No-Academy Belcher

mediumsteve

I thought of a few different names for this... Non-Blue Belcher, Land Grant Belcher, Dumb Belcher, Truant Belcher, Drop-Out Belcher, etc. but No Academy Belcher is the best descriptor, to differentiate this archetype from the Blue Belcher variants that tend to operate by tutoring up Academy and generating lots of mana via Academy. Those decks also tend to play counterspells, and these variants do not. Not all of these decks play Land Grant, and they don't all play the same colors, but none of them play Academy or a significant counter suite.

This topic is going to be a bit of an intro, discussion, and some decklists, but not a full primer. I don't have all of the information or expertise to make a full primer. I just want more people to talk about the decks and try them out.

In my mind, the quintessential deck for this is RG Belcher. Finding lists on deck aggregators for this deck is extremely difficult, and I think the reason for this is because I only know of one player who plays this deck: Nat Moes. Here is a list he posted in a 2015 article:

##RG Belcher circa 2015, Nat Moes
Spells (44)
4 Goblin Charbelcher
4 Rite of Flame
4 Chrome Mox
4 Desperate Ritual
2 Pyretic Ritual
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Black Lotus
1 Channel
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
1 Lion’s Eye Diamond
4 Empty the Warrens
1 Memory Jar
1 Wheel of Fortune
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Guttural Response
Creatures (16)
4 Goblin Welder
4 Tinder Wall
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Simian Spirit Guide
Sideboard (15)
4 Leyline of Anticipation
4 Xantid Swarm
4 Storm Entity
2 Pyretic Ritual
1 Gaea’s Blessing

Since then he has splashed blue for Tinker and Twister, which I believe to be significant improvements.

The unrestriction of Yawgmoth's Bargain has turned a previously gimmicky deck, Black Belcher, into a potentially real threat. This deck gets to play the superior Dark Ritual card, but plays Tendrils over Empty, and Belcher frequently can't count to 10. Now that we get access to 4 Bargains, a more reliable game plan is to resolve Bargain, draw a bunch of cards, and Belcher the opponent or kill with Tendrils. Here is a sample deck that I have drawn up, but have not tested in a tournament:

##4 Bargain Belcher post unrestriction, test deck, mediumsteve
// 60 Maindeck
// 26 Artifact
4 Goblin Charbelcher
1 Memory Jar
4 Chrome Mox
4 Mox Opal
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Lotus Petal
1 Black Lotus
1 Lion's Eye Diamond
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
2 Grim Monolith
// 11 Creature
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
3 Street Wraith
// 4 Enchantment
4 Yawgmoth's Bargain
// 9 Instant
1 Demonic Consultation
4 Dark Ritual
4 Cabal Ritual
// 1 Land
1 Bayou
// 9 Sorcery
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Demonic Tutor
2 Tendrils of Agony
4 Land Grant
1 Gitaxian Probe

Here I give credit to Nat Moes again, who had a black belcher list from 2010 that he and Matt Hazard updated to include 4 Bargains and then I edited slightly.

Remember when playing these decks to use your mana wisely, bait your opponent's counterspells, be brave, and most importantly, have fun. Happy trails.

thecravenone

I like "Powered Legacy Belcher" for the RG build

Black Belcher looks sweet. I'll have to give it some goldfishes.

mediumsteve

It certainly looks a lot like the Legacy build.

Some of the more janky cards like the Spirit Guides and Tinder Walls actually had utility against Thorn and other Shops cards, although with the Thorn restriction that matters slightly less now.

letseeker

both lists look sweet, but why no necro in the black belcher deck?

mediumsteve

btw it was brought to my attention that the legacy RG belcher was ported from vintage, not the other way around.

triple black basically requires a ritual or black lotus to resolve, as you can't easily hit BBB off of chrome mox/mox opals/bayou. also it requires an extra turn, which isn't usually something you want to do. you could try it out, but I am skeptical.

Horologium

I've occasionally played RG Belcher in vintage. It's fun, fast, and fragile.The majority of my wins are from Empty the Warrens. The fun part of playing a belcher deck is that you have to carefully sequence your spells so that you end up with just enough mana for your end goal (either belcher or Emtpy,) while dodging/baiting countermagic.

mediumsteve

yeah. one possible way to build the bargain belcher deck is to cut some of the colorless sources (monoliths), add manamorphose, and then play twister+tinker. that way you have more bombs and spells that have to be answered, and you have more ways to get the tendrils count to 10 without resolving a Bargain. not having the belcher bait -> empty for 10 goblins line is the biggest weakness of that build.

Shaman Ben

This thread reminds me of why we need to see Channel Unrestricted. This needless oppression has to stop.