Funky Brewster: Delirium and Fever with the New Standard

Hello everybody and welcome to another installment in the Funky Brewster series! Eldritch Moon is finally out and my brewing senses are tingling like Spiderman drowning in a vat of cocaine-filled 5-hour Energy drink. I’m aching to try and bust out those Take Inventories, Eldritch Evolutions, Demonic Pacts, and Elder Deep-Fiends!  So, what are we going to do?! I can’t hear you! Of course I can’t, because I’m way all over here behind the screen! And talking to you from the past! Technically you are reading Past Chris! So, are you ready? I can’t hear… Ok, enough of that. Let’s get started!

Do you remember when back in the day, people used to play Accumulated Knowledge? And people still do so today. Right now, as I write this, someone is drawing 3-4 cards with Accumulated at the end of someone else’s turn. Maybe not in Standard, Modern, or Legacy, but they are in Pauper. Now, with Take Inventory, we might be able to do the same in Standard and Modern.

As we speak, I’ve only tried one deck with the card and it’s some Blue/Red Controllish/Burnish no-counters sort of thing that tries to use Fevered Visions as a win-condition/Howling Mine thingy. It should be said as a disclaimer that when I brew, I always try to go all-in on my strategy to see which cards pull their weight and which one do not. This initial built is a great example of how the initial stages look like for me:

UR Inventory-Burn

2 Scour the Laboratory
3 Collective Defiance
4 Incendiary Flow
4 Take Inventory
4 Epiphany at the Drownyard
4 Galvanic Bombardment
4 Unsubstantiate
4 Fiery Temper
4 Lightning Axe
4 Fevered Visions

2 Wandering Fumarole
4 Highland Lake
4 Shivan Reef
4 Evolving Wilds
4 Island
5 Mountain

I haven’t fully tested the deck, and much less in an actual Standard environment, though the core of the deck seems to be a pretty great starting point. The Lightning Axes, the Epiphanies, Tempers, Bombardments, Visions, and even the Collective Defiance all played very well. The cards that simply didn’t work in this style of deck was Unsubstantiate and Scour the Laboratory. The former is definitely a strong card and I’m sure it will see play in Standard, however, this is not the place for it. Unsubstantiate belongs in a blue-based aggressive deck that can take advantage of the tempo swing Unsubstantiate provides a little better. For instance, in a Blue/Red or Blue/White deck with either Flash Spirits (like Tomoharu Saitou’s UR Flyers list) or in a Spirit deck. Maybe Unsubstantiate is the card that puts Stormchaser Mage back on the map.

Scour the Laboratory is a sick card and I can’t wait until someone finds a way to reliably cast it for 4 mana at the end of an opponent’s turn, which is something this deck can’t do. It was usually EOT draw three, something that in most circumstances would be great, incredible even… if this were Odyssey Block Constructed in 2002. Perhaps Standard in 2003. These days, I’m 100% Scour the Laboratory should be Chandra, Flamecaller (obviously!). Here we start cutting back on the “all-in” and start adding cards that actually support the strategy and add more power to the deck.

The current build tries to burn everything in its path and kill with Fevered Visions and any left-over burn spells you have. Usually when the opponent is around 9 to 11 life points. Chandra gives you a legitimate plan to look forward to other than taking opponents to the “Grindhouse.” Umm… That could be a cool name for the deck, actually… UR Grindhouse. Yup, love it. 

Anyway, I’m sure I don’t have to talk about how much of a beast Chandra is. She’s pretty much proven her worth during the last few months as she’s been in Naya Walker decks, GW decks that can only cast her with Oath of Nissas (bunch of greedy bastards), in Grixis Control decks, Ramp, and pretty much any Midrange/Late-game deck that sports Red. Let’s talk about the newer cards like Collective Defiance.

In this deck, Collective Defiance feels at home. Every mode is useful and relevant. Three damage to an opponent can hit Planeswalkers or be part of the burn plan. The four damage to a creature will kill pre-6 lands Sylvan Advocates, Kalitas, Traitor of Ghets, Archangel Avacyns, Gisela, the Broken Blades, Goblin Dark-Dwellers, and so on. Finally, its “Windfall” ability was actually useful. Turns out, when you are drawing copious amounts of cards per turn, you will eventually find your land gluts. Defiance allows you to throw all those lands into the bin and draw a fresh hand, similar to what Chandra would do with her -0 ability. Going forward, Defiance will either continue being a 3-of or possibly go down to two. Regardless, it won’t be getting the shaft any time soon.

Along the lines of burn, we have Galvanic Bombardment and Incendiary Flow joining the, admittedly, anemic burn-cast of Standard. Incendiary Flow is arguably missing piece to making Red-dedicated strategies viable again. It is the card that can make this deck, UR Flyers, Red-aggro, or even RG Aggro decks worth playing. I know, I know—it is no Incinerate, or even Searing Spear—yet it is a Volcanic Hammer that gives you the reach you need to kill Planeswalkers, or to give your little Red or Green men the space they need to rumble into the Red Zone. It is the card that will enable you to close out games when opponents manage to stifle your on-board offense.

