This is my first time making a thread for a deck on MTG salvation. I'm here to talk about a recent brain-child of mine that is actually putting up numbers in my testing.
To preface; I'm a Modern Jund player that loves the tempo aspect of the game. I saw Hoogland play a RUG (Temur) delver list for Modern, and he one a few separate games off Simic Charm alone. He also highlighted that the Green in the deck for Hooting Mandrils and Tarmogoyf were pure upgrades from the beaters in the UR Tempo/Wizards deck that's floating around right now. I thought to myself, "huh... maybe there's something to a Simic tempo deck?" And now here we are!
So far, all that has been constructed is this main 60. I have a general idea of what I want to include in my sideboard, but I think that the mainboard should be finished before drawing up a 15 for the meta.
Aids in flipping Delver of Secrets. You can bauble yourself on the opponents turn; then on the following upkeep you can stack the bauble and delver trigger accordingly to help flip it.
This dude really over-preformed in the UR Tempo/Wizards archetype. He's not as cheap or high-damaging as my other creatures, but he's like the fifth Delver of Secrets.
Great suggestions! Thank you so much for the input. Let me address my thoughts on the ideas individually.
Traverse the Ulvenwald was actually a serious consideration while making the deck. It didn't make the cut for this initial build because I really wanted to maximize being able to cast Disrupting Shoal as much as I could. The Traverse won't always be on, so I just assumed having the creature would be better in its place, but I could be plain wrong. Further testing will have to be done. I can definitely see this deck playing that card.
Vendilion Clique is also another great suggestion. I initially turned to the Stifle-Bird so I can basically have a little of that ability in the deck, but maybe Clique is just a strict upgrade? I think Gnarlwood Dryad, Cryptic Serpent, and Narnam Renegade don't really "add" anything to the deck. Our beaters (mandrills and tarmogoyf) do exactly what these cards do but but better in my opinion.
Blossoming Defense and Mutagenic Growth seem sweet! Maybe the Defense is better than the two spell pierce? I like the versatility of Pierce, but the Shoals and Denials should be enough countermagic to take care of most spells. My only reservations on cards like these is that I can't pitch either of these to Disrupting Shoal.
While Disrupting Shoal is basically always card disadvantage, I think it's one of the reasons to pick up the deck. I'd prefer to build around it before dropping to 3 copies because it's just that good. The deck doesn't need card advantage in most games, it just needs it's creatures to stick and turn sideways.
The land count in the deck is perfect at 17. There's actually a ton of card selection in the deck that you can kind of organize where you start/stop with land drops. In my experience so far, having land starvation isn't anything critical; but being flooded looses you the game.
As far as adopting other colors go, I think I'd adopt red purely for Lightning Bolt before adopting black for the cards that are mentioned. My only reason to say that is because the deck just needs reach. It already has the beaters to be efficient and it has the disruption to take care of what the opponent is doing; it just doesn't have removal that doubles as reach.
Dismember is more of a sideboard card for this deck. Dismember is something that I can't utilize in lets say, a control match. Whereas, in that same match up, Vapor Snag can be utilized for returning my creatures to my hand and countering CMC1 cards with Shoal. I think Dismember will have two dedicated slots in my sideboard for sure.
And finally, I think Mishra's Bauble is justified in the list even without any "Delirium" cards in the deck. It grows the Tarmogoyf, fuels the Mandrills, and gives the deck more card selection. The card selection the bauble provides helps flip Delver even though it's an artifact, and also helps keep our non-land spellcount high throughout the game.
Thanks @CurdBros. I tried many iterations of delver in the past, and this has felt like the best shell in a long while. I prefer it to the UR Wizards deck currently.
After some testing I've came to this main board...
This is my first time making a thread for a deck on MTG salvation. I'm here to talk about a recent brain-child of mine that is actually putting up numbers in my testing.
