[Deck] UBr Grixis Delver

[wcm8]

I did not see a thread for this yet, so I figured I'd get the discussion rolling. This deck has been getting hyped recently and is being touted as the heir-apparent to Jund now that Bloodbraid Elf is banned.

Main deck:
2 Island
1 Swamp
1 Watery Grave
1 Breeding Pool
1 Steam Vents
1 Blood Crypt
3 Creeping Tarpit
2 Darkslick Shores
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Verdant Catacombs
3 Misty Rainforest
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Dark Confidant
1 Vendilion Clique
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Serum Visions
3 Remand
3 Cryptic Command
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
4 Flex Slots (currently one ofs of Spell Snare, Electrolyze, Pillar of Flame, Mana Leak)

Sideboard and Flex Slot options:
Vampire Nighthawk
Spellskite
Liliana of the Veil
Geth's Verdict
Go for the Throat
Ancient Grudge
Steel Sabotage
Threads of Disloyalty
Spell Pierce
Thoughtsieze
Surgical Extraction
Countersquall
Jace Beleren
Sulfur Elemental
Vendilion Clique
Thragtusk
Forked Bolt
Engineered Explosives
Negate
Shattering Spree
Nature's Claim
Vapor Snag
Spreading Seas
Pithing Needle

I have only had some minimal testing with the deck, but it does seem well-poised to become part of the tier 1 of Modern. It plays some of the most powerful and efficiently-costed cards in the format, and the sideboard is especially powerful due to the digging power of Serum Visions and Dark Confidant.

[wcm8]

[reserved]

[firebadmattgood]

Delver is a trap. He's good in Legacy because he beats for 3 on turn 2. In modern he doesn't do this with any consistency. I'm curious where you've seen this hyped as the next big thing.

I think in the decklist you posted, you'll want 4 darkslick shores. You've got 17 things that cost 1 black or 1 blue and you want to do them all turn 1.

[JDK]

Jund isn't going anywhere and playing Delver with less than 4 Remands just seems wrong, as it provides you with necessary extra turns and cards.

[cuthbertthecat]

Honestly, this deck doesn't really seem playable in Lightning Bolt:The Format. None of the threats are larger than bolt size, nor do any of the non-delver threats present a reasonable clock.

[wcm8]

I'm curious where you've seen this hyped as the next big thing.

I think in the decklist you posted, you'll want 4 darkslick shores. You've got 17 things that cost 1 black or 1 blue and you want to do them all turn 1.

http://www.starcitygames.com/article/25737_Still-Dont-Call-It-A-Comeback-Although-At-This-Point-It-Probably-Is-The-Best-Modern-Deck-You-Arent-Playing.html

http://www.starcitygames.com/article/25749_Playing-A-Legacy-Deck-In-Modern-Or-The-Return-Of-Delver.html

Re: Darkslick Shores -- I agree, this is the best land to open up with. However, you need to have a little bit of resiliency to Blood Moon, and you need fetchlands to help fuel Deathrite Shaman. I'm sure the land base posted in the opener could be tweaked somewhat, but there is logic behind the numbers.



playing Delver with less than 4 Remands just seems wrong

Drew Levin suggested in his article that Mana Leak could be cut for the 4th Remand. In fact, the four 'flex slots' could be more of any of the cards already in the deck (except maybe Cryptic Command, 4 mana is a lot and you want to keep your overall CMC lowered for Bob.) The decklist in the opening post is just a framework to start from.


Honestly, this deck doesn't really seem playable in Lightning Bolt:The Format. None of the threats are larger than bolt size, nor do any of the non-delver threats present a reasonable clock.

You have a pretty high threat density (17 creatures +3 manlands), so you're not exactly expecting everything to survive all the time. You just deploy another one. Also, you're ideally playing discard to make sure the coast is clear for Bob to start drawing you cards, which will put you well ahead of one-for-one removal. This deck deals a surprisingly huge amount of damage in little time. Granted, it's only in increments of 2 or 3, but it adds up quickly and often you can set up an 'alpha strike' via EOT Snapcaster -> Bolt, or Cryptic Command -> tap opposing forces. The evasion of Delver, Creeping Tarpit and Deathrite + burn makes it easy for the deck to cut through for the last few points of damage.

