So this deck is inspired by both Ali Aintrazi's deck he played at SCG and the Grixis Control deck. I think Liliana, The Last Hope is what actually makes this deck possible, and between her and a flipped Jace, Vryn's Prodigy you have a lot of ability to get cards out of the graveyard, which makes a delirium control deck a possibility. The current list I made is:
This deck has a ceiling can get really high with delirium pay offs. The obvious is something like Traverse becoming a 1 mana creature tutor, but there's cards like Ever After, Pulse of Murasa, and Seasons Past all of which have huge payoffs with a full graveyard. By using Mindrack as a main creature, along with Jace, Liliana, and the card draw spells that discard with Oath of Jace and Epiphany at the Drownyard, not only is delirum easy to get, not only is spell mastery easy to get, not only can Jace flip by turn 4 easily, but by turns 7+ your graveyard is huge, giving you a lot of different options to flashback spells, bring back creatures, or tutor what you need from the main deck.
Right now I'm liking MindWrack Demon better than most of the other delirium cards I've seen. Grim Flayer seems too small early game, a 2/2 in a world of 2/3's, and even when Delirium is turned on, Mindwrack has better body, is flying, and turns on delirium when he's cast, for the most part. Ishkanah, Grafwidow is another one I haven't really been too impressed with. The delirium payoff is minor compared to some of the other cards, the body is smaller the Mindwrack and it's not a delirium enabler like Mindwrack is. Mindwrack is kind of very important to the deck for both being a core creatre, and enabling delirium.
The other thing about this deck is it has potential to be a heavy toolbox deck, with 2 tutor affects that get a lot better with delirium / spell mastery, you can have a lot of 1 of's in the main and side to give you a lot of flexibility.
Love to hear some thoughts on other cards / builds for this kind of archetype.
So I run a similar build, I don't run Mindwrack, but I do run 1 of Kalitas in the board. A couple thoughts, I run 4 of Take Inventory, super good with Jace honestly should be our draw spell of choice. Grasp is excellent with Lilly, so I believe that is a must. I also run Oath's. I like Oath of Nissa a lot, as my version is very PW heavy (Nissa, Jace, Ob Nix, Lilly). I never had a problem casting my PWs, I do also run Oath of Lilly, honestly one of my favorite cards. Dead weight is a lot card you should consider helps delirium as well. Hangarback Walker should be consider too, really helps with delirium
My mainboard creature finishers are:
Dragonlord Silumgar
Emrakul
Take Inventory is a card that would work perfectly in this type of deck, however there are some issues I have with it. The first being that you really need 4 copies of it to make the most out of it. If you only run 2 or so copies of it then it's really hard to get at least 1 in the graveyard so you can actually make it a 2 for 1. The card is simply not that good with only 1 or 2 copies, and it does nothing to enable delirium or fill up my graveyard like my other cards do. A much more powerful card draw spell would be Scour the Laboratory which is going to be a draw 3 instant speed cmc 4 spell, which is very efficient and powerful in standard, I'm thinking of Treasure Cruise
This deck isn't so much of a delirium deck as it is a graveyard matters deck. Basically it's more of a Sulatai control deck with graveyard synergies. That's why I prefer my card draw spells with discard, for that graveyard matters synergy, and between Jace and Liliana I can get back any spell I want.
I also run Oath's. I like Oath of Nissa a lot, as my version is very PW heavy (Nissa, Jace, Ob Nix, Lilly). I never had a problem casting my PWs, I do also run Oath of Lilly, honestly one of my favorite cards.
So to help with delirium I figured I need to run some of the Oath's as well, but here's my problem with the other 2 you name. In a deck that can fairly easily get delirium Traverse the Ulvenwald is a lot better than Oath of Nissa as early game they are primarily going to be used for mana fixing, and late game Traverse pulls way ahead becoming a 1 mana tutor any creature. I wasn't too impressed with Oath of Liliana either. A 3 mana sacrifice a creature is good against certain decks, but there are so very few hexproof creatures in standard now. If I want a sacrifice a creature affect I would most likely put To The Slaughter somewhere in the 75. It's planeswalker text concerning the zombies is arguably better than the scry of Oath of Jace in certain situations, but Oath of Jace as a whole fist the deck a lot better, and I'd rather my removals be the tried and true black removal suite of Ultimate Price, Grasp of Darkness, and Ruinous Path.
Dead Weight is in the sideboard against humans / aggro decks. I won't mainboard it because the deck can get delirium easy enough with out it, and while it does work great with the +1 of lil, it's a weak card just for the sake of delirium most of the time. same is true for Hangarback Walker, I don't need it to get delirium, and it my creature spots are too few to use on a walker.
Emrakul, The Promised End is pretty broken in power level, and actually has a chance to get cast in this deck. I't not hard too get 5-6 types in the graveyard, (land, creature, instant, sorcery, planeswalker, enchantment) so I think maybe it should be on my sb, and come in for any grindy, mid range matchup where I have an actual legitimate shot of getting it in my hand either with Traverse or Lil.
