I see, looking at Batterskull from that perspective makes sense. Also board wipes mainboard make sense as well. How do you feel about Settle the Wreckage? It's less flexible than other board wipes, but it might be good tech in the sideboard. Looking at your list, most of your spell disruption is in your creatures, so cutting a counterspell here or there for a board wipe should be fine.
I like Settle the Wreckage... The exile is really nice. I'm not running mana leak so giving people extra lands isn't awful. Sure Supreme Verdict kills non-attacking creatures with Summoning Sickness or the Devoted Druid that never attacks, but is a combo piece for the other side. I would have to test it. I can definitely see running at least one in the 75 because it works in aggressive matchups and can be a 3rd Wrath effect.
I would probably want to up my land count to run Tereri, Hero of Dominaria. But that is the correct idea. He has synergy with the deck and helps me to do what I am trying to do.
I do like Teferi, and he is very good for this deck. Celestial colonnades didn't come to mind so sorry on my part, definitely a great option. Also, the Jace is mostly to keep the opponent guessing, so i like to keep atleast 2 side/main. Thank you all for your suggestions and support!
@Talionis Thank you for helping out a ton!! you are running the poll better than me!! THX
Also settle the wreckage PLAYS AMAZING INTO this deck!! Thank you all again for your support and help.
Smugglers copter is the best equipment by far for squadron hawk, same goes for cranial plating
I like this deck... Definitely an interesting take on the build...
I would suggest a Mistveil Plains if you are going to run the Squadron Hawks. I'd also consider Moorland Haunt and Academy Ruins. I too am worried about your mana base. Regardless of Blood Moon, which would be a real problem, but also is seeing less and less play, to the point, that losing some games to Blood Moon may not be the worst. But I think you may need to play with the number of colorless lands and 17 lands may not be enough... Especially if you are trying to get to Jace the Mind Sculptor. I don't know what he adds to the deck and getting to 4 mana on turn 3 or 4 may not happen for this deck regularly. If he's not on curve then you probably are okay with 17 lands and Mox, you just have to make sure you have enough colored mana access to cast your spells.
Second thing that comes to mind is that this deck might be a worse version of Affinity. Slightly less aggressive, maybe slightly more defensive, cards like Lingering Souls are more long game. So we need to look at what makes your deck better than Affinity. I think you can withstand removal better. You see more cards with your Bauble's, Smuggler's Copter, etc.
I'm not keen on Thraben Inspector in your build. I think you could look at something with evasion. I'd look to replace it with the good affinity cards like Hangarback Walker or Arcbound Ravager, etc. Which also don't require colored mana to cast. It may not seem like it has evasion, but it evades removal and buffs other creatures.
I also am not sure you don't want one or two Steelshaper's Gift, so that you find Cranial Plating every game. Your build focuses on putting Cranial Plating on an evasive creature. But having a lot of evasive creatures to cast and Squadron Hawk and Moorland Haunt are really good at filling those bills.
Please don't think I'm being too critical, I do like your build and think it has potential. I think you may very well be onto something with Cranial Plating being the potential focus of the deck. Using useful cheap artifacts in the build like Pithing Needle and Nihil Spellbomb that allow you to interact with your opponent. This deck could play a copy or two of Engineered Explosives in the sideboard.
Maybe something in this vein would work well. I'm sure there are more good sideboard cards... No tuning yet on it, but its focus is on Cranial Plating on unending flyers... Something like Arcbound Ravager that lets you sacrifice artifacts might be really good with this deck and Hangarback Walker and Cranial Plating... I'm also no where sure how many lands and or which lands to cut. Don't have a feel for it, so spend some time looking at the number of lands, coming into play tapped, and whether they are okay on your color distribution. Lingering Souls may not be as necessary to splash black if you have Hangarback Walker and Moorland Haunt to help. Vault Skirge might be main deck worthy, especially in an effort to have more cheap evasive artifacts.
I also think actively looking for more sideboard cards like Pithing Needle and Damping Sphere that slow down opponents and are also adding to your artifact count are a good direction for the deck.
Another direction to take the deck is to remove all the color requirements but White and colorless. I am not sure that Blue or Black are necessary colors to the build. This helps not to hurt yourself on land damage, but also may focus the deck, adding back in creatures that work better with the theme. White has a lot of good sideboard cards and Lingering Souls while it works well with Copter isn't really necessary and doesn't really synergize with the artifact theme other than making lots of good creatures for carrying cranial plating. Tempered Steel might be very good in this type of build.
