Gavony Township - A Retrospective

Among the iconic and format-warping cards of Innistrad, one has always stood out to me as under-appreciated relative to its power and influence.

Gavony Township was nothing short of revolutionary for GWx creature decks. Typically lacking card draw and/or card selection, such decks are prone to flooding out on mana dorks and lands. Township elegantly solves this problem as both a mana sink and threat enabler all with an extremely low deckbuilding cost. As of this moment, a decade after Innistrad's release, Township remains uniquely effective in this role and its difficult to imagine a better alternative will be printed.

Let's examine this card through the lens of some of the decks that have utilized it over the years.

Whether by design at Wizards or by coincidence, this Standard deck developed shortly after Township's printing and exemplified many of its qualities.  

Township Tokens, GP Kuala Lumpur, 3/25/12
Creature Spells (23) 4x Avacyn's Pilgrim 4x Birds of Paradise 4x Strangleroot Geist 4x Mirran Crusader 2x Blade Splicer 4x Hero of Bladehold 1x Geist-Honored Monk	Noncreature Spells (13) 2x Dismember 2x Mortarpod 2x Sword of War and Peace 3x Oblivion Ring 3x Garruk Relentless 1x Elspeth Tirel
Lands (24) 4x Razorverge Thicket 4x Sunpetal Grove 8x Forest 4x Plains 4x Gavony Township	SB: 2x Thrun, the Last Troll SB: 2x Ray of Revelation SB: 2x Celestial Purge SB: 2x Garruk, Primal Hunter SB: 2x Sword of Feast and Famine SB: 1x Sword of War and Peace SB: 1x Naturalize SB: 1x Fiend Hunter SB: 1x Oblivion Ring SB: 1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite

 

Township mitigates the downside of playing eight mana dorks to accelerate into more powerful plays. We see the employment of creatures that scale well with extra counters like Blade Splicer and Mirran Crusader (note the "non-bo" with Strangleroot Geist however 😅). The many token-producing planeswalkers also pair nicely with Township. Its no wonder this archetype often played the full playset of Townships and was called "Township Tokens". 

Our next deck is from the next format of Township's residence in Standard.

GW Humans, GP Charleston, 11/17/12
Creature Spells (35) 4x Avacyn's Pilgrim 4x Champion of the Parish 4x Doomed Traveler 4x Judge's Familiar 4x Mayor of Avabruck 4x Knight of Glory 4x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben 3x Fencing Ace 3x Silverblade Paladin 1x Sublime Archangel	Noncreature Spells (5) 4x Rancor 1x Selesnya Charm
Lands (20) 4x Temple Garden 4x Sunpetal Grove 3x Cavern of Souls 3x Forest 5x Plains 1x Gavony Township	SB: 4x Dryad Militant SB: 2x Elite Inquisitor SB: 2x Fiend Hunter SB: 2x Faith's Shield SB: 2x Sundering Growth SB: 2x Nevermore SB: 1x Selesnya Charm

 

 

This is an aggressive deck that isn't interested in drawing out games to the point where Township pulls its weight, but playing one copy can still be justified. 

Birthing Pod was considered one of the best Modern decks throughout 2013 and 2014. The raw power and relentless consistency of this archetype eventually doomed Pod to the Modern banlist in early 2015.

 

Melira Pod, GP Richmond, 3/9/14
Creature Spells (28) 4x Birds of Paradise 3x Noble Hierarch 1x Viscera Seer 3x Voice of Resurgence 1x Wall of Roots 1x Qasali Pridemage 1x Scavenging Ooze 1x Melira, Sylvok Outcast 1x Spellskite 4x Kitchen Finks 1x Eternal Witness 1x Orzhov Pontiff 2x Murderous Redcap 1x Ranger of Eos 1x Linvala, Keeper of Silence 1x Shriekmaw 1x Reveillark	Noncreature Spells (9) 2x Abrupt Decay 3x Chord of Calling 4x Birthing Pod
Lands (23) 4x Verdant Catacombs 4x Misty Rainforest 2x Overgrown Tomb 1x Temple Garden 1x Godless Shrine 3x Forest 1x Swamp 3x Razorverge Thicket 1x Woodland Cemetery 3x Gavony Township	SB: 4x Thoughtseize SB: 2x Dismember  SB: 1x Slaughter Pact SB: 1x Scavenging Ooze SB: 1x Ethersworn Canonist SB: 1x Kataki, War's Wage SB: 1x Harmonic Sliver SB: 1x Sin Collector SB: 1x Obstinate Baloth SB: 1x Thrun, the Last Troll SB: 1x Entomber Exarch

 

While Pod's flashiest aspects - infinite combos and toolbox creatures - received the most attention, a significant part of its power resided in its ability to play a "normal" game of Magic when all else failed. This was made possible by Gavony Township, which won Pod countless games on the back of a motley crew of creatures grown to a formidable size.

In the wake of Pod's banning, a new archetype emerged that elevated Pod's beatdown plan from backup to star of the show. 

