Welcome back to Delver Standard everyone who wanted Insectile Aberration to be banned! Wizards didn't ban Delver of Secrets or Island so we have the perfect chance to prove that we are really able to fight the menace.
Above all do you really want to beat only Delver? My latest check of Magic Online Daily Event 3-1 and 4-0 decks revealed that Delvers filled not more than a quarter and even if we count U/W/x Midrange it doesn't quite become one-third. If you go deep into a tournament you'll see more Delver decks but a one-third ratio seems to be what you should expect for rounds 4 and 5 of the upcoming SCG Standard Open in Seattle. If you're looking for a title are you confident that you'll be able to win enough first games with a deck virtually sideboarded for the wrong matchup?
Navigating through Daily Events I was surprised not only by the significant amount on RUG Pod decks (look at Michael Hetrick's deck from the finals of the SCG Invitational) but also by significant presence of B/W Tokens which is actually the most popular deck featuring Lingering Souls (overtaking Solar Flare). Tokens didn't change much with AVR but it adopted Angel of Jubilation instead of Hero of Bladehold.
Aside from these small forces the three major "super archetypes" are U/W(/b) R/G(/w) and Zombies (of various colors). The first one includes Delver of Secrets and Esper Midrange the second one is a large variety of aggressive green decks and the last one is three equally played versions of Zombies. I dislike Delver as usual and have nothing to say about Geralf's Messenger so I'm concentrating on R/G/x and its ways to beat Delver.
The two unquestionably best creatures available to R/G/x are Huntmaster of the Fells and Restoration Angel which are great against nearly any deck I can imagine. Any other creature is good in one matchup and bad in the other. Thrun the Last Troll may be somewhat close to the first pair but Cavern of Souls has pushed other creatures to nearly his level. With Thrun's high survivability it's very easy to be stuck with additional copies in your hand. So nonwhite R/G usually has one or two copies while Naya's fourth slot is already overloaded with Huntmaster and Angel.
Hero of Bladehold and Wolfir Silverheart are good in creature matches and against Wolf Run Ramp (since they survive Slagstorm) but are sideboarded out against Delver because of their weakness to Vapor Snag. The same is true for the otherwise very strong Hound of Griselbrand. You can read about an unconventional G/R Pod deck with Hound in Dan Unwin's recent article. Dan has four Hounds and only one Huntmaster in his maindeck. Is he saying that Huntmaster of the Fells is not a necessary creature? Unfortunately not: Dan has three more mythic Werewolves in his sideboard—unsurprisingly for the Delver matchup.
More members of the category "victims of Vapor Snag" are Hellrider and Hero of Oxid Ridge. They are still weak against Vapor Snag but both have haste and can connect far faster to an opponent than say Hero of Bladehold. An additional weakness is low toughness which makes them both unimpressive against Blade Splicer and Restoration Angel. Red Hero is still viable against Lingering Souls and Timely Reinforcements but it's more about Solar Flare matchup.
In the opposite corner of the ring we see Geist-Honored Monk and her Lingering Souls. These cards are very good against Insectile Aberration and very bad against Bonfire of the Damned and Slagstorm. So when you have three Monks in your maindeck you're saying "I'm okay with starting 0-1 against other G/R/x decks."
Thundermaw Hellkite: this card makes me excited. I'm not a Dragon collector but I definitely enjoy Constructed playable Dragons. Having a tough flyer in this format is extremely relevant especially with Blade Splicers all around. Moreover Dragon kills Angel in combat and is just insane against Lingering Souls and flying blockers with Sword of War and Peace. Thundermaw Hellkite definitely has Fists of Demigod so be ready to pack four Cavern of Souls to be able to play one naming "Dragons."
As I started to look at M13 spoilers another new card to consider is Yeva Nature's Herald. Her ability and converted mana cost are the same as…right as Restoration Angel's ones but Yeva is more likely just a bigger Wolfir Silverheart. The power of Angel is in her ability to change battlefield by flickering other creatures while Wolfir and Yeva are just on their own as good combat tricks during the turn they are played (I'm not counting the situation when you have nine mana and cast a flashy Wolfir Silverheart after Yeva). Moreover there is a Shimmer Myr who didn't see much play last two years.
Yeva would be still good in a mono-green deck—doing the same role Wolfir Silverheart does now—protecting better threats from countermagic. The difference is that Yeva is far more dangerous on her own. I'm not sure if it will be enough for any multicolored decks because Naya Aggro already has a great selection of three- and four-mana creatures and G/R Aggro will better have new Dragon as additional heavy creature.
Let's look at kbr3's PTQ-winning deck from Magic Online.
