The game-plan for this deck is to spend turns 1 and 2 filling my graveyard with the help of cards like Taigam's Scheming and Thought Scour so that I can play Gurmag Angler or Tombstalker as soon as possible. From there I aim to control the opponent with cheap countermagic and removal while plugging away at their life total and continuing to mill myself so that I can play more anglers and stalkers. The high casting cost of these delve creatures makes it so that Elder Deep-Fiend costs just and Distended Mindbender costs just if you sac the angler or 0 you sac the stalker. I love the idea of having two anglers in play, sacing one of them to the mindbender during my main phase to make sure it's safe to attack, swinging with my remaining angler, and then sacing it to the deep fiend at the beginning of their turn to tap most if not all of their threats, and still having 2 available blockers and mana open for countermagic.
This is made to be a semi-budget deck for modern on MTGO. I have very little experience when it comes to both the modern format and MTGO. Most of my experience with Magic comes from four player edh tables, so I have some questions for experienced Modern players.
Deck Concept
I love the mechanics of both delve and emerge and I really want to use them in conjunction with each other but from what I've seen on this site, this type of deck doesn't seem very common in modern. Does this general deck concept seem effective enough? Or is it just not enough to compete with the more tried and true Modern decks out there?
Colors
I've been considering switching this deck from to or . Going with green would give me access to cards such as Grisly Salvage and Satyr Wayfinder which would help make sure that I'm able to consistently cast Gurmag Angler or Tombstalker on turn 3. Green would also let me play Become Immense and Decimator of the Provinces so that I could pull out a win when my opponent isn't expecting lethal damage. The downside of switching from blue to green of course would be that I can no longer play countermagic, which leaves this deck extremely vulnerable to disruption. Although I suppose I could switch out the countermagic for a hand disruption package. Another option would be to put green in my sideboard for certain matchups where Satyr Wayfinder is relevant as an early game blocker, or when I feel like I'll need trample from Decimator of the Provinces to get my damage through. Which of these options seems best?
Matchups and Sideboarding
I have zero experience playing modern. What types of decks are going to be particularly troublesome to play against, and what should I put in my sideboard to combat those decks? How should I adapt my play-style on game 1/2/3 so that I have the best chance against grim looking matchups?
Any suggestions for how to improve this deck would be greatly appreciated. I could really use some advice from seasoned Modern players. Keep in mind that this list is meant to be fairly budget, and I don't need it to be Tier 1 competetive, but I do still prefer winning over losing.
