Bant Maverick Decklists

              

Intro
Bant Maverick or Geist Maverick is variant of classic GW Maverick. This version experienced a brief period of popularity in early 2012 but has been largely forgotten, and is probably the least well known Maverick deck. The motivation behind splashing Blue in Maverick was quite simple: the power of Geist of Saint Traft.

Geist of St. Traft works well in a Maverick shell for several reasons:

• Can easily be cast on turn 2 off of Maverick's many accelerants.
• Mother of Runes and Exalted make it harder for opposing creatures to block it.
• Provides a real clock against combo and control decks, which a typical Maverick deck can't.
• Becomes even more threatening in conjunction with Stoneforge Mystic + Equipment.
• Utility lands like Karakas and Maze of Ith interact favorably with it.
• High-impact threat that isn't reliant on the graveyard like Knight of the Reliquary.

True-Name Nemesis has largely supplanted Geist of St. Traft in the format as it is even harder to interact with, and is strong on defense, and doesn't require the support that the Geist does. However, if there is a shell where Geist of St. Traft still has a home in Legacy today, I believe this is it due to the reasons above.


Decklists
There are several different directions you can take with the Blue splash as you can see in the sample decklists below. Some lists play Thalia, others play Brainstorm, and even Jace, the Mind Sculptor shows up. Some amount of permission such as Spell Pierce is almost always incorporated into the sideboard, enabling stack interaction from the classically permanent-centric Maverick deck.

Grigory Kievsky, 5th @ TOPDeck Moscow Legacy OPEN (12/14/2013, 91 players)

Wayne Tam, 5th-8th @ Eternal Weekend (8/18/2012, 358 players)

Michael Braverman, 5-8th @ SCG Legacy Open Baltimore (3/25/2012, 264 players)

Derek Jacobs, 9th-6th @ SCG Legacy Open Tampa (3/4/2012)

Jeff Sirkis, 5th-8th @ SCG Legacy Open Memphis (2/26/2012, 94 players)

Morgan Burks, 3rd-4th @ SCG Legacy Open Richmond (2/5/2012, 117 players)

Adam Cai, 3rd-4th @ SCG Legacy Open Atlanta (1/8/2012, 191 players)


Closing Thoughts
Maverick is not strongly positioned in the current meta at large, but one popular and unfavorable matchup where I believe this version gains a lot of ground is the Miracles matchup. Geist is a real clock and harder for them to interact with than our other threats. I think Envelop is a great piece of sideboard technology that can improve the matchup as well.

If you're hoping to (maybe) beat Miracles, are looking for something a bit different to play, or are simply a Maverick enthusiast, I encourage you to give this deck a spin at your next local. There's nothing quite like beating someone down with Geist of St. Traft in Legacy!

Deck Tech: Punishing Zoo feat. Shawn "FIGHT ME!" Yu

                 

Background

Zoo is an archetype with a long history in Legacy. Traditionally, it was built as an aggressive deck with efficient creatures backed up by burn spells. However, "bigger" Zoo builds eventually evolved with more late-game staying power in both Extended and Legacy, perhaps best exemplified by Brian Kibler's winning deck from Pro Tour Austin in 2009. This archetype saw success most recently at an SCG Legacy Open in October 2013, when Shawn Yu piloted this list to a notable Top 8 finish. Legacy has changed a lot since then, and now Zoo is looked at as a relic of the past, but as a dedicated Naya player I have decided to investigate this archetype for myself. Fortunately, I was able to get some input from Mr. Yu to help me along my journey, which I hope others will find valuable as well!

The List
Yu's list brought a lot of interesting technology to the table to make a deck that attacks with Wild Nacatl viable in a format as diverse and powerful as Legacy. The Grove of the Burnwillows/Punishing Fire engine is very strong against most creature decks in the format, while a playset of Green Sun's Zenith adds an element of consistency to the deck while enabling a small toolbox of creatures to combat certain strategies. This was his 75 from the Legacy Open:

