The Zugzwang Machine | A History of Lantern Control

[@Prolyde]

Probably the best commentary in pro tour history: when Gerry concedes to Luis in the finals, LSV says “although these matches are untimed… Gerry still values the time he has left on this planet.”

[@JaySay]

Some of my favorite bits of commentary came from LSV. He had a lot of fun with Ivan Floch for pro tour M2015, and hell, I thoroughly enjoyed watching that final! I loved it when him, BDM, and Hagon were cheering for the Nyx Fleece Ram to swing in for lethal!

[@vb_blokeboi7251]

@@JaySay That Floch final was when I first started playing FNM with Jeskai Tempo. Fond memories

[@AB-sw4kb]

@@vb_blokeboi7251 2013-2016 was great Magic that we all took for granted as the norm

[@tdimensional6733]

"Players inexperienced with the deck will make the crucial mistake of trying to play Magic with it" is such a funny sentiment to have for a deck and I love how right it is

[@tarmokatcosplay253]

Ah yes…I remember the first time I encountered lantern control in a matchup 😂 had no idea wtf was going on. Bless my heart

[@lancesmith8298]

People just really aren’t used to realizing that conceding is a valuable resource for competitive play, doubly so in tournaments. You aren’t playing a fighting game, you are being Smash Bros Melee wobbled in cardboard. Your brainpower is better spent on the next match, with a better sideboard and a fresh perspective. And in practice fighting Lantern Control isn’t Magic, but managing inventory in a survival horror. You have very few resources to stop the immovable object, and every turn you don’t, the situation gets worse and worse for you.

[@dylanehooverlibrarian7026]

It's almost a zen nihilist build. You confront that the game and objectives are an artifice, and deny the resources and objectives of your opponents as you do your own. It's incredibly profound and complex and ultimately a victory through denia.

[@KidGamingFTW]

​​@@tarmokatcosplay253this is how I felt when I got paired up against krark clan ironworks combo for the first time

[@ArmanyteGX]

Amazing job Sam, you made an in depth explanation on the history of a deck within the time it took to play a match against it!

[@erickwalter2828]

Match? More like game 1.

[@xboxgamer474246]

@@erickwalter2828someone doesn’t know when to concede lol

[@PopeGoliath]

Lantern control is only as slow as its opponent is stubborn.

[@_counterspell]

104.3a dude

[@ghoulofmetal]

​​@@erickwalter2828you say this like a match and game 1 are different things with lantern control

[@Flying1Kotte]

My favorite lantern interaction I got to make a call on was a Lantern vs UW control endgame. Where neither player could kill the other, the UW player was out of cards, and the Lantern player was recycling Academy Ruins to not deck. However, the UW player had Gideon of the Trials out with an emblem and could not lose, and the lantern player had to stop their loop eventually, meaning that the UW player got the win.

[@collinbeal]

Ooh that's a good one. Static effect vs. deterministic loop. Very spicy.

[@chrisiver8506]

I don't get get it, isn't it just a draw?

[@behemoth9543]

@@chrisiver8506 If you continue to perpetuate a loop when you have the option of stopping it and that loop doesn´t lead to anyone actually winning or losing the game, you are eventually forced to take a different action as per the rules of the game. As opposed to "true" mechanical loops with no player input where if it doesn´t end and neither player wins the game is just declared a draw. The Gideon player doesn´t need to actually do anything to be unable to lose due to Gideon, the Lantern player has to actively take game actions to prevent himself from losing and eventually is forced to take different actions to prevent the game from going on forever which means he has to not recycle Academy Ruins and lose the game.

[@byronsmothers8064]

One must imagine Sisyphus happy.

[@lancesmith8298]

The idea of UW Control, ostensibly the most cowardly deck of all, teching in something that turns the Lantern matchup into the Revengeance Nanomachines scene, is so funny

[@RazzAlerio]

I once read Lantern Control described as "Systematically putting every card in our decks under intense scrutiny to ensure no fun is had by anyone”

[@lancesmith8298]

Lantern Control is a deck that turns Magic the Gathering into survival horror resource management. Either you find a way to stop the inexorable force, or you die

[@jeremypiles1787]

Hahaha the comment and reply are both great. Is prison just a subset of control?

[@lancesmith8298]

@@jeremypiles1787 Kind of. Lantern is part of a very rare breed of Control deck known as a “Prison deck”, which locks your opponent out of playing as best as they can. Traditional Control decks want to stall for time long enough to play something that either wins on its own immediately, or play something that’s hard to remove and constantly creates value.

[@holstonmatt]

So lantern control is pretty much jeff mystic mine deck from yugioh​@@lancesmith8298

[@ObsessiveAcquisitions]

​@@lancesmith8298 In Yugioh we have a similar deck type called Stun. It's a collection of usually continuous trap cards that limit what both players can play (if at all).

[@Somane27]

26:48 An opponent once asked me "Do you have any counterspells?" and I said "Maybe". He conceded. I had 7 lands in hand.

[@TheOrian34]

Control is about playing the opponent, the spells you cast only here as performative acts.

[@tommihalonen6471]

I'm a casual mtgArena player playing home brew garbage decks. The number of games won turn 1 with my 1 mana counterspell is astounding. The joke is, I always include exactly one one mana counterspell every (bluish) deck. Maybe not exactly relevant but I honestly just wanted to share this somewhere 😅

[@dragoknighte48]

​@@tommihalonen6471People on Arena scoop to the slightest of inconveniences

[@l-Dismas]

@@tommihalonen6471i do also love spellpierce (pay 2 more mana or dont cast). Seing an opponent cast a 5 mana spell because he thinks "he only has 1 blue mana up, counter spell cost 2 so im safe" always makes me so happy.

