The Zugzwang Machine | A History of Lantern Control

this episode is sponsored by Card Kingdom go to  cardkingdom.com studies to pick up your favorite   artifacts of control from ins snaring bridge to  trinisphere to the all-encompassing Mind slaver   there are countless ways in Magic to entrap  unsuspecting opponents I remember being stuck   under a tangle wire Once Upon a Time in Cube  boy that was a trip for all your magic needs   Card Kingdom provides highquality products and  responsive customer service and will ship your   entire order in one package I become a member  of B Bisk the Missi driven Esports organization   founded to inspire scientists through difficult  gameplay the story of lantern control explores how   a simple deck building question became a new  pathway for thinking about magic and changed   our game forever basilisk believes this is a  remarkable example of the scientific process   in action to celebrate our partnership  we are giving away nine copies of thought   sees a staple of the lantern control deck and a  foil Enchanted Tales ristic study to the grand   prize winner follow the link below to enter  thank you basilisk for your partnership and support I've spent the past month racking my  mind for analogies and metaphors to describe the   lantern control deck Lantern control is playing  tennis against a brick wall Lantern control is   walking up a descending escalator Lantern control  is the 1992 Danish football team who dominated   the European championship by repeatedly back  passing to their own goalkeeper they stalled   and stalled and stalled then won the laws  changed following the match to eliminate   this tactic from future games all these  examples are approximations Lantern control   was much stranger the deck presented a gameplay  pattern that may have been completely unique to   Magic the closest parallel in my estimation  can be found on a chessboard this position   is the textbook example of zugang a German  term that translates to the compulsion to   move in chess zong occurs when one player  if given the choice would prefer to pass the   turn rather than move a piece since any move  will lose them the game on the spot the 1923   match between Aaron nimzovich and Friedrich  samish has been nicknamed The Immortal zong   although samish playing white still has most of  his pieces on the board he is trapped paralyzed   any legal move would make his position worse  so instead of moving he resigned this game   approaches the feeling of playing against  Lantern control Lantern control disassembles   its opposition one card at a time and reduces  decks to piles of dysfunctional game pieces   Lantern control locks you into a losing position  it immobilizes you then it compels you to move [Music] in late November 2012 MTG salvation user zero down  had a passing idea in A New Concept for a deck the   leading question was simple what if you could  manipulate your opponent's draw step such that   every card was dead in their hand or useless on  board What If instead of commanding the stack or   controlling the battlefield you went straight for  the source at the top of their Library zero down   cobbled together a quick list of cards centered  around the premier combo enablers they named the   deck top control and wrote up a primer for  the Forum impassioned by the possibilities   zero down began testing on cockatrice this is  perhaps the first recorded glimpse of the idea   in Action a Proto Lantern control deck received  ceing concession on turn 26 intrigued by the   novelty members of The Forum began tinkering  with new cards and proposing deck lists in the   main thread pages and pages of responses poured  in this idea was so strange that any given card   seemed worthy of consideration is Trinket Mage  necessary or expensive is pyroclasm or Terminus   the better answer for smaller creatures what about  poery nodes what about ancient stirrings to find   finds lanterns what about duress to disrupt combos  or guxian probe to gather further information even   in the earliest phases of ideation determining the  deck's main colors was up for debate the number of   lands was also in contention lists ranged anywhere  from 16 to 23 sources with accompanying Mana rocks   like Talisman of dominance and MOX opal included  for fixing user Rogue OS commented that people   look at me weird when they realize exactly what  this deck sets out to do and then question the   fact that this deck is actually five colors  and that we only run 12 real lands in total   contrast user Jon o Cox posited that the suite of  urza lands should serve as the primary Mana base   an approach that seems absurd now but was still  unproven at the time there were no straightforward   answers to any of the questions that would  otherwise be obvious in other archetypes   because top control was unlike anything previously  assembled in Modern Magic how many lands how many   colors how many combo pieces how many answers  nobody could agree maybe the most