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I agree, I've recently made the switch to thalia from mindcensor's, and thalia has been nothing but awesome. It's great for combo, opposing planeswalkers, and even hurts counter spells. However, I've dropped to punishing fires after testing, and am running pure GW. The deck just runs more smoothly.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lorenzo767
I've made some changes to my sideboard to address some changes in the metagame:
+1 Engineered Explosives
+1 Umezawa's Jitte
These changes reflect the increased presence of UW/b Darkblade decks that run Lingering Souls. Their game plan revolves around trying to activate Jitte on a flyer. Both EE and a 2nd copy of Jitte help to ensure that they don't achieve this plan, as well as allowing you to remove the tokens and getting through. Sword of Light & Shadow and Pridemage now also have a higher importance in the matchup.
EE also helps out against Dredge and the occasional combo decks (EE on Zero vs LED/Moxes/Petals/Goblin tokens). I've also brought it in against a RUG Delver player. It's extra removal for Delvers, Mongoose, and Goyfs.
How does maverick fight decks like hivemind and imperial painter with the new goblin welder style. The imperial painter deck is pretty brutal.
Against Imperial Painter: Fetch basics. Qasali Pridemage. Umezawa's Jitte. Aven Mindcensor. Swords to Plowshares.Quote:
Originally Posted by Avatar of Shadow
Against Hivemind: Gaddock Teeg. Lose.
Back in the Mental Misstep era, Storm entered a long slumber. With NO RUG's dominance, a combo deck arose- It was Hive Mind. Maverick, back then, resorted to using Angel's grace to avoid losing the game. Angel's grace can be used if Hive Mind infests your meta. Also, It can be used against storm to slow halt their combo, or buy you a turn to drop a hate bear.
Alternately, Mana Tithe stops the combo from working and isn't dead against other combo decks.
The best hate cards against Hive Mind that doesn't completely suck against the rest of the format are Thalia and Ethersworn Canonist. Thalia will require them to spend an extra mana to cast each of their pacts, and Canonist will give you a chance to blow up their Hive Minds with Qasali Pridemage.
Then pray.
Edit: Surgical Extraction is a possibility if you can fit it, which is unlikely for the majority of decks with an Enlightened Tutor package. It's effectively a counterspell against Intuition, since they rarely have mana to do anything but play it at your EOT, which gives you priority.
Realistically, Combo decks comprise less than 15% of the metagame. If your metagame has a much higher concentration of Combo, then Maverick is not a good choice to play. I'm comfortable with being soft to 15% of the metagame if that means I can crush roughly 60% of the metagame decisively.
There is also the option of Black or Blue splash to help shore up those matchups. Blue is better suited and more well rounded for that approach however.
EE is excellent at the moment with Belcher rearing its ugly heady, but I'm not sure it's needed against Esper Blade. Troll Ascetic with a sword on it utterly and completely ruins that deck.Quote:
Originally Posted by Koby
I can get behind a Second Jitte, but I have never needed it so far.
It may have been incidental, but EE served me well during the last tournament. I was able to have a somewhat decent game against Enchantress by blowing up Solitary Confinement while under Sterling Grove lock in order to alpha strike. I ended up drawing the match, but it was useful there nonetheless.
As it turns out, most of the Lingering Souls lists just cut them for SB for more removal - so I'm not sure if EE is the best for that. Sometimes, you can't anticipate players sideboarding correctly for any given matchup (and explains why I faced Nimble Mongoose in games 2/3 against RUG).
Show and Tell based combo decks are a serious problem for us. I don't know that we can even the odds, but we can fight them. Game one though is probably a lost cause. I bring in three Ethersworn Canonist from the board. With Thalia as a three of main and holding kotr as a snt target to grab karakas, we can deal with Emrakul and use SoLas to race Progs. In the Hive Mind game get Thalia online asap and keep Teeg in to stop them from hard casting Hive Mind. Keep mom in as an answer to slaughter pact and bring in the bog to dig for a black source. I play test Hive Mind a lot and we are way under game one, and will rarely win two straight against them, but you have to try.
So, after pretty much becoming the defacto "test pilot" playing GW/x Maverick for our Legacy playtesting leading up to GP Indy (which in the end I wasn't able to attend ::sadface) ...I basically fell in love with the deck. I've been on a non-blue kick for a while, and this deck is ...well, really good.
I also always played my Junk/Rock deck extremely well in the past, so I was immediately drawn towards testing a GWb version.
I started off with Bob's, Thoughtseizes, and a couple Vindicates. They were fine, but I'm not entirely sure it's better than GW just for the small reduction in stability.
