[Deck] U/R Delver

[karaxu]

Been thinking of using nivmagus elemental, this will be my starting point, most of it is taken from Caleb Durward's article on it.

4 Delver of Secrets
4 Nivmagus Elemental
4 Goblin Guide
2 Grim Lavamancer
1 Snapcaster Mage

4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
3 Daze
3 Ponder
2 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
4 Flusterstorm
2 Price of Progress
1 Fireblast

4 Volcanic Island
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Arid Mesa
3 Misty Rainforest
2 Island
2 Mountain

Sideboard:
1 Grim Lavamancer
3 Smash to Smithereens
2 Sulfuric Vortex
4 Surgical Extraction
1 Snapcaster Mage
2 Red Elemental Blast
1 Price of Progress
1 Force of Will


--- really not sure about moving the 3rd force of will in the sideboard, I really want to go FOWless on the maindeck, but just couldn't I think it is a necessary evil.
I want to increase the reach and speed of the deck.

Will be testing it this week. Got high hopes for Nivmagus Elemental.

[blindspotxxx]

@karaxu

Good Luck! Great guts experimenting with a new U/R Delver Build :)

[karaxu]

@blindspotxxx

Thanks. I think you switched to dredge now? The recent success of that deck in our meta is amazing, back to back wins :)

[blindspotxxx]

@karaxu

Not really, i just wanted to try it out. I wanted to test the waters of our meta for manaless and I must say it is truly risky. Combo has been on the rise again on the last tournament and I wish I played with our trusty UR Delver deck

[karaxu]

Haven't really done much testing with the nivmagus list (too much work).

But with the rise of combos, I think it will be favorable for the maindecked flusterstorms but I might up the FOW count to 3 and remove the fireblast.

I'll be missing spell pierce though for those random non-instant/sorcery spells. That is why i Upped the smash to smithereens count and i might add Echoing truth as a catch all answer.

[blindspotxxx]

Here's my take on the Niv-magus list. I made it more combo-ish with Kiln Fiend and Gitaxian Probes. Dealt like 16 damage on turn 3 lol it went like Ponder, Gitaxian Probe, Bolt, Bolt and swing with Fiend :) Beat MBA with it and Junk with Abrupt Decays. I haven't grown my Elemental to crazy stats, just 3/4,but it's not bad. I've been wanting to fit in some Artful Dodges in the 75, looks solid.

4 Delver of Secrets
4 Niv-magus Elemental
4 Kiln Fiend

4 Brainstorm
4 Flusterstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
4 Gitaxian Probe
2 Ponder

4 Volcanic Island
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Arid Mesa
3 Misty Rainforest
2 Island
2 Mountain

Sideboard:

1 Red Elemental Blast
4 Submerge
4 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Sulfuric Vortex
2 Smash to Smithereens
2 Artful Dodge

[karaxu]

Interesting list, looks more like RUG delver minus the green components,

Nivmagus for goose and Kiln Fiend for the Tarmogoyf

I might try this build with a few variations of my own.

[blindspotxxx]

Yeah basically they're almost the same, seems more of a fun deck than a serious one. The 4 Flusterstorms are what separates it from a RUG delver deck. I'm tempted to bring this to a small tournament just for kicks

[SupREME-10]

Here's my take on the Niv-magus list. I made it more combo-ish with Kiln Fiend and Gitaxian Probes. Dealt like 16 damage on turn 3 lol it went like Ponder, Gitaxian Probe, Bolt, Bolt and swing with Fiend :) Beat MBA with it and Junk with Abrupt Decays. I haven't grown my Elemental to crazy stats, just 3/4,but it's not bad. I've been wanting to fit in some Artful Dodges in the 75, looks solid.

4 Delver of Secrets
4 Niv-magus Elemental
4 Kiln Fiend

4 Brainstorm
4 Flusterstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
4 Gitaxian Probe
2 Ponder

4 Volcanic Island
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Arid Mesa
3 Misty Rainforest
2 Island
2 Mountain

Sideboard:

1 Red Elemental Blast
4 Submerge
4 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Sulfuric Vortex
2 Smash to Smithereens
2 Artful Dodge

As noted, this is a real interesting list. Conditional that your Kiln Fiend lives to strike; but I ran him in Sligh for a long time and I know that he can mean seriously accellerated damage if left unchecked even once. Good on you to try out new stuff and be willing to learn and adapt.

Cheers, I like it and for smaller meta's I think it will do great.

