Bridge
Lantern
Ashiok
STirrings
This idea came from theoretical discussion over in the Pox thread about developing a hybrid of Lantern Control from Modern combined with Legacy Pox. The fundamental weakness of Pox has always been opponent's top-decks, which can't be dealt with at sorcery speed. A couple of new cards have really provided some interesting interactions that could possibly merge Lantern with Pox.
Ensnaring Bridge is a powerful magic card to build around, provided there is enough support amongst the rest of the deck to keep it on the battlefield. This means right from the start, this deck doesn't really want to win with combat. Another friend tagging along from Pox is Cursed Scroll, something that is a slow win condition but doesn't need combat. Bitterblossom can provide chump blockers and allow evasive attacks on our own turn, before playing out our top-decked card.
Ashiok, Dream Render has become an addition to recent Pox-like control decks that offers a lot of value to this deck. It prevents opponents from using fetchlands and it prevents library tutoring of any kind including Intuition, Infernal Tutor, Wishclaw Talisman, Enlightened Tutor, Imperial Recruiter, Recruiter of the Guard, Crop Rotation, Knight of the Reliquary, Elvish Reclaimer, Goblin Matron, and many others. Ashiok's ability is also very useful as another milling tool to utilize alongside Lantern to prevent valuable top-decks from opponents. Lastly, and certainly not least, is Ashiok's ability to exile graveyards after activation. This provides supplementary value in game one against Dredge, Gurmag Angler, Reanimator strategies, and Snapcaster Mage. This deck is almost as much an Ashiok deck as it is an Ensnaring Bridge deck, its so valuable as a lynchpin.
Cursed Scroll has become the de-facto win condition that can operate under Ensnaring Bridge. It can deal with problematic small creatures, but more often it's just a simple 2 damage a turn to the opponent to close games out. It is slow, similar to Pox speed where it the idea came from, but not so slow as to cause problems. Recently I've moved up to 3 copies so it will be naturally drawn or nabbed with Stirrings more often. I found many times Wishclaw Talisman was fetching the Scroll, which seemed silly, so I just cut out the middle man and added more copies.
Ancient Stirrings has tons of legacy potential, but is overshadowed by the blue cantrips. In this deck it digs deeper than any of the 1-mana blue cantrips and finds exactly what we always want: Ensnaring Bridge, Lantern of Insight, mill-rocks, Cursed Scroll, and lands. It has seen some play in Post decks, but this deck really benefits from it's dig power. So far it has given the deck a high level of consistency.
Traditional elements in black and green are also included, not only for supporting the overall plan but also doing the best job in these particular colors. Thoughtseize and Abrupt Decay great disruptive pieces that will help round out the deck. Sylvan Library is just pure value, especially when Ensnaring Bridge is holding opponent's up from winning the game. Your life total is then easier to use as a source of extra cards.
Utility lands are part of the mix currently as just one copy of Castle Locthwain. As I test further there may be opportunities to try other lands in that slot such as Maze of Ith, Karakas, Mishra's Factory, and Ghost QuarterGhost Quarter. The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale is a non-budget addition that could help boost some matchups, if available.
A short note about Mox Opal: it doesn't allow extra mana on turn 1, and sometimes doesn't become active even on turn 2. It's enticing to try it in a deck with so many artifacts, but ironically there just aren't enough artifacts that fit the strategy to enable it. Dark Ritual allows for fast Ashioks and Bridges, two of the most important cards in the deck. Dark Ritual also serves as a mana boost even in the late game by helping to activate Codex Shredder's Regrowth ability. This synergy also negates the need for a blue splash to enable Academy Ruins. Wrapping up the Mox Opal thread is the fact that the game goes so long that hitting land drops isn't an issue. I'd rather just have enough lands to reliably make the deck work. Dark Ritual gets the nod for allowing for combinations of t1 plays that are much more akin to the power level of legacy.
