Hi everyone! Recently I saw Jeff Hoogland's videos about Grixis Delver and surprisingly enough he doesn't run any Visions in favor of a full playset of Opt. He also affirm that Serum Visions is a bad card compared to Opt cause it makes you draw before scrying and it doens't enhance so much the chance to flip the delver. In this thread I have seen many people doing the opposite (4 Serum and no Opt) so I'd like to know what's your thought about what Hoogland said.
He played a deck with 18 creatures and 22 lands and put delver in it(ur wizards). As a player, considering he even had great results with it, nothing to say: he's a genius. But, as a deckbuilder, I wouldn't even ask him a list for an fnm.
Jokes aside, in my personal experience, I found both of them great and what has been umderwhelming was thought scour: it's randomness was too punishing and the chance to fuel a turbo delve threat was not worth the strain, so I run a list with only two tasigurs (and no anglers) and the playsets of both serum and opt, cutting all the scours and feel great with it, since I still can cast an easy t3 tas (but prefer it as a mid game fatty protected with counterspells or late game card advantage engine) and have other great threats like young peezy and clique.
The card I'm trying to evaluate at the moment is risk factor, since the jump start and instant speed are both great elements but I'm not sure the 4 damage "mode" will be good enough times to force the opponent to make you draw. I tried it in a jeskai version with way more burn but got a bit disappointed, maybe as a one or two of in the grindier grixis version could be better. Any thoughts about it?
My current list:
He played a deck with 18 creatures and 22 lands and put delver in it(ur wizards). As a player, considering he even had great results with it, nothing to say: he's a genius. But, as a deckbuilder, I wouldn't even ask him a list for an fnm.
Jokes aside, in my personal experience, I found both of them great and what has been umderwhelming was thought scour: it's randomness was too punishing and the chance to fuel a turbo delve threat was not worth the strain, so I run a list with only two tasigurs (and no anglers) and the playsets of both serum and opt, cutting all the scours and feel great with it, since I still can cast an easy t3 tas (but prefer it as a mid game fatty protected with counterspells or late game card advantage engine) and have other great threats like young peezy and clique.
The card I'm trying to evaluate at the moment is risk factor, since the jump start and instant speed are both great elements but I'm not sure the 4 damage "mode" will be good enough times to force the opponent to make you draw. I tried it in a jeskai version with way more burn but got a bit disappointed, maybe as a one or two of in the grindier grixis version could be better. Any thoughts about it?
My current list:
And my possible changes would be -1 dispel and -1 tasigur for +2 risk factor. Any thoughts?
Personally I don't like Risk Factor very much, the only way I see it in our deck it's on SB replacing Painful Truths, but maybe I'm understimating its potential. However if I were you I'd only put it in the place of a single dispel, I think that cutting a threat is not the best cause we have just only 14.
In any case please keep us updated on how Risk Factor performs!
Hi there! I signed in just to answer on this topic, and talk about this wonderful deck, i recently built
let' s talk about serum vision/opt...why do you guys prefer serum over opt? i' m trying playing 4 opt instead of serum, and it feels kinda better, the instant speed helps you on turn 1, when you can choose to opt, or just bolt the 1 drop creature oppo played; i think that the opportunity of choose what to do offers more value than serum, that force you to tap out turn 1, and then spend 1 other mana for bolt/push the creature on your second turn, without any chance to put a safe delver...on the other hand, serum set up the flip, but you still need to wait turn 3 to flip him if you serum on turn1...even without serum i flipped delver pretty often, so imo, serum is kinda worthless now. Serum is actually meh even on top deck, when you prefer opt to literally see what you are goign to draw, and if it s a bad card, bottom it and draw another one.
Next one, i pretty much want to cut out all of the leaks or 2 mana counterspells, or maybe just some of them, and put in more spellpierce/dispel, or some other way to protect our delver on turn 2; 2 mana counterspell seems too high on cost, especially when we stuck on 2 lands and it's almost impossibile to snapcaster them :/ what about some discard spells to get rid of potentials removals or other threats? maybe i' m too settled on protecting delver but i would like to know your thoughts; a combination of 1 mana counterspell/discard would be great in my modest opinion.
Hi and welcome to this thread! Recently I've been thinking about the "Serum or Opt" dilemma too, but unfortunately I haven't got the chance yet to try my deck with -4 serum and +4 opt. Maybe in these days I'll test it online and at an FNM and report the results.
Regarding discard spells it's quite a "thorny speech", someone likes it cause you can remove a huge threat while others say that you're actually losing tempo and since Grixis Delver is a tempo deck it's quite important. I've tried 2 IoK maindeck and they were fine, not the best topdeck in lategame but in early sometimes they took off some powerful threat. In conclusion I think that playing or not discard depends on your playstyle
Sometimes 3 pyro feels clunky so now I'm trying to add a Clique (or a Nimble Obstructionist for budget reason) and see how it goes. I don't think Ashiok would be useful enough against Jund or control, Spell Snare is a beast instead against Jund and I really recommend it.
