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When Modern is turning into a format all about racing, it's good when players find new ways to slow things down. We're used to seeing various Blue-based control decks as the slowest thing going on in the format, but Fugate has some different ideas:


Martyr of Sands
There are a couple of ways to build Martyr of Sands decks in this format. We've seen variants with Soul Warden and Ajani's Pridemate, others with Grim Harvest and other cheap recursion, and then there's this one, which plays for a long game with Emeria, the Sky Ruin.

The idea here is pretty straightforward. There are a good number of decks in this format which can't beat one Martyr of Sands activation. Decks like Burn and Scapeshift are going to struggle. Ad Nauseam and other non-infinite combo decks may not be able to win at all. You've got Martyr of Sands and Ranger of Eos to help ensure you can get one Martyr activation early on in the game.

That one activation usually buys you time to find another way to slow the game down, such as Ghostly Prison, Wrath of God, or Squadron Hawk. As far as unfair decks go, you've got lots of land-based disruption in Field of Ruin and Ghost Quarter. But if you're good at slowing the game down, what does the end game look like?

Proclamation of Rebirth and Emeria, the Sky Ruin are ultimately what's going to kill your opponent. These cards let you rebuy things like Serra Ascendant, Martyr of Sands, and Kami of False Hope to slowly grind away opposing resources and life totals while ensuring that you stay out of range. Mistveil Plains even gives you a way to slowly recur cards like Elspeth, Sun's Champion or just loop Squadron Hawks.

If you know you're playing against decks that can't go infinite, this seems like an interesting approach to the format right now. Sweepers and Ghostly Prisons will do a number against linear decks like Affinity and Bogles. Lifegain and uncounterable recursion is good against most other things. Against anything you're not prepared for, you have all the game-ending sideboard cards that White decks typically run: Stony Silence, Rest in Peace, Runed Halo, Leyline of Sanctity, and more.


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