IntroductionUnexpectedly for many -including myself- this deck survived and fared well in the Rav/Cs/Tsp/Xth metagame, mainly for the heavy presence of high quality aggro decks. With Lorwyn coming, many of us are looking at this deck once again to fight the tribal aggro hysteria that's going around.
[c]Proclamation of Rebirth[/c] and [c]Debtor's Knell[/c] are both lost, wich means you won't recur [c]Martyr of Sands[/c] anymore in most games, but even before the rotation the recursion was less and less used, in favor of more board control, so no one is really crying about it.
In a whole year of my MtG career I played only the commonly preceived best deck in the format (HandToHand, DralnuDuLouvre, Angelfire) and variants of this one -wich incidentally has been twice the best deck in the format- so I am quite familiar with this deck. Here I offer all of my knowledge, and that of fellow players of this, to anyone who still believes in this deck.
This deck is also generally opened at everyone looking for a W based control, in general. If the popular demand requires to threat other W based control in this thread (basically without Martyr of Sands) this thread won't banish the martyrless decks.
Lastly, the below link is for some history: the first thread by Jujuhawk, later updated by me, with 2000 posts of debatings about this deck in a year:
http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=844631Playing the Deck1) This deck is a anti-aggro machine. The basic idea behind it is that they can beat every single card in your deck, but not the deck as a whole. You play aggro smashers one after one, and they will sooner or later crumble. And the clunkier they get to answer you, the better. [c]Extirpate[/c] on your [c]Martyr of Sands[/c]? [c]Pithing Needle[/c] on your [c]Story Circle[/c]? [c]Krosan Grip[/c] on your [c]Porphyry Nodes[/c]? For each of those answers they packed in, they had to remove a threat from their deck that would have otherwise dealt damage, thus their threat density goes down. Let them fight each one of your solution, the deck as a whole will wipe them out.
Beware that despite commono knowledge, this deck CAN lose against Aggro if the player is better than you, and many players go paranoid about this trying to make a deck that cannot lose even if you're playing it asleep: this is a bad direction to take, as it makes your deck shallower and shallower. Better to leave some breath to Aggro than having a mono-dimensional deck that loses versus anything else.
2) How do you beat control? This is the question that naturally arises, and is actually THE question about your deck. Every ProclaMartyr variant can beat aggro, but very few are balanced against control. Having a game against control is the most important distinction between a good version and a bad one.
Sadly, the answer is that you beat them with a long, endless attrition war wich by the way takes a lot of time and effort. The Urza-Tron solved the problem giving the deck a huge speed bump, but as of now you have nothing similar available. I must be honest right now and telling everyone not to play this deck if the majority of the metagame you play in is control (wich shouldn't be by the way, but still).
Fine deckbuilding will lead you to a 50%-50% matchup against control. From that point, your skill must beat theirs.
3) Combo decks are different each one from the others, and in this young metagame we have yet to see wich combos will come out. However, this being a Control deck, you are somewhat in a natural advantage over them. Thinking of the past metagames. D-Storm, Project X, Perilous Storm, NarcoBridge were all fairly winnable matchups, and required at most a x3 of hosers in the SB.
4) Tempo decks are the nightmare of this deck. KarstenBotBabyKiller and Panda Connection were already a problem in the past metagame, but Tempo got a lot better with Lorwyn and, in my opinion, it got far more of a boost than aggro. The bright side is that most players don't know how to play Tempo decks, the bad side is that Tempo decks are so good as of now that best players will play those in numbers.
Building the DeckWith Ravnica, a lot of multicolored variants were around. As of today, the WU version is generally accepted as the best, but I won't flat out reject the idea that WR, WG and WB decks can be done, and can be good. I've just yet to see them, and I feel fine with WU right now, as most people are. Thus I will work specifically on WU until we have reasons to do otherwise.
I also decided not to split cards il lands/creatures/spells but moreso looking at their role in the deck.
[sblock=removals]
Arguably the most important thing in the deck. You can't have a x4 of eveything, but versatility is the key here. The most diverse your removal base is, the less consistent it is: you must find the balance in between.
- [c]Condemn[/c]: it's hard to dislike the best removal in the format. While there are a bunch of problems that Condemn cannot solve, statistically speaking there's nothing as good as this.
- [c]Wrath of God[/c]: you can write an essay about this card and it's effect on Standard. A must beyond any doubt, it works even if you don't have that in hand because the player will try to play around the bare chance that you do.
- [c]Porphyry Nodes[/c]: in a sense, this is [c]Condemn[/c]'s pal, as it solves every problem the other doesn't (untargetables, creatures that don't attack, etc.). Also, it feeds on your opponent's unexperience hand has a high chance of creating card advantage. While not mandatory, it's definitely good.
- [c]Sunlance[/c]: can act as a more than decent removal against non-White utility creatures like [c]Sulfur Elemental[/c]. Now that the non-White utility creature of choice ([c]Dark Confidant[/c]) is gone, and the first one you'd like to kill is White ([c]Gaddock Teeg[/c]), this difficult finds any place. Biggest problem, it pales to [c]Condemn[/c].
- [c]Pull From Eternity[/c]: good trick in the second matchup vs Blink where it stops [c]Epochrasite[/c], [c]Riftwing Cloudskate[/c], and the sided-in [c]Aeon Chronicler[/c]. Sadly, it's a narrow card, yet you must see it often to take advantage of it. It's basically a SB if you're sure you'll face Blink.
