Double Tournament Report: Top16 and Top8 Weekend with Punishing Maverick, 2/17-2/18/18

I played Punishing Maverick in back to back events last Saturday and Sunday and placed 11th and 2nd in them respectively.

There were a few unusual sideboard cards I wanted to test so I ended up playing the same 75 in both events:

Punishing Maverick, 2/17/18
Creature Spells (21) 4x Mother of Runes 3x Noble Hierarch 1x Birds of Paradise 3x Stoneforge Mystic 2x Qasali Pridemage 2x Scavenging Ooze 1x Gaddock Teeg 1x Scryb Ranger 4x Knight of the Reliquary	Noncreature Spells (15) 4x Green Sun's Zenith 4x Swords to Plowshares 4x Punishing Fire 1x Sylvan Library 1x Umezawa's Jitte 1x Batterskull
Lands (24) 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 Horizon Canopy	SB: 2x Surgical Extraction SB: 2x Choke SB: 2x Crop Rotation SB: 1x Bojuka Bog SB: 1x Reclamation Sage SB: 1x Sword of Fire and Ice SB: 2x Ethersworn Canonist SB: 1x Gaddock Teeg SB: 1x Dromoka's Command SB: 1x Voice of Resurgence SB: 1x Kitchen Finks

My list has changed a bit since I last overviewed it a few months ago. Most of these changes were motivated by a desire to improve the matchup vs Bob Huang-style Grixis Delver decks, which I found myself losing to a lot. Here are some of the changes:

• Kitchen Finks: Intended to be a threat that's good in both aggressive and grindy matchups. In the past I tried to play more removal in the sideboard for these matchups like Fiery Justice, Pyroblast, and Council's Judgment, but I found having too many reactive cards creates awkward draws and makes it hard to close out games. In the case of Grixis Delver, you're often able manage their threats, but then lose the damage race to TNN. Finks is resilient against efficient spot removal unlike your other threats, and can pressure the opponents life total while bolstering your own.

• Dromoka's Command: This versatile little card can be creature removal, enchantment removal, a combat trick, and a counterspell of sorts. I felt that it warranted testing in the slot I previously dedicated to Wear / Tear. 

• Batterskull: I expanded the Stoneforge Mystic package to 3 Mystics + Batterskull main, moving Sword of Fire and Ice to the sideboard. Batterskull makes your Mystics more threatening and is just a card that suits my playstyle. This card should also improve the Delver matchups.

• Voice of Resurgence: This card has been in my maindeck for a while, but I decided swap it with the 2nd Ooze in the sideboard. I believe Ooze is the more versatile maindeck card and is one you'll want to naturally draw in many game 1s.

• Dark Depths: I've played the Thespian's Stage + Dark Depths combo in all my Punishing Maverick lists for almost two years now, but lately have been doubting its effectiveness. Of the games you win with this combo, only a small percentage would have been unwinnable without it. The majority of these games were winnable through other means, but it was quicker and easier to win with the combo. Furthermore, my theory envisioning the use of Crop Rotation to quickly assemble the combo against non-interactive decks hasn't been as effective as I hoped. Often, given the opportunity to assemble the combo with Knight or Crop Rotation, I found myself wanting to Wasteland the opponent instead. Perhaps going up to 3 Crop Rotations makes this theory more viable, and I know some players who have tried this. The benefit of removing Thespian's Stage + Dark Depths is that you can make room for either two more spells, or another spell and a different utility land/dual land instead (I essentially chose to replace Dark Depths with the 3rd Stoneforge Mystic and Thespian's Stage with Horizon Canopy). The Crop Rotation sideboard plan becomes less versatile without access to the combo, but with Wasteland, Karakas, and Bojuka Bog still should afford a solid range of interaction - I'm currently evaluating weather this is true. There are some unfavorable matchups in which Dark Depths is clearly one of your best win conditions including Burn, Elves, and Food Chain. At least for the Burn matchup, incorporating Batterskull, Kitchen Finks, and Dromoka's Command compensates for the absence of Depths.

• Choke: I don't have much experience playing this card, but am trying it as a tool primarily against Czech Pile and the increasingly popular Miracles deck. While Pyroblast is good in these matchups, Choke is a way less "fair" card, capable of both winning games on its own and contorting the opponent's gameplay by its mere presence. It also overloads opposing disenchant effects along with Sylvan Library and Equipments. I've been in several games where I have Choke and Library out and my opponent is forced to destroy the Choke - and then loses to Library. Choke also has some legs against random Blue combo decks like Sneak & Show, High Tide, and even Storm. While slow and often ineffective in these matchups, its typically better than other cards in your 75 and can potentially cripple the opponent. Part of the reason I historically favored Pyroblast over Choke its superiority against Delver - however, it has turned out to be lackluster against Grixis Delver as a reactive and restricted card in the matchup.

Here's a rundown of how the events went:

Saturday, 2/17/2018: 2k @ GamingEtc, 95 players
This event was originally a 1k but due to the high turnout was upgraded to a 2k.

• Round 1: UR Delver (2-1)
• Round 2: Punishing Dack Control (0-2)
• Round 3: Mono-Red Human Stompy (2-0)
• Round 4: Infect (2-0)
• Round 5: Mono-Red Sneak Attack (2-0)
• Round 6: Czech Pile (2-1)
• Round 7: Grixis Delver (0-2)

Final Record: 5-2, 11th place


Sunday, 2/18/2018: 1k @ The Complex, 55 players

• Round 1: Burn (2-0)
• Round 2: UB Mill (2-1)
• Round 3: T.E.S. (2-1)
• Round 4: Elves (0-2)
• Round 5: Junkblade (2-0)
• Round 6: Canadian Threshold (2-1)
• Quarterfinal: BUG Shardless Aluren (2-1)
• Semifinal: Manaless Dredge (2-1)
• Final: Grixis Delver (1-2)

Final Record: 7-2, 2nd place


Ironically, I lost both my matches against Grixis Delver despite my efforts to improve the matchup, so my current approach needs to be re-evaluated. At least after losing my win and in on Saturday some redemption was salvaged on Sunday (even if it meant a two hour drive and total exhaustion by the end of it)...on the whole, it was a great weekend.

DECK: Punishing Maverick, 1/19/18

In January 2018, I finally finished acquiring all the significant foils I planned on having in my Punishing Maverick deck. Here is the result:

Creatures

Noncreatures

Lands

Sideboard

Imgur album w/ full-size images

In the maindeck, the basics, Karakas, and Sylvan Library remain un-foiled. This is intentional, and I don't plan on acquiring foil versions of these. For Karakas and Library, Legends is more pimp than any foil version in my opinion. In this sideboard, and my pool of Maverick sideboard cards, there are still a number of non foils. While I might pick up foils of some of these here and there, its not something I'm actively pursuing. As such, I consider the foiling of this deck to be finished. It took over 3 years, with my first Maverick foils being purchased at GP New Jersey in November 2014. As for my next pimp project...maybe I'll be upgrading my dual lands, who can say.