You can tell this is a true Lantern deck video with it almost being a 2 hour video and assuming the editor had a lot of trimming to go through on top of it.
Magic sure has many zero sum fun strategies. Anyway, I love how people seem to have a hard time defining the wincon of Lantern Control when it's clearly a prison deck
@@johndoe9343 It doesn't have a wincon because it doesn't have a specific way of winning the game. Yes, it mills people out, but that is a byproduct of top-deck manipulation. "Prison" in and of itself isn't a wincon. Establish prison decks such as Shops in Vintage or even old-school Sun and Moon in Modern all had a way of ending the game from under its lock. Lantern isn't like that (and that might not be obvious until you've played it a lot). As Rhystic Studies put it, "Lantern Control disassembles its opposition one card at a time and reduces decks to piles of dysfunctional game pieces," Its goal isn't to win, but to reduce its opponent's ability to win to 0%. Then, it eventually wins by default. I've had opponents wholly locked out of the game ask me, "Do you just want to call it a draw?" because they couldn't see a win condition and didn't understand that they had already lost. For future reference, the correct response to this is: 104.3a
@@johndoe9343I wouldn't even call it a true prison deck since it's not technically doing a combo that makes them unkillable. It's just the classic control strategy of "counter everything" except you counter the top of their library instead of the stack. It's just attrition made wincon.
@@_Ve_98 Common defintions I see are: "Prison is the strategy of making your opponent unable to cast their spells, or unable to use their cards to their normal effect." "A Prison deck is a deck which tries to slow down the opponent or bring their gameplan to a complete halt and preventing them from regaining any momentum." Now are these definitions valid? Honestly, idk, but it sure seems like Lantern Control fits the glove with these definitions and from my own understanding.
The last several months it's been sad watching Seth mourn his favourite format. It's a treat seeing the pure joy as he plays lantern and the splinter twin video. Merry Christmas Seth
My favorite lantern moment was at a LGS where my opponent was playing ad nauseam and declared "i will make you play it out" turn 1i blind milled his lab maniac and turn 2 I pithing needled his lightning storm, he instantly scooped
Mine was when I was playing a Skred player at my LGS. Game 3 I blind Pithing Needle'd Arid Mesa turn 1. He proceeded to play an Arid Mesa. I then followed up with a lantern and a shredder. He played another Arid Mesa. He never got to draw another land.
Just want to point out, Lantern came into prominence while Twin was still a deck. One of the matches that put Lantern on the map was against Twin in fact, Zac Elsik vs Brian Braun-Duin during Grand Prix Oklahoma City 2015 where Zac beat Brian in the finals with Lantern.
That was also the last big Modern event before the infamous PT Oath of the Gatewatch. So the rise of Lantern can be said to be the culmination of Old Modern.
Ah, yes, Lantern Control, the deck where the win condition is your opponent standing up, walking over to the LGS's singles case, and asking the person working the counter if they can price and purchase an entire collection immediately.
While playing RG Tron once, I let a mono blue turns player take fifteen turns, have a bunch of howling mine effects in play, get down to just a couple of cards left in their library, cast an elixir of immortality to reshuffle and in response I cast Boil (a 2-of in my sideboard at the time). I swear my opponent read the card over and over. Then they silently got up, walked to the desk, sold their whole deck to the shop and walked out 🤣. Never seen anything like it lol
My favorite lantern moment was when I wasn't even playing lantern. I was on bant eldrazi post-Eye of Ugin ban. My opponent got a bridge down. I spent my turns just blinking TKS and Drowner of Hope to make a massive board and keep out other unwanted things, namely more Bridges. We did this for 10 or so minites. Finally my opponent asked "why are you making all those spawns? I have you under the lock." I said "It's fun. I'm playing it out." My opponent started to mill me super hard, and didn't realize he milled World Breaker. End of his turn, I got World Breaker back, then on my turn I cast it and exiled the bridge to swing for lethal. His face was priceless.
I cannot stand the blandness and poor layout of MTGO. Only problem with Arena is the p2w (which MTGO and base MTG both have anyways), and server crash issues
@@JollyGiantsForge Oh I didn’t mean I prefer actually playing MTGO to Arena, I meant purely in terms of RUclips content. I find the simplicity of MTGO makes for a much less confusing and more enjoyable viewing experience
@@JollyGiantsForge Guessing you're a kid who needs flashy animations and effects to keep you entertained? It's a card game, and MTGO looks like a card game. Blandness isn't an issue. Arena's UI is worse imo, with obscured cards in the hand, cards that don't tap sideways properly, cards that don't even look like Magic cards on the board (just squares of art).
I think it says a lot about Seth as he has said probably hundreds of times, that deck X Y Z is his all-time favorite one, and I have never had a reason to doubt him. Man loves his MtG alright. :)
Lantern Control is the most annoying deck that I actually respect. It's super fun to play and super lame to play against. However, to be successful with it, the player has to reeeeally ride the line, know the archetypes, know the answers, and has a high skill requirement. It's really easy to lose with Lantern Control
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing with this result. It wasn't a broken deck but it has an incredibly high skill ceiling that allows the player to play around their opponent's outs if they're good. It's kinda like old storm, everybody thought it was broken but nobody played it, and whenever you met the few storm players you trembled a little bit. Lantern was the same way, happy to see it remaining like this.
