Gold Digger [UWr Delve Control]

[presquepartout]

played this list in a 14 person event

3 Monastery Mentor
2 Snapcaster Mage
1 Vendilion Clique

2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

4 Brainstorm
4 Preordain
2 Gitaxian Probe
1 Ponder
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Lightning Bolt
4 Force of Will
2 Counterspell
2 Spell Pierce
4 Dig Through Time
1 Council's Judgment
1 Supreme Verdict

4 Flooded Strand
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Arid Mesa
3 Tundra
3 Volcanic Island
2 Island
2 Plains
1 Karakas

//Sideboard
2 Blood Moon
2 Containment Priest
2 Flusterstorm
2 Pyroblast
1 Wear // Tear
1 Council's Judgment
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Sudden Demise
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Vendilion Clique

I went 2-2, beating Deathblade (2-0) and Sneak & Show (2-1) and losing to Deathblade (0-2) and Lands (1-2). Not really sure what's the deal with Deathblade. My wins felt very easy, whereas I was super behind in my loses. I'm chalking it up to variance, since I saw my DTT late in the loses, and he always hit his (and he was only playing one). I was definitely favored post board against S&S. In the game I lost, he got a Grisel in play, and I was almost able to race it with Mentor, but I bricked on my cantrips. Lands was an absolutely awful matchup, and I only won a game because his draws were terrible. I feel like Surgical Extraction might be necessary if you want to consistently win against Lands.

[Philipp2293]

Finished 3-1 at our local weekly Legacy tournament with the following list (please note this was taken from a french player, so not my design):

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

4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
2 Preordain
4 Dig Through Time

4 Force of Will
2 Counterspell
2 Pyroblast
1 Flusterstorm

4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Fire/Ice

3 Jace, the Mindsculptor
3 Monastery Mentor
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Keranos, God of Storms
1 Vedalken Shackles

SB:
3 Meddling Mage
2 Containment Priest
1 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast
2 Disenchant
1 Supreme Verdict
2 Blood Moon
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Tsabo's Web
1 Path to Exile

My MUs were Esperblade (2-0), Nic Fit with Siege Rhinos (2-0), BUG Midrange (2-0) and Burn (1-2). The list performed absolutely stellar, but I'm still not sure about the various one-offs in the MD since I played it for the first time. G3 versus Burn was a real letdown, as I was having a Jace on an empty board, at 12 life, with counterspell und 2 Forces + 2 Pitchcards in hand, and I just wasn't able to find any other wincon in roughly 10 turns of Jace brainstorming, fetching, pondering etc...... But other than that the deck was really really strong, all other MUs were very easy.

EDIT: Since I actually saw my post was referred to on the french forum where I got the decklist from I'm gonna respond here and hope it get's read (since my french is very bad and I don't want to spam in English over there):

The situation with Jace was that the burn player was stuck on 2 lands with Eidolon on board, so I bounced his Eidolon with the first Jace activation, he replayed it, I rebounced it and when he played it the third time I counterspelled it. So Jace was on 1 loyality....I figured I couldn't ultimate before dying, so I tried to find a Monastery Mentor and race with my counterspells and Jace CA. Feel free to discuss this via PM.

[DuKeLiO]

I were playing @Cuneo list with some changes for a time now, and I like it very much. I went 4-0 and 4-1 this weekend in local stores:

3 Snapcaster Mage
4 Force of Will
3 Counterspell
2 Spell Snare
1 Spell Pierce
4 Dig Through Time
4 Brainstorm
4 Preordain
2 Jace the Mindsculptor
1 Ponder
1 Fact or Fiction
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Council's Judgment
1 Elspeth, Knight Errant
2 Pyroblast
1 Supreme Veredict
3 Tundra
3 Volcanic Island
4 Island
2 Plains
4 Flooded Strand
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Arid Mesa

SB:
1 Pithing Needle
2 Wear/Tear
1 Supreme Veredict
2 Vendilion Clique
1 Flusterstorm
1 Gideon Jura
1 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Pyroclasm
1 Pyroblast
1 Blood Moon

Probably cut a land for the 4th DTT was a mistake, maybe I swap it with the 2nd Ponder, or cut it, beacuse it seems like I was playing 61 cards (I didn't notice it until I wrote this post)
I like some of my test on sb, like Gideon Jura, thats perform very well against fair decks like D&T and BUG.
Also reinclude Leyline in sideboard and performs also very well, being key to defeat TES twice in a row and Punishing Fire

I played aganist:
2-0 4C Rock
2-0 TES
2-0 Team Italia with Punishing Fire
2-0 Bug Delver
2-1 BWG Dark Depths
2-0 Elves
1-2 Eureka Combo!!
2-1 TES
2-1 D&T

I liked the deck very much and have a ton of fun with it.

