Belcher:Primer

Belcher is a Modern combo deck that aims to eliminate your opponent’s life total with the card Goblin Charbelcher. The trick with our deck is that we take advantage of the MDFCs, or Modal Double-Faced Cards, to “cheat the system” with the card and always deal damage with Belcher equal to the number of cards in our library at the time.

Figure 1: Example Modern Belcher Stock List

Here is a sample deck list that is pretty accessible. Now I will introduce a term that gets thrown around a lot: “Flex Slots”. In this list, the flex slots are occupied by Pyromancer Ascension and an extra land in the form of 3rd Bala Ged Recovery and 1st Song-Mad Treachery, depending on your perspective. Most lists have 24 lands, sometimes deviating to 23 to allow for a pseudo additional flex slot, or 25 lands, where one flex slot is occupied by a land. As you can probably tell, there are many decisions that can be made in the layout of any particular Belcher list. . Things are constantly being tested and we will go over some popular strategies for flex slots now.

Flex Slots:

1. Fury
2. Wild Cantor
3. PA
4. Lands
5. Blood Moon
6. Serum Powder
7. March of Reckless Joy

Fury

1-2 Fury can be placed in flex slots to provide more coverage against creature-heavy decks such as Hammer, Burn, and GDS + Murktide sometimes (think Ledger Shredder)

PA (Pyromancer Ascension)

Pyromancer Ascension is most commonly used for dedicated Belcher hate pieces, such as Pithing Needle, Stony Silence, Karn, the Great Creator, Leyline of Sanctity, etc. (cards that say you can’t kill w/ Belcher)

PA, in combination with Recross the Paths, allows us to set up a deterministic infinite loop to kill our opponent through almost all board states. We can generate infinite draws and mana of any colour. The loop is executed with the same sequence of cards, but you may not always find the pieces for the combo the same way. For instance, the kill with PA and Reforge the Soul is as follows:

1. Cast Recross the Paths
2. Stack your deck accordingly: (2 Lands When Recross the Paths Cast, READ TOP BOTTOM) Turntimber Symbiosis (or Sea Gate Restoration) (To win the clash) Reforge the Soul Sea Gate Restoration Pyromancer Ascension An Offer You Can’t Refuse Noxious Revival Pyretic Ritual (or Desperate Ritual, if necessary) Pyretic Ritual Manamorphose Manamorphose Manamorphose Manamorphose Desperate Ritual Bala Ged Recovery Desperate Ritual Bala Ged Recovery 5 ETC.

So, this is the basic stack that you will have in your head for the rest of your life. You will be thinking about Recross the Paths when you are on life support, as will I. So the kill basically begins like this:

Get to 4 mana, cast PA with 2 floating, cast Manamorphose and so on. If there is 1 Manamorphose in the bin at this point, it has no effect as long as it remains in the bin, since the second Manamorphose will get a stack on PA, since there is the first Manamorphose in the yard already

If you begin the loop with the resources I just outlined, you will draw 2 cards and produce 4 mana of any colour after casting the last Manamorphose. You will add RRGG and draw Desperate Ritual and Bala Ged Recovery. Ritual with RR, make RRRRRR, and Bala Ged with RRG targeting Manamorphose and Desperate Ritual, then you will draw into Bala Ged Recovery and Desperate Ritual (you get the idea). You now begin splicing Desperate Rituals to net large quantities of mana (Net 8 for splice 2 ways, Net 12 for 3 ways) and Manamorphose/Strike it Rich to filter for any colour you need (can usually use Manamorphose, very few situations where drawing 30 cards is a problem). To go truly infinite you can’t use Manamorphose permanently and will have to resort to Strike it Rich, to not deck.

