I know it dies to basically every card in a burn deck, but not if you play it on turn 5 or 6. Burn is survivable for that long if sufficient counters and removal are used. I know from a theoretical standpoint Nighthawk should never work in any circumstance, but I have had surprising success with Nighthawks against burn. Searing Blaze is the only card to watch out for, but it can be countered. Nighthawks aren’t good in a vacuum, but I have found that they can be great tools if used correctly and supported, which is what delver specializes in.

Burn usually has an empty hand around turn 4 and then goes topdecking for a closer or just uses Grim Lavamancer to burn to death over a few turns. If they have to topdeck into an answer for a turn 5 Nighthawk (which I don’t play until I am clean out of counters), then they will not get the landfall for Searing Blaze and have to use a less efficient burn spell. In the meantime I can just block their creatures and gain life if they are still attacking, or just wait to draw into more counters or removal or nighthawks. Because of the cantrips in delver, I usually am casting 2 nighthawk on turns 5 and 6 which is almost unbeatable. 1 nighthawk is handleable, but 2 is too many.

Like I said, theory suggests that nighthawk shouldn’t work, but in actual play he has proven very helpful for me.

I’m not sure I would agree with this. It dies to both Bolt, AND Helix/Searing Blaze. Command can just ignore the lifegain when they swing on turn 3 (and kill the Hawk if they pump with it). Plus you can’t play it into a suspended Rift Bolt. That’s a lot of cards and situations into which I don’t want to tap out for Hawk on turn 3. I’d much rather just play an Angler or a burn spell with Dispel/Negate backup and try to keep that tempo gameplay going. Tapping out is really a bad plan there.

I know it dies to one bolt, but I find if I chump block their early creatures with Delver of Secrets and the occasional Tasigur, I can hold off their creatures and counter the important burn spells until I land 1-2 Nighthawk. Even if they die, I usually can gain 2-4 life from each and then they are also down 3 damage of burn for each, so they save me 5-7 life each. I think that’s worth it for 3 mana, especially because I can bock their creatures as well.

It’s worst two match-ups are the mainstays of the format (Burn and BGx decks).

This doesn’t mean its going to turn bad, it just means that when there’s a meta shake-up and everyone runs to their staple decks its going to have a bad time while everything sorts itself out in the background.

On the plus side, you’re a set of Splinter Twins (reprinted in MM), 2 Cryptic Commands (also reprinted) and a bunch of commons/uncommons away from Twin – which would be an easy ‘go to’ deck for yourself (good against burn, only a slight underdog to BGx).

This deck really interests me and I want to trade into it. However, I am not an astute meta-game observer so my question is, will this deck stick around? It looks a blast to play, and there is a lot of Twin where I play. I just don’t want to get burned by the meta-game if somehow it tanks in playability.

BB is pretty difficult to reach, it would require fetching Watery Grave and Blood Crypt – which limits you on U.

Good information to have. Hopefully nothing I said came off as taking him or his Grixis Delver experience lightly, because I definitely like the direction he took the deck. That said, we are seeing multiple kinds of Grixis Delver lists on MTGO, all of which are enjoying similar success rates. So it’s about trying to reconcile those differences and figure out where some cards might be better than others.

Eek, so just had a brain fart and ignored 2x Dragon’s Claw and 2x Spellskite that I think are necessary in that Sideboard. Updated sideboard:

3 Blood Moon
1 Combust
1 Dispel
1 Flashfreeze
1 Negate
1 Terminate
2 Burst Lightning
1 Shatterstorm
2 Dragon’s Claw
2 Spellskite

18 vs 19 lands: If I look at the sideboard and the number of 4 CMC spells there I’m just wondering if going up to 19 is possibly the better call. I think it also allows for the potential to go up to 5 CMC (specifically Batterskull and Keranos – but that could be getting greedy). I think Mana Leak is the cut. Also this in line with the more controlling aspect of the deck.

