Tier 2
3.5% +0.4% Gr Tron
3.4% +0.8% Titan Breach
3.0% -1.2% Jeskai Control
2.6% -2.3% Merfolk
2.1% -0.5% Ad Nauseam
2.0% -0.4% Abzan CoCo
1.8% -0.2% Death and Taxes
1.8% +0.3% Grixis Delver
1.7% -2.1% Death's Shadow Aggro
1.6% +?.?% Titan Shift
1.5% +?.?% Bushwacker Zoo
First order of buissness, I'm not sure I agree with there being two Titan decks when combining them would put them solidly into tier 1 territory.
Interesting developments. The big stories here for me is the huge rise of Bant Eldrazi as the dominant midrange deck and the massive loss of ground by Death's Shadow Zoo, Merfolk, Jeskai and Jund. Interestingly the rise of the Holy Trinity (Affinity, Infect and Burn) of aggro decks is actually counteracted but the losses Death's Shadow and Merfolk, perhaps showing that Death's Shadow might have been a flash in the metagame pan.
The loss of ground from Jund and Jeskai worries me, we are seeing an across the board drop in interactive decks with the notable exception of Bant Eldrazi and to a much lesser extent Grixis Delver and Abzan. Hopefully we will see this start to swing back in the favor interactive decks as the aggro decks begin to focus back on to 3 main lists, however we are also seeing a rise in big mana decks like Titan Breach (which jumps to 5% and tier 1 if you combined it with Titan Shift) and Tron which could impede that.
1) RUG was considered to be one the format stables pretty much since the first round of bannings from Storm, Twin, and Zoo.
2) Basically it's bad match-ups got WAY better of a short period of time, Jund got access Abrupt Decay and Deathrite shaman, while Birthing Pod exploded in both popularity and power. It is also worth noting that RUG Delver did really get any new toys to play with until recently with Mandrills, Traverse and Reveler.
3) I don't think this kind of list has a lot of legs any more, Abrupt Decay kills all of the your threats and Shackles gets cleaned up by Kommand. If I wanted to play a RUG deck like this I would either play the current RUG Delver/Monkey Grow lists or RUG Midrange with some kind of mainboard Traverse package containing Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and Bounding Krasis.
RUG Delver - (PROS)The Traverse + Reveler package, enchantment hate, resiliency to damage based sweepers Grixis Delver - (PROS)Creeping Tarpit (CONS)Lack of enchantment hate UR Delver - (PROS)Burn, Blood Moon, mana-base,resistant to graveyard hate (CONS)Sweepers hurt, lacks hard removal, can't grind, no enchantment hate Jeskai Delver - (PROS)Path, Geist, Resto, all the sideboard hate that white brings, helix (CONS)Lacks an efficient way grind out opponents
Sorry for hammering on enchantment hate but I played Grixis decks for ages and the lack of enchantment was often back breaking, Choke was pretty much game over. The other main advantage that RUG has over every other Delver deck in the format is the transformative sideboard into a grindy midrange deck while still maintaining 17 lands. The only deck that even comes close is Grixis and their Kommand+Snap loops.
I ran into this deck myself last week and I boarded like so:
-2 Simic Charm/Vapor Snag
-3 Thought Scour
-3 Hooting Mandrils
+6 Reveler and Traverse
+2 Destructive Revelry or enchantment hate of your choice
Bounce is pretty bad here as is Mandrills (remand plus their own bounce) while Revelry hits Spreading Seas, Rest in Peace and Sphere.
The match seemed okay post board although I did lose the match in question due to awful top decks and a massive boneheaded mistake on my part.
Brilliant work! I was great to see some matches of the deck on camera, and I was genuinely impressed with your commentary, especially if you have never done this before. Oh and don't worry about being unfamiliar with MTGO, it is an awful piece of software.
@Riku: Thanks for updating the sideboarding guide.
I agree completely, the view of cantrips promoting combo decks is standard is laughable as we get a playable combo deck in standard about once every 4 years. As for modern, it has been years since Storm and All-In-Twin were decks in the format and currently most of the linear decks are aggro decks that would be actively hurt but an upswing in Delver/tempo strategies. Although this is probably a topic for another thread.
Serum Visions does get a bad wrap by being worse than the CantripHolyTrinity when it is really quiet powerful. That said I still pray for a Preordain unban every 3 months, if only so I can bust out my Japanese ones again.
I have moved to Firespout in recent weeks but mostly because he have a lot of Zoo in the local meta and being able to hit x/3s is important. I have also found the ability to dodge ground/flyers when necessary surprising useful, be it dodging delver or clearing Lingering Souls tokens.
On the cantrip front: Preordain would definitely see play as it is straight-up better than Serum Visions. I'm honestly not sure about a 2 mana Brainstorm though. Brainstorm is an insane card but double the mana is lot, I would need to test it first.