Yeah I completely agree about Emrakul, she really fits well with this deck as an over the top win con. I would argue she should be a sb card, meta dependent. If your local meta is heavy humans and spirits and CoCo then I would keep her in the SB, but if the meta is more mid range and control then she can have a spot in the MB.
Nissa I think should be SB against decks with limited removal, but still very grindy. So bant CoCo and G/W tokens would be the decks to bring her in for, IMO. G/W Tokens seems to be fading out a bit now so I would consider dropping Virulent Plague or Dragonlord Silumgar, or both from the side.
This is just a basic shell, I have already made some changes, including bringing Seasons Past in the the MB. Between Jace, Lil, and Seasons Past there is so much graveyard synergy, and the graveyard fills up really deep once you get to the mid to late game. Another option is to really play up the creature and Lil synergy, and have some Den Protector, Nissa, Vastwood Seer, and maybe some 1 ofs like Greenwarden of Murasa or Woodland Bellower. Like I said it's more of a shell of Sultai graveyard synergy and there's a lot of directions to go.
So after watching the Pro Tour and the success of Team Face to Face's G/B Delirium as well as the success of Emrakul, I've updated my list. Where the G/B deck is more mid ranged, I'd consider this deck to be much more control based, gaining JVP from the blue splash which adds a whole new dimension of control and end game card advantage that the G/B deck simply doesn't have.
I have 2 copies of Pulse of Murasa and Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet in my sideboard because mono red burn is gaining some popularity, I've encountered it a few times so I needed a way to interact with that kind of deck. Specifically the very aggro form of the deck that uses Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh, and they're also great against white humans. 2 Copies of Summary Dismissal to deal with any of the Eldrazi Titans, but main Emrakul. the Dark Petition and Seasons Past package for when I need to grind out a win against other mid range, and transgress and duress to deal with other control matchups.
Let me know what you think, this deck is a lot of fun and very powerful.
So I was initially testing out a zombie reanimator combo into Voldaren Pariah. Using Haunted Dead and prized Prized Amalgam as my engine. I would use cards like Oath of Jace and Grapple to the past to set up my graveyard however after extensive play testing it just wasn't strong enough. I choose to look into Elder Deep-fiend, and Distended Mindbender in my main board opposed to the sideboard and eventually decided it was worth playing Emrakul, the Promised End. With that, i knew Kozilek'S Return was needed as additional removal since I wouldn't be main boarding languish in my build. This is the final list I came up with and placed 2nd and 3rd in two game day tournaments in Australia yesterday (its 2:17am now). Tell me what you think and what I can do to improve it because it was such a fun deck to play with.
So it went from Sultai Control that abused Delirium to make effective trades to this, splashing the red for the very reare case you need to hard cast Kozilek's Return.
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4 Sylvan Advocate
4 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
3 Mindwrack Demon
Planeswalkers (4)
4 Liliana, The Last Hope
Enchantment (3)
3 Oath of Jace
Sorcery (10)
3 Traverse the Ulvenwald
2 Ruinous Path
3 Languish
2 Dark Petition
Instant (7)
2 Epiphany at the drownyard
3 Grasp of Darkness
2 Ultimate Price
4 Hissing Quagmire
2 Lumbering Falls
4 Sunken Hollow
3 Llanowar Wastes
3 Evolving Wilds
1 Forest
4 Swamp
4 Island
1 Dragonlord Silumgar
1 Gaea's Revenge
1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
1 Pick The Brain
1 Languish
2 Dead Weight
1 Virulent Plague
2 Seasons Past
2 Transgress The Mind
3 Duress
This deck has a ceiling can get really high with delirium pay offs. The obvious is something like Traverse becoming a 1 mana creature tutor, but there's cards like Ever After, Pulse of Murasa, and Seasons Past all of which have huge payoffs with a full graveyard. By using Mindrack as a main creature, along with Jace, Liliana, and the card draw spells that discard with Oath of Jace and Epiphany at the Drownyard, not only is delirum easy to get, not only is spell mastery easy to get, not only can Jace flip by turn 4 easily, but by turns 7+ your graveyard is huge, giving you a lot of different options to flashback spells, bring back creatures, or tutor what you need from the main deck.
Right now I'm liking MindWrack Demon better than most of the other delirium cards I've seen. Grim Flayer seems too small early game, a 2/2 in a world of 2/3's, and even when Delirium is turned on, Mindwrack has better body, is flying, and turns on delirium when he's cast, for the most part. Ishkanah, Grafwidow is another one I haven't really been too impressed with. The delirium payoff is minor compared to some of the other cards, the body is smaller the Mindwrack and it's not a delirium enabler like Mindwrack is. Mindwrack is kind of very important to the deck for both being a core creatre, and enabling delirium.
The other thing about this deck is it has potential to be a heavy toolbox deck, with 2 tutor affects that get a lot better with delirium / spell mastery, you can have a lot of 1 of's in the main and side to give you a lot of flexibility.
Love to hear some thoughts on other cards / builds for this kind of archetype.
My mainboard creature finishers are:
Dragonlord Silumgar
Emrakul
This deck isn't so much of a delirium deck as it is a graveyard matters deck. Basically it's more of a Sulatai control deck with graveyard synergies. That's why I prefer my card draw spells with discard, for that graveyard matters synergy, and between Jace and Liliana I can get back any spell I want.