- [c]Judge Unworty[/c]: this also pales to [c]Condemn[/c], but the scry effect may be liked from mono white versions wich few capability of manipulating their library.
- [c]Crib Swap[/c]: it swings card quality in you favor, wich is excellent in aggro decks but not so much here. It strips utility creatures of their utility attributes, but leaves them a pontentially problematic changeling, plus pumps unnecessarily their obligatory [c]Tarmogoyf[/c].
- [c]Oblivion Ring[/c]: high quality removal, unlike, say, [c]Return To Dust[/c], it can be maindecked and covers one of the deck main weaknesses: being able of dealing with creatures but not with anything else - especially relevant with planeswalkers around. This is awesome at doing both, and shines in all matchups except vs Tempo decks, wich will easily bounce/disenchant it without slowing their clock, and with further dramatic effects. I highly recommend having some MD and perhaps a full set between MD and SB.
- [c]Austere Command[/c]: acts as an additional mass sweeper, but increases your 4cc spells count, wich is bad against [c]Gaddock Teeg[/c]. However it can be worth a try at least SB especially for Control matchups, because it allows many intelligent tricks.
- [c]Sunscour[/c]: your free mass sweeper, excellent against two things, green decks who crowd the board toward mana accel, and Pickles variants wich you can wipe attack without mana. More or less a SB card, as it can be overkill in some matchups, and even dead in others.
- [c]Take Possession[/c]: takes a threat and brings that on your side of the board, and no one can do much about it. Relevant (game-deciding) in Control matchups, not having some in the SB is a huge, huge mistake.
- [c]Mouth of Ronom[/c]: especially relevant in attrition wars, generally useful nonetheless. It doesn't even ask a full snow engine to work.
[/sblock]
[sblock=draw engines]
The main reason to run blue, they are extremely, extremely important. To the point that lacking one will make your deck suck. The options are, luckily, more than varied.
- [c]Scrying Sheets[/c]: recently more popular as ever, it asks you to tweak your whole deck with snowy inclusions, but provides a lot of CA more often than not. It also circumvents most forms of disruption and thin your deck of lands. Non-snow version are possible, but I have yet to see what advantage you have currently in not playing snow.
- [c]Ponder[/c]: cheapest than everything else, combines nicely with the snow-engine. A fine choice if you want a fast version.
- [c]Howling Mine[/c]: the usual point in its favor was that it makes aggro draw cards that are nullified anyway. Now that aggro decks got smarter and trickier this is not a valid point anymore. The only successful use I saw of this card was against the mirror match, because it helps a lot at milling the opponent. I don't have a clue about why you should build this deck in order to beat a twin deck, but I still report this.
- [c]Idyllic Tutor[/c]: while not properly a draw engine, it's a efficient tutor that makes the toolkbox strategy possible. With it, you have far more space for creativity in the SB.
- [c]Jace Beleren[/c]: against control is an arena that let them draw a card for every three you draw. Some pretty good players swear it's also viable vs Aggro and therefore is maindeck material, but I'm not sold on this. Basically I use him as a sideboard to support [c]Aeon Chronicler[/c] in Control matchups, and just as Chronicler he occasionally end up as a threat too.
- [c]Foresee[/c]: while vulnerable to [c]Gaddock Teeg[/c] once again, this is extremely powerful in this deck. Hard to make any other point against it.
- [c]Mulldrifter[/c]: albeit not a gamebreaking source of card advantage, this [c]Counsel of the Soratami[/c] also places a threat in the late game, wich can be useful in attrition wars. Forms an awesome combo with Adarkar Valkyrie, where you get four cards and a beater for 2U.
- [c]Tidings[/c]: a less versatile but stronger [c]Foresee[/c].
- [c]Fathom Thrawl[/c]: somewhere in between [c]Foresee[/c] and [c]Tidings[/c], it's costy but efficient. A lot more adivsable if you run mana fixers/accelerators and many ways to get Gaddock out of the way.
- [c]Aeon Chronicler[/c]: if you didn't get in love with him when playing Nassif Tron, this is the right time to do it. Uncounterable card draw, more versatile than he looks, and occasionally a finisher. While some copies get sided out against aggro often, not having him at all is almost unjustifiable.
[/sblock]
[sblock=mana accel]
Quite neglected part of the deck, but actually warps completely the deck performance in many bad matchups, in a positive way.
- [c]Calciform Pools[/c]: what's more classical than storagelands? Auto-include if you don't run snow.
- [c]Mind Stone[/c]: the most obvious choice, with the awesome property of self-recycling. The "noncolored" is sometimes annoying. You can have a turn 3 Wrath, if you want to.
- [c]Coldsteel Heart[/c]: good with snow engines, and also fixes your mana. Also, turn 3 Wrath enabler.
- [c]Coalition Relic[/c]: uncontested best accelerator of the format. Fixes mana, accelerated into bombs and does other wonders.
- [c]Gauntlet of Power[/c]: more played in mono W, this makes Mesa ridicolous and gives you ton of mana, if you tune the deck for it.
[/sblock]
[sblock=board stallers]
Something this deck excells at doing is dropping a perpetual source of control in the board. Many win-conditions in the deck also double as board controllers, too.
- [c]Forbidding Watchtower[/c]: man-land that blocks efficiently a lot of things. It hasn't a huge impact in the game, but most times you'll lose nothing from playing it, so it's a small benefit for no loss. If you don't go for the snow engine, of course.
