Friday, April 26, 2013

Forcing Through - Legacy Primer: Punishing Delver

5:18 PM | Posted by | | Edit Post


Legacy is for the most part the most diverse format is all of magic. Theoretically you can play just about anything in the format as long as it has at least some good match-ups with the tier one decks of the format. 

This is a variant list of RUG delver that I would like to show to you all today.



Punishing Delver (RUG Delver): By Corey Vangel


Lands: 19
2x Grove of the Burnwillows
1x Island
4x Misty Rainforest
2x Scalding Tarn
3x Tropical Island
3x Volcanic Island
4x Wasteland

Creautres: 11
4x Delver of Secrets
4x Nimble Mongoose
3x Tarmogoyf

Instants/ Sorceries: 29
4x Brainstorm
3x Daze
1x Dismember
4x Force of Will
4x Lightning Bolt
3x Punishing Fire
2x Spell Pierce
4x Stifle
1x Thought Scour
3x Ponder

Enchantment: 1
1x Sylvan Library

Sideboard: 15
1x Grim Lavamancer
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Flusterstorm
2x Krosan Grip
1x Pyroblast
2x Red Elemental Blast
4x Submerge
2x Surgical Extraction
1x Life from the Loam

RUG delver is general is incremental card advantage.dec, your goal is essentially to negate whatever your opponent is doing via counterspells and Stifle and Wasteland until you’ve gained enough momentum to beat them to death with a bunch of small to medium sized creatures possibly while clearing away the threats they do obtain with your burn package.

These are some of the cards that you will be using to ensure your victory:

Wasteland:

Wasteland has been punishing people for their basic light mana-bases since 1997 and is used to great effect in this deck the way that legacy is. Whether you are keeping a Esper Stoneblade off of the crucial four mana to cast their Jace, the Mind Sculptor or making sure that ANT or TES has the hardest time going off through your counter-magic there is a good chance that wasteland will be at the center of it. Post-board depending on your match-up wasteland becomes even better as you will often bring in Life from the Loam to recur its awesome effect over and over and over again.

Nimble Mongoose:
Nimble Mongoose is without a doubt the best creature in the deck. There are so many decks that actually don’t run any mass removal and therefore cannot deal with the 3/3 (and let’s face it in this deck it’s always a 3/3) shroud beasty. Against control lists Nimble Mongoose forces them to play the match on your terms as they have to make most of their plays around it, for example an active mongoose forces your opponent to have to fate-seal with a Jace, the Mind Sculptor as otherwise they just paid four mana for a Brainstorm. This effect that Nimble Mongoose generates is only exacerbated with multiples.

Brainstorm:
Brainstorm is probably without a doubt the best draw spell in the format, in this deck however it is so much more than just a draw spell. Some of the other wonderful things that Brainstorm accomplishes in this are (but not limited to)
  • Flipping Delver of Secrets
  • Tucking useless cards/ extra lands with a fetch-land
  • Drawing into Stifle
  • Drawing into Daze and/or Force of Will and/or cards to pitch to Force of Will
  • Increasing your graveyard total

Punishing Fire:
Punishing Fire is essentially the card that helps you sure up a lot of your bad match-ups pre-board by giving you an outlet in which to destroy all of their creatures as soon as they hit the board. Punishing Fire can almost singlehandedly beat a goblins player if you get the Punishing Fire/ Grove of the Burnwillows soft-lock down early enough to deal with all of their Goblin Lackys and Goblin Piledrivers and Goblin Matrons and whatever else they throw at you. Punishing Fire is also very important in the maverick match-up as it allows for recursion to deal with Mother of Runes and Noble Hierarch and Gaddock Teeg.

Stifle:
Stifle is basically a one mana stone rain most of the time with all the fetch-lands in this format and it works quite well to that effect. That being said, Stifle serves a myriad of other uses between countering Knight of the Reliquary Activations to dealing with pesky Planeswalker ultimates stifle can aid you in just about anything depending on the situation required.


Match-ups:

Versus Merfolk:
When playing against Merfolk, it is important to realize that they are essentially running twenty copies of the same creature, so always do your best to either counter their Aether Vial, or find ways to minimize its effectiveness via Lightning Bolt and Punishing Fire. Beyond that rule this match-up is usually in your favor as if you can stick and hold a Tarmogoyf/ Sylvan Library, they often have a hard-time coming back all the loss of card advantage they would have obtained. Post-board you should bring in the Grim Lavamancer, the Pyroblast, both of the Red Elemental Blasts, and one Krosan Grip just to max out odds of winning.

Versus Maverick:
When playing against Maverick, keep in mind that in game one, besides Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Knight of the Reliquary and Stoneforge Mystic you really don’t particularly care about what they are doing as most of their creatures are either small enough to be killed with a burn spell or have the capability to be countered if necessary. Post-board you should bring in the Grim Lavamancer, both of the Krosan Grips, all four Submerges and the Life from the Loam to deal with all of their tricky non-basics.

Versus Elves:
When playing against elves it is important to identify what in their deck would be considered threatening. For example, Heritage Druid, Priest of Titania and Nettle Sentinel are threatening; Whereas Llanowar Elves and Fyndhorn Elves and Elvish Visionarys are not. As long as you can prioritize your burn spells for their important creatures and counter only what is necessary this match-up is quite often a cake-walk. Post-board you should bring in the Grim Lavamancer, and all four Submerges and the Life from the Loam just to ensure that they cannot beat you.

Versus Stoneblade:
When playing against Stoneblade you should be aware of the fact that you are the aggressor in this match-up, so act accordingly with your spells by attempting to force things like Nimble Mongooses through while maintaining one of two mana up to present to your opponent that you have stifle up (even if you don’t) to keep pressure on them and take advantage of their mistakes when they get into awkward situations and have to do something less than optimal. Post-board you should bring in both of the Krosan Grips, the Pyroblast, and both of the Red Elemental Blasts to deal with problematic permanents if and when they hit the board.

