Tower of the Magistrate is for Stoneblade matchups. Something very popular the past few months, but I only faced once this Tournament and it was versus a True-Name Nemesis deck where it is least effective against. It gives a serious advantage in the matchup allowing you to gain massive tempo advantage by removing their ability to defend themselves with those equipment while still being a mana source.
Talking about Mana Source, because I leaned heavily on 4 Noble Hierarch and only 4 Windswept Heath, mana was never an issue since I didn't thin the deck as much with fetchlands nor do I depend on lands in the graveyard for mana sources. 22 mana producing lands, 6 of them basic lands, and I usually gain the mana advantage even versus death and taxes. However, to make that happen, I have been prioritizing using Green Sun's Zenith to fetch Noble Hierarch instead of "saving" my Green Sun's Zenith for power plays like Knight of the Reliquary (maybe this is a play error?)
Lightning Greaves were useless this tournament, but I have been loving them the past few months. I bring them in versus decks like Miracles and Jund as a way to protect my creatures and in bad matchups I also side them in because turn 2 Lightning Greaves into turn 3 Knight of the Reliquary leads to a turn 4 Dark Depths kill.
@TheoryCraft
Since I am pure GW I need Council's Judgement to answer cards like True-Name Nemesis and others like him due to my lack of sweepers. Oblivion Ring is better in every way if you have other ways to fight True-Name Nemesis and Planeswalkers due to it only needing a single W in its casting cost (which is sometimes an issue for Council's Judgment)
The only time I've wished I had a sweeper at Oakland was versus swarms of Tokens from Young Pyromancer. I don't think Toxic Deluge is needed until the swarms have more life than that.
@Warden
Sigarda, Host of Herons has been under performing the past few months. I initially had 1 Sigarda and 1 Scryb Ranger main to provide reliable evasion versus True-Name Nemesis decks. However, tighter play and replacing Sigarda, Host of Herons with a second Scryb Ranger has relegated her to the sideboard while the Dark Depths combo has for the most part replaced her ability to break stalemates.
Sword of Feast and Famine has also been underwhelming as I have been unable to leverage the untap ability nor have I been able to really feel a gain from the discard mechanic being that when my deck is churning Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and Mother of Runes blanks so many of their cards that making them discard is kind of silly.
So I am going to be cutting Cavern of Souls, Sigarda, Host of Herons and Sword of Feast and Famine from the sideboard. I'm also going to swap either the Tower of the Magistrate or the Maze of Ith with the Bojuka Bog (depending on if I want to go to 21 untapped mana sources or not) to adapt to the new metagame of Treasure Cruise centric decks. I'll also be adding Boseiju, Who Shelters All to the list because of how much I've been loving Armageddon.
In the two sideboard slots this opens up, I'd like to add some kind of graveyard hate but I am unsure as to which one to add. I saw Delver decks had a habit of waiting until they had threshold before casting treasure cruise, that won't be the case if I had an instant way of cleaning up the Graveyard. Maybe Relic of Progenitus? I'm not certain. But that's the direction I think I should be going.
Your mana base is way too clunky to fully utilize scavenging ooze to it's full potential. Only 4 fetches won't get you the green mana you need, plus the colorless with Tower, Maze, Thespian Stage and Dark Depths is too much. Against decks that he is meant to be graveyard hate you don't have to worry about wasteland. So you can get savannah/bayou without worrying of falling behind. With treasure cruise its a bit of a different story. Cradle is what really shines against the treasure cruise decks. I think containment priest is going to help a lot with rounding out those games you are having issues with.
Sigarda is meant to be great against plainswalker decks and heavy removal. Now that the meta has speed up significantly, I would only have her on the sideboard for matches against stoneblade, miracles, bug, jund, etc. Essentially Liliana and Jace decks. Also, she is great at holding back Emerkul at times. So Sneak and show I would board her in too. However, since you're running dark depths combo, I wouldn't even consider her since you mana is already too greedy without trying to get 5 CMC (or 6 with green sun). By that time, you should probably already be comboing off.
Thanks for the report and comments. I similarly registered a basic-heavy GW manabase (and noble hierarch over deathrite shaman) earlier this year in Atlanta to a 30th place finish. I majority of the matchups, I similarly won due to unwastelandable, quick mana backed up by Maverick's disruptive creatures.
I had two potential "win & ins" rounds 8 and 9, both of which I lost to reanimator. The matches weren't very close. I left with the same primary takeaway - I need more graveyard hate. I know the vast majority of Maverick players have adopted bayous and deathrite shaman for this reason, among others.
What're your thoughts on deathrite as a "necessary evil"?
Yavimaya Hollow used to be played. However, now that Terminus is a card it's not very helpful. Plus, Mother of Runes should help you against any spot removal. Being that the deck is now mostly 3 colors (punishing or dark) colorless mana really can hurt you. So it's best to not play it. IMO, there is a 1 flex spot in the lands for a colorless utility land and 1 of three really occupy it. Maze of Ith, Gaea's Cradle or Dark Depths (with Thespian stage that usually cuts a creature for).
Orim's Chant is bad. Don't play it. Against storm you lean on Gaddock Teeg, Thalia and (Ethersworn Canonist after board) and Thoughtseize/Inquisition of Kozelik. For elves, board in either zealous persecution or toxic deluge and remove Thalia because she doesn't do anything, Gaddock Teeg can also help slow them down. Jitte with a mother making the attached creature pro green (to get through wirewood) is how you win. For punishing Maverick you have punishing fire to deal with elves and lean heavy more on Gaddock teeg for Storm. Most storm lists, if you game 1 resolve gaddock teeg its an auto-win. Against Charbeltcher you cry. Orim's chant is too slow. Usually thoughtseize/Inquisition of Kozelik might do it and if you get to turn two you can usually win with Thalia. But that deck is designed to beat non-blue decks. So you usually have to hope the deck durdles. Punishing Maverick unfortunately is designed to do really well against the Delver decks and creature based strategies and doesn't do that well against combo.
Your mana base is way too clunky to fully utilize scavenging ooze to it's full potential. Only 4 fetches won't get you the green mana you need, plus the colorless with Tower, Maze, Thespian Stage and Dark Depths is too much. Against decks that he is meant to be graveyard hate you don't have to worry about wasteland. So you can get savannah/bayou without worrying of falling behind. With treasure cruise its a bit of a different story. Cradle is what really shines against the treasure cruise decks. I think containment priest is going to help a lot with rounding out those games you are having issues with.
