I too would be curious to see a rough breakdown, to compare what i try and do with generally accepted best practice, as i feel it's somewhere i can definitely improve (bit of a newcomer to the format). Understanding more of the 'why' things are done would really help, long term.
PoP is also great against various Eldrazi decks (better against the MUD/Post builds, but still great against Stompy). I also bring it in against some of the 4c control decks, as they're typically running infinite removal, various sweepers, and SCM, so it's difficult to close down games.
I've been playing 3 Wastelands online for a few months now. I certainly don't have the trophy count of Lewis, et al, but in my experience, I don't miss the 4th. I would say I get Wasted out of the game more frequently than I Waste others out, so the extra Fetch (which is my replacement card) comes in handy. I don't think I've played against a Delver/Pile opponent that didn't have a turn 1 DRS in the past month though, so Wasteland loses a lot of its lustre there.
I guess most people think of Wasteland as a way to hardlock your opponent out of the game, but it is mainly about the tempo-advantage it gives you, keeping cards like Daze and Spell Pierce alive for a longer period of the game.
It's not meant to screw your opponent. It's nice when that pans out, but most of the time it's just about the strain on the mana. I've won plenty of games and matches against Czech Pile simply because Wasteland allows me to control whether they can cast their BB spells like Marsh Casualties, Hymn, Liliana or cut their red mana for Kolaghan's Command or green Mana for Leo and Abrupt Decay. At the same time pretty much any relevant spell costs 3 Mana, and having Wasteland to maintain Daze's value here is key. Czech Pile is a prime example for a matchup where you'd want 4. Same is true for Dark Dephts decks where you definitely want 4 despite them being able to shut it off with Needle, but it's pretty much the only way to interact with the combo in a meaningful way.
I think you should play 4. On the long run it will win you more games than it will lose you games.
Team SPOD
<Der_imaginäre_Freund> props:
Adan for being the NQG God (drawer)
I ran Grixis in a local tournament with 35-40 people this weekend.
Deck was Huang-esque with the black sideboard but only 1 edict/1 marsh casualties and instead 1 flusterstorm and 1 winter orb. Both good changes given the actual meta.
1-1-1 vs miracle
Winter orb won me game 2 and might've game 3 had we had the time.
2-1 turbo depths
Won both games with fast clock and a bunch of wastelands plus a timely abdede for needle.
2-0 vs omnitell
Easy match up
2-0 4c delver
Going under BUG is a strong plan. I took the aggro role and wasted him off red so he couldnt deal with my threats.
1-2 vs spiraltide
I was so unfortunate this match. After winning G1 with double fow i surgicalked high tide G2. Then he fetched hightide with wish but was hellbent. He rips spiral and goes off, facing lethal.
G3 i keep a one-lander with DRS and delver and 2x BS. I fetch for ugs and deploy delver. Instead of deploying DRS next turn i BS for a land twice finding nothing. When he goes off pyroblast is stuck in my hand which would have won me the game. I guess lesson is to always play DRS first versus combo decks if you have a mana light hand.
1-2 vs miracle
Won G2 on pure delver hand. G3 was close thanks to Liliana otlh but he digged through a bunch of cards and finally found councils judgement.
If you're in a controling meta i can recommend winter orb. It's even better in grixis than in RUG thanks to DRS.
Last edited by JackaBo; 02-12-2018 at 01:10 PM.
I've been bleeding win % in delver mirrors lately. I've found myself losing wasteland battles and unable to find timely threats or removal while my it seems like my opponent always has it. My general game plan is to be proactive about finding lands and not getting wastelanded out in the first few turns and either riding an early peezy or delver to the win or gridning out a longer game with angler/tnn.
In game 1s I think I'm losing value with FoW. I tend to try to reserve it for big threats like TNN/Angler/Goyf/lilly but if I lose with force in hand it's definitely worse than an early 2 for 1. I also may be losing value with ponders, I tend to be willing to draw 2 medium-to-bad cards if there's one I really want.
I'm on the 2 pierce list with the following SB plan for grixis
-4 FoW
+Grim Lavamancer
+1 Pyroblast
+dismember
+K Command
Thanks for any advide
Some tech I've been testing with:
1. Leovold, Emissary of Trest slots nicely into the sideboard. 1-2 copies are worth running to mess with decks that rely on cantrips or drawing a ton of cards. But even against a deck like D&T he's pretty good since he can help mitigate StP and Rishadan Port. I am undecided if he should actually take the mainboard slots currently occupied by TNN and send TNN to the board -- since generally Leo is better against more random matchups, especially combo... but on the other hand, TNN is amazing at getting in there for the last couple points of damage. Perhaps a 1/1 split? With DRS, it's not usually too difficult to meet the color requirements of casting him, and against any deck without Wasteland you can fairly safely fetch out your lone Tropical Island as needed.