Burn is always a tough MU but I think that the combination of Dispel + Countersquall + Brutality help us a lot, maybe you can add 1 or 2 dispels in your SB.
Against Tron you can use Alpine Moon since it cost only one mana and completely shuts off Tron lands (if you don't know it already Tron lands check the subtype "Urza's ..." not the name, so when you use Alpine Moon the subtype of the land you've chosen is rewritten) and the counters against colorless spells.
Another quick update: been grinding some Grixis Delver in Magic Online competitive leagues. I started this morning with a UB Delver/Shadow build similar to the Legacy version but kept going 3-2. Tonight, I decided to add the red for a playset of Bolt, 1x Battle Rage, 1x K-Command and a few sideboard cards. I'm happy to share that I got the 5-0 Hopefully it gets posted!
Match-Ups:
R1: Ad Nauseam (2-1)
R2: Infect (2-1)
R3: Storm (2-0)
R4: Bant Spirits (2-0)
R5: Blue Moon (2-0)
If you have any questions about card choices, sideboarding, anything at all, just let me know! Really happy with the results of that league and the current configuration. I will provide updates on any future developments.
Hey man, thanks for the list, I just cashed my first tournament with this, card-for-card. End up 6-2, losing my win-and-in to myself and my nerves. I believe this list had potential to take the whole thing. Here are the matches and general impressions.
R1 - Bogles (2-0) Spell Pierce got his Daybreak Coronet each game (he was playing around soft Stubbs, too!) Beyond that, I just clogged the board until the swing was profitable. Game 1 was 3x Death's Shadow, with surprise Dismember to gobble his Bogle blocker (dismember the spiritdancer, but could have gone on an unblocked shadow for same effect). Game 2 was a single bugman flying over while snap and angler kept me safe.
Boarded in counterspells, pulled out removal - it's the coronet, and then the totems that scare me most (totems allow for a very real crack-back). Beyond that, trust your deck and be aggressive! It's worth noting that against these creature-light decks, I'll tend to pull out Dismembers before Bolts, as Bolt is more versatile, and can still present a ton of burst damage if I target myself with a couple Shadows out.
R3 - Eldrazi Powder (0-2)
Game 1 opp plays a turn 1 chalice on the play, and I durdle my 1-drops into the bin until I can resolve a tasigur. Dismember deals with his smasher, but I have no answer for his second and we go to game 2. Game 2 I keep a threat-light hand that can deal with a chalice, but Brett Spinelli is a sharp player and assumes the control roll well. He has a simian spirit guide when I soft-stub his chalice on 1, and while I get to resolve an explosives on 0 and a tasigur, his mimic becomes a smasher and then seer, and it's about time for me to scoop 'em up.
Boarded in artifactremoval, and rejections for pushes and bolts, but this doesn't even seem strong. He had cavern of souls game 2 in case I found a rejection, and his threats are not artifacts. My guess is this is just an outlier we hope to avoid, but I'll appreciate any insight to the Eldrazi Aggro match-up. Also hope reader gets to play against Brett some time - an absolute pleasure.
R4 Jund (2-1)
Game 1 I don't remember too well (Jund is not an exciting match-up to me). Took a sc'ooze with a thoughtseize (feels good), and sac'd a bugman to a liliana of the veil, which ate a bolt on the follow-up (also feels good). I think a gurmangler got there. Game 2, I mulled to 5. It felt like I was close, but let's be real - I never had my car. Game 3 was grindy, with a couple of bloodbraid elfs seeing different Lilianas. Each Liliana got a 1-mana counterspell, and smart attacks with a death's shadow ground him out. Luckily, he got greedy one turn towards the end and cleaned my hand with a thoughtseize, passed, and let me draw a spell pierce for the k-command he should have cast when I had an empty hand. Better lucky than good!
Boarded in not much - some countersqualls for dismembers, and not much else. This match-up is more about smart evaluation and I'm largely resigned to accepting abrupt decay as inevitable. I hope they don't have it, but I will not take it with a thoughtseize if I see it - we have more targetable threats than they have decays, so I'll play a protect the delve-guy game, and let them spend 2 mana to decay my 1-mana threat.
