[Deck] GW/x Maverick

[majikal]

Two weeks ago I played a small tournament (10 people) with 3x thalia and 3x Jitte and was not impressed. Thalia stopped me from using Elspeth in the first game, and I missed sword of light and shadow against junk e StP.

I feel like you need to add an extra mana-producing land if you're playing Thalia. Also, yeah, SoLaS is a boss. I'll probably still play it and 2x Jitte, honestly.

I'm still on the fence in regards to SFM. I feel like it should not be the core of the deck like it is in Stoneblade, but I also feel like being able to just go get an equipment is huge. I would play it as 2x if I were to run it at all.

On one hand, I really love what Thalia does against Tempo, Control, and Combo decks. On the other hand, I really miss being able to sword up a Troll Ascetic and just go to town on people.

I will continue brewing until I find a balance between my old list and something with Thalia.

[Koby]

Right now I'm at 2 Jitte and 1 SFM with SoLS sideboard. I need to get a ton of deck time with it to see how it operates. I may end up cutting the SFM for the 23rd land (either another Fetch or Forest).

[sir]

Hey everyone,

I've been out of the loop the past few months (since Dark Ascension first hit, basically.)

What's new? It looks like Maverick has been doing well ... some exciting new directions.

Looks like people have, using a few Jittes, dropped the Stoneforge package to make room? Man, I was advocating for trying this a while ago!

Any major points of interest regarding these Fauna Shaman builds?

Thalia: makes perfect sense.

No more Thrun eh?

The sideboards look pretty different too. Never considered Gut Shot or Linvala ... Gut Shot looks good but why Gut Shot instead of Path to Exiles?

Anyway, I'm not asking people to do my homework here but if anyone feels like it, any broad or specific points would be of course much appreciated.

[lyracian]

Anyway, I'm not asking people to do my homework here but if anyone feels like it, any broad or specific points would be of course much appreciated.

I think you have summaries a lot of it yourself. Drop SFM for more Jitte's, Ooze and Thalia.

[majikal]

Hey everyone,

I've been out of the loop the past few months (since Dark Ascension first hit, basically.)

What's new? It looks like Maverick has been doing well ... some exciting new directions.

Looks like people have, using a few Jittes, dropped the Stoneforge package to make room? Man, I was advocating for trying this a while ago!

It may come full circle. The metagame is becoming increasingly inbred at the moment so many lists are just loading up on hatebears.

Any major points of interest regarding these Fauna Shaman builds?

A product of metagame inbreeding. It helps win against the mirror and little else. If another contender rises through the clusterfuck of Maverick and Stoneblade decks, this may no longer be a good option.

No more Thrun eh?

Where would you put him? I have exactly two slots in my list that I'm not particularly happy with (Aven Mindcensor), and Thrun doesn't seem much better in most instances. I'm beginning to consider maindeck Linvala though.

The sideboards look pretty different too. Never considered Gut Shot or Linvala ... Gut Shot looks good but why Gut Shot instead of Path to Exiles?

Gut shot lets you kill opposing Mother of Runes and not lose tempo. It's essentially Mental Misstep in the mirror. Why not play both?

[Fade]

Gut shot was also put in the sideboard for dredge as bad as it may seem. You can gut shot your noble, dryad, scryb, or mother to remove bridges.

Linvala seems to be a complete upgrade from Aven Mindcensor in my opinion. Aven has never really shined or done anything for me. If your meta has a decent number of Maverick then it might be right to make the swap.

[Snief]

I don't think that moving away from SFM when playing Thalia is the right thing. The first thing I would cut is Mindcensor and Elspeth. I mean, what is scarier than a first striking, Equipment wearing, removal prove (Karakas/MoR) creature? And the possibility of choosing your Equipment is huge (->SFM). Maybe something like:

3 Hierarch
1 BoP
4 Mother of Runes
4 KotR
3 Thalia
3 Ooze
2 SFM
3 Pridemage
1 Gaddock
1 Scryb Ranger

4 GSZ
4 StoP
2 Sylvan Library
1 Jitte
1 Sword of your choice/metagame

23 lands (incl. Dryad Arbor)

[Fade]

I don't think that moving away from SFM when playing Thalia is the right thing. The first thing I would cut is Mindcensor and Elspeth. I mean, what is scarier than a first striking, Equipment wearing, removal prove (Karakas/MoR) creature? And the possibility of choosing your Equipment is huge (->SFM). Maybe something like:

3 Hierarch
1 BoP
4 Mother of Runes
4 KotR
3 Thalia
3 Ooze
2 SFM
3 Pridemage
1 Gaddock
1 Scryb Ranger

4 GSZ
4 StoP
2 Sylvan Library
1 Jitte
1 Sword of your choice/metagame

23 lands (incl. Dryad Arbor)

Elspeth is too good. I would rather leave in Elspeth and cut your second Sylvan Library. As drawing two of them is almost always bad.

