{"ops":[{"insert":"Here's a take on my favorite archetype in mtg history, Lantern Control ("},{"insert":{"card-link":"Lantern of Insight"}},{"insert":"), built for an unplayed monoblue commander that can keep 3 player's decks away from getting hits and stall the game to the last draw.\n\nFor those who aren't familiar with Lantern Control, the point of the strategy is to run opponents out of meaningful game actions by making their draw per turn useless in advancing the game state. Essentially, we're forcing mana flooding and dead draws. This was a Modern staple for a time. However in commander as a singleton, 100+ card, 4+ player format the requirements are a lot harder to achieve.\n\nWhat makes this archetype worth playing in commander is that since it's such an easy and subtle lock with a rough maintain on 3 players, it lends itself well to politicking and being a puppet master. You can selectively give players answers to each other's problems. You can make deals to target players that are saving shuffle effects to reroll their top card, or team up with someone who's strategy is very stoppable to eliminate players before putting the lock down. Essentially, to pilot this deck well you need to be unassuming and tactical, be able to keep track of the options you allow the table to have, and divide and conquer your way to a maintainable win state. The commander here plays right into this mindset! While spirits are plentiful and very useful control cards in blue, just it mentioning Arcane cards and being understated (but still dodging bolt!) puts you on a lower threat level.\n\nWhat the deck needs to achieve its win condition is:\nTurning off combat ("},{"insert":{"card-link":"Ensnaring Bridge"}},{"insert":", "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Statecraft"}},{"insert":")"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Visibility of the top of player's libraries ("},{"insert":{"card-link":"Lantern of Insight"}},{"insert":", "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Wizened Snitches"}},{"insert":")"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Consistent sources of mill "},{"insert":"(The deck is loaded with mill effects, and the commander allows for Spirits and Arcane spells to also mill)"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Counter-magic to deny draw effects (we're in mono blue.)"},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Once these are achieved, you strive to make every opponent's draw useless, doing the bare minimum every turn to maintain the lock until they give up or they draw their deck.\n\nThat third condition is the kicker in keeping the win state going. The deck needs to be able to keep 3 other decks from hitting any bangers every turn cycle. Unlike other lock strategies, this is an active strategy until the game ends. If any one player breaks free, the resources devoted to stopping them will likely cause the rest to get room. So the choice of commander is made with the idea that "},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"it should always have 3+ sources of mill to make dead draws extremely likely for the rest of the game."},{"insert":" The rest of the deck is tutors, counter magic, and delaying tactics to give the deck the room to enact this lock.\n\nBesides maintaining the third condition, this commander lets us use creatures to hedge the lock with usable board state. Traditionally, lantern control has the bare minimum board. But in a very creature-centric format, having board presence is very important.\n\n\n"}]}