BGH
06-27-2015, 01:10 PM
------------------------------------------
0. Introduction
1. Hazard Statements
2. The Chemicals
3. The Stuff that makes the Difference
4. The Recipe to Victory
5. Other Cooks
6. Digesting
------------------------------------------
Introduction
First things first: I am a German player with some experience in playing Legacy Combo. I started some years ago playing Solidarity, TES, 1 and 2 Land Belcher and ANT, but at some point I stopped playing Magic at all. I recently decided to start over and first got myself a TES. My best friend plays a 1 Land Belcher and so I also looked into this Deck and found the pretty interesting No Land Belcher or Recross the Paths Belcher. While the Belcher Primer in the Established Decks Category is aming on the typical Belcher Builds with Land Grant I figured my thoughts on this a little awkward looking build might be better placed here. Also I would like to point out that I am not writing a Primer (for now).
The Deck is relatively unusual and unplayed as well. I want to put down my thoughts on it and I would like to discuss about possible options to make this deck a strong and resilent killing machine like his more famous brother. Therefore I am not talking about all choices in my current Deck List: I will talk about the differences, because the other cards shall be well known by the more common Belcher Builds.
Last but not least I would like to see more people trying this build. I took it for a spin just for fun and it is a pretty nice deck which can be shaped into a really dangerous combo deck at least in my opinion. That is why I recommend anybody who likes to play Legacy Combo to just grab that pile and try it. It is a little awkward at first, but I will present some help to get started with it. I am testing this deck for just a short time, but I will try represent whatever I found and I will add whatever ideas and tips you have. That way I hope to turn this deck into a well oiled Belch Machine of Doom Death and Destruction or short: a typical Belcher.
(I hope my English is well enough to stand reading this…)
Hazard Statements
Whenever you start working with new chemicals you should read what to pay attention to:
First: Do not get a tunnel vision. Just because this Deck is known to be a Turn 1 Killer it does not mean you have to. Do not push your luck. I saw people losing games by trying to kill turn 1 and fizzle with an empty hand. Turn 2 is fine as well most of the times and Force of Will does not care, which of both it is.
Second: Chose the right path to win based on your hand. Of course there are some combination at which this build is aming, but that does not mean to wait for them to show up. Take the path that gives you the earliest chance to go off.
Third: Do not be afraid of Muligans. This deck can kill with any amount from 3 to 7 Mana floating which means you should not be afraid to throw away a bad hand. 6 or 5 cards are still enough. You actually can kill with 4 cards.
The Chemicals
Buisiness:
4 Goblin Charbelcher
3 Recross the Paths
3 Burning Wish
1 Reforge the Soul
1 Meditate
Cantrips:
4 Streetwraith
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Manamorphose
Initial Mana:
4 Chrome Mox
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Lotus Petal
Rituals:
4 Rite of Flame
4 Tinder Wall
4 Desperate Ritual
4 Seething Song
4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
Sideboard:
1 Flame Slash
1 Hull Breach
1 Recross the Paths
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Tendrils of Agony
10 Slots left
The Stuff that makes the Difference
What do we not play? Land Grant, Empty the Warrens in the Main Board and the 1 Land. That is obvious, but why?
Our Game Plan is slightly different to the one of 1 Land Belcher. That Deck kills with either Empty the Warrens for about 12+ tiny Beaters or a lethal Goblin Charbelcher activation. Our Game Plan is to kill with Goblin Charbelcher all the time (at least Main Board).
First I would like to talk a little about the Side Board. I only put in the core of the Wish Board. You might add some Cards, but you should never cut one of the 5 above mentioned. The choices are relatively simple: Flame Slash ist the cheapest way to deal with Ethersworn Canonist or Gaddock Teeg or there various friends, Hull Breach is the option of choice against Ley-Line of Sanctity, Rule of Law, Counterbalance, Chalice of the Void and so on. The Recross the Paths is our primary Game Plan so with one in the Side Board and 3 Burning Wishes you have 6 copies of it. Tendrils of Agony are for situations, when you cannot belch because of Pithing Needle for Example and you do not have the Mana to get rid of the Hate Card and use your Goblin Charbelcher. Last but not Least there is one Empty the Warrens, because against some Decks you are better off with the little Beaters, for example when you need to be fast but cannot reach a deadly storm count for Tendrils of Agony.