[@jennis8561]

​@@tommihalonen6471A friend of mine got into Arena and he was so proud of his first own deck, which was just a blue pile of counters in all shapes and sizes. He early on realised how easily people conceded and decided to make that his win condition, it wasn't competitive or good in any way but it beautifully played the easy frustration of the platform. He found it kinda sad to play though.

[@lucasenraraujo]

The unique thing Lantern does is turning Magic into a complete and perfect information game and that's why the chess analogy is even more apt. This deck always fascinated me as seemingly stupid rube-goldberg machine could go and flip the game on its head and its history, as highlighted in the video, is a delightful insight into the mtg community at its best.

[@lancesmith8298]

I think an even more apt metaphor for fighting against Lantern is that you are now suddenly playing a hand of poker. Whatever lies in your opening hand may be all the good cards you’ll ever get. Your opponent may get to know what’s in there, but you don’t know how good their hand is either. All you can do is try to beat their opening hand with your opening hand.

[@imperialcitizen4811]

Fire design killed this type of deckbuilding.

[@lancesmith8298]

@@imperialcitizen4811 Don’t blame the designers, blame the large corporation that incentivizes the designers to make safe, deliberately synergistic crap for commander

[@jackcooke2327]

@@imperialcitizen4811 not really, though it didn't help. Maindeckable artifact removal did. A huge, huge, part of the power of the deck was how many decks were weak to ensnaring bridge and had few ways of removing it. Essentially every deck now has maindeckable artifact removal. it's easy to get romantic about this deck but that's really what it was based on and why it's gone. Unless by fire design you mean cards like boseiju, leyline binding, and prismatic ending.

[@zym6687]

@@jackcooke2327 They need to print such answers because the fire design threats are so game warping.

[@BaalThondral]

37:40 The bigger problem for the lantern player was chromatic sphere. Because the draw is tied tothe manaability, that doesnt use the stack, you cant respond to it. So the tron player can always crack a sphere to immediately draw the top card (without you being able to mill it in response). You can however respond to a star activation, because the carddraw on star is a seperate ability that uses the stack.

[@aldeayeah]

Besides that, Tron also tended to require too many Pithing Needle effects, was resilient to Inquisition, and tended to run some particularly problematic cards such as World Breaker.

[@triangle4295]

oh man, I just wrote that comment, waste of typing but nice to see someone else mentioning that :D

[@surgingchaos]

Lantern Control was probably the last gasp of the old-school internet forums being the main source of players getting together to create, tune, and optimize decks like this. After Lantern Control, you eventually got Reddit, Twitter, and Discord taking over and replacing forums for good. Lantern Control wasn't just unique in its gameplay, but it also represented a turning point in the game's history for how information was being processed.

[@lancesmith8298]

And honestly Discord is still, to a degree, the same hermit’s mountaintop experience of highly dedicated savants finding all there is to know about One Thing, from a Magic deck to a fighting game character, but the problems with the new model of niche Internet forums are that it’s even more isolated, and even more prone to becoming lost media. It’s not that boomer sentiment of “kids these days”, but the fact that it requires an internet connection, a server complicated enough for voice chat and emoji, voice chat as potentially loseable oral history, and also a big company owns it. Every day, big tech pushes me harder and harder to throw my laptop off a bridge and go anti-paperless

[@jkid1134]

​@@lancesmith8298I think that, one day, there will be a big pulse or something, from man or from nature, and every computer on the planet will be wiped, and it will be our burning Alexandria.

[@TastySnackies]

@@lancesmith8298the focus on discord has also given rise to the culture of gatekeepers enforcing who engages in these discord servers now (either through money/subscriptions or old fashioned gatekeeping), which makes it even worse, considering that if there is any sort of deck building innovations happening that they’ll be segregated from the culture at-large.

[@Luckingsworth]

​@@lancesmith8298 Nah, discord is where discussion goes to die.

[@jackl8025]

is reddit not a forum?

[@jonathanrichman2330]

I'm a chess master who has played for 15 years now. There is nothing more satisfying than pulling off a middlegame zugzwang. It's one of the hardest accomplishments to pull off and it never gets old. Lantern control sounds like such an amazing deck, I wish I got to see it when it was at its prime.

[@markuskoivisto]

It’s still a completely playable deck

[@markuskoivisto]

If you want to, you absolutely can build it and start winning games.

[@aldeayeah]

@@markuskoivisto current Lantern has lost some of the prison purity of the old builds, mostly because Urza's Saga is so broken lol

[@project.mirari]

As someone who was referenced in this video, thank you for making this video. This deck and this early time period of Modern was one of the last joys I had in participating in deckbrewing online, and it cemented Magic for me for all this time. I don't play much anymore but I am proud of this deck and how far it's come. Even though I didn't leave tournament results or major impact for the shape of the deck as it is now, I still associate a large part of me as a Magic player to my time in the MTGsalvation thread for Top Control. Thank you for your dedication to Magic history.

[@dhalden93]

I used to joke that the win condition of this deck was "making your opponent quit magic." But it is definitely the most fascinating deck in modern by a mile, and I eagerly wait the day of its rise again.

[@bobdiedtwice1620]

From a flavor perspective it's a pacifist's loadout. " I don't want to kill you, I don't want to die. I just want you to walk away from the battlefield."

[@lucasriddle3431]

From a flavour perspective it is a horrifying pacifist's loadout, since you're... erasing all of your opponent's offensive capabilities just as they're about to think of them? Plus standing on the other side of a very troublesome bridge. But, yeah, that's an interesting angle to consider too.

[@jordanchico5021]

Flavor-wise, you're casting Swords to Plowshares on your opponent.

