Ratchet Bombing for 0 against tokens is usually a misplay anyway, you want to hit it for 2 to blow up the anthems then follow it up with some kind of sweeper. If you are playing ratchet bomb as your only sweeper you're doing it wrong and are better off with a different plan.
Titan Ramp isn't even the best deck in the format, the cards you listed are hosed because they are bad in constructed, but bombs/value cards in limited. Not saying Titans aren't overpowered and that I won't be glad when they are gone, but Titan Ramp has not warped this standard like the last one.
Mono Red is not even close to a top 3 deck, Green/Red aggro yes, Monored is terribad right now. This is about the healthiest standard gets right now, I'm sorry if you are upset that bad cards do not see play, but I will take this standard over losing to cards like these any day of the week.
If I had more cards to bring in I would take out leak as well. They have more threats than we do, Imaging a Strangleroot geist with a vapor snag in hand helps you apply pressure. Equipment isn't that good against them because of Slime and Grudge, but you can't afford to play around it.
This deck seems playable as long as you don't have a lot of UB Control in your meta. Honestly if you have a lot of UB control in your meta you want to be on Delver, RG, or Humans anyway, so I could see this working out. Grudge is about 1 million times better against delver than any other removal you have for their equipment since it is ok to discard it to desperate ravings.
UB does just crush any control deck that has to tap mana on its own turn though, unless you can get rid of the drownyards there is no way for this deck to beat them. If you can't interact with drownyard you will never resolve a bomb and contrary to public belief they will not die to lingering souls unless their draw is terrible. But UB is on the decline so I say go for it if you like your Delver matchup.
I don't know how it has been for everyone else, but I have played this matchup 3 times in 2 seperate tournaments over the past 2 days and lost all 3 times. It has not played like the regular Naya Pod matchup at all. I think siding more for aggro than for pod is correct, but has anyone had positive results against this deck? If you have how have you been beating it? It just seems like they always have more threats than I do and Daybreak Ranger is such a beating, especially when they play Huntmaster and I spend resources killing Ranger, or vise versa.
For starters take out corrosive gale from your board in general, that card is one of the most overplayed sideboard cards I have ever seen and is so narrow that it is horrible unless you expect a meta full of BW tokens, even then I don't think corrosive gale makes the matchup that much better for us seeing as delver is basically a bye for them, hopefully Frites and Wolf Run keep that deck quiet, but I digress.
As a set of general rules, mana leak is usually bad against aggro decks, so is gitaxian probe if you play it. Stalker actually stays in for me most of the time now, except if my opponent is likely to play whipflare or slagstorm
Against control you want to cut most, if not all snags and other removal for extra counterspells. The key is to counter the spell they are trying to 2 for 1 you with, if you keep making them go 1 for 1 with your threats they will run out of gas before you do, since your deck is all gas and theirs is almost all durdling.
Todd Anderson's article pretty much covers what you should be doing, except for his section on pod, I don't think what he suggests is correct since good pod players take out their pod plan against you anyway and just have more threats than you. You want to play it more like the R/G aggro or humans matchup than like he suggests. The way you win there is by forcing them to be reactive and keeping Strangleroot geist under control. Image still comes in, but I don't bring in artifact hate for it anymore, I like everything else he says (except any time he mentions corrosive gale, never play that card in delver)
While slow play is an issue, playing too fast is just as bad for you to. Especially when you are nervous think about each line you could take. This is especially a good thing to do when your opponent is in the tank, know what your next few lines of play are based on the board state. For example, your opponent has a creature in play and is thinking during his first main phase. During this time you should be thinking of what you want to do should he attack and what you want to do should he not attack.
Knowing your deck well enough to be able to predict what your lines of play are in any situation is very important. I know that knowing the deck well enough that I can look at the board state and know what the play is calms me down significantly when I am nervous.
While it is usually better not to scoop, if you know you have 0 outs and your opponent has no real way to punt the game to you, its ok to scoop to save time. If you are playing a deck where if you go to time you've already lost (i.e. RDW) then don't scoop ever.
Along those same lines, play to your outs. I've seen to many people tap wrong or not attack and chump with their threat to buy a turn when they could top deck a sword and kill me and other things. Make sure you choose the line that means you can say "X card, one time" topdeck it, and win. A lot of times they have an answer and you are just dead, but you are guaranteed to be dead if you don't play to your outs.
