Gold Digger [UWr Delve Control]

[Chaam]

Quick update guys. Went 3-1 in my local on Saturday, beating BUG Delver, Maverick, and Goblins but losing to Punishing Jund.

Kor Firewalker was an all-star against Goblins, acting as a mini-moat for 3-4 turns. I don't think that matchup is common enough for that to be the deciding factor though.

After those results & with commander out and wanting to integrate Containment Priest, here's where I've gotten to:


4 Flooded Strand
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Arid Mesa
3 Tundra
2 Volcanic Island
3 Island
2 Plains
1 Mountain
1 Academy Ruins

4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
1 Preordain
1 Treasure Cruise
4 Dig Through Time

4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Lightning Bolt
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Moat
1 Supreme Verdict

4 Force of Will
3 Counterspell
1 Misdirection
2 Spell Pierce
2 Pyroblast

1 Baneslayer Angel
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Sideboard:
3 Vendilion Clique
2 Flusterstorm
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Blue Elemental Blast
2 Pyroclasm
1 Kor Firewalker
1 Nyx-Fleece Ram
1 Wear // Tear
1 Blood Moon
2 Containment Priest


I wanted a bit more removal main (and Snapcaster has been pretty bad for me). I cut Snapcaster and a Preordain to move Verdict main & added a Bolt. I'm going to keep an eye on this though - cutting cantrips and trying to keep the delve engine is a slippery slope.

While Firewalker is very good, fetching WW early against decks that might have PoP is scary. Ram has been good too - there's probably a correct card here but I'm playing the split and taking notes until then.

With Containment Priest and Blood Moon, I don't think I need Surgical Extraction (it's been mediocre so far even when I've brought it in), but I may be getting greedy.

Blood Moon earned it's way back to deal with Jund, Lands, 12post, etc - things I've had trouble with so far, even if they may not be too common.

Consecrated Sphinx gets REBed or I would be playing it. A second Baneslayer still isn't out of the question in the board.

Just a thought: -1 Engineered Explosives, -1 Lightning Bolt for +1 Fire//Ice, +1 Council's Judgement.

Fire and Ice works as the extra removal you wanted while being a cantrip/versatile. In a lot of ways it can be better than Bolt by killing 2 things and it pitches to force/misdirection. With 4 Dig/cantrip.dec I think having 1 Engineered Explosives is ok since we will be seeing the majority of our deck every game. This also allows you to play another high impact 1-of, council's judgement. I think as a control deck we need to have something like this in our list as a catch all vs. anything.

[lambert101]

Finally decided to drop the Assemble the Legion :( Here is my current list


4 ponder
4 brainstorm
4 dig through time
3 pyroclasm
2 supreme verdict
4 force of will
1 blood moon
2 Stoneforge mystic
1 Batterskull
4 swords to plowshares
2 counterspell
2 pyro blast
3 Jace the Mind Sculptor
1 Keranos, God of Storms
2 Treasure Cruse
1 Engineered Explosives

3 island
2 plains
1 mountain
4 tarn
4 strand
2 messa
1 volcanic
2 tundra
1 Karkas

Board
2 pyroblast
2 Pithing needle
2 Flusterstorm
2 clique
4 Mage
1 cage
1 Engineered Explosives
1 council's judgement

If I was going to try assemble again I would cut the 2 Mystics for an assemble the legion and the enginerred explosives from the board and put in a containment priest/venser/or blue elemental blast.

[klaus]

Fire and Ice works as the extra removal you wanted while being a cantrip/versatile. In a lot of ways it can be better than Bolt by killing 2 things and it pitches to force/misdirection.

imo: Izzet Charm >>> F/I
* same CMC
* cantrips better regarding delve impact
* deals two dmg (ok, not dividable, but splitting up F/I for profit is like a <20% chance imo)
* counters stuff :-)

-->Pretty happy with it currently, actually.

[alphastryk]

Chapin wrote about the deck today: http://www.starcitygames.com/article...ew-Jersey.html

Seems like people will know whats going on at the GP now. :(

I was definitely getting a lot of free value from nobody knowing the deck.

[AnziD]

imo: Izzet Charm >>> F/I
* same CMC
* cantrips better regarding delve impact
* deals two dmg (ok, not dividable, but splitting up F/I for profit is like a <20% chance imo)
* counters stuff :-)

-->Pretty happy with it currently, actually.

