Bauble provides card selection in really underrated ways. Making Traverse essentially a free include and boosting goyf is just gravy. Bauble is a genuinely important cantrip here, using fetch lands/thought scour/traverse to manipulate your top card is a uniquely powerful effect for zero mana. Helping delver flip is what pushes it to ultra-synergystic. I'm not sure why people don't run this card. If we had Probe unbanned tomorrow, I'd be running four Bauble alongside it.
Combo decks are among our best matchups. We definitely aren't fast enough to race combo, but we quickly establish a clock and disrupt their key spells. We have enough cheap threats that we can usually have a clock by turn 2/3.
We basically play as a control deck once we have a clock down in these matchups.
As far as specific combo matchups go, we are favoured against Goryo's Vengeance, Storm, Ad Nauseum (this one is a bit harder because Unlife can slow us down, but I think it is still good), and Collected Company combo decks (not Knightfall- their creatures are more resilient).
The Dredge and Titanshift matchups are more difficult because less of our disruption is live, so we have to do more racing. These are probably around even. Titanshift might be slightly unfavorable (I don't play against it often).
On the topic of Bauble, I've been running 4 in the main and I've been loving it. I find that it really helps flip Delver, get out Mandrils, and power up Tarmogoyf just like we've already discussed. Notably I don't have the Traverse in the mainboard though, I think I like it better in the side. My reasoning is that I like a focused list and I feel like Traverse leans towards a Midrange strategy when we are playing Tempo. Plus I'm keeping non-blue spells to a minimum in the main. I switch to traveerse game 2 if needed but I think I prefer having a streamlined deck for game 1.
Any thoughts on running Bauble main without Traverse?
I honestly have not missed blood moon at all. The card is just so clunky and I'd often just lose to myself when I sided it in. the deck feels super sweet right now!
People here don't like traverse. Why? I have yet to see a reasonable explanation, personally. To say Traverse is bad tempo is to say serum visions is. Casting a one mana sorcery to draw a random card and see the top two is somehow okay to waste a mana on but Traverse is 'clunky' lol. With snapcaster in the deck the card is quite often demonic tutor but to each their own I suppose.
People here don't like traverse. Why? I have yet to see a reasonable explanation, personally. To say Traverse is bad tempo is to say serum visions is. Casting a one mana sorcery to draw a random card and see the top two is somehow okay to waste a mana on but Traverse is 'clunky' lol. With snapcaster in the deck the card is quite often demonic tutor but to each their own I suppose.
I agree with you.
The only case in which I see traverse is less good is when you want to play shoal. And even then I can see playing a couple. Without shoal I can't see why playing less than three. In the first turns is a sorcery in the graveyard and it fixes mana, late game is threat or with snap even bolt. I think Traverse makes the deck playable as is the only way to reach the threats density needed to win keeping the number of instants and sorcery high enough for delver. And it helps with moon too.
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I like Shoal and Traverse. I've been playing them together for almost the entire time Probe has been banned. This probably gets much harder when you also throw in a number of Mishra's Bauble. I think that Shoal, Traverse, and Bauble are all good cards for us, but Traverse and Bauble go nicely together, and running both definitely makes Shoal worse. I'm not sure that it gets worse enough that I would cut it though.
Playing Devil's advocate, I can see why people could not like Traverse. The card has variance, and that means sometimes it is bad. Of course, all cards have some amount of variance (Bolt isn't great when the opponent has a bunch of life, Leak isn't great when they have mana, and Delver can do nothing).
Sometimes, you have a bunch of lands, Delirium isn't on, and you have a Traverse that doesn't help you. It happens. I think that is why people call it clunky. It makes you go through a non-zero amount of hoops, and if you can't manipulate it to benefit you, it won't be great.
However, it isn't the only clunky card. Mandrills is clunky. If you have too many, it gets bad. Even if you only have one, your hand doesn't always allow it to come down efficiently. Shoal is clunky. Dismember is debatably clunky. Spell Snare is clunky. Vapor Snag and Simic Charm are clunky. Stubborn Denial is clunky.
This isn't a deck composed of objectively powerful cards. Don't get me wrong, I think we have cards that are exceedingly powerful, but mostly contextually. Almost every card requires finesse, and can be clunky.
We play Stubborn Denial, even though it is sometimes bad. People have called it the reason to play the deck (although, I think that was before Shadow became huge). Traverse is also sometimes bad. I play Denial because I believe it makes the deck better, at least on average. I believe the same of Traverse.
And on top of all that, I would add, it allows you to run a couple powerful sideboard 1ofs (things like Bedlam Reveler, Thrun, Chameleon Colossus) and be able to hit them reliably.
On the topic of one-offs to tutor out with Traverse, what do you all think of Reveler and Chameleon Colossus right now?
I kind of want to throw my one-off Reveler back in, now that UW Control is picking up more. Having access to Reveler could really help the matchup, but we already have Huntmaster to tutor out. Huntmaster is worse here, but also doesn't take additional slots. I'm worried control isn't prominent enough for Reveler to really come back swinging. On the bright side for it, I don't think there is quite as much graveyard hate running around as when Dredge had Grave-Troll. I certainly have been seeing fewer Leyline of the Voids.
On Chameleon Colossus, I've really wanted to play one to bring in against Death's Shadow and other Black decks, but we run Blood Moon. Not being able to cast or activate Colossus under Moon feels really relevant, but I could be wrong. We probably only need one (Moon or Colossus) to resolve on a decent boardstate to take a game.
While I like Reveler against any blue control deck, the new U/w runs RIP from what i've seen. Something to be aware of.
On C.C., I generally don't bring in Blood Moon against Shadow decks as one swamp is enough for them to outclass our threats instantly. I imagine the Chameleon is a home run there every time, how do they answer that?
I tried Reveler some time ago and I found it uncastable unfortunately. Without the fuel probe provided it became clunky. And in any case in the current meta the decks we need reveler against run graveyard hate (as said by Lemonbuster).
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A part against burn (and maybe affinity), when do you side in feed the clan? Valakut, storm?
Against Burn and affinity I'd rather have huntmaster (same role and power but other match up in which it's useful). Storm it's an already good match up so I think it's a win more.
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If you play huntmaster it's a must post side both against burn and affinity. You take more the control role so you can cast it quite easily.
That said I think your plan makes a lot of sense. Since you choose not to play them and face the midrange decks with other weapons those are among the best cards to choose.
@everybody: How do you side against eldrazi and knightfall (or other zoo variety)?
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I like to trash Burn. It sees a lot of play in my area. I disagree Huntmaster is as good vs Burn by the way. It obviously isn't, Huntmaster is very slow for Burn and super vulnerable to Skullcrack.
I don't bring in Feed the Clan vs Affinity.
It's part of my strategy vs Valakut as well, yes. I have sort of developed a gameplan that seems to work against them and Feed the Clan is a part of that gameplan. I feel without Feed the Clan the MU would be only slightly favorable, while Feed the Clan makes it solidly favorable.
I don't know about Storm I haven't tried it to be honest. Seems decent but way less reliable compared to Valakut. I guess in the Storm MU I would bring in Feed the Clan along with the sweepers and board out Simic Charm, the Snapcasters and some numbers of Tarfire/Bauble/Scour/Traverse.
Huntmaster is definitely not as good against Burn as Feed the Clan is. If you face a lot of Burn, Feed the Clan makes plenty of sense. That said, it is still very good (it offers multiple bodies for blocking, and is a nice threat which Path ramps us into, in addition to the lifegain). My favourite thing about Huntmaster is its versatility. Huntmaster is good against Burn, while being great against other Aggro decks, and also good against Midrange and Control. It gives you a lot for the slots it takes up.
With Titanshift becoming more popular, Feed the Clan is really interesting. I've never tried it against them, but I can see it being useful. What does your deck look like postboard?
Feed the Clan seems loose against Storm. I'd much rather stop them from going off than hope that my life total is high enough to survive. I don't know how high the Storm count actually gets though. I just assume that when they go off, it'll be more than enough. I'm very liberal with Fetching and Shocking in the matchup.
If you play huntmaster it's a must post side both against burn and affinity. You take more the control role so you can cast it quite easily.
That said I think your plan makes a lot of sense. Since you choose not to play them and face the midrange decks with other weapons those are among the best cards to choose.
@everybody: How do you side against eldrazi and knightfall (or other zoo variety)?