Last thing, communicate clearly to your opponent and make sure he passes his priority (I know there are ladies out there that play to, but "he" is less letters than "she" :P). Nothing irritates me as a competitive player more than when somebody just starts resolving a trigger or enters combat without giving me a chance to respond. Also don't be afraid to stop your opponent, speak up for your priority. To not be the guy they are asking to slow down say "Untap, upkeep, draw" at the beginning of your turn and say "declare attackers" or "combat" or another synomym for it when you want to move to your attack step.
So in short, know your deck, know your lines of play, play to your outs, and communicate clearly within the game.
P.S. you are permitted to have sideboard notes to look at between games, I highly recommend that you make yourself a page of notes to leave in your deckbox with your sideboard, have a plan for your board against the decks you think will be the most popular so you don't have to make too many decisions between games. Just make sure your notes are back in your deckbox when you present your deck along with the rest of your sideboard
No, you really can't be a control deck, if you try to be you will lose. If you are not being aggressive on the play then you really don't know what you are doing. I will agree that nothing said pertains to every situation, sometimes holding back is necessary, but that is not the most common case. This isn't just coming from me, PV said in one of his articles that the key to playing Delver is knowing when to be aggressive (hint: always) and I will listen to PV before I listen to just about anyone else 99.47% of the time.
You don't play different rolls, you are always the beatdown, trust me, if you try to take the control roll you start countering the wrong things, removing things that don't matter, and you will lose. Delver is not an aggro-control deck, if you want to talk about an aggro-control deck you are talking about Caw-Blade. Tempo is an aggressive strategy and while there are situations where you hold back that doesn't mean that plan A is to establish control of the board, so no, I am not "just wrong." And if you honestly think Invisible Stalker is good enough to hold back as a threat than you really don't know what you are talking about. Invisible Stalker is by far the worst creature in the deck and I would be happy if they used some type of removal to get rid of him since I would much rather have any other creature in the deck stay alive.
P.S. I have never seen Delver win a game other than in the mirror without doing something before turn 3
Flashing back ponder is one of the best things you do with Snapcaster. Everything Tiago flashes back puts you a little further ahead. He isn't always a blowout, he gives you tempo advantage by casting a spell and putting a 2/1 into play. Snapcaster is so much better than Midnight Haunting in this deck that it's almost impossible to compare the two. Automatic 4 of in any deck running delver of secrets. Snapcaster, Delver, Ponder, the three core cards that are a 4 of in every single delver list, no matter the varient, that should tell you something.
Tempo is the best archetype for Snapcaster Mage, he is central to our strategy, while he is a value card for control. I'd say the deck relies more on Snapcaster than it does on Delver. If you are playing black you do not need 4 Midnight Haunting to go with Lingering Souls, you do need 4 Vapor Snag since not only does it temporarily remove the threat, it gives you a pretty good indication of what their next play is going to be. If you want to play Honor of the Pure, you should be playing Geist of Saint Traft over the Captain.
In the mirror I would gladly pay 2 life for information, like most mirrors, the winner is whoever can get a 2 for 1 first and by knowing what is in their hand it is much easier to set the opponent up for a blowout. I have no problem with thought scour, but it would take some major convincing to get me to cut probe. I do side it out against most aggro decks, but since probe is a free cycle anyway I'm really taking the deck back up to 60 cards from 56.
This may be because I'm more on the control side when it comes to playstyle, but I find information to be a valuable resource in most matchups and the fact that I can get it for 2 life without losing a card make probe much better than thought scour for me. However, like I said, I have no problem with thought scour, if you are all in on the pike plan you should have 4, but I don't think being all in on the pike plan is correct if you are worried about aggro decks, which is the biggest argument I see against probe right now.
Mono Red is not even close to a top 3 deck, Green/Red aggro yes, Monored is terribad right now. This is about the healthiest standard gets right now, I'm sorry if you are upset that bad cards do not see play, but I will take this standard over losing to cards like these any day of the week.
