I've been goldfish testing with grisly salvage rather than gather the pack and the option to grab a land or creature has been relevant more than a few times.
Sun and moon was definitely interesting. Every card in that deck seems to be the right answer to whatever I was doing.
It was my first night on the list so the sample size is far to small to know for sure how I feel about the infestation and squee. Definitely liked it when it was working but not certain it will continue to provide the value I want it to. Infestation is a favorite card of mine and I've been guilty of trying to force it into a number of brews. The bushwhackers never felt useless though I could see trimming to one as a surprise win con. I sideboarded out one copy almost every match. For sure looking forward to more tweaking with this list.
The deck felt pretty good most of the night. Definitely has some explosive draws. Discarding two vengevine to looting, cycling wraith, playing two free hollow ones and surging bushwhacker to swing 22 on turn three felt great.
I am only running the 8 fetches currently because I don't quite yet know how much I can afford to lose to myself. I can see adding two more in to help fuel delve. Will make that change adding another tarn and delta cutting a spirebluff and blood crypt? I actually pulled 2 young pyros to put in 2 remands last minute. Never playing the deck live I wasn't completely set on which way to go. Maybe I'll pull the two spell snares for the two young pyromancers. Again, the spell snares just never felt great in hand. Also, didn't see a single push against me all night, and only played against one deck that even could play it anyway. Meta at my LGS is super diverse so I'm not terribly concerned about seeing push anyway as only roughly 1/4 of the decks are jund/junk/grixis.
Game 1 - Turn one delver flipped on turn two was an almost auto win.
Did not sideboard as I'm not really sure anything in my board would be good against this deck. Lack of enchantment hate is glaring here.
Game 2 - First 7 had 6 lands, next 6 had one land with no turn one play. Mull to 5. T2 Greater Auromancy into t3 Myth Realized with no counters in hand or anything to deal with enchantments quickly snowballed into a 6/6 monk.
Still did not sideboard because I felt the poor draw was just a fluke, again this is my very first match with the deck so still learning it but I felt I should be favored with my mainboard so gave it a go again.
Game 3 - Bolt Snap Bolt did work, almost felt like this interaction is the main reason to play Grixis Delver at all. Pretty straightforward.
Match 2 vs. Jund (non DS version) (2-0)
Game 1 - Kept one land hand with Snap, Delver, Thought Scour, Tasigur, Terminate, Remand, Darkslick Shores. On the draw he t1 thoughtseize and takes Snap. I flip delver on t2 and this takes me over the line fairly handily.
Did not sideboard, considered Thoughtseize but nothing seemed great in this matchup out of the board.
Game 2 - T2 he resolves Bob and t3 he flips Huntmaster, he's down to 12 without a single attack from me (2 fetches, 1 shock and 4 from the Huntmaster). Remand was allstar of the match here for me. Pulled another Snap and remanded Scooze t3 then Snap-Remand Scooze to open up Tasigur attacks.
Match 3 vs. Eldrazi and Taxes - (0-2)
Game 1 - Kept 1 land hand because it worked m2 g1. By turn 5 only had 2 lands on board and he had 2 vials in play. Managed to jam a Tasigur but flicker wisp taking me off blocks into displacer blinking tasigur to continue clearing my board for displacer, leonine arbiter, flickerwisp attacks was impossible to handle.
Sideboard -3 mana leak, -2 spell snare (aether vial felt like counter magic was fairly useless), +3 thoughtseize, +2 collective brutality.
Game 2 - Kept 2 land 6 card hand holding thoughtseize, brutality, delver, angler, bloodstained mire, watery grave. On play I t1 shock grave into thoughtseize and see flickerwisp, 2x thought-knot seer, displacer, path, blade splicer and plains. I take splicer (maybe wrong take?) and pass. T2 fetch steam vents main off bloodstained mire to brutality away the path. He drops tidehollow sculler taking a push. T3 I play out the delver (which never flipped) and pass. T3 he plays out thalia and I'm pretty well done as I don't draw another land for the remainder of the game. I do manage to play a tasigur but his board state is too developed and two lands against thalia is bad news.
I feel this could have been much closer if not getting stuck on two lands both games. However, neither game felt close at all. Not sure if actually a bad match-up though.
