Descent Into Madness [Grixis Delver]

Modern* Combo Delver UBR (Grixis)

Sinfer

Creature (14)

• 4x Delver of Secrets  ^Flip
• 3x Gurmag Angler
• 3x Snapcaster Mage
• 2x Tasigur, the Golden Fang
• 2x Young Pyromancer

Land (19)

• 1x Blood Crypt
• 2x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Darkslick Shores
• 2x Island
• 1x Mountain
• 4x Polluted Delta
• 4x Scalding Tarn
• 2x Steam Vents
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Watery Grave

Instant (18)

• 1x Dispel
• 1x Electrolyze
• 2x Kolaghan's Command
• 4x Lightning Bolt
• 2x Mana Leak
• 1x Murderous Cut
• 3x Terminate
• 4x Thought Scour

Sorcery (9)

• 2x Forked Bolt
• 3x Gitaxian Probe
• 4x Serum Visions

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Sideboard

Creature (1)

• 1x Spellskite

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Blood Moon

Artifact (1)

• 1x Engineered Explosives

Instant (8)

• 1x Dismember
• 2x Dispel
• 1x Hurkyl's Recall
• 1x Negate
• 1x Spell Snare
• 2x Surgical Extraction

Sorcery (4)

• 1x Rough / Tumble
• 3x Thoughtseize

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Grixis Delver is in my opinion the best deck to be playing in the current meta, and if it were up to me i'd just tell wizards to stop printing cards so it stays.

Here i'm going to tell you the pros of every card, by type, and show you some tricks to use in your games.

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Creatures Show

Delver of Secrets   - The reason Delver is such a strong deck. This card alone is why you run Delver over Grixis Control. All you have to do is chalk the deck full of one drops and reap the value.

Gurmag Angler - Angler is one of our two 'delve' bombs. Turn 2-3'ing a 5/5 will never feel bad. Many decks are teching to stop this early 5/5 but we just laugh cause we either grind out with Insectile Aberration   or our other bomb.

Snapcaster Mage - This card is a modern staple for a reason, all the stuff you just played gets to do it again. Theoretically doubling all the value of all your non-permanent spells. Plus with the decks addition of Kolaghan's Command ...Man

Tasigur, the Golden Fang - Here is the second 'delve' bomb. Tas does all the tricky delver stuff you want him to the only thing that could make him better was if he was a cantrip, oh wait. He gets those back.

Young Pyromancer - Young Pizzle is fantastic and would be the face of delver if it wasn't for the competing turn 2 plays. This little girl weaponizes our one drops into creatures. Some decklist run 3-4 of Pyros but in my plays you can't always find the right tempo for her and she then feels cloggy

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Instant Show

Dispel - Starting off our counter magic. This one is great if your playing against a combo deck like Ad Nauseam or Gifts Ungiven . It targets there pieces and throws there win-con right out the window. Pretty good against the mirror aswell. Not allowing them to play Terminate / Kolaghan's Command . The one copy has a lot of value. It a decent amount even if it's only off of Snapcaster Mage + Thought Scour

Electrolyze - Older decklist used to run 2-3 of these guys. Cause of the value, Forked Bolt + Cantrip is hard to pass up even if it is 3 mana, but the other 1-2 copies of this card ended up getting replaced by Kolaghan's Command

Kolaghan's Command - Have you ever asked yourself. Is there a card that follows Gitaxian Probe , Can shut down Affinity, shock and even Gravedigger up a creature? Why yes, yes there is. This godly card right here. You can see why it took the 2 copies of Electrolyze

Lightning Bolt - We're in a bolt format, we're running red so we run bolt

Mana Leak - Second form of counter magic in our deck. Punishing our opponents for tapping out and forcing them to be afraid of 2 open mana on our side

Murderous Cut - Third delve card we have in the deck. Cut can easily cost 1-2 mana on turn 2-3 so you can clearly see why we would run it. The reason we don't run more is because of the second removal we run

Terminate - The "Second removal we run" hard to go wrong with this one

Thought Scour - Scour is a two-for-one in this instance. When you scour yourself you fuel two cards and then draw one. Great for tossing on an opponents end step.

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Sorcery Show

Forked Bolt - slightly worse Lightning Bolt slightly better Shock . Either way its a one mana fuel for the fire and a phenomenal trigger for Young Pyromancer

Gitaxian Probe - Modern staple, whats better then seeing what your opponent is going to be playing. Remember to write it down kids.

Serum Visions - Main cantrip for modern. Often seen as one of the worst cantrips compared to Preordain / Ponder , but Serum Visions is actually better than Preordain at setting up Delver specifically. This is arguably the best Serum Visions deck in the format.

