[Deck] GW/x Maverick

Against Burn, I have a single COP:Red in my Enlightened Tutor board. It comes down turn three most games, and as long as they don't have a god hand, that's fast enough to stop them. Mono-red can only effectively answer COP with Chaos Warp, if they have it; Pridemage deals with the rest of their SB. It's important to get your life gain online ASAP after sticking the enchantment though, or the Burn player will just wait 'til they have more spells than you do mana.


Against combo:
I feel like out best options are Teeg, Canonist, and Thalia/Thorn of Amethyst. The creatures are better because they can be protected my Mom, which is a big deal. The only reason I'm not sold on Thalia yet is that unlike the other two we (I) have no way to search for her, and being legendary means I don't want to maindeck more than one. Thorns get really good in multiples, and Thalia doesn't.

In my SB, I also have a single Ratchet Bomb (wish it were E. Explosives) to deal with token strategies, including Belcher, a Stony Silence for their artifact mana, and a Pithing Needle for everything from Goblin Charbelcher to Candelabra of Tawnos.


I learned the hard way that some combo decks, especially Belcher, will just shrug at an Ethersworn Canonist, play a bunch of 0cc artifacts, and combo off anyway.

I'm thinking of playing some Maverick for the GP in Indy. Been testing some new things.

here's my main
2 Aven Mindcensor
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Gaddock Teeg
4 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Mother of Runes
3 Noble Hierarch
2 Qasali Pridemage
1 Rhox War Monk
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Scryb Ranger
1 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Tarmogoyf
1 Terravore
1 Thrun, the Last Troll

4 Green Sun's Zenith
3 Punishing Fire
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Umezawa's Jitte

1 Bojuka Bog
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Forest
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Karakas
1 Maze of Ith
4 Savannah
2 Taiga
3 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath
2 Wooded Foothills

been thinking about changing the singleton bird into the 3rd Mom

Rhox War Monk is great in the main, good GSZ target for 3. Most people assume i'm grabbing a KoTR. He's won me several matches, and loves exalted triggers. Steals games from burn.

Main decking the bojuka bog, good against random things. Dredge, reanimator, good in the mirror, and randomly, it's really good after a high tide player has cast a time spiral lol. I've never found it to be bad in the main.

And i've thought about replacing the Scryb Ranger with Silhana Ledgewalker. But I think Scryb is better in the slot.

sideboard:
1 Dueling Grounds
2 Enlightened Tutor
1 Ethersworn Canonist
4 Natural Order
1 Progenitus
2 Red Elemental Blast
1 Runed Halo
1 Stony Silence
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Wheel of Sun and Moon

I like Runed Halo. Names stuff like Progenitus, Tendrils of Agony, Words of War, Brain Freeze, Delver/Tarmogoyf against RUG. Or the shroud fatties that reanimator might push through.

I'm not entirely sure about the natural order package in the sideboard. I don't think it's necessary, but I believe it wins the mirror. if I cut it, the sideboard would probably add

COP:Red
Pithing Needle
Phyrexian Metamorph
another REB
1 ?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RKPW

Rhox War Monk is great in the main, good GSZ target for 3. Most people assume i'm grabbing a KoTR. He's won me several matches, and loves exalted triggers. Steals games from burn.

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I would suggest upping your Noble Hierarch to 4x, and cutting your BoP by -1 if you are running Rhox, especially without a Tropical Island. Also, as you said, Rhox + Exalted = Good Times so you might as well maximize on that while fixing your mana.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mini1337s

I would suggest upping your Noble Hierarch to 4x, and cutting your BoP by -1 if you are running Rhox, especially without a Tropical Island. Also, as you said, Rhox + Exalted = Good Times so you might as well maximize on that while fixing your mana.

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I originally had it as four Nobles, then cut one for the Bird. My logic was, sometimes you might need a flyer for some reason to GSZ for. Scryb Ranger is the only other in the deck. Birds can make the blue mana, and fly with some equipment.

I've never had any real problems with actually casting the War Monk. Usually always have the blue mana, or just grab with GSZ.