Manabase composition: With Angler and Tasigur – and Snapcaster to a degree – fighting for our graveyard, I’d want to be running something like 9 fetches, 6 shocks, 3-4 basics. That gives you the best opportunity to fill the graveyard and delve away.

Remand vs. Terminate: I feel these are fighting over six slots in the deck. I’m not sure that 2/4 in favour of Terminate is correct, this will need to be tested. Remand is the ultimate in Tempo cards, it feels wrong to only play two. (I might even be tempted to drop Angler in favour of the two Remands – but not just yet).

Thought Scour: This feels like heresy, but I’m thinking we can cut one of these (possibly for another Electrolyze). The gameplan is usually to turn 1 a Delver then flip and ride to victory. Thought Scour is there to allow the ‘busted’ turn 2 Tasigur/Angler play (although those are both rather rare). What if instead of playing ‘bad cards’ (of which Thought Scour is one), we just naturally fill our graveyard (per Delver Cruise) and cast Tasigur/Angler later with protection and ride it to victory then.

*Sideboard*

I’ve had a look at my old UR Delver notes and here’s some thoughts:

Blood Moon – can’t leave home without it. Definitely running 2-3 of these.
Batterskull – for those games that go long. Needs 19 lands though and that might not be enough (it was fine in my UR Delver list)
Dragon’s Claw – needed for burn
Combust – for the Twin match-up (not sure if needed if we’re running 4 Terminate, could be an option if we run 4 Remand and 2 Terminate)
Dispel, Negate, Flashfreeze – one of each of those for Burn, Twin, Abzan etc just general diversified options
Magma Spray – was for Pod, Infect and Affinity (and mirror). Is Terminate enough now? Just wondering if we’d be wanting to add to our instant speed removal. Could Burst Lightning now that the exile effect is largely irrelevant. If you expect the mirror, I’d be wanting some 1 CMC instant speed removal.
Shatterstorm – because everyone hates Affinity.

Some other interesting options:
Curse of Death’s Hold – stolen from Esper Mentor. If we can go up to 5 CMC then why not?
Keranos – interesting choice, possibly a bit expensive and doesn’t affect the board
Roast – anti-Abzan tech

So after all that I get to:
14 Creatures
4 Delver of Secrets
3 Snapcaster Mage
3 Young Pyromancer
2 Gurmag Angler
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang

27 Spells
3 Thought Scour
2 Electrolyze
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Mana Leak
4 Remand
4 Serum Visions
2 Terminate
2 Spell Snare

19 Lands
4 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Bloodstained Mire
3 Steam Vents
2 Watery Grave
1 Blood Crypt
3 Island
1 Swamp

Sideboard
1 Batterskull
3 Blood Moon
1 Combust
1 Dispel
1 Flashfreeze
1 Negate
2 Terminate
3 Burst Lightning
1 Shatterstorm
1 TBD (I’ll try out Keranos)

I mentioned KC in the last paragraph as another card I want to discuss. I think it’s definitely sideboard material and even has a lot going for it in the maindeck. I also think it’s a tricky card to evaluate, so I want to actually run some tests with it before committing to any stance on the card. So expect to see this card discussed in a future article. The Fulminator/KC plan seems brutal against Abzan, but there might be other ways to beat Abzan without committing so many cards to the plan.

Nice. Definitely report back with anything you find. In particular, I’m curious to hear how the 3-2 Pyro/Angler split goes, and if there are enough delve enablers to reliably drop Tas/Angler when they are needed.

Glad you enjoyed! I plan on writing some more Grixis Delver pieces over the next few weeks. The metagame movement is just unbelievable, and I am continually struck by how strong the Twin matchup is. These are great predictors of top-tier success in Modern, so I’m happy to see other players are as excited as I am.

Which is really to say, do you want to run Lightning Bolt? The answer to this, I think, is yes.

http://quietspeculation.com/lightning-bolts-strength-in-different-metagames/

Also – I realise I come across quite terse in the written format. So just to say I do enjoy this website and its content 🙂

But now the real question:

This or Esper Mentor?