[DTB] U/R Delver

Hey people, I played the mkm series Frankfurt last week with the following list:

Main:
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Monastery Swiftspear
2 Stormchaser Mage
2 Young Pyromancer
1 Grim Lavamancer
1 True-Name Nemesis
1 Bedlam Reveler
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Chain Lightning
2 Price of Progress
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Polluted Delta
2 Bloodstained Mire
3 Volcanic Island
2 Island
2 Mountain
Sideboard:
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Vapor Snag
1 Blood Moon
1 Price of Progress
1 Pyroblast
1 Hydroblast
1 Spell Pierce
2 Smash to Smithereens
1 Abrade
1 Sulfuric Vortex
1 Flusterstorm
1 Eidolon of the Great Revel
1 Pyrostatic Pillar

I played 2 trials and the main event, my results were in that order: 3-1, 2-2, 6-4. At the end I went positive over 3 days of playing that deck with 11-7 so I guess it is an acceptable result. There are a couple of things I like to say about Ur Delver and how to play that deck:

1. Even though it is hard to generalize what's the "best" build, you will see that Ur Delver/Prowess shines with it's super aggressive "Zoo" draws which means every turn a creature and hopefully finishing the game T5-6 with Burn. I allready seen builds which add even more cantrips to find more creatures which is the wrong way imho. My build played 15 creatures and 29 instant & sorceries and the thought was to play more cards which DO something instead of playing a cantrip and finding more cantrips. A huge advantage in ALL the matchups and compared to other decks in general is that Ur Delver runs by the cards itself instead of finding something very "specific". Also other Delver decks work like this since all the cards have a porpuse and do quite a lot by themselfes without needing other cards. That means every creature and every burn is a solid draw and you play it very straight forward like the old Zoo builds. Against other Delver decks I boarded out 4 FoW and 2-3 Gitaxian Probe and I never missed the Probe. The deck Ur Delver is a very linear deck and is practically divided by 3 types of cards: 1. creatures, 2. burn and 3. counter. The manabase is running pretty smooth and you never really miss any card because of all of the 3 types you play enough to consistently draw them. This is a big advantage of Ur Delver at least in my experience, you do not rely on your cantrips like other decks. I say that 4 Brainstorm and 4 Ponder are enough for this deck and allready do their job pretty excellent (also while looking for boarded cards postboard), Gitaxian Probe is only okay by replacing itself but I most of the time boarded it out and have REAL sideboard cards instead of it.

2. The manabase is good and works solid, but not perfect. There are scenarios which will force you to have a mulligan because you have double Swiftspear on your hand and a basic Island with no cantrip or 2 Ponder, 1 Delver, 1 Daze, burn spells and a basic Mountain. Playing a mulligan on 6 or even 5 is not that rare. On the other side you will most of the time fetch on basics anyway. When you start playing against other blue decks and you see the first blue dual or something you immediately protect yourself from Wasteland. You just need a single Scalding Tarn and some other Basic or fetchland and you allready have all the colors you need. There is no need at all to fetch on Volcanics and take the risk to get wasted and being cut of a color. This is a very powerful advantage letting your opponent keeping 2 Watelands which dont make any colored mana for them and are dead against us. This is also the reason I cutted the single Fireblast in my list for the third Chain Lightning. But since 90% of the time you always wanna fetch on double red and never on double blue with 3 lands on the board I still missed it though and would change it for the next event (so 4 Bolt, 2 Chain, 2 PoP and 1 Fireblast). It know it worked since my opponents which lost told me the kept the hand preboard with a Wasteland and draw another one since they didn't know my deck yet. 2 dead cards in hands can allready decide the game which they did.

3. As you can see there is a 2/2 split of Stormchaser and Pyromancer. I know it's not that popular but in all honesty that was the BEST addition and change I made with that deck. Very often Stormchaser comes for 1 or 2 which is not that great. But the ability which makes Stormchaser interesting is flying. It can ignore the board and still make Haste damage and also block a Marit Lage. Young Pyormancer is an extremely powerful card but lacks speed in this deck. I tested 4 like the old build with Treasure Cruise it was way to slow, even 3 were a little bit clunky and not aggressive enough. The 2/2 split on the other hand was great. T2 I played Stormchaser and attacked with a 3/2 Delver of T1 which makes a lot of damage in the beginning. When the opponent handles the threats I handled his and the board is empty topdecking Pyromancer practically wins you the game if it was not removed quickly. The 2/2 split was literally the best idea I had for that deck and worked overwhelmingly good.
Also you see a single Reveler, TNN and Grim Lavamcer. The point with Lavamancer was to play a 3/1 split with Chain Lightning. The thing is if Grim Lavamancer is active its obviously a MUCH better card than Chain Lightning. Lavamancer always was countered and removed immediately by all of the opponents which played creature decks. Still Lavamancer is kind of slow and sometimes it has to attack for 1 instead of shooting 2. I still keep it but I could also imagine myself playing the Chain Lightning instead since Lavamancer is kind of slow. Maybe I put him back in the board if I am not playing in a heavy creauture meta. The Bedlam Reveler and True-Name Nemesis split also worked really well. TNN won me the mirror, Reveler won against a grindy Grixis match. Reveler is in general much better against midrange and control decks and TNN is much better against faster decks and creature decks so it is dependend on meta and also a little bit on preference.

4. You loose against Chalice of the Void. There is nothing you can do except having a FoW in your hand or Daze if youre on the play. I lost against it and hated it. I had 3 artifact removals against Chalice but since you cannot search for it because Ponder and Brainstorm does not work when Chalice once resolved you rely on topdecking them. The matchup is horrible and I officially hate Chalice of the Void from now on...

