Introduction
An aggressive shell for Delver to try out in standard. This deck does not rely on Delver specifically, but cheap creatures in general that synergize with a high density of instants and sorceries. Your basic gameplan is:
Turn 1: Delver or Consider (on opponent's turn in the latter case)
Turn 2: Stowaway, Delver, or some kind of disruption
Turn 3: Stitcher or Witch
Turn 4+: Snowball on board with your card advantage and token engines.
Card Choices
Delver of Secrets:
Naming the deck after our buggy little friend is probably a misnomer in the making. Everyone is calling their shiny new decks that run 3-4 copies of Delver Delver decks, but in actual fact they're not terribly centered around their highlight card. This deck is no exception. This is an aggro deck with a high density of instants and sorceries, which means Delver goes great in it. It's fantastic for generating pressure in the first couple turns of the game. Respect the Delver, but you don't need to rely on it every game, we have a lot more to do than help our wizard friend turn into a bug.
Suspicious Stowaway:
This seems like a divisive choice from the Delver lists I've looked at, probably because it's a justifiable cut for more instants and sorceries. I disagree with the choice to remove it in an aggro shell like this, though. Forget flying, we have an unblockable draw engine. We might also bait opponents into jamming spells to prevent the extra 1 damage from the transformation as a nice plus, especially with our Jwari Disruptions (though we shouldn't be shy about flipping it back to day to get out our own spells). This is likely to be a lightning rod, which is great, because our three drops would really like to stick around for a turn or two...
Poppet Stitcher:
The value of Stitcher should be obvious. Beefy token generator that can further buff your other tokens is good.
Sedgemoor Witch:
Witch is not just a worse copy of Stitcher. This is an aggro deck and it likes jamming damage through. The menace and ward with a life cost help us to do just that, even through blockers and removal. Of course, Witch's tokens get a massive boost in value with a transformed Stitcher on the board.
Consider:
Fine cantrip, and easily the best we have right now. Not the best for setting up Delver, which I'm sure is intentional. Wizards doesn't want this card to dominate all on its own anymore and frankly I agree.
Bloodchief's Thirst, Flunk, Infernal Grasp, Ray of Enfeeblement, Eaten Alive:
We're gonna be playing a lot with different kill-spell densities as the meta evolves. Interactive spells like this are highly contingent on how the rest of the meta shakes out post MID. I feel as though I have to defend the inclusion of Eaten Alive in the sideboard though since I don't see anyone else running it. With all the recursive cards in Midnight Hunt, I expect we'll be seeing some threats we would really rather not send to grave. Whether Eaten Alive is the right card for the job really depends on whether we're likely to have tokens in the matchups that include those threats. Still going to try it out because I believe it has potential as a hate piece in the sideboard.
Village Rites:
Pure gas with a Witch or Stitcher on board. Trade a token for another token and net card advantage. Against a deck where you have to fight to keep your creatures alive it probably swaps for your negates in the sideboard, but even then maybe not since it can come out in response to the kill spell.
Jwari Disruption:
You'll notice we're not running many counterspells. This is because we're looking to close out as quickly as possible. Jwari disruption has the advantage of being both an instant and a land, increasing the instant/sorcery density for delver while not significantly weakening the manabase. Additionally, it supports our gameplan better than something like Saw it Coming. Rather than a slower hard counter, we opt to disrupt our opponent's plan in the early game just enough to give us time to snowball or win with an early Delver clock.
Malakir Rebirth:
This serves as a soft counterspell to protect our board advantage from kill spells, or to help our creatures survive clashes. This card has a ton of value, replacing still more lands to give us the instants and sorceries we need and carrying a ton of value as an instant. I could see going up to 4 copies of this.
Agadeem's Awakening:
An experimental add. This certainly has a ton of value if a game goes long and we need a bomb, but that isn't this deck's strong suit. Might not make the cut after I've had a chance to really play this versus a variety of decks. Or I could go up to 2, who knows? We have a nice creature curve for it and it does go well with Consider as the cantrip of choice.
Negate:
Running one maindeck feels right to me when we don't know what we're up against yet. It's certainly nice to have when the opponent has a wipe, but maybe less nice than a lot of other things we could be running. The one maindeck copy could easily end up on the side.
The Meathook Massacre:
This might seem like a weird addition. It's not an instant or sorcery, so it doesn't proc Delver, Witch, or Stitcher. It's also a wipe in an aggro deck, which seems completely counter to our gameplan. But hear me out... As a 2 drop, Meathook provides us marginal value throughout the game, punishing our opponent's removal and earning us back some life from ours. Sweetening the deal with our trades. If we're behind on board, it's a wipe. If we're locked down and only need to push a little more damage over the edge, we can clear our own tokens to finish off our opponent. I think this card gives us a lot of flexibility that makes it worth testing, and potentially even running as a 2-of either in the main or in the side.
Hive of the Eye Tyrant:
Our Man-land of choice. We don't want the game to run long enough to use Hall of the Storm Giants, and Faceless Haven would force us to run snow lands. Plus, the menace is nice and fits in well with our overall gameplan.
Other Sideboard Options/Lands:
Most of this should be pretty self-explanitory. Leave a comment if you have any questions or comments about the current construction. Currently keeping in mind the possibility of siding Pithing Needle if it turns out it handles enough stuff that our deck finds annoying, but I don't think it's worth including until I run into matchups where I realize I'm missing it.
