This is my attempt to marry the 8-Rack and Lantern Control strategies. Let me know what you think and whether or not the strategy is viable.
Win Con: Empty our opponents hand and use Shrieking Affliction and The Rack to damage our opponents. (We also have
Liliana's Caress
in our sideboard to bring in added damage from discarding.
Control:The control function of our deck is a mixture of 8-Rack and Lantern Control. Lantern of Insight allows us to see every card we and our opponent draws. This is particularly nice for our hand removal. Blackmail, Raven's Crime, Thoughtseize and Wrench Mind all allow us to tear through our opponents hand, removing anything we'd like.
Codex Shredder
allows us to get rid of our opponents top card keeping them from putting it into their hand in the first place and we can always sac Lantern of Insight to shuffle a card away from our opponent. The idea is that we remove our opponents cards by removing and controlling their draws so that they can't run their strategy.
Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver helps us with the exiling though, I'm beginning to think she may not be all that helpful overall. It may be better to run a Jace that gives us card draw (perhaps the new one from SOI) or just put in 3 Duress' instead
Ensnaring Bridge ensures that our opponent can't attack with their creatures if they are able to get one down. Spellskite gives us some additional added protection from spells too. Pack Rat is our only other creature. They can play under the ensnaring bridge and can buff later if necessary.
In the event that we need something stronger we have Nyxathid in our sideboard. We also have removal in the form of Bile Blight and Darkblast. Pithing Needle provides us with the ability to shut down creatures activated abilities and Surgical Extraction gives us even more control against our opponents strategy.
I know that running a deck like this makes me a huge jerk, but I love the idea of manipulating every card my opponent and I draw. I think it's an interesting, though infuriating, way to play the game. Let me know what your thoughts are below please!
