Best Delver Variant - Bruce Archey (6/27/12)

So, after months of playtesting with Delver I've asked myself a question. What is the Best Delver Variant? So today, I'm going to talk about different types of Delver and which one of them is the best. Let's start off with Esper Token Delver.

Esper Tokens by Ben Green

Creatures
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Geist of Saint Traft
2 Hero of Bladehold

Spells
1 Dismember
4 Gitaxian Probe
2 Gut Shot
3 Honor of the Pure
4 Lingering Souls
3 Mana Leak
4 Ponder
4 Vapor Snag

Land
4 Darkslick Shores
2 Evolving Wilds
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Island
2 Plains
4 Seachrome Coast
1 Swamp

Sideboard
1 Celestial Purge
2 Divine Offering
1 Hero of Bladehold
1 Moorland Haunt
1 Negate
2 Phantasmal Image
2 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sword of War and Peace
1 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
3 Timely Reinforcements

Esper Tokens is a pretty good deck, but it's weak to Ratchet Bomb, and it's mana base is unstable. So Esper Tokens is not the best delver variant, while it is a pretty good option. Let's move on to U/W Delver.

U/W Delver by Brian Eason (Top 8 @ SCG Nashville)

Creatures
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Geist of Saint Traft
3 Restoration Angel
4 Snapcaster Mage

Spells
1 Dismember
1 Faith's Shield
4 Gitaxian Probe
2 Gut Shot
4 Mana Leak
4 Ponder
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
2 Sword of War and Peace
4 Vapor Snag

Land
4 Glacial Fortress
9 Island
3 Moorland Haunt
2 Plains
4 Seachrome Coast

Sideboard
1 Act of Aggression
1 Batterskull
2 Celestial Purge
2 Dissipate
2 Divine Offering
1 Dungeon Geists
2 Phantasmal Image
1 Revoke Existence
1 Surgical Extraction
2 Timely Reinforcements

Now while U/W Delver is a very solid deck, and considered the best deck in standard it is not the best Delver variant. The reason for it's success is because it has a 50%-55% win % vs every deck in standard. While that's pretty impressive, theres another delver deck that's slightly better and beats U/W Delver on a consistent bases in the mirror. Mono Blue Delver.

Mono Blue Delver by Bruce Archey

Creatures
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Invisible Stalker
4 Delver of Secrets

Spells
4 Mana Leak
4 Ponder
4 Vapor Snag
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Thought Scour
2 Gut Shot
2 Mental Misstep
1 Dismember
3 Runechanter's Pike

Land
18 Island
2 Inkmoth Nexus

Sideboard
2 Negate
2 Dissipate
2 Mental Misstep
1 Consecrated Sphinx
4 Phantasmal Image
2 Ratchet Bomb
2 Ghost Quarter

While U/W Delver has Geist of Saint Traft, Moorland Haunt, and Restoration Angel Mono Blue Delver has a more consistent strategy and can take down U/W Delver in the mirror, fairly easily. Why? Because Mono Blue Delver has access to more counterspells and more clone effects, and is able to kill out of nowhere with a runechanter's pike off the top. Not to mention it has a better mana base. I'm more then likely going to play this at FNM this week, I'll write a tournament report on it, and how I do. That's all i got for now.

Thanks for reading