Sigarda is meant to be great against plainswalker decks and heavy removal. Now that the meta has speed up significantly, I would only have her on the sideboard for matches against stoneblade, miracles, bug, jund, etc. Essentially Liliana and Jace decks. Also, she is great at holding back Emerkul at times. So Sneak and show I would board her in too. However, since you're running dark depths combo, I wouldn't even consider her since you mana is already too greedy without trying to get 5 CMC (or 6 with green sun). By that time, you should probably already be comboing off.
With regards to Scavenging Ooze, my problem is not his inability to hurt the enemy graveyard, my problem is the timing of when he can affect the enemy graveyard. Short of turn 1 Hierarch into Scavenging Ooze, you won't get to start affecting the graveyard until turn 3 or 4--too late versus Reanimator, too late versus dredge, too late versus Tin Fins, etc...
He has his uses for stopping things like Life from the Loam and Tarmogoyf, but I don't really side in graveyard hate for Tarmogoyf. The limitations of my deck is that I can't easily eat an entire graveyard in a single turn. Not that I've ever really felt the need to, most of the time removing the right cards from the graveyard has mattered more than cleaning it out completely.
However, you are correct, without Cradle or a heavy commitment to duals and fetches, Scavenging Ooze is merely efficient against enemy graveyards instead of being able to act like a one sided Rest in Peace.
With regards to Sigarda--you are correct with everything except the mana. As a straight GW deck with Hierarchs and six basics, I regularly get to 6-8 mana easily by midgame allowing me to easily be abusive with my Knight of the Reliquary. I've never had a problem being able to zenith for Sigarda withing the first 4-5 turns of the game. But as the format has sped up her uses have shrunk down. She was my trump card vs BUG and various True-Name variants. Acting as my own 5/5 true-name, I would equip her like they equipped theirs and games would quickly end as my true-name, host of herons would be able to outrace their true-name.
But if you don't expect to face slow grindy decks like Jund, BUG, etc... then Sigarda loses a lot of her luster.
@TMagpie
Thanks for the report and comments. I similarly registered a basic-heavy GW manabase (and noble hierarch over deathrite shaman) earlier this year in Atlanta to a 30th place finish. I majority of the matchups, I similarly won due to unwastelandable, quick mana backed up by Maverick's disruptive creatures.
I had two potential "win & ins" rounds 8 and 9, both of which I lost to reanimator. The matches weren't very close. I left with the same primary takeaway - I need more graveyard hate. I know the vast majority of Maverick players have adopted bayous and deathrite shaman for this reason, among others.
What're your thoughts on deathrite as a "necessary evil"?
The long and short of this is yes, I do feel that Deathrite might be a necessary evil. I am planning to start testing a 3 Hierarch/2 Deathrite plan (cutting the 2nd Scryb Ranger) The main thing scaring me from it is that to be able to fit fetches and more duals I would need to cut either my basics or my utility lands--which happens to be the strongest parts of the deck.
Option B would be to just say "screw it" and hope to not face a fast graveyard deck. Which is also something I'm thinking about doing.
@Tmagpie
What else is the Orim's Chant for, Elves?
Orim's Chant was initially put in just as a weak Thoughtseize. Turn 1 or 2 Orim's Chant (depending on the combo deck) followed by a Thalia would allow you to stall combo long enough to resolve your hatebears. That was the plan at least--but what actually happened was so much more beautiful.
Suddenly I had countermagic versus storm decks.
Versus elves I would turn off their Zenith/Order with Teeg and then counter their glimpse/craterhoof with Orim's Chant. Elves became a favored matchup as we both had the same game plan except I could still execute my dark depths combo while elves could not execute theirs.
Orim's Chants have stopped many Sneak Attack plays as the fog effect stops Griselbrand from regaining the life he paid to draw cards and stops emrakul triggers from firing before being sacrificed to the enchantment.
I've cast 4 Orim's Chant versus a High Tide player going off. They were all countered, but suddenly Time Spiral could actually kill them.
I've used Orim's Chants vs miracles to force through an Armageddon and have even used it in response to a miracles trigger.
I side it in vs ANTs, Elves, Miracles, Tin Fins, Belcher, Spanish Inquisition, High Tide, Sneak and Show, Omnishow, etc... And versus all of them the card is used and played differently and at different times. Vs Show and Tell it is mostly a fog but vs Omnishow you cast it in response to show and tell to prevent them from winning that turn while putting your own Thalia into play. You can use it to fog an Natural Ordered Craterhoof and you can use it to counter a Past in Flames.
The one problem with the card is that it has all the drawbacks of both counterspells and discard all at the same time. If I ever splashed black I would replace them with Thoughtseize/Cabal Therapy but since I'm pure GW I make the best with what's available.
Yavimaya Hollow used to be played. However, now that Terminus is a card it's not very helpful. Plus, Mother of Runes should help you against any spot removal. Being that the deck is now mostly 3 colors (punishing or dark) colorless mana really can hurt you. So it's best to not play it. IMO, there is a 1 flex spot in the lands for a colorless utility land and 1 of three really occupy it. Maze of Ith, Gaea's Cradle or Dark Depths (with Thespian stage that usually cuts a creature for).
I used Yavimaya Hollow for about six months. It is great at everything except protecting your creatures. The problem with the card does not stem from its power, but from its philosophical nature.
Step 1: Resolve a creature
Step 2: Never tap 2 lands for the rest of the game keeping mana up to protect your creature
Step 3: Lose the game because your 2 untapped lands lost you so much tempo that control decks didn't feel pressured while enemy creature decks simply developed their board instead of killing your creature.
The problem with the card in Maverick is that you end up falling behind on creatures because you spend so many turns being unable to cast creatures because you're keep 2 mana up.
Orim's Chant is bad. Don't play it. Against storm you lean on Gaddock Teeg, Thalia and (Ethersworn Canonist after board) and Thoughtseize/Inquisition of Kozelik. For elves, board in either zealous persecution or toxic deluge and remove Thalia because she doesn't do anything, Gaddock Teeg can also help slow them down. Jitte with a mother making the attached creature pro green (to get through wirewood) is how you win. For punishing Maverick you have punishing fire to deal with elves and lean heavy more on Gaddock teeg for Storm. Most storm lists, if you game 1 resolve gaddock teeg its an auto-win. Against Charbeltcher you cry. Orim's chant is too slow. Usually thoughtseize/Inquisition of Kozelik might do it and if you get to turn two you can usually win with Thalia. But that deck is designed to beat non-blue decks. So you usually have to hope the deck durdles. Punishing Maverick unfortunately is designed to do really well against the Delver decks and creature based strategies and doesn't do that well against combo.
I disagree completely with this analysis.
First off, just because you have a good mid/late game plan (teeg/thalia) does not mean you don't need an early game plan (Thoughtseize/Chant)
Second off, for the most part, both cards will produce the same results against most decks.
