Over the years, many archetypes have emerged that create unfun play patterns. Still, Lantern Control in Modern remains the most infamous of the bunch, completely shutting down opposing gameplans while stalling to victory. While this deck hasn’t received many tools in recent sets and has thus seen its metagame presence fade, it just came back with a vengeance to win a Magic Online Modern Challenge.
The Hard Lock
At its core, Lantern Control aims to lock down the board and manipulate your opponent’s draws, forcing them to sit there and do nothing. This is made possible by the combination of Lantern of Insight and a series of cheap mill cards like Codex Shredder and Pyxis of Pandemonium.
With Lantern revealing the top of your opponent’s library, you can use your mill effects to make sure they keep drawing bad cards. Get three of these effects out, and your opponent will have a hard time drawing anything relevant ever again.
While Fetchlands and utility lands like Cori Mountain Monastery can technically help your opponent fight through these lock pieces, slamming Harbinger of the Seas removes this issue. From there, Ensnaring Bridge locks down the board, preventing any creatures from attacking. With the help of Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek stripping key hate like Wrath of the Skies, you can mill your opponent out to win.
Getting all these tools in place takes some effort, but fortunately, this deck has plenty of redundancy. Both Lantern and Shredder can be fetched off Urza’s Saga, while Whir of Invention can find any of your artifacts. As such, this deck can reliably put the whole lock into place if given enough time.
A Tough Spot
With such a strong lock, Lantern Control excels in any matchup that gives the deck enough time to play its core pieces. Decks with beefy creatures like Eldrazi Ramp and Mono-Black Midrange, for instance, can struggle to get under Ensnaring Bridge, losing the ability to apply pressure.
If Bridge isn’t effective, Lantern Control offers a variety of hate artifacts, all of which are tutorable with Whir of Invention. Cursed Totem completely shuts down the emergent Devoted Druid Combo, while Torpor Orb demolishes Esper Blink. Even Pithing Needle’s ability to keep opposing Planeswalkers in check is a lifesaver in a format with Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student.
Unfortunately, between lots of rising combo decks and some aggressive strategies, Modern is quite fast right now. Fast combo decks like Ruby Storm or Neobrand can easily get their win off before you can start controlling their draws. The same is true for Izzet Prowess, which can put up turn three kills rather consistently, outspeeding Ensaring Bridge on the play.
Given the popularity of these blazing fast decks, Lantern Control doesn’t actually seem to be in a great position. That makes its winning performance all the more impressive, but it resulting in a breakout for the deck seems unlikely.
Stick with us here at mtgrocks.com: the best site for Magic: The Gathering coverage. Be sure to check out our deckbuilder for your next big brew, and our brand new MTG Rocks Podcast!