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Traverse the Delirium

Modern BUG (Sultai) Control Goodstuff Midrange Tempo

MythicMeadow

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Land (21)

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Instant (6)

Sorcery (11)

Planeswalker (2)

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Traverse the Delirium

A Deck Based on the Delirium Ability

  • This deck is based on the Delirium ability introduced in the expansion Shadows over Innistrad. This means that when our graveyard has four or more card types (such as creature, enchantment, artifact etc.) the Delirium ability will be active.

  • I primarily play this deck in a casual playgroup, and often in a free-for-all with three to five players. I will not invest in some of the more expensive cards that often see play in a sultai deck (e.g., Tarmogoyf or Liliana of the Veil).

  • Generally this deck aims at triggering delirium as early as possible in order to utilize Traverse the Ulvenwald, Grim Flayer and Ishkanah, Grafwidow. This can be achieved in several ways, even at turn one. Cards such as Polluted Delta, Mishra's Bauble, Walking Ballista, Search for Azcanta  , Jace, Vryn's Prodigy  , Grim Flayer and Liliana, the Last Hope can all be cast in the first few turns and is the main way of activating Delirium. By also casting our instant and sorcery disruption cards we can get a delirium activation rather early in the game while also removing some of our opponents threats.

  • The biggest goals with the deck was to convert the Delirium deck I made, while it was available in standard, into the modern format. At the same time the budget for the deck will not be able to accomodate for the highy expensive cards often played in modern. This may or may not make the deck semi-optimal. I have included some card alternatives below for those interested in what other cards we could play.

General Strategy

  • The deck is focused on making sure we can cast Traverse the Ulvenwald while it's Delirium ability is active. This way we can tutor for the creature, or land, we need at the moment. This makes the deck more toolbox oriented and is the reason why many creatures are only included as a one-of. When Delirum is active we can get the right creature against the deck our opponent is playing. But because Delirium requires that we play different card types we can not play a creature heavy deck. Instead we have to distribute our cards between the different card types. This is done by using cheap and powerful discard and removal.

Early Game

  • At turn one we want to cast Inquisition of Kozilek/Thoughtseize and Mishra's Bauble, targeting our opponent. We can then make them discard their early threat while also keeping track on what our opponent has in hand. We are now halfway into getting Delirium active. If we instead draw Thought Scour and/or Walking Ballista we can cast those. The ballista can be cast for and counts as both a creature and an artifact. With any luck the Thought Scour will mill us another card type and we now have Delirium.
  • Turn two we want to cast either Grim Flayer, Search for Azcanta   or Jace, Vryn's Prodigy  . All of these either helps us in activating Delirium or gets more powerful with all the cards in our graveyard. We can even cast Collective Brutality and discard the cards missing in our graveyard in order to activate Delirium.

Mid Game

Late Game

  • Turn 6+ we generally want to have almost killed our opponent with our 4/4 Grim Flayer and keep removing their big threats with the decks removal.

Contingency plan

  • If our creatures are destroyed we have ways to get them back to our hand. Instead the big problems this deck face is graveyard removal. These cards we want to be prepared for and remove by either making our opponents discard them, destroy them or sideboarding in a few cards against these strategies.

