The new Daily Event schedule has arrived and with it we’ve seen an increase in the reported results for Pauper. This is not news. The change in the metagame is all at once subtle and blatant. With the uptick in winners we have seen the true best decks begin to emerge. The old stalwarts of Delver and Esper Combo are there, as well as an unexpected spike in Mono-Black Control early.

The format is shifting towards decks that can best utilize spells with Delve. This is a logical conclusion as those cards can be quite powerful for their given cost. Treasure Cruise has already proven itself to be ban-worthy in both Legacy and Modern but the key addition to the Sultai suite has been Gurmag Angler. The zombie fish matches up incredibly well with Pauper for so many reasons. By virtue of being black it dodges Doom Blade and its creature type leaves it immune to Victim of Night. While black decks have been leaning on Diabolic Edict and Chainer’s Edict for a while now this immunity cannot be understated. Perhaps more importantly Gurmag Angler is immune to a single Lightning Bolt and a single Flame Slash. The fact that this creature requires two pieces of red removal to take off the field of battle is huge as the Izzet Control decks thrive on one-for-ones. Taking away that deck’s capacity to trade fair until it can resolve a Treasure Cruise helps to dictate the field of battle. This has led to a new challenger emerging - one that seems poised to stick around for quite a while.

February 6th saw the first success of Dimir Delver. While I alluded to such a deck in my Fate Reforged preview article, Pascal3000 took the deck along a different path and his has proved far more golden. Pascal identified Treasure Cruise and Gurmag Angler as the best things to do and pushed his deck towards enabling these high impact spells early and often.

There is a lot of love about this list. I have recently begun to truly appreciate the Brainstorm/Thought Scour interaction. The ability to put two dead cards back and then immediately bin them, all while drawing another card, is quite nice. In this deck it also takes four off the cost of a key spell, because who doesn’t want a cantrip with their Dark Ritual?

The actual business in this deck is rather compact- Delver of Secrets, Jeskai Sage, Gurmag Angler, Counterspell, Snuff Out, and Ghastly Demise are the only cards present that have a primary intention of dealing with opposing stuff, whether that stuff are creatures, spells, or life points. Everything else is land or overpowered blue spells. Just 18 cards are all that Pascal needed to apply pressure. It does help that 22 cards dig to the business and also help cast them. It should be noted that Thought Scour does have offensive capabilities against other Brainstorm decks - if they try to set up their draws it can be easy to Scour them away. Similarly against opponents running Delver of Secrets Thought Scour can mill away a revealed card before they have the chance to draw. In one of my testing matches with this deck, I used my Thought Scours to mill out the opposing Mystical Teachings deck. It is basically a Swiss Army Knife.

Jeskai Sage is also a sneakily important piece of the puzzle. Not only does it trade favorably with removal but it also turns every cantrip into extra damage. In a deck with so many spells that can chain into other spells it is not out of reach to have a combo style kill that emulates a powered down Kiln Fiend.

Dimir Delver plays out much as how one would expect. It sets up draws to apply pressure then resolves a threat and attempts to protect it while dealing lethal damage. The fact that it can play its Blastoderm sized offense as early as turn two means that it can just steal wins.

It is a weird confluence that pushes a deck from a fringe strategy into a major player. First, someone has to win with a deck so it gets posted. After that, it has to look both fun and powerful. Dimir Delver appears to have caught that lightning in a bottle and has started to hit its stride in the metagame. In its first week the deck only had one winner, the second week doubled that number. As of this writing we are three events into the week and there are already seven instances of the deck posting a 3-1 record or better. With three more events to be recorded this week it is quite possible that we will see around 15 placements.

The shift in popularity has had an impact on the components of the deck. Ghastly Demise and Snuff Out are some of the best removal available at their respective costs but the increase in Gurmag Anglers everywhere is bad news for Doom Blades. One potential solution is to move towards Chainer’s Edict and friends. The player BrunoTheNumeroUno posted a winning record with a more midrange take:

Bruno’s deck seems set up better for facing mirror matches. Chainer’s Edict makes an appearance as the catch-all removal spell of choice likely due to its ability to feast on undead fish. Disfigure slots in as a solid anti-beatdown card that does a fine job of killing nearly everything in the Delver deck. Sultai Scavenger may seem an odd inclusion in that it dies to both Lightning Bolt and Flame Slash but it does allow the deck to maintain air superiority in a mirror match against four Delver of Secrets.

Burno has skipped on Accumulated Knowledge. While this may be due in part to the recent scarcity of the card it may also be to make room for Deprive. Deprive is has a high cost but is one of the better ways to say no and without Snuff Out and Ghastly Demise for ultimate point-and-click style kill Deprive can handle just about everything. The tempo hit is real but can be mitigated with both Angler and Scavenger.

These are not the only variants on the deck. Some players have included copies of Mulldrifter as a card draw spell that can feed delve or serve as a moderate threat. Other players, anticipating an increase in delve fueled threats, have moved to Vapor Snag to help press a tempo advantage while potentially rendering Gurmag Angler a dead card. I had one test game where I was able to use Vapor Snag in conjunction with two Daze’s (one targeting Vapor Snag, one targeting the Daze) to increase the power of my Jeskai Sage enough to kill an opponent from a seemingly safe life total.

Dimir Delver attacks Pauper from a fairly unique angle. Normal Delver seeks to apply pressure and never let up while using Spire Golem to blunt attacks while behind. Izzet Control is a closer analog with a heavier reliance on Treasure Cruise but that deck lacks the Tarmogoyf-esque threat of Gurmag Angler. Izzet Blitz, the Kiln Fiend/Nivix Cyclops deck, shares elements with Dimir Delver with a reliance on cheap cantrips and the conversion of spent cards into damage and resources. Dimir Delver can maneuver between these axes making it a versatile threat in the current metagame. Some cards that may warrant additional consideration for the deck include:

Spell Pierce and Dispel are both cheap ways to protect a threat. Spell Pierce is a riskier proposition as Tron decks are en vogue. Memory Lapse may warrant a look as it can render delve a difficult proposition.

As decks move towards sacrifice based removal it may also be worth investigating cards like Stormbound Geist and Sultai Emissary. Stormbound Geist is a known quantity as a way to fight removal. Sultai Emissary is a new entrant into the resilient to kill spell cadre but this one has an additional upside of potentially adding two cards to the graveyard. While creatures like Nest Invader and Butcher Ghoul have long been options for fighting Diabolic Edict the bonus of manifesting a card that can then die and fuel a Gurmag Angler or Treasure Cruise is quite the spice.

How about on the other side? As stated above Memory Lapse is a big gainer in its ability to waste delve investment. Disdainful Stroke can hit the haymakers but then it is possible Delver and Jeskai Sage can just chip away. Mesmeric Fiend also looks attractive since it can nab a key spell without putting it into the graveyard. Bounce is also stronger now as forcing an Angler back to the hand can often be a back breaking play.

As far as removal, spells like Terminate and Murder have a pull in the fact that they can just kill anything. Skred would be a better option if decks currently wanted tons of land in play, and all the ramp decks these days invest in the UrzaTron. Lightning Axe can deal five and also has the potential upside of pitching two cards to set up a Treasure Cruise or Gurmag Angler of its own.

Pauper is entering an age where the core cards of many decks are going to resemble one another. Treasure Cruise and its friends comprise the most powerful suite of cards available. The question will be not what colors are you pairing with the boat, but rather how to best leverage it. Dimir Delver is a new weapon that provides the chance to access multiple decks of the Treasure Cruise. This is the start of the newest age.

Keep slingin’ commons-

-Alex

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