Dies to Removal

I'm really hoping treasure cruise is banned but dig is left alone just before GP Vancouver, since then I can just play dtt/snap and crush people who dismissed the deck as dead.

AoT seems very strong in the mirror.

ooh, I like the look of that. I ended up losing in the quarters of my tournament yesterday, I'm going to get around to typing up a report tonight hopefully.

currently 3-0, 6-0 in games across 2 rounds of standard and 1 modern. 2 modern rounds up next, full report after the tourney

Swerving Remand to Swerve does NOT give you your Swerve back. It'll be in the graveyard when Remand tries to resolve, and Remand will be countered on resolution.

As a permission-light Delver player, the combo matchup is fine. If they don't interact, they're usually dead by turn 4. Taylor Swift kills much faster than Insectile Aberration.

Whoops, misevaluated that situation. I actually like that more, fizzling their draw on the remand is pretty nice.

This is the list I have registered and sleeved for my tournament on Saturday.

[deck]4 Delver of Secrets
4 Young Pyromancer
4 Snapcaster Mage

4 Serum Visions
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Lightning Bolt
1 Pillar of Flame
1 Burst Lightning
1 Forked Bolt
2 Spell Snare
1 Spell Pierce
1 Mana Leak
4 Remand
2 Vapor Snag
1 Electrolyze
2 Treasure Cruise
1 Dig Through Time

4 Steam Vents
5 Island
1 Mountain
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Misty Rainforest
4 Flooded Strand
Sideboard
2 Dispel
2 Dragon's Claw
2 Molten Rain
1 Swerve
1 Vedalken Shackles
1 Combust
2 Vandalblast
1 Negate
2 Magma Spray
1 Counterflux[/deck]

I don't have a lot of time tonight to break down specific choices, but if anyone has questions/suggestions I'll respond to them.

I knew my 15th card needed to be either the 3rd Dragon's Claws or something at least passable against Burn, and my foil Swerve finally gets its chance to... shine... heh.

I wasn't sure I was going to play it, but then started thinking about what it can do.

- Swerve a lightning bolt = lightning helix.
- Abrupt Decay Jund players Goyfs.
- Make people Thoughtseize themselves.
- Swerve Remand to Swerve, so that I resolve my threat/counter their threat they were trying to remand, and get my Swerve back (on).
- Swerve a Splinter Twin to my Snapcaster/Young Pyromancer (though you deserve to lose if you go for the combo when I have mana open)
- Swerve all sorts of removal spells.
- If Cryptic is only using one targeting mode I can change that.
- Totem Armor/Rancor/Ethereal Armor
- Infects pump spells
- any spell that has a single target
- I'm sure other stuff will come up.

Basically, it's low power level but high versatility and sometimes you just need that jank one of to blow people out with

what else do you usually cut in mirrors? I've been having a really hard time sideboarding in a way I'm satisfied with.

what cards do you find to be the best in the mirror? I have a pretty big split modern/standard (with top8 draft) tourney this weekend that I'm making final preparations for. I expect a lot of burn and delver, with other people playing their pet decks and representing a fairly healthy meta.

What would you splash green for? Just Ancient Grudge?

I feel pretty comfortable in the Affinity matchup without it and have always seen it as a bit of a crutch.

Destructive Revelry could be alright though.

for the record I'm super chuffed that you used the word chuffed, that word is underutilised.

I've been really sold on 3 spell snare, it's very good against a lot of our problem cards like goyf. Spell pierce had been underwhelming lately. Remand is awesome in this deck. mana leak is fine but bad late, and this list sees the late game fairly often.

I will test some vs scapeshift. I played that deck for a while, and have played both sides of the match up a bit, so I have some idea what to do.

Got some games in today vs GR Tron and Tarmo Twin. Neither were piloted by someone super experienced with the deck but we talked about things after as well. 2-2 vs Tron, the matchup has some games where it's just a blow out and we can't do anything to win. Really tough to do anything without a turn 1 Delver.

RUG Twin was something like 3-1 or 4-2, that matchup feels much better. Certainly harder than UR Twin, though. I can't believe I ever played this deck without Gitaxian Probe, having close to perfect information about your opponents hand makes decision making a lot more reasonable.

