@iamajellydonut
I'm sure there were misplays and poor lines of play. Again, this was my first event since November. But the overwhelming feeling was "Jesus, I have 0% chance after turn 3". Had others been in my shoes, you'd most likely end up with the same results mainly due to what I drew. Collected Company may have been helpful for the miracles matchup. Against Melendez it wouldn't have contributed anything.
@Cambriel and E.Tutor
The issue with a tutorboard is that they can't be "small". I loved a majority of my stock SB. Barely changes for large events and is relevant/solid all day. I can't see myself having a "tutor board" with E.Tutor and 2 pieces. Perhaps I'm wrong.
I'd be open to Meddling Mage, which also helps against combo (a weakness of Maverick), but Miracles/UWx control has several cards I want to turn off. The first-pick would be terminus, followed by Counterbalance/Verdict/Jace/STP/Entreat (which all change due to situations). Nevermore is just trash.Originally Posted by Cambriel
Well, it's not really two pieces. You run Sylvan Library as well, it just happens to already be in the main. For that matter, it also fetches equipment in a pinch. Here's the sideboard you played:
Sideboard
2 Containment Priest
2 Choke
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Zealous Persecution
2 Toxic Deluge
2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Gaddock Teeg
3 Thoughtseize
Conveniently, you've got 2 enchantments and 2 artifacts in there already. You can drop a Choke and an Ethersworn, add two E. Tutors, and effectively play 3 phantom copies of both. That's without even touching the rest of your sideboard. For Elves or Storm, you've increased your chance of "drawing" a Canonist, and vs. Miracles you're increasing your access to Sylvan, Choke, Swords, and even a creature in Courser if you just really need to get a threat on the board (unlikely, but it's there). Miracles will *always* win on card quantity. They'll usually win on card selection as well, but you can at least attempt to compete on that angle.
There are plenty of other strong targets for other match ups. It's a matter of finding cards that do what you need them to do as well as the ones you're currently running. Some possible options:
Engineered Explosives is a nice catch all for tokens.
Engineered Plague is a reasonable swap for 1 Toxic Deluge depending on the match you intend it for.
Null Rod / Stony Silence, either or.
A whole host of options vs. Burn. Aegis of Honor, CoP: Red, Warmth, Absolute Law, etc.
Your sideboard looks to be set up largely to fight Elves and Storm or maybe Young Pyro with all those sweepers. 4 seems like a lot. Some of those answers have analogues, and others don't. There will always be a trade off.
Counterbalance and StP are the only ones that Teeg won't already stop. I just feel like it's important to point that out.
In Deadguy I ran a single ETutor SB that I really liked:
1 ETutor
1 Choke
1 Engineered Plague
1 Grafdiggers Cage
1 Pithing Needle
1 Rest in Peace (ended up bumping this to a 2-of because of PFire)
1 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Disenchant
1 Orzhov Pontiff
2 Thalia
2 ZP
1 Perish
Along with main deck Revokers plus the normal 3 card SToneforge Package and ETutor was preety solid for me as a singleton. Obviously some of the choices are different here, but you have access to the same stuff. EE is definitely one I toyed with as well.
I know this is a Maverick thread--but can you post/PM me your deadguy list to better understand how the etutor package works as a whole with your deck? Thanks!
I think e tutor is better for large tournaments 9+ rounds
Maverick for life
Totally agree. For random weeknight legacy events, you're probably better off with more specific, higher impact hate cards. E Tutor is pretty good at giving you versatility that would be more effective over the course of a long day.
I got 5th yesterday at a 41-man monthly. I incorporated the great feedback from this thread. I'll provide details in my next post. Garruk who flips was a fucking house in the SB.
Nice! Always happy to hear when Maverick gets a solid result.
And yeah, Garruk is a beating if you can stick him.
I split top 4 at a 38 player event at Channel Fireball.
