With Treasure Cruise banned in Legacy, this means I will have to go back to... playing Delver, but without Treasure Cruise.

Of course, Treasure Cruise wasn't the only Khans of Tarkir card that found its way into Legacy Delver.

I've seen it said that without Cruise to fuel Swiftspear and Young Pyromancer, Izzet Delver is dead. While it's true that losing the deck's only source of card advantage makes it harder to trigger prowess, I believe that rumors of the demise of Swiftspear's playability have been greatly exaggerated. Of course, this is coming from the guy who was crazy enough to play Izzet before Treasure Cruise.

At any rate, I'm of the opinion that Monastery Swifstspear is good even without Treasure Cruise. Gitaxian Probe, Brainstorm and Ponder are all awesome forms of support, and it only takes one spell a turn to turn Monastery Swifstspear into a fantastic one drop.

I have thought it was a shame that Nimble Mongoose didn't play well with delve these past few months. With all the Forked Bolts running around, a threat with shroud would have been nice. I also liked the idea of having three absurdly powerful one drops in the same deck. Call me crazy, but I've never been more excited about a creature suite than this one:

Some people see Tarmogoyf as the big draw to Temur Delver. Against creature decks, Tarmogoyf is certainly an all-star, but I've always attributed more of the deck's power to the efficient and resilient Nimble Mongoose.

It sounds strange to look at a 3-color Delver deck that isn't interested in any sort of high-powered two drop, but I think there's a strategic advantage that can be gained from the insane efficiency of playing three high-powered one drops. This allows the deck to Daze with much less consideration to the drawback and to be able to Wasteland insanely aggressively.

Transitioning from Tarmogoyf to Monastery Swiftspear

If the plan is to build the most hyper-aggressive tempo deck available, then I think I have to take the other side of an argument that I've been making for a long time. If we're loading up on nothing but one mana spells, I think that we have to Gitaxian Probe.

There have been rumblings of the return of Stifle. Years ago, Stifle versus Spell Pierce was a serious debate in Temur Delver. For a while, Stifle was just better. Then you just wanted to play both. And, most recently, you only wanted Spell Pierce. If Monastery Swiftspear continues to be played, it will be hard to play both spells effectively due to their low ability to trigger prowess on your own turn.

Seeing as the deck I'm conceiving of is all one drops, Stifle is the clear choice. It will help us keep our opponents low to the ground and it compliments our Dazes and Wastelands as well as it ever did. While we're playing most of the best one drops in the format, letting our opponents cast two or more mana spells is dangerous.

Putting it All Together

Even though the All One Drop approach has a significant impact on the deck, there are still slots you just shouldn't mess with in Delver decks.

With the slots already discussed, as well as the sacred cows, there are really only two slots left to play with in this deck. I always like playing one Dismember, and that only sounds better when we're not playing our own Tarmogoyfs, which leaves just one slot.

Any of the following are totally serviceable one-ofs:

For my money, Spell Pierce protects you the most from the powerful things your opponents can do. I would start there, but could also see any of these other options working.

Here's the maindeck that I'm looking at starting with:

Is This Better, Worse or Different?

There are obvious downsides to not playing Tarmogoyf. There are even a few not so obvious downsides. For example, Tarmogoyf can steal games against Chalice of the Void that this deck couldn't possibly win if Chalice resolves.

That said, this deck does some stuff I really like. Most importantly, it pushes the primary advantage that Temur Delver always had--that is to say, this deck maximizes the power of Brainstorm with raw mana efficiency. There's also the fact that Monastery Swifstspear's haste allows this build to deal more damage in a shorter window of turns, which is obviously relevant in a format as fast as Legacy.

My tentative verdict is that this is a different deck, and that each will have its own advantages in different metagames. This deck is better at generating games where you're able to one for one your opponent at an insane rate and kill them before they ever make a play, while traditional Temur Tempo decks are better at going long with Tarmogoyf. Time will tell which is better positioned in the current Legacy metagame.

How About a Sideboard

I don't have anything fancy for the sideboard. The only important note to make is that I don't think this deck should try to support the three drops that you see in other Delver variants. If I were to play this list tomorrow, the sideboard I would register is:

Financial Implication

Whether a deck like this takes off, or traditional Temur makes its case, it seems like Stifle will be returning to the format in a big way.

The card took a big hit with the Conspiracy reprint and stayed low while Treasure Cruise was legal, but it's hard to imagine it won't see play again and see a bump back up in price. Stifle is a solid pickup at this point in time.

~

Unfortunately, I won't be able to make it to the first Legacy Open under the new structure in Indianapolis next week, which is a pretty big bummer for me. Were I attending, I would happily sleeve up this list. I'm very curious and excited to see if and how Swiftspear fits into the new metagame.

Think that I'm onto something here? Think that cutting Tarmogoyf is insanity? Chime in in the comments!

Thanks for reading.

-Ryan Overturf
@RyanOverdrive on Twitter