[Deck] GW/x Maverick

[Julian23]

Sylvan Safekeeper + Gaddock Teeg is pretty rough to deal with for UW Miracles, let me tell you.

[door]

Okay, i think then i cut the Garruk, because in my tests Elspeth makes a very good job.
Should i also cut Gaeas Cradle for a thrid Forest?

Are Eternal Witness, Aven Mindcensor or Terravor debatable choices?

Terravore is not bad in mirror match, witness is good against decks with discard and heavy control, mindcensor against combo. I'd play some of these in case I'm sure I will have a good use of them.
also if you decided to play without mystics, I'd recommend to change the equipment package to 2 umezawa's jitte for more consistency. Though mystic+batterskull is good when you have decks like goblins, burn, affinity in your meta and not too much of combo decks.
And again pithing needle does not affect mana abilities and is useless against storm combo decks. Use phyrexian revokers instead.

[kai_nsane]

Okay, then i cut the SoLaS for the 2nd Jitte.

I know the metagame not unfortunately. Would you recommend to cut a Qasali or a Scryb Ranger for an Witness or Mindcensor? Or there is the personal fondness crucial?

I think that i board Ethersworn Canonist against Storm Combo Decks. I think, that the Pithing Needle isn't so removal susceptible. But when you say, that the Revoker is so much better, i swap them.

Why is the Sylvan Savekeeper better than a Mother of Runes against UWMiracle ? Because the Summonig Sickness?

Thank you very much :) After the Tournament i can make a report of my results, if youre interested in. It is on 15 September.

[Koby]

Why is the Sylvan Savekeeper better than a Mother of Runes against UWMiracle ? Because the Summonig Sickness?

Bingo! It also protects from multiple removal being fired off all at once. Example: StP end of turn, untap StP.

[Deckerator]

I thought about playing Punishing maverick in a tournent because there are so many g/w decks? Can someone post a good list of Punishing Maverick?
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[feline]

It was back at the end of march, but maybe this helps with the punishing maverick list.

Punishing Maverick ~1st place, Max Tietze StarCityGames Invitational, Baltimore Maryland USA (143 players) March-25th-2012

1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Scryb Ranger
2 Qasali Pridemage
2 Scavenging Ooze
3 Noble Hierarch
3 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Mother of Runes
3 Punishing Fire
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Forest
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Karakas
1 Maze of Ith
2 Taiga
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
3 Wasteland
3 Windswept Heath
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Savannah
~SB
2 Grafdigger's Cage
3 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Scavenging Ooze
3 Choke
1 Path to Exile
2 Red Elemental Blast
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Tower of the Magistrate

[Deckerator]

Deck Name: GWr Maverick Position: 2

Creatures [21]
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Scryb Ranger
2 Qasali Pridemage
2 Scavenging Ooze
3 Aven Mindcensor
3 Mother of Runes
3 Noble Hierarch
4 Knight of the Reliquary

Instants [7]
3 Punishing Fire
4 Swords to Plowshares

Sorceries [5]
1 Life from the Loam
4 Green Sun's Zenith

Enchantments [1]
1 Sylvan Library

Planeswalkers [2]
1 Ajani Vengeant
1 Garruk Relentless

Artifacts [2]
2 Umezawa's Jitte

Lands [22]
1 Arid Mesa
1 Forest
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Karakas
1 Plains
1 Plateau
1 Wooded Foothills
2 Taiga
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
3 Savannah
3 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath

SB:
1 Bojuka Bog*
3 Ethersworn Canonist*
3 Pithing Needle*
2 Krosan Grip*
2 Surgical Extraction*
3 Red Elemental Blast*
1 Crop Rotation*

This is the list i've found.
I would make the following changes:
-1x Ajani
-1-2x Aven Mindscensor

Add:
+1x Sylvan library
+1x Mother of Runes

Maybe there can be other changes done.