pressing   question of them all was how does this deck win it  took nearly 3 years 1,500 responses and countless   iterations to answer this question pivotal to the  deck's development was thinker another Forum user   who began Theory crafting with the group and  play testing builds as early as summer 2013   in April 2015 they started uploading individual  matchups of lantern control in modern to YouTube   these exhibitions proved that the deck had  legitimate application that it could compete and   that it could win among thinkers viewership was a  curious player who saw the deck's nent potential   and started taking notes on May 10th 2015 Forum  user Shadow gripper entered the conversation with   an inquiry hey thinker question for you why is  faithless looting in the list 4 days later the   same user declared to The Forum I'll be going to  GP Charlotte I plan on taking this I've spent a   lot of time practicing hello and welcome to the  sideboard here at Grand Prix Charlotte hosted by   Star City games.com so we're here with a combo  deck yeah combo deck sure combo deck we'll call   it that it's actually a control deck or prison  deck is or prison deck commonly referred to   Grand Prix Charlotte 2015 was as stacked an  event as they come Hall of Famers and platinum   Pros filled the room each of them piloting their  choice of modern's strongest and most well-proven   decks Brian Brown doing on abzan company Jerry  Thompson on jund Justin Cohen on amulet Bloom the   calculator ands Louis on grixis Twin it takes  a lot of nerve to bring a pile of draft sha   artifacts to a tournament of this caliber and risk  getting stomped out of the room but Shadow gripper   or rather Zack elich was all in on Lantern control  he knew which decks to expect and he knew how to   beat them by the end of the weekend he would  stun Everyone by running hot and securing a top   16 finish the following Monday Aaron foresy woke  up to a surprising tournament report from Star   City Games to himself and others in the replies  it still wasn't clear just what the deck was   doing or how exactly it won as they speculated BBD  chimed in remarking I birded multiple matches from   the deck it was awesome and impressive in action  meanwhile back on MTG salvation elsik was adamant   he could have won the weekend with sharper play  convinced of the deck's power he set his sights   on the next Grand Prix in Oklahoma City a couple  months down the road in theory Rogue decks like   this tend to lose their Edge without the element  of surprise but Lantern control was not like most   gimmick builds the deck exploited information and  hid nothing itself it locked opponents in Zug Fong   with all the pieces revealed L6 list heading into  OKC was a three-color deck comprised of 17 lands   25 artifacts and a Singleton copy of the newly  printed Geer ether grid maybe this card offered   the wind condition The Forum so long desired or  maybe the wind condition was there all along face   up and hiding in plain [Music] sight in order  to assemble the zong machine a player needs to   gather a few key pieces the first is Lantern  of insight the central Cog in the system for   one Mana you and your opponents play the game  with the top cards of both libr Ries revealed   Lantern's second ability is easily overlooked but  it offers a safety valve in corner case scenarios   an opportunity to reshuffle your opponent's deck  before they can draw a useful threat or reshuffle   yours to reset a useless spell accompanying  Lantern of insights are the so-called mil   rocks these are codec Shredder ghoul collar Bell  and pixus of pandemonium one Mana all stars that   activate to either Mill or Exile the top card of a  Target players library in general players ran four   copies of Shredder and two copies divided between  Bell or pixus depending on the meta together these   provide the core mechanism of top control with  perfect information in place you decide what your   opponents do and do not draw the final gear in the  machine and maybe the most important is in snaring   Bridge ins snaring Bridge was the only reason the  deck could evolve Beyond a hobby horse in a forum   thread and impacts The Meta at the highest level  ins snaring Bridge was the steel frame that kept   the engine encased and intact Zack elich made  a few significant changes to his list between   GP Charlotte and Oklahoma City version 2.0 was  sleeker more focused more proactive with hand   disruption and more consistent with the main game  plan and that game plan itself was a distillation   of the million dooll question how does this deck  win in Eli's words I'm finding more and more that   the general public does not understand the concept  that a game of magic can be won by your opponent   simply drawing a card and passing the turn  every turn of the game the deck isn't trying   to kill them it's trying to put the opponent into  that sleeper hold preventing them from taking an   action once you get there you don't actually  have to win