Recently I partook in a prop wager with Ryan Overturf. If Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh Top 8’d the PT, he’d have to play Temur Energy with Bolas in a Standard open. If not then I’d have to play Delver of Secrets in a Modern Open.

I thought this was a pretty solid wager until the later rounds of Standard. When Sam Black plays Ramunap Ruins, it might be a sign that Red is the best deck to play. If Mono-Red is good it makes control sketchier and especially trying to play a 7-mana planeswalker that can’t clear the board.

Based on watching some of the matches, it looks like Hazoret the Fervent is one of the best cards in the deck, especially in the mirror. If this is the case, then I think the return of Soul-Scar Mage would be a good addition to the main deck. Being able to use Glorybringer or Chandra, Torch of Defiance as a way to ‘kill’ Hazoret the Fervent. Relying on Soul-Scar Mage to beat Hazoret the Fervent is a potentially dangerous proposition, having four outs is definitely better than zero.

The other thing I noticed: Bomat Courier was the Rodney Dangerfield of the Red deck. It got no respect. Players had a chance to block or kill it early and always elected to kill something else and a few turns later the Red player would be out of cards and have a Bomat Courier with four or five cards waiting to jump in hand.

Mono-Red is sure to take the driver’s seat in Standard for a bit while players are settling into the format, but the SCG Tour is bringing us a ton of Modern in a short time period to balance it out. While newer sets generally haven’t affected the format as much, each new set brings us a couple playable Modern cards. Fatal Push was a great addition from Aether Revolt, and Hour of Devastation brought us two playable Modern cards capable of impacting the format without breaking it.

The first card is Scavenger Grounds. This unassuming land looks like it’s built only for Standard I think it slots into Eldrazi Tron, at a minimum, quite nicely. Being able to search it up with Expedition Map means this could even be a main deck card for the deck. Providing Colorless mana is a bonus; and, since it’s a big mana deck, the to activate isn’t a problem. Scavenger Grounds gets to sit in play to be used at your leisure, so leverage that to your benefit and sculpt how the game plays out.

The second card has the most potential to be broke. Claim // Fame. The list of 2 CMC powerhouses in Modern is long and impressive. A Zoo variant won an SCG Modern Classic back on 7/23, link here. While it doesn’t utilize Claim // Fame to its fullest, there are some sweet scenarios it can create.

Tribal Zoo ? Modern | Daniel Keigans, 1st Place at StarCityGames.com Classic on 7/23/2017

• Creatures (23)
• 3 Goblin Guide
• 4 Death's Shadow
• 4 Monastery Swiftspear
• 4 Street Wraith
• 4 Tarmogoyf
• 4 Wild Nacatl

• Instants (13)
• 2 Dismember
• 3 Boros Charm
• 4 Lightning Bolt
• 4 Might of Alara

• Sorceries (5)
• 1 Claim // Fame
• 4 Tribal Flames

• Enchantments (1)
• 1 Gryff's Boon

• Lands (18)
• 1 Blood Crypt
• 1 Breeding Pool
• 1 Overgrown Tomb
• 1 Sacred Foundry
• 1 Steam Vents
• 1 Temple Garden
• 2 Arid Mesa
• 2 Windswept Heath
• 4 Bloodstained Mire
• 4 Wooded Foothills

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Grafdigger's Cage
• 2 Stony Silence
• 1 Ancient Grudge
• 1 Gaddock Teeg
• 3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
• 1 Collective Brutality
• 3 Pyroclasm
• 1 Rise // Fall

Buy This Deck

Claim // Fame gives this kind of deck a little staying power against decks that might be tough to attack through or have tons of removal.

While I haven’t been the biggest fan of Modern, the format has become leaps and bounds better than it has ever been. Likewise, I don’t think Delver of Secrets is very good, but I do think a lot of the cards you play in the deck are good. The main card that has me excited for Modern is Claim // Fame. When you play Delver of Secrets you normally have a lot of cheap efficient spells and creatures to match. I spent a lot of time brewing and wanted to share some of the strategies I’ve come up with trying to utilize Claim // Fame.

My first instinct led me to try and be aggressive as possible. Delver of Secrets is generally great in tempo decks, but it can deal a ton of damage very quickly. Just like the Zoo deck from above, I was wondering if that shell could skew toward Blue to play Delver.