[@triangle4295]

i played this deck for few years and I have always felt like i am sittin on a big ass chair fidgeting with trinkets when my opponent is trying to do all sorts of horrible things from afar, but if I turn this lil thing a notch to the left he cannot harm me anymore. If u turn it too far, you instantly get blasted by some high tech weaponary xD Then it was just watching them slowly lose faith to finally answer their everlasting question "now u cannot, you would have to draw 7 shatterstorms in a row". Sounds pretty fucking mental i guess haha

[@mattmcdonough3282]

"I have no enemies" - Lantern players

[@RedEarthTaxidermy]

See, this is a sterling example of why your work is so awesome: you focus on *concepts*. Could be principles of deckbuilding, could be art, could be storyline, could be analyses of a single card, but no matter what, you're plumbing the depths of the *ideas* beneath the game. No matter how many goofy crossover junk sets they release, they can never take that away. Kudos, good sir.

[@DNGNDriver]

I love how you describe BBD at 20:19. It's like a character in a Lovecraft story who becomes obsessed with these strange realities after being brushed by it. Great video!

[@aidancary9830]

I don't really have the words to communicate how this video specifically and Rhystic Studies videos in general make me feel, but the closest approximation is that after every video I'm glad to be alive. There's such an attention to the small things that make our world wonderful. This isn't a video about a deck, it's a video about community, thinking about the world differently, and that there will always be new worlds to discover no matter how small. Thank you for giving me 40 minutes of that feeling.

[@julianalvarez4231]

One of my favorite decks I've never played. Probably amongst the most unique gameplans to ever see real competitive success.

[@lancesmith8298]

On a somewhat similar note, Hearthstone has probably the most interesting blend of mechanics to ever grace an equivalent deck to Legacy, which is all wrapped up in Questline Warlock. >So, what is it? It is a combo deck that can play a little bit Aggro or Control depending on taste, which wants to kill the opponent by drawing all its cards. >Like Lab Man? Kinda. Hearthstone instead deals scaling damage when you run out of cards in your deck, which gets converted into damage against the opponent by finishing Demon Seed’s requirements of 30 self-damage. Out of 30 base life. So it’s a combo deck dedicated to actively running out of the two most important resources in card games to win. It must barely preserve its life long enough to turn it into a win, and is also trying to eat its library as fast as it can with card draw, discard, and self-mill.

[@brimmusic4270]

Dear Sam. This video is already a tad older, but I just wanted to slide by and tell you, that this finally made me pick up Magic! I convinced 8 friends of mine to give it a shot and we have played commander 4/5 times at this point - every time being between 7 to 12 hours. Thanks a lot for opening me up to this new hobby after I first spotted you with the "Black Lotus" video. Your videos are an absolute delight to watch and enjoy every single one of them multiple times. Thank you for giving us these great interesting perspectives on the game and thanks for giving me a new hobby to dump money and time in. You are wonderful :) Take care, Lennart.

[@gene7cole]

The social element of this deck is incredible to learn about. Lots of folks talk about Magic as a game of pure numbers - but it's also played by humans, and those humans have baggage that's just as challenging to navigate (from behaviours and etiquette to our unique perceptions of time) Incredible video, and one that reminds me why I love Magic - and multiplayer gaming in general

[@delathenleso5793]

Nah, it's real easy. Lantern Control is like the sweaty guy in the corner who's never brushed his teeth: good venues sideline and ask them to leave. Modern didn't.

[@shitpostgrotto2982]

​@@delathenleso5793 Guess who's still salty about that game they lost to lantern 6 years ago?

[@delathenleso5793]

@@shitpostgrotto2982 *shrug* I see a pile of refuse festering in my sandwich, I'm going to call out the pile of refuse festering in my sandwich and question the health of the deli that sold it to me.

[@errrzarrr]

​@@delathenleso5793 don't take it personally

[@andrewmoore7014]

Every dedicated Lantern player I knew was affable, polite, and sporting. You had to be in order to actually take down tournaments with the deck.

[@danielkings2443]

I love the chess reference in the title. I used to play competitive chess and magic scratches the same mental pathways that makes chess so enjoyable to me. I will soon begin playing magic competitively too. Magic may be the best game ever devised.

[@mindlightwave]

All the best magic players I knew from the 90s/00s were chess maestros in their own right.

[@PaulGaither]

For many years, I used to describe Magic as Chess woth Poker. Poker has bluffing and hidden information and luck of the draw.

[@aqswd6825]

i feel as though the main difference is that calculation is more emphasized in chess

[@robrick9361]

I don't mean to be rude but what are you even saying? You're comparing an open information board game to a hidden information card game. I understand that people like to compare their "thing" to chess because chess is the classic smart person game but the comparison is just ridiculous.

[@PaulGaither]

@@robrick9361 You are being a tad rude with your word choices and structure. You are also failing to take the time to do any analytical thinking about the comparisons and what the points of comparison are. You can disagree, but to say there is no comparison is closed-minded nonsense. "Magic: The Gathering" (MTG) and chess share several similarities despite their differences in gameplay and thematic content: Strategic Depth: Both games require deep strategic thinking and planning. In chess, players must anticipate and counter their opponent's moves several steps ahead. Similarly, in MTG, players must think multiple turns ahead, considering potential plays and counterplays based on the cards they have and what their opponent might play. Skill and Knowledge: Mastery of both games demands extensive knowledge and skill. Chess players need to understand various openings, middle-game strategies, and endgame techniques. MTG players need to know a wide range of cards, deck-building strategies, and the interactions between different cards and mechanics. Tactical Decision-Making: Both games involve critical tactical decisions. In chess, each move can change the game's outcome, and in MTG, each play of a card can turn the tide of the match. Resource Management: Resource management is crucial in both games. Chess players must manage their pieces effectively, making sure to use them to their full potential without losing them needlessly. In MTG, players must manage their mana (the resource used to play cards) and their cards, deciding the optimal time to play each card for maximum effect. Competitive Nature: Both games have a strong competitive scene, with tournaments and championships where top players compete. The mental challenge and the skill involved make both games appealing to competitive players. Complex Rules and Variability: Both games have complex rules that provide a wide range of possible scenarios. Chess has a fixed board and pieces, but the almost infinite possibilities of move sequences make every game unique. MTG has a constantly expanding set of cards, which leads to an immense variety of possible decks and game situations. Psychological Elements: Bluffing and psychological warfare play roles in both games. In chess, players might use threats or traps to mislead their opponent. In MTG, players can bluff about having certain cards or strategies, influencing their opponent's decisions. Endgame Complexity: The endgame in both chess and MTG can be particularly complex and critical. Chess endgames require precise calculation and knowledge of specific endgame principles. In MTG, the endgame often involves managing dwindling resources and making the most out of each remaining card.