[lyracian]

I got 3 Niv-magus Elemental's at the pre-release so am thinking of trying something similar. The interaction with Flusterstorm seems worth giving it a wirle.

[blindspotxxx]

I got 3 Niv-magus Elemental's at the pre-release so am thinking of trying something similar. The interaction with Flusterstorm seems worth giving it a wirle.

Let us know how it goes, unfortunately I don't have any Nivmagus Elementals lol Cockatrice is my only hope but sometimes there aren't many decks to play with.

[karaxu]

Been testing with Nivmagus Elemental and I got mixed feelings from testing with it.

It makes you ask yourself if throwing that cantrip/burn spell away to make a 3/4 is worth it. Especially in the early games. I guess against RUG, this would be a very good card as lightning bolt is their removal of choice.

Against decks with access to swords to plowshares or other "kill" targeted removal you would really have to evaluate the risk which makes Gitaxian probe very useful for the deck as you don't have to guess.

But given the perfect situation, something like turn1 Nivmagus, into turn 2 daze their spell with 1 blue mana floating then flusterstorm (exile all 3 copies), you suddenly have a 7/8 creature on board Even tarmogoyf can't grow that fast. The only thing to evaluate now is if the explosiveness is worth playing over the utility given by snapcaster mage seeing that it is really hard to play them in the same deck. I am trying though using a 1-of snapcaster mage

@blindspotxxx
it is really cheap now to pick up, about 100-150 pesos ($3-4), I'm guessing it is underrated, I could be wrong and it will go down to 50 but nevertheless a good investment IMO.

[blindspotxxx]

Been testing with Nivmagus Elemental and I got mixed feelings from testing with it.

It makes you ask yourself if throwing that cantrip/burn spell away to make a 3/4 is worth it. Especially in the early games. I guess against RUG, this would be a very good card as lightning bolt is their removal of choice.

Against decks with access to swords to plowshares or other "kill" targeted removal you would really have to evaluate the risk which makes Gitaxian probe very useful for the deck as you don't have to guess.

But given the perfect situation, something like turn1 Nivmagus, into turn 2 daze their spell with 1 blue mana floating then flusterstorm (exile all 3 copies), you suddenly have a 7/8 creature on board Even tarmogoyf can't grow that fast. The only thing to evaluate now is if the explosiveness is worth playing over the utility given by snapcaster mage seeing that it is really hard to play them in the same deck. I am trying though using a 1-of snapcaster mage

@blindspotxxx
it is really cheap now to pick up, about 100-150 pesos ($3-4), I'm guessing it is underrated, I could be wrong and it will go down to 50 but nevertheless a good investment IMO.

We bought a box and we have 1 pc at the moment. I might just wait until it becomes a crap rare (crap rare price). I don't have the flusterstorms as well. It seems like in this deck Gut Shots are also good and if I could fit in space maybe I'd put some. Swords to plowshares is the deck's nightmare but against red removal it's king. I also see this deck not losing ever to any Combo decks because of the counter suite. Were you able to join last sundays Legacy Trials? I wasn't able to :(

Congratulations to Andrew Schneider for taking another Legacy Top 8 at SCG! :) Here's his deck list.

Maindeck:

Creatures
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Goblin Guide
3 Grim Lavamancer
4 Snapcaster Mage

Instants
4 Brainstorm
2 Daze
3 Force of Will
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Price of Progress
3 Spell Pierce

Sorceries
4 Chain Lightning
3 Ponder

Basic Lands
2 Island
2 Mountain

Lands
2 Arid Mesa
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Flooded Strand
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Volcanic Island
1 Wooded Foothills

Sideboard:
2 Sulfuric Vortex
1 Force of Will
2 Pyroblast
2 Smelt
4 Surgical Extraction
1 Banefire
3 Lava Spike

I might also copy the single Banefire just for kicks lol

[karaxu]

Yeah, I was able to play, there were just around 24 players though. Went 2-3, got 16th place, the last place with a prize of 1 pack

I sticked with the traditional build as I really didn't got much testing with Nivmagus, I wanted to use it though but didn't risk it.

I lost to my good matchups (combo) and had to mulligan a few no land hands and kept some 1 landers as I didn't want to go to 5. Maybe it is time to up my land count to 19. 18 lands is starting to punish me now.

My matches were.