This is budget-friendly and still powerful. My background has always been budget-oriented, trying to do the most with the least. I am excited to have another deck available that starts from a foundation of Turbo Depths. Most of the cards in here are affordable, making it a small jump to take your Verdant Catacombs, Bayous, and Thoughtsiezes and port them over to the other side of the combat coin. Rather than attacking once with a 20/20 you're preventing almost all attacks with a 3-mana artifact. Rather than winning in just a few turns you are looking to go into the late game. That's a consideration for this deck: running out of time. So far I haven't seen any big issues, as long as I keep things moving. Once your hand is empty (happens pretty fast) it becomes all about managing the battlefield and top of the deck. It shouldn't take more time than poring over card plays in hand. Keep your opponent honest in paper matches so they don't eat up the clock during a match.
So here's the list, and it's feeling pretty good!
Updated: 7/9/2020 (updated with Collective Brutality/Maelstrom Pulse maindeck)
Artifacts - 18
4x Lantern of Insight
4x Codex Shredder
4x Ensnaring Bridge
2x Ghoulcaller’s Bell
2x Pithing Needle
2x Cursed Scroll
Dig/Fast Mana - 10
4x Ancient Stirrings
2x Sylvan Library
4x Dark Ritual
Disruption - 9
4x Thoughtseize
2x Collective Brutality
2x Abrupt Decay
1x Maelstrom Pulse
Planeswalkers/Utility - 5
3x Ashiok, Dream Render
2x Surgical Extraction
Lands - 18
3x Wasteland
1x buried ruin
4x Verdant Catacombs
1x Marsh Flats
1x Windswept Heath
1x polluted delta
1x Bayou
2x Blooming Marsh
2x Swamp
2x Forest
Sideboard
2x Veil of Summer
2x Bitterblossom
2x Choke
1x Engineered Explosives
1x Grafdigger's Cage
1x Liliana, the Last Hope
3x Hymn to Tourach
3x OPEN (need to address Burn and Storm)
Suggestions and discussion welcome!
Last edited by Mr. Safety; 07-09-2020 at 11:49 AM.
Brainstorm Realist
I close my eyes and sink within myself, relive the gift of precious memories, in need of a fix called innocence. - Chuck Shuldiner
Trinket Mage tutors for 1/3 of your deck. Less cute than Wishclaw, but seems cleaner.
Also then you could play blue, for blue cards :p
Needs more Ensnaring Bridge and Chains of Mephistopheles.
Karn, the Great Creator also tutors half your deck, allowing you to be more efficient in the main at the expense of SB space.
Jank cards like Avarice Totem should be at most a 1-of in the main, which you can then tutor with effects like Wishclaw or Trinket Mage, while using Tel-Jilad to recycle them.
Good thoughts! Karn is in the short list of testing cards, and Bridge will likely be included at a minimum as a 1-of.
Trinket Mage? Pff. Artificer's Intuition
Brainstorm Realist
I close my eyes and sink within myself, relive the gift of precious memories, in need of a fix called innocence. - Chuck Shuldiner
Artificer's Intuition looks good, but sets you behind in cards, so you might want some card draw to balance it out.
I'm serious about Chains in the SB. The easiest way to get around a Lantern lock is drawing multiple cards in a turn (Modern has much worse cantrips than Legacy). Chains punishes card draw.
Well, there goes the budget, lol. Chains would be perfect, but I don't think I will invest. If I find a sweet deal, I will nab it.
Brainstorm Realist
I close my eyes and sink within myself, relive the gift of precious memories, in need of a fix called innocence. - Chuck Shuldiner
Yeah, don't bother buying paper Chains if you don't already own it. That card costs way more than its worth for play value.
In Black you might as well play Leyline of the Void main so your milling doesn't help advance their gameplan. That also allows 1 Helm of Obedience in the SB as a Karn target.
Blue also has some good options for the artifact plan..