[@werhsdnas]

One fun fact was that the card Shenanigans was printed by Wizards as an attempt to stop Lantern Control, and the art depicts a lantern being destroyed.

[@olipod5470]

I expected the card to be mentioned in this video. But also I see the deck took a dip before Shenanigans got printed. Seems like the delay between design and release was too long this time

[@_counterspell]

lantern was long out of meta when shenan got printed. patently false

[@werhsdnas]

@@_counterspell Yeah, but the card would have been designed earlier, when lantern control was still a part of the meta. the set released in 2019, a year after Lantern won a PT.

[@_counterspell]

@@werhsdnas not conclusive and a fringe modern deck is not the entire reason behind a single card being designed. redact

[@TheSeptet]

​@@_counterspellWizards often prints silver bullets for decks that get too big, and with the combination of the flavor, art, and mechanics (Shenanigans destroys an artifact and has dredge, so it's the perfect counter), not to mention the timing (the card was designed while lantern was getting big), I'd say it's very likely. You can even find people saying "RIP Lantern Control" on release promo forum posts and on Reddit

[@DittoTransform]

This was my favorite modern deck of all time. Super glad to know other people still care about the deck.

[@Jubstereye]

For many years I've been meaning to search up lantern control and figure out what exactly it is. For many years I have, just to be dumbfounded by it. I was overjoyed when I saw this video in my feed, hoping to finally understand what this nietche deck does. I am once again dumbfounded, exect now I know I love it! Thank you, Sam.

[@Rudeyrudey]

I don’t understand how you can keep getting better with every video. Please never stop making these, they are not only the best content in the MtG community, but the best hobby specific content around.

[@MrCheeze]

I don't even know the rules of the game, I'm just here for the great storytelling.

[@the_wake_]

It was incredible watching this deck shape up in real time. It takes so much conventional wisdom everyone took for granted, flips it off, and rides cackling into the sunset. Everything about it should be so bad, but it's so perfectly synergistic it works. Beautiful to behold. Hell to experience.

[@cameronbrake8215]

I remain astonished at your ability to find and present the sort of Capital-T Truth that can typically only be had in our highest pursuits. Consistently, you point at a corner pocket of this card game only to wind up showing me something urgent and enormous, something that gives warmth to the hopeful parts of head and heart. Man, I hope you know that Rhystic Studies, like all good art, is f**king soul affirming stuff. It's important for reasons that have almost nothing to do with MTG. My past few years have been very, very dark. But there have been days when listening to your stuff made it just possible enough for me to find my way back to a survivable path through the Blind Eternities. Thank you for that. If ever there was someone worthy to hold the lantern of insight, it's you. Shine on.

[@criscofields7242]

"We're Only Gonna Die for Our Arrogance" by Sublime The lyrics are "Early man walked away as modern man took control" And my brain always says "Modern Latern Control" for the last part.

[@SeanStonkus]

Bad Religion wrote that song

[@Sidewinder_Circa]

As someone who picked up Lantern when Mr. Salvato took Pro Tour RIX, the deck is the reason why I developed as a magic player and helped me improve in critical thinking skills in real life. I still own my foil Fifth Dawn Lanterns, one signed by Zac Elsik himself, and can't wait to put it back on the stack again. Amazing video, Sam

[@j.rodz.5981]

Best video so far on Lantern Control. Forever thankful!!! As the creator of Top Control, I give this doc 11/10 -Zerodown One Top to rule them all! PS: I am indeed a good chess player and my favorite analogy of the deck is a constrictor snake wrapping its coils around its prey and squeezing tighter and tighter until it suffocates.

[@Brightwick]

This video brought back so many fond memories of a specific hearthstone matchup - odd dragon control warrior vs. odd mage. Rarely could the warrior generate enough tempo to kill the mage before they stabilized with their top end lifestealing haymakers, so the game became one of weathering their threats until they ran out of cards and died to fatigue (without a single lifestealing minion left on board, which they could generate from any minion with a single health left). It was the first time I felt like a skilled pilot of a deck, who knew the ins and outs of the game and the most common (and most difficult) matchup.

[@dancingmathusalem5451]

My favourite matchup ever was the odd dr boom warrior mirror, knowing when to silence the taunt dinos to dany a single card in their deck One of my fondest memories is managing to win a mirror when I misclicked and deleted 30 armor with the aoe, and also getting dr boom later than my opponent, basically off of not playing shield block and silencing their dinos

[@justass3001]

With Hearthstone matchups it has to be quest rogue vs the warrior control deck that won via fatigue. I remember seeing turn one concessions since the warrior deck literally cannot win the game. Is there any magic matchup that bad?

[@Brightwick]

@@dancingmathusalem5451 I totally forgot about managing reckless flurries so you didn’t lose half your life! That was also a part of the matchup that made it so difficult.

[@kcjj6]

hey sam - just a quick correction: it's chromatic sphere, rather than star, that gets the draw which lantern cannot interact with. signed by a tron player who got lanterned out nonetheless

[@BeatButton]

Is it not both?

