The stability of this deck has gotten so much better since I added the clamps. I understand your idea for the life gain but with Martyr of Sands , why bother?

Skullclamp can equip and destroy anything but Ranger of Eos and post 30 life Serra Ascendant to draw 2 cards for 1 mana and the loss of a dork.

I can then just bring the dork back with rebirth so I really lost nothing while gaining 2 cards in hand for Martyr of Sands to abuse.

On top of that I rarely miss a land drop and rarely have fewer than 5 or 6 cards in hand thanks to the clamp and in a WW swarm deck like this that's extremely powerful.

Anyone like the idea of the blue splash for side board support?

What have you been losing to? It's hard to tell what to tweak when I haven't actually played the deck (and I'm not terribly familiar with the format).

Sadly enough I have lost to a basically standard mass polymorph deck because of Iona calling white.

I have also lost to hypergenisis... again, Iona 3ed turn of the game against a basically mono deck is not fun to deal with.

Affinity gives me some problems but if I hit a few sands I'm usually alright because they can't keep up with my lifegain.

I lost to a junk equipment deck before but that was extreme bad luck. (I went 16 turns at 3 mana with 2 judgment and 2 eos in hand... utter improbableness)

I'm also worried about reanimator because a guy that will be there brings one and it usually has a Pathrazer of Ulamog on the field by second turn of the game. I was able to beat it last time because my Path to Exile s and Swords to Plowshares exile his reanimator targets and I have Nihil Spellbomb to deal with his grave if need be from my side.

I'm thinking I don't have to worry much about a vintage RDW, should be an easy matchup as long as I draw into a sands early.

I'm worried about storm or charblelcher which is why I have sided in 4 Leyline of Sanctity s and 3 Mindbreak Trap s to shut them down effectively I think.

In my meta I don't have to worry overly much about power 9 stuff. Very few have them and a few that do will not play with them. We have a no proxy rule. It's usually more like a legacy tournament with a restricted list rather than a banned list. There will be a lot of rogue barely competitive casual decks that show up so I can expect just about anything, off the wall or not, but I don't really have to worry overly much about them as I usually only lose to them from a mana screw or their god draw.

However, there are usually about 5 or 6 other people besides me that know what they are doing and will be a legit threat to me. For these I need to prepare but because of the fact that I have to expect anything I can't just hose tier 1 decks from my board.

I appreciate any help you can give me. I'm still working on my side and am not happy about it but maindeck ideas are more than welcome too.

so problems are...Iona, wicked fast aggro, reanimator.

Against wicked fast aggro...how helpful are the Kabira Crossroads ? I mean, not having played the deck I don't know...are they often the thing that pushes you over 30 for the Ascendants? If they feel slightly redundant then I might trim those, because taplands early against aggro can be bad for your health. If they work well, fine. Also against aggro, more Kami of False Hope somewhere could be good.

Iona...splash for Doom Blade ? haha...seriously though, I'm not sure what to do about it other than counter (hence the blue?) or I guess you could Echoing Truth Iona, then they're rather screwed with it in their hand. Offhand I can't think of anything colourless (Ghostfire seems impractical) that would kill her...that's a hard one, since in that situation it's sort of a combo mirror-ish thing...dunno.

Reanimator, Nihil Spellbomb will help, other than that and Path/STP/Oring I'm not sure what to tell you.

Regarding the mana base, maybe Temple of the False God ? it gives you Proc mana a turn earlier..dunno whether it'd be helpful or not, really. Also Fieldmist Borderpost slows you down a turn, which seems suboptimal to me - more duals? UW fetches?

Have you tried out Kitchen Finks ? Against aggro in particular it's quite spectacular. I'm not sure how it would fit into the curve...Goldenglow Moth just seems odd to me haha.

Side seems decent to me, I like the Echoing Truth tech, and I assume that mill is at least somewhat popular to inspire the Emrakul. Maybe cut a Leyline of Sanctity ? Against a pure targeting combo deck you can sort of mull down till you have a leyline, and then you have another side slot.

