{"ops":[{"insert":"Lantern control sucks in EDH. It never works. Do not build it. It is a trap.\n\nIf you are foolish enough to ignore these warnings, consider the sins three of Lantern Control.\nIt's too fucking slow and makes the game take forever for no reason."},{"attributes":{"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"It doesn't scale to 3 opponents who each have consistent, regular access to their commander."},{"attributes":{"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"There's not enough redundancy to be able to consistently find and assemble the lantern gameplan."},{"attributes":{"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\nAny aspiring Lantern Control brew in EDH would have to solve these problems three. And then... we were gifted "},{"insert":{"card-link":"The Madcap Jester"}},{"insert":" .\n\nDoes our little guy have what it takes to get over these three hurdles? No, this deck fucking sucks. But it does "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"kind of"},{"insert":" work, and it "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"can "},{"insert":"actually win sometimes, which is better than any other lantern control deck I've ever tried. So let's cover the sins three, and see how the Jester addresses these problems.\n\n\t\t\tONE: It's too fucking slow and makes the game take forever for no reason.\nThe big thing Lantern lacks in EDH is a proactive gameplan. If your goal is to play no creatures, sit back, and ensure nobody draws anything good for the rest of the game, you're going to get outvalued by all the greedy little munchkins at the table who are trying to kill you dead. This is the gift that the jester gives us. With the jester in play, we are not simply scraping topdecks to leave lands on top all the time; we can leverage all the same pieces (lantern, mill rocks) for information about what to steal, when to steal it, etc. There are a couple of key packages that make this work.\n\nTHE EXTRACT PACKAGE\n"},{"insert":{"card-link":"Extract"}},{"insert":" "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Sadistic Sacrament"}},{"insert":" "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Jester's Cap"}},{"insert":" "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Bitter Ordeal"}},{"insert":" \nWith the jester out, these cards let us mine our opponent's deck for combo pieces, answers to tricky board states, or high value threats that can drive us to victory in a reasonable time. They also force our opponent to shuffle, acting as a way to manipulate their library in a pinch. Generally, we can rely on these to pilfer more generic value pieces from our opponents as well, allowing us a few more deck slots for greedy bullshit of our own.\n\nTHE EXILE PACKAGE\n"},{"insert":{"card-link":"Leyline of the Void"}},{"insert":" "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Dauthi Voidwalker"}},{"insert":" "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Psychic Surgery"}},{"insert":" "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Dimensional Infiltrator"}},{"insert":" \nThe jester's attack trigger and these cards let us skim the top card of our opponents' libraries into exile, allowing us to cast them in the same breath as we deny our opponents their best draws, critically giving us something to actually do with the time that lantern control buys. Infiltrator seems like the rate sucks, but trust me, that little guy can be really backbreaking because it allows us to convert mana directly to cards and topdeck manipulation without needing to tap.\n\n\t\t\tTWO: It doesn't scale to 3 opponents who each have consistent, regular access to their commander.\nThis is, in my opinion, the thing that kills lantern in EDH. While everyone is setting up these huge value engines that are going to quickly outpace your ability to set up a lock, you are stuck playing dogshit 1 mana artifacts which literally do nothing. Our approach to solve this problem is twofold:\n\nTHE TWIDDLY BULLSHIT\n"},{"insert":{"card-link":"Unwinding Clock"}},{"insert":" "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Shadow of the Second Sun"}},{"insert":" "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Unstoppable Plan"}},{"insert":" "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Clock of Omens"}},{"insert":" \nThe main way we seek to scale to the table is to establish a relatively smaller number of actual mill rocks, while also setting up some engines which can allow us to reuse that limited number of rocks multiple times. Unwinding clock is the absolute goat here, which literally lets our rocks scale to each player 1:1 as if it were a 1v1 game, but all do the job fairly effectively.\n\nTHE RESOURCE ENGINES\n"},{"insert":{"card-link":"The One Ring"}},{"insert":" "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Staff of Eden, Vault's Key"}},{"insert":" "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Mana Vault"}},{"insert":" "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Basalt Monolith"}},{"insert":" \nTo keep up with our opponents, we need a gameplan that builds resource engines of our own. In fact, the bulk of our overpowered bullshit cards (game changers) are dedicated to this category, because it's so important to actually do something to keep pace with the table. We've carefully chosen value engines which harmonize with our twiddly bullshit, so that we can flexibly leverage our resources to draw and/or make mana if we're not in a position to be locking the table down yet.