[Deck] GW/x Maverick

[Magnaguard100]

Ghost Quartering someone is not to be considered a main strategy of the deck. Rather see it as low-investment inevitability in a few match ups (coupled with Excavator and maybe Mother) and Wasteland no five in others. What do you give up? A single land. What do you gain? The possibility of carrying out the deck's mana denial strategy vs the decks that are protecting themselves from this by playing 1-2 basics and even to a lesser extent the decks that play more basics. It's not like an extra fetch would win you a lot of games in its place. Or well, that's the actual question. My initial assumption was that we don't want to give up any utility lands so the alternatives are perhaps to lower the dedication on a splashed color and replace a dual, to replace a Wasteland, or to increase the amount of lands in the deck. I felt most comfortable experimenting with a lighter splash, Decay is no longer necessary and when we need discard there is no pressure on our lands anyway... Or a fetch. Or a Wasteland. Gah..

The ability to play multiple lands each turn becomes very attractive with an Excavator in play. Maybe it's time to playtest the monster toad (Gitrog Monster). But on the other hand, Titania has been really good now for the last two years (well, for me) and I don't see playing two five drops.

So what your saying in a roundabout way is that GQ is a viable strategy for the deck, and should run it?

[pettdan]

So what your saying in a roundabout way is that GQ is a viable strategy for the deck, and should run it?

I think this, below, is the part of my post that is most central. I'm writing on my phone and it's a bit messy rewriting things for more clarity, so sorry if it's not too clear.

"What do you give up? A single land. What do you gain? The possibility of carrying out the deck's mana denial strategy vs the decks that are protecting themselves from this by playing 1-2 basics and even to a lesser extent the decks that play more basics. It's not like an extra fetch would win you a lot of games in its place. Or well, that's the actual question."

So, I'm not giving a yes or no answer but instead emphasizing what the cost is of running a copy of Ghost Quarter and what advantages it would bring. I think it seems worthy of testing, but it is not yet a Maverick staple.

[Magnaguard100]

I think this, below, is the part of my post that is most central. I'm writing on my phone and it's a bit messy rewriting things for more clarity, so sorry if it's not too clear.

"What do you give up? A single land. What do you gain? The possibility of carrying out the deck's mana denial strategy vs the decks that are protecting themselves from this by playing 1-2 basics and even to a lesser extent the decks that play more basics. It's not like an extra fetch would win you a lot of games in its place. Or well, that's the actual question."

So, I'm not giving a yes or no answer but instead emphasizing what the cost is of running a copy of Ghost Quarter and what advantages it would bring. I think it seems worthy of testing, but it is not yet a Maverick staple.

Ive been testing it for the past couple weeks and its been either insane or mediocre. Sometimes its just another wasteland, sometimes its actual wasteland if they needled wasteland, killed a couple basics my opponent agressivly fetched out, but agaunst dnt and miracles its bee. Subpar. So overall its been 2/10 or 10/10. Much like excavator

[pettdan]

Ive been testing it for the past couple weeks and its been either insane or mediocre. Sometimes its just another wasteland, sometimes its actual wasteland if they needled wasteland, killed a couple basics my opponent agressivly fetched out, but agaunst dnt and miracles its bee. Subpar. So overall its been 2/10 or 10/10. Much like excavator

I see. Well I don't expect it to be great all the time so if it's sometimes 10/10 that would mean it has the high ceiling one could hope for.

And, based on your recent question, it seems as if you are playing GQ over Cradle, is that the case? I would prefer Cradle over GQ, to answer that question. We had a discussion about Cradle vs Depths about two months ago and I was trying to find it, to link it, but couldn't. I think Cradle was considered a card that should be included by most. Anyway, I think something else should be cut, maybe a black dual or the third basic that some play, myself included. I'll try not to write more on this topic since I need to test it more...

[Magnaguard100]

I see. Well I don't expect it to be great all the time so if it's sometimes 10/10 that would mean it has the high ceiling one could hope for.

And, based on your recent question, it seems as if you are playing GQ over Cradle, is that the case? I would prefer Cradle over GQ, to answer that question. We had a discussion about Cradle vs Depths about two months ago and I was trying to find it, to link it, but couldn't. I think Cradle was considered a card that should be included by most. Anyway, I think something else should be cut, maybe a black dual or the third basic that some play, myself included. I'll try not to write more on this topic since I need to test it more...

My current list is

4 drs
4 mom
1 birds
1 safekeeper
2 sfm
3 thalia
1 pridemage
1 teeg
1 ooze
1 scryb ranger
4 knight
1 excavator
1 rallier
1 titania

4 gsz
4 plow
1 library
1 jitte
1 sofi

7 fetches
2 bayou
2 savannah
1 scrubland
4 wasteland
1 ghost quarter
1 forest
1 plains
1 karakas
1 maze
1 dryad arbor
1 horizon canopy

What do you think i should cut for cradle? Im thinking possibly bayou, though i could just play 61

[pettdan]

@Magnaguard: cutting a Bayou seems ok, you have no black cards in your maindeck. [edit: or maybe 12 green sources excluding Arbor is a bit low, anyone else has an opinion?] Two black duals have been enough for me lately, you can try it. I don't generally mind 61 cards in a gsz-deck, but increasing the land count by adding a land is probably not a good idea.

[Magnaguard100]

@Magnaguard: cutting a Bayou seems ok, you have no black cards in your maindeck. [edit: or maybe 12 green sources excluding Arbor is a bit low, anyone else has an opinion?] Two black duals have been enough for me lately, you can try it. I don't generally mind 61 cards in a gsz-deck, but increasing the land count by adding a land is probably not a good idea.

