[Deck] GW/x Maverick

I am really liking this list for this metagame. We know that Delver is everywhere in all iterations, we know Combo is on a downturn because of this. So this Maverick list is heavily metagamed and looks great.

Thalia is a house against tempo decks but doesn't play well with Punishing fire. So if you aren't going the Punishing Fire route, this Junk versions looks good. Abrupt Decay does cost 3 with Thalia out but Abrupt Decay is also insanely good right now.

It is almost DeathnTax's like with adding more Hatebears. But has a better long game with Knight of the Reliquary. We can also see metagame decisions in his manabase. The Bojuka Bog for random value when drawn. The 2 Cavern's to really push back against all these tempo decks.

The more I look at it the more I like it.

I have had a lot of luck with a GWb list with thalias, oozes, teegs and pridemages out the wazoo and the only b is for deathrite and the board. Teeg and Scavenging ooze are must kills against most of the new treasure cruise decks with ooze being quite a house against the straight ur version.

Pridemages put in work against all of the stoneblade decks running around and are recurrable with a sword of light and shadow.

Finally sylvan library/life from the loam let us keep up with the blue cantrip gods as well as let us draw cards when needed.

Anyone else still testing?

Regarding Cavern of Souls tech: what are y'all's opinions on 1 Boseiju + 1 Cavern v. 2 Cavern? Cavern on humans seems to have the most value in terms of what we can use it for, but having an extra in case Wasteland becomes popular again seems good, and even if they don't a second on a key creature could seal the game. Boseiju, on the other hand, allows us to force a GSZ through Force of Will/Counterbalance, making things like Pridemage that much more better. Not to mention it synergizes well with Thalia in the sense that Thalia's tax can be used to make your instants and sorceries, including StP uncounterable.

I've been playing for 1 1/2 years now with over all good results.
I tried Dark Maverick with Decay, Deathrite Shaman, Thoughtseize, Big Zoo with Nacatl and Lightning Bolts,
Bant with TNN, Jace and Brainstorm, Force etc. and Punishing Maverick.

Recently I top 16. a local 60+ person tournament (http://eternal-clash.com/) with GWr Punishing Maverick.
Unlikely I can't remember the exact 75 but here's the list I've been playing lately.

1 Dryad Arbor
2 Gaddock Teeg
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Qasali Pridemage
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Mother of Runes
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Karakas
1 Forest
2 Savannah
3 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Dark Depths
1 Thespian's Stage
3 Punishing Fire
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
2 Taiga
2 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Spirit of the Labyrinth
1 Noble Hierarch
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Scrubland
3 Wooded Foothills
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Plateau
3 Deathrite Shaman

Sideboard:
Enlightened Tutor Toolbox
2 Enlightened Tutor
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Pithing Needle
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Zuran Orb
1 Engineered Plague

Green Sun's Zenith Toolbox
1 Qasali Pridemage

Land-Toolbox
1 Crop Rotation
1 Bojuka Bog

Impact Spells
1 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Krosan Grip
1 Armageddon

My Matches were:
Round 1: won 2:0 against Treasure Cruise Bant
As far as I remember I really crushed him. Game 1
with Punishing Fire, Gaddock for Treasure Cruise and a 6/6 Knight.
Game 2 looked fairly the same.
Round 2: lost 1:2 against Painted Mud
Unlikely I was paired against a good friend. I know he's playing various versions of Painter, Mud, etc. He knew what I was playing so did I. Painted Mud. I always felt Maverick has a good MU. Chalice on one isn't that bad. Trinisphere is only bad if you can't curve out with lands. So we started chatting and started. I kept a hand with my one of basic forest and one Noble Hierarch, 2 Swords to Plowshares, 2 Fetchlands and a Zenith.
"Pretty strong I guess". He started exiling spirits and Mooning me Turn one. I answered with forest into Hierarch, leaving me with all colors of mana. Turn two he plays a Chalice for one -> leaving Swords as a dead hand card.
I zenithed for Qasali to get a clock online since he has no maindeck removal spell (only Jaya and REB combined with Painter). As it turned out he has nothing for the next 3 turns and I attacked him for 3 damage per turn and playing mountains. Then there were 2 crucial turns: he resolves Painters Servant and the one of Jaya. (Meanwhile I drew my third Sword btw.). My first decision tree was the following:
Qasali-BumBum the Chalice of the Void to free my Swords. Sword the Jaya to ensure my permanents don't get blown up.
The difficult thing was, that I only had one white mana source. So in the event he draws the Grindstone I'm dead to the combo kill.
On the other hand he would just shoot down the hierarch leaving me with no white mana. I just sworded Jaya and pass.
He plays a second copy of Painters Servant and passes.
I sword one of the guys and resolve a deathrite of the forest. As it turned out he draws the Grindstone the following turn and kills me
leaving me with one uncastable sword in hand. "My only thought was: how did I just lost that game?".