For reference, my current list. After finding a new appreciation for Bauble with Lemonbuster's, I dropped a Shoal and a Scour for 2 Baubles. I could see going to 17 lands with so many cantrips, but I'm worried that will make Knucks too clunky. It might be worth it for more Baubles though.
I'm assuming you mean Eldrazi Tron because it is the most popular Eldrazi variant. There is a decent amount of overlap for the Eldrazi decks though. I'm not sure about the exact numbers here. I know I want to trim the Bolts back, but I don't know by how much. I want to try keeping Shoal in for Expedition Map, so I had to cut a Snapcaster Mage (compared to how I most recently boarded against the deck, which inspired what I chose here), which I think is more than fine. It makes me sad to cut back Mandrills and drop the Scours, but a lot of stuff has to come out, and Mandrills is our worst threat in this matchup.
Eldrazi Tron:
In
1x Ancient Grudge
1x Destructive Revelry
1x Engineered Explosives
2x Ceremonious Rejection
3x Blood Moon
1x Vapor Snag
2x Huntmaster of the Fells
Out
1x Spell Snare
3x Lightning Bolt
1x Forked Bolt
2x Hooting Mandrills
3x Thought Scour
1x Snapcaster Mage
I'm really not sure about Knightfall. I don't play against it that often for some reason (probably a combination of chance and people not wanting to combo online). If you've seen Devoted Druid combo pieces, I think that Shoal looks a lot better. All versions seem to have important 2 CMC plays, so I like the Snares. I'm really not sure if I want Vapor Snag. I'm leaning towards not. Against a Big Zoo deck, I think the Snags are better because they will have more fatties. This seems like the kind of matchup in which Knucks is a liability, so it is the first thing I want to cut. That makes me want to cut a land, but these decks often play Ghost Quarter, so I cut a Traverse instead (it's unlikely that we need the threat density, although the tutoring is nice). Pyroclasm probably isn't worth it against bigger, goodstuff versions, but it seems fine against Humans and Devoted Druid. Then again, EE covers basically all of their 3-toughness creatures at once (most of them are 3 CMC). If I had bigger sweepers (Anger), I'd be happy to bring them in with little thought. I'd really like to see more people's plans, because this is a matchup I definitely don't know well enough.
Knightfall:
In
1x Engineered Explosives
2x Pyroclasm
1x Izzet Staticaster
2x Huntmaster of the Fells
1x Spell Snare
Out
1x Savage Knuckleblade
1x Hooting Mandrills
3x Thought Scour
1x Vapor Snag
1x Traverse the Ulvenwald
Thanks for the feedback.
By the way I watched your video against burn and read your post about bridge. I actually never saw it in Burn so I never thought about it. Reading the last lists that made results I couldn't find it anywhere either. So I think I'll ignore the possibility. In that match up I have always found great blood moon and I always side in at least 1-2 (I side it in even when I play affinity). It shut down 5-8 cards main among the most annoying like helixes an charms(even more if they play atarka's commands) and 3-5 from side (paths and maybe rest in peace and/or deflecting palm). I think they're worth.
Edit: I advice you to try send to sleep (in mnesci's list I'd cut snag in side for example) since in current meta ca be super relevant. It can give you two free attacks (instead of one since most of the times the bounced creature will be back for blocking) pseudo removing two creatures instead of one. It can be useful against cheap creatures that could otherwise be cast again easily such as death's shadow or many of affinity. It's nuts also against finks and other creatures with ETB effects or haste. It costs 2 so I think that no more than one/two copies can be afforded. But it's a blast. If you have problems with creatures decks it helps a lot.
Wizards spoiled what I think are all of the rares on the Ixalan sheet that was leaked a while ago. We discussed Entrancing Melody back then, but it is now a confirmed Sorcery.
UUX Sorcery: Gain control of target creature with CMC X.
As a Sorcery, it is much clunkier (can't hold up counters or other helpful instants, wait for opponent to attack, or wait for a better target), and will be worse against Manlands, which I think was one of the bigger draws to it. Do you guys still like this card enough to play it? I like taking Shadows, Goyfs, and other such low cost fatties, but the current meta has a decent amount of Delve creatures and Eldrazi. I'm not sure this is maindeckable. I almost certainly want a copy in my sideboard though. Before, I thought it would take EE's slot, but it might not be powerful enough to deserve it (EE is great against Merfolk and is very versatile, but this does get better when we have a bunch of lands in play, which isn't that uncommon postboard).