The actual tension between Thoughtseize vs Orim's Chant:
*Orim's Chant requires you to keep mana up on the opponents turn for multiple turns (slowing your ability to develop the board)
*Thoughtseize requires a less robust/less adaptive land base.
My GW list has room for 6 basics and 5 utility lands because I don't need to run as many duals and fetchlands. If I ran 4 more fetches and 2 more duals I'd either have to cut down on Basics, or I cut down on utility lands. Its not really about the power of one or the other, but about what you're willing to sacrifice.
Discard is good because you can cast it early, and spend the next few turns developing your board to take advantage of the disruption.
Chants are good because they are within your colors allowing you a more stable mana base.
If you're already running black, Discard is better 100% since Orim's Chants get worse if you resolve a Thalia since now you have to keep 2 lands up to keep threatening Orim's Chant. But if you're not running black, Orim's Chant is a strong option to have.
Sigarda is meant to be great against plainswalker decks and heavy removal. Now that the meta has speed up significantly, I would only have her on the sideboard for matches against stoneblade, miracles, bug, jund, etc. Essentially Liliana and Jace decks. Also, she is great at holding back Emerkul at times. So Sneak and show I would board her in too. However, since you're running dark depths combo, I wouldn't even consider her since you mana is already too greedy without trying to get 5 CMC (or 6 with green sun). By that time, you should probably already be comboing off.
If not Sigarda, what would you recommend to fight planeswalkers?
Quote from TMagpie »
Tower of the Magistrate is for Stoneblade matchups. Something very popular the past few months, but I only faced once this Tournament and it was versus a True-Name Nemesis deck where it is least effective against. It gives a serious advantage in the matchup allowing you to gain massive tempo advantage by removing their ability to defend themselves with those equipment while still being a mana source.
I think Maze of Ith is more versatile than the Tower in holding off equipment (and equally useless against TNN), because it does more than just that: it also stops big beaters without equipment and helps you stabilize against delver.
I think I'd rather main deck the Cavern of Souls in that slot, because that card actually does something in the majority of match-ups.
Sigarda Question:
A good answer to planeswalkers for me has been Council's Judgment. I'm even going to start running a Boseiju in the sideboard to help improve my Council's Judgment plan vs Planeswalker.
Tower of the Magistrate Comment:
Tower of the Magistrate and Maze of Ith do completely different things. After playing with both for over a year now, if I was forced to cut one (or move one to the sideboard) I would cut/move Maze of Ith without question. Not because Maze of Ith is weaker, but because Maze of Ith is not as adaptive.
Tower of the Magistrate being able to produce mana is actually highly relevant to what makes it so strong. It gets to act like a weaker maze of ith without the drawback of being a dead land drop. Tower of the Magistrate also has uses outside of stalling attacks. I've survived versus MUD many times with a pro-artifact blocker stopping his Lodestone Golems. There are a lot of artifact creatures in BUG lists that suddenly don't have as much value with a tower of the magistrate out. And the fact that it can kill Germ tokens is not something to take lightly.
However, you are right about one thing, in the current meta it is not as useful as cavern of souls. The reason I've had it for so long is because it is such a powerful trump in the Stoneblade matchup while allowing me to not skip a beat vs non-stoneblade lists. But its actually pretty arbitrary what sits in the main or not from metagame to metagame.
In my report, I faced 5 Delver decks and only 1 stoneforge deck. Had the tower and Ith been in the sideboard and Caverns/Bojuka bog in the main I would have had much stronger game ones that tournament. I like having 4-5 lands between my main and sideboard hopping back and forth from matchup to matchup. Which ones stay in the main is purely a metagame decision, and the Tower being the right call has been correct for most of the year until treasure cruise entered the fray. I've personally used both Ith and Tower because wasteland usually hits one but not both. Most players try to win the game and hit my savannah until they realize I'm not running out of basics anytime soon. Their second wasteland usually hits a random utility land. Having 2 anti-creature lands means one usually survives while I tutor for the other one.
I've never had issues with dredge and very commonly gone 2-0 against them with 4 mainboard Deathrite and 2 mainboard scooze. Unless Dredge nuts on you turn 1-2 you can easily stabilize against them with a turn 2 Scooze. Remember, you can always also green sun for 0 in your opening turn for dryad arbor if you don't have a turn one deathrite/noble hierarch. I commented on your mana base because usually I always go for forests when fetching in that matchup (Bayou, Savannah, Forest, Arbor). Against Reanimator, remember that Karakas is also a great weapon. But like all combo decks there is just a chance that they put themselves too far ahead for you to do anything, especially if they're on the play. That's why they play those decks. But I'm never afraid to play a graveyard based deck and I believe it's heavy in our favor.
I still have Sigarda on my sideboard for the Planeswalker matchup and control/grindy matchups. Since UR delver is the #1 deck right now, I can't justify her in the main do to the speed of the format (I have also removed Bobs and put Libraries back in). However, if you don't like her a great ways to combat planeswalkers are Council's Judgement, O-Ring, Gaddock Teeg for Jace/Elspeth (obviously get him out before), Abrupt Decay for Lily, Pithing Needle, Phyrexian Revoker, Thoughtseize. Sigarda is still my favorite answer because of the hexproof and how well she carries equipment.
After reading Tmagpie's post, I'm thinking doesn't going into black add better options for the same problems that he mentioned? We get access to DRS for grave hate, we get abrupt decay for dealing with threats that council's judgment could normally answer, as well as zealous persecution out of the board to deal with TNN. Armegeddon seems great against miracles, but I'm wondering if vindicate could be played for the decks splashing black as well. And of course, against combo, we can use hand disruption and the like.
I've built my own list that I've tried out a bit so far. I don't have noble heirarchs, so I've basically forced myself into black to use them as mana dorks.
Still unsure about the rest of the side board. I'm still kind of new to this deck, I will need to run some more games before really making up my mind on some card choices...but I wanted to go ahead and put it out there and see what you guys think.
Some initial thoughts: bob plus mom is amazing against all the fair decks. I like the stoneforge mystic package, but bob is just one of my favorites. Is SFM strictly better? I mean, even against unfair decks, bob helps us draw extra cards to find more relevant stuff, I guess. Also, does anyone do a fauna shaman package anymore for non-green creatures like SFM/thalia/etc.? I know that had been used in the past, but it is a little slow. However, it gives us consistent access to our non-green creatures which are really important sometimes.
At an event over the weekend I saw someone play Act of Authority against Miracles and he blew them out with it. Pretty sweet tech if you ask me. However, seems really linear. Armageddon at least is great against 12-Post and Lands which are pretty bad matchups for us as well.
If you want Fauna Shaman, you're 2 cards away from the Elesh Norn Package. Personally, I think Shaman is too high of a risk with so much burn running around. You can't afford to durdle too long.
