Insectile Aberration

Creature — Human Insect

Flying

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Alchemy	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Brawl	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Pauper Duel Commander	Legal
Pauper EDH	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Pre-release	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Standard	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (35)

KorandAngels on Are Lizard Warrior and Viashino …

2 years ago

DragonWolf420 I was talking about the Delver of Secrets  ^Flip, Insectile Aberration, Aberrant Researcher  ^Flip, Perfected Form, Docent of Perfection  ^Flip, Final Iteration series. All 3 cards used to be the same guy before they changed the art of Delver of Secrets and ruined the story. Look up the old version and perceive that they are indeed the same character.

Neotrup on Card Interaction Question

2 years ago

If you did have a double face card, like Delver of Secrets  ^Flip, copying Thing in the Ice  ^Flip (sutch as by enchanting with Metamorphic Alteration ) then when you cast an instant or sorcery it will transform. This will result in an Insectile Aberration copying Thing in the Ice  ^Flip, so it will transform back then next time you cast an instant or sorcery. The reason is because your copying Thing in the Ice  ^Flip, not the whole card, so you'll never be copying Awoken Horror .

Xica on RUG Delver (Pteramander)

5 years ago

Tarmogoyf needs a lot of card types =/= a lot of instants/sorceries that are required to make Pteramander work.

Not to mention that Delver of Secrets  ^Flip needs as few non-sorcery and non-instant cards as possible, to allow it to become Insectile Aberration which is also at odds with the needs of tarmogoyf.

Neotrup on Can Lazav transform?

5 years ago

Worse than that, if you somehow make Lazav, the Multifarious a double-face card, maybe by making a Delver of Secrets  ^Flip a copy of him, the way copy effects are handled keeps jumping through these hoops from actually paying off. Let's say you have your Delver of Secrets  ^Flip that's a of Lazav and you have it copy another Delver of Secrets  ^Flip in your graveyard (so now it's almost back to being what's printed, except its named Lazav, the Multifarious, is legendary, and has a cool extra ability to change what it is). During your next upkeep you reveal an instant from the top of your library and transform your creature. It's now got it's Insectile Aberration side face up, is still legendary, is still named Lazav, the Multifarious, still has the ability to copy other things, and is still a 1/1 with an upkeep trigger. Even though it transformed, it's still copying Delver of Secrets  ^Flip, not Insectile Aberration

saj0219 on (Budget) UR Wizards

5 years ago

Saljen good question! I spent some time thinking about Delver, but here's why I went with Swiftspear instead:

• When I put Delver of Secrets  ^Flip into my deck, I'm actually hoping it becomes Insectile Aberration, which isn't a wizard unfortunately (but imagine if it was an insect wizard instead of a human insect!)
• Monastery Swiftspear's haste allows it to sneak in for (potentially) massive damage against an unsuspecting opponent. The turn after my opponent swings in, I can drop Monastery Swiftspear + Assault Strobe + Mutagenic Growth and swing for 10 damage... While that particular combination is a bit magical christmasland (though it's happened often enough that it's not that farfetched), it is true that this deck late game is often looking to squeeze in those last few points of damage, and swiftspear is just faster

:)

Neotrup on Can copies of cards transform?

6 years ago

Another point on this is that when the card leaves the battlefield it will no longer be a copy. If Clone is a copy of Golden Guardian  ^Flip and it dies after using the fight ability, the triggered ability will trigger to return it, but because it cannot be transformed it will remain in the graveyard on resolution. If Delver of Secrets  ^Flip is a copy of Golden Guardian  ^Flip (perhaps from something like Mirrorweave) and it dies after using the fight ability, the triggered ability will trigger and return it to the battlefield as Insectile Aberration, it will never be the land.

Also, if a double-faced card is a copy of another double-faced card, even if it transforms it will still be considered whatever it was copying, not the other side. If Delver of Secrets  ^Flip is a copy of Thing in the Ice  ^Flip and cast an instant to transform it, it will transform into a Insectile Aberration that's a copy of Thing in the Ice  ^Flip, not Awoken Horror, so it will not trigger to return nonhorror creatures.

sylvannos on I'm beginner. I need help …

6 years ago

You're basically playing U/R Delver. Cut your creatures down to:

4x Delver of Secrets  ^Flip
4x Stormchaser Mage
4x Young Pyromancer

Then, switch a few of your spells around:

-3x Lightning Strike
-1x AEtherize
-1x Counterflux
+1x Peek
+4x Lightning Bolt

You also won't need so many lands. The ones you have are also kind of a problem because a lot of them always come into play tapped. Modern tends to have fewer turns than other formats, so you having lands that can never enter play untapped will lose you a lot of games. Any lands that do enter the battlefield tapped need to do something really good to warrant this. Therefore, I'd change:

-4x Swiftwater Cliffs
-4x Izzet Boilerworks
-0-1x Halimar Depths
-1x Mountain
+4x Wandering Fumarole OR Sulfur Falls OR Steam Vents OR Shivan Reef OR Spirebluff Canal
+1x Desolate Lighthouse
+1-2x Island (depending on if you cut Halimar Depths)

You have more blue cards than red in your deck, so you'll want to play more blue lands than red ones if you can't get a hold on any dual lands.

