So last week I was supposed to play a 3 round tournament but ended up being late and missing the first round. I started off 0-1 and ended up winning one game and losing the other for a record of 1-2 (really 1-1). Didn't really feel like writing a report on it.
But I played a 30+ person tournament yesterday and ended up going 4-0. I played Nivmagus Combo, Geist of Saint Win, Mono Blue Tron and UWR Control. I also played 10 pre-board games vs RUG Twin piloted by Anthony Lowry (Writes articles for SCG and did well last year at a few GPs) and won 8 out of 10.
I won't go into a full tournament report but the Nivmagus deck was tough and I think I was lucky overall in the match. Game 1 he couldn't find a 2nd land for a few turns, game 2 he killed me on turn 3 and in game 3 he found mostly creatures but few spells. It was still close and I think that deck is very underrated especially with the popular removal in the format being bad vs it (bolt) and the lack of Jund being played which is something like a 10/90 matchup. It was a variation of Gerry Ts version from back in the day (2012?).
Geist of Saint Win, Blue Tron and RUG Twin were all favorable matchups. Went 2-1 vs Geist but they are just a worst UWR control deck since geist gets walled by goyf and can be ambushed by snap. I don't see how I could possibly lose to Blue Tron, It has to be something like 80+ in our favor as we played 5 games and I rolled over him all 5. RUG Twin seems like a good matchup, they can have some great hands but they are basically just a watered down/worst version of our deck since they shouldnt be able to win with the combo vs us and its just basically tempo vs tempo but they have more expensive spells.
UWR Control is always a close matchup, I think we are close to even if not just a slight underdog game 1 and game 2 and 3 we become a small favorite. Being able to take out basically dead cards for more counters and answers to collonade is great in games 2 and 3.
Hello everyone. I just started playing Modern about 2 Months ago, a week before our GPT:Rich. I started with Merfolk because I had all the cards from Legacy (didn't like having almost 0 interaction with opponents) and then moved to Big Zoo (most of the time I felt like I'd have rather been Little/1Drop Zoo). I play Patriot and RUG Delver in Legacy, and it seemed like a pretty solid choice for Modern as well.
Chaam, I'm going to be playing a list almost identical to yours and was hoping you'd be interested in writing up a sideboard strategy vs some of the more prominent decks?
Mainly, the 2 best Modern players in my area are a RG Tron and a Melira Pod. If possible, I'd also be interested in how you sideboard in others such as Big Zoo, Affinity, Twin variants (RUG is most common I've seen here), UWR Control, Storm, Hexproof, and Hatebears. I have pretty solid ideas on how, but you seem to be the most prevalent pilot of this deck here so I'd much appreciate the expertise.
In the main, I'm in general not a huge fan of Sleight of Hand so I run one more Probe and an extra Island. I also use 3 Snapcaster/1 Grim Lavamancer because Lavamancer is pretty great, and I only own 3 Snapcasters ha.
In the side, I'm a huge fan of the Boom targetting whatever and my fetch, retaining priority and cracking the fetch in response tech. I also wanted to fit a Blood Moon in somewhere (over negate I decided), and struggled with not using Huryl's Recall with blue against affinity. Also went with a split Tormod's Crypt/Relic, then an extra Firespout over Forked Bolt (might be a mistake).
Let me know what you think!
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"Be self critical, but divorce your sense of self from your play. You can’t let things affect you emotionally, but at the same time you have to really examine your choices, question them, and see what you could have done better."
- Jon Finkel
Currently Playing:
Standard:
Naya Shaman
Legacy
U/W Tempo
Belcher
Countertop Progenitus
Eva Green or Team America, depends on how I'm feeling
Welcome to Modern! I'm glad you chose RUG Delver, we can always use another active competitive player in this thread.
As for your main, I like the inclusion of lavamancer and have tried him before. The best results I had were when I dropped a clique for a 1-1 split and added a miser thoughtscour.
I'm a strong believer of cutting as many lands as we can, the main reason I beat control/grindy matchups is in large part due to my higher spell count. When we both have 3-5 lands out and each have 2-4 cards in hand, his hand has a higher chance of consisting of 2+ lands while we should be holding all business that is cheaper and more efficient than his spells. I personally would not run 3 probes, I have found that you want to fetch aggressively in the control/combo matchups and conservatively in the aggro ones. Probe really does a number on your life total and having 2 + other cantrips to find them is enough in the control/combo games. As for the aggro games, you just don't even want to see them and are sided out pretty quickly alongside remands. As such, I suggest you try a thoughtscour in replace of a probe. I would also cut an island and add a sleight of hand. I personally love sleight of hand as they help you consistently make goyf a 3/4 by turn 2 due to being a sorcery, help you filter lands to the bottom to keep your spell count high, dig deeper than any other spell you have to find your 1 and 2 ofs and is a spell to be flipped off delver.
I like your mainboard, my suggestion would be to -1 Island, -1 Gitaxian Probe, +1 Thoughtscour, +1 Sleight of Hand. If you pick up a 4th Snap I would also put him in over a Clique. As a side note, I have been meaning to try a 4-of Delver, Snap, Goyf and 2 lavamancer creature base along side 18 lands but haven't yet.
Notes on your sideboard:
- 1-of blood moon could be good and you could even bump it up to a 2nd. I don't run it just because I want to maximize sorceries/instants and I don't like anything over 2 mana outside cliques, but bm is obviously good.
