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!!

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.

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.

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!

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?

Tournament Report: Top8 @ Winter 1K with Punishing Maverick, 1/28/17

I ventured up to the frozen wastes of Southern Maine this weekend to sling old pieces of cardboard.

Here is the list I played:

Punishing Maverick, 1/28/17
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 (14) 4x Green Sun's Zenith 4x Swords to Plowshares 3x Punishing Fire 1x Sylvan Library 1x Umezawa's Jitte 1x Batterskull
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: 1x Pithing Needle SB: 1x Ethersworn Canonist SB: 1x Gaddock Teeg SB: 1x Sword of Fire and Ice SB: 1x Garruk Relentless SB: 1x Council's Judgment

A few comments on the direction of the list:

• Lately I've been playing without Deathrite Shaman and haven't really missed it. Despite the versatility of Deathrite Shaman I always find myself coming back to Noble Hierarch due its its consistency as a mana creature. The surge in BR Reanimator may make this shift look foolhardy, but in testing the matchup Deathrite Shaman had almost zero impact even turn 1 on the play, either because they had a Chancellor reveal or turn 1 fatty. The expected uptick in TNN after GP Louisville could mean more x/1 hate in sideboards which is very good against mono-1 toughness mana dorks, but I think people already have this hate due to the presence of Death & Taxes and Young Pyromancer.

• I think Pyroblast is well-positioned right now due to the presence of Show & Tell, Leovold, TNN, and Miracles. Council's Judgment is another card that has utility against the same decks. Also, it is worth noting that classic Sneak & Show has emerged as the dominant variant of S& T in the post-GP Louisville meta, which is great news for Maverick since Omniscience-based S&T is one of our worst matchups.

• Dark Depths is also relevant against the many TNN decks as it allows you to "go over the top" of those decks if you can't interact with TNN. It looks strong against the GP Louisville winning True-Name BUG deck in particular. Another route to try would be maindeck Sword of Fire and Ice instead of Dark Depths. This would also greatly improve game 1 against Miracles.

• Horizon Canopy hasn't been doing it for me lately in this deck. Cycling is good, but the damage it inflicts as well and the cost of losing a land (I'd often have Canopy out but wouldn't cycle it because I needed the mana) are relevant factors. I almost never searched for Canopy with Knight, but there were plenty of spots I wanted to search for a 3rd Savannah. 

There were 38 players at the event, so it would be 6 rounds with a cut to Top8. Here is how my swiss rounds went:

Round 1: Death & Taxes (2-0)
In both games I had a good mix of interaction and threats while my opponent flooded. I made a few blatant misplays (I'm often rusty during round 1 in the morning) but didn't really get punished for them.

Round 2: Burn: (2-0)
Game 1 was tight but I managed to get a sizeable Knight and Ooze in play while my opponent ran out of gas. I took an interesting line using Knight for mana to Zenith out Teeg instead of attacking with it one turn to cut off Fireblast as a draw for him. Game 2 my opponent had a somewhat slow hand and I had lots of good plays: turn 1 Hierarch (Bolted) into turn 2 Hierarch + Plow his creature into turn 3 QPM away his Vortex (waiting for him to take 2 of course). I landed SFM and + Jitte and got 2 counters, which trumped his Ensnaring Bridge.

Round 3: Mono-G Cloudpost (2-1)
I quickly died game 1 to Needle on Wasteland + Ugin despite having a turn 2 Knight backed up by another Knight. Candelabra is a hell of a card. Games 2 and 3 my opponent foundered in the face of Wasteland + Exalted beats.

Round 4: Miracles (0-2)
Game 1 he was on a mulligan and after some turn 3 Batterskull beatdowns he stabilized and I was inundated by his threats. Somehow I managed to fight through multiple Mentors and Angel tokens with Punishing Fire and Jitte. I ran out of gas though and succumbed to Jace. Game 2 I was on a 5 card hand that quickly lost to Counterbalance backed up by Mentor. This matchup is gross.

Round 5 RGu Lands (2-0)
I had great tools for the matchup in both games: multiple Knights in game 1 and Knight and Ooze in game 2.

Round 6: ID

The meta had a ton of Burn and BUG variants (Shardless, Team America, Aluren, TNN, etc.), with only 3 Miracles decks and 0 Eldrazi decks. The super interesting Top8 was:

My short-lived Top8 ended in the Quarterfinal vs RG Lands (0-2). I had anemic draws in both games that couldn't get it done. The final would be Lands vs Miracles 1 with Miracles 1 taking it down.

Overall, the event was solid: would drive 2 hours to Maine for Legacy again.

Tournament Report: SCG Baltimore, 11/5/16

Another weekend, another Legacy tournament in Baltimore.

