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Thread: RUb Delver

  1. #1

    RUb Delver

    I'm interested in making Grixis Delver a little more aggressive, as pyromancer has not been impressing me. Has anyone tried Swiftspear?

    Draft:

    4 Deathrite Shaman
    4 Delver of Secrets
    4 Monastery Swiftspear
    2 Gurmag Angler

    4 Chain Lightning
    4 Lightning Bolt
    1 Price of Progress

    4 Ponder
    4 Brainstorm
    4 Gitaxian Probe

    4 Force of Will
    4 Daze
    2 Thoughtseize

    4 Scalding Tarn
    4 Polluted Delta
    1 Bloodstained Mire
    1 Badlands
    2 Underground Sea
    3 Volcanic Island

    Sideboard
    1 Smash to Smithereens
    1 Abrade
    3 Pyroblast
    3 Surgical Extraction
    1 Thoughtseize
    1 Price of Progress
    1 Diabolic Edict
    2 True-Name Nemesis
    1 Marsh Casualties
    1 Flusterstorm

  2. #2
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    Re: RUb Delver

    Playing no mana denial, while playing into mana denial (no basics) seems suspect. Daze is a pretty bad spell without Wasteland, so you're probably going to need to have discard spells imitating hard counterspells; so something like 4x FoW, 4x Thoughtseize, 2x Pierce rather than any Daze. All of the cards are generically good and will win games, but you also auto-lose to Chalice on one. It's always nice to have burn spells, but I'm not really seeing how Gurmag is a better enabler of the burn strategy than Bedlam Reveller (which means cutting black, playing basics, and being on UR Delver). On the flip side of 12x 1-drop threats (Delver + DRS + insert card) and 2x delve threats, it's going to be hard to say that burn/Gurmag/Swiftspear model is going to outperform UBg Death's Shadow/Tombstalker/4 green cards (Library and Berserk), which is going to run 1-2 basics and Wasteland such that it's going to be the better Daze deck.

    Your list is fine, but it's the polarizing effects of cards like PoP/Fireblast/Reveller or life loss engine/Death's Shadow where the win percentage comes from. Sure Grixis Delver will have a higher generic win percentage than Shadow or UR Delver will vs. the field, but those two decks were made to be the ones delivering savage beatings whereas Grixis Delver jumps from match to match hoping all its generically good small edges isn't the one receiving the savage beating (it's not an explosive deck, it doesn't go big, and it doesn't have a comeback mechanism). I think your list is just less-winning Grixis Delver that still lacks explosiveness, still doesn't go big, and still doesn't have a comeback mechanism. There's a real chance that your less-winning take on a Grixis Delver deck is going to have a lower overall win percentage than a polarized-Delver deck.

    Edit: in terms of less-winning Grixis Delver your deck is more likely to win vs Blood Moon and when it's relevant it has 5 more burn spells (and we'll look past Probe/Thoughtseize and drawing games rather than winning with PoP). Your deck can't auto-win because it cast Probe and followed up with Wasteland or Therapy, your deck will counter fewer spells with Daze, you will lose more games to Chalice, you will not get random wins off the back of DRS activated for green, your deck is less effective vs 1-for-1 removal, your deck will have a harder time casting TNN, and the list goes on. Bleeding off widely-applicable win percentage to double down on a very specific way to answer a problem (in this case burn), generally isn't a great way to approach the format/room with unknown meta.

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