I once won a game against Enchantress by blanking their Emrakul with Sigarda + Maze of Ith. Guy decked himself with a complete lock on board, I had zero interaction available and he just had no win con left and died to having drawn too many cards in the midgame.
Personally, though, I'm a total convert to the Vial version of the deck, and without Zenith, Sigarda is just not a feasible include.
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Thanks to Gabgabdevo for the awesome sig image!
I'm always looking for foil Madcap Skills and Ghitu Fire-Eater, [trade thread link forthcoming]
Played in an Invitational Qualifier yesterday with Punishing Maverick, the same build I've been working with for a while now.
Round 1 against Esper Stoneblade
Gaddock Teeg is awesome. That pretty much sums up the matchup. All of their threats die to Punishing Fire, Pyroblast and Ancient Grudge in the board make their time a bit more difficult.
Round 2 against UB Tezz
Another match where the red-splash sideboard is wonderful. Teeg is still decent here, but Pridemage was definitely awesome. Game 1, I ended up Wasting multiple times, used Pridemage to kill a Grim Monolith before taking over the game. Game 3, Ancient Grudge really pulled through for me.
Round 3 against Shardless BUG
I genuinely wish I could play this matchup all day long. Punishing Fire kills all their threats minus Goyf, Mom blanks their removal, and Ooze combats Goyf and opposing Deathrites nice and easy. Game 1, I kept a hand of Fetchland, Deathrite, Mom, Noble Hierarch, Swords to Plowshares, Life from the Loam, Wasteland. He wasted 2 or 3 times that game, but Waste + LftL (with deathrite/noble to actually advance the mana) pretty much beat him alone.
Round 4 - ID to top 8
Top 8 against RUG
Genuinely concerned about this matchup. I know it should be a positive, but every time I've played it in a tournament setting, I manage to punt. Game 1, I kept a hand with 2 Moms. Both were active by the time he drew a bolt. He ended up with 2 active Nimble Mongoose, but Mom + Dryad arbor was able to stall long enough for me to find Ooze and Knight of the Reliquary. Game 2, I kept a hand with Mom and GSZ. Drew a mom on turn 1. Drew another one a turn or two later. Deathrite kept him away from threshold, and Knight took over the game.
Some time during that game, he revealed a submerge off Delver. Don't forget - it's only free if you control a forest. I sacked my only forest to Knight before his draw, leaving the 5cc bounce spell sitting in his hand.
Semifinals against Esper Stoneblade (same guy)
Game 1, I wrecked. Game 2, and early Ashiok (yes) caused quite a bit of trouble. I misplayed by not killing it when I had enough power on the board, and ended up losing because of it. Game 3, he wiped my board with a Supreme Verdict after I mis-payed for Thalia (tapped my Karakas to cast her). Turn later, Jace came down, and I drew like crap the rest of the game.
Overall, 4-1-1 for the day. Quite content with how it went, although if I had pulled through in the Semis, Shardless BUG would have been my match in the finals. Thoughts for the day:
Ancient Grudge is good. Really good. And it's easily forgotten in the graveyard, especially when it's cast early on.
I'd rather have Pyroblast than Choke against Esperblade. I won't make that mistake again.
Punishing Fire is still a house. Because of it, my matchup against just about any fair deck seems tremendously high.
Life from the Loam plus Wasteland in the opener against Shardless wrecks the matchup. Gotta love the decks that don't run basics.
I'd like to fast-forward to that day. I've been contemplating a fairly radical revision to Dark Maverick and I'm curious what the community's (and especially Warden's) opinion would be on it.
This is my thought process. Knight of the Reliquary is an amazing card, but it's seen better days. It just doesn't often get to be Hugey McHuge as reliably as it used to, with Deathrite Shamans munching on graveyards and folks playing Rest In Peace. I am not sure if it really needs to be a 4x in the deck, maybe it would work fine with fewer copies: certainly it still serves as a lovely GSZ target with lower numbers in the deck.
Dark Confidant was undesirable, meanwhile, partly because the density of CMC=3 was fairly high. If some Knights were cut, though, we simultaneously make room for Bob and lower the pain associated with him.
Similar to these lines, I've been brainstorming another meta-take on maverick designed to simultaneously punish blue-control decks while still having game against other "fair" decks. I do agree with Warden that Dark Confidant doesn't belong in this deck. He's a tempo card and quite frankly I think the deck plays a lot better putting your opponents behind/making them deal with you. BoB just doesn't do that without running something like Natural Order - at least imo. So, I'm thinking of cutting down on the creature count (more toolbox/dorks, fewer beaters) and upping the PW-ers to some split amount between:
As the viable walker options. They're all capable of defending themselves and have a huge impact on the board state. My thought being that keeping the standard "GSZ" + hate bears allows taxing the opponents and any walker (or heaven forbid any 2 walkers) on the board + hatebears/exalted triggers can really run away with a game quickly. I mean, just elspeth + sorin = 4/4 flying lifelink each turn, whilst creating chump tokens. I'm not sure on numbers or anything per-se but I think it has merit. Perhaps just even running additional walkers SB to shore up the jund match-up. Because Planewalkers >> AD/Bolt.
I'll post back in the next day or two once I have a rough list together but figured I'd toss out for other creative gents to mull over.
EDIT:
@Poppeleseed
Gratz on the solid finish! Have you noticed a difference in the SnT/Reanimator (in my experience some of the most difficult decks for traditional GW) match ups with access to red's every so juicy SB options?
Gratz on the solid finish! Have you noticed a difference in the SnT/Reanimator (in my experience some of the most difficult decks for traditional GW) match ups with access to red's every so juicy SB options?
Last one I played against was Sneak Show a couple months back (same list). He opened with a ponder, I went fetch Savannah, Noble, pass. He Show and Tells in Emrakul, I just have a fetch. Topdeck: Karakas.
The biggest thing that the red splash offers in the SnT matchup is access to Pyroblast/REB. Against Reanimator, I've always hoped to get a turn 1 Deathrite or turn 2 active Ooze (or hold the Karakas in hand). Unfortunately (well, unfortunately for research, luckily for me), the past few larger events I've been to recently, I've only ran into SnT once, and Reanimator zero times.
Ultimately, the red splash just wrecks fair decks in the main, and needs to have a tailored sideboard for combo. I do run 3 Thalia + 1 Teeg main, but that only gets you so far. My sideboard has 2 Pyroblast, 3 Mindbreak Trap, a second Teeg, and an Ethersworn Canonist, as well as the aforementioned Ancient Grudge, so Tendrils-based Storm and High Tide aren't *as* intimidating. Show and Tell, on the other hand, gets tricky. Right now, the card I'm most iffy on is the 2x Choke in the board, which is sounding better and better as REB, but even that only does so much. Against the Omniscience/Dream Halls build, I'd expect to have to hide behind Thalia + Teeg and hope to keep them off Show and Tell via REB. Vs. Sneak Attack, similar case. Karakas is always nice, and I've actually kept a misers Sigarda in the board forever, just in case.
Oh, and bojuka bog in the board. I forget it sometimes, but I find myself siding out Horizon Canopy in some matches for it (and Maze of Ith in the combo matchups). More relevant against Reanimator than Show and Tell, but still nice to have. I can't justify moving it to the main, but that could partially be because the only black mana requirements in the deck are the 2x Deathrite Shaman, and I'm perfectly okay not being able to activate him for B in most matchups.