The loop can be executed with the foreplay being different. Some other ways to assemble the PA combo are:

• (3 Lands When Recross Cast) Reforge, Shatterskull, Pyretic Ritual x3, PA, Pact of Negation, Manamorphose
  • The third Pyretic Ritual adds protection against some incidents of graveyard hate, as we get the second stack earlier and draw more cards with Manamorphose quicker.
• Valakut Awakening Example: 3 Lands on Battlefield 1 Ritual in Hand (5 Cards in Hand)
  • After Recrossing, draw Awakening for Turn:
    • Ritual > Awakening > Put back whole hand > draw 5 cards > Shatterskull, Ritual, Ritual, PA, Manamorphose

As you can see, usually the Ascension kill is facilitated by Recross, but you can sometimes go off with the card naturally

Lands

Having extra lands as your flex slots (25+) is a nice catch-all way to increase the smoothness of your deck. More lands means you have increased opportunity to cast the spell side of our lands without being choked on resources as a result.

Blood Moon

Blood Moon is a classic card that has a nice place in Belcher due to our flexibility in mana. You can land a fast Blood Moon with the assistance of Rituals and Strike it Rich. Blood Moon has been outshined very often by Magus of the Moon, Blood Moon incarnate. Dodging Artifact/Enchantment removal is absolutely broken against the decks that Blood Moon is good against. Against Titan, their only answer in the form of Dismember is just not good enough to deal with the card consistently, and they now have tools like Boseiju, Who Endures to deal with Blood Moon in Game One. 95% of the time, if you land Magus vs Titan you will win the game. Against harder matchups like Living End, an early Magus can both dodge Force of Negation and lock up their mana. I have nightmares of when I see my opponent play Misty Rainforest. FUCK BASIC FORESTS. To clarify, it is not advisable to play maindeck Magus of the Moon in Belcher, since removal is in just about every deck, even ours. I don’t think blood moon is good, only in metas that are oversaturated with decks soft to the effect. Like, a lot. A ton of Titan (some titan is not enough for MD Moon; can just win games 2 and 3 with Magus) and weak 4C are the main ones where moon is better. LE is a good argument… Eating Force of Negation isn’t that bad. But getting hit by Force of Negation is bad when it matters. Dodging it with Magus is nice post board, but the LE matchup is horrific so you probably would like Blood Moon for more pressure in game 1.

Serum Powder

This is one of my favourites. The card that gives you the ability to take a pseudo mulligan for a small price, Serum Powder. Having one of these cards in hand during keep/mull phase means you have the option to exile the hand you’re looking at (after bottoming a card if you’ve already taken a mulligan), and draw that many cards, in addition to taking mulligans. Don’t you ever wish you could mulligan 5 times and have a functional hand? Now you can. In a more serious tone, being able to exile dumpster cards and essentially have a free new hand is very nice. What’s even nicer is when you powder twice, mulligan twice, and begin the game with a good five card hand. That’s broken. I am biased when it comes to this card. I’ve probably jammed 250+ games with the card now and I know how it feels when it works, and I know how it feels when it flops. I don’t have statistics, but my source is good: trust me bro. The card is quite good, and if you don’t believe me you can play some games with it with good faith, and you should be able to see at least a glimmer of what I see.

March of Reckless Joy

This card is kinda cute. It is a very inoffensive card because it does one main thing: exiles cards from the top of your library. It does this fairly consistently no thanks to our host of pitchable red cards. Playing no lands never looked so hot. You usually exile 2-4 cards from the top, pitching 1- 2 red cards respectively. Making land drops on turn 2 with exiled cards and piecing together missing combo pieces can have its moments.

Sideboard Cards

DISCARD HATE:

• Leyline of Sanctity
• Veil of Summer

COUNTER HATE:

• Veil of Summer

CREATURE HATE:

• Fury
• Gut Shot
• Dead // Gone

GREEDY MANABASE HATE:

• Magus of the Moon
• Blood Moon

ARTIFACT/ENCHANTMENT HATE:

• Force of Vigor

OTHERS:

• Kaheera, the Orphanguard

Discard Hate

Leyline is your main friend for Thoughtseizes, Inquisitions, and Lightning Bolts. Comes in vs Burn, GDS, Living End often, Yawgmoth, and other decks with key cards that target our face. I don’t like Veil purely for discard. If your opponent plays discard in addition to countermagic, Veil is warranted. Having G on turn 1 is not consistent whatsoever.