//Maindeck
1 Dryad Arbor
4 Mother of Runes
3 Deathrite Shaman
2 Noble Hierarch
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Scryb Ranger
4 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Courser of Kruphix
1 Titania, Protector of Argoth
1 Sylvan Library
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Green Sun's Zenith
3 Verdant Catacombs
4 Windswept Heath
1 Plains
2 Forest
4 Wasteland
1 Karakas
1 Gaea's Cradle
2 Savannah
3 Bayou
1 Scrubland
//Sideboard
1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
2 Zealous Persecution
2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Gaddock Teeg
3 Thoughtseize
2 Toxic Deluge
1 Scavenging Ooze
2 Choke
1 Wilt-Leaf Liege
The CFB meta is pretty infested with Goblins/BUG variants/Delver, so I opted to try Courser in the maindeck. Didn't see her at all except in the T8, so I'll have to try it more. I also put SoLaS maindeck, and put in Chokes and Deluges in place of 2 Abrupt Decays/Containment Priest/Pithing Needle. There was like 3 combo decks in the whole room, and out of 38 people, I figured I wouldn't need to have too much pinpoint Storm hate
R1: 2-0 Some Mono-B aggro variant. Featured discard, Bloodghast, DRS, multiple maindeck Umezawa's Jittes, and Infernal Tutor (since apparently the deck goes hellbent very quickly). He switched to a slightly more Control plan after SB, with Ensnaring Bridge, Bitterblossom and a Damnation. G2 he put down Ensnaring Bridge and two Pithing Needles, one on Jitte and one on Qasali Pridemage, so I win the game by having my Noble Hierarch attack into him for 9 damage total.
In: Wilf Leaf Liege, Scavenging Ooze, 2 ZP
Out: Gaddock Teeg, SoFaI, Scryb Ranger, 1 Wasteland
R2: 2-0 Spanish Inquisition. G1 he got a Game Loss. He announced he was going to mulligan down to 5, but accidentally drew 6. We only noticed that he improperly mulliganed while he was resolving his Land Grant, so Improper Draw at Start of Game was no longer applicable. G2 he fizzles off his T2 Infernal Contract and I play a Canonist. This is definitely a matchup you can't expect to normally win, but we all know Luck>Skill ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
In: 2 Zealous Persecution, 3 Thoughtseize, 2 Toxic Deluge, 2 Ethersworn Canonist, Gaddock Teeg
Out: 2 Stoneforge Mystic, 4 Swords to Plowshares, Titania, Courser of Kruphix, Umezawa's Jitte, Sword of Light and Shadow
R3: 2-1 Goblins. Got owned by maindeck Pyrokinesis Game 1, killing my Noble Hierarch, Deathrite Shaman and Thalia on T2. I had a lot of trumps to bring in G2 and G3, since this was one of the matchups I came prepared for. G2 he keeps a slow hand with no basics and 2 Vials, but earlygame Qasali beatdowns and him later killing a Vial meant my Knight was able to get there before he could stabilize. G3 starts with a sick 3-for-1 when he tried to Pyrokinesis my Stoneforge+DRS, only to meet a Zealous Persecution taking out a Lackey as collateral damage. He wasn't able to stabilize after I drop Knight+WLL.
In: Sorin, Wilt-leaf Liege, 2 Zealous Persecution, 2 Toxic Deluge,
Out: Gaddock Teeg, Scryb Ranger, Sylvan Library, 3 Thalia
R4: 0-2 RUG Delver. Over the course of 2 games, he played something like 7 bolts and 5 goyfs, and also got a backbreaking 2-for-1 with a Forked Bolt killing Thalia+Hierarch G2 Turn 2. Not much to say, as this sometimes just happens. I didn't feel good losing this matchup and somehow winning against Spanish Inquisition. This was also the same guy who knocked me out of getting into Top 8 at SCG Oakland, one day I'll win against him!