Punishing Zoo, 10/2013
Creature Spells (19) 4x Noble Hierarch 4x Wild Nacatl 1x Sylvan Safekeeper 3x Qasali Pridemage 2x Scavenging Ooze 1x Gaddock Teeg 4x Knight of the Reliquary	Noncreature Spells (18) 4x Green Sun's Zenith 4x Lightning Bolt 4x Swords to Plowshares 4x Punishing Fire 2x Elspeth, Knight-Errant
Lands (23) 4x Wooded Foothills 4x Windswept Heath 2x Taiga 2x Plateau 2x Savannah 1x Forest 1x Plains 1x Dryad Arbor 3x Grove of the Burnwillows 1x Karakas 2x Wasteland	SB: 3x Engineered Explosives SB: 3x Ethersworn Canonist SB: 3x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben SB: 2x Ancient Grudge SB: 2x Pyroblast SB: 1x Bojuka Bog SB: 1x Gaddock Teeg

Interview with Shawn Yu

How did you first hear of this deck and who do you think is credited with "inventing" it?

S: Big Zoo started in Extended shortly after the release of Zendikar when Brian Kibler took a Ben Rubin brew to the championship of PT Austin, featuring the Punishing Fire engine. The first time I was aware of it being ported into Legacy was after the 2010 Japanese Legacy Championship...notably, the first Legacy versions eschewed the Punishing Fire engine, but the real innovation was the combination of Noble Hierarch, Knight of the Reliquary, and Elspeth Knight-Errant, which gave the deck a leg up in the pseudo-mirror against the smaller Zoo decks which were the most dominant deck in Legacy at the time. Punishing Fire was a known commodity, but most people didn't think it was fast enough for Legacy (and it probably wasn't with the old meta). The first medium-sized tournament I ever won was with Big Zoo (without Punishing Fire), so the archetype held a special place in my heart. It was only after the format (and particularly, my local metagame) got saturated with a lot of slow control decks which could easily remove creatures but not reliably answer the Punishing Fire engine that the Punishing Fire became more popular. I eventually picked it up and swore by it. After Green Sun's Zenith got printed, I experimented with variants both with and without the new card. Obviously, that card also gave rise to the Maverick archetype, which is very similar to Big Zoo in many respects, except with even more of a midrange bent. Maverick was arguably the best deck in the format between 2011-2012, so many would-be Zoo pilots gravitated to that deck instead.

Why Big Zoo in a format as diverse and powerful as Legacy? (aside from the fact that it's awesome). What unique advantage can this archetype bring to the table?

S: I honestly think Big Zoo was extremely well-positioned during 2010. The best decks in the format were Zoo, Merfolk, and Goblins, and you improved your matchup in the pseudo-mirror at the slight cost of the latter two, but they still remained favorable. Punishing Fire was later included a strong counter to the rise of slow control decks that still allowed us to maintain the edge against tribal strategies. The metagame gradually shifted away from Big Zoo, but I do think there are many reasons to choose the deck. In my case, it was initially the deck with which I was most familiar, and I think there is a lot of advantage in knowing all the intricacies of a less objectively well-positioned deck. Furthermore, at a large event such as an SCG or GP, you also gain a lot of equity by playing a deck for which players are no longer prepared, which was especially the case when I sleeved up Big Zoo at SCG Seattle more than two years after its time had "passed". But what it does offer in addition to these intangible qualities are a very fast clock, unparalleled creature removal, solid answers to most other problematic permanents, and an inexorable long game that most grindy decks are not capable of matching. The combo matchup may initially seem unfavorable, but with a strong tutor-package and the appropriate sideboard cards, many of those matchups were quite manageable.

What are the good and bad matchups in your opinion?

S: I generally want to play against most creature decks. This includes the likes of Shardless BUG, Deadguy Ale, Death and Taxes, Goblins, Stoneblade, Merfolk, etc. I should note, however, that the likes of Stoneblade and Merfolk have gotten a lot tougher since True-Name Nemesis were printed, and I actually haven't played the deck since SCG Seattle (right before TNN became legal). Most of the combo decks are pretty bad matchups in game 1, but I feel much more comfortable in games 2 and 3, since my sideboard is almost completely geared against those decks. Before the printing of TNN, I rarely needed to bring in any cards from the sideboard for the fair matchups, so I could easily devote all of those slots against combo. Miracles is also difficult as one of the few control decks with the ability to win before Punishing Fire can take the game over, mostly because Entreat is so hard to interact with. I should also note that as a non-blue deck, you'll be subject to variance that will cause you to lose a decent number of matches that should be favorable. I consider all of the Delver matchups to be slightly favorable, but they can definitely capitalize on your mana screw and to tempo you out if you have a slow draw, despite all the removal available in the deck.

