It allows you to seal a game that's true, but it also allows to get back from behind by casting a sofi, equiping it AND getting a hit in (meaning +2 cards if you shock a creature).
Or it can allow you to equip a batterskull that was dead on your board for extra racing options.
Or it can allow you to gsz for 2 + have spare mana to eat stuff off ooze even through drs.
Maverick is a very mana hungry deck so the extra mana is rarely useless.
Even having cradle be a Sol Land or even a 3 mana producer can dig you out of a hole, Having a mom, DRS, and Stoneforge on the field with only a land or 2 on the board from a Wasteland war wont really get you anywhere, being able to drop a land and then toss out a scooze plus an activation or a Ramunap plus holding up scryb ranger is really good.
I think the biggest advantage that cradle has is how explosive it can be in any stage of the game after the 1st turn. My favorite lines are playing a 1 drop turn 1 into another 1 drop + cradle + 2 or 3 drop on turn two. Or just being able to use knight to generate a ton of mana to both cast and equip equipment.
So i guess maverick do really need gaea's cradle
Partly agree it can be win more, but:
- it also provide edge over good players when 1 vs 2 mana mean cast and equip SOFI which gives you a Victory
- it provide option when you have Knight and making geddon via wastelands with Scryb Ranger, then you left 1 land and can't cast spells while opponent cast some blocker vs which you don't have answer (for example Strix or TNN), without Cradle you can't rebuild / answer this defending thread.
On the other side:
Cradle isn't good vs heavy tempo oriented meta (RUG/BUG/Grixis specially with stifles) with a lot of removal. It will be mostly a dead card since your board presence will mean -> you already win.
Adding conclusion about Gaea's Cradle to Utility Lands post.
Got it! What can you guys say about isaac sears list(channelfireball 4k 98players 3-4 place): no cradles hes using maze of ith.
23 LANDS
1 Bayou
1 Dryad Arbor
2 Forest
1 Karakas
1 Maze of Ith
1 Plains
2 Savannah
2 Scrubland
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath
24 CREATURES
4 Deathrite Shaman
1 Gaddock Teeg
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Mother of Runes
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Scryb Ranger
4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
9 INSTANTS and SORC.
1 Abrupt Decay
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 OTHER SPELLS
1 Batterskull
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sylvan Library
1 Umezawa's Jitte
SIDEBOARD
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Choke
1 Engineered Plague
2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Garruk Relentless
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Pithing Needle
1 Sanctum Prelate
2 Surgical Extraction
3 Thoughtseize
1 Zealous Persecution
Nothing special MD (almost stock list with big - 7 cards SFM package), manabase is quite interesting:mostly 2 Scrubland which I don't like since they doesn't give green mana which mean a lot of mulligan at starts. Looks like he need it for SB option with double black.
More interesting on SB: vs midrange blue controls he put on Walkers (Garruk and.. Liliana - which I seen is really a beast against Czech Pile), and little on Choke. It was very light vs D&T and Blade decks like UWR or DeathBlade - no additional answers vs equips or artifacts - only 1 Qasali and 1 Abrupt Decay MD - which I don't like.
More focused on combo matchup - 3 Thoughtseize with 2 Surgical, Sanctum Pralate and 2 Canonist and Needle is really a lot - 9 cards. When combo shrink to 22-25% of meta I think it's more overkill.
Interesting what was plan against Czech Pile to side in/out big equip package mean a lot of targets for K.Command.
Hey guys. Recently fell in love with Punishing Maverick as it allows me to sleeve up 2 of my favorite cards, Knight of the Reliquary and Punishing Fire.
My dilemma is that I need to pick up the last few cards for it and I'm not sure which direction to go in. I see some lists lean heavily on SFM + Equipment while others have fewer + some number Thalia.
I just need some advice from those more experienced than I on the whole subject. My meta is quite fair and grindy so Thalia is not at her best BUT I will be taking this list with me to every bigger event in the foreseeable future so I want it to be quite sturdy and built towards the meta at large, rather than my LGS.
In summary, how do you guys feel about Thalia Guardian of Thraben in Punishing Maverick? Is she a SB card for matchups where we don't want pfires but need combo hate? Or is she strong enough to warrant a maindeck appearance?
Thanks in advance for any and all input.
Hey guys. I've been playing Abzan Maverick for about a year now. This deck was my intro to Legacy and I plan on playing it for a long time. I currently revamped my list after listening to a Tom Herzog interview where he said that the consistency of the deck is where its power comes from. I've cut some of the utility one-ofs that usually pop up in lists, but I've tried most things.
My list:
Creatures
(1 Dryad Arbor)
4 Deathrite Shaman
1 Noble Hierarch
4 Mother of Runes
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Qasali Pridemage
2 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Scryb Ranger
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Scavenging Ooze
4 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Tireless Tracker
1 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
Spells
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Sylvan Library
Artifacts
Umezawa's Jitte
Sword of Fire and Ice
Lands
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wasteland
2 Bayou
1 Savannah
1 Scrubland
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Karakas
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Maze of Ith
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Swamp
Sideboard
3 Thoughtseize
2 Zealous Persecution
1 Council's Judgement
1 Qasali Pridemage
3 Leyline of the Void
2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Garruk Relentless
1 Choke
1 Gaddock Teeg
I've been struggling with the deck recently at my weekly tournament. I'd say my problems stem from not having a ton of experience in the format. I don't really have the chance to get a ton of reps in with the deck, and I feel like I'm sideboarding incorrectly. Could someone help me create a sideboard map for some of the more popular decks in the format? At my local shop, I tend to play against 4-Color Loam, Esper/Jeskai Stoneblade, and Czech Pile with the occasional Elves player.
