[Deck] GW/x Maverick

[Augustas]

I'm just wondering, was Ranger of Eos ever considered atleast as a 1-off?

[from Cairo]

I'm just wondering, was Ranger of Eos ever considered atleast as a 1-off?

To serve what purpose? It can pull up double Mother of Runes (or Noble), but for 4 mana that seems unexciting. The only way to really widen Ranger of Eos' utility would be to include more diverse 1 drop options, but GSZ fills this tutor-for-utility slot more mana efficiently and with less constraint on the targets. At 4 mana Elspeth can provide similar effects of clogging up ground combat with dorks, but can also be used aggressively to jump a KotR and set up a 2 turn clock. Eos could be neat after a sweeper effect, but I think the SFM into Batterskull or a Sword can provide similar recovery routes. The GSZ package also provides a top to the curve with more utility - Witness/Knight/Terravore against agro Thrun or proactively Gaddock against control. I think Ranger of Eos is just too narrow and not bomby enough for the cost.

[Esper3k]

Hah yeah - I just love how this deck tells blue decks: every time you Force of Will, I win.

[Ziveeman]

My thought process going in Vegas:
1) Expect blue (and tons of it)
2) Expect Burn (since Arizona players love to cast Lava Spike) - this one was regional
3) Expect Combo (regional again, and this includes Reanimator)

Based on those three conditions, I reasoned that I wanted extra Ooze, both to see more copies as well as still have one after removal.

I was also expecting a fair amount of SFM decks, and wanted several copies of Qasali Pridemage. Aside from that, just maximize the amount of good cards in general (KotR, Mom, etc)

Just a note (since I'm from Arizona), no one really plays burn here in Arizona. SCG: LA in March was just a fun experiment, especially those who don't have Legacy decks, to kinda screw with the metagame and have fun - I guess it worked :P

[Koby]

Just a note (since I'm from Arizona), no one really plays burn here in Arizona. SCG: LA in March was just a fun experiment, especially those who don't have Legacy decks, to kinda screw with the metagame and have fun - I guess it worked :P

Burn was also a large component of the Vegas metagame, being top of the most played decks.

[Neuad]

I've been interested in G/W since my friend Mike picked it up after Survival was banned, and no he didn't play Vengvine!, and vial is one of my favorite cards, and broken as hell. . . .especially when your deck is all 2 drops. I finished building it 2 weeks ago when I realized I didnt like control, and combo was just a horrid decision with all the blue in the format. I was doing well with it in local events, including 3 top 4 splits in the 3 events I played it in.

I will try out the green sun version soon, but Serra Avenger is just so broken and powerful I don't know if I want to give her up.


Ended up going 7-2 and took 18th on breakers in the SCG Open Charlotte with

// Lands
4 [ON] Windswept Heath
4 [R] Savannah
2 [ON] Flooded Strand
2 [FUT] Horizon Canopy
4 [TE] Wasteland
3 [SOM] Plains (1)
1 [SOM] Forest (1)
1 [LG] Karakas
1 [FUT] Dryad Arbor

// Creatures
4 [UL] Mother of Runes
4 [FUT] Tarmogoyf
4 [ARB] Qasali Pridemage
4 [TSP] Serra Avenger
3 [LRW] Gaddock Teeg
3 [WWK] Stoneforge Mystic
3 [CFX] Knight of the Reliquary

// Spells
4 [CST] Swords to Plowshares
2 [5E] Sylvan Library
1 [BOK] Umezawa's Jitte
1 [DS] Sword of Fire and Ice
1 [DS] Sword of Light and Shadow
4 [DS] AEther Vial

// Sideboard
SB: 4 [ALA] Ethersworn Canonist
SB: 2 [FNM] Krosan Grip
SB: 3 [COM] Path to Exile
SB: 3 [DDD] Faerie Macabre
SB: 1 [COM] Bojuka Bog
SB: 2 [MBS] Thrun, the Last Troll


Round 1 - Got paired against some draft champion that was in Draft Open 1 and he conceded to me. Free win!

