Another quick update: been grinding some Grixis Delver in Magic Online competitive leagues. I started this morning with a UB Delver/Shadow build similar to the Legacy version but kept going 3-2. Tonight, I decided to add the red for a playset of Bolt, 1x Battle Rage, 1x K-Command and a few sideboard cards. I'm happy to share that I got the 5-0 Hopefully it gets posted!
Match-Ups:
R1: Ad Nauseam (2-1)
R2: Infect (2-1)
R3: Storm (2-0)
R4: Bant Spirits (2-0)
R5: Blue Moon (2-0)
If you have any questions about card choices, sideboarding, anything at all, just let me know! Really happy with the results of that league and the current configuration. I will provide updates on any future developments.
Hey man, thanks for the list, I just cashed my first tournament with this, card-for-card. End up 6-2, losing my win-and-in to myself and my nerves. I believe this list had potential to take the whole thing. Here are the matches and general impressions.
R1 - Bogles (2-0) Spell Pierce got his Daybreak Coronet each game (he was playing around soft Stubbs, too!) Beyond that, I just clogged the board until the swing was profitable. Game 1 was 3x Death's Shadow, with surprise Dismember to gobble his Bogle blocker (dismember the spiritdancer, but could have gone on an unblocked shadow for same effect). Game 2 was a single bugman flying over while snap and angler kept me safe.
Boarded in counterspells, pulled out removal - it's the coronet, and then the totems that scare me most (totems allow for a very real crack-back). Beyond that, trust your deck and be aggressive! It's worth noting that against these creature-light decks, I'll tend to pull out Dismembers before Bolts, as Bolt is more versatile, and can still present a ton of burst damage if I target myself with a couple Shadows out.
R3 - Eldrazi Powder (0-2)
Game 1 opp plays a turn 1 chalice on the play, and I durdle my 1-drops into the bin until I can resolve a tasigur. Dismember deals with his smasher, but I have no answer for his second and we go to game 2. Game 2 I keep a threat-light hand that can deal with a chalice, but Brett Spinelli is a sharp player and assumes the control roll well. He has a simian spirit guide when I soft-stub his chalice on 1, and while I get to resolve an explosives on 0 and a tasigur, his mimic becomes a smasher and then seer, and it's about time for me to scoop 'em up.
Boarded in artifactremoval, and rejections for pushes and bolts, but this doesn't even seem strong. He had cavern of souls game 2 in case I found a rejection, and his threats are not artifacts. My guess is this is just an outlier we hope to avoid, but I'll appreciate any insight to the Eldrazi Aggro match-up. Also hope reader gets to play against Brett some time - an absolute pleasure.
R4 Jund (2-1)
Game 1 I don't remember too well (Jund is not an exciting match-up to me). Took a sc'ooze with a thoughtseize (feels good), and sac'd a bugman to a liliana of the veil, which ate a bolt on the follow-up (also feels good). I think a gurmangler got there. Game 2, I mulled to 5. It felt like I was close, but let's be real - I never had my car. Game 3 was grindy, with a couple of bloodbraid elfs seeing different Lilianas. Each Liliana got a 1-mana counterspell, and smart attacks with a death's shadow ground him out. Luckily, he got greedy one turn towards the end and cleaned my hand with a thoughtseize, passed, and let me draw a spell pierce for the k-command he should have cast when I had an empty hand. Better lucky than good!
Boarded in not much - some countersqualls for dismembers, and not much else. This match-up is more about smart evaluation and I'm largely resigned to accepting abrupt decay as inevitable. I hope they don't have it, but I will not take it with a thoughtseize if I see it - we have more targetable threats than they have decays, so I'll play a protect the delve-guy game, and let them spend 2 mana to decay my 1-mana threat.
R5 Blue Moon (2-0)
Game 1 I figure my opponent is on Jeskai control, so kind of kick myself for playing a T1 Delver and he follows up with a T2 Search. My delver flips, and he durdles until I T4 Thoughtseize his Emra2cool4school, the Aeons Torn, leaving him with a through the breach in hand, for which I have a spell pierce prepared. Of note - he Serum Visioned to cards to the top on his turn, influencing my decision. Better lucky than good! G2 is similar, except I nab a madcap on T3, and Tasigur is the win con.
Boarded in counterspells and brutalities for removal (2/2/2, keeping in 2 bolts). This was my first time playing the match-up, but it seems real winnable. Thoughtseize is baller and our counterspells cost less and hit their wincons!
R6 Grixis Teachings (2-0) - This is my testing buddy, Andrew Escobedo, and kudos for his performance (list is sweet!)
