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By: jay85, Jay Nelson
Dec 16 2015 1:00pm
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 When I decided to take the plunge into Legacy the first deck I built was UWR Delver, back when Treasure Cruise was the best spell in the format. After Cruise was banned I jumped ship to BUG Delver and I never looked back. I heard a lot of talk about RUG Delver and to be honest I was never sold on the idea of Stifle and Nimble Mongoose being strong enough. I mean, why would I want to give up Abrupt Decay and Deathrite Shaman? It never made sense to me. Boy was I wrong!

Stifle

 Oh, Stifle, you and I are going to be the best of buds. I didn't realize how many situations can pop up where Stifle is an absolute boss. I used to think it was too situational like Spell Snare, but that's not the case at all. I now feel like it's the back-stitch that holds RUG together. Just think of all the triggers and activations you come across in a game of Magic. The tutor ability from Stoneforge Mystic. Countered. Shardless Agent's cascade trigger. Ah, countered. Planeswalker abilities. Yep, also countered. But my favorite thing about Stifle is it feels like you have a total of eight Wastelands in your deck. Opponent cracks a fetch, I don't think so, buddy. Countered!

 

 I believe it was Drew Levin who once wrote how you should never play Scalding Tarn and Misty Rainforest in RUG Delver because as soon as your opponent sees one of those fetchlands they instinctively start playing around Stifle. While I do agree, I think the chances of you playing a fetchland on turn one with no better play than to hold up Stifle is pretty rare. I for one wouldn't want to keep a hand without a Delver of Secrets or a Nimble Mongoose, but hey, it happens. Therefore the first thing I did was trade out those Rainforests and Tarns for Flooded Strand and Wooded Foothills. The manabase is very simple so you won't ever have to worry about Foothills not being able to fetch for an island, and you know, might as well try and surprise opponents with Stifle any way you can.

 The sideboard consists of mainly just one-ofs. I don't have a problem with this since we're running playsets of both Brainstorm and Ponder along with three Gitaxian Probes for digging. I did take the liberty of adding Life from the Loam because Legacy is a Wasteland right now and it always seems like I'm getting my duals destroyed, not to mention against certain archetypes recycling Wastelands can be OP.

 The list I based my deck off of used two Pyroblast and I always like to mix it up with one Pyroblast and one Red Elemental Blast as it gives you a little bit of protection against Cabal Therapy. Of course if this deck had Young Pyromancer then I could see why excluding REB makes sense since there are some corner cases where you just want to throw Pyroblast at a nonblue spell or nonblue permanent in order to make an extra token.

 I also added Sulfur Elemental to go along with the already included Sulfuric Vortex because I want more hate against Miracles. It doesn't matter to me how well positioned RUG Delver is against Miracles, I always have a hard time against it. A constant uphill battle, so I want to be able and bring in the extra hate. 

 Honestly, I would rather be playing Abrupt Decay over Lightning Bolt (which is probably why I've always played BUG over RUG), but I can't lie to you, Bolt is still a heck of a card. It may not have the reach in destroying enchantments and artifacts but it can hit your opponent directly in the face or help take out Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Lightning Bolt is mainly why RUG Delver is a faster deck than other Delver variants. Ok, maybe not as quick as straight UR Delver, but I don't think there is any question that BUG is the slower of the two.

 I've always thought Nimble Mongoose was overrated, that is until I actually sat down and started casting it. Wow, how my attitude has changed about the little mongoose after the daily event. I think what I love the most about Mongoose is its shroud. Besides sweepers like Terminus or Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, the only other thing I can think of off the top of my head to deal with it is Liliana of the Veil. I guess Diabolic Edict would also work. Does anyone still play Diabolic Edict? I haven't seen that card in a deck's sideboard in a while now.

 Some things concerning your Nimble Mongoose that you will want to be aware of is to not attack into someone's open fetchland if the fetch can search up a Forest, unless you have reached threshold or can attain threshold at instant speed. Why is that? Because Dryad Arbor. I've actually traded my Dryad with an opponent's Mongoose once when I was playing Sylvan Plug. It felt great. Not sure how my opponent felt...  

 The rest of the deck seems pretty straight forward. It's a Delver deck, after all. Apply pressure quickly and disrupt your opponents with soft counters and Wasteland. Try and not let the games go too long. I like to think of these kinds of decks as sprinters, not long distance runners.

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 Round one was against Miracles, played by MzFroste. There is no video of this match because I forgot to hit record. My bad. It's not like you missed much. I lost both games one and two, starting the daily off to a poor start.

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 Alright guys, I'm trying something new. My article series Journey Across the Multiverse is a blast to write. I love testing my limits when it comes to playing new decks and I want to keep doing that, but I have a problem. Sometimes I play a deck for an article and I love it so much I want to keep playing it. Journey Across the Multiverse is a series where I write about different decks that catch my eye as if I'm on a constant journey looking for new decks to play. A planeswalker without a home, I guess you could say. I love it, but it just won't fit the theme of the series to keep showcasing the same deck every time. Therefore I'm beginning another series! It will be called Will of the Council (I know, how original, right?)

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 I've been struggling for months on how I could go about this. How can I keep releasing videos of some of my favorite decks? I think I've found the answer. Will of the Council will be a series where I'll play with decks I've already showcased in Journey Across the Multiverse. These will be decks I enjoyed and continue to play whenever I find the time.

 Then I started to think how I could get you, the readers, involved. I figured the best way is to hold a vote at the end of each Will of the Council article. You guys will decide which deck I play next. Have you been itching to see more videos of a certain deck? Now you get the chance!

 I haven't figured out all the rules for this yet. It's still a work in progress. I'm thinking I'll start with four decks for everyone to vote on. By the time I'm able to participate in a daily the deck with the most votes will be the chosen one. Then that deck will be replaced with a new one in the poll so that way the same deck isn't chosen each and every time.

 So if you're wondering if I'm done with Journey Across the Multiverse, the answer is no. Because this new series will take a considerable amount of time to produce (I'm thinking every couple weeks) I'll still be able to write and play decks that are new to me and maybe even to you. So as far as I know you can now expect one week to be Journey Across the Multiverse, then Will of the Council, then Journey again, and so forth. I'm really excited to start this and I can't wait to see which deck will be your (a.k.a. the Council's) first pick!

 This new series will only work if you guys take an active part in it, which I truly hope you do. So without further ado, cast your vote and may the best, most enjoyable, deck win!

The Council's choice for the next daily

BUG Delver

Brave Sir Robin

Sylvan Plug

Shardless BUG

Poll Maker
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 In case you're not familiar with one of these decks I have provided links to decklists from previous articles.

1 Comments

Nice work man! I played RUG by Joe Fiorini at Thu, 12/17/2015 - 06:16
Joe Fiorini's picture

Nice work man! I played RUG for a while. I did enjoy BUG much more afterwards though.