URGw Noble Arcanist

[Hanni]

So this is just an idea that I was toying around with, but basically, I started with RUG Delver but then morphed it into a more midrange setup.

The idea is that Delver is slightly out of place in the midrange builds, which are less aggressive and focused on more card advantage. Not to say that Delver isn't still strong, but replacing it with Noble Hierarch allows the deck to advance the gamestate into the midrange plan better. Hierarch is certainly no Deathrite, but it does pump Arcanist and can be turned into an elk later.

Accelerating mana makes Young Pyromancer and Oko better, and even opens up the deck to run Monastery Mentor. It also makes Arcanist a little better by allowing the deck to more aggressively use Wasteland and Daze without setting back its ability to jam an Arcanist on turn 2.

Arcanist plays extremely well with Pyromancer by creating free triggers and resources, while Pyromancer plays well with Oko by creating 1/1 tokens that can be elked to dramatically speed up the clock or ability to push damage through vs opposing Oko's, etc.

There's quite a bit of synergy in this pile.

Not sure if the deck has legs yet, but this is what I ended up with:

URGw Noble Arcanist

Lands (18)
2 Scalding Tarn
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta
3 Volcanic Island
2 Tropical Island
1 Tundra
4 Wasteland

Creatures (12)
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Dreadhorde Arcanist
3 Young Pyromancer
1 Monastery Mentor

Spells (30)
3 Oko, Thief of Crowns
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
4 Daze
2 Force of Negation
4 Force of Will
4 Lightning Bolt
1 Swords to Plowshares

Sideboard (15)
2 Klothys, God of Destiny
2 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast
2 Veil of Summer
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Submerge
2 Blazing Volley
1 Destructive Revelry
1 Null Rod

The manabase is a bit greedy, but there's only 2 white cards, and Noble Hierarch can produce both green and white.

I'll post more later if anyone is actually interested in this idea.

[FTW]

How much more stable would your mana be with a 3rd Trop to increase the chance of Noble openers and make it easier to find more green sources for lategame Oko?

The white looks pretty marginal, just giving 1 StP and 1 Mentor in the 75. Do those increase the win rate by a significant amount or fill roles that RUG cards can't?

Mentor could be 1-of Uro (which is easier to support with Noble and a 3rd Trop)

StP could be Chain Lightning or Brazen Boi

[Fox]

Why are you playing RUG Delver with a 4th color, and no Delvers to pressure life totals with Bolt? What 2-drop spell are you trying to recur with Dreadhorde + exalted? Why are you bending over backwards to play the most recent legacy has-been (YP)? You have 3x Oko, and that's your only 3 drop.

There's no real way to justify a Mentor and 1x Plow when you could just play a Brazen. If you've got this mana stuff going with Hierarch and want to marginalize Bolts, probably need a maindeck Klothys, Hexdrinker*, and Reclaimer and like 2x value GSZ. Put in an Uro if you want.

[FTW]

That's a good point that the Bolt plan (as well as the Daze + Wasteland plan) get worse without Delver pressure. RUG midrange and RUG tempo are different decks (even though Oko is forcing tempo to slow down).

For a midrange build, Klothys might be the 3 drop you want to ramp into. Or you just start dropping Oko and Uro earlier.

Once you add GSZ, you have to start asking yourself how bad the red is. Bolt in a non-aggro plan? Dreadhorde and Pyroblast are really the only good red cards.

On the other hand, a Noble + Oko + Uro + GSZ shell makes you want to play Allosaurus Shepherd into Natural Order. With that plus the Oko/Uro plan, you have an actual thing to ramp into. Arcanist gets much worse in that plan but recurring Brainstorm and Ponder is probably still good enough. Maybe not better than playing Snapcaster and going white for Plow over Bolt, or just playing Coatls.

[Mr. Safety]

I actually think the Young Peezies should be more Mentors. You have the mana-ramp; the real payoff by playing red is Arcanist, so just lean into that and Bolts, Pyroblast side, then do the regular RUG delver thing. A turn 2 Mentor is a lot scarier than a turn 2 Young Pyromancer, significantly. Swords to Plowshares could easily be a sideboard card. I think Mentor is good enough on its own to splash white and include Nobles, and getting Oko onto the board a turn faster isn't bad either.

Cool idea, Mentor is an underappreciated powerhouse in legacy.

[Fox]

Cool idea, Mentor is an underappreciated powerhouse in legacy.

It's also very steal'able by Oko [-5]. Not exactly a great place to be with only 8x unconditionally castable instants to try and fizzle the ult.

[BKclassic]

I've tried to make Noble Hierarch work in RUG a bunch. Mentor is an interesting idea I haven't tried before. The main issue is that Hierarch typically doesn't end up being better than Delver. But I do think Oko makes Hierarch a lot better since you can turn your late game Hierarchs into Elks. I don't know if getting access two white cards in your 75 is really worth it, especially where Mentor could be Uro. Regardless of how you proceed, I think the Taiga is pretty worthwhile with Noble Hierarch. Anyway, I've been trying to crack the Noble RUG riddle for sometime so good luck!

