Welcome to Esper Delver! Are you looking for a sweet tempo build? Do you love setting the pace of a game, switching from beatdown to control as the situation demands? Are you looking for the perfect home for your new playset of Fatal Push? Do you love Delver, but just can't find the right threats to run alongside him? Do you want to be resilient against the format's premier removal spells? Do you want to pitch Lingering Souls to Collective Brutality after Thought Scouring out a turn-2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang? You have come to the right place. I hope that this humble primer can convince you of all the joys Esper Delver has to offer!
What is Delver?
Delver is perhaps the posterchild of Tempo. Tempo decks, distinct from strict aggro decks, attempt to land early, cheap threats, and then ride them to victory – spending their resources denying their opponent's attempts to stabilize (usually with permission and removal spells). Delver of Secrets is the perfect tempo card, coming down on turn 1, and playing well in a deck that loads up on spells.
Depending on the colors and the format, disruption usually takes the form of various types of counterspells, discard, and hard removal. In Modern, we've generally seen Remand, Mana Leak, Spell Snare, Spell Pierce and removal such as Path to Exile and Lightning Bolt.
History
Delver has been a deck since Delver of Secrets was first released in the original Innistrad set in 2011. While the cards were more limited, it played almost identically with today's Modern Delver lists: Land a Delver, flip it, get out another cheap threat or two (Geist of Saint Traft was the go-to back in Standard), and then counter, kill, or bounce their threats, build card and tempo advantage with Snapcaster Mage, and beat down with your undercosted threats.
Backed by the way-too-good-for-Standard Snapcaster Mage, UW Delver was so successful it became public enemy #1 of the Scars-Innistrad Standard, which was still recovering from the trauma of another UW control/tempo deck. Snapcaster/Delver/Leak/Geist actually became so powerful that Wizards of the Coast actually printed Cavern of Souls specifically to power the deck down, as Zac Hill explains in his excellent article "Gonna Hate." (Which I highly recommend you read if you're interested in Delver, since it gets deep into how the card and archetype shaped the Standard of the day.)
Since the inception of Modern, Delver has risen and fallen with various bannings and meta-shifts, but the greatest swing by far came in 2014, when Khans of Tarkir released Treasure Cruise into the format. This card slotted perfectly into URx Delver, where fetchlands and cantrips and cheap burn filled the yard, which turned on Cruise to refill the hand. This gave the deck overwhelming velocity while also allowing it to replenish its hand, finding more creatures, more burn, and of course, more Treasure Cruises. However, Wizards of the Coast lost no time in righting course by banning TC and the accompanying Dig Through Time.
Since then, the deck has mostly coalesced around Grixis colors (with some UR and a few URG decks). Access to U countermagic with R and a suite of powerful spells propels Delver's tempo plan along nicely, while Tasigur, the Golden Fang and his lackey Gurmag Angler combine with Thought Scour to apply very heavy early pressure. Add to that the power of Lightning Bolt and Terminate to deal with many of the format's premier threats, and the extraordinary interaction of Kolaghan's Command with Snapcaster Mage, and it's not hard to see why the deck has become so popular.
Esper, while it exists in some metagames, hasn't really had a chance to break out in Modern. The grindy era of UW-based control decks earlier in Modern's history has long gone, leaving this color combination short on the answers it needs to tackle a field full of cheap, fast, resileint, game-ending creatures.
However, in January 2017, the release of Aether Revolt brought into the format perhaps the most important (non-fetchland) card printed since its inception: Fatal Push. This gave any deck with B a way of answering the format's most aggressive and high-value creatures for just one mana, helping new color combinations find purchase. While it can't be pointed at the opponent's face, another recent card, Collective Brutality, can be used as a 4-point life swing, while also serving as removal, or functioning as discard, and even being able to do all those things in whatever combination you need. And Spell Queller gives introduces a lean curve-topper that beats, blocks, and denies your opponent resources. These cards all combine to put Esper Delver in a stronger position than ever before.
Why Esper Delver?
We already have Grixis Delver, which is currently a Tier-2 deck. Why run Esper instead? Well, Fatal Push isn't the only recent allstar to shake up the field. Collective Brutality gives non-R the flexibility of Bolt's removal/face-melt suite, plus the conditional discard, with a huge tempo upside in its Escalate ability. Spell Queller is an enormous tempo swing, often sealing games for a mere 3 mana at instant speed. Path to Exile is the strongest answer in the format, and just needs the support of a few other removal spells – which Esper colors now have. White also offers a huge range of powerful sideboard cards, like the new Blessed Alliance, Rest in Peace, Stony Silence, and Burrenton Forge-Tender.
But perhaps most importantly, going Esper gives us access to Lingering Souls. I cannot stress enough how powerful this card is. It's not a terribly aggressive play compared to a turn-2 or even turn-3 Tasigur or a turn-2 Delver flip. But it doesn't compete with those plays (you'll still do both plenty!), and it shores up not one, not two, not three, but four of Delver's greatest weaknesses:
Vulnerability to spot removal.
Difficulty going wide.
Difficulty generating card advantage.
Low threat density.
And it does this while providing an aggressive clock and flipping Delver. It also pitches to Collective Brutality and an opposing Liliana of the Veil or Reality Smasher, functionally letting us discard just half a card while also letting us cheat on its mana cost. Finally, waiting in the wings since the days he haunted Innistrad constructed, Geist of Saint Traft makes a good running for Esper Delver.
Esper brings in some other cool tech too of course, like Esper Charm when we want to transition into a grindy deck for games 2 and 3, or Moorland Haunt to help us go even wider, or Meddling Mage and Wall of Denial out the board to make our opponent ragequit. But we'll cover that later.
The Gameplan
Delver's plans aren't always simple, but they're very straightforward. They all revolve around us casting something cheap, then spending our resources counteracting our opponent's gameplan until we win.
However, the tension between playing threats, playing answers, and generating additional value means that we have access to lots of lines of play. It takes some "game sense" (a.k.a. heuristics) to figure out what the best line of play is. Do you cast Thought Scour to setup a Delve and hope to draw into another land? Or Serum Visions to set up our next turns? Or cast that Lingering Souls now so you can start going wide, but at the expense of not having up mana for Deprive? Additionally, properly using fetchlands, and what you fetch with them, will be a big part of your gameplay because of Delve creatures and Serum Visions scrying. Sequencing your plays and properly using your resources takes some experience, and I'm certainly no master at it. Just give it some time, and you'll start reading the gamestate as if it were completely natural.
The biggest judgment call when it comes to Delver is figuring out whether you're the beatdown deck or the control deck. Sometimes this is really obvious, but in other cases (especially combo-aggro decks), you have to use your noggin to figure out whether you should be going all-in on aggression, committing everything to digging up and playing answers, or somewhere in-between.
When we're onto our beatdown lines of play, Esper Delver has a Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C, with a couple of contingency plans. We will often (and ideally) do more than one of these at once, giving multiple vectors of attack and extra resilience. Remember if you do this not to overcommit where you may get blown out. Always respect board wipes, even when the right play is to go all-in.
Plan A: Delver Beats
Plan A is to resolve a Delver of Secrets on turn 1, flip it on turn 2, and then either field accompanying threats or control the board with disruption and removal until you win. Very, very simple in premise, although as noted above, it takes some skill (and, often, luck) to execute optimally.
Plan B: Tasigur Beats
If we can't get our Delver to flip, or if it gets Bolted (seriously, this will happen probably all the time), or if we just can't draw one, then we switch into Tasigur mode. Tasigur can often come down on turn 2 off of a Thought Scour, as one Scour is enough to pay for half of his mana cost. Add two fetchlands or a turn-1 Serum Visions and a fetchland and you're there as long as you fetched B. Even on turn 3, a Tasigur can often turn the momentum of a game back in our favor on its own. All the better of we can leave up countermagic protection at the same time, which is very doable by turn 3.
Plan C: Go Wide
Here, we just stick a Lingering Souls and start riding the value train. One copy of souls gives us an unprecedented four evasive bodies at an aggressive cost, which lets us represent a passable clock and helps us clog the board if we need to buy time. While this line has the lowest velocity of our three plans, it also requires much less in terms of commitment of our cards to the field. That means it's less vulnerable to being blown out by one or two well-timed answers from the opponent.
Backup Plan D: Snapcaster Mage
Sometimes, we just can't get the pieces to come together. In those cases, we can use Snapcaster Mage as our pathetic little clock. You'll be amazed, though, at how many games you'll win off the back of Tiago (his pet name, after his designer, 2007 invitational winner Tiago Chan). This backup plan usually works as a supplement to whichever main plan(s) we get working, representing both powerful board control and usually a 1- or 2-turn reduction in our clock.
Backup Plan E: Melt Their Face
This works a lot better in the Grixis version of Delver, but Esper isn't without this backup plan. While we don't have Lightning Bolt, we do have Collective Brutality. CB tries its hardest to give us reach, and while it's far weaker than Bolt in this regard, it's better than nothing. Combined with a Snapcaster, it represents a Delver hit plus change or a full Tasigur hit. Sometimes, that's all we need when we're in danger of falling behind.
You'll still wish you had Bolt, though.
Card Choices
The Core
These are the staples of the deck. Some are automatic 4-ofs. Some are more in the 2-3 range, and some are completely up to personal preference.
Delver of Secrets: 4-of. Non-negotiable. This is the core of our deck, and it's why we exist as an archetype. Fortunately as a common, he sells for the hot price of $1 a piece.
Snapcaster Mage: Not quite as set-in-stone as Delver, but I'd still highly recommend 4. Provides a body to block or beat down, provides card selection and recursion, and does it at instant speed. Thank god for Tiago Chan. Hats off to you, sir! I recommend 3 at least, 4 preferred.
Tasigur, the Golden Fang: We cast tons of cheap spells, and often we want to run Thought Scour to fuel his Delve (and to bin cards for Snapcaster to target later). A turn-2 Tasigur, while not common, is an extraordinarily powerful tempo play, and even on later turns he's amazing for us. Having up mana for Mana Leak while playing him for 1 on turn 3 or 2 on turn 4 is to strong to ignore. Legendary and the nonbo of having too many Delve creatures (and Snapcasters) keeps him from being a 4-of, but I see no problem with running 3.
Selfless Spirit: There's always a tension in tempo decks: Do you tap out and build your board presence, or do you hold up disruption to keep your threats alive? If you do the former, you risk losing your clock. If you do the latter, you risk slowing yourself down too far and losing control of the game. Selfless Spirit is an amazing addition to this deck in that it proactively protects your beaters while putting pressure on your opponent. A 2-CMC 2/1 isn't a great clock, but it's still a respectable threat backed up by a Delver, Tasigur, or some Soul tokens, and on top of that it's another evasive beater. I started with 2 of these, and I may add a third. It's weak in completely uninteractive matchups, but against any deck that you're trying to race and that has removal (which is almost all of modern), it's great. Drawing removal and protecting your board from sweepers if unanswered is too good. And remember that in a pinch, it can block Inkmoth Nexus or block a Wurmcoil Engine, then sacrifice itself before damage to prevent the lifegain. This is one of the premiere reasons to run Esper. I'd recommend starting with 2 and tuning from there.
Serum Visions: Some will disagree, but I think this is the most important spell in our deck. It digs you to the right answer, the right threat, or the right land, it cantrips, it helps you set up Delver flips, and it does it for just U. Permission, removal, and other disruption like discard can vary person-to-person and meta-to-meta, but this spell should always be a 4-of.
Thought Scour: I'm something of a heretic Grixis Control player in that I don't like Thought Scour in that list, but for Delver, this is the good stuff. Even lacking Kolaghan's Command to recur creatures, the Snapcaster and Tasigur synergies are vital to the way this deck functions. If you're skipping the Delve creatures, Thought Scour loses most of its relevance, but powering them out early is exactly the plan B this deck wants if it can't flip a Delver of Secrets quickly. If you're using any Delve, run 4 Scour. Also remember that you can just use it to draw a card off of a Snapcaster Mage at instant speed.
Fatal Push: As mentioned, Fatal Push puts in serious work to power this shell up. However, it's not a clear-cut 4-of. It's a great spell – perhaps the most important piece of disruption we have access to. But sucks if your opponent resolves a Tasigur or a World Breaker or a Wurmcoil Engine. Run 2-4, depending on the meta.
Path to Exile: Like Fatal Push, this is an all-star card that works best as part of a team. It's the best removal in the format, but its downside is terribly punishing given that tempo's plan is to keep an opponent's resources locked up while you kill them with cheap dudes. Given them extra lands early is no bueno, especially if you're running Mana Leak, Spell Pierce, or Remand. I'd start out at 2 depending on what threats you need to deal with.
Murderous Cut: Universal, usually pretty cheap, and no downside or targeting restriction. If you're running Delve creatures it can be tough to cast, but you can usually squeeze 1 in alongside your Tasigurs. Remember that flashing it back with Snapcaster Mage can really tax your graveyard, though.
Dismember: Another solid removal spell. We have access to B, so we can usually keep from paying life when relevant. I'd recommend a 1-1 split between this and Cut to keep yourself from overcommitting to one type of removal, and using them to round out your core removal suite.
Collective Brutality: This card is supremely flexible and synergizes wonderfully with our deck. It puts in time as the to-the-face burn of Lightning Bolt to close out a game, gains life against Burn and aggro, protects your creatures by ripping answers from your opponent's hand, and clears your opponent's board. The fact that it does all of these for just 2 mana is great, and the tempo offered by pitching cards to pay the Escalate cost is insane. Remember, we're a tempo deck. We thrive by squeezing more value out of a few mana than our opponent can. Spending just 2 mana for that much power is incredible, even if we're discarding cards to do it. (Think of it as you're casting a free Shock or Duress.) And don't forget you can fuel Tasigur off of it, or pitch Lingering Souls to save mana on the flashback. Despite that, I wouldn't fault you for not running it if you don't feel it's the right answer for your field. Start at 0-2 MD.
Of course this all depends on what you're facing. If you see lots of mana dorks and Monastery Swiftspears, Push all the way. If Eldrazi are tearing up your meta, go heavier on Path. If Burn is everywhere, Brutality is where you want to be. (Seriously, that card is like a 9-point life swing against Burn over the course of a game.) For my local midrange-heavy scene, I've been experimenting with 2 Path, 3 Push, 2-1 Brutality, and one each of Dismember and Cut. For more thoughts on this spread, see "Understanding Utility 1-ofs."
There's a longstanding debate on what permission and what discard – if any – to run in Modern Delver. I personally believe discard is not where the deck wants to be, as we want our opponent to spend their mana and then counteract that play – hopefully for less mana than they spent. However, if you want to go the discard route (which can be great against a meta full of fragile combo decks, for example), that's your choice.
Now, onto the cards!
Mana Leak: The staple counterspell from when the first Insectile Aberration poked its spooky little head out of its chrysalis. Tempo decks are usually a better place for Leak than Control, because we can close out games sooner. However, since we're not aggro, we're very often not able to land a kill in those early turns. I recommend running Leak, but running it with other counterspells for when the game goes long (and it will, sometimes). Run 0-4.
(Although if you're playing 4, seriously consider Rune Snag. And remember you can pitch one to Collective Brutality to power up another one if you're holding two. Or even if you're not, just to freak your opponent out. )
Remand: Much like the above, Remand shines when your opponent needs to stabilize and you just need to keep them off their game plan for a few more turns. However, like Mana Leak, it doesn't do much for you later in the game (although the cantrip is nice). It also has the problem of not permanently dealing with a serious threat like a Karn Liberated. It does screw up Delve creatures, however, and it give Grixis Control players running Ancestral Vision fits. (I know; I've been there. Trust me.) So, again, like the above, if you run it, do it alongside other, harder counters. Run 0-4.
