[Deck] Death and Taxes

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Originally Posted by kirbysdl

I was writing a more detailed post, but to summarize, all competitive combo decks have at least two of (1) enchantment destruction (2) bounce and (3) nontargeting kill. The solution to combo decks is disrupting the ramp and the engine (a'la Thalia, Revoker, etc.) and not the kill card. That said though, an active Leyline does require them to produce an answer while/before comboing off, which will at least make them work harder for their win.

Regardless, the main concern I had with Leyline wasn't really the usefulness but rather the slots taken. Is it so much better for you than the alternatives that you're willing to spend three extra slots on it? Is this a metagame consideration (i.e. you're playing with tons of combo and Burn)?

My meta features both combo and Burn. I've been hoping to rely on Thalia to swing the matchups in our favor, but am interested in hearing other opinions as well.

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That's the conclusion I came too as well (Leyline not worth the slots). Yes, I agree that active disruption (Thorns, Thalia, even Silence/Orim's Chant) are much better in general. Their bounce is going to be the problem, and it presents a roadblock that will force them to find an answer before making the kill.

In the Maverick deck, the slots are truly at a premium and generally don't run Thalia in the maindeck like D&T can afford to. Between the 3-4 slots that need to address burn and combo, I currently use:

2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Gaddock Teeg

If I replace it with Leylines on a 1:1 basis, I upgrade my hate for Burn, but decreases my hate for Storm. I think with any deck using simple but narrow disruption (Leyline in this instance). In the past I've used Thorn of Amethyst because it was tutorable. It did work quite well against combo decks as well as Reanimator, and even Burn. I took it out however, since I often found myself just tutoring for Canonist instead.

Report: http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...developed-Meta

Please give me feedback on sideboarding choices, e.g. what should have been removed instead of what I actually removed.

What are some suggestions for sideboards for a slightly more aggro-meta? I'm looking to get rid of the Leylines and one will most likely be CoP:Red.

The Leylines were there originally to help against discard/combo.

Right now I have:
Batterskull
Ensnaring Bridge
Relic of Progenitus
Tormod's Crypt
2 Ethersworn Canonist
Phyrexian Metamorph
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben (3 in main)
Aura of Silence
3 Leyline of Sanctity
3 Enlightened Tutor

How does everyone deal with discard?

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Originally Posted by workingdude

What are some suggestions for sideboards for a slightly more aggro-meta? I'm looking to get rid of the Leylines and one will most likely be CoP:Red.

The Leylines were there originally to help against discard/combo.

Right now I have:
Batterskull
Ensnaring Bridge
Relic of Progenitus
Tormod's Crypt
2 Ethersworn Canonist
Phyrexian Metamorph
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben (3 in main)
Aura of Silence
3 Leyline of Sanctity
3 Enlightened Tutor

How does everyone deal with discard?

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Discard is a bitch, but we can deal with it. Try to make a Sword of Light & Shadow stick at any cost and you basically win. Leyline's crap outside of an opening hand, run True Believer or Library of Leng if it's a real issue. Dealing with discard is more about knowing your opponent's deck better: if it's Nic Fit, swords the Explorer to avoid Therapy hurting you, or eat it up with a grunt. More Rock builds will be Thoughtseizing or Hymning Turn one, so without force of will, there's no point in trying to find a solution.

Regardless, discard's a dead-end strategy, like mana denial. Eventually they have to drop threats, and so long as you keep good hands and play shrewdly, you can get through it.

CoP: Red is definitely a great choice for the SB, and CoP: Green is something i've been tinkering with. Absolute Law is a consideration, but only reroutes bolts to your face. I'm currently testing Cataclysm with 3 MD flagstones, and I gotta say: it's pretty damn good. Won me games on Friday night, love how it kills planeswalkers. And think about it: many decks in Legacy like to overextend right now. Maverick, Nic Fit, RUG and others focus on churning out threats at a high speed. Cat demolishes them, and if we keep an STP backup in hand/Mangara-vial, we're golden.

