Didgeridooda says... #2
I am not a modern player, but I can give you my advice.
Dash Hopes if it gives your opponent a choice, you will be on the worse end. Not worth running.
Not a big fan of Runechanter's Pike I would def prefer the swords. If you run the swords I would consider 4x Invisible Stalker he is awesome.
Master of the Feast
seems good enough. Play test him, and figure it out.
Duress /Thoughtseize are both good why not plan on 2/3 or 3 of each?
Your land base is sparse, and it is not match up to Cyclonic Rift
That card does not really match your deck too well. If you are going for broke with a blitz, maybe sideboard that. You also need to get a sideboard together as it is just as important as the deck.
I would work for at least one more lili. I like Spell Pierce
over mana leak. I would want to run Go for the Throat
or at least sideboard that, and switch it with the Doomblade.
Run 4 Gitaxian Probe
such a good card. Especially if you want to use the Thoughtseize
yet. Get a 4th Watery Grave
, and possibly cut the fast land.
I hope this muddled stuff helps you out. Let me know what you think, and I will help you with the sideboard.
April 24, 2014 3:07 p.m.
NobodyPicksBulbasaur says... #3
If you want to keep your land count low, I would suggest adding two more copies of Gitaxian Probe . It helps thin your deck, and makes your discard spells slightly stronger.
I would also highly recommend at least 3, if not 4 copies of Vapor Snag . It's an extremely valuable tempo card.
April 24, 2014 3:07 p.m.
Didgeridooda says... #4
I will second Vapor Snag seems that we are on a similar page there NPB did not want to type your whole name, and ended up typing this. Which is way longer then typing out your name. I need a nap.
April 24, 2014 3:11 p.m.
Alrighty, sorry Didgeridooda but Runechanter's Pike is made for a deck like this, it will be bonkers pretty much immediately, while in almost all cases, swords are better, they are also a deal more expensive.
I would recommend +2 Gitaxian Probe , +2 Thoughtsieze, +4 Remand +4 Vapor Snag , I'd cut the Cyclonic Rift , Go for the Throat over Doomblade, and swap to SB. I'd cut Dash Hopes . Obviously you can't use it to it's fullest extend but Raven's Crime is an excellent way to disrupt someone's hand.
Obviously, you can't have enough Liliana of the Veil but she's pretty damn expensive.
Also, I'd playtest with Master of the Feast but if it were me, I'd almost always play Desecration Demon over him, 1 more CMC gives and extra +1/+1 and the chance the completely control board state. Card draw is TOO good in modern so you pretty much never want to give your opponent the option
April 24, 2014 3:35 p.m.
Didgeridooda says... #6
I could see that. I just am partial to swords, and it sounded like he had some already. I think which ever he chooses though, he should run at least 3 if not 4.
April 24, 2014 3:41 p.m.
ChiefWannaHacka says... #7
Sorta skimmed other comments, but too lazy to read them all so here goes!
Cut Cyclonic Rift and Dash Hopes for sure, and Vapor Snag is amazing in a tempo deck like this.
This may just be my personal preference, but I like having a mix of removal/answers, and the modern format is unforgiving if you don't have the right tool at the right time. That said I would suggest mixing up your counterspell and removal suite.
Cards to consider include: Remand , Go for the Throat , Spell Snare , Spell Pierce , and Slaughter Pact . Being only in 2 colors, you may also consider Geth's Verdict or since you're light on creatures and don't need lots of land Smallpox .
As far as Master of the Feast goes, I don't think you want to be giving your opponents cards no matter when they get it. You might want to look at the classic Tombstalker .
If you already have some swords, then they are usually better than pike. You won't hit as hard, but they offer protection and huge utility bonuses when you connect.
Also for the lands, some good additions that are pretty cheap are Creeping Tar Pit at about $10 and Tectonic Edge at about $1.
Hope this helps.
April 24, 2014 4:18 p.m.
InconspicuousPotato says... #8
Check this out. The 1st deck is pretty much exactly what you're going for here.
April 24, 2014 6:13 p.m.
Thanks for the comments. I have some changes to consider. I will update the list accordingly.
As for the link, it's nice to see that a pro is thinking along the same lines.
April 24, 2014 8:26 p.m.
NobodyPicksBulbasaur says... #10
I think I do have to agree with TWoo that hand disruption shouldn't really be your priority here. Keep the board clear and their hands won't matter. Tempo at its finest.
April 24, 2014 10:24 p.m.
So I have been thinking about this all night. The more I thought the more my own bias faded and the more I had to agree with Mr. Woo. I do however disagree about having no removal other than snag main board. Also some of the cards he chose I simply cannot afford (paying college tuition for two really puts a hurtin on my budget). So I can still have fun building and testing with cards that are more in my budget, and keep the deck my own instead of a straight up copy.
April 25, 2014 10:10 a.m.
In my experience Delver decks don't do all that well without massive amounts of protection or countermagic. Modern is home to very large amounts of removal and it's run in almost every deck. I would add in discard, more countermagic, and protection to the mainboard if you want to keep the Delver of Secrets deck.
May 7, 2014 6:02 p.m.
MindAblaze says... #13
I feel like Mana Leak , Remand and Spell Pierce is a pretty good selection of ways to protect the Delvers. If it really came down to it he could bounce it back to his hand with Vapor Snag .
TBH I like this. I feel like Master of the Feast will lay some serious beats down, Insectile Aberration Flip will cause lots of havoc and Snapcaster Mage will let you reuse EVERYTHING.
If you were to consider unbudgetizing it...Cryptic Command is awesome. It would become the most expensive thing in your deck though.
I'm loving Xathrid Necromancer right now too, and almost all of your creatures are Humans...something to consider depending on whether you feel like your Masters are feeding them too many cards.
May 7, 2014 6:18 p.m.
Yugornot, MindAblaze! Thank you looking at the deck. I had a disruption package int the first list, but after testing and reading an article by Travis Woo that was linked in comments I moved them to the sideboard. They seemed to just slow the deck down too much. I also found that I almost never cast them. The first few turns I always wanted to get creatures out and beat some face.
Eventually I do want to unbudget the deck. Cryptic Command is the first on the list to get. Right now the only cards I'm missing are the Remand s. I also want to bump them up to a 4 of. The necromancer looks fun, I will test him out.
Thanks again for the feedback and the +1. Feel free to come back and make more suggestions if you think of any.
May 8, 2014 3:49 a.m.
A card I have been testing in my Izzet delver deck is Delay the card is insane and cheap both in price and cost i would suggest testing it at least. Also, I don't think this is a Cryptic Command deck the card is insane but I just don't think you can get to four enough for it to be worth it. Plus in a delver deck you really want cheaper spells. You really need Spell Snare some where in the 75 it is a blue staple in modern. Geth's Verdict is another card to consider or Smother both are better than Go for the Throat since affinity is a thing.
NobodyPicksBulbasaur says... #1
I'm not terribly well versed in Modern, but this deck, overall, looks like it should handle nicely.
Dash Hopes is not Modern-playable. You never want to give your opponent a choice unless both choices make them lose the game. You're probably better off with a simple Remand . This is a tempo deck at its core, and Remand is pure tempo.
Master of the Feast is a newb to the scene, so I would keep an eye on it to see if it performs as well as you'd like it to. Giving your opponents extra cards in Modern is riskier than in Standard because the power of each individual card can be expected to be higher. That being said, a 5/5 for 3 mana can do some work in a tempo game.
April 24, 2014 3:05 p.m.