R5 Blue Moon (2-0)
Game 1 I figure my opponent is on Jeskai control, so kind of kick myself for playing a T1 Delver and he follows up with a T2 Search. My delver flips, and he durdles until I T4 Thoughtseize his Emra2cool4school, the Aeons Torn, leaving him with a through the breach in hand, for which I have a spell pierce prepared. Of note - he Serum Visioned to cards to the top on his turn, influencing my decision. Better lucky than good! G2 is similar, except I nab a madcap on T3, and Tasigur is the win con.
Boarded in counterspells and brutalities for removal (2/2/2, keeping in 2 bolts). This was my first time playing the match-up, but it seems real winnable. Thoughtseize is baller and our counterspells cost less and hit their wincons!
R6 Grixis Teachings (2-0) - This is my testing buddy, Andrew Escobedo, and kudos for his performance (list is sweet!)
Game 1 I sketch-mull 7 down to 6, 6 to 5, and 5 to 4. Don't remember the details of the game (my heart was racing with mixed emotions), but it must have involved a 1-mana counter spell on a cryptic command. Game 2 was rugged, with 1 pivotal play. I swing a 2/2 Death's Shadow and he flashes in a snapcaster mage. When he flashes back the kolaghan's command to shock shadow and have me discard, I pay 2 life to extract his teachings (thoughtseized earlier) and pump the shadow out of range, bolt the snapcaster (I'm now hellbent before the Kommand resolves). He loses a ton of value on the exchange, and the game wraps up in short order thereafter.
Boarded in counterspells and 1 extraction for pushes, dismembers, and some bolts. I always bring in 1 extraction as a Gotcha! play against snapcaster decks. The ability to counter their big value play and wingclip their future with no mana open is a blow-out. I will only cast extraction in this match-up as a counterspell to get immediate denial, and so will only bring in 1.
R7 5c Tribal Flames Aggro (2-0)
Game 1 is pretty grindy with 2x Thoughtseize grabbing 2x Mantis Rider. He gets down a voice of resurgence, and at some point I'm forced to kill it during his attack. Somehow I get him to 4, and I'm at 2 when he decides to attack with a noble hierarch instead of his remaining resurgence token (a 3/3). He triggers his 2x hierarch hierarch and I k-command it, recover snapcaster mage. He realizes he should have attacked with the token, and so does when I play land and pass with snap in hand. His token is a 3/3 swinging, so I play snap, target k-command, block. Snap dies and he moves to end step, so I flashback k-command to shock dome and recover snap, untap, snap-bolt dome. He wasn't even considering the flashback k-command, recover snap post-combat, so it seems worthwhile to lay it out here. Game 2 was a hot pile of cess for my opponent, where I had an aggressive curve and all the answers.
Frankly I do not remember the board plan, as I feel we're pretty well matched in the main. Countersqualls came in, I know that because it was the last spell played in the match. Our dudes block theirs well, and we have the countermagic they lack pre-board. Mantis Rider is a jerk, and flags down my Thoughtseize whenever I see it (exceptions and limitations apply).
R8 Ad Nauseum (1-2)
Prior to this match, I've never won a game against Ad Nauseum, and have been terrified of it as a result. I was tilted the whole match, also being the closest I've been to a Top 8 finish. Game 1 I choose to thought scour T1 on the draw, rather than leave up Spell Pierce for the prism. Then I play a couple of threats and he plays another prism. Then I attack, pass the turn, and he goes off - go figure. Game 2, I rip his hand apart and counter 1 of 2 lotus blooms, and end up beating face until he dies. Game 3, I feel real confident and here's where my results are not indicative of the deck's ability. I keep a decent hand with delver, snap, thoughtseize, and some lands (mulled to 5). I T1 seize, and see 2x SSG, 2x Ad Nauseum, and some melarkie - I take 1x SSG, planning to extract them when I draw a surgical. Delver comes down T2 and flips on T4, after I back him up with a snapcasted thoughtseize. I take a new-found phyrexian unlife to delay him while I beat for 5 a turn. This is my first mistake of the game, where I should have taken the second SSG. He would be hard-pressed to spot-win with 2x SSG in the graveyard. A couple turns later he plays another unlife, and I get scared and tax him with a soft stub, when he's really just trying to buy time (my fear suggested he could win on the spot with those 2 mana open, so I should tap 1 down). He pays it and passes, and I swing him to 0 with bugman, shadow, and snap, and he plays Ad Nauseum #1 EOT, which I hard-stub. He untaps and casts Ad Nauseum #2 to which I have no response. The obvious mistake is soft stub the unlife, but the real mistake is not taking the 2nd SSG. Ah well.
Boarded in counterspells in place of removal. This match-up seems so well in our favor, that the deck is capable of winning through 1 play mistake at Table 4 on the final round. Be aggressive and play smart - you'll get there!
Ultimately, the biggest strength for this deck is its mana efficiency. All of our threats and all angles of our disruption cost only 1 mana. This allows us to double and triple spell people in a turn, making the deck incredibly fast at executing its plan.