I would mainboard 4 Mother of Runes .

sporkife Fieldmist Borderpost is in the deck because it's a mana source that Martyr of Sands can abuse (being a white spell) while not cutting my mana generation too much. It hasn't been a problem for me yet. You make a decent point about Kabira Crossroads . It's usually not that big of a deal but it has pushed me over 30 a few times. I could get away with out them. I just usually don't play anything first turn so I can let Martyr of Sands hit for more lifegain second turn. Otherwise I'm just playing a 1/1 or 0/1 dork and that's only needed against argo. Basically if it's not going to gain me, or prevent 3 damage or more by next turn it's better to play the Martyr of Sands turn 2 for 3 more life. In that case the crossroads are just an extra 2 from the start since I rarely use the mana anyways first turn. I will try play testing it without it though as I have hit them when I needed a fast land drop a few times and it lost me the game.

I have considered Temple of the False God but I have been testing City of Traitors The benefit of the later is that I can drop Oblivion Ring 2ed turn, or Ranger of Eos /Day of Judgment 3ed turn which is huge most of the time. If I play Temple of the False God I can't do anything with it until at least 5th turn so I might as well be playing land short as far as the early game cares. With City, I can still hit proc mana a turn early but I'll lose it if I play another land. I can however still play boarder posts. That's my thought, is there something else I'm not thinking of?

I only have 3 Kitchen Finks and I probably would have tried it already but it's not 1 CMC and the deck is themed around it. I can see it being useful out of the side but I can usually out resource argo, especially with the Skullclamp s as long as I get a quick Sands.

Goldenglow Moth is in because it's a good 1 drop with flying. It's much better to throw counters on with Cradle of Vitality than say Kami of False Hope since evasion is often times important, plus it's a gain 4 against an argo deck early or else they have to blow a removal spell to get rid of it.

Yes, There are a few in my meta that love to mill and while most of them are not fast enough, I'd like some side assurance. I feel the eldrazi deserves at least 1 slot. It's also a good card to be holding against hypergenisis.

I splashed the blue for Echoing Truth /Mindbreak Trap . I don't want Iona killing me again and those two should help. Echoing Truth is also a great card anyway. Token decks crumble to it. It can remove an artifact, enchantment, or plainswalker at instant speed if needed, and is just a versatile card. The Mindbreak Trap s are in mostly to shut down a storm deck or something like that. I'll just exile their key combo card for 0 mana and watch them flounder with 1 or 2 cards in hand while I flood the field. It's not Force of Will but I own Mindbreak Trap so...

KorApprentice I had considered Mother of Runes but I don't have any of her and I'm not even sure that I need her. I agree that she's creature protection/evasion but don't like that her effect is a tap effect. I find them too slow to be useful in a fast deck like this one too often. I might playtest 1 of them so I can search it out though. I can see it's uses.

I appreciate the ideas guys, please keep them coming and feel free to question any card I have in the deck. That's what I'm looking for. If my logic is wrong please tell me as much. Thanks.

d'oh, Kitchen Sinks isn't cmc1...that's what happens when I try to think about magic late at night haha

yeah, that's the tradeoff with City of Traitors //Temple of the False God . i'm more used to playing multiplayer with this cardpool, where city is better.

other than that, I'm really not sure what to do here, the sideboard tech against Iona seems like about all you can do, and you only need a slightly above average draw to wreck aggro.

bonus points rewarded for reminding me that I need to get on actually finding cards for my (casual) martyrproc build! and for making martyrproc into at least a t1.5 vintage deck at about a hundred bucks plus wasteland/city :D

Yea, I lucked out getting wasteland/city. I got a playset of both for a bunch of sliver cards. The guy said he knew the value and it was cool with him so who was I to turn it down?

I'm glad it gave you some ideas.

Did my reasonings seem valid to you for all the cards you asked about?