Conceptually, I am not sure if Mastodon's lack of SFM is genius or foolish. You are so fragile to -1/-1 sweepers and general offense outside of a KotR. At least equipment presents a threat when tied to a weenie.
@Dryad Militant: I don't know what you're trying to hate out here. I'd personally opt for 2-3 dedicated GY hate cards than a 2/1 who doesn't stop dredge/reanimator/redundant-spell decks
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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.
If you want Fauna Shaman, you're 2 cards away from the Elesh Norn Package. Personally, I think Shaman is too high of a risk with so much burn running around. You can't afford to durdle too long.
Conceptually, I am not sure if Mastodon's lack of SFM is genius or foolish. You are so fragile to -1/-1 sweepers and general offense outside of a KotR. At least equipment presents a threat when tied to a weenie.
@Dryad Militant: I don't know what you're trying to hate out here. I'd personally opt for 2-3 dedicated GY hate cards than a 2/1 who doesn't stop dredge/reanimator/redundant-spell decks
Haven't actually gotten a chance to try out dryad militant, but it seems like it would work nicely against decks on the treasure cruise plan since instants and sorceries are really what fuel that plan. Just one more silver bullet to try against them. I'm not really set on it, but I feel its worth trying out, especially since it only costs 1 and is tutorable with GSZ. Obviously, its not for dredge/reanimator, however, its coincidentally good against B/x storm decks that may try to utilize past in flames. I mean, its better than mom in that match up, at least.
The enemy zealous persecution is definitely a big threat to this deck, more so than those with SFM as an additional X/2. Of course, we are already weak to things like darkblast, massacre, and punishing fire, but SFM doesn't really improve that fact a whole lot. Darkblast, zealous persecution, and golgari charm are the only 3 that I can think of that really punish the X/1's, which aren't as common as the other aggro hosers such as toxic deluge, massacre, etc. KotR and scooze are still the best way to play around typical aggro hate...but admittedly, SFM helps add some tools to help against that as well, since both batterskull and jitte can help out with that. Upon some more consideration, I think I'll cut something else to add 2 or 3 SFM's and a jitte/batterskull to the mix.
Really, I need to get out and play with it some more before making more choices though, as I said. Unfortunately, I've only had the time to just tinker with a list, and no time to get out and play it. I'm mega sad I can't go to GP NJ, too.
I'm currently running 3 DRS, 1 Scooze main (who is on the chopping block...maybe Goyf instead, hell maybe even Skylasher), no Bojuka Bog, and have this sideboard:
Overall I feel my board's flexspot is Sorin (maybe switch for artifact/enchantment hate for Helminator, dedicated anti-burn, or Comeuppance) but other the Reanimator weakness I don't see a lot of need for an additional grave slot.
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Also, consider that Liliana counts as occasional mana denial, and it starts to become a significant portion of our strategy.
After reading Tmagpie's post, I'm thinking doesn't going into black add better options for the same problems that he mentioned? We get access to DRS for grave hate, we get abrupt decay for dealing with threats that council's judgment could normally answer, as well as zealous persecution out of the board to deal with TNN. Armegeddon seems great against miracles, but I'm wondering if vindicate could be played for the decks splashing black as well. And of course, against combo, we can use hand disruption and the like.
I don't really have a lot of arguments against that frame of thinking.
Dark Maverick replacing Hierarchs for Deathrites would jump my graveyard hate from 2 cards in the 75 to 6 cards in the 75. Its a huge boon when wanting to be ready to attack that resource. The loss of exalted weakens Scryb Ranger but hopefully scryb ranger + deathrite becomes its own form of ridiculous.
Deathrites, however, require more fetches and duals than I currently run. But being that the high basic land/low fetch land count is best versus stifle decks which Maverick is already good against, maybe the sacrifice is worth the change? More than once at Oakland my only out to a swarm of tokens has been Dark Depths and so having 1-3 "outs" in Persecutions/Deluge/Golgari Charm would be a huge boon.
Still, there's also a part of me that thinks "**** the system, by your own Man-vrick" and its a stubborn and prideful part of me that feels like it wants to justify pure GW because its what I have currently. But like I said, not a lot of arguments against your logic.
There's always a trade off. Admittedly, I don't own noble heirarchs and am practically stuck with DRS as my mana dork. I do like exalted for this deck, but the 2 life drain is also nice, of course, for reach.
I will say, 9 fetches is a real pain when building the mana base. There's tons of utility lands I want to play but can't because I have to jam 9 fetches, 5 duals, and at least 2 basics in there. Even worse, despite playing 9 fetches, you still aren't guaranteed that extra mana on turn 2 with a turn 1 DRS...which is why I'm playing a single-ton BOP. It'd probably be a heirarch, if I had one.
Conceptually, I am not sure if Mastodon's lack of SFM is genius or foolish. You are so fragile to -1/-1 sweepers and general offense outside of a KotR. At least equipment presents a threat when tied to a weenie.
I don't really like having more than 8-10 "draw spells" because too many cantrips means you're just drawing into more cantrips.
Green Sun's should be at 4, that's not what is in question.
In which case you have 4-6 slots between Stoneforge, Sylvan Library, and Dark Confidant.
My big problem with Dark Confidant in Maverick is that as much as we are a creature deck, we just don't have the actual aggression of something like Jund or BUG Delver. While they're dropping Tarmogoyfs and clearing blockers Maverick is slowly building up a board of Mother of Runes, equipment, etc...
For the most part, Maverick sets up a board state where it can then turn a few creatures sideways 2-4 times to win the game while other more tempo oriented decks are trying to pile on damage with either Delvers or Bolts. Without the tempo Dark Confidant too often feels like Greed more so than Necropotence as the life loss just piles up too quickly before you can abuse the card advantage.
So telling me to cut down on both Stoneforge and Sylvan to make room for Dark Confidants is a little iffy to me.
however, I can definitely see value in a 3 Confidant/2 Sylvan package and cutting equipment totally from the deck to make more room for cards as the two have a very good relationship with each other. But I feel it moves the deck much closer to Junk as you'd want to run more removal and discard to both clear the path for Confidant beats as well as to disrupt the opponent enough to allow the card advantage to matter.
There's always a trade off. Admittedly, I don't own noble heirarchs and am practically stuck with DRS as my mana dork. I do like exalted for this deck, but the 2 life drain is also nice, of course, for reach.
I will say, 9 fetches is a real pain when building the mana base. There's tons of utility lands I want to play but can't because I have to jam 9 fetches, 5 duals, and at least 2 basics in there. Even worse, despite playing 9 fetches, you still aren't guaranteed that extra mana on turn 2 with a turn 1 DRS...which is why I'm playing a single-ton BOP. It'd probably be a heirarch, if I had one.
