[Deck] GW/x Maverick

[useL]

Why wouldn't you just play third Jitte. Why play Mystic without Fauna Shaman?


The extra body is not totally irellevant. The EsperDecks in my meta plays Spell Pierce as only counter also, so Stoneforge works around their counters. The card advantage is also not too bad, getting a 1/2 and a Jitte to attach it is nice. Also, when you play sylvan library the shuffle effect from stoneforge is really nice.

Its a love hate relationship this damn Stoneforge, as someone pointed out a couple of pages back I hated the card, now I am back playing it. I guess that the card improves the miracle/stoneblade matchup too much to cut it but I would not go that route against RUG/Goblins since it is too slow.

[conley1000000]

Playing sfm + SoLaS doesn't seem totally out of place as its tutorable protection for your Teeg. Safekeeper is good too but adding another dimension to keeping him stp safe seems very playable. As well as the recent uptick in decks splashing black can give added efficiency.

[Jiaozy]

The last two pages are the answer to the question "Why is Maverick disappearing from SCG's T16?".

People defending bad cards (MD Maze of Ith, MD Path to Exile, SoL&S) and trying at alla costs to play sub-par cards to show they're trying to "innovate" the archetype :really:

The deck can still do well if built and played correctly, for reference, here's what I've come to after a lot of games (yes, unlike Koby I DO playtest the ideas I talk about) against the field, as in "existing decks" not fringe decks like Enchantress, Death and Taxes, Pox and the like.

Sure, you might see one every now and then making results, but it's hardly relevant in a large tournament and, unless you know the metagame you're facing deck by deck, it's pointless to prepare against them.

4 Windswept Heath
2 Misty Rainforest
4 Savannah
4 Wasteland
3 Cavern of Souls
1 Horizon Canopy
2 Forest
1 Plains
1 Karakas
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Dryad Arbor

4 Mother of Runes
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scryb Ranger
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Sylvan Safekeeper
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Sylvan Library
1 Garruk Relentless

Sideboard
3 Tormod's Crypt
3 Pithing Needle
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Path to Exile
2 Krosan Grip
2 Gaddock Teeg
2 Metagame slot

This is what I've come to after lots of games and I'd play this list in a big tourney, some explanation might be needed for those out of touch with the reality of the metagame:

4 Wasteland
Mandatory.
Team America and Canadian are a big part of the meta and with a manabase as fragile as theirs, landing a Wasteland or two leaves them screwed.
Against Miracles they buy you a turn to try and assemble the Teeg + protection, be it Safekeeper, Mother or Greaves (no, I'm not joking, the card IS good against Miracles, costing 3 mana less than SoL&S and doing the exact same job you people are using it for).
They also keep your opponent off odd stuff like Explosives/Ratchet Bomb recursion via Academy Ruins or slow down S&T a bit.

3 Cavern of Souls
I'd never play any less than 2 of these, with 3 being the right number in a metagame where Daze and Force of Will are king, where Counterbalance is a real card and Chalice of the Void is a random card that sees some play.

1 Gaea's Cradle
With the 4 MD Thalia, this card is needed to play your higher CC cards or play a PW/Zenith outside of Pierce range.

4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
In a field so full of spell based decks, she's queen and one of the first targets for your opponent's removal.
Be it Storm, S&T, Canadian or BUG, she hinders their game a whole lot because they're always short on mana and Making that S&T cost 4 or leaving them unable to play free counters/removal is invaluable.
The point of playing 4 is that you want to see two in every game where they're relevant since the first one usually dies/gets countered and you want to have one back into play ASAP.

1 Sylvan Safekeeper
A Zenith'able Mother of Runes that has no summoning sickness and this comes in handy A LOT against Miracles, the main reason this dude made it into the MD.
It has fringe uses in the Burn MU by lowering your non-basic count to avoid being blown away by Price of Progress and in the mirror by protecting youd dudes from removal better than a SoL&S can ever do.
You surely DO NOT want this in the Canadian MU because saccing lands against a mana denial deck = bad.

2 Umezawa's Jitte
No other equipment should be needed in this metagame if you know what the deck does and needs.

2 Sylvan Library
Never leave home with less than two.
More is overkill, less is bad because you want to see this in a reasonable amount of time.
Surely not your main 2CC slot nor the play you always do on turn 2, tho.

1 Garruk Relentless
I already explained this guy a few pages back, but let's get over this again.
In the mirror 2/2 (or 1/1 Deathtouch) > 1/1 from Elspeth and killing a Mom and flipping this guy isn't bad either, because it gets even better by letting you recycle useless critters like mid-game Hierarchs or Dryad Arbors for value, while having an ultimate that blows your opponent out of the game.
Against Miracle, Elspeth has a useless Ultimate making your creatures indestructible against a deck that Exiles and Puts on Bottom and the always mediocre 1/1, while 2/2s put more pressure.
If you manage to flip Garruk (be it by killing a Snapcaster or one of your own dudes) you can use the -1 to tutor up the pieces of your soft lock: Safekeeper and Gaddock.
The Ultimate is hit or miss, because they usually don't have any GY removal spell against you and Garruk is a sac outlet to avoid Exile and Bottom of Library.

3 Tormod's Crypt
1 Bojuka Bog
You'll love these against Canadian, but they're here for Reanimator, ANT and Dredge mostly.
Those are decks that, even if not in the usual T16, can easily be found in the first 3-4 rounds before they lose to better and more popular decks, but you need these to have a chance to win.

3 Pithing Needle
Why waste good slots for a reactive card like Chant/Silence, when you can just Needle Miracle's Top and look at them struggle while drawing their 6CC stuff and having it stuck in hand, unable to manipulate their topdecks?
It also comes in against decks playing Pernicious Deed (the card that owns this deck, remember?), Deathrite Shaman (making it a vanilla 1/2), Engineered Explosives, Aether Vial and, why not, Jace (good bye Miracle), Liliana, Tezzeret, Elspeth and random cards like Mangara, Helm of Obedience, Thopther Foundry and such.

2 Krosan Grip
Humility is Bad, Counterbalance not so much but why risk, Moat is bad, Cursed Totem is bad bad bad and opposing equipment is bad too, not to mention Dread of Night.
This solves all of the above problems and more while being nigh impossible to counter, instant and in colour.

2 Gaddock Teeg
Just for the Miracle MU, having one on the board at all times is crucial and you want to replace one as fast as it leaves the table.
If you don't expect many Miracles take one out to free a slot.

2 Metagame slot, usually ORing in my SB
I usually have ORings as a catch-all answer to most of the deck's problems, be it Jace, Liliana or S&T, but feel free to take these out in favor of other cards more suited to your metagame.

[matunos]

I agree with most of Jiozy's conclusions here, except that I still like Maze of Ith. Also, he mentions Lightning Greaves but then says Jitte is the only equipment you need (I agree with that, but why mention the Lightning Greaves?). And while I do like and play Garruk, let's not forget Elspeth's jumping ability, which is what I think you use more than her soldier ability, especially in the mirror. (Sure, it's not as great against angels, but usually if you're facing more than one miracled angel, you've probably already lost.)

The earlier comments here suggest that people are thinking of the Maze primarily as a defensive tool. I would say that Maze is something like 75% offensive: Swing with Knight, untap after damage, then he's free to tutor a land as well.

For example, a couple of pages back, someone posted how they kept from swinging with their Knight for 3 turns because they knew their Storm opponent would go off if she was tapped. Except if he had kept his Maze in his deck, he could have fetched the Maze at EOT, and from there started swinging and keeping the Knight untapped.

It's true, it's weak to Wasteland, like most of the rest of lands in the deck, but if you use it judiciously, you can limit that weakness. Of course you rarely want to draw it naturally, you want it in your library to tutor for it with a Knight. At worst, it gets wasted and feeds your Knights. At best, it wins you the game. Of course, there are times you don't need it (it's not better than the SB alternatives against Miracles, for instance), but it's usually one of the last cards I side out because it can make for such a potent clock with your Knights.

A couple people have commented here on how Sneak Show is a bad matchup. In my experience, Sneak Show is not that bad, because you can drop a Knight in and tutor for Karakas, and neither of those can be countered. Against Sneak Attack, you generally have 2-3 anti-enchantments main deck in the form of Pridemages, and could bring in Krosans post board. Also, even if they get a snuck in Emrakul, you can still come back and win, especially if you can keep/land a Knight, which will likely be huge. (Someone mentioned Thornscape Apprentice... this seems just terrible; I'd rather add Matsu-Tribe Sniper to the board if I were going that route.)

Omni-show is harder because one of your main answers, Karakas, is nullified if they land an Omniscience, and if you don't have a Thalia, Canonist, or Teeg, they can just win on the spot with Petals of Insight. So, they have a more varied arsenal. On the other hand, they are more likely to not have gas even if they land Omniscience, giving you more time to get Pridemage.

[Esper3k]

I like a lot of Jiaozy's analysis as well, but one thing is that without a tutor effect like SFM, having a singleton equipment like Lightning Greaves isn't really going to do much for you in the grand scheme of things since you're not going to ever consistently see it.

[Fatal]

Comments about upper analysis:

3 Caverns is too much - 2 perfect - actually I'm playing 7 fetchlands, 4 duals, 3 basics, 4 waste, 4 utility lands(all gives mana) this gives 23 lands total enough for thalia in play, enough for stifle proof, an more over enough to cast Swords to Plowshers before dying to flipped delver or having qasali/ooze/GSZ stucked in hand.

I avoid lands like Cradle where they are conditional advantage - it only gives a way to punish you double - resilent is a key here.

For sure O-rings should be in you additinal 15 sb case - OmniTell is real deal and you don't have to much ways to interact - non MD cards gives a trigger to have a time to answer S&T Omni.

I suggest to replace Needle to Revoker which can be protected - false protection like needle vs deck running decay's can be very painful - simply scenerio Deed on table - Needled - you put on more and more utility creatures then puff you lose bacause you thought u can ignore Deed, as for Nic Fit decks plainslwakers are needed specially Elspeth which gives a jump which was mention before.

I don't know how does Crypts helps against Canadian - for Mangoose ? Really better put Engineered Explosives which also helps against EtW which is your autolose. Good advice - 1 EE (works well against Miracle EtA, EtW, ******** too, I would put it even vs mirror to blow up opponent mom's, works well as aditional removal) and 1 E.Tutor instead of 2 Crypts - unless your meta is total infested by Dredge/Reanimator - On bigger tournaments you will face more diversity decks (specially in first rounds after byes), EE also can help against Affinity which can be very painful without Maze of Ith (Champion is a beast which can't be beaten.

[lordofthepit]

(Decklist)

I like your decklist, but not your stance with respect to the Swords.

The Swords of X and Y are only worth running if you're also running Stoneforge Mystic to tutor up the right equipment when you need it, and you shouldn't be running Stoneforge Mystic. If you are, however, SoLS is still much better than any non-Jitte piece of equipment you could be running (but you should just be running more Jittes).

That being said, no disagreements with your list whatsoever, since you don't run any Stoneforges or Swords of X and Y.

[kai_nsane]

You write a very good report, jiaozy!

I think 3 CoS are to much. 2 are perfect. If you cut one CoS you could add a SfM(+Lightning Greaves SB), MB Linvala or maybe Thrun.
Imo 23 lands are enough.

It's confusing. You wrote that players defending bad cards, like PtE, but add it to your SB. Could you explain that?
I would swap it against O-Ring. Removal for everything is better than PtE imo.

I like Fatals idea, with 1Etutor, 1Crypt, 1EE, and then maybe 1Needle and 2Revoker, because you can protect them with MoR or Sylvan Safekeeper.

I also miss a SB card against Storm Combo(or Elves). Why do you don't play Ethersworn Canonis (maybe also with Etutor)?

Are you able to explain the mu against goblins, merfolk and d&t with your decklist? The goblin mu is very important for me.

I very like your Deck! I'm going to test your Build.

[menace13]

Trying too hard.
I agree! Stupid card choices are RUINING!111 Mav. So...
Let's all play Greaves.

I mean, SoL&S has way less applications(no, really, I managed to keep a straight face on the entire time while writing this)

[door]

Today I split the finals in a 90-people tournament. I played maverick with aether vials. If anybody is interested I can post my list and pairings.

[Canes25]

Today I split the finals in a 90-people tournament. I played maverick with aether vials. If anybody is interested I can post my list and pairings.

Please do

[Jiaozy]

@all: in my list there's no space for the Greaves, but playing SFM at least as a 1of you can easily replace a Gaddock in the board with them.

Or pay 3 more mana for nothing relevant in the Miracle MUs (but you can't realize this without TESTING) :laugh::laugh: :laugh:
I think 3 CoS are to much. 2 are perfect. If you cut one CoS you could add a SfM(+Lightning Greaves SB), MB Linvala or maybe Thrun.
Imo 23 lands are enough.In this meta where Daze and Force are in basically each and every other deck in the T8s, 3 Caverns are a must, 2 might be okay if in your meta there's less Canadian, BUG, Miracle and Stoneblade but more Goblin, ANT and Mirror where Cavern isn't needed.
I had Linvala in the MD when the meta was Maverick + Canadian, but put it into the SB with the rise of Miracle.
I never really liked Thrun because on its own isn't spectacular, since Miracle can chump it or Terminus it away anyway.
It's confusing. You wrote that players defending bad cards, like PtE, but add it to your SB. Could you explain that?
I would swap it against O-Ring. Removal for everything is better than PtE imo.It's the MD Path to Exile that is stupid.
Unless you know 100% of your meta and make the choice because there's just mirror, Goblin and Canadian, then playing 5 STP MD is just useless.
In the SB it comes in handy against those matches, where cards like Thalia, Safekeeper or Qasali aren't stellar and you have to side them out and you need fast and cheap answers to Lackey, Delver or Mother of Runes.
I like Fatals idea, with 1Etutor, 1Crypt, 1EE, and then maybe 1Needle and 2Revoker, because you can protect them with MoR or Sylvan Safekeeper.I didn't even consider Revoker because without Mother or Safekeeper is even more fragile than Needle is.
Sure, Needle dies to Decay, but JUST THAT.
It survives Damnation, STP, Terminus, Ghastly Demise, Disfigure, Submerge, Liliana, Massacre, Darkblast and so on and so forth.

Needle on Deed is like Needle on Top in the UW MU, it just buys you time and you know it won't stay there forever but it'll hinder their Miracles just for a while because they'll eventually find a Disenchant for it or Brainstorm/Jace to put the Terminus on top and play it for :w:, but in the meantime you beat their faces and OBVIOUSLY don't overextend into a sweeper like you won't overextended into a Deed!
I also miss a SB card against Storm Combo(or Elves). Why do you don't play Ethersworn Canonis (maybe also with Etutor)?Usually if the meta has Slow Combo (S&T) there will hardly be any fast combo, otherwise they'd disappear because unable to race the fastest combo decks, so those two slots are for the combo MU of your choice, be it Elves/ANT (where Canonist is perfect) or S&T (like in my case, with ORing).
Are you able to explain the mu against goblins, merfolk and d&t with your decklist? The goblin mu is very important for me.Goblins are, as usual, extremely dependant on who's going first and how does it start.
If he's on the play and starts with a Lackey, you should avoid him conneting, be it by chumping with Hierarch/Mom or by StP, if you can't then you're in for a hard one, if, on the other hand, he starts with a Vial you're more than happy since it lets you another turn and another draw to find an answer or play a blocker for the Lackey.

Post SB you take out all the Thalia (they usually play 4 Vial and little else that's non-creature) and Safekeeper for Path to Exile, Needle to stop their Vials and Ports and let you play your game and Linvala to stop Krenko, Tinkerer, Sharpshooter and Siege-Gang Commander.

In this MU the old saying "Jitte wins alone" is as true as it might be.
I agree! Stupid card choices are RUINING!111 Mav. So...
Let's all play Greaves.

I mean, SoL&S has way less applications(no, really, I managed to keep a straight face on the entire time while writing this)Another reason why the deck is doing poorly.
People with no test, results nor any kind of knowledge of the deck, idea nor reasoning that spams the thread posting just because they have an account.

Go back playing Burn, kid.

You can be sarcastic as much as you want, but when your Gaddock will get killed in response to you spending FIVE mana, a SFM and 2 to 3 turns to protect him from STP and you'll lose the game, think about Greaves.

[Fatal]

One of the biggest mistake playing against Goblins on play - thinking you can chump Lackey - simply most time you can't - any good player will keep lackey+removal on play, you will get Gemplam/Weirding/Stingscourger - that's why some lists running additional removal.

Can you tell me where Linvala is good against Canadian ?

About Lightning Greaves haste is sometimes much better than you think :]

[Jiaozy]

One of the biggest mistake playing against Goblins on play - thinking you can chump Lackey - simply most time you can't - any good player will keep lackey+removal on play, you will get Gemplam/Weirding/Stingscourger - that's why some lists running additional removal.I know but it'd be FAR worse to let Lackey through to save your MoR or Hierarch and, if you don't have any StP you should just throw your little dude in front of it.
Can you tell me where Linvala is good against Canadian?It's not, why do you ask?

[menace13]

In this MU the old saying "Jitte wins alone" is as true as it might be. Another reason why the deck is doing poorly.
People with no test, results nor any kind of knowledge of the deck, idea nor reasoning that spams the thread posting just because they have an account.
I'm sure youre the only person in the world that tests. I mean, It totally isn't like you to say this 5 times on 1 page alone.....
I'm also sure your testing and results are the only things that are valid, ever. Because, you know, all dem results and stuff.


Go back playing Burn, kid...
Couldn't think of what I was going to do with my self any longer because I play burn. How did you tell? You're good. That must be it.


You can be sarcastic as much as you want, but when your Gaddock will get killed in response to you spending FIVE mana, a SFM and 2 to 3 turns to protect him from STP and you'll lose the game, think about Greaves.

Safekeeper.
Does everything you want from Greaves with added bonus of sometimes it's on turn 1, which Greaves will never be, also the whole Green Sun's thing. And instant speed, so, they can't Plow in response to Equip triggers. Also, Mom.

The other abilities of SoL&S out perform Greaves, by far. Recurring pridemage can be relevant, but mostly getting back a countered anything and dealing the 2 extra damage alone makes Greaves look silly. This is only for 1 Match Up, now consider all the other match ups where SoL&S>Greaves. It isn't even close.

Edit: May not have made myself clear amdist all that sarcasm.

Greaves doesn't have any better reason to be in the deck than the 5 protection creatures, which is after all what Greaves is going to do for the deck. And It is not better to have in play against Miracles than Swords of Light and Shadow because all the targeted removal is still targeted, attempting to equip Greaves doesn't change this. When either is equipped Sword also grants extra abilities(+2/2 is no small buff in a game of 20)

[Goosen]

Post SB you take out all the Thalia (they usually play 4 Vial and little else that's non-creature) and Safekeeper for Path to Exile...
I would not sb out Safekeeper vs Goblin atleist on the draw, becasue of Lackey.

You and I have a similar point off view on the deck. Back to basic with nothing fancy bad cards.

Only card I really disagree with you on is Tormod's Crypt.

"You'll love these against Canadian, but they're here for Reanimator, ANT and Dredge mostly."

I would never sb it in against Canadian. And of those 3 other decks only one is DTB, and thats ANT and here I would rather chose other cards. But in a big tournament is allways nice with some grave hat more then Ooze but I would chose 1 or 2 Surgical Extraction. Because of Show decks and ANT will sb in answer against permanents.

Regarding PtE I agree with you, no MD and 1 or 2 in SB.

[kai_nsane]

3 tormods crypt
1 bojuka bog
You'll love these against Canadian


Why? Because of Mongoose?

[Fatal]

I have next issue to resolve:

Scenerio BUG/Junk Middle-range:
It runs a lot of removal, also Pernicous Deeds (then good it seems less in play since Deathrite Shaman), but fast Liliana bacome more issue than many players thoughts.

If it cast in early turns it can be very devastating, if opponent cast it while you have only 1 creature in play, it's mean advantage on opponent side.

Actually I thinking about GSZ 1-of which can be cheap effective creature with haste additional it have to be handy in other MU.

Pool to tests:
Vengevine - good beater with useful ability, but seems rather poor actually since Shamans and Oozes are real deal, also cost 5 from Zenith which can be to late. Good side it can take off Jace.

Stangleroot Geist - looks quite well, cheap cost and can take off Liliana since turn 3. It also survive all black-based removal, bad site - it can't kill Jace with 3 counters.

Groundbreaker - 6/1 Trample is nice finisher but it dies at EOT so it doesn't give any advantage, useful only as additional dmg. Cost 4 from GSZ. Cost to cast can be sometimes an issue.

[door]

Please do

My list:

Maindeck

3 Birds of Paradise
4 Mother of Runes
4 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Weathered Wayfarer
3 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Scryb Ranger
1 Eternal Witness

4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Sylvan Library

4 AEther Vial

1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Umezawa's Jitte

1 Forest
2 Plains
4 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath
1 Flooded Strand
2 Horizon Canopy
3 Savannah
1 Rishadan Port
1 Karakas
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Maze of Ith
1 Bojuka Bog

Sideboard
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Krosan Grip
2 Gaddock Teeg
2 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Path to Exile
1 Crop Rotation
1 Eladamri's Call

I played against:

1: BUG Shardless agent 1-1
2: RUG Delver 2-0
3: Goblins 2-1
4: Elves 1-2
5: BG pox-like pernicious deed control 2-0
6: Dredge 2-1
7: BUG midrange 1-0
Top8: Legacy Jund with p-fire 2-1
Top4: Elves 2-1

I've been playing this list for 3 months, I like it more than zenith lists because of good % against miracles and easier games against combo-decks.

[Goosen]

Thanks for sharing!

But I would not consider that to be a Maverick with AV deck thou, more a Death and Taxes deck with green.

Off topic: I have been thinking about trying a DaT deck, I will consider your build aswell.

[Shawon]

I remember when Ajani, Caller of the Pride was spoiled in M13 this summer a lot of Maverick posters were excited about the card as they saw it as a cheaper and more aggressive planeswalker alternative to Elspeth, Knight-Errant.

Did the Maverick thread ever come to its own conclusion on Ajani? Is it too slow or are there simply better cards to be using (like Elspeth)? I did a 'Search Thread' of all posts mentioning Ajani 3.0 and most of the posts I saw were posted around the time Ajani was spoiled just mentioned a keen interest in testing the card, so I haven't seen anyone post any definitive thoughts on Ajani in Maverick.

I'm curious as to how people would evaluate Ajani 3.0 now in Maverick, as the deck is currently under renovations to strengthen its matchup against UW Miracles. I know that ideas of using Equipment and planeswalkers as strategies relying less heavily on actual creature cards have been spread around, so I figured I'd ask if Ajani would be a good planeswalker alternative to fighting Miracles.

[Lord_Mcdonalds]

He doesn't build a board state after a terminus like Garruk or Elspeth does, although he seems playable in a aggro matchup (mayhap the mirror?), the equipment are there to protect Gaddock Teeg.

[matunos]

He doesn't build a board state after a terminus like Garruk or Elspeth does, although he seems playable in a aggro matchup (mayhap the mirror?), the equipment are there to protect Gaddock Teeg.

Agreed... I've played with Ajani 3.0 a little bit in the deck and while he can blow out the opponent if you can jump and doublestrike a protected Knight, he is worse against Miracles than the other options (Elspeth and Garruk), because they can make tokens after a Terminus. Ajani's +1 is not much good when you're trying to recover, -3 is expensive to have to do more than once, and his ultimate just folds to a Terminus or Supreme Verdict (but honestly, you're not likely to ultimate with him).

[kohulk]

@Jiaozy

This is a nice repost, and although I agree with most parts, I have some questions? This is not to provoke you, I just would like you to clarify me some things.

1) Path to Exile... why you describe it as sub optimal and still use it on SB
2) Sylvan Safekeeper... I do think is a bad card vs Canadian cause of the Firespout/Pyroclasm they use. Also vs control is as useless and vs mirror is a bad Mother cause it doesn't give evasion. So its only use is vs Miracles, then why not just run another Teeg. He can be used also vs random storms or high tides. And Teeg also can attack (yes I attack with Teeg vs miracles, if its my only creature cause I want to put them on a clock and not just sit around and watch the turns go by) more effectively (2/2 vs 1/1).
3) Garruk vs Elspeth... well the damage between the two of them is not 2/2 wolves vs 1/1 soldiers. Actually on first attack is 2/2 wolf vs 4/4 soldier with fly. So Garruk is better only by Turn 4, cause the clock damage goes:
T1: 2 dam vs 4 dam
T2: 4 vs 4
T3: 6 vs 4
T4: 8 vs 4
And thats only if they don't play Snappies or Mystics.
I have played Garruk's ultimate only once, and that was vs mirror. Your point for using ultimate vs miracles only weakeness your arguement on playtesting cause of Rest in Peace. A discussion should be made if KoTR is still good vs this match up, cause usually is a 2/2 for 3cc.
Garruk is better only for mana issues. If you can play Elspeth (which is really difficult), she is better.
4) Tormod's Crypt... vs Canadian, really? I think only Bog to replace Karakas (I play 2 Karkas) is solid.
5) Pithing Needle... is it better than Phyrexian Revoker? Especially against miracles, you side in needles (that don't attck), sylvan safekeeper (that attacks for 1 dam), Teegs (people say that he doesn'r att). So that clock seems really slow. And one more thing... Miracles, and control, play disenchant (that is the reason I believe mystic package is bad ). At least revoker will deal some damage, needle will just sit their. My arguement is that if you side in artifacts and want to make those 2 disenchants relevant, at least try to gain something.

[useL]

words

Path to Exile is fine in the board, because it is worse than Swords to Plowshares but still needed vs tribal.

Sylvan Safekeeper is alot better than Mother of Runes in all matchups where spot removal is relevant (70% of all decks), if you dont know why, try playing it a bit. Against Miracles a Teeg with Sylvan Safekeeper out is a WON GAME. And they can both be found with zenith. I dont get it, stop arguing, start playing it.

Attacking with Teeg into U/W without protection seems ... I dont know, this just makes me not want to continue this post.

[Jiaozy]

@Jiaozy

This is a nice repost, and although I agree with most parts, I have some questions? This is not to provoke you, I just would like you to clarify me some things.No problems, I'm more than willing to share and help!
I already addressed some of your concern in my previous posts :smile:
1) Path to Exile... why you describe it as sub optimal and still use it on SB
It's the MD Path to Exile that is stupid.
Unless you know 100% of your meta and make the choice because there's just mirror, Goblin and Canadian, then playing 5 STP MD is just useless.
In the SB it comes in handy against those matches, where cards like Thalia, Safekeeper or Qasali aren't stellar and you have to side them out and you need fast and cheap answers to Lackey, Delver or Mother of Runes.
2) Sylvan Safekeeper... I do think is a bad card vs Canadian cause of the Firespout/Pyroclasm they use.
1 Sylvan Safekeeper
You surely DO NOT want this in the Canadian MU because saccing lands against a mana denial deck = bad.
Also vs control is as useless and vs mirror is a bad Mother cause it doesn't give evasion. So its only use is vs Miracles, then why not just run another Teeg. He can be used also vs random storms or high tides. And Teeg also can attack (yes I attack with Teeg vs miracles, if its my only creature cause I want to put them on a clock and not just sit around and watch the turns go by) more effectively (2/2 vs 1/1).Safekeeper is godly against Miracle because you can fetch both it and Gaddock with Zenith and start protecting the Teeg right away, with no need to wait for summoning sickness to go away.
Against other decks like BUG, Rock and the mirror, he's pretty good MD because it's an additional answer to Pulse, Demise, StP, Vindicate, Decay and all the spot removal that's heavily played in all MDs.
Post SB it might come out, but in this meta its pretty sick.