Spell Pierce: Much like the two above cards, this one is a great tempo play that usually sandbags in your hand later on. Often runs better in the board vs. decks like Tron, where surviving just one more turn is all you need, or vs. pump decks to help you win counter wars (although Dispel is much better there). If you're going to run it, I'd say go 2 at most.
Spell Snare: Now we're talkin'! You might look at Spell Snare – just like I did – and wonder why bother? The targeting restriction is terribly… restrictive. But then you'll put it in a deck, and you'll realize how utterly jam-packed with prime 2-drops the field is. Tarmogoyf. Bob. Kiln Fiend. Blighted Agent. Cranial Plating. Sylvan Scrying. Snapcaster Mage. Terminate. Mana Leak. The list goes on and on and on. Not only is this a hard counter, it also always gives you a tempo advantage since you're trading your 1-mana spell for their 2-mana spell. And remember, tempo is the name of the game. Run 2-3.
Deprive: A criminally overlooked counterspell. Bouncing a land sucks, yes. UU can be a strain yes (or 1UUU on with Snapcaster). But come on, it's a 2-mana universal hard counter! It can really hurt having to bounce a land when you need to keep making land drops, but we play on a very tight curve. Bouncing a land turn 3 or 4, or especially later when Mana Leak and Spell Snare may not cut it and Path to Exile may not save you, is a pretty trivial downside for that effect. It can bit you hard if run in in Big Control lists where you need to keep making land drops to cast your big spells, but for us, it's a sacrifice we're often glad to make. That said, don't go overboard on it, because too many of them will gum up your hands. 0-2 in your 75.
Logic Knot: A solid Delve spell. I'm very fond of this, as even if you're short on cards in your yard, you can usually just play it as a Cancel when your opponent taps out. Like with Murderous Cut, this can get taxing on your graveyard along with Delve creatures and Snapcaster Mage, so don't get too greedy if you're running Tasigur and/or Angler. If you want to run a list without the Delve fatties, I'd go straight to 3 Logic Knot and never look back. Seriously, in a deck like that, this is nearly straight-up Counterspell.
Inquisition of Kozilek: IMO, this is the best maindeck discard you can run if you want to run it at all. It hits most relevant things in the format, and does it without costing you life. Again, I think we'd rather answer cards our opponents have already spent mana on, but it's really a personal choice. Run 3-4 if that's where you want to be.
Yes, this card gets its own heading. Yes, really. Lingering Souls is IMO the best card in Modern. It's the reason I keep coming back to WBx (well, that and Tidehollow Sculler), and it's a big part of the reason to run Esper Delver. Let me explain in case you skipped the previous exposition. Grixis Delver has a problem with going wide, meaning fielding lots of threats to get around opposing threats or clog the board with blockers. It's also weak vs. spot removal, as decks that can trade 1-for-1 and grind additional value can deplete our resources while taking the pressure off of themselves. It has a low density of threats, partly because of lack of redundant threats, and partly because of needing to run lots of spells to flip Delver. And it struggles to generate value via board and card advantage in the main deck outside Snapcaster Mage and Kolaghan's Command recursion. Some lists run Young Pyromancer to try to alleviate these problems, but in my opinion, that's not a great solution (especially after the banning of Gitaxian Probe).
Lingering Souls addresses all four of these major problems on its own. It's 4 evasive bodies for 1 card. That's your go-wide plan. That's your card advantage. That's your spot removal resilience. That's your threat density, without missing Delver flips.
In addition to shoring up a number of Delver's weaknesses, Lingering Souls works synergizes beautifully with the rest of our deck. We already noted that it flips Delver, but it also pitches to Collective Brutality, while still giving you half of its value, and doing it at a 1-mana discount. Thought Scouring a Lingering Souls actually nets you card advantage, which Scour usually doesn't do. It does, however, nonbo with Tasigur and Snapcaster, and with Rest in Peace if you bring it in.
Just remember to respect sweepers. Modern is a spot-removal format at the moment, but plenty of decks pack board wipes. Many run answers specificall for Lingering Souls, like the few Electrolyzes and sideboard Izzet Staticasters in most Grixis lists. (Don't let that worry you, though. The reason Grixis players run them is because we lose to Lingering Souls if we don't have them. )
Our curve is really slight and we run 8 cantrips minimum, so I recommend around 18-19 lands, whatever fits your curve and tastes. Shocks and fetches will ideally make up the majority of your mana base, with Darkslick Shores and Seachrome Coast as options if you want to try saving yourself a few points of life. (I recommend more Darkslick than Seachrome as you'd usually rather play an early Fatal Push than an early Path to Exile.)
Because we're mostly U, I recommend just one Godless Shrine. It's worth one for times when you need to find both off-colors, but you can't afford to run many lands that don't provide U. For reference, my lists usually have around three times more U than either other color, and a roughly even split of WB. I also highly recommend two Islands (helpful for bouncing with Deprive) and two of each Hallowed Fountain and Watery Grave, since Thought Scour runs the risk of milling a vital land into your yard otherwise.
That's the core of your land base. We'll cover a few optional lands in the following sections.
Sideboard and Other Contenders
These are cards that may or may not make the cut in your main 60. Some are great in the board, others need some testing to find out if this is the right shell for them. Some are actually not very good here, but included for the sake of completeness and discussion.
Some of the above cards can be run in the main or the board, but here are some that are more distinctly sideboard pieces.
Disruption
Negate and Countersquall: These cards are both very potent in many matchups, and each has its pros and cons. Negate has the advantage of being easy on your mana base, so it will come down a few times when its evil twin wouldn't be able to, or it may save you a few life in shocklands. However, Countersquall has the extremely relevant upside of having a Shock stapled to it. Our goals are to bash our opponent down while denying them the ability to stabilize; doing both of those things at once is great. Choose whether to run them, which to run, and even whether to run them sideboard, main deck, or split, based on your expected matchups.
Dispel: Although usually sideboard tech, I've run 1 main in Grixis Control for a while and seldom regretted it. This is great for protecting your creatures on the cheap or for going up against pump decks like UR Prowess and Infect. Also has a lot of applications against some combo decks like Ad Nauseam and Kiki-Chord, where it does double duty of protecting your board and stopping them from comboing off (sometimes). I never leave home without 2 in my 75 in Grixis colors, but honestly, Esper has such great sideboard tech it may be less necessary.
Thoughtseize: Great in the board, not quite so great in the main if you're expecting decks that can pressure you. If you're going to run any discard, my suggestion would be to throw these in your board and bring them in for relevant matches, replacing some of the more conditional cards in your main. Can do a lot of work against decks that need to assemble an in-hand combo, and, really, being able to pull any nonland card is amazing. Just remember it sucks when your opponent is in topdeck mode, and many decks vulnerable to discard will board in Leyline of Sanctity and mulligan aggressively for it.
Duress: Works best when you want the flexibility of sideboard discard vs. the aforementioned combo and big-mana decks, but also want to be able to rip Burn's hand apart. (Although for the latter, I'd recommend Collective Brutality.) Given we have a pretty insane spot removal suite, there's a good argument to be made for running this card over Thoughtseize since we can probably take care of anything that gets cast early, and can usually counter guys with big come-into-play effects.
Removal
Supreme Verdict/Day of Judgment/Wrath of God/Damnation: I'd really hesitate to put sweepers in a Delver list. But if you absolutely feel it's necessary, that's your call. Supreme Verdict would be my choice since the uncounterability is much more relevant than shutting off regeneration. Just mind the WW in the cost.
Zealous Persecution: Now this is a a sweeper I can get behind! As a pure boardwipe it's nothing special, but its ability to shrink your opponent's board while growing your own is amazing at breaking stalemates or pushing the last few points of damage through. It also wipes out opposing Lingering Souls tokens while turning yours into flying bears, which is sweet.
Anguished Unmaking: Don't laugh! (I can hear it; you're laughing, aren't you?) Not a card I'd ever want in my main deck, but this is the actual catch-all of all catch-alls. Well, apart from Vindicate, but we're talking Modern here. Anyways, the point is if you just absolutely feel like you need as broad an answer as possible, this is it. It's seriously great to be able to answer a Karn, Wurmcoil, Ensnaring Bridge, or Ulamog (although in that case, you're dead and you just don't know it).
Hosers
Blessed Alliance: Hoo, boy. Does this card ever hate. Hexproof on your Glistening Elf? Too bad. Unblockable Kiln Fiend? Lol who needs blocking? Nacatl crashing in? Sac it, and also I'll undo your Boros Charm. (Good job on surviving until turn 4, by the way!) Granted, since we're a leaner deck than many running this card, we won't get to pay the Escalate as often. But even one mode is often enough to decide a game. The escalate is just gravy.
Burrenton Forge-Tender: Blocks Monastery Swiftspear all day. Saves you or a vital creature from a burn spell. For 1 mana. This is IMO a criminally undervalued sideboard pieces, although she's growing in popularity. The shame is that she doesn't flip Delver, so her value drops a bit for us. But she does a ton of work in holding off the initial barrage of Burn and cripples their reach.
Leyline of Sanctity: Heavy CMC, but you can get it into play for free if you're really scared of burn (or discard generally or Eldrazi, I guess). Just remember that Burn will probably have enchantment removal they can board in.
Rest in Peace: The Great-Granddaddy of all graveyard hosers. It exiles all yards when it enters, and then keeps anything from going into them. It turns off your Souls and Snapcasters and hoses your Delve creatures, but the effect may be worth it.
Wheel of Sun and Moon: If you want a one-sided Rest in Peace, this is about the closest thing you'll get. Unfortunately, it leaves the yards intact when it hits, but anything after that point is just getting recycled. Probably not the best choice, but it's there. Also remember it effectively costs WW for us.
Leyline of the Void: OK, this is as close to a one-sided Rest in Peace as you can get. High variance, since it will probably be too late if it's not in your opening hand, but it's amazing when it pays off. Just remember that decks that are hosed by graveyard hate often have ways of removing permanents.
Surgical Extraction: Ohh, this is where we want to be! Eat the card in question, peek at their hand, maybe pull some cards from it, and pull each copy out of their deck? For 0 mana? Yes please! Flash it back with Snapcaster Mage and watch your opponent rage. Remember it can also hit nonbasic lands. Plays very nicely with discard.
Ravenous Trap: I prefer Surgical Extraction here since it has great play with Snapcaster Mage, but Trap is a fine replacement if you're focused on beating Dredge or other fill-your-graveyard strategies.
Ethersworn Canonist/Eidolon of Rhetoric: Both are very strong answers to decks that rely spewing out multiple spells per turn like Ad Nauseam, Storm, Infect, and UR Prowess. It's up to you if the extra power and lower CMC on Canonist is worth the reduced durability – especially since Fatal Push doesn't need Revolt to kill it. Just remember it also neuters your Snapcasters as well.
Aven Mindcensor: Can shut down tutor effects from decks like Kiki-Chord and Tron, and the flash, flying, and 2-power body all synergize very well with this deck. It may or may not be the right call, but our threat density means its more likely to stick than in many other lists.
Torpor Orb: A narrower hate card, and it neuters our Snapcasters, but sometimes it's what you need. Hushwing Gryff has the same ability for 1 more CMC if you don't mind the vulnerability, and 2 evasive power with flash is mighty good for us.
Stony Silence: If you're worried about Affinity, this is probably your best answer. It shuts down Tron's Expedition Maps and manaeggs as well, so hitting two very scary matchups is a big win for us.
Hurkyl's Recall: Another respectable option for the Affinity matchup. Even if the effect isn't permanent, it's a huge tempo swing, and it can be an insane blowout against a pumped Arcbound Ravager. Compared to Stony Silence, it also has the advantages of flipping Delver and doing double-duty with Snapcaster.
Spellskite: Stupendously good against a huge portion of the field. Steals pump spells, redirects bolts, draws removal – this is a versatile 2-drop. It's a very low-pressure play, so only bring it in when you're dedicated to being the control deck – which, granted, will be vs. a lot of the field. Remember you can also mess with Ad Nauseam's Lightning Storm with if they forget to respect it, but they usually have Slaughter Pact and Echoing Truth for that purpose.
Wall of Denial: A fun, cute card that you can board in when you need to go into hard cover mode and survive the initial barrage. However, UR Prowess attacks through it, Infect laughs at it, Burn just goes over the top, and Affinity puts plating on Etched Champion or Inkmoth Nexus. Not spectacular, although fun to consider.
Worship: Another tech ported over from my time in Bant Knightfall. We're a little light on creatures (usually around the 14 mark), but with 4 Lingering Souls, we might have enough creatures that we can just outright shut some opponents down if we resolve this. If an opponent's gameplan is to ignore your board and combo you out or burn you to death, there's a good chance this completely hoses them (as long as they're not Infect). Remember that Ad Nauseam usually runs Echoing Truth post-board to answer permanents, though.
Card Advantage
Esper Charm: Lower on power than the other choices, but high on flexibility and topdeck value. Instant-speed discard is seldom seen, and almost never at such a competitive CMC. Between that and the draw-2 mode, this really helps you grind out games against midrange and control decks. The enchantment removal isn't relevant that often, but when it is, you'll be happy you packed it.
Painful Truths: While IMO not fit for maindecking, Painful Truths is one of the most pushed draw engines we've seen in Modern. 3 mana for 3 cards in fair matchups is amazing, and in the matches where we'd bring it in, we're almost never going to be the one being raced down to 0 life. Just remember you have to have WUB to get maximum value from it.
Ancestral Vision: And now for the most pushed draw engine we've seen in Modern! As a maindeck card, this is not where Delver wants to be. But in long matches, this is actually a spectacular fit. The payoff isn't immediate, but remember: our goal is to play lean and fast, and field more threats and answers off a few mana than our opponent can. That reason alone makes AV perfect for a Delver deck looking to expand its grindy game. The downside of delayed payoff isn't a big issue for the slogfest games you'll be bringing it into, and I firmly believe this is the best option for a Delver deck looking to board against a midrange field. In my testing, I've found that whether I beat a midrange deck post-board depends mostly one how many Ancestral Visions and Lingering Souls I can cast that game.
Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver: Some users here and in other UBx threads have championed Ashiok, but I just haven't been able to get her to work well. Granted, we have enough removal and disruption that we can usually keep her safe behind a Tasigur or something, but so far in my testing I've always felt like in grindy matchups I'd be better served by something like Ancestral Vision which just straight-up gives me a bunch of cards. Still, I'd love to be proven wrong!
These are cards that I don't feel are proven, but could be considered. Often, their power will vary greatly depending on your matchups.
Geist of Saint Traft: GOST is weak when the opponent's field is strong, but if you're in control of the game, he's an utter monster. This meta is tuned against turn-3 14/2 trample double-strikingKiln Fiends bashing your face in and unblockable 11/11Blighted Agents one-shotting you. Spot removal is everywhere, and this guy just straight-up ignores almost all of it. I don't know if he'll find a home here, but I have a hunch that with how well we can set the pace of a game, he can carve out a spot somewhere in your 75. Just remember to respect sweepers and Blessed Alliance.
I feel like if you're expecting to go into a field full of durdly combo decks that ignore the red zone, Geist is a pretty solid pick. He's the fastest clock we have – faster than turn-1 Delver, faster than turn-2 Tasigur. Even if he gets blocked, he still Boros Charms your opponent with his Angel token. But given how poorly he performs when you're in the control seat, I think he's a very risky pick.
Spell Queller: I think this card has serious potential in Esper Delver. It's proven itself in Standard and in Modern UWx Spirits, a kindred tempo deck. Even if it dies in a turn or two, the tempo hit of delaying their spell in the mean time while blocking or swinging in with evasion is just what we want. That said, it's weak in attrition matchups like Jund and Junk, although it's definitely worth noting that your opponent needs to activate Revolt to hit it with Fatal Push. Works best when backed up with some Selfless Spirits to further frustrate your opponent's plans.
Gurmag Angler: Angler shows up in many Grixis Delver lists as a 1-of, and that's totally fair. I won't fault you for doing the same. That said, I don't think we really need him as badly as the threat-light Grixis shell does, since we have Lingering Souls, Spell Queller, and Geist of Saint Traft to round out the roster.
