In the early days of Modern, some of the popular archetypes were various takes on Delver of Secrets decks splashing a third color - typically White or Green. The Temur builds were more of a midrange deck, featuring cards like Delver of Secrets and Burst Lightning alongside Huntmaster of the Fells and Cryptic Command. We haven't seen those decks in quite some time, but Chaughey has put up a good performance with an interesting take on the classic Modern archetype:
Temur Delver - Modern | Chaughey, 5-0 Modern League
- Creatures (15)
- 1 Snapcaster Mage
- 3 Hooting Mandrills
- 3 Young Pyromancer
- 4 Delver of Secrets
- 4 Tarmogoyf
- Instants (15)
- 1 Stubborn Denial
- 3 Mana Leak
- 3 Spell Pierce
- 4 Lightning Bolt
- 4 Vapor Snag
- Sorceries (12)
- 1 Traverse the Ulvenwald
- 3 Forked Bolt
- 4 Faithless Looting
- 4 Serum Visions
- Lands (18)
- 1 Forest
- 1 Island
- 1 Mountain
- 1 Breeding Pool
- 1 Stomping Ground
- 2 Steam Vents
- 3 Wooded Foothills
- 4 Misty Rainforest
- 4 Scalding Tarn
- Sideboard (15)
- 3 Ancient Grudge
- 3 Damping Sphere
- 1 Destructive Revelry
- 1 Disdainful Stroke
- 3 Feed the Clan
- 1 Firespout
- 1 Hazoret the Fervent
- 2 Stubborn Denial
Faithless Looting is a card that is beginning to be taken increasingly seriously in Modern. It's not just being used to fuel busted graveyard strategies anymore, but has become a premier card selection engine for decks like Mardu Pyromancer and Grixis Death's Shadow. Given that context, it's not shocking to see Temur midrange decks picking up Faithless Looting as additional card selection.
On the whole, this deck plays similarly to Grixis Death's Shadow. The goal is to use cheap interaction like Lightning Bolt, Vapor Snag, and Mana Leak to keep your opponent off balance and cheap threats like Delver of Secrets, Tarmogoyf, and Hooting Mandrills to beat down while your cheap disruption does its work. Serum Visions and Faithless Looting help to smooth out your draws so that you have the appropriate mix of lands, threats, and disruption to clean up the game.
One of the most exciting things about this deck is how flexible it is. If you're worried about graveyard interactions, there are cards like Magma Spray and Pillar of Flame. If you're worried about Affinity, you can lean into Spell Snares a little more. You've got access to Ceremonious Rejection and Cryptic Command as well as Logic Knot and Remand depending on what kinds of strategies you're trying to beat up on.
If you're looking for a flexible, disruptive beatdown deck, this has, traditionally, been a strong deck in Modern. We haven't seen it in some time, but Delver of Secrets is an enormously powerful card, particularly when backed up by all the one-mana interaction you can find.