Maverick in GP Vegas Side Events

After a lacking 3-4 drop performance playing Punishing Zoo in the GP main event, I decided I would try my luck playing Maverick in side events for the rest of the week. There were several Legacy "Double-Up" events scheduled, which were capped at 4 rounds, run at Regular REL, and awarded prize wall tickets based on record. I was determined to craft a 75 for my first Double-Up on Friday afternoon that would have good matchups VS Burn and BR Griselbrand, which had been incredibly popular strategies in the main event. This motive led me to play GWb Maverick for the first time in around one year. Here is the list I came up with:

GWb Maverick, 6/16/17
Creature Spells (26) 4x Mother of Runes 3x Deathrite Shaman 2x Noble Hierarch 3x Stoneforge Mystic 3x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben 2x Qasali Pridemage 2x Scavenging Ooze 1x Gaddock Teeg 1x Scryb Ranger 4x Knight of the Reliquary 1x Courser of Kruphix	Noncreature Spells (12) 4x Green Sun's Zenith 4x Swords to Plowshares 1x Sylvan Library 1x Umezawa's Jitte 1x Sword of Fire and Ice 1x Batterskull
Lands (22) 4x Windswept Heath 3x Verdant Catacombs 3x Savannah 1x Bayou 1x Scrubland 1x Forest 1x Plains 1x Dryad Arbor 1x Gaea's Cradle 1x Karakas 1x Horizon Canopy 4x Wasteland	SB: 3x Surgical Extraction SB: 3x Thoughtseize SB: 2x Zealous Persecuion SB: 1x Enlightened Tutor SB: 1x Grafdigger's Cage SB: 1x Phyrexian Revoker  SB: 1x Ethersworn Canonist SB: 1x Gaddock Teeg SB: 1x Reclamation Sage SB: 1x Path to Exile

I don't have much to say about the list, but I just want to bring attention to one card: Courser of Kruphix. While not flashy its a powerful advantage engine in long games. However, in the pre-Top banning meta Courser was incredibly bad against Wear / Tear out of Miracles, to the point that I deemed it uplayable. With Miracles significantly diminished I believe this card is a very viable option for a supplemental 3-drop once again. Tireless Tracker and Renegade Rallier have legs in this slot as well, but I don't own and haven't tested either of those cards yet.

My matches in this event went as follows:

Round 1: BUG Aluren (2-1)
Round 2: BUG Depths (2-1)
Round 3: A.N.T. (2-0)
Round 4: BR Griselbrand (2-1)

I offered a split to my Round 4 opponent but he wanted to play it out for more tix, so winning that round gave me the added satisfaction of being a "dream crusher". While rusty with GWb Maverick I think I played OK overall. Resting on the laurels of my 4-0, I was content to play Punishing Maverick in the next Legacy Double-Up on Saturday, combo decks be damned.

Punishing Maverick, 6/17/17
Creature Spells (21) 4x Mother of Runes 3x Noble Hierarch 1x Birds of Paradise 2x Stoneforge Mystic 2x Qasali Pridemage 2x Scavenging Ooze 1x Gaddock Teeg 1x Scryb Ranger 4x Knight of the Reliquary 1x Courser of Kruphix	Noncreature Spells (14) 4x Green Sun's Zenith 4x Swords to Plowshares 3x Punishing Fire 1x Sylvan Library 1x Umezawa's Jitte 1x Sword of Feast and Famine
Lands (25) 4x Windswept Heath 3x Wooded Foothills 3x Savannah 2x Taiga 1x Plateau 1x Forest 1x Plains 1x Dryad Arbor 3x Grove of the Burnwillows 1x Karakas 3x Wasteland 1x Thespian's Stage 1x Dark Depths	SB: 2x Surgical Extraction SB: 2x Pyroblast SB: 2x Crop Rotation SB: 1x Bojuka Bog SB: 1x Reclamation Sage SB: 1x Phyrexian Revoker SB: 2x Ethersworn Canonist SB: 1x Gaddock Teeg SB: 1x Wear / Tear SB: 1x Always Watching SB: 1x Sudden Demise

This list incorporated several new cards I wanted to test:

• Wear / Tear: I recently tried this card out in Zoo as a Disenchant-type effect to supplement Qasali Pridemage and Reclamation Sage. While those are great cards and can be tutored with GSZ, they can be a bit inefficient so I saw the need for cheaper interaction. Krosan Grip and Ancient Grudge were considered but Wear / Tear is the most flexible overall.

• Sudden Demise: Sweepers can be awkward to slot into Maverick due to its creature-heavy nature but are very useful to have in some matchups where your spot removal isn't efficient enough or is taxed too heavily.  I've played Electrickery and Fiery Justice in this role before but am exploring Sudden Demise since it minimally impacts your own board in many situations due to its selective nature and is particularly potent VS multi-colored Leovold decks. Unfortunately, there is still no efficient Red sweeper that kills True-Name Nemesis.

