This is technically a report, but I mainly just want to talk about the sweet deck I played. I've been getting back into Maverick since the beginning of this year after one of my (many) hiatuses from the deck, and I was dying to play it at a large tournament. This weekend I finally had that opportunity.
My list is pretty unusual for Maverick these days, but it incorporates a lot of my experience with the deck and is well suited to my playstyle.
The first thing one might notice is the lack of a color splash. I typically splash Red in Maverick for Punishing Fire but I have been underwhelmed by it lately. I decided I want to have a reliable and simple manabase of both creatures and lands. Having only two colors means I can seamlessly accommodate the Thespian's Stage + Dark Depths combo, which is somewhat central to this deck's overall strategy and informs many of my card choices, which I will overview below:
Dark Depths has been a very divisive topic among Maverick players. Some think it is garbage while others will swear by it. I understand that it looks bad on paper, but having played it a decent amount in Maverick, my conclusion is that it is quite good. I can't count how many un-winnable games I have won thanks to Marit Lage. It is rarely your Plan A, but is a great contingency to have available, and is one that slots very naturally into the deck.
A card I like to utilize alongside this combo to increase it effectiveness is Crop Rotation. This is a great card in the sideboard of GW Maverick, granting you better access to Karakas and Bojuka Bog, as well as the ability to become a more Dark Depths-centric deck. Assembling this combo allows quicker kills than normal, giving you a proactive plan against decks that don't want to interact with you or can't effectively interact with Marit Lage.
Having the DD combo also makes Rest in Peace a very attractive sideboard card. The only downside of RIP in GW Maverick is that it takes the punch out of your biggest threat, Knight of the Reliquary. However, with DD in your deck Knights are still very threatening as 2/2 creatures that can tutor for the combo. RIP is one of the strongest sideboard cards in Legacy in my opinion, and I am always looking for excuses to be playing it.
The one-of Voice of Resurgence is an interesting card. I first saw this card in Nate Sturm's top 8 Punishing Maverick list from 2014 Eternal Weekend. I tried it out a little in the wake of that event and found it was solid against UR Delver, not to mention BUG decks. Scavenging Ooze is generally good against similar decks, but has the downside of requiring a lot of mana to be effective. In the early stages of the game when you want to Zenith on 2, Scavenging Ooze often just doesn't look appealing. Voice on the other hand requires no setup and is fully effective as soon as it hits the table. Its downsides are being poor against Swords to Plowshares, Counterbalance, and combo decks, so it often gets boarded out.
Courser of Kruphix may look a bit odd but has become fairly common in Maverick. It has a good body and augments all of your resources-mana, life, and cards. There are definitely spots where I Zenith for Courser instead of Knight. Its main downside is the incidental hate it picks up for being an Enchantment, which is very relevant against decks that play Wear // Tear like Miracles.
I made the unpopular decision to play Thalia in my sideboard. I recognize this gives a lot of ground against combo decks in game 1, but I greedily want to cast Zeniths without a tax in most matchups. In place of Thalia, I decided to just jam more removal (I've gotten too used to playing Punishing Fire decks...), and Council's Judgment seemed like the most versatile choice.
Most Maverick players don't like Batterskull and will play Jitte + 1-2 Swords in the Equipment package. I like having access to Batterskull as it plays both offense and defense well and comes with its own body. Hard-casting it isn't a big deal considering how much mana acceleration Maverick plays.
On the topic of Swords, I rarely play one maindeck. Batterskull and Jitte bring enough power and flexibility to the table that I don't need the often clunky 3rd maindeck Equipment. I would only rather have a Sword against combo and control decks. When it comes to which Sword to play, I like Sword of War & Peace a lot, despite its unpopularity compared to Sword of Fire and Ice. I value protection from White very highly, as Plow is the best commonly played removal against a Sword Equipped creature. I also think SoWaP is stronger than SoFI against combo decks, as drawing a random card generally isn't as relevant as the potentially larger life swing since you will often be dying with cards in hand. People can debate forever which Sword has the best two Protections, but Red and White certainly aren't shabby, allowing you to sneak by Elemental and Monk tokens, and other decks that clog up the ground such as Death & Taxes and Goblins.
Anyway, there were 90-something players at the event for 7 rounds of Swiss before cutting to Top 8. Here is a quick rundown of my matches:
Round 1: Elves (2-1)
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My list is pretty unusual for Maverick these days, but it incorporates a lot of my experience with the deck and is well suited to my playstyle.
The first thing one might notice is the lack of a color splash. I typically splash Red in Maverick for Punishing Fire but I have been underwhelmed by it lately. I decided I want to have a reliable and simple manabase of both creatures and lands. Having only two colors means I can seamlessly accommodate the Thespian's Stage + Dark Depths combo, which is somewhat central to this deck's overall strategy and informs many of my card choices, which I will overview below:
Dark Depths has been a very divisive topic among Maverick players. Some think it is garbage while others will swear by it. I understand that it looks bad on paper, but having played it a decent amount in Maverick, my conclusion is that it is quite good. I can't count how many un-winnable games I have won thanks to Marit Lage. It is rarely your Plan A, but is a great contingency to have available, and is one that slots very naturally into the deck.
A card I like to utilize alongside this combo to increase it effectiveness is Crop Rotation. This is a great card in the sideboard of GW Maverick, granting you better access to Karakas and Bojuka Bog, as well as the ability to become a more Dark Depths-centric deck. Assembling this combo allows quicker kills than normal, giving you a proactive plan against decks that don't want to interact with you or can't effectively interact with Marit Lage.