Attacking with Teeg against Miracle?
REALLY?
You know that they can flash in a Snapcaster or Vendilion, kill him and nuke your board with just 3 to 4 mana on your turn if you do so, right?
Having Teeg + Safekeeper means they can't StP him as long as you have lands in play and as long as you have lands in play they can't cast Miracles and you're in a winning position, why would you wanto to try and lose when they have NO END GAME?
No Jace, no Terminus, no Supreme Verdict, no Elspeth, no Entreat and yet you want to try and lose by unlocking half their deck by attacking?
3) Garruk vs Elspeth... well the damage between the two of them is not 2/2 wolves vs 1/1 soldiers. Actually on first attack is 2/2 wolf vs 4/4 soldier with fly. So Garruk is better only by Turn 4, cause the clock damage goes:
T1: 2 dam vs 4 dam
T2: 4 vs 4
T3: 6 vs 4
T4: 8 vs 4
And thats only if they don't play Snappies or Mystics.That is assuming they don't have any kind of removal, either.
Because a single StP on you lone creature you tried to pump would bring the damage race to:
T1: 0 VS 0
T2: 2 VS 0
T3: 6 VS 4
T4: 12 VS 8
That's not taking into account cards like Sulfur Elemental and Dread of Night that already annihilate half you deck, so why add even more cards that are susceptible to that hate, when you have other cards that are just as good if not better.
I have played Garruk's ultimate only once, and that was vs mirror. Your point for using ultimate vs miracles only weakeness your arguement on playtesting cause of Rest in Peace. A discussion should be made if KoTR is still good vs this match up, cause usually is a 2/2 for 3cc.
Garruk is better only for mana issues. If you can play Elspeth (which is really difficult), she is better.It must be the Miracle player that's doing something wrong because the thing the have to answer is GADDOCK, not your Graveyard.
I'm not really sure why any sub par and above Miracle player would side in Rest in Peace against Maverick when all they need is an answer to Gaddock that bypasses Sylvan Safekeeper.
4) Tormod's Crypt... vs Canadian, really? I think only Bog to replace Karakas (I play 2 Karkas) is solid.You have cards that are terrible to side out in this MU (Qasali, Safekeeper and Garruk) and keeping their threat at 1/1, avoiding Ancient Grudge's flashback and shrinking an ealry Goyf is much better, from what I've seen, than playing vanilla 1/1s and 2/2s.
5) Pithing Needle... is it better than Phyrexian Revoker?Yes, yes it is.
A LOT better.
Especially against miracles, you side in needles (that don't attck), sylvan safekeeper (that attacks for 1 dam), Teegs (people say that he doesn'r att). So that clock seems really slow. And one more thing... Miracles, and control, play disenchant (that is the reason I believe mystic package is bad ). At least revoker will deal some damage, needle will just sit their. My arguement is that if you side in artifacts and want to make those 2 disenchants relevant, at least try to gain something.The point is that if they take out Needle, my Jitte or Libraries are out of danger!

Also, why would you want a fast clock when all you need is Teeg + protection to lock them out of the game?
Once you have a Teeg that is protected from StP they CANNOT win in any way nor remove your board and you're free to land all the Knights you want to win in a couple of swings, assuming you're up against a good player that won't side in RiP against you because it does next to nothing and Grafdigger is more relevant against you.
Even without a 10/10 knight, you're still playing 6 exalteds they CANNOT remove and once you have 2 or 3 you can swing with little dudes for 4-5 damge and win in 4-5 turns.

Side note, you SHOULD NOT evaluate cards based on what might or might not your opponent play, because saying that SfM package is bad because of Disenchant is like saying that Knight of the Reliquary is bad because of Swords to Plowshares or Force of Will is bad because of Abrupt Decay: senseless.

[Lord_Mcdonalds]

That's not taking into account cards like Sulfur Elemental and Dread of Night that already annihilate half you deck, so why add even more cards that are susceptible to that hate, when you have other cards that are just as good if not better.It must be the Miracle player that's doing something wrong because the thing the have to answer is GADDOCK, not your Graveyard.

Most of the decks packing dread of night tend to be combo decks that you'd board planeswalkers out against anyways, just sayin :P

The decks playing Sulfur Elemental (RUG/UR and apparently Miracles :really:), resolving a walker period is good, be it elspeth or garruk, as they have few options of killing a walker through our creatures.

Other than that, your analysis is pretty on the dot

[kohulk]

@Jiaozy

Thx for the reply, it was detailed with good arguements. I will try the sylvan safekeeper but as I understand we are basically on different paths on the miracle game. I'm trying to put them on a clock, when you are trying to make a solid board state. Just keep in mind in your future tournaments that todays UWmiracles use detention spheres and baneslayer angels. They have adapted to Teeg much more than this thread gives credit.
Also no UWmiracles is playing Sulfur Elemental or Dread of Night. I'm just saying that Garruk, first turn brings a 2/2 wolf, when Elspeth improves your clock by far. I feel better seeing this match as a race than "cancel your play-style" and thats why certain builts differ.

[Koby]

@Jiaozy

Thx for the reply, it was detailed with good arguements. I will try the sylvan safekeeper but as I understand we are basically on different paths on the miracle game. I'm trying to put them on a clock, when you are trying to make a solid board state. Just keep in mind in your future tournaments that todays UWmiracles use detention spheres and baneslayer angels. They have adapted to Teeg much more than this thread gives credit.
Also no UWmiracles is playing Sulfur Elemental or Dread of Night. I'm just saying that Garruk, first turn brings a 2/2 wolf, when Elspeth improves your clock by far. I feel better seeing this match as a race than "cancel your play-style" and thats why certain builts differ.

Detention Sphere is just as easily negated by Sylvan Safekeeper as well as Mother of Runes (not to mention Karakas).
Baneslayer Angel can also be beaten using Maze of Ith, however I tend to board that out in this matchup. BSA is definitely a trump for Miracles here.

[kohulk]

"Detention Sphere is just as easily negated by Sylvan Safekeeper as well as Mother of Runes"
--> Yes I know, I'm just saying this to emphasize that they bring more spot removal (for mothers, safekeeper and lonely teeg), that is also good against needles.

"Baneslayer Angel can also be beaten using Maze of Ith"
--> Yes, but as you said people tend to bring Maze out (or not playing at all in MB), so we should keep that in mind for G2/G3. Also Baneslayer nulifies the "can't win" arguement when Teeg+MoR are in play. They can win and really fast actually.

[Koby]

Planeswalkers don't help much against BSA too, so I'm not sure what argument you're making by mentioning it. The best way to beat Angel is STP, and that's clearly not the best way to beat the matchup.

Here's an interesting suggestion against Miracles - Luminarch Ascension. Thoughts?

[Philipp2293]

That's an interesting suggestion, the problem I see is that they often bring in Disenchant effects in anticipation of Library/Choke anyway, plus many Miracle decks have EE somewhere in their 75.

Compared to Walkers the Ascension is way easier to handle and does not put immediate pressure on the opponent. Upside is that it is easier to cast under Thalia and castable under Teeg. If testing proves positive I could see 1-2 pieces in addition to Walkers in the SB in the right meta, but not over them. I currently have a flex slot in my SB (Crucible in my last tournament), so I might give it a try.

As far as Maze of Ith is concerned: I run one in the SB, and one of the Main reasons I do so is that I can board out all my removal vs Control and still not be totally fucked by a random Manplan from their SB or an unexpected aggresive Stoneforge Mystic draw.

[sdematt]

But it's not like they're bringing in more than two Disenchants. If they get your Luminarch with a Disenchant, then they're not getting your Sylvan Library or something.

Also, I just want to raise the point that Deathrite Shaman is very good if anyone is willing to come to the dark side of Maverick (Junk). We have Abrupt Decay! :cool:

-Matt

[kohulk]

@Koby
"Planeswalkers don't help much against BSA too, so I'm not sure what argument you're making by mentioning it. The best way to beat Angel is STP, and that's clearly not the best way to beat the matchup."

-->Plz don't twist what I write. Lets make it a positive discussion than try to find who is right and who is wrong. The BSA plan is something that UWmiracles use (and nobody have said it until now), so keeping the Maze of Ith (or even adding it back, from those who cut it) is something to consider.
-->Food for thought... If we play 2/3PWs, 2 Sylvan Libraries, 1BoP+3Hierarchs, 1 Sylvan Safekeepers (don't att cause of snappy+Clique arguement), 2/3 Teegs (same), 4 MoR (same), 3 Needles then how terrible Terminus actually is? We are talking about 50% of our deck irrelevant to it.

@sdematt
Can you plz post a list or send it to my email (kohulk@hotmail.com). I also like Deathrite Shaman, but have found that Junk weakens Thalia.

[Goosen]

Regarding BSA, you can beat it with Mother of Runes and Scryb Ranger.

[dunk]

Regarding BSA, you can beat it with Mother of Runes and Scryb Ranger.

Or you just keep in 2-3 Swords to Plowshares, which is acceptable if you think that they might board in some kind of creature ( Clique, Sulfur Elemental, Baneslayer ). Otherwise there is still the manadenial plan with Wasteland and Choke / Armageddon / Tsunami which should prevent UW from getting to 5 mana.

Conclusion: There are many ways to deal with Banslayer angel, but not so many to deal with mass removal. Better focus on that before you come up with some kind of weird plan to beat a possible Baneslayer.

[Ecstatic_Conch]

What advice would you give to a maverick player like me who operates in a meta game where combo runs rampant? Belcher, storm, enchantress, elves, and sneak and show are just a few of the decks in my meta. My record is pretty abysmal, and I'm so desperate I'm even thinking of adding glowriders to my main. I'm not sure if that would help enough, especially since it costs 3 and would likely come down too late. Would aven mindcensor help me out at all? Oh, and if that wasn't bad enough, there's at least two people that play U/W miracles too. My mainboard is pretty standard fare, but I'm still running the slow stoneforge package with sword of fire and ice + sword of light and shadow. My sideboard looks something like this:

1 Bojuka Bog
3 Path to Exile (likely should be oblivion ring)
3 Faerie Macabre
2 Gaddock Teeg
2 Armageddon
2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence

What can I do to improve my match-ups against the decks I've mentioned? Is it a lost cause?

[KobeBryan]

What advice would you give to a maverick player like me who operates in a meta game where combo runs rampant? Belcher, storm, enchantress, elves, and sneak and show are just a few of the decks in my meta. My record is pretty abysmal, and I'm so desperate I'm even thinking of adding glowriders to my main. I'm not sure if that would help enough, especially since it costs 3 and would likely come down too late. Would aven mindcensor help me out at all? Oh, and if that wasn't bad enough, there's at least two people that play U/W miracles too. My mainboard is pretty standard fare, but I'm still running the slow stoneforge package with sword of fire and ice + sword of light and shadow. My sideboard looks something like this:

1 Bojuka Bog
3 Path to Exile (likely should be oblivion ring)
3 Faerie Macabre
2 Gaddock Teeg
2 Armageddon
2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence

What can I do to improve my match-ups against the decks I've mentioned? Is it a lost cause?

Don't play maverick.

And why are you playing armageddon???.

[Canes25]

What advice would you give to a maverick player like me who operates in a meta game where combo runs rampant? Belcher, storm, enchantress, elves, and sneak and show are just a few of the decks in my meta. My record is pretty abysmal, and I'm so desperate I'm even thinking of adding glowriders to my main. I'm not sure if that would help enough, especially since it costs 3 and would likely come down too late. Would aven mindcensor help me out at all? Oh, and if that wasn't bad enough, there's at least two people that play U/W miracles too. My mainboard is pretty standard fare, but I'm still running the slow stoneforge package with sword of fire and ice + sword of light and shadow. My sideboard looks something like this:

1 Bojuka Bog
3 Path to Exile (likely should be oblivion ring)
3 Faerie Macabre
2 Gaddock Teeg
2 Armageddon
2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence

What can I do to improve my match-ups against the decks I've mentioned? Is it a lost cause?

The easy response to your question would be don't play maverick, which I think is also a cowardly response that does absolutely nothing to help you out or improve the deck overall and in your meta game. Playing glowrider isnt going to get it done and if you feel it is too slow at 3 mana then aven mindcensor is also going to be too slow at 3 mana. Being in such a combo heavy meta i do think the stroneforge package is way to slow. Without seeing your maindeck its tough to say what i would personally change but i would probably start by adding a Teeg. Belcher is going to be a tough match up no matter what cards you put in the sideboard and i think that is an accepted fact as maverick players. I would recommend at least 2 of those path to exiles become oblivion ring like you pointed out to help out vs show and tell they could also be decent vs miracles and maybe enchantress which i admittedly dont have much experience playing against. Storm is going to be tough as well but could be helped by possibly playing mindbreak traps which would also help vs belcher. You dont mention any graveyard based decks you could potentially replace the macabres with silence which would help with miracles, storm, and belcher on the play at least. Cannonist, Linvala and Jitte are all good vs elves along with the spot removal and more copies of any of those would help out. I think Armageddon is a fine card vs miracles and maybe even enchantress but like i said i have no experience playing against that deck so i could be totally wrong on that.

[KobeBryan]

The easy response to your question would be don't play maverick, which I think is also a cowardly response that does absolutely nothing to help you out or improve the deck overall and in your meta game. Playing glowrider isnt going to get it done and if you feel it is too slow at 3 mana then aven mindcensor is also going to be too slow at 3 mana. Being in such a combo heavy meta i do think the stroneforge package is way to slow. Without seeing your maindeck its tough to say what i would personally change but i would probably start by adding a Teeg. Belcher is going to be a tough match up no matter what cards you put in the sideboard and i think that is an accepted fact as maverick players. I would recommend at least 2 of those path to exiles become oblivion ring like you pointed out to help out vs show and tell they could also be decent vs miracles and maybe enchantress which i admittedly dont have much experience playing against. Storm is going to be tough as well but could be helped by possibly playing mindbreak traps which would also help vs belcher. You dont mention any graveyard based decks you could potentially replace the macabres with silence which would help with miracles, storm, and belcher on the play at least. Cannonist, Linvala and Jitte are all good vs elves along with the spot removal and more copies of any of those would help out. I think Armageddon is a fine card vs miracles and maybe even enchantress but like i said i have no experience playing against that deck so i could be totally wrong on that.

Its not really a coward's response to say play another deck. One of the fundamentals of tournament play is to play the meta and adapt.

Some decks typically fall out of flavor because of the meta, i.e. merfolk goblins. But when certain decks come back, other decks also make a resurgence.

The rock, paper, scissor rule still applies regardless.

[Canes25]

Its not really a coward's response to say play another deck. One of the fundamentals of tournament play is to play the meta and adapt.

Some decks typically fall out of flavor because of the meta, i.e. merfolk goblins. But when certain decks come back, other decks also make a resurgence.

The rock, paper, scissor rule still applies regardless.


The individual is on a maverick thread asking for sideboard help of a maverick deck. To me that means they obviously intend to play maverick. So instead of insulting their intelligence and giving them the generic answer of "play another deck" which I'm sure they could have figured out on their own as being the easiest way to gain a better match up vs the said decks. I couldn't agree more playing that meta and adapting is a fundamental of tournament play and that's exactly what they were asking for was ways to adapt their maverick deck for the meta. Maybe cowardly was the wrong word to use and instead I should have said instead of offering a generic useless answer such as "play another deck" offer them some constructive advice since the specifically asked on how to improve their maverick deck for that meta. As an avid maverick player I would just like to see more constructive comments on the thread to help the deck be as successful as possible and not rely on the excuse of a tough meta so just put the deck on the shelf. Lets help the deck ADAPT and prosper for the players who do want to play it.

[Fatal]

You can rebuild your sideboard:

VS Belcher - EE/Phyrexian Revoker/Mindbreak Trap
VS Elves - more Jitte/CotV/Linvala/Ethersworn Canonist/Phyrexian Revoker
VS Storm - Mindbreak Trap/CotV/Gaddock
VS Enchantress - Tranquil Grove/Ethersworn Canonist

Pack E.Tutor to maximize your sideboard slots and those MU should be emproved.

Example:
SB
1 EE
2 E.Tutor
3 Mindbreak Trap/Chalice of the Void
1 Tranquil Grove
3 Oblivion Ring
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Gaddock Teeg
3 other slots

[Jiaozy]

What can I do to improve my match-ups against the decks I've mentioned? Is it a lost cause?To me, it indeed is a lost cause.
Maverick isn't equipped to win enough games in such a meta to be a good choice.
The individual is on a maverick thread asking for sideboard help of a maverick deck.To me, it sounds like he was asking if there's any hope or is, as he asked, a lost cause.

I can't think of a worse idea than playing Maverick in a meta filled with combo and Miracle, it's just a waste of money and time to play a tournament with Maverick in those conditions.

In a regular meta you could hope to avoid the few combo decks or win a match by lucksacking, but it's not an option for him.

Playing your pet deck no matter what means you're not playing to win, shifting to Rock is an easy task and that deck has a FAR better combo MU.

[crow_mw]

Back in the days of Survival people in meta like this would add Black for discard and Pernicious Deed. It is really a heartbreaking decision as you need to cut some of the cool cards you have learned to love. For instance GBW Survivals would cut Moms and rely on discard to protect their critters. On top of that it is still not an auto-win and you will loose games, but at the very least you are not sitting there without any interaction with the combo player.

Sadly I don't think that splashing black would allow for good Zenith targets (but I am not too up to date in that regard), but I guess you could also use Abrupt Decay. Note also, that adding the discard package makes this deck much harder to pilot.

[conley1000000]

What advice would you give to a maverick player like me who operates in a meta game where combo runs rampant? Belcher, storm, enchantress, elves, and sneak and show are just a few of the decks in my meta. My record is pretty abysmal, and I'm so desperate I'm even thinking of adding glowriders to my main. I'm not sure if that would help enough, especially since it costs 3 and would likely come down too late. Would aven mindcensor help me out at all? Oh, and if that wasn't bad enough, there's at least two people that play U/W miracles too. My mainboard is pretty standard fare, but I'm still running the slow stoneforge package with sword of fire and ice + sword of light and shadow. My sideboard looks something like this:

1 Bojuka Bog
3 Path to Exile (likely should be oblivion ring)
3 Faerie Macabre
2 Gaddock Teeg
2 Armageddon
2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence

What can I do to improve my match-ups against the decks I've mentioned? Is it a lost cause?

Here's what I would do. Sit down and make a list of each deck in your meta and how many of each. Then retool your 75 to give yourself the best chance to fight your meta. Could be you just need to rearrange some cards, change numbers and strengthen your sb. I've played in a combo rich meta for awhile and haven't done too bad. The best thing about maverick is it is super reliable and punishes variance quite well. Sure your not going to beat combo's god hands but you can set yourself up to make sure there punished if they don't get it. As for some card ideas I would say Pithing Needle and oring are a good place to start. Make sure you have 4 Thalia main. I personally think the number one thing to do is make sure you keep it to where you are comfortable playing the card choices. If you like the sfm package then I recommend cutting the fire and ice for Jitte main.

[defector]

I've been tooling with this in an effort to keep Mav going. I feel like the meta is turning away from Mav, but there may be a list that can survive. I think if the recent SCG is any clue of where the meta is headed than BUG and Miracles are going to be driving a lot of the action. Combo will probably be limited to dredge and some version of a SnT deck. If BUG and Miracles become prominet I think they create space for Goblins and Merfok to become relevant again.(Goblins has been, I mean more positive trends for Fish). RUG is declining as well and that's a trend I expect to continue as cards like Deathrite Shaman really make playing that deck miserable. I'm expecting to take a BUG deck to Denver, but I love Mav so here is another effort for this fine, fair deck.

Mav

Lands-23-
Wasteland X4
Windswept Heath X4
Wooded Foothills X2
Savannah X4
Cavern of Souls X3
Gaea's Cradle X1
Karakas X1
Dryad Arbor X1
Forest X1
Plains X2

Artifacts-2-
Sword of Light and Shadow X1
Sword of War and Peace X1

Green-17-
Noble Hierarch X4
Green Sun's Zenith X4
Fauna Shaman X3
Scavenging ooze X2
Sylvan Library X2
Garruk Relentless X1
Scryb Ranger X1

White-11-
Mother of Runes X4
Swords to Plowshares X4
Loyal Retainers X1
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite X1
Elspeth, Knight Errant x1

Gold-7-
Knight of the Reliquary X4
Qasali Pridemage X2
Gaddock Teeg X1

Sideboard-15-
Oblivion Ring X4
Choke X3
Path to Exile X2
Gaddock Teeg X2
Surgical Extraction X1
Crop Rotation X1
Bojuka Bog X1
Linvalla, Keeper of Silence X1

This might be a good version of Mav for the anticipated meta. Thalia in my opinion is one of the reasons mav is declining. She adds to the density of both legendary and one toughness creatures and the amount of drag she creates isn't enough to go with the small clock she provides. As the meta shifts towards miracles, esper and BUG I think the combo decks will decline, in particular the kind of combo we hate, belcher, rapid glass cannon combo decks cant survive with so much blue. I like the Elesh/Retainer package, it makes us a combo deck against all the other aggro decks. We beat Goblins and Merfolk handily with this suite. Elesh is hardcastable with Cradle and she kills everything we dont like.

With the two swords that are pro white, 2 sylvan, one teeg, two planeswalkers main deck we can hang with Miracles game one and then bring in additional Teegs g2 along with choke.

The four O rings are for snt, I expect that to be the dominant combo deck of the next few months and it's a tough one for us, so hopefully O rings and some Karakas/Rotation can get us there. At least we are in it. I am personally 3-0 vs SnT in SCG's with some version of this. I know it's over dedicating, but I trust Mav to just be in it with most match ups, so I overcommit to shoring up weaknesses.

The list still beats RUG and it does OK versus Dredge, all those Teegs stop dread return though dredge can be too fast to care about it. Same goes for storm. The deck beats elves and loses hard to High Tide and Enchantress.

The deck still beats Stoneblade though it's close.

Anyway, I have tested some, but not so much that I feel 100% in any of my assertions. This is just one way that I feel a successful mav strategy could look in a Miracles, BUG driven metagame.

cheers,
defector

[door]

I've been tooling with this in an effort to keep Mav going. I feel like the meta is turning away from Mav, but there may be a list that can survive. I think if the recent SCG is any clue of where the meta is headed than BUG and Miracles are going to be driving a lot of the action. Combo will probably be limited to dredge and some version of a SnT deck. If BUG and Miracles become prominet I think they create space for Goblins and Merfok to become relevant again.(Goblins has been, I mean more positive trends for Fish). RUG is declining as well and that's a trend I expect to continue as cards like Deathrite Shaman really make playing that deck miserable. I'm expecting to take a BUG deck to Denver, but I love Mav so here is another effort for this fine, fair deck.

Mav

Lands-23-
Wasteland X4
Windswept Heath X4
Wooded Foothills X2
Savannah X4
Cavern of Souls X3
Gaea's Cradle X1
Karakas X1
Dryad Arbor X1
Forest X1
Plains X2

Artifacts-2-
Sword of Light and Shadow X1
Sword of War and Peace X1

Green-17-
Noble Hierarch X4
Green Sun's Zenith X4
Fauna Shaman X3
Scavenging ooze X2
Sylvan Library X2
Garruk Relentless X1
Scryb Ranger X1

White-11-
Mother of Runes X4
Swords to Plowshares X4
Loyal Retainers X1
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite X1
Elspeth, Knight Errant x1

Gold-7-
Knight of the Reliquary X4
Qasali Pridemage X2
Gaddock Teeg X1

Sideboard-15-
Oblivion Ring X4
Choke X3
Path to Exile X2
Gaddock Teeg X2
Surgical Extraction X1
Crop Rotation X1
Bojuka Bog X1
Linvalla, Keeper of Silence X1

This might be a good version of Mav for the anticipated meta. Thalia in my opinion is one of the reasons mav is declining. She adds to the density of both legendary and one toughness creatures and the amount of drag she creates isn't enough to go with the small clock she provides. As the meta shifts towards miracles, esper and BUG I think the combo decks will decline, in particular the kind of combo we hate, belcher, rapid glass cannon combo decks cant survive with so much blue. I like the Elesh/Retainer package, it makes us a combo deck against all the other aggro decks. We beat Goblins and Merfolk handily with this suite. Elesh is hardcastable with Cradle and she kills everything we dont like.

With the two swords that are pro white, 2 sylvan, one teeg, two planeswalkers main deck we can hang with Miracles game one and then bring in additional Teegs g2 along with choke.

The four O rings are for snt, I expect that to be the dominant combo deck of the next few months and it's a tough one for us, so hopefully O rings and some Karakas/Rotation can get us there. At least we are in it. I am personally 3-0 vs SnT in SCG's with some version of this. I know it's over dedicating, but I trust Mav to just be in it with most match ups, so I overcommit to shoring up weaknesses.

The list still beats RUG and it does OK versus Dredge, all those Teegs stop dread return though dredge can be too fast to care about it. Same goes for storm. The deck beats elves and loses hard to High Tide and Enchantress.

The deck still beats Stoneblade though it's close.

Anyway, I have tested some, but not so much that I feel 100% in any of my assertions. This is just one way that I feel a successful mav strategy could look in a Miracles, BUG driven metagame.

cheers,
defector

elesh norn-reatiners package is good only in maverick-infested meta. You can win against goblins and merfolks easily without it. Play Thalia. At least 2 if you don't like its legendarity. It buys turns against miralces in early game and does things against bug. Don't play RW sword, it does nothing. If you want 2 swords with pro-white put the second light and shadow. And where is jitte?

[defector]

The Fauna Shaman might not be correct, I just like having a 7 CMC beater with all the AD running around. I don't like Jitte right now. It's a great card, but it doesn't seem to help any of our difficult match ups at all. I think its win more or irrelavant by and large in the current meta. The turns that Thalia gets us versus Miracles don't seem relevant to winning the mu. Terminus for 1W is still a bargain. Jace for 3UU on an empty board is still a bargain. I really hate her now, and maybe I am wrong, but it seems like the Thalia driven Mav decks just become more and more tier 2. i could see cutting the SoWaP for a SoLaS, but punishing control decks for their hands isn't terrible. I don't know. It feels like Mav just doesn't face teh current meta very well right now and what can be done to make it?

[KobeBryan]

I've been tooling with this in an effort to keep Mav going. I feel like the meta is turning away from Mav, but there may be a list that can survive. I think if the recent SCG is any clue of where the meta is headed than BUG and Miracles are going to be driving a lot of the action. Combo will probably be limited to dredge and some version of a SnT deck. If BUG and Miracles become prominet I think they create space for Goblins and Merfok to become relevant again.(Goblins has been, I mean more positive trends for Fish). RUG is declining as well and that's a trend I expect to continue as cards like Deathrite Shaman really make playing that deck miserable. I'm expecting to take a BUG deck to Denver, but I love Mav so here is another effort for this fine, fair deck.

Mav

Lands-23-
Wasteland X4
Windswept Heath X4
Wooded Foothills X2
Savannah X4
Cavern of Souls X3
Gaea's Cradle X1
Karakas X1
Dryad Arbor X1
Forest X1
Plains X2

Artifacts-2-
Sword of Light and Shadow X1
Sword of War and Peace X1

Green-17-
Noble Hierarch X4
Green Sun's Zenith X4
Fauna Shaman X3
Scavenging ooze X2
Sylvan Library X2
Garruk Relentless X1
Scryb Ranger X1

White-11-
Mother of Runes X4
Swords to Plowshares X4
Loyal Retainers X1
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite X1
Elspeth, Knight Errant x1

Gold-7-
Knight of the Reliquary X4
Qasali Pridemage X2
Gaddock Teeg X1

Sideboard-15-
Oblivion Ring X4
Choke X3
Path to Exile X2
Gaddock Teeg X2
Surgical Extraction X1
Crop Rotation X1
Bojuka Bog X1
Linvalla, Keeper of Silence X1

This might be a good version of Mav for the anticipated meta. Thalia in my opinion is one of the reasons mav is declining. She adds to the density of both legendary and one toughness creatures and the amount of drag she creates isn't enough to go with the small clock she provides. As the meta shifts towards miracles, esper and BUG I think the combo decks will decline, in particular the kind of combo we hate, belcher, rapid glass cannon combo decks cant survive with so much blue. I like the Elesh/Retainer package, it makes us a combo deck against all the other aggro decks. We beat Goblins and Merfolk handily with this suite. Elesh is hardcastable with Cradle and she kills everything we dont like.