your opponents will more or less   give up against their will hello and welcome  to coverage of Grand Prix Oklahoma City I'm   Marshall cycl in the booth with Randy berer and  we're ready for the finals and we're left with   Brian Brown doing playing twin he's up against  Zach elich who's playing that card Randy he's   g a lantern control deck that has kind of been  the darling of our weekend as it really smoked   everybody in day one and has uh found himself now  in the finals of the tournament from Friday to   Sunday elich ran the tables and secured a spot  in the finals of the Grand Prix his opponent   was none other than Brian Brown Doan the pro who  admired the lantern deck and understood the play   patterns by witnessing it at GP Charlotte a couple  months before I remember watching this match live   on stream like the commentary team I was a struck  by the Zug vong machine never before had I seen a   deck like this in action one that played more like  a vintage home brew from the early '90s than a   tightly selected 75 from the mid-20s some viewers  found the game play excruciating and dull others   including myself were mystified and enthralled  we could feel the Paradigm shifting in real time   the match opened with an early game Haymaker from  Lantern control elich took an extremely aggressive   line on bbd's Turn 2 upkeep by casting surgical  extraction naming Misty rainforest BBD responded   with dispel only for elich to pay another two  life for a second copy of extraction as surgical   resolved elig found a pair of Misty rainforests  in bbd's hand effectively Stone rining two lands   with one spell for zero Mana at instant speed  that is absurd I've never seen that happen no   I haven't either highly technical lines like this  defined Lantern controls core gameplay especially   against Blue based decks like Splinter twin From  This Moment forward every game action from one   side was met with sharp resistance from  the other a power struggle for priority and   permission seemingly innocuous decisions  represented micro advantages as the game   stretched into the later turns splitting such  hairs was the only way Eli would win especially   against a strategy that thrived on Tempo and  card Advantage there's theand okay and he says   sure you draw that thing this goes back and I'll  just recast it so now we have bridge on board   uh-oh once elix secured in snaring Bridge bbd's  footing started to slip among twins most powerful   outs in this spot was snapcaster Mage knowing  this Eli closely monitored the draw step and on   four separate occasions he sacrificed his Lantern  of insight to shuffle bbd's Library understanding   an opponent's most significant threats was a key  skill in piloting this deck one that separated   mediocre players from the elite proving this  skill elix allowed BBD to draw Splinter twin   with deceiver exarc in play a line that would  have easily deterred inexperienced players in   similar spots he's basically built an engine that  allows him to reshuffle Bri it's skip your draw   step Target opponent reshuffles which when you  can see what the card is it's not awful there's   desolate Lighthouse which by the way is what  py needle's name indeed slowly but surely the   mandibles of lantern of insight and ghoul callar  Bell began and to immobilize the twin Deck with   all the lock pieces in place and facing lethal  activations from pyite spell bomb and ether grid   BBD was forced to resign and the players moved  to game two what a crazy deck insane yes this   deck is insane game two was just as Technical and  even more of a thriller both players skated on a   Razor's Edge while searching for the tiniest  margins to Leverage The pivotal moment game   after elek had already successfully assembled  the three pieces to his combo when BBD scried   karanos God of storms to the top of his library  karanos is nice what does Zach do against that   karanos seemed to be the most threatening card  in Brian's sideboard one that Drew concern from   zero down in the MTG salvation Forum as early  as April 2014 how could the lantern deck beat   this card without spellskite in play kind of  looking at this you know Zach doesn't have   anything going as far as actually ending the game  right so it's like Bell response cryptic response   Zack Lantern to shuffle right but then he doesn't  have his Lantern anymore which is a big deal not   as big a deal as Ken us correct as Brian went  to his draw step elix surprisingly put up no   resistance and allowed him the indestructible  enchantment this became the most crucial and   controversial decision of the match is this  going to happen all right he just let him haveen   Kos within a few turns elich would die to the  triggered ability and force a game three win or   take the Grand Prix the deciding game was just as  close as the previous two elich proved his prowess   with a series of critical decisions and accurate  threat assessments the cards were falling in his   favor and compounding