Although this article will primarily focus on U/W, G/W and the interactions between them, this does not mean there are not takeaways for other decks, as a lot of the higher strategy and interaction remains the same.
Creatures (24)
- 4 Mother of Runes
- 1 Eternal Witness
- 1 Scryb Ranger
- 1 Tarmogoyf
- 1 Gaddock Teeg
- 4 Noble Hierarch
- 4 Knight of the Reliquary
- 2 Qasali Pridemage
- 3 Stoneforge Mystic
- 1 Thrun, the Last Troll
- 2 Scavenging Ooze
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (22)
Spells (12)
Creatures (11)
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (24)
Spells (21)
The Basics
Despite both U/W and G/W playing Stoneforge Mystic, with similar targets of Umezawa’s Jitte and Batterskull, the decks differ drastically in function.
The entire reason to play Maverick as a deck is Mother of Runes. The card is as powerful as it is irritating to play against. While Mother of Runes isn’t an actual threat by itself, it becomes impossible to reactively answer any other threat Maverick plays except through counterspells. Much of the matchup centers around protecting and removing Mother of Runes, from both sides.
For both pre and post-board games the matchup is a marathon, not a sprint. The matchup will be a grind, on both sides. While Maverick has a stronger opening curve of turn 1 Mother of Runes, turn 2 Stoneforge Mystic, turn 3 Knight of the Reliquary, the game will typically degrade into a topdecking battle.
Stoneblade’s endgame is stronger than Maverick’s, but not by much. Maverick has the ability to drop multiple threats on the board to close out a close game. Even the early drops; Mother of Runes and Noble Hierarch contribute to the matchup at all points of the game, as a 1/2 beater will contribute damage on an empty board.
Game 1
Stoneblade
Stoneblade’s primary avenues of attack are to remove threats, land Umezwa’s Jitte, and win the game on the back of equipment. Noble Hierarchs and Dryad Arbors aren’t too big of an issue in the matchup, but connecting around Mother of Runes is a restriction. If Jitte gets two counters on it, the game is effectively over.
Game 1 favors Maverick, as Stoneblade doesn’t have much removal for G/W’s threats and is far more reliant on Stoneforge Mystic and equipment going the distance.
Maverick has a ton of cards to play around, and lists vary wildly. Most cards fall into three classes: on-board tricks, Green Sun’s Zenith targets, and flash threats.
Green Sun’s Zenith targets:
One mana: Noble Hierarch
Two mana: Qasali Pridemage, Scavenging Ooze, Silhana Ledgewalker
Three mana: Knight of the Reliquary, Terravore
Four mana: Thrun, the Last Troll
Flash Threats:
- Aven Mindcensor
- Stoneforge Mystic equipment
- Scryb Ranger
Keeping this list in mind over the course of the game helps when determining what Maverick can have, and what its gameplan is when determining whether to counter Green Sun’s Zeniths (although they’re always able to overpay to disguise their intentions)
Aven Mindcensor and Scryb Ranger are some of the harder cards to deal with out of Maverick, since they have an immediate impact. Fortunately, it is hard for Maverick to disguise their intentions before casting either threat.
Spell Snares are generally underpowered and pair up poorly against the Zeniths and Knight of the Reliquary from Maverick’s side of the board, and should be shuffled away with Brainstorm. The battles are fought over resolved creatures, not their Stoneforge Mystics.
Physically winning the game typically requires a planeswalker, either Jace or Elspeth, to hit before being able to win the game. There is a lot of time to do so.
Force of Will is just mediocre in game 1. It is needed in the early stages to counter Mother of Runes or Knight of the Reliquary, if removal isn’t available.
Maverick
Maverick is the agressor in this matchup, and game decisions should reflect that. Mother of Runes or multiple Knight of the Reliquary are the primary ways to close out a game. If either of these untap, Maverick pulls far ahead.
Green Sun’s Zeniths shouldn’t be spent on Dryad Arbor at any point, regardless of the mana situation. Instead, a late fetchland can be turned into a surprise attacker. Typically, Green Sun’s Zenith should be searching out Knight of the Reliquary or Qasali Pridemage.
