Strixhaven (Back to School[s of Magic] this April)

[Fox]

There has to be a point to a card @Mr. Safety, especially in decks with no strategy beyond jamming the most pushed 1-card combos. If BUG Delver needed reach, it would have been playing Coll Brut. For some reason people see this new sorcery and say "finally BUG Delver can fix it's main problem of not having burn"...with a card that is super suspect in against Delver w/ Bolt. It's not addressing any problems, that's why it's unplayable.

[Reeplcheep]

These are scenarios that can happen @Reeplcheep, but Delver doesn't really get the option to ignore its main problems for corner case scenarios. This card has no meaningful text against a flipped UR Delver, and that's what matters.

@FTW that comparison does not work. Abrade had to be not 1cmc b/c of Chalice. Every other card that did the same thing [Shatter] on that cmc had a backup plan that attacked a more fringe resource than a creature (Smash, Grudge).

For every scenario you listed, we could make small alterations and see the same stuff written for Collective Brutality. None of this modality matters if the card is failing to address the fundamental deficit. The thing about Abrade is that it played precisely because it addresses a fundamental deficit: artifact removal.

Even if ur delver is the only matchup you care about, it’s should be played there as an effective 2.5 for 1 (2/3 of a bolt face, 2/3 of their bolt face, 1/2 of a mental note (formerly played in thresh) and rebuy wasteland) for only 2 mana.

In a deck that can’t afford card disadvantage comparing a 1 for 1 or even 1 for 2 to a 2 for 1 is not being very honest with your arguments.

Edit: I don’t understand why you are so worried about the ur delver matchup. AFAIK bug delver is great in mirrors as the bigger delver deck. Almost everyone had said that it’s weakness was that no reach makes it weaker vs combo and control where decay is dead. This is a decay that is never dead.

[Mr. Safety]

In a deck that can’t afford card disadvantage comparing a 1 for 1 or even 1 for 2 to a 2 for 1 is not being very honest with your arguments.

Bingo, this is what I was thinking. Delver archetypes in general need some form of card advantage, at least out of the sideboard, to help offset the fundamental weakness of their archetype (as Fox neatly described.) I've always seen delver decks as not needing reach per se, but rather a way to somehow not fall behind in cards before grindier decks take over. Bolt doesn't fix that problem either. A card that plays multiple roles at such an efficient cost is the kind of card that can help fill holes. Sylvan Library, Life from the Loam, and additional removal saw plenty of maindeck/sideboard play in BUG Delver in years past. This is a card that does those things fairly well, provides card advantage, and unlike Library can actually flip your Delvers.