[Deck] GW/x Maverick

Ok, so if I decide to play maverick this weekend at the gpt, I am thinking something like this:

Creature (21)
1x Birds of Paradise
4x Deathrite Shaman
1x Gaddock Teeg
3x Knight of the Reliquary
4x Mother of Runes
1x Qasali Pridemage
1x Scryb Ranger
1 renegade rallier
2x Stoneforge Mystic
3x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben

Sorcery (11)
2x Cabal Therapy
4x Green Sun's Zenith
2x Hymn to Tourach
1x Inquisition of Kozilek
2x Thoughtseize

Artifact (2)
1x Batterskull
1x Umezawa's Jitte

Instant (4)
4x Swords to Plowshares

Land (23)
1x Bayou
1x Dark Depths
1x Dryad Arbor
2x Forest
1x Karakas
1x Plains
1x Savannah
1x Scrubland
1x Swamp
1x Thespian's Stage
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4x Verdant Catacombs
4x Wasteland
3x Windswept Heath

Sideboard:
3 orim's chant
2 sanctum prelate
2 surgical extraction
2 ethersworn canonist
2 zealous persecution
1 pithing needle
1 batterskull
1 stoneforge mystic
1 toxic deluge

Been playtesting the orim's chant, and I absolutely love that card. Been using it in parfait, and after seeing it in another sideboard on here, I decided to try it, and I glad I did.

I am trying to speed up my deck a little with some turn one hand disruption. Hymn hurts a lot on turn two. Cabal into dryad arbor is a great line, and if I add the renegade rallier back, I can get the dryad arbor back with it's ability. In my meta, I have been dying a lot to fast decks lately, like stated above, and I am always finding myself saying "if only", so why not add the disruption and by myself a turn two for a thalia or similar.


I am still undecided between this deck and the Spiritblade deck, but I keep finding myself wanting to make this work.

Thoughts?

Personally I brewedup something that turned out to be similar to "Spiritblade" style deck but instead of bad 1-drops I'm running Spellstutter Sprite as Queller 5-8 and otherwise am a regular Deathblade deck. I'm not running Thalia (running Daze) but I've considered a swap there. Stutters are supported by Blossoms to keep them relevant and add grindy power for fair MUs.

I was quite happy with it in initial testing. Flash-Equip dudes who counter the removal or threats of your opponent. I haven't posted much about it because it's janky as hell and I don't have much in the way of results yet. Once I have enough "oomph" against Fair decks however, I expect to not be able to shut up about it. I got live the dream of "Spellqueller on Decay" to an opponent, then "Spellstutter your Plow" (might have been a brainstorm, can't remember) and was sitting with dudes, carrying equips, flashed in, after timewalking the guy. It's a great feeling and I think it has some real potential with some refinement. I do think that Daze/Force/SFM/DRS or other dorks are mandatory though. Opening up Queller on T2, and being able to obscure your Queller/Sprite with an SFM->BSK threatening activation can potentially bait opponents into casting something. If they don't, you just spend your mana on DRS or SFM activations EoT and move on with your life.

IMO, the deck will work best when you have enough activation costs that you don't look like you're only holding it waiting for your opponent, and it requires you to "lean forward" and be aggressive since you want your opponent to get stuck on their back foot.

I think the 1-drop heavy Judge's Familiar and other spirit guy are garbage though. Sprite has *real* CA attached to it, T2, no strings attached. No "pay 1" nonsense either.

That said, this thread should probably quit talking about Spell Quellers ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tescrin

Personally I brewedup something that turned out to be similar to "Spiritblade" style deck but instead of bad 1-drops I'm running Spellstutter Sprite as Queller 5-8 and otherwise am a regular Deathblade deck. I'm not running Thalia (running Daze) but I've considered a swap there. Stutters are supported by Blossoms to keep them relevant and add grindy power for fair MUs.

I was quite happy with it in initial testing. Flash-Equip dudes who counter the removal or threats of your opponent. I haven't posted much about it because it's janky as hell and I don't have much in the way of results yet. Once I have enough "oomph" against Fair decks however, I expect to not be able to shut up about it. I got live the dream of "Spellqueller on Decay" to an opponent, then "Spellstutter your Plow" (might have been a brainstorm, can't remember) and was sitting with dudes, carrying equips, flashed in, after timewalking the guy. It's a great feeling and I think it has some real potential with some refinement. I do think that Daze/Force/SFM/DRS or other dorks are mandatory though. Opening up Queller on T2, and being able to obscure your Queller/Sprite with an SFM->BSK threatening activation can potentially bait opponents into casting something. If they don't, you just spend your mana on DRS or SFM activations EoT and move on with your life.

IMO, the deck will work best when you have enough activation costs that you don't look like you're only holding it waiting for your opponent, and it requires you to "lean forward" and be aggressive since you want your opponent to get stuck on their back foot.