Creatures

  • Walking Ballista - This card has multiple uses. It can be cast for and get us both an artifact and a creature in our graveyard. It can also be played early, mid or late game and act as a removal, blocker, attacker or as a way to get some extra damage in. We can even dump some mana into the card when it is already on the battlefield to get more value out of it. Because of it's many uses we can replace a few of our Mishra's Bauble for more of these ballistas if we want.
  • Grim Flayer - By being a potential 4/4, card filtering, Delirium enabler with trample for only , this makes the card one of the best cards in the deck. It's ability to filter our draws makes it work great with our many other graveyard dependent cards.
  • Jace, Vryn's Prodigy   - On the front side he helps us by both drawing us cards and then we can put what card we want in our graveyard, to later on be used by it's back side or another of our graveyard dependent cards. We can either transform him on our turn or use him as a blocker and transform him before damage is dealt. When he transforms into Jace, Telepath Unbound we want to use his -3 ability as much as we can. It is not worth trying to activate his -9, we often only want the card advantage. We mainly want to cast him when we can ensure his survival, this means that we often won't cast him turn 2.
  • Scavenging Ooze - A 2/2 for that we can grow and at the same time remove important cards from our opponents graveyard. Whether we face a creature heavy deck or a control deck, this card will perform great. If our opponent have an empty graveyard we can even exile creatures from our own if we need a stronger creature or the lifegain. Be careful to not remove too many creatures from our own graveyard, because we could lose Delirium.
  • Courser of Kruphix - By being a 2/4 for that generates us life from land drops, and also helps us make those land drops, this card works great against aggressive decks in general. It is also both an enchantment and a creature, which helps us enable Delirium.
  • Eternal Witness - Lets us return any card from our graveyard to our hand for and can then act as an attacker or blocker. It can help us make an otherwise missed land drop or let us cast Traverse the Ulvenwald one more time.
  • Tireless Tracker - Clues are a great way to draw cards. The tracker will then grow stronger for each clue we sacrifice and will generate more clues for each land drop we make. By playing fetch lands we will get two clues and with a Courser of Kruphix we can overwhelm our opponent in card advantage.
  • Hostage Taker - A tutorable removal with Traverse the Ulvenwald that allows us to cast the artifact or creature we removed. If we can cast the removed card before Hostage Taker dies we can generate alot of value.
  • Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet - This card has both lifelink, which we surely need, and will fill our board with 2/2 zombies. He also has an ability that will make him stronger by sacrificing another zombie. Because he exiles our opponents creatures he does not work that well with The Scarab God, but at the same time he synergises with The Scarab God because they both make zombies and has effects that utilizes zombies.
  • Ishkanah, Grafwidow - When we cast this on turn five we should have Delirium active. The spider will then work as a green Lingering Souls and give us 6 power and 11 toughness for only . If Ishkanah, Grafwidow would die we can get her back from our graveyard with either Liliana, the Last Hope or Eternal Witness and cast her again for even more spiders. Her ability could then be used to deal extra damage to our opponents.
  • Shriekmaw - A tutorable removal with Traverse the Ulvenwald that can be cast for or if we want it to stay on the battlefield. Because you must remove a creature you should be vary for tricks from our opponent, as they might force us to sacrifice our own creatures instead.
  • The Scarab God - He is good at generating card advantage and synergises greatly with our graveyard strategy. Because we often have a lot of cards in our graveyard, the god will easily have targets to reanimate. With our many discard spells and removals we can also fill our opponents graveyard with creatures to reanimate. If he would get destroyed we can just recast him later on. This makes him a threat our opponent need to deal with before getting overrun by a zombie army.
  • Tasigur, the Golden Fang - With all the cards in our graveyard we can often cast him for or . He will also survive most of the commonly played removal and can help us get cards into our graveyard, and hopefully get something useful back to our hand.

Noncreature Spells

  • Mishra's Bauble - For mana we can get an artifact into our graveyard and also get to draw a new card. If we want we can look at the top card of our own library and then decide if we want to fetch before our opponents upkeep or after, depending on if we want to draw that card or not. We can also choose to look at the top card of our opponents library to get useful information of what they will draw into.
  • Fatal Push - A very strong removal that can get rid of most of the played creatures in modern. By also sacrificing a clue or a fetch land we can trigger Revolt and get more value out of the card for only .
  • Inquisition of Kozilek - Lets us remove a nonland card with CMC 3 or less from our opponents hand for only . We want to cast this card as early as possible.
  • Thoughtseize - Lets us remove any nonland card from our opponents hand for and then we lose 2 life. This card lets us remove the more troublesome cards from our opponets hand which Inquisition of Kozilek will not be able to remove.
  • Traverse the Ulvenwald - This card is what the deck is based around. It makes sure our mana is on curve and can tutor for threats or removal for . It can be used again with Eternal Witness, Jace, Telepath Unbound, Liliana, the Last Hope returning the witness and with any luck Tasigur, the Golden Fang.
  • Abrupt Decay - A strong removal that hits all nonland permanents that costs 3 or less. Your opponent will also not be able to counter it which makes the card very versatile.
  • Cast Down - The new removal from the expansion Dominaria. It can destroy a majority of the most played creatures in modern. It is often a better version of Go for the Throat.
  • Collective Brutality - This card has many uses for . We can see their hand and remove an instant or sorcery card from it, it can kill or weaken a creature and it can deal damage to our opponent while we also gain life. The ability to discard a card to use additional modes will help us in activating Delirium.
  • Search for Azcanta   - Another new card that will both filter our draws, put cards into our graveyard and, when it transforms into Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin, it can draw us nonland, noncreature cards. Because it's an enchantment we also increase the chance of getting delirium active if we would mill it.
  • Liliana, the Last Hope - A fantastic planeswalker that synergizes well with the deck. She can kill or weaken our opponents creatures, put cards into our graveyard and then returning a creature card from our graveyard to our hand. Her ultimate will not see play very often, but if we manage to activate it we can rather quickly flood the board with zombies.
  • Garruk Relentless - On Garruks front side he can either remove one of our opponents weak creatures (target our own Courser of Kruphix if we have no good targets) or make us some 2/2 wolves to protect him. When he transforms into Garruk, the Veil-Cursed   he will make us 1/1 wolves with deathtouch. We can also sacrifice a creature, which he can produce, to act as a Traverse the Ulvenwald. His -3 works well with Ishkanah, Grafwidow and our other creatures lacking trample.
  • Sultai Charm - This card is very versatile. Although it is rather mana intensive it performs well in many situations. It can get rid of both creature threats, artifacts and enchantments that our other removals might not manage to remove. We can also choose to draw two cards and then discard a card, which helps us in activating Delirium.

