Quote Originally Posted by maharis View Post
Hi, I played essentially this deck the other night:

http://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=11464&d=265125&f=LE

Differences were Fire/Ice over Forked Bolt, Murderous Cut over Painful Truths, and 3 Usea/3 Stifle instead of 2/4.

I lost to imperial taxes and miracles, and beat burn and a RG chalice/moon brew.

I also think I prefer Therapy to Stifle -- I felt that against Miracles, where it was most relevant, you're damned if you don't develop your board and damned if you do and let them get basics online.

Is the general consensus that Stifle is what makes Delver worth playing for the busted starts? And if I want to play Therapy main, I should go for a more control/midrange Pyromancer deck like this?

http://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=11421&d=264839&f=LE
Not at all - several players have had success with Stifle-free builds. The first that comes to mind is Dylan Donegan, who narrowly missed the Top 8 of the relatively recent DC Open with such a configuration, and has played it to solid finishes in some SCG Classics in the meantime. You are less able to jump on top of decks with land-light draws, and I think you're weaker to Storm unless you replace the Stifles with cards that are similarly impactful in the matchup (Therapy probably counts, but is still a downgrade IMO), but having Therapy maindeck with Probes and Pyromancers is a strong place to be, especially if you're good at playing it in the blind, and frees up a significant amount of sideboard space (more than 25% of it, in fact). It's also usually a better topdeck. I actually like playing Therapy, as I have an uncanny ability to hit on blind ones.

In fact, some would argue - and have argued on this thread - that one of the primary reasons to play this deck is the interaction between Probe, Therapy, and Pyromancer, particularly those last two.

However, I really like playing Stifle. I feel more comfortable with it in my deck. It gives me an extra edge against Storm and Shardless, random decks that I see from time to time like Painter and Nic Fit, and, really, anything playing fetchlands. It has some applications against almost every deck in the format, even Lands, where it won me a game because I was able to Stifle my opponent's only Maze. It can also pitch to Force, which is critical from time to time. Currently, though, I'm eschewing Probes for non-blue cards, so that's a bit of a wash.

All that said, cutting Delvers and playing more of a controlling build is something I've been toying with recently, as most of the games I've been playing have devolved into grind fests and my aggressive wins with Delvers are getting fewer and farther between. I've also been wanting to play Bob for weeks and I haven't been able to find an optimal usage, and such a shell might facilitate that. It sounds like the build you played was already trending in that direction, so you might want to try the controlling build out and see how it works.