In fact, a R/X Dragon deck that has access to Hanweir Garrison, Hanweir Battlements, Draconic Roar, and Incendiary Flow is bound to be quite competitive. The Battlements alone is a very powerful card which I forsee being played even in Eldrazi decks in the future. Giving Thought-Knot Seers and Drowner of Hopes haste could prove to be very strong. Even in the UR Eldrazi Control decks that came out recently. Haste to your Ulamog? I don’t know, if you ask me, I’d be getting a set of Battlements.

Galvanic Bombardment is a special case. If Bombardment is going to see play in this Standard environment, it will be in a deck that can place a copy or two quickly into the graveyard, either by milling or drawing plenty of cards (like this UR Grindhouse, perhaps?) per game. This card can get out of hand quite fast potentially killing Bruna’s just for one mana(!!). Where Bombardment goes, maybe Take Inventory will go as well. Will that deck want Pore over the Pages? Will this card make Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy playable again? Do we want a Black or are there strong Green cards that can support Bombardment/Inventory strategies? If so, could that deck play Traverse the Ulvenwald? Gnarlwood Dryad and Moldgraf Scavenger could be part of a RUG Delirium deck reminiscent of Threshold decks of old that played Nimble Mongoose? Could Noose Constrictor be a legitimate Standard playable Wild Mongrel? 

This are the kind of things that constantly cross my mind. So, many possibilities in very little time, but I digress (you can count on me trying to build these decks). On a final note, with Spirits making such a big splash, Galvanic Bombardment already seems to be a strong player in this format. That, and it is a great card against very low to the ground decks like White Weenie.

The last card I’d like to talk about is Ephipany at the Drownyard. When it was first spoiled, it was highly regarded as the second coming of Fact or Fiction. Needless to say, it was a huge flop. To the point where I got my playset a few days ago for 40 cents each. Now, with the advent of all these graveyard-matter cards (e.g Take Inventory and Galvanic Bombardment), I believe Epiphany may have found new hope in Standard. Epiphany has been instrumental to how this deck plays out. It is the card that sets up your Inventories and Bombardments. It might be the card to enable Delirium much faster while providing a modicum of card advantage. Most cards associated with Delirium require you to discard cards and mill yourself resulting in card disadvantage or just plain minimum return. Epiphany of the Drownyard at least guarantees that you get ahead by +1 or +2 cards and fill your graveyard with goodies. Sometimes they will throw Inventories in the ‘yard and you can play the other one in hand and draw two to three cards for just two mana.

Remember that RUG deck I was just raving about? Epiphany could be a center piece in the deck. You know what? Let’s write a decklist, right now. Off the top of my head?

2 Goblin Dark-Dwellers
4 Gnarlwood Dryad
4 Moldgraf Scavenger

4 Noose Constrictor

3 Arlinn Kord 

1 Incendiary Flow
2 Fiery Temper
3 Unsubstantiate
3 Traverse the Ulvenwald
3 Epiphany at the Drownyard

4 Galvanic Bombardment
4 Take Inventory

1 Game Trail

1 Wandering Fumarole
2 Island
2 Evolving Wilds
2 Shivan Reef
3 Mountain
3 Lumbering Falls
3 Yavimaya Coast
3 Forest
3 Cinder Glade

Seems alright as a starting point. Well, this isn’t exactly off the top of my head. As soon as I wrote the “top of my head” list, I liked it so much I decided to actually try it out. This is a very, very rough sketch of the list. Needs a lot of tuning and testing. Only managed to get in one match with it and it was against Mono Blue Prison. Let’s be honest here, that’s not much of a match when testing, but I did manage to go 2-0. First game I beat him down with this weird assortment of dudes with Unsubstantiate keeping the opponent off-balance, and then they got decked in Game 2. 

A couple of things to note: Gnarlwood Dryad is phenomenal. It’s a one mana guy that can hand out a beating and can trade with anything at whichever stage of the game. I’m so impressed with this little critter that I’m considering trying it in a Bant Delirium deck with Ojutai’s Command. Secondly, aside from being a Dryad, it is also a Horror which means my opponent’s Thing in the Ice, wasn’t even a legitimate back-up plan as the Thing’s flip side only returns non-Horror creatures. Gnarlwood is quite a beast (well, Horror) and I hope it can find a good home in this format or even in Modern. A 1/1 that turns into a 3/3 that can trade up with anything should be a real consideration, even if the format is full of Lightning Bolts. I do miss Nimble Mongoose. 

