MTG Salvation

Yesterday: The History of Delver

Anyone who has dipped their toes into Legacy has probably run into Delver decks. More so than ubiquitous, fast combo, Delver has become synonymous with Legacy, and the little blue human that could alternatively plays the role of bogeyman and fun police, and has since the card was introduced in Innistrad.

Delver decks did not spring from the ground, fully-formed, in 2011. Indeed, the roots of Delver can be traced back to the very first Standard formats (at the time, known as Type II). The primordial soup that birthed the first single-celled bacteria that would go on to evolve into the format-defining powerhouse that Delver is today was a deck known as "Turbo Xerox".

First developed in 1997 during Ice Age-Mirage Type II by Alan Comer, Turbo Xerox introduced the concept of playing a large number of cantrips as a way to lower land count. Cheap, self-replacing draw spells like Portent, Brainstorm, Foreshadow, and Impulse help decks to hit their land drops early and threats late. The theory is that, by replacing themselves in the deck, cantrips effectively lower your deck size, maintaining the appropriate ratio of lands to cards while running fewer lands. A deck running 12 cantrips and 17 lands, therefore, is effectively running 17 lands in 48 cards, or a ratio of approximately 35%, which is a hair more than a deck running 21 lands with no cantrips. When you take into account the ability of many of these cantrips to dig more than one card deep, the results in practice are that you can hit your early lands with even greater consistency. Oonce the deck has hit enough lands to cast the important spells, it can utilize these same cantrips to filter past further lands. This results in a greater threat density, even with the actual threat count fairly low. With countermagic-based disruption and tempo plays like Man-o'-war, and the most efficient finishers like Suq'Ata Firewalker and Waterspout Djinn, Turbo Xerox was potent deck that left a permanent imprint on Magic.

Turbo Xerox existed in several forms during the next few years, running new threats like Ophidian and new disruption like Wasteland and Forbid. The next big breakthrough, however, came during the Mercadian Masques block. While most players at the time were jamming Linn-Sivvi, Defiant Hero and her plucky band of rebels, the players in the know were piloting this list:

Rising Waters was a powerful tempo strategy based on getting and maintaining a mana advantage over your opponent through use of its titular enchantment, Rishadan Port, bounce spells like Waterfront Bouncer and Seal of Removal, and free countermagic like Daze and Thwart. Even in the face of the Rebel menace, Sigurd Eskeland piloted Rising Waters to first place at Pro Tour New York in 2000. Of course, Masques block did not offer much in the way of efficient threats, meaning the deck had to close on the back of Drake Hatchling and Stinging Barrier, but the results showed how much a strong mana denial plan can push any threat into the red zone enough times to close out a game.

Now, both of the above decks are mono-blue. This was because early mana fixing, outside of the original dual lands, was so poor that it was often not worth trying to splash for another color. It was also because creatures of the era were so weak that there wasn't enough incentive to look outside of blue for the tempo decks. Invasion and Odyssey blocks saw the beginning of a shift to this paradigm:

Yavimaya Coast gave blue decks the ability to splash green without having to bend over backwards, and efficient threats like Nimble Mongoose, Werebear, and others gave them reason to consider doing so. Raphael Levy piloted the above list to a 16th-place finish at Worlds in 2002. While it has a few cheap cantrips and definite tempo plays, it breaks with the paradigm of the previous lists by seeking not to lock down the opposition, but rather to overwhelm them with quick, aggressive creatures, and just enough interaction to keep them on the back foot while those creatures close the game out. Blue-Green Threshold is also notable for running an extremely aggressive curve. With the exception of a single Rushing River and the flashback on Roar of the Wurm, every card in the deck can be cast for two mana or less.

So what do we get when we put these pieces together? This early Extended deck, which looks awful close to being a Delver list, if you squint a little:

Here we see all of the strongest elements of the above decks condensed into one. It boasts a rock-bottom land count, an aggressive curve that tops off at two, featuring both green creatures that get larger than the opposition sooner than they have any right to and evasive blue fliers, a powerful mana denial plan in Winter Orb, multiple cheap cantrips, and a pile of free counterspells.

