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Quick Update on Grixis Delver

Since my last post I’ve played in 2 small Modern Events. Here’s my list for refeence.

// Lands 1 Blood Crypt 3 Bloodstained Mire 1 Darkslick Shores 1 Flooded Strand 2 Island 1 Mountain 4 Polluted Delta 2 Steam Vents 1 Sulfur Falls 1 Swamp 1 Watery Grave

// Creatures 4 Delver of Secrets 2 Gurmag Angler 4 Snapcaster Mage 2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang 2 Young Pyromancer

// Spells 1 Dismember 1 Forked Bolt 3 Gitaxian Probe 2 Kolaghan's Command 4 Lightning Bolt 2 Mana Leak 2 Remand 4 Serum Visions 1 Spell Pierce 2 Spell Snare 2 Terminate 4 Thought Scour

// Sideboard 1 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver 1 Chandra, Pyromaster 2 Crumble to Dust 1 Dispel 1 Izzet Staticaster 1 Negate 1 Rakdos Charm 1 Rough // Tumble 2 Thoughtseize 1 Threads of Disloyalty 2 Vampiric Link 1 Vandalblast

Basic rundowns were like this.

First event I went 3-1

Round 1 VS Bant Midrange/Blink Value (0-2) A local good player with a brew I wasn't prepared for. Both games were basically, path your threat, Blade Splicer/Finks, Resto, Thragtusk. If I attacked his life he built up a huge board, if I tried to slow his board presence he gained a ton of life. I grinded it out the best I could but never felt close. Round 2 VS UR Storm (2-0) Game 1 I stuck a Delver on the play, flipped it, killed his electromancer, and then held up Snares and Leaks for anything relevant. Game 2 I did the same but with 2 Delvers through a Blood Moon. Round 3 VS GR Tron (2-0) Game 1 I stuck a turn 2 Tasigur on the play and countered his turn 4/5 Karn/Ugin and finished him with a couple bolts. Game 2 I stuck a Delver, countered his Turn 4 Karn, then Crumbled his Towers. He never built up enough to cast anything again before getting burned out. Round 4 Vs Abzan (2-1) Game one was super grindy and involved trading a lot of threats and removal. He eventually went to Inquisition me late game when I had 2 Bolts and a Shores in hand and he had a Bob in play while at 14 life. I opted to double bolt his face in response to the Inquisition and hope the Bob killed him. Over the next couple turns Bob did 5 to him and I topdecked a bolt for the win on my last possible turn. Game 2 he Abrupt decayed my turn 1 Delver then Maelstorm Pulsed my 2 Delvers I played on Turn 2. He then played and flashbacked a few Lingering Souls and killed me. Game 3 Was pretty back and forth, I had done everything I could, but was stuck on 3 lands (2 Steam Vents and a Swamp) on something like the 9th turn. I knew it was my last turn, I was at 5 and him at 8, my board was Snapcaster, he had 5 Lingering Souls and a Liliana with 3 counters. My hand was Serum Visions, Pyromancer, Bolt. I cast the Visions drawing a Probe and bottoming 2 cards. I assumed I was dead so Probed for life going to 3 and drew a Rakdos Charm that I had brought in due to the Souls slaughter last game. I laughed at my luck, knowing that if I had 1 more land the Bolt and Charm would be lethal. I started to Bolt myself for laughs, but passed the turn to make him kill me. My opponent tanked hard, Liliana Edicted my Snapcaster, and decided to go all out in an attempt to play around removal. He played a shock going to 6 to activate both his manlands and attack with 7 creatures. I Rakdos Charmed for lethal. The crowd watching exploded.

Second Event I went 1-2

Round 1 VS UW Control (0-2) I don’t remember a lot about this round other than my opponent had a lot of Paths and I wasn’t able to counter any of them

Round 2 VS Kiki Chord (2-1) Game 1 I flipped and early Delver and backed it up with a wall of counter magic and burn. Game 2 my opponent played a couple Voice of Resurgence, which made my Game 1 plan sketchy at best. Eventually he buried me with his mound of creatures. Game 3 was pretty interesting I stuck a Turn 3 Ashiok on the play and and kept milling my opponent and protecting the planeswalker. Eventually Ashiok was at 11 counters with a Village Bell Ringer and Kiki-Jiki under it. I played the Bell Ringer, and managed to survive the next turn to play the Kiki-Jiki and kill my opponent with his own combo.