BANT BLADE, 11/5/16
Creature Spells (14) 4x Noble Hierarch 4x Stoneforge Mystic 1x Scavenging Ooze 1x Qasali Pridemage 3x True-Name Nemesis 2x Knight of the Reliquary	Noncreature Spells (24) 3x Green Sun's Zenith 4x Brainstorm 4x Swords to Plowshares 1x Ponder 1x Spell Pierce 4x Daze 3x Force of Will 1x Jace, the Mind Sculptor 1x Umezawa's Jitte 1x Batterskull
Lands (22) 4x Misty Rainforest 4x Windswept Heath 3x Tropical Island 2x Tundra 1x Savannah 1x Forest 1x Island 1x Dryad Arbor 1x Karakas 4x Wasteland	SB: 2x Surgical Extraction SB: 2x Meddling Mage SB: 1x Garruk Relentless SB: 1x Engineered Explosives SB: 1x Sword of Fire and Ice SB: 1x Force of Will SB: 1x Invasive Surgery SB: 1x Gaddock Teeg SB: 1x Path to Exile SB: 1x Pithing Needle SB: 1x Reclamation Sage SB: 1x Rest in Peace SB: 1x Vendilion Clique

For better or worse, my list has remained basically unchanged for months now. The only change I made going into the weekend was cutting the 2nd Jace in the main for a Spell Pierce. The 2nd Jace really underperformed and was boarded out in almost every matchup except for Miracles. Even against Miracles Jace can be anemic against Red Blasts. I moved my SB Pierce into its place and put a Garruk Relentless as grindy card #2 in the SB.


Day 1

Round 1 - BR Reanimator (2-1)
Game 1 my opponent had enablers but no protection and I had counterspells.
Game 2 I didn't have enough disruption and died to Elesh Norn.
Game 3 I had to jam Hierarch into Chancellor to turn on my Surgical. He went to discard pitching a Chancellor. He then went to reanimate it and my hand was bad, so I had to Surgical it. I took another Chancellor out of his hand and saw a bunch of Sneak Attacks, a Reanimate, and an Exhume. Going through his library I also saw Blood Moons. On my turn Stoneforge Mystic rolled off the top exactly on time to give me a clock. He passed his next turn. I had a Misty Rainforest, giving me the option to EOT fetch Arbor and equip Sophie and start attacking on my next turn, but declined to as I wanted access to basic Forest against a potential Blood Moon. I just went to my turn, drew a card, and passed. On my EOT he cast Entomb and got Elesh Norn. I stared stupidly at the two Dazes in my hand and his 3 mana, realizing I was dead to Reanimated Elesh Norn having decided to neither get equipped beats going a turn sooner nor fetched Batterskull. My opponent miraculously cast Exhume on his turn rather than Reanimate, allowing my two Dazes to prevent Elesh Norn from hitting the board. I equipped and attacked on my next turn and drew Surgical. From there it was smooth sailing. I set myself up to get totally punished for playing too conservatively this game, but was saved by what was probably a stumble from my opponent.

Round 2 - Burn (2-0)
Game 1 I had Exalted True-Name beats and timely counterspells.
Game 2 was similar, but having only seen Hierarchs, Trops, and True-Names in the first game my opponent was cold to Stoneforge Mystic. He said he thought I was playing BUG. I guess he doesn't play a lot of Legacy.

Round 3 - Miracles (2-0)
Game 1 I kept up the slow incremental beats and Forced Counterbalance. A Miracle Entreat the Angels threatened to turn the tide, but my opponent tapped out for it, turning on all the soft permission rotting in my hand.
Game 2 my opponent foundered against Gaddock Teeg and Wasteland. He tried to make a race of it with Clique and Snapcasters, but ambush Dryad Arbor + Sophie on Teeg sealed it in my favor.

Round 4 - Storm (2-1)
Game 1 was a comical affair, as it often is in this matchup.
Game 2 I was able to get G. Teeg out but he was promptly Decayed. I was getting in for mediocre beats and my opponent cast plenty of Probes so I was getting there while he dug for a way to kill me. Once he went off I thought I was dead, with only a Surgical and Daze in hand. I couldn't take him off Threshold with the Surgical and threw my Daze into his Cabal Rit, which he paid for with an Underground Sea if I remember correctly. He cast Past in Flames with plenty of mana and cantrips in his yard, so I decided to Surgical Ponder since that gave him the most looks at finding the right cards to kill me. At this point he turned out to be choked on Blue mana, having cracked LED for Red and along with plenty of Black floating from Rits. He was able to start cantripping with Probes off Petals, but with only Brainstorms left and no shuffle effects he couldn't kill me and fizzled.
Game 3 I got out G. Teeg on turn 2, which lined up well against his Xantid Swarm. He loosely cast a Ponder before attacking with Swarm, which I Dazed to tap down his Bayou, keeping him off a potential Decay that turn. Next turn I played a Knight, and had to fade Decay for one more turn after which I would blow up his Bayou, which happened. After that my threats became too much to overcome. I felt really good getting out of this match alive.

Round 5 - Burn (2-0)
Dork, threat, some counterspells and removal. I forgot a Jitte trigger in game 1 which was incredibly loose, but I was far enough ahead that I still won.

Round 6 - UR Delver (0-2)
Game 1 I had a clunky draw that lined up poorly against the UR Delver deck.
Game 2 I had a weird 6 card hand and went all in on equipping Jitte to Dryad Arbor with Force backup. I got in two counters but when Bombat Courier (!!) showed up to block I was in an awkward spot against Bolt and my Arbor died. I resolved a loose Ponder keeping lands and a Batterskull on top of my library. Next turn my opponent slammed Blood Moon, which surprised me more than it should have. Keeping the Batterskull turned out to be fortuitous, and I cast it able to pay for Daze, but he had a Force. With all Mountains in play and no cards in hand at that point I was very dead. I think some of my decisions in this game were pretty questionable.

Round 7 - UW Stoneblade (2-0)
I honestly played quite loosely both of these games but drew the right threats and disruption to win comfortably.

