I went to a small local yesterday with a new-look Grixis Delver list. I thought it'd be a larger tournament, but as it turned out, we only got 15.

Here's the list. Don't judge me.


4 Delver of Secrets
4 Monastery Swiftspear
2 Young Pyromancer
2 Abbot of Keral Keep
2 Gurmag Angler

4 Lightning Bolt
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
4 Stifle

4 Wasteland
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Polluted Delta
3 Volcanic Island
2 Underground Sea
1 Island

Sideboard:
4 Cabal Therapy
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Snapcaster Mage
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Dread of Night
1 Sulfuric Vortex
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Pyroblast
1 Sudden Demise
1 Vapor Snag

A few notes on the list: this is basically a UR Delver shell with Stifle/Waste mana denial and Gurmag Anglers. I wanted to push the aggressive capabilities of the Delver list this weekend, while people are still adjusting to life without Dig. I expected their decks would still be pretty loose, and putting on early pressure is good against loose decklists.

Abbot is something I've been meaning to try for a while. Young Pyro has been consistently underperforming for me, and with Dig out, I wanted to compensate for the loss of card advantage by spreading out incidental card advantage throughout the build (hence the Prowess dudes). Prowess also gets exponentially better in multiples, where a Lightning Bolt turns a board of Swiftspear + Abbot from 3 damage into 8. The problem with Abbot is he makes your counterspells worse because you don't really want to flip a counterspell with him. I was thinking of combating that by playing Therapy main instead of Stifle, but then Therapy is more powerful with Pyro than Abbot. So I settled on a split. It's not ideal, but I think a better deckbuilder than me will be needed to figure it out.

We show up at the tournament site and we've only got 15. It's a bit of a letdown, but it's not a big weekend for Magic. Plus, with BFZ dropping in and DTT kicked out, I think people want to let the metagame settle before jumping back in. I'm only really tilted because I need Bobs, and they were supposed to go out to 5th-8th, but with only 15 we're playing 4 rounds with a cut to Top 4 so the Bobs get dropped from the prize support. Oh well.

ROUND ONE: Bill with Shardless BUG

Bill's a friend, so we have a relaxed match. In game one, I lead with Swiftspear and he leads with suspending Vision. I'm not thrilled about this matchup, but I have some game against it with maindeck Stifle. But what I don't have game against is multiple Tarmogoyfs, and he gathers two and kills me with them.

IN: +4 Therapy, +Spellbomb, +Cage, +Snag, +Pyroblast
OUT: -4 Daze, -4 Stifle

IIRC I forgot about how good Stifle was and expected him to play around it. In retrospect there's no way I should be taking it out, but it all worked out.

In game 2, I was on the play and got to live the dream. I mulliganed my 7 and kept Delver, Swiftspear, and a Volc (plus 2 others). My Vancouver scry showed a Daze, so I left it there, opened with Delver and immediately flipped, followed with Swiftspear and cantrip and attacked for 5. This put me really far ahead, and having the Daze for his turn 2 play meant I was so far ahead that he couldn't recover.

Game 3 was one of those variance games. Probably not repeatable in a hundred playtesting games. I keep 6 with 2 Therapies, scry down what would have been land #4, and he leads with fetch, pass. I open with blind Therapy naming Tarmogoyf, hit 1, and see the rest of his hand is TRIPLE Shardless Agent plus lands. So naturally he plays land, pass, and I follow with Therapy #2 to get all three Agents. Unfortunately, I don't have a clock, and I see he still has an Abrupt Decay, so it takes me a while to close it out, but I eventually do get there. This game featured my first Abbot resolved in a Legacy match, and he got me a Badlands. Not great, but at least I didn't have to waste a turn drawing it. Abbot is definitely better off the top than Pyromancer, IMO. In this case, not drawing that Badlands was just enough incremental advantage to win before he could draw out of his predicament with Brainstorm + fetch.

1-0 (2-1)

Our match took a little while (due to neither of us drawing threats for a while in game 3) so we chat for a bit, but pairings go up quickly.

