Snapcaster of progress

[xouman]

Can you imagine a successful UR delver deck without the best 2cc red creature ever printed? Me neither! So I present you the last unsuccessful delver piromanceless deck (TLUDPD, easy acronym)

11 creatures
4 delver of secrets
4 snapcaster mage
3 magus of the moon

29 instants & sorceries
4 force of will
4 gush
4 preordain
3 mental misstep
1 flusterstorm
1 treasure cruise
1 ancestral recall
1 time walk
4 lightning bolt
3 price of progress
3 smash to smithereens

2 planeswalkers
2 dack fayden

18 manasources
6 fetchlands
5 island
3 volcanic island
1 black lotus
1 mox sapphire
1 mox ruby
1 mana crypt


sideboard
2 tormod's crypt
4 ingot chewer
2 grafdigger's cage
1 flusterstorm
2 sulfur elemental
2 pyroblast
1 spell snare
1 mountain


Well, it has some already expected cards






But some unexpected cards






I'm not goint to talk about the good cards, you already know better than me. I'm going to talk about THE GREAT card choices. I mean, about the meh choices.

Price of progress
I'm pretty surprised that nobody (and I mean nobody) plays this card. Ok, if you expect to face lots of tribal decks or monoblues, or even gush decks... then trash this shit. But it can deliver 6 damage in split-second. No, not split second, c'mon. You already know what I mean. Great game closer.

Smash to smithereens
While this is not as good as price, it has lots of applications. You will agree with me that playing bolt to the face is pretty normal. Of course here we are losing the creatures' option, but you are destroying an artifact in the meantime! Any! No, not any, damned BSC. Most of the time is just killing a mox, but it's totally nice to low opponent's tempo while you are hitting with a delver, and dealing 3 damage to the face in the process. Or killing a PW. Ah, it's a decemt (I mean, wondeful) card against MUD, if you plan to face any. I just pray that nobody asks me to pronounce smithereens, I have no idea how it sounds.

Magus of the moon
Ok, don't panic. Yes, this is not the fastest clock in the world. In fact it's barely a clock. But it often gives you time to keep trying to win. Complements pretty well with previous cards:
Price + magus => Fetchlands cannot fetch any more. So they will be known as Mountainlands. Or fetchesslands.
Smash + magus => Good luck accessing secondary colors! Or even primary. Some people just hate basics, dunno why. They are cheap. And lovely.

Snapcaster mage
Although is not an strange card here, lots of delver decks do not include it. I understand that in most builds you prefer to play pyromancer, chain spells, and save mana for countermagic. Blablabla. Send all pyromancers to hell! Replaying ancestral or time walk is good. Replaying price of progress can win a game. Or a round. Or a tournament. Or the Superbowl!. Maybe not that much, but it can scrap some wins.

There are a couple of further considerations. Crypt is here to help playing early magus (I have played magus enough to love it), but also helps a bunch of other spells, specially snapcasters into anything. Fayden is even more important than in other delver decks, because you can draw blanks (I acklowledge that fluster against mud sucks, or smash against dredge), and because it can fill the grave for our fridn Thiago.


What are we losing in the way?

Young Pyromancer
If the best Turn 2 spell that a delver deck can play, or pretty close to that. But do not close games in the same turn it is played, and I expect some hate against it nowadays. I'm not a good player, and I hate when my opponent knows my deck better than me, so surprising them is key. They would be surprised not to see pyromancer, and you can dance when you see illness in the ranks and shits like that. And if you still play pyromancers I expect your opponent to dance when they play illness.

Brainstorm, ponder: I don't want to overcommit 1CC. I fear chalices. And magus lessens shuffle effects. If you need further manipulation, snap a preordain! Then it should be a post-preordain. So it could be an ordain. WTF.

REB, pierces: I don't like to have lots of mana open if it's not really needed. Lots of decks can win over those cards. Pack some in the sideboard if you need to.

Misdirection: the original list had a couple. Then I moved them to the side. Then the side moved them to somewhere else, and I cannot find them. If you have seen them, please tell them to call home. We miss them. Not too much, though.

Probes: Is nice to see opponent's hand, but nicer to be able to play according to what you have seen. This list does not have lots of answers, it prefers to let the opponents to think and just enjoy. Are you really wanting to push your brains for 6 rounds? Me neither. And if you want, play doomsday.

Fire//ice: One could replace a smash, but smash does 1 more damage and still takes 1 artifact.


The sideboard is a mess. Cages are not best friends with snapcaster, and probably not enough against oath. But without including white (and that would mean take away magus, which it's an option indeed) I cannot figure how to beat oath. MUD shouldn't be as terrifying as it is to other delver decks, but still takes lots of space. Maybe aggro deserves more attention, but delvers+fire should deal with them.


So now we came with pairings percentages. What? Don't you have the least idea about how does this deck perform? To be honest I barely have tested this deck, and not against a broad spectrum.

MUD is ok, really. Delvers, bolts, smash, 2 faydens, snapcaster to recover everything, magus to hose the f*cking shops... even crypt! And lots of basics, and gushes to save volcanics from wastes. With chewers and sulfur elementals it's even better.

Oath is bad, really. I cannot expect to win unless we can counter first oath and scrap a quick win. If you manage to play a fast magus, you will have a good chance, and you are only playing 1 less magus than opponent's oaths.

Delvers: magus is a sheet (is it allowed to say sh*t?) unless they cannot get the second island. then is great! at the very worse, trade it for pyromancer. price of progress could go out (however remember than magus creates lots of non-basic mountains), as well as smash. To be honest, it feels slighly unfavourable, so it should be addressed with sb. Snapcaster is a great card here.