Which  matchups are perhaps unexpectedly good or bad?

S: The combo matchups are much better than most people think:
- Against Storm, you have the ability to cast a quick Zenith for two, which completely locks out ANT in game 1. Scavenging Ooze is also quite annoying, and after board, you gain access to Thalia and Canonist.

- Against Reanimator, Scavenging Ooze is terrific, and you also have the ability to find Knight of the Reliquary into Karakas to deal with most of their scary threats. If they have countermagic for the Knight, their Exhumes are probably shut off.
- Against the older Show and Tell decks, you have a Karakas and four Knights, in addition to everything else in your deck. That's like running 5 Force of Wills for Show and Tell that they can't fight back against. There are variations since then that allow Sneak Attack strategies to combat that line, but you have some game too.
- I played against Omniscience quite a bit, although this predated Dig Through Time. You have a pretty fast clock with some useful hatebears (Qasali Pridemage, Thalia, Gaddock Teeg), but the most crippling of them is Ethersworn Canonist. If you hold that in your hand for their Show and Tell, a follow-up Red Elemental Blast (or even an on-board Pridemage) will destroy their Omniscience before they have the chance to do anything.
- Aluren can be scary, but with the Punishing Fire engine, they have to combo off instead of relying on grinding you out. You have Gaddock Teeg to protect against Aluren, and you can sandbag Qasali Pridemage or Ethersworn Canonist in hand for the rest of their combo if they do resolve Aluren.
- Elves is not a favorable matchup, but we have more removal spells than any other deck to buy some time. Gaddock Teeg and Ethersworn Canonist are pretty useful to delay their most threatening plays, and if they're unable to kill us before Punishing Fire comes online, we're probably safe. Engineered Explosives out of the sideboard also slows down some of their most explosive starts.
- I've skimped on some Dredge hate in my most recent builds, but the strategy is to use Plows to manage their Ichorids and Bolts to manage their Bridges until you're able to cast or Zenith for Scavenging Ooze (or Knight of the Reliquary for Bojuka Bog). I certainly consider the deck an underdog to an experienced Dredge pilot that has full information about the deck (which would tell them that they're safe to go all-in on an aggressive hand like LED + Breakthrough), but this almost never happens.
- Interestingly, a lot of the Stax matchups are quite favorable as well. This deck has plenty of ways to remove artifacts, to go upstairs, and to even sneak under an Ensnaring Bridge with Noble Hierarch exalted beats.

As far as matchups that are unexpectedly bad, that's difficult for me to assess: people tend to be surprised when Big Zoo wins anything nowadays! But Burn is a tougher matchup for this deck than it is for regular Zoo, given the increased susceptibility to Price of Progress, and a resource denial deck like Pox is really problematic. I also consider Affinity quite difficult, as it can build a board presence much faster than we can keep up with spot removal, plus Etched Champion can stonewall most of our larger threats.

How should one approach fighting Public Enemy No. 1, Miracles?

S: Locally, I'm actually known more for piloting Miracles than Zoo now, so I find it really interesting that you've asked this!

In this matchup, I think it's important to recognize that you're the aggro role once again because Punishing Fire is generally not going to win you the long game. It's important to treat things like a normal Zoo deck would: be aggressive and maintain a significant board presence that forces an answer from your opponent without overcommitting if you can help it. Force the control player to have an answer, which they often don't, especially if they don't know you're on Zoo. By the time they've found a Swords or Terminus on turn 3, your exalted Wild Nacatl beats might have already hit them for 8. Use that to bridge them into bigger threats like Knight and especially Elspeth. Planeswalkers are particularly difficult for Miracles to beat.

Keep in mind that before Council's Judgment and Monastery Mentor were printed, Gaddock Teeg plus Sylvan Safekeeper were essentially a hardlock for their answers and their win conditions. Your opponent will often have to use Swords aggressively to protect their life total, so in some board states where you need to protect the rest of your board against Terminus, it's okay to throw down an unprotected Teeg.

