[Deck] Team America (BUG Delver)

[infiniteJ]

I played malimujo's 75 -1 Flusterstorm +1 G Charm in a 59 man local event today (Card Kingdom 1K).

Miracles: 1-2 (Jace postboard were awesome, I don't think they bring in all pyroblast vs BUG Delver). This match was extremely close with him finding an out at the last second to my v clique with him at 3. I was pleased with how close it was given this matchup being less than favorable.

BUG Control: 2-1 (he got manascrewed game 1 and 3)

BUG Aluren: 2-1 (this was extremely close, some weird attacks and blocks after resolving 2 alurens, I get tombstalker he can't answer for 2 turns + topdecked DRS played EOT off his aluren seal the deal, I was at 2).

Storm: 1-2 Can be seen here

Grixis Delver: 0-2 wasn't particularly close. Game 1 I answered his 1st two creatures then died to an unchecked pyromancer, and later an unchecked DRS which dealt like 8 drain to me. My goyfs could only stare at his board of tokens and had to stay on blocking duty, meanwhile I just die to shaman activations. G2 I play turn 1 DRS, he forces. He plays own DRS, dazes my cantrip, I can't find another land after that and he gets too far ahead.

At this point I am 2-3 and tired. My wife was heading over to the store so I dropped to go get food with her. The deck felt very powerful, but I didn't quite get the luck I needed. The Seattle meta is super weird, so I think next time I will bring a Dark Thresh variant like Webb's recent 5-0 deck. Stifle and spell pierce seem particularly well positioned, and then 15 cards that can beat death and taxes in the sideboard. The grixis matchup remains troublesome.

Thanks for reading!

With Malimujo's 75, how are you boarding vs miracles with entreat, with mentor, and on the play/draw? I feel that we need to leave in abrupt decays vs the mentor version so I'm not sure what comes out. I believe he leaves in dazes. I also want the invasive surgeries vs the entreat version.

My guess is vs entreat -4 decay -1 dismember -1 tombstalker, daze, ponder or land? + 2 jace, +1 sylvan, +1 needle, + V clique, +1 invasive surgery.
My guess vs mentor -2 decay -1 dismember -1 tombstalker -1 land +2 jace +1 sylvan +1 needle + 1 vclique

Any insight? Do some number of hymns come out? Any interest in thoughtsieze?

I also worry about jace's potency vs red blasts and if there isn't a better option like painful truths or garruk.

[FZA]

With Malimujo's 75, how are you boarding vs miracles with entreat, with mentor, and on the play/draw? I feel that we need to leave in abrupt decays vs the mentor version so I'm not sure what comes out. I believe he leaves in dazes. I also want the invasive surgeries vs the entreat version.

My guess is vs entreat -4 decay -1 dismember -1 tombstalker, daze, ponder or land? + 2 jace, +1 sylvan, +1 needle, + V clique, +1 invasive surgery.
My guess vs mentor -2 decay -1 dismember -1 tombstalker -1 land +2 jace +1 sylvan +1 needle + 1 vclique

Any insight? Do some number of hymns come out? Any interest in thoughtsieze?

I also worry about jace's potency vs red blasts and if there isn't a better option like painful truths or garruk.

The Miracles player's plan will be vastly different depending on if they're playing an Entreat + Predict build vs a Mentor build.

If they're on an Entread build, they will most likely try to make your Abrupt Decays useless by boarding out counterbalances and leaving only Snapcaster and maybe Clique as decay targets. So in this case, removing all decays is reasonable, and you definitely do not want dismember. I wouldn't remove Tombstalker as its a decent threat, sure it dies to swords but so does everything else.

Against Mentor builds they're likely to have a completely different plan in which they bring in stuff like Blood Moon to further stretch your Decays. So here, you want to keep all 4 in IMO.

I think Wasteland/Daze are by far our worst cards in this matchup and wouldn't hesitate to board out as many of them as possible against either version of Miracles, especially the Entreat version. I would rather have Thoughtseize than either of those hands down. Hymns should stay, it's solid card advantage and only ever bad if the matchup reaches a topdeck war, which doesn't actually happen that often in my experience.

With most Miracles lists on 4x Pyroblast now, I'd rather turn to nonblue haymakers like Library or Truths rather than Jace. I've thought about Phyrexian Arena even.