[Borg]

Just trying to add 2 cents here.

Lately I've been trying to get more out of Arcanist myself. Exalted is one way but I find Subtle Strike has real potential.
It's removal, an instant and can turn Arcanist into a 3/5 for just 2 mana.
Now you have a beatstick Arcanist who can recast spells like Hymn, Sinkhole, Dreadbore and Kolaghan's Command for free.

Pairs also very well with Sprite Dragon and even Delver.

No longer RUG then though but Grixis.

[kinda]

The list is a pile of good cards so I'm sure it can be pretty strong. However 4 nobles with 4 cmc 3 things plus 0 cmc 4 things seems odd to me. I'd like more top end to go bigger.

[mistercakes]

Could explore be okay here?

[Fox]

Could explore be okay here?

Never playing Explore over Growth Spiral. No benefit to playing into Warping Wail when you could be better against the rest of the format.

[Hanni]

Lots of comments, I love it.

The reason for Young Pyromancer over Mentor is due to the casting cost. The deck has only 4 mana dorks, not 8, and wants to utilize Wasteland and Daze. A version all-in on Mentor could certainly exist, but I like the tempo plan. Mentor is just a finisher in here.

Daze, Wasteland, and Lightning Bolt still make plenty of sense without Delver. Arcanist is still aggressive by casting the spells for free, which quickly converts into Lightning Bolts or cantrips to draw more threats, and Pyromancer can quickly develop a strong enough board position to make Lightning Bolt effective reach. The deck only has 4 mana dorks, but the point of those is similar to Deathrite Shaman's role at the beginning of the game; to accelerate out the ability to cast multiple cost efficient cards per turn. The deck does not need 4cc cards. Noble Hierarch is a far cry from Deathrite Shaman, but this deck can make effective use of Exalted or turn them into Elk's, so it's still really good.

Young Pyromancer might be yesteryear, but it's still an incredibly powerful creature. Generating tons of tokens is great vs spot removal heavy control decks like Snowko, and being an engine to turn Oko into a literal machine that cranks out a 3/3 hasty Elk every turn.

The white splash might seem random, but it's really not. Mentor is just a more powerful copy of Young Pyromancer that is perfectly suitable in here as a 1-of. Swords to Plowshares is just the 5th removal spell, which deals with stuff that Lightning Bolt can't and can be recast with Dreadhorde. The deck could certainly cut Tundra for Trop, Mentor for the 4th Pyromancer, and Swords to Plowshares for Chain Lightning, Forked Bolt, or Brazen Borrower. I particularly like Forked Bolt for its ability to potentially machine gun down four X/1's for a single mana with Arcanist.

Noble Hierarch enabling 2cc spells might only have Destructive Revelry right now, but it opens up more design space in the future. There are a ton of powerful 2cc Instants and Sorceries that could certainly make their way in at some point.

I'm also not saying this is better than Delver, or that dropping Wasteland/Daze/Bolt for an even more midrange version wouldn't be an incredibly powerful deck, but I like the way this one works.

Also, Uro in a deck with 18 lands, 4 being Wasteland, even with mana dorks is sketchy, and that card is not remotely in-line with the synergies or concept of this deck. Uro is a powerful card advantage engine and threat, but it's extremely slow and clunky. I do have a Bant splash red/black deck built that I haven't posted that runs 4 Birds of Paradise and 4 GSZ that accelerates into Coatl, Uro, Leovold, and Oko. It also has Mother of Runes, which makes the creature package incredibly resilient, and also gets access to green hatebears like Collector Ouphe and Scavenging Ooze, among the multitude of other super strong sideboard cards going 5c. It's also playing Wasteland, Daze, Force of Will, and Force of Negation too, so it's a essentially a big tempo deck.... but that's an entirely different deck, to be fair.

[Hanni]

Never playing Explore over Growth Spiral. No benefit to playing into Warping Wail when you could be better against the rest of the format.

Explore/Growth Spiral are not how this deck wants to be spending 2 mana, and doesn't run enough lands either. This deck is still trying to be hyper efficient like RUG Delver, and tops out the curve at 3cc.

Before ripping the idea to shreds, you guys should really try it out for a couple of games.

Also, Allosaurus Shepherd, Natural Order, and Progenitus or whatever is certainly a viable sideboard plan that the deck could use. I'm happy with the current sideboard, but being able to have an uncounterable I-win combo is certainly strong in the right matchups.

[mistercakes]

Never playing Explore over Growth Spiral. No benefit to playing into Warping Wail when you could be better against the rest of the format.

I just meant the kind of effect. I don't actually know these cards exist. :)