Naughty Delver

-or, getting extra tricky

This week, I made it as far borrowing and actually sleeving up all the cards for the real deck, but when I found out that Pants wasn't playing, I figured I owed it to the crowd to be entertaining for one more week. After all, GP Denver is fast approaching!

sideboard is the red cards, perish, extirpate, divert explosives clique

This deck is innovative for its simultaneous use of Force of Will and Dark Confidant, a rare combination which finds its way into few decks not featuring Death's Shadow. Having said that, it's not quite as uncommon as it is for Sean to hand me a deck with blue cards and Force of Will. (This one was actually for our buddy J.B., and nobody likes taking 5 from Bob as much as he does.)  After dealing with the disappointment of his absence, I had resolved to dig deep and make some 12/12's.

Round 1: Dredge w/ Robert
Robert is a nice guy who is around the shop now and then. He appeared to be relatively new to dredging, or at least with the particular nuances of playing with Lion's Eye Diamond.
In the first game, he led with a City of Brass into Careful Study, discarding a Flame-Kin Zealot and an Ichorid.  Though I had Pierce and blue source in my hand, that he didn't discard a dredger convinced me to Wasteland him in hopes that his hand didn't have action. Then he played Coliseum, LED, LED.  And a Breakthrough. He cast it for 0, and then we waited about 5 seconds-
"Resolves"
"Crack my-"
"can't"
":( ok"
He hit a Thug in his four cards, as well as a Faithless Looting, which he flashed back. A Narcomoeba was waiting on top, but no more dredgers, though the fifth card down was a Stinkweed Imp. After drawing a Confidant, I played a fetchland and shipped back. Ichorid got up, he beat for 4, and Therapied me twice, netting him two Zombie tokens and stripping the Spell Pierce out of my hand. I peeled Electrickery, which, while exciting, was not enough to handle many Zombies. Interestingly, that the Izzet spell couldn't target my Confidant was relevant and annoying, as it would have put me in a position to interact much more meaningfully with the Bridge.

I boarded in the Explosives and Extirpates for the Jace, Spell Snare, and Ghastly Demises.

My hand for game 2 was p. spicy: Explosives, Snapcaster, Spell Pierce, Brainstorm, lands. He curved into turn 2 Narcomoeba (cast), Stinkweed Imp (cast), Narcomoeba. I was able to get him to 4 via a combination of 3/2 fliers and City of Brass, and even though I had two Extirpates, I targeted the wrong things and died slowly to an Ichorid.

Round 2: RUG w/ Darrin
Darrin's a pretty consistent competitor at the shop, usually with Forces and Dazes in his arsenal.

We started slowly, me with a turn 2 Delver, him with a Ponder and a Nimble Mongoose. My notes aren't clear, but I recall drawing Electrickery while he had threshold, cursing silently, and dying with many Stifles in hand.

Pyroblast, Cliques, and Explosives came in for the Delvers and Jace, since I had already grown tired of playing with "good" cards.

I fetched into a Ponder, he cast a Delver, I played a Bob, he revealed Lightning Bolt. Next turn, I cast a Vendilion Clique in his attack step, which was Red Blasted.  (Unfortunately, he answered my question "in response to the trigger?" correctly.)  Insectile Abomination died to Ghastly Demise off the top, then we played draw-go for a few turns. When he was at 16, I ran out a Dreadnaught very casually, which resolved. Obviously I had Trickbind. He dumped his hand of Tarmogoyf, Mongoose, Delver, but we didn't pay an extra card for a 12/12 that could get chump blocked.

We started the last game with less than 15 on the clock, so my notes get fewer. My opening of double fetch led to a fight over his Stifle on turn 2- we both lost a Force, but a Spell Pierce kept me from being on the back foot early in the game. His hand was light on threats, and they were all targetable- very convenient for my removal-heavy draw. As the clock was winding down to 5 minutes, I stuck a Dark Confidant at a double-digit life total, and it kept me full up on Demises and Snapcasters to keep Darrin from sticking a man for too long. Time expired, and on the first of extra turns I emptied my hand casting and protecting a Dreadnaught, but he had a grip full of counters for my Stifle. I didn't have a sufficient army to kill him in two turns, but he was totally crushed on board- he saw that and generously conceded.

