Hi folks, it's been a long time since I last posted here but I've just thought about Karn, the Great Creator in this deck and I am hyped for having the ability to play 7 Belchers. Going to brew up a list now...
Round 1: Bogles, 2-1
Turn 3 kill in game 1 was easy, game 2 double Leyline kept my Belchers dead and I lost to a huge first striking Gladecover Scout killing my Wormcoils, game 3 I Nature's Claim the Leyline and Belch for the win.
Round 2: 4 Colour TitanShift, 1-2
Another speedy game 1 victory, games 2 and three my Belchers all get Slaughter Gamesed and I die to Scapeshift.
Round 3: UW Control, 2-1
Game 1 I get turn 2 Blood Moon on the play and win easily, game 2 he plays Runed Halo and kills all my other threats, game 3 I have the Nature's Claim for his halo and win quickly.
Round 4: UW Tron, 2-1
Yet another easy game 1 helped by Blood Moon, game 2 goes really long and he manages to eventually kill with Iona me after I'd had two activation of Belcher hitting a land as my top card, game 3 I just win really quickly (which is just as well, we only had 5 minutes to play it!)
All in all the deck felt way better than I remembered! Possibly the meta is just more friendly for us right now? Blood Moon and Defense Grid were both MVPs in the control matchups, and I think i got a little unlucky against Scapeshift.
Soooooooo.... after months and months of Grixis variants and Storm I've decided to come home to Belcher. For my FMN this week I want to play a Belcher list and here is where I'm at at the moment:
The astute amongst you will notice this leaves me three cards short. At the moment that would be 2 Explore, 1 Vessel of Nacency. Explore is good when you have those awkward all Lay of the Land no ramp hands, and vessel is just Stirrings number 5.
Pros: you find Belcher more often and sometimes Emperyon = Free win
Cons: sometimes you Madcap on 20 life and just die to it.
Its got some variance issues I guess
I still like it on the basis that we're already a deck that is trying to run the variance gambit (all those times you have to Belcher for lethal with 3 lands in the deck!). If we had better options for getting to Belcher more consistently I wouldn't bother with it tbh, but atm its Madcap or Fabricate, and I don't think the blue splash is good enough.
That is a fair question. Not everyone has moved to Experiment (at least as far as I can tell), but I've gone there because it is just another way to find Belcher. I have died to it a couple of times which is a real feel bad, but in those situations I probably had no outs anyway, and with Belcher being so far into my deck I wasn't going to be winning any time soon regardless. There is a decent chance it isn't right, but it isn't horrible either.
My sideboard needs some more work really (it is a bit dated) but I'm pretty happy with my main deck. I'm going for higher consistency of a combo kill over having disruption main deck. Happy to answer any questions.
The problem is that you still have to play a bunch of islands, and unlike mono-red they don't double your damage... I think ti might be alright in a slower meta, but not right now
I've found I die to Madcap hitting belcher more than I'd like.
I'd tend to avoid firing with more than two lands in deck of possible, but sometimes you need the hail marys
EDIT: Here's the list
4x Utopia Sprawl
4x Arbor Elf
4x Caravan Vigil
4x Traverse the Ulvenwald
4x Ancient Stirrings
4x Nissa's Triumph
4x Sakura-Tribe Elder
4x Wall of Roots
2x Haze of Pollen
4x Recross the Paths
4x Search for Tomorrow
3x Goblin Charbelcher
4x Karn, the Great Creator
4x Chancellor of the Tangle
1x Welding Jar
1x Grafdigger's Cage
3x Nature's Claim
1x Damping Sphere
1x Defense Grid
1x Torpor Orb
1x Sorcerous Spyglass
1x Sun Droplet
1x Goblin Charbelcher
1x Witchbane Orb
1x Mycosynth Lattice
1x Wurmcoil Engine
4x Birds of Paradise
4x Sakura-Tribe Elder
4x Wall of Roots
4x Simian Spirit Guide
3x Wurmcoil Engine
4x Chancellor of the Tangle
Spells
4x Ancient Stirrings
4x Caravan Vigil
4x Safewright Quest
4x Traverse the Ulvenwald
4x Utopia Sprawl
3x Haze of Pollen
2x Blood Moon
1x Recross the Paths
4x Goblin Charbelcher
6 Forest
1 Stomping Ground
1x Grafdigger's Cage
3x Nature's Claim
1x Pithing Needle
2x Defense Grid
1x Heroic Intervention
1x Choke
2x Firespout
3x Kitchen Finks
1x Fracturing Gust
Haze of Pollen was basically my flex spot, I wasn't amazingly impressed with it, but it was alright...
