I'm planning on taking BUG delver into an unknown metagame this weekend.
Right now my list has the following removal.
2 Lilliana
3 Abrupt Decay
2 Fatal Push
1 Murderous Cut (My friends and I have been testing many cards in this slot. Its been Decay 4, maybe should still be, dismember etc.)
I think I want 4-6 cards to board in vs creature decks. My question is how do you settle on specific cards when there are so many to choose from with similar effects but different strengths.
I am currently looking at the following cards as possibilities.
Fatal Push (3rd)
Dread of Night
Darkblast
Golgari Charm
Jitte
Dismember
Diabolic Edict
When do you find each has merit? I'm especially interested to hear from those of your who currently or have played edict in multiples.
Thanks
I like dark blast, but I am unsure of darkblast.Originally Posted by JustABee
People who play against BUG tend to bring in RIP since you have 8 creatures relying on GY. The matchups that you want Darkblast is DNT and elves.
@Goddik care to comment about the 4 Mandrills 4 Mongoose deck you just 5-0'd with the other day? What led you away from Delver?
Looks like there were a ton of BUG Delver at the latest CFB 4k, with ZERO Grixis delver.
Interested to see what the lists looked like if you played in it!
Just finished up at SCG Indianapolis with BUG Delver.
Played side events. Went 10-2 on the weekend. I lost to elves, and I lost a round because I got caught up watching my friend make the open top 8 and was 20 minutes late to my match...// 60 Maindeck
// 14 Creature
4 Deathrite Shaman
2 True-Name Nemesis
4 Delver of Secrets
3 Tarmogoyf
1 Tombstalker
// 18 Instant
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
3 Abrupt Decay
3 Fatal Push
// 20 Land
4 Polluted Delta
4 Underground Sea
1 Tropical Island
4 Wasteland
1 Misty Rainforest
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Bayou
// 8 Sorcery
4 Ponder
4 Hymn to Tourach
// 15 Sideboard
// 2 Artifact
SB: 1 Pithing Needle
SB: 1 Null Rod
// 7 Instant
SB: 2 Surgical Extraction
SB: 2 Invasive Surgery
SB: 1 Fatal Push
SB: 2 Diabolic Edict
// 2 Planeswalker
SB: 2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
// 4 Sorcery
SB: 2 Thoughtseize
SB: 2 Marsh Casualties
Missed the 10AM event and had to play standard. I went 1-2 drop. Onto legacy...
Event #1:
Round 1: opponent didn't show up. lame.
Round 2: 12 Post. Counterspells, wastelands, and jace won the game.
Round 3: UR Delver. Won on a mull to 4. Dazed/invasive surgery into tarmogoyf got there. Then beat a blood moon game three with a couple deathrites in play.
Round 4: 12 Post. Same deal. This opponent was much better though.
Event #2:
Round 1: BR Reanimator. Deathrite was great as always. Daze was fantastic. Invasive surgery was good as well.
Round 2: Manaless Dredge: new to the deck. Was hard to watch. Lost game one, and I was pretty salty. Game 2/3 was deathrite + surgical. Mulliganed to a surgical game three with no lander and got there.
Round 3: Burn. Fatal push finally got to shine. Deathrite into delver, delver, push happened 2 games in a row.
Round 4: Burn. Fatal push an all-star again. Daze hit some key spells, and invasive surgery blocked a chain lightning for the w. This is mostly the reason I play delver over other bug decks. We can beat burn. I brought in Thoughtseize here. I think its okay.
Event #3:
Round 1: Elves. Lost this matchup. I honestly haven't tested this matchup very much. My board has so much removal and I'm not sure how to board for this matchup. I never saw marsh flats/invasive surgery and I got hoof'd twice.
Round 2: Mono blue turns. An analogue to the modern deck I suppose. Turn 1 howling mine from ancient tomb was sweet. I hymn'd three times and lost the game when he has 6 cards in hand. Won off of daze + delver.
Round 3: Friend made top 8 of the open. We were celebrating. loss #2.
Round 4: Death and Taxes. Drew marsh casualties and kickered to kill a mirran crusader. Fatal push killed moms on the draw, which was ace.
Fatal push was integral to some wins. Invasive surgery came in a ton. I didn't like the fourth fatal push in the board, or the second diabolic edict. I didn't like true-name all weekend. I only cast it once, and I died promptly afterwards. It's so slow. I'm going to try Liliana again. I don't like leovold either for the most part. Maybe snapcaster is okay in this slot because of the plentiful sideboard spells, but I doubt it. Dark confidant is worth testing as well. baleful strix is a good card, and grows goyf/pitches to force. Perhaps Inquisition/other disruption is better than additional threats. GRIM FLAYER? I need this answer.
I love hymn, it would take a lot to make me cut any. The deck takes real advantage with its flexibility when using hymn. The cards you hit influence play immensely. I hit two lands a few times and actively went searching for wastelands.
TL;DR
Delver is still my favorite version of BUG. Only a small handful of bad matchups (Lands, Elves, DnT). Early pressure is SO VITAL for this format. My only critiques were that 75 had way too much removal (3 decay, 4 push, 2 marsh casualties, 2 diabolic edict), and true-name is underwhelming in my opinion (its usually playing defense, and a lot of decks go too wide for it to matter "Death and Taxes" for example).
Great report! Thanks for sharing!
