Conclusion vs BUG Control (playtest 5 hour this MU):
Choke is no more good vs this MU - I recommend Life from the Loam+wasteland. Was thinking even on Ghost Quarter as 5th wasteland.
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Conclusion vs BUG Control (playtest 5 hour this MU):
Choke is no more good vs this MU - I recommend Life from the Loam+wasteland. Was thinking even on Ghost Quarter as 5th wasteland.
Armageddon seems like the most effective control hate. It blows BUG, Miracles, stoneblade and nicfit out of the water mid-to-late game.
Gaddock stops armageddon, would be thorn of ametist better against control?
Last week Caleb Durward wrote a article about a "anti-miracles" maverick: http://www.channelfireball.com/artic...he-gw-special/
Not against Deed-based control, which kills Grandpa as dead as the rest of your creatures, and your thorn. Armageddon is a great counterstrike the following turn esp. if you have a noble and fetch in-hand. And, for miracles, the important thing to realize is how slow they are, and how reliant they are on their basics. A resolved armageddon (if cast intelligently on our part) is a death sentence for a miracle player with 4+ lands in play. Whereas Maverick spends a turn or two rebuidling, Miracles will need 3-4 before they can pick up any steam.
That said, the GW Special list looks sick. I love Krosan Grips
Rigero, if you're looking to play Dark Maverick, come over to the Junk thread. It's worth a look.
As for the anti-Miracles angle, Equipment isn't bad at all. It means your one goon that's staying on board is going to actually get some damage in. Even your god-awful Dryad Arbor or Scryb Ranger might actually get some points in. If you attack using stuff they can't remove, this also helps. Running extra Planeswalkers in the board is a fine solution to this problem. Using Garruk or Elspeth to make tokens totally ruins their sweep plan, and their ultimates are very good. Regarding SFM, it's a loose slot, but you could run a 1-of just to search out your Jittes and sideboard Swords, if required. You'd have to play Swords of Light and Shadow, I think, just for the Swords/Angel Token protection.
In short, max out your Thalias, and run a combination of Teegs, Chokes, Equipment, and Planeswalkers. Don't just keep running headlong into the strategy that they're good with. Don't keep mucking up the board with creatures and then get blown out by Terminus.
-Matt
I've made to switch to Geddon effects from Choke (1 Ravages 1 Geddon in SB), but you have to be really careful if they have top cause they may Mini-ETA you which might be enough after resetting the lands on both sides, so only recommendable if you have 1-2 big dudes which might win the race.
So is this deck dead? Hasn't put up hardly any numbers. Omnitell may have pushed this deck from their 1. Anyone have any good lists with Dryad Militant? I think that speed and small disruption may help bring this deck back. Just my two cents.
It's far from dead, but I also think that with 2 hard MUs (Miracles and Omnitell) somewhere between Tier 1 and 1.5 it's not the greatest time to be on Maverick.
Also, I'm not really sure if I wanna play the Dryad unless your Meta is really Dredge infested.
What about Glowrider to supplement your Thalias? With GSZ for Dryad Arbor and Hierarchs, you should be able to land a taxer on T2 pretty consistently.
Problem against Miracles is even if a miracled Terminus is taxed, it should be payable most of the time. Also, since he lacks first strike, Glowride seems like a huge liability in aggro/tribal MUs.
You have a point that he should be quite good vs Omnitell.
Tested more CotV vs U/W Miracle its worth a slot. My tester was UW/b Miracle with 2 Perish, 2 PtE,1 Supreme Verdict on sb (so worst scenerio).
MD: 1 Gaddock, 3 Cavern of Souls, 2 SFM (2 Jitte, 1 Skull)
Sided in:
3 CotV, 2nd(1 MD) Gaddock Teeg, 1 Sylvan Safekeeper, 2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant,1 Torn of Ametyst, 1 Life from the Loam
Sided out:
4 Noble hierarch, 4 StP, 1 Umezawa's Jitte
After sideboard was favorable (not a lot but quite - enough for win).