I tested out Izzet Charm for a bit and every time I drew it I wished it was another card. The big matchups where it screwed me over was UR Delver (had this awkward scenario with Pyroblast and Izzet Charm in hand, he has an unflipped Delver and a Swiftspear) and ANT (Izzet Charm cost too much). I think I'd play with Spell Pierce instead, but even that I'm not a huge fan of honestly.

[phazonmutant]

Looks like a deck tracking the similar idea just won the SCG. Briszka didn't take the deck to its logical conclusion (4 Digs, cantrips), but I think it's interesting that both Alphastryk and he have gotten to the same place with maindeck Bolt.

I tried something incorporating his ideas about Stoneforge and Blood Moon at a weekly yesterday (14 people, not bad for a secondary weekly!):
4 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Vendilion Clique

1 Engineered Explosives
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Batterskull

3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Dig Through Time

4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Supreme Verdict
4 Force of Will
2 Spell Pierce
2 Pyroblast
2 Counterspell

4 Flooded Strand
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Arid Mesa
3 Tundra
2 Volcanic Island
3 Island
2 Plains
1 Mountain
1 Academy Ruins

// Sideboard
2 Blood Moon
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Flusterstorm
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Meddling Mage
1 Baneslayer
1 Blue Elemental Blast
2 Pyroclasm
1 Council's Judgment
1 Wear // Tear

I had the Council's Judgment main for the event, but I really missed having a wrath maindeck, and EE was sufficient. Also I boarded it out a fair bit, I'm not even sure it should be in the 75. Another wrath might be better, another Baneslayer is a consideration, or maybe more cheap spot removal like Bolt. Meddling Mage was fairly terrible, Containment Priest is clearly better. I think Storm should be a good matchup, so that cut shouldn't hurt.

The Stoneforge plan seemed much, much better to me (and I really don't like Stoneforge usually!). Just having a way to be proactive for only 2 mana was crucial, and having a way to make a 4/4 Lifelinker on turn 3 while leaving up countermagic was crucial as well. Stoneforge got bolted less than I expected, and it didn't really matter because it was so easy to cast Batterskull down the road. At the end of the day, Stoneforge helps shore up the fringe matchups by being generically powerful, and also makes it much harder for the opponent to board by attacking from multiple angles. Baneslayer was great and was clearly better than Batterskull in a heads-up comparison - Decay hits the germ, and there were several instances where I couldn't put Batterskull into play because it would get shattered - but overall Stoneforge is a stronger plan.

R1 - U/R Delver - I lost game 1 to a horde of creatues. Those openers are almost impossible to beat. Game 2 I Pierced a couple of Sulfuric Vortexes while he had no pressure on board, and finally stuck a Baneslayer to close. Game 3 he boarded in Blood Moon and played it on 3. I fetched a basic, Pierced, he Forced, and I happily let it resolve. I had another basic in hand and cantripped into more while he was doing basically nothing. Definitely not a good board plan for him. 1-0
R2 - Jund - Looooong, grindy games. He played Goyf off Bayou, Waste, and I fetched basic Plains with Plow, 2 Counterspell in hand to Plow it. He followed up with Bob, which was bad. He missed several land drops, and about 6 turns later I was close to stabilizing if I drew spells, but he drew out of the screw while I drew lands and running Bloodbraids finished me off. I replayed Batterskull like 4 times and he killed it over and over with Punishing Fire. Game 2 I resolved a Blood Moon on a clear board with Island, Plains, but couldn't draw a second blue for my pile of double-blue spells in hand. He eventually drew a Forest and Gripped my Batterskull, then Bloodbraided into Golgari Charm. This allowed me to cast spells, however, and after dealing with a string of Bloodbraids, Baneslayer took it home. Game 3 started short on time, and despite me having Blood Moon in hand and plenty of backup spells to his 3x Punishing Fires plus an unknown in hand and nothing on board, he didn't want to concede. 1-0-1
R3 - MUD - He mulliganned low game 1, and turn 2 Stoneforge won by itself. Game 2 was looking grim when I had a naked Batterskull (blocked and killed a Lodestone) versus Forgemaster, Wurmcoil, and a tapped Grim Monolith. Things looked even worse when he tinkered a Sundering Titan, leaving me on one fetch. I Plowed it and cantripped into lands, and Dig found running removal. Jace fatesealed him out. 2-0-1
R4 - U/R Delver - He deployed a Delver, Pyromancer, Swiftspear, and then another Pyromancer when I Plowed the first, putting me in a bad situation. I was able to protect my turn 3 Stoneforge with Pierce though, and he made a bad attack (not sending with tokens and Pyromancer into sick Stoneforge), which allowed me to Dig and cantrip into the 2 removal spells I needed and claw my way to a victory from 1 life. That was a sweet game. Game 2 was a quick affair, with a turn 2 blind flip Shattering Spree leaving me without a way to catch up to his onslaught. Game 3 I stuck a quick Stoneforge and battled with Batterskull uncontested. His Vortex shut off lifelink, but he had nothing in play so that was an easy race. 3-0-1