I'd also like to compare this to Threads of Disloyalty now that we know that it is a Sorcery. I think this will be much better than Threads against BG Midrange (although, it isn't all that common these days). On a 1 CMC creature, Melody is just about strictly better due to not getting hit by Abrupt Decay and friends. On a 2 CMC creature, it is more expensive, but more permanent. On a 3+ CMC creature, it is obviously far better. Not being an enchantment hurts those wanting a graveyard type bonus, but we need Sorceries often anyways.
I had to read it twice to notice it was a sorcery. Quite disappointed. Surely I won't put it main deck. And no more than one or two in side. But I think I still prefer send to sleep or similar due to eldrazi and delves as said by mnesci. We'll see how the meta evolves. It's another weapon and an upgrade to threads of disloyalty in any case.
By the way I can't wait to try the upgraded needle.
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URG Delver
URGW Countercats
(Here you can find some video contents about Countercats and Temur Delver decks)
My plan: +1 EE
+3 HM
+3 BM
+1 Mountain
+2 Pyro
+2 EM
-4 Delver
-4 Shoal
-3 Denial
-1 Scour
I got stomped overall. Melody was pretty bad, even against this Pushless deck with 12 targets, among them 4 Goyfs. 3-4 mana for a sorcery is just way too much in this deck. It's clunky and slow, and stealing a tapped creature does very little since we often get killed on the crackback. Also Tamiyo destroyed me one game. We did some pre-board games too and are an absolute dog there thanks to Goyf and Path. Bauble is great in this deck though though.
This test was obviously quite short and limited in scope, but it makes me less than optimistic about Melody, and about RUG in general. Perhaps Melody can work in a Bauble-featuring build with mainboard Traverse, since that card makes transitioning to a more dedicated Melody plan much easier. But that build probably wouldn't be able to run Shoal, which is likely to put it in the worse-than-Shadow box. I still feel that Counter-Cat is the ideal Delver deck going forward.
the card itself really isn't worth the card board its printed on...does it serve a purpose? Sure its a blue 1 drop that might not be a 1/1. I would not put it in a list and expect to win a PTQ or GP though.
Old-Growth Dryads, at a first glance I see it as potentially playable here if given shoal backup. Is Wild Nacatl the go-to comparison? If so, hard to say why counter-cat wouldn't just run both and still kick our ass. Though perhaps Death and Taxes will pick this up instead of us due to the synergy between OG Dryads and Leonin Arbiter. What's the take? I'm curious. 3/3 for 1 mana is pretty bonkers but the downside seems really awful unless you can power through it somehow.
Old-Growth Dryads, at a first glance I see it as potentially playable here if given shoal backup. Is Wild Nacatl the go-to comparison? If so, hard to say why counter-cat wouldn't just run both and still kick our ass. Though perhaps Death and Taxes will pick this up instead of us due to the synergy between OG Dryads and Leonin Arbiter. What's the take? I'm curious. 3/3 for 1 mana is pretty bonkers but the downside seems really awful unless you can power through it somehow.
It is and we can't. White splash is painless and Path is the best card in Modern right now. Last thing you want to do while beating down your opponent is feed them basics on the first turn.
the card itself really isn't worth the card board its printed on...does it serve a purpose? Sure its a blue 1 drop that might not be a 1/1. I would not put it in a list and expect to win a PTQ or GP though.
Is the deck fast enough to beat combo?
We basically play as a control deck once we have a clock down in these matchups.
As far as specific combo matchups go, we are favoured against Goryo's Vengeance, Storm, Ad Nauseum (this one is a bit harder because Unlife can slow us down, but I think it is still good), and Collected Company combo decks (not Knightfall- their creatures are more resilient).
The Dredge and Titanshift matchups are more difficult because less of our disruption is live, so we have to do more racing. These are probably around even. Titanshift might be slightly unfavorable (I don't play against it often).
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Any thoughts on running Bauble main without Traverse?