Now let us have a look at the Main Board. Yes, mostly we do not need the Empty the Warrens. The 1-off Land had to go as well, because it fizzles our Game Plan: resolving a Recross the Paths. By doing so and having no Land in the Deck, we are allowed to reveal it as a whole and then put it back under our Library in any order. So basically we are sorting our Library. What normally would be cheating, we can do legal now. How this actually works I am going to discuss later on. To make this Game Plan work, we would need some additional Ingredientes: We need some Cantrips. That is why we are playing 12 of these. We also need a Meditate. Do you remenber, when I was talking about mulligans and mentioned that you can actually belch to kill with exactly 4 cards in Hand? Well, meditate draws them. Also we are playing one Reforge the Soul. This is on double or mostly tripple duty. While a Meditate does not draw enough cards to be considered Buisiness without Stacking via Recross the Paths Reforge the soul is. A hand with a Reforge the Soul and at least the mana to cast it (preferably more) does draw a kill with the new cards in most cases. It also is very useful against other Combo Decks by forcing them to “Muligan” their good hand away hopefully getting a worse one and at the same time as mentioned giving you a killing Hand. It might also be worth considering to get rid off a counter-strong hand, as long as this hand cannot counter the Reforge the Soul while you will most likely draw a winning Hand. Just peek for your Opponents hand with Gitaxian Probe to be shure.The second use is to setup a Turn 2 kill with the Recross the Paths when it does not turn out to kill Turn 1. You just put the Reforge the Soul on Top (or second if you need something first) of your Library and cast it via Miracle to draw the perfectly shaped winning Hand stacked right beneath it. Its third duty is to provide the possibility to get rid of Hate Cards while going off by stacking the Library accordingly with Recross the Paths.
The Recipe to Victory
The good thing about this Deck is that you still got anything to just belch your Opponent Turn 1 or 2. You still can go for Empty the Warrens or Tendrils of Agony in your Side Board. The difference is that you now kill with the Goblin Charbelcher nearly all the time and you are capable of playing around Hate while doing so. But still you did not lose any speed. That is why I recommend to try this Deck.
But how do we actually win? Of course you know how to count to 7 Mana and use Goblin Charbelcher or to 8 Spells and 6 Mana to cast a Burning Wish getting the Side Board Tendrils of Agony (or with less Spell Count Empty the Warrens). I will not talk about this. I am going to aim on how to win by resolving Recross the Paths.
After resolving Recross the Paths, there are some Conditions to be met:
a) U and 2 Mana floating, 1 Meditate in Hand*
b) U and 2 Mana floating, 1 Cantrip in Hand*
c) U and 1 Mana floating, 2 Cantrips in Hand*
d) 0-1 floating, 2 Cantrips in Hand (but no Manamorphose as Cantrip)
e) 0-2 Mana floating, 1 Cantrip in Hand
f) at least 2 Mana next Turns Draw Step, 0 Cantrip in Hand
g) 0-2 Mana floating, 0 Cantrip in Hand
[special: 2 Mana floating, 1 Cantrip, On the Play]
This is, what you need to kill your Opponent by stacking your Library with Recross the Paths. The first 4 options will kill the Opponent right away, option e) and f) one Turn later and g) 2 Turns later. When you got this Setup up you can kill through 1 Hate Card as well (not all I have to admit, but most of the real problematic ones will not hit the boards before you are going for the kill).
*Note: If one of your Cantrips is a Manamorphose you will not need to have the U Mana floating. You can just filter it.