Game 1 I sketch-mull 7 down to 6, 6 to 5, and 5 to 4. Don't remember the details of the game (my heart was racing with mixed emotions), but it must have involved a 1-mana counter spell on a cryptic command. Game 2 was rugged, with 1 pivotal play. I swing a 2/2 Death's Shadow and he flashes in a snapcaster mage. When he flashes back the kolaghan's command to shock shadow and have me discard, I pay 2 life to extract his teachings (thoughtseized earlier) and pump the shadow out of range, bolt the snapcaster (I'm now hellbent before the Kommand resolves). He loses a ton of value on the exchange, and the game wraps up in short order thereafter.
Boarded in counterspells and 1 extraction for pushes, dismembers, and some bolts. I always bring in 1 extraction as a Gotcha! play against snapcaster decks. The ability to counter their big value play and wingclip their future with no mana open is a blow-out. I will only cast extraction in this match-up as a counterspell to get immediate denial, and so will only bring in 1.
R7 5c Tribal Flames Aggro (2-0)
Game 1 is pretty grindy with 2x Thoughtseize grabbing 2x Mantis Rider. He gets down a voice of resurgence, and at some point I'm forced to kill it during his attack. Somehow I get him to 4, and I'm at 2 when he decides to attack with a noble hierarch instead of his remaining resurgence token (a 3/3). He triggers his 2x hierarch hierarch and I k-command it, recover snapcaster mage. He realizes he should have attacked with the token, and so does when I play land and pass with snap in hand. His token is a 3/3 swinging, so I play snap, target k-command, block. Snap dies and he moves to end step, so I flashback k-command to shock dome and recover snap, untap, snap-bolt dome. He wasn't even considering the flashback k-command, recover snap post-combat, so it seems worthwhile to lay it out here. Game 2 was a hot pile of cess for my opponent, where I had an aggressive curve and all the answers.
Frankly I do not remember the board plan, as I feel we're pretty well matched in the main. Countersqualls came in, I know that because it was the last spell played in the match. Our dudes block theirs well, and we have the countermagic they lack pre-board. Mantis Rider is a jerk, and flags down my Thoughtseize whenever I see it (exceptions and limitations apply).
R8 Ad Nauseum (1-2)
Prior to this match, I've never won a game against Ad Nauseum, and have been terrified of it as a result. I was tilted the whole match, also being the closest I've been to a Top 8 finish. Game 1 I choose to thought scour T1 on the draw, rather than leave up Spell Pierce for the prism. Then I play a couple of threats and he plays another prism. Then I attack, pass the turn, and he goes off - go figure. Game 2, I rip his hand apart and counter 1 of 2 lotus blooms, and end up beating face until he dies. Game 3, I feel real confident and here's where my results are not indicative of the deck's ability. I keep a decent hand with delver, snap, thoughtseize, and some lands (mulled to 5). I T1 seize, and see 2x SSG, 2x Ad Nauseum, and some melarkie - I take 1x SSG, planning to extract them when I draw a surgical. Delver comes down T2 and flips on T4, after I back him up with a snapcasted thoughtseize. I take a new-found phyrexian unlife to delay him while I beat for 5 a turn. This is my first mistake of the game, where I should have taken the second SSG. He would be hard-pressed to spot-win with 2x SSG in the graveyard. A couple turns later he plays another unlife, and I get scared and tax him with a soft stub, when he's really just trying to buy time (my fear suggested he could win on the spot with those 2 mana open, so I should tap 1 down). He pays it and passes, and I swing him to 0 with bugman, shadow, and snap, and he plays Ad Nauseum #1 EOT, which I hard-stub. He untaps and casts Ad Nauseum #2 to which I have no response. The obvious mistake is soft stub the unlife, but the real mistake is not taking the 2nd SSG. Ah well.
Boarded in counterspells in place of removal. This match-up seems so well in our favor, that the deck is capable of winning through 1 play mistake at Table 4 on the final round. Be aggressive and play smart - you'll get there!
Ultimately, the biggest strength for this deck is its mana efficiency. All of our threats and all angles of our disruption cost only 1 mana. This allows us to double and triple spell people in a turn, making the deck incredibly fast at executing its plan.
Hey man, thanks for the list, I just cashed my first tournament with this, card-for-card. End up 6-2, losing my win-and-in to myself and my nerves. I believe this list had potential to take the whole thing. Here are the matches and general impressions.
