Last week I talked about a few decks and cards that have been on the rise under the reign of our new delve overlords. This week I want to talk about the new top dog--Izzet Delver--and how the power level of individual cards in this and similar strategies has changed dramatically in the post-Treasure Cruise world.

First things first, this is the build of Izzet Delver that I rocked:

I lost rounds two and three after mulliganing a lot, but I stuck it out and won my way into Top 32. When this deck is on, the power level is undeniable. My initial instinct was to go over the top of other Izzet Delver decks and play True-Name Nemesis to trump Monastery Swiftspear, but this strategy was weak to Daze and Swiftspear turned out to be much stronger than I expected.

While that attempt at change didn’t pan out, the inclusion of Wasteland is a marked improvement over stock lists. I don’t like the way many Izzet lists eat up sideboard slots with Price of Progress and Blood Moon. Sideboard slots should target close and difficult matchups in a format as diverse and large as Legacy. They should not just be powerful cards. Wasteland moves this element of the deck into the maindeck, freeing up sideboard space and increasing the power level of Daze.

I tried out four copies initially, but Wasteland did lose some stock in the land of Treasure Cruise. Games just tend to go longer and people draw more lands when they’re Cruising. It’s still great to mess up powerful non-basics like The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale, Blinkmoth Nexus, and just punish opponents when they stumble.

Basic Goblin Mountaineer was also terrible in all of my testing with this deck, and unlike in Modern where Steam Vents has to hurt you to come in untapped, Volcanic Island is a free-roll. Grim Lavamancer is really the only card that makes it so you really can’t have your red source wasted, and I just plainly don’t like him in Treasure Cruise decks anyway.

All that aside, let’s talk about just how different Treasure Cruise makes this strategy.

Brainstorm

You know how Brainstorm was by far the best card in Legacy? Well, it just got better. The big reason for this is that Treasure Cruise makes it so that you can Brainstorm more aggressively without getting punished.

Previously, Delver decks didn’t have any way to generate card advantage by drawing extra cards. This being the case, not finding a fetchland meant that your Brainstorms left two potentially unwanted cards stranded on top of your deck where you would have to redraw them.

Now you get to burn Brainstorms to pump Swiftspears, set up your next two turns and then actually draw three new cards using your spent Brainstorms to pay for delve. The top of your deck that patiently Brainstorm previously allowed you to see you now just get to draw and keep when you resolve Treasure Cruise.

The unfortunate impact of this is that now poor Brainstorming goes unpunished more often since you can’t always draw Treasure Cruise. So it’s still not the case that just anybody can win  as any other player with the blue Legacy decks.

Young Pyromancer

Speaking of cards that got better by virtue of having the ability to generate card advantage, holy carp did Young Pyromancer undergo a transformation.

This upgrade really goes hand in hand with the Brainstorm upgrade. Brainstorm locking yourself was never worth a 1/1 token. Building up to an Ancestral Recall and making a grip of 1/1s is.

YP has arguably jumped Tarmogoyf in power level, which is a wild thought. Obviousl,y they each have their own weaknesses, but I know I’d rather be weak to Pyroclasm than Swords to Plowshares.

It might be a little late to get in on foils, but Young Pyromancer is an uncommon that you might be able to make some money on. It has always been around $2, and its appeal is really high. I don’t see a reprint being likely, particularly with it not showing up in the core set before the prowess mechanic.

There are 3 copies in an event deck, but I could certainly see a slow climb in price on this one. Picking up any cheap copies you can sounds smart to me.

Gitaxian Probe

The biggest argument that I’ve heard for playing Gitaxian Probe is that it provides free information. Huey Jensen played it in Sneak and Show for one event before cutting it, stating that he already knows what his opponent has. Probe got better in Delver decks, as it triggers prowess and Young Pyromancer, but the payoff still isn’t as high as it can be in decks like Sneak and Show that just kill you if they don’t see a Force of Will.

I boarded the two copies I played out against everybody and have no intention to continue to play the card. The information isn’t valuable to me, and the lack of Spell Pierces in Huang’s list leaves the deck vulnerable to the inevitable host of Show and Tell decks packing Dig Through Time that can kill you before you ever get a Treasure Cruise online.

Probe definitely got stronger, but I still don’t think it’s good enough. I’m really tired of arguing this point, so I don’t see a need to go in depth on it. If you like Probe, play Probe.

If anybody asks me, however, it gets dramatically worse the more you know about Legacy as a format and what your opponent might have. And it’s certainly not worth cutting business spells over.

Force of Will

Some people would contend that Force of Will didn’t need to get better, but I’ve never sympathized with advocates of Goblin Charbelcher.

In fair matchups, the cost of Force of Will is extremely steep. It wasn’t that long ago that people would leave one in the sideboard and try to board them out as often as possible.

The raw card advantage of Treasure Cruise changes the relevance of Force of Will’s drawback.

I recently played a game where I Forced two spells and then casted a Treasure Cruise. Suddenly I had the same number of cards in hand as my opponent. That’s absurd.

I don’t think that anybody was considering cutting Force of Will from any blue deck, but it is interesting to think about how much stronger it got, and thinking about it this way could change play patterns to make more liberal Force of Will usage more compelling.

Spell Pierce

Spell Pierce is very bad against Delver decks, and I ended up boarding the card out in a few matches.

That said, not playing them invites all kinds of problems. I saw a lot of ANT at the top tables in Minneapolis, and there is no reason that this deck should be doing well in a Delver-heavy metagame. It's also an important tool against Show and Tell decks, which I played against twice and won in games that the stock Izzet list probably would have lost.

Spell Pierce got worse, but I don't believe it has stopped being necessary. Forked Bolt will serve you better in the mirror, but Spell Pierce will help in harder matchups.

Stifle

Before I landed on my list, I tried Stifle out in Izzet Delver and it underperformed.

It’s a terrible card to draw off of Treasure Cruise and you don’t need to lock your opponent in the early game anymore since you have access to card advantage engines.

I was completely baffled when I started seeing the card in Sultai Delver decks. Not only do I not prefer the card anymore in the first place, but the Sultai versions of Delver tend to be much better at going long, so a card like Stifle doesn't fit into the strategy very well. The fact that Treasure Cruise is a one-mana, high impact spell that can find more lands is also a big point against Stifle.

Further, the more aggressively people can Brainstorm, the worse having a Stifle for a fetchland is.

Not long ago, I was easily one of the most avid Stifle players in the world, and now I'm ice cold on the card. If I'm not into it, that should definitely be a sign to rethink playing the card.

~

Going forward I don't see a compelling reason not to play Izzet Delver in Legacy. A Show and Tell deck with Dig Through Times could definitely rock the metagame, and that's the other deck I would be looking at if I wasn't into delving.

From the list I played, I would turn the Probes into the second Fire // Ice and either the third Spell Pierce or 18th land.

This is far from an exhaustive list of everything that has shifted power in Legacy, and again I urge everyone to explore the format extensively before playing a big tournament in post-Treasure Cruise format. The differences may be subtle, but they are many.

This past weekend I went to the local Sealed PTQ and ended up losing in the semi-finals. I haven't had much of a response to any limited content that I have produced here on Quiet Speculation, so I'm posting this to see if the Insider audience has any interest in a sealed-deck write-up. It's obviously not terribly relevant in terms of speculation, but with this being my second limited PTQ Top 8 in a year, alongside another PTQ where I lost my win-and-in, I believe I have some valuable insight if there's interest. Either way, let me know!

Thanks for reading.
-Ryan Overturf
@RyanOverdrive on Twitter