The Angry Insect (Grixis Delver) (Modern MTG Deck)

The Angry Insect (Grixis Delver)

Modern Competitive Delver Tempo UBR (Grixis)

ToolmasterOfBrainerd

Lands (20)

Interaction (11)

Cantrips (9)

Creatures (14)

Counterspells (6)

Sideboard

Other (15)

Maybeboard

Other (23)

I've played Grixis in modern in some form for a few years now. The majority of that time has been spent playing Rocket Science, which was a ton of fun to play, but this is not the meta for it. Perhaps if other midrange decks become popular again I'll switch back. But recently I've been playing delver and putting up decent results at local game shops. Eldrazi and Tron matchups are still rough and Hollow One is a bad time, but otherwise the deck feels pretty good in this meta.

The deck has been built like a midrange/control deck that plays 4 Delver of Secrets . We are not dedicated to the aggro plan. Aggro Tempo has a high ceiling for what it can do, but a very low floor - removal on the turn 1 creature is devastating. In a world of Fatal Push we need to be okay with Delver of Secrets dying. The secret is to play powerful answers like Terminate rather than tempo plays like Electrolyze. This deck can grind when it wants to, race when it needs to, and really only folds to Cavern of Souls casting Reality Smasher and oddities like Slippery Bogle.

Anger of the Gods may seem like a strange sideboard choice in a deck that plays a lot of 1 and 2 toughness creatures. Anytime we board in Anger we board out Delver. Young Pyromancer is still useful because he can go-wide to buy us time to find an Anger, or it's great to slow-roll to overwhelm after we slam Anger. Either way, Anger of the Gods gives us the edge against every creature-heavy deck, which is a lot of the meta. Synergy, or lack thereof, doesn't really matter when the opponent's deck has been blown out of the water. I think I would play 6 copies of Anger of the Gods if I could.

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3-0-1 and more prizes. — Aug. 29, 2018

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I won the first 3 rounds and then split with my round 4 opponent. Made top 8 out of over 40 players and got about $45 in store credit.

Round 1: KCI. The opponent went Forest into Chromatic Star. I thought he was on Tron and prepared for the worst with my 1 land 2 Serum Visions hand. Luckily he played Terrarion and I felt better about things. I only found a 2nd land, but played Young Pyromancer and made 2 tokens before he got it with Pyrite Spellbomb. I played a Tasigur and held up Steam Vents with 2 Spell Snare and 2 Lightning Bolt and a Snapcaster Mage and possibly more cards in hand (don't remember). I Bolted a Scrap Trawler, Spell Snared 2 myr retrievers. He kept finding more copies of each with a KCI in play but I prevented him from comboing off for a lot of turns. An Engineered Explosives got my tokens. I got him to 4 and if I'd drawn more lands early I would have gotten him, but he finally comboed off through my hate. Game 2 I drew tons of hate and killed him with a turn 2 Gurmag Angler. Game 3 I got an early Tasigur and Young Pyromancer and drew plenty of hate again. He went 0-1 drop. Feelsbad.

Round 2: RB Control featuring Demigod of Revenge, Chandra, Torch of Defiance, Hazoret the Fervent, and other exciting cards. Turn 2 he played 2 Inquisition of Kozilek and my hand was Gurmag Angler, Terminate, Dreadbore, Thought Scour, and 2 lands. He took Dreadbore and Thought Scour, which I thought was weird, until he Terminated my Angler and slammed a Liliana, the Last Hope. Luckily I drew Snapcaster to Snap-Dreadbore Lily and start with the Snap beats. Eventually I Kolaghan's Commanded back Gurmag Angler, improved my clock, and got there. Game 2 he started with Leyline of the Void in play. I Mana Leaked 2 Blood Moon, played a Snap for pressure, bolted a Goblin Rabblemaster, played Young Pyromancer, and started swinging for 7 with Snap and Pyro and Creeping Tar Pit. He quickly died. Right as I had enough mana to hardcast my Tasigur, too. He had Anger of the Gods and other good things but didn't draw them.

Round 3: Storm. Game 1 he flooded. Game 2 he didn't draw anything relevant. He lost so fast that he felt obligated to tell me how to rebuild my deck because I'm doing it wrong. Apparently Mana Leak is a very bad card and counterspells in general are bad cards in modern and my deck is bad becuase I rely on counterspells. I admit I'm unconvinced, since the meta isn't just Humans and Hollow One.

Round 4: We split because we both would make top 8, and top 8 got equal split of the prize pool so neither of us would benefit by beating the other. We played a game for fun and he was on Bant Miracles featuring Nexus of Fate. My slow-rolled Thoughtseize got Jace, the Mind Sculptor and I double-bolted down his Teferi. And then a few turns later he slammed Nexus of Fate on my end step. It quickly spiraled down from there, with hardcast Terminus getting my board and Celestial Colonnade killing me. I hope this doesn't catch on because it felt very bad for me in that game. He has a lot of cards I want to counter - more than I have enough counterspells for. And his deck looked very hard to clock.

Tonight was the first night playing Rakdos Charm in the sideboard and I like it. I don't know if I'd play another copy, but 1 copy instead of a 3rd Nihil Spellbomb seems good. Extra artifact hate is something that's good to have in this meta.

School starts again next week, so I'll only be playing EDH and prerelease for the next 9 months. After this week, no more modern until next summer.

A pile of small changes — Aug. 19, 2018

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3-1 last week and 4-0 this week at FNM — Aug. 18, 2018

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Spicy changes. Also another winning record. — July 28, 2018

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I'm a bad magic player — July 28, 2018

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More store credit! — July 26, 2018

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4-1. More winnings! — July 22, 2018

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Living the Dream — June 25, 2018

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3-1 for 16th place out of 78 players — May 23, 2018

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I'm not going to tell you my record last night — May 16, 2018

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Casual

100% Competitive

Revision 54 See all

(1 year ago)

Top Ranked	Achieved #40 position overall 5 years ago
Date added	6 years
Last updated	1 year
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	31 - 13 Rares 6 - 0 Uncommons 19 - 2 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	1.93
Folders	Tempo Decks, Interesting Modern Decks, Favorites, Modern, Stealing Ideas, g
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