Is Lantern Control officially a thing?
Modern forum
Posted on Sept. 13, 2015, 8:21 p.m. by FAMOUSWATERMELON
This deck above just won GP Oklahoma against Twin, so I think it's about time that we start boarding against Lantern Control! There was also a lot of talk in the comments about banning Ensnaring Bridge. Thoughts about all of this?
SwaggyMcSwagglepants says... #3
Sideboarding... hmm.
4x Shatterstorm mull till you draw it.
September 13, 2015 8:29 p.m.
ToolmasterOfBrainerd says... #4
But they have lotsa mainboard hand disruption.
September 13, 2015 8:30 p.m.
Not ban worthy at all. Also, Stony Silence destroys this deck, and that card is already commonly played in many sideboards so I think this deck can be expected to be about as popular as amulet or scapeshift, both established decks that are not to be underestimated, but is not prominently played.
September 13, 2015 8:32 p.m.
FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #6
Chubbub Note all the discard and Abrupt Decay.
September 13, 2015 8:34 p.m.
Seems like a very legit deck, and now it's finally caught on. Great to see a new control deck in the meta :)
September 13, 2015 8:43 p.m.
This deck is real, but it falls into the category of "decks I hate". I literally despise prison style decks, and this deck falls squarely in that category. Call it control, but it limits the opponent's options, which is the opposite of how I want to play Magic.
I'll just spec a little bit on Echoing Ruin (as much as you can spec on a <$1 card) and buy some more Shatterstorms and Stony Silences.
September 13, 2015 8:46 p.m.
JexInfinite says... #9
The deck is not real just because 1 dude Top 16'd then won a GP. It will die to all the same hate as affinity, and drop out of the meta pretty quickly. It needs to prove itself as a good deck, which will be incredibly difficult. 1 pilot is very different to being an actual part of the meta.
vishnarg It's not actually a control deck, nor is it great. It's a prison deck, and that's never fun for anyone except the pilot.
September 13, 2015 8:52 p.m. Edited.
GoldGhost012 says... #10
My excitement is real. <3
There's no reason to ban Ensnaring Bridge or even any other part of the deck, in my opinion. It's not a strong tier deck, and even though it's annoying as hell to play against, especially when the lock is established, I'd imagine that a lot of games will still go to time. It's similar to Eggs, but a lot less viable and a potentially a lot more disruptable.
I hope that Ensnaring Bridges don't start spiking though, they're already expensive enough as is...
September 13, 2015 8:53 p.m.
I don't feel like anything from this deck will get banned, but if it does it will be for time considerations and not powerlevel. Lantern control will need to take up a larger share of the meta before it gets enough attention to warrant a banning.
September 13, 2015 9:05 p.m.
I don't mind playing against prison. I hate playing against these:
Deceiver Exarch
+
Splinter Twin
Abrupt Decay - Note that's its been a Junk and Jund staple forever. The combination of destroying cheap cards that aggro uses to try to rush twin and it being uncounterable so that decks like twin and lantern control suffer for it is really irksome.
Spell Snare - So we use cheaper CMC cards to play around all the more expensive control cards and they respond with a CMC 1 spell.
Tarmogoyf - Decks would be fine without it and the beats are just so strong for a 2 drop.
Path to Exile - WTF? I accept that it's a part of modern but Jesus has this been the best removal for years or what?
Anyways I am very happy that Lantern Control won. I really hope it continues to put a hurting on Twin but of course one GP isn't enough to make presumptuous about it. Also very happy that he used Llanowar Wastes
+
Sun Droplet
synergy to force lifegain agaisnt mono 
. That was beautiful!
September 13, 2015 9:10 p.m.
My friend plays this deck. I lose with U/W midrange game 1 pretty much without exception. Game 2, Negates, Stony Silences, and cards that aren't actually dead spells come out of my SB. There's always an interesting minigame game one where I play path on my own Wall of Omens just for shuffle effects and my friend has to respect the option. Yeah...
September 13, 2015 9:13 p.m.
FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #14
JexInfinite I think this would fall under the same category that 8-rack is in, some kind of semi-control.
September 13, 2015 9:26 p.m.
Im going to try make my Tezzeret's Contagion deck into Lantern Control as the Tezzeret deck always lost to Twin, partially because I have no hate cards for it and partially because it has no removal/disruption. I really like that lantern control wins with such low CMC artifacts versus relying on more expensive ones like my deck does, and that lantern control can run 8 disruption spells in the main and still do it's thing.
If you all were to further innovate on Lantern Control is there any other idea you'd want to mesh with it or would you just change a few small things in the side or main like hate cards and lands?
September 13, 2015 9:26 p.m.
pumpkinwavy says... #16
Like I said in the other thread, another deck that loses to Stony Silence. This is the #1 best sideboard card right now I think.
September 13, 2015 9:34 p.m.
ToolmasterOfBrainerd says... #17
Um, Abrupt Decay? He had those mainboarded.
September 13, 2015 9:40 p.m.
FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #18
Plus all the discard, good luck getting one out. Also kengiczar, yeah, I've been Brainstorming a couple ideas. The most probably ones are Rakdos heavy discard and some burn, and Golgari, with 4 Goyf, 1 Swagtusk, 1-2 Scooze, and the rest of the disruption/destroy package. I think I'll build that last one shortly actually, it sounds fun.
September 13, 2015 9:48 p.m.
Ive been playing lantern online (my colorless control deck has used it). I love it so much, always have.
September 13, 2015 10:50 p.m.
MindAblaze says... #21
I hate that people quibble over semantics when talking about control decks. There are 3 main archetypes, and control is one of them. How you control the game doesn't matter, the goal is still to control what they are doing.
Anyway, I really like that this could take off. It's not so strong that it's unstoppable, but between the hand disruption and 12 copies of the card that tanks their top deck...they won't be enjoying themselves.
September 13, 2015 11:12 p.m.
You're expending resources to control their hand, nullify their creatures, and decrease the quality of their draws. Yeah, those things all sound like stuff control decks would like to do. This deck may not conform to stereotypical notions of control, but it sure functions like one.
September 13, 2015 11:30 p.m.
JakeHarlow says... #24
Would Kataki, War's Wage be decent against this alongside Stony Silence?
Also, there's Shattering Spree in Red, so...
September 14, 2015 12:32 a.m.
Kataki, War's Wage is meh. It's still easily discarded by Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek and can be KO'd by Pyrite Spellbomb.
September 14, 2015 1 a.m.
JexInfinite says... #26
It's worth noting that Elsik would have most likely came 2nd if he didn't luck out and draw Thoughtseize, but that's just how things go. A lot went right for him, and I don't expect that to be an accurate representation of how the deck fares in future.
The hate against it will work the majority of the time, and it takes bad splash damage from affinity hate. Presenting ideals is silly, because over the course of a tournament, the amount of losses to hate should be quite large. I believe that Elsik was one of the only people to take Lantern Control (which he has actually said is more of a combo deck) to the GP, which means very little in terms of meta.
September 14, 2015 1:43 a.m.
JexInfinite I watched the match and I know what you mean but by the same token there have been plenty of times where Twin has "lucked out" and drew a 2nd or even 3rd copy of Splinter Twin even with 30+ cards left in the deck. Worse, i've seen twin 'luck out" to mono 
discard and draw Pestermite and then Splinter Twin in otherwise worthless hands numerous times.
September 14, 2015 1:47 a.m.
JexInfinite says... #28
Lucking out in a blue deck is completely different. With cards such as Serum Visions, when you put stuff to the bottom, you're effectively reducing the number of cards in your deck that you don't want to see. Obviously, a fetch will interfere with this, but blue decks have a heap of draw engines, and can use Snapcaster Mage and Desolate Lighthouse incredibly effectively.
Also important that Twin decks run 4 copies of Twin (unless Grixis), so there's a much higher chance of drawing one, especially with Serum Visions, then there is drawing one of 2 Thoughtseizes.
September 14, 2015 2:07 a.m.
Isn't this just Jeskai Ascendancy again? Deck has made two top 16 appearances in the span of a more than a month and it is now a thing? UW control returning is much more a thing than this.
I attribute 90% of this to people lacking experience and /or sideboard to deal with this.
September 14, 2015 2:40 a.m.
I think the ignorance people have about how this deck actually functions is revealed by data that is plain to see.
Losing to time: How many draws did Zac get? How many times did he go to time? And that's just Zac. I have over 200 videos on Youtube. Feel free to count the number of times games have gone to time...
Losing to Stony Silence/Kataki/etc: Again, I have plenty of video evidence that hate cards do not mean that the deck just shuts down. The opponent must (1) Draw the hate card (which this deck prevents from happening as early as turn two, so I hope they drew a good first hand and draw well quick) (2) Be able to play the card before the Lantern pilot uses one of the 5+ discard spells in the deck to get rid of it. We also have the replay from OK where Lantern Control won through a Kataki - He just paid for the upkeep costs :P
September 14, 2015 8:40 a.m.
I think the deck is legit - I've run into it before, and it's an interesting challenge for most decks to beat. While it's true that most Affinity hate doubles as Lantern Control hate, it (like Affinity) has a couple of tools it can use to win through the hate (looking at you, Ghirapur AEther Grid). I think this GP win gives the archetype some legitimacy, so I expect it to join the ranks of the tiered decks, given how starved Modern players are for traditional control decks (I don't know if it'll become a format mainstay, but it will have its opportunity to become one).
I don't think anything about it is particularly ban-worthy, either - Ensnaring Bridge can be a bit annoying to play against at times, but it's not infallible, and none of the other cards scream "auto-loss" when played.
ToolmasterOfBrainerd says... #2
YES IT IS A THING!!!!!!
START BUYING OUT LANTERN OF INSIGHT!!!!!!!!!
As for sideboarding for it, no idea, BUT LANTERN CONTROL BEAT TWIN!!!!!!!!!
September 13, 2015 8:23 p.m.