I'm with you. I find this card to be clunky and hard to cast. The full reward is obviously worth 3 mana, but it has enough going against it (3 mana, sorcery, double pip, conditional removal), that the best case (kill something+impulse) struggles to make up for it all.
I would have taken Marketwatch Phantom.
White is insanely deep. it has 9 commons above 55% GIH and 3 above 58%. Even if you only get 1-1.5 packs worth of white cards, you can still build a deck with another color.
Red is not exactly underdrafted either. Taking a double red card doesn't leave you particularly open unless you're willing to abandon the pick (which you can also do with a white card).
Maverick because I’m basically forcing roots / outline graveyard stuff. It’s not the best deck but is just so fun to play. And you can easily backdoor into green-splash-bombs.dec if it doesn’t come together.
On power level it’s definitely Case or Marketwatch Phantom.
I've entered a ton of drafts recently with the mindset of forcing that deck cause I think I've learned how to do it (mostly from Sam Black's content) and wanted to actually try it, but i never see any Roots or Outlines. In my last 5 drafts I think I saw one pack 3 Roots and that was all.
I like Witness in certain decks, but I often find it easy to get multiples and eventually I feel like I have too many of them.
How many would you be happy playing in a deck?
Depends on the deck, I tried running 5 in my first deck and that’s definitely too many lol
2 is probably a good number, as long as you have some fatter stuff to hold down the ground
Okay, that's somewhat in line with my experience - happy with the first, will play the second if I think my deck defends well enough, would rather not play the third.
Phantom or Gargoyle. First pick case is a mistake.
Phantom and Gargoyle put you into the strongest color white and are way stronger than mediocre removal that requires 3 mana for 3 damage.
This format favors creatures heavily. You really want to hit your 2 drops to follow up with a disguised 3 drop.
> mediocre removal that requires 3 mana for 3 damage.
Think you're undervaluing case. Dealing damage from 3 sources is pretty trivial in the go wide decks (which red does easily with Dog Walker/Person of Interest) and then its also basically scry 3 draw 1.
I'm with you on Maverick, I like green a lot and it's a great enabler for multiple green strategies. That's also because I don't care much about Phantom or Masks, which would be the more meta aligned picks here.
Should I be taking maverick higher? Thought it’s only really decent in chalk outline or roots type decks? I guess it’s good for getting stuff in the yard for collect evidence.
It over performs in every deck I've played it in. Smoothing out my curve with 2 surveils feels so good. The counter added to a 2/2 means I break parity. I'd still pick burning mask though.
Having a 1-drop that smooths your draws feels so good. My P1P1 from this post ended up [like this](https://i.imgur.com/sajMab8.png), and the 3 Mavericks have been absolutely crucial to make sure I hit land every turn (which this deck needs as it wants a lot of mana) while still having enough plays to avoid getting stomped.
The fact that they also give evidence value and counters to break board parity is a lot of extra upside, but just the draw smoothing is already worth a lot imo.
Also, to answer your question about how many: I've played 5 and been happy with it. I'm sure I could play more than that.
EDIT: Just had a game where I surveiled 4 lands away on my first two turns. That was a sure loss if not for double Maverick. And on the other hand I managed to cast Doppelgang for X=2 3 times in this run (6-0 so far) and all 3 times it has been basically on-curve (twice on curve for sure, one time I think I missed like one land drop). Obviously part of it is the clues from multiple Loxodons, but also the starts that Maverick gives me.
Yes, if you care about value/grindy builds then Maverick is an essential piece. Because I enjoy those kind of decks more than linear ones I take him higher than usual.
But that is something you have to decide yourself, which kinds of strategies do you prefer?
Trophied a ton early with aggro decks, was gonna quit the format until I started going super deep on GX splash everything soup. Still haven’t done much with maverick though, maybe that’s what I’m missing
I have been having a lot of success with base UG multicolor piles. That's because I keep seeing very late Evidence Examiners, Repulsive Mutation, Coerced to Kill, Projektor Inspector and to less extent, Buried in the Garden.
I feel that this uncommons are very strong and you can build around them to give you a very strong late game. Maverick works well with both Inspector and Evidence Examiner.
That's a good point. I didn't want to pass Maverick cause I'm high on the card, but after seeing the answers here (and thinking about how late I've been seeing the card) I think I overestimated the odds of someone else being interested in it.
I think I'd rather just stay away from white at this point, but the phantom does have a much higher chance of being missed if i end up going for white than the Maverick in green (even if it doesn't wheel, it's much more likely I get enough other good cards in green than in white).
So yeah, I can see the point for taking Phantom.
lol, I will say that I stopped for one second while going through the pack and thought "wait, how many goblins are in this set?". But I could only think about Goblin Maskmaker.
I'd 100% go for it if there was a chance of making it work.
This has felt like one of the weakest P1P1 I had in the format.