R1 Esperblade - Won 2-1, very close games though.
R2 Hive Mind - Lost 1-2, run out of countermagic, lost game3 with him hard-casting Hivemind twice, the 2nd resolved and he got 1 card left in his hand, pact of the titan
R3 Burn - Lost 1-2, got mana screwed games 2 and 3, i just didn't want to go down to 5 so i kept 1-landers.
R4 Manaless Dredge - Win 2-1, surgical extraction = time walk
R5 Sneak Show - Lost 1-2, game 3 with him on the play he got turn 1 griselbrand. I got no FOW in hand

On a brighter note, Congrats to Andrew Schneider and David McDarby!
2 U/R Delver in SCG Top8! It is back on the map!

[Kich867]

I was very upset to see Andrew lose that second game, he had the win entirely locked up when his opponent was tapped out, he would have had to waste his own land and then take 2, and then next turn chain lightning with spell pierce backup.

[Megadeus]

I was very upset to see Andrew lose that second game, he had the win entirely locked up when his opponent was tapped out, he would have had to waste his own land and then take 2, and then next turn chain lightning with spell pierce backup.

Maybe it was a mis play. He did say in his profile he is the worst player to win 2 SCG opens ;)

But of course he had to play well and did just to get to that point. And Ive seen banefire win a game at least once with the deck at our LGS. It seems to do some sort of job, and against control, considering the game will go long, you can keep some of the lands rather than brainstorm them away, then eventually banefire for 5 (hopefully killing them) and they will sit there and cry with a force or spell pierce in hand. Maybe Abrupt decay will push CB out of favor hopefully for the sake of this deck. But with the rise of control decks, I can see the SB Lava Spikes become very good.

[Andrew.Schneider]

I was very upset to see Andrew lose that second game, he had the win entirely locked up when his opponent was tapped out, he would have had to waste his own land and then take 2, and then next turn chain lightning with spell pierce backup.

Thats the obvious line for sure. If he has daze there, I actually can't win that game. Maybe it was right to just go for it, but I took the hopeful line of him misplaying and laying a 4th land/me drawing a 3rd land.

[Andrew.Schneider]

Maybe it was a mis play. He did say in his profile he is the worst player to win 2 SCG opens ;)

I stand by that! haha. I was trying to be the worst player to win 3 opens though :( and if it was a misplay, it was a calculated one.

But of course he had to play well and did just to get to that point. And Ive seen banefire win a game at least once with the deck at our LGS. It seems to do some sort of job, and against control, considering the game will go long, you can keep some of the lands rather than brainstorm them away, then eventually banefire for 5 (hopefully killing them) and they will sit there and cry with a force or spell pierce in hand. Maybe Abrupt decay will push CB out of favor hopefully for the sake of this deck. But with the rise of control decks, I can see the SB Lava Spikes become very good.

The banefire is really good in theory. You usually get counterbalance dead or get them to around 5 or lower before you get locked out. Then the plan is to hopefully draw the miser with all the land you have in play. It might need to be a 3rd vortex though, thats the most important card in that matchup, not close.

[blindspotxxx]

I really wanna test niv-magus here is my latest conceptual brew.

Creatures: 15

4 Delver of Secrets
3 Grim Lavamancer
3 Nivmagus Elemental
3 Snapcaster Mage
2 Vendillion Clique

Spells: 26

4 Brainstorm
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
4 Flusterstorm
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Forked Bolt
2 Chain Lightning
2 Gitaxian Probe

Lands: 19

4 Volcanic Island
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Island
2 Mountain
4 Arid Mesa
3 Misty Rainforest

Sideboard: 15

4 Submerge
4 GY Hate of Choice
3 Sulfuric Vortex
2 Smash to Smithereens
2 Envelop

Pros of Nivmagus: This creature will be a beating against Red based removal decks as you can pump it to huge amounts and will be unkillable. It can grow larger and faster than tarmogoyf.

Cons: it makes you have card disadvantage.

I can see this list performing very well against Combo decks because of the Cliques and Counter Magic. Against Burn or Zoo or RUG if you draw your Magus early then you can negate their removal.

Problem with the deck is I wouldn't know how it would perform against Maverick and the other fair decks. I plan to swap out the Nivmagus Elementals on control matchups and White-Based removal matchups. It has 15 creatures and I'm not sure if that's the right number. I maindecked 2 Forked Bolts for the creature matchups and 4 Submerges on the sideboard. Criticism is very welcome!

[karaxu]

Seeing as you already committed to the nivmagus elemental plan with the flusterstroms, you might want to up the count to 4, and use 2 snapcasters instead.