Delver Blue is a traditional mono blue draw go control deck with the addition of Delver of Secrets. Delver adds another dimension, allowing for lighting quick starts and tempo plays. The deck heavily relies on Islands, so splashes would have to change a large core of the deck. The flexibility of this deck can means that you can outtempo someone and win by turn 4, and turn around after sideboarding to play nothing but counterspells until turn 4.
The Mana Base:
Island – Comes into play untapped and is necessary for many spells. Pretty imbalanced imo Quicksand – Uncounterable creature removal. Typically if you play this you might consider playing more Mana Leaks Halimar Depths – not for this deck. We need as much mana open during every turn of the game, and not having counterspell open on turn two can mean the difference between a win and a loss
Creatures:
Delver of Secrets – 3/2 evasive creature for 1? Thank you very much Phantasmal Bear – for decks that focus more on tempo than control. The lack of evasion means a huge deal
Cloud of Faeries – free creature. It is very important as it allows you to play a t2 creature and keep up counterspell Spellstutter Sprite – Counterspell on a stick, synergizes well with snap and Ninja of the Deep Hours Ninja of the Deep Hours – card advantage engine, allows you to keep enough cards in your hand to counter everything your opponent does Zephyr Sprite – enabler for Spellstutter Sprite and Ninja of the Deep Hours
Spire Golem – a nice fat flier. Allows you to play him off of 4 islands and still leave up counterspell. The four toughness is large enough to deal with almost everything in the format Stitched Drake – Bigger than Spire Golem, but much more conditional. Porcelain Legionnaire - Nasty creature that you can get in for only 2 mana. However it lacks flying Thornwind Faeries - Can be seen as a budget version of Serrated Arrows, or good creature
Gixian Probe – Free card draw and helps you make optimal plays
Brainstorm – Instant speed, so you can play it at the end of your opponent’s turn, and helps you trigger delvers, and protect against discard Preordain – Digs for the cards you need, and removes fluff for you Ponder – Lets you dig more, however it is typically not used since it isn't as effective as Preordain as you can't choose to keep one, you have to pick all or nothing, and it isn't as effective as Brainstorm since it is sorcery speed.
Gush – Manaless draw. Also can act as another mana during your main phase (tap out two lands, bounce them, and replay a land) Think Twice – Instant speed draw, important since the deck keeps counterspell mana open all the time
Bounce:
Vapor Snag – One mana bounce, can serve as extra snaps. Lifeloss is also relevant in more tempoish decks
Snap – Free bounce, can buy you lots of time, or can use it to ‘counter’ removal and pumps. You can also bounce your own Spellstutter Sprite for another counterspell Echoing Truth – Good sideboard card Into the Roil – If 4 snaps aren’t good enough…
Counters:
Force Spike – One mana counterspell. However it can easily be played around. Daze – Free counterspell. Can let you ‘safely’ tap out.
Counterspell – The original, it deals with everything Mana Leak – Comes close to counterspell, and is pretty important if you play quicksand Deprive – Counterspells 5-8, the drawback isn’t as important, and can help you if you can cast the spell during your turn Logic Knot – Counterspells 5-6, however it is conditional and can be a dead card at times.
Piracy Charm – Very good against any deck that relies on 1 toughness creatures (Goblins, Delver Blue, Infect, White Weenie) Steel Sabotage – Effective against affinity or artifact based decks (Affinity, Delver Blue (with Spire Golem), White Weenie) Annul - Effective against builds that rely on artifacts and enchantments (Affinity, White Weenie, Tortured Existance based decks) Curfew - Effective against protection/hexproof effects, builds tempo while protecting your own creature. Good against decks with target removal (Infect, MBC) Envelope - Effective against decks that rely on sorcerys (MBC, Storm) Dispel – Helps wins counterwars (Ux Post, Delver blue, Mono Blue) Spell Pierce - 1 mana Negate, however it is a dead card mid/late game Hydroblast – Good against any deck with red (Goblins, Storm, U/R Post) Curse of Chains - Creature removal that can hit Guardian of the Guildpack
Echoing Truth – Necessary as a backup plan against combo (Storm) Negate - Good against spell based decks. However, Deprive is arguably more versatile. Coast Watcher - Good against Green decks (Infect, Mono Green Stompy)
Weatherseed Faeries – Good against any deck that relies on red removal (Goblins, U/R Post)
Serrated Arrows – Amazing against creature based decks if you can land it (Infect, White Weenie, Goblins, Delver Blue)
Delver puts Brainstorm over the edge, basically. If you want an aggressive start, you can force a delver to flip on turn two with it, which isn't something that Ponder or its even better cousin Preordain can do.
