Building a delve deck sounds simple on the surface: fill the graveyard, cast delve spells cheaply, win the game. In practice, the mechanic creates real deckbuilding tension that's easy to underestimate the first time around.
Every card exiled to pay for delve is a card that's permanently gone, unavailable to flashback, reanimation, or any other graveyard-based plan for the rest of that game. That single fact shapes almost every decision in a well-built delve deck.
This guide walks through the core building blocks of a strong delve deck, from graveyard fuel sources to sequencing decisions that separate a smooth delve deck from an inconsistent one.
Whether you're building for Legacy, Commander, or casual play, the same underlying principles apply.
Fetch lands are the gold standard for delve fuel, since they put a card in the graveyard as a routine part of fixing mana, not as a dedicated investment. Cantrips and cheap card filtering spells serve a similar role, feeding the graveyard while still doing something useful on their own.
The goal is fuel that would be in the deck anyway for other reasons, not cards included purely to feed delve, since dead weight cards that exist only to fill the graveyard weaken the rest of the deck.
Creature-based delve cards like Gurmag Angler and Hooting Mandrills are generally safer building blocks than card-draw spells, since neither is banned anywhere and both function as real threats once they land. Removal like Murderous Cut rounds out a delve shell nicely, offering efficiency without demanding a dedicated graveyard-filling package.
Building around Tasigur, the Golden Fang as a commander or key creature adds a recurring card advantage engine on top of the initial cheap body, making it a strong anchor for a more midrange-focused delve build.
Any deck that wants both delve and graveyard recursion has to make hard choices about sequencing, since a card exiled for delve can never be returned by flashback, unearth, or reanimation later. Prioritizing which graveyard cards are safe to exile and which ones need to stay put is an ongoing decision every single turn.
A common approach is keeping a mental note of which cards in the graveyard are actually valuable to get back, and only exiling clearly replaceable cards like lands or already-used cantrips for delve first.
Casting a delve spell as soon as it's reasonably affordable is usually better than waiting to maximize the discount, since an opponent's graveyard hate can wipe out the entire plan in a single turn. This is especially true against decks that might be holding Tormod's Crypt, Relic of Progenitus, or similar answers.
That said, sequencing multiple delve spells in the same turn requires care, since casting one delve spell first empties the graveyard for any delve spells cast after it in the same turn.
A deck trying to run delve alongside heavy reanimation or flashback packages needs enough total graveyard fuel to support both plans without either one starving the other. This usually means running more card-filtering and self-mill than a delve-only deck would need on its own.
Some decks solve this by leaning delve toward the early game, when the graveyard is naturally smaller and less valuable to other plans, and saving reanimation targets for the midgame once bigger threats have hit the graveyard.
Because delve only pays for generic mana, colored mana requirements still need to come from actual lands, which means a delve deck's mana base can't lean as heavily on delve savings as it might first appear. Building enough colored sources to reliably cast delve spells' colored costs on curve remains just as important as in any other deck.
Fetch lands again pull double duty here, thinning the deck toward relevant colors while also feeding the graveyard delve needs.
Playtesting a delve deck against graveyard hate specifically is worth doing before finalizing a list, since the deck's actual performance can differ significantly from its theoretical ceiling. Tracking how often delve spells get cast at full or near-full discount during test games is a good signal of whether the fuel package is sized correctly.
A deck that consistently can't afford its delve spells' colored costs, or one that never has enough graveyard fuel, usually needs adjustment before it's tournament-ready.
Cards useful on their own, like fetch lands and cantrips, not dedicated filler.
No, only the generic portion of a spell's cost.
Generally cast as soon as reasonably affordable, to avoid graveyard hate.
Yes, but it requires extra graveyard fuel to support both plans.
A well-tuned delve deck sees a lot of shuffling as cards cycle between library, graveyard, and exile over a long game. A plastic deck box keeps everything organized and ready between rounds.
Toploaders are a smart way to store any delve staples you're not currently running.
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