Congratulations again jbar2! 6-2 is a great record, especially for (I assume) one of your first tournaments with this deck.
I agree on the mana efficiency point. You have such a huge density of 1-2 mana spells that no matter the configuration of your opener, you can usually play a game of Magic, which means you get screwed out of way fewer games than other decks that need multiple lands and combinations of cards to win. All of our cards are individually powerful and don't require synergy. At the same time, we have flood insurance in the form of Snaps + Tasigur + LtLH.
Don't get too caught up on the mistakes. Use them to learn, not to beat yourself up. Really happy to see your positive results and I wish you the best of luck moving forward!
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Check out some Magic Gameplay and Commentary videos here, including Modern Grixis, Jeskai, and Esper videos as well as some Standard and Drafts too: My YouTube Channel!
I did another one of my video series with Grixis Delver today with my preferred list. Deck was sweet as always. Link below! Trimmed the hand disruption. I don't like it very much in an aggressive meta and Inquisition of Kozilek, the preferred disruption to maindeck, doesn't even hit the key cards in Jeskai/UW. Instead I have 2 Thoughtseize in the SB to bring in accordingly.
I like this setup very much and i would like to play it, but i am missing the collective brutality. What would be a good replacement for the collective brutality?
I was thinking about the dreadbore or morderous cut, who think about it?
Unfortunately there is no similar card like Collective Brutality, but if I were you I wouldn't add a Murderous Cut cause I don't want to be so gy dependent. Although Dreadbore is fine, I'd add the 3rd Fatal Push cause I think that list is pretty light on removal
Cryptic is too intensive for the 90% of delver decks but it depends on your manabase and the number of blue sources. I'm not sure about the maths behind it but I believe you can find it on line for sure. Izzet charm was a card I used to play when I was straight UR, but in Grixis you have way too many good cards and stormchaser shines only in an all in prowess deck, while in Grixis you want to remain mana open as much as possible and play only instant speed. If you like the card I suggest you Temur Prowess with baubles, mutagenic growth and become immense (rip probe). I like to experiment too, but I have to say rarely I've been impressed with new cards. The last ones I fell in love with were the obvious fatal push and opt. I recently tried a couple dire fleet poisoners as additional removals that could also race and one risk factor, but I haven't been impressed by either of those. I think my next attempt will be a 12 cantrips shell (I'm currently on only 2 thought scours and 2 delve threats, but sometimes I miss the race a t2 angler gives), so we'll see
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Playing since FRF
Modern:
Grixis Shadow
Jeskai Delver
Standard:
Temur Energy
EDH:
Roon of the Hidden Realm
My list is a little weird, but I have been playing a slower, more controlling version of the deck lately, running 1 Cryptic, 2 Search for Azcanta, and 1 Risk Factor main board (and a second risk factor side.) I feel that the risk factor is really nice. It is instant which is great for holding up counter magic or removal, and is always a tough decision for the opponent. You could run Search, or Risk Factor instead of painful truths for sure I feel. I think that Risk is strictly better than Painful as well. At worst it is 8 damage for 6 mana and a dead card the majority of the time (Or your OP burns 2 counterspells to stop you from drawing a few cards.) At best it's 6 mana for 6 cards. Perhaps I am "wrong" with my choices, but it works for me, and I enjoy playing the list I have haha. Never hurts to try something new.
As for Azcanta, there is rarely a time I don't cast it T2 if able. About the only time I don't is if I am expecting something big from my OP so I need to hold a counter, or if I can cast a delve fatty. It's great for digging for lands and/or answers.
I finally caved and bought Arclight Phoenix yesterday during a Cyber Monday deal. I keep wanting to make a Grixis Delver deck work and I think it would be good with Lightning Bird.
This is the list I have in my head. I'm waiting for pieces to come in to actually test and play, but this is kind of the gist of what I wanted to do:
I finally caved and bought Arclight Phoenix yesterday during a Cyber Monday deal. I keep wanting to make a Grixis Delver deck work and I think it would be good with Lightning Bird.
This is the list I have in my head. I'm waiting for pieces to come in to actually test and play, but this is kind of the gist of what I wanted to do:
Two of the biggest draws to going into black are the removal spells and the delve creatures. If you don't plan on playing those, there isn't really a reason to play black, and you should just go izzet in that case.
I finally caved and bought Arclight Phoenix yesterday during a Cyber Monday deal. I keep wanting to make a Grixis Delver deck work and I think it would be good with Lightning Bird.
This is the list I have in my head. I'm waiting for pieces to come in to actually test and play, but this is kind of the gist of what I wanted to do:
Two of the biggest draws to going into black are the removal spells and the delve creatures. If you don't plan on playing those, there isn't really a reason to play black, and you should just go izzet in that case.
