Delver is actually quite good against many strategies in Modern, which are fast, fickle, and focused. The reason it hasn’t seen much success in the format since 2012 is because Abrupt Decay and the subsequent rise of BGx midrange. More recently, it has Bant Eldrazi to contend with, which out-fairs most Delver decks pretty handily while packing the dreaded Eldrazi Skyspawner.

With traditional Jund on a steep decline and linear decks with built-in protection from discard, like Ad Nauseam, on the rise to combat DSJ, Delver is starting to seem more serviceable. More on Delver vs. no Delver in Grixis Shadow here: http://quietspeculation.com/exploring-deaths-shadow-jund-grixis-zoo/#comment-7907

Actually, Thought Scour is the low-power set-up card this build has to run… and it costs mana! Grixis Shadow therefore seems to me like a slightly clunkier version of DSJ that’s favored in the Death’s Shadow mirror (and in grindy matchups generally) but weaker against decks that require their opponents to play proactively (most of the format).

I would say it doesn’t maximize efficiency at all relative to DSJ, but does effectively attack the mirror with Snap-Push and the Push-proof delve threats. Compared with the Delver version, it has an even better time against DSJ, since it doesn’t play four threats that die to Tarfire. But I don’t like its odds against the rest of the metagame as much; having an evasive, three-power threat for one mana is really good in Modern when you can back it up with efficient disruption.

Nice catch, thanks!

A version of Grixis Death’s Shadow just placed 9th at the SCG Modern classic in Dallas this past weekend. No Delver. It resembles the list that Michael Majors was advocating recently.

I’m not sure what the infatuation with shoehorning the card Delver of Secrets into aggro-control/tempo decks in Modern is. This is not the same card in modern as it is in legacy. Without Ponder and Brainstorm, you have to run more lands and fewer instant-sorcery spells. In addition, without the aforementioned blue cantrips, you can’t flip Delver at will. Sure, there will be times where you get free wins because Delver flips turn 2, but in my experience playing against that specific card, more often than not, its a 1/1 for at least 2 or 3 turns after you play it… not exactly a good rate in Modern.

I’ve run into similar issues with Sultai and have started to run a pair of Architects of Will in the main. Architects auto-turns on delirium a lot of the time, since we’re all but guaranteed to have a land and a sorcery in the grave. But it’s a shame that it’s a creature artifact, since both of those types are respectively covered by Wraith and Bauble. It has come up for me where I am missing a land or sorcery and end up drawing Bauble, Wraith, AND Architects and still not having delirium; Tarfire is clearly better at setting up the graveyard, and it has the added benefit of helping in faster creature matchups, as you noted.

I’ve benched that idea for now and am currently working on a Grixis-splash-green build that covers all the bases.

Each threat has its own issues. Gnarlwood makes us more all-in on the graveyard; one of the benefits of Delver in the Grixis list is that it ignores hosers like RiP or Relic. Renegade is more conditional thanks to revolt, but its main issue is that it only clocks for 2. That’s not an impressive enough amount to warrant playing a one-drop at all IMO.

Deathtouchers are better in the mid-to-late-game in creature mirrors, but I think going with either of those options takes away the benefits of playing a one-drop in this deck at all.

Thoughtseize is really powerful, although it lacks synergy with Delver. TS is ideal interaction for a midrange deck; Delver usually wants interaction to follow the threats. I don’t think you can play Delver and eight discard spells, but just the set of Seize seems fine since it’s a great card on its own and also covers some ground we lose by ditching Wraith (a necessity to enable Delver).

Lately I have actually been trying a small green splash in Grixis for… Tarmogoyf! Goyf doesn’t force us to run Scour to support him, so we can play interaction instead. And Delver is a better one-drop than Nacatl. Grudge and Decay is icing on the cake. I’ll let you know how it goes.

The reason being is that death touch is so so much better in the mirror and in many other match ups, and that is in addition to already automatically having a smoother Mana base

I have been testing the Sultai Shadow build you presented last week and its been a blast to play. Ultimately its proven harder at being able to achieve delirum than it’s Jund cousin thus being less consistent/reliable in its Traversing capabilities. Stubborn denial was impressive in dealing with the random answers people are starting to employ that are effective against Death Shadow like Chalice of the Void, top-decked Fatal Pushes, and Rest in Peaces. I felt like I had a definitive edge in the mirror matches that I played, but started running into problems against go-wide creature decks that I could not keep up with due to the lack of cheap/mass removal outside of a playset of fatal pushes (Tarfire/Pyroclasm where art thou?). The deck certainly felt powerful but perhaps at the end of the day, it is overall a worse version of Jund that like you said gets bonus points against some of the non-creature decks and the mirror.