[DTB] U/R Delver

Hi, Long time Lurker here

I've been playing the Prowess version for the past 3 months, with decent succes at my local legacy weekly.
My current list looks like this:

4 Swiftspear
4 Delver
3 Stormchaser
2 Bedlam Reveler

4 Fow
4 Daze
4 Bolt
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Git Probe
3 Chain Lightning
2 Price of Progress
1 Vapor Snag
1 Fireblast

16 Lands

Sideboard:

2 Pyroblast
2 Flusterstorm
2 Smash to smithereens
2 Surgical extraction
1 Hydroblast
1 Sulfuric Vortex (Card is freaking awesome, but expensive)
1 Grim Lavamancer
1 Price of Progress
2 Rough// Tumble
1 Vapor Snag


I have some questions, on how to Sideboard. I usually find myself wanting to bring in a lot of Cards, in each matchup, but not knowing what to cut.
The best example would be Abzan Maverick. The Cards I want in this matchup are:

+1 Grim Lavamancer
+2 Rough// Tumble
+1 Sulfuric Vortex
+1 Vapor Snag
+2 Smash to Smithereens
+1 Price of Progress

But what do I cut for them?
I usually cut 4 Fow against fair decks, but im very afraid of the Postboard Choke. I dont wanna cut any removal (obviously), Price of Progress is good, Bedlam is also good, cuz the games tend to go a little longer, Daze is nice aswell, especially if they Keep a one Land Deathrite hand. Im pretty lost on this, and would like some help.

Another strange matchup, that I run into fairly often at my local, is Pox. I have absolutley no idea, how to board against that deck, any advice?

What are the Cards you are most likley to trim in any given match?

The most common decks I face on a weekly Basis are:

SnS
Abzan Maverick
TES
Grixis Pyro (Bedlam Reveler insetad of Angler)
Pox
Elves
Punishing Dack/Thieves
Some Chalice Deck (Changes alot. I've seen everything from Eldrazi or Moon Stompy, to Aggro Loam and Bomberman)

Do you guys think that my Sideboard is reasonable for this Meta, or would you make drastic changes to it?

I'm still learning the deck myself, so I don't have specific SB advice but I play the standard 15 card list with 1 Thunderous wrath (which just wins games)

I've been thinking about squeezing in an echoing truth in the board as extra removal / jank-protection. It makes sense because at a local level people will play more budget-oriented/nostalgic decks instead of the usual blue piles (as you've seen)

I was thinking about switching flusterstorm for spell pierces since I haven't seen any fast combo, but tons of chalice decks. However you have SnS and TES so perhaps that's not the best decision.

As for the Maverick match up, daze does a reasonable lotus petal impression if choke comes down.

against Maverick you can go for 4 FoW and 1-2 Gitaxian Probe to not loose to much of life if you face a 7/7 Knight. Also I dont know how good mass removal is against it, you might consider not boarding these in.

Oli4: I play both UR delver and Pox. For this matchup, I think bringing in Pithing Needle (planeswalker, cursed scroll), Winter Orb, & Flusterstorm (discard effects) would be good. Burn them sooner rather than later.

Hello there,

We have this poor man's legacy format running at our local game shop, and the meta has become flooded with fast red decks, most notably burn and goblins.
I find the Burn matchup quite hard on my U/R Delver list, since it's not as fast and cards like searing blood can turn the tides quickly

This is my current list:

4 Delver of Secrets
4 Monastery Swiftspear
3 Young Pyromancer
2 Bedlam Reveler
1 Cryptic Serpent
--------------------------------
4 Brainstorm
3 Chain Lightning
1 Chart a Course
1 Counterspell
4 Daze
2 Forked Bolt
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Ponder
2 Spell Pierce
--------------------------------
2 Steam Vents
1 Sulfur Falls
1 Thunderous Wrath
1 Wooded Foothills
3 Island
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Polluted Delta
3 Mountain
1 Flooded Strand

Sideboard:
1 Abrade
2 Dragon's Claw
1 Echoing Truth
3 Hydroblast
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Negate
1 Pyroblast
1 Pyrokinesis
1 Rough / Tumble
1 Smash to Smithereens
1 Spell Pierce
1 Sulfuric Vortex

I've tried a prowess list before to try and outrace the burn decks, with stormchasers and cards like fireblast and unstable mutation, but i'm having slightly more sucess with a more resilient list with more removal and late-game threats.

Problem is that cards like price of progress and blood moon do little to nothing in my meta, so i wonder if there's better strategies to win against fast mono red decks without getting too vulnerable to other midrange and control decks?

