Blue Belcher

[serenechaos]

This is a list that I built for my girlfriend, who is a Belcher fanatic. She has a Top 8 with Vintage Belcher under her belt, and was excited about the idea of playing Legacy Belcher (less excited when I told her Tinker, Wheels, and YawgWin were banned: "What's the point of playing, then?"). I considered the pros and cons of a typical Belcher list over our go-to Legacy deck, Cheeri0s, and I decided that I wanted a Belcher list that resisted Blue. Like, hard. Best way to beat em? Join em.

At first, I just wanted Force of Will and enough support for it. Then, I wanted more. I just started adding things to be funny. My girlfriend sleeved up what we had, borrowed the rest, and started whooping Stoneblade and Delver at weekly Legacy. She went 2-0 against Delver, and 1-2 against Stoneblade, with an intense G3 that devolved into a Force War and then a desolate wasteland of both players playing Brainstorms and Ponders trying to rebuild. Then I found out she hadn't brought in her 4 Pact of Negation ("I don't like sideboarding") *facepalm*.

So, rambling out of the way, the list:


4 Goblin Charbelcher
3 Show and Tell
2 Progenitus

4 Force of Will

4 Manamorphose
4 Ponder
4 Gitaxian Probe
3 Brainstorm

4 Rite of Flame
4 Summoner's Pact
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Chrome Mox
4 Lotus Petal
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
3 Tinder Wall
1 Wild Cantor

//Sideboard
4 Pact of Negation
2 Progenitus
1 Show and Tell
1 Natural Order
1 Tinder Wall

The sideboard isn't complete; my friends keep clamoring for Wishes maindeck, potentially over SnT/Progenitus.

The deck is significantly lighter than usual on wincons, but this is generally made up for by the cantrips. They do a lot of work in the deck, and make Turn 2-3 wins consistent and easier to protect.

Show and Tell Progenitus has been strong. It isn't nearly as inconsistent as it looks, requiring two cards and having a 3/2 split of them, because Pacting for Progenitus is generally not dangerous. SnT+Pact trigger costs the same 7 mana as Belcher.

Proggy serves as a wincon, Force pitch, and Chrome imprint. Making all of your Summoner's Pacts "blue" while going off is very strong.

Show and Tell allows for 3 mana Belchers, and creates a fork against blue decks; they have to counter both SnT AND the Belcher you were putting in, adding another layer of protection.

Tinder Wall and Cantor can ramp off Chromes, and Tinder Wall is a surprisingly good wall if you need a little time.

The deck loses a bit of speed, but not a significant amount. The main problem I've seen is that most of the mana sources are only +1. A few Seething Songs might help out.

Also, the ability to put people on tilt is pretty relevant =P

[SpeedOfDark]

Two main points:

1. Sweet deck.
2. Your girlfriend sounds awesome.

---

If you made room for a few seething songs, I'm not sure which card you would cut, I'm thinking simian spirit guide or brainstorm.

If you were to add a wish board, how would you build around it? Are you thinking the usual empty the warrens plan B?

[tesla]

why not land grants + tropical island?

[gregtron]

Why wouldn't you be using Grizzy for Show and Tell? It would be like Tin-Fins, except instead of a reanimation loop you'd just Belch them to death after drawing 14 more cards.

Either way, I like this idea - no idea if it's good or not, but it does look awesome. I remember Tommy Kolowith had a FoW/Brainstorm version of Dredge a few years ago, and ever since then I've been interested in combo decks using blue that normally don't have access to it.

[Umbranex]

Two main points:

1. Sweet deck.
2. Your girlfriend sounds awesome.



agreed :wink:

I really like the deck. it looks like it would definitely surprise people when you are cantripping and playing islands then hit them with a belcher activation lol. Doubt many people would see that coming the first time around! I think that even though you sacrifice a lot of speed for the blue its stronger overall this way. Ive always personally favored losing a few turns of speed in order to increase consistency and resilience in combo. (only exception for me was hulk flash... was pretty nutty being able to go off basically before the game started :laugh: )

@ Gregtron -- The reason it goes for Prog instead of Grizzy is a few reasons... 1) it goes with the theme of losing speed for resilience... Prog is far harder to deal with and kills in two hits. 2) Prog can be fetched with Pact effectively giving you 6 copies in case you get Show and Tell without having to worry about clogging your hand with them 3) when comboing off with belcher you can pact to fetch Prog to pitch to FoW if you dont have any other blue card to pitch which I imagine can be VERY relevant in certain matchups and will likely result in winning at least a couple games per tournament

[rufus]

This makes me wonder about cute stuff like:
4x Land Grant + 1x Tropical Island as additional mana.
Recross the Paths as a deck stacker.
Transmute Artifact->Lotus Bloom

But I expect none of that will be all that good.

[serenechaos]

Thanks! As noted, Progenitus over Griselbrand because it two-shots through most removal, it pitches to Force, it's fetchable with Pact, and it goes under Chrome fantastically.

Land Grants+Trop were in earlier builds, but they got in the way a lot.

This deck made me so sad at first, because it looks like a total pile, but it does it's job astoundingly well. It is fast enough to be a scary combo deck, cantrips give it powerful dig and manipulation, Forces and Pacts give it strong protection. I always feel a little bad about how well it does.

[monovfox]

this deck. It makes me feel things :D