Consider using your Qasali Pridemages aggressively to get rid of their Tops, particularly in response to fetchland activations. Sometimes you'll need the Pridemage for the clock, but still other times, only Terminus will save them, and it's often worth the cost of a 2-for-1 to minimize their ability to find it.

Getting locked underneath a Counterbalance feels terrible, but I wouldn't worry about it. It doesn't directly answer your board and you have the ability to produce varied mana costs, including Green Sun's Zenith for greater than 2, in order to find a Pridemage if necessary. In the situations where they've stabilized the board and lock you out with a Counterbalance, you probably weren't winning anyway.

I've had enough success with Zoo against Miracles, as well as difficulties against Zoo with Miracles, that I wouldn't consider this a terrible matchup. While I do think it's in Miracles' favor, I would like to repeat a quote by Dave Price, the King of Beatdown: "there are wrong answers, there are no wrong threats". The onus is on the Miracles player to find the right cards for the matchup.

What would your 75 look like if you were forced to play this deck at a hypothetical Legacy Open tomorrow?

S: The main reason I stopped playing Zoo is that some of the most favorable matchups (Merfolk and Stoneblade) became much more difficult with the inclusion of True-Name Nemesis, so I'd have to find an answer to that card. I've considered going with a Stoneforge package (to find Sword of Fire and Ice) or running a single Kessig Wolf-Run to allow our big threats to trample over for damage. But that begs the question of why not play GW/b Maverick or Punishing Maverick instead.

If I were committed to Wild Nacatls, I would probably try to find some room for Council's Judgment, which conveniently answers many other problematic permanents. I would shave down on the Qasali Pridemage and possibly some combination of Swords and Bolt to make room for that. Elspeth is also a bit underwhelming in these circumstances, so that would probably have to go as well. And finally, I would not be able to afford devoting so many sideboard slots to the combo matchup while skimping on slots for fair decks.

My thoroughly untested deck would look something as follows:

4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Taiga
2 Savannah
2 Plateau
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Forest
1 Plains
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Karakas

4 Wild Nacatl
4 Noble Hierarch
1 Sylvan Safekeeper
2 Qasali Pridemage
2 Gaddock Teeg
2 Scavenging Ooze
4 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Thrun, the Last Troll

3 Lightning Bolt
4 Punishing Fire
3 Swords to Plowshares
3 Council's Judgment
4 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Xenagos, the Reveler

SB: 3 Containment Priest
SB: 3 Ethersworn Canonist
SB: 2 Ancient Grudge
SB: 2 Pyroblast
SB: 1 Red Elemental Blast
SB: 1 Bojuka Bog
SB: 2 Null Rod
SB: 1 Garruk Relentless

Could you explain the omission of staples in Green midrange decks such as Tarmogoyf, Wasteland, and Sylvan Library?

S: Tarmogoyf is a reasonable choice. I played a single copy in my Mirkwood event and it helped me win a game that I might have otherwise fallen behind in, but I cut it for (the) SCG because I was trying to squeeze in some Wastelands.

Wastelands are also reasonable, as I ran two in the SCG Open. Sometimes chaining a few together with Knight is all you need to get your opponent to stumble. Unfortunately, I think squeezing in a Kessig Wolf Run is more important after the printing of TNN, and I feel Wastelands are less useful for mana screwing the opponent the fewer you run.

I've never liked playing Sylvan Library because I would always kill myself with it, but that's more of a personal issue.


