I have seen a severe lack of representation for my good friend Natural Order. Leopards need love too. I searched the forum and the last time my good leopard friend was mentioned in a thread was around 2013. Correct me if I am wrong. I have seen RUG Natural Order lists piloted to some success previously. In my version of the Natural Order deck I take the popular Delver of Secrets strategy and implement a strong Natural Order package without disturbing the overall synergy of existing BUG Delver lists.
Why you should play this deck:
You like BUG Delver already. You are a friend to leopards. You enjoy using strategies that are under the radar. You enjoy sneaking in big creatures like a surprise Progenitus. You like trying out new angles and spins on established decks.
Why you should not play this deck:
You have a seething hatred for leopards. You dislike Delver strategies. You do not like playing a creature that has protection from you.
I decided to use an average BUG Delver shell for this list. Some discard. Heavy control suite. Delver of Secrets
You know how it goes. Toss in a Tarmogoyf or 4 and a playset of one other value creature.
The value creature I chose is Deathrite Shaman and the Shaman sure brings a lot to the party. Deathrite Shaman is a proven powerhouse with its Grim Lavamaster like effect. What it really shines for in this list is the ability to be an efficient mana dork. With Shaman on board Natural Order can come down on turn 3.
The control suite is customizable. 4 Force of Will though is a Legacy staple. Make sure to have a Storm Crow with you at all times.
Progenitus is the Natural Order target and friend of Leopards everywhere.
A potential turn 3 Protection from Everything is just what we need to 2-shot our opponents and seal games.
Sideboard is very customizable.
I have tested this list out on Cockatrice a fair bit and have won several tournaments held on the platform with it while testing. I quite enjoy playing it and there is no feeling like casting Natural Order off of 3 mana and a Deathrite Shaman on turn 3 with a Force of Will in hand to back it all up. The deck plays like an average BUG Delver list overall and shares many of the same strengths and weaknesses of the deck and the sideboard was made with that in mind.
My experience playing NO strategies in the past, primarily Bant and RUG, leads me to a couple of general thoughts.
- Daze is good in NO decks, but it is poor here with your mana base, with your 3 basics, only 3 total islands (1 of which is only a target for half of your fetches). Additionally when basing a deck around a 4 cmc spell, I prefer 19-20 non-arbor lands. Swapping at least two of those basics for underground seas would improve the mana generally and the playability of daze specifically. If you don't have them, add at least 1 watery grave.
- I like 5-7 dorks, not counting GSZ. Increases the percentage of games you have an early NO. Also dorks are green, which means they are valid creatures to sac to NO.
- GSZ is necessary here, I think, but I like it WAY better with a small white splash for the plethora of awesome hate bears (gaddock teeg, qasali pridemage, knight of the reliquary foremost)
- With dedicated NO decks, I typically want 6-7 ways to get a naturally drawn progenitus out of my hand, or 2 targets. 4 brainstorms is probably shy of what you want here. Adding vendilion clique or jace, the mind sculptor helps in this regard.
- I don't understand the inclusion of delver here as it stands. I get that cutting them makes your forces worse. If you want NO main deck, I think you are better off moving towards a shardless style BUG deck rather than a delver one. Including cards like Leovold, emissary of trest would be strong(blue and green creature, which also protects you from spot removal and disruption to a degree). I get that having two strategies can be good, but if that is what you are going for, I would put the NO package into the board. My reasoning for this is that opponents typically board way down on counter magic against delver decks which makes them much more susceptible to a card like NO post board.
I would either build a stock BUG delver deck with 1 arbor, 3 NO, and 1 Progenitus in the board or start with something more like this:
I have seen a severe lack of representation for my good friend Natural Order. Leopards need love too. I searched the forum and the last time my good leopard friend was mentioned in a thread was around 2013. Correct me if I am wrong. I have seen RUG Natural Order lists piloted to some success previously. In my version of the Natural Order deck I take the popular Delver of Secrets strategy and implement a strong Natural Order package without disturbing the overall synergy of existing BUG Delver lists.
Why you should play this deck:
You like BUG Delver already. You are a friend to leopards. You enjoy using strategies that are under the radar. You enjoy sneaking in big creatures like a surprise Progenitus. You like trying out new angles and spins on established decks.
Why you should not play this deck:
You have a seething hatred for leopards. You dislike Delver strategies. You do not like playing a creature that has protection from you.
