[Deck] GW/x Maverick

[barcode]

Which aspect of the card is good--the "land draw" or the lifegain? It seems like it has too little of each for 3 mana, but how is it actually playing out? What matchups do you actually zenith for it instead of a Knight?

Being a flat 2/4 means it's quite good at holding the ground. "Drawing a card" every now and then also very good value in almost every matchup. The lifegain in this metagame is not irrelevant. Synergizing with Sylvan Library (which we want to play anyways) is also top notch.

All of these things make me want to play Courser.

I Zenith for one when I'm behind on lands or need to hold the ground against Burn or UR Delver. Courser is a good mid-game stepping stone to the late game 9/9 Knight plan.

[Zulabnar]

Good day guys;

i'm an old italian magic player since 96 and i'm playin Maverick atm, after a couple of years idle.

Last night testing with my team shows me that UR delver really kick my ass. ATM i'm play herzog list with black for DSR and Adecay in side.
I feel bad with that list, (only scyb's for ooze is my change and no cradle :cry:)

Really this deck seems to lose after the good early phase of the game, maybe too many :1: drop and nothing to freeze the game when in advantage, this is what i see.

How do you feel against UR burn or UR pyromancer deck based? what You side in?

I don't like also the COK (even if is very good with sylvan) for the same reason, it does not seal the game when in.

any suggest to my problem? in my zone ur decks are 50% of the meta.

[Claymore]

If the meta was nothing but stonebladedurdlemidrange.dec, Courser would be great. Otherwise it is irrelevant against most everything else in the field. It gives up all of your information, the lifegain is too slow and irrelevant, and it can't block a Swiftspear worth more than any other 3 drop creature you could use.

[JankMaster]

Good day guys;

i'm an old italian magic player since 96 and i'm playin Maverick atm, after a couple of years idle.

Last night testing with my team shows me that UR delver really kick my ass. ATM i'm play herzog list with black for DSR and Adecay in side.
I feel bad with that list, (only scyb's for ooze is my change and no cradle :cry:)

Really this deck seems to lose after the good early phase of the game, maybe too many :1: drop and nothing to freeze the game when in advantage, this is what i see.

How do you feel against UR burn or UR pyromancer deck based? what You side in?

I don't like also the COK (even if is very good with sylvan) for the same reason, it does not seal the game when in.

any suggest to my problem? in my zone ur decks are 50% of the meta.

What seems to be your issue with UR delver? I haven't experienced an issue with the deck so far. Everyone playing UR delver is what made me start experimenting with maverick.

[TMagpie]

What seems to be your issue with UR delver? I haven't experienced an issue with the deck so far. Everyone playing UR delver is what made me start experimenting with maverick.

I've never lost a series vs a UR delver deck, but a lot of my almost losses I pulled out due to random Marit lage token. Do you run Dark Depths?

[JankMaster]

I'm running the depths combo. This week I beat UR delver in a game I mulled to 4. After that game I don't know if I will ever remove the combo.

[Strassbaw]

Recently I have been doing a lot of testing with Punishing Dark Maverick on Twitch, and I have recorded the match ups. Not all of my lists are the same in the testing, and some of the hands are hard to see, but I think the videos will be interesting to watch. I hope people like what they see. I played the same 60 as Fabian Gorzgen but I changed the board drastically to improve some match ups.

Maverick vs Patriot blade (BBD build)

Start here and we start the match around 10 mins in

http://www.twitch.tv/phlogisten/b/591324479

http://www.twitch.tv/phlogisten/b/591384455


After several matches I cut two swords to plowshares into the board and kept the DD combo to get around TNN lock.

Lesser quality pre-GP NJ testing vs UR and UWR MIracles before I realized how hard it was to see my hand when I played.

This was a play test day before the event. It's about 3 cards different than the other list played in the video before. Around this time I was considering Maze of Ith. I made room for sword of fire and ice, and it wasn't worth it. Batterskull in this list is enough. The miracles matches were great to see. Learning more about the deck from a second hand perspective has helped me beat it in games. You can watch my over extensions and shake your heads as terminus ruins my games. 3 teegs in the 75 will be my next try when I record and test against the deck.

http://www.twitch.tv/phlogisten/b/588497620
http://www.twitch.tv/phlogisten/b/588552057
http://www.twitch.tv/phlogisten/b/588605073

More videos to come. I hope you enjoy watching.

[Stuhl]

Knight/fetchland/zenith + courser on board means you can manipulate your draws and shuffle away cards you definitely do not need. I think that's what matters most.

[Warden]

I'm running the depths combo. This week I beat UR delver in a game I mulled to 4. After that game I don't know if I will ever remove the combo.

That's generally how I feel about it. I admit I was running "only" using cradle at the GP. Cradle held its own against the wide field in ways the DD/Stage would have felt a turn too slow. It made me feel naked at times. I also couldn't "just auto-kill" -- a feature I love against durdly decks.

@UR Delver:
The key was Scooze. I crushed TC delver at the GP and had ridiculous wasteland/thalia/scooze end them. Also, if they fetch a dual to open, you burn an available wasteland in your hand to strand them. My opponent kept a 1 lander and I pushed him turn 1 by wasteland-ing his opening dual. He bricks for 5 turns without lands while I thalia/scooze him out.

[JankMaster]

I agree on ooze 100%!!!

[TMagpie]

I'm running the depths combo. This week I beat UR delver in a game I mulled to 4. After that game I don't know if I will ever remove the combo.

May games are like this.

Either an early thalia wrecks their tempo
Or a midgame night is just unkillable
Or I stabilize, and before they burn me out I DD them

Without DD I feel that Maverick will too often get "burnt out" by treasure cruise drawing them the last 2-3 burn spells needed to finish you off. I'm just trying to get a gauge if there's a pattern between DD players having an easier time vs UR Cruise Delver than non-DD players.

[GreenSun4Zero]

Has anyone tested 1-2 Bitterblossom out of the board? Saw Glenn Jones' article on SCG last Thursday had one in the board. Primarily for Miracles and Stoneblade (and other grindy decks).

I've been testing with it some over the weekend and very impressed so far.

[tescrin]

In the DGA thread I was mentioning that I think Bitterblossom is best for a Junk deck (but is perfectly acceptable in the side for miracles or something. Though I think Elspeth/Garruk will treat you better.) The reason is:
A) Junk is typically a Goyf Deck; so you can give him an easy +2
B) It's not in your primary color, and your primary color can do the same thing with stronger cards.

For instance, a Junk deck can't comfortably run Elspeth any more than you can jam in Lily. I think Souls is generally accepted as stronger (especially next to SoLaS, if you run it) and I'd say that that logic applies here as well, since you don't have much black and since you don't run Goyf.

[ironclad8690]

Went 1-2 in my weekly local.

Burn 1-2 tied up and then during the last game which I think I was going to win some little kids came into the store (which I work at) so i had to help them and when the round timer went off i conceded.

Death and Taxes 2-1 crazy jitte battles in all games, but KOTR ended up saving the day in the games which i won. I love having large green creatures in the face of all these little men. Zealous doing work in game 3 as well.

UWR blade 0-2: game 1 mulled to 4 and almost got there but the bricks hurt real bad. TNN finished me off, i should note that he cast 2 DTT this game. Game 2 i built up my board and to my surprise opp played supreme verdict. I couldnt rebuild, he casts at least 3 force of wills and 2 DTTs again.

[Cambriel]

Though I think Elspeth/Garruk will treat you better.

The biggest advantage to Bitterblossom is that it comes down so early. In a Miracles match that likely doesn't matter, whereas 2cmc is a very real concern vs Counterbalance.

Of the 3, I personally think Garruk is the best option. That's just me though.

[TMagpie]

The biggest advantage to Bitterblossom is that it comes down so early. In a Miracles match that likely doesn't matter, whereas 2cmc is a very real concern vs Counterbalance.

Of the 3, I personally think Garruk is the best option. That's just me though.

Due to the nature of the miracles matchup in conjunction with its sudden rise in popularity, I have been using 3 slots in my sideboard for 2 Armageddon + 1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All.

My question is this--is it better to run planes walkers instead? How big a trump is a token generator vs miracles? Is it a bigger trump to run geddon?

[tescrin]

I used Kjeldoran outpost once to test the theory (I know it's janky.) My general experience was you not only need the token generator but you need disruption coming over the top of it (in your case, Teeg/Thalia) to last long enough for that token clock to matter. Instead of this; if you have a stream of tokens attaching equipment, this is enough to establish a good clock without commiting anything. The equips are the important part. The tokens are not quite enough by themselves IME.

[TMagpie]

I used Kjeldoran outpost once to test the theory (I know it's janky.) My general experience was you not only need the token generator but you need disruption coming over the top of it (in your case, Teeg/Thalia) to last long enough for that token clock to matter. Instead of this; if you have a stream of tokens attaching equipment, this is enough to establish a good clock without commiting anything. The equips are the important part. The tokens are not quite enough by themselves IME.

I don't feel bad about not running elspeths anymore then.

[Strassbaw]

Top 4 with Punishing Dark Maverick today at a scg IQ with 45 people. Here is my list.

http://www.mtgpulse.com/event/18566#261707

Punishing Fire and Pyroblast have been pretty nice as blade decks in my area have become more prevalent than UR delver decks. The E tutor board was nice, but I think the deck can still do well without it. Life from the Loam in my 60 is feeling okay, as it's a great card historically in the deck, however, it may not be necessary.

[ironclad8690]

Top 4 with Punishing Dark Maverick today at a scg IQ with 45 people. Here is my list.

http://www.mtgpulse.com/event/18566#261707

Punishing Fire and Pyroblast have been pretty nice as blade decks in my area have become more prevalent than UR delver decks. The E tutor board was nice, but I think the deck can still do well without it. Life from the Loam in my 60 is feeling okay, as it's a great card historically in the deck, however, it may not be necessary.

Damn dude, not bad, how many of these things have you top 8'ed at this point? I feel like I am always seeing your name on decklist websites. Have you always played the punishing version?

[Strassbaw]

Thanks IronClad! Persistence has paid off for me. I've been doing well on a local scale with the deck for about 9 months. I have been fortunate to have somewhat of a gauntlet of players and decks to play against weekly, so even when the meta was relatively bad for Maverick, I was able to pilot the deck to victory in some weekly events.

The miracle MU and the UR MU are kinda rough, however, those decks have been on the decline in my area. I am working on a optimal board plan, and my win ratio hasn't been too great time with the current board. I have been boarding in Pyroblast and Zealous Persecution against UR and I run 2 extra Teegs because the Miracle players often find ways to force me to play Teeg before I can fully protect the card. Having multiple Teegs in that MU seems essential. I'm not sure if 3 in the deck is needed, but that's what's I have been trying these past few events.


The sideboard needs some work, so if anyone wants to test a build like this without E-tutor, please, go nuts. I wonder if I can find cards more effective than Pithing Needle now that I'm not running E-tutor. Choke is cool, but currently I like Pyroblast better in the fight. In my play testing experience Choke hasn't been easy for me to land and in some games it lands and I still lose. Cards like Abrupt Decay and Pernicious have been options I want to consider as I've heard some players have hard success with Decay and toxic Deluge. I wonder if Deed is a viable option against miracles as I think like the idea of being able to deal with Bloodmoon in that MU with this 4C list.

[Cambriel]

I've swapped to Abrupt Decay from Path and it has been pretty much all upside. It still comes in as removal in the matchups where Path was most necessary, and it also comes in vs Miracles. With Delver being the preeminent aggro deck and universally playing 4 Daze, Path was generally a 2 mana spell anyway.

[Cambriel]

Out of curiosity, has anyone been finding Chains of Mephistopheles useful as sideboard tech? It's doing work in Jund for sure, and it seems like something we could take advantage of. I just haven't had a chance to try it out yet.

[Koby]

Out of curiosity, has anyone been finding Chains of Mephistopheles useful as sideboard tech? It's doing work in Jund for sure, and it seems like something we could take advantage of. I just haven't had a chance to try it out yet.

Why not just run Spirit of the Labyrinth? You have Mom to protect it from spot removal, it's on color, and also beats down in the meantime. Redundant copies are not dead weight either. Finally, who's got $250 for a sideboard card?

[tescrin]

To be fair:
-Chains does hurt SDT
-Chains is much much better against miracles (between downright bad and pretty good; depending if they're Legend or Ponder version, respectively)
-Chains is much easier to keep on the battlefield against any non-BG Delver deck, Deathblade, etc.. The tradeoff being that it's useless when it's effect isn't in action vs. being mediocre

I think Spirit is better against combo and worse against Delver overall (and much super bad against Legend miracles where you may get Clique'd)

[Warden]

Why not just run Spirit of the Labyrinth? You have Mom to protect it from spot removal, it's on color, and also beats down in the meantime. Redundant copies are not dead weight either. Finally, who's got $250 for a sideboard card?

Emphasis added. This is why more people don't run Chains. I certainly have better things to spend money on...like nearly every other SB card for the deck than 1x Chains

[blackdiamonds]

Emphasis added. This is why more people don't run Chains. I certainly have better things to spend money on...like nearly every other SB card for the deck than 1x Chains

you deff want at least 2 chainz

[GreenSun4Zero]

Hi fellow Maverick players - I played in the Atlanta SCG Opens this past weekend (Standard - Top 8, Legacy - Top 32). Thought I'd share my Sunday deck and experience.

Deck:
Creatures
1 Dryad Arbor
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Mother of Runes
1 Gaddock Teeg
2 Qasali Pridemage
2 Scavenging Ooze
3 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Knight of the Reliquary
Spells
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Sylvan Library
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
Lands
2 Bayou
1 Forest
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Karakas
2 Marsh Flats
1 Plains
3 Savannah
1 Scrubland
2 Verdant Catacombs
4 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath
Sideboard
2 Bitterblossom
2 Containment Priest
3 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Zealous Persecution
3 Choke

Deck thoughts going into the Open:
- Wasteland isn't widely played right now... added an extra Bayou
- Bitterblossom is very strong against Miracles and Stoneblade, which will be the most popular decks
- Need quick lifegain and removal for the UR Delver matchup... added a second Jitte in the side to find it faster in games 2 and/or 3 (also for Elves!)

Matchups and Results:
Round 1 vs. Miracles - Loss (0-2) - Couldn't stick a Teeg fast enough either game before JTMS hit a relatively empty board
Round 2 vs. UWR Delver - Win (2-1) - Thalia, Wasteland, and Choke stuck him on limited mana
Round 3 vs. GW Enchantress - Win (2-0) - Pridemages won game 1, Cannonist won game 2
Round 4 vs. MUD - Win (2-0) - Opponent mulliganed into hands light on mana
Round 5 vs. Miracles - Win (2-1) - Died to Jace game 1, Choke/Library/Bitterblossom took over game 2, Teeg/Mom lock game 3
Round 6 vs. BUG Midrange (Feature Match vs. Kent Ketter) - Win (2-1) - Ooze and Mom were too disruptive
Round 7 vs. Storm - Loss (1-2) - On the draw games 1 & 3 and died on his second turn
Round 8 vs. UR Burn - Win (2-0) - Almost died both games before playing/equipping a Jitte
Round 9 vs. Maverick Mirror (Feature Match vs. Andrew Shrout) - ID (0-0-1) - Neither of our tiebreakers were good enough to grab the 8th spot, so we decided to draw into Top 32

Concluding thoughts:
- You'd have thought it was a church service with how many Miracles there were... UR Delver also everywhere... followed by UWR Stoneblade
- Going to find room for Thoughtseize (3-4) in the sideboard... would very much like a turn one play vs. combo
- Not sure if I need the Containment Priests

Good luck in your future tournaments!

[apple713]

Why not just run Spirit of the Labyrinth? You have Mom to protect it from spot removal, it's on color, and also beats down in the meantime. Redundant copies are not dead weight either. Finally, who's got $250 for a sideboard card?

Even if chains was a 5$ card i dont think it would see more play in the long run. Initially yes ppl eould test with it but would then conclude that its not really good. Heres why

It has no immediate impact on board state.
If you are behind when you play it, you are probably further behind because you spent a turn casting it
Its a prison piece that isnt that effective because it only restricts additional draws


On a seperate note, does green have any great utility creatures that can duel a deck, such as knight of the reliquary or fauna shaman?

[blackdiamonds]

Hi fellow Maverick players - I played in the Atlanta SCG Opens this past weekend (Standard - Top 8, Legacy - Top 32). Thought I'd share my Sunday deck and experience.

Deck:
Creatures
1 Dryad Arbor
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Mother of Runes
1 Gaddock Teeg
2 Qasali Pridemage
2 Scavenging Ooze
3 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Knight of the Reliquary
Spells
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Sylvan Library
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
Lands
2 Bayou
1 Forest
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Karakas
2 Marsh Flats
1 Plains
3 Savannah
1 Scrubland
2 Verdant Catacombs
4 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath
Sideboard
2 Bitterblossom
2 Containment Priest
3 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Zealous Persecution
3 Choke

Deck thoughts going into the Open:
- Wasteland isn't widely played right now... added an extra Bayou
- Bitterblossom is very strong against Miracles and Stoneblade, which will be the most popular decks
- Need quick lifegain and removal for the UR Delver matchup... added a second Jitte in the side to find it faster in games 2 and/or 3 (also for Elves!)

Matchups and Results:
Round 1 vs. Miracles - Loss (0-2) - Couldn't stick a Teeg fast enough either game before JTMS hit a relatively empty board
Round 2 vs. UWR Delver - Win (2-1) - Thalia, Wasteland, and Choke stuck him on limited mana
Round 3 vs. GW Enchantress - Win (2-0) - Pridemages won game 1, Cannonist won game 2
Round 4 vs. MUD - Win (2-0) - Opponent mulliganed into hands light on mana
Round 5 vs. Miracles - Win (2-1) - Died to Jace game 1, Choke/Library/Bitterblossom took over game 2, Teeg/Mom lock game 3
Round 6 vs. BUG Midrange (Feature Match vs. Kent Ketter) - Win (2-1) - Ooze and Mom were too disruptive
Round 7 vs. Storm - Loss (1-2) - On the draw games 1 & 3 and died on his second turn
Round 8 vs. UR Burn - Win (2-0) - Almost died both games before playing/equipping a Jitte
Round 9 vs. Maverick Mirror (Feature Match vs. Andrew Shrout) - ID (0-0-1) - Neither of our tiebreakers were good enough to grab the 8th spot, so we decided to draw into Top 32

Concluding thoughts:
- You'd have thought it was a church service with how many Miracles there were... UR Delver also everywhere... followed by UWR Stoneblade
- Going to find room for Thoughtseize (3-4) in the sideboard... would very much like a turn one play vs. combo
- Not sure if I need the Containment Priests

Good luck in your future tournaments!

great report! congrats on top 32. i think 3 choke is a little much but its so good. I like sword of L/S but I'm not sure how good it really is? how'd you like it?

[ironclad8690]

Maverick just took down Portland!

Edit: List:

4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Mother of Runes
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze
2 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Spirit of the Labyrinth
2 Gaddock Teeg
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Dryad Arbor

1 Forest
1 Bayou
1 Bojuka Bog
2 Cavern of Souls
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Marsh Flats
2 Savannah
1 Scrubland
3 Verdant Catacombs
4 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath
1 Karakas

1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sylvan Library
3 Abrupt Decay
3 Swords to Plowshares
1 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Green Sun's Zenith

Sideboard:
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Pithing Needle
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
2 Containment Priest
1 Choke
2 Zealous Persecution
1 Cataclysm
3 Thoughtseize

[Klobster]

Maverick just won portland!

What a great way to close out the dual open weekends.

[blackdiamonds]

About time

[GreenSun4Zero]

great report! congrats on top 32. i think 3 choke is a little much but its so good. I like sword of L/S but I'm not sure how good it really is? how'd you like it?

Yeah, 3 Chokes are a bunch, but landing one vs. Stoneblade or Miracles has been pretty much good enough to win. Armageddon is great too, but I've liked keeping my noncreature spells costing +4 or X to just Green Sun's Zenith.

Light and Shadow is also just a concession to Miracles, although it's good against Death and Taxes, Stoneblade, and the mirror too. I boarded it out a lot, so I could see playing it in the board, like McDarby did this past weekend.

What does everyone think of Abrupt Decay, as McDarby has in his maindeck? Love the wide application, but hate the Thalia tax that comes stapled to them (vs. another Pridemage). They may just be good enough (like GSZ) to play despite the also running 4 Thalias...

[Warden]

Yeah, 3 Chokes are a bunch, but landing one vs. Stoneblade or Miracles has been pretty much good enough to win. Armageddon is great too, but I've liked keeping my noncreature spells costing +4 or X to just Green Sun's Zenith.

Light and Shadow is also just a concession to Miracles, although it's good against Death and Taxes, Stoneblade, and the mirror too. I boarded it out a lot, so I could see playing it in the board, like McDarby did this past weekend.

What does everyone think of Abrupt Decay, as McDarby has in his maindeck? Love the wide application, but hate the Thalia tax that comes stapled to them (vs. another Pridemage). They may just be good enough (like GSZ) to play despite the also running 4 Thalias...

So glad to see Maverick on the rise. It makes me smile :)
As for "what does everyone think about [card choices]"...we're looking at playstyle and preferences tbh. I think QPM is just insane in the format and can't help but run 2-3x in the maindeck. I love decay in the SB (miracles, extra multi-purpose removal), as it can't attack int he red zone like QPM can. I also think 2x Sylvan Library is mandatory...but if you can win a SCG with 1x, what do I know? The maindeck looks like it's kicking miracles in the balls with 2x Teeg, 2x Spirit, a full suite of Mom and Thalia + 2x Caverns. It's all about what you want to fight. David appears to be throwing the kitchen sink at problematic matchups. Whatever he can stick on the table will cause headaches for Miracles.

[Cambriel]

McDarby's list has some interesting choices for sure. It's the first in a while where I've seen anyone eschew both cradle *and* Depths/Stage. In this case, it squeezed in room for Caverns. I'll be honest, it really surprised me when I saw how varied the creature types were. Maverick typically has several to deal with, but his had more than usual. I wish I could see some of his off camera matches to really get a feel for whether Cavern was worth it, and if so if 2 is the right number.

The match he played vs Burn in the semis was a joy to watch. That is a tough matchup, but he navigated it better than I think I've ever seen on camera. The Burn player stumbled a bit, whether from nerves or just being outplayed, but McDarby still wouldn't have won if he hadn't seen all the right lines. I'm still very impressed.

[blackdiamonds]

1x cataclysm? Isn't Armageddon just better?

[ThediscoPower]

McDarby's list has some interesting choices for sure. It's the first in a while where I've seen anyone eschew both cradle *and* Depths/Stage. In this case, it squeezed in room for Caverns. I'll be honest, it really surprised me when I saw how varied the creature types were. Maverick typically has several to deal with, but his had more than usual. I wish I could see some of his off camera matches to really get a feel for whether Cavern was worth it, and if so if 2 is the right number.

The match he played vs Burn in the semis was a joy to watch. That is a tough matchup, but he navigated it better than I think I've ever seen on camera. The Burn player stumbled a bit, whether from nerves or just being outplayed, but McDarby still wouldn't have won if he hadn't seen all the right lines. I'm still very impressed.

Well, the good thing is, it happens to be Glenn Jones' deck, so I think we have a slight chance of him talking about it in his next article, with any luck. I am interested hearing about the maindeck spirits, and how they performed.

[Koby]

I liked Burrenton Forge-Tender, and having digested it for about 12 hours, I think it's better than Kor Firewalker even if Firewalker is better objectively. The reason is primarily due to being a 1 drop which means more against a fast Swiftspear start than does Firewalker. Also :w::w: is basically impossible to find in time under pressure.

[Cambriel]

I liked Burrenton Forge-Tender, and having digested it for about 12 hours, I think it's better than Kor Firewalker even if Firewalker is better objectively. The reason is primarily due to being a 1 drop which means more against a fast Swiftspear start than does Firewalker. Also :w::w: is basically impossible to find in time under pressure.

I agree, Forge-Tender is probably better for this deck vs. the creature heavy burn strategies. Had McDarby faced off vs lavaspike.dec, things might have gone a little bit differently.

Honestly, I have no problem giving Warmth a try. The math probably still favors Forge-Tender, but Warmth would handle bolts to the face a lot better.

[jaydprickett]

I am really liking this list for this metagame. We know that Delver is everywhere in all iterations, we know Combo is on a downturn because of this. So this Maverick list is heavily metagamed and looks great.

Thalia is a house against tempo decks but doesn't play well with Punishing fire. So if you aren't going the Punishing Fire route, this Junk versions looks good. Abrupt Decay does cost 3 with Thalia out but Abrupt Decay is also insanely good right now.

It is almost DeathnTax's like with adding more Hatebears. But has a better long game with Knight of the Reliquary. We can also see metagame decisions in his manabase. The Bojuka Bog for random value when drawn. The 2 Cavern's to really push back against all these tempo decks.

The more I look at it the more I like it.

[lavafrogg]

I have had a lot of luck with a GWb list with thalias, oozes, teegs and pridemages out the wazoo and the only b is for deathrite and the board. Teeg and Scavenging ooze are must kills against most of the new treasure cruise decks with ooze being quite a house against the straight ur version.

Pridemages put in work against all of the stoneblade decks running around and are recurrable with a sword of light and shadow.

Finally sylvan library/life from the loam let us keep up with the blue cantrip gods as well as let us draw cards when needed.

Anyone else still testing?

[EpicLevelCommoner]

Regarding Cavern of Souls tech: what are y'all's opinions on 1 Boseiju + 1 Cavern v. 2 Cavern? Cavern on humans seems to have the most value in terms of what we can use it for, but having an extra in case Wasteland becomes popular again seems good, and even if they don't a second on a key creature could seal the game. Boseiju, on the other hand, allows us to force a GSZ through Force of Will/Counterbalance, making things like Pridemage that much more better. Not to mention it synergizes well with Thalia in the sense that Thalia's tax can be used to make your instants and sorceries, including StP uncounterable.

[screallix]

I've been playing for 1 1/2 years now with over all good results.
I tried Dark Maverick with Decay, Deathrite Shaman, Thoughtseize, Big Zoo with Nacatl and Lightning Bolts,
Bant with TNN, Jace and Brainstorm, Force etc. and Punishing Maverick.

Recently I top 16. a local 60+ person tournament (http://eternal-clash.com/) with GWr Punishing Maverick.
Unlikely I can't remember the exact 75 but here's the list I've been playing lately.

1 Dryad Arbor
2 Gaddock Teeg
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Qasali Pridemage
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Mother of Runes
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Karakas
1 Forest
2 Savannah
3 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Dark Depths
1 Thespian's Stage
3 Punishing Fire
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
2 Taiga
2 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Spirit of the Labyrinth
1 Noble Hierarch
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Scrubland
3 Wooded Foothills
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Plateau
3 Deathrite Shaman

Sideboard:
Enlightened Tutor Toolbox
2 Enlightened Tutor
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Pithing Needle
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Zuran Orb
1 Engineered Plague

Green Sun's Zenith Toolbox
1 Qasali Pridemage

Land-Toolbox
1 Crop Rotation
1 Bojuka Bog

Impact Spells
1 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Krosan Grip
1 Armageddon

My Matches were:
Round 1: won 2:0 against Treasure Cruise Bant
As far as I remember I really crushed him. Game 1
with Punishing Fire, Gaddock for Treasure Cruise and a 6/6 Knight.
Game 2 looked fairly the same.
Round 2: lost 1:2 against Painted Mud
Unlikely I was paired against a good friend. I know he's playing various versions of Painter, Mud, etc. He knew what I was playing so did I. Painted Mud. I always felt Maverick has a good MU. Chalice on one isn't that bad. Trinisphere is only bad if you can't curve out with lands. So we started chatting and started. I kept a hand with my one of basic forest and one Noble Hierarch, 2 Swords to Plowshares, 2 Fetchlands and a Zenith.
"Pretty strong I guess". He started exiling spirits and Mooning me Turn one. I answered with forest into Hierarch, leaving me with all colors of mana. Turn two he plays a Chalice for one -> leaving Swords as a dead hand card.
I zenithed for Qasali to get a clock online since he has no maindeck removal spell (only Jaya and REB combined with Painter). As it turned out he has nothing for the next 3 turns and I attacked him for 3 damage per turn and playing mountains. Then there were 2 crucial turns: he resolves Painters Servant and the one of Jaya. (Meanwhile I drew my third Sword btw.). My first decision tree was the following:
Qasali-BumBum the Chalice of the Void to free my Swords. Sword the Jaya to ensure my permanents don't get blown up.
The difficult thing was, that I only had one white mana source. So in the event he draws the Grindstone I'm dead to the combo kill.
On the other hand he would just shoot down the hierarch leaving me with no white mana. I just sworded Jaya and pass.
He plays a second copy of Painters Servant and passes.
I sword one of the guys and resolve a deathrite of the forest. As it turned out he draws the Grindstone the following turn and kills me
leaving me with one uncastable sword in hand. "My only thought was: how did I just lost that game?".

Game 2 I started with fetch-forest. Deathrite and Pass.
He moons me again turn 1. I get a Ooze as a cloc and denial for future welder-action going and he didn't managed to get the combo online until he plays a Ensnaring Bridge with 2 cards in hand.
I played a Jitte and equipped and hit him for 2. The next turns I -1/1 my ooze to attack and +2/+2 afterwards to get around Bridge.
It was slow but I won G2.
Game 3 He drew the turn 2 win. Turn 1 Grim Monolith turn 2 Painter Grindstone activate. I made a sad face with no kind of interaction in my hand. WTF

Round 3: won 2:0 against Dark Maverick
I was paired AGAIN against a good friend. I knew most of his 75 because we tweeked our list and he knew most of mine.
Game 1 it was a game of Mothers. I had 2 - he had one. Later I had a Jitte and Punishing Fire.
Game 2 he mulliganed to 5 and keept a slow hand. He gets a Knight online crawls back into the game. I sword his Knight
and next turn he cuts of my Zenith by flashing in Aven Mindcensor. As we were chatting and having a good match I managed to forget
Aven Mindcensor two times but Punishing Fire and a Knight, for which he can't find an answer seals the deal.

Round 4: won 2:0 against UWR Delver Tempo
He played a straight Patriot list from pre Treasure Cruise Era.
Game 1 was just a luck-draw of mine. By the end of turn 5 I drew all of my swords
leaving him 2 lands and after double wasteland+knight with no permanents.
Game 2 I get a turn 1 Mother of Runes online (Against my expectation because UWR plays 7-8 one mana removal) followed by turn 2 Spirit of the Labyrinth. As it turned out he had 2 Ponder and 1 Brainstorm left in his hand.
I attacked him with my 3/1 until he played his own 3/1. I have an answer for the following Equipment and a follow up big Knight.
So he was on blocking duty. 2 turns later I drew and resolved my one of Toxic Deluge and attacked for the win. ++ for Spirit of the Labyrinth (random win)

Round 5: lost 0:2 against Miracles
Darnit. A friend of mine AAAGAIIN. Seems like in a 60+ tournament you still get paired against the people you know.
I know he's on Miracles and he plays the deck since Terminus was printed. Game one he wracks my board multiple times and
resolves turn 4 a Jace on empty board. I scoop it up very fast 2 turns later.
Game 2 I pulled ahead with mother and Gaddock and Knight. He Councils my Gaddock and casts Terminus and wracks my board and faith (Stupid Councils Judgment print?!)
A few turns later I loose to 4 Angels.

After the game I was quite pissed, because with X:1 I would have been easily in the money.
Round 6: win 2:0 against Miracles
FFS. Aaaaanother very good friend. He plays since 1 year and I made him play magic back then. I know he's on Miracles, too.
He told me afterwards that he's on the same 75 cards as my opponent from Round 5 too and they tweeked together.
Game 1 I resolved one of my maindeck Gaddocks but it get's sworded right away as I had no Mother of Runes to protect it (how stupid from me).
Nevertheless I managed to grind faster and win by damage.
Game 2 I started with Mother of Runes but no follow up. This time I finally managed to draw the keyspells from my Sideboard (not like in the match before). I enlightend for Needle on his Divining Top,
Pyroblast his Counterbalances and played a second mother of runes after Armageddon hits the lands on turn 6. I had 2 lands in hand but again no follow and fortunatly he didn't find any lands to cast cantrips
so I beat him down in 7 turns with 2 mother of runes Haiyaaa!!!. That was a funny match. Well for the Maverick-Side at least.

I'd like to share my thoughts and decisions.
Great Cards:
2x Scavenging Ooze is must have maindeck (since TC)
2x Gaddock Teeg is must have in 75. (I tried 3 in heavy Miracle meta)
1x Armageddon is super wreck-mode. Miracles, 12Post, Aggroloam, Lands (which is on the rise again) is very beatable with this panic button. Could be a Cataclysm but I dislike destroying creatures of my own. + Cataclysm for killing Planeswalkers but I have Punishing Fire :3.
1x Toxic Deluge - this beast won me about 5 competetive matches in the past 3 weeks. Nobody expects a wrath effect from the Maverick side. Two times my opponent puts all of his Treasure Cruise drawn creatures into play
just to get -2/-2 afterwards. The card has often a lot of downsides but if you manage to navigate it through it's a game winner or comeback spell.
1x Engineered Plage. Board against UR, name Human, win. Tutoring for -1/-1 is super strong.
1x Noble Hierarch - Although he does not produce red mana this guy is a beast. I tried: (3x Deathrite, 3x Birds), (4x Deathrites and 1 Noble), (3x Deathrites and 1 Bird and 1 Noble which is IMO the best.)
3x Punishing Fire - Beastmode against all creature decks. Sometimes too slow against UR but a combination of early removal, good ground creatures and punishing fire "always" wins.

Okay Cards:
2x Enlightened Tutor. Most of the time I'm against cards that trade bad in cardcount. I hate surgical extraction and most of the time I hate Enlightened tutor in Blue decks. But Maverick does not play after the same
card advantage rules as the other decks. It's a deck that searches proactive or reactive answers for different gamestates and ET does exactly that.
1x Batterskull is okay. Sometimes it's super bad, sometimes it wins game on it's own. But most of the times it's a win-more card and not necessary for a deck that is this great at blocking the ground. Big minus is the 3x Stoneforge commitment too. At the moment I rather play another Sword of X and Y and 2 Stoneforge to free one maindeck slot. I cut it for the reason that it's often a dead draw and without Maindeck Brainstorm Stoneforge becomes a sad 1W Squire.
1x Scryb Ranger was very cute in many matches but it's to unreliable. I'd rather play more removal for Delver and creatures with stronger toughness rather than locking the board with mother of runes until the -1/-1 wracks up everything.
2x Spirit of the Labyrinth won some games on their own. Their 3/1 body is good in attacking, but dies to -1/-1, forked bolt fairly often. I only recommend this slot in heavy blue and in lists with few 1/1 creatures.
2x Aven Mindcensor (less than 2 is super akward) is most of the time great against all sorts of unfair or mana hungry strategies (ANT, Miracles, 12Post, but is also cute against elves.dec, which has a hard time dealing with Aven Mindcensor/Gaddock Teeg + Ethersworn)
1-2x Sylvan Library is great in GWB. In Punishing Maverick due to already low creature count unfortunatley I can't find a slot for this card. (Tried it in the Sideboard but never really wanted to side it in)

Cards I don't have a good idea yet:
- Crop Rotation + Bojuka Bog/Karakas/Grove of the Burnwillows/Dark Depths, Stage
I'm not quite sure when to board Crop Rotation. OFC against any Combo-Deck where the maindeck lands or Bojuka Bog just wins on the spot.
Getting a Crop Rotation Dazed, Pierced or even Forced fells suuuper bad.
- Maindeck Scrubland. I sold my Bayou and only had a Scrubland for the Deathrite and Sideboard as a replacement. Since I don't run Scryb Ranger it does not matter
and I feel I much rather have more white sources instead another forest (with 3x Grove of the Burnwillows it's hard enough to cast white spells sometimes)
- Life from the Loam. I always refused to play this card because I don't think it's what the deck want's to accomplish. Sure boosting the Grave for Knight or Deathrite is
quite okay and Wasteland-Loaming is cute but I never really did this EVER and returning Dark Depths + Stage after fizzle is quite okay but if you have time for that you are most likely
going win anyway (not to mention it's recommended to only fire of DD+Stage when it's safe or panic button). The only argument I see is finding Grove + P.Fire faster but that's it.

Afterall I dont have a feeling there is an unbeatable Match for GWb and GWr Maverick. Ofc I haven't played against fast combo or super strange homebrew that tournament.
The deck looks fairly week on paper but is a bomb to play. The deck rewards right plays similar as Death and Taxes does.

Thanks for reading.
Kind regards,
screallix

[SecludedGlenn]

Well, the good thing is, it happens to be Glenn Jones' deck, so I think we have a slight chance of him talking about it in his next article, with any luck. I am interested hearing about the maindeck spirits, and how they performed.

While I gave David the list I'd been beating our locals with, he'd been playing it locally himself for a couple weeks and made many of these changes on his own initiative, though we chatted about them. Wouldn't want to steal his thunder ;) I'm sure he'll be able to address them in his article next week, and I've gone ahead and flagged the thread to him in the event there are other specific questions or topics players would like to see discussed.

[tescrin]

I agree on Toxic Deluge. Ever since I saw it I knew it was good and it's tested well. The other day against D&T:

-I'm at 4 life to his 18
-His board is Mom, Brimaz, Token, Flickerwisp, and a couple of Vials
-Mine is Goyf, DRS, SFM, SoFaI (unequipped by the wisp)
-I deluge for 1 going to 3
-He Mom's Brimaz
-I plow Brimaz (fetching going to 2)
-He Vials in Wisp to save Brimaz
-I plow Brimaz (Horizon tapping going to 1)

The board state? Goyf, SFM, DRS, SoFaI to his empty hand and Vials. Feels good. I stabilize at 1 and swing for a million (DRS being a safety net for my life total.) Easily the best couple of minutes for me at the SCG. I used to be a Deed player; so it's nice to live that Deed-feeling in other ways.

[ironclad8690]

I tried playing the ol' Luis Viciano at my weekly local the other day after going 14-1 in games on cockatrice.

List was the Bazaar of moxen top list because I wanted to relive the old days when you could still GW.

Round 1: UWR Blade 1-1-1
Game 1 I win by wastelanding him a bunch of times and getting equipments online early.
Game 2 I lose to 3 True Name Nemesis
Game 3 I almost lose to 3 True Name, but topdeck a revoker to stop him from lethalling me with jitte counters.

Round 2: Death and Taxes 0-2
Game 1 I lose to flickerwisp + equipment that I can't answer.
Game 2 I lose to multiple mother of runes and revokers naming my important cards.

Round 3 I dropped. Though my performance was terrible, I think that there is still something to the vial build. I saw M@verick recently top 8'ed something with a deathrite vial build, so I might experiment with that or just play straight GWb Zenith at an upcoming 40+ tournament.

[Jacemindbreak]

I agree on Toxic Deluge. Ever since I saw it I knew it was good and it's tested well. The other day against D&T:

-I'm at 4 life to his 18
-His board is Mom, Brimaz, Token, Flickerwisp, and a couple of Vials
-Mine is Goyf, DRS, SFM, SoFaI (unequipped by the wisp)
-I deluge for 1 going to 3
-He Mom's Brimaz
-I plow Brimaz (fetching going to 2)
-He Vials in Wisp to save Brimaz
-I plow Brimaz (Horizon tapping going to 1)

The board state? Goyf, SFM, DRS, SoFaI to his empty hand and Vials. Feels good. I stabilize at 1 and swing for a million (DRS being a safety net for my life total.) Easily the best couple of minutes for me at the SCG. I used to be a Deed player; so it's nice to live that Deed-feeling in other ways.

Correct me if i'm wrong, but how come he saved his Brimaz with mom when deluge doesn't target

[Koby]

Correct me if i'm wrong, but how come he saved his Brimaz with mom when deluge doesn't target

Presumably naming White to protect from StP.

[lordofthepit]

I tried playing the ol' Luis Viciano at my weekly local the other day after going 14-1 in games on cockatrice.

List was the Bazaar of moxen top list because I wanted to relive the old days when you could still GW.

Round 1: UWR Blade 1-1-1
Game 1 I win by wastelanding him a bunch of times and getting equipments online early.
Game 2 I lose to 3 True Name Nemesis
Game 3 I almost lose to 3 True Name, but topdeck a revoker to stop him from lethalling me with jitte counters.

Round 2: Death and Taxes 0-2
Game 1 I lose to flickerwisp + equipment that I can't answer.
Game 2 I lose to multiple mother of runes and revokers naming my important cards.

Round 3 I dropped. Though my performance was terrible, I think that there is still something to the vial build. I saw M@verick recently top 8'ed something with a deathrite vial build, so I might experiment with that or just play straight GWb Zenith at an upcoming 40+ tournament.

Luis Viciano's top 8 I'm aware of is actually a second place finish in a 13-player tournament, so the performance itself isn't particularly impressive, but I think there's something to the deck.

It should really be thought of more as Death and Taxes with Green than it is Maverick, but I feel it's better than DnT. I haven't had the confidence to take this to a big tournament yet, but I consistently do okay at weeklies with his list (14-4-1, moving Teegs to the maindeck). The cards individually feel pretty underpowered and your opening hands are a bit inconsistent, but you get so many free wins on the back of the hatebears. I think it ranges from decent to extremely favored against all Delver and Blade decks, has a pretty solid combo matchup, and fares better than Maverick or DNT against the likes of Miracles.

[Cambriel]

Any ideas for shoring up the Infect matchup? I keep seeing it more and more, and I just cannot seem to make it even close to fair.

[Koby]

Any ideas for shoring up the Infect matchup? I keep seeing it more and more, and I just cannot seem to make it even close to fair.

Maze of Ith is pretty good, with combination of Wasteland, StP, and Umezawa's Jitte.

If this is really a concern, you can also add Melira and just laugh at your opponent's linear deck.

[Cambriel]

Maze of Ith is pretty good, with combination of Wasteland, StP, and Umezawa's Jitte.

If this is really a concern, you can also add Melira and just laugh at your opponent's linear deck.

Maze is what came to mind for me as well. I've thought about going back to it as a main deck utility land given the rise of Delver and "fairer" decks. It seemed to go out of style when Sneak and Show was running rampant, but I don't see that as much anymore.

[lordofthepit]

Any ideas for shoring up the Infect matchup? I keep seeing it more and more, and I just cannot seem to make it even close to fair.

In addition to everything named, Zealous Persecution is a huge beating for that deck.

[barcode]

Maze of Ith is pretty good, with combination of Wasteland, StP, and Umezawa's Jitte.

If this is really a concern, you can also add Melira and just laugh at your opponent's linear deck.

When infect was a thing in Standard with Melira I executed a damage kill. Melira doesn't mean you can't die, it just means you know the angle of attack.

[Shawon]

Something to keep in mind if you're considering Melira against Infect:

Melira, Sylvok Outcast vs. Inkmoth Nexus (http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/magic-fundamentals/magic-rulings/magic-rulings-archives/296553-melira-sylvok-outcast-vs-inkmoth-nexus)


End result: Inkmoth HAS infect, but any damage it deals will have its results transformed into "don't put any counters on you or your creatures."

[Koby]

When infect was a thing in Standard with Melira I executed a damage kill. Melira doesn't mean you can't die, it just means you know the angle of attack.

Hence, why StP and Jitte are still good and preferred. Its not as though Maverick would play Melira and win, we just block ad infinitum.

[Stuhl]

Forget melira. Try to StP/Aprubt Decay especially Agents, Wasteland Nexi, Thalia is good as infect generally doesn't have too much mana and plays cantrips and a lot of 1cmc spells. Thalia will hurt definitely. Maze is also good. Try to get Jitte out fast. There are ways I think. It's just about practice. I.e. they play Crop Rotation, so blind Wastelanding is dangerous. Everything has to be played in the right moment.

[Strassbaw]

Against infect it's very important to understand the combat phase in full. I play punishing maverick, so maybe my results are scewed, however, waiting until after damage to kill infect dorks was usually the right call. If the opponent infect play passes Priority after blocks are declared, than the infect player will be unable to cast pump spells as the defending player didn't have any action to respond to. If you remove a creature in response to a pump, you are very likely to win. If you attempt to remove a dork, and the dork get hexproof, or another attacking dork gets pump, you may lose the game in an instant. In other words, you will be much more successful against the deck if you can get lucky enough to remove a dude in response to a pump, and you will be more likely to lose if they pump a dork in response to a removal spell. Patients and playing safe is key to winning this MU.

[PCottell]

Hey All,
I played in the same open that McDarby won and felt Maverick was well-positioned throughout most of the tourney. I beat UR Delver round one, the mirror round two (guy had no clue about this thread so he was ill-equipped to handle the mirror ;) ), lost to Food Chain combo round three, tied vs a Jeskai Stoneblade player round four who spent a bare minimum of twenty minutes of our match shuffling my deck and his after fetches, beat Punishing Lands in three games after wastelanding him in to the ground G3 and sticking him on two Maze of Iths (VERY ANNOYING TO PLAY AROUND WHEN YOU'RE ABOUT TO GO TO TIME), lost to a more skilled UR delver pilot in three games when he locked me out of G3 with a Blood Moon and I was stuck with only basic Plains in play, then lost to Tom Ross with that Jeskai Ascendancy combo deck and dropped after that round. I was running Thomas Herzog's list verbatim and was very happy with the card selection. I added a Tower of the Magistrate to the maindeck in favor of a basic Forest, which won me at least two games and cost me zero, so I was happy about it.

I'm playing in Seattle this Sunday and I expect to encounter a great deal of mirror matches and hate for Maverick. Moving forward, what should I be packing for the mirror. Read this article on SCG (http://www.starcitygames.com/article/29875_Ten-Cards-You-Should-Be-Playing-In-Legacy.html) and was wondering what everyone thinks about Darkblast in the SB vs elves, death and taxes, UR delver, and the mirror match? It's also not terrible vs Infect, which to address from earlier, I played against a really slow/durdly playerd piloting Tom Ross.dec in the Sat. night Open Trial and can verify that Zealous Persecution is dyanamite in that matchup, but also leaning on Jitte is a bad plan because they run 17 Krosan Grips in the board. It often digresses in to who can draw more wastelands- if you can keep theirs off the table and hit Inkmoth Nexus, you're in a good spot. Pithing Needle on Nexus is a great place to be in that matchup as well, as it's often their only out after a sweeper.

So, to recap this rambling report/inquriry, here's what I'm wondering:

-Best mirror match tech available besides the obvious that's been stated in this thread (SoLaS, Zealous, Tower)? Is Linvala worth a look? Deluge to get out from situations where you're on the draw and you're behind all game?

-What kind of anti-Maverick tech should be on the upswing? It's a resilient deck, but I recall first getting in to the archetype circa summer of 2012 when it was on its way out of contention and was getting blown out on a regular basis by Griselbrand and RUG delver decks playing a pile of 2-1 spot removal like Fire//Ice and Forked Bolt.

Other thoughts: I playtested 20 games vs Jeskai Stoneblade yesterday and came to the realization that it's highly dependent on who goes first. If I can land a mom/DRS on turn one, Thalia on turn two, and keep them off UU for True Name after that, it's tough for them to keep up even if they draw several removal spells. When you're on the draw, however, it's tough to keep up because of Mom's summoning sickness. Is this a situation where Sylvan Safekeeper would be valuable?

And: Is Jotun Grunt good again? He's got a big ol' booty and keeps the graveyard clear of delve fuel, right?

[ironclad8690]

If people expect Maverick to make a comeback, they will probably play UWR True Name or Miracles. I dont think that people will read into it's win very much though, we could see a rise in forked bolt.

[barcode]

Against infect it's very important to understand the combat phase in full. I play punishing maverick, so maybe my results are scewed, however, waiting until after damage to kill infect dorks was usually the right call. If the opponent infect play passes Priority after blocks are declared, than the infect player will be unable to cast pump spells as the defending player didn't have any action to respond to. If you remove a creature in response to a pump, you are very likely to win. If you attempt to remove a dork, and the dork get hexproof, or another attacking dork gets pump, you may lose the game in an instant. In other words, you will be much more successful against the deck if you can get lucky enough to remove a dude in response to a pump, and you will be more likely to lose if they pump a dork in response to a removal spell. Patients and playing safe is key to winning this MU.

I have extensive experience playing infect: finals of one PTQ, top 4 of another. The correct time to kill a creature with infect is any time after Combt Damage step. End of turn is great since it still frees your mana up on your turn. Every time someone tries to kill my infect creature on my turn before Combat Damage they get punished very hard.

[lordofthepit]

Luis Viciano's top 8 I'm aware of is actually a second place finish in a 13-player tournament, so the performance itself isn't particularly impressive, but I think there's something to the deck.

It should really be thought of more as Death and Taxes with Green than it is Maverick, but I feel it's better than DnT. I haven't had the confidence to take this to a big tournament yet, but I consistently do okay at weeklies with his list (14-4-1, moving Teegs to the maindeck). The cards individually feel pretty underpowered and your opening hands are a bit inconsistent, but you get so many free wins on the back of the hatebears. I think it ranges from decent to extremely favored against all Delver and Blade decks, has a pretty solid combo matchup, and fares better than Maverick or DNT against the likes of Miracles.

Decided to pilot Vial Maverick on Sunday after a mediocre record in the Legacy portion of the Invitational, finished 3rd out of 222 in the Premier IQ. Beat Miracles (2-1), Merfolk (2-0), UR Delver Stiflenought (2-1), Mono-Green Cloudpost (2-1), Pyromancer Stoneblade (2-0), and Goblins (2-1), with two intentional draws, before beating UR Delver (2-0) in Top 8 and losing to Miracle Blade (0-2) in semis. Given how hostile my matchups would have been against Miracles (my initial choice), I am very happy I made the switch on Sunday.

I love the concept of the list, but I'm sure there's a ton of room for improvement since pretty much no one but M@verick does any development on this list whatsoever.

[Warden]

I'm playing in Seattle this Sunday and I expect to encounter a great deal of mirror matches and hate for Maverick. Moving forward, what should I be packing for the mirror. Read this article on SCG (http://www.starcitygames.com/article/29875_Ten-Cards-You-Should-Be-Playing-In-Legacy.html) and was wondering what everyone thinks about Darkblast in the SB vs elves, death and taxes, UR delver, and the mirror match?

This is a card worth testing. I'm of the opinion that I don't need weenie removal. I need sweepers and/or widely applicable "I just blow stuff up" spells. I favor ZP, Deluge, PTE, and Decay for these reasons. Recursion is cute (can certainly snowball in your favor should you stop an opponent early on) but if I need to clear the table I'm doing it in one fell swoop.




So, to recap this rambling report/inquriry, here's what I'm wondering:
-Best mirror match tech available besides the obvious that's been stated in this thread (SoLaS, Zealous, Tower)? Is Linvala worth a look? Deluge to get out from situations where you're on the draw and you're behind all game?


I absolutely love Deluge. It's crap on paper but if you're behind in legacy...holy moley you're behind bad. Lots of creature decks can't deal with a board-wipe. Maverick has no real answer other than preventing one via Teeg and Thalia. Both of the aforementioned cards are annoying but speedbumps for Deluge. Light and Shadow is a hell of a card. If you really want to punish the mirror match, Mirran Crusader is basically Thor with any equipment (double-strike + triggers is just ridiculous).



-What kind of anti-Maverick tech should be on the upswing? It's a resilient deck, but I recall first getting in to the archetype circa summer of 2012 when it was on its way out of contention and was getting blown out on a regular basis by Griselbrand and RUG delver decks playing a pile of 2-1 spot removal like Fire//Ice and Forked Bolt.

Forked Bolt is very very well-positioned. Terminus is still strong. I hate both those cards. Upswings are hard to predict. I honestly see true combo coming back into vogue soon. I have a feeling Storm will be on the upswing (oh joy...more terrible MUs ahead!). I also see Sneak Show/Reanimator doing something big. WotC gave us Containment Priest. The pendulum will swing in the opposite direction within a year of CP existing. I've noticed this trend of "[deck] gets a new toy" "WotC make a stronger problem" situation.

[DudeItsCorey]

I have extensive experience playing infect: finals of one PTQ, top 4 of another. The correct time to kill a creature with infect is any time after Combt Damage step. End of turn is great since it still frees your mana up on your turn. Every time someone tries to kill my infect creature on my turn before Combat Damage they get punished very hard.

I have several players playing infect in my meta right now and what I find is casting removal "at sorcery speed" (during my turn) is the best way to deal with their creatures. Even if they use Vines in response, it prevents them from using a pump spell during their turn lessening the poison counters you are recieving. Jitte is your greatest weapon against them.

[ironclad8690]

Decided to pilot Vial Maverick on Sunday after a mediocre record in the Legacy portion of the Invitational, finished 3rd out of 222 in the Premier IQ. Beat Miracles (2-1), Merfolk (2-0), UR Delver Stiflenought (2-1), Mono-Green Cloudpost (2-1), Pyromancer Stoneblade (2-0), and Goblins (2-1), with two intentional draws, before beating UR Delver (2-0) in Top 8 and losing to Miracle Blade (0-2) in semis. Given how hostile my matchups would have been against Miracles (my initial choice), I am very happy I made the switch on Sunday.

I love the concept of the list, but I'm sure there's a ton of room for improvement since pretty much no one but M@verick does any development on this list whatsoever.

Nice job! I have been waiting for someone to finally do well with a vial list on this side of the pond.

[PCottell]

Decided to pilot Vial Maverick on Sunday after a mediocre record in the Legacy portion of the Invitational, finished 3rd out of 222 in the Premier IQ. Beat Miracles (2-1), Merfolk (2-0), UR Delver Stiflenought (2-1), Mono-Green Cloudpost (2-1), Pyromancer Stoneblade (2-0), and Goblins (2-1), with two intentional draws, before beating UR Delver (2-0) in Top 8 and losing to Miracle Blade (0-2) in semis. Given how hostile my matchups would have been against Miracles (my initial choice), I am very happy I made the switch on Sunday.

I love the concept of the list, but I'm sure there's a ton of room for improvement since pretty much no one but M@verick does any development on this list whatsoever.

I watched you play the final match vs Goblins and from the looks of it you were having a good time shutting his vials off with an instant speed Containment Priest. Spicy!

I had a rough time with a R/W/U Countertop/Stoneblade variant earlier in the day, and I'm wondering what specific part of your attack gives you favor vs these strategies? Every time my Mom gets Swords to Plowshare'd the turn before I can get Teeg on the board, I've wondered if Sylvan Safekeeper is better when Teeg with protection is the only way to swing that matchup in your favor. How did that work out for you?

Is Wayfarer in there to shore up the lack of utility land fetching you lose by cutting Knight of the Reliquary? How's the synergy between him, Scryb Ranger, and Safekeeper?

Also, are you more in to winning via equipment due to the lack of KotR? Does this explain Batterskull + 4 SFMs?

And lastly, did you miss having access to Scavenging Ooze? It looks like you certainly have room for at least one, especially with the cradle powering his ability and having Vial to flash him out and not tie up any mana.

Bravo on making Top 8 through that field. I was at the first two tables all day and saw more Jeskai Stoneblade, Lands, and Miracles variants for my own comfort.

[lordofthepit]

I watched you play the final match vs Goblins and from the looks of it you were having a good time shutting his vials off with an instant speed Containment Priest. Spicy!

Hey, I didn't recognize you as being from the Source, although I think I remember you observing my opponent from behind in that match. I should probably note that this strategy is more similar to Death and Taxes than traditional Maverick, and that my list is derivative of decks that had already been based on the "Green and Taxes/Vial Maverick" shell.

The Containment Priests were a bit awkward: I simply felt they were better than Thalia in the matchup since the ability to flash in a blocker or in response to a Port was probably better than the first strike on Thalia, and Thalia awkward hurts us more than it hurts them. They're a little more mana hungry than us, so it's quite possible that the ability to optionally shut down Vials favors us. In any case, you may have seen G2, where the Containment Priests just served as Grizzly Bears with downside since I had Aether Vial, but I managed to draw both copies after he had Pyrokinesised my other creatures (but even a 2/2 with a Jitte does a ton of work against Goblins!). In G3, he mulled to 5 and kept a hand with Vial, Lackey, and Wasteland, and he pretty much had to hope I stumbled on mana so he fired off the Wasteland right away. It was obviously a beating there!


I had a rough time with a R/W/U Countertop/Stoneblade variant earlier in the day, and I'm wondering what specific part of your attack gives you favor vs these strategies? Every time my Mom gets Swords to Plowshare'd the turn before I can get Teeg on the board, I've wondered if Sylvan Safekeeper is better when Teeg with protection is the only way to swing that matchup in your favor. How did that work out for you?

I don't have a lot of experience with the UWr Stoneblade decks that also include Counterbalance/Top, but we have more creatures than they have removal to burn: Weathered Wayfarer is capable of wrecking their manabase by itself, and both Mother and Deathrite are bolt magnets as well, to say nothing of Thalia, Teeg, or Stoneforge Mystic. With a Vial, we're also capable of playing creatures a lot faster than they can cantrip and play their removal. You can pretty much present enough much must answer threats that Thalia or Teeg will provide virtual card advantage as long as you prevent them from getting something like a Lavamancer or a Jitte online (particularly on TNN). Safekeeper is a bit awkward early but is one of your strongest cards late, but in a pinch, you can use him early to keep a turn 2 Stoneforge on board if your gameplan is Batterskull or Bust. I don't know how the Countertop package affects this matchup though, since this list is surprisingly susceptible to Counterbalance compared to DNT or regular Maverick.

This is in contrast to the Miracles matchup, where only a handful of cards really matter (Teeg, Choke, and SoFI or SoLS to protect Teeg). I believe I have a solid sideboard plan to deal with Miracles, although I was a little less familiar with the Stoneforge version I ended up facing in the semis.


Is Wayfarer in there to shore up the lack of utility land fetching you lose by cutting Knight of the Reliquary? How's the synergy between him, Scryb Ranger, and Safekeeper?

Wayfarer was part of the original list and doesn't really "replace" anything. I made the decision to cut Knight from the deck since my local metagame is rampant with Miracles, and I'd rather have Gaddock Teeg in the main, particularly since I hate ticking Vial up to 3 with no Flickerwisps to reset. Initially, I moved Viciano's MD Knights to the SB (a simple swap with Teeg), but I eventually cut them anyway. I wouldn't mind bringing them back, as Knight might be my favorite creature ever! Wayfarer is awesome in matchups against slower decks though, and being able to use him to constantly fuel Safekeeper is terrific. As you've noticed, Scryb Ranger allows you to activate Wayfarer later without losing tempo, and while it's cool, it's not quite as awesome as it seems on paper (since you'd like to play the lands you fetch up without resetting a Forest or two every turn cycle). However, sometimes, you really need to use those cards to enable Wayfarer even for no "value". I did that in R4 against 12-Post to tutor up Wastelands as well as to get Gaea's Cradle to power through Elephant Grass, as well as in R5 to chain Wastelands against a mana-starved Stoneblade list when I was comfortably ahead on board but had no way to beat a TNN at the ready (although it turned out he didn't have one in hand anyway).


Also, are you more in to winning via equipment due to the lack of KotR? Does this explain Batterskull + 4 SFMs?

The lack of a real beater such as Knight means you often win by mana denial or connecting with equipment. Batterskull is probably the worst equipment in the deck and wasn't in the original list I copied, but with the popularity of Young Pyromancer recently, particularly in aggressive strategies, I thought it made sense to cut it for the SoLS. It's more used for the lifegain than the quick clock though, since our dorks put up a surprisingly fast clock on an empty board if they manage to disrupt the opponent and any creature with an equipment is pretty threatening.


And lastly, did you miss having access to Scavenging Ooze? It looks like you certainly have room for at least one, especially with the cradle powering his ability and having Vial to flash him out and not tie up any mana.

I haven't really missed Scavenging Ooze in this deck, even though it's one of my favorite creatures as well (I run it over Tarmogoyf in Zoo!). Deathrite Shaman provides a lot of the same functions with much less investment, particularly in games where we don't have a T1 Vial, but I certainly wouldn't fault anyone for trying to add it back in. I think all the other two drop creatures provide more utility that it's difficult to find room for Ooze. Keep in mind that the original list I modify didn't run Ooze, so this was not a deliberate decision on my card to actually cut it from existing lists.




You may notice that from all my answers, this deck plays out like a Death and Taxes deck (except with much better utility creatures, real sideboard options, and reduced susceptibility to mono-white hate in exchange for a worse manabase and fewer beaters) more than it does Maverick, and I encourage you to approach it as such when you play. I believe it trades a slightly worse matchup against most Delver decks for a better one against most forms of control and combo. However, its origins are very much entwined with those of Maverick: in fact, vestiges of the list can still be seen in the original post/primer of this thread!

[lavafrogg]

Can we get a list? Sounds fun!

[lordofthepit]

Can we get a list? Sounds fun!

Here's the list I played. I don't think it's anywhere near optimized yet, so if anyone wants to try this out, feel free to share your experiences and suggestions!



4 Windswept Heath
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Marsh Flats
3 Savannah
1 Scrubland
1 Bayou
1 Forest
1 Plains
4 Wasteland
2 Horizon Canopy
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Karakas
4 Deathrite Shaman
3 Weathered Wayfarer
3 Mother of Runes
2 Sylvan Safekeeper
2 Scryb Ranger
4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Qasali Pridemage
3 Gaddock Teeg
4 AEther Vial
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Batterskull
SB: 3 Surgical Extraction
SB: 2 Choke
SB: 3 Zealous Persecution
SB: 2 Ethersworn Canonist
SB: 2 Containment Priest
SB: 2 Oblivion Ring
SB: 1 Sword of Light and Shadow

[Fatal]

No love for Knight of the Reliquary - I know its 3cmc which isn't tick on vial, but running those colors with Wayfarer and Moms/Sylvan ignoring KotR and its utility isn't right. I would find place for KotR and probably also DD/TS package with so many ways to find it.

KotR can be your only way to wall vs aggresive U/R decks, all other creatures has X/1 or X/2. It also best creature to win the race.

[lordofthepit]

No love for Knight of the Reliquary - I know its 3cmc which isn't tick on vial, but running those colors with Wayfarer and Moms/Sylvan ignoring KotR and its utility isn't right. I would find place for KotR and probably also DD/TS package with so many ways to find it.

KotR can be your only way to wall vs aggresive U/R decks, all other creatures has X/1 or X/2. It also best creature to win the race.


Knight is a card I would love to fit back in the deck: it's my favorite creature of all time. I don't think the list I played was anything close to optimized, so if anyone has a list they're comfortable with, please share.

[ironclad8690]

Knight is a card I would love to fit back in the deck: it's my favorite creature of all time. I don't think the list I played was anything close to optimized, so if anyone has a list they're comfortable with, please share.

Who knows though, perhaps a knightless version warrants more testing and could be better in the current metagame. I know it seems like the wrong thing to do, but pretty much all innovation starts that way.

[Warden]

I tried typing this earlier, but work > me today.
I think KotR is one of the few cards the deck absolutely needs. It's used offensively as well as for utility. In an era of -1/-1 effects, I wouldn't want to run an army of dorks (unless it led to NO --> win). I also think Sylvan Library warrants inclusion somewhere. I've tried Vial builds a few times and felt they just paled in comparison to GSZ. You may be onto something big @lordofthepit, but cutting Knights is probably not the optimal path. But who knows, you've already had success with it.

If I went Vial-Maverick, I'd think about
4 STP
4 Vial
2 Library

3 DRS
4 Mom
4 Thalia
3 Avenger ---> I like these in one of the utility slots
3 SFM
3 KotR

[jinx86]

Let's talk about BWG Maverick a little bit.

I love this deck. Maverick was my favorite deck when I got into Legacy, and then it became non viable for a long time, and I switched over to Death and Taxes for awhile as my 2nd favorite deck. Now, it seems the meta has given room for Maverick to come back, a lot more blue mid range type decks are out there and having abrupt decay and cavern at your disposal punches through the counter magic. There is a lot more to help build a nice board to adjust to combo decks which I believed to be Maverick's biggest weakness in the past.

Just won 2 tourneys (local) with this deck and finished another tonight 3-1. I almost had a 4-0. (ascendancy combo 1-2, elves 2-1, rug 2-0, blue red delver 2-1)
Reason I say almost 4-0 is b/c 3rd game vs ascendancy I only need to top deck an abrupt decay, krosan grip, golgari charm, cannonist, or pithing needle but I bricked it. I lasted awhile too considering he was able to drop 3 cruises on me and then I locked for a few turns and drew no outs (had him to 4).

List:
Creatures (26)
4 Mother of Runes
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Knight of Reliquary
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Scavenging Ooze
3 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Spirit of the Labyrinth
1 Gaddock Teeg
2 Quasali Pridemage
1 Dryad Arbor

Spells (12 )
3 Swords to Plowshares
3 Abrupt Decay
3 Green Sun Zenith
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sylvan Library

Lands (22+Dryad Arbor)
2 Scrubland
2 Savannah
2 Bayou
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Marsh Flats
4 Wasteland
1 Maze of Ith
1 Bojuka Bog
2 Cavern of Souls
1 Forest
1 Karakas

Sideboard (15)
1 Pithing Needle
2 Containment Priest
1 Manriki-Gusari
1 Cataclysm
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Krosan Grip
1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Choke
2 Zealous Persecution
1 Golgari Charm

I want to replace Cataclysm or Choke for a 2nd Gaddock Teeg (or possibly mainboard 2 and replace Ooze) and I definitely need to pick up Horizon Canopy and replace either 1 fetchland or 1 cavern, but cavern does wonders. Any other land to consider replacing?

Don't forget to trigger knight for bog during the opponent's upkeep to combat against treasure cruise. The deck fairs ok vs combo, where both storm and sneak and show take game 1, with the board this deck has pulled the last 2 games out for me and should for you.

The board is very strong against blue red delver, stoneforge/TNN decks (or american), and elves as I've seen so far. I know Sigarda might seem odd but she's won me a few games against other fair deck matchups (pushing you ahead during the slower matchups), including RUG and BUG. Choke hasn't done that much, I'm debating putting a Nihil Spellbomb in there instead. Strong vs Miracles as I've found, just need to make sure you have cavern and decay for counter balance and your fine. Just remember not to overextend b/c of terminus.

I like only running 3 stoneforge as my 2 sword tutors just bc that 4th slot I think could go somewhere else more useful, and since I'm only running the 2 swords, they are both things I can just drop from my hand on the draw anyway. There's a lot of artifact hate in many sideboards I've run across (to combat all the stoneforge decks in the meta - at least that's what I've seen) so I don't like to weigh too heavily on the stoneforge aspect.

Haven't tried it against Mud, Death n Taxes, or Re-animator. Anyone with a similar build who knows I'd love to read your feedback.

[mevans1114]

Not sure I like 2 Marsh Flats in a deck with Dryad Arbor.

[Fatal]

For sure Windswept heath would be better in this slot - can fetch any of your lands.

[jinx86]

Yea,

I need to make that switch for windswept. Good call

[Linuka]

Hey guys!

If you'd like to check out the tournament report I wrote for winning the Portland open with Maverick, my article is up!

http://www.starcitygames.com/article/29927_Winning-SCG-Portland-1st.html


I discussed the deck in my last two articles, so this was a more hard to the paint match summaries, and not my usual theory ramblings and such.

Yeah Marsh Flats was dumb, and Canonist can't stop Shardless agent.

Thanks for checking it out!

[Bed Decks Palyer]

I have extensive experience playing infect: finals of one PTQ, top 4 of another. The correct time to kill a creature with infect is any time after Combt Damage step. End of turn is great since it still frees your mana up on your turn. Every time someone tries to kill my infect creature on my turn before Combat Damage they get punished very hard.

Pretty much this and the above. It reminds me of the veeeery old ZOO mirrors we've encountered in HS. Those learnt me how to approach the decks with Giant Growths. You basically "always" let the dude swing through and do nothing, only to remove him in response to pump spell. Now it's their time to pump again in response to your removal, but you got a real advantage in StP, as contrary to burn, nothing than hexproof trick might save their creature.
So most of the times it's best to kill the dude in their eot after they've dealt the grotty one counter. The only exception might be Rancor, as you really want to rules-counter the spell, but even then I'd be careful to not fall into trap; a difference betwen three poison counters and ten poison counters is... well a real difference, right?
Also, it's not unreasonable to kill their creatures on your turn, esp. when they lack free mana and/or cards in hand. This is not a matchup where you want to x-for-1 somebody, this is combo mu where you may lose out of nowhere. Are they tapped out? Waste the Nexus. Do they lack cards? Kill the dude before they draw Vines/Force.

[ironclad8690]

Hey guys!

If you'd like to check out the tournament report I wrote for winning the Portland open with Maverick, my article is up!

http://www.starcitygames.com/article/29927_Winning-SCG-Portland-1st.html


I discussed the deck in my last two articles, so this was a more hard to the paint match summaries, and not my usual theory ramblings and such.

Yeah Marsh Flats was dumb, and Canonist can't stop Shardless agent.

Thanks for checking it out!

Nice report!

[lordofthepit]

Hey guys!

If you'd like to check out the tournament report I wrote for winning the Portland open with Maverick, my article is up!

http://www.starcitygames.com/article/29927_Winning-SCG-Portland-1st.html


I discussed the deck in my last two articles, so this was a more hard to the paint match summaries, and not my usual theory ramblings and such.

Yeah Marsh Flats was dumb, and Canonist can't stop Shardless agent.

Thanks for checking it out!

Well done, sir!

[Zulabnar]

Have you guys ever consider to cut mother of runes?

I know it sounds a strange idea, but consider this.
Against UR delver is not so usefull because can't stop flying delver and also TNN
is good to protect our creatures from LB and stp. stop.

At turn 1 i always want one of this 2: ----> gsz for the dryad OR DSR
At turn 2 normally i play thalia or mystic for equipment, or sylvan not want to play mothers
then from here i hope to draw big creatures for beatdown non mother

So maybe is not a so strong card if i always want something different.

[bakofried]

Watch any coverage of Maverick, and you'll see a correlation between sticking a Mother of Runes and winning games. Especially against UR Delver.

[Demonic_Attorney]

Watch any coverage of Maverick, and you'll see a correlation between sticking a Mother of Runes and winning games. Especially against UR Delver.

Agreed! One of the most attractive options to playing this deck right now is being able to play Mom. Indeed, it is trite to say that Mother is a house right now in the present legacy metagame.

[Vandalize]

Sup guys, I've been trying Maverick recently because I really missed playing Mom and KOTR, haha.

I'll post my list and would like to cover two topics:

Lands [22]
4 Winswept Heath
3 Verdant Catacombs
4 Savannah
1 Bayou
1 Scrubland
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Karakas
1 Dryad Arbor
4 Wasteland
1 Bojuka Bog

Creatures [24]
4 Mother of Runes
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Qasali Pridemage
2 Gaddock Teeg
2 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Scryb Ranger

Spells [14]
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sylvan Library

Sideboard [15]
3 Thoughtseize
3 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Containment Priest
2 Bitterblossom
2 Zealous Persecution
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Maze of Ith

First, I believe 2 Gaddock Teegs is the correct number now. Giving an extra copy against Miracles is very important, because they can usually hand the first one when Mom isn't around. Also, being a great option against combo and Treasure Cruise warrants two slots.

Second, try Kitchen Finks. Please. I beg you. It's just awesome. I've taken this from a "Maverick" list from modern and I couldn't be happier. It's just great against UR Delver and red decks in general.

Also, the Thoughtseize/Ethersworn/C.Priest combo has been working wonders in the combo matchups. Bojuka Bog has been pulling its weight as well, but sometimes it can make some weird mulligan decisions.

[Realz]

Hi, I have been lurking this thread for a while now and decided I would join up and join the discussion.

I have been playing Maverick g/w/x for a while now and have a pretty decent track record with it:
starting with Bant ,
moving to Punishing Maverick,
moving to Punishing Dark Maverick,
and now finally landing on this stack of 60 as at today and prone to change, tinkering and experimentation.

Our LGS sees about 20 to 30 players weekly for Legacy, have alos top 8'ed bigger tournaments.

Tonight I went 3-1 at Legacy, beating Slivers (:really:), Death and Taxes, B/R Delver and finally losing to G/R Depths combo/punishing fire/jund depths without black.

I am happy with the deck for the most part, I find it very solid. I found the mana base to be solid enough to allow for some more tinkering (I have just removed the Depths combo which i have almost always played till now), which will continue this week, I was going to run horizon canopy but couldn't find one and arrived at the tournament late.
I used to run the Dark Depths combo however have opted out of this option as it didn't seem solid enough for this build and required too many land slots/ created inconsistencies.

Without further ado, my list at the moment:

Creatures:
4 Mother of Runes
2 Deathrite Shaman
2 Stoneforge Mystic
2 noble hierach
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Knight of the reliquary
2 spirit of the Labyrinth
1 Courser of Kruphix
1 Eternal Witness
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Thrun, the Last Troll

Spells/Enchantments/Artifacts:
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Green Sun's Zenith
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Sylvan Library
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice

Lands:
4 Wasteland
3 Verdant Catacombs
4 Windswept Heath
3 Savannah
2 Bayou
1 Karakas
1 Maze of Ith
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Swamp
1 Forest
1 Plains

Sideboard (needs adjusting, constructed 5 minutes prior to playing):
2 Scavenging ooze
1 Qasali Pridemage
2 Council's Judgement
2 Tormod's Crypt
1 Batterskull
2 Zealous Persecution
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Choke
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Ethersworn Canonist

Recent Changes and notes:


I recently made the change from 3 Deathrite Shamans to 2 as I found that too often I would sit without lands in the graveyard on turn two, especially when versing other DRS, I used to play an extra birds and 1 Noble Hierach. Birds was dropped in favour of a Noble Hierach for the exalted trigger. Has anyone else had these troubles?
I have found Punishing fire to be too slow, dropped in favour of stable manabase, maindeck Thalias and abrupt decay
Aven Mindcensor, also too slow.
Thrun, the last troll is not to be underestimated as there is not much most decks can do against him besides wrath. Gives more punch.
Batterskull seemed to be a "win more" kinda card alot of the time, removed from main 60, sitting in Sideboard, probably not going to stay in the 75 for long.
MD Thalia and Spirit of the Labyrinth wrecks blue.
Eternal Witness replaced a second Qasali Pridemage, found this to work really well. Does not really impact curve that much, more versatile recurring removal, dead creatures even wastelands or fetches when in a pinch.
Whilst Courser may appear "cute" he is really quite a powerhouse versus other fair decks, I recommend testing with him, he fits in nicely with the rest of the deck. Can't be bolted.
Sideboard needs some rest in peace or other card (?) Vs Lands (seems to be getting more popular) aswell as containment priest.
Regarding GaddocK Teeg: I have found 1 mainboard to work for me, bringing in the second after board. However Miracles is not that popular around here.


Concerning lands I will probably cut some basics and try a Horizon Canopy and a Cavern of souls. Would not mind an 8th fetch either though that is probably unrealistic if adding the Canopy and Cavern. Realised today that for some reason I had never run a Horizon Canopy.

[Cambriel]

Recent Changes and notes:


I recently made the change from 3 Deathrite Shamans to 2 as I found that too often I would sit without lands in the graveyard on turn two, especially when versing other DRS, I used to play an extra birds and 1 Noble Hierach. Birds was dropped in favour of a Noble Hierach for the exalted trigger. Has anyone else had these troubles?
I have found Punishing fire to be too slow, dropped in favour of stable manabase, maindeck Thalias and abrupt decay
Aven Mindcensor, also too slow.
Thrun, the last troll is not to be underestimated as there is not much most decks can do against him besides wrath. Gives more punch.
Batterskull seemed to be a "win more" kinda card alot of the time, removed from main 60, sitting in Sideboard, probably not going to stay in the 75 for long.
MD Thalia and Spirit of the Labyrinth wrecks blue.
Eternal Witness replaced a second Qasali Pridemage, found this to work really well. Does not really impact curve that much, more versatile recurring removal, dead creatures even wastelands or fetches when in a pinch.
Whilst Courser may appear "cute" he is really quite a powerhouse versus other fair decks, I recommend testing with him, he fits in nicely with the rest of the deck. Can't be bolted.
Sideboard needs some rest in peace or other card (?) Vs Lands (seems to be getting more popular) aswell as containment priest.
Regarding GaddocK Teeg: I have found 1 mainboard to work for me, bringing in the second after board. However Miracles is not that popular around here.


Concerning lands I will probably cut some basics and try a Horizon Canopy and a Cavern of souls. Would not mind an 8th fetch either though that is probably unrealistic if adding the Canopy and Cavern. Realised today that for some reason I had never run a Horizon Canopy.

It seems like you've got reasons for your choices, but I'm very surprised at the reduction of Deathrite Shaman. He's a major part of what gives our deck enough power to punch through the competition. A major advantage of Maverick is that we don't durdle. There are no turn 1 fetch > Ponder turns where we're trading a turn for card selection. Our weakest turn 1 play is an undercosted ramp spell, and our other options either negate most of the format's removal (Mom) or are 1 mana planeswalkers (DRS). I tried a 3/2 DRS/Hierarch split for a while, and while the exalted trigger is nice it pales in comparison to the versatility of threats that an active DRS represents. Also, the decks that have trouble with DRS... really, *really* have trouble with DRS. Multiples work together very well, and GSZ makes it very simple to keep one active when you want it.

You're right about Courser for sure. While I did end up removing him the last week or two, he's really excellent. I only pulled him because we have a pretty fair meta and I wanted to be playing Maze of Ith, and he was the least necessary creature. It could just as easily be a Sylvan Library I pull since 2 are really only necessary vs Miracles.

I am not currently running Abrupt Decay main, but that could easily be wrong. It is probably a necessary evil in a world of boat rides with Jeff Goldblum and his tiny ginger friend. I keep 2-3 in the side at all times, and they frequently come in for game 2. I've been trying a smallish Tutor board for about a month and it seems to be alright. The usual targets are Ethersworn Canonist, Bitterblossom and Choke. I want to test out Wheel of Sun and Moon just for fun, but I'm having a tough time finding a foil locally. :/

[Warden]

@Realz
I'd easily swap the Maze of Ith ----> Cradle. Almost entirely better

-The mana dork issue is simple: run 5 guys (not the burger place). I agree DRS can sometimes be weak. The best mix has been 3 DRS + 2 [birds or hierarch]. I gyrate towards that composition more than anything else, especially 4 mana dorks. If you can't get established with mana early, you falter.
-I would still shave an Abrupt Decay for another QPM. Don't underestimate how valuable he is.
-I agree with Batterskull not being 60-card material. It goes back and forth with Swords of X/Y (light shadow usually makes the cut > skull).

Perhaps I need to get on the Spirit of the Labyrinth train? I have been debating about their inclusion in my SB. Some of my friends say an army of Teeg and Labyrinths simply overwhelm Miracles. Anything to make that matchup better.


Sideboard needs some rest in peace or other card (?) Vs Lands (seems to be getting more popular) aswell as containment priest.

Just trying to read this correctly: you want options that fight Lands and options that fight C.Priest? You already have grave-hate in the SB. That can continue to work. Perhaps shifting to RIP (turns off lands.dec...but don't bitch about KotR being "small") or Surgical Extraction? Additionally, you could bring in Armageddon. 'Geddon wrecks any "I needs lots of lands" decks -- including Miracles, Nic Fit, and Stoneblade. Containment Priest comes in with DnT -- a deck that can't handle ZP or Toxic Deluge whatsoever.

Your board would then look like:
4 dedicated anti-Miracles cards
2 ZP
2 Deluge
2 GY hate
5 Flex

[DudeItsCorey]

Has anyone else come to the conclusion that containment priest isn't as good in our deck as we thought? I'm finding the nonbo with GSZ and being unable to fetch for Dryad Arbor to be troublesome. Also, the matchups where they do matter those decks (with the exclusion of elves) have pretty much been pushed out to the meta? For Sneak and Show, between 4 Knights + Karakas and thoughseize on the sideboard we're pretty well positioned against them. Even more so with Reanimator/Dredge, because we have DRS and Scavenging Ooze to deal. Now with elves, I almost certainly would prefer a 2nd teeg. I get containment priest can get them to waste a turn when they're trying to go off. However, that deck is easily capable of hard casting crater hoof. I would rather have the capabilities of green sunning for a hate card rather than draw it. I think our job is to slow them down with a hate card (or wipe their board) to get a jitte on board and get that engine going. Also, having a 2nd teeg is very good against miracles. Against the aether vial decks, I have found that I almost certainly DO NOT board it in against Death and Taxes. With their flickerwisps they get free exiles and I would rather just abrupt decay or pridemage their vial. I haven't tested it against Merfolk, because the deck is pretty much non existent in my meta. However, I assume that abrupt decay and Qasali would do the trick there as well.

[Cambriel]

I haven't played enough games with Containment Priest yet, but my early assessment matches yours. It just doesn't do enough better than our existing hatebears. In a meta like last summer where Show and Tell was everywhere I think we could find a use for it, but we're generally favored against Reanimator already and Teeg works the same magic on Elves. If I have to have a 1W hatebear in the Elves matchup, Spirit of the Labyrinth just feels better.

Unrelated to strategy, but I just acquired my last main deck foil for Maverick yesterday with Christmas cash. Huzzah! :)

[Warden]

I find CP to be the x-factor for my sneak/reanimator/dredge/cheat-things.dec matchups. I don't mind 2x but wouldn't go above that number. It's not a blowout card (see: sword of light and shadow), though it's essentially a counterspell for many problem matchups.

[KobeBryan]

Why are people playing siege rhino over rhox war monk against burn/ur

it seems worse. I understand you have the land to cast it, but with 4 drs, 2 nobles, looking for 1 blue isn't out of this world.

[bakofried]

What post are you referencing? Most here advocate Courser, Scooze, and DRS.

[ironclad8690]

Why are people playing siege rhino over rhox war monk against burn/ur

it seems worse. I understand you have the land to cast it, but with 4 drs, 2 nobles, looking for 1 blue isn't out of this world.

Siege Rhino is most useful in trampling over TNN/always connecting with SoFaI/SoLaS, the life gain/drain is an added bonus in my opinion.

[TMagpie]

Siege Rhino is most useful in trampling over TNN/always connecting with SoFaI/SoLaS, the life gain/drain is an added bonus in my opinion.

Ooh... SR is a good trampler....

This needs more testing

[sdematt]

Just fyi: i play 4 rhino nic fit and rhino is a tank.

[Gabuts007]

Ooh... SR is a good trampler....

This needs more testing

I'll include 1 today for playtesting. :)

[DudeItsCorey]

I'll include 1 today for playtesting. :)

I think that Siege Rhino is too highly costed. Sigarda seems much better at doing what you're trying to do with Siege Rhino if evasion through trample is your goal. Plus Sigarda is extremely difficult to deal with removal wise, sweepers being the only thing that works. Thrun seems better than Rhino even if you're looking for a 4 drop. Can't be countered, hexproof and regen is better than trample when you have mother or runes and SOFI in your deck. However, Sigarda is still the best because of how she handles planeswalkers and anti removal.

I'm not too sure how the great the life gain is when you have no recursion or multiple copies in the deck. Light and Shadow is a somewhat a recursion, but more of an added bonus than an actual gameplan. Against Burn: Scavenging Ooze, Jitte, Deathrite, COP: Red are your answers.

[Nitrospira]

What are some opinions on hands with multiple GSZs? My normal reaction is to mull because they're too slow, but I also value the flexibility.
Example hand:
GSZ x 3, Jitte, STP, Savannah, Wasteland

This allows for t1 GSZ for arbor, then either play jitte or GSZ for a 2-drop. There's a lot of options with that hand, but they're all fairly slow/low impact.
Would you guys keep/mull? why?
thanks~

[Bobmans]

What are some opinions on hands with multiple GSZs? My normal reaction is to mull because they're too slow, but I also value the flexibility.
Example hand:
GSZ x 3, Jitte, STP, Savannah, Wasteland

This allows for t1 GSZ for arbor, then either play jitte or GSZ for a 2-drop. There's a lot of options with that hand, but they're all fairly slow/low impact.
Would you guys keep/mull? why?
thanks~

I would keep that hand. You say it is slow, but i disagree. This hand ramps like crazy. Like you mentioned you can Savannah -> GSZ -> Dryad Arbor. T2 you could GSZ for 2 and get Scooze or Gaddock Teeg. Or just get a mana dork and hold the Savannah for Plow and T3 GSZ into Knight. Pretty solid.

[Fatal]

This hand is very good since you can ramp on start then tutor any answer vs recognized MU.

[Warden]

What are some opinions on hands with multiple GSZs? My normal reaction is to mull because they're too slow, but I also value the flexibility.

I really like them against slow/control decks.
Ex: Land, Fetch, Fetch, 1cc dork, gsz, gsz, Library
I would keep something like that 100%

Ex 2: Land, Land, DRS, Mom, gsz, gsz, gsz
A bit trickier. You can open t1 - gsz + arbor into dork + zenith #2. Or you can go t1 mom into anything that'll be protected T2 forward. I would keep this most cases

Ex 3: Land, Land, stp, Thalia, gsz, gsz, gsz
Not the best. Thalia is a huge hurdle to clear --- even if you ramp turn 1.



Example hand:
GSZ x 3, Jitte, STP, Savannah, Wasteland

This allows for t1 GSZ for arbor, then either play jitte or GSZ for a 2-drop. There's a lot of options with that hand, but they're all fairly slow/low impact.
Would you guys keep/mull? why?
thanks~

I wouldn't keep this unless I knew I could really make something of it. It's very low impact unless you could do some serious damage and strand the opponent off that wasteland. Odds are slim though.

[DudeItsCorey]

What are people's preferred sideboard card against Miracles, 12-post, Lands, etc. Is it Armageddon or Cataclysm? I play Armageddon because I like keeping all my creatures after it resolves. However, I am noticing a lot more Cataclysm on sideboards. Is there a reasoning behind it? Or is it because McDarby had it on his sideboard when he won Portland?

[Koby]

What are people's preferred sideboard card against Miracles, 12-post, Lands, etc. Is it Armageddon or Cataclysm? I play Armageddon because I like keeping all my creatures after it resolves. However, I am noticing a lot more Cataclysm on sideboards. Is there a reasoning behind it? Or is it because McDarby had it on his sideboard when he won Portland?

Echo chamber likely.

Against Miracles:
* Extra Teegs
* Chokes
* Abrupt Decay

Against Lands / Post:
* Life from the Loam
But I don't run it unless there is a high concentration of these decks, which is rare. Armageddon could take its place here. Last time I tried it, it was underwhelming

[mikeshimoji]

Getting back to this deck, trying to rebuy the pieces, but are two black sources, bayou and scrubland, really enough for main deck decay? Davidcdarby was running three maindeck I think.

[Realz]

@Realz
I'd easily swap the Maze of Ith ----> Cradle. Almost entirely better

-The mana dork issue is simple: run 5 guys (not the burger place). I agree DRS can sometimes be weak. The best mix has been 3 DRS + 2 [birds or hierarch]. I gyrate towards that composition more than anything else, especially 4 mana dorks. If you can't get established with mana early, you falter.
-I would still shave an Abrupt Decay for another QPM. Don't underestimate how valuable he is.
-I agree with Batterskull not being 60-card material. It goes back and forth with Swords of X/Y (light shadow usually makes the cut > skull).

Perhaps I need to get on the Spirit of the Labyrinth train? I have been debating about their inclusion in my SB. Some of my friends say an army of Teeg and Labyrinths simply overwhelm Miracles. Anything to make that matchup better.



Just trying to read this correctly: you want options that fight Lands and options that fight C.Priest? You already have grave-hate in the SB. That can continue to work. Perhaps shifting to RIP (turns off lands.dec...but don't bitch about KotR being "small") or Surgical Extraction? Additionally, you could bring in Armageddon. 'Geddon wrecks any "I needs lots of lands" decks -- including Miracles, Nic Fit, and Stoneblade. Containment Priest comes in with DnT -- a deck that can't handle ZP or Toxic Deluge whatsoever.

Your board would then look like:
4 dedicated anti-Miracles cards
2 ZP
2 Deluge
2 GY hate
5 Flex

-Cradle would be good, haven't been loving maze of ith, would have to put a scavenging ooze back in the maindeck, will give it a try.

-Concerning mana dorks: I need to cut a dude, but which one? would be tempted to cut 1 thalia and go to 2 in the board again allowing for 4 in the 75. I have found DRS to be a bit so - so in some situations however will try and make him more efficient by upping the fetchland count to 8.

-Spirit of the labyrinth is -strong-, Stops: Brainstorm, treasure cruise, ponder, elves, slows down combo decks.. beats for 3, I ran the eidolon for a while however found spirit to be quicker at 2 cmc.

-In terms of sideboard I meant, was looking to include containment priest as well. thanks for the advice:

3 dedicated anti-Miracles cards (with teeg + decay in main)
2 ZP
2 Deluge
2 GY hate
5 Flex

seems legit.

@mikeshimoji I have found 3 to be more reliable, wouldn't run less than 2 though

[tescrin]

I think Maze is a meta call. Dependent on how many Lands (Depths), Infect, and other singularly powerful decks are around. It's decent for stalling Delver to the mid game and such as well; but that's hardly this deck's concern. It should be amazing against Swiftspear.

[Cambriel]

I've been running Maze lately and really enjoying it. Matches are full of fair decks these days, so it's just worth having. I pulled Courser of Kruphix for it and have been pretty happy. It really isn't a land, so I don't treat it as one and I don't factor it into my land count.

FWIW, I run 4 duals, 3 basics, Cradle, Canopy, and fetches.

[TMagpie]

What are people's preferred sideboard card against Miracles, 12-post, Lands, etc. Is it Armageddon or Cataclysm? I play Armageddon because I like keeping all my creatures after it resolves. However, I am noticing a lot more Cataclysm on sideboards. Is there a reasoning behind it? Or is it because McDarby had it on his sideboard when he won Portland?

I'm an Armageddon loyalist myself, but its important to note that Cataclysm kills planeswalkers as well while Armageddon does not.

[Philipp2293]

Also, vs Miracles, you have to be very careful with Geddon if they are able to flip Top and ETA in response which is basically game over, unless you have a very commanding board presence.

[Fatal]

Very good sideboard card vs Miracles is Engineered Explosives - it stops 2 most important cards:
- EtA
- CB
Works also as catch-all card vs nasty pernaments

[Warden]

Very good sideboard card vs Miracles is Engineered Explosives - it stops 2 most important cards:
- EtA
- CB
Works also as catch-all card vs nasty pernaments

But it's disabled by another must-have card for that matchup: Gaddock Teeg. I don't like EE for this very reason (the collateral of EE hitting your own stuff aside). I'd rather have a no-bo of 'Geddon/Kgrip + bears > EE + bears, but that's just me and my playstyle.

[sdematt]

Depends on the deck. I know in Junk you want EE for Delvers and stuff, maybe you guys don't. Teeg screws your GSZ, but you don't care either.

I would say play Ratchet Bomb instead, but being CMC 2 is rough, especially against CB. Teeg Safekeeper lock is really how you want to lock out Miracles.

-Matt

[Dutch253]

So about a year ago I was interested in building this deck. Following the advice of much more experienced Legacy players i decided not to. They all said that it's a horrible deck and that it's dead etc.. So what happened in the last year that made this deck good enough to snag a first place win at a large Legacy event?

[sdematt]

It's not dead anymore before Miracles, while still an excellent deck, is falling in terms of numbers and finishes. Maverick is better against the Delver decks since it can go longer. Before Treasure Cruise, it was really bad with more Combo in the format.

-Matt

[Dutch253]

It's not dead anymore before Miracles, while still an excellent deck, is falling in terms of numbers and finishes. Maverick is better against the Delver decks since it can go longer. Before Treasure Cruise, it was really bad with more Combo in the format.

-Matt

So it might be a good idea for someone considering building the deck (again...) to wait until the next banned and restricted list comes out and the meta settles again?

[nevilshute]

So, my LGS had it's Year's End Invitational tournament. It was a 16-player show down, 4 rounds top-4. I ended up going 3-0 (6-0 in games) and drawing into top-4 where I lost in the semis.

Not being hugely experienced with Maverick and usually playing storm I had decided that a deck that punished all the treasure cruises and friends in the room would be the right call.

Here's the list I played:

1x Marsh Flats
3x Verdant Catacombs
4x Windswept Heath
1x Forest
1x Plains
1x Bayou
1x Scrubland
2x Savannah
1x Karakas
1x Gaea's Cradle
1x Cavern of Souls
1x Horizon Canopy
1x Dryad Arbor
4x Wasteland

1x Umezawa's Jitte
1x Sword of Fire and Ice
4x Knight of the Reliquary
2x Gaddock Teeg
2x Qasali Pridemage
4x Deathrite Shaman
2x Spirit of the Labyrinth
2x Stoneforge Mystic
4x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4x Mother of Runes
4x Swords to Plowshares
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Sylvan Library
4x Green Sun's Zenith
1x Noble Hierarch


Sideboard:

3x Thoughtseize
1x Sword of Light and Shadow
1x Enlightened Tutor
1x Pithing Needle
1x Grafdigger's Cage
1x Ethersworn Canonist
1x Surgical Extraction
2x Zealous Persecution
1x Cataclysm
1x Krosan Grip
2x Abrupt Decay

A couple of thoughts about some of the card choices. I've been playing a very similar list since cruise came out except for the Spirit of the Labyrinths which were new additions. Those 2 slots had hithero been a Scryb Ranger and a 2nd Sylvan Library. I decided that it would make sense to play to extra bomb spells against Cruise and thought that the 2 SoLs + 2 maindeck teeg would really put the hurt on the cruise decks. The Scryb Ranger was hard to cut. It's one of my favorite creatures in the deck, but I think a lot of the time it's more flashy than substance... it's basically feels like its best against players with less experience that can't really grasp when it can do until they've seen it. Either that, or it feels like a win more card. Going down from 2 to 1 Sylvan felt like the easy choice with the addition of 2 SoLs.

Regarding the sideboard: it felt very strong in the one combo MU I had. I never faced a control deck so never got to board in Cataclysm. Not sure if the E-tutor package is advisable. Will need to play some more.

So the matches:

Round 1: Mass with UR-delver (2-0)

Mass is one of my best friends and I knew with 95% certainty what he was going to be playing. He's a very adept pilot of UR and has played it for about 2 years (he wasn't upset when cruise got printed). I win the dice roll and he mulls to 6. I keep 7 which is something like: Thalia, Waste, fetch, fetch, mom, swords to plowshares, SoL. I play land, mom. He fetches a volcanic and plays a swiftspear. I plow his swithspear and Waste him on my 2nd turn and though he has another land I stick thalia on the following turn and its GG. Game 2 is closer, and he resolves a cruise but in the end I get there. Don't remember specifics, but it involved a Zealous Persecution on a pyromancer and 3 tokens.

sideboard:
-2x pridemage
-1x Sylvan library
-1x noble hierarch
-1x SoL

+2x Decay
+2x Persecution
+1x SoLaS

Round 2: Tue with Grixis Delver (2-0)
Tue has made a brew with swiftspears, delvers, pyromancers and cruises. The black splash is for therapies and sideboard cards mainly. In game 1 my hand get's stripped pretty effectively by therapies being flashbacked, but I stick a deathrite and as he is flashing back his therapies by sacking first a swiftspear and later a delver he's not landing any threats himself... mind you he probably had to play this way as what he discarded from me were: Knight and SoFaI. Eventually I draw into more creatures and stick a Teeg the turn before he can Cruise. Game 2 he mulligans to 6 and I keep a suspect hand of Mom, Thalia and 5 lands. I stick mom, but thalia get's therapied. My gambit pays off as I draw nothing but creatures for 3-4 turns while he cantrips, frantically searching for his sideboard hate. He never finds it and I win comfortably.

sideboard:
-2x pridemage
-1x Sylvan library
-1x noble hierarch
-1x SoL

+2x Decay
+2x Persecution
+1x SoLaS

Round 3: Jep with ANT (2-0).
Jep has been playing storm for a while now and even if I hadn't seen him play earlier this evening I would have put him on that deck. I keep a hand which is, fetch, SoL, 2x thalia, 2x swords to plowshares, Waste. On the play I just play out a heath and pass the turn. He probes me, and therapies my Thalias. Nuts! I Draw Gaddock Teeg and play Waste and SoL. Now I'm just praying he can't kill me on his turn and that I can draw another land. He tutors for a Dark Ritual and passes. I draw: Horizon Canopy! I play Teeg and he scoops as he has no game 1 outs. Game 2 I keep this declicious opener: Fetch, Waste, Thoughtseize, Grafdigger's Cage, 2x Deathrite, SoL. He probes on turn 1, but luckily no therapy follow up this time. I fetch bayou to play around massacre and thoughtseize him seeing: Massacre, 2x decay, tutor, led, dark rit. I grab tutor and pass. He doesn't have a 2nd land drop so I Waste him and drop a Deathrite. I manage to not play any plains for a few turns but drop the SoL and Cage. Holding on to my 2nd Deathrite and drawing another SoL. He eventually double rituals to masscre. I then drop SoL and Thalia on my following turn and win.

Sideboard:

-4x swords to plowshares
-2x Pridemage
-1x Stoneforge
-1x Jitte

+1x E-tutor
+1x Cage
+1x Canonist
+1x surgical
+1x Zealous P
+3x Thoughtseize

Round 4: ID with the other guy that was 3-0

Semi finals: Ian with 4c Delver.
By now we all know what the others are playing and I'm very happy to be facing 4c delver. It is now that all my good luck seems to run out. My first hand of 7 are teeg, pridemage and 5 lands. I ship it and get a mediocre 6 that I keep. I lose to 2 flipped delvers and a TNN over the course of 4 or 5 turns. Game 2 is even worse as I mull to 5 after getting no lands on 7 and only a Waste on 6. I keep 5 which are: canpoy, fetch, deathrite, swords to plowshares, SoFaI. Deathrite gets bolted, the Scrubland I fetched get's Wasted, I don't draw another land or 1 drop for 5 turns while he cruises twice. I get absolutely destroyed.

All in all I was very happy with how the deck performed. Sucked to get crushed like I did, but c'est la vie. The Spirits felt good, if very fragile. I think I'm going to continue with this list, but might rethink the sideboard.

[Captain Hammer]

This spoiled card seems like it could be pretty solid in Maverick

Abzan Beastmaster 2G
Draw a card each turn if you control a creature with the greatest or tied for the greatest toughness.
2/1

Thoughts?


There's also

Whisperwood Elemental 3GG
Manifest a card each of your turns.
4/4

but the casting card is probably too high.

[Cambriel]

It's not dead anymore before Miracles, while still an excellent deck, is falling in terms of numbers and finishes. Maverick is better against the Delver decks since it can go longer. Before Treasure Cruise, it was really bad with more Combo in the format.

-Matt

This. It can outplay pretty much any fair deck on the board, though Treasure Cruise can be a problem if you're on the draw and Delver gets underneath you. Most fair matches come down to sticking a Mom or an early Knight.

Fast combo is a terrible matchup. Belcher and well-piloted Storm decks are very difficult because you have so little turn 1 interaction. If you can get an untap and land Thalia, it gets much simpler from there.

[THerzog41]

A reply to some of the recent topics:

The reports of Maverick's demise are greatly over-exaggerated. It never died. Less people played it for a few reasons. Two main reasons are that people did not know how to build the deck to beat miracles (which was the hot deck for a time), and it lost (at least one of) its champion(s) in Todd Anderson. Naysayers started talking about the deck dying. Nobody proved them wrong. Less people played the deck.

If I'm going to play a 4+ cmc creature, it would be Siege Rhino. When you are paying that much mana for something, you want it to have an immediate impact on the game. It doesn't have hexproof, but if it does get plowed, you at least got something out of it. Hexproof doesn't help against Terminus... The ability to GSZ for the final points of life is good. Delver and Pyromancer have a hard time racing it after the ETB trigger.

I'm not on the Spirit of the Labyrinth train. It really comes down to how many Blue decks you expect to play. For some large tournaments (like SCG opens), the meta is so Blue that she may be the right card. For my local meta, there are a lot more non-blue "Legacy" decks that Spirit does nothing against. Blue decks normally aren't the hard decks to beat anyways... For the time being, I'm going to stick with double library. The second seems strange, but if with the first one in play, you will rarely draw the second one.

The choices in deck building do matter, but what is far more important is familiarity with the deck, and play skill.

[Cambriel]

Miracles has dropped off quite a bit in my area, so I dropped a Library as part of a move to 3/3 Swords/Decay rather than just 4 Swords. It might be wrong, but it freed up 3 sideboard slots (Library took one), so the only major loss is equipment #3.

I haven't tried Rhino yet, but I've thought about it. Same with Titania, which seems more fun than good.

[Strassbaw]

Advanced to day 2 at 7-2 and finished 55th at SCG Philly with Punishing Maverick

http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=78732

I'll post a report later on with match details and where I want to go moving forward. I made some poor choices day 2, and I would adjust a few cards, but the deck certainly feels strong right now.

[barcode]

I have been playing Maverick quite a lot lately at the local store's FNM (that's right, legacy FNM - suck it) and have done quite well. Last week (48 players, iirc) my two losses were to elves and sneak & show. I changed up my sideboard that week to cut Surgical Extraction and something else to test two Chalice of the Void for certain matchups (UR delver, for one). I brought Chalice in for Elves and it was not good enough. Surgical is gone back in and I've added a Toxic Deluge.

This is what I've been playing:


26 Creatures
4 Mother of Runes
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Knight of the Reliquary
3 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Qasali Pridemage
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Courser of Kruphix
1 Noble Hierarch

7 Spells
3 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Swords to Plowshares

3 Equipment
1 Batterskull
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice

1 Enchantment
1 Sylvan Library

23 Lands
4 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Savannah
2 Forest
1 Bayou
1 Scrubland
1 Plains
1 Karakas
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Horizon Canopy

Sideboard
3 Thoughtseize
2 Zealous Persecution
2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Containment Priest
1 Krosan Grip
1 Choke
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Pithing Needle
1 Obstinate Baloth
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Surgical Extraction


I've been really pleased with three GSZ. I found with four of them they were clogging up my hand in the fast pace games today plus, four GSZ and Gaddock Teeg sucks. I've really been displeased with Gaddock Teeg and Sword of Fire and Ice. Teeg needs to be in the 75 to deal with annoying cards and I don't want to waste a sideboard slot. SOFAI just isn't pulling its weight. No one is playing True-Name Nemesis.

Courser of Kruphix, as noted earlier in the thread is absolutely nutty. Aside from the combo matches I'm never sad to see Courser. It's truly annoying to mechanically use with Sylvan Library but that's a small price to pay. The singleton Noble Hierarch is a concession to needing a stable mana accelerant. Sometimes there aren't fetchlands.

I'm not playing Dryad Arbor. I played the Arbor back in the day a few years ago but today it's far too slow. There's too many Lightning Bolts and Forked Bolts running around and there's no Dark Confidants to ambush anymore. I'd rather play an additional basic Forest. If anything I'll be cutting the Forest for a Cavern of Souls.

Speaking of Cavern of Souls: I'm not playing it because there's too wide a creature type disparity. It sucks that Deathrite Shaman is too good to ignore since Noble Hierarch pulled a lot of weight back in the day.

I'm going to continue playing this base and see how it goes. The previous three weeks I've finished either 4-0 or 3-1.

[Fatal]

I'm not playing Dryad Arbor. I played the Arbor back in the day a few years ago but today it's far too slow. There's too many Lightning Bolts and Forked Bolts running around and there's no Dark Confidants to ambush anymore. I'd rather play an additional basic Forest. If anything I'll be cutting the Forest for a Cavern of Souls.

Can't understand your point - you don't play Dryad so you can't ramp out turn 1 from GSZ - your argument was about bolts around - how is different with turn 1 mana dork - it also dies to bolt/forked ?

Maybe there are few Dark Confidants but there are still quite a lot equips so man-land from fetch is still useful - I won enough games vs let say miracles with arbor as a beater equipped with SoXaY/Jitte.

I'm almost sure that not running arbor is big mistake - turn 1 ramp, turn 2 waste + thalia is a win most time, without arbor you can't done it without mana dork on hand - GSZ doesn't provide cheap G ramp (which even if dies pump KtoR).

[Stuhl]

Yeah, never randomfetch against miracles! Terminus -> fetch arbor -> attack -> terminus -> fetch arbor ...
That's key against miracles. Also playing only one creature at a time and cavern of souls. At the moment I'm playing 2 of them. I had DD combo in before an thought that 2 caverns are reasonable instead of a colorless and no mana land. First on human to cast knight and then eventually fetch 2nd with knight to make sure an ooze or pridemage lands. Works fine!

[tescrin]

If we're fair, Arbor is an abysmal topdeck and makes starting hands pretty band when it lands in them IMO. I'm hot and cold with it, but I've never been on straight maverick.

[Fatal]

Understand the risk on draw:
You have GSZ in hand and want to fetch Arbor - first draw - it's it :/ but this case isn't so often - less then:
50% * 1/53 of games - its really low count.

[tescrin]

Understand the risk on draw:
You have GSZ in hand and want to fetch Arbor - first draw - it's it :/ but this case isn't so often - less then:
50% * 1/53 of games - its really low count.
EDIT: It sounds like you're mathing the GSZ into Arbor problem, but that's not the problem. Playing Arbor as a vulnerable EBT land is. This means most games where you start with arbor or draw into it are obnoxious

I have no idea what you're mathing here; but you start with Arbor 11.7% on the play (~1/9 games) and 13.3% on the draw (2/15 games.) Having a mulligan taken for you 2/15th-1/9th of the time is obnoxious.

I'm not saying it's invalid, I just think it's fundamentally annoying to put in decks. It's nice when it works out right, but that's less than 1/3rd of games where you:
-Have GSZ without Arbor (35%)
-Don't have other ramp (you will in 46.5% of the those games; 12% overall)
-Have 3 or less lands (in the case where you'd even do it with 3 lands, ~45% of the time you have a GSZ in hand)

Again, I'm not making a case against it and it has a lot of neat tricks here and there, but it's certainly awkward.

[Strassbaw]

@Barcode - Dryad Arbor is an exceptional card in the deck, and I wouldn't consider playing without it. Give it another try if you can find the room, and I think you'll be very pleased. This card has helped me win many games, as this card can really be sneaky and strong when used correctly. Dryad Arbor can be an uncountable body to equip, or extra presure when in a standstill. You can also use arbor to chump block cards and many players don't see it coming from an open fetchland. Lastly, dryad arbor can be a cool tool against dredge, as you can take out a bridge from below early all from a fetchland and a punfire, or a knight ability. Keep trying new things, and I like the fact that you are testing new things with the deck. Sometimes an old card in an archetype can be phased out like Maze of Ith , or scryb Ranger, however, I do not feel Dryad Arbor is one of those cards.

[lavafrogg]

Could humble defector be a thing in maverick? We can easily run homeward path for the combo and he wears equipment like any other dork.

I am just not sure how we would feel if we had to use him fairly.

[danyul]

This wild Mav build was piloted by our very own ESG to an undefeated record at a local duel for duals event in the Seattle area. The deck was profiled by Gerry T over at SCG. Just some food for thought!

http://www.starcitygames.com/article/30088_Daily-Digest-Flower-Power.html#comments

(Actually, is this Mav or Junk or...who knows?)

[barcode]

Can't understand your point - you don't play Dryad so you can't ramp out turn 1 from GSZ - your argument was about bolts around - how is different with turn 1 mana dork - it also dies to bolt/forked ?

Maybe there are few Dark Confidants but there are still quite a lot equips so man-land from fetch is still useful - I won enough games vs let say miracles with arbor as a beater equipped with SoXaY/Jitte.

I'm almost sure that not running arbor is big mistake - turn 1 ramp, turn 2 waste + thalia is a win most time, without arbor you can't done it without mana dork on hand - GSZ doesn't provide cheap G ramp (which even if dies pump KtoR).

I never want to draw Dryad Arbor - it can be game losing in the mid-late game. The best way to ensure that is to not have it in the deck. Yes, it's great when you can GSZ on turn 1 but that's not always the best option in a field with a large amount of Lightning Bolts and Forked Bolts.

I understand that the Arbor can be good in the right circumstances but I'm not going to play a card that can be good - I want to play cards that are good (which is why I'm not playing Scryb Ranger). My experiences with Dryad Arbor have been lacklustre and we've gone our separate ways.

[tescrin]

That's kinda my stance, but it has a lot of success in the real world and hastey equips are neat (while turning Forest-Fetches into an equipable dude.)

The Arbor->Thalia/Waste play is indeed one of the neat things. I think it's mostly there to make your GSZs that much better/more versatile. This deck is mana-hungry early and you have to deal with your own Thalias.

[Cambriel]

While Arbor is a component of some of our worst hands (a reason why I feel Depths/Stage has no permanent place in Maverick), consider this: Removing Arbor basically cuts you from 9 mana dorks to 5. That alone is reason enough to include a single copy, imo.

Does it suck to see as your 7th card in an opening hand? Undoubtedly, especially with a GSZ sitting next to it. Maverick is a synergy deck, though. We rely on a lot of individually weaker cards that have amplify one another. Arbor is weaker alone than nearly any other card in the deck (unequipped equipment is arguably worse), but that's hardly surprising for a deck which hinges so much on its first turn plays.

[barcode]

While Arbor is a component of some of our worst hands (a reason why I feel Depths/Stage has no permanent place in Maverick), consider this: Removing Arbor basically cuts you from 9 mana dorks to 5. That alone is reason enough to include a single copy, imo.

Does it suck to see as your 7th card in an opening hand? Undoubtedly, especially with a GSZ sitting next to it. Maverick is a synergy deck, though. We rely on a lot of individually weaker cards that have amplify one another. Arbor is weaker alone than nearly any other card in the deck (unequipped equipment is arguably worse), but that's hardly surprising for a deck which hinges so much on its first turn plays.

It's weak to the point of being detrimental. It sucks drawing it on every turn of the game. The only time it's good is when you have GSZ in your opening hand and the Arbor will survive to your next turn and you couldn't play a better card (Deathrite, Noble Hierarch or Mother of Runes) and you have enough action in your hand to squander a GSZ (which could go get a real creature of utility). Sure, it's cute to fetch up a creature when you're Terminused but at the end of the day it's a 1/1 that could have had more impact before the Terminus anyways, like Gaddock Teeg. Is it cute enough to waste a card on? Not for me. It's cool that the archetype has so much variety in it that it can support different play styles. For me I'm happy to take a more midrange approach to the deck. I wanted to share my positive experiences with shunning Dryad Arbor so others can begin to question its viability. Even Modern "Melira Pod" has moved on from Melira combo when a year ago someone would call you crazy for cutting it.

[nevilshute]

I have a question regarding our lack of flying creatures. I've tried removing my one-of Scryb Ranger which was my only flier. I have since then gotten destroyed on a few occasions by Delver-heavy draws. It might just be bias from staring down at two flipped delvers for a few consequtive games without being able to find swords to plowshares but I am really tempted to revert back to one Scryb Ranger as a GSZ target.

It's extremely frustrating having a mom online and just dying to the 3/2 fliers. I feel like the only viable strategy is to get out an equipment but running only 2x Stoneforge Mystic that is not all that consistently happening.

I know that many have moved away from Scryb Ranger but what do people think about playing versus delver? I would consider it a decent-to-favorable matchup but not when they manage to deploy and flip multiple, unanswered delvers.

[Asthereal]

I have a question regarding our lack of flying creatures. I've tried removing my one-of Scryb Ranger which was my only flier. I have since then gotten destroyed on a few occasions by Delver-heavy draws. It might just be bias from staring down at two flipped delvers for a few consequtive games without being able to find swords to plowshares but I am really tempted to revert back to one Scryb Ranger as a GSZ target.

It's extremely frustrating having a mom online and just dying to the 3/2 fliers. I feel like the only viable strategy is to get out an equipment but running only 2x Stoneforge Mystic that is not all that consistently happening.

I know that many have moved away from Scryb Ranger but what do people think about playing versus delver? I would consider it a decent-to-favorable matchup but not when they manage to deploy and flip multiple, unanswered delvers.
True on all accounts. In a very Delver-heavy meta, I would definitely consider goimng back to playing one Scryb Ranger.
My list right now contains one Birds of Paradise that could block a Delver and be protected by Mother of Runes, and a Sigarda to actually do stuff, but it's not enough against a double Delver board, for sure. Those draws are just tough to beat.

[barcode]

I have a question regarding our lack of flying creatures. I've tried removing my one-of Scryb Ranger which was my only flier. I have since then gotten destroyed on a few occasions by Delver-heavy draws. It might just be bias from staring down at two flipped delvers for a few consequtive games without being able to find swords to plowshares but I am really tempted to revert back to one Scryb Ranger as a GSZ target.

It's extremely frustrating having a mom online and just dying to the 3/2 fliers. I feel like the only viable strategy is to get out an equipment but running only 2x Stoneforge Mystic that is not all that consistently happening.

I know that many have moved away from Scryb Ranger but what do people think about playing versus delver? I would consider it a decent-to-favorable matchup but not when they manage to deploy and flip multiple, unanswered delvers.

I feel that the biggest loss from cutting Scryb Ranger is Elves. They can block forever and we can't get a Jitte active to control their board. Delver plays enough removal and countermagic to deal with a Scryb Ranger that I've never want to rely on it in the matchup.

[tescrin]

Delver stuff
I think it depends on the delver deck. Are you running the extra decays that others are? Some people run Quad-SFM as well.

IMO, if you're running 2-3 Pridemage, 2 Teeg, and/or 2-3 Scooze, I'd start trimming those slots for Scryb or SFMs (and/or sylvan safekeeper) depending on your meta:
-Miracles -> Multiple Teeg and a Safekeeper
-Lots of SFM -> Pridemage
-Lots of Delver -> SFM

If you aren't running any decays, I would start. I don't think I've had a list I liked without Decay since I started Legacy. The things it gets you out of while dealing with Daze, FoW, etc gets you through the unbeatable delver hands, counterbalance locks, and deals with Equips; all while basically being an almost-Plow.

I had misgivings about such thinking until the last few Maverick lists were finally running Decay.

[DudeItsCorey]

I have a question regarding our lack of flying creatures. I've tried removing my one-of Scryb Ranger which was my only flier. I have since then gotten destroyed on a few occasions by Delver-heavy draws. It might just be bias from staring down at two flipped delvers for a few consequtive games without being able to find swords to plowshares but I am really tempted to revert back to one Scryb Ranger as a GSZ target.

It's extremely frustrating having a mom online and just dying to the 3/2 fliers. I feel like the only viable strategy is to get out an equipment but running only 2x Stoneforge Mystic that is not all that consistently happening.

I know that many have moved away from Scryb Ranger but what do people think about playing versus delver? I would consider it a decent-to-favorable matchup but not when they manage to deploy and flip multiple, unanswered delvers.

This is why I run Maze of Ith. You can tutor for it with Knight and you have really great combat tricks with it (after damage step, untap before the end of combat phase). It can also keep equipped creatures at bay.

[.Ix]

The only time it's good is when you have GSZ in your opening hand and the Arbor will survive to your next turn and you couldn't play a better card (Deathrite, Noble Hierarch or Mother of Runes) and you have enough action in your hand to squander a GSZ (which could go get a real creature of utility).

I've done the math for this. In a typical maverick build with 4 dorks, the chance that you have a GSZ in hand, no arbor in hand, AND a forest in hand is about 17.74%. This does not include the probability of having something better to do with your GSZ, so the real probability should be a bit lower. The chance of having it in your opening and ruining your hand is 11.67%. Net is about 6%, but that doesn't account for the risk of drawing it in the mid game. I'm always on the fence about it myself.

[sdematt]

I think if you are running Equipment, the upside to fetching End of Turn and equipping for an attack or having an easy way to re-fetch a creature after Terminus beyond GSZ isn't a bad thing.

-Matt

[barcode]

I think if you are running Equipment, the upside to fetching End of Turn and equipping for an attack or having an easy way to re-fetch a creature after Terminus beyond GSZ isn't a bad thing.

-Matt

Wouldn't that make it a sideboard card? The majority of matchups don't play Terminus.

[sdematt]

Yes but in many matchups you can fetch and equip. That happens in many matchups.

[Stuhl]

Come on, drawing arbor in late game is no difference in drawing a regular land. It only sucks in opening hand. I don't care aboht statistics. My feeling says, that arbor is important. There are so many fine edges and tricks to do with her. Even wastelanding arbor and then eat it with DR/Ooze to get one life once safed me a game.

[tescrin]

I mostly agree; however I felt obligated to post stats since there was someone saying "1/53" of the time was all there was a downside. The downside is more like 1/8 (on average, 1/9 on the play, 2/15 on the draw.)

[Barook]

This wild Mav build was piloted by our very own ESG to an undefeated record at a local duel for duals event in the Seattle area. The deck was profiled by Gerry T over at SCG. Just some food for thought!

http://www.starcitygames.com/article/30088_Daily-Digest-Flower-Power.html#comments

(Actually, is this Mav or Junk or...who knows?)
Is the NO really better than a 4th GSZ?

I'd love to see at least 2 Sylvan Libraries and at least 1 Courser of Kruphix (GSZ target) thrown into the mix. My reason for this is that some elements strongly resemble Lejay's Sylvan Plug and it's a pretty powerful engine where both parts are good on their own.

Love the Titania shenanigans with KotR, Safekeeper and Karakas.

[.Ix]

Come on, drawing arbor in late game is no difference in drawing a regular land. It only sucks in opening hand. I don't care aboht statistics. My feeling says, that arbor is important. There are so many fine edges and tricks to do with her. Even wastelanding arbor and then eat it with DR/Ooze to get one life once safed me a game.

If I were to take out Arbor, I wouldn't replace it with a land. It occupies a spell slot for me, so I would draw something better than a regular land in the midgame. But yes, I definitely agree that Arbor is tricky and has a lot more uses than stats would suggest, so take those numbers with a grain of salt.

[barcode]

If I were to take out Arbor, I wouldn't replace it with a land. It occupies a spell slot for me, so I would draw something better than a regular land in the midgame. But yes, I definitely agree that Arbor is tricky and has a lot more uses than stats would suggest, so take those numbers with a grain of salt.

I play 23 lands without the Arbor and added a Courser of Kruphix in place of the Arbor. Courser has way more utility than Arbor. To make room for the third basic (a Forest) I cut a dual land.

[Dutch253]

I take it this is one of those decks that you really need a good feel of your meta and a broad knowledge of the legacy card base to be good. Is that the case? I was thinking to make this my first legacy deck because I want to build something with a lot of interaction and lots of options. I've been playing a proxied Reanimator deck and it's fun but it's pretty linear.

[tescrin]

That applies to a lot of decks though. Reanimator, for instance, requires you knowing whether they're holding Stifle, whether you can S&T (do they run Karakas/KotR?), what turn you should try to go off (number of counterspells, discard, etc..), and which dude to nab (understanding board state and counters your opponent might hold.)

You can do well by just trying to jam T1 Grisel's all day I imagine, but a reasonable amount of the time you'll instead need an Elesh, Iona, or other fatty. Sometimes you'll have to play around DRS, Mom + Flyer, or other garbage and have to know your outs.

I'm just saying this to say that while Maverick requires respectable knowledge and understanding on how your deck is supposed to play against theirs and which card choices can shift; that's often the case with sideboards, flex slots, or general play-strategy with decks.

[barcode]

At the end of the day Maverick is a hatebear deck. You need to understand the value of each bear and how it hates a specific part of the metagame. Because of this you must have a reasonable knowledge of the metagame. I expect you could do fine by watching replays and other videos of the format plus live coverage.

[TMagpie]

I take it this is one of those decks that you really need a good feel of your meta and a broad knowledge of the legacy card base to be good. Is that the case? I was thinking to make this my first legacy deck because I want to build something with a lot of interaction and lots of options. I've been playing a proxied Reanimator deck and it's fun but it's pretty linear.

In many matchups Maverick is EXTREMELY linear. Thalia + Wasteland works very similar to Daze + Wasteland. The amount of disruption+clock that Maverick can do is actually very very impressive.

The hatebear knowledge or knowing which hate cards to tutor for/lean on is mostly relevant games 2/3. But you'll win a lot of games because you resolved a 4/4 knight on turn 2, that became a 7/7 after you hit them with wastelands for two turns in a row after they missed a land drop. Suddenly you have something bigger than griselbrand turning sideways and they're chump blocking with elesh norn.

This is where the strength of maverick comes from. It applies large threats + heavy mana disruption and uses hatebears instead of dazes to prevent the opponent from catching up. But can just as easily resolve stoneforge mystics and MoMs to play a stalled out long game.

Its not until you face punishing/miracles/fast combo where things get dicey.

[Dutch253]

Ok cool. Thanks a lot for the responses guys.

[Warden]

In many matchups Maverick is EXTREMELY linear. Thalia + Wasteland works very similar to Daze + Wasteland. The amount of disruption+clock that Maverick can do is actually very very impressive.

The hatebear knowledge or knowing which hate cards to tutor for/lean on is mostly relevant games 2/3. But you'll win a lot of games because you resolved a 4/4 knight on turn 2, that became a 7/7 after you hit them with wastelands for two turns in a row after they missed a land drop. Suddenly you have something bigger than griselbrand turning sideways and they're chump blocking with elesh norn.

This is where the strength of maverick comes from. It applies large threats + heavy mana disruption and uses hatebears instead of dazes to prevent the opponent from catching up. But can just as easily resolve stoneforge mystics and MoMs to play a stalled out long game.

Its not until you face punishing/miracles/fast combo where things get dicey.

I agree with a lot of this. However, the format has become (past 2 years) increasingly frustrating when the technicalities of "what bear/card do I play?" still don't save you. I've lost many games and even matches to elves despite making the best technical lines turns 1, 2, and 3 given decent hands.....only to see them go off regardless. The same frustrations happen with Miracles as I'm usually locking down the board and they have just perfect lines to bail them out (like their 1x Venser or Council's killing off Teeg to allow Top --> Terminus that's been sandbagged at the top of their library for days). I'm really beginning to feel like If I don't land dork, wasteland, thalia in the opening 3 turns, I'm at a disadvantage.

@Jeremy Edwards brew: I really don't like it. I'd much rather pack a traditional list with NO in the side (shameless plug: http://www.mtgstocks.com/decks/82502). If you want Titania and NO in the maindeck, that's certainly viable. But Carpet of Flowers is not a MD card whatsoever. I actually see the argument for wanting to cut Mom + Thalia in favor of combo + "good spells" like decay....I just disagree with how it all comes together.

[screallix]

New Bannings:
Treasure Cruise in Legacy.

Do you think it's better or worse for a deck like Maverick?
I'm definitly putting the Punishing Fire version into the folder, since most of the
Wasteland.decs will return (RUG, BUG). Also Miracles and Jeskai Blade seem to find a better
spot in the upcoming meta, since both can still abuse Dig Through Time.

On the other hand my bet is that faster combo will disappear a little bit, due the 4 Treasure Cruise
will most likely going to be filled up with the Spell Pierce and softcounter slots.

What do you say (+) or (-) for Maverick?

[DudeItsCorey]

Unfortunately I think with the banning of Treasure Cruise, our deck become worse. I expect BUG and Miracles to make a big comeback. While the former is a great match-up for us the latter is one of our worst match-ups and in a heavy field will be problematic. Also, now that people can't play Treasure Cruise, I expect to see more combo in general. Even though one could argue the Treasure Cruise Meta was better for combo players. People wanted to draw three cards. Now they may just want to show in tell again. Its going to be an interesting few weeks.

[Dutch253]

Unfortunately I think with the banning of Treasure Cruise, our deck become worse. I expect BUG and Miracles to make a big comeback. While the former is a great match-up for us the latter is one of our worst match-ups and in a heavy field will be problematic. Also, now that people can't play Treasure Cruise, I expect to see more combo in general. Even though one could argue the Treasure Cruise Meta was better for combo players. People wanted to draw three cards. Now they may just want to show in tell again. Its going to be an interesting few weeks.

Crap..guess it's a good thing I haven't started investing in the deck then. With the changes maybe D&T would be the better investment?

[screallix]

Crap..guess it's a good thing I haven't started investing in the deck then. With the changes maybe D&T would be the better investment?
Yeah, if you are not into playing blue I would say Death and Taxes and Elves are the decks to play

[Dutch253]

Yeah, if you are not into playing blue I would say Death and Taxes and Elves are the decks to play

That's really unfortunate. I was looking forward to playing with GSZ and the toolbox feel of KotR definitely appealed to me as well.

[Stuhl]

DnT is very boring imo. No card draw, very linear. But that's depending on what you want. Maverick just makes fun. It isn't T1 but you get rewarded for playing it a long time and getting experience. Let's wait how the meta changes.

[mikeshimoji]

Wait, doesn't this mean that siege rhino main deck become much more attractive? BG coming back? Can't decay, trample over tnn, can fight most goys, races pretty hard at 4 mana seems like this new meta favors us. Plus, with swiftspear, red will still be around. I believe there were several SCG top 8 before cruise.

[DudeItsCorey]

Wait, doesn't this mean that siege rhino main deck become much more attractive? BG coming back? Can't decay, trample over tnn, can fight most goys, races pretty hard at 4 mana seems like this new meta favors us. Plus, with swiftspear, red will still be around. I believe there were several SCG top 8 before cruise.

I'm going to run mainboard Sigarda now because Liliana is going to have a comeback. Hexproof, flyer and I can't be forced to Sac, seems ideal.

If Miracles does become #1 again, then elves is a bad choice. The Top + Counterbalance lock is back breaking for them.

[tescrin]

I'm going to run mainboard Sigarda now because Liliana is going to have a comeback. Hexproof, flyer and I can't be forced to Sac, seems ideal.

If Miracles does become #1 again, then elves is a bad choice. The Top + Counterbalance lock is back breaking for them.

Except Elves was still a DTB the entire time Miracles was pounding the format. The only way it'll change is if people can manage their sideboards/Teegs properly across the format to hate it out.

[Fatal]

Elves running Abrupt Decay / Krosan Grips so counterbalance isnt hard to break - there is other scary card in Miracles vs Elves - Terminus.
I think its time to back to Punishing Maverick while Liliana & Shardless back on action.

[Strassbaw]

New Bannings:
Treasure Cruise in Legacy.

Do you think it's better or worse for a deck like Maverick?
I'm definitly putting the Punishing Fire version into the folder, since most of the
Wasteland.decs will return (RUG, BUG). Also Miracles and Jeskai Blade seem to find a better
spot in the upcoming meta, since both can still abuse Dig Through Time.

On the other hand my bet is that faster combo will disappear a little bit, due the 4 Treasure Cruise
will most likely going to be filled up with the Spell Pierce and softcounter slots.

What do you say (+) or (-) for Maverick?

I think it's too soon to tell exactly what the best decks will be as I suspect other cards and decks may impact the format that we can not yet fathom. Maverick is a perfectly fine choice for a deck to play in Legacy as Maverick will always have a fighting chance with any deck in the room. I predict that the raw power level of Treasure Cruise leaving the format, and UR delver leaving the format, Punishing Maverick will be a great choice to pilot in the future.

[Echelon]

Elves running Abrupt Decay / Krosan Grips so counterbalance isnt hard to break - there is other scary card in Miracles vs Elves - Terminus.
I think its time to back to Punishing Maverick while Liliana & Shardless back on action.

Don't forget Elves also got Reclamation Sage a little while back. Elves can now just GSZ to break the countertop-lock. It might be time to put it back in the maindeck. Terminus is still brutal though. But Miracles can still be a bitch for Elves, yeah.

[sdematt]

Maverick will likely still be a fine deck. I think the inclusion of the DD combo has really given it an edge. Delver is still going to exist in the format.

Miracles became a better deck because the rest of the format lost Cruise and it got to keep DTT, as did Sneak and Omni. So, what does this mean? Teeg. Maverick is one of the few decks that gets to run Teeg Safekeeper lock, so you've got a distinct advantage there.

As for Rhino, you could be playing him, but I think Knight is your horse here. There are better Rhino decks (Nic Fit), and I think y'all should be fine 20/20'ing people.

UR Cruise can be a tricky matchup since you can attrition them then lose to topdeck Cruise. The Delver decks will be RUG which was still a player last week, but BUG will come back. Hymn isn't terribly good against a deck where everything is a bear and they can't get rid of the 20/20.

TL: DR Maverick stays being fine, just like always. You just have to tune to bits for your meta.

I will say this: If you think you've got enough Teegs, add 2 more then ask again.

This might be a place to start:

4 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Qasali Pridemage
1 Birds of Paradise
2 Noble Hierarch
2 Deathrite Shaman
1 Scryb Ranger
1 Sylvan Safekeeper
1 Gaddock Teeg
4 Mother of Runes
1 Courser of Kruphix
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben


2 Sylvan Library
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
4 Green Sun's Zenith


1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Dryad Arbor
4 Windswept Heath
2 Wooded Foothills
2 Forest
1 Plains
3 Savannah
1 Bayou
1 Scrubland
1 Dark Depths
1 Thespian's Stage
4 Wasteland
1 Karakas


2 Krosan Grip
2 Gaddock Teeg
2 Carpet of Flowers
2 Zealous Persecution
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Pithing Needle
3 Thoughtseize


-Matt

[Dutch253]

Maverick will likely still be a fine deck. I think the inclusion of the DD combo has really given it an edge. Delver is still going to exist in the format.

Miracles became a better deck because the rest of the format lost Cruise and it got to keep DTT, as did Sneak and Omni. So, what does this mean? Teeg. Maverick is one of the few decks that gets to run Teeg Safekeeper lock, so you've got a distinct advantage there.

As for Rhino, you could be playing him, but I think Knight is your horse here. There are better Rhino decks (Nic Fit), and I think y'all should be fine 20/20'ing people.

UR Cruise can be a tricky matchup since you can attrition them then lose to topdeck Cruise. The Delver decks will be RUG which was still a player last week, but BUG will come back. Hymn isn't terribly good against a deck where everything is a bear and they can't get rid of the 20/20.

TL: DR Maverick stays being fine, just like always. You just have to tune to bits for your meta.

I will say this: If you think you've got enough Teegs, add 2 more then ask again.

This might be a place to start:

4 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Qasali Pridemage
1 Birds of Paradise
2 Noble Hierarch
2 Deathrite Shaman
1 Scryb Ranger
1 Sylvan Safekeeper
1 Gaddock Teeg
4 Mother of Runes
1 Courser of Kruphix

-Matt

I'm letting my Noob flag fly here but what's the Teeg Safekeeper lock?

[sdematt]

Sylvan Safekeeper can sacrifice lands to protect Gaddock Teeg. Since Miracles' only removal spell to remove a Teeg is either Karakas (not played much in winning lists) or STP, you can keep him forever. They would have to have more Plows in one turn than you have lands. Terminus, Entreat, Jace, EE, DTT are all off when Teeg is in play.

Just make sure you don't attack when they have mana open. Snapcaster is a hell of an ambush viper.

[Dutch253]

Sylvan Safekeeper can sacrifice lands to protect Gaddock Teeg. Since Miracles' only removal spell to remove a Teeg is either Karakas (not played much in winning lists) or STP, you can keep him forever. They would have to have more Plows in one turn than you have lands. Terminus, Entreat, Jace, EE, DTT are all off when Teeg is in play.

Just make sure you don't attack when they have mana open. Snapcaster is a hell of an ambush viper.

Got it, thanks!

[Fatal]

Remember narrow answer which many times can occur, specially after sideboard - Pyroclasm and Council's Judgement - we can't stop that so there are two ways:
- Don't overextend and be prepared for assamble second teeg
- Rush if you suppose that he doesn't have it

[lordofthepit]

I will say this: If you think you've got enough Teegs, add 2 more then ask again.

But I already run three!

[Warden]

Remember narrow answer which many times can occur, specially after sideboard - Pyroclasm and Council's Judgement - we can't stop that so there are two ways:
- Don't overextend and be prepared for assamble second teeg
- Rush if you suppose that he doesn't have it

These are the trump cards that continue to haunt me. More specifically, Council's Judgement kills me. I've had games where I locked the table under Mom + Teeg + something else ----> CJ kills Teeg ---> Terminus on my upkeep --> GG.

As far as I know, nothing stops this from occurring unless I also have Revokers out. Revoker sucked against a lot of the TC field. We'll see how the meta shifts. People are also telling me to reconsider Spirit of the Laybrinths. Maybe have "all the bears" post-board?

Post-TC meta: Miracles
-4 STP
-1 Thalia (#4)
+1 Teeg (#2)
+2 Spirit
+2 flex [revoker, k-grip, pridemage, sword X&Y]

@sdematt:
I've squared off against Dig Through Time only once or twice (vs. UWx control) and it's honestly the most ridiculous card drawing/filter. If Miracles starts picking that card up in bulk, I'm screwed.

[sdematt]

If you're playing against Miracles players who are not running at least 1-2 of that card, they're doing it wrong.

You can use mother of Runes to protect Teeg from Pyroclasm if you get it, or just Equip SOFI. Unforts, Council's Judgment does good work and there's nothing we can do. Thats why creating an EOT 20/20 is also good :)

-Matt

[DudeItsCorey]

These are the trump cards that continue to haunt me. More specifically, Council's Judgement kills me. I've had games where I locked the table under Mom + Teeg + something else ----> CJ kills Teeg ---> Terminus on my upkeep --> GG.

As far as I know, nothing stops this from occurring unless I also have Revokers out. Revoker sucked against a lot of the TC field. We'll see how the meta shifts. People are also telling me to reconsider Spirit of the Laybrinths. Maybe have "all the bears" post-board?.

Slaughter Games. Completely shuts down Miracles because you can just call Entreat the Angels and make sure you stay ontop of Jace. I know that's not the answer you're looking for as we don't play both black and red, but being able to strip away their wincon with a "cannot be countered" attached to it feels very good to resolve. I've been messing around with Nic Fit in smaller weekday tournaments and boy I wish I could find a way to jam that card into our deck.

I personally don't like the dark depths combo in our deck. People on this thread have complained that having dryad arbor in your opening hand is the worst. Dark Depths is even more so. Also, with our deck I feel like we can lose to ourselves if we get the wrong mana configuration and this further increases the chances of that happening. To each their own. The best part about this deck is that there really is no "Stock List". You can add your own flare and tweak the deck to better battle your specific meta.

A strange topic which I thought I would bring up. A friend and I were talking about Meddling Mage and how he really should have been G/W. Blue having access to a hate bear in it's color just doesn't seem right.

[Fatal]

It's not hard to running Punishing Version with Shaman's and 1 Bayou, also as I said before Engineered Explosives also keep in check EtA.

[tescrin]

While I like EE, it's worse against miracles than it looks. Holding 2-mana open all the time to catch EoT angels slows you down quite a bit, in a deck that can't afford to over-extend and has equips.

I'd suggest Deed. My Nic Fit days tell me that it's pretty good for miracles since they have to extend enough for you to Pop it, or they have to win via Jace.

[TMagpie]

While I like EE, it's worse against miracles than it looks. Holding 2-mana open all the time to catch EoT angels slows you down quite a bit, in a deck that can't afford to over-extend and has equips.

I'd suggest Deed. My Nic Fit days tell me that it's pretty good for miracles since they have to extend enough for you to Pop it, or they have to win via Jace.

On a more general note--which of these is better as a sideboard card at an SCGOpen type event? (Big + Relatively Unknown Meta)

Engineered Explosives
Toxic Deluge
Pernicious Deed

(Assume the SB already runs 2 Zealous Persecutions and 2 Abrupt Decay with 4 Pridemages in the 75)

[ironclad8690]

I like Deluge sheerly for how fast it is.

EE, especially when combined with Thalia tax, can be slow to play and activate, while still not guaranteeing that you will be able to "nuke" their whole board.

Pernicious Deed is even slower and kills our own Dryad Arbor if we have had to play it. Also deed sometimes needs to wait for 1 turn to hit a TNN or something like that, and then gets Worn/Torn.

Just my $0.02

[sdematt]

EE gets awkward with Thalia if you're trying to kill tokens especially. but otherwise, when you pay the tax, it works out. Let me explain.

You want to kill all the 2's in play and you have a Thalia. You tap a Forest (sunburst one) and a Savannah to pay the Thalia Tax (Adding White, Sunburst Two). So, you've gotten to EE for 2 using 4 mana instead of 5. Value! :P


I would see what you're trying to do, though. If you want to kill tokens (pyro), run ZP/EE. If you want to have a good general sweeper, Deluge is good.

All of the sweepers except ZP are fraught with collateral damage, since all those cards, Deed, EE, and Deluge, are really good against you.

-Matt

[tescrin]

I think for *Miracles* that Deed is the best; because you can lay it down whenever and leave no mana open. EE is awkward because you either have to have an answer for CB in your hand when you drop it, or you have to lay it down predicting whether Angels or CB will be your problem (based off of a lot of unknown information.) Again, holding mana up all the time is a big issue.

For fair decks they're all a gamble, but I prefer Deluge unless I've built my curve in such a way that I can really take advantage of EE. Deluge helps for Big-Dude-Combo and deals with D&T/DGA decks quite well, supports the Elves MU, and myriad other good things.


An example of an EE-abusive curve I ran to use them main-deck:
4 KotR
4 Bob
4 DRS
3 Lingering Souls
4 Liliana

Most decks play lots of 2-drops; so I could set EE @2 reliably and rarely have a Bob get hit by it while being a 0-CMC for Bob. My experience with EE was largely positive with this approach and largely negative every other time I've tried to fit it even in the sideboard.

[TheArchitect]

Slaughter Games. Completely shuts down Miracles because you can just call Entreat the Angels and make sure you stay ontop of Jace. I know that's not the answer you're looking for as we don't play both black and red, but being able to strip away their wincon with a "cannot be countered" attached to it feels very good to resolve. I've been messing around with Nic Fit in smaller weekday tournaments and boy I wish I could find a way to jam that card into our deck.


I disagree with this assessment. I have played nic fit and miracles a lot and slaughter games is much worse in practice than it is on paper.

The reality is, drawing and casting slaughter games wastes an entire turn in puts you down a card simply to decrease the threat density of miracles. Exile entreat does not win the game. Exiling jace AND entreat does not win the game either. I have had this done to me and my opponent essentially mulled to 5 and then wasted 2 turns which let me easily win with snapcasters and cliques. Proactive answers to specific wincons is no way to beat a control deck. Proactive answers to the cards that fuel the control deck are better (needle on top, teeg, choke, etc).

If you want to beat miracles your best chance is with cards like sylvan library, pithing needle, lingering souls, choke, things that make tokens (bitterblossom, elspeth, garruk), or cataclysm (not Armageddon). Teeg and safekeeper also help a ton but like others have mentioned, this is no hardlock. The more of these cards you have in your 75 the better the matchup is going to be.


The other thing I see a lot while playing miracles is mana dorks, wastelands and STP post board. These cards are bad against miracles, you can side them out. Take out a few mana dorks, 1-3 wastes, and all your stp.

You want to ideally just play 1 creature and throw an equipment on it, jitte is still nuts against miracles for this reason. Moms and mana dorks have their uses, but often times they are just another free card to get swept away with terminus since their presence alone rarely necessitates removal.

[lordofthepit]

Deed is very good against Miracles, but there is no way in hell I'm running that in a Maverick deck.

[Fatal]

Agree with @lordofthepit - we have board presence mostly - which mean all you need to cover is special usage - like tokens from EtA, like tokens from EtW, like Counterbalance. That was the reason which I pick EE - surgical precision. If opponent try to look you with CB with cmc = 3 you can tap 2 forest more then EE cmc will be higher but sunburst will still took down CB. When you except EtA you just play EE for 0, and only count lands where EtA eot will be lethal - its really not so easy.

EE works also as 2 mana removal vs delver - which sometimes matters (he FoWed first StP / didnt draw Decay etc..) It blow out tokens and leave your creatures - which Deluge can't.
It also kill plainswalkers - which any other can't. It can easy dodge taxes from thalia - if you want to kill tokens under thalia just cast it from wasteland.

Deed is similar but destroy everything under - which mean - your presence on board too. Its also much slower - for example on draw you will loses vs 10+ tokens from EtW, with EE you can blow it one turn earlier.

[Cambriel]

things that make tokens (bitterblossom, elspeth, garruk), or cataclysm (not Armageddon).

This is my preferred strategy. Bitterblossom is very hard for Miracles to do much about, and comes down early enough that they haven't usually had the time to sculpt a hand full of countermagic.

[DudeItsCorey]

This is my preferred strategy. Bitterblossom is very hard for Miracles to do much about, and comes down early enough that they haven't usually had the time to sculpt a hand full of countermagic.

Except that they board into wear and tear and can 2-for-1 you. That and council's judgement is pretty annoying. Either way this deck is an annoyance for our deck.

[screallix]

My SB-Plan against Miracles:

Abzan Maverick:
+1x Gaddock Teeg
+3x Thougtseize
+1x Pithing Needle
+1x Armageddon
+1x Sword of Light and Shadow/ 1x Sylvan Library

Punishing Maverick:
+1x Gaddock Teeg
+1x Pithing Needle
+1x Armageddon
+2x Red Elemental Blasts
+1x Slaughter Games
+1x Sword of Light and Shadow

In both decks I side out:
-1x Umezawa's Jitte
-1x Birds of Paradise
-1x Noble Hierarch
-4x Swords to Plowshares (keeping Abrupt Decay main in Abzan obviously and Punishing Fire in GWr for Jace, slow Angel tokens and random Vendilion Cliques/Snapcaster Mages)

The last 3 tournaments I somehow had good success against Miracles with both versions. Having seven cards to side in feels right.

[Warden]

@DudeItsCorey: I'm not sold on Slaughter Games. It has great theoretical upside, but in practice I don't think things translate kindly. Specifically, S.Games needs 4 mana. At that point, Miracles has already established problematic shit: Cb/Top, 4 mana of their own to drop bombs on me, has had enough manipulation to stockpile the next 3-4 draws.

TheArchitect says it best, "Proactive answers to specific wincons is no way to beat a control deck. Proactive answers to the cards that fuel the control deck are better (needle on top, teeg, choke, etc)." You need to turn off the enablers/fuel. I'll gladly let them stare at a hand full of answers if they have no mana, top, manipulation, etc. I'd like to continue this discussion to further evaluate which options post-TC make sense to run in the default sb.

I've also been in situations where late-game Miracles just out-grinds me. It can Verdict the table for the lone hero I have left and/or bring in Venser + Karakas lock OR just Jace me to death while sitting on hard-casted Forces.

I've tried Lingering Souls to extremely disappointing results. Usually they are just fodder that gets caught somewhere between Thalia (souls is now casted for 4 --> fb'ed for 3) and/or contribute very little to the game's progression (as Miracles has too much life for the nibbling to be worthwhile).

@EE: I hate this card against miracles as Teeg turns it off, Thalia makes it a pain to hold up more mana, and the opponent can just play around the card (Jace, Clique, Snapcaster) lol.

[Arksz]

http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=79204

Super interesting list!
Was curious if the player/brewer is here on the forums. Would love to hear about your experience.

[lordofthepit]

http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=79204

Super interesting list!
Was curious if the player/brewer is here on the forums. Would love to hear about your experience.

List seems awesome. If you've seen my previous posts, you'd know I'm a fan of the Aether Vials, and Living Wish seems like incredible gas in this deck. I would love to hear a report from this player.

[mikeshimoji]

I would love to hear from the player too! I do wonder if going deep into black with confidant was truly worth it. Wouldn't going creature heavy with knight and qasali be more streamlined, especially with Thalia? Very curious.

[Barook]

Wish for Pontiff seems interesting if you go black.

I do question the lack of 4th Thalia in the board instead of a Thorn, though. No Pridemages, even as wish target, seems weird as well.

[jaydprickett]

Wish for Pontiff seems interesting if you go black.

I do question the lack of 4th Thalia in the board instead of a Thorn, though. No Pridemages, even as wish target, seems weird as well.

A few interesting choices. I almost like Reclamation Sage in the SB. Same cost to blow up a art/ench but you get to keep your 2/2 afterwards. I also think a 1 Bojuka Bog in the SB is necessary. The Top 8 at the SCG tournament was full of graveyard based decks like Lands, Dredge, and Temur Delver.

I do like the Pontiff for Pyromancer, Elves, and True-Name.

[Moroklumpen]

What do you guys think about Punishing Maverick post-ban? And could Monastery Mentor fit in that build?

[Moroklumpen]

I'm going to playtest this list today:

22 creatures:
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Mother of Runes
2 Gaddock Teeg
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Aven Mindcensor
4 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons

15 other spells:
1 Mox Diamond
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Life from the Loam
3 Punishing Fire
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Light and Shadow

23 lands:
4 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath
2 Grove of the Burnwillows
2 Savannah
2 Taiga
1 Dark Depths
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Forest
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Karakas
1 Plains
1 Plateau
1 Thespian's Stage

Sideboard:
1 Cataclysm
2 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Granger Guildmage
2 Kitchen Finks
3 Oblivion Ring
4 Pyrobast
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Thrun, the Last Troll

I suppose some of the choices are rather unorthodox, but that's what playtesting is for. I suspect I'll be back to something more conventional for this weekend's tournament (if I make it), but I wanted to take this brew for a spin.

[Fatal]

Can you answer what is the point of lonely mox diamond in the list? From my point of view running Thalia + Punishing Fire as both MD isn't great, more over you are missing Sylvan Library which is MVP vs Grindy MU.

[Moroklumpen]

The lonely mox is basically a fifth bird, one that doesn't die to bolts and swords. It synergizes fairly well with Knight and Loam.

Fire and Thalia are good in different matchups; I expect to side one or the other out after game 1 in most matchups. If I want Thalia I'm usually very, very happy to have her; in that case, Fire most likely wasn't very good anyways. If I want Fire I'm less likely to want or need Thalia, so I'm less likely to have her in play.

I love Sylvan Library as well, but in this build I'm trying Life from the Loam in its place. I don't think I have room for both, and Loam is very nice with Fire/Grove and Sword of Light and Shadow. Also, always hitting land drops makes Thalia less of an issue if I'm on the recurring Fire plan in the late game.

[Fatal]

You should try Loam + Library, also to Thalia vs PF - I would suggest to keep one of them MD and second in SB depends on what meta you except to having MD less dead cards.

[Warden]

Has anyone had success with Titania? I really want to break this card ever since the GP

[TMagpie]

Has anyone had success with Titania? I really want to break this card ever since the GP

Part of me wonders if Titania is better than Dark Depths at the "make 20 damage worth of tokens in 1-2 turns" because she only takes up 1 card slot as opposed to 2.

To me she seems like a cross between Sigarda and the Dark Depths combo. I'm a huge fan of the DD combo personally (much to my chagrin) but next chance I get to go to an 8 rounder I'll test Titania out and post my thoughts here.

[Warden]

Part of me wonders if Titania is better than Dark Depths at the "make 20 damage worth of tokens in 1-2 turns" because she only takes up 1 card slot as opposed to 2.

To me she seems like a cross between Sigarda and the Dark Depths combo. I'm a huge fan of the DD combo personally (much to my chagrin) but next chance I get to go to an 8 rounder I'll test Titania out and post my thoughts here.

Thanks, much appreciated.
I go back and forth between wanting to revamp my list with Cradle + Titania vs DD/Stage. Stage flying has stolen games against stalled boardstates. However, Titania can single-handedly make an army.

Against decks like Miracles, the land recursion + sudden army is strategy-changing. Fetchlands become tokens. Wasteland-ing your own stuff is suddenly 2 tokens. Against midrange decks, she's very problematic -- as her initial wasteland recursion or fetchland recursion = helps your resource war while giving you a token.

[bakofried]

I've basically been on hiatus since December, but when I got her into play I usually won. She was usually a panic button for situations that any other card couldn't pull me out of - racing TNN, recovering after terminus, going wide against Pyromancer or what have you. I don't know if DD or Sigarda had the capability to do that.

[Fatal]

Titania & DD combo both aren't too excellent vs Miracles, both are wiped by Terminus, DD can be repeatable by Life from the Loam, Titania can be researched by GSZ, but they doesn't win which Gaddock can.

Titania & DD are excellent vs midrange - namely BUG / BG/x midranges decks which will raise after ban. Anyway from my point of view DD can still win faster and dodge removal + Liliana (but can be disrupted by wasteland). Best answer here is probably Sigarda since it can also help vs Anihilator, sure its slower clock, is worst in defense vs lethal dmg on board, but its mostly un-removeable, by those decks.

[DudeItsCorey]

Anytime Sigarda has resolved, I have won the game. DD combo, to me, is way too clunky on an already somewhat punishing mana base. Dryad Arbor in your opening hand is bad, Dark Depths is the worst. I think the DD Combo is more suited for a Lands based deck. Before it was too slow during the Treasure Cruise Era, now Wasteland is definitely going to be a thing again. Titania seems good on paper and in play testing on cockatrice works really well with Knight and can have protection to board wipes with Karakas. That being said, she is soft to removal, doesn't have evasion and doesn't stop Liliana, Eldrazi, etc. There were times that I was playing her and though "man I wish you were Sigarda".

[TMagpie]

Anytime Sigarda has resolved, I have won the game. DD combo, to me, is way too clunky on an already somewhat punishing mana base. Dryad Arbor in your opening hand is bad, Dark Depths is the worst. I think the DD Combo is more suited for a Lands based deck. Before it was too slow during the Treasure Cruise Era, now Wasteland is definitely going to be a thing again. Titania seems good on paper and in play testing on cockatrice works really well with Knight and can have protection to board wipes with Karakas. That being said, she is soft to removal, doesn't have evasion and doesn't stop Liliana, Eldrazi, etc. There were times that I was playing her and though "man I wish you were Sigarda".

I've tested DD and Sigarda in SCG opens with about the same amount of success. For the most part they are interchangeable in that they kind of end up being the big threat that seals the deal after the opponent finally runs out of removal trying to kill Knights/moms/thalias. However, where you ever remember either of the two is from when they save your ass. With this in mind, here is what my experience has been with both of them during the corner case scenarios.

Dark Depths:

DD saves you when you have no right to be saved. I have resolved a Knight while almost dead, topdecked a combo piece in the untap step, and dealt 20 damage the following turn when I should have died to a horde of whatever. I have had supposedly bad match ups end as early as turn four because my turn two Knight followed by a turn three 20/20 attacking on turn four for lethal ended ended the game. DD has the come back appeal and fans of it will always remember the time they resolved a late game Knight and followed it with two activations (due to a Scryb Ranger) leading to a win with only 2-3 hitpoints left when the opponent was in the teens of hitpoints.

If DD was a Marvel super hero, it would be the Hulk. Absolutely backbreaking when active, but has a tendency to turn against you every now and then.

Sigarda, Host of Herons:

To say that Sigarda is the best finisher in fair creature history would be a massive understatement to the power she possesses. Simply imagine a 5/5 True-Name Nemesis that can't be countered by Pyroblast and you start to see just how relevant this monster is. Countless games I have resolved a Sigarda and watched as my opponents groaned helplessly while holding a handful of removal spells. When you want to run a threat that ends the game after a board stall, there is few more dependable than the GW morphling. She is not the sexiest of the options, she doesn't have the cool turn four kill of Dark Depths, nor the beautiful synergy of Fetch/Waste/Knight + Titania--but when you need something to stick and get the job done, something with evasion, durability, and doesn't die to zealous persecution, there is none more dependable, more flexible, and more "jack of all trades" as Sigarda. No trump has sealed the deal/saved me more than Sigarda, no trump card has ever been as reliable as Sigarda.

If Sigarda was a Marvel super hero, she would be Captain America. Not very flashy, doesn't really have much to offer save being ridiculously (and surprisingly) durable. But has a tendency to always get the job done while earning lots of respect from those around her (even the opponent usually).

----------
Titania I have not used in a tournament setting yet, so I will not pretend to know how good she is in the course of an 8-10 round open with 200+ players in it. The only thing I can talk about is from my limited cockratice testing.

What I like about Titania is for weird things like the fact that annihilator triggers will make you end up with 3-4 (sometimes more) 5/3 tokens representing a lethal counterattack. What I like about her is that you can put her trigger on the stack, respond with a fetch/wasteland, get that land back, and then use it again. What I like about her is that Loam/Light and Shadow/Titania feels like a fair dredge deck. What I like about Titania is that she can be almost as fast a clock as Dark Depths while still taking up only one card slot. She's also very good at making 2-4 random tokens vs spot removal heavy decks so that she's almost as good as hexproof (if they kill her immediately) and completely negates removal completely if they don't kill her immediately.

What I don't like about her is that you can just bolt her after her trigger to prevent you from getting a cheap activation of her ability. What I don't like about her is that True-Name still trumps her due to lack of evasion. What I don't like about her is that you actually do run out of tokens, that sometimes she really is just a 5 mana 5/3 that brings back a maze of ith to save you from dying.

I haven't brought her to non-cockratice setting. But if I were to compare her to a Marvel super hero, she's so far felt like Wolverine. Kind of the best answer for everything, but often times you feel like you're designing your whole game plan on her instead of just letting the overall strategy play its part.

[Realz]

http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=79204

Super interesting list!
Was curious if the player/brewer is here on the forums. Would love to hear about your experience.


This list is fantastic. The living wishes open many doors! Going to give this a brew this week.

The containment priest maindeck seems weird ?

[Barook]

The list is interesting, but there are several things about that list that are quite weird, aside from the complete lack of Pridemage or Thorns in the board instead of a Thalia, as I already mentioned.

I agree that the single Containment Priest in the MD seems completely random. I'm also suprised that there's no SoFaI in the MD, given that all your threats are only tiny wimps and the Sword is clearly better vs control and combo than Jitte.

Why Duress in the board? How is that better than Thoughtseize? Why not Tidehollow Sculler as Wish target?

If I would build a list, the first draw would probably look like this:


1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Swamp
2 Bayou
1 Horizon Canopy
2 Marsh Flats
2 Savannah
2 Scrubland
2 Verdant Catacombs
4 Wasteland
3 Windswept Heath
1 Karakas

3 Dark Confidant
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Mother of Runes
2 Scavenging Ooze
3 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Gaddock Teeg
2 Spirit of the Labyrinth/Qasali Pridemage
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben

4 Aether Vial
1 Batterskull
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
4 Living Wish

SB:
1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Containment Priest
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Zealous Persecution
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Tidehollow Sculler
3 Thoughtseize
1 Karakas

Edit: The SB could probably use a Phyrexian Revoker, too.

[Fl0do]

Thomas Herzog finished in the Top 32 of the recen SCGOpen and another Player with a similar list placed 9th. I'm hoping for some reports :smile:

It seems to be that Abzan Maverick is the Splash for the Moment or is Punishing Fire too bad atm?

[1mpulse]

Thomas Herzog finished in the Top 32 of the recen SCGOpen and another Player with a similar list placed 9th. I'm hoping for some reports :smile:

Started a report, but then I only got 3 rounds in before I realized writing a report for 15 rounds was going to take way too long.

As a consolation, I give you the results of each round:

Day 1:
Rd1: BUG Delver 2-0
Rd2: Mono-Green Post 2-1
Rd3: Reanimator 2-0
Rd4: Elves 2-0
Rd5: Elves (Hoey) 0-2
Rd6: Mono Black Pox 2-1
Rd7: Elves 2-1
Rd8: BUG Delver 2-0
Rd9: Elves 2-0

Day 2:
Rd10: OmniTell 1-2
Rd11: UWR Blade 2-0
Rd12: Shardless BUG (Briksza) 0-2
Rd13: Storm (Wienburg) 0-2 - Lucky as hell on two accounts
Rd14: Shardless BUG 1-1-1
Rd15: Death and Taxes 2-0

[Fl0do]

Thx for the info! would you mind to give more insight in those matches vs. Shardless BUG? Was it just bad luck or is the matchup bad anyways? In my experience it happens to be quite a grindfest.

[Arksz]

Also curious how you won so many matches against elves. Did they just have slow draws?

[1mpulse]

In regards the the Shardless matches, I knew that I was facing Shardless before I sat down for the match, but lost both die rolls. In my game 1 against Rudy, he castcaded into a turn 2 Visions and then had removal after that for every creature I played. Game 2, I mulled to 6 against his 7 and faired better. At one poin I had a 14/14 Knight coming in, but he chumped with an Agent and drew a Nihl Spellbomb right after that, undoing everything I had worked for at that point and then DTT'ed on the same turn. Rudy's list was geared to be better against creature decks, packing mainboard Toxic Deluge, Lilianas and DTT.

The second match against Shardless was a grindfest where I was able beat the initial Goyfs, discard and have him empty out his hand. It came down to him having 3 Deathrites and 2 Strix left. I am able to Waste one of his 3 black sources and play and equip a Jitte on a Thalia. I have to use my counters to gain life as I'm at 5. He attacks for 2 and drains me for 4 more. I Library, but can't find a Plow and have to take a Courser and play a land I leave on top. Since I'm at 6, I die to exact damage after taking control. Game 2 I am on the play, and am able to go with the standard mana denial plan to keep him off the board. Game 3 is another grind where we just don't get to finish, although he had just cascaded into Visions, so he looked better off than I was when the game drew.

In regards to going 3-1 against Elves, I just have a very strong boarding plan against them. In fact, the only reason why I lost my second game to Hoey is because he raw drew his one 'Hoof off the top (had a Teeg in play with double Mom).

[DaDitka]

1mpulse, thanks for posting about your experience at Indy.

I read your post after GP NJ (I think?) and enjoyed your analysis of what cards you were currently playing aND how you thought Maverick should be built.

With that in mind, I was wondering if you could comment on whether you would make any changes to the deck you ran at Indy.

Specifically, how did Courser of Kruphix treat you during the event? Was three Thoughtseizes the correct amount or did you find yourself wanting a fourth to board in? How about main deck Abrupt Decay? Do you think that it would have been good to run some main deck like some other lists did? How was Banishing Light? What do you think of living wish in Maverick?

Also, I have been struggling with a Maverick list similar to yours against Shardless Sultan and Miracles. Do you have any thoughts on these match ups or how to side for them? Could Bitterblossom in the board be a good choice?

What do you think of Spirit of the Labyrinth in main deck Maverick these days? Do you think Maverick is relatively well positioned post-TC ban?

I know these are a lot of questions, but I respect your opinion on Maverick very much aND I would love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks for the updates and fighting the good fight with a deck we all love!

Cheers.

[1mpulse]

1mpulse, thanks for posting about your experience at Indy.

I read your post after GP NJ (I think?) and enjoyed your analysis of what cards you were currently playing aND how you thought Maverick should be built.

With that in mind, I was wondering if you could comment on whether you would make any changes to the deck you ran at Indy.

Specifically, how did Courser of Kruphix treat you during the event? Was three Thoughtseizes the correct amount or did you find yourself wanting a fourth to board in? How about main deck Abrupt Decay? Do you think that it would have been good to run some main deck like some other lists did? How was Banishing Light? What do you think of living wish in Maverick?

Also, I have been struggling with a Maverick list similar to yours against Shardless Sultan and Miracles. Do you have any thoughts on these match ups or how to side for them? Could Bitterblossom in the board be a good choice?

What do you think of Spirit of the Labyrinth in main deck Maverick these days? Do you think Maverick is relatively well positioned post-TC ban?

I know these are a lot of questions, but I respect your opinion on Maverick very much aND I would love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks for the updates and fighting the good fight with a deck we all love!

Cheers.

I actually don't remember if I wrote a tournament for GPNJ not. I feel like I probably did.

There wasn't anything I would change about my list. I've been playing the deck for a very, very long time, so I am always confidant my list is where it needs to be. Before the event I strongly considered going back to 3 Pridemages, over the Courser or a Decay in the board. Didn't regret it though. I stated testing Courser the week Treasure Cruise came out to have my own form of card advantage, it was fantastic in the UR meta, and I still consider it a reasonable choice now since it is a card that helps you grind.

I play 4 Thoughtseizes in the board, so, yes I think 4 Thoughtseize is correct. Lets you hit combo decks on a different angle. I don't play mainboard Abrupt Decay because it is either a pretty good card, or a pretty bad one, depending on what you are playing against. I don't think Decay is better in the main than a Plow because Plow allows you some great tempo plays. I 2 it in the board as a catch all against against mostly midrange decks, or deck it makes sense to bring it in (i.e. Delver, Blade, DnT and Tribal decks, not Miracles).

Banishing Light is always solid. It's another catch all and is important to me against Show and Tell and Miracles and is really good against the random decks you can face in Legacy like Metalworker, Enchantress, Ensnaring Bridges, ect. I think if you are talking about Living Wish, you are talking about a different deck. Spirit of the Labyrinth has always seemed poor to me. He's fragile, so he only makes cards like Pryoclasm, Massacre, Electricky, GB Charm and Marsh Causalities a bigger problem for you than they need to be. While there are a lot of decks out there that love to cantrip, Spirit does noting if they already had what they needed and were going to combo you anyways (See: Show and Tell and Storm). Thalia and Teeg are better cards that do more in more matchups.

I don't particularly feel like Maverick is favorably positioned, but I don't feel it's bad right now either. The Cruise meta was stronger place for the deck as it had a great UR matchup, since so few of their cards actually did anything and once they missed a beat they were out of the game against a deck like Maverick. Right now I'd say it's just a 40/60-50/50-60-40 deck against everything out there, but as always, playing tight and knowing what you are doing will always give you a chance against everything.

I honestly didn't do a lot of testing against Shardless before the event, pretty much because I had played against it in the past for a while now, and not too much really changed (or so I thought, now some builds play DTT and Golden Fang. Not sure or not if this changes anything). Before, I counted Shardless as a pretty good matchup for Maverick, because our deck kept a pretty good job of keeping up with Shardless's quantity cards with our quality cards. Plan A was always to control their mana in the early game (Plow Deathrite, Waste/Thalia, Knight for Wasteland over and over), but I was only able to get myself into a position to do this in one game in the 5 I ended up playing against the deck (I was only able to be on the play once in 5 games). Between Tom and I, we went 0-2-1 against the deck at Indy, which as I mentioned before, doesn't reflect what my past findings in regards to the matchup.

Miracles I've never had too much of a hard time with either. For me, the matchup resolves around getting Teeg, Library and/or Swords of LS/FI. Since they can't clock you, Library is really good to keep all your draws good, and the Swords make every creature you play a must answer. I also play 2 more Teegs in the board for Miracles (and Elves), so I can be more aggressive with them. Pretty much, you just always need to keep a clock on them, that way they can't get the breathing room they need to find and cast a big Entreat.

[ironclad8690]

I liked Antrim's sleekness of list and Sideboard so I turned it into a Punishing Fire version (my meta is way more delver & midrange with far less combo):

4 Deathrite Shaman
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Noble Hierarch
4 Mother of Runes
2 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze
4 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Courser of Kruphix

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

2 Bayou
3 Savannah
4 Windswept Heath
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Forest
3 Wasteland
1 Karakas
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
2 Taiga

SB: 2 Thoughtseize
SB: 2 Surgical Extraction
SB: 2 Pyroblast
SB: 1 Choke
SB: 2 Oblivion Ring
SB: 2 Zealous Persecution
SB: 2 Gaddock Teeg
SB: 2 Containment Priest

[Deckerator]

I wanna sleeve up my maverick deck again after some years of dormancy. My meta is full of different decks (BUG Delver, Elves, D&T, RUB Delver, MUD, Reanimator, Miracles (1x), Merfolk, Stiflenought)
Do you think it is a good option in a meta like this one i have listed?

[DaDitka]

Thanks for the responses 1mpulse!

I know this is not an original idea, but I was wondering if Dark Confidant has a place in G/W/b Maverick in the current environment.

Using 1mpulse's list as a base, I added 3 Dark Confidants. To add 3 Dark Confidants I took out one Sylvan Library, the Courser of Kruphix, and one Qasali Pridemage (I moved him to the board). It may be the case that going deeper into black makes the main deck too inconsistent, and the things I removed to make room for Dark Confidant are mostly card advantage engines themselves anyway, but it seems that Dark Confidant may have a much larger impact on the game when he hits the board. Given that we have such a low average CMC and multiple ways to gain life main deck (Jitte, SoLaS, Deathrite, Scavenging Ooze), it seems like the life cost wouldn't be too bad. He also adds another must remove creature to a deck already full of them (Mom, Thalia, Knight, and sometimes Deathrite), which means any deck relying on spot removal has that many more targets it needs to spread its removal out on. Of course, this is also a downside when facing decks with board sweep, and Bob does die to absolutely everything.

I imagine the pros don't end up outweighing the cons and that adding Dark Confidant ends up making the deck less consistent unless he lands and sticks, but when he does even for just a turn or two, he puts us so far ahead.

Anyway, this is what I came up with:

Creatures: 25
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Mother of Runes
1 Noble Hierarch
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Dark Confidant
2 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Gaddock Teeg
4 Knight of the Reliquary

Non-creature Spells: 12
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Sylvan Library
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of Light and Shadow

Lands: 23
4 Windswept Heath
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Savannah
2 Bayou
1 Scrubland
1 Plains
1 Forest
4 Wasteland
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Karakas
1 Dryad Arbor

Sideboard:
4 Thoughtseize
2 Containment Priest
2 Gaddock Teeg
1 Qasali Pridemage
2 Banishing Light
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Zealous Persecution

I would love to hear any and all thoughts on Bob in Maverick.

[tescrin]

IMO, the issue with Bob in maverick is that you already have Mom, Thalia, Arbor/Hierarch. The blowouts of Forked Bolt, Deluge, or ZP/Charm start becoming more of an issue than they are already. I believe D&T typically stops at about 11 X/1s and they're notoriously weak to sweepers. Personally I don't like running even 8 x/1s, but there's only so much you can do. This makes you have to question Mom/Thalia, which inevitably leads to playing junk.

That's just IMO, but I think that's where the tipping point starts. Cutting Mom or Thalia make discard more necessary/attractive, which makes Bob more attractive, which makes Decay better (you're deeper into black now, so you can use it more reliably) which makes hierarch worse.. etc..

There is nothing wrong with KotR Junk (i happily ran that for ~6-8 months) but it certainly stops looking like maverick very quickly due to how the packages work together. That's not to say you can't run Dark Maverick, it's just that you'll likely start moving away from Maverick's core as you optimize the list.

[Warden]

Couldn't play this weekend....could not drive more than 2 blocks before turning back. Weather is a thing in the Northeast :(

@Dark Confidant:
I've run him throughout last year in varying degrees of dark maverick. Sometimes he punishes the opponent by giving you significant CA. Other times he does as you fear: dies to removal quickly before activating.

My biggest qualm was the manabase "working" with a noticeable increase of required black mana. You must somehow pay for Bx, Gx, Wx, GWx and possibly BG (decay) in a deck that wins through mana denial/disruption. I DID have successes but also some head-scratching situations. With deck construction, I wanted a lot of fetches to mitigate potential color-screw situations but had to make many compromises. More fetches means less duals/basics/utility some of us have grown to love. Confidant also ruins your green creature total. This is why I can support the vial idea by the recent SCG list. I don't totally agree with that 75, but running Zenith would have been sub-par. In exchange of Zenith, Vial "works" with more white guys + confidant.

Then came in-game situations: Knight needed a lot more duals to fool around with in the mid- to late-game. I learned to be cognizant of what lands I had on the board at all times. You don't want to suddenly "sacrifice" a black dual only to see the next one get wasteland-ed by your opponent...etc.

I value 3 confidants = 2 sylvan library. I liked 3 confidant + 1 library the best (just due to spacing / flex slots of the list I was running at the time). Confidant almost requires you run 3-4 DRS and 2-3 duals. I would suggest 3 (2 bayou, 1 scrub as my sweet spot). He's awful in a room full of removal, combo (does nothing), and burn (UR delver, the now-defunct TC delver especially). If you want to dream big: work out a list that's human heavy so you can somehow abuse Cavern. The SCG list with Vial is also a good route to go.

[TMagpie]

Couldn't play this weekend....could not drive more than 2 blocks before turning back. Weather is a thing in the Northeast :(

@Dark Confidant:
I've run him throughout last year in varying degrees of dark maverick. Sometimes he punishes the opponent by giving you significant CA. Other times he does as you fear: dies to removal quickly before activating.

My biggest qualm was the manabase "working" with a noticeable increase of required black mana. You must somehow pay for Bx, Gx, Wx, GWx and possibly BG (decay) in a deck that wins through mana denial/disruption. I DID have successes but also some head-scratching situations. With deck construction, I wanted a lot of fetches to mitigate potential color-screw situations but had to make many compromises. More fetches means less duals/basics/utility some of us have grown to love. Confidant also ruins your green creature total. This is why I can support the vial idea by the recent SCG list. I don't totally agree with that 75, but running Zenith would have been sub-par. In exchange of Zenith, Vial "works" with more white guys + confidant.

Then came in-game situations: Knight needed a lot more duals to fool around with in the mid- to late-game. I learned to be cognizant of what lands I had on the board at all times. You don't want to suddenly "sacrifice" a black dual only to see the next one get wasteland-ed by your opponent...etc.

I value 3 confidants = 2 sylvan library. I liked 3 confidant + 1 library the best (just due to spacing / flex slots of the list I was running at the time). Confidant almost requires you run 3-4 DRS and 2-3 duals. I would suggest 3 (2 bayou, 1 scrub as my sweet spot). He's awful in a room full of removal, combo (does nothing), and burn (UR delver, the now-defunct TC delver especially). If you want to dream big: work out a list that's human heavy so you can somehow abuse Cavern. The SCG list with Vial is also a good route to go.

Your summary of Confidant/Vial made me realize that Living Wish + Vial is a sick card combination....

[Warden]

Your summary of Confidant/Vial made me realize that Living Wish + Vial is a sick card combination....

It does look nice on paper. In practice, you're very slow/vulnerable.

[Luthiereisfun]

Hi guys. I'm getting back into magic and never had a real legacy deck before (always borrowed decks, half built them without staples or played bad jank home brews) but now that I am playing again I'm buying into maverick and I am pretty excited! I've done some testing on cockatrice (tweaking my list) and wanted to ask you guys a question.

What do you think of Sword of Light and Shadow against BUG decks?

From my experience it seems to be pretty good in that most of the times they try to use discard, counters or spot removal through destroying our creatures so I feel like in this matchup we will have something in our yard (usually) that we can get value out of the sword with.

It also turns off a lot of the spot removal and I think makes our creatures that much more resilient against them. That said they do have lillis and I've seen some play toxic deluge, depending on the build, not to say they won't have answers to a creature equipped with the sword. But I think it helps and the life gain can be relevant in grindy matchups especially if they're trying to bring the beat down with TNN.

So obviously it's not a trump card against them and the sword really shines against decks like DnT but I think it's something worth having against them.

So what do you guys think?

[sdematt]

Thats really a side benefit. It is best used against Miracles to lock them out with Gaddock Teeg. However, it has good play against Bug. Feast and Famine is better if youre looking to break the Shardless matchup.

[plowshares]

Hey guys, I'm going to be playing in a small SCG IQ this weekend, and I have been planning on playing either this deck or Elves. Right now I'm leaning toward Maverick because there has been a huge uptick in storm locally. My list is somewhat metagamed for my area (literally all blue combo, delver decks, and two miracles players). What do you guys think about this list?

4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Mother of Runes
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Spirit of the Labyrinth
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Tarmogoyf
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Dryad Arbor

4 Green Sun's Zenith
3 Abrupt Decay
3 Swords to Plowshares
1 Batterskull
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sylvan Library

4 Windswept Heath
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Wasteland
2 Cavern of Souls
2 Savannah
1 Scrubland
1 Bayou
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Karakas

Sideboard
3 Thoughtseize
2 Choke
2 Zealous Persecution
2 Containment Priest
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Pithing Needle
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Scavenging Ooze

[T-101]

I like the list. Spirit of the Lab is obviously one of your tuned meta inclusions, but it should serve you well (people like drawing those cards).

I like running a 3rd Teeg and a 2nd Qasali in the board, but those are flexible slots.

Let us know how the IQ goes.

[DudeItsCorey]

Anyone having an annoyance with Tasigur? I have. I'm going to try and put in a 1 of maelstrom pulse (go down to 2 abrupt decay) to deal. It overlaps nicely with removal of permanents over cmc 3 which is nice (Jace, Sneak Attack, Humility, etc.)

[sdematt]

Do you find you're running out of Swords? Make it easy on yourself and run Paths in the board. Don't derdle around with higher mana, slower, and off colour.

-Matt

[TMagpie]

Anyone having an annoyance with Tasigur? I have. I'm going to try and put in a 1 of maelstrom pulse (go down to 2 abrupt decay) to deal. It overlaps nicely with removal of permanents over cmc 3 which is nice (Jace, Sneak Attack, Humility, etc.)

Is Tasigur's ability really that broken? Because I'm assuming a vanilla 4/5 should be easy enough to outclass.

[Warden]

To be clear, we're referring to Tasigur, the Golden Fang? What does he do (and in what deck) that you can't handle? You already have access to swords/path/decay/O-ring stuff.

[DudeItsCorey]

To be clear, we're referring to Tasigur, the Golden Fang? What does he do (and in what deck) that you can't handle? You already have access to swords/path/decay/O-ring stuff.

Yes Tasigur, the Golden Fang. He is basically and un-abrupt Decay-able goyf that can net card advantage. My really only answer is Knight or Swords mainboard. however, he usually drops down after we're both in top deck mode. I just figure having a way to deal with him that can also clear away charbeltcher tokens, destroy a jace and sneak attack could be good for our deck. I find colorless/green/black more reasonable than double white (for Council's Judgement). My local Meta is Crazy for Bug right now. I have even gone up to 2 Scooze mainboard as a result.

[Cambriel]

Yes Tasigur, the Golden Fang. He is basically and un-abrupt Decay-able goyf that can net card advantage. My really only answer is Knight or Swords mainboard. however, he usually drops down after we're both in top deck mode. I just figure having a way to deal with him that can also clear away charbeltcher tokens, destroy a jace and sneak attack could be good for our deck. I find colorless/green/black more reasonable than double white (for Council's Judgement). My local Meta is Crazy for Bug right now. I have even gone up to 2 Scooze mainboard as a result.

Nothing against Maelstrom Pulse, but by the time Jace or Sneak Attack hit the table the damage is already done. Thalia/Wasteland hopefully keeps them from ever casting them at all. If you really insist on a 3cmc removal, I'd almost think Vindicate would be better. At least it's never dead and can support the denial plan.

[Warden]

Yes Tasigur, the Golden Fang. He is basically and un-abrupt Decay-able goyf that can net card advantage. My really only answer is Knight or Swords mainboard. however, he usually drops down after we're both in top deck mode. I just figure having a way to deal with him that can also clear away charbeltcher tokens, destroy a jace and sneak attack could be good for our deck. I find colorless/green/black more reasonable than double white (for Council's Judgement). My local Meta is Crazy for Bug right now. I have even gone up to 2 Scooze mainboard as a result.

It's a lot easier to be armchair with this response + I haven't kept up with lists running him so I apologize. If BUG is running him as a "un-abrupt Decay-able goyf", you have options. First, Rest in Peace has always hit BUG hard in my experiences. Landing RIP disables the delve (ie; nothing to remove) and the ability of Tasgir while also nerfing DRS and Goyf. If they decay RIP that means there's one more guy in your army. Second, you can always go with Mom allowing infinite-blocking or Thalia + Karkas for the same thing. Tasgir is just a ground-n-pound dude. Third, you can utilize O-Ring or Banishing Light. This is the most widely-applicable option...as it's good against permanents you described (Jace/Sneak/Sneak Targets/etc). I agree that 3cc spells aren't the best solution, but it would be silly not to mention this as a wide "catch-all" option.

If your meta is crazy for BUG, run a ton of anti-BUG cards. 2-3x Mirran Crusaders can go the distance. Likewise, you may want to run Sword of Feast and Famine....turning DRS and Nobles into legitimate threats. If you're concerned about discard, you have choices in Lox, Baloth, or WLL (I love WLL in general). Personally, I'd opt for NO in the sideboard. I ruined people at the GP qualifiers because NO is so fast. Given BUG's limited countermagic, you can answer Tasgir with something even bigger like Progenitus (race), Ruric (cantrips and removal = 6 dmg), or Sigarda (eats delver, disables Liliana's sac). I haven't been an advocate for Choke but some top players are clearly having success with that in the SB too.

[evilGod]

If you have Thalia and Karakas, just bounce Tasigur and attack with Thalia. He's legendary too.

[Cambriel]

If you have Thalia and Karakas, just bounce Tasigur and attack with Thalia. He's legendary too.

Karakas does seem like the obvious anti-Tasigur tech since you're already running it anyway (or at least, you really should be).

[Barook]

Why can't GWb build utilize Tasigur themselves? :eyebrow:

Not being GSZable seems like the only downside, aside from cannibalizing lands from your GY.

[Benke]

I don't see why Tasigur should be problematic. Most of the time he's just a Goyf, and that's a creature we can handle quite easily.

I'm thinking of uping to 2 Ooze maindeck. He's insanely good in almost all matchups, especially against RUG/BUG delver. It is a clear correlation between sticking an Ooze and starting to eat graveyards and a won game, atleast for me :)

I am so ambivalent when it comes to Decays. I really hate the taxing Talia causes and the awkward mana it requires. Still, it's such a good card but maybe it should be located in the SB?

[Cambriel]

I've played configurations with Decay main and Thalia in the side (heresy right?). Either way, you can pick which one you would rather have for almost every matchup.

Decay is very powerful and I think it has a place in the 75. You may have to change your manabase a little though, I know some people just play 1 Bayou 1 Scrubland for the typical splash cards but I would add the 2nd Bayou if playing Decay as well.

If it's in the main 60 I'd definitely want the 3rd black source, but out of the sideboard 2 is generally fine. It's also depending on whether you're running 4/1 or 3/2 DRS/Hierarchs.

As for the Tasigur discussion... what would he add? Every other 1-of in the deck is searchable. You can't GSZ him, and without an active Cradle 4 mana is a lot for one card. I'd much rather just tutor up a Sigarda or something that will actually close the game out.

[DaDitka]

Speaking of Sigarda, are people running her right now or is the six mana (including GSM cost) just too much in an environment with a good amount of Wastelands?

If they are running her, what are they cutting from Antrim/Herzog'Herzog ' s list for her?

[Klobster]

Speaking of Sigarda, are people running her right now or is the six mana (including GSM cost) just too much in an environment with a good amount of Wastelands?

If they are running her, what are they cutting from Antrim/Herzog'Herzog ' s list for her?

This is the Sigarda list i have been running for a long time. The 4th deathrite for noble is interchangeable. And i built it to fight all the delver/stifle decks and combo. Casting Sigarda has almost never been a problem, however it is still bad in your opening hand just like too many Knights.

10th in Milwaukee
http://tcdecks.net/deck.php?id=12975&iddeck=95206

Creatures [24]
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Scryb Ranger
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
2 Noble Hierarch
2 Qasali Pridemage
2 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Deathrite Shaman
3 Knight of the Reliquary
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Mother of Runes

Instants [5]
1 Abrupt Decay
4 Swords to Plowshares

Sorceries [4]
4 Green Sun's Zenith

Enchantments [2]
1 Spirit of the Labyrinth
1 Sylvan Library



Planeswalkers [1]
1 Garruk Relentless

Artifacts [2]
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Umezawa's Jitte

Lands [22]
1 Forest
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Karakas
1 Maze of Ith
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Plains
1 Scrubland
2 Bayou
2 Savannah
2 Verdant Catacombs
4 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath

Sideboard
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Chains of Mephistopheles
1 Engineered Plague
1 Humility
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Enlightened Tutor
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Life from the Loam
3 Thoughtseize

[Koby]

@klobster:
I recently cut Scryb Ranger, but I"m curious if they are still useful when you ran them in your deck

[TMagpie]

Currently working on my GW list. This is what I have so far. I've split the cards up into their roles instead of their card types so that I can keep track of what my deck can do instead of what cards I *feel* my deck should have.

Vanilla Maverick

Threats: 10
4 Qasali Pridemage
4 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Batterskull
1 Dark Depths

Disruption: 8
4 Wasteland
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Gaddock Teeg

Control: 10
4 Mother of Runes
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Maze of Ith

Utility: 6
4 Noble Hierarch
1 Scryb Ranger
1 Courser of Kruphix

Draw Modifiers: 8
4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Green Sun's Zenith

Mana: 18
4 Windswept Heath
4 Savannah
4 Forest
2 Plains
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Karakas
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Thespian Stage

Sideboard: 15
4 Orim's Chant
2 Sylvan Library
2 Council's Judgement
1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Bojuka Bog

The three main questions I have are about Thalia, Scryb Ranger, and Courser of Kruphix. More specifically, I want to run 4 Thalia maindeck but to go to 4 Thalia I'd need to cut either Teeg, Scryb, or Courser.

Scryb Ranger + 8 exalted creatures allows me to stall the game while still dealing good damage. However, I'm not sure if Scryb Ranger is still a card worth running. A lot of people have cut him--so I wanted to know if he's worth running or not.

Courser of Kruphix provides card advantage, combos well with Sylvan, and its 4 toughness works FANTASTIC with Scryb Rangers. However, he's not stock for a reason so I don't want to be running him because he's cute despite not being strong.

Maindeck Teeg means I'm trying to not lose to combo game 1--but is that ever worth trying to do? Wouldn't 4 Thalia be better?

These are my main questions.

[Klobster]

@klobster:
I recently cut Scryb Ranger, but I"m curious if they are still useful when you ran them in your deck

With flash, mother of runes, and knight there are just too many good combat tricks to not run one of these. I've flashed it in quite a few times to "counter" a waste land. Holds equipment well when opponent has a true name. Dryad "fog".

Only time I've cut it is when UR cruise delver was dominating and forked bolts were everywhere.

[Seraphix]

...

The three main questions I have are about Thalia, Scryb Ranger, and Courser of Kruphix. More specifically, I want to run 4 Thalia maindeck but to go to 4 Thalia I'd need to cut either Teeg, Scryb, or Courser.

Scryb Ranger + 8 exalted creatures allows me to stall the game while still dealing good damage. However, I'm not sure if Scryb Ranger is still a card worth running. A lot of people have cut him--so I wanted to know if he's worth running or not.

Courser of Kruphix provides card advantage, combos well with Sylvan, and its 4 toughness works FANTASTIC with Scryb Rangers. However, he's not stock for a reason so I don't want to be running him because he's cute despite not being strong.

Maindeck Teeg means I'm trying to not lose to combo game 1--but is that ever worth trying to do? Wouldn't 4 Thalia be better?

These are my main questions.

On Scryb Ranger, she's awesome, but seeing 14 1 toughness creatures in the deck makes me dizzy and memories of Golgari Charm/ZP blowouts start flashing before my eyes. If you want to do this I would consider finding room for Wilt-Leaf Liege in the sideboard.

G. Teeg is your man not just against combo but against Miracles game 1 as well. You just have to evaluate how badly you want to beat these decks in game 1 and how much of a difference you think having the 1 Teeg will make. Personally I think it could matter against Storm, Miracles, and Sneak & Show. I don't think it matters against Elves because they have too much other stuff going on that we can't beat pre-board.

Have you considered cutting a Stoneforge Mystic for the 4th Thalia in the maindeck?

[Warden]

@TMagpie:
If I were to go vanilla, I'd run 3 equipment for sure. I don't like Courser of Kruphix too much. You also run a list without Scooze, who is usually a game-changer (especially if BUG and Goyf decks are on the rise). This is my list, which is quite boring. The main difference is that I feel I have a more balanced approach to the meta. 4 QPM and 4 SFM are excessive. I would rather have room for Scooze and Library.

ONE
4 Noble
4 Mom
4 STP
/12

TWO
4 Thalia
3 SFM (agree with @Seraphix about how to get 4x Thalia)
2 QPM (4 is too much, even for pure GW. You need something to beat face)
2 Sylvan Library
1 Teeg
1 Scooze
1 Jitte
/14

THREE+
4 KotR
4 GSZ
1 Sword of F&I
1 Sword of F&F or L&S
/10

+1 Flex [QPM #3, Sigarda, Titania, Courser, Scryb Ranger, Thrun, maindeck WLL, etc]

LANDS
8 Fetch
7 "Makes Mana" [Combination of duals and basics]
4 Wasteland
2 "Utility Package" [choice of DD/Stage or Cradle/anything]
1 Karakas
1 Dryad Arbor
/23

*The only alternative I'd consider would be to cut a SFM + an equipment in favor of 3 flex slots, which could open avenues like multiple Aven Mindcensor to deny, a crop rotation + Loam package to push DD/Stage, or a "midgame big guy" package that includes Cradle + Sigarda/Titania/Thrun. I like the 60 I listed if I, for some reason, were to venture away from the black splash.

[LOLWut]

Maverick
Chris Arebalo
15th Place at StarCityGames.com Premier IQ on 2/22/2015

// Creatures
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Bloodbraid Elf
3 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Mother of Runes
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze
3 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Dryad Arbor

// Planeswalkers
2 Domri Rade

// Lands
1 Forest
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Maze of Ith
4 Savannah
2 Taiga
3 Wasteland
3 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
1 Karakas

// Sorceries
4 Green Sun's Zenith

// Instants
4 Punishing Fire
4 Swords to Plowshares

// Artifacts
1 Batterskull
1 Umezawa's Jitte

// Enchantments
1 Sylvan Library

// Sideboard
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Scavenging Ooze
2 Choke
2 Path to Exile
2 Red Elemental Blast
1 Gaddock Teeg
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Council's Judgment
1 Bojuka Bog

:eek:

[DaDitka]

Does Anafenze, the Foremost (http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=386476) have a place in Maverick with the small black splash?

Could be an interesting one of Green Sun's target as in this (http://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=9127&d=252118&f=LE). Seems like it would be great against Dredge, Reanimator, etc.

Maybe too slow/hard to cast. Seems fun though.

[T-101]

Does Anafenze, the Foremost (http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=386476) have a place in Maverick with the small black splash?

Could be an interesting one of Green Sun's target as in this (http://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=9127&d=252118&f=LE). Seems like it would be great against Dredge, Reanimator, etc.

Maybe too slow/hard to cast. Seems fun though.

I'm all about sweet tech and cool creatures, but I'm not sold on Anafenza yet.

A 4/4 for 3 with a minor buff when she attacks is not bad, and she doesn't fold to opposing yard hate which is nice. If she actually makes it to the battlefield, the "exiling creatures" effect can be very strong, albeit narrow.

There are downsides, however. Costing 3 is on the high end, and GWB is an awkward 3 for Maverick if you happen to draw it. Also noteworthy is that her yard hate effect doesn't work retroactively. Other Green Sunable targets that hate on the yard can solve a problem that arrived before they got there. Scavenging Ooze can eat important Dredge cards, or Reanimation targets that were already in the yard. Knight for Bojuka Bog similarly nukes a yard full of things that showed up a turn or 2 ago. Anafenza will only stare helplessly at the opposing yard. She might put the brakes on Dredge for a bit, but costing 3, or 4 with a Green Sun's, it feels like she will frequently be too late.

I might end up trying her, but I really don't have high hopes for her. I think Scavenging Ooze, and even Knight can fill the yard hater job better.

[Benke]

Hi guys,

Played this in the weekly legacy tournament (26 participants). Went 3-1 for the third week in a row.
I have recently placed my Abrupd Decays in the sideboard, which I am happy with. I like being able to board it in if a matchup really requiers it.
There are some cards that I am unsure about though:

1) Batterskull: Very seldom the SFM target of choice. I've tried with SoLaS but wasn't impressed with that neither. Maybe go down to 2 SFM and Jitte / SoFaI?
2) 5 Mana guys (BoP): Eventhough I love the bird, I am not sure it's worth it. It is great if the opponent has Deathrites of his own, and being a flyer isnt irrelivant.
3) Gaea's Cradle: I love ooze and Cradle makes this guy bananas. I think I'll switch the 2nd basic forest for a cradle. Makes the manabase a bit akward though.


CREATURES (25)
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Birds of Paradise
4 Deathrite Shaman
3 Mother of Runes
1 Sylvan Safekeeper
2 Qasali Pridemage
1 Gaddock Teeg
2 Scavenging Ooze
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Knight of the Reliquary
3 Stoneforge Mystic

ENCHANTMENTS (2)
1 Sylvan Library

SORCERIES (4)
4 Green Sun’s Zenith

INSTANTS (4)
4 Swords to Plowshares

ARTIFACTS (3)
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Batterskull
1 Umezawa’s Jitte

LANDS (22)
2 Forest
1 Plains
2 Savannah
2 Bayou
1 Scrubland
4 Windswept Heath
2 Verdant Catacombs
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Marsh Flats
1 Karakas
1 Maze of Ith
4 Wasteland

SIDEBOARD (15)
1 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Choke
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Sylvan Library
1 Toxic Deluge
2 Zealous Persecution
3 Thoughtseize
2 Pithing Needle


Mini-report:

Matchups

R1: BUG delver (2-0)

Intens games. He played a version without Liliana/Hymn and instead more counters/stifles (which I am very happy with).
Ooze really delivered by shrinking goyfs/denying Deathrite activations. Saved all Stps for his delvers and prayed that he wouldn't land a TNN.
In game 1 Birds of Paradise delivered a leathal blow by 2x exalted triggers from pridemages, which was awesome. He would've killed me on the following turn.


In: +2 Choke, +1 Toxic Deluge, +1 Zealous Persecution
Out: -2 Quasali Pridemage, -1 Maze of Ith, -1 Gaddok Teeg,

R2: Rw Goblins (2-0)

Game one he bricks on mountains and sits with 2 Tar Fires in his hand. I get Jitte going in both games and he just can't beat that.

In: +2 Abrupt Decay, +2 Zealous Persecution, +1 Toxic Deluge, +1 Pithing Needle
Out: -1 Gaddok Teeg, -4 Thalia, 1 Green Sun

R3: Miracles (0-2)

Talented player (which makes this MU very difficult).
Game one he lands a turn 1 Top and just shuffles/replaces his top cards. I land a Mother of Runes and a Talia and beats down for 2 per turn.
I can't find a GSZ for Teeg and don't really dare to drop more creatures to the board, since he most likely has terminus somehwere on the top.
He eventually whipes the board, plays a counterbalance and stabilize with Jace. I hardcast Batterskull which he of coursehas Councils Judgement for.
Game 2 I mull to 5 (no-landers) and have a hand with only arbor as land. GG

I find this matchup really hard. You have to deploy preasure but at the same time not overextend to the board. The balance between these factors is not always clear.

In: +2 Choke, +1 Gaddok Teeg, +1 Sylvan Library, +2 Pithing Needle, +3 Thoughtsieze
Out: -4 Swords, -1 Maze of Ith, -2 Scavenging Ooze, 1 Wasteland, 1 Knight


R4: Affinity (2-1)

Game one he pukes, and kills me with Cranial plated Vault Skirge. Game 2&3 I kill him with loads of creature hate and Jitte.

In: +2 Abrupt Decay, +1 Toxic Deluge, +2 Zealous Persecution, +2 Pithing Needle
Out: (-4 Thalia on the draw) (-2 Thalia, -1 Gaddok Teeg, -1 Knight on the play) -3 Mother of Runes