Both Stoneblade and Maverick have Umezawa’s Jitte, but Maverick has multiple ways to deal with the dangerous equipment. Tutoring up answers reactively is okay if you can prevent the first hit from Jitte from wrecking your board. From the Stoneblade perspective, they should wait on deploying Jitte until after Maverick has played theirs, to limit the value of Qasali Pridemage.
Sideboarding
Game 2 shifts the matchup in strange ways. Maverick adds two Choke, and potentially Enlightened Tutor to the deck. U/W transforms into a harder control deck, adding Elspeth and two Wrath of God to the list in exchange for some combination of Stoneforge Mystic and Spell Snare. Some lists have additional Path to Exiles in the sideboard as well, turning the matchup into even more of a grind.
Game 2
Stoneblade’s Guide to Winning:
- Find Wrath of God
- Resolve Wrath of God
- Resolve a planeswalker
Stoneblade’s goals for the post-board games are simple. Any of the four-mana spells in the list are so powerful that they can win the game on their own. Therefore, prioritizing four mana is incredibly important.
Despite being a firm believer in the "don’t fetch basics" school of thought, Maverick represents an exception. The basic Plains needs to hit the board in the middle stage of the game, to offer flexibility around Choke. The Glacial Fortress also adds to beating Choke.
Be cautious with removal, and hold onto it for as long as possible. Realistically, letting your opponent untap with Stoneforge Mystic is fine; letting them connect with an equipment is another issue entirely.
Noble Hierarch has zero value, outside of wearing equipment in the matchup. Ideally, Wrath of God will be able to two-for-one an opponent over it.
Force of Will needs to stay in the deck, as Maverick has a variety of haymakers that make Magic miserable, including Elspeth, Knight-Errant and Choke. Frequently, Force of Will can be played as a five-mana counterspell.
Maverick’s Guide to Winning:
Of course, no match of Magic is quite that simple, as Maverick isn’t going to give up so easily. Maverick’s primary threat post-board is Choke. Although a resolved Choke is beatable, with many lists eschewing Sword of Feast and Famine for Umezawa’s Jitte, their resources will be limited.
Once you acknowledge that Choke is the crux of your gameplan, the rest of the match can be built around that. Wastelands should target lands that maximize their effectiveness at all points of the game, such as Karakas, Mishra’s Factory, or Glacial Fortress.
The biggest mistake new Maverick players make is to over-board, or board in "bad" cards. The matchup tends to go long and grind on. Enlightened Tutor’s effectiveness is even questionable, as tutoring up Choke only to have it get countered puts you down a card.
Depressing the value of opposing Wrath of Gods is also important. Committing more than two creatures onto the board, regardless of how powerful the creatures are, sets up for a dangerous Wrath of God.
There are few good ways to counteract Wrath of God, although Silhana Ledgewalker (and Geist of Saint Traft) are two of the best, since either of them demand another Wrath of God.
StarCityGames.com Tampa Legacy Open (Top 4)
The Tampa Open Series just *happened* to be during spring break, and I just *happened* to suggest going to Florida for break with Rachel, my girlfriend. So I was able to play in a StarCityGames.com event a thousand miles from home.
I hate to say it, but this event was soft—by far one of the softest events I’ve played in recently. There were innumerable misplays made both by my opponents and on other tables I walked past.
I played a handful of one-ofs in my Stoneblade list: Wrath of God, Fact or Fiction, Dust Bowl, Glacial Fortress, and Karakas. Each of these serves a unique function in the deck, and was strong all day.
Wrath of God
Legacy has been shifting towards creatures that can protect themselves; either hexproof, shroud, or protection from white. Wrath of God is one of the few convenient answers to all of these creatures. U/W Stoneforge can see half of its deck in any given game, so it can be found in the matchups it matters.
If you look at my Top 4 on-camera matchup, if I drew the Wrath of God at any point I would have stabilized easily and taken over the game with Umezawa’s Jitte on Mishra’s Factory. Wrath of God was also the fourth card off of Brainstorm while facing lethal earlier in the day. I did not draw the Wrath of God all tournament, but having it in my deck kept me drawing live in the late game.
Fact or Fiction
I added Fact or Fiction on a whim before the event. I cast it once in the Swiss and chose four cards to easily win the game. I also cast it in the Top 8, but the game was already lost at that point—Wrath of God was the only card that would have kept me in it, so Fact or Fiction gave me five chances to find it.
