Every Flavor of Delver

Hello everyone!

So there's this card thats really good, but hasn't been seeing a lot of play for some reason.... It seems insane to me! A 1 mana 3/2 flyer?! Oh wait... Never mind, it's been discovered.... But without the scars block cards, ok without the set New Phyrexia, the deck has to take on a different flavor. I have been thinking about and playing a few different builds, so here's a ton of different delver lists!

UW Humans

3x Champion of the Parish
4x Delver of Secrets
4x Lyev Skyknight
3x Restoration Angel
4x Lyev Skyknight
4x Snapcaster Mage

4x Azorius Charm
4x Syncopate
4x Thought Scour
4x Unsummon

4x Gather the Townsfolk
4x Inaction Injunction

4x Glacial Fortress
4x Hallowed Fountain
4x Island
3x Plains
3x Moorland Haunt

Sideboard:
4x Knight of Glory
3x Detention Sphere
3x Faith's Shield
3x Negate
2x Purify the Grave

This deck started when I saw how awesome Lyev Skyknight is, and realized it's a human. This naturally makes Champion of the Parish a little better! The deck basically built itself from there. No Geist of Saint Traft might just be wrong, and the human tribal may not be as essential as previously thought, but Champion is incredibly aggressive and is often a 3/3 or a 4/4 by turn 3! Restoration Angel on a Skyknight is about as awesome as it sounds, and leads to many free wins! Remember, Skyknight can detain any non-land permanent, so planeswalkers are fair game!

UR Delver

4x Delver of Secrets
2x Goblin Electromancer
4x Guttersnipe
4x Snapcaster Mage

4x Izzet Charm
4x Searing Spear
4x Thought Scour
1x Thunderous Wrath
4x Unsummon

2x Bonfire of the Damned
4x Inaction Injunction
3x Pillar of Flame

1x Desolate Lighthouse
4x Island
2x Izzet Guildgate
5x Mountain
4x Steam Vents
4x Sulfur Falls

Sideboard:
3x Dungeon Geist
2x Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius
4x Negate
1x Syncopate
3x Jace, Architect of Thought
1x Bonfire of the Damned
1x Pillar of Flame

This version plays a little more like a combo deck. If you haven't played the card yet, Guttersnipe is simply the nutter butters and leads to so many free wins! Delver + Guttersnipe + Snapcaster is a match made in heaven, and unless your opponent has a heavy disruption suite, they quickly succumb to all your burn straight to the dome. Cantrips are insane with Guttersnipe especially! The key thing about this deck is that none of the cards are bad by themselves, and together things just get juicy!

UWR Delver

4x Delver of Secrets
4x Guttersnipe
4x Geist of Saint Traft
3x Restoration Angel
4x Snapcaster Mage

4x Azorius Charm
4x Izzet Charm
3x Searing Spear
4x Unsummon

2x Bonfire of the Damned
4x Inaction Injunction

1x Desolate Lighthouse
4x Glacial Fortress
4x Hallowed Fountain
2x Island
1x Moorland Haunt
4x Steam Vents
4x Sulfur Falls

Sideboard:
4x Knight of Glory
3x Syncopate
3x Jace, Architect of Thought
1x Bonfire of the Damned
4x Pillar of Flame

This is the natural mashup. I decided to go with Geist over Skyknight here because he provides a faster clock which pairs well with the burn from the red splash. Restoration Angel is fine here, nothing game breaking with just Snapcaster as a good value target, but fine nonetheless.

Bant Delver

4x Delver of Secrets
4x Geist of Saint Traft
4x Restoration Angel
4x Snapcaster Mage

4x Azorius Charm
4x Syncopate
4x Selesnya Charm
4x Unsummon

4x Call of the Conclave
4x Inaction Injunction

4x Glacial Fortress
4x Hallowed Fountain
4x Hinterland Harbor
2x Island
2x Moorland Haunt
4x Temple Garden

Sideboard:
3x Armada Wurm
4x Centaur Healer
3x Detention Sphere
2x Garruk Relentless
3x Jace, Architect of Thought

This version come from the idealistic nut draw of Hallowed Fountain -> Delver -> Flip Call of the Conclave -> Hinterland Harbor -> Dudes -> You die. This list sometimes feels a little dude heavy to me and doesn't have enough interaction with the opponent. However, the charms are simply insane! Having access to 8 charms means holding up Hallowed Fountain + Temple Garden makes it impossible for your opponent to play around everything. I am not too sure where I want to go with the sideboard, but of course that depends on what other top decks arise. I am playing Centaur Healer over Thragtusk because with only 20 lands you can't reasonably expect to cast Thragtusk before you die in the matchups where you need him.

Overall, I have felt that the UW deck is the best, followed by UWR, UR, then Bant being the worst. Even though I know some versions are simply better than others, it's good to try everything. If the metagame shifts or when Gatecrash comes out, knowing starting templates for many different deck is a boon for us.

That's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!

Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack