or time sieve unless I run 4 thopter 3 sword.
You have 2 main win conditions: milling and thopters. So you can ignore leyline of sanctity/emrakul/rest in peace and still win consistently. You don't really need a sideboard for those hate cards but you normally need to sideboard in reaction to opposing sideboards so understanding common lists is important.
Be careful not to overboard and be respectful of your curve and artifact density.
Bring in surgical versus decks with snapcaster and artifact destruction, tron (hope to mill a land early), combo decks.
Decay and Maelstrom pulse are good versus stony silence decks. Decay is better versus affinity/jeskai where you have very specific targets to kill quickly and uncountable matters. I don't really want removal for random creature decks post board, but sometimes burn has eidelon/harsh mentor and coco has kataki that you need to answer, decay is fine here.
Welding jar - anyone who has artifact destruction in the board. Affinity/jund/Death shadow.
Leyline for burn/valakut/lantern
Aether grid for coco/affinity/Eldrazi and taxes.
Tezz for slower grindy decks. Not jeskai or coco.
Search kinda comes in whenever versus grindy decks.
Needle is for tron/mirror/pride mage decks
For sideboarding you trim the thopter combo versus tron/storm or decks where you don't need a grindy clock and tezz is just better.
Trim the lantern combo against decks that control the top of their deck very well (GDS or living end). Focus on your own draws in these matchups.
Trimming bauble/mox in slower matchups.
Cut bullets obviously when they're bad. Don't leave in needle because they have things to name, just leave in needle if you need to stop the things they have (pridemage/Jace/karn/balista)
One key in general is always blind mill yourself to sometimes hit a sword unless you can mess up their scry.
@Molz7 - Have you played against GDS with this list yet?
If so, what was your strategy?
I have, but I do feel like this matchup got harder with my change. The lantern half isn't very good against them and I side much of it out. I also really miss chalice on 1 from the sideboard versus them. Less KOs.
Plan is to side out likely 3 lantern, 2 bell, and needle/spyglass for 2 decay, 1 pulse, 2 tezz, 2 jar. I could also see cutting a mox and a bauble for 2 surgical too. It's not insanely good, but exiling commands really helps a bridge stick.
Keep 7 card hands even if they're slow. Can't afford to mulligan much versus them in my opinion.
I have been off modern play for a while (on an Old School 93/94 streak actually where, funnily enough, I ended up brewing and playing... Esper Transmute Artifacts haha, which my friends dub «basically Old School Tezzerator») and been looking to come back to modern, but also wondering if it'd be on Lantern or Tezzerator. I like your list, it just might be it ; do both! ha.
Specifics: can you tell us more about your SB choices? Why the 2x Grid, 2x Tezz split? And how essential is the Search for Azcanta / for what matchups? Any tales to tell? Also, how long have you been rocking this shell? Lastly, why opt out on the Pyxis of Pandemonium (or not run at least one)? -- It's our only hard answer to Ancient Grudge or Emrakul if we go for the mill kill.
I'm thinking that with big mana decks making a comeback lately, I would expect some more targeted discard (+2 IoK / Duress ; -1x Thopter Sword) and a third Tezz in the SB to perform well. What do you think?
@radouf Thanks! I've only been playing this version for a few weeks. Messing around some on mtgo (had a 5/0 and a 4/1 competitive league) 4/0 an fnm, 8/0 that last tournament and 3/1 last fnm. Small sample size but has been performing well.
2 grid is a Meta call where many people play coco decks/taxes decks/ faeries etc in the local scene.
Search handily won me multiple games and so did tezz. I wouldn't have wanted either main board, but having 2 Mana threats is very strong versus the counterspell decks. Tezz is a bit slow versus blue decks (another large part of our Meta).
Tron is always a problem. I tried 2 crumble over surgical last week and I beat tron with that and tezz, but it didn't feel consistent. My opponents first threat was ugin, so I crumbled then pulsed the ugin and killed him with a tezz. Because I'm running 2 bells I'm trying to lucksack with surgical as it has more cross application.