The next few years were extremely kind to Miracle Grow, with the major exception of Gush getting banned in 2003. Fetchlands in Onslaught made it easier to hit Threshold, bumping Nimble Mongoose in off the bench over Gaea's Skyfolk, and making splashing even easier, allowing most of the decks to dip into a third color. They also powered up Brainstorm, giving you more ways to shuffle away unwanted cards. Stifle in Scourge, paired with the sudden ubiquity of Fetchlands, led to the powerful one-two punch of Wasteland and Stifle adding to the mana denial. Ravnica block brought the efficient Spell Snare as additional countermagic. The biggest improvements for Miracle Grow came in 2007 with the release of Future Sight. Tarmogoyf was an absolute game-changer for the deck, and lead to the benching of long-time contender Quirion Dryad. This also marked the shift from the deck being known as Miracle Grow to simply "Threshold". With a roster of Nimble Mongoose, Werebear, and Tarmogoyf, the deck looked closer to modern-day Delver than ever before. Soon, two strains of Threshold grew dominant: "Canadian Threshold", a Red-Blue-Green list running Lightning Bolt, a few Fire//Ice, and sideboard Red Elemental Blasts, and "Team America", a Black-Blue-Green list supplementing the stock creatures with Tombstalker and dipping its toes into cards like Hymn to Tourach and Sinkhole.

The few years following brought mostly small improvements. Ponder in Lorwyn replaced Sleight of Hand or Serum Visions. Spell Pierce in Zendikar added another one mana counter. Stoneforge Mystic and Jace, the Mind Sculptor introduced new angles for attack, but these were largely relegated to slower midrange decks. Scars of Mirrodin block, specifically New Phyrexia, is where things really shook up. First, the growing dominance of Survival of the Fittest decks lead to a format centralization and then ban. As the format was reshaping, New Phyrexia introduced Mental Misstep, which threw things into an even greater state of disarray and centralization. Long-time format regulars like Zoo and Goblins were all but eliminated from the scene, and RUG and BUG Midrange lists like NO RUG usurped Threshold for the deck of choice for those color combinations.

Mental Misstep's banning coincided with the release of Innistrad, and with it, Delver of Secrets. Even with the format in complete disarray, Delver's power was obvious, and there was a mad dash to fit it into a shell. Early attempts included things like Stoneforge Mystic, Spellstutter Sprite, Snapcaster Mage, and others, until someone realized that the Canadian Threshold shell was tailor-made for Delver. Enter RUG Delver.

While there have been small advances in technology since Innistrad (notably True-Name Nemesis, which shows up as a couple of copies in the sideboard), the core of RUG Delver has remained largely unchanged since 2011. The biggest change from the above list is that more decks choose to trim the dual lands to three copies each in order to run more Fetchlands, and the ratio of Spell Snare to Spell Pierce shifts a little. But throughout the past seven years, the trio of Nimble Mongoose, Delver of Secrets, and Tarmogoyf forms the aggressive core of this hardcore tempo list. Very few decks can beat an opening line of play that Stifles their first fetchland, drops a Delver or Goose, Wastelands their second land, Dazes their turn two play, and generally runs roughshod over whatever you are trying to do.

Canadian Threshold/RUG Delver enjoyed several months of dominance, until Avacyn Restored hit the scenes. Avacyn gave many of Delver's direct competitors some spicy new toys. Elves got Craterhoof Behemoth, a monstrosity that opened that deck up for early wins, as well as Cavern of Souls to help fight countermagic. The burgeoning Counterbalance-Sensei's Divining Top control deck got both a tailor-made Wrath in Terminus as well as a powerful win condition in Entreat the Angels, morphing permanently into the Miracles list that dominated the scene for many years. And Show and Tell and Reanimator decks both got access to Griselbrand, one of the best cheat-in targets ever printed.

Return to Ravnica threw things in the other direction again. The newly-minted Deathrite Shaman and Abrupt Decay were immediately co-opted by the Team America/BUG Delver lists to provide a more midrange Delver more capable of going toe-to-toe with Miracles.

Like RUG Delver, the core of BUG Delver largely remains the same to this day. Some lists swap out Tombstalker for Gurmag Angler or True-Name Nemesis, and others have dabbled in Liliana, either of the Veil or the Last Hope. The number of Deathrite Shaman has consistently gone up to four, while the number of Abrupt Decay is often 2-3 these days.