Round 1: Bogles, 2-1
Turn 3 kill in game 1 was easy, game 2 double Leyline kept my Belchers dead and I lost to a huge first striking Gladecover Scout killing my Wormcoils, game 3 I Nature's Claim the Leyline and Belch for the win.
Round 2: 4 Colour TitanShift, 1-2
Another speedy game 1 victory, games 2 and three my Belchers all get Slaughter Gamesed and I die to Scapeshift.
Round 3: UW Control, 2-1
Game 1 I get turn 2 Blood Moon on the play and win easily, game 2 he plays Runed Halo and kills all my other threats, game 3 I have the Nature's Claim for his halo and win quickly.
Round 4: UW Tron, 2-1
Yet another easy game 1 helped by Blood Moon, game 2 goes really long and he manages to eventually kill with Iona me after I'd had two activation of Belcher hitting a land as my top card, game 3 I just win really quickly (which is just as well, we only had 5 minutes to play it!)
All in all the deck felt way better than I remembered! Possibly the meta is just more friendly for us right now? Blood Moon and Defense Grid were both MVPs in the control matchups, and I think i got a little unlucky against Scapeshift.
1 Stomping Grounds
7 Forest
The usual spells/ramp
4 Ancient Stirrings
4 Safewright Quest
4 Utopia Sprawl
4 Caravan Vigil
4 Traverse the Ulvenwald
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Wall of Roots
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
4 Simian Spirit Guide
1 Recross the Paths
2 Blood Moon
4 Goblin Charbelcher
3 Wurmcoil Engine
4 Chancellor of the Tangle
The astute amongst you will notice this leaves me three cards short. At the moment that would be 2 Explore, 1 Vessel of Nacency. Explore is good when you have those awkward all Lay of the Land no ramp hands, and vessel is just Stirrings number 5.
That said, I am interested in other options. Namely these would be Search for Tomorrow, Arbor Elf or possibly (unlikely) Nissa's Pilgrimage. I might even consider Haze of Pollen, although it seems pretty bad...
Any thoughts on my list/what my final three could be?
Pros: you find Belcher more often and sometimes Emperyon = Free win
Cons: sometimes you Madcap on 20 life and just die to it.
Its got some variance issues I guess
I still like it on the basis that we're already a deck that is trying to run the variance gambit (all those times you have to Belcher for lethal with 3 lands in the deck!). If we had better options for getting to Belcher more consistently I wouldn't bother with it tbh, but atm its Madcap or Fabricate, and I don't think the blue splash is good enough.
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Wall of Roots
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Chancellor of the Tangle
4 Platinum Emperion
Spells
4 Safewright Quest
4 Caravan Vigil
4 Traverse the Ulvenwald
4 Ancient Stirrings
4 Utopia Sprawl
1 Recross the Paths
4 Goblin Charbelcher
4 Madcap Experiment
6 Forest
1 Stomping Ground
1 Fracturing Gust
2 Firespout
1 Choke
3 Nature's Claim
2 Blood Moon
3 Kitchen Finks
3 Autumn's Veil
My sideboard needs some more work really (it is a bit dated) but I'm pretty happy with my main deck. I'm going for higher consistency of a combo kill over having disruption main deck. Happy to answer any questions.