We MTGO Now

Recently I sold some underutilized and expensive cards and decided to use the proceeds to buy into MTGO (username: s3raphix). It will be a nice option to have when I can't play paper Magic, and will help me improve my understanding of certain rules/interactions and become a faster player.

A competitive version of Punishing Maverick can be built relatively inexpensively at about 250 tix. This version omits Noble Hierarchs and Surgical Extractions, as those cards are a bit pricey online. More Birds of Paradise and Faerie Macabre/Tormod's Crypt are fine substitutes however. Here is the list:

MTGO Punishing Maverick, 3/10/18
Creature Spells (20) 4x Mother of Runes 4x Birds of Paradise 3x Stoneforge Mystic 2x Qasali Pridemage 2x Scavenging Ooze 1x Gaddock Teeg 4x Knight of the Reliquary	Noncreature Spells (17) 4x Green Sun's Zenith 4x Swords to Plowshares 4x Punishing Fire 1x Sylvan Library 1x Elspeth, Knight-Errant 1x Umezawa's Jitte 1x Sword of Fire and Ice 1x Batterskull
Lands (23) 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	SB: 3x Tormod's Crypt SB: 2x Choke SB: 1x Reclamation Sage SB: 3x Ethersworn Canonist SB: 1x Gaddock Teeg SB: 1x Blessed Alliance SB: 1x Phyrexian Revoker SB: 1x Kitchen Finks SB: 1x Voice of Resurgence SB: 1x Dromoka's Command

To compensate for the lower threat density that comes with playing Birds, Sword of Fire and Ice is in the maindeck and I cut a land for an Elspeth, Knight-Errant (recently I've mana flooded a bit too often and was looking to cut a land anyway). This isn't to say Birds is a bad card; tapping for Red and flying are often relevant.

I've been jamming games in the  "Just for Fun" lobby to familiarize myself with the MTGO interface in preparation for more competitive play. For this purpose I crafted a less-competitive deck than Maverick which can only be described as "GW Cards I Like". Here is the latest version:

MTGO GW Cards, 3/10/18
Creature Spells (24) 4x Birds of Paradise 3x Voice of Resurgence 3x Qasali Pridemage 2x Stoneforge Mystic 2x Scavenging Ooze 1x Gaddock Teeg 3x Knight of the Reliquary 2x Kitchen Finks 2x Aven Mindcensor 2x Hero of Bladehold	Noncreature Spells (13) 4x Green Sun's Zenith 4x Swords to Plowshares 2x Sylvan Library 1x Elspeth, Knight-Errant 1x Umezawa's Jitte 1x Sword of War and Peace
Lands (23) 4x Windswept Heath 3x Wooded Foothills 4x Savannah 3x Forest 1x Plains 1x Dryad Arbor 3x Sunpetal Grove 1x Stirring Wildwood 1x Gavony Township 1x Karakas 1x Wasteland	SB: 3x Tormod's Crypt SB: 3x Ethersworn Canonist SB: 2x Winter Orb SB: 2x Blessed Alliance SB: 1x Reclamation Sage SB: 1x Gaddock Teeg SB: 1x Pithing Needle SB: 1x Kitchen Finks SB: 1x Sword of Feast and Famine

So far I've played against a mix of powerful and not-so powerful decks with very positive results. The deck has been a ton of fun. Winning with Birds carrying Swords and Hero of Bladehold is my kind of Magic.

Tournament Report: 44th @ SCG Worcester with Punishing Maverick, 3/4/2018

Here's what I played at this year's SCG Worcester:

Punishing Maverick, 3/3/18
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 Voice of Resurgence 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 Blessed Alliance SB: 1x Phyrexian Revoker SB: 1x Kitchen Finks

I committed the heresy of cutting Scryb Ranger from my 75 in order to move Voice of Resurgence to the main and free up a sideboard slot for another anti-nonsense card, which became the Phyrexian Revoker. I know I can be quoted in various places saying I'd never play Maverick without Scryb Ranger and hope this sin can be forgiven. The other change I made was fitting Blessed Alliance into the sideboard. TNN is very popular right now and this card also looks reasonable against random aggro and fatty decks. Didn't cast it all weekend (in fact, it ate two Thoughtseizes) so can't say how good it is. I inspired another Maverick player (Thunderknight on The Source) to run it in the Legacy Classic on Sunday and it was good for him.

Day 1
There were 722 players in the tournament.

• Round 1: Dredge (2-1)
• Round 2: Miracles (2-1)
• Round 3: Elves (2-1)
• Round 4: GWb Maverick (0-2)
• Round 5: Eldrazi (2-0)
• Round 6: Esperblade (2-0)
• Round 7: Bant Deathblade (1-1)
• Round 8: Czech Pile (1-1)
• Round 9: Esper Miracles (2-1) 

The cutoff for Day 2 was 19 points - with 20 I got in at 60-somethingth place.

Day 2

• Round 10: Burn (1-2)
• Round 11: Lands (2-1)
• Round 12: Food Chain (2-0)
• Round 13: BUG Control (1-2)
• Round 14: GWb Maverick (2-0)
• Round 15: Aggro Loam (1-2)

Final Record after 15 grueling rounds of Magic: 9-4-2, 44th place

I encountered a mix of good matchups (Lands, Dredge, Eldrazi, Blade) and bad matchups (Elves, Burn, Miracles, Food Chain). Every sideboard card was brought in at least once over the over the weekend. However, in hindsight this 75 feels underpowered without Deathrite Shaman, Thalia, Scryb Ranger, Dark Depths, or the 4th Wasteland. One to two of these elements should be included in any Punishing Maverick deck.

Maverick was somewhat well-represented on day 2, with myself and two other GWb players - both of whom I faced over the weekend! I'm very bad at navigating the mirror but managed to win one of these two matches. The player I lost to on day 1 made it to 32nd place.

Also, props to Tommy Kessler for being my only friend to day 2 and stick it out with me. He got 29th place so congrats to him as well.

This was the last big event on my schedule for a while as I won't be attending GP Seattle next month. Maybe I'll be Brainstorming again for the foreseeable future.