[Deck] UWR Delver

[goblinsplayer]

Welp. There goes Treasure Cruise.

So this deck's bad again....

[janluis1]

So this deck's bad again....

Defo. Miracles players are now happy

[Hrothgar]

This is a good news for the magic's world but a very bad news for us.
And now a new (or old) Patriot version will be remain competitive?
Can Dig Through Time take the place of Treasure in this deck?

Something like this:

2 True-name Nemesis
4 Dever of Secret
4 Stoneforge Mystic

2 Dig Through Time
4 Ponder
4 Brainstorm

4 Force of Will
4 Daze
2 Spell Pierce

4 Lighting Bolt
4 Swords to Plowshares

1 Batterkull
1 Umezawa's Jitte

4 Tundra
4 Volcanic Island
4 Wasteland
4 Flooded Strand
4 Scalding Tarn

[goblinsplayer]

This is a good news for the magic's world but a very bad news for us.
And now a new (or old) Patriot version will be remain competitive?
Can Dig Through Time take the place of Treasure in this deck?

Something like this:

2 True-name Nemesis
4 Dever of Secret
4 Stoneforge Mystic

2 Dig Through Time
4 Ponder
4 Brainstorm

4 Force of Will
4 Daze
2 Spell Pierce

4 Lighting Bolt
4 Swords to Plowshares

1 Batterkull
1 Umezawa's Jitte

4 Tundra
4 Volcanic Island
4 Wasteland
4 Flooded Strand
4 Scalding Tarn

TBH, it was fine before TC. TC just sent it over the top. If you go back enough, you'll find some lists running git probe that I thought were good.

[skyout]

I'm currently running the following list:

LANDS
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Flooded Strand
4 Tundra
4 Wasteland
3 Volcanic Island
1 Arid Mesa

CREATURES
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Stoneforge Mystic
2 True-Name Nemesis

INSTANTS/SORCERIES
4 Brainstorm
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
4 Ponder
3 Treasure Cruise
3 Swords to Plowshares
2 Spell Pierce

ARTIFACTS
1 Batterskull
1 Umezawa's Jitte

SIDEBOARD
1 True-Name Nemesis
1 Wear / Tear
2 Rest in Peace
2 Pithing Needle
2 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast
3 Meddling Mage
1 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Electrickery

The list you talked about is pretty close to the one that I have been running anyway. I'll try putting in DTT for cruise and see how it works. I suppose if it doesn't work you can morph more closely to a Stoneblade deck.

[Kamus]

It's the end for UR, but not for us.

UWR is a midrange deck, thanks to SFM and TNN, which could get better with the end of the explosive UR decks. Wasteland gets better also, which is good. And I guess UWR is the best delver deck to fit DTT. The more control the deck is, the more DTT gets better. It needs 2 blue mana to cast, so I believe 2-3 copies should be the right number.
RUG keeps the old classic list and UR becomes unplayable. BUG becomes stronger, with shaman, hymn and DTT.

[Secretly.A.Bee]

UR isn't done, it's just no longer tier one anymore. Koby piloted it to a second place at a SCG event early last year I believe. It's possible it was the year before. Anyway, it's just back to before.

From my phone. I do my best, dammit!

[janluis1]

DTT cost at least 2 blue mana and is not something easy to reach.

[Hrothgar]

The deck have only blue land and a good mid-game...reach 2 blue mana if we play 8 duals (2 complete sets) is not very difficult man...
I'm in playtest of the list i have wright yesterday and the deck work good.

[janluis1]

The deck have only blue land and a good mid-game...reach 2 blue mana if we play 8 duals (2 complete sets) is not very difficult man...
I'm in playtest of the list i have wright yesterday and the deck work good.

It is diffucult expecially if you are getting wastelanded out of the game. I believe if you want to play dig in this deck you need to raise the land count up to 20-22 range

[skyout]

It is diffucult expecially if you are getting wastelanded out of the game. I believe if you want to play dig in this deck you need to raise the land count up to 20-22 range

I respectfully disagree. In a lot of the match-ups I play it isn't improbable to have two blue open. Wasteland definitely makes it a little more difficult, but it also powers up our Dig Through Time. The nice thing about Dig Through Time is that it's an instant, so we can cast it at end of their turn and untap with mana to cast our freshly drawn spells.

[janluis1]

I respectfully disagree. In a lot of the match-ups I play it isn't improbable to have two blue open. Wasteland definitely makes it a little more difficult, but it also powers up our Dig Through Time. The nice thing about Dig Through Time is that it's an instant, so we can cast it at end of their turn and untap with mana to cast our freshly drawn spells.