Thank you for offering your thoughts Shawn! :)



Conclusion & Further Reading
Punishing Zoo probably won't Top 8 another Legacy Open, but it is a fun deck with a surprising amount of game. My match record "grinding" this deck over three weeks so far is 12-14-1. This is my latest list (also posted in the Zoo thread on The Source):

Punishing Zoo, 1/2016
Creature Spells (19) 4x Noble Hierarch 4x Wild Nacatl 3x Qasali Pridemage 2x Tarmogoyf 1x Scavenging Ooze 1x Gaddock Teeg 4x Knight of the Reliquary	Noncreature Spells (18) 4x Green Sun's Zenith 4x Lightning Bolt 4x Swords to Plowshares 4x Punishing Fire 1x Sylvan Library 1x Elspeth, Knight-Errant
Lands (23) 4x Wooded Foothills 4x Windswept Heath 2x Taiga 2x Savannah 1x Plateau 1x Forest 1x Plains 1x Mountain 1x Dryad Arbor 3x Grove of the Burnwillows 1x Karakas 2x Wasteland	SB: 3x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben SB: 2x Ethersworn Canonist SB: 2x Containment Priest SB: 2x Krosan Grip SB: 1x Crop Rotation SB: 1x Pithing Needle SB: 1x Thrun, the Last Troll SB: 1x Fiery Justice SB: 1x Bojuka Bog SB: 1x Gaddock Teeg

Here is a breakdown of my matches by event:

Shardless Bant 2-0
Esper Deathblade 2-1
Omni-Tell 1-2
Mono-B Reanimator 0-2

Enchantress 2-1
True-Name Bant 2-0
Esper Deathblade 2-0
Affinity 0-2
Burn 1-2

Goblins 1-2
Canadian Thresh 2-1
Mono-B Reanimator 2-1
Belcher 1-2

Flamespeaker Stompy 2-1
Miracles 1-2
Sneak & Show 2-1

Grixis Delver 1-2
Grixis Delver 1-1
UWRB Delver 0-2
True-Name Bant 0-2

Jund Turbo-Depths 1-2
The Cure 2-0
RG Lands 2-1
Aggro Loam 2-0
Esper Miracles 1-2
RG Lands 1-2
Reanimator 1-2

If you've made it this far, I encourage you to check out Yu's tournament reports with the deck on The Source, which are very detailed and analytical:

Shawn Yu's Mirkwood Cup Tournament Report, August 2013 (3rd-4th/95 players)

Shawn Yu's SCG Open Tournament Report, October 2013 (7th-8th/ >200 players)

I'm On The Internet

I don't know what reminded me, but I remembered that I was "featured" in two articles on the website Hipsters of the Coast back in summer 2013. The author was playing a new Standard deck every two weeks at Pandemonium in Cambridge and writing tournament reports of his experience on the site (the name of his column is "Ensnaring Cambridge", get it?).

This was only two years ago but it feels a lot longer ago than that. I was even worse at Magic then than I am now and was almost exclusively playing Standard! (I really enjoyed ISD-RTR though). I started getting interested in Legacy that summer through watching the SCG Open streams on Sunday, out of sheer boredom because I was working at school that summer while none of my friends were around.

Some things I remember from that time:

• Having to look up every card in Enchantress (except Sterling Grove, thanks to my comprehensive Invasion block knowledge)
• Seeing a Submerge hardcast on a single Lingering Souls token
• Lamenting the fact that Geist of St. Traft was ruining people's day even in Legacy
• Staring at awe at Bryant Cook turning over his foiled Storm deck
• Witnessing a turn 1 Tin Fins kill
• Not having a clue what "Maverick" was

...and last but not least:

• Wishing there was another Standard Open on Sunday so I could watch more Standard instead of Legacy.

...

I thought I might as well re-post the two articles here since I went through the trouble of digging them up:

I am his Round 3 opponent here, grim and unsmiling despite doing God's work with Sigarda and Advent of the Wurm.

I ran into him again but was able to smile for the photo this time. We somehow managed to draw the Red Deck Wins VS Sphinx's Revelation matchup!

I've also managed to dig up rough decklists for my two Standard decks from the articles. My Bant deck was very sub-optimal with no Thragtusks, Restoration Angels, or Voice of Resurgences since I was a budget-minded college student at the time:

Prime Speaker Bant

4 Centaur Healer
2 Loxodon Smiter
3 Yeva, Nature's Herald
2 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Wolfir Silverheart
2 Armada Wurm
1 Prime Speaker Zegana

4 Farseek
3 Azorius Charm
2 Selesnya Charm
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Think Twice
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Detention Sphere
2 Sphinx's Revelation
2 Supreme Verdict

3 Temple Garden
3 Sunpetal Grove
4 Breeding Pool
1 Hinterland Harbor
4 Hallowed Fountain
2 Glacial Fortress
5 Forest
1 Rogue's Passage
1 Alchemist's Refuge

SB: Can't find but it was certainly garbage considering how bad of a deckbuilder I was at this time. It definitely had a Jace, Memory Adept, Trostani, Selesnya's Voice, 2 copies of Rest in Peace, and probably some permission.