4 thraben inspector
4 squadrone hawk
4 memnite
4 lingering souls
4 mishras bauble
2 nihil spellbomb
4 mox opal
4 smugglers copter
4 chromatic star
4 cranial plating
2 jace, the mind sculpor
3 metallico rebuke
4 path to exile
4 darksteel citadel
4 blinkmoth nexis
4 seachrome coast
4 spire of indistustry
1 plains
Smugglers copter is the best equiment by far for squadrone hawk, same goes for cranial plating
Might also look at this deck for inspiration: Its similar and dissimilar and I could potentially see the two decks having middle ground or at least some card overlap that might be helpful...
We’re all used to seeing Lantern Control as the artifact control deck of Modern. That said, there are plenty of situations where Lantern Control starts to lose some of its ability to execute its gameplan. Cards like Search for Azcanta or instant-speed card drawing can really throw a wrench in the works, and you can have a little trouble getting off the ground and finding both an Ensnaring Bridge and Witchbane Orb against aggressive decks with the ability to burn you out. This week, ItIsUnfair has a new take on artifact control that tries to address some of these concerns and attack from a slightly different angle:
The Antiquities War
Where Lantern Control is built around the combination of Ensnaring Bridge, Lantern of Insight, and various Codex Shredder effects, this deck eschews most of that. Instead, you’ve got a lot of powerful singletons that can swing matchups on their own, rather than an engine that tries to lock your opponent out of the game. Engineered Explosives can single-handedly end games against decks like Affinity, Elves, and Bogles. Ensnaring Bridge is still a monstrously powerful card against creature decks of all varieties. Vedalken Shackles and the Thopter Foundry plus Sword of the Meek combo are great at locking out creature decks and letting you pressure control decks.
There’s a lot of flexibility to this deck, and the combination of Whir of Invention, Thoughtcast, and The Antiquities War means that you’re going to be able to find your singletons with a high degree of consistency. All of your small choices - how many Welding Jars to play, which silver bullets you need to beat up on fringe strategies - are going to matter quite a bit, since you have the ability to find the cards that can swing those matchups in Game 1.
If you want to play a Mox Opal control deck, but aren’t interesting in doing Lantern of Insight things, this seems like fun and powerful choice for your next Modern event.
I love playing with this deck, no one expects it in modern and it plays at multiple angles. I can understand why it was so dominant during standard back in the day. A couple other cards that I have played around with for this deck and that go back to the original standard deck are Gideon Jura and Inkmoth Nexus. Gideon gives you great protection for Jace, a beater when you need him to and extends the game to give you time to find things. You may be tapping out for him, but hopefully before then you have Sword of Feast and Famine out and can get the mana back. He was a big part of the core standard deck back in the day and really helps out.
A 1 of inkmoth nexus gives another creature to attach the equipment to and a pretty quick clock once you do too.
Any updates? I'm considering turning my jeskai breach deck into something along these lines. Seems fun, but i think it might just be a worse version of a breach deck..less deck space for removal/counterspells, no space for deck filtering, and no outs to really race combo. Any input?
My works have gotten wild lately, so I haven't played much. The deck has a lot of room to be tuned. Play the deck like a Tempo deck, even though it has strong control elements. Its not dead to anything but probably burn. It has a little bit of a problem that some of the control cards are not good in every matchup which gets better after sideboard. Sideboard could be changed a lot, White has access to so many good sideboard cards.
But the idea is simple, we need a creature and an equipment and we create a clock. This deck can Wrath of God itself and usually put another creature in play to wear the equipment. Sword of Feast and Famine lets us commit to the Board and keep up Flash creatures and counterspells. I have been very happy with Paradise Mantle, cycling into it off of Steelshaper's Gift is often a great turn 1 or turn 2 play. Its rarely dead and often mana is the best use of Mausoleum Wander or a spirit token. It also can help ramp into a Wrath of God. Grafted Wargear makes the Mausoleum Wander a better card and turns everything into a very real clock. Its even great on an Eternal Scourge, especially it lets the Scourge trade with pretty much any creature that doesn't end the game on the spot. Eternal Scourge/Moorland Haunt is a great combo for long grindy games.
I like the deck. It shouldn't run out of resources, but don't be surprised if decks like Mardu Pyromancer can seem like a tough matchup... Its not a terrible matchup by any standard, but you have games where you'd think you'd win and then they do. Also even though we aren't running a lot of artifacts, incidental removal like Kolaghan's Command hurt when they target equipment and you are forced to chip away at opponents.
This deck isn't tuned or perfect by any stretch, but its somewhere in the middle of tempo and control. Its playable. It maybe able to be made much better.