Note that I also like to run Kolaghan's Command in this deck -- 1-2 copies somewhere in the 75 really helps give you the edge against other Delver decks. These cards push the deck towards playing a little bit more like 4C Control in the mid-game, except you're playing a more focused and aggressive early tempo game.
2. Bitterblossom -- mainly considered for the comeback of Miracles. This makes it so that they have a difficult time answering all of your threats, and if it goes completely unanswered for awhile, the damage from the tokens quickly escalates. It's also not too bad against other creature and midrange decks, as providing chump blockers and some evasive attackers can help win in a stalled ground state. Might also be worth bringing in against Turbo Depths, as having blockers for Marit Lage can buy you some time to find Diabolic Edict.
Bitterblossom can also be a main deck choice as a one-off while cutting one Young Pyromancer. Especially if you play with Spell Snares in the main deck instead of Spell Pierces your mirror matchup does not get worse with Bitterblossom and your control matchup highly improves.
To the very very experienced Grixis players: How is our matchup against Storm variants like TES and ANT? Would you rather run 2 Spell Pierce or 2 Cabal Therapy mainboard against Storm? Also how good is Cabal Therapy in general? Against which decks do you want to see it often? Against which decks is therapy only okay and which decks is it bad? How does it come that players prefer 2 Spell Pierce over 2 Cabal Therapy main? Can somebody give me a little analysis on it pls :)
I've picked up Grixis Delver after a couple of years of not playing Legacy seriously and have found the deck has such a solid matchup against such a wide amount of the field. To that point, I find 2 pierce vs 2 Cabal Therapy or whatever you want to play in the "flex" spots is very much open to how the current/your local metagame is structured and how you want to attack it.
I personally find Spell Pierce weak in the current "metagame" (I'm basing the metagame on the most popular decks: http://mtgtop8.com/format?f=LE) and prefer to have one Cabal Therapy main. I find it is much stronger in the Mirror Match, games focusing on sticking more threats than them and Czech Pile. The deck doesn't have a lot removal and so it acts like another removal spell (compared to spell pierce.)...while still great game vs Combo or Miracles. I'm currently enjoying a 1 Forked Bolt /1 Therapy /1 Pyroblast split maindeck that gives you a lot of game vs Czech, Mirror, D&T, Combo.
So questions for the everyone here:
- My local metagame doesn't have anyone playing Turbo Depths and I need to test that matchup much more. Anyone have general thoughts on this matchup?
- I would like to explore more creature shells outside of the current Bob Huang-style. Anyone playing anything vastly different than the current popular (3 Young Pyro / 2 Angler / 2 TNN)?
My list is pretty far off of the beaten path, but I don't mind sharing it. It's basically a cross between RUG Delver and Grixis Delver:
Lands (18)
2 Polluted Delta
2 Scalding Tarn
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Flooded Strand
3 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
1 Tropical Island
4 Wasteland
Creatures (12)
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Delver of Secrets
2 Gurmag Angler
2 Snapcaster Mage
Spells (30)
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
2 Spell Pierce
2 Spell Snare
4 Stifle
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Fatal Push
Sideboard (15)
2 Flusterstorm
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Diabolic Edict
2 Marsh Casualties
2 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Price of Progress
1 Pithing Needle
Hi,
is anyone of you attending GP in Birmingham later this year?
If so and is willing to co-work on the best list for expected metagame... help would be appreciated. Ideally the output would be a sideboarding manual for expected metagame.
Now I am testing this Oliver Tomajko´s list, which is from some SCG tournament in US
http://sales.starcitygames.com//deck...?DeckID=118622
It’s hard to tell you what the “best list” is. lewiscbr has had success with Stifles despite everybody knowing he’s playing them lol. I recently Top 4’ed a City Champs with them as well but that was more because I’m sure people weren’t expecting them. Lots of players have had success with the “double Spell Pierce” version. I Day 2’ed the DC Open with it. My favorite is the Therapy version because Pyromancer + Therapy can be back breaking.
Back in January, I streamed myself adjusting Grixis Delver for what I thought the online meta would be. It might be slightly outdated but it might provide some insight that you’re looking for.
https://youtu.be/P3NdFtqbZfw
Also, here’s the list and sideboarding guide I used for the Legacy City Champs I just played in.... ignore the Mono-Red guide at the end lol I let a friend borrow the deck and he had no idea how to play it well.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...ph7A4uWR-8wJus
Here’s a quick tournament report for Chandler City Champs from two weekends ago when I played Grixis Delver (Stifle)
Round 1: (1-0) 2-0 D&T. I drew great. He didn't.
