Hi, I’m Jon Johnson, a PTQ/GP grinder from Southeastern Michigan. I’m also very into playing eternal formats, such as Legacy and Vintage. If there is a combo deck in a format, I’ve likely played it in at least one event.
Our current Legacy metagame is mainly composed of RUG and UR Delver, GW Maverick, Sneak and Show, and some small portions of UW control (Blade, Landstill, Miracle, Counterbalance), Storm, Dredge, Elves, Zoo, and Affinity. We can safely assume that the vast majority of players will be playing Delver, Maverick, or Combo (S&S right now). This leaves us with the great opportunity to play what I’d like to call all-in combo decks. Historically the all in combo decks have been stuff like storm (ANT, TES, Long, IGGYPOP), Belcher (GR, or GRb), and Spanish Inquisition (nobody expects it…).
Here are some examples of these types of decks recently:
[deck title=The E.P.I.C. Storm (Bryant Cook)]
[Spells]
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Dark Ritual
4 Rite of Flame
4 Burning Wish
4 Infernal Tutor
3 Duress
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Orim’s Chant
2 Silence
2 Ad Nauseam
1 Tendrils of Agony
4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
4 Chrome Mox
[/Spells]
[Land]
2 Scalding Tarn
1 Polluted Delta
1 Bloodstained Mire
2 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
4 Gemstone Mine
2 City of Brass
[/Land]
[Sideboard]
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Deathmark
2 Echoing Truth
1 Shattering Spree
1 Infest
1 Grapeshot
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Ill-gotten Gains
1 Diminishing Returns
1 Past In Flames
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]
[deck title=Belcher]
[Creatures]
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Street Wraith
4 Tinder Wall
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Goblin Charbelcher
3 Lion’s Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
4 Chrome Mox
4 Desperate Ritual
4 Manamorphose
4 Pyretic Ritual
4 Empty the Warrens
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Land Grant
4 Rite of Flame
[/Spells]
1 Taiga
[Sideboard]
15 Island
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]
[deck title=Pact SI]
[Spells]
1 Goblin Charbelcher
2 Tendrils of Agony
4 Infernal Contract
4 Cruel Bargain
4 Infernal Tutor
1 Ill-gotten Gains
4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
4 Dark Ritual
4 Summoner’s Pact
4 Lotus Petal
4 Chrome Mox
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Culling the Weak
4 Land Grant
3 Manamorphose
[/Spells]
[Creatures]
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
1 Slithermuse
1 Eternal Witness
1 Odious Trow
[/Creatures]
[Land]
1 Bayou
1 Dryad Arbor
[/Land]
[Sideboard]
4 Xantid Swarm
3 Carpet of Flowers
4 Nature’s Claim
2 Slaughter Pact
2 Goblin Charbelcher
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]
As you can see, these decks try to dump their hand and/or deck onto the stack as quickly as possible with varying levels of protection. The idea behind trying one of these decks in the current metagame is that your opponent only has a couple ways to actually deal with your spells, and only [card]Force of Will[/card] if you are on the play. The reason for this article is because the subject of a mono-black Goblin Charbelcher deck was recently brought up in Ari Lax’s (@armlx) article last week. However, he failed to include the list that was developed by Brandon Adams (@emidln) and some other members of the Team Stormboards, including myself. I have been messing with the list for a while now, and have had the chance to play it in a few events locally.
[deck title=Mono-Black Belcher]
[Mana]
4 Land Grant
1 Bayou
4 Lotus Petal
4 Chrome Mox
4 Mox Opal
4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
4 Dark Ritual
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Culling the Weak
[/Mana]
[Tall Men]
4 Shield Sphere
4 Phyrexian Walker
2 Ornithopter
[/Tall Men]
[Disruption]
4 Cabal Therapy
[/Disruption]
[Bombs]
4 Infernal Tutor
1 Diabolic Intent
4 Ad Nauseam
4 Goblin Charbelcher
[/Bombs]
[/deck]
The deck started off with the following theory by Brandon:
SI would be a pretty decent deck if only it didn’t fizzle so much due to the randomness of draw fours.
RG Belcher would be a pretty decent deck if only it didn’t fizzle so much due to opponents answering ETW.
The obvious plan was to take the two decks and try and mash them together in some crazy hybridized deck. He took an SI shell from like five years ago, and cut out the draw fours, the Tendrils/[card]Ill-Gotten Gains[/card], and added in [card]Mox Opal[/card]s that weren’t available at the time, [card]Ad Nauseam[/card], and the new kill: [card]Goblin Charbelcher[/card].
