Hello everybody,

Today i will speak about modern, at the moment when I write this article, GP Milan is coming and I’m 90% playing this following deck (10% = variance if a friend or a team mate come to me and says “I broke it” ). After Worlds in Nice and my 1-3 in modern with the last moment deck choice (Scapeshift), I want to try the deck we worked on during the week before with Raphael Levy. This deck is GW Life.
This deck is a metagame build that tries to have an answer to every deck in the format. The classics lists of Martyr Life wants to have good and bad match ups. When I started to play Martyr, something was clear for me, some cards are just overkill in your good match ups and make your bad match ups worse. Gaining more life against Affinity or Burn when you are already at 50 life is a little useless… So I tried to work on it and do some modifications to upgrade the list against them.
Unfortunately, the list was not perfect in time for Nice but I think it’s close to the result i wanted.
This is the list I will probably play in GP Milan:

Lands : 24

• 3 Cavern of Souls
• 4 Temple of Plenty
• 4 Windswept Heath
• 4 Temple Garden
• 4 Plains
• 1 Flooded Strand
• 4 Tectonic Edge

White sources : 17 or 20 for creatures with Cavern of Souls
Green sources : 13 or 16 for creatures with Cavern of Souls
Temple of Plenty is here because you cant draw with the deck and you need to search for lands in the first turns and put them on bottom when you have enough. A lot of cards in your deck are matchup power level dependent so it is good to put a Rest in Peace on top against Delver and on the bottom against Affinity.
Caverns: your creatures are: 12 humans (+2 in sideboard), 4 birds and 2 angels.
Tectonic Edge: This card is really important in this deck. You are playing a deck with Ghostly Prison so destroying lands is relevant in general. In some match up, this does more. Against Scapeshift, you can gain a lot of life and be safe from dying to just one Valakut, so if your opponent puts in play one of his 2 Valakut before resolving a Scapeshift, you can destroy it and it will be really hard for him to kill you, 10 Mountains X 3 damage is not really enough, This means drawing Valakut in this match up means a loss in lot of games. It’s important to know Scapeshift’s math when you play this match up:
7 lands= 18 damage
8 lands= 21 damage or 36 damage
9 lands= 24 damage or 42 damage
10 lands= 27 damage or 48 damage
Against Ascendancy combo, Tectonic Edge deal with the Faerie Conclave which is one of the 2 ways to win in his deck along with Fatestitcher.
Against Affinity the best card against you is the Inkmoth Nexus because of Poison, Tectonic Edge deals with it but your opponent doesn’t have 4 lands all the time.
Against Urza-Tron the card is naturally good .

Martyr of Sands is the main card of the deck. All your cards in your main deck are white. Basically, gain 18 life with 6 cards is like counter 6 Lightning Bolts on you so the match up against burn is really good if you watch out for Skullcrack. The important thing with Martyr is trying to stay at 30 life (33 or 36 versus Lightning Bolt decks ).
Why? because you are playing Serra Ascendant which is a 6/6 flying lifelink creature for 1 mana. This card is perfect to play against Delver, he can only double bolt it (unless you are on “low” life) or Vapor Snag, but it costing just 1 makes it worse. Note the deck can do turn 1 Ascendant and attack for 6 lifelink turn two if you have also a martyr and 4 white cards minimum in hand at this moment. This put you at 38 life turn 2, not bad. (note: look at Scapeshift’s math again).
Ranger of Eos help you search for martyr if you don’t have enough life and Ascendant for the kill. Also increases your cards in hand for martyr.
This is exactly why you are playing Squadron Hawk too, makes your martyr triggers bigger. It’s also a good chumpblocker especially when your opponent can attack with only one guy. Hawk fights well against Affinity’s Inkmoth Nexus or double block a Delver with 2 of them. Its a way to put pressure too.
Sigarda, Host of Herons is unbeatable in a lot of match ups, there’s actually no decks who can deal with it, nobody is playing Wrath of God like effects in the top decks (Oblivion Stone in Tron is an answer). She can be countered and that’s why you are playing Cavern of Souls. It’s actually the best card you can have against Junk (it counters Liliana of the Veil) and Delver who can only double block with 2 Delvers to kill her. It’s the perfect kill in this deck.