These are my results against all the decks I played. The numbers don't mean a single match itself, they mean the whole result of 11-7 (so 18 matches/rounds played in 3 days):
Grixis Delver: 2-1 -> I lost when I got hit by a Wasteland and never found a second land. The rest of the matches I won by outracing Grixis. Still Grixis is a really really hard matchup and it is almost 50:50 depending on who starts and who actually draws better cards.
4c Leovold: 2-0 -> Price of Progress comes hard, boarded Blood Moon with a couple of Burn spell was always GG. Played 2 times against 4c Leovold and lost just a single game of it so my end result was 4-1.
Lands: 2-0 -> Played also 2 times against Lands, Trial and main event. I always found Vapor Snag and Blood Moon so GG. In this matchup Ponder and Brainstorm do their job excellent.
Storm: 0-2 -> I didn't win a single game against Storm, this deck killed me T2 consistently. One of our worst matchups, I found once Flusterstorm and Pyrostatic Pillar which where removed by Cabal Therapy, there was nothing I could do. 0-4.
Aggro Loam: 1-1 -> The matchup depends on how fast Chalice of the Void is in game. I was very happy to win in the main event against Aggro Loam just to face Aggro Loam in the next round again which killed me in both games with Chalice of the Void.
Big Red: 0-2 -> This was even more frustrating. I played 1-4 in 2 matches and lost all 4 to T1 Chalice of the Void and T2 Trinisphere. If I had Daze, he payed with Simian Spirit Guide. If I had a FoW, he continued with Trinisphere. Horrible and frustrating to face Big Red two times.
Mirror: 1-0 -> I won the mirror 2-1 and lost one game because I took a mulligan on 5. I think I overall had the better build and was faster, he played a more controlish list with Stifle and Spell Pierce main which didn't work that good as mine.
Eldrazi: 0-1 -> Ur Delver is pretty bad against big creatures which can't be countered. Still I managed to play 1-2 because of a Vortex he couldn't removed.
Esper Stoneblade 1-0 -> My fast clock and Burn killed him game 1 pretty fast. Game 2 the same plus a Smash to Smithereens on his Baleful Strix was enough. 2-0.
I had 1 bye because of the first trial and in one round my opponent didn't show up. These were all of my 18 matches of MtG with Ur Delver.

At the end I have to say how much I just love Ur Delver. My all time favorite deck was always Zoo back in 2009/2010 which I played in Legacy and Extended (nowadays Modern). Ur Delver comes pretty close to it. It just has a little bit more answers since you have counter spells. Even though I do not consider Ur Delver truely Tier 1 (more like between Tier 1 and 2) I will still continue to play it on the next big events. The style as a hybrid Zoo build with counter spells is something which suits me and the fact of playing PoP and punishing greedy manabases is just something I don't wanna miss. Also as more blue and fair decks are in your meta the better Ur Delver performs. The deck gets weak against unfair decks such as Storm, Elves and decks which play Chalice of the Void and big creatures. So building and playing this deck is also a choice of your meta. Other blue decks are much more flexible because they are able to play more hate cards since they got more colors to play with. Thanks for reading :)

Hey IamHANDSOME,

thanks for sharing your experiences and the detailed analysis. Nevertheless I have some questions regarding your card choices and cannot agree completely with all you've stated.

>I would definetly lead with a Volcanic turn 1 to play a swiftspear with daze in hand. If my opponent wastes me, it's almost a time walk. If I counter his 1 or 2-drop that's similar.

>You said your favorite deck is zoo, still you don't play fireblast. Zoo never stood a chance against fast combo unless they killed faster, which was why they sometimes boarded in Fireblast.

>I disagree with boarding out Probe. Replacing itself while triggering Prowess is key for this deck as well as the information you gain from knowing what your opponent is going to do in order to find a FoW or fast kill.

>Regrding the sideboard (and this is a general point to this deck): what are pyroblast/REB for? What matches would you like to see them? As they are reactive spells the only decks I can see them being superior against are Miracles for Counterbalance and Sneak/Show against Show & Tell or their counters. Which leads me to the questions what's the purpose of a hydroblast as red is one of the rare colors in legacy decks and mainly used for a splash to cast Bolt or Pyroblast/REB?

>I think TNN and Lavamancer are decent cards but just as you said a little slow for a deck that has issues once the opponent stabilizes.

I don't want to critizise without giving a suggestion on my point of view: Instead of Lavamancer I'm trying barbarian ring. It comes with "haste" and can target without taxation (proof to Mother of Runes and Thalia/Thorn of Amethyst/Trinisphere/Chalice) and provides some reach. The downside is that it can only be used once. Threshold is usually no issue for this deck.
As for lategame cards I prefer Snapcaster. I can be cast EOT to flashback a bolt or better PoP and attack the next turn. Otherwise it is able to trigger Prowess and synergises with cards like Surgical Extraction, Flusterstorm and other post board spells.
Vapor Snag seem to become more and more important as Dark Depths combo is on a rise (Turbo Depths, Lands and Maverick) besides being a nice tempo gain against most creature decks.

Finally another general question: How do people deal with a) DRS and b) Leovold?
For DRS there are 2 options: ignore it and cast your burn on the opponent while dealing with the tempo loss or kill it and waste a burn spell?
For Leovold the situation is more tricky as they draw a card if you target them (all burn except PoP).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BigBopper

Hey IamHANDSOME,

thanks for sharing your experiences and the detailed analysis. Nevertheless I have some questions regarding your card choices and cannot agree completely with all you've stated.

>I would definetly lead with a Volcanic turn 1 to play a swiftspear with daze in hand. If my opponent wastes me, it's almost a time walk. If I counter his 1 or 2-drop that's similar.

>You said your favorite deck is zoo, still you don't play fireblast. Zoo never stood a chance against fast combo unless they killed faster, which was why they sometimes boarded in Fireblast.

>I disagree with boarding out Probe. Replacing itself while triggering Prowess is key for this deck as well as the information you gain from knowing what your opponent is going to do in order to find a FoW or fast kill.

>Regrding the sideboard (and this is a general point to this deck): what are pyroblast/REB for? What matches would you like to see them? As they are reactive spells the only decks I can see them being superior against are Miracles for Counterbalance and Sneak/Show against Show & Tell or their counters. Which leads me to the questions what's the purpose of a hydroblast as red is one of the rare colors in legacy decks and mainly used for a splash to cast Bolt or Pyroblast/REB?

>I think TNN and Lavamancer are decent cards but just as you said a little slow for a deck that has issues once the opponent stabilizes.

