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Sword of Body and Mind is one of the best equipment in the game. Specifically, it provides the 2 most important evasion colors (pro green and pro True-Name) as well as produce threats against miracles while helping feed Deathrite Shamans.Quote:
Originally Posted by oSeabass
So I have been at odds with Sylvan Library since Leovold became a thing. I think now it is actually worth considering running Mirri's Guile in it's place. The main thing that I would use library for is drawing the situational best in my top3 each turn, with the alternate mode of drawing 3 once vs non-delver decks. I think Mirri's keeps the consistency intact while not being totally useless to the format's many Leovold decks.
What say the general public? Worth replacing library?
I like the idea it's cheaper. I like the idea it's during upkeep, so if you don't want any of the three you can crack a fetch before draw step. I used the draw ability of library a few times, but normally like you said it's, draw the best of three cards.Quote:
Originally Posted by ironclad8690
Library just has much more upside. In miracles when you can overpower them by drawing multiple cards and let a knight get swords to get more life to draw more cards... it's just so good. The only way guile in my opinion should be over library is if you need more 1 drops to fit the curve
Started playing again. Went 3-2 in a league with my vial list.
UB Pox: 1-2
BUG Delver w/Fatal Push & TNN: 2-1
Grixis Delver: 0-2
BURG Midrange w/ TNN & Fatal Push: 2-1
BUG Delver w/Fatal Push & TNN: 2-1
Slogging through all of these fatal pushes sucks, but I guess it is doable.
I am thinking of putting the Prelates in the sideboard for Ralliers for the time being. Not exactly sure how the cuts will go though. Thanks for reading!
Hi everyone.
I just started play this deck, and i have some questions.
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Mother of Runes
4 Deathrite Shaman
3 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Noble Hierarch
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Scryb Ranger
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Qasali Pridemage
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Tireless Tracker
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Batterskull
1 Bayou
1 Scrubland
2 Savannah
1 Forest
1 Plains
4 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath
1 Dark Depths
1 Thespian's Stage
1 Gaea's Cradle
2 Cavern of Souls
2 Marsh Flats
1 Karakas
Sideboard
2 Zealous Persecution
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Duress
1 Thoughtseize
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Garruk Relentless
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Mirran Crusader
2 Path to Exile
How we can beat Burn?
What is better cards to outside and inside vs BUG decks?
And how we fight vs eldrazi
Versus Burn you just try your best. Try and stick an early board that can apply a clock. Qasali helps a lot to blow up Eidolons and such. You can cast GSZ with extra mana to get around Eidolon. Teeg helps Fireblast from being cast. Swords your own guys for HP. Stick a DRS/Scooze for life gain. You basically need to just survive to like turn 4 and then it's easier. Batterskull, Jitte, etc. help. Thalia is nice forcing them to be less mana efficient. In sideboard games I like Canonist to slow them down to a spell a turn.Quote:
Originally Posted by 4eshir
Eldrazi is tough. I don't think I've pulled a match against Eldrazi. They have a fast aggressive start and I feel like Wasteland just doesn't slow them down enough. I have started running more main deck removal to try and help. Take Mom out game 2 and just bring in cards that do more.
Hi 4eshir,Quote:
Originally Posted by 4eshir
thanks for your interest in Maverick, the most fun deck of Legacy of all times :smile:
I will start with some random advice in italics that you didn't ask for, but I will still say it. So, feel free to just ignore it. :laugh:
So, you've started playing GSZ Maverick with the Depths/Stage combo. While the combo can be very tempting and powerful, and I used to play it too btw, if you're just starting with the deck I would recommend to refrain from playing the combo at least for the first 2-3 tournaments, even though it will probably decrease your winrate. Why?
I see many starting players of Maverick who have basically no idea about interactions in their deck. They use the Knight only to attack/block, or only to find combo pieces. They also often only use GSZ to search for Dryad turn 1, manadork turn 2, and the Knight once they have enough mana :p Once they get a Rest in Piece or their combo is broke by Wasteland/Karakas, they simply scoop. They don't realize how powerful is Jitte in fair games, or how to play around True-Name, when opponent has a Wasteland and winning with the combo is just not an option. But Maverick is just simply much more than that!