So my board plan has been this: -4 Probe, -1 Geist of Saint Traft
+2 Phantasmal Image, +2 Timely Reinforcements, +1 Batterskull
If I had more cards to bring in I would take out leak as well. They have more threats than we do, Imaging a Strangleroot geist with a vapor snag in hand helps you apply pressure. Equipment isn't that good against them because of Slime and Grudge, but you can't afford to play around it.
UB does just crush any control deck that has to tap mana on its own turn though, unless you can get rid of the drownyards there is no way for this deck to beat them. If you can't interact with drownyard you will never resolve a bomb and contrary to public belief they will not die to lingering souls unless their draw is terrible. But UB is on the decline so I say go for it if you like your Delver matchup.
As a set of general rules, mana leak is usually bad against aggro decks, so is gitaxian probe if you play it. Stalker actually stays in for me most of the time now, except if my opponent is likely to play whipflare or slagstorm
Against control you want to cut most, if not all snags and other removal for extra counterspells. The key is to counter the spell they are trying to 2 for 1 you with, if you keep making them go 1 for 1 with your threats they will run out of gas before you do, since your deck is all gas and theirs is almost all durdling.
Todd Anderson's article pretty much covers what you should be doing, except for his section on pod, I don't think what he suggests is correct since good pod players take out their pod plan against you anyway and just have more threats than you. You want to play it more like the R/G aggro or humans matchup than like he suggests. The way you win there is by forcing them to be reactive and keeping Strangleroot geist under control. Image still comes in, but I don't bring in artifact hate for it anymore, I like everything else he says (except any time he mentions corrosive gale, never play that card in delver)
Knowing your deck well enough to be able to predict what your lines of play are in any situation is very important. I know that knowing the deck well enough that I can look at the board state and know what the play is calms me down significantly when I am nervous.
While it is usually better not to scoop, if you know you have 0 outs and your opponent has no real way to punt the game to you, its ok to scoop to save time. If you are playing a deck where if you go to time you've already lost (i.e. RDW) then don't scoop ever.
Along those same lines, play to your outs. I've seen to many people tap wrong or not attack and chump with their threat to buy a turn when they could top deck a sword and kill me and other things. Make sure you choose the line that means you can say "X card, one time" topdeck it, and win. A lot of times they have an answer and you are just dead, but you are guaranteed to be dead if you don't play to your outs.
Last thing, communicate clearly to your opponent and make sure he passes his priority (I know there are ladies out there that play to, but "he" is less letters than "she" :P). Nothing irritates me as a competitive player more than when somebody just starts resolving a trigger or enters combat without giving me a chance to respond. Also don't be afraid to stop your opponent, speak up for your priority. To not be the guy they are asking to slow down say "Untap, upkeep, draw" at the beginning of your turn and say "declare attackers" or "combat" or another synomym for it when you want to move to your attack step.
So in short, know your deck, know your lines of play, play to your outs, and communicate clearly within the game.
P.S. you are permitted to have sideboard notes to look at between games, I highly recommend that you make yourself a page of notes to leave in your deckbox with your sideboard, have a plan for your board against the decks you think will be the most popular so you don't have to make too many decisions between games. Just make sure your notes are back in your deckbox when you present your deck along with the rest of your sideboard
You don't play different rolls, you are always the beatdown, trust me, if you try to take the control roll you start countering the wrong things, removing things that don't matter, and you will lose. Delver is not an aggro-control deck, if you want to talk about an aggro-control deck you are talking about Caw-Blade. Tempo is an aggressive strategy and while there are situations where you hold back that doesn't mean that plan A is to establish control of the board, so no, I am not "just wrong." And if you honestly think Invisible Stalker is good enough to hold back as a threat than you really don't know what you are talking about. Invisible Stalker is by far the worst creature in the deck and I would be happy if they used some type of removal to get rid of him since I would much rather have any other creature in the deck stay alive.
P.S. I have never seen Delver win a game other than in the mirror without doing something before turn 3
This may be because I'm more on the control side when it comes to playstyle, but I find information to be a valuable resource in most matchups and the fact that I can get it for 2 life without losing a card make probe much better than thought scour for me. However, like I said, I have no problem with thought scour, if you are all in on the pike plan you should have 4, but I don't think being all in on the pike plan is correct if you are worried about aggro decks, which is the biggest argument I see against probe right now.