I think the 1-drop heavy Judge's Familiar and other spirit guy are garbage though. Sprite has *real* CA attached to it, T2, no strings attached. No "pay 1" nonsense either.

That said, this thread should probably quit talking about Spell Quellers ;)

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Hate Drakes are always welcome :)

What's everyone's ratio of Zealous Persecution to Toxic Deluge in the sideboard?
I finally got around to getting a couple of TDs so now I have to figure out how to use them.
I've seen 2 ZP 1 TD, and 1 and 1 in lists that run both.

I'm currently leaning towards the 2 ZP and 1 TD config, is 3 sweeper effects too many?
This is a pretty unknown meta, but they're coming in mostly vs TNN and Elves which I feel are likely to be prominent.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DoomRabbit

What's everyone's ratio of Zealous Persecution to Toxic Deluge in the sideboard?
I finally got around to getting a couple of TDs so now I have to figure out how to use them.
I've seen 2 ZP 1 TD, and 1 and 1 in lists that run both.

I'm currently leaning towards the 2 ZP and 1 TD config, is 3 sweeper effects too many?
This is a pretty unknown meta, but they're coming in mostly vs TNN and Elves which I feel are likely to be prominent.

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I've ran a 2zp and 1td split before and liked it quite a bit. I was using ZP mainly vs TNN with upside vs DNT/Elves/Infect etc.. and TD as the haymaker against Elves and other decks where board wipes are good. I think in an unknown meta 2-3 sb sweepers are reasonable since they're good against some of our worst MU, handle TNN, and applicable elsewhere. If you go to 2 sweepers I would cut the 2nd ZP, just to have a more diverse sb plan.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Luthiereisfun

I've ran a 2zp and 1td split before and liked it quite a bit. I was using ZP mainly vs TNN with upside vs DNT/Elves/Infect etc.. and TD as the haymaker against Elves and other decks where board wipes are good. I think in an unknown meta 2-3 sb sweepers are reasonable since they're good against some of our worst MU, handle TNN, and applicable elsewhere. If you go to 2 sweepers I would cut the 2nd ZP, just to have a more diverse sb plan.

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What's so good about TD in sb? I understand that in matches where it shines we side out thalias, but I really don't want to lose my moms, even against Elves...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by aspsnake

What's so good about TD in sb? I understand that in matches where it shines we side out thalias, but I really don't want to lose my moms, even against Elves...

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losing moms > losing game. ZP can be quite awkward since they keep their DRS (when your best hope is for them to block an attacking mom you know you're fucked). TD whipes everything AND makes sure their cradle taps for 0 while still leaving kotr or the equipped creature alive.

Also it's a little more flexible, allowing you to clean a board with equipped creature and/or opposing bears.

2 zealous & 1 toxic it's probably the best option, vs elves u have canonists / jitte / orim's chant (if u play it) too.
right now i am trying to play side with 1 path to exile and 1 maelstrom pulse instead of 1 toxic, but probably i agree adding the third side global removal with 1 toxic

Just played at a Channelfireball 3k that got bumped to a 4k when 98 players showed up.

Under-performed overall, but them the beats.

It was seven rounds and I went 5-2, ending at 17th.

Round One: D&T 2-0

This was a fairly straight forward matchup and I won easily. He ran at least 2 Mirran Crusaders maindeck but without support they're just 2health victims to Jitte.

Round Two: D&T 1-2

Lost game one and three to a timely Palace Jailer. We traded cards early both games and I resolved a 4th turn Knight as the only card in play both times--but a turn 4 Jailer on his end simply put the game out of reach as summoning sickness kept preventing me from gaining back the tempo needed to beat his card draws.

Round Three: Elves 2-1

Hatebears into Dark Depths made this a super quick and easy match.

Round Four: Shardless 2-0

He never resolved Shardless Agent or Ancestral Visions, so even though I ended both games with no lands in play and only 2-3 creatures on board--it was more than enough to break him.

Round Five: Grixis Delver 1-2

Both games one and three were fast delver draws that I was a turn away from turning around. Missed three land drops game one while game three was ended by early double bolt + double delver before I could resolve Jitte.

Round Six: Abzan Nic Fit 2-1

Game one he resolved an early tracker and then Junded me to death, killing my guys while drawing cards. Games two and three I was able to untap with Knights and Prelates and the game was laughable.

Round Seven: Goblins 2-1

Dead on board and saved by Marit Lage game two, Revoker (on Aether Vial) wearing a SOFI ended game three.

In Review:

Little bummed my losses were favored match-ups, but that's why you practice and never take any opponent lightly. I was able to win my rough matches, but I feel like I'm under-prepared for my favored matches. Toxic was a house all day, but so was Abrupt Decay. There seems to be a massive dive in Shardless style slow BUG decks and a steady rise in more tempo oriented Delver strategies along with Death and Taxes starting to spike in popularity; might have to change the maindeck to adapt.