So what does this tell you? After checking the condtions there are piles you are going to stack.
a) TOP OF YOUR LIBRARY
[Street Wraith]°
LED
LED
Lotus Petal
Street Wraith
Goblin Charbelcher
[LED]^
You just play Meditate drawing 2xLED, a Lotus Petal and a Street Wraith. Cast the Artifacts and cycle the Street Wraith drawing the LED Mana to your Mana Pool in response. Now you got 7 Mana and a Belcher. Done.
b) TOP OF YOUR LIBRARY
[Street Wraith]°
Meditate
LED
LED
Lotus Petal
Street Wraith
Goblin Charbelcher
[LED]^
You use your 1 Cantrip to draw Meditate and the Rest is as above.
c) TOP OF YOUR LIBRARY
[Street Wraith]°
Initial Mana Source or Rite of Flame
Meditate
LED
LED
Lotus Petal
Street Wraith
Goblin Charbelcher
[LED]^
You cast your first Cantrip and use the Mana Source to hit 3 Mana. Then you use your second Cantrip and draw Meditate. Now we are back at a).
d) TOP OF YOUR LIBRARY
[Street Wraith]°
LED
Meditate
LED
LED
Lotus Petal
Street Wraith
Goblin Charbelcher
[LED]^
It does not matter if you have 1 or no Mana floating. Only the 2 Cantrips matter. You cast the first one drawing LED. Put the second on the Stack and crack LED for UUU. Now you draw Meditate with the needed Mana to cast it and we are back at a).
e) TOP OF YOUR LIBRARY
[Street Wraith]°
LED
Reforge the Soul
4 Spirit Guide
LED
LED
Street Wraith
Goblin Charbelcher
[LED]^
With this you can kill one Turn after resolving Recross the Paths, which mostly is Turn 2. You use your Cantrip to draw LED and cast it. Pass your Turn. In your Draw Step Reforge the Soul is the first drawn Card, so cast it for its Miracle Costs by cracking LED for RRR. Take allways 4 Spirit guides for the remaing 4 mana to cast Belcher because they cannot be countered. Allways drop one LED first. It might hit a counter and protects the Belcher that way. Then pitch the Spirit Guides and drop the Second LED. Cycle the Street Wraith cracking 1 LED in response. You now have 7 Mana in Pool and 1 LED left. Play the Belcher and keep the LED for the Possibility of Daze or Spellpierce or Stifle. If your Opponent counters one LED he hopefully cannot counter the Belcher or its activation anymore.
f) TOP OF YOUR LIBRARY
[Street Wraith]°
Reforge the Soul
4 Spirit Guide
LED
LED
Street Wraith
Goblin Charbelcher
[LED]^
You do basically the same as in e) with the difference, that you cannot draw the LED for Miracle of the Reforge the Soul and therefore you need 2 Mana in your Drawstep produced by allready played Chrome Mox or Lotus Petal or by pitching Spirit Guides. Afterwards it is the same as e).
g) TOP OF YOUR LIBRARY
[Street Wraith]°
LED
Reforge the Soul
4 Spirit Guide
LED
LED
Street Wraith
Goblin Charbelcher
[LED]^
With this you will need 2 additional Turns to kill (so mostly Turn 3). Use your natural draw playing LED and then follow e).
If you need to play through a Hate Card that does not stop you from using your Paths Plan (like Pithing Needle or Ley-Line of Sanctity for example) you gonna switch the Stack. I am showing the needed Stack from meditate on, because your way to get to meditate is depending on the condition you met. (Of course this also works, when you got to use reforge the soul for its Miracle Costs. Then you need to rearrange the Stack a little, but I think after the following example you gonna know how.)
