Is delver still viable?

[izik99]

Even with it rotating out of Standard soon, would it still work?

BW with Control elements, or BR with Burn/Aggro.

[izik99]

My bad- UW and UR.

[Mactitioner]

Delver was only viable because of ponder

[Mothaelon]

Delver is huge in legacy

Huge

[Dudecore]

Delver is kinda weak in standard, {Pillar of Flames} deals with him pretty sufficiently.

[Bman0121]

If you look at the old blue white delver decks with  {Geist of Saint Traft} and  {Runechanter's Pike} you could just replace delver with  {Cloudfin Raptor} and have your creatures just be  {Cloudfin Raptor},  {Geist of Saint Traft},  {Augur of Bolas}, and  {Snapcaster Mage} using all other cards  {Runechanter's Pike}s and instants and sorcerys

[Agrajagzz9]

Cloudfin raptor isn't A seven turn clock all by itself...

[Bman0121]

Cloudfin raptor isn't A seven turn clock all by itself...

With

Exactly. A bad sub

It can be evolved or equiped to make it one lol

[Bman0121]

Cloudfin raptor isn't A seven turn clock all by itself...

With

Exactly. A bad sub

It can be evolved or equiped to make it one lol

It's not as consistent. You can use it as a sub but it will never be as affective.

I mean obviously its not as good as delver but its a sub that can still get the job done

[brybry723]

There is a U/G Delver deck that just won the first PTQ out in Arizona last week. I don't have the list on me but its posted on dailymtg.com

[Drewy2]

{B}{U}{G} delver is pretty good atm. The replacement for {Ponder} is {Dimir Charm}, it can also have things like {Abrupt Decay}, and {Deathrite Shaman}

[Agrajagzz9]

Big doesn't seem aweful but dimir charm is a poor sub for ponder. Aside from that the existence of abrupt decay alone is a serious reason to nt play it in standard. The biggest reason it was as powerful as it was was because of mana leak backup. Without effective counter magic on turn two or turn three on the play you will never get there. Just curious but what did the bug list use as its finisher?

[Harmon74]

Big doesn't seem aweful but dimir charm is a poor sub for ponder. Aside from that the existence of abrupt decay alone is a serious reason to nt play it in standard. The biggest reason it was as powerful as it was was because of mana leak backup. Without effective counter magic on turn two or turn three on the play you will never get there. Just curious but what did the bug list use as its finisher?

If you have a flipped delver out, isn't  {Spell Rupture} the same as  {Mana Leak}??  I think the main reason delver is not played now is because of {Ponder}, and there is a lot of cheap removal in the standard format right now..

[Agrajagzz9]

No it's because of abrupt decay. Kla all the delvers