It takes a lot of work to figure out a good sideboard, and I still haven't managed to do it in a structured way. Anyway, some questions for you are:Originally Posted by jwl3gg
Why 2 Containment Priest? I never use it myself, can't seem to be able to motivate it. In your meta it's only relevant vs Reanimator, right? It seems too slow to me to be really good in that matchup and dedicating two sideboard slots seems much. The same question applies to Grafdigger's Cage. Why not try to choose cards that have an overlap with other matchups? You seem to have a lot of decks using Marit Lage for win condition in your meta but very few sideboard slots that are relevant. Basically only Maze and Surgicals (good answer when coupled with StP or Wasteland), but the Maze isn't that good because if you can fetch Maze in instant speed you could already fetch Karakas/Wasteland. E.g. StP nr 5 (Path) and Surgical nr 3 could be better and useful in other matchups. Also Pithing Needle to some extent.
Regarding the Krosan Grip, I can understand if you want a fourth removal vs Counterbalance which is also incidentally good vs Sensei's Divining Top, and you can bring it in to stop Vial/Equipment from DnT and Esper Deathblade/UWR Stoneblade. I suggest you consider Aura Shards which does the same vs Vial and Equipment and has relevance vs SdT/Counterbalance (fetch Arbor in response to fetch/top activation, also at CMC 3 it's fairly likely to get past a Countertop lock). The advantage of Aura Shards is that vs DnT it singlehandedly stops ~11 cards in their deck (Vial, Mystic, Equipment), vs Esper Deathblade/UWR Stoneblade about 6 cards (Mystic, Equipment, Sylvan?) but the bonus in addition to being stronger in these matchups is that it is great vs Shardless (4 Strix, 4 Shardless, Sylvan?) and Food Chain (4 Strix, 4 Food Chain, Sylvan?), 4c Loam (4 Moxes, 4 Chalices, 1? Sylvan). Furthermore it has the potential to singlehandedly invalidate some artifact/enchantment based strategies such as Tezzeret, Painter, Stax, Enchantress, [edit: MUD too], Pox to some extent.. And you can always make sure to use it with card advantage if you keep a fetch open to fetch Arbor in response to any removal. I've written this before but the meta changes (card advantage by repeated artifact removal may possibly be more relevant now) and people forget. Also worth noting that I don't currently run any of them, but Aura Shards which is also fetchable with Enlightened Tutor (relevant vs artifact based strategies) tends to be my choice [edit: over Grip].
Sword of Fire and Ice is a very good card, it may be worth maindecking and having 2 equipment in the sideboard seems like a lot. I think you're playing Mother no. 4 or Ooze no. 2 over it, consider replacing those.
For the 15th slot maybe consider something with relevance vs Food Chain? You listed it early in the list so you should probably have some sb slot that's strong vs it. Currently the only strong card I can see is Sword of Fire and Ice and that is usually maindecked so it's really more of a disadvantage for your current md/sb configuration. When I win vs Food Chain it often feels like mana disruption is important, I suggest Choke as your 15th sb card. I'm considering Absolute Law as additional help vs bolt heavy decks such as Grixis Delver (and burn), perhaps it could be tested in your meta too, seeing that you listed Grixis Delver at the top..
Last edited by pettdan; 12-04-2016 at 09:38 AM.
I say revoker. Names food chain. Also good against sneak and show, miracles, storm, dnt.
Thank you so much, playing in a $15 tournament later today and will change them up, thanks!
Thanks guys! Those tips helped so much! Went 2-1-1, finished 4th out of 10, won 20 in store credit.
Round 1, 2-0 vs Food Chain
I honestly thought he was on Shardless until a 3/3 flyer was cast. Was able to get threat down with Jitte game 1. Game 2 took longer, but was won in the same way.
Round 2, 1-1 vs Punishing Jund
I was on the play, and kept a greedy hand. Windswept Heath, Gaea's Cradle, Thalia, Green Sun's Zenith, Qasali, Knight, and Scryb. Cast Green Sun for 0, pass he main phases a bolt to kill my Dryad, I miss several land drops. Game 2 was super long, he wound up with a better boardstate, but Scooze kept me in it, until I was able to mostly clear his board, then started swinging in with a 7/7 Scooze that I equipped with a Batterskull. I won on Turn 2.
