Played this list in a small local last night:
4 Delver of Secrets
3 Tombstalker
2 Vendilion Clique
1 Snapcaster Mage
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
3 Spell Pierce
3 Stifle
3 Thoughtseize
4 Lightning Bolt
1 Forked Bolt
1 Ghastly Demise
19
4 Polluted Delta
3 Scalding Tarn
1 Bloodstained Mire
3 Volcanic Island
3 Underground Sea
1 Badlands
4 Wasteland
SB:
3 Pyroblast
3 Sulfur Elemental
3 Submerge
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Spell Pierce
1 Thoughtseize
- The deck seems to really hinge on whether or not you draw Delver. If you draw Delver you get to be a tempo deck and smash face. If you don't draw a Delver you are stuck being a control deck in a tempo shell. Hitting the mana to cast Clique/Tombstalker can be challenging. The deck really needs another high-quality beater, but I don't think anything is available in these colors.
- 1 Badlands is pretty terrible. I would have always preferred another fetchland.
- Overall, the deck felt like a much less consistent version of RUG. Tombstalker and Clique are not adequate replacements for Goyf/Goose. Being able to cast a cheap threat and protect it is one of the strongest parts of RUG. I felt that I was never able to do that.
Edit: To clarify the above, the deck is really great at generating tempo, but not necessarily capitalizing on it. I can Stifle, Daze, and Waste my opponent into oblivion, but in doing so I would rarely have the mana/resources necessary to cast Clique/Tombstalker. It is only when I had Delver did the plan work particularly well. I could see taking the deck in a more aggressive direction, but then you become a bad version of UR delver. If you stick with the Tempo plan you are just a worse RUG/BUG because you lack access to Goyf.
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