Blanks tarmogoyf and DRS and gives him another creature that he has to abrupt decay. Between knight and ooze(and equipment if you play it) he only has 4 decays.
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Blanks tarmogoyf and DRS and gives him another creature that he has to abrupt decay. Between knight and ooze(and equipment if you play it) he only has 4 decays.
I've been building Dark Maverick for a local tournament, and here's my current maindeck:
1 Birds of Paradise
2 Deathrite Shaman
3 Mother of Runes
2 Noble Hierarch
1 Sylvan Safekeeper
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Quasali Pridemage
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Scryb Ranger
2 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
4 Green Sun's Zenith
3 Swords to Plowshares
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Sylvan Library
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
4 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath
3 Savannah
2 Bayou
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Karakas
1 Scrubland
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Forest
1 Plains
Sideboard:
3 Oblivion Ring
2 Choke
2 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Zealous Persecution
2 Thoughtseize
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Ravenous Trap
1 Tormod's Crypt
I'm making room for Gaea's Cradle to support Sigarda and Ooze, and I'll probably end up cutting the Cavern for it. I'm also considering replacing the last two Hierarchs with Deathrite Shamans to dodge Nemesis hate. Are five fetchlands plus wastelands enough to support a full set of shamans as mana producers? Other cards I'd love to include somewhere in the 75 are Life from the Loam, Kitchen Finks, Garruk Relentless and Thrun, the last Troll. The sideboard is tentative to say the least; feedback is appreciated.
I expect a fairly diverse meta, with a variety of tempo decks and quite a bit of combo. Dredge, Elves, Oops and various S&T variants are all likely to show up.
I'd up your Noble Hierarch count. Even though it suffers from the same problem of dying to Golgari Charm, having Exalted is a real thing, as is developing your manabase in a Deathrite Shaman heavy environment. Nothing's worse than trying to develop when they have an active shaman out.Quote:
Originally Posted by Moroklumpen
I'd also think to cut something for another Qasali. It's a good one to have in an equipment heavy metagame.
-Matt
Honestly I don't know if this is correct or not; but I've been moving Mom to board for other things...
With so many ppl running delver, Tnn, Tnn hates, etc. mom does less and less for me.
Don't get me wrong, when mom is online she's very good, but I find it every time I have mom out she will just dies instantly to all sort of different things.
Also I agree to stick with noble hierarch. The opponent is not always gonna to give land for your shaman to make mana and it's never a good idea to draw land from your gy (for obvious reason). The +1 comes in hand too.
Agreed, I'd pull your two out of:Quote:
Originally Posted by sdematt
SFM
Thalia
StoP
AD
in some combination, your druthers.
Good point. I could drop the Bird for a Hierarch, but I kinda liked having it for mana stability and sword bearing.
Do equipment decks prioritize Batterskull against Maverick? I figured they'd go for Jitte or perhaps a sword, and I have Abrupt Decays for those. If you disagree I'll try to squeeze in another Pridemage.
My problem with cutting two of those is the risk of ending up with to many low impact cards. I already have a bunch of one-drops, and getting into topdeck wars without Sylvan Library sucks pretty badly already. My instinct at the moment is switching Birds for a Hierarch and one AD for a Pridemage. How does that sound?Quote:
Originally Posted by Luklinda
Against the average Maverick board state, I would always go for Jitte. Why? Mother of Runes. I know she SEEMS low impact, but she's doing work. She's making your opponent have to 2-for-1 themselves to get ahead. Jitte gets around her, so I'd always opt for Jitte given the opportunity.Quote:
Originally Posted by Moroklumpen
And for you, Mom is allowing you to not block TNN, but swing PAST him with equipment to connect to THEIR face, which is a huge deal in a matchup where you've got a bunch of little guys supporting 4 big beaters.
I think you pull the Decay or STP. Decay is better in an equipment meta, but will always be harder to cast for this deck. You want at least 4 pieces of spot removal total, though.
Birds does give you some edge with equipment, though. With exalted, it means it'll connect with a Jitte and collect counters. I'd rather just leave in a value Deathrite Shaman. It gives you some edge to tutor for in a lock out situation (Ensnaring Bridge, Moat, etc.) or when you just want to remove creatures/spells. Ooze will always be strictly better for graveyard removal, though.
