[Deck] GW/x Maverick

[Roland_Deschain]

Had anyone of you guys tested Worship on Maverick?
I guess it`s good against a lot of things...
Or i just talk shit?

[Barook]

I'm currently running the following SB for the Vial build:

3 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Gaddock Teeg
2 Choke
4 Oblivion Ring
2 Rest in Peace
3 Surgical Extraction

I don't know why, but it feels somehow like the SB lacks something. Right now, I'm thinking about going the D&T route and adding 2 Enlightened Tutor to the SB, probably going -1 O-Ring, -1 Canonist. That should still increase the chance of drawing the hate cards I want. RIP, Choke and Revoker would definitely benefit from it.

Thoughts?

[from Cairo]

Thoughts?

I jammed a few games this week w/ M@verick's main against: UW Miracles (w/ Legends), Jund, Deathrite Ale, ANT, and Reanimator. The deck is super powerful and I'm really liking the main. The sideboard, particularly the pile of Oblivion Rings, felt weak. I respect Oblivion Ring for it's application against Show and Tell, but most of those decks have adopted Stifle or Trickbind. I agree Ethersworn Canonist feels tighter.

This is the Sideboard that I've been tuning:

2 Mindbreak Trap
2 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Jotun Grunt
2 Loxodon Smiter
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Karakas
1 Crop Rotation
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Disenchant
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant

The Jotuns and Smiters probably look weird/bad, but I've been seeing a lot of Engineered Plague floating around out of the GBx decks. Plague on Humans is pretty gross against the Vial version, this gives us some bodies to bring in, that can hold us down between getting Disenchant or Oring down on the Plague. Jotun can shrink their Goyfs and Smiter can hit the battlefield off Hymn/Lili.

[lordofthepit]

I just tried the Vial build with a friend. This is hands down the best Gaddock Teeg deck in the format.

[zulander]

Is there a Junk Vial version?

[lordofthepit]

Is there a Junk Vial version?

Immediately after GSZ got printed, some SCG grinders made a G/W "Green and Taxes" deck that evolved from Death and Taxes and obviously bears some similarity to Vial Maverick. A few weeks later, someone made a "Junk and Taxes". I'd start there for ideas.

[angel882]

I just tried the Vial build with a friend. This is hands down the best Gaddock Teeg deck in the format.

I love Sylvan Safekeeper. It makes hatebears so much better.

[ivanpei]

I respect the vial build, it has many advantages. Right now I'm playing the GSZ list with heavy combo. Here's my list:

4 Noble Heirarch
4 Mother of Runes
4 KOTR
2 Pridemage
2 Ooze
4 Thalia
1 Gaddock Teeq

2 Jitte
4 GSZ
2 Crop Rotation
4 STP
2 Sylvan Library

2 Dark Depths (So good, I added one more to increase chances of drawing either 1 of either Dark Depths of Thespian's Stage)
3 Thespian's Stage
1 Plains
1 Forest
4 Savanna
4 Windswept Heath
2 Wooded Foothills
1 Arid Mesa
4 Wasteland
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Karakas

As you can see it's a "normal" Mav deck with alot of the 1-offs trimmed. It functions and plays like a normal Maverick deck but has the extra punch in the mid game during turns 4-5. I tried wayfarer but I didn't really like it in this list. I usually drop Noble of Mom early rather than wayfarer. The card also is a tempo sink because it doesn't do anything in the first few turns. The wasteland into wasteland thing doesn't always work and is quite situational. Wayfarer is also a terrible, terrible mid/late game topdeck.

On to the combo effects. After quite a while of testing I've found the combo very worth running, especially if playing a 2 Crop/ 2 DD/ 3 TS split. The chances of drawing into the combo naturally without a Knight activation is quite high. I've won games against Miracles by EOT Merit-Laging them. Also with 4 GSZ, I'm pretty much playing 8 KOTRs. I like having more components because having a component on the table allows me to be faster by a turn and that makes all the difference.

Some may say it's win more because Knight on table= GG. This may be so in the past. But nowadays, with Deathrites everywhere and Rip-Helm decks, thats not the case anymore. I've had perma shrunk Knights not do anything. Also Knights are not evasive so I get into staring matches against Mother of runes or chump blockers very often. The combo is really really good and provides extremely important reach. It's back to Knight on table= GG.

Crop rotations are also surprisingly versatile. When no components are drawn, it's most effective as wastelands 5 & 6, especially against combo. Thalia + Wasteland + Crop rotation can really give combo a hard time. Finding Karakas and SB Bojuka Bog is a plus too.

So far I'm pretty happy with this list, give it a try!

[Barook]

What are your thoughts on Sylvan Safekeeper in the Vial build?

I found it somewhat underwhelming so far since I'm often tight on mana and

a) can't really afford to sac lands or
b) it does pretty much nothing since I've already locked the board/have Mom in play.

Sure, stuff like vialing it in response to removal is tech as a suprise answer or when it's online with Wayfarer, but in most situations, I would rather have a Mom.

I'm currently thinking about

-2 Safekeeper
+1 Mom
+1 Batterskull or a 3rd Scryb Ranger or a 4th KotR

Thoughts?

[angel882]

What are your thoughts on Sylvan Safekeeper in the Vial build?

I found it somewhat underwhelming so far since I'm often tight on mana and

a) can't really afford to sac lands or
b) it does pretty much nothing since I've already locked the board/have Mom in play.

Sure, stuff like vialing it in response to removal is tech as a suprise answer or when it's online with Wayfarer, but in most situations, I would rather have a Mom.

I'm currently thinking about

-2 Safekeeper
+1 Mom
+1 Batterskull or a third Scryb Ranger

Thoughts?

Hi, last tournament I was playing Vial Maverick and for me Safekeeper was amazing. There were situations where I had Safekeeper and summoning sickness Mom on the table and I need to protect my Knight or my opp was playing removal spell to respond my Mom activation.

I forget to say that Batterskull was also amazing and boarded it in every match I played. So that's why I'm considering to add it to my MD especially cause we are playing 4 Mystic.

[Barook]

Hi, last tournament I was playing Vial Maverick and for me Safekeeper was amazing. There were situations where I had Safekeeper and summoning sickness Mom on the table and I need to protect my Knight or my opp was playing removal spell to respond my Mom activation.

I forget to say that Batterskull was also amazing and boarded it in every match I played. So that's why I'm considering to add it to my MD especially cause we are playing 4 Mystic.

For me so far, it was the other way round. There was hardly a time where I wished that my Safekeeper wasn't a Mom instead. I'm going to try out +1 Mom, +1 Batterskull, -2 Safekeeper for now.

On a different note:
I love Scryb Ranger - it just single-handedly won me a game against a Wasteland lock with Trinisphere to keep me at 3 mana to rebuild my board after a WoG. That game was pretty hilarious.

[Morte]

I'm going to try out +1 Mom, +1 Batterskull, -2 Safekeeper for now

It’s a huge change. Sylvan Safekeeper is very important for the synergies of the deck. He grants that you can always activate Weathered Wayfarers and you should work fine with few lands thanks to AEther Vials and Wayfarers. Compared to Mother of Runes alone, he gives a higher level of protection to your creatures. No summoning sickness is a great added value. If you don’t start with him, try to vial him in response to a removal to ruin opponent’s plan.

If you want to change the plan that much, you should consider playing Death and Taxes instead. Maybe this is a good place to try a comparison between the lists:

M@verick:

4 Windswept Heath
4 Savannah
4 Wasteland
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Maze of Ith
1 Karakas
3 Horizon Canopy
2 Cavern of Souls
1 Gaea's Cradle

3 Weathered Wayfarer
3 Knight of the Reliquary
3 Mother of Runes
2 Sylvan Safekeeper
4 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Birds of Paradise
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Gaddock Teeg
2 Scryb Ranger
2 Phyrexian Revoker

4 AEther Vial
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Umezawa's Jitte


Typical Death and Taxes:

4 Wasteland
4 Rishadan Port
4 Karakas
2 Horizon Canopy
9 Plains

4 Mother of Runes
2 Judge's Familiar
2 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Serra Avenger
4 Flickerwisp
3 Mangara of Corondor

4 Swords to Plowshares

4 Aether Vial
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Batterskull

They have a lot in common:

• Stoneforge Mystic + equipments (N.B. Batterskull instead of Swords)
• Mother of Runes
• Thalia
• Phyrexian Revoker
• Swords to Plowshares
• Aether Vial
• Wasteland
• Horizon Canopy

Let’s analyze the differences.

Lands:
D&T plays Rishadan Port, 4xKarakas and a lot of basics.
M@verick has 2 basics only but can support the land toolbox: 1xKarakas, Gaea's Cradle, Maze of Ith, maybe other stuff like Bojuka Bog or soon Thespian’s Stage + Dark Depths.

Creatures:
D&T: Serra Avenger, Judge's Familiar (evasion), Mangara of Corondor (lock combo), Flickerwisp (D&T shenanigans), maybe Mirran Crusader (finisher, blocker)
M@verick: Gaddock Teeg (hate), Weathered Wayfarer (card advantage, land shenanigans), Knight of the Reliquary (finisher land shenanigans), Sylvan Safekeeper (protection, Wayfarer activation), Birds of Paradise (mana, evasion), Scryb Ranger (mana, evasion, blue creature hoser, untap shenanigans)

Equipments:
D&T: Batterskull (finisher, blocker, life gain)
M@verick: Swords (flexible color protection, flexible effect toolbox)

D&T is slower and more oriented to assemble a hard lock in the midgame. Both decks have early disruption (Thalia, Revocker), but M@verick has the huge advantage of access to the king of hate bears Gaddock Teeg, in a totally asymmetric way since it has absolutely no drawback. From midgame+ D&T has more powerful defensive tools (Mangare, Flickerwisp) while M@verick has better aggression and is definitely faster with evasive creatures+sword or KotR as a finisher.

