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Thread: Modern 4c hyperdelving

  1. #1

    Modern 4c hyperdelving

    So I brewed up a deck about a week ago that has been very successful for me so far as i am currently 8-2 with it through local matches. If you like casting turn two 5/5's this is the deck for you! Its a 4 color deck that focuses on getting a turn two delve monster out there, hopefully with some hand disruption beforehand. This is basically a more dedicated "combo" version of what patrick chapin tried to make for the protour, except we dont play white and our only interaction main is discard. We use cards like g-probe and street wraith to cycle through without having to pay mana, these cards basically are our "ramp" spells if you will, since in my eyes this deck is really all about fast mana. We basically play channel sometimes (except we pay 2 life per mana). Thought scour and faithless looting do amazing work at filling the graveyard very quickly. I have found this deck to be almost frighteningly consistent, I played a four round tournament at my local game store and had a turn two delve monster every single game. Nonetheless here is the decklist:


    Creatures
    4 Death's Shadow
    4 Hooting Mandrills
    4 Gurmag Angler

    Enablers
    4 Street Wraith
    1 Mishra's Bauble
    4 Gitaxian Probe
    4 Faithless Looting
    4 Thought Scour

    Interaction
    3 Thoughtseize
    4 inquisition of kozilek
    2 Darkblast
    1 Liliana of the Veil
    2 Essence Harvest

    Manabase
    2 Watery Grave
    1 Breeding Pool
    1 Overgrown Tomb
    4 Polluted Delta
    4 Bloodstained Mire
    1 Steam Vents
    2 Blood Crypt
    3 Verdant Catacombs
    1 Wooded Foothills

    Main game plan:
    Here is how a game will generally go. Turn one, fetch shock thought scour/faithless loot or if you have multiple discard spells cast one turn one. Cycle a couple probes/wraiths to build a game plan and pass. When you probe turn one, note how much removal they have that can actually effect your creatures, thats what you'll take with discard. Turn two is usually another discard spell into a mandrills/angler or just mandrills/angler with a death's shadow. turn three essence harvest/loot more/delve more, and your opponent will be close to dead.

    Turn two delve monster is commonplace with this deck, but do NOT play it into removal if its your only creature. If you need to wear your opponent out of resources it is best to play slightly slower so you can leave things in your graveyard and have more time to make them discard. It is possible to get a turn one delve monster! a hand of 4 life-cycler, a fetch and a hooting mandrills or 5 life-cyclers fetch and angler can be turn oned. but again playing that into path will leave your opponent in a much better place then if you played a little slower. With that being said, one path or removal spell is almost never going to be enough vs us, our cantrips tend to chain and filling the graveyard back up is very easy.


    Some weird interactions and card choices to note:

    Essence harvest- this is far and away the weirdest card to see in the deck, but in many matches the ground will got clogged and damage will take a while to get through, this helps swing the race greatly in our favor and end the game faster. It also helps our game one against burn immensely since with a death's shadow out we gain ridiculous amounts of life but even with just a mandrills out we'll gain 4 which can help. We could play something like rites of consumption or fling, but the issue with that plan is that we have to sac the creature with it, and unless we have a huge death's shadow those cards will rarely kill where we wouldn't have anyway.

    Death's shadow- So I think this card's synergy with the deck is fairly obvious. Our four color mana base pretty much always deal 6-8 damage by turn three alone. along with cards like street wraith, gitaxian probe, and thoughtseize. Turn two death's shadow as a 2/2 is easy, and sometimes you can keep a wraith in hand as a way to pump in response to a bolt etc. Also when people bring in graveyard hate against you, this is one of the easiest ways out as he always costs a black.

    Liliana of the veil- used to have more of her, as she's very good at keeping a control opponent from interacting, however our control matchups are incredibly easy, so she was moved o make room for cards to help our burn/affinity/ other random aggro matches.

