Bant Maverick Decklists

              

Intro
Bant Maverick or Geist Maverick is variant of classic GW Maverick. This version experienced a brief period of popularity in early 2012 but has been largely forgotten, and is probably the least well known Maverick deck. The motivation behind splashing Blue in Maverick was quite simple: the power of Geist of Saint Traft.

Geist of St. Traft works well in a Maverick shell for several reasons:

• Can easily be cast on turn 2 off of Maverick's many accelerants.
• Mother of Runes and Exalted make it harder for opposing creatures to block it.
• Provides a real clock against combo and control decks, which a typical Maverick deck can't.
• Becomes even more threatening in conjunction with Stoneforge Mystic + Equipment.
• Utility lands like Karakas and Maze of Ith interact favorably with it.
• High-impact threat that isn't reliant on the graveyard like Knight of the Reliquary.

True-Name Nemesis has largely supplanted Geist of St. Traft in the format as it is even harder to interact with, and is strong on defense, and doesn't require the support that the Geist does. However, if there is a shell where Geist of St. Traft still has a home in Legacy today, I believe this is it due to the reasons above.


Decklists
There are several different directions you can take with the Blue splash as you can see in the sample decklists below. Some lists play Thalia, others play Brainstorm, and even Jace, the Mind Sculptor shows up. Some amount of permission such as Spell Pierce is almost always incorporated into the sideboard, enabling stack interaction from the classically permanent-centric Maverick deck.

Grigory Kievsky, 5th @ TOPDeck Moscow Legacy OPEN (12/14/2013, 91 players)

Wayne Tam, 5th-8th @ Eternal Weekend (8/18/2012, 358 players)

Michael Braverman, 5-8th @ SCG Legacy Open Baltimore (3/25/2012, 264 players)

Derek Jacobs, 9th-6th @ SCG Legacy Open Tampa (3/4/2012)

Jeff Sirkis, 5th-8th @ SCG Legacy Open Memphis (2/26/2012, 94 players)

Morgan Burks, 3rd-4th @ SCG Legacy Open Richmond (2/5/2012, 117 players)

Adam Cai, 3rd-4th @ SCG Legacy Open Atlanta (1/8/2012, 191 players)


Closing Thoughts
Maverick is not strongly positioned in the current meta at large, but one popular and unfavorable matchup where I believe this version gains a lot of ground is the Miracles matchup. Geist is a real clock and harder for them to interact with than our other threats. I think Envelop is a great piece of sideboard technology that can improve the matchup as well.

If you're hoping to (maybe) beat Miracles, are looking for something a bit different to play, or are simply a Maverick enthusiast, I encourage you to give this deck a spin at your next local. There's nothing quite like beating someone down with Geist of St. Traft in Legacy!