Against most decks where Crumble to Dust would be useful, I feel like another beater or maybe just some cantrips would do just as well. The high cost of the card makes it rather ineffective against Aggro decks, which just leaves combo decks as it's victim. These decks are often beat by simply going faster or disrupting their combo... So perhaps using Remand or adding 1xDelver of Secrets  ^Flip and 1xYoung Pyromancer to the sideboard instead could prove to be more useful. Just a thought.

I do want to remove Crumble because it currently gets sided in for Tron and Tron alone. Fulminator Mage is too expensive to run instead although it's the best alternative I think.

Unfortunately tron isn't very soft to creature removal, which I have to excess. They care about artifact removal, counterspells, and hand attack. They run a lot of sweepers to have a chance against aggro decks, and unfortunately Delver and Pyromancer are soft to sweepers. Ghast doesn't mind one bit, but it's difficult to win with him alone.

One card I'm considering is running Spreading Seas because it cantrips. This means it annoys tron, but is also useful against BGx and Infect because it turns off manlands, and Burn because of the color screwing.

I don't think I really need any more removal, although exiling and edicts are in short supply for my deck. I'll test around and see what cards are good where. I would like to swap out crumble though.

Thanks for the comment!

Spreading Seas actually isn't a bad idea at all, as it would be good tech against blue moon/Blood Moon deck archetypes given how light on basics this deck is. The fact that it cantrips, and comes out a whole two turns before Crumble only makes it that much better.
Of course, given that this is a Grixis deck, you could always just run Blood Moon yourself and adjust the mana base to take a bit less of a beating for it. If you choose to go this route, I would swap out the fast lands and check lands for basics so that your fetch lands can go for those instead of the shock lands in match-ups where Blood Moon is boarded in.

Moon won't work. Moon is a problem for my deck, not a solution. This deck is so mana intensive that any form of land hate usually causes major problems for me, and the moon would push it over the top. Also, price money-wise.

I might try spreading seas. I like that route a lot as I think about it - it's much more versatile and although it doesn't simply end the game like Crumble to Dust does with tron, with ghast at my disposal tron isn't a terrible matchup anyway.

Thanks for the help!

I'm not particularly well versed in modern, but Young Pyromancer does seem like a solid tempo play. It doesn't put on as much life pressure as Bloodghast or Delver of Secrets  ^Flip does, but it certainly gives them a board to contest.

This deck obviously doesn't need many counterspells, but you should consider Spell Snare. It can hit a good number of removal spells and threats.

In reply to your comment on rorofat's goblin primer, the background is still showing up on mobile.

Femme_Fatale has a guide on everything to configure your page linked on her profile. I believe she told me the part on background images is near the bottom.

Thanks! I'll look into that when I get some time. There's also a coding forum as I've recently discovered, so I can ask around there as well. I'll figure it out soon enough and make it so people on mobile don't want to scream at me. Sorry to anyone who's been affected by this so far; I'll fix it soon!

I've asked yeago if we can get something that allows users to turn background off and he said he'll update the settings that prevents script from getting run to include backgrounds. So everything should be good and there should be little to no issues with this in the future. I had a discussion about this with yeago and epoch though. Backgrounds slowing everything down is becoming an increasing issue on mobile though, so thank you for recognizing that.

Yeah not a problem. You should have seen how bad it was before on this deck :)

The background pic before was 4769x4161 pixels. I probably unknowingly caused a few phones to outright crash with a picture that dense. It sure did look good though. Nice and crisp image. The ~600x~600 pixel pic I have now is a little blurry and the coloring isn't as crisp, but it makes other people viewing the deck quite a bit happier, which is what's important. If you want to see what it was like before, visit my profile. It still has the super dense background. I'd recommend switching to computer before going there though, just saying.

Hopefully that update so you can wipe off coding happens soon, because that sounds convenient.

It's really easy to implement.

@media screen and (min-width 500px)
{
	All other coding starts here
	{
	}
}

But don't I need to set up a style sheet to do that? I haven't done that yet, but I'll get on it soon.

Yeah, never do anything without using a CSS stylesheet. You can't properly control the background.

I love this list, I've been brewing for the past month trying to decide a list to get into modern with, and basically I've made a 1.5 tier aggro sliver zoo, and its a sweet build. But I'm a broke college student and I feel like after i invest the 300 to build it, I'll just get bored with it because of how straight forward it is. And then I saw this, a list that will keep me on my toes and just looks fun to pilot, but the price tag is still a little steep for me, any ideas on a way to make a more budget shell that might still be slightly competitive that I could slowly turn it into this build?

Certainly! Glad you like the list!