Counter Hate

Veil of Summer is a heck of a card. Cantrips, makes things uncounterable, very good very nice. Bring against decks where our spells being countered is a problem. Think Murktide, Rhinos, UWx Control, where counters are detrimental either because they back up a fast clock on our life total, or because if we fail to create pressure, the game will fall out of our control.

Creature Hate

Fury and Gut Shot are what’s for dinner. Fury is cute because we can cast for 0 mana by pitching one of our many red cards. Gut shot is also no mana if we want it to be. Do you see a pattern? Nasty degen combo decks love free spells, and we do too! Gut Shot is best when the creatures you’re scared of the most are named Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer, or…. Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer. Fury is great to sweep boards against decks with X/2 creatures such as Burn or Hammer, as Gut 9 Shot has no targets against Hammer 85% of the time (number is out of my ass), and never against Burn. Dead // Gone is a seductive little card… Nice against UR Murktide, bouncing dragonfathers is useful, as is killing Ragavan and Dragon’s Rage Chongolers. It is a nice spell, give it a try. Usually this seems like either really targeted (UR Murktide specifically) or budget. I like the idea of playing this in UR infested meta

Manabase Hate

Magus of the Moon is better than Blood Moon in basically all metas that are not dominated by 4C Moneypile lists that are soft to Blood Moon (think 4C Traverse Lists w/ Counterspell) and sometimes Murktide. Like vs Legacy Delver a Blood Moon can actually be crippling shutting off UU, for Counterspell and Murktide. There is Ragavan in Modern however, so this will be a rare occurrence. This is an instance where maindeck Blood Moon can have gotcha moments, because it's not worth it to keep in after sideboarding but has utility in small areas in game one.

Artifact/Enchantment Hate

Force of Vigor. It’s Force of Vigor.

Kaheera

Kaheera allows for mental games on turn 0 before decks are known to either player. Can influence opponents mulligans and make them think you’re playing UW control. This is a very very very marginal benefit, and it is nearly impossible to quantify since we can’t know if Kaheera made our opponent mulligan.

Gameplay

Metagame

Belcher can be a strong choice in even the murkiest of metagames. It beats up on slow clunky decks like 4C Yorion Piles, can weave through control-centric matches like UWx, sneak out of aggro matchups with a swift win, and be favored against more difficult matchups. Difficult matchups are not unwinnable, and its not even obvious that we aren’t favored in the difficult matchups. After playing against UR Murktide often with Belcher, we are winning most of the time barring awkward scenarios/corner cases. Things like Rhinos can be harder, or easier, since that matchup is a bit of a flip, but both fall under the categories of fast clock + disrupting interaction, which means we are now trying not to lose on two different axes. If you are a seasoned Belcher player, you can feel comfortable bringing Belcher to any Modern event.

Tempo Decisions

Shove/Sculpt. What does that mean? Sometimes when we’re playing decks like Belcher, with a very centralized win condition, there will be spots where casting a spell without protection/interaction to back it up will win the game if it resolves. This is called the “Make em’ have it” moment. You must weigh out the cards that you lose to in that scenario, ask yourself “is my situation going to improve if I wait and do nothing?” Sometimes the answer to that question is yes, for instance if your opponent had 1 mana open on turn 1 and you had a Belcher able to be cast but you could back it up with Pact of Negation the following turn, you can wait, because if on turn 2 they keep open 1 mana, you can cover Counterspell or one Spell Pierce with the Pact, since now you only lose to Spell Pierce + Spell Pierce or Flusterstorm.

Other times you might have a turn 2 kill OTP when your opponent could only stop you if they had fluster/pierce. Sometimes you gotta go, and if it’s a situation where your situation is not likely to improve, such as your opponent gaining access to more mana each turn, you will have to shove. Kill your opponents! Kill em good.