After some brief goldfishing, this seems to be the case. Carry on, all!
That Pterramander Drake seems nice. Potentially replaces the angler... It's a flyer., doesn't stress our graveyard. and it's 5/5. Anyone give this a try yet?
How are you guys seeing the Pteramander as a replacement for the Delve-Threats? Or maybe in Addition to them, in a reduced amount?
I will definitely give it a try in my Esper Shell, since I was just thinking about adding 1-2 Tombstalker to the deck, since there is a lot of Phoenix and Spirits in my Meta.
Hey there! I'm very inexperienced in Modern, but the Modern Blue Tempo deck that's effective right now in Standard feels like cheating the power level. So much so that I'm wondering about building a table-top version of Mono-Blue Tempo with a Delver of Secrets take. Naturally, I came to this thread in order to do some research, and I wanted to know if Curious Obsession had ever been discussed. It seems like a really great way to keep fueling the Tempo and shortening the clock simultaneously. Any thoughts?
A potential list that I've been considering looks something like this:
The deck is meant for table-top Modern on a budget, as a disclaimer, but I still think that the Obsession engine is worth considering in the Delver strategy as a whole. The strikes against it is that you need a creature in play for it to be effective and it isn't an instant/sorcery to flip Delver reliably. But, it sees that with the Visions and Opt you have a great chance of getting Delver to flip pretty reliably as is. The deck could also benefit from the addition of fetch-lands to help thin the deck and smooth out draws. Playing a clean mana base is a nice way to avoid random Blood Moon decks and the CounterMagic suite should give you game against mostly anything else.
G Mono Green Stompy G
UR UR Delver Prowess UR
URBGrixis DelverURB
RBWMardu PyromancerRBW
Jokes aside, in my personal experience, I found both of them great and what has been umderwhelming was thought scour: it's randomness was too punishing and the chance to fuel a turbo delve threat was not worth the strain, so I run a list with only two tasigurs (and no anglers) and the playsets of both serum and opt, cutting all the scours and feel great with it, since I still can cast an easy t3 tas (but prefer it as a mid game fatty protected with counterspells or late game card advantage engine) and have other great threats like young peezy and clique.
The card I'm trying to evaluate at the moment is risk factor, since the jump start and instant speed are both great elements but I'm not sure the 4 damage "mode" will be good enough times to force the opponent to make you draw. I tried it in a jeskai version with way more burn but got a bit disappointed, maybe as a one or two of in the grindier grixis version could be better. Any thoughts about it?
My current list:
4 snapcaster mage
3 young pyromancer
1 vendilion clique
2 tasigur, the golden fang
4 scalding tarn
4 polluted delta
2 bloodstained mire
2 steam vents
2 watery grave
1 blood crypt
2 island
1 mountain
1 swamp
4 opt
2 dispel
2 spell snare
3 mana leak
4 lightning bolt
3 fatal push
2 terminate
1 dreadbore
2 kolaghan's command
1 engineered explosives
2 nihil spellbomb
2 by force
1 ceremonious rejection
2 disdainful stroke
2 collective brutality
1 countersquall
1 dreadbore
2 anger of the gods
1 izzet staticaster
And my possible changes would be -1 dispel and -1 tasigur for +2 risk factor. Any thoughts?
Modern:
Grixis Shadow
Jeskai Delver
Standard:
Temur Energy
EDH:
Roon of the Hidden Realm
Personally I don't like Risk Factor very much, the only way I see it in our deck it's on SB replacing Painful Truths, but maybe I'm understimating its potential. However if I were you I'd only put it in the place of a single dispel, I think that cutting a threat is not the best cause we have just only 14.
In any case please keep us updated on how Risk Factor performs!
Hi and welcome to this thread! Recently I've been thinking about the "Serum or Opt" dilemma too, but unfortunately I haven't got the chance yet to try my deck with -4 serum and +4 opt. Maybe in these days I'll test it online and at an FNM and report the results.