My friend is proxying Jund, another is building Affinity, and I'll probably proxy up pod and UWR.

Any other major archetypes you suggest testing against?

Likely playing this deck at the local Player of the Year finals, a store ran 3 qualifiers at which you earned points (sealed, standard, modern), and if you're above a certain threshold you get to play in the final event. Good prizing, and it'll be a blast as its a triple format tournament.

Round 1: Standard
Round 2: Modern
Round 3: Standard
Round 4/5: Modern
Round 6/7: Standard
Top8: Draft

This is going to be my weapon of choice for modern, unless Jeskai Ascendancy turns out to be unbeatable (it'd be funny to play Jeskai Combo in both standard and modern ).

So, I'll be rigorously testing this deck until October 25th. I'll post notes here as I take them. If anyone comes up with sweet tech or anything like that, ship it my way

You implied that your were playing less than 4 visions? If so, please explain.

I was playing something in between your list and Val's from the top of the page.

Yeah that makes sense. I'm probably just nostalgic for standard with uw runechanter flash.

Been flooding a bit on 19 land, might try 18 with the 4th Serum Visions and either 3rd Treasure Cruise or another Thought Scour.

Now that we're running a lot of Scours, is Runechanters Pike a reasonable option? I realize the nonbo with Cruise, but at the same time a lot of my games see me having 15-20 cards in the yard in the mid to late game, and it's perfectly possible to delve a cruise without exiting many/any instants and sorceries.

I'm not sure if the Pike is needed, but it seems awesome to close games out quickly from time to time.

That sideboard looks awesome, damn.

I'm just testing with a split for the time being. What are some sideboard cards you've been testing with?

I usually use a ~25 card sideboard in testing, and then narrow it down after I've determined the matchups that need help most, so even super obscure 1ofs are sweet.

Zem, thoughts on Burst Lightning vs Pillar of Flame here? I love playing at instant speed but I feel like maindecking Pillar of Flame could free up some sideboard slots while shoring up the Pod matchup. My main complaint with Pillar has been the nonbo with EOT Snapcaster.

I don't mind the thought of 1 Pillar 1 Burst Lightning main. Pillar is worse with EOT Snapcaster but still goes to the face decently when you need it to.

When I was playing the SSS version I found I could usually make use of my mana in such a way that Pillar wasn't all that clunky. In fairness, that version wasn't casting Serum Visions.

Oh my god. This has me excited for gp van.

I've really liked Mutavault in this archetype, fwiw.

Valid opinion Zem. Regardless of what I play, I'll link my report somewhere on the site.

Any testing news from people? Spell Snare has been insane (obviously), and Clique out of the board has felt decent.

Right, and I don't think Geist is at all where you want to be in modern at the moment.

Damn. So, I was set on this deck for the PTQ, but then I saw this post over on /r/Spikes: http://www.reddit.com/r/spikes/comments ... ort_top_4/, and asked around if any of my play group had Tarmogoyfs they aren't using. They do, so now I have a real decision to make.

The last Modern event near this one had the following for a top 8: Scapeshift, Affinity, Affinity, BG Rock, Junk, Jund, Tron, Scapeshift. The finals consisted of Affinity vs Affinity.

There was a decent amount of Twin and URx decks, one good Storm player, and 2 Pod players.

I expect the PTQ to have a -similar- field, but likely with a bit more Pod and Scapeshift.

Which deck do you like in that room?

I realize this isn't about only UR Delver, but there are 0 comments on my post about RUG in the other section of the forum.

[deck]Creatures(13)
4x Snapcaster Mage
4x
Tarmogoyfs
2x Scavenging Ooze
2x Huntmaster of the Fells
1x Vendilion Clique

Artifacts(2)
2x Vendalken Shackles

Planeswalkers(1)
1xKeranos, God of Storms

Instants & Sorceries(20)
4x Serum Visions
2x Flame Slash
1x Pyroclasm
4x Lightning Bolt
3x Cryptic Command
3x Mana Leak
2x Spell Snare
1x Eletrolyze

Lands (24)
4x Scalding Tarn
4x Misty Rainforest
2x Breeding Pool
2x Steam Vents
1x Hinterland Harbor
1x Sulfur Falls
1x Stomping Ground
1x Forest
1x Mountain
4x Island
2x Tectonic Edge
1x Raging Ravine

Sideboard
2x Ancient Grudge
2x Anger of the Gods
1x Relic of Progenitus
1x Thread of Disloyalty
1x Batterskull
1x Dispel
1x Negate
1x Combust
1x Thrun, the Last Troll
1x Thragtusk
1x Dismember
1x Magma Spray
1x Unravel the Aether [/deck]

Here: I'm not fully sold on the splash, and there's no way I'm switching to an untuned list over the fairly tuned UR one we're on at the moment.