Meditate
LED
LED
LED
Street Wraith
Reforge the Soul
2 Seething Song
2 Burning Wish
Goblin Charbelcher
LED
[Protection]
After casting Meditate you drew 3 LED and a Wraith. Cast the Artifacts and cycle the Wraith in response cracking the LED’s for GGGRRRRRR. You draw Reforge and cast it drawing 2 Seething Song, 2 Burning Wishes a Belcher and a LED with GRRR floating. Cast the Songs to go for GRRRRRRR and drop LED. Cast a Burning Wish with GRRRRR floating. If it resolves go for a Solution and cast it with then still at least RRRR floating. Drop Belcher activate LED and done. If the Wish or the Solution hits a Counter cast the second Burning Wish with at least RR floating. Crack LED for BBB and go for lethal Tendrils from your Side Board. Done as well.
You might have noticed that Reforge draws 7 Cards but only 6 you are going to need. The seventh card may be any Protection you boarded in. That way you can even play 1-off non-sorcery Protection and get arround nearly any Hate. For example if your Opponent can protect his Ley-Line with a Counter and you boarded Pyroblasts you might add one to the Reforge-Draw. You can that way protect your Side Board Solution or you might board in Solutions to save the Mana against Daze or Spellpierce.
[special]
As mentioned this does only work if you go first. After you are on the Play, you (hopefully) did not have to draw a card up until resolving your Paths. If you have at least 2 Mana floating you might put the Reforge the Souls on Top of your Library. By now using a Cantrip and drawing for the first time this turn, you are allowed to use Miracle and draw the seven cards stacked as in condition e)-g).
Notes:
[Street Wraith]° - This one ist optional. You should use it, if you cannot produce the required Mana for a condition but you have one unused Chrome Mox left. By putting the Wraith on Top you hopefully win Clash and get back the Paths to imprint them on Chrome Mox getting the missing Mana.
[LED]^ - The LED under the killing Belcher is needed if your Opponent might play Stifle or something alike. That way you just belch again the next time you drew the LED from top.
Most likely I did not cover all possibilities but I think at least the important ones to pilot this Deck to Victory. Hard Games are done against multiple Hate Cards, Counter Magic of course and specific cards with Thalia of Thraben Effects or Rule of Law Effects. That is when you need to be fast and most likely use the Empty the Warrens.
Otherwise you still got your Side Board Space of 10 Cards or 9 because I would recommend playing one Pyroclasm as well in your Side Board as a sweeper. Besides this, you can go for any direction. I assume four Xantid Swarm a good idea. You can use them with Recross the Paths putting one on top, tripping into and cast it to pass for a protected kill next Turn. But remember that normally you win Turn 1-2, where most Hate Cards are no problem because of their 2cc or 3cc. Ley-Line of Sanctity got to be excluded from this, but it is no problem as long as there is no counter back up to protect it. So having some Pyroblasts or Red Elemental Blasts sound pretty good to me as well. But maybe you got some better ideas.
Other Cooks
As mentioned above I am not talking about the basic Belcher Theory like LED Sequencing and so on. If this is needed I recommend the Belcher Thread on The Source:
http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?25698-Primer-Deck-Belcher
I also recommend reading the article about this Belcher Archetype by the Inventor himself:
http://legitmtg.com/competitive/stac...cks-on-stacks/
Here are some interesting discussion about some choices of the Deck in the old Belcher Thread:
http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?5712-Deck-Belcher/page65
http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?5712-Deck-Belcher/page72
Digesting
As I mentioned frequently I really like this Deck. That is, why I wrote this article: I would like to talk about it. I am very interested in any ideas and tips.
I want to add that I started playing and reshaping this Deck some days ago and I am happy with my current Deck List. I might have missed something because of a lack of experience with this particular build. If that is the case just tell me I will add it to my post.
In conclusion I hope my English was not to bad and you enjoyed reading this. Thank you for your time and attention.