The List:

Creatures: 26
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Mother of Runes
4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Scryb Ranger
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Dryad Arbor

Spells: 13
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Batterskull
1 Maze of Ith
1 Dark Depths

Lands: 22
4 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Forest
2 Savannah
1 Bayou
1 Scrubland
1 Plains
1 Karakas
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Thespian's Stage

Sideboard: 14
3 Orim's Chant
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Toxic Deluge
2 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Sanctum Prelate
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Gaddock Teeg

I cut the 15 sideboard card so I can side down to 60 games two and three versus Delver/Tempo/Burn strategies. The sideboard definitely needs tweaking and I will be doing so a lot before Vegas. Still, 17th out of 99 is not bad and losing winnable matches means that the issue was me, not the deck--and I am fixable. Just need to make less mistakes and get luckier.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by aspsnake

From your report, it doesn't seem that depths were doing whole a lot [emoji14] Also, was Maze that useful outside of the Infect matchup?

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maze did well on infect but it was a wasteland target...
will probably board it if i go to the below route...

there were alot of times that depths was just a dead card, or thespian was there but no KOTR...
and would rather have a decay or a thoughtseize than that...haha
will try it without DD/TS combo...and will probably get a cradle and horizon if ever

(",)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by montoy

maze did well on infect but it was a wasteland target...
will probably board it if i go to the below route...

there were alot of times that depths was just a dead card, or thespian was there but no KOTR...
and would rather have a decay or a thoughtseize than that...haha
will try it without DD/TS combo...and will probably get a cradle and horizon if ever

(",)

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The slow decline of slow BUG decks is having me think the same thing. Right now its essential in the elves matchup for me, winning me essentially all my games against Elves.

But it used to also give me wins vs the various Shardless/Leovold/BUG decks that used to keep Miracles on its toes--with those disappearing it becomes harder to justify percentage points wise.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TMagpie

Just played at a Channelfireball 3k that got bumped to a 4k when 98 players showed up.

Under-performed overall, but them the beats.

It was seven rounds and I went 5-2, ending at 17th.

Round One: D&T 2-0

This was a fairly straight forward matchup and I won easily. He ran at least 2 Mirran Crusaders maindeck but without support they're just 2health victims to Jitte.

Round Two: D&T 1-2

Lost game one and three to a timely Palace Jailer. We traded cards early both games and I resolved a 4th turn Knight as the only card in play both times--but a turn 4 Jailer on his end simply put the game out of reach as summoning sickness kept preventing me from gaining back the tempo needed to beat his card draws.

Round Three: Elves 2-1

Hatebears into Dark Depths made this a super quick and easy match.

Round Four: Shardless 2-0

He never resolved Shardless Agent or Ancestral Visions, so even though I ended both games with no lands in play and only 2-3 creatures on board--it was more than enough to break him.

Round Five: Grixis Delver 1-2

Both games one and three were fast delver draws that I was a turn away from turning around. Missed three land drops game one while game three was ended by early double bolt + double delver before I could resolve Jitte.

Round Six: Abzan Nic Fit 2-1

Game one he resolved an early tracker and then Junded me to death, killing my guys while drawing cards. Games two and three I was able to untap with Knights and Prelates and the game was laughable.

Round Seven: Goblins 2-1

Dead on board and saved by Marit Lage game two, Revoker (on Aether Vial) wearing a SOFI ended game three.

In Review:

Little bummed my losses were favored match-ups, but that's why you practice and never take any opponent lightly. I was able to win my rough matches, but I feel like I'm under-prepared for my favored matches. Toxic was a house all day, but so was Abrupt Decay. There seems to be a massive dive in Shardless style slow BUG decks and a steady rise in more tempo oriented Delver strategies along with Death and Taxes starting to spike in popularity; might have to change the maindeck to adapt.

The List:

Creatures: 26
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Mother of Runes
4 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Scryb Ranger
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Dryad Arbor

Spells: 13
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Batterskull
1 Maze of Ith
1 Dark Depths

Lands: 22
4 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Forest
2 Savannah
1 Bayou
1 Scrubland
1 Plains
1 Karakas
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Thespian's Stage

Sideboard: 14
3 Orim's Chant
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Toxic Deluge
2 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Sanctum Prelate
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Gaddock Teeg

I cut the 15 sideboard card so I can side down to 60 games two and three versus Delver/Tempo/Burn strategies. The sideboard definitely needs tweaking and I will be doing so a lot before Vegas. Still, 17th out of 99 is not bad and losing winnable matches means that the issue was me, not the deck--and I am fixable. Just need to make less mistakes and get luckier.

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How do you like the full play set of stoneforge mystics? I've at times thought about going up to 3 given the awesome card advantage they provide.

