Threats - Every "Delver" deck (regardless of format) relies on a few creatures that come down for a very small amount of mana and continue punching above their CMC-weightclass while you play a tempo/permission gameplan with the rest of your mana.
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Delver of Secrets
is the namesake of the entire blue tempo archetype. (Play: 4)
An inauspicious 1-drop 1/1 it typically won't draw much flak. However, it becomes a real threat when if flips into a 3/2 flyer - especially on an almost-empty board.
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Pteramander is a new Delver-like creature from RNA. (Play: 4)
This new creature is what inspired me to try brewing a Delver list. Like Delver, it comes down for just one mana's investment and becomes a significant threat after a few turns when it "flips" (technically when it "Adapt 4"s). Unlike Delver, it is impossible to cast turn-1 Pteramander and see it flip on turn-2; however being an evasive 1/1, it can often chip in for a few points of damage before flipping. The potential to "flip" at instant speed into a 5/5 is also a huge boon as it makes combat math harder for the opponent.
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Gurmag Angler is a beefy threat for a low-mana-investment. (Play: 0)
A staple of "GrixisDS" lists, the card comes down relatively quickly by discounting it's manacost with _Delve_, and yet the creature is immune to Fatal Push. The reason I didn't splash for it is because _Delve_ strongly nonbos with flipping Pteramander, and an evasive 5/5 is very attractive (especially when drawing multiples). (There are also some life-loss considerations to take into account when splashing for black with a fetch-shock manabase.)
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Death's Shadow is a huge threat for 1cmc. (Play: 0)
The cornerstone of Modern's "Delver"-esque "GrixisDS" lists, DS is an absolutely monstrous threat for the manacost. However, the deckbuilding costs are not entirely trivial - a significant portion of the decklist is devoted to reducing the pilot's own lifetotal just to get a DS in play. It's possible (probable?) that the optimal Modern "Delver" list makes that life-for-power trade, but I've not had enough experience with that playstyle to brew around those deckbuilding costs.
Cantrips - Playing a more "Draw-Go" style of tempo/permission means that you'll often need to churn through cards to make sure you have the answers you need when you need them. A plethora of 1-cmc card draw spells is crucial to this strategy. It also happens that having a large number of cantrips and a low manacurve allows one to survive with a relatively sparse landcount - thanks to something dubbed the "Turbo-Xerox" principle.
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Incubation / Incongruity is another RNA card I wanted to playtest. (Play: 4)
While it might not be technically a cantrip (on account of not being guaranteed to draw/replace itself card-advantage-wise) the card functions in a similar capacity in this deck (just don't count it in the "Turbo-Xerox"-principle accounting as it won't find lands. The main reason I wanted to try it is because this is the first time that a Monoblue manabase has access to a Commune with Nature effect. This struck me as an interesting card for "Delver of Secrets" and "Young Pyromancer" decks that are instant/sorcery heavy but have creatures that are central to the deck's success.
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Opt is key to Draw-Go mana utilization. (Play: 4)
A new Modern addition, instant-speed Opt helps our deck cycle through cards whenever we have excess mana available in our opponent's endstep. The _Scry_ also helps ensure that the card we're getting is marginally better than random.
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Thought Scour helps "flip" Pteramander. (Play: 4)
Like Opt, Thought Scour helps our deck cantrip whenever we have mana available in our opponent's endstep. Unlike Opt, Though Scour gives us no _Scry_, but it does put two topdecks into the bin. The odds that neither of the two topdecks are instant/sorcery spells is about 19%, half are I/S is about 50%, and both I/S about 31% - which puts an average of 2.11 I/S into the bin whenever we cast Thought Scour. This, along with the cantrip effect, is great for getting through our deck and getting Pteramander to flip for a measly U or so.
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Serum Visions helps flip Delver. (Play: 4)
Serum Visions is sorcery speed, but it's also one of the deepest-digging 1cmc blue cantrips in Modern thanks to _Scry-2_. Additionally, there is good synergy with Delver because the _Scry-2_ is almost guaranteed to set up a topdeck instant/sorcery for your next upkeep.
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Sleight of Hand is better for combo decks. (Play: 0)
Three playsets of true cantrips plus a playset of Incubation seemed like enough for the deck, and Serum Vision's ability to dig one deeper and set up Delver flips positioned it as superior to Sleight of Hand for the purposes of this decklist.