Round 2: (1-1) 0-2 UR Delver. I drew one threat in both games.
Round 3: (2-1) 2-1 Grixis Delver. All three games were Wasteland parties. TNN + Jitte in G2 and G3 won it.
Round 4: (3-1) 2-1 ANT. Bluffs + a clock won these.
Round 5: (4-1) 2-0 Burn. Protected a Delver while countering everything won this. G2, facing lethal next turn, I made Elementals with "Bolt. Hold priority, Daze my Bolt. Hold priority, Daze my Daze." And swung lethal my next turn.
Round 6: (5-1) 2-1 Elves (camera). I <3 Gitaxian Probe
Quarterfinals: 2-0 W vs Eldrazi Ramp. Wastelanding the Ramp deck works.
Semi-Finals: 0-2 L vs Goblins (camera). Both hands were keepable but struggled to get the mana I needed both games.
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how does the stifle list performs agaist miracles? any better than the normal version since stifle can couter miracle?
Stifle is great against Miracles since it's basically the only land disruption available in the MU other than random wastelands on Tundra if they'll need to play it early on (only duals in starting hand etc). Problem with stifle is that if you happen to get a blowout with it in G1 your opponent will play around it in G2&3. Boarding them out after winning a game with stifle is important because your opponent will play around it and will not make optional fetchland activations when you have mana open. It's also important to run at least 3 Pyromancers against Miracles, since it's the best threat in the MU.
I played the following to 11th place at SCG Worcester:
Creatures: 13
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Delver of Secrets
1 Gurmag Angler
1 True-Name Nemesis
3 Young Pyromancer
Instants + Sorceries: 29
4 Brainstorm
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Spell Pierce
3 Stifle
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Ponder
Lands: 18
2 Flooded Strand
3 Misty Rainforest
1 Polluted Delta
2 Scalding Tarn
1 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
3 Volcanic Island
4 Wasteland
Sideboard: 15
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Abrade
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Dismember
1 Flusterstorm
1 Price of Progress
1 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Vendilion Clique
2 Cabal Therapy
I have always been a RUG delver player, and stifle was quite good all weekend. From randomly manascrewing my opponents (coincidentally my favorite way to win) to dealing with planeswalkers and engineered explosives, I wasn’t upset to see it most of the time. Especially in the mirror, it helped in low resource games. I was 4-0 in the mirror over the weekend. If people are prepared it won’t be as good, but most people were on pierce + additional creatures.
I guess I missed the memo where people switched to 3 sea and 2 volcanics; however, I didn’t run any BB spells in the 75. If you aren’t on casualties, I feel like access to R is more important than B, especially game 1. I had previously been running blazing volley in the board but cut it for this event. My setup is more focused on delver wins than drs grinding. Having a second gurmag is probably right, though only having one delve threat ensured I was able to cast it whenever I had it.
The SB was pretty standard. Standout cards were definitely Jitte and PoP. Most opponents didn’t expect these cards and they won me many games. Cabal therapy was not great for me over the weekend. I only faced combo a single time, so it is probably still worth it. Clique is a card that has fallen out of favor and I’m not sure is correct. I was able to use it on a terminus, and it served as an extra creature in removal heavy matchups. Having an extra evasive threat helped me beat abzan 2x and maverick. TNN would probably have gotten there as well.
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nice list. how did you like 3 Pyromancer and 1 Angler/1 TNN ?? Would you consider to play only 2 Pyro and 2 Gurmag ? Did you miss the 2. TNN ? Im currently working on a pretty similiar list like yours and can never decide between those creatures.
Hey folks.
I am searching for testing partners on MTGO for the Mirror Match. As I am not confident with my current win rate, I'd like to improve my chances by having a testing Set of about 10 Matches in a row.
If you are interested and have time in the next 48 hours to do that you can PM me.
Hi everyone,
Lurking the forum for a long time but it's time show myself
I decided to start playing Grixis Delver and have seen a lot versions of this deck. At the moment mostly we can see standard shell with 2x TNN, 2x Gurmag, 2x Spell Pierce and 1x Forked Bolt.
I thought about playing version with Stifles but have seen this is not popular build any more. I even heard from my group that it should be full play-set or none. Is it true?
Also there is a switch from 3x Volcanic and 2x US towards 3x US and 2x Volcanic. Am I correct that having 3x US is because of our DRSs?
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