With best Regards,
BGH
PS: My pet name for this Deck is “The British Beer Belcher” because I am the one belching and I prefer drinking British beer most of the time. Besides this it really looks like soemthing you invent after to much time in the pub nearby…
0. Introduction
1. Hazard Statements
2. The Chemicals
3. The Stuff that makes the Difference
4. The Recipe to Victory
5. Other Cooks
6. Digesting
------------------------------------------
Introduction
First things first: I am a German player with some experience in playing Legacy Combo. I started some years ago playing Solidarity, TES, 1 and 2 Land Belcher and ANT, but at some point I stopped playing Magic at all. I recently decided to start over and first got myself a TES. My best friend plays a 1 Land Belcher and so I also looked into this Deck and found the pretty interesting No Land Belcher or Recross the Paths Belcher. While the Belcher Primer in the Established Decks Category is aming on the typical Belcher Builds with Land Grant I figured my thoughts on this a little awkward looking build might be better placed here. Also I would like to point out that I am not writing a Primer (for now).
The Deck is relatively unusual and unplayed as well. I want to put down my thoughts on it and I would like to discuss about possible options to make this deck a strong and resilent killing machine like his more famous brother. Therefore I am not talking about all choices in my current Deck List: I will talk about the differences, because the other cards shall be well known by the more common Belcher Builds.
Last but not least I would like to see more people trying this build. I took it for a spin just for fun and it is a pretty nice deck which can be shaped into a really dangerous combo deck at least in my opinion. That is why I recommend anybody who likes to play Legacy Combo to just grab that pile and try it. It is a little awkward at first, but I will present some help to get started with it. I am testing this deck for just a short time, but I will try represent whatever I found and I will add whatever ideas and tips you have. That way I hope to turn this deck into a well oiled Belch Machine of Doom Death and Destruction or short: a typical Belcher.
(I hope my English is well enough to stand reading this…)
Hazard Statements
Whenever you start working with new chemicals you should read what to pay attention to:
First: Do not get a tunnel vision. Just because this Deck is known to be a Turn 1 Killer it does not mean you have to. Do not push your luck. I saw people losing games by trying to kill turn 1 and fizzle with an empty hand. Turn 2 is fine as well most of the times and Force of Will does not care, which of both it is.
Second: Chose the right path to win based on your hand. Of course there are some combination at which this build is aming, but that does not mean to wait for them to show up. Take the path that gives you the earliest chance to go off.
Third: Do not be afraid of Muligans. This deck can kill with any amount from 3 to 7 Mana floating which means you should not be afraid to throw away a bad hand. 6 or 5 cards are still enough. You actually can kill with 4 cards.
The Chemicals
Buisiness:
4 Goblin Charbelcher
3 Recross the Paths
3 Burning Wish
1 Reforge the Soul
1 Meditate
Cantrips:
4 Streetwraith
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Manamorphose
Initial Mana:
4 Chrome Mox
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Lotus Petal
Rituals:
4 Rite of Flame
4 Tinder Wall
4 Desperate Ritual
4 Seething Song
4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
Sideboard:
1 Flame Slash
1 Hull Breach
1 Recross the Paths
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Tendrils of Agony
10 Slots left
The Stuff that makes the Difference
What do we not play? Land Grant, Empty the Warrens in the Main Board and the 1 Land. That is obvious, but why?
Our Game Plan is slightly different to the one of 1 Land Belcher. That Deck kills with either Empty the Warrens for about 12+ tiny Beaters or a lethal Goblin Charbelcher activation. Our Game Plan is to kill with Goblin Charbelcher all the time (at least Main Board).
First I would like to talk a little about the Side Board. I only put in the core of the Wish Board. You might add some Cards, but you should never cut one of the 5 above mentioned. The choices are relatively simple: Flame Slash ist the cheapest way to deal with Ethersworn Canonist or Gaddock Teeg or there various friends, Hull Breach is the option of choice against Ley-Line of Sanctity, Rule of Law, Counterbalance, Chalice of the Void and so on. The Recross the Paths is our primary Game Plan so with one in the Side Board and 3 Burning Wishes you have 6 copies of it. Tendrils of Agony are for situations, when you cannot belch because of Pithing Needle for Example and you do not have the Mana to get rid of the Hate Card and use your Goblin Charbelcher. Last but not Least there is one Empty the Warrens, because against some Decks you are better off with the little Beaters, for example when you need to be fast but cannot reach a deadly storm count for Tendrils of Agony.