[infiniteJ]

The Miracles player's plan will be vastly different depending on if they're playing an Entreat + Predict build vs a Mentor build.

If they're on an Entread build, they will most likely try to make your Abrupt Decays useless by boarding out counterbalances and leaving only Snapcaster and maybe Clique as decay targets. So in this case, removing all decays is reasonable, and you definitely do not want dismember. I wouldn't remove Tombstalker as its a decent threat, sure it dies to swords but so does everything else.

Against Mentor builds they're likely to have a completely different plan in which they bring in stuff like Blood Moon to further stretch your Decays. So here, you want to keep all 4 in IMO.

I think Wasteland/Daze are by far our worst cards in this matchup and wouldn't hesitate to board out as many of them as possible against either version of Miracles, especially the Entreat version. I would rather have Thoughtseize than either of those hands down. Hymns should stay, it's solid card advantage and only ever bad if the matchup reaches a topdeck war, which doesn't actually happen that often in my experience.

With most Miracles lists on 4x Pyroblast now, I'd rather turn to nonblue haymakers like Library or Truths rather than Jace. I've thought about Phyrexian Arena even.

I've also thought about arena, although I wonder if painful truths might not be better. Years ago, sinkhole was a popular tool to fight the UW stoneblade decks (we also used a sideboard creeping tarpit). Now that miracles runs so many cantrips, I'm not sure if that's a worthwhile consideration. The problem with playing card advantage sideboard spells is that it plays into miracles plan to go long. I don't love garruk or some of the other plainswalkers and sylvans lose strength in multiples. I wonder if boarding in creature threats that generate advantage might not be best. Something that can clock and produce card advantage like dark confidant. The problem with confidant though is that it doesn't do anything until your next turn. If we ran more lands, tireless tracker might even be good. With cards like Liliana and Jace and Sylvan, we can bury miracles in card advantage, but it doesn't matter if we can't close the last 5 points of damage or if they force through an entreat. Other permanent disruption like pithing needle has been mediocre- they have engineered explosives and they can always predict away top for value. With force of will being one of the most important cards, maybe we want more counterspells and to just play a more aggro-control game, of course this can play into their blasts and flusterstorms.

Anyone have any other off the wall ideas to cement this matchup?

[FZA]

I've also thought about arena, although I wonder if painful truths might not be better. Years ago, sinkhole was a popular tool to fight the UW stoneblade decks (we also used a sideboard creeping tarpit). Now that miracles runs so many cantrips, I'm not sure if that's a worthwhile consideration. The problem with playing card advantage sideboard spells is that it plays into miracles plan to go long. I don't love garruk or some of the other plainswalkers and sylvans lose strength in multiples. I wonder if boarding in creature threats that generate advantage might not be best. Something that can clock and produce card advantage like dark confidant. The problem with confidant though is that it doesn't do anything until your next turn. If we ran more lands, tireless tracker might even be good. With cards like Liliana and Jace and Sylvan, we can bury miracles in card advantage, but it doesn't matter if we can't close the last 5 points of damage or if they force through an entreat. Other permanent disruption like pithing needle has been mediocre- they have engineered explosives and they can always predict away top for value. With force of will being one of the most important cards, maybe we want more counterspells and to just play a more aggro-control game, of course this can play into their blasts and flusterstorms.

Anyone have any other off the wall ideas to cement this matchup?

Definitely happy to discuss this matchup. What I don't really agree with is the notion that we have to try to win quickly because a longer game favors Miracles more. To be clear I'm not saying we are necessarily favored against Miracles in a long game, but that we have a better chance of grinding them out than we do of trying to tempo them out. I think the latter is a losing proposition, most of the time. Therefore I would advise against something like Sinkhold, despite it being a super sweet card. If we try to play a tempo game, by keeping in Dazes and Wastelands, and trying to push damage early in the game, that just opens up blowouts via Terminus. RUG and Grixis Delver don't really have a choice but to do this, unfortunately, because they are very weak to Counterbalance once it gets established.

But for BUG, the only real issues with the game going longer are (1) losing to incremental Predict/Snapcaster value and (2) losing to a big Entreat or unchecked Jace.

To combat this we need CA generators of our own: Sylvan, Jace, Painful truths, etc. Also, a card like TNN creates virtual card advantage by blanking a bunch of their cards, and making it so you can just focus on fighting over CJ/Terminus.