Vendilion Clique: A very matchup-dependent, hit-or-miss card. A 3/1 beater in the air is nothing to scoff at, and cycling a card is great. It definitely makes a good showing if you want an extra threat or two with built-in disruption.
Meddling Mage: This card can give serious fits to an opponent in the right situation. Or it just trades with Bolt or Push for a tempo loss. While decks that go all-in on disruption may benefit from it, I don't necessarily like her in this shell. Works better in the discard lists, where you can rip their removal and then name the most relevant card in their hand.
Tidehollow Sculler: The other esper-colored disruption-bear. Very vulnerable in a meta full of Kolaghan's Command, and not terribly aggressive. Also fails to flip delver, which is a big problem. The biggest issue IMO is the colors: WB are basically our splash colors, and we don't run that many lands. The odds of either missing playing this on-curve or screwing up our mana for later turns is pretty significant. It is sweet to beat someone to death with your Sculler after ripping their answer out of their hand, but like Meddling Mage, I don't think it quite works out. Although I do love this card in a more dedicated hatebears list alongside MM, Vendilion Clique, and more Spell Quellers.
Baral, Chief of Compliance: The card that got Modern Storm all jazzed up, right before having Gitaxian Probe banned, crushing its dreams of a resurgence. But what does he do for us? In my opinion, not quite enough. However, a lot of folks have been brewing with him, and I can see some reasons to include him. He's a removal magnet, which is a plus. He lets you cast both halves of Lingering Souls for just 1WB. He gives you extra value every time you counter a spell, which we will do. He blocks Snapcaster Mage and Dark Confidant. Overall, you could do worse, but I think he's too much conditional value and not enough velocity to make the cut.
Smuggler's Copter: So what about the other Kaladesh-block 2-drop looter? Well, this one I think might actualy make the cut. It turns unflipped Delver of Secrets and Snapcaster Mages into evasive 3/3s, and crewing it with a Spirit token is just saucy. The loot effect is spectacularly good for us. So who knows? Maybe it's worth 1 or 2 flex slots.
Disallow: Oh, hey, Baral's back already! Just can't take "probably not" for an answer I guess. Anyways, I'm not convinced on Disallow, but I'm open to experimenting with it. 1UU for a hard counter is almost playable, and the idea of hitting a fetchland crack or countering a game-winning activated ability is pretty sweet.
Cryptic Command: Cryptic is the card that separates tempo from control in Modern. This increases our mana curve dramatically, and the color weight is hefty. (Adding 4 to my list and taking out 4 1-drop disruption spells shifts the average CMC from 1.95 to 2.24, which is actually an underestimate because this counts Tasigur as a 6-drop. Granted, 4 is a lot of Cryptics.)
That said, there are good reason to run Cryptic in Delver. It's a universal hard counter. It's card advantage. Its tempo element is huge – tapping/bouncing relevant cards can turn a tight race into a blowout. I'd argue that you're usually better suited to running cheaper cards that will help you close out the game faster, but I certainly won't say that running some number of Cryptics is wrong. I'll do some experimenting and see how it feels.
Mana Tithe: Kind of a dorky card, but I think a 1-of Mana Tithe could be worth consideration. I doubt anyone will play around this card, and when it comes up, the levels of tilt must be insane. Getting people to respect this unnecessarily is as much of a reason to run it as actually countering something (kind of like Stifle forces decks to respect open U in Legacy).
Ghost Quarter: Eldrazi, Tron, and Valakut are serious predators in today's meta, and it always pays to be prepared. Add in Cavern of Souls giving us fits, and it's easy to make the case for including some Ghost Quarters. Our deck has a fair amount of generic mana costs, so I believe we can afford one or two of these. However, since we usually run a pretty low number of lands, you may have to cut spells or creatures for them or risk getting stuck with 1-land, GQ-only hands.
Moorland Haunt: Our creature density isn't that great, and if we're going to run colorless land, I'd recommend Ghost Quarter. But getting extra value out of binned creatures is a nice thing when plans A and B fail and we're stuck trying to grind out the long game.
Understanding Utility 1-ofs
A few parting words on the value of 1-of spells in lists (especially those with Snapcaster).
You may have noticed that I kind of have a thing for 1-ofs in my recommendations. There are a couple of reasons for that. First, it's great with Thought Scour and Snapcaster Mage. Having both a Dismember and a Fatal Push in your graveyard is much more valuable than having two of either, because Snapcaster lets you pick the right tool for the job.
The second reason has to do with respect. Respecting a card means forcing your opponent to play around the possibility of you having it. For example, Delver decks have to respect sweepers; even if you might want to flash back all your Lingering Souls immediately, it's often wiser to respect your opponent's possible Engineered Explosives or Anger of the Gods and leave one or two in the yard as insurance. In the same way, your opponent needs to respect the cards he or she knows or suspects you're running. If you run Mana Leak, your opponent's play will likely reflect playing around it. If you replace one Leak with a Logic Knot, now they also have to respect Knot – or face the consequences when they don't. In that way, having 3 Leak and 1 Knot is a lot more valuable to you than having 4 Leak. Especially when you run Snapcasters and your opponent also has to respect every instant and sorcery in your graveyard in case you happen to be holding a Snappy.
Sample Deck List
All right, that's enough theory. Let's get to the building!
Since this is a developing archetype, we don't really know how the lists will shape up competitively. And with the deck relying so heavily on the just-out Fatal Push, it will take some time before anything's known for certain.
That said, here's the list I'm looking at running now. It trims a few of the unproven cards to double up on removal and known commodities. I've been doing some gauntlet practice, and will try to make some FNMs to test it out.
A note on this list: my particular LGS is very heavy on fair midrange decks, with some combo decks and a bit of burn and big-mana. That heavy slant towards midrange is a big part of the reason I started building Esper Delver to begin with, and that's why my sideboard looks the way it does. I wouldn't recommend 4 Ancestral Visions in a blind meta, although I can see the case for 3. If you don't want to go that route, I'd recommend adding a third Countersquall – it wins a lot of games against a wide range of decks.
I'll be experimenting with some Spell Queller, 2-3 Geist of Saint Traft, and maybe some Smuggler's Copters. The permission and removal suite can easily be tuned for a particular meta. This is just the starting place, erring a bit on the side of caution, and towards more aggro decks and fair decks at the expense of the big-mana matchups.
Matchups (In Progress)
My playtesting time is limited (and I don't use MTGO, which really helps collect data). I'll do what I can to get some matchup data, but in the mean time, I'd love to hear what you all find!
Note that White has some of the best sideboard options out there, so you can precisely tune your board to hate out specific decks. There aren't any cure-all cards, although some like Stony Silence and Surgical Extraction can pull their weight in a number of matchups. And as always, there's the tension between bringing in something that's a complete hoser against one deck vs. running wider but less powerful answers.
My preliminary findings have been that we largely line up with Grixis Delver in our good and bad matchups. Lingering Souls often puts us ahead, but lack of Lightning Bolt makes closing out games trickier. Here's the summary:
Vs. Aggro (Affinity, Zoo)
We're firmly in the control spot here, but with our range of powerful answers and aggressive creatures, the transition into beatdown is never far off. Will need more testing before delivering a preliminary verdict.
Vs. Burn (you know, Burn)
Burn has no problem answering your Delvers. That said, Tasigur is another matter, not to mention Lingering Souls and W sideboards. And it especially hates not being able to stick a creature of their own. The usual Naya Burn lists will often transition into a creature-light variety post-board if they see a list with lots of removal, so don't go too all-out on removal games 2-3. Lingering Souls can save the day for you, letting you clog up the field and eventually wrest control of the game, although you need to close out quickly as their topdecks can just burn you out. If you get a Tasigur down, evaluate whether you're OK blocking with it knowing it may eat a Searing Blaze, or whether you'd rather try racing them while using removal to deal with their creatures.
Vs. Aggro-Combo (UR Prowess, Infect, Death's Shadow Zoo)
We do well vs. aggro-combo decks by removing their key threats and clogging the board plus putting them on a hard clock. We can generally answer their threats 1-for-1, and since our removal is mostly 1-CMC and instant-speed, we can usually push through more answers than they have threats and protection. Not a guaranteed matchup, but somewhat favorable.
Vs. Midrange/Control (Jund, Junk, Grixis Control, Jeskai Harbinger)
Just like our Grixis kin, we're a little soft to heavily interactive decks. They can dismantle our kills and grind out card advantage, leaving us running on nothing but fumes. Post-board, you'll want to transition to a grindier game, often taking out Delver of Secrets (also take out Spell Queller if you run it) and bringing in card advantage for greater staying power. Lingering Souls goes a long way to smoothing these out, though, especially against a Liliana of the Veil.
Vs. Big Mana (Tron, Eldrazi)
I believe that of the interactive/disruptive decks, we're one of the better-equipped to take these decks on because we can represent strong clocks. However, I'd wager that Grixis Delver has better matchups here, as their burn package is stronger. However, against Eldrazi, the added grindiness of Lingering Souls may be enough to close the gap.
We have a better combo matchup than slower, grindier decks by virtue of having a lot of ways to put a quick clock on them, backed by disruption. Big mana is as always a struggle, but I don't feel completely powerless against it like when I'm on Grixis Control.
Conclusion
That wraps up our Esper Delver primer! Thank you very much for reading. I hope you found it helpful, and I especially hope you'll pick up the reins and start brewing and testing! I'd love to hear feedback, suggestions, and playtesting experience. Feel free to leave feedback and suggestions here or send me a PM.
Now get out there and start flipping some Delvers!
I can get behind this. Although I don't necessarily like Geist, I really love Spell Queller and Lingering Souls. Might have to try a Selfless Spirit or two? Annoying, multi-purpose fliers seem like a good idea.
I can get behind this. Although I don't necessarily like Geist, I really love Spell Queller and Lingering Souls. Might have to try a Selfless Spirit or two? Annoying, multi-purpose fliers seem like a good idea.
Glad to have you onboard, cfusion!
Great thought on Selfless Spirit! I actually picked it up to test it in this shell (and for Knightfall), and forgot to add it to the list. I'll write up a blurb for the Other Contenders heading later on.
Also, congratulations on 2400 posts!
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Playing UX Mana Denial until Modern gets the answers it needs.
WUBRG Humans BRW Mardu Pyromancer UW UW "Control" UR Blue Moon
Love this deck idea a lot, the sample decklist is full of cards I love, not sure of 4 Fatal Push, maybe one too much, time and meta will tell. I like the idea of playing Queller and Souls alongside Delver, Snap and Tasigur. I'll be keeping up with this thread... good work
Edit: With 3 Tasigur, we can easily fit a Murderous Cut, I would play that list with -1 Fatal Push +1 Cut. Delving with cut helps with selecting what we want to get back with Tasigur
I think the lack of Lightning Bolt hurts quite a bit, but between the annoyance and value derived from Lingering Souls and the back-breaking white sideboard cards, it should be able to get there. It's really hard to give up Bolt-Snap-Bolt though. I'll probably sleeve up something like this when I get my Fatal Pushes; at least to try it out. Grixis and Esper are my favorite color combos.
Hello all! I too enjoy flipping some delvers, and I love this idea. I've tried esper before, but it never felt strong enough. I feel like collective brutality and fatal push help this archetype alot. Personally, I kinda have a love affair with Geist, so I believe I will try it in this shell as well. I really need to get my hands on a set of brutality lol. Real late to that party. I can already taste the value of brutality discarding souls though. That's so dirty.
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How I like to win games:
Modern:
Grixis Shadow
Burn
Titanshift
Copycat (Given up currently, not entirely sure what it needs)
I think the lack of Lightning Bolt hurts quite a bit, but between the annoyance and value derived from Lingering Souls and the back-breaking white sideboard cards, it should be able to get there. It's really hard to give up Bolt-Snap-Bolt though. I'll probably sleeve up something like this when I get my Fatal Pushes; at least to try it out. Grixis and Esper are my favorite color combos.
Indeed. I won't pretend the loss of Bolt doesn't sting. But Collective Brutality off the top or from a Snapcaster does almost as much to close out a game, so there's that as consolation. As you noted, of course, the real champion is Lingering Souls. Which while being about as different a card from Lightning Bolt you can get, serves on similar niche of giving us late-game reach. Less speed, more inevitability. Which kind of sums up the deck in general.
Hello all! I too enjoy flipping some delvers, and I love this idea. I've tried esper before, but it never felt strong enough. I feel like collective brutality and fatal push help this archetype alot. Personally, I kinda have a love affair with Geist, so I believe I will try it in this shell as well. I really need to get my hands on a set of brutality lol. Real late to that party. I can already taste the value of brutality discarding souls though. That's so dirty.
This is going to be annoying perhaps, but from what I've seen from testing against Esper Delver, is that Delver is one of the weaker cards in the deck. Without Bolt, it doesn't represent a very potent clock and feels rather slow. I've felt like it should generally be pushed more towards a Esper Midrange deck.
Hey rogue, great write up. I've been on grixis delver ever since twin was banned and love it.
But I'm very intrigued by your Esper list. My one thought is it doesnt have a lot of counter magic. My idea was maybe cut 1 push and 1 path, and add 1 more leak and 1 snare. But I also play an Overturf style of deck.
Thanks for starting the primer. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this thread.
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Blue mage through and through... i know, i know, I'm hated.
I can see why Esper would appeal, but i fully expect Grixis to remain the best delver deck in Modern.
By removing Red and giving up bolt, you give up a huge chunk of tempo. Bolt - Snap - Bolt is still one of the best ways for a delver deck to close out the late game. You also give up Terminate and Kholaghan's Command, weakening yourself significantly to big mana decks and affinity, which are some of our worst match-ups.
You loose the potential for Blood Moon and Molten Rain in the sideboard, weakening yourself against Tron.
Spell Queller is a good card, I genuinely wish I could play it in modern. But the harsh truth of it is that it dies to every piece of removal currently played in modern and offers your opponent a 2 for 1 on a plate. Bolt, Path, Push, Dismember, Terminate and Abrupt Decay all kill it for less mana than it cost you to cast and gives them back control over their original spell.
Also I really cant fathom using Deprive in a three colour tempo deck with 5 shocklands in it. you need every land you can get in play to be able to effectively use Snapcaster Mage, and you have a higher consistency of three drops because of Lingering Souls. You are sacrificing a large chunk of tempo for a hard counter with Deprive, when Mana Leak will probably be better 90% of the time.
Of course I could be wrong about all of this, but I'll be holding on to red for now.
Definitely will be following this. I have been playing with the idea since the Fatal Push spoiler.
I've asked this in the Midrange forum but haven't gotten many replies. What about forgoing the Delve creatures in favor for a Monastery Mentor and Dark Confidant card package?
Monastery Mentor goes very well with cantrips and counter magic and this helps make the deck more resilient to graveyard hate.
I'm currently testing this list (Esper Midrange) and have had a lot of success:
Up until the Gitaxian Probe banning I played straight UR Delver and wanted to switch it up a bit so I tried Esper.
I'd love to see an Esper Delver deck list go up now.
So thinking about this list (the sideboard is completely experimental), maybe lowering the curve slightly with taking out Dark Confidant and a Lingering Souls / Monastery Mentor and the man-lands in favor for a 20-21 land count and adding 4 Delvers could be viable?
I chose to run no mainboard counter magic in this list as it tends to be more proactive and Jund-esque, but perhaps counter magic is the right route.
So basically, why not try to do with the Bob + Monastery Mentor package instead of Delve creatures? They both work well with a low Delver curve, create card advantage / incremental card advantage and work very well with cantrips.
I can see why Esper would appeal, but i fully expect Grixis to remain the best delver deck in Modern.