I play competitivly this deck since more than an year now and im quite confident I know how it works but expecially what works and what doesn't.
However I'll be happy reviewing this thread few months from now seeing I wase plain wrong!

[skyout]

I play competitivly this deck since more than an year now and im quite confident I know how it works but expecially what works and what doesn't.
However I'll be happy reviewing this thread few months from now seeing I wase plain wrong!

I'm fully willing to admit that I am wrong as well. It is something that I think will need to be tested to see if DTT is a viable replacement. The meta around here has a lot of combo, so wasteland and other resource denial is fairly uncommon. However, in larger tournaments I have played a lot more fair decks and I can definitely see where you are coming from.

I'd be really interested to test DTT against both combo and fair decks and see how it does. However, if DTT doesn't work, then I don't know what to do other than go back to pre-khans decklists.

[beez]

I'm testing a package of 2x Snapcaster and 1x Lavamancer vs a package of 3x Dig Through Time. So far I like the 3x DTT a little better, but I do run a basic Island too. I guess we shall see next time I go against some dedicated Wasteland and Stifle decks. I think I will also side in 3x RIP for either of these packages against graveyard decks and those that rely on Goyfs, Deathrite and Mongeese. Post TC these decks use the grave more than us and siding out 3 cards to neuter 8+ cards packs more potential punishment than gain with DTT. It was much better for this deck to use TC than combat it, and gaining some grave resources is still great against most decks, but I'm liking RIP again in some cases.

[ristoman]

I've been toying with the idea of shaving the 4th Tundra and the 3rd Volcanic for a basic Island and Plains; I see Blood Moon as a serious liability if we have a bit of a slow start and I refuse to autofold to it. I think since we only care about UU for Nemesis and DTT we can easily find the time to fetch a basic especially G1 T1. I'm positive I'm shaving off a bit of consistency there but I like the safety blanket of basics.

Dig is an interesting proposition because it's a straightforward reaction to Cruise being gone; that being said I'm still on the fence about it. I think Snap and Mancer are valid alternatives but I like the flexibility of Dig especially G2 and possibly G3 to find our SB silver bullets (Mage, Cage, RIP, Sword, Flusterstorm, Mancer itself...). It also helps finding more threats if our opponents stabilize against one of our fast starts or a threat light hand that just quite doesn't get there. Speaking of RIP, I always feel iffy playing it alongside Dig, you typically want RIP earlier on in the game so that shuts Dig off entirely.

On a side note, do you guys think the Delver version or the PyroBlade version will be better positioned moving forward? I keep seeing the good in both and cant decide

[Dice_Box]

This is the list I was testing before TC blew up and took over:

My list:
Creatures:
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Stoneforge Mystic
2 True-Name Nemesis

Spells:
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
2 Dig Through Time
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Daze
2 Spell Pierce
4 Force of Will

Artifacts:
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Batterskull

Lands:
4 Tundra
3 Volcanic Island
4 Flooded Strand
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Wasteland

Sideboard:
2 Grim Lavamancer
2 Vendilion Clique
2 Flusterstorm
1 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast
2 Wear // Tear
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Rest in Peace

I would cut a Dig for something else, another land if you feel you need it or maybe cut it and the Sword for two Probe. I am thinking about coming back to this as the format finds it's feet. I do feel like this is about to become one of the stronger decks in the format again.

[goblinsplayer]

I've been toying with the idea of shaving the 4th Tundra and the 3rd Volcanic for a basic Island and Plains; I see Blood Moon as a serious liability if we have a bit of a slow start and I refuse to autofold to it. I think since we only care about UU for Nemesis and DTT we can easily find the time to fetch a basic especially G1 T1. I'm positive I'm shaving off a bit of consistency there but I like the safety blanket of basics.

Dig is an interesting proposition because it's a straightforward reaction to Cruise being gone; that being said I'm still on the fence about it. I think Snap and Mancer are valid alternatives but I like the flexibility of Dig especially G2 and possibly G3 to find our SB silver bullets (Mage, Cage, RIP, Sword, Flusterstorm, Mancer itself...). It also helps finding more threats if our opponents stabilize against one of our fast starts or a threat light hand that just quite doesn't get there. Speaking of RIP, I always feel iffy playing it alongside Dig, you typically want RIP earlier on in the game so that shuts Dig off entirely.