[klaus]

Really really love to see this archetype still is getting some love.

Just did a brew on paper featuring two rather unusual twists that are certainly cool, but might butcher the mana too much:

Wincons:
3 Jace
3 P. Fire
1 Batterskull (buys time against Aggro - happy with it)

More removal:
4 STP
2 Supreme Verdict
1 Council's Judgement

"Nope":
4 FoW
2 Flusterstorm
2 Spell Snare
2 CS

Dig:
4 BS
4 Ponder
4 DTT (finds the combo, is fueled by Carpet)

Other:
2 carpet of flowers (quite impressed by it tbh - cantrips make sure I don't draw it /can ship it back against non-blue decks, I loved it even without P. Fire, but fueling it with 4 per turn is super sweet!)

-38-

4 Flooded Strand
3 Scalding Tarn
2 Arid Mesa
4 Tundra
3 Volcanic Island
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
2 Island
1 Plains
-22-

SB:
2 Krosan Grip
3 Vendilion Clique
2 Pyroblast
1 REB
2 BeB
2 Pyroclasm
1 Bojuka Bog (testing - I figured it can't be removed with targeted discard, which is nice plus it produces mana)
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Flusterstorm


Will let you know how I fare!

[Philipp2293]

Wow this looks very close to my Punishing Control config. Instead of CJ und Supreme Verdict I run 3 EE cause of easier requirements, unless you'd be forced to blow up your own Carpets too often.

Also with Carpet MD and Krosan Grip SB I'd like to see one Tropical Island here.

[klaus]

Wow this looks very close to my Punishing Control config. Instead of CJ und Supreme Verdict I run 3 EE cause of easier requirements, unless you'd be forced to blow up your own Carpets too often.

Also with Carpet MD and Krosan Grip SB I'd like to see one Tropical Island here.

Hi Philipp,

valid point. But with all that dig (12, 15 counting Jaces) it should be easy enough to find a Grove when needed.
My problem with Tropical Island is that there are only 2 spells MD / 2 spells SB you need it for, and the mana base is already shaky as is.
I will try it w/o for the time being and see how it fares.

Any experiences / insights you wanna share?

[DuKeLiO]

The problem of not playing at least one non-grove green mana source is that some decks try to waste your grove and extirpate it better than trying to Extirpate you P.Fires. Tropical is a "wastelable" island and it's fine to run one, maybe instead of the second Island, and you will not have your green cards completely dead.

[Philipp2293]

Any experiences / insights you wanna share?

Well, I'm off to work in a few minutes, but some points that come to mind:

- I'm not sure you even need Pyroclasm in your SB, unless Elves or other tribal decks are a big concern in your local meta.
- With Punishing Fires in the MD I've been very happy to run between 2-3 Swan Songs in the SB
- 3 Cliques is a good start, but I think you want even more beaters with flash (Containment Priest would be a good start), to give you a shot of winning games faster if there is little time left on the clock since this deck is glacial.
- As for my decklist, my latest trial with a PF shell is 1 or 2 pages back, basically 53 Slots (List -1 Plateau -3 Monastery Mentor -1 Elspeth -2 Snapcaster Mage) are fixed, and the last 7 slots change with expected meta/whenever I want to try something new. Even though I've been playing these kind of shells for very long, it's very hard to evaluate the gain from running Punishing Fire, since the underlying blue shell is so strong. But PF is a very valuable tool and one of my favourite cards ever.

Maybe DukeLio has something to add too, since he is one of the original creators of Blue Control + PF in Legacy ;)

[DuKeLiO]

In my experience, with EEs, Punishing Fire and Swords rarely you'll need a Pyroclasm/Veredict against Elves, or wathever other deck. I don't think you need mass removal at all.
Also with UR delver gone I am not sure if you need Batterskull anymore, and I think it would be fine finishing the game with only Jace or PF. I have built also a hybrid deck but I had not the time to test it:

4 Force of Will
3 Counterspell
2 Spell Snare
1 Spell Pierce
2 Pyroblast
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
1 Intuition
4 Dig Through Time
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Punishing Fire
1 Life from the Loam
2 Engineered Explosives

1 Academy Ruins
1 Wasteland
1 Plains
1 Island
1 Tropical Island
3 Volcanic Island
3 Tundra
3 Grove the Burnwillows
1 Arid Mesa
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Flooded Strand

Sb:
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Wear // Tear
3 Vendilion Clique
2 Flusterstorm
2 Teferi's Response
2 Containment Priest
1 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Pyroblast

The list is 61 cards and I tried to reduce double costs as posible (maybe I should cut 3rd Counterspell). Teferi's Response maybe is very narrow and is a better option adding another Life from the Loam and another land. Also I'm not sure about Forbid, if playing at least one or not. I ever liked it in old versions beacuse I could seal the game with it.

