i have been playing grixis control, grixis delver and ur delver witrh snap and dig through time. thanks for sharing your list is awesome and right where i want to be right now. gotta question: you are playing 6 delve spells and 4 snapies, furthermore a whole playset of durdling thought scours (i see their value in a delve deck, dont worry), dont you think your (pro-active)control deck could afford some more business instead of a whole 13 spells that do actually nothing to help your early turns? how bout cutting the scours for 2 removal and 2 more counters and the cruises (you still have 4 DTT!) for 2 damnations.
but yeah, your build seems to work for you. whats you general opinion about the matchups?
I really like that Cruise helps with land drops. The deck has been working for a couple reasons: first, the Delver plan throws opponents off, both mentally and of their gameplan since they have to dig for answers to deal with the little guy, giving you plenty of time to stabilize. Second, on the Control plan, we can always threaten answers and cast Scour/Clique/Dig on the End Step. I generally don't have more than one or two "business" cards in hand at any given time, but if they're the right ones, it's all I need. The card quality helps ensure that. Keep in mind you can also flash back stuff Thought Scour eats.
All that said, I only just brewed this list and the business/card advantage balance could probably be a lot better. I encourage you to try different combinations, though I don't like Damnation in this build (at least not Main). Pyroclasm + Terminate seem a lot better to me ATM.
On Countersquall: my bad, forgot it. Made room for a couple copies in the side.
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.
Been on hiatus for a while taking a class, so now I've been trying to catch up on all the new technology while watching Worlds and thought I'd swing by here. Excuse me if I'm a little behind the curve.
Monastery Swiftspear seems like the excellent 1-drop this deck was needing to compliment Delver. Excited to start testing it out.
The delve cards (Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time) seem bonkers. However, I don't see as many people playing DTT on stream, and TC seems to have more negative stigma as it is so easily comparable to Ancestral Recall. In light of that, I think a ban on TC is at least a 50% possibility and I'd rather not brew with it until the next Ban/Restricted announcement.
Thought Scour is very strong with the delve cards (obviously) but I'm hesitant to say it's better than Serum Visions. Scry is always nice. and with Swiftspear having sorcery speed manipulation isn't even that bad.
Mana bases seem as greedy as ever, and I think I would play some combination of Molten Rain + Shadow of Doubt to fight that. Again, MR gets better with Swiftspear because of the free damage.
Overall, I think this deck is stronger now that it has a second respectable 1-drop. Although, the UR Delver lists having access to TC invalidates a lot of the reason to splash B. They can recover from our targeted discard and they can more easily overwhelm our counters. That being said, if Treasure Cruise (and possibly Dig Through Time) does get banned, then I think this deck will be a prime contender.
Here's a list I'll be tuning in anticipation for a TC ban:
Been following this thread for a while since I'm interested in rogue sorts of decks. I think that this is basically a Tom Ross Grixis deck and not really Delver (not to mention having no delvers in it). Delver is more of a tempo sort of deck, and this is basically three-colored infect.
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Current Decks: GWB Angel Pod WBR Mardu Midrange GWB Wilted Abzan
I put the Runechanter's Pike in for fun and haven't regretted it. Also removed the Dig Through Times altogether, as they felt more clunky than anything.
wait, now this is interesting. you cut dtt for bob? can you please share some insight with us on a strategic/tactical level?
i switched back to grixis delver from strait u/r delver by the way. i was playing a semirogue snapcaster/dtt build and i was seriously underwhelmed by the low card quality and lack of good removal.
So, I tried builds using only Digs first, but added the Bobs (risking a potential 8 life loss swing that actually never happened due to deck manipulation and care).
So, with Digs (I also tested with TC, but it had a similar issue), I noticed, more often than not, the Digs were dead in hand. Yes, it's great to be able to reload once you've run out of ammo, but I find the resources aren't as worth it as using Bob. You waste a turn, mana, cards in graveyard, and the potential to tap incorrectly to pull 2 cards from the top seven (or draw 3).
Bob, however, offers me the power of a creature with a consistent source of card advantage. My version of the deck is already fairly conservative with the life total, only hurting myself with two probes and fetch + shocks, so the life loss is easily justified.