I need some more testing with it before the GP this weekend, but I'm excited to take D&T to the Big Game!

If discard is so much of a problem for you, you might wanna try running Cursed Scroll. I've been considering running that card in my SB for quite some time now - seems like a very strong choice against lists that pack insane amounts of removal, and is quite bonkers whenever you end up in topdeck mode.

Did someone here seriously test Elbrus, the Binding Blade?
I just realized that the Withengar Unbound is a legend, and so can be protected by Karakas if needed. Also, we have plenty of fliers to make Elbrus connect, and a 13/13 with fly and trample is not something that can be ignored.
My first thought is to put it in place of SoFI.

You do realize that whenever you "protect" your 13/13 legend by means of Karakas, you end up with a shitty equipment for 7 colorless in hand, right?

Totally not worth it in my opinion.

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Originally Posted by colo

You do realize that whenever you "protect" your 13/13 legend by means of Karakas, you end up with a shitty equipment for 7 colorless in hand, right?

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I do. But unless your opponent also removed your Stoneforge Mystic, you still can cheat it into play again paying 1W. And equip it again to your flyer, that is propably still alive, too.
Although it seems bad, and I agree with you on that, it may be much less bad than at first sight. That's why I've asked for someone that have seriously tested it.

I'll argue against it on philosophical grounds. D&T isn't Sneak and Show. The point isn't to perform some big play and ride it to victory, but rather to play the game of attrition and grind them into the dirt. For this, multifaceted cards that offer both offense and defense, such as Sword of Fire and Ice and Umezawa's Jitte are much more effective.

Note that most D&T lists don't even run Batterskull. Other decks run it because they don't have creatures. We have plenty of creatures to hand a sword to.

Of course, theory and reality are different things, but Elbrus doesn't follow thematically, so I'll leave it to you to show positive testing results. =)

I won't fault anyone packing Batterskull in their D&T lists. It performs a solid role player with SFM, for which this deck is geared to use properly. Many Maverick (very much analogous to this archetype) decks use Batterskull in the same manner.

I do agree that the mythic Equipment is too flash/Danger of Cool Things without providing immediate advantage much like the Swords, Jitte, or Batterskull. A simple test should determine whether the card is includeable: can it be a threat on its very own?

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Originally Posted by lebarion

My first thought is to put it in place of SoFI.

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Never. Sofi's thrice as useful as Elbrus--it buffs so your dude can block something nasty, protects from jace/burn/clique/et. al., and has the best trigger of any Sword--shock and draw.

Elbrus falls into the "Too Cool to be Good" category for me, too--like Mirran Crusader. A great idea in theory, but in practical terms, simply not as useful as what we have currently. Swords and Jitte are castable/equipable on the same turn. Elbrus and Batterskull offer no such promise.

I use batterskull in my SB for Maverick, but only because it gives Thrun +4/+4 Viglance and Lifelink. Honestly, if a cheaper sword came along with those abilities but no germ token and costed less to cast/equip, I'd use it.

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Originally Posted by Barbed Blightning

Never. Sofi's thrice as useful as Elbrus--it buffs so your dude can block something nasty, protects from jace/burn/clique/et. al., and has the best trigger of any Sword--shock and draw.

Elbrus falls into the "Too Cool to be Good" category for me, too--like Mirran Crusader. A great idea in theory, but in practical terms, simply not as useful as what we have currently. Swords and Jitte are castable/equipable on the same turn. Elbrus and Batterskull offer no such promise.

I use batterskull in my SB for Maverick, but only because it gives Thrun +4/+4 Viglance and Lifelink. Honestly, if a cheaper sword came along with those abilities but no germ token and costed less to cast/equip, I'd use it.

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Thanks for all opinions. I believe you are all right, but will test it anyway (I'm a believer :wink:). If I conclude anything different from what is stated here, I'll let you guys know.

Went 6-3 at the Indy GP today. I'll post a report tomorrow when I'm not so destroyed.

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Originally Posted by Barbed Blightning

Went 6-3 at the Indy GP today. I'll post a report tomorrow when I'm not so destroyed.

