I have a vintage tournament coming up and I am looking at playing the following deck. The meta as far I can surmise fromt the last tournament is mainly shops, blue and various aggro-hate decks with only 1 storm and dredge decks. To that end I thought RUG with bolt, null rod, delver, goyf, wasteland and counterspells would be well positioned. The tournament allows 10 proxies of the current list I would need to proxy the 5 power cards, 1 null rod and 2 grafdigger's cage so there are no real constraints on what I could add as I could buy the cages / null rod if necessary.
As a tempo deck, I thought daze would be quite useful here in combination with wasteland/null rod. Mental misstep and flusterstorm are cheap and versatile counters as well which further the tempo aspect. Bolt + fire/ice gives reach while dealing with thalia, dark confidant and other must answer creatures.
I have not found delver very hard to flip with 26 instants/sorceries. Scavenging ooze gives some maindeck graveyard hate while being good in many matchups. I chose not to run mox ruby due to the red mana not being very useful generally and I didn't like having more than 3 mana artifacts with null rod as it made for too many dead draws.
The sideboard has 7 graveyard spells for dredge, although surgical extraction and grafdigger's cage are also good in other matchups with grafdigger's cage being my best chance against oath as well. Steel sabotage / ancient grudge for shops and reb/flusterstorm for the blue decks I come across.
Some notable cards I chose not to add are trygon predator and snapcaster mage as they generally cost 3 mana which is difficult to reach with this list when you often only have 2 mana sources in play.
The main issues I'm having with the list:
1. Is 26 instants/sorceries enough for delver? I'm used to playing it in legacy with similar numbers but there you have full sets of ponder / brainstorm to work it out. Should I be playing preordain?
2. Is daze worth it? I was thinking that against more fair decks and shops it is generally quite good early and with mana denial it can stay effective until later in the game. Should this be an additional mental misstep and some combination of flusterstorm/spell pierce/spell snare? Would spell snare be a worthwhile inclusion in my meta?
3. Does the sideboard shore up my weaknesses or are some of the cards in it unnecessary?
4. Would stifle be a good inclusion?
5. Should I include a basic island?
I would include at least one basic Island, as Moon/Wasteland will be difficult for you.
Maybe drop one maindeck Bolt and include a Faithless Looting? It would give you a way to turn dead artifacts (extra null rods or moxen if a rod is in play) or artifact hate that has no targets into fresh cards.
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Scalding Tarn
4 Tropical Island
3 Volcanic Island
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
Creatures - 10
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Scavenging Ooze
Artifacts-6
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire
3 Null Rod
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
3 Mental Misstep
2 Flusterstorm
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Fire//Ice
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
3 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Flusterstorm
3 Ravenous Trap
3 Red Elemental Blast
1 Steel Sabotage
1 Surgical Extraction
As a tempo deck, I thought daze would be quite useful here in combination with wasteland/null rod. Mental misstep and flusterstorm are cheap and versatile counters as well which further the tempo aspect. Bolt + fire/ice gives reach while dealing with thalia, dark confidant and other must answer creatures.
I have not found delver very hard to flip with 26 instants/sorceries. Scavenging ooze gives some maindeck graveyard hate while being good in many matchups. I chose not to run mox ruby due to the red mana not being very useful generally and I didn't like having more than 3 mana artifacts with null rod as it made for too many dead draws.
The sideboard has 7 graveyard spells for dredge, although surgical extraction and grafdigger's cage are also good in other matchups with grafdigger's cage being my best chance against oath as well. Steel sabotage / ancient grudge for shops and reb/flusterstorm for the blue decks I come across.
Some notable cards I chose not to add are trygon predator and snapcaster mage as they generally cost 3 mana which is difficult to reach with this list when you often only have 2 mana sources in play.
The main issues I'm having with the list:
1. Is 26 instants/sorceries enough for delver? I'm used to playing it in legacy with similar numbers but there you have full sets of ponder / brainstorm to work it out. Should I be playing preordain?
2. Is daze worth it? I was thinking that against more fair decks and shops it is generally quite good early and with mana denial it can stay effective until later in the game. Should this be an additional mental misstep and some combination of flusterstorm/spell pierce/spell snare? Would spell snare be a worthwhile inclusion in my meta?
3. Does the sideboard shore up my weaknesses or are some of the cards in it unnecessary?
4. Would stifle be a good inclusion?
5. Should I include a basic island?
BRWC Mardu Shops - Tymna and Akiri Artifacts BRWC
Maybe drop one maindeck Bolt and include a Faithless Looting? It would give you a way to turn dead artifacts (extra null rods or moxen if a rod is in play) or artifact hate that has no targets into fresh cards.
BUWGRChilds PlayGRWUB
BUWGR Highlander GRWUB
UBSquee's Shapeshifting PetBU
BW Multiplayer Control WB
RG Changeling GR
UR Mana FlareRU
UMerfolkU
B MBMC B