I've always wondered if running Sword of Body and Mind is worth it in Dark Maverick. The token provides card advantage while the mill fuels deathrites and oozes. Just a theorycraft, but I've been a big fan of that sword conceptually since it gives the important anti-truename protection (blue) and anti big creature protection (green) while providing card advantage in wolf tokens. (Who can wear the sword on the defence)
however, I can definitely see value in a 3 Confidant/2 Sylvan package and cutting equipment totally from the deck to make more room for cards as the two have a very good relationship with each other. But I feel it moves the deck much closer to Junk as you'd want to run more removal and discard to both clear the path for Confidant beats as well as to disrupt the opponent enough to allow the card advantage to matter.
For the record, they don't actually have that great of a relationship with each other. The bob flip coming before the library trigger means that your first flip will likely be blind as the rest. Additionally, we shuffle our deck a lot with fetches, GSZ, and KotR. Its not likely that your library manipulation will stay the same for a whole turn. In other decks, I've used SDT with bob to some success, but its hard to squeeze that in to our deck. Ultimately, if you want to play with bob, I think you'll have to accept blind flips. The loss of life is minimal, though, especially compared to decks like Jund and delver (FoW is mainly to blame for that one). The average CMC of this deck is between 1.5 to 1.8...lower if you count lands. Totally worth it, IMO.
Again, not sure he's the right choice in the end, but like I said, he's a house with mom. And against the fair decks the card advantage seems like it would be better than a batterskull or jitte.
however, I can definitely see value in a 3 Confidant/2 Sylvan package and cutting equipment totally from the deck to make more room for cards as the two have a very good relationship with each other. But I feel it moves the deck much closer to Junk as you'd want to run more removal and discard to both clear the path for Confidant beats as well as to disrupt the opponent enough to allow the card advantage to matter.
For the record, they don't actually have that great of a relationship with each other. The bob flip coming before the library trigger means that your first flip will likely be blind as the rest. Additionally, we shuffle our deck a lot with fetches, GSZ, and KotR. Its not likely that your library manipulation will stay the same for a whole turn. In other decks, I've used SDT with bob to some success, but its hard to squeeze that in to our deck. Ultimately, if you want to play with bob, I think you'll have to accept blind flips. The loss of life is minimal, though, especially compared to decks like Jund and delver (FoW is mainly to blame for that one). The average CMC of this deck is between 1.5 to 1.8...lower if you count lands. Totally worth it, IMO.
Again, not sure he's the right choice in the end, but like I said, he's a house with mom. And against the fair decks the card advantage seems like it would be better than a batterskull or jitte.
Which is why I said you'd have to change a lot of the deck. Much like Teeg is a nombo with topdecked green suns, you'd have to play the junk game if you sylvan/bob not cracking fetches till after the bob draw but before the sylvan, not casting zeniths except for dire situations, etc...
It means less tricks with Knight and more dependence on grinding out with removal. I've seen it done, but I'm not sure I like it.
As for the life loss, the problem is not the amount of life lost, but the relative pressure you're applying.
Jund, for example, loses 4 life from a Bloodbraid but then hits back for 3 and draws an extra card off of cascade which could be bolts to the face or an abrupt decay killing blockers. Because they drop big dudes like goyf and kill everything in their path the life loss matters less as they deal damage quick and steadily.
Maverick doesn't really turn sideways as aggressively and is prone to chump block issues being that they only run 4 swords. However, Bob+Mom is a must terminus board state, and I really like that fact.
As a veteran Rock and Jund player, Bob doesn't belong here. Maverick is much better off playing power bears like Thalia and SFM that impact/influence the board rather than dropping Bob and hoping for the best. He works in BGx because they run much more discard to proactively protect him and removal to turn his draws into answers, while Mav only has Mother and more mana dorks.
Also consider the overall deck. With Bob replacing SFM, your beater is only Knight. BGx uses Bob to draw into Goyfs/removal to brute force the board, while Maverick adapts to what is actually happening. This is why Cruise decks are wiping out BGx, they can handle the card advantage parity (if Bob lives) and ignore it with Pyro/fast beats. Maverick instead doesn't care and slows them down with Thalia or uses SFM equipment to neutralize threats, or just flat wins with Depths.
Bob is interesting in the board for fighting control decks but I don't know if there is room for that.
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Also, consider that Liliana counts as occasional mana denial, and it starts to become a significant portion of our strategy.
-MTG Salvation.
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Tower of the Magistrate is for Stoneblade matchups. Something very popular the past few months, but I only faced once this Tournament and it was versus a True-Name Nemesis deck where it is least effective against. It gives a serious advantage in the matchup allowing you to gain massive tempo advantage by removing their ability to defend themselves with those equipment while still being a mana source.
Talking about Mana Source, because I leaned heavily on 4 Noble Hierarch and only 4 Windswept Heath, mana was never an issue since I didn't thin the deck as much with fetchlands nor do I depend on lands in the graveyard for mana sources. 22 mana producing lands, 6 of them basic lands, and I usually gain the mana advantage even versus death and taxes. However, to make that happen, I have been prioritizing using Green Sun's Zenith to fetch Noble Hierarch instead of "saving" my Green Sun's Zenith for power plays like Knight of the Reliquary (maybe this is a play error?)
Lightning Greaves were useless this tournament, but I have been loving them the past few months. I bring them in versus decks like Miracles and Jund as a way to protect my creatures and in bad matchups I also side them in because turn 2 Lightning Greaves into turn 3 Knight of the Reliquary leads to a turn 4 Dark Depths kill.
@TheoryCraft
Since I am pure GW I need Council's Judgement to answer cards like True-Name Nemesis and others like him due to my lack of sweepers. Oblivion Ring is better in every way if you have other ways to fight True-Name Nemesis and Planeswalkers due to it only needing a single W in its casting cost (which is sometimes an issue for Council's Judgment)
The only time I've wished I had a sweeper at Oakland was versus swarms of Tokens from Young Pyromancer. I don't think Toxic Deluge is needed until the swarms have more life than that.
@Warden
Sigarda, Host of Herons has been under performing the past few months. I initially had 1 Sigarda and 1 Scryb Ranger main to provide reliable evasion versus True-Name Nemesis decks. However, tighter play and replacing Sigarda, Host of Herons with a second Scryb Ranger has relegated her to the sideboard while the Dark Depths combo has for the most part replaced her ability to break stalemates.
Sword of Feast and Famine has also been underwhelming as I have been unable to leverage the untap ability nor have I been able to really feel a gain from the discard mechanic being that when my deck is churning Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and Mother of Runes blanks so many of their cards that making them discard is kind of silly.