his Advantage as followers  and friends from the MTG salvation thread watched   along and cheered elik Ms the final six cards in  bbd's libr B and was crowned champion of Grand   Prix Oklahoma City and that's going to do it Zach  elich wins with Lantern control to a huge round of   applause and a big smile well deserved also great  job Brian Brown doing like you said qualifies was following Grand Prix Oklahoma City Zack elich  became a household name in Magic the deck with   whom his name was synonymous entered the gamut  of the modern format as a valid Contender and   attracted the game's brightest Minds to master its  complexities Grand Prix Charlotte and people were   like what is this deck it's just got a a bunch of  loose artifacts in it like it seems that you know   and you're like how can this deck actually be a  thing and then he wins the GP with it and that's   what this Lantern deck really does it gets your  hopes up that maybe you're going to win a game   when you've got the rests with this deck though  this deck is like unbelievable I know Zack elich   did win a grand prix with the deck Sam black has  had a lot of success with the deck yeah very Sam   black deck oh yeah so Sam Black Sam black was  among the earliest adopters of lantern control and   he championed the deck throughout 2016 in February  black went 8-2 with Lantern at protor oath of the   gate watch against a field of overpowered elrazi  he then traveled to SC G Lewisville a couple of   weeks later and barely missed day two with a  record of 6 and three citing a critical mistake   in round eight for the loss later the same year  black finished 24th at Grand Prix Indianapolis   with another Stellar performance of manipulating  his opponent's draw steps this match in round five   highlighted some of the same technical uppercuts  that elix deployed in Oklahoma like blind hitting   two serum Visions with surgical extraction and  nullifying a flooded strand with pithing needle   oh wow Sam I'm going a needle flood strand that  would be Savage he sees the flood strand on top   of R's deck needle actually does stop flood  strand from being sacrificed Sam could cut   right off of a third L after the tournament  Sam black published a comprehensive guide to   playing Lantern control in modern this article  detailed all the subtleties that made piloting   this deck so challenging and why it appealed  so strongly to a very specific type of magic   player it also provided a fascinating assessment  of gear per ether grid the soft wind condition   upon reflection black dismissed its spot in the  75 ultimately I think it's one of those training   wheels type cards it's very good at forgiving some  mistakes and taking a game over by itself but once   you understand how the deck operates and how you  need to deal with everything I haven't found it   necessary for anything I'm trying to accomplish I  find this observation striking because it answers   the one question that the Forum could ever agree  on how does this deck win Zack elich understood   this dilemma and after hundreds of reps himself  he came to the same conclusion as Sam black the   deck doesn't try to win it tries to prevent both  players from playing this position was echoed by   Brian Brown Doan in his write up a player obsessed  with Lantern control after facing it at OKC and   who played the deck exhaustively in the 2 years  following you're not actively trying to win the   game but rather you're trying to reduce your  opponent's ability to win until they cannot   anymore Justin Cohen also shared this perspective  calling Lantern control a deterministic victory   by means of completely eliminating losing as an  option it seemed that any player who spent enough   time learning the ins and outs of the deck was  forced to reflect on what it meant to play Magic   the deck inverted intuition entrenched players  all felt the impulse to think deeply about its   play patterns and write long posts and articles  dissecting its nuances Lantern control became a   puzzle box more than a magic deck a test of wit  for those with encyclopedic knowledge of the game   to express that knowledge in the most technical  way imaginable because the deck did not actively   win it required its Pilots to take game actions  at break neck speed and communicate clearly to   succeed more than the prison style locking  mechanisms the deck's slower grindier game   plan became the feature that opponents despised  most Des centers compared Lantern control to eggs   a deck that was banned Following protor return  to ravnik because of its drawn out solitaire type   turns elsik pushed back against this correlation  Lantern games are only slow because of opponents   not because of the lantern pilot an inexperienced  Lantern pilot will durle and try to play Magic   instead of focusing on the fact that neither  player should be playing the game the opponent   should do the same there is no game to be  played Lantern creates a lock it feels like   a soft lock but