Omg the mad lad did it, I'm truly convinced now that Seth likes this deck. I thought he was joking when he said it on the pod! It really is so unique the way this deck works and attacks the game. Lantern turns the game into an open information puzzle and I love that
I think this is the best possible result. A functioning deck that isn't broken but has a very high skill ceiling. It can get hated out but as you get good with it, you can play around their outs.
i really wish i could like this video more than once. just love lantern control gameplay. it is so riviting! not just the lock, but the vunerability if *one card slips thru*. crazy cool~♡
Hey, nice league! I enjoyed the video! Wanted to point out some stuff: @7:55, when you sacrifice the first Bauble, that isn't too bad, I suppose, but it does mean you just also "sacrificed" you land (the Mox Opal is now turned off). When you drew the Shredder, sacrificing the second Bauble is a mistake. The reason why is that, first, you don't want to sacrifice your land (losing metalcraft and turning off the Opal). The second reason is that, in the years since we've been working on Lantern, we've learned that it's *almost always incorrect* to use Baubles on the opponent (only in niche cases). The reason why is that they are better used with mill rocks as surveil engines. Since you drew the Shredder, you now have that opportunity, but sacrificing the second Bauble causes you to lose this ability *and* your mana source. @1:20:24, you again use the Bauble on the opp rather than use it as a surveil. You have a Shredder available to do exactly this. You know that you want a black source for the Thoughtseize, and this would have potentially allowed you to dig to that black source, which would have forced the opponent to use the Surgical early anyways (probably just on Bauble or whatever you (might have) surveil'd. @9:07, it's better to use the Trophy before milling with the Shredder. The reason why is that, by milling with Shredder and then Trophy, you have provided a small chance for the opponent to shuffle a good card to the top of their library. It doesn't happen, but doing it in the reverse order makes it so it absolutely won't happen. If you Trophy first, then the opponent is forced to either lose the land with nothing to get for it in order to save the Sink Into Stupor (which can still be milled) or to shuffle away the Sink Into Stupor. This is one of the reasons the deck is "the zugzwang machine". @11:44, it looks like you realized that you milled away that Thoughtcast unnecessarily. This again provides a small chance, if the opponent is able to search up a cantrip artifact, to shuffle a card to the top and draw it. This doesn't happen, but is an inaccurate play. @20:30, it was probably better to either cast Necromentia or Pithing Needle before the Stirrings. The reason why is to bait out the Force of Negation that they have in hand. This would have let you follow up with digging for a Bridge/Lantern/etc, without having to worry about the counter. You have information about their hand, but they don't have the information about yours. @34:23, you mill a Pyxis into your own graveyard and apparently miss (for the rest of the game) that you can get it back with Ruins in order to help secure the lock. @44:43, you have an opportunity here to use Boseiju on the opponent's land. The opponent is then forced to choose between "being Sinkhole'd" or losing that Wrenn and Six. Either choice puts them in what is likely a losing position for them (again, zugzwang). @49:03, you aren't sure what to name with Pithing Needle, but you have two Surgical Extractions in hand. What's interesting about this is that you could go for the mana denial route by using Surgical on the Bloodstained Mire, getting information on the opponent's hand, and then using that information to know what to name with Needle (possibly another fetchland, potentially significantly affecting the opponent's ability to hit land drops with). Based on how the game actually played out, the correct play would have likely been to Surgical the Bloodstained Mire, look at the deck, then Needle the Wrenn and Six. Then use the other Surgical on Faithless Looting in response to the Thoughtseize. @49:32, you cast Surgical Extraction on the Faithless Looting at the opponent's end step. The correct usage of Surgical here would be to wait for the opponent's draw step. The reason why is to get more information and *potentially* strip a Looting from the opponent's hand if they draw one. The end result is the same, but you squeeze some extra value out of the cards with this line. You repeat this inaccuracy @54:30 @51:39, you already know what happens, lol. @58:01, you have a narrow line here. You grab the Spire of Industry with the Ancient Stirrings and play Fomori Vault. Then hold it until the opp tries to Boseiju. At that point, activate Vault, pitch Spire, dig for Needle or Surgical for Boseiju. @1:04:27, you have another line here. If you paid attention to what cards are exiled with each Pyxis, you could use one to tuck the Ensnaring Bridge under one. You already have five mana, so two more mana lets you put the Bridge directly into play with the Pyxis, getting around the counters. @1:21:05, it may have been better to cast Needle, threatening to Needle frog. The opponent is going to get to draw an extra card the next turn anyways. After casting the Needle, you can cast the Thoughtseize, pulling whatever card the opponent might have held onto (rather than pitch to frog). This sets you up quite nicely. @1:29:44, you tapped your lands inaccurately, tapping the Ruins to cast Lantern. This means that if the opponent were able to draw removal for Bridge and remove it that turn, you wouldn't have been able to get it back. Tapping your mana differently here also means that you have the ability to sacrifice Lantern to shuffle their top card if you need to and get it back before next turn with Ruins. @1:31:47, this is one of the rare times/matchups where you do want to use Surgical while the opponent is tapped out. It's also why most of us have moved on to Extirpate instead of Surgical (so the opponent can't counter it or respond by exiling with frog, etc.). Others have also pointed out that Lantern did exist while Twin was legal. I've been playing the deck since early 2013, and it first started getting real attention in July 2015 at GP Charlotte (when Zac Elsik took 15th with it) and in that same year at GP OKC, when he beat BBD, who was piloting Twin. I would argue that Lantern saw a significant drop in play after the Opal ban *not* because of losing Opal, but because people *thought* that losing Opal was too much and assumed it wasn't competitive any more because of it. The other cards around that era did make the deck much more difficult to compete with (Oko, Uro, Ragavan, Archmage's Charm, Collector Ouphe...so many cards). However, after MH2, when Urza's Saga and Profane Tutor got printed, the deck started to get a footing again. However, the general Magic community still thought that it couldn't compete due to Opal and the presence of other cards in the meta that the deck might struggle with, so very few gave it any real consideration and the deck saw very little play due to it. Some people who dabbled in Lantern previously played it every once in a while, trying to force cards like Karn, the Great Creator and The One Ring, but would lose and blame the deck as a whole rather than the subpar construction of the deck. Thanks again for the content!