Just a warning out front: this list is tons of fun at your lgs, but don't expect it to win everything. It's a brew, so it's inherently not as good as a tier-1 deck, even though it may beat some tier 1 decks fairly frequently. It takes awhile to get used to and fully learn, but when you get the hand of it, it performs quite well and is very interesting to pilot.

We can definitely get the deck down to $375 pretty easily, without sacrificing too much competitiveness. To start, let's look at the manabase. Tar pit, Oboro, Blackcleave Cliffs, and Urborg can become 1 more Island, 1 more Swamp, 1 more Darkslick Shores, and 1 more Dragonskull Summit. You've already pocketed $60 just there.

In the sideboard, Engineered Explosives can be 1 more Pyroclasm. That's really the only expensive sideboard card, fortunately.

In the mainboard, Inquisition of Kozilek can become Duress. That's the end of the cards that aren't fully necessary and can become budgeted without losing much. There are options if you want to go further in budget, although I do recommend upgrading when your budget allows. That brings the deck down to around $375, which is a lot, but better than $500.

The next set of cuts that I don't recommend is swapping Serum Visions for some other cantrip. Nothing it quite right, but Gitaxian Probe, Sleight of Hand, and Thought Scour are probably the best budget alternatives. You can hack more into the manabase and start cutting out fetches for more check lands or other dual, but each fetch you cut decreases consistency. I wouldn't go for less than 6 at first. Serum Visions is probably more important than fetches, but they're both important. Kolaghan's Command can become Rise/Fall if you want, but with that you're losing burn spells which hurts you when racing, although the tempo play and the card advantage shift are still there. Terminate can become Doom Blade, Smother, Dismember, Go for the Throat, or really any removal spell you've got laying around for starters. I'd say Terminate is the least important card out of these other budget alternatives, but going budget doesn't end up saving you a ton. Don't go out and buy Terminate alternatives, just play with whatever you've got laying around until you can get them if you have to.

Glad to see you took interest in the deck! Good luck!

Thanks for all the advice! without the side board a few minor changes and an extremely budget mana base i got it down to 237, i'll probably make a few changes to the main to fit my personal play style but it looks fun! i want a list that just doesn't get boring to play, and something as complex as this is sure not to disappoint!

Sounds risky to go for the super budget manabase, but I'm glad to hear that it might work! I do recommend a sideboard, as it's around $9 for the sideboard I have listed with no Engineered Explosives, which is pretty good I'd say. Of that $9, #3.50 is just Languish, and it's a pretty important part of the deck.

Do you have a decklist? I'm curious to see what it looks like.

yea true, sides are important. Rocket Science: Budget heres what i'm at at the moment, i'm thinking about adding Gurmag Angler as a 2 of and Thought Scour, to go a little more tempo. but it could throw the synergies off, i'm gonna have to play around with it

Night hawk over Young Pyromancer? why? you should just run pyromancer.

Yep! Definitely Vampire Nighthawk over Young Pyromancer. Remember that this deck is more than just delver - it's midrange. This means we usually win through attrition, not tempo. We can play a good tempo game, but we're designed to be an attrition deck primarily. In the game of attrition, 1/1 elemental tokens are almost worthless. In delver decks, pyromancer tokens are great because you can make a ton within a turn or 2 and be swinging in on tempo really quickly. In the long game, the tokens have to have flying or be bigger than 1/1, like what BW tokens does or what Abzan does with Lingering Souls. For this deck, because we can only trickle out 1-2 tokens every turn at best, and since they're never bigger than 1/1, they're really just do nothing in here. When playing reactively we can make tokens to chump with, but Nighthawk is just better when on the reactive plan. When playing proactively, the tokens just don't do much for us, whereas Nighthawk at leas has flying. To play with Pyromancer, you really have to build for him with Gitaxian Probe and other cheap cantrips to reliably make 4-5 tokens before he dies to get enough value to really make it worth it in midrange.

What exactly is the use for Faithless Looting in the deck? You mentioned it had great synergies, but all I see is the synergy with Bloodghast (and I guess with Kolaghan's Command a little), and it doesn't seem worth it to play just for that. It seems odd to be playing a 4-of that loses card advantage in an attrition deck.

Synergy with delve and snapcaster

Nice! +1. Way to bring back Vampire Nighthawk in style.

Here's a thought: I do like Faithless Looting here because it's a really nice late-game play if you have irrelevant lands or a dead spell. But in the early game, I'd rather have a Thought Scour. I realize you're doing a midrange thing and maybe don't want to be that random, but you have redundancy with your threats, including 4X Ghast, and you have 2X K-mand in the deck. I'd go so far as to suggest you might experiment with 4X Scour, 0X Visions, and 3X Looting - and just trust the deck's ability to extract graveyard value, while probably not being that much more vulnerable to grave hate. I suppose that's mostly a matter of preference, though. But if you ever get a playset of Snapcaster Mages, I'll come back and argue the point.