With the two swords that are pro white, 2 sylvan, one teeg, two planeswalkers main deck we can hang with Miracles game one and then bring in additional Teegs g2 along with choke.

The four O rings are for snt, I expect that to be the dominant combo deck of the next few months and it's a tough one for us, so hopefully O rings and some Karakas/Rotation can get us there. At least we are in it. I am personally 3-0 vs SnT in SCG's with some version of this. I know it's over dedicating, but I trust Mav to just be in it with most match ups, so I overcommit to shoring up weaknesses.

The list still beats RUG and it does OK versus Dredge, all those Teegs stop dread return though dredge can be too fast to care about it. Same goes for storm. The deck beats elves and loses hard to High Tide and Enchantress.

The deck still beats Stoneblade though it's close.

Anyway, I have tested some, but not so much that I feel 100% in any of my assertions. This is just one way that I feel a successful mav strategy could look in a Miracles, BUG driven metagame.

cheers,
defector

I don't get how this deck is good against miracles. Please explain.

[Canes25]

The Fauna Shaman might not be correct, I just like having a 7 CMC beater with all the AD running around. I don't like Jitte right now. It's a great card, but it doesn't seem to help any of our difficult match ups at all. I think its win more or irrelavant by and large in the current meta. The turns that Thalia gets us versus Miracles don't seem relevant to winning the mu. Terminus for 1W is still a bargain. Jace for 3UU on an empty board is still a bargain. I really hate her now, and maybe I am wrong, but it seems like the Thalia driven Mav decks just become more and more tier 2. i could see cutting the SoWaP for a SoLaS, but punishing control decks for their hands isn't terrible. I don't know. It feels like Mav just doesn't face teh current meta very well right now and what can be done to make it?

I have to agree I do not think the fauna shaman retainers package is correct for this meta. Thalia is not going to out right win the match up but she is part of the plan to make things harder on them along with our other disruption such as choke, wasteland, armageddon, pithing needle, phyrexian revoker or whatever particular card that is used for the match up. Sticking and protecting a Teeg with mother, safekeeper, or a pro white sword is going to be our best line to victory I believe. Sword of Light and shadow is obviously good vs. miracle and stoneblade decks. I have never played a sword of war and peace so I can not speak to its effectivness. I do agree it does seem kind of limited but at the same time vs a deck such as miracles or stoneblade where the primary removal is white and they like to have a grip full of cards I could possibly see its merits with adding a significant amount of pressure for a low investment cost. Having never played it in a sanctioned match or testing session I wont discount it or sing its praises though.

[defector]

My reasoning with the elesh package is that it beats all the other aggro decks as well as elves, i didnt put it in for miracles mu specifically. The teeg, sylvan library, pw, and swords(all im really focusing on is pro white) are for the miracles mu. Sylvan is the best card we can play to punish opposing stp. I think the five slots in the retainer package are flex slots. I think the sylvans, pw, and some mix of pro white effects and teeg are paramount for this deck to survive as the meta turns over into a miracles/bug driven meta. I think if mav is going to stay relevant its going to need a serious retooling. How thats going to end up looking is hard to guess. I think nothing is sacred though and everything needs to be evaluated. The meta is still murky too once the dust settles we'll have a better picture.

[defector]

The decline continues: http://www.mtgtop8.com/format?f=LE. Now Goblins is a more successful tourney deck than Mav.

[Lord_Mcdonalds]

The decline continues: http://www.mtgtop8.com/format?f=LE. Now Goblins is a more successful tourney deck than Mav.

Thanks for stating the obvious, want a cookie?

[defector]

No need to be a cunt about it. The facts are facts. The archetype is in big trouble. I think it's just one of the downsides of not running blue, you end up with less inherent flexibility to change. I'd like to see a way to save it, but I don't know what it will take. Maybe we're waiting on a new card, some Human that can give the list the flexibility to get back on top. Hard to say, but so far no one seems able to sort it out.

[Lord_Mcdonalds]

No need to be a cunt about it. The facts are facts. The archetype is in big trouble. I think it's just one of the downsides of not running blue, you end up with less inherent flexibility to change. I'd like to see a way to save it, but I don't know what it will take. Maybe we're waiting on a new card, some Human that can give the list the flexibility to get back on top. Hard to say, but so far no one seems able to sort it out.

I would disagree with the lack of flexibillity, Maverick, unlike most decks in the format, doesn't really have a clearly defined core, other than Mother of Runes, it's a jack of all trades, it can play control, it can play aggro, it's problem is that when faced with a linear aggro/combo/control deck, it's answers just simply aren't enough at times or they are too slow, we can beat miracles, no one really is ever going to dispute that, the problem is, getting gaddock teeg + protection is both a) difficult and b) slow.

I do agree on the second part, I think the deck needs another effective tool to fight control.

[M@verick]

You should try the list that Door posted. Is kinda better agaisnt decks like miracle.

[conley1000000]

Honestly the results should be taken with a grain of salt. The only results that I pay attention to is the results I have testing and tourney results I put up. Maverick hasn't failed me yet, and until it does I'm going to play it. That doesn't mean the list doesn't need tweaked from time to time but that's what testing is for. To me splashing another doesn't really seem good to me. I feel gw has all the tools and the ability to fight the current meta.

[wcm8]

I don't really play Maverick much my self, but for beating control, it seem's like you could go back to using threats that will survive your typical board wipe or have flash:

-Elspeth, Knight-Errant -- this card has always been great, not sure why Maverick lists have mostly dropped it.
-Garruk Relentless -- similar to Elspeth
-Restoration Angel -- could be useful with anything with a CitP ability, such as Stoneforge Mystic -- Batterskull is also a legitimate, recursive threat
-Dust Elemental -- unlikely, but could be randomly amazing as a way to save your dudes from a Terminus.. and is a big threat in general
-Yeva, Nature's Herald -- unlikely
-Treetop Village or other man-lands. Most UWx decks don't tend to play Wasteland.

Instead of Gaddock Teeg, you could also play the Iona package to cut your opponent off of playing White.

The deck could also consider slaying some sacred cows... I think the format has kind of adapted to Mother of Runes, and perhaps it's time to start playing a different card in its place. Maybe move her to the sideboard for the matchups where you actually need her.

Sylvan Library is such a huge bomb against control, and while it is useless in multiples, I think a green deck that's not playing blue should probably run 2-3 copies of this.

Splashing a third color is always a valid option, though obviously you start becoming more of a different deck. I think GW has the tools to adapt, I think people just need to reconsider the list and change some cards around.

[.:saturno:.]

the meta is changing, miracle is disappearing and aggro is come back into fashing as well as stoneblade and tempo.
why we dont take a re-shuffle of all and come back for ex take in consideration klocker's gp list.
http://mtgpulse.com/event/9421#128888

[sdematt]

The only reason Esper is coming back is because Linger Souls is good against Terminus. Anything making multiple creatures/a token generator is going to be very good against a very slow deck like Miracles.

I think Miracles hasn't yet retooled well to deal with the problem of facing Lingering Souls, but a few switches can easily solve the issue. I do think Miracles is the better deck.

---


I was playing my test Maverick list last night, and I still feel like there's lots of potential left with Maverick to combat the format. I'll admit, I have selfish reasons for pushing Maverick, but Maverick doesn't have to be garbage in the meta. If you can play around Terminus, you're fine. We just need different threats that don't need as much support as Knight. To make Knight the beast he is, we usually have Mother of Runes, Noble, and some other creature in play for protection and such, leaving an opportunity of a 3-for-1 or more against us. That's pretty awful.

Wcm8, Dust Elemental seems VERY intriguing. Even returning three useless dudes at EOT to start swinging for six in the air (with fear, so no Angel blocks) seems like a possible bomb against Miracles. In addition, they only run 3-4 4-drops, so sneaking in under a Counterbalance should be fine.

I think Mother of Runes is good, but I think at this point, we should not be afraid to cut her if we were to find something better.

I'll post a prospective list in a bit when I think of something :P

-Matt

[mishima_kazuya]

http://www.twitch.tv/mishimakaz

ran a magic-league trial...lost round 2 to a judgment call that turned out to be wrong.

Long story short...I made a play assuming i wouldnt draw a land...but i drew a land.

sdematt: Is it crazy to splash Lingering Souls? Its good against Miracles and grindy match ups like stoneblade.

[sdematt]

I don't know, I don't think it would be TOO awful, but I think at that point you would have to run Deathrite Shaman.

-Matt

[mishima_kazuya]

Lingering Souls Maverick?

Maindeck
1 Karakas
2 Horizon Canopy
3 Savannah
1 Dryad Arbor
4 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath
1 Forest
1 Plains
2 Cavern of Souls
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Maze of Ith
2 Bayou

3 Qasali Pridemage
3 Noble Hierarch
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Mother of Runes
2 Scavenging Ooze
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Scryb Ranger
2 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Birds of Paradise

4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Umezawa's Jitte
3 Lingering Souls
1 Sword of Light and Shadow

Sideboard:
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Lingering Souls
2 Life from the Loam
1 Path to Exile
1 Garruk Relentless/Garruk, the Veil-Cursed
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Thoughtseize
1 Sylvan Library


I tested out the above list in a 5 round ML trial and I recorded it for your viewing pleasure. :D

Round 1: Belcher
http://www.twitch.tv/mishimakaz/b/346417066

Round 2: Junk (list that top2'ed SCG Seattle)
http://www.twitch.tv/mishimakaz/b/346433409

Round 3: BUG
http://www.twitch.tv/mishimakaz/b/346445842

Round 4: Bye

Round 5: Uw Rest in Peace Counterbalance
http://www.twitch.tv/mishimakaz/b/346461822

Gaddock Teeg should probably come back into the maindeck, maybe minus 1 Pridemage. Lingering Souls gave me free wins against the BGx opponents.

[sdematt]

Thanks for using my list for testing!

-Matt

[.Ix]

I love Lingering Souls. It's so good for stalling opponents until your Knight hits the table, or simply getting counters on Jitte.

Re: Miracles
Is Parallax Wave playable in the matchup? You can stick it and swing in without having to worry about Terminus too much. It also happens to counter Show and Tell -> Emrakul.

[defector]

I agree with you Matt that Mav can probably make it in the current meta. It's a great deck that I love and would hate to see die, so I am fully at risk of being blinded by a little romance over reality. It may never be the best/second best deck agian, but I am sure it can stay tier one. My thinking is that the current meta game at least as what Mav has to worry about, I think is going to be defined by Deathrite Shaman, Miracles and Abrupt Decay. In that direction I am thinking going back to a SFM package may be a good idea. Being able to lock Miracles out completely has to be a good thing. I want more removal maindeck to deal with Deathrite Shaman, and I like mom as she is the only card right now that reliably answers Abrupt Decay. Anyway, I put away the Retainers package and built this one up. This is more like Mav when teh great Punishing Fire Vs G/w debate was still relevant.

I like Dust Elemental, I think he is very interesting, but he feels wierd when our enemies are sweepers. Now in the Deathrite debate he is awesome, solid win con that doesn't care about the gy at all. I may grab a playset and test them out. I feel like your on the right course though in the sense that we need a card. I'd love that card to be a human and let us commit to a G/w humans deck with Caverns, but that doesnt seem to have been printed yet, but we definitely are looking for a main deck four of that lets us take different directions. I also agree with you that everything is on the chopping block, no sacred cows when the meta has turned against ya. I am sacrificing Thalia in this list because, well, I hate her. I also think that the TES/ANT decks that she shines against are going to be in short supply in a Miracles/BUG driven meta game, so I am less concerned with her absence. Anyway, the band is still playing the ship hasn't sunk yet, hopefully the Las Vegas SCG gives us some additional perspective on the meta.

Current List:

Lands-22-
Wasteland X4
Savannah X4
Windswept Heath X4
Verdant Catacombs X2
Cavern of Souls X2
Karakas X1
Dryad Arbor X1
Plains X2
Forest X2

White-14
Mother of Runes X4
Swords to Plowshares X4
Stoneforge Mystic X3
Path to Exile X2
Elspeth, the Knight Errant X1

Green-14
Green Sn's Zenith X4
Noble Hierarch X4
Scavenging Ooze X2
Sylvan Library X2
Scryb Ranger X1
Garruk Relentless X1

Gold-7-
Knight of the Reliquary X4
Qasali Pridemage X2
Gaddock Teeg X1

Artifacts-3-
Umezawa's Jitte X1
Batterskull X1
Sword of War and Peace X1(could be SoLaS)

Sideboard- Really only saying 2 Teeg and a Bog, probanly some O Rings.

Anyway, here is a revamp of the old school.

Cheers
defector

[mishima_kazuya]

I love Lingering Souls. It's so good for stalling opponents until your Knight hits the table, or simply getting counters on Jitte.

Re: Miracles
Is Parallax Wave playable in the matchup? You can stick it and swing in without having to worry about Terminus too much. It also happens to counter Show and Tell -> Emrakul.

Wave seems good against the Show and Tell card itself.


But, 4 mana is usually reserved for gamechangers like Planeswalkers or Linvala. You don't really want to drop a whole turn's worth of mana into a card that doesn't really win the game on the spot against grindy decks like Esperblade or BUG.

[M@verick]

Hello!!

I have won a 30 ppl tourney today with my GW maverick. I had been testing BUG during last 2 months and I decided to play GW again.
I am very happy, the final score has been 12-0.

R1: Monoblue stasis 2-0
R2: Merfolks 2-0
R3: GW zenith 2-0
R4: tier
R5: tier
Top 8: confidant BUG 2-0
Top4: miracle 2-0
Final: Cascade RUG 2-0
(with punishing fire)


My current list:

4 [TE] Wasteland
1 [US] Gaea's Cradle
4 [A] Savannah
1 [U] Forest (3)
1 [7E] Plains (3)
4 [ON] Windswept Heath
3 [FUT] Horizon Canopy
1 [LG] Karakas
2 [AVR] Cavern of Souls
3 [UL] Mother of Runes
4 [WWK] Stoneforge Mystic
3 [ON] Weathered Wayfarer
4 [CFX] Knight of the Reliquary
3 [B] Birds of Paradise
3 [MBS] Phyrexian Revoker
2 [TSP] Scryb Ranger
3 [DKA] Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 [FUT] Aven Mindcensor
1 [BOK] Umezawa's Jitte
1 [DS] Sword of Fire and Ice
4 [DS] AEther Vial
4 [A] Swords to Plowshares
1 [DS] Sword of Light and Shadow
2 [5E] Sylvan Library

SB: 3 [LRW] Gaddock Teeg
SB: 3 [8E] Choke
SB: 4 [NPH] Surgical Extraction
SB: 1 [TSP] Krosan Grip
SB: 3 [LRW] Oblivion Ring
SB: 1 [RAV] Life from the Loam


I have tried aven midncensor instead the fourth thalia, but the change has not been relevant.

[.Ix]

Wave seems good against the Show and Tell card itself.


But, 4 mana is usually reserved for gamechangers like Planeswalkers or Linvala. You don't really want to drop a whole turn's worth of mana into a card that doesn't really win the game on the spot against grindy decks like Esperblade or BUG.

Very good point. Wave is only going to partially preserve the board state in the event of a Terminus without doing much else. I'm not sure if that's worth 4 mana.

@M@verick

GREAT Job! That decklist is interesting. I think I'll try it out.

[Hanni]

Why Lingering Souls instead of Elspeth, if you're running it to combat Miracles? You don't even need to go into black to run Elspeth, and having an actual token generating machine that Miracles has few answers for, that also is a pro at assassinating Jace, and better at recovering from a Terminus, makes the most sense to me. Big boy Garruk (Primal Hunter) is also pretty good. A 2/1 split between maindeck and sideboard seems like the best bet for Maverick, if Miracles is the concern. I also would not cut Mother of Runes against Miracles, as it's one of this decks strongest assets in that matchup, and many Miracles lists are not very well prepared against the Mom + Teeg combo.

[door]

Hello!!

I have won a 30 ppl tourney today with my GW maverick. I had been testing BUG during last 2 months and I decided to play GW again.
I am very happy, the final score has been 12-0.

I have tried aven midncensor instead the fourth thalia, but the change has not been relevant.

Congrats on your finish!
But 3 mother of runes? Really?

[M@verick]

I played only 3 in the first version. Then, with the rise of GWs, the fourth copy was necesary.
I think it currently depends on meta

[mishima_kazuya]

Why Lingering Souls instead of Elspeth, if you're running it to combat Miracles? You don't even need to go into black to run Elspeth, and having an actual token generating machine that Miracles has few answers for, that also is a pro at assassinating Jace, and better at recovering from a Terminus, makes the most sense to me. Big boy Garruk (Primal Hunter) is also pretty good. A 2/1 split between maindeck and sideboard seems like the best bet for Maverick, if Miracles is the concern. I also would not cut Mother of Runes against Miracles, as it's one of this decks strongest assets in that matchup, and many Miracles lists are not very well prepared against the Mom + Teeg combo.


Lingering Souls gets around countermagic better, unlike Plansewalkers. You don't have to overcommit with Lingering Souls against sweepers since you can just sandbag a blacksource and flashback Lingering Souls when they pull the trigger.
I would play 3 Elspeths, but 2WW is a much bigger diference than 2W. If your plays are turn 1 mana dork, into turn 2 Lingering Souls, and then they Detention Sphere your tokens; you are still in great shape as you still have a pair of 1/1 fliers ready to go. If you had Elspeth there instead, then you are still at mostly parity there if they Detention Sphered your Elspeth.

Going back to the mana efficiency of Lingering Souls, unlike Elspeth, its servicable in multiples in other match ups. Like against Merfolk(or any Tempo deck), having 2 Elspeths in your opening hand is pretty embarrasing since Elspeth is pretty bad on defense there. But having 2 Lingering Souls is better since you can start clogging the board quickly and your Spirit tokens can eventually finish the game by themselves since they have Flying.

[ironclad8690]

Why Lingering Souls instead of Elspeth, if you're running it to combat Miracles? You don't even need to go into black to run Elspeth, and having an actual token generating machine that Miracles has few answers for, that also is a pro at assassinating Jace, and better at recovering from a Terminus, makes the most sense to me. Big boy Garruk (Primal Hunter) is also pretty good. A 2/1 split between maindeck and sideboard seems like the best bet for Maverick, if Miracles is the concern. I also would not cut Mother of Runes against Miracles, as it's one of this decks strongest assets in that matchup, and many Miracles lists are not very well prepared against the Mom + Teeg combo.

I agree with you here, the miracles matchup is still very winnable if you ask me, especially postboard if you bring in pithing needle/revoker on engineered explosives/Top, and maybe even dauntless escort (also works well vs Stoneblade/pernicious deed decks) for supreme verdict. Most of the time it comes down to aggressive mulliganing into thalia/mom/teeg or GSZ to set up the lock.

That being said, it does make sense that bant will become more popular due to the sheer power of clique vs miracles.

[door]

I played only 3 in the first version. Then, with the rise of GWs, the fourth copy was necesary.
I think it currently depends on meta

Do you think 3rd Wayfarer is better, than 4th Mother of Runes? I usually play in a meta full of RUG and miracles, where mother of runes seems to be one of the best creatures. I just want to understand your reasoning. You've always sticked to 3 Wayfarers. In what matches do they come out in your practice?

[M@verick]

Wayfarer takes part in the "lands mechanism", helping to search cradle, canopys, wastelands, caverns... I think is better than mother agaisnt miracles, because just one activation is more than the mother does before a terminus. However, mother is much better agaisnt RUG, there is no doubt.

But now, with the rise of bug, I think wayfarer is very helpful. It helps to delay EE, pernicious and big dudes like jace, because his weak mana base.
What is more, most combos currently play show and tell (sneak attack, reanimator, omnitell), and the access to karakas is great.

[conley1000000]

Aether Vial was actually the most common build of Maverick prior to the printing of Green Sun Zenith. Vial acts as suito protection of creatures being able to "vial" them into play at the e.o.t. The wayfarer works extremely well in this build because you can afford to intentionally miss a land drop with a vial in play and tutor for whatever you may need to help control the board state. I dont know with Vial and Wayfarer that two caverns are needed, since to me your wanting to keep vial on 2 being that covers the majority of the creatures and use the cavern to cast your KOTR. Are the BOP over Noble Hierarch for there evasion of flying? I would also recommend adding a dryad arbor. I understand you wont get the fun of a turn 1 rampant growth but with 2 Scryb Rangers using there synergy to blank an attacking creature seems extremely relevant. I'm not a fan of the single Aven mindcensor. Maybe at the singleton slot you could try an Eternal Witness. Also maybe some number of Ethersworn Canonist out of the sb. That cards amazing with Vial untapped making there bounce spell almost pointless. Iono just my .02...

[door]

Aether Vial was actually the most common build of Maverick prior to the printing of Green Sun Zenith. Vial acts as suito protection of creatures being able to "vial" them into play at the e.o.t. The wayfarer works extremely well in this build because you can afford to intentionally miss a land drop with a vial in play and tutor for whatever you may need to help control the board state. I dont know with Vial and Wayfarer that two caverns are needed, since to me your wanting to keep vial on 2 being that covers the majority of the creatures and use the cavern to cast your KOTR. Are the BOP over Noble Hierarch for there evasion of flying? I would also recommend adding a dryad arbor. I understand you wont get the fun of a turn 1 rampant growth but with 2 Scryb Rangers using there synergy to blank an attacking creature seems extremely relevant. I'm not a fan of the single Aven mindcensor. Maybe at the singleton slot you could try an Eternal Witness. Also maybe some number of Ethersworn Canonist out of the sb. That cards amazing with Vial untapped making there bounce spell almost pointless. Iono just my .02...

thanks, captain! I'd also advice to test the deck first, and then advice adding different stuff. E.g. dryad arbor is not good in this build. Aven is in the slot, where Eternal Witness was previously. BoPs carry swords, also Revokers often name Hierarchs in mirror matches. Addition of canonists depends on your local meta.

[monovfox]

In the lingering souls splash, why not run a gavony township in the 75? Could very well fix the miracles matchup, and suddenly their fieldwhipes suck. Also, you guys are forgetting that Gaddock Teeg just wins the miracles matchup. Why don't you guys run more of him? It doesn't make very much sense to me at all.

[MrShine]

Aether Vial was actually the most common build of Maverick prior to the printing of Green Sun Zenith. Vial acts as suito protection of creatures being able to "vial" them into play at the e.o.t. The wayfarer works extremely well in this build because you can afford to intentionally miss a land drop with a vial in play and tutor for whatever you may need to help control the board state. I dont know with Vial and Wayfarer that two caverns are needed, since to me your wanting to keep vial on 2 being that covers the majority of the creatures and use the cavern to cast your KOTR. Are the BOP over Noble Hierarch for there evasion of flying? I would also recommend adding a dryad arbor. I understand you wont get the fun of a turn 1 rampant growth but with 2 Scryb Rangers using there synergy to blank an attacking creature seems extremely relevant. I'm not a fan of the single Aven mindcensor. Maybe at the singleton slot you could try an Eternal Witness. Also maybe some number of Ethersworn Canonist out of the sb. That cards amazing with Vial untapped making there bounce spell almost pointless. Iono just my .02...

This is actually really close to what I was playing a couple months ago... You guys might think its crazy, but I cut the GSZs for Vials and never looked back. How many pages back are people complaining about the miracles matchup? 4 Vial + 2-3 Teeg maindeck with, ofc, 4 Mother of Runes and the optional 5th Sylvan Safekeeper (you could even run a split), combined with 4 Thalia maindeck just completely shuts down everything Miracles is trying to do. Teeg, obv, shuts down all their main answers and wincons, while Thalia stops them from digging too heavily and attacks. Combined with effective LD you can just lock them out.

Wayfarer was great in the list too, searching up additional Wastelands or Caverns to pressure / negate whatever the U deck is doing... they are great vs U but lacking a little vs other, non-basic light decks so he's really a meta call. Anyway the important thing to note here is that wayfarer synergizes favourably with Vial because you can be abusing your non-basics, ie Wasteland, and searching with Wayfarer while at the same time dropping threats into play via Vial. Even without wayfarer its strong to be able to waste them without losing Tempo on the creature front. And it gives everything flash! What's not to love...

Cavern of Souls is huge in the U matchup too (naming Humans obviously) - also searchable, like conley said, by Wayfarer

And the icing on the cake here (giving away all my secrets), is to run a package of 2 Stoneforge, X Jitte and 1 Lightning Greaves. Greaves on Teeg is the NUTS vs Miracles, and can enable some insane KotR blowouts when they are least expecting it, for only 5 mana total. Stoneforge is also great with Vial, and if you want you can run a Batterskull somewhere in the 75 to further crush Rug and random aggro into pulp.

EDIT: Very important to note: 2 Sylvan Library is a must in Maverick, and, like everything else here, helps nail the coffin shut against Miracles. Extra cards for days! Never cut it if slow control is in the meta.

Anyway guys, the tools are there to beat Miracles, you just have to (meta)game hard against them. You will have to build your list differently, but it doesn't change the dynamic of the deck so drastically that you lose a lot against the decks Maverick is normally good against.

All it takes is a hearty swig of some cold, refreshing Haterade!

Cheers,

MrShine

[conley1000000]

thanks, captain! I'd also advice to test the deck first, and then advice adding different stuff. E.g. dryad arbor is not good in this build. Aven is in the slot, where Eternal Witness was previously. BoPs carry swords, also Revokers often name Hierarchs in mirror matches. Addition of canonists depends on your local meta.

At no point did I say you need Nobles over BOP I was just doubling checking the thougth process of having them. Which I understand and I didnt realize about Revoker->Noble, that seems pretty good. The Eternal Witness reference was for M@verick who said he wasnt impressed by it, and obvioulsy didnt care for 4 Thalia or he wouldn't have tried to replace it. I'd be hard pressed to see how dryad arbor isnt good in this build. If he's running 2 Scryb Ranger then why not get max value from Scryb Ranger. Theres nothing better than blocking a Batterskull with it then pulling it out of play via the forest bounce effect. You have two creatures that have the ability to find him. Sure you dont get max value from it but it will still vial in on 0, so its not completely dead in your opening hand if you have a vial, like it would be in GSZ form. Canonist I agree with on local meta but if you dont have a single elves, storm or omni show in your meta I envy you sir. You may not like my card advice but I respectfully ask that if you dont please list a reason why, not just say "Yup, no good" and move on. I in no way shape of form like the Aether Vial build, mostly because it doesnt fit my playstyle. I spent alot of time playing Deadguy with Vial so I completely understand how it works and its interactions. But when there isnt an open discussion about card selection theres no room to see the other sides point, or maybe have ones eyes opened up to something they may not have known. Having pissing matches isnt gonna bring this deck back to the forefront, but meaningful, open minded discussion will go along way...

[conley1000000]

Had a great outing yesterday with maverick! Took it into a 27 man for a Mirsha's Workshop and 8 games later came out victorious!

[AfricanSafari]

Conley, can we get a tourney report?? Thanks, Congrats!!

[conley1000000]

Sure! Guess we should start with a list...