I prefer M@verick for the playstile and have not enough data to compare the matchups of the two decks. It would be interesting information.

[Zombie]

Worth noting that D&T often uses the Avengers - especially when equipped - not so much as evasive beatdown as just a way to wall up the air while it assembles it's assorted lock pieces.

[Barook]

@Morte: I considered playing D&T before, but I don't see the point of wasting 300$ for Ports since they're expensive as hell on MTGO.

Safekeeper and Wayfarer almost never come up, simpy due to running 2 and 3 copies without tutoring.

Sure, you have some points, but during playtesting, they didn't up often enough for to be relevant.

I'm happy with the changes so far.

I'm more interested in boarding strategies vs various popular decks. What do you normally bring in and, even more important, what do you take out?

Edit: Also, how does the Vial version deal with heavy discard? Maybe I was just extremely unlucky, but I got shat on by discard heavy decks like Junk.

[torthek]

Not to mention g/b/x loves to blow up weapons as well...

[door]

I respect the vial build, it has many advantages. Right now I'm playing the GSZ list with heavy combo. Here's my list:

Since you heavily rely on combo, I suggest adding Sylvan Safekeeper. He protects Marite Liege faster than Mother and protects it from Karakas. Moreover you play GSZ and can find him when you need.

2 Guys, who play M@verick's list: yes, it's awesome, but sucks to Jund. What's your plan? Do you feel that RIP is enough? Do you feel you need an enlightened tutor for it? What do you think about Leyline of Sanctity? It stops Liliana and their targeting discard, plus they work against storm and random burn, which is hard to beat sometimes.

[door]

no answers, a bad sign...

[Lt. Quattro]

Since you heavily rely on combo, I suggest adding Sylvan Safekeeper. He protects Marite Liege faster than Mother and protects it from Karakas. Moreover you play GSZ and can find him when you need.

2 Guys, who play M@verick's list: yes, it's awesome, but sucks to Jund. What's your plan? Do you feel that RIP is enough? Do you feel you need an enlightened tutor for it? What do you think about Leyline of Sanctity? It stops Liliana and their targeting discard, plus they work against storm and random burn, which is hard to beat sometimes.

no answers, a bad sign...

I'm still on the green sun build because I like being able to tutor for a gaddock teeg for when his form of disruption would be back breaking.

Rest in peace is not enough against punishing jund. Abrupt decay and maelstrom pulse answer it while dark confidant, library and bloodbraid all dig for those answers.

Enlightened tutor, a card disadvantage spell, for a mediocre (in this situation) card is bad.

Leyline is not a good card for this deck. We have no combo that instantly wins the game that need protecting, doesn't help against aggro or combo.

[M@verick]

@door
Jund is a really close MU. If they start strong, I think there is nothing we can do. But in normal games skill and playing correctly usually decides.
I faced 4 jund during bazar of moxen, with a total score 2-2, which is not bad. The only card that concerns me is Engineered plague. In fact, I lost one of the rounds agasint that card. The other round I lost was because my opponent started too fast and strong for me, and I couldnt do anything even with good hands.

At begining, I lost a lot versus jund, so I tried playing playset of leyline of sanctity in order to win that MU. But they deceived me for many reasons. Not having them in opening hand is like playing with 4 dead cards in the deck, and they just improve the burn MU, which is already good. Therefore I decided playing rips sb and safekeper main deck. I achieved a nice goal, because I improved jund MU until 45-50%. If you want to increase this percentatge, so play another deck, but there are nonetheless few decks which have high % against jund but combo decks.

Well, you can always play 2 or 3 Wilt-Leaf Liege, who solves the problem of discard, resist lighnings and enineered plague.

[from Cairo]

2 Guys, who play M@verick's list: yes, it's awesome, but sucks to Jund. What's your plan? Do you feel that RIP is enough? Do you feel you need an enlightened tutor for it? What do you think about Leyline of Sanctity? It stops Liliana and their targeting discard, plus they work against storm and random burn, which is hard to beat sometimes.

no answers, a bad sign...

The BGx Decks (Deathrite, Hymn to Torach, Abrupt Decay) decks have really turned me off of playing Death and Taxes and Vial Maverick. I've played similar strategies for several years, but find myself losing consistently to pilots that know how to attack these Aether Vial decks. I've tried various SB options such as those mentioned - Rest in Peace, Leyline of Sanctity, Wilt-Leaf Liege, even branching out to Loxodon Smiter, Jotun Grunt, additional removal Sunlance or Path to Exile, an extra Umezawa's Jitte. If someone comes up with the "siqq tech" to combat these strategies, please do share!

In the meantime I think that these BGx decks do the midrange thing better than the White based ones, the individual power level of each card just seems drastically higher and they are less reliant on the synergies of their team lining up. It's unfortunate, I enjoy playing more complicated creature based decks that utilize playskill, rather than just slamming Bloodbraid Elf and watching some busted 2 drop hit the stack, or better yet Liliana...