Now let us have a look at the Main Board. Yes, mostly we do not need the Empty the Warrens. The 1-off Land had to go as well, because it fizzles our Game Plan: resolving a Recross the Paths. By doing so and having no Land in the Deck, we are allowed to reveal it as a whole and then put it back under our Library in any order. So basically we are sorting our Library. What normally would be cheating, we can do legal now. How this actually works I am going to discuss later on. To make this Game Plan work, we would need some additional Ingredientes: We need some Cantrips. That is why we are playing 12 of these. We also need a Meditate. Do you remenber, when I was talking about mulligans and mentioned that you can actually belch to kill with exactly 4 cards in Hand? Well, meditate draws them. Also we are playing one Reforge the Soul. This is on double or mostly tripple duty. While a Meditate does not draw enough cards to be considered Buisiness without Stacking via Recross the Paths Reforge the soul is. A hand with a Reforge the Soul and at least the mana to cast it (preferably more) does draw a kill with the new cards in most cases. It also is very useful against other Combo Decks by forcing them to “Muligan” their good hand away hopefully getting a worse one and at the same time as mentioned giving you a killing Hand. It might also be worth considering to get rid off a counter-strong hand, as long as this hand cannot counter the Reforge the Soul while you will most likely draw a winning Hand. Just peek for your Opponents hand with Gitaxian Probe to be shure.The second use is to setup a Turn 2 kill with the Recross the Paths when it does not turn out to kill Turn 1. You just put the Reforge the Soul on Top (or second if you need something first) of your Library and cast it via Miracle to draw the perfectly shaped winning Hand stacked right beneath it. Its third duty is to provide the possibility to get rid of Hate Cards while going off by stacking the Library accordingly with Recross the Paths.
The Recipe to Victory
The good thing about this Deck is that you still got anything to just belch your Opponent Turn 1 or 2. You still can go for Empty the Warrens or Tendrils of Agony in your Side Board. The difference is that you now kill with the Goblin Charbelcher nearly all the time and you are capable of playing around Hate while doing so. But still you did not lose any speed. That is why I recommend to try this Deck.
But how do we actually win? Of course you know how to count to 7 Mana and use Goblin Charbelcher or to 8 Spells and 6 Mana to cast a Burning Wish getting the Side Board Tendrils of Agony (or with less Spell Count Empty the Warrens). I will not talk about this. I am going to aim on how to win by resolving Recross the Paths.
After resolving Recross the Paths, there are some Conditions to be met:
a) U and 2 Mana floating, 1 Meditate in Hand*
b) U and 2 Mana floating, 1 Cantrip in Hand*
c) U and 1 Mana floating, 2 Cantrips in Hand*
d) 0-1 floating, 2 Cantrips in Hand (but no Manamorphose as Cantrip)
e) 0-2 Mana floating, 1 Cantrip in Hand
f) at least 2 Mana next Turns Draw Step, 0 Cantrip in Hand
g) 0-2 Mana floating, 0 Cantrip in Hand
[special: 2 Mana floating, 1 Cantrip, On the Play]
This is, what you need to kill your Opponent by stacking your Library with Recross the Paths. The first 4 options will kill the Opponent right away, option e) and f) one Turn later and g) 2 Turns later. When you got this Setup up you can kill through 1 Hate Card as well (not all I have to admit, but most of the real problematic ones will not hit the boards before you are going for the kill).
*Note: If one of your Cantrips is a Manamorphose you will not need to have the U Mana floating. You can just filter it.