I don't want to critizise without giving a suggestion on my point of view: Instead of Lavamancer I'm trying barbarian ring. It comes with "haste" and can target without taxation (proof to Mother of Runes and Thalia/Thorn of Amethyst/Trinisphere/Chalice) and provides some reach. The downside is that it can only be used once. Threshold is usually no issue for this deck.
As for lategame cards I prefer Snapcaster. I can be cast EOT to flashback a bolt or better PoP and attack the next turn. Otherwise it is able to trigger Prowess and synergises with cards like Surgical Extraction, Flusterstorm and other post board spells.
Vapor Snag seem to become more and more important as Dark Depths combo is on a rise (Turbo Depths, Lands and Maverick) besides being a nice tempo gain against most creature decks.

Finally another general question: How do people deal with a) DRS and b) Leovold?
For DRS there are 2 options: ignore it and cast your burn on the opponent while dealing with the tempo loss or kill it and waste a burn spell?
For Leovold the situation is more tricky as they draw a card if you target them (all burn except PoP).

---

Hey, no problem :) I like sharing my experience.

> Yeah it is true if you have a Swiftspear and Daze in hand you will obviously fetch on a Volcanic. If you start with a Delver on the other hand the basic Island is the better choice to not get wasted if you have access to an other basic Mountain. It depends on the situation obviously but most of the time if you can fetch on basics without taking disadvantages you will fetch on them to protect yourself from being wasted. Letting your opponent keep his Wasteland which doesn't produce mana can sometimes decide a game since it will be a dead card. As long as fetching basics will give you a clear disadvantage you should NOT do it and always go for Volcanics.

> The point with Fireblast is that its explosive instead of being consistent. Still as I stated in point 2. I missed a single copy of Fireblast and added it again to the list, so the updated build is exactly the one I posted -1 Chain Lightning +1 Fireblast. So not playing the one of Fireblast was maybe a little mistake I changed after the event.

> The thing with Gitaxian Probe: I don't want to let people think it is a mathematical formula but I rather play THE sideboard cards I boarded in instead of Probe replacement which is digging by drawing an other card. My understanding of Legacy and Magic in general is to actually play the cards which fits the deck instead of playing thousands of cantrips to find specific cards unless you are a combo deck (Show & Tell for example). Decks like Zoo and Ur Delver work(ed) that good because every single card synergized with the deck philosophie instead of replacing or substituting something. So I will put these cards in that deck to have more CA. Of course Probe is a pretty strong card especially combined with YP and Prowess creatures but if I have the choice between a Probe or the actual sideboard card I will choose the sideboard card postboard. Also I sometimes don't want to loose against other Delver decks by being raced because I was shocking myself with a Probe and the 2 damage actual matters! Gitaxian Probe was boarded out against a lot of aggressive decks like Burn and other Delver decks. Against more midrange decks and controllish lists I kept them.

> Pyroblast/REB is in general a good card against a lot of blue decks. Force of Will is creating card disadvantage by pitching one card into it so most of the time you replace it with a FoW. Pyroblast is good against Delvers, TNN (which needs to be countered), other counters, Show and Tell, Leovold and Strix. It is a 1 mana removal and counter which lets you keep your Burn to throw it at your opponents face or make sure a Fireblast or PoP for 4-6 damage resolves. If you expect a blue meta the card is pretty good. Hydroblast is more of a card to make myself slightly better against Burn, Big Red and mirror matchups. You don't really need it and can play the 2. Pyroblast/REB or another Spell Pierce instead of it. I will probably cut the single Hydroblast.

> TNN is actually amazing. It will win you ALL mirror matchups most of the time like Ur, Grixis and Bug Delver and it cannot be countered by Spell Pierce (so tapping out is not a thing). It is pretty strong I can tell you that. Also Grim Lavamancer will shut down entire decks like D&T or the mirror if they don't spend their removal on it. The deck doesn't lack damage to play Barbarian Ring, you are thinking this in the wrong direction. Ur Delver performs "best" if you play T1 a creature, T2 1-2 creatures and T3 racing your opponent with them by countering the most important cards and finishing him with Burn. To make this gameplan more consistent I played a 15 creatures build which worked quite well. Barbarian Ring is not a creature and will make this deck not more consistent. With Ur Delver people have to remember it is NOT A BURN DECK! You cannot win a game with just Burn spells, you cannot keep a hand with no creatures and no cantrip to digg for a creature. The deck is based on little creatures which attack super fast by having Burn spells as removal and the last damage and counterparts to deal with the very important cards. So Burn spells are more of supportive cards rather than the main cards as in Burn itself. In Zoo Burn was exactly that, removal and the last damage which were supportive to your creatures game plan. Thats why I go for 14-15 creatures instead of little things like more Burn or a Barbarian Ring which does 2-3 damage one time but not consistently the next turns.
To Snapcaster: It is true that card can be amazing. The issue I have with Snapcaster is that Snapcaster is more of reactive card while the rest are proactive cards. Normally you play the deck straight forward. Using cantrips and Burn before attacking to build up Prowess and also using Haste creatures. Snapcaster is the opposite. Snapcaster is good as a reaction in your opponents turn by playing it while flashbacking into a counterspell, removal or cantrip. Playing Snapcaster in our turn makes it a little bit weaker than it could be used and weaker than the obvious right choice of play. Thats why I dont really like Snapcaster but still a one of can be quite nice if you enjoy playing Snacpaster. I tested it and never liked it since it is more powerful in your opponents turn while the deck uses everything like a sorcery to build up prowess.