I am not sold on the number of Spellstutter Sprite being correct. I love the evasive flash creature that also counters a relevant spell. But its possible that it should only be two. I like Batterskull in the sideboard, its too slow for most matchups, but if a game goes long its a wonderful card, so it should still be in the 75. IF they legalize Stoneforge Mystic then it would move main and the deck gets better. The thought that Stoneforge might become Modern Legal is one of the reasons I started down this rabbit hole, since I think this maybe a very good place for that card.
If you want a project that is probably okay to play and one of the best control decks you can play, which might get a card unbanned to make it better down the road, this is a great choice, but if you want something to win the next big tournament, even if this deck can... it will probably need a lot of tuning.
Thanks for the reply. I'm in the middle of my first casual league on MTGO with it. I'll edit this reply once I'm finished.
EDIT: I ended up 3-2 in the casual league but not impressed at all, as one of my wins came from an AFK and another came from an unlucky tron player. My first loss was to G tron and I got smoked while able to put up little to no resistance. I don't remember what the other loss was to but I put up a fight. I beat humans as well which felt good - this version of the deck can grind quite well, and in all my matchups discard was really good. The T1 discard/mausoleum wanderer -> T2 Squadron Hawk / whatever -> T3 lingering souls or hold up queller is definitely not a bad line, but I always felt light on speed when I really needed to race, and didn't have quite enough disruption to back myself up.
The 1x Cryptic Command actually felt oddly spot on; in an aggressive-leaning tempo deck, I don't really want to just fight to get to Cryptic territory and then cruise. I'm much happier to see a cryptic roll into my hand at some point after I've already commited to board, especially with a queller. Jace felt really good, and was key in a few games. He allowed another angle of attack, including controlling the board long enough to get more on the board, or get a piece of equipment down/equipped, and also threatening with fateseals while ahead to lock out an opponent. I'm firm on having 2x maindeck.
I decided to go with no maindeck counterspells to try to play more of a board focused, proactive strategy. The counterspells came in postboard and felt good when I wanted them, so it's definitely up for debate if the deck is just better with them maindeck. The other consideration I'm making right now is to add 2x Search for Azcanta maindeck to assist with the velocity of my draws, and able to take the advantage of putting spells in GY for snapcaster, dump a lingering souls, or an extra squadron hawk, etc. However, my experience thus far is already waffling between committing more to an aggressive and undeniable proactive strategy and balancing with enough disruption to not just be a bad humans/spirits deck. I'm also about to test 2x nimble obstructionist, and not sure what I'm replacing with them at this point. All in all I'm just looking for some input on the deck's direction as you guys see it.
My list:
4x Mausoleum Wanderer
4x Spell Queller
4x Squadron Hawk
3x Fatal Push
3x Inquisition of Kozilek
3x Lingering Souls
3x Snapcaster Mage
2x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2x Path to Exile
2x Fatal Push
2x Steelshaper's Gift
2x Thoughtseize
1x Batterskull
1x Sword of Feast and Famine
1x Sword of Body and Mind
1x Geist of Saint Traft
1x Cryptic Command
Landbase is a hodgebpodge and but its working fine enough.
Sideboard:
2x Timely Reinforcements
2x Detention Sphere
2x Supreme Verdict
2x Logic Knot
1x Negate
1x Anguished Unmaking
2x Pithing Needle
1x Relic of Progenitus
1x Sword of Fire and Ice
1x Burrenton Forge-tender
Tron is actually a hard matchup. So many of our counterspells (some are creatures) only work on low casting cost spells and don't work well when your opponent has access to lots of mana, ie Mausoleum Wanderer. So many cards that are good answers in Modern in general don't affect Tron cards much, and we are playing a lot of those cards. In a heavy Tron game, I am not sure we can make this deck a viable option.
I felt like I had pre-sideboarded the deck for a metagame with a significant amount of Humans, Hollow One, and Affinity. The Wrath of God effects were strong. But I do think you are doing an okay job of making a choice of what your deck does in the first couple games and adding Black for Thoughtseize, Fatal Push, and Lingering Souls is smart. They are all strong cards in Modern.
How is Geist of Saint Traft? Its a great clock, even better if you can give it evasion with one of the swords, but that's an expensive "combo". I was trying to keep most of my deck at "Flash" speed to keep counterspell magic represented.
Why are you playing Sword of Body and Mind? I am genuinely curious on the logic, not being critical till I hear...
How is Jace performing? I've all but cut it from my deck, not because its not a good card, but I just haven't felt that it did enough to my Plan A. But I do bring one in out of the Board in Control matchups.