//Lands: 18
2 City of Traitors
4 Ancient Tomb
3 Seat of the Synod
9 Snow-Covered Island
//Artifacts: 22
4 Mox Opal
4 Lantern of Insight
4 Codex Shredder
4 Ghoulcaller's Bell
1 Avarice Totem
1 Tel-Jilad Stylus
1 Cursed Scroll
1 Elixir of Immortality
2 Ensnaring Bridge
//Creatures: 10
4 Emry, Lurker of the Loch
3 Trinket Mage
3 Urza, Lord High Artificer
//Planeswalkers: 6
3 Karn, the Great Creator
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
//Spells: 3
3 Force of Will
//Enchantments: 1
1 Artificer's Intuition
//Sideboard: 15
1 Mycosynth Lattice
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Soul-Guide Lantern
1 Pithing Needle
1 Liquimetal Coating
1 Force of Will
2 Back to Basics
2 Propaganda
1 Flusterstorm
1 Spell Pierce
2 Defense Grid
Jace's fateseal might actually be the best Codex Shredder effect in Legacy
Emry likes artifact-heavy decks. It allows recursion with your lock pieces. It also lets you cast cards you milled with Ghoulcaller's Bell!
This might also need Narset to shutdown card draw, at which point you could play the LED-Echo lock too.
Maybe -3 Trinket, -3 FoW, -1 Elixir, -2 other cards, + 3 LED + 3 Echo of Eons +3 Narset, Parter of Veils
Once you’re into this shell, I don’t think your deck can really afford to pass up LED and Echo (and Narset). The power of un-mulligan easy button is far too good to pass up. Problem is to make room you just put convoluted combo pieces in the SB and Karn wish for them (but at that point opponent is already dead to single cards).
Yeah, that's the problem. Once you're relying on Karn Wishing for 2 cards, one of those cards might as well be Lattice.
I think you can still squeeze in room for maindeck Lantern and Ghoulcaller. They have good synergy with turning on Opal and Emry (e.g. T1 Tomb. 2 1-mana artifacts. Opal. Emry) and they're easy to deploy off a draw 7. Meanwhile Narset digs into pieces and shuts off cantrips (opponent's best outs to Lantern lock). Lantern Mill has synergy with Echo (without LED). Lantern lock also has good synergy with "Mind Twist, then draw 7".
//Lands: 18
4 Ancient Tomb
2 City of Traitors
4 Seat of the Synod
8 Snow-Covered Island
//Artifacts: 22
4 Mox Opal
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lantern of Insight
4 Codex Shredder
3 Ghoulcaller's Bell
2 Defense Grid
1 Ensnaring Bridge
//Planeswalkers: 10
4 Narset, Parter of Veils
3 Karn, the Great Creator
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
//Creatures: 6
4 Emry, Lurker of the Loch
2 Urza, Lord High Artificer
//Spells: 4
4 Echo of Eons
//Sideboard: 15
1 Mycosynth Lattice
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Soul-Guide Lantern
1 Liquimetal Coating
1 Pithing Needle
1 Defense Grid
1 Damping Sphere
1 Echoing Truth
1 Brazen Borrower
1 Flusterstorm
1 Spell Pierce
3 Force of Will
Might have to cut more of the top end of the curve to squeeze in Petals.
I appreciate the thoughts, the blue lists are pretty cool. I am ashamed to admit that 12 cards in both of those lists can be cut for 4x Chalice of the Void, leaving 8 more slots to do other things.
I do feel that Force of Will does a ton of work for a strategy that is looking to establish a lock, I just don't think I can afford to go into 2 colors. I've been stewing on this deck for a little while and I think the Pox elements need to be increased. I've got a line to more Bridges (in paper) and I think playing an Ensnaring Bridge + Pox + Lantern strategy could be fun, and potentially good.
I am taking in all the good advice, especially the singletons/tutor advice. For now, I want to stick to black. The notes on how to brew this into a blue-based deck will still be here to re-read if the Smallpox strategy goes belly-up.
Brainstorm Realist
I close my eyes and sink within myself, relive the gift of precious memories, in need of a fix called innocence. - Chuck Shuldiner
In a black Pox shell, what about Liliana of the Veil? You can accelerate it out with Dark Ritual. It does all the things Pox wants (discard cards, edict effects) and it helps turn on your Bridges if cards are stuck in hand.