- Relic is a nonbo, can't run it along side goyf/snap/lavamancer. Crypt is fine because it still provides gy hate vs opponents, costs effectively 2 less (relic is 1 plus 1 for activation) which is important in a deck trying to use cheap spells, keeps your gy in tact for snap/lavamancer while still growing your goyf even when your removing their gy. I think Crypt is the best choice but Surgical and Grafidgger's Cage are both solid choices.
- Firespout isn't as good in practice as it looks on paper. I am currently on 1 but may remove it entirely, but to be fair I don't face all that much zoo.
- As for Hurkyl's Recall, its too narrow for us as we already have plenty of ways to beat affinity post board and they all have applications in other matchups.
- Negate can be replaced easily, I just put it in because I found I needed more cards to bring in vs control as I was still having 1 or 2 somewhat dead cards postboard and I didn't want to go up to 4 spell pierce or use counterflux since its 3 mana. Negate is also good vs combo too.
Ill make a new post for my current sideboard plan since this one is already longer than I intended it to be.
RG Tron +1 Spell Pierce, +1 Negate, +2 Boom // Bust, +1 Ancient Grudge; -2 Pillar of Flame, -1 Forked Bolt, -2 Vapor Snag
Melira Pod On the Play: +1 Pillar of Flame, +1 Flame Slash, +1 Forked Bolt, +1 Firespout; -2 Vapor Snag, -2 Spell Pierce
On the Draw: +1 Pillar of Flame, +1 Spell Pierce, +1 Flame Slash, +1 Forked Bolt, +1 Firespout; -2 Vapor Snag, -3 Spell Snare
Big Zoo (Very dependent on which specific creatures they run, same with Hatebears) Depending on specific creatures, but if running a ton of dorks into 3 drops you just basically take out most CM and probes, add in all removal. If no dorks then you cherry pick removal.
Small Zoo (1 Drop + Burn Zoo) On the Play: Add all removal and pierce, take out snare/leaks/remands/probes
On the Draw: Add all non 2 dmg removal and pierce, take out snare/leaks/remands/probes
Affinity +1 Pillar of Flame, +1 EE, +1 Flame Slash, +2 Ancient Grudge, +1 Forked Bolt, +1 Firespout; -2 Gitaxian Probe, -3 Mana Leak, -2 Remand
RUG Twin +1 Spell Pierce, +1 Flame Slash, +1 Negate, +2 Combust; -2 Pillar of Flame, -1 Forked Bolt, -2 Remand Spell Pierce, Negate, Snare and Remand are flex spots to put in or take out depending on how much cm they run, how many/if any scooze, etc.
Played my same list yesterday at a 3 round tournament and went 2-1. Winning vs a Mono White Death & Taxes (usual list topping with brimaz) and a RW Death & Taxes (splash red for blood moon, helix and bolt). My loss was to Dega midrange, Path, helix, bolt, thoughtseize, bob, lili, souls, etc.
There is a Modern GPT this Sunday that I may be going to.
I played a 4 Round modern event last night, went 2-1-1. Wins against RUG Twin and AdN/Unlife combo. Loss vs Merfolk. Tied vs Mono Blue Tron. Here's a basic, not very in-depth report:
Round 1: Lost to Merfolk 0-2. Game 1 he won the draw, and went Mutavault -> Aether Vial. He out advantaged me and I didn't see enough removal for lords. Game 2 I misplayed, and got blown out by a Vialed in Phantasmal Image copying my flipped Delver, then things went downhill from there.
Round 2: Beat AdN 2-1. Game 1 I won the draw and Probed him, seeing the combo. I kept blue open for SPierce and Mana Leaks the rest of the game. Flipped delver got me there. Game 2 he started the game with Leyline, and went first opening with 2 Lotus Bloom. I had him at 2 when I wasn't able to stop him from going off, and had 3 Lightning Bolts in hand. Game 3 he started with Leyline again, but Delver -> Goyf -> Blood Moon backed up with counters got me there.
Round 3: Tied 1-1 against Mono Blue Tron. He got mana screwed, assisted by my SPierce. Got there easy. Game 2 I was able to keep him off Tron, but he stalled to a point where he was able to drop Wurmcoil and I had issues with it. He finally got me after a long, *****ty game. Game 3 I Boomed his Tower. Game went to time very quickly because of the long game 2. He started Turn 1. I Blood Mooned. Had Delver and Goyf, he would've been dead had I drawn a bolt, Snapcaster, or had 1 more turn.
Round 4: Beat RUG Twin 2-0. He had no idea what I was playing, and unfortunately I knew what he was on. Game 1 I hid blue mana and blue spells from him for a bit. Dropped Mountain, Bolted his Goyf, Played a fetch into Stomping Ground for my own Goyf. He thought I was playing a bad Zoo or Gruul hand. Dropped Exarch end of my Turn 3 and went for the Twin on his turn 4, with no counter backup. I cracked Misty for a Steam Vents and he just started laughing and shaking his head. I Mana Leaked his Twin and got there. Game 2 was a little different, but blind flipped Delver and Goyf turn 2 was pretty solid. He eventually went for the combo, I had 3 mana left and went to Leak his Twin. He Remanded my Leak, thinking he had it, but then I won the counter war with SPierce on his Remand.
"Be self critical, but divorce your sense of self from your play. You can’t let things affect you emotionally, but at the same time you have to really examine your choices, question them, and see what you could have done better."