We also have a source of virtual card advantage, which is that we play less lands (16) than Miracles does (21-22). This might not seem like a big deal but it's actually very important and it helps make up for our lack of 2-for-1 cards like Predict and Snap.

So for me, the matchup really is about good old fashioned CA - virtual and "real". Because of this I think cards like Needle are a bit of a trap - Needle is often card disadvantage if you name Top with it, and we can't afford to do that to ourselves too much. That's not to say you shouldn't bring a Needle in, but I usually feel a lot better using Needle on a Jace than on a Top.

Raw CA becomes even more important if you're playing the "standard" set of creatures - 4 DRS, 4 Delver, 4 Goyf, 1 Stalker. Since every one of these creatures dies to Swords, you have to keep the threats coming. If you're playing creatures like Leo or TNN that are more resilient, you can go for more of a "protect the queen" type of approach, where you like one of these and try to protect it. You still need to stay even on cards for this approach to work, though, if you want to have any chance of protecting your threat.

[Hrothgar]

Report of yesterday, little tournament:

Turn 1: Burn - lose 0-2

In game 1 after the killing of 1 Goblin Guide and 1 Monastery Swiftspear, he topdeck another 2 Swiftspear and win whit his total life 3 and with my Nemesis in the battlefield.
In game 2 my flood lose the game.


Turn 2: Shardless - lose 0-2

In game 1 no way to win because i try to defend myself from Hymn to Tourach without success. I lose vs 3 resolved Tarmogoyf (1 Dismembered) and 1 Shardless Agent.
In game 2 i keep a very strong hand: U.Sea, Daze, Stifle, Thoughtseize, Delver, Ponder, Deathrite.
I Thoughtseize him in my turn 1, discarding his Deathrite.
Obv he topdeck one Wasteland, waste my only Underground Sea and I do not draw just a single land in my next 6 turns.
Ok.


Turn 3: Lands - win 2-1

My team mate :(
Game 1 I lose in his 2nd turn. He play Mox, land, Gamble (taking Loam), obv I discard Loam (ok). In my turn I landed and Play Deathrite. In His 2nd turn he dredge and play Punishing Fire (ok). After this he landed a Burnwillow.
I concede.
Game 2 I play Pithing naming Thespian and Surgical his Loam.
Very difficult game because I draw Surgical only after he Waste 4 of my lands.
Game 3 i Surgical Loam in the early game.
After some turns he put Marit Lage.
I Surgical his Depths and when he attack i play a strong Diabolic Edict.
With 2 Tarmo and 2 Deathrite in the battlefield, there are no way out for him.
Very lucky game for me.


Turn 4: Sneak and Show - lose 1-2

Incredible.
A easy game for me that I have lose from his Engineered Explosives (lol) who destroy my 2 Shaman and 1 Pithing Needle. All my other sideboard cards in the deck, 5 lands into play, 1/2 in hand.
Maybe this is one my mistake: in game 2 i have Pithing who naming Jace, I have a Delver and a Confidant and I have attack the oppo and not his Jace with 2 Counters.
In his turn he topdeck Engineered and destroy my Pithing, bouncing my Confidant and win the game.
Ok.


Turn 5: Burn - win 2-0

No way out for him.
My deck work in the right way.
Wasting my duals when is required make me safe from Price.
Daze is great in the first turn of this matchup or, in the mid/late help me to reduce the Price's total damage.
In G2 he put 2 Eidolon into the Battlefield but my only Nemesis help me, my Deathrite control his grave but his Lavamancer, at the end, kill my Shaman.
He try to aggro me, but i have no hurry and, with attention I win thanks to Daze on his Price.


-


Well, with this bad result I finish unbelievably at 6th position.
Clearly all the rest of players have many trouble in his matchup!

[infiniteJ]

Definitely happy to discuss this matchup. What I don't really agree with is the notion that we have to try to win quickly because a longer game favors Miracles more. To be clear I'm not saying we are necessarily favored against Miracles in a long game, but that we have a better chance of grinding them out than we do of trying to tempo them out. I think the latter is a losing proposition, most of the time. Therefore I would advise against something like Sinkhold, despite it being a super sweet card. If we try to play a tempo game, by keeping in Dazes and Wastelands, and trying to push damage early in the game, that just opens up blowouts via Terminus. RUG and Grixis Delver don't really have a choice but to do this, unfortunately, because they are very weak to Counterbalance once it gets established.