Round 8 - Shardless BUG (0-2)
I was paired against my good friend Jon Orr, whose list I was very familiar with both from games at our local store and finishing our decklists together that morning. We lamented that we had to face each other at this crucial juncture, but were comforted by the fact that the winner had a great shot at making day 2. It happens that Shardless BUG is one of Bant's worst matchups, which Jon's list pushes to the extreme after sideboarding with 2 Disfigure, 2 Deluge, 1 Pulse, 1 Golgari Charm, 1 Null Rod, and 1 Night of Soul's Betrayal. As usual, our games weren't close.

Round 9 - BR Reanimator (0-2)
I was playing against a well-known SCG player who has played a variety of Legacy decks, so I had no clue what to expect. He turned out to be on...BR Reanimator, which has been exploding in popularity. Game 1 was over quickly.
Game 2 I kept a 7 card hand of GSZ, Stoneforge Mystic, 2 Dazes, 3 lands. I play against BR Reanimator at my local store a lot, and while this isn't an ideal hand in the matchup, I thought it would be reasonably effective against a large percentage of their draws. I thought mulliganing this hand would be over-cautious. I lead on GSZ-->Arbor with Daze at the ready. My opponent Cast Lotus Petal, which I let resolve, then cast Unmask. I Dazed without thinking about it much, which my opponent responded to by cracking Petal to cast Dark Rit. Nothing to do about that. Pay for Daze, see I have nothing, Entomb Griselbrand, Reanimate Griselbrand quickly followed. Needless to say, I did not win this game. While initially I brushed it off to the absurdity of his hand-no lands, turn 1 combo with protection-in hindsight I know I seriously misplayed my first Daze. The obvious play might have been Daze the Petal. Also viable was let Unmask resolve. He keeps his Petal and sees two Dazes, the first of which definitely shuts off a turn 1 combo. I asked a friend who plays BR Reanimator about this situation and he says he would take a Daze, jam something into the 2nd Daze, and pass. On my turn I cast Stoneforge Mystic but have nothing. How it plays out from the top of both of our decks from there is unknown, but what is certain is that Dazing the Unmask was exactly the worst line I had.

At X-3 I didn't think I'd make Day 2, but me and nearly 100 other X-3 players ended up getting pulled in. I honestly couldn't believe I made day 2 with my level of play. My only explanation was that many of my opponents played even worse.

Day 2

Round 10 - BG Aggro Depths (1-2)
Game 1 I had plenty of threats and won after giving him 20 life by Plowing a Marit Lage.
Game 2 went in a weird direction and I think I made a multitude of bad decisions. I never was able to put together a plan for victory despite drawing reasonably well. It didn't help that my opponent had Sylvan Library going for countless turns.
We didn't have much time left for Game 3. My opponent came out fast with multiple Tarmogoyfs and I had no answer but a Stoneforge Mystic to race back with Batterskull. I carelessly tapped my Wasteland and gave him a window play Hexmage and make Marit Lage with his on-board Depths to kill me.

Round 11 - Miracles (0-2)
Game 1 was a fiasco, with me forgetting to pop my Pridemage on Counterbalance in response to a Plow and failing to Daze a crucial Brainstorm that allowed him to counter my True-Name Nemesis.
Game 2 I was on 5 cards and didn't do much.

At X-5 and feeling pretty miserable, I decided to drop even though I still had a shot at top64.

Final Record: 6-5


I quickly became caught up in my friend Jon's tournament, which was still going well. He ended up winning the entire event through a gauntlet of Lands, Elves, and the final boss Joe Lossett himself. Congratulations to Jon for his stellar run and well-deserved win. Its hard not to call it a great weekend after that despite my own lackluster performance.

This was the last major event on my schedule for a while. What's next for me is to play some Maverick again, a deck I am starting to miss tremendously.


Bonuses:

Read Jon's 1st Place Tournament Report with Shardless BUG

Round 1 Feature Match, my Punishing Maverick comrade Mark Strassman took down Reid Duke playing Elves!!

Tournament Report: Eternal Extravaganza 5 with "Strictly Worse Miracles", 10/15/16

Having almost exclusively played Stoneblade decks over the last few months, I was certain I would play one at this event, but I didn't know exactly which variant.

On Thursday night, the day before we were heading down to Baltimore, I had an epiphany of sorts. The Maryland /NOVA region is renown for being infested with Lands and Aggro Loam, two unfavorable matchups for a Stoneblade deck. So why not splash Red for Blood Moon?

UWr BLADE, 10/15/16
Creature Spells (10) 4x Stoneforge Mystic 3x True-Name Nemesis 2x Snapcaster Mage 1x Vendilion Clique	Noncreature Spells (30) 4x Swords to Plowshares 4x Brainstorm 4x Ponder 4x Force of Will 3x Spell Pierce 2x Lightning Bolt 1x Spell Snare 1x Counterspell 1x Engineered Explosives 1x Council's Judgment 1x Supreme Verdict 2x Jace, the Mind Sculptor 1x Umezawa's Jitte 1x Batterskull
Lands (20) 4x Flooded Strand 4x Scalding Tarn 2x Arid Mesa 2x Tundra 2x Volcanic Island 3x Island 2x Plains 1x Mountain	SB: 2x Blood Moon SB: 2x Surgical Extraction SB: 2x Meddling Mage SB: 1x Containment Priest SB: 2x Wear // Tear SB: 1x Sword of Fire and Ice SB: 1x Ethersworn Canonist SB: 1x Invasive Surgery SB: 2x Pyroblast SB: 1x Pyroclasm

