I run one of each in the MD and it has been awesome for me.
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They aren't bringing it in just against you, but against the field. Look at the top 16 from the recent SCG LA - http://sales.starcitygames.com/deckd...ion=Show+Decks
4 Maverick
2 Stoneblade
2 Reanimator
3 RUG
1 Team America (RWU)
1 Dredge
1 AggroLoam
1 Belcher
1 Eureka
Cage affects 13 out of these 16 decks. 3 are significantly affected (Reanimator/Dredge) and 10 are partially affected in terms of GSZ or Snapcaster. So, Cage represent a potential meta shift, which will lead to an uncertain meta for a time. However, Maverick has been notoriously resilient in adapting to new metas.
My major concerns are decks that will be running Cage as a 1-of with tutor capability (Enlightened Tutor, Tezzeret, Trinket Mage, etc.). I think we will be seeing a shift in meta and who knows what will come up or become popular. As I predicted earlier, I think it will shift to each extreme - combo players will have their reawakening and control, namely CounterTop will make a comeback. The current meta is right down the middle - neither aggro or control, and personally, I like it.
A secondary concern is the Anti-Legacy Legacy deck. Since this card impacts so much of the current meta, a deck may arise that is just created to hate on common decks. This happens in Classic. For example, check out this deck: http://decks.mtgoacademy.com/Decks.aspx?ID=77487 It looks like a piece of junk! 4 Maindeck Trygon Predator, 4 Qasali's Pridemage and 2 Nature's Claim? But when you consider the 2 major decks in Classic are Oath of Druids and Shop (Artifacts), you can understand how this deck can do well. So, my concern is players will craft a deck just to hate the meta and Cage will be a cornerstone, causing Mav to get caught up in the crossfire.
As always, we won't know until it happens. Furthermore, not even half of Dark Ascension has been spoiled, so there may be some answers or other surprises lurking in the set. For the time being, I think we just have to agree to disagree. Most posters think Cage will have little to no effect on Maverick, some people even welcome the change, viewing Cage as a weak answer to Maverick. People like me remain cautious, as we realize what a potential impact Grafdigger's Cage most likely will have on the meta.
Maverick is that hate deck.
How can anyone say cage is good against maverick? You forget they are doing their first turn nothing, and they play 4 cards to counter your 4gsz, sounds like an even trade? and often I don't need to gsz I just play a stoneforge/knight form hand and beat them to dead.
Why is nobody discussing Thalia? That card is the complete Nuts for maverick. We have a maindeckable good answer to combo now, it is good vs aggro ( first strike ! ) perish proof. And the minor mana disruption helps the wasteland plan. I think Maverick is going to be the dread of the format after this set.
Isn't already Dread of the Legacy ? :)
Anyway I don't like Thalia - its nice taxing vs combo, but we taxing also our removal and GSZ, which isn't too good for us, I think it's rather belong to D&T than Maverick.
Yes, but most of the time you can affort paying 2 mana for a stp, ok zenithing for a knigh becomes harder, But I think your opponent is going to have way ore problems with Thalia.
Think about it. Vs control-ish decks. Jace suddently costs 5 mana ( ! ) They can't tap out anymore because Fow and daze costs mana. Snapcaster mage also loses a lot of value.
Agaist dredge and reanimator. Also very very good. I think dredge can just GG against Thalia and a wasteland turn 2. Even without wasteland it'll be gg.
Against merfolk. A 2/1 firstriker is also pretty handy, and again, shuts of their counter package.
And goblins just rolls over and dies to a 2/1 firstriker turn 2 with a turn 1 mor. ( Not that goblins still sees a lot of play)
I can name advantages to Talia all day long
even more so if we compare her to aven mindcensor
Thalia is in no way more advantageous to Thorns in the matchups where that effect matters. being non-Green is a big deal; Thorn of Amethyst we can tutor with Enlightened.
I can't see how Thalia is better for this deck than Thorn of Amethyst.
Thalia Attacks/blocks/firststrikes/picksup equipment? How is that not better then a thorn :-S explain plx.