- [c]Martyr of Sands[/c]: here's our lady. Eats one or more turns against Aggro, but asks a 60% of white cards in your deck to do this. Still, if you weren't ready for this costraint, you weren't reading this primer. She's arguably not good as she was when ways to recur her are not many anymore, but she's still restarting your game from zero whenever you like it, plus killing an attacking critter occasionally or blocking things like a [c]Greater Gargadon[/c], thus effectively gaining X + 9 lifepoints.
- [c]Phyrexian Ironfoot[/c]: the heir of [c]Court Hussar[/c], he does basically the same: giving you card advantage (with the snow engine), blocking and killing attackers, swinging too. It's less brainy then the hussar, sadly, but more brawny.
- [c]Aven Riftwatcher[/c]: not enough impact in my opinion, but still worth as a wall for someone.
- [c]Story Circle[/c]: means victory versus a lot of decks, buys a lot of time for you and makes things like [c]Porphyry Nodes[/c] or [c]Wrath of God[/c] a lot better, as they overextend to trump the circle. Sadly, multiples are often dead, so you're stuck between the chance of not drawing one when needed and the chance of having too many.
- [c]Teferi's Moat[/c]: a lot less flexible than the Circle, what it lacks in flexibility it makes for with raw power. Certain popular decks simply cease to exist as long as one is on the table, especially Elf Machine and BR Goblins. Demands acceleration, though.
- [c]Reveillark[/c]: interesting inclusion in those combolicious versions including [c]Mulldrifter[/c] and [c]Adarkar Valkyrie[/c], because it can either return martyrs into play or set up a good draw engine. Deserves a try.
- [c]Beacon of Immortality[/c]: a lot like the [c]Proclamation of Rebirth[/c] of modern times, it brings you from having a good matchup vs aggro to being unable to lose to it. Sadly you'll need something like 3-4 to have an impact in your game, and this will give you 3-4 cards wich are absolutely dead in other matchups. Thus, some rely on it too much, while some other prefer having it SB or just as a 1-of gem.
- [c]Feudkiller's Verdict[/c]: a gamebreaking option if you play vs anything slighesque. Once it drops, the game is seriously screwed for them. Beats also for the win, if needed.
- [c]Heroes Remembered[/c]: someone likes this as the fifth copy of [c]Martyr of Sands[/c], but it's rarely as good for a throng of reasons. Must be played on turn one, doesn't block, etc. The only advantage it has over Martyr is that it always gain 20 no matter what.
[/sblock]
[sblock=disruption]
Mostly, another courtesy of blue, especially now that the almighty [c]Muse Vessel[/c] is gone.
- [c]Pact of Negation[/c]: this saves you in incredibly unlikely scenarios where it basically wins your game countering something game-deciding. Running more than one is too risky, so take it as a jolly in your deck if you want. Of course, you would also tutor for it with [c]Tolaria West[/c] sometimes. Useful in Control matchups to make jaws drop. Unfortunately, it's often dead in many other scenarios.
- [c]Pithing Needle[/c]: it's more used against this deck than inside it, but no reason to forget this card exists. Actually, it stops things like Garruk and Treetop, wich you're going to see pretty much everywhere and wich are problematic, so it's sort of a removal.
- [c]Mana Thite[/c]: in the earliest turns is basically a removal, but a complete waste of space once the game progresses. Take it or leave it.
- [c]Dawn Charm[/c]: once useful against [c]Persecute[/c], less so today, but it still could see play in the future to stop a eventual alpha-strike with tokens, as it did with Narcolepsy more than once. [c]Luminesce[/c] could eventually fill better this role if the circumstances are met.
- [c]Delay[/c]: fizzles countermagic and buys Tempo versus aggro. Sadly it doesn't solve the problem permanently, more often then not, wich is a serious disadvantage.
- [c]Flashfreeze[/c]: more than anything a SB tech against [c]Boom/Bust[/c] wich is not that popular anymore. Everything else in GR is pretty much dealt by the rest of the deck, except maybe [c]Manabarbs[/c].
- [c]Remove Soul[/c]: great to stop Mannequin's CIP effect, useless in other matchups, though. Smart sideboard choice against it.
- [c]Negate[/c]: worthy versus opposing Control decks but, like it's opposite, ends up being narrow and calls for SB.
- [c]Jester's Scepter[/c]: not the best disruption engine ever, but doubles as a mill engine, wich can be deciding in a Control matchup if no one wins the attrition war. Some like to make it inevitable with [c]Academy Ruins[/c].
- [c]Seht's Tiger[/c]: I personally dislike this card, but some players like to force the style of the deck into playing it. This basically counters a burn or discard spell, or alternatively it acts as a fog effect, and then places a 3/3 on the field as a bonus. Decent.
- [c]Vesuvan Shapeshifter[/c]: simply put, you use this to copy big finishers or place it into the field to fight Pickles. Some go beyond this and even sideboard the Pickles lock as a whole. Nice trick, even if it's a lot more useful when your playmates don't know you have it.
- [c]Broken Ambitions[/c]: gets more and more relevant the more longer the game gets, and has a decent chance of clashing and milling for four, thus is good against control in two meanings. Fine countermagic choice.
[/sblock]
[sblock=win conditions]
Milling is better to be considered a last resource more than a real win condition. Every other possible win condition is enlisted here, and each one also adds something in controlling the board.
- [c]Faerie Conclave[/c]: if you don't run snow lands, run this. The annoying sprites will surely as hell earn some damage points for you, and sometimes even win the game on themselves. It comes tapped, but you're not racing.
