[Deck] GW/x Maverick

[Koby]

Metamorph was used in the heavy Reanimator days as a means to kill Legends and in conjunction with E-tutor. It's now defunct.

[M@verick]

M@verick- Do you find the flash ability of vial to be more desirable/essential atm as opposed to the toolbox of GSZ?

Is not better or worst, but I feel more confortable with vial, and it would be my choice for a big tournament.

In addition to what has been already said, its much harder to play agaisnt GW vial. People often dont know how the deck works and what it is able to do. Then they get surprised when in eot you play stoneforge and knight, and a cradle and sword of fire/ice later they lost the game.

In a format in which blue decks shine and occupy a large percentage of field, aether vial is always awesome.

[Fatal]

Agree with M@verick that if player didn't faced Vial build and don't know how to play against he will lose. But this isn't reason to bring it on big tournament - every of those have good players which know what is going on :).

@sorry for didn't mention about Lingering Souls - they for sure very good vs Miracle since they provide 2-for-1 slow but still a tempo which is important in this MU.

[door]

About the Jund and Miracles match ups: if we speak about g1, there are few cards which can help against both decks, among them I would recommend plainswalkers and stoneforge mystic + batterskull or sword of x+y. I myself found Garruk Relentless to be the best walker in this way, against Miracles he makes tougher guys than Elspeth and can be used to find useful creatures if you find way to flip him, against Jund he is good in every situation - puts a wolf for Liliana or kills shaman/confidant/etc and next turn finds KotR. In all situations he is easier to cast than Elspeth, which has ww in its cost.

It's more complicated after sideboarding, however. Equipments are usually not effective, because those decks have some really annoying sb cards against artifacts (ancient grudge, disenchant+snapcaster or clique), while putting a batterskull into play costs a lot of tempo and resources. Other than plainswalkers I could not find a similarly effective strategy against both decks. Only pithing needles came to my mind. They are slightly better than phyrexian revokers, being resilient to the unfair creature removal in those decks and they come down on t1, not leaving a chance for getting profit from SDT or DS activation. Another card I'd like to mention is surgical extraction, which is situational but useful in both match ups. It really shines when we speak about removing punishing fires, but also I found it being effective in removing swords to plowshares or brainstorms, or messing with their topdeck, when is smells miracles. However, it requires lots of concentration to properly play extraction against Miracles and not give a sign that you have it in your hand, otherwise they'll be able to play around it.

[blackdiamonds]

Anyone have any list for the GP in Washington? I'm split on so many versions

[Barook]

Anyone have any list for the GP in Washington? I'm split on so many versions

What metagame do you expect?

[blackdiamonds]

What metagame do you expect?

I feel it's going to be very split. More fair decks then unfair

[Barook]

I feel it's going to be very split. More fair decks then unfair

That's still rather unprecise.

If you feel confident enough that you aren't going to run into combo all day long, GW Maverick for consistency or GWr Punishing Maverick might be your weapons of choice. PF is really great for grinding out other fair decks.

[ThediscoPower]

Anyone have any list for the GP in Washington? I'm split on so many versions

To be honest, it's pretty early to have a final decision. Right now, this is what I am testing :


23 Lands
4 Windswept Heath
1 misty rainforest
1 verdant catacomb
1 Sejiri Steppe
3 Wasteland
2 Savannah
2 Bayou
1 Marsh Flats
1 Scrubland
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Karakas
1 Maze of Ith
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Dryad Arbor

23 Creatures
4 Knight of the Reliquary
3 Mother of Runes
2 Deathrite Shaman
1 birds of paradise
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Noble Hierarch
2 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Qasali Pridemage
1 sylvan safekeeper
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Scryb Ranger

14 Spells
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Green Sun's Zenith
2 lingering souls
1 Sylvan Library
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 sword of light and shadow
1 sorin, lord of innistrad

Sideboard
3 Thoughtseize
2 Oblivion Ring
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Garruk Relentless
2 surgical extraction
1 thrun, the last troll
2 loxodon smiter
2 zealous persecution
1 wilt-leaf liege


As I say, it's too early for me to have a fixed opinion, if even to be sure that I will indeed play maverick at all that weekend. I am fairly confident against fair decks (decks I get to test a lot against), But I am worried about the number of unfair decks that I will see, notably storm and belcher.