K, thats what i was leaning towards. My only sideboard cards that are black are zealous persecution, thoughtseize and surgical, so going down to 7 black sources instead of 8 isnt awful

[TMagpie]

What matchups are either Sanctum Prelate or Toxic Deluge not useful in?

[Skizz]

What matchups are either Sanctum Prelate or Toxic Deluge not useful in?

difficult question^^
you can bring prelate against all sorts of combo decks and deluge against decks with a high amount of creatures...

[Magnaguard100]

What matchups are either Sanctum Prelate or Toxic Deluge not useful in?

Sanctum prelate is a card i board in only a couple matchups where there game plan revolves around specific MPs. Vs lands/aggro loam, prelate on 2 is a straight beating, no loam, no p fire, no decay, its great. And then vs combo decks to stop win con, and against miracles name 1 or 6 depending on rest of the board state.

I personaly dont use deluge, but its great vs any creatue decks that explode aka elves, merfolk, goblins, things like that

[Cpt-Qc]

Sanctum prelate is a card i board in only a couple matchups where there game plan revolves around specific MPs. Vs lands/aggro loam, prelate on 2 is a straight beating, no loam, no p fire, no decay, its great. And then vs combo decks to stop win con, and against miracles name 1 or 6 depending on rest of the board state.

I personaly dont use deluge, but its great vs any creatue decks that explode aka elves, merfolk, goblins, things like that

I play a 1of Deluge as it's a great "get out of jail for free" card. Any creature deck that thinks you have no board wipe will play all their threats as soon as they get them so this is a way to punish them. Think of Shardless BUG or Grixis control. They'll jam as many small creatures as fast as they can if they know you have no way to clear it and you'll never see the end of it.

And if they don't deploy all their threats because they are scared of a board wipe then you can take advantage of it because our creatures are often better than our opponent's 1for1. In short, don't expect it to win the game by itself but rather force the opponent to play slower.

[Magnaguard100]

I play a 1of Deluge as it's a great "get out of jail for free" card. Any creature deck that thinks you have no board wipe will play all their threats as soon as they get them so this is a way to punish them. Think of Shardless BUG or Grixis control. They'll jam as many small creatures as fast as they can if they know you have no way to clear it and you'll never see the end of it.

And if they don't deploy all their threats because they are scared of a board wipe then you can take advantage of it because our creatures are often better than our opponent's 1for1. In short, don't expect it to win the game by itself but rather force the opponent to play slower.

Ive never been in a situation where casting deluge has been advantageous for me. Zealous is usually enough against the other creature based decks, and i generally dont like killing my own dudes

[Magnaguard100]

So what does everyone think of the new miri they spoiled today? Seems pretty sweet at getting damage through, and makes elves not able to craterhoof you out of the game.

[Stuart]

So what does everyone think of the new miri they spoiled today? Seems pretty sweet at getting damage through, and makes elves not able to craterhoof you out of the game.

First impression: seems like a solid sideboard bullet if your meta has lots of elves, DnT, etc. Of course, like every fucking green creature ever printed, not sure it passes the "is this a better GSZ target than Knight" or "do I have too many 3 CMC dudes" tests.

[Megadeus]

Maybe it gets in as a SB GSZ bullet, but I'd rather have Thalia 2 personally

[maharis]

Mirri isn't going to work out. You never want more than one and when you are zenithing for 4 to try to somewhat stop a swarm deck the next turn you have probably already lost.

[Cpt-Qc]

So what does everyone think of the new miri they spoiled today? Seems pretty sweet at getting damage through, and makes elves not able to craterhoof you out of the game.

I'm not too keen on upping our number of legendaries but if I was even going to consider a 3drop Legendary bullet it would have to be Rhonas. The card is everything maverick wants: a 5/5 indestructible/deathtouch beater not reliant on the graveyard, mana sink for cradle, gives trample to kotr/more power to first striking thalia.

The new mirri is pretty much useless for maverick.

[TMagpie]

I'm not too keen on upping our number of legendaries but if I was even going to consider a 3drop Legendary bullet it would have to be Rhonas. The card is everything maverick wants: a 5/5 indestructible/deathtouch beater not reliant on the graveyard, mana sink for cradle, gives trample to kotr/more power to first striking thalia.

The new mirri is pretty much useless for maverick.

I'm not the biggest fan of Cradle, hence why I don't run it myself. But damn you made that card sound sexy with your long hard stiff snake God example.

[Cpt-Qc]

I'm not the biggest fan of Cradle, hence why I don't run it myself. But damn you made that card sound sexy with your long hard stiff snake God example.

Oh don't worry you're not alone, I turned myself on just writing this... almost makes me want to drop teeg from the main to fit one more snake in, then with excavator this basically becomes snakes tribal right?

[Xod]

Trying to build a Zoo like build, but it leans more to Maverick than Zoo, what do you guys think:

4 Narnam Renegade
4 Noble Hierarch
2 Birds of Paradise
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Gaddock Teeg
2 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Tireless Tracker
2 Renegade Rallier
2 Huntmaster of the Fells

4 Lightning Bolt
3 Swords to Plowshares
4 Green Sun Zenith

2 Ajani Vengeant

4 Wooded Foothills
4 Windswept Heath
2 Arid Mesa
2 Taiga
2 Savannah
1 Plateau
1 Karakas
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Dryad Arbor
4 Wasteland

1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Containment Priest
2 Fiery Justice
1 Grim Lavamancer
2 Pithing Needle
2 Pyroblast
1 Ramunap Excavator
3 Surgical Extraction

Based on the Zoo list that 5-0'ed on MTGO. Still very debatable. Going to test it this Friday. If this is not the place to discuss this, just ignore me.