The biggest issue is almost any cantrip would need to cost 1 mana and I can't see WotC printing that into current standard for... reasons? This is why I stopped playing Standard. Also the only real new ground for them to tread would be Brainstorm for 2 cards put 1 back (playable) or a Opt reprint (probably not?).
Hey everyone, current grixis delver player, plan on picking up goyfs come tax season and adding this deck to the family as well. Is there any good sideboard guides out there now that reveller has made the cut?
The is a google doc guide here which was written up by Riku_the_Wizard. Thanks again for all your hard work, Riku!
I would also recommend looking through Jordan's articles on the deck. His articles can be found here.
Ultimately sideboarding with the deck isn't too hard once you can identify exactly what role that want to take in each match-ups (which can be tricky sometimes).
Thanks for the google doc! It seems we side in the reveler package for almost all matchups, am I reading this right?
We do board it in against a lot of decks, it depends on whether or not you need to be racing or grinding out a certain much up.
Congrats on making it to the quarter finals! You list looks solid, I noticed you do not have pyroclasm in your list but you mention boarding it in during some of your games.
Also, if you want the decklist format, there is a button up near at the top when you post or you can use [_deck_]insert deck[_/deck_] just remove the underscores.
Thanks, I'll try it out. And yeah, I just fixed it. I got so used to seeing Grudge in the list I glanced right over them. I know that simic has been largely cut, but the one of pulled a lot of weight at the event. So much power.
I am still a big fan of Simic Charm but I seem to use the +3/+3 mode more than most.
Congrats on making it to the quarter finals! You list looks solid, I noticed you do not have pyroclasm in your list but you mention boarding it in during some of your games.
Also, if you want the decklist format, there is a button up near at the top when you post or you can use [_deck_]insert deck[_/deck_] just remove the underscores.
Hey everyone, current grixis delver player, plan on picking up goyfs come tax season and adding this deck to the family as well. Is there any good sideboard guides out there now that reveller has made the cut?
The is a google doc guide here which was written up by Riku_the_Wizard. Thanks again for all your hard work, Riku!
I would also recommend looking through Jordan's articles on the deck. His articles can be found here.
Ultimately sideboarding with the deck isn't too hard once you can identify exactly what role that want to take in each match-ups (which can be tricky sometimes).
A lot of modern is over-inflated thanks to the demand being placed on a small subset of the entirety of cards dating back to Mirrodin. I don't know, but modern feels like a broken and beaten old horse that hasn't really bounced back after the Splinter Twin and Summerbloom bannings and Eldrazi winter. Those events caused prices to rapidly increase on many cards, some of which were old and underutilized work horses. Chalice of the Void went through the roof because of Eldrazi, and now the new Chalice of the Void is engineered explosives.
On the other hand, without Modern WotC is kind of... well... [sub your expletive here for this tag]. They need it to exist in order for them to push and sell standard product as without a sense of long term playability card prices would drop rapidly on the secondary market. Of course, wizards says they don't care about the secondary market, but the reality is a healthy secondary card market is a sign of a healthy game. If all the cards are selling individually for pennies things are probably pretty bleak.
Where have they ever said this? This statement is frequently made but I'm wondering exactly where that claim was made.
I think it there is a bit of confusion behind that statement. As far as I know WotC does care about the secondary market but they are not allowed to acknowledge it directly. They is why they will talk about reprinting cards because of availability issues but pretty much never hear them say "we reprinted x card because it was upward of $XXX". I assume this just to make sure they don't get into some kind of legal trouble?
From what you are saying I wouldn't bother with a competitive modern deck, they are being really expensive and unless you are playing on playing in competitive events I wouldn't bother. However you could look into brewing some deck up in your group using the modern ban list, there is a lot of fun you could have in that space.
On the Commander front, I would look into the pre-made decks. They are normally really good and you honestly don't need to change much to optimize them.
(Current %, % difference from last month, deck name)
Tier 1
8.9% +2.9% Bant Eldrazi
8.1% +1.5% Burn
7.6% +1.7% Infect
7.5% +1.0% Affinity
6.5% -3.7% Jund
4.2 -0.2% Dredge
4.0% 0.5% Abzan
Tier 2
3.5% +0.4% Gr Tron
3.4% +0.8% Titan Breach
3.0% -1.2% Jeskai Control
2.6% -2.3% Merfolk
2.1% -0.5% Ad Nauseam
2.0% -0.4% Abzan CoCo
1.8% -0.2% Death and Taxes
1.8% +0.3% Grixis Delver
1.7% -2.1% Death's Shadow Aggro
1.6% +?.?% Titan Shift
1.5% +?.?% Bushwacker Zoo
First order of buissness, I'm not sure I agree with there being two Titan decks when combining them would put them solidly into tier 1 territory.
