Here is my take on Martyr. There are a lot of terrible versions out there, but this list seems fairly viable, with good mu's against anything red and most anything creature based. Obviously this leaves a huge hole in the control/combo match ups. In my extensive testing I seem to go 50/50 against Dark D and slightly worse against Thopter. Fae are a huge problem, I'd like to improve my SB and even MB to deal with these decks.
I added the EE to help against Fae, seems helpful but maybe not the best. And really it does nothing else for my sb. I thought about Darkblast, but I honestly can think of the game plan for that - keep dredging DB, let their Bitter kill them and resolve what I can? Does that actually work?
At one point I was tempted to splash red, for Pyroclasm/Fallout and Bloodmoon. Bloodmoon doesn't help me against the bad match ups, pyro I guess doesn't cut it against Fae, and Fallout is double red.
I build this deck to be competitive mainly in a 1v1 environment, but with some small changes it seems viable in Multplayer, actually more then viable. I have spent quite a lot of time tinkering and considering, most of the slots are solid, but I would like to hear suggestions from the many experienced magic players. Below the deck list I will discuss reasons for including or excluding cards. Thanks for your help.
The main engine in this deck is graveyard recursion and the resilience against counter, board sweeper, and hand disruption style decks. Of course a well timed counter/disruption can render the deck harmless. This aside, here are the combos that give the deck its teeth:
Iname, Death Aspect and Karmic Guide are the VIP’a in this deck, in opening hand they can be dead draws, but with the Entomb effect cards (Buried Alive, Corpse Connoisseur) and a recurring effect card, which there are so many of, it will fetch you some amazing combos, for example:
Buried Alive buries: Genisis, Iname, Death Aspect and Scion of Darkness.
Iname is reanimated with anything and you put in your graveyard:
Other cards with synergy: Nezumi Graverobber is not only a way to recur some creatures; it can come in handy with Living Death. Survial of the Fittest, aside from being on the best green support cards allows me to discard creatures that would otherwise be dead cards. Scion of Darkness, Eternal Dragon, Twisted Abomination and Krosan Tusker while not the bombiest cards in the colors, are amazing utility. Being able to cycle a creature that I couldn’t play from hand but could from graveyard, is well simply good Magic.
This deck needs creatures to sacrifice, cards like Diabolic Intent, Victimize and Hell’s Caretaker can function without them. It was important that this “fodder” had the right kind of utility. The following are creatures that don’t need to stay in play to serve their funtion and many you’d rather have go to the graveyard, RESILIENCY BABY!
I considered adding Life from the Loam and Cruicble of Worlds to capitalize on the cycling lands and sac lands. After a couple games it became clear the combo wasn’t reliable and it just watered down the creature engine.
Again for this reason I kept the Mana base simple (by EDH standards), there is nothing worse then holding a key card to your “combo” because of Mana. I was willing to sacrifice some utility lands for lands that were usable the turn they came out and would yield the colors I needed.
I didn’t find any room for creature tutors in this deck, the few tutors in the deck fetch missing pieces.
[CARD]Worldly Tutor
Eladamri's Call
Primal Command[/CARD]
I don’t have enough to recur with this card, and the Karmic Rev combo is over kill IMO. Reveillark
I added the EE to help against Fae, seems helpful but maybe not the best. And really it does nothing else for my sb. I thought about Darkblast, but I honestly can think of the game plan for that - keep dredging DB, let their Bitter kill them and resolve what I can? Does that actually work?
At one point I was tempted to splash red, for Pyroclasm/Fallout and Bloodmoon. Bloodmoon doesn't help me against the bad match ups, pyro I guess doesn't cut it against Fae, and Fallout is double red.