But for BUG, the only real issues with the game going longer are (1) losing to incremental Predict/Snapcaster value and (2) losing to a big Entreat or unchecked Jace.

To combat this we need CA generators of our own: Sylvan, Jace, Painful truths, etc. Also, a card like TNN creates virtual card advantage by blanking a bunch of their cards, and making it so you can just focus on fighting over CJ/Terminus.

We also have a source of virtual card advantage, which is that we play less lands (16) than Miracles does (21-22). This might not seem like a big deal but it's actually very important and it helps make up for our lack of 2-for-1 cards like Predict and Snap.

So for me, the matchup really is about good old fashioned CA - virtual and "real". Because of this I think cards like Needle are a bit of a trap - Needle is often card disadvantage if you name Top with it, and we can't afford to do that to ourselves too much. That's not to say you shouldn't bring a Needle in, but I usually feel a lot better using Needle on a Jace than on a Top.

Raw CA becomes even more important if you're playing the "standard" set of creatures - 4 DRS, 4 Delver, 4 Goyf, 1 Stalker. Since every one of these creatures dies to Swords, you have to keep the threats coming. If you're playing creatures like Leo or TNN that are more resilient, you can go for more of a "protect the queen" type of approach, wthere you like one of these and try to protect it. You still need to stay even on cards for this approach to work, though, if you want to have any chance of protecting your threat.

It may be that this is our best option. The matchup isn't bad exactly, but with how prominent miracles is at the top tables of any larger tournament, I want the matchup to be as sound as possible. Vs versions running 3-4 predict, 3-4 snapcaster, 4 top 4 ponder 4 brainstorm and 2 jace, I just don't see us keeping up in a long game.

I used to run shardless bug and I never lost to miracles by playing a patient game of card advantage, only countering their wincons, and playing a threat at a time. Then miracles added 4 ponder and the matchup became closer to even. As it currently stands, I have no interest in playing shardless bug now that it's best matchup, miracles, isn't so good. A sharp miracles player will find entreat and have a red blast or force on standby to get it through. I was routinely losing games after ultimating a liliana, which was a real clue that the matchup was bad. This shardless strategy is essentially what we are morphing into postboard by adding cards like jace, painful truths, and sylvan library, except arguably worse, and I worry it may not be the right path.

The dark thresh approach with say nimble mongoose/tnn seems great vs miracles, but I imagine suffers vs the field, particularly death and taxes.

[Whitefaces]

In game 1 no way to win because i try to defend myself from Hymn to Tourach without success. I lose vs 3 resolved Tarmogoyf (1 Dismembered) and 1 Shardless Agent.
In game 2 i keep a very strong hand: U.Sea, Daze, Stifle, Thoughtseize, Delver, Ponder, Deathrite.
I Thoughtseize him in my turn 1, discarding his Deathrite.
Obv he topdeck one Wasteland, waste my only Underground Sea and I do not draw just a single land in my next 6 turns.
Ok.

I think TS is the worst of all the spells to cast in this position. You can leave up Stifle for a fetch or Wasteland, Ponder for a second land or cast DRS which is by far the best play imo. What are you hoping to TS turn one that Daze can't deal with? The only card is Ancestral Vision, and Stifle can 'counter' that.

[Hrothgar]

I think TS is the worst of all the spells to cast in this position. You can leave up Stifle for a fetch or Wasteland, Ponder for a second land or cast DRS which is by far the best play imo. What are you hoping to TS turn one that Daze can't deal with? The only card is Ancestral Vision, and Stifle can 'counter' that.

Yes, this is the mistake who cost me the game obv.
I have play in the wrong time because a bad thinking: discard Deathrite who limit my Shaman (lands deficiency) and save Daze for T2 threat (fear of Hymn / absence of removal in my hand).

[sanderanders]

So i brewed this BUG Delverless list, i think it is tempo/midrange with a lot of flexibility. Please tell me where this list must be approved.