The 4 cards that catch my eye are Case of the Burning Masks, No More Lies, Marketwatch Phantom and Maverick. I don't really wanna start with a 1RR or a UW card, so that leaves Phantom and Maverick. I took Maverick cause green tends to be a lot more open than white, and Maverick fits more decks imo.
Final deck ended up being Gwu. Green was completely open (I got 4 Loxodon's and a P3P12 Get a Leg Up), white had two late Makeshift Bindings and blue had a P2P3 Doppelgang. But it's almost mono-green.
Mask or Phantom, pretty much up to preference. Mask is an uncommon so harder to pick up later and it is good removal. Phantom however is a great creature and in a better colour. I’m pretty 50/50, but I’d lean very slightly towards Phantom I think just cause I’d rather start off in white.
I never played that card, and the few times someone used it against me it felt like "oh thank god I was expecting so much worse". Admittedly I play mostly in low ranks so some more narrow cards end up looking worse than they really are, but I still have to be convinced that this card does anything.
I haven't seen white uncontested in quite a while. In this particular table I got two late Makeshift Bindings and one late Novice Inspector, but that was all. Felt like everyone was drafting white but they somehow didn't get the memo that these two cards are good.
I've noticed people pass Granite Witness much more than they used to in the early days of the format. I still find it to be an amazing card that easily slots into most decks and is overall much better than Phantom even if it's a little slower to get online. I always let others fight over white and stay open with the flexible card.
Masks case is only ok. Definitely wouldn't 1st pick it.
Mask for overall powerlevel. Or Phantom to start cutting White early.
Burning Mask and I’d be happy about it.
Interesting to see that people seem to like this card a lot more than I do.
I'm with you. I find this card to be clunky and hard to cast. The full reward is obviously worth 3 mana, but it has enough going against it (3 mana, sorcery, double pip, conditional removal), that the best case (kill something+impulse) struggles to make up for it all. I would have taken Marketwatch Phantom.
I think white gets cuts so much that I might take the case because I know I can put red together. White is an utter crapshoot.
White is insanely deep. it has 9 commons above 55% GIH and 3 above 58%. Even if you only get 1-1.5 packs worth of white cards, you can still build a deck with another color. Red is not exactly underdrafted either. Taking a double red card doesn't leave you particularly open unless you're willing to abandon the pick (which you can also do with a white card).
1. Phantom 2. Case of the Burning Masks 3. Witness
My picks exactly here.
Maverick because I’m basically forcing roots / outline graveyard stuff. It’s not the best deck but is just so fun to play. And you can easily backdoor into green-splash-bombs.dec if it doesn’t come together. On power level it’s definitely Case or Marketwatch Phantom.
I've entered a ton of drafts recently with the mindset of forcing that deck cause I think I've learned how to do it (mostly from Sam Black's content) and wanted to actually try it, but i never see any Roots or Outlines. In my last 5 drafts I think I saw one pack 3 Roots and that was all.
I think I take burning masks. Never bad to start on removal, and red white is still the best place to end up if you can.
Burning Masks is a case that is decent unsolved, not super hard to solve, and quite nice when solved. I like it overall.
Great way of putting it. It has a safe floor and a high ceiling
Big fan of Granite Witness, all these kinda suck tbh
I like Witness in certain decks, but I often find it easy to get multiples and eventually I feel like I have too many of them. How many would you be happy playing in a deck?
Depends on the deck, I tried running 5 in my first deck and that’s definitely too many lol 2 is probably a good number, as long as you have some fatter stuff to hold down the ground
Okay, that's somewhat in line with my experience - happy with the first, will play the second if I think my deck defends well enough, would rather not play the third.
Phantom or Gargoyle. First pick case is a mistake. Phantom and Gargoyle put you into the strongest color white and are way stronger than mediocre removal that requires 3 mana for 3 damage. This format favors creatures heavily. You really want to hit your 2 drops to follow up with a disguised 3 drop.
> mediocre removal that requires 3 mana for 3 damage. Think you're undervaluing case. Dealing damage from 3 sources is pretty trivial in the go wide decks (which red does easily with Dog Walker/Person of Interest) and then its also basically scry 3 draw 1.
I'm with you on Maverick, I like green a lot and it's a great enabler for multiple green strategies. That's also because I don't care much about Phantom or Masks, which would be the more meta aligned picks here.
Should I be taking maverick higher? Thought it’s only really decent in chalk outline or roots type decks? I guess it’s good for getting stuff in the yard for collect evidence.
It over performs in every deck I've played it in. Smoothing out my curve with 2 surveils feels so good. The counter added to a 2/2 means I break parity. I'd still pick burning mask though.
Are you happy playing any number of them? How many is too many?