Let’s talk about the other side to this: Sculpt. Sometimes you’re playing in a match that is going very slowly, lots of draw go. You may not want to overcommit into a spell when your opponent is presenting no pressure. You can take things slow and wait to draw protection in the form of Pact of Negation or Veil of Summer, sculpt with Valakut Awakening, or simply pressure your opponent instead when you have a wincon-heavy hand. You will often not have time to sculpt if your opponent drops Ragavan on turn one, as they’ll be accruing resources much quicker than you, if you can find an opportunity to present a kill in the first 4 turns, you will have a smaller chance of being waterboarded by treasure tokens.

Nuanced Subjects

Now let’s explore some ways to optimize our thinking in some trickier situations and matchups. Lets start off with a soft ball. If you’re playing against a Thoughtseize deck, taking mulligans is not your friend. The idea of “Mull for Leyline”, a layman’s term which means you are intending to mulligan until you have a Leyline of Sanctity in your opening hand, against a deck with the card Thoughtseize, you are basically saying you would rather have fewer limbs. If you had a 7 that was underwhelming but had lands, maybe a Valakut Awakening and a win condition like Belcher or Recross, even if the hand is slow and maybe a bit clunky, you’re not mulliganing there, because imagine this: you mull to 6 there, now you have a hand with 6 lands and Leyline of Sanctity, you bottom a land and slam the Leyline. Nice, now you have a hand of 5 lands, basically the same hand as the 7 if you got Thoughtseize’d. Imagine that.

It is important to emphasize how we should think when resolving the spell Recross the Paths as well. Once Recross resolves, you have the option to put cards on top of your deck in any order! Fancy that, reveal until you reveal a land, yada yada yada, put them back in any order..

You MUST think what cards can my opponent have in their hand/slam on the battlefield next turn that I CARE about?

Can they be holding Counterspell or Force of Negation? Or Both?

What about Boseiju?

They could slam Damping Sphere…. “That would really fuck us up, wouldn’t it?”

Pithing Needles? Any Karn, the Great Creator(s) in chat?

Plan accordingly. Worried about Needle or K4rn? Make an Ascension Pile. Boseiju? Ask yourself if you can win with one less land. Counterspells; can we eat them? Counter them back? Just some things to get you thinking. Don’t worry, we’re just getting started

Sideboard Guide Menu

See Belcher:Sideboard

Matchup Discussion

See Belcher:Matchup

HOW DO YOU MULLIGAN?

Blind:

• Hand needs to be capable of casting a Recross or Belcher
• 2+ lands preferable unless unnecessary (think Shatterskull, Strike, Ritual, Ritual, Irencrag, Belcher)
• Stop on 5 cards usually unless the 5 card hand is literally unplayable.

Against Fast Decks (think Titan, Burn):

• Need to be able to cast spell on turn 2, or kill on turn 3 (example: Turn 2 Recross)
• Or have heavy interaction that can slow our opponent down while we establish a kill (example: Magus, 2x Lands, Ritual, Strike, etc. vs Titan)

Against Slow Decks (think UWx)

• Stable hands that cast spells or sculpt or have protection waiting for a win condition
• Much more flexible

Sometimes you will die on turn three if you do not interact with your opponent. You need to consider this seriously and notice play/draw to inform your decisions

RECROSS THE PATHS // DOOMSDAY

All right baby, here we go.

Introductory Discussion

So, lets talk about this card.

Recross the Paths, go ahead, read the card. Since we play no “Lands”, we reveal our entire deck once this spell resolves, we put it back in any order, and then we clash with an opponent. I know what you’re thinking: “Clash?” Yes, Clash. Don’t look at me, it’s written on the card. You’re going to kill your opponent often with this spell, it’s up to you how you’d like to go about it.

It is common that you’ll stack your deck to kill with a fresh seven card hand with Reforge the Soul, or sculpt your hand at sorcery and/or instant speed with Valakut Awakening, to avoid pesky situations where Reforge is not possible, such as a resolved Teferi, Time Raveler.

You can combine powerful sequences of cards to ensure you are resolving a spell, and hopefully a kill. Veil of Summer into Irencrag Feat + Belcher can be a devastating line to take against a variety of decks, when the opportunity presents itself. If you suspect you will need to win “On the Stack” or winning before your opponent has priority to stop it, you can set up a slow protected turn like this, which works around Teferi turning off our Pact of Negations. Sorcery speed Veil of Summers are a great thing to cast in paper! Look into their soul and you will realize why we play this deck.