- [c]Urza's Factory[/c] and other manlands: only useful in attrition wars, but not cool as they once were. You can add those, but in many games it just won't matter. On the opposite hand, when it does matter it does so immensely. Let's consider them a failsafe.
- [c]Hoofprints of The Stag[/c]: wins faster than everything else, but is worse at controlling the game than everything else as well. You need more control, or a faster win? Your decision to make.
- [c]Sacred Mesa[/c] and [c]Mobilization[/c]: while there's no doubt on wich one is stronger, the latter is more easily affordable. Both can win in your late-game or clog the board with your faithful servants in the mid-game, wich just kills some deck cold.
- [c]Benalish Commander[/c]: circumvents inevitably removals, thus shining against creature-light decks, while not being a good choice vs Aggro decks and the like. If there's a fair share of Control decks in your area, going for some in the sideboad or even the maindeck could change your performance a lot.
- [c]Ajani Goldmane[/c]: a more vulnerable Crovax/Gauntlet effect for your Mesa, with more alternative options. It's a lot better if paired with [c]Triskelavus[/c], forming a crushing machine against green-white based aggro decks.
- [c]Crovax, Ascendant Hero[/c]: obviously works in tandem with a token generators mentioned above, making them generally stronger and also protecting them from [c]Sulfur Elemental[/c] and killing a fair share of x/1 opposing creatures for good measure. Kinda worthless without Mesa/Mobiliz, anyway. Similar role could go to [c]Gauntlet of Power[/c], but that's a lot less flexible.
- [c]Adarkar Valkyrie[/c]: fast, good defender and good beater, it also creates a soft lock with [c]Martyr of Sands[/c], synergizes with snow, steals creatures off a mass removal. One of the finest choice, but it cannot be your only finisher because, sadly, it's easily removed.
- [c]Purity[/c]: mandatory if you face often the ever annoying [c]Manabarbs[/c]. While awesome on it's own, sadly it puts heavy costraints on your deck, almost forcing you to play mana accelerators like [c]Coalition Relic[/c]. Chose carefully.
- [c]Triskelavus[/c]: pair this guy with [c]Academy Ruins[/c] and you have a serious finisher vs control, wich also occasionally helps with the usual rogue deckbuilder trying to stall the game until you deck out. Awesome if accelerated early.
- [c]Akroma, Angel of Wrath[/c]: I don't like her as more than a singleton. Wins games in few swings and doges so many removals, but still for a unbearable amount of mana.
[/sblock]
Tested MatchupsI've played this deck against all sorts of decks, and let this be clear: I'm not trying to sell you anything. I will go straight and honest and tell you what this deck can and cannot do. I hate when the primer of a deck reports that it beats the whole metagame with amazing percentages in every matchup, it's just misinformative to anyone.
Here's what I currently tested already.
[sblock=AGGRO]
Greater Goyf - although Gargadon is occasionally a threat, this is a easy matchup most times. They don't have enough good burn anymore to make a decent sligh suit, and even then, you crush sligh anyway.
GW Aggro - far more solid deck, and has Goyf too; it has too many variants going on, from tempo oriented build to tribal builds, to really tell in a vacuum how it plays. It's generally winnable but requires more time and effort than any sligh deck. Porphyry Nodes is generally appreciated here, but never forget also Rings for Gaddock.
BR Sligh - arguably the easiest as of now. They have Bob no more, and nothing against lifegain and Condemns.
RG Tokens - the hardest aggro matchup; they laugh at spot removals with their horde of tokens and almost always have a Gargadon following a board sweeper. Basically you must take some damage, then Wrath the board, then save a Condemn for Gargadon, otherwise things gets difficult and nasty. Crovax also helps a lot here.
Boggart tribal - they occasionally come out with a play that resembles RG Tokens (lot of minions and then a Gargadon swing) but most of the times they play like a bad sligh, making things easy for you.
Elf Tribal - a unfocused cross between The Rock and mono green stompy, it plays powerful creatures that have little to do facing a Wrath. Losing this game will require a fair dose of bad luck and poor skill.
Kithkin Tribal - a excellent White Weenie, but a White Weenie nonetheless. Barring blazing starts with Stalwart, Cenn and Heir, they'll lose.
SuperNova - a sligh or a red aggro try to win ten times as fast as a normal sligh sacrificing a lot of consistency for it. You shouldn't be impressed.
RDW - piece of cake game 1. Smart and resourceful players won't let you walk over their face game 2, so expect some SB tech. Game 2 it's perhaps right to trigger Martyr as a big healing salve rather than in the last moment available, because Sulfur Elemental is waiting to swallow her.
Poorlash - cakewalk. The only threatening play they have is the bazillion tokens in a single turn, wich is answerable with a following WoG you should have enough sense to keep in your sleeve. [c]Masked Admirers[/c] are a serious draw engine though, so the game will have a intense pace. A solid version will still crush this deck.
[/sblock]
[sblock=CONTROL]
Pickles - never tap out. Ever. If you think that the game is justifying a move that taps you out, just think again. You have the tools to dismantle the combo, and you will eventually make a tool resolve, but not if you tap out like an idiot and they jump at your throat comboing out over your tap-out. It's a fair matchup if you have the skill to make it so.
Sonic Boom - in my opinion, the worst matchup ever. All the other matchups can be fixed if you adjust your deck and your style, this one cannot. Unlike DralnuDuLouvre, it's not even Teferi-dependant so Take Possession don't scare the deck at all. The bright side is that in metagames where WU Martyr is good, Sonic Boom is not and vice versa, so you shouldn't be playing against it more than once per evening.
Coalition CTRL/Teachings CTRL - skill tester. It's a race to who can remove the most win conditions. See things in this respect and sculpt the better hands you can. Cyclically the time will come that one of you plays a threat and the other struggle to make that threat vanish, until a threat stays long enough to kill the opponent. Some end up siding out Martyr.
Rule of One - I have yet to see a version that has enough effectiveness in the early game. Most times I just go swinging with everything and they die while they attempt to assemble the combo.
TurboFog - Sadly, you have no choice but to deck them out. They'll hardly have ways to recover from a bunch of scepters, but the again this is the only way you'll ever win against this one. It's a mono-dimensional deck that forces a mono-dimensional strategy.
UW CounterMesa - Another skill tester, this deck really hates permission, and packs some permission itself especially for games like these were you'll need to force the relevant spell in. Board control vs Permission control, everything that circumvents permission -[c]Take Possession[/c], [c]Aeon Chronicler[/c], [c]Benalish Commander[/c], [c]Scrying Sheets[/c], manlands- can decide the game.
Dutch Chocolate - They use hand disruption, wich you hate, but they're incapable of dealing with enchantemets, wich you love. The trick is bringing the core of the match on the field, and not in your hand. In short, drop a highly disruptive enchantement in and try to stall and exhaust their resources. Remember to have some Rings or Commands for the ubiquitous [c]Pithing Needle[/c].
Skred Red and/or Fatstick - the game is essentially about [c]Hostility[/c] and [c]Stuffy Doll[/c], their awesome finishers. Don't let those stay on the board, because the first alone makes the idea of board control kinda unrealistic, while the second spits on every idea of damage prevention. Other than that, you can win. Many also have [c]Sulfur Elemental[/c] in the maindeck, but mostly against White Weenie than us. If you manage to, trigger a couple of Martyrs - this is one of the few control matchups where lifepoints are important, because you're going to take some [c]Molten Disaster[/c]s to the face.
Big Mana - contrary to popular belief, this isn't a good matchup. Each of their bomb is capable of self-generating card advantage, and requires specific removal options to deal with it. It's very luck-dependant, because you just won't hold down to 2 consecutive Garruks and then a SGC and then a Hellkite. On the opposite hand, it gets easier if they don't topdeck highest quality threats one after the other, and if you draw the right removals. It's a Control deck at heart, so you know how this goes: a long, bloody, exhausting attrition war. Except this one is bloodier.
[/sblock]
[sblock=COMBO]
Slivers - I'm sure there are other combo decks out there, but this is the only one that's correctly shapen, as of now. Don't look down at slivers, they must NOT stabilize the board. See a sliver, kill a sliver. The more mass removal, the better.
Haakon Inverted - this aggro/combo deck attempts at beating aggro with the namesake combo and the solidest knight drops they have. Let them do that, but you can highly ignore said combo for most of the matchup and most of their drops aren't really scary for you as their anti-aggro properties are unrelevant and they simply become 2/2 Knight. Ring also kills the engine.
[/sblock]
[sblock=TEMPO]
UB Mannequin - nasty tempo deck with a lot of good options and CA engines. First game is kinda fair, except for the painful epochrasites. If they don't pack Blink (and they shouldn't) you will nonetheless dispatch the Epochrasites easily, and fight acceptably the rest of the game. Game 2 is a lot worse due to Mournwhelks, wich you must struggle to play around. The golden rule is to never cast Oblivion Ring on something with a CIP effect, or Venser just bounces that and repeats the CIP benefit.
TarmoRack - Unlike the mono black version of old, this deck is extremely consistent and resourceful, and is designed to do a number on decks like this. If you want a chance at least game two, you'll better run a transformative sideboard that makes your deck completely different via [c]Dedecapod[/c], [c]True Believer[/c], [c]Jotun Grunt[/c]. Alternatively, if you run mana accel like [c]Coalition Relic[/c] or its lesser brothers, you can pray for a earlier [c]Imperial Mask[/c] and try to rebuild a decent hand from that.
UG Scryb&Force - Between [c]Quirion Dryad[/c], [c]Tarmogoyf[/c], [c]Treetop Village[/c] and [c]Spectral Force[/c] plussolid backup in countermagic and card tutoring, here's what you don't want to face. It's a match where you try to make permissions and removals work in tandem to dismantle their solid threats. Difficult one.
Faerie Stompy - Kinda the the same story that Scryb&Force, except their way to make you cry is different. They trick on when they can play their threats, and obtain a 2x1 card advantage a surprising number of times while doing so. Plus, they can have [c]Mistbind Clique[/c] in the sideboard or in the maindeck, wich will on itself organize a strike for 10 or more lifepoints, erasing a eventual Martry-trigger, without many chances of an answer. The matchup isn't desperate as TarmoRack, though: the key is that you strangely enough win with threats, not with answers. Place some credible threats on the field and try to use your answers while they're dealing with said threats. This takes a lot of skill.
Blink decks - Another tragedy. Blink is pretty much the card you hate by default. The matchup really boils down to how many [c]Momentary Blink[/c] they draw, as their deck becomes trickier and trickier for each Blink they have access to. Permission helps once again, but more than anything the consistency of your deck is a deciding factor. Many of your answers will go wasted, so how many times you can perform the same answer is really important.
