That's one of the reasons I don't care as much for RIP, honestly. It does shut down a lot vs. those decks, but it hamstrings us almost as much. It's very telling that decks like D&T side in RIP vs. us. We're a low powered green & taxes list with it on the board, with fewer equipment tutors and less mana denial.
Jund has never been a problem matchup for me, and I'd much rather let my Knights square off vs their Goyfs at full power. RUG, on the other hand, basically can't win with RIP on the field. Their only win condition at that point is Delver, which is admittedly a weakness for us but not insurmountable. I don't have enough experience with RIP on the field vs. Shardless or Grixis to really comment, but I can see pros and cons. It's just such a bummer playing under RIP, and games take a lot longer.
Back to E-Tutor for a minute... my philosophy on bringing it is this: Is it a match where I would mulligan a hand to find a silver bullet? IE., Storm, Reanimator, High Tide, Belcher to some extent, etc. If so, then it goes in. It's basically increasing my % of 6+ card keeps. I don't need a laundry list of bullets in the sideboard to make that worthwhile, especially when several of our best hate cards are already artifacts or enchantments.
This is a very good Enlightened Tutor guideline.Originally Posted by Cambriel
Anyway, RIP may cut off the beater aspect of Knight and it may hurt Deathrite Shaman, but none of the available grave hate come without some sort of a trade-off. Rest in Peace and Relic of Progenitus exile your own graveyard. Wheel of Sun and Moon lets them keep whatever they already have for a graveyard. Grafdigger's Cage cuts off Green Sun's Zenith. Nihil Spellbomb is crap. Surgical Extraction doesn't hit bulk.
Take your pick.
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I've lost too many games to Grafdigger's shutting off GSZ. Nothing is more annoying than having GSZ in hand and being locked out of it by Grafdigger's only to see Elves blow it up and then Natural Order for the win.
Elves is a particularly bad match because so few of our hatebears matter. Teeg performs admirably, as does Ethersworn Canonist, but Thalia is pretty much a bust. We're perpetually an Abrupt Decay away from a game loss.
Elves you need sweepers because you can't 1-for-1 them fast enough (swords, path, decay, etc). My most recent event I lost in top 8 despite bringing in 10 cards. Not seeing the hate/variance sucks. I'm on the fence about playing Maverick this weekend simply because sweepers are THAT good right now (x/1 and x/2 things are just all over the place).
This is basically the reason I wouldn't ever stray from Punishing Maverick when trying to make something in Junk colors. It just adds that much more "consistency" to the deck.
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Yup. It's crazy annoying because it's a creature based combo deck. Food Chain is a little bit like that too, but it's a much better matchup.
Zealous Persecution does a lot of work, but you have to actually draw it.
Yeah, but Thalia does so much work against all other combo decks, its hard to justify going the punishing route for just 1 bad matchup. I would prefer to just try and dodge them as opposed to making an inferior deck to decks like Storm, Dredge and Omni. Also, Thalia+Wasteland help you run away with games that Punishing Fire can't.
Tends to be my preference as well. PFire is the slowest of the slow, and forces you away from playing Thalia.
I'm actually starting to reassess Containment Priest as a sideboard card. She handles a lot of the same problems as grave hate while making people play fair. Yeah, it's a nonbo with GSZ, but that seems like a small price to pay if it shuts off Natural Order, Show and Tell, Sneak Attack, etc. Hell, can Dredge even win through her at all?
Punishing Fire and Thalia aren't mutually exclusive. You just board out your Punishing Fires and board in your Thalias against combo. Its not like we have the greatest game 1 against most combo decks even with Thalia maindeck.
I haven't actually played her yet, but Containment Priest looks like a godsend for this deck. I always would think how great it would be to have a Rest in Peace hatebear and lo and behold they printed this lady. I gravitate towards finding creature based hate rather than enchantment or artifact for this deck since they attack and can be protected by Mother of Runes. Dredge will certainly struggle to beat her if she comes out early, though they can always fall back on the timeless "hard-cast Stinkweed Imp" plan.
Dredge can contagion Priest and move forward. Assuming you can protect her, she does a lot of damage. I think RIP may be an auto-include for my next event.
Quick questions for you Maverick players: why last lists prefer Sword of light and shadow over Batterskull?
And Dredge can Nature's Claim and move forward.
The biggest problem with Containment Priest, aside from its narrow application in the meta and its symmetrical effect, is the same problem Maverick has with every other tool. We have to draw it.
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I play Batterskull over Sword of Light and Shadow but!
No other Sword of ___ & ____ has pulled my ass out of the fire more times and in more ways than that equipment. The flexibility of options it provides is very Scryb Ranger where, upon initial inspection, feels very weak, but the more you play it the more you see uses for it you never really thought about before?
Its card advantage engine is sometimes as good as Fire and Ice
Its life gain sometimes allows you to win races better than fire and ice
Its protections are more relevant than Fire and Ice
And sometimes you just get neatscenarios like recurring a Qasali Pridemage to destroy the opponent's board, using the pro-black to win the batterskull war.
But you also get into weird ones--like using it to recur a Dryad Arbor to give you a forest to sacrifice to Knight of the Reliquary.
Although the biggest nombo is needing to use a Tower of the Magistrate to un-equip the Light and Shadow to allow you to give your creature protection with Mother of Runes.
@Sword of Light and Shadow:
I play it over Batterskull or other Equipment for some time now (alongside Umezawa's Jitte and Sword of Fire and Ice). The protection it provides is very relevant and the abilities are good in a lots of matchups.
It shines vs. Miracles as it turns every creature in a threat which can only handled with Terminus and it brings back countered creatures.
Protection from white also helps you to power through Death & Taxes, where the board is often clogged with creatures on both sides.
The lifegain is also useful vs. Burn, though Batterskull is better here, but also clunkier than the sword.
It's also insane in reoccurring Qasali Pridemage. I think its more of a sideboard card than a mainboard. Remember, it does shut off mother of runes, for instances you're trying force damage through TNN, protection from Jace bounce/submerge, etc.
One last thing:
Sword of Fire and Ice deal +2 damage
Sword of Light and Shadow gains +3 life
This means that in a straight up damage race, the life differential per swing is higher with Sword of Light and Shadow vs Sword of Fire and Ice despite FI dealing more damage per hit which is important in clogged up boards where both sides can only send 1-2 evasive creatures at a time.
Given the state of the meta, I've been thinking about dropping Light and Shadow from the maindeck in favor of Body/Mind (colors) or Behemoth Sledge. Sledge has that [3] to equip, which sucks. I really like all of its effects (especially trample). This means pyromancer and TNN can't nerf your damage (not to mention lifelink off the trample damage).
I came to a similar conclusion, relegating Sword of Light and Shadow to sometimes a sideboard card depending how unknown the metagame is that I'm going to. For the most part, its too useful not to want but not powerful enough to need.
Playing in a 1k will post list n results
Maverick for life
Made top 8. Was shooting the shit with blackdiamonds most of the day. Will also post list and stuff in the new post. Decays, Scooze, and Courser were MVP.
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