Last one I played against was Sneak Show a couple months back (same list). He opened with a ponder, I went fetch Savannah, Noble, pass. He Show and Tells in Emrakul, I just have a fetch. Topdeck: Karakas.
The biggest thing that the red splash offers in the SnT matchup is access to Pyroblast/REB. Against Reanimator, I've always hoped to get a turn 1 Deathrite or turn 2 active Ooze (or hold the Karakas in hand). Unfortunately (well, unfortunately for research, luckily for me), the past few larger events I've been to recently, I've only ran into SnT once, and Reanimator zero times.
Ultimately, the red splash just wrecks fair decks in the main, and needs to have a tailored sideboard for combo. I do run 3 Thalia + 1 Teeg main, but that only gets you so far. My sideboard has 2 Pyroblast, 3 Mindbreak Trap, a second Teeg, and an Ethersworn Canonist, as well as the aforementioned Ancient Grudge, so Tendrils-based Storm and High Tide aren't *as* intimidating. Show and Tell, on the other hand, gets tricky. Right now, the card I'm most iffy on is the 2x Choke in the board, which is sounding better and better as REB, but even that only does so much. Against the Omniscience/Dream Halls build, I'd expect to have to hide behind Thalia + Teeg and hope to keep them off Show and Tell via REB. Vs. Sneak Attack, similar case. Karakas is always nice, and I've actually kept a misers Sigarda in the board forever, just in case.
Oh, and bojuka bog in the board. I forget it sometimes, but I find myself siding out Horizon Canopy in some matches for it (and Maze of Ith in the combo matchups). More relevant against Reanimator than Show and Tell, but still nice to have. I can't justify moving it to the main, but that could partially be because the only black mana requirements in the deck are the 2x Deathrite Shaman, and I'm perfectly okay not being able to activate him for B in most matchups.
Pretty much my thoughts. I've debated Stingscourger in red decks before as tech for "fattie heavy central" but never had room to run it [in red decks I've played ie: dreadstill]. Blood moon, although wrecks our non-basics, wrecks other decks harder. And since it's 3 cmc and can fetch for basics + fix mana with dorks, I've debated if it's worth while for certain metas in red splashes. It reads "GG" against combo decks.
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If I were expecting *that* many non-basics, I'd almost consider another Life from the Loam in the board. As I mentioned in my mini-report, I wrecked BUG almost entirely with waste-lock. Blood moon is nice, but I wouldn't play it in a 3c deck unless I could afford to run a larger number of basics. Maverick can play around blood moon, but I don't think it's worth cramming it in there.
Played in an Invitational Qualifier yesterday with Punishing Maverick, the same build I've been working with for a while now.
Round 1 against Esper Stoneblade
Gaddock Teeg is awesome. That pretty much sums up the matchup. All of their threats die to Punishing Fire, Pyroblast and Ancient Grudge in the board make their time a bit more difficult.
Round 2 against UB Tezz
Another match where the red-splash sideboard is wonderful. Teeg is still decent here, but Pridemage was definitely awesome. Game 1, I ended up Wasting multiple times, used Pridemage to kill a Grim Monolith before taking over the game. Game 3, Ancient Grudge really pulled through for me.
Round 3 against Shardless BUG
I genuinely wish I could play this matchup all day long. Punishing Fire kills all their threats minus Goyf, Mom blanks their removal, and Ooze combats Goyf and opposing Deathrites nice and easy. Game 1, I kept a hand of Fetchland, Deathrite, Mom, Noble Hierarch, Swords to Plowshares, Life from the Loam, Wasteland. He wasted 2 or 3 times that game, but Waste + LftL (with deathrite/noble to actually advance the mana) pretty much beat him alone.
Round 4 - ID to top 8
Top 8 against RUG
Genuinely concerned about this matchup. I know it should be a positive, but every time I've played it in a tournament setting, I manage to punt. Game 1, I kept a hand with 2 Moms. Both were active by the time he drew a bolt. He ended up with 2 active Nimble Mongoose, but Mom + Dryad arbor was able to stall long enough for me to find Ooze and Knight of the Reliquary. Game 2, I kept a hand with Mom and GSZ. Drew a mom on turn 1. Drew another one a turn or two later. Deathrite kept him away from threshold, and Knight took over the game.
Some time during that game, he revealed a submerge off Delver. Don't forget - it's only free if you control a forest. I sacked my only forest to Knight before his draw, leaving the 5cc bounce spell sitting in his hand.
Semifinals against Esper Stoneblade (same guy)
Game 1, I wrecked. Game 2, and early Ashiok (yes) caused quite a bit of trouble. I misplayed by not killing it when I had enough power on the board, and ended up losing because of it. Game 3, he wiped my board with a Supreme Verdict after I mis-payed for Thalia (tapped my Karakas to cast her). Turn later, Jace came down, and I drew like crap the rest of the game.
Overall, 4-1-1 for the day. Quite content with how it went, although if I had pulled through in the Semis, Shardless BUG would have been my match in the finals. Thoughts for the day:
Ancient Grudge is good. Really good. And it's easily forgotten in the graveyard, especially when it's cast early on.
I'd rather have Pyroblast than Choke against Esperblade. I won't make that mistake again.
Punishing Fire is still a house. Because of it, my matchup against just about any fair deck seems tremendously high.
Life from the Loam plus Wasteland in the opener against Shardless wrecks the matchup. Gotta love the decks that don't run basics.
G1: Opponent has 2 Nimble Mongoose. Wasteland then resolved 5/5 Knight of the Reliquary and Scavenging Ooze and Gaea's Cradle
G2: At opponent's end step, i cast scryb ranger to bait a daze. He bit. My turn, i wasteland his last land to make sure he can't cast daze anymore. Then i resolve a Choke. Opponent was able to down me to 1 life. Then i recovered with scav ooze, kotr, and umezawa's Jitte.
Round 2: UR Stiflenaught (2-1)
G1: Overwhelmed him with a KotR beatstick with 2 Mother of Runes backup
G2: I eat 3-4 Rough // Tumble (too many) then Delver all the way.
G3: Choke wins games.
Round 3: ANT (1-1) Draw
G1: On the draw, he cast Gytaxian Probe and saw a Goddock Teeg in my hand. He tried to combo off and successfully cast Ad Nauseum, he was down to 2, then he got what he needed to kill me.
G2: Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and Gaddock Teeg. He can't find what he's looking for.
G3: We were called to time. He was pressured to combo off and went premature.
Round 4: Shardless Bug (1-0)
G1: Sylvan Library, Thalia w/ Jitte, 2 Mother of Runes, Noble Hierarch, KotR, and Yavimaya Hollow. G1 was too long. Finally, he scooped and went to G2.
G2: I was able to resolve Sylvan Library and Choke. I was on the defensive when we were called to time. I have a resolved Elspeth, Knight Errant at loyalty 8, 3 tokens, and was able to resolve a Big Kotr. I hit Wasteland his last remaining untapped blue source. In response, he cast Golgari Charm on my Choke. He needed the mana, otherwise, he will only have a wasteland and a Bayou. All his other lands were tapped. If I wasn't able to resolve a Kotr and if he would have killed my blockers with a golgari charm, his final turn would have been lethal. He had 2 Tarmogoyf at 4/5, 2 Shardless Agent, 2 Baleful Strix, and 1 Deathrite Shaman. I was down to 16.