Its not a novel concept by any means, but I quickly became convinced it was my best choice for the weekend, despite having never played this Stoneblade variant before. Unfortunately, an existential flaw in UWr Stoneblade is that it is essentially a strictly worse Miracles deck. There are almost no matchups where you would rather be playing UWr Stoneblade than Miracles. One could previously argue that UWr Stoneblade is more capable of closing games faster and avoiding draws than Miracles, but the incorporation of Monastery Mentor into Miracles has invalidated that argument. In fact, I would say a Miracles deck can now kill faster. However, I know how to play Stoneblade, and I have no idea how to play Miracles, so for me there was no choice. I am no stranger to "dead" archetypes, so this was fine.

At the player meeting 9 rounds of Swiss were announced. Here is how my rounds went:

Round 1: Miracles (2-0)
Game 1 Both me and my opponent had pretty good hands in the dark. He had Island, Top into Counterbalance with Force backup. I had two lands, two Forces, two Blue cards, and a Stoneforge Mystic. When the dust settled I had Batterskull beating down while he dug for an answer with Top but couldn't find it.
Game 2 I played a Delver-esque game of beatdown with Snapcaster Mage and Chris Pikula (naming Terminus) backed up by counterspells for removal.

Round 2: Gw Cloudpost (2-1)
Game 1 I was nowhere near killing him when he resolved Primeval Titan.
Game 2 I had a good mix of disruption and pressure, with Vendilion Clique and Sophie carrying the game despite an appearance by Thragtusk.
Game 3 I kept an awkward hand with Blood Moon. My opponent's hand was equally awkward with no Cloudposts and one of his lands being a Tabernacle, but he had Maps. Eventually I drew a 3rd land to Blood Moon, but he was able to get Green mana online off the Maps. I was off White mana and had to cast Snapcaster Mage as Ambush Viper just to get a clock going in conjunction with Sophie while on Island, Mountain, Mountain. I drew relevant counterspells to keep him off anything too dangerous while clocking him and was able to end it despite eventually losing my Blood Moon to a Grip. I had to sweat it big time as I was just dead to a Titan for a few turns with no Blood Moon or permission.

Round 3: Grixis Delver (2-0)
Game 1 I had timely removal and permission to answer his threats and got Jitte equipped to True-Name. After the game my opponent commented that my opener of Arid Mesa, Mountain, Bolt Delver led him to consider naming Eidolon of the Great Revel with Therapy next turn.
Game 2 I Forced a Pyromancer and Snared another, and jammed True-Name on 3 mana which resolved to my surprise. He resolved Angler, but having Probed and fetched several times I was winning the race thanks to the Bolt in my hand and just started attacking. He found a Deathrite Shaman to even it out too late.

Round 4: Death & Taxes (0-2)
Game 1 I made some poor plays in the face of Thalia, Heretic Cathar, including not Stoneforging in my Batterskull in response to a Vial on 3 activation (I was going to do it anyway) and forgetting she has first strike.
Game 2 I got steamrolled despite having a Bolt, Plow, and Snapcaster Mage in my opener and scrying True-Name Nemesis on top of my library. I used my removal spells to kill Mothers and then landed True-Name. He cast Council's Judgment right away, which I Forced pitching Snapcaster. At that point I was out of spells and didn't draw relevant action while he was able to walk through True-Name with Sophie.

Round 5: Death & Taxes (2-0)
Game 1 I forced my opponents turn 1 Vial off Plains pitching a Jace. With just Flooded Strand and Scalding Tarn in play he resolved Phyrexian Revoker and named Sensei's Divining Top. That's fine. Stoneforge Mystic and True-Name Nemesis ended the game shortly after.
Game 2 I got True-Name + Equipment on-line again before he could do too much.

Round 6: Omni-Sneak (0-2)
Game 1 my opponent didn't do much on the first few turns, so I put him on Miracles. An Impulse exposed him to be playing some kind of Show & Tell deck. I countered his first Show & Tell but he had another and Griselbrand came into play. My True-Name + Jitte valiantly tried to make it a race but he drew into Emrakul to kill me.
Game 2 was a short affair with many skill-intensive decisions made on both sides. My opponent cast Show & Tell, I cast Force of Will, he cast Force of Will, then the game ended.

Round 7: Miracles (0-2)
Game 1 my opponent played at a brisk pace and in an effort to match it I made some really loose plays. He answered all my threats and established Counter-Top, and I conceded despite being under no pressure.
Game 2 I tapped out for a Stoneforge Mystic, and my opponent resolved Counterbalance as I stared at the two Pyroblasts in my hand. The game was basically over at that point.

Round 8: Shardless BUG (1-2)
Game 1 I managed to get there with two True-Names and a Clique backed up by counterspells.
Game 2 I had mana problems and couldn't do anything about Liliana of the Veil.
Game 3 I felt like I had all the tools to win, but a well-timed Abrupt Decay followed-up by a Toxic Deluge were too much to overcome. I think I could have won this game had I made different plays at my many decision points.

At this point I was out of prize contention and reasonably tilted after losing 3 rounds in a row so I dropped.

Final Record: 4-4
Not the worst record, but a bit disappointing considering I begun the day at 3-0.