Would you got back to the standard 4/4/4 goyf/drs/delver +1/2 Tombstalker build since TNN felt a little underwhelming?
I have been testing some bug delver versions with and without mongoose, gurmag and tnn.
What do you guys think about this list? (No tsrmo, tnn aproach)
4 delver
4 drs
3 tnn
3 dark confidant
27 spells
4 bs
4 ponder
3 fow
4 daze
4 decay
3 fatal push
3 ts
1 maelstrom pulse
1 murderous cut
19 lands
15 side
1 pithing
2 jitte
2 jace
2 marsh casualties
1 sylvan library
1 painful
2 diabolic edict
3 surgical extraction
1 fow
Ouch. It looks pretty dangerous...
TEAM MtG Berlin
"Dredge isn't a deck, it's public masturbation with graveyard triggers."
Really? Lots of decks have run 4 Force of Wills with Dark Confidants. I've done it plenty myself.
A quick look says his list should have an average CMC of 1.26, which isn't exactly low, but isn't really all that bad versus non-Burn things.
"The Ancients teach us that if we can but last, we shall prevail."
—Kaysa, Elder Druid of the Juniper Order
Hey doods,
How does everyone feel about Baleful Strix in the sideboard currently? It was mainly introduced to counteract Eldrazi decks, and since those are on the downswing, a lot of lists have been cutting Strix from the board in favour of more active removal spells.
I've been sticking with Strix because it's worked well for me. BUG Delver is the most midrangey of the delver decks, and I like Strix in any delver mirror (plus true midrange decks) for a number of reasons--it slows down your opponent by forcing them to Bolt//Push//etc it instead of a relevant threat, digs into land drops against Wasteland, carries Umezawa's Jitte pretty well, and defends really well when you're behind on board.
Those of you who've cut them from sideboards recently, do you miss them, or am I stubborn in keeping them?
Baleful Strix is a great card if in your meta game you find a lot of Eldrazi e and other Delver decks.
Theoretically Strix can stop Marit Lage / Emrakul / Griselbrand but imho this are only randomness game situation.
In my list i can't find a free slot for add the Strix but is great
http://www.channelfireball.com/artic...tai-in-legacy/
Any thoughts on Andrea's take on BUG Delver? I always struggle with lists that run UU and BB, but like the balance being struck by having game against fair decks and combo decks.
While it's not the question you're asking, I don't particularly like the mindset of cutting down on ~2 CMC threats to next-level Fatal Push and blank removal. True-Name Nemesis feels just awful against combo decks, but if your meta is full of fair decks I can see the reason.
I'd rather play more threats that can get Pushed, but at least I'm overloading their removal and forcing them to have it.
I agree with you, I feel like Leovold and TNN feel awkward in a BUG Delver shell and that Liliana, Goyf, and Angler/Tombstalker feel more natural. I really like tombstalker as a flying threat against all the TNN decks.
Yo Delver-Bros,
What do you think about the creature choices? I just can't decide what i wanna play. All have their pros and cons. What you think about JPAs take on Delver with 4 Gurmag Anglers.
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/591336#online (He just 5-0ed 2 leagues in a row with it)
Do you think that something like this is the way to go? I saw this 4 Mandrills 4 Mungoose 4 Thought Scour List but i dont like Scour at all, but Mandrills dont care about Nemesis which is really huge.
I thought about something like this:
4 Delver
4 DRS
3 Hooting Mandrills
2 True-Name Nemesis
Maybe you can support this without playing Thought Scour? But with these Gorillas you are little bit weak to opposing Anglers....As you can see im not sure. Would be nice to hear your opinions regarding this and the 4 Gurmag Angler Approach.
Well....imho this historic moment of BUG decks make the choose of creature park very hard for each player.
Here we have a lot of plans who can require a different creature army.
The most important thing is to have a clear plan in mind and set the creature park in function of this.
If our plan is put in game great creature and attack (Thought Scour is the way) obv Gurmag, Tombstalker, Mandrills are the right creatures.
If we want to play pure Tempo plan (4x Stifle) with Shroud creature, Mongoose is THE creature.
If we want to play a sort of midrange (like Malimujo), 4x Tarmo are right.
BUG (not only Delver but all the BUG decks) give us A LOT of setup about plan / creature / other spell.
If a player have no a clear plan IN HEAD, that player can't setup a correct decks -> that player can't win.
Now we are in DTB section: I have a question.
What kind of BUG Delver you play?
- Tapout version: Malimujo style with Hymn / Liliana, 20 lands
- Tempo-oriented version: 3 Stifle, no Mongoose, 18/19 lands without Bayou
- Other (pure tempo - dark ******** etc.): Gurmag, Mongoose Scour, other cards
The tapout version is solid, we can see a lot of 5-0 on MTGO but have trouble vs Miracle.
The tempo version is nimble and have a nice Miracle matchup.
Other are not common version imho.
I'm going to try this list tomorrow:
http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=14924&d=290097&f=LE
But I'm unsure about the Jaces in the sideboard. The meta at this store is very combo heavy so I think I'm just going to replace them with an additional Thoughtseize and Surgical.
Tapout version with 4 Hymns, but with one Lili and 19 lands. I don't play the sideboard Jace, The Mind Sculptor because my meta is pretty combo-heavy. Anyone have experience with the Jaces postboard? They don't seem great against miracles, because they are already bringing in 3-4 redblast effects post-board anyways.
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!
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