If I was going to change the BoP, it'd probably be for the 3rd Mother of Runes/4th Noble.

My biggest concern is the NO Package in the sideboard.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RKPW

I originally had it as four Nobles, then cut one for the Bird. My logic was, sometimes you might need a flyer for some reason to GSZ for. Scryb Ranger is the only other in the deck. Birds can make the blue mana, and fly with some equipment.

I've never had any real problems with actually casting the War Monk. Usually always have the blue mana, or just grab with GSZ.

If I was going to change the BoP, it'd probably be for the 3rd Mother of Runes/4th Noble.

My biggest concern is the NO Package in the sideboard.

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That's certainly reasonable. I do the 3/1 split too, but I'm definetly considering cutting it. To be honest, while the singleton Birds of Paradise can occasionally win games or chump dudes, the case are very few and far between. I think I would rather just increase my clock more than have the ability to occasionally "GOTCHA" my opponent with BoP. I'm leaning towards running 4x Hierarch, 2x Scryb Ranger, taking out the BoP and my 2nd Scavenging Ooze.

So I have two possible sideboards,

Sideboard 1:
1 Dueling Grounds
2 Enlightened Tutor
1 Ethersworn Canonist
4 Natural Order
1 Progenitus
2 Red Elemental Blast
1 Runed Halo
1 Stony Silence
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Wheel of Sun and Moon

Sideboard 2:

1 Dueling Grounds
2 Enlightened Tutor
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Serenity
1 Circle of Protection: Red
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Pithing Needle
3 Red Elemental Blast
1 Runed Halo
1 Stony Silence
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Wheel of Sun and Moon


I think the NO package is great in the mirror, but that's really it I think..?

My wife is an maverick player and lately I've been toying with the idea doing a 3/2 split of gsz/birthing pod. Anyone tried this yet? gsz us a great engine but pod would open up even more options like one-of targets like Thalia or transforming a bop/hierarch into a sfm who sacs for finks and so on. Basically it would function as a card quality engine to compliment gsz giving maverick the most superior toolbox in gsz/pod/sfm and the curve already supports pod but its inclusion would allow for even greater variation of threats and answers. Thoughts?

Let's take a critical look at Gaea's Cradle -

Is the card justified for GW Maverick? Are the risks of it being a non-land worth it? Are the situations where it powers up GSZ or equipment transfers "win-more"?

For me it has totally justified it's place because it won me several games just because of sheer speed. T1 Noble into T2 Ooze + Cradle has happened against Dredge ;)

As a 1-of you rarely get to the point where Cradle makes you mulligan your 7 (e.g. 2 Waste 1 Cradle in opener).

The only matchup i've found it underwhelming was RUG Tempo, where it can easily be sided out for Maze/Bog.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rukcus

Gaea's Cradle

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I don't think it's worth it, I recently cut it from my list. It's obviously a good card, but it's not a great top-deck and I almost never want to find it with Knights. I usually search for either something with more utility (like Maze of Ith or Bojuka Bog) or I find a fetch.

The times when I get the most value from Gaea's Cradle are when I have an Ooze on the board or equipment in my hand--but if my board is developed enough that I'm getting a lot of green mana out of Gaea's Cradle, I was probably going to win anyway. And if I'm having trouble building my board, then Gaea's Cradle won't give me much value.

gaea's cradle isn't necessary for maverick to be a powerful deck. I wouldn't cut it though. it's by far the most powerful card in the deck. the one ofs in maverick are the source of it's weakness as well as the source of it's strength. these situational cards should be minimized for maximum efficiency, but in the case of cradle i think it should stay. it's the one unfair card in the deck and it can make amazing plays. that said, i'm not an expert and it's possible for a long tournament the added efficiency could help a maverick player. if this decision is made, maybe another horizon canopy would be a good choice.

Why hasn't Thalia been discussed in depth yet?

I'm betting my father's balls it'll be a 2-of Maverick core card very soon.