Most games I won revolved around a quick Stoneforge, so that was clearly a good plan. I was surprised at how much better the UR matchup felt. I also think that Blood Moons did a lot of work, even if they didn't win the game on their own.

I then tested a few matches against UR Omniscience - that was a sweet list with 4 Digs main, no Enters. It went quite poorly preboard, but I think postboard was better (only tested a couple games). I also played like 12 games against lordofthepit playing Vial Maverick and got absolutely crushed. Weathered Wayfarer was insane - I can't not play lands, but if I do I just got Wasted - and Mom and Vial made things very tricky. Postboard was not better. The only games I won were when he didn't have Vial.

So yeah, lots of battles. Hope you find the matchup notes helpful! The deck seems powerful, and I feel like I'm arriving at a list I'm comfortable with - perhaps other peoples' playstyles are different.

[afedelejr]

Im streaming this deck right now at twitch.tv/alwysbrke if your interested. No making fun of my bad plays though :)

[warfordium]

I then tested a few matches against UR Omniscience - that was a sweet list with 4 Digs main, no Enters.

I assume it had Burning Wish as a result...what is the kill?

[phazonmutant]

I assume it had Burning Wish as a result...what is the kill?

Yup, 4 Burning Wish. There's one Enter in the board as well as Petals of Insight and Grapeshot. He had 2 Emrakuls main, no Dream Halls. One game he hardcast 2 Omniscience and I won... Very weird game. If we want to continue discussing it we should probably move to the U/R Omniscience thread (boy that thread hasn't seen much love in a while).

[warfordium]

If we want to continue discussing it we should probably move to the U/R Omniscience thread (boy that thread hasn't seen much love in a while).

^^ indeed. Pyroclasm, Enter, and other kills via board? yes please. access to REB as well...

[nickmooretol]

I played the following at SCG Columbus and went 3-3 drop:

1 Baneslayer Angel
2 Stoneforge Mystic

3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

1 Batterskull
4 Brainstorm
1 Council's Judgment
3 Counterspell
4 Dig Through Time
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Fire//Ice
4 Force of Will
4 Ponder
2 Pyroblast
2 Spell Pierce
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Treasure Cruise

1 Academy Ruins
1 Arid Mesa
4 Flooded Strand
1 Karakas
3 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Tundra
2 Volcanic Island

2 Flusterstorm
2 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Hydroblast
1 Pyroblast
2 Pyroclasm
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Tormod's Crypt
2 Vendilion Clique
2 Wear//Tear

I beat UWR Delver, ANT and Death and Taxes and lost to Burn, Infect (at the hands of Tom Ross) and 12post.

Overall, the deck ran fairly smoothly and I don't feel like I made any egregiously bad misplays, but running into two nigh-unwinnable matchups was a bit unlucky.

I like the direction Rudy Briszka took, making it more of an Esperblade-style deck. I think it's a nice compromise between UWR Delver and Gold Digger, and is something I'm going to play around with this week in preparation for New Jersey.

[phazonmutant]

I beat UWR Delver, ANT and Death and Taxes and lost to Burn, Infect (at the hands of Tom Ross) and 12post.

Overall, the deck ran fairly smoothly and I don't feel like I made any egregiously bad misplays, but running into two nigh-unwinnable matchups was a bit unlucky.

I like the direction Rudy Briszka took, making it more of an Esperblade-style deck. I think it's a nice compromise between UWR Delver and Gold Digger, and is something I'm going to play around with this week in preparation for New Jersey.