Round 3 VS Infect (0-2) Honestly, I feel I played terribly and got caught off guard by a Tarmogoyf game 2 after keeping a hand full of just land and bolts. This round was over quickly.

So, a couple events later I still really like the deck and don’t have much to change. I would like to try playing just straight Grixis Control, but I really don’t feel like buying Jaces right now.

abc-topdecking-blog

Time to Catch Up

Well, I actually got a couple positive responses to my recent post. That was pretty surprising and honestly a bit flattering even if responses were limited. Due to those responses, I’m going to try writing again and get everyone caught up with where I am.

Since my last post the majority of my Magic time has been spent on Legacy. I had stopped playing for a bit because I had grown tired of the rat race known as Standard and a somewhat local shop (Red Sky Comics in Merced) had started hosting 10 proxy Legacy events. I had always loved the format and couldn’t resist.

My first jump into the format was with a deck known as Cephalid Breakfast. For those unfamiliar with it, it’s a combo deck that hasn’t gotten a lot of love recently (if ever). The deck abuses the interaction between Cephalid Illusionist and Nomads en-Kor, allowing you to mill your entire library automatically. It then uses Narcomoebas to Dread Return an Angel of Glory’s Rise bringing back a Laboratory Manic and Hapless Researcher or Azami to win on the spot. The deck was a ton of fun to play, but after a couple events I wanted more. And by more, I meant Griselbrand.

I soon started building a stock UB Reanimator list. With our 10 proxy rule, I had quickly gotten my list together. But before I was ever able to play in an event with it, I found love. The deck “Tin Fins” was brought to my attention. This is a deck that often kills on the first turn by attacking with Griselbrand and Emrakul or storming of with a lethal Tendrils of Agony. The ideal turn 1 with the deck is Dark Ritual, Entomb a Griselbrand, then either Goryo’s Vengeance or Shallow Grave it out to start the shenanigans. Once I started playing this deck, it’s all I did for months as far as Magic was concerned. I tried all sorts of variations of the deck. Some going completely glass cannon and focusing on nothing but redundancy of the combo, and some focusing on trying to make it as consistent as possible and sacrificing speed with a ton of Ponders, Probes, and Lim-Dul’s Vault. I had a ton of fun with this deck. But eventually, the Gods of variance got to me.

I sadly dismantled Tin Fins. It was a very powerful and very fun deck, but after three or four events going 2-2 or worse while playing optimally I wanted to play something that didn’t rely on luck as much. Sometimes the deck would kill on turn one on the play and there was nothing my opponent could do and that was awesome. Sometimes the deck would combo off on turn two, draw 30+ cards, then my opponent would untap and kill me because my last pieces were in those last 10-20 cards. I wanted something that could play more. I decided to try out Baleful Strix.

After some searching I decided to try out Grixis Control. Have you ever played the card Baleful Strix? If you haven’t, I understand you doubting me right now. If you have, you know what’s up. Then team that up with Lightning Bolt, Snapcaster, Young Pyromancer, and Cabal Therapy? That’s what I’m talking about. Imagine this line of play; Turn one, Cabal Therapy. Turn two, Young Pyromancer, Gitaxian Probe, flash back Therapy. It’s turn 2 and you’ve already demolished your opponents hand and started building a small army. The deck is sweet. The thing is, the deck made me want to play Magic more than the once a month Legacy tournament allowed. So I decided to try Modern.

The first deck I tried in Modern was Grishoalbrand. I figured, how could I go wrong? It’s essentially the Modern Tin Fins! I was wrong. Don’t get me wrong, the deck is very powerful and pretty sweet. The thing is, I was used to Tin Fins and this deck was pretty boring in comparison. This isn’t even mentioning how much less consistent a graveyard based deck seems when you’re used to having Entomb available. My next idea was Grixis Twin. Twin seemed like a safe bet. It was right up my alley as a combo/control style deck with a lot of cards I liked. It was also a pillar of the format and super safe from bans since it was only a turn four deck. I listed my wants on Pucatrade and soon after that my set of Twins were on their way. Six or so hours later Splinter Twin got banned in Modern.

