Help choosing best build of deck to pursue

Deck Help forum

Posted on Feb. 5, 2019, 2:39 p.m. by HalbrechtHalbrecht

I have been struggling to build a Delirium deck that's both consistent and flexible. Both versions rely on Ishkanah, Grafwidow and / or Assault Formation as the win-con. I need to reliably achieve Delirium by turn 4 and reliably have access to Ishkanah by turn 5 (assuming no ramp), in order to start stabilizing and applying pressure. I also need to be able to stall the game or otherwise stay alive in the early game.

Here's what I've got:

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VERSION 1 Show

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"Bite of Delirium"

Legacy HalbrechtHalbrecht

SCORE: 2 | 12 COMMENTS | 237 VIEWS | IN 1 FOLDER

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PROS:

• Can churn through the deck quickly via multiple means of self-mill, digging to the key cards faster
• Limited amount of value from a full graveyard, between a couple sources of recursion ( Crop Sigil , Nyx Weaver ) and a couple of the "maybe" cards ( Gnaw to the Bone , Drown in Filth )
• Due to both of the above, doesn't generally have a problem with missing land drops, even at only 22 lands

CONS:

• Linear strategy and low amount of "answers", due to not very many card slots being available (and due to not having full access to the graveyard when the needed answers get milled away!)
• Slow to get going, and sometimes has a hard time staying alive in the meantime

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VERSION 2 Show

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"Nascent Delirium"

Legacy HalbrechtHalbrecht

SCORE: 1 | 77 VIEWS | IN 1 FOLDER

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PROS:

• Not using self-mill means instead having cards that provide value when going to the graveyard
• The deck has more room for low-CMC "answers" that both stall the game and enable Delirium

CONS:

• Harder to "churn" through the library to find the right cards, and having a lot of cheap Delirium-enablers often means quickly having an empty hand
• Like version 1, slow to stabilize and reach its more explosive plays (though it seems to do a better job of surviving past the early game)

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Please help me decide which of these build directions to focus on.

I want it to be enjoyable to play, so that each turn there's something useful to do (no dead cards or dead abilities on permanents), and when facing a faster deck, that it doesn't just feel like you're constantly back peddling and not being able to develop your board state.

I've been working on Version 1 for a while, and Version 2 is a more recent idea. But it's hard for me to tell whether it's going to be better, and I don't want to waste my time and energy focusing on it if Version 1 can actually be better.