Round 3, 0-2 Mono-Red Sneak
Turn 1 Blood Moon locked me out game 1, game 2 was a Turn 1 Magus, I managed to get a Teeg out, but he played another Magus, he starts swinging away and I just take it, while trying to find an out and don't.
Round 4, 2-0 Miracles
I was able to aggro him out before he was able to get going Game 1. Game 2 lasted longer then it should have. I was a bonehead and took out things I should have kept, and forgot to board out Swords. I wound up having 4 Swords in my hand Turn 5. Teeg again was a Workhorse.
What are yall thoughts about splashing blue for Leovold?
Some guys in the Nic Fit thread are going four colors for him and/or Atraxa. Not sure how four colors (or perhaps, 3.5 colors if you lean away from black) would fit Maverick's somewhat hatebears/toolbox strategy.
I feel like we would be able to do blue. For the builds that run Noble/birds can support the splash of blue. he can also be GSZed, so there are ways to bring him from the deck or hand to the battlefield. I was wondering if anyone else brought the idea up.
I also wanted to run him and started playing him soon after he was legal, haven't played much Maverick lately though so I haven't decided if it's great or not yet.. I think Maverick is perfect for Leovold with Mothers and the hatebear theme. I wrote a little bit about him here:
http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...l=1#post979132
Got top 8 with the deck yesterday at monthly that was also a GPT. Deck as usual felt great. I tried out playing stony silence in the board for miracles and other stuff like DNT. It felt pretty bad. I lost to Shardless, beat BR Reanimator, beat infect, beat BR again, drew with Deadguy, played like shit and lost to Death and Taxes. I feel like I rarely lose unless I make play mistakes. Game 3 against shardless was rough. I got thalia and a couple deathrites out and was choking him a bit on mana, but I only had a dryad arbor as a mana source and he found a deluge and I died. I think I want something else to fight shardless, I just don't know what.
Were you running SFM and equipment or did you get rid of that to be able to use Stony Silence?
I tried without sfm Thursday, but decided to put it back in. I figured most match ups I want stony in, I don't want equipment. It's definitely wrong. The one game I drew it against DnT, I had a jitte and batterskull and my opponent had nothing so it just sat in my hand.
Not everything speaks in favor of the 5-drops but I think this is one of the matchups where they shine. A resolved Sigarda or Titania can win this matchup pretty much by itself (with removal for Strix or Deathrite respectively). Otherwise land destruction, like you mention, is a good path but I think Thalia by herself may not be enough, so probably bring in Choke/Tsunami/Winter Orb/Geddon. By the way did you play Thalia HC and was she good? T2 Thalia HC might do the trick?
Edit: I also sometimes play two Jittes, they do some serious work in this matchup (as does Sword of Fire and Ice).
Went 2-2 at the weekly legacy tournament, but managed to get my buy-in back.
Match 1: beat Elves 2-0
Turns out THC is absurd against Elves. Got her out turn 2 on the play, and didn't let up. Game 2, turn 1 Mom, turn 2 Ethersworn Cannonist, turn 3 THC and he scoops.
Match 2, lost to RUG Delver, can't remember if it was 0-2 or 1-2. RUG can be oppressive, who ever came up with Stifle needs to be slapped.
Match 3, lost 0-2 Jund. Drew against him last week, this week he got the better draws.
Match 4, 2-0 Burn. Jitte and Scooze gets it done.
Hey all, long time Maverick fan and first time poster. Split the finals of an SCG IQ today and wanted to give a brief tournament report.
My List
4 DRS
4 Mom
3 Thalia, GoT
2 SFM
2 QPM
1 Ooze
1 Teeg
1 Scryb
4 KotR
2 Thalia, HC
1 Tireless Tracker
4 STP
4 GSZ
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Sylvan Library
1 Jitte
1 SoFaI
4 Windswept Heaths
3 Verdant Catacombs
4 Wasteland
2 Savannah
2 Bayou
1 Scrubland
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Karakas
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Dryad Arbor
SB:
3 Thoughtseize
2 Zealous P
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Choke
1 Rest in Peace
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Teeg
1 Pithing Needle
1 Sanctum Prelate
1 Garruk Relentless
The Matches
Rd 1 - Bye (1-0)
Sucks driving 2 hours to an IQ to get a first round bye. Would rather play but a win's a win.