> To Leovold and Shaman: As I mentioned before Ur Delver is NO Burn deck. It uses its Burn spells as removal (Bolt and Chain) and their very last damage with PoP and Blast. You will always want to kill Shaman and Leovold asap since these cards produce A TON OF CA which you will loose against (unless your opponent is on 3 life, then please play the Bolt on his face ^^). Always take care of running into their Daze, so if you have triple Delver and a single Bolt, play Delver first and wait until you have 2 mana to Bolt their Shaman. If you have triple Bolt and a single Delver you will try to kill their Shaman T1 and protect your only creature against Daze. Leovold is the same thing, it is better to remove Leovold and let your opponent draw a single card than let it stay alive and make him draw 10 more cards. These decks are living of the powerful CA Leovold and Shaman creates so you have to kill them fast. I play against a lot of decks with Deathrite Shaman but never when their active because I always remove them instantly. This was also a reason to play the 3. Chain Lightning instead of the 1 Fireblast to have one more removal for Shaman. I recently killed a Shaman with a Fireblast before becoming active which was the right play because he could have produced a lot of life gain which had costed me the game in the end. Same with Baleful Strix. This thing does its job right you always want to remove it because trading with a creature is most of the time even worse for us and Strix replaces itself. But this is why we play Burn spells, dealing with their creatures to keep attacking him and let PoP take the game home.

Finished 5-1-1 + top 4 in the NRG Legacy CT today - lots of fun running the deck all day. Got a bit of our deck on stream, too bad both my camera matches were pretty lackluster - combination of a poor matchup, subpar draws, and Joe outplaying me in all four games. Did not lose to anyone else though. I'll try to post up a more detailed report with links when they're available.

Tournament report from Nerd Rage Gaming Legacy Championship Trial, 2/10/18, 79 players. This was my first NRG CT, and I was really impressed with the venue and the event. Super smooth, great production value, and very friendly staff. Nice 2-hour drive down from Madison and meeting up with my brother to sling lots of bolts (he was on Burn). Decklist is in here:
http://nerdragegaming.wpengine.com/d...g-ct-feb-2018/

R1 - BYE (1-0)
I'm not registered properly into the tournament at the time of the players' meeting due to my pre-reg not having my DCI #, but we get that fixed. They tell me that this has no correlation with later getting a R1 BYE, but I'll take it.

R2 - Bart with Sneak and Show (On the draw) (2-0)
Game 1 starts off with me in big trouble, as I keep a great creatures/burn fair hand, but he plays Volc->Petal on the play to show that he's on combo. My hand is not fast enough to race even a turn 3 Show and Tell/Sneak Attack from him, so I opt to go digging with Ponder instead. I shuffle my Ponders on both turn 1 and turn 2, failing to find countermagic (while also putting a Delver down turn 2). He has the weakest possible combo of Sneak -> nonlethal Emrakul, leaving me time to dig out of it... but he has enough gas left to find a second Emrakul a couple turns later while I'm rebuilding. (Loss)
Games 2+3 play out similarly to each other - I'm able to keep a reasonable mix of countermagic and a couple threats, and play a standard Delver vs. Combo game. Game 3 is pretty interesting where I have to survive two Sneak Attacked Griselbrand hits, but by that time I have a board of 3 creatures and my crack-backs are taking off more than 7 from him, so I get there. (Win, Win)
[Sideboard: -1 TNN, -2 Lavamancer, -1 Forked Bolt, -1 Price of Progress // +1 Flusterstorm, +1 Spell Pierce, +1 Pyroblast, +1 Dismember, +1 Vapor Snag]

R3 - David with 4c Maverick (On the play) (3-0)
Both games are pretty similar here. I feel like I'm disadvantaged in the matchup given his Stoneforge, but game 1 I draw tons of removal and he's unable to develop his board on the draw while I crash in with cheap creatures and keep removing his (Win). Game 2 is super close. He gets a Jitte down, but I have a TNN to blank it. He uses an aggressive line of forcing through Leo w/Jitte by giving Leo pro-blue with Mom, but I have the exact card to punish that while tapped out in Pyrokinesis (3-1 split). TNN is enough to hold off the lifegain long enough while my two flipped Delvers take him down. (Win).
[Sideboard: -4 FoW/ -2 Daze (play/draw) // +1 Abrade, +1 Pyrokinesis, +1 Dismember, +1 Submerge, +1 Vapor Snag, +1 Smash to Smithereens]

R4 - Tim with Infect (On the play) (4-0)
I've always been a fan of the Infect matchup as UR Delver - you have a lot of maindeck ways to kill their creatures. In the 2x Lavamancer build it's even easier. Game 1 came down to the last card (my Daze on an Invigorate+Berserk kill), but in game 2 I had too much removal for him to deal with and was able to more easily chip in with my flyers to get the kill. (Win, Win)
[Sideboard: -2 FoW/ -1 Daze (play/draw), -2 Price of Progress // +1 Submerge, +1 Vapor Snag, +1 Dismember, +1 Flusterstorm, +1 Pyrokinesis]

R5 - Joe with UW Stoneblade (On the draw (4-1)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGHuS-zHopY
My first ever match on camera. I made some mistakes here - shouldn't have kept a 1-land hand with a nonbasic, if I had had a better memory of Joe's lists from previous tournaments. Also had some poor sequencing with trying to kill his Jace, where I should have played Swiftspear first and made him choose Jace or Stoneforge on the attack. But overall, it was ok. I just couldn't overcome his efficiency of one-mana removal for all my relevant spells. I'm already in a tough position having to defend against Batterskull/Jitte. (Loss, Loss)
[Sideboard: -4 FoW/Daze (play/draw) // +1 Abrade, +2 Smash, +1 Pyroblast]

R6 - Brandon with Burn (On the play) (5-1)
This match is unfortunately pretty noninteractive - we each win our games on the play (Win, Loss, Win), letting me take the match 2-1. He draws pretty poorly in games 1 and 3 so they're not particularly close. There's a funny moment in game 1 where he has 3 Price in hand and I have 2 in hand, with no nonbasics on board. Mine at least do something, giving me two prowess triggers. I typically play the control deck in this matchup, killing their creatures to deny them the efficiency of repeat attacks, since I never plan to have blockers. Seems to work.
[Sideboard: -2 Price of Progress, -2 Probe, +1 Flusterstorm, +1 Spell Pierce, +1 Vapor Snag, +1 Pyrokinesis]. Have to bring in anything with text to get Probe/Price out of the deck ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

R7 - ID (5-1-1)
I'm in seed 3 going into the last round, and there are only 4 other 15-pointers, so it's an easy draw. I end up seed 4 in the final swiss standings, not enough to make a difference for play/draw when I really need it in the semi's below.