- Jon Finkel
Currently Playing:
Standard:
Naya Shaman
Legacy
U/W Tempo
Belcher
Countertop Progenitus
Eva Green or Team America, depends on how I'm feeling
Finally getting around to putting RUG Delver together. I'll be splitting my time between this and RUG twin. My meta is fairly diverse with a bit of Affinity, Jund/Junk, UWR/UWR Twin, GR Tron, 8Rack, Naya Zoo, Burn and Merfolk to be certain. I've heard there is some POD as well, but haven't faced it yet at a local event. Here is the list at the moment, open to suggestions and ideas, sideboard is currently being put together as well:
So far I've tested against BW Tokens, Jund, UW Tron Gifts, Esper Gifts, and American Control. Every match-up seems to be in our favor. I figured the American Control match-up would be rough but it wasn't at all. I might have just drawn the best possible cards in every situation, it certainly wouldn't be the first time. The only card that really hurts in Jund is Abrupt Decay.
The UW Tron Gifts player has nicknamed the deck "Rug-burn" due to the sheer amount of times I've bolt snap bolted him.
So far I've only been able to play in one FNM. I don't remember everything but here's the gist of each round.
Round 1: Bye
Getting the bye was pretty depressing considering the 9th player came in at the last minute, but hey, it happens.
1-0
Round 2: Mono Black Post (Black Market)
This was a deck I hadn't tested against and really had no idea what it did.
Game 1, turn 1 Probe showed 2 Phyrexian Obliterator, some swamps, and I believe a Trading Post.
I blind flipped a Delver turn 2 and just rode it to victory.
Game 2 He was able to get the Spine of Ish Sah lock on me.
Game 3 (He mulligans to 6) Probe revealed 4 Trading Post and I believe two land.
Turn 1 Delver into turn 2 Goyf sealed the deal. Spell Pierce was an all star.
(2-0)
At this point there are three people with 6 points. Due to the bye round 1 I get paired down. The other two people with 6 points get paired up against each other. I got paired up against a good friend of mine who helped me test the deck extensively. He was on Jund and hated the matchup. He gave me the round, forcing the other two 6 point players to play it out.
(3-0)
Round 4, Top 2: UW Gifts Tron
Going into the match I was feeling pretty confident. I tested the match-up quite a bit and knew how to play it out.
Game 1 I flip delver on turn 3 off of a Serum Visions and proceed to bolt snap bolt for the win.
Game 2 I remember siding in the two Blood Moons and I believe a Surigcal. I keep a hand with Delver, Blood Moon, Goyf, Mana Leak, and 3 lands (1 Basic island, two fetches). I was super confident that I was going to take game 2 with ease.
Turn 3 I've got a mountain, an island, a forest, and a Delver in play. I slam down the Blood Moon and expect a concession. He says OK. I figure he's just going to make me play it out. He untaps and plays an Azorius Signet. I hadn't seen that card when testing and it caught me completely off guard. Due to the fact that I crippled myself with the Blood Moon, I was only able to have 1 blue available. I just wasn't able to counter enough. He lands an Iona, Shield of Emeria and I scoop.
Game 3 I don't really remember. The only thing I remember was that I had a snap and a delver in play. He Path to Exiles the snap and I Mana Leak it. I snap a Spell Pierce and have one card in hand, Vapor Snag. I believe that is when he casts another path targeting the snap. At this point I should have snagged the snap being targeted then on my next turn, swing with the delver and snap, then snap and flashback bolt. Two other players were watching the match and I heard them say something about me misplaying. This completely threw me off and I forgot to snag the snap. A few turns later I lose to Iona again.
(3-1)
Overall it was a fun day of magic. I should have gone 4-0 but I can't really be mad. I lost that game because I misplayed. I think RUG Delver is very well positioned but aside from that, it's a very fun deck to play.
I'm in love with RUG wizards! It has everything I loved from UR faeries, but with the amazing hunger of goyf. I've only been playing it for a month thanks to the encouragement of takeyourshoesoff. Here is my current list.
From reading the thread I would like to cut it down to 21 land, and fine tune it a bit. I'm also looking to cut magma jet and maybe pillar for at least one more spell snare. My question is how much do you all like probe or sleight of hand, and do you think I should cut cryptic? Even without cutting cryptic, dropping 1 land 1 jet and 2 pillar give me 4 spaces to play with. I apologize for this not being the most concise post, but it's been a long day. I'm just pumped about this deck.
Ooze can be quite good, but I feel like Hierarch just isn't needed as our curve is so low. I'd almost always rather have a different 1cmc spell instead of hierarch, and it also hurts our delver flips.
My list is a bit different from what I've been seeing recently with the light land count, but I've been pretty happy with it so far with some recent changes. I'll post it below for reference.
What do you guys do to improve your Jund and Faeries matchups? Faeries feels like it's 50/50 to me, but Jund on the other hand has been a real pain. I played in a small event two days ago and swept BW tokens and UR delver, but got crushed by Jund. Any thoughts you have about the matchup would be great. The other metagames I usually play in are larger and more diverse, but this made me want to consider what my Jund plan is.
In my opinion the inconsistency is the main reason why this deck is not seen in premier events. Sometimes you will be drawing hand with all creatures without permission cards, and sometimes you dont draw any creatures until it is too late. Without things like ponder / brainstorm also makes this deck a little weak compared to its legacy counterpart.
Thank you Aagilnk The main reason to build this deck was that the different delver decks performed very well if you could stick a t1 delver, but often stumbled if it was a) removed or b) did not come t1. Due to that I wanted to improve my delver-like draws by including a similar powerful 1-drop. The aggro-control gameplan does function very well, giving you a good strategy against fair and unfair decks alike because your cards can be effectively used as aggressive and controlling elements (eg. burspells hitting the face vs acting as removal, counterspells countering removal aimed at your clock vs disrupting the enemy, Tarmogoyf bashing the enemy vs clogging the ground and so on...).