Any help is appreciated, thanks
// Lands
3 [EVE] Fetid Heath
1 [ZEN] Emeria, the Sky Ruin
4 [GP] Godless Shrine
4 [ZEN] Marsh Flats
2 [ZEN] Arid Mesa
2 [DIS] Ghost Quarter
8 [UNH] Plains
1 [RAV] Sacred Foundry
// Creatures
3 [EVE] Figure of Destiny
4 [CS] Martyr of Sands
2 [RAV] Dark Confidant
1 [ALA] Tidehollow Sculler
4 [SHM] Kitchen Finks
2 [ALA] Elspeth, Knight-Errant
3 [ALA] Ranger of Eos
3 [M10] Baneslayer Angel
// Spells
2 [LRW] Thoughtseize
3 [CFX] Path to Exile
2 [SHM] Runed Halo
2 [8E] Phyrexian Arena
2 [LRW] Oblivion Ring
1 [DIS] Proclamation of Rebirth
1 [9E] Worship
// Sideboard
SB: 2 [LRW] Thoughtseize
SB: 1 [CFX] Path to Exile
SB: 2 [SHM] Runed Halo
SB: 3 [DK] Tormod's Crypt
SB: 3 [FD] Engineered Explosives
SB: 4 [PLC] Extirpate
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=183287
General
Teneb, the Harvester
Creatures
Bury Effect
Recursion
Utility
Planeswalkers
Spells
Board Sweepers
Spot Removal
Recursion
- Diabolic Servitude
- Crime/Punishment
- Yawgmoth's Will
- Life/Death
- Profane Command
- Victimize
- Reanimate
- Recurring Nightmare
(I know its banned)Suport
Lands
The main engine in this deck is graveyard recursion and the resilience against counter, board sweeper, and hand disruption style decks. Of course a well timed counter/disruption can render the deck harmless. This aside, here are the combos that give the deck its teeth:
Iname, Death Aspect and Karmic Guide are the VIP’a in this deck, in opening hand they can be dead draws, but with the Entomb effect cards (Buried Alive, Corpse Connoisseur) and a recurring effect card, which there are so many of, it will fetch you some amazing combos, for example:
Buried Alive buries: Genisis, Iname, Death Aspect and Scion of Darkness.
Iname is reanimated with anything and you put in your graveyard:
- Kami of False Hope
- Eternal Dragon
- Divinity of Pride
- Karmic Guide
- Kokusho, the Evening Star
(I know its banned)Now already you got some banging, hard to interrupt combos:
Kami of False Hope + Genisis = 4 mana fog every turn.
Recursion effect + Karmic Guide=2 for 1
Kokusho, the Evening Star + Karmic Guide can turn into a really bad situation for your opponents.
Other cards with synergy:
Nezumi Graverobber is not only a way to recur some creatures; it can come in handy with Living Death.
Survial of the Fittest, aside from being on the best green support cards allows me to discard creatures that would otherwise be dead cards.
Scion of Darkness, Eternal Dragon, Twisted Abomination and Krosan Tusker while not the bombiest cards in the colors, are amazing utility. Being able to cycle a creature that I couldn’t play from hand but could from graveyard, is well simply good Magic.
This deck needs creatures to sacrifice, cards like Diabolic Intent, Victimize and Hell’s Caretaker can function without them. It was important that this “fodder” had the right kind of utility. The following are creatures that don’t need to stay in play to serve their funtion and many you’d rather have go to the graveyard, RESILIENCY BABY!
I considered adding Life from the Loam and Cruicble of Worlds to capitalize on the cycling lands and sac lands. After a couple games it became clear the combo wasn’t reliable and it just watered down the creature engine.
Again for this reason I kept the Mana base simple (by EDH standards), there is nothing worse then holding a key card to your “combo” because of Mana. I was willing to sacrifice some utility lands for lands that were usable the turn they came out and would yield the colors I needed.
Other note worthy cards that didn’t make the cut:
Too Slow for “Combo”:
I would include in multi-player games:
I have these effects in the deck, these ones didn’t make the cut:
Corpse Dance (this would be fun, but somewhat dangerous to RFG my creatures)
Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni (would also be fun, but seemed cluncky)
Indrik Stomphowler
Phyrexian Arena (I took this out for the Graveborn Muse)
Undead Gladiator (got cut as a way to draw cards for the Ohran Viper)
I didn’t find any room for creature tutors in this deck, the few tutors in the deck fetch missing pieces.
[CARD]Worldly Tutor
Eladamri's Call
Primal Command[/CARD]
I don’t have enough to recur with this card, and the Karmic Rev combo is over kill IMO.
Reveillark
These might go back into the deck:
- Golgari Thug
- Phantom Nishoba
(it’s a Spirit)Pernicious Deed
Im open to suggestions on my deck list, just bare in mind I don’t want to stray too far from the main intent. Thanks.