It’s been no secret, almost since the day it rolled off the printers, that Delver of Secrets is one of the best creatures in Legacy. It’s also accepted as consensus that RUG, UWR, and BUG are the three tier one Delver archetypes, with UR as the (blue and) red-headed stepchild that can sometimes put up a result. Lately, Grixis and even BURG have been emerging as viable Delver strategies, as well. This got me wondering why can’t we have a look at some of the other color combinations, notably Esper and Bant, to determine if they can support the flying Nacatl. In truly evil fashion, as if Legacy needed more Delver decks, I’ve decided to attempt to brew some other variations of this hated archetype. All we have to do is follow this basic plan, and it seems like we can’t go wrong! Also, how sweet is that alter? Fuck yeah, Itchy and Scratchy!
Basic Delver Shell
| (27) 4 Delver of Secrets 4 Brainstorm 4 Daze 4 Force of Will 4 Ponder 3 Spell Pierce 4 Wasteland |
(fourth Pierce is optional)
Fill it out with between six and seven blue duals, and enough fetches to put the land count between eighteen and twenty. Add whatever the best creatures within three mana (preferrably two) in the colors you’re playing to bring your total between ten and fourteen. Then, fill the rest out with the appropriate spells (typically removal, direct damage, burn) in your colors. Seems pretty simple, right?
Here’s my stab at Esper, the shard that initially put this question into my head. It just seemed odd to me that a card like Lingering Souls doesn’t see more play. It is basically a creature that flips Delver, carries equipment well, chumps well, and gives you resilience to sweepers. Seriously, why doesn’t it see more play?
Esper Delver
| Creatures (10) 4 Delver of Secrets 4 Stoneforge Mystic 2 True Name Nemesis Spells (30) 1 Batterskull 1 Umezawa’s Jitte 4 Brainstorm 4 Daze 4 Force of Will 3 Spell Pierce 4 Swords to Plowshares 2 Lingering Souls 4 Ponder 3 Thoughtseize | Lands (20) 3 Marsh Flats 3 Misty Rainforest 3 Scalding Tarn 4 Tundra 3 Underground Sea 4 Wasteland Sideboard (15) 2 Bitterblossom 1 Duress 4 Meddling Mage 1 Rest in Peace 1 Submerge 2 Surgical Extraction 1 Sword of Fire and Ice 1 True-Name Nemesis 1 Vindicate 1 Zealous Persecution |
My first stab at this list included Bob, but that’s probably not the greatest idea when we’re playing with so many three and five-drops. You’re probably looking at this and rolling your eyes while saying, “Tim, you just took UWR Delver, and cut the Bolts and a flex-slot card for two Lingering Souls and three Thoughtseize.” Well, yeah, you don’t need to mess too much with a good thing. Much of the deck is already covered by the shell that I referenced before the Esper list. We don’t need to really reinvent the wheel here! An interaction in the sideboard that I really like is all of those Meddling Mages paired with all of our discard. In UWR, depending on your exact build, you might be familiar with probing them before deciding what to name with Pikula. Now, we get to first pluck a removal spell (or just a key combo piece; depends on the matchup, obviously) that would’ve taken out our Mage before locking out another spell. I intend to try this list out on my stream at some point soon—not in a daily, mind you, but a two-man—so keep your eyes peeled.
I don’t think I’ll be testing the next list on the stream anytime soon, not due to lack of faith in the list, but due to lack of owning ‘goyfs on MODO.. unlike Tywin Lannister, I do not shit gold. That said, you may have deduced that the next shard we’re visiting is Bant, since the other UGx Delver archetypes are already well-established. Bant Delver has seen a bit of play in both Modern and Standard (when Delver was Standard-legal, of course), but I’ve never seen an attempt at the list in Legacy. The best starting point would probably be to jam a set of ‘goyfs into UWR Delver, in place of the Bolts. Of course, this might make our instant/sorcery count a bit light, given that we’re also playing equipment to support Stoneforge. What if we also cut the True-Names, so that our curve (effectively) stops at two? Then we can also afford to cut a land, since we have a slightly lower curve than UWR. I wouldn’t go down to eighteen, because we’re still a bit higher than RUG (Stoneforge instead of ‘goose), but nineteen seems like a reasonable land-count. Let’s try fleshing something out.
Bant Delver
| Creatures (12) 4 Delver of Secrets 4 Stoneforge Mystic 4 Tarmogoyf Spells (29) 1 Batterskull 1 Sword of Fire and Ice 4 Brainstorm 4 Daze 4 Force of Will 3 Spell Pierce 1 Spell Snare 4 Swords to Plowshares 3 Gitaxian Probe 4 Ponder | Lands (19) 3 Polluted Delta 2 Scalding Tarn 3 Tropical Island 4 Tundra 4 Wasteland 3 Windswept Heath Sideboard (15) 1 Detention Sphere 1 Disenchant 1 Flusterstorm 1 Krosan Grip 4 Meddling Mage 1 Submerge 2 Surgical Extraction 1 Sylvan Library 1 True-Name Nemesis 1 Umezawa’s Jitte 1 Vendilion Clique |
At first, I decided that since we’re going a little lower on the curve, Stifle might be appropriate, since we’re trying to keep the game “small.” However, my desire for more sorceries won out, particularly since we don’t have access to those random one-of red sorceries like Forked Bolt and/or Chain Lightning. Having played a bit of Tarmo-Twin in Modern, I found that consistently having your ‘gofy outside of Bolt range on turn two is nice. Another minor tweak was switching the position of Jitte and Sword, between the main and the board, and the reason for that is so that our ‘goyfs don’t get brick-walled by an opposing True-Name Nemesis. I think the Bant list might be the weakest combination of three-colors use in your Delver deck, because you lack the reach/removal of Bolt as well as the disruption provided by black discard spells. Each of the successful Delver archetypes have access to at least one of these elements.
Evil Tim wants you to watch his stream! Check out twitch.tv/efil4zaknupome during the 11pm EST Legacy Daily, and sometimes, the 7pm Modern Daily.