The interactions in this deck are endless and are something that make it unique to Legacy. You have probably 100 ways how to win a game, and every single game is so different from the others :) If you play combo version as your starting list, you might just fall in that category, as the combo kind of demotivates you to analyze every situation and find the right play. In the end, I've seen people fetch for their 20/20 (and in the end get a Wasteland that ruins their day) even when they could simply win by attacking with the Knight in 1 or 2 turns. This is just bizarre :D
Combo in this list is designed as a very situational win condition (20/20 out of nowhere with Knight of Reliquary and Scryb Ranger), not as your primary wincon. If you like winning with 20/20s, then play Aggro Depths deck or Lands.
By the way, I'm not implying in any way that Depths combo is bad in Maverick, but I don think that it hurts your future skills when you are still learning how to play the deck.
Ok, now the random advice part ends and I will proceed to answering your question.
Maverick is an Aggro/Midrange deck and we win against Burn by killing them faster than they kill us. Luckily for us, almost everything in our deck is good against Burn.
Crucial cards to win vs Burn:
1) Deathrite Shaman: this humble but cruel boy gains us 2 life every turn. He is so tough, that burn players have to immediately bolt him, or they will be just not fast enough on the clock, or will run out of resources. If you have the option to play either Mom or Deathrite turn 1 against Burn, go for Mom: if they let her live, they won't be able to deal with the Shaman; if they kill her, they are forced to kill Shaman as well and they have just wasted 6 burn damage on 2 1-drop creatures, which gives you a plenty of time further on.
2) Thalia, Guardian of Thraben: this small but proud girl does so much to Burn players that they are basically forced to bolt her (for 2 mana) immediately, or they won't be fast enough. She is so good in the current meta (blue fair decks, miracles, burn, storm, any combo deck except Aluren/Elves etc.) that you should definitely play 4-of. Sure she's legendary, but they don't live for long anyways, and after one's killed you immediately play another :wink:
3) Umezawa's Jitte and Batterskull: these 2 gain you so much life that Burn simply can't keep up. They have to either kill all your creatures (which is very hard and resource-consuming) or win before they become online. After sideboard they become significantly worse though (but not too bad to side them out), as all Burn players immediately side in a playset of Smash to Smithereens. Btw I see that you're playing only 2 Stoneforge Mystics, although to support Batterskull you need at least 3 and ideally 4. I would suggest either dropping Batterskull, or adding more Mystics, or (my personal tech, you should proceed with caution here) switch it to a Sword of Light and Shadow.
http://static.starcitygames.com/sale...mithereens.jpg http://static.starcitygames.com/sale...tandShadow.jpg
4) Swords to Plowshares: novice players often forget that this extremely cheap removal not only is perfectly suited to exile early burn threats, but also is perfect to exile your 10/10 Knight of Reliquary and keep Burn way down.
5) Qasali Pridemage: Burn heavily relies (especially after sideboarding) on Sulfuric Vortex in order to prevent you from gaining life and to continue playing their game. Pridemages are a very good mainboard solution to this. You can wait until their Vortex will deal them two damage, and end of turn sacrifice your Pridemage and gain life with Shaman or StP.
Abrupt Decay also kills Sulfuric Vortex, but requires us to fetch non-basics, which I will discuss in a moment, so is worse than Qasali here (while still being good ofc).
https://cdn1.mtggoldfish.com/images/...5BDDK%255D.jpg
6) Basic Lands and Wasteland: one of the big differences between Modern Burn and Legacy Burn is the Price of Progress card. Always keep it in your head when playing, as usually Legacy Burn players bring 4-of. However, to your big help comes Wasteland: you can still play your duals and creatures early game (never overextend non-basic land count on the table though), and starting turn 3-4 you can keep your Wastelands untapped to waste yourself in resp to a Price, should the need arise.
http://i.tcgplayer.com/4377_200w.jpg
7) Ethersworn Cannonist: you really want to play threats against Burn that they have to deal with. Cannonist is perfect, as they are forced to bolt her and waste another 3 dmg, or keep playing 1 spell per turn (bye-bye, you just won't keep up). Mother of Runes here again comes as a very nice turn 1 removal-asker, that will protect our MVPs when the time comes.
Now, the BUG matchups.