Round 2 - Hive Mind. Won 2-1. Ethersworn Canonist, Knight off of a Show and Tell to counter Emrakul, and him mulling to 3 game 3 really helped. 2-1

Round 3 - Hive Mind. Won 2-1. Again, ethersworn off vial, and karakas in my opener won me game 2. Game 3 I had Forest, Savannah, Canopy, 2 vials at 2, Ethersworn, Teeg, and some other guys in play. He hard casts Hivemind and passes. I draw. No KGrip or Qasali. Draw off Canopy and windmill the Qasali down. He extends his hand. 2-1

Round 4 - Slivers. Crystalline Sliver is really good when my hand is Swords x3, Path. Fuck this deck. 1-2

Round 5 - Reanimator. He was new to Legacy and I just beat him down vialing in guys and beating down. 2-1

Round 6 - Reanimator. This guy was a good player and I knew what he was on. Lost game ond. Won game 2 thanks to Sword of Light and Shadow on a goyf. Kept a shakey hand on game 3 and it didn't pay off. 1-2

Round 7 - U/R Delver. I played against this deck 2 rounds in a row in the Legacy Challenge and went 4-0 in games. They run out of steam and I stabilized and beat them down. The same thing happened game 1 and 3. Game 2 he burned me out while countering my relevant spells. 2-1.

Round 8 - U/W Stoneblade. I kept Savannah and Waste + creatures and never saw another land and kind of went on tilt. Thrun won me game 2. Game 3 I was able to equip a Light and Shadow to Goyf after giving it pro blue with Mom and swing in for the win on my final turn. 2-1

Round 9 - Burn. I sat next to this guy in round 2 or 3 so I knew what he was on. Game 1 I was able to fetch around Price. He fireblasted a Serra to stop Jitte from getting counters with only 2 mountains in play. He managed to top deck the next land but I had a Library in play and was able to find another creature easily and get Jitte active. Game 2 he burned me out wayyyyyyy too fast. Game 3 I got a jitte active and he had a Figure of Destiny to my 2 moms, Serra, Qasali x2, Teeg, vial at 2, Library and Jitte. He goes Figure, Figure, go. I get Jitte active on a creature and the game is over. 2-1

Thankfully those were Figure's and not burn spells or I would have lost the game.

I know this isn't the most in depth report, I didn't take very good notes or anything so this is done off memory. If you have any questions I will answer to the best of my memory.

Props:
Aether Vial. People forget how broken this card is and I just pump out tons of creatures and bash face.
Serra Avenger. So many people cannot deal with a 3/3 Flying vigilance. Especially with Equipment.
Sylvan Library. Although one of my problems is I need to learn this card more aggressively, it helped soooo much because people never counter it and I just dig and dig and dig.

Flops
Expensive food/Lack of options at convention centers
Slivers. F this deck so hard.
Burn being X-2 in the final round, I was so worried walking up knowing this guy was playing burn.
Downtown Charlotte restaurants being extremely expensive.

Next up, learning to use Sylvan Library and Horizon Canopy more aggressively.

[BlackStarDeceiver]

Went 5-1 yesterday with a pretty european stock list (with Mindcensor etc.)

2-0 against Nic Fit
0-2 against Canadian
(one of the best german Eternal players, punted game 2 though, forgot about Mindharness and played a KotR while i had Thrun on board....)
2-1 against WhiteStaxx
2-0 against Junk Loam
2-0 against UWr Countertop
2-1 against Nic Fit
(Thrun with equips is boss here, still the matchup seems pretty bad without a fast Mindscensor)

All in all second out of 36 for a Plateau, pretty nice for 6€ ;)

[majikal]

lol @ Star City Games for never naming Maverick correctly. This time they've got Aggro Loam listed as Maverick. They will never get it right.

[Koby]

lol @ Star City Games for never naming Maverick correctly. This time they've got Aggro Loam listed as Maverick. They will never get it right.

What do you expect from a staff that lets a cheater walk away with the top prize money? </aside>

It was refreshing to see GerryT pick up a non-Blue list however, and I'm looking forward to watching the videos to see how he played them out. Anyone have the link at hand?

[GerryT]

lol @ Star City Games for never naming Maverick correctly. This time they've got Aggro Loam listed as Maverick. They will never get it right.

I label the decks with a name that people will get a general idea of what's in the deck just by looking at it. Names like "Maverick" and "Team America" and "Canadian Threshold" don't do that.

Also, I played "Maverick" at the Invitational because it's a good deck and well-positioned. I prefer Brainstorm, but I'll play whatever's good.

[Mark Sun]

It was refreshing to see GerryT pick up a non-Blue list however, and I'm looking forward to watching the videos to see how he played them out. Anyone have the link at hand?

Evan usually does a really good job of getting videos up fast. Would also like to see them.

