Dies to Removal

I just red your reddit post. I would like to just add that bogles is not as difficult as you think it is. The trick is to counter their lifelink enchantments, and only those.

If you resolve Blood Moon postboard it also makes the matchup laughable.

Board in Batterskull or Keranos, whichever you run.

Not with 18-19 lands.

I usually dig 5 lands and 2 counterspells which makes me feel sad.

Also MJ is quite right about the snaptime version being weak vs darkblast. There's no way in hell for us to beat that card.

I will always run blood moon so that I don't lose to stupid rogue decks like Bogles and AmuletTitan.

Deprive is a perfectly fine magic card.

I played with my friend piloting a melira pod deck for 8 games tonight. I won the first two pre-board games, then won three post-board games, then lost the last three post-board games.

I know Pod is supposed to be an easy matchup, and I 100% agree. Still, I hope my playtesting may prove helpful for people who have not had the chance to face that matchup.

Some comments on the matchup:

- Spell Snare is theoretically good, but performed badly for me. I boarded in my 2nd spell snare and it was always stuck in hand.
- Boarding out mana leaks is a bad idea.
- Boarding in artifact hate: I think 1 piece is decent, probably smash to smithereens if you are running it. It's not to deal with pod but to deal with spellskite.
- They actually have a ton of ways to kill your guys. Abrupt Decay, Orzhov Pontiff, Murderous Redcap, and path to exile postboard all present problems.
- Getting a YP to stick and then countering and burning all their stuff is the easiest way to win, but you need to figure out a way to bait the pontiff and then kill it before resorting to this game plan.
- Batterskull is nuts, obviously.
- If in doubt, don't sideboard. Our mainboard plan is great vs their deck anyway.

Despite that last piece of advice, here's how I would sideboard in this matchup after learning from my mistakes:

-3 Remand -1 Spell Pierce + 2 Magma Spray + 1 Smash to Smithereens +1 Batterskull

Don't give in to temptation and board in too much stuff like I did. I boarded in stuff like combust, spell snare, and vandalblast, while trimming my counterspell suite. I think this is wrong. Maintaining a balance of permission, removal, and threats is important.

This is the list I used, for reference:

[deck]
Creatures:12
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Young Pyromancer

Spells:29
2 Burst Lightning
2 Forked Bolt
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Lightning Bolt
1 Pillar of Flame
4 Serum Visions
1 Spell Pierce
1 Spell Snare
2 Vapor Snag
2 Mana Leak
3 Remand
1 Electrolyze
2 Dig Through Time

Lands:19
1 Arid Mesa
4 Flooded Strand
4 Island
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Mountain
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Steam Vents
1 Sulfur Falls

Sideboard:15
1 Dispel
2 Magma Spray
1 Spell Snare
1 Vandalblast
2 Combust
2 Negate
1 Smash to Smithereens
2 Blood Moon
1 Counterflux
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Batterskull
[/deck]

P.S. Throughout all the games I played between Saturday and today, I have never wanted a 3rd Dig Through Time, and sometimes lamented the 2nd copy. However, I am always glad to see one sometime during the game. I think 2 copies is the right number for this deck.

It wasn't even remotely good in uw control. Hurrr.

I am assuming Michael Jacob?

Fair enough.

Re. Sulfur Falls: The mulligan rate is 1 in 40. It's a pretty good rate, considering the amount of times it will save you the 2 life or 1 life you would pay for a second untapped land to hold up mana leak/remand.

Re. MTGS: Bunch of idiots. I gave up arguing with them. I don't bother with posting a list or tournament reports there as I don't even want to benefit people visiting that site.

Re. Zem's list: I don't think 3 spell snare is necessary, though you would know your meta better than mine (I always build with an open meta in mind). Snare is almost a complete blank in certain matchups (twin, pod, living end, tron, hatebears and merfolk when they land vial etc.), and that hurts. I am personally running a 1/1 md/sb split.

I personally prefer forked bolt to electrolyze, as it allows you to have the same effect and go t1 delver/visions, t2 countermagic, t3 YP + forked bolt or any other sequence involving YP. 3 mana is a lot in this deck.

Re. Calamity's qn's: All the sb options you have listed are reasonable choices. There's no real way to kill geist without hurting our game plan (anger of the gods). Your best bet is to always hold up countermagic for him or a snapcaster mage to block him (or race).