By removing Red and giving up bolt, you give up a huge chunk of tempo. Bolt - Snap - Bolt is still one of the best ways for a delver deck to close out the late game. You also give up Terminate and Kholaghan's Command, weakening yourself significantly to big mana decks and affinity, which are some of our worst match-ups.
You loose the potential for Blood Moon and Molten Rain in the sideboard, weakening yourself against Tron.
Spell Queller is a good card, I genuinely wish I could play it in modern. But the harsh truth of it is that it dies to every piece of removal currently played in modern and offers your opponent a 2 for 1 on a plate. Bolt, Path, Push, Dismember, Terminate and Abrupt Decay all kill it for less mana than it cost you to cast and gives them back control over their original spell.
Also I really cant fathom using Deprive in a three colour tempo deck with 5 shocklands in it. you need every land you can get in play to be able to effectively use Snapcaster Mage, and you have a higher consistency of three drops because of Lingering Souls. You are sacrificing a large chunk of tempo for a hard counter with Deprive, when Mana Leak will probably be better 90% of the time.
Of course I could be wrong about all of this, but I'll be holding on to red for now.
I think Grixis Delver has huge shortcomings when trying to play a control game. I have long hated the Overturf style decks and think that in Grixis, a proactive Pyromancer-based build is far more effective. I think the Esper build is much better suited for playing a control role, and would likely play more like a low-curve control deck that happens to run Delver than a traditional UR or Grixis Delver deck. Though I agree with removing Deprive. I think there could be something to this, but it definitely needs work. I have most of the pieces and may try this out when I get a hold of the rest. It's not like I'm terribly attached to any one deck anyway.
Nice job on the primer Rogue. It's funny because I thought about brewing Esper Delver a week ago because I want to play one of my favourite card in Modern: Lingering Souls. I hope that Esper will be good/decent in the near future!
I've got Charm in the side, but what I've had some fun with so far is Topplegeist, he's just hilarious and finally getting to put him to use makes me smile.
Ashiok is another personal favorite card of mine that I always try to get working, won me a game today.
I've got Charm in the side, but what I've had some fun with so far is Topplegeist, he's just hilarious and finally getting to put him to use makes me smile.
Ashiok is another personal favorite card of mine that I always try to get working, won me a game today.
I have a hard time figuring out when to side Ashiok in and when to cast. Creature-heavy decks only? Slam on turn 3?
#Another option is to (drop the Tasigur) go with Dark Confidant + Smuggler's Copter to generate card advantage while pressuring the opponent.
#Geist of Saint Traft can also be a good option with enough removal to clear the way or crew the Copter if the ground gets stalled.
I fail to see how Esper Delver would be better than BUG/Sultai. I doesn't pack a strong enough punch, the threats are Delver, Tasigur and Lingering Souls. Low threat count isn't bad per se, Jeskai Delver runs few threats but closes the game with burn, bolt and helix.
Path to Exile is horrible for a Tempo deck. It is a great card in vacuum but a liability in tempo archetypes. That's why Push is so good: it allows us not to run Path.
That said the question would be: Lingering Souls vs Tarmogoyf, Spell Queller vs Hooting Mandrils.
And as fun as Spell Queller is, the 3 mana 2-power creature isn't just fast enough for an aggro strategy.
Great ideas and feedback flowing in, folks! Great to see what everyone has to say!
I got some Cockatrice testing in over the last few days vs. Jund, Tron, Infect, and a bunch of absolutely sweet games vs. Grixis Control. I'll give details later when I have time (along with adding some new cards to the primer). The short version is that Collective Brutality absolutely gets there when you're trying to close out a match (of course you'll still miss bolt!), Selfless Spirit is an all-star, Lingering Souls probably wins you more games than any other card in the list, and, to no one's surprise, Blessed Alliance is a really good card. And Tron is still the scariest deck on the block if you're not planning on winning by turn 3. And a one-of Zealous Persecution is way too much fun.
Oh, and one game I flipped two Lingering Souls into my graveyard off a Tasigur. Against Jund. Hilarity ensued.
This is going to be annoying perhaps, but from what I've seen from testing against Esper Delver, is that Delver is one of the weaker cards in the deck. Without Bolt, it doesn't represent a very potent clock and feels rather slow. I've felt like it should generally be pushed more towards a Esper Midrange deck.
This has been pretty much the opposite of my experience. While inconsistent (as Delver always will be by nature in a format without things like Brainstorm), Delver of Secrets has been one of the strongest cards in my testing. True, the lack of Bolt means it will take another couple turns to win if you can't stick another threat. But with a strong removal suite and a pretty beefy array of other threats, your inevitability is a lot higher as well.
Also, do not underestimate Collective Brutality's ability to close out those last couple points of damage. It's worse burn than Bolt (everything is worse burn than Bolt, after all!), but it gets me there surprisingly often.
I can see why Esper would appeal, but i fully expect Grixis to remain the best delver deck in Modern.
By removing Red and giving up bolt, you give up a huge chunk of tempo. Bolt - Snap - Bolt is still one of the best ways for a delver deck to close out the late game. You also give up Terminate and Kholaghan's Command, weakening yourself significantly to big mana decks and affinity, which are some of our worst match-ups.
You loose the potential for Blood Moon and Molten Rain in the sideboard, weakening yourself against Tron.
Spell Queller is a good card, I genuinely wish I could play it in modern. But the harsh truth of it is that it dies to every piece of removal currently played in modern and offers your opponent a 2 for 1 on a plate. Bolt, Path, Push, Dismember, Terminate and Abrupt Decay all kill it for less mana than it cost you to cast and gives them back control over their original spell.
Also I really cant fathom using Deprive in a three colour tempo deck with 5 shocklands in it. you need every land you can get in play to be able to effectively use Snapcaster Mage, and you have a higher consistency of three drops because of Lingering Souls. You are sacrificing a large chunk of tempo for a hard counter with Deprive, when Mana Leak will probably be better 90% of the time.
Of course I could be wrong about all of this, but I'll be holding on to red for now.
Thanks for the feedback!
I really couldn't fathom Deprive either, until I started testing with it (actually in a different deck, but I ported it over). But I've been shocked by how high an achiever it's been. The trick is using it well. I've usually gone with just a 1-of (2 max, ever), but fetching a basic Island to bounce with it is no big deal when you're so skewed towards U mana, and having a 2-CMC hard counter just represents an awful lot of utility.
On Esper vs. Grixis, I'm not really invested in whether or not this ends up being "the best" Delver deck. It's a fun deck with high synergy, and it addresses some of the things I don't like about other Delver brews. If it doesn't put up top tournament results, that's no skin off my back.
Definitely will be following this. I have been playing with the idea since the Fatal Push spoiler.
I've asked this in the Midrange forum but haven't gotten many replies. What about forgoing the Delve creatures in favor for a Monastery Mentor and Dark Confidant card package?
Monastery Mentor goes very well with cantrips and counter magic and this helps make the deck more resilient to graveyard hate.
So thinking about this list (the sideboard is completely experimental), maybe lowering the curve slightly with taking out Dark Confidant and a Lingering Souls / Monastery Mentor and the man-lands in favor for a 20-21 land count and adding 4 Delvers could be viable?
I chose to run no mainboard counter magic in this list as it tends to be more proactive and Jund-esque, but perhaps counter magic is the right route.
So basically, why not try to do with the Bob + Monastery Mentor package instead of Delve creatures? They both work well with a low Delver curve, create card advantage / incremental card advantage and work very well with cantrips.
Any thoughts would be appreciated!
Thanks!
Edit: Grammer and number mistake in deck-list.
Very interesting list! I've tossed around the idea of running lists without the Delve creatures, but their resilience, speed, and undercost nature makes me hesitant to cut them. Especially the resilience - replacing Tasigur (and some Souls) with more creatures that die to Bolt and Push seems dicey to me. Taking them out pushes you (IMO) much more towards a midrange build, where I think your package works best anyways. It looks like it thrives on lots of redundant card advantage engines, which is a very different vector than that from which Delver works. But then again, what do I know? Toss some Delvers in your list and fire it up!
I've got Charm in the side, but what I've had some fun with so far is Topplegeist, he's just hilarious and finally getting to put him to use makes me smile.
Ashiok is another personal favorite card of mine that I always try to get working, won me a game today.
I have a hard time figuring out when to side Ashiok in and when to cast. Creature-heavy decks only? Slam on turn 3?
I also like Ashiok a lot (I'll add her in my first big primer update), but I also have trouble using her well. I experimented a bit with a 2-of in the board. It seemed like it was a little slow vs. Jund/Junk to really work consistently (they also don't have a huge creature count for us to hit), although we do have a decent time protecting her with all of our disruption.
As for how to use her, I'd say turn 3 slam if you're setting the pace of the game. A Delver or Tasigur plus some removal turns 1-2 into turn-3 Ashiok seems pretty juicy. If they're putting the pressure on you, it seems like there should be better things you can do with your mana.
#Another option is to (drop the Tasigur) go with Dark Confidant + Smuggler's Copter to generate card advantage while pressuring the opponent.
#Geist of Saint Traft can also be a good option with enough removal to clear the way or crew the Copter if the ground gets stalled.
Threads of Disloyalty seems like a very strong option when you're up against other midrange decks. Snaring a Goyf for 3 mana is pretty delicious. I guess it's a question of how many matches you see yourself bringing it in.
Vendilion Clique is a great option IMO; I thought I put it in the card discussion but I guess I missed it. There are some matchups where it's just too slow to really help much, but it's great at disrupting combos or tucking answers, and it presents a good evasive clock.
Dark Confidant could potentially work. It's low pressure damage-wise, but high pressure in just burying your opponent in card advantage. I think we could make it work, although you always have to be careful of how many cards you run that don't flip Delver, and in races he's usually more of a liability than a help. And I'm afraid that cutting the delve creatures sets us back too far in our ability to lay out pressure consistently. (But perhaps the pressure of all that card draw is enough to be worth it?)
One thing I have been thinking about is a package that cuts the Delve creatures (not sure what goes in their spot; maybe Bob), but keeps the Thought Scour package to fuel Logic Knot. Turning Knot into pretty much Counterspell definitely has a lot of value vs. a number of matchups, but Tasigur's ability to pressure the opponent or stabilize us as needed can't really be replaced as far as I've seen.
I don't have Smuggler's Copter yet, but I'd love to try 1-2 in the flex slots. My guess is that it's too inconsistent and vulnerable (especially in a field with Kolaghan's Command), but I'd love to be wrong about that.
Geist of Saint Traft is such an interesting card. Great if you have control of the game. Abysmal if you're in the control seat. Represents a harder clock than a turn-2 Tasigur (assuming your opponent goes to 18 off lands). Immune to spot removal. I think he bears a lot of testing, and I think in the right meta he can be great. Think about it in terms of racing something like Ad Nauseam, where it's the best at what it does. But I'd guess there are just too many decks that can pressure you with creatures for it to be consistently worth its slots. Again, I'd love to see some testing with it though! My playset (well, 3-card playset) is rotting in my staples binder...
I fail to see how Esper Delver would be better than BUG/Sultai. I doesn't pack a strong enough punch, the threats are Delver, Tasigur and Lingering Souls. Low threat count isn't bad per se, Jeskai Delver runs few threats but closes the game with burn, bolt and helix.
Path to Exile is horrible for a Tempo deck. It is a great card in vacuum but a liability in tempo archetypes. That's why Push is so good: it allows us not to run Path.
That said the question would be: Lingering Souls vs Tarmogoyf, Spell Queller vs Hooting Mandrils.
And as fun as Spell Queller is, the 3 mana 2-power creature isn't just fast enough for an aggro strategy.
I may be mistaken (I'm not familiar with Sultai Delver), but can it support 3 Tasigur, 1 Angler, and then Mandrils on top? That seems like a huge strain on your ability to delve the threats consistently.
I've never even considered the idea of Tarmogoyf and Tasigur together in a Delver list, but it sounds intriguing to me. That definitely seems like a powerful shell! Although I do worry about delving away too many cards and shrinking Goyf. Do you run discard to keep from shrinking Goyf?
I actually really disagree on Path being horrible here. Perhaps I should adjust my numbers downwards, tooling more for Dismember and Murderous Cut, but I think that Path, used well, is stellar for us. That said, I would advise (and should update the primer to reflect this) never, ever playing it early unless totally necessary. But cleanly answering just about any threat in the game unconditionally for 1 mana at instant speed is actually a strong tempo play IMO once you're in the right game state. I don't care so much if I'm ramping my opponent by 1 if I answered their 6-mana Wurmcoil or the Skirge they just dumped all their Ravager tokens onto for W. Granted, Push other black removal can do the latter, but the unconditional element combined with the exile effect add a lot of value. All that said, perhaps my LGS full of big mana, Kiki-Jiki, and opposing Tasigurs is biasing my opinion on this one. It could very well be that the proper mix is fewer Path and more black removal.
On Spell Queller, my hunch (and testing) say you're right. I definitely love the card in heavily disruptive shells (basically Tidehollow Sculler.dec, which is one of my pet decks), but it doesn't rumble well with this package. That said, the Selfless Spirits I've been testing in that slot have been pulling their weight and then some. Just having another early evasive beater is pretty good, and the sac ability is fantastic.
I've liked Queller, I've had 2 in my testing and its been decent.
I would really like to hear some more thoughts on Smugglers Copter, I've bumped my count up to 3 and its doing work. Removal happens, sure, but if it doesnt, its great to be crewed by a token.
I also like Ashiok against either faster creature heavy decks (either as 5 life to be removed, or watch the card run away on people) but against BGx, it seems to attract the Abrupt Decay.
I'm thinking of dropping a ThopterSword into the board for grinding matches, but I'll do more testing this weekend.
So just a side note: I threw a quick no-Tasigur list together on Cockatrice with a Bob/Copter/Logic Knot package and 4 sideboard Ancestral Vision for the long games. I also tossed Geist in there since Copter can sort of give it evasion. It's lots of fun, and... surprisingly OK? It might actually work better as a non-Delver list. Logic Knot is great if you're running Thought Scour and lots of cheap removal/cantrips with no Tasigur or Angler.
On that last note, I actually threw a one-of Logic Knot into my main Esper Delver list as essentially the 4th Delve creature. Haven't tested it out yet, but I think it's a nice surprise catch-all to round out the counter suite.
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Playing UX Mana Denial until Modern gets the answers it needs.
WUBRG Humans BRW Mardu Pyromancer UW UW "Control" UR Blue Moon
Hey all! I added some new cards to the Card Choices section. I've posted them here for those who don't want to go back and comb through everything.
I'm also starting to wonder about a potentially Tasigur-less list. I know, it's crazy since Delve creatures are Plan B, but I think there's a case to be made for a more midrange-control type of list that skips him and instead runs Dark Confidant and Logic Knot/Murderous Cut to make use of the extra cards in our yard. I expect this kind of list would need another beater, which might actually be Smuggler's Copter in an unknown meta or Geist of Saint Traft if you're expecting a lot of uninteractive decks. (It's the shortest clock this deck can field; faster than turn-1 Delver or turn-2 Tasigur.) Possibly with Spell Queller backup alongside the Selfless Spirits that I'm quickly starting to see as irreplaceable. More brewing is needed, to be sure!
Anothing point I've noticed about running Smuggler's Copter to get value out of Bob/unflipped Dlever/Spirit tokens/Snapcaster/Selfless Spirit is that in terms of maindeck answers, it basically only dies to Kolaghan's Command and Abrupt Decay/Maelstrom Pulse until you're ready to crew it. That means it's very difficult to remove through your countermagic. I'm still not convinced that card is where we want to be (again, it would probably kind of take its own shell), but it's something I'm thinking about and testing with.
Anyways, here are the new cards I've added!