Regarding discard spells it's quite a "thorny speech", someone likes it cause you can remove a huge threat while others say that you're actually losing tempo and since Grixis Delver is a tempo deck it's quite important. I've tried 2 IoK maindeck and they were fine, not the best topdeck in lategame but in early sometimes they took off some powerful threat. In conclusion I think that playing or not discard depends on your playstyle
G Mono Green Stompy G
UR UR Delver Prowess UR
URBGrixis DelverURB
RBWMardu PyromancerRBW
1 Blood Crypt
2 Bloodstained Mire
1 Darkslick Shores
2 Flooded Strand
2 Island
2 Mountain
2 Polluted Delta
2 Spirebluff Canal
2 Steam Vents
2 Swamp
1 Watery Grave
//Instants
1 Dispel
1 Electrolyze
3 Fatal Push
2 Kolaghan's Command
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Mana Leak
2 Spell Snare
2 Terminate
4 Thought Scour
1 Collective Brutality
4 Serum Visions
//Creatures
4 Delver of Secrets
2 Gurmag Angler
3 Snapcaster Mage
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
3 Young Pyromancer
2 Alpine Moon
2 Anger of the Gods
2 By Force
2 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Countersquall
1 Disdainful Stroke
1 Echoing Truth
1 Extirpate
1 Grim Lavamancer
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Tormod's Crypt
Sometimes 3 pyro feels clunky so now I'm trying to add a Clique (or a Nimble Obstructionist for budget reason) and see how it goes. I don't think Ashiok would be useful enough against Jund or control, Spell Snare is a beast instead against Jund and I really recommend it.
Burn is always a tough MU but I think that the combination of Dispel + Countersquall + Brutality help us a lot, maybe you can add 1 or 2 dispels in your SB.
Against Tron you can use Alpine Moon since it cost only one mana and completely shuts off Tron lands (if you don't know it already Tron lands check the subtype "Urza's ..." not the name, so when you use Alpine Moon the subtype of the land you've chosen is rewritten) and the counters against colorless spells.
That's my 2 cents, hope it helps you!
G Mono Green Stompy G
UR UR Delver Prowess UR
URBGrixis DelverURB
RBWMardu PyromancerRBW
Hey man, thanks for the list, I just cashed my first tournament with this, card-for-card. End up 6-2, losing my win-and-in to myself and my nerves. I believe this list had potential to take the whole thing. Here are the matches and general impressions.
Here's the tl;dr -
R1 Bogles 2-0
R2 Storm 2-0
R3 Eldrazi Powder 0-2
R4 Jund 2-1
R5 Blue Moon 2-0
R6 Grixis Teachings 2-0
R7 5c Tribal Flames Aggro 2-0
R8 Ad Nauseum 1-2
R1 - Bogles (2-0)
Spell Pierce got his Daybreak Coronet each game (he was playing around soft Stubbs, too!) Beyond that, I just clogged the board until the swing was profitable. Game 1 was 3x Death's Shadow, with surprise Dismember to gobble his Bogle blocker (dismember the spiritdancer, but could have gone on an unblocked shadow for same effect). Game 2 was a single bugman flying over while snap and angler kept me safe.
Boarded in counterspells, pulled out removal - it's the coronet, and then the totems that scare me most (totems allow for a very real crack-back). Beyond that, trust your deck and be aggressive! It's worth noting that against these creature-light decks, I'll tend to pull out Dismembers before Bolts, as Bolt is more versatile, and can still present a ton of burst damage if I target myself with a couple Shadows out.
R2 - Storm (2-0)
Tore the cheap spells from his hand (manamorphose and rituals), removal spells killed his wizards before blocks, and counterspells had me covered on big spells that never had a chance to get played.
Boarded in counterspells, brutalities, and extractions for pushes, dismembers, and bolts. Be aggressive in this one - sink them teeth and gator roll!
R3 - Eldrazi Powder (0-2)
Game 1 opp plays a turn 1 chalice on the play, and I durdle my 1-drops into the bin until I can resolve a tasigur. Dismember deals with his smasher, but I have no answer for his second and we go to game 2. Game 2 I keep a threat-light hand that can deal with a chalice, but Brett Spinelli is a sharp player and assumes the control roll well. He has a simian spirit guide when I soft-stub his chalice on 1, and while I get to resolve an explosives on 0 and a tasigur, his mimic becomes a smasher and then seer, and it's about time for me to scoop 'em up.
Boarded in artifact removal, and rejections for pushes and bolts, but this doesn't even seem strong. He had cavern of souls game 2 in case I found a rejection, and his threats are not artifacts. My guess is this is just an outlier we hope to avoid, but I'll appreciate any insight to the Eldrazi Aggro match-up. Also hope reader gets to play against Brett some time - an absolute pleasure.
R4 Jund (2-1)
Game 1 I don't remember too well (Jund is not an exciting match-up to me). Took a sc'ooze with a thoughtseize (feels good), and sac'd a bugman to a liliana of the veil, which ate a bolt on the follow-up (also feels good). I think a gurmangler got there. Game 2, I mulled to 5. It felt like I was close, but let's be real - I never had my car. Game 3 was grindy, with a couple of bloodbraid elfs seeing different Lilianas. Each Liliana got a 1-mana counterspell, and smart attacks with a death's shadow ground him out. Luckily, he got greedy one turn towards the end and cleaned my hand with a thoughtseize, passed, and let me draw a spell pierce for the k-command he should have cast when I had an empty hand. Better lucky than good!