Countermagic - The key to the "Delver" archetype's gameplan is being able to land an early threat and then protect it while invalidating the opponent's gameplan as needed until your early threat has pushed enough damage through for the win. Countermagic is key to disrupting removal aimed at our threat, as well as key to preventing our opponents from deploying threats that can outrace us.
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Remand is one of Modern's best counters. (Play: 3-4)
In the early turns of the game, Remand is nearly a Time Walk, as it negates anything an opponent taps out for while replacing itself with a card draw. In the late-game it can still be quite useful whenever an opponent wants to cast a big bomb for more than half their available mana - but it is borderline useless versus cheap removal. Overall, it's still a great counter.
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Mana Leak is extremely good in the early-to-mid game. (Play: 3-4)
Early on, when everyone is low on mana, the three mana hurdle of Mana Leak is essentially a hard-counter. Late-game it tapers off, but still makes it harder for our opponent to execute their gameplan optimally.
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Stubborn Denial has good synergy with Pteramander. (Play: 2-3)
Once Pteramander flips, SD becomes a hard-counter to all non-creature spells for the steal of a deal price of U. Otherwise, it does a decent job as a Force Spike "gotcha" card in a pinch. The fact that it doesn't counter creature spells is perhaps the biggest thing going against it right now, as well as the fact that Force Spike is rather weak whenever we can't flip Pteramander.
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Delay is a good tempo-oriented counter. (Play: 3-4)
This may be a bit of a pet card for me, but I really like it in this shell. In combination with Remand/Leak it can be quite good, mostly because when it's soft in the early game Remand/Leak are good, and when Remand/Leak taper off in the late game it becomes better. Don't forget that it plays out as Counterspell for 1U every game that you can win before the spell un-suspends.
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Cryptic Command is too mana intensive. (Play: 0)
While it's probably Modern's most ubiquitous countermagic spell, it doesn't play nicely in this "Turbo-Xerox" shell because keeping 4cmc untapped is unlikely to happen here except into an extremely late game. Maybe a 1-of wouldn't kill you, though.
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Logic Knot nonbos with Pteramander. (Play: 0)
This is another good card that doesn't quite work here due to the nonbo between _Delve_ and Pteramander. It's possible that maybe a copy or two could work (especially if I upped the number of fetches) but I've not been optimistic enough to playtest it.
Manabase - Every deck needs a manabase.
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Island is good and basic. (Play: 12-16)
The best thing about going Mono-blue is that you can run basics to keep your mana fast, pain-free, Blood Moon immune, and Path/GhostQuarter searchable.
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Polluted Delta adds a bit of deck thinning. (Play: 0-4)
Without a splash color, fetches aren't necessary; but simply adding one playset of fetches means about 25% of my lands are fetches and helps thin the deck for lategame gas. Optimal design would probably be to split the fetches across a number of different Island-fetching fetches to get around Pithing Needle, etc. I might consider adding another half playset or so in the future as there are some games I get too flooded (though it currently feels like more of a weird MTGO shuffler issue; probability-wise seeing 12+ of your 16 lands in the top-30 cards of one's library shouldn't be happening every-other game).
Odds & Ends - Here are the other bits and pieces that function as the deck's removal options, .
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Vapor Snag is temporary removal. (Play: 2-4)
Vapor Snag is great. Though it is not quite removal, forcing an opponent to recast their creatures and wait again for summoning sickness to wear off is a strong tempo play. The single point of damage is a plus, too. (And in a pinch it can always save your own Delver/Pteramander from removal, too.)
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Pongify is stronger removal. (Play: 1-2)
Having a "destroy target creature" spell in a 1cmc blue instant is hugely beneficial when the opponent drops a creature that needs to be dealt with ASAP.
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Search for Azcanta
helps grind. (Play: 2)
An unflipped Azcanta is a great tool for both flipping Delver and adapting Pteramander; and in extremely long grindy games a flipped Azcanta can be a great manasink for drawing you into more countermagic.
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Boomerang is flexible bounce. (Play: 0-2)
I had originally placed these in the maindeck to help with a wide variety of troublesome permanents, but have found them to be a bit lackluster. Versus Tron, for example, countermagic has been more effective than putting them behind by one land-drop; and other things like Ensnaring Bridge I haven't run into as often (and it would also be likely something I could deal with before it resolves rather than after). I'll likely cut these for more Vapor Snag and/or countermagic.