Fact or Fiction lets you fight battles on your opponent’s turn, which makes your planeswalkers more likely to resolve in the counter matchups. Digging five cards also never hurt anyone.
Dust Bowl
Dust Bowl is an underplayed card in Legacy as a whole. It allows you to trade resources with an opponent on your terms. Trading an extra fetchland for a Mishra’s Factory is perfectly fine in the late game. Once a planeswalker hits, Dust Bowl can press your advantage and reduce your opponent’s options. It also sets up opportunities for an opponent to misplay. If they are running Wastelands and Wasteland into an untapped Dust Bowl, you can sacrifice their target and two-for-one them.
It’s not the sort of card that I would ever play more than just one of, but the first one is a lot of added value over a Wasteland.
Two Vendilion Clique
While many decks have been eschewing Vendilion Clique in favor of Geist of Saint Traft, I feel that Vendilion Clique is the stronger card. Both cards are weak and strong in similar situations, with one big difference. Vendilion Clique interacts with opponents, while Geist of Saint Traft simply clocks them.
There has been a rise in various degenerate decks: Storm Combo, Hive Mind, Sneak and Show, and more. Stoneblade has been trimming matchup percentages against them in exchange for percentages elsewhere. Vendilion Clique represents a hedge against these matchups. Another bonus is these matchups are harder to leverage play skill against, as their strong draws are significantly stronger than Stoneblade’s best draws.
Glacial Fortress
Turn 1 Glacial Fortress, go. The absolute tech! Outside of leading on it turn 1 and having opponents "not play around Daze" (as if they would with a turn 1 Tundra in general) the card has a low cost in the deck, while providing strong overall benefits. Glacial Fortress helps the deck get around Choke, a powerful bullet from many green decks. The Fortress can also enable blowouts against Merfolk by not having an Island against Lord of the Atlantis on the board, when your opponent thinks you do.
There are four other cards that compete for this slot, but Glacial Fortress is the strongest. In the slot, we need a card that taps for blue and white, while entering the battlefield untapped when it counts:
Nimbus Maze
Part of the Future Sight non-basic land cycle that hasn’t seen much love, Nimbus Maze will always enter the battlefield untapped. However, it won’t always tap for mana; a timely Wasteland can put you off of the Maze entirely. It is close to Glacial Fortress in power, as it can cast turn 2 Counterspell without needing to break a fetchland prematurely.
Mystic Gate
This filter land has its own set of issues, many of which are logistical. While the cycle was strong in Standard and Extended, Legacy has far more one-mana spells. These one-mana spells require floating mana after casting spells, which is another consideration. It can also put the deck in a position where it must cast spells suboptimally, such as fitting Brainstorm and Swords to Plowshares into the same turn.
Seachrome Coast
Seachrome Coast has some of the characteristics we are looking for in a U/W land, but not all. Most importantly, casting Jace or Elspeth on turn 4 and Batterskull on turn 5 are important considerations.
Celestial Colonnade
I guess Celestial Colonnade is playable in U/W, but the card is almost impossible to actually utilize in tournament play. With an essential cost of six mana and a tremendous tempo loss if it is removed, Celestial Colonnade almost never connects for value at any point in the game. Always entering tapped is a tempo-killer as well.
Playing the Mirror
There are many differing views of how to play the mirror match, and the game flows around those pieces. Either equipment or planeswalkers are the dominant strategies, and need to be planned against.
This is my view. Short advice: Stoneforge Mystic is bad, Jace, the Mind Sculptor is good.
The long advice here is planeswalkers win games. They are the hardest threats to deal with on either side of the board, and the way to get ahead once the board clears out. A resolved Jace puts the opponent on the back foot, as even the first Brainstorm puts things over the edge. This has ramifications on other parts of sideboarding: Force of Will is actually important, as burning two cards to answer a planeswalker is a perfectly fine trade, as is spending two to push through a planeswalker of your own.
I’m exploring buying back into Legacy on Magic Online to stream matches as well as producing matchup videos. If you’d be interested in watching this, please let me know in the comments.
Michael Caffrey
mchain on Magic Online
@mchainmail on Twitter