Quote Originally Posted by David Kaplan View Post
I have taken stock Burn and splashed Blue for Delver/Brainstorm. It's tough to get feedback on the this thread, as many are opposed to a splash and on the U/R Delver thread, as many are opposed to too much burn. I appreciate any feedback you may have on my version.

//Creatures
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Goblin Guide
4 Grim Lavamancer

//Burn
4 Chain Lightning
4 Fireblast
4 Lava Spike
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Rift Bolt
4 Price of Progress

//Splash
4 Brainstorm
1 Daze (Up in the air over this 60th slot... Snapcaster, Flame Rift, Wasteland even Phantasmal Bear)

//Mana (19)
12 Sac Lands
3 Mountain
4 Volcanic Island

//Sideboard
5 Pyroblast/REB
3 Searing Blaze
3 Smash to Smithereens
1 Spell Pierce
3 Submerge
Faerie Macabre
Mountain
Wasteland


I'm looking for a solid strategy against Ugr Thres. I like Submerge w/ REB backup in response to a fetch. Stifle/Wasteland is tough, thinking about an extra Mountain or even Wasteland retaliation.

Any thoughts?

Thanks
I think that what you're referring to as "sac lands" should be referred to as "Fetch Lands".

It seems to me that you essentially replaced the "Tier 2" burn spells (e.g. Flame Rift, Magma Jet, or even Keldon Marauders) with Delver of Secrets and Brainstorm, which might actually be a good idea. With the small number of cards that you're splashing for, the following points are probably the ones that you'd need to consider:
  • Do the benefits of splashing for these cards outweigh the trade-off of weakening your manabase?
  • Whenever you have these cards in your hand, try to determine if you would be better-off with one of the Tier 2 burn spells you've replaced.
  • The cards that you're trying to splash for are definitely good cards, but you have to consider if these cards really add to what you're trying to achieve as a burn deck.

Personally, I think that you're going to win a lot of games with this configuration, but I find it likely that these games would still be probably won had you used burn spells instead (and avoiding the drawbacks of splashing for a color).

The SB is a different story though. If you can justify splashing blue to get access to SB cards that would otherwise be inaccessible, then the splash might be worth considering. For example, more Spell Pierce might be useful.

For the last singleton card, an alternative could be Shard Volley. Think of it as the 5th Fireblast. I personally do have that card as a singleton in my configuration.

Kind Regards,
jares