You've got RUG Delver basically winning or at a minimum Top8 of every major event currently; straying from those well-tuned & tested lists is likely just an exercise in lower win%.
I never understand why mandrills is played over more goyf/arcanist, but the rug players win so I'll defer to them.
Trample is a huge reason why, and immunity to Abrupt Decay is an added bonus. Most of the time comes down for 1 mana, it's simply the more efficient, resilient, and evasive threat.
Well, it seems like for posterity's sake, someone should remark upon the state of RUG Delver after the Labe/Oko/Dreadhorde bannings. Call me old fashioned, but I just don't see the appeal of posting in a discord. Here is legend Ozymandias17's Top8 list from the MTGO challenge last Sunday:
4 Delver of Secrets
2 Hexdrinker
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
2 Sylvan Library
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Forked Bolt
2 Spell Pierce
4 Daze
2 Force of Negation
4 Force of Will
3 Wasteland
1 Taiga
4 Tropical Island
3 Volcanic Island
2 Wooded Foothills
3 Misty Rainforest
3 Scalding Tarn
Sideboard:
1 Red Elemental Blast
2 Pyroblast
1 Abrade
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Force of Vigor
3 Surgical Extraction
2 Brazen Borrower
2 Rough/Tumble
2 Klothys, God of Destiny
For anyone not in the know, in any kind of Uro mirror match, who ever gets to attack with Uro first ends up wildly ahead. Because trying to answer Uro directly tends to be a losing proposition, the games usually end up as an arms race to see who can build the largest and hardest to answer board position as fast as possible. Brazen Borrower ends up being a pretty clutch card in this meta because it sets back an opponent's Uro and adds to our own board position. RUG ends up being pretty well positioned in the Uro mirrors because between Uro, Brazen Borrower, Klothys, Red-Blasts and Sylvan Library, we have a lot of great tools to win Uro mirrors. For non-Uro mirrors, we have a pretty good gameplan of just trying to get opponents dead ASAP with Delver and Goyf.
Other things of note: Hexdrinker ends being pretty good. It's kind of like Uro, a mana-intensive hard-to-answer threat, but doesn't use the graveyard and can attack through convoluted board states. Spell Pierce gets played in the maindeck because we need more things against combo and there isn't any room for Veil of Summer in the sideboard. Also, it's pretty important to have another answer for Blood Moon. The deck cuts the 4th Wasteland for Taiga to make Uro more castable. Force of Vigor in the sideboard is a house. The card provides the same blowout potential in the same matchups that Null Rod did (Death and Taxes, TES, Urza-Echo) but also generates blowouts against Lands and Moon Prison. Since Uro is a card against Bridge from Below; with 3 Surgical Extraction in the sideboard, we have a pretty good graveyard-deck matchup. All in all, I would consider this list to be quite stock and is going to be difficult to improve upon.
With that said, I do have this wacky Noble Hierarch list I've been working on:
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Brazen Borrower
2 Klothys, God of Destiny
3 Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
2 Sylvan Library
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Forked Bolt
4 Daze
2 Force of Negation
4 Force of Will
3 Wasteland
1 Taiga
4 Tropical Island
3 Volcanic Island
2 Wooded Foothills
3 Misty Rainforest
3 Scalding Tarn
Sideboard:
2 Abrade
2 Force of Vigor
2 Pyroblast
2 Red Elemental Blast
1 Life from the Loam
2 Veil of Summer
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Blazing Volley
Basically I moved the Uro mid-range domination package (Uro, Klothys, Brazen Borrower) to the maindeck to free up room for the cards I wanted to play. With 3 Wastelands, a Life from the Loam acts as the 4th Wasteland. I really like playing with 4 Red-Blasts and I think Force of Vigor is just that good. Noble Hierarch really puts us ahead in the Uro arms race and can make Tarmogoyf large enough to attack into Uro. However, it is true that RUG already has the tools to grind out Uro mirrors without Noble Hierach and Hierach obviously has the drawback of not being a much of a threat on its own and prevents us from playing Rough/Tumble. I think what I miss most in this list is Hexdrinker which really shines against a deck like Maverick, which is apparently playing Shifting Ceratops these days.
Anyway, happy RUGing everyone.
I think I would take Ozy's list and cut Uros and probably a Forked Bolt for 2x Klothys and 2x Brazen Borrower. This gives you a strong anti-Uro package and you keep your grinding power against the other mid-range blue decks what with Klothys still powering up Sylvan Library and being a game-winner in general. You could play a low to the ground Stifle build with Hooting Mandrills, but the other blue decks are playing Strixes/Coatl's into Uro. I just don't think the blitz strategy is strong enough anymore to beat other mid-range blue decks. This frees up a bunch sideboard space, I would probably be looking at Hullbreacher/Narset and Karakas to keep up with those mid-range blue decks. Uro is a pretty good card but I think what I've described could work just fine, especially since Klothys sidesteps some of the Uro hate out there.
Is there a new staple threat list for Temur Delver?
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Dragon's Rage Channeler
4 Tarmogoyf
Was thinking of Replacing Goyf with Nimble Mongoose to lower the curve even further.
That Surveil mechanic is too good.
Three Lilianas to rule them all. One Pox to find them. Smallpox to bring them all and in the Sinkhole bind them!
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