[Koby]

@Deckerator
You mentioned that you have a lot of mirror matches. Maybe instead of trying to beat the mirror you can play a deck that just beats Maverick altogether? My testing months ago with regards to the mirror and especially with Punishing Fires was this:

1) Mother of Runes is the most important card (and by extension, Sylvan Safekeeper)
2) Stable mana-base is one of the keys (multiple basics)
3) Active Jitte (more flyers, the better)
4) Active Scavenging Ooze

They are ranked in order of importance. I never found that the PFires builds were necessary to win the mirror, in part because they are so mana intensive and the manabase is so finicky. I would suggest to grab a friend and playtest the match out to practice. You're not going to win every game in the mirror (tends to 50% regardless), but it will give you a good idea of what to expect and how to decide on mulligans.

One advantage you might gain is to eliminate Thalia and Gaddock Teeg completely. They are useless in the mirror. This might hurt your non-Maverick matchups however, so be prepared for that.

[Pasch]

What decks would you say just beat Maverick?

I've just recently gotten back into Magic and started with a Maverick deck. Been trying to get an idea of what the matchups are like.

[HoneyT]

What decks would you say just beat Maverick?

Belcher.

[JohnDevus]

Hey door.
Could you post the maverick's list of your teammate that was playing a slightly diferent version with 2 crop rotation on SB?

Regards.

[Wasteland]

The punishing list above is mine^^ - and i would not make any changes to it, since Ajani and mindcensores are too good (mindcensores ecspecially since you dont have thalias in GWr builds)
I agree with Koby that it's not necessary to splash red for fires to win the mirror - just take 1 Jitte more in your maindeck and some mindcensors to beat enemy knights / zeniths...
The redsplash depends on how your meta looks like. With no combo and tons of elves, goblins, merfolk etc. around (as it is in Nuremberg) the redsplash is just great, andred blasts can beat the only combodeck around (show and tell)...
If you have to fight multiple times against TES, ANT... then stay with straight GW

Greetz,
Marius Hausmann

[Julian23]

If you have to fight multiple times against TES, ANT... then stay with straight GW

Yeah! If you want to beat gay decks, stay straight!

Regarding the Sylvan Safekeeper vs. Mother of Runes thing in the UW Miracles matchup: I'd go as far as to say that Gaddock Teeg+Sylvan Safekeeper is pretty close to a hard lock in that matchup; whereas Mother of Runes will usually just trade with 2 removal spells. Mother is still the overall way better card, but as a UW Miracles player nothing scares me more than seeing Olle + Teeg on the other side of the board.

[kingsey]

Well I've finally cut blue from " Bant " and switch to G/W.

Played a few games tonight and mother of runes is great. I've seen a few lists running SIGARDA, HOST OF HERONS as a 1 of. Thoughts?

Also how important are the Cavern of Souls?

Thanks. It wasnt easy for me to let go of blue, but i'm going to try to play a non blue deck for the first time ...since urza's block suicide black

[Wasteland]

Sigarda as 1of is ok if you run no fauna shaman (with shaman i think 1of Linvala is the better choice) - but IF you play Sigarda, i think you want 1 Gaeas cradle too to be able to zenith for her...

For the caverns, i would play 2 in the GW list - its a great card against canadian / UW miracle - but more then 2 are problematic, since you are not able to cast zenith T1 with them and often you want the green mana for ooze-activation. 2 just seams to be the right amount of them.
Here the manabase i would use in a straight GW:

2x forest
1x plains
4x windswept heath
2x verdant catacombs (or any other green fetchland)
4x savannah
4x wasteland
2x cavern of souls
2x horizon canopy
1x karakas
1x dryad arbor

Greetz,
Marius

[MaximumC]

Apologies if these topics have been covered; this thread is now 150+ pages long, and I think it's past anyone being able to read!

I wanted to know if people have tried the following sideboard cards, and what thoughts they have on them:

1. Energy Storm.
On paper, this seems like an awesome 4-of in the board. It trumps Punishing Fire in the mirror, stops everything RUG Delver wants to do, and randomly beats burn decks if you run into them. I know some people are looking to Absolute Law, but I think for 1W this card does so much more.

2. Thornscape Apprentice
When facing down Show and Tell decks, you want your Maze of Ith effects online immediately. Thornscape gives you a GSZ target that comes out early and stops Emrakul cold. Also randomly helps against other aggro decks, particularly midrange like Nic Fit, by holding back their fattie until your Knights are bigger.

