Raisin Format - Belcher

[Oversoul]

I haven't been giving this too much thought since it's not my style. But it could probably be annoying to play against. In an environment with Force of Will, combo decks have to be fast or capable of running right through countermagic.

Worldgorger Dragon is banned.

But Goblin Charbelcher is not. It lacks disruptive capabilities (like the Vintage version). It doesn't have access to jewelry like the Vintage version. But it does have unrestricted access to Chrome Mox, Lotus Petal, and LED. Here's my take on it...

Raisin Belcher:

4 Seething Song
4 Eladamri's Vineyard
4 Living Wish
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Urza's Bauble
4 Enlightened Tutor
2 Conjurer's Bauble
1 Taiga
1 Bayou
4 Tinder Wall
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
4 Chrome Mox
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Dark Ritual
4 Land Grant
4 Goblin Charbelcher

It goldfishes beautifully but it HATES Force of Will. A brief explanation of card choices:

The Baubles: Well, Urza's Baubles are free card drawing and this deck could use that. The Conjurer's Baubles are even worse. But the deck needed to fill those slots with something that wasn't dead weight.

The Lands/Grants: Land Grant is a staple of Belcher decks. You really want to get the lands out of the deck and into play. Always go for the Bayou first. Black Mana is good for the rits. The Taiga is included because it can cast Seething Song and won't hurt as much if left in the deck while comboing off.

The Tutors: This deck must win as early as possible. If it does not draw its kill, then it can afford to cast Enlightened Tutor to find it.

The mana acceleration (Seething Song, Eladamri's Vineyard, Cabal Ritual, Tinder Wall, Lion's Eye Diamond, Lotus Petal, Chrome Mox, Elvish Spirit Guide, Dark Ritual): If Charbelcher is the heart of the deck, these make up the body that supports it. Turn 1 is this deck's fundamental turn because it packs the most efficient mana acceleration in the format.

The Living Wishes: Were not my first choice, but they are an interesting one. Cards like Gemstone Mine or City of Traitors can go in the sideboard to help the deck go off if it needs either more mana or mana of a certain color. It may also be a good idea to have some sort of beatstick in the board as an alternative to going off with the combo. I haven't developed a sideboard yet though...

 

[Spiderman]

I haven't actually used Goblin Charbelcher or seen it in action, but just from reading the card, wouldn't including Mountains make it more potent? Or does that not really matter?

 

[Oversoul]

The problem with Belcher is that it doesn't kill if it runs into a land too early. There are three different ways I've seen to get around that...

-A card or strategy like Goblin Recruiter, which stacks enough of the deck to ensure a kill.

-A card or strategy like Mana Severance, which gets rid of the offending land.

-A deck that uses as few lands as possible, thereby eliminating the need for a second card to combo with.

The third is tough to manage. It was pulled off in Vintage because of all the Moxes and other brokennes. I think it can be pulled off here thanks to some other such unrestricted artifact mana. The problem with using Mountains in such a deck is the tendency to hit one while going off and not do enough damage.

Taiga counts as a Mountain though, and it's the only land that's left in the library, if any are, whenever possible. My friend was actually trying to go with 4-5 land Belcher decklists because of the shortage of good cards for this sort of deck that we could think of. But running it with only two lands is much better, since you don't do this sort of thing as often...

"Land Grant, Land, Petal, LED, Dark Rit, Belcher, Belch, oh look a Taiga after two cards. Well, you take four damage and then probably find a kill for my Belcher and smack me around with something..."

I don't see a need to run more than two lands here, since two turns is usually what you're aiming for in order to kill anyway. If getting both lands out is workable, then it is done, generally. Sure, you won't double the damage, but it's going to be a lot more than 20, so it doesn't matter too much...

 

[Spiderman]

Gotcha.

 

[Mikeymike]

Very very interesting deck, but what happens if you draw the Taiga early?

If Force of Will is a problem, Xantid Swarm is a good place to start in your Sideboard, or Dosan (sp?)

 

[Oversoul]

Dosan?

Yeah, Xantid Swarm is probably a good sideboard card.

If you draw the Taiga early, you play it and use it for mana. If you can't Land Grant for Bayou or draw into it before you go off, you hope it's more than 20 cards down...

 

[Mikeymike]

When I said Dosan, I should have snagged the link:

Here you go.

I'd probably lean towards the Swarm first b/c they outrace ol' reliable Counterspell, but Dosan might be to dink for 2 every now and again.

 

[Gaea'sSaproling]

xantid swarm is 20x better

 

[Oversoul]

The mana cost is probably the important thing there. Combo decks don't care about attacking and the like so much...

 

[Spiderman]

I was thinking about this (and probably too hard), but when Belcher says "Mountain", does it mean card name or card type? I guess it's because it's capitalized that made me think of card name, but I can't find anything in the FAQ or WOTC's Saturday School that might clarify it...

 

[Tabasco]

It counts Tagia as a Mountain....because when called for a mountain specifically, Tagia DOES COUNT as a Mountain....just not a basic land....

Tagia counts as a mountain and a forest, but not as a basic land.

Like with Wooded Foothills it calls for the land name, and not "basic land" ....It has the basic land types, but is not a basic land.

Does this clarify?....It works like the search lands basically....so...any Red dual would work with Belcher....which is why they run green duals....(land grant).

 

[Spiderman]

Yeah, I knew I was thinking too much about it... so it considers card type and not name.

 

[Tabasco]

and most 2-land Belcher decks don't even run any red duals...they run a Tropical Island and Bayou....Both still fetchable with Land Grant, but none will help double the damage.

The best thing about belcher is that once it is in play, LED becomes a five-star card!!

Free activation baby!!

 

[Oversoul]

Originally posted by Tabasco
and most 2-land Belcher decks don't even run any red duals...they run a Tropical Island and Bayou....Both still fetchable with Land Grant, but none will help double the damage.

A note on the Tropical Island thing. It's very nice in Vintage Belcher decks, as they have cards like Ancestral Recall available. For Raisin Belcher, I couldn't come up with much to use with the Tropical Island, and Taiga facilitates Seething Song. I think for Raisin, Bayou and Taiga is the way to go. The decklists I've seen on websites like TMD have all either been very bad or very similar to the one I posted.

LED is excellent for this deck.