Veil seems questionable in a Grixis shell, regardless of whether it's Shadow or Delver. You generally want to hold up countermagic and play at instant speed with the cards that will allow you to do so (and a lot of them do). Last Hope, on the other hand, seems pretty good, since it can fetch back threats that either died or were milled away. It's also a superb answer to Lingering Souls, which is a problematic answer to both these decks.
Just wanted to share the decklists for the Top8 of a tournament we at MainPhaseMTG recently held (which included a Grixis Delver list as well as a Grixis Shadow list), as well as some musings on what these results could indicate for the format going forward. Check it out here. Let me know what you think!
She definitely sideboards in cleanly for Lyze in matchups where I don't want the latter, that's for sure. If Ceremonious Rejection doesn't pan out or ends up not being needed, I have a replacement at the ready. I may also try to make room for her in some other ways as well.
Hm... I hadn't considered that. Might need to make some room for her in my list. BB is more achievable than ever in my current manabase, so it might be worth a try.
Thanks for the kind words! I'm glad you like the article.
I left Spirits out because I had already discussed them in another article. Didn't want to double-dip. I also think its meta share is still a bit on the low side at the moment, though for the life of me I can't figure out why. It seems like it's in the same power level ballpark as the D&T/Grixis Delver/Merfolk trio.
I'm unsure of whether 2 copies of Rejection will be enough to patch the Eldrazi/Tron matchups, but I didn't want to be totally cold to those decks, and it's an answer that fits elegantly in a sideboard and has the potential to address them nicely. The thing that drew me to them over the likes of the 3rd Countersquall or Thoughtseize was the great synergy with Snapcaster Mage. I freely admit that they may not end up being as good as I think they can be, though.
As for Electrolyze... I'm mostly trying to address Lingering Souls and Affinity. As I mentioned in the article, one of the major draws to Delver is how comprehensively it crushes Affinity, and I intended to reinforce that as much as possible. I also want as much face burn as I can pack in the maindeck to have reach against Death's Shadow. It's been pretty good to me in testing.
Just wanted to let you know that I wrote up an article about tempo decks in Modern, including Grixis Delver. Check it out here, and let me know what you think.
Unfortunately, 5-0s sometimes get missed. I've had 1 of mine slip under the radar as well. This list looks basically like if you had mashed Corey Burkhart's Grixis Control list together with a Delver list. Interesting. How did the Delvers themselves fare?
Doesn't Painful Truths do a bunch of work against midrange? Why opt for a 5-drop when you can have that? As for Tron hate... I think 5 SB cards is plenty, given that it's on a bit of a downtick of late.
It's a bad matchup pretty much no matter what - the threat density is high, and Merfolk's disruption is very relevant against Delver's creatures. Sweepers like Anger of the Gods and Engineered Explosives give you a decent chance to win, though.
I think that if you're reaching for high-cost spells like Cryptic Command, you might as well be running Grixis Control. Cryptic is a great spell, but a 20-land manabase isn't well-suited to slamming it down on curve, cantrips or not.
Bolts close out games. There is literally no reason to play an aggressive Delver tempo deck without access to burn that can go upstairs. If you want to play Esper, try midrange or control.
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
Just wanted to share the decklists for the Top8 of a tournament we at MainPhaseMTG recently held (which included a Grixis Delver list as well as a Grixis Shadow list), as well as some musings on what these results could indicate for the format going forward. Check it out here. Let me know what you think!
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
I left Spirits out because I had already discussed them in another article. Didn't want to double-dip. I also think its meta share is still a bit on the low side at the moment, though for the life of me I can't figure out why. It seems like it's in the same power level ballpark as the D&T/Grixis Delver/Merfolk trio.
I'm unsure of whether 2 copies of Rejection will be enough to patch the Eldrazi/Tron matchups, but I didn't want to be totally cold to those decks, and it's an answer that fits elegantly in a sideboard and has the potential to address them nicely. The thing that drew me to them over the likes of the 3rd Countersquall or Thoughtseize was the great synergy with Snapcaster Mage. I freely admit that they may not end up being as good as I think they can be, though.
As for Electrolyze... I'm mostly trying to address Lingering Souls and Affinity. As I mentioned in the article, one of the major draws to Delver is how comprehensively it crushes Affinity, and I intended to reinforce that as much as possible. I also want as much face burn as I can pack in the maindeck to have reach against Death's Shadow. It's been pretty good to me in testing.
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
Just wanted to let you know that I wrote up an article about tempo decks in Modern, including Grixis Delver. Check it out here, and let me know what you think.
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers:
Legacy: Merfolk U; Shadow UB; Eldrazi Stompy C
Pauper: Delver U
Vintage: Merfolk U
Primers: