Mono Blue Martyr made its first appearance in the legacy scene when Gregory Hatch took it to an SCG event in LA. Ever since, there's been a few attempts to recreate this deck in modern with decent success. However, losing the Nivmagus Elemental + Flusterstorm combo, as well as losing out on free spells like Force of Will, the deck lacked a purpose in modern. I believe that this deck finally has a purpose thanks to some relatively recent additions.
The deck aims to establish a board of small creatures while continuously drawing cards and landing more threats on the board. A wide variety of counterspells protects the deck and ends the game through an eventual beatdown, often through fliers, or a swarm from Master of Waves. Surprise factor is a large part of this deck. Watch as your opponents Thoughtseize you on turn 1 and have to read every single card in your hand. Watch as they board in dispels or not board at all because they can't figure out what you're trying to do. Half the fun is bluffing what you're playing. It's not like they can figure it out anyway.
I've gotten a lot of testing done online and it's been performing very well. I've only taken it to 1 local event so far, but I ended 3-0-1. The wins were against Junk, Twin, and Infect. The tie was to Soul Sisters.
[Sideboard is still under a lot of work, suggestions appreciated]
OK, there's a lot going on here so let's break it down. The key to this deck running smoothly is that each card serves a specific purpose and works well with every other card. Past builds had to force a lot of cards that were just there to convoke or were just decent creatures, which is why the deck fell flat. Every card either draws more cards, protects other cards, provides a fast threat, or bounces other cards to be re-used. Most of the cards in this deck do multiple of those.
One very important thing to realize is that 1/1 fliers in this deck are quite incredible. Most games are won just by flying in while tapping down your land creatures for Hussar and countering any potential problems.
Sky Hussar - The main source of advantage for the deck, providing a draw every turn provided you tap down 2 of your creatures. You will have a horde of them, so putting your two smallest creatures out of combat for a turn will quickly payoff as you draw more creatures to take their place. In a lot of matchups, since you're playing a horde of small guys, you will have creatures sitting and not attacking, so Hussar puts them to good use. Multiple Hussars do put in work as the game goes on, as multi-forecasting does indeed happen. Hussar can come down in the late game as a solid finisher when needed, untapping your team to swing in for a lot of damage or untapping your team to block after you attack.
Ninja of the Deep Hours - He acts as the Dark Confidant of this deck: Draws out all removal, comes down for 2 mana, and provides a lot of advantage if left unchecked. Using Ninjitsu can bounce back your faeries or Sage to be re-used. Easy to bring out due to a large assortment of fliers.
Master of Waves - Standard all-star, back again. Protection from bolt, terminate, kolaghan's, and red sweepers makes him very threatening for many decks. The tokens or the master himself can be used to forecast Hussar. Swinging in with a load of elementals and your team can easily seal games. Also a wizard which is relevant sometimes.
Martyr of Frost - One of the 2 reasons we are in mono blue. Great counterspell, and it is also a wizard.
Voidmage Prodigy - A wizard that can sac itself or other wizards to counter spells. An all-star that turns all your leftover creatures into counterspells, and is a great surprise to come in off of vial. Also turns Sprite into a double counterspell. Double devotion to blue is a nice added bonus to top it all off. He should usually be tapped down to Hussar to protect him from combat surprises.
Sage of Epityr - An awesome card that is also a wizard. Rearranges the top 4 cards of your library, setting you up. This deck has a set-up period early on where you want to get hussar and some guys online quickly, so this helps you get to exactly that as fast as you can.
Judge's Familiar - A simple flier that provides insurance. Multiple of them can lock opponent's out of doing too much at once, keeping you a bit safer. It flies too, which is awesome.
Spellstutter Sprite - The reason why faeries are important. Counters spells, and is your main target to bounce back to your hand. Leaving 2 mana open keeps your opponent always fearing a Sprite coming down. Note that it is also a wizard.
Faerie Miscreant - This seemingly harmless common from origins makes a great addition to the deck. You're drawing enough cards that it's very common to see multiple of them. It is a 1/1 faerie flier that often draws cards and is great to bounce back, especially with Ninja. This quickly became one of my favorite cards in the deck.
Faerie Impostor / Quickling - They are both faeries that bounce back creatures. Impostor provides a great threat for just 1 CMC, while Quickling takes on 2 CMC to have the added utility of being flashable with an extra point of toughness. Impostor essentially gains flash through Aether Vial.
Disrupting Shoal - When you're drawing this many cards, you have to find something to do with all of them. A modern-legal force of will is a great use of said cards. This is the primary reason we're in mono blue. The card is phenomenal and provides a safety net. It also gets hard casted quite frequently mid to late game.
Æther Vial - You're drawing a ton of cards, so this helps you get them into play. I wouldn't play too many because you're drawing a ton of cards, so you will see multiples very quickly if you're maxing it out.
Lands - The 1 Hallowed Fountain lets Sky Hussar come down late game. The fetches can be any of the 4 blue fetch lands, as they just need to fetch islands and Hallowed Fountain. The fetches are also there to shuffle your library to let you dig with Sage and then shuffle away the remaining cards you don't want. Use whatever fetches you feel will confuse your opponent the most.
The deck still has a long way to go, so any feedback is much appreciated.
Aether Vial seems like a four-of or a none-of to me. Kind of need it in your opener to really get value out of it, and it seems like a questionable mid/late-game draw. Maybe cut the two least impactful creatures based on your testing so far?
Some comments:
- I agree with EggShen 2x Vial seems strange. Why do you play only 2 ? The legacy list seems to use only 2, this is why?
- With 4x Sage of Epityr, why not playing more fetch ? I don't know what is the "mathematically correct" but a little bit more seems good.
- Have you tried a list with a little bit more of control (like the legacy list) ? Maybe with Remand and Path to exile (with more Hallowed foutain)
- Do you play it online ? Bases on your experience, what is the good/bad matchup ?
Vial: I didn't actually have vials until recently, so I only started testing them recently. I started testing them at 2 because that's what I inititially had to work with, and now I'm testing them out and seeing if I want to bump them up to 4. As of right now, I honestly don't know what ratio is correct. It's still under testing.
Fetches: Having too many fetches can also hurt sage because if you only have fetches in hand, you only get to see 0-2 cards from sage before you're forced to play a fetch and shuffle again. As well, the life does add up. During this deck's setting up period, you use your life as a cushion to absorb a few early attacks while you establish your board and your lock. More fetches decrease the safety cushion you have before you have to start chump blocking things.
Remand/Path: I did play Remand for a while and it didn't test well. When you start adding in non-creature spells, Hussar becomes less useful and your deck slows down overall. You want to have an explosive early game and set up quickly, which non-creature spells start to take away from.
Matchups: Favorable matchups against anything that can't be hyper-aggressive early. You each set up early game, and by mid-late game you counter everything relevant they try to play. Uncounterable spells like Supreme Verdict are problematic, you have to play conservatively if you know it's coming. Affinity and burn are also pretty bad matchups because they force you to drastically change your game plan just to stop them from running you over. Infect is easier because you can keep their guys under control with good blocking and counterspell placement.
Azami: Too slow. Master of Waves at 4 CMC is the top of the curve. (And technically Hussar, but casting him is an optional bonus)
Serum/Snapback: Same issue as other non-creature spells, it starts taking away from your gameplan. Instead of dropping a creature on turn 1 and setting up your devotion, tribal count, hussar, or a ninja play, you're just digging a bit. Snapback is a good tech choice, but I personally don't like it too much.
Vial: I didn't actually have vials until recently, so I only started testing them recently. I started testing them at 2 because that's what I inititially had to work with, and now I'm testing them out and seeing if I want to bump them up to 4. As of right now, I honestly don't know what ratio is correct. It's still under testing.
Keep us in touch about this topic
Fetches: Having too many fetches can also hurt sage because if you only have fetches in hand, you only get to see 0-2 cards from sage before you're forced to play a fetch and shuffle again. As well, the life does add up. During this deck's setting up period, you use your life as a cushion to absorb a few early attacks while you establish your board and your lock. More fetches decrease the safety cushion you have before you have to start chump blocking things.
I understand your point, but usually you don't wan't all the cards that your look, maybe only one or two. There is nothings worst that put 3 dead cards on your top without the ability to shuffle them. If you are afraid to have to crack your fetch early you can maybe delay the Sage.
Remand/Path: I did play Remand for a while and it didn't test well. When you start adding in non-creature spells, Hussar becomes less useful and your deck slows down overall. You want to have an explosive early game and set up quickly, which non-creature spells start to take away from.
After think twice, I agree that remand seems to so good. About PTE, if your opponent land a big guy (e.g. 3-4 Wormcoil against Tron) you can do nothing. Maybe Snapback is better than PTE but for me it's seems important do have somethings to kill a threat. Maybe only have it in Sideboard is good enough.
I don't think your need 36 creatures cards for Hussar.
Matchups: Favorable matchups against anything that can't be hyper-aggressive early. You each set up early game, and by mid-late game you counter everything relevant they try to play. Uncounterable spells like Supreme Verdict are problematic, you have to play conservatively if you know it's coming. Affinity and burn are also pretty bad matchups because they force you to drastically change your game plan just to stop them from running you over. Infect is easier because you can keep their guys under control with good blocking and Counterspell placement.
Thanks, I think it's could be great if you make a "matchup" section on your first post with more detail agains't T1/T2 deck
I will post some modified list that I want to try later.
Keep in mind that a high creature count isn't just for hussar, but for the deck as a whole. Creatures fuel hussar, vial, ninja, all your tribal mechanics, and set up your devotion. As well, adding in more fetches can definitely let you play path which I'm considering, but you start losing out on blue cards for shoal and martyr so you can't go too far into white before you start having to redesign things. For things like wurmcoil, this deck is highly proactive and hardly reactive. Instead of removing the wurmcoil, you plan on countering it before it even hits the field.
Once I get more testing in, I will add in matchups and maybe upgrade this into a primer. And I'd love to see your list, post it up sometime.
Here's a modern list I built when I saw the Legacy version.
The deck would either function amazingly as you countered every threat your opponent played as you drew 2-3 cards a turn, or you would draw a bunch of dudes with no engine and sit there doing nothing relevant.
The deck aims to establish a board of small creatures while continuously drawing cards and landing more threats on the board. A wide variety of counterspells protects the deck and ends the game through an eventual beatdown, often through fliers, or a swarm from Master of Waves. Surprise factor is a large part of this deck. Watch as your opponents Thoughtseize you on turn 1 and have to read every single card in your hand. Watch as they board in dispels or not board at all because they can't figure out what you're trying to do. Half the fun is bluffing what you're playing. It's not like they can figure it out anyway.
I've gotten a lot of testing done online and it's been performing very well. I've only taken it to 1 local event so far, but I ended 3-0-1. The wins were against Junk, Twin, and Infect. The tie was to Soul Sisters.
4 Sky Hussar
4 Ninja of the Deep Hours
3 Master of Waves
4 Martyr of Frost
3 Voidmage Prodigy
4 Sage of Epityr
4 Judge's Familiar
4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Faerie Miscreant
2 Quickling
2 Æther Vial
Lands (18)
13 Island
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Polluted Delta
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Flooded Strand
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Tidebinder Mage
2 Dispel
2 Negate
2 Spell Snare
2 Echoing Truth
2 Skaab Ruinator
1 Spellskite
[Sideboard is still under a lot of work, suggestions appreciated]
OK, there's a lot going on here so let's break it down. The key to this deck running smoothly is that each card serves a specific purpose and works well with every other card. Past builds had to force a lot of cards that were just there to convoke or were just decent creatures, which is why the deck fell flat. Every card either draws more cards, protects other cards, provides a fast threat, or bounces other cards to be re-used. Most of the cards in this deck do multiple of those.
One very important thing to realize is that 1/1 fliers in this deck are quite incredible. Most games are won just by flying in while tapping down your land creatures for Hussar and countering any potential problems.
Sky Hussar - The main source of advantage for the deck, providing a draw every turn provided you tap down 2 of your creatures. You will have a horde of them, so putting your two smallest creatures out of combat for a turn will quickly payoff as you draw more creatures to take their place. In a lot of matchups, since you're playing a horde of small guys, you will have creatures sitting and not attacking, so Hussar puts them to good use. Multiple Hussars do put in work as the game goes on, as multi-forecasting does indeed happen. Hussar can come down in the late game as a solid finisher when needed, untapping your team to swing in for a lot of damage or untapping your team to block after you attack.
Ninja of the Deep Hours - He acts as the Dark Confidant of this deck: Draws out all removal, comes down for 2 mana, and provides a lot of advantage if left unchecked. Using Ninjitsu can bounce back your faeries or Sage to be re-used. Easy to bring out due to a large assortment of fliers.
Master of Waves - Standard all-star, back again. Protection from bolt, terminate, kolaghan's, and red sweepers makes him very threatening for many decks. The tokens or the master himself can be used to forecast Hussar. Swinging in with a load of elementals and your team can easily seal games. Also a wizard which is relevant sometimes.
Martyr of Frost - One of the 2 reasons we are in mono blue. Great counterspell, and it is also a wizard.
Voidmage Prodigy - A wizard that can sac itself or other wizards to counter spells. An all-star that turns all your leftover creatures into counterspells, and is a great surprise to come in off of vial. Also turns Sprite into a double counterspell. Double devotion to blue is a nice added bonus to top it all off. He should usually be tapped down to Hussar to protect him from combat surprises.
Sage of Epityr - An awesome card that is also a wizard. Rearranges the top 4 cards of your library, setting you up. This deck has a set-up period early on where you want to get hussar and some guys online quickly, so this helps you get to exactly that as fast as you can.
Judge's Familiar - A simple flier that provides insurance. Multiple of them can lock opponent's out of doing too much at once, keeping you a bit safer. It flies too, which is awesome.
Spellstutter Sprite - The reason why faeries are important. Counters spells, and is your main target to bounce back to your hand. Leaving 2 mana open keeps your opponent always fearing a Sprite coming down. Note that it is also a wizard.
Faerie Miscreant - This seemingly harmless common from origins makes a great addition to the deck. You're drawing enough cards that it's very common to see multiple of them. It is a 1/1 faerie flier that often draws cards and is great to bounce back, especially with Ninja. This quickly became one of my favorite cards in the deck.
Faerie Impostor / Quickling - They are both faeries that bounce back creatures. Impostor provides a great threat for just 1 CMC, while Quickling takes on 2 CMC to have the added utility of being flashable with an extra point of toughness. Impostor essentially gains flash through Aether Vial.
Disrupting Shoal - When you're drawing this many cards, you have to find something to do with all of them. A modern-legal force of will is a great use of said cards. This is the primary reason we're in mono blue. The card is phenomenal and provides a safety net. It also gets hard casted quite frequently mid to late game.
Æther Vial - You're drawing a ton of cards, so this helps you get them into play. I wouldn't play too many because you're drawing a ton of cards, so you will see multiples very quickly if you're maxing it out.
Lands - The 1 Hallowed Fountain lets Sky Hussar come down late game. The fetches can be any of the 4 blue fetch lands, as they just need to fetch islands and Hallowed Fountain. The fetches are also there to shuffle your library to let you dig with Sage and then shuffle away the remaining cards you don't want. Use whatever fetches you feel will confuse your opponent the most.
The deck still has a long way to go, so any feedback is much appreciated.
Some comments:
- I agree with EggShen 2x Vial seems strange. Why do you play only 2 ? The legacy list seems to use only 2, this is why?
- With 4x Sage of Epityr, why not playing more fetch ? I don't know what is the "mathematically correct" but a little bit more seems good.
- Have you tried a list with a little bit more of control (like the legacy list) ? Maybe with Remand and Path to exile (with more Hallowed foutain)
- Do you play it online ? Bases on your experience, what is the good/bad matchup ?
Vial: I didn't actually have vials until recently, so I only started testing them recently. I started testing them at 2 because that's what I inititially had to work with, and now I'm testing them out and seeing if I want to bump them up to 4. As of right now, I honestly don't know what ratio is correct. It's still under testing.
Fetches: Having too many fetches can also hurt sage because if you only have fetches in hand, you only get to see 0-2 cards from sage before you're forced to play a fetch and shuffle again. As well, the life does add up. During this deck's setting up period, you use your life as a cushion to absorb a few early attacks while you establish your board and your lock. More fetches decrease the safety cushion you have before you have to start chump blocking things.
Remand/Path: I did play Remand for a while and it didn't test well. When you start adding in non-creature spells, Hussar becomes less useful and your deck slows down overall. You want to have an explosive early game and set up quickly, which non-creature spells start to take away from.
Matchups: Favorable matchups against anything that can't be hyper-aggressive early. You each set up early game, and by mid-late game you counter everything relevant they try to play. Uncounterable spells like Supreme Verdict are problematic, you have to play conservatively if you know it's coming. Affinity and burn are also pretty bad matchups because they force you to drastically change your game plan just to stop them from running you over. Infect is easier because you can keep their guys under control with good blocking and counterspell placement.
Azami: Too slow. Master of Waves at 4 CMC is the top of the curve. (And technically Hussar, but casting him is an optional bonus)
Serum/Snapback: Same issue as other non-creature spells, it starts taking away from your gameplan. Instead of dropping a creature on turn 1 and setting up your devotion, tribal count, hussar, or a ninja play, you're just digging a bit. Snapback is a good tech choice, but I personally don't like it too much.
Keep us in touch about this topic
I understand your point, but usually you don't wan't all the cards that your look, maybe only one or two. There is nothings worst that put 3 dead cards on your top without the ability to shuffle them. If you are afraid to have to crack your fetch early you can maybe delay the Sage.
After think twice, I agree that remand seems to so good. About PTE, if your opponent land a big guy (e.g. 3-4 Wormcoil against Tron) you can do nothing. Maybe Snapback is better than PTE but for me it's seems important do have somethings to kill a threat. Maybe only have it in Sideboard is good enough.
I don't think your need 36 creatures cards for Hussar.
Thanks, I think it's could be great if you make a "matchup" section on your first post with more detail agains't T1/T2 deck
I will post some modified list that I want to try later.
Keep in mind that a high creature count isn't just for hussar, but for the deck as a whole. Creatures fuel hussar, vial, ninja, all your tribal mechanics, and set up your devotion. As well, adding in more fetches can definitely let you play path which I'm considering, but you start losing out on blue cards for shoal and martyr so you can't go too far into white before you start having to redesign things. For things like wurmcoil, this deck is highly proactive and hardly reactive. Instead of removing the wurmcoil, you plan on countering it before it even hits the field.
Once I get more testing in, I will add in matchups and maybe upgrade this into a primer. And I'd love to see your list, post it up sometime.
4 Sky Hussar
4 Ninja of the Deep Hours
3 Master of Waves
4 Martyr of Frost
3 Voidmage Prodigy
3 Sage of Epityr
4 Judge's Familiar
1 Skaab Ruinator
2 Quickling
2 Cursecatcher
4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Disrupting Shoal
4 Æther Vial
Lands (18)
7 Island
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Prairie Stream
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
2 Skaab Ruinator
2 Spellskite
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Tidebinder Mage
3 TBD
3 or 4 Path to Exile
4 Sky Hussar
4 Ninja of the Deep Hours
4 Martyr of Frost
3 Voidmage Prodigy
3 Sage of Epityr
4 Judge's Familiar
2 Skaab Ruinator
1 Master of waves
4 Cursecatcher
4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Disrupting Shoal
4 Æther Vial
3 Snapback
Lands (16) -> I put 16 just to try
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Prairie Stream
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
5 Island
1 Skaab Ruinator
2 Spellskite
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Tidebinder Mage
2 Commandeer
2 -4 TBD
2 -4 Path to Exile
Don't look to much the SB, it's more some card proposal than a real SB...
I will try to play as much as possible during this weekend.
How often Faerie Miscreant is relevant during your test ?
The deck would either function amazingly as you countered every threat your opponent played as you drew 2-3 cards a turn, or you would draw a bunch of dudes with no engine and sit there doing nothing relevant.
Counter Dudes (15)
4 Martyr of Frost
4 Judge's Familiar
3 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Grimoire Thief
Attacking Dudes (6)
2 Phantasmal Bear
2 Cosi's Trickster
2 Skaab Ruinator
Draw Engines (7)
4 Sky Hussar
3 Ninja of the Deep Hours
Control (14)
3 Spell Snare
1 Echoing Truth
1 Snapback
2 Mana Leak
1 Dissipate
1 Dissolve
4 Disrupting Shoal
1 Commandeer
2 AEther Vial
Lands (16)
9 Island
1 Mountain
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Mutavault
2 Spellskite
2 Faerie Macabre
2 Vendilion Clique
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
2 AEther Vial
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Spell Snare
3 Blood Moon
1 Dissipate
Ground Rift also works if you wanted to go a Nivmagus Elemental route.
You'll eventually end up with a deck like these however.
I don't really like no-free counterspell in this deck. I don't know what Xanian think about.
Commandeer in SB can be sweet, thank for the idea