G1: Played the ol' fetch-in-response-fetch-in-response-fetch just so i can get a basic forest out and he stifled my 1st fetch. I hit him with 2 wasteland and he got mana screwed. Kotr, Scav Ooze, and Elspeth for the win.
G2: Turn 2, i was able to resolve a sylvan library. turn 3, my mirran crusader got force of willed. turn 4, i resolved a choke. turn 5, i resolve another mirran. Opponent had 2 Nimble Mongoose at threshold. i resolved scav ooze to control the mongooses. when i fetched for a land, he submerged my mirran so it gets shuffled into the deck. On my next turn library peek, he's back. I resolved it and he concedes.
Top 4 Split Prize
All in all, Choke, Yavimaya Hollow (through Knight of the Reliquary), and Mirran Crusader was the highlight of the tourney. I was also lucky to get good MUs through out the swiss save for a lucky win against Shardless Bug (grindy) and a lucky draw against ANT.
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LEGACY:
G Combo Elves G GW Maverick WG GWR Punishing Maverick RWG GWB Dark Maverick BWG RUG RUG Delver GUR UWR Miracles RWU
I have a question for everyone playing junk list here. By experience, how many lands that produce colorless or 0 mana turn 1 do you keep in your deck (not counting dryad arbor)? Basically, I am trying to figure out if I can add one more utility land by cutting one fetch (so go to 6 instead of 7). So far, I have been hesitant to keep more than 3 wasteland, 1 maze and 1 craddle, but I am wondering if it could be a good idea to be a bit greedy in that aspect and add one more land that can't produce colored mana on turn 1 (4th wasteland or 1 Yavimaya Hollow or 1 sejiri steppe). Thoughts?
Also, as a follow up, you guys were right on Sigarda, she is retarded good against Bug and Jund, and to a certain extend, a death and taxes opponent learned that he could not target it with mangara and that she had flying. 5 is a lot of mana, but the inclusion of Craddle definately helps with that. Also, being somewhat less afraid of not having my double white mana, I went ahead and included back eslpeth in the 75, replacing sorin with Garruck relentless. logic being that garruck kills ennoying stuff and elspeth usually wins game a bit faster (even if sorin wasn't as bad as I first thought, and I am still debating to see if I want both my plainswalkers to be immune to dread of night effects (or sulfur elemental effects, or engineered plague)).
What exactly are the differences between the regular build and a Vial build? Aside from the obvious 1 has Vial and the other doesn't.
basically, the vial version is aiming to use their vials to play their hatebears at instant speed and uncounterable. This means that this version will usually play more utility lands and disruptive lands, as they will need them less to play creatures. For that matter, they usually play cards like Weathered Wayfarer to find and play their utility lands as soon as they have vial in play, and they are more inclined to play sylvan safekeeper in their decks, as sometimes they don't even need more then 1-2 mana after vial goes online. To accommodate all this, it also means that their curve will usually end at 3 mana, with knight of the reliquary. This means that they don't play green sun, as they can't support the mana cost, and from this fact, it means that they can't afford to play only 1 copy of their creatures like with the normal build, as they have no way to tutor them into play.
For the general gameplan, they both try to achieve a board position so hard to beat that you can't stop them from killing you, but the vial build will do so by making their creatures uncounterable and instants, allowing them to use their lands for more than just mana purposes, when the ''classic build'' will sculpt a board position with a toolbox, allowing to consistently get what you need in play, when you need it.
Playing:
Legacy:
:symw::symb::symg::symu::symr:Dredge
:symu::symb: ANT
The Gate
Modern:
:symu::symr: Past in flames Storm
EDH:
:symr::symw::symb: Kaalia of the Vast
So, no clue if it actually meshes together or not, but I'll play around with it a little bit. I figure it's still centered around the main "core" components of maverick decks and by running more walkers + sigarda there are enough bombs to make the "post-hate-bear-turns" just as/more threatening than early game. Should be a lot smoother playing from top-deck mode as there are more "bomby" cards. I don't think hitting 4 or even 5 mana, even with color requirements is too tricky with 23 lands and 4.5 dorks. Probably has some glaring match up I'm losing ground on (zoo, affinity) but no one plays those decks anyways.
Jitte is most likely the weakest card (or Liliana of the Veil <--> Garruk Wildspeaker) but it's got loads of value. Especially with walkers pooping left and right *shrugs*.
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Trade thread under reconstruction. Because you can't spell slaughter without laughter.
I have a question for everyone playing junk list here. By experience, how many lands that produce colorless or 0 mana turn 1 do you keep in your deck (not counting dryad arbor)? Basically, I am trying to figure out if I can add one more utility land by cutting one fetch (so go to 6 instead of 7). So far, I have been hesitant to keep more than 3 wasteland, 1 maze and 1 craddle, but I am wondering if it could be a good idea to be a bit greedy in that aspect and add one more land that can't produce colored mana on turn 1 (4th wasteland or 1 Yavimaya Hollow or 1 sejiri steppe). Thoughts?
Also, as a follow up, you guys were right on Sigarda, she is retarded good against Bug and Jund, and to a certain extend, a death and taxes opponent learned that he could not target it with mangara and that she had flying. 5 is a lot of mana, but the inclusion of Craddle definately helps with that. Also, being somewhat less afraid of not having my double white mana, I went ahead and included back eslpeth in the 75, replacing sorin with Garruck relentless. logic being that garruck kills ennoying stuff and elspeth usually wins game a bit faster (even if sorin wasn't as bad as I first thought, and I am still debating to see if I want both my plainswalkers to be immune to dread of night effects (or sulfur elemental effects, or engineered plague)).
basically, the vial version is aiming to use their vials to play their hatebears at instant speed and uncounterable. This means that this version will usually play more utility lands and disruptive lands, as they will need them less to play creatures. For that matter, they usually play cards like Weathered Wayfarer to find and play their utility lands as soon as they have vial in play, and they are more inclined to play sylvan safekeeper in their decks, as sometimes they don't even need more then 1-2 mana after vial goes online. To accommodate all this, it also means that their curve will usually end at 3 mana, with knight of the reliquary. This means that they don't play green sun, as they can't support the mana cost, and from this fact, it means that they can't afford to play only 1 copy of their creatures like with the normal build, as they have no way to tutor them into play.
For the general gameplan, they both try to achieve a board position so hard to beat that you can't stop them from killing you, but the vial build will do so by making their creatures uncounterable and instants, allowing them to use their lands for more than just mana purposes, when the ''classic build'' will sculpt a board position with a toolbox, allowing to consistently get what you need in play, when you need it.
Hope that helps
In a vial powered version I'd run the full suite of Qasali Pridemage and consider Mirran Crusader. I would strongly consider Big Game Hunter as a mega-value card. Relevant things he hits:
What exactly are the differences between the regular build and a Vial build? Aside from the obvious 1 has Vial and the other doesn't.
