The Banana Mafia and the Golden Fang Gang
Hideouts (19)
Disruption (7)
Drivebys (5)
Mafia (3)
Orders (2)
Reconnaissance (1)
Intel (10)
Gunfire (4)
Labbies (4)
Pet (1)
Strategist (4)
Sideboard
Other (15)
The Banana Mafia is awaiting your presence...
Breakdown
Grixis Delver is the best variant of an aggro-control deck in Modern. Now, you might be asking "Swaggy, what is aggro-control? Isn't that kinda just tempo?" Well, it is, but it also isn't. Tempo is a bit more threat-oriented than aggro-control. I'd say the Young Pyromancer builds and my old Abbot of Keral Keep builds are more tempo (by the way, if I think there's a way to sneak an Abbot or two in the list somewhere, I will: that card is one of my absolute favorites to play with). While tempo looks to play a threat and protect it with disruption, aggro-control tries to disrupt and gain card advantage, like a control deck, than play out its threats and start swinging. However, that doesn't mean I won't play a delver Turn 1: it more means I'd rather hold up Mana Leak than play a Young Pyromancer Turn 2. This deck is fairly skill-intensive to pilot: I wouldn't recommend it to the beginning modern player. I played Delver when I first played modern and I didn't understand quite how to play it and blamed the deck instead of my own capacity; I moved to Infect, which was much easier to pilot, but now that I'm a skilled enough player to know how to play most decks to 80+% of their potential, I picked up Delver and began to play it well. As time goes on, I'll learn to play it to probably around 95% of its potential (I don't think people ever really play a deck to 100% of it's potential, but can usually end up around 98% if they really put in effort). If you want to play a skill-intensive deck that can play different roles well, then this is the list for you!
Another reason to play Grixis Delver is that it is around 50% against almost every deck. While there are good and bad matchups, there isn't really an abysmal matchup (besides Tron, but one of the reasons to play delver over control is because we can beat tron down fairly quick if they don't Natural Tron Turn 3 and Karn us.) I think we might be slightly less favored (around 47%) against most decks pre-board and even post-board sometimes, but with a strong disruption package, we are able to capitalize on our opponent having to constantly switch up their plan when they can't always resolve the card they want or their threat dies. This leads to the opponent making more mistakes, and us being able to capitalize on those percentage points they're giving up.
We try to play as efficiently as possible in order to gain as much advantage as possible. We give up life for mana and card advantage. Grixis Delver focuses on gaining a mana advantage early on and relies on mana advantage as the main way to get ahead, then later on gains card advantage to close the game out. The way we gain mana advantage is by answering our opponent's threats for less mana than they cost. For example, Spell Snareing a Tarmogoyf or Fatal Pushing a Thought-Knot Seer gains us mana advantage: while we're not up a card, we've spent less mana to deal with their spell than they've spent to cast it. Eventually, that adds up to us having more of the creatures we've cast putting in work; for example, a Snapcaster Mage that hit the opponent once has done more than a Goyf that got Fatal Pushed. Another way we get ahead is card advantage, which is just having more cards than our opponent. We do this by drawing more cards with Tasigur, the Golden Fang and including ways to two-for-one, such as Kolaghan's Command and Thought Scour. Delver also uses card velocity to gain an advantage. Card velocity is how fast you see the cards in your deck. Serum Visions and Thought Scour don't really leave us ahead by much, but they allow us to look at more cards in our deck than our opponent. By gaining more and more advantage over the course of the game, we are able to value them out. Then, when we have control over the game, we play out our powerful threats like Tasigur, the Golden Fang, Gurmag Angler, and Insectile Aberration , and use our burn spells as ways to speed up our clock instead of kill our opponent's creatures. When we go proactive, we want to reduce the draw steps our opponent has so they have a lesser chance of finding a way to get back into the game.
This deck plays strong against most aggressively-slanted decks, such as aggro (Burn, Zoo, and Affinity) and combo (Ad Nauseam, Infect). In this Delver build, we assume the control role early on and are able to halt our opponent's plans most of the time before they kill us. Since our opponent's decks aren't built to play late game, we can easily tilt the game in our favor and get the win. We can still lose if they draw plenty of gas and we aren't fast enough, or we get land stuck, but usually we can beat these style of decks. Dredge is that weird exception, since counterspells and removal don't do a ton against them.