On a side note, do you guys think the Delver version or the PyroBlade version will be better positioned moving forward? I keep seeing the good in both and cant decide

Pyroblade was only better than this deck because of treasure cruise. Without it, the deck is not playable. This deck, on the other hand, is fine after the banning. As I have said many times to many people, never run basics in this deck. Refusing to autofold to blood moon while running a 3-color delver deck is pretty pointless, since you're most likely going to lose to blood moon anyways. And believe it or not, playing basics makes you weaker to wastelands in some corner cases. For instance, if you fetch plains and have a volcanic in your hand, the opponent's wasteland strips your blue and red source and leaves you with a useless plains. If you have only a island and plains in play, then you lock yourself out of red. I can maybe see maybe an island in the main, or in the sideboard, but I would advise against it. Also, if you play dig, run containment priest instead of RIP.

[ivanpei]

Pyroblade is perfectly fine without cruise. I'm playing 3 Digs instead and it's been fantastic. Pyroblade is a control deck so it's better positioned to abuse Dig Compared to UWR Delver. Both decks have their merits. UWR Delver was completely playable prior to TC and is perfectly fine now as well.

But my opinion on the better Dig deck is that Pyroblade will be able to abuse it more. UWR Delver is more aggressive and tempo based so spending UU to draw cards is not exactly desirable in a more aggressive deck. I find Dig actually as strong if not stronger than TC in Pyroblade since the deck has not much aggressive ambitions. It's happy to sit around countering stuff, trading dudes and Dig in the midgame. Delver on the other hand needs to be more aggressive and Dig isn't as good in an aggressive deck in that regard.

[goblinsplayer]

Pyroblade is perfectly fine without cruise. I'm playing 3 Digs instead and it's been fantastic. Pyroblade is a control deck so it's better positioned to abuse Dig Compared to UWR Delver. Both decks have their merits. UWR Delver was completely playable prior to TC and is perfectly fine now as well.

But my opinion on the better Dig deck is that Pyroblade will be able to abuse it more. UWR Delver is more aggressive and tempo based so spending UU to draw cards is not exactly desirable in a more aggressive deck. I find Dig actually as strong if not stronger than TC in Pyroblade since the deck has not much aggressive ambitions. It's happy to sit around countering stuff, trading dudes and Dig in the midgame. Delver on the other hand needs to be more aggressive and Dig isn't as good in an aggressive deck in that regard.

I'm actually really curious now. What does your pyroblade list look like? Also, I agree with everything you said about dig in UWR Delver and how it's not a card for aggressive deck like this one.

[acman54321]

Seeing as I finally have something worth posting about, I made an account for this site because I want to post my tournament report!

I’ve been playing UWR Delver for about 6 months, and I was happy to play during the deck’s short trip on the Treasure Cruise. The latest banning was a brutal reminder at just how little card advantage the deck had before TC. I was hesitant to swap my Pyromancers, Cruises, and basic lands back to Delvers, Dazes, and Wastelands, but due to my limited collection (and budget $$), it was my only choice.

In my few test games before the tournament I was quickly reminded of a few things:
- Just how fast of a clock Delver presents, and how important that is in the combo matchup
- My love/hate relationship with Daze (it’s great when you need it, but it’s a dead card late in the game)
- How versatile and powerful Spell Pierce is (and how it’s relevant a little bit longer than Daze is)

Maindeck:
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Misty Rainforest
1 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta
4 Tundra
3 Volcanic Island
3 Wasteland

4 Delver of Secrets
4 Stoneforge Mystic
2 True-Name Nemesis
1 Umezawa’s Jitte
1 Batterskull

4 Daze
4 Force of Will
3 Spell Pierce

4 Lightning Bolt
3 Swords to Plowshares

4 Ponder
4 Brainstorm
3 Gitaxian Probe

Sideboard:
2 Pithing Needle
1 Containment Priest
2 Rest in Peace
2 Pyroblast
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
2 Wear/Tear
1 Flusterstorm
3 Meddling Mage

I expected Combo, Miracles, and BUG to be my most common matchups, and tried to prepare accordingly. If anyone has any more sideboard advice on those matchups, I’d be glad to hear it.

Tournament Report
1/24 Legacy. 34 people, 6 rounds -> cut to top 8

NOTICE: I do not remember 100% of my matches and I wasn’t taking notes. Some of the following details will be slightly off, including what I sideboarded.

