My ever-evolving build of UR Delver.
The Plan:
Race, race, race. You want to stick a T1 threat if possible. You can use Bolts and Chain Lightning to control your opponent's board (definitely worth killing a DRS, Hierarch, Mother of Runes or Thalia) but should primarily be used at your opponent's face. Your counters are to stop anything that beats you (that can be killing your threat if you have nothing else in hand, or their combo or a back-breaking spell). In short, we're not too seriously in the tempo game with this list - we're more a burn list with interaction to sure up Burn's worst matchups a touch (combo, Miracles, Delver).
A few random things to be aware of... Probe and Monastery Swiftspear are best mates, as are Probe and Young Pyro. You can float mana with Volcanic Islands before sacrificing them to Fireblast, then fire off Price (this play happens more than you'd think). If you board in Blood Moon, remember it turns on Chain Lightning for your opponent.
Current Sideboard Plan:
Feedback Welcome, I'm always willing to take sideboarding advice! I'm adding these in as I work them out from playing local events.
- Miracles -
- OUT: Daze x 4
- OUT: Price Of Progress x 2
- IN: Exquisite Firecraft x 2
- IN: REB x 2
- IN: Flusterstorm x 1
- IN: Null Rod x 1
I've found Daze is usually bad against Miracles as they usually have a bunch of mana, so why not upgrade it to a strictly better counterspells in this matchup? Price is also usually bad because they play a large number of basics and they'll fetch them up in G2 & 3 if they see Price in G1. Exquisite Firecraft is great as it ignores the lock. Null Rod goes after Top which can really give you time to get your damage in.
- Storm -
- OUT: Price Of Progress x 2
- OUT: Young Pyromancer x 2
- IN: Null Rod x 1
- IN: Flusterstorm x 1
- IN: Surgical Extraction x 2
Storm often fetch basics to play around Wasteland (as we look like a Delver list that would run it early game). They also don't play with a lot of lands, so Price is bad. Young Pyro is not terrible in this matchup by any means, but it is the least useful threat if you want to keep mana up past the first turn to hold up a counter or something. Null Rod wrecks Lion's Eye Diamond and Petal which can often be the difference between them getting there and not - it has the very real bonus of stopping them emptying their hand with it to tutor. Surgical is there to rip out anything they play that'll end up countered and in the graveyard. Essentially you're aiming for a bit of their "business".
- Eldrazi -
- OUT: Chain Lightning x 4
- IN: Smash To Smithereens x 2
- IN: Blood Moon x 2
I often feel weird taking out burn spells, but it this case, you simply HAVE to have Smash to destroy Chalice on 1... and it has a Bolt strapped to it anyways. I never feel like Chain Lightning is good against their massive fatties. Blood Moon can do wonders against their slew of Sol Lands, but is another reason to take out Chain Lightning as sometimes they cannot do anything with their mana and they just wipe your creature with their (now) Mountains. At this stage I haven't played many games against Eldrazi, so this plan is not fully formed.
- Death & Taxes -
- OUT: Daze x 4
- IN: Grim Lavamancer x 2
- IN: Smash To Smithereens x 2
Because D&T is on vial, often counters are useless. They're also usually holding up the extra mana for Daze (in my experience). Lavamancer goes after their annoying creatures like Mother of Runes and Stoneforge. Smash kills their Vial or is the perfect answer to a stuck Batterskull. If you're scared of Jitte, you can also bring in the Null Rod to turn off it's abilities (as well as Vial).