Hi all,

I've been thinking why does Maverick go down in rankings on mtgtop8.com and found out that this is very possible due to combo & heavy CA control decks rising.
Therefore, I've decided to check the leading decks (5% of meta & more). These are: Grixis Delver (11%), Show&Tell (8%), Storm (8%), UWx Control (7%), BUG Midrange (6%) and D&T (5%). These are also the decks that we can be highly expecting to meet in top-8.

With the exception of D&T (which we have a positive matchup against), literally all or almost all of these decks run 8+ cantrips and are blue. This means that the following cards should normally be exceptionally strong right now:

- Spirit of the Labyrinth
- Chains of Mephistopheles
- Thalia, Guardian of Thraben (check)
- Choke (check)

What do you guys think of running 2 Spirits & 4 Thalias mainboard and 2 Chokes + 1 Chains in sb? This should help a lot. Chains screws us only on a Library (could be even dropped) and blue-red sword's drawing ability (not critical), but decks with Brainstorm and no Abrupt Decay (Grixis Delver, Show&Tell, UWx Control) are rather screwed unless they manually draw the right answer.

Alternatively, we could also splash blue for Leopold instead of running spirits (zenithable), but it seems clunky and then Chokes will probably go out.

Thoughts?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by aspsnake

Hi all,

I've been thinking why does Maverick go down in rankings on mtgtop8.com and found out that this is very possible due to combo & heavy CA control decks rising.
Therefore, I've decided to check the leading decks (5% of meta & more). These are: Grixis Delver (11%), Show&Tell (8%), Storm (8%), UWx Control (7%), BUG Midrange (6%) and D&T (5%). These are also the decks that we can be highly expecting to meet in top-8.

With the exception of D&T (which we have a positive matchup against), literally all or almost all of these decks run 8+ cantrips and are blue. This means that the following cards should normally be exceptionally strong right now:

- Spirit of the Labyrinth
- Chains of Mephistopheles
- Thalia, Guardian of Thraben (check)
- Choke (check)

What do you guys think of running 2 Spirits & 4 Thalias mainboard and 2 Chokes + 1 Chains in sb? This should help a lot. Chains screws us only on a Library (could be even dropped) and blue-red sword's drawing ability (not critical), but decks with Brainstorm and no Abrupt Decay (Grixis Delver, Show&Tell, UWx Control) are rather screwed unless they manually draw the right answer.

Alternatively, we could also splash blue for Leopold instead of running spirits (zenithable), but it seems clunky and then Chokes will probably go out.

Thoughts?

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Aren't all of those favorable matchups for Maverick?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ET1

How do you like the full play set of stoneforge mystics? I've at times thought about going up to 3 given the awesome card advantage they provide.

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I'm a huge fan of 4 Stoneforge on the blind, and I'm a bigger fan of it in BUG heavy metas. Oftentimes turn 2 stoneforge for Batterskull gives you an instant read on how much the opponent cares about life totals, the red zone, and his ability to deal with x/4 creatures. More often than not being able to bait removal early, followed by KotR can quickly end the game, but if they trump your Knight you just use it to ramp into the Batterskull anyway.

Saying that, I also do side out the package (2 SFM 1 BSkull) vs a lot of decks.

The other reason I love the card is because vs Belcher/TES/etc... where more often than not their kills are actually with Empty the Warrens, 4 SFM gives me a high chance of resolving a Skull on turn 3 to turn the tide of the goblin beats.

Definitely a fan of the higher sfm count. I feel like equipment has really become one of the key aspects to winning with Maverick in fair MU for me. If I can get that jitte online vs DnT/Elves/Infect its game over. If I can get SoFi online vs control or TNN it's game over. I used to see SFM just as extra copies of equipment for whatever the situation called for but I think it's more than that.

I run 3 equipment so the higher chance I have of having a sfm stick to start cheating in equipment the better. Currently at 3 sfm.

I ran three SFM in a GPT yesterday and being able to reliably fetch Jitte (even if the SFM died before dropping it) single handedly won me games against Infect and Burn that I otherwise had no business winning. SOFI helped me out against a BUG deck too. Batterskull came out pretty much every game and the few times I actually had it in hand it stayed in hand til the end, unfortunately.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RobNC

I ran three SFM in a GPT yesterday and being able to reliably fetch Jitte (even if the SFM died before dropping it) single handedly won me games against Infect and Burn that I otherwise had no business winning. SOFI helped me out against a BUG deck too. Batterskull came out pretty much every game and the few times I actually had it in hand it stayed in hand til the end, unfortunately.

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Honestly, I was (in blue) running an Elspeth, Knight-Errant and after playing a bit the other day replaced her with SFM #4. I think any time I saw the card I would've ended the game faster, had an easier time casting, etc.. the SFM, and would probably have gone 4-0 instead of 3-1 since I lost to BUG Delver via my own Blossom. Fact is, Jitte/BSK are such giant life-gain pools that you can turn the game on a dime.