Now that we have a history lesson out of the way…
Compare this to the recent Belcher list that top 8ed the SCG open in Columbus. That deck had eight “bombs” that win the game (4 [card]Empty the Warrens[/card], 4 [card]Goblin Charbelcher[/card]). This deck has 13! With the increased number of cards that win the game upon resolution (provided you have mana to make them work) you have a pretty decent chance to win on turn 1 or 2.
Your game plan on the play against an unknown opponent is to just punish them for assuming they didn’t need to keep a hand with a [card]Force of Will[/card]. This works ~60% of the time against blue decks, and 100% of the time against non-blue decks. I’m not sure what percentage of decks contain [card]Force of Will[/card] at any given event, but let’s just assume that you are roughly 75% to win on turn one if you just go for it without disruption. That is perfectly reasonable.
If they open on an Island, you now have to play around [card]Stifle[/card], [card]Spell Pierce[/card], [card]Daze[/card], [card]Flusterstorm[/card], [card]Spell Snare[/card], and [card]Force of Will[/card]. Enter [card]Cabal Therapy[/card]. This card is one of the more challenging cards for the unseasoned Legacy player, as it is hard to blind call what people have in their hands. You must have a good knowledge of what cards the mainstream decks include both main deck and sideboard. As an example of this, I was on the draw vs. a player I knew was playing UR Delver and I named [card]Spell Pierce[/card] instead of [card]Force of Will[/card], which turned out to be the correct call. I made this decision based on a gut instinct about the player, as well as how he had opened on Island, Delver. His hand was a Pierce and blanks. I passed the turn able to cast [card]Ad Nauseam[/card] on two unhindered.
Obviously, you need to get to five mana (Adnaus in hand), seven mana (tutor for Adnaus, or Belcher in hand), or nine mana (tutor for Belcher) to be able to win the game. There are certain situations where you will need to use a ritual to hit 4-5 mana to play a Belcher, pass the turn and use mana that was previously tapped to activate Belcher. [card]Lion’s Eye Diamond[/card] plays an important role in belcher decks that is not present with normal Tendrils decks; it can add mana to activate the Belcher. The remainder of the mana must come from your initial mana sources (lands, Moxen, Petals) and Rituals. This is an important clarification when determining if a hand is keepable.
An ideal hand will allow you to Therapy for Force, [card]Land Grant[/card] for a [card]Bayou[/card], and ritual into an Adnaus or Belcher, killing them on the spot through disruption. These hands, however, are not that common. The building blocks to a keepable hand are the five categories of cards that compose the deck: Initial Mana, Ritual Mana, Tall Men, Disruption, and Bombs. Your hand needs to have at least one form of initial mana, or be able to win if you draw a single piece. Usually a bomb and a ritual is also needed, but against some blue decks, a hand with reusable initial mana sources ([card]Land Grant[/card], [card]Bayou[/card], [card]Chrome Mox[/card], [card]Mox Opal[/card] + artifacts) and multiple disruption spells is also acceptable. Hands that are too heavy on any one of these categories are usually not keepable (A decent exception is a bomb or initial mana source, disruption, 5 rituals).
Currently the sideboard is in flux, but it really just wants some more game versus blue decks and opposing combo decks.
3 [card]Duress[/card]
This is brought in against UR/URg Delver and UW/BUG Control decks.
3 [card]Carpet of Flowers[/card]
This is brought in against UR/URg Delver and UW/BUG Control decks.
4 [card]Xantid Swarm[/card]
This is brought in against UW/BUG Control decks.
4 [card]Leyline of the Void[/card]
Random catch-all vs. graveyard based decks (reanimator/dredge)
1 [card]Tendrils of Agony[/card]
MUST BE PLAYED. Allows you to beat stuff like [card]Pithing Needle[/card], [card]Phyrexian Revoker[/card], and [card]Surgical Extraction[/card]. Usually brought in game three if they have an answer to Belcher.
The cards you want to take out while sideboarding are usually 1-2 Belcher/Adnaus, 1-2 Opals, 1-2 tall men (usually [card]Phyrexian Walker[/card], as it doesn’t block a flipped delver), and a [card]Diabolic Intent[/card]. Against decks where you are goldfishing, bringing in the Tendrils over a Therapy is fine.
If you are looking for a good, unexpected deck for a Legacy event soon, give this a shot! Good Luck!
I’ll likely be at the Invitational in Indy this weekend, so feel free to come say Hi!
-Jon Johnson
(@jjflipped)
Props: Brandon Adams (for the sweet list)
Slops: Ari Lax (for not convincing me to play this deck two weeks ago in Columbus)
Jon Johnson is a PTQ grinder from Southeastern Michigan who also enjoys playing the various Eternal Formats.Jon has been on the Pro Tour, but has not managed to get onto the train, a barrier he is currently trying to overcome. Outside of Magic, Jon is a physicist.