Magic the Gathering - Modern Eternal Ghostway Deck Profile

by  ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist

Ghostway is an interesting Magic card from Guildpact. It's a rare that probably not many people know exist, but it's been far from being a bulk rare for quite some time. Its price has been steadily climbing from about $1.50 USD in 2010 - with a spike to about $6 around the release of Born of the Gods for some reason – back down to around $3 and back up to around $5 in late 2014. Another spike in early 2015 to over $10 a copy with the emergence of a rogue Modern archetype called Eternal Ghostway.

So what is Eternal Ghostway? It has to do with using cards with powerful enter the battlefield effects, such as Eternal Witness, with the "blinking" power of Ghostway. For 2W, Ghostway is an instant spell that allows you to remove all creatures you control from the game and return them back to the battlefield at the end of the turn. This can be helpful for dodging removal, of course, but it also allows you to recycle enter the battlefield effects, as well as some other things that you will see when we take a look at a couple of Eternal Ghostway lists.

Here's one such list from late January 2015 that went 3-1 in a Modern Daily.

DECK LIST

Creatures (27)

4 Birds of Paradise
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Eternal Witness
4 Restoration Angel
4 Wall of Omens
3 Kitchen Finks
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Loxodon Hierarch
1 Magus of the Disk
1 Reveillark

Non-Creature Spells (10)

4 Path to Exile
3 Chord of Calling
3 Ghostway

Lands (23)

4 Temple Garden
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
3 Forest
3 Tectonic Edge
2 Plains
2 Stomping Ground
1 Mountain

Sideboard (15)

3 Fulminator Mage
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Firespout
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Loaming Shaman
1 Nature's Claim
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Spellskite

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CREATURES

Let's start with the creatures, as this is a very creature-heavy deck. As this is a 3-color deck, the Birds of Paradise help you to mana-fix for the colors that you will need. Elvish Visionary is a cute little common card that draws you a card when it enters play, an effect that can be abused with Ghostway, hence the inclusion of 4 copies in the deck. This card advantage can come in handy. Wall of Omens is a very defensive card (0/4 defender) that likewise allows you to draw a card when it enters play.

Eternal Witness is one of the decks "bread and butter" cards, as when it enters play it allows you to get any card back from your graveyard to your hand. Many times that will most likely be Ghostway. Kitchen Finks has a couple of cool interactions in this deck. Not only does it gain you 2 life when it enters play, but it also has Persist on it. This means when the Finks "dies" it comes back with a -1/-1 counter on it, while also again netting you 2 life. But when it's removed from play by the effect of Ghostway, that counter is removed when it comes back at the end of the turn, giving it yet another chance to Persist. This allows you to be aggressive with attacking or blocking with them.

A full playset of Restoration Angel compliments the Ghostways. The difference with the Angel is that the "blinking" effect is instantaneously, meaning you don't have to wait until the end of the turn for the creature you target to return. The only thing you can't target are other Angels. It's also included in here with its crazy interaction with Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker.

While Restoration Angel cannot target another Angel, Kiki-Jiki has the ability to copy another creature by tapping itself, and since he has haste, he can do this immediately. The token he creates by copying Restoration Angel can then target Kiki-Jiki, essentially "resetting" him. You can then make as many Restoration Angels as you please, and they all have Haste. Being 3/4 flyers, you don't need many to put away a game. It's basically the primary win condition of this deck.

The rest of the creatures are one-ofs: Loxodon Hierarch, Magus of the Disk, and Reveillark. The Hierarch is a 4-drop (2WG) that gains you 4 life when he enters. That's fairly substantial. However, he also can be sacrificed for WG to regenerate each other creature you control, helping you to survive boardwipes. This comes in handy when you consider the Magus of the Disk. The Magus costs 2WW to cast and is a 2/4 that comes into play tapped. Essentially, this is the creature version of Nevinyrral's Disk. His tap ability costs only a single colorless mana and destroys all artifacts, creatures, and enchantments. This is why Hierarch's regeneration ability is so helpful, allowing all of your creatures to survive.

The last creature in the deck is Reveillark. With all of the creatures that have power 2 or less in this deck, it's very helpful. Even Kiki-Jiki can be resurected with Reveillark's ability. Only Restoration Angel , Kitchen Finks, and Loxodon Hierarch can't be brought back. Even the Magus of the Disk can be retrieved into play with this ability.

NON-CREATURE SPELLS

There are only a few non-creature spells in the deck. First, you have 4 Path to Exile to deal with problem creatures by simply removing them from play. The basic land you give your opponent most of the time is well worth it. You then have 3 copies of Ghostway and 3 copies of Chord of Calling. The Chord helps you seek out important pieces, and oftentimes you'll probably be waiting to hit 8 mana to summon your Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker. It's a powerful card, and with Birthing Pod no more in Modern, it has found its new home.

MANA BASE

Like many Modern decks, the mana base isn't cheap. However, the only fetchlands in the deck were reprinted in Khans of Tarkir: Windswept Heath and Wooded Foothills. This is a mostly white and green deck, with the Red only for Kiki-Jiki and the sideboarded Fulminator Mages. You have 4 Temple Garden and 2 Stomping Ground for "shock" lands. For basic land you have 3 Forest, 2 Plains, and 1 Mountain. There are also 3 copies of Tectonic Edge in the deck to help keep your opponents off of the colors that they need to hurt you.