Podless Pod, Pro Tour Fate Reforged, 2/8/15
Creature Spells (27) 4x Noble Hierarch 4x Birds of Paradise 4x Voice of Resurgence 2x Qasali Pridemage 3x Loxodon Smiter 3x Kitchen Finks 4x Siege Rhino 3x Wilt-Leaf Liege	Noncreature Spells (10) 4x Path to Exile 2x Thoughtseize 4x Lingering Souls
Lands (23) 4x Windswept Heath 4x Verdant Catacombs 1x Marsh Flats 1x Temple Garden 1x Overgrown Tomb 1x Godless Shrine 3x Forest 1x Plains 1x Swamp 3x Razorverge Thicket 3x Gavony Township	SB: 2x Thoughtseize SB: 2x Fracturing Gust SB: 2x Chalice of the Void SB: 2x Sword of War and Peace SB: 1x Slaughter Pact SB: 1x Zealous Persecution SB: 1x Relic of Progenitus SB: 1x Stony Silence SB: 1x Rule of Law SB: 1x Leyline of Sanctity SB: 1x Ajani, Mentor of Heroes

  

This deck, called "Podless Pod" and "Liege Rhino" among other names, could be seen as the evolution of our first example adapted to the Modern format.

Fast-forwarding a few years, our final example is a new breed of combo deck.

 

Heliod Life, MTGO Event, 3/14/21
Creature Spells (29) 4x Noble Hierarch 4x Birds of Paradise 4x Conclave Mentor 4x Spike Feeder 4x Skycleave Apparition 4x Heliod, Sun-Crowned 2x Ranger-Captain of Eos 2x Archangel of Thune 1x Walking Ballista	Noncreature Spells (4) 4x Collected Company
Lands (23) 4x Windswept Heath 2x Misty Rainforest 2x Prismatic Vista 2x Temple Garden 2x Forest 2x Plains 4x Horizon Canopy 3x Razorverge Thicket 2x Gavony Township	SB: 4x Path to Exile SB: 3x Damping Sphere  SB: 2x Selfless Spirit SB: 2x Wheel of Sun and Moon   SB: 1x Burrenton Forge-Tender SB: 1x Giant Killer SB: 1x Emeria Archon SB: 1x Veil of Summer

 

With combo pieces based on +1/+1 counters like Spike Feeder and Walking Ballista, Township takes on an interesting role in this deck as a combo enabler and can prove to be a huge nuisance for opposing damage-based interaction.

Despite its success in Standard and Modern, Township has had no presence in Legacy. The range of decks that could play it is narrow, competition with other utility lands is high, and the texture of the format makes it irrelevant in the vast majority of games.

I hope you enjoyed this little reflection on Gavony Township - a card I know I will continue playing for years to come.

DECK: Modern RG Ramp (with Inferno Titan!) 5/31/19

Here is my latest Modern Gxx pile of cards:

Maindeck

Sideboard

I played this at FNM last night and went 3-1.

Round 1: UB Faeries, W (2-0)
Round 2: The Rock, W (2-1)
Round 3: UWR Control, L (1-2)
Round 4: Dredge, W (2-1)

The list was inspired by this Naya deck I was playing a few months ago. The Angels honestly didn't feel that great, so I decided to try Inferno Titan at the top end of a similar shell instead. The deck was a ton of fun and didn't seem awful so I'll probably play it a bit more with some adjustments. 

DECK: Modern GW Aggro, 2/22/19

My latest Modern experiment has been this GW Aggro/Midrange pile. Basically, the point of the deck is to play Hero of Bladehold. This is the list as of my 2/22/19 FNM:

Maindeck

Sideboard

imgur link

Its quite similar to a "Little Kid" -style Junk deck, basically replacing Lingering Souls with Kitchen Finks, and Siege Rhino/Wilt-Leaf Liege with Hero/Elspeth.

Honestly, losing Rhino & Souls is a big deal due to the reach and resiliency they bring to a GW creature deck. Losing access to other Black cards such as Thoughtseize and Assassin's Trophy limits the dimensions of interaction available as well.

The primary upside of not splashing Black is a smoother, less painful manabase, which is perennially relevant in Modern - but this likely doesn't outweigh its downside.

This is how my rounds went at the FNM:

Round 1: Lantern Contol (L 1-2)
Round 2: UR Phoenix (W 2-0)
Round 3: Jund (W 2-0)
Round 4: Grixis Shadow (W 2-1)
Round 5: UR Phoenix (W 2-0)

Hero of Bladehold killed the opponent in six games over the course of the evening. I did not lose a game in which I untapped with a Hero. All is right with the world.

DECK: Modern Big Naya, 2/15/19

The Modern metagame has became full of relatively linear and noninteractive aggressive decks like Humans, Spirits, Dredge and Phoenix, to the point that Baneslayer Angel has become a staple in UW decks. This led me to think: why not play Baneslayer Angel in a Green midrange shell? If the card is good, isn't ramping into it even better? Starting from one of my favorite decks played by the Naya God himself, I have arrived at the list below:

Maindeck

Sideboard

imgur link

While by no means revolutionary or top-tier, this archetype definitely has legs. It has performed well at the FNM level, producing frequent prize finishes. I took it to one medium event, SCG Regionals last November, and went 4-4 with many misplays. Doing OK playing cards I like is good enough for me.