Yeah, taking a second look at your list i understand why not to include pyromancer. However i am still highly skeptical of Vampire Nighthawk. It just seems like there has to be a better card out there.

I think Nighthawk makes sense - GoblinBushwacker. It condenses extra evasive threats, flying blockers, lifegain, and removal into 4 deck slots, which is something you need to do in midrange - and Grixis doesn't have access to Lingering Souls or Kitchen Finks. A lot of Grixis midrange lists are running 1-of Pia and Kiran Nalaar for similar reasons - I think this is better.

GoblinBushwacker I know that feeling. There was a time when I heavily questioned Vampire Nighthawk for that exact reason. It kept dying to bolt, or Remand, or something else and I just about gave up on it, until I realized 2 things about that card.

1. There are matchups where it should not be cast on turn 3. Seems kinda obvious, but critical. If your opponent is likely to have an answer, then don't cast it unless you're baiting out that answer or have a Spell Pierce to respond.

2. There are matchups where it should be sided out. Also seems kinda obvious, but just as critical. Paying 3 mana for a 2 power attacker when trying to aggro them down is pretty bad. Nighthawk wins the game against most aggro decks, but is terrible against control, combo, and tempo.

So Nighthawk is a great card, but you have to be smart about playing him.

ConfusedMandarin Good question! Faithless Looting is certainly unconventional, but absolutely critical. Other people have given pretty good explanations, but here's the long-winded thorough reasoning behind looting.

When analyzing that card, the most important thing to keep in mind is that card advantage has 2 components: tangible card advantage and virtual card advantage. Tangible is literally how many cards either player has on the field. Virtual card advantage is determined by comparing card value and relevancy. For example, if both players have no board, 5 lands, and 20 life, but I have 1 Keranos, God of Storms in my hand whilst my opponent has 5 more Lands in there hand, although my opponent technically has more cards, I have more virtual card advantage because my 1 card is likely to win me the game whereas his 5 cards are not.

Faithless Looting is great at building virtual advantage, even though it causes tangible card disadvantage. To understand its usefulness, you have to look at how it works in individual cases.

1. You have Faithless Looting and Bloodghast in your hand: This is the best case scenario. You can cast your looting, draw 2 cards, then discard your Ghast and the worst card in your hand. Then you play a land and your bloodghast revives. This is significant because you effectively played a 1 mana draw 2 discard 1. You break even on tangible card advantage, but pull way ahead in virtual. You've gained a 'free' 2/1 creature on the field, building your tempo, and improved your hand through the filter. It is reasonable to assume that the cards you draw are going to be better than the worst card in your hand, so the quality of your hand is improving. If you end up discarding one of the cards that you drew, then you're avoiding having to draw it in a turn or 2, which is still building virtual advantage. Thought Scour in this scenario would effectively be less tempo and no virtual advantage because you have to hardcast Ghast, even though it has the same tangible card advantage as Looting.

2. You have a hand with at least 1 dead card in the matchup and Faithless Looting: In this case, you lose tangible card advantage when you cast looting, but remember that a completely dead card in a matchup (think Terminate vs Ad Nauseam) holds no value to you, so when you discard it, you have almost the same virtual card advantage. This way, in regards to virtual advantage, Looting is better than Scour because looting becomes effectively a draw 2 discard 1 because there's one card in our hand that we don't care about discarding.

3. You have a hand with all gas and a Faithless Looting: In delver, this situation is bad because looting is straight card disadvantage, but because we are midrange, we don't need to cast Looting. We can just hold looting, draw our card each turn, and play our hand full of gas. We will either win without needing looting because we drew all gas, or we will eventually draw a land we didn't want or a dead card or a Ghast, and then we pull the trigger on Looting to keep the gas flowing. Thought Scour is better, but unnecessary in this situation because if we're hitting all cards we want and don't need looting or the full grave, then we have no need to cast Scour. When we do finally hit a bad card, looting becomes virtually a draw 2 discard 1 again, which is an awesome effect. In delver, they need the tempo of the full grave, but because we're midrange, we are just fine holding Looting until we need it.

Note that in all of these situations I listed, this is only using Faithless Looting without flashback. When you add in the late game value due to flashback, the value of the card goes over the top. I openly acknowledge that Looting would be unplayable without flashback. But when it can be almost as good or better than Thought Scour on the first cast, and only adds to the value with the flashback, the card becomes the better choice for deck without a doubt.