Last month, Simon Jugnet was finished in the Top 16 (13th) of the European Legacy Masters (ELM). The list Simon played showed that a large amount of work was put into the 75 and the outcome resulted in a great performance.
When did you get into magic? When did you get into Legacy and with what deck?
I started playing Magic way back in 1997, with my brothers and 5th Edition starter pack. We honestly had no idea what we were doing or what most of the rules meant, but we played with whatever we understood from the cards and had a lot of fun.
I played a little bit of Legacy around 2009, but I stopped playing Magic not long after that. I really got back into the game in 2020, and since then I’ve been a very regular player and started taking competitive Magic much more seriously.
When I came back, I played quite a few different decks rather than sticking to one archetype. I even had some good results with decks like Mono-Red Stompy. Eventually, I found my way to Maverick and it became the deck I played the most.
Here’s Simon’s list from the tournament:
The main reason I love Maverick is the GW color combination, but especially the toolbox aspect of the deck. Being able to adapt your game plan depending on the matchup and having access to different answers is something I really enjoy.
Actually, another deck I’ve played quite a lot is GW Enchantress, which is also very much a toolbox-style deck. I guess I just really like decks that give you a lot of options and let you adapt to what your opponent is doing.
2) What made you pick Maverick for the European Legacy Masters? did you think about any splash colour versions of felt GW could do the job?
I chose to play Selesnya Maverick because I really believe the GW version has some advantages that are very important in the current format.
The first one is Swords to Plowshares. For me, it’s still the best creature removal spell in Legacy, and having access to it was one of the main reasons I didn’t want to move away from GW.
The other big reason is Knight of the Reliquary. The main plan of my deck is built around Scythecat Cub, which really wants me to put two lands into play each turn. Knight is perfect for that because she can find fetchlands and put them directly into play untapped, allowing me to crack them immediately and get the most out of the Cub.
Knight also makes the Dark Depths plan much easier to assemble, so I really like having both plans available in the same deck.
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I did consider splash versions, but I didn’t really want to go that way. Adding another colour makes the mana base more fragile, and I felt that the advantages I was getting from staying GW were more important. I was confident that the GW version could do the job.
I also played the same list at the Eternal Mania the day before, where I finished 5-3, so going into the ELM I already had a good feeling about the deck.
The 5-2 finish at the ELM definitely reinforced that feeling.
3) I know a few players have been feeling Thalia, Guardian of Thraben is decently positioned – how did you come to the decision to run no copies in your 75?
Thalia in the main deck was definitely a possibility, especially with Fantasticar being present in the meta.
The problem is that playing Thalia means cutting Baloth, and I much prefer Baloth in this deck.
- It doesn’t die to Orcish Bowmasters
- F**k The One Ring
- It makes most of my deck uncounterable
- and the haste also makes it a potential finisher.
So I prefer to accept that I will probably lose some Game 1s against Fantasticar and deal with the matchup after sideboard, rather than weaken the deck in Game 1 against the rest of the field just to improve a few specific matchups.
3) How did you feel post event with your choice? Do you have any other big tournaments coming up?
I don’t regret my choice at all. I actually qualified for the ELM in January with Maverick, so I already had a lot of confidence in the deck going into the tournament.
By the way, after the January event, you actually streamed a league on MTGO with the Maverick list I had played there!
I also finished 5-3 at the Eternal Mania the day before the ELM, so overall I was very happy with how the deck performed over the whole weekend.
At the ELM, I probably should have made Top 8 if I hadn’t made a huge mistake in Round 5. I was 4-0 at that point and played against Welder/Cam.
The fatigue and stress got to me, and I made a bad decision at the wrong moment during his combo. That allowed him to go into an infinite combo and I lost the game. Without that mistake, I would have killed him on my next turn and won the match.
My next big tournament will be the Gones Fire in Lyon, from September 17th to 19th. The main event on Saturday usually attracts more than 100 players, so I’m really looking forward to it.
And in December, I’ll also be playing the Eternal Weekend in Italy.
4) Any general thoughts on Legacy Maverick right now? Cards you feel are underplayed?
I think Maverick is still very strong in the current Legacy meta. The main problem is that there are so many little tricks and interactions to learn that you really need to play the deck a lot before you become good with it.
But that’s also what makes it so enjoyable. You are really playing Magic with Maverick. You almost always have something you can do, and there are so many different lines available. It’s just a really fun deck to play.
I think Baloth is quite underrated. For the reasons I mentioned earlier, I think it does a lot for the deck and is better positioned than Thalia in my build.
The Knight of the Reliquary + Skythecat Cub combination is also extremely powerful. And Scryb Ranger with Yavimaya can create some completely unexpected plays. For example, during the weekend I used Knight to find Boseiju, then used Scryb Ranger to bounce Boseiju back to my hand and destroy my opponent’s Ensnaring Bridge. My opponent absolutely wasn’t expecting that line and lost the game because of it.
I also chose to play Gaddock Teeg in the main deck because I was expecting to face some Karn decks. Karn decks are quite popular in my local metagame, so I wanted to have a strong answer to them already in Game 1.
Overall, I think Maverick is in a really good place. It’s probably not the easiest deck to pick up, but if you put the time into learning all the interactions, I think it’s incredibly rewarding to play.
Thanks a lot for reaching out and for giving me the opportunity to talk about the deck and my ELM run! I really appreciate it.
A huge thank you to Simon for giving his throughts on Maverick and another huge congratulations on his finishes with Maverick this year.
A big thank you to my Patrons! Dushmantha, Joe, Always_Home, Bob M and David L – I very much appreciate your continued support
Take care, play fair
Douges