I arrived to the tournament AFTER the scheduled start time, due to unexpected traffic. I paid and was copying down my decklist while they explained the rules and started the tournament. I had been planning on adjusting my deck before the tournament (adding a wasteland borrowed from a friend, and possibly including a 2nd Containment Priest in the side), but I ran out of time. When I was copying my list down, I was 1 card short. By the time I finalized my decklist, I was scrambling to my seat where my round 1 opponent was patiently waiting to start.

Round 1: BUG Delver with DTT and TNN
Still a little flustered, and trying to make up for lost time, I rushed into game 1. He won the die roll, and led with a Delver. I dropped a Tundra and passed. On his turn, he revealed a Daze off the Delver trigger, and I Swords the Delver before his draw step (should I have just done this on my turn?). He draws, and drops a Tarmogoyf. Seeing no other removal in my hand, I hastily Force of Will the goyf… He Dazes my Force… Luckily, this was by far my biggest misplay of the day.

SB: +2 Pyroblast, +1 StP, +2 RiP. -4 Force, -1 Spell Pierce?

I honestly don’t remember the rest of the match, but I lost the second game, too. BUG still does not feel like a good matchup as they have great answers for our threats, and are able to 2-for-1 us repeatedly.

0-1

After this round I was able to walk around the room and I saw a TON of combo. Lots of storm and reanimator, a few dredge and elves, and some Sneak and Show.

Round 2: Belcher
Not knowing what I’m up against, I keep a decent hand with no counterspells. I start with a Ponder. My opponent then makes 12 Goblins on his turn (I know, I’m lucky that it wasn’t more!). I drop a Stoneforge fetching Batterskull and take 11 damage the next turn. I drop a Batterskull on the next attack and am able to stabilize.

SB: +2 Pithing Needle, + 3 Meddling Mage, +1 Flusterstorm. -3 StP, -2 TNN, -1 Lightning Bolt

Game 2 I drew a hand with a clock and plenty of counters.

1-1

Round 3: Affinity
I’m lucky again that my opponent had a slow start; my opening hand was NOT suited to deal with a quick affinity start. I did almost lose the game when I grabbed a Batterskull instead of Jitte, forgetting that Jitte was the only way we have to kill an Etched Champion.

SB: +2 Pithing Needle, +2 Wear/Tear, +2 Pyroblast, +1 StP. -4 Daze, -2 FoW, -1 Spell Pierce

G2 I had an early Jitte + timely removal. And a Needle naming Tezz the turn before he topdecked it.

2-1

Round 4: Affinity/Tezzerator hybrid with Thopter/Sword and Chalice
I don’t remember much of this match other than being locked under a chalice game 1, and seeming to have all the answers in the other two. Question: Is it legal to cast spells into an opponent’s Chalice, and resolving the spell if they forget the trigger? Is it unsportsmanlike? I felt bad trying it, but my opponent never slipped.

SB: +2 Pithing Needle, +2 Wear/Tear, +2 Pyroblast. -1 StP, -1 Spell Pierce, -4 Daze on the draw/-3 FoW, -1 Daze on the play

3-1

Round 5: W/B Stax/Prison/Tokens (not sure what to call this)
Again, I don’t remember the details of this match. I think I won G1, and in Game 2 my Wasteland + soft counter plan did work. Oh, he also mulliganned to 5.
This was my first time playing against Humility, so thanks to my opponent for answering my questions!

SB: +2 Wear/Tear, +1 SoFaI, +2 Meddling Mage. -3 StP, -2 Daze (I kept in Lightning Bolt because I saw Elspeth)

4-1

Round 6: Sneak & Show
Having the worst tie-breakers, I got paired down and had to play for the top 8.
G1 my opponent had a slow hand, I Wasted as much as I could. The game was decided with a big fight over Overmaster. He ended up paying for Spell Pierce and Daze to make it resolve. I don’t know what his plan was with one mana left (he had already made his land drop), but he scooped after drawing off his Overmaster.

SB: +1 Containment Priest, +2 Pyroblast, +1 Flusterstorm, +3 Meddling Mage, +2 Pithing Needle. -3 StP, -4 Lightning Bolt, -2 TNN

G2 he mulliganned to 4, and I won.

5-1. 15 points, putting me into first place, ahead of those who were able to draw into the top 8. Being on the play in the top 8 really helped.

Quarterfinals: ANT
I matched up my friend who was happy to get into the Top 8 on tiebreakers. This was a fun matchup we have played before.
He wins game 1 after I keep an iffy hand with some soft counters, a couple Brainstorms, but no clock.