Im currently on 2 bells because most of the time with a Miller I just self mill aggressively and try to hit a sword. If you do it turns a whir or foundry into a 1 card combo. I ran pyxis before and it's definitely good versus grudge, but having the ability to exile a grudge came up once in ~25 matches while self milling sword almost always comes up
2 swords let's you hit it more often from self mill as well and not worry about a relic or spellbomb.
Im not a big fan of having multiple discard spells per game. Our deck invalidates so many cards that spending all of your resources discarding there's is worse than just getting a fast bridge or thopter combo. Thought seize is a way to clear the way in blue matchups of cryptic and keep unfair/big mana decks in check.
I only milled out 2 people actually. Normally just kill them with thopters or concession. Versus the decks with emrakul (blue moon) thopter sword is very good and so is tezz.
Happy to answer more questions. I've been having a blast with this list.
This confirms that we're on to something with the hybrid version.
I'm glad you decided for the stirrings. I too find them crucial to keep certain hands that would otherwise be unkeepable.
I am curious, how did you beat living end? I find them to be a difficult match since they can be so fast.
They are able to EOT living end and just kill you with enough damage on T4.
Did you always have a timely bridge?
Versus living end you normally win game 1 because they have trouble beating a bridge without a beast within. You can needle cyclers to make them have dead cards (board these out though because they're bad)
I mulligan pretty aggressively to find a quick bridge because without it you won't win. Surgical/thopter combo do a lot of work, but you need a bridge and welding jar to have a chance. Thought seizes slow them down a ton as well as they only really have ~8 combo spells. Lantern pieces help make it complicated for them, but too many cyclers make it inconsistent to stop their draws, I more focus on my own.
Ive also found tolaria west and blast zone to be very good together. Blast zone has done a ton for me. Killing stony/leyline, killing humans, I've killed 4 planeswalkers with a single blast zone on 3 when I only had 2 colors for an ee. Not being counterable vs uw is great too.
4 mox opal
1 Welding Jar
1 Tormod's crypt
1 Engineered Explosives
3 Nihil spellbomb
1 Pithing Needle
1 Grafdigger's cage
4 arcum's astrolobe
3 thought seize
4 Thopter foundry
3 sword of the Meek
4 whir of invention
4 urza, high lord artificer
2 ensnaring Bridge
3 Misty rainforest
4 polluted delta
3 Prismatic Vista
4 snow-covered islands
1 snow-covered swamp
1 Watery Grave
1 Darkslick shores
2 tolaria west
1 Blast zone
3 dead of winter
Karn is a problem, and I think he best answer is thought seize not needle. Maybe even metallic rebukes.
Also, I like the idea of dead of winter in the board and probably a bridge.
The best part is if it works as a deck I can name is "Brown Snow"!
4 mox opal
1 Welding Jar
1 Tormod's crypt
3 Nihil spellbomb
1 Grafdigger's cage
4 arcum's astrolobe
2 everflowing chalice
4 Thopter foundry
3 sword of the Meek
4 whir of invention
3 Sai master thopterist
4 urza, high lord artificer
2 paradoxical outcome
3 Misty rainforest
4 polluted delta
3 Prismatic Vista
5 snow-covered islands
1 snow-covered swamp
1 Watery Grave
3 Darkslick shores
3 dead of winter
4 thought seize
I've been making small changes, but the list has been great. My only loss was my own clear mistakes not the deck.
4 Mishra's bauble
2 nihil spellbomb
1 Grafdigger's cage
1 tormods crypt
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Damping Sphere
1 Welding Jar
1 Sorcerous Spyglass
1 Pithing Needle
3 ensnaring bridge
4 Thopter foundry
3 sword of the meek
4 Whir of Invention
3 Thoughtseize
4 Narset, Parter of Veils
1 Teferi's Puzzlebox
2 River of Tears
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Watery Grave
3 Island
1 Geier Reach Sanitarium
1 Academy Ruins
1 Blast Zone
3 Tolaria West
3 Tezzeret agent of bolas
3 Spellskite
3 Unmoored Ego
2 Welding Jar
2 Battle at the Bridge
1 Sorcerous Spyglass
1 Thoughtseize
Blast zone won me 5 games today. Killing needles, leylines, planeswalkers, stoney silence etc.