GW heatebears + vial. The deck, when played right, embarrasses people with durdly x/1's and x/2's. The times you feel you're burning on all cylinders with the deck (ie; you have a suite of mom / teeg / thalia / etc) occur more often due to a higher density of said cards. You also use wayfarer to abuse opponents or muscle out disgusting lines of play.
The downside is that GSZ conceivably is a ramp / consistency engine / finisher. And you're playing without it. Oh, and vial relies on SFM to make your dorks formidable.
...Similar to these lines, I've been brainstorming another meta-take on maverick designed to simultaneously punish blue-control decks while still having game against other "fair" decks. I do agree with Warden that Dark Confidant doesn't belong in this deck. He's a tempo card and quite frankly I think the deck plays a lot better putting your opponents behind/making them deal with you. BoB just doesn't do that without running something like Natural Order - at least imo. So, I'm thinking of cutting down on the creature count (more toolbox/dorks, fewer beaters) and upping the PW-ers to some split amount between:
As the viable walker options. They're all capable of defending themselves and have a huge impact on the board state. My thought being that keeping the standard "GSZ" + hate bears allows taxing the opponents and any walker (or heaven forbid any 2 walkers) on the board + hatebears/exalted triggers can really run away with a game quickly. I mean, just elspeth + sorin = 4/4 flying lifelink each turn, whilst creating chump tokens. I'm not sure on numbers or anything per-se but I think it has merit. Perhaps just even running additional walkers SB to shore up the jund match-up. Because Planewalkers >> AD/Bolt.
I'll post back in the next day or two once I have a rough list together but figured I'd toss out for other creative gents to mull over.
Why not NicFit (GBW)? If you want bing things/walkers, run with that. You'll gain deed and stupid fast ramp (over hierarch/shaman issues). Confidant works with a junk-mav hybrid. I could see hierarch / DRS / confidant / goyf / reliquary + removal and discard and possibly GSZ. I don't like confidant in the Maverick shell unless you're willing to cut a crucial piece of the puzzle OR take a gamble on all flex slots.
- all Sylvan Library
- all mirran crusader / extra removal / sigarda / walker slots
+ confidant
+ sensei's top
....not sure I'd run that, but those are the logical slots to "trade" for
Ultimately, the red splash just wrecks fair decks in the main, and needs to have a tailored sideboard for combo. I do run 3 Thalia + 1 Teeg main, but that only gets you so far. My sideboard has 2 Pyroblast, 3 Mindbreak Trap, a second Teeg, and an Ethersworn Canonist, as well as the aforementioned Ancient Grudge, so Tendrils-based Storm and High Tide aren't *as* intimidating. Show and Tell, on the other hand, gets tricky. Right now, the card I'm most iffy on is the 2x Choke in the board, which is sounding better and better as REB, but even that only does so much. Against the Omniscience/Dream Halls build, I'd expect to have to hide behind Thalia + Teeg and hope to keep them off Show and Tell via REB. Vs. Sneak Attack, similar case. Karakas is always nice, and I've actually kept a misers Sigarda in the board forever, just in case
Oh, and bojuka bog in the board. I forget it sometimes, but I find myself siding out Horizon Canopy in some matches for it (and Maze of Ith in the combo matchups). More relevant against Reanimator than Show and Tell, but still nice to have. I can't justify moving it to the main, but that could partially be because the only black mana requirements in the deck are the 2x Deathrite Shaman, and I'm perfectly okay not being able to activate him for B in most matchups.
I really stopped running Maze in the main tbh. If it were bog MD and Maze sb you may argue results would be the same if not better. Even if Bog is in the opener, it doesn't handcuff your lines of play into awkward mana situations. Maze has the higher ceiling but can (and sometimes does) ruin you. Bog is just an annoying CIPT situation. Most of the time the 'I nuke graves' clause makes up for the tapped thing (goyfs, reanimator, etc). It also gives you the upside of "in response to that bomb spell that's on the stack, I activate KOTR and obliterate your grave...GG?" play game 1. Doing that against reanimator / dredge / snapcaster is SUCH a dick move game 1 lol.
@Pops:
Would you run red splash at all in a unfair decks-heavier room? If for some reason you couldn't/wouldn't run black? What's your 15 sb look like then?
1 Gaddock Teeg (set in stone) / 9 anti-combo / 2 anti-blue / 3 meta
This is where I think the SB on black dominates for unfair decks....but you never know. Pfires is just randomly awesome again.
BTW Poppeleseed, the decklist is delicious. I'm a single Taiga away from rolling out of bed and being able to run that. de-lic-ious to see fires back in all the right ways.
If I were expecting *that* many non-basics, I'd almost consider another Life from the Loam in the board. As I mentioned in my mini-report, I wrecked BUG almost entirely with waste-lock. Blood moon is nice, but I wouldn't play it in a 3c deck unless I could afford to run a larger number of basics. Maverick can play around blood moon, but I don't think it's worth cramming it in there.
@test1985: Congrats to you too! That list is pretty much what's been sitting in my deckbox for a few months. Sigarda and Slyvans ---> 1 meta + 2 SFM instead.
@Sideboard
1x Bojuka Bog
2x Krosan Grip ----> rationale over more flex cards or QPM?
3x Oblivion Ring
2x Choke -------------> interesting this worked where it didnt for poppeleseed
1x Gaddock Teeg
2x Ethersworn Canonist
3x Surgical Extraction
1x Thrun, the Last Troll
[/DECK]
...All in all, Choke, Yavimaya Hollow (through Knight of the Reliquary), and Mirran Crusader was the highlight of the tourney. I was also lucky to get good MUs through out the swiss save for a lucky win against Shardless Bug (grindy) and a lucky draw against ANT.
How was Krosan Grip? And is Yav. Hollow noticeably good? Saving key creatures from inevitable death / removal seems amazing.
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That which nourishes me, destroys me
10th at SCG: Syracuse (2014), GP:NJ Last-Chance Grinder Winner (2014):: Former Legacy Mod
I mean, hell, we're all on a forum for something that most people would describe as a "children's card game"...do what makes you happy. You are never too old to enjoy yourself.
Why not NicFit (GBW)? If you want bing things/walkers, run with that. You'll gain deed and stupid fast ramp (over hierarch/shaman issues). Confidant works with a junk-mav hybrid. I could see hierarch / DRS / confidant / goyf / reliquary + removal and discard and possibly GSZ. I don't like confidant in the Maverick shell unless you're willing to cut a crucial piece of the puzzle OR take a gamble on all flex slots.
- all Sylvan Library
- all mirran crusader / extra removal / sigarda / walker slots
+ confidant
+ sensei's top
....not sure I'd run that, but those are the logical slots to "trade" for
Well, I got rid of my confidants. I picked them up at < 10% their current value so I was happy with the cash out. I've always felt that he's more potent in tempo based decks (grixis/dark thresh), basically anything packing blue because it lets you steam ahead with his CA rather quickly. I've never really liked him in a deck flooded with creatures. I feel like the core GSZ package provides excellent consistency and that trumps the CA of confidant. Plus the general GW bear deck plays really well against blue decks.