This just made me realize that Surgical Extraction is a strict upgrade to the card mentioned recently that lets you see an opponent's hand in Commander. You'll always fail to find, but you get to flip through someone's hand and deck
Glasses of Urza (which I think you're referring to) is repeatable, though, and you can look at hands of multiple players over multiple terms, whereas Surgical Extraction is one-shot and only lets you look at the deck of one opponent. Surgical Extraction's ability to see their library is something Glasses of Urza doesn't do, but Glasses of Urza is able to things that Surgical Extraction can't.
Very fun matches to watch! This deck is so great when all the pieces are assembled. At 1:06:35 Seth says Lantern vs Splinter Twin has never existed, but Zac Elsik's GP Oklahoma 2015 win was vs Brian Braun-Duin on Twin...
I love Lantern Control; it never feels unfair. If you lose, it's almost always on you. If you win, you always have the sensation that your opponent might win as well.
I'm so glad to hear you excited about modern again!! I hope this is how things slant going forwards on wizards making decisions that bring people to enjoy play more
Ahh, I feel complete. Nothing like control, but Seth playing it is special. Seeing this deck again is a fresh Hell for opponents. Merry Christmas Seth!
I love Lantern Control. I have a version of it somewhere when some pieces were expensive (it had shortly hit the main stream). I read the entire threat thinkr wrote that created the deck. It was called "What if your opponents drew nothing but land for the rest of the game?" or something similar. This deck is fun and challenging to pilot. Even when you know what you're doing you don't feel like you know what you're doing. Revisit this deck more often.
Seeing my favorite modern deck resurfacing definitely made my day, but on top of that 3 surgical extractions main deck just like I use to was the icing on the cake 🙏
there really isnt quite a mtg gameplay video like seth when he is really enjoying modern. i didnt realize how much i missed vids like these until seeing just the pure joy seth has of locking out other decks in modern. you were missed, more than i realized
The drama of match two when the challenge was no longer to beat your opponent, but instead to beat the clock was great to watch. Post meltdown, almost out of time, and then pivot to the construct plan. Awesome.
I remember when Glint-Nest Crane was in the deck. It wasn't unheard of to attack for 1-3 damage before playing the card you drew for turn for your Bridge. Fun times
Modern is healing. Seeing the recent 2 videos from Seth, both are longer than 1.5 hour, and to top it off, they're Twins and Lantern, puts a smile in my face.
I started playing modern around 2017 and I lived the whole era of lantern control been on top of the world. As a control player myself I was so fascinated by the deck back then but I did not have the money to build a second modern deck , I was a student and barely I manage to build my WU control. Since the video of Rhystic studies was published I was crazy to build it but everyone was like nah is not good blah blah without opal and they were right but now it’s back on the menu !!! Super excited about modern and make other people’s life miserable with lantern of insight like I was when I played against it 6 years ago 🤣 Let’s go Seth 🎉🎉
Lantern control was the first game I played against at my local FNM. I was just starting magic and saw a video from you for a budget Burn deck with elements. I was so confused what was happening. Even I lost I loved it so much to see the interaction, how my opponent locked me completely out. 😅
I still remember playing Faeries against this. I loved it. One time I had a bitterblossom and like a million faerie tokens. My opponent had it all: a bridge, latern and shredders. He sat back and watched Blossom kill me slowly while letting me keep my fatal pushes. That was until I managed to sneak in an endstep Vendillion Clique targetting myself when his shredders were tapped out, to draw a card and it was Ancestral visions. There was about 20 people watching as everyone else had already finished playing, but our game was going pretty long (as often was the case with lantern). Many turns later, I was almost dead, Ancestral Vision came of suspend. But I made my opponent draw 3 cards! My faerie army could swing and attack for lethal! 😄 the look on his face! Everyone was cheering! I won that FNM. I’ll never forget that. Oh modern…. My sweet modern…
Lantern Vs Twin was a thing way back. Lantern having a strong game against the dominating duo of Pod and Twin back in the day is what got people paying attention to Lantern amongst other things.
