Pteramander is really good in my opinion: it turns on LutS very early in the game, and then it's a 5/5 in some turns (like turn 3 or 4). I think though that lavamancer is really good, so I wouldn't cut it too easily, I'm considering playing the second copy to see it more often :)
EDIT: yeah, I just played a game in which Pteramander and Lavaman worked really bad one with the other, so I understand the necessity of cutting Lavaman (maybe putting him into the sideboard) if we play Pteramander
I'm considering to add Vapor Snag, or isn't that a viable option anymore?
Last edited by alvoi; 02-11-2019 at 05:09 PM.
Yeah there is a little anti-synergy between Lavaman and Pteramander which probably becomes unacceptably high once you're running 4. Lavaman could go in the sideboard instead, but I'm not sure, really need to remap my sideboard from the ground up I think as I've not seriously thought about it since the DRS ban.
This deck won the Legacy Challenge yesterday.
4 Delver of Secrets
3 Pteramander
3 True-Name Nemesis
3 Young Pyromancer
3 Island
1 Mountain
1 Bloodstained Mire
3 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Volcanic Island
4 Wasteland
4 Brainstorm
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
4 Lightning Bolt
1 Vapor Snag
3 Chain Lightning
3 Spell Pierce
4 Ponder
1 Preordain
1 Forked Bolt
Sideboard
2 Flusterstorm
2 Pyroblast
2 Surgical Extraction
3 Abrade
1 Price of Progress
2 Blood Moon
2 Electrickery
1 Red Elemental Blast
I'm considering playing this deck at a local event and i'm kind of a delver newbie. Seeing the 6-1 lists from the legacy challenge (the one posted by smuggo over here), isn't the manabase too greedy? 18 lands of which 4 wastelands and 1 mountain, leaving the deck with 13 blue sources. I'm testing it but i feel like i have too many unkeepable hands, and i'm considering swapping a wasteland for a 3rd volcanic, or simply adding a 19th land, or both (cut a wasteland and a spell, add a 3rd volcanic and an island).
Any suggetions by someone more experienced than me with the archetype? maybe i'm just having bad variance and considering unreasonable choices due to that
So the first thing to remember is that one (coloured) land hands are completely playable in this deck if you've got a decent mix of cantrips, counters and 1-drops alongside it, especially so when on the draw. More than half the deck costs 1 or 0 mana, so you can absolutely win games with 1 land if needed.
Mulligans also don't hurt the deck as hard as others as the very low amount of lands means that as the game goes on you're getting better card quality and aren't going to flood out on lands.
The other thing to remember with delver is that it's all about seeing lots of cards and this allows you to play with a low amount of lands as you will be able to find what you need. You typically have 8-10 cantrips allowing you to dig deep into your deck, plenty of fetches to shuffle away things you don't want and delver of secrets also allows you to view the top card of your library and get rid of it with a fetch before you draw.
The basic mountain is absolutely the worst land in the deck, but it plays a crucial role in several matchups. The manabase is totally fine as:
2 Island
1 Mountain
3 Volcanics
4 Scalding Tarns
4 Other blue fetches (I don't like playing a 5th red fetch like Arid Mesa, but it's debatable -- kinda depends if you play Blood Moon or not imo)
4 Wasteland
The 9 cantrip suite (4 Brainstorm, 4 Ponder, 1 Preordain) is rock solid and helps you dig for whatever you need.
Both Forked Bolt and Vapor Snag over-perform in this shell, extremely versatile and enable Spectacle. I'm actually playing 2 Forked Bolt and a Vapor Snag. I'm not a huge fan of Chain Lightning.
Going to start testing the below list ahead of the London GP (or MagicFest as it's now called?). No big legacy tournament there unfortunately (the new schedules seem way too generic compared to GPs a few years ago) but going to try and take part in as many smaller legacy tournaments as I can. Will try and take some decent testing notes and potentially make some tweaks and make a sideboard map towards the end of April.
//Creatures
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Pteramander
3 True-Name Nemesis
3 Young Pyromancer
//Spells
4 Brainstorm
2 Chain Lightning
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
2 Light Up the Stage
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Ponder
1 Preordain
2 Spell Pierce
1 Vapor Snag
//Land
4 Flooded Strand
2 Island
1 Mountain
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Volcanic Island
4 Wasteland
//Sideboard
3 Abrade
1 Blood Moon
2 Electrickery
2 Flusterstorm
1 Pithing Needle
2 Price of Progress
2 Pyroblast
2 Surgical Extraction
Are there actually zero UR players here on the Source? This deck is popping up everywhere and the thread is barren.
"eggs... why'd it have to be eggs"
Quick question if there's anyone left here, would a list like the one in the primer (see below) still work these days, or has this been superceded by an absolute requirement for TNN and Wasteland?
3 Snapcaster Mage
3 Grim Lavamancer
4 Goblin Guide
4 Delver of Secrets
2 Fireblast
2 Daze
3 Force of Will
3 Price of Progress
3 Spell Snare
3 Ponder
4 Chain Lightning
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Brainstorm
1 Wooded Foothills
2 Arid Mesa
2 Mountain
2 Island
3 Misty Rainforest
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Volcanic Island
Sideboard
2 Sulfuric Vortex
3 Pyrostatic Pillar
3 Surgical Extraction
3 Submerge
3 Pyroblast
1 Force of Will
I still play U/R but had a baby last year so finding it hard to get to tournaments. Still, Dreadhorde Arcanist seems like a great card for this deck, better than Pteramander probably, and Narsett for the sideboard is super sweet. Looks like legacy meta is wide open right now with WAR cards so be interesting to see where things go but will try to keep playing the deck and see what works when I can.
Yeah Arcanist seems like he can make a much more grindy deck. Not quite midrange but really able to grind out against a lot of stuff and the simple mana base feels nice right now as well. It seems much more versatile than it did in the prowess dominant builds when I started playing it.
Has anyone tested an Arcanist version with Faithless Looting and Ancestral Visions? Do you guys think that's too cute and/or better left for Modern?
This. Arcanist can still easily die to bolt before he can be activated and you wouldn't want to cut any brainstorm/ponder/preordain/bolt (which are always good) to fit these cards in.
It would also pull you further towards red which you don't really want IMO as right now I'm strongly inclined to fetch a basic island turn 1, not a volc, due to number of wastelands/blood moon/B2B around.
Is winter orb worth consideration for the sideboard here? Seems sweet when combined with daze and pierce.
It definitely can work against some matchups and I used to play it in the old prowess U/R build against mainly miracles (with SDT). However, the curve of this deck has increased quite a bit since then so it could also be a liability. I guess you can still jam delver T1 and orb T2 which is a good opener vs control decks.
Seems like a lot of people are playing 12-post decks with the new Karn at the moment and it should be pretty strong vs them.
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