Logistics aside, my main reason was, as I said, TC and DTT felt too clunky. It's flashy and cool when they work and pull something good, but when you don't have a good number of cards in grave or the proper mana to support, they're completely dead. When I have just enough to cast one of them, it leaves me completely defenceless for a full turn as I'm tapping out to use them in the mid-late game, and I'm playing in a very active meta (I think I'm one of three or so reactive decks here), so I can't afford to give them an opening. Bob gives me a streamlined source of consistent card advantage that I can easily protect mid-late game and if I drop him on turn two and he survives that one turn, I usually win due to sheer overwhelming CA.
Long story short, I prefer having a consistent stream of card advantage rather than a shotgun instant.
So, when typing a full deck, you don't have to do individual cards, just put [ deck ] [ / deck ] brackets around all the cards in that order (without spaces, of course).
So, the first thing I noticed was your low basic count. I'd recommend running at least 3 basics. I, personally, run 4, but that's because my meta and deck call for it. The Urborg seems flashy because there's no way for it to be fetch'd and you have no double black costed spells. If you feel the Urborg helps you, though, then cutting a Steam Vents works.
So, you appear to be more on board with the TC strategy than Confidant. I think you should remove your Bobs altogether and replace them with more spells OR Snapcaster Mages. Running 3 Thought Scours, 2 Darkblast, and 3 Treasure Cruise shows that you have quite a bit of graveyard usage. If you don't run Snapcasters, then try going for 4 Cruises and up the count of one of the other two.
To be honest, it's difficult to change much more about your deck without knowing the meta. Are the Darkblasts worth it to mainboard? One Mana Leak? 4 Inquisitions instead of 3? Those are all meta calls.
So, you appear to be more on board with the TC strategy than Confidant. I think you should remove your Bobs altogether and replace them with more spells OR Snapcaster Mages.
You also don't want to be the guy who flips Cruise off of Bob and nukes himself into the afterlife.
So, you appear to be more on board with the TC strategy than Confidant. I think you should remove your Bobs altogether and replace them with more spells OR Snapcaster Mages.
You also don't want to be the guy who flips Cruise off of Bob and nukes himself into the afterlife.
My previous build ran both and I never had that problem. The chances alone are slim, but add in the deck manipulation, pulling the other Dig/Cruise from resolving one, and using Delver to peek and keep a fetch open just in case and you have a scarce chance of Bobiciding yourself.
That being said, even if you are the guy, you run that chance by playing both and can't get mad. If it ever happened to me (and, to be honest, I wanted it to), I would have laughed heartedly with my opponent and accepted my fate.
My take on what Grixis Delver should/could be in Modern. Essentially the same list as UR delver (not much for originality, I know) but we swap out a few things, primarily for Darkblast. In my opinion, darkblast is the main reason you want to be playing Grixis delver right now. This card lets you trump other versions of delver. Paired with Young pyromancer, it becomes one of the best repeatable spells in your deck. And dredging allows you to fuel your treasure cruise more quickly than your opponent. Not to mention some nice combat tricks with thought scour.
I see people trying to do a lot of different things with the Grixis delver archetype, which, as a brewer, makes me very happy, but a simple build like this seems very promising to me. Nothing too fancy, just tight synergy.
Forgot to do a small write-up of a recent tourney. Recent, as in last week. My memory is hazy, but I'll try to give a few impressions of the (probably suboptimal) list I ran.
Applied early pressure G1 with a Swiftspear, while he dug for lands/colorless fatties. He assembles Tron and resolves a Karn Liberated. Think he makes a mistake here, as he uses a -3 on my Swiftspear. I take this as in invitation to Lightning Bolt his Karn, I drop another threat, and get to work on his remaining life total. He plays an All Is Dust and I respond with Countersquall. He has to read what the card does and is impressed. I kill him a few turns later.
G2 he resolves two Spellskite. Which is bad. He then resolves a Wurmcoil Engine. There’s no good way for me to deal with this.
G3 I get a turn 1 Delver of Secrets. Blind-flip it on my next turn. I find a Pyroclasm with Inquisition of Kozilek. He plays a Spellskite and I Spell Snare it. I drop his health total while he digs. He assembles Tron, drops a Wurmcoil, and I Remand it. I get him for lethal on the next turn.
