Are you guys running enlightened tutor boards or more specific boards?
I really liked playing a streamlined 3 Surgical Extraction, 3 Zealous Persecution, 2 Ethersworn Canonist, 2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, 1 Spirit of the Labyrinth, 2 Oblivion Ring, 2 Armageddon sideboard in my punishing maverick deck, but I switched to E tutor to hate out more decks (like enchantress and other random decks).
I am curious to see what the other maverick players out there think (those left of us at least).
I'm back on 4 Mindbreak Trap since it's the only reliable option against TES/Oops all spells. As with all hatecards, you need to attack from many angles at once. I play 2 Enlightened Tutor and a mix of Canonist, Rest in Piece, Pithing Needle, Choke and Krosan Grip. Splashing for black never did anything for me so no persecutions. Rest in Piece is an absolute beast and I board in both copies + 2 tutor against all goyf/shaman decks. Still keep Knights and use them for mana disruption/acceleration. Anything playing TNN is winnable since those decks are soft to choke and without equipment, that guy does very little.
Sweepers (persecution, golgari charm) are a nuisance postboard but as always, keep good hands and play conservatively. Miracles are a tough one though...
TTP
Tied for 1st at a small local tournament with this list:
4 Deathrite Shaman
1 Noble Hierarch
1 Birds of Paradise
4 Mother of Runes
4 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scryb Ranger
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Aven Mindcensor
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Green Sun's Zenith
3 Punishing Fire
2 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Life from the Loam
2 Savannah
2 Taiga
1 Bayou
1 Plateau
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
3 Wasteland
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Karakas
1 Forest
1 Dark Depths
1 Thespian's Stage
4 Windswept Heath
2 Verdant Catacombs
1 Arid Mesa
Sideboard:
1 Zealous Persecution
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Stony Silence
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Zealous Persecution
1 Pithing Needle
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Enlightened Tutor
1 Garruk Relentless
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Rest In Peace
1 Armageddon
1 Mindbreak Trap
1 Ethersworn Canonist
Round 1: BUG Nic Fit w/ Pod
Game 1: Lasted the whole round. I start off with mom and turn two scryb ranger, gives his removal fits for the rest of the game. He pods and gets some creatures, I get lucky enough to exile his thragtusk with my Scavenging Ooze. I get ooze up to a 6/6, and he plays a sower of temptation to steal it! We trade blows for ever, my scryb ranger with exalted (from Noble) vs his team of baleful strixes and various pod ultilty creatures. Eventually, i am able to stick a knight for long enough to assemble Depths + Stage, mom to give it pro blue to get past his fliers, and swing through for lethal. Very grindy, he told me afterwards that despite how much of his deck he saw, he never did get 1 of his 3 pernicious deeds. Dodged a bullet on that one!
1-0
Round 2: Merfolk
Lost to this guy last week.
Game 1: He swarms and overwhelms me with lords and TNN despite me getting punishing fire online pretty early
Game 2: I am able to keep him from doing too much damage until he gets his TNN. By that time however, I have an active knight, and I just get dark depths and t Stage. Marit Lage seals it.
Game 3: He only draws non TNN creatures, and I mow them all down with punishing fire. My small team of bears kills him.
2-0
Round 3: Death and Taxes
We split prizes, but play just for fun
Game 1: He gets an early aether vial, and pumps out a serra avenger which becomes equipped with SoFaI, and he just creams me.
Game 2: I keep an opener with mom, qasali, deathrite shaman, Enignnered explosives, and some lands.
He leads off with an early vial again, and I am put in the awkward position of debating whether to EE or play my creatures. I decide on creatures, and he gets some fast fliers in the air which beat me down before I am able to do anything relevant. Serra Avenger is a boss in this matchup for him.
2-1
All in all, $40 of store credit is nice, and punishing maverick takes another victory! Might switch away from the e tutor board again, though I am in flux constantly with all the options this deck provides. I feel like the 4 color version is pretty solid,and even with TNN being a big part of the meta, punishing fire remains completely awesome. Of course, if these guys catch on and start playing combo decks, I will have worse luck. I will keep you guys posted with my results up until SCG LA
I'm taking this to a local tournament tomorrow:
3 Birds of Paradise
3 Mother of Runes
1 Sylvan Safekeeper
3 Weathered Wayfarer
2 Gaddock Teeg
2 Qasali Pridemage
2 Scryb Ranger
3 Spirit of the Labyrinth
2 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Aether Vial
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
4 Savannah
4 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath
2 Cavern of Souls
2 Forest
2 Horizon Canopy
1 Dark Depths
1 Karakas
1 Plains
1 Thespian's Stage
Sideboard:
4 Oblivion Ring
3 Choke
2 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Pithing Needle
2 Surgical Extraction
All constructive feedback is welcome. :-)
You might want to find space for a couple of wilt-lead lieges in your SB. Last time I played vial maverick at a big tourney I kept getting blown out by zealous persecution and golgari charm. Also, wilt leaf rules vs liliana decks! Maybe out 1 choke and 1 O ring? Of course you can do what you like, just a personal recommendation :)
Isn't 3 Wayfarer too much? I've been playing Vial Maverick recently and there are some matchups and situations where Wayfarer just does nothing.
ironclad:
oh man. I was thinking of exactly those two cards when I was building my Vial deck. Being vulnerable to Golgari Charm sucks, but does Wilt Leaf really help? It's a 4CC creature, so I imagine it comes down a little too late to help against Charm and Persecution. I have never tried it, so I can't really tell.
