[Deck] GW/x Maverick

You might be having difficulty against Stoneblade because you're missing some important maindeck cards:

+1 Mother of Runes
+1 Green Sun's Zenith

Both these help to keep your threats and find your threats, respectively.

The matchup is a grind-fest, no doubt about it. Maverick is slightly favored in the long run and it greatly depends on how aggressive the Stoneblade deck is playing. The 3rd Pridemage would also help since you'll see it more often and use it more aggressively to manage your opponent's equipment/Mishra's factory.

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Originally Posted by ThePrevailer

I don't think I've ever had a problem with Burn, using a deck that runs 4 StoP and a bunch of creatures with 5 or more power, plus Ooze and Jitte. I also SB COP: Red for game 2, which obviously makes things a little easier.

Against Nic Fit, I keep reading here and on that thread that it just stomps Maverick. I've only ever played against it on Cockatrice, but I don't really find that to be the case. You just have to save your removal for their 6 drops, and bring in Pithing Needle against Deed. In my limited experience, that has been enough.

My problem is dealing with UW Stoneblade. I think I'm 1-3-2 in matches won every time I've played against an iteration of that deck (each match was against a different build).

This is my current list (with Thrun at the top of my want list).

26 CREATURES
3 Noble Heirarch
1 Birds of Paradise
3 Mother of Runes
3 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Scryb Ranger
2 Qasali Pridemage
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Thalia, Guardian on Thraben
4 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Aven Mindcensor
1 Eternal Witness
1 Terravore

13 NONCREATURE
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Path to Exile
3 Green Sun's Zenith
2 Sylvan Library
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Sword of Body and Mind

21 LAND
3 Savannah
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Dryad Arbor
4 Windswept Heath
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Marsh Flats
3 Wasteland
2 Horizon Canopy
1 Karakas
1 Tower of the Magistrate
1 Maze of Ith

SIDEBOARD
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Batterskull
1 Path to Exile
1 Life from the Loam
3 Choke
2 Enlightened Tutor
COP: Red
Stony Silence
Pithing Needle
Ratchet Bomb
Ethersworn Canonist
Phyrexian Metamorph


What are the most important cards against UW Blade? I just saw someone suggest you side out Heirarch, which hadn't occurred to me yet. I know I Thrun will help, but I'm not convinced that one card is going to change the matchup from unfavorable to favorable. Is there anything else I'm missing? Also, how do you keep from going to time. I've gone 3-0-2 at a tournament because for some reason I'm incapable of beating UW twice in less than 50 minutes (if at all).

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U/W should be a fairly easy match where burn is actually fairly difficult. If you look at their creatures they have stoneforge, vendilion clique, and snapcaster. If they play stoneforge you can GSZ for the Pridemage or if you have one in hand you shouldn't care too much. Just make sure if they get batterskull that they do not have 3 mana up to return it to their hand unless you would still win the race anyways. If they are beating you with clique go get a scryb ranger which is awesome with KOTR and Mother. Snapcaster you shouldn't worry too much about as it does nothing besides flashing back a swords. Late game if you land a terravore it is basically game over. SoLaS excels in this match as they can't swords your guy and a Scryb Ranger plus a swords is absolute tits against them as it swings past all their creatures and blocks all of them with protection from their entire deck.

After board I board in the chokes and second elspeth. I have never lost a game against them where I landed the choke. Elspeth gives our guys flying to bash over a batterskull or stoneforge.

This just in, folks - All of your lists are wrong. Thrun is a bad card in this deck, because RUG will never let you cast it after burning all of your creatures, countering all of your spells, blowing up all of your lands after you only draw nonbasics, and still having threats on the table after all of that (and you didn't deal with Delver anyway), so why even bother.

And obviously Drew Levin is a transcendent master of Magic the Gathering, which is why he is paid to write these amazing gems of wisdom, and not us unwashed, common folk.

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Originally Posted by majikal

This just in, folks - All of your lists are wrong. Thrun is a bad card in this deck, because RUG will never let you cast it after burning all of your creatures, countering all of your spells, blowing up all of your lands after you only draw nonbasics, and still having threats on the table after all of that (and you didn't deal with Delver anyway), so why even bother.

And obviously Drew Levin is a transcendent master of Magic the Gathering, which is why he is paid to write these amazing gems of wisdom, and not us unwashed, common folk.

