[Deck] GW/x Maverick

[glurman]

So, I came in 22nd at StarCityGames DC. My losses were to the mirror (mulligans to 5 both games, never saw a single piece of removal) and I can't remember the other. My draw was in round 1 against Junk.

I realized that with so much Maverick in the meta, the grove version is actually much better. You need the removal package to deal with it. When this was more of a fringe deck, I think G/W was definitely superior. Here's my new list:

Deck
2 Aven Mindcensor
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Gaddock Teeg
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Mother of Runes
3 Noble Hierarch
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Scryb Ranger
3 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Tarmogoyf

2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
4 Green Sun's Zenith
3 Punishing Fire
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Umezawa's Jitte

1 Forest
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Karakas
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Plains
3 Savannah
2 Taiga
4 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath

SIDEBOARD:
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
2 Thrun, the Last Troll
2 Choke
3 Enlightened Tutor
1 Life from the Loam
1 Purify the Grave
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Wheel of Sun and Moon
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Tower of the Magistrate

[Barbed Blightning]

With the release of Dark Ascension right around the corner, I think it's a little too early to prepare for Grand Prix, as we may see a meta shift and probably won't know what to expect even up until the night before the tournament.

I'm not sure if I'm sold on the 4x Pithing Needle sideboard. I think Enlightened Tutor with 1/2 Needles might give your sideboard some more reach.

Against Storm, I would like to Ethersworn Canonist make your list. What are you planning to cast Needle against? LED and Lotus Petal are both mana abilities, so they can't be needled (correct me if I'm wrong here). Additionally, Scryb can be good here to increase your mana and untap MoR. Swords may be necessary if they run Dark Confidant.

Nic Fit looks solid although I'm considering cutting my equipment/sfm package against them. I've only played this match a few times, but my thought is this: if you have no creatures on board, equipment are useless.

UR Delver - the Teeg may be relevant if they bring in Submerge or leave in FOW (they should remove FOW). I would also leave in Ooze, because the life gain can be relevant and it's good against SCM. You could take out Elspeth and maybe Sylvan Library (thoughts on taking this out against decks quicker than Maverick) to make room for Ooze and Teeg.

I was confusing the needle with Phyrexian Revoker (I also play Mono-W Death and Taxes). So, yeah, useless there. :P

2 E Tutors are good; I've just heard the argument that they can lead to two-for-one deals--that is, using the tutor to replace a draw and have your choke/whatever countered. However, DnT runs 4 SB, and they've always been good imo.

My only issue with Canonist is that it dies easily to Pyroclasm/wipeaway, the latter unprotectable by mom. Then again, now that I've realized that needles aren't good for storm, she'll probably make it back in.

Basically, like anyone else, I'm just looking for a SB to help with my bad matchups. But with the Cage, Thalia and Faithless Looting coming into legacy soon, things will probably change significantly.

[KobeBryan]

I was confusing the needle with Phyrexian Revoker (I also play Mono-W Death and Taxes). So, yeah, useless there. :P

2 E Tutors are good; I've just heard the argument that they can lead to two-for-one deals--that is, using the tutor to replace a draw and have your choke/whatever countered. However, DnT runs 4 SB, and they've always been good imo.

My only issue with Canonist is that it dies easily to Pyroclasm/wipeaway, the latter unprotectable by mom. Then again, now that I've realized that needles aren't good for storm, she'll probably make it back in.

Basically, like anyone else, I'm just looking for a SB to help with my bad matchups. But with the Cage, Thalia and Faithless Looting coming into legacy soon, things will probably change significantly.

For storm, you can use canonist and maybe a null rod to vary your hate.

[MiniLuv]

For storm, you can use canonist and maybe a null rod to vary your hate.

Canonist + Null Rod are both answered by artifact hate (i.e. Shattering Spree). Use Stony Silence.

[Water_Wizard]

2 E Tutors are good; I've just heard the argument that they can lead to two-for-one deals--that is, using the tutor to replace a draw and have your choke/whatever countered. However, DnT runs 4 SB, and they've always been good imo.