Match 2 - Merfolk
Not much to say here. I mulligan both games, and they’re both pretty poor/average mulligans. The most interesting thing here is that he was playing Redirect, which was actually a bit difficult to play around.
Match 3 - RUG Twin
G1 is pretty interactive. A lot of removal going back and forth. Bolt on Delver, Terminate on Tarmogoyf, etc. He eventually has a board that’s two Snapcaster Mage. I get beat down by Snapcasters, unable to find another threat.
G2 is a lot of back and forth as well. I play a turn 1 Delver. He asks me how flipped Delver works, in terms of converted mana cost. I offer that it’s zero, so Engineered Explosives for X=0 kills a flipped Delver. He plays Explosives at zero. I Thoughtseize out a Pyroclasm. I play a Young Pyromancer and cantrip for a token. Pyromancer eats it. Delver is still a 1/1, and there are times when he’ll flip, but I keep him a 1/1. Delver eats it, and he’s replaced with a Monastery Swiftspear. He eventually gets low enough to use Explosives on my elemental token. He goes for a Dig Through Time but I have the Dispel.
He surprisingly has Academy Ruins, which seems like it has a lot of interesting targets (Shackles, Batterskull, Explosives). He puts Explosives on top. When he replays it I respond with Countersquall. Kill him the next turn.
G3 he plays a Tarmogoyf. Terminate it. He plays two more Tarmogoyfs. I die.
Afterwards he tells me that he takes out the combo, since I have so much permission. Thought this was pretty interesting. Maybe straight UR Twin doesn’t have this option, but RUG getting Goyf makes it stronger.
Match 4 - UR Storm
G1 I hit a Manamorphose with Spell Snare and the game ends. G2 he keeps a 1-lander and can’t find anymore. Not much to really say here.
If anything overperformed here, it was Countersquall. A Negate that does a bit of burn is actually really solid. Felt good as a singleton in the main.
Dimir Charm underperformed the most. I tried to rationalize it. It kills a lot of small, important creatures. It counters Treasure Cruise. But I never actually cast it. When I needed it, it wasn't in my hand. When I didn't need it, there it was. I should swap it for a Mana Leak, or maybe a Cryptic Command, but that's probably too ambitious.
Felt a little mixed on the hand disruption. It was sometimes very good. Other times it whiffed pretty hard, especially against R/G Tron. I'm probably just bad at using hand disruption, so that's probably on me.
I'm also totally up to suggestions where my list is concerned. What's good, what's bad, etc. I'm always looking to tweak something.
Hope you have better luck than I do. Just went 0-2 for this week. Probably going to go straight UR next week, but I'd like to remain hopeful where Grixis is concerned.
I'd run Scalding Tarn but it costs too much. I am also still working on Forked Bolt vs. Lava Spike.
Lava Spike is pretty terrible in any deck not named Burn. We want to be able to kill creatures with our burn spells, so I'd recommend Pillar of Flame if you want more burn than Lightning Bolt. PoF's exile clause is very relevant with lots of people playing Pod and trying to cast Delve cards.
I don't like running any number of Thoughtseize, at least until maxing out on Inquisition of Kozilek. The best target for Snapcaster, besides Lightning Bolt, is often a discard spell, and having to pay life multiple times really adds up.
Rise / Fall is... interesting. I don't think you want to load that heavily on discard spells, however the Rise half is interesting, and if it works for you I say keep testing at least one.
Other than that, I think one of the main reasons to run Grixis Delver is that we have access to arguably the two best land denial spells in the format: Shadow of Doubt and Molten Rain. I'd try and fit some number of those in.
I'd run Scalding Tarn but it costs too much. I am also still working on Forked Bolt vs. Lava Spike.
Lava Spike is pretty terrible in any deck not named Burn. We want to be able to kill creatures with our burn spells, so I'd recommend Pillar of Flame if you want more burn than Lightning Bolt. PoF's exile clause is very relevant with lots of people playing Pod and trying to cast Delve cards.
I don't like running any number of Thoughtseize, at least until maxing out on Inquisition of Kozilek. The best target for Snapcaster, besides Lightning Bolt, is often a discard spell, and having to pay life multiple times really adds up.
Rise / Fall is... interesting. I don't think you want to load that heavily on discard spells, however the Rise half is interesting, and if it works for you I say keep testing at least one.