4x Delver of Secrets
4x Hooting Mandrills
2x Snapcaster Mage
4x Tarmogoyf
Artifact (4)
4x Mishra's Bauble
Sorcery (6)
4x Serum Visions
2x Sleight of Hand
Instant (18)
4x Disrupting Shoal
4x Lightning Bolt
2x Mana Leak
4x Stubborn Denial
4x Thought Scour
1x Breeding Pool
1x Forest
3x Island
4x Misty Rainforest
4x Scalding Tarn
2x Steam Vents
1x Stomping Ground
2x Wooded Foothills
2x Ancient Grudge
3x Blood Moon
2x Engineered Explosives
2x Huntmaster of the Fells
2x Pyroclasm
1x Surgical Extraction
3x Traverse the Ulvenwald
I have been doing just that! I'm just going to post my list to add to the current discussion. So far my FNM record with the new list is 7-1.
4 Mishra's Bauble
Creatures 14
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Hooting Mandrills
2 Snapcaster Mage
Instant/sorc 25
4 Thought Scour
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Tarfire
4 Stubborn Denial
2 Mana Leak
2 Spell Snare
3 Vapor Snag
4 Serum Visions
3 Island
1 Forest
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Wooded Foothills
2 Steam Vents
1 Breeding Pool
1 Stomping Ground
2 Engineered Explosives
3 Huntmaster of the Fells
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Destructive Revelry
2 Ceremonious Rejection
2 Dispel
2 Anger of the Gods
1 Traverse the Ulvenwald
I honestly have not missed blood moon at all. The card is just so clunky and I'd often just lose to myself when I sided it in. the deck feels super sweet right now!
I agree with you.
The only case in which I see traverse is less good is when you want to play shoal. And even then I can see playing a couple. Without shoal I can't see why playing less than three. In the first turns is a sorcery in the graveyard and it fixes mana, late game is threat or with snap even bolt. I think Traverse makes the deck playable as is the only way to reach the threats density needed to win keeping the number of instants and sorcery high enough for delver. And it helps with moon too.
Modern:
Playing Devil's advocate, I can see why people could not like Traverse. The card has variance, and that means sometimes it is bad. Of course, all cards have some amount of variance (Bolt isn't great when the opponent has a bunch of life, Leak isn't great when they have mana, and Delver can do nothing).
Sometimes, you have a bunch of lands, Delirium isn't on, and you have a Traverse that doesn't help you. It happens. I think that is why people call it clunky. It makes you go through a non-zero amount of hoops, and if you can't manipulate it to benefit you, it won't be great.
However, it isn't the only clunky card. Mandrills is clunky. If you have too many, it gets bad. Even if you only have one, your hand doesn't always allow it to come down efficiently. Shoal is clunky. Dismember is debatably clunky. Spell Snare is clunky. Vapor Snag and Simic Charm are clunky. Stubborn Denial is clunky.
This isn't a deck composed of objectively powerful cards. Don't get me wrong, I think we have cards that are exceedingly powerful, but mostly contextually. Almost every card requires finesse, and can be clunky.
We play Stubborn Denial, even though it is sometimes bad. People have called it the reason to play the deck (although, I think that was before Shadow became huge). Traverse is also sometimes bad. I play Denial because I believe it makes the deck better, at least on average. I believe the same of Traverse.
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On the topic of one-offs to tutor out with Traverse, what do you all think of Reveler and Chameleon Colossus right now?
I kind of want to throw my one-off Reveler back in, now that UW Control is picking up more. Having access to Reveler could really help the matchup, but we already have Huntmaster to tutor out. Huntmaster is worse here, but also doesn't take additional slots. I'm worried control isn't prominent enough for Reveler to really come back swinging. On the bright side for it, I don't think there is quite as much graveyard hate running around as when Dredge had Grave-Troll. I certainly have been seeing fewer Leyline of the Voids.
On Chameleon Colossus, I've really wanted to play one to bring in against Death's Shadow and other Black decks, but we run Blood Moon. Not being able to cast or activate Colossus under Moon feels really relevant, but I could be wrong. We probably only need one (Moon or Colossus) to resolve on a decent boardstate to take a game.
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On C.C., I generally don't bring in Blood Moon against Shadow decks as one swamp is enough for them to outclass our threats instantly. I imagine the Chameleon is a home run there every time, how do they answer that?
Modern:
Against Burn and affinity I'd rather have huntmaster (same role and power but other match up in which it's useful). Storm it's an already good match up so I think it's a win more.
Modern:
That said I think your plan makes a lot of sense. Since you choose not to play them and face the midrange decks with other weapons those are among the best cards to choose.