Boarded in not much - some countersqualls for dismembers, and not much else. This match-up is more about smart evaluation and I'm largely resigned to accepting abrupt decay as inevitable. I hope they don't have it, but I will not take it with a thoughtseize if I see it - we have more targetable threats than they have decays, so I'll play a protect the delve-guy game, and let them spend 2 mana to decay my 1-mana threat.
R5 Blue Moon (2-0)
Game 1 I figure my opponent is on Jeskai control, so kind of kick myself for playing a T1 Delver and he follows up with a T2 Search. My delver flips, and he durdles until I T4 Thoughtseize his Emra2cool4school, the Aeons Torn, leaving him with a through the breach in hand, for which I have a spell pierce prepared. Of note - he Serum Visioned to cards to the top on his turn, influencing my decision. Better lucky than good! G2 is similar, except I nab a madcap on T3, and Tasigur is the win con.
Boarded in counterspells and brutalities for removal (2/2/2, keeping in 2 bolts). This was my first time playing the match-up, but it seems real winnable. Thoughtseize is baller and our counterspells cost less and hit their wincons!
R6 Grixis Teachings (2-0) - This is my testing buddy, Andrew Escobedo, and kudos for his performance (list is sweet!)
Game 1 I sketch-mull 7 down to 6, 6 to 5, and 5 to 4. Don't remember the details of the game (my heart was racing with mixed emotions), but it must have involved a 1-mana counter spell on a cryptic command. Game 2 was rugged, with 1 pivotal play. I swing a 2/2 Death's Shadow and he flashes in a snapcaster mage. When he flashes back the kolaghan's command to shock shadow and have me discard, I pay 2 life to extract his teachings (thoughtseized earlier) and pump the shadow out of range, bolt the snapcaster (I'm now hellbent before the Kommand resolves). He loses a ton of value on the exchange, and the game wraps up in short order thereafter.
Boarded in counterspells and 1 extraction for pushes, dismembers, and some bolts. I always bring in 1 extraction as a Gotcha! play against snapcaster decks. The ability to counter their big value play and wingclip their future with no mana open is a blow-out. I will only cast extraction in this match-up as a counterspell to get immediate denial, and so will only bring in 1.
R7 5c Tribal Flames Aggro (2-0)
Game 1 is pretty grindy with 2x Thoughtseize grabbing 2x Mantis Rider. He gets down a voice of resurgence, and at some point I'm forced to kill it during his attack. Somehow I get him to 4, and I'm at 2 when he decides to attack with a noble hierarch instead of his remaining resurgence token (a 3/3). He triggers his 2x hierarch hierarch and I k-command it, recover snapcaster mage. He realizes he should have attacked with the token, and so does when I play land and pass with snap in hand. His token is a 3/3 swinging, so I play snap, target k-command, block. Snap dies and he moves to end step, so I flashback k-command to shock dome and recover snap, untap, snap-bolt dome. He wasn't even considering the flashback k-command, recover snap post-combat, so it seems worthwhile to lay it out here. Game 2 was a hot pile of cess for my opponent, where I had an aggressive curve and all the answers.
Frankly I do not remember the board plan, as I feel we're pretty well matched in the main. Countersqualls came in, I know that because it was the last spell played in the match. Our dudes block theirs well, and we have the countermagic they lack pre-board. Mantis Rider is a jerk, and flags down my Thoughtseize whenever I see it (exceptions and limitations apply).
R8 Ad Nauseum (1-2)
Prior to this match, I've never won a game against Ad Nauseum, and have been terrified of it as a result. I was tilted the whole match, also being the closest I've been to a Top 8 finish. Game 1 I choose to thought scour T1 on the draw, rather than leave up Spell Pierce for the prism. Then I play a couple of threats and he plays another prism. Then I attack, pass the turn, and he goes off - go figure. Game 2, I rip his hand apart and counter 1 of 2 lotus blooms, and end up beating face until he dies. Game 3, I feel real confident and here's where my results are not indicative of the deck's ability. I keep a decent hand with delver, snap, thoughtseize, and some lands (mulled to 5). I T1 seize, and see 2x SSG, 2x Ad Nauseum, and some melarkie - I take 1x SSG, planning to extract them when I draw a surgical. Delver comes down T2 and flips on T4, after I back him up with a snapcasted thoughtseize. I take a new-found phyrexian unlife to delay him while I beat for 5 a turn. This is my first mistake of the game, where I should have taken the second SSG. He would be hard-pressed to spot-win with 2x SSG in the graveyard. A couple turns later he plays another unlife, and I get scared and tax him with a soft stub, when he's really just trying to buy time (my fear suggested he could win on the spot with those 2 mana open, so I should tap 1 down). He pays it and passes, and I swing him to 0 with bugman, shadow, and snap, and he plays Ad Nauseum #1 EOT, which I hard-stub. He untaps and casts Ad Nauseum #2 to which I have no response. The obvious mistake is soft stub the unlife, but the real mistake is not taking the 2nd SSG. Ah well.