I agree about Tron. It's just a nightmare of a matchup, you really need to get lucky. I think the only route is build for tap-out (which is what I've done anyways) and go with some number of maindeck Spreading Seas. I put 2x Disdainful Stroke to help for Tron and other big mana/combo decks (hits prime time, spaceshift, non-jund plainswalkers, and Tron hammers) and a Negate as well to tie in. Haven't run into the matchup again to test it.
I agree about the wrath effects being strong maindeck - I recently moved one of my supreme verdicts into the maindeck, and haven't tested it yet. The reason for moving it was that everytime I boarded it in it felt good to know it was somewhere in my deck vs any creature deck, and there's plenty of creature decks around. In regard to the black cards, they've been really, really key. Having the discard is so good to bridge the gap and tie in 1 mana creatures on turn 2, as well as hit back with snapcaster. Having more removal than Path has been really great, although with the move of a single Supreme Verdict to maindeck, there's a consideration for a change. Lingering souls has been the allstar, and a singular reason for many game wins. It is amazing on its own, and is the perfect contest point for the new wizards UR brew that everyones playing, as well as other matchups. It's a mirror breaker in any creature matchup, and they pick up swords very well, as well as crew my 1x Smugglers Copter when it comes around.
Geist's relevance as a 1 of has been unironically infrequent. I really have drawn him an oddly low amount of times, but when I have, he's been good. I would even consider going to 2x maindeck based on how I feel when I actually have seen him. Just like having the other catch-all one-ofs, it feels good to know he's swimming around somewhere, and sometimes you open a hand where it slots in perfectly. The other cases are...you want to keep up queller and have a home-run tool to slam after? Worst case is they have flash creatures and smoke your geist after it attacks and you hit them for 4 for 3 mana. All in all he seems like mostly upside. In regard to the flash playstyle, again, I have moved away from it other than 4x Spell Queller. I don't play maindeck spellstutter sprites, as I thought they were complete trash. I wouldn't consider adding them back to the deck. After I removed them, I saw little reason to commit to the flash gameplan, so I moved towards having hawks maindeck to round it out. I've since added 2x Search for Azcanta, but have yet to test.
I'm not playing Sword of Body and Mind...I typed the wrong one. I'm playing all the swords BUT that one. Although, thinking about it, it might be better than the RW protection one...
Jace has been great. It's a must-counter, a stalling tool and an alternate threat. In regards to the plan A...again, I'm off the flash gameplan in mainboard. Jace really just acts as glue to the deck, and with no cantrips or real filtering (other than my 1x Smugglers Copter and newly added Search for Azcanta), he really can turn the corner for you in any attrition matchup. He has closed the book more often in this deck than in my other deck that I play him in, jeskai breach. I've had many, many leagues with breach, with moderate success, (usually at least going 3-2) and a 1/1 split of Jace and he's good there but feels much better here. He slips in many games to bridge the gap where necessary, and of course sometimes its not enough or just not relevant, but he carries his weight in my particular build which has the birds and disruption to back him up.
Either way, I'm balls deep on this deck right now and will keep brewing until I land on the most succesfull version of this esper build.
Tron is a problem for the metagame, especially control, tempo and midgame decks because it is very resilent to land disruption, I don't value Spreading Seas much in the matchup. Generally, they have so much land search spells that you spend 2 mana to time walk Tron, just one turn, but you didn't really advance your board state for the two mana and you didn't put down a clock. Fixing the Tron matchup maybe impossible. So it may not be worth dedicated sideboard slots for Tron. Ceremoious Rejection is strong so if there are enough matchups where it merits space other than Tron it does help in the Tron matchup.
We have a lot of overlapping cards, but very different goals and strategies. I am not saying my Flash strategy is better, just that the strategy is different. Spellstutter Sprite is good in my eyes, Modern spells in the non-Tron matchups usually are low casting cost, so countering a zero, one or two mana spell is what it is there for, but the 1/1 flying boy carries a sword well too, so some times you cast it without countering a spell. But its weaker in some matchups than others.
One piece of advice I will give you is not to have too many equipment in your 75. Steelshaper's Gift affords you some selection in the matchup. But we run so few artifacts that people will sideboard in Artifact hate to stop what maybe just two or three cards in your deck. In the sideboard matchups the hate maybe there if they saw the equipment game 1 and you may want to side out all your equipment or just leave the Batterskull with no search so that you have it for late game win condition. So each equipment in your 75 should earn its place. Sword of Light and Shadow, Sword of Fire and Ice and Sword of Feast and Famine are the swords I find worth running. The others just are not impactful enough. That is protection from White, Black, Green, Red and Blue between those swords. That's all five colors. I wouldn't run sub-optimal swords in the 75. You also might consider Academy Ruins if the equipment are a big part of your win condition.
