Alright so I've toyed with this deck in the past. When last I made the venture in combining Tarmogoyf with Delver of Secrets
our not-so-long-lost friend Gitaxian Probe was legal in Modern.
Seeing as now probe is not legal the argument can easily be made that the idea of a graveyard fueled tempo deck is strictly worse. Well you're right, the deck got worse with the banning of Gitaxian Probe and now finds itself in an awkward spot. However the meta comes in to save the day.
With Death's shadow playing by the rules everyone else is and needing to often wait until turn 4 before it can present a lethal attack Delver strategies have a new place. Cards like Fatal Push and Abrupt Decay are all over the place trying to deal with Death's Shadow. While these removal spells work just as well against this deck we have counter-magic and reach that allow this deck to fill a strange niche in the meta some decks simply aren't ready for
Matchups
The deck above won't auto-win you a GP, and this isn't going to crack the meta wide open. I'd say this deck is tier 2 at it's best. However with solid play and the right meta the buddy cop Delver of Secrets
and Tarmogoyf can take it down. I'll explain some of the matchups I find noteworthy in my playtesting. If I don't mention it I either didn't think of it or haven't tested it enough to come to a conclusion
Merfolk feels like an auto-loss. I personally have always struggled with beating merfolk so it may just be my kryptonite, but it feels like an especially bad matchup for this deck.
Tron is very dependent on the die roll. Many games simply come down to who went first. It is common enough to be able to fight through a turn 3 Karn Liberated, or Wurmcoil Engine, but not if you're on the draw. And a turn 4 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon is typically just game-over
Jund/Abzan/GB midrange is the kind of game you'll hate playing. They take a long time to end, and you almost always lose. Jund is the worst of them because of Lightning Bolt and Kolaghan's Command but the other midrange strategies are where I found the most trouble.
Burn is about 55-45 in your favor. Sometimes the deck just hands the burn player the win, and sometimes your deck just gives you all the counter-magic at all the right times, but more often than not a well placed Stubborn Denial throws them off enough to bash in with Tarmogoyfs just before a loss.
Bant Eldrazi is falling out of the general meta, but there's at least one person at my local shop who played it a whole bunch when I started playtesting. If they just go off there's nothing you can really do about it. A turn 2 Thought-Knot Seer is pretty impossible for just about every deck to beat, but if you can land a 5/6 tarmogoyf they often struggle to win without comboing with Eldrazi Displacer and
Drowner of Hope
Affinity is almost a free win. Plenty of removal with botls, and snapcasters. Huge tarmogoyfs consistently, and post board some of the most efficient artifact destruction will keep them off a match win. Games are typically lost to Etched Champion or Master of Etherium but Vapor Snag and Hooting Mandrills help get you there.
Abzan Company is a rough one. Stubborn Denial is your best card in this matchup and it should be threatened as often as possible. You'll get someone not expecting it once really good and earn a free win, but afterward they will either try to coax it out with off-timed Chord of Calling or, the better case, they will get gunshy and may wait a turn before trying to cast a Collected Company
I have not tested against Death's shadow enough to come to a conclusion, but from the very small amount of experience I would definitely lean on Vapor Snag and the Lightning Bolt Snapcaster Mage team to try to close out a game.