statistically it's a hard lock  the game is over it's just that neither player   is dead knowing when to concede against the lock  became another point of disagreement some players   outright refused to Res design against a deck with  no clear wind condition others did not understand   when it became useless to keep fighting back  forever holding out hope for a lucky draw to   escape the position Carmen compens faced this  scenario incessantly over the course of her   tenure playing Lantern in tournaments so much so  that she retired playing the deck out of fatigue   draw the lantern play the Lantern and now this is  where the lantern control deck really starts to   sink in the sleeper hold and Cur says no Moss  yeah no Moss I can't do this anymore that's a   hasty concession normally so most players they  try to play through it yeah my deck will cough   up the four perfect draws in a row all I need is  three good cards in a row so that when a couple   get milled I can still draw one super likely and  then the next turn for the same thing to happen   yeah yeah that's that's super likely or you could  do what Kurt did which I approve of which is let's   pack it up pack it in and let's play another  game which is what we're going to do common   wisdom concluded that Lantern plus two M rocks  was usually enough to seal the deal and Lantern   plus 3 mil rocks all but shut the door entirely  regardless the onus fell on the lantern player   to play fast and constantly urge the opponent to  do the same Cohen noted that if you are averse to   encouraging your opponent to play at a faster Pace  even multiple times in a match you will lose match   points if you hesitate to call a judge over to  watch for slow play you will lose match points if   you employ the wrong rhetoric scolding an opponent  opponents who would have responded to a nudge   you will lose match points Not only was the deck  challenging to Pilots but it required its players   to constantly monitor all the interpersonal and  social cues that arise in a tournament setting   it was high maintenance within the battle field  and surrounding it despite General Chagrin toward   the archetype the deck continued to attract new  players and evolve with subsequent set releases   with the printing of kaladesh in September 2016  and ether Revolt in January 2017 Lantern control   picked up a pair of significant artifact tutors  in Inventor fair and War Of Invention as well as   some manif fixing lands in Spire of industry and  blooming Marsh mes Bobble also began sneaking into   lists this year which was reinforced by the cards  reprint in iconic Masters in November BBD claims   that this card was by far the hardest to play in  the list a piece that offered Myriad decisions and   applications again Lantern most appealed to those  who enjoyed leveraging minute advantages that were   unclear in the abstract and Bobble provided that  feature in Spades in February 2018 BBD put Lantern   control to the ultimate test by registering  the deck for protour Rivals of Exelon as did p   glovsky a prolific Theory crafter and connoisseur  of strange builds who made top eight with Lantern   control at GP Birmingham a few months prior like  the other die hards canister was pivotal to the   deck's developments throughout 2017 his streams  educated players on navigating the tricky play   patterns and he created Community spaces for  others to share ideas and match data he was   also constantly tinkering with the deck especially  in the sideboard this 5 league list from November   2017 showed off a curveball in hazit the  fervent a spicy piece of tech that sadly   never found legitimate application yet another  Pro player was on Lantern control that weekend   the rising star in Luis salvado the Argentinian  found himself in a crucial winin in in round 16   against fellow teammates Lucas esper bertud after  committing a sideboarding error resulting in a   game loss then winning game two salvado leveraged  a dominating position in the deciding game three   over the opposing five-color humans deck this just  pure misery here for luas esper Bear 2 it's one of   those situations where you know you're playing  for the top eight you know you more or less are   going to lose this game but you still have to  play it out because you never know Lucas eser   be 2 has to sit here effectively helpless staring  down zong verude asked salvado an honest question   I have any chance of winning yeah no do I have  any chance of winning and in a wholesome display   of sportsmanship bertud wished salvado love luck  in the top eight congrats man let's win tomorrow   right salvado took that to heart let's just  settle in Simon to what is an incredible deck   and just shows what magic can do with thousands  and thousands of cards in a pool yes it shows of   the uniqueness of the modern format you can win  not by dealing damage not by dealing poison and   to be fair not even running your opponent out  of cards you're winning because they just don't   