MTG Salvation

It depends on how many threats you have, how many removals your opponent has, how many lands do you have, and the pace of the game. When you cast Young Pyromancer is very match up dependent.

For example: On the play against Junk with double Young Pyromancer hand with Gitaxian Probe, I would cast Young Pyromancer turn 2 provided I don't have a Spell Snare. Even if the first meets a removal, you're still ahead on tempo, know the opponent's hand, and have a 1/1 to pressure the board. The more threats you have, the earlier you can afford to deploy them PROVIDED you are able to answer their threats (e.g., Vapor Snag + Mana Leak/Spell Snare). If you die to a Pyromancer's Ascension, it's probably not a good time to cast your threat.

Another example: Playing against old UWR build with 3 lands in hand and cantrips, I would cast the cantrips and try to make every land drop that I can, and cast Young Pyromancer with 1-2 counter back up. If you are able to set the pace of the game, then you cast your threats when it's most convenient for you.

Yet another example: On the draw against Burn, I would cast Young Pyromancer on curve PROVIDED you do not need to Shockland yourself to cast him. This of course changes if you're able to Mana Leak his turn 3 play and also have Spell Snare follow up the following turn for the Searing Blaze/Searing Blood.

I believe this is why Tempo is the hardest to play archetype. The decisions are never obvious, and you need to know when to play the control role and when to switch to the aggro game to maximize your chances of winning the game.

It's 2 non-land mana sources per land, or 4 1-2 mana cantrips per land based on Frank Karsten's article here.

I've been having decent success with a 19 land deck based on the SCG lists, the difference being -1 Vendilion Clique, -1 Land, -1 Young Pyromancer, +3 Gitaxian Probe. 3 Vendilion Clique feels way too clunky especially if you draw multiples, and Gitaxian Probe is just sweet. 19 land very is close to 20 lands, I think 3 cantrip almost make up the difference. The higher land count of 19-20 is very relevant because most games you want to Snapcaster Mana Leak on curve. Which begs the question why don't we sideboard.

Kira is an interesting piece of sideboard tech, I'm not sure how many grindy non-Abrupt Decay decks there are in the format, but not many since Jeskai is no longer a tier 1 control deck.

Agreed. Even Combust because it gets around Spellskite, not being Instant speed makes it unplayable in Modern.

I haven't liked the Swiftspear build since the Treasure Cruise ban, it could work in a combo/aggro centric meta, but it's very weak to midrange or anything removal heavy.

Magma Jet I've found is really bad most of the time unless your most of your deck is instant speed. Being that you don't run Snapcaster Mage or Vendilion Clique, that's really hard to pull off.

I have no idea how competitive your list would be without Snapcaster Mage and Remand, you would probably do fine at FNM.

If you want to go the full control route, it's very good. It's seeing play in a lot of decks, and it's probably the best source of card advantage within UR. That being said, that's if you want to transform into a dedicated control deck on the sideboard. We have most of the cards for it, you just want to side out the Delvers. There's definitely some contention between Jace and Sower of Temptation, so it's a matter of which matchups you want to improve more post-board.

This will probably be the starting point for me in terms of mainboard.



Sideboard will be mostly ways to shore up the Affinity, Burn, and Abzen matchups. I believe we're favored against Twin.

He didn't win 1st, he got top 8 and they split. Just because he got there doesn't mean his list is optimal. There is no way that 3x Mountain AND 4x Sulfur Falls is correct in Delver, a tempo deck that wants to get its U lands online ASAP.

I would also argue that Spell Snare is super dead in a ton of match ups. If you're looking at the typical Abzan deck, the ONLY card you're tagging is Tarmogoyf. Twin is better at 4x Snapcaster Mage and 4x Remand, but that's still not where you want to be. Spell Snare is the card most likely to be dead in your hand, and as a Delver deck, that's what you want to avoid the most: dead cards in your hand that don't cycle and can't be proactively used to produce tokens.

I think with Treasure Cruise out of the meta, Clique is very good since we often now run 18 lands as opposed to 17 from before, the deck posted actually runs 19 lands since it cut out Gitaxian Probes and Thought Scours altogether.

I find it questionable to run only 4 Fetchlands alongside 2x Grim Lavamancer. That being said, 4x Spell Snare seems like A LOT. I can see how it would be useful in the Burn match up, but in every other match up other than Tarmo-Twin you're liking going to be siding 1-3 out. The deck seems very teched for Burn between the 4x Spell Snare main, no Gitaxian Probes, and 3 Magma Spray side.

One thing I do agree with the new meta is that you really want to be running more than 14 creatures, maybe closer to the 16 range. There are too many Abrupt Decays and too little card advantage for us to skimp on threats.

List that went 1st at the SCGLA IQ.



I love Cliques, they have to be somewhere in the 75. The deck seems very heavy in the creature removals, but I'm not sure how it wins against Abzen. Fly over the air and hope for the best? It's possible that the list is budget based on the lack of any other U fetchlands. Also interesting is the foregoing of any Gitaxian Probe period, which may be correct if you're expecting a ton of Burn decks.

I don't think we would run it unless you want to go the whole Blood Moon/Vedalken Shackles route. At that point, you might as well cut the Delvers and go full on Blue Moon.

Deprive is not only good but critical in the Siege Rhino meta. I like having a Sword main and also running 17 lands. I don't feel like Electrickery does anything now that Young Pyromancer is rarely being played, and same for Hibernation which actually does nothing unless you have a board presence. Clique has gotten a lot better, Affinity is still a very rough match up. You should think about running 1-2 Harvest Pyre in the main/side which works really well in a cantrip heavy deck, Thought Scour would go in too.

I feel like the 14 threats just might not be enough in a Thoughtseize/Abrupt Decay/Path to Exile meta, Keranos and Batterskull need to come in from the board, Threads of Disloyalty is huge, there's a lot of talk about Sower of Temptation as a sideboard card.

Cards that might be worth testing: Purphoros, Misthollow Griffin, and Shaman of the Great Hunt on the side for the Junk matchup.

Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time are broken cards in Modern, they enable blue decks to go over the top of Thoughtseize decks by having better topdecks. But I do think a Ponder/Preordain reprint would also enable the strategy provided we also get a reasonable Delve card along with it like 6U: Draw 2 cards.

I would advocate having a ton of threats on the sideboard. Whether it's Swords, Batterskull, Keranos or other heavy hitters. Basically threats that 3 CMC+, I think Dominus of Fealty might be an actual card.

Delver loses to Burn and Abzen Midrange, the top two choices at the tournament. It doesn't take much for a pro to not pick a deck that loses to the two most popular decks.

If we run Blood Moon main board, then we lose to Burn. Goyf has been my go to for beating Burn, and Gitaxian Probe is really good against the other decks. On the other hand, Young Pyromancer is also much better now that people aren't running Chalice of the Void and Electrickery in the sideboard.

I think both WUR and RUG deserve discussion, but they should be discussed in their designated threads.

I've realized in my playtesting that Remand is just the nuts right now with all the 3/4 CMC cards around, I would play a full playset.

I also think that Goblin Guide and/or Monastery Swiftspear deserves discussion. Basically any threat that doesn't die to Zealous Persecution/Golgari Charm. The fact that Blood Moon triggers Prowess might mean its inclusion in the main deck.