In: Scavenging Ooze, 2 Choke
Out: Titania, Sylvan Library, SoLaS
R5: 2-0 Shardless BUG. I'm not a fan of this matchup in general, but being able to land an early Mom+DRS both games really made things easy. I was able to protect my Scavenging Ooze that I eventually played both games, and that is by far the most important card to be able to protect in almost any BUG matchup, often due to their reliance on DRS+Goyf. This was no different, and Ooze basically won the game on its own both times. Ooze+Cradle is such a good engine if you can get it going.
In: Scavenging Ooze, 2 Choke, 1 Wilt-Leaf Liege
Out: 1 Qasali Pridemage, Gaddock Teeg (he didn't have Jace, or I would have left him in), SoLaS, Sylvan Library
I'm in 4th place going into the last round.
R6: 1-2 Food Chain. I unfortunately didn't take notes, so I'm going off of memory here. I can't ID in, since I unfortunately got paired down, and if I lose I have to hope my tiebreakers are good enough. G1 he can't find his combo piece after landing 2 Food Chains and using Manipulate Fate to exile 3 griffins, and I'm able to beat him down. G2 and G3 he transforms into a BUG midrange deck, completely boarding out the combo. I overboard for the combo G2. Jitte wrecks me after he manages to get removal for my Choke. I board some combo hate out in G3, but get grinded out with card advantage from Dig/Strix.
I've got the best of the 12 points in tiebreakers, and I'm 6th going into T8. Someone didn't want to split, so we're at least going to play out T8.
T8: 2-1 Lands. I'm playing one of my good friends, and he's a good Lands player. It's not a good matchup for Maverick, and although we have some tools to fight back against their game plan, it's all pretty mediocre hate for their gameplan aside from Scavenging Ooze, who unfortunately needs to eat a creature before it's able to fight back against Punishing Fire. Game 1 he gets a quick Stage/Depths without me able to do much about it. Game 2 also ends fast with Scooze being able to grow to a 3/3 before it can be removed, and quickly devours the problem cards in my opponents graveyard, Loam and utility lands. I'm able to later get my KotR to wasteland Mazes/Stages and close out the game. In G3, my opponent plays a Phyrexian Revoker, and names my Mother of Runes. They eventually trade, and I later play a Scavenging Ooze. It attempts to eat my opponent's Revoker, and my opponent Punishing Fire's in response, forgetting about the Mom in my graveyard. I close out the game with the card advantage from Courser/Titania.
We split T4. I would have felt good about playing it out. My T4 matchup was Goblins, the same guy I played in R3, Finals would have been either Shardless BUG or Lands, and I would be hoping that Shardless would be able to win that matchup. Other decks in Top 8 were Food Chain (my R6 opponent), RUG Delver (R4 opponent) and AnT.
I like my list if I'm going to be playing in a similar metagame (mostly fair, not a lot of combo). I'm also a really big advocate of Titania in the maindeck, and I encourage you all to try it out.
I top-8'ed Mythic over the weekend. Been busy as hell this week, so here's the list with some thoughts that have been rolling around:
Chris Scagnelli :: Mythic Games April 2015
3x Deathrite Shaman
2x Noble Hierarch
4x Mother of Runes
3x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2x Qasali Pridemage
2x Scavenging Ooze
2x Stoneforge Mystic
1x Gaddock Teeg
4x Knight of the Reliquary
1x Courser of Kruphix
1x Umezawa's Jitte
1x Sword of Fire and Ice
1x Sword of Light and Shadow
4x Green Sun's Zenith
4x Swords to Plowshares
1x Sylvan Library
2x Abrupt Decay
4x Windswept Heath
3x Verdant Catacombs
4x Wasteland
2x Savannah
2x Bayou
1x Scrubland
2x Forest
2x Plains
1x Gaea's Cradle
1x Karakas
1x Dryad Arbor
Sideboard
1x Gaddock Teeg
2x Ethersworn Canonist
2x Spirit of the Labyrinth
1x Null Rod
1x Enlightened Tutor
2x Zealous Persecution
2x Toxic Deluge
1x Batterskull
1x Garruk Relentless // Garruk, the Veil-Cursed
2x Armageddon
I saw a room full of blue (delver, grixis, SFM, omni-tell, miracles I'd estimate). Probably 60% if not more had blue dual lands. I swapped from Choke to Armageddon last minute due to some Nic Fit and Lands/grindy stuff.