have any chance whatsoever to draw out of the  lock you've assembled and snaring Bridge means   you can't be attacked with Lantern off inside and  something like codex Shredder you make sure that   they don't draw any outs and if there are other  combo pieces you can lock them out with witchbane   orb or graph Digger cage there's just no way you  can lose from a certain board state after Milling   out Jean Emanuel dea's death Shadow deck in game  five of the quarterfinals and locking away Ken   yahiro's Hollow ones under ins snaring Bridge  salvado secured his spot in the finals of the   pro tour Marshall Sutcliffe was commentating that  match and reflecting on the first time he saw the   deck in action man it's crazy how far this Lantern  deck has come I remember its breakout performance   at GP Oklahoma City with Zack elich piloting it  and you know at first glance it looks like the   worst deck you've ever seen in your life standing  between salvado and a PT title was Jerry Thompson   on mardu pyromancer a synergistic spell slinging  deck that generally favored Lantern in the matchup   as per usual Thompson was a great sport he held  his head high and his racket strong against the   brick wall he also understood very clearly when  he was effectively dead on board yeah but like   you have two things though right like I think  Jerry's trying to figure out if you can just SC   you know honestly Jerry is asking am I I can't win  okay so Jerry wants to actually conceed this game   Jerry actually asking Rashad Miller so I  can concede and people will understand that   I can't win andry game one went to salvado and  game two followed in suit all the while Jerry   kept the tabl talk light and friendly with  jokes and laughs to segue the players through   the turns Thompson knew his outs were few that  the escalator would outpace his Ascent despite   producing an army of Elemental and spirit tokens  the advantage bar for game three remained firmly   on salvato's side of the table eventually Luis  activated mra's Bobble targeting himself and   found tzit agent of Bolas and the commentary team  started doing the math wow that is going to make   it effectively impossible for Jerry Thompson to  win well is going to do 16 damage next turn off   the T absolutely and guess what Jerry Thompson's  at 16 we are we going to see a victory via Tes   ultimate we absolutely are game set match Lantern  control wins the pro tour Luis alvado is your   Champion congratulations he came back and he  won three games to zero over Jerry Thompson   in the finals fantastic work for L salvado he  puts his hands in the air and darn it he should following protour Rivals of Exelon in February  2018 Lantern control began to lose position in   modern's diverse and ever shifting metag game  to some extent the deck's efficacy was always   dependent on the landscape surrounding it it was  always a mirror to the format the film negatives   that inverted the photographs lights and shadows  2018 saw the rise of blue white control burn   Tron and jund all relatively strenuous matchups  for lantern soon after the pro tour a brand new   Contender entered the arena a deck that challenged  lantern from a totally different angle in March   Matt nass made top eight of Grand Prix Phoenix  with a novel and highly complex artifact-based   combo deck then turned the corner and won two more  Grands Prix and made fourth in another with the   same deck Iron Works combo attracted many of the  same players who enjoyed the decision agency of   lantern control including Zack elic himself  who embraced KCI across various tournaments   that summer almost overnight codc shredders and  Company fell out of favor many CIT January 13th   2020 as the official death day of lantern control  in modern the band in restricted announcement that   morning listed MOX opal among the cards falling  to the Hammer a foundational role player in   Lantern decks for the entirety of the archetypes  existence others instead point to May 3rd 2019   as the day the music died when War of the spark  introduced K the great Creator to the card poool   K single-handedly ston wal's Lantern control and  its blanket utility lended to new more oppressive   prison style decks and Powerful combo builds at  worst the Plaines Walker occupied a safe spot in   the sideboard as a silver bullet against a variety  of artifacts in the format and Lantern could never   keep up with its rate on return so for a couple  of years the light of lantern of insight dimmed   to a lowly flicker but it never went out entirely  on June 16th 2021 the world world champion Pao   Vitor Damu dza hypothesized a potential comeback  for lantern control the printing of urza saga in   modern Horizons 2 injected new life into the  archetype the card was a perfect fit for the   build it hit on every single pressure point and  offered an optional win condition that the deck   so long desired canister went undefeated in a  modern League that June running four copies of   the utility