So I am going to be cutting Cavern of Souls, Sigarda, Host of Herons and Sword of Feast and Famine from the sideboard. I'm also going to swap either the Tower of the Magistrate or the Maze of Ith with the Bojuka Bog (depending on if I want to go to 21 untapped mana sources or not) to adapt to the new metagame of Treasure Cruise centric decks. I'll also be adding Boseiju, Who Shelters All to the list because of how much I've been loving Armageddon.
In the two sideboard slots this opens up, I'd like to add some kind of graveyard hate but I am unsure as to which one to add. I saw Delver decks had a habit of waiting until they had threshold before casting treasure cruise, that won't be the case if I had an instant way of cleaning up the Graveyard. Maybe Relic of Progenitus? I'm not certain. But that's the direction I think I should be going.
Your mana base is way too clunky to fully utilize scavenging ooze to it's full potential. Only 4 fetches won't get you the green mana you need, plus the colorless with Tower, Maze, Thespian Stage and Dark Depths is too much. Against decks that he is meant to be graveyard hate you don't have to worry about wasteland. So you can get savannah/bayou without worrying of falling behind. With treasure cruise its a bit of a different story. Cradle is what really shines against the treasure cruise decks. I think containment priest is going to help a lot with rounding out those games you are having issues with.
Sigarda is meant to be great against plainswalker decks and heavy removal. Now that the meta has speed up significantly, I would only have her on the sideboard for matches against stoneblade, miracles, bug, jund, etc. Essentially Liliana and Jace decks. Also, she is great at holding back Emerkul at times. So Sneak and show I would board her in too. However, since you're running dark depths combo, I wouldn't even consider her since you mana is already too greedy without trying to get 5 CMC (or 6 with green sun). By that time, you should probably already be comboing off.
Thanks for the report and comments. I similarly registered a basic-heavy GW manabase (and noble hierarch over deathrite shaman) earlier this year in Atlanta to a 30th place finish. I majority of the matchups, I similarly won due to unwastelandable, quick mana backed up by Maverick's disruptive creatures.
I had two potential "win & ins" rounds 8 and 9, both of which I lost to reanimator. The matches weren't very close. I left with the same primary takeaway - I need more graveyard hate. I know the vast majority of Maverick players have adopted bayous and deathrite shaman for this reason, among others.
What're your thoughts on deathrite as a "necessary evil"?
-MTG Salvation.
Orim's Chant is bad. Don't play it. Against storm you lean on Gaddock Teeg, Thalia and (Ethersworn Canonist after board) and Thoughtseize/Inquisition of Kozelik. For elves, board in either zealous persecution or toxic deluge and remove Thalia because she doesn't do anything, Gaddock Teeg can also help slow them down. Jitte with a mother making the attached creature pro green (to get through wirewood) is how you win. For punishing Maverick you have punishing fire to deal with elves and lean heavy more on Gaddock teeg for Storm. Most storm lists, if you game 1 resolve gaddock teeg its an auto-win. Against Charbeltcher you cry. Orim's chant is too slow. Usually thoughtseize/Inquisition of Kozelik might do it and if you get to turn two you can usually win with Thalia. But that deck is designed to beat non-blue decks. So you usually have to hope the deck durdles. Punishing Maverick unfortunately is designed to do really well against the Delver decks and creature based strategies and doesn't do that well against combo.
With regards to Scavenging Ooze, my problem is not his inability to hurt the enemy graveyard, my problem is the timing of when he can affect the enemy graveyard. Short of turn 1 Hierarch into Scavenging Ooze, you won't get to start affecting the graveyard until turn 3 or 4--too late versus Reanimator, too late versus dredge, too late versus Tin Fins, etc...
He has his uses for stopping things like Life from the Loam and Tarmogoyf, but I don't really side in graveyard hate for Tarmogoyf. The limitations of my deck is that I can't easily eat an entire graveyard in a single turn. Not that I've ever really felt the need to, most of the time removing the right cards from the graveyard has mattered more than cleaning it out completely.
However, you are correct, without Cradle or a heavy commitment to duals and fetches, Scavenging Ooze is merely efficient against enemy graveyards instead of being able to act like a one sided Rest in Peace.
With regards to Sigarda--you are correct with everything except the mana. As a straight GW deck with Hierarchs and six basics, I regularly get to 6-8 mana easily by midgame allowing me to easily be abusive with my Knight of the Reliquary. I've never had a problem being able to zenith for Sigarda withing the first 4-5 turns of the game. But as the format has sped up her uses have shrunk down. She was my trump card vs BUG and various True-Name variants. Acting as my own 5/5 true-name, I would equip her like they equipped theirs and games would quickly end as my true-name, host of herons would be able to outrace their true-name.
But if you don't expect to face slow grindy decks like Jund, BUG, etc... then Sigarda loses a lot of her luster.
The long and short of this is yes, I do feel that Deathrite might be a necessary evil. I am planning to start testing a 3 Hierarch/2 Deathrite plan (cutting the 2nd Scryb Ranger) The main thing scaring me from it is that to be able to fit fetches and more duals I would need to cut either my basics or my utility lands--which happens to be the strongest parts of the deck.
Option B would be to just say "screw it" and hope to not face a fast graveyard deck. Which is also something I'm thinking about doing.
Orim's Chant was initially put in just as a weak Thoughtseize. Turn 1 or 2 Orim's Chant (depending on the combo deck) followed by a Thalia would allow you to stall combo long enough to resolve your hatebears. That was the plan at least--but what actually happened was so much more beautiful.
Suddenly I had countermagic versus storm decks.
Versus elves I would turn off their Zenith/Order with Teeg and then counter their glimpse/craterhoof with Orim's Chant. Elves became a favored matchup as we both had the same game plan except I could still execute my dark depths combo while elves could not execute theirs.
Orim's Chants have stopped many Sneak Attack plays as the fog effect stops Griselbrand from regaining the life he paid to draw cards and stops emrakul triggers from firing before being sacrificed to the enchantment.
I've cast 4 Orim's Chant versus a High Tide player going off. They were all countered, but suddenly Time Spiral could actually kill them.
I've used Orim's Chants vs miracles to force through an Armageddon and have even used it in response to a miracles trigger.
I side it in vs ANTs, Elves, Miracles, Tin Fins, Belcher, Spanish Inquisition, High Tide, Sneak and Show, Omnishow, etc... And versus all of them the card is used and played differently and at different times. Vs Show and Tell it is mostly a fog but vs Omnishow you cast it in response to show and tell to prevent them from winning that turn while putting your own Thalia into play. You can use it to fog an Natural Ordered Craterhoof and you can use it to counter a Past in Flames.