I hope (if my labour law studies allow it ) to be able to test the above posted list at my LGS on Saturday. If you have any questions regarding the archetype/gameplan/card choices feel free to ask
With kind regards,
Philip
Ps.: Did you ever discuss the inclusion of nacatl in RUG delver? The additional splash for a plains seem to have quite high upsides.
We did, check a few pages back. I've been really liking the 4-color Delver deck since it plays so many conditional counterspells to such great effect. Feels really good to counter spells turn after turn with Pierce and Snare.
Edit -- I like that Tribal Flames is a sorcery, but personally I prefer Serum Visions to ensure boltproof Goyfs in that slot. Gitaxian Probe can also work here, and it makes Snare and Pierce substantially better in the early turns (on the draw, do you play a Delver T1 or hold mana to Snare a Goyf/RIP/etc.?). (A quick note: obviously, running a set of Probes with our nasty manabase gives Burn decks quite an edge. Lightning Helix and Swerve can help here.) The extra cantrips let us cut a couple lands and eventually make room for a set of Boros Charm, which affords almost the same amount of reach as Flames (and doesn't force us to run a black land) and can double as a hard counter for attempts to disrupt our board. I used it against Blue Tron's Oblivion Stone activation with a kitty and a bug on deck yesterday, felt real good. It also stops Anger of the Gods, Volcanic Fallout, Abrupt Decay, Combust, and more -- sometimes (oftentimes?), having a recurring Bolt on a stick (and being able to protect it) beats dealing 5 damage at one time.
the card itself really isn't worth the card board its printed on...does it serve a purpose? Sure its a blue 1 drop that might not be a 1/1. I would not put it in a list and expect to win a PTQ or GP though.
Hey so.. I love tempo decks and I love Delver of Secrets.
Anyway I used to play a home brew version of aquarium, a deck that plays Nacatles, Delvers, burn and the like.
But of late I have decided to start trying some of the old delver lists. This was my first list for RUG delver:
This went 2-1-1 twice in a row against a Fairly reasonable set of
Matchups. Here are my notes on the list: Pod matchup is tough. You need to
Be able to consistently get over their inevitable wall of
Blockers. That being said other premier match ups are rather even.
Rug twin, UR twin, and storm I've played and they all seem winnable.
Stand out cards: Electrolyze can be a real card advantage all star, and it can
Also be helpful in goyf wars, seems perfectly good. Desolate lighthouse hasn't screwed me over
At all, and it has been helpful once or
Twice. I think it would be worth the slot if I had more
Synergy with it,deprive might do the trick, as it would allow
Me to bounce lands in the long game to cycle them with desolate lighthouse when they cease being
Relevant (you need a maximum of 6 lands on the board in this deck). Vedalken shackles, grim lavamancer,and vendillion clique are all good In this deck, but I don't think we can run all of them as it will make delver
Ineffective, as grim lavamancer can help grind out the pod matchup, and against pod v cliques hand disruption
Gets worse (if they have a pod+creature on the field they no longer need a hand)
I decided to go with grim lavamancer. I also decided that if I used both goyf and
Grim then I would probably want thought scour to fill up the graveyard.
This deck I have tried only once and Here are my notes on it:
I still want to try an extra flame slash over pillar of flame
As pillar of flame is rather bad in almost every match up except for pod
And even in the pod matchup it can be a terrible late game draw if they have
A Gavony township, also for the most part grim lavamancer does pillar
Of flames job in that matchup. Still want to try out deprive but I don't have it yet,
It would probably replace one mana leak and one remand.
I am also considering electrolyze in the pillar of flame spot, advice in that regard would be helpful.
My other option is to change directions entirely and replace the lavamancers with v-cliques the flame slash with pillar of flame
The thought scours with deprives and replace a remand with an extra electrolyze.
Thoughts?
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saving my own creatures from removal has been a significant use for the card.
But I played a 30+ person tournament yesterday and ended up going 4-0. I played Nivmagus Combo, Geist of Saint Win, Mono Blue Tron and UWR Control. I also played 10 pre-board games vs RUG Twin piloted by Anthony Lowry (Writes articles for SCG and did well last year at a few GPs) and won 8 out of 10.
I won't go into a full tournament report but the Nivmagus deck was tough and I think I was lucky overall in the match. Game 1 he couldn't find a 2nd land for a few turns, game 2 he killed me on turn 3 and in game 3 he found mostly creatures but few spells. It was still close and I think that deck is very underrated especially with the popular removal in the format being bad vs it (bolt) and the lack of Jund being played which is something like a 10/90 matchup. It was a variation of Gerry Ts version from back in the day (2012?).
Geist of Saint Win, Blue Tron and RUG Twin were all favorable matchups. Went 2-1 vs Geist but they are just a worst UWR control deck since geist gets walled by goyf and can be ambushed by snap. I don't see how I could possibly lose to Blue Tron, It has to be something like 80+ in our favor as we played 5 games and I rolled over him all 5. RUG Twin seems like a good matchup, they can have some great hands but they are basically just a watered down/worst version of our deck since they shouldnt be able to win with the combo vs us and its just basically tempo vs tempo but they have more expensive spells.
UWR Control is always a close matchup, I think we are close to even if not just a slight underdog game 1 and game 2 and 3 we become a small favorite. Being able to take out basically dead cards for more counters and answers to collonade is great in games 2 and 3.
For reference, this is the list I played:
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Vendilion Clique
Sorceries (11)
4 Serum Visions
2 Sleight of Hand
2 Gitaxian Probe
2 Pillar of Flame
1 Forked Bolt
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Vapor Snag
3 Spell Snare
2 Spell Pierce
3 Mana Leak
2 Remand
Lands (19)
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Steam Vents
2 Breeding Pool
1 Stomping Ground
4 Island
1 Forest
1 Mountain
1 Pillar of Flame
1 Spell Pierce
2 Tormod's Crypt
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Flame Slash
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Forked Bolt
1 Firespout
1 Negate
2 Combust
2 Boom // Bust
Chaam, I'm going to be playing a list almost identical to yours and was hoping you'd be interested in writing up a sideboard strategy vs some of the more prominent decks?
Mainly, the 2 best Modern players in my area are a RG Tron and a Melira Pod. If possible, I'd also be interested in how you sideboard in others such as Big Zoo, Affinity, Twin variants (RUG is most common I've seen here), UWR Control, Storm, Hexproof, and Hatebears. I have pretty solid ideas on how, but you seem to be the most prevalent pilot of this deck here so I'd much appreciate the expertise.
Here is my deck for reference:
[cards]
4 Delver of Secrets
3 Snapcaster Mage
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Vendilion Clique
1 Grim Lavamancer
Sorceries (10)
[cards]
4 Serum Visions
3 Gitaxian Probe
2 Pillar of Flame
1 Forked Bolt
[cards]
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Vapor Snag
3 Spell Snare
2 Spell Pierce
3 Mana Leak
2 Remand
Lands (20)
[cards]
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Steam Vents
2 Breeding Pool
1 Stomping Ground
5 Island
1 Forest
1 Mountain
[cards]
1 Pillar of Flame
1 Spell Pierce
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Flame Slash
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Firespout
1 Blood Moon
2 Combust
2 Boom // Bust
In the main, I'm in general not a huge fan of Sleight of Hand so I run one more Probe and an extra Island. I also use 3 Snapcaster/1 Grim Lavamancer because Lavamancer is pretty great, and I only own 3 Snapcasters ha.
In the side, I'm a huge fan of the Boom targetting whatever and my fetch, retaining priority and cracking the fetch in response tech. I also wanted to fit a Blood Moon in somewhere (over negate I decided), and struggled with not using Huryl's Recall with blue against affinity. Also went with a split Tormod's Crypt/Relic, then an extra Firespout over Forked Bolt (might be a mistake).
Let me know what you think!
"Be self critical, but divorce your sense of self from your play. You can’t let things affect you emotionally, but at the same time you have to really examine your choices, question them, and see what you could have done better."
- Jon Finkel
Currently Playing:
Standard:
Naya Shaman
Legacy
U/W Tempo
Belcher
Countertop Progenitus
Eva Green or Team America, depends on how I'm feeling
My Trade list!
Welcome to Modern! I'm glad you chose RUG Delver, we can always use another active competitive player in this thread.
As for your main, I like the inclusion of lavamancer and have tried him before. The best results I had were when I dropped a clique for a 1-1 split and added a miser thoughtscour.
I'm a strong believer of cutting as many lands as we can, the main reason I beat control/grindy matchups is in large part due to my higher spell count. When we both have 3-5 lands out and each have 2-4 cards in hand, his hand has a higher chance of consisting of 2+ lands while we should be holding all business that is cheaper and more efficient than his spells. I personally would not run 3 probes, I have found that you want to fetch aggressively in the control/combo matchups and conservatively in the aggro ones. Probe really does a number on your life total and having 2 + other cantrips to find them is enough in the control/combo games. As for the aggro games, you just don't even want to see them and are sided out pretty quickly alongside remands. As such, I suggest you try a thoughtscour in replace of a probe. I would also cut an island and add a sleight of hand. I personally love sleight of hand as they help you consistently make goyf a 3/4 by turn 2 due to being a sorcery, help you filter lands to the bottom to keep your spell count high, dig deeper than any other spell you have to find your 1 and 2 ofs and is a spell to be flipped off delver.
I like your mainboard, my suggestion would be to -1 Island, -1 Gitaxian Probe, +1 Thoughtscour, +1 Sleight of Hand. If you pick up a 4th Snap I would also put him in over a Clique. As a side note, I have been meaning to try a 4-of Delver, Snap, Goyf and 2 lavamancer creature base along side 18 lands but haven't yet.
Notes on your sideboard:
- 1-of blood moon could be good and you could even bump it up to a 2nd. I don't run it just because I want to maximize sorceries/instants and I don't like anything over 2 mana outside cliques, but bm is obviously good.
- Relic is a nonbo, can't run it along side goyf/snap/lavamancer. Crypt is fine because it still provides gy hate vs opponents, costs effectively 2 less (relic is 1 plus 1 for activation) which is important in a deck trying to use cheap spells, keeps your gy in tact for snap/lavamancer while still growing your goyf even when your removing their gy. I think Crypt is the best choice but Surgical and Grafidgger's Cage are both solid choices.
- Firespout isn't as good in practice as it looks on paper. I am currently on 1 but may remove it entirely, but to be fair I don't face all that much zoo.
- As for Hurkyl's Recall, its too narrow for us as we already have plenty of ways to beat affinity post board and they all have applications in other matchups.
- Negate can be replaced easily, I just put it in because I found I needed more cards to bring in vs control as I was still having 1 or 2 somewhat dead cards postboard and I didn't want to go up to 4 spell pierce or use counterflux since its 3 mana. Negate is also good vs combo too.