“Play Around EVERYTHING”

When people talk about “playing around card x” they mean they are playing in such a way that is not heavily impacted/disrupted by card x. When playing a deck like Belcher which wins on only a few axes/has few modes of attack, you need to be prepared for cards that can blow you out if disrespected. Imagine if your deck folded to a singleton Pithing Needle. What a terrible deck that’d be huh?

We sort of went over this earlier when I was imploring you to ask yourself “How do I lose next turn?” and informing your Recross stacking with that information.

Stacking in Paper vs. Online

Playing on MTGO is very nice for Belcher players for a few reasons. Firstly, you don’t have to worry about shuffling around physical cards when stacking your deck with Doomsd- Recross the Paths. Secondly, you have a 25 min chess clock which is just chef’s kiss for stacking your deck for 10+ mins for those extra complicated lines. In paper you must be quicker on your feet, but you don’t have to rush. Talk to your opponent while you stack your cards, look into their eyes, see their fear, and feed off of that. Use it to help your intuiting of the cards in their hand, their sideboard, their deck, EVERYTHING. Think about piles before you cast Recross, about complicated scenarios that could arise. You shouldn’t get calls for slow play unless your opponent is a dick. Games with and against Belcher end before 20 mins, they should be reasonable if you’re taking 2-5 mins to stack your deck. They don’t need to worry, we’ll be done soon.

BASIC/INTERMEDIATE/ADVANCED RECROSS PILES

Pyromancer Ascension

Terminology

X Land Pile: Pile that kills next turn if you had X lands when Recross was cast

2 Land Belcher/PA Kill

	Belcher	PA
1	Turntimber Symbiosis	Turntimber Symbiosis
2	Reforge the Soul	Reforge the Soul
3	Sea Gate Restoration	Sea Gate Restoration
4	Goblin Charbelcher	Pyromancer's Ascension
5	Pyretic Ritual	Pyretic Ritual
6	Pyretic Ritual	Pyretic Ritual
7	Irencrag Feat	An Offer You Can't Refuse
8	An Offer You Can't Refuse	Noxious Revival
9	Noxious Revival	Manamorphose

P.S. For these piles, you are casting Noxious Revival for 2 life, holding priority, and casting Offer targeting Noxious with the U from Sea Gate

3 Land Pile (Protected)

These piles are protected by Pact of Negation. Talk to your doctor about Pact of Negation and what it could do for you.

	Belcher	PA
1	Turntimber Symbiosis	Turntimber Symbiosis
2	Reforge the Soul	Reforge the Soul
3	Goblin Charbelcher	Shatterskull Smashing
4	Shatterskull Smashing	Pyromancer's Ascension
5	Pyretic Ritual	Pyretic Ritual
6	Pyretic Ritual	Pyretic Ritual
7	Desperate Ritual	Pyretic Ritual
8	Desperate Ritual	Manamorphose
9	Pact of Negation	Pact of Negation

Valakut Awakening Piles

	1	2
1	Valakut Awakening	Valakut Awakening
2	Pact of Negation	Irencrag Feat
3	Desperate Ritual	Pyretic Ritual
4	Desperate Ritual	Pyretic Ritual
5	Goblin Charbelcher	Turntimber Symbiosis
6	Shatterskull Smashing	Veil of Summer
7	Pact of Negation	Goblin Charbelcher

Look at these, and think about what board states warrant these stacks. You’d presumably have 3 lands and 2 red sources for the first one, to cast awakening and then RR to support spliced rituals. On the right hand side, this could be a game where “winning on the stack” with Irencrag is good.

A Cute Tricky One

Lands:

• Turntimber Symbiosis
• Turntimber Symbiosis
• Shatterskull Smashing

Imagine this: It’s game 1 against G Tron. You’re not playing Ascension in the main so you are quivering when your opponent casts Karn, the Great Creator. Here is a stack after we Recross.