Jitte has even been good for me as a clock against unfair decks like Lands. Swinging as a 5/5 or bigger can really bring the 20 life you gave them back to lethal in a hurry with some help.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TMagpie

Aren't all of those favorable matchups for Maverick?

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Grixis Delver: not really, with Cabal Therapy and tokens they can give us a bad day. And in sb they have some nukes, which doesn't help either.
UWx: nowadays there is a new trend to play with Thing in the Ice, which not only forces us to keep Swords in mainboard, but also can be quite nasty when you don't draw one. I think while it's obviously not Miracles, it's still a bad matchup.
Storm: I think it's mostly favorable, but there are hands sometimes that you just cannot beat.
Show&Tell: quite unfavorable.
BUG: Depends on the build, some are favorable, some (e.g. Delver with Hymns) are quite sloppy.

I wouldn't say that the meta is so Maverick-friendly atm, and statistics quite prove my point :p
But I've not been playing for a couple of month, I need to come back and check everything myself "in the field".

Hello,
i wanted to post a punishing fire list which im durdling around since the last 2 weeks now.
i have tested it against elves, grixis-delver, deathblade, esperblade and aggro loam lately...
and it felt very cute! (love Mindcensor, Ajani and E.Witness as cards in general)

in my opinion gw/b is strictly better - but i wanted to give pfire a try in our local meta.

are there any Red Mages out there?^^

1 Forrest
1 Plains
2 Savannah
2 Taiga
1 Plateau
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Bayou
1 Karakas
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
6 Fetchlands
3 Wastelands

1 Dryad Arbor
3 Deathrite Shaman
1 Noble Hierarch
1 Birds of Paradise
4 Mother of Runes
3 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Tireless Tracker
2 Qasal Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Scrybranger
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Eternal Witness

4 Green Suns Zenith
3 Swords to Plowshares
3 Punishing Fire
1 Ajani, Vengeant
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Umezawas Jitte

Sideboard:

1 Sudden Demise - Swarmdecks
2 Pyroblasts - antiblue
1 Ancient Grudge - anti Equipment
1 Wear/Tear - Anti Equipment/Enchantment
2 Ethersworn Canonist - Anticombo
2 Blessed Alliance - out to Nemesis,Progenitus, etc.
1 Councils Judgement - Anti Everything
2 Choke - fuck Islands!
1 Pithing Needle - allrounder
1 Phyrexian Revoker - allrounder
1 Engineered Explosives - another catch all

Quote:

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Originally Posted by aspsnake

Grixis Delver: not really, with Cabal Therapy and tokens they can give us a bad day. And in sb they have some nukes, which doesn't help either.
UWx: nowadays there is a new trend to play with Thing in the Ice, which not only forces us to keep Swords in mainboard, but also can be quite nasty when you don't draw one. I think while it's obviously not Miracles, it's still a bad matchup.
Storm: I think it's mostly favorable, but there are hands sometimes that you just cannot beat.
Show&Tell: quite unfavorable.
BUG: Depends on the build, some are favorable, some (e.g. Delver with Hymns) are quite sloppy.

I wouldn't say that the meta is so Maverick-friendly atm, and statistics quite prove my point :p
But I've not been playing for a couple of month, I need to come back and check everything myself "in the field".

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I find Grixis Delver super favorable, and I rarely if ever lose to it unless they do something like double delver daze, force, double bolt like they did last time. But otherwise I'm happy to see the volc/underground combo on their side.

Same with BUG. My losses to all versions of it are few and far between.

Show and Tell is a bit weirder. The more red they are the deader they are. I've lost maybe 1-2 matches versus Sneak and Show in the past 2-3 years while I've only beaten mono-blue omnishow 3-4 times in that same time span. For the most part, if they lean on sneak attack I find the match almost a bye.

As for the UW decks, counterbalance was never the issue and they are still Terminus decks. Not much has changed in that matchup post-top.

EDIT
Spacing fix for clarity.

http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=15687&d=295920&f=LE

4x stoneforge maverick, still something i am thinking sometimes too



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






i will probably try something similar
replacing 1 thalia e 1 decay for 2 mirri's guile so 4xzenith + 4xstoneforge + 8 fetches + knights will be used at best (power-shufflling!)
or maybe 4 thalia with 61 cards since with mirri + library u can avoid drawing the second thalia if not needed

and probably 1 equip into the side, like light and shadow or gusari




1 question :
4xmothers or 3x with 1x safekeeper?
it's always my doubt

After messing around with a lot of weird takes on various decks I decided to go back to basics and played this g/w list (or very nearly this list) to a 4-1 finish in a league tonight:

http://i.imgur.com/J2D2m32.png

lost to new miracles, beat DnT, aluren, new miracles, bug delver.

