Gerry Thompson's been playing a U/B Delver deck with Death's Shadow recently and it's fundamentally trying to do some of the same things my Baleful Strix deck was trying to do but using very different cards to do it. Gerry is trying to resolve and protect a Dark Confidant with Daze and Hymn to Tourach to help it stick around. I'd prefer to get my card advantage up front rather than relying on my creature staying alive so I rather play Snapcaster Mage and Baleful Strix. I also haven't been impressed by Hymn to Tourach recently but it might be better in this kind of deck than other places I've played it.

My take on a hybrid is:

U/B Death's Shadow

Sam Black

0th Place at Test deck on 9/23/2012

Legacy

 

Creatures (16)

• 4 Baleful Strix
• 4 Death's Shadow
• 4 Delver of Secrets
• 4 Snapcaster Mage

Planeswalkers (1)

• 1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Lands (18)

• 1 Island
• 1 Swamp
• 2 Flooded Strand
• 2 Misty Rainforest
• 4 Polluted Delta
• 4 Underground Sea
• 1 Verdant Catacombs
• 2 Wasteland
• 1 Watery Grave

Spells (25)

• 4 Brainstorm
• 2 Daze
• 1 Diabolic Edict
• 2 Dismember
• 4 Force of Will
• 1 Snuff Out
• 1 Spell Pierce
• 1 Umezawa's Jitte
• 4 Gitaxian Probe
• 1 Reanimate
• 4 Thoughtseize

Sideboard

• 1 Engineered Explosives
• 1 Dread of Night
• 1 Engineered Plague
• 1 Counterspell
• 1 Dismember
• 2 Gut Shot
• 1 Surgical Extraction
• 1 Jace Beleren
• 1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
• 1 Cabal Therapy
• 2 Hymn to Tourach
• 2 Inquisition of Kozilek

 

Jace Beleren is my long-term card advantage to make up for not having Dark Confidant. I'm not sure if one is enough but a singleton can be pretty easy to find in Legacy.

Tim doesn't seem to be of the school of thought that Force of Will should be sided out whenever your opponent isn't playing combo if possible but this might be a product of feeling like he has to protect Dark Confidant.

Thanks to Gitaxian Probe Snapcaster Mage doesn't need a lot more mana than Dark Confidant but between that and having fewer Dazes it's possible that I don't need Wasteland as much. I think I'd like a second Watery Grave so for now I'm going to cut a Wasteland for that. The fact that I'm not playing Hymn to Tourach also means that Wasteland is less likely to be part of my stealing free wins.

There's a good chance that having Snapcaster Mage and Baleful Strix instead of Dark Confidant really hurts me in that matchup. While Dark Confidant isn't too hard for them to kill the card I get off my two-drops isn't enough to help me in a long game whereas Dark Confidant can actually steal games.

This could lead one to wonder where it is better and why I'm bothering to make this change. I think it's better in matchups that are more about incremental advantages so basically those matchups where spells line up more evenly which is to say mostly other Delver decks.

I can't imagine why he'd concede there. I guess having his Elves killed must have been more frustrating than I thought. If I'd been streaming I'd think my opponent must have been watching because I would never concede there without knowing my hand. It's possible that I shouldn't side out all of my Death's Shadows there because I just want a big blocker to stop his backup plan of just attacking me.

My opponent's draws there were pretty bad and Wastelanding me when he had Batterskull didn't make any sense but at least I got to make Reanimate look sweet after siding it out so many times.

Overall I like where this deck is at more than the earlier build of U/B Delver. I like that Death's Shadow gives you a creature that can live through something like Darkblast and it's a little less grindy. Throwing away life always feels wrong but it's also kind of fun. I wonder if the deck wants an Underground River to let you choose to pay every turn.

Thanks for watching

Sam

@samuelhblackon Twitter

twitch.tv/samuelhblack