Kithkin Aggro-Control - This seems identical to White Weenie Kithkin, but is not. This deck looks at [c]Mana Tithe[/c] and [c]Thorn of Amethyst[/c] to force you to slow down, [c]Rebuff The Wicked[/c] to mortify your spot removal, and lastly [c]Gaddock Teeg[/c] to stop your spells plain and simple. With this disruption suit, they play a lot differently because they have no fear of overextending into a mass removal: they're not scared by the chance that you have [c]Wrath of God[/c]... they're not scared even by the reality that you have it. While the first times it will be difficult, it becomes easier and easier as you learn to figure out their tricks. [c]Porphyry Nodes[/c] is arguably the best card you can ask for here. At the core, this deck will feed on your deckbuilding and playing mistakes, and becomes a better matchup as you become better as a deckbuilder and player.
Merfolk! - this deck grow more solid than its previous incarnations; it has many variants between the offensive ones (with G and R) or the defensive ones (with more W), however, most of them just aren't problematic. It's just creatures vs removals, and you should win that war, just remember they'll have 4-8 counterspells meaning you shouldn't be too confident. Merfolk is skill-testing for it's pilot, but more predictable than other skill-testers, just pay attention.
Millfolk - a nasty matchup as they set up threat, protect them with countermagic, and attack your library in the meanwhile. However, the whole point of their deck (attach milling into beatsticks) turns up being double-edged as you can, indeed, kill creatures. Wich is exactly what you should do. Focus on heavy removals to fight them. It should also be said that this is possibly the only good matchup Millfolk has, so don't expect a lot of them.
Greater Gruul - underplayed and understimated, beyond the facade of a unfocused aggro between Greater Goyf and RG Tokens Greater Gruul is actually a intelligent Tempo deck that took the heritage of KarstenBotBabyKiller. Finely metagamed, it runs only the few decent burn available, horde of token generators (Call, Garruk, Marshal, Commander) to spit in the face of targeted removal, and a Gargadon that's always waiting to swing in your face if you dare tapping out for a Wrath. Besides pulling out the EXACT sequence of Wrath-then-Condemn, you must fight their amazing utilities -wich they can afford SB or MD, not having a fast clock: Sulfur Elemental, Manabarbs, Magus of The Moon, Cryoclasm, Heartwood Storyteller, at their choice. The matchup isn't desperate like other Tempo deck, but you easily fall in the trap of "Meh, just another aggro deck, I beat that" and they feed on your corpse.
[/sblock]
Many decks of our beloved family performed well there, and most of those have something interesting to teach. Let's take some examples:
[sblock=2007 States, Main - 1st place Aaron Lewis]
Main Deck:
4 Aeon Chronicler
2 Ajani Goldmane
1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
2 Crovax, Ascendant Hero
2 Jace Beleren
4 Martyr of Sands
1 Triskelavus
2 Condemn
4 Mind Stone
4 Oblivion Ring
2 Prismatic Lens
2 Sacred Mesa
2 Teferi's Moat
4 Wrath of God
1 Academy Ruins
3 Adarkar Wastes
3 Calciform Pools
2 Flagstones of Trokair
4 Island
9 Plains
2 Urza's Factory
Sideboard:
1 Austere Command
3 Disenchant
1 Jace Beleren
3 Porphyry Nodes
2 Pull from Eternity
2 Take Possession
1 Teferi's Moat
2 Vesuvan Shapeshifter
This guy doesn't share the fascination of this deck for cheap removals. Rather, he prefers ramping his mana and playing the bombs in its colors. The amount of different win conditions -many of whom are also game controllers- is explosive, and the SB has some too. Interestingly, he plays a weird win con against Pickles... a vesuvan copying his Pickles!
While I disapprove its weird removal suit -wich served him well, anyway- his threat density really place a smile on my face. Finally who played against ProclaMartyr had the threatening feel the deck was going for the throat.
I applaud this version.
[/sblock]
[sblock=2007 States Manitoba - 1st Rickard Hedlund]
1 Chronosavant
4 Martyr of Sands
1 Beacon of Immortality
3 Chronomantic Escape
4 Dawn Charm
2 Gaea's Blessing
4 Howling Mine
3 Jester's Scepter
4 Pollen Lullaby
4 Rites of Flourishing
3 Story Circle
4 Wrath of God
4 Arctic Flats
4 Brushland
3 Mouth of Ronom
12 Snow-Covered Plains
Sideboard:
3 Porphyry Nodes
3 Quagnoth
3 Rebuff the Wicked
3 Return to Dust
3 Rule of Law
Rickard Hedlund did a lot to give Martyr a reputation: he won Manitoba last year with Snowhite... he apparently likes taking the most annoying Martyr variants (TurboFog this year) and winning with it. There's a reason if this thread is separated from Turbo Fog thread... and it's that I advice anyone against running Turbo Fog.
That said, why I'm putting Rickard Hedlund's deck here? Because it shows something interesting: somewhere, there's always a meta filled of aggro decks that are shallow enough. Once again, Hedlund understood it and got them.
This indicates that there are places when the meta is still highly favorable.