[maktus]

It may come full circle. The metagame is becoming increasingly inbred at the moment so many lists are just loading up on hatebears.


A product of metagame inbreeding. It helps win against the mirror and little else. If another contender rises through the clusterfuck of Maverick and Stoneblade decks, this may no longer be a good option.


Where would you put him? I have exactly two slots in my list that I'm not particularly happy with (Aven Mindcensor), and Thrun doesn't seem much better in most instances. I'm beginning to consider maindeck Linvala though.


Gut shot lets you kill opposing Mother of Runes and not lose tempo. It's essentially Mental Misstep in the mirror. Why not play both?

about gutshot, what do you think of using 1x mortarpod it in place of it? it's slower but can be used repeatedly, and is also faster than a Jitte.

[mordraid]

I wouln't cut the elspeth because she is so good a making small critters fly over the enemies.

I would cut the mindcensor, they have been so-so for me. I may replace them with more ozze or even linvala maindeck.

[Richard Cheese]

I don't think that moving away from SFM when playing Thalia is the right thing. The first thing I would cut is Mindcensor and Elspeth. I mean, what is scarier than a first striking, Equipment wearing, removal prove (Karakas/MoR) creature? And the possibility of choosing your Equipment is huge (->SFM). Maybe something like:

3 Hierarch
1 BoP
4 Mother of Runes
4 KotR
3 Thalia
3 Ooze
2 SFM
3 Pridemage
1 Gaddock
1 Scryb Ranger

4 GSZ
4 StoP
2 Sylvan Library
1 Jitte
1 Sword of your choice/metagame

23 lands (incl. Dryad Arbor)

I guess the only thing scarier would be a flying, equipment wearing, removal proof creature.

[sdematt]

Pretty sure that's Jesus.

-Matt

[Richard Cheese]

Pretty sure that's Jesus.

-Matt

I'm no Biblical scholar, but I don't recall him ever flying, mostly just walking from place to place. I'm pretty sure he has islandwalk though.

[mordraid]

I'm tinkering with my sideboard. The local tournaments have around 45-60 people in it, wich mostly are the same 35-40 players. There is a good diverse field with some rogue deckes running around. The common faces are U/W stoneforge, delver, elves combo, high tide, maverick and some storm player. I don't expect a lot of dredge but it shows up sometimes and it's pilot is a very good player so, i'll have to be prepared.

Here's my curent sideboard list:

Sideboard:

2x enlightened tutor
1x tajuru preserver
1x path to exile
2x choke
2x pithing needle
2x ethersworn canonist
2x wheel of sun and moon
1x linvala, keeper of silence
1x powder keg
1x circle of protection red

The decks i fear the most are high tide (the guy is really good at it), esper tokens, pox, elves combo and reanimator/dredge.

currently, i've played a lot against MUD, RUG tempo and U/W stoneblade. They aren't that difficult matchups, so i focused more and the decks i fear more rather than the ones i'll face more often.

Any advices ?

[Koby]

I'm tinkering with my sideboard. The local tournaments have around 45-60 people in it, wich mostly are the same 35-40 players. There is a good diverse field with some rogue deckes running around. The common faces are U/W stoneforge, delver, elves combo, high tide, maverick and some storm player. I don't expect a lot of dredge but it shows up sometimes and it's pilot is a very good player so, i'll have to be prepared.

Here's my curent sideboard list:

Sideboard:

2x enlightened tutor
1x tajuru preserver
1x path to exile
2x choke
2x pithing needle
2x ethersworn canonist
2x wheel of sun and moon
1x linvala, keeper of silence
1x powder keg
1x circle of protection red

The decks i fear the most are high tide (the guy is really good at it), esper tokens, pox, elves combo and reanimator/dredge.

currently, i've played a lot against MUD, RUG tempo and U/W stoneblade. They aren't that difficult matchups, so i focused more and the decks i fear more rather than the ones i'll face more often.

Any advices ?