Top 8 - Justin with Grixis Delver (On the play) (6-1-1)
I used to have a lot of trouble with Grixis Delver, until I got some advice and testing results that led me to understand I was playing it way too aggressively. I had been 0-5 before March of last year, and am 4-1 since. Now I play it a lot more patiently, trying to trade cards and drag the game out. It takes some fortitude to do this against hugely problematic threats like Angler and TNN, so in game 1 I save FoW for only those. Post-board games are a lot easier with my Vapor Snag/Dismember setup to deal with the Angler. This match goes play-draw (Win, Loss, Win), as Delver mirrors often do. The 4-0 start early on in the tournament to get great breakers paid off here. There was a really tight spot in game 3 where Justin made a call he regretted letting me untap with a Volc instead of wasting it on his turn, and I actually did have the bolt in upkeep to punish him for it. Close match.
[Sideboard: -4 FoW/Daze (play/draw) // +1 Dismember, +1 Vapor Snag, +1 Pyrokinesis, +1 Flusterstorm]

Top 4 - Joe with U/W Stoneblade (On the draw) (6-2-1)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBqasnlvX4g
Rematch of the swiss, and this one goes pretty much the same way. In Game 1, I don't have answers for his equipment and he's able to slow the game down pretty easily to get that in play. Game 2 I play maybe a little too scared of getting Wastelanded out after losing to that in the previous match, so I'm unwilling to keep a 1-land Volc hand. Maybe that's a mistake, but I'm not sure. It ends up meaning that when I go Mountain->Lavamancer, I let him out from under my in-hand Daze that he's then able to play around during the subsequent turns when it matters. (Loss, Loss)
[Sideboard: -4 FoW/Daze (play/draw) // +1 Abrade, +2 Smash, +1 Pyroblast]

hey good report and result. Can you share your list please?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by IamHANDSOME

hey good report and result. Can you share your list please?

---

Sure, here it is:

Creatures (14)
4 x Delver of Secrets // Insectile Aberration
2 x Grim Lavamancer
4 x Monastery Swiftspear
3 x Stormchaser Mage
1 x True-Name Nemesis
Spells (30)
4 x Brainstorm
2 x Chain Lightning
1 x Forked Bolt
4 x Gitaxian Probe
4 x Lightning Bolt
4 x Ponder
4 x Daze
2 x Price of Progress
4 x Force of Will
1 x Fireblast
Lands (16)
4 x Scalding Tarn
1 x Arid Mesa
1 x Bloodstained Mire
1 x Flooded Strand
1 x Misty Rainforest
1 x Polluted Delta
3 x Volcanic Island
2 x Island
2 x Mountain

Sideboard
1 x Abrade
1 x Dismember
1 x Flusterstorm
1 x Grafdigger’s Cage
1 x Price of Progress
1 x Pyroblast
1 x Pyrokinesis
2 x Smash to Smithereens
1 x Spell Pierce
1 x Submerge
1 x Sulfuric Vortex
2 x Surgical Extraction
1 x Vapor Snag

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by paradigm72

Tournament report from Nerd Rage Gaming Legacy Championship Trial, 2/10/18, 79 players.

---

Thanks for the report! Congrats on the finish! How have you felt about the deck lately, I haven't played it since Eternal Weekend, and haven't felt to confident in it lately.

Thanks for the detailed report and congrats on the finish.

Out of curiosity, how did you like the 2/2 split of Islands and Mountains without Bedlam Reveler? Was it a consideration for the Fireblast or to make Price of Progress a touch better, a help with Lavamancer activations, something else?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Oldsrocket_27

Thanks for the detailed report and congrats on the finish.

Out of curiosity, how did you like the 2/2 split of Islands and Mountains without Bedlam Reveler? Was it a consideration for the Fireblast or to make Price of Progress a touch better, a help with Lavamancer activations, something else?

---

2/2 is very basic in that list. The point is that it makes you invulnerable to Wastelands often which can win you games because your opponents have dead cards in his hands. Also Blood Moon is a card you want to play in your board and if youre running a TNN you need 2 Island to cast it.

Hey all, thanks! My opinion is that UR Delver continues much as it has the past 5+ years (disregarding the Treasure Cruise blip) - a solid tier 2 deck that is very underrated, and can compete with basically anything. I view it as one of the decks that has a lot of matchups close to 50/50 against the field, which I find really rewarding to play over the long term to try to master. The 'Hearthstone feeling' of getting a long cantrip chain combo turn with a couple Prowess creatures on the board is hard to beat for visceral feel in my experience.

In the recent metagame, I think the deck is ok against Czech Pile (neither worse nor better than Miracles/Grixis Delver/Shardless that players switch off of to play Pile). I think it's also a significant favorite vs new Miracles given our ability to play creatures early and play burn late with no threat of Counterbalance. D&T continues to be really bad in my experience, but D&T's metagame share has declined a bit in the past year. Combo is still 55/45 most of the time - our combo matchup is not nearly as good as traditional Delver decks, but it's still ok. We are probably an underdog to experienced Storm pilots, but there just aren't that many of them out there. Grixis Delver continues to be close but slightly favored (again, maybe 55/45).

I have tried 2 Island 1 Mountain in similar lists, but I end up finding that I need the second Mountain for Fireblast, yeah. Can't really not play my all-time favorite Magic card! There are also some Wasteland matchups where I want multiple red sources; see the 2x maindeck Lavamancers which make for a very red-hungry game. So both reasons that Oldsrocket_27 suggested are things I have experienced.