[@christopherbaldwin2094]

​@@BeatButtonone draws as a triggered effect. The other is a mana ability

[@BeatButton]

@@christopherbaldwin2094 ah, right! somehow I was stuck on the Pithing Needle thing, since they both get sacrificed to a mana ability

[@vitorduraes8212]

I was playing commander yesterday with some friends, and one of them, playing the new gonti, cast a lantern of insight. Me, not knowing of what that card was, as I have never even seen it before, thought it was pretty neat, as it allowed the crime deck to see the things he'd take from all of us. It was after that spell was cast that everyone started about this, to me, innocuous artifact, and how it created puzzle boxes out of games. The head judge there at the time even popped in to share some tales from when that deck was circling around in the store's tourneys. Needless to say, from yesterday, I've been very curious about this lantern control deck, and this thing came across my timeline at the absolute greatest time possible : p Excellent video as always : )

[@treyden]

this deck got me into magic. I remember seeing it at my lgs in 2015 and I was so fascinated by how deeply you had to understand the game in order to break it

[@sevenhundredspiders8863]

The first video of yours i watched was the essay on One With Nothing. It blew me away! Since then I've seen every one of your videos. I love the format and the great analogies. Keep up the good work!

[@TheJacklikesvideos]

OwN is a great card, video, and counterpart to this. i can even see a place for OwN in lantern decks.

[@Nas0630]

I love the deck in concept. Hate it with a burning passion in practice.

[@Zayindjejfj]

Yeah it's cool in concept. The fact something like it existing is a testament to how free form and limitless Magic is as a card game. So many cards that let you just perform what is basically the card game equivalent of breaking the 4th wall. Actually dealing with it? Please no. One of my friends used winter orb.... After the first time it's not fun. The whole "I don't want to win i just want to control you playing the game" is a very insufferable personality trait.

[@marinusbrask8186]

What a blast. Every single one of your videos are like a spa day for the brain. They celebrate, when i feel negativity is becoming a mainstay of magic content. Your videos make me smile and thing, "god i love this game". Thank you for that.

[@Pheenixz]

This comment needs to be higher up because it expresses exactly how I feel. I don't play magic anymore but I still fucking love this game.

[@deathnotehell1]

Lantern Control reminds me of another Magic the Gathering quote in regards to the Jace planeswaker in that which roughly amounts to if your opponent can see your next draw and lets you draw it regardless, your screwed.

[@kristoffercedric4565]

I haven’t even played a proper game of Magic in years, but this video reminded me of all the mind bending nuances of the game and why I will always love it.

[@docauch5938]

People complain about control decks and them making the game “not fun”, but it’s this kind of creativity that makes Magic such a complex and interesting game. Glad you appreciate and highlight it.

[@ClarkNewman608]

Complex? Sure. Interesting? Maybe the first few times you go up against it. But once you understand the general premise, as the video says, the end goal is for both players to spend a great deal of time not playing the game.

[@berserkerciaran]

Control in general is cool (definitely more fun than aggro killing you turn 3), but this kind of deck is just miserable to go against

[@tinfoilslacks3750]

It's cool that, conceptually, this deck *can* exist. That it actually *does* is a travesty.

[@Magnet977]

While I never think I'd enjoy playing against a Zugzwang-style MTG control deck, I nevertheless immensely respect the dedication of those who do play it. This deck truly boils the game down to a situation-by-situation grind, where the game plays out akin to chess and one wrong move can sometimes cost you the game. Fascinating stuff!

[@int3r4ct]

I enjoyed the days of Lantern Control because as an Affinity player, I could either get ahead of them or just beat down with thopters and signal pests. Sadly it did increase artifact hate in peoples sideboards.

[@robertcastiglione5995]

Lantern Control was the very first comp deck I ever watched at GP Ixalan. To this day, I’ve found myself going back and watching those games. Thank you for making this sam. It feel like it was made JUST for me in a way

[@jeremypiles1787]

I have some banger channels on rotation, and I look forward to your updates foremost. Thank you, Sam and team.

[@johnlancaster2841]

I used to play lantern, it was a lot of fun. However, one of my favorite memories was playing against it with Bant Eldrazi. My opponent playing lantern was taking a bit more aggressive of an approach on the mill plan, and milled my one of main deck World Breaker into my yard.. just for me to nab it by sac’ing a land. The entire game I had been building an army by blinking Drowner of Hope with Eldrazi Displacer, knowing that all I had to do was cast World Breaker and nuke the ensnaring bridge holding me back. The look on my opponent’s face when I returned the World Breaker to my hand was priceless. He had forgotten all about it, and forgot I could return it from the graveyard.

[@Farticuno69]

This is one of my favorite videos of yours. As always, I loved how prepared and researched your progeny and evolution of the deck was presented. One of the highlights was definitely how you paralleled and contrasted the deck to lists like Eggs and KCI, which both popped to the front of my mind as a viewer throughout the video. Fantastic job

[@henrye3935]

I LOVED this deck. I played it for years, from its first big appearance, through G/B builds and U/B builds with Whir, it's Pro-Tour win. It's the deck I miss most. It played the game on a truly different axes, and piloting it was a labor of love. You had to know every other deck, every card, you would need to know when to choose to play second, and all of that had to be done fast so the game didn't time out. It was amazing. Talking about players not knowing how it wins - the funniest interaction I ever had with an opponent was when I was playing this against someone new to Modern. He said "Nothing's happening. Shall we just call it a draw?" lol. Dude, this is how I win. People hated it, though, and new players did not understand what you were doing, so I had multiple players at my GPS time me out with 1-3 cards left in their deck on multiple occasions. They would slow play and you had to keep on them, which could get uncomfortable.

[@aldeayeah]

I have a similar history with the deck. Playing the deck itself was already mentally taxing, but having to manage the opponents was what made me eventually put it down. Now I only play it against fellow degenerate friends. (also, the mirror match was hell)

[@MrScourge42]

Zugzwang Machine is such a fantastic name for a video about lantern control.

[@liampierce8607]

I love this channel. Every time magic starts to get boring he reminds me why I love it so much. It’s a unique gift that only Sam seems to be able to give me

[@OGNoNameNobody]

*Lantern Control* is the ultimate distilation of the phrase: "Yes, it is fun to make sure no one has fun."