    Street wraith- pay two life and cycle it, I have never gotten to five mana with the deck so this is pretty uncastable. Don't forget cycle is instant speed and you can use it to mutagenic growth death's shadow if necessary

    Matchups-
    twin/any other u/r/x control- these matchups are kind of a breeze. In general all of their removal is terrible against you, you can play your creatures before remand/mana leak are live and seven discard spells means they will have a very hard time getting to combo or keeping relevant cards in hand. when you board, take out the essence harvests and darkblasts and put in duress and stubborn denial. if you know they have graveyard hate coming, thats what the four revelry is in the graveyard for, swap them with street wraith usually. overall this matchup has seemed overwhelmingly in my favor, probably 70/30 delve winning.

    junk/jund- usually this match is junk so thats what im going to refer to mostly. They have path and discard, which makes this match less easy than the blue decks, but if you can take their paths then usually you'll be okay since we are very resilient to discard with 17 spells that cantrip in our deck. Also most of permanents dodge decay, so you can let that rot in their hand unless you're on the death's shadow plan. There are a couple things to be wary of in the match, and thats be careful about powering tarmogoyf as he will be a monster very quickly vs us until we cast a delve creature. and when you delve make sure you minimize the number of card types in your yard. Also try not go below 7 life as double seige rhino could get you on the play. this basically has the same board plan as for twin, except leaving darkblast in is reasonable because of lingering souls. this match is just slightly less favorable. Probably closer to 60/40 on delves side

    Burn- This is a toughie. Game one will be very difficult but is winnable if you can use inquisition to take their creature, turn two delve creature and turn three essence harvest to gain some of the life you inevitably lost getting there back. Death's shadow is an absolute monster in this match, and if you can disrupt their plan enough with discard you can sometimes beat them down before they get there. Sideboarded the games get a little easier since we cut all the street wraiths for feed the clans and two of the probes for two duress. after sideboard your deck should hurt you less, but you still want a turn one discard and turn two delve creature, because a turn three feed the clans for 10 life will put you in a position thats hard to lose from. One thing to keep in mind is that you will usually have to lose death's shadow after a feed the clan so make sure to attack first and then cast it. This match is very sideboard game-dependent and also has a lot of weight on the die roll. probably 30/70 game one in their favor but close to 60/40 after board in our favor.

    Affinity- another pretty tough game one, but not as bad as burn. a few discard spells taking their win cons with an early delve creature to back it up will sometimes be enough, and this is the match that darkblast is in for. Unfortunately they play so many cheap win cons it can be hard to stop all of them, and you can be overwhelmed pretty easily. sideboard cut the wraiths and the probes for all of the revelrys and the ancient grudge, as well as three feed the clans. you can play a more controlling game in this match since once you've eliminated a few threats and gotten a delve creature out you gain some life and thats all she wrote. pre board this is probably 60/40 for them, afterwards probably 70/30 for us.

    Tron- This is legitimately the worst matchup for us far and away. They usually have maindeck relic of progenitus, and all of their removal effects our creatures. Game one the main hope is nail an early creature and use discard to give you enough time to beat them down. But often they're mana will be just as fast as ours and they'll follow our turn two delve creature with turn three karn exile it, and that leaves us in a very bad spot. Sideboarding sadly doesn't get a lot better, you get a little extra discard and counter in duress and stubborn denial. You could also find room in the board for fulminator mage to give you more time. So sadly this match is probably 70/30 in their favor even after board. But thankfully this is not a major player in most metagames

    Thankfully people rarely bring graveyard hate around anymore, so we can usually dodge that bullet. But if anyone does we can usually interact with destructive revelry. Don't just bring in the revelry without being sure they have it though, since you can still win through it via death's shadow and essence harvest, and you will usually win game one anyway.

    I would definitely love to hear anyone's opinions, suggestions, and questions. I've been tuning the list for a couple weeks now and I think this deck can be a real contender in modern, especially in a meta filled with splinter twin and junk.
    Last edited by yankes77; 03-11-2015 at 04:38 PM.

  2. #2
    Here I Rule!!!!!!!!!!
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    Re: Modern 4c hyperdelving

    Tasigur seems better than hooting mandrills, and that seems to be what all the other decks play. Delve lets you sculpt what will be in the graveyard before activating his ability, and it seems like most other versions of this deck play it.

  3. #3

    Re: Modern 4c hyperdelving

    Quote Originally Posted by Phoenix Ignition View Post
    Tasigur seems better than hooting mandrills, and that seems to be what all the other decks play. Delve lets you sculpt what will be in the graveyard before activating his ability, and it seems like most other versions of this deck play it.
    On paper tasigur seems better, but the issue is that trample is very relevant and tasigurs ability is completely irrelevant, as sometimes we dont make it to even three mana let alone four. I tried him when I first built the deck but he lacked punch and I noticed I needed a way to beat lingering souls. Also you often want multiple delve creatures on the field and multiple tasigurs isnt possible.

    Also to note, other delve decks take a midrange approach with paths and counters and such, so tasigur's ability is more relevant and the multiples problem doesnt matter to them. This deck is much more aggressive than those versions so I went for something that did not have those flaws.

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