In other news, good to see a new primer here. Needs a bit more content but it's a good start.
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On average, Magic players are worse at new card evaluation than almost every other skill, except perhaps sideboarding.
I've also seen decks running a couple (definitely not 4) Logic Knot, since they usually have a lot of stuff in their graveyard they don't care about exiling.
There's also a variant that uses 4 Clout of the Dominus and trades the non-Delver creatures for blue/red ones like Stream Hopper, Riverfall Mimic, and Noggle Bandit (I think 4 4 2). Note that none of them take red mana to cast, so it's still a mono-blue deck.
Editing: the other variant I've seen uses 4 Krovikan Mist with the bears and 2-3 Fathom Seers as its non-Delver creature base.
You're missing vapor snag as well as ponder. I run a build that includes 2 porcelain legionnaire and it just provides amazing utility as well as locking your opponent out. Only drawback is it's lack of toughness.
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However I won't include Ponder or Prohibit. 9-12 cantrips is just excessive (Brainstorm and Preordain are better than ponder in non-combo decks), and Prohibit is outclassed by Deprive and Mana leak. (Having cards dead against 8post is never a good thing)
I will update the guide according to daily results
I've also seen decks running a couple (definitely not 4) Logic Knot, since they usually have a lot of stuff in their graveyard they don't care about exiling.
I have seen Fathom Seer discussed and also Accumulated Knowledge, so I will include those two. Vapor Snag certainly should be included, however I am not sold on Logic Knot.
There's also a variant that uses 4 Clout of the Dominus and trades the non-Delver creatures for blue/red ones like Stream Hopper, Riverfall Mimic, and Noggle Bandit (I think 4 4 2). Note that none of them take red mana to cast, so it's still a mono-blue deck.
It seems quiet different than the standard delver list that relies on being able to keep 2 mana open on turn 2+
EDIT: I will add a variants section at the end for Illusions based delver and Clout of the Dominus based delver if I can find any decklists
In the standard iteration, Ponder has almost always been superior to Preordain. It's worth a mention, plain and simple.
I've seen Logic Knot a few times as a 1-2 of, might be worth a mention.
I'll include them just for comprehensive purposes, but I really don't see any point in running Logic Knot over Deprive. It's probably better than deprive if you have less than 4 lands, but typically during those turns you won't have much in the yard, and it's hard to see it ever being better than Mana Leak
After you get 4 lands, deprive doesn't really bother you as much. Unless you are playing Stitched Drake, which is not very synergistic with Logic Knot in the first place.
Whether or not you personally prefer certain cards shouldn't determine if you place them in the primer of not. Just show everyone the options that they have, not necessarily what you deem superior or not.
EDIT: I personally find ponder much better than preordain simply because it allows you to fully set up delver flips, shuffle unneeded cards away from brainstorm, as well as digging three cards deep instead of two.
In the standard iteration, Ponder has almost always been superior to Preordain. It's worth a mention, plain and simple.