R1. Nich with Grixis Pyro. W. 2-1. I win game 1 because he plays ponder like a brainstorm. Given a gameloss we agree he was going to win. Game 2 my "meh" hand sucks after a few turns. Game 3 I blow him out with an early cradle + 2 mana dudes leading to Garruk and something else. He had next to nothing on the table by game's end.
R2. Punishing Jund. W. 2-1. I clobber him G1 with Thalia and wastelands. G2 I attempt the same thing but he pulls back at some point. I scoop to him with 13.5 minutes to go. He had all the value on board and it woulda been nearly impossible to play out to win (confidant, his own kruphix, BBE, burned through 2 Liliana). I crush him game 3 by making some solid picks with my line of play. I wasteland him twice rather early...putting him on 1 swamp while I bulk up creatures. I don't overextend because i know he has Toxic. Within lethal range, I drop a KotR I get back from the dead via Light/Shadow. His toxic would kill him before he wipes my team. He extends for the handshake.
R3. Cassidy with UR delver. W. 2-0. I get a bit lucky and have better lines than he does. I discover he is running the 2 dual version. Lots of basics. Game 1 I manage to punch it in with Kruphix gaining me life god forbid shenanigans ensue. Game 2 he mulls to an island-island hand. Never sees another land. We wrap up G2 within 3 minutes since he needs a fetch and doesn't have a land for (I kid you not) the next 20 turns.
R4. Tibbets with American SFM. W. 2-1. I thank friends for answering questions I had regarding SFM and Miracle decks earlier. I needed a new angle on how to beat them and everyone told me just go for wastelands if possible. Miracles and SFM decks have a bunch of lands but the greed in the current meta is real. G1 I lose after an attrition war + he scales up rather fast with TNN + Jitte + Batterskull and 2 SFM. G2 I beat him. G3 we have a controversial situation where the lines of play are as follows:
Tibbets on the play
t1. He drops Volcanic. I drop wasteland --> nuke Volc, go.
t2. He drops tundra, go. I drop land --> Mom. He STP EOT
t3. Nothing. I drop land again --> mom and ask "is it good?". He quickly stp then untaps and draws a card. I ask what is he doing? Then I call a judge.
We resolve things by giving Tibbets a warning (although it could have been a gameloss at this point, apparently the draw wouldn't provide any game advantage. I was not a fan of this call but also not on tilt. I explain how I wanted to drop mom (understanding she gets STP#2) because I was looking to drop Noble thereafter. We backup the game to allow Mom #2 to take STP #2. I drop Hierarch, go.
t4. He doesn't do anything again. I drop KotR.
t5. He drops Karakas I believe. I wasteland-tutor. I think Tibbets scoops on his following turn because there's nothing he can do now. I'm eating what little mana he has. I apologize for the judge call incident on him because he's honestly a tremendous player. He told me the wasteland situation would win the game regardless because the CC of cards in his hand was too high to deal with any disruption.
So I'm 4-0-0 and proceed to ID with Eli and Matt for auto top 8.
Top 8. Justin with Elves. L. 0-2. Against Elves I have the pick of playing or passing. I take the play (obv) but lose hard. No removal outside of a lone decay. He glimpse-kills me. I board in 10 cards. G2 I mull to 6 with an okay hand (but no removal). I didn't want to chance it on a 5-card hand. I proceed to lose with Justin running a loop of double glimpse + a million guys. I politely ask if he can Hoof and scoop when he shows me it. Justin was playing around a Zealous I didn't have. Sucks that I saw no hate but I can't be too salty...I made top 8 and had a great day.