I like Settle the Wreckage... The exile is really nice. I'm not running mana leak so giving people extra lands isn't awful. Sure Supreme Verdict kills non-attacking creatures with Summoning Sickness or the Devoted Druid that never attacks, but is a combo piece for the other side. I would have to test it. I can definitely see running at least one in the 75 because it works in aggressive matchups and can be a 3rd Wrath effect.
I would probably want to up my land count to run Tereri, Hero of Dominaria. But that is the correct idea. He has synergy with the deck and helps me to do what I am trying to do.
4 Spell Queller
3 Eternal Scourge
4 Snapcaster Mage
3 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Mausoleum Wanderer
2 Steelshaper's Gift
1 Cryptic Command
1 Logic Knot
1 Negate
3 Path to Exile
4 Serum Visions
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Wrath of God
1 Paradise Mantle
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Grafted Wargear
1 Batterskull
Lands -- 24
4 Flooded Strand
2 Hallowed Fountain
2 Irrigated Farmland
4 Glacial Fortress
3 Celestial Colonnade
1 Academy Ruins
2 Plains
4 Island
2 Moorland Haunt
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Day of Judgment
1 God-Pharaoh's Faithful
1 Settle the Wreckage
2 Vendillion Clique
2 Negate
1 Dispel
2 Geist of Saint Traft
1 Jace the Mindsculpter
1 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
Also settle the wreckage PLAYS AMAZING INTO this deck!! Thank you all again for your support and help.
Little vulnerable to Blood moon though
I like this deck... Definitely an interesting take on the build...
I would suggest a Mistveil Plains if you are going to run the Squadron Hawks. I'd also consider Moorland Haunt and Academy Ruins. I too am worried about your mana base. Regardless of Blood Moon, which would be a real problem, but also is seeing less and less play, to the point, that losing some games to Blood Moon may not be the worst. But I think you may need to play with the number of colorless lands and 17 lands may not be enough... Especially if you are trying to get to Jace the Mind Sculptor. I don't know what he adds to the deck and getting to 4 mana on turn 3 or 4 may not happen for this deck regularly. If he's not on curve then you probably are okay with 17 lands and Mox, you just have to make sure you have enough colored mana access to cast your spells.
Second thing that comes to mind is that this deck might be a worse version of Affinity. Slightly less aggressive, maybe slightly more defensive, cards like Lingering Souls are more long game. So we need to look at what makes your deck better than Affinity. I think you can withstand removal better. You see more cards with your Bauble's, Smuggler's Copter, etc.
I'm not keen on Thraben Inspector in your build. I think you could look at something with evasion. I'd look to replace it with the good affinity cards like Hangarback Walker or Arcbound Ravager, etc. Which also don't require colored mana to cast. It may not seem like it has evasion, but it evades removal and buffs other creatures.
Hangarback Walker can make a lot of artifacts for Cranial Plating...
I also am not sure you don't want one or two Steelshaper's Gift, so that you find Cranial Plating every game. Your build focuses on putting Cranial Plating on an evasive creature. But having a lot of evasive creatures to cast and Squadron Hawk and Moorland Haunt are really good at filling those bills.
Please don't think I'm being too critical, I do like your build and think it has potential. I think you may very well be onto something with Cranial Plating being the potential focus of the deck. Using useful cheap artifacts in the build like Pithing Needle and Nihil Spellbomb that allow you to interact with your opponent. This deck could play a copy or two of Engineered Explosives in the sideboard.
3 squadron hawk
4 Ornithopter
4 Hangarback Walker
1 Arcbound Ravager
3 Metallic rebuke
4 Path to exile
3 lingering souls
2 Steelshaper's Gift
4 mishra's bauble
1 nihil spellbomb
1 Relic of Progenitus
3 mox opal
3 smugglers copter
4 Cranial plating
2 Darksteel citadel
4 Blinkmoth nexis
1 Hallowed Fountain
4 Flooded Strand
1 Seachrome coast
2 Spire of industry
2 Plains
1 Island
1 Mistveil Plains
1 Moorland Haunt
1 Academy Ruins
1 Pithing Needle
1 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Metallic Rebuke
1 Dragon's Claw
4 Vault Skirge
2 Stubborn Denial
1 Ensoul Artifact
2 Damping Sphere
1 Phyrexia's Core
1 Miren, the Moaning Well
Maybe something in this vein would work well. I'm sure there are more good sideboard cards... No tuning yet on it, but its focus is on Cranial Plating on unending flyers... Something like Arcbound Ravager that lets you sacrifice artifacts might be really good with this deck and Hangarback Walker and Cranial Plating... I'm also no where sure how many lands and or which lands to cut. Don't have a feel for it, so spend some time looking at the number of lands, coming into play tapped, and whether they are okay on your color distribution. Lingering Souls may not be as necessary to splash black if you have Hangarback Walker and Moorland Haunt to help. Vault Skirge might be main deck worthy, especially in an effort to have more cheap evasive artifacts.