Decks we're even on are the midrange decks like Death's Shadow variants, Jund, Abzan, and control decks like Jeskai Nahiri, Lantern and White-Blue Control. We win around 2 turns later than the midrange decks, which sounds bad: why would you want to win later? The reason we win a bit later is because we have more answers and try to disrupt our opponent's plan longer than they do. That means we're more positioned to take out our opponent's resources than they are. One thing midrange decks try to do is play to the late game, not realizing they should be playing to kill us as aggressively as possible. However, there are certainly games where we should be playing the aggressive role instead; a crucial key to these kind of matchups is understanding who's the beatdown. Against control, we can play their game fairly well, but should be looking to be aggressive. We are almost a control deck ourselves, but we don't play with real swingy cards like Cryptic Command for the sake of efficiency. In the end, if we aren't able to kill our opponent quick enough, we're just going to have dead cards like Mana Leak in our hand while they cast Snap-Cryptic to counter the last threat in our hand.
Where this deck has issues are against decks that try to go over us. Some examples include Tron, TitanShift, Sun and Moon, Grixis Control, and Wafo-Tapa Esper Control. We try to play to the late game: however, in these matchups, we have to try to play as aggressive as possible. We do have the capability to do that with Insectile Aberration s, early Tasigur, the Golden Fangs, and Bolt-Snap-Bolts, but against decks like Tron, they will always have more mana advantage and we will eventually not be able to answer one of their big bombs. Also, we don't have a good way to deal with lands, and these opponents have extremely powerful lands: we can't just Fatal Push an Urza's Tower or a Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle. Molten Rain or Fulminator Mage might be good in sideboards if you're in a tron filled meta, but usually, land destruction does too little too late.
Snapcaster Mage: Naturally a recluse as a kid, he keeps himself in the intel room, strategizing, planning, and manipulating
This is the best blue creature. No questions asked. Its going in the deck. Got it? Good.
Delver of Secrets : These were once scientists, but mutations from gamma rays changed them over time. They're not a hulk, but since they were experimenting on insects...
Just about the most aggressive good blue creature in Magic. Its going in the deck. Got it? Deja vu.
Tasigur, the Golden Fang: The underground banana mafia, he leads the Golden Fang Gang into warfare against any other "troubles."
Tasigur is an extremely powerful creature. I've called him the Tasigoyf for a reason. If you've seen my Standard deck (which is disassembled) Abzan Tasigoyf?... Aww Yeah! you've seen how he's like a Tarmogoyf.
Why do I say Tasigoyf? If you have 4 (different creature types) cards in your yard by T2 (somehow) you can play a 4/5 Tarmogoyf or a Tasigur, the Golden Fang, which is a 4/5. Tasigoyf's P&T don't flux (which in most cases, is good, but Tasigur can't be a 5/6 without +1/+1 counters) and, Tasigoyf has his ability, which is goddamn amazing.
Gurmag Angler: As they wander near the pit, Tasigur says to Anafenza "Pet's favorite food is Rhino meat."
Mana Leak: As the gangster leader known as Bob stepped outside, the sparks fired up in the air, pushing him away from his door. Bob slowly saw himself being pushed to the fish pit...
Its a decent card to have Game 1, but it can be and, if need be, will be sided out in certain matchups.
Remand: As the Goblin began to lead his tour group towards the GFG's hideout, Tasigur took a step outside. "I'm sorry, but this area is off-limits. You will be reimbursed for this inconvenience."
Remand is just a way to find a solid answer and buy a bit of time against some faster decks. Being able to stop your opponent's plan early on and dig for an answer or a threat is exactly what we want to do: Remand fits the bill perfectly.
Spell Snare: The goyf began to lunge away from the Angler Feeding Pit, but eldritch vines popped out of the ground, slowly pulling it towards the mouth of Pet.
Counters a whole lot of good stuff, and it only costs . The unfortunate part is it can get stranded in your hand for most of the game sometimes, but when you can cast it, it does work.
Credit to Scorprix for the hilarious name :)
Fatal Push: With one last look at the tied-up victim, the intel-man shoved him into the feeding pit, where Pet swam below, ready for his afternoon snack.
