- Nico3010
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Last active Thu, May, 14 2020 01:12:43
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Oct 15, 2016Nico3010 posted a message on The World of Alara Part I: The Five ShardsAwsome article! The only thing that surprised me was the lack of leonids in naya's bestiary and politics... Wasn't ajani from a leonid's pack in alaran naya?Posted in: Articles
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It depends a lot on the build. Mine is very grindy (imagine a midrange deck that plays everything at instant speed and replaces discard with counterspells), but others are more shadow-like. The main difference between delver and gds is that you always have to try and get cheap damage turn by turn while gds relies on few massive life swings.
I'm testing a 2-2 split between the two pyromancers and I feel great with it. I also loved two fiery islet replacing the fast lands I used to run. I'm also a fan of bedevil as a 1 of to replace dreadbore. It's heavy on the mana base but way better than dreadbore. For the side, I'm loving plague engineer and trying out one flusterstorm, which has performed decently but didn't shine. I don't like the new ashiok because I'm super light on delve threats (only one tasigur) and it feels too slow against graveyard decks, especially hoogakvine, which is still nearly unbeatable if it has a decent-good start.
I started with UR back in 2015 and slowly upgraded it with kolaghan's command, snapcasters and the mana base, but it's a pretty decent starting point. Also, the fetchless mana base from UR storm is super fine for the deck and very cheap. I'd go for a playset of young pyromancers and abbots of kheral keep for a budget creature shell and then replace the abbots with snapcasters, one pyro with a vendilion clique and then add the delve threats. While you are UR, I'd go with roast and harvest pyre as "hard" removals and then of course replace them with 2 pushes and 2 terminates. Last thing I'm sure about, don't fall in either of the cryptic or discard temptation. They are both wrong choices (I couldn't just see a couple of seizes in the side, but that's all). Good luck!
I've tested it for a while. It seemed cool but often too clunky and I ended up cutting it. As for the discard spells, they don't fit our game plan at all since we want to be tempo/draw go. If you want to go tap out and then be synergistic with discard, delver becomes bad and you should play mardu pyro instead. Of course this is just my opinion, but I've not been greatly impressed by it.
When I first began listing the deck it was similar to yours, however I changed the creature suite and reduced it too for some reasons. First of all, as a Modern Grixis Delver player, according to my play style I felt the need for a card advantage engine and so immediately added Ruin Rider, which is slow and hard to protect, but if protected in the proper way destroys every grindy opponent.
Then I cut Fathom Fleet Captain because it doesn't fit my idea of tempo, forcing me to tap a non irrelevant amount of mana in my turn, which I accept to do only for high impact cards like the aforementioned RR, which is the only non-instant speed card along with Siren Stormtamer (which is a one-drop) and Chart a Course.
Hostage Taker was in my sideboard against midrange and aggro at first, but I decided to cut it because it felt too slow and clunky. It's a 4 mana, sorcery speed play that, although being a potential 3x1 in the mid to late game, risks too often to be a temporary Ravenous Chupacabra and therefore too slow (and weak) for a tempo deck. I'd love it to be playable, but I just think it's not good enough.
Kitesail Freebooter was originally another 4x if my deck and was so until rotation. However, it has always been the worst card of the deck and, as soon as I noticed I had to update the list because it didn't make results at all in the new meta, it was the first card i cut: against control it was a 2x1 but didn't apply enough pressure giving the opponent the time to kill it and recover from the tempo loss and against aggro and midrange it wasn't that relevant nor strong enough. Cutting it, In that spot Chart a Course felt good and served as the (almost) guaranteed 2x1 I needed. There, I guess it depends 100% on the play stile if you value more drawing or making the opponent discard. I like the first, but I see your point for Freebooter, it's just not a card for me.
As for Obsession, I like it, but the setup it needs to be protected (Dive Down) seems very clunky to me and the games where you draw one but not the other or you draw them in the wrong order seem so miserable.
The rest of your non-permanent choices seem reasonable, however I prefer a more spell centric configuration with 6 counterspells (I LOVE to be able to interact with the stack) and 6 removals (VC is a must if you don't win before turn 6 consistently, for me).
Unfortunately, with my higher curve I had to raise the land count to 24.
What I'm truly curious about is that Memorial to Foly. How did it work for you? Is it strong enough to outvalue the "etb tapped" drawback?
4 drowned catacomb
4 field of ruin
6 island
6 swamp
4 siren stormtamer
4 dire fleet poisoner
4 ruin raider
4 dreamcaller siren
3 vraska's contempt
1 essence scatter
2 negate
3 lookout's dispersal
4 opt
4 chart a course
2 dead weight
2 essence scatter
1 negate
2 moment of craving
4 jace, cunning castaway
4 ritual of soot
The mana base is pretty straightforward. At first, I played Unclaimed Territory instead of FoR, but foune out that it wad my worst land and I was never happy to see it, while FoR helps caating all but 8 spells and reduces flooding in the late game, while dealing with problematic lands and helping color screwing three color decks. I'm not entirely sure 24 lands are the right number, but with 23 I screwed too often.
The pirates are the best available in standard. Period.
Stormtamer is a counter with legs, which often dies to save better pieces but sometimes is just a cheap evasive threat that enables CaC and RR.
DFP is a removal on legs against creature decks, an instant speed threat against control and sometimes as a combat trick or extra reach to close narrow games on the right spot. Definitely the most skill intensive card of the whole deck: after one entire year playing the deck, I'm often not sure I'm using it in the correct way. However, if you learn how to master it, it's definitely op.
RR is an expansive and conditional bob but I still consider it more than playable in a shell like this. And of course is a pirate to! One if the first cards to side out against aggro, against control and midrange is at its best.