Ill make a new post for my current sideboard plan since this one is already longer than I intended it to be.
RG Tron
+1 Spell Pierce, +1 Negate, +2 Boom // Bust, +1 Ancient Grudge; -2 Pillar of Flame, -1 Forked Bolt, -2 Vapor Snag
Melira Pod
On the Play: +1 Pillar of Flame, +1 Flame Slash, +1 Forked Bolt, +1 Firespout; -2 Vapor Snag, -2 Spell Pierce
On the Draw: +1 Pillar of Flame, +1 Spell Pierce, +1 Flame Slash, +1 Forked Bolt, +1 Firespout; -2 Vapor Snag, -3 Spell Snare
Big Zoo (Very dependent on which specific creatures they run, same with Hatebears)
Depending on specific creatures, but if running a ton of dorks into 3 drops you just basically take out most CM and probes, add in all removal. If no dorks then you cherry pick removal.
Small Zoo (1 Drop + Burn Zoo)
On the Play: Add all removal and pierce, take out snare/leaks/remands/probes
On the Draw: Add all non 2 dmg removal and pierce, take out snare/leaks/remands/probes
Affinity
+1 Pillar of Flame, +1 EE, +1 Flame Slash, +2 Ancient Grudge, +1 Forked Bolt, +1 Firespout; -2 Gitaxian Probe, -3 Mana Leak, -2 Remand
RUG Twin
+1 Spell Pierce, +1 Flame Slash, +1 Negate, +2 Combust; -2 Pillar of Flame, -1 Forked Bolt, -2 Remand
Spell Pierce, Negate, Snare and Remand are flex spots to put in or take out depending on how much cm they run, how many/if any scooze, etc.
UWR Control
+1 Spell Pierce, +1 Negate, +2 Boom // Bust, +1 Combust; -2 Pillar of Flame, -1 Forked Bolt, -2 Vapor Snag
Storm
+1 Spell Pierce, +2 Tormod's Crypt, +1 Negate, +1 Firespout; -2 Pillar of Flame, -1 Forked Bolt, -2 Vapor Snag
There you go, hope this helps!
http://mtgdecks.net/decks/view/68486
There is a Modern GPT this Sunday that I may be going to.
Round 1: Lost to Merfolk 0-2. Game 1 he won the draw, and went Mutavault -> Aether Vial. He out advantaged me and I didn't see enough removal for lords. Game 2 I misplayed, and got blown out by a Vialed in Phantasmal Image copying my flipped Delver, then things went downhill from there.
Round 2: Beat AdN 2-1. Game 1 I won the draw and Probed him, seeing the combo. I kept blue open for SPierce and Mana Leaks the rest of the game. Flipped delver got me there. Game 2 he started the game with Leyline, and went first opening with 2 Lotus Bloom. I had him at 2 when I wasn't able to stop him from going off, and had 3 Lightning Bolts in hand. Game 3 he started with Leyline again, but Delver -> Goyf -> Blood Moon backed up with counters got me there.
Round 3: Tied 1-1 against Mono Blue Tron. He got mana screwed, assisted by my SPierce. Got there easy. Game 2 I was able to keep him off Tron, but he stalled to a point where he was able to drop Wurmcoil and I had issues with it. He finally got me after a long, *****ty game. Game 3 I Boomed his Tower. Game went to time very quickly because of the long game 2. He started Turn 1. I Blood Mooned. Had Delver and Goyf, he would've been dead had I drawn a bolt, Snapcaster, or had 1 more turn.
Round 4: Beat RUG Twin 2-0. He had no idea what I was playing, and unfortunately I knew what he was on. Game 1 I hid blue mana and blue spells from him for a bit. Dropped Mountain, Bolted his Goyf, Played a fetch into Stomping Ground for my own Goyf. He thought I was playing a bad Zoo or Gruul hand. Dropped Exarch end of my Turn 3 and went for the Twin on his turn 4, with no counter backup. I cracked Misty for a Steam Vents and he just started laughing and shaking his head. I Mana Leaked his Twin and got there. Game 2 was a little different, but blind flipped Delver and Goyf turn 2 was pretty solid. He eventually went for the combo, I had 3 mana left and went to Leak his Twin. He Remanded my Leak, thinking he had it, but then I won the counter war with SPierce on his Remand.
Ran this list:
[cards]
4 Delver of Secrets
3 Snapcaster Mage
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Vendilion Clique
1 Grim Lavamancer
Sorceries (11)
[cards]
4 Serum Visions
2 Gitaxian Probe
2 Sleight of Hand
2 Pillar of Flame
1 Forked Bolt
[cards]
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Vapor Snag
3 Spell Snare
2 Spell Pierce
3 Mana Leak
2 Remand
Lands (19)
[cards]
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Steam Vents
2 Breeding Pool
1 Stomping Ground
4 Island
1 Forest
1 Mountain
[cards]
1 Pillar of Flame
1 Spell Pierce
2 Tormod's Crypt
1 Negate
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Flame Slash
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Firespout
1 Blood Moon
2 Combust
2 Boom // Bust
"Be self critical, but divorce your sense of self from your play. You can’t let things affect you emotionally, but at the same time you have to really examine your choices, question them, and see what you could have done better."
- Jon Finkel
Currently Playing:
Standard:
Naya Shaman
Legacy
U/W Tempo
Belcher
Countertop Progenitus
Eva Green or Team America, depends on how I'm feeling
My Trade list!