Mixed feelings on playing straight GW; I won matches because of my configuration, but lost others miserably because I didn't have access to something like Grove/Punishing Fire. Go figure

[Esper3k]

I label the decks with a name that people will get a general idea of what's in the deck just by looking at it. Names like "Maverick" and "Team America" and "Canadian Threshold" don't do that.

Also, I played "Maverick" at the Invitational because it's a good deck and well-positioned. I prefer Brainstorm, but I'll play whatever's good.

I can understand doing that, but I think once people look up a deck name and have an understanding of it, the need for descriptive names isn't as necessary.

Like in Standard, people knew what CawBlade and Jund were without it having to be constantly names UW/x Control or GRB Midgame Aggro.

Also, by renaming decks (especially if renamed incorrectly), I think it generates feelings of disrespect towards a community that's been playing said decks for awhile.

[GerryT]

I can understand doing that, but I think once people look up a deck name and have an understanding of it, the need for descriptive names isn't as necessary.

Like in Standard, people knew what CawBlade and Jund were without it having to be constantly names UW/x Control or GRB Midgame Aggro.

Also, by renaming decks (especially if renamed incorrectly), I think it generates feelings of disrespect towards a community that's been playing said decks for awhile.

CawBlade and Jund are descriptive. "Maverick" and "Team America" are not. I'm far more worried about a new player looking at a format that seems interesting, but being overwhelmed by a bunch of weird decknames that don't make any sense, and deciding to not care anymore. I would think that, as a community, you'd want to foster that community and make it grow. That isn't going to happen when people insist on using their elitist decknaming conventions for no reason.

There was some stuff like Aggro Loam being labeled Maverick by the team entering decklists, but it's my job to fix that. If anything else recent looks wrong, just let me know.

Also, I'm sorry if it seems disrespectful. That is not our intention.

Anyway, I liked the deck a lot. I beat Hive Mind, Sneak and Show, U/R Painter, and lost to Nic Fit. Dredge scooped me in in the last round. MJ went 4-0 and Ben Hayes went 6-1 with the same deck in the Invitational, and MJ top 16ed the Legacy Open losing to the mirror.

I felt a little helpless against the combo decks, but it turned out well. Not sure the Punishing Fires were entirely necessary, as my mana base felt a little wonky at times, but PFire IS really good against a lot of decks, so maybe it's worth it. I'll probably talk more about the deck in my next article or the one after that.

[RaNDoMxGeSTuReS]

Yeah.. I'm pretty sure the SCG Coverage has referred to Maverick as:

-G/W Blade
-Zoo
-G/W Zoo
-G/W Aggro
-Bant
-Bant Blade

And sometimes Maverick...

EDIT: Maverick is already soft to combo. Isn't it the case with the Punishing Fire lists that they're even softer to combo?

[Koby]

Without completely destroying the Sideboard, or playing Ethersworn Canonist maindeck; there is not much that will fix the combo matchup. That's the price the deck pays for playing without blue cards.

If the deck survives to a second turn, it has the possibility of finding a decent hate card. The alternative is playing 4 Mindbreak Trap and hope that can be enough.

Also, Naya Stoneblade...

I suggest a better naming convention:

GW/(r/u) Zenith

Most Zoo decks don't run Zenith, or use Zenith with Wild Nacatl. Nacatl is a dead giveaway that the deck is Zoo.

[majikal]

CawBlade and Jund are descriptive. "Maverick" and "Team America" are not. I'm far more worried about a new player looking at a format that seems interesting, but being overwhelmed by a bunch of weird decknames that don't make any sense, and deciding to not care anymore. I would think that, as a community, you'd want to foster that community and make it grow. That isn't going to happen when people insist on using their elitist decknaming conventions for no reason.

I wouldn't really say "elitist decknaming conventions" as the entire game has a pretty long history of weird decknames, and this is something that was always embraced and encouraged by the people working at WotC's Sideboard magazine. For example, many combo decks have traditionally been named after breakfast cereals, while creature decks have popularly been given names such as "Red Zone", "PT Jank", "Sea Stompy", and "Fish" (even when the deck contained no actual Merfolk). "Junk" is not a particularly descriptive deck name, but it continues to be used. Also "Reanimator" is named after a movie, while "ANT" and "TES" are just acronyms to anyone who doesn't already know what they are.