one difference between the list i played and what's posted was having a 2nd pridemage over the scryb ranger. I missed the ranger and added it back after the league but I also won a game wholly on the back of canopy'ing into a pridemage on the last possible turn to avoid dying to a jitte from DnT. So I also feel a little bad about cutting the 2nd pridemage. This deck also really wants a cradle to go with the tireless tracker, but I don't have one (yet). lastly, I dropped titania for an elspeth, knight errant. dunno which is actually better, but without the aforementioned cradle I don't think a zenith for titania end-game is actually viable. and even if it is sigarda is probably better.

overall the deck felt pretty good, though it also feels like it's much less of a knight deck than it used to be. or at least, the meta is such that knight was rarely the best thing I could be doing (though knight + mom + safe keeper was a KO game one against bug delver. then again in the 2nd game there were 3 active death rites and i never even played the knight in my hand.) on the flip side, rallier is great and is what I zenith for on 3 most often. baiting removal on stoneforge just to rallier it back is great. getting multiple uses out of pridemage is great. I even baited a miracles player into ambushing my teeg with a snapcaster and got it back. there are just so many lightning rods in this deck and there's a lot more bolt/decay/push than swords at the moment.

one card I occasionally want to play in the board though I've never actually gotten around to it: daybreak ranger. has anyone tried that guy? maybe if you're willing to splash red you just play huntmaster? I want a repeatable source of removal. maybe that's just punishing fire.

hi guys

what are your thoughts on running 3x SFM then (SOFI, SOLAS, jitte) over (SOFI, batterskull, jitte)

is the logic that on an unlucky draw BS will get stuck on your hand worse case that SFM doesn't show up.
that in a senario that you draw any of the sword or jitte, so you can play it anytime.

cheers (",)

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Originally Posted by smutko

After messing around with a lot of weird takes on various decks I decided to go back to basics and played this g/w list (or very nearly this list) to a 4-1 finish in a league tonight:

http://i.imgur.com/J2D2m32.png

lost to new miracles, beat DnT, aluren, new miracles, bug delver.

one difference between the list i played and what's posted was having a 2nd pridemage over the scryb ranger. I missed the ranger and added it back after the league but I also won a game wholly on the back of canopy'ing into a pridemage on the last possible turn to avoid dying to a jitte from DnT. So I also feel a little bad about cutting the 2nd pridemage. This deck also really wants a cradle to go with the tireless tracker, but I don't have one (yet). lastly, I dropped titania for an elspeth, knight errant. dunno which is actually better, but without the aforementioned cradle I don't think a zenith for titania end-game is actually viable. and even if it is sigarda is probably better.

overall the deck felt pretty good, though it also feels like it's much less of a knight deck than it used to be. or at least, the meta is such that knight was rarely the best thing I could be doing (though knight + mom + safe keeper was a KO game one against bug delver. then again in the 2nd game there were 3 active death rites and i never even played the knight in my hand.) on the flip side, rallier is great and is what I zenith for on 3 most often. baiting removal on stoneforge just to rallier it back is great. getting multiple uses out of pridemage is great. I even baited a miracles player into ambushing my teeg with a snapcaster and got it back. there are just so many lightning rods in this deck and there's a lot more bolt/decay/push than swords at the moment.

one card I occasionally want to play in the board though I've never actually gotten around to it: daybreak ranger. has anyone tried that guy? maybe if you're willing to splash red you just play huntmaster? I want a repeatable source of removal. maybe that's just punishing fire.

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It's really slow, but Master of The Wild Hunt is also repeatable removal that also is a token generator and doesn't require a red splash

I'd honestly cut a KotR for the QPM you desire. That's still *7* KotR in the maindeck. I don't think you'll hardly notice.

On worthwhile repeatable removal:
* Dudes who do it:
Grim Lavamancer
Granger Guildmage
Shadow Guildmage
Tooth Collector ... maybe.. If you have 4 types you can actually kill two things before they can respond.
* Life from the Loam + Barbarian Ring or Cabal Pit - Also removal that you can get from KotR!

Out of these, I've personally used Lavaman and Loam + Pit. Loam + Pit is quite good and pit being fetchable by KotR is handy without it being an engine. I like this one because it gets through Mom reliably.
Of note on PFire and similar against Mom: You can, in response, use your own Mom to give their dude protection from white, fizzlling their mom trigger and allowing your card to resolve.


All that said, I'd probably just look for Zealous Persecution or similar. Repeat Removal is fun but it's always clunky. You can get similar CA from boardwipes

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Originally Posted by tescrin

You can, in response, use your own Mom to give their dude protection from white, fizzlling their mom trigger and allowing your card to resolve.