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That's not a bad result at all, congratulations!
Can't wait to see the report.

So, here's my GP report, in full verbosity. Decklist here: http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/deck.asp?deck_id=988455

Match 1: Burn, 0-2
Turn 1 lava spike sums up the match pretty quickly, with Keldon marauder backup on the next turn. Mom's painfully absent, and Thalia eats a bolt. I end up dying to a flame javelin. Game 2 I bring in Canonists and CoP: Red with tutors, removing Mangara/Flickerwisp package. I kept a hand with mom, thalia and canonist, but each is burned in quick succession by searing blazes and chain lightnings, while I keep taking damage to the head. Avenger with Light and Shadow hits too late and keldon/rift bolt win the match for him. This match I played pretty dumb, but it was about 10 am, and I had only gotten about 3 hrs of sleep before the 8 am registration.

Match 2: Reanimator, 2-0
Felt a lot happier when I saw turn 1 careful study to toss Norn and Jin into the yard. I play a karakas and it's basically GG: Jotun grunt goes the distance for me. Game 2 I take out revokers and jitte for yard hate—wheel, crypt and tutors. I port and waste him out until a wheel sticks, and it's good game with a flickerwisp-equipped sofi. He had a kind of janky build, though: watery graves and overgrown tombs for nature's claim.

Match 3: Bant Maverick 1-2
First Mav matchup of the day, and my friend has already played two (and beat them with ease, he plays TES). Game 1 is kind of a blowout: 9/9 Terravore, 8/8 KotR, and Trafty kill me quickly. Game 2 I bring in o ring and cataclysms, but see neither. I keep him locked down with a grunt beating him with a Light/Shadow. Game 3 is pretty even, until he plays terravore. This entire matchup I've been praying for a swords, but never see it. I keep the Terra off me completely for a few rounds with mom/revoker, but then he plays the weirdest card yet: sword of body and mind. He equips and swings, and mills me…. Putting 7 lands into my yard. Suddenly, his terravore's a 14/14 pro GB. All I want is a swords, but I draw my second Karakas.

Important note: There are 9 rounds at the GP. To make day two, you have to win at least 7 of those rounds. At this point, I've used up all my wins, so I have to win every game following.

Match 4: Affinity, 2-0
Total throwback to my first legacy deck, so know every weak spot. Revoker the plating, He's playing a build with Glimpse of nature, and I'm momentarily concerned… but he punts it worse that charlie brown. Jitte/Avenger wins it. Game 2 I bring in stony silence(so happy that I packed it) and tutors; I take out grunts. Game two he's much better, with turn one thopter/memnite/pest/opal/drum. I lead off with a Mom and it's not looking too hot, until I swords the pest. I have to use a port oin the inkmoth nexus (which poisons me for 4) and I'm dying for a wasteland. Thalia/Jitte happens, and he enters scoop phase a few turns later.

Match 5: Storm Combo, 0-2
This matchup made me want to quit Legacy altogether. I made some seriously dumb moves game 1, and game 2 he stormed before thalia could hit. Anyway, game one he's basically durdling around, playing gemstone and brass. Turn one is mom, and turn two is win I lost the game: I play revoker, and for some reason thought I should name Putrid Imp. Because obviously Dredge is a problem deck for DnT, and OBVIOUSLY they'd wait till turn 3 to do anything.
The worst part of it is that I knew the second I played revoker that he had LEDs, and that he was going to play it. When he drops a blue fetch and 2 LEDs the next turn, I'm pissed. It would have been okay, since I could have used the flickerwisp to reset revoker. But he ill-gotten gains loops into tendrils at 10. As I said, game 2 he won first turn. He takes about ten minutes to figure it out, I guess he figured I'd be bringing in chants or silence.

I took a twenty minute break between this round and the next (God knows I have it after playing against storm) and fight the urge to just sell my legacy staples to one of the vendors. After a pep talk with a friend, I calm down and decide that, if I'm not going to make day two, I might as well do what I enjoy most with DnT: Punishing the hell out of other Legacy decks.