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Delver of Secrets
3 Snapcaster Mage
2 Vendillion Clique
1 Grim Lavamancer
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Remand
2 Mana Leak
2 Spell Pierce
2 Spell Snare
1 Thought Scour
1 Electrolyze
1 Cryptic Command
4 Serum Visions
2 Gitaxian Probe
Artifacts (2)
2 Vedalken Shackles
21 Lands
4x Tarmogoyf
4x Snapcaster Mage
2x Vendilion Clique
4x Lightning Bolt
3x Mana Leak
3x Spell Snare
2x Spell Pierce
1x Remand
2x Vapor Snag
3x Gitaxian Probe
4x Serum Visions
2x Sleight of Hand
1x Burst Lightning
1x Forked Bolt
2x Electrolyze
1x Forest
4x Misty Rainforest
4x Scalding Tarn
2x Steam Vents
1x Breeding Pool
1x Stomping Ground
1x Surgical Extraction
2x Blood Moon
1x Threads of Disloyalty
2x Flame Slash
1x Combust
1x Engineered Explosives
1x Ancient Grudge
1x Hurkyl's Recall
1x Echoing Truth
2x Magma Spray
1x Firespout
1x Anger of the Gods
So far I've tested against BW Tokens, Jund, UW Tron Gifts, Esper Gifts, and American Control. Every match-up seems to be in our favor. I figured the American Control match-up would be rough but it wasn't at all. I might have just drawn the best possible cards in every situation, it certainly wouldn't be the first time. The only card that really hurts in Jund is Abrupt Decay.
The UW Tron Gifts player has nicknamed the deck "Rug-burn" due to the sheer amount of times I've bolt snap bolted him.
So far I've only been able to play in one FNM. I don't remember everything but here's the gist of each round.
Round 1: Bye
Getting the bye was pretty depressing considering the 9th player came in at the last minute, but hey, it happens.
1-0
Round 2: Mono Black Post (Black Market)
This was a deck I hadn't tested against and really had no idea what it did.
Game 1, turn 1 Probe showed 2 Phyrexian Obliterator, some swamps, and I believe a Trading Post.
I blind flipped a Delver turn 2 and just rode it to victory.
Game 2 He was able to get the Spine of Ish Sah lock on me.
Game 3 (He mulligans to 6) Probe revealed 4 Trading Post and I believe two land.
Turn 1 Delver into turn 2 Goyf sealed the deal. Spell Pierce was an all star.
(2-0)
At this point there are three people with 6 points. Due to the bye round 1 I get paired down. The other two people with 6 points get paired up against each other. I got paired up against a good friend of mine who helped me test the deck extensively. He was on Jund and hated the matchup. He gave me the round, forcing the other two 6 point players to play it out.
(3-0)
Round 4, Top 2: UW Gifts Tron
Going into the match I was feeling pretty confident. I tested the match-up quite a bit and knew how to play it out.
Game 1 I flip delver on turn 3 off of a Serum Visions and proceed to bolt snap bolt for the win.
Game 2 I remember siding in the two Blood Moons and I believe a Surigcal. I keep a hand with Delver, Blood Moon, Goyf, Mana Leak, and 3 lands (1 Basic island, two fetches). I was super confident that I was going to take game 2 with ease.
Turn 3 I've got a mountain, an island, a forest, and a Delver in play. I slam down the Blood Moon and expect a concession. He says OK. I figure he's just going to make me play it out. He untaps and plays an Azorius Signet. I hadn't seen that card when testing and it caught me completely off guard. Due to the fact that I crippled myself with the Blood Moon, I was only able to have 1 blue available. I just wasn't able to counter enough. He lands an Iona, Shield of Emeria and I scoop.
Game 3 I don't really remember. The only thing I remember was that I had a snap and a delver in play. He Path to Exiles the snap and I Mana Leak it. I snap a Spell Pierce and have one card in hand, Vapor Snag. I believe that is when he casts another path targeting the snap. At this point I should have snagged the snap being targeted then on my next turn, swing with the delver and snap, then snap and flashback bolt. Two other players were watching the match and I heard them say something about me misplaying. This completely threw me off and I forgot to snag the snap. A few turns later I lose to Iona again.
(3-1)
Overall it was a fun day of magic. I should have gone 4-0 but I can't really be mad. I lost that game because I misplayed. I think RUG Delver is very well positioned but aside from that, it's a very fun deck to play.
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Vendilion Clique
Instant
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Burst Lightning
2 Spell Snare
2 Remand
3 Mana Leak
1 Magma Jet
2 Electrolyze
2 Cryptic Command
4 Serum Visions
2 Pillar of Flame
Land
4 Island
2 Forrest
1 Mountain
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Steam Vents
2 Breeding Pool
1 Stomping Ground
1 Raging Ravine
From reading the thread I would like to cut it down to 21 land, and fine tune it a bit. I'm also looking to cut magma jet and maybe pillar for at least one more spell snare. My question is how much do you all like probe or sleight of hand, and do you think I should cut cryptic? Even without cutting cryptic, dropping 1 land 1 jet and 2 pillar give me 4 spaces to play with. I apologize for this not being the most concise post, but it's been a long day. I'm just pumped about this deck.
Thanks.
Ooze can be quite good, but I feel like Hierarch just isn't needed as our curve is so low. I'd almost always rather have a different 1cmc spell instead of hierarch, and it also hurts our delver flips.