4 Force of Will
3 Daze
1 Spell Pierce
1 Flusterstorm
3 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Natural Order
3 Abrupt Decay
3 Thoughtseize
4 Brainstorm
2 Ponder
Creatures
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Delver of Secrets
1 Progenitus
1 Dryad Arbor
Lands
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Misty Rainforest
3 Wasteland
1 Forest
1 Island
2 Bayou
2 Tropical Island
1 Swamp
2 Flusterstorm
3 Leyline of the Void
1 Null Rod
1 Abrupt Decay
3 Engineered Plague
3 Submerge
2 Disfigure
Card Choices
I decided to use an average BUG Delver shell for this list. Some discard. Heavy control suite. Delver of Secrets
You know how it goes. Toss in a Tarmogoyf or 4 and a playset of one other value creature.
The value creature I chose is Deathrite Shaman and the Shaman sure brings a lot to the party.
Deathrite Shaman is a proven powerhouse with its Grim Lavamaster like effect. What it really shines for in this list is the ability to be an efficient mana dork. With Shaman on board Natural Order can come down on turn 3.
Dryad Arbor, Tarmogoyf, and Deathrite Shaman are all green creatures that can be sacrificed for a Natural Order
The Arbor is a turn 1 Green Sun's Zenith target.
I use Ponder because it provides very good dig for that Natural Order
The control suite is customizable. 4 Force of Will though is a Legacy staple. Make sure to have a Storm Crow with you at all times.
Progenitus is the Natural Order target and friend of Leopards everywhere.
A potential turn 3 Protection from Everything is just what we need to 2-shot our opponents and seal games.
Sideboard is very customizable.
I have tested this list out on Cockatrice a fair bit and have won several tournaments held on the platform with it while testing. I quite enjoy playing it and there is no feeling like casting Natural Order off of 3 mana and a Deathrite Shaman on turn 3 with a Force of Will in hand to back it all up. The deck plays like an average BUG Delver list overall and shares many of the same strengths and weaknesses of the deck and the sideboard was made with that in mind.
- Daze is good in NO decks, but it is poor here with your mana base, with your 3 basics, only 3 total islands (1 of which is only a target for half of your fetches). Additionally when basing a deck around a 4 cmc spell, I prefer 19-20 non-arbor lands. Swapping at least two of those basics for underground seas would improve the mana generally and the playability of daze specifically. If you don't have them, add at least 1 watery grave.
- I like 5-7 dorks, not counting GSZ. Increases the percentage of games you have an early NO. Also dorks are green, which means they are valid creatures to sac to NO.
- GSZ is necessary here, I think, but I like it WAY better with a small white splash for the plethora of awesome hate bears (gaddock teeg, qasali pridemage, knight of the reliquary foremost)
- With dedicated NO decks, I typically want 6-7 ways to get a naturally drawn progenitus out of my hand, or 2 targets. 4 brainstorms is probably shy of what you want here. Adding vendilion clique or jace, the mind sculptor helps in this regard.
- I don't understand the inclusion of delver here as it stands. I get that cutting them makes your forces worse. If you want NO main deck, I think you are better off moving towards a shardless style BUG deck rather than a delver one. Including cards like Leovold, emissary of trest would be strong(blue and green creature, which also protects you from spot removal and disruption to a degree). I get that having two strategies can be good, but if that is what you are going for, I would put the NO package into the board. My reasoning for this is that opponents typically board way down on counter magic against delver decks which makes them much more susceptible to a card like NO post board.
I would either build a stock BUG delver deck with 1 arbor, 3 NO, and 1 Progenitus in the board or start with something more like this:
1x Birds of Paradise
4x Deathrite Shaman
1x Edric, Spymaster of Trest
3x Leovold, Emissary of Trest
1x Noble Hierarch
1x Progenitus
1x Tarmogoyf
1x Vendilion Clique
Instant (15)
3x Abrupt Decay
4x Brainstorm
4x Daze
4x Force of Will
Sorcery (12)
3x Green Sun's Zenith
4x Natural Order
2x Ponder
3x Thoughtseize
1x Sylvan Library
Planeswalker (1)
1x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Land (19)
2x Bayou
1x Dryad Arbor
1x Forest
4x Misty Rainforest
1x Polluted Delta
4x Tropical Island
2x Underground Sea
4x Verdant Catacombs
1x Reclamation Sage
1x Abrupt Decay
1x Disfigure
2x Engineered Plague
2x Flusterstorm
2x Kitchen Finks
4x Leyline of the Void
2x Null Rod
This has 1 too many cards but it is a reasonable starting place.