Gameplan: Stick Mom / CotV / Sylvan Safekeeper then lock with Teeg. Tax ETA/Jace with recurring waste.
Even after Perish and Terminus CotV still turn off most stuff like BS, Sensei and all removal it was really really good. I won each game where CotV stick (except one where he had single EE and play them for 0 before Teeg).
Against Omni for sure 3 O-Rings and Torn of Ametysts are the best options.
I'm planning on trying Aura Shards in place of a SB Harmonic Sliver (really only good against Cursed Totem, which only Merfolk seems to run these days), since it can play the odds vs CB, is tutorable, repeatable (good vs Affinity?) and might catch a gas-less Omniscience. But mostly it'd be for Humility (and Moat, I guess), since that's back-breaking.
(Really I got the Aura Shards to try in an Omnishow deck, but I want to try it here too).
Also, any thoughts on Raking Canopy? Too narrow?
Played some games vs. Merfolk recently, and it just seems that I can't beat them no matter what I do. Lost 5 games in a row. I heard that it's a very easy match up so I was kind of surprised how I can't win.
Here's my current list, Mtgvault is down at the moment so I'm writing this from memory, something may be off.
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4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Noble Hierarch
3 Mother of Runes
3 Judge's Familiar
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scryb Ranger
1 Dryad Militant
1 Sylvan Safekeeper
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Aven Mindcensor
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Green Sun's Zenith
2 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Sylvan Library
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Maze of Ith
4 Savannah
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wasteland
2 Horizon Canopy
2 Forest
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Karakas
1 Plains
1 Bojuka Bog
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I sided in 2 Path to Exile, sided out Sylvan safekeeper and Dryad Militant if I remember correctly.
So, basically, what happened every single game was they either play a creature or a Vial every single turn, and I simply cannot keep up. Sometimes I have removal, sometimes I have Mom for infinite block, but it doesn't matter because the merfolk keep piling up on the other side of the table and even after I get a huge knight, there are to many of them and I get overwhelmed.
Any tips are greatly appreciated. I was thinking of going back to 3 stoneforge mystics, Batterskull and a sword myself.
Cut the garbage main deck tricks (i.e. Aven Mindcensor, Bojuka Bog, etc.) and add a Stoneforge package.
You shouldn't be losing to Merfolk with Maverick. They can't Islandwalk you. They lose to your removal and Mother of Runes.
I don't claim to be Maverick pro, so take my comments as you will...
Dryad Militant, Judges Familiar, these are garbage. They're not worth the creatures you've shaved to make room for them (Ooze, Mom, Pridemage from what I can tell). If you didn't have Thalia, I could maybe see Judge's Familiar, but not with Thalia, even against combo.
Dueling Grounds wrecks Merfolk (and Goblins for that matter). Don't leave home without it.
I was giving Judge's Familiar a test drive, and it doesn't so far seem to be making the cut. I would rather play a Hierarch, Mom or GSZ for 0 at first turn.
Dryad Militant hasn't really done anything for me yet but since it can be reasonably tutored with GSZ I am inclined to keep it in the deck for now. We'll have to see how it works, RUG will probably just burn it and with Mom it's almost win-more, so it's possibly garbage.
Main deck Bojuka Bog has been wonderful for me (may be a meta call). It hoses RUG, loam, dredge, reanimator and even snapcaster mages, I am always seeing plenty of each. I am amazed how useful it has been. It damn well stays.
I am running Enlightened Tutors on sideboard so dueling grounds would actually work well for my sideboard. I'll have to try it.
Have anyone tried to test a Abrupt Decay in sideboard?
It can easily take the slots dedicated to Path To Exile and Krosan Grip, because most of the targets of Path To Exile and Krosan Grip can also be destroyed with Abrupt decay, but we have the advantge of a spell that can't be countered and that is also more versatile.
I was thinking to play 1-2 Bayou MD and 3 Abrupt Decay in SB.
Any thoughts? :cool:
The deck needs a full revamp to stay competitive in the developing metagame. I think a more junkish build is the next evolution, just so many directions you can take it.