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Aside from that one piece of poor advice, I feel that the article was quite full of good content. I certainly don't agree with some of the points, but for an "intro" article is sure as shit was miles above Pat Cox's article advocating Zoo for a Mental Misstep era. (... talk about missing the boat)

Remember that the audience for SCG premium is not necessarily the regular audience that frequents The Source. Thus, the intent of the article is "overview" rather than "intricate details" - and under that perspective the article is successful. If nothing else, people will take Levin's advice as canon, play a poorly build deck, and manage an average finish. Everyone else will do well and point to superior deck list as the key to getting there. And let's be perfectly honest - Maverick is not an easy deck to master. The amount of attention one must pay to knowledge of the metagame, knowledge of opponent's decklists, the game state, and sideboard strategies alone can become overwhelming. It's not as if everyone can pick up a deck like Burn and do as well as Austin Yost has with it - it requires practice and good knowledge of the format. Both these are integral part of Maverick archetype too, as well as a hallmark of high skill level.

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Originally Posted by ThePrevailer

I don't think I've ever had a problem with Burn, using a deck that runs 4 StoP and a bunch of creatures with 5 or more power, plus Ooze and Jitte. I also SB COP: Red for game 2, which obviously makes things a little easier.

Against Nic Fit, I keep reading here and on that thread that it just stomps Maverick. I've only ever played against it on Cockatrice, but I don't really find that to be the case. You just have to save your removal for their 6 drops, and bring in Pithing Needle against Deed. In my limited experience, that has been enough.

My problem is dealing with UW Stoneblade. I think I'm 1-3-2 in matches won every time I've played against an iteration of that deck (each match was against a different build).

This is my current list (with Thrun at the top of my want list).

26 CREATURES
3 Noble Heirarch
1 Birds of Paradise
3 Mother of Runes
3 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Scryb Ranger
2 Qasali Pridemage
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Thalia, Guardian on Thraben
4 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Aven Mindcensor
1 Eternal Witness
1 Terravore

13 NONCREATURE
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Path to Exile
3 Green Sun's Zenith
2 Sylvan Library
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Sword of Body and Mind

21 LAND
3 Savannah
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Dryad Arbor
4 Windswept Heath
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Marsh Flats
3 Wasteland
2 Horizon Canopy
1 Karakas
1 Tower of the Magistrate
1 Maze of Ith

SIDEBOARD
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Batterskull
1 Path to Exile
1 Life from the Loam
3 Choke
2 Enlightened Tutor
COP: Red
Stony Silence
Pithing Needle
Ratchet Bomb
Ethersworn Canonist
Phyrexian Metamorph


What are the most important cards against UW Blade? I just saw someone suggest you side out Heirarch, which hadn't occurred to me yet. I know I Thrun will help, but I'm not convinced that one card is going to change the matchup from unfavorable to favorable. Is there anything else I'm missing? Also, how do you keep from going to time. I've gone 3-0-2 at a tournament because for some reason I'm incapable of beating UW twice in less than 50 minutes (if at all).

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Against UW blade you can use Manriki-gusari or Krosan Grip in SB.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ThePrevailer

21 LAND
3 Savannah
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Dryad Arbor
4 Windswept Heath
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Marsh Flats
3 Wasteland
2 Horizon Canopy
1 Karakas
1 Tower of the Magistrate
1 Maze of Ith

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21 Land seems really low when including Maze and Dryad Arbor in that list. Do you ever have any problems?

I've been following this thread since about it started. I've been tweaking my build here and there. I've had a decent amount of play testing this against my friends, and in a few small tournaments. So far it's done ok. My average right now is about 50/50, but that's mainly because of many play mistakes on my part, than the deck itself.

I'm thinking about going to a much bigger tournament next month and I wanted to get advise on my deck list.

I figure it'll be better to explain my stance on "why that card" or "why not this card" as they are asked instead of making this a long post.

Thanks.

My current build

// Lands (22)
1 Dryad Arbor
3 Forest
3 Horizon Canopy
1 Karakas
2 Marsh Flats
1 Maze of Ith
2 Plains
1 Savannah
1 Temple Garden
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Wasteland

// Creatures (23)
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Eternal Witness
2 Gaddock Teeg
4 Knight of the Reliquary
3 Mother of Runes
3 Noble Hierarch
3 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Scryb Ranger
2 Terravore
1 Thrun, the Last Troll

// Spells (15)
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
4 Green Sun's Zenith
2 Parallax Wave
1 Sword of Body and Mind
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Sylvan Library
1 Umezawa's Jitte

// Sideboard (15)
SB: 1 Bojuka Bog
SB: 2 Choke
SB: 1 Circle of Protection: Red
SB: 1 Gaddock Teeg
SB: 2 Krosan Grip
SB: 1 Path to Exile
SB: 1 Rafiq of the Many
SB: 2 Silence
SB: 2 Thorn of Amethyst
SB: 2 Tormod's Crypt

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Originally Posted by Nik842

I'm thinking about going to a much bigger tournament next month and I wanted to get advise on my deck list.

// Lands (22)
1 Dryad Arbor
3 Forest
3 Horizon Canopy
1 Karakas
2 Marsh Flats
1 Maze of Ith
2 Plains
1 Savannah
1 Temple Garden
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Wasteland

// Creatures (23)
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Eternal Witness
2 Gaddock Teeg
4 Knight of the Reliquary
3 Mother of Runes
3 Noble Hierarch
3 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Scryb Ranger
2 Terravore
1 Thrun, the Last Troll

// Spells (15)
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
4 Green Sun's Zenith
2 Parallax Wave
1 Sword of Body and Mind
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Sylvan Library
1 Umezawa's Jitte

// Sideboard (15)
SB: 1 Bojuka Bog
SB: 2 Choke
SB: 1 Circle of Protection: Red
SB: 1 Gaddock Teeg
SB: 2 Krosan Grip
SB: 1 Path to Exile
SB: 1 Rafiq of the Many
SB: 2 Silence
SB: 2 Thorn of Amethyst
SB: 2 Tormod's Crypt

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I've bolded the questionable cards in your deck. The numbers are off in one way or the other. If it's an issue with card availability that's one concern - but if you can find the necessary cards that would improve your list. I realize getting dual lands is an expensive process, but if you can find Ravnica duals those would helps out too. Having at least one Savannah is a good start (and allows you to fetch it out early).

Playing multiples of Gaddock Teeg maindeck is not recommended however, and the same with Terravore. One of each will suffice. Play 4 Mother of Runes however, and if you feel you're lacking some disruption, you can increase the numbers on both Aven Mindcensor and/or Scavenging Ooze.

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Originally Posted by rukcus

I've bolded the questionable cards in your deck. The numbers are off in one way or the other. If it's an issue with card availability that's one concern - but if you can find the necessary cards that would improve your list. I realize getting dual lands is an expensive process, but if you can find Ravnica duals those would helps out too. Having at least one Savannah is a good start (and allows you to fetch it out early).

Playing multiples of Gaddock Teeg maindeck is not recommended however, and the same with Terravore. One of each will suffice. Play 4 Mother of Runes however, and if you feel you're lacking some disruption, you can increase the numbers on both Aven Mindcensor and/or Scavenging Ooze.

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Card availability is kind of is an issue with some of the cards.

I've already have 1 Temple Garden to the land list because I can't trade for or feel like paying for Savannah right now (I traded a friend of mine a good amount of cards for it, though they were cards I was never going to use). I thought about adding another one, but wasn't sure about adding another "pay 2 life to bring into play untapped" card. Though I could just do the same thing I currently doing with TG is fetching it at the end of my opponent's turn and not pay the life.

If I add another Temple Garden what do you recommend that I cut?


My reasoning for running 2 of Gaddock Teeg in the MD is if the one on the board gets killed, I can bring another one out without having to use Eternal Witness to bring it back from the graveyard. Might not be the best reason, but if a better reason can be brought up for only keeping 1 in the MD, then maybe I'll change it out.

I'm not sure about adding another MoM, I know my reasoning actually is a reason for adding the 4th, but I never really draw her.


I was actually thinking about adding another Scavenging Ooze. I got my first one today in the mail from ebay. I've been trying to get them for less than $17, but that isn't too easy to do. I also have another Aven Mindcensor that I can add if needed.


My reasoning for having 2 of Terravore is to have 2 big dudes along with KotR. Unless it's early game, I never really draw Terravore and think it was a wasteful draw.
I know the main fatty is supposed to be KotR but in case it gets Extirpated, I got back up that isn't a 1-of.


Thanks for the feedback. It's definitely appreciated and I'll give what you said some thought.

I'm no expert on the deck but how's playing 2 Mindcensors is better than playing 2 Thalias maindeck. You can't tutor for either but at least Thalia can also slow down Burn.