Rd 2 - Merfolk - Loss (1-1)
Gm 1 - Had a weird start with GSZ off basic forest for Arbor, then turn two dropped Cradle and GSZ for Scryb. Topdecked Jitte the next turn and scryb +jitte just machine gunned down his team. Never even drew a white or black mana source and won with a hand full of useless Thalias and such.
Gm 2 - TNN sucks.
Gm 3 - Assembled scryb + jitte combo again but eventually he got 2x TNN. Had Library going and managed to draw not one, but two, ZP's. Both would have killed both TNNs, but both got forced.
Rd 3 - Grixis Delver - Win (2-1)
Gm 1 - He got young pyro out and started making tokens but not much else going on. A scryb shut down the lone delver he got out. Eventually it became a board stall and I got a giant ooze in play and he ran out of tokens to chump block.
Gm 2 - Got crushed by the aggressive delver start after keeping a sketchy one lander.
Gm 3 - He mulled to 5 and I had the nuts. DRS, then waste + thalia, then KotR on turn 3.
Rd 4 - D&T - Win (3-1)
Need to win to get in.
Gm 1 - He drew all four of his vials within the first few turns and had basically no action. Mom + scryb is pretty strong here.
Gm 2 - I answered his equips and had my own jitte going. He managed to resolve a cataclysm though, but i still kept DRS equipped with jitte, a land, and a library. Eventually jitte mowed down his guys and we got there.
Top 8 - vs BUG Delver
Gm 1 - Played around daze, killed his guys, resolved a mom, and beat him down with a big knight.
Gm 2 - He stumbled on lands, and my draw punished him. DRS into wasteland + thalia is pretty hard to come back from.
Top 4 - vs D&T
Same guy I played in Rd 4. Games were also lopsided here.
Gm 1 - Mom + Scryb with jitte dominated the board. He tried to equip his own jitte but I was always able to kill the equipped creature and eventually the jitte itself. Teeg even did his part by preventing him from hardcasting a batterskull.
Gm 2 - Grindy, but again won the jitte battle, library found me all the right answers, and then cast a ZP which wiped his board and let me alpha strike for lethal.
Finals - vs Merfolk
Same guy I lost to in round 2. We agreed to split prizes and just play for the invite.
Gm 1 - Got totally swarmed while stumbling on lands. He gets a few lords. I resolved my scryb ranger and then managed to get it equipped with a sword but can't shoot any of his guys down due to all the lords. Eventually he gets a TNN and I'm in trouble. Managed to draw a STP off a sword trigger, and take out both his lords in the process as I had dealt the damage from the sword trigger to one of his lords. DRS keeps my head above water in the life total as TNN hits for three each turn, but I lose the race when I run out of creatures in graveyards.
Gm 2 - Take a mull to 5. I needle naming vial. Then I resolve mom and ooze and library in my first few turns. Then he drops two needles, shutting those off. Then he draws a few lords in a row and i have to trade both creatures for one of his lords. I get scryb on board, but he's got a lord and a mutavault and I take a few hits from the land. My life total is low and I draw ZP, so I ZP and trade my scryb for his mutavault and go to 1 life. I draw a few creatures (DRS, mom) to chump his remaining lord for a few turns but then draw a blank and lose.
Thoughts
-Scryb Ranger was my MVP all day. I had nearly cut it before the event, and quite glad I didn't. It made all my other creatures better and was a force on offense and defense and great with equipment.
-Obviously only faced "fair decks" but I am geared to beat fair decks and usually feel favored. You know, until it starts raining TNNs. But I was glad to have avoided miracles.
-Sylvan Library is amazing in fair matchups. Since I'm no longer running Cavern of Souls (the reason I have Tracker in the list was due to having Cavern and a little humans theme), perhaps should add back in Courser. Courser + Library just basically feels like cheating when you get it going.
Welcome comments on the list.
Great finish! Merfolk can be quite tough or very easy. TNN draws are hard to deal with. Main suggestion is to add a noble in the list, you want a 5th mana dork, the exalted and the guaranteed mana. New Thalia still feels meh to me, a lot of death and taxes and karakas makes it less appealing to me.