The maindeck has been quite static (despite many 2- and 3-ofs, it seems to work) until re-examination this week. Elspeth, Knight-Errant was replaced with Ajani Vengeant, and Tireless Trackers were replaced with Huntmasters. Two Bolts became two Helixes. These moves were a concession to the wild popularity of Phoenix and Burn at my store in particular. Its been so long since I played Huntmaster that I still have English ones...

Furthermore, in the sideboard Blood Moons were replaced with Damping Spheres, and Bonfires were replaced with Flame Slash + Dromoka's Command. I am contemplating swapping Rest in Peace for Relic of Progenitus in future as well.

Here's how the FNM went:

Round 1: UW Midrange (W 2-1)
Round 2: Jund (W 2-0)
Round 3: Affinity (W 2-0)
Round 4: Mono-Red Phoenix (L 1-2)
Round 5: Valakut (we drew, but L 0-2 in games)

DECK: UW Delver, 12/28/18

Its been a while since I did one of these. Here is the UW Delver deck I played at a local event recently (4-0 - beat UWr Twin, TES, UR Delver, and 5C Humans).

Maindeck

Sideboard

imgur link

I first tried this archetype in some side events at Eternal Weekend and had a blast. Legacy players love to hate Delver/Stoneforge Mystic decks for some reason, but I've always liked them and this is my favorite iteration so far. Earlier this year I played a lot of UWr Delver, but it just hasn't felt the same since Probe got banned.

The list is pretty "stock", not deviating significantly from Owen's GP list except for some sideboard choices. The amount of graveyard hate he had seemed egregious, so I trimmed it down. The omission of a 2nd Back to Basics is based on my card availability, but I'm not sure two is even the correct number. Spell Snare is fantastic right now so I had to dedicate a slot for it.

More recently a Japanese player made top 8 of GP Shizuoka with this deck, but I dislike several of their choices, primarily 1) cutting the 4th Spell Pierce and 2) running zero Council's Judgment in the side. The full set of Spell Pierce is sooo good with Snapcaster, and the versatility of Judgement necessitates its inclusion despite its clunkiness by my estimation.

We Twitch Stream Now - twitch.tv/s3raphix

I've started streaming MTGO on Twitch:

twitch.tv/s3raphix

Stay a while and listen sometime.

Tournament Report: 10th @ SCG Classic with Punishing Maverick, 9/23/18

Miracles has reared its ugly head once again with a victory at GP Richmond. The deck was certain to become more popular as a result. Bad news for Maverick players. In order to have a fighting chance in this matchup, I needed to seriously re-evaluate some of my card choices. After consulting other Punishing Maverick and Miracles players, this is the list I arrived at for this year's SCG Legacy Open in Baltimore:

Punishing Maverick, 9/22/18
Creature Spells (21) 4x Mother of Runes 3x Noble Hierarch 1x Birds of Paradise 3x Stoneforge Mystic 2x Qasali Pridemage 1x Scavenging Ooze 1x Voice of Resurgence 1x Gaddock Teeg 1x Scryb Ranger 4x Knight of the Reliquary	Noncreature Spells (16) 4x Green Sun's Zenith 4x Swords to Plowshares 3x Punishing Fire 2x Sylvan Library 1x Umezawa's Jitte 1x Sword of Fire and Ice 1x Batterskull
Lands (23) 4x Windswept Heath 3x Wooded Foothills 2x 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 Choke SB: 2x Pyroblast SB: 2x Crop Rotation SB: 2x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben SB: 1x Surgical Extraction SB: 1x Bojuka Bog SB: 1x Reclamation Sage SB: 1x Gaddock Teeg SB: 1x Council's Judgment SB: 1x Elspeth, Knight-Errant SB: 1x Nissa, Vital Force

• The 2nd Sylvan Library is one of the best cards against Miracles, and is fantastic right now with fewer Abrupt Decays, Leovolds, and Lightning Bolt-based Delver decks in the format than before. 

• Thalia, Guardian of Thraben has replaced Ethersworn Canonist as a threat that is also good against combo, but far superior against control.

• Pyroblasts have joined Choke as general anti-Blue cards.

• Council's Judgment has replaced Fiery Justice due to its ability to reliably answer Jace, or Back to Basics/Counterbalance if necessary.

• Nissa, Vital Force has joined Elspeth as another high-impact, resilient threat. Nissa might be one of the best threats against Miracles: she hits fast and hard, and can buy back troublesome cards like Library and Choke.

Conveniently, most of this technology lines up well against Grixis Control and Sneak & Show, two other prominent decks. The cost of these modifications is that we have given up ground against Death & Taxes, Elves, Reanimator, Shadow, and Storm.

My Saturday did not go very well.

Round 1: Grixis Control (1-2)
Round 2: UWR Mentor (0-2)
Round 3: A.N.T. (0-2)
Round 4: No show!
Round 5: RUG Landstill (2-0)
Round 6: UB Shadow (2-1)
Round 7: Miracles (2-1)
Round 8: UB Shadow (1-2)

After the first three rounds, my tournament was the poster child of "things gone wrong". I had some mopey draws against Grixis. I mis-identified what turned out to be a Mentor aggro deck as Miracles. My Storm opponent cantripped into a kill after a seemingly poor Ad Nauseam down to 1 life. The only highlight of the day was triumphing over actual Miracles.