Game 2 I started with fetch-forest. Deathrite and Pass.
He moons me again turn 1. I get a Ooze as a cloc and denial for future welder-action going and he didn't managed to get the combo online until he plays a Ensnaring Bridge with 2 cards in hand.
I played a Jitte and equipped and hit him for 2. The next turns I -1/1 my ooze to attack and +2/+2 afterwards to get around Bridge.
It was slow but I won G2.
Game 3 He drew the turn 2 win. Turn 1 Grim Monolith turn 2 Painter Grindstone activate. I made a sad face with no kind of interaction in my hand. WTF

Round 3: won 2:0 against Dark Maverick
I was paired AGAIN against a good friend. I knew most of his 75 because we tweeked our list and he knew most of mine.
Game 1 it was a game of Mothers. I had 2 - he had one. Later I had a Jitte and Punishing Fire.
Game 2 he mulliganed to 5 and keept a slow hand. He gets a Knight online crawls back into the game. I sword his Knight
and next turn he cuts of my Zenith by flashing in Aven Mindcensor. As we were chatting and having a good match I managed to forget
Aven Mindcensor two times but Punishing Fire and a Knight, for which he can't find an answer seals the deal.

Round 4: won 2:0 against UWR Delver Tempo
He played a straight Patriot list from pre Treasure Cruise Era.
Game 1 was just a luck-draw of mine. By the end of turn 5 I drew all of my swords
leaving him 2 lands and after double wasteland+knight with no permanents.
Game 2 I get a turn 1 Mother of Runes online (Against my expectation because UWR plays 7-8 one mana removal) followed by turn 2 Spirit of the Labyrinth. As it turned out he had 2 Ponder and 1 Brainstorm left in his hand.
I attacked him with my 3/1 until he played his own 3/1. I have an answer for the following Equipment and a follow up big Knight.
So he was on blocking duty. 2 turns later I drew and resolved my one of Toxic Deluge and attacked for the win. ++ for Spirit of the Labyrinth (random win)

Round 5: lost 0:2 against Miracles
Darnit. A friend of mine AAAGAIIN. Seems like in a 60+ tournament you still get paired against the people you know.
I know he's on Miracles and he plays the deck since Terminus was printed. Game one he wracks my board multiple times and
resolves turn 4 a Jace on empty board. I scoop it up very fast 2 turns later.
Game 2 I pulled ahead with mother and Gaddock and Knight. He Councils my Gaddock and casts Terminus and wracks my board and faith (Stupid Councils Judgment print?!)
A few turns later I loose to 4 Angels.

After the game I was quite pissed, because with X:1 I would have been easily in the money.
Round 6: win 2:0 against Miracles
FFS. Aaaaanother very good friend. He plays since 1 year and I made him play magic back then. I know he's on Miracles, too.
He told me afterwards that he's on the same 75 cards as my opponent from Round 5 too and they tweeked together.
Game 1 I resolved one of my maindeck Gaddocks but it get's sworded right away as I had no Mother of Runes to protect it (how stupid from me).
Nevertheless I managed to grind faster and win by damage.
Game 2 I started with Mother of Runes but no follow up. This time I finally managed to draw the keyspells from my Sideboard (not like in the match before). I enlightend for Needle on his Divining Top,
Pyroblast his Counterbalances and played a second mother of runes after Armageddon hits the lands on turn 6. I had 2 lands in hand but again no follow and fortunatly he didn't find any lands to cast cantrips
so I beat him down in 7 turns with 2 mother of runes Haiyaaa!!!. That was a funny match. Well for the Maverick-Side at least.