I am sooo happy where modern is! Lantern is my favorite modern deck and it's amazing that's it's back, and with a winning record!?! Looks like Christmas came a week early this year!
Am I missing something or did not casting thoughtseize at 1:25:57 let them attack with frog, give flying then pump for lethal after blocks? They missed the line if so but still curious. Edit: immediately saw the pithing needle on psychic frog after posting
Until the next big paper event for Modern where the mox gets banned again for enabling a unfun playpattern. Just like last time when they argued the ban that way. Guess KCI was also part of the reason back then.
Very fun video. Highly recommend letting the opponent draw before using surgical after a thoughtseize though. If you’re lucky you can get an extra card from their hand.
iirc, seeing your opponents top card is state-based. Meaning you are only given the top card of their library every time states are checked. States are not checked between the drawing of two cards in an ability that says something like "Draw two cards."
You can tell this is a true Lantern deck video with it almost being a 2 hour video and assuming the editor had a lot of trimming to go through on top of it.
Yeah, it was over three hours before the editing lol
That was the first thing I noticed too lol awesome
Some of my favorite magic ever is when it becomes a battle of wits, attrition and bladder control.
Cool! two matches!
My first thought
There is a finite amount of fun to be had playing Magic, and Lantern likes to have all of it.
Lantern of Insight? More like Lantern of incite rage.
Magic sure has many zero sum fun strategies.
Anyway, I love how people seem to have a hard time defining the wincon of Lantern Control when it's clearly a prison deck
@@johndoe9343 It doesn't have a wincon because it doesn't have a specific way of winning the game. Yes, it mills people out, but that is a byproduct of top-deck manipulation. "Prison" in and of itself isn't a wincon. Establish prison decks such as Shops in Vintage or even old-school Sun and Moon in Modern all had a way of ending the game from under its lock. Lantern isn't like that (and that might not be obvious until you've played it a lot).
As Rhystic Studies put it, "Lantern Control disassembles its opposition one card at a time and reduces decks to piles of dysfunctional game pieces," Its goal isn't to win, but to reduce its opponent's ability to win to 0%. Then, it eventually wins by default.
I've had opponents wholly locked out of the game ask me, "Do you just want to call it a draw?" because they couldn't see a win condition and didn't understand that they had already lost. For future reference, the correct response to this is: 104.3a
@@johndoe9343I wouldn't even call it a true prison deck since it's not technically doing a combo that makes them unkillable.
It's just the classic control strategy of "counter everything" except you counter the top of their library instead of the stack. It's just attrition made wincon.
@@_Ve_98
Common defintions I see are:
"Prison is the strategy of making your opponent unable to cast their spells, or unable to use their cards to their normal effect."
"A Prison deck is a deck which tries to slow down the opponent or bring their gameplan to a complete halt and preventing them from regaining any momentum."
Now are these definitions valid? Honestly, idk, but it sure seems like Lantern Control fits the glove with these definitions and from my own understanding.
The last several months it's been sad watching Seth mourn his favourite format.
It's a treat seeing the pure joy as he plays lantern and the splinter twin video.
Merry Christmas Seth
I'm so happy to have Modern back. It really is an early Christmas present. Merry Christmas!
@@MTGGoldfishSo on a scale of one to ten, how good is Modern now? I imagine the MH2&3 piles are still annoying so probably not a ten eh?
Seth just recreating the entire meta from my old lgs in peak modern
I missed these decks so much :)
@@MTGGoldfishtron needs an extra piece or 2
My favorite lantern moment was at a LGS where my opponent was playing ad nauseam and declared "i will make you play it out" turn 1i blind milled his lab maniac and turn 2 I pithing needled his lightning storm, he instantly scooped
Mine was when I was playing a Skred player at my LGS. Game 3 I blind Pithing Needle'd Arid Mesa turn 1. He proceeded to play an Arid Mesa. I then followed up with a lantern and a shredder. He played another Arid Mesa. He never got to draw another land.
lololol
@@SoulsOnly lol needle on a fetch land always feels good, even better when they actually have that fetch land out and don't think to fetch in response
😂😂😂
You monster
I saw the Rhystic Studies video on Lantern Control a while back and was mesmerized about the play pattern, so I'm very excited to see this get played!
Same
It's such a unique deck, one of my favorites.
As a chess nerd it was a delight but the deck would make me throw hands at some point
The Zugzwang Machine holds a special place in my heart
Just want to point out, Lantern came into prominence while Twin was still a deck. One of the matches that put Lantern on the map was against Twin in fact, Zac Elsik vs Brian Braun-Duin during Grand Prix Oklahoma City 2015 where Zac beat Brian in the finals with Lantern.
Ohh, good call. I was misremembering the time frame.
