Legacy: Punishing Maverick Deck Tech & Sideboard Guide

I think some people have heard about a car called the Maverick, and they've also heard from an uncle or parent that this car is a machine that always looks like it can walk away by itself. There are also those who say that this same car can be customized in several ways.

But what does this have to do with today's article? Well, let's discuss a deck that bears the name of this car: Maverick, a deck that has changed over time and very interesting updates, or rather, customizations.

Maverick is a deck, according to many, Midrange Control based on Green and White creatures, many of them being very aggressive and some for board control.

What makes it very characteristic is that it is a toolbox based on Green Sun's Zenith​. Like Death and Taxes, which gave rise to it, for the most part, the objective of Maverick is to prevent the opponent from advancing their game with a resilient board of creatures.

It is based on a Synergy instead of Raw Power, leaving the deck very malleable to face any deck, and for having this characteristic of being able to mold itself to the meta, it is always feared by many players - mainly the ones who play blue.

Deck Construction

Thinking about its characteristic of being very malleable in its construction, I believe it starts with two main cards, namely: Knight of the Reliquary and Green Sun's Zenith.

Followed by cards that speed up play like Birds of Paradise, Noble Hierarch and/or Ignoble Hierarch. Due to this malleability, different lines can be used to close the game. The main one would be with the Knight of the Reliquary itself or a Punishing Fire doing small damage.

Today we also have the Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes line generating card advantage and direct damage -2. Also in the same set that this planeswalker came out we have the front creature that fits this deck very well, White Plume Adventurer, giving a different line to the deck, being based around the dungeon Undercity.

Decklist

The Decklist that we will use is from the player Ouilid Matthiesen, who played with it at Mensuel CMN @Club Magic Normand (Caen, France), being the Punisher Maverick version:

As you can see, the deck features a Midrange Control. Its line, however, is very aggressive, doing its best to force the opponent to spend resources to deal with our threats.

Thinking that this is a toolbox deck, we can understand that as the game develops we can pick up pieces to advance our strategy. However, we still have to think that for that a good starting board has to be built. Based on that, let's go to the Mulligan.

An ideal opening hand for this deck would be with mana acceleration cards. So, a perfect hand would look something like this:

If a hand similar to this one does not come, the ideal is the mulligan, as it is very risky to depend on the draw to build your game. The amount of lands or dorks in the starting hand is critical for this deck, as it allows its strongest plays in the early turns, such as a Knight of the Reliquary or a Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes.

I believe that 1 or 2 lands + 1 Dork and the other cards can be the "bombs" to play with this mana advance. With that, you have a good board early in the game to get to the point where you can finish as soon as possible.

Starting the Sideboard, we can think of cards against Blue decks of the format, so we opted for Pyroblast and Red Elemental Blast to hold these decks a little and develop our board.

Maverick's main deck handles well against creature decks like Elves and Death and Taxes, in addition to having a well-balanced match against Mono White Initiative, as it has its creatures to easily take the Undercity. Against Dark Depths decks we have Pithing Needle and Path to Exile to deal with the 20/20 token. Against combo decks like Reanimator and Storm, we have Ethersworn Canonist and Bojuka Bog.

VS Mono White Initiative

With its popularity in MTGO leagues and growth in tabletop as well, Mono White Initiative is one of the decks to beat. A match that can be decided in the details because, as you can see, Initiative is a mechanic that makes the game easy. Therefore, the ideal would be to add these cards:

IN

OUT

VS 8-Cast

Despite this match being difficult due to the recursion that 8-cast generates with Thought Monitor, Thoughtcast and Sai, Master Thopterist with his tokens, we already have specific cards against it for being a Blue Deck.

Since it also synergizes with Artifacts, we have a few more weapons to deal with against this extremely recursive deck.

IN

OUT

VS Izzet Delver

A nemesis of most decks in the format. Although we handle well against this type of deck because of our board, playing our creatures at the right time, it's always good to have guarantees so that we can do well in the match. As everyone knows, UR Delver has some great card advantage, we have to pay attention to that too.

IN

OUT

VS Depths decks

In the main deck we have good cards against the archetype, like Karakas and Wasteland, but it's always good to make sure we're not going to be surprised. This opponent can combo us out of nowhere, without even having a chance to defend ourselves, which is why the board analysis is important.

IN

OUT

VS Death and Taxes

This is the deck that spawned Maverick, which we're looking at today. In this type of matchup, we have weapons similar to those of the opponent, such as Wasteland and Karakas.

Haywire Mite is an essential card to deal with against Kaldra Compleat and Aether Vial. We have to grind against it, being thorough in the plays because despite looking weak due to being Monocolred, it is a deck that handles most situations well enough.

IN

OUT

VS Elves

Thinking that this deck is a combo with creatures, the ideal is to add cards that stop this strategy. We played this match as a Control deck, hitting it slowly and cautiously. We need to pay attention, because if they develop the board, we lose instantly.

IN

OUT

VS Reanimator

It's always difficult to face the Reanimator because its strategy is very fast. And usually in game 1 we end up losing, even though we have good cards in the maindeck to combat it, like Endurance.

Remmeber they might have Show and Tell, so we'll put some cards against it as precaution.

On the Draw without Show and Tell:

IN

OUT

On the Play w/ Show and Tell:

IN

OUT

VS Cephalid Breakfast

Thinking that it is a graveyard combo deck (just like Reanimator), but with the fact that it runs blue, it is relatively easier to addcards against. The match is difficult, and you have to think cautiously about which cards to keep and which to remove.

IN

OUT

Well, we're done here, with this deck that can be changed in many ways, and as mentioned in the introduction, customized to the player's taste.

Any questions or suggestions, I'm available in the comments.