Nevertheless, I decided to play the same 75 in the Classic on Sunday, believing it was still a good place to be. Around 120 players showed up for the event so was 7 rounds. Here's how my matches went:

Round 1: Sneak & Show (2-0)
Round 2: Omni-Tell (2-1)
Round 3: Eldrazi Post (2-1)
Round 4: Eldrazi Aggro (2-1)
Round 5: UW Delver (2-0)
Round 6: ID
Round 7: BR Griselbrand (0-2)

Final Record: 5-1-1, 10th place

Unfortunately I was paired down in the final round and had to play what turned out to be a bad matchup. So it goes.

Interestingly, despite the prevalence of Miracles it failed to place in the top 32 of the Open or the top 16 of the Classic. We'll see how well Miracles fares in the weeks leading up to Eternal Weekend in what is likely a meta well prepared for it. For now, I will more or less stick with my current configuration and see where things end up.

Props to Mark and TK for putting Punishing Maverick on the map in day 2 of the Open - playing Dire Fleet Daredevil in their decks no less!!

Maverick in GP Richmond Side Events

Unfortunately, I couldn't take the time off work to compete in the main event at GP Richmond. Nonetheless, I went up to Richmond to hang out and jam some Legacy side events.

It was natural to start with Punishing Maverick, as I hadn't played it since the banning of Deathrite Shaman.

Punishing Maverick, 9/1/18
Creature Spells (21) 4x Mother of Runes 3x Noble Hierarch 1x Birds of Paradise 3x Stoneforge Mystic 2x Qasali Pridemage 1x Scavenging Ooze 1x Voice of Resurgence 1x Gaddock Teeg 1x Scryb Ranger 4x Knight of the Reliquary	Noncreature Spells (15) 4x Green Sun's Zenith 4x Swords to Plowshares 3x Punishing Fire 1x Sylvan Library 1x Umezawa's Jitte 1x Sword of Fire and Ice 1x Batterskull
Lands (24) 4x Windswept Heath 3x Wooded Foothills 2x Savannah 2x Taiga 1x Plateau 1x Forest 1x Plains 1x Dryad Arbor 3x Grove of the Burnwillows 1x Karakas 3x Wasteland 1x Horizon Canopy 1x Maze of Ith	SB: 2x Surgical Extraction SB: 2x Choke SB: 2x Crop Rotation SB: 2x Ethersworn Canonist SB: 1x Bojuka Bog SB: 1x Reclamation Sage SB: 1x Fiery Justice SB: 1x Gaddock Teeg SB: 1x Wear / Tear SB: 1x Phyrexian Revoker SB: 1x Elspeth, Knight-Errant

Event 1, Saturday Double-Up
Lands 2-1
Grixis Control 2-0
UWR Delver 2-1

Event 2, Sunday Double-Up
Lands 2-1
Moon Stompy 2-0
Eldrazi 2-1

Apparently winning with Punishing Maverick is too easy, so I decided to play a last event on hardmode with GW Maverick. My list was inspired by Julian Knab's recent MTGO 5-0:

GW Maverick, 9/2/18
Creature Spells (25) 4x Mother of Runes 4x Noble Hierarch 3x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben 3x Stoneforge Mystic 2x Qasali Pridemage 1x Scavenging Ooze 1x Voice of Resurgence 1x Gaddock Teeg 1x Scryb Ranger 4x Knight of the Reliquary 1x Sigarda, Host of Herons	Noncreature Spells (13) 4x Green Sun's Zenith 4x Swords to Plowshares 2x Sylvan Library 1x Umezawa's Jitte 1x Sword of Fire and Ice 1x Batterskull
Lands (22) 4x Windswept Heath 3x Wooded Foothills 4x Savannah 2x Forest 1x Plains 1x Dryad Arbor 1x Karakas 4x Wasteland 1x Horizon Canopy 1x Gaea's Cradle	SB: 3x Surgical Extraction SB: 2x Choke SB: 2x Ethersworn Canonist SB: 1x Reclamation Sage SB: 1x Scavenging Ooze SB: 1x Oblivion Ring SB: 1x Gaddock Teeg SB: 1x Pithing Needle SB: 1x Phyrexian Revoker SB: 1x Path to Exile SB: 1x Always Watching

This deck was put together in a hurry and wasn't exactly optimized. There should have been another fetchland instead of the 3rd Mystic, with Sword of Light and Shadow instead of Batterskull. Also, Phyrexian Revoker in the sideboard should have been an Elspeth or Armageddon (I forgot my Armageddons at home, doh!).

Event 3, Sunday Regular
Esperblade 2-1
Aggro Loam 2-0
Miracles 1-2

This event went slightly worse. Notably, I won a game against Loam with Always Watching and Sigarda equipped with Sword of Fire and Ice. My round 3 pairing against Miracles made the "bug" in my sideboard super punishing.

In total, I won 1,200 tickets which I turned into over $200 in cash. A chunk of this cash was exchanged for signatures by Christopher Moeller. I visited his booth about four times on Sunday because I kept discovering cards he had illustrated!