What's interesting is that both decks can be played again post-unbanning
That was also the last big Modern event before the infamous PT Oath of the Gatewatch. So the rise of Lantern can be said to be the culmination of Old Modern.
Slink into stupor and Raccoon theater are two instant Seth classics
It always warms heart that the godfather of jank is, at his core, a hardcore prison player.
You know modern is a good place when seth is having fun and aspiring spike is making 5 new decks a day.
Ah, yes, Lantern Control, the deck where the win condition is your opponent standing up, walking over to the LGS's singles case, and asking the person working the counter if they can price and purchase an entire collection immediately.
By technically it can win by mill. Never seen it win that way
While playing RG Tron once, I let a mono blue turns player take fifteen turns, have a bunch of howling mine effects in play, get down to just a couple of cards left in their library, cast an elixir of immortality to reshuffle and in response I cast Boil (a 2-of in my sideboard at the time). I swear my opponent read the card over and over. Then they silently got up, walked to the desk, sold their whole deck to the shop and walked out 🤣. Never seen anything like it lol
Did *not* expect Seth to pull out that Match 2 win!
My favorite lantern moment was when I wasn't even playing lantern. I was on bant eldrazi post-Eye of Ugin ban. My opponent got a bridge down. I spent my turns just blinking TKS and Drowner of Hope to make a massive board and keep out other unwanted things, namely more Bridges. We did this for 10 or so minites. Finally my opponent asked "why are you making all those spawns? I have you under the lock." I said "It's fun. I'm playing it out." My opponent started to mill me super hard, and didn't realize he milled World Breaker. End of his turn, I got World Breaker back, then on my turn I cast it and exiled the bridge to swing for lethal. His face was priceless.
Lantern rewards discipline and precision. You were the more disciplined that day, well done!
Honestly can’t express how happy it makes me to see MTGO Modern videos on this channel again 😅
Yeah, for me mtg arena was one of the worst things to ever happen to mtg content creation
I cannot stand the blandness and poor layout of MTGO. Only problem with Arena is the p2w (which MTGO and base MTG both have anyways), and server crash issues
@@JollyGiantsForge Oh I didn’t mean I prefer actually playing MTGO to Arena, I meant purely in terms of RUclips content. I find the simplicity of MTGO makes for a much less confusing and more enjoyable viewing experience
@@JollyGiantsForge Guessing you're a kid who needs flashy animations and effects to keep you entertained? It's a card game, and MTGO looks like a card game. Blandness isn't an issue.
Arena's UI is worse imo, with obscured cards in the hand, cards that don't tap sideways properly, cards that don't even look like Magic cards on the board (just squares of art).
I think it says a lot about Seth as he has said probably hundreds of times, that deck X Y Z is his all-time favorite one, and I have never had a reason to doubt him. Man loves his MtG alright. :)
Seth immediately playing the most miserable decks in Modern's history as soon as he can is such a perfect Saffron trollive move
You're a man after my own heart. Seth this is my favorite deck of all time. Merry Christmas! You add so much joy to my life every year.
Merry Christmas!
1:32:37 "I love where modern is right now" you said exactly the opposite thing on the podcast the other week, i'm so glad it has changed.
Lantern Control is the most annoying deck that I actually respect. It's super fun to play and super lame to play against. However, to be successful with it, the player has to reeeeally ride the line, know the archetypes, know the answers, and has a high skill requirement. It's really easy to lose with Lantern Control
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing with this result. It wasn't a broken deck but it has an incredibly high skill ceiling that allows the player to play around their opponent's outs if they're good. It's kinda like old storm, everybody thought it was broken but nobody played it, and whenever you met the few storm players you trembled a little bit. Lantern was the same way, happy to see it remaining like this.
Omg the mad lad did it, I'm truly convinced now that Seth likes this deck. I thought he was joking when he said it on the pod! It really is so unique the way this deck works and attacks the game. Lantern turns the game into an open information puzzle and I love that
Here's really nothing like Lantern Control is all of Magic. It's such a singular deck (plus, I love prison, so...)
Yes, opal being back means seth is playing lantern again!!
Love your channel too. Neat seeing you comment on this, but not too surprising. ❤️
I think this is the best possible result. A functioning deck that isn't broken but has a very high skill ceiling. It can get hated out but as you get good with it, you can play around their outs.
46:43 that turn 1 is the power of mox Opal in lantern!
You could have played saga t1 and make constructs early if you wanted to!
Lantern vs Twin being a thing is incredible, i love seeing either deck win and the matchup even existing is by itself a cool thing
i really wish i could like this video more than once. just love lantern control gameplay. it is so riviting! not just the lock, but the vunerability if *one card slips thru*. crazy cool~♡
Seeing how hyped you were at the end of match 2 just really made my day. Thanks for the banger games and showing off such a beautiful deck once again!
Seth's Modern Nostalgia Tour continues with it's 2nd stop featuring Lanturn Control. What will Seth play next time?
hoping for Hollow One or Phoenix. We've seen a twin deck, we've seen an Opal deck. Time for a Flooting deck!