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Sideboard Show

Blood Moon - Tron and amulet are deemed to be two of the worst match ups against delver. So in order to counteract that we run these beauties.

Dismember - Hits a lot of threats in modern. Even hits Gurmag Angler for the mirror, fairly easy cast with the black in the deck.

Dispel - Two more copies in the sideboard for hype controll-y decks.

Engineered Explosives - the best sweepers in the format, and gives Grixis an answer to enchantments and Etched Champion.

Hurkyl's Recall - One of the more contentious sideboard cards. when you draw it against Affinity you feel like a god. Then you just Snapcaster Mage it back to do it all over again.

Negate - One Dispel in the main and two in the sideboard plus this negate make four spells that deal with a mirror or a control type deck

Rough/Tumble - Mainly in the side for Abzan Collected Company . t's great against the bulk of their deck, and helps push through damage without losing value. We play this one over Pyroclasm because it doesn't hit a flipped Delver.

Surgical Extraction - Also for Tron and Amulet along with the Blood Moon

Spellskite - Is one of the best sideboard cards in the format. Blocking things Affinity puts out, Hitting Twin pieces, chumps removal. What can't this little guy do.

Thoughtseize - Good against Tron and Amulet, or any deck with hype priory cards you'd like to rip away

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So after summing up the main and sideboard we can now go over what to put in while boarding and what to take out. Sideboarding can be stressful and this should help clear things out.

The Mirror

Out:-2 Mana Leak-2 Gitaxian Probe

In:+1 Dismember+1 Spell Snare
+2 Dispel

Grixis Control

I've heard some people say that Grixis Control is favored, but the key cards are Terminate, delve threats, and Dispel, and both decks have access to those. Their spells are a bit more powerful while yours are a bit more efficient. I like playing the matchup.

Out:-2 Forked Bolt -2 Mana Leak

In:+1 Dismember+1 Spell Snare+2 Dispel

Twin

Sometimes I cut a Probe or a Bolt instead of Delver. The cards coming in matter more than the cards going out.

Delver wins this matchup by sticking early pressure and riding it, and Twin is much more likely to have a clunky draw. Twin wins this matchup by going into the late game.

Out:-2 Mana Leak-2 Forked Bolt -1 Delver of Secrets  

In:+1 Dismember+1 Spellskite+1 Spell Snare+2 Dispel

Tron

Amulet is the same, but -Young Pyromancer, +Spellskite,

Young Pyromancer isn't very good against Tron either because sometimes they board in Pyroclasms, but it's impossible to win that matchup without early pressure while you're more likely to beat Amulet by inducing a stumble.

Of the heavily played decks, Amulet and Tron are the worst matchups because they can ignore your pressure and go over the top.

Out:-2 Forked Bolt -1 Electrolyze-2 Terminate-1 Dispel

In:+1 Negate+1 Blood Moon +3 Thoughtseize+1 Surgical Extraction

Abzan Collected Company

Leaving in a few Dispel for Collected Company/Chord of Calling is fine, it's just not part of my current plan.

Out:-2 Mana Leak-2 Gitaxian Probe

In:+1 Engineered Explosives+1 Rough/Tumble +1 Dismember+1 Surgical Extraction

Affinity

Out:-2 Mana Leak-1 Gitaxian Probe

In:+1 Engineered Explosives+1 Dismember+1 Hurkyl's Recall

Burn

This matchup is much better than what UR Delver had to deal with since an early 5/5 is actually great at racing Burn, especially when backed up by a Bolt and a few counters.

Out:-3 Gitaxian Probe-2 Kolaghan's Command

In:+1 Spell Snare+1 Spellskite+2 Dispel+1 Negate

Spell-Based Combo ( Ad Nauseam / Gifts Ungiven / Storm )

I like to bring in Engineered Explosives and Rough/Tumble against Storm to answer Empty the Warrens and I like leaving in Kolaghan's Command against Ad Nauseam to hit random artifact mana producers.

Out:-2 Forked Bolt -1 Murderous Cut-3 Terminate-2 Kolaghan's Command-1 Electrolyze

In:+3 Thoughtseize+2 Dispel+1 Surgical Extraction+1 Negate

Special thanks Caleb Durward at ChannelFireball for his - Grixis Delver Primer // 27 Aug, 2015 decklist. It the shell of this deck, and most of its sideboard tech. [Site Here http://goo.gl/y99NiY ]

Date added	8 years
Last updated	8 years
Legality	This deck is not Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	3 - 3 Mythic Rares 19 - 6 Rares 12 - 3 Uncommons 22 - 3 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.17
Tokens	Elemental 1/1 R
Folders	Modern