Other than that, I think one of the main reasons to run Grixis Delver is that we have access to arguably the two best land denial spells in the format: Shadow of Doubt and Molten Rain. I'd try and fit some number of those in.
Good point about Pillar, but is Pillar better than Forked Bolt?
Inquisition's problem is that it can't hit Scaapeshift, Birthing Pod, Treasure Cruise, or Dig Through Time, which are all cards that I want to hit.
Why don't you want to run a lot of discard? I think that it is one of this deck's main strengths. It is cheap disruption that you don't have to wait for an opponent to do. That is exactly what Young Pyromancer and Monastery Swiftspear want.
While land destruction is ok, with Delver (all cheap spells) and Pod (manadorks) being dominant, I don't want to run Molten Rain in the maindeck. I've played with Shadow of Doubt before and it is hard to time correctly. In the sideboard, I think there are more impactful cards than Molten Rain and Shadow of Doubt.
Good point about Pillar, but is Pillar better than Forked Bolt?
Inquisition's problem is that it can't hit Scaapeshift, Birthing Pod, Treasure Cruise, or Dig Through Time, which are all cards that I want to hit.
Why don't you want to run a lot of discard? I think that it is one of this deck's main strengths. It is cheap disruption that you don't have to wait for an opponent to do. That is exactly what Young Pyromancer and Monastery Swiftspear want.
While land destruction is ok, with Delver (all cheap spells) and Pod (manadorks) being dominant, I don't want to run Molten Rain in the maindeck. I've played with Shadow of Doubt before and it is hard to time correctly. In the sideboard, I think there are more impactful cards than Molten Rain and Shadow of Doubt.
Pillar of Flame vs Forked Bolt is mostly a preference thing, in my opinion. I like the exile clause, but if you like Forked more, use that.
Yeah, I don't run many Shadow of Doubt or Molten Rain, just 1 or 2 of each, but I think of them as mostly free-rolls that can sometimes just give me free/easy games.
As for discard, I don't run Young Pyromancer, so there's that. Also, I find myself in a sudo top-deck war often enough that I don't want to add what are effectively dead draws in the middle to late game.
---
On another note, now that Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time are banned, we need something else to get card advantage. I was anticipating something like this happening, so I have some ideas for replacements:
1. Dark Confidant. He was a staple a while back, and without our 8 cmc draw spell he could be played again.
2. Compulsive Research. In a deck that doesn't need many lands, it seems reasonable that you could keep a card in hand in order to maximize this.
3. Electrolyze. Doesn't draw as many cards, but is still a form of card advantage.
Good point about Pillar, but is Pillar better than Forked Bolt?
Inquisition's problem is that it can't hit Scaapeshift, Birthing Pod, Treasure Cruise, or Dig Through Time, which are all cards that I want to hit.
Why don't you want to run a lot of discard? I think that it is one of this deck's main strengths. It is cheap disruption that you don't have to wait for an opponent to do. That is exactly what Young Pyromancer and Monastery Swiftspear want.
While land destruction is ok, with Delver (all cheap spells) and Pod (manadorks) being dominant, I don't want to run Molten Rain in the maindeck. I've played with Shadow of Doubt before and it is hard to time correctly. In the sideboard, I think there are more impactful cards than Molten Rain and Shadow of Doubt.
Pillar of Flame vs Forked Bolt is mostly a preference thing, in my opinion. I like the exile clause, but if you like Forked more, use that.
Yeah, I don't run many Shadow of Doubt or Molten Rain, just 1 or 2 of each, but I think of them as mostly free-rolls that can sometimes just give me free/easy games.
As for discard, I don't run Young Pyromancer, so there's that. Also, I find myself in a sudo top-deck war often enough that I don't want to add what are effectively dead draws in the middle to late game.
---
On another note, now that Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time are banned, we need something else to get card advantage. I was anticipating something like this happening, so I have some ideas for replacements:
1. Dark Confidant. He was a staple a while back, and without our 8 cmc draw spell he could be played again.
2. Compulsive Research. In a deck that doesn't need many lands, it seems reasonable that you could keep a card in hand in order to maximize this.
