Why is delver deck good

Seeing as most people won't be able to answer those sorts of questions for you, the decision of which Delver deck to play can be a difficult one to find help with. However, there are some specific qualities of each variant that can be quantified which should make the overall question a bit easier to answer. In today's article, I'm going to define and explicate some characteristics of the 3 major Delver variants: Izzet, Temur, and Grixis.

My goal is to have this serve as a reference point for players who are asking themselves the same type of questions I outlined in the first paragraph. I will be working under the assumption that cost is not a factor if it is, choose Izzet , but will otherwise try to address a relatively wide-range of concerns that a player might have.

I'm starting with Izzet because a decent amount of people seem to view this as the introductory Delver deck. This seems to directly reflect it's relatively low monetary cost. While there are some features of how the deck functions that might contribute to this as well, this isn't necessarily the variant I would personally recommend to someone who is just starting to play the archetype.

First, I want to try to debunk the myth that this is the best Delver variant for newer players. Then, I'll explore the reasons and situations one would choose to play Izzet. The number one reason I don't think Izzet is the best for newer players is that pound for pound, its cards are less powerful than other Delver variants. Not having access to a 3rd color limits not only the threats it has access to, but the answers as well. This generally translates to 3 in-game issues:.

Each of these factors result in the Izzet Delver player being incentivized to take a more aggressive stance relative to other Delver decks.

Due to the fact that the threats die more easily, it can be challenging to keep up with other decks in a longer game. In addition, a number of the threats in Izzet require work to become truly threatening. Young Pyromancer , Sprite Dragon , and Stormwing Entity all require some mindful spell sequencing in order to maximize how effective they are. This means that a player newer to the archetype might not extract all of the power out of the cards mid-game and thus have a more difficult time winning games.

Because the removal suite cannot answer everything, the Izzet player might have to ignore threats and cast their Bolts at the opponent. The same goes for the disruptive suite, as most decks can be navigated into a situation where their spells will resolve through some countermagic. This, in addition to the relatively fragile threat base, incentivizes the Izzet player to use countermagic to protect their threats more often than other Delver decks.

None of this is necessarily a bad thing, but it does limit your tactical options. Limiting tactical options could be viewed as a benefit to a newer player, as Legacy can be a bit intricate at times. However, to the player that exclusively cares about winning above all else, Izzet's limitations might make it a bit worse in an open metagame. This isn't to say that Izzet isn't a good choice. In fact, Izzet tends to be my personal choice more than other versions of Delver.

While I do think that Izzet Delver needs to be played a bit more aggressively, I think it's the best suited Delver deck to execute an aggressive gameplan. Specifically, Young Pyromancer and Sprite Dragon make it a lot easier to ignore your opponent's gameplan and play a sort of solitaire-style game.

This makes tempo elements, like Brazen Borrower, really effective in this deck as opponents probably won't have enough time to re-develop their board. Being limited to 2 colors comes with benefits as well. Games are more satisfying because there were more decisions to be made on each side.

Cards that interact with other cards need to be good in order to incentivize or necessitate playing them. On the other hand, cards that interact with the opponent threats, combos, victory conditions also need to be good, otherwise a format devolves into control or midrange mirrors.

A format needs balance. The balance is what fosters diversity and makes the game interesting. Legacy and Modern have a lot of both, which is why I think they are great formats. The reason this is so? Imagine how the Legacy metagame would be impacted if Tolarian Academy was suddenly unbanned. Academy would be a terrible best deck. The fact that this is true and the fact that the card is banned further illustrate the point.

The card makes the deck. The deck becomes the best deck. The best deck would be unchecked. The format falls apart. The format becomes Academy vs. Academy hate. The card needs to be banned. The Miracles effect was not as pronounced as Tolarian Academy , but the effect we saw was similar. Miracles had that dominant effect on Legacy. It is harder to make huge changes to something that kind of works.

Miracles needed to go, but the unknown was also scary. What if the format had fallen into complete chaos? The deck achieves positive EV in the meta simply by never having too many terrible matchups. The devil is in the details. Delver is the kind of deck that people enjoy.

More importantly, it is the kind of best deck that people gravitate toward. Lands 23 Azorius Delver. Planeswalkers 1 1. Sorceries 4 4. Lands 19 7. Simic Delver. Instants 16 2. Lands 24 8. Siphon Insight Art by Livia Prima. Dimir Delver. Creatures 15 4. Instants 23 2. Sorceries 1 1. Lands 21 8. Expressive Iteration Art by Anastasia Ovchinnikova.

Izzet Delver. Instants 16 4. Sorceries 8 4. Lands 19 Ascendant Spirit Art by Lie Setiawan. Izzet Snow Delver. Instants 17 4. Big Izzet Delver. Creatures 12 4. Instants 15 4. Young Pyromancer works well with the high spell count of Delver decks, especially the free counters. Compared to something like Tarmogoyf , it's rather flimsy against removal, but in practice it's very robust against removal because of its ability to generate tokens in play to be left after it has died, so it's a form of card advantage.

The Young Pyromancer plan has gotten worse without Gitaxian Probe , but recently a post-ban version of the Grixis Delver deck has been performing very well. The deck has made up for losing Deathrite Shaman by bolstering its number of Young Pyromancer and Gurmag Angler , along with adding some Preordain as an alternative turn-one play, but replacing Gitaxian Probe is a bit more tricky.

The decks have added a land, which makes sense without the cantrip and especially without Deathrite Shaman as mana, but they have essentially replaced Gitaxian Probe with discard, usually some combination of Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek. It makes sense, because the discard fills in as a turn-one play without Deathrite Shaman , and it's a substitute for Gitaxian Probe's ability to see the opponent's hand.

Strategically, the discard fits right into the plan of disrupting the opponent. Discard can be a bit awkward as disruption because it's a tempo negative play — spending mana to disrupt the opponent at no mana cost to them — compared to something like Force of Will that is a huge positive play, but targeting spells that disrupt the opponent's development and efficient use of mana can make up for this and sometimes even make it tempo positive.

At worst, I figure spending a mana casting discard on the opponent is analogous to spending a mana casting a card draw spell of my own, and in practice the discard has felt like a great addition. Grixis Delver felt amazing before the bannings, so it makes sense the deck continues to perform now that it has been able to adjust. The strategy is clearly sound, and the cards in the colors are all very strong, so it's just a matter of finding the right combination. Porting the old version of the deck to the post-ban world might not be the best way forward, as there is another variation performing that has removed Young Pyromancer in favor of Bitterblossom as its token-generator of choice.

Instead of Young Pyromancer , this deck plays a pair of Bitterblossom , which creates a steady flow of tokens. It's much slower than Young Pyromancer , but it's also more reliable because it doesn't require fuel and is essentially immune to removal. It's the sort of card that is a nightmare for control decks like Grixis or Miracles to combat, and it can be perfect for grinding out a mirror match. The deck also adds a third True-Name Nemesis , which shows how the deck is interested in robust and reliable threats compared to the explosiveness of Young Pyromancer.

This deck plays a full set of Inquisition of Kozilek as disruption as an alternative to Thoughtseize because it saves on life that Bitterblossom already pressures.