It's definitely worth noting that BUG Delver trades off a lot of the naked aggression of the RUG Delver list for a more Midrange plan. Tombstalkers augmenting Tarmogoyfs makes for more beefy threats, and Deathrite Shaman is an undeniably grindier card than Nimble Mongoose is. Cards like Hymn to Tourach and Sylvan Library give the deck ways to generate card advantage directly, which is something RUG Delver lacks. The downside is that the deck needs to run a higher land count of 20 versus RUG's 18, and several of those lands have to be Bayous instead of Island-duals due to the double-black costs on both Tombstalker and Hymn. The higher land count, combined with the slightly inflated creature count and the presence of Library, means that the deck has a little more trouble flipping Delver consistently, and trading Spell Pierce and Spell Snare maindeck for Hymns means the deck has a little more trouble dealing with speed-tuned combo decks like Belcher or TES. This plan definitely paid dividends though, with BUG Delver catapulting Jack Fogle to a first place win at the Legacy SCG Open in Los Angeles in 2011.

Legacy remained fairly constant through the remainder of Return to Ravnica block and Theros block. Miracles would dominate, so the meta would shift towards more midrange decks that could rely on Deathrite Shaman and Abrupt Decay to beat Miracles, like BUG Delver, Shardless BUG, and Jund. This would lead to a rise in combo decks like Ad Nauseam Tendrils and Show and Tell to prey on the midrange decks. Which would, in turn, lead to RUG Delver and Miracles seeing more play to counteract the combo decks.

While Theros itself didn't bring much to the table for Delver, there were two cards printed in 2013 that would shape the future of the archetype: Young Pyromancer in Magic 2014 and True-Name Nemesis in Commander 2013. The former provides a Tarmogoyf-strength two drop in a non-Green color, opening the door for the possibility of color combinations not involving green, and the latter provides the strongest blue threat this side of Delver of Secrets. While three mana is often a lot for Delver decks to cough up, the resulting creature has 3 power and is both unblockable and untargetable, giving it the best aspects of thresholded Nimble Mongoose and transformed Insectile Aberration, without any of the setup. Being able to lean more solidly blue for threats also provides room for color experimentation, as demonstrated by the following decklist:

UWR Delver, also known as Delver-Blade or Patriot Delver (I guess "Team America" was already taken), utilizes the new threat of True-Name Nemesis alongside Stoneforge Mystic. Stoneforge had been experimented with in Delver decks, but without True-Name backing her up, it was too difficult to reach the appropriate density of threats without having to sacrifice access to Lightning Bolt. Indeed, Owen Turtenwald took this combination to a first-place finish at Grand Prix Washington DC in 2013. Note the higher-than-usual land count, enabling the deck to support True-Name, curves like True-Name into Umezawa's Jitte plus equip on turn four, and the potential for late-game bouncing and replaying Batterskull in grindier matchups. This paid off in the finals, where a game was won off of the back of a hardcast Force of Will on a crucial Show and Tell when both decks had exhausted most of their resources.

Patriot Delver's day in the sun was short-lived, however, as Khans of Tarkir brought with it Treasure Cruise, a card that centralized Legacy to an even greater extent than Mental Misstep did. But this time, the centralization was in Delver's favor.

Alongside newly-printed Khans beater, Monastery Swiftspear, and Young Pyromancer, this Blue-Red Delver list is quite possibly the most aggressive one ever piloted. Treasure Cruise provides an insanely-powerful refill valve, something that the Blue/X Tempo archetype has been lacking since Gush's ban in 2003. With its blazing speed and need to eat its own graveyard every few turns, cards like Tarmogoyf, Nimble Mongoose, and Deathrite Shaman were simply too slow. Treasure Cruise Delver decks dominated the scene, with Kevin Jones winning the Eternal Weekend Legacy challenge with the above list and Anthony Leen winning the SCG Open in Minneapolis the very same weekend with a Patriot Delver list packing three Cruises and Gitaxian Probe fuel.

Alas, Treasure Cruise found itself quickly added to the banlist, and its cousin, Dig through Time joined it shortly thereafter. Khans block did still leave a lasting impact, however, with Gurmag Angler becoming a staple in Black Delver lists, and cards like Hooting Mandrills and Monastery Mentor providing powerful options for other directions. Mentor also pushed Miracles into a spot of total dominance, where it would eventually find its precious Sensei's Divining Tops banned as well.