I would also take a GSZ Maverick deck ;)
Hey, nice league! I enjoyed the video! Wanted to point out some stuff:
@7:55, when you sacrifice the first Bauble, that isn't too bad, I suppose, but it does mean you just also "sacrificed" you land (the Mox Opal is now turned off). When you drew the Shredder, sacrificing the second Bauble is a mistake. The reason why is that, first, you don't want to sacrifice your land (losing metalcraft and turning off the Opal). The second reason is that, in the years since we've been working on Lantern, we've learned that it's *almost always incorrect* to use Baubles on the opponent (only in niche cases). The reason why is that they are better used with mill rocks as surveil engines. Since you drew the Shredder, you now have that opportunity, but sacrificing the second Bauble causes you to lose this ability *and* your mana source. @1:20:24, you again use the Bauble on the opp rather than use it as a surveil. You have a Shredder available to do exactly this. You know that you want a black source for the Thoughtseize, and this would have potentially allowed you to dig to that black source, which would have forced the opponent to use the Surgical early anyways (probably just on Bauble or whatever you (might have) surveil'd.
@9:07, it's better to use the Trophy before milling with the Shredder. The reason why is that, by milling with Shredder and then Trophy, you have provided a small chance for the opponent to shuffle a good card to the top of their library. It doesn't happen, but doing it in the reverse order makes it so it absolutely won't happen. If you Trophy first, then the opponent is forced to either lose the land with nothing to get for it in order to save the Sink Into Stupor (which can still be milled) or to shuffle away the Sink Into Stupor. This is one of the reasons the deck is "the zugzwang machine".
@11:44, it looks like you realized that you milled away that Thoughtcast unnecessarily. This again provides a small chance, if the opponent is able to search up a cantrip artifact, to shuffle a card to the top and draw it. This doesn't happen, but is an inaccurate play.
@20:30, it was probably better to either cast Necromentia or Pithing Needle before the Stirrings. The reason why is to bait out the Force of Negation that they have in hand. This would have let you follow up with digging for a Bridge/Lantern/etc, without having to worry about the counter. You have information about their hand, but they don't have the information about yours.
@34:23, you mill a Pyxis into your own graveyard and apparently miss (for the rest of the game) that you can get it back with Ruins in order to help secure the lock.
@44:43, you have an opportunity here to use Boseiju on the opponent's land. The opponent is then forced to choose between "being Sinkhole'd" or losing that Wrenn and Six. Either choice puts them in what is likely a losing position for them (again, zugzwang).
@49:03, you aren't sure what to name with Pithing Needle, but you have two Surgical Extractions in hand. What's interesting about this is that you could go for the mana denial route by using Surgical on the Bloodstained Mire, getting information on the opponent's hand, and then using that information to know what to name with Needle (possibly another fetchland, potentially significantly affecting the opponent's ability to hit land drops with). Based on how the game actually played out, the correct play would have likely been to Surgical the Bloodstained Mire, look at the deck, then Needle the Wrenn and Six. Then use the other Surgical on Faithless Looting in response to the Thoughtseize.
@49:32, you cast Surgical Extraction on the Faithless Looting at the opponent's end step. The correct usage of Surgical here would be to wait for the opponent's draw step. The reason why is to get more information and *potentially* strip a Looting from the opponent's hand if they draw one. The end result is the same, but you squeeze some extra value out of the cards with this line. You repeat this inaccuracy @54:30
@51:39, you already know what happens, lol.
@58:01, you have a narrow line here. You grab the Spire of Industry with the Ancient Stirrings and play Fomori Vault. Then hold it until the opp tries to Boseiju. At that point, activate Vault, pitch Spire, dig for Needle or Surgical for Boseiju.
@1:04:27, you have another line here. If you paid attention to what cards are exiled with each Pyxis, you could use one to tuck the Ensnaring Bridge under one. You already have five mana, so two more mana lets you put the Bridge directly into play with the Pyxis, getting around the counters.
@1:21:05, it may have been better to cast Needle, threatening to Needle frog. The opponent is going to get to draw an extra card the next turn anyways. After casting the Needle, you can cast the Thoughtseize, pulling whatever card the opponent might have held onto (rather than pitch to frog). This sets you up quite nicely.
@1:29:44, you tapped your lands inaccurately, tapping the Ruins to cast Lantern. This means that if the opponent were able to draw removal for Bridge and remove it that turn, you wouldn't have been able to get it back. Tapping your mana differently here also means that you have the ability to sacrifice Lantern to shuffle their top card if you need to and get it back before next turn with Ruins.
@1:31:47, this is one of the rare times/matchups where you do want to use Surgical while the opponent is tapped out. It's also why most of us have moved on to Extirpate instead of Surgical (so the opponent can't counter it or respond by exiling with frog, etc.).
Others have also pointed out that Lantern did exist while Twin was legal. I've been playing the deck since early 2013, and it first started getting real attention in July 2015 at GP Charlotte (when Zac Elsik took 15th with it) and in that same year at GP OKC, when he beat BBD, who was piloting Twin.