Hi guys! :D
I'm an italian UR Delver player and I want to share with The Source my ideas about this deck.
Currently I'm playing the "old" version because I love control a little bit more than a classic UR Burn.
This is my list:

4 Delver of Secrets
2 True-Name Nemesis
2 Grim Lavamancer
3 Young Pyromancer
1 Snapcaster Mage
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Chain Lightning
3 Spell Pierce
1 Spell Snare
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Island
1 Mountain
3 Volcanic Island
4 Polluted Delta
4 Wasteland
4 Ponder
3 Gitaxian Probe

2 Pyroblast
2 Flusterstorm
2 Smash to Smithereens
1 Sulfuric Vortex
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Null Rod
1 Winter Orb
1 Sulfur Elemental
1 Blood Moon
2 Price of Progress

I would like to try Stifle over the Chain for gain more tempo and going to the late game for winning by Pyromancer's tokens or TNN.
I prefer this version for many reason:

1) The Prowess-build is pure aggro.
I need to cast all my spells in my 1st Main Phase for trigger the ability and grow my creatures.
I like to attack first and playing my cards in the 2nd Main for understand my opponent's choiches.
With my build I can stay open for a Cantrip, Bolt or Counterspell. This works better with Young Pyromancer on the board.

2) My hand is more rich.
I don't need to play all my cards for give the Prowess upgrade.
I've tryed the list and my hand was always empty!
IMHO is good have always (about) an answer to an opponent's spell.

3) Monastery S. is so good in first turns. Yeah, the deck try to close asap but in this metagame it's hard!
There are a lot of control/midrange decks and they trying to bring you on late game. And this deck sucks in late game! :(

4) I think that TNN is really OP in Legacy at now.
There are really few spells in each deck that can kill this merfolk.
TNN can directly attacks the opponent's Planeswalkers!

5) Wasteland is a good reason to play my build (IMO).
In Legacy the denial is awsome for high number of non-basic lands decks.
In my sideboard there are also Blood Moon and PoP.

6) Snapcaster Mage and Grim Lavamancer are really good in this deck.

7) I love gain board advantage with Young Pyromancer.
Bolts, Cantrips and other spells can give me a little army.
My opponents must kill YP asap or cast a wrath to survive.

8) I have a lot of blue and a little bit of red spells.
This helps me to going out the color screw!
I'm playing only 6 blue and 4 red sources! (3 non basic lands).

Sorry for my bad english.
I just wanted to share my ideas with you :cool:
LT

You dont need soooo many counter spells. Cut -1 Pierce and -1 Snare. For this add maybe 2. Snapcaster and 4. YP. Or you can also try 3 Stifle. But you need more creatures because they are all dying of easy removal spells and most of the time you are tapped out so Pierce and Snare are worthless. Canadian Thresh can play less creatures because Mongoose has Shroud. The list should be closer to this:

2 Grim Lavamancer
4 Delver of Secrests
4 Young Pyromancer
2 True-Name Nemesis
2 Snacpaster Mage
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
2 Spell Pierce
4 Lightning Bolt
1 Chain Lightning
1 Forked Bolt
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Polluted Delta
3 Volcanic Island
2 Island
1 Mountain
4 Wasteland

From this list you can cut -1 Snapcaster, -1 Probe and -1 Chain for 3 Stifle also.

Hi, I am new in the Forum.
Currently I am playing this deck. I am testing two different lists:

2 True-Name Nemesis
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Monastery Swiftspear
3 Stormchaser Mage
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
1 Fireblast
1 Thunderous Wrath
2 Price of Progress
4 Lightning Bolt
1 Vapor snag
2 Chain Lightning
4 Brainstorm
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Ponder
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Flooded Strand
1 Misty Rainforest
2 Island
2 Mountain
2 Polluted Delta
3 Volcanic Island
4 Scalding Tarn
SB
1 Flusterstorm
1 Spell Pierce
1 Price of Progress
2 Pyroblast
1 Vendilion Clique
2 Smash to Smithereens
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Abrade
1 Sulfuric Vortex
1 Blood Moon
2 Rough // Tumble

The other list is the same but changing 3 Stormchaser Mage for 3 Young Pyromancer and with this side board:
1 Flusterstorm
1 Spell Pierce
1 Price of Progress
2 Pyroblast
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Vapor Snag
2 Smash to Smithereens
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Abrade
1 Sulfuric Vortex
1 Blood Moon
1 Grim Lavamancer

I still don´t know which one is better. Some times I prefer Stormchaser Mage and other times Young Pyromancer.

I see you are using Grim Lavamancer in the main deck, is it worth it?
Do you like the main deck Thunderous Wrath and Vapor Snag?

Sorry about my english.

Stormchaser Mage vs. Young Pyromancer is a tough one, and people have certainly had success both ways. I think the best approach is to play whichever best fits your playstyle and where you like to be on the aggro<->midrange spectrum. Make sure to consider adjusting the rest of the deck around it; Young Pyro likes countermagic and Stifle more, while Stormchaser likes main-phase removal.

Personally I like having at least one Grim Lavamancer in the main - most metas are pretty fair right now, and he is either a must-answer threat which protects your other threats, or can completely steal a game if not answered.

I'm not a fan of Vapor Snag and Thunderous Wrath in the main - too inconsistent and variable, meaning they'll each be dead cards in some G1 situations. But some of the most successful placings have run them (I think the 2nd place list at GP Vegas last year, and the recent SCG Classic win), so they have some precedent.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by tonax

Hi, I am new in the Forum.
Currently I am playing this deck. I am testing two different lists:

2 True-Name Nemesis
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Monastery Swiftspear
3 Stormchaser Mage
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
1 Fireblast
1 Thunderous Wrath
2 Price of Progress
4 Lightning Bolt
1 Vapor snag
2 Chain Lightning
4 Brainstorm
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Ponder
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Flooded Strand
1 Misty Rainforest
2 Island
2 Mountain
2 Polluted Delta
3 Volcanic Island
4 Scalding Tarn
SB
1 Flusterstorm
1 Spell Pierce
1 Price of Progress
2 Pyroblast
1 Vendilion Clique
2 Smash to Smithereens
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Abrade
1 Sulfuric Vortex
1 Blood Moon
2 Rough // Tumble

The other list is the same but changing 3 Stormchaser Mage for 3 Young Pyromancer and with this side board:
1 Flusterstorm
1 Spell Pierce
1 Price of Progress
2 Pyroblast
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Vapor Snag
2 Smash to Smithereens
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Abrade
1 Sulfuric Vortex
1 Blood Moon
1 Grim Lavamancer

I still don´t know which one is better. Some times I prefer Stormchaser Mage and other times Young Pyromancer.