The SB would need work. I think the E-tutor plan is legit. I didn't have to face Miracles but was definitely prepared. Spirit was "meh" (as I've always felt), but she's an immediate card Delver and Grix need to answer. 3 Thalia + 2 Decay in the main felt perfect. I may move Garruk to the main. The games he came out or was in my hand he was a goddamn tank. I may fool around with Confidant again. I think these fair delver decks can't handle a critical mass of duded/card advantage.
Going to a monthly legacy swiss event tomorrow with Maverick. The TO is offering an additional prize to anyone who goes 3-1 or better without Brainstorms, so I'm expecting a slightly skewed meta. It'll probably mean at least one goblin deck, lands, elves, possibly some stax, etc. Almost certainly more Blood Moons than I want to deal with.
Here's what I'm thinking for a sideboard, trying not to skew too hard away from anti-blue tech:
1 Aegis of Honor (Burn)
1 Bitterblossom (Lands, Miracles)
1 Burrenton Forge-Tender (Burn)
2 Enlightened Tutor (enabler)
1 Engineered Plague (Goblins, Elves, maybe Merfolk)
1 Ethersworn Canonist (combo)
1 Gaddock Teeg (Miracles, combo)
1 Pithing Needle (Miracles, Lands)
1 Scavenging Ooze (Reanimator, Dredge, fair decks)
2 Thoughtseize (combo)
1 Wheel of Sun and Moon (Reanimator, Dredge)
2 Zealous Persecution (Goblins, Elves, D&T, Storm/Belcher if there's room)
Other considerations: Null Rod, Tsabo's Web (kills vs D&T and Lands), Bojuka Bog
Thoughts?
Cambriel, how does your maindeck look like?
I would not play Enlightened Tutor in the sideboard, more real answers are generally better than any tutors.
You're also lacking some cards like Cataclysm and Choke, which punish control decks. Also Burn is not a matchup where I want to use dedicated sideboard space. A second Umezawa's Jitte seems better, especially if you expect more creature decks.
I disagree re: Enlightened Tutor, for reasons I've described in previous pages. Basically, because the matchups where I most need a sideboard card that it can fetch (combo, Miracles, Dredge), I cannot tutor those cards any other way, and it dramatically amplifies my chances of drawing that particular silver bullet. They only come in for matches where the card disadvantage is significantly outweighed by the impact of a given sideboard card. These are also matches where I almost always have more "bad" cards to pull than I have good cards to put in. Either dead top end, or dead removal. Tutor fixes that in a hurry.
As for Cataclysm and Choke, they're both fine cards that have rarely justified themselves for me. Cataclysm has never been as detrimental to Miracles or Lands as Armageddon. We're not a deck like D&T that can keep a Port + Batterskull and ride that to a win. I'd be open to suggestions on where it is most effective.
Choke is really high variance, but I could see maybe running it over Forge-Tender. I'm not a huge fan of 1-of sideboard creatures that I can't dig out with GSZ.
edit: Oh, here's the main that I usually run:
Creatures:24
1 Dryad Arbor
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Mother of Runes
1 Noble Hierarch
1 Gaddock Teeg
2 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze
2 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Knight of the Reliquary
Spells:14
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Sylvan Library
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
Lands:22
1 Bayou
2 Forest
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Karakas
1 Marsh Flats
1 Plains
2 Savannah
1 Scrubland
3 Verdant Catacombs
4 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath
I used to play a very similar list with decent success vs. Miracles:
-1 Noble Hierarch, -2 Abrupt Decay --> +1 Birds of Paradise, +1 Sigarda, Host of Herons, +1 Sword of Light and Shadow and a 1-of Cavern of Souls.
Sigarda and Sword of Light and Shadow are additional bombs you can play vs. Miracles (and grindy matchups in general), the protection Sword of Light and Shadow offers is very relevant and the abilities let you play the long game.