Delver Zoo ? Modern| Rudy Briksza

• Creatures (21)
• 2 Snapcaster Mage
• 3 Dark Confidant
• 4 Death's Shadow
• 4 Delver of Secrets
• 4 Monastery Swiftspear
• 4 Tarmogoyf

• Instants (11)
• 2 Path to Exile
• 2 Temur Battle Rage
• 3 Mutagenic Growth
• 4 Lightning Bolt

• Sorceries (7)
• 3 Claim // Fame
• 4 Tribal Flames

• Artifacts (3)
• 3 Mishra's Bauble

• Lands (18)
• 1 Blood Crypt
• 1 Bloodstained Mire
• 1 Breeding Pool
• 1 Sacred Foundry
• 1 Steam Vents
• 1 Stomping Ground
• 1 Temple Garden
• 1 Watery Grave
• 2 Arid Mesa
• 4 Scalding Tarn
• 4 Wooded Foothills

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Ancient Grudge
• 2 Stubborn Denial
• 1 Path To Exile
• 2 Life Goes On
• 2 Ceremonious Rejection
• 1 Negate
• 2 Surgical Extraction
• 1 Grafdigger's Cage
• 2 Stony Silence

Buy This Deck

The other card I believe Claim // Fame breathes new life into is Dark Confidant. Dark Confidant has long been a magnet for removal. When Dark Confidant stays on the field for a few turns the card advantage is usually too much for anyone to overcome. In a deck like this that relies on powerful spells to end the game quickly, Dark Confidant provides the stream needed to make sure you don’t falter early have a great top deck in the mid to late game.

Initial testing didn’t have an impressive showing and I was quick to shelve the deck. The next deck I turned to is an old favorite of Kevin Jones: Grixis Delver. Young Pyromancer is often heralded as Red’s busted 2-drop. As such, it attracts removal before it can create a commanding presence. Claim // Fame offers a way to keep Young Pyromancer alive and kicking. Let’s take a look at what my list looks like heading into the weekend.

Grixis Delver ? Modern | Rudy Briksza

• Creatures (15)
• 1 Gurmag Angler
• 1 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
• 2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
• 3 Young Pyromancer
• 4 Delver of Secrets
• 4 Snapcaster Mage

• Instants (17)
• 1 Murderous Cut
• 2 Kolaghan's Command
• 2 Lightning Bolt
• 2 Terminate
• 3 Fatal Push
• 3 Mana Leak
• 4 Thought Scour

• Sorceries (9)
• 1 Collective Brutality
• 2 Claim // Fame
• 2 Thoughtseize
• 4 Serum Visions

• Lands (19)
• 1 Mountain
• 1 Swamp
• 2 Island
• 1 Blood Crypt
• 1 Bloodstained Mire
• 1 Spirebluff Canal
• 1 Watery Grave
• 2 Darkslick Shores
• 2 Steam Vents
• 3 Scalding Tarn
• 4 Polluted Delta

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Engineered Explosives
• 3 Nihil Spellbomb
• 1 Izzet Staticaster
• 1 Kozilek's Return
• 1 Terminate
• 2 Collective Brutality
• 2 Countersquall
• 3 Ceremonious Rejection
• 1 Thoughtseize

Buy This Deck

You'll also notice a Kozilek's Return in the sideboard. Glancing at the creature base may cause some worry as to how you can really leverage a card like this. However, Affinity is great at getting on the board before you and Company decks are able to go a bit wider than you. It's not difficult to be able to leverage the colorless sweeper to pick off a group of potentially frustrating creatures to deal with. Especially Etched Champion.

However, tournament results painted a different picture for me. I was able to defeat creature and control decks while losing to Burn and Eldrazi Tron twice. Eldrazi Tron’s big creatures ended up being more than enough to crash through. Reality Smasher in particular lines up very well against Delver of Secrets and Young Pyromancer and when drawn in multiples makes the matchup that much harder. Things get slightly better post board, but an awkward draw or stumble can lead to an early demise.

Grixis Delver is a fine deck if your meta is devoid of Eldrazi Tron (see what I did there?) as the removal in the deck lines up well against most of the format. Particularly, having access to Fatal Push and Lightning Bolt allows for cheap and efficient turns that can clean up most creatures. Not having access to a card like Death's Shadow meant that some games were a bit of a struggle to close. Hitting for three at a time doesn't have quite the same menace as attacking for eight or nine. Still, it’s nice to know that Modern is so open that you can sleeve up some Fugitive Wizards and still perform reasonably in a tournament.

Until next time, I hope your Delvers blind flip.