Also, let's face it - Naya, Jund, Bant, Esper, Grixis, etc. don't mean anything to new players either. Continuing to name decks of these colors after out-of-print, setting-specific locations from which they contain zero representative cards seems about on the same level as the actual creator of a deck naming it, so wouldn't you say your own naming conventions are a bit hypocritical?

I felt a little helpless against the combo decks, but it turned out well. Not sure the Punishing Fires were entirely necessary, as my mana base felt a little wonky at times, but PFire IS really good against a lot of decks, so maybe it's worth it. I'll probably talk more about the deck in my next article or the one after that.

The deck is a little weird like that. The lack of blue made me feel nervous and a little helpless at first, but it just somehow kept eking out wins against combo decks regardless of the lack of Force of Will. Sure, you lose to the nuts turn 1 hands, but that can happen to decks with FoW as well. Generally, though, if they don't kill you immediately, you have a pretty good chance of locking it up.

[GerryT]

I wouldn't really say "elitist decknaming conventions" as the entire game has a pretty long history of weird decknames, and this is something that was always embraced and encouraged by the people working at WotC's Sideboard magazine. For example, many combo decks have traditionally been named after breakfast cereals, while creature decks have popularly been given names such as "Red Zone", "PT Jank", "Sea Stompy", and "Fish" (even when the deck contained no actual Merfolk). "Junk" is not a particularly descriptive deck name, but it continues to be used. Also "Reanimator" is named after a movie, while "ANT" and "TES" are just acronyms to anyone who doesn't already know what they are.

Also, let's face it - Naya, Jund, Bant, Esper, Grixis, etc. don't mean anything to new players either. Continuing to name decks of these colors after out-of-print, setting-specific locations from which they contain zero representative cards seems about on the same level as the actual creator of a deck naming it, so wouldn't you say your own naming conventions are a bit hypocritical?

You have some fair points. However, using examples of what Sideboard used to do isn't good. I think basically everyone figured out that, while cool if you invented a deck or deckname, it's helpful to basically no one.

While new players might not know what Jund, etc are, that doesn't mean that players who aren't new, but new to Legacy won't. That said, changing those conventions might help for Standard, so you could be right about that.

I only used "elitist" because that's the feeling I get from the Legacy community when topics like this come up. It's all about preserving "your" decknames when it should be about making it easily accessible so that Legacy doesn't die out.

My round twelve vs Ken Adams' Painter deck (with my thoughts in parenthesis):

He won the roll (awww hell) and played turn one Grindstone. I played turn one Mother of Runes (pleaaase don't have Painter and LED), and he played a Painter's Servant. I played a Dryad Arbor and Swords to Plowshares (pleaaase don't have Force of Will and a land) which resolved. Next turn he just played a Top while I played a Pridemage (if this resolves I think I'm winning...) and he died a few turns later.

Every single turn is a huge sweat, which is kind of nice, but W/G really does have enough tools to interact. I wasn't a huge fan of Enlightened Tutor sideboards in most decks, probably because most of the decks I were playing were blue. In W/G, it seemed very solid though. Definitely got to shore up my bad matchups with very few sideboard slots, and they were very impactful.

[bakofried]

I'm behind the G/W/x Zenith naming convention; it feels a bit more true to the deck's design, as Stoneforge, while strong, is not the core focus of the deck. My two cents.

Also, if I may ask, I noticed the full set of Paths in the sideboard; this seemed odd to me, especially with the integration of Punishing Fires. Could I hear the explanation behind that?

*EDIT
It appears you have 17 cards in your sideboard. Misentry on the Paths, I assume?

[majikal]

I'm behind the G/W/x Zenith naming convention; it feels a bit more true to the deck's design, as Stoneforge, while strong, is not the core focus of the deck. My two cents.

Also, if I may ask, I noticed the full set of Paths in the sideboard; this seemed odd to me, especially with the integration of Punishing Fires. Could I hear the explanation behind that?

Snapcaster Mage decks have made creature-heavy decks more popular, so more removal is better. Also, more redundancy marginalizes the value they can leverage over you with their flashback shenanigans.

[Artlee]

It was a shame, that finally when a top player took the deck for a spin, he ran into a deck that is built to eat them alive.

Every single turn is a huge sweat, which is kind of nice

I agree it came as a surprise how skill intensive this deck is, as we have so many choices each turn. Do I start with Noble or mom? Do I use the Green sun for a hierarch/arbor or do I wait and find a hater like Gaddock or qasali? This is what makes the deck very fun to play.