3x Abrupt Decay
2x Baleful Strix
1x Bayou
4x Brainstorm
3x Daze
4x Deathrite Shaman
2x Fatal Push
4x Force of Will
1x Forest
1x Island
1x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2x Leovold, Emissary of Trest
1x Liliana of the Veil
4x Misty Rainforest
2x Noble Hierarch
4x Polluted Delta
2x Ponder
2x Snapcaster Mage
2x Spell Pierce
1x Swamp
1x Tarmogoyf
2x Thoughtseize
2x Tropical Island
3x True-Name Nemesis
3x Underground Sea
3x Wasteland

Sideboard
3x Diabolic Edict
1x Dread of Night
1x Flusterstorm
1x Pithing Needle
2x Spell Pierce
3x Surgical Extraction
1x Thoughtseize
1x Toxic Deluge
2x Umezawa's Jitte


Here it is on TappedOut

[Ixbpoqdxl]

So i brewed this BUG Delverless list, i think it is tempo/midrange with a lot of flexibility. Please tell me where this list must be approved.
[...]
Here it is on TappedOut

Hey, you'll probably get more advice in the Midrange thread of BUG rather than delver. What you have looks pretty similar to what most people (who aren't trying for 4C midrange) have been playing, so it looks pretty good.

But I don't have any experience playing the 3-drop-heavy version, so that's about all I can offer.

Here's the thread if you want, http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...Thread)/page70

[Adan]

With Malimujo's 75, how are you boarding vs miracles with entreat, with mentor, and on the play/draw? I feel that we need to leave in abrupt decays vs the mentor version so I'm not sure what comes out. I believe he leaves in dazes. I also want the invasive surgeries vs the entreat version.

My guess is vs entreat -4 decay -1 dismember -1 tombstalker, daze, ponder or land? + 2 jace, +1 sylvan, +1 needle, + V clique, +1 invasive surgery.
My guess vs mentor -2 decay -1 dismember -1 tombstalker -1 land +2 jace +1 sylvan +1 needle + 1 vclique

Any insight? Do some number of hymns come out? Any interest in thoughtsieze?

I also worry about jace's potency vs red blasts and if there isn't a better option like painful truths or garruk.

I wouldn't board in Thoughtseize, it's bad when the opponent has Sensei's Divining Top anyway. I would do:

- 4 Daze
- 2 Abrupt Decay
- 1 Dismember

+ 2 Jace
+ 2 Invasive Surgery
+ 1 Pithing Needle
+ 1 Sylvan Library
+ 1 Flusterstorm

And perhaps swap a Goyf with the Vendilion Clique. Force of Will might be card disadvantage, but overall you want to be able to fend off a crucial Miracle-Spell or sometimes a Snapcaster Mage. In most cases the matchup turns into a bunch of 1-for-1s.

Jace seems "bad" against REBs, but it's still a very potent threat that Miracles has to deal with, so I see no reason to not bring it in.

[Sturtzilla]

Greetings,

I have been away for some time now. However, I have been able to do a bit more playing rather than judging lately. I won our 8-man local event this week. I played the following:

4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Tarmogoyf
2 True-Name Nemesis
2 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
3 Spell Pierce
3 Fatal Push
4 Daze
3 Abrupt Decay
4 Force of Will
3 Underground Sea
2 Tropical Island
2 Bayou
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
4 Wasteland

Sideboard
1 Pithing Needle
3 Surgical Extraction
2 Flusterstorm
1 Dread of Night
2 Thoughtseize
1 Null Rod
1 Sylvan Library
1 Golgari Charm
1 Dismember
1 Painful Truths
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor


Round 1 - Infect [1-0; 2-1]

Round 2 - Miracles [1-0-1; 3-2-1]

Round 3 - Death's Shadow [2-0-1; 5-2-1]

Infect and Death's Shadow match ups felt decent preboard and easy mode post sideboarding. Miracles feels about even, post board it feels a bit better. Although more lock pieces (Pithing Needles, Null Rods, Winter Orbs) and or incremental advantage generating cards (Sylvan Library, Jace, TMS, additional planeswalkers) could really help move the match up more in our favor. I will say that, as expected, Leovold appears to be bonkers in most match ups. In all of these three match ups he was great. Against Infect and Death's Shadow, Leovold stopped multiple card draws which would have come from Gitaxian Probes. Against Miracles, it clogged up Tops and drew a card off of a Jace fateseal. Overall, the deck feels great! I would be happy to take questions. Thanks for reading!

[Fouzt]

I took malimujo's most recent list found here:
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/607118#online

to a Channel Fireball 1k event this weekend and placed 2nd. My esper delverblade was not performing well online, so I just decided to take something I thought was fun even though I had absolutely 0 games with the archetype (still had to be delver though haha). Was really trying to talk myself out of playing hymns but since you BUG masters seem to be wrecking with it, I just trusted in the experts and didn't tinker at all with only a day to go before the event.

around 60 people showed up, and the meta was heavy with delver variants, BUG variants, and miracles. There was still a healthy diversity though, saw DNT, URW and Esper midrange, reanimator, show and tell, red prison, lands, goblins, elves, tezz, veteran explorer, and some brews. zero storm though, I thought that was odd.

I didn't take notes so I apologize if there isn't much analyses.

R1: Mentor Miracles (Loss) 0-2
First game was close but he found a 3rd terminus and Jace to seal it away. Second game was a blowout from removal and mentors going crazy.

At this point I thought there wasn't much of a shot at top 8 but was having too much fun playing legacy to really care. Met a few cool people in between rounds including another guy running bug delver. We traded ideas on the deck since he was running a similar list to some here with true-names and leovolds with no hymns. He had won his first round and seemed experienced with the deck so I would check in with him every round to discuss. Super nice guy, I know you check these forums Dave, hello!

R2: Jund (Win) 2-1
G1: I mulled and got landlocked from multiple wastes but stuck it out to confirm his archtype.
G2: Literally the reverse of first game, and manage to Hymn him out of removal to pave the way for goyf.
G3: Closer then the other two, traded creatures back and fourth but he ran out of removal for a tombstalker that pushed its way over the top

I think this matchup is ok for us, especially with the addition of fatal push. We trade well with their value once we get forces out of the deck and do a good job of pressuring in the air while holding the land down with goyfs. It can feel like a sludge battle back and fourth though if both sides have deathrite online. playing around choke was also not fun, but we handle it much better than other devler lists and I managed to get one off the board within a few turns.

R3: UR delver (Win) 2-0
I thought this match would be atrocious and still am convinced that its too fast for us, but managed to pop all his threats and game 2 he mulled to 5 with one land and I hymned him into oblivion

R4: RUG delver (Win) 2-0
First time I ever saw rug delver player draw too many lands (is that even possible). Played around stifle, and he only drew 1 mongoose which couldn't punch through the goyf and my fatal pushes wrecked the rest of his board. Push seems like its in a better spot right now then bolt, and deathrite is just so powerful that its hard for me to think that RUG is as well-positioned as BUG is.

R5: Aggro Loam 2-0
G1: I literally had no clue what he was playing game 1, because his deck stalled out on him while a turn 1 delver and turn 2 goyf made his turn1(draw) chalice do nothing. He had a last ditch toxic deluge but it was forced

I sat there trying to think of what exactly he was playing since I didn't see any of the staple cards. So I boarded in a few of everything, Jace turned out to be the right board in the dark since it won game 2
G2: turn 3 jace with 2 wastes on his first lands stopped him from doing anything. Also he mulled twice, which seemed to be the theme of the day for my opponents.

9 people were on 12 points+ with 1 round to go. I checked in with my friends, and Dave was also in a top spot. My other long time friend had a few atrocious matchups and was out of the running.

R6: UWR Delver (ID 1-1-1)
I looked at the tiebreakers for a while, and convinced my opponent that we should draw and pray. It worked since two of the other 12-12 matches played it out, so even though the pair-down won, we both made it in without a sweat. Unfortunately one of those players was Dave, and he was pretty pissed when he heard that he could have drawn and made it in with his awesome tiebreakers. Sorry Dave :(, you did great bro.

We did play it out and I thought that I would be heavily favored, but it seriously felt more 50-50, maybe perhaps because I could tell he was a good pilot and had played the deck for a while. UWR delver was the deck I had played for 2 years before I took a break, and I was impressed that it still had some kick to it.

Top 8 drew for prize support except the Byes for GP Vegas so there isn't much to tell here, except I edge out a really cool URW midrange variant with true-names, monastery monks, and young pyros. Also I got stomped into oblivion by lands in the finals, his draws were good and he was clearly a good player, but I also played awful and really didn't give myself a chance to position back into the games. we had played so many rounds that day that it was as exhausting as a GP day 1, so by the time the finals came around, I was yawning every 10 seconds.

Anyways, apologies for the half-azzed report, but the deck performed well and I was able to come back from some bad hands with very little mulliganing. I also keep thinking it runs too many lands (19 feels like it would be better) but with the double black requirements for this specific list, it didn't look like there was anything that could be cut.