Some conclusions reached over the weekend:

• Reanimator seems to be on the downtick (especially with the presence of maindeck copies of Reanimate in the Death's Shadow decks) and Lands is still a fantastic matchup (haven't lost a sanctioned match against Lands since Jan 2017). Therefore, I think the 2nd Surgical and 2nd Ooze aren't needed in the 75 of Punishing Maverick.
• I suspected Voice of Resurgence would get way worse in the new meta, but there is enough Grixis and Delver that its still fine.
• Maze of Ith is not worth running without Ramunap Excavator or Loam.
• Owen Turtenwald's UW Delver deck looks sweet. I'm not sure when I'll have a chance to try it though.
• The side event structure at GPs has gotten way worse than it was in the past. The $20 events are horrible EV unless you go 3-0, and while the $35 ones are better in that regard, spending $20-35 to play only three rounds of Magic is off-putting.
• Mama J's is good (get the fried catfish), but not worth a 1 hour+ wait if you're hungry.

We Modern Now

Unfortunately, there are no weekly Legacy events here in Jacksonville. Despite buying some Legacy cards on MTGO, I prefer paper Magic to MTGO enough that I'm willing to play Modern FNM. Here are some of the decks I've been playing:

UW Midrange, 7/27/18
Creature Spells (16) 4x Wall of Omens 4x Kitchen Finks 2x Vendilion Clique 4x Restoration Angel 1x Dragonlord Ojutai 1x Lyra Dawnbringer	Noncreature Spells (19) 4x Spell Snare 4x Path to Exile 2x Remand 1x Negate 1x Blessed Alliance 2x Detention Sphere 3x Cryptic Command 2x Supreme Verdict
Lands (25) 4x Flooded Strand 2x Hallowed Fountain 3x Island 3x Plains 4x Celestial Colonnade 3x Mystic Gate 1x Eiganjo Castle 1x Minamo, School at Water's Edge 4x Field of Ruin	SB: 2x Damping Sphere SB: 2x Rest in Peace SB: 2x Stony Silence SB: 2x Runed Halo SB: 2x Dispel SB: 2x Disenchant SB: 1x Celestial Purge SB: 1x Negate SB: 1x Supreme Verdict

UW Midrange has become one of my favorite Modern archetypes. The manabase and sideboard cards are great, and the Resto/Finks/Wall team does SO much work. This take is heavily based on Yuuya Watanabe's list from Worlds in 2015. UW has been quite successful in Modern recently in the form of hard control builds with Terminus, but I find that style much less appealing.

Zoo, 8/15/18
Creature Spells (27) 4x Noble Hierarch 4x Wild Nacatl 4x Tarmogoyf 2x Qasali Pridemage 2x Scavenging Ooze 4x Knight of the Reliquary 3x Loxodon Smiter 4x Bloodbraid Elf	Noncreature Spells (11) 4x Path to Exile 4x Lightning Bolt 2x Lightning Helix 1x Domri Rade
Lands (22) 4x Windswept Heath 4x Wooded Foothills 2x Arid Mesa 1x Temple Garden 2x Stomping Ground 2x Sacred Foundry 2x Forest 1x Plains 1x Horizon Canopy 1x Stirring Wildwood 1x Ghost Quarter 1x Kessig Wolf Run	SB: 3x Molten Rain SB: 2x Grafdigger's Cage SB: 2x Fiery Justice SB: 2x Kitchen Finks SB: 2x Stony Silence SB: 2x Gaddock Teeg SB: 1x Ancient Grudge SB: 1x Sword of Light and Shadow

I always find myself coming back to Big Zoo in Modern. It just plays efficient, reasonably powerful cards and is capable presenting a quick clock, which are valuable attributes in this format. The unbanning of Bloodbraid Elf was great news for Zoo, but it has yet to put up many strong results. I think the deck isn't played very much as its on the more expensive side and isn't perceived as being good.

Liege Junk, 7/31/18
Creature Spells (27) 4x Noble Hierarch 4x Birds of Paradise 4x Voice of Resurgence 2x Qasali Pridemage 2x Scavenging Ooze 4x Loxodon Smiter 4x Siege Rhino 3x Wilt-Leaf Liege	Noncreature Spells (10) 4x Path to Exile 2x Thoughtseize 4x Lingering Souls
Lands (23) 4x Windswept Heath 4x Verdant Catacombs 1x Marsh Flats 1x Temple Garden 1x Overgrown Tomb 1x Godless Shrine 3x Forest 1x Plains 1x Swamp 3x Razorverge Thicket 3x Gavony Township	SB: 2x Damping Sphere SB: 2x Rest in Peace SB: 2x Thoughtseize SB: 2x Stony Silence SB: 2x Gaddock Teeg SB: 2x Blessed Alliance SB: 1x Maelstrom Pulse SB: 1x Thrun, the Last Troll SB: 1x Sword of War and Peace

This deck has very polarized matchups and probably isn't very good overall.  However, I continue to play it solely due to the fact that Wilt-Leaf Liege is one of my favorite cards, and I don't really have another deck to play it in.

Bant Stoneblade Update & Top4 Tournament Report

"Not again..."

Deathrite Shaman and Gitaxian Probe are banned in Legacy. Its a brave new world now - or is it a brave old world? Many archetypes that were invalidated or suppressed by the presence of Deathrite Shaman now have a chance to shine again. One of my personal favorites, GSZ Bant Stoneblade, is one such archetype (Primer).

