MTG Salvation

Lately I have ran 1-2 Combust in my sideboard, i've found its really nice against pod. It deals with so many their hard to deal with creatures (The ever annoying Rhino, Restoration angel, Linvala, Archangel of thune) Also hits finks/voice in a pinch. Even killing off a Sin collector so they can't pod into a 4drop is nice. It's obviously good in other match ups as well but just my .02 for extra help in the pod match.

Quote from Apex_Predator »

Lately I have ran 1-2 Combust in my sideboard, i've found its really nice against pod. It deals with so many their hard to deal with creatures (The ever annoying Rhino, Restoration angel, Linvala, Archangel of thune) Also hits finks/voice in a pinch. Even killing off a Sin collector so they can't pod into a 4drop is nice. It's obviously good in other match ups as well but just my .02 for extra help in the pod match.

This. Combust can push a hole in their flying big creatures and simply finish off a rhino. Fellow UR-delver players in my gaming group have declared me nuts, but hey, I win the pod matchup. They don't.

@Pistallion

Harvest Pyre comes in agaisnt Twin, Goyf and UWR. It can be switched out for combutst(If you expect goyf to be less popular) or dismember.

There isn't a really good replacement for blood moon. Sowing Salt would probably be the best.
Blood moon comes in against UWR to stop Colonnade. B/G/X if their mana base looks like it has a bunch of non-basics, and of course Tron.

@motleyslayer
Looks super solid and i would only ever do minor tweaks based on meta. (Pillar instead of forked bolt if Pod is bigger)
I think the weakest cards are the counter spells and you may find you want the 2nd snapcaster.

I think the Ideal Mana base is

5 Island
4 Scalding tarn
2 Steam vents
1 Mountain
1 Sulfur falls
4 Flooded strand
1 Wooded Foothills

You really want to only have 1-2 red sources then just draw/fetch islands.

I attended many local paper events with the list I have been playing for a while now. I'm very satisfied with the results I put up with it. It can battle most decks played in modern and is favourable in the mirror matches. It's a lot of fun to operate as it requires some thorough thinking and planning ahead. This makes for fun and exciting games. Here's the list (again):



A short overview of my FNM results yesterday:
Match 1: Death and Taxes (1-2). Unlike hatebears I never played this match-up before. I roughly knew what the deck could do, but it has a LOT of tricks and traps and I fell for most of them. Ouch.
Match 2: RG Tron (2-0). It has been ages seen I've seen this one. Fortunately I found the cards I needed to keep his stuff at bay and beat him to death. If they're slow on their tron I love spell piercing their maps and land-searching spells. G2 I blood mooned him and won that way.
Match 3: Small zoo (2-1). This match had a lot of mulligans for both of us. I raced g1 with delvers. I got blown out by ghor-clan rampager g2. I won g3 with a batterskull.
Match 4: RUGW delver (2-1). Very interesting and surprisingly strong deck. Fortunately I've played many delvermirrors and he did not. This advantage helped me plan through his removal and goyfs and win this match.

Overall I'm still very happy with my deck. I'm curious to see what the bannings are going to bring. If DTT stays I'll keep playing it, if not, I will probably go back to the deck I played before KTK (-3 DTT, +2 grim lavamancer, +1 vapor snag) and work my way up the new meta from there.

After almost every match people ask me "Why no treasure cruise? It's a lot better then DTT! DTT is really bad in delver, because you don't play combo and can only dig for crappy cards!". I usually just smile at them. I do the same when I end up going home with a nice score and a pile of boosters.

I'm pretty sure no cards will be banned in the upcoming announcement, but we'll have a few unbans like Bloodbraid Elf, Ancestral Vision, Sword of the Meek, and/or Seething Song.

About your deck, I found Desolate Lighthouse interesting, it seems like a fair fit. No Delver of Secrets feels really questionable to me because you're then much weaker to combo. I would try to at least add a couple Vendilion Clique so that while you hold up mana, you can still add pressure if they just durdle for a turn.

I would look up Zemanjaski's Dig Through Time Delver list if that's something you want to play.

Quote from Amethyst007 »

2) Second question is about tactics against Pod. Should we play full aggro siding out counterspells or maybe more controlish shooting their dorks and so on? What are the best sideboard cards against them? How Blood Moon shows itself in this matchup?

I play the Delver vs Pod matchup a lot from both sides of the table. You can beat every creature they play but you have to watch out for the Pod itself. If I can land a Pod I only lose to 3+ Cruises, that said you'll hit a lot of Cruises in the match because I find it to go long so a resolved Pod is very beatable. Aggression doesn't work well against Pod because Pontiff and Redcap just do too much damage to the board position, instead I look to go long and grind advantage. Here's the list I play, it's not tuned specifically for Pod but it does go about 55/45 against Pod, you'll notice that I'm less on the aggression plan in general since I do fewer Swiftspear/more Snap but it works. I was influenced a bit by one of the Madrid or Milan lists that splashed white for Geist.



My sideboard plan is generally -2 Vapor Snag, -4 Remand, -1 Gitaxian Probe (Probe should probably be another cut but I'm not sure what) +1 Dismember, +2 Pillar of Flame, +1 Hibernation, +1 Combust, +2 Blood Moon. Smash to Smithereens is decent too but you run into issues of what to take out. I used to use them over Dismember/Hibernation, those are new cards I've been trying out to reasonable success. In general I try to use my Swiftspears as Fireballs rather than Goblin Guides. The best play you can make in the match is to Gut Shot a manadork on T1, the next best play is to kill a manadork+something with Forked Bolt.