[@oliverolson6578]

Not only was this interesting and well put together, it really takes me back to an age of watching pro magic we no longer have. Despite the quality of life offered by Arena for playing and even viewship, there is this element of highly technical, personal offline play that is so much rarer in the post covid era. Thanks for the nostalgia trip into an awesome era of experiencing magic and its meta developments.

[@phlsphr42]

Excellent video, good to see zerodown get his due credit after all these years :) So many people worked together to make the deck what it was/is, which is something I kind of miss in contemporary MtG.

[@IsonDaya]

Always enjoyed watching your videos of lantern!

[@phlsphr42]

@@IsonDaya thanks! Been busy lately, but hopefully can make more time soon 🙂

[@thetrinketmage]

Sadly the trinket mage did not end up as a staple in the deck. But I still love lantern so much! It's the coolest deck to ever grace the modern format!

[@actualFix]

Ah, Lantern Control. My first Modern deck! I started playing in Khans of Tarkir, so I may be a bit late to the party. My community didn't have an LGS at the time, so we just assembled once a week to jam games, usually Modern, because it was non-rotating. One day, browsing MTGSalvation, I stumbled upon the Lantern Control thread, and somehow, looking at the list, it just clicked - this deck isn't trying to win, and I love it. Took me painfully long to assemble the deck (even then, I proxied cards like Ensnaring Bridge and Moxen), in the mean time, I borrowed decks, took my time to learn how they operate, what thought processes a player takes piloting them, and one day, I finally took Lantern to an event and snagged a win. No one was sure how that happened, Splinter Twin players even giggled when I named their fetches instead of creatures. Then, I quit Magic and focused on school. I eventually came back, and Lantern was gone. Not just from the spotlight, but barely anyone was running it. And while the deck nowadays grabs a win on an MTGO league, it seems it's days of glory are gone. But It will remain my favourite. I've been trying to assemble something like it in other formats, but it always falls apart. Nowadays, I play Death & Taxes, but maybe I should go back to my roots, give Lantern another try. This was an especially nostalgic video for me, Thank you Sam!

[@Nerenthil]

A friend runs a deck based on lantern, thought lash and counterbalance in legacy. Tons of fun !

[@Mirvana]

The very first version of a Lantern deck I ever saw was actually a decklist submitted on TCGplayer around 2010. Instead of Shredder/Bell (which both didn't exist yet), it had Cathartic Adept and Screeching Sliver as the "mill 1" pieces, and included Wizened Snitches as a back-up Lantern effect, and was aiming to use Booby Trap as the win con. The germ of the idea was being toyed with even longer than when this video starts.

[@cashcloakburmy]

11:06 brought chills to my spine as a Yu-Gi-Oh! player. For 4 years we had a card called Mystic Mine, which could singlehandedly satisfy this win condition. For 3 of those years, it was used in Lantern-like decks that stalled out the game and won either with mill or continuous burn cards. But in the last year before its banning, players realized that EVERY deck could play it as a secondary win condition. Very dark times…

[@emuclone154]

Played mine burn and had a great time with oracle stacking the deck, mine got banned so I moved to magic and found lantern

[@TheMusicMan1105]

I played Lantern control for several years at FNMs in my area. I have to say that out of all the decks I have piloted, it always had the most interesting lines and drew the largest crowds to watch the game. I remember using Pyxis of pandemonium’s second ability to put exiled cards into play against a grixis death shadow player in response to them destroying my bridge and I blind flipped a new one and continue the lock and everyone in the shop went nuts! Good times! I now have an esper edh lantern deck that doesn’t see play often because it isn’t met with smiles

[@LucruxDCLXVI]

Lantern control reminds me of that Star Trek TNG episode where Data beats that master strategist at a game by not losing. One of my favorite episodes

[@michaelmeade4767]

The idea of controlling the draw step is so unique and inspiring in terms of deck building, there’s nothing quite like it. It operates on an axis that is untouched by any other archetype. Always been a favorite deck of mine

[@Sinspinner]

The banning of Mox opal was the catalyst for me to give up on 60 card magic. Lantern Control was, and still is, my favorite modern deck, with twin being a close second. I have the Oklahoma Grand Prix finals saved because I got to see my two favorite decks battle it out. This video brought me back. Thank you for this.

[@ImrahilToChaos]

Not playing Magic is your favourite way to play Magic? No wonder you quit when you weren’t able to play Magic anymore.

[@Sinspinner]

@@ImrahilToChaos I didn’t quit playing Magic, I quit playing 60 card Magic. Before Mox Opal, there was Splinter Twin, Second Sunrise, Summer Bloom, and various bans that affected Storm. In legacy there was Sensei’s Diving Top and Deathrite Shaman. But when Mox Opal was banned it hit both Lantern Control and Affinity, two very different decks. At that point I started asking myself why I continued to play formats that are supposed to be eternal but my favorite decks either get nerfed or eliminated. So I switched to commander. Playing casually has made the game fun again for me. Also there’s nothing wrong with prison decks. It’s just another cog in the magic machine.

[@ImrahilToChaos]

@@Sinspinner I don’t think a deck that essentially asks both players to commit to not playing the game anymore is ‘another cog’. Prison decks usually have faster wincons than ‘mill them out over many turns’. From the perspective of a person who actually wants to engage with the game, it’s not interesting or fun, it’s just boring.

[@AnEnderNon]

@@ImrahilToChaos if you do not think it is interesting or fun to continue to play for the 1e-12 chance that you will win, then just concede and move on?

[@MistaHoward]

​​@@ImrahilToChaosagreed, all decks that consist of any strategy besides turning creatures sideways need to be banned for requiring triple digit IQ

[@shrimpboatgames8002]

I lost to Lantern Control one of the first times i ever played Modern at my LGS, and i was always fascinated by it. I have a Commander deck that plays several of the combo pieces and it's one of my favorite decks. Thank you for the video!

