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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here's a rundown of how the events went:

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

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

Final Record: 5-2, 11th place


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

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

Final Record: 7-2, 2nd place


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

DECK: Punishing Maverick, 1/19/18

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

Creatures

Noncreatures

Lands

Sideboard

Imgur album w/ full-size images

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

DECK: Esper Mentor

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

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

Win-cons

Instants & Sorceries

Lands

Sideboard

Link to Imgur album w/ full-size images

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

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

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

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

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

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

Punishing Zoo, 10/29/17
Creature Spells (20) 4x Noble Hierarch 4x Wild Nacatl 2x Qasali Pridemage 2x Scavenging Ooze 1x Gaddock Teeg 1x Voice of Resurgence 4x Knight of the Reliquary 2x Thalia, Heretic Cathar	Noncreature Spells (17) 4x Green Sun's Zenith 4x Lightning Bolt 4x Swords to Plowshares 4x Punishing Fire 1x Sylvan Library
Lands (23) 4x Wooded Foothills 4x Windswept Heath 2x Savannah 2x Taiga 2x Plateau 1x Forest 1x Plains 1x Dryad Arbor 3x Grove of the Burnwillows 1x Karakas 2x Wasteland	SB: 3x Surgical Extraction SB: 1x Gaddock Teeg SB: 2x Pyroblast SB: 1x Wear / Tear SB: 1x Reclamation Sage SB: 2x Crop Rotation SB: 2x Ethersworn Canonist SB: 1x Bojuka Bog SB: 1x Umezawa's Jitte SB: 1x Chandra Pyromaster

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Punishing Maverick Update

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

All this being said, here is my current list:

Punishing Maverick, 9/30/17
Creature Spells (20) 4x Mother of Runes 3x Noble Hierarch 1x Birds of Paradise 2x Stoneforge Mystic 2x Qasali Pridemage 1x Scavenging Ooze 1x Gaddock Teeg 1x Scryb Ranger 1x Voice of Resurgence 4x Knight of the Reliquary	Noncreature Spells (15) 4x Green Sun's Zenith 4x Swords to Plowshares 4x Punishing Fire 1x Sylvan Library 1x Umezawa's Jitte 1x Sword of Fire and Ice
Lands (25) 4x Windswept Heath 3x Wooded Foothills 3x Savannah 2x Taiga 1x Plateau 1x Forest 1x Plains 1x Dryad Arbor 3x Grove of the Burnwillows 1x Karakas 3x Wasteland 1x Thespian's Stage 1x Dark Depths	SB: 2x Surgical Extraction SB: 2x Pyroblast SB: 2x Crop Rotation SB: 1x Bojuka Bog SB: 1x Reclamation Sage SB: 1x Grafdigger's Cage SB: 2x Ethersworn Canonist SB: 1x Gaddock Teeg SB: 1x Wear / Tear SB: 1x Scavenging Ooze SB: 1x Fiery Justice

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

Here are some updates on other cards I was testing:

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

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

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

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

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

Deck Tech: Punishing Maverick by morticiansunion (MTGO)

MTGO user morticiansunion (Ethan Gaieski) has recently been having successes with Punishing Maverick lists.

Here is the most recent iteration of his list

He later made a post about the deck on the MtG Legacy subreddit.

The post attracted a decent amount of attention and Ethan did a great job of explaining the deck's theory, advantages, and matchups.

I just wanted to share a few thoughts on his list:

The Good

6 dorks - Mana dorks are the bread and butter of Maverick, and Ethan has clearly embraced this. Playing this many mana dorks informs many of the deckbuilding choices. It makes the 4th Wasteland much better, and also increases the stock of Sanctum Prelate as a 2-of in the sideboard. While powerful, Sanctum Prelate can be slow compared to CMC2 hatebears like Thalia, Canonist, and G. Teeg. However, with 6 dorks you have a good enough chance of deploying her on your second turn that she's worth running over other options.

Elspeth Knight-Errant and Chandra Pyromaster - These are my two favorite Planeswalkers to play in a Naya deck and I'm glad Ethan appreciates their power . Chandra is notably better in Ethan's list than mine since he has more Red sources in the form of +3 Birds and the 4th Grove.


The Not as Good

4 Birds/2 Hierarch split - I first played Punishing Maverick with 4 Birds because I thought its ability to make Red mana was indispensable. I quickly learned through playing the deck that Noble Hierarch is generally a better card due to the Exalted trigger, despite not producing Red. Birds is still useful and good enough that I always play 1, but I've hardly ever wanted a second. I have to think that a 4 Hierarch/2 Birds split is superior.