3. Runed Halo
Again, this seems like a great toolbox card to shore up the matches you're weak against. It costs WW, which is a negative. Still, it protects you from Show and Tell / Natural Order baddies, particularly Progenitus, to which you otherwise fold. It stops Storm cold and is simply another Maze of Ith in the aggro match.

Anyone tried these guys out?

[Esper3k]

Apologies if these topics have been covered; this thread is now 150+ pages long, and I think it's past anyone being able to read!

I wanted to know if people have tried the following sideboard cards, and what thoughts they have on them:

1. Energy Storm.
On paper, this seems like an awesome 4-of in the board. It trumps Punishing Fire in the mirror, stops everything RUG Delver wants to do, and randomly beats burn decks if you run into them. I know some people are looking to Absolute Law, but I think for 1W this card does so much more.

The cumulative upkeep makes this one not really worth it, imo. While you're paying cumulative upkeep, RUG still gets to beat your face with Tarmogoyfs and Mongooses. Once the Energy Storm drops, they continue with their plan, but now Goyf is +1 larger from having an enchantment in the yard. Plus, tying up your mana in cumulative upkeep against deck that runs heavy taxing countermagic seems rough.

2. Thornscape Apprentice
When facing down Show and Tell decks, you want your Maze of Ith effects online immediately. Thornscape gives you a GSZ target that comes out early and stops Emrakul cold. Also randomly helps against other aggro decks, particularly midrange like Nic Fit, by holding back their fattie until your Knights are bigger.

I think this is fine if you really want a GSZ answer against Show & Tell decks. Against aggro, I don't think it's that great since you're not really removing attackers, just stalling.

3. Runed Halo
Again, this seems like a great toolbox card to shore up the matches you're weak against. It costs WW, which is a negative. Still, it protects you from Show and Tell / Natural Order baddies, particularly Progenitus, to which you otherwise fold. It stops Storm cold and is simply another Maze of Ith in the aggro match.

Anyone tried these guys out?

I've seen it in some eTutor boards. Seems alright.

[conley1000000]

The problem with Emrakul even if you have protection from him(regaurding the Runed Halo) the Annihilator trigger is still going off correct?

[Esper3k]

The problem with Emrakul even if you have protection from him(regaurding the Runed Halo) the Annihilator trigger is still going off correct?

Correct. Even if you have the Halo after the Annihilator trigger resolves, it's still a losing battle since you're going to be sacrificing 6 permanents a turn until you have to sac the Halo and die.

[MaximumC]

Good points. I'm wondering if anyone has actual experience testing these cards, though, so we're not just theorycrafting.

The cumulative upkeep makes this one not really worth it, imo. While you're paying cumulative upkeep, RUG still gets to beat your face with Tarmogoyfs and Mongooses. Once the Energy Storm drops, they continue with their plan, but now Goyf is +1 larger from having an enchantment in the yard. Plus, tying up your mana in cumulative upkeep against deck that runs heavy taxing countermagic seems rough.

Has anyone tested it, though? It's true that you can't keep Energy Storm around for more than, say, two or three turns. But during those turns your creatures are immune to red removal, Delver can't attack, and you might well draw another copy. Seems like it gives you a huge edge if you get into a race with Delver. I've actually played this card over Absolute Law in Elves, and I have been very impressed by how awesome it is to have an essentially unanswerable protection for all of my creatures against certain decks.

I guess what tips this in my favor is I think it's important to have an answer for the Punishing Fire mirror, but Absolute Law is too limited and does no good in other matchups. This does. But, as you say, maybe this deck is simply too slow to make it worthwhile.

I think this is fine if you really want a GSZ answer against Show & Tell decks. Against aggro, I don't think it's that great since you're not really removing attackers, just stalling.

I dunno about that. He basically is removal; might as well be Oblivion Ring in the aggro match. You can tap down the offending creature turn after turn, removing it from contention. It also interferes with opposing moms. Now, this particular Oblivion Ring is vulnerable to Swords to Plowshares, yeah, but again, it seems really versatile.