I've seen Logic Knot a few times as a 1-2 of, might be worth a mention.
ponder is good, but prordain was the one played in non-combo decks during while it was in standard. with ponder, you see cards, you change the order, and may shuffle if needed. however, if you see a card that you want and 2 that you don't want, or 1 that you want only, you can't get rid of the bad cards. with preordain, the top 2 cards can be put on bottom if bad, creating a similr effect to ponder's shuffle (you look 1 less card, but with 2 bad cards you would probably shuffle anyway) and if only one of them is bad, you get rid of it.
also, ponder and preordain after brainstorm is almost the same, because either way you'll get a random card and get rid of the top 2. the difference is that preordain guarantees you won't draw the same cards and ponder lets you look one more card before the shuffle - tough youy probably won't want to keep it, because of the 2 xit cards you rejected.
I think Preordain is better in the more controlling versions, that is, those without Spellstutter/Cloud and with Spire Golem/Ephemeron as finishers. The thing is, Preordain is actually not very good at setting up Delver, which is something you really want in the tempo builds.
If you Preordain with an unflipped Delver, you need to hit two cards you want, one of which is a spell. If you top-bottom, you draw the card you put back, so your Delver is up to chance. If you bottom-bottom, obviously it's the same. You need to top-top, drawing something and leaving a spell in order to impact your Delver flip, which is not what you want to be concerned about when casting Preordain for full value. xitaun is right about Preordain being the better of the two overall, but if I were playing a Delver tempo build and wanted something more than Brainstorm (at the cantrip spot), I would look to Ponder first.
As for Logic Knot vs. Deprive, I think it's another question of build. I think Deprive is probably "better," but if you're casting Daze early and trying to work up to casting Gush late, you might not want to be casting a Deprive in the middle. I know Deprive is 'harder,' but Logic Knot hardens pretty quickly. (:unibrow:)
It seems a bit of a stretch to replace preordain for ponder just to increase synergy slightly with one card in the deck at the expense of the other 56 (quiet literally). However, one side benefit I can see is that it might help you dig for sideboard cards, but I don't think any matchup is that unfavorable if we can't dig up a specific sideboarded card.
I just started playing pauper and built delver on the recommendation of a friend. My list is very close to Mezzel's list in the opening post. The first thing that struck me about the deck is how tempo-oriented it is. Having an early clock in a delver or ninja and then protecting it with countermagic can be very hard to deal with. At the same time, we don't have many spells that allow us to catch up if our opponent gets ahead, so it seems important to aggressively mulligan into delvers and early threats. A five card hand with a couple of delvers seems much better than a mediocre 7 card hand.
Looking through the daily event results, it seems that there are some more controlling decks that play delver as a solid threat. These decks contain stuff like spire golem, quicksand and real draws spells. These decks lose their explosive starts, but have the ability to play longer games.
So, a few questions. First, how should you mulligan with tempo-oriented delver? My currently theory is to aggressively mulligan into hands with an early threat. I would quickly mulligan 3 island, snap, snap, deprive, daze, for example. Second, which events are worth playing in? I played some 2 man queues and they ended up paying out M12 packs, which are only worth 3.33 tickets, which seems like pretty poor value. Are daily events worth it?
Thanks in advance,
-Dan
Edit: So I just did the math on daily events, and it seems that they pay out 2.1875 packs (worth around 7.2 tickets) for a 6 ticket entry fee. If this is the case, then it seems that for a player with a 50% winrate, daily events are +EV and 2-man queues are -EV.
2-mans are typically a good place to test your deck competitively since theres something on the line unlike the tournament practice room which is just good for mana testing and to see if you like how the deck runs. Dailies are more profitable then 2-mans and Premier are even better then dailies but, cost more and happen far less often. I think you have it right and mulligan till you get a threat but, I don't have any personal experience to say so.
2-mans are typically a good place to test your deck competitively since theres something on the line unlike the tournament practice room which is just good for mana testing and to see if you like how the deck runs. Dailies are more profitable then 2-mans and Premier are even better then dailies but, cost more and happen far less often. I think you have it right and mulligan till you get a threat but, I don't have any personal experience to say so.
Yeah, this sounds like pretty sound advice. There was quite a mix of people in the tournament practice room and the ones who were playing rogue decks got crushed pretty hard. I'll be on the lookout for bigger events and will play it those. It kind of sucks that pauper tournaments pay out M12 (3.3 tix/pack) instead of innistrad (3.8 tix/pack).