I see you are using Grim Lavamancer in the main deck, is it worth it?
Do you like the main deck Thunderous Wrath and Vapor Snag?

Sorry about my english.

---

Hello buddy,

I tested Stormchaser vs. Young Pyromancer A LOT !! I played 2-4 of each alone and also splitted them 2/2 in on deck. YP is at 99% of the time the better card. He does more CA, he has more power with 2 instead of 1, he is definitely FASTER than Stormchaser becaause you can flood the board soooo easily and also wins you more mirrors. I will never play Ur Delver without 2-3 Pyromancer anymore, no matter how aggressive or controllish I build it.

To Grim Lavamancer: You have to think about Lavamancer as an additional very very powerful 1 drop you can play to make the deck more consistent and more aggressive. If you play the Swiftspear build you still only have 8 one drops (4 Swiftspear, 4 Delver) like Grixis Delver (4 Shaman, 4 Delver) which is imho not enough. You want to play it more aggressive so add another 2 Grim Lavamancer main to have 10 one drops and openers. Also cards like Grim Lavamancer and YP need to be removed otherwise they make to much in certain matchups. Ive never seen my opponent worry much about Swiftspear or Stormchaser, Lavamancer or YP they immediately Brainstorm in response to counter or remove them. This is how you have to think about Ur Delver, raising the power level by adding certain cards.

Vapor Snag can be very good in certain matchups but can be also very dead. As a 1 of it is fine, if you face a lot of Sneak Attack, Reanimator, Lands and some clunky creature builds it is a very good card. Otherwise you want Burn instead. Thunderous Wrath I DONT like. You can always draw it from a Gitaxian Probe or being on your opening hand which makes is sooo bad. Sometimes you want to fetch on basics to give your opponent dead Wastelands but you cant properly because you have Thunderous Wrath in your hand and you have to play around it. Also Brainstorm is something you cast very differently compared to other blue decks and I never like to play around TW. But there are some very Burn heavy lists which play it also with Stormchaser so it depends on your game style. My build is with 2 Lavamancer and 3 YP (all together 15 creatures) more about consistency than explosivnes so I dont play it.

I will test this list today and will let you know how it works:

3 Grim Lavamancer
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Young Pyromancer
2 True-Name Nemesis
1 Snapcaster Mage
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
2 Spell Pierce
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Chain Lightning
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Polluted Delta
3 Volcanic Island
2 Island
1 Mountain
4 Wasteland

This build is very popular in Japan, they tend to cut Swiftspear and Burn for more TNN, YP, Lavamancer and counter spells to make the deck better long term without loosing its amazing manabase. From the sideboard still comes 1 Blood Moon, 1-2 Price of Progress to have many outs against 4c decks. Also I like the idea of playing T2 YP + Probe followed T3 with Snapcaster into Bolt or something. 3 Grim Lavamancer to have at least 7 one drops. This is the only weak point which I will test today. Also I could imagine to play -2 Pierce -1 Chain and +3 Stifle but since Stifle is not an aggressive card such as Delver and YP I try this list first.

Quote:

---

Young Pyro likes countermagic and Stifle more, while Stormchaser likes main-phase removal.

---

This is actually not accurate. Countermagic and Stifle are passive cards. You never want to tap yourself out and playing actively because you want your opponent to run in your Stifle or counters. YP is a very active card, you do tap yourself out to play it and want to play it aggressively to flood the board with it. Having a YP on the field and waiting to Stifle something to get your very first token is really the wrong synergy. This is why the only remaining build is Canadian Trhesh which is running Stifle succesfully. Canadian Thresh counters and Stifle everything until they play Mongoose or Delver to race the opponent. A late YP with no cards in hand is much weaker than T2 YP with 4 cards left you can cast for it. Thats why Grixis Delver cutted Stifle from its list to run it more aggressively.

Thanks for your replies.

I will test the Young Pyromancer list with -1 Thunderous Wrath, -1 Vapor Snag, +2 Grim Lavamancer.

I will put 2 Vapor Snag in the side board to fight against Gurmag Angler, Marit Lage and other big creatures. Do you use other cards for this task?

Against decks with a lot of creatures, like Death and taxes, Maveric or Elves, do you run some massive removal in the side board or is it enough with the fire we have and the Grim Lavamancers? I was thinking in Sudden Demise, Izzet Staticaster or Pyrokinesis.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by tonax

Thanks for your replies.

I will test the Young Pyromancer list with -1 Thunderous Wrath, -1 Vapor Snag, +2 Grim Lavamancer.

I will put 2 Vapor Snag in the side board to fight against Gurmag Angler, Marit Lage and other big creatures. Do you use other cards for this task?

Against decks with a lot of creatures, like Death and taxes, Maveric or Elves, do you run some massive removal in the side board or is it enough with the fire we have and the Grim Lavamancers? I was thinking in Sudden Demise, Izzet Staticaster or Pyrokinesis.

---

I actually play 1 Vapor Snag and 1 Ensnaring Bridge in the sideboard. When you play against Show and Tell you put the Bridge in and practically win with Burn spells since they will not be likely to remove it. Even if they have artifact hate you still have counter spells to protect your Bridge. For Gurmag Angler I always play 1 Dismember in the sideboard. Against tokens like Storm and Elves I play 1 Rough//Toumble but you can also play Izzet Staticaster if you want to.

Hi guys!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by IamHANDSOME

You dont need soooo many counter spells. Cut -1 Pierce and -1 Snare. For this add maybe 2. Snapcaster and 4. YP. Or you can also try 3 Stifle. But you need more creatures because they are all dying of easy removal spells and most of the time you are tapped out so Pierce and Snare are worthless. Canadian Thresh can play less creatures because Mongoose has Shroud. The list should be closer to this:

2 Grim Lavamancer
4 Delver of Secrests
4 Young Pyromancer
2 True-Name Nemesis
2 Snacpaster Mage
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
2 Spell Pierce
4 Lightning Bolt
1 Chain Lightning
1 Forked Bolt
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Polluted Delta
3 Volcanic Island
2 Island
1 Mountain
4 Wasteland

From this list you can cut -1 Snapcaster, -1 Probe and -1 Chain for 3 Stifle also.