Too Many 1-toughness creatures? - The list has a whopping 15 1-toughness creatures. For reference, I typically play 10, and regard this as one of the biggest weaknesses of omitting Deathrite Shaman from Punishing Maverick. Cards like Zealous Persecution, Golgari Charm, Marsh Casualties, Umezawa's Jitte, Liliana, the Last Hope, and more can be crippling to such a creature base. Ethan clearly doesn't share this concern, and maybe he's correct that the benefits of these creatures outweigh their vulnerability.

Deck Tech: Junk Loam

I haven't played Aggro Loam regularly for almost two years now. While a very powerful and flexible archetype, I was ultimately frustrated by its fundamental inconsistencies. One idea I always tinkered with was playing a 3-color Loam deck, in the hope that shedding the 4th color could ameliorate some of these consistency issues. This led me to play various Naya and Jund Loam builds at some weeklies here and there, but none were very successful.

I never fully explored Junk colors since I was loath to play Aggro Loam without Punishing Fire. Until now, the only Junk Loam variant I had played was the relatively combo-centric Junk Depths deck with Living Wish. However, a new printing has made a "fairer" Junk Aggro Loam deck appear much more appealing to me than before.

Collective Brutality slots very naturally into an Aggro Loam shell for several reasons.

• Interaction with a CMC of 2, so it plays well with Chalice on 1.

• It affords maindeck interaction with combo decks via the discard ability, and to a lesser extent the drain ability.

• Versatile maindeck card overall, with utility in fair matchups as a Disfigure as well. This versatility is very valuable in a non-Blue deck with little card selection.

• Cost of Escalating is often low since you have cards that are bad draws late game or in certain matchups, or cards that don't mind being in your graveyard.

Without further ado, here is the list I decided to start with:

Junk Loam, 7/2/17
Creature Spells (11) 4x Dark Confidant 1x Tarmogoyf 1x Gaddock Teeg 1x Scavenging Ooze 4x Knight of the Reliquary	Noncreature Spells (23) 4x Mox Diamond 4x Chalice of the Void 2x Sylvan Library 2x Green Sun's Zenith 2x Life from the Loam 3x Abrupt Decay 3x Collective Brutality 2x Liliana of the Veil 1x Maelstrom Pulse
Lands (26) 4x Verdant Catacombs 3x Windswept Heath 3x Bayou 2x Scrubland 1x Savannah 1x Dryad Arbor 1x Forest 1x Swamp 1x Horizon Canopy 1x Cabal Pit 1x Dark Depths 1x Thespian's Stage 1x Maze of Ith 1x Karakas 4x Wasteland	SB: 2x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben SB: 2x Containment Priest SB: 4x Leyline of the Void SB: 1x Toxic Deluge SB: 1x Reclamation Sage SB: 1x Garruk Relentless SB: 2x Swords to Plowshares SB: 2x Thoughtseize

The spell-base is very similar to a "stock" 4C Loam list, essentially just swapping Brutality in for Punishing Fire.

In the manabase, I tried to keep the number of utility lands to a minimum. The Dark Depths combo can be comfortably accommodated, which I felt was stretched thin in 4 colors. Notably, I eschewed Barren Moor/Tranquil Thicket entirely, playing Horizon Canopy as my only Cycling land. While atypical for an Aggro Loam deck, this change was motivated by an intent to be less reliant on Loam and to curve out more easily with untapped lands.

I have played this exact list in 3 different weekly tournaments and prized at all of them. Matches have been as follows:

Miracles (2-0)
Omni-Sneak (2-1)
Czech Pile (1-1)
UR Delver (1-2)
Punishing Zoo (2-1) <--(My list!)
RG Lands (2-0)
Goblins (2-0)
Manaless Dredge (2-0)
Slivers (2-0)
Omni-Sneak (0-2)
Omni-Sneak (2-1)
BR Griselbrand (2-1)

Some observations thus far are as follows:

• Collective Brutality is never bad but never amazing. Its versatility is indeed valuable, but its definitely an inefficient spell by Legacy standards.

• Deathrite Shaman and Baleful Strix are both quite problematic for this deck. The lack of Punishing Fire is very palpable against decks with those cards such as Czech Pile. Cabal Pit is absolutely necessary since it grants you some form of repeatable removal. Another possibility is running Darkblast in the sideboard.

• The manabase is quite solid. The basic Swamp feels unnecessary and there can also be room for another utility land in place of the 3rd Bayou or a fetchland. For additional utility lands, another Cycling land, Bojuka Bog, and a manland are all possibilities.

• The Maelstrom Pulse can probably become a 3rd Liliana.

• The sideboard has felt fantastic overall, I would like to somehow fit in a Golgari Charm though.