Which matchups were nigh-unwinnable? 12-post seems difficult for sure - basically your only hope is Blood Moon and virgin sacrifices. But neither infect nor burn seem that difficult. I forgot to mention before, but I tested against Infect and I was like 4-2 and the matchup didn't feel close. Both games I lost I had a land-light hand and he Wasted me off blue (the singleton of course). In another game he Wasted me and I laughed at him because it was irrelevant.

Jitte was very relevant in our matches though, so maybe that's the big difference.

[wweenieking]

Has anyone had any real testing vs miracles? I played 55 of Rudy's 60 at SCG Worc a few weeks ago, no I'm not lying lol, but I lost to miracles twice. That matchup felt tough. I had needle for top, but they were bringing in wear/tear anyways because of Batterskull and telhey have Councils Judgement. Counterbalance is so good vs us if you don't resolve E.E. Obviously u can recure it with Ruins, but you can't always have both.

Thanks

[mote5]

How about Chasm Skulker along side a couple Disrupts and Gitaxian Probes?

I'm currently testing with two Cliques and a Talrand as my creatures with Karakas as my 21st land/61st card.

[alphastryk]

Has anyone had any real testing vs miracles? I played 55 of Rudy's 60 at SCG Worc a few weeks ago, no I'm not lying lol, but I lost to miracles twice. That matchup felt tough. I had needle for top, but they were bringing in wear/tear anyways because of Batterskull and telhey have Councils Judgement. Counterbalance is so good vs us if you don't resolve E.E. Obviously u can recure it with Ruins, but you can't always have both.

Thanks

I've played roughly 25-30 games against Miracles and have lost exactly 1. It's an extremely good matchup. I am playing Baneslayer over SFM & Batterskull though.

This is just a better Jace deck and has more relevant interaction.

[kiblast]

I've played roughly 25-30 games against Miracles and have lost exactly 1. It's an extremely good matchup. I am playing Baneslayer over SFM & Batterskull though.

This is just a better Jace deck and has more relevant interaction.

Played just twice vs Miracles (won both) but I'm absolutely positive this deck is favored both pre board and post board.

[Swing4Five]

Resolved Counter-Top seems very difficult to overcome. Klaus is even running Tops main, and an additional in the board along with Counterbalances; mostly for the near-mirrors.

[AnziD]

Played just twice vs Miracles (won both) but I'm absolutely positive this deck is favored both pre board and post board.

Can you post your 60 preboard and postboard?


Right now my ideal 60 postboard looks like this:

3 jace

4 dig
2 cruise
4 brainstorm
4 ponder
2 preordain

4 fow
3 counterspell
3 pyroblast
1 reb

2 explosives
3 clique

4 cards ???

21 lands

can't figure out the last 4 slots, if I want it to be sfm + skull, spell pierces, or whatever :/

[jedi_gof]

Jamming the following list tonite:


//Wincons (4):
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Baneslayer Angel or 1 Entreat the angels (still undecided)

//Business (34)
4 Brainstorm
2 Counterspell
4 Dig Through Time
2 Engineered Explosives
4 Force of Will
4 Ponder
2 Pyroblast
2 Flusterstorm
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Treasure Cruise
1 Preordain
1 Sensei's divining top
1 Moat
2 Surpreme Verdict

//Lands (22)
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Academy Ruins
1 Arid Mesa
4 Flooded Strand
1 Karakas
3 Island
2 Plains
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Tundra
2 Volcanic Island

//SB
2 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Pyroblast
2 Pyroclasm
2 Vendilion Clique
1 Wear//Tear
1 Additional Wincon(ETA / Baneslayer Angel)
2 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Counterbalance
1 Council's Judgement


Very close to OPs list. Will try to make a small writeup and report tomorrow about tonites ventures into time :D
Lots of UR delver in my meta but also D&T and combo.

[SirTylerGalt]

Looks like a deck tracking the similar idea just won the SCG. Briszka didn't take the deck to its logical conclusion (4 Digs, cantrips), but I think it's interesting that both Alphastryk and he have gotten to the same place with maindeck Bolt.

In his winner interview, Rudy explains that he actually started with a more controllish lists (probably from this thread or Carsten's article), and decided he needed to be more proactive:

http://www.twitch.tv/scglive/b/586598702?t=35h43m20s

The deck tech is also pretty cool, he talks about Baneslayer Angel:

http://www.starcitygames.com/events/...eblade_wi.html