I mean, the best way to outrace aggro decks, ist to play combo. SnS shares almost all the expensive cards with UR delver (Forces, Tarns and Volcs), so maybe you should look into that. I don't think that you can really outrace Burn with UR Delver, we trade speed for consistency and a better combo matchup. You can also look into cheaper combo decks, like BR Reanimator, and Turbo Depths, which should both do pretty well in your meta. You can play Cabal Therapy instead of Thoughtseizes, since your meta is burn heavy anyway, and it will also save you some $$$.

If you really want to keep playing UR Delver, I would suggest to play at least 2 Grim Lavamancers, because they are really really good to kinda slow down the pressure of Burns creatures. Also, if your meta is really that full of burn, you might wanna consider playing a few Hydroblasts main deck. Flusterstorm is also a great cheap and efficient counter. And if you really want to screw with your opponent, you can try out some spice like counterbalance.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GhoulDesecrator

Hello there,

We have this poor man's legacy format running at our local game shop, and the meta has become flooded with fast red decks, most notably burn and goblins.
I find the Burn matchup quite hard on my U/R Delver list, since it's not as fast and cards like searing blood can turn the tides quickly

This is my current list:

4 Delver of Secrets
4 Monastery Swiftspear
3 Young Pyromancer
2 Bedlam Reveler
1 Cryptic Serpent
--------------------------------
4 Brainstorm
3 Chain Lightning
1 Chart a Course
1 Counterspell
4 Daze
2 Forked Bolt
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Ponder
2 Spell Pierce
--------------------------------
2 Steam Vents
1 Sulfur Falls
1 Thunderous Wrath
1 Wooded Foothills
3 Island
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Polluted Delta
3 Mountain
1 Flooded Strand

Sideboard:
1 Abrade
2 Dragon's Claw
1 Echoing Truth
3 Hydroblast
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Negate
1 Pyroblast
1 Pyrokinesis
1 Rough / Tumble
1 Smash to Smithereens
1 Spell Pierce
1 Sulfuric Vortex

I've tried a prowess list before to try and outrace the burn decks, with stormchasers and cards like fireblast and unstable mutation, but i'm having slightly more sucess with a more resilient list with more removal and late-game threats.

Problem is that cards like price of progress and blood moon do little to nothing in my meta, so i wonder if there's better strategies to win against fast mono red decks without getting too vulnerable to other midrange and control decks?

---

Of course it is hard if you play Steam Vents instead of Volcanic Island. You can still beat Burn but without the real lands its gonna be much harder. Are you allowed to play proxies at your event? That would help a lot. Otherwise your list looks fine. I would recommend to play more basics and cut the Reveler and Serpent because they require RR and UU which your manabase can not afford. The list should look more like this:

4 Delver of Secrets
4 Monastery Swiftspear
3 Young Pyromancer
1-2 Grim Lavamancer
1 True-Name Nemesis
0-1 Bedlam Reveler
0-1 Stormchaser Mage
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Daze
2 Spell Pierce
1-2 Spell Snare
4 Lightning Bolt
2-3 Chain Lightning
1 Forked Bolt
1-2 Price of Progress
1 Fireblast
0-1 Thunerous Wrath
4 Scalding Tarn
3 blue fetchlands
2 red fetchlands
2 Steam Vents/Volcanic Island
3 Island
2 Mountain

The Sulfur Falls does not do anything if its your only land on the play so I would really cut it. Against Burn you board out first your Price of Progress and Gitaxian Probe. Your board in more counterspells and removal, anything which is better than PoP (which comes for 0) and Gitaxian Probe (which means shocking yourself against Burn). Also as mentioned before, Grim Lavamancer will help in this matchup because even if you can not counter Eidolon you can remove it for free with Lavamancer. This will make your list much better against Burn and aggressive decks.

Also you do NOT outrace Burn with Ur Delver. What you do is you use your ressources MUCH better and force him to a topdeck situation which you should be still on 6+ life at least. You do not attack with your Swiftspear, you wait and let your opponent attack with 2 Goblin Guide for example, while blocking you Bolt on Goblin, Swiftspear gets Prowess and the other Goblin Guide dies to a 2/3. The board is clear and you setup Swiftspear to swing next turn back for 2 at least while Pondering or Brainstorming for a an other counterpell or removal. The only card which can outrace Burn is a flipped Delver. If its not on the board T1 you are not likely to outrace Burn. Keep in mind that all the creatures except Eidolon you should let resolve because you have a lot of removal spells, save your counter spells for their Burn spells like Bolt and Fireblast.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by IamHANDSOME

against Maverick you can go for 4 FoW and 1-2 Gitaxian Probe to not loose to much of life if you face a 7/7 Knight. Also I dont know how good mass removal is against it, you might consider not boarding these in.

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What good mass removal is in U or R? I run Electrickery but was wondering what others you might use.

I'm also a Mav player so I'm curious for that reason too :cool:

Rough// Tumble. Only Thing on our side that dies, is unflipped Delver.

Thanks for the insightful advice!

