(Delney, Streetwise Lookout | Art by Darren Tan)

Delney's List

Welcome to Too-Specific Top 10, where if there isn’t a category to rank our pet card at the top of, we’ll just make one up! (Did you know that Pests and Devils are the only creature tokens that come standard with power two or less and a positive triggered ability?)

If there's been a slam dunk hit out of Karlov Manor, there's no question: It's Delney, Streetwise Lookout. The question is, how big a hit are they?

Top 10 Creatures With a Triggered Ability and Power Two or Less

This is not a new idea. The day Delney came out, I saw list after list denoting what creatures they affected. So why am I here? Well, because most lists I saw were people naming things off the top of their head. Even cEDH stuff I saw, where it would be easy to pull up the two dozen total playables that fit the criteria, were often a scattershot of "uhh, I guess Esper Sentinel and Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff?"

So, let's get in depth and really cover what Delney is going to double, shall we? And they're not just a commander, so let's extend it out to all five colors simultaneously and see what will work as a combo in the 99!

Criteria: Creatures of each color with power two or less that possess a triggered ability. As is tradition, all results are ordered by EDHREC score.

10. Circuit Mender, Mesa Enchantress, Spellseeker, Morbid Opportunist, Reckless Fireweaver, & Acidic Slime

(Lowest: Circuit Mender, 26,517 Inclusions; Highest: Acidic Slime, 88,646 Inclusions)

Much as I'd like to make this a whole segment about the superiority of Filigree Familiar over Circuit Mender, there are more relevant triggers to discuss. I'm tempted to call Mesa Enchantress the best one available here at number ten, but that doesn't really pan out, as it's going to be difficult to find a deck that wants both Delney and can play enough enchantments to make Enchantresses worth it. With that in mind, then, an easy call here is Spellseeker taking the mantle. While I haven't been able to find a two-card combo that you could just search up with Spellseeker, grabbing two spells of your choice oughtta be enough to win you the game anyhow.

As for Reckless Fireweaver and Acidic Slime, they're both great incidental value here with a Delney in play, but also nothing special. Artifact creature decks that have a lot of triggers are probably fairly interested in the Fireweaver-Delney pairing more than the average deck, but even there it's probably nothing to go out of your way for.

9. Stuffy Doll, Welcoming Vampire, Chasm Skulker, Orcish Bowmasters, Young Pyromancer, & Forgotten Ancient

(Lowest: Stuffy Doll, 32,108 Inclusions; Highest: Forgotten Ancient, 97,421 Inclusions)

Doubling the damage Stuffy Doll deals to the chosen player is pretty brutal, I'm not gonna lie. It doesn't solve the Stuffy Doll only affecting one player problem, but it's still up there when it comes to awesome new things you can do with Delney. With that said, our number nine ranking has Orcish Bowmasters on it, which was always going to end up as the best choice here, and is on the list of best things you can do with Delney period.

As for the rest, I included Welcoming Vampire here specifically to state that Delney does not get around the "triggers only once a turn" language. You will see this at your table. You will hear people talking about this. Already, we're seeing Welcoming Vampire in 73% of decks led by Delney, despite the fact that Delney doesn't work with it. Sure, some of those deck builders know it doesn't work and it's still good with all your low power creatures, but nonetheless, you're going to see this, and have to correct people on it.

Similarly, don't go crazy with your Forgotten Ancients, as you only get one doubled trigger before its power gets too big to be affected by Delney. Young Pyromancer, though? Go nuts. I'm tempted to grab a Narset, Enlightened Exile myself and start casting token spells.

8. Hangarback Walker, Soul Warden, Displacer Kitten, Mirkwood Bats, Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin, & Toski, Bearer of Secrets

(Lowest: Hangarback Walker, 37,136 Inclusions; Highest: Toski, Bearer of Secrets, 121,401 Inclusions)

Speaking of crazy amounts of tokens, Delney doubles the ones you get from Hangarback Walker, which seems nice. Double the life gain from the Soul Sisters also seems great, as does making Mirkwood Bats even more lethal than usual. Krenko gets out of Delney range too fast to really be that great, however Toski, Bearer of Secrets is going to end up drawing you half your deck with a Delney in play.

They're all dust before the might of Displacer Kitten, though. Already a creature that pretty much wins games on its own, Displacer Kitten and Delney combined will go infinite with a ham sandwich. Is it win-more? Yep! Will it be a pain to actually explain to folks and execute? Yes. Is that gonna stop me from doing it at the first opportunity? Absolutely not.

7. Containment Construct, Karmic Guide, Emry, Lurker of the Loch, Crypt Ghast, Dualcaster Mage, & Lotus Cobra

(Lowest: Containment Construct, 38,376 Inclusions; Highest: Lotus Cobra, 122,401 Inclusions)

Containment Construct provides another great example of cards that don't really work with Delney, despite them doubling their triggers. That is not a short list, so keep an eye out when you're throwing things madly into deck lists.