The cloudpost matchup seems pretty favorable. They have a lot of inevitability in longer games, but you can pressure them as they are setting up. I usually feel pretty good after I see their hand with gitaxian probe.
Preboard, the goblin matchup is largely a race. Being on the play and flipping delvers or connecting with ninja of the deep hours is very important. The matchup gets a lot harder on the draw or when you have don't have a good early creature. Bigger stuff like stitched drake or spire golem would be very good here. Postboard, you get to bring in hydroblasts and weatherseed faeries, which makes the matchup largely favorable.
The matchup against other blue decks with bigger guys seems unfavorable. This deck has trouble attacking past a spire golem and perhaps I should add a few bigger guys to my 75.
The best plan against the mono green infect deck is to try to counter all of their infect guys. If you can do this, you will win easily. If you can't, they tend to just have a fast clock than you. They usually have 8 ways to give their guy proection from blue, so you're not necessarily safe when you have a blocker.
Spire Golem/Stitched Drake trump the mirror matches, the opposing player has to find an answer or needs to be really far ahead on life totals so they can just attack past for the win.
I like the builds with phantasmal bear, he isn't really good in a lot of matches, and is boarded out often, especially on the draw, but putting some early pressure can mean a lot for this deck, and he's key in the combo matchups where you need to leave mana up early.
1. Nobody tried Stormbound Geist in this deck? Seems like at last a fair option for a half-fattie let's say, and you don't have to waste Snap/counter to protect it
2. I think Zephyr Sprite looks better than Phantasmal Bear because of the evasion and it also loads Spelstutter
Dark Ascension isn't available online yet. Stormbound Geist is certainly an interesting card, however the is a huge difference between 3 toughness and 4 toughness in pauper. The meanest creatures Razor Golem and Stiched Drake only have 3 toughness, and Stormbound Geist would not fare well against it.
As for Zephyr Sprite. You can try it out. But a 1/1 is not very threatening.
If you are running more than 20 creatures, it will cut in on the amount of cantrips and countermagic you can run. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, especially if you want to be very aggressive.
But what builds would a 1/1 be relevant? If you are looking for tempoish builds, a Phantasmal Bear is far better. Although it is an enabler for a T2 Ninja, having 12 1/1s (Including Cloud of Faries) means that most of your creature base is very small and insignificant.
If you are looking for a more control build, having a large flyer can effective 'counter' any creature they have out, as they no longer can attack. If you include it instead of countermagic, that seriously limits the amount of control you can do, making the deck weaker.
Zephyr Sprite was fine before INN. But the reason why people do run it anymore is because it has been replaced by Delver.
EDIT: I have updated the Sideboard Section after some testing with new cards
If you are running more than 20 creatures, it will cut in on the amount of cantrips and countermagic you can run. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, especially if you want to be very aggressive.
But what builds would a 1/1 be relevant? If you are looking for tempoish builds, a Phantasmal Bear is far better. Although it is an enabler for a T2 Ninja, having 12 1/1s (Including Cloud of Faries) means that most of your creature base is very small and insignificant.
If you are looking for a more control build, having a large flyer can effective 'counter' any creature they have out, as they no longer can attack. If you include it instead of countermagic, that seriously limits the amount of control you can do, making the deck weaker.
Zephyr Sprite was fine before INN. But the reason why people do run it anymore is because it has been replaced by Delver.
EDIT: I have updated the Sideboard Section after some testing with new cards
Why would you run 4 stitched drake? o-0
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Actually Ninja Of The Deep Hours isn't part of the "core" cards. Its usually ran in the varient version of this deck thats more aggro based that runs with Phantasmal Bear.
3/4 flying? The 3 power makes it better then Spire Golem and they both have there down sides but, the longer the game goes the better they both are to cast.
Spire Golem/Stitched Drake trump the mirror matches, the opposing player has to find an answer or needs to be really far ahead on life totals so they can just attack past for the win.