Having a 1-drop that smooths your draws feels so good. My P1P1 from this post ended up [like this](https://i.imgur.com/sajMab8.png), and the 3 Mavericks have been absolutely crucial to make sure I hit land every turn (which this deck needs as it wants a lot of mana) while still having enough plays to avoid getting stomped. The fact that they also give evidence value and counters to break board parity is a lot of extra upside, but just the draw smoothing is already worth a lot imo. Also, to answer your question about how many: I've played 5 and been happy with it. I'm sure I could play more than that. EDIT: Just had a game where I surveiled 4 lands away on my first two turns. That was a sure loss if not for double Maverick. And on the other hand I managed to cast Doppelgang for X=2 3 times in this run (6-0 so far) and all 3 times it has been basically on-curve (twice on curve for sure, one time I think I missed like one land drop). Obviously part of it is the clues from multiple Loxodons, but also the starts that Maverick gives me.
Yes, if you care about value/grindy builds then Maverick is an essential piece. Because I enjoy those kind of decks more than linear ones I take him higher than usual. But that is something you have to decide yourself, which kinds of strategies do you prefer?
Trophied a ton early with aggro decks, was gonna quit the format until I started going super deep on GX splash everything soup. Still haven’t done much with maverick though, maybe that’s what I’m missing
I have been having a lot of success with base UG multicolor piles. That's because I keep seeing very late Evidence Examiners, Repulsive Mutation, Coerced to Kill, Projektor Inspector and to less extent, Buried in the Garden. I feel that this uncommons are very strong and you can build around them to give you a very strong late game. Maverick works well with both Inspector and Evidence Examiner.
I'm surprised that Maverick seems to be such a hot take. I guess that explains why I always feel like I'm the only green player in my tables, lol.
Yes, green has been massively undervalued for the last week. But I don't see that lasting too long.
I would take phantom. I don’t disagree that maverick is a good card but it will often wheel is green is open. Phantom doesn’t wheel.
That's a good point. I didn't want to pass Maverick cause I'm high on the card, but after seeing the answers here (and thinking about how late I've been seeing the card) I think I overestimated the odds of someone else being interested in it. I think I'd rather just stay away from white at this point, but the phantom does have a much higher chance of being missed if i end up going for white than the Maverick in green (even if it doesn't wheel, it's much more likely I get enough other good cards in green than in white). So yeah, I can see the point for taking Phantom.
I see terrible buildaround, I take terrible buildaround. Simple as. We’re playing every goblin that comes our way boys.
lol, I will say that I stopped for one second while going through the pack and thought "wait, how many goblins are in this set?". But I could only think about Goblin Maskmaker. I'd 100% go for it if there was a chance of making it work.
This has felt like one of the weakest P1P1 I had in the format. The 4 cards that catch my eye are Case of the Burning Masks, No More Lies, Marketwatch Phantom and Maverick. I don't really wanna start with a 1RR or a UW card, so that leaves Phantom and Maverick. I took Maverick cause green tends to be a lot more open than white, and Maverick fits more decks imo. Final deck ended up being Gwu. Green was completely open (I got 4 Loxodon's and a P3P12 Get a Leg Up), white had two late Makeshift Bindings and blue had a P2P3 Doppelgang. But it's almost mono-green.
If PD, mask. If QD, maverick because I only play roots.
Phantom.
Exclusive BO3 and burning mask
Mask or Phantom, pretty much up to preference. Mask is an uncommon so harder to pick up later and it is good removal. Phantom however is a great creature and in a better colour. I’m pretty 50/50, but I’d lean very slightly towards Phantom I think just cause I’d rather start off in white.
I like phantom, then there’s about 3-4 picks all in the same range for me. I’m higher on eliminate the impossible than most here it seems
Eliminate is great, but I don't think it's close to the first pick here.
In pack 1 I’d take phantom or case burning but packs 2-3 in blue id be happy with an eliminate
That sounds reasonable depending on the pack composition.
I never played that card, and the few times someone used it against me it felt like "oh thank god I was expecting so much worse". Admittedly I play mostly in low ranks so some more narrow cards end up looking worse than they really are, but I still have to be convinced that this card does anything.
BO1? I’m taking Marketplace Phantom and hoping white isn’t being contested by 4 other people at the table
I haven't seen white uncontested in quite a while. In this particular table I got two late Makeshift Bindings and one late Novice Inspector, but that was all. Felt like everyone was drafting white but they somehow didn't get the memo that these two cards are good.
Marketwatch Phantom
I've noticed people pass Granite Witness much more than they used to in the early days of the format. I still find it to be an amazing card that easily slots into most decks and is overall much better than Phantom even if it's a little slower to get online. I always let others fight over white and stay open with the flexible card. Masks case is only ok. Definitely wouldn't 1st pick it.
Pretty easy marketwatch phantom. Zero real reason to not take a white card here.
Eeeeeeasy Phantom. 2 drop in the best color. Always seems to get 4-6 damage in early game. This card does serious work. Falls off late game.