I'd like to share my thoughts and decisions.
Great Cards:
2x Scavenging Ooze is must have maindeck (since TC)
2x Gaddock Teeg is must have in 75. (I tried 3 in heavy Miracle meta)
1x Armageddon is super wreck-mode. Miracles, 12Post, Aggroloam, Lands (which is on the rise again) is very beatable with this panic button. Could be a Cataclysm but I dislike destroying creatures of my own. + Cataclysm for killing Planeswalkers but I have Punishing Fire :3.
1x Toxic Deluge - this beast won me about 5 competetive matches in the past 3 weeks. Nobody expects a wrath effect from the Maverick side. Two times my opponent puts all of his Treasure Cruise drawn creatures into play
just to get -2/-2 afterwards. The card has often a lot of downsides but if you manage to navigate it through it's a game winner or comeback spell.
1x Engineered Plage. Board against UR, name Human, win. Tutoring for -1/-1 is super strong.
1x Noble Hierarch - Although he does not produce red mana this guy is a beast. I tried: (3x Deathrite, 3x Birds), (4x Deathrites and 1 Noble), (3x Deathrites and 1 Bird and 1 Noble which is IMO the best.)
3x Punishing Fire - Beastmode against all creature decks. Sometimes too slow against UR but a combination of early removal, good ground creatures and punishing fire "always" wins.

Okay Cards:
2x Enlightened Tutor. Most of the time I'm against cards that trade bad in cardcount. I hate surgical extraction and most of the time I hate Enlightened tutor in Blue decks. But Maverick does not play after the same
card advantage rules as the other decks. It's a deck that searches proactive or reactive answers for different gamestates and ET does exactly that.
1x Batterskull is okay. Sometimes it's super bad, sometimes it wins game on it's own. But most of the times it's a win-more card and not necessary for a deck that is this great at blocking the ground. Big minus is the 3x Stoneforge commitment too. At the moment I rather play another Sword of X and Y and 2 Stoneforge to free one maindeck slot. I cut it for the reason that it's often a dead draw and without Maindeck Brainstorm Stoneforge becomes a sad 1W Squire.
1x Scryb Ranger was very cute in many matches but it's to unreliable. I'd rather play more removal for Delver and creatures with stronger toughness rather than locking the board with mother of runes until the -1/-1 wracks up everything.
2x Spirit of the Labyrinth won some games on their own. Their 3/1 body is good in attacking, but dies to -1/-1, forked bolt fairly often. I only recommend this slot in heavy blue and in lists with few 1/1 creatures.
2x Aven Mindcensor (less than 2 is super akward) is most of the time great against all sorts of unfair or mana hungry strategies (ANT, Miracles, 12Post, but is also cute against elves.dec, which has a hard time dealing with Aven Mindcensor/Gaddock Teeg + Ethersworn)
1-2x Sylvan Library is great in GWB. In Punishing Maverick due to already low creature count unfortunatley I can't find a slot for this card. (Tried it in the Sideboard but never really wanted to side it in)