Narset has been really powerful in a lot of matchups too!
I really like Narset, but I'm a bit worried about getting to 0 cards, and I'm not sure having a bottled cloister is needed with enough card advantage on 4 Narset.
I've decided to brew a bit and think outside the box. I've actually been very impressed with Narset. I toyed with Teferi's Puzzle box, but it didn't lock out as many decks as I thought it might. I've also had a glimmervoid Manabase and cheap boardstall artifacts make it impossible to come back from an artifact wrath.
I tried 4 color whir for a bit and it felt too top deck dependant to me. You could never beat an opponent who was prepared with 2 hate cards in their sideboard, burn and uw weren't the easiest matchups, and there were many cards that just felt like air a majority of the time.
My newest brew is a bit strange, but my goal is to play more proactive prison based walkers that provide card advantage, still have the thopter combo for burn and uw control, and accelerate proactively my game plan quickly versus always playing full lock prison games. I also really wanted to be able to turn 2 Narset or turn 3 Karn. I've found mox opal struggles with this and the mindstones/talismans don't help with turn 2 Narset. I've also really liked the idea of ancient stirrings and Karn.
I haven't done any actual testing with this list, but I intend to try it later this week. I'm curious of some thoughtful criticism that's willing to think outside of the box from stock lists.
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Ancient Stirrings
3 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Grafdigger's cage
1 Engineered Explosives
4 Mishra's bauble
3 mox opal
3 Narset, Parter of veils
3 ensnaring bridge
1 Sorcerous Spyglass
1 Pithing Needle
3 Thopter Foundry
2 Sword of the Meek
1 Damping Sphere
4 Whir of Invention
3 Karn, Great Creator
4 Misty
3 Delta
2 Breeding Pool
2 Watery Grave
2 Island
4 Botanical Sanctum
1 Darkslick Shores
1 Geier Reach Sanitarium
Sb:
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Sorcerous Spyglass
1 Spellskite
1 Welding Jar
1 Tormod's crypt
1 Liquid metal coating?
1 Micosynth lattice
4 Unmoored Ego
+ 3 slots
This version is a blast and every game is enjoyable on both sides of the table.
It's miserable to play online though, so I'll stick to paper testing.
4 Glimmervoid
4 Darkslick Shores
3 Botanical Sanctum
2 Island
1 Academy Ruins
3 Mox Opal
4 Mishra's Bauble
1 Pithing Needle
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Sorcerous Spyglass
1 Witchbane Orb
4 Codex Shredder
2 Ghoulcaller's bell
4 Lantern of Insight
3 Thopter Foundry
2 Sword of the Meek
4 Ensnaring Bridge
4 Whir of Invention
4 Thoughtseize
2 Padeem
2 Tezz
2 Ghirapur Aethergrid
2 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Search for Azcanta
2 Welding Jar
1 Pithing Needle
So I haven't posted in a bit since my deck is very similar to lantern now. However, in my eyes it's a pretty strong hybrid. Lantern pieces help shore up the weaknesses against sideboard cards actually. People in my meta have moved beyond minor artifact hate like K-command and Abrade and play legitimate artifact hate like By Force/Shatterstorm/Spree/Kataki. Many games with normal UBG Tezz I'd get stuck not being able to beat them drawing a shatterstorm or a shattering spree etc.
In matchups where lantern pieces are bad (Coco/elves/Grixis Death Shadow/Jund) you get to play like UBg Tezz and grind.
Having 6 mill rocks I constantly mill myself and each time is +1 draw towards a sword of the meek basically.