Today: Breaking Down Grixis Delver

This brings us up to recent times. The past few years have had only tidbits for Delver. Bedlam Reveler does a passable Treasure Cruise impression in the fringe variant of UR Delver. Fatal Push isn't played much in Delver, but its presence in the metagame has a downward effect on the popularity of Tarmogoyf. Combined with Deathrite Shaman's increasing ubiquity, "classic" Delver lists packing Nimble Mongoose and Tarmogoyf haven't been enjoying much success. But in their place, a new dark horse has emerged: Grixis Delver.

Grixis Delver grew in popularity during Miracles' zenith. With threats costing 1, 2, 3, and 7 mana, it placed a real burden on Counterbalance. With Miracles gone, Grixis Delver has been poised to take over the format. And in fact, in the nine months since Miracles' demise, Grixis Delver has been the most popular deck in all but one of those months, often neck-in-neck with the Leovold, Emissary of Trest-toting 4-color Midrange-Control "Czech Pile". The above list was piloted to a first-place finish at SCG Philadelphia in 2018 by Oliver Tomajko.

So, what makes Grixis Delver so good? First and foremost is the quality of the threats. Like the classic Canadian Threshold Delver lists, it's capable of brutally disruptive openers. Opening Delver of Secrets into Daze and then Wasteland can put any deck far behind from the first turn of the game. Young Pyromancer can put out a clock that would shame even Tarmogoyf, especially when aided by Gitaxian Probe. A turn one Deathrite Shaman into a turn two True-Name Nemesis provides a devastating clock that's extremely difficult to interact with. When things get past the first few turns, Grixis Delver is the build most capable of turning the corner and playing Midrange. Young Pyromancer, True-Name Nemesis, and Gurmag Angler all do great jobs of clogging up the ground against opposing fatties, pushing through damage on a crowded board, and being resilient to removal. Deathrite Shaman provides ramp to pump out your higher-end threats more quickly, but he also provides disruption and pressure in the long game. Because the deck runs a lower curve than most Deathrite Shaman decks, it can use its Deathrites more offensively, shutting off the opposing Deathrites by exiling their targeted land in response. This adds to the mana denial plan supported by Wasteland and Daze.

One of the biggest stumbling blocks new players run into while playing Delver decks is incorrect Cantrip usage. It's extremely tempting to see an open blue mana and a Brainstorm sitting in hand and want to windmill it at the earliest possible opportunity, such as the end of your opponent's turn. But this line of play is almost always incorrect. Brainstorming should be extremely deliberate. The best Brainstorms are the ones where you know, going in, which two cards you'd prefer to put back on your deck, accompanied by a Fetchland or a Ponder to immediately shuffle those two cards away. Likewise, Ponder should generally be played alongside an active Fetchland, so that if you want one of the three cards but have no desire to draw the other two, they too can be shuffled away. The situation that you definitely want to avoid is one where you Brainstorm at the end of turn and are stuck with two dead draws on top of your library that you will then have to draw over the course of the next two turns. Sometimes, blind digging like this is what you need to do out of desperation, but it should be left for a last resort. If you're considering endphase Brainstorming without an active fetch, ask yourself what would happen if you waited until your turn. If you need the extra mana right then to be able to windmill your True-Name Nemesis while your opponent is dry on resources, by all means, Brainstorm. But if you're Brainstorming from a one-land opener in hopes of drawing into a second land, be aware that you see more unique cards by waiting until your turn to Brainstorm. If the top three cards aren't lands, but the fourth is, you pin that card under two dead draws by Brainstorming endphase. If you wait until your second main, you've seen an entire card deeper, giving you more chances to draw into your out. Even Gitaxian Probe, which seems like an easy card to throw out due to its free mana cost, is often best banked until it can be cast before a Cabal Therapy, after a Young Pyromancer, or to check to see if the coast is clear before attempting to resolve a pivotal threat like True-Name Nemesis.

It's also important to hold onto your Brainstorms to be able to use them defensively against a deck packing hand disruption. Decks like Ad Nauseam Tendrils will deploy Cabal Therapy and Duress early to strip away opposing counters and open the way to combo off. If you can, hold Brainstorm against these decks until they try and make you discard, at which point you can hide your disruption cards on top of your library. Do note that this is best done earlier, as by turn three or four, they may have the mana to be able to go off after casting the discard spell anyways, in which case, hiding your counters is as bad as having them discarded.

