Like many others I noticed Todd Anderson's recent success in Magic Online events with U/G Delver and it forced me to reconsider that the deck might be real. Since then I've heard a lot of people casually mention that the deck is very good and a few people most notably Lucas Siow and Chris Davis made some compelling points for the deck at Gen Con. I used to dismiss the deck entirely when people asked about it because I didn't believe the mana could work but I think that if you restrict your green cards to a single creature type and no spells it's not really that bad since Cavern of Souls is very good here.
I have no experience with the deck but I want to try it out so I'm going to record my first matches with the deck. Ordinarily I try to play a few games in two-player queues with the decks I build to get a feel for them before taking them to a Daily Event to record but here I want to capture my first experience with the deck and follow through my thoughts on initial changes.
As you've probably noticed I'm also trying something new here with a combination of written word and video. I'm trying to do as much analysis as I can in text and keep the video to game play with written analysis between my matches. Let me know how well you think this format works in the comments.
For my first match I'll be playing:
Creatures (18)
- 4 Augur of Bolas
- 4 Delver of Secrets
- 1 Phantasmal Image
- 4 Quirion Dryad
- 4 Snapcaster Mage
- 1 Talrand, Sky Summoner
Lands (18)
Spells (24)
- 1 Phantasmal Image
- 2 Crippling Chill
- 1 Dismember
- 1 Gut Shot
- 2 Mana Leak
- 2 Mental Misstep
- 2 Negate
- 2 Steel Sabotage
- 2 Talrand, Sky Summoner
Sideboard
I think I must have played that last game too conservatively. I'm not sure if I should have just countered his removal spells to make him use the Slagstorm early so that he couldn't force it through on three guys once he hit five mana but that probably would have been better. It's still early to make major changes but I think I'd rather have one Thought Scour than the fourth Twisted Image.
There are definitely places where Twisted Image is pretty bad and there's a lot of value to the first Thought Scour in filling your graveyard while there are diminishing returns once your Snapcaster already has a healthy variety of options. Also that match was certainly a data point in favor of Mutagenic Growth which would be great at keeping Talrand through Slagstorm.
Creatures (18)
- 4 Augur of Bolas
- 4 Delver of Secrets
- 1 Phantasmal Image
- 4 Quirion Dryad
- 4 Snapcaster Mage
- 1 Talrand, Sky Summoner
Lands (18)
Spells (24)
- 1 Dismember
- 3 Gut Shot
- 2 Mana Leak
- 2 Mental Misstep
- 1 Thought Scour
- 3 Twisted Image
- 4 Vapor Snag
- 4 Gitaxian Probe
- 4 Ponder
- 1 Phantasmal Image
- 2 Crippling Chill
- 1 Dismember
- 1 Gut Shot
- 2 Mana Leak
- 2 Mental Misstep
- 2 Negate
- 2 Steel Sabotage
- 2 Talrand, Sky Summoner
Sideboard
My deck for the second match has just that one change.
The deck mostly played pretty well here with Twisted Image again being more awkward than beneficial I think. Saving the Snapcaster against the token made a small case for it but it didn't matter at that point in the game and not being able to cycle early is pretty bad.
If I were to play a real tournament for my next match I'd probably err toward Thought Scour but I think I learn more by playing with Twisted Image. Also Twisted Image + Augur of Bolas is a relevant mini-combo. If I cut Twisted Image I might also consider cutting Augurs for two Talrand a Phantasmal Image and a Forest.
I'm going to try another match with the same list though.
That was a pretty bad version of a deck that's not played much anymore piloted by a player who made some loose plays (like not playing the second Memnite before playing the Glint Hawk). Not having the stop set for his Dispatch I made it look a little close in the second game by clicking through my chance to counter his Glint Hawk. Not a lot to take away there but Talrand continues to look pretty sweet so I could certainly see moving in that direction in the maindeck.
I made some really horrendous misplays in that match particularly Cavern on Wizard instead of Dryad and not using Mental Misstep again.
For the most part I feel like the deck played pretty well. It's nothing especially innovative (on my part—I think Todd's done some good work recently in building the deck) but I think having someone other than a deck's creator take a look at a deck can really help people realize that it's a serious player which I think this deck likely is.
The list I played was based on the deck with which Chris Davis made Top 8 at the FNM Championship. I see Augur and a lower land count as being consistent with not playing Forests and therefore not sideboarding Thragtusk. Talrand has been impressive and Thragtusk is a very powerful card so there's a good chance that it's worth playing the extra land to support more fours main and the fives in the sideboard. But it seemed worth highlighting an internally consistent alternative and continuing to explore to see if Augur of Bolas can have a real place in any Delver deck. While I feel like Augur performed admirably a few times I think the other cards are more powerful enough that it's probably better to go with the nineteen-land approach currently championed by Todd and Lucas Siow.
Finally I'm interested in feedback on how people feel about this approach to Magic Online videos. In the past I've done videos talking about the deck I'm going to play and then playing it in a Daily Event submitting them with a decklist as the only text. This format of text with two-player queues in the middle allows me to change my list between rounds and discuss what's going on at more points. But in exchange there's a risk that I play against slightly less competitive opponents if for no reason other than I can't get deeper in a tournament with wins and get paired against other players with wins. Instead every round is like round 1.
So what do you think? Would you like more videos like this or more Daily Events?
Thanks for watching
Sam
@samuelhblack on Twitter
About Sam Black
Sam Black was a member of Team USA 2008, taking home the Team World Championship crown in Memphis. He also placed in the Top 8 of GP Barcelona and GP Singapore 2009, GP Gothenburg 2010, GP Atlanta 2012, and GP Yokohama in 2013 and made Top 4 of PT Phildalphia 2011.