Lands

  • Blooming Marsh - If we can play this early on it will greatly help us in casting what we want.
  • Polluted Delta - Our fetch lands. Because we want lands to enter our graveyard, we need to have some fetches to increase the chance of that occurring.
  • Ghost Quarter - If our opponents play some troublesome lands we can cast Traverse the Ulvenwald and get this land. It also helps with activating Delirium if we do not have it yet.
  • Watery Grave, Overgrown Tomb, Breeding Pool - Dual lands that are both fetchable and can enter the battlefield untapped by paying 2 life. We can fetch any of these with our fetch lands.
  • Treetop Village - Gives us an extra creature to attack or block with. It also has trample!
  • Opulent Palace - A cheap mana fixer. We should replace these with more fetch lands.
  • Island, Swamp, Forest - The rest of our mana base. These are the lands we currently fetch for.
This was previously a standard delirium deck. Because of this I am missing some very strong cards listed in the section above. But because I mainly play in a more casual setting this deck has been performing fine and is very fun to play. I feel like I have an answer to most of my opponents decks and can outrun them in card advantage. If you want to try the deck in a more compepetive environment you should improve the mana base, add Glen Elendra Archmage, Liliana of the Veil, Snapcaster Mage, a few Tarmogoyf and Maelstrom Pulse to the main deck and cards to the sideboard to fit your expected meta.

If you have any suggestions of how the deck could look like, feel free to comment. Thanks!

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Updates Add

Second Update — May 12, 2018
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Additions: Hostage Taker, Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, The Scarab God, Thoughtseize, Polluted Delta, Breeding Poolfoil, Overgrown Tombfoil and Treetop Village.

Subtractions: Thought Scour, Evolving Wilds, Terramorphic Expanse and Opulent Palace.

I added a few more creatures that can be tutored up for certain situations and I also added more discard spells. The mana base also got greatly improved with some fetch lands and fetchable shocklands.

I removed Thought Scour because the deck already can fill up the graveyard rather quickly. A few cheap lands were also removed from the deck in favor of a better mana base.

I am currently testing Hostage Taker and The Scarab God and how they perform. They both generate card advantage for us and interact with our opponents board while also being tutorable with Traverse the Ulvenwald.

As for Cast Down, it has performed great for me. I would like to add another Fatal Push to the deck but I would then have to remove either a creature, Garruk Relentless  Flip, Sultai Charm, Abrupt Decay or sideboard Collective Brutality.

First Update — April 26, 2018
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Casual

94% Competitive

Revision 8 See all

(5 years ago)

Top Ranked
  • Achieved #58 position overall 6 years ago
Date added 7 years
Last updated 5 years
Legality

This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)

8 - 0 Mythic Rares

29 - 4 Rares

15 - 5 Uncommons

0 - 6 Commons
Cards 60
Avg. CMC 2.13
Tokens Clue, Copy Clone, Emblem Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, Emblem Liliana, the Last Hope, Human 2/2 G, Spider 1/2 G, Thopter 1/1 C, Wolf 1/1 B, Wolf 2/2 G, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders Standard, nuove idee, Buildable, Modern Decks, Interesting decks, Hooded hydra, Decks to try
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