Thopter Sword beats all of the fringe things Lantern has trouble with (Noble hierarch, Thalia, Burn,Jund, Blue control decks, winning in time).
By running rainbow lands you get access to way sweeter sideboard cards like Grid/Leyline.
All of this being said. I've played in 3 FNMs, a $1K and 2 $2Ks in the past ~30 days and I've lost 1 match in total. That puts me around 25-1 in paper recently. That one loss match included me mulliganing to a non-functional 3 lantern 5 card hand versus a very strong humans draw. I will say in game 3 I found a sweet line. I played a foundry, he meddling maged thopter sword (because he free bootered my whir) and I thoughtseized my own sword to start making thopters. He off the top drew a way to kill foundry and quick aggression before my 6 looks could find a bridge.
I've played against basically everything, including beating green tron multiple times (looking forward to the matchup getting much easier).
Something different to consider. It is easily the hardest deck I've ever played though.
I also like the UR bridge deck, but it seems very weak to a top decked true artifact hate spell.
Also, Padeem has been nuts. I fully support playing 2.
However, adding 4 drops in a land light deck does concern me. I've seen people say spellskite, but it's significantly worse versus Jund and grudge decks in general. You get some upside versus affinity, burn and boggles, but I feel those are already good matchups.
Im still running my thopter lantern hybrid to great success. Too often I feel normal lantern is too fragile and 1 dimensional while recent tezz brews are too clunky at getting a bridge to 0 and beating things like shatter storm/shatter spree/grudge.
Prism was pretty terrible against the grindy decks. I'm happy to not run it anymore. Also, the lantern decks can run fewer lands because normally the lantern pieces control your own draw first to make sure you hit the right amount of lands. It's way more consistent than having cantrips and hate pieces.
The Jace decks from what I'm seeing are WAY better than the BBE decks. I don't run any Jace's of my own because pithing needle on jace is critical. I don't think Jace is better than Tezz or even better than search in our deck.
Due to the uptick of jund and ancient grudge in sideboards I am definitely sideboarding a Padeem. Padeem is incredibly strong and I could see a world running 2. I still don't like jar maindeck, but we'll see. The lantern half is getting worse, but it is still very powerful in controlling your own draws. The biggest reason I like the lantern package is to self mill aggressively and improve your overall card quality.
I've also went down to 3 moxen versus 4 because you never want 2, and I wanted to make room for another impactful card in Search for Azcanta.
4 Glimmervoid
4 Darkslick Shores
3 Botanical Sanctum
2 Island
1 Academy Ruins
3 Mox Opal
4 Mishra's Bauble
1 Pithing Needle
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Sorcerous Spyglass
1 Witchbane Orb
4 Codex Shredder
2 Ghoulcaller's bell
4 Lantern of Insight
3 Thopter Foundry
2 Sword of the Meek
3 Ensnaring Bridge
4 Whir of Invention
1 Search for Azcanta
4 Thoughtseize
1 Padeem
2 Tezz
2 Ghirapur Aethergrid
2 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Surgical Extraction
2 Welding Jar
1 Search for Azcanta
1 Pithing Needle
I definitely enjoyed a way to infinite the game like time sieve/KCI in the thopter only deck, but now lantern is your way to lockup the game against decks you'd want to go infinite. Another 4 drop would hurt the ability to get below bridge too much I think as well.
I likely don't want KCI or time sieve unless I run 4 thopter 3 sword.
I didn't know when the lantern half would be good or bad, so a lot of my initial thoughts came from this article and part 1: http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?ID=14367&writer=Brian Braun-Duin&articledate=12-29-2017
You have 2 main win conditions: milling and thopters. So you can ignore leyline of sanctity/emrakul/rest in peace and still win consistently. You don't really need a sideboard for those hate cards but you normally need to sideboard in reaction to opposing sideboards so understanding common lists is important.
Be careful not to overboard and be respectful of your curve and artifact density.
Bring in surgical versus decks with snapcaster and artifact destruction, tron (hope to mill a land early), combo decks.