3. Electrolyze. Doesn't draw as many cards, but is still a form of card advantage.
Personally, I think I'm going to try Compulsive Research, at least at first.
I'm not building Grixis anymore. It would have been a cool Cruise deck or a decent Dig deck, but other decks are better if I don't have either of those.
I'm game. I have 85-90% of those cards, Let's see what kind of damage I can deal at the next Modern FNM.
Though Countersquall will never NOT be in a Grixis Decklist I make.
All that said, I only just brewed this list and the business/card advantage balance could probably be a lot better. I encourage you to try different combinations, though I don't like Damnation in this build (at least not Main). Pyroclasm + Terminate seem a lot better to me ATM.
On Countersquall: my bad, forgot it. Made room for a couple copies in the side.
Counter-Cat
Colorless Eldrazi Stompy
Monastery Swiftspear seems like the excellent 1-drop this deck was needing to compliment Delver. Excited to start testing it out.
The delve cards (Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time) seem bonkers. However, I don't see as many people playing DTT on stream, and TC seems to have more negative stigma as it is so easily comparable to Ancestral Recall. In light of that, I think a ban on TC is at least a 50% possibility and I'd rather not brew with it until the next Ban/Restricted announcement.
Thought Scour is very strong with the delve cards (obviously) but I'm hesitant to say it's better than Serum Visions. Scry is always nice. and with Swiftspear having sorcery speed manipulation isn't even that bad.
Mana bases seem as greedy as ever, and I think I would play some combination of Molten Rain + Shadow of Doubt to fight that. Again, MR gets better with Swiftspear because of the free damage.
Overall, I think this deck is stronger now that it has a second respectable 1-drop. Although, the UR Delver lists having access to TC invalidates a lot of the reason to splash B. They can recover from our targeted discard and they can more easily overwhelm our counters. That being said, if Treasure Cruise (and possibly Dig Through Time) does get banned, then I think this deck will be a prime contender.
Here's a list I'll be tuning in anticipation for a TC ban:
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Vendilion Clique
27
2 Countersquall
2 Dig Through Time
1 Dismember
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Molten Rain
4 Remand
4 Serum Visions
1 Shadow of Doubt
2 Vapor Snag
1 Island
1 Blackcleave Cliffs
2 Darkslick Shores
4 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Blood Crypt
3 Steam Vents
1 Watery Grave
2 Sulfur Falls
P.S. If somehow TC does not get banned, then I think this deck should 100% be restructured to take advantage of that card.
This is where I see this deck should be... you get so much value out of swiftspear, kiln fiend, Death's shadow.
I feel like this is what grixis delver wishes it could do.
http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=77155
3 Kiln Fiend
3 Monastery Swiftspear
3 Nivmagus Elemental
2 Blackcleave Cliffs
4 Blood Crypt
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Polluted Delta
1 Steam Vents
4 Sulfurous Springs
1 Watery Grave
1 Dismember
3 Gut Shot
3 Lightning Bolt
4 Mutagenic Growth
3 Tainted Strike
2 Assault Strobe
4 Gitaxian Probe
2 Ground Rift
4 Thoughtseize
3 Treasure Cruise
1 Apostle's Blessing
1 Dismember
2 Rakdos Charm
2 Duress
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Pyroclasm
2 Shattering Spree
Been following this thread for a while since I'm interested in rogue sorts of decks. I think that this is basically a Tom Ross Grixis deck and not really Delver (not to mention having no delvers in it). Delver is more of a tempo sort of deck, and this is basically three-colored infect.
GWB Angel PodWBR Mardu MidrangeGWB Wilted Abzan
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Gitaxian Probe
2 Forked Bolt
2 Vapor Snag
3 Mana Leak
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Serum Visions
1 Counterflux
2 Izzet Charm
3 Spell Snare
2 Terminate
Artifact (1):
1 Runechanter's Pike
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Young Pyromancer
2 Dark Confidant
2 Monastery Swiftspear
1 Grim Lavamancer
Lands (18):
4 Polluted Delta
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Watery Grave
2 Steam Vents
1 Blood Crypt
2 Mountain
2 Island
1 Ghost Quarter
2 Extirpate
1 Mindbreak Trap
2 Thoughtseize
2 Torpor Orb
2 Combust
2 Rakdos Charm
2 Molten Rain
1 Grim Lavamancer
1 Darkblast
I put the Runechanter's Pike in for fun and haven't regretted it. Also removed the Dig Through Times altogether, as they felt more clunky than anything.