So what does this tell you? After checking the condtions there are piles you are going to stack.
a) TOP OF YOUR LIBRARY
[Street Wraith]°
LED
LED
Lotus Petal
Street Wraith
Goblin Charbelcher
[LED]^
You just play Meditate drawing 2xLED, a Lotus Petal and a Street Wraith. Cast the Artifacts and cycle the Street Wraith drawing the LED Mana to your Mana Pool in response. Now you got 7 Mana and a Belcher. Done.
b) TOP OF YOUR LIBRARY
[Street Wraith]°
Meditate
LED
LED
Lotus Petal
Street Wraith
Goblin Charbelcher
[LED]^
You use your 1 Cantrip to draw Meditate and the Rest is as above.
c) TOP OF YOUR LIBRARY
[Street Wraith]°
Initial Mana Source or Rite of Flame
Meditate
LED
LED
Lotus Petal
Street Wraith
Goblin Charbelcher
[LED]^
You cast your first Cantrip and use the Mana Source to hit 3 Mana. Then you use your second Cantrip and draw Meditate. Now we are back at a).
d) TOP OF YOUR LIBRARY
[Street Wraith]°
LED
Meditate
LED
LED
Lotus Petal
Street Wraith
Goblin Charbelcher
[LED]^
It does not matter if you have 1 or no Mana floating. Only the 2 Cantrips matter. You cast the first one drawing LED. Put the second on the Stack and crack LED for UUU. Now you draw Meditate with the needed Mana to cast it and we are back at a).
e) TOP OF YOUR LIBRARY
[Street Wraith]°
LED
Reforge the Soul
4 Spirit Guide
LED
LED
Street Wraith
Goblin Charbelcher
[LED]^
With this you can kill one Turn after resolving Recross the Paths, which mostly is Turn 2. You use your Cantrip to draw LED and cast it. Pass your Turn. In your Draw Step Reforge the Soul is the first drawn Card, so cast it for its Miracle Costs by cracking LED for RRR. Take allways 4 Spirit guides for the remaing 4 mana to cast Belcher because they cannot be countered. Allways drop one LED first. It might hit a counter and protects the Belcher that way. Then pitch the Spirit Guides and drop the Second LED. Cycle the Street Wraith cracking 1 LED in response. You now have 7 Mana in Pool and 1 LED left. Play the Belcher and keep the LED for the Possibility of Daze or Spellpierce or Stifle. If your Opponent counters one LED he hopefully cannot counter the Belcher or its activation anymore.
f) TOP OF YOUR LIBRARY
[Street Wraith]°
Reforge the Soul
4 Spirit Guide
LED
LED
Street Wraith
Goblin Charbelcher
[LED]^
You do basically the same as in e) with the difference, that you cannot draw the LED for Miracle of the Reforge the Soul and therefore you need 2 Mana in your Drawstep produced by allready played Chrome Mox or Lotus Petal or by pitching Spirit Guides. Afterwards it is the same as e).
g) TOP OF YOUR LIBRARY
[Street Wraith]°
LED
Reforge the Soul
4 Spirit Guide
LED
LED
Street Wraith
Goblin Charbelcher
[LED]^
With this you will need 2 additional Turns to kill (so mostly Turn 3). Use your natural draw playing LED and then follow e).
If you need to play through a Hate Card that does not stop you from using your Paths Plan (like Pithing Needle or Ley-Line of Sanctity for example) you gonna switch the Stack. I am showing the needed Stack from meditate on, because your way to get to meditate is depending on the condition you met. (Of course this also works, when you got to use reforge the soul for its Miracle Costs. Then you need to rearrange the Stack a little, but I think after the following example you gonna know how.)