Because most people don't like to think for themselves ;)

I am playing her in the Mindscensor slot and she is awesome. She makes so many cards worse on her own while applying pressure and fitting the curve better than Mindscensors.

Edit:

Of course she is used in the straight GW list, GWu might work as well.

Ofcourse, thalia is insane.
Its only good in the GW version tho, since paying 3 for a Pfire is kinda bad.
However i think if you're running thalias you have to adjust your decklist according to that. For example i thint its a misstake to run less than 4 SFM if you're running thalia, since paying 4 for an equipment is very painful.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by arcannys

Ofcourse, thalia is insane.
Its only good in the GW version tho, since paying 3 for a Pfire is kinda bad.
However i think if you're running thalias you have to adjust your decklist according to that. For example i thint its a misstake to run less than 4 SFM if you're running thalia, since paying 4 for an equipment is very painful.

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The only real downside I can see is she makes GSZs worse.
I'd go down to 2-3 for sure with 2-3 Thalias in the main.

The upsides outweigh the downsides by far though.

I would never cut the Zeniths, even with Thalia it's too powerful to pass and most decks have to handle Thalia as soon as possible or they will probably die due to taxing, whereas we can keep spilling creatures. If they handle her Zenith gets back to full value.

The full set of Stoneforges seems pretty reasonable but might not even be needed.

4 Stp
4 Zenith
2 Sylvan
3 Equips (Jitte +2 Swords for me, SoLaS + SoXaY)

That's probably all you want to play alongside that Jitte swinging lady ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by arcannys

Ofcourse, thalia is insane.
Its only good in the GW version tho, since paying 3 for a Pfire is kinda bad.
However i think if you're running thalias you have to adjust your decklist according to that. For example i thint its a misstake to run less than 4 SFM if you're running thalia, since paying 4 for an equipment is very painful.

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I'm testing her in my Punishing Fire build. I think she has really great potential. Karakas can bounce her back to your hand, after you've assembled a nice little army of dudes. and then lay waste with some fire.

I'll be sure to let you know. I think if i'm running her though, Natural Order out of the board is probably a bad idea, right?

why does GW not use aven mindcensors anymore while GW/r still use them?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by klaus

Why hasn't Thalia been discussed in depth yet?

I'm betting my father's balls it'll be a 2-of Maverick core card very soon.

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Hello,
Im currently running a GW maverick hybrid of DT, i've posted my list on the DT section but the posters shot down the idea.

I had a successful run with my build in a 107 man tourny in our country. I wasn't able to enter the top 8 but landed a 5-2 record. My ichorid matchup was really weak thus i wasn't able to enter the top 8.

Decks i've beat where:
2 uw geist stoneblade
1 mbc
1 loam pox
1 maverick

Decks to which i lost
1 ichorid
1 steel city (MUD)

Here is my list for reference

Quote:

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Lands [22]
4 wasteland
3 rishadan port
1 karakas
2 plains
1 forest
4 savannah
4 windswept heath
2 flooded strand
1 maze of ith

Spells [11]
1 sofi
1 solas
1 jitte
4 stp
4 aether vial

Creatures [27]
4 mother of runes
3 noble hiearch
3 thalia, guardian of thraben
4 stoneforge mystic
3 qasali pridemage
4 serra avenger
4 knight of the reliquary
2 mirran crusader

SB [15]
3 parallax wave
3 flickerwisp
2 glowrider
2 beast within
2 jotun grunt
1 bojuka bog
2 gaddock teeg

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by rukcus

Let's take a critical look at Gaea's Cradle -

Is the card justified for GW Maverick? Are the risks of it being a non-land worth it? Are the situations where it powers up GSZ or equipment transfers "win-more"?

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Cradle has saved my ass more times than I can count by allowing me to hardcast Batterskull and equip it, or blow out an opposing Knight of the Reliquary with Scavenging Ooze, or GSZ for Thrun early in the game.

Yeah it sucks drawing it as the only green source in your opener, but this happens very rarely, and the times where it is useful, at least for me, are far more than the times where it is crap.