1) As with all blue decks, we really want our Chokes. It's a shame that you don't play any in the sideboard, they are amazing. Squeeze in 1 or 2 ;)
http://i.tcgplayer.com/11197_200w.jpg
2) As Leovold is making his appearance to a large variety of decks and forces them to splash or change colors to BUG, let's distinguish between different BUG decks:
2a) vs Aggro/Tempo BUG, or simply say Delver decks, we really want all our removal we could get: Swords, Abrupt Decays, Garruk and Path to Exiles get in in maximum amounts. Although, I personally don't think you have enough slots in sideboard to afford smth like Path. We are not Jund to run so much removal :tongue:
2b) vs Midrange True-name BUG, we want real badly our 2x Zealous Persecutions (where are they btw? :D). No seriously, this card is very strong in the current metagame, on its own giving us wins vs mirror matches, Elves, DnT, Delver decks, True-names, Belcher/Storm tokens, Esper Lingering Souls Stoneforges and whatever else.
http://static.starcitygames.com/sale...ersecution.jpg
2c) vs Aluren, we want our Ethersworn cannonists, Teegs and all discard we could find :p
3) what do we want out:
2a) vs Delver, we don't really need our Teegs, Qasali Pridemages, and any 3+ cmc creatures except the Knight.
2b) vs Midrange, Teeg goes out, possibly (depending on our opponent's list), also Qasali and - if they play playsets of non-targetable Mongeese and True-names - Abrupt Decays as well.
2c) vs Aluren, Tracker leaves us, and so do Batterskull (or whatever replacements for it), Birds of Paradise (you run many dorks - and they have Baleful Strix) and possibly the big Thalias, depending on your final list.
Also some comments on your list:
-> In certain matchups (Miracles, Jund) searching for a Dryad Arbor from your fetches to equip them next turn with a Jitte/Sword and attack (or in resp to Lili activation in case of Jund) is crucial for winning, so I highly recommend swapping your Marsh Flats for Verdant Catacombs.
-> Double Cavern of Souls AND Thespian's Stage mainboard is too heavy for your mana-intensive shaman activations, mainboard Abrupt Decays, Sword to Plowshares, Mystics, Qasali Pridemages etc. You should certainly switch one for a Horizon Canopy (finding this card EoT with Knight and drawing a card is bonkers in fair matchups). I recommend playing 1 mainboard and possibly 1 in sideboard, depending on your meta (when sideboarding vs decks like Delver, just add a land, so they had a harder time Dazing/Wasting you out of mana in early game; vs Miracles, switch a Gaea's Cradle - you shouldn't play many creatures into a mass-removal anyways; vs other blue decks, you could e.g. swing out a basic land, a fetch or a dual, depending on the match).
Now for Eldrazi.
The key strategy to winning vs Eldrazi is Wasteland. Last two games I played vs them went 2-0.
Sure, they will have those exploding starts when they have a turn 1 Chalice followed by several Mimics, and suddenly there are 4 5/5 creatures running at you out of nowhere on turn 3. But - this happens way less often than you would imagine. If you get to play your turn 2 Knight and start Wastelanding them while playing more creatures, you're in a good spot.
Keep in mind after sideboarding that in this matchup Mom is not particularly good against colorless spells and creatures, so just keep her out and get some extra removal if possible.
Have fun playing Maverick! ;)
I have never lost a match to eldrazi in the 4-5 times I've faced in GPs and big tournaments.Quote:
Originally Posted by oSeabass
Early Knight => Maze => Wasteland 4x usually results with them chump blocking with Reality smashers.
Game 2 they bring in gravehate and I usually kill them with an early Knight => Maze => Marit Lage.
If they're smart they would board in 2-3 Pithing Needles in the matchup.
Burn and Drazi are both good match ups for this deck imo. They must answer every creature in burn basically and eldrazi petty much can't beat a Knight.
I actually lost to Eldrazi yesterday in a quite embarrassing fashion XD
I played Knight and Wasted him every turn, but I was on the draw and he was able to get up to enough mana to cast an Endbringer, which drew a card each turn for him, and kept my Knight from doing anything. His chalices kept me from playing STP, and I never drew a Phyrexian Revoker or Qasali Pridemage. Eventually he drew All is Dust.
