This past weekend, I took Horror Delver to the New Jersey Open. It’s the first time I’ve ever taken a brew to a tournament and the first large Modern tournament I’ve attended since GP Richmond in March of 2014. Here’s the 75 I sleeved up:
Modern UR Horror Delver
| Lands (20) 4 Scalding Tarn 4 Misty Rainforest 3 Steam Vents 1 Stomping Ground 3 Island 2 Mountain 2 Sulfur Falls 1 Cascade Bluffs Creatures (13) 4 Delver of Secrets 4 Thing in the Ice 1 Snapcaster Mage 4 Bedlam Reveler Spells (27) 4 Gitaxian Probe 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Serum Visions 4 Thought Scour 4 Manamorphose 4 Remand 2 Forked Bolt 1 Gut Shot | Sideboard (15) 3 Ancient Grudge 3 Young Pyromancer 2 Spell Pierce 2 Spellskite 1 Dispel 1 Negate 2 Blood Moon 1 Crumble to Dust |
The deck started off strong before the wheels fell off in round five (a combination of bad luck, my inexperience with the deck, and one particularly bad round of tilt).
The biggest bit of positive data was that Thing in the Ice dramatically overperformed; I’d expected a lot of creature-heavy decks, but I didn’t expect it to be so strong against them. The deck is incredibly good at playing it on turn two and flipping it on turn three, or playing and flipping it on turn four. When the field of is rife with Eldrazi, various flavors of Collected Company, Bogles, or even Jund, having a sweeper that’s also a 7/8 is amazing.
Bedlam Reveler was more awkward than it had been in testing. While it’s the absolute best draw on turns four plus, it’s incredibly awkward to have multiple copies in your hand (though chaining one into another is disgustingly powerful). Perhaps the deck wants to play three copies to slightly mitigate the chances of drawing multiples, while still keeping the odds high that you’ll draw one by turn four. Alternatively, the deck might want to play Faithless Looting to smooth itself out and discard redundant Revelers. Or perhaps this is just a necessary evil of submitting to this devil’s incredible power.
Going into the tournament, I knew that Remand was a sketchy inclusion. The deck wants its spells to be extremely proactive so that it can flip Thing in the Ice or play a two mana Bedlam Reveler as quickly as possible. Remand is bad at both of those things, but it’s incredibly good with Delver of Secrets, it’s strong against combo decks (which the deck has problems with), it allows two spells to become three prowess triggers or remove three ice counters) and it’s just an all-around good interactive spell.
Delver of Secrets was shockingly irrelevant. The deck is very good at transforming Delver and very good at applying quick pressure. It’s also a one mana threat, something which the deck otherwise doesn’t have access to (the deck really didn’t seem to want Monastery Swiftspear). The problems with Delver are that its effect is generally minor (most games were won off of massive swings involving Awoken Horror or huge Bedlam Revelers), it’s terrible alongside Thing in the Ice, and it turns on removal that would otherwise be dead, like Lightning Bolt. The deck just doesn’t play enough tempo-aggro cards like Mana Leak and Spell Pierce to really benefit from Delver.
I sided in Blood Moon almost every match, which is a big data point. The deck is very well prepared to be a Blood Moon deck, as it has no spells costing more than a single blue, it is very hungry for red mana, and Manamorphose can even dig it out in a pinch. In fact, the deck may be better served by being a strange version of Blue Moon. Blood Moon is a far more impactful spell than Devler of Secrets and is well complemented by threats that double as either an Evaucation (which can exacerbate opponent’s mana problems) or Ancestral Recall.
The final note I have from the tournament is the deck seemed to flood out a lot. Twenty lands is far less than I’m accustomed to playing, but the deck has sixteen cantrips, and twenty if you include Remand (which you shouldn’t). It’s very good at hitting its land drops, and while it’s good at using its lands up to the fifth land, everything else is terrible. If we stick with Delver, the deck may want to shave a fetchland for a Burst Lightning or Faithless Looting.
With all this in mind, I’m more interested in keeping the core of the deck but shifting the theme. Here’s the next version of the deck I’m looking to try out:
Horror Moon
| Lands (20) 4 Scalding Tarn 4 Misty Rainforest 3 Steam Vents 4 Island 2 Mountain 2 Sulfur Falls 1 Cascade Bluffs Creatures (9) 4 Thing in the Ice 4 Bedlam Reveler 1 Snapcaster Mage Spells (31) 4 Gitaxian Probe 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Serum Visions 4 Thought Scour 4 Manamorphose 2 Burst Lightning 2 Remand 2 Forked Bolt 1 Faithless Looting 4 Blood Moon | Sideboard (15) 2 Shatterstorm 1 Hurkyl’s Recall 3 Young Pyromancer 2 Spell Pierce 2 Spellskite 1 Dispel 1 Negate 3 Tormod’s Crypt |
I don’t think we’re at the right list just yet, but I’m excited to find out just how big an impact these two horrors can have on Modern. I’m no brewer, yet these two cards seem so strong and so underplayed at present. Here’s hoping they can prove their worth.
And as always, thanks for reading.
—Zachary Barash
Zachary Barash is a New York-based game designer. Playing since 1994, he loves Limited and drafts every available format (including several that aren’t entirely meant to be drafted). His favorite contemporary Magic design is Explore, because it’s a Time Walk cast for minimal value.