My only issue with Canonist is that it dies easily to Pyroclasm/wipeaway, the latter unprotectable by mom. Then again, now that I've realized that needles aren't good for storm, she'll probably make it back in.

You don't bring in ETutors against non-combo decks that run counterspells. For example, against UW and RUG Tempo, you just side the Chokes, no ETutor to prevent the 2:1.

The only workaround for Wipe Away is to give your creature prop:blue during your 2nd main. That way, the player is forced to bounce at a time you can replay. If they bounce during their turn, at least you've made them use 3 mana. MoR is the key to protecting Canonist/Teeg from bounce/burn.

[timmycolossus]

Dear maverick players,

I am looking for a 1 or 2 cards to put in my board against pox (loam or mono black), nic fit, and decks that run perish or pernicious deed. I already run 1 elspeth in the main. Thank you for your help.

[Derayler]

Slow roll your mana creatures. So you can play a big creature like a Knight next turn. Most of their removal is sac effects so as long as you have sac fodder you should be fine. Also, punishing fire is good against Liliana. Life from the loam is good against them, especially if you can get back a dryad arbor to sac to small pox and the like multiple times.

[zulander]

Slow roll your mana creatures. So you can play a big creature like a Knight next turn. Most of their removal is sac effects so as long as you have sac fodder you should be fine. Also, punishing fire is good against Liliana. Life from the loam is good against them, especially if you can get back a dryad arbor to sac to small pox and the like multiple times.

Dryad arbor actually isn't very good as you have to go in the order smallpox says.

[Water_Wizard]

Dear maverick players,

I am looking for a 1 or 2 cards to put in my board against pox (loam or mono black), nic fit, and decks that run perish or pernicious deed. I already run 1 elspeth in the main. Thank you for your help.

Garruk Relentless is good. Compost may be worth a look, especially against the mono-black list, since they have no way of removing it.

Kitchen Finks is also good and is a GSZ target, unlike Elspeth/Garruk.

[Osmin]

Dear maverick players,

I am looking for a 1 or 2 cards to put in my board against pox (loam or mono black), nic fit, and decks that run perish or pernicious deed. I already run 1 elspeth in the main. Thank you for your help.

Dauntless Escort as GSZ target.

[lyracian]

Dryad arbor actually isn't very good as you have to go in the order smallpox says.

Yes it is; you can use it as the creature or land that you are sacrificing.

[BlackStarDeceiver]

Yes it is; you can use it as the creature or land that you are sacrificing.

Yip you can choose to sac it as a land, but then you have to have another creature, otherwise you will sac the Arbor first, then sac a land.

[lyracian]

Yip you can choose to sac it as a land, but then you have to have another creature, otherwise you will sac the Arbor first, then sac a land.

The point being you can bring Arbour back with Loam and use it as either a land or creature to pox effects.

[Koby]

SCG videos finally got uploaded:

SCG:LA Top 8 - Game 2 - Part 1
SCG:LA Top 8 - Game 2 - Part 2
SCG:LA Top 8 - Game 3

Note that I chose to draw each game when given a choice.

[Raystar]

SCG videos finally got uploaded:

SCG:LA Top 8 - Game 2 - Part 1
SCG:LA Top 8 - Game 2 - Part 2
SCG:LA Top 8 - Game 3

Note that I chose to draw each game when given a choice.

Great games, thanks for sharing. It's like watching the reference manual of the deck, there are a couple of plays that I will always remember.

I have a question for you: why did you choose to un-equip the skull crusher in the second game to re-equip it on the knight? I think that costed the game, didn't it?

[Koby]

Great games, thanks for sharing. It's like watching the reference manual of the deck, there are a couple of plays that I will always remember.

I have a question for you: why did you choose to un-equip the skull crusher in the second game to re-equip it on the knight? I think that costed the game, didn't it?