Good thought, I may want to do that. I'm also considering Bloodghast + Cabal Therapy, which can be potent (and I don't care if I mill either of them over with Ghoulcaller's Bell.)
Brainstorm Realist
I close my eyes and sink within myself, relive the gift of precious memories, in need of a fix called innocence. - Chuck Shuldiner
I traded into a set of Bridges, so I think the green splash will be the best route. I think Ancient Stirrings and Sylvan Library add a lot to the deck. Abrupt Decay covers a lot of ground along with Bridge. I'll put together something soon and post it up. The Totem/Stylus combo may or not make it through...it seems fun, but the legacy metagame doesn't really lend itself to Control Magic effects.
Brainstorm Realist
I close my eyes and sink within myself, relive the gift of precious memories, in need of a fix called innocence. - Chuck Shuldiner
Oko,Thief of crowns could be a tech, not a secret one, but after exchange, you can turn avarice totem or wishclaw talisman into ELK without abilities
Cool idea! Not sure I want to go 3 colors, but I'll keep it in mind.
Brainstorm Realist
I close my eyes and sink within myself, relive the gift of precious memories, in need of a fix called innocence. - Chuck Shuldiner
I tend to agree. Abrupt Decay solves a lot of problems, Stirrings digs 5 deep (which is better than Ponder), and green offers additional ways to fight the metagame.
The issue I have then is that I can't fit everything in that I want to, lol. I don't know whether to drop Talisman/Ashiok and just rely on Stirrings, go mono-black with Talisman/Ashiok and just do a toolbox rather than Stirrings/Library, or maybe both is the right answer. I tend to think both is the right answer, but it leaves little room for everything the deck needs.
Here's my rough list I've been tinkering with:
4x Lantern of Insight
4x Codex Shredder
2x Ghoulcaller's Bell
3x Mox Opal
4x Ensnaring Bridge
1x Cursed Scroll
1x Pithing Needle
1x Tel-Jilad Stylus
1x Avarice Totem
3x Wishclaw Talisman
4x Ancient Stirrings
4x Thoughtseize
3x Abrupt Decay
1x Sylvan Library
2x Bitterblossom
3x Ashiok, Dream Render
1x Dark Ritual
4x Verdant Catacombs
2x Polluted Delta
1x Bayou
2x Blooming Marsh
1x Forest
1x Swamp
3x Vault of Whispers
4x Wasteland
Sideboard ideas:
Crucible of Worlds
Surgical Extraction
Plague Engineer
Maelstrom Pulse
Golgari Charm
Liliana, the Last Hope
Darkblast
Toxic Deluge
Hymn to Tourach
Dark Confidant
Nihil Spellbomb
Cabal Therapy
Liliana's Triumph
Dismember
Brainstorm Realist
I close my eyes and sink within myself, relive the gift of precious memories, in need of a fix called innocence. - Chuck Shuldiner
Yeah, I had the same issue when I was building more pox-focused versions - there was a lot of stuff that worked really well in the deck and not enough space for all of it.
List looks like a good starting point. Talisman/Ashiok still seem good enough to test, but I don't know if I'd cut green and go all-in on them, honestly it'd still be worth the green splash just for stirrings since it helps increase the consistency of seeing Talisman if nothing else.
Surgicals and Plague Engineer both are probably auto-includes for the side, I'd also throw in some extra pithings. Spellbomb and Crucible also look good.
Brainstorm Realist
I close my eyes and sink within myself, relive the gift of precious memories, in need of a fix called innocence. - Chuck Shuldiner
Ah right, my bad. I neglected to RTFC (didn't look closely enough at that mana cost)
If you do run Stirrings you might be able to drop Bridge to 3 or something if you end up really pressed for space. Running extra copies of Lantern is always good anyways, the biggest problem I had when I was testing lantern builds was just not seeing lantern.
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