Top 8 of Legacy Quarterly with UR Delver ft. Dreadhorde Arcanist
I took a short break from Magic for a few weeks and when I came back, I feel like everything has changed. 2 and 3 mana Planeswalkers, new answers, new threats, new prison pieces! I had a lot to catch up on, and didn’t want to waste any time because the Magic Online Format Playoffs were this past weekend and I needed to find a deck I liked. This week, I want to recap some of my findings and the testing process overall, and then talk about where I ended up and how the event went.
Delver, my Muse
While I would have never considered myself to be a “Delver Player” before this year, it is becoming more difficult for me to come up with reasons not to play it. The aggressive angle is a huge boon and with the past 2 sets, the Delver shell can be built however you want. I want to play cards like Stoneforge Mystic, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, and Baleful Strix but there’s a lot to be said about putting your opponent to the test with early pressure and forcing them to come up with the answers.
There were 2 specific lists that caught my eye early on. The first is a variant of UR Delver that was championed by Peter van der Ham:
After playing a single game with Dreadhorde Arcanist it’s clear that this card is the real deal. Usually at its worst, it has to die (and it dies a lot). At its best, though, it’s like a combination of Dark Confidant and Snapcaster Mage, which is almost offensive to say. It functions like a 2 mana Planeswalker if you untap with it, and the advantage it generates is absurd. If you have a Lightning Bolt in your graveyard, the opponent can’t play creatures, but if they don’t play creatures you cast a cantrip and start to pull way ahead.
This list was putting up some real, consistent results throughout all of June and was clearly a front-runner for me. I have a strong preference towards playing basic lands and this version of UR Delver wasn’t sacrificing any power over the other variants. As with all UR lists I did find it to be a bit weaker to combo than I wanted, but the benefits of having a strong threat- and mana-base were enough for me. Even if I didn’t play this deck, I suspected it would be the most popular Delver deck going in and wanted to make sure I tuned my list accordingly.
The second was a nice looking Temur list built by Magic Online player GSY:
I was losing a lot to Wrenn and Six with UR Delver, so I knew the card could provide a lot of value. Unlike Dreadhorde Arcanist, which functions like a 2-mana Planeswalker, this was actually a 2-mana Planeswalker that came with removal attached. It’s really disheartening to try to play a creature-based deck when there’s a Planeswalker on board that can simply kill most of the creatures you play. A lot of creatures in Legacy have a single point of toughness and being able to clear away a Baleful Strix that’s holding back your Tarmogoyf is a big game. On top of that, the added dimension of maindecking a way to recur Wasteland, as well as having a Planeswalker to make Tarmogoyf larger than a Gurmag Angler, really made Wrenn and Six overperform.
Regardless of Wrenn and Six, I actually thought Temur would be well-positioned on the basis of Tarmogoyf being huge versus UR Delver. With Dreadhorde Arcanist in the mix, though, it isn’t too difficult for them to kill it by using a single Bolt and a combat step. However, it was clear that the secret winner in the Temur versus UR matchup was Nimble Mongoose. It was cheap enough to easily resolve through a Daze, couldn’t be removed by any commonly played removal spell in UR, and could play both offense and defense in the face of Dreadhorde Arcanist.
Despite all of this, I couldn’t pull the trigger on playing the deck. While I was winning a reasonable amount of my games with Stifle, I have trouble playing it in a field of basic lands, Ancient Tomb decks, and opponents who were going to know how to play around it.
At this point I was resigned to playing a relatively stock version of UR Delver. The deck was solid and I felt comfortable playing it. I was still having trouble against the various Wrenn and Six decks, as well as not feeling like I was doing anything special to get an edge in the mirror, but I was happy enough with it.
Kill Your Sacred Cows
That is, until GerryT posted a list he used to go 5-1 with at a MCQ on his twitter:
I so rarely get this feeling, but I instantly loved what he was doing. I felt like his list put in practice 2 key things that I could feel in my games, but couldn’t properly vocalize: The first being if Wrenn and Six is a problem, cut Young Pyromancer; the second being if Dreadhorde Arcanist is the key to the mirror play more Chain Lightnings and True-Names to block them. It all clicked right away and I just decided to make the changes and not look back.
I think my inability to put my conclusions to practice before this stems from the fear of being wrong. Young Pyromancer felt like an essential piece of the puzzle: How could I cut a critical piece of UR Delver and ever expect to do well? What if I was wrong and I get completely crushed?
The truth is that these things don’t matter, and I know that rationally. It’s just one tournament, one decision that didn’t pan out and I will learn more from the error that I ever would by always playing it safe. I have played a lot of Legacy in my life and if my intuition and testing is leading me towards some conclusions, I should at least dive deep into them to try to learn as much as possible. It’s difficult for me to take those types of chances in the moment and I am really going to work on that in the coming months.
On top of that, I end up testing alone almost all the time. While I consume a lot of content from articles and podcasts, I don’t share ideas with other people often enough. I think I am costing myself a lot in the long run with this and this is another thing i’m looking to change.
In this instance, though, I ran with it and broke through to the top 8:
I didn’t play Gerry’s list card for card. For one, he didn’t play any graveyard hate, which I don’t think is a safe choice on Magic Online. Plus, while Winter Orb is great against Miracles (and Lands), I think having 2 Narsets really helped complete my game plan against Miracles (I didn’t expect much Lands).
Here is how the tournament broke down:
Round 1: “Punishing Wrenn Karn Prison,” - Win (2-1)
Round 2: Red Painter - Win (2-1)
Round 3: Storm - Win (2-1)
Round 4: Non-Blue 4-Color Wrenn - Win (2-0)
Round 5: Death and Taxes - Win (2-0)
Round 6: UR Delver - Loss (0-2)
Round 7: Sultai Depths - Win (2-0)
Round 8: Non-White 4-Color Wrenn Control - Win (2-1)
Quarterfinals: Sneak and Show - Loss (1-2)
While it is funny that the changes I made were in part to help the UR mirror and that was my only loss in the swiss, the extra True-Name was absolutely essential at winning my last round. I was just about ready to concede to a Wrenn and Six that was active for every turn since turn 4, but I drew my final True-Name and was able to win in what seemed to be a horrible situation.
Considering how much Wrenn I played against, having a threat-base that was mostly resilient to its -1 ability was essential. It definitely changes how you want to use your Wastelands, though. At this point, if I suspect my opponent is on a Grixis-Splash-Wrenn deck and leads with a non-basic land, I might just not use my Wastelands until I have fully developed my game plan. In the past, I think it was close whether or not you stunt their development or develop yourself, but Wrenn’s presence swings that pendulum in the direction of development. Furthermore, having an extra True-Names means you want access to more land drops in the early stages, thus making the mana production of Wasteland more meaningful.
While I was absolutely pleased with the main deck, I don’t think this should be the de facto best way of building the deck. Young Pyromancer has such a distinguished pedigree for a reason, and there are some situations that only it can solve. It applies more pressure than the non-Delver threats against combo and is a lot better against Liliana of the Veil if that becomes more popular.
Off-the-bat, the changes I would make are:
Main Deck:
-1 Vapor Snag
+1 Spell Pierce
Sideboard:
-1 Null Rod
-1 Pyroblast
+1 Hydroblast
+1 Vapor Snag
Tormod’s Crypt is a pretty impressive card that has been pretty underrated for the past few years. I think with Echo Storm becoming more popular, and Dredge popping up its head again, Crypt deserves respect again.
In the end, though, I would definitely recommend this list if you want to sidestep some of the commonly played cards in Legacy right now and have a great time while doing so!