I also think actively looking for more sideboard cards like Pithing Needle and Damping Sphere that slow down opponents and are also adding to your artifact count are a good direction for the deck.
Another direction to take the deck is to remove all the color requirements but White and colorless. I am not sure that Blue or Black are necessary colors to the build. This helps not to hurt yourself on land damage, but also may focus the deck, adding back in creatures that work better with the theme. White has a lot of good sideboard cards and Lingering Souls while it works well with Copter isn't really necessary and doesn't really synergize with the artifact theme other than making lots of good creatures for carrying cranial plating. Tempered Steel might be very good in this type of build.
Might also look at this deck for inspiration: Its similar and dissimilar and I could potentially see the two decks having middle ground or at least some card overlap that might be helpful...
We’re all used to seeing Lantern Control as the artifact control deck of Modern. That said, there are plenty of situations where Lantern Control starts to lose some of its ability to execute its gameplan. Cards like Search for Azcanta or instant-speed card drawing can really throw a wrench in the works, and you can have a little trouble getting off the ground and finding both an Ensnaring Bridge and Witchbane Orb against aggressive decks with the ability to burn you out. This week, ItIsUnfair has a new take on artifact control that tries to address some of these concerns and attack from a slightly different angle:
2 Supreme Verdict
3 Thoughtcast
2 The Antiquities War
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Pithing Needle
1 Vedalken Shackles
1 Witchbane Orb
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Ensnaring Bridge
2 Terrarion
2 Welding Jar
3 Sword of the Meek
3 Thopter Foundry
4 Chromatic Star
4 Mishra's Bauble
4 Mox Opal
6 Island
1 Academy Ruins
1 Misty Rainforest
2 Hallowed Fountain
4 Darksteel Citadel
4 Flooded Strand
3 Damping Sphere
1 Detention Sphere
3 Disdainful Stroke
2 Fragmentize
1 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Path to Exile
Buy This Deck From CoolStuffInc.com
The Antiquities War
Where Lantern Control is built around the combination of Ensnaring Bridge, Lantern of Insight, and various Codex Shredder effects, this deck eschews most of that. Instead, you’ve got a lot of powerful singletons that can swing matchups on their own, rather than an engine that tries to lock your opponent out of the game. Engineered Explosives can single-handedly end games against decks like Affinity, Elves, and Bogles. Ensnaring Bridge is still a monstrously powerful card against creature decks of all varieties. Vedalken Shackles and the Thopter Foundry plus Sword of the Meek combo are great at locking out creature decks and letting you pressure control decks.
There’s a lot of flexibility to this deck, and the combination of Whir of Invention, Thoughtcast, and The Antiquities War means that you’re going to be able to find your singletons with a high degree of consistency. All of your small choices - how many Welding Jars to play, which silver bullets you need to beat up on fringe strategies - are going to matter quite a bit, since you have the ability to find the cards that can swing those matchups in Game 1.
If you want to play a Mox Opal control deck, but aren’t interesting in doing Lantern of Insight things, this seems like fun and powerful choice for your next Modern event.
A 1 of inkmoth nexus gives another creature to attach the equipment to and a pretty quick clock once you do too.
4 Spell Queller
2 Eternal Scourge
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Mausoleum Wanderer
1 Selfless Spirit
Spells (14)
1 Steelshaper's Gift
1 Cryptic Command
1 Logic Knot
1 Negate
3 Path to Exile
4 Serum Visions
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Wrath of God
1 Day of Judgment
1 Paradise Mantle
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Grafted Wargear
Lands (24)
4 Flooded Strand
4 Hallowed Fountain
1 Irrigated Farmland
4 Glacial Fortress
2 Celestial Colonnade
1 Academy Ruins
2 Plains
4 Island
2 Moorland Haunt
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Settle the Wreckage
3 Vendillion Clique
2 Negate
2 Dispel
2 Geist of Saint Traft
1 Jace the Mindsculpter
1 Batterskull
But the idea is simple, we need a creature and an equipment and we create a clock. This deck can Wrath of God itself and usually put another creature in play to wear the equipment. Sword of Feast and Famine lets us commit to the Board and keep up Flash creatures and counterspells. I have been very happy with Paradise Mantle, cycling into it off of Steelshaper's Gift is often a great turn 1 or turn 2 play. Its rarely dead and often mana is the best use of Mausoleum Wander or a spirit token. It also can help ramp into a Wrath of God. Grafted Wargear makes the Mausoleum Wander a better card and turns everything into a very real clock. Its even great on an Eternal Scourge, especially it lets the Scourge trade with pretty much any creature that doesn't end the game on the spot. Eternal Scourge/Moorland Haunt is a great combo for long grindy games.