So, I tried builds using only Digs first, but added the Bobs (risking a potential 8 life loss swing that actually never happened due to deck manipulation and care).
So, with Digs (I also tested with TC, but it had a similar issue), I noticed, more often than not, the Digs were dead in hand. Yes, it's great to be able to reload once you've run out of ammo, but I find the resources aren't as worth it as using Bob. You waste a turn, mana, cards in graveyard, and the potential to tap incorrectly to pull 2 cards from the top seven (or draw 3).
Bob, however, offers me the power of a creature with a consistent source of card advantage. My version of the deck is already fairly conservative with the life total, only hurting myself with two probes and fetch + shocks, so the life loss is easily justified.
Logistics aside, my main reason was, as I said, TC and DTT felt too clunky. It's flashy and cool when they work and pull something good, but when you don't have a good number of cards in grave or the proper mana to support, they're completely dead. When I have just enough to cast one of them, it leaves me completely defenceless for a full turn as I'm tapping out to use them in the mid-late game, and I'm playing in a very active meta (I think I'm one of three or so reactive decks here), so I can't afford to give them an opening. Bob gives me a streamlined source of consistent card advantage that I can easily protect mid-late game and if I drop him on turn two and he survives that one turn, I usually win due to sheer overwhelming CA.
Long story short, I prefer having a consistent stream of card advantage rather than a shotgun instant.
So, when typing a full deck, you don't have to do individual cards, just put [ deck ] [ / deck ] brackets around all the cards in that order (without spaces, of course).
So, the first thing I noticed was your low basic count. I'd recommend running at least 3 basics. I, personally, run 4, but that's because my meta and deck call for it. The Urborg seems flashy because there's no way for it to be fetch'd and you have no double black costed spells. If you feel the Urborg helps you, though, then cutting a Steam Vents works.
So, you appear to be more on board with the TC strategy than Confidant. I think you should remove your Bobs altogether and replace them with more spells OR Snapcaster Mages. Running 3 Thought Scours, 2 Darkblast, and 3 Treasure Cruise shows that you have quite a bit of graveyard usage. If you don't run Snapcasters, then try going for 4 Cruises and up the count of one of the other two.
To be honest, it's difficult to change much more about your deck without knowing the meta. Are the Darkblasts worth it to mainboard? One Mana Leak? 4 Inquisitions instead of 3? Those are all meta calls.
You also don't want to be the guy who flips Cruise off of Bob and nukes himself into the afterlife.
My previous build ran both and I never had that problem. The chances alone are slim, but add in the deck manipulation, pulling the other Dig/Cruise from resolving one, and using Delver to peek and keep a fetch open just in case and you have a scarce chance of Bobiciding yourself.
That being said, even if you are the guy, you run that chance by playing both and can't get mad. If it ever happened to me (and, to be honest, I wanted it to), I would have laughed heartedly with my opponent and accepted my fate.
4 delver of secrets
4 monastery swiftspear
4 young pyromancer
1 snapcaster mage
Spells
4 lightning bolt
4 gitaxian probe
4 serum visions
4 treasure cruise
2 vapor snag
2 spell snare
2 mana leak
3 thought scour
2 darkblast
1 grixis charm
1 murderous cut
4 scalding tarn
4 polluted delta
3 steam vents
1 watery grave
1 blood crypt
1 sulfur falls
1 drowned catacomb
2 island
1 swamp
New to this thread, but not to the game.
My take on what Grixis Delver should/could be in Modern. Essentially the same list as UR delver (not much for originality, I know) but we swap out a few things, primarily for Darkblast. In my opinion, darkblast is the main reason you want to be playing Grixis delver right now. This card lets you trump other versions of delver. Paired with Young pyromancer, it becomes one of the best repeatable spells in your deck. And dredging allows you to fuel your treasure cruise more quickly than your opponent. Not to mention some nice combat tricks with thought scour.