Selfless Spirit: There's always a tension in tempo decks: Do you tap out and build your board presence, or do you hold up disruption to keep your threats alive? If you do the former, you risk losing your clock. If you do the latter, you risk slowing yourself down too far and losing control of the game. Selfless Spirit is an amazing addition to this deck in that it proactively protects your beaters while putting pressure on your opponent. A 2-CMC 2/1 isn't a great clock, but it's still a respectable threat backed up by a Delver, Tasigur, or some Soul tokens, and on top of that it's another evasive beater. I started with 2 of these, and I may add a third. It's weak in completely uninteractive matchups, but against any deck that you're trying to race and that has removal (which is almost all of modern), it's great. Drawing removal and protecting your board from sweepers if unanswered is too good. And remember that in a pinch, it can block Inkmoth Nexus or block a Wurmcoil Engine, then sacrifice itself before damage to prevent the lifegain.
Vendilion Clique: A very matchup-dependent, hit-or-miss card. A 3/1 beater in the air is nothing to scoff at, and cycling a card is great. It definitely makes a good showing if you want an extra threat or two with built-in disruption.
Murderous Cut: Universal, usually pretty cheap, and no downside or targeting restriction. If you're running Delve creatures it can be tough to cast, but you can usually squeeze 1 in alongside your Tasigurs. Remember that flashing it back with Snapcaster Mage can really tax your graveyard, though.
Dismember: Another solid removal spell. We have access to B, so we can usually keep from paying life when relevant. I'd recommend a 1-1 split between this and Cut to keep yourself from overcommitting to one type of removal, and using them to round out your Fatal Push/Path to Exile removal suite.
Logic Knot: A solid Delve spell. I'm very fond of this, as even if you're short on cards in your yard, you can usually just play it as a Cancel when your opponent taps out. Like with Murderous Cut, this can get taxing on your graveyard along with Delve creatures and Snapcaster Mage, so don't get too greedy if you're running Tasigur and/or Angler. If you want to run a list without the Delve fatties, I'd go straight to 3 Logic Knot and never look back. Seriously, in a deck like that, this is nearly straight-up Counterspell
Mana Tithe: Kind of a dorky card, but I think a 1-of Mana Tithe could be worth consideration. I doubt anyone will play around this card, and when it comes up, the levels of tilt must be insane. Getting people to respect this unnecessarily is as much of a reason to run it as actually countering something (kind of like Stifle forces decks to respect open U in Legacy).
Worship: Another tech ported over from my time in Bant Knightfall. We're a little light on creatures (usually around the 14 mark), but with 4 Lingering Souls, we might have enough creatures that we can just outright shut some opponents down if we resolve this. If an opponent's gameplan is to ignore your board and combo you out or burn you to death, there's a good chance this completely hoses them (as long as they're not Infect). Remember that Ad Nauseam usually runs Echoing Truth post-board to answer permanents, though.
Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver: Some users here and in other UBx threads have championed Ashiok, but I just haven't been able to get her to work well. Granted, we have enough removal and disruption that we can usually keep her safe behind a Tasigur or something, but so far in my testing I've always felt like in grindy matchups I'd be better served by something like Ancestral Vision which just straight-up gives me a bunch of cards. Still, I'd love to be proven wrong!
Understanding Utility 1-ofs
You may have noticed that I kind of have a thing for 1-ofs in my recommendations. There are a couple of reasons for that. First, it's great with Thought Scour and Snapcaster Mage. Having both a Dismember and a Fatal Push in your graveyard is much more valuable than having two of either, because Snapcaster lets you pick the right tool for the job.
The second reason has to do with respect. Respecting a card means forcing your opponent to play around the possibility of you having it. For example, Delver decks have to respect sweepers; even if you might want to flash back all your Lingering Souls immediately, it's often wiser to respect your opponent's possible Engineered Explosives or Anger of the Gods and leave one or two in the yard as insurance. In the same way, your opponent needs to respect the cards he or she knows or suspects you're running. If you run Mana Leak, your opponent's play will likely reflect playing around it. If you replace one Leak with a Logic Knot, now they also have to respect Knot – or face the consequences when they don't. In that way, having 3 Leak and 1 Knot is a lot more valuable to you than having 4 Leak. Especially when you run Snapcasters and your opponent also has to respect every instant and sorcery in your graveyard in case you happen to be holding a Snappy.
There's one extra slot in the deck right now that I don't know what to do with - maybe a 9th cantrip. I'm not sold on the two Remands but I think they're better than Mana Leak, Spell Snare, and Spell Pierce against the decks I'm most worried about (Eldrazi and big mana decks like RG Valakut and Tron). It also feels bad playing Leak and Pierce in a deck with Path. I'm not a very good player though so maybe that's all incorrect.
I'm not confident on the sideboard either, especially the Surgicals. I'm not sure how to beat Dredge without help but it just got nerfed and they take up 3 slots that could be something else.
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Depending on the colors and the format, disruption usually takes the form of various types of counterspells, discard, and hard removal. In Modern, we've generally seen Remand, Mana Leak, Spell Snare, Spell Pierce and removal such as Path to Exile and Lightning Bolt.
Backed by the way-too-good-for-Standard Snapcaster Mage, UW Delver was so successful it became public enemy #1 of the Scars-Innistrad Standard, which was still recovering from the trauma of another UW control/tempo deck. Snapcaster/Delver/Leak/Geist actually became so powerful that Wizards of the Coast actually printed Cavern of Souls specifically to power the deck down, as Zac Hill explains in his excellent article "Gonna Hate." (Which I highly recommend you read if you're interested in Delver, since it gets deep into how the card and archetype shaped the Standard of the day.)
Since the inception of Modern, Delver has risen and fallen with various bannings and meta-shifts, but the greatest swing by far came in 2014, when Khans of Tarkir released Treasure Cruise into the format. This card slotted perfectly into URx Delver, where fetchlands and cantrips and cheap burn filled the yard, which turned on Cruise to refill the hand. This gave the deck overwhelming velocity while also allowing it to replenish its hand, finding more creatures, more burn, and of course, more Treasure Cruises. However, Wizards of the Coast lost no time in righting course by banning TC and the accompanying Dig Through Time.
Since then, the deck has mostly coalesced around Grixis colors (with some UR and a few URG decks). Access to U countermagic with R and a suite of powerful spells propels Delver's tempo plan along nicely, while Tasigur, the Golden Fang and his lackey Gurmag Angler combine with Thought Scour to apply very heavy early pressure. Add to that the power of Lightning Bolt and Terminate to deal with many of the format's premier threats, and the extraordinary interaction of Kolaghan's Command with Snapcaster Mage, and it's not hard to see why the deck has become so popular.
Esper, while it exists in some metagames, hasn't really had a chance to break out in Modern. The grindy era of UW-based control decks earlier in Modern's history has long gone, leaving this color combination short on the answers it needs to tackle a field full of cheap, fast, resileint, game-ending creatures.
However, in January 2017, the release of Aether Revolt brought into the format perhaps the most important (non-fetchland) card printed since its inception: Fatal Push. This gave any deck with B a way of answering the format's most aggressive and high-value creatures for just one mana, helping new color combinations find purchase. While it can't be pointed at the opponent's face, another recent card, Collective Brutality, can be used as a 4-point life swing, while also serving as removal, or functioning as discard, and even being able to do all those things in whatever combination you need. And Spell Queller gives introduces a lean curve-topper that beats, blocks, and denies your opponent resources. These cards all combine to put Esper Delver in a stronger position than ever before.
But perhaps most importantly, going Esper gives us access to Lingering Souls. I cannot stress enough how powerful this card is. It's not a terribly aggressive play compared to a turn-2 or even turn-3 Tasigur or a turn-2 Delver flip. But it doesn't compete with those plays (you'll still do both plenty!), and it shores up not one, not two, not three, but four of Delver's greatest weaknesses:
Esper brings in some other cool tech too of course, like Esper Charm when we want to transition into a grindy deck for games 2 and 3, or Moorland Haunt to help us go even wider, or Meddling Mage and Wall of Denial out the board to make our opponent ragequit. But we'll cover that later.
Delver's plans aren't always simple, but they're very straightforward. They all revolve around us casting something cheap, then spending our resources counteracting our opponent's gameplan until we win.
However, the tension between playing threats, playing answers, and generating additional value means that we have access to lots of lines of play. It takes some "game sense" (a.k.a. heuristics) to figure out what the best line of play is. Do you cast Thought Scour to setup a Delve and hope to draw into another land? Or Serum Visions to set up our next turns? Or cast that Lingering Souls now so you can start going wide, but at the expense of not having up mana for Deprive? Additionally, properly using fetchlands, and what you fetch with them, will be a big part of your gameplay because of Delve creatures and Serum Visions scrying. Sequencing your plays and properly using your resources takes some experience, and I'm certainly no master at it. Just give it some time, and you'll start reading the gamestate as if it were completely natural.
The biggest judgment call when it comes to Delver is figuring out whether you're the beatdown deck or the control deck. Sometimes this is really obvious, but in other cases (especially combo-aggro decks), you have to use your noggin to figure out whether you should be going all-in on aggression, committing everything to digging up and playing answers, or somewhere in-between.
When we're onto our beatdown lines of play, Esper Delver has a Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C, with a couple of contingency plans. We will often (and ideally) do more than one of these at once, giving multiple vectors of attack and extra resilience. Remember if you do this not to overcommit where you may get blown out. Always respect board wipes, even when the right play is to go all-in.
Plan A: Delver Beats
Plan A is to resolve a Delver of Secrets on turn 1, flip it on turn 2, and then either field accompanying threats or control the board with disruption and removal until you win. Very, very simple in premise, although as noted above, it takes some skill (and, often, luck) to execute optimally.
Plan B: Tasigur Beats
If we can't get our Delver to flip, or if it gets Bolted (seriously, this will happen probably all the time), or if we just can't draw one, then we switch into Tasigur mode. Tasigur can often come down on turn 2 off of a Thought Scour, as one Scour is enough to pay for half of his mana cost. Add two fetchlands or a turn-1 Serum Visions and a fetchland and you're there as long as you fetched B. Even on turn 3, a Tasigur can often turn the momentum of a game back in our favor on its own. All the better of we can leave up countermagic protection at the same time, which is very doable by turn 3.
Plan C: Go Wide
Here, we just stick a Lingering Souls and start riding the value train. One copy of souls gives us an unprecedented four evasive bodies at an aggressive cost, which lets us represent a passable clock and helps us clog the board if we need to buy time. While this line has the lowest velocity of our three plans, it also requires much less in terms of commitment of our cards to the field. That means it's less vulnerable to being blown out by one or two well-timed answers from the opponent.
Backup Plan D: Snapcaster Mage
Sometimes, we just can't get the pieces to come together. In those cases, we can use Snapcaster Mage as our pathetic little clock. You'll be amazed, though, at how many games you'll win off the back of Tiago (his pet name, after his designer, 2007 invitational winner Tiago Chan). This backup plan usually works as a supplement to whichever main plan(s) we get working, representing both powerful board control and usually a 1- or 2-turn reduction in our clock.
Backup Plan E: Melt Their Face
This works a lot better in the Grixis version of Delver, but Esper isn't without this backup plan. While we don't have Lightning Bolt, we do have Collective Brutality. CB tries its hardest to give us reach, and while it's far weaker than Bolt in this regard, it's better than nothing. Combined with a Snapcaster, it represents a Delver hit plus change or a full Tasigur hit. Sometimes, that's all we need when we're in danger of falling behind.
You'll still wish you had Bolt, though.
These are the staples of the deck. Some are automatic 4-ofs. Some are more in the 2-3 range, and some are completely up to personal preference.
Delver of Secrets: 4-of. Non-negotiable. This is the core of our deck, and it's why we exist as an archetype. Fortunately as a common, he sells for the hot price of $1 a piece.
Snapcaster Mage: Not quite as set-in-stone as Delver, but I'd still highly recommend 4. Provides a body to block or beat down, provides card selection and recursion, and does it at instant speed. Thank god for Tiago Chan. Hats off to you, sir! I recommend 3 at least, 4 preferred.
Tasigur, the Golden Fang: We cast tons of cheap spells, and often we want to run Thought Scour to fuel his Delve (and to bin cards for Snapcaster to target later). A turn-2 Tasigur, while not common, is an extraordinarily powerful tempo play, and even on later turns he's amazing for us. Having up mana for Mana Leak while playing him for 1 on turn 3 or 2 on turn 4 is to strong to ignore. Legendary and the nonbo of having too many Delve creatures (and Snapcasters) keeps him from being a 4-of, but I see no problem with running 3.
Selfless Spirit: There's always a tension in tempo decks: Do you tap out and build your board presence, or do you hold up disruption to keep your threats alive? If you do the former, you risk losing your clock. If you do the latter, you risk slowing yourself down too far and losing control of the game. Selfless Spirit is an amazing addition to this deck in that it proactively protects your beaters while putting pressure on your opponent. A 2-CMC 2/1 isn't a great clock, but it's still a respectable threat backed up by a Delver, Tasigur, or some Soul tokens, and on top of that it's another evasive beater. I started with 2 of these, and I may add a third. It's weak in completely uninteractive matchups, but against any deck that you're trying to race and that has removal (which is almost all of modern), it's great. Drawing removal and protecting your board from sweepers if unanswered is too good. And remember that in a pinch, it can block Inkmoth Nexus or block a Wurmcoil Engine, then sacrifice itself before damage to prevent the lifegain. This is one of the premiere reasons to run Esper. I'd recommend starting with 2 and tuning from there.
Serum Visions: Some will disagree, but I think this is the most important spell in our deck. It digs you to the right answer, the right threat, or the right land, it cantrips, it helps you set up Delver flips, and it does it for just U. Permission, removal, and other disruption like discard can vary person-to-person and meta-to-meta, but this spell should always be a 4-of.
Thought Scour: I'm something of a heretic Grixis Control player in that I don't like Thought Scour in that list, but for Delver, this is the good stuff. Even lacking Kolaghan's Command to recur creatures, the Snapcaster and Tasigur synergies are vital to the way this deck functions. If you're skipping the Delve creatures, Thought Scour loses most of its relevance, but powering them out early is exactly the plan B this deck wants if it can't flip a Delver of Secrets quickly. If you're using any Delve, run 4 Scour. Also remember that you can just use it to draw a card off of a Snapcaster Mage at instant speed.
Fatal Push: As mentioned, Fatal Push puts in serious work to power this shell up. However, it's not a clear-cut 4-of. It's a great spell – perhaps the most important piece of disruption we have access to. But sucks if your opponent resolves a Tasigur or a World Breaker or a Wurmcoil Engine. Run 2-4, depending on the meta.
Path to Exile: Like Fatal Push, this is an all-star card that works best as part of a team. It's the best removal in the format, but its downside is terribly punishing given that tempo's plan is to keep an opponent's resources locked up while you kill them with cheap dudes. Given them extra lands early is no bueno, especially if you're running Mana Leak, Spell Pierce, or Remand. I'd start out at 2 depending on what threats you need to deal with.
Murderous Cut: Universal, usually pretty cheap, and no downside or targeting restriction. If you're running Delve creatures it can be tough to cast, but you can usually squeeze 1 in alongside your Tasigurs. Remember that flashing it back with Snapcaster Mage can really tax your graveyard, though.
Dismember: Another solid removal spell. We have access to B, so we can usually keep from paying life when relevant. I'd recommend a 1-1 split between this and Cut to keep yourself from overcommitting to one type of removal, and using them to round out your core removal suite.
Collective Brutality: This card is supremely flexible and synergizes wonderfully with our deck. It puts in time as the to-the-face burn of Lightning Bolt to close out a game, gains life against Burn and aggro, protects your creatures by ripping answers from your opponent's hand, and clears your opponent's board. The fact that it does all of these for just 2 mana is great, and the tempo offered by pitching cards to pay the Escalate cost is insane. Remember, we're a tempo deck. We thrive by squeezing more value out of a few mana than our opponent can. Spending just 2 mana for that much power is incredible, even if we're discarding cards to do it. (Think of it as you're casting a free Shock or Duress.) And don't forget you can fuel Tasigur off of it, or pitch Lingering Souls to save mana on the flashback. Despite that, I wouldn't fault you for not running it if you don't feel it's the right answer for your field. Start at 0-2 MD.