SIDEBOARD

The 3 Fulminator Mages exist in the sideboard in case you need more non-basic land destruction in certain matchups. They're very expensive cards, and while Eternal Ghostway isn't exactly a "budget" deck, these make up a huge chunk of its cost. You can live without them, but if you have them, definitely run them. They do a lot of damage when combined with Ghostway, Restoration Angel, and Reveillark (they have 2 power).

Engineered Explosives has become very popular removal in Modern, as it has been in Legacy for quite some time. It can deal with destroying a lot at once, and your own creatures can be protected by Ghostway, so this card can be extremely one-sided.

Firespout is a nice quick way to deal with aggressive decks. Since you have some expendable creatures and others that you can easily reuse, this again can become very one-sided.

Aven Mindcensor is a fun play to hose opponent's when they are searching their deck using fetch lands. It's also fun to stop an opposing Chord of Calling or any other tutor effect. While your opponent could find a valid target within the top four cards of their deck, it's mighty unlikely.

Eidolon of Rhetoric is included to stop combo decks such as Pyromancer Ascension and other Storm variants. This deck rarely has to cast more than one spell in a turn to win anyhow.

Linvala, Keeper of Silence shuts down activated abilities, but only for your opponents. This makes it so that your own tap abilities and any other abilities that require a cost work, but not for your opponents. (Enter the battlefield abilities are triggered abilities and not affected by Linvala.)

Loaming Shaman is an interesting inclusion. It sees a lot of play in Commander to reshuffle your own cards back into the deck. While you can use it for this purpose, it especially screws up graveyard strategies by putting cards that opponents want in the graveyard back into their decks. That's really why it's in the board.

Nature's Claim costs only a single Green mana to cast and it can hit either artifacts or enchantments. While its not fun to give your opponent 4 life, if you win through the infinite combo with Kiki-Jiki and Restoration Angel, that 4 life is meaningless.

Qasali Pridemage is just an awesome card. Not only does he serve as artifact and enchantment removal, but the Exalted mechanic can be relevant at times. But he's in the deck for the removal.

Scavenging Ooze exists in the board to hose decks that rely on their graveyards. There are a few of those running around Modern, so it's handy to have.

Spellskite is fun for a lot of reasons, messing up targeting for your opponent's. It's the number one way to deal with Splinter Twin or opposing Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breakers. But it also protects your important creatures from Path to Exile, as well as other things that target.

DECK STRATEGY

While the primary goal of Eternal Ghostway is to outlast your opponent to win through the Kiki-Jiki/Restoration Angel combo, it's not the only way to win. There's enough lifegain in the deck to keep you alive long enough to actually win through combat. The card advantage offered by the Elvish Visionaries and Wall of Omens can't be understated either. It's a simple, yet fun strategy, and while it's not exactly budget (roughly $500 USD in February 2015) it has a lot of cards that you'd already have if you've been playing Modern.


ALTERNATE DECKLIST

There is another way to approach building this deck. Here's a list from mid-February 2015 called WRG, but it is in fact another build of Eternal Ghostway.


DECK LIST

Creatures (25)
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Eternal Witness
4 Wall of Omens
3 Restoration Angel
2 Wall of Roots
1 Huntmaster of the Fells
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Reclamation Sage

Non-Creature Spells (13)
4 Path to Exile
3 Chord of Calling
3 Ghostway
3 Lightning Bolt

Lands (22)
4 Temple Garden
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
3 Forest
3 Stomping Ground
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Rootbound Crag
1 Sacred Foundry

Sideboard (15)
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Blood Moon
2 Firespout
2 Fulminator Mage
2 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1 Harmonic Sliver
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Thragtusk
1 Thrun, the Last Troll


Let's start with the creature differences. There are no more Loxodon Hierarch, Magus of the Disk, or Reveillark. There is also one fewer Restoration Angel and two fewer Kitchen Finks. The deck adds 2 copies of Wall of Roots, one Huntmaster of the Fells, and a Reclamation Sage. The Walls are interesting, in that they give you a bit of mana ramp at the cost of having -1/-1 counters put on them. They were featured in some Pod decks, and now they find a home here. Ghostway combos well with these as it does with the Finks, letting you reuse them.

The Huntmaster is an interesting card here, and its a bit more consistent than the Magus would be – the Magus is a bit too situational. The pure power of the Huntmaster is impressive: gaining you 2 life and a 2/2 token on one side and dealing 2 damage to an opponent and 2 damage to an opponent's creature on the other side.. The Reclamation Sage from Magic 2015 gives you main board artifact and enchantment removal which can easily be reused in this deck.

While I like Reveillark in this deck, I can see why you might want to cut the Loxodon Hierarch and Magus of the Disk. The latter two really exist for one another and can be a bit redundant or too situational.

In cutting the two creatures, there are 3 copies of Lightning Bolt added here. I like these in the deck, as they provide for a bit of extra removal as well as potential burn straight to a player in the late game. Bolt is just simply never a bad card to have. The third copy of Bolt is in place of the 23rd land from the other deck. This list eschews the Tectonic Edges for a Rootbound Crag, Sacred Foundry, and an additional copy of Stomping Ground, while cutting a Plains.

I think this mainboard is a bit better, if not considerably more red-heavy. I could get into the sideboard choices, too – some of which I'm personally not crazy about – but I think that the sideboards should be formed from personal preference and the state of your local meta-game.

Eternal Ghostway hasn't been winning big time on Magic Online, but if you're looking to find a Modern deck to build from the scraps of Birthing Pod, this would be it. If you're just getting into the format, or are just looking for a new deck to play, I highly recommend trying out this archetype. It may need a bit more tweaking to be a big winner, but I like how it's evolving, and it's a solid list for those that like something a bit different.