I was a huge fan of Whir Prison, but because of Urza and Emry destroying the format, and them not wanting to not sell packs of MH1 and Eldraine by banning the ACTUAL issues, we lost Mox Opal, and it was a huge blow. Here is a new take on that same strategy; it's like Lantern, but a lot meaner than the Lantern lock.
HOW DO YOU LOCK?
In Whir Prison, there were many locks, and we're still abusing them here.
The first way to stop the opponent and what they want to do is [Ensnaring Bridge]. We get low enough in hand and attacks don't matter. To go along with this, I've added the Bridge's best friend, [Bottled Cloister]. When you play a Cloister, you go to ZERO cards in hand on the opponent's upkeep, meaning they no longer get to attack if they force you to draw somehow.
The second way to lock is through [Narset, Parter of Veils] and her best friend, [Teferi's Puzzle Box]. What this interaction does is makes it so that no cards get to be in their hand. Narset says that they can draw only one card per turn. The Puzzle Box says that they ship x cards to the bottom, which is what is in their hand. They then DRAW that many. Since Narset says they draw one per turn, they get to draw for turn, then they ship their hand, leaving them with nothing to play.
Another lock we can drop is a [Chalice of the Void] on 1, and then one on 2. Most decks in the format are playing 1 and 2 drops consistently early game, and this stops them. It can help against a [Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer] or against the late game [Expressive Iteration]. Against a deck like Hammer Time (one of the biggest players in the metagame as of right now), a Chalice on 0 and on 1, we will shut down roughly 90% of what the deck wants to do, especially if we get to play first.
The Other lock that isn't necessarily game winning on it's own is using [Crucible of Worlds] and [Ghost Quarter] to slowly Strip Mine them out of the game. Not only is it colour denial, it's also a way to remove their ability to play the game under our lock pieces.
We also have the tried and true [Karn, the Great Creator] lock. By playing Karn and then wishing for our [Liquimetal Coating] out of the sideboard, we set up a mana denial plan on turn one by shutting off a land through Coating's ability, and Karn's static. On subsequent turns, we use Coating to make a land into an artifact, and then we use Karn's plus ability to make the land into a 0/0 artifact creature that dies to State-Based Actions, effectively locking them out of the game.
HOW DO WE WIN THEN?
in order to win, if you assemble the Bridge lock against a creature deck 9/10 they'll scoop. If you get Narset and Puzzle Box, you get to make them draw and return their hand, and most decks that don't have instant speed removal for any lock piece will be prevented from playing the game. If we Krn lock them, it becomes another mana denial setup, again, making it so they can't play the game, and most decks will scoop to it unless late game.
In addition to the above conditions, we are packing a few other ways to win. If we're against a non-creature deck, we get Constructs from [Urza's Saga] to beat down with. Sometimes Bridge isn't the be-all end-all for some games, and you can sometimes have constructs that are massive. The Construct tokens can be made to be 6/6, 7/7, or even bigger. With Crucible being a part of the deck, we do have the option to bring them back and keep using them.
Speaking of Crucible and locking people out, the other combo piece with it is [Ipnu Rivulet]. Using the Rivulet, we get to mill the opponent 4 cards at a time. It's slow, but using that, [Academy Ruins], and [Tormod's Crypt] or [Nihil Spellbomb], we mill the opponent, and they stay milled.
In conjunction with Ruins, there is a neat little card called [Jester's Cap]. A card from Ice Age originally that saw play back in the day. Now, we abuse it with Academy, and it gets rid of 3 cards at a time. The thing Cap has going for it that Rivulet doesn't is that it exiles the 3 we choose, meaning we don't have to worry about a {Murktide Regent] coming down big.
We have recurring damage in 2 ways as well, between [Ghirapur AEther Grid] and [Pyrite Spellbomb]. One damage for tapping 2 artifacts is a good trade off, especially with the amount of artifacts we have in the deck. The way to win with Spellbomb is by shooting it off at the end of the opponent's turn, then regrowing it with [Academy Ruins]. That allows us to spend 3 mana every turn cycle to deal 2 damage.
The Sideboard is also work in progress, and it's almost all a wishboard for Karn, but there are some set cards to talk about: Liquimetal Coating is a MUST. Any deck playing a Karn, TGC, you need to have it to Strip Mine or shut off the plays they might have. Even though we have Chalice, [Void Mirror] is another avenue with which to shut down the Living End and Temur Footfalls decks. It also interacts with [Endurance] and the other evoke elementals from MH2. A fourth Bridge is in the board just as a way to ensure there's always one in reach with Karn. [Engineered Explosives] is a good tutor target, as nine times out of ten, needing one and having it accessible is a boon. We can easily make 5 colours of mana, but it also goes well with playing it on zero to wipe Saga tokens from the opponent. Sometimes, we may even need to pop it on our own Cloister to prevent decking. [Nihil Spellbomb] is a target that can be brought in post board as a target for Saga's search trigger, but having another piece of graveyard hate helps when we can't get our Crypt. [Sorcerous Spyglass] is a good hate effect that also dodges a Chalice on 1 while also letting us peak at the opponent's hand. [Torpor Orb] is also a must have card, because it shuts off ETB triggers that bother us. Things like Endurance to stop the mill, or an ETB destruction effect is something to shut down. [Witchbane Orb] is the last Must-have card. It keeps us alive in the Burn Matchup, as it prevents us from being targeted by their spells.
The deck was inspired by Susurrus_mtg, but he gave up the mantle a few years back, but it stuck with me. I have been wanting to rebuild this deck a lot, trying new stuff to see if we can make the metagame afraid of a hateful lock-out control deck again. The deck is still under construction, and suggestions would be welcome.