To preface; I'm a Modern Jund player that loves the tempo aspect of the game. I saw Hoogland play a RUG (Temur) delver list for Modern, and he one a few separate games off Simic Charm alone. He also highlighted that the Green in the deck for Hooting Mandrils and Tarmogoyf were pure upgrades from the beaters in the UR Tempo/Wizards deck that's floating around right now. I thought to myself, "huh... maybe there's something to a Simic tempo deck?" And now here we are!
1 Nimble Obstructionist
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Mishra's Bauble
4 Serum Visions
4 Thought Scour
4 Stubborn Denial
4 Vapor Snag
2 Spell Pierce
4 Simic Charm
4 Disrupting Shoal
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Wooded Foothills
2 Botanical Sanctum
2 Breeding Pool
1 Forest
3 Island
So far, all that has been constructed is this main 60. I have a general idea of what I want to include in my sideboard, but I think that the mainboard should be finished before drawing up a 15 for the meta.
Important card choices:
Well that's basically it so far! I think this is something worth looking into as an archetype because it hoses so many decks in the current meta-game.
What do you guys think?
Traverse the Ulvenwald was actually a serious consideration while making the deck. It didn't make the cut for this initial build because I really wanted to maximize being able to cast Disrupting Shoal as much as I could. The Traverse won't always be on, so I just assumed having the creature would be better in its place, but I could be plain wrong. Further testing will have to be done. I can definitely see this deck playing that card.
Vendilion Clique is also another great suggestion. I initially turned to the Stifle-Bird so I can basically have a little of that ability in the deck, but maybe Clique is just a strict upgrade? I think Gnarlwood Dryad, Cryptic Serpent, and Narnam Renegade don't really "add" anything to the deck. Our beaters (mandrills and tarmogoyf) do exactly what these cards do but but better in my opinion.
Blossoming Defense and Mutagenic Growth seem sweet! Maybe the Defense is better than the two spell pierce? I like the versatility of Pierce, but the Shoals and Denials should be enough countermagic to take care of most spells. My only reservations on cards like these is that I can't pitch either of these to Disrupting Shoal.
While Disrupting Shoal is basically always card disadvantage, I think it's one of the reasons to pick up the deck. I'd prefer to build around it before dropping to 3 copies because it's just that good. The deck doesn't need card advantage in most games, it just needs it's creatures to stick and turn sideways.
The land count in the deck is perfect at 17. There's actually a ton of card selection in the deck that you can kind of organize where you start/stop with land drops. In my experience so far, having land starvation isn't anything critical; but being flooded looses you the game.
As far as adopting other colors go, I think I'd adopt red purely for Lightning Bolt before adopting black for the cards that are mentioned. My only reason to say that is because the deck just needs reach. It already has the beaters to be efficient and it has the disruption to take care of what the opponent is doing; it just doesn't have removal that doubles as reach.
Dismember is more of a sideboard card for this deck. Dismember is something that I can't utilize in lets say, a control match. Whereas, in that same match up, Vapor Snag can be utilized for returning my creatures to my hand and countering CMC1 cards with Shoal. I think Dismember will have two dedicated slots in my sideboard for sure.
And finally, I think Mishra's Bauble is justified in the list even without any "Delirium" cards in the deck. It grows the Tarmogoyf, fuels the Mandrills, and gives the deck more card selection. The card selection the bauble provides helps flip Delver even though it's an artifact, and also helps keep our non-land spellcount high throughout the game.
After some testing I've came to this main board...
1 Snapcaster Mage
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Mishra's Bauble
4 Serum Visions
4 Thought Scour
4 Stubborn Denial
4 Vapor Snag
2 Spell Pierce
4 Simic Charm
4 Disrupting Shoal
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Wooded Foothills
3 Breeding Pool
1 Forest
3 Island
And now I'm looking at possible cards for the sideboard. Some of the options I'm thinking of are the following...
1 Gut Shot
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Dismember
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Entrancing Melody
1 Feed the Clan
1 Nimble Obstructionist
1 Nature's Claim
1 Natural State
1 Damping Sphere
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Disdainful Stroke
It's coming together slowly but surely. Might "sleeve" this up on MTGO and start grinding Competitive Leagues soon. Stay tuned.