It can be difficult to adjust to proper land drop play if you are new to Delver. In most decks, you want to drop lands every possible turn. In Delver, this is generally not the best idea. The deck can operate on a very low curve, requiring only three mana to cast any spell in the deck - and there's only two True-Name Nemesis at three. Land drops should be used judiciously. Whenever possible, you want to be using your land drops after the first or second to Wasteland your opponent to slow down their game plan or to Fetchland to shuffle away dead Brainstorm and Ponder draws. Fetchlands in particular should be held unless the mana is needed immediately to enable a cantrip shuffle, but even duals are often better sitting in your hand where they can take the place of business cards being put back off of a Brainstorm should you happen to draw one.

It's also important to notice the relatively small number of duals available to the deck. With only two Underground Sea, it can be very easy to become stranded on black mana and unable to cast your Gurmag Anglers. This makes your Undergrounds prime targets for Wastelands, which further emphasizes the need to hold off on playing or fetching those lands until the latest possible moment. You generally want to play or fetch and Underground if your are going to be using it to cast an Angler or Deathrite Shaman that turn. Volcanics give you a bit more leeway with a third copy, and should definitely be prioritized in searching, but do also be mindful of their counts, and if two of your Volcanics are in the graveyard already, don't fetch the third unless it will allow you to immediately play a Young Pyromancer or Lightning Bolt. Tropical Island is in the deck as a one-of to enable Deathrite Shaman's green activation. Against decks where this activation is relevant, it may be wise to fetch this land first, especially since decks like Reanimator tend to lack ways to interact with your lands. But against a grindier deck like Czech Pile, where you may wish to exile creatures to weaken a Kolaghan's Command, it's going to be best to sandbag the Trop until you know you need it, lest it meet a Wasteland fate and not be available when you do.

Another thing in Delver decks to be judicious about what you do and don't counter. Delver decks run an extremely limited number of counterspells - generally Daze, Force of Will, and some combination of Spell Pierce and Spell Snare in the maindeck, with Flusterstorm and Pyroblast/Red Elemental Blast being common in the side. For conditional and situational counters like Snare, Pierce, and especially Daze, you may want to fire them off at the first card you'll be guaranteed to hit with them. But this is often not the correct play. Against a deck like Show and Tell, you really only need to counter Show and Tell, Sneak Attack, and their countermagic for your counterspells. Anything else they try to do is generally worth ignoring. There are, of course, exceptions. If you see someone playing Brainstorm early without a shuffle ready, you might be able to deduce that they are desperation Brainstorming, and a well-placed Daze could throw off their entire gameplan. Ground-pounders in Death and Taxes are of a similar cut. Their creatures generally aren't large enough to beat Gurmag Angler or multiple Young Pyromancer tokens, True-Name Nemesis walls them completely, and Delver of Secrets flies over. Focus on countering important spells like Stoneforge Mystic and fliers like Flickerwisp that can throw off your gameplan, as well as equipment and removal like Umezawa's Jitte and Swords to Plowshares.

One of the best things about Grixis Delver's sideboard is that it can frequently be composed entirely of instants and sorceries, meaning you don't have to sacrifice additional Delver flip potential in order to bring in your sideboard hate. One of the most important tools in Grixis Delver is Cabal Therapy. In most matchups, you're going to want to bring this in. Against combo decks, side out Lightning Bolts. Against midrange decks, you generally bring out your Force of Wills, having no way to refuel from the card disadvantage. Properly deducing what to name with Cabal Therapy is another deciding factor between good Delver players and great ones. Gitaxian Probe works as "training wheels" for Therapy, which is a good reason to sit on Probes until you absolutely need them, but there are definitely going to be times where you will not be able to rely on Probe. Getting a feel for what the pivotal cards are in your matchup and especially in a specific situation is something that takes a lot of practice. The rest of the sideboard is mostly devoted to general-use tools that can be used to tailor the maindeck better for specific matchups. Against midrange decks, you have better removal and countermagic options to improve your ability to win the attrition war. Against combo decks, there's access to several counterspells, as well as Price of Progress, which can greatly aid your clock. Surgical Extraction and Abrade are strong tools for answering cards the deck otherwise has trouble with, like Trinisphere, Chalice of the Void, or equipment in the case of Abrade, and any kind of graveyard strategy in the case of the Surgicals. Delver of Secrets provides some insurance against graveyard strategies, but can be slow to come online. Surgical better helps to deal with highly-aggressive graveyard strategies like BR Reanimator or cards like Punishing Fire that can remove Deathrite Shaman from the board before needing to be recurred.