Mentors: price of progress and smash are much better than against delver. Also magus can avoid facing mentors. I'd say favourable, but...

Big blue: I expect to be pretty favourable. #Hope #Wish #Believe

Hatebears: magus sodomizes hatebears. Hatebears in hand, you know, not in play. Just handhatebears. Delver outflies them, and price of progress is often the finisher.

Brian kelly's decks: brian kelly is a robot with no heart. If he says he kicked my ass with dragonlord Ojutai, don't  believe him, of course he should be lying. To be honest, I don't think is a horrible pairing at all, but skill is also important when playing cards. Unless you are playing mox, orchard, oath. Then you are a bad magic player and a bad person. Specially if oath triggers a griselbrand.



So, opinions? "xouman, you get a 6 months ban for posting shit" or "I think this is a worse idea than when I wanted to charge my cellphone in the microwave" are options, but I'd like to hear constructive opinions. As small as "change pyroblasts for REBs, you will improve the deck a lot" or "I really think the snare in the sb improves the oath pairing drmatically". And now I go to bed, because I'm pretty sleepy and can barely write. Good night fellas.

[NosferatuStuff]

Doesn't magus make all those price of progress do nothing.  You know, by turning the lands basic?

[Chubby Rain]

Doesn't magus make all those price of progress do nothing.  You know, by turning the lands basic?

Nope. "Nonbasic lands that are turned into Mountains are still nonbasic. Magus of the Moon does nothing to change the land's supertype."

http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=magus+of+the+moon

[p3temangus]

I actually really love this list. I've always thought that a good solid UR Burn-ish type list could muscle through your average 25-30 man tournament just on threat density.  That being said, I would really try and find a way to squeeze in 3-4 Vexing Devils.  It really furthers your burn game and creates a strong clock.  I would possibly go:
- 1 delver
- 1 Crypt
- 1 Cruise?

+3 Vexing Devil

[Wagner]

I actually really love this list. I've always thought that a good solid UR Burn-ish type list could muscle through your average 25-30 man tournament just on threat density.  That being said, I would really try and find a way to squeeze in 3-4 Vexing Devils.  It really furthers your burn game and creates a strong clock.  I would possibly go:
- 1 delver
- 1 Crypt
- 1 Cruise?

+3 Vexing Devil

Not a fan of Vexing Devil. Compare this to Chain Lightning. Both are Sorceries. Devil will do 1 more damage, but cannot kill creatures like Confidant or Lodestone, is easy to block with Mentor/Pyromancer tokens, can be bounced by Jace and can give the opponent an extra turn if he's at 4 life or less.

I'm curious about Mana Crypt. The deck has very few colorless mana, wouldn't an off color mox be better? From what I see, Crypt helps for turn 1-2 Magus and for Snapcaster on PoP, that's about it. Is that enough to justify it?

[xouman]

Not a fan of Vexing Devil. Compare this to Chain Lightning. Both are Sorceries. Devil will do 1 more damage, but cannot kill creatures like Confidant or Lodestone, is easy to block with Mentor/Pyromancer tokens, can be bounced by Jace and can give the opponent an extra turn if he's at 4 life or less.

I'm curious about Mana Crypt. The deck has very few colorless mana, wouldn't an off color mox be better? From what I see, Crypt helps for turn 1-2 Magus and for Snapcaster on PoP, that's about it. Is that enough to justify it?

I haven't tried débil, but i feel the same.

Crypt is not an all star by any means, but compared with non colored moxen improves magus, treasure, sapcaster into anything with 1, fow, sulfur elemental and SPECIALLY against mud. Mud is not going to play chalice form 0 (i'll be glad) so crypt is really great to deal with spheres and even tangle. Crypt is not only acceleration, is card advantage (2 mana for 1 card)

And normally you are not losing because of small damage. You play bolts and snapcasters to avoid that. You lose to broken cards, heavy denial, por even better card afvantage

[Space_Stormy]

I really like Blood Moon effects in vintage a ton but having that many fetches can screw you in the long run if you only have 5 islands in a Gush based deck.  I know powering up your delve spells is needed I just find sometimes since you wanna land Magus in play asap and casting that off Island, Volc, Mox can pinch you on Islands in the long run.  

I think something like this is better in a heavy Island deck like the Modern Blue Moon decks (Which kinda just copied the Ben Kowal deck from 2007: http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=33559.0;wap2) Also going Magus over Blood Moon means you can get your lock piece Lightning Bolted.  

I've been brainstorming ideas in this vein and I like where you are going with it making it more aggressive which is a problem I was running into where you lock people out but can't do anything after.

[xouman]

Do I have problems getting 2 online islands to play gush? Well, tbh I do. Not every match, of course, not even 1/3 of matches, but a quick magus can mean dead gushes. How bad is that?

First of all this deck has 4 preordains, 2 dacks, ancestral, cruise and snapcasters. Not the heaviest filtering in the world, but usually enough to get the second island after 2-3 turnos.

Second, if i have magus in play it beats. Not really hard, but if he does 6 damage then a couple of prices can finish the gane. If the opponent can open the magus, it's often because he has access to secondary color por plays red, so moon effect is not so important.and if he uses removal on magus, delver can fly free. Magus if not the card that wins, is a card to avoid losing while you try to win.if the opponent kills it,he's not playing win conditions.

Gush is not the best card in this version.not only because the anti-synergy with magus, but also because you tipically have 4 cards or more in hand and sometimes a gush means discard in eot (not ofte