It’s time! With the release of Innistrad: Midnight Hunt soon upon us, and the entire set previewed, we can now officially start brewing decks with full blown information. This week leading up to release on Magic Arena, we’ll be taking a look at a few different deck ideas for Standard and some lists that you can use to start building your new deck of choice. Today, we’re taking a look at everyone’s favorite Bug Wizard.. Thing…
Delver of Secrets
Delver of Secrets
At the beginning of your upkeep, look at the top card of your library. You may reveal that card. If an instant or sorcery card is revealed this way, transform this creature.
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Flavors of Delver
Delver of Secrets is a card that wants to be in decks that have a high density of instants and sorceries. It starts to put a clock on our opponent’s life early and the goal is to protect it. We have 3 flavors of delver today and while the lists may look similar in style, each will bring a different set of tools.
Mono Blue Delver
Our first deck is going to be Mono Blue Delver, by @johnramosmtg. In recent history, Mono Blue decks have been strong in new formats, as the deck is very consistent. Normally, these decks are going to be playing at instant speed, and the same is generally going to be happening here.
Our goal is to stick a Delver, and use our high instant / sorcery density to flip it early. Then we have a bunch of cheaper counter magic in
Lofty Denial
Lofty Denial
Counter target spell unless its controller pays {1}. If you control a creature with flying, counter that spell unless its controller pays {4} instead.
,
Jwari Disruption
Jwari Disruption
Counter target spell unless its controller pays {1}.
, and
Saw It Coming
Saw It Coming
Counter target spell.
Foretell {1}{U} (During your turn, you may pay {2} and exile this card from your hand face down. Cast it on a later turn for its foretell cost.)
to protect our Delver from removal or serious threats.
Concerted Effort
Concerted Effort
At the beginning of each upkeep, creatures you control gain flying until end of turn if a creature you control has flying. The same is true for fear, first strike, double strike, landwalk, protection, trample, and vigilance.
is an interesting inclusion as well, as we are also running
Ascendant Spirit
Ascendant Spirit
{S}{S}: This creature becomes a Spirit Warrior with base power and toughness 2/3.
{S}{S}{S}: If this creature is a Warrior, put a flying counter on it and it becomes a Spirit Warrior Angel with base power and toughness 4/4.
{S}{S}{S}{S}: If this creature is an Angel, put two +1/+1 counters on it and it gains "Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, draw a card."
which can turn into a warrior, and Delver is a Wizard on it’s front. This makes Concerted Effort basically a
Spell Pierce
Spell Pierce
Counter target noncreature spell unless its controller pays {2}.
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Additionally, we have a few different bounce spells that we can utilize to keep the way clear for our creatures to get in for damage.
Fading Hope
Fading Hope
Return target creature to its owner's hand. If its mana value was 3 or less, scry 1. (Look at the top card of your library. You may put that card on the bottom.)
is a new spell that lets us scry 1 if the target of the spell is 2 mana value or less. This is very helpful because if our opponent has a turn 1 creature play, we can bounce it and scry to help set up Delver flipping.
Into the Roil
Into the Roil
Kicker {1}{U} (You may pay an additional {1}{U} as you cast this spell.)
Return target nonland permanent to its owner's hand. If this spell was kicked, draw a card.
is also good in that it can draw us a card when we kick it, which can help fuel our hand.
Lastly, our draw suite includes
Suspicious Stowaway
Suspicious Stowaway
This creature can't be blocked.
Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, draw a card, then discard a card.
Daybound (If a player casts no spells during their own turn, it becomes night next turn.)
, which is effectively
Looter Il-Kor
Looter Il-Kor
Shadow (This creature can block or be blocked by only creatures with shadow.)
Whenever this creature deals damage to an opponent, draw a card, then discard a card.
, and
Memory Deluge
Memory Deluge
Look at the top X cards of your library, where X is the amount of mana spent to cast this spell. Put two of them into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.
Flashback {5}{U}{U} (You may cast this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then exile it.)
. Memory Deluge is a pseudo
Dig Through Time
Dig Through Time
Delve (Each card you exile from your graveyard while casting this spell pays for {1}.)
Look at the top seven cards of your library. Put two of them into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.
and gives us a greater degree of card selection, which can help the deck in a bind.
READ MORE: Best MTG Cards to Buy From Standard Rotation: Ikoria Lair of Behemoths
Izzet Delver
Next up on the list, we have Izzet Delver. This is a bit of a spell slinger style deck that looks to also take advantage of
Smoldering Egg / Ashmouth Dragon
Smoldering Egg / Ashmouth Dragon
Defender
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, put a number of ember counters on this creature equal to the amount of mana spent to cast that spell. Then if this creature has seven or more ember counters on it, remove them and transform this creature.
as our new Thing in the Ice / Awaken Horror.
Unlike the mono blue version of this deck, we look to take advantage of more removal spells rather than counter magic to help advance our game plan. I think this plan makes sense, as creature / aggro decks are often what’s popular in a new meta, so this serves us well. This deck aims to be a bit more aggressive than the mono blue version, and we’ll see why in a second.
