Counsel of the Wyly: Delving Deeper Than Ever Before

Hello and welcome to Counsel of the Wyly, the monthly article series about the Constructed formats of Magic: the Gathering. This time, we're going to look at one of my favorite creatures in one of my favorite formats; we're talking Delver of Secrets in Legacy! This little 1/1 who could has totally shaken up the format and has been used in various decks in the past two years since its printing and we'll look through the various decks that Delver sees play in.

We're going to start with the most popular and well-known Delver deck known as RUG Delver or 'Canadian Thresh' if you've been around a while.

Creatures (12):
4x Delver of Secrets
4x Nimble mongoose
4x Tarmogoyf

Spells (30):
4x Brainstorm
4x Daze
1x Forked Bolt
3x Gitaxian Probe
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Ponder
3x Spell Pierce
3x Stifle

Lands (18):
3x Flooded Strand
2x Polluted Delta
3x Scalding Tarn
3x Tropical Island
3x Volcanic Island
4x Wasteland

Sideboard (15):
1x Ancient Grudge
2x Flusterstorm
1x Grafdigger's Cage
2x Pyroblast
2x Rough//Tumble
3x Submerge
1x Sulfur Elemental
1x Tormod's Crypt
1x Young Pyromancer
1x Zuran Orb

This is a deck that has been around in various forms for years before Delver was even printed, but certainly received new life with the Human Wizard and allowed RUG Delver to dominate the Legacy format for the better part of 2012. The deck's game plan is to resolve a threat and then protect that threat using mana denial to keep their opponents behind on resources. This new list features one copy of Young Pyromancer in the board, which is a change I absolutely love since this deck already features a hefty 30 spells. Gitaxian Probe is another change in this list over previous versions that I fully support, since knowing if you'r eplaying your Delver into removal usually doesn't end well for the Delver player. This is a deck I'd mostly suggest to people who like resilient threats and outplaying your opponent.

The next Delver deck we're looking at is very different. Don't think sharing two colors makes the decks similar, since there are some drastic differences. let's take a look at American Delver.

Creatures (12):
4x Delver of Secrets
2x Geist of Saint Traft
2x Grim Lavamancer
3x Stoneforge Mystic
1x Vendilion Clique

Spells (29):
1x Batterskull
4x Brainstorm
4x Daze
3x Force of Will
4x Lightning Bolt
3x Ponder
2x Spell Pierce
4x Stifle
3x Swords to Plowshares
1x Umezawa's Jitte

Lands (19):
4x Misty Rainforest
4x Scalding Tarn
4x Tundra
3x Volcanic Island
4x Wasteland

Sideboard (15):
1x Engineered Explosives
2x Flusterstorm
1x Force of Will
2x Meddling Mage
2x Red Elemental Blast
1x Relic of Progenitus
1x Rest in Peace
1x Submerge
1x Surgical Extraction
1x Sword of Feast and Famine
1x Swords to Plowshares
1x Wear//Tear

So here we have a deck list I find absolutely fascinating. Cause what's better than Delver of Secrets? Delver holding a Jitte! We also have way more threat diversity compared to RUG Delver. We do have to add an extra land since a quarter of our threats cost three mana. This deck offers really interesting sideboard choices like Meddling Mage and Sword of Feast and Famine. I'd recommend this deck if you like Stoneforge Mystic but want to be more aggressive than the traditional Stoneblade lists.

Our next Delver deck is one I've been really curious about since we don't see it much in the States, but I've heard it's been big in Europe. Here we have Grixis Delver.

Creatures (13):
4x Delver of Secrets
4x Dark Confidant
1x Grim Lavamancer
4x Young Pyromancer

Spells (29):
4x Brainstorm
4x Daze
2x Dismember
3x Force of Will
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Stifle
4x Gitaxian Probe
4x Ponder

Lands (18):
4x Flooded Strand
1x Misty Rainforest
3x Scalding Tarn
3x Underground Sea
3x Volcanic Island
4x Wasteland

Sideboard (15):
2x Baleful Strix
1x Grim Lavamancer
3x Flusterstorm
1x Red Elemental Blast
2x Submerge
1x Venser, Shaper Savant
1x Bonfire of the Damned
3x Cabal Therapy
1x Perish

Wow, now that's an interesting deck. I mean, where else do you see cards like Bonfire of the Damned in Legacy? This version also runs the highest number of creatures out of all the decks we've looked at (and four of those creatures are even Young Pyromancer!) I think this card will find itself more and more in Legacy where cheap draw spells (cantrips) and low cost counterspells are flying around. Young Pyromancer's interaction with Cabal Therapy is also pretty sweet. We also see Dismember, which is a card you see in some RUG Delver Sideboards to deal with opposing Tarmogoyfs. The ability to maindeck this removal spell and not always have to pay four life is huge. You should pick up this deck if you love Dark Confidant (let's be honest, who doesn't?) but don't want to take a billion damage off revealing a Tombstalker.

The last Delver deck I'm gonig to discuss is one of my favorite decks in Legacy and the deck that sparked my love with Delver of Secrets. We're talking some good old fashioned U/R Delver.