I like the builds with phantasmal bear, he isn't really good in a lot of matches, and is boarded out often, especially on the draw, but putting some early pressure can mean a lot for this deck, and he's key in the combo matchups where you need to leave mana up early.
This advice was spot on. The deck performed a lot better with phantasmal bears because it meant that we were applying more early pressure. As much as I like preordain, it's can be awkward to have you in your opening hand, especially if you're not sure that you can find a land if you look for one.
As I've been saying, I've found that the tempo starts of the daze/bear version of this deck are very explosive, but the deck lacks good topdecks and lategame power. One thing that can be done to change this is adding a few stitched drakes/spire golems. Another thing that I have been considering is adding a few Looter Il-Kor. This guy can be pretty powerful. First, he lets you turn your extra dazes/force spikes and lands into live spells. Second, he puts your opponent on an unblockable clock. At the same time, this deck isn't particularly fond of 2 mana sorcery speed cards that are vulnerable to removal. What are your thoughts on the looter?
What do you guys think of matchups in their respective lists?
On the play in the Mirror, Bear is more important, however on the draw, Spire Golem is more important (that being said, it is still better to be on the play in the mirror).
Likewise against Goblins, White Weenie Spire Golem is very difficult to destroy, and shuts of a majority of their creatures
Against Storm/Infect, Phantasmal Bear is better. However, I believe Delver Blue's matchup against Storm/Infect is one of the best.
Against MBC, Spire Golem seems preferable, because MBC has only one out to Spire Golem, targeted hard removal that not all lists use. At the same time, we can outtempo MBC quiet easily with Phantasmal Bear
U/R Cloudpost Phantasmal Bear is probably more important, because tempo is extreamly important and both die to Flame Slash.
Introduction:
Delver Blue is a traditional mono blue draw go control deck with the addition of Delver of Secrets. Delver adds another dimension, allowing for lighting quick starts and tempo plays. The deck heavily relies on Islands, so splashes would have to change a large core of the deck. The flexibility of this deck can means that you can outtempo someone and win by turn 4, and turn around after sideboarding to play nothing but counterspells until turn 4.
The Mana Base:
Island – Comes into play untapped and is necessary for many spells. Pretty imbalanced imo
Quicksand – Uncounterable creature removal. Typically if you play this you might consider playing more Mana Leaks
Halimar Depths – not for this deck. We need as much mana open during every turn of the game, and not having counterspell open on turn two can mean the difference between a win and a loss
Creatures:
Delver of Secrets – 3/2 evasive creature for 1? Thank you very much
Phantasmal Bear – for decks that focus more on tempo than control. The lack of evasion means a huge deal
Cloud of Faeries – free creature. It is very important as it allows you to play a t2 creature and keep up counterspell
Spellstutter Sprite – Counterspell on a stick, synergizes well with snap and Ninja of the Deep Hours
Ninja of the Deep Hours – card advantage engine, allows you to keep enough cards in your hand to counter everything your opponent does
Zephyr Sprite – enabler for Spellstutter Sprite and Ninja of the Deep Hours
Spire Golem – a nice fat flier. Allows you to play him off of 4 islands and still leave up counterspell. The four toughness is large enough to deal with almost everything in the format
Stitched Drake – Bigger than Spire Golem, but much more conditional.
Porcelain Legionnaire - Nasty creature that you can get in for only 2 mana. However it lacks flying
Thornwind Faeries - Can be seen as a budget version of Serrated Arrows, or good creature
Fathom Seer - Gush on a stick,
Draw:
Gixian Probe – Free card draw and helps you make optimal plays
Brainstorm – Instant speed, so you can play it at the end of your opponent’s turn, and helps you trigger delvers, and protect against discard
Preordain – Digs for the cards you need, and removes fluff for you
Ponder – Lets you dig more, however it is typically not used since it isn't as effective as Preordain as you can't choose to keep one, you have to pick all or nothing, and it isn't as effective as Brainstorm since it is sorcery speed.
