Looking for knowledgeable maverick players

Legacy forum

Posted on June 12, 2016, 4:16 p.m. by HavokX

I'm looking to break into legacy and after playing a few legacy gauntlet matches on mtgo (and getting some sweet, sweet pulls from my eternal masters box), I've decided to build a maverick deck. I looked around and I think I want to start with this as a base since it looks the most interesting to me. I just have a few questions though:
- Why 26 lands? It looks like it can run 23-24 based on the curve.
- Is splashing red for Punishing Fire worth it? I was lucky enough to get punishing maverick a few times during the gauntlet but I never actually used the engine or even needed it to win.
- Why no Tarmogoyfs, Dark Confidants, or Liliana of the Veils? None of the maverick lists I've seen ran any copies of them.
Or are there any other lists you'd recommend a new player start from?

MollyMab says... #2

26 is because some of those lands are just there to be tutors for, acting as more spells or jumped to pump up KoTR.

In a small creature heavy meta and versus miracles, yes, in a combo or eldrazi heavy, no.

Goyf makes you doubly punished for graveyard hate, and goyf works best in a curve with turn 1, discard spell, land, next turn goyf as a 3/4 who grows into a 4/5. Bob is good but not what the deck wants to do. Lili can be good, but the deck likes being able to sandbag creatures and without other hand disrupt you cant use lili to force top deck mode in the same way.

June 12, 2016 4:24 p.m.

jethstriker says... #3

From what I remember Maverick started out as a straight GW Hatebear deck that aims to combat the blue Brainstorm decks of the format. If you look closely, all of their creatures have either trigger or activated abilities that either stops or slow down certain strategies. The deck got boost with the printing of Green Sun's Zenith which now allows the deck to "toolbox" the right creature for the right matchup. This is the reason why the deck doesn't play Tarmogoyf. For them, it is just a big creature with no useful abilities.

Since then the deck started to splash colors to help its poor matchups. Red is splashed for Punishing Fire to help against creature matchups. And black for Dark Confidant for extra card advantage. I was under the impression that those that uses black (not splash) for Bob, Lili, and maybe Lingering Souls aren't really Maverick. Those decks are Junk / Abzan and the name just got mixed up, and plays differently than the original Maverick. Someone please correct me if anything I said is wrong.

June 12, 2016 10:15 p.m.

malfeischylde says... #4

Firs of all, this is my maverick / euro loam build: Legacy Junk Maverick Forest Fire (loam). I like the deck, fine. I only run 25 lands, although I'd probably bump to 26 for a Sejiri Steppe, if I chose to play it again. It runs toolbox lands, hense 26. There ard several win cons in maverick, anc it's very resilient. There are lot of versions, lately, but the better ones are labeled punishing abzan, or aggro loam. It uses light recursion strategies to inflict damage and removal from the yard. It also toolboxes creatures with bt 2 and 4 Green Sun's Zenith. Further, many abuse Mox Diamond and Chalice of the Void on t1, with the follow up t2 Wasteland And gsz for Dryad Arbor allowing a smooth t3 Knight of the Reliquary t4, sometimes with mana open for daze and at a x4 toughness to dodge any non Dismember or decay removal. The deck has a very competitive g1 with most other decks, and gains targeted hate post sb.

August 20, 2016 5:42 p.m.

malfeischylde says... #5

@jethstriker aggro loam / junk is often a maverick based deck, and plays a similar tempo, curve and denial based strategy.

August 20, 2016 5:44 p.m.

This discussion has been closed