Match 6: LED Dredge, 2-1
The X-3 tier is definitely a lot more relaxed, as everyone knoiws that they're just playing for fun. Turn one I drop a mother of runes, and my opponent goes off: faithless looting/LED loops, until he eventually returns Sun titan and flame-kin zealot with 3 zombie tokens. Impressive, and I'm already getting the sensation that this is going to be a hard match. Turns out, he had the dream hand and, siding out revokers an a mangara for wheel, crypt and tutors. Game 2 I drop a wheel on his head, port him out and Grunt does the rest, eating all that he dredged turn one. He hardcasts narcs, I swords one and slay the other, winning by flickerwisp/jitte. Game 3, the song is similar: Grunt hits turn two, and LED dredge just gives him a damn FEAST. The dumb ape just eats up his bridges, dread targets and dredgers. I get to the highest culmitive count I ever have with him, 4, and keep pounding the dredge guy. I draw into wheel turn 3, slap it down and basically wait. I get him to 3, and he finally nature's claim's the wheel and dredges as fast as he can… but not fast enough. I kill him with an EOT-vialed Avenger.

Match 7: Monoblack Mystery Meat, 2-0
Second-favorite matchup of the day. Game one it looks like the Gate, but his thoughtseizes are wasted. I Magara lock him for the first time today, disposing of urborg after urborg. Game two I side in nothing—whatever this deck is, it's child's play for me. Game 2 he's sided a lot in, and thoughtseizes a revoker. Turn 2 he dark rits into leyine of the void. I'm just plain confused, and let grunt gnaw on his yard for a few turns. 2 moms mean I'm swinging for 5 for 3 turns. His yard empties and grunt goes poof. I keep a vial at 2, and enter Mom beatdown mode, pinging for 1 for 4 more turns. He innocent bloods me, so I vial in a grunt. I then have mom throw some hot tea in his face.
Turns out this was a Leyline/Helm of Obedience-Hexmage/Depths combo deck. I didn't realize we were playing EDH at the Grand Prix now.

Match 8: UR Delver 2-1
Turn one is a delver and I'm feeling a sinking sensation again. Game one is a lot of damage done in units of 3, and snap-chain gets me. I side out revokers in favor of cop: red and some tutors. Grunt keeps snap targets out of reach and delvers are plowed immediately. He almost kills me with a price of progress, but out of sheer dumb luck I've kept my waste untapped, and dispose of my rishadan port. Thalia-Jitte wins it. Game 3 he's countering a lot of my threats, but I eventually keep serra avenger on the field. When sofi hits after he wasted a counter on solas a turn earlier, he's audibly crestfallen. Equip and win.
Note: this match would have gone smoother if I didn't have flagstones. I was trying to avoid POP, but flagstones became a liability. I also will be posting my MU analysis of this deck soon.

Match 9: Bant Mav 1-0-1
So we meet again! No terravores here, but by god what an awesome match. He pounds me to 9 with stoneforge, but I used jitte to stay in the game. He kills my jitte with his, I play light/shadow, toss it onto a revoker naming knight, swing and get back another revoker to name his Jace that he uses to bounce my moms. There is only one note I wrote for this: GRRRIIINNNNDDDDDD. I get sofi on my knight-revoker, and the 6 damage a turn finally kills him (batterskull'd knight has been gaining him 12+life a turn.) 3 minutes are left in the round, and we go to game two; I bring in cataclysms and o ring in favor of thalia. I mull to three, pile shuffling, struggling to get a keepable hand—I honestly wasn't trying to slow-play, but I'm sure he disagrees. Turns are called on his second turn, and I stave him off long enough to make it to time. Favorite matchup of the day, a fantastic grind.