Match 4 vs. R/G Warpworld? (2-0)
Game 1 - Managed to flip delver t2 and fly over a ton of plant tokens and eldrazi scions. Remand again put in work here with remanding Primeval Titan. Wasn't sure what I was playing against here as all I've seen are wall of roots, nissa, voice of zendikar, nest invader and cryptolith rites (which was spell snared).
Did not sideboard because g1 felt fine.
Game 2 - Flipped delver plus tasigur after spell snaring nest invader got me there. He did land a cryptolith rites t2 which gave him (with all the tokens produced) 8 mana t4 to go for warp world (a card I'd never seen before) but he was at 7 life and tapped down his board to play it. I remanded it and swung in exactsies with flipped delver and tasigur. Another game where remand was stand out card for me.
Match 5 vs. R/G Tron (0-2)
Game 1 - Just feel bads all over the place here. He resolves Wurmcoil engine t3 and Karn t4. Casts Ugin t5 and I scoop.
Sideboard -3 mana leak, -2 spell snare, -1 thought scour, -2 push, +2 ceremonious rejection, +3 thoughtseize, +2 surgical.
Game 2 - First seven had no land. Next six had 4 lands, thoughtseize and ceremonious rejection. Definitely contemplated keeping and in hindsight probably should have kept this. Mulled down to 5 and held 3 lands, thought scour and delver. Did not want to go to 4 so I kept. He gets tron t3 again with chromatic sphere draws, expedition map searches and ancient stirrings for gas. Standard tron stuff. Casting ulamog t4 I remand it (as it's my only response) but cast trigger exiles two of 4 lands. T5 cast ulamog again so with other two lands gone I scoop.
So overall I feel my losses were more to do with poor mulligan decisions than poor game play (though I suppose it could be argued that the two are not mutually exclusive). Remand put in real work so possibly going to a third copy and shaving a spell snare as it only came up on one match. I feel sideboard could use some tweaking as well. For my very first night with the deck I did very much enjoy how it played and think I'll hold onto it for a while.
It was my first night on the list so the sample size is far to small to know for sure how I feel about the infestation and squee. Definitely liked it when it was working but not certain it will continue to provide the value I want it to. Infestation is a favorite card of mine and I've been guilty of trying to force it into a number of brews. The bushwhackers never felt useless though I could see trimming to one as a surprise win con. I sideboarded out one copy almost every match. For sure looking forward to more tweaking with this list.
4 vengevine
4 hollow one
4 gravecrawler
4 insolent neonate
2 gurmag angler
4 squee, goblin nabob
4 street wraith
2 reckless bushwhacker
-sorcery
4 faithless looting
2 cathartic reunion
-enchantment
2 zombie infestation
2 temur battle rage
2 become immense
2 dismember
-lands
3 bloodstained mire
3 wooded foothills
2 windswept Heath
2 overgrown tomb
2 blood crypt
2 stomping ground
2 swamp
1 forest
1 mountain
3 ancient grudge
2 abrupt decay
2 golgari charm
2 kolaghan's command
2 conflagrate
2 terminate
2 grim lavamancer
The deck felt pretty good most of the night. Definitely has some explosive draws. Discarding two vengevine to looting, cycling wraith, playing two free hollow ones and surging bushwhacker to swing 22 on turn three felt great.
Took this list to my first FNM and went 3-2. I feel my losses were mostly due to poor mulligan decisions and/or inexperience with the deck.
4x snapcaster mage
3x tasigur, the golden fang
2x gurmag angler
2x remand
2x spell snare
3x mana leak
3x fatal push
4x serum visions
4x thought scour
4x lightning bolt
2x terminate
2x kolaghan's command
3x bloodstained mire
2x scalding tarn
2x spirebluff canal
2x darkslick shores
1x watery grave
2x steam vents
1x blood crypt
2x island
1x swamp
1x mountain
2x ceremonious rejection
2x dispel
2x collective brutality
3x thoughtseize
2x surgical extraction
2x vampiric link
1x slaughter games
1x lost legacy
Match 1 vs. Mono-White enchantments (2-1)
Game 1 - Turn one delver flipped on turn two was an almost auto win.
Did not sideboard as I'm not really sure anything in my board would be good against this deck. Lack of enchantment hate is glaring here.
Game 2 - First 7 had 6 lands, next 6 had one land with no turn one play. Mull to 5. T2 Greater Auromancy into t3 Myth Realized with no counters in hand or anything to deal with enchantments quickly snowballed into a 6/6 monk.