I wouldn't bring in the Blood Moon, they have too many Mana Dorks for it to be effective. I'd rather have a Smash and a Gitaxian Probe. Taking out all the Remands, especially on the play, I don't like either. I'd much rather take out a Spell Snare. I would also say that Magma Spray is MUCH better on the board than Pillar of Flame since the only times you want it in is for board control, and it kills a Finks and Redcap on its life gain trigger so that it can't be Podded.

Quote from fyawm »

I wouldn't bring in the Blood Moon, they have too many Mana Dorks for it to be effective. I'd rather have a Smash and a Gitaxian Probe. Taking out all the Remands, especially on the play, I don't like either. I'd much rather take out a Spell Snare. I would also say that Magma Spray is MUCH better on the board than Pillar of Flame since the only times you want it in is for board control, and it kills a Finks and Redcap on its life gain trigger so that it can't be Podded.

Killing the mana dorks isn't much of a problem in my experience, the bigger problem is that Pod runs 5 basics and isn't afraid to fetch them. That makes the Blood Moon pretty hit or miss, you really need to watch game 1 and pay attention to how that particular opponent fetches. If they go overboard on the shocks you can possibly get them with Blood Moon but if they go out of their way to grab basics it's less likely to work. I guess I should have included mentioning that, Blood Moon is a card (atleast in this matchup) that requires you to get a read on your opponent from game 1. Some players will send strong signals that it works on them while other players will signal the opposite. Sometimes when I'm on Pod and I know my opponent has Blood Moon I'll intentionally over fetch the shocks in game 1 just to make them bring in some dead Blood Moons in game 2. That said, Blood Moon still stops Gavony and if the game goes long that's something you need to have a plan to handle.

It's a fair point on Magma Spray, I'll think about that the next time I run Delver. I like having the ability to go to the face to compensate for fewer Swiftspears but maybe you're right and I should just worry about the board. If they lack a board they'll die anyways.

Remand I don't find to be particularly effective against Pod because they'll eventually land the Pod most likely and from then on it's all about tutoring creatures rather than casting spells. Even when they don't land the Pod they can just start the Gavony beatdowns, and then there's Voice which makes countering more difficult.

Quote from fyawm »

About your deck, I found Desolate Lighthouse interesting, it seems like a fair fit. No Delver of Secrets feels really questionable to me because you're then much weaker to combo. I would try to at least add a couple Vendilion Clique so that while you hold up mana, you can still add pressure if they just durdle for a turn.

I would look up Zemanjaski's Dig Through Time Delver list if that's something you want to play.

I really like the one-off desolate lighthouse in this deck. There's a small chance this card is a little awkward in some opening hands, but there's enough spells that cost X1 so usually it's not much of a problem. The loothouse has won me many games. I've looted away tons of lands with it (5 in a row last FNM vs. the RUGW delver deck) while digging for the winning burnspell. In some situations you can grab your topcard when you need it, and know what it is because of serum visions, to surprisekill your opponent when he taps out or something. I've also nabbed serum visions scried cards with it in response to a (forced) shuffle-effect. Last but not least, it's good at filling up your graveyard lategame while getting rid of that useless mana leak or spell pierce.

I'm not sure what you mean with "no delver of secrets". I do run 4 of them and I'm not weak to combo. I play enough countermagic to keep them busy. Vendilion Clique I'm not so sure about in the current meta. There's too many forked bolts and electrolyzes running around setting up painfull two for ones. If the delve cards get banned I might try them again, but for now my partner is using all our cliques and I'm not planning on buying a few extra.

Zemanjaski's strategical guide and sideboard plan really helped me develop my deck. I encourage other people to read his articles and give this version of the deck a try. It's a blast.

Good question! You're not the first to ask. I've had people playing around it when I hit my triple blue and asking me later if I had it.

I love cryptic command as a card. I think it fits the tempo-plan and it's versatile. Big downside is the cmc 4, making it a little on the slow side. It feels weird to run cryptics in a 19 land deck, but looking back on most of my games that shouldn't be an issue at all. My biggest concern is that people side in cards against me that are very strong against cryptic. I don't want to run my cryptic into spell pierce, dispel or negate.

Maybe 1 or 2 cryptics would be good in the sideboard for pod, tron, jund/k, etc. I'll have to think about it. It's probably worth testing!

This deck continues to be one of the best in the format. 2015 will be no different.

For Choke, you could always try putting a single Breeding Pool/Hallowed Fountain in the main. Have an off-color source to fetch up for sideboard Destructive Revelry or Wear // Tear.

Delver was never the best deck in the format, Pod has and will continue to be the best in the format until it's eventually banned.

A Treasure Cruise ban will put UR Delver firmly back in Tier 1.5 where Wizards wants all blue-based decks to belong while GBx and Pod reign supreme.

I wouldn't mind if someone else took over the Primer for UR Delver, I've been playing more RUG Delver than anything else.

I would wait until the banlist announcement are out before making any changes.

As a Pod player, I lost a game where my opponent had Hibernation. It bounced my Choke, my Finks and a dork at end of his turn, untapped, and dealt me 13 damage in that turn with a flipped Delver, a 5/6 swifspear and 2 burn spells. Excellent win by him.