[@stephensanders9319]

I clicked on this video on accident right when I got the bell notification. Looks like the next 40 min of my life just got allocated.

[@kwagmeijer26]

Physical Studies playing notification control.

[@ethanwilson3942]

Actual masterpiece of writing and editing, your videos literally get better with every upload

[@Geroaergaroe]

Oddly enough, and against everyone's advise, the first "real" deck I played in modern was Lantern Control. I taught me more about the format, and magic, than anything else. I miss it dearly.

[@synterlu]

I love the storytelling behind these videos. Even though I don't really play Magic except the occasional Commander game with old friends I find myself enthralled by these grandiose tales. Good job.

[@waku13]

To all magic online players, don’t start a modern league for the next weeks

[@lesternomo6578]

As much as I hate watching lantern control, it's really amazing how much it shows you what matters in magic, really makes you introspect on what winning is actually derived from in a game

[@Nightmare-fe9hr]

Lantern control is fascinating because it is essentially a collection of cards that do nothing . No, the cards do not serve no purpose, but they literally do nothing. Their purpose is to sustain the game state. It’s essentially how the game would play out if you ran a deck with nothing but life gain and shahrazad in a play group with a combat focused meta. The opponent’s deck is trying to win, your deck is trying to be. It is a conundrum on the very idea of games themselves; if the goal of a game is to prevent the game from happening, is it a game?

[@aleckwright1607]

This really takes me back. I remember making the transition myself from lantern control to kci, and the disappointment I felt when mox opal got hit with the hammer. When the video started I actually wondered if a kci video might be in our future

[@billymack1778]

you make my favorite videos on all of youtube

[@huebmayer]

There existed a very similar deck in Yu-Gi-Oh! It was called Mystic Mine Stun (named after the card of the same name). Mystic Mine on its own had a powerful effect of locking the player with the most monsters on the field out of attacking and using monster effects. The goal of the deck was basically to create a game state where your opponent couldn't use any cards they had, and then either deck them out or use an inevitable wincon (like a permanent burn card). But since Mystic Mine, and the other stun cards played in the deck, could be removed from the field or deactivated easily with a lot of different cards it was really though to win game 2 and 3 with this deck. But one duellist took it upon himself to make this deck work. And it was none other than the legend Jeff Leonard. Jeff innovated the deck with cards such as Goddess Skulds Oracle, Prohibition, Field Barrier and Silent Wobby. Oracle lets the controller look the top 3 cards of their opponent's deck and rearrange them. Prohibition can call any card name and makes that card unusable. Field Barrier protects the Mystic mine from your opponents cards, but also its own. Silent Wobby gives itself to your opponent and thereby enabling Mystic Mine but also disabling different outs to it. There is a great video on @PhyYuGiOh channel about the card and a little bit about the deck itself called "The Story of Yu-Gi-Oh's Most Hated Card".

[@TeamSprocket]

Yugioh players don't have the card game maturity (not an insult) to play against a lot of these grindy control decks because of how long the game has been in a mode of "Player 1 builds a board of negates and an archetypical spell/trap, pass. Player 2 breaks the board and gets in for lethal or loses." I'm glad Sky Striker, floodgate/trap decks, Mystic Mine variants, and Runick Stun have come in through the years to attack this narrow view of the game, because from my experience a lot of yugioh players are ignorant of these slower control styles and the only way to learn is to play against them and actually design your side deck to deal with these strategies.

[@MogFlintlock]

​@@TeamSprocket Let's not pretend that Stun is the equivalent of UW control, here. Stun is a Prison deck. You're not trying to play for card advantage, you're trying to go turn 1 Stasis/Frozen Aether.

[@lolface_9363]

@@TeamSprocketmystic mine was not good for the game because it simplified the game to just drawing the out

[@mpetry8470]

Only you can make a comprehensive video about a deck that I couldn’t stand incredibly interesting!!

[@spurjoe]

A lantern mirror match would be crazy

[@M0torsagmannen]

i was thinking the same thing

[@electronboy4050]

im sure this is where the soft win condition card may come in. The video mentions at one time the soft win card isn't needed and in that case i would be super interested to here the pilots opin on how a mirror match would define a winner.

[@electronboy4050]

I accidently watched the credits(bc who stays for credits, lol) and they show a mirror matchup between two skilled players you can watch in another video.

[@AAA-zv5hk]

never played a magic game nor watched magic content in my life. watched the entire video because the storytelling and editing was so good. great job dude, going to learn the game now!

[@killthemage5856]

39 minutes to watch a video, about the same length of time as a game 1 against Lantern Control. 'cept this one is actually enjoyable!

[@flav_jja]

104.3a

[@DFGdanger]

​@@flav_jja I remember someone on the lantern sub posting a pic of their lanterns (or maybe it was their shredders), each one had one of those numbers written on it

[@OldClassTreky]

You probably already know, that the whole video is good, but i just want to say, that this thumbnail is SO GOOD! the color, the composition, the artwork and font... Just perfect

[@fakename3168]

Well this looks like a sign to build that lantern control commander deck I was considering

[@lancesmith8298]

The one thing between me and building an engine of fun boredom was that I couldn’t think of a good way to make up for the fact that Commander is singleton, meaning that there’s only so many pieces of Lantern to play, and some of them will need to be sacrificed along the way to 99 cards in the yard. Now that this video’s out, it’s probably Drafna. Counterspells from Blue, card draw from a bunch of dinky artifacts, and pieces of the dementia maker from being returned to hand, copied, and the token versions being sacrificed.

