As I have mentioned previously I am a big fan of RUG delver / Canadian Threshold. While I have flirted with the other Delver decks there is just something about Delver + Lightning Bolt. Queue the scene - You are playing a tight game against miracles and they have just terminused your board as you try and attack for lethal, you pass the turn, your opponent tops, plays a land and says go. For your turn you draw a ponder, you ponder seeing a threat and a lightning bolt. Your opponent is at 3...You draw and play the threat, your opponent counters/swords to plowshares your creature. You pass the turn, your opponent tops again and plays another land. For your turn you draw bolt, you say go. Your opponent tops on your end step and on his turn miracles entreat for a bunch of angels. You spell pierce his entreat and he counters back. In response you bolt him. Is there a better way to win?
Unfortunately, I have been struggling a bit with RUG lately. The deck is still excellent and I still enjoy playing it more than any other legacy deck but there are just some games that are such a grind. I have also lost to show and tell a few too many times recently. I don't know if show and tell is getting better, the players are getting better or I am getting worse at the matchup but they seem to have my number every time I play against the deck (with or without my trust gilded drake). The tricky thing is that I only have 1 type of disruption and to vastly improve combo matchups you need 2 types of disruption. Oh yeah and let me mention how good defense grid is...
There are 3 types of disruption:
1. Counterspells - This one needs no introduction. Counterspells can bottle neck your opponent on mana, plain counter their spells and force them to go off without protection for the fear of you drawing more counterspells as the game progresses. Force of Will is often labeled as the glue that holds legacy together. It doesn't take many times of losing to - ANT, TES, Charbelcher, SI, etc before you realize how good having counterspells is.
2. Permanent - Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Sphere of Resistance, Rule of Law, etc. These cards are generally creatures, artifacts, or enchantments that have a permanent effect on the board. They serve to slow down the combo deck allowing you more time to either sculpt your hand with more disruption or proceed with your own game plan.
3. Discard - Discard is perhaps my least favorite form of disruption but it has one key advantage over the above forms of disruption and that is information. You not only get to take a piece of the puzzle from your opponent but you also get to see what else they have to work with. This allows your counterspells to do extra work as you should know what cards to hit and when.
Taking the above into account the Delver decks stack up like this:
RUG/ UR Delver - RUG and UR really only have 1 form of disruption and that is counterspells. In some extreme metagames I could see running arcane lab or Phyrexian Revoker in the sideboard but those cards are really just small roleplayers (if that).
UWR - UWR has counterspells as well as many different permanent based pieces of disruption.
Here are just a few:
Arcane Lab, Ethersworn Canonist, Rule of Law, Phyrexian Revoker, Eidolon of Rhetoric, Meddling Mage
UWR's game 1 is generally a little poorer against the combo decks due to having 4 swords to plowshares in the main deck but post board cards like Meddling Mage are extremely effective when backed up by counterspells.
BUG - BUG has the best Game 1 against combo decks and it only gets better after sideboard. The main deck uses a combination of disruption (Hymn to Tourach and Thoughtseize) as well as counterspells. This disruption suite is only amplified by its sideboard. Oh and I must not forget that you get to chant - "Hymn, hymn - I win."
But wait...there is at least 1 more delver deck.
BURG - BURG is an odd beast that is often maligned by both legacy and non-legacy players. RUG sometime struggles with its manabase so surely playing 4 colours is actually just impossible right? Well that is not the whole story thanks to Deathrite Shaman. Take a look at the resources listed at the bottom for more discussion in regards to the manabase (and I may write something on it in the future as well). BURG as the name denotes gets us RUG spells + black. So we can steal some of BUG interactions while also keeping reach since we have Lightning Bolts. I played this deck for a while when it first came onto the scene but eventually went back to the more "stable" RUG.
Legacy Decklist
Maindeck:
Creatures (13)
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Deathrite Shaman
3 Nimble Mongoose
2 Tarmogoyf
Lands (18)
3 Misty Rainforest
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Tropical Island
2 Volcanic Island
2 Underground Sea
1 Taiga
4 Wasteland
Spells (29)
4 Brainstorm
4 Daze
1 Spellsnare
4 Force of Will
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Spell Pierce
4 Stifle
2 Abrupt Decay
4 Ponder
The main deck has been described as RUG with Deathrite which is 100% true. The little elf shaman allows you to fix your mana and develop your board more quickly while still disrupting your opponent. The current configuration trims a Goose and trims a couple of Goyfs but add the Deathrites. There are a few way to build your creature base and I feel like this configuration is probably the best in an unknown field. When I was experimenting with the deck previously I tried playing with the 12 1 drop version (4 Delver, 4 Goose and 4 Deathrite). It was fine but lacked some finishing power due to a lack of Goyf.
Sideboard: 15
1 Flusterstorm
1 Spell Pierce
1 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast
2 Submerge
1 Forked Bolt
2 Ancient Grudge
3 Golgari Charm
1 Vendilion Clique
2 Thoughtseize
So the sideboard for BURG is crazy powerful. You get the best sideboard cards in 4 different colours which gives you a ton of flexibility and power. Your game 1 against combo is going to be much more like game 1 with RUG but post board you do pick up a couple of discard spells which can really help to solidify matchups.
This past weekend I made top 4 (we split) of my local legacy tournament (25 attendees) with BURG losing only 1 round to mono black pox. I lost to the abyss in games 2 and 3 since I failed to ever find a Golgari Charm to get out of the Abyss lock.
I feel pretty set on the main deck but I think that the sideboard still needs some tweaking.
Here are some additional sideboard cards that I will be running through the ringer over the next few weeks:
Diabolic Edict
Pithing Needle
Spell Snare
Envelop
Deathmark
Grim Lavamancer
Abrupt Decay
Divert
Sulfuric Vortex
Forsaken Wastes
Reanimate
Scavenging Ooze
Grafdigger's Cage
Life from the Loam
Fire Covenant
Sulfur Elemental
Engineered Plague
Destructive Revelry
This is quite a list of powerful magic cards that should help hedge against many of the major archetypes.
On a related sideboard note the only card that BURG doesn't get to play that RUG does is Rough//Tumble. Rough//Tumble is one of my favorite cards for blowing out elves but Golgari Charm is a more useful imitator that can come in versus many more decks.
Resources:
For those new to the archetype I have listed some BURG specific resources. Any articles and videos about RUG delver will also be useful since we are only 8-11 cards different and incorporate the exact same tempo packages (Daze, Wasteland, Stifle, etc.).
http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?26647-Deck-bUrg-Tempo
http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?25879-Deck-Castlevania-%28A-K-A-Burg-or-BUG-in-a-RUG%29
http://archive.wizards.com/Magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/eventcoverage/gpstr13/day2#9
http://www.starcitygames.com/article/26762_The-Triumvirate.html
http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/burg-delver/
Happy reading!
-Cheers-
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