Yesterday I braved the snowy roads to drive 4 hours to play in an event for a bunch of dual lands. I played the same 75 that I ran in the IQ last weekend.
Round 1 - Esper/4c Deathblade - Win (1-0)
Gm 1 I got wasted and stuck on one land and he landed a TNN, leading to a pretty quick scoop.
Gm 2 He again landed a TNN plus noble hierarch and was laying down the beats. I fought back with my mother pus DRS plus jitte and drew a timely ZP, which resolved. He assembled another noble + TNN and i topdecked another timely ZP for the win.
Gm 3 I went big this game and resolved turn 3 knight with my opponent not doing much. This was followed by another knight and then a tracker. Scryb ranger joined the board and I wasted my opponent into nothingness and killed him with giant knights.
Round 2 - Shardless BUG - Win (2-0)
Gm 1 Had the classic Maverick start which punished my opponent who mulled. Turn 1 DRS into turn 2 thalia plus wasteland. Opponent could not recover after that.
Gm 2 Was super grindy and more typical of this matchup. Resolved Mom, both thalias, and then a tireless tracker against his team. Played a needle naming Liliana and proceeded to make clue tokens. He killed my jitte and then played a null rod. It didn't occur to either of us that clue tokens are artifacts (whoops) and I had drawn 3 cards before somebody watching the match pointed this out. We each got game rules violations and warnings. By this point I was too far ahead for him to come back. I felt kind of bad and will use the actual clue tokens from now on instead of the SCG promo ones; perhaps that will avoid this problem in future matches.
Round 3 - Lands - Win (3-0)
Gm 1 I got ghost quartered into oblivion and my opponent found tabernacle. Yuck.
Gm 2 Resolved turn 2 knight which was outside of punishing fire range. Kept him low on resources, resolved a second knight, and used mother of runes to both my knights pro green so they could swing past his sideboard tireless trackers. Turns out maze of ith is not so strong against active knights :)
Gm 3 Pretty similar to the second game. Had 2 knights and a tracker vs his two trackers. He nearly blew me out in combat with crop rotation into bojuka bog but I had removal for his guys and was just too far ahead.
Round 4 - Doomsday - Win (4-0)
Gm 1 Kept Mom + GSZ + Library and a few lands in the dark on the draw. Became apparent he was on combo of some sort by turn 2 but I topdecked a thalia on my 2nd turn and that set him back enough for me to chip away his life total before he could go off. At this point assumed he was on storm for sideboarding purposes.
Gm 2 Kept a hand with Thoughtseize, Teeg, ZP, Karakas, Bayou, and a few other cards. Took his LED and left him with a gitaxian probe and burning wish he couldn't cast, then landed turn 2 Teeg. A few other guys joined and he wasn't able to assemble his combo.
Round 5 - Intentional Draw (4-0-1)
My opponent and I locked up #1 and #2 seeds for the top 8. Feeling pretty good as we're both walking away with dual lands.
Top 8 - Eldrazi - Win (5-0-1)
Gm 1 Being on the play due to being the #2 seed really helps. I land a turn one DRS before he gets down a chalice for 1. Thalia and knight join my side and I start the mana denial plan and leave him with a few mishra's factories, an endless one, and a matter reshaper. I draw, play, and equip SoFaI on Thalia and he is forced to chump away his team over the next few turns before he scoops.
Gm 2 My opponent mulls to 5 and leads with Ancient Tomb into endless one for 2. I lead with DRS into turn 2 knight. He plays a few lands and I get a tracker and Thalia, Heretic Cathar with a jitte and a few other things. He comes close to being able to cast all is dust, which I assume is in his deck and probably his only out, so I GSZ for scryb ranger and double wasteland him with my knight and he scoops.