I would run:
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Deathrite Shaman
3 Noble Hierarch
3 Mother of Runes
1 Sylvan Safekeeper
1 Gaddock Teeg
2 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Scryb Ranger
2 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
4 Green Sun's Zenith
3 Swords to Plowshares
3 Abrupt Decay
2 Sylvan Library
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
3 Wasteland
1 Gaea's Cradle
4 Windswept Heath
3 Savannah
2 Bayou
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Karakas
1 Scrubland
1 Verdant Catacombs
2 Forest
1 Plains
Sideboard: (really depends on what you expect to face)
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Scavenging Ooze
2 Zealous Persecution
2 Thoughtseize
1 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Equipment (pro Blue or Batterskull)
1 Bojuka Bog
3 Open (depends how much graveyard, Combo, or Miracles you see. Could be Pithing Needle for stuff like Top, Deed, Sneak Attack, Griselbrand, Jace, etc. or Path to Exile if you're facing infinite aggro.deck)
Just my opinion.
-Matt
Here's what I ended up running:
2 Deathrite Shaman
3 Mother of Runes
3 Noble Hierarch
1 Sylvan Safekeeper
1 Gaddock Teeg
2 Quasali Pridemage
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Scryb Ranger
2 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
4 Green Sun's Zenith
3 Swords to Plowshares
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Sylvan Library
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
4 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath
3 Savannah
2 Bayou
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Karakas
1 Scrubland
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Forest
1 Plains
Sideboard:
3 Oblivion Ring
2 Duress
2 Thoughtseize
2 Zealous Persecution
1 Choke
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Purge the Grave
1 Ravenous Trap
I was going to play Tormod's Crypt over Purge, but couldn't find one in time. Impressive, I know.
I'll consider Birds over one DRS next time, though I was pretty pleased with the maindeck overall. The sideboard got spread a bit thin, but I really wanted more discard and ended up shaving what I considered to be two of the least essensial cards - one Canonist and one Choke. Part of the reason was the large number of new players at the tournament, which made me expect lots of burn. Duress is a lot better than Thoughtseize in that matchup, and still good against those decks Choke and Canonist would come in against.
Here's a report of sorts:
Round 1: Welder MUD
A little pre-game chat indicated that my opponent was a fairly experienced player, having played some S&T variant before but switched before the tournament. He went first in game one, dropped Cavern naming goblin and immediately threw me a curveball by playing Welder and Mox Opal. I assumed that meant Painter/Stone. I wasted the cavern and passed back, and he didn't have another land. I played MoR, he drew and passed. I got a Cradle out and kept adding stuff to the board; he kept struggling, dying to beats before showing me anything significant.
I don't remember exactly how I sided, but I did grab some discard to break up the assumed combo and some extra grave hate to trump the Welder.
In game two he played some sol lands into Grim Monolith, and I struggled to interact with a mediocre hand when he dropped a Lodestone Golem. I hade removal for it, but he followed it up with Metalworker and Kuldotha Forgemaster and I decided those were bigger threats. He eventually dropped Wurmcoil Engine and Sundering Titan, and it was lights out. I took out one Thalia and something else for a couple of Oblivion Rings.
In game three he started chaining Grim Monoliths, having three tapped ones at one point. I tried to use my Wastelands aggressively to keep him off untap mana, and succeed to some degree. I did manage to build up a board of Knight, Thalia and equipment, but failed to choke his mana off entirely. He eventually dropped Wurmcoil, and I had to start blocking with Thalia and bouncing her with Karakas to keep him from pulling too far ahead. He finally managed to scrape together twelve mana and dropped Blightsteel Colossus. Fortunately, I drew Elspeth and managed to jump my equipped knight for pretty much exactsies.
1-0 (2-1)
Round 2: BUG Explorer Pod.
Curses. My opponent this round was also my testing mate, and the matchup is terrible. In game one he lead with Swamp into Tropical Island (or possibly Island -> Bayou) and started chaining Tidehollow Strixes. Fortunately, he failed to hit another land, allowing me to waste him out of green, stranding a Veteran Explorer in his hand (he admitted afterwards this was a greedy play on his part). I then got an actice Jitte on a knight and he scooped soon after.
