SCG Philadephia is fast approaching, and I’ve been assigned the Legacy seat. My deck selection is down to two decks—you guessed it, Storm or Delver. This isn’t a competition about which deck is better or in a better spot because I think they are both good—and that’s the thing. Both make great choices for the event. But still we must compare them.
Legacy is in a crazy spot I feel. It’s full of decks trying to interact as much as possible, Delver Variants, on one side of the fence for the format. The other side are combo decks trying to interact just enough to get their plan across, like ANT. Both of these decks are at the top of the format with Storm winning a Grand Prix a few weeks ago in the hands of Cyrus Corman-Gill and RUG Delver consistently finishing in top 8s.
Storm, by Cyrus Corman-Gill
Cyrus won GP Atlanta two weeks ago with this Storm deck. The deck generates a critical mass of spells and mana to cast nine spells in one turn, then cast Tendrils of Agony for 20. It tries to interact as little as necessary, so it relies heavily on the information from discard spells to be able to shape their gameplan.
Storm is a reasonable choice to play in Legacy right now, but the deck itself is hard to master. It isn’t something that you can pick up and play efficiently enough to dominate the Legacy seat of a team event. Going through the motions while praticing is easy enough, but you need experience to navigate through sideboard countermeasures. That said, I was coached by Caleb Scherer in the art of counting to ten a few years back, so I have seriously considering playing it.
RUG Delver, by Lawrence Harmon
| Creatures (12) 4 Delver of Secrets 4 Tarmogoyf 2 Hexdrinker 2 True-Name Nemesis Spells (29) 3 Wrenn and Six 4 Brainstorm 4 Ponder 1 Preordain 2 Spell Snare 1 Spell Pierce 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Daze 4 Force of Will 1 Force of Negation 1 Dismember | Lands (19) 1 Fiery Islet 3 Volcanic Island 3 Tropical Island 4 Wasteland 2 Scalding Tarn 2 Misty Rainforest 2 Polluted Delta 2 Flooded Strand Sideboard (15) 1 Hydroblast 1 Pyroblast 1 Red Elemental Blast 1 Sylvan Library 1 Flusterstorm 1 Return to Nature 1 Grafdigger's Cage 2 Surgical Extraction 2 Vapor Snag 1 Submerge 1 Magmatic Sinkhole 1 Ancient Grudge 1 Force of Negation |
When I need the latest hot Delver decklist, I go to my good friend Lawrence. He is a Legacy aficionado and trustworthy with any 75 he hands me. So when I was saying the other half of Legacy is full of interaction, this is the type of deck I was talking about. A bunch of cantrips, permission spells, and a handful of threats to win the game.
Delver of Secrets decks match an archetype I am familiar with and have enjoyed playing since the day it was printed into Standard. RUG Delver is typically good against combo decks with all the cheap/free permission spells backed up by an early threat. The big challenge is to find the right mix of spells and the correct threats. The current debate involves Hexdrinker and Dreadhorde Arcanist.
Which Did I Pick?
I ended up going with old faithful in RUG Delver. It is the deck I felt the most comfortable playing and giving my team the best odds to win. I can play through the answers better with Delver than I can with any other deck, and it comes almost second nature to me. But I wouldn’t fault anyone on choosing Storm over Rug if they were given the choice.
Are you going to Philly? Which format and deck are you on?
Zack is a SCG grinder with one ultimate goal: getting to the Players Championship. Based out of NYC, you can find him in other cities every weekend trying to hit that goal. When he isn’t traveling he streams. Follow his journey on Twitter!