[JDK]

http://www.starcitygames.com/article/25737_Still-Dont-Call-It-A-Comeback-Although-At-This-Point-It-Probably-Is-The-Best-Modern-Deck-You-Arent-Playing.html

http://www.starcitygames.com/article/25749_Playing-A-Legacy-Deck-In-Modern-Or-The-Return-Of-Delver.html

Re: Darkslick Shores -- I agree, this is the best land to open up with. However, you need to have a little bit of resiliency to Blood Moon, and you need fetchlands to help fuel Deathrite Shaman. I'm sure the land base posted in the opener could be tweaked somewhat, but there is logic behind the numbers.

urgh, Premium Articles.

As for Darkslick Shores and your resilience to Blood Moon: You need U/B in the first turn. You don't care about a card that comes down Turn 3 at earliest and attacks your non-basics. You got fetchlands, counters, discard and shamans, so a Blood Moon isn't exactly a reason to cripple your crucial Turn 1 plays and therefor force you to mulligan otherwise perfectly fine hands.

[wcm8]

urgh, Premium Articles.

As for Darkslick Shores and your resilience to Blood Moon: You need U/B in the first turn. You don't care about a card that comes down Turn 3 at earliest and attacks your non-basics. You got fetchlands, counters, discard and shamans, so a Blood Moon isn't exactly a reason to cripple your crucial Turn 1 plays and therefor force you to mulligan otherwise perfectly fine hands.

I think you could justify the following:

-1 Island and/or -1 Creeping Tarpit
+1 or +2 Darkslick Shores

However, sometimes you want another basic to be able to fetch without having to take 2 damage. Creeping Tarpit is important for the latter parts of the game.

[cuthbertthecat]

I've been playing this a bit on mtgo, mostly just to understand the hype, and it is better than I originally gave it credit for. The only thing I don't like is the bad jund matchup and the swingy tron matchup. It's pretty good against blue non-geist decks and the rare combo deck (i've only played against scapeshift and eggs for combo, but twin seems like it'd be pretty good for us too). The big deck that I haven't played against is the wur geist burn deck, but that matchup seems really bad.

[Mark Sun]

I've been playing this a bit on mtgo, mostly just to understand the hype, and it is better than I originally gave it credit for. The only thing I don't like is the bad jund matchup and the swingy tron matchup. It's pretty good against blue non-geist decks and the rare combo deck (i've only played against scapeshift and eggs for combo, but twin seems like it'd be pretty good for us too). The big deck that I haven't played against is the wur geist burn deck, but that matchup seems really bad.

I tested against RG Tron with this deck last night. The one glimmer of hope is that it gets much better with more disruption than your burn post-board, so that's definitely a positive going forward. I'll be on it for the PTQ. Likely a second Spell Snare and some tweaks, though. Goyf is indeed a problem.

[wcm8]

Vampire Nighthawk has been posited as a card to play in multiples in the SB to help address aggro matchups. I'm not sure he's enough to make something like G/W or R/G aggro *favorable*, but along with the rest of the deck you have a decent fighting chance.

I'd also recommend Sulfur Elemental. Plenty of decks are playing Lingering Souls and/or Timely Reinforcements, both of which are efficiently answered by Elemental.

[JDK]

I'd also recommend Sulfur Elemental. Plenty of decks are playing Lingering Souls and/or Timely Reinforcements, both of which are efficiently answered by Elemental.

Besides from some Jund builds Lingering Souls isn't seeing a lot of play and neither is Timely Reinforcements. But I guess we will see more of those though, with the new wave of Aggro/Zoo.

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/activity/1180
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/pr/236

[wcm8]

I see plenty of WUR midrange running timely reinforcements in the SB. And you'd be happy to have it if you see any Wx aggro. In any case, we're only talking about one slot here.