The 4C Control deck was a (sort of) logical extension from my Bant deck. At this point I wanted to build Esper Control to have a strong Jund matchup (it was only about 50/50 with Bant), but didn't want to shell out too much extra money on a Standard deck so late in the rotation. As a result, I ended up with this Esper Control/Bant Midrange hybrid monstrosity. I think I was genuinely onto something here and this deck could have been significantly better than it was, though maybe it would just become Dark Bant Control. Again, Thragtusk probably would have been a very valuable addition.

4C Control

4x Hallowed Fountain
4x Breeding Pool
3x Temple Garden
2x Watery Grave
1x Godless Shrine
1x Overgrown Tomb
3x Sunpetal Grove
2x Glacial Fortress
1x Hinterland Harbor
1x Drowned Catacombs
1x Alchemist's Refuge
2x Forest

4x Farseek
4x Think Twice
2x Azorius Charm
1x Cyclonic Rift
1x Blind Obedience
2x Dissipate
2x Syncopate
1x Putrefy
1x Oblivion Ring
3x Supreme Verdict
2x Far // Away
2x Sphinx's Revelation
3x Jace, Architect of Thought
1x Vraska the Unseen

2x Snapcaster Mage
2x Blood Baron of Vizkopa
1x Sigarda, Host of Herons
1x Aetherling

SB: 1x Staff of Nin
SB: 1x Supreme Verdict
SB: 1x Jace, Memory Adept
SB: 1x Reap Intellect
SB: 1x Oblivion Ring
SB: 1x Merciless Eviction
SB: 1x Nephalia Drownyard
SB: 1x Dispel
SB: 2x Rest in Peace
SB: 1x Deathrite Shaman
SB: 1x Armada Wurm
SB: 1x Sigarda, Host of Herons
SB: 1x Detention Sphere
SB: 1x Elixir of Immortality

Tournament Report: Eternal Extravaganza 3 with Punishing Jund, 10/24/15

Eternal Extravaganza 3 promised be exciting as one of the first major Legacy events following the banning of Dig Through Time. After a year of Delve-fueled madness, there was finally a prospect of a "return to normalcy" in the Legacy metagame.

I decided to stay on the Jund train as the deck has treated me very well over the last few months, and the demise of Omni-Tell as a Tier 1 deck has put it in a much stronger position. Expecting a lot of Shardless BUG and Blade players to come crawling out of the woodwork, I decided to play the 4th Punishing Fire in my maindeck flex slot. In the sideboard I wanted to try out Pernicious Deed instead of Toxic Deluge. Deluge is a great card but I was finding the life loss hurt a lot in this deck. Otherwise the list has remained basically unchanged for a while:

PUNISHING JUND, 10/24/15
Creature Spells (15) 4x Deathrite Shaman 4x Dark Confidant 4x Tarmogoyf 3x Bloodbraid Elf	Noncreature Spells (22) 4x Thoughtseize 2x Lightning Bolt 4x Abrupt Decay 4x Punishing Fire 3x Hymn to Tourach 1x Sylvan Library 4x Liliana of the Veil
Lands (23) 4x Verdant Catacombs 3x Marsh Flats 2x Wooded Foothills 3x Badlands 2x Bayou 1x Forest 1x Swamp 4x Grove of the Burnwillows 3x Wasteland	SB: 2x Duress SB: 2x Surgical Extraction SB: 2x Grafdigger's Cage SB: 2x Pyroblast SB: 2x Golgari Charm SB: 1x Phyrexian Revoker SB: 1x Trinisphere SB: 1x Nihil Spellbomb SB: 1x Life from the Loam SB: 1x Pernicious Deed

There were around 320 players present so the event would be a full nine rounds. Here is a lazy rundown of my matches:

Round 1: Omni-Tell (1-2)
People are still going to play this deck? Come on!!