Here is the special part of the deck : enchantments. let’s start with the classic 4 Ghostly Prison. This card alone destroys Young Pyromancer, Splinter Twin[/acrd], Manlands… All the games we played with 1 or 2 Ghostly Prison in play were always good. It’s why I wanted to add 3 [card]Sphere of Safety to the deck who beats with Boggles Delver and Affinity. Example, if you have 1 Ghostly and Sphere, your opponent need to pay 4 to attack you and probably plays nothing. If you draw any other Ghostly he needs to pay 7 mana. The fact is, decks like Delver or Twin who doesn’t want to tap mana during their turn have now no choice and it will be worse if they don’t counter your following spells.
Rest in Peace is the best answer to the Delve cards every tier 1 deck play. The only problem was to find a deck who can play it main deck. I removed all the grave cards of the basic Martyr Life list. This card beats Treasure Cruise, Dig Through Time, Tarmogoyf, Kitchen Finks[/ard], [card]Snapcaster Mage, Pyromancer Ascension….
Runed Halo is also really well positioned in Modern.
This is what you can name with :
Delver : Choose wisely , it’s Delver of Secrets or Monastery Swiftspear
Scapeshift : Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
Twin : Deceiver Exarch or Pestermite
Ascension : Faerie Conclave or Fatestitcher / Birds of Paradise or Noble Hierarch
Junk : [cardLiliana of the Veil[/card], Siege Rhino or Tarmogoyf.
Boggles : the biggest guy on the board.
Affinity : Inkmoth Nexus or Etched Champion
Storm : Grapeshot

The last enchantment is Nevermore.
This is what you can name with :
Delver : Treasure Cruise (if you don’t have your Rest in Peace) or a creature.
Scapeshift : Scapeshift or Cryptic Command
Twin : Splinter Twin or Cryptic Command
Ascendancy : Jeskai Ascendancy or Fatesticher (especially if you have a Rest in Peace)
Junk : Abrupt Decay
Boggle : it’s probably better to say an Enchantment than a creature . Rancor, trample is a problem.
Affinity : a key card like Cranial Plating or Arcbound Ravager who can make 1 big guy and attack through Ghostly Prison.
Storm : Grapeshot

Probably the worst card of the deck because it’s not really synergistic with Ghostly and Tectonic Edge but you need it against Pod, Splinter Twin, Inkmoth Nexus‘s poison . It’s also good against Ascendancy.

Sideboard : 15 cards

n / out :

Delver :
+ 2 Crovax, Ascendant Hero (it’s a Human for Cavern of Souls , he destroy Young Pyromancer and can’t be killed)
+ 1 Rest in Peace (if the player is playing Tarmogoyf)
+ 1 Choke
+ 1 Ray of Revelation (if the player play Threads of Disloyalty)
+ 1 Nevermore (if he is playing white for Wear / Tear)
– 3 Runed Halo

Scapeshift :

+ 1 Spellskite
+ 2 Nevermore
+ 2 Aven Mindcensor
+ 1 Choke
+ 2 Ghost Quarter
– 1 Cavern of Souls
– 4 Ghostly Prison
– 3 Sphere of Safety

Splinter Twin :

+ Spellskite
+ 2 Nevermore
+ 1 Choke
+ 1 Path to Exile
+ 1 Ray of Revelation
+ 1 Disenchant
– 4 Squadron Hawk
– 1 Martyr of Sands
– 1 Serra Ascendant
– 1 Rest in Peace

Ascendancy :

+ 1 Spellskite
+ 2 Nevermore
+ 1 Choke
+ 1 Rest in Peace
+ 1 Path to Exile
+ 1 Ray of Revelation
+ 2 Disenchant
+ 2 Ghost Quarter
– 2 Cavern of Souls
– 4 Ghostly Prison
– 3 Sphere of Safety
– 1 Martyr of Sands
– 1 Ranger of Eos

Boggle :

+ 1 Spellskite[/card]
+ 2 Disenchant[/card]
+ 1 Ray of Revelation[/card]
– 3 Rest in Peace[/card]
– 1 Path to Exile[/card]

Affinity :

+ 1 Spellskite
+ 2 Disenchant
+ 1 Path to Exile
+ 2 Crovax, Ascendant Hero
+ 2 Ghost Quarter
– 2 Cavern of Souls
– 3 Rest in Peace
– 2 Nevermore
– 1 Sigarda, Host of Herons

Storm :

+ 2 Nevermore
+ 1 Choke
+ 1 Rest in Peace
– 3 Sphere of Safety
– 1 Ghostly Prison

Pod :

+ 1 Path to Exile
+ 2 Aven Mindcensor
+ 1 Ray of Revelation
+ 2 Disenchant
+ 2 Crovax, Ascendant Hero
– 2 Nevermore
– 3 Runed Halo
– 3 Sphere of Safety

Modifications post tournament :

+ 1 Mistveil Plains (maindeck)
+ 1 Creeping Corrosion (SB)

Thanks for reading, I hope you will play this in the future and have some success with it.

Keep reading our MTGMadness articles !!!!