The Surprise Resurrection of Martyr Control in Modern

I touched on this last week, but isn’t it crazy to think back to a time when white decks could legitimately complain about not getting good cards? While we were in the middle of that era it felt truly interminable, but now it already feels like the distant past.

Yet even back in that before-time, there were still some fringe mono-white strategies to explore. A particular favorite of mine has always been the Martyr of Sands control deck, which opened games by essentially doubling its life total and then using that extra buffer to assemble a grindy card advantage engine. But the narrow effectiveness of Martyr’s one trick – plus the aforementioned dearth of good white cards to play with it – largely ruled it out of being a serious competitive choice… until now!

Despite the Modern metagame becoming more and more powerful all the time, the old Martyr Life deck is somehow seeing an uptick in tournament results. Why go back to it now after years of irrelevance? Is it sheer nostalgia, or has something about Modern’s current climate created the circumstances for Martyr’s revival?

LADY OF THE RING

The most powerful and important piece which has brought Martyr back to metagame relevance is, of course, The One Ring. White’s historical lack of card draw spells has been its biggest drawback in non-aggro decks, and most of the Martyr deck’s distinctive weird card choices flowed from the need to find alternative sources of card advantage. But Squadron Hawk and Proclamation of Rebirth felt out of date a decade ago – in a post-Modern Horizons world they are simply out of consideration for serious deckbuilding, which is why this deck went more or less extinct for a few years.

Lucky then that a card as dominant as The One Ring seemed like it was designed specifically to resurrect this archetype. Both the pros and cons of the legendary artifact align with the existing Martyr gameplan. Running a playset all but guarantees inevitability on its own against non-Ring decks, guaranteeing huge Martyr activations without the per-turn mana tax we once paid for Proclamation of Rebirth.

The stacking life burden imposed by repeated Ring activations essentially creates a lucrative conversion rate of life points to cards – and virtually nothing gains life more efficiently than Martyr of Sands. This combination of early-game lifegain against aggro with late-game Ring abuse can literally be all the gameplan you need. White’s deep arsenal of exiling removal spells can whittle away all your opponent’s wincons, while lifegain and blockers nullify chip damage from the random leftovers. 

Tapping Rings for four or more draws per turn means we can even run card-disadvantageous spells like Solitude, or March of Otherworldly Light without undermining our main plan. It’s a mind-boggling flip from the days when the deck needed terrible cards like Squadron Hawk to prop up the Martyr plan – now Martyr has become a support card for the most potent control payoff in Modern Magic!

But that’s not all Martyr is good for, oh no. In addition to stalling out aggro decks and fueling our unfair draw engine, Coldsnap’s golden girl is also now half of a two-card combo for when we’re playing in paper and actually want to kill opponents. MH3 gifted us Sorin of House Markov, who can be flipped to his planeswalker side with a big Martyr activation and then immediately convert that lifegain into lethal damage in our second main phase.

It’s the kind of compact, explosive win condition that Martyr decks have needed ever since Serra Ascendant was Fatal Push-ed out of the metagame. Many players have even tried to pull the same trick with earlier cards like Vizkopa Guildmage or Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose. But despite their similarities Sorin is a clear upgrade for this role. You can play and activate the whole lethal combo in one turn for just 2WB, efficient enough to be viable even for builds that don’t dedicate extra resources to protecting it.

RINGING IN THE NEW ERA

For long-time Martyr tragics like myself, it’s a thrill just to see the deck doing things on the competitive scene again. But the vast majority of players who don’t have a pre-existing connection to the deck may still be asking: why bother with this? It’s really not surprising that the best version of Martyr Control (or any jank deck) is one with four Rings in it. The money question here is whether the best version of One Ring Control is the one with Martyr cards in it.

There’s probably not enough data to prove that conclusively, but I think the comparison between current Martyr builds and stock Jeskai Control is much closer than most people would think! Martyr has historically been written off as a pet deck, one you play because you like it rather than for any concrete competitive advantage. At best, you could argue for it as a counter-pick in very burn-heavy metagames, or on MTGO where the chess clock can be a powerful ally. Otherwise, there was no reason for a competitive minded player to pick up Martyr for a tournament. 

But that is no longer the case. The One Ring has completely warped how control decks play in Modern, and therefore how they can be built. While there is something to be said for flexibility and redundancy, The One Ring is resilient enough that simply going all-in on that card feels reasonable. By whatever fluke, the Martyr shell turns out to be extremely well suited for a Ring-centric metagame – even beyond the basic synergy between Martyr lifegain and Ring card draw.