Another card that pulled a lot of weight was Noose Constrictor: The little boa that could. I underestimated how nice it felt to be able to attack into Sylvan Advocates, Things in the Ice, and even 6/6 Awoken Lands, without nary a fear. That is a common theme in this deck. Its creatures are tiny, but they can trade up at a moment’s notice. Not to mention that it has Reach. Reach is incredibly relevant at this point in time as it means you can kill all of the Spirits and even, possibly, kill Gisela, the Broken Blades, Archangel Avacyn, and so on.

I keep saying “trade up,” so for those who don’t know, “trading up” means that your creatures can effectively “suicide” into bigger creatures and actually take them down. You can fearlessly attack into that 6/6 and discard 4 irrelevant cards (like extra lands) to the Noose Constrictor and trade. You can attack into Sylvan Advocate and they can’t block—you’ll just discard a card and make the Boa a 3/3, end of story.

The most questionable card in the deck is Moldgraf Scavenger. If I can get to Delirium around turn 3 or 4, Scavenger can be absurdly strong. Noose Constrictor helps there, and Epiphany at the Drownyard, yet the deck is still missing some… umm… oomph. Maybe it’s the colors. My brother was suggesting to go on a Jund plan with Grim Flayer replacing the Moldgraf. Flayer is clearly the better card of the two and has a better interaction with Arlinn Kord because of the Trample. Will definitely test, I’m just going to miss having the Blue. I like Blue.

Moving on, Traverse the Ulvenwald feels like it will finally find a home in these decks, the question is what kind of creatures do you want to have access to once Delirium is online. For the first draft, I started out with Goblin Dark-Dwellers, to have a little more late-game strength. There’s the potential of Traversing for a Dark-Dwellers, play it to flashback the Traverse, and search up the second one. That said, I believe we can do better. Perhaps there are more impactful creatures out there, or diversify our threat base by adding a bunch of one-ofs that can be relevant at any stage of the game. We can even play Grapple with the Past to get them back and fill the graveyard in the process. I’m even considering putting Oath of Chandras and Ghostly Wings to have another card type for Delirium.

As it stands, the deck should be more focused on the Delirium side of it, instead of trying to have some sort of Madness component. Fiery Temper feels clunky in this deck, so we might be better served by replacing them with Oaths. Although they interact well with Noose Constrictor and it’s burn to the face, it might not be as necessary. Or we can simply up the number of Incendiary Flows. Having enchantments, though would certainly go a long way to making the Delirium plan slightly more efficient.

Kind of love how the article suddenly became about RUG Delirium. The potential is there. It feels like we have the cards to make the deck work. All we need now is to work out the specifics. Do we want to be Jund, or is RUG a good color combination for the deck? Alinn Kord is pretty much the main reason for playing with Red. I feel she makes your creatures a force to reckon with. But, we could just as well play Bant where we have access to Dromoka’s Command, Ojutai’s Command, and even Tamiyo, Field Researcher. Even though, Tamiyo won’t put on a bad ass damage race, she will definitely threaten to generate a handsome amount of card advantage. Whether they block your dudes or not, you’ll be drawing cards. This prospect has me heavily leaning on Bant for now. I wonder how it would look like:

2 Gisela, the Broken Blade
4 Sylvan Advocate
4 Gnarlwood Dryad
4 Noose Constrictor

4 Tamiyo, Field Researcher

2 Ojutai’s Command
2 Declaration in Stone
3 Ghostly Wings
4 Dromoka’s Command
4 Epiphany at the Drownyard
4 Traverse the Ulvenwald

Here’s what it could look like sans the lands. At this moment in time, I can’t seem to figure out how the mana base will look like, however the deck looks promising enough that I will surely be spending more time on this. Expect another article on Standard (perhaps even a Modern version) Delirium later this week or the next. The idea seems to be dragging me into a dark forest of possibilities… luring me into a pitfall of card advantage and 0-3 tournament results (hey, could happen).

Alright people, that’s it for today! Keep those brewing hats on and enjoy Eldritch Moon. This set will provide the shake up Standard desperately needed. The first SCG Open already happened this last weekend and though we mostly saw Bant Company decks come out of the woodwork, this is only the beginning for the new Standard. There’ll also be a Standard Pro Tour next week, so we’ll see what the Pros will come up with by then. I’m sure the format won’t be only Company decks duking it out. Get ready, for it’s going to be a bumpy ride!

As always, if you like what you see, like, comment, and share! I’m always up for new ideas and whether it be for an article or decks or what-have-you. So, come out, speak up, and let’s have a conversation!

Yours truly,
Chris

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POST-CREDIT DECKLIST!

MEOW MIX OFFERINGS

4 Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy

2 Chandra, Flamecaller

3 Harmless Offering

3 Duress

4 Take Inventory

4 Demonic Pact

4 Anticipate

4 Galvanic Bombardment

4 Nagging Thoughts

4 Languish

1 Choked Estuary

1 Foreboding Ruins

2 Mountain

2 Swamp

2 Wandering Fumarole

4 Island

4 Evolving Wilds

4 Sunken Hollow

4 Smoldering Marsh