land perhaps the deck could overcome  the absence of opal after all despite pao's   endorsement the community at large seemed much  less optimistic the contemporary modern format   is layered with heavy hitting cards that are too  efficient and redundant and aggressive there are   too many incidental Shuffle effects and too many  answers to artifacts and too much card draw the   format is defined Now by proactive Decks that  win with accumulated value especially compared   to the slow more methodical pace of the zugang  machine how can Lantern control realistically   compete in a world of bosu and grief and the  One Ring well maybe it can just maybe there   is still a flicker of Hope in one of his many  articles written about Lantern control Sam black   described modern as a format full of dedicated  and passionate sub communities these communities   will Champion decks and will work together  through a Year's worth of theory crafting in   a matter of days they will congregate behind the  scenes to iron out all the ideas then celebrate   when their passion project hits its breakthrough  moment as Joseph Dunlap wrote following elix win   at Grand Prix Oklahoma City Lantern control is a  Triumph of the magic Community what started as a   fleeting idea in a message board changed how we  think about magic forever there are no onetoone   parallels to Lantern control either within magic  or outside of it because it lays bare the system   that makes the game hum there may always be a  future for the zugang machine there may always be   a place for the deck without a wind condition the  distorted reflection of the format the antithesis   of the game itself in Justin Cohen's words  honestly Lantern control can just barely be   considered magic and I absolutely love it I know  a forum full of folks who would agree [Music] the final sponsor of this episode is the mall  villain of playmat and print collection on   Kickstarter over 6,000 backers have already  supported this project and the organizers are   accepting late backers for a limited time  this project features an array of Mall's   iconic portraits including a select group  with artwork extended to fit the width of a   standard playmat for the first time available  as well are limited edition double-sided flip   playmats of hunt Master of the fs and the new  Tamo from Modern Horizon 3 two player playmats   of the secret layer sketches and table length  playmats of the stained glass basic lands from   dominaria United limited edition G clay prints  are also available as add-ons or as Standalone   purchases sign up now before time runs out  for good to show your support for Mall vov   one of the game's most acclaimed artists I'll  be picking up a death Shadow playmat from this   project and maybe saurin too playing Lantern  control at the highest level require deep   knowledge of the modern metag game and specific  rules knowledge for certain card interactions for   example the humans deck could often chip away  at Lantern players through ins snaring Bridge   with Noble hierarch since the exalted trigger  Goes On The Stack after attacks are declared in   the early days elsi and Company ran bow of nyaya  in the sideboard to add counters to to opposing   hierarchs and Signal pests for this reason  a counterintuitive but effective way to stop   creatures with zero base power from attacking  Tron players took advantage of chromatic star   in more ways than one first of all it could not  be named with pithing needle since the activation   is considered a mana ability can tripping cards  like this also provided Safeguard against codec   Shredder activations one of many reasons that  this deck was such a bad matchup for lantern   finally when casting scry effects like serum  Visions or look effects like ancient stirrings   with Lantern in play the top card stays revealed  but anything beneath it is not revealed until the   spell resolves however if a player explicitly  draws cards each one will be revealed as they   are drawn essentially there can only be one card  revealed at a time many considered the Lantern   control deck masochistic magic for both sides of  the table while that view may have some Merit the   real test of endurance was found in the mirror  match Brad Nelson and Ross Mariam put themselves   through mutual zuk vong for our enjoyment in  January 2018 if you're a sicko like me you'll love   this game and if you hate the deck yet somehow  made it all the way to the end of this video   it's worth checking out if only for the comment  section you can support ristic studies on patreon   for access to our Discord and to my podcast to  get your name in the credits and to receive a   signed card in the mail directly from me thanks  so much for watching Long Live Lantern control

Channel: Rhystic Studies

Views: 217,642

Keywords: magic the gathering, mtg, trading card game, themagicmansam, rhystic studies, lantern control

Id: I06luPguzrk

Length: 39min 19sec (2359 seconds)

Published: Sun May 19 2024