[AnziD]

I'm not too familiar with the newer lists, but it seems like in a PF version of this deck, 4x Thought Scour, 4x Dig, 4x Snap could be really good

[Flojo82]

Play this List at our local Tournament:

1 Council's Judgement
2 Monastery Mentor
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Brainstorm
3 Counterspell
4 Dig Through Time
4 Force of Will
2 Jace the Mind Sculptor
4 Preordain
3 Snapcaster Mage
2 Spell Pierce
1 Spell Snare
2 Red Elemental Blast
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Fire//Ice
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Sphinx's Revelation
2 Arid Mesa
4 Flooded Strand
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Tundra
3 Volcanic Island
1 Plains
3 Island
1 Mountain

Sideboard:
2 Containment Priest
2 Flustertstorm
1 Blue Elemental Blast
2 Vendilion Clique
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Pyroclasm
1 Sudden Demise
1 Wear//Tear
1 Pithing Needle
1 Relic of Progenitus
2 Blood Moon

Matchups:

2:1 RUG Delver (Blood Moon G3)
2:0 Punishing Maverick (Blood Moon G2)
1:2 Grinding Station(Storm)
2:0 Grinding Station
2:0 Bug Delver

Love this Deck

[acman54321]

This might be a silly question, but why do most lists seem to prioritize Preordain before Ponder? Especially when there are plenty of fetches.

[Zllig]

This might be a silly question, but why do most lists seem to prioritize Preordain before Ponder? Especially when there are plenty of fetches.

Preordain is a better pure control card in general. With Dig and Preordain you can put cards on the bottom of your library and actually keep them there so you can avoid drawing them later.

[presquepartout]

Play this List at our local Tournament:

how often did you actually cast sphinx's revelation, and what was X on average?

[Flojo82]

Cast it in nearly every Game. Normal for 3. in 1 Game for 5. Love this Card as reset Button.

[DuKeLiO]

Sphinx's Revelation is too slow. You can't resolve it in a game you haven't already won. I would only play it in a meta full of midrange non-blue decks, what it isn't current Legacy meta.

[klaus]

Sphinx's Revelation is too slow. You can't resolve it in a game you haven't already won. I would only play it in a meta full of midrange non-blue decks, what it isn't current Legacy meta.

+1

[Flojo82]

Sometimes it is Slow, but against Decks with Many discard effects it is very good. I will try Cryptic command in this Slot in the next Tournament.

[Philipp2293]

Played the deck again at our biweekly sunday legacy and finished 4-1, resulting in 4th place with the worst breakers, but still good for a dual:

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

4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
2 Preordain
4 Dig Through Time

4 Force of Will
2 Counterspell
2 Pyroblast
1 Flusterstorm

4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Lightning Bolt


3 Jace, the Mindsculptor
3 Monastery Mentor
1 Snapcaster Mage
2 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Batterskull

SB:
3 Meddling Mage
2 Containment Priest
1 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast
2 Wear/Tear
1 Supreme Verdict
2 Blood Moon
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Path to Exile

MU's were Elves (0-2), Aggro Loam (2-0), Death and Taxes (2-0), UWR Stoneblade (2-0) and Siege Rhino Nic Fit (2-0). Overall I was very happy with how the deck worked, Elves was just 2 games of cantripping into nothing, but since my Meta was full of Lingering Souls, Elves, and Mother of Runes, I'd like to squeeze a Pyroclasm in the SB.

[klaus]

Played the deck again at our biweekly sunday legacy and finished 4-1, resulting in 4th place with the worst breakers, but still good for a dual:

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

4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
2 Preordain
4 Dig Through Time

4 Force of Will
2 Counterspell
2 Pyroblast
1 Flusterstorm

4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Lightning Bolt


3 Jace, the Mindsculptor
3 Monastery Mentor
1 Snapcaster Mage
2 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Batterskull

SB:
3 Meddling Mage
2 Containment Priest
1 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast
2 Wear/Tear
1 Supreme Verdict
2 Blood Moon
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Path to Exile

MU's were Elves (0-2), Aggro Loam (2-0), Death and Taxes (2-0), UWR Stoneblade (2-0) and Siege Rhino Nic Fit (2-0). Overall I was very happy with how the deck worked, Elves was just 2 games of cantripping into nothing, but since my Meta was full of Lingering Souls, Elves, and Mother of Runes, I'd like to squeeze a Pyroclasm in the SB.

I really like your list and second the Pyroclasm.