G/W Maverick (60)

Creatures(24)
2 Gaddock Teeg
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Mother of Runes
4 Noble Hierarch
2 Qasali Pridemage
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Scryb Ranger
2 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Thalia, Gaurdian of Thraben

Sorcery (4)
4 Green Sun Zenith

Instant (4)
4 Swords to Plowshares

Artifacts(2)
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Umezawa's Jitte

Enchantment (2)
2 Sylvan Library

Land (23)
2 Cavern of Souls
1 Dryad Arbor
2 Forest
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Karakas
1 Maze of Ith
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Plains
4 Savannah
4 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath

SIDEBOARD
1 Bojuka Bog
2 Choke
1 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Ethersworn Canonist
3 Oblivion Ring
1 Path to Exile
3 Pithing Needle
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 sylvan safekeeper

Rd 1 High tide
Lost 1-2
-was a really close match, losing the die roll was the deciding factor. Game 3 had lethal on board the turn he went off. Usually how it goes I guess, but couldn't find any answers past Thalia.

Rd 2 Mono White Stax
Won 2-0
-awkward 2 games to say the least, but wasteland and pridemages really made the games out of reach.

Rd 3 Shared Fate
Won 2-0
-the random brew of the room, and it almost caught me off guard. Actually the first time the light and shadow saved my life on the creature rebuy, needing Qasali to blow up that crazy enchantment...

Rd 4 Maverick
Won 2-1
-Really the last match I expected to play, and when I lost the die roll and saw a turn 1 noble I expected to be dropping and heading home. Game 1 I was trounced by a pair of KOTR's. Game 2 I drew extremely well and boarding in the 2nd Jitte came in really handy after he legend rules the first. After a GSZ for an Ooze we went to game 3. Even though I was on the draw our openings were identical and in the end was the one able to stick a creature. A few wastelands later and it was locked with a Sword of Light and Shadow

Rd 5 Mono Blue Omni Tell
Won 2-0
This was my buddy who I came with. We had spent many a kitchen table game battling and usually I don't end up winning many. He kept a decent hand but couldn't draw a finisher to put me away and was overrun. Game 2 I opened with a cavern and canonist with an oring in hand. He has stifle so the canonist was backbreaking.
With the win and everyone else's draws I had finished with the best record. This proved to be wonderful going forward.
Top 8 Esper Stoneblade
Won 2-0
Almost positive he mulliganed the first game and I opened up with noble Thalia wasteland and using the sword of light and shadow to push through lingering soul tokens to take game 1 pretty easy. Game 2 was a slugfest back and forth. It became stale when he had a jotun grunt with a feast and famine attached staring at my thrun backed by maze of Ith. Awkward moment of the day occurred here. He had missed his upkeep trigger on grunt moved to main phase played a land casting an iok. I then noticed he hadn't payed the cumulative and we saced the grunt. Two turns later he was dead from thrun. After the match someone thought he should have been able to go back and pay the upkeep since he missed it. I don't agree, but under all the new trigger rules I'm not sure. In hindsight we should have called a judge.
Top 4 High Tide (rematch)
Won 2-0
Really this match was over in a flash. Game 1 he kept a greedy hand of 1 land with quite a few cantrips to draw. Except my t2 Thalia made those cantrips uncastable. Game 2 cavern safekeeper followed by canonist then Thalia and a gsz for Teeg left him in scoop mode.

Finals BUG Delver
Won 2-1
After losing game 1 to the Air Force of delver, I struggled to board vs it. All my card seemed good, but I wanted to bring in quite a few cards. Ultimately brought in thrun 2 choke and the path, taking out 2 Teeg and 2 Pridemage. Still unsure if that was right. Game 2 I overloaded the board quickly and taxed with Thalia. He didnt draw very well and I ended up putting it away through a slew of removal. Game 3 he started land go. I led forest noble only to see it darkblasted. And then the mom I played next, followed by the thalia I played later. He played the Deathrite And survived on it and 1 land until I drew a wasteland. I ended up drawing/KOTR fetching all 4. Dredging darkblast too many times had left him short supplied on mana. A land and sylvan library is all he finished the game with in play.
All in all I was very happy with my setup, couple sb cards I'm still on the fence about. Sb against Bug delver is something I wouldn't mind brainstorming about. This is more than likely the exact list ill take to scg Columbus in a few weeks. And forgive me if this is choppy I typed it up on my phone.

[Fade]

Sure! Guess we should start with a list...

G/W Maverick (60)

Creatures(24)
2 Gaddock Teeg
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Mother of Runes
4 Noble Hierarch
2 Qasali Pridemage
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Scryb Ranger
2 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Thalia, Gaurdian of Thraben

Sorcery (4)
4 Green Sun Zenith

Instant (4)
4 Swords to Plowshares

Artifacts(2)
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Umezawa's Jitte

Enchantment (2)
2 Sylvan Library

Land (23)
2 Cavern of Souls
1 Dryad Arbor
2 Forest
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Karakas
1 Maze of Ith
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Plains
4 Savannah
4 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath

SIDEBOARD
1 Bojuka Bog
2 Choke
1 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Ethersworn Canonist
3 Oblivion Ring
1 Path to Exile
3 Pithing Needle
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 sylvan safekeeper

Congrats on winning the workshop! Just so you know, I was the UW Miracle player that made top 8 and we talked a bit about Maverick after your semifinal match against High Tide.

My mb list is very close to yours -1 Library, -1 Teeg, -1 Fetch, +1 Mystic, +1 Batterskull, +1 Gaea's Cradle. Sideboard is pretty different, but I like what you have done to make specific matches a lot better after board as compared to mine where I have a little bit for everything. For reference: 1 Bojuka Bog, 1 Crop Rotation, 2 Gaddock Teeg, 1 Elspeth Knight-Errant, 2 Path to Exile, 2 O-ring, 1 Harmonic Sliver, 1 Choke, 1 Linvala, 1 Tormod's Crypt, 1 Faerie Macabre, and 1 Armageddon.

Again congrats and I will see you at SCG: Columbus.

[conley1000000]

Sideboard is pretty different, but I like what you have done to make specific matches a lot better after board as compared to mine where I have a little bit for everything. For reference: 1 Bojuka Bog, 1 Crop Rotation, 2 Gaddock Teeg, 1 Elspeth Knight-Errant, 2 Path to Exile, 2 O-ring, 1 Harmonic Sliver, 1 Choke, 1 Linvala, 1 Tormod's Crypt, 1 Faerie Macabre, and 1 Armageddon.


Hey thanks man, yea good to see ya paroosing the GW forum lol. As far as sb goes I put a lot thought into it. I approached building my sb from a completely different angle. Using the "too much info" on scg I pooled the 3 events they catagorized(aside:I emailed them a couple weeks ago inquiring when they planed on running the article again and they said they had cancelled it)and found that 6 archetypes comprised 50% of the field. The sb is built directly to combat those six decks, with application towards the rest of the field. The top decks have shuffled slightly I'd imagine with BUG coming back. But I felt like this was the best way to focus on Mavericks tougher matchups. Using how I plan to attack each deck specifically I added cards I needed to help that specific plan, not just a group of cards that were good against a specific matchup;ie elspeth and armeggedon are good vs miracles but my main focus is to land Teeg and protect him at all costs. So bringing in cards I can't cast to aren't good to me. So needle and choke felt quite effective with Teeg being the main plan. Needle on top is devistating. And then needle moves across matches like sneak and show...going forward this is how I plan to attack building a sb.

[.Ix]

In the lingering souls splash, why not run a gavony township in the 75? Could very well fix the miracles matchup, and suddenly their fieldwhipes suck.

This. It's also quite good against the mirror and other creature decks especially with jitte. Playing some souls and pumping once can easily break a creature stalemate. It's a very good combat trick in the midgame, too. I'm very happy with souls and township.

[ironclad8690]

Hey guys,

Maverick player here. Just played in the open portion of SCG LA.

Figured i would post my list and ask for some tips for a couple of matchups:

4 mother of runes
4 noble hierarch
4 knight of the reliquary
3 thalia guardian of thraben
2 qasali pridemage
2 scavenging ooze
2 stoneforge mystic
1 fauna shaman
1 gaddock teeg
1 scryb ranger

4 swords to plowshares
4 green sun's zenith
2 umezawa's jitte
1 sylvan library
1 elspeth knight errant.

4 windswept heath
2 wooded foothills
4 savannah
4 wasteland
3 forest
1 plains
2 horizon canopy
1 karakas
1 maze of ith
1 cavern of souls
1 dryad arbor

SB:
2 pithing needle
2 choke
1 thrun the last troll
1 linvala keeper of the silence
1 path to exile
2 ethersworn cannonist
1 oblivion ring
1 bojuka bog
1 crop rotation
1 qasali pridemage
1 gaddock teeg
1 armageddon

Anywho, i got stomped round 1 by cody lingelbach who was basically playing deadguy with deathrite shaman, and then i got stomped by two goblin decks in a row and rug that boarded in sulfer elementals which came down game 2 and 3.

What kind of advice can you give vs all these new deathrite decks with tons of discard and liliana? Howbout goblins? I feel like i should have played more defense vs goblins, tuk tuk scrapper and sharpshooters made quick work of me.

[H0tmilk]

I haven't been playing maverick much lately, since I started playing Junk. I think if I were to make a maverick list right now some cards I would consider would be
Loxodon Smiter- a 3cmc that is immune to counter and discard, with the way the meta is right now this could make Smiter a solid card.
Garruk Relentless- has some great abilities and is seeing a lot of play in Junk maybe it could be useful here in maverick as well.
Linvala- with all the deathrite shamans around running a couple Linvala main board might help.

another thought is that maybe Loyal retainer/Elesh norn combo might be a decent side board tech.
any way these are just some thoughts I had for maverick I think my main deck would look like this:
4 MOM
4KOR
2 Pridemage
4 Smiter
3 noble
1 BoP
2 Linvala
2 Fauna shaman
2 Ooze
1 Scryb ranger
4STP
2 sylvan library
2 Jitte
2 Garruk Relentless
3 Green sun
1 karakas
2 forrest
1 plains
1 maze of ith
2 cavern of souls
1 dryad arbor
4 widswept heath
2 misty rainforest
4 savanah
3 wasteland
1 canopy

Like I said I haven't played this deck in a very long time so I might be way off on if this would be successful.

[kingsey]

Hey guys,

Maverick player here. Just played in the open portion of SCG LA.

Figured i would post my list and ask for some tips for a couple of matchups:

4 mother of runes
4 noble hierarch
4 knight of the reliquary
3 thalia guardian of thraben
2 qasali pridemage
2 scavenging ooze
2 stoneforge mystic
1 fauna shaman
1 gaddock teeg
1 scryb ranger

4 swords to plowshares
4 green sun's zenith
2 umezawa's jitte
1 sylvan library
1 elspeth knight errant.

4 windswept heath
2 wooded foothills
4 savannah
4 wasteland
3 forest
1 plains
2 horizon canopy
1 karakas
1 maze of ith
1 cavern of souls
1 dryad arbor

SB:
2 pithing needle
2 choke
1 thrun the last troll
1 linvala keeper of the silence
1 path to exile
2 ethersworn cannonist
1 oblivion ring
1 bojuka bog
1 crop rotation
1 qasali pridemage
1 gaddock teeg
1 armageddon

Anywho, i got stomped round 1 by cody lingelbach who was basically playing deadguy with deathrite shaman, and then i got stomped by two goblin decks in a row and rug that boarded in sulfer elementals which came down game 2 and 3.

What kind of advice can you give vs all these new deathrite decks with tons of discard and liliana? Howbout goblins? I feel like i should have played more defense vs goblins, tuk tuk scrapper and sharpshooters made quick work of me.

As far as goblins go I really love dueling grounds, and pithing needle.

[Esper3k]

Waiting until you have 4 mana to play+equip Jitte is good against Goblins because it means you at least get to kill some of them if they happen to have Tuk Tuk Scrapper that turn. If they don't you're goin to quickly lock up the game as long as you use your Jitte counters to control their board.

I second Dueling Grounds as absolutely brutal against them, but it's best run in an eTutor board.

[phazonmutant]

[...] Top 8 Esper Stoneblade
Won 2-0
Almost positive he mulliganed the first game and I opened up with noble Thalia wasteland and using the sword of light and shadow to push through lingering soul tokens to take game 1 pretty easy. Game 2 was a slugfest back and forth. It became stale when he had a jotun grunt with a feast and famine attached staring at my thrun backed by maze of Ith. Awkward moment of the day occurred here. He had missed his upkeep trigger on grunt moved to main phase played a land casting an iok. I then noticed he hadn't payed the cumulative and we saced the grunt. Two turns later he was dead from thrun. After the match someone thought he should have been able to go back and pay the upkeep since he missed it. I don't agree, but under all the new trigger rules I'm not sure. In hindsight we should have called a judge.

Judge here. From the IPG 2.1 (Missed Triggers), the trigger was considered missed once he took a game action after it would have triggered (e.g. drawing a card). It was less than a turn cycle ago, and it has a default action ("sacrifice it unless you pay its upkeep cost"), so you just immediately resolve the trigger using its default action. In this case, simply sac the Jotun Grunt.

You guys probably should have called a judge just because it's a good habit to be in, but you did resolve the problem correctly.

[Vandalize]

@M@verick

Tweaked your AEther Vial Maverick to some extent and it has a lot more play against UW Miracles. AEther Vial is really good, and Weathered Wayferer rocks Wasteland like a boss.

This is my list:

Lands [21]
4 Wasteland
4 Savannah
4 Windswepth Heath
1 Misty Rainforest
3 Horizon Canopy
1 Forest
1 Plains
2 Cavern of Souls

Creatures [26]
4 Mother of Runes
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Noble Hierarch
2 Weathered Wayfarer
2 Qasali Pridemage
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Scryb Ranger

Spells [13]
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 AEther Vial
2 Sylvan Library
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Batterskull
1 Sword of Light and Shadow

Sideboard [15]
4 Surgical Extraction
3 Gaddock Teeg
3 Pithing Needle
2 Krosan Grip
2 Path to Exile
1 Life from the Loam

First off, I took out Gaea's Cradle for a fetchland. Gaea's Cradle is only good when have a bunch of dudes out, and that's a winning position. Terminus and Supreme Verdict are also very present, and some landlight hands with it are auto-mulligans. Cradle works fine with Equipment, but I think it's win more.

I've worked a little on creatures because I found Phyrexian Revoker and Aven Mindcensor to be pretty underwhelming. Even being good hatebears, they aren't really aggressive (Well, Thalia does have First Strike). I tried to play the maximum number of every efficient creature, and that's what I've reached. Without Green Sun's Zenith, we can't play 1-of toolbox dudes, so we have to max out everything that is good. With 3 Stoneforge Mystic in the maindeck, I saw no reason why not to play Batterskull. It's good against control in general and a very powerful play against RUG and Miracles.

I've cut Choke completely because it's a really, really bad card when most of your opponents are prepared for it. It only works if you've made jedi-mindtricks or your opponent tapped out for Jace. Instead, I've put some Pithing Needles in the board, to rock against Sensei's Divining Top. I heard Miracles is a bunch of spells held togheter by that artifact, and it came out to be true.

[M@verick]

Gaea´s cradle is probably the most important land in the deck. there are many ways to find it, and the fact that you can look for it sorpresively, and to attack the same turn is very important. An activation of sword of X/X sometimes changes the state of the game. This is another reason to play bops over nobles.

When batterskull was printed, I put it into the 60 main deck cards. When I realized that I hardly ever looked for it, his place was in sb. I currently dont play it in the 75 cards. After much testing, I have come to the conclusion that it is worst than the other equipments, is just a big bear, like tarmogoyf, who doesnt fit well in the build.

Revoker/qasali. In Zenith builds is obvius that qasali is better. With vial, i like the sorpresive effect of revoker. I Have just missed qasali against enchantress. Against all other decks, the effect is very similar, but revoker also works versus cards who define archetypes: noble hierarch (bant, GW), jace (stoneblade,miracles), sensei (miracles), LED (storm), deed (NicFit) sneak attack...

And choke... in my opinion has always been and it will remain being the main chance to beat hard control blue decks. We are playing thalia!! even forcing our opponent to play a disenchant eot, after being 2 or 3 turns gathering enough mana, is a good reason to play it.

[catmint]

I recently played a couple of games against M@averick online with my BUG control list and from the BUG perspective of course revoker is much more annyoing. It is yet another must kill if you want your liliana or deathrite shaman to work. Vial is also good versus discard & edict and wafaring up wastelands while shutting down deathrite with revoker and/or taxing with thalia is a good gameaplan.

Still I fear both builds (GSZ or Vial) equally, since the Vial build while beeing a lot more tricky and annyoing is a bit less consistent.

[conley1000000]

I recently played a couple of games against M@averick online with my BUG control list and from the BUG perspective of course revoker is much more annyoing. It is yet another must kill if you want your liliana or deathrite shaman to work. Vial is also good versus discard & edict and wafaring up wastelands while shutting down deathrite with revoker and/or taxing with thalia is a good gameaplan.

Still I fear both builds (GSZ or Vial) equally, since the Vial build while beeing a lot more tricky and annyoing is a bit less consistent.

As a BUG player what is the hardest/scariest card for you to deal with from Maverick?

[Einherjer]

As a BUG player what is the hardest/scariest card for you to deal with from Maverick?

It really depends on the way the BUG deck is built. But generally I'd say Mother of Runes and Planeswalkers are hard to deal with. Most lists run 0-2 cc1 removal making Mother of Runes a safe bet. Generally we have only a few outs to a resolved Planeswalker, so Garruk and / or Elspeth are fine.

That's what I've experienced.

Greetings

[Esper3k]

Dauntless Escort!

[catmint]

I agree:
#1 Mother
#2 Thalia
#3 Ooze (hates on snapcaster & deathrite)
#4 KoR

[akiratheoni]

Finished 5-3 at GP Denver with GWb Maverick, and 2-1 at a Last Chance Grinder (made top 8 of 32) Friday night. If anyone cares I'll post my decklist.

[.Ix]

Please do! It's always interesting to see splashes, especially those that did well.

Also, sweet avatar, dude. Haven't used any *buntus in a while, but Linux is Linux!

[akiratheoni]

Haha, thanks. I haven't used Linux too much lately because of school (I'm just too lazy to install MS Office on my virtualized Windows)... but I'm looking to get back into it more soon :)

Anyway here's my list:

4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Mother of Runes
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Dark Confidant
3 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Scryb Ranger
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Mirran Crusader
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Gaddock Teeg
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Garruk Relentless
4 Windswept Heath
3 Verdant Catacombs
3 Savannah
3 Bayou
1 Scrubland
4 Wasteland
1 Karakas
1 Maze of Ith
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Cavern of Souls

SB:
2 Armageddon
3 Thoughtseize
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Sylvan Safekeeper
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Path to Exile

Swapped the 4th Knight for 1 Mirran Crusader last minute; figured that with so many Abrupt Decays going around, and Deathrite Shamans, Knight wouldn't be that great. Crusader doesn't care about those cards at all. The lack of Exalted with using Deathrites over Nobles and only one Pridemage main could hurt a little bit though.

I don't expect anyone to agree with the 2 Scryb Rangers, but I just like having both of them. I've played Maverick for awhile and I just feel weird not having two in the deck. Feel free to disagree, it's just a personal preference.

Also, Armageddon. Probably the reason why I still play this deck -- I put one copy of it a couple months ago as a joke but now I'm seriously playing two copies of it. It's just so good against the durdly decks that it's not even funny. In the Last Chance Grinders I played against the Helm of Obedience deck and still beat him through a Humility and only three creatures in play because I Armageddon'd when he had four basic lands in play and a fetch land.

Matchups:

Round 1 - W Bye

Round 2 - W Reanimator 2-0. He goes for Reanimate -> Iona game 1, but loses when Mom + Thalia + Deathrite beat him for 2 a turn when he's at 9. Game 2 I get out 2 Knights and use Karakas to bounce his Jin-Gitaxias and Elesh Norn to win.

Round 3 - L Burn 0-2. I faced this guy in the Last Chance Grinders the night before and beat him. But I got color screwed game 1 and Game 2 kept a hand of all removal when he drew no creatures.

Round 4 - W UR Delver 2-0. We both keep a 1 lander round 1 (lol) but I manage to draw into a 2nd land -> Thalia and Wasteland his top decked Volcanic Island. Game 2 I draw 3 Abrupt Decays for his two Delvers and Goblin Guides.

Round 5 - W WBg Stoneblade (splashing G for Deathrite). Game 1 I get smashed by Liliana and Lingering Souls. Game 2 I don't really remember, but I won. Game 3 I get out Elspeth, Thalia, Pridemage and Scavenging Ooze and he gets out Batterskull and still has Jitte in hand. Time has already been called; it's been a very, very long match. He taps out for a Perish and I respond by killing his Batterskull with the Pridemage -- because of the grindy match, he forgot that Pridemage was in play.

Round 6 - L 0-2 UW RiP Miracles - Unfortunately, I did not see Armageddon. Game 1 I got smashed with maindeck Humility and Game 2 I mull to 5 with one land.

Round 7 - L 0-2 BUG Nic Fit. Nic Fit is just a bad matchup because of its inevitability. Maze of Ith was good to stall though, but I can't do much when he Thragtusks me like six times across the match (and that's not including the infinite combo he pulled off in game 1). He's a cool guy though so it was more funny than mad or anything haha.

Round 8 - W 2-0 4-color Maverick. It's a GWbu Maverick deck with Deathrite & Noble for acceleration, and Brainstorm and Jace. It probably looked like a typical 4 color control deck but it ran Scryb Ranger and Green Sun's Zenith as well. I win g1 through a Knight and g2 with double Deathrite keeping Knights small.

So 5-3 for Day 1. I ended up playing Round 8 even though I had no chance to Day 2 because my brother was in contention for Day 2 so I figured I'd just play the last round.

Pros:
- Abrupt Decay -- I boarded both in my sideboard in almost every matchup.
- Armageddon! Okay I didn't cast it at all on Day 1 but Armageddon in the Last Chance Grinders was pretty epic (and I hate using that word). Quoth my opponent after the match: "Fuck Armageddon." In my testing, Armageddon was pretty much game over if it resolved against Miracles. Even if you don't have a Knight in play.
- Thoughtseize. I didn't use it much at GP Denver, but in my testing I felt a lot more comfortable with discard. Coming from GW Maverick it's a different experience to have to write down my opponent's hand :P
- I flipped a Gaddock Teeg against my Round 8 opponent on a Dark Confidant and then we both commented "Oh, that seems useless". I played it anyway to attack with it, then next turn he tries to drop Jace but then I point out Gaddock Teeg in play. Nothing game breaking, just funny.
- I didn't make any obvious punts. Of course I made mistakes but nothing that caused me to face palm.
- No Storm decks today! Or Dredge!
- The splash was definitely worth it. It sort of makes the matchup against Burn worse (the loss Round 3 was the first loss to burn with Maverick I've had in a very, very long time). But I like Confidant, Abrupt Decay, and Thoughtseize. I'm not as infatuated with Deathrite as everyone else was, but he's still pretty good.

Cons
- No way to deal with Humility. If I play Maverick again (I think it might be time for me to move on for now) I'd probably swap a Thoughtseize for a K-Grip.
- Sometimes colors were awkward. I had some hands that were all white cards and only Bayous in play and things like that.
- Dark Confidant only drew me like 10 cards across the whole day. That's probably a high estimate. It's not that Confidant is bad, it's just that they killed him every time I played him.

[door]

Mirran Crusader is a good choice. I would run a minimum of 2 in the current metagame.

[conley1000000]

Since Legacy has alot of Modern influence creaping in how about taking a page from Kiblers GW meta hate and look at Wilt-Leaf Liege? The card has a ton of upside for the deck, dodges discard, can't be abrupt decayed, has a 4 toughness rear end to stay out of bolt range and helps offset engineered plague(if your opponent chooses to bring it in). I find its pump ability very relevant with the format going very midrange. Looking at him as a 2-3 of right now...

[ironclad8690]

Since Legacy has alot of Modern influence creaping in how about taking a page from Kiblers GW meta hate and look at Wilt-Leaf Liege? The card has a ton of upside for the deck, dodges discard, can't be abrupt decayed, has a 4 toughness rear end to stay out of bolt range and helps offset engineered plague(if your opponent chooses to bring it in). I find its pump ability very relevant with the format going very midrange. Looking at him as a 2-3 of right now...

This seems like a good idea. would combo really well with naya hushblade

[conley1000000]

This seems like a good idea. would combo really well with naya hushblade

I'm going to pretend that says Qasali Pridemage...

[KobeBryan]

How come people are not shifting the deck to PFM. Jund uses the PF route for their mirror and BUG

[sdematt]

How come people are not shifting the deck to PFM. Jund uses the PF route for their mirror and BUG

I already have, I'm just assuming everyone else is slower to adapt. PF + Mindcensor is the shit.

-Matt

[IL_casual]

Kindly post the new version of the punishing maverick build used now.
In light of this... Thalia is the card were gonna replace with the punishing fires right?

A decklist would be much appreciated and a tourney report if ever! Thanks and go Maverick!!

Also, i understand the reemergence of Punishing maverick...but whats the Mindcensor for?

[Koby]

Thalia and PFires aren't necessarily mutually exclusive. They are just good against decks that the other isn't.

[KobeBryan]

Kindly post the new version of the punishing maverick build used now.
In light of this... Thalia is the card were gonna replace with the punishing fires right?

A decklist would be much appreciated and a tourney report if ever! Thanks and go Maverick!!

Also, i understand the reemergence of Punishing maverick...but whats the Mindcensor for?

Haven't you noticed that people are running 10 fetches in a deck now to support a 3 color deck? Thats what mindcensor is for.

[matunos]

Haven't you noticed that people are running 10 fetches in a deck now to support a 3 color deck? Thats what mindcensor is for.

Also, I'm guessing, tutors?

As for removing Thalia, did I miss where people stopped playing combo?

[conley1000000]

Also, I'm guessing, tutors?

As for removing Thalia, did I miss where people stopped playing combo?

No but the majority of the meta isnt combo at the moment. Paying 3 for PF isnt very attractive.
IMO Thalia would be sb.

[KobeBryan]

No but the majority of the meta isnt combo at the moment. Paying 3 for PF isnt very attractive.
IMO Thalia would be sb.

Someone should next level these guys and take a combo deck to the top 8.

Thats what they get for running so much jund

[Malakai]

If you cut Thalia from the main, your overall combo matchup is going to be very weak as you'll basically be conceding game 1. This means your post-board plan has to be like 70-80 to win to be able to eke out a 50/50 matchup.

That may still be the correct plan, but be advised.

[conley1000000]

Someone should next level these guys and take a combo deck to the top 8.

Thats what they get for running so much jund

That's what it's going to come to. Jund will run out all the decks that can keep combo in check and then it'll just run all over...

So I sat down and tried to brew a hybrid...here's what I came up with

Punishing Maverick(61)

Creatures(23)
1 Birds of Paradise
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Mother of Runes
3 Noble Hierarch
2 Qasali Pridemage
2 Scavenging Ooze
3 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Gaddock Teeg
3 Thalia, Gaurdian of Thraben

Sorcery (4)
4 Green Sun Zenith

Instant (7)
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Punishing Fire

Artifacts(3)
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Umezawa's Jitte

Enchantment (1)
1 Sylvan Library

Land (23)
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Forest
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Karakas
1 Maze of Ith
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Plains
1 Plateau
4 Savannah
1 Taiga
3 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath

[sdematt]

That's what it's going to come to. Jund will run out all the decks that can keep combo in check and then it'll just run all over...