Maverick has played aven mincensor for ages, minor disruption with a 2/1 flying body. I find thalia much better in that spot. ( If you dislike that spot, I can see you also dislike Thalia, But I have won tournaments on aven mindcensor :) ) ((( European Meta perhaps )))
It annoys the opponent, not so much you. and there is just so much synergy with the deck. ( How often do you win games on the back of wasteland, Thalia complements that plan )
But I have to be honest, haven't tested it yet. But I will!
Think about the role Thalia/Thorn plays in this deck. When would you bring in an effect that taxes non-creature spells?
Think about how early you would want that effect - which of the tutor packages allows you to find one rather than the other?
I would play it maindeck instead of my 3 aven mincensors :)
So a turn 1 noble followed up with a turn 2 thalia and a wasteland sounds like a Really good play :).
Against what deck isn't a non creature tax effect good? Against which DTB would Thalia suck at the moment? and you don't have to forget a 2/1 first striker non green is usefell all by itself!
Thalia just dissables so many T1 cards/stratgies.
Remember compare it with the aven mindcensor slot!
Thalia seems incredibly good in this deck. It is fantastic against any blue deck and combo deck and is much better then thorn of amethyst because it's a creature. You can protect it with mother or even karakas giving you a protected lock against certain decks and just a great tool to slow them down against others. 2/1 first strike is not bad either as it chops up small dorks all day.
I can definately see three main deck with a slight adjustment to play less top heavy non-creatures to accomodate it.
Thalia would be sick in some vial build by the way, really makes me want to test some sort of vial deck.
If you're using her against combo, using Karakas to bounce her seems abuot the same as them removing her... She seems like she doesn't fit Maverick just because GSZ can't grab her (so you wont want to run a single version of her...), she is legendary so having multiples sucks and obviously Enlightened Tutor can't grab her. I can't comment on how viable she is with a Vial build as I've always used GSZ.
Instead of running Etutor, you might want to replace it with Worldly Tutor. It can fetch up Cannonist, Teeg or Thalia (Or even any creature in the deck.)
iScare, all but one of those cards can already be searched for by the deck. And the land portion of Worldly Tutor is already blown away by KotR. Plus if you ran Worldly instead you'd need to replace stuff like Choke, Ensnaring Bridge, Jitte, and so on with men or lands that fill those often singleton board slots.
There's only 2 matchups where I board in both Choke and E-tutor: High Tide and Hive Mind. Or more generally, slow Blue-based combo decks. Trying to find Choke with E-tutor is a waste of SB slots - I haven't found that many dead cards against the controlling blue decks to afford both Choke and Tutor; and so I don't board in tutor.
Maybe Tutor-Sideboards are generally outdated. I played my last Sideboard with E-Tutor in a GP-Trial for Grand Prix Amsterdam and I don't felt comfortable with it.
You may search a bomb in any given matchup, but there's always the danger for a bad trade und you give information to your opponent. I don't think the risk is it worth when you can get there with another Sideboard.
I've not had good luck with Choke against High Tide. Once they start going off, Choke's effect doesn't matter because they are untapping all of their Islands anyway. I know there are the times we could catch them off guard, but usually we drop Choke on turn 2/3, they may have 1 or 2 tapped islands. They wait until the have 3 untapped, High Tide, Turnabout and combo off. I've never tried it against Hive Mind, but I imagine the same to be true. I guess the reality is against both of these deck (High Tide and Hive Mind), we have so many dead cards to take out that it doesn't make sense not to board in Choke. Ruckus, using your SCGLA list against High Tide, I'm +2 Canonist, +2 Choke, +2 E Tutor, - 4 STP, - 1 Terravore (dies with Time Spiral), -1 Thrun (too slow) I would do the same against Hive Mind except +1 Metamorph/-1 Jitte. Is this what you do?
I switched to a non-E-tutor sideboard. I still haven't played very many games with it, but I'll report back when I do. It's interesting that the Europe meta Maverick players play non-E tutor boards while the American meta Maverick players all play E tutor sideboards. Is each right for their own meta or is one a better build?
Compare Decks 1 & 4 (although not 11 & 15) http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...cy-Event-Top16
with Decks 1, 4, 5 & 9 http://sales.starcitygames.com/deckd...ion=Show+Decks
Thoughts?