[/sblock]
[sblock=2007 States Missisipi - 1st place Adam Case]
Main Deck:
1 Adarkar Valkyrie
3 Crovax, Ascendant Hero
4 Martyr of Sands
1 Beacon of Immortality
4 Coldsteel Heart
3 Condemn
2 Gauntlet of Power
2 Mobilization
4 Oblivion Ring
3 Pithing Needle
3 Porphyry Nodes
3 Story Circle
4 Wrath of God
3 Mouth of Ronom
4 Scrying Sheets
16 Snow-Covered Plains
Sideboard:
3 Disenchant
4 Dodecapod
2 Imperial Mask
4 Jester's Scepter
2 Return to Dust
Classical Snowhite theme, with BOTH Gauntlet and Crovax to fully enpower the token generator (in this case, Mobilization). While the deck has few options against some common threats being mono white, it did well enough to deserve a first place. Actually a Mobilization powered to THIS degree is no joke.
As always happens with Snowhite, this deck abused disruptive artifacts.
[/sblock]
[sblock=2007 States Pennsylvania - 2nd place Stephen Nagy]
2 Aeon Chronicler
2 Crovax, Ascendant Hero
4 Martyr of Sands
3 Purity
2 Austere Command
4 Coldsteel Heart
4 Condemn
3 Foresee
4 Oblivion Ring
1 Sacred Mesa
3 Story Circle
4 Wrath of God
4 Boreal Shelf
2 Mouth of Ronom
4 Scrying Sheets
13 Snow-Covered Plains
1 Urza's Factory
Sideboard:
1 Academy Ruins
2 Crib Swap
1 Crovax, Ascendant Hero
3 Disenchant
2 Sacred Mesa
3 Take Possession
1 Tolaria West
2 Triskelavus
This is the most classical of all the lists that performed. Essentially what a basic WU Martyr looks like, with few variations. He also didn't dedicated too space to fight Control decks - he eventually thought one Triskelavus + Ruins suffices along with the ubiquitous Take Possession -and it looks like it did.
A weird sidenote: from the SB looks like there were some artifacts-enchantements around that REALLY bothered Stephen Nagy. I wonder wich ones they were.
[/sblock]
[sblock=2007 States Maine - 2nd place Mitch Breton]
Main Deck:
2 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
2 Crovax, Ascendant Hero
4 Martyr of Sands
2 Purity
2 Seht's Tiger
2 Beacon of Immortality
4 Condemn
3 Disenchant
3 Oblivion Ring
2 Porphyry Nodes
2 Sacred Mesa
4 Sunscour
4 Wrath of God
3 Mouth of Ronom
4 Scrying Sheets
15 Snow-Covered Plains
2 Urza's Factory
Sideboard:
2 Imperial Mask
2 Magus of the Moat
1 Patrician's Scorn
2 Pithing Needle
2 Porphyry Nodes
3 Story Circle
3 Tormod's Crypt
This deck has so many choices I don't like: from Akrovercostedoma to Seht "counter target burn or discard and put a cat into play" Tiger, to 4 Sunscour (FOUR!!!) and 2 Beacons MD, to the weird SB (scorn? crypt? magus?).
But here's what I like about this deck: I don't understand it. Wich can mean two things:
1) Mitch Breton piloted a horrible deck with gamebreaking skill;
2) Mitch Breaton tuned his deck in ways I can't even imagine and made reasonings completely different from mine.
Barring case 1), this means in case 2) that Martyr's limits can be stretched, even to the point of turning it into something completely different. So even if I don't like this build, points to Mitch Breton for originality, besides the fact he probably is a better player than I am.
[/sblock]
[sblock=2007 States British Columbia - 3rd place Andrew Walker]
Main Deck:
2 Adarkar Valkyrie
2 Crovax, Ascendant Hero
4 Martyr of Sands
4 Mulldrifter
4 Coldsteel Heart
3 Condemn
4 Foresee
4 Oblivion Ring
3 Sacred Mesa
1 Story Circle
1 Whetwheel
4 Wrath of God
1 Academy Ruins
4 Boreal Shelf
2 Mouth of Ronom
4 Scrying Sheets
3 Snow-Covered Island
10 Snow-Covered Plains
Sideboard:
1 Ambassador Laquatus
2 Brine Elemental
1 Condemn
2 Disenchant
4 Jester's Scepter
4 Vesuvan Shapeshifter
1 Willbender
Mostly classic with some weird choices (Mulldrifter as a CA engine, uh?) it's interesing as this deck totally welcomes milling as the alternate win condition, wich apparently sufficed.
Also, this went beyond sideboarding the Shapeshifter vs Pickles - it sideboarded the Pickles lock itself. I wish I could speak to this guy, to ask him how this worked.
[/sblock]
[sblock=WR variant by Altanna]
This is a primer for those wishing to play the White control deck splashing red for various things. First, let's go over the pros and cons to the splash of red.
PROS:
-Skred is probably the best reason to do it. The card is one-cc instant speed removal for almost every creature on the board. It makes tempo matches far more winnable, it makes killing combo pieces more doable, and it makes the pickles matchup much better.
-Land destruction options. Detritivore is an absolute monster against the teachings deck and almost guarantees a victory there. It also permanently solves Urza's Factory in the attrition war, and killing non-basic lands is just generally good in long matches. Boom/Bust is also, if you yourself play around it, crippling in the mirror match.
-Control matchups. I mentioned this in the LD options part, but this is the second most important reason to play red; it makes your slow-control matchups far more in your favor than any other version of this deck does. This is something this deck has always really needed.
CONS:
-Losing blue and specifically Aeon Chronicler is a real pain. Chronicler is great in this deck, and gives it a method of card advantage that suits its style perfectly. Red must rely on having Scrying Sheets out, which can't always happen.