Here's the tl;dr -
R1 Bogles 2-0
R2 Storm 2-0
R3 Eldrazi Powder 0-2
R4 Jund 2-1
R5 Blue Moon 2-0
R6 Grixis Teachings 2-0
R7 5c Tribal Flames Aggro 2-0
R8 Ad Nauseum 1-2
R1 - Bogles (2-0)
Spell Pierce got his Daybreak Coronet each game (he was playing around soft Stubbs, too!) Beyond that, I just clogged the board until the swing was profitable. Game 1 was 3x Death's Shadow, with surprise Dismember to gobble his Bogle blocker (dismember the spiritdancer, but could have gone on an unblocked shadow for same effect). Game 2 was a single bugman flying over while snap and angler kept me safe.
Boarded in counterspells, pulled out removal - it's the coronet, and then the totems that scare me most (totems allow for a very real crack-back). Beyond that, trust your deck and be aggressive! It's worth noting that against these creature-light decks, I'll tend to pull out Dismembers before Bolts, as Bolt is more versatile, and can still present a ton of burst damage if I target myself with a couple Shadows out.
R2 - Storm (2-0)
Tore the cheap spells from his hand (manamorphose and rituals), removal spells killed his wizards before blocks, and counterspells had me covered on big spells that never had a chance to get played.
Boarded in counterspells, brutalities, and extractions for pushes, dismembers, and bolts. Be aggressive in this one - sink them teeth and gator roll!
R3 - Eldrazi Powder (0-2)
Game 1 opp plays a turn 1 chalice on the play, and I durdle my 1-drops into the bin until I can resolve a tasigur. Dismember deals with his smasher, but I have no answer for his second and we go to game 2. Game 2 I keep a threat-light hand that can deal with a chalice, but Brett Spinelli is a sharp player and assumes the control roll well. He has a simian spirit guide when I soft-stub his chalice on 1, and while I get to resolve an explosives on 0 and a tasigur, his mimic becomes a smasher and then seer, and it's about time for me to scoop 'em up.
Boarded in artifact removal, and rejections for pushes and bolts, but this doesn't even seem strong. He had cavern of souls game 2 in case I found a rejection, and his threats are not artifacts. My guess is this is just an outlier we hope to avoid, but I'll appreciate any insight to the Eldrazi Aggro match-up. Also hope reader gets to play against Brett some time - an absolute pleasure.
R4 Jund (2-1)
Game 1 I don't remember too well (Jund is not an exciting match-up to me). Took a sc'ooze with a thoughtseize (feels good), and sac'd a bugman to a liliana of the veil, which ate a bolt on the follow-up (also feels good). I think a gurmangler got there. Game 2, I mulled to 5. It felt like I was close, but let's be real - I never had my car. Game 3 was grindy, with a couple of bloodbraid elfs seeing different Lilianas. Each Liliana got a 1-mana counterspell, and smart attacks with a death's shadow ground him out. Luckily, he got greedy one turn towards the end and cleaned my hand with a thoughtseize, passed, and let me draw a spell pierce for the k-command he should have cast when I had an empty hand. Better lucky than good!
Boarded in not much - some countersqualls for dismembers, and not much else. This match-up is more about smart evaluation and I'm largely resigned to accepting abrupt decay as inevitable. I hope they don't have it, but I will not take it with a thoughtseize if I see it - we have more targetable threats than they have decays, so I'll play a protect the delve-guy game, and let them spend 2 mana to decay my 1-mana threat.
R5 Blue Moon (2-0)
Game 1 I figure my opponent is on Jeskai control, so kind of kick myself for playing a T1 Delver and he follows up with a T2 Search. My delver flips, and he durdles until I T4 Thoughtseize his Emra2cool4school, the Aeons Torn, leaving him with a through the breach in hand, for which I have a spell pierce prepared. Of note - he Serum Visioned to cards to the top on his turn, influencing my decision. Better lucky than good! G2 is similar, except I nab a madcap on T3, and Tasigur is the win con.
Boarded in counterspells and brutalities for removal (2/2/2, keeping in 2 bolts). This was my first time playing the match-up, but it seems real winnable. Thoughtseize is baller and our counterspells cost less and hit their wincons!
R6 Grixis Teachings (2-0) - This is my testing buddy, Andrew Escobedo, and kudos for his performance (list is sweet!)
Game 1 I sketch-mull 7 down to 6, 6 to 5, and 5 to 4. Don't remember the details of the game (my heart was racing with mixed emotions), but it must have involved a 1-mana counter spell on a cryptic command. Game 2 was rugged, with 1 pivotal play. I swing a 2/2 Death's Shadow and he flashes in a snapcaster mage. When he flashes back the kolaghan's command to shock shadow and have me discard, I pay 2 life to extract his teachings (thoughtseized earlier) and pump the shadow out of range, bolt the snapcaster (I'm now hellbent before the Kommand resolves). He loses a ton of value on the exchange, and the game wraps up in short order thereafter.