So, there you have it: 6-3, DnT making the scene. Some wisdom I picked up for other pilots:
-Stoneforge is the best creature in legacy. I'm not going below 4 ever again.
-Thalia's moot against mav and bant. They have too much ramp, and they'll just play bigger dudes.
-Flagstones/Cataclysm is no longer good. If legacy somehow slows down as a format, or if we get some insane ramp somehow, maybe then it can see a return. Otherwise it's dead. Don't know if that's a Cap'n Obvious remark.
-What do we use Phyrexian metamorph for? It sat in my side the entire day. I want to figure out why we have it cluttering up a spot.
-Phyrexian Revoker is the weakest card in our main. That much I've learned—he's not bad, but compared to the rest of the deck he's got the least benefit for us. I'm putting 2 in my side so I can have 4 stoneforge and 2 main.

Anyway, hope that's not too tl;dr. Catch y'all later.

Unfortunately since I despise writing I didn't keep note of how I did at GP Indy, but here's what I remember to the best of my ability, don't remember a whole lot of day 1 since I kept no notes and with playing nine rounds, it gets rather tiresome, especially when running on about 4 hours of sleep...
I did the first grinder on Friday with my D&T's list (Will share at bottom of post) and made it to the finals where I lose to Charbelcher. He won the die roll and got 14 gobs turn one, and game to he had to top deck the belcher to win the game which he did, but then game three he would have gone first again and would likely won that game, so I am not disappointed with my finish of second with 24 packs...
I had no byes for the Grand Prix itself, mainly because I don't have much time to play in a lot of events and STD isn't my favorite format and just made a deck for it a month ago... I end up having to play round one... by the end of round 5 my record was 3-1-1... I have to win the next four rounds to make it to day 2... I win the first 3 and in the final round something highly unfortunate happens... for my opponent, I win the final round against the same player who gave a friend of mine his first loss. By some miracle I make it to day 2 with only having lost 5 games in 9 rounds of playing.
lost one round to maverick when I had the kill on board for both games because I can't get any wastelands or ports for his maze. Never saw any of them in the match.
The draw was to UW Stoneblade, game 3 went to time and I didn't have the win quite yet by my final turn of turn four and he doesn't have win on board either, so I ask if he wants to call it a draw, he shows me his hand which coinsisted of a batterskull and a V.Clique and he asks if I want to scoop to him. I say know because I still have all 4 STP's the 3 stoneforges and manriki-gusari as answers with 40ish cards left in the deck and I was still at 20 life and I would have had maybe 3-4 rounds to get them before it would have been too late.
Most Memorable game of day 1 happens in round 8. I was on the play for game 1 and I have to mull to five(only double mull of the tourney). I keep a hand consisting of Plains, Wasteland, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Leonin Arbiter, and Mother of Runes. He forces my turn one Vial (much to my dismay, but not the end of the world)... I don't remember exactly what happens, but at the end of the game I had broken 2 standstills and he used 3 pernicious deeds, he broke the third standstill because I kept using Rishadan Ports and Wastelands to stop his only aggro win con of Mishra's Factory. Eventually he lands a Mindsculptor that I kill, then a second one a turn or two later that I can't deal with since he counters my Flickerwisps that would have reset the loyalty counters. All in all he had around 10 more cards in his deck from all the brainstorms, jacestorms, and standstills. He was playing a deck that I hadn't seen in most of a year called BUG Still. I had him down to 4 life(if I recal correctly) with two equipment in my hand and a Karakas when I already had one in play. He uses the Ultimate ability of Jace for the win, but for mulling to 5 on the play I did extremely well for being at that much card disadvantage(especially when he draws 6 free cards from the 2 standstills. I end up winning with relative ease in games 2 and 3 though ^_^