Although Bant experienced a renaissance throughout 2016 and 2017, it was in the form of Bant Deathblade, which eschewed the traditional GSZ package for a much more streamlined build including Deathrite Shaman, and other Black cards like Leovold, Emissary of Trest, Zealous Persecution, Abrupt Decay, and Thoughtseize.

GSZ Bant was less consistent and had worse matchups than Bant Deathblade across nearly the entire field - I would argue that GSZ Bant was superior against Sneak & Show, Eldrazi Stompy, and Moon Stompy, but this wasn't a compelling enough incentive for it to be competitively played.

With Deathrite Shaman now out of the picture entirely, Bant has regained a monopoly on mana dorks + busted Blue cards which could make it a serious contender. With this in mind, I took the deck out to my local monthly Legacy event.

Bant Stoneblade, 7/15/18
Creature Spells (15) 4x Noble Hierarch 4x Stoneforge Mystic 1x Qasali Pridemage 1x Scavenging Ooze 3x True-Name Nemesis 2x Knight of the Reliquary	Noncreature Spells (24) 3x Green Sun's Zenith 4x Brainstorm 2x Ponder 4x Force of Will 3x Daze 4x Swords to Plowshares 2x Jace, the Mind Sculptor 1x Umezawa's Jitte 1x Batterskull
Lands (21) 4x Windswept Heath 4x Misty Rainforest 3x Tropical Island 2x Tundra 1x Savannah 1x Forest 1x Island 1x Dryad Arbor 1x Karakas 3x Wasteland	SB: 2x Faerie Macabre SB: 2x Meddling Mage SB: 1x Grafdigger's Cage SB: 1x Swan Song SB: 1x Spell Pierce SB: 1x Path to Exile SB: 1x Reclamation Sage SB: 1x Detention Sphere SB: 1x Pithing Needle SB: 1x Gaddock Teeg SB: 1x Sylvan Library SB: 1x Sword of Fire and Ice SB: 1x Vendilion Clique

My list...well, hasn't changed much. The nature of the three "packages" (Force of Will, Stoneforge Mystic, and Green Sun's Zenith) leave very few maindeck flex slots. For those interested in minutiae, I'm playing a 2nd Ponder instead of a 22nd land to accommodate 4 Force of Will main.

In the sideboard, running Faerie Macabre instead of Surgical Extraction was a concession to Reanimator combined with the fact that there are no local Lands players (this is CRAZY to me as someone from the Northeast). But overall, nothing exciting here.

There were only 19 players at the event. Here's a meta breakdown:

• 4 Death & Taxes
• 2 UWx Miracles
• 2 Sneak & Show
• 1 Belcher
• 1 BR Griselbrand
• 1 Burn
• 1 Eldrazi
• 1 Elves
• 1 Eureka Tell
• 1 Grixis Control
• 1 Mono-red Sneak Attack
• 1 Punishing Sneak Nic-Fit
• 1 UWR Stoneblade

Here's how my matches went:

Round 1: Eureka Tell (2-0)

Round 2: UWR Stoneblade (2-0) 

Round 3: Eldrazi (2-0)

Round 4: Sneak & Show (2-1)

Round 5: ID

Quarterfinal: Death & Taxes (2-0)

Semifinal: Burn (1-2)

I felt like I drew really well all day, so either the deck is well constructed, or I just got lucky. Round 2 my opponent got a game loss for a sideboarding error after we got deck checked.

Now that a number of tournament results are in, the top decks in the new meta appear to be Canadian Threshold, D&T, and Sneak & Show. These are all even to favorable matchups for Bant, so it could prove to be well-positioned moving forward.

Tournament Report: Top8 @ Giga-Bites Legacy Quarterly with Punishing Maverick, 6/23/18

A significant change occurred in my life this April: I moved from Massachusetts to Florida for work reasons. Unfortunately, Northeast Florida doesn't exactly have a thriving Legacy scene. There's a monthly event at Jax Game Center in Jacksonville, but any other regular Legacy event is several hours away from me. As a result, I'm not playing much paper Legacy these days. MTGO just isn't as satisfying as paper Magic, so I've actually started going to a Modern FNM - more on that later!

Craving Legacy, I journeyed 6 hours up to Atlanta last weekend to sling old pieces of cardboard in the Giga-Bites Cafe Legacy Quarterly Win-a-Mox.

Punishing Maverick, 6/23/18
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 Sword of Fire and Ice 1x Batterskull
Lands (23) 4x Windswept Heath 3x Wooded Foothills 2x 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: 2x Ethersworn Canonist SB: 1x Bojuka Bog SB: 1x Reclamation Sage SB: 1x Voice of Resurgence SB: 1x Gaddock Teeg SB: 1x Wear / Tear SB: 1x Phyrexian Revoker SB: 1x Elspeth, Knight-Errant

The only significant change I've made to my list recently is going down to 23 lands. After cutting the Dark Depths combo a few months ago I decided to maintain the same number of mana-producing lands (24), but eventually noticed that I was flooding often and could afford to cut one. This has been a fine change so far, but I'm still uncertain if  Horizon Canopy is better than a 3rd Savannah. The advantages of Savannah over Canopy are that it is painless, fuels Knight/Scryb Ranger activations, and is another fetchable dual land against Wasteland-heavy decks.