Decay and Maelstrom pulse are good versus stony silence decks. Decay is better versus affinity/jeskai where you have very specific targets to kill quickly and uncountable matters. I don't really want removal for random creature decks post board, but sometimes burn has eidelon/harsh mentor and coco has kataki that you need to answer, decay is fine here.
Welding jar - anyone who has artifact destruction in the board. Affinity/jund/Death shadow.
Leyline for burn/valakut/lantern
Aether grid for coco/affinity/Eldrazi and taxes.
Tezz for slower grindy decks. Not jeskai or coco.
Search kinda comes in whenever versus grindy decks.
Needle is for tron/mirror/pride mage decks
For sideboarding you trim the thopter combo versus tron/storm or decks where you don't need a grindy clock and tezz is just better.
Trim the lantern combo against decks that control the top of their deck very well (GDS or living end). Focus on your own draws in these matchups.
Trimming bauble/mox in slower matchups.
Cut bullets obviously when they're bad. Don't leave in needle because they have things to name, just leave in needle if you need to stop the things they have (pridemage/Jace/karn/balista)
One key in general is always blind mill yourself to sometimes hit a sword unless you can mess up their scry.
Hope that helps some!
I have, but I do feel like this matchup got harder with my change. The lantern half isn't very good against them and I side much of it out. I also really miss chalice on 1 from the sideboard versus them. Less KOs.
Plan is to side out likely 3 lantern, 2 bell, and needle/spyglass for 2 decay, 1 pulse, 2 tezz, 2 jar. I could also see cutting a mox and a bauble for 2 surgical too. It's not insanely good, but exiling commands really helps a bridge stick.
Keep 7 card hands even if they're slow. Can't afford to mulligan much versus them in my opinion.
@radouf Thanks! I've only been playing this version for a few weeks. Messing around some on mtgo (had a 5/0 and a 4/1 competitive league) 4/0 an fnm, 8/0 that last tournament and 3/1 last fnm. Small sample size but has been performing well.
2 grid is a Meta call where many people play coco decks/taxes decks/ faeries etc in the local scene.
Search handily won me multiple games and so did tezz. I wouldn't have wanted either main board, but having 2 Mana threats is very strong versus the counterspell decks. Tezz is a bit slow versus blue decks (another large part of our Meta).
Tron is always a problem. I tried 2 crumble over surgical last week and I beat tron with that and tezz, but it didn't feel consistent. My opponents first threat was ugin, so I crumbled then pulsed the ugin and killed him with a tezz. Because I'm running 2 bells I'm trying to lucksack with surgical as it has more cross application.
Im currently on 2 bells because most of the time with a Miller I just self mill aggressively and try to hit a sword. If you do it turns a whir or foundry into a 1 card combo. I ran pyxis before and it's definitely good versus grudge, but having the ability to exile a grudge came up once in ~25 matches while self milling sword almost always comes up
2 swords let's you hit it more often from self mill as well and not worry about a relic or spellbomb.
Im not a big fan of having multiple discard spells per game. Our deck invalidates so many cards that spending all of your resources discarding there's is worse than just getting a fast bridge or thopter combo. Thought seize is a way to clear the way in blue matchups of cryptic and keep unfair/big mana decks in check.
I only milled out 2 people actually. Normally just kill them with thopters or concession. Versus the decks with emrakul (blue moon) thopter sword is very good and so is tezz.
Happy to answer more questions. I've been having a blast with this list.
Versus living end you normally win game 1 because they have trouble beating a bridge without a beast within. You can needle cyclers to make them have dead cards (board these out though because they're bad)
I mulligan pretty aggressively to find a quick bridge because without it you won't win. Surgical/thopter combo do a lot of work, but you need a bridge and welding jar to have a chance. Thought seizes slow them down a ton as well as they only really have ~8 combo spells. Lantern pieces help make it complicated for them, but too many cyclers make it inconsistent to stop their draws, I more focus on my own.