I would argue that Lantern saw a significant drop in play after the Opal ban *not* because of losing Opal, but because people *thought* that losing Opal was too much and assumed it wasn't competitive any more because of it. The other cards around that era did make the deck much more difficult to compete with (Oko, Uro, Ragavan, Archmage's Charm, Collector Ouphe...so many cards). However, after MH2, when Urza's Saga and Profane Tutor got printed, the deck started to get a footing again. However, the general Magic community still thought that it couldn't compete due to Opal and the presence of other cards in the meta that the deck might struggle with, so very few gave it any real consideration and the deck saw very little play due to it. Some people who dabbled in Lantern previously played it every once in a while, trying to force cards like Karn, the Great Creator and The One Ring, but would lose and blame the deck as a whole rather than the subpar construction of the deck.
Thanks again for the content!
This just made me realize that Surgical Extraction is a strict upgrade to the card mentioned recently that lets you see an opponent's hand in Commander.
You'll always fail to find, but you get to flip through someone's hand and deck
Are you talking about Gitaxian Probe?
They're talking about Urza's Glasses. Richard was singing its praises in a recent podcast episode
Then you run into that one relentless rats player and ruin their day.
Glasses of Urza (which I think you're referring to) is repeatable, though, and you can look at hands of multiple players over multiple terms, whereas Surgical Extraction is one-shot and only lets you look at the deck of one opponent. Surgical Extraction's ability to see their library is something Glasses of Urza doesn't do, but Glasses of Urza is able to things that Surgical Extraction can't.
Very fun matches to watch! This deck is so great when all the pieces are assembled.
At 1:06:35 Seth says Lantern vs Splinter Twin has never existed, but Zac Elsik's GP Oklahoma 2015 win was vs Brian Braun-Duin on Twin...
I love Lantern Control; it never feels unfair. If you lose, it's almost always on you. If you win, you always have the sensation that your opponent might win as well.
So unbelievably pumped to watch my favorite modern deck of all time again!
I'm so glad to hear you excited about modern again!! I hope this is how things slant going forwards on wizards making decisions that bring people to enjoy play more
Ahh, I feel complete. Nothing like control, but Seth playing it is special. Seeing this deck again is a fresh Hell for opponents. Merry Christmas Seth!
I love Lantern Control. I have a version of it somewhere when some pieces were expensive (it had shortly hit the main stream). I read the entire threat thinkr wrote that created the deck. It was called "What if your opponents drew nothing but land for the rest of the game?" or something similar. This deck is fun and challenging to pilot. Even when you know what you're doing you don't feel like you know what you're doing. Revisit this deck more often.
Latern, affinity, and scales. Looks like my old mox opal enabled decks are back in the menu.
You can tell Seth enjoyed this more than against the odds splinter twin. So many misplays in that video, it was painful 😂
I loved learning about this deck, glad to see it in action!
Needs some glasses to search up with saga.
Hopefully we get Glasses of Urza in Modern Horizons 4 ;)
But what about Sunglasses of Urza
The Zugzwang Machine is back!
Seeing my favorite modern deck resurfacing definitely made my day, but on top of that 3 surgical extractions main deck just like I use to was the icing on the cake 🙏
My prayers answered! I’m so glad you had as much fun playing as I did watching. Executed for more modern ❤️
there really isnt quite a mtg gameplay video like seth when he is really enjoying modern. i didnt realize how much i missed vids like these until seeing just the pure joy seth has of locking out other decks in modern. you were missed, more than i realized
I love watching games with lantern control. Laying all the information out makes them easy to follow.
The drama of match two when the challenge was no longer to beat your opponent, but instead to beat the clock was great to watch. Post meltdown, almost out of time, and then pivot to the construct plan. Awesome.
It'd be great to see the deck again with your next iteration, it's very fun to watch
48:50 That blind pithing needle was incredible! I'm thoroughly impressed.
It took my years to learn to like magic, and a huge part of that was my friend's lantern control deck.
my favorite deck in all of magic history. I am so glad to see some play on this formerly budget deck can do a run.
I remember when Glint-Nest Crane was in the deck. It wasn't unheard of to attack for 1-3 damage before playing the card you drew for turn for your Bridge. Fun times
I only watch your videos that are off the mtg arena server. So happy to see you making modern content again 😌
I'm happy to be having fun playing Modern again, I've really missed it.
As soon as the opponent revealed the Meltdown on top of the deck I cheered, I have never been so happy to see Seth lose
Always love seeing you play lantern and prison in general
Modern is healing. Seeing the recent 2 videos from Seth, both are longer than 1.5 hour, and to top it off, they're Twins and Lantern, puts a smile in my face.
This was fun, I wanna see more of this strange strange deck!
The identity of the format feels like it may make a comeback. I'm watching 2024 Latern Control vs. Affinity. I am ecstatic.