Gush – Manaless draw. Also can act as another mana during your main phase (tap out two lands, bounce them, and replay a land)
Think Twice – Instant speed draw, important since the deck keeps counterspell mana open all the time
Bounce:
Vapor Snag – One mana bounce, can serve as extra snaps. Lifeloss is also relevant in more tempoish decks
Snap – Free bounce, can buy you lots of time, or can use it to ‘counter’ removal and pumps. You can also bounce your own Spellstutter Sprite for another counterspell
Echoing Truth – Good sideboard card
Into the Roil – If 4 snaps aren’t good enough…
Counters:
Force Spike – One mana counterspell. However it can easily be played around.
Daze – Free counterspell. Can let you ‘safely’ tap out.
Counterspell – The original, it deals with everything
Mana Leak – Comes close to counterspell, and is pretty important if you play quicksand
Deprive – Counterspells 5-8, the drawback isn’t as important, and can help you if you can cast the spell during your turn
Logic Knot – Counterspells 5-6, however it is conditional and can be a dead card at times.
Exclude – Card advantage
Other/Sideboard Choices:
Piracy Charm – Very good against any deck that relies on 1 toughness creatures (Goblins, Delver Blue, Infect, White Weenie)
Steel Sabotage – Effective against affinity or artifact based decks (Affinity, Delver Blue (with Spire Golem), White Weenie)
Annul - Effective against builds that rely on artifacts and enchantments (Affinity, White Weenie, Tortured Existance based decks)
Curfew - Effective against protection/hexproof effects, builds tempo while protecting your own creature. Good against decks with target removal (Infect, MBC)
Envelope - Effective against decks that rely on sorcerys (MBC, Storm)
Dispel – Helps wins counterwars (Ux Post, Delver blue, Mono Blue)
Spell Pierce - 1 mana Negate, however it is a dead card mid/late game
Hydroblast – Good against any deck with red (Goblins, Storm, U/R Post)
Curse of Chains - Creature removal that can hit Guardian of the Guildpack
Echoing Truth – Necessary as a backup plan against combo (Storm)
Negate - Good against spell based decks. However, Deprive is arguably more versatile.
Coast Watcher - Good against Green decks (Infect, Mono Green Stompy)
Weatherseed Faeries – Good against any deck that relies on red removal (Goblins, U/R Post)
Serrated Arrows – Amazing against creature based decks if you can land it (Infect, White Weenie, Goblins, Delver Blue)
Sample Decklists:
Mezzel – 4-0 Pauper Daily (2/4/2012)
Asberic – 4-0 Pauper Daily (2/3/2012)
Konin – 4-0 Pauper Daily (2/3/2012)
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In other news, good to see a new primer here. Needs a bit more content but it's a good start.
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Creatures/Draw needs Fathom Seer. I've also seen Accumulated Knowledge in place of Think Twice.
There's also a variant that uses 4 Clout of the Dominus and trades the non-Delver creatures for blue/red ones like Stream Hopper, Riverfall Mimic, and Noggle Bandit (I think 4 4 2). Note that none of them take red mana to cast, so it's still a mono-blue deck.
Editing: the other variant I've seen uses 4 Krovikan Mist with the bears and 2-3 Fathom Seers as its non-Delver creature base.
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However I won't include Ponder or Prohibit. 9-12 cantrips is just excessive (Brainstorm and Preordain are better than ponder in non-combo decks), and Prohibit is outclassed by Deprive and Mana leak. (Having cards dead against 8post is never a good thing)
I will update the guide according to daily results
I have seen Fathom Seer discussed and also Accumulated Knowledge, so I will include those two. Vapor Snag certainly should be included, however I am not sold on Logic Knot.
It seems quiet different than the standard delver list that relies on being able to keep 2 mana open on turn 2+
EDIT: I will add a variants section at the end for Illusions based delver and Clout of the Dominus based delver if I can find any decklists
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I've seen Logic Knot a few times as a 1-2 of, might be worth a mention.