The deck felt solid overall and I would play it again. Blood Moon is a valuable addition to a Stoneblade deck that shores up some matchups it can struggle against. I also like having access to additional efficient creature removal like Lightning Bolt and Pyroclasm. Pyroblast naturally does wonders in the Blue mirrors. UWR is a very flexible color combination in Legacy that can be tuned towards a variety of matchups and metagames.

A big highlight of the tournament was fellow Punishing Maverick player Mark Strassman running undefeated through the Swiss to make Top8, beating 2 Miracles, 2 Lands, 1 Belcher, and 1 Omni-Tell deck along the way. Unfortunately, he lost in the quarterfinal to the eventual champion, Miracles veteran Sam Roukas. Strassman's list, like mine, is derived from Fabian Goerzgen's 3.5 color list with Deathrite Shaman, but was packing a lot more sideboard cards for the Miracles matchup. Its awesome to see other people representing Punishing Maverick and doing well with it. You can see Strassman's list and tournament report posted here on The Source.

The only real downside of the weekend was having to drive back to Massachusetts on Sunday night after the tournament. I got home at 4:00AM and by some miracle managed to make it to work on time at 9:00AM. Of course, at 7:00PM that same Monday night I was battling it out again at one of my Legacy weeklies. Can't stop playing the best format.

Tournament Report: 11th @ SCG Worcester with Punishing Maverick, 7/9/16

Playing Legacy at the DCU Center in Worcester is something I look forward to all year. However, during the week leading up the event I began to have serious doubts about playing Punishing Maverick as originally planned. I thought maybe I should just play GWb Maverick, or even a different archetype altogether. I actually played Zoo at FNM the night before, and went to sleep still undecided.

When I woke up on Saturday morning I decided to stick with Punishing Maverick. I had faced this same dilemma before GP New Jersey in 2014: I chose to play GWb Maverick at that event even though I wanted to play Punishing Maverick, and ended up regretting it. While Punishing Maverick isn't the best deck choice objectively, I concluded it was the best deck choice for me. I tried out a few different things with the list recently but ultimately settled on something very similar to what I played at EE4:

PUNISHING MAVERICK, 7/9/16
Creature Spells (21) 4x Mother of Runes 3x Deathrite Shaman 1x Birds of Paradise 1x Noble Hierarch 3x Stoneforge Mystic 2x Qasali Pridemage 1x Scavenging Ooze 1x Scryb Ranger 1x Gaddock Teeg 4x Knight of the Reliquary	Noncreature Spells (14) 4x Swords to Plowshares 4x Green Sun's Zenith 3x Punishing Fire 1x Sylvan Library 1x Umezawa's Jitte 1x Batterskull
Lands (25) 4x Windswept Heath 3x Wooded Foothills 2x Savannah 2x Taiga 1x Bayou 1x Plateau 1x Dryad Arbor 1x Forest 1x Plains 3x Grove of the Burnwillows 1x Karakas 3x Wasteland 1x Thespian's Stage 1x Dark Depths	SB: 3x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben SB: 2x Surgical Extraction SB: 1x Ethersworn Canonist SB: 1x Gaddock Teeg SB: 1x Phyrexian Revoker SB: 1x Reclamation Sage SB: 1x Scavenging Ooze SB: 1x Crop Rotation SB: 1x Bojuka Bog SB: 1x Krosan Grip SB: 1x Winter Orb SB: 1x Fiery Justice

I finished sleeving up the deck at home, and when I got to the site I completed the deck registration without any hesitation. My primary goal at that point was to make it to Day 2.


Day 1

Round 1 - Canadian Thresh (2-1)
Game 1: I had good spells but was too light on mana to get things going.
Games 2 & 3: Scavenging Ooze did a lot of work in conjunction with removal.

Round 2 - Merfolk (2-1)
Game 1: Turned into a race. I appeared ahead but made a serious blunder by forgetting to give a Knight Protection before attacking one turn, and fell behind to multiple True-Name Nemeses.
Game 2: A quick affair with Scryb Ranger + Jitte.
Game 3: I had removal to keep his creatures at bay but no pressure, and time in the round was running out. I drew Stage and went on the Depths plan, managing to untap with a Knight and fade Submerge to kill him with Marit Lage.

Round 3 - RG Lands (2-0)
Game 1: My opponent this round appeared quite nervous, which was possibly adversely affecting his play. Despite having an active Loam and Exploration, he was never able to interact in a way that could protect his combo from my toolboxing Knight. Eventually I made my own Marit Lage at the end of his turn by copying his Depths with my Stage, and on my turn Wasted his Maze and bounced his Marit Lage with Karakas to swing for lethal.
Game 2: I had a solid hand with Hierarch, Rec. Sage, and Crop Rotation. He stalled as I Stone Rained his Mox and then bricked on Loam for a turn. He played out a Depths, which I copied with my Stage off Crop Rotation to kill him with Marit Lage again.

Round 4 - Eldrazi (2-0)
Game 1: Ended quickly after I untapped with a large Knight and drew Thespian's Stage.
Game 2: My opponent kept a slow hand with Leyline of the Void, a classic mistake in this matchup. I got out a turn 2 Knight, and drawing Stage again, decided to go for the combo. He cast All is Dust to destroy my board, and while I could tutor Depths up in response, I only had one other land so I couldn't make Marit Lage that turn after All is Dust resolved. I still felt confident, as I basically just had to draw a land before he stuck Pithing Needle (if it was in his 75), got Endbringer on-line, or killed me with running Reality Smashers. I drew a land on my next draw step to kill him with Marit Lage.

Round 5 - UB Reanimator (2-0)
Game 1: On the play my opponent had an explosive opening hand that cost almost all his cards to put Griselbrand into play. Fortunately, I had Karakas in my opener, which was a total blowout. I continued to develop my board as he dug for more action. He managed to put Grave Titan into play, but his life total was too low to survive Mother of Runes + attacker.
Game 2: He appeared to be in a lot of trouble after I Wasted his only land with a turn 2 Knight. He was able to put Tidespout Tyrant into play but by then I had a sizeable board presence including a Mother. The turn after he tapped out to Reanimate Tyrant I chose to cast another Knight instead of Thalia, which turned out to be a huge mistake. He had been stockpiling spells in hand and was started to go to work bouncing my board. Mother of Runes proved to be a hindrance to this plan however, and I was able to continuously keep enough things in play to pressure him, eventually swinging past his Tyrant for lethal.

Round 6 - Grixis Delver (2-0)
Game 1: Involved a drawn-out fight over Punishing Fire with multiple opposing Deathrite Shamans. He was able to get rid of the first one but I drew another and he conceded shortly after if I remember correctly.
Game 2: I resolved an early Stoneforge for Batterskull with Mother of Runes protection. I made a sloppy play by leaving the activation up to use on his end step. After seeing Cabal Therapy in game 1 I wasn't very afraid of Stifle, and figured if he had a Grudge it would be better to force him to use all of his two mana on that turn to cast it. After the match he told me he had a Clique but needed to find a 3rd land that turn. Had he found it I might have been in trouble.

Round 7 - Death & Taxes (2-0) @ Table #1
Game 1: A confusing affair with clogged board states on both sides, but he didn't have the tools to stave off my large Knights.
Game 2: My opponent resolved Rest in Peace but didn't have a lot of action and I was able to get the beats going with a motely crew that included Legacy all-stars Squire (formerly a Deathrite Shaman) and Grizzly Bear (formerly a Scavenging Ooze). Batterskull and Qasali Pridemage joined the party to finish him off.

Round 8 - Dredge (2-1)
Game 1: My opponent was on five cards with no lands, and I had a relatively quick Marit Lage to end things, despite chump-blocking Narcomoebas.
Game 2: He had an explosive draw that put nine Zombies and Iona into play on his second turn against my lone Deathrite Shaman.
Game 3: I had Surgical and Crop Rotation in my opening hand. He went all in after I used Surgical on Narcomoeba, resulting in about 3/4 of his Library getting savagely blown out by Bojuka Bog. A follow-up Scavenging Ooze sealed his fate.

Round 9 - Shardless BUG (1-1)
After playing two grindy games we couldn't finish the third. I think we both played at a reasonable pace so it couldn't really be helped. Props to Marit Lage for taking down game 1.

I finished Day 1 in 3rd place with an 8-0-1 record.


Day 2

Round 10 - Eldrazi (1-1)
Game 1: An extremely drawn-out affair where I was able to get huge Knights in play but was at too low of a life total to make safe attacks into his horde (my kingdom for Kessig Wolf Run). Eventually he got Endbringer on-line, but conceded once I had Marit Lage and three 14/14 Knights.
Game 2: I couldn't hang on after my Germ had to chump-block Reality Smasher and he kept me off mana to equip Batterskull to my Knight. We just finished resolving mulligans for game 3 when time was called. A judge was at our table and ended the match in a draw since we hadn't started yet. I could have messed up here by not being aggressive enough to finish the first game in a timely manner.

Round 11 - Lands (1-2)
This was an extremely swingy match that ended in about ten minutes.
Game 1: My opponent had a fast Marit Lage I couldn't answer.
Game 2: He led with a tapped Tranquil Thicket against my Deathrite into Thalia + Wasteland.
Game 3: He had a fast combo I couldn't answer again. So it goes. I was honestly relieved this one ended relatively painlessly considering how grindy this matchup can be.

Round 12 - BR Reanimator (2-1)
Game 1: I mulliganed to five and was facing down Sire of Insanity and Griselbrand on his first or second turn. I scooped up all my cards instead of discarding my hand.
Game 2: I got multiple Deathrite Shamans active that he couldn't seem to deal with.
Game 3: I had Surgical and Bog in my opening hand. He had an Unmask on his second turn so I had to use Surgical on a Thoughtseize he discarded to Faitless Looting. I got to check out his deck and saw that Massacre was his only way of killing my creatures, and also saw his hand was light on action. I was able to keep him pinned on mana while building towards a Depths kill with Knight, all while playing around Massacre by using a Hierarch for White.

Round 13 - UG Infect (1-2)
Game 1: Don't remember well, but I died pretty quickly.
Game 2: I had a removal heavy draw that lined up well against his threat light draw.
Game 3: I kept a hand with a Krosan Grip and Punishing Fire for interaction. He ran out an Inkmoth pretty early, so I comitted to leaving up Grip mana to get rid of it. Unfortunately, I was a bit light on mana, and he was unwilling to activate Inkmoth into my open mana (could he have gotten a read on Grip?), resulting in huge tempo losses for me as I was barely developing my board. Eventually he ran out a Corrupter and when I passed my following turn he Crop Rotated away his Inkmoth. He untapped and attacked confidently with his Corrupter. At zero poison and with Fire still in hand I declared no blocks. He had Invogorate + Vines + Berserk to kill me real good through it.