Interesting developments. The big stories here for me is the huge rise of Bant Eldrazi as the dominant midrange deck and the massive loss of ground by Death's Shadow Zoo, Merfolk, Jeskai and Jund. Interestingly the rise of the Holy Trinity (Affinity, Infect and Burn) of aggro decks is actually counteracted but the losses Death's Shadow and Merfolk, perhaps showing that Death's Shadow might have been a flash in the metagame pan.
The loss of ground from Jund and Jeskai worries me, we are seeing an across the board drop in interactive decks with the notable exception of Bant Eldrazi and to a much lesser extent Grixis Delver and Abzan. Hopefully we will see this start to swing back in the favor interactive decks as the aggro decks begin to focus back on to 3 main lists, however we are also seeing a rise in big mana decks like Titan Breach (which jumps to 5% and tier 1 if you combined it with Titan Shift) and Tron which could impede that.
2) Basically it's bad match-ups got WAY better of a short period of time, Jund got access Abrupt Decay and Deathrite shaman, while Birthing Pod exploded in both popularity and power. It is also worth noting that RUG Delver did really get any new toys to play with until recently with Mandrills, Traverse and Reveler.
3) I don't think this kind of list has a lot of legs any more, Abrupt Decay kills all of the your threats and Shackles gets cleaned up by Kommand. If I wanted to play a RUG deck like this I would either play the current RUG Delver/Monkey Grow lists or RUG Midrange with some kind of mainboard Traverse package containing Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and Bounding Krasis.
RUG Delver - (PROS)The Traverse + Reveler package, enchantment hate, resiliency to damage based sweepers
Grixis Delver - (PROS)Creeping Tarpit (CONS)Lack of enchantment hate
UR Delver - (PROS)Burn, Blood Moon, mana-base,resistant to graveyard hate (CONS)Sweepers hurt, lacks hard removal, can't grind, no enchantment hate
Jeskai Delver - (PROS)Path, Geist, Resto, all the sideboard hate that white brings, helix (CONS)Lacks an efficient way grind out opponents
Sorry for hammering on enchantment hate but I played Grixis decks for ages and the lack of enchantment was often back breaking, Choke was pretty much game over. The other main advantage that RUG has over every other Delver deck in the format is the transformative sideboard into a grindy midrange deck while still maintaining 17 lands. The only deck that even comes close is Grixis and their Kommand+Snap loops.
-2 Simic Charm/Vapor Snag
-3 Thought Scour
-3 Hooting Mandrils
+6 Reveler and Traverse
+2 Destructive Revelry or enchantment hate of your choice
Bounce is pretty bad here as is Mandrills (remand plus their own bounce) while Revelry hits Spreading Seas, Rest in Peace and Sphere.
The match seemed okay post board although I did lose the match in question due to awful top decks and a massive boneheaded mistake on my part.
@Riku: Thanks for updating the sideboarding guide.
Serum Visions does get a bad wrap by being worse than the Cantrip Holy Trinity when it is really quiet powerful. That said I still pray for a Preordain unban every 3 months, if only so I can bust out my Japanese ones again.
On the cantrip front: Preordain would definitely see play as it is straight-up better than Serum Visions. I'm honestly not sure about a 2 mana Brainstorm though. Brainstorm is an insane card but double the mana is lot, I would need to test it first.
The biggest issue is almost any cantrip would need to cost 1 mana and I can't see WotC printing that into current standard for... reasons? This is why I stopped playing Standard. Also the only real new ground for them to tread would be Brainstorm for 2 cards put 1 back (playable) or a Opt reprint (probably not?).
I am still a big fan of Simic Charm but I seem to use the +3/+3 mode more than most.
Also, if you want the decklist format, there is a button up near at the top when you post or you can use [_deck_]insert deck[_/deck_] just remove the underscores.
4 Hangarback Walker
4 Thought-Knot Seer
3 Reality Smasher
3 Wasteland Strangler
2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
Sorcery (5)
1 Dreadbore
1 Thoughtseize
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
Instant (10)
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Terminate
2 Kolaghan's Command
1 Slaughter Pact
4 Relic of Progenitus
2 Ratchet Bomb
Land (23)
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
4 Sulfurous Springs
2 Blood Crypt
4 Eldrazi Temple
4 Mutavault
2 Ghost Quarter
2 Swamp
1 Mountain
1 Dreadbore
1 Kolaghan's Command
2 Thoughtseize
1 Ghost Quarter
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Slaughter Games
1 Shatterstorm
1 Shriekmaw
2 Endbringer
2 Magma Spray
I have been super tempted to put it together myself put I need to pick up the rest of the Reality Smashers
I would also recommend looking through Jordan's articles on the deck. His articles can be found here.
Ultimately sideboarding with the deck isn't too hard once you can identify exactly what role that want to take in each match-ups (which can be tricky sometimes).
On the Commander front, I would look into the pre-made decks. They are normally really good and you honestly don't need to change much to optimize them.