Not a bad list, the lack of Remand is weird though. Also not a huge fan of Ancient Grudge, I don't think it's necessary given that Affinity is already a pretty good matchup.

Has anyone played at all with Forked Bolt?

I'm pretty happy with this decks match up against aggro as is, so I think I'd favour Keranos. Better vs Pod, BG, and Uwr, since you don't need to keep dumping mana into it.

Yeah, that's true. I was leaning towards a sword anyway. Not sure if it's actually needed, though.

How was Vendilion Clique for you when it was in your list?

Yeah, Goyf decks are definitely the matchup where YP shines the most.

I know that YP tokens can get their alone a lot of the time, I just like the idea of a Sword or Keranos/Batterskull because it's good against the two hardest matchups, BGx and UWR, while still being fine elsewhere too (depending on which of the 3 you go for)

What, in your estimation are the key strategic points in the matchup and what are their key spells? How are you boarding?

I hope that I'm not giving the impression that it is a GOOD matchup; because it isn't. Jund / UWR are 50%; but most everything is favourable.

Also Val was right about the 3rd lavamancer, I was wrong.

I think it's possible that I had gotten the false impression that it's an actual _good_ matchup.

I think the main problem I've had is a low amount of testing, and putting too much stock in the fact that all my wins feel REALLY close against them. A win is a win, regardless of if it was on thin margins.

Congrats on the good showing at the ptq, your field sounds very similar to the one that I expect to see next
weekend.

Are there any changes you're considering for the list? I'm going to sleeve up proxies for every card I want to experiment with so that I can easily switch things around.

I think I want to try cutting the 3rd Young Pyromancer for a Vendilion Clique, a couple other cards I want to try out: Keranos/Batterskull in the side, Turn/Burn or Dismember (though I suppose the inclusion of Grim Lavamancer helps kill most Goyfs), and some number of Swords. Swords seem particularly good for turning the anemic 1/1's that YP often leaves behind into game winning threats.

It feels good to be back to slinging Delvers and Bolts.

I've been testing a bit on cockatrice when I can. Gonna have some rigorous testing sessions in paper, and better online testing with DXIEdge soon.

Deck feels really good, the reason I wasn't playing it before is because I played it for so long when Deathrite was legal and there was a lot more BG decks (which was an even worse match up before).

I'm still having some trouble with the uwr matchup, which is weird (blood moon helps a lot, but it feels like all the wins I got were very close to losses, I might just need to accept that). If someone recorded a video of them playing out their strategy successfully vs that deck, that's something I'd love to watch.

I'm personally going with UR a Wizard Harry on my deck reg sheet.

If you played it in your list what would your cuts be to make room?

I am still in the process of convincing myself not to play junk at my ptq, but now that it's an option it's hard to say no.

Yeah that's the only YP list I dont mind the look of.

The two decks I'm playing the most on 'trice at the moment are UR Delver and the RUG list Reid Duke has been playing. I put together a post with my thoughts on the RUG deck in the Control section, though it plays pretty similarly to Zems UR list.

That seems like a good plan, I probably just wasn't as strong a player back when I was piloting this deck. I'll give it another go now. What does your board look like currently?

While playing Hooglands list it felt like literally the worst matchup not even slightly close. What is your general game plan there?

I definitely want to find room for a sword, I think. So far in testing I'm 1-0 vs Affinity, 2-0 vs Melira Pod, and 2-2 vs Junk. If that's slightly representative of how the decks matchups are, I'm pretty happy with it.

Just started testing your list a bit more thoroughly Zemanjaski, it feels really good so far. I need to play a few matches vs BGx and UWR before I'm sold, but I LOVE its Pod, Affinity, and combo matchup. This could be my PTQ deck.