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I'll include them just for comprehensive purposes, but I really don't see any point in running Logic Knot over Deprive. It's probably better than deprive if you have less than 4 lands, but typically during those turns you won't have much in the yard, and it's hard to see it ever being better than Mana Leak
After you get 4 lands, deprive doesn't really bother you as much. Unless you are playing Stitched Drake, which is not very synergistic with Logic Knot in the first place.
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EDIT: I personally find ponder much better than preordain simply because it allows you to fully set up delver flips, shuffle unneeded cards away from brainstorm, as well as digging three cards deep instead of two.
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ponder is good, but prordain was the one played in non-combo decks during while it was in standard. with ponder, you see cards, you change the order, and may shuffle if needed. however, if you see a card that you want and 2 that you don't want, or 1 that you want only, you can't get rid of the bad cards. with preordain, the top 2 cards can be put on bottom if bad, creating a similr effect to ponder's shuffle (you look 1 less card, but with 2 bad cards you would probably shuffle anyway) and if only one of them is bad, you get rid of it.
also, ponder and preordain after brainstorm is almost the same, because either way you'll get a random card and get rid of the top 2. the difference is that preordain guarantees you won't draw the same cards and ponder lets you look one more card before the shuffle - tough youy probably won't want to keep it, because of the 2 xit cards you rejected.
If you Preordain with an unflipped Delver, you need to hit two cards you want, one of which is a spell. If you top-bottom, you draw the card you put back, so your Delver is up to chance. If you bottom-bottom, obviously it's the same. You need to top-top, drawing something and leaving a spell in order to impact your Delver flip, which is not what you want to be concerned about when casting Preordain for full value. xitaun is right about Preordain being the better of the two overall, but if I were playing a Delver tempo build and wanted something more than Brainstorm (at the cantrip spot), I would look to Ponder first.
As for Logic Knot vs. Deprive, I think it's another question of build. I think Deprive is probably "better," but if you're casting Daze early and trying to work up to casting Gush late, you might not want to be casting a Deprive in the middle. I know Deprive is 'harder,' but Logic Knot hardens pretty quickly. (:unibrow:)
UW UW Gideon Control WU
UWR Loose Control RWU
GR Scapeshift RG
RU Storm UR
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That doesn't quite sound like pauper.
UW UW Gideon Control WU
UWR Loose Control RWU
GR Scapeshift RG
RU Storm UR
Looking through the daily event results, it seems that there are some more controlling decks that play delver as a solid threat. These decks contain stuff like spire golem, quicksand and real draws spells. These decks lose their explosive starts, but have the ability to play longer games.
So, a few questions. First, how should you mulligan with tempo-oriented delver? My currently theory is to aggressively mulligan into hands with an early threat. I would quickly mulligan 3 island, snap, snap, deprive, daze, for example. Second, which events are worth playing in? I played some 2 man queues and they ended up paying out M12 packs, which are only worth 3.33 tickets, which seems like pretty poor value. Are daily events worth it?
Thanks in advance,
-Dan
Edit: So I just did the math on daily events, and it seems that they pay out 2.1875 packs (worth around 7.2 tickets) for a 6 ticket entry fee. If this is the case, then it seems that for a player with a 50% winrate, daily events are +EV and 2-man queues are -EV.
Yeah, this sounds like pretty sound advice. There was quite a mix of people in the tournament practice room and the ones who were playing rogue decks got crushed pretty hard. I'll be on the lookout for bigger events and will play it those. It kind of sucks that pauper tournaments pay out M12 (3.3 tix/pack) instead of innistrad (3.8 tix/pack).
The cloudpost matchup seems pretty favorable. They have a lot of inevitability in longer games, but you can pressure them as they are setting up. I usually feel pretty good after I see their hand with gitaxian probe.
Preboard, the goblin matchup is largely a race. Being on the play and flipping delvers or connecting with ninja of the deep hours is very important. The matchup gets a lot harder on the draw or when you have don't have a good early creature. Bigger stuff like stitched drake or spire golem would be very good here. Postboard, you get to bring in hydroblasts and weatherseed faeries, which makes the matchup largely favorable.