So I sat down and tried to brew a hybrid...here's what I came up with

Punishing Maverick(61)

Creatures(23)
1 Birds of Paradise
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Mother of Runes
3 Noble Hierarch
2 Qasali Pridemage
2 Scavenging Ooze
3 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Gaddock Teeg
3 Thalia, Gaurdian of Thraben

Sorcery (4)
4 Green Sun Zenith

Instant (7)
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Punishing Fire

Artifacts(3)
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Umezawa's Jitte

Enchantment (1)
1 Sylvan Library

Land (23)
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Forest
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Karakas
1 Maze of Ith
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Plains
1 Plateau
4 Savannah
1 Taiga
3 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath

This is pretty close to what I'm running:

4 Path to Exile
3 Punishing Fire
2 Sylvan Library
4 Green Sun's Zenith
13

4 Mother of Runes
1 Sylvan Safekeeper
1 Gaddock Teeg
4 Knight of the Reliquary
3 Aven Mindcensor
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Scryb Ranger
4 Noble Hierarch
24

3 Grove of the Burnwillows
4 Windswept Heath
2 Misty Rainforest
4 Savannah
1 Karakas
3 Forest
1 Plains
4 Wasteland
1 Dryad Arbor
23

Path because no one is playing basics anyway, and less Thalia because you're running Fires, but not mutually exclusive. Mindcensor just nutkicks all those decks running 10 Fetches, and combos well with Path to Exile.

-Matt

[KobeBryan]

This is pretty close to what I'm running:

4 Path to Exile
3 Punishing Fire
2 Sylvan Library
4 Green Sun's Zenith
13

4 Mother of Runes
1 Sylvan Safekeeper
1 Gaddock Teeg
4 Knight of the Reliquary
3 Aven Mindcensor
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Scryb Ranger
4 Noble Hierarch
24

3 Grove of the Burnwillows
4 Windswept Heath
2 Misty Rainforest
4 Savannah
1 Karakas
3 Forest
1 Plains
4 Wasteland
1 Dryad Arbor
23

Path because no one is playing basics anyway, and less Thalia because you're running Fires, but not mutually exclusive. Mindcensor just nutkicks all those decks running 10 Fetches, and combos well with Path to Exile.

-Matt

JProbably can go without a MOM since you have a safekeeper there anyways. Up the ooze count.

[Koby]

Path because no one is playing basics anyway, and less Thalia because you're running Fires, but not mutually exclusive. Mindcensor just nutkicks all those decks running 10 Fetches, and combos well with Path to Exile.

-Matt

I still like the synergy between StP -> trigger Punishing Fire. Life gain never stopped this deck before, and only in the case of opposing KotR or Sylvan Library has the the life gain ever mattered. It's too cute to get the Aven Mindcensor / PtE going -- precisely because you want the PtE against aggro, where Mindcensor is weak.

[conley1000000]

I still like the synergy between StP -> trigger Punishing Fire. Life gain never stopped this deck before, and only in the case of opposing KotR or Sylvan Library has the the life gain ever mattered. It's too cute to get the Aven Mindcensor / PtE going -- precisely because you want the PtE against aggro, where Mindcensor is weak.

Do you think that Pun Fire and Thalia can coexist MB in a deck looking to punish the cost of spells/mana and remove low toughness creatures to save STP for there big creatures i.e. jund and bug delver?

[Koby]

Do you think that Pun Fire and Thalia can coexist MB in a deck looking to punish the cost of spells/mana and remove low toughness creatures to save STP for there big creatures i.e. jund and bug delver?

Yes, naturally. Thalia is already bad against creature decks, where PFires shines. The reverse is also true with Thalia vs unfair decks, where PFires is just a shock. How many turns does it take in Game 1 to figure out what you're up against? In either situation, you can always chump block with Thalia to get rid of her and start PFiring away.

Granted, it's hard to fit in 4 Thalia with more spells in the deck, so cut that down to 3. Then, run the 4th in the board for when you do need it.

[conley1000000]

Yes, naturally. Thalia is already bad against creature decks, where PFires shines. The reverse is also true with Thalia vs unfair decks, where PFires is just a shock. How many turns does it take in Game 1 to figure out what you're up against? In either situation, you can always chump block with Thalia to get rid of her and start PFiring away.

Granted, it's hard to fit in 4 Thalia with more spells in the deck, so cut that down to 3. Then, run the 4th in the board for when you do need it.

Thats along the lines of what I was thinking, but wasn't sure if I was sound thought. I'm working hard not to give up on the deck and keep it going. This semi fresh look could be something it really needs...

[sdematt]

I think P. Fires definitely gives the deck a bit more of an edge that just derdling til we get Terminus'd.

-Matt

[conley1000000]

Another thing I've been wondering is Leyline of Sanctity. With Jund creating space for more combo should this be in our SB. My other question would it warrant coming in vs. Jund itself? I know alot of people use it in modern against it and there discard suite only gets better in legacy?

[kingsey]

Is anyone using giest of saint traft?

[sdematt]

It depends how the maindeck and sideboard are built. I think if there's cards in the main that aren't pulling their weight, Leyline seems okay. But, do you keep hands without it? Probably, but then you draw awkward 4 mana enchantments later. Seems meh. I'd rather just put in more juice against them. Yes playing against discard sucks, but playing more good things also seems legitimate. In the BGx: BGx mirror, I always board out discard since it's so bad when you draw it in the mid to late game, and you can usually recover from a Hymn in the early game.

-Matt

[Koby]

It depends how the maindeck and sideboard are built. I think if there's cards in the main that aren't pulling their weight, Leyline seems okay. But, do you keep hands without it? Probably, but then you draw awkward 4 mana enchantments later. Seems meh. I'd rather just put in more juice against them. Yes playing against discard sucks, but playing more good things also seems legitimate. In the BGx: BGx mirror, I always board out discard since it's so bad when you draw it in the mid to late game, and you can usually recover from a Hymn in the early game.

-Matt

Specifically:
Sylvan Library (out-draw your opponent)
Life from the Loam (recur Wasteland and Horizon Canopy -- spotty vs DRS)
Horizon Canopy via KotR (extra cards)
Brainstorm (in blue splashes, application is obvious)

[useL]

This deck does not belong in the DTB anymore. Unrepresented and probably will not place if played. I guess this archetype needs a break from the format.

[Canes25]

This deck does not belong in the DTB anymore. Unrepresented and probably will not place if played. I guess this archetype needs a break from the format.

You posted a 4-0 list about a month and a half ago which was a more hostile meta with all the one mana sweepers running around than the current meta. The deck can certainly place if played by skilled pilots willing to put the work in. Stoneblade and rug were fine match ups before and that hasn't changed. Mom is one of the best answers to an abrupt decay in the format. The decks biggest weakness miracles is not as popular as it was a couple months ago. Maverick has all the tools to be a competitive deck in the current meta. It's not like combo is everywhere which is obviously the worst case scenario. A properly tuned deck can certainly grind with the mid range grindy decks such as jund that are currently running around. I agree it is probably not a deck to beat at the moment and is extremely underrepresented but it absolutely has the tools to take an event down if the deck is given the proper attention.

[Lans89]

Only: Deathrite Shaman --> KotR =(

But the deck still works very well in the current meta! BUG isn't a difficult matchup I believe, so the problem with KotR is not that big. Mother of Ruins is a bitch ^^! But you might want to add 2/3 Stoneforge Mystic with some equipment again, for those who had cut it before.

And if think Gaddock Teeg + some sideboard cards can win some of the combo matches, you can even go back to Punishing Fire lists to beat all other decks around!

[Barbed Blightning]

This deck does not belong in the DTB anymore. Unrepresented and probably will not place if played. I guess this archetype needs a break from the format.

Maverick, especially Punishing Maverick, is most certainly still a tier 1 deck, and I think the sooner folks catch onto that, the sooner we'll see top 8s by it again. It can most certainly go toe-to-toe with any of the non-miracles decks out there, even combo (Thalias and Teeg). For now the deck is the dark horse of the format.

[useL]

You posted a 4-0 list about a month and a half ago which was a more hostile meta with all the one mana sweepers running around than the current meta. The deck can certainly place if played by skilled pilots willing to put the work in. Stoneblade and rug were fine match ups before and that hasn't changed. Mom is one of the best answers to an abrupt decay in the format. The decks biggest weakness miracles is not as popular as it was a couple months ago. Maverick has all the tools to be a competitive deck in the current meta. It's not like combo is everywhere which is obviously the worst case scenario. A properly tuned deck can certainly grind with the mid range grindy decks such as jund that are currently running around. I agree it is probably not a deck to beat at the moment and is extremely underrepresented but it absolutely has the tools to take an event down if the deck is given the proper attention.

I agree to your statement. It is indeed a strong deck still and played properly and tuned thereafter it can put up results. But right now, this deck is not amongst the decks I practice against for any tournament since I do not see it as a great threat or a deck represented in an event.

[Vandalize]

Lol, just seen a weird Vial Maverick in MWS.

Lands [21]
4 Windswept Heath
1 Misty Rainforest
4 Savannah
3 Horizon Canopy
1 Plains
1 Forest
4 Wasteland
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Karakas
1 Maze of Ith

Creatures [28]
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Mother of Runes
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Qasali Pridemage
3 Scavenging Ooze
3 Aven Mindcensor
3 Weathered Wayfarer
3 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Birds of Paradise

Spells [11]
4 AEther Vial
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sylvan Library

Sideboard [15]
4 Pithing Needle
3 Path to Exile
3 Gaddock Teeg
2 Krosan Grip
2 Ground Seal
1 Batterskull

Sideboard pretty much design to hate on Deathrite Shaman and Miracles. Aven Mindcensor is a bitch, and carries equipment like a boss. This deck still has a pretty favourable matchup against Jund/BUG/RUG and when people come off the Deathrite Shaman hype, it might place well in tournaments.

[heallan]

This deck does not belong in the DTB anymore. Unrepresented and probably will not place if played. I guess this archetype needs a break from the format.

The deck can still make result. The fact is there are less and less people playing it so the chance of the deck to be Top 8 decrease. In my metagame (In France), Maverick still represents about 5% of the metagame (Yeah yeah French are kind of outdated, not a news) and there are often one in the Top 8. (Maybe (I hoppe) there will be a Maverick in the next top 8 of the BOM (700+ players tournament in France)).

UW Miracle, Storm and S&T (worst MU ever^^) are tough MU but UW Miracle is not as popular as before and Storm has always been here.

The other decks of the meta are winnable. Of course some changes has to be made: Mirran crusader has certainly his place in a heavy BUG metagame (This guy just win this MU alone), Aven Mindcensor need to make his come back as a 2/3 off (Good against... RUG, BUG, ANT, etc.) and PF should be consider.

I just went 3-1 in a small tournament yesterday, I lost on a mistake against ANT but RUG, BUG and Dredge were free for me. The keys were: Mother, Aven Mindcensor (So good mana denial with Wasterland), Mirran Crusader, Rest in peace (This card is insane... Very effective nowadays).

[sdematt]

Look at the list I posted as a jumping off point. Fires and Mindcensor are darn good right now. I haven't tried Vial, so I can't say anything about that, but flash flying ANYTHING is good.

-Matt

[conley1000000]

The keys were: Mother, Aven Mindcensor (So good mana denial with Wasterland), Mirran Crusader, Rest in peace (This card is insane... Very effective nowadays).

I fully agree with Crusader, thats a card I've been testing very thoroughly. I like Aven Mindcensor as well, especially in the Punishing Fire version where you have to trim thalia back.

[Khamul]

Interesting. I have tried out Aven Mindcensor multiple times, and I've always been disappointed by him. One of the Problems I have is that I can't find a place in my list to include it right now. My list feels as tight as hell, and I even had problems switching from GW to Punishing because I couldn't find anything to cut.

I've finally ended with this list:

Creatures (22):
4 Mother of Runes
3 Noble Hierarch
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Qasali Pridemage
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Mirran Crusader
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Scryb Ranger

Spells (15):
4 Green Sun’s Zenith
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Punishing Fire
2 Umezawa’s Jitte
2 Sylvan Library

Lands (23):
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Maze of Ith
1 Karakas
1 Horizon Canopy
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
3 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath
2 Wooded Foothills
3 Savannah
1 Taiga
1 Plateau
1 Forest
1 Plains


Sideboard (15):
3 Red Elemental Blast
2 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Pithing Needle
2 Oblivion Ring
1 Life from the Loam
1 Crop Rotation
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Harmonic Sliver

Punishing is a Blowout right now! My meta mainly consists of BUG and Miracle Blade Hybrids. Back then, with my GW build, I've always had problems with those Deathrite Shamans, and I lost many games against the Control Decks with them at 1 life - things that Punishing Fire surely could handle. And 'till now, I'm satisfied with the results.

I like to have Thalia alongside PFire. Fire gets rid of the early Shamans, preventing the BUG Opponents from ramping, and then Thalia puts her Tax on them, hindering their game plan even more. Against BUG, I mostly even side in the 4th Thalia because I think that she's so great. And there are nice combat tricks you can do with her First Strike and PFire.
Mirran Crusader is also a blowout against BUG. Put a Jitte on him, and he becomes absolutely bonkers! He's also good against Miracle Blade - Rest in Peace doesn't shrink him, and he doesn't get blown up by Perish. Batterskull doesn't help them refilling their life totals... only Souls still suck. And against Swords, you still have Mother.
I've cut the 4th Knight to fit in a 2nd Crusader. With all those Shamans around right now, I believe that this is a solid choice - I can still tutor the Knight with GSZ in the MUs I need him - which I can't do with Crusader. That's why I definitely want a 2nd one.
Sylvan Library is amazing, as always. I would never go down below 2 of them.

Yeah, and the SB is built to fight those Control Decks. The Split between Needle and Revoker because there's the occasional Storm or Elves Deck I have to face. The blasts help against BUG, too. But I don't even think that the MU is unfavourable for me right now. Sliver is my bet as additional tutorable Artifact/Enchantment Removal. All those Engineered Plagues hurt, and Rest in Peace also needs to be dealt with.

There's just the question about my Manabase. I'm not absolutely sure if I would need a 7th Fetchland. But what should I cut, if I put it in? the 3rd Savannah?
Also, it hurt to cut Cavern of Souls - but I think that a land like Horizon Canopy, which produces G and W under all circumstances, is better. I sometimes found myself being cut off White, not being able to cast my StPs. That's also the reason why I put in the Plateau (my friends said that I should play 2 Taiga - I honestly disagree)

[sdematt]

Creatures (22):
4 Mother of Runes
3 Noble Hierarch
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Qasali Pridemage
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Mirran Crusader
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Scryb Ranger

Spells (15):
4 Green Sun’s Zenith
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Punishing Fire
2 Umezawa’s Jitte
2 Sylvan Library

Lands (23):
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Maze of Ith
1 Karakas
1 Horizon Canopy
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
3 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath
2 Wooded Foothills
3 Savannah
1 Taiga
1 Plateau
1 Forest
1 Plains

I think personally, Mirran Crusader is great, however, do you NEED him to win the BUG matchup? I haven't gotten a ton of testing in so I cannot say for certain that's he a requirement in that matchup.

First, Knight is the only beef you have in the deck, so I'd up his count to 4 of. Even at 3 mana, he's tutoring for your Grove, Wasteland, Maze, etc. Personally, I've cut the Equipment from the deck to make room for Mindcensors. Yes, I know it's blasphemy, but I just feel that with 7 pieces of mainboard removal (3 being recurring removal), that you don't really need that extra edge in the mainboard.

For the manabase, I feel like the Canopy and Plateau are a bit of overkill. I think I'd rather have a bit more of a solid manabase and change that to a Forest and a Savannah (I'd personally run 2 Forest to have more basic lands against Tempo decks, since Hierarch can be fragile at times). You do lose a bit of consistency in casting red spells postboard, but the red spells you bring in are not always for Tempo Wasteland decks. I'm actually trying out a Ghost Quarter in my build against the double Plains waiting game of Miracles. If you can knock them off double Plains, making them hold a fetch for Tundra or fetch Tundra earlier is music to the ears of your Wastelands.

Your board looks fine for what you're trying to do. I personally would not include more than 3 Needle effects, and the 4th Thalia could be a Cannonist, but this is a meta call really.

-Matt

[Koby]

I gave it a good shot. Really did. Then I faced burn and wished I ran actual threats - not 1/1s.
Then I faced the mirror, and wanted to tie a noose.

Not trying this experiment again in the near future.

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.

[sdematt]

I gave it a good shot. Really did. Then I faced burn and wished I ran actual threats - not 1/1s.
Then I faced the mirror, and wanted to tie a noose.

Not trying this experiment again in the near future.

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.

That's pretty strong, wow.

-Matt

[Koby]

That's pretty strong, wow.

-Matt

www.twitch.tv/jkory

Look for the archive videos with Punishing Maverick.
I don't even think that Punishing Fire is all that necessary, but in the spirit of testing ran it out there anyway. Got demolished.

I'm happy to take criticism on the deck list or even the plays. However from a format perspective, the deck doesn't feel like it can compete with the other big players.

[conley1000000]

www.twitch.tv/jkory

Look for the archive videos with Punishing Maverick.
I don't even think that Punishing Fire is all that necessary, but in the spirit of testing ran it out there anyway. Got demolished.

I'm happy to take criticism on the deck list or even the plays. However from a format perspective, the deck doesn't feel like it can compete with the other big players.

I'm not really sure giving it two rounds is a fair shot? How refined was your list? Did you give it any testing outside of those two games? Pun. Fire may not be all that necessary, but it gives the deck an extension it can use at the moment.
I'd be interested in seeing the list you ran, but dont feel like trying to decifer it on my iPhone, so if you would post it I would appreciate that.

[Koby]

I ran this list, with some standard callouts from the SB (2nd Jitte, g/y hate, combo hate, 4th thalia)

I only recorded the actual tournament, but have ran the list in some practice matchups.

1 Birds of Paradise
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Gaddock Teeg
2 Qasali Pridemage
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Noble Hierarch
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Mother of Runes

3 Punishing Fire
4 Swords to Plowshares

1 Life from the Loam
4 Green Sun's Zenith

1 Sylvan Library

1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Umezawa's Jitte

1 Cavern of Souls
1 Forest
1 Karakas
1 Plains
1 Plateau
2 Wooded Foothills
2 Taiga
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
3 Savannah
3 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath

[Khamul]

I think personally, Mirran Crusader is great, however, do you NEED him to win the BUG matchup? I haven't gotten a ton of testing in so I cannot say for certain that's he a requirement in that matchup.

First, Knight is the only beef you have in the deck, so I'd up his count to 4 of. Even at 3 mana, he's tutoring for your Grove, Wasteland, Maze, etc.

Good points about that. Yeah, I may not really NEED Crusader against BUG, but he does extremely fine against:
- BUG (obviously)
- Junk (especially the GSZ Version with their own Knights and Oozes)
- Blade Control / Miracles (especially post board, as he's even threatening after they laid down their Rest in Peace - he evades Perish and likes sparring with Batterskull)
- The Mirror (okay, Punishing is already favoured in the Mirror, but again, he's great against Knights and Oozes - and doesn't need his Mother to get through)
- Jund (can stand up to everything they play except for Bolts - or their own PFires)

IMO, that's actually a big part of the field. And like Thalia, he can also be used for Combat tricks with PFire. Knight is still amazing, but I can tutor him when I really need him, and against many Decks nowadays, I feel that he's just a 2/2 Weathered Wayfarer for 3. If my Meta would shift back to more RUG than BUG, I would definitely put the 4th Knight back in, but I just don't feel that he's needed right now.


For the manabase, I feel like the Canopy and Plateau are a bit of overkill. I think I'd rather have a bit more of a solid manabase and change that to a Forest and a Savannah (I'd personally run 2 Forest to have more basic lands against Tempo decks, since Hierarch can be fragile at times). You do lose a bit of consistency in casting red spells postboard, but the red spells you bring in are not always for Tempo Wasteland decks.

Again, I understand your points. I'll try it out like you suggested, looking if it makes much of a difference.

Btw, do you think I should go up to 24 lands? I mean, I rarely get Mana problems, but Punishing Maverick is quite Mana hungry, nonetheless.

[conley1000000]

I ran this list, with some standard callouts from the SB (2nd Jitte, g/y hate, combo hate, 4th thalia)

I only recorded the actual tournament, but have ran the list in some practice matchups.


List seems pretty stock, but I've done some testing with the list over the past week and ill share some ideas/opinions I've taken away from it.
-I greatly dislike the sword of feast and famine. Yes it's cute interactions add to extra pun fire uses, but relying on something we can't protect isn't worth the mana investment. I'm not even sure with all the targeted discard if SFM is correct to play ATM. It may sound silly but I am more of a fan of Scryb Ranger over the sword, for the simple fact of interactions with more than one card.
-aven Mindcensor is an interesting card with a lot of application but I can't figure out if this hate bear is really worth the investment. I noticed you didn't run any so interested on your thoughts.
- I really like the application of pun fire. Being able to target PW's and kill the endless see of <x/3 creatures is amazing. But is it worth giving up how solid gw can be

Maybe growing maverick into a more midrange shell is the way to take it. GW and pun versions have the tools to fight its just finding the correct card combinations to get there. I will beg to differ with you Mr. Koby maverick is not dead, its just lacking the people determined to bring it back to the forefront because sometimes its easier to switch decks than make the effort to keep up with a changing format...

[tezzerator69]

Played Punishing Maverick again after Miracles(im one of them :frown:) died in our meta because of Jund, BUG and Goblins. Was able to top 8 in a tournament with 92 participants last Sunday.

Match-ups:
Round 1: Bye
Round 2: UG 12 Post(2-0)
Round 3: Merfolk(2-1 Punishing fire rules!)
Round 4: Junk(2-0 Punishing fire rules!)
Round 5: Sneak Show(1-2)
Round 6: ANT(2-1)
Round 7: ID with Jund

Quarterfinals: Lost to BUG because of 3 Abrupt decays(the other one still waiting on the top of his library) for 3 KoTR's in a row :cry: If only I had the chance to fetch a Grove using Knight, it would be a different story.

I might add a Sylvan Safekeeper and LftL in the main to improve the Storm and BUG match-ups. Instant speed protection is really needed(im looking at you Mother!) in a world of abrupt decay. During my ANT match-up, he was able to kill two of my Hatebears(Teeg, Canonist) because of a GSZ sitting in my hand that could have fetch(after Teeg died) S.S.

Here is the list:
CREATURES
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Mother of Runes
3 Noble Hierarch
2 Qasali Pridemage
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Scryb Ranger
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Thrun the last troll
1 Stoneforge Mystic

SPELLS
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Punishing Fire
1 Sylvan Library
4 Green Sun’s Zenith
2 Umezawa’s Jitte
1 Sword of Feast and Famine

PLANESWALKERS
1 Elspeth Knight Errant

LANDS
4 Windswept Heath
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
3 Wasteland
2 Wooded Foothills
2 Savannah
2 Taiga
1 Arid Mesa
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Forest
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Karakas
1 Maze of Ith
1 Plateau
1 Plains

SIDEBOARD
3 Pyroblast
3 Path to Exile
3 Surgical Extraction
3 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Choke
1 Ancient Grudge

[Lord_Mcdonalds]

www.twitch.tv/jkory
However from a format perspective, the deck doesn't feel like it can compete with the other big players.

Honestly, while maverick isn't that well positioned (merely okay), it's definitely much more playable now than it was 3 months ago when Miracles was what EVERYONE wanted to play, last I checked, it has game against BUG/Jund and builds packing stoneforge mystic rofl stomp goblins.

If you have access to other options though, would probably play them before maverick to be frank.

Edit: egregious error, I r dumb.

[conley1000000]

If you have access to other options though, would probably play them before maverick to be frank.



Thats the attitude!? I'm pretty sure anyone who thinks the deck is just full on green and white mongo's has this attitude. Maverick isnt for everyone. Playing the deck has always been a challenge. You dont have cards like Brainstorm and FOW to help make up for misplays. The deck isnt forgiving and I for one make it my first option everytime.
Genuine discussion on how to make this deck adapatable to the changing meta is whats going to get the few people still interested in playing this archtype to the top of the standings. Picking something easier, well, guess my mom taught me not to run to something easier when things get hard. The grass isnt always greener on the other side, its green where you water it...

[allek]

Don't believe the hype, Maverick is not dead. Our worst match-up (of the tier1-decks) U/W Miracles is being driven out of the meta by Team America and Jund, both being pretty good matchups for us. I played two tournaments at my LGS this year going 3-0-1 and 3-1. The meta is competitive and turnout was ~30 people both times.

My loss was to Elves which continues to be the absolutely worst matchup, at least for me. The draw was against U/W Blade with Geists and was a misplay on my part. I faced U/R Delver, Team America, Maverick, Esperblade and Goblins the other games. I will try Punishing Fires to see if it improves some of the difficult matches. I expect it will be easier beating Elves and Blade but other than that it might worsen our game against mana denial-decks like BUG/RUG. Also, it does nothing against ANT/TES or Omnitell.

If Jund and Blade are the top dogs, Maverick will be very well positioned in 2013.

[kingsey]

Don't believe the hype, Maverick is not dead. Our worst match-up (of the tier1-decks) U/W Miracles is being driven out of the meta by Team America and Jund, both being pretty good matchups for us. I played two tournaments at my LGS this year going 3-0-1 and 3-1. The meta is competitive and turnout was ~30 people both times.

My loss was to Elves which continues to be the absolutely worst matchup, at least for me. The draw was against U/W Blade with Geists and was a misplay on my part. I faced U/R Delver, Team America, Maverick, Esperblade and Goblins the other games. I will try Punishing Fires to see if it improves some of the difficult matches. I expect it will be easier beating Elves and Blade but other than that it might worsen our game against mana denial-decks like BUG/RUG. Also, it does nothing against ANT/TES or Omnitell.

If Jund and Blade are the top dogs, Maverick will be very well positioned in 2013.

What's your 60 look like ? I've switched over to bant. Giest has been great , but I do like straight gw.

[allek]

What's your 60 look like ? I've switched over to bant. Giest has been great , but I do like straight gw.

I play a fairly standard list with 22 Lands + Arbor, 2 Sylvans, 2 Jitte, 4 STP and 4 GSZ.
26 Creatures which includes Sylvan Safekeeper and 2 Phyrexian Revoker. Been very happy with them. Sometimes I play 2 Elspeth but I switched to 1 Captain Sisay (for card advantage in mirrors) and 1 Rafiq to be able to win in a more comboesque manner.

[Barbed Blightning]

If you have access to other options though, would probably play them before maverick to be frank.


Hell no! Maverick (at least in my testing) has crushed all the "tier" decks (Jund, BUG, Junk and Stoneblade), and since Combo decks are poking their heads out with the lack of counterbalances, now is the time for the GW hatebears to come out of the woods!

That said, here's my list for Punishing Mav:

Spells (15)
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Punishing Fire
2 Sylvan Library
2 Umezawa's Jitte

Creatures (21)
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Mother of Runes
2 Noble Hierarch
2 Birds of Paradise
2 Qasali Pridemage
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Mirran Crusader
1 Scryb Ranger
1 Sylvan Safekeeper
1 Gaddock Teeg

Lands (23 + Arbor)

4 Grove of the Burnwillows
3 Wooded Foothills
3 Windswept Heath
3 Savannah
3 Wasteland
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Mountain
1 Maze of Ith
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Karakas
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Taiga

SB: 4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
SB: 3 Aven Mindcensor
SB: 2 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
SB: 2 Armageddon
SB: 1 Life From the Loam
SB: 1 Gaddock Teeg
SB: 1 Bojuka Bog
SB: 1 Ulvenwald Tracker


Notes on the deck:

-BoP's are better in the red splash (imo) since Fires are easier to hurl. Plus they can be wastelanded, and are easier to protect

-The main deck is notably light on combo hate. I believe that Thalia and Punishing Fire are not best friends, even with all of our ramp.

-Tracker comes in against anything with casted creatures as a wincon. With all our protection dorks, Tracker is almost guaranteed to stick--and it's a nice twist when you Zenith @1 and you drop a removal bomb.

-Crusader's nuts right now, and Linvala from the board makes DRS look dumb.

Thouhgts/input are appreciated!

[sdematt]

Hell no! Maverick (at least in my testing) has crushed all the "tier" decks (Jund, BUG, Junk and Stoneblade), and since Combo decks are poking their heads out with the lack of counterbalances, now is the time for the GW hatebears to come out of the woods!