A healthy attendance of 91 players meant there would be 7 rounds of swiss. Here's how my rounds went:

Round 1: Oops, All Spells! (2-1)
Round 2: BUG Control (2-1)
Round 3: Grixis Delver (2-1)
Round 4: Czech Pile (2-0)
Round 5: MUD Post (2-0)
Round 6: ID
Round 7: ID
Quarterfinal: Czech Pile (0-2)

Both games of the QF were winnable had I played better, but oh well. I won some cash which covered the cost of the Airbnb and gas and got to head back home earlier. Giga-Bites had a great event and I look forward to attending future ones.

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. 

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.

DECK: Esper Mentor

Esper Mentor was an archetype that always vaguely interested me, but I never saw I list I liked and didn't invest any effort into developing my own. I was spared by Hanni Alnimer, who made Top8 at Eternal Weekend a month ago with this list.

I don't think there's anything innovative in Hanni's list, but something about it just "clicked" with me. I picked up Mentors and Therapies and have now played four weekly events with the deck (11-5-1 record), tweaking it along the way. Here is where I'm currently at:

Win-cons

Instants & Sorceries

Lands

Sideboard

Link to Imgur album w/ full-size images

As you may notice, I haven't changed Hanni's MD spellbase at all, which feels very good and tight so far. This is my first experience playing with Cabal Therapy and Monastery Mentor (not to mention 12 cantrips), which give the deck a different texture than classic Esper Deathblade and have led to many misplays. What I've enjoyed casting the most is Gitaxian Probe. While obviously great with Therapy and Meddling Mage, even individually the card is incredibly powerful. 

Tournament Report: Top16 @ SCG Classic with Punishing Zoo, 10/29/17

After going 1-3 drop with Punishing Maverick in the SCG Open on Saturday, I decided to play Punishing Zoo in the Classic on Sunday. My experiences getting hosed by Liliana the Last Hope (maindeck!) and Izzet Staticaster in the Open led me to consider that Zoo may be in a better spot than Punishing Maverick at the moment.

Zoo is specifically stronger against the popular Grixis Delver and Czech Pile-style decks for several reasons. Maverick is a slow, synergy-based strategy that can be effectively combated by their efficient disruption. Its also vulnerable to cards which have become prevalent like those mentioned above and Kolaghan's Command.

On the other hand, Zoo has more individually powerful cards, and can match these decks on the efficiency axis with a 1-mana threat in Wild Nacatl and additional 1-mana interaction in Lightning Bolt. Against Delver its very realistic to race without drawing any interaction, which Maverick can almost never do. You're also less vulnerable to sweepers since you can present a decent clock with fewer creatures.

I ended up on the list below, which can also be found here.

Punishing Zoo, 10/29/17
Creature Spells (20) 4x Noble Hierarch 4x Wild Nacatl 2x Qasali Pridemage 2x Scavenging Ooze 1x Gaddock Teeg 1x Voice of Resurgence 4x Knight of the Reliquary 2x Thalia, Heretic Cathar	Noncreature Spells (17) 4x Green Sun's Zenith 4x Lightning Bolt 4x Swords to Plowshares 4x Punishing Fire 1x Sylvan Library
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 2x Wasteland	SB: 3x Surgical Extraction SB: 1x Gaddock Teeg SB: 2x Pyroblast SB: 1x Wear / Tear SB: 1x Reclamation Sage SB: 2x Crop Rotation SB: 2x Ethersworn Canonist SB: 1x Bojuka Bog SB: 1x Umezawa's Jitte SB: 1x Chandra Pyromaster

I made a few adjustments to the maindeck since last playing it in June. The "grind slot" changed from a Planeswalker to the 4th Punishing Fire. I also cut the 3rd Qasali Pridemage for a Voice of Resurgence based on Voice's sterling performance in Maverick so far. Lastly, Skarrg, the Rage Pits was replaced with a 2nd Wasteland, mostly due to concern with the Lands and Turbo Depths matchups. Skarrg is a true beating against True-Name Nemesis, but we don't need the extra help against decks employing that card.

I honestly didn't put enough thought into the sideboard, which is functionally the same sideboard I play in Maverick. I incorporated the Crop Rotation package without being certain of its effectiveness in the absence of Dark Depths.

There were 119 players in the tournament so it was 7 rounds. Mine went as follows:

Round 1: Canadian Threshold (2-1)
Round 2: Czech Pile (2-1)
Round 3: Death & Taxes (2-1)
Round 4: Aggro Loam (1-2)
Round 5: Czech Pile (2-0)
Round 6: Sneak & Show (0-2)
Round 7: Grixis Control (2-0)

At 5-2 I had good enough breakers to slide into 15th place.

The only bad matchup I encountered was Sneak & Show, which I regrettably punted a winnable game 1 against. The deck performed well against the various fair Blue decks I expected to face. As long as significant quantities of such decks exist in the meta, Zoo has a chance to be relevant. While not a very impressive result, I hope this provides some visibility to the Zoo archetype and demonstrates that it has life in the current meta.

As a postscript, I would like to congratulate my car mates Matt Kuranda and Caleb Comptois for making Top 8 and Top 32 respectively in the Open!

Punishing Maverick Update

After a few months of playing mostly Stoneblade decks, I reached the conclusion that Stoneblade was virtually unplayable as the format shook out to be dominated by Czech Pile. Considering the power of Punishing Fire in a sea of Deathrite Shaman + X decks, it was only natural that I returned to Punishing Maverick.