And my own updated list:

[deck]Creatures:12
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Young Pyromancer

Spells:29
2 Burst Lightning
2 Forked Bolt
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Lightning Bolt
1 Pillar of Flame
4 Serum Visions
1 Spell Pierce
1 Spell Snare
2 Vapor Snag
2 Mana Leak
3 Remand
1 Electrolyze
2 Dig Through Time

Lands:19
1 Arid Mesa
4 Flooded Strand
4 Island
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Mountain
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Steam Vents
1 Sulfur Falls

Sideboard:15
1 Dispel
2 Magma Spray
1 Spell Snare
1 Vandalblast
2 Combust
2 Negate
1 Smash to Smithereens
2 Blood Moon
1 Counterflux
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Batterskull[/deck]

Yes, 3 steam vents and 1 sulfur falls.

You should play smash to smithereens as your 2nd affinity hate as there is an emergence of decks, especially zoo, that play chalice on one to shut us out.

Also, it is pretty much necessary to play one sulfur falls so that you don't auto-lose to choke.

TLDR:
Slow meta ~ dig
Fast meta ~ cruise

I have to disagree with this. The meta doesn't matter - we are a fast deck in terms of filling the gy so the difference between cruise and dig is negligible. You could even argue that Dig comes online faster because it only requires delve-6.

Just some food for thought about your sb (I understand that it's not really a serious sb on your part, but just my 2 cents regarding some of the cards for people trying to build a sb):

I found the burn matchup pretty ok without dragon claws. I played 10 post-board matches with my burn opponent after our game and I won all but one game (where I did not draw any threat). The key to winning this matchup is to land YP and then counter and kill stuff. My sb plan was -3 Remand -1 Eletrolyze + 2 Negate +1 Dispel +1 Counterflux.

You might want more negates than dispels considering that you have a scapeshift opponent.

Izzet Staticaster is better than Electrickery imo.

Geist of Saint Traft is a good reason to splash white.

Path is an excellent card in modern and would be another good reason.

I wouldn't touch cards similar to god's willing as you don't have that many creatures or lands for it to be consistently useful. Boros Charm is great though.

And yeah of course lightning helix and all the sweet sideboard cards like wear//tear, timely reinforcements, meddling mage, celestial purge.

I went 4-1, ending up in 2nd place.

My rounds were:
2-0 vs Jund
2-0 vs Merfolk
2-0 vs R/w Burn
1-2 vs UR delver (swiftspear)
2-0 vs R/w Burn

I am convinced that snaps and DTT is better than cruise. Instant speed is a very big thing.

Thanks. I actually played cruise all the way in my uwr delver list, but I am trying out Zemanjaski's theory on DTT. I think it might be better in a list with 4 snaps.

I agree that I should increase my counterspell count. I'm already heading to the event now though so I will see how it goes.

How do the permission-light versions of Delver play out? Obviously they play more burn, but one of the draws to this deck for me is the permission element for combo matchups. Do you still have a good combo matchup by virtue of having a fast clock? The only counterspell I really like is Spell Snare, but you can't overload on that.

Speaking of counterspells, I'm not a fan of having them in the fair blue matchups. I had Spellskite in my board anyway, and was bringing it as a kind of proactive counterspell. Better than drawing Mana Leak against 10 lands in a grind, right?

I liked having white for Meddling Mage when running the Taylor Swift version to help with the combo matchups in the sb.

I'm going to a modern event today to win a Rebecca Guay playmat. Going to be running straight UR delver instead of UWR to try something new.

[deck]Creatures:12
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Young Pyromancer

Spells:29
2 Burst Lightning
2 Forked Bolt
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Lightning Bolt
1 Pillar of Flame
4 Serum Visions
1 Spell Pierce
1 Spell Snare
2 Vapor Snag
2 Mana Leak
3 Remand
1 Electrolyze
2 Dig Through Time

Lands:19
2 Arid Mesa
4 Flooded Strand
4 Island
1 Mountain
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Steam Vents
1 Sulfur Falls

Sideboard:15
1 Dispel
2 Magma Spray
2 Vandalblast
2 Combust
2 Negate
2 Blood Moon
1 Counterflux
1 Izzet Staticaster
2 Vedalken Shackles[/deck]

I'm prepared for a very open meta.

I am 100% fine with disagreeing. It's just that Valdarith's "Not sure if serious or..." came off as a little insulting considering that I have played this deck a lot and did not just throw out an idea based on theory-craft. This deck is just so dynamic and adaptive and rewards good play over running straight-up powerful cards (like jund or pod) or a straightforward engine (like storm or scapeshift). As such, there is a lot of room for manoeuvre in terms of card choice with the printing of the prowess creatures and treasure cruise. I disagree with going straight UR instead of splashing white but I'm not about to hammer it into everyone here.