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Originally Posted by bilb_o

I'm no expert on the deck but how's playing 2 Mindcensors is better than playing 2 Thalias maindeck. You can't tutor for either but at least Thalia can also slow down Burn.

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Mindcensor is brutal against a LOT of the legacy mana bases. Thalia is a great card, but turn 2 Mindcensor in response to them cracking a fetch can often be game over.

So, uhhh... did anyone else just buy a Loyal Retainers? :)

Still got mine from the Survival days. ;)

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Originally Posted by Philipp2293

Still got mine from the Survival days. ;)

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Does Fauna Shaman/Loyal Retainers/Elesh Norn seem good enough? I'm going to try it out, because it seems like it would stomp the mirror.
T1 Mom
T2 Fauna Shaman
T3 Cradle/Retainers/Elesh Norn?
That's a fun dream :P

I can definitely see the merits of having access to a critter tutor. But in that case I would consider a 2/1 split of Thalia and Mindcensor. Also the Linvalas from the SB look sweet.

I went 6-3 yesterday at the GP. I lost had to mull to four against a u/w stoneforge deck early one games two and three :( I was then smashed by a loyal retainers/elesh-norn game one against the mirror. I then lost against another u/w stoneforge from hands with very little pressure and my stupid decision to not mulligan more. Thus, I was pushed out of the day two competition.

No, I won't be buying loyal retainers. It's awesome against the mirror, but I feel that it sacrifices most of the benefits of playing maverick against the rest of the field. If I wanted to hate out maverick, I wouldn't play maverick. (Keep in mind this is coming from the maverick guy who lost to the other maverick guy) Perhaps I'm only bitter.

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Originally Posted by mini1337s

So, uhhh... did anyone else just buy a Loyal Retainers? :)

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At a hundred bucks or more each; no. It is a fun combo, but it does not seem worth the investment.

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Originally Posted by TheKingslayer

I went 6-3 yesterday at the GP. I lost had to mull to four against a u/w stoneforge deck early one games two and three :( I was then smashed by a loyal retainers/elesh-norn game one against the mirror. I then lost against another u/w stoneforge from hands with very little pressure and my stupid decision to not mulligan more. Thus, I was pushed out of the day two competition.

No, I won't be buying loyal retainers. It's awesome against the mirror, but I feel that it sacrifices most of the benefits of playing maverick against the rest of the field. If I wanted to hate out maverick, I wouldn't play maverick. (Keep in mind this is coming from the maverick guy who lost to the other maverick guy) Perhaps I'm only bitter.

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I was also playing G/W at the GP and went 6-3. I ended up losing to RUG Delver in Round One after he plays turn 1 and 2 Delvers that had flipped the next turn and raced my stoneforge for Jitte in game 1 and game 2 was Delver, flip, waste a Savannah, waste a Savannah (I did not have fetchlands, my opener had a wasteland and 2x savannah).

In Round 4 I was matched up against storm and he won the roll and proceeded to ad nauseum. He leads off with a duress and I scoop knowing what he had in his hand and not wanting to know what I was playing. Game 2 I assembled a lock with Ethersworn Canonist and Gaddock Teeg for the win and in game 3 we both mulled to 5 and I had to keep the 2 land noble, mother, ooze hand. He was able to go off on turn 3. He ended up making day 2.

Round 8 I was matched against U/W and won game 1 very easily. Game 2 lasted forever and he was able to grind it out after a wrath of god cleared the board. Game three we only had 10 minutes left and we decided to play quicker as to not draw and knock us both out. He ended up being able to clear my board with swords and snapcaster. The next turn he vendilion cliqued and I lost tempo and was knocked out. He also made day 2 like my round 4 opponent.

GP: Indy was awesome and I got to meet ruckus in person after he beat a kid that plays at my local store playing U/W.

On a side note I just got my second Mint English Imperial Recruiter this weekend!

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Originally Posted by lyracian

At a hundred bucks or more each; no. It is a fun combo, but it does not seem worth the investment.

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I was able to scoop one up at $115 BiN. It's certainly not cheap, but hey, that's Magic.

I think it's gimmicky and loses a lot of power in not being a surprise anymore. It was an awesome call for the meta, as it certainly paid off, but the list I played against didn't seem to have the zenith package and certainly didn't have the stone forge package. It was a nice surprise, but I can't really see it doing all that well, for long, if everyone starts seeing fauna shamans and Elesh running around.