Top 4 - Miracles - Loss (5-1-1)
I had to run into Miracles eventually I suppose. He narrowly beat a storm player to advance to face me :/
Gm 1 - I steadily beat him down with a QPM and conserve resources. Eventually he clears the board and resolves a mentor but I've had 2 StP's stranded in my hand. He tries to go off with multiple SDT's but I StP in response to the first one, which gets a counterspell, which I respond to with another StP that resolves. This leaves him with 2 tokens against my Thalia, HC. He is at 5 life and I swing into his tokens with abrupt decay in hand. He double blocks, spins top and in response taps top to draw. I think for a while and let this resolve. He then casts predict (his only card in hand) pumping his guys and drawing 2, and I respond by decaying one of his tokens to save my Thalia. Unfortunately he drew a Jace off the predict, and that was good enough to bounce my Thalia and take over the game.
Gm 2 - I keep a relatively greedy (high risk, high reward hand) with Horizon Canopy, Needle, Thalia GoT x2, Teeg, QPM, and Sylvan Library. Resolve turn 1 needle on SDT, miss my second land drop, but draw bayou on turn 3. Here I have many options but decide to go with Thalia as I have since drawn a third copy. She gets plowed, I play another next turn which gets counterspelled. I'm convinced he has FoW or more removal so I don't want to waste my Library or Teeg, which is probably a mistake in hindsight. In the meantime he has been hitting all his land drops and casts wear on my needle freeing up his SDT. I landed a mom, which is active, and cast a teeg, but in response he uses top to instantly cast terminus. My teeg resolves and then he StP's it. He untaps, resolves a mentor, then goes off with multiple SDT's and I scoop.
Thoughts:
- 3rd place out of about 30 players. Pretty glad I made the trip as I walked away with a shiny new Bayou :)
- Miracles feels like a hopeless matchup. I put my win rate against Miracles at about 10%. My sideboard plan for this matchup is -4 StP, -1 Wasteland, -1 Ooze, +1 Decay, +1 Garruk, +1 Prelate, +1 Needle, +1 Teeg, +1 Choke. These cards are good but not great as Miracles is just so resistant to hate. I think we just have to accept this is a terrible matchup and not devote too many sideboard slots to fight it. It's 10-15% of the meta roughly and our resources are better used to hate out other decks instead.
- I still feel like I've always got a shot against every "fair" deck in the format. When I untap with an active knight, I feel like I can't lose.
- Both Thalias were strong today and the first strike is just so under rated. Tireless Tracker was similarly strong against fair decks.
- Because Maverick isn't a huge part of the metagame, folks don't prepare for it and often don't know what the deck is capable of doing.
Has anybody tried splashing for Leovold? With Mother of Runes, Safekeeper, Teeg etc to protect him it seems quite potent.
Something along the lines of
4 Deathrite Shaman
1 Noble Hierarch
1 Sylvan Safekeeper
4 Mother of Runes
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Quasali Pridemage
3 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Scavenging Ooze
4 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
3 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Atraxa, Preators Voice / Sigarda, Host of Herons
4 Green Sun’s Zenith
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Batterskull
1 Umezawa’s Jitte
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Karakas
1 Gaea’s Cradle
4 Wasteland
2 Savannah
1 Tropical Island
1 Tundra
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Bayou
1 Scrubland
4 Windswept Heath
2 Misty Rainforest
Manabase is a bit of a mess, but threw this list together to get a general idea.
EDIT: Holy shit, Captain Sisay could be wonderful in this deck.
Last edited by Whitefaces; 12-19-2016 at 09:14 AM.
So I've experimented Leovold, and I can honestly say that its really good against other fair, grindy decks. Combo decks no so mauch, and it helps a little bit with Miracles.
I won't run more than a 1, simply because he's legendary and we run GSZ to get him.
Safekeeper is an absolute house against any Delver-variant. However I recommend if you are going to run her, I cutted a mom for her. So that way you aren't completely housed out by a turn one chalice.
Safekeeper + Knight basically means your opponent is chumping or they die. It's pretty sick. Some people don't see it either and you just geddon yourself and win
Yep, love this little guy!
Four is probably a little over the top, I'll agree, I'm just really into the card at the moment. But it's something I want to be slamming T2 every game rather than just a GSZ target I think, or at least I'll start out testing like that. I'm sure I'll end up dropping one or two at some point. I've found him to be pretty good vs combo though, turning off cantrips is big game, it should give us time to get a Teeg or Thalia down at least.
Interesting point on Safekeeper taking the slot of a Mother of Runes, I hadn't thought of that and it makes sense. I did want to get a Scryb Ranger in here too.
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