Round 14 - UG Infect (2-1)
Game 1: Felt the same as the first game of last round.
Game 2: A weird one, but I was never put under much pressure and was able to find a path to victory.
Game 3: I had a very strong draw and my opponent had a few stumbles.

Round 15 - Miracles (2-1)
Game 1: My opponent led on Volcanic and Ponder, and missed his next land drop. I assumed he was on Grixis Delver. However, he discarded a Terminus to hand size, making my board of Mother of Runes and Birds of Paradise look pretty embarrassing. He wiped my board with a Terminus and I conceded to the follow-up Mentor. I couldn't believe the irony of dodging Miracles all weekend only to finally face it in the most crucial match.
Game 2: I established an early board of Mother, Thalia and G. Teeg. My heart sunk when he cast a Preordain, suggesting he was on an aggressive build with four Mentors and no Jaces, which requires a different sideboard plan (Gaddock Teeg is noticeably worse against this version). Surely enough, he landed a Mentor and was poised to go crazy on his next turn but I had Fiery Justice right on time. He had 3 monks left but they were ineffective in the face of Thalia + Mother and he conceded.
Game 3: This one swung back and forth until we were both playing draw-go with piles of lands out. It was one of the last games happening so a large crowd was beginning to gather around us. He got Mentor going and it looked like that was it for me. However, Dark Depths rolled off the top of my library, and with my Stage already in play he was suddenly facing lethal next turn. He attacked with everything and I went down to four after being forced to make Marit Lage to block. On my turn he had a Vendilion Clique to attempt a block, but Punishing Fire paved the way for Marit Lage to reduce his life total to zero. What a way to end the event!

Final Record: 11-2-2


My record turned out to be good for 11th place. After my rough start during the first two rounds of Day 2, I thought Top 8 had already slipped out of reach for me. As it turned out, I came incredibly close-one more win could have put me in a position to make it.

The words from this post I wrote a few weeks ago regarding deck choices in Legacy turned out to be weirdly prophetic. I'll be honest: I'm a mediocre Magic player. In hindsight, it was my intimacy with the deck and the Legacy metagame, plus a healthy dose of luck, that enabled me to achieve this result. As friends and acquaintances repeatedly expressed their surprise (and congratulations) at how well I was performing throughout the event, I could only say one thing to explain it: "I'm just playing cards I like".

My deck got a shout-out in this article, check it out!

Tournament Report: Eternal Extravaganza 4 with Punishing Maverick, 6/18/16

I'd been looking forward to this event since it was first announced months ago. When the date for the U.S. Legacy GP was fixed to be the weekend immediately before EE4, at first I thought I would go to the GP instead. However, I settled on going to EE4 since it was only a ~5 hour drive away. As things happened, our group reached the hotel at 2AM after a 7 hour drive plagued with traffic and other mishaps. I wasn't as rested as I wanted but still arrived at the venue later that morning eager to put the Punishing Maverick deck I'd been honing for weeks to the test. The well-used, A/C-less hall coupled with 90 degree heat outside promised some level of discomfort, but everyone was happy to be there playing Legacy. The event had ~320 players so it was going to be the full 9 rounds. Here is the 75 I registered:

PUNISHING MAVERICK, 6/18/16
Creature Spells (20) 4x Mother of Runes 3x Deathrite Shaman 1x Birds of Paradise 1x Noble Hierarch 2x Stoneforge Mystic 2x Qasali Pridemage 1x Scavenging Ooze 1x Scryb Ranger 1x Gaddock Teeg 4x Knight of the Reliquary	Noncreature Spells (15) 4x Swords to Plowshares 4x Green Sun's Zenith 3x Punishing Fire 1x Life from the Loam 1x Sylvan Library 1x Umezawa's Jitte 1x Sword of Fire and Ice
Lands (25) 4x Windswept Heath 3x Wooded Foothills 2x Savannah 2x Taiga 1x Bayou 1x Plateau 1x Dryad Arbor 1x Forest 1x Plains 3x Grove of the Burnwillows 1x Karakas 3x Wasteland 1x Thespian's Stage 1x Dark Depths	SB: 3x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben SB: 2x Surgical Extraction SB: 1x Ethersworn Canonist SB: 1x Gaddock Teeg SB: 1x Phyrexian Revoker SB: 1x Reclamation Sage SB: 1x Scavenging Ooze SB: 1x Crop Rotation SB: 1x Bojuka Bog SB: 1x Krosan Grip SB: 1x Garruk Relentless SB: 1x Fiery Justice

After testing without Dark Depths a little, I quickly went back to it and continue to maintain its a strong choice for most builds of Maverick. Another tweak I made in the manabase was dropping the Horizon Canopy for a basic Plains, which I've been satisfied with so far.

For the Equipment package, I decided to go with 2 SFM + Jitte + Sword despite my preference for 3 SFM + Jitte + Batterskull. I thought a Sword was better positioned against Miracles and Shardless and wasn't expecting a whole lot of Delver decks. Its also worth noting that Batterskull isn't the slam dunk it used to be against the predominant Grixis Delver game 1 now that maindeck Therapies have become common.