Creatures (15):
4x Delver of Secrets
4x Goblin Guide
3x Grim Lavamancer
4x Snapcaster Mage

Spells (27):
4x Brainstorm
3x Chain Lightning
2x Daze
4x Force of Will
4x Lightning Bolt
3x Ponder
3x Price of Progress
2x Spell Pierce
2x Vapor Snag

Lands (18):
1x Arid Mesa
1x Bloodstained Mire
3x Island
3x Misty Rainforest
3x Mountain
4x Scalding Tarn
2x Volcanic Island
1x Wooded Foothills

Sideboard (15):
3x Flusterstorm
1x Price of Progress
1x Pyroblast
1x Red Elemental Blast
3x Smash to Smithereens
2x Sulfuric Vortex
3x Surgical Extraction
1x Vendilion Clique

So this deck differs greatly from the other Delver decks we've looked at here because this list can function like a burn deck if necessary and also has some light counter magic to keep the matchups against combo decks fair. Plus you get to play Price of Progress, which is one of the most underrated spells in Legacy in my opinion. Go on, read it a bit and let it soak in.

You'll generally cast this for 6-8 damage on average and it's an amazing spell to abuse with Snapcaster Mage. Vapor Snag is a concession to this deck's weakness against big creatures like Tarmogoyf, since a single one can stop your Goblin Guides in their tracks. being two colors also allows you to play a few more basic lands, making this deck a lot stronger against Wasteland. I'd recommend this deck to someone newer to the format or someone who wants to cast burn spells to the face and likes playing good cards.

So that's my Delver wrap up, I hope you enjoyed seeing some of the various Delver strategies in Legacy and maybe even convince you to try the little 1/1.

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-John Wyly

Vivid Williams: Standardized Testing

I'd like to start this article off by apologizing for the lack of content on my part from last month. A lot of time has been taken up from not only school, but work and my social life as well. With that said, words do not describe how excited I am to play in Theros Standard! With just two weeks of the format, there have been multiple decks seeing some kind of success. States/Provincials was this past weekend (not to be confused with TCG Player Fall States) and I attended the Florida States. Although the tournament only had 29 players, it still gave me a sufficient enough sample size to potentially figure out what deck I'm going to set myself on for the next couple of weeks.

Going into the event, I knew I wanted to play some kind of pro-active deck that didn't just fold to the aggressive Red Deck Wins and G/W decks that are usually popular at the beginning of rotation. This led me to the deck I had been working on at the end of Innistrad-Return to Ravnica Standard, Mythic Midrange (B/W/R). This deck is capable of doing a lot of powerful things going on from creature/Planeswalker removal, to hand disruption, to the amazing interaction between Whip of Erebos and Obzedat, Ghost Council. I ended up going 2-3 in the tournament, losing to the mirror, Naya Midrange (#nicklocastro), and RDW in the final round. Looking back, I felt like I tried to make both the aggro and control match too favorable for Game 1 which led to awkward draws against both. For anyone trying to play Midrange or Control, I'd suggest hedging your Game 1 against Control and focus Games 2 and 3 against aggro.

What should you play in the upcoming weeks? The format is so open right now that I don't think there's a 'best deck' or even a deck to beat. I really like the midrange decks that have been floating around as they can switch gears and be a role player as either a control deck or an aggro deck. G/W Aggro is amazing as it can dump its opening hand and have bigger creatures than RDW and other aggro decks. I'm also super interested in seeing how Mark Nestico's U/W Waves deck does in the upcoming weeks.

Creatures (13):
2x Frostburn Weird
4x Master of the Waves
4x Omen Speaker
3x Thassa, God of the Sea

Spells (22):
2x Elspeth, Sun's Champion
4x Jace, Architect of Thought
1x Jace, Memory Adept
3x Detention Sphere
4x Azorius Charm
1x Cyclonic Rift
3x Sphinx's Revelation
4x Supreme Verdict

Lands (25):
8x Island
5x Plains
4x Azorius Guildgate
4x Hallowed Fountain
4x Mutavualt

One of Nestico's buddies took this list to states in Oregon and won. It seems like an interesting and somewhat under the radar kind of deck that I would expect a lot of people to jump on board with. It kind of reminds me of a tempo deck, that can set up for some back breaking kills or just slowly grind their oponent out. Master of Waves having Protection from Red gives a lot of incentive to play him against RDW. A lot of the removal in Standard is Red outside of Doom Blade, Hero's Downfall.

Me personally? I'm gonna stick to the B/W/R deck I've grown accustomed to playing or try out some interation of G/W or Naya Midrange. Slamming fatties on the table and beating face has always been fun for me, so I figure why not stick to what I like. All of these lists also do reasonably well against all of the popular archetypes which is a major plus side. The format is super open right now, and even with the Pro Tour coming up this weekend, i still feel like there are infinite possibilities for someone who wants to take down their local FNM or even a 5k.

In my last article, I did some quick hits on cards that I thought would gain a lot of value post rotation. Blood Baron shot up from $8 to $20 and Jace, Architect of Thought went up to a ridiculous $26!! I don't mean to say 'I told you so' but let's face it, I told you so! As far as what to keep an eye on now, Kalonian Hydra's price has steadily dropped into the upper teens. If he becomes a $10-15 card, I'd suggest picking up a few copies. Master of Waves is also another card that hasn't received much attention aside from Mark Nestico and friends. This card is around $5 right now and $20 for a playset of Mythic playables seems pretty good to me. Garruk, Caller of Beasts has also been on the decline as of late. Everyone is so focused on Red and Blue that Green isn't getting any love. If you can get a couple of copies or even a set for a good price, I'd say go for it! It's also a good time to buy into the Theros dual lands while they're still in print. Having all of the dual lands for your decks while they're cheap ensures you can play almost any deck you want in the format.

That's all I have for you guys today! I'm not sure when I'll have time to sit down and write another aticle, but I"ll try to push them out as often as possible. I'll also answer any questions on decks or card choices anybody has, just message me on Facebook or hit me up at CCG when I'm there. 'Til next time, Casual Net!

Check out the MTG Casual Net Archive and connect with us on Facebook!

-Robert Williams