Blue-Red Delver was one of the powerhouses of modern during the Treasure Cruise era, and has gone down a lot post bans. However, the deck can still function without sorcery speed Ancestral Recall. The Delver plan is simple: Play an early threat such as the namesake Delver of Secrets
or Young Pyromancer and close the game with it. The deck can be split into 3 major catagories: Threats, Card Draw, and Protection
THREATS:This one is probably the easiest to identify: Basically all of the creatures are capable of closing out the game quickly enough on their own. Delver of Secrets
, the one mana 3/2 flier, is probably the best thing to have turn one. Thing in the Ice
may not be the most aggressive of creatures, but it provides a decent blocker early game and absolutely annihilates once it flips. Finally, Young Pyromancer is excellent, but slightly expensive. By going wide, it can easily play defense as easily as offense. Getting one of these to stick is almost game over.
PROTECTION:If you noticed the very small density of creatures, you probably also noticed the crazy amounts of spells. These spells synergize with our threats, but also keep them alive so they can continue the beats. Red gives us some good removal in the form of Forked Bolt, Electrolyze, and the classic Lightning Bolt. While blue does not have any real removal, it gives us one of the best things in the game: Permission spells. Mana Leak and Remand are cheap counterspells that can stop opposing removal or prevent our opponents from developing a defense on their side. Also, blue gives us Vapor Snag, the signature tempo card. One Dismember in the maindeck tops off the spells that protect our threats.
CARD DRAW:While most of the creatures in the deck are listed under threats, the last one, Bedlam Reveler, can certainly apply pressure. The reason I did not list it under threats is because it is our main source of reload. With the plethora of cheap spells that will be dumped to try and close out the game, discarding our hand isn't really relevant, while the draw three is. In order to get Bedlam Reveler out quicker, cantrips such as Serum Visions and the new Opt get cards in our graveyard as well as give us selection to find what we need.
MANA BASE AND SIDEBOARD:The mana base omits fetches and shocks mainly because of budget, but they can easily be thrown in to smooth out or colors. The only interesting here are the 3 of Field of Ruin. If your opponent doesn't know you run them, they might end up playing around Blood Moon post-board and end up with dead Nature's Claim in their hands.The Sideboard is built with the November 2017 Metagame in mind. To begin, we have the obligatory graveyard hate cards, in this case a 2 of Relic of Progenitus. These are very multipurpose, stopping decks from Dredge all the way to Storm. Next, By Force take up our artifact hate slots. By Force is better than Shattering Spree because of our primarily blue mana base, and getting X-for-ones is really good for our deck. Next, there is tech against the popular 5-Color Humans deck in the copy of Anger of the Gods and, to a lesser extent, the flexible Izzet Staticaster. Storm is another popular deck choice, making Dispel and Izzet Staticaster(For Empty the Warrens) great sideboard choices. Molten Rain and Crumble to Dust are in place over Blood Moon, as said by Peter Viernen, about his brother's top 3 finish with a U/R Pyromancer deck. Blood Moon is often played around and if it gets removed, it opens the gates for decks like Tron to run all over you. Finally, Roast is a great card to board in as it cleanly deals with Tasigur, the Golden Fang or
Hollow One
.