As for Delver, even if you had to spend the early part of the game dropping snapcasters and cantrips and burning stuff, he's still a pretty good drop later on. I've won many games off a turn 4 or so delver when you just counter stuff and augment his damage with burn. There is a gap in creatures who are actually good in blocking flyers being played in modern atm which makes him awesome. And obviously there are the games where you go t1 delver t2 flip delver off a remand and just win. Delver is non-negotiable in this deck, just like lightning bolt and serum visions.

I'd play 4 dispel, which are also good elsewhere; but I suppose that if you ABSOLUTELY want to beat burn and only burn, then Dragon's Claw is ok.

BlackBurn likes this. Rain of Gore ftw and my topdecks are better that yours! Spellskite is more annoying imho.

I agree that Spellskite is more feasible a card to bring in vs burn, as it also single-handedly deals with Bogles and Infect, while being annoying in the mirror, vs. UWR control, and vs. BG/x decks.

Not sure if serious...

Did you play those matchups? I have played UR delver a ton before Khans and this is what happens:

Vs. Affinity: Their fliers fly over your tokens' heads and you try to race poorly with 1/1 tokens.
Vs. Pod: Orzhov Pontiff.
Vs. Merfolk: 1/1 Tokens do not race effectively against instant speed unblockable 4/4 fishes.

As much as I love YP, he's actively bad against decks that have the ability to gum up the ground. The 3 decks I have listed above don't run much spot removal, which is why I am advocating a creature that swings the life totals with every hit instead of one that generates 1/1 tokens. I won't lie and say that the seeker is great vs these decks, as I only have had the opportunity to see him in two games so more games are needed. He got abrupt decay'd vs pod in one and raced the affinity player to oblivion in another. YP on the other hand I have seen doing badly in like 50 games in these matchups and more.

Last I checked this was not MTGS where ideas get shot down without any testing done.

Not as good as a growing lifelinker, and I'm not about to remove either spells or one-drops.

I have white so I am trying 4 seeker of the way in the sb. They are also good in the pod, affinity, and merfolk (or any aggro such as zoo) matchup.

They make an easy swap with young pyromancer which is not a stellar card in those matchups.

@Khaospawn: Your point is valid. However, most of the time you will be burning a blocker anyway, so swiftspears do not make you make suboptimal plays that often. It also allows you to bluff your opponent into not blocking. There is some tension with countermagic involved though, which makes swiftspear an option only for the most aggressive variants.

@Nezeru: 4 sb slots for a single matchup well done.

Swiftspear is a godsend (no pun-relation to elspeth's swift spear) to delver decks that want to run cruise and no snaps. I played a lot of ur delver in modern and I am thoroughly impressed with how this card plays out. It is fine to run with or without, but it's unfair to outright dismiss it.

Mutagenic growth on the other hand... I'd rather play squire.

Another great sideboard and potentially main-deckable option to fight against burn and aggressive matchups like merfolk (if you are playing white) is Seeker of the Way. Card's like a swingy young pyromancer.

I've been playing a UWR variant recently and it's been pretty sweet:

[deck]Creatures:14
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Monastery Swiftspear
3 Young Pyromancer
3 Geist of Saint Traft

Spells:28
2 Burst Lightning
1 Forked Bolt
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Path to Exile
4 Serum Visions
2 Boros Charm
4 Lightning Helix
3 Treasure Cruise

Lands:18
2 Arid Mesa
4 Flooded Strand
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Sacred Foundry
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Steam Vents
1 Sulfur Falls

Sideboard:15
3 Wear // Tear
1 Celestial Purge
2 Combust
4 Meddling Mage
2 Negate
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sword of War and Peace
1 Timely Reinforcements
[/deck]

For your primer zemanjaski, it looks very thorough and I can't wait to read it. Additionally, I think it would be good to discuss the merits of playing pure UR over splashing a third color. The manabase is pretty good in modern now with the new fetchlands. Some discussion over monastery swiftspear would be great as well as it is a hotly discussed topic, but I am pretty sure you will be writing about that already.

As for everyone's list, please play one sulfur falls. It sucks to lose to Choke.

This has become my deck of choice for the PTQ as of late. I play a lot of modern and I think this is one of the better choices without being cheesy like playing Twin or Storm. I'm playing LSV's list from the mothership and it has been awesome.

Lavaman is insanely good if the people in your LGS play proper decks and not random rogue brews. He beats up most of the meta barring creature-light combo decks.