That said, here's my list for Punishing Mav:




Notes on the deck:

-BoP's are better in the red splash (imo) since Fires are easier to hurl. Plus they can be wastelanded, and are easier to protect

-The main deck is notably light on combo hate. I believe that Thalia and Punishing Fire are not best friends, even with all of our ramp.

-Tracker comes in against anything with casted creatures as a wincon. With all our protection dorks, Tracker is almost guaranteed to stick--and it's a nice twist when you Zenith @1 and you drop a removal bomb.

-Crusader's nuts right now, and Linvala from the board makes DRS look dumb.

Thouhgts/input are appreciated!

I like the list, but Maverick is not favoured against Junk :P

-Matt

[Koby]

I like the list, but Maverick is not favoured against Junk :P

-Matt

I beg to differ! But it could be wildly dependent on the pilots.

[sdematt]

Also the sideboard selections. Without Deed, it gets worse.

-Matt

[Barbed Blightning]

Also the sideboard selections. Without Deed, it gets worse.

-Matt

This is precisely why I'm adding that to my Junk sideboard.

I also think Mav can simply outclass Junk with protection and an incredible threat density. Tarmogoyf's well and scary... until he bounces off moms. Crusader also, as i stated earlier, is the fucking nuts.

[sdematt]

This is precisely why I'm adding that to my Junk sideboard.

I also think Mav can simply outclass Junk with protection and an incredible threat density. Tarmogoyf's well and scary... until he bounces off moms. Crusader also, as i stated earlier, is the fucking nuts.

True, until I plow him or his MoM until he submits :P

-Matt

[Roland_Deschain]

Have testing the Punishing Fire Maverick but keep losing for Wastelands, so i test a GW list and beat some tier decks like Miracles, BUG, Junk i don't know if the peoples that i play are bad players or not, but i am very glad with the results:

Lands 23

4 Windswept Heath
3 Misty Rainforest
4 Savannah
4 Wasteland
3 Forest
1 Plains
2 Horizon Canopy
1 Karakas
1 Maze of Ith

Creatures 22

4 Noble Hierarch
4 Knight of the Reliquary
3 Mother of Runes
2 Qasali Pridemage
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Scryb Ranger
1 Sylvan Safekeeper
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Dryad Arbor

Sorcery 5

4 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Life from the Loam

Enchantment 1

1 Sylvan Library

Artifact 3

1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Umezawa's Jitte

Planeswalker 2

1 Elspeth, Knight Errant
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter

Sideboard 15

1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Crop Rotation
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Karakas
3 Oblivion Ring
3 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Gaddock Teeg
3 Surgical Extraction

I don't know about you guys but in my games the Thalia wasn't doing anything so i cut it from my list and does'nt miss it at all, and with Thalia i cut to, Cavern of Souls.
The Loam is so cool free win against some decks.
The Garruk, Primal Hunter are a good surprise, bring some faties to game and full my hands. The 5cc are not a big problem without Thalia, i never use his ultimate.
I love play a Thrun or Teeg with backup of the Karakas especialy versus miracles.
I never feel confortable about to cut Stoneforge Mystic from my list i don´t see how it is bad.
Play Safeeeper. Serious this guy rocks!
My sideboard are doing well multiple Gaddoks is all you want versus Miracles.

The only problem i see is combo and Show and Tell decks, sometimes all the Karakas, Oblivion Rings, Teegs and Canonists of the world can't save you...

I beg your pardon for some gramatical errors but write in other languages are a litlle hard...

[conley1000000]

I noticed Ulvenwald Tracker above in Barbed Blightings' list. This is a card that I have been thinking of alot lately for just the GW decks. With 0 testing at this point and the following being all theory I could see the little fella making a big splash. Much like RUG Delver players adding in the Grim Lavamancer to help combat the slew of advantage generating X/(2)or(1)'s running around he could do much the same. With a packed house of creatures using the fight mechanic may be very beneficial. Anyone have any experience with him they'd like to share?

[sdematt]

Only that he's amazing in the creature matchups.

-Matt

[Barbed Blightning]

Only that he's amazing in the creature matchups.

-Matt

Read "half the overall metagame."

[Roland_Deschain]

Have testing the Punishing Fire Maverick but keep losing for Wastelands, so i test a GW list and beat some tier decks like Miracles, BUG, Junk i don't know if the peoples that i play are bad players or not, but i am very glad with the results:

Lands 23

4 Windswept Heath
3 Misty Rainforest
4 Savannah
4 Wasteland
3 Forest
1 Plains
2 Horizon Canopy
1 Karakas
1 Maze of Ith

Creatures 22

4 Noble Hierarch
4 Knight of the Reliquary
3 Mother of Runes
2 Qasali Pridemage
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Scryb Ranger
1 Sylvan Safekeeper
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Dryad Arbor

Sorcery 5

4 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Life from the Loam

Enchantment 1

1 Sylvan Library

Artifact 3

1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Umezawa's Jitte

Planeswalker 2

1 Elspeth, Knight Errant
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter

Sideboard 15

1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Crop Rotation
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Karakas
3 Oblivion Ring
3 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Gaddock Teeg
3 Surgical Extraction

I don't know about you guys but in my games the Thalia wasn't doing anything so i cut it from my list and does'nt miss it at all, and with Thalia i cut to, Cavern of Souls.
The Loam is so cool free win against some decks.
The Garruk, Primal Hunter are a good surprise, bring some faties to game and full my hands. The 5cc are not a big problem without Thalia, i never use his ultimate.
I love play a Thrun or Teeg with backup of the Karakas especialy versus miracles.
I never feel confortable about to cut Stoneforge Mystic from my list i don´t see how it is bad.
Play Safeeeper. Serious this guy rocks!
My sideboard are doing well multiple Gaddoks is all you want versus Miracles.

The only problem i see is combo and Show and Tell decks, sometimes all the Karakas, Oblivion Rings, Teegs and Canonists of the world can't save you...

I beg your pardon for some gramatical errors but write in other languages are a litlle hard...

Play against Jund yesterday and win pretty easy, the same happens against Affinity, Goblins and Reanimator the Omniscience game was close 2-1 but he don't draw so good, close to was the games against Lands 2-1 (Sylvan Libray and Loam Shine here) i will keep testing and post the results (want games versus elfs and storm combos).


I will try the tracker here, seems pretty good.

[Lord_Mcdonalds]

So uh yeah, despite my previous statements, I am actually playing punishing maverick (I actually want to give esper blade a shot, hillariously enough, I settled for maverick a year ago because Savannah was 60 and tundra were 90, funny how life works out like that) list so far

Lands
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wasteland
2 Verdant Catacombs
3 Savannah
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
2 Taiga
1 Karakas
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Maze of Ith
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Forest

Creatures
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Mother of Runes
3 Noble Hierarch
2 Qasali Pridemage
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Sylvan Safekeeper
1 Scryb Ranger

Spells
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Punishing Fire
2 Sylvan Library
1 Sword of Light and Shadow*
1 Umezawa's Jitte

Sideboard
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Pyroblast
2 Gaddock Teeg
2 Choke
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence

LaS should be feast and famine but brother is still looking for the sword, and the singleton e-tutor is a stand in for a second ethersworn (the other 3 decided to take a sorority trip to mexico I guess...)

I actually haven't been able to play legacy for a couple of weeks so I was wondering

Vs. Jund, is it better to try and out-attrition them or race, if it's attrition, would a 'walker or two help with this?

Vs. Deathrite Shaman, how much do we actually care about him?

Vs. Bug/Junk/Jund, windmill slamming Mother is still the best thing in the world against them right (last time I played this matchup, way back before miracles, that was the case)?

Vs. Junk, play it like a mirror I suppose, given it's beaters are as tough as ours (although the variance between them makes it a frustrating to get a gameplan together :/)

Vs. Lingering souls, like deathrite, do we actually care?

[conley1000000]

Read "half the overall metagame."

That was my assumption as well. To me his biggest upside to me is taking out the early fliers like delver and allowing us to hold STP for bigger creatures we may not be able to fight with at that particular moment.

[sdematt]

That was my assumption as well. To me his biggest upside to me is taking out the early fliers like delver and allowing us to hold STP for bigger creatures we may not be able to fight with at that particular moment.

He's an immediate must-remove or prepare to die in creature combat, essentially.

-Matt

[defector]

Manila Legacy Cerberus Open Punishing Mav top 8 taking 7th, pretty straightforward list, dont call it a comeback:) Very promising, maybe miracles is weak enough now and p mav meets jund/ta/rug/junk all pretty well and can hang with combo esp is sneak show is the snt deck of choice, maybe the wheel has turned all the way around again. Either way, go mav:)

[conley1000000]

Manila Legacy Cerberus Open Punishing Mav top 8 taking 7th, pretty straightforward list, dont call it a comeback:) Very promising, maybe miracles is weak enough now and p mav meets jund/ta/rug/junk all pretty well and can hang with combo esp is sneak show is the snt deck of choice, maybe the wheel has turned all the way around again. Either way, go mav:)

got a link to the event?

[Ayiluss]

got a link to the event?

Here's the link of top8:http://http://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=4241

[ironclad8690]

Anybody else see this craziness that did decently in a 50man tourney?

GWb Mav: Tassone Lorenzo

Creature [24]
2 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scryb Ranger
4 Mother of Runes
2 Knight of the Reliquary
3 Dark Confidant
3 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Tarmogoyf
2 Deathrite Shaman
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Gaddock Teeg
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
Instant [5]
2 Abrupt Decay
3 Swords to Plowshares
Sorcery [3]
2 Thoughtseize
1 Green Sun's Zenith
Artifact [6]
4 AEther Vial
1 Batterskull
1 Umezawa's Jitte
Land [17]
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Maze of Ith
1 Windswept Heath
1 Tower of the Magistrate
2 Marsh Flats
2 Horizon Canopy
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Savannah
1 Scrubland
2 Bayou
1 Karakas

SB:
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Choke
2 Engineered Plague
2 Path to Exile
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Extirpate
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Duress

I like the whackyness of it. Very European. Unfortunately the list was incomplete, and was missing 5 cards, all of which were lands I think.

[Esper3k]

Weird list. What place did it finish?

[Koby]

Looks closer to Deadguy Ale/G than it does Vial Maverick; but at this point they blur so much it doesn't really matter. Odd 3-ofs smacks of being inefficient, especially on Dark Confidants.

[ironclad8690]

Weird list. What place did it finish?

7th

Here is event's info page
http://www.thecouncil.es/tcdecks/deck.php?id=10022

Here is a similar list form another event:

http://www.mtgdecks.net/decks/view/44084

Which finished 3rd out of about 80.

Less stonebladey.

[defector]

It looks like the best Mav finishes are putting something into the x of GW/x. Punishing Mav or Junky Mav, both seem to be doing some of the same things in different ways. I like the Deathrite/AD strategy more than the P Fires mainly because I hate CB more than I hate Deathrite, but with CB in decline due to Jund Punishing may be the best way to combat the current meta, either way I am calling Mav officially forked, may the best x win!

[ironclad8690]

Has anyone tested the straight gw build in the current meta?

Or does this feature match sum it up?

http://starcitygames.com/events/coverage/round_8_dan_jordan_vs_pat_cox.html

[useL]

Has anyone tested the straight gw build in the current meta?

Or does this feature match sum it up?

http://starcitygames.com/events/coverage/round_8_dan_jordan_vs_pat_cox.html

Pretty sure a mother of runes would have been good here instead of all the mana accelerants.

[Fatal]

Topped on GPT Strasburg, here is a list:


1 Gaddock Teeg
4 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Dryad Arbor
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Sylvan Library
1 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Qasali Pridemage
3 Mother of Runes
3 Noble Hierarch
1 Karakas
4 Wasteland
1 Forest
1 Plains
4 Windswept Heath
2 Wooded Foothills
2 Savannah
1 Scryb Ranger
1 Cavern of Souls
3 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Punishing Fire
1 Batterskull
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Sylvan Safekeeper
1 Taiga
1 Plateau
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Life from the Loam
//SB:
1 Bojuka Bog
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Engineered Explosives
3 Chalice of the Void
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Red Elemental Blast
1 Gaea's Blessing
2 Mindbreak Trap


Few words about SB - I know quite well my meta, so Gaea's Blessing and Mindbreak Traps was as a meta slots.
5 rounds and top4:

Round 1 - Combo-Elves

Game 1
Punishing Fires shine in this MU - it gives me a win. Anyway elves are still favor able since you can't stop grimpse. Game one was quite grindy but in turn 4 he just go off (could kill only one key elf but he had another). 0-1
SB:
+3 Chalice of the Void
+2 Mindbreak Trap
-1 Qasali Pridemage
-3 Mother of Runes
-1 Batterskull

Game 2
Chalice connected with Gaddock to avoid GSZ answer with 2 removal gives me very fast win. 1-1.

Game 3
Game 3 was grindy he had answer for Chalice - Abrupt Decay, and asnwer to jitte - GSZ. Anyway he empty hand to answer those - so no worry to combo out. Match was quite grindy after I saw first punishing fire game was mine. 2-1.

Chalices as combo answer and punishing gives this win.

Round 2 - UB Landstill (Game loss since decklist error piss me off) started 0 - 1 vs Landstill with 3 MD Crucibles.
Game 1
He runes too much nonbasics lands, I keep blowing up second blue source, and land Sylvan Library, Punishing Fire take care of all CA creatures - Clique, SPM, also StP over snapcaster then put up Punishing and blow up 3/2 unblockable land was also very nice. Sylvan Library gives me enough gas to end this race. 1 - 1, also 2 pridemages was very important.

SB:
+1 Bojuka Bog
+2 ElspethKnight-Errant
+2 Red Elemental Blast

-1 Fetchland
-4 Manadorks

Game 2
This MU was easy plan - cast Elspeth or Sylvan Library then grind - and it works, he tries to kill elspeth with manlands, but removal wasn't enough to Soldiers legions and my removal, REB was very good to counter Jace, easy game. 2 - 1

Round 3 Bant Stoneblade

This was one of the best Magic match - Opponent was one of topped from GP Amsterdam.

Game 1
I draw very good, keep decent hand, and kill everything which was on table, beginning from Nobles, beyond SFM, ended on KotR (Ooze eat lands quite fast). The biggest turnabout to my victory was a blef when I played QPM, which was stp immediatly (had second one in hand), he put Sword of F&F and wanted to connect it, then he met second pridemage :]. Jace was killed from ninjed dryad arbor with punishing fire. Sylvan Safekeeper was very good here much better then Mom which met fast swords.

SB:
+2 REB
+1 Bojuka Bog

I knew my opponent puts engineered explosives as an answer to Moms, I was thinking about putting elspeth but after some time I realized I don't need them specially that he runs MD Spell Pierces and probably shouldn't put them out.

Game 2
Same like in Game 1 - we killed all played creatures, but his hand goes shorter, mine goes bigger :] After he played last Knight which met punishing fire with bojuka from hand it was the end. I finished with KotR with Batterskull (14/14) Sylvan Safekeeper and Library. Library vs any StP deck is draw extra 2 each turn. 2-0

Round 4 - Jund

Game 1
Like in most grindy middle range mirrors - its all about drawing, and do less mistakes then opponent. This time my draws wasnt so lucky - I didn't find Punishing Fires in all 3 games - this give me edge how hard it is sometimes. He won game one ended with active lavanamcer and DRS killing everything.0 - 1

SB:
+2 Elspeth Knight-Errant
+1 Bojuka Bog
-1 Cavern of Souls
-1 Gaddock Teeg
-1 Qasali Pridemage

Game 2
Turn 1 Mom which survive gives long range win, then GSZ scryb and Knight to end. That one was fast :] 1 - 1

Game 3
Still didn't see punishing in decent hand, my opponent also drew poor - 4 lands in row, but he made turn 1 thoughtsize Elspeth and made my hand much worst. Anyway I drew some gas from stoneforge mystic which finds me batterskull vs heavy removal, his AD-proof was enough to kill 2 goyfs (Ooze changed their sizes to 1/2). After I landed Sylvan Safekeeper and Library game was mine. 2 - 1

Round 5 - ID with GW Maverick I had higher tie break.

Top4 Imperial Painter - my bro.

Game 1

I knew my opponent very well, keep a decent hand with QPM and a lot of removal was enough to kill Blood Moon, Magus, and Painter. Punishing fires from savannah and plains was priceless. 1 - 0

SB:
+1 Geaa's Blessing
+2 REB

-1 Gaddock Teeg
-2 Mother of Runes

Game 2

I saw hand 1 hierarch 2 lands, 3 Punishing fires, 1 StP. I finished game with only punishing fires/Grove, blowing up up blood moon with QPM. He stopped my great aggro plan (exalted scryb) with Esnaring Bridge - which wasn't so scarry since I didn't draw any revelant big creatures, I just ping for 5 every turn from punishing fire.

Final - Bant Stoneblade same like from round 3.

We split (I get Tundra) and play for fun and byes - With punishing Fires this MU is really very easy since you kill all except Knight creatures with Punishing.

[sdematt]

Topped on GPT Strasburg, here is a list:


1 Gaddock Teeg
4 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Dryad Arbor
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Sylvan Library
1 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Qasali Pridemage
3 Mother of Runes
3 Noble Hierarch
1 Karakas
4 Wasteland
1 Forest
1 Plains
4 Windswept Heath
2 Wooded Foothills
2 Savannah
1 Scryb Ranger
1 Cavern of Souls
3 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Punishing Fire
1 Batterskull
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Sylvan Safekeeper
1 Taiga
1 Plateau
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Life from the Loam
//SB:
1 Bojuka Bog
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Engineered Explosives
3 Chalice of the Void
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Red Elemental Blast
1 Gaea's Blessing
2 Mindbreak Trap


Few words about SB - I know quite well my meta, so Gaea's Blessing and Mindbreak Traps was as a meta slots.
5 rounds and top4:

Round 1 - Combo-Elves

Game 1
Punishing Fires shine in this MU - it gives me a win. Anyway elves are still favor able since you can't stop grimpse. Game one was quite grindy but in turn 4 he just go off (could kill only one key elf but he had another). 0-1
SB:
+3 Chalice of the Void
+2 Mindbreak Trap
-1 Qasali Pridemage
-3 Mother of Runes
-1 Batterskull

Game 2
Chalice connected with Gaddock to avoid GSZ answer with 2 removal gives me very fast win. 1-1.

Game 3
Game 3 was grindy he had answer for Chalice - Abrupt Decay, and asnwer to jitte - GSZ. Anyway he empty hand to answer those - so no worry to combo out. Match was quite grindy after I saw first punishing fire game was mine. 2-1.

Chalices as combo answer and punishing gives this win.

Round 2 - UB Landstill (Game loss since decklist error piss me off) started 0 - 1 vs Landstill with 3 MD Crucibles.
Game 1
He runes too much nonbasics lands, I keep blowing up second blue source, and land Sylvan Library, Punishing Fire take care of all CA creatures - Clique, SPM, also StP over snapcaster then put up Punishing and blow up 3/2 unblockable land was also very nice. Sylvan Library gives me enough gas to end this race. 1 - 1, also 2 pridemages was very important.

SB:
+1 Bojuka Bog
+2 ElspethKnight-Errant
+2 Red Elemental Blast

-1 Fetchland
-4 Manadorks

Game 2
This MU was easy plan - cast Elspeth or Sylvan Library then grind - and it works, he tries to kill elspeth with manlands, but removal wasn't enough to Soldiers legions and my removal, REB was very good to counter Jace, easy game. 2 - 1

Round 3 Bant Stoneblade

This was one of the best Magic match - Opponent was one of topped from GP Amsterdam.

Game 1
I draw very good, keep decent hand, and kill everything which was on table, beginning from Nobles, beyond SFM, ended on KotR (Ooze eat lands quite fast). The biggest turnabout to my victory was a blef when I played QPM, which was stp immediatly (had second one in hand), he put Sword of F&F and wanted to connect it, then he met second pridemage :]. Jace was killed from ninjed dryad arbor with punishing fire. Sylvan Safekeeper was very good here much better then Mom which met fast swords.

SB:
+2 REB
+1 Bojuka Bog

I knew my opponent puts engineered explosives as an answer to Moms, I was thinking about putting elspeth but after some time I realized I don't need them specially that he runs MD Spell Pierces and probably shouldn't put them out.

Game 2
Same like in Game 1 - we killed all played creatures, but his hand goes shorter, mine goes bigger :] After he played last Knight which met punishing fire with bojuka from hand it was the end. I finished with KotR with Batterskull (14/14) Sylvan Safekeeper and Library. Library vs any StP deck is draw extra 2 each turn.

Round 4 - Jund

Soon.. :)

Congrats! Glad to see Punishing Fires make it :)

-Matt

[MTG Junkie]

WOW! Seems like yesterday all you Mav guys where saying P Fire would be really good right now,like every body and there mom is running Punishing Fire one way or another at this months SCG.
Happy I picked up my Groves last Sat ;)

[sdematt]

So now the question remains: how are you winning against Jund Fires? The answer: big Knights and Oozes going all the way. Is there are green creature with Protection from Red that could be a GSZ target? Or maybe just running Troll Ascetic to carry Equipment?

I think against their Lilianas you want a portion of your creatures to have Flash to protect from Liliana taking out your Knights (Dryad Arbor counts as well as a Flash creature :cool: off of a fetchland).

-Matt

[Koby]

Jund can't do anything against Sigarda, except Perish (which hurts them too) or Virtue's Ruin. Sigarda seems like a much better GSZ target than Thrun right now.

[sdematt]

I meant something LIKE that. I approve of Sigarda, I totally forgot she existed.

-Matt

[Koby]

Of course, with Sigarda in the deck, Gaea's Cradle becomes necessary to both cast it early as well as Zenith for her. Might rock the Maves again soon once I see a more stable metagame.

[ironclad8690]

Can someone *enlighten* me as to why people put rest in peace in their enlightened tutor boards? Is it only for dredge and reanimator?

[Koby]

Can someone *enlighten* me as to why people put rest in peace in their enlightened tutor boards? Is it only for dredge and reanimator?

Beats me. Nothing like shutting down two of your best attackers and spending more mana on g/y answers. I'd still go with Tormod's Crypt and Faerie Macabre.

[ironclad8690]

Of course, with Sigarda in the deck, Gaea's Cradle becomes necessary to both cast it early as well as Zenith for her. Might rock the Maves again soon once I see a more stable metagame.

Good to hear you'll be back. I'm liking your storm vids though. Our of curiosity what is prompting the switch back?

[Koby]

Good to hear you'll be back. I'm liking your storm vids though. Our of curiosity what is prompting the switch back?

Desire to Wasteland the shit out of my opponents, and beat them up with Moms.

[ironclad8690]

Desire to Wasteland the shit out of my opponents, and beat them up with Moms.

Sounds like a "Noble" cause.

[ironclad8690]

Do you guys think a blue splash would be worth it for geist ala:

http://tcdecks.net/deck.php?id=10023&iddeck=73065

[defector]

Geist itself isn't enough justification. Its good vs uw control but suffers vs everything else. Gw/u though is totally fine and gives answers vs combo decks. Whether its better vs the meta than black or red is really hard to say.

[sdematt]

But, Bant gives you access to Rhox War Monk (all the lifegain!), Brainstorm if needed, and other cool things. Not sure I'd want to play it, but you never know.

-Matt

[kingsey]

I've switched back to playing " Bant " for awhile now. It has always been my favorite deck. I can post a list if interested since the bant thread is basicly dead on these fourms. Its blue cards are brainstorm, JtMS, Spell Pierce, Giest, and Clique

I use SFM and batterskull/Jitte for life gain :laugh:

[black]

Tournament Report

(Jupiter's NELC - 2nd place)

1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Umezawa's Jitte

4 Mother of Runes
2 Mirran Crusaders
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Aven Mindcensor
3 Thalia
1 Thrun
2 Qausali Pridmage
3 Greensun
1 Teeg

1 Garuuk Relentless

2 Sylvan library

4 Swords to Plowshares

1 Horizon Canopy
3 Savannah
4 Windswept heath
1 dryad arbor
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Karakas
2 Forest
1 Plains
3 Wasteland
1 Maze of Ith
2 Verdant Catacombs
1 Bayou
2 Cavern of Souls


Round 1

Hypergenisis
Game 1- He ( Charles) is playing a bant version of this deck. He drops emrakul, g-brand, and progenitus (i believe?) on turn two. not much I can do a bout that.

Game 2- Side into O-rings. I really can't remember what happens this game. I wasteland his depletion lands. I think he just never draws what he needs to after that..

Game 3- He drops in emrakul off hypergenisis. I drop in an O-ring and the rest of my hand.

1-0

Round 2

Hypergenisis AGAIN
My opponent (James) is running the RUG version of Hypergenisis. (He also made it to top 8). I am more prepared for this match up because my friend Blayne took 5th last NELC with the same deck. Wastelands do no good in this match up. My opponent runs almost all basics.

Game 1- This is literally a repeat of my first match.

Game 2- I think I keep a wonky hand. it has no colored mana, but two o-rings from the side. Also side into ethersworn cannonist. Gets there mainly because of O-ring.

Game 3- Thalia and an ethersworn cannonist from the side help.

2-0

Round 3

Manaless Dredge
So my same friend who is running hypergenisis, used to run manaless dredge. This match is essentially a bye for me. Ooze + green sun + cradle = auto win

Game 1- My opponent, Skylar, ditches a phantasmagorian and uses it to drop most of his hand , and then cycles street wraith to dredge still at instant speed. Pretty groovy. He empties about 20 cards into his graveyard. I 've already play the ooze on like turn two ? at this point so i drop a cradle and eat his graveyard in the next two turns.

Game 2- Side into surgicals, and a path to exile, and a bojuka bog. Greensun for ooze. It gets sickening shoaled after eating some stuff. Pretty sure a jitte came down after that and just did what jitte normally does.

3-0

Round 4

ARE YOU KIDDING ME??!! HYPERGENISIS AGAIN
Playing against Chris. At this point I am just used to the match up. I get one of the games on account that he forgets mirran crusader has pro black and green. (g-brand cant block it) I dont remember what happened in our second game...All the hypergenisis matches have just blended into this big ball of emrakuls at this point.

4-0

Round 5

JUNK?
playing against Lou, who made it into top 8 as well.

Games 1 and 2 - Mirran crusader does work in this match up. can't be abrupt decayed. throw on a jitte or sword of light and shadow and things get crazy. I dont think i sided for this match up.

5-0

Round 6

intentional draw

5-0-1

Round 7

intentional draw

5-0-2 going into finals as 2nd seat.


QUARTER FINALS

BUG delver
Played against Bert.

game 1- remember when i said mirran crusader did "work"? well it has pro all of BUG's relevant removal. Dropping a turn 1 MOM helped too.

game 2- I think I brought in an aven mindcensor, and a path to exile, because he wasn't running basics. Wasteland did a number on both of us. I was able to recover faster.

SEMI FINALS

W/U/R delver?
Played against Palo

game 1- I've never played against this deck before. I don't think geist is very good against maverick because all my creature trade with it. Delvers weren't a huge issue this game. I valued exiling lavamancer far more than delver. I won this game. Don't remember how.

game 2- Vendillion clique gets out , along with a flipped delver, and a geist . He wastelands me out of white mana. I cant cast swords on his flyers and they slowly chip away at my life total until I die. X.X

game 3- MIRRAN CRUSADER IS A BEAST. if i havent gotten that point across already. I think this one ended with a mirran crusader. a jitte was involved at some point..i think..