Round 3: 12post w/ Paul
Paul, like Sean, has been around since before sleeves were invented. He used to be the #1 Vintage player in the state, back when I was in high school. He was playing a sweet Cloudpost deck.

In game 1, I stick a Delver, and flip it on turn 3. My hand is light on permission and disruption, so he gets to Scry into six mana on his fourth turn. He makes a Duplicant to eat my Insect, but fortunately it doesn't put an equivalent amount of pressure on me.. though it doesn't really matter, as he cast Primeval Titan into my hand full of Spell Pierces and Dazes. An Eye of Ugin gets activated, he reveals Emrakul, I Stifle the extra turn trigger, then die anyway.

I board in the Extirpates for a mix of Pierces and Dazes, hoping to get him with the Wasteland + Extirpate combo.

On the play, I keep a hand with two Delvers and an Extirpate, but no Wastelands. My first Delver flips blind, and via a Brainstorm in my upkeep, I flip the second and cast a third. A Daze on his Sylvan Scrying puts the nail in him.

I spent a good while staring at the Extirpates between games, trying to tell myself that it wasn't good, but I don't know who I was trying to fool.

To my surprise, the combo and two Wastelands are in my opener for game 3, so I keep. Hard up for mana, my early 12/12 puts him on the back foot. After I attack him to 7, he peels a Forest to cast Crop Rotation. I let it resolve, holding back the Force in my hand for the big spell he's building towards, but he just gets Glacial Chasm. I don't attack for one turn, he falls to 5, then I peel the third Wasteland to kill his Chasm and him.

Round 4: Maverick w/ Andrew
Andrew, my frequent passenger, asked if we could draw. Due to reasons, it wasn't a great idea, so we decided to wait for more information about the matches around us. We spent that playing game 1.
He plays a Noble Hierarch, I match him with a Delver. He plays a Thalia and sends my 1/1 farming.  I Ponder on my turn, trying to find my third land, but miss. He casts a Qasali Pridemage, attacks for 4 with Thalia, and plays a Scryb Ranger after I blank on my turn. His Gaddock Teeg gets Forced on his fourth turn, and the attack after that puts me to 8. A Stifle is waiting on top, and I cast a Dreadnaught, but Thalia requires me to pay an extra mana which I can't produce. Thalia eventually deals lethal to me.

Fortunately, someone has dream-crushed for us a few tables over, and Andrew is still cool with IDing.

Top 8: Reanimator w/ Greg
Greg is also playing on a Judge mat, causing the effective value of our match to skyrocket.

In game 1, I had a turn 2 12/12 with Force backup, but he won the roll and Griselbranded me on turn 2 with Force backup. Then he reanimated an Emrakul with Shallow Grave. Rude. Too bad you can't Stifle lifelink any more.

Red Blast, Clique, and Extirpate got boarded in for the Ghastly Demises and other kill spells.

I led with a Dark Confidant, which revealed a Force of Will. He cast a Careful Study on his second turn, discarding irrelevant things. Dark Confidant kept the disruption flowing into my hand, and he didn't get his engine going before Bob and a Vendilion Clique killed him to death.

For the final game, I cast a Delver on 1 which flipped on my second turn. He was light on mana sources for this game, and Wastelands from my side kept him from doing much of anything. (Also, I was sandbagging two Extirpates.) While his life total dwindled, he durdled with Brainstorms and Hapless Researchers, but he couldn't outrace the 3/2 flyer.

The top 4 split the $100 store credit, and we went to get pizza.
♣

This was the first legacy Delver deck I'd ever played, and man, is it sweet to have a 3/2 on turn 2. It didn't really feel like a Dreadnaught deck, but the few times the plan came together made killing my opponent very easy. Electrickery was nice, but I might rather have just had a Spark Spray for all the good the overload ability did.


In SSD news, I'm moving over to more "real" decks, in order to prepare for the GP in January. If there's interest, I'll try to post some write-ups as I figure out how to play Legacy again. Don't worry, though; Pants has offered to take up the slack and play some "very nice decks" when he can.

Until next time, try to get things done on time.∎