Hello everyone, me and my friends are all making some 60 card decks to help get everyone familiar with play style I've been playing for about two and a half years now and I really want to run rug delver but I need some help. Deck list to come but first what cards do you think are staples for a rug delver (it's mostly modern but they its pretty casual as I'm allowed to run brainstorm.
{Brainstorm}, {Ponder}, {Stifle}, {Nimble Mongoose}, {Daze}, {Spell Pierce}, {Spell Snare}, {Lightning Bolt}, possibly {Forked Bolt}, {Fire // Ice}. ({Gitaxian Probe} is good)
I play RUG delver in legacy, so I can't speak with much authority about modern, but those are some (relatively) inexpensive cards that I use in legacy. The purpose of the deck in legacy is to disrupt your opponent's plan (ie: manabase with {Stifle}/{Wasteland}) with minimal mana commitment while you beat them with a Delver/Goyf/Goose
I do remember a modern RUG deck that ran {Æther Vial}, {Vendilion Clique}, {Cryptic Command} among other things. Don't remember if it actually ran delver but it certainly could.
It all depends on how much you want to spend. Hope this helped a little bit.
I agree with the above post, except that you should not run {Stifle}. Here is why:
the main reason that {Stifle} is used is because you can respond to someone cracking a fetch land (i.e {Scalding Tarn}) with your {Stifle}, effectively "destroying" their land. This is usually an auto win because of the tempo that you gain from such a play. However, {Stifle} is usually bad. It is only amazing if you go first, and if it is in your opening hand. It is easy to play around {Stifle}, also. Furthermore, unlike cards like {Daze} and {Force of Will} and {Brainstorm}, {Stifle} is almost never a good topdeck beyond your first draw in the game. Destroying your opponent's second or third land is a lot less detrimental to your opponent than destroying their first land. Oh, and it only works if their first land is a feth land. In legacy and modern, that is usually the case, but I doubt (by your description) that many of your opponents will have fetches. I could be wrong though. However even so, {Stifle} would remain bad, just because of its limited use. Don't judge cards by their high-highs, or by their low-lows. Judge them by how useful they are, usually.
Edit: btw I'm not trying to hate on ihazfrozen or anything. All he did was state that many delver lists run {Stifle}. And that is true. I just saw the word "Stifle" and it triggered my wrath!
Stifle is good in so many situations it's crazy! You can literally change the outcome of many games for {U}. There are so many things that can be stifled!
It can be used in many ways, but logically speaking, that isn't a good reason to call it useful. Sure you can counter a plainswalker ability. Okay, they just made you discard a card instead of whatever other ability it would have been. And the pw is still there. It did almost nothing. Yes, you can counter many triggers in magic with {Stifle}, but the fact that it is a good turn 1 play just when you happen to be going first and you happen to have it in your opener and your opponent happens to play a fetch and also doesn't know how to play around it...doesn't make it worth a slot in rug delver.
{Stifle} is definitely a more marginal card if no one in the group is playing fetches.
That said, it still has targets in modern that are pretty good, such as birthing pod (pretty good value), a liliana activation (keep your threat alive), your own geist angel trigger (keep the angel), {Arcbound Ravager} shenanigans, stop the {Batterskull} living weapon trigger, etc.
In the end, it isn't good enough to justify the price if you're playing casually...
Quote from: ConanEdo on October 28, 2013, 08:21:53 PM
I've seen delver builds in modern, but the biggest obstacle is the lack of a ponder or brainstorm to fix the draw and flip delver.
I actually think the biggest reason delver isn't a deck in modern is because of no daze/force.
The ability to tap out to turn 1 delver and still have protection is great. I think you could probably get by with {Serum Visions} if you had those free counterspells.
Thanks guys so far I outside of brainstorm its going to mainly be cards from when delver was standard. I'm really thinking about {thunderous wrath}.
Short list of {Stifle} uses:
{Delver of Secrets} (flips and stops the opponent flip)
Fetch lands
{Æther Vial}
{Birthing Pod}
Storm triggers
Miracle triggers
{Phyrexian Dreadnought} trigger
{Goblin Charbelcher} stops the game loss
{Sneak Attack}