1. Ignore the Pox matchup; while you can make the deck beat Pox it comes at an expense of your other matchupsr. Adding a 2nd Sylvan Library helps however
2. High Tide: 3 Thalia + 1 Teeg + 2-3 Canonist + 2 Choke should be enough after sideboard. Cut the slower cards (Elspeth, Thrun, maybe even a Knight)
3. Elves and Dredge and Mirror can be addressed with Gut Shot + <bullets>

I'm abandoning the E-tutor sideboard for better answers to known metagames:

2 Gut Shot
1 Path to Exile
2 Parallax Wave
1 Oblivion Ring
2 Choke
1 Maze of Ith
1 Bojuka Bog
2 Ethersworn Canonist
3 Mindbreak Trap

Mindbreak is a bit of an unusual choice, as I'm anticipating more combo to break onto the scene to answer Maverick. It pre-empts it by giving us the second best solution against those decks. Primary plan is still Hate-bears as they provide the clock too, and when they get answered that's when Mindbreak Trap becomes live again. It also isn't going to get taken by Inquisition of Kozilek from T.E.S. and other adaptations. With 6 hate bears and 3 Traps, we should be in a good spot to fight Storm based combo.

Silence might also work too, while providing a good pro-active card against a wide variety of archetypes.

[Lorenzo767]

1. Ignore the Pox matchup; it makes answering the other matchups better. Adding a 2nd Sylvan Library helps however
2. High Tide - 3 Thalia + 1 Teeg + 2-3 Canonist + 2 Choke should be enough after sideboard. Cut the slower cards (Elspeth, Thrun, maybe even a Knight)
3. Elves and Dredge and Mirror can be addressed with Gut Shot + <bullets>

I'm abandoning the E-tutor sideboard for better answers to known metagames:

I can't understand why you would sideOut Thalia versus Hight Tide!

About the E-Tutor i absolutely agree with you, i dropped it from some month, i really prefear resilience instead of adaptability, but as a card vs Combo i still prefear Ethersworm Canonist instead of other HateBear or cards like Mindbreak Trap, because it's also reusable in others MU (Not infrequently i sided it vs Burn, just to have one more lightning rod!).
The best things about Mindbreak Trap i think is that it's really good vs Combo like Elf-Combo or Charbelcher that a lot of times go off without any protection, but here those MU aren't so frequently, and for this reason i totally drop Mindbreak Trap from my SB.

[Koby]

Thalia stays in against High Tide, the " - " was a dash rather than "minus".

[KobeBryan]

1. Ignore the Pox matchup; while you can make the deck beat Pox it comes at an expense of your other matchupsr. Adding a 2nd Sylvan Library helps however
2. High Tide: 3 Thalia + 1 Teeg + 2-3 Canonist + 2 Choke should be enough after sideboard. Cut the slower cards (Elspeth, Thrun, maybe even a Knight)
3. Elves and Dredge and Mirror can be addressed with Gut Shot + <bullets>

I'm abandoning the E-tutor sideboard for better answers to known metagames:

2 Gut Shot
1 Path to Exile
2 Parallax Wave
1 Oblivion Ring
2 Choke
1 Maze of Ith
1 Bojuka Bog
2 Ethersworn Canonist
3 Mindbreak Trap

Mindbreak is a bit of an unusual choice, as I'm anticipating more combo to break onto the scene to answer Maverick. It pre-empts it by giving us the second best solution against those decks. Primary plan is still Hate-bears as they provide the clock too, and when they get answered that's when Mindbreak Trap becomes live again. It also isn't going to get taken by Inquisition of Kozilek from T.E.S. and other adaptations. With 6 hate bears and 3 Traps, we should be in a good spot to fight Storm based combo.

Silence might also work too, while providing a good pro-active card against a wide variety of archetypes.

Rukcus...you only have 2 MD ooze and 1 bog for the dredge matchup? and the reanimator matchup?

[Koby]

Rukcus...you only have 2 MD ooze and 1 bog for the dredge matchup? and the reanimator matchup?

And 4 StP, and 1 PtE, and 2 Gut Shot, and 4 GSZ against Dredge...
And 4 StP, and 1 PtE, and 1 O-ring, 1 Maze of Ith, and 4 GSZ against Reanimator...

[KobeBryan]

And 4 StP, and 1 PtE, and 2 Gut Shot, and 4 GSZ against Dredge...
And 4 StP, and 1 PtE, and 1 O-ring, 1 Maze of Ith, and 4 GSZ against Reanimator...

wow...thats enough for you? Am i doing something wrong when i use like 3-4 cards in my board to fight these matchups? I usually have 2 crypts and a relic in the board with 2 MD oozes.

I still lose the matchup against dredge and reanimator more often than not.