Having the DD combo also makes Rest in Peace a very attractive sideboard card. The only downside of RIP in GW Maverick is that it takes the punch out of your biggest threat, Knight of the Reliquary. However, with DD in your deck Knights are still very threatening as 2/2 creatures that can tutor for the combo. RIP is one of the strongest sideboard cards in Legacy in my opinion, and I am always looking for excuses to be playing it.
The one-of Voice of Resurgence is an interesting card. I first saw this card in Nate Sturm's top 8 Punishing Maverick list from 2014 Eternal Weekend. I tried it out a little in the wake of that event and found it was solid against UR Delver, not to mention BUG decks. Scavenging Ooze is generally good against similar decks, but has the downside of requiring a lot of mana to be effective. In the early stages of the game when you want to Zenith on 2, Scavenging Ooze often just doesn't look appealing. Voice on the other hand requires no setup and is fully effective as soon as it hits the table. Its downsides are being poor against Swords to Plowshares, Counterbalance, and combo decks, so it often gets boarded out.
Courser of Kruphix may look a bit odd but has become fairly common in Maverick. It has a good body and augments all of your resources-mana, life, and cards. There are definitely spots where I Zenith for Courser instead of Knight. Its main downside is the incidental hate it picks up for being an Enchantment, which is very relevant against decks that play Wear // Tear like Miracles.
I made the unpopular decision to play Thalia in my sideboard. I recognize this gives a lot of ground against combo decks in game 1, but I greedily want to cast Zeniths without a tax in most matchups. In place of Thalia, I decided to just jam more removal (I've gotten too used to playing Punishing Fire decks...), and Council's Judgment seemed like the most versatile choice.
On the topic of Swords, I rarely play one maindeck. Batterskull and Jitte bring enough power and flexibility to the table that I don't need the often clunky 3rd maindeck Equipment. I would only rather have a Sword against combo and control decks. When it comes to which Sword to play, I like Sword of War & Peace a lot, despite its unpopularity compared to Sword of Fire and Ice. I value protection from White very highly, as Plow is the best commonly played removal against a Sword Equipped creature. I also think SoWaP is stronger than SoFI against combo decks, as drawing a random card generally isn't as relevant as the potentially larger life swing since you will often be dying with cards in hand. People can debate forever which Sword has the best two Protections, but Red and White certainly aren't shabby, allowing you to sneak by Elemental and Monk tokens, and other decks that clog up the ground such as Death & Taxes and Goblins.
Anyway, there were 90-something players at the event for 7 rounds of Swiss before cutting to Top 8. Here is a quick rundown of my matches:
Round 1: Elves (2-1)
This is a perfect example of a bad matchup where the DD combo really shines. After quickly losing game 1, I executed my sideboard plan. Cards I typically bring in against Elves as Maverick such as the extra Gaddock Teeg and Containment Priest were left in the board, as I wanted to ensure my Zeniths were effective. I also left out potential interaction like Pithing Needle and Path to Exile in favor of holding onto a Qasali Pridemage, which while poor against the Elves deck, can fight over something like Pithing Needle that could interfere with my combo plan. Knight is generally poor against Elves because they block well on the ground or go wide around it, but it became one of my best cards alongside Crop Rotation as a combo piece. In short, my sideboard plan worked perfectly, and I won games 2 and 3. This was the first time ever I've beaten Elves in a sanctioned match with Maverick!
Round 2: Esper Mentor (2-0)
Both games we each had stuff and answers for each others stuff, and I always ended up with stuff that couldn't be answered.
Round 3: Aggro Loam (2-0)
Having played a lot of Aggro Loam, I'm very in-tune with the deck. Game 1 went splendidly. I could see all his plays, and might as well have been goldfishing both decks. Game 2 was going very well until I landed Rest in Peace, which exiled a Loam and Fire but killed my own pressure. He was able to land a Garruk and start pumping out Wolves, locking up the board while I dug for Mother or Dark Depths. My outs wouldn't materialize and a lot of weird stuff happened. Eventually I won on my last turn in extra turns by sneaking a Knight past his Knight and Marit Lage with Mother and Scryb Ranger.
Round 4: Lands (1-1)
I don't remember the details, but my opponent was playing quite slowly. Game 3 looked like it could have gone either way had it went to its natural conclusion, but I didn't hate my chances.
Round 5: Lands (0-2)
This wasn't even close. I got destroyed in both games.
Round 6: UR Delver (1-1)
He was on Eli Kassis' list with Stormchaser Mage and Set Adrift, the latter of which I honestly wasn't surprised to see in an Eli Kassis Creation. Game 3 was going very much in my favor but we ran out of time. Had I played faster I could have won this match.
Round 7: Burn (0-2)
I was kinda out of it at this point, and welp, its Burn. Couldn't get much going either game against the onslaught of Red cards. I also misplayed game 1 by not Plowing his Lavamancer when I should have.
Final Record: 3-2-2
Not a terrible record, but the draws were a bit frustrating, particularly the one against UR Delver. Overall I was very pleased with the deck however, and I would play a similar 75 again. Some changes I would consider in future:
- 2nd Scavenging Ooze instead of Voice.
- Enlightened Tutor and maybe Humility in the board.
- Aven Mindcensor instead of Council's Judgment in the main.
- Dropping the Sword in the board for a Garruk or Elspeth.