• Always Watching: This is interesting technology a friend was thinking of trying in Bant Deathblade. Its well-suited to a Maverick deck since the anthem effect reduces your exposure to -1/-1 effects, and Vigilance pairs nicely with all your creatures with tap abilities. I put this card in the SB slot I typically reserve for a grindy Planeswalker as it has applications VS similar decks including Stoneblade, Shardless, Czech Pile, Death & Taxes, and Lands.

• Sword of Feast and Famine: I have played this card in Maverick sporadically over the years, and eventually concluded there was no reason to play it over Sword of Fire and Ice or Sword of Light and Shadow in a Miracles-dominated meta. Now that Miracles is diminished it may have a chance to shine again, but after playing it regularly in Stoneblade decks over the last month I'm still struggling to justify running it as the Sword of choice.

My matches in this second event went as follows:

T.E.S. (1-2)
Ur Omni-Tell (2-1)
Omni-Sneak (2-1)
Death & Taxes (2-0)

I ended up playing against a bunch of combo decks anyway, but managed to triumph over two of them and only narrowly lost to the third. Wear / Tear was great VS Death & Taxes and Omni-Sneak (got to pick off a Lotus Petal). I only brought Always Watching in against D&T but unfortunately never drew it.

This event brought my final record with Maverick decks over the weekend to 7-1 with 1400 tix worth of winnings, which I was able to convert into about $250 of cash via "alternative channels". Maverick is the greatest after all.

Top4 @ Legacy Loot with Punishing Zoo

Two local Legacy Dual Land tournaments were slated to take place on June 10th, the weekend before GP Vegas, one at Scholar's in Bridgewater and the other at Die Hard Games in Pawtucket. Both events had been on the calendar for some time and there was reportedly some back and forth between the two stores about a re-scheduling, but a compromise couldn't be reached. Thus, me and many other Legacy players based in MA had a choice of tournaments to attend. I ended up deciding on Die Hard's. While it had worse prize support it had cheaper entry and started later. Plus, I hadn't been to Die Hard in almost two years and felt like going there again.

Over a month ago I "locked-in" Bant Stoneblade as the deck I would play in the main event at GP Las Vegas. I played it almost exclusively in my weekly events since then, but a few days ago realized I wasn't as confident with the deck was I wanted to be for the GP and would probably be better off playing a Green/Punishing Fire deck. Unfortunately, I'd been neglecting Maverick almost completely since SCG Worcester, so that wasn't an appealing alternative. The "solution" I found to these apprehensions was to try Punishing Zoo. It has a lot of the same advantages Punishing Maverick offers while being a bit more straightforward to play. I decided to put Zoo to the test at Die Hard's event this weekend. Here's what I registered:

Punishing Zoo, 6/10/17
Creature Spells (20) 4x Noble Hierarch 4x Wild Nacatl 3x Qasali Pridemage 2x Scavenging Ooze 1x Gaddock Teeg 4x Knight of the Reliquary 2x Thalia, Heretic Cathar	Noncreature Spells (17) 4x Green Sun's Zenith 4x Lightning Bolt 4x Swords to Plowshares 3x Punishing Fire 1x Sylvan Library 1x Elspeth, Knight-Errant
Lands (23) 4x Wooded Foothills 4x Windswept Heath 2x Savannah 2x Taiga 2x Plateau 1x Forest 1x Plains 1x Dryad Arbor 3x Grove of the Burnwillows 1x Karakas 1x Skarrg, the Rage Pits 1x Wasteland	SB: 3x Surgical Extraction SB: 1x Gaddock Teeg SB: 2x Pyroblast SB: 1x Wear / Tear SB: 1x Reclamation Sage SB: 1x Enlightened Tutor SB: 1x Null Rod SB: 1x Ethersworn Canonist SB: 1x Grafdigger's Cage SB: 1x Umezawa's Jitte SB: 2x Blood Moon

There were 25 people at the tournament compared to 30 at Scholars, a near 50/50 split between the two stores. Some people bemoaned that they would have rather played in a single 55 player event, but I was content to play 5 rounds of Legacy regardless.

My rounds went as follows:

Round 1: Food Chain (2-0)
Round 2: Grixis Delver (2-1)
Round 3: Grixis Delver (2-0)
Round 4: ID
Round 5: ID
Quarterfinal: Grixis Delver (2-0)
Semifinal: Omni-Sneak (0-2)

I ended up claiming the 3rd place prize of 2 Revised Scrublands (Unfortunately I noticed after leaving that one of the Scrublands is in very sorry shape - while probably sleeve playable, it is definitely worthless).

My matchups weren't varied, but I gained the valuable knowledge that its difficult for this deck to lose to Grixis Delver. We'll see how I feel about this over the next few days...but if someone is going to play Zoo at the biggest Legacy event of the year, it should be me, right?