I kinda think deed is cold in the meta right now. It's very slow to come online against the fast decks where it's useful, and it's useless against the many archetypes of combo. I also like the reach that DRS provides whilst being a mana dork early game. I just feel like standard maverick decks are fine out of the gate, but always seem to be just a turn or two shy of closing out games. Given that BUG/Jund are thriving based of 2-for-1 and PW board control I thought, well - why can't it work in a maverick shell? My go to against fair decks was Natural Order, but ever since Liliana of the Veil, it just doesn't seem as potent - even with worldspine wurm.
I also think Heirarch/DRS >>> Veteran Explorer. The black splash was initially for duress SB for the combo match up, and DRS + AD makes it viable to dig a bit deeper in. I feel like with 2x DRS + a few extra walkers the deck would have that "reach" that it needs to close games out against other "fair" decks; whist hatebear.dec + duress + AD + SE should provide for at least winnable combo games.
I've likewise been less and less impressed with KotR's performance and rarely ever resolve/stick one. It's usually just ride to victory on the backs of bears and durdles - occasionally an equipment will help or a PW will end things quickly. Sylvan Library never seemed to help close the game out as quickly because of the lack of impact the turn it's played. Ever since terminus I've been less a fan of equipment as it can create a huge mana sink and begs to have SFM run (I don't like her in maverick after my testing).
So, I figured since my win% has been noticeably higher in games where a PW sticks, why not pack a few extras? The core package runs out fast the first 1-3 turns and landing an walker turn 3/4 and another one turn 4/5 is pretty brutal against any deck.
I dunno - I have pretty much any "playable" in the basic maverick shell so was trying to mash a few things together and see what comes out
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Maverick -- Storm Click here for trade thread
Trade thread under reconstruction. Because you can't spell slaughter without laughter.
A lot of that actually makes a lot of sense and I know the feeling you describe. I cut Sulvans for SFM because the ladder ends games quick lol. Funny you dislike equip vs terminus because I prefer it. Means I can drop 1 guy and just connect w an equip. Swords of x/y can be vial-ed in via SFM or work as awk 3 drops against CB. While they suck as a mana inefficiency, I agree, they help prevent overextending into sweepers.
I don't like relying on her but 2x isn't breaking my system. Also makes durdles AMAZING.
@walkers: I'd love mavericks curve to end at 3cc. Seriously lol. I don't want to Inflate it. Your call on walkers into the mix. They do not help the curve, which IMO is the larger issue. I like a lone Elspeth in the main. Perhaps a garruk who flips as well? I'd rather run Garruk in a blind meta than Sigarda or something.
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That which nourishes me, destroys me
10th at SCG: Syracuse (2014), GP:NJ Last-Chance Grinder Winner (2014):: Former Legacy Mod
I mean, hell, we're all on a forum for something that most people would describe as a "children's card game"...do what makes you happy. You are never too old to enjoy yourself.
My two cents on the walker thing, since I agree with ther potency, but why are we not running domri again? Cheap, can protect itself usually and powerful in a red splash. Just curios.
@test1985: Congrats to you too! That list is pretty much what's been sitting in my deckbox for a few months. Sigarda and Slyvans ---> 1 meta + 2 SFM instead.
@Sideboard
1x Bojuka Bog
2x Krosan Grip ----> rationale over more flex cards or QPM?
3x Oblivion Ring
2x Choke -------------> interesting this worked where it didnt for poppeleseed
1x Gaddock Teeg
2x Ethersworn Canonist
3x Surgical Extraction
1x Thrun, the Last Troll
[/DECK]
How was Krosan Grip? And is Yav. Hollow noticeably good? Saving key creatures from inevitable death / removal seems amazing.
Thanks! SFM was initially in my first build, but knowing my meta is Tempo heavy, it felt kinda slow, at least for me.
As for choke, it was easy enough to resolve against RUG as i would bait out a few creatures before casting it. Once it resolves, it's basically game over for them, if you have some creatures.
As for yavimaya hollow, this is one of the best card i've tried. An active KotR becomes a pseudo MoR. You can bluff for a creature trade and surprise them with this. Also, abrupt decay becomes less powerful once you have this in play.
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LEGACY:
G Combo Elves G GW Maverick WG GWR Punishing Maverick RWG GWB Dark Maverick BWG RUG RUG Delver GUR UWR Miracles RWU
The issue that I had with choke was that I'd rather have other cards. Against Esperblade, yes, choke could have been fine, but it seemed like he always had Vindicate. Big picture was, in this matchup, I was aiming to keep him off Batterskull/Jace mana. I had already brought in Ancient Grudge, had Pridemage main, but Pyroblast would have more appropriately answered my concerns (namely Ashiok and resolved Jace).
He also had quite a few non-island basics, which didn't help the Choke plan.
As for the board, I wouldn't view it as 9 combo hate pieces, more like:
1 Teeg - set in stone
4 Strict combo hate pieces
4 generic blue hosers - combo hate splashover
2 equipment/stax/affinity hate - slight combo splashover
1 fetchable grave hate - slight combo splashover (but only because Maze is typically terrible against storm )
3 Flex slots
Depending on what I was seeing in the room, I might be a little nervous playing red in a room of combo.
Against a room of Sneak and Show, yeah, I'd be nervous.
Mono-blue Omni Tell, I'd probably axe the chokes (something I'm thinking of doing anyway) for REB.
Belcher/SI, no. Probably same for Tinfins, although I haven't tested the matchup, so I'm not 100%.
Tendrils storm, I would feel fairly comfortable. Teeg + Thalia main, plus Teeg + Canonist + Mindbreak at a minimum makes this a lot easier.
The issue that I had with choke was that I'd rather have other cards. Against Esperblade, yes, choke could have been fine, but it seemed like he always had Vindicate. Big picture was, in this matchup, I was aiming to keep him off Batterskull/Jace mana. I had already brought in Ancient Grudge, had Pridemage main, but Pyroblast would have more appropriately answered my concerns (namely Ashiok and resolved Jace).
He also had quite a few non-island basics, which didn't help the Choke plan.
As for the board, I wouldn't view it as 9 combo hate pieces, more like:
1 Teeg - set in stone
4 Strict combo hate pieces
4 generic blue hosers - combo hate splashover
2 equipment/stax/affinity hate - slight combo splashover
1 fetchable grave hate - slight combo splashover (but only because Maze is typically terrible against storm )
3 Flex slots
Depending on what I was seeing in the room, I might be a little nervous playing red in a room of combo.
Against a room of Sneak and Show, yeah, I'd be nervous.
Mono-blue Omni Tell, I'd probably axe the chokes (something I'm thinking of doing anyway) for REB.
Belcher/SI, no. Probably same for Tinfins, although I haven't tested the matchup, so I'm not 100%.
Tendrils storm, I would feel fairly comfortable. Teeg + Thalia main, plus Teeg + Canonist + Mindbreak at a minimum makes this a lot easier.
I'm a fan of the pMav build. It's so grindy, your opponent just can't do much about it. One thing i noticed when playing pMav is, Esperblade is an easy matchup. All their creatures, save batterskull is easily killed by pFire. When you reach 5 mana, batterskull is as good as dead. But, how do you deal with combo and shardless bug?
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LEGACY:
G Combo Elves G GW Maverick WG GWR Punishing Maverick RWG GWB Dark Maverick BWG RUG RUG Delver GUR UWR Miracles RWU
MODERN: G Coco Elves G
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Personally, though, I'm a total convert to the Vial version of the deck, and without Zenith, Sigarda is just not a feasible include.