If you can think of anything else let me know and thanks for the input. If you want me to look at any of yours at any point just let me know and I'd be happy to lend my opinion.

yeah, everything seems to make sense - like you said, maybe play around with Kabira Crossroads a little bit but other than that i don't see anything odd.

well, once nph is up on here i'll take that offer, i think...i have a monoblack aggro build that has 5 or 6 slots on the upper end that i'm not certain about and i want a third opinion (a friend and i do a lot of split deckbuilding) and you seem to know what you're talking about quite well.

next tournament maybe you'll get a chance to beat up on my archnemesis (superfriends) >:D good luck playing this thing!

just for contrast, too, here's mine as it stands right now:

There's sand in my toes.

Does the landbase look any better to you? I added colonnades for some late game support in place of 2 of the crossroads. I also added a 4th wasteland and another plains for the other 2 which drops it down 2 tap lands for 2 quick ones but I lose 1 white and gain 2 blue to make my sideboard better.

Thoughts?

i heart celestial colonnade. if it wasn't u/w i would use it all the time.

the only question i have at this point is if you have enough basics for the borderposts but you just added a basic, so that should help.

I have a little worse than a 1 in 6 chance of having a plains in my opening hand and with the clamps I think I'll draw into at least 1 pretty quickly. Mostly they are just in there for Martyr of Sands fuel that I CAN use for mana when I need it.

The curve is pretty low, usually I'm fine until I need to judgment or eos. If I have an ascendant and sands I'm pretty good with 2 mana for a while unless they have cheap removal in hand.

If you get the chance, could you please play test it for me? See how you like the draws.

I'll need to have it ready by Saturday so any help I can get is great and much appreciated.

fair enough, it's a pretty low curve yeah.

the new playtester still has some odd shuffling algorithms, but it seems to be pretty good, and anything with issues is quickly fixed with a Skullclamp . going turn 1 land, martyr, turn 2 land, sac - reveal for 15 life is pretty scary to an aggro deck, and will buy you a turn at least to find what you need, maybe more.

So, did the lanbase feel right?

yeah - the odds of opening with both colonnades in hand are pretty low and the playtester did that twice, but it feels solid as long as you have 2 lands and a martyr. i guess you might worry about hand disruption, but there's not a whole lot to do about it.

This deck is pretty good, i played against it with a reanimater and burn deck! The numerous amount of exile cards mess up my reanimater deck and Leyline of Sanctity just stops me from burning the deck directly.

I picked up my old Felidar Sovereign that I traded so I added it, I dropped a Cradle of Vitality for it. I also decided that since I dropped one cradle, I should drop 2 Goldenglow Moth 's and add in another Loyal Sentry and another Kami of False Hope .

I also dropped a Mindbreak Trap from my side and added a 4th Leyline of Sanctity . I just feel that I will need one in my opening for sure against some decks and Mindbreak Trap is just too situational.

Do those things sound like good changes?

I'm competing with it tomorrow night so any last minute advice is appreciated.

I mean, if you can stick a Goldenglow Moth and put counters on it for a turn, you can stick a Felidar Sovereign and win with it, so that makes sense.

As far as the Leyline that's fair enough, I'm not particularly familiar with the format so I have no idea how viable mulling down to 4 cards with a leyline in opening hand is (I've seen people do that before against Valakut and win) but presumably you would know if you need em.

I can't really think of anything else...maybe a different 1-drop instead of a second Loyal Sentry , but that would be depending on expected meta.

good luck!

Thanks. I will need the leyline for Storm or Charblelcher. It's also good against a discard or RDW style deck as well. The mindbreak is good for storm or charblelcher and if I just really need to counter something like Polymorph or Shape Anew or something along that line. The layline's power comes from the fact that they can't stop it from resolving if it's in your opening and the mindbreak thay can just counter.

As far as the lone sentry goes, I expect to see a lot of creature decks and it's just a good buffer against them.

card:Rune-Tail's Essence would be really nice fo rthis deck because your deck is creature heavy.

Updated Tourney data guys (Top one), Take a look and comment please. I appreciated all the help.

card:Rune-Tail's Essence is an interesting option if I need the protection. Thanks for the idea.

yea that deck beat my Isochron Scepter deck. i probably should have left it silence for the tourney but it was too slow either way.

I love that proc of rebirth-Kami combo, I didn't even see that... gotta make plans to make my own deck with that ;)