—
One of the benefits of playing red is that we get access to some of the most powerful spells in the format in
Expressive Iteration
Expressive Iteration
Look at the top three cards of your library. Put one of them into your hand, put one of them on the bottom of your library, and exile one of them. You may play the exiled card this turn.
and
Prismari Command
Prismari Command
Choose two —
• Prismari Command deals 2 damage to any target.
• Target player draws two cards, then discards two cards.
• Target player creates a Treasure token.
• Destroy target artifact.
. These cards provide the deck it’s much needed card selection, but also can give us some other versatile effects.
The deck is rounded out with
Dragon’s Fire
Dragon’s Fire
As an additional cost to cast this spell, you may reveal a Dragon card from your hand or choose a Dragon you control.
Dragon's Fire deals 3 damage to target creature or planeswalker. If you revealed a Dragon card or chose a Dragon as you cast this spell, Dragon's Fire deals damage equal to the power of that card or creature instead.
and
Goldspan Dragon
Goldspan Dragon
Flying, haste
Whenever this creature attacks or becomes the target of a spell, create a Treasure token.
Treasures you control have "{T}, Sacrifice this artifact: Add two mana of any one color."
to give us a bit more punch. Having access to Dragon’s Fire dealing 4 damage I expect is going to be very relevant in this new metagame, and Goldspan is a premier top end threat. It also helps us generate a bunch of mana from our treasures so that we can flip our Smoldering Egg much easier.
READ MORE: The 10 Best Commanders From Innistrad: Midnight Hunt
Dimir Delver
Our last deck is more of a control shell with Dimir Delver. The game plan here is closer to the Mono blue version, but we take it a step further. We really want to play as much control as possible. I will note that some of this list is not finalized, but more of a proof of concept.
In addition to Delver, our game plan is to try and take advantage of
Poppet Stitcher
Poppet Stitcher
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, create a 2/2 black Zombie creature token with decayed. (It can't block. When it attacks, sacrifice it at end of combat.)
At the beginning of your upkeep, if you control three or more creature tokens, you may transform this creature.
to help swarm the board with tokens while controlling the game state. We utilize
Alrund’s Epiphany
Alrund’s Epiphany
Create two 1/1 blue Bird creature tokens with flying. Take an extra turn after this one. Exile Alrund's Epiphany.
Foretell {4}{U}{U} (During your turn, you may pay {2} and exile this card from your hand face down. Cast it on a later turn for its foretell cost.)
,
Lolth, Spider Queen
Lolth, Spider Queen
Whenever a creature you control dies, put a loyalty counter on Lolth.
0: You draw a card and you lose 1 life.
−3: Create two 2/1 black Spider creature tokens with reach and menace.
−8: You get an emblem with "Whenever an opponent is dealt combat damage by one or more creatures you control, if that player lost less than 8 life this turn, they lose life equal to the difference."
and
Sedgemoor Witch
Sedgemoor Witch
Menace
Ward—Pay 3 life. (Whenever this creature becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, counter it unless that player pays 3 life.)
Magecraft — Whenever you cast or copy an instant or sorcery spell, create a 1/1 black and green Pest creature token with "When this token dies, you gain 1 life."
to help us generate tokens for this purpose.
Outside of this plan, we have a host of various instant and sorcery spells such as
Bloodchief’s Thirst
Bloodchief’s Thirst
Kicker {2}{B} (You may pay an additional {2}{B} as you cast this spell.)
Destroy target creature or planeswalker with mana value 2 or less. If this spell was kicked, instead destroy target creature or planeswalker.
,
Check for Traps
Check for Traps
Target opponent reveals their hand. You choose a nonland card from it. Exile that card. If an instant card or a card with flash is exiled this way, they lose 1 life. Otherwise, you lose 1 life.
, and
Disdainful Stroke
Disdainful Stroke
Counter target spell with mana value 4 or greater.
. We do play 1
Blood on the Snow
Blood on the Snow
Choose one —
• Destroy all creatures.
• Destroy all planeswalkers.
Then return a creature or planeswalker card with mana value X or less from your graveyard to the battlefield, where X is the amount of {S} spent to cast this spell. ({S} is mana from a snow source.)
just in case things get a bit out of control. Ultimately, this deck’s plan is to go slow at first, while using Delver to pressure our opponent’s life total and then overwhelm them with tokens in the end.
READ MORE: You Won’t Believe What the MTG Rules Committee Banned AND Unbanned in Commander
At the end of the day, I’m very excited to see this iconic Magic card return to Standard. I think the best way to play this card personally is the Izzet version, and there’s definitely a lot of room to optimize for the meta here as well. What decks are you excited to try out Delver of Secrets in? Let us know in the comments! Make sure to stay tuned for our other deck brewing articles this week. Tomorrow we’ll be talking Werewolves!
Innistrad: Midnight Hunt is the first of two new Innistrad sets coming to Magic: the Gathering. It’s being released in tabletop on September 24th, 2021, and online on September 17th, 2021. Previews started on September 2nd, 2021. Be sure to check out our Preview Gallery to stay up to date with all the new previews. You can also preorder Innistrad: Midnight Hunt product here.