The one problem with the card is that it has all the drawbacks of both counterspells and discard all at the same time. If I ever splashed black I would replace them with Thoughtseize/Cabal Therapy but since I'm pure GW I make the best with what's available.
I used Yavimaya Hollow for about six months. It is great at everything except protecting your creatures. The problem with the card does not stem from its power, but from its philosophical nature.
Step 1: Resolve a creature
Step 2: Never tap 2 lands for the rest of the game keeping mana up to protect your creature
Step 3: Lose the game because your 2 untapped lands lost you so much tempo that control decks didn't feel pressured while enemy creature decks simply developed their board instead of killing your creature.
The problem with the card in Maverick is that you end up falling behind on creatures because you spend so many turns being unable to cast creatures because you're keep 2 mana up.
I disagree completely with this analysis.
First off, just because you have a good mid/late game plan (teeg/thalia) does not mean you don't need an early game plan (Thoughtseize/Chant)
Second off, for the most part, both cards will produce the same results against most decks.
The actual tension between Thoughtseize vs Orim's Chant:
*Orim's Chant requires you to keep mana up on the opponents turn for multiple turns (slowing your ability to develop the board)
*Thoughtseize requires a less robust/less adaptive land base.
My GW list has room for 6 basics and 5 utility lands because I don't need to run as many duals and fetchlands. If I ran 4 more fetches and 2 more duals I'd either have to cut down on Basics, or I cut down on utility lands. Its not really about the power of one or the other, but about what you're willing to sacrifice.
Discard is good because you can cast it early, and spend the next few turns developing your board to take advantage of the disruption.
Chants are good because they are within your colors allowing you a more stable mana base.
If you're already running black, Discard is better 100% since Orim's Chants get worse if you resolve a Thalia since now you have to keep 2 lands up to keep threatening Orim's Chant. But if you're not running black, Orim's Chant is a strong option to have.
Sigarda Question:
A good answer to planeswalkers for me has been Council's Judgment. I'm even going to start running a Boseiju in the sideboard to help improve my Council's Judgment plan vs Planeswalker.
Tower of the Magistrate Comment:
Tower of the Magistrate and Maze of Ith do completely different things. After playing with both for over a year now, if I was forced to cut one (or move one to the sideboard) I would cut/move Maze of Ith without question. Not because Maze of Ith is weaker, but because Maze of Ith is not as adaptive.
Tower of the Magistrate being able to produce mana is actually highly relevant to what makes it so strong. It gets to act like a weaker maze of ith without the drawback of being a dead land drop. Tower of the Magistrate also has uses outside of stalling attacks. I've survived versus MUD many times with a pro-artifact blocker stopping his Lodestone Golems. There are a lot of artifact creatures in BUG lists that suddenly don't have as much value with a tower of the magistrate out. And the fact that it can kill Germ tokens is not something to take lightly.
However, you are right about one thing, in the current meta it is not as useful as cavern of souls. The reason I've had it for so long is because it is such a powerful trump in the Stoneblade matchup while allowing me to not skip a beat vs non-stoneblade lists. But its actually pretty arbitrary what sits in the main or not from metagame to metagame.
In my report, I faced 5 Delver decks and only 1 stoneforge deck. Had the tower and Ith been in the sideboard and Caverns/Bojuka bog in the main I would have had much stronger game ones that tournament. I like having 4-5 lands between my main and sideboard hopping back and forth from matchup to matchup. Which ones stay in the main is purely a metagame decision, and the Tower being the right call has been correct for most of the year until treasure cruise entered the fray. I've personally used both Ith and Tower because wasteland usually hits one but not both. Most players try to win the game and hit my savannah until they realize I'm not running out of basics anytime soon. Their second wasteland usually hits a random utility land. Having 2 anti-creature lands means one usually survives while I tutor for the other one.
I still have Sigarda on my sideboard for the Planeswalker matchup and control/grindy matchups. Since UR delver is the #1 deck right now, I can't justify her in the main do to the speed of the format (I have also removed Bobs and put Libraries back in). However, if you don't like her a great ways to combat planeswalkers are Council's Judgement, O-Ring, Gaddock Teeg for Jace/Elspeth (obviously get him out before), Abrupt Decay for Lily, Pithing Needle, Phyrexian Revoker, Thoughtseize. Sigarda is still my favorite answer because of the hexproof and how well she carries equipment.
I've built my own list that I've tried out a bit so far. I don't have noble heirarchs, so I've basically forced myself into black to use them as mana dorks.
4 knight of the reliquary
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Dark Confidant
4 Mother of Runes
4 Deathrite Shaman
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Scryb Ranger
1 Gaddock Teeg
Spells (12)
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Thoughtseize
1 Sylvan Library
4 Windswept Heath
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Marsh Flats
2 Bayou
2 Savannah
1 Scrubland
4 Wasteland
1 Maze of Ith
1 Karakas
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Plains
1 Forest
2 Zealous Persecution
1 Bojuka Bog
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Tower of the Magistrate
1 Dryad Militant
1 Armageddon
Still unsure about the rest of the side board. I'm still kind of new to this deck, I will need to run some more games before really making up my mind on some card choices...but I wanted to go ahead and put it out there and see what you guys think.
Some initial thoughts: bob plus mom is amazing against all the fair decks. I like the stoneforge mystic package, but bob is just one of my favorites. Is SFM strictly better? I mean, even against unfair decks, bob helps us draw extra cards to find more relevant stuff, I guess. Also, does anyone do a fauna shaman package anymore for non-green creatures like SFM/thalia/etc.? I know that had been used in the past, but it is a little slow. However, it gives us consistent access to our non-green creatures which are really important sometimes.
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Conceptually, I am not sure if Mastodon's lack of SFM is genius or foolish. You are so fragile to -1/-1 sweepers and general offense outside of a KotR. At least equipment presents a threat when tied to a weenie.
@Dryad Militant: I don't know what you're trying to hate out here. I'd personally opt for 2-3 dedicated GY hate cards than a 2/1 who doesn't stop dredge/reanimator/redundant-spell decks
10th at SCG: Syracuse (2014), GP:NJ Last-Chance Grinder Winner (2014):: Former Legacy Mod
Haven't actually gotten a chance to try out dryad militant, but it seems like it would work nicely against decks on the treasure cruise plan since instants and sorceries are really what fuel that plan. Just one more silver bullet to try against them. I'm not really set on it, but I feel its worth trying out, especially since it only costs 1 and is tutorable with GSZ. Obviously, its not for dredge/reanimator, however, its coincidentally good against B/x storm decks that may try to utilize past in flames. I mean, its better than mom in that match up, at least.