I'd would appreciate any help and I'm open to any suggestions with either the main deck or sideboard as well.
Hi,
This is my casual-legacy maverick deck, regular 4-0, 5-0 on xmage in 1400+ games.
Fun and strong. In previous topic I do some research about silver bullets and sideboard cards.
Creatures (zenith-able):
1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking (Testing in Renegade Rallier slot)
2 Deathrite Shaman (Only 2, he ate all fetch, back to 2 Noble Hierarch)
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Gaddock Teeg
4 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Leovold, Emissary of Trest (testing in hatebear slot)
2 Noble Hierarch (Leovold, moon efect, opponent DRS)
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Ramunap Excavator
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Scryb Ranger
1 Sylvan Safekeeper
1 Tireless Tracker
1 Titania, Protector of Argoth (with others creatures she can do big boom, testing in Sigarda slot)
White Pact:
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
3 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Batterskull
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Umezawa's Jitte
Spells:
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Sylvan Library
Lands:
1 Bayou
1 Forest
1 Gaea's Cradle (back, after ban SDT)
1 Ghost Quarter (back, thanks Ramunap Excavator)
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Karakas
1 Maze of Ith
1 Plains
2 Savannah
1 Scrubland
3 Verdant Catacombs
4 Wasteland
3 Windswept Heath
Sideboard:
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Blessed Alliance
1 Council's Judgment
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant (Old school)
1 Engineered Explosives (don't necessary but good card, in mass removal slot like ZP)
2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Liliana, the Last Hope (worth a slot, we don't have any unlimited removal like punishing fire, she kill tiny blockers and return killers from grave.
1 Sanctum Prelate
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Sword of Feast and Famine (BUG everywhere is BUG)
2 Thoughtseize
I play a pretty common build but with 1 Tropical Island and 1 Leovold. 5 manadorks, 7 fetches and 2 Sanctum Prelates in the sideboard.
Tonight a friend asked: why don’t you try 2 Meddling Mages sd in stead of the Prelates?
I feel it is worth the shot. What do you think?
Getting 1WW is much easier than it seems. Obviously, prelate is at it's best against combo decks and the best colors in your deck against those are white/black since all disruption/taxing effects are in those colors. All green does is put creatures into play so you don't want to do that until you have slowed down your opponent's plan.
In these matchups I found out leading with Scrubland->DRS is often better than leading with green. Of course you don't have that luxury if your starting hand has GSZ/Bird but then again you can get Savannah T1 and Scrub T2 (assuming you have 2 fetches). We don't need to be afraid of land destruction against faster decks so you can go all-out on duals. Unless you're going deeper in U, you'll most likely benefit more from White or Black in the early turns.
I feel like prelate has a much wider range of matchup it can be used in. It also has the benefit of stone cold shutting down some decks like Lands/Omni-Sneak/Tezz (on 2/3/4 respectively) while seriously crippling 90% of legacy decks (like some do with chalice on 1). Mage can slow down decks IF you named the right thing at the right time but it's just 1 card they cannot play. There's also the fact that I don't like UW that much so I might just be biased
If you have great success with it I'd be interested in knowing how your matches went down of course. Keep us posted!
I'm inclined to agree with Qpt-Qc, when I choose between Meddling Mage and Sanctum Prelate I prefer Prelate since it's more powerful but may choose Mage depending on mana base having trouble with WW or needing blue spells for FoW. Also if I play a list with eg lots of Decays or other low CMC spells the decision swings in favor of Mage. Not much of this should apply to Maverick lists so Prelate is often better, in my analysis. An advantage of Mage is being able to name creatures, this can be relevant vs decks using Walking Ballista for board control or win condition (Food Chain, Bomberman, Eldrazi & Taxes etc) or creature focused decks such as various versions of Eldrazi. Prelate can single-handedly shut down Lands, Omnishow and low-cmc cantrip decks.
So here's my 5-0 Punishing Maverick list from a magic online league, dating back to September 20th. Which I stole from this deck list.
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Forest
4 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Karakas
1 Plains
1 Plateau
2 Savannah
2 Taiga
4 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath
2 Wooded Foothills
4 Mother of Runes
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Noble Hierach
1 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Scryb Ranger
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Qasali Pridemage
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Punishing Fire
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Green Sun's Zenith
SB
1 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Sanctum Prelate
3 Red Elemental Blast
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Scavenging Ooze
2 Choke
1 Ramunap Excavator
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Fiery Justice
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Ghost Quarter
In hindsight, I wouldn't recommend running only 1 Stoneforge Mystic. the philosophy of the deck adheres to the fact that Deathrite Shaman cannot be depended upon for mana production. That's why this list is running 4 birds of paradise.
I would run 3 Thalia in punishing maverick, despite her lacking synergy with punishing fire. Running two seems tempting, especially considering how frequently you board her out.
I highly recommend running Sword of Feast and Famine, because it provides a faster clock when you have the punishing fire combo. Allowing you to untap your lands, and potentially clock your opponent out sooner.
If you don't run Choke in the sideboard in your Maverick deck, I would HIGHLY consider it. It's my favorite magic card.
Last edited by Boneflute; 11-19-2017 at 09:37 AM.
MTGO: Cucaracha_GiganteCurrently Playing:Maverick. D&T.Reanimator.
BURN.
I'm surprised on that list that you cut Umezawa's Jitte. Why?
Just got back from SCG Baltimore. I got 9th Place at the classic with this list. I'll write a Tournament Report By tomorrow night.
http://sales.starcitygames.com//deck...?DeckID=117478
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