@everybody: How do you side against eldrazi and knightfall (or other zoo variety)?
Modern:
Huntmaster is definitely not as good against Burn as Feed the Clan is. If you face a lot of Burn, Feed the Clan makes plenty of sense. That said, it is still very good (it offers multiple bodies for blocking, and is a nice threat which Path ramps us into, in addition to the lifegain). My favourite thing about Huntmaster is its versatility. Huntmaster is good against Burn, while being great against other Aggro decks, and also good against Midrange and Control. It gives you a lot for the slots it takes up.
With Titanshift becoming more popular, Feed the Clan is really interesting. I've never tried it against them, but I can see it being useful. What does your deck look like postboard?
Feed the Clan seems loose against Storm. I'd much rather stop them from going off than hope that my life total is high enough to survive. I don't know how high the Storm count actually gets though. I just assume that when they go off, it'll be more than enough. I'm very liberal with Fetching and Shocking in the matchup.
For reference, my current list. After finding a new appreciation for Bauble with Lemonbuster's, I dropped a Shoal and a Scour for 2 Baubles. I could see going to 17 lands with so many cantrips, but I'm worried that will make Knucks too clunky. It might be worth it for more Baubles though.
4x Tarmogoyf
4x Hooting Mandrills
2x Snapcaster Mage
1x Savage Knuckleblade
2x Disrupting Shoal
1x Spell Snare
3x Stubborn Denial
2x Mana Leak
4x Lightning Bolt
1x Tarfire
1x Forked Bolt
1x Vapor Snag
1x Dismember
4x Serum Visions
3x Thought Scour
2x Traverse the Ulvenwald
2x Mishra's Bauble
4x Scalding Tarn
2x Wooded Foothills
2x Steam Vents
1x Breeding Pool
1x Stomping Ground
2x Island
1x Forest
1x Mountain
1x Destructive Revelry
1x Engineered Explosives
2x Ceremonious Rejection
3x Blood Moon
1x Vapor Snag
1x Spell Snare
2x Pyroclasm
1x Izzet Staticaster
2x Huntmaster of the Fells
I'm assuming you mean Eldrazi Tron because it is the most popular Eldrazi variant. There is a decent amount of overlap for the Eldrazi decks though. I'm not sure about the exact numbers here. I know I want to trim the Bolts back, but I don't know by how much. I want to try keeping Shoal in for Expedition Map, so I had to cut a Snapcaster Mage (compared to how I most recently boarded against the deck, which inspired what I chose here), which I think is more than fine. It makes me sad to cut back Mandrills and drop the Scours, but a lot of stuff has to come out, and Mandrills is our worst threat in this matchup.
Eldrazi Tron:
In
1x Ancient Grudge
1x Destructive Revelry
1x Engineered Explosives
2x Ceremonious Rejection
3x Blood Moon
1x Vapor Snag
2x Huntmaster of the Fells
Out
1x Spell Snare
3x Lightning Bolt
1x Forked Bolt
2x Hooting Mandrills
3x Thought Scour
1x Snapcaster Mage
I'm really not sure about Knightfall. I don't play against it that often for some reason (probably a combination of chance and people not wanting to combo online). If you've seen Devoted Druid combo pieces, I think that Shoal looks a lot better. All versions seem to have important 2 CMC plays, so I like the Snares. I'm really not sure if I want Vapor Snag. I'm leaning towards not. Against a Big Zoo deck, I think the Snags are better because they will have more fatties. This seems like the kind of matchup in which Knucks is a liability, so it is the first thing I want to cut. That makes me want to cut a land, but these decks often play Ghost Quarter, so I cut a Traverse instead (it's unlikely that we need the threat density, although the tutoring is nice). Pyroclasm probably isn't worth it against bigger, goodstuff versions, but it seems fine against Humans and Devoted Druid. Then again, EE covers basically all of their 3-toughness creatures at once (most of them are 3 CMC). If I had bigger sweepers (Anger), I'd be happy to bring them in with little thought. I'd really like to see more people's plans, because this is a matchup I definitely don't know well enough.