I wanted to gain a bunch of life off Lifelink - and failed to play around Path to Exile. Had it been Swords to Plowshares I would have been in fine shape. Immediately after that game I recognized I should have equipped the Scavenging Ooze instead, leaving the Knight on the defense.

[bakofried]

Have you done much testing with the idea of replacing Thrun in the main and the two chokes in the side with some configuration of Garruks and Elspeths?

[Koby]

I still like Choke in the SB, so no change there. An alternative might be to use Carpet of Flowers, which actually makes it useful against RUG Tempo too.

I am testing the following changes:

+2 Garruk Relentless
+1 Silhana Ledgewalker
-1 Thrun
-1 Scryb Ranger
-1 Gaddock Teeg (to the SB)

I've already noticed the Ledgewalker picking up some slack esp against the mirror, and carrying an Equipment.

[anarki]

Hello, I was planning on running a list like this at SCG Cincinnati. I was wondering how you sideboard in specific matches like UW and RUG. For example against UW Stoneforge what do you take out usually? I want to bring in Choke, E Tutors, and Red Blast. I've considered taking some zenith's out and a few creatures, but I might be way off base here. Any help is much appreciated.

2 Aven Mindcensor
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Gaddock Teeg
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Mother of Runes
3 Noble Hierarch
2 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Scryb Ranger
3 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Tarmogoyf

1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
4 Green Sun's Zenith
3 Punishing Fire
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Umezawa's Jitte

1 Forest
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Karakas
2 Arid Mesa
1 Plains
3 Savannah
2 Taiga
3 Wasteland
1 Maze of Ith
4 Windswept Heath
1 Dryad Arbor

//Sideboard
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
2 Choke
2 Enlightened Tutor
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Batterskull
2 Red Elemental Blast
1 Stony Silence
1 Pithing Needle
2 Path to Exile

[Koby]

The Tutor package is there to combat Combo decks (Storm, Burn, Reanimator sometimes, etc) and is not intended to be brought in against decks that attrition.

If you're willing to sacrifice the combo matchups, you can eliminate the Tutors entirely to focus on winning the fair matchups. This means upping more Chokes, removal, and Canonist (since we really can't afford to NOT run them anyway).

A good tip for SB in difficult matchups is to just put in all 75 together, and cut the worst 15 cards. Think about what your opponent is bringing in (such as Wraths, Submerge, Lavamancers, Path to Exile) and board accordingly.

Against UW:
Sword of Feast and Famine is rather weak since they bring in a ton of spot removal and sweepers. It's only useful against a fresh Batterskull in terms of protection. Swapping for the SB Batterskull is a good idea, and possibly trimming the numbers on SFM here and there. Additionally, Mindcensors are rather weak being a 3 drop, but the Flash and Flying abilities are useful. Hierarch is pretty bad since it forces you to commit more creatures onto the field to use her Exalted - consider trimming those by a few.

The goal of SB games is to maintain pressure but not walk into a Wrath. A Sword of Light/Shadow equipped Gaddock Teeg can do wonders in this matchup (pro:SFM/StP and pro: Germ/Dismember, shuts off Jace and Elspeth). Punishing Fire will help you in the late game - try to play the long game if you can't keep a threat active.

Against RUG Tempo:
Mana efficiency is the name of the game. Cut any slower cards like Elspeth, SFM, and Pridemages. Bring in Paths for extra removal (very rarely do they play more than 1 land), REB, and possibly Bojuka Bog as extra mana source and a timely use with KotR against Snapcasters or Goyfs.

This matchup is dominated by tempo and momentum. Attempt to fetch basics as soon as its safe to do so. Also watch out for Submerge when using a shuffle effect. Try to keep Mother of Runes on the defense to nullify their removal. Watch out for Fire//Ice and try not to play into it early on. It's better to lead with only one 1-toughness creature and follow with a 2-toughness creature.

Less seen SB cards that are useful:
Oblivion Ring - good vs PWers
Pithing Needle - ditto/wide use
COP: Red - Respect.
Crucible of Worlds/Life from the Loam
Serenity

@Others
Feel free to add to the list of useful SB cards.