	Belcher
1	Manamorphose
2	Reforge the Soul
3	Shatterskull Smashing
4	Pyretic Ritual
5	Desperate Ritual
6	Desperate Ritual
7	Desperate Ritual
8	Desperate Ritual
9	Irencrag Feat
10	Goblin Charbelcher

So, we end step Manamorphose Reforge, Untap, Pyretic to 4, Splice to 6, Splice 3 ways to 9R, Splice 2 ways to 11, Ritual to 12, etc. burn Karn for like 6 with Shatterskull Smashing and then murder with 4 remaining mana Irencrag Belcher.

Ok, lets try another

FoV in hand, those lands on the battlefield. You are playing against UW Artifact Piles with Needle, Meddling Mage, Lavinia, Metallic Rebuke, Damping Sphere, etc.

Your opponent has 2 lands but is tapped out, you resolve Recross.

Here we are. Badabing badaboom! You pass after Recross resolved. Next turn they untap. If they slam Lavinia, you cast recross again with Manamorphose drawn that turn still in hand.

	1	2
1	Manamorphose	Manamorphose
2	Reforge the Soul	Reforge the Soul
3	Shatterskull Smashing	Shatterskull Smashing
4	Pyretic Ritual	Pyromancer's Ascension
5	Pyretic Ritual	Pyretic Ritual
6	Pact of Negation	Pyretic Ritual
7	Pact of Negation	Pact of Negation
8	Fury	Pact of Negation
9	Manamorphose	Force of Vigor
10		Manamorphose

Just to be clear: this is kind of a lot of cards to expect to draw. Only will be like this rarely, but still here’s the idea. If you’re on 3 lands, you can ritual into Awakening, put back X cards, draw X+1 cards have 1 land open, play your second land in the pile, ritual, ritual, PA Manamorphose go go go.

If they play damping sphere, we FoV and kill. We can also use FoV to bait a Metallic Rebuke. If they have 1 land and 2 artifacts untapped, they could be representing Metallic Rebuke. If you Force of Vigor their artifacts, they can no longer improvise and will be forced to let it resolve or counter it and leave themselves vulnerable. If they counter, we end step Reforge into kill. If they don’t counter it, we end step Reforge and kill. If they tap out for Damping Sphere, we FoV it and end step Reforge. If they Meddling Mage we can Reforge in response if we think they won’t name Belcher, as the Ascension is already avoiding the problem of killing with Belcher when Meddling Mage is breathing. This pile ignores Pithing Needle, Meddling Mage naming anything except Reforge the Soul, and multiple hate pieces/counterspells.

GRINDING MTGO LEAGUES WITH BELCHER

Okay so not many people who grind leagues talk about how/why they grind MTGO leagues with their deck of choice. With Belcher it can be very rewarding and lucrative, and also very quick. Matches can easily end in less than 5 minutes consistently enough that you’ll start to feel lonely at LGS when you finish before everyone else and have to sit alone and drink Dasani.

You can win in MTGO leagues so fast it will make you a very happy and peaceful person. Playing Belcher in leagues for me is buttery, its silky and smooth. Fast wins, easy rewards, baseline 3-2 record. Anything lower than 3-2 is rare, 4-1s are plentiful, and 5-0s are fairly distributed. Its nice. Even if you don’t own cards online, you can pay for rental subscription while getting a little extra for the Mrs.

HOW TO BEGIN LEARNING

How to Practice:

• MTGO is best, fastest, most available, comprehensive
• If no access to MTGO (MacBook users), goldfishing in paper, stacking in paper for complicated hypothetical scenarios, or real scenarios from games/streams/online, timed or untimed, to increase speed and confidence
• Don’t get mad when you lose, sometimes you get spanked, but mostly we hope to do the spanking. Try and look every game if you could’ve done something differently. Look at decisions you made that could’ve been different.

Watch/Read Content

• Amirite?

How to be a Better Magic: The Gathering Player so that you can Drool on your Opponents while Playing Belcher

• Play as often as you can without impacting your daily life/your happiness
• Don’t get mad, enjoy the game, look for areas of improvement
• Mistakes are Lessons