MartyrProc (Martyr of Sands, not necessarily Soul Sisters)

[CaptainTwiddle]

With the release of Gatecrash, one card in particular caught my eye, Orzhov Charm. I immediately thought about including the charm in a deck with Martyr of Sands as a somewhat less powerful, but generally more flexible, version of Proclamation of Rebirth. Here's the list that I took to a small event at an LGS. It was long enough ago where I don't remember all of my matches or exactly how I finished. It was either 2-2 or 3-1. I know I lost to UR Twin and may have lost to Affinity; I definitely beat White Weenie and I can't recall what my other match was.

Orzhov Martyr
CREATURES
4 Martyr of Sands
4 Ranger of Eos
4 Serra Ascendant
4 Squadron Hawk
4 Tidehollow Sculler
SPELLS
1 Ajani Goldmane
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
4 Honor of the Pure
4 Lingering Souls
4 Orzhov Charm
2 Path to Exile
1 Proclamation of Rebirth
LAND
3 Arid Mesa
2 Godless Shrine
2 Isolated Chapel
4 Marsh Flats
2 Mistveil Plains
5 Plains
1 Swamp
4 Windbrisk Heights

I don't remember my sideboard, but it was pretty terrible, as I had no idea what to expect. I know it had Kataki, War's Wage, Stony Silence, Ghostly Prison, and Spellskite.

A few notes on card choices:

Tidehollow Sculler - Not necessarily the most high-impact card, but it provides disruption, a clock, and it's a white card (which is really relevant because of Martyr).

Lingering Souls - This was originally Spectral Procession, which is a card I really like and plays really well with Windbrisk Heights. In the end, I felt that Lingering Souls was more durable and it provided a card that I was happy to discard after over-filling my hand with Squadron Hawks.

Ajani Goldmane and Elspeth, Knight-Errant - Both of these cards are powerful in their own way and provide synergy with much of the rest of the deck. Truthfully though, I feel like they're the most readily removable cards. Much of their inclusion was to give something powerful to cheat in with Windbrisk Heights. I'm inclined to replace them with Brave the Elements as a hedge against the recent influx of Anger of the Gods. Other options for replacement would be Spectral Procession or Zealous Persecution.

Windbrisk Heights - If I remove the planeswalkers, I'm not sure if Heights is worth playing. Often, the best flips with Heights are Honor of the Pure after blockers to mess with combat math, but with all the flyers, it often ends up being less tricky than you might expect. Maybe the two planeswalkers should become Spectral Procession, which facilitates the Heights and is often a really powerful card to hideaway. [I'm actually really leaning this way now that I think about it. I do like Brave the Elements, but that can be in the sideboard.]

General things to consider/remember:

Because of Martyr of Sands, I want to include as many white cards as possible.

This deck, while capable of going aggro, is really built to grind. Most of my matches in the small event ended up going close to time or were won in extra turns. The ability to recur Squadron Hawk via Mistveil Plains combined with the lifegain from Martry allow you to play the long game against anything that doesn't generate infinite damage.

I personally prefer this style of deck to Soul Sisters, as Soul Warden and Soul's Attendant are generally pretty weak. That being said, the Soul Sisters do provide some protection against Twin by nullifying the damage from infinite attackers by gaining infinite life. Maybe some Sisters belong in the sideboard, maybe not.

The axis on which this deck operates just puts you out of reach of some strategies. Scapeshift, for example, seems like a really good matchup, as they simply can't win if you gain enough life (unless they're on the Primeval Titan build).

Cards to consider for the sideboard:

Path to Exile
Kataki, War's Wage
Stony Silence
Burrenton Forge-Tender
Zealous Persecution
Brave the Elements
Disenchant
Ghostly Prison
Nihil Spellbomb
Spellskite
Rule of Law
Ethersworn Canonist
Mana Tithe
Aven Mindcensor
Batwing Brume (Is this totally tech against Twin? If you gain a bunch of life, they'll have to create 20+ creatures to kill you, so you can steal a win.)

So, I'm looking for some input on how to adjust the deck to handle the current meta of Twin, Pod, and Affinity. Any other general input is also welcome.

[FTW]

Cool deck. Orzhov Charm definitely makes the black splash worth it for MartyrProc.

There's a lot of discussion on the monowhite version here:
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/t...r-proc?page=25

They seem to run Ghostly Prison main, which completely shuts off Twin and shores up many of those matches that you'd want to board those Soul Sisters in for.

For Affinity and Pod, I'd board in Stony Silence. Kataki's seems weak since you don't have manabase taxing or a clock. If you were monowhite, I'd also recommend Suppression Field SB. While it taxes Martyr and forecasting, you have relatively few activated abilities while it shuts down 3-color decks, Pod, Twin/Kiki combo, Ravager, Plating, and other random stuff. Unfortunately with fetchlands of your own it's probably an awful idea.

[CaptainTwiddle]

Cool deck. Orzhov Charm definitely makes the black splash worth it for MartyrProc.

There's a lot of discussion on the monowhite version here:
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/t...r-proc?page=25

They seem to run Ghostly Prison main, which completely shuts off Twin and shores up many of those matches that you'd want to board those Soul Sisters in for.

I had seen some of the mono white lists running Ghostly Prison in the main. Maybe it's worth it, but the card just seems clunky and outright useless in some matchups (Melira Pod, Storm, etc.). I'd be more keen on the idea if we had some better card draw/filtering.