Cards I don't have a good idea yet:
- Crop Rotation + Bojuka Bog/Karakas/Grove of the Burnwillows/Dark Depths, Stage
I'm not quite sure when to board Crop Rotation. OFC against any Combo-Deck where the maindeck lands or Bojuka Bog just wins on the spot.
Getting a Crop Rotation Dazed, Pierced or even Forced fells suuuper bad.
- Maindeck Scrubland. I sold my Bayou and only had a Scrubland for the Deathrite and Sideboard as a replacement. Since I don't run Scryb Ranger it does not matter
and I feel I much rather have more white sources instead another forest (with 3x Grove of the Burnwillows it's hard enough to cast white spells sometimes)
- Life from the Loam. I always refused to play this card because I don't think it's what the deck want's to accomplish. Sure boosting the Grave for Knight or Deathrite is
quite okay and Wasteland-Loaming is cute but I never really did this EVER and returning Dark Depths + Stage after fizzle is quite okay but if you have time for that you are most likely
going win anyway (not to mention it's recommended to only fire of DD+Stage when it's safe or panic button). The only argument I see is finding Grove + P.Fire faster but that's it.

Afterall I dont have a feeling there is an unbeatable Match for GWb and GWr Maverick. Ofc I haven't played against fast combo or super strange homebrew that tournament.
The deck looks fairly week on paper but is a bomb to play. The deck rewards right plays similar as Death and Taxes does.

Thanks for reading.
Kind regards,
screallix

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Originally Posted by ThediscoPower

Well, the good thing is, it happens to be Glenn Jones' deck, so I think we have a slight chance of him talking about it in his next article, with any luck. I am interested hearing about the maindeck spirits, and how they performed.

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While I gave David the list I'd been beating our locals with, he'd been playing it locally himself for a couple weeks and made many of these changes on his own initiative, though we chatted about them. Wouldn't want to steal his thunder ;) I'm sure he'll be able to address them in his article next week, and I've gone ahead and flagged the thread to him in the event there are other specific questions or topics players would like to see discussed.

I agree on Toxic Deluge. Ever since I saw it I knew it was good and it's tested well. The other day against D&T:

-I'm at 4 life to his 18
-His board is Mom, Brimaz, Token, Flickerwisp, and a couple of Vials
-Mine is Goyf, DRS, SFM, SoFaI (unequipped by the wisp)
-I deluge for 1 going to 3
-He Mom's Brimaz
-I plow Brimaz (fetching going to 2)
-He Vials in Wisp to save Brimaz
-I plow Brimaz (Horizon tapping going to 1)

The board state? Goyf, SFM, DRS, SoFaI to his empty hand and Vials. Feels good. I stabilize at 1 and swing for a million (DRS being a safety net for my life total.) Easily the best couple of minutes for me at the SCG. I used to be a Deed player; so it's nice to live that Deed-feeling in other ways.

I tried playing the ol' Luis Viciano at my weekly local the other day after going 14-1 in games on cockatrice.

List was the Bazaar of moxen top list because I wanted to relive the old days when you could still GW.

Round 1: UWR Blade 1-1-1
Game 1 I win by wastelanding him a bunch of times and getting equipments online early.
Game 2 I lose to 3 True Name Nemesis
Game 3 I almost lose to 3 True Name, but topdeck a revoker to stop him from lethalling me with jitte counters.

Round 2: Death and Taxes 0-2
Game 1 I lose to flickerwisp + equipment that I can't answer.
Game 2 I lose to multiple mother of runes and revokers naming my important cards.

Round 3 I dropped. Though my performance was terrible, I think that there is still something to the vial build. I saw M@verick recently top 8'ed something with a deathrite vial build, so I might experiment with that or just play straight GWb Zenith at an upcoming 40+ tournament.

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Originally Posted by tescrin

I agree on Toxic Deluge. Ever since I saw it I knew it was good and it's tested well. The other day against D&T:

-I'm at 4 life to his 18
-His board is Mom, Brimaz, Token, Flickerwisp, and a couple of Vials
-Mine is Goyf, DRS, SFM, SoFaI (unequipped by the wisp)
-I deluge for 1 going to 3
-He Mom's Brimaz
-I plow Brimaz (fetching going to 2)
-He Vials in Wisp to save Brimaz
-I plow Brimaz (Horizon tapping going to 1)

The board state? Goyf, SFM, DRS, SoFaI to his empty hand and Vials. Feels good. I stabilize at 1 and swing for a million (DRS being a safety net for my life total.) Easily the best couple of minutes for me at the SCG. I used to be a Deed player; so it's nice to live that Deed-feeling in other ways.