Thanks to Gabgabdevo for the awesome sig image!
I'm always looking for foil Madcap Skills and Ghitu Fire-Eater, [trade thread link forthcoming]
Some time during that game, he revealed a submerge off Delver. Don't forget - it's only free if you control a forest. I sacked my only forest to Knight before his draw, leaving the 5cc bounce spell sitting in his hand.
Overall, 4-1-1 for the day. Quite content with how it went, although if I had pulled through in the Semis, Shardless BUG would have been my match in the finals. Thoughts for the day:
Ancient Grudge is good. Really good. And it's easily forgotten in the graveyard, especially when it's cast early on.
I'd rather have Pyroblast than Choke against Esperblade. I won't make that mistake again.
Punishing Fire is still a house. Because of it, my matchup against just about any fair deck seems tremendously high.
Life from the Loam plus Wasteland in the opener against Shardless wrecks the matchup. Gotta love the decks that don't run basics.
Have any questions or concerns? Come take a dip in my pool.
Similar to these lines, I've been brainstorming another meta-take on maverick designed to simultaneously punish blue-control decks while still having game against other "fair" decks. I do agree with Warden that Dark Confidant doesn't belong in this deck. He's a tempo card and quite frankly I think the deck plays a lot better putting your opponents behind/making them deal with you. BoB just doesn't do that without running something like Natural Order - at least imo. So, I'm thinking of cutting down on the creature count (more toolbox/dorks, fewer beaters) and upping the PW-ers to some split amount between:
1x Liliana of the Veil
1x Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
1x Garruk Wildspeaker
1x Garruk Relentless
As the viable walker options. They're all capable of defending themselves and have a huge impact on the board state. My thought being that keeping the standard "GSZ" + hate bears allows taxing the opponents and any walker (or heaven forbid any 2 walkers) on the board + hatebears/exalted triggers can really run away with a game quickly. I mean, just elspeth + sorin = 4/4 flying lifelink each turn, whilst creating chump tokens. I'm not sure on numbers or anything per-se but I think it has merit. Perhaps just even running additional walkers SB to shore up the jund match-up. Because Planewalkers >> AD/Bolt.
I'll post back in the next day or two once I have a rough list together but figured I'd toss out for other creative gents to mull over.
EDIT:
@Poppeleseed
Gratz on the solid finish! Have you noticed a difference in the SnT/Reanimator (in my experience some of the most difficult decks for traditional GW) match ups with access to red's every so juicy SB options?
Maverick -- Storm
Click here for trade threadTrade thread under reconstruction.
Because you can't spell slaughter without laughter.
Last one I played against was Sneak Show a couple months back (same list). He opened with a ponder, I went fetch Savannah, Noble, pass. He Show and Tells in Emrakul, I just have a fetch. Topdeck: Karakas.
The biggest thing that the red splash offers in the SnT matchup is access to Pyroblast/REB. Against Reanimator, I've always hoped to get a turn 1 Deathrite or turn 2 active Ooze (or hold the Karakas in hand). Unfortunately (well, unfortunately for research, luckily for me), the past few larger events I've been to recently, I've only ran into SnT once, and Reanimator zero times.
Ultimately, the red splash just wrecks fair decks in the main, and needs to have a tailored sideboard for combo. I do run 3 Thalia + 1 Teeg main, but that only gets you so far. My sideboard has 2 Pyroblast, 3 Mindbreak Trap, a second Teeg, and an Ethersworn Canonist, as well as the aforementioned Ancient Grudge, so Tendrils-based Storm and High Tide aren't *as* intimidating. Show and Tell, on the other hand, gets tricky. Right now, the card I'm most iffy on is the 2x Choke in the board, which is sounding better and better as REB, but even that only does so much. Against the Omniscience/Dream Halls build, I'd expect to have to hide behind Thalia + Teeg and hope to keep them off Show and Tell via REB. Vs. Sneak Attack, similar case. Karakas is always nice, and I've actually kept a misers Sigarda in the board forever, just in case.
Oh, and bojuka bog in the board. I forget it sometimes, but I find myself siding out Horizon Canopy in some matches for it (and Maze of Ith in the combo matchups). More relevant against Reanimator than Show and Tell, but still nice to have. I can't justify moving it to the main, but that could partially be because the only black mana requirements in the deck are the 2x Deathrite Shaman, and I'm perfectly okay not being able to activate him for B in most matchups.
Have any questions or concerns? Come take a dip in my pool.
Pretty much my thoughts. I've debated Stingscourger in red decks before as tech for "fattie heavy central" but never had room to run it [in red decks I've played ie: dreadstill]. Blood moon, although wrecks our non-basics, wrecks other decks harder. And since it's 3 cmc and can fetch for basics + fix mana with dorks, I've debated if it's worth while for certain metas in red splashes. It reads "GG" against combo decks.
Maverick -- Storm
Click here for trade threadTrade thread under reconstruction.
Because you can't spell slaughter without laughter.
Have any questions or concerns? Come take a dip in my pool.
Can you post a list?
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Arid Mesa
3 Savannah
2 Taiga
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Horizon Canopy
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Karakas
1 Maze of Ith
1 Dryad Arbor
3 Wasteland
4 Mother of Runes
4 Knight of the Reliquary
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Noble Hierarch
2 Deathrite Shaman
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Qasali Pridemage
1 Gaddock Teeg
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Punishing Fire
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Life from the Loam
1 Sylvan Library
3 Mindbreak Trap
2 Choke
2 Pyroblast
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Sylvan Safekeeper
Have any questions or concerns? Come take a dip in my pool.
2x Umezawa's Jitte
2x Sylvan Library
Creatures
1x Gaddock Teeg
1x Sigarda, Host of Herons
2x Scryb Ranger
2x Mirran Crusader
2x Qasali Pridemage
2x Scavenging Ooze
4x Mother of Runes
3x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4x Knight of the Reliquary
4x Noble Hierarch
Instants & Sorcery
4x Green Sun's Zenith
4x Swords to Plowshares
2x Cavern of Souls
1x Dryad Arbor
1x Gaea's Cradle
1x Horizon Canopy
1x Karakas
1x Maze of Ith
1x Plains
1x Yavimaya Hollow
2x Forest
4x Savannah
3x Wasteland
4x Windswept Heath
Planeswalker
1x Elspeth, Knight Errant
1x Bojuka Bog
2x Krosan Grip
3x Oblivion Ring
2x Choke
1x Gaddock Teeg
2x Ethersworn Canonist
3x Surgical Extraction
1x Thrun, the Last Troll
Round 1: RUG (2-0)
G1: Opponent has 2 Nimble Mongoose. Wasteland then resolved 5/5 Knight of the Reliquary and Scavenging Ooze and Gaea's Cradle
G2: At opponent's end step, i cast scryb ranger to bait a daze. He bit. My turn, i wasteland his last land to make sure he can't cast daze anymore. Then i resolve a Choke. Opponent was able to down me to 1 life. Then i recovered with scav ooze, kotr, and umezawa's Jitte.
Round 2: UR Stiflenaught (2-1)
G1: Overwhelmed him with a KotR beatstick with 2 Mother of Runes backup
G2: I eat 3-4 Rough // Tumble (too many) then Delver all the way.