Meditate
LED
LED
LED
Street Wraith
Reforge the Soul
2 Seething Song
2 Burning Wish
Goblin Charbelcher
LED
[Protection]
After casting Meditate you drew 3 LED and a Wraith. Cast the Artifacts and cycle the Wraith in response cracking the LED’s for GGGRRRRRR. You draw Reforge and cast it drawing 2 Seething Song, 2 Burning Wishes a Belcher and a LED with GRRR floating. Cast the Songs to go for GRRRRRRR and drop LED. Cast a Burning Wish with GRRRRR floating. If it resolves go for a Solution and cast it with then still at least RRRR floating. Drop Belcher activate LED and done. If the Wish or the Solution hits a Counter cast the second Burning Wish with at least RR floating. Crack LED for BBB and go for lethal Tendrils from your Side Board. Done as well.
You might have noticed that Reforge draws 7 Cards but only 6 you are going to need. The seventh card may be any Protection you boarded in. That way you can even play 1-off non-sorcery Protection and get arround nearly any Hate. For example if your Opponent can protect his Ley-Line with a Counter and you boarded Pyroblasts you might add one to the Reforge-Draw. You can that way protect your Side Board Solution or you might board in Solutions to save the Mana against Daze or Spellpierce.
[special]
As mentioned this does only work if you go first. After you are on the Play, you (hopefully) did not have to draw a card up until resolving your Paths. If you have at least 2 Mana floating you might put the Reforge the Souls on Top of your Library. By now using a Cantrip and drawing for the first time this turn, you are allowed to use Miracle and draw the seven cards stacked as in condition e)-g).
Notes:
[Street Wraith]° - This one ist optional. You should use it, if you cannot produce the required Mana for a condition but you have one unused Chrome Mox left. By putting the Wraith on Top you hopefully win Clash and get back the Paths to imprint them on Chrome Mox getting the missing Mana.
[LED]^ - The LED under the killing Belcher is needed if your Opponent might play Stifle or something alike. That way you just belch again the next time you drew the LED from top.
Most likely I did not cover all possibilities but I think at least the important ones to pilot this Deck to Victory. Hard Games are done against multiple Hate Cards, Counter Magic of course and specific cards with Thalia of Thraben Effects or Rule of Law Effects. That is when you need to be fast and most likely use the Empty the Warrens.
Otherwise you still got your Side Board Space of 10 Cards or 9 because I would recommend playing one Pyroclasm as well in your Side Board as a sweeper. Besides this, you can go for any direction. I assume four Xantid Swarm a good idea. You can use them with Recross the Paths putting one on top, tripping into and cast it to pass for a protected kill next Turn. But remember that normally you win Turn 1-2, where most Hate Cards are no problem because of their 2cc or 3cc. Ley-Line of Sanctity got to be excluded from this, but it is no problem as long as there is no counter back up to protect it. So having some Pyroblasts or Red Elemental Blasts sound pretty good to me as well. But maybe you got some better ideas.
Other Cooks
As mentioned above I am not talking about the basic Belcher Theory like LED Sequencing and so on. If this is needed I recommend the Belcher Thread on The Source:
http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?25698-Primer-Deck-Belcher
I also recommend reading the article about this Belcher Archetype by the Inventor himself:
http://legitmtg.com/competitive/stac...cks-on-stacks/
Here are some interesting discussion about some choices of the Deck in the old Belcher Thread:
http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?5712-Deck-Belcher/page65
http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?5712-Deck-Belcher/page72
Digesting
As I mentioned frequently I really like this Deck. That is, why I wrote this article: I would like to talk about it. I am very interested in any ideas and tips.
I want to add that I started playing and reshaping this Deck some days ago and I am happy with my current Deck List. I might have missed something because of a lack of experience with this particular build. If that is the case just tell me I will add it to my post.
In conclusion I hope my English was not to bad and you enjoyed reading this. Thank you for your time and attention.
With best Regards,
BGH
PS: My pet name for this Deck is “The British Beer Belcher” because I am the one belching and I prefer drinking British beer most of the time. Besides this it really looks like soemthing you invent after to much time in the pub nearby…