Efficiency is king in Grixis Delver. Fatal Push is a single mana to kill most of what is good in this format. We run 9 fetches to almost always trigger it, but with Death's Shadow and Tarmogoyf being the creatures with the biggest bodies, we really don't need revolt that often.
Terminate: The ringleaders were expertly lined up overhead. As the cops walked under the arch, they dropped their grenades. As they ran off the bridge, they looked back and saw the bridge collapse on top of the cop's mangled bodies. They radioed one simple message to Tasigur: "Target terminated."
It's an efficient removal spell that can't be dodged by a regenerate trigger. Not much more you can ask for (except for drawing cards or winning the game.)
Lightning Bolt: When the cops looked at the remains of the beast, they wrote down in their report that it "looked like a Lightning Bolt had hit it."
Yeah, L-Bolt. 'Nuff said.
Forked Bolt : The two burn victims lay next to each other, each having charred flesh in the middle of their abdomen...
Fifth copy of bolt. Electrolyze is pretty mana inefficient, but depending on the meta, it could replace Forked Bolt. I just find being able to Snapcaster Mage this back is better more often than waiting to 5 mana with Electrolyze. This is also a pretty good answer to Lingering Souls.
So, for this section, I'm going to be focusing on what I call "delve net theory", or how much mana is in relation to how much delve mana is given out. E.G Anticipate is -1, because you put in, and you only got delve mana out. However, this only really matters if you cast your delve spell on the turn you cast your cantrip.
1. Thought Scour: Net .
2. Serum Visions: Net .
3. Remand: Net -1.
However, this doesn't determine how good overall these cantrips are. Serum Visions is whacky in here, so you can't cut it because of its net. But its good to keep these in mind, in case you need more or don't need as much delve mana.
Thought Scour: "Mr. Geralf?" "Yes." "We need some info on these subjects" transactions of papers I think I could do that for a small price." "Yes, I got enough brain to go around... or should I say, my crew does." "I see how you work, Mr. Tasigur."
Just needed a little Cantrip Delve Dark Ritual in here, if you catch my drift. And it's at instant speed, which is important if you are holding up Mana Leak (which, by the way, is what you should be doing when you can!) so you don't time walk yourself by not casting a spell. Another clever trick you can do is after you look at the top card of your library with the delver trigger, you can cast a Thought Scour if you don't want the card you've seen with the delver trigger so you can mill it away nd draw a new card. This really only comes up late game, as you can't afford to spend mana early on since you need it up to disrupt your opponent. But it does allow for a good way to filter cards.
Serum Visions: As Tasigur hooked up to the serum, he could see the future. He plotted this information, now knowing more of his scientists would flip out, and become bug-men.
This card is the "best" cantrip in the modern format. It's also the Batman cantrip; it is not the cantrip we want, it is the cantrip the format deserves.
Kolaghan's Command : "Tasigur, we've received orders from a dragon named Kolaghan. Should we enact them?" "She is an associate of mine. Do as she says... for now."
Kolaghan's Command is one of my favorite cards to play with. Whenever you cast it in this deck, you will get a two-for-one guaranteed.
One extremely important part of Kolaghan's Command is its interaction with Snapcaster Mage. One common play pattern is when your opponent swings, you can flash in a Snapcaster, target Kommand, chump with Snapcaster, then end of turn cast Kommand and return Snapcaster to your hand.
Another powerful thing Kommand does is allow you to nullify your opponent's draw step. During the end of your opponent's draw step, you can cast Kommand and force them to discard. This is especially effective when they only have one card in hand.
Kommand is very strong against affinity because you will almost always kill two creatures. It does work against Liliana because it can make your opponent discard one of the few cards they have left and deal two to her, or maybe let you draw a creature you discarded. Overall, this card can singlehandedly swing games into your advantage and it's never a bad topdeck unless you only have 2 land.
Collective Brutality: The bug-men flew into the intel office, guns blazing at the Bloodghasts. The intel-men threw a smoke grenade into the faces of the horrors while the bug men came in and finished them off.
The black Cryptic Command. Well, that's a bit of an overstatement. Or maybe understatement?