Boarded in counterspells in place of removal. This match-up seems so well in our favor, that the deck is capable of winning through 1 play mistake at Table 4 on the final round. Be aggressive and play smart - you'll get there!
Ultimately, the biggest strength for this deck is its mana efficiency. All of our threats and all angles of our disruption cost only 1 mana. This allows us to double and triple spell people in a turn, making the deck incredibly fast at executing its plan.
I agree on the mana efficiency point. You have such a huge density of 1-2 mana spells that no matter the configuration of your opener, you can usually play a game of Magic, which means you get screwed out of way fewer games than other decks that need multiple lands and combinations of cards to win. All of our cards are individually powerful and don't require synergy. At the same time, we have flood insurance in the form of Snaps + Tasigur + LtLH.
Don't get too caught up on the mistakes. Use them to learn, not to beat yourself up. Really happy to see your positive results and I wish you the best of luck moving forward!
I like this setup very much and i would like to play it, but i am missing the collective brutality. What would be a good replacement for the collective brutality?
I was thinking about the dreadbore or morderous cut, who think about it?
G Mono Green Stompy G
UR UR Delver Prowess UR
URBGrixis DelverURB
RBWMardu PyromancerRBW
Modern:
Grixis Shadow
Jeskai Delver
Standard:
Temur Energy
EDH:
Roon of the Hidden Realm
As for Azcanta, there is rarely a time I don't cast it T2 if able. About the only time I don't is if I am expecting something big from my OP so I need to hold a counter, or if I can cast a delve fatty. It's great for digging for lands and/or answers.
This is the list I have in my head. I'm waiting for pieces to come in to actually test and play, but this is kind of the gist of what I wanted to do:
3x Fiery Temper
2x Gut Shot
3x Izzet Charm
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Manamorphose
2x Chart a Course
2x Collective Brutality
4x Faithless Looting
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
4x Arclight Phoenix
2x Bedlam Reveler
4x Delver of Secrets
4x Thing in the Ice
18x Lands
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
Two of the biggest draws to going into black are the removal spells and the delve creatures. If you don't plan on playing those, there isn't really a reason to play black, and you should just go izzet in that case.
After some brief goldfishing, this seems to be the case. Carry on, all!
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
Just to share a list by Evan Gascoyne that top8-ed Chicago RPTQ
4 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Watery Grave
2 Steam Vents
1 Blood Crypt
1 Sulfur Falls
1 Spirebluff Canal
2 Island
1 Swamp
4 Delver of Secrets
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
2 Gurmag Angler
1 Vendilion Clique
4 Serum Visions
1 Opt
2 Mana Leak
2 Remand
2 Spell Snare
1 Spell Pierce
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Fatal Push
3 Kolaghan's Command
2 Terminate
2 Blood Moon
2 Countersquall
2 Izzet Staticaster
1 Anger of the Gods
1 Thing in the Ice
1 Duress
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Dispel
Modern:
RUBDa ShadowBUR
I will definitely give it a try in my Esper Shell, since I was just thinking about adding 1-2 Tombstalker to the deck, since there is a lot of Phoenix and Spirits in my Meta.
A potential list that I've been considering looks something like this:
4x Delver of Secrets
4x Siren Stormtamer
4x Pteramander
4x Tempest Djinn
4x Curious Obsession
Spells (21)
4x Opt
4x Spell Pierce
4x Serum Visions
3x Mana Leak
2x Chart a Course
4x Wizard's Retort
19x Island
The deck is meant for table-top Modern on a budget, as a disclaimer, but I still think that the Obsession engine is worth considering in the Delver strategy as a whole. The strikes against it is that you need a creature in play for it to be effective and it isn't an instant/sorcery to flip Delver reliably. But, it sees that with the Visions and Opt you have a great chance of getting Delver to flip pretty reliably as is. The deck could also benefit from the addition of fetch-lands to help thin the deck and smooth out draws. Playing a clean mana base is a nice way to avoid random Blood Moon decks and the CounterMagic suite should give you game against mostly anything else.
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
RBW [Primer]-Kaalia of the Vast
BUG [Primer]-Tasigur, the Golden Fang
GWU [Primer]-Arcades, the Strategist
WUB Primer-Aminatou, the Fateshifter
UBR Nicol Bolas, the Ravager