Of course this all depends on what you're facing. If you see lots of mana dorks and Monastery Swiftspears, Push all the way. If Eldrazi are tearing up your meta, go heavier on Path. If Burn is everywhere, Brutality is where you want to be. (Seriously, that card is like a 9-point life swing against Burn over the course of a game.) For my local midrange-heavy scene, I've been experimenting with 2 Path, 3 Push, 2-1 Brutality, and one each of Dismember and Cut. For more thoughts on this spread, see "Understanding Utility 1-ofs."
There's a longstanding debate on what permission and what discard – if any – to run in Modern Delver. I personally believe discard is not where the deck wants to be, as we want our opponent to spend their mana and then counteract that play – hopefully for less mana than they spent. However, if you want to go the discard route (which can be great against a meta full of fragile combo decks, for example), that's your choice.
Now, onto the cards!
Mana Leak: The staple counterspell from when the first Insectile Aberration poked its spooky little head out of its chrysalis. Tempo decks are usually a better place for Leak than Control, because we can close out games sooner. However, since we're not aggro, we're very often not able to land a kill in those early turns. I recommend running Leak, but running it with other counterspells for when the game goes long (and it will, sometimes). Run 0-4.
(Although if you're playing 4, seriously consider Rune Snag. And remember you can pitch one to Collective Brutality to power up another one if you're holding two. Or even if you're not, just to freak your opponent out. )
Remand: Much like the above, Remand shines when your opponent needs to stabilize and you just need to keep them off their game plan for a few more turns. However, like Mana Leak, it doesn't do much for you later in the game (although the cantrip is nice). It also has the problem of not permanently dealing with a serious threat like a Karn Liberated. It does screw up Delve creatures, however, and it give Grixis Control players running Ancestral Vision fits. (I know; I've been there. Trust me.) So, again, like the above, if you run it, do it alongside other, harder counters. Run 0-4.
Spell Pierce: Much like the two above cards, this one is a great tempo play that usually sandbags in your hand later on. Often runs better in the board vs. decks like Tron, where surviving just one more turn is all you need, or vs. pump decks to help you win counter wars (although Dispel is much better there). If you're going to run it, I'd say go 2 at most.
Spell Snare: Now we're talkin'! You might look at Spell Snare – just like I did – and wonder why bother? The targeting restriction is terribly… restrictive. But then you'll put it in a deck, and you'll realize how utterly jam-packed with prime 2-drops the field is. Tarmogoyf. Bob. Kiln Fiend. Blighted Agent. Cranial Plating. Sylvan Scrying. Snapcaster Mage. Terminate. Mana Leak. The list goes on and on and on. Not only is this a hard counter, it also always gives you a tempo advantage since you're trading your 1-mana spell for their 2-mana spell. And remember, tempo is the name of the game. Run 2-3.
Deprive: A criminally overlooked counterspell. Bouncing a land sucks, yes. UU can be a strain yes (or 1UUU on with Snapcaster). But come on, it's a 2-mana universal hard counter! It can really hurt having to bounce a land when you need to keep making land drops, but we play on a very tight curve. Bouncing a land turn 3 or 4, or especially later when Mana Leak and Spell Snare may not cut it and Path to Exile may not save you, is a pretty trivial downside for that effect. It can bit you hard if run in in Big Control lists where you need to keep making land drops to cast your big spells, but for us, it's a sacrifice we're often glad to make. That said, don't go overboard on it, because too many of them will gum up your hands. 0-2 in your 75.
Logic Knot: A solid Delve spell. I'm very fond of this, as even if you're short on cards in your yard, you can usually just play it as a Cancel when your opponent taps out. Like with Murderous Cut, this can get taxing on your graveyard along with Delve creatures and Snapcaster Mage, so don't get too greedy if you're running Tasigur and/or Angler. If you want to run a list without the Delve fatties, I'd go straight to 3 Logic Knot and never look back. Seriously, in a deck like that, this is nearly straight-up Counterspell.
Inquisition of Kozilek: IMO, this is the best maindeck discard you can run if you want to run it at all. It hits most relevant things in the format, and does it without costing you life. Again, I think we'd rather answer cards our opponents have already spent mana on, but it's really a personal choice. Run 3-4 if that's where you want to be.
Yes, this card gets its own heading. Yes, really. Lingering Souls is IMO the best card in Modern. It's the reason I keep coming back to WBx (well, that and Tidehollow Sculler), and it's a big part of the reason to run Esper Delver. Let me explain in case you skipped the previous exposition. Grixis Delver has a problem with going wide, meaning fielding lots of threats to get around opposing threats or clog the board with blockers. It's also weak vs. spot removal, as decks that can trade 1-for-1 and grind additional value can deplete our resources while taking the pressure off of themselves. It has a low density of threats, partly because of lack of redundant threats, and partly because of needing to run lots of spells to flip Delver. And it struggles to generate value via board and card advantage in the main deck outside Snapcaster Mage and Kolaghan's Command recursion. Some lists run Young Pyromancer to try to alleviate these problems, but in my opinion, that's not a great solution (especially after the banning of Gitaxian Probe).
Lingering Souls addresses all four of these major problems on its own. It's 4 evasive bodies for 1 card. That's your go-wide plan. That's your card advantage. That's your spot removal resilience. That's your threat density, without missing Delver flips.
In addition to shoring up a number of Delver's weaknesses, Lingering Souls works synergizes beautifully with the rest of our deck. We already noted that it flips Delver, but it also pitches to Collective Brutality, while still giving you half of its value, and doing it at a 1-mana discount. Thought Scouring a Lingering Souls actually nets you card advantage, which Scour usually doesn't do. It does, however, nonbo with Tasigur and Snapcaster, and with Rest in Peace if you bring it in.
Just remember to respect sweepers. Modern is a spot-removal format at the moment, but plenty of decks pack board wipes. Many run answers specificall for Lingering Souls, like the few Electrolyzes and sideboard Izzet Staticasters in most Grixis lists. (Don't let that worry you, though. The reason Grixis players run them is because we lose to Lingering Souls if we don't have them. )
Our curve is really slight and we run 8 cantrips minimum, so I recommend around 18-19 lands, whatever fits your curve and tastes. Shocks and fetches will ideally make up the majority of your mana base, with Darkslick Shores and Seachrome Coast as options if you want to try saving yourself a few points of life. (I recommend more Darkslick than Seachrome as you'd usually rather play an early Fatal Push than an early Path to Exile.)
Because we're mostly U, I recommend just one Godless Shrine. It's worth one for times when you need to find both off-colors, but you can't afford to run many lands that don't provide U. For reference, my lists usually have around three times more U than either other color, and a roughly even split of WB. I also highly recommend two Islands (helpful for bouncing with Deprive) and two of each Hallowed Fountain and Watery Grave, since Thought Scour runs the risk of milling a vital land into your yard otherwise.
That's the core of your land base. We'll cover a few optional lands in the following sections.
These are cards that may or may not make the cut in your main 60. Some are great in the board, others need some testing to find out if this is the right shell for them. Some are actually not very good here, but included for the sake of completeness and discussion.
Some of the above cards can be run in the main or the board, but here are some that are more distinctly sideboard pieces.
Negate and Countersquall: These cards are both very potent in many matchups, and each has its pros and cons. Negate has the advantage of being easy on your mana base, so it will come down a few times when its evil twin wouldn't be able to, or it may save you a few life in shocklands. However, Countersquall has the extremely relevant upside of having a Shock stapled to it. Our goals are to bash our opponent down while denying them the ability to stabilize; doing both of those things at once is great. Choose whether to run them, which to run, and even whether to run them sideboard, main deck, or split, based on your expected matchups.
Dispel: Although usually sideboard tech, I've run 1 main in Grixis Control for a while and seldom regretted it. This is great for protecting your creatures on the cheap or for going up against pump decks like UR Prowess and Infect. Also has a lot of applications against some combo decks like Ad Nauseam and Kiki-Chord, where it does double duty of protecting your board and stopping them from comboing off (sometimes). I never leave home without 2 in my 75 in Grixis colors, but honestly, Esper has such great sideboard tech it may be less necessary.
Thoughtseize: Great in the board, not quite so great in the main if you're expecting decks that can pressure you. If you're going to run any discard, my suggestion would be to throw these in your board and bring them in for relevant matches, replacing some of the more conditional cards in your main. Can do a lot of work against decks that need to assemble an in-hand combo, and, really, being able to pull any nonland card is amazing. Just remember it sucks when your opponent is in topdeck mode, and many decks vulnerable to discard will board in Leyline of Sanctity and mulligan aggressively for it.
Duress: Works best when you want the flexibility of sideboard discard vs. the aforementioned combo and big-mana decks, but also want to be able to rip Burn's hand apart. (Although for the latter, I'd recommend Collective Brutality.) Given we have a pretty insane spot removal suite, there's a good argument to be made for running this card over Thoughtseize since we can probably take care of anything that gets cast early, and can usually counter guys with big come-into-play effects.
Supreme Verdict/Day of Judgment/Wrath of God/Damnation: I'd really hesitate to put sweepers in a Delver list. But if you absolutely feel it's necessary, that's your call. Supreme Verdict would be my choice since the uncounterability is much more relevant than shutting off regeneration. Just mind the WW in the cost.
Zealous Persecution: Now this is a a sweeper I can get behind! As a pure boardwipe it's nothing special, but its ability to shrink your opponent's board while growing your own is amazing at breaking stalemates or pushing the last few points of damage through. It also wipes out opposing Lingering Souls tokens while turning yours into flying bears, which is sweet.
Engineered Explosives: Sometimes, you just need to blow up an enchantment. Or an artifact. Or a Liliana. Or a bunch of Lingering Souls tokens. Or just a Tarmogoyf. Engineered Explosives is almost the catch-all of all catch-alls.
Anguished Unmaking: Don't laugh! (I can hear it; you're laughing, aren't you?) Not a card I'd ever want in my main deck, but this is the actual catch-all of all catch-alls. Well, apart from Vindicate, but we're talking Modern here. Anyways, the point is if you just absolutely feel like you need as broad an answer as possible, this is it. It's seriously great to be able to answer a Karn, Wurmcoil, Ensnaring Bridge, or Ulamog (although in that case, you're dead and you just don't know it).
Blessed Alliance: Hoo, boy. Does this card ever hate. Hexproof on your Glistening Elf? Too bad. Unblockable Kiln Fiend? Lol who needs blocking? Nacatl crashing in? Sac it, and also I'll undo your Boros Charm. (Good job on surviving until turn 4, by the way!) Granted, since we're a leaner deck than many running this card, we won't get to pay the Escalate as often. But even one mode is often enough to decide a game. The escalate is just gravy.
Burrenton Forge-Tender: Blocks Monastery Swiftspear all day. Saves you or a vital creature from a burn spell. For 1 mana. This is IMO a criminally undervalued sideboard pieces, although she's growing in popularity. The shame is that she doesn't flip Delver, so her value drops a bit for us. But she does a ton of work in holding off the initial barrage of Burn and cripples their reach.
Leyline of Sanctity: Heavy CMC, but you can get it into play for free if you're really scared of burn (or discard generally or Eldrazi, I guess). Just remember that Burn will probably have enchantment removal they can board in.
Rest in Peace: The Great-Granddaddy of all graveyard hosers. It exiles all yards when it enters, and then keeps anything from going into them. It turns off your Souls and Snapcasters and hoses your Delve creatures, but the effect may be worth it.
Wheel of Sun and Moon: If you want a one-sided Rest in Peace, this is about the closest thing you'll get. Unfortunately, it leaves the yards intact when it hits, but anything after that point is just getting recycled. Probably not the best choice, but it's there. Also remember it effectively costs WW for us.
Leyline of the Void: OK, this is as close to a one-sided Rest in Peace as you can get. High variance, since it will probably be too late if it's not in your opening hand, but it's amazing when it pays off. Just remember that decks that are hosed by graveyard hate often have ways of removing permanents.
Surgical Extraction: Ohh, this is where we want to be! Eat the card in question, peek at their hand, maybe pull some cards from it, and pull each copy out of their deck? For 0 mana? Yes please! Flash it back with Snapcaster Mage and watch your opponent rage. Remember it can also hit nonbasic lands. Plays very nicely with discard.
Ravenous Trap: I prefer Surgical Extraction here since it has great play with Snapcaster Mage, but Trap is a fine replacement if you're focused on beating Dredge or other fill-your-graveyard strategies.
Ethersworn Canonist/Eidolon of Rhetoric: Both are very strong answers to decks that rely spewing out multiple spells per turn like Ad Nauseam, Storm, Infect, and UR Prowess. It's up to you if the extra power and lower CMC on Canonist is worth the reduced durability – especially since Fatal Push doesn't need Revolt to kill it. Just remember it also neuters your Snapcasters as well.
Aven Mindcensor: Can shut down tutor effects from decks like Kiki-Chord and Tron, and the flash, flying, and 2-power body all synergize very well with this deck. It may or may not be the right call, but our threat density means its more likely to stick than in many other lists.
Torpor Orb: A narrower hate card, and it neuters our Snapcasters, but sometimes it's what you need. Hushwing Gryff has the same ability for 1 more CMC if you don't mind the vulnerability, and 2 evasive power with flash is mighty good for us.
Stony Silence: If you're worried about Affinity, this is probably your best answer. It shuts down Tron's Expedition Maps and mana eggs as well, so hitting two very scary matchups is a big win for us.
Hurkyl's Recall: Another respectable option for the Affinity matchup. Even if the effect isn't permanent, it's a huge tempo swing, and it can be an insane blowout against a pumped Arcbound Ravager. Compared to Stony Silence, it also has the advantages of flipping Delver and doing double-duty with Snapcaster.
Celestial Purge: A bit of a niche card, but it hits a lot of high-priority targets. Liliana of the Veil. Dark Confidant. Most of Burn. Blood Moon. Kiln Fiend. Raging Ravine. Tasigur. Even the dreaded Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded! Joking aside, it's one of the more powerful color-hosers we have access to, with a surprisingly broad list of targets.
Spellskite: Stupendously good against a huge portion of the field. Steals pump spells, redirects bolts, draws removal – this is a versatile 2-drop. It's a very low-pressure play, so only bring it in when you're dedicated to being the control deck – which, granted, will be vs. a lot of the field. Remember you can also mess with Ad Nauseam's Lightning Storm with if they forget to respect it, but they usually have Slaughter Pact and Echoing Truth for that purpose.
Wall of Denial: A fun, cute card that you can board in when you need to go into hard cover mode and survive the initial barrage. However, UR Prowess attacks through it, Infect laughs at it, Burn just goes over the top, and Affinity puts plating on Etched Champion or Inkmoth Nexus. Not spectacular, although fun to consider.
Worship: Another tech ported over from my time in Bant Knightfall. We're a little light on creatures (usually around the 14 mark), but with 4 Lingering Souls, we might have enough creatures that we can just outright shut some opponents down if we resolve this. If an opponent's gameplan is to ignore your board and combo you out or burn you to death, there's a good chance this completely hoses them (as long as they're not Infect). Remember that Ad Nauseam usually runs Echoing Truth post-board to answer permanents, though.
Esper Charm: Lower on power than the other choices, but high on flexibility and topdeck value. Instant-speed discard is seldom seen, and almost never at such a competitive CMC. Between that and the draw-2 mode, this really helps you grind out games against midrange and control decks. The enchantment removal isn't relevant that often, but when it is, you'll be happy you packed it.
Painful Truths: While IMO not fit for maindecking, Painful Truths is one of the most pushed draw engines we've seen in Modern. 3 mana for 3 cards in fair matchups is amazing, and in the matches where we'd bring it in, we're almost never going to be the one being raced down to 0 life. Just remember you have to have WUB to get maximum value from it.