Back to square one. Honestly, I didn’t put a lot of thought into different decks. I couldn’t play BGx decks because Tarmogoyf isn’t something I can reasonably swing right now and I hate budget substitutes in decks like that. Since rock decks were out, I knew I wanted to Snapcast Kolaghan’s Command. The obviouus choice would be Grixis Control. The catch is, Jace is $60+ and I have a hard head, so that was out. I turned to another old Innistrad favoritel; Delver of Secrets, I looked up some lists and saw some inspiring ideas. After some testing and theory crafting, I currently sit here.

4 Delver of Secrets 4 Snapcaster Mage 2 Young Pyromancer 2 Tasigur the Golden Fang 2 Gurmag Angler 4 Serum Visions 4 Thought Scour 3 Gitaxian Probe 2 Spell Snare 1 Spell Pierce 2 Remand 2 Mana Leak 4 Lightning Bolt 2 Terminate 1 Dismember 1 Forked Bolt 2 Kolaghan’s Command 4 Polluted Delta 3 Bloodstainded Mire 1 Flooded Strand 2 Steam Vents 1 Blood Crypt 1 Watery Grave 1 Darkslick Shores 1 Sulfur Falls 2 Island 1 Swamp 1 Mountain

1 Dispel 2 Thoughtseize 2 Vampiric Link 1 Chandra Pyromaster 1 Ashiok Nightmare Weaver 1 Rough // Tumble 1 Izzet Staticaster 2 Crumble to Ashes 1 Vandalblast 1 Negate 2 Flex Slots

So far I haven’t got to play the deck against real competition, but I really like it in testing.

So, that’s it for right now. I could do a lot more, but I wanted to keep this somewhat short. Please, let me know what you think and what you’d like to hear more about whether it be Legacy or Modern. I appreciate any feedback.

-Alan Clifton

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zombiecreaturetoken

It’s nice to see more content from someone who runs competitive lists. I’d like to see your thoughts on Modern. I’m currently struggling with Jund in a very fast meta (Burn, Storm, Eldrazi, and Tron notably), so I always appreciate more insight.

I’m also curious about Legacy, but the cost and general lack of support keep me from investing in the cards for it. The decks look really sweet though.

abc-topdecking-blog

Sorry for the super delayed response. Between a full-time job, a wife, and two kids I often have to chose between writing about Magic and playing it in my free time. Selfishly, I chose to play it lately.

Well, the Modern landscape has changed a bit since your question. I honestly don’t really have a solid grasp of it overall right now, especially with decks such as Jund. Honestly, I can’t really think of anything that would be good against all the archetypes you listed. For Burn, storm, and Eldrazi I like a lot of disruption (Inquisition mainly) and Abrupt Decay, but those aren’t very good against Tron. I do like Thoughtseize there, though. I’ll admit, these are all very basic suggestions since I’m not extremely familiar with playing the deck, just watching it.

I personally think Legacy is probably the best format in Magic (Vintage being the unrealistic competition). The variety of decks and styles are unmatched in any format. Also, it’s a great example of what Modern could be if Wizards would stop trying make their “non-rotating” format have an artificial rotation via Bannings. Yes, the format is expensive, but that’s honestly mainly the mana bases outside of a few specific cards. Unfortunately, Wizards decided to print Eternal Masters while leaving the Reserved List in place. So, the somewhat expensive cards will get cheaper, but the dual lands are getting much more expensive. The set will most likely have the same effect Modern Masters originally did; drive up interest and therefore prices of non-reprinted cards. Support may increase a bit, but sadly I feel like Eternal Masters (as cool as the concept is) could actually be worse for the format since the reserved list keeps its stranglehold on competitive options. MaRo has vaguely stated that a new format is in the works, though, so we’ll see if some sort of “No Reserve List Legacy” comes to see light.