Don’t worry about the amulet bloom matchup anymore…

Yes

I don’t think he meant as a win condition against the lantern deck rather a way to get out of the “lock”. Lantern player shapes your draw and then you mill a number of cards of hopefully revealing another out that the lantern player can’t deal with.

I don’t think it ‘s effective enough and it’s so narrow (what other deck do you want it for?) that sticking with the grudges, kitakis and suppression fields seems better.

This! Thanks Mickey!

So a hand without Bridge but with Ancient Stirrings is keepable?

Ancient Stirrings goes a long way in finding Bridge, or most anything in the deck really.

If you have Lantern and mill rocks you can dig for it while stalling the opponent by milling his creatures.

If you have mill rocks and Academy Ruins, yes, you could self mill in hopes of “graveyard tutor” it back. This is also how you find your Lantern some times.

Abrupt Decay & Pyrite Spellbomb also buy you time against creatures to find a Bridge.

If the Lantern player has an Academy Ruins, Mesmeric Orb will not be able to do the trick. Mesmeric Orb will trigger, mill the Lantern player to 0 cards in library, then the Lantern player will use Academy Ruins to put 1 card on deck and draw it, turn after turn. Mox Opal’s legend rule means there will always be a target on graveyard to do it, or Codex Shredder saccing itself, or Pyrite Spellbomb.

Incremental lifegain is better because of Skullcrack/Command; we want things in our graveyard, and it’s cheaper overall.

I would imagine it is because artifacts being in your yard are way better than then being in your deck thanks to academy ruins.

The main reason is that Sun Droplet “sets” your life total and can also act as a mini-bridge for smaller creatures, especially stuff that sneaks under like Noble Hierarch. We have Academy Ruins to get back milled cards, which makes the shuffle effect on Elixir less useful. If you want a “gain life in a pinch” effect I would suggest Sunbeam Spellbomb (which is also used in some sideboards) as it can draw a card with no white mana, only costs 1 to activate, and most imporantly, can be recurred with Academy Ruins.

Also, excellent article, Randall! Sideboarding with this deck has always been a weak point for me (I’ve played the deck since January, but still) and this primer helps out a lot.