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Nope, Mom may target only your creatures

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Originally Posted by montoy

hi guys

what are your thoughts on running 3x SFM then (SOFI, SOLAS, jitte) over (SOFI, batterskull, jitte)

is the logic that on an unlucky draw BS will get stuck on your hand worse case that SFM doesn't show up.
that in a senario that you draw any of the sword or jitte, so you can play it anytime.

cheers (",)

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1 - the main issue of running sword of light and shadow main is the amount of delver decks that run shamans into the meta, when they will remove the target of your reanimation u will cry tears of blood

same reason i prefer not to run ralliers, in main deck u run kotr and shamans.... grave hates will kill u


2- batterskull costs rly much but many decks lose when u place it main : grixis + burn + bug ecc

3- light and shadow is good but not vs all decks, only vs 2-3 (taxes-deathblade-pikula-bug)

4- batterskull > decay

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Originally Posted by calcymon

1 - the main issue of running sword of light and shadow main is the amount of delver decks that run shamans into the meta, when they will remove the target of your reanimation u will cry tears of blood

same reason i prefer not to run ralliers, in main deck u run kotr and shamans.... grave hates will kill u


2- batterskull costs rly much but many decks lose when u place it main : grixis + burn + bug ecc

3- light and shadow is good but not vs all decks, only vs 2-3 (taxes-deathblade-pikula-bug)

4- batterskull > decay

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Its also important to remember that SOLAS protects your creatures from your own Mother of Runes, meaning Thalia with a SOLAS can be bolted, KotR with a SOLAS can be JTMS bounced, etc...

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Originally Posted by TMagpie

Its also important to remember that SOLAS protects your creatures from your own Mother of Runes, meaning Thalia with a SOLAS can be bolted, KotR with a SOLAS can be JTMS bounced, etc...

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Yet another way in which SOLAS is awkward AF. In my experience, SOLAS rarely does anything. Dead guys are often eaten by DRS, exiled with StP, or tucked with Terminus anyways.

The card looks sweet, but it just isn't as useful and effective as the other 3 equips.

There's probably pages of discussion regarding equipment types to run.

The first pair of equipment is always undisputed Jitte and SoFI. The last piece is hotly debated between SoLS and Batterskull. I've tried both, and think that Batterskull is a crutch that isn't necessary in a well built Maverick deck. A typical Maverick list isn't constructed with 4 SFM to maximize opportunity to activate and reactive Batterskull. The lifegain is rarely important. Against Burn, while you improve the Game 1 opportunity to win, you are worse off in G2/3 because of more dedicated artifact destruction, limiting the chance to capitalize from an early SFM into Batterskull. If you want better cards against Burn, play Rhox War Monk or Circle of Protection: Red instead.

SoLS is better against Death & Taxes, as it gives protection against their entire decks minus Phyrexian Revoker. It's better against BUG as it gets past Deathrite Shaman. Batterskull is lacking in these matchups.

Situationally, you should be able to determine when you need SoFI or SoLS more.

The premise that SoLS is worse because a Thalia dies to Bolt misses the point that all of Maverick's creatures die to Bolt in all the turns leading to a Sword being equipped. Additionally, opponent removing a creature with DRS doesn't lessen SoLS's impact on the board. the recursion is gravy; but not necessary. If recursion was necessary, we'd see more Eternal Witness.

Bottom line, SoLS gives you more options for outplaying your opponent than Batterskull.

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Originally Posted by Koby

There's probably pages of discussion regarding equipment types to run.

The first pair of equipment is always undisputed Jitte and SoFI. The last piece is hotly debated between SoLS and Batterskull. I've tried both, and think that Batterskull is a crutch that isn't necessary in a well built Maverick deck. A typical Maverick list isn't constructed with 4 SFM to maximize opportunity to activate and reactive Batterskull. The lifegain is rarely important. Against Burn, while you improve the Game 1 opportunity to win, you are worse off in G2/3 because of more dedicated artifact destruction, limiting the chance to capitalize from an early SFM into Batterskull. If you want better cards against Burn, play Rhox War Monk or Circle of Protection: Red instead.

SoLS is better against Death & Taxes, as it gives protection against their entire decks minus Phyrexian Revoker. It's better against BUG as it gets past Deathrite Shaman. Batterskull is lacking in these matchups.

Situationally, you should be able to determine when you need SoFI or SoLS more.

The premise that SoLS is worse because a Thalia dies to Bolt misses the point that all of Maverick's creatures die to Bolt in all the turns leading to a Sword being equipped. Additionally, opponent removing a creature with DRS doesn't lessen SoLS's impact on the board. the recursion is gravy; but not necessary. If recursion was necessary, we'd see more Eternal Witness.

Bottom line, SoLS gives you more options for outplaying your opponent than Batterskull.

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If what you want is situational life gain with limited evasion then I would rather run Loxodon Warhammer so that I get past D&T, Truename Nemesis, AND Elf Bounce tricks.