Knightfall:
In
1x Engineered Explosives
2x Pyroclasm
1x Izzet Staticaster
2x Huntmaster of the Fells
1x Spell Snare
Out
1x Savage Knuckleblade
1x Hooting Mandrills
3x Thought Scour
1x Vapor Snag
1x Traverse the Ulvenwald
Interested in RUG (Temur) Delver in Modern? Find gameplay with live commentary at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8UcKe8jVh1e2N4CHbd3fhg
By the way I watched your video against burn and read your post about bridge. I actually never saw it in Burn so I never thought about it. Reading the last lists that made results I couldn't find it anywhere either. So I think I'll ignore the possibility. In that match up I have always found great blood moon and I always side in at least 1-2 (I side it in even when I play affinity). It shut down 5-8 cards main among the most annoying like helixes an charms(even more if they play atarka's commands) and 3-5 from side (paths and maybe rest in peace and/or deflecting palm). I think they're worth.
Edit: I advice you to try send to sleep (in mnesci's list I'd cut snag in side for example) since in current meta ca be super relevant. It can give you two free attacks (instead of one since most of the times the bounced creature will be back for blocking) pseudo removing two creatures instead of one. It can be useful against cheap creatures that could otherwise be cast again easily such as death's shadow or many of affinity. It's nuts also against finks and other creatures with ETB effects or haste. It costs 2 so I think that no more than one/two copies can be afforded. But it's a blast. If you have problems with creatures decks it helps a lot.
Modern:
UUX Sorcery: Gain control of target creature with CMC X.
As a Sorcery, it is much clunkier (can't hold up counters or other helpful instants, wait for opponent to attack, or wait for a better target), and will be worse against Manlands, which I think was one of the bigger draws to it. Do you guys still like this card enough to play it? I like taking Shadows, Goyfs, and other such low cost fatties, but the current meta has a decent amount of Delve creatures and Eldrazi. I'm not sure this is maindeckable. I almost certainly want a copy in my sideboard though. Before, I thought it would take EE's slot, but it might not be powerful enough to deserve it (EE is great against Merfolk and is very versatile, but this does get better when we have a bunch of lands in play, which isn't that uncommon postboard).
I'd also like to compare this to Threads of Disloyalty now that we know that it is a Sorcery. I think this will be much better than Threads against BG Midrange (although, it isn't all that common these days). On a 1 CMC creature, Melody is just about strictly better due to not getting hit by Abrupt Decay and friends. On a 2 CMC creature, it is more expensive, but more permanent. On a 3+ CMC creature, it is obviously far better. Not being an enchantment hurts those wanting a graveyard type bonus, but we need Sorceries often anyways.
Interested in RUG (Temur) Delver in Modern? Find gameplay with live commentary at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8UcKe8jVh1e2N4CHbd3fhg
By the way I can't wait to try the upgraded needle.
Modern:
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Hooting Mandrills
2 Snapcaster Mage
Artifacts (4)
4 Mishra's Bauble
Instants (19)
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Disrupting Shoal
4 Thought Scour
3 Mana Leak
3 Stubborn Denial
1 Dismember
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Forest
2 Island
2 Steam Vents
1 Breeding Pool
1 Stomping Ground
2 Wooded Foothills
Sorceries (6)
4 Serum Visions
2 Sleight of Hand
1 Engineered Explosives
3 Huntmaster of the Fells
3 Blood Moon
1 Surgical Extraction
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Mountain
2 Pyroclasm
2 Entrancing Melody
+1 EE
+3 HM
+3 BM
+1 Mountain
+2 Pyro
+2 EM
-4 Delver
-4 Shoal
-3 Denial
-1 Scour
I got stomped overall. Melody was pretty bad, even against this Pushless deck with 12 targets, among them 4 Goyfs. 3-4 mana for a sorcery is just way too much in this deck. It's clunky and slow, and stealing a tapped creature does very little since we often get killed on the crackback. Also Tamiyo destroyed me one game. We did some pre-board games too and are an absolute dog there thanks to Goyf and Path. Bauble is great in this deck though though.
This test was obviously quite short and limited in scope, but it makes me less than optimistic about Melody, and about RUG in general. Perhaps Melody can work in a Bauble-featuring build with mainboard Traverse, since that card makes transitioning to a more dedicated Melody plan much easier. But that build probably wouldn't be able to run Shoal, which is likely to put it in the worse-than-Shadow box. I still feel that Counter-Cat is the ideal Delver deck going forward.
Counter-Cat
Colorless Eldrazi Stompy
Counter-Cat
Colorless Eldrazi Stompy