ROUND TWO: Scott with RG Lands

Scott's another friend (there are a lot of these at this tournament) so it's another cordial, fun match. I've played a good amount of games against Lands with Grixis Tempo, so I know that my best shot at beating them is to go underneath and put on more pressure than they can handle. It's part of the reason I'm trending towards the Prowess aggro plan at the moment.

Game 1 goes swimmingly. I win the die roll and open with Swiftspear x2 and crush him. Fun moment happens in this matchup: he's desperate to stop the bleeding, so he Fires my Swiftspear to kill it on end step. I Bolt him in response to save my dude and dome him.

IN: +2 Surgical Extraction, +2 Snapcaster, +Spellbomb, +Snag, +Vortex
OUT: -4 Daze, -3 Stifle

Stifle has random utility, but Daze is basically dead on the draw. Daze is very good when it's countering a turn 1 Exploration, but if they're playing around Daze or on the play, it's just bad. Stifle is better than anything else I have in my sideboard, although maybe I should bring in Therapy just to have something proactive to trigger Prowess.

In game 2, my plan does not work. He established a turn 1 Exploration when I don't have a Force, then gets a Tabernacle. This slows me down considerably because I have to dedicate mana to saving my dudes. Then he gets a Maze and things get very tough. Then he drops a Choke and it's over.

IN: +1 Daze
OUT: -1 Stifle

Daze is okay on the play, when they're forced to play into it to keep pace with your aggression. Not the greatest, though.

I don't remember a lot of the details of this game, but I believe I flip an early Delver and pair it with a Swiftspear. He has a Fire for the Delver but the Spear is still getting work done, and then I resolve an Angler. At the end of the game, I finish as smooth as butter. I have Swifty and Angler, with a Wasteland, two red duals, a Spellbomb on table, and a Vortex in hand. I know he has a Grip in hand, so I can cast the Vortex but it will only get me a Prowess trigger, really. So I untap, and draw a fetch. Perfect. I waste his Grove, he Grips my Spellbomb. I fetch for a Volc and cast Vortex, trigger Prowess, and swing, taking him to 4. He looks at his hand and scoops. Here's another reason I love Prowess: it triggers off of nutso sideboard staples like Vortex, Spellbomb, and Dread of Night.

2-0 (4-2)

I'm feeling pretty good at this point, because I've played two iffy matchups and beaten them both, and now I just need to win one more round to draw into Top 4. There are three X-0s, so there's a chance I'll be paired down for round three against somebody who is 1-1 and maybe not a good player.

Well, that sort of happened.

ROUND THREE: Kevin King playing RG Lands

Yes, the same Kevin King who Top 8'd Legacy Champs with RG Lands. He's 1-1 on the day, so I did get the pair down, but it wasn't exactly a cake matchup. Oh well.

I lose the die roll and he leads with an Exploration that I manage to Force. I open with some early aggression and beat him down, with light permission preventing him from stabilizing in time. Bolts give me the reach I need to get there.

IN: same as round 2
OUT: same as round 2

No need to fix what isn't broken.

In game two, he's on the play. He resolves his Exploration this time when I don't have a Force, and follows with a Gamble before I've even had a turn. Gamble makes him discard Exploration but I don't think he needed the second one. I open with Swiftspear, swing for 1. Feels bad, man. Attacking for one when he opened like that feels awful. And sure enough, he follows with Chalice on 1 on his second turn. I'm looking at the Brainstorms and Lightning Bolt in my hand with a sad face, but I still get my Prowess triggers! I also have an Angler in hand, so playing these spells for Prowess triggers and Delve fuel is very much worth it. However, he's still got that Exploration so I'm anticipating some Loam shenanigans to pull far ahead. I have two Wastelands, so I start by Wasting his Taiga and leaving him with a Grove. He untaps... and passes the turn. No more lands.

As it turned out, his entire gameplan was Chalice on 1. So now I'm triggering Prowess and casting spells to fuel Delve and he is durdling. So I waste his Grove, leaving him with no lands, and continue the onslaught of 2 damage from Swiftspear. On my fourth turn, I resolve my Angler and he doesn't have much of anything. On the turn before he dies, he plays a Stage and a Mox and a second land, and he has some from of interaction (Gamble for Maze? can't remember), but he's a mana short. He had been sandbagging the Stage for a few turns, so if he'd played it a turn earlier, he'd have had the mana to interact, but as it stood he was just dead.