My sideboard approach is to play the powerful cards/effects in multiples to find them early enough and drawing into multiple hate pieces is never bad. In problematic matchups (Combo, Miracles) my strategy is to slow them down with Thalia and the get a "stream" of hate permanents going. Enlightened Tutor is not only carddisadvantage (especially if your hate permanend gets handled) but can also be hit by Duress (vs. Storm, not sure if this gets boarded or will stay in the maindeck vs. Maverick) and Spell Pierce (S&T and Miracles) or is difficult to get past a counterbalance.
With this in mind I made 2 sideboards which work quite well for me.
Sideboard without Thoughtseize:
3 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Gaddock Teeg
1 Pithing Needle
1 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Zealous Persecution
1 Toxic Deluge
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Choke (Split with Cataclysm or Armageddon if I expect more nonblue decks relying on lots of lands).
1 Containment Priest
Sideboard with Thoughtseize:
2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Pithing Needle
1 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Zealous Persecution
1 Toxic Deluge
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Choke
3 Thoughtseize
I can really recommend Toxic Deluge, because it does not only help vs. tribal strategies but also vs. Jund, Shardless Sultai, etc.
Recently I'm thinking of Gavony Township, should be nice if things get grindier and may be you can live the dream and put your hatebears out of Massacre range, lol :)
Wheel of Sun and Moon is sweet but against Reanimator or Dredge I think you want an effect that kills their whole yard like Bog, Tormod's Crypt, or Nihil Spellbomb considering how explosive they can be on their 1st turn.
Probably true. I wanted something that wouldn't switch off my own graveyard for Knight and Deathrite. Bog and Spellbomb are probably both fine. Wheel is such a pretty foil though, vanity is getting the better of me. :p When I stuck Wheel in there I was actually thinking more about Lands than anything.
In reference to the previous comment, yeah... Toxic Deluge is awesome. I'm always happy when I see that one in fair matches.
I still think RIP is the best anti-gy card to run. If I'm not mistaken, Hollywood says it's got the best odds to shut down dredge. Bog is great if you time it right, but RIP basically ends them on the spot. As for Reanimator, I'd run RIP in conjunction with a stack of lady bears: Thalia, Canonist, C. Priest.
@E-Tutor board: I'm convinced I need 6+ anti-combo cards in any developed meta and 4+ sweepers for fair decks. This gives me up to 5 slots to fool around with any given weekend (usually dedicated hate for Miracles). Running a 4x or 5x E-tutor board is the biggest I'd go. I liked having some flexibility in my recent outing, but I'm of the opinion you can't dedicate too much of your SB to bullets.
As it exiles any pre-existing graveyard, there's no question that RIP is best at in the 2cc slot. Even the price of having to exile your own graveyard is a very small price to pay as your opponent's graveyard is guaranteed to matter more, and you can still repeatedly Crop Rotate with your Gray Ogre.
Bog is pretty terrible though. Its only advantage over any sort of standard grave-hate is its ability to be tutored up. And if you can make it to turn 3-5 against any sort of grave-reliant deck and untap with a Knight of the Reliquary, you're probably already in an exceptionally good spot anyway and there's probably better things you can tutor up. Maverick doesn't have Crop Rotation. If it did, maybe things would be different. But you don't have the ability to tutor up Bog when it's actually relevant.
Not worth putting in the e tutor in the following match ups but bringing in rip
Jund; shuts down goyf, deathrite, recurring p fire n loam out of the side
Grixis pyro; dig, germag/ tomb stalker/tasigar ,cabal therapy
Bug/rug delver goyf, goose, drs, loam , delve spells
Shardless dig, goyf, drs, tasigar
Yes it shuts off our knight n drs but we have equipment like jitte n sofai to go over the top of the creatures
I'm playing at a 1k on Saturday and want to play an e tutor SB BUT not sure of the targets to select
Maverick for life
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