\n\n\t\t\tTHREE: There's not enough redundancy to be able to consistently find and assemble the lantern gameplan.\nI think this "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"was"},{"insert":" truer, until maybe last year. In recent times, we've been gifted a key few pieces which help pick up the slack that lantern has always lacked. One of them is our commander himself!\n\nTHE TRINKET TUTORS\n"},{"insert":{"card-link":"Tezzeret, Cruel Captain"}},{"insert":" "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Artificer's Intuition"}},{"insert":" "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Trinket Mage"}},{"insert":" "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Scheming Symmetry"}},{"insert":" \nTezzeret's printing in 2025 was a huge boon to this deck. He serves both as a reliable tutor for many of the pieces we need, as well as an untapper to allow our gameplan a bit more redundancy. Since he threatens to repeatedly tutor, expect him to get swung at and killed, but every once in a while he can squeak out a second or third tutor. The others are well-worn options, though scheming symmetry has some unique spice in this deck.\n\nTHE TOPDECK MANIPULATION\n"},{"insert":{"card-link":"Lantern of Insight"}},{"insert":" "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Codex Shredder"}},{"insert":" "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Riverchurn Monument"}},{"insert":" "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Ghoulcaller's Bell"}},{"insert":"\nThese artifacts are the core of the lantern gameplan, and in their totality, they are relatively slim. However, crucially Riverchurn Monument is the first mill rock which allows you to target "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"any number"},{"insert":" of players, allowing you to more perfectly fix the topdecks. Ghoulcallers and Codex Shredder are themselves efficient at specific jobs. Notably missing is "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Pyxis of Pandemonium"}},{"insert":" . A quirk of Jester is that you cannot cast any face down exiled cards, so it's a bit worse than it seems at first blush. We generally prefer sending things to graveyard, as that enables our theft and redundancy packages, as well as works smoother with the void exile effects.\n\nTHE RECURSION ENGINES\n"},{"insert":{"card-link":"Goblin Welder"}},{"insert":" "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Goblin Engineer"}},{"insert":" "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Emry, Lurker of the Loch"}},{"insert":" "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Salvaging Station"}},{"insert":" \nYou might notice when looking at this deck that the red in its color identity is very slim. That's true; a lantern/theft deck really likes to be centered in U/B for a number of reasons. However, I do believe the red identity is "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"crucial"},{"insert":" to the success of this deck for these reasons. Welder and Engineer serve triple threats as redundancy, protection, and enablers for our mill rocks. Because both welders return cards to the battlefield untapped, rotating between spent and unspent pieces in the graveyard lets you effectively use them as funky untappers, allowing you to get one or two more activation than you normally would. The deck "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"sings"},{"insert":" when one of these two guys are in play.\n\n\nSome notable things that are missing:\nQ: Where's the prison/stax/pillowfort?\nA: Generally, this deck is attempting to have a more proactive gameplan. Because of the theft angle, it's not as reliant on locking the game entirely down, and can often build a fairly strong board state of its own. Lastly, I just don't personally enjoy invoking the spectre of mass discard / pillowfort / resource denial, so I've chosen to omit some of the best pieces that would admittedly work very well(notably, ensnaring bridge) simply to fit my own tastes.\n\nQ: My commander is a fucking 4 mana 3/2 with no keywords, how do you expect me to attack with it every turn.\nA: While not specifically relevant to the primer, a lot of little stuff has been hidden in the deck to allow you to more safely get in (See: "},{"insert":{"card-link":"The Black Gate"}},{"insert":" "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Maze of Ith"}},{"insert":" "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Shizo, Death's Storehouse"}},{"insert":" "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Manifold Key"}},{"insert":").\n\nQ: Where are my control pieces??? How do I win???\nA: The goal of this deck was to leverage your opponents resources to cover generic value gaps, though there are light packages for specific answers that can be tutored for in a pinch. Many of them can be reused with welders or recurred with codex shredder. Remember that you can cast stolen cards with colorless mana, so lean on the big mana artifacts to generate a big enough mana advantage to keep pace with the table. As for your own win, there is one extremely marginal combo line utilizing"},{"insert":{"card-link":"The Enigma Jewel // Locus of Enlightenment"}},{"insert":" if you absolutely need it, but genuinely just believe in the power of Riverchurn Monument, that card kills the fuck out of people if you get online. \n\nThus, the jester plays the fool and attempts the impossible, to the scowls and laughter of his opponents. Lots of little things are left out of this primer for you to discover, so give it a try, and see if you like it!\n"}]}