SB: +2 Pyroblast, +2 RiP, +1 Flusterstorm, +3 Meddling mage. -3 StP, -2 TNN, -1 Lightning Bolt, -1 Jitte

I win Game 2 with a Delver and a Meddling Mage. He tried to go off with a mini natural Tendrils to buy time, but I topdecked the Flusterstorm the turn before.
Before Game 3, the other three semifinalists (who had finished their matches), my opponent, and I all agreed to split the top 4 prizes once a winner was determined. My friend and I decided to further split the prize so that we both left happy.

Game 3, my opponent mulliganned, and we both seemed to have slow hands. I started by wasting his Tropical Island because my hand was full of soft counters. The game went on and I found a clock in Meddling Mage (on Infernal Tutor), and a Rest in Peace. It came to the point where my counters were useless (double Carpet of Flowers) and my opponent needed to force a win through Ad Nauseam. He spent his hand to get storm and mana, but when he went to Abrupt Decay my Mage, he fetched and realized I had already wasted his only green source! Another dodged bullet…

6-1

Semifinals: BUG Delver with 1 maindeck Tasigur!
Game 1 I forget, but I think I won. I remember Dazing and Spell Piercing some key cards like Liliana and Hymn.

SB: +2 Pyroblast, +1 StP, +2 RiP. -2 Force, -3 Daze

Game 2 was pretty back and forth, but he was able to stick a Goyf, knocking me low. He landed another Goyf, seeming to lock up the game, but I had Pondered into a Rest in Peace the turn before. RiP stuck around, and I got a Jitte online. I wiped his board in response to an Abrupt Decay on RiP, and sealed the game with a second RiP.

This matchup is one of the reasons I love RiP as my grave hate, and why I’m hesitant to add Snapcaster, DTT, or anything of my own that relies on the graveyard.

7-1

Finals: TES
Game 1 we both had slow hands again. The turning point was when he attempted Dark Ritual -> Dark Ritual -> Ad Nauseam in response to me cracking a fetch after a brainstorm, and I Dazed the AN. I went on to win.

SB: +2 Pyroblast, +2 RiP, +1 Flusterstorm, +3 Meddling mage. -3 StP, -2 TNN, -1 Lightning Bolt, -1 Jitte

I think he won Game 2 without much interference.
Game 3 I was able to land a Meddling Mage naming LED (which I had seen through a Probe, and it was his only mana source). He kept cantripping and I landed a Rest in Peace. I cast another Meddling Mage to quicken my clock and I chose to name Burning Wish because it’s a combo piece, and I didn’t want him to Wish for a boardwipe from his sideboard. That proved to be enough, and I won! After the game he showed me 2 LED and 2 Burning Wish in his hand…

Final record: 8-1 and my first Legacy tournament victory!

Conclusions:
1. I’d really like to put some sort of CA into this list besides the Stoneforge package. I may start testing -1 Probe +1 DTT in the main deck. The problem with DTT is that it’s slow, reactive, and it makes our grave hate worse.
2. Maybe it’s time to switch Sword of Fire and Ice for Sword of Feast and Famine? With the rise of BUG and fall of UR Delver, the protections might be more relevant.
3. I’d like to add another piece of GY hate into the sideboard. Likely either a 2nd Containment Priest or a Relic of Progenitus. Maybe removing the 2nd Pithing Needle?
4. This might be a metagame call, but I might switch the 4th StP in the sideboard for the 4th Spell Pierce or a 2nd Flusterstorm. Some more reliable counters against combo decks would make me feel more at ease.
5. I got really lucky the whole day. I didn’t take a single mulligan the entire tournament (which might be more of a statement about the iffy hands I sometimes kept), and combo decks seemed to have very slow hands against me.
6. I definitely want to play more legacy! The store I go to offers great prize support and all of my opponents were friendly, knowledgeable, and fun to play against. The only downside is that the store is 50 minutes away from me.

Decklist Changes:
-1 Fetchland, +1 Wasteland. Wastelands are great, and the only reason I didn’t run 4 was because I ran out of time to sleeve up the one I borrowed.
-1 Probe, +1 DTT. I want to see how this goes. It might turn out that Dig is just too slow for this deck, or it might mess up the GY hate options too much, but we’ll see.
-1 StP, +1 Flusterstorm in the sideboard. Based on this tournament’s meta, I expect more combo decks than creature decks in the future.
As I test out DTT, I’ll see how it effects my GY hate. And I’ll possibly dedicate another slot in the SB towards it.

Thanks for reading! I hope it was enjoyable and informative.