Collective Brutality is a very swingy card. It really depends on how many "dead cards" (e.g. Spell Snare late game) you have in hand. When you can get two modes, it really does a lot for two mana. It can also help ramp out a delve spell, as this can put up to 3 cards into your graveyard for . All of the modes are useful: removal is always good, hand attack is something Delver wants but doesn't use because its somewhat poor late game, and lifegain is something delver wants but can't afford to play because pure lifegain isn't really that good. This is a combination of removal, hand attack, and lifegain/burn all in one card. Because of its high-variance, I only really want to play one. but I can certainly see more maindeck as a future change.
Once in a while, the Golden Fang Gang calls on their associates and old operations to use against stubborn enemies. They hope they can find the trump card to opposing plans.
We have a counterspell package in Countersquall and Dispel against noncreature decks. Any time we side in counterspells, we do it because they are more efficient (there it is again, efficiency) and counterspeels can really throw a curve into our opponent's plan.
Ceremonious Rejection: Great answer to Eldrazi deck, Tron and Affinity. Going Rejection against T2 Thought-Knot and Snap-Rejection against T3 Reality Smasher is the dream.
Liliana, the Last Hope: This is good against slow decks, infect, and zoo decks. It recurs threats and neutralizes big threats. The +1 can secretly be "make Tasigur unblockable" sometimes. If left unchecked, the ultimate wins the game in quick order, but I doubt we're going to ultimate her much.
Surgical Extraction: We play this as hate against Dredge and Ad Nauseam mostly. If we can take away dredge's free "get things back" cards (Narcomoeba and Bloodghast) we can mostly annihilate their game plan. Ad Nauseam: just take an Angel's Grace or something. This could be also used against Tron decks and possible=y Valakut decks if you want to mill them with Thought Scour and hope to get lucky, but it doesn't seem excellent.
Izzet Staticaster: Good against Abzan (Lingering Souls), Dredge (reusable answer against Narcomoeba and Bloodghast), and Bant Eldrazi (kills Scions and allows Bolt to hit 4 toughness creatures).
Anger of the Gods : Just our sweeper. The reasoning behind it being Anger is because it exiles dredge cards. Also seems good against decks with Finks and other persist creatures such as Abzan Company.
Nihil Spellbomb: One sided graveyard hate. Good against graveyard decks. Not much to say.
Painful Truths: Another way to help us gain advantage against midrange and control decks. This is especially effective against midrange decks as they don't have counterspells to deal with it.
Vandalblast: Shatter for , or late on a way to totally annihilate artifact decks. Still being able to go Vandalblast for , Snap Vandalblast can put you ahead a good portion. I'm not sure how necessary this card is since I'm already a bit favored against affinity, but it does put in good value.
Magma Spray: Easy answer for Finks, dredge creatures, and other aggressive decks, but I think I can definitely cut this card for a better answer.
In this section I'm going to quickly list all the favorable and unfavorable matchups. Above I listed the general rules but here I'm going to explicitly state what the good and bad matchups are with my configuration of the maindeck and sideboard.
Counters Company, Affinity, Grixis Shadow, Izzet Storm, Living End, Zoo, and Ad Nauseam.
If you understand the deck, Jund, Abzan, Knightfall, Elves, Burn, and Jeskai Tempo are solid matchups. With the current amount of sideboard hate I have dredge is a fine matchup that can be won if played optimally.
As always, suggestions and +1s are appreciated. If you have any questions on how to play the deck or card choices, feel free to ask me! You can find me here (obviously XD) or Twitter @Dustydeckbox. Another great resource is Ryan Overturf: I based the current build off of his Delver theory and articles. He has some good Grixis Delver content on modernnexus.com
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| Top Ranked |
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| Date added | 9 years |
| Last updated | 7 years |
| Exclude colors | WG |
| Legality | This deck is Modern legal. |
| Rarity (main - side) | 0 - 1 Mythic Rares 25 - 4 Rares 9 - 7 Uncommons 21 - 3 Commons |
| Cards | 60 |
| Avg. CMC | 1.93 |
| Tokens | Emblem Liliana, the Last Hope, Zombie 2/2 B |
| Folders | modern_delver_grix, Grixis Delver, Modern, Cool Shiz, decks to make, Future Deck Ideas, Things I might build, Modern, Decks im gonna build probably, Favorite Decks |
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