The mana base is indeed the weakest point in my list, since good lands cost so much. I'm considering adding a couple of spirebluff canals to increase turn 1-2 consistency. If i'm not mistaken, there was a list that made top 8 last year with a similar budget mana base with spirebluff's and sulfur falls.
One idea i'm also considering is a single misdirection maindeck. It is a 2 for 1, but i can see it working in situations like redirecting a bolt to remove their creatures (and not taking damage to eidolon), and in the late game it can feed on the useless dazes.

RE: mass removal - I've played a lot of different options over the past few years with the deck, and have settled on 1x Pyrokinesis and 1x Sudden Demise as the best asymmetric sweepers. I need asymmetry because I'm on 2x Grim Lavamancer and 1x True-Name Nemesis, both of which are excellent in the matchups where you want sweepers, so I wouldn't board them out. If you are on Young Pyromancer, the need for asymmetry is even more acute.

I bring in Sudden Demise against the go-wide decks like Elves and other tribals (plus TES/Belcher and some other oddball cases). Pyrokinesis comes in for the same but is also an all-star against D+T and Maverick.

I'm also curious about pyrokinesis, but I worry that red cards are actually much more painful to pitch by card quality than blue cards for force of will.

This guy in thailand got into top 8 with a UR Delver list running 2 Meditate mainboard and 2 Stifle, opinions on his strategy? i never even considered meditate.

http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=19153&d=321083&f=LE

Ur Delver Meditate by Sukij Nonta:

18 LANDS
1 Arid Mesa
4 Flooded Strand
2 Island
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Mountain
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Volcanic Island

12 CREATURES
4 Delver of Secrets
2 Grim Lavamancer
3 True-Name Nemesis
3 Young Pyromancer

30 INSTANTS and SORC.
4 Brainstorm
1 Chain Lightning
4 Daze
1 Dismember
4 Force of Will
1 Forked Bolt
2 Gitaxian Probe
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Meditate
3 Ponder
1 Spell Pierce
1 Spell Snare
2 Stifle

SIDEBOARD
3 Abrade
1 Dismember
2 Flusterstorm
1 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Pithing Needle
2 Pyroblast
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Snapcaster Mage
2 Surgical Extraction

After you meditate what exactly do you do? I mean you won't have mana, just hope for the best xD?

I was wondering that too. That tournament is apparently fake, reported with the intention of making meditate spike: https://imgur.com/a/AQx6nA9

It was confirmed fake https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...7848f48a1f.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by menloe

What good mass removal is in U or R? I run Electrickery but was wondering what others you might use.

I'm also a Mav player so I'm curious for that reason too :cool:

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Volcanic Spray is pretty cool, although I'm not sure that this deck is necessarily in the market for that sort of effect. Grim Lavamancer and Forked Bolt, in addition to the standard Bolt package, tends to do a good job of preventing opponent's from amassing multiple tiny creatures.

Anyone have any success at gp this past weekend?

I went 4-0 at my local weekly last night, just decided to put together the following list because I wanted to play my stifles, but not play grixis. The resulting deck was quite interesting, it getting to play basics, stifle/daze/pierce/wasteland, probe and yp, delver and tnn, were all good things in various match ups. I understand that maybe this deck isn't the same UR delver deck discussed in this thread, but I thought it was worth sharing and this looks like the best place for it.

2-1 Aggro Loam
2-0 Moon Stompy
2-0 Elves
2-0 BUG Shadow

MD
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Gitaxian Probe

4 Daze
4 Force of Will
4 Stifle
2 Spell Pierce

4 Delver of Secrets
4 Young Pyromancer
2 True-Name Nemesis
1 Grim Lavamancer

4 Lightning Bolt
1 Forked Bolt

4 Scalding Tarn
3 Flooded Strand
4 Volcanic Island
2 Island
1 Mountain
4 Wasteland

SB
2 Pyroblast
2 Flusterstorm
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Abrade
1 Null Rod
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Sudden Demise
1 Sulfuric Vortex
1 Winter Orb
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Grafdigger's Cage

Nice list! I've had trouble with stifle, especially vs DnT heavy metas which I'm mostly playing in, but I also understand it as a pet card. You should take a quick look at my list up the thread a bit as it's a similar departure from the standard list as you have. Major differences (other than stifle) is not playing g probe to make mulligain decisions better, make racing opponents easier, and just because redundancy isn't really a problem. Cards you should try are spell snare and chart a course. The first is usually a better utility 1c counter than spell pierce (though I still play 1) just because it hits creatures (and chalice!) but still lots of impactful cards vs non-sneak combo. The second is just such good value, especially since elemental tokens are usually a cheap enough resource to just send in there. Otherwise I just play a different balace of what you've already got there.

If you wanna try something that still has the fun 'gotcha' factor as stifle, try checking out disrupt which is less dead and can usually cycle itself at very worst.