The ONLY reason SoLS is useful is because it stops Swords to Plowshares--a job Mother of Runes and arguable Sanctum Prelate already does better.

SoFI was not even used much at all UNTIL the printing of True-Name Nemesis. Everyone ran Batterskull and Jitte and people would argue over whether or not you wanted a SOFAF or just run two equipment. Pre-printing of True-Name the arguments were primarily whether or not you'd rather have 2x Jitte or 1x Jitte 1x Batterskull.

This is not to say that Batterskull is necessary. If you would rather run 2x Stoneforge Mystic then by all means cut the batterskull. The whole point of running 4 SFM and 1x Batterskull is so that we have a 2cc 4/4 that can outrace every non-reanimator threat in legacy. And realistically it outraces a few of those as well.

Batterskull is not an "answer" to decks--it is a threat, it a card that forces the opponent to answer it or die. Its used because once you have it in your hand, they have to kill the SFM or risk having the bouncing batterskull just run them out of removal as you keep remaking the token over and over again.

They are not in the same conversation nor are they fighting over the same slots JUST because they are both equipment. SoLAS is if you think 3 life a turn + evasion against death and taxes is worth a slot in your deck. That is it. Batterskull is if you want a threat that is resistant to late game removal and can be cheated early into play. That's it. They are different cards with different purposes.

If you think Maverick is proactive--then run BSkull
If you think Mavertick is reactive--then run SoLAS

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SoFI was not even used much at all UNTIL the printing of True-Name Nemesis. Everyone ran Batterskull and Jitte and people would argue over whether or not you wanted a SOFAF or just run two equipment. Pre-printing of True-Name the arguments were primarily whether or not you'd rather have 2x Jitte or 1x Jitte 1x Batterskull.

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Thats not even true, but you can play the deck however you want. You even mentioned you board out batterskull in your event report. Maverick simply isnt a SFM deck; it's a deck using SFM.

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Originally Posted by Koby

Maverick simply isnt a SFM deck; it's a deck using SFM.

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^^ this!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Koby

Thats not even true, but you can play the deck however you want. You even mentioned you board out batterskull in your event report. Maverick simply isnt a SFM deck; it's a deck using SFM.

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I never argued that Maverick should be a SFM deck. I am simply pointing out why people use Batterskull, its purpose, and its role in the deck. Just as I said in my report--I would side it out when I didn't need a 4/4 beater without evasion (such as vs elves), I would have also sided out SoLAS had I used it.

In the past when I did use SOLAS it was a SB card for D&T and Burn. Since then the card has become irrelevant in those matchups as you don't need it to win either one.

If you enjoy running 4 SFM, then you should run BSkull. If you don't want to run the full SFM package then you shouldn't run BSkull. Its that simple.

But if I were to add a 3rd non-BSkull equipment, I would use SOFAF, SOBAM, SOWAP, and Loxodon Warhammer before I use SOLAS. And if I simply wanted to cut down to 2 SFM, I would simply run Jitte + SOFI and not run a 3rd equipment at all. And if they banned True-Name Nemesis, I woudn't even bother running SOFI and just go 2x Jitte.

SOLAS is that damn low in the totem pole.

SOLAS was another great angle vs Miracles, (SOLAS + teeg = GG before mentor was a thing) since the ban it's come out of my sideboard.
With the new miracles on the rise, that is once again a lock, but depends on the meta share of that deck, might not be worth the sideboard slot.

Has anyone tried Blessed Alliance?

Now that the meta has shifted to more midrange/combo I believe it's a versatile card to have in SB

i play 2 in sideboard at the moment and i think 1 is the right number and its worth a try against many creature based decks.. until now i only used the sac ability against my enemies - but also untapping a knight/mom or gain some life can be huge too for suprise effects

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DoomRabbit

SOLAS was another great angle vs Miracles, (SOLAS + teeg = GG before mentor was a thing) since the ban it's come out of my sideboard.
With the new miracles on the rise, that is once again a lock, but depends on the meta share of that deck, might not be worth the sideboard slot.

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How is that better than SOWAP which hits harder, gains more life, and protects Teeg from Rending Volley.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TMagpie

How is that better than SOWAP which hits harder, gains more life, and protects Teeg from Rending Volley.

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Because SoLaS is much better against the field if you're putting it in the main:
* Recurring dudes is CA
* Pro Black => Angler/Lage/Grisel/etc can't get you
* Pro White + Black => No legacy removal can hit your guy; so they have to find a Command/Decay/QPM or die
* Non-conditional Life gain is nice

I don't see how it's "Reactive" either. It's just a stappable CA engine that helps your stuff grind. BSK has issues with being equippable when you drop a guy, which can be a problem if you are top-decking and don't want to spend 8 mana. If instead you plop Mom on the field, give her a strap on, and go for it...

...well I mean.. no one wants that.