4x Tarmogoyf
4x Young Pyromancer
4x Snapcaster Mage
4x Gitaxian Probe
4x Lightning Bolt
3x Mana leak
2x Remand
3x Vapor Snag
4x Serum Visions
2x Spell Pierce
2x Spell Snare
2x Pillar of Flame
What do you guys do to improve your Jund and Faeries matchups? Faeries feels like it's 50/50 to me, but Jund on the other hand has been a real pain. I played in a small event two days ago and swept BW tokens and UR delver, but got crushed by Jund. Any thoughts you have about the matchup would be great. The other metagames I usually play in are larger and more diverse, but this made me want to consider what my Jund plan is.
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Vendilion Clique
Instant
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Burst Lightning
3 Spell Snare
2 Remand
3 Mana Leak
2 Vapor Snag
1 Spell Pierce
2 Electrolyze
2 Cryptic Command
4 Serum Visions
Land
6 Island
1 Forrest
1 Mountain
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Steam Vents
2 Breeding Pool
1 Stomping Ground
2 Vedalkin Shackles
2 Pillar of Flame
2 Blood Moon
2 Combust
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Spellskite
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
We did, check a few pages back. I've been really liking the 4-color Delver deck since it plays so many conditional counterspells to such great effect. Feels really good to counter spells turn after turn with Pierce and Snare.
Edit -- I like that Tribal Flames is a sorcery, but personally I prefer Serum Visions to ensure boltproof Goyfs in that slot. Gitaxian Probe can also work here, and it makes Snare and Pierce substantially better in the early turns (on the draw, do you play a Delver T1 or hold mana to Snare a Goyf/RIP/etc.?). (A quick note: obviously, running a set of Probes with our nasty manabase gives Burn decks quite an edge. Lightning Helix and Swerve can help here.) The extra cantrips let us cut a couple lands and eventually make room for a set of Boros Charm, which affords almost the same amount of reach as Flames (and doesn't force us to run a black land) and can double as a hard counter for attempts to disrupt our board. I used it against Blue Tron's Oblivion Stone activation with a kitty and a bug on deck yesterday, felt real good. It also stops Anger of the Gods, Volcanic Fallout, Abrupt Decay, Combust, and more -- sometimes (oftentimes?), having a recurring Bolt on a stick (and being able to protect it) beats dealing 5 damage at one time.
A sample list:
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Snapcaster Mage
Instant (23)
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Boros Charm
4 Remand
2 Lightning Helix
3 Path to Exile
3 Spell Pierce
3 Spell Snare
4 Gitaxian Probe
Land (18)
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Stomping Ground
1 Breeding Pool
1 Steam Vents
1 Temple Garden
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Forest
1 Island
2 Arid Mesa
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Thrun, the Last Troll
2 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Bant Charm
1 Negate
1 Path to Exile
1 Dispel
1 Steel Sabotage
1 Swerve
2 Lightning Helix
Counter-Cat
Colorless Eldrazi Stompy
Anyway I used to play a home brew version of aquarium, a deck that plays Nacatles, Delvers, burn and the like.
But of late I have decided to start trying some of the old delver lists. This was my first list for RUG delver:
2x grim lavamancer
4x tarmogoyf
4x snapcaster mage
2x Vendilion clique
1x vedalken shackles
4x serum visions
4x lightning bolt
2x pillar of flame
3x remand
3x mana leak
3x spellsnare
2x cryptic command
2x electrolyze
4x scalding tarn
2x breeding pool
2x steam vents
1x stomping ground
5x island
1x mountain
1x desolate light house
This went 2-1-1 twice in a row against a Fairly reasonable set of
Matchups. Here are my notes on the list: Pod matchup is tough. You need to
Be able to consistently get over their inevitable wall of
Blockers. That being said other premier match ups are rather even.
Rug twin, UR twin, and storm I've played and they all seem winnable.
Stand out cards: Electrolyze can be a real card advantage all star, and it can
Also be helpful in goyf wars, seems perfectly good. Desolate lighthouse hasn't screwed me over
At all, and it has been helpful once or
Twice. I think it would be worth the slot if I had more
Synergy with it,deprive might do the trick, as it would allow
Me to bounce lands in the long game to cycle them with desolate lighthouse when they cease being
Relevant (you need a maximum of 6 lands on the board in this deck). Vedalken shackles, grim lavamancer,and vendillion clique are all good In this deck, but I don't think we can run all of them as it will make delver
Ineffective, as grim lavamancer can help grind out the pod matchup, and against pod v cliques hand disruption
Gets worse (if they have a pod+creature on the field they no longer need a hand)
I decided to go with grim lavamancer. I also decided that if I used both goyf and
Grim then I would probably want thought scour to fill up the graveyard.
2x grim lavamancer
4x tarmogoyf
4x snapcaster mage
2x vedalken shackles
4x serum visions
4x lightning bolt
1x pillar of flame
1x flame slash
3x remand
3x mana leak
2x spellsnare
2x cryptic command
1x electrolyze
1x spell pierce
2x thought scour
4x scalding tarn
2x breeding pool
2x steam vents
1x stomping ground
5x island
1x mountain
1x desolate light house
This deck I have tried only once and Here are my notes on it:
I still want to try an extra flame slash over pillar of flame
As pillar of flame is rather bad in almost every match up except for pod
And even in the pod matchup it can be a terrible late game draw if they have
A Gavony township, also for the most part grim lavamancer does pillar
Of flames job in that matchup. Still want to try out deprive but I don't have it yet,
It would probably replace one mana leak and one remand.
I am also considering electrolyze in the pillar of flame spot, advice in that regard would be helpful.
My other option is to change directions entirely and replace the lavamancers with v-cliques the flame slash with pillar of flame
The thought scours with deprives and replace a remand with an extra electrolyze.
Thoughts?