With that said, the rest of this list is coocoo for coconuts with Delney. Double reanimate with every blink of Karmic Guide won't take long to win a game, even in Azorius. Milling eight with Emry, Lurker of the Loch is by far the worst effect here, and yet remains absolutely insane. Crypt Ghast will now triple your mana and give you double the Extort to have something to do with it. Lotus Cobra with a Delney in play will more or less win your lands deck the game on the spot. As for which is the best, I'm leaning Crypt Ghast, but there is an argument to be made for literally any of these.

6. Bloodline Pretender, Adeline, Resplendent Cathar, Phantasmal Image, Ravenous Chupacabra, Guttersnipe, & Champion of Lambholt

(Lowest: Bloodline Pretender, 43,648 Inclusions, Highest: Champion of Lambholt, 126,599 Inclusions)

Bloodline Pretender still doesn't have trample, which really makes me wonder why folks are playing it in general, even before we talk about how it only gets one doubled trigger with Delney before getting too big. Ditto for Champion of Lambholt. In similar fashion to Welcoming Vampire, Adeline, Resplendent Cathar doesn't really work with Delney, but is probably worth it anyhow based on the kind of deck we're talking about (besides, you will play it into an empty board at some point and get to swing in for six tokens). Lastly, Phantasmal Image seems like it was included here in error on first read, as the copy ability isn't a triggered ability, much as you're going to find someone at your table who thinks it is. No, the triggered ability here is doubling the times you have to sacrifice it when it's targeted, a sure value play.

Kidding aside, the cards worth playing here with Delney are obviously the Ravenous Chupacabra and the Guttersnipe. The latter fits right into our previously mentioned Narset, Enlightened Exile tokens brew, much as that's a narrow lane, and the former is just great removal in your standard Aristocrats deck. While I might be more tempted to go with the various Fleshbag Marauders, especially since I'm bound to be doubling token triggers as well, there's something to be said about the no-nonsense approach of Chupacabra.

5. Liberator, Urza's Battlethopter, Sram, Senior Edificer, Archaeomancer, Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose, Imperial Recruiter, & Wood Elves

(Lowest: Liberator, Urza's Battlethopter, 43,706 Inclusions; Highest: Wood Elves, 140,584 Inclusions)

I'm tired of talking about all of the +1/+1 counter creatures that Delney isn't actually that great with, so let's skip over Liberator and talk about the rest of the cards on this list that are really good with them.

While I'm surprised to see Wood Elves still seeing this much play in the modern EDH environment, there's no question that making it go get two dual lands is worth the three mana investment. What's really surprising is that that seems like the floor here at number five. Sram might seem like he fits in the same category as Mesa Enchantress, with it being just too hard to pull off a deck that has enough creatures to care about Delney. It turns out, though, that vehicles are part-time creatures, and for Auras and Equipment to work, you need to have creatures to attach them to. Combine that with Sram being in the command zone, and you've got a ton to work with here.

Archaeomancer seems self-explanatory, especially in the blink decks where it shows up the most often and is probably going to result in a loop of some sort, but I think the true winners here with Delney are Imperial Recruiter and Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose. Vito is already lethal enough under most circumstances without him having opponents lose double the life, and unlike Spellseeker, there are tons of combos that Imperial Recruiter can fetch in total with a Delney on the board.

4. Duplicant, Archivist of Oghma, Talrand, Sky Summoner, Pitiless Plunderer, Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer, & Scute Swarm

(Lowest: Duplicant, 44,208 Inclusions, Highest: Scute Swarm, 156,542 Inclusions)

While I'm surprised to see Duplicant is still seeing play, I'm happy to report that it breaks our current trend of all of our artifact representation being bad with Delney. Sure, you only get to copy the last creature you exile, but you still get to exile two creatures with its Imprint ability, which is pretty great!

Not nearly as great as the rest of our list, however. Archivist of Oghma and Delney is going to be a combination that wins games in cEDH, as is also the case with Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer. At more casual tables, however, Talrand, Sky Summoner also fits right into that spellslinger tokens brew I'm more tempted than ever to actually make, and Scute Swarm adds a multiplier to its exponential growth, making a line that rockets straight up into the sun on the backs of piles of Scute Bugs. Take your pick, these are all lethal.

3. Myr Retriever, Mentor of the Meek, Mulldrifter, Gray Merchant of Asphodel, Professional Face-Breaker, & Beast Whisperer

(Lowest: Myr Retriever, 86,180 Inclusions; Highest: Beast Whisperer, 218,767 Inclusions)

Speaking of all bangers, we've arrived at the number threes. All right, they're not all good. Mentor of the Meek does still require you to pay the one on the copied trigger, making it just okay. Myr Retriever getting two artifacts back for two mana, on the other hand, is going to end up with some kind of a ludicrous loop in your average artifact deck. In a similar vein, Mulldrifter already feels like it's being copied in your average blink deck, meaning that maybe now with it drawing four cards a turn you'll actually find your Cathars' Crusade or Approach to actually try and win the game. Professional Face-Breaker will get you double the Treasure if your creatures are getting through, and Beast Whisperer will draw creature decks in their entirety.

If you want to talk about winning the game outright, however, I doubt you're going to do better than doubling Gray Merchant of Asphodel triggers.

2. Psychosis Crawler, Knight of the White Orchid, Thassa's Oracle, Zulaport Cutthroat, Storm-Kiln Artist, & Reclamation Sage

(Lowest: Psychosis Crawler, 97,144 Inclusions; Highest: Reclamation Sage, 228,289 Inclusions)

Surprisingly, this is the first part of this list where we're going to have to talk about intervening if triggers! Knight of the White Orchid is the best of the Land Tax effects strapped to a creature, and seems like a slam dunk with Delney. That's true, but don't go looking for that second Plains just yet:

603.4 A triggered ability may read “When/Whenever/At [trigger event], if [condition], [effect].” When the trigger event occurs, the ability checks whether the stated condition is true. The ability triggers only if it is; otherwise it does nothing. If the ability triggers, it checks the stated condition again as it resolves. If the condition isn’t true at that time, the ability is removed from the stack and does nothing. Note that this mirrors the check for legal targets. This rule is referred to as the “intervening ‘if’ clause” rule.

In non-legalese, this means that once you've resolved your first trigger, the second trigger does check again to see if you have less lands than your opponent, not letting you go get a Plains if you do not. Sad, I know.

In other "not so great" listings that I've still seen listed as boons with Delney, Thassa's Oracle triggering twice only gets you one card closer to winning the game, as the other cards are put on the bottom to be looked at again if you don't have enough Devotion.

The rest are all quite good, however. Psychosis Crawler and Zulaport Cutthroat both double up their life loss, Storm-Kiln Artist more or less guarantees that that Storm deck is about to win the game, and Reclamation Sage hits for two Disenchants. Not bad.

1. Solemn Simulacrum, Esper Sentinel, Archmage Emeritus, Blood Artist, Dockside Extortionist, & Eternal Witness

(Lowest: Archmage Emeritus, 141,299 Inclusions; Highest: Solemn Simulacrum: 534,335 Inclusions)

Color me surprised, Solemn Simulacrum remains at the top of a list in 2024. This one does feel deserved, however, considering we're talking about, with a Delney in play, four cards for four mana. I'd pay that.

Sadly, in the real world the sad robot still pales in comparison to the other options on the list, with Esper Sentinel, Dockside Extortionist, and Eternal Witness having cEDH tables salivating at the thought, Blood Artist no longer struggling to get there with it having to target single players at a time, and Archmage Emeritus drawing double. In short, this list right here at the top is exactly what people thought of when Delney was spoiled, and for good reason.

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Honorable Mentions

With that said, it's not like this is anywhere close to the end of the list. My initial Scryfall search came up with 4,389 creatures which meet Delney's criteria, and while there are undoubtedly a ton of those that don't actually get much benefit out of it, I'd be shocked if it was above a third of them.

What we didn't look at in our main list, however? The multicolor stuff, and the commanders.

Top 10 Commanders Which Can Play and Substantially Benefit From Delney

1. Kaalia of the Vast
2. Giada, Font of Hope
3. Atla Palani, Nest Tender
4. Alela, Artful Provocateur
5. Sythis, Harvest's Hand
6. Zur the Enchanter
7. Urtet, Remnant of Memnarch
8. Light-Paws, Emperor's Voice
9. Sefris of the Hidden Ways (doubles the Reanimate trigger, not the Venture trigger.)
10. Raffine, Scheming Seer

By and large, Delney takes the commanders on this list from scary to downright lethal. I don't know that I need to go into detail to sell that point, so suffice it to say, if you have a commander on this list, or another commander that can play white that has a triggered ability and is lacking in the power department, you probably want to consider Delney.

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Nuts and Bolts

There always seems to be a bit of interest in how these lists are made (this seems like a good time to stress once again that they are based on EDHREC score, NOT my personal opinion…), and people are often surprised that I’m not using any special data or .json from EDHREC, but rather just muddling my way through with some Scryfall knowledge! For your enjoyment/research, here is this week’s Scryfall search.

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What Do You Think?

The thing I haven't mentioned this whole article is really the elephant in the room: Delney's price. They're currently sitting at $20, almost the exact same price as its compatriot, Roaming Throne. But really, there's no guarantee that either won't end up being so prohibitively expensive that they see very little play in the long run. Price doesn't always seem to be the main factor when it comes to universally recognized powerful cards that do or don't see play, however.

And finally, are you planning on grabbing a copy of Delney? Is it because your commander has a triggered ability, or because it works well with your deck at large?

Let us know in the comments, and we'll see you in the streets. I know a guy who knows a guy who says there's a good table out there.

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