Today: Other Builds of Delver

While Grixis Delver is the most popular build of Delver these days, it is by no means the only one. UR Delver lives on in a prowess-centric build that Richard Thompson took to a first place finish at the SCG Classic in Columbus last month.

Prowess Delver is a spicy brew, running draft rejects like Stormchaser Mage and Bedlam Reveler alongside Burn staples like Chain Lightning, Fireblast, and Price of Progress. Richard's list pushes the spice even further with unorthodox inclusions like Cryptic Serpent, who does a big blue impression of Gurmag Angler, and Thunderous Wrath, Brainstorm's super-Fireblast best bud. Either way, it's an extremely aggressive list, eschewing even the standard Wastelands in favor of raw damage output.

RUG Delver is still alive and kicking as well, featuring two prominent builds. The first features a more classic take on the archetype, with Nimble Mongoose and Tarmogoyf, which looks largely like the 2011 list but generally with a few True-Name Nemesis and Winter Orb scattered into the 75. The second build accepts that Deathrite Shaman, Fatal Push, and Abrupt Decay are here to stay and make Goyfs less than optimal choices, and laterals instead to Hooting Mandrills.

Other builds are still running around as well. Patriot Delver has declined significantly but still sees occasional play. BUG Delver still exists, though Grixis Delver tends to do midrange Delver better these days. Four-Color Delver is yet another take on Midrange Delver, running value cards like Snapcaster Mage to snap back Lightning Bolts alongside Deathrite Shaman and sometimes Leovold, Emissary of Trest, but the rise of Czech Pile has subsumed that build.

Tomorrow: Experimental and Fringe Builds of Delver

Perhaps the most interesting Delver builds are the ones that exist on the far fringe of the format, still waiting to make their mark.

Death's Shadow Delver is a fascinating deck, because it's one of the most budget-friendly versions of Delver available. It's only two colors, and it runs no original dual lands (or occasionally one or two). And it's actually stronger that way. Shocklands are strictly worse than the original dual lands, because they hurt you if you need mana out of them right away, but Death's Shadow wants you to hurt yourself, so that you can drop Death's Shadow earlier and it can become huge and swing for lethal. This also tunes the deck into a version that never needs more than a single land to cast any of its spells, allowing it to play super aggressively with minimal care for mana screw. And with a whopping 15 cantrips, finding the specific cards you need has never been easier.

Esper Delver is another interesting deck that has not put up much in the way of results. Running Black and White together gives you access to Lingering Souls, which is a way to increase the threat count without completely neutering your ability to reliably flip Delver of Secrets. Souls bodies may not be the fastest clock, but it can put out a lot of them, and they do a good job of punching through stalled ground defenses on boards with Gurmag Angler, Young Pyromancer, and True-Name Nemesis. They also keep Stoneforge Mystic in bodies for her equipment, which increases her threat potential. Swords to Plowshares is also an underrated removal card in this era of widespread Gurmag Angler play, and Zealous Persecution from the board does a great job dealing with True-Name Nemesis, Young Pyromancer, and all of his tokens.

Finally, we have Mono-Blue Delver, another option for budget-concerned Delver players. The biggest draw to playing Mono-Blue is that you gain access to the backbreakingly-powerful Back to Basics, which punishes greedy decks like Czech Pile and opposing Delver decks to a huge degree. Additionally, you become immune to a lot of targeted hate in Legacy such as Wasteland and Price of Progress. The drawback is that the quality of threats the deck can run are greatly restricted. After the obvious Delver and True-Name, we're left scraping the bottom of the barrel for cards like Thing in the Ice and Cryptic Serpent. This list is definitely still rough and could use some refining; it may be correct to play Gitaxian Probe over Stifle for greater ease in flipping Thing and easier Serpents.

For those interested in brewing their own Delver variants, there are a few core cards to look at. Every list above runs almost everything here:

It's also generally correct to fit at least two copies of True-Name Nemesis into the 75. After the core, you're going to want another 8-12 threats, generally in the 1-3 converted mana cost range, and another 10-14 instants and sorceries.

If anyone wants to try their hand at building a Delver deck in our Deckbuilder, post a link to your deck here!