@Liege/Vial interaction:
While definitely weaker than Liege, if you want a similar effect that is more in line with Aether Vial interaction, you could run Veteran Armorer. I don't, since I don't run Aether Vial, and even if I did I'm not sure I would include that card in my 75, but I just wanted to point out it exists.
When playing it alongside spirit, the decks with charm can't cantrip into their charm/persecution as quickly, so you have a little extra time to find a cradle or get to enough mana to cast it. Also, vial has a bit of a jund/Liliana/hymn to tourach weakness, and wilt leaf can swing that matchup by itself.
I played punishing jund against a death and taxes list last night, and I lost games 2 and 3 from hymning wilt leaf into play. I am serious guys, that card single handedly beats liliana and hymn decks.
Unfortunately, the meta hasn't developed well for Maverick. The biggest problem is the printing of True-Name Nemesis, which is really bad news for this deck since it suffers from the card itself and all the splash hate which keeps appearing like Zealous Persecution/Golgari Charm/Massacre. Now previously good MUs like Esperblade are pretty tough. Also, because of the metashift Miracles again has been pushed to the front.
As for a current list, I busted out the deck for a very small local tournament for nostalgic reasons (and because I have it fully foiled):
23 Lands (2 Caverns, 1 Karakas, 1 Dryad Arbor, no Bog/Maze/Cradle)
4 Mother
4 Hierarch
4 Thalia
4 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scryb Ranger
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
4 GSZ
4 StP
2 Sylvan Library
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
Sidenote: I actually ran a small black splash just for sideboard options, but the MD can be played straight GW. If you have any more questions feel free to ask, the deck actually performed still solid, but I wouldn't consider it a contender in the current meta.
As TNN is a contender are more Pridemages in order to combat equipment?
Also, has anyone tried spirit of the labyrinth? Seems to be solid.
As much as I can't afford them, would Goyf be a good inclusion to fight the mass removal?
Should we build more, or less aggressive? I'm thinking more, but that's just me.
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Pridemage is a house vs tnn he can race it or neuter the equipment on it. There has never been a better time to run mr kitty I run three in my junk list.
So why is Punishing Fire so popular? It seems slow, inapplicable to TNN, and an unnecessary dilution of the mana base. On that note, Noble Hierarch seems much more aggressive than Shaman.... With the role being filled by Ooze (in a way). Just spitballing, I've been gone awhile and want to shake things up.
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I'm running a black version with dark confidants for card advantage and shamans for mana fix, graveyard hate, damage, life. I also run abrupt decays main deck which is essential against miracles and also jitte, elves, delver, goyf, .... tons of cards. Zealous persecution is da shit against elves, dnt, tnn. I play one main deck an 2 sideboard. In general the black splash really is worth it.
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@Stuhl: Could you share your current list?
It sounds really good. Luckily if I wanted to I'm in a place where I could get ahold of those cards... but I'm also stubborn, and want to make GW work. So I'll durdle with that on my own... but I have to ask, how hard does DRS hit KotR?
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If I had to put a number on it id say cuts his average size in half from before drs printing.
That is my current list:
4 Deathrite Shaman
3 Knight of the Reliquary
3 Mother of Runes
3 Dark Confidant
1 Noble Hierarch
2 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Gaddock Teeg
2 Quasali Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Scryb Ranger
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Zealous Persecution
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Batterskull
1 Life from the Loam
3 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath
3 Verdant Catacombs
2 Bayou
1 Savannah
1 Scrubland
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Karakas
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Thespian's Stage
1 Dark Depths
1 Maze of Ith
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Cavern of Souls
Sideboard:
3 Thalia
2 Enlightened Tutor
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Choke
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Gaddock Teeg
2 Zealous Persecution
2 Mindbreak Trap
The land base seems to be a mess but actually I already had a lot of situations where Bojuka Bog, Maze, DD combo saved my ass. I don't really feel that I have mana issues as I'm running 5 mana dorks. Of course if you have the perfect hand with maze and depths it really sucks... but I think that is the price it takes. At least I really don't have to mulligan very often. The 2 Pridemages care about equipments. In the first place it is not easy to play, but there are tons of possibilities and interactions. Scryb Ranger can do a lot with mothers/knights. The Zealous Persecution as a one-off did a great job, especially against elves or DnT. Also a possible first turn ANT into goblins might get destroyed. Still, combo is the weakest matchup, that's why I'm running 2 Mindbreak Traps in SB. The Life from the Loaf main deck comes unexpected and gives more opportunities, especially in longer matches (which seem to happen very often). Thalia main deck would be nice, but I don't really can offer the slots and running 12 instants/sorceries she hurts me a lot, too. In general I like the card advantage of Bob ober Thalia.
I have really good experiences against creature-heavy decks. Elves seems to be a good match-up as well as DnT. Also RUG Delver is in my favor (in my experience at least. Wastelands in addition with mana dorks do a great job here). Shamans and Ooze give a good graveyard control and an unexpected Bojuka Bog via knight shrinks Mongooses, defeats Dredge or makes a Snapcaster useless.
On Saturday I will play at a small local tournament with that list. I will post my results afterwards! Unfortunately there are no TNN decks around my friends, but next weekend I will play some side events at GP Vienna. Hopefully I will play against a variety of decks there.
Tell me what you think=)
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