One of the first steps that many players take towards becoming respectable players is when they start using their life totals as a resource. When I first started playing I had no idea why Polluted Delta could possibly be an $11 card. My playgroup and I would frequently muse that "there must be some kind of combo..." We weren't technically wrong...

As we all know now, a couple points of damage is a small price to pay for consistency. "The only life point that matters is the last one," as they say. Time was when I would play a fetchland into Overgrown Tomb into Thoughtseize in Extended with regularity and laugh about Lava Axe-ing myself. Things are a bit different now...

A few weeks ago I wrote about the merits of playing UWR Delver in Modern. There were a few particulars I was especially excited about; those being a craftier sideboard strategy than traditional Izzet Delver and access to Lightning Helix.

Gaining three life on extra copies of Lightning Bolt seemed great. All told, if the deck could just play eight Lightning Bolts proper it would be a tremendous step up. As testing turned out, the downsides of Lightning Helix turned out to be too prohibitive in Delver mirrors, or against non-burn faster decks in general.

As I've said of Legacy many times, two is a lot of mana. Needing access to your secondary and tertiary colors of mana in a deck full of primary mana commitments is problematic as well.

Sometimes your deck just doesn't seem to have enough basics when it comes time to try and find an untapped sixth mana source and others you're off-color because of the few basics you are playing. And despite access to Lightning Helix and sideboard Kor Firewalker, you still sometimes just die to paying 2-3 life for every land.

Long story short, I was getting too fancy. If your "improvements" to the best deck make you worse in the mirror, you're probably doing it wrong.

Now, the claim that Izzet Delver is currently the best deck in Modern might be dubious on its own. Many are still clamoring about Jeskai Ascendancy being top dog despite the deck still not having anywhere near the stranglehold on Modern people were expecting. Meanwhile, Gerry Thompson split the finals of Seattle's Modern Premier IQ battling with Patrick Chapin's Izzet Delver list:

I'm not in love with this deck's Burn matchup, but it's fast enough to keep pace with anything in the format. The only major objection that I have to this list is the shortage of Mana Leaks. There are plenty of spells that when resolved make it very difficult for this deck to win, and many of them cost a scant three mana. The deck that Gerry split with, notably, appears to be cardsthataregoodagainstdelverdecks.deck.

Please, God, never give me a pairing against this deck while I'm playing a tempo deck. Not only are Siege Rhino and Courser of Kruphix a certifiable beating in play, but Fung has freaking maindeck Darkblast to easily kill all of Delver's non-Swiftspear threats. Meanwhile, Abrupt Decay covers Swiftspear with comparable ease. These Abzan decks are no joke, and are one of many reasons I wouldn't leave home without the full four Mana Leaks.

Another compelling reason for countermagic is Modern's figurative and literal red-headed stepchild in Burn. Burn will ever be a deck in Modern given the current ban list philosophy and it is currently the best-positioned in the format that it has ever been, with Eidolon of the Great Revel burning some games into landslide victories from turn two and Monastery Swiftspear serving as additional, upgraded Goblin Guides.

Gerry/Chapin's Delver list largely says a big "who cares" to the question of how to beat Burn, with only a small amount of relevant counterspells on the sideboard. Of course, considering how many bases need to be covered in Modern, I prefer this approach over sideboarding Dragon's Claw in this deck, especially seeing as all the burn decks will have Smash to Smithereens or Destructive Revelry to call you if that's your plan. If I were going to go down that road at all I'd go with Spellskite for the added utility against Hexproof and Splinter Twin.

This is the 75 that I'm currently testing for GP Omaha:

As you can see, my weapon of choice against burn is Spell Snare. The card has lost power as a maindeck option with games revolving way more around Treasure Cruise than Snapcaster Mage, but it still pulls enough weight to have some in the maindeck with enough matchups having a grip of relevant twos to have access to more on the sideboard. Burn, Affinity and Tron are all loaded up on enough twos to make the card matter, and there are easily fringe strategies in the same boat.

Get Your Steam Vents Now

If you missed Derek Madlem's introduction to Pucatrade, definitely give that one a read. Right now. Now that you're finished, you'll see that Steam Vents is a card that he has identified as having a lot of demand through Pucatrade. Rightly so, as it is and always has been in a grip of different Modern decks.

More importantly, no matter what happens with the banlist update, this won't change. Steam Vents was big before Khans of Tarkir, it just didn't pick up much value because supply outpaced demand.

The price barrier of entering Modern at all and weariness about the best Steam Vents deck getting banned are likely the biggest factors keeping Steam Vents as low as it is. With Modern Masters 2015 on the horizon and the fact that Steam Vents will remain popular even with a banlist shake up, now looks like the last looming window to get in close to $10.

Thanks for reading.

-Ryan Overturf
@RyanOverdrive on Twitter