Originally Posted by
Telkku
Little report about Maverick doing some work. Havent wrote anything here in a long time and now after couple good finishes and trying out little variations, it was the time i shared my list and thoughts. As said havent wrote here in a long time, youll find my signature probably like 100-150 pages ago so im no new to Maverick, only legacy deck ive played past couple years (in tournaments). First of course the good'ol GW build and after testing ( losing to everything ) with it again for fun i decided i just need to use some of the cards that are better ( BoB / Thoughtseize / Abrupt Decay ) than some in the old list ( too many Oozes / Qasalis / etc. ) and updated it couple months ago. Since then the deck has been performing really well and before the tournaments and scouting the metagame ive made only slight changes. I went to local stores legacy wednesday couple weeks ago and 4-0'd and then last weekend i played at 40 people tournament at Tampere, Finland and heres a quick recap what happened.
First of all this is the list ive perfected after a lot of playtesting and experience with different variations and interactions of Maverick. ( live with my mates and "some" time spent on MWS )
Lands:
1 x Plains
1 x Forest
1 x Gaea's Cradle
1 x Dryad Arbor
1 x Maze of Ith
1 x Scrubland
2 x Bayou
3 x Verdant Catacombs
4 x Windswept Heath
4 x Savannah
4 x Wasteland
Creatures:
1 x Scryb Ranger
1 x Qasali Pridemage
1 x Scavenging Ooze
1 x Gaddock Teeg
1 x Stoneforge Mystic
4 x Mother of Runes
4 x Dark Confidant
4 x Deathrite Shaman
4 x Knight of the Reliquary
Instant & Sorcery:
4 x Green Sun's Zenith
4 x Swords to Plowshares
3 x Abrupt Decay
2 x Thoughtseize
Enchantment & Artifact:
1 x Sylvan Library
2 x Umezawa's Jitte
SB:
3 x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 x Duress
1 x Abrupt Decay
1 x Karakas
1 x Bojuka Bog
2 x Relic of Progenitus
1 x Oblivion Ring
1 x Pithing Needle
1 x Ethersworn Canonist
1 x Enlightened Tutor
1 x Sigarda, Host of Herons
So this is the list without metagame adjustments. After snooping around and asking people about the meta i decided to switch 3 x Thalia in and take 2 x Thoughtseize and 1 x Gaddock teeg out. Also i took my 2nd Enlightened Tutor out of the SB and replaced it with 2nd Duress.
So its 11 o'clock at the sunday morning and im chatting with my friend about the fact that i bet out of all the ppl im gonna get randomized versus him cause that has happened in every standard tournament in past 2 - 3 months and i really didnt want to face him cause he played Omnitell. So the inevitable happens and i really got paired against him. I cant do anything else than just laugh.
Game 1, Omnitell
g1 i miss GW maverick cause when he casts show and tell and the table looked something like : Deathrite, Ooze, BoB, and fresh KotR from s'n't and opposing side has Emrakul and 0 cards in hand. But as you can see by looking my decklist, that the list is so tight i have to keep Karakas on the SB and i scoop in misery. g2 i dont remember much, he mulled down to 5 i think and i get hatebears to handle the things. g3 my opening hand looks really good but the problem is that he will start. First turn Mom followed by thalia slows him down and then i get to GSZ for gaddock teeg. Hes at 3 life and show and tell's Omnisciense to the table, thinks abit and tells me hes one mana short cause of thalia and shakes my hand. Phew, im smiling and cant stop it. Worst matchup won as a first game promises good. Result: 2-1
Game 2, Esper Deathblade
Matchup that i was waiting and when i saw first lands hit the ground i knew that im not supposed to lose this, abrupt decay is the nuts in this one and after miserable draws on game 2 i win pretty easily the game 3 too. I didnt know my opponent well, only thing was that i heard hes a good player, as a sidepoint he came to me in some point and asked me if i wanna buy the deck cause hes bored playing it :D Not much else to tell about this game. Result 2-1
Game 3 Reanimator
I just hate the deck, i mean i would never ever touch reanimator so of course im forced to play against it, thank you gods of magic.. g1 he gets turn 3 Iona but after thinking like 5 minutes he says "black" cause he has played against me when i played my friends "Rock" so he fears Liliana. I topdeck Ooze 1 turn too late and he hits with Iona. Next turn i topdeck Maze of Ith and then starts the sitting. After a while he casts Show and Tell and slams down Griselbrand but meanwhile my shaman has done some work and ive gotten him down to 8 so he cant activate Grisles ridonkulous ability, i slammed down allmighty Bob who then immediatly helps me to find Stop and i say bye bye to mister Griselbrand. My Ooze has gotten bigger than hes Iona and eventhough he gets to cheat Elesh Norn into play, Ooze drives me home safely. g2 is all about my SB and wasteland, i think he had max 1 land the whole game. Result 2-0
Game 4, BR Zombartment
I really didnt know well what im facing but i was confident that i should be the runner up in this one. Game 1 once again Abrupt Decay and Stop handles the early Blasting station and creatures while Bob digs me Jitte and after opponent sees it he says " lets go for the other ". In 2nd game my turn 1 Thoughtseize shows me Contamination that i quickly tell him to discard. After that its all Bob and when Jitte shows up the game is over. I have to give props for the nice brew though. Result : 4-0
After this starts the calculation, can i ID allready? I get paired with Oops, Allspells and i just hope my opponent wants to ID and he does. We watch others play and chat abit.
Then i get paired against UWR Delver/Geist and again we do little math and decide to ID cause we both get top 4 like this and get the " hey i dont need a die roll to start these games " . I want to play against him for fun and he agrees. Game 1 and 3 are easy ( like last time we played eachother ) but in game 2 i keep the worst hand of the day ( maybe cause it wasnt so serioius game ) and Geist kills me quite fast. Its a really good matchup for me and i hope we meet at top 8.
So after all the dust has settled i see myself positioned at 2nd place after Swizz. Then i see who im gonna face and start crying inside, TES.. one of the matchups that can be too fast for me. The other thing i was missing was my thoughtseizes in the sideboard. At least i get to start the game.
Top 8 Quarters, TES
I play turn 1 Deathrite and he ponders. Im getting a little optimistic at this point cause he has nonbasic in play and i have 2 wastelands in hand. I play Bob and waste hes land and pass. Next turn he puts another nonbasic into play and brainstorms. Bob gives me gas and i waste the other land. Bob drives me home with a little help and im amazed that i won TES game 1 without any hatebears, sometimes you get lucky. Game 2 he doesnt have the combo pieces ready as fast as he needed and i get to turn 1 duress, turn 2 thalia, turn 3 ethersworn canonist and turn 4 gaddock teeg with GSZ. He thinks out hes options and quickly shakes my hand. At this point im already happy cause ive won 2 really hard matchups.
Im gonna write the rest tomorrow since i noticed its 4.26 am..
If and when you guys wanna ask " why this card and why not that card " or any other questions about this deck or maverick overall, hit me. And after reading the previous posts and playing with and against punishing fire Mav, ( not trying to undermine it at all, its totally functional card and strategy ) in a cardgame that theres punishing fire vs abrupt decay, i would bet my chips on abrupt decay any day. That is cause the current meta ( not only here, as said i practice vs all the tier 1 decks ) is what it is and decay just does more overall than punishing fire. But im encouraging you to test both and find the right one for yourself, as long as you play Maverick you cant go wrong :)
-Telkku