G3: Choke wins games.
Round 3: ANT (1-1) Draw
G1: On the draw, he cast Gytaxian Probe and saw a Goddock Teeg in my hand. He tried to combo off and successfully cast Ad Nauseum, he was down to 2, then he got what he needed to kill me.
G2: Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and Gaddock Teeg. He can't find what he's looking for.
G3: We were called to time. He was pressured to combo off and went premature.
Round 4: Shardless Bug (1-0)
G1: Sylvan Library, Thalia w/ Jitte, 2 Mother of Runes, Noble Hierarch, KotR, and Yavimaya Hollow. G1 was too long. Finally, he scooped and went to G2.
G2: I was able to resolve Sylvan Library and Choke. I was on the defensive when we were called to time. I have a resolved Elspeth, Knight Errant at loyalty 8, 3 tokens, and was able to resolve a Big Kotr. I hit Wasteland his last remaining untapped blue source. In response, he cast Golgari Charm on my Choke. He needed the mana, otherwise, he will only have a wasteland and a Bayou. All his other lands were tapped. If I wasn't able to resolve a Kotr and if he would have killed my blockers with a golgari charm, his final turn would have been lethal. He had 2 Tarmogoyf at 4/5, 2 Shardless Agent, 2 Baleful Strix, and 1 Deathrite Shaman. I was down to 16.
Round 5: MBA splash Green (2-0)
G1: Thalia with Jitte, 3x Noble Hierarch, and 1x Mother of Runes.
G2: Sylvan Library, Thrun, the Last Troll, Sigarda, Host of Herons and Kotr. I attacked my Sigarda and was blocked by Tombstalker, i regenerate with Yavimaya Hollow. He resolved an Abyssal Prosecutor, i retaliate with Swords to Plowshares. He resolved a Phyrexian Obliterator, i hit it with another StP. Swing for the win.
Round 6: ID for Top 8
Top 8 Semis: RUG (2-0)
G1: Played the ol' fetch-in-response-fetch-in-response-fetch just so i can get a basic forest out and he stifled my 1st fetch. I hit him with 2 wasteland and he got mana screwed. Kotr, Scav Ooze, and Elspeth for the win.
G2: Turn 2, i was able to resolve a sylvan library. turn 3, my mirran crusader got force of willed. turn 4, i resolved a choke. turn 5, i resolve another mirran. Opponent had 2 Nimble Mongoose at threshold. i resolved scav ooze to control the mongooses. when i fetched for a land, he submerged my mirran so it gets shuffled into the deck. On my next turn library peek, he's back. I resolved it and he concedes.
Top 4 Split Prize
All in all, Choke, Yavimaya Hollow (through Knight of the Reliquary), and Mirran Crusader was the highlight of the tourney. I was also lucky to get good MUs through out the swiss save for a lucky win against Shardless Bug (grindy) and a lucky draw against ANT.
G Combo Elves G
GW Maverick WG
GWR Punishing Maverick RWG
GWB Dark Maverick BWG
RUG RUG Delver GUR
UWR Miracles RWU
MODERN:
G Coco Elves G
Also, as a follow up, you guys were right on Sigarda, she is retarded good against Bug and Jund, and to a certain extend, a death and taxes opponent learned that he could not target it with mangara and that she had flying. 5 is a lot of mana, but the inclusion of Craddle definately helps with that. Also, being somewhat less afraid of not having my double white mana, I went ahead and included back eslpeth in the 75, replacing sorin with Garruck relentless. logic being that garruck kills ennoying stuff and elspeth usually wins game a bit faster (even if sorin wasn't as bad as I first thought, and I am still debating to see if I want both my plainswalkers to be immune to dread of night effects (or sulfur elemental effects, or engineered plague)).
basically, the vial version is aiming to use their vials to play their hatebears at instant speed and uncounterable. This means that this version will usually play more utility lands and disruptive lands, as they will need them less to play creatures. For that matter, they usually play cards like Weathered Wayfarer to find and play their utility lands as soon as they have vial in play, and they are more inclined to play sylvan safekeeper in their decks, as sometimes they don't even need more then 1-2 mana after vial goes online. To accommodate all this, it also means that their curve will usually end at 3 mana, with knight of the reliquary. This means that they don't play green sun, as they can't support the mana cost, and from this fact, it means that they can't afford to play only 1 copy of their creatures like with the normal build, as they have no way to tutor them into play.
For the general gameplan, they both try to achieve a board position so hard to beat that you can't stop them from killing you, but the vial build will do so by making their creatures uncounterable and instants, allowing them to use their lands for more than just mana purposes, when the ''classic build'' will sculpt a board position with a toolbox, allowing to consistently get what you need in play, when you need it.
Hope that helps
Playing:
Legacy:
:symw::symb::symg::symu::symr:Dredge
:symu::symb: ANT
The Gate
Modern:
:symu::symr: Past in flames Storm
EDH:
:symr::symw::symb: Kaalia of the Vast
2x Deathrite Shaman
3x Noble Hierarch
4x Mother of Runes
1x Gaddock Teeg
1x Scryb Ranger
2x Qasali Pridgemage
2x Scavenging Ooze
3x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4x Knight of the Reliquary
1x Sigarda, Host of Herons
Not-A-Creatures
3x Green Sun's Zenith
4x Swords to Plowshares
1x Umezawa's Jitte
2x Abrupt Decay
1x Garruk Wildspeaker
1x Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
2x Elspeth, Knight-Errant
2x Forest
1x Plains
1x Bayou
1x Cavern of Souls
1x Dryad Arbor
1x Karakash
1x Marsh Flats
1x Maze of Ith
3x Savannah
1x Scrubland
2x Verdant Catacombs
4x Wasteland
4x Windswept Heath
3x Surgical Extraction
4x Duress
1x Abrupt Decay
1x Gaddock Teeg
1x Umezawa's Jitte
3x Ethersworn Cannonist
1x Garruk Wildspeaker
1x Linvala, Keeper of Silence
Jitte is most likely the weakest card (or Liliana of the Veil <--> Garruk Wildspeaker) but it's got loads of value. Especially with walkers pooping left and right *shrugs*.
Maverick -- Storm
Click here for trade threadTrade thread under reconstruction.
Because you can't spell slaughter without laughter.
In a vial powered version I'd run the full suite of Qasali Pridemage and consider Mirran Crusader. I would strongly consider Big Game Hunter as a mega-value card. Relevant things he hits:
Coming into play for against a liliana of the veil or hymn to tourach is just gravy-sauce for the jund/BUG matchup.
Maverick -- Storm
Click here for trade threadTrade thread under reconstruction.
Because you can't spell slaughter without laughter.
GW heatebears + vial. The deck, when played right, embarrasses people with durdly x/1's and x/2's. The times you feel you're burning on all cylinders with the deck (ie; you have a suite of mom / teeg / thalia / etc) occur more often due to a higher density of said cards. You also use wayfarer to abuse opponents or muscle out disgusting lines of play.
The downside is that GSZ conceivably is a ramp / consistency engine / finisher. And you're playing without it. Oh, and vial relies on SFM to make your dorks formidable.
Congrats!
If the room supports the deck, clearly it's the better call running Pfires. Loving the ancient grudge talk. Sounds insane.