---

Thanks for the advices!
I've tried something like this yesterday evening in a small tournament of 20 players :D
Five turns to play, I've closed with 3 wins and 2 loses.
I was in top8 with 7th position.

My prize!

Here's the list:

4 Delver of Secrets
3 True-Name Nemesis
1 Snapcaster Mage
4 Young Pyromancer
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Chain Lightning
4 Ponder
3 Gitaxian Probe
3 Stifle
2 Spell Pierce
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Island
1 Mountain
3 Volcanic Island
4 Polluted Delta
4 Wasteland

2 Pyroblast
2 Flusterstorm
2 Smash to Smithereens
1 Sulfuric Vortex
1 Null Rod
1 Winter Orb
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Price of Progress
1 Grim Lavamancer
1 Forked Bolt


Stifle is the new entry and it's awsome.
Really really good in this metagame.
Denial is the way to play this deck (in my build, not it Prowess-style).
It's a sort of Canadian without green splash.
I'm in love with this configuration.

Turn 1 vs Aluren (2-1)
- Nice game, I've closed with Delver and counter on his Aluren with Spell Pierce afrer a really good denial by Wasteland and Stifle.
- I've lost the G2, killed by Leovold and Baleful Strix. No burn spells for kills his creatures.
- T1 fetch, T2 Waste on his Tropical and Surgical on the dual, countered by Swan Song. T3 Young Pyromancer and a new Surgical: I've win the game with a race of Bird and Elementals.
Side in: 1x Winter Orb, 2x Surgical
Side out: 2x TNN, 1x YP

Turn 2 vs BUG Shardless (2-0)
My opponent is gone away and I won 2-0 without playing :/

Turn 3 vs Infect (1-2)
- Mull to 5, never found the second land for casting YP.
- Great works of Stifle, Daze, Wasteland and Pierce. Easy win with Delver+Denial+Counterspells
- New mull to 5: 2 fetchs, 1 Wasteland, 1 Ponder, 1 Delver. Scry: on bottom the Island. Ponder: 1 bolt, 2 fetchs -> shuffle. Draw a Brainstorm: 3 fetchs. Impossibile to wins.
Side in: 1x Forked, 1x Lavamancer
Side out: 1x Snapcaster, 1x TNN

Turn 4 vs Dark Maverick (0-2)
Bad match-up for my deck.
- I've lost the die. T1 Green Sun Zenit for Driad Arbor, Knight on T2. My Delver died by double StPs (the first one was countered). Hard to play against his fat monster. Died.
- Too many creatures and died again vs a resolved Choke.
Side in: 1x Forked, 1x Lavamancer, 2x PoP
Side out: 2x Pierce, 2x Daze
(random side in/out)

Turn 5 vs Grixis Delver (2-1)
- Wasteland on his Sea, Stifle on his fetch. He can't find anymore the B mana and I've win with a flipped Delver.
- Lose. 3 Tarmogoyfs was too much for me and my small animals.
- Another game winned by denail strategy. Double Wasteland, Bolt on his Shaman and Daze/YP doing the rest.
No chances sideboard.

Personal opinion after tournament
TNN is cool and strong, but 3x is heavy for this deck and this manabase.
I've cut 1 of this for another Lavamancer in main deck (gets better creatures-match up)
Stifle is good in this build. I like it. A sort of win condition.
On sideboard I've chanced 2xPoPs for 1x Echoing Truth and 1x Sudden Demise: good utilities in this deck.
(No Vapor Snag because I prefer to bounce a permanent)
I will try this new list asap.
Sorry again for my bad english! :D

Bye!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LucaT

Hi guys!

Thanks for the advices!
I've tried something like this yesterday evening in a small tournament of 20 players :D
Five turns to play, I've closed with 3 wins and 2 loses.
I was in top8 with 7th position.

Here's the list:

4 Delver of Secrets
3 True-Name Nemesis
1 Snapcaster Mage
4 Young Pyromancer
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Chain Lightning
4 Ponder
3 Gitaxian Probe
3 Stifle
2 Spell Pierce
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Island
1 Mountain
3 Volcanic Island
4 Polluted Delta
4 Wasteland

2 Pyroblast
2 Flusterstorm
2 Smash to Smithereens
1 Sulfuric Vortex
1 Null Rod
1 Winter Orb
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Price of Progress
1 Grim Lavamancer
1 Forked Bolt

Stifle is the new entry and it's awsome.
Really really good in this metagame.
Denial is the way to play this deck (in my build, not it Prowess-style).
It's a sort of Canadian without green splash.
I'm in love with this configuration.

Personal opinion after tournament
TNN is cool and strong, but 3x is heavy for this deck and this manabase.
I've cut 1 of this for another Lavamancer in main deck (gets better creatures-match up)
Stifle is good in this build. I like it. A sort of win condition.
On sideboard I've chanced 2xPoPs for 1x Echoing Truth and 1x Sudden Demise: good utilities in this deck.
(No Vapor Snag because I prefer to bounce a permanent)
I will try this new list asap.
Sorry again for my bad english! :D

Bye!

---

Dude I also love the list. Thanks for the report. I also played with Stifle and kind of liked it. Even though it is not doing well with YP because sometimes you want to play aggressive like T1 Delver T2 YP, mana denial plan in general is pretty good and you also have something against Storm. How good were 2 Spell Pierce main? Did you like it? Right now I think about cutting them for only playing Stifle because 8 counterspell and 3 Stifle is enough and to have 4 Lightning Bolt and 2 Chain Lightning. This list:

3 Grim Lavamancer
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Young Pyromancer
2 True-Name Nemesis
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
3 Stifle
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Chain Lightning
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Polluted Delta
3 Volcanic Island
2 Island
1 Mountain
4 Wasteland

You have to play 4 Gitaxian Probe!! If you Probe your opponent T1 you can decide if you Stifle him or play Delver go or maybe Ponder to look for a counter spell. Gitaxian Probe is amazing to decide which is the right play, it synergises very well with all cards so you need to play 4 of them.