Versus Miracles:
When playing against Miracles you will realize that the match-up is somewhat identical to how you would play against Stoneblade. They have many of the same spells and same interactions but there are major differences in how they go about winning. Where Stoneblade tries to capitalize on using its namesake card Stoneforge Mystic to get a Batterskull through and then maintain card advantage long enough to win, Miracles intends to set up a soft-lock using Counterbalance and Sensei’s Divining Top to ensure that none of your spells resolve and they can eventually beat you with either a Vendilion Clique or an ultimate from Jace, the Mind Sculptor. With this knowledge in hand you should do your best to maintain pressure on your opponent while holding stuff back so that when they Terminus you will not have lost any momentum. Post-board you should bring in both of the Krosan Grips, the Pyroblast, both Red Elemental Blasts and the Life from the Loam in order to keep them off land.

Versus BUG:
When playing against BUG you are going to understand that this match-up is a battle of attrition as you will be trading spells and counters back and forth all game. Your job in this match-up is to try and out-tempo your opponent, so if you can keep them off of mana, or Wasteland one of their Wastelands if they have to tap out or just overrun them with Nimble Mongooses while making sure their Deathrite Shamans stay in check. Post-board you should bring in the Grim Lavamancer, the Scavenging Ooze, all four Submerges and the Life from the Loam in order to do your best to tip the match-up in your favor.

Versus RUG Delver (Mirror):
When playing against the mirror you will notice that the added tech of Punishing Fire/ Grove of the Burnwillows will help with Delver of Secrets efficiently. The trick with this match-up in particular is that you have to maintain being ahead on board through Wasteland and counterspells. Sometimes it really boils down to the person who draws into more Delver of Secrets wins as your ground creatures will often maintain parody. Post-board you should bring in the Scavenging Ooze, the Pyroblast, both Red Elemental Blasts, and the Life from the Loam.

Versus BUG delver:
When playing against BUG Delver it is best to just kill everything they cast if at all possible either through Lightning Bolt, Dismember, or Punishing Fire/ Grove of the Burnwillows as their deck is full of problematic creatures that must be dealt with immediately. With that point out of the way you can play this match-up almost identically to the mirror in that you try and maintain board advantage through Wasteland and Counterspells. Post-board you should bring in the Grim Lavamancer, the Scavenging Ooze, all four Submerges and the Life from the Loam.

Versus Jund:
When playing against Jund it is often best to wait a couple of turns to see how they are establishing their board presence, for example if they go turn one Deathrite Shaman, chances are they are either going to slam down a Liliana of the Veil next turn of play a discard spell along with a Dark Confidant. Either way the Deathrite Shaman has to die, so bolt the shaman with a Volcanic Island if at all possible so you have the island up to daze whatever spell they play next turn. If you can maintain that pace against Jund the match-up if easy, if however they start to pull ahead and can keep a Liliana of the Veil down long enough to keep it out of burn range, the match is lost. Post-board you should bring the Grim Lavamancer, the Scavenging Ooze, all four Submerges and the Life from the Loam.

Versus High-Tide:
When playing against High-Tide you have to basically do your best to kill them before turn 4-5 as they will go off no matter how many counterspells you are holding, so try to maintain as much pressure on them as possible through burn spells and small creatures. Post-board you should bring in the Flusterstorm, the Pyroblast, and both Red elemental Blasts and both Surgical Extraction to do your best to prevent them from going off.

Versus Sneak and Show:
When playing against Sneak and Show it is always best to hold your counters for the most important things i.e. Show and Tell or Sneak Attack as quite often if they land either of those, you are dead. More often than not sneak and show’s line of play against a deck like RUG delver is to Show and Tell out the Sneak Attack with extra red mana floating and then just put a Griselbrand (drawing seven cards) followed by an Emrakul out and just kill you. So if you can play as aggressive as possible with your burn spells and Delvers/Mongooses you can take that out away from them. Post-board you should bring in both Krosan Grips, the Pyroblast, both Red Elemental Blasts and the Life from the Loam.

Versus Omni-show:
When playing against Weird Science you should essentially play it identically to how you would play against Sneak and Show except that you should be more pro-active with your counterspells to counter a Show and Tell or a Personal Tutor, or a Burning Wish to fetching Show and Tell. If you can maintain countering all of their major threats and effectively using wasteland this match-up is easier than Sneak and Show. Post-board this match-ups Sideboard is the exact same as Sneak and Shows.

Versus ANT:
When playing against ANT you will notice that they run a lot of discard spells in order to deal with your counterspells, which is ok. What you are actually aiming to do in this match-up is deal them on average about 13 points of damage as quickly as possible to take away their ability to Ad Nauseam/ Grim Tutor to victory as they will not have the spare life to abuse those cards. Post-board you should bring in the Flusterstorm, both Surgical Extractions and the Life from the Loam to keep them off of land and important cards.

When playing any form of RUG delver there is usually no clear way to side-board in any given match-up, so I would suggest using your best judgement based on what you want to come up when.

You should play this deck if:
  • You like playing an aggressive control deck
  • You like using Wasteland/ Stifle
  • You like Tempo Decks

You Shouldn’t Play this deck if:
  • You prefer playing pure control lists
  • You don’t like blowing up peoples lands
  • You don’t like control lists at all

This is a basic overview as to what you can expect from playing RUG delver, as always if you have any questions about the deck or another deck that you would like me to cover, please feel free in the comment section below.

Corey Vangel
@Zielle47

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