Boarded in counterspells and 1 extraction for pushes, dismembers, and some bolts. I always bring in 1 extraction as a Gotcha! play against snapcaster decks. The ability to counter their big value play and wingclip their future with no mana open is a blow-out. I will only cast extraction in this match-up as a counterspell to get immediate denial, and so will only bring in 1.
R7 5c Tribal Flames Aggro (2-0)
Game 1 is pretty grindy with 2x Thoughtseize grabbing 2x Mantis Rider. He gets down a voice of resurgence, and at some point I'm forced to kill it during his attack. Somehow I get him to 4, and I'm at 2 when he decides to attack with a noble hierarch instead of his remaining resurgence token (a 3/3). He triggers his 2x hierarch hierarch and I k-command it, recover snapcaster mage. He realizes he should have attacked with the token, and so does when I play land and pass with snap in hand. His token is a 3/3 swinging, so I play snap, target k-command, block. Snap dies and he moves to end step, so I flashback k-command to shock dome and recover snap, untap, snap-bolt dome. He wasn't even considering the flashback k-command, recover snap post-combat, so it seems worthwhile to lay it out here. Game 2 was a hot pile of cess for my opponent, where I had an aggressive curve and all the answers.
Frankly I do not remember the board plan, as I feel we're pretty well matched in the main. Countersqualls came in, I know that because it was the last spell played in the match. Our dudes block theirs well, and we have the countermagic they lack pre-board. Mantis Rider is a jerk, and flags down my Thoughtseize whenever I see it (exceptions and limitations apply).
R8 Ad Nauseum (1-2)
Prior to this match, I've never won a game against Ad Nauseum, and have been terrified of it as a result. I was tilted the whole match, also being the closest I've been to a Top 8 finish. Game 1 I choose to thought scour T1 on the draw, rather than leave up Spell Pierce for the prism. Then I play a couple of threats and he plays another prism. Then I attack, pass the turn, and he goes off - go figure. Game 2, I rip his hand apart and counter 1 of 2 lotus blooms, and end up beating face until he dies. Game 3, I feel real confident and here's where my results are not indicative of the deck's ability. I keep a decent hand with delver, snap, thoughtseize, and some lands (mulled to 5). I T1 seize, and see 2x SSG, 2x Ad Nauseum, and some melarkie - I take 1x SSG, planning to extract them when I draw a surgical. Delver comes down T2 and flips on T4, after I back him up with a snapcasted thoughtseize. I take a new-found phyrexian unlife to delay him while I beat for 5 a turn. This is my first mistake of the game, where I should have taken the second SSG. He would be hard-pressed to spot-win with 2x SSG in the graveyard. A couple turns later he plays another unlife, and I get scared and tax him with a soft stub, when he's really just trying to buy time (my fear suggested he could win on the spot with those 2 mana open, so I should tap 1 down). He pays it and passes, and I swing him to 0 with bugman, shadow, and snap, and he plays Ad Nauseum #1 EOT, which I hard-stub. He untaps and casts Ad Nauseum #2 to which I have no response. The obvious mistake is soft stub the unlife, but the real mistake is not taking the 2nd SSG. Ah well.
Boarded in counterspells in place of removal. This match-up seems so well in our favor, that the deck is capable of winning through 1 play mistake at Table 4 on the final round. Be aggressive and play smart - you'll get there!
Ultimately, the biggest strength for this deck is its mana efficiency. All of our threats and all angles of our disruption cost only 1 mana. This allows us to double and triple spell people in a turn, making the deck incredibly fast at executing its plan.
I haven't gotten in any testing yet, but what's your more-experienced gut suggest about the following shell -
3x Disfigure
2x Chainer's Edict
1x Victim of Night
2x Echoing Decay
3x Memory Lapse
3x Counterspell
1x Horobi's Whisper
2x Crypt Rats
1x Evincar's Justice
1x Traumatic Visions
Card Advantage (15)
3x Augur of Bolas
4x Peer Through Depths
1x Soulless Revival
3x Murmurs from Beyond
1x Archaeomancer
1x Mystical Teachings
1x Thorn of the Black Rose
1x Grim Harvest
3x Twisted Abomination
Lands (23)
2x Ash Barrens
4x Dismal Backwater
7x Island
6x Swamp
4x Terramorphic Expanse
15x We'll Get There...
edit1: -1 Mulldrifter, +1 Thorn of the Black Rose
edit2: -2 Dimir Aqueduct, +1 Island, +1 Swamp