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Correct me if i'm wrong, but how come he saved his Brimaz with mom when deluge doesn't target

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Originally Posted by Jacemindbreak

Correct me if i'm wrong, but how come he saved his Brimaz with mom when deluge doesn't target

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Presumably naming White to protect from StP.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ironclad8690

I tried playing the ol' Luis Viciano at my weekly local the other day after going 14-1 in games on cockatrice.

List was the Bazaar of moxen top list because I wanted to relive the old days when you could still GW.

Round 1: UWR Blade 1-1-1
Game 1 I win by wastelanding him a bunch of times and getting equipments online early.
Game 2 I lose to 3 True Name Nemesis
Game 3 I almost lose to 3 True Name, but topdeck a revoker to stop him from lethalling me with jitte counters.

Round 2: Death and Taxes 0-2
Game 1 I lose to flickerwisp + equipment that I can't answer.
Game 2 I lose to multiple mother of runes and revokers naming my important cards.

Round 3 I dropped. Though my performance was terrible, I think that there is still something to the vial build. I saw M@verick recently top 8'ed something with a deathrite vial build, so I might experiment with that or just play straight GWb Zenith at an upcoming 40+ tournament.

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Luis Viciano's top 8 I'm aware of is actually a second place finish in a 13-player tournament, so the performance itself isn't particularly impressive, but I think there's something to the deck.

It should really be thought of more as Death and Taxes with Green than it is Maverick, but I feel it's better than DnT. I haven't had the confidence to take this to a big tournament yet, but I consistently do okay at weeklies with his list (14-4-1, moving Teegs to the maindeck). The cards individually feel pretty underpowered and your opening hands are a bit inconsistent, but you get so many free wins on the back of the hatebears. I think it ranges from decent to extremely favored against all Delver and Blade decks, has a pretty solid combo matchup, and fares better than Maverick or DNT against the likes of Miracles.

Any ideas for shoring up the Infect matchup? I keep seeing it more and more, and I just cannot seem to make it even close to fair.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cambriel

Any ideas for shoring up the Infect matchup? I keep seeing it more and more, and I just cannot seem to make it even close to fair.

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Maze of Ith is pretty good, with combination of Wasteland, StP, and Umezawa's Jitte.

If this is really a concern, you can also add Melira and just laugh at your opponent's linear deck.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Koby

Maze of Ith is pretty good, with combination of Wasteland, StP, and Umezawa's Jitte.

If this is really a concern, you can also add Melira and just laugh at your opponent's linear deck.

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Maze is what came to mind for me as well. I've thought about going back to it as a main deck utility land given the rise of Delver and "fairer" decks. It seemed to go out of style when Sneak and Show was running rampant, but I don't see that as much anymore.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cambriel

Any ideas for shoring up the Infect matchup? I keep seeing it more and more, and I just cannot seem to make it even close to fair.

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In addition to everything named, Zealous Persecution is a huge beating for that deck.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Koby

Maze of Ith is pretty good, with combination of Wasteland, StP, and Umezawa's Jitte.

If this is really a concern, you can also add Melira and just laugh at your opponent's linear deck.

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When infect was a thing in Standard with Melira I executed a damage kill. Melira doesn't mean you can't die, it just means you know the angle of attack.

Something to keep in mind if you're considering Melira against Infect:

Melira, Sylvok Outcast vs. Inkmoth Nexus

Quote:

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End result: Inkmoth HAS infect, but any damage it deals will have its results transformed into "don't put any counters on you or your creatures."

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by barcode

When infect was a thing in Standard with Melira I executed a damage kill. Melira doesn't mean you can't die, it just means you know the angle of attack.

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Hence, why StP and Jitte are still good and preferred. Its not as though Maverick would play Melira and win, we just block ad infinitum.