-The option to play counterspells in the blue splash is certainly important, and red misses these too. It has no way around revolving Chronomantic Escapes in the mirror, and cannot counter crippling spells like Boom/Bust.
-This seems strange, but it's important nonetheless. Blue has a variety of excellent dual-colored lands to work with, most importantly the U/W snow-land and the U/W storage land. R/W gets none of these things and must rely on sub-par mana-fixing like Vivid Meadow.
-The red deck also needs to run more lands than the blue one does because of its lack of reliable CA. The deck needs a lot of mana to function, and I run as high as 27 to insure it happens. It's never been an issue for me before, but it's important to hit a high mana count for this deck to work effectively.
So whichever suits your playstyle the most is the deck you should choose to play. Momo's primer effectively covers the ways to play this deck, and the red one doesn't play all that much differently. The main difference is the presence of Skred, which is really important in some matchups. Here is a sample list.
Lands x 27
[c]Snow-covered Plains[/c] x 14
[c]Scrying Sheets[/c] x 4
[c]Mouth of Ronom[/c] x 3
[c]Urza's Factory[/c] x 2
[c]Vivid Meadow[/c] x 2
[c]Snow-covered Mountain[/c] x 2
Creatures x 10
[c]Martyr of Sands[/c] x 4
[c]Phyrexian Ironfoot[/c] x 4
[c]Adarkar Valkyrie[/c] x 2
Spells x 23
[c]Wrath of God[/c] x 4
[c]Coldsteel Heart[/c] x 4
[c]Skred[/c] x 1
[c]Story Circle[/c] x 4
[c]Porphyry Nodes[/c] x 3
[c]Sacred Mesa[/c] x 3
[c]Gauntlet of Power[/c] x 2
[c]Oblivion Ring[/c] x 2
Sideboard x 15
[c]Skred[/c] x 2
[c]Detritivore[/c] x 2
[c]Boom/Bust[/c] x 2
[c]Disenchant[/c] x 4
[c]Austere Command[/c] x 2
[c]Sunscour[/c] x 2
[c]Oblivion Ring[/c] x 1
[/sblock]
[sblock=WG variant by Greater Sinistral]
This is a primer for those wishing to play a White Martyr deck splashing green. First, let's go over the pros and cons to the splash of green.
PROS:
- vs Pickles - We can lower our curve and sideboard Eyes of the Wisent and Quagnoth.
- vs Teachings - Once again, cheaper spells, Eyes of the Wisent, and Quagnoth are key, and we also get Gaea's Blessing for a stronger endgame.
- vs Turbo Fog - Gaea's Blessing helps here, although admittedly green isn't as useful here as other matchups.
- vs Tarmorack - Quagnoth is IMO better for us here than Dodecapod, and is also useful vs. other matchups. Also, I have a feeling Harmonize might be easier
to get many cards out of than anything blue offers short of Ancestral Vision.
- vs Other Tempo Decks - Our spells are now cheaper, so bounce, counters, and land destruction all hurt us less. We also have Eyes of the Wisent to deal with
counters here.
- If you adjust the mana base enough, you can run Ohran Viper, which is AMAZING if you can push damage through. Combo with Hoofprints. You could also run Troll Ascetic or Call of the Herd, Teeg, or Tarmogoyf if you ever felt the need.
CONS:
- We lose blue's strong card-drawing spells. Aeon Chronicler is notable here for being a good threat and uncounterable card draw. Harmonize somewhat makes up for this.
- We cannot play most counterspells. Certain spells such as Boom/Bust can wreck us.
- We no longer have Take Possession for the control match, or Teferi's Moat for the aggro one.
- We can no longer run Trisk+Ruins or Tolaria West (to tutor for things like Tormad's Crypt and Pact of Negation + Lands).
Here is a low-curve version of the deck. If you run with a higher curve you might want to include things like Adarkar Valkyrie, Crovax, Purity, and Vigor.
~~WG Control~~
8 Snow-Covered Plains
8 Snow-Covered Forest
4 Arctic Flats
4 Scrying Sheets
1 Urza's Factory
1 Pendelhaven
4 Martyr of Sands
4 Epochrasite
4 Porphyry Nodes
4 Hoofprints of the Stag
4 Oblivion Ring
2 Sacred Mesa
2 Story Circle
2 Crib Swap
4 Wrath of God
4 Harmonize
~~Sideboard~~
4 Quagnoth
4 Eyes of the Wisent
3 Gaea's Blessing
2 Return to Dust
2 Krosan Grip
[/sblock]
[sblock=Special thanks goes to...]
- XIII Thirteen, wich was the first who said that Martyr Of Sands was a good card even when everyone ridiculed him;
- Amir Salamat and Brett Jayne, wich had the idea first;
- Gabriel Nassif, who crafted a great deck;
- Jujuhawk wich made the first thread;
- Volrath Outside the Door for defending his point of wiew in favor of a multicolored ProclaMartyr;
- Imachampion, who was with this deck since the beginning and keeps offering solutions for it;
- Altanna, the out-of-the-box thinker of the thread;
- MrIndigo and |Erasmus|, both valid supporters of the thread and the deck;
- Hodoku, to whom all of us must pay homage for the great contribute to all archetype threads;
- my friend Sliver King, one of the most amazing aggro players I ever met, who helped me finding strenght and weaknesses of this deck with countless hours of playtesting;
- my ex girlfriend, wich in the end played less match with "her deck" than me, and still loves watching the deck in action... I'd never started this journey without her "I like that Snowhite idea";
[/sblock]