To respond to a couple of your other points:
Yes Grasp of Darkness Liliana's +1 are very powerful against the 5 toughness creatures that pop up.
So to help with delirium I figured I need to run some of the Oath's as well, but here's my problem with the other 2 you name. In a deck that can fairly easily get delirium Traverse the Ulvenwald is a lot better than Oath of Nissa as early game they are primarily going to be used for mana fixing, and late game Traverse pulls way ahead becoming a 1 mana tutor any creature. I wasn't too impressed with Oath of Liliana either. A 3 mana sacrifice a creature is good against certain decks, but there are so very few hexproof creatures in standard now. If I want a sacrifice a creature affect I would most likely put To The Slaughter somewhere in the 75. It's planeswalker text concerning the zombies is arguably better than the scry of Oath of Jace in certain situations, but Oath of Jace as a whole fist the deck a lot better, and I'd rather my removals be the tried and true black removal suite of Ultimate Price, Grasp of Darkness, and Ruinous Path.
Dead Weight is in the sideboard against humans / aggro decks. I won't mainboard it because the deck can get delirium easy enough with out it, and while it does work great with the +1 of lil, it's a weak card just for the sake of delirium most of the time. same is true for Hangarback Walker, I don't need it to get delirium, and it my creature spots are too few to use on a walker.
Emrakul, The Promised End is pretty broken in power level, and actually has a chance to get cast in this deck. I't not hard too get 5-6 types in the graveyard, (land, creature, instant, sorcery, planeswalker, enchantment) so I think maybe it should be on my sb, and come in for any grindy, mid range matchup where I have an actual legitimate shot of getting it in my hand either with Traverse or Lil.
Nissa I think should be SB against decks with limited removal, but still very grindy. So bant CoCo and G/W tokens would be the decks to bring her in for, IMO. G/W Tokens seems to be fading out a bit now so I would consider dropping Virulent Plague or Dragonlord Silumgar, or both from the side.
This is just a basic shell, I have already made some changes, including bringing Seasons Past in the the MB. Between Jace, Lil, and Seasons Past there is so much graveyard synergy, and the graveyard fills up really deep once you get to the mid to late game. Another option is to really play up the creature and Lil synergy, and have some Den Protector, Nissa, Vastwood Seer, and maybe some 1 ofs like Greenwarden of Murasa or Woodland Bellower. Like I said it's more of a shell of Sultai graveyard synergy and there's a lot of directions to go.
1 Den Protector
1 Dragonlord Silumgar
1 Emrakul, The Promised End
1 Ishkanah, Grafwidow
4 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
3 Mindwrack Demon
1 Nissa, Vastwood Seer
Spells (20)
4 Traverse the Ulvenwald
4 Grasp of Darkness
2 Ultimate Price
3 Ruinous Path
1 Murder
3 Oath of Jace
3 Languish
4 Liliana, the Last Hope
Lands (24)
4 Sunken Hollow
2 Choked Estuary
4 Hissing Quagmire
2 Lumbering Falls
3 Evolving Wilds
5 Swamp
3 Forest
1 Island
2 Dark Petition
3 Duress
1 Infinite Obliteration
2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
2 Pulse of Murasa
1 Seasons Past
2 Summary Dismissal
2 Transgress the Mind
I have 2 copies of Pulse of Murasa and Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet in my sideboard because mono red burn is gaining some popularity, I've encountered it a few times so I needed a way to interact with that kind of deck. Specifically the very aggro form of the deck that uses Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh, and they're also great against white humans. 2 Copies of Summary Dismissal to deal with any of the Eldrazi Titans, but main Emrakul. the Dark Petition and Seasons Past package for when I need to grind out a win against other mid range, and transgress and duress to deal with other control matchups.
Let me know what you think, this deck is a lot of fun and very powerful.
3x Llanowar Wastes
3x Yavimaya Coast
3x Hissing Quagmire
2x Sunken Hollow
2x Smoldering Marsh
3x Swamp
2x Forest
2x Island
1x Mountain
1x Geier Reach Sanitarium
3x Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
4x Prized Amalgam
4x Haunted Dead
1x Ishkanah, Grafwidow
1x Dragonlord Silumgar
2x Elder Deep-Fiend
2x Distended Mindbender
1x Emrakul, the Promised End
2x Corrupted Grafstone
2x Oath of Jace
4x Grapple with the Past
3x Traverse the Ulvenwald
3x Kozilek's Return
2x turn aside (EMN)
2x Ruinous Path
1x Ultimate Price
2x Murder
2x Aerial Volley
2x Transgress the Mind
2x Languish
1x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
1x Kozilek's Return
2x Aerial Volley
1x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
1x Kozilek's Return
2x Languish
2x Murder
2x Ruinous Path
2x Transgress the Mind
2x Turn Aside
1x Ultimate Price
So it went from Sultai Control that abused Delirium to make effective trades to this, splashing the red for the very reare case you need to hard cast Kozilek's Return.