I took out two Thalias and two Deathrite Shamans for 2x Thoughtseize and 2x Oblivion Ring. The latter, I soon realize, was a mistake.
I almost took the match when I got an active knight after a board wipe (I believe he drew three Pernicious Deeds in this game. making my O-Ring pretty bad), but punted by not zenithing for Sylvan Safekeeper. He stole the knight with Sower of Temptation and took the game.
I took the O-Rings back out for (IIRC) 2x Duress.
Game three went like our testing usually did; he deeded away my early lead and ground me out with value critters.
1-1 (3-3)
Round 3: Elves
While we shuffled and chatted, my opponent held his (split) deck with the card faces against me for an unmissable moment, revealing Windswept Heath and Wirewood Symbiote. This allowed me to mulligan a hand that did nothing against elves, but my six was still pretty mediocre and I really didn't want to go to five. While his draw was on the slow side for an elf deck, I had too little interaction and ended up scooping when he flooded the board with little green guys.
I sided in 2x Thoughtseize, 2x Zealous Persecution and Ethersworn Canonist for slow and useless stuff.
Again, his draw was a bit slow, and I got an active knight that beat him down to five. He started populating the board and building momentum, and I punted pretty badly when I Thoughtseized him, taking Zenith over 'Hoof when I had just drawn Gaddock Teeg. Fortunately, I drew Scryb Ranger and flew across for the last points of damage just before he could close it out.
In game 3, I managed to stifle his development with some removal, but he beat me down pretty effectively. I established a board of Knight, Stoneforge Mystic with Jitte, Mom and eventually Elspeth, but he forced me to use all the Jitte counters on his Deathrite Shamans, who would otherwise have ended the game very quickly. He then played Natural Order, but realizing that the 'Hoof would be smaller than my Knight, got Progenitus instead, since it would be lethal the turn after. Like a champ, I ripped Sword of Fire and Ice with just enough mana to play and equip it. Elspeth jumped the knight, Mom runed SFM against green, and I swung past Proggie for just a bit more than lethal.
2-1 (6-3)
Round 4: U/W/r Miracles
The funniest thing about this game was the pre-game sequence. I have a long-standing reputation as the local Dredge guy, having played the deck since before the Survival banning (i.e. since the beginning of the legacy revival in Oslo). To capitalize on this reputation, I put a handful of zombie tokens in my deckbox, leaving them visible. It hadn't mattered before since my previous opponents didn't know me well enough, but my current opponent did and bought the bluff entirely. Unfortunately, I mulled to four without seeing a playable hand, and scooped game one without showing him anything, having ascertained that he was on miracles.
I sided out all Swords to Plowshares and both Oozes, taking in Thoughtseize, Duress and Choke.
In game two I went first, playing Heath for Savannah into Mom. The look on my opponent's face was a marvel to behold, and he proceeded to call me a bunch of stuff that could possibly have earned him a penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct if 1) a judge (other than myself) had heard and 2) I hadn't been quite certain that he didn't really mean it and was merely expressing surprise and self-reproach for having bought the bluff and sided for the wrong matchup (right, Mads?).
In any case, the game was pretty close, but I never managed to establish the Mom/Safekeeper+Teeg lock. Eventually, he made my team disappear and made a couple of angels. I was lacking black mana for the Decay in my hand, but managed to drop Mystic and Sword it up. I almost managed to race, but on a critical turn I drew Thoughtseize instead of a black source, and then he dropped Moat. After that, finally drawing Bayou and killing one Angel merely delayed the end.
2-2 (6-5) and almost certainly out of top eight contention. Still, there were league points on the line, and who knew? Maybe all the undefeated players had some bad baguettes and got food poisoning.
Round 5: Miracles. Again.
Oh great. Another familiar player, but not as experienced with the miracle deck as my previous opponent. He did know what I was playing, though. In game one he apparently had a hand with several counters but little on-board interaction, because he Forced two of my early plays, allowing me to resolve Sylvan Library and Knight of the Reliquary later. This gave me a massive advantage, allowing me to take game 1 fairly easily.