However, Thalia is the real deal, and I think the deck wants 2-3 copies of her without question. Which hurts the majority of the black splash outside of Bob, and got me thinking.
At present, I'm really digging the Thalia + Tidehollow Sculler interaction as a replacement for discard. With a Darkblast and some Thoughtseizes in the SB.
I believe Sylvan Library is the best card in the deck over Gaea's Cradle. Being able to ponder every turn for an initial 2 mana is ridiculous. Gaea's Cradle is good but it isn't needed for the deck to be good where the library is because you get to filter your draws and it makes your fetches better. My current list is:
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Mother of Runes
1 Gaddock Teeg
3 Qasali Pridemage
3 Thalia, Gaurdian of Thraben
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Scryb Ranger
4 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
2 Sylvan Library
4 Swords to Plowshare
4 Green Sun's Zenith
2 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Savannah
4 Windswept Heath
2 Misty Rainforest
4 Wasteland
1 Karakas
1 Maze of Ith
2 Horizon Cannopy
1 Dryad Arbor
3 Forest
1 Plains
Why would that matter tho? It's not like Cradle and Sylvan Library occupy the same slot in the deck. It's not that I disagree with your assessment of Sylvan Library's power, it's just odd that you feel Library and Cradle cannot co-exist.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gagehughes
Agreed...two differnt card slots completely. Gradle would take the place of a wasteland, maze, or karakas.Quote:
Originally Posted by randomly.anonymous
library is usulaly a spot of its own, or a planeswalker slot.
Or much more likely the spot of the second Canopy.
Gaea's Cradle isn't necessary. Wasteland + Thalia is a gameplan. You can't cut Wastelands. Turning extra lands into cards gives you a stronger late game and more outs. Don't cut Horizon Canopy. Maze of Ith is a must answer for Stoneblade. Karakas is almost as bad if you have a Thalia out. (Block, bounce, nice equipment, bro) Both Karakas and Maze of Ith are devastating against Reanimator.
Gaea's Cradle... produces 0 mana when you are behind and lots of mana when you are ahead... Not helpful. If someone casts WoG, do you want to fetch a Gaea's Cradle or your second Horizon Canapy or even any other land in your entire deck?
On a different issue. I think people are underestimating the SFM package, if I ever thought that was even possible. The point of the deck is "I have the answer." GSZ, KotR, and SFM provide three distinct tutor packages that are designed to overwhelm the opponent with card quality.
Why cut or reduce one of your most powerful toolboxes? I understand Jitte is very good, so have a second sitting in the board or MD an Eternal Witness. Done. Easy. You still have SoLS (crazy in this deck), SoFF/SoBM, and Batterskull at your disposal. I understand people's sentiments when they cut Batterskull. I have so many creatures, why do I care? Because if you land Batterskull t3, it is highly unlikely that you will lose. They can Swords and Snap-Swords and WoG all they want, but Batterskull keeps coming back. Not to mention it's much more reliable against Combo, Burn, and Dredge than the alternatives.
Might be a nitpick, but this deck shouldn't be played with the idea "I have an answer". It's the converse rather - "I have a threat, deal with it!". The whole point of the deck is to maximize the effectiveness of those threats. Against some strategies, Maverick does take the control role such as against Reanimator; but only because Jin-Gitaxias is so debilitating. Every other creature is manageable.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dzra
The tutor package gives you flexibility which is where some answers are better than the threats. However, that is generally only in the case for KotR. SFM and GSZ find us threats.
RE: Batterkskull & Gaea's Cradle
If you're advocating for cutting Gaea's Cradle on the one hand, but keeping Batterskull on the other hand - then there's a disconnect. Gaea's Cradle is specifically included to be able to power out Batterskull and move it around. Without running Batterskull, Gaea's Cradle's role is diminished. It still does ridiculous things in certain matchups with Scavenging Ooze (Dredge) so it cannot be discounted.
Cradle is indeed rather weak in the UW/x Stoneblade matchups due to the high amount of removal. As discussed earlier in the thread, it's a Risk/Reward ratio that the pilot has to be comfortable with. I strongly feel that the Risk for running it is outweighed by the Reward of using it.
Thalia is pretty good, but have you guys thought of black as well? I'm a big fan of Goyfs and not so much Stoneforge/mom.
SFM is a good card, but it's also slot and mana intensive. Throwing in 2-3 Jitte instead lets you free up slots while paying less mana; with that you can bump the number of Elspeths or other powerful cards like Sylvan Library, throw in a Goyf or a second Ooze or Thrun or whatever, etc..
I mean you have to make a judgement call on the relative value of these things, but talking about card choices without discussing the opportunity cost is fruitless.