Thanks for working on the deck everyone :)

[ironclad8690]

Great work @fouzt

So, here is how I have been boarding in the Miracles matchup (and it seems to be working decently so far):

-4 Daze
-1 Decay (vs Entreat, I would leave all 4 vs mentor heavy builds)
-1 Tombstalker
-1 Dismember

+2 Jace (single greatest path to victory, protect at all costs)
+1 Pithing Needle
+1 Sylvan Library
+1 Invasive Surgery
+2 Thoughtseize (helps resolve Jace)

At the card kingdom tourny I had Clique in the board too, but I have since removed it.

I actually really like Wasteland in the matchup, there will be games where they can't play around it and it works well with Liliana. Also, they can't always fetch basic mountain, so you can waste them off of red before trying to resolve Jace sometimes.

[ironclad8690]

The deck that I am really struggling with is the Czech pile. That is just 60 cards that are all great against us. I am not sure whether to leave any Dazes in the deck post board for example. If you board into too much removal, the planeswalkers will get you (or K Command will just negate it). If anyone has tips for this matchup I would appreciate it.

Edit: Nvm I think I figured it out. You board out Hymns for removal and flusterstorm, and go full tempo. Wasteland them aggressively and go after their DRS.

Edit 2: Went 4-1 in two leagues today.

Miracles: 1-2
I saw that he had mentor in g1, so I left 3 decay in (boarding 1 out for a thoughtseize). In game 2, I saw that he left CB in, so I brought back in a decay. In g3, there was a turn where I had the option to decay a mentor or a CB, I chose the CB and lost because of it. He was low on time and resources, so I should have seen that mentor was the only way he wins, whereas I likely would have been fine vs just a CB. You never know however.

BR Reanimator: 2-1
burg Aluren: 2-0
Czech Pile: 2-0 (new boarding plan is working out, just attack their creatures and mana).
Elves: 2-1

In the previous league:

Miracles: 2-0
Czech pile: 2-0
Miracles: 2-1
Mirror: 2-1
Czech pile: 0-2

[Sibelius]

I hope you all enjoy this article that adds to the discussions around BUG Delver and what is the best route to take when building it

https://thelibraryatpendrellvale.com/sacred-mongooses/

Sib

[ironclad8690]

How do you guys board vs Aggro Loam?

My list:

4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Tarmogoyf
1 Tombstalker

4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Abrupt Decay
2 Liliana of the Veil
1 Fatal Push

4 Undergorund Sea
2 Bayou
1 Tropical Island
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
1 Verdant Catacombs
4 Wasteland

Sideboard
2 Invasive Surgery
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Thoughtseize
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Pithing Needle
1 Fatal Push
1 Go for the Throat
1 Dismember
1 Golgari Charm
1 Flusterstorm
1 Sylvan Library

Thanks!

[Ixbpoqdxl]

How do you guys board vs Aggro Loam?!

I sideboard out discard for Surgical and Needle. Aggro Loam usually only plays 2-3 copies of Life From the Loam, but Punishing Fire is rough. Needle is good for Knight of the Reliquary toolbox and the random planeswalkers they board into.

I'd board (on the draw):
-4 Hymn, -2 Daze
+2 Surgical, +1 Needle, +1 Fatal Push, +1 Dismember, then maybe a Library.

On the play you might want another Daze. I've never played Jace out of the board in delver before, but this seems like the matchup for it. Most of the Aggro Loam decks I've played against don't run the depths combo, but it's something you can play around with Wasteland at the right time.

Knight and Dark Confidant are the big "fair" cards to worry about, so that's my reason for the added removal.

[Hrothgar]

Discard effect are no great vs Aggro Loam.
I remove 4 Hymn and, on draw, 2 Daze (on the play sometimes -1 Will -1 Daze):

+1 Pithing Needle (Knight or other 2/3 treats)
+1 Golgari Charm (who can hit Leyline, Sylvan, Dryad, Confidant)
+2 Surgical Extraction

and i try:

+2 creatures removal (this plan is solid because we can hit Confidant and Knight)

or

+2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor (this plan wok if we can remove Punishing Fire)

[Nikedemos]

Hi Guys, after the ban of SDT(Sensei's Divining Top) Do you think of a change of deck or side cards?
How do you think the Metagame will change?