DCS is probably the best card of the deck regardinh raw power. It's a big, evasive and instant speed threat with an etb that can single handedly buy an entire turn against every creature deck. It's drawback shouldn't be underestimated, but the etb counts as two profitabile blocks at least, so it's not a big deal.
As for the removals and counterspells, they depend entirely on the expected meta, going up and down with VC, CD and the negate-scatter ratio, but this is what I'd probably run in an open field, given that negate is still decent against creature decks while scatter is completely useless against control and, worst case scenario, you can adjust them after sideboarding. However, if anybody finds out a better configuration, I'd love to know it.
Opt is one of my favorite cards and I'd never run less than four in a tempo deck, while CaC proved to be the missing piece I needed in the deck, given I tried in that spot kitesail freebooter, mission briefing and radical idea always feeling something was missing. It hepls digging into lands in the erly game while havimg a painless card advantage engine in the mid to late game with the great ratio of two cards for two mana, despite being at sorcery speed.
The side is decent, but I'm not convinced by some choices, first of all dead weight. Against aggro I miss A LOT fatal push, but DW might not be what I'm looking for. Any suggestion for a better card in that spot? Same goes for the scatter-negate split: I like the idea of being able to adjust them post board, but maybe there's no spot where we want to go 3-0 on scatter, so we might have one free slot there too. Craving and Ritual are no brainers against aggro, so I'd never cut them and Jace is amazing against control and midrange: it's unexpected and often underestimated when on board, so it's easy to ultimate it and then snowball to victory. Worst case scenario, it's a 3 mana 2/2 that offers a 2x1 or buys time, which is not bad at all.
And with that, that's all. Thanks to everybody who had the patience to read this all. Hope the deck caught your interest and feel free to givw advices and suggestions!
Jokes aside, in my personal experience, I found both of them great and what has been umderwhelming was thought scour: it's randomness was too punishing and the chance to fuel a turbo delve threat was not worth the strain, so I run a list with only two tasigurs (and no anglers) and the playsets of both serum and opt, cutting all the scours and feel great with it, since I still can cast an easy t3 tas (but prefer it as a mid game fatty protected with counterspells or late game card advantage engine) and have other great threats like young peezy and clique.
The card I'm trying to evaluate at the moment is risk factor, since the jump start and instant speed are both great elements but I'm not sure the 4 damage "mode" will be good enough times to force the opponent to make you draw. I tried it in a jeskai version with way more burn but got a bit disappointed, maybe as a one or two of in the grindier grixis version could be better. Any thoughts about it?
My current list:
4 snapcaster mage
3 young pyromancer
1 vendilion clique
2 tasigur, the golden fang
4 scalding tarn
4 polluted delta
2 bloodstained mire
2 steam vents
2 watery grave
1 blood crypt
2 island
1 mountain
1 swamp
4 opt
2 dispel
2 spell snare
3 mana leak
4 lightning bolt
3 fatal push
2 terminate
1 dreadbore
2 kolaghan's command
1 engineered explosives
2 nihil spellbomb
2 by force
1 ceremonious rejection
2 disdainful stroke
2 collective brutality
1 countersquall
1 dreadbore
2 anger of the gods
1 izzet staticaster
And my possible changes would be -1 dispel and -1 tasigur for +2 risk factor. Any thoughts?
I strongly believe that discard spells in the main (outside brutality that's way more than just a discard spell) are a crime against the deck, since 1) I agree with BourbonFox on the 1 drop slot and 2) discard spells are a huge tempo loss. Why don't you try and switch those two for a dispel (I run 2 in the main, but my meta does'n have many humans, so in an open one I'd rather have one) and a second terminate or ever dreadbore, which is very helpful against lilianas (overall the last hope), jaces and tron.
I also think 26 spells are not enough and I'd cut at least the clique (even an angler) for one or two more removals or cantrips.
Because my build is kinda unusual, it's to maximize the efficiency of the 3-4 pushes (an higher than usual number) and to fill the graveyard for Tasigur since I run opt instead of thought scour. This improves the control matchup giving your cantrips more late game consistency, and the matchup against 3-4 cmc creature decks. The only matchup that becomes clearly worse is burn, but it's already so bad I find useless to try and fix it.
Depending on the meta i run 12 removals and 7 counters or 13 removals and 6 counters, usually swapping the 4th fatal push with the 2nd dispel or the 1st countersquall in the main. However the most important meta change is in the manabase and creature package: in a meta full of burn and non-vial aggro I want 8 fetches, 4 shocks, 4 basics and 3 fastlands, in a land-denial/generic meta I'm happy with 10 fetches, 5 shocks and 4 basics. As for the creatures, at the moment I run only 2 delve fatties, a Vendilion Clique and 3 Young Pyromancers (with Opt instead of Thought Scour) since the number of Fatal Pushes has gone down in favor of Bolt and, in control decks, PtE. If we go back to a 3-4 mb Pushes meta, I'd certainly go back to 4-5 delve threats and Scour as my to go cantrip.
Bauble is a barely playable card in Temur Delver since it doesn't reduce -that much- the flipping chances of delver and enables delirium for Traverse the Ulvenwald (tbh I wouldn't play traverse at all since it's a tempo-inefficient play), but I strongly believe it's not a good card in the Grixis version, since A) we can't recover it with kommand nor snappy, B) reduces the (blind)flip chances of Delver just for being an artifact by himself and C) you'd need to cut something and, even though the individual solts of the deck are quite personal, spell-type ratio of the deck is incredibly rigid: you need 13-15 creatures, 10-13 removals (including kommand), 4-7 counters and 8-10 cantrips and at least 26 instant-sorceries, so I'm not sure you can find room for 4 "useless" artifacts.