Ancestral Vision: And now for the most pushed draw engine we've seen in Modern! As a maindeck card, this is not where Delver wants to be. But in long matches, this is actually a spectacular fit. The payoff isn't immediate, but remember: our goal is to play lean and fast, and field more threats and answers off a few mana than our opponent can. That reason alone makes AV perfect for a Delver deck looking to expand its grindy game. The downside of delayed payoff isn't a big issue for the slogfest games you'll be bringing it into, and I firmly believe this is the best option for a Delver deck looking to board against a midrange field. In my testing, I've found that whether I beat a midrange deck post-board depends mostly one how many Ancestral Visions and Lingering Souls I can cast that game.
Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver: Some users here and in other UBx threads have championed Ashiok, but I just haven't been able to get her to work well. Granted, we have enough removal and disruption that we can usually keep her safe behind a Tasigur or something, but so far in my testing I've always felt like in grindy matchups I'd be better served by something like Ancestral Vision which just straight-up gives me a bunch of cards. Still, I'd love to be proven wrong!
These are cards that I don't feel are proven, but could be considered. Often, their power will vary greatly depending on your matchups.
Geist of Saint Traft: GOST is weak when the opponent's field is strong, but if you're in control of the game, he's an utter monster. This meta is tuned against turn-3 14/2 trample double-striking Kiln Fiends bashing your face in and unblockable 11/11 Blighted Agents one-shotting you. Spot removal is everywhere, and this guy just straight-up ignores almost all of it. I don't know if he'll find a home here, but I have a hunch that with how well we can set the pace of a game, he can carve out a spot somewhere in your 75. Just remember to respect sweepers and Blessed Alliance.
I feel like if you're expecting to go into a field full of durdly combo decks that ignore the red zone, Geist is a pretty solid pick. He's the fastest clock we have – faster than turn-1 Delver, faster than turn-2 Tasigur. Even if he gets blocked, he still Boros Charms your opponent with his Angel token. But given how poorly he performs when you're in the control seat, I think he's a very risky pick.
Spell Queller: I think this card has serious potential in Esper Delver. It's proven itself in Standard and in Modern UWx Spirits, a kindred tempo deck. Even if it dies in a turn or two, the tempo hit of delaying their spell in the mean time while blocking or swinging in with evasion is just what we want. That said, it's weak in attrition matchups like Jund and Junk, although it's definitely worth noting that your opponent needs to activate Revolt to hit it with Fatal Push. Works best when backed up with some Selfless Spirits to further frustrate your opponent's plans.
Gurmag Angler: Angler shows up in many Grixis Delver lists as a 1-of, and that's totally fair. I won't fault you for doing the same. That said, I don't think we really need him as badly as the threat-light Grixis shell does, since we have Lingering Souls, Spell Queller, and Geist of Saint Traft to round out the roster.
Vendilion Clique: A very matchup-dependent, hit-or-miss card. A 3/1 beater in the air is nothing to scoff at, and cycling a card is great. It definitely makes a good showing if you want an extra threat or two with built-in disruption.
Meddling Mage: This card can give serious fits to an opponent in the right situation. Or it just trades with Bolt or Push for a tempo loss. While decks that go all-in on disruption may benefit from it, I don't necessarily like her in this shell. Works better in the discard lists, where you can rip their removal and then name the most relevant card in their hand.
Tidehollow Sculler: The other esper-colored disruption-bear. Very vulnerable in a meta full of Kolaghan's Command, and not terribly aggressive. Also fails to flip delver, which is a big problem. The biggest issue IMO is the colors: WB are basically our splash colors, and we don't run that many lands. The odds of either missing playing this on-curve or screwing up our mana for later turns is pretty significant. It is sweet to beat someone to death with your Sculler after ripping their answer out of their hand, but like Meddling Mage, I don't think it quite works out. Although I do love this card in a more dedicated hatebears list alongside MM, Vendilion Clique, and more Spell Quellers.
Baral, Chief of Compliance: The card that got Modern Storm all jazzed up, right before having Gitaxian Probe banned, crushing its dreams of a resurgence. But what does he do for us? In my opinion, not quite enough. However, a lot of folks have been brewing with him, and I can see some reasons to include him. He's a removal magnet, which is a plus. He lets you cast both halves of Lingering Souls for just 1WB. He gives you extra value every time you counter a spell, which we will do. He blocks Snapcaster Mage and Dark Confidant. Overall, you could do worse, but I think he's too much conditional value and not enough velocity to make the cut.
Smuggler's Copter: So what about the other Kaladesh-block 2-drop looter? Well, this one I think might actualy make the cut. It turns unflipped Delver of Secrets and Snapcaster Mages into evasive 3/3s, and crewing it with a Spirit token is just saucy. The loot effect is spectacularly good for us. So who knows? Maybe it's worth 1 or 2 flex slots.
Disallow: Oh, hey, Baral's back already! Just can't take "probably not" for an answer I guess. Anyways, I'm not convinced on Disallow, but I'm open to experimenting with it. 1UU for a hard counter is almost playable, and the idea of hitting a fetchland crack or countering a game-winning activated ability is pretty sweet.
Cryptic Command: Cryptic is the card that separates tempo from control in Modern. This increases our mana curve dramatically, and the color weight is hefty. (Adding 4 to my list and taking out 4 1-drop disruption spells shifts the average CMC from 1.95 to 2.24, which is actually an underestimate because this counts Tasigur as a 6-drop. Granted, 4 is a lot of Cryptics.)
That said, there are good reason to run Cryptic in Delver. It's a universal hard counter. It's card advantage. Its tempo element is huge – tapping/bouncing relevant cards can turn a tight race into a blowout. I'd argue that you're usually better suited to running cheaper cards that will help you close out the game faster, but I certainly won't say that running some number of Cryptics is wrong. I'll do some experimenting and see how it feels.
Mana Tithe: Kind of a dorky card, but I think a 1-of Mana Tithe could be worth consideration. I doubt anyone will play around this card, and when it comes up, the levels of tilt must be insane. Getting people to respect this unnecessarily is as much of a reason to run it as actually countering something (kind of like Stifle forces decks to respect open U in Legacy).
Ghost Quarter: Eldrazi, Tron, and Valakut are serious predators in today's meta, and it always pays to be prepared. Add in Cavern of Souls giving us fits, and it's easy to make the case for including some Ghost Quarters. Our deck has a fair amount of generic mana costs, so I believe we can afford one or two of these. However, since we usually run a pretty low number of lands, you may have to cut spells or creatures for them or risk getting stuck with 1-land, GQ-only hands.
Moorland Haunt: Our creature density isn't that great, and if we're going to run colorless land, I'd recommend Ghost Quarter. But getting extra value out of binned creatures is a nice thing when plans A and B fail and we're stuck trying to grind out the long game.
A few parting words on the value of 1-of spells in lists (especially those with Snapcaster).
You may have noticed that I kind of have a thing for 1-ofs in my recommendations. There are a couple of reasons for that. First, it's great with Thought Scour and Snapcaster Mage. Having both a Dismember and a Fatal Push in your graveyard is much more valuable than having two of either, because Snapcaster lets you pick the right tool for the job.
The second reason has to do with respect. Respecting a card means forcing your opponent to play around the possibility of you having it. For example, Delver decks have to respect sweepers; even if you might want to flash back all your Lingering Souls immediately, it's often wiser to respect your opponent's possible Engineered Explosives or Anger of the Gods and leave one or two in the yard as insurance. In the same way, your opponent needs to respect the cards he or she knows or suspects you're running. If you run Mana Leak, your opponent's play will likely reflect playing around it. If you replace one Leak with a Logic Knot, now they also have to respect Knot – or face the consequences when they don't. In that way, having 3 Leak and 1 Knot is a lot more valuable to you than having 4 Leak. Especially when you run Snapcasters and your opponent also has to respect every instant and sorcery in your graveyard in case you happen to be holding a Snappy.
All right, that's enough theory. Let's get to the building!
Since this is a developing archetype, we don't really know how the lists will shape up competitively. And with the deck relying so heavily on the just-out Fatal Push, it will take some time before anything's known for certain.
That said, here's the list I'm looking at running now. It trims a few of the unproven cards to double up on removal and known commodities. I've been doing some gauntlet practice, and will try to make some FNMs to test it out.
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Selfless Spirit
3 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
Instants: 18
4 Thought Scour
3 Fatal Push
2 Path to Exile
1 Dismember
1 Murderous Cut
2 Spell Snare
2 Mana Leak
1 Logic Knot
1 Deprive
4 Serum Visions
2 Collective Brutality
4 Lingering Souls
Lands: 19
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
2 Marsh Flats
2 Hallowed Fountain
2 Watery Grave
1 Godless Shrine
2 Island
1 Plains
1 Swamp
4 Ancestral Vision
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Dispel
2 Blessed Alliance
1 Collective Brutality
2 Countersquall
2 Stony Silence
A note on this list: my particular LGS is very heavy on fair midrange decks, with some combo decks and a bit of burn and big-mana. That heavy slant towards midrange is a big part of the reason I started building Esper Delver to begin with, and that's why my sideboard looks the way it does. I wouldn't recommend 4 Ancestral Visions in a blind meta, although I can see the case for 3. If you don't want to go that route, I'd recommend adding a third Countersquall – it wins a lot of games against a wide range of decks.
I'll be experimenting with some Spell Queller, 2-3 Geist of Saint Traft, and maybe some Smuggler's Copters. The permission and removal suite can easily be tuned for a particular meta. This is just the starting place, erring a bit on the side of caution, and towards more aggro decks and fair decks at the expense of the big-mana matchups.
My playtesting time is limited (and I don't use MTGO, which really helps collect data). I'll do what I can to get some matchup data, but in the mean time, I'd love to hear what you all find!
Note that White has some of the best sideboard options out there, so you can precisely tune your board to hate out specific decks. There aren't any cure-all cards, although some like Stony Silence and Surgical Extraction can pull their weight in a number of matchups. And as always, there's the tension between bringing in something that's a complete hoser against one deck vs. running wider but less powerful answers.
My preliminary findings have been that we largely line up with Grixis Delver in our good and bad matchups. Lingering Souls often puts us ahead, but lack of Lightning Bolt makes closing out games trickier. Here's the summary:
We're firmly in the control spot here, but with our range of powerful answers and aggressive creatures, the transition into beatdown is never far off. Will need more testing before delivering a preliminary verdict.
Burn has no problem answering your Delvers. That said, Tasigur is another matter, not to mention Lingering Souls and W sideboards. And it especially hates not being able to stick a creature of their own. The usual Naya Burn lists will often transition into a creature-light variety post-board if they see a list with lots of removal, so don't go too all-out on removal games 2-3. Lingering Souls can save the day for you, letting you clog up the field and eventually wrest control of the game, although you need to close out quickly as their topdecks can just burn you out. If you get a Tasigur down, evaluate whether you're OK blocking with it knowing it may eat a Searing Blaze, or whether you'd rather try racing them while using removal to deal with their creatures.
We do well vs. aggro-combo decks by removing their key threats and clogging the board plus putting them on a hard clock. We can generally answer their threats 1-for-1, and since our removal is mostly 1-CMC and instant-speed, we can usually push through more answers than they have threats and protection. Not a guaranteed matchup, but somewhat favorable.
Just like our Grixis kin, we're a little soft to heavily interactive decks. They can dismantle our kills and grind out card advantage, leaving us running on nothing but fumes. Post-board, you'll want to transition to a grindier game, often taking out Delver of Secrets (also take out Spell Queller if you run it) and bringing in card advantage for greater staying power. Lingering Souls goes a long way to smoothing these out, though, especially against a Liliana of the Veil.
I believe that of the interactive/disruptive decks, we're one of the better-equipped to take these decks on because we can represent strong clocks. However, I'd wager that Grixis Delver has better matchups here, as their burn package is stronger. However, against Eldrazi, the added grindiness of Lingering Souls may be enough to close the gap.
We have a better combo matchup than slower, grindier decks by virtue of having a lot of ways to put a quick clock on them, backed by disruption. Big mana is as always a struggle, but I don't feel completely powerless against it like when I'm on Grixis Control.
Now get out there and start flipping some Delvers!
WUBRG Humans
BRW Mardu Pyromancer
UW UW "Control"
UR Blue Moon
WUBRG Humans
BRW Mardu Pyromancer
UW UW "Control"
UR Blue Moon
OK I'm done now. Ready go!
WUBRG Humans
BRW Mardu Pyromancer
UW UW "Control"
UR Blue Moon
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
Glad to have you onboard, cfusion!
Great thought on Selfless Spirit! I actually picked it up to test it in this shell (and for Knightfall), and forgot to add it to the list. I'll write up a blurb for the Other Contenders heading later on.
Also, congratulations on 2400 posts!
WUBRG Humans
BRW Mardu Pyromancer
UW UW "Control"
UR Blue Moon
Edit: With 3 Tasigur, we can easily fit a Murderous Cut, I would play that list with -1 Fatal Push +1 Cut. Delving with cut helps with selecting what we want to get back with Tasigur
Flipping Delvers since 2011
MY DECKS
Modern: UR Izzet Delver
Pauper: U Delver Faeries | R Red Burn | GInfect
Commander: WB Athreos, God of Passage | UR Keranos Spellslinger | GWU Derevi, Tempo Tactician | BGU Tasigur, the Golden Fang | RW Feather, the Redeemed
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
Modern:
Grixis Shadow
Burn
Titanshift
Copycat (Given up currently, not entirely sure what it needs)
Legacy:
Burn
B/R Reanimator (slowly building
EDH:
Sedris Control/Reanimation
Indeed. I won't pretend the loss of Bolt doesn't sting. But Collective Brutality off the top or from a Snapcaster does almost as much to close out a game, so there's that as consolation. As you noted, of course, the real champion is Lingering Souls. Which while being about as different a card from Lightning Bolt you can get, serves on similar niche of giving us late-game reach. Less speed, more inevitability. Which kind of sums up the deck in general.
If you think that's value, wait until you flip a Lingering Souls off of a Thought Scour.
WUBRG Humans
BRW Mardu Pyromancer
UW UW "Control"
UR Blue Moon
But I'm very intrigued by your Esper list. My one thought is it doesnt have a lot of counter magic. My idea was maybe cut 1 push and 1 path, and add 1 more leak and 1 snare. But I also play an Overturf style of deck.
Thanks for starting the primer. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this thread.
By removing Red and giving up bolt, you give up a huge chunk of tempo. Bolt - Snap - Bolt is still one of the best ways for a delver deck to close out the late game. You also give up Terminate and Kholaghan's Command, weakening yourself significantly to big mana decks and affinity, which are some of our worst match-ups.
You loose the potential for Blood Moon and Molten Rain in the sideboard, weakening yourself against Tron.
Spell Queller is a good card, I genuinely wish I could play it in modern. But the harsh truth of it is that it dies to every piece of removal currently played in modern and offers your opponent a 2 for 1 on a plate. Bolt, Path, Push, Dismember, Terminate and Abrupt Decay all kill it for less mana than it cost you to cast and gives them back control over their original spell.
Also I really cant fathom using Deprive in a three colour tempo deck with 5 shocklands in it. you need every land you can get in play to be able to effectively use Snapcaster Mage, and you have a higher consistency of three drops because of Lingering Souls. You are sacrificing a large chunk of tempo for a hard counter with Deprive, when Mana Leak will probably be better 90% of the time.
Of course I could be wrong about all of this, but I'll be holding on to red for now.
I've asked this in the Midrange forum but haven't gotten many replies. What about forgoing the Delve creatures in favor for a Monastery Mentor and Dark Confidant card package?
Monastery Mentor goes very well with cantrips and counter magic and this helps make the deck more resilient to graveyard hate.
