Could not agree more. This is a deck where you don’t many free wins. Scapeshift, Living End, Ad Nauseum(if you have multiple counters for pact of negation) and elves are about as close as you get to free wins. Those are great matchups as we are among the only decks in the format that pack maindeck counters.

Affinity is a great matchup too unless they stick cranial plating on etched champion.

This is a deck that demands skill and correct sequencing more than alot of decks in modern.

I personally gave up the deck for a while because so many games were nailbiters. I prefer games where I can tell the outcome quickly.

Plus now with Dredge plus infect, the lack of treasure cruise really hurts because we can’t just dig to find more answers. I also switched decks because quite frankly, I don’t think I currently have the skill to play the deck at or near its best yet.

I’ve said it for a while, I think in the hands of a great pilot(like Overturn or Kevin Jones), it can be among the best deck in the format but the margin for error is so small. One reason is unlike other fair matchups, our curve is not neatly laid out. Jund and Abzan have a very neat curve laid out. T1 you do x y or z. T2 a or b. T 3 Liliana lol etc. Grixis we should never be paying over 2 mana for anything(maybe 3 mana for a delve creature) so it’s not always aparent what to cast when.

I want to say it again as I believe it bears repeating: In the hands of a great pilot(like Overturn or Kevin Jones), it can be among the best deck in the format…but it is not for everyone.

I would never put a sorcery speed four drop in a deck with Delver of Secrets.

Discard is just off plan. There are so many good cards in Modern that you are not going to play everything that you could- plain and simple. Counterspells allow you to trap your opponent and manipulate the tempo of the game, and discard spells don’t.

With regard to K-Command, I used to play two back when grindy matchups were more popular and getting stuff back from your graveyard mattered a lot more. These days you just have to care a lot more about being fast. Given that there really aren’t other Snapcaster decks, one K Command is more than enough to compete with Jund.

You don’t want black mana on turn one, and as such Darkslick Shores is pretty medium. I played one because I liked the idea of an extra land that tapped for mana and didn’t want another shock or basic. Canal is easily better.

You’re not wrong that this build ends up getting beaten up by decks that the old build didn’t, though Modern is at a point where Grixis Delver actually can’t beat everything. I think that Jeskai Control is a low enough share of the metagame and Bant Eldrazi is the sort of matchup where you just have to get lucky so I’m fine not messing with those. Tron likely remains relatively popular among the players who just own Tron, though you can definitely still cheese them with Delvers. I’m definitely on board with just respecting Dredge as of now.

I’m very new to modern and just expanded my decks from merfolk to delver. I’ve greatly enjoyed the new challenge of learning how to pilot delver but I am really struggling to figure out how to tweak the deck as there are so many variants. I’ve tried ur but prefer grixis (and can’t stomach shelling out for goyfs). Can you or the author explain more about this phrase because when I read it I was stumped but you seem to get it. What’s so bad about the one mana targeted discard and trading card for card? And why so few copies of kolaghan’s command? I have found that when it works it is simply amazing, a blowout against so many decks with small creatures. (although as I type this I realize that kcommand does often end up sitting dead in my hand… Is it similar to the comment above about anger of the gods – it’s only great in matchups that are already good ones?) Thanks for sharing, I hope these questions aren’t too mundane or obvious.

Interesting input and revisions to the deck; I like it a lot, think they make sense and may go back to Grixis Delver after I’ve had enough of playing Suicide Blue (which actually has a pretty good matchup vs. Dredge).

I’m interested to see if Cathartic Reunion will put Dredge into the spot as the top deck in Modern; this past weekend sure seemed to suggest that, but I guess we’ll see.

One thing you didn’t talk about, but I think is really relevant, is just *how* good Spell Snare can be against Dredge if you can hit Cathartic Reunion (and to a lesser extent in hitting land drops and card advantage, their casting Life from the Loam) – I’ve only done it a couple times, but it’s totally amazing against my opponent. It stops their going crazy on Dredging and depletes their hand of cards so that, even if they get a Conflagrate in the graveyard, they can’t cast it for much! When I’ve managed it, this play felt like a Timewalk + a Hymn to Tourach. Now, it doesn’t matter much if you don’t have any sort of clock on them, but man, if you do, it has made the games I played feel very favorable.

Thanks for your replies. “you don’t just want to trade cards for cards, you want to trade mana for mana.” really good sentence. Describes the deck really well.

Tron is definitely going to be a relatively bad matchup for this build, but it’s on a heavy downswing. The plan is to dodge. I don’t like the 3-1 split because the game one matchup just crutches on Delver anyway and one sideboard card isn’t nearly enough to fix that. It would be committing to fighting a losing battle. The Fulminators were fine, though they didn’t make the matchup seem like a freeroll, which is a bummer when committing so much sideboard space.

Discard spells suck in this deck- you don’t just want to trade cards for cards, you want to trade mana for mana. Discard spells are tempo negative. Also, this deck often plans on going long, and discard spells are putrid topdecks.

Tar Pit is very medium, as ETB tapped is a significant drawback and most of the decks that go long are very capable of killing it. It’s an okay sideboard land but in general I’m bigger on Cavern of Souls because resolving Snapcaster Mages matters way more than chip shots. Tapping a bunch of mana on your turn can also be disastrous.

Instant speed matters a great deal more than going upstairs for the Pillar/Spray distinction. You don’t have to get hit by too many Goblin Guides to figure this one out. Sorcery speed is also very bad against Infect.

Rakdos Charm is considerably worse against Dredge, which is far and away what I’m looking for here.

There aren’t any matchups where I would want Anger that I would consider bad, and Surgical makes it so that they can’t just dredge back into the game because there are no Amalgam’s left. It’s worth considering, but I don’t endorse it.

You have enough black sources and fetches to find them- it’s all about timing. The deck has nothing it wants to do with black mana on turn one.

What’s the reason for not a single one-mana discard spells? I feel like a couple thoughtseizes could act as the legacy version of cabal therapy, though they seem to be a better fit in the side. I suppose countersquall is good against the same kinds of decks as thoughtseize. Honestly, when I loaded up my last grixis delver list, which skewed a lot more aggressive, I was running a single shattering blow to deal with wurmcoil cleanly as vapor snags and remands would only do so much.

Also, any thought ever given to a 1 of creeping tar pit? It seems with the more controlling tilt, it could be a fit, but i even hesitated myself because using those first three mana over the first 2 turns is so important to not get too behind.

Last question, why magma spray over pillar of fire? is the instant that much more necessary than being able to burn to the face? I suppose if you’re not trying to be as aggressive you don’t need as much reach, but was more than anything wondering the exact cards you are thinking about wrt magma spray being instant.

Thanks so much man

Canal lets you pass turn and scour snare or bolt on t1. If the deck ran t1 discard there might be a case for darkslick, but with no iok the canal is the more versatile t1 land because if you dont have to bolt you can scour.