Round 2: Canadian Thresh (2-0)
Game 2 I got to live the dream of Trinisphere/Loam lock.

Round 3: Death & Taxes (0-2)
I was in a strong position to win the second game, but at 8 life I proceeded to hit Bloodbraid Elf, Bloodbraid Elf off Bob triggers. Greatness at any cost.

Round 4: GW Maverick (2-1)

Round 5: Manaless Dredge (2-0)

Round 6: Aggro Loam (2-1)

Round 7: A.N.T. (2-0)
Real bad beats for my opponent. Game 1 he died to a totally non-interactive draw on my end after apparently bricking on all his cantrips. Game 2 I nut-drew him.

Round 8: Canadian Thresh (2-0)
Only Pernicious Deed action of the night in game 2 to clean up his board.

Round 9: Miracles (2-0)


Final Record: 7-2

I placed 23rd and was awarded a Tundra for my trouble. Overall it was a great event, and I hope to attend the next one!

Tournament Report: Legacy for Lotus with Punishing Jund

Another event at Die Hard Games, but this time a Lotus was on the line along with some other Eternal goodies. This won't be much of a report because I'm pretty tired.

4x Deathrite Shaman
4x Dark Confidant
4x Tarmogoyf
3x Bloodbraid Elf

4x Thoughtseize
2x Lightning Bolt
4x Abrupt Decay
3x Hymn to Tourach
3x Punishing Fire
4x Liliana of the Veil
1x Kolaghan's Command
1x Sensei's Divining Top

4x Verdant Catacombs
3x Marsh Flats
2x Wooded Foothills
3x Badlands
2x Bayou
1x Forest
1x Swamp
4x Grove of the Burnwillows
3x Wasteland

SB 2x Duress
SB 2x Grafdigger's Cage
SB 2x Pyroblast
SB 2x Surgical Extraction
SB 2x Golgari Charm
SB 1x Nihil Spellbomb
SB 1x Maelstrom Pulse
SB 1x Phyrexian Revoker
SB 1x Trinisphere
SB 1x Life from the Loam

I tried out K-Command for the 1st time where I normally play an Ooze, which was underperforming. I also decided to give Top a spin (haha) in place of Sylvan Library.

Trinisphere was SB tech I saw in a list somewhere which looks useful against Omni-Tell. I've been playing it for a little bit now and have been very satisfied with it (hasn't come up in the Omni matchup yet though). Haven't tried Slaughter Games yet but its still on my radar.

There were just over 100 people at the event so it was going to be 7 rounds. My matches went as follows:

Elves (2-1)

Belcher (1-2)

MUD (2-1)

Omni-Tell (2-0)

Reanimator (2-1)

Merfolk (0-2) (Got a game loss for having an SB card in my maindeck, then got boned by an early Back to Basics!)

Omni-Tell (2-1)

Final Record: 5-2

My record was good for 17th place, just out of prizes. I don't know if it was luck or skill, but I came out on top against unfavorable matchups all day. Beating Omni-Tell twice in one event was just absurd. Even in this era of Delve madness Jund is still good, so don't be discouraged from playing it!

GWb Maverick Decklists

          

Introduction
GWb Maverick has been the most popular and best performing Maverick variant since 2013, primarily due to the addition of these three Black cards that shore up some weaknesses of the classic GW build:

• Deathrite Shaman provides a formidable arsenal of abilities on an efficient, Green Sun's Zenith-able body. Enables incidental graveyard interaction while affording reach, lifegain, and mana production/fixing. Having 2 toughness also allows Deathrite Shaman to block better than other mana creatures while decreasing your vulnerability to -x/-x effects.
• Thoughtseize enables cheap, early, stack-based interaction against combo decks. While Maverick has access to many hatebears, being able to pressure combo decks on two different axes is invaluable.
• Zealous Persecution fulfills the need for fair decks to have access to -1/-1 and sweeper effects to combat True-Name Nemesis, Elves, and Death & Taxes. Zealous Persecution is uniquely effective in this role due to its asymmetric effect.