The matchup against other blue decks with bigger guys seems unfavorable. This deck has trouble attacking past a spire golem and perhaps I should add a few bigger guys to my 75.
The best plan against the mono green infect deck is to try to counter all of their infect guys. If you can do this, you will win easily. If you can't, they tend to just have a fast clock than you. They usually have 8 ways to give their guy proection from blue, so you're not necessarily safe when you have a blocker.
I like the builds with phantasmal bear, he isn't really good in a lot of matches, and is boarded out often, especially on the draw, but putting some early pressure can mean a lot for this deck, and he's key in the combo matchups where you need to leave mana up early.
Dark Ascension isn't available online yet. Stormbound Geist is certainly an interesting card, however the is a huge difference between 3 toughness and 4 toughness in pauper. The meanest creatures Razor Golem and Stiched Drake only have 3 toughness, and Stormbound Geist would not fare well against it.
As for Zephyr Sprite. You can try it out. But a 1/1 is not very threatening.
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The key is here, the 'core' of delver blue would be 16 creatures, with 4 more
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Cloud of Faries
4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Ninja of Deep Hours
4 Phantasmal Bear
4 Spire Golem
4 Stitched Drake
If you are running more than 20 creatures, it will cut in on the amount of cantrips and countermagic you can run. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, especially if you want to be very aggressive.
But what builds would a 1/1 be relevant? If you are looking for tempoish builds, a Phantasmal Bear is far better. Although it is an enabler for a T2 Ninja, having 12 1/1s (Including Cloud of Faries) means that most of your creature base is very small and insignificant.
If you are looking for a more control build, having a large flyer can effective 'counter' any creature they have out, as they no longer can attack. If you include it instead of countermagic, that seriously limits the amount of control you can do, making the deck weaker.
Zephyr Sprite was fine before INN. But the reason why people do run it anymore is because it has been replaced by Delver.
EDIT: I have updated the Sideboard Section after some testing with new cards
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Why would you run 4 stitched drake? o-0
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Actually Ninja Of The Deep Hours isn't part of the "core" cards. Its usually ran in the varient version of this deck thats more aggro based that runs with Phantasmal Bear.
3/4 flying? The 3 power makes it better then Spire Golem and they both have there down sides but, the longer the game goes the better they both are to cast.
This advice was spot on. The deck performed a lot better with phantasmal bears because it meant that we were applying more early pressure. As much as I like preordain, it's can be awkward to have you in your opening hand, especially if you're not sure that you can find a land if you look for one.
As I've been saying, I've found that the tempo starts of the daze/bear version of this deck are very explosive, but the deck lacks good topdecks and lategame power. One thing that can be done to change this is adding a few stitched drakes/spire golems. Another thing that I have been considering is adding a few Looter Il-Kor. This guy can be pretty powerful. First, he lets you turn your extra dazes/force spikes and lands into live spells. Second, he puts your opponent on an unblockable clock. At the same time, this deck isn't particularly fond of 2 mana sorcery speed cards that are vulnerable to removal. What are your thoughts on the looter?
What do you guys think of matchups in their respective lists?
On the play in the Mirror, Bear is more important, however on the draw, Spire Golem is more important (that being said, it is still better to be on the play in the mirror).
Likewise against Goblins, White Weenie Spire Golem is very difficult to destroy, and shuts of a majority of their creatures
Against Storm/Infect, Phantasmal Bear is better. However, I believe Delver Blue's matchup against Storm/Infect is one of the best.
Against MBC, Spire Golem seems preferable, because MBC has only one out to Spire Golem, targeted hard removal that not all lists use. At the same time, we can outtempo MBC quiet easily with Phantasmal Bear
U/R Cloudpost Phantasmal Bear is probably more important, because tempo is extreamly important and both die to Flame Slash.
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Check out my Trade Thread for your Chinese Standard and Pox needs Here!