What do you bring Batterskull in against?

Aside from all-in aggro decks like Mono Red Burn, it's REALLY good against any sort of control. It puts a lot of pressure on them if you can resolve it, and in general they have a really tough time getting rid of it. It's also great against Jund by the same arguments but also because Abrupt Decay can't stop it.

4x Snapcaster Mage - 4x Lightning Bolt - 2x Flame Slash That will wreck any aggro List. Shudder

Why aren't you playing Remand ?

''Mana Leak -- An effective Modern counterspell. I've chosen this spell over Remand because unlike Boremandos, RUG Delver opts to drain the opposing player of resources and forces submission.''

"Flame Slash -- Metagame replacement for Burst Lightning . Great against Spellskite , Deceiver Exarch , Wall of Roots , Restoration Angel , and Courser of Kruphix ." Seems good...

No Thrun, the Last Troll ? There has to be room for him...You should make use of those Path to Exile that are cast on your Tarmogoyf

Why Pyroclasm over Anger of the Gods ? 12/21 sources can get Red, is that high enough to not play it?

Yeah +1 Time to save up for a play set of Tarmogoyf

Hey Xuhle, thanks for the comment! I've dug around the RUG Delver community and found that half of the players have 2 Thrun, the Last Troll (Great against UWR) in their sideboard while the other half have 2-3 Huntmaster of the Fells  ^Flip or Obstinate Baloth (Great against Jund). I have considered putting Thruns in the SB, but I feel like Obstinate Baloth will help me more against really fast decks (which is often times the primary weakness of this deck, believe it or not). I'd rather rely on my counter-magic and number of threats against blue matchups, which RUG Delver is poised well against.

That's a really good question actually -- as far as Pyroclasm is concerned, the extra turn is very important for RUG Delver. By Turn 3, my life points drop precariously low and makes it difficult for me to recover against really fast decks like Affinity. I want to just simply get a quick 2-for-1 on turn two which goes a long way for me. Against other matchups, I feel that the deck fairs well enough on it's own to warrant the exclusion of Anger of the Gods .

:D Yeah.. I had to trade in so much of my collection to obtain these Tarmogoyf s! So worth it though!!!

I like the shackles, it differenciates your deck from other competitive RUG Delver!

Thanks Diresam12 :D

Very neat take on a delver deck!
I like your inclusion of Deprive .
It's a very solid counterspell.

Thanks Nefferean! Deprive is absolutely amazing, and most people don't even know of its existence!

I much prefer Remand to Deprive , especially in tempo-based decks, so I'd probably switch to that.

I've tested using Remand for quite some time both with and without Mana Leak alongside and I've found that RUG Delver much rather permanently shut down your opponents plays with hard counter spells. Deprive, is essentially Counterspell in this format and acts as my 5th Mana Leak.

Deprive has shown a lot of success in RUG Delver and hasn't really disappeared since the time Antionio De Rosa won Grand Prix Turin in 2012, with two of them in the main board. As mentioned in the description, I think Remand is much better suited in decks like Boremandos which capitalizes on delaying your opponent. RUG Delver in Modern however, plays a slightly different type of Tempo, especially when compared to it's Legacy counterpart which takes advantage of Stifle

"I've tested using Remand for quite some time both with and without Mana Leak alongside and I've found that RUG Delver much rather permanently shut down your opponents plays with hard counter spells."

Yup, agreed.

Very cool deck and GREAT description above. I love delver decks so this one is right up my alley. Well done +1

I do have a question for you. I have been thinking about playing Deprive in my deck. How has this card performed for you? Has the downside ever created too much of a problem?

CurdBrosBrewingCo Thanks for your question. Deprive is very good in Tempo based decks (like your UWR build) since you want as much quality as possible in each and every one of your spells. It's a very good hard counter, and I haven't ever gotten set back in the sense that I would lose the game because of it. I personally wouldn't use more than 1, but 2 has worked for some players in the past, including GP winner Antonio De Rosa and his teammates in 2012.