I see people trying to do a lot of different things with the Grixis delver archetype, which, as a brewer, makes me very happy, but a simple build like this seems very promising to me. Nothing too fancy, just tight synergy.
mikeD
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Monastery Swiftspear
1 Snapcaster Mage
4 Young Pyromancer
Spells:29
4 Gitaxian Probe
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Serum Visions
2 Spell Snare
2 Thought Scour
1 Countersquall
1 Remand
2 Terminate
1 Electrolyze
1 Dimir Charm
4 Treasure Cruise
1 Blood Crypt
3 Bloodstained Mire
1 Flooded Strand
2 Island
1 Mountain
4 Polluted Delta
3 Steam Vents
1 Swamp
2 Watery Grave
1 Darkblast
1 Dispel
1 Electrickery
2 Thoughtseize
1 Countersquall
2 Dragon's Claw
1 Negate
2 Rakdos Charm
1 Spellskite
2 Molten Rain
1 Slaughter Games
Match 1 - R/G Tron
Applied early pressure G1 with a Swiftspear, while he dug for lands/colorless fatties. He assembles Tron and resolves a Karn Liberated. Think he makes a mistake here, as he uses a -3 on my Swiftspear. I take this as in invitation to Lightning Bolt his Karn, I drop another threat, and get to work on his remaining life total. He plays an All Is Dust and I respond with Countersquall. He has to read what the card does and is impressed. I kill him a few turns later.
G2 he resolves two Spellskite. Which is bad. He then resolves a Wurmcoil Engine. There’s no good way for me to deal with this.
G3 I get a turn 1 Delver of Secrets. Blind-flip it on my next turn. I find a Pyroclasm with Inquisition of Kozilek. He plays a Spellskite and I Spell Snare it. I drop his health total while he digs. He assembles Tron, drops a Wurmcoil, and I Remand it. I get him for lethal on the next turn.
Match 2 - Merfolk
Not much to say here. I mulligan both games, and they’re both pretty poor/average mulligans. The most interesting thing here is that he was playing Redirect, which was actually a bit difficult to play around.
Match 3 - RUG Twin
G1 is pretty interactive. A lot of removal going back and forth. Bolt on Delver, Terminate on Tarmogoyf, etc. He eventually has a board that’s two Snapcaster Mage. I get beat down by Snapcasters, unable to find another threat.
G2 is a lot of back and forth as well. I play a turn 1 Delver. He asks me how flipped Delver works, in terms of converted mana cost. I offer that it’s zero, so Engineered Explosives for X=0 kills a flipped Delver. He plays Explosives at zero. I Thoughtseize out a Pyroclasm. I play a Young Pyromancer and cantrip for a token. Pyromancer eats it. Delver is still a 1/1, and there are times when he’ll flip, but I keep him a 1/1. Delver eats it, and he’s replaced with a Monastery Swiftspear. He eventually gets low enough to use Explosives on my elemental token. He goes for a Dig Through Time but I have the Dispel.
He surprisingly has Academy Ruins, which seems like it has a lot of interesting targets (Shackles, Batterskull, Explosives). He puts Explosives on top. When he replays it I respond with Countersquall. Kill him the next turn.
G3 he plays a Tarmogoyf. Terminate it. He plays two more Tarmogoyfs. I die.
Afterwards he tells me that he takes out the combo, since I have so much permission. Thought this was pretty interesting. Maybe straight UR Twin doesn’t have this option, but RUG getting Goyf makes it stronger.
Match 4 - UR Storm
G1 I hit a Manamorphose with Spell Snare and the game ends. G2 he keeps a 1-lander and can’t find anymore. Not much to really say here.
If anything overperformed here, it was Countersquall. A Negate that does a bit of burn is actually really solid. Felt good as a singleton in the main.
Dimir Charm underperformed the most. I tried to rationalize it. It kills a lot of small, important creatures. It counters Treasure Cruise. But I never actually cast it. When I needed it, it wasn't in my hand. When I didn't need it, there it was. I should swap it for a Mana Leak, or maybe a Cryptic Command, but that's probably too ambitious.
Felt a little mixed on the hand disruption. It was sometimes very good. Other times it whiffed pretty hard, especially against R/G Tron. I'm probably just bad at using hand disruption, so that's probably on me.
I'm also totally up to suggestions where my list is concerned. What's good, what's bad, etc. I'm always looking to tweak something.