I've now been playing Punishing Maverick almost exclusively for over two months and testing all sorts of configurations. One thing that quickly became apparent was that the 4th Punishing Fire is necessary in this meta. Another reality of the meta is that Stoneforge Mystic is a flimsy threat in a non-Blue deck against the various Kolaghan's Command decks, and even against Grixis Delver due to cards like Stifle, Cabal Therapy, and Ancient Grudge.

These conclusions led me to do significant testing of lists without Stoneforge Mystic, in order to accommodate the 4th Fire + some other grindy cards. Here are some cards I tried in the slots normally occupied by Stoneforge Mystics and Equipment:

• Tireless Tracker - I got Tracker out in maybe 8 games but it never felt backbreaking. There was one spot I recall Zenithing for it instead of Knight to immediately make some Clues. This card definitely has potential and I'm willing to try it again. There's something to be said for having a continuous source of actual card draw.

• Ramunap Excavator - Adding to the long list of recently printed 3-drops fighting over flex slots in Maverick, Excavator has some strong synergies with the deck. My main concern with this card is that its another engine that is graveyard-based like Knight and Punishing Fire. For this reason, I generally prefer Tracker as it attacks from a slightly different angle. 

• Domri Rade - Any 3 mana planeswalker warrants a serious look in Legacy. I played Domri in a few events in 2014 and 2015 and he was never stellar. The +1 ability "misses" a lot since Punishing Maverick doesn't have a very high creature count. However, it enables you to bootleg some library manipulation in tandem with shuffle effects. The -2 ability has interesting implications with Exalted, Mother of Runes, and Punishing Fire, but isn't a reliable source of removal. One advantage I consider Domri has over a different grindy noncreature, nonartifact permanent like the 2nd Sylvan Library is that he functions against a Leovold. In testing Domri did tremendous work against a totally unexpected deck - Lands. I resolved him against Lands in 3 different games and won all of them...2 of them with the emblem! It turns out that once you have an active Knight and Scavenging Ooze, it becomes very hard for Lands to kill you or Domri. From this position its easy to make the Emblem, which evades Maze of Ith and makes all your creatures hit much harder. In the third game, I used Domri to immediately fight down a Tracker with my Knight, and my opponent scooped shortly after.

• Voice of Resurgence - While appearing to be a killer of control decks, Voice of Resurgence was downright embarrassing against the Swords to Plowshares/Terminus/Counterbalance combination out of Miracles, rendering it unplayable. However, in the new meta of control decks playing Fatal Push and Kolaghan's Command, this card's stock has increased drastically. It is also very effective against Delver and Burn.

After trying these cards I realized that while not always good, Stoneforge Mystic is a fairly efficient threat and has applications against an impressive range of strategies. Jitte ruins many creature-based decks and you're frequently happy to have more "looks" at it via Stoneforge Mystic. Playing against combo? Grab your Sword. Blood Moon or Ensnaring Bridge? No problem. Most of the cards I replaced Stoneforge Mystic with were either too clunky or too narrow. So I concluded the best course was to play the 4th Punishing Fire and limit the SFM package to 2 Mystics/1 Jitte/1 Sword.

All this being said, here is my current list:

Punishing Maverick, 9/30/17
Creature Spells (20) 4x Mother of Runes 3x Noble Hierarch 1x Birds of Paradise 2x Stoneforge Mystic 2x Qasali Pridemage 1x Scavenging Ooze 1x Gaddock Teeg 1x Scryb Ranger 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 Sword of Fire and Ice
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 Grafdigger's Cage SB: 2x Ethersworn Canonist SB: 1x Gaddock Teeg SB: 1x Wear / Tear SB: 1x Scavenging Ooze SB: 1x Fiery Justice

The only spicy card that has stuck around is Voice of Resurgence, which is efficient enough and good enough in the right matchups that I think it warrants a maindeck slot over the 2nd Ooze, which I have moved to the SB.

Here are some updates on other cards I was testing:

• Always Watching - This has been a nice card and functions as intended. I've had it out in about 5 games and only lost 1 of those. However, hitting WW to cast it has been a slight concern. This card got squeezed out of the 75 to fit the SFM package, Voice of Resurgence, 2 Oozes, and the Cage.

• Wear / Tear - I honestly haven't drawn this card much, but it still feels useful and I bring it in often.

• Sudden Demise - I've switched this slot back to Fiery Justice. While Sudden Demise is stronger against "wide" strategies like Elves and Death & Taxes, Fiery Justice is still good against these decks while being way better vs Delver and generic midrange decks.
  

• Sword of Feast and Famine - This card is still worse than Sword of Fire and Ice overall.

Overall, my current run with the deck has been quite successful at the local level, producing over $200 of store credit so far. Notably I am 9-0 vs Lands and 5-0 vs Burn in sanctioned matches...playing 0 Deathrite Shamans! This should demonstrate that Deathrite Shaman isn't as crucial as some people think. There's an argument that you should play Deathrite Shaman in this deck right now mainly to interfere with your opponent's Shamans - but this interference goes both ways, and as a mana-hungry deck we don't like to have useless mana dorks.