FINALS

Mono red sneak ATTACK?
Well poop. I've been trying to avoid playing a feature match all day. Cannot avoid it in the finals. I'm pretty nervous at this point. My opponent is the person who entered top 8 as 1st seat. D: My opponent (Henry), is playing some sort of fringe mono red sneak attack deck that I have never even seen before. One of my friends had wanted to build the deck (BIG RED?) , but he built Hypergenisis instead (yes this is the same friend I mentioned before. apparently even though he couldn't physically make it to Jupiter he insisted on being there in spirit).

le sigh

game 1- I do not understand the gravity of blood moon. Jesus Christ! that card is crazy. He drops it on turn two and i basically just auto loose. I can't crack fetches for mana, or find any basics in time. three fatties come in swinging and i loose.

game 2- i get to be on the play this time. I play MR. teeg on turn two. Which effectively prevents him from winning that turn. Equip a jitte to mr.teeg and he is out of burn range for the game. swing for the win with a jitte pumped teeg.

game 3- i mulligan. he is one the play. turn one blood moon. thank goodness i have a basic forest in my hand. I try to recover. I play a teeg- it gets volcanic fallouted. I play a second teeg- he finds the chaos warp and is able to shuffle it away. He sneak attacks and i hope he only plays 1 to 2 creatures. I am sitting on a path to exile, and have 1 basic plains in my deck and an active knight. I figure if he drops in an emrakul and a g-brand i can take the 15 and exile the g-brand , he gains no life and then- having sacked my lands i swing with a knight for the win.

NOPE he drops in three dudes. I cant stop three. D: g-brand, emrakul, and a worldspine worm- which is crazy good.
that ends the NELC for me.

Overall- 2nd

THOUGHTS

I'm pretty happy overall :) I've never done well in a tournament before so this was super exciting. Everyone I played against was also super nice, which is rare.
I also had an amazing time hanging out with the kich crew :)

Sorry if this isn't a great tournament report. It's the first one I've ever done.

[Koby]

I take back my comments on Maverick. PFires maverick is still miserable as it was last year.

Maverick is dead.
Long live Maverick!

http://www.twitch.tv/jkory/b/364130504

[matunos]

I take back my comments on Maverick. PFires maverick is still miserable as it was last year.

Maverick is dead.
Long live Maverick!

http://www.twitch.tv/jkory/b/364130504

Around 2:07:35 when your opponent Show and Tells and you bring in Harmonic Sliver, shouldn't the Sliver's ETB ability have triggered and forced you to target your Ethersworn Canonist? It wouldn't have mattered, obviously (besides having one more permanent to sac), and the Mother could have protected the Canonist anyway, but am I right that MODO glitched there?

You mentioned you should have played an O-Ring. Would you take out one of your Pithing Needles for it? (Also note that in that game, O-Ring probably wouldn't have helped, because he could have Burning Wished for Eye of Nowhere instead of Grapeshot.)

[Roland_Deschain]

Play against Jund yesterday and win pretty easy, the same happens against Affinity, Goblins and Reanimator the Omniscience game was close 2-1 but he don't draw so good, close to was the games against Lands 2-1 (Sylvan Libray and Loam Shine here) i will keep testing and post the results (want games versus elfs and storm combos).


I will try the tracker here, seems pretty good.

Play this weekend against UW, BUG, Jund (i dont know how Maverick players lose to those decks) and some tier 2 decks, and do pretty well, not losing a single match, gonna to a mediun champs next week and gonna try my list, the only changes i made is - 1 Horizon Canopy + 1 Gaea's Cradle, and in sideboard -1 crop rotation -1 Karakas +2 Unvenwald Tracker.
I still want games versus elfs and storm combos.

[Koby]

Around 2:07:35 when your opponent Show and Tells and you bring in Harmonic Sliver, shouldn't the Sliver's ETB ability have triggered and forced you to target your Ethersworn Canonist? It wouldn't have mattered, obviously (besides having one more permanent to sac), and the Mother could have protected the Canonist anyway, but am I right that MODO glitched there?

You mentioned you should have played an O-Ring. Would you take out one of your Pithing Needles for it? (Also note that in that game, O-Ring probably wouldn't have helped, because he could have Burning Wished for Eye of Nowhere instead of Grapeshot.)

Looks like it's just a MODO bug in my favor with Harmonic Sliver. Based on the available mana at the time (1 Island 2 Volc 1 Tomb), if I played O-ring and had it, it would have bought 2 turns. My opponent was at 10 with me having Sliver, Thalia, Canonist (unrealistic however) - so two turns of beatdown, plus another with Emrakul on board. That would have bought enough time to win.

[Barbed Blightning]

Tournament Report

(Jupiter's NELC - 2nd place)

1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Umezawa's Jitte

4 Mother of Runes
2 Mirran Crusaders
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Aven Mindcensor
3 Thalia
1 Thrun
2 Qausali Pridmage
3 Greensun
1 Teeg

1 Garuuk Relentless

2 Sylvan library

4 Swords to Plowshares

1 Horizon Canopy
3 Savannah
4 Windswept heath
1 dryad arbor
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Karakas
2 Forest
1 Plains
3 Wasteland
1 Maze of Ith
2 Verdant Catacombs
1 Bayou
2 Cavern of Souls

Round 1

Hypergenisis
Game 1- He ( Charles) is playing a bant version of this deck. He drops emrakul, g-brand, and progenitus (i believe?) on turn two. not much I can do a bout that.

Game 2- Side into O-rings. I really can't remember what happens this game. I wasteland his depletion lands. I think he just never draws what he needs to after that..

Game 3- He drops in emrakul off hypergenisis. I drop in an O-ring and the rest of my hand.

1-0

Round 2

Hypergenisis AGAIN
My opponent (James) is running the RUG version of Hypergenisis. (He also made it to top 8). I am more prepared for this match up because my friend Blayne took 5th last NELC with the same deck. Wastelands do no good in this match up. My opponent runs almost all basics.

Game 1- This is literally a repeat of my first match.

Game 2- I think I keep a wonky hand. it has no colored mana, but two o-rings from the side. Also side into ethersworn cannonist. Gets there mainly because of O-ring.

Game 3- Thalia and an ethersworn cannonist from the side help.

2-0

Round 3

Manaless Dredge
So my same friend who is running hypergenisis, used to run manaless dredge. This match is essentially a bye for me. Ooze + green sun + cradle = auto win

Game 1- My opponent, Skylar, ditches a phantasmagorian and uses it to drop most of his hand , and then cycles street wraith to dredge still at instant speed. Pretty groovy. He empties about 20 cards into his graveyard. I 've already play the ooze on like turn two ? at this point so i drop a cradle and eat his graveyard in the next two turns.

Game 2- Side into surgicals, and a path to exile, and a bojuka bog. Greensun for ooze. It gets sickening shoaled after eating some stuff. Pretty sure a jitte came down after that and just did what jitte normally does.

3-0

Round 4

ARE YOU KIDDING ME??!! HYPERGENISIS AGAIN
Playing against Chris. At this point I am just used to the match up. I get one of the games on account that he forgets mirran crusader has pro black and green. (g-brand cant block it) I dont remember what happened in our second game...All the hypergenisis matches have just blended into this big ball of emrakuls at this point.

4-0

Round 5

JUNK?
playing against Lou, who made it into top 8 as well.

Games 1 and 2 - Mirran crusader does work in this match up. can't be abrupt decayed. throw on a jitte or sword of light and shadow and things get crazy. I dont think i sided for this match up.

5-0

Round 6

intentional draw

5-0-1

Round 7

intentional draw

5-0-2 going into finals as 2nd seat.

QUARTER FINALS

BUG delver
Played against Bert.

game 1- remember when i said mirran crusader did "work"? well it has pro all of BUG's relevant removal. Dropping a turn 1 MOM helped too.

game 2- I think I brought in an aven mindcensor, and a path to exile, because he wasn't running basics. Wasteland did a number on both of us. I was able to recover faster.

SEMI FINALS

W/U/R delver?
Played against Palo

game 1- I've never played against this deck before. I don't think geist is very good against maverick because all my creature trade with it. Delvers weren't a huge issue this game. I valued exiling lavamancer far more than delver. I won this game. Don't remember how.

game 2- Vendillion clique gets out , along with a flipped delver, and a geist . He wastelands me out of white mana. I cant cast swords on his flyers and they slowly chip away at my life total until I die. X.X

game 3- MIRRAN CRUSADER IS A BEAST. if i havent gotten that point across already. I think this one ended with a mirran crusader. a jitte was involved at some point..i think..

FINALS

Mono red sneak ATTACK?
Well poop. I've been trying to avoid playing a feature match all day. Cannot avoid it in the finals. I'm pretty nervous at this point. My opponent is the person who entered top 8 as 1st seat. D: My opponent (Henry), is playing some sort of fringe mono red sneak attack deck that I have never even seen before. One of my friends had wanted to build the deck (BIG RED?) , but he built Hypergenisis instead (yes this is the same friend I mentioned before. apparently even though he couldn't physically make it to Jupiter he insisted on being there in spirit).

le sigh

game 1- I do not understand the gravity of blood moon. Jesus Christ! that card is crazy. He drops it on turn two and i basically just auto loose. I can't crack fetches for mana, or find any basics in time. three fatties come in swinging and i loose.

game 2- i get to be on the play this time. I play MR. teeg on turn two. Which effectively prevents him from winning that turn. Equip a jitte to mr.teeg and he is out of burn range for the game. swing for the win with a jitte pumped teeg.

game 3- i mulligan. he is one the play. turn one blood moon. thank goodness i have a basic forest in my hand. I try to recover. I play a teeg- it gets volcanic fallouted. I play a second teeg- he finds the chaos warp and is able to shuffle it away. He sneak attacks and i hope he only plays 1 to 2 creatures. I am sitting on a path to exile, and have 1 basic plains in my deck and an active knight. I figure if he drops in an emrakul and a g-brand i can take the 15 and exile the g-brand , he gains no life and then- having sacked my lands i swing with a knight for the win.

NOPE he drops in three dudes. I cant stop three. D: g-brand, emrakul, and a worldspine worm- which is crazy good.
that ends the NELC for me.

Overall- 2nd

THOUGHTS

I'm pretty happy overall :) I've never done well in a tournament before so this was super exciting. Everyone I played against was also super nice, which is rare.
I also had an amazing time hanging out with the kich crew :)

Sorry if this isn't a great tournament report. It's the first one I've ever done.

Yep, it was big red (wrote the primer, but you ran into hdeck12). I was on Junk all day, but sick job with the mav. :)

[conley1000000]

I take back my comments on Maverick. PFires maverick is still miserable as it was last year.

Maverick is dead.
Long live Maverick!

http://www.twitch.tv/jkory/b/364130504

3-1 in the daily and you still think mavericks not playable?

[Koby]

3-1 in the daily and you still think mavericks not playable?

It's unlikely playable in the MTGO metagame. Too much Belcher/Burn and S&T to really be the "best" choice. It's fine if people want to durdle around with fair cards however.

[conley1000000]

It's unlikely playable in the MTGO metagame. Too much Belcher/Burn and S&T to really be the "best" choice. It's fine if people want to durdle around with fair cards however.

Offline is that still you opinion?

[dunk]

If you want to play Maverick on Modo make sure to start your sideboard with 4 Mindbreak Trap ( but beware, they are expensive ). Add some o - rings and a 2nd Karakas to your 75. It's probably a good idea to adapt to Stoneforge Mystic to do better in grindy matchups and Burn.

So yeah, I think it's possible for Maverick to adapt to Modo. Still, it will lack consistency without Brainstorm, sad but true. And other decks are probably better choices...

[Koby]

If you want to play Maverick on Modo make sure to start your sideboard with 4 Mindbreak Trap ( but beware, they are expensive ). Add some o - rings and a 2nd Karakas to your 75. It's probably a good idea to adapt to Stoneforge Mystic to do better in grindy matchups and Burn.

So yeah, I think it's possible for Maverick to adapt to Modo. Still, it will lack consistency without Brainstorm, sad but true. And other decks are probably better choices...

Yep exactly, at the point where MBT seems really attractive, you're dropping 60 tix to "fix" your deck. Or just play FoW and run a better deck.

[ironclad8690]

It's unlikely playable in the MTGO metagame. Too much Belcher/Burn and S&T to really be the "best" choice. It's fine if people want to durdle around with fair cards however.

Do you think it's better in paper?

[Koby]

Do you think it's better in paper?

Yes, absolutely. But it's also depending on what your expected metagame holds. If you walk into The Combo Den bringing Maverick, well you get what you deserve.

[black]

Yep, it was big red (wrote the primer, but you ran into hdeck12). I was on Junk all day, but sick job with the mav. :)

Thanks!

[conley1000000]

Yes, absolutely. But it's also depending on what your expected metagame holds. If you walk into The Combo Den bringing Maverick, well you get what you deserve.

Fair enough. Totally agree about heading into combo, but theres ways to prepare. I saw ya went back for more last night, only got to watch through the RUG match. How'd ya finish?

[ironclad8690]

Yes, absolutely. But it's also depending on what your expected metagame holds. If you walk into The Combo Den bringing Maverick, well you get what you deserve.

Maybe I've just played against really incompetent combo players, but it seems like the following cards usually do enough work to win combo matchups:

Storm: Thalia/Teeg/Ethersworn Cannonist

Show And Tell: Karakas/Knight

Painter Stone: Qasali

Enchantress: Ethersworn Cannonist

Of course, there will always be situations like Omniscience/Emrakul, or Chain of Vapor/Echoing Truth on Thalia/Teeg/Cannonist, but that aside I think Maverick stands a better chance vs combo than Jund or any other non blue deck; especially main deck.

Also, what are peoples' opinions on Fauna Shaman? I am torn between running her as a 1 of or not at all. She has saved my ass in certain situations, but in others it seems top decking her is a pain.

[Lord_Mcdonalds]

I like Fauna Shaman if your running maindeck Linvala, Loyal Retainers or any white hate bear as a silver bullet, or if you experience the mirror a lot. Other than that, she's been meh for me.

[Gotta]

Hi everybody, I ve been following this thread for a while but never wrote.

I used to play GW Maverick straight but I have decided to give the black splash a try.

Since I found BUG, Omnitell and Storm the most difficult match ups to win, I tried to make the deck a bit "stronger" against these decks with the black splash,

Here is my list:

4 Wasteland
4 Savannah
3 Windswept Heath
1 Karakas
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Horizon Canopy
3 Bayou
3 Verdant Catacombs
1 Maze of Ith
1 Dryad Arbor

4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Mother of Runes
2 Noble Hierarch
2 Qasali Pridemage
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Scryb Ranger
1 Gaddock Teeg
4 Deathrite Shaman

2 Umezawa's Jitte

4 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Thoughtseize
3 Inquisition of Kozilek

3 Swords to Plowshares
3 Abrupt Decay

1 Sylvan Library


SB: 2 Enlightened Tutor
SB: 2 Oblivion Ring
SB: 2 Faerie Macabre
SB: 2 Pithing Needle
SB: 2 Krosan Grip
SB: 2 Ethersworn Canonist
SB: 1 Gaddock Teeg
SB: 1 Dueling Grounds
SB: 1 Karakas

however, I am a bit in doubt with my "let s see how it works" list,

Any suggestion and advice is very wellcome :smile:

[Fatal]

How does cutting Thalia helps against Combo/Control MU where 80% of their deck are spells - its wrong direction.

Also 6 mana dorks looks overkill vs any kind of board wipers like Terminus. I would decrease to 4 for sure.

Second thought - about manabase I would cut Maze of Ith to gain more stable mana base unless you have a lot of Affinity running around.

The biggest winner from black splash are not only point discard but more over Dark Confidant - its Human so can also be cast from Cavern of Souls which your list missing.

That's my 0.02 I hope I helped :].

[M@verick]

Hey guys,

after a long time, I want to post the deck I am testing and some results. I know it´s not the kind of main deck that you all are posting, but I got very good results and I want to share with you.

First of all, just saying that I only anoted competitive games, where my opponent knew what he was doing. I did small changes in MD and SB when testing, before getting a deck which I was very comfortable.

List:

// Lands
2 [A] Scrubland
2 [U] Savannah
1 [UNH] Plains
2 [R] Bayou
1 [LG] Karakas
4 [ON] Windswept Heath
4 [TE] Wasteland
1 [US] Gaea's Cradle
2 [FUT] Horizon Canopy
1 [ZEN] Marsh Flats
1 [FUT] Dryad Arbor
1 [ZEN] Verdant Catacombs

// Creatures
3 [ON] Weathered Wayfarer
2 [TSP] Scryb Ranger
4 [UL] Mother of Runes
3 [WWK] Stoneforge Mystic
3 [CFX] Knight of the Reliquary
4 [RTR] Deathrite Shaman
3 [ALA] Tidehollow Sculler

// Spells
4 [DS] AEther Vial
3 [AT] Swords to Plowshares
1 [BOK] Umezawa's Jitte
1 [DS] Sword of Fire and Ice
1 [DS] Sword of Light and Shadow
2 [DKA] Lingering Souls
2 [RTR] Abrupt Decay
2 [5E] Sylvan Library

// Sideboard
SB: 3 [LRW] Thoughtseize
SB: 3 [NPH] Surgical Extraction
SB: 2 [8E] Choke
SB: 3 [LRW] Gaddock Teeg
SB: 2 [DKA] Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
SB: 2 [LRW] Oblivion Ring


Results:

Death and taxes 2-0
Omnitell 2-0
12 post 2-0
43 lands 2-0
Shardless Bug 2-0
RUG 2-1
RUG 1-2
RUG 1-2
RUG 2-0
Burn 2-1


Elves 2-0
Elves 0-2
BUG 0-2
Death and taxes 2-1
Zombys 2-0
UB america 2-0
UB america 2-0
Burn UR 0-2
Death and taxes 2-0
UW faerys 2-0


Mud 2-1
Bant 2-1
UR burn 2-0
BUG blade 2-0
shardless bug order 0-2
shardless bug order 0-2
shardless bug order 2-1
Jund 2-0
Pox 2-0
Omnitell 2-1


Punishing zoo 2-0
goblins 2-0
4C zoo 1-2
Goblins 2-0
BUG 2-1
Goblins 2-1
RUG guided passage 2-0
Jund 1-2
Mono black 2-0
Show and tell 2-0


Omnitell 1-2
Jund 1-2
Mono white tomb 2-0
shardless bug order 2-1
UGR control 2-1
Omnitell sneak 2-1
4C RUG 2-1
Jund 2-1
Agro loam 2-0
Shardless BUG 2-1


Sneak attack 2-0
Red Nic Fit 2-0
Jund punishing 1-2
UW faerys 2-1
UWB blade tempo 2-0
Affinity 0-2
Goblins 2-0
Miracles field 2-1
Jund 1-2
MonoWhite equipments 2-0


White stax 2-0
White stax 2-1
White stax 2-0
ANT 2-1
ANT 1-2
ANT 2-1
Jund 2-0


I dont know the reason, but i didnt face any Esper, which i consider is a good MU.

The main question is? what about jund?
Do you know any MD or SB card to try to win jund? it reminds me of the old fast zoos, 2 years ago, with the best creatures and much removal.

[Koby]

Hey guys,
...
The main question is? what about jund?
Do you know any MD or SB card to try to win jund? it reminds me of the old fast zoos, 2 years ago, with the best creatures and much removal.

If they are heavily relying on Liliana, then Wilt-leaf Liege or Obstinate Baloth will both help. They are large enough against Abrupt Decay and Lightning Bolt, and you get to cheat them into play from their forced discard. Otherwise, Hexproof guys like Troll Ascetic or Thrun would also help.

M@verick - I've sorted and cleaned up your data to make it easier to read:

RUG, ANT, Jund, BUG, Omnitell are the only real matches that you played significant amount against. They seem to be about even.


Row Labels Sum of W Sum of L
12 post 2 0
43 lands 2 0
4C RUG 2 1
4C zoo 1 2
Affinity 0 2
Agro loam 2 0
ANT 5 4
Bant 2 1
BUG 2 3
BUG blade 2 0
Burn 2 1
Burn UR 0 2
Death and taxes 6 1
Elves 2 2
goblins 8 1
Jund 9 7
Jund punishing 1 2
Miracles field 2 1
Mono black 2 0
Mono white tomb 2 0
MonoWhite equipments 2 0
Mud 2 1
Omnitell 5 3
Omnitell sneak 2 1
Pox 2 0
Punishing zoo 2 0
Red Nic Fit 2 0
RUG 6 5
RUG guided passage 2 0
Shardless Bug 4 1
shardless bug order 4 6
Show and tell 2 0
Sneak attack 2 0
UB america 4 0
UGR control 2 1
UR burn 2 0
UW faerys 4 1
UWB blade tempo 2 0
White stax 6 1
Zombys 2 0
Grand Total 113 50

[kingsey]

If you were going into a meta filled with Sneak attack, and omniscience. What would your sideboard options be? There has been an influx of show and tell, not storm but show and tell.

Pithing needle
Oring
Knight + Karakas
?

[maktus]

If you were going into a meta filled with Sneak attack, and omniscience. What would your sideboard options be? There has been an influx of show and tell, not storm but show and tell.

Pithing needle
Oring
Knight + Karakas
?

I'm testing against show and tell and many other combos my "Maverick humans":
4x meddling mage (2 md, 2 sb) + 2x fauna shaman (md)
3x detention sphere (sb)
3x cavern of souls (md - human)
1x tropical island (mana fix)
1x huntmaster of the fells (in garruk, linvala or elspeth slot - risky test)
2x gaddock (1 md, 1 sb - isn't human, but very useful)

[Gotta]

How does cutting Thalia helps against Combo/Control MU where 80% of their deck are spells - its wrong direction.

Also 6 mana dorks looks overkill vs any kind of board wipers like Terminus. I would decrease to 4 for sure.

Second thought - about manabase I would cut Maze of Ith to gain more stable mana base unless you have a lot of Affinity running around.

The biggest winner from black splash are not only point discard but more over Dark Confidant - its Human so can also be cast from Cavern of Souls which your list missing.

That's my 0.02 I hope I helped :].

Thank you for the suggestions and thoughts :smile:

I ve been playing 4x Thalia so far and she is good, but I found her only able to slowing them down and been killed (not often enough I have the mom to save her :cry:). However, you have a point, I m going to try her again and play the other spells accordingly. :cool:

I will definitly try to cut 2 mana guys (the nobles ?) and see how it goes (same for maze of ith)

Dark confidant will bring me to much into Junk and so far I d like to keep black as a splash and still play Maverick

[M@verick]

knight + karakas is maind deck, so a mix of the other cards would be fine. I especially like O.ring.


RUG, ANT, Jund, BUG, Omnitell are the only real matches that you played significant amount against. They seem to be about even.

I disagree a bit. ANT is not so played, I usually see more gobos, elves or even D&T and URburn/burn.

[kingsey]

Is intrepid hero too janky for sideboard ?

Also thinking maybe a e tutor sideboard with

Cannonist
Rest in piece
Dueling ground

[Koby]

Is intrepid hero too janky for sideboard ?

Also thinking maybe a e tutor sideboard with

Cannonist
Rest in piece
Dueling ground

Why do you feel like shooting yourself in the foot?

[kingsey]

Why do you feel like shooting yourself in the foot?

Sorry about that, didnt finish my first cup of coffee before typing :tongue:

[heallan]

Why do you feel like shooting yourself in the foot?

Rest in peace is fine ... It is almost an auto win against Dredge and is very usefull against all those deathrite deck. A 2/2 knight is better than a 0/1 Tarmo, 1/1 Mang. Moreover deathrite should have eaten most of our land anyway so it is almost every time okay. Rest in peace win me so many games, i ll never cut it.

[Lord_Mcdonalds]

Rest in peace is fine ... It is almost an auto win against Dredge and is very usefull against all those deathrite deck. A 2/2 knight is better than a 0/1 Tarmo, 1/1 Mang. Moreover deathrite should have eaten most of our land anyway so it is almost every time okay. Rest in peace win me so many games, i ll never cut it.

Not gonna lie, I haven't dropped a match against Dredge with Maverick since I went to 2x scavenging ooze.

That and don't these decks run abrupt decay.

[heallan]

Not gonna lie, I haven't dropped a match against Dredge with Maverick since I went to 2x scavenging ooze.

That and don't these decks run abrupt decay.

I agree but Ooze isnt enough against a good dredge player, he can win game against a medium hand but as soon as they have a very fast one, the anti graveyard is needed. In this particular MU, Rest in peace or and other one is quite the same.

It is sure Deathrite deck plays abrupt decay but if they abrupt decay on RIP, it is totally fine. RIP would have emptied both cemetaries and took the abrupt: It is just good, one less on my threat.

In my last tournament, RIP helps me to beat BUG, Dredge and RUG without any difficulty.

[Lord_Mcdonalds]

I agree but Ooze isnt enough against a good dredge player, he can win game against a medium hand but as soon as they have a very fast one, the anti graveyard is needed. In this particular MU, Rest in peace or and other one is quite the same.

It is sure Deathrite deck plays abrupt decay but if they abrupt decay on RIP, it is totally fine. RIP would have emptied both cemetaries and took the abrupt: It is just good, one less on my threat.

In my last tournament, RIP helps me to beat BUG, Dredge and RUG without any difficulty.

In the dredge matchup, any exile the graveyard effect is good so long as you time it right, whether it be RiP or Tormod's crypt

BUG, rug and dredge where already decks maverick could beat fine without RiP, unless I'm missing something, (course Bug refers to at least 5 decks at this point so which variant in particular?)

[matunos]

I agree but Ooze isnt enough against a good dredge player, he can win game against a medium hand but as soon as they have a very fast one, the anti graveyard is needed. In this particular MU, Rest in peace or and other one is quite the same.

It is sure Deathrite deck plays abrupt decay but if they abrupt decay on RIP, it is totally fine. RIP would have emptied both cemetaries and took the abrupt: It is just good, one less on my threat.

In my last tournament, RIP helps me to beat BUG, Dredge and RUG without any difficulty.

Crop Rotation into Bajuka Bog. Also there's Faerie Macabre, or even Ravenous Trap. At any rate, nerfing your own fleet seems suboptimal, especially when those cards are useful against other decks than dredge in which nerfing your own fleet is quite bad.

[allek]

Against Dredge, RIP is great if you're playing the tutor-board. Yeah, it shuts down your Knights and Oozes but so what, you shut down his entire deck and everything he has done so far in the game. Killing him with 2/2:s is fairly easy since his plan B is to hardcast Golgari Thugs and Narcomoebas of City of Brass.

[matunos]

Against Dredge, RIP is great if you're playing the tutor-board. Yeah, it shuts down your Knights and Oozes but so what, you shut down his entire deck and everything he has done so far in the game. Killing him with 2/2:s is fairly easy since his plan B is to hardcast Golgari Thugs and Narcomoebas of City of Brass.

Sounds fine if all you're playing against is dredge.

Is that what you want against RUG, Reanimator, Past in Flames, and other decks that utilize the graveyard? Probably not.

Why include a bullet for one particular deck that you're not likely to see a lot of, when you have other options? Tormod's Crypt is just as tutorable, as is Bajuka Bog.

[Koby]

RE Tormod's Crypt - it also doesn't choke you out on mana. The primary plan against Dredge is Scavenging Ooze. That's a turn 2 play at best. The whole reason to run Crop Rotation + Bojuka Bog, Faerie Macabre, Surgical Extraction, or Tormod's Crypt is to buy time to be able to setup an Ooze + mana. The only targets we need to worry about are Bridge from Below, Ichorid, and Narcomoeba. StP handles the latter two, and Ooze can systematically remove Ichorids and Narco's as they appear until you have enough mana to start eating dredgers.

[conley1000000]

+1 for the crop rotation. It pulls double duty at getting that karakas when needed as well. Mavericks slots are so tight you cant just add cards that work on 1 deck, you gotta play cards that hinge across the board...

[Lans89]

No more DTB =(... How long was it up there?

[Justin]

Maverick emerged as a tier-one deck sometime in early 2011, so it had a good two-year run. The printing of Deathrite Shaman has really knocked it down a peg. If you like to play non-blue midrange, Jund looks much better right now than Maverick.