In game 3, he mulled to 5 but curved out really well, stuck another Enbringer, and again I didn't draw removal until it was too late. I wasted him a bunch but he just kept drawing Sol-Lands, I think his opener must have been Endbringer TKS 3 Sol Lands, then he drew into 2 Smashers and an Oblivion Sower. I brought in Teeg to stop Chalice and All is Dust, but maybe that's not correct.
---
Anyways, in other news I picked my vial list back up and 5-0d again. This time I tried Mirran Crusader since everyone and their mother is playing Fatal Push, I replaced the Sanctum Prelate (I was cutting them A LOT and also getting really frustrated when I would name 1 then draw a crucial Swords to Plowshares).
WotC Coverage Neil R (Neil Rigby I assume): Grixis Punishing Dack: 0-1 (in game 2 things weren't looking so good, but for some reason he up and left and conceded)
Miracles: 2-0 (Got to swing for 16 with a Mirran Crusader g2 which was awesome)
4c Delver: 2-1
Elves: 2-1
Tin Fins: 2-0
Aside from the first match, these all felt very winnable. I am starting to realize that tempo decks are really just a mirror match. You may think that sounds strange, but it really is just who has the right tools for the given moment. In the tempo mirror, one player usually has a better start with creatures and removal or counterspells while the other has to waste valuable time cantripping. In the tempo mirror, cantripping early often puts you behind on board. Our deck just capitalizes on that by pressuring them and making their cantrips cost 2. If they have a solid hand with lots of removal, or counter the first couple of relevant things we do, we will often just lose without being able to do anything, but most of the rest of the time it just comes down to if we can stick enough things. Extremely draw dependent on both sides.
Anyhow I am now 49-30 in total matches played with the deck, which may not sound good but it is a 62% win rate, which is the highest I have been able to keep consistently. I continue to be very impressed with the power of Vial -> dudes.
Thank you very much for your help!!! I keep in mind your advice.Quote:
Originally Posted by aspsnake
Before this deck, i've play manaless dredge for 1.5 year, and it's hard to play fair, to play with op.)
I play 2 Cavern, coz in local meta i have some RUG, Miracles and TA.
About Eldrazi. Our players play with grim monolith, so they play oblivion sower on 2nd turn... And this is very bad for us...
How come most play 2 Abrupt Decay in the side? That card is good against almost all decks and strong. Why dont players squeeze them into the main?
I keep forgetting that most maverick players don't often play Phyrexian Revoker...Quote:
Originally Posted by 4eshir
The main reason is that we already have so many dead cards against combo. The more removal you put into your maindeck, the weaker you become vs combo decks. Of course, to some people, this is justified by the strength you gain vs fair decks. I have often thought about putting them maindeck.Quote:
Originally Posted by autonom
As for the guy with the Eldrazi problem: Try playing Meekstone, Ensnaring Bridge, Glissa, the Traitor, Basilisk Collar, or Intrepid Hero. Also, Peacekeeper could do some work.
Ghostly Prison has been good for me as a budget alternative to Moat against Eldrazi. Basically any of the Moat-like effects are a good fit, but I chose it over Peacekeeper because I run Enlightened Tutor in the side and like that I can tutor for it.Quote:
Originally Posted by ironclad8690
If Miracles did not exist I would be running zero. I think that the further we move away the GW core of Maverick the weaker we make the deck.Quote:
Originally Posted by autonom
With that being said, Abrupt Decay provides a lot of tools that are very interesting to be had in Maverick--but I would not bring them in unless I knew exactly what it was that I needed it for.
I personally love the card because it's super versatile. Unfortunately it can't be found with green Sun. That and it loses value when you can't flash it in with a vitalQuote:
Originally Posted by TMagpie
I actually often run it over thoughtseize in my SB in a taxes heavy meta as it stops most combo while stopping mom/vial/provide a colorless source of equipment holder. The faster the combo meta the more I lean to thoughtseize, the more taxes the meta the more I lean to Revoker.Quote:
Originally Posted by Megadeus
Essentially my thoughts. The only match it's dead is delver match ups. It's an incredibly versatile card. I ran it as a two of in dead guy and it was always fine. Unfortunately it's an X-1 and doesn't battle too well. But yeah at worst it suicides with a jitte. I love it also to cut off opposing deathrites to continually cut mana. It's a card that probably isn't worth it, but I can't give it up.Quote:
Originally Posted by TMagpie