The enemy zealous persecution is definitely a big threat to this deck, more so than those with SFM as an additional X/2. Of course, we are already weak to things like darkblast, massacre, and punishing fire, but SFM doesn't really improve that fact a whole lot. Darkblast, zealous persecution, and golgari charm are the only 3 that I can think of that really punish the X/1's, which aren't as common as the other aggro hosers such as toxic deluge, massacre, etc. KotR and scooze are still the best way to play around typical aggro hate...but admittedly, SFM helps add some tools to help against that as well, since both batterskull and jitte can help out with that. Upon some more consideration, I think I'll cut something else to add 2 or 3 SFM's and a jitte/batterskull to the mix.
Really, I need to get out and play with it some more before making more choices though, as I said. Unfortunately, I've only had the time to just tinker with a list, and no time to get out and play it. I'm mega sad I can't go to GP NJ, too.
Modern Junk Primer
Legacy ANT Primer
L1 Judge
Between 3 DRS, 2 Containment Priest, 2 Canonist, 4 Thalia main, and the 1/1 Gaddock Teeg split, do we really need dedicated graveyard hate?
ANT (Past in Flames): DRS, Canonist, Thalia, Teeg, Thoughtseize
Reanimator (weakest point): Containment Priest, DRS
Dredge: Priest, DRS, Scooze
Treasure Cruise: Wouldn't use dedicated gravehate.
Goyf: Mild Scooze application.
Lands: Armageddon.
Overall I feel my board's flexspot is Sorin (maybe switch for artifact/enchantment hate for Helminator, dedicated anti-burn, or Comeuppance) but other the Reanimator weakness I don't see a lot of need for an additional grave slot.
-MTG Salvation.
I don't really have a lot of arguments against that frame of thinking.
Dark Maverick replacing Hierarchs for Deathrites would jump my graveyard hate from 2 cards in the 75 to 6 cards in the 75. Its a huge boon when wanting to be ready to attack that resource. The loss of exalted weakens Scryb Ranger but hopefully scryb ranger + deathrite becomes its own form of ridiculous.
Deathrites, however, require more fetches and duals than I currently run. But being that the high basic land/low fetch land count is best versus stifle decks which Maverick is already good against, maybe the sacrifice is worth the change? More than once at Oakland my only out to a swarm of tokens has been Dark Depths and so having 1-3 "outs" in Persecutions/Deluge/Golgari Charm would be a huge boon.
Still, there's also a part of me that thinks "**** the system, by your own Man-vrick" and its a stubborn and prideful part of me that feels like it wants to justify pure GW because its what I have currently. But like I said, not a lot of arguments against your logic.
I will say, 9 fetches is a real pain when building the mana base. There's tons of utility lands I want to play but can't because I have to jam 9 fetches, 5 duals, and at least 2 basics in there. Even worse, despite playing 9 fetches, you still aren't guaranteed that extra mana on turn 2 with a turn 1 DRS...which is why I'm playing a single-ton BOP. It'd probably be a heirarch, if I had one.
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I don't really like having more than 8-10 "draw spells" because too many cantrips means you're just drawing into more cantrips.
Green Sun's should be at 4, that's not what is in question.
In which case you have 4-6 slots between Stoneforge, Sylvan Library, and Dark Confidant.
My big problem with Dark Confidant in Maverick is that as much as we are a creature deck, we just don't have the actual aggression of something like Jund or BUG Delver. While they're dropping Tarmogoyfs and clearing blockers Maverick is slowly building up a board of Mother of Runes, equipment, etc...
For the most part, Maverick sets up a board state where it can then turn a few creatures sideways 2-4 times to win the game while other more tempo oriented decks are trying to pile on damage with either Delvers or Bolts. Without the tempo Dark Confidant too often feels like Greed more so than Necropotence as the life loss just piles up too quickly before you can abuse the card advantage.
So telling me to cut down on both Stoneforge and Sylvan to make room for Dark Confidants is a little iffy to me.
however, I can definitely see value in a 3 Confidant/2 Sylvan package and cutting equipment totally from the deck to make more room for cards as the two have a very good relationship with each other. But I feel it moves the deck much closer to Junk as you'd want to run more removal and discard to both clear the path for Confidant beats as well as to disrupt the opponent enough to allow the card advantage to matter.
I've always wondered if running Sword of Body and Mind is worth it in Dark Maverick. The token provides card advantage while the mill fuels deathrites and oozes. Just a theorycraft, but I've been a big fan of that sword conceptually since it gives the important anti-truename protection (blue) and anti big creature protection (green) while providing card advantage in wolf tokens. (Who can wear the sword on the defence)
But Ive been too much of a coward to run it.
For the record, they don't actually have that great of a relationship with each other. The bob flip coming before the library trigger means that your first flip will likely be blind as the rest. Additionally, we shuffle our deck a lot with fetches, GSZ, and KotR. Its not likely that your library manipulation will stay the same for a whole turn. In other decks, I've used SDT with bob to some success, but its hard to squeeze that in to our deck. Ultimately, if you want to play with bob, I think you'll have to accept blind flips. The loss of life is minimal, though, especially compared to decks like Jund and delver (FoW is mainly to blame for that one). The average CMC of this deck is between 1.5 to 1.8...lower if you count lands. Totally worth it, IMO.
Again, not sure he's the right choice in the end, but like I said, he's a house with mom. And against the fair decks the card advantage seems like it would be better than a batterskull or jitte.
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Which is why I said you'd have to change a lot of the deck. Much like Teeg is a nombo with topdecked green suns, you'd have to play the junk game if you sylvan/bob not cracking fetches till after the bob draw but before the sylvan, not casting zeniths except for dire situations, etc...
It means less tricks with Knight and more dependence on grinding out with removal. I've seen it done, but I'm not sure I like it.
As for the life loss, the problem is not the amount of life lost, but the relative pressure you're applying.
Jund, for example, loses 4 life from a Bloodbraid but then hits back for 3 and draws an extra card off of cascade which could be bolts to the face or an abrupt decay killing blockers. Because they drop big dudes like goyf and kill everything in their path the life loss matters less as they deal damage quick and steadily.
Maverick doesn't really turn sideways as aggressively and is prone to chump block issues being that they only run 4 swords. However, Bob+Mom is a must terminus board state, and I really like that fact.
Also consider the overall deck. With Bob replacing SFM, your beater is only Knight. BGx uses Bob to draw into Goyfs/removal to brute force the board, while Maverick adapts to what is actually happening. This is why Cruise decks are wiping out BGx, they can handle the card advantage parity (if Bob lives) and ignore it with Pyro/fast beats. Maverick instead doesn't care and slows them down with Thalia or uses SFM equipment to neutralize threats, or just flat wins with Depths.
Bob is interesting in the board for fighting control decks but I don't know if there is room for that.
-MTG Salvation.