Why not NicFit (GBW)? If you want bing things/walkers, run with that. You'll gain deed and stupid fast ramp (over hierarch/shaman issues). Confidant works with a junk-mav hybrid. I could see hierarch / DRS / confidant / goyf / reliquary + removal and discard and possibly GSZ. I don't like confidant in the Maverick shell unless you're willing to cut a crucial piece of the puzzle OR take a gamble on all flex slots.
- all Sylvan Library
- all mirran crusader / extra removal / sigarda / walker slots
+ confidant
+ sensei's top
....not sure I'd run that, but those are the logical slots to "trade" for
I really stopped running Maze in the main tbh. If it were bog MD and Maze sb you may argue results would be the same if not better. Even if Bog is in the opener, it doesn't handcuff your lines of play into awkward mana situations. Maze has the higher ceiling but can (and sometimes does) ruin you. Bog is just an annoying CIPT situation. Most of the time the 'I nuke graves' clause makes up for the tapped thing (goyfs, reanimator, etc). It also gives you the upside of "in response to that bomb spell that's on the stack, I activate KOTR and obliterate your grave...GG?" play game 1. Doing that against reanimator / dredge / snapcaster is SUCH a dick move game 1 lol.
@Pops:
Would you run red splash at all in a unfair decks-heavier room? If for some reason you couldn't/wouldn't run black? What's your 15 sb look like then?
1 Gaddock Teeg (set in stone) / 9 anti-combo / 2 anti-blue / 3 meta
This is where I think the SB on black dominates for unfair decks....but you never know. Pfires is just randomly awesome again.
BTW Poppeleseed, the decklist is delicious. I'm a single Taiga away from rolling out of bed and being able to run that. de-lic-ious to see fires back in all the right ways.
@test1985: Congrats to you too! That list is pretty much what's been sitting in my deckbox for a few months. Sigarda and Slyvans ---> 1 meta + 2 SFM instead.
@Sideboard
1x Bojuka Bog
2x Krosan Grip ----> rationale over more flex cards or QPM?
3x Oblivion Ring
2x Choke -------------> interesting this worked where it didnt for poppeleseed
1x Gaddock Teeg
2x Ethersworn Canonist
3x Surgical Extraction
1x Thrun, the Last Troll
[/DECK]
How was Krosan Grip? And is Yav. Hollow noticeably good? Saving key creatures from inevitable death / removal seems amazing.
10th at SCG: Syracuse (2014), GP:NJ Last-Chance Grinder Winner (2014):: Former Legacy Mod
Well, I got rid of my confidants. I picked them up at < 10% their current value so I was happy with the cash out. I've always felt that he's more potent in tempo based decks (grixis/dark thresh), basically anything packing blue because it lets you steam ahead with his CA rather quickly. I've never really liked him in a deck flooded with creatures. I feel like the core GSZ package provides excellent consistency and that trumps the CA of confidant. Plus the general GW bear deck plays really well against blue decks.
I kinda think deed is cold in the meta right now. It's very slow to come online against the fast decks where it's useful, and it's useless against the many archetypes of combo. I also like the reach that DRS provides whilst being a mana dork early game. I just feel like standard maverick decks are fine out of the gate, but always seem to be just a turn or two shy of closing out games. Given that BUG/Jund are thriving based of 2-for-1 and PW board control I thought, well - why can't it work in a maverick shell? My go to against fair decks was Natural Order, but ever since Liliana of the Veil, it just doesn't seem as potent - even with worldspine wurm.
I also think Heirarch/DRS >>> Veteran Explorer. The black splash was initially for duress SB for the combo match up, and DRS + AD makes it viable to dig a bit deeper in. I feel like with 2x DRS + a few extra walkers the deck would have that "reach" that it needs to close games out against other "fair" decks; whist hatebear.dec + duress + AD + SE should provide for at least winnable combo games.
I've likewise been less and less impressed with KotR's performance and rarely ever resolve/stick one. It's usually just ride to victory on the backs of bears and durdles - occasionally an equipment will help or a PW will end things quickly. Sylvan Library never seemed to help close the game out as quickly because of the lack of impact the turn it's played. Ever since terminus I've been less a fan of equipment as it can create a huge mana sink and begs to have SFM run (I don't like her in maverick after my testing).
So, I figured since my win% has been noticeably higher in games where a PW sticks, why not pack a few extras? The core package runs out fast the first 1-3 turns and landing an walker turn 3/4 and another one turn 4/5 is pretty brutal against any deck.
I dunno - I have pretty much any "playable" in the basic maverick shell so was trying to mash a few things together and see what comes out
Maverick -- Storm
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Because you can't spell slaughter without laughter.
I don't like relying on her but 2x isn't breaking my system. Also makes durdles AMAZING.
@walkers: I'd love mavericks curve to end at 3cc. Seriously lol. I don't want to Inflate it. Your call on walkers into the mix. They do not help the curve, which IMO is the larger issue. I like a lone Elspeth in the main. Perhaps a garruk who flips as well? I'd rather run Garruk in a blind meta than Sigarda or something.
10th at SCG: Syracuse (2014), GP:NJ Last-Chance Grinder Winner (2014):: Former Legacy Mod
BGElvesBG and BUGNissa ElvesBUG Faithful Elfer since May 1st, 2015
Results: SCG IQ Top 8, Monthly Modern Masters Top 4
Thanks! SFM was initially in my first build, but knowing my meta is Tempo heavy, it felt kinda slow, at least for me.
As for krosan grip, it's either this or pithing needle. I put it in just in case i get to play against random chalice of the void, cursed totem, or miracles. Though i think pithing needle would be way better.
As for choke, it was easy enough to resolve against RUG as i would bait out a few creatures before casting it. Once it resolves, it's basically game over for them, if you have some creatures.
As for yavimaya hollow, this is one of the best card i've tried. An active KotR becomes a pseudo MoR. You can bluff for a creature trade and surprise them with this. Also, abrupt decay becomes less powerful once you have this in play.
G Combo Elves G
GW Maverick WG
GWR Punishing Maverick RWG
GWB Dark Maverick BWG
RUG RUG Delver GUR
UWR Miracles RWU
MODERN:
G Coco Elves G
He also had quite a few non-island basics, which didn't help the Choke plan.
As for the board, I wouldn't view it as 9 combo hate pieces, more like:
1 Teeg - set in stone
4 Strict combo hate pieces
4 generic blue hosers - combo hate splashover
2 equipment/stax/affinity hate - slight combo splashover
1 fetchable grave hate - slight combo splashover (but only because Maze is typically terrible against storm )
3 Flex slots
Depending on what I was seeing in the room, I might be a little nervous playing red in a room of combo.
Have any questions or concerns? Come take a dip in my pool.
I'm a fan of the pMav build. It's so grindy, your opponent just can't do much about it. One thing i noticed when playing pMav is, Esperblade is an easy matchup. All their creatures, save batterskull is easily killed by pFire. When you reach 5 mana, batterskull is as good as dead. But, how do you deal with combo and shardless bug?
G Combo Elves G
GW Maverick WG
GWR Punishing Maverick RWG
GWB Dark Maverick BWG
RUG RUG Delver GUR
UWR Miracles RWU
MODERN:
G Coco Elves G