[ironclad8690]

Maverick emerged as a tier-one deck sometime in early 2011, so it had a good two-year run. The printing of Deathrite Shaman has really knocked it down a peg. If you like to play non-blue midrange, Jund looks much better right now than Maverick.

Sadly, now is a horrible time to buy into Jund. The prices are too damn high.

[ironclad8690]

Yes! SCG top 8 http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=53143 nice job Evan

[Roland_Deschain]

Win a tournament this weekend playing Mav i don´t know the exactly number of players (6 rounds), not losing a single match:

RUG 2-0
SaT 2-1
BUG 2-1
Goblins 2-1
Reanimator 2-0
Jund 2-0

Top 8

Uw Miracles 2-1
SaT 2-1
BUG 2-0

In my opinion the deck needs of better players, i've seeing some games (online, IRL) that i don´t understand what the players was thinking. Looks like the good players prefer to play brainstorm...

When i get more time i post the list and details the matchs.

[IL_casual]

Win a tournament this weekend playing Mav i don´t know the exactly number of players (6 rounds), not losing a single match:

RUG 2-0
SaT 2-1
BUG 2-1
Goblins 2-1
Reanimator 2-0
Jund 2-0

Top 8

Uw Miracles 2-1
SaT 2-1
BUG 2-0

In my opinion the deck needs of better players, i've seeing some games (online, IRL) that i don´t understand what the players was thinking. Looks like the good players prefer to play brainstorm...

When i get more time i post the list and details the matchs.


Care to post your decklist? Thanks!

[Roland_Deschain]

Care to post your decklist? Thanks!

Creaturesx23
3x Mother of Runes
1x Sylvan Safekeeper
4x Noble Hierarch
4x Knight of the Reliquary
2x Qasali Pridemage
2x Scavenging Ooze
2x Stoneforge Mystic
1x Scryb Ranger
1x Gadock Teeg
1x Terravore
1x Sigarda, Host of Herons
1x Dryad Arbor

Enchantment x2
2x Sylvan Library

Sorcery x5
4x Green Sun's Zenith
1x Life from the Loam

Instants x4
4x Swords to Plowsahres

Artifact x3
1x Sword of Light and Shadow
2x Umezawa's Jitte

Lands x23
4x Windswept Heath
4x Wasteland
4x Savannah
3x Misty Rainforest
3x Forest
1x Plains
1x Gaea's Cradle
1x Horizon Canopy
1x Karakas
1x Maze of Ith

Sideboard x15
3x Oblivion Ring
3x Surgical Extraction
1x Crop Rotation
1x Bojuka Bog
3x Ethersworn Canonist
2x Gaddock Teeg
1x Ulvenwald Tracker
1x Eternal Witness

After so many tests (i mean really a lot), i decide to cut Thalia, because most of the time she's doing nothing and slows down me.

I have used a version with Garruk and Elspeth, but the Sigarda and Terravore are most effective kill conditions (hey lets put some use for that zeniths on midlle and late games).

Play Loam, Safekeeper and Terravore this guys got balls.

Sword of Light and Shadow(especially with loam) and Jitte are the bests equips for this deck, so use them.

Eternal Witness and Tracker show they valor on champ i dont have any regrets of use them.

I think the rest of the deck don't need more explanation, when i got more time (work and college) i explain the matches.

[TiltingKitty]

Interesting, I've seen a lot of people advocating Sigarda these days.

How do you beat Miracles? Does the SFM+equipment package help?

Did the tournament just not have any fast kill combo decks (Belcher, ANT) or were those players all in the lower brackets?

[conley1000000]

Getting ready for SCG Indy in just over a week, here is the list I've been testing with decent success...

2 Aven Mindcensor
1 Gaddock Teeg
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Mother of Runes
4 Noble Hierarch
2 Qasali Pridemage
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Scryb Ranger
3 Stoneforge Mytic
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben

4 Swords to Plowshares

4 Green Sun's Zenith

1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Umezawa's Jitte

1 Sylvan Library

1 Cavern of Souls
1 Dryad Arbor
2 Forest
2 Horizon Canopy
1 Karakas
1 Maze of Ith
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Plains
4 Savannah
4 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
61

SB:
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Crop Rotation
3 Oblivion Ring
1 Ulvenwald Tracker
1 Path to Exile
2 Pithing Needle
1 Gaddock Teeg
3 Mindbreak Trap
1 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Sylvan Safekeeper

Thoughts?

[door]

Getting ready for SCG Indy in just over a week, here is the list I've been testing with decent success...

2 Aven Mindcensor
1 Gaddock Teeg
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Mother of Runes
4 Noble Hierarch
2 Qasali Pridemage
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Scryb Ranger
3 Stoneforge Mytic
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben

4 Swords to Plowshares

4 Green Sun's Zenith

1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Umezawa's Jitte

1 Sylvan Library

1 Cavern of Souls
1 Dryad Arbor
2 Forest
2 Horizon Canopy
1 Karakas
1 Maze of Ith
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Plains
4 Savannah
4 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
61

SB:
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Crop Rotation
3 Oblivion Ring
1 Ulvenwald Tracker
1 Path to Exile
2 Pithing Needle
1 Gaddock Teeg
3 Mindbreak Trap
1 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Sylvan Safekeeper

Thoughts?

I like that list. Few tweaks I'd make:
- gaea's cradle looks better than cavern with those oozes and equips, which you always want work earlier against jund
- thorn looks random in sb. I'd change it for smth against jund or surgical extr (which is random as well, but priceless against punishing and more interesting overall). Or may be Elspeth. Otherwise, sb is solid.
- 61 cards - meh.

Good luck!

[ironclad8690]

I like that list. Few tweaks I'd make:
I'd change it for smth against jund or surgical extr

What is smth?

[KobeBryan]

What is smth?

Something

[conley1000000]

I like that list. Few tweaks I'd make:
- gaea's cradle looks better than cavern with those oozes and equips, which you always want work earlier against jund
- thorn looks random in sb. I'd change it for smth against jund or surgical extr (which is random as well, but priceless against punishing and more interesting overall). Or may be Elspeth. Otherwise, sb is solid.
- 61 cards - meh.

Good luck!

Good point about cradle, i will have to try that out.
Thorn is 4th thalia in the board, except the hopes are it can give me the rare chance at a double "tax"
61st first card for me is always maze of ith, feels like a waste in the board, but dont always like having it main, so I just make it #61

[crow_mw]

Not good enough for mainboard 60, not good enough for sideboard, so you just add it as 61st mainboard card? Not that I have much against 61 cards in a deck with three dominant tutor effects, but your reasoning here seems a bit iffy.

[Roland_Deschain]

Creaturesx23
3x Mother of Runes
1x Sylvan Safekeeper
4x Noble Hierarch
4x Knight of the Reliquary
2x Qasali Pridemage
2x Scavenging Ooze
2x Stoneforge Mystic
1x Scryb Ranger
1x Gadock Teeg
1x Terravore
1x Sigarda, Host of Herons
1x Dryad Arbor

Enchantment x2
2x Sylvan Library

Sorcery x5
4x Green Sun's Zenith
1x Life from the Loam

Instants x4
4x Swords to Plowsahres

Artifact x3
1x Sword of Light and Shadow
2x Umezawa's Jitte

Lands x23
4x Windswept Heath
4x Wasteland
4x Savannah
3x Misty Rainforest
3x Forest
1x Plains
1x Gaea's Cradle
1x Horizon Canopy
1x Karakas
1x Maze of Ith

Sideboard x15
3x Oblivion Ring
3x Surgical Extraction
1x Crop Rotation
1x Bojuka Bog
3x Ethersworn Canonist
2x Gaddock Teeg
1x Ulvenwald Tracker
1x Eternal Witness

After so many tests (i mean really a lot), i decide to cut Thalia, because most of the time she's doing nothing and slows down me.

I have used a version with Garruk and Elspeth, but the Sigarda and Terravore are most effective kill conditions (hey lets put some use for that zeniths on midlle and late games).

Play Loam, Safekeeper and Terravore this guys got balls.

Sword of Light and Shadow(especially with loam) and Jitte are the bests equips for this deck, so use them.

Eternal Witness and Tracker show they valor on champ i dont have any regrets of use them.

I think the rest of the deck don't need more explanation, when i got more time (work and college) i explain the matches.


As i promise here goes the report of the champ (sorry for the late but i am short on time this days):
I apologize for all the language mistakes like i said before write in other languages is a little hard.
I may have confused some games, have a good memory and note things but some games i just presume what happens.

First of all i decided to play Maverick because i still think that the deck have a lot to give in the field, and in my tests all the games that i lost are because of misplays so i trained a lot and go to the champ well prepared.
The first game was against RUG:

Match 1
He starts, fetches for tropical and ponders i fetch for forest and play noble that is dazed, he play a delver I play a ooze he flips his Delver (bolt), kill my creature and cast Nimble and pass i cast a Qasali and pass he cast a goyf and attacks I plow his goyf on his turn cast a jitte on mine and go slowly for victory.

Match 2

I side in 3 Surgical extraction 1 tracker and side out a Sword of light and shadow 2 Qasalis and a Stoneforge.
That was really fast he starts tropical island and Nimble, in my turn i waste his tropical and extraction his land (hit other on hand) in his turn he plays a fetch but without green manas is to hard for him, and win pretty easy.
The game against RUG is kind of simple, just pay attention to his forked bolts and the rest shouldn’t be a huge problem, the Wasteland + Surgical trick stole for me so many games…


Game 2 Show and Tell (omniscience)
It was a match that i play a lot so i go for the game completely confident the secret here is not enter in panic is a hard match but not impossible.

Match 1
I start with mother, he island and ponders, i cast a scryb ranger attack for 1 with mother, he lands a City of Traitors, pass i Zenith for Teeg and hit two, he Intuition on pass grabbing a omniscience show and tell on his turn I show a Sigarda (lucky i know) he omniscience Emrakul and Grisel, play another turn takes 7 drawing his shits and attacks with both, i take 15 from Emrakul, untap my mother with scryb pro my Sigarda and blocks, he pass i attack with everybody unless mother and untaps my scryb he attacks on his turn i untap Sigarda block Grisel with pro and block Emrakul with Scryb. On my turn i attack for victory.
Match 2
I side in 3 Surgical Extraction, 2 Teegs, 3 Ethersworn and 3 Oblivion Ring 1 Crop Rotation and take of 12 irrelevant cards.
This game was i mull to 5 and keep a hand with 1 Savannah, 1 Oblivion , 1 Waste, a Zenith and a noble, he sow and tell on turn two and i exile his omniscience with a Oblivion, i Zenith for 2 bringing the Teeg, and he show and tells again on turn 3 For Emrakul and i was history.
Match 3
I start with Zenith for dryad, playing a knight who gets countered he lands a Ancient Tomb, i cast a Library he intuition for show and tell on pass i extract his show and tell and he never come back to game.
2-1

Game 3 BUG
Play tight and take your time enjoying it, this game is really fun.

Match 1
I start with mother he Fetches for underground and cast a Shaman, i proceed with a noble and a plowshares on his elf, he brainstorms crack a fetch and cast another shaman, i Zenith for 2 bringing in a ooze and waste one of his lands on his turn he cast a shardless agent revealing a Baleful Strix and drawing a card, i play another land Zenith for Safekeeper attack with ooze and start to eat his graveyard, he respond fire casting another Baleful Strix, and attacking i keep attacking with ooze and sometimes i cast a scryb ranger blocking one of his birds, i try to connect a jitte but he Abrupt decays it i plow his shaman and cast a knight, he shardless for a ancestral vision i bring a Wasteland with knight (twice because of scryb) loam for more one waste cast Terravore and he scoops .

Match 2
I side in 1 Tracker, 1 Witness and 1 Bojuka takes of 1 Teeg and 2 Qasali.

He stars with shaman i noble, he brainstorms and lands a fetch, i play Mother and Safekeeper and he draws crack a fetch and cast a Engineered plague and waste my savannah, i keep playing but the plague punishing me so hard (if i had a Qasali on deck i think i could win that).

Match 3
I return a Qasali to main and cut a Noble.
I start with mother, he plays a land and pass (had mull to 6), i cast a Library, he decays it i Zenith for Ooze he play another land and one blind shardless agent hitting Hymn to tourach (don’t remember what i discard i think it was a land and a creature), i play a Tracker eat one creature to get my ooze bigger and attack, he cast a strix and suspends a ancestral vision, i plow his bird fight his agent and keep hitting him, he cast a pernicious deed With only one mana left, i Zenith for Qasali and attack i sac the cat he respond sacrificing his deed he doest nothing on his turn, i attack with ooze he decays it so i land a fetch and cast a sword of light and shadow he plays a Jace, jacestorm and pass i crack a fetch for arbor equip the sword and kill his Jace, he resolves the ancestral vision plays a goyf and a strix i draw a Terravore and play it equipped with a sword, he cast the plague for humans on my turn i Zenith for 3 catch a witness plow his goyf and attack to victory.

Game 4 Goblins
Look out for turn 1 lackey and put on your mind that this deck can kill you in a blink of an eye so no suicide attacks.

Match 1
He starts with the lackey i don’t have the plowshares and he finishes me

Match 2
Side in 1 Tracker, 1 Witness and 1 Ethersworn, side out 1 Qasali, 1 Loam and 1 Teeg

I start With mother on first turn, he plays the vial, i play a noble and other mother on turn two , he puts a counter on vial and port my land, I play a knight turn 3 (drawing a gaea’s cradle), he matrons a ringleader, i followed with a Zenith for scryb on turn 4 and pro my knight and put a clock of four turns he finds nothing of relevant and i win that.

Match 3

He starts with a lackey, i have plowshares this time, he plays a cavern of souls and pass, I waste his cavern and pass he stuck with one land and i have time to play a ooze, a Stoneforge for jitte, a noble equip jitte and hit twice after that he scoops.

Game 5 Reanimator
The karakas is your best friend here.

Match 1

He starts with a brainstorm i with a noble, he plays a fetch and pass i play a knight who gets countered, he entombs for Iona, and reanimes it, I miracle a Karakas and play a ooze that is not countered and he could do much more.

Match 2
Side in 3 Extraction, 1 Bojuka, 1 Crop Rotation 1 Witness and 2 O rings, side out 1 Qasali, 2 Stoneforge, 2 jitte, 1 Loam, 1 Sigarda and 1 Safekeeper.

I mull to 5 he to 6 he lands a fetch and pass, I do the same, he lands a island brainstorm and pass, i land a savannah and pass, he entombs a Grisel and try to reanimate that but I crop for Bojuka, followed by a knight on my turn he finds nothing more and i go for a honorable 5-0.

Game 6 Jund
In this game you want a mother or Safekeeper + a big creature

I ask if he wants to play or draw, he say something about the stands of him teammates, and we go for the game.

Match 1
I start with mother he lands a Grove of the Burnwillows and shaman I plow his shaman and waste his grove, he lands a fetch and pass, I play a library, he goes to Dark Confident, i take 4 damage with library (taking a cradle and a jitte) hit and kill his confident he stuck with two lands (Wasteland and a fetch) and that’s game.

Match 2

Side in 3 Extraction, 1 Tracker, 1 Witness, side out 2 Qasali, 2 Stoneforge, 1 noble.

He starts with a seize taking of my mother, i play a noble and pass, he punishing my creature (I think it was a mistake of him because he sees the Surgical extraction on my hand) I extract his fires (don’t remember what he reveals to me, there’s no decays on his hands and one Liliana I guess), I play a sword of light and shadow, and he plays a Liliana discard one card of our hands, i do nothing, he activate the Liliana again I discard and he followed by a tourach to finish business but I flash a scryb, in response and in my turn I hit him, returns a mother, plays it and a fetch that I draw on the turn, he bolts my mother and remove two counters of Liliana but I fetch a dryad arbor in response sacrificing it, and I think on next turn I play a Terravore from hand followed by a mother of light and shadow and finish in first.


Top 8

Game 1: UW miracles.

Match 1

This game was long, so I will not enter in details I remember only that I put him to 1 life and could not take that life so he wins a stressing one.

Match 2
Side in 2 Teegs, 3 Extraction, 1 Eternal witness 3 oblivion ring, side out 4 plowshares, 1 ooze, 2 jitte and 2 Stoneforge.

I keep a hand with a mother a Teeg and a Zenith (all that I want to win this game), I start with noble he lands a fetch and pass I keep playing spells that get countered or removed and when I reach 4 lands I Zenith for 1 grabbing a Safekeeper and play the Teeg, we go for my two turns and he scoops.

Match 3

He stars with a sensei and I with Zenith for 0, he looks his top and pass I go for creatures and starts to attack trying to rush him, sometime he plays a counterbalance and in a crucial moment I attack with all my creatures he looks his top and taps the sensei to draw (terminus of course) and in response i extract one of his plows of graveyard he looks again find nothing of one and extraction resolves i remove the spells (he doesn’t have any removals left) he shuffles look the top again finds no miracles, takes the damage in a couple of turns i Zenith for a Teeg he finds no top 3 and its game.

Game 2: Show and tell.
Again playing this game, but it’s a different opponent.

Match 1

He goes for turn two show and tell, revealing a Emrakul and i a knight that finds a karakas on my turn and bounces his creature, i win this easy like that.

Match 2

Like in the other game i side in 3 Surgical Extraction, 2 Teegs, 3 Ethersworn and 3 Oblivion Ring 1 Crop Rotation and take of 12 irrelevant cards.

He goes for show and tell on turn 2 (again) i show a knight (again) but he shows omniscience burning wishes the petals of insight and go for combo.

Match 3

I start with noble he ponders i play a knight he counters it, I play a Qasali and keep beating him i don’t find nothing and keep attacking he cast like a zillion of brainstorms and ponders, i draw a Stoneforge but decided to not playing it (you will understand why) he intuition for omniscience, show and tell on his turn bringing the enchantment and I a Stoneforge the ability of Stoneforge goes to stack and in response I sac Qasali to destroy his omniscience he calls the judge’s ask about some rules and in a couple of turns the victory is mine.

Game 3: BUG
The finals were disappointed to me since i expected a exciting game but my opponent does practically nothing on game 1.
Match 1
He mulls to 5 and I start with Noble he lands a underground sea and brainstorm i waste his sea and play a libray, he plays another sea and a shaman who gets “plowshered” and his sea “wasteled” he does nothing more in this game.

Match 2

I side in 1 Tracker, 1 Witness and 1 Bojuka takes of 1 Teeg and 1 Qasali and 1 Noble.
We keep our hands without mulligan, he play a bayou and shaman, i play Savannah and mother, he plays strix and pass, I play a tracker and a library (gaea’s help) and pass, he play a shardless into brainstorm attacks for 1 and pass, I play a Qasali and fight his shaman, he cracks a fetch decays my library cast goyf and pass, I tap a fetch cast the Knight and fight his shardless. He plays a confident and pass, I Zenith for scryb fight his strix and confident and attack with knight, we keep like this and in a few turns he had no creatures and some cards on hand (discards he shows to me after the end of game), and calmly goes for victory.

[Roland_Deschain]

Interesting, I've seen a lot of people advocating Sigarda these days.

How do you beat Miracles? Does the SFM+equipment package help?

Did the tournament just not have any fast kill combo decks (Belcher, ANT) or were those players all in the lower brackets?

Sigarda is great better than Thrun.

The stoneforges don't do much on tournament, but a Sword of Light and Shadow on Teeg on miracles match is so beautifull.

I see a High tide and a Belcher, my friend faces a tendrllis combo but no one made the top 8s.

Seeing now my report became longer than i wish, i say sorry for that.

[conley1000000]

Not good enough for mainboard 60, not good enough for sideboard, so you just add it as 61st mainboard card? Not that I have much against 61 cards in a deck with three dominant tutor effects, but your reasoning here seems a bit iffy.

Just a personal preference really. There is no scientific logic behind it.

[Esper3k]

Sigarda is great better than Thrun.

The stoneforges don't do much on tournament, but a Sword of Light and Shadow on Teeg on miracles match is so beautifull.

I see a High tide and a Belcher, my friend faces a tendrllis combo but no one made the top 8s.

Seeing now my report became longer than i wish, i say sorry for that.

Well done!

Can you elaborate on why you like Sigarda more than Thrun?

I know she's bigger and flies, but is harder to GSZ for, doesn't regenerate, and is much worse hardcasting when you draw her.

[Roland_Deschain]

Well done!

Can you elaborate on why you like Sigarda more than Thrun?

I know she's bigger and flies, but is harder to GSZ for, doesn't regenerate, and is much worse hardcasting when you draw her.
Thanks!

Thrun is a good card, but the angel is much more usefull than the troll, and is no "much worse of hardcasting" is only worse. The Thrun is faster than sigarda but in my games he's only a wall to block goyfs and the Sigarda is a pretty decent finisher. I think that Thrun is better against UW and RUG, but the Sigarda rules in all other matchs that creatures makes diference.
And think with me, in major situations (this phrase is correct?) that you can zenith for 4, is not better search for 3 and brings the knigth or Terravore? The Maverick don't need the Thrun, but the Sigarda can make the diference.

Of course that is my opinion, and i'm far away to be a pro.

[s6sculve]

So I've been play testing a unconventional version of maverick, tweaking it for the last 6 months..


Maverick G/W/b *

24 Creatures
4 Deathrite Shaman*
4 Mother of Runes
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Mirran Crusader
2 Scavenging Ooze
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Ethersworn Cannonist

8 Instants:
4 Abrupt Decay
4 Worldly Tutor

2 Artifacts:
2 Umezawa's Jitte

2 Enchantments:
1 Sylvan Library
1 Bitterblossom

1 Planeswalkers:
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant

23 Lands
3 Savannah
2 Bayou
2 Wasteland
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Windswept Heath
2 Cavern of Souls*
1 Plains
1 Forest*
1 Bojuka Bog
3 Horizon Canopy*
1 Maze of Ith*
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Karakas

Sideboard:
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Leyline of Sanctity
3 Oblivion Ring
2 Crop Rotation
3 Lingering Souls
1 Sorin, Lord of Innastrad

Just ignore Wordly Tutor, Green Sun Zenith is obviously a better card (I just tutor for Mother of Runes, Thalia, and Mirran Crusader at the end of my opponents turn so much that I keep it in..)

So black is to replace Swords to Plowshares with Adrupt Decay and Noble Heirarch with Deathrite Shaman

I need to get 2 more Leyline of Sanctity for my Sideboard

Tell me what you think please

[black]

Tournament report- march NELC

Main Deck

1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Umezawa's Jitte

4 Mother of Runes
2 Mirran Crusaders
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Aven Mindcensor
3 Thalia
1 Thrun
2 Qausali Pridmage
3 Greensun
1 Teeg

1 Garuuk Relentless

2 Sylvan library

4 Swords to Plowshares

1 Horizon Canopy
3 Savannah
4 Windswept heath
1 dryad arbor
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Karakas
2 Forest
1 Plains
3 Wasteland
1 Maze of Ith
2 Verdant Catacombs
1 Bayou
2 Cavern of Souls

Side Board

2 Armageddon
2 surgical extraction
2 engineered plague
2 oblivion ring
2 ethersworn cannonist
1 bojuka bog
1 path to exile
1 aven midcensor
1 gaddock teeg
1 sylvan safekeeper


Some immediate thoughts about the list after the tournament:

Aven midcensor is not a good one-of. Think i either need to run none or two? Prolly gonna add one more to the main deck.

Stoneforge mystic is not as great as i thought. I met another maverick player who explained that he felt like he never wanted to play stoneforge on turn two because it was almost a waste of a turn. After alot of thinking I agree that it is not pro-active enough for the deck. I think i may cut one from the main deck for the above aven mind-censor. The reason i would only cut one is because i still want a way to get my sword of light and shadow. I will honestly say stoneforge is much better to play in the later game. i wouldn't mind drawing it as a top deck.

Sylvan Safekeeper will prolly come out of the sideboard. the match ups i'd like to side this in against, dont give me the liberties of having excess lands (if that made any sense?) basically, Mother of Runes is way better in those match ups, even though Safekeeper is green sun-able.

Garruuk relentless still not sure about this guy. he is good against stoneblade

Round 1

Reanimator

Some how I end up playing against my friends Frank, who I came to Jupiter with in round 1. :/

Game 1- He reanimates Elishnorn, and wipes my entire board. I cant find a swords to plowshares, or a karakas.

Game 2- I draw a hand with Thalia and karakas, can't get much luckier than that. My opponent doesn't have the best luck with his draws. Im sorry Frank.

Game 3- I draw another hand with Karakas. Guess i kind of luck sacked that one.

thoughts: Not sure if this is a bad match up. I get to bring in surgicals, and a bojuka bog. thalia also does work.

1-0

Round 2

MUD, piloted by Adam. let me just start by saying i HAVE never played against MUD. So, this was a learning experience. Mom is horrible in this match up. Also they run Blood Moon.

Game 1- I loose to wurmcoil engine. the end.

Game 2- He plays a blood moon, I m pretty sure i threw a jitte on a thalia and just kept bashing him. drew my one of plains, and got to path one of his guys.

Game 3- very grindy match. steel hellkite wipes my board every turn it swings. i can't find a removal spell

1-1

Round 3

Eli Assai? Eli something, playing what he described as on of the two most expensive decks in the room. The other one belonging to bryant cook, who I happened to be sitting next to. Although miscut tundras are not the important part of this report though. The important part is that he utterly crushed me. U/W stoneblade, i thought this was an OK match up. He ended up wastelanding me out of the game. Somehow? IDK? He ran Supreme Verdict main deck. I lost . Horribly. that is all.

1-2

Round 4

Not feeling great at this point. Next round i play against Tyler- who is also playin Maverick. Believe it or not, I have never played the mirror match before- to be honest I didn't think anyone else was playing Maverick these days. I've learned some very important things. Mother of Runes is the key. Elspeth wrecks face.

game 1- I literally threw the game away. Had a wasteland out and didn't wastland his maze of ith- like a goddamn moron. to swing for the win. bleh. epic misplay.

game 2- he get an elsepth, we wasteland each other. he plays sigartha, who flies and is a beast. She not-so-slowly beats my life total Not sure if i like her in Maverick though.... She is five mana...I could play an espeth for that much mana. Doesnt escape board-wipe effects.

Anyway I lost :/ pushing me to 3-1....now, any normal person would have dropped at this point, but that ain't me so this report continues on.

Round 5

Scapeshift Nic Fit, piloted by my friend Devin- who I also came to Jupiter with. .. XD At this point I'm not playing for anything so its just nice to see a friendly face.

Game 1- I dont remember what happens here? Seriously i have no recollection of this game.

Game 2- I bring in Armageddon, thinking it will be good. I Armageddon him, with a thalia out. somehow he recovers?!? in the less than 5 turns it would take me to kill him. plays a huntmaster. i eat poop. and loose. curse you devin!!!

Game 3- I land a turn 3 mirran crusader, followed by a turn 4 jitte, equip, swing. He scoops.

3-2

Round 6

I play against Burn. (Sorry i can't seem to remember your name)

Game 1- I didn't think Thalia would be good in this match up but apparently it does work. I race him with damage and win. Mother of Runes is also great.

Game 2- I really shouldn't have won this game. The game ended with him having four land on the field and five cards in hand. unfortunately he drew 3 fireblasts and 2 smash to smithereens (I didnt play the jitte i searched up with stoneforge because i figured he might run them) before He could fireblast i had gained life putting me to nine instead of eight.

3-3

It was only a 6 round tournament. Pretty short for Jupiter, but it was still good :)

Comments? Suggestions?

[Esper3k]

Yeah in Maverick, the only time I like 1-ofs are with either lands (tutorable by Knight) or green creatures (tutorable by GSZ).

With no real library manipulation, you're not going to be able to reliably find something like a 1-of Aven Mindcensor.

I'd also go back to the 4 full GSZ - that card is too good in Maverick.