[@thephelddagrif2907]

It might work in 1v1 commander with many tutors. Controlling 4 players seems super difficult

[@lemodyne1072]

I play a reality chip commander deck with a lantern control package, highly suggest putting chip at the helm, as all of your mill rocks can be used to filter your own draws if you don’t have lantern out. also the gameplay becomes a lot less about locking your opponents out of game actions, and more about playing politics with the rest of the table and trying to help/shut down specific players draws to achieve a specific outcome. really fun play pattern in commander, most people I’ve played with love the deck.

[@lancesmith8298]

@@thephelddagrif2907 We build Lantern Control in EDH, not because it is easy, but because it is hard(locking people, eventually)

[@lancesmith8298]

@@lemodyne1072 So in practice it’s a kingmaker’s dream deck. I mean, I’m the kind of person who, if they can’t play Aggro, wants to slowly grind people to dust, but as much as I love being the villain at the table, playing nice will probably serve me a lot better than trying to make three people play 99 card pickup

[@Skrippy33]

Sam, you continue to put out some of the highest quality video essays on this wonder game. Forever impressed.

[@ondrejkopidol9202]

the best MTG historian!

[@pedroscoponi4905]

I never got into Magic beyond the shallowest of levels, and I really really enjoyed this video. It does a great job of showing how the deck works and why it's so interesting, even if you don't know much about MTG beyond the very basics. Well done!

[@Lycandros]

Personally I am mystified, enthralled, bored, and frustrated by Lantern Control all at the same time.

[@BBRocker75]

I am not a MTG players, but videos like these are GREAT cuz show how much technical, matematician, game theory and humble common sense aspect deepness are inside a well designed game card. .

[@snortingnesquik3470]

Great video, but Zugzwang is a poor analogy imo. If one is in a zugswang, they desperately want to (and can often win if they could) simply pass the turn. Playing against lantern is the reverse: you desperately want just one more turn, one more draw, but are forced to simply pass (take a dead draw sculpted by the lantern player)

[@mcth0ny]

I love this deck. It is my favorite deck of all time. Over my many years of playing this deck I would guess I played in the ballpark of 1000 games with it. I can safely say the deck is indeed only as slow as the players in the match. Playing against bad MTG players would result in hitting time every round. Playing against good players, we would often finish before the burn players in the room. A highly skilled local player and I still chuckle to this day about our 15 min matches of The Rock vs Lantern. Lovely video.

[@Veelofar]

I don’t like Lantern Control, not because of a single thing inside the deck, but because I’ve played too many bullies that love to call a judge if I take even a second to double check the words on their cards. The social aspect encouraged people to demand exacting and fast play when they were creating unusual and novel situations with only a handful of outs available that might be hidden in the untapped folds of an interaction that has never before come up. It quite literally demands its opponent to be more familiar with both players decks than was reasonable for most people.

[@spuriusbrocoli4701]

I miss this era of modern. I remember playing a muserable game against it at its height where I felt *so* good when I managed to sneak past the lock by Aether Vialing in a Wall of Omens. It was deeply rewarding.

[@PraetorGix]

That footage, just before the downfall. Before EDH ultra oversaturation, before fucking secret lairs, before the cancer of universes beyond, Twin and Opal still legal in modern... last time MTG was a good game...

[@magicman5146]

I always love watching your videos, they always leave me inspired to brew something funky. Gonna try and do something with powerbalance, wish me luck.

[@Dahajda]

Modern Horizon killed modern

[@soasertsus]

Lantern Control is just one of those decks that makes me wish I played magic back when it was around. The concept is just so amazing, I absolutely love how it's not even obvious at first glance how it wins but yet the sheer amount of damage that can be done just by strategically manipulating the opponents draws is enough that the game is basically unwinnable for them.

[@logicallgaming]

Thanks Sam, for always showing me new interesting decks and the history behind them. Please keep making these! I truly enjoy them and can't wait for the next one.

[@-rolyat44]

I fully believe there is a fairly good parallel to lantern control, actually. It isn't fully one for one but in yugioh there was a deck that came around 2019 and was arguably playable for about a year or two but only ever saw real high level competitive play by a player named Jeff Leonard. This deck was known as various things such as mystic mine control or mystic mine stun or even just mystic mine because it was the card that came out that enabled the deck to exist. The decks main game plan was to stick a mystic mine to the board because it would effectively stop the opponent's monsters from ever being able to attack or use effects and have some protection for the mystic mine in addition and hopefully find a card named goddess skuld's oracle which could every turn look at the top 3 cards of the opponent's deck and put them in any order you want. The intricacies of these two decks are very different because they are from games that function very differently from each other but ultimately the idea comes from the exact same place of if the opponent simply cannot do anything to go for game and I don't let them draw the out for the things I am doing I cannot lose which means I must win

[@eeveeBcute]

to this day the most fun ive ever had playing competitive magic was with lantern control. Awesome video really took me back

[@matthewmartin9983]

Sam, my guy, I just don’t know where I’d be without you. Your videos are what I point people to when someone asks me what my favorite show is. You hands down are my favorite content creator.

[@TheSkizz89]

This video keeps getting recommended to me at least 3 times a week and I've watched it everytime.

[@kraxosOBK]

I love your content. I will never, ever like lantern control or playing against it. It has always been a grindy, awful experience every time I have. But, thanks to this video, I can respect it. I think that's something worth celebrating.

[@skewire]

Surprised at how nostalgic this made me. I never played the deck and I only played modern once in a while back then-but I loved how it elevated my understanding of the game and changed what I loved about it. Thanks for the video!

[@USNVox]

As someone who played modern predominantly during the era of lantern and tried it for a period myself, this is a new favorite video to add to the list. Quality video as always Sam, love it.

[@webbofmusic]

Lantern will always have a special place in my heart, they banned divining top two weeks before my first Grand Prix, I then switched formats and built lantern.

[@bumfungus9729]

as someone so green to even just commander leaves me stunned every time i see what the 60 card formats can do. thank you for explaining the history and lock in an easy to understand way

[@BigGroupHug]

No one else has been so excellently documenting this history like Sam