Note on Deck Nomenclature
Maverick decks splashing Black used to sometimes be referred to as "Dark Maverick" to distinguish them from pure GW or Punishing Maverick decks. However, the Black splash has become so dominant that this term is now obsolete. "Maverick" now comes with the expectation of a Black splash, rendering the "Dark" qualifier unnecessary.


The Lists

Michael Antrim, 9th-16th @ Star City Games Open Indianapolis (2/1/2015, 582 players)
Thomas Herzog, 5th-8th @ Star City Games Open Indianapolis (9/28/2014, 260 players)
Thomas Herzog, 3rd-4th @ Star City Games Open Indianapolis (6/1/2014, 347 players)
Thomas Herzog, 5th-8th @ Star City Games Open Detroit (4/20/2014, 225 players)

This list has been jointly developed by Maverick veterans Michael Antrim and Thomas Herzog, who have experienced widespread competitive success with it. I believe their style of list, representing a return to Maverick's roots, is the gold standard and the best place to start. Many characteristics of their list have been adopted by other players:

• 2 Libraries and 3 Equips main (eschewing Batterskull) with a heavy emphasis on creatures (note the quantities of Qasali Pridemage) 
• This manabase is the most functional for GWb Maverick, with 3 basics, a very light Black splash, and Gaea's Cradle providing access to explosive plays with Equipment or powering Zeniths through your own Thalia. 
• Antrim had great showing against Elves in Indianapolis, a bad matchup, with an extra G Teeg (3 total) and an extra Jitte in the 75. The extra G. Teeg also does work against Miracles, another bad matchup.
• Note that a 61 card maindeck is not uncommon for an archetype like Maverick and is totally acceptable.

More Lists:

Josh Pestana, 9th-16th @ Star City Games Classic Charlotte (1/10/2016)

Chris Ferber, 5th-8th @ Star City Games Classic Las Vegas (12/13/2015, 94 players)

Raymod Cornely, 3rd-4th @ Star City Games Premier IQ Baltimore (3/1/2015, 230 players)

David McDarby, 1st @ Star City Games Open Portland (12/7/2014,  players)

Chris Scagnelli, 9th-16th @ Star City Games Open Syracuse (8/10/2014, 230 players)

Corey Armstrong, 5th-8th @ Star City Games Open Los Angeles (11/3/2013, 281 players)

Jacob Lindy, 6th @ Star City Games Open Philadelphia (9/2/2013, 280 players)

Jack Wang, 1st @ Star City Games Open (6/23/2013, 220 players)

David Doberne, 2nd @ Star City Games Open Seattle (4/21/2013, 261 players)



Click here to see the GWx Maverick Introductory Primer

Click here to see the Punishing Maverick Primer and decklists

Click here to see the Maverick Card Interactions & Rules Primer

DECK: Punishing Maverick, 6/1/15

I've decided to play some Maverick again after a nearly seven-month hiatus. When I first started Legacy I only played Maverick because it was all I had. Now that my collection has expanded to include other decks I spend less time with it. However, Punishing Maverick is my true "pet deck", and was the inspiration for starting this blog with the Punishing Maverick Primer. Despite that, I actually don't have a lot of practical experience with the deck and am still figuring out my own list. There are around four maindeck flex slots that I'm constantly shifting around. Here is the latest attempt:

Creature Spells

Noncreaure Spells

Lands

Sideboard

This maindeck is "retro" to say the least-its pretty similar to the one Max Tietze won an SCG Invitational with in early 2012. The Elspeth should probably be a Batterskull but I like her too much not to give her a shot. Courser is a recent addition that I've seen in some other lists that could be interesting. Its a good blocker and provides lifegain and card advantage. 

In the sideboard I'm playing Containment Priest, which looks like a great addition to Maverick at first glance, but with Omni-Tell making Sneak & Show almost obsolete I'm wondering if it deserves a spot anymore. Bonfire is another spicy one I'm trying in place of the lackluster Electrickery.

I honestly think Punishing Maverick may be better positioned that GWb Maverick right now. Red Blasts are a great tool to have against Omni-Tell and other Dig decks, and Punishing Fire, while slow, can decimate the URx Delver decks. 

I'm having delusions of bringing this deck to Eternal Weekend in a month, but first I have to settle on a list, and then I have to remember how to  play this deck again-its a lot harder than Jund!