I like the deck. It shouldn't run out of resources, but don't be surprised if decks like Mardu Pyromancer can seem like a tough matchup... Its not a terrible matchup by any standard, but you have games where you'd think you'd win and then they do. Also even though we aren't running a lot of artifacts, incidental removal like Kolaghan's Command hurt when they target equipment and you are forced to chip away at opponents.
This deck isn't tuned or perfect by any stretch, but its somewhere in the middle of tempo and control. Its playable. It maybe able to be made much better.
I am not sold on the number of Spellstutter Sprite being correct. I love the evasive flash creature that also counters a relevant spell. But its possible that it should only be two. I like Batterskull in the sideboard, its too slow for most matchups, but if a game goes long its a wonderful card, so it should still be in the 75. IF they legalize Stoneforge Mystic then it would move main and the deck gets better. The thought that Stoneforge might become Modern Legal is one of the reasons I started down this rabbit hole, since I think this maybe a very good place for that card.
If you want a project that is probably okay to play and one of the best control decks you can play, which might get a card unbanned to make it better down the road, this is a great choice, but if you want something to win the next big tournament, even if this deck can... it will probably need a lot of tuning.
EDIT: I ended up 3-2 in the casual league but not impressed at all, as one of my wins came from an AFK and another came from an unlucky tron player. My first loss was to G tron and I got smoked while able to put up little to no resistance. I don't remember what the other loss was to but I put up a fight. I beat humans as well which felt good - this version of the deck can grind quite well, and in all my matchups discard was really good. The T1 discard/mausoleum wanderer -> T2 Squadron Hawk / whatever -> T3 lingering souls or hold up queller is definitely not a bad line, but I always felt light on speed when I really needed to race, and didn't have quite enough disruption to back myself up.
The 1x Cryptic Command actually felt oddly spot on; in an aggressive-leaning tempo deck, I don't really want to just fight to get to Cryptic territory and then cruise. I'm much happier to see a cryptic roll into my hand at some point after I've already commited to board, especially with a queller. Jace felt really good, and was key in a few games. He allowed another angle of attack, including controlling the board long enough to get more on the board, or get a piece of equipment down/equipped, and also threatening with fateseals while ahead to lock out an opponent. I'm firm on having 2x maindeck.
I decided to go with no maindeck counterspells to try to play more of a board focused, proactive strategy. The counterspells came in postboard and felt good when I wanted them, so it's definitely up for debate if the deck is just better with them maindeck. The other consideration I'm making right now is to add 2x Search for Azcanta maindeck to assist with the velocity of my draws, and able to take the advantage of putting spells in GY for snapcaster, dump a lingering souls, or an extra squadron hawk, etc. However, my experience thus far is already waffling between committing more to an aggressive and undeniable proactive strategy and balancing with enough disruption to not just be a bad humans/spirits deck. I'm also about to test 2x nimble obstructionist, and not sure what I'm replacing with them at this point. All in all I'm just looking for some input on the deck's direction as you guys see it.
My list:
4x Mausoleum Wanderer
4x Spell Queller
4x Squadron Hawk
3x Fatal Push
3x Inquisition of Kozilek
3x Lingering Souls
3x Snapcaster Mage
2x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2x Path to Exile
2x Fatal Push
2x Steelshaper's Gift
2x Thoughtseize
1x Batterskull
1x Sword of Feast and Famine
1x Sword of Body and Mind
1x Geist of Saint Traft
1x Cryptic Command
Landbase is a hodgebpodge and but its working fine enough.
Sideboard:
2x Timely Reinforcements
2x Detention Sphere
2x Supreme Verdict
2x Logic Knot
1x Negate
1x Anguished Unmaking
2x Pithing Needle
1x Relic of Progenitus
1x Sword of Fire and Ice
1x Burrenton Forge-tender
I felt like I had pre-sideboarded the deck for a metagame with a significant amount of Humans, Hollow One, and Affinity. The Wrath of God effects were strong. But I do think you are doing an okay job of making a choice of what your deck does in the first couple games and adding Black for Thoughtseize, Fatal Push, and Lingering Souls is smart. They are all strong cards in Modern.