[ironclad8690]

Has anyone ever tried adding a slight red splash for lightning bolt? I know punishing is already out there, but bolt makes more sense to run alongside thalia. By having thalia/teeg in addition to a little more removal in the main deck, I think the attrition matchups (midrange/tempo) are improved a little and the manabase is only marginally weakened. I came up with the idea after reading reid duke's article about legacy jund, about the importance of having 1 mana answers to deathrite shaman. Having REB in the board gives us an awesome tool vs show and tell and jace decks. I have basically gone back to two jitte and 0 stoneforge to accommodate this package.

[ironclad8690]

Has anyone ever tried adding a slight red splash for lightning bolt? I know punishing is already out there, but bolt makes more sense to run alongside thalia. By having thalia/teeg in addition to a little more removal in the main deck, I think the attrition matchups (midrange/tempo) are improved a little and the manabase is only marginally weakened. I came up with the idea after reading reid duke's article about legacy jund, about having more 1 mana answers to deathrite shaman. Having REB in the board gives us an awesome tool vs show and tell and jace decks. I have basically gone back to two jitte and 0 stoneforge to accommodate this package.

Tested it a bit, it was about as powerful as GW straight or Dark Maverick. Red elemental blast is about as good as thoughtseize vs show and tell decks, but you only have that postboard. Lightning bolt performed well alongside thalia, and having two cavern still was pretty awesome. The weakness of the manabase does come into play though, especially when you keep a hand with maze/dryad arbor in it.

[barcode]

I played a GWu Maverick list with Dark Depths/Thespian's Stage combo yesterday at a GPT and made top 4. List and TR over http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...h-GWu-Maverick

The list is alright, but I don't like the Stage/Depths combo. It's too fragile and so many decks can interact with it through Wasteland, Karakas, Plow, etc. You lose too much material if you make a 20/20 and it doesn't connect, I will not play it again. I'm going back to Gaea's Cradle.

I want to find room for Elspeth again in the 75. Overall, glad to be playing Maverick again.

[alphastryk]

Just to chime in from the Miracles player's perspective, if you want to beat us, play more Teegs. Seriously. That's usually almost the only card that matters on your side.

[Barook]

Of course is Teeg good against Miracles. Just like Sunyveil, I run 2 in the MD along with 4 GSZ. What else should we do? Run a third copy + Safekeeper against Karakas?

The MODO meta is currently overrun with bad match-ups for Maverick - not only Miracles, but also tons of combo, BUG or Punishing Jund. It isn't really to fun to play right now.

[sdematt]

If you want to win against Miracles, he's right. Teeg, Safekeeper, Mom, and Thalia will kill that crap dead. Needle on Top is the nail in the coffin...

-Matt

[alphastryk]

If you want to win against Miracles, he's right. Teeg, Safekeeper, Mom, and Thalia will kill that crap dead. Needle on Top is the nail in the coffin...

-Matt

Yeah - Teeg, Safekeeper, Mom is basically the hard lock.

[Pans-Advocate]

Miracles players in my area have been casting Enlightened Tutor for Cursed Totem recently. It's not pretty.

[Fatal]

If we talking about side also Engineered Explosives works very well vs miracles - kill CB and Angel tokens which is their main wincon vs us. EE also gives us chance to blow up random stuff like Cursed Totem.

[ironclad8690]

If we talking about side also Engineered Explosives works very well vs miracles - kill CB and Angel tokens which is their main wincon vs us. EE also gives us chance to blow up random stuff like Cursed Totem.

It is also an out to insectile aberration and geist of st traft, which are two of the only reasons tempo can beat us most of the time

[Koby]

Miracles players in my area have been casting Enlightened Tutor for Cursed Totem recently. It's not pretty.

Harmonic Sliver is a helluva card.