I'm currently testing this list (Esper Midrange) and have had a lot of success:
2x Creeping Tar Pit
2x Darkslick Shores
4x Flooded Strand
2x Hallowed Fountain
1x Godless Shrine
2x Island
1x Plains
4x Polluted Delta
1x Shambling Vent
1x Swamp
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2x Watery Grave
4x Dark Confidant
3x Monastery Mentor
4x Snapcaster Mage
Instant (11)
1x Blessed Alliance
4x Fatal Push
4x Path to Exile
2x Thought Scour
Sorcery (15)
2x Collective Brutality
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
4x Lingering Souls
4x Serum Visions
1x Thoughtseize
3x Blessed Alliance
2x Celestial Purge
2x Ceremonious Rejection
2x Dispel
2x Engineered Explosives
1x Kataki, War's Wage
1x Stony Silence
2x Surgical Extraction
Up until the Gitaxian Probe banning I played straight UR Delver and wanted to switch it up a bit so I tried Esper.
I'd love to see an Esper Delver deck list go up now.
So thinking about this list (the sideboard is completely experimental), maybe lowering the curve slightly with taking out Dark Confidant and a Lingering Souls / Monastery Mentor and the man-lands in favor for a 20-21 land count and adding 4 Delvers could be viable?
I chose to run no mainboard counter magic in this list as it tends to be more proactive and Jund-esque, but perhaps counter magic is the right route.
So basically, why not try to do with the Bob + Monastery Mentor package instead of Delve creatures? They both work well with a low Delver curve, create card advantage / incremental card advantage and work very well with cantrips.
Any thoughts would be appreciated!
Thanks!
Edit: Grammer and number mistake in deck-list.
I think Grixis Delver has huge shortcomings when trying to play a control game. I have long hated the Overturf style decks and think that in Grixis, a proactive Pyromancer-based build is far more effective. I think the Esper build is much better suited for playing a control role, and would likely play more like a low-curve control deck that happens to run Delver than a traditional UR or Grixis Delver deck. Though I agree with removing Deprive. I think there could be something to this, but it definitely needs work. I have most of the pieces and may try this out when I get a hold of the rest. It's not like I'm terribly attached to any one deck anyway.
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
Spirits
Ashiok is another personal favorite card of mine that I always try to get working, won me a game today.
Spirits
I have a hard time figuring out when to side Ashiok in and when to cast. Creature-heavy decks only? Slam on turn 3?
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
#Vendilion Clique can probably slot into the deck as well as an additional evasive threat together with Delver and Spell Queller (and Lingering Souls).
#Another option is to (drop the Tasigur) go with Dark Confidant + Smuggler's Copter to generate card advantage while pressuring the opponent.
#Geist of Saint Traft can also be a good option with enough removal to clear the way or crew the Copter if the ground gets stalled.
Path to Exile is horrible for a Tempo deck. It is a great card in vacuum but a liability in tempo archetypes. That's why Push is so good: it allows us not to run Path.
That said the question would be: Lingering Souls vs Tarmogoyf, Spell Queller vs Hooting Mandrils.
And as fun as Spell Queller is, the 3 mana 2-power creature isn't just fast enough for an aggro strategy.
I got some Cockatrice testing in over the last few days vs. Jund, Tron, Infect, and a bunch of absolutely sweet games vs. Grixis Control. I'll give details later when I have time (along with adding some new cards to the primer). The short version is that Collective Brutality absolutely gets there when you're trying to close out a match (of course you'll still miss bolt!), Selfless Spirit is an all-star, Lingering Souls probably wins you more games than any other card in the list, and, to no one's surprise, Blessed Alliance is a really good card. And Tron is still the scariest deck on the block if you're not planning on winning by turn 3. And a one-of Zealous Persecution is way too much fun.
Oh, and one game I flipped two Lingering Souls into my graveyard off a Tasigur. Against Jund. Hilarity ensued.
This has been pretty much the opposite of my experience. While inconsistent (as Delver always will be by nature in a format without things like Brainstorm), Delver of Secrets has been one of the strongest cards in my testing. True, the lack of Bolt means it will take another couple turns to win if you can't stick another threat. But with a strong removal suite and a pretty beefy array of other threats, your inevitability is a lot higher as well.
Also, do not underestimate Collective Brutality's ability to close out those last couple points of damage. It's worse burn than Bolt (everything is worse burn than Bolt, after all!), but it gets me there surprisingly often.
Thanks for the feedback!
I really couldn't fathom Deprive either, until I started testing with it (actually in a different deck, but I ported it over). But I've been shocked by how high an achiever it's been. The trick is using it well. I've usually gone with just a 1-of (2 max, ever), but fetching a basic Island to bounce with it is no big deal when you're so skewed towards U mana, and having a 2-CMC hard counter just represents an awful lot of utility.
On Esper vs. Grixis, I'm not really invested in whether or not this ends up being "the best" Delver deck. It's a fun deck with high synergy, and it addresses some of the things I don't like about other Delver brews. If it doesn't put up top tournament results, that's no skin off my back.
Very interesting list! I've tossed around the idea of running lists without the Delve creatures, but their resilience, speed, and undercost nature makes me hesitant to cut them. Especially the resilience - replacing Tasigur (and some Souls) with more creatures that die to Bolt and Push seems dicey to me. Taking them out pushes you (IMO) much more towards a midrange build, where I think your package works best anyways. It looks like it thrives on lots of redundant card advantage engines, which is a very different vector than that from which Delver works. But then again, what do I know? Toss some Delvers in your list and fire it up!
I also like Ashiok a lot (I'll add her in my first big primer update), but I also have trouble using her well. I experimented a bit with a 2-of in the board. It seemed like it was a little slow vs. Jund/Junk to really work consistently (they also don't have a huge creature count for us to hit), although we do have a decent time protecting her with all of our disruption.
As for how to use her, I'd say turn 3 slam if you're setting the pace of the game. A Delver or Tasigur plus some removal turns 1-2 into turn-3 Ashiok seems pretty juicy. If they're putting the pressure on you, it seems like there should be better things you can do with your mana.
Threads of Disloyalty seems like a very strong option when you're up against other midrange decks. Snaring a Goyf for 3 mana is pretty delicious. I guess it's a question of how many matches you see yourself bringing it in.
Vendilion Clique is a great option IMO; I thought I put it in the card discussion but I guess I missed it. There are some matchups where it's just too slow to really help much, but it's great at disrupting combos or tucking answers, and it presents a good evasive clock.
Dark Confidant could potentially work. It's low pressure damage-wise, but high pressure in just burying your opponent in card advantage. I think we could make it work, although you always have to be careful of how many cards you run that don't flip Delver, and in races he's usually more of a liability than a help. And I'm afraid that cutting the delve creatures sets us back too far in our ability to lay out pressure consistently. (But perhaps the pressure of all that card draw is enough to be worth it?)
One thing I have been thinking about is a package that cuts the Delve creatures (not sure what goes in their spot; maybe Bob), but keeps the Thought Scour package to fuel Logic Knot. Turning Knot into pretty much Counterspell definitely has a lot of value vs. a number of matchups, but Tasigur's ability to pressure the opponent or stabilize us as needed can't really be replaced as far as I've seen.
I don't have Smuggler's Copter yet, but I'd love to try 1-2 in the flex slots. My guess is that it's too inconsistent and vulnerable (especially in a field with Kolaghan's Command), but I'd love to be wrong about that.
Geist of Saint Traft is such an interesting card. Great if you have control of the game. Abysmal if you're in the control seat. Represents a harder clock than a turn-2 Tasigur (assuming your opponent goes to 18 off lands). Immune to spot removal. I think he bears a lot of testing, and I think in the right meta he can be great. Think about it in terms of racing something like Ad Nauseam, where it's the best at what it does. But I'd guess there are just too many decks that can pressure you with creatures for it to be consistently worth its slots. Again, I'd love to see some testing with it though! My playset (well, 3-card playset) is rotting in my staples binder...
I may be mistaken (I'm not familiar with Sultai Delver), but can it support 3 Tasigur, 1 Angler, and then Mandrils on top? That seems like a huge strain on your ability to delve the threats consistently.
I've never even considered the idea of Tarmogoyf and Tasigur together in a Delver list, but it sounds intriguing to me. That definitely seems like a powerful shell! Although I do worry about delving away too many cards and shrinking Goyf. Do you run discard to keep from shrinking Goyf?
I actually really disagree on Path being horrible here. Perhaps I should adjust my numbers downwards, tooling more for Dismember and Murderous Cut, but I think that Path, used well, is stellar for us. That said, I would advise (and should update the primer to reflect this) never, ever playing it early unless totally necessary. But cleanly answering just about any threat in the game unconditionally for 1 mana at instant speed is actually a strong tempo play IMO once you're in the right game state. I don't care so much if I'm ramping my opponent by 1 if I answered their 6-mana Wurmcoil or the Skirge they just dumped all their Ravager tokens onto for W. Granted, Push other black removal can do the latter, but the unconditional element combined with the exile effect add a lot of value. All that said, perhaps my LGS full of big mana, Kiki-Jiki, and opposing Tasigurs is biasing my opinion on this one. It could very well be that the proper mix is fewer Path and more black removal.
On Spell Queller, my hunch (and testing) say you're right. I definitely love the card in heavily disruptive shells (basically Tidehollow Sculler.dec, which is one of my pet decks), but it doesn't rumble well with this package. That said, the Selfless Spirits I've been testing in that slot have been pulling their weight and then some. Just having another early evasive beater is pretty good, and the sac ability is fantastic.
WUBRG Humans
BRW Mardu Pyromancer
UW UW "Control"
UR Blue Moon
I would really like to hear some more thoughts on Smugglers Copter, I've bumped my count up to 3 and its doing work. Removal happens, sure, but if it doesnt, its great to be crewed by a token.
I also like Ashiok against either faster creature heavy decks (either as 5 life to be removed, or watch the card run away on people) but against BGx, it seems to attract the Abrupt Decay.
I'm thinking of dropping a ThopterSword into the board for grinding matches, but I'll do more testing this weekend.
Spirits
On that last note, I actually threw a one-of Logic Knot into my main Esper Delver list as essentially the 4th Delve creature. Haven't tested it out yet, but I think it's a nice surprise catch-all to round out the counter suite.
WUBRG Humans
BRW Mardu Pyromancer
UW UW "Control"
UR Blue Moon
I'm also starting to wonder about a potentially Tasigur-less list. I know, it's crazy since Delve creatures are Plan B, but I think there's a case to be made for a more midrange-control type of list that skips him and instead runs Dark Confidant and Logic Knot/Murderous Cut to make use of the extra cards in our yard. I expect this kind of list would need another beater, which might actually be Smuggler's Copter in an unknown meta or Geist of Saint Traft if you're expecting a lot of uninteractive decks. (It's the shortest clock this deck can field; faster than turn-1 Delver or turn-2 Tasigur.) Possibly with Spell Queller backup alongside the Selfless Spirits that I'm quickly starting to see as irreplaceable. More brewing is needed, to be sure!
Anothing point I've noticed about running Smuggler's Copter to get value out of Bob/unflipped Dlever/Spirit tokens/Snapcaster/Selfless Spirit is that in terms of maindeck answers, it basically only dies to Kolaghan's Command and Abrupt Decay/Maelstrom Pulse until you're ready to crew it. That means it's very difficult to remove through your countermagic. I'm still not convinced that card is where we want to be (again, it would probably kind of take its own shell), but it's something I'm thinking about and testing with.
Anyways, here are the new cards I've added!
Vendilion Clique: A very matchup-dependent, hit-or-miss card. A 3/1 beater in the air is nothing to scoff at, and cycling a card is great. It definitely makes a good showing if you want an extra threat or two with built-in disruption.
Murderous Cut: Universal, usually pretty cheap, and no downside or targeting restriction. If you're running Delve creatures it can be tough to cast, but you can usually squeeze 1 in alongside your Tasigurs. Remember that flashing it back with Snapcaster Mage can really tax your graveyard, though.
Dismember: Another solid removal spell. We have access to B, so we can usually keep from paying life when relevant. I'd recommend a 1-1 split between this and Cut to keep yourself from overcommitting to one type of removal, and using them to round out your Fatal Push/Path to Exile removal suite.
Logic Knot: A solid Delve spell. I'm very fond of this, as even if you're short on cards in your yard, you can usually just play it as a Cancel when your opponent taps out. Like with Murderous Cut, this can get taxing on your graveyard along with Delve creatures and Snapcaster Mage, so don't get too greedy if you're running Tasigur and/or Angler. If you want to run a list without the Delve fatties, I'd go straight to 3 Logic Knot and never look back. Seriously, in a deck like that, this is nearly straight-up Counterspell
Mana Tithe: Kind of a dorky card, but I think a 1-of Mana Tithe could be worth consideration. I doubt anyone will play around this card, and when it comes up, the levels of tilt must be insane. Getting people to respect this unnecessarily is as much of a reason to run it as actually countering something (kind of like Stifle forces decks to respect open U in Legacy).
Worship: Another tech ported over from my time in Bant Knightfall. We're a little light on creatures (usually around the 14 mark), but with 4 Lingering Souls, we might have enough creatures that we can just outright shut some opponents down if we resolve this. If an opponent's gameplan is to ignore your board and combo you out or burn you to death, there's a good chance this completely hoses them (as long as they're not Infect). Remember that Ad Nauseam usually runs Echoing Truth post-board to answer permanents, though.
Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver: Some users here and in other UBx threads have championed Ashiok, but I just haven't been able to get her to work well. Granted, we have enough removal and disruption that we can usually keep her safe behind a Tasigur or something, but so far in my testing I've always felt like in grindy matchups I'd be better served by something like Ancestral Vision which just straight-up gives me a bunch of cards. Still, I'd love to be proven wrong!
Understanding Utility 1-ofs
You may have noticed that I kind of have a thing for 1-ofs in my recommendations. There are a couple of reasons for that. First, it's great with Thought Scour and Snapcaster Mage. Having both a Dismember and a Fatal Push in your graveyard is much more valuable than having two of either, because Snapcaster lets you pick the right tool for the job.
The second reason has to do with respect. Respecting a card means forcing your opponent to play around the possibility of you having it. For example, Delver decks have to respect sweepers; even if you might want to flash back all your Lingering Souls immediately, it's often wiser to respect your opponent's possible Engineered Explosives or Anger of the Gods and leave one or two in the yard as insurance. In the same way, your opponent needs to respect the cards he or she knows or suspects you're running. If you run Mana Leak, your opponent's play will likely reflect playing around it. If you replace one Leak with a Logic Knot, now they also have to respect Knot – or face the consequences when they don't. In that way, having 3 Leak and 1 Knot is a lot more valuable to you than having 4 Leak. Especially when you run Snapcasters and your opponent also has to respect every instant and sorcery in your graveyard in case you happen to be holding a Snappy.
WUBRG Humans
BRW Mardu Pyromancer
UW UW "Control"
UR Blue Moon
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Lingering Souls
3 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
1 Gurmag Angler
1 Smuggler's Copter
Cantrips (8)
4 Serum Visions
4 Thought Scour
4 Fatal Push
2 Path to Exile
2 Collective Brutality
1 Dismember
1 Go for the Throat
Counter Spells (4)
1 Dispel
1 Deprive
2 Remand
1 Blessed Alliance
1 Ceremonious Rejection
2 Countersquall
1 Dispel
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Painful Truths
3 Stony Silence
3 Surgical Extraction
There's one extra slot in the deck right now that I don't know what to do with - maybe a 9th cantrip. I'm not sold on the two Remands but I think they're better than Mana Leak, Spell Snare, and Spell Pierce against the decks I'm most worried about (Eldrazi and big mana decks like RG Valakut and Tron). It also feels bad playing Leak and Pierce in a deck with Path. I'm not a very good player though so maybe that's all incorrect.
I'm not confident on the sideboard either, especially the Surgicals. I'm not sure how to beat Dredge without help but it just got nerfed and they take up 3 slots that could be something else.