Still did not sideboard because I felt the poor draw was just a fluke, again this is my very first match with the deck so still learning it but I felt I should be favored with my mainboard so gave it a go again.
Game 3 - Bolt Snap Bolt did work, almost felt like this interaction is the main reason to play Grixis Delver at all. Pretty straightforward.
Match 2 vs. Jund (non DS version) (2-0)
Game 1 - Kept one land hand with Snap, Delver, Thought Scour, Tasigur, Terminate, Remand, Darkslick Shores. On the draw he t1 thoughtseize and takes Snap. I flip delver on t2 and this takes me over the line fairly handily.
Did not sideboard, considered Thoughtseize but nothing seemed great in this matchup out of the board.
Game 2 - T2 he resolves Bob and t3 he flips Huntmaster, he's down to 12 without a single attack from me (2 fetches, 1 shock and 4 from the Huntmaster). Remand was allstar of the match here for me. Pulled another Snap and remanded Scooze t3 then Snap-Remand Scooze to open up Tasigur attacks.
Match 3 vs. Eldrazi and Taxes - (0-2)
Game 1 - Kept 1 land hand because it worked m2 g1. By turn 5 only had 2 lands on board and he had 2 vials in play. Managed to jam a Tasigur but flicker wisp taking me off blocks into displacer blinking tasigur to continue clearing my board for displacer, leonine arbiter, flickerwisp attacks was impossible to handle.
Sideboard -3 mana leak, -2 spell snare (aether vial felt like counter magic was fairly useless), +3 thoughtseize, +2 collective brutality.
Game 2 - Kept 2 land 6 card hand holding thoughtseize, brutality, delver, angler, bloodstained mire, watery grave. On play I t1 shock grave into thoughtseize and see flickerwisp, 2x thought-knot seer, displacer, path, blade splicer and plains. I take splicer (maybe wrong take?) and pass. T2 fetch steam vents main off bloodstained mire to brutality away the path. He drops tidehollow sculler taking a push. T3 I play out the delver (which never flipped) and pass. T3 he plays out thalia and I'm pretty well done as I don't draw another land for the remainder of the game. I do manage to play a tasigur but his board state is too developed and two lands against thalia is bad news.
I feel this could have been much closer if not getting stuck on two lands both games. However, neither game felt close at all. Not sure if actually a bad match-up though.
Match 4 vs. R/G Warpworld? (2-0)
Game 1 - Managed to flip delver t2 and fly over a ton of plant tokens and eldrazi scions. Remand again put in work here with remanding Primeval Titan. Wasn't sure what I was playing against here as all I've seen are wall of roots, nissa, voice of zendikar, nest invader and cryptolith rites (which was spell snared).
Did not sideboard because g1 felt fine.
Game 2 - Flipped delver plus tasigur after spell snaring nest invader got me there. He did land a cryptolith rites t2 which gave him (with all the tokens produced) 8 mana t4 to go for warp world (a card I'd never seen before) but he was at 7 life and tapped down his board to play it. I remanded it and swung in exactsies with flipped delver and tasigur. Another game where remand was stand out card for me.
Match 5 vs. R/G Tron (0-2)
Game 1 - Just feel bads all over the place here. He resolves Wurmcoil engine t3 and Karn t4. Casts Ugin t5 and I scoop.
Sideboard -3 mana leak, -2 spell snare, -1 thought scour, -2 push, +2 ceremonious rejection, +3 thoughtseize, +2 surgical.
Game 2 - First seven had no land. Next six had 4 lands, thoughtseize and ceremonious rejection. Definitely contemplated keeping and in hindsight probably should have kept this. Mulled down to 5 and held 3 lands, thought scour and delver. Did not want to go to 4 so I kept. He gets tron t3 again with chromatic sphere draws, expedition map searches and ancient stirrings for gas. Standard tron stuff. Casting ulamog t4 I remand it (as it's my only response) but cast trigger exiles two of 4 lands. T5 cast ulamog again so with other two lands gone I scoop.
So overall I feel my losses were more to do with poor mulligan decisions than poor game play (though I suppose it could be argued that the two are not mutually exclusive). Remand put in real work so possibly going to a third copy and shaving a spell snare as it only came up on one match. I feel sideboard could use some tweaking as well. For my very first night with the deck I did very much enjoy how it played and think I'll hold onto it for a while.