Lastly, you should have some leftover slots from cutting creatures. More copies of Peek would be good. I'd also suggest Opt and Electrolyze for this last spot.

You may find Turn / Burn to be a bit heavy on the mana requirement. Consider replacing these with low-cost counter cards, such as Dispel, Negate, Spell Snare, Spell Pierce, Squelch, Chart a Course, or Remand. If you do cut Turn / Burn for one of these other cards, remember to cut another Mountain or two and replace them with Islands. Otherwise, you'll have too many games where you can't cast anything despite having 90,2183,989 bajillionzillion lands in play.

Lastly, you'll need a sideboard. These are the cards that are useful for your deck, but only against specific kinds of threats. You're allowed to swap cards in and out of your deck between games after the first in a match (tournaments are best 2-out-of-3).

An example sideboard would look like:

2x Mizzium Meddler (for Boggles)
1x Counterflux (stops control and midrange)
1x AEtherize (you'll want these against aggro decks and tokens)
These four just get moved to your sideboard from your main since you only want them in specific situations2x Abrade (vs. Affinity)
3x Ceremonious Rejection (vs. Tron, Affinity, and Eldrazi)
1x Dispel (vs. Burn and control decks)
1x Magma Spray (stops Kitchen Finks and Dredge)
3x Tormod's Crypt/Relic of Progenitus/Grafdigger's Cage (you bring these in against any graveyard bullshit shenanigans)
2x Spell Pierce
1x Negate
(These last three are for beating Control, Combo, and Midrange decks, along with Burn)

From here, you should have a decent deck to take to your local shop to play with, but there's still some things you'll need:

• Serum Visions is beast mode in Delver because it's one of the most consistent ways to flip Delver of Secrets  ^Flip in Modern. They're a 4-of, but fluctuate between $2 and $8, depending on the market. They're pretty cheap right now due to being reprinted in Eternal Masters, but they've definitely been higher. You should be playing these over Peek and if they're within your budget right now, go get them.
• Snapcaster Mage is a card that cranks up the power level of your deck. End of your opponent's turn Lightning Bolt -> Snapcaster Mage -> Lightning Bolt -> untap -> attack has ended a lot of games in Modern.
• Scalding Tarn + Steam Vents will fix almost all of your mana problems. You can play off-color fetchlands as long as they're blue and you have Steam Vents (such as Flooded Strand). Not only can you save on your life total by fetching up basic lands, this also opens up the option for a 3rd. color or maindeck Blood Moons. Fetch lands also act as fuel for Grim Lavamancers and Jace, Vryn's Prodigy  ^Flip.
• Speaking of which, Jace, Vryn's Prodigy  ^Flip functions as the 5th. through 8th. copies of Snapcaster Mage. He can also be somewhat of a "budget" option, although he works best when you're playing both cards.
• Sword of Fire and Ice and the other swords in the cycle can go a long way. An Insectile Aberration is nothing to fuck around with. An Insectile Aberration with +2/+2 and protection from 2 different colors will end the game.
• You'll also want Remands (likely 2 or more) at some point, but it's not high on the priority of cards to get. They act like Time Walks when your opponent taps out to play something and misses a land drop. This buys you time to lay down the beats with your small critters.
• Ancestral Vision is also a solid pick. You're looking to stall the game out long enough to kill your opponent with 3/2s and 1/1s, why not refill your hand halfway through the game?

Hope this helps! I'm sure I'm missing something that experienced Delver players can recommend.

Muush on Recruiterless Aluren (Primer)

6 years ago

The problem with all those cards is that they only work when Aluren is already out. Their contribution without it is very limited or downright nonexistent. This is especially true for noncreature cards in Recruiter lists, since the main tutor only finds creatures, so they have to carry most of the deck's weight. If you're running red, Ghitu Slinger is a good choice; useful against many threats like Insectile Aberration, Dark Confidant, Young Pyromancer and the like (and especially against Magus of the Moon), and with Aluren it's a kill condition.

Genesis Chamber looks interesting, it may have potential against control decks. Could be a nice sideboard card in the right metagame. Sadly I've never tried it.