Forget melira. Try to StP/Aprubt Decay especially Agents, Wasteland Nexi, Thalia is good as infect generally doesn't have too much mana and plays cantrips and a lot of 1cmc spells. Thalia will hurt definitely. Maze is also good. Try to get Jitte out fast. There are ways I think. It's just about practice. I.e. they play Crop Rotation, so blind Wastelanding is dangerous. Everything has to be played in the right moment.

Against infect it's very important to understand the combat phase in full. I play punishing maverick, so maybe my results are scewed, however, waiting until after damage to kill infect dorks was usually the right call. If the opponent infect play passes Priority after blocks are declared, than the infect player will be unable to cast pump spells as the defending player didn't have any action to respond to. If you remove a creature in response to a pump, you are very likely to win. If you attempt to remove a dork, and the dork get hexproof, or another attacking dork gets pump, you may lose the game in an instant. In other words, you will be much more successful against the deck if you can get lucky enough to remove a dude in response to a pump, and you will be more likely to lose if they pump a dork in response to a removal spell. Patients and playing safe is key to winning this MU.

Hey All,
I played in the same open that McDarby won and felt Maverick was well-positioned throughout most of the tourney. I beat UR Delver round one, the mirror round two (guy had no clue about this thread so he was ill-equipped to handle the mirror ;) ), lost to Food Chain combo round three, tied vs a Jeskai Stoneblade player round four who spent a bare minimum of twenty minutes of our match shuffling my deck and his after fetches, beat Punishing Lands in three games after wastelanding him in to the ground G3 and sticking him on two Maze of Iths (VERY ANNOYING TO PLAY AROUND WHEN YOU'RE ABOUT TO GO TO TIME), lost to a more skilled UR delver pilot in three games when he locked me out of G3 with a Blood Moon and I was stuck with only basic Plains in play, then lost to Tom Ross with that Jeskai Ascendancy combo deck and dropped after that round. I was running Thomas Herzog's list verbatim and was very happy with the card selection. I added a Tower of the Magistrate to the maindeck in favor of a basic Forest, which won me at least two games and cost me zero, so I was happy about it.

I'm playing in Seattle this Sunday and I expect to encounter a great deal of mirror matches and hate for Maverick. Moving forward, what should I be packing for the mirror. Read this article on SCG and was wondering what everyone thinks about Darkblast in the SB vs elves, death and taxes, UR delver, and the mirror match? It's also not terrible vs Infect, which to address from earlier, I played against a really slow/durdly playerd piloting Tom Ross.dec in the Sat. night Open Trial and can verify that Zealous Persecution is dyanamite in that matchup, but also leaning on Jitte is a bad plan because they run 17 Krosan Grips in the board. It often digresses in to who can draw more wastelands- if you can keep theirs off the table and hit Inkmoth Nexus, you're in a good spot. Pithing Needle on Nexus is a great place to be in that matchup as well, as it's often their only out after a sweeper.

So, to recap this rambling report/inquriry, here's what I'm wondering:

-Best mirror match tech available besides the obvious that's been stated in this thread (SoLaS, Zealous, Tower)? Is Linvala worth a look? Deluge to get out from situations where you're on the draw and you're behind all game?

-What kind of anti-Maverick tech should be on the upswing? It's a resilient deck, but I recall first getting in to the archetype circa summer of 2012 when it was on its way out of contention and was getting blown out on a regular basis by Griselbrand and RUG delver decks playing a pile of 2-1 spot removal like Fire//Ice and Forked Bolt.

Other thoughts: I playtested 20 games vs Jeskai Stoneblade yesterday and came to the realization that it's highly dependent on who goes first. If I can land a mom/DRS on turn one, Thalia on turn two, and keep them off UU for True Name after that, it's tough for them to keep up even if they draw several removal spells. When you're on the draw, however, it's tough to keep up because of Mom's summoning sickness. Is this a situation where Sylvan Safekeeper would be valuable?

And: Is Jotun Grunt good again? He's got a big ol' booty and keeps the graveyard clear of delve fuel, right?