How is Geist of Saint Traft? Its a great clock, even better if you can give it evasion with one of the swords, but that's an expensive "combo". I was trying to keep most of my deck at "Flash" speed to keep counterspell magic represented.
Why are you playing Sword of Body and Mind? I am genuinely curious on the logic, not being critical till I hear...
How is Jace performing? I've all but cut it from my deck, not because its not a good card, but I just haven't felt that it did enough to my Plan A. But I do bring one in out of the Board in Control matchups.
I agree about the wrath effects being strong maindeck - I recently moved one of my supreme verdicts into the maindeck, and haven't tested it yet. The reason for moving it was that everytime I boarded it in it felt good to know it was somewhere in my deck vs any creature deck, and there's plenty of creature decks around. In regard to the black cards, they've been really, really key. Having the discard is so good to bridge the gap and tie in 1 mana creatures on turn 2, as well as hit back with snapcaster. Having more removal than Path has been really great, although with the move of a single Supreme Verdict to maindeck, there's a consideration for a change. Lingering souls has been the allstar, and a singular reason for many game wins. It is amazing on its own, and is the perfect contest point for the new wizards UR brew that everyones playing, as well as other matchups. It's a mirror breaker in any creature matchup, and they pick up swords very well, as well as crew my 1x Smugglers Copter when it comes around.
Geist's relevance as a 1 of has been unironically infrequent. I really have drawn him an oddly low amount of times, but when I have, he's been good. I would even consider going to 2x maindeck based on how I feel when I actually have seen him. Just like having the other catch-all one-ofs, it feels good to know he's swimming around somewhere, and sometimes you open a hand where it slots in perfectly. The other cases are...you want to keep up queller and have a home-run tool to slam after? Worst case is they have flash creatures and smoke your geist after it attacks and you hit them for 4 for 3 mana. All in all he seems like mostly upside. In regard to the flash playstyle, again, I have moved away from it other than 4x Spell Queller. I don't play maindeck spellstutter sprites, as I thought they were complete trash. I wouldn't consider adding them back to the deck. After I removed them, I saw little reason to commit to the flash gameplan, so I moved towards having hawks maindeck to round it out. I've since added 2x Search for Azcanta, but have yet to test.
I'm not playing Sword of Body and Mind...I typed the wrong one. I'm playing all the swords BUT that one. Although, thinking about it, it might be better than the RW protection one...
Jace has been great. It's a must-counter, a stalling tool and an alternate threat. In regards to the plan A...again, I'm off the flash gameplan in mainboard. Jace really just acts as glue to the deck, and with no cantrips or real filtering (other than my 1x Smugglers Copter and newly added Search for Azcanta), he really can turn the corner for you in any attrition matchup. He has closed the book more often in this deck than in my other deck that I play him in, jeskai breach. I've had many, many leagues with breach, with moderate success, (usually at least going 3-2) and a 1/1 split of Jace and he's good there but feels much better here. He slips in many games to bridge the gap where necessary, and of course sometimes its not enough or just not relevant, but he carries his weight in my particular build which has the birds and disruption to back him up.
Either way, I'm balls deep on this deck right now and will keep brewing until I land on the most succesfull version of this esper build.
We have a lot of overlapping cards, but very different goals and strategies. I am not saying my Flash strategy is better, just that the strategy is different. Spellstutter Sprite is good in my eyes, Modern spells in the non-Tron matchups usually are low casting cost, so countering a zero, one or two mana spell is what it is there for, but the 1/1 flying boy carries a sword well too, so some times you cast it without countering a spell. But its weaker in some matchups than others.
One piece of advice I will give you is not to have too many equipment in your 75. Steelshaper's Gift affords you some selection in the matchup. But we run so few artifacts that people will sideboard in Artifact hate to stop what maybe just two or three cards in your deck. In the sideboard matchups the hate maybe there if they saw the equipment game 1 and you may want to side out all your equipment or just leave the Batterskull with no search so that you have it for late game win condition. So each equipment in your 75 should earn its place. Sword of Light and Shadow, Sword of Fire and Ice and Sword of Feast and Famine are the swords I find worth running. The others just are not impactful enough. That is protection from White, Black, Green, Red and Blue between those swords. That's all five colors. I wouldn't run sub-optimal swords in the 75. You also might consider Academy Ruins if the equipment are a big part of your win condition.