4 Monastery Swiftspear
2 Snapcaster Mage
4 Young Pyromancer
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Terminate
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lava Spike
3 Rise // Fall
4 Serum Visions
3 Thoughtseize
4 Treasure Cruise
2 Blackcleave Cliffs
1 Blood Crypt
4 Bloodstained Mire
1 Darkslick Shores
1 Island
1 Mountain
4 Polluted Delta
2 Steam Vents
1 Swamp
1 Watery Grave
2 Spellskite
3 Pack Rat
3 Darkblast
3 Electrickery
2 Hibernation
2 Slaughter Games
I'd run Scalding Tarn but it costs too much. I am also still working on Forked Bolt vs. Lava Spike.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
Lava Spike is pretty terrible in any deck not named Burn. We want to be able to kill creatures with our burn spells, so I'd recommend Pillar of Flame if you want more burn than Lightning Bolt. PoF's exile clause is very relevant with lots of people playing Pod and trying to cast Delve cards.
I don't like running any number of Thoughtseize, at least until maxing out on Inquisition of Kozilek. The best target for Snapcaster, besides Lightning Bolt, is often a discard spell, and having to pay life multiple times really adds up.
Rise / Fall is... interesting. I don't think you want to load that heavily on discard spells, however the Rise half is interesting, and if it works for you I say keep testing at least one.
Other than that, I think one of the main reasons to run Grixis Delver is that we have access to arguably the two best land denial spells in the format: Shadow of Doubt and Molten Rain. I'd try and fit some number of those in.
Good point about Pillar, but is Pillar better than Forked Bolt?
Inquisition's problem is that it can't hit Scaapeshift, Birthing Pod, Treasure Cruise, or Dig Through Time, which are all cards that I want to hit.
Why don't you want to run a lot of discard? I think that it is one of this deck's main strengths. It is cheap disruption that you don't have to wait for an opponent to do. That is exactly what Young Pyromancer and Monastery Swiftspear want.
While land destruction is ok, with Delver (all cheap spells) and Pod (manadorks) being dominant, I don't want to run Molten Rain in the maindeck. I've played with Shadow of Doubt before and it is hard to time correctly. In the sideboard, I think there are more impactful cards than Molten Rain and Shadow of Doubt.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
I know that it's not exactly "Grixis Delver", but seems really good. Any thought? Especially on adding Goblin Rabblemaster
UB Faeries (15-6-0)
UWR Control (10-5-1)/Kiki Control/Midrange/Harbinger
UBR Cruel Control (6-4-0)/Grixis Control/Delver/Blue Jund
UWB Control/Mentor
UW Miracles/Control (currently active, 14-2-0)
BW Eldrazi & Taxes
RW Burn (9-1-0)
I do (academic) research on video games and archaeology! You can check out my open access book here: https://www.sidestone.com/books/the-interactive-past
Pillar of Flame vs Forked Bolt is mostly a preference thing, in my opinion. I like the exile clause, but if you like Forked more, use that.
Well, the only one of those cards you just mentioned that's not banned now is Scapeshift so, I think Inquisition of Kozilek is even better now vs Thoughtseize, lol.
Yeah, I don't run many Shadow of Doubt or Molten Rain, just 1 or 2 of each, but I think of them as mostly free-rolls that can sometimes just give me free/easy games.
As for discard, I don't run Young Pyromancer, so there's that. Also, I find myself in a sudo top-deck war often enough that I don't want to add what are effectively dead draws in the middle to late game.
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On another note, now that Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time are banned, we need something else to get card advantage. I was anticipating something like this happening, so I have some ideas for replacements:
1. Dark Confidant. He was a staple a while back, and without our 8 cmc draw spell he could be played again.
2. Compulsive Research. In a deck that doesn't need many lands, it seems reasonable that you could keep a card in hand in order to maximize this.
3. Electrolyze. Doesn't draw as many cards, but is still a form of card advantage.
4 Night's Whisper / Read the Bones / Ambition's Cost. Not sure which of these would the best but they all have their pros and cons.
Personally, I think I'm going to try Compulsive Research, at least at first.
I'm not building Grixis anymore. It would have been a cool Cruise deck or a decent Dig deck, but other decks are better if I don't have either of those.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.