Round 1: UG Infect (0-2)
My opponent is a known Infect player, so I kept a hand on the play with a turn 2 Jitte. Jitte is quite strong against Infect and in game 1 they have no way of removing it. Unfortunately, my Jitte got countered by Force of Will. I realized I had overlooked a crucial component of my opening hand: Gaddock Teeg. Since my opponent led on Noble Hierarch I could not die on turn 2. Therefore, the superior play would have been to lead on Gaddock Teeg before casting Jitte, which at that point would be both Force and Daze proof. I would also have the mana to equip it the same turn and start attacking. As it turned out, I drew no more interaction and died pretty quickly.
Game 2 I had a solid interactive draw and felt poised to take over the game, but my opponent Brainstormed into Invigorate + Berserk to kill me with his last threat a turn before I could get Jitte going.

Round 2: Grixis Painter (2-0)
These games were pretty similar. My opponent was digging a lot with Top and cantrips but never seemed find what he needed in the face of my hodge-podge of creatures and removal.

Round 3: Esper Deathblade (2-1)
Game 1 was a grindfest and my opponent eventually got the better of it after landing Jace and protecting it for several turns.
Game 2 I blew up his hand with a Wasteland and quickly ended the game with Exalted beats.
Game 3 I was on a mulligan but could present a relatively quick Marit Lage that he wasn't able to answer.

Round 4: Death & Taxes (1-1)
I played too slowly and conservatively this round, resulting in a draw in turns despite me being overwhelmingly favored to win game 3.

Round 5: ANT (1-2)
Game 1 my opponent had to sweat it on Ad Nauseam flips after 2 life and 1 life, but found what he needed to get there.
Game 2 I mulliganed to a hand with a turn 2 Knight and a Wasteland as my only potential interaction. I managed to fade a turn 2 kill and destroyed both his lands.
Game 3 I had a promising mulligan to 5 with Mother into Revoker, but it was blown up by Dread of Night into Chain of Vapor into Tendrils for 20.

Round 6: Esper Control (2-0)
My opponent is someone I'm familiar with from Massachsetts. I know he's on an Esper Control brew (Planeswalkers, Painful Truths, Vindicates, no Stoneforge Mystic or True-Name Nemesis) that lines up very poorly against my deck based on our previous matches. This time is no different.

Round 7: Miracles (2-1)
Game 1 he gets Mentor + double Top going and I die to a swarm of Monks a turn before I can make Marit Lage to swing for lethal.
Game 2 on a mulligan I have a quick Marit Lage he can't answer.
Game 3 he has Top into Counterbalance, but I'm able to resolve Scryb Ranger and Stoneforge Mystic for Jitte after seeing a Mentor floating around. He gets aggressive with Mentor and I go down to 2 life, but Scryb Ranger + Jitte is able to decimate all his Monks. We end extra turns with no clear conclusion and I'm prepared to draw, but my opponent decides to concede and drop.

Round 8: Gw Cloudpost (0-2)
Once again I know what my opponent is on, and keep a hand with a potential turn 2 Knight. Unfortunately, no lands are fetched so my Deathrite Shaman-turned-Squire is unable to bring my hand together. Without another land I decide to spend my second turn Zenithing for Noble Hierarch only to have Thought-Knot Seer exile my Knight, totally blowing up my game plan. I was able to strap on both my Equipments to my Squire and get some pressure going, but he resolved Primeval Titan, with Glimmerposts and my Plow giving him enough time to resolve Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger.
Game 2 I have a mulligan with a Wasteland. I use it on his Ancient Tomb instead of Savannah, and  savagely topdeck my Loam next turn. I go after his tapped Cloudpost but get blown out by Crop Rotation. Oops. He resolves Rest in Peace on his next turn, and is quickly able to demonstrate an infinite turn loop.

At this point I am out of prize contention and in a zombie-like state from exhaustion so I drop.


Final Record: 4-3-1

While not the best result, I feel good about the deck, which was limited not by its power but by my poor play in several spots. Looking ahead, I am hoping to attend SCG Worcester in July. At this point I will probably just hold course and play some kind of Maverick deck.

Tournament Report & Deck Tech: Eternal Extravaganza 4 Satellite, 2/21/16 with GW Maverick

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.

GW MAVERICK, 2/21/2016
Creature Spells (22) 4x Noble Hierarch 4x Mother of Runes 3x Stoneforge Mystic 2x Qasali Pridemage 1x Gaddock Teeg 1x Scavenging Ooze 1x Scryb Ranger 1x Voice of Resurgence 4x Knight of the Reliquary 1x Courser of Kruphix	Noncreature Spells (14) 4x Green Sun's Zenith 4x Swords to Plowshares 2x Sylvan Library 2x Council's Judgment 1x Umezawa's Jitte 1x Batterskull
Lands (24) 4x Misty Rainforest 4x Windswept Heath 4x Savannah 2x Forest 1x Plains 1x Dryad Arbor 1x Horizon Canopy 1x Karakas 1x Dark Depths 1x Thespian's Stage 4x Wasteland	SB: 1x Bojuka Bog SB: 1x Containment Priest SB: 2x Crop Rotation SB: 2x Ethersworn Canonist SB: 1x Gaddock Teeg SB: 1x Path to Exile SB: 1x Pithing Needle SB: 1x Reclamation Sage SB: 1x Rest in Peace SB: 1x Sword of War and Peace SB: 3x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben

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)

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.