Maverick is a deck that was a huge deal in Legacy a couple of years ago. This is an archetype that utilizes many of the same cards as the Death and Taxes archetype, but goes a little bit bigger with a Green Sun's Zenith toolbox and Knight of the Reliquary. For many years, Maverick was the pinnacle of fair Magic in an unfair format, but in recent months the deck has fallen off, in part due to cards like Monastery Mentor and Griselbrand. The dominating presence of Miracles in the Magic Online metagame certainly isn’t helping the popularity of a Green-White creature deck either. But despite of that, Mormagil may have found a way to bring Maverick back into the spotlight.

Abzan Maverick ? Legacy | Mormagil, 5-0 Legacy League

• Creatures (22)
• 4 Deathrite Shaman
• 4 Knight of the Reliquary
• 3 Mother of Runes
• 3 Noble Hierarch
• 3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
• 1 Gaddock Teeg
• 1 Qasali Pridemage
• 1 Scavenging Ooze
• 1 Scryb Ranger
• 1 Tireless Tracker

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 1 Ajani, Mentor of Heroes
• 2 Garruk Relentless
• 1 Ob Nixilis Reignited

• Spells (11)
• 4 Green Sun's Zenith
• 4 Swords to Plowshares
• 3 Abrupt Decay

• Lands (23)
• 2 Forest
• 1 Plains
• 4 Wasteland
• 4 Windswept Heath
• 3 Verdant Catacombs
• 2 Bayou
• 2 Savannah
• 1 Dryad Arbor
• 1 Gaea's Cradle
• 1 Horizon Canopy
• 1 Karakas
• 1 Scrubland

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Choke
• 2 Ethersworn Canonist
• 1 Krosan Grip
• 1 Maze of Ith
• 1 Reclamation Sage
• 2 Surgical Extraction
• 4 Thoughtseize
• 2 Zealous Persecution

Buy This Deck

The creature base for this deck is largely unchanged since the last time we saw it. The core is still Mother of Runes and powerful creatures that deny your opponent resources or generate card advantage. Noble Hierarch, Deathrite Shaman, and Green Sun's Zenith for Dryad Arbor help you get ahead of your opponent. From there you can do silly things like use Knight of the Reliquary to lock your opponent under Wastelands or find a Tireless Tracker to grind out card advantage. You can even find Scryb Sprite to gain additional Mother of Runes or Deathrite Shaman activations. The options you have for applying pressure, generating cards, or preventing your opponent from interacting are endless.

But let’s set that aside for a moment. As good as that gameplan is, that’s more or less the Maverick approach that hasn’t been viable for several months. The big change in Mormagil’s strategy is the emphasis on Planeswalkers. Most Maverick lists back in the day would play one Elspeth, Knight-Errant as a way to grind out Counterbalance decks to take to the skies in mirrors. Instead, Mormagil is playing four Planeswalkers. Not only that, but the Planeswalkers go all the way up to five mana. This is a concession to the prevalence of Counterbalance decks in the format. A resolved Garruk Relentless is great against Miracles, but they could conceivably float a Jace, the Mind Sculptor on the top of their deck to deal with Garruk Relentless. However, the only five-drop in most Miracles decks is Force of Will, which is a card that’s pretty bad against Maverick.

If you’re able to resolve something like Ob Nixilis Reignited, Miracles is going to be hard-pressed to win. Not only will you have enough cards to keep up with them, you’ll be able to threaten an emblem which is all but unbeatable. Ajani, Mentor of Heroes plays a similar role, but mostly allows you to grind out extra cards and apply extra pressure once your opponent is short on Swords to Plowshares or Terminus.

In Legacy more than almost any other format, it’s important to stay aware of the history of the format. There have been a lot of powerful cards and interactions over the years, and you never know when new cards like Tireless Tracker and Ob Nixilis Reignited could reinvigorate awesome archetypes which have been just on the fringe of playability.