Modern with Michael: Bedlam Reveler Delver WRITTEN BY Michael Krumholz

Magic's most powerful game mechanics are commonly those that tap into unconventional resources in order to gain a tangible advantage. Dredge, Delve, and Flashback are some of the more impactful and commonly exploited mechanics across all formats, and they all share in common the utilization of the graveyard as an extension of one's hand.

When Delve was introduced in the Khans of Tarkir block*, it severely warped the metagames of the Modern, Legacy, and Vintage formats. The printing of Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time was seen by many as a severe mistake, but most would agree that the power level of these cards was not inherently too high; rather, these cards had just not been properly balanced for eternal formats.

*arguably we were not yet introduced to Delve in Future Sight, because we were seeing into the future. Minor technicality*

Fast-forward a year and a half, and we have now realized our long-awaited return to Innistrad, a plane that thematically reeks of graveyard-based shenanigans. To no one's surprise, a number of cards containing graveyard-oriented mechanics have been printed during our maddening excursion to Innistrad that are powerful enough to have long-term Modern applications.





The card from the Shadows over Innistrad block with the most competitive potential in Modern is likely Bedlam Reveler. The card in many ways, appears to be Wizard's attempt at properly balancing Treasure Cruise. Bedlam Reveler requires at least two red mana to be cast, and - unlike Treasure Cruise - it only counts Instants and Sorceries in the graveyard. Additionally, since Bedlam Reveler is neither of those card types, one cannot easily chain one Reveler into another as was once the case with multiple copies of Treasure Cruise. These balancing details aside, the card does some incredibly relevant things in Modern.

Has potential.

Draw Three Cards. People jump through so many hoops to be able to read those words aloud in a game of Magic, so why not tack it onto the textbox of a creature that is resistant to Abrupt Decay and Lightning Bolt. Oh, and it has Prowess! Everything about this card is huge, except its mana cost (when used properly).

A creature that gets better the more instants and sorceries are in a deck, and who immediately refuels an empty hand, begs to be in an aggro or tempo shell with a heavy supply of cheap blue spells. Naturally, Monastery Swiftspear and Delver of Secrets are candidates for such an aggro or tempo deck.

Bedlam Delver (Reveler Delever), Modern by Michael K.



My first take on UR Delver is a conspicuous nod to the most successful iterations of the archetype prior to the banning of Treasure Cruise. Bedlam Reveler takes the place of Treasure Cruise, restocking the hand after its resources are liberally invested into a strong tempo game-plan.

The problem with Delver of Secrets is that it is generally difficult to flip, and is easily dispatched before it gets damage in. It's fantastic when paired with free protection spells in the form of Daze or Force of Will, but Disrupting Shoal is as close as we get to either of those in Modern. While an argument can be made for Disrupting Shoal in a deck like this, Bedlam Reveler - like Treasure Cruise - makes it so that one dead Delver can easily be replaced by another; so the inclusion of Disrupting Shoal is superfluous. Restocking one's hand to find more follow-up threats is easy to do, so Delver's lack of resilience to removal spells is overcome by Reveler's ability to simply keep the cards flowing.

Hooting Revelry, Modern by Michael K.

I am a big fan of cost reduction effects: Delve, Phyrexian Mana, you name it. Bedlam Reveler is a card that plays well with a lot of cheap spells, especially Thought Scour, which, under ideal conditions, can often act as a Dark Ritual. This got me thinking about one of my favorite creatures that can also be accelerated into play with Thought Scour: Hooting Mandrills.

Bedlam Reveler and Hooting Mandrills can both be accelerated into play using cantrips and card-dump spells like Faithless Looting and Thought Scour. They also both satisfy the Ferocious clause on spells of the Temur clan (thanks to Prowess), such as Stubborn Denial and Feed the Clan. While each of these creatures fight over similar resources, casting just one of these threats while holding up Stubborn Denial is a ride on the fast track to victory. Each of these creatures survives Lightning Bolt and Abrupt Decay, so the only commonly played removal spells to worry about are Terminate, Path to Exile, and Liliana of the Veil, all of which can be countered for low price of one blue mana.

The goal is to dump the opening hand quickly, put up an oppressively speedy offensive, and then restock one's hand with Bedlam Reveler. This deck plays more aggressively than its UR Delver cousin, and so relies more heavily on Bedlam Reveler to reinvigorate the dwindling resources of one's hand.

A single copy of Life from the Loam can be effortlessly put into the graveyard, using either Thought Scour or Faithless Looting. Any of the deck's cantrips - or even the draw trigger off of Bedlam Reveler - can be redirected towards funneling more resources into the graveyard via Dredge 3, which quickly fuels both the spell count for Reveler and/or Delve for Hooting Mandrills.

I really wanted to shove Snapcaster Mage into this deck as well, but it fights over the same resources that Reveler and Mandrills do. It feels wrong on some level to be playing 8 burn spells in a UR deck without any copies of Snapcaster Mage, but I must admit that I enjoy Hooting Mandrills too much to not mention its potential in a deck like this one.

It is possible that a full set of Snapcaster Mage should be in the main deck, and more room be made for efficient counterspells in the place of Faithless Looting. However, for a deck so poised to fill up the graveyard quickly, Hooting Mandrills should at the very least be considered as a sideboard card. Its inclusion in the mainboard here is entirely due to its powerful synergy with Stubborn Denial, a trait that the apes so conveniently share with Bedlam Reveler.

Cut for an ape...

Wrap-up

Treasure Cruise had a number of traits going for it that warped the Modern format. For one, it could be cast off of a single blue mana which allowed any deck to splash blue for it. In fact, drawing 3 cards for a single mana is such a powerful effect that any deck capable of casting it was simply better off doing so. The result was a blurring of deck delineations. There was virtually no significant difference between UR Delver and Burn. Jund decks splash blue for Treasure Cruise in place of Dark Confidant... You don't need to be a Jund player to understand why that is disgusting.

Bedlam Reveler doesn't have the potential to make the same mistakes that Treasure Cruise did. One cannot simply jam 4 Bedlam Reveler into every deck in the same way that one cannot jam 4 Delver of Secrets. Additionally, the fact that it costs 2 red mana (minimum) means that only devoted red decks can play it, rather than just splashing red. This means that if any archetypal blending occurs it will be among Burn, UR aggro/tempo strategies, and possibly Jeskai Control - considering its potential as a finisher is comparable to that of Goblin Dark-Dwellers.

It is certainly not broken, but Bedlam Reveler still stands to be one of the more impactful cards to come out of the Shadows over Innistrad block with regards to the Modern format. And to anyone who was disappointed by the lack of Horror synergy in the last set, well… I'll just leave this here.

… The Horror!

Michael Krumholz has been playing Magic since Prophecy. His greatest Magic achievements to date include a 1st place finish at a large Modern 1K and earning a Pro Point at his first Grand Prix: GP Modern Masters 2015 in Las Vegas. Michael's aspirations include competing at the Pro Tour and working for Wizards R&D. His favorite formats are Modern and Limited.

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