I started playing modern around 2017 and I lived the whole era of lantern control been on top of the world. As a control player myself I was so fascinated by the deck back then but I did not have the money to build a second modern deck , I was a student and barely I manage to build my WU control. Since the video of Rhystic studies was published I was crazy to build it but everyone was like nah is not good blah blah without opal and they were right but now it’s back on the menu !!! Super excited about modern and make other people’s life miserable with lantern of insight like I was when I played against it 6 years ago 🤣 Let’s go Seth 🎉🎉
Lantern control was the first game I played against at my local FNM. I was just starting magic and saw a video from you for a budget Burn deck with elements. I was so confused what was happening. Even I lost I loved it so much to see the interaction, how my opponent locked me completely out. 😅
I hate the look of Arena, so I'm mega hype to have you back piloting this again!!
I haven’t played modern since 2015 but this new post-ban era has been great to watch and makes me consider playing again
I still remember playing Faeries against this. I loved it. One time I had a bitterblossom and like a million faerie tokens. My opponent had it all: a bridge, latern and shredders. He sat back and watched Blossom kill me slowly while letting me keep my fatal pushes. That was until I managed to sneak in an endstep Vendillion Clique targetting myself when his shredders were tapped out, to draw a card and it was Ancestral visions. There was about 20 people watching as everyone else had already finished playing, but our game was going pretty long (as often was the case with lantern). Many turns later, I was almost dead, Ancestral Vision came of suspend. But I made my opponent draw 3 cards! My faerie army could swing and attack for lethal! 😄 the look on his face! Everyone was cheering! I won that FNM. I’ll never forget that. Oh modern…. My sweet modern…
This video is really the good stuff. It is nice to see Seth sooo happy. Good for you Seth 😊
And then there is Soul-Guide Lantern... It wants to part of the puzzle too, Seth. Have mercy.
Oh man, it's been so long since I've seen lantern. It's such a beautifully constructed deck with an absolutely abysmal play style.
Lantern Vs Twin was a thing way back. Lantern having a strong game against the dominating duo of Pod and Twin back in the day is what got people paying attention to Lantern amongst other things.
Way too excited to see this. Santa came early this year. I love lantern control.
Love me some lantern! You piloted it really well, great watch
I am sooo happy where modern is! Lantern is my favorite modern deck and it's amazing that's it's back, and with a winning record!?! Looks like Christmas came a week early this year!
One of my favorite decks of all magics history!
Finaly you release the Lantern Control movie.
I love you Seth, you get so much joy from playing the most toxic decks you can think of, you're the quintessential Magic player.
you really want to play the invasion tree!!! this pushes what your deck can do it ramps you and takes mill up a notch 😁
Aww yisss! Been waiting for this! 😍
used to play this in bug colours with whir of invention, and a thopter foundry and jace mind sculptor in the sideboard, loved it
Am I missing something or did not casting thoughtseize at 1:25:57 let them attack with frog, give flying then pump for lethal after blocks? They missed the line if so but still curious.
Edit: immediately saw the pithing needle on psychic frog after posting
Yeah, that Pithing Needle was saving the day.
So excited to have Seth playing modern again!!
Awesome video, awesome deck choice. Love it.
its such a joy to see seth having fun 😂❤
love this deck! the matches seem like a grappling match
I love seeying how Saffron loves making his enemies miserable XD
im so happy to see mtgo gameplay again
I honestly love having these types of decks good in the format idk why.
Lantern control is peak blue player energy and im here for it! Im so happy to see it being played again!! :D
oh cool! i was introduced to lantern control by sam rhystic studies, so i'm warily excited to see it in action
This is my favorite deck of all time omg so excited to watch
I just saw the title of this video and I can't tell you how excited I am that both modern is back and Lantern Control is back.
Until the next big paper event for Modern where the mox gets banned again for enabling a unfun playpattern. Just like last time when they argued the ban that way. Guess KCI was also part of the reason back then.
Very fun video. Highly recommend letting the opponent draw before using surgical after a thoughtseize though. If you’re lucky you can get an extra card from their hand.
Seth adding letters to words that were never there will always be the highlight of every video ...sLink...
that game 1 vs splinter twin was so suspenseful
they had like 7 live draws in a row!
I'm in tears. It's so beautiful
The extraction topdeck was clutch
Splinter Twin vs Lantern was the Match Up in the Finals when Lantern won its first GP.
"We can play as long as you want to opponent or until your deck can't play anymore, your choice." - Lantern Player
"I see you brought 60 cards. Lets have a look at them all, one by one."
iirc, seeing your opponents top card is state-based. Meaning you are only given the top card of their library every time states are checked. States are not checked between the drawing of two cards in an ability that says something like "Draw two cards."
Yesss! Lantern is my favourite Modern deck to watch! (alongside the "Kaya's Extraction" against the odds deck you made a few years ago. I have a type)
Kaya’s Extraction is still my favourite deck he’s ever played, and that even includes his knowledge pool lock decks
It's nice to see Seth gushing over an archetype he so clearly loves
We used to do that on arena brawl back when Xanathar, Guild Kingpin was popular. Play their deck until they have a land, then pass.
When he said "... modern is back" I felt that
This is probably my favorite deck all time.
I cheered at that surgical off the top and then they had one in hand!
Listening to Seth rationalize his love for Lantern control for 2 hours is peak Lantern control content. Lol