I am 51st place going in to game two.
I win round 10 against zoo played by Mary Jacobson with game one taking just under 20 minutes.
Lost round 11 to Ben Stark playing maverick
Round 12 Lost to high tide in three games(game two I had Canonist, Thalia, Revoker naming candlelabra, and leonin arbiter on board to his 4 lands.)
Round 13 I almost lose against Maverick in game three because I pick up my Phyrexian Revoker that's naming my opponents SOLAS, but catch it in time before I actually put it there. He played Qasali Pridemage, sacrificed it to destroy my Revoker, but I realize that it's a colored source just in time to save it with one of my two active Moms.
Round 14 I play against UW Stoneblade again and get him in a 15 mintue game one, then game two at the end of the game(he scooped) I had 4 plains and 2 ports in play after him wasting a karakas and me wasting his 2 tundras. I get an AEther Vial on 3 counters and another one on 2 counters with Thalia on board and Magara did his trick with flickerwisp once, and karakas 4 times before he wastes the karakas(got rid of his basic lands) the turn after he wastes the karakas I top deck a second Flickerwisp and get another permanent. at the end of the game he has 4 lands left, 2 factories, a laboratory, and an academy ruins. I keep tapping the factories on his turn when he goes to activate them, or at the end of turn so I have a free attack on him... That was my favorite game on the tourney, mainly because I got to completely lock him out of the game with Mangara/Flickerwisp/Karakas combos.
In round 15 I play against Maverick again(if I recall correctly for the 5th time), lose game one to an active Jitte that just rapes my board, get game two with Mangara( my only creature other than an active Mom) equiped with SOFI and SOLaS... Game three he get jitte active and I have 4 turns to top deck my own Jitte or stoneforge to search for mine, I don't get it in time and lose to Maverick for a second round which makes me a bit disappointed since the build I have is generally very good against aggro based strategies.
I was rather lucky the entire tourney that I only played against one combo deck and that was in round 13. I lose a total of 6 games on day 2 for a total game loss of 11 for the tourney(had to play all 15 rounds).
With adding the Grinder in with a game win loss of 8-4. My total weekend experience was of losing 15 games in 49 games (Presuming that I did my math correctly)
I end up with 72nd place, if my opponent and I had agreed to ID we would have had enough points to top 64, but by playing it out whoever won had an outside shot of top 32.
Without further ado, here's the list I used for both the grinder and the GP:
Main:
2 Burrenton Forge-Tender
3 Flickerwisp
4 Leonin Arbiter
3 Mangara of Corondor
3 Mirran Crusader
4 Mother of Runes
3 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 AEther Vial
3 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of LIght and Shadow
1 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Karakas
4 Rishadan Port
4 Wasteland
9 Plains

Side:

2 Burrenton Forge-Tender
3 Etherswormn Canonist
2 Goldmeadow Harrier
3 Jotun Grunt
3 Leonin Relic-Warder
1 Manriki-Gusari
1 Phyrexian Revoker

The Forge-Tenders were added because on the prevalence of Red and they served me quite well in many of my matches... especially good with SOLAS

The Leonin Relic-Warders were a choice that my friends questioned(quite frankly I almost put something else in there myself), but with AEther Vial on 2 and an opponent not responding to it (ie: Stifle), vialing in a Relic-Warder to get rid of a Factory is awesome! Did that a few times and it also gets rid of Batterskull and other equipment quite nicely, especially when you responds to it by Flickerwisping the Relic-Warder away... did that one once during the GP... Highly unlikely to have both in hand with a vial on 2 and a vial on 3, but it does happen apparently.

The Goldmeadow Harriers are great at tapping down things like Emrakul, or KoTR, and other irritating creatures.

I actually prefer the Mirran Crusader over the Serra Avenger because it gives me another reason to take Vial to three other than just Mangara and Flickerwisp, and I can cast it on turn three, unlike the Avenger. I come with pro green and with a lot of Maverick running around it just seems like a decent call. Not to mention the dounble strike activations with equipment and an active Mom to make sure it gets through(won several games with an Urzatroned Crusader, much to the annoyance of my foes. With both Swords on it it's pro pretty much everything(just land and colorless artifacts can stop it), and with Ports and Wastes, Maze normally doesn't bother it either(but I did lose that match against Maverick in two games with the Urzatron Crusader since I couldn't get Port of Wasteland.