3-0 (6-2)

Wow. This is going much better than I'd thought. It looks like my plan of going underneath Lands is a good one. Swiftspear is sneaky good against them, maybe better than Deathrite for an aggressive deck like Delver. They can't Fire it if you have any instants in hand. And I often do, because I leave my Bolts in. As I've said, you need to go underneath. They can't interact with Bolt, so it's just extra damage to the head that can be played proactively (no need to save it for creatures) and that triggers Prowess.

At this point there are two X-0s so I'm locked for Top 4.

ROUND FOUR: Eddie with ANT

We ID and go relax/scout. ANT is a very good matchup for me (as in, I've never lost to it), so I'm happy to see a copy in Top 4. As the other matches play out, Sneak and Show and Maverick join us. S&S is a decent matchup for me, and Maverick is... I don't even know. I've never played against it. From what I've seen, it looks dicey. I don't play well against fair GW midrange. But if I can just get paired with one of the combo decks, I should have a clear path the Finals, and the other combo deck should dispatch the fair Maverick player so I'd even feel good about my chances of winning the Volc for 1st.

TOP FOUR: Maverick player.

Naturally.

I've never played this matchup and I don't even know what's in the list. He goes wide with mana dorks in game 1 and, despite me being able to turn the corner with even a single Bolt at any point for several turns, he gets there.

IN: +2 Snapcaster, +Spellbomb, +Cage, +Dread of Night, +Sudden Demise, +Snag
OUT: -4 Force of Will, -3 Stifle

I have no idea what the fuck I'm doing.

Like I said, I don't even know what's in the list. I'd seen Knight of the Reliquary in my scouting, so I brought in the Spellbomb. He cast a GSZ for Arbor against me so I brought in the Cage. I'd seen Moms and Thalias so I brought in the Dread of Night. He went wide with green creatures so I brought in Demise. And I figured Snag would be good against a slow, giant Knight. Boy, was I wrong.

In game 2, we play a much more attrition-based matchup, because he keeps a hand with 2 Swords to Plowshares and zero creatures, which matches up very well against my hand. Eventually I grind it out and he has a Batterskull in hand with a tapped Deathrite and four lands, no other creatures. I have an Abbot. I cast Snapcaster, Bolt his Deathrite and swing to take him to 3.

Oh. Goddammit.

Of course I can still guarantee he won't have Batterskull by Wasting his Canopy, but I don't see that line either. Of course he gets the fifth land and resolves Batterskull, and stabilizes.

Knowing what I know now, I'd bring in Therapies against him, and leave the Snags at home. I'd also probably take out the Dazes because of all his mana dudes, and leave in some number of Stifles. I doubt that I need Cage. Dread of Night is still reasonable, and I think Vortex is very fair. But I didn't even know he played Stoneforge so I left the Therapies in the deck box.

Oh well! I still made Top 4 and I get to go home with a nice, pristine Scrubland. Although, I guess that means... I Scrubbed out of the Top 4. (☞'∀')☞

CONCLUSION:

I still think Grixis Tempo has a role to play in the new, Dig-free format. I also think Abbot is better than people think, and I want to play more. Stifle seems fine these days but Therapy just seems much stronger with a deck full of Prowess creatures. Playing Therapies main makes me want more Pyros, but I don't know where the balance is. Daze was great for me all day, so I don't feel comfortable cutting that.

On the sideboard, it definitely needs work. Cage felt unnecessary, but is still probably fine because of value against Cascade and GSZ/reanimation. Pithing Needle works well with all the Prowess creatures. Vortex was great. Snag was probably fine but I never cast it. One benefit to playing Therapies main is that it opens up all those sideboard slots, so I'll have the opportunity to continue tinkering with that.

Thanks for reading! I always love feedback and I'm not the greatest deckbuilder, so I welcome criticism.