I sided like last round.
I can't remember whether we played two or three games; I think it was two.
In the last game I managed to draw out some counters and removal before zenithing for Teeg and dropping Safekeeper. Wrong order, I know, but it worked out (in fact, he might have Terminus'ed away the Safekeeper if I had dropped it before Zenithing). He drew no outs and died.
3-2 (8-5 IIRC)
Round 6: The Epic Storm
I assumed my opponent was on Dredge, since I knew he'd played it to a 2nd place finish in the last local legacy event. This time, however, he lead with Bloodstained Mire into Underground Sea and started cantripping. I Wasted the sea, he dropped a Gemstone Mine, I fetched for Savannah and dropped Mom. He Burning Wished for Grapeshot, I dropped Thalia. He kept cantripping for a couple of turns and then died.
I took out StP and some slow stuff for discard, Canonist, one Zealous Persecution (should have taken both) and Spellbomb (in case he had Past in Flames - besides, whatever I took out was worse).
I mulled once and kept a mediocre hand with no real interaction, only a spellbomb, some attackers and Sylvan Library. He made a bunch of goblins and library failed to find me an answer, even with a shuffle.
I took out Sigarda (I have no idea why I hadn't already) for the second Persecution.
I went first and kept an excellent hand (or so I thought) with Mom, Teeg, Thalia and sufficient lands. I played Mom, he played Therapy for Thalia, Chrome Mox (exiling something black), Therapy for Teeg. Yay. On the next turn (or possibly the one after) he played land, LED, Dark Ritual, Dark Ritual, crack LED for red, Ad Nauseam with 18 life. Yay. He then proceeded to draw everything he needed except for a free source of black mana. At four life, he realized the best thing he could do was make some goblins, but not enough to race the Scryb Ranger he knew I had in hand, ready to flash in. He had to continue drawing cards, and killed himself exactly. When he died, the two next cards on top of his deck were a land and Lotus Petal. Me attacking with Mom on turn 2 won me the game. That, and his terrible luck.
4-2 (10-6)
There were lots of Delver and other tempo decks in the room, I just didn't play any of them. Considering the matchups (and my somewhat limited experience with the deck) I'm rather pleased with 4-2.
Im still wondering why people play black splash and they dont have BoB's in, is it a money issue or whats going on? Its top#3 creature card and since your playing 2x bayou and 1x scrubland i dont see any point not to play it. If you dont answer it immidiatly its going to take over the game. Every time we play against each other with my friend ( hes playing rock ) the one who gets to keep hes Bob wins the game, 100% of the time. And this is the same in almost all of the matchups, i win the game if my opponent lets Bob do its magic. So im curious, explanations!!?? :)
My reason is that I guess theres not enough space to put in bob. The only flex space for me is the thoughtseize slots and thats important vs combo, an inherent weakness of mavs.Quote:
Originally Posted by Telkku
Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk
I don't know either:)
I am playing 3 bobs instead of thalias and think it is just fine! 3 thalias in sideboard will bounce in against combo or heavy control. The problem with thalia is, that sometimes it is "just a creature" (against elves, death and texas, mervolk, ...) while bob always does a lot! Except combo hate in the preboard game...
Also I am running more removals myself. At the moment 4 swords, 3 decays, 1 zealous persecution.
I think it is somehow a flavour thing as both choices are respectable!
P.s.: also in a maverick mirror, the one with bobs will will the game!
Bob shouldnt take a flex slot, it takes its own slot and is the shining star. You really should try it and see how much better your deck performs after. If they dont revome it your gonna draw alot and what wins you games? Drawing more cards than your opponent.. And if they use the removal for it; your knight will survive = really good thing :D I would never go below 4. Whats your list then? Curious what you cant cut.
Last 5 tournament games ive played against combo, ive won all of them. 2 times Omnitell ( which is alot harder matchup than TES or ANT ) 2 ANT's and 1 TES.
Of course ppl have personal preferences and im not saying do not do this or that, but it is just the card that wins me games and its not metagame dependent.