I know some will undoubtable dislike my since I don't play an E-Tutor build, but I've found that the 4 main Leonin Arbiters(only really slows, not stops my 3 Stoneforges in my deck) hurt many more decks than a tutor package does, since they are main board and not just sided, so they are effective in all 3 games, not just games 2 and 3. It slows/stops fetches, KoTR, Stoneforge, and sometimes Kuldotha Forgemaster(personally I think is the only deck where the E-Tutor side is better than the Arbiter main because of Stony Silence).

I also believe that people will complain about how I am no longer playing Batterskull, but chose SOLAS over it... Well I see it that the vigilance is definately amazing, without a doubt... But it doesn't recur creatures like SOLAS does, especially when on a Crusader, which can block it all day long with no problem. The Batterskull has lifelink, but SOLAS gains 3 per hit and recurs a dude each time. With the Forge-Tenders being recurred with the SOLAS, you can infinitely block the Germ with the Forge-Tender and sac it so they gain no life (The ability doesn't target.).
Final Record of Grinder #1: 4-1
Final record of GP Indy: 10-4-1
Final Record of Rounds Played during the Weekend: 14-8-1
Final Game Win-Loss-Draw: 34-15

Also, one last thing about day one for me:

Most Memorable game of day 1 happens in round 8. I was on the play for game 1 and I have to mull to five(only double mull of the tourney). I keep a hand consisting of Plains, Wasteland, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Leonin Arbiter, and Mother of Runes. He forces my turn one Vial (much to my dismay, but not the end of the world)... I don't remember exactly what happens, but at the end of the game I had broken 2 standstills and he used 3 pernicious deeds, he broke the third standstill because I kept using Rishadan Ports and Wastelands to stop his only aggro win con of Mishra's Factory. Eventually he lands a Mindsculptor that I kill, then a second one a turn or two later that I can't deal with since he counters my Flickerwisps that would have reset the loyalty counters. All in all he had around 10 more cards in his deck from all the brainstorms, jacestorms, and standstills. He was playing a deck that I hadn't seen in most of a year called BUG Still. I had him down to 4 life(if I recal correctly) with two equipment in my hand and a Karakas when I already had one in play. He uses the Ultimate ability of Jace for the win, but for mulling to 5 on the play I did extremely well for being at that much card disadvantage(especially when he draws 6 free cards from the 2 standstills. I end up winning with relative ease in games 2 and 3 though ^_^

Still using this list and seems pretty good. Try it out.

4x mother of runes
4x stoneforge mystic
3x serra avenger
3x phyrexian revoker
3x jotun grunt
3x Thalia
3x mangara of corondor
3x flickerwisp

4x swords
4x aether vial
1x umezawa’s jitte
1x sword of light and shadow
1x sword of fire and ice

4x karakas
4x wasteland
4x rishidian port
11x plains

I have not made a board because it depends heavily on the meta. Whether I am local or at Jupiter.

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Originally Posted by timmycolossus

4x mother of runes
4x stoneforge mystic
3x serra avenger
3x phyrexian revoker
3x jotun grunt
3x Thalia
3x mangara of corondor
3x flickerwisp

4x swords
4x aether vial
1x umezawa’s jitte
1x sword of light and shadow
1x sword of fire and ice

4x karakas
4x wasteland
4x rishidian port
11x plains
I have not made a board because it depends heavily on the meta. Whether I am local or at Jupiter.

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3 Grunts seem overkill in a deck that doesn't really shed cards to the yard to keep him alive no cantrips no fetchlands etc.
I'd go:
-1 Grunt
-1 Revoker
+1 Flickerwisp (I used to be a doubter of #4 too)
+1 Avenger (I board them out quite frequently but they're golden against all aggro strategies)

Grunt is very good since it shrinks Goyfs and kotr. It's one of the reasons Mav is an even to slightly favorable matchup. Mav's main advantage is superior creatures and Grunt takes that away from them.

It also limits Snapcasters, is almost auto win against Dredge, hurts Reanimator and laughs at Grindstone. It's no slouch in other aggro matchups either. I've had 3 maindeck since forever and haven't had problems with it. Keeping it up for 2-3 turns is more than enough.