Consider the direct matchup between two One Ring control decks. The most significant factor in winning is going to be when we can resolve our first Ring, to get a head-start in the card draw race. Mono-white Martyr actually has some great tools in this context! Brought Back as a powerful ramp spell which can accelerate you into Ring a turn early. If we haven’t been able to draw The One Ring (or mulligan to it) then Monumental Henge gives us a way to repeatedly dig for copies – as well as Sorin, planeswalkers, legendary lands, Haywire Mite, or various sideboard artifacts.

Speaking of the Mite, we might also be the best deck in Modern at answering opposing Rings! Not only do we have white’s full arsenal of exiling removal (Skyclave Apparition, March of Otherworldly Light, Static Prison, Wrath of the Skies…) but our whole Martyr of Sands package can also synergize with the excellent Haywire Mite. Between Recruiter of the Guard, Ranger-Captain of Eos, Monumental Henge, Brought Back, Sevinne’s Reclamation and Abiding Grace, you can tutor and recur Mites as often as it takes to strip your enemy’s jewelry from their cold, dead fingers. 

Additional sideboard hate feels a bit excessive after that, but any copies of Suncleanser you’re bringing to deal with energy decks can also come in to neuter Rings if you feel you need the extra security. Even Reprieve (the white Remand) feels good when it delays the Ring for one turn – although the better feeling is when it delays whatever counterplay was intended to save their Ring from your other removal!

MARTYRDOM-INANCE

Things keep getting better for us in the meta as we look around. The One Ring doesn’t just shape the control and midrange decks which build around it – the card is so prominent and defining that it has helped influence the kinds of aggro decks being played to get underneath those.

The card Martyr of Sands has always been significantly better against red decks with a lot of fixed-damage burn spells and small, efficient creatures. It also thrives when aggro decks are willing to play more non-damaging removal spells to try and gain board control, since Martyr itself is extremely cheap and difficult to interact with. 

Boros Energy is an extremely potent aggro deck capable of generating tremendous pressure at all points of the game. But it is still the exact kind of deck that Martyr of Sands was created to fight, especially considering they also rely on The One Ring for their late game plan. Ocelot Pride and Guide of Souls are still very nasty cards which will get out of control fast if you lack interaction. But we have a LOT of exiling removal to potentially hit on, not to mention white’s classic boardwipes.

Domain Zoo also has a handful of concerning threats – I think the current power level of creatures is just high enough to challenge even Martyr’s impressive stall game. But it still runs 8 burn spells and a bunch of huge creatures which “just” attack. We’re so much happier fighting those matchups than against Thoughtseize decks or those with reliable card advantage to grind through Martyr’s interaction.

Combo decks are usually the real Achilles’ heel for this strategy, and matchups like Belcher or Underworld Breach are certainly hard-to-unwinnable in game 1. But the current metagame spread also includes decks like Living End, Amulet Titan and Ruby Storm, ones where lifegain and creature removal are actually beneficial. Considering that Boros Aggro seems to be keeping the overall number of unfair decks low, one could argue that the current meta is an almost ideally favorable window of time for Martyr of Sands to make its Ring-enhanced comeback. 

SAND THROUGH THE HOURGLASS

Even as a long-time Martyr devotee, I would never have been able to predict the deck returning to Modern relevance in 2024! It’s even more surprising that the deck still retains its distinctive identity and signature cards, even after shifting to accommodate a bunch of Modern Horizons cards and become a One Ring deck. You still get to gain huge chunks of life very early on, you still defend that life lead with exiling removal and sweepers, and you still take over the late game with card advantage and/or the threat of looping your one drops.

Of course, the more Martyr is recognized as a viable deck the more likely that is to change. Opponents can certainly adjust their sideboards to make life harder for the Life deck – either with very overt answers like Rain of Gore and Screaming Nemesis, or more generic interaction to attack the graveyard elements or The One Ring itself.

But that adversity only spurs more innovation, and I’ve already seen plenty of innovation among this new wave of Martyr decks. Whether it’s splashing blue for Teferi, Time Raveler to protect our Sorin combo, committing fully to land destruction with Crucible of Worlds and White Orchid Phantom, or even going back to Aetherflux Reservoir as a potential wincon, people are once again excited about Life in Modern – and I think that’s a wonderful thing.