Creatures (24)
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 4 Borderland Ranger
- 4 Huntmaster of the Fells
- 4 Llanowar Elves
- 4 Strangleroot Geist
- 3 Wolfir Silverheart
- 1 Thrun, the Last Troll
Lands (24)
Spells (12)
This deck's sideboard plan against Delver is the following:
-3 Wolfir Silverheart
-2 Sword of Feast and Famine
-2 Sword of War and Peace
+2 Combust
+2 Crushing Vines
+2 Thrun the Last Troll
+1 Ancient Grudge
Kbr3 won a 226-person event sideboarding seven cards against Delver—not because he had better options but just because his maindeck cards are bad against Delver. But I'm sure he was happy to have three Wolfir Silverhearts against Naya Pod in the finals and in any other match where he was able to punish an opponent with giant creatures for every mistake or inaccurate play. It's impossible to pack Combust and Crushing Vines maindeck so there is no reason to pack a load of anti-Delver cards and then have to exchange good ones for even better ones: this is not how wise sideboarding works.
Creatures (33)
- 4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 4 Blade Splicer
- 4 Borderland Ranger
- 3 Geist-Honored Monk
- 4 Huntmaster of the Fells
- 4 Restoration Angel
- 3 Strangleroot Geist
- 3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
Lands (23)
Spells (4)
Spells which are sided in against Delver are clear:
1 Ancient Grudge
2 Combust
1 Crushing Vines
1 Plummet
So we want to side in five cards but what do we side out? There are four unimpressive Blade Splicers but I definitely have no idea about the fifth card. Regardless of that I definitely dislike that Martin's deck has a total lack of the answers to preboard Wolfir Silverheart or the occasional Elesh Norn Grand Cenobite. To solve this problem he has seven cards against creature matches including three Zealous Conscripts. Aiming to beat Delver is very understandable but I'd rather be better against two-thirds of the field preboard.
Speaking about preboard threats turn 3 Hero of Bladehold is surprisingly super-efficient against G/R/x decks and is often very hard to deal with; nevertheless Martin proposed both a question and answer: the best way to deal with opposing Hero is to steal her. So now when the lack of Birthing Pod in this deck is revealed and opponents are unlikely to pack their artifact hate I'd better have one or two Heroes in the maindeck of Naya especially in a deck with some actual Birthing Pods (like Brian Kibler's deck with two Pods and a small toolbox).
I have always disliked dedicated Birthing Pod decks because they are often clunky if they don't have the namesake artifact in play and this scenario is very possible assuming that everyone has artifact hate in the sideboard in the current metagame. But when we're speaking about an otherwise strong aggressive deck which uses Pod as a better Green Sun's Zenith and a way to utilize mana dorks in the late game (one of the most annoying problems of the deck) I'm totally sold.
Birthing Pod also allows us to have a variety of threats not concentrating on just "beating Delver" or "beating the rest of the field" so it's very likely that I'll play this sort of Naya at the upcoming PTQ and WMCQ (I have a good weekend coming up!).
Creatures (32)
- 4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 4 Blade Splicer
- 3 Borderland Ranger
- 1 Hound of Griselbrand
- 4 Huntmaster of the Fells
- 1 Nearheath Pilgrim
- 4 Restoration Angel
- 2 Strangleroot Geist
- 2 Wolfir Silverheart
- 1 Zealous Conscripts
- 2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
Lands (23)
Spells (5)
Nearheath Pilgrim is courtesy of fellow writer Brian Kibler and a great substitute to Timely Reinforcements when found with Birthing Pod in matches where we're acting in the control role or just want to win the damage race. Brian also stated that he prefers maindeck Dismember to Bonfire of the Damned in order to be able to deal with opposing Restoration Angels but I definitely want to be able to clean the board from blockers because it's hard to imagine an Angel deck against which I'll want to play defensively especially when many Naya decks play Geist-Honored Monk instead of Wolfir Silverheart. And I still have the great Combust postboard!
Hound of Griselbrand is a kind of experiment and a tribute to crazy interactions like "sacrifice Hound find Wolfir Silverheart and pair." Other parts of the deck are designed to be sure that the deck is good in any matchup not only against Delver of Secrets while the large pack of cards in the sideboard is intended to keep nasty Insect in check. Having access to all best creatures is sooo good!
But wait did I say "All best creatures"? We all know that the best creature in Standard is blue (and costs two mana) so it's time for the bonus section.
Bonus Section: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
A significant part of Restoration Angel's greatness is her interaction with Blade Splicer and Snapcaster Mage. Naya decks can't use the second one while U/W Midrange can't play Huntmaster of the Fells. But what… Yes the second craziest idea after splashing Delver for Bonfire of the Damned (this thing actually happened at GP Manila and at the SCG Invitational) actually works. I've seen the deck for some time on Magic Online. It was never popular but it has existed for nearly a month and could produce consistently good results in the hands of few experienced pilots. So ladies and gentlemen The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen!
Creatures (15)
Lands (23)
Spells (22)
The creatures are just great the spells are even better the mana is… Oh it's really tricky but they who are really extraordinary won't have a problem with finding some lands. Just be strong and crush your opponents with a bunch of super-efficient uncounterable threats (because it's impossible to cast them without Cavern of Souls)!
That's all I have for today. Good luck to everyone playing this weekend and wish me a good luck at my PTQ and WMCQ!
About Valeriy Shunkov
Valeriy Shunkov is a 26 year-old research engineer from Moscow, Russia. Since starting out with Shards of Alara, he's used Magic to "play the game, see the world." He is the winner of the SCG Talent Search and has a new article every Monday.