Thanks tchau204. I will be giving Deprive a try in my UWR build. Thanks for looking at my deck. I'm really glad you did, because your help has been greatly appreciated and it allowed me to get to this awesome deck.

I've always been a fan of delver decks and this is fantastic. Deprive is an interesting choice that I wouldn't have even considered for this type of deck but it fits in very well. I think the only thing that I would change is 1 Threads of Disloyalty for 1 more Pyroclasm . After I finish building my modern RUG deck I might make something like this and switch between them. Congratulations on your success as well! +1

Thanks TheLitchKing! I think the Threads of Disloyalty versus Pyroclasm is a meta call. In general, I think the former is better suited overall since it tips the matchup against Jund slightly in your favor. You know what they say, the only way to beat Tarmogoyf is with Tarmogoyf, or in this case, with their Tarmogoyfs as well!

Haha that is true. Threads of Disloyalty is fantastic against Jund. If they don't have an Abrupt Decay you get one of the best creatures in the format and just kill them with it. I like Pyroclasm against Zoo, Pod, and Tokens. Those are all in my meta which is why I would want the second copy. I really like having access to Blood Moon in the sideboard. It just wins the game if it resolves against certain decks and always has the potential to be a blowout, especially coming in game 2. There are so many unexpected cards in here that do their job perfectly. Vedalken Shackles is a card that I have been wanting to play and this is where I would have the most fun doing so. Why did you trade Keranos, God of Storms for a second Thrun, the Last Troll ? It seems like it's great in the games that go long

TheLitchKing I'm currently trying different configurations. Keranos, God of Storms is amazing, but the trade off is 5 CMC. Thrun, the Last Troll is 4 CMC but requires double G, so I'm having a difficult time determining what I should put in. Huntmaster of the Fells  ^Flip is very easy on the mana-base, but does not go over-the-top in any particular matchup but is fair against a wider array of decks. Hmm, I'm really not sure what to do. What are your thoughts on this?

I think I would run 1 Thrun, the Last Troll because it isn't that easy to cast because of the double G. I think Huntmaster of the Fells  ^Flip is great but fragile. It's not great against Jund because they have so much removal but in the games that you know will go long, like American control, I think Keranos, God of Storms is fantastic. You'll be able to cast it and it will be giving you so much value. Free bolts every turn when you're beating down the entire game will give you an edge. Also drawing 2 copies of Thrun, the Last Troll is terrible. You can only have 1 and it's not going anywhere if you have the regen mana open. I think that the 1 extra cmc isn't a terrible cost, especially against the control decks that are trying to have the game go long

Well whether in bring in 1 Thrun, the Last Troll or 2, I'll still need to prime my mana-base to produce 2 G. This gets even more complicated since Blood Moon also comes in against the same matchups (Jund, UWR Kiki/Midrange, and probably even Scapeshift), except for Splinter Twin. X__X. Additionally, along with Keranos, God of Storms , I'll also be bringing in Batterskull against both Jund and UWR Midrange, although this should be okay since, as you said, games will drag on.

You won't have a problem reaching 5 lands in those games, and with fetches you can produce GG as long as Blood Moon isn't already in play. And you'll gain a lot of card advantage from Keranos, God of Storms since he isn't easily removed, which is perfect against Jund and UWR midrange. The value of bolts is great as well, because it could force a Sphinx's Revelation or Lightning Helix when they would rather save up more mana for a bigger rev or helix one of your creatures with 3 or less toughness instead of your life

Very true. I think I'm going to settle with a compromise. 1x Batterskull , 1x Keranos, God of Storms , and 2x Huntmaster of the Fells  ^Flip for now. I'll let you know how I feel about this when I get the chance to try them out. Thanks again!

You should definitely be running Wild Nacatl

I am! The version with wings ;)