Because Thalia is how you beat the unfair decks in the format. She was gods gift to creature decks.Quote:
Originally Posted by Telkku
Im not saying its not good, Bob is just 10 times better.. And i play 3 Thalia's main too.Quote:
Originally Posted by lavafrogg
My current list:
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Knight of the Reliquary
3 Mother of Runes
3 Dark Confidant
2 Noble Hierarch
2 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Quasali Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Scryb Ranger
1 Thrun, the Last Troll (this slot is somehow flexible. another teeg/pridemage might be there, depending on the meta)
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Zealous Persecution
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Batterskull
4 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath
3 Verdant Catacombs
2 Bayou
1 Savannah
1 Scrubland
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Karakas
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Thespian's Stage
1 Dark Depths
1 Maze of Ith
Sideboard:
3 Thalia
2 Enlightened Tutor
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Gaddock Teeg
2 Zealous Persecution
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Mindbreak Trap
1 Bojuka Bog
I went 4-2-1 at a 90 men tournament with that list. The mana-base is a bit greedy with 2 lands that actually don't produce mana. But I really appreciated the dark depths combo in a lot of games! It often comes unexpected at end of opponents turn. If you wait for the right moment the combo is woth it!
If I wouldn't have had a lack of concentration in 2 games I even could have gone 6-1 (I scooped a game in which I could have won the next round... at least all people standing around told me that. Unfortunately I really had to go to the toilet and just couldn't concentrate and oversee the situation... I drawed another game because I forgot about the extra turns and thought I'll keep things slow... suddenly the game was over and my opponent at 1 life...)
Nevertheless I'm really happy that the deck worked. But I didn't had a combo matchup, except elves, which is more in our favor.
I matchupped:
2 death and texas (in general my best match up. they end up with no cards in hand while I draw me into a lot thanks to bobby) 2-0
1 elves 3-0
1 mervolk 3-1 (the game I actually could have won)
1 esper stoneblade 3-1-1 (the game I drawed because if silliness)
1 countertop 3-2-1
1 BUG delver 4-2-1
There were a lot of creature based decks, so I didn't really had the chance to test against combo.
I definitely will try on with that list because most losses are not due to the cards but more due to my way of playing them... need a lot more practice!
ps: I also thought about running Thalia AND Bob, but somehow I want some slots for spells... Even if you play against combo you don't necessarily have Thalia in you hand... and a late game Thalia is just... bah! A turn 2 zenith to gaddock teeg is a very strong protection against combo and the (only) one I have :P
I really dislike the batterskull on Maverick, i understand it in stoneblade decks as it is a win condition, but in our deck its not that good, Jitte is much better in every situation and with cradle you can swap it around. This gives you the opportunity to take Stoneforge Mystics away since you dont really need them, just up your Jitte count since most of the time the first Jitte will be destroyed ( decay and all the other sheit ). I used to play 2 Jittes and 1 Mystic but i cut the mystic to add Sylvan Library back ( used to have it MD before too ) cause library's power level all around is just better, it helps in alot of situations and gives you once again card advantage acting kinda as the "5th BoB". Any specific reason you run 6 manadorks? You really need so many of them? And i would think that later game those draws are horrible? with 4 Mom's and 4 Deathrites 8 x one drop is still quite alot and lets not forget StP. I did test the Depths combo but i think its better suited for GW build since GWb manabase is clunky even without it ( though not horrible by any means ). Combo is nice though, i guess its kinda personal preference and gaining 20 life is not bad.. ( StP on your Marit )
ps. i dont think Thalia is so horrible late draw, it still carries Jitte with first strike and keeps alot of things at bay cause of the first strike, though of course you'd like to draw knight :)
Two equipment main and two side has been doing me great. Sword of f and I and sword if f and f main with jitte and skull side for tribal/ control matchups.
Is anyone on straight GW anymore?
I am, with the dark depths combo. However, I don't believe Maverick is a strong deck atm and latley I've been trying out other decks. Mainly because of TNNQuote:
Originally Posted by lavafrogg
I'm not sure how maverick has gotten any worse. I think people just moved on to new things ie lots of maverick players have started playing nemisis decks as he is the new 3cc monster on the block. I think a list with multiple pride mages can keep any equipment off the board and then maverick can show why GW hate bears is so strong.
Death and taxes is a DTB and maverick is a better version of that.