Blu3^Ming is a dedicated pilot of combo. Spotting him is as easy as finding the Library of Alexandria he won taped on top of his deck box. Be prepared with Chalices, Spheres, Counterspells, and Mindbreak Trap when he's around.
2 Land Belcher. The pure combo based deck that hasn't been touched by R&B List for a long long while. What makes it better? Why wasn't there anything banned from it anymore?
It's one of those combo deck that wasn't revolving around any 2-3 card combo, the deck itself is the combo. There's nothing that really make the deck consistent at all. The deck was build to be consistent on its own, unlike AnT. Most decklist you can find online differs from each other, seldom you'll see 2 similar decklist for even in the same tournament. With the sufficient knowledge on the deck itself, it's really difficult to beat.
How do you play this deck
This deck is simple enough.1) Get yourself to 4 mana with as many spell count as possible, cast Empty the Warrens.
2) Get yourself to 6 mana with as many spell count as possible, cast Burning Wish for Empty the Warrens.
Else, when you hit 9 or more storm counts, with 2 of the 6 mana black, cast Burning Wish for Tendrils of Agony instead.
3) Get yourself to 7 mana, use it to cast Goblin Charbelcher, and remaining 3 mana to activate.
Else, when you only hit 4 mana, cast it out first, try and get the 3 more mana from your untapped lands/mox or topdeck.
The deck kills with 3 different types of kill condition, namely, Goblin Charbelcher, Empty the Warrens, and Tendrils of Agony. Storm based kills are a problem to control decks, since it takes loads of judgement to know which spell to counter, as main spell itself is not worth countering. Goblin Charbelcher itself, is a big threat on table and artifact hates doesn't affect it much. Even after sideboarding, opponent would have a big problem sideboarding, as artifact hates does nearly nothing to the deck. Creature kills are almost useless. With the explosiveness of the deck, it's almost relying on his/her first draw. Because of the 2 extreme side of the deck itself, sideboarding against whichever side, and drawing the wrong solution is equivalent to a fatal mistake on his part.
This is my decklist.
Two Land Belcher
1 Stomping Ground
4 Chrome Mox
4 Lotus Petal
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Goblin Charbelcher
4 Dark Ritual
4 Land Grant
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Tinder Wall
4 Burning Wish
4 Rite of Flame
4 Seething Song
3 Empty the Warrens
4 Simian Spirit Guide
3 Street Wraith
4 Manamorphose
Sideboard
4 Xantid Swarm
3 Ingot Chewer
1 Duress
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Shattering Spree
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Infernal Tutor
3 Tormod's Crypt
I've always preferred the one with black instead of r/g version. Red Elemental Blast/Pyroblast hasn't been great as it's only gd in control match up. Dark Ritual has always been one of the lowest cost mana accelerator. That's not the only thing good about black. With a wish plan of Duress, Infernal Tutor, and of course, Tendrils of Agony, it's too tempting for me to do without.
With 4 Burning Wish main board that's usually used as secondary kill condition, it can also be used as your fuel to storm, as well as your disruption/planner when against control, in your first game. When Burning Wish is the extra copy in your hand, having another kill condition, you would wish for your Duress to path your way through your combo. Wishing for Shattering Spree would get your way through irritating Chalice of the Void as with 1 counter on Chalice, your replicate copies would still go through. Tendrils of Agony is a fallback plan. It only works in certain situation, but just for those certain situations, it just shouldn't be removed. Only wish for Tendrils when you are out of choices, when you hit 9 or more storm counts.
Infernal Tutor was my add-on after times and times of play testing. I often hit into situations where I hit sufficient mana, but insufficient storm count, else I know that opponent has a solution for token creatures in hand. Infernal Tutor is my best solution. Hitting 8 mana is easy enough for such a deck. Getting Goblin Charbelcher in play is a bigger threat than having 20 Goblin Tokens. Looking at current environment, where Engineered Explosives, Maelstrom Pulse, Pernicious Deed, Echoing Truth can be easily main boarded, Belcher kill is always the safer route, and ensures a kill more often. With the tutor at side, not only that it allows to storm for more in a case where there's too much mana, it also help to search for the Belcher for the kill on the spot.
Street Wraith. The last 3 slots of 2 land Belcher always differ. Some plays Red Elemental Blast/Pyroblast/Guttural Response, the new trend is Street Wraith. Life is unimportant when you are deciding game before opponent has a chance to kill you. Cycling with 2 life, is almost like a free cycle. Essentially, the deck is playing on 57 cards, which slightly improves consistency. The other reason for playing it, it can always be pitched to your Chrome Mox when you are lacking that black colored mana for your Dark Ritual. A few recent deck list I've found online plays 4 of Street Wraith, and 3 of Manamorphose, which I think shouldn't be. Manamorphose is a much stronger cantrip, as it nets a card, as well as fixing the mana, whereas Street Wraith doesn't.
Choosing to keep
I hate to mulligan. It's never part of my plan as before you start, you lost your initial confidence. The best hand to keep is a hand with 1 kill condition, multiple mana accelerator, a few 0 cost mana sources, with a few cantrip. It takes experience to know which hand to keep at 1 look, doesn't sound important, but it is. Having 1 look and know whether to keep the hand or not, against looking and counting your stuff is a very big difference. Having 1 look, and confidently keeping the hand, shows to your opponent that you have a very good hand. This makes him think twice before keeping his. His confidence would be one of your consideration on when and how to go off.Remember, never to do counting in front of your opponent. If you count, never count out aloud. In fact, you should learn how to count in your heart simply by looking at your resources. A seasoned player for combo or someone who had enough playtest against combo would know what you are doing, what you are going to do, simply looking at how you are counting. Counting number of cards in your hand, while skipping a card or 2 indicates you are counting for storm counts. Counting in multiple of 3, 5, 7 is telling others that you have rituals. Looking at your sideboard gives away that you have a Burning Wish. Even looking at your graveyard for a particular card, counting how many pieces left in deck, is telling opponent that you need that 1 card to win, which allows him to guess the remaining cards in your hand.
I'll keep any hand that is able to go off within 3 turns, missing only 1 mana, but seldom a hand that is missing kill condition. There's only 11 kill conditions in the deck. And not all hands fit the individual kill conditions. A hand good for storm combo, might not be good for Belcher.
Opponent's deck would play another role in choosing to mulligan. Gauging yourself, needing how many turns to kill, how many turns you have, how long can you afford to wait is very essential. Always know your own resources, time is the most important of all the resources. Against Stax based deck, winning the dice roll, means that you have to kill him within turn 1, or turn 2 before he stops you from going off with his spheres and Chalice. Against Control, which is a much easier match up, wishing for Duress would path yourself the way to win. But one thing you must remember. Against Control decks, problem would only be more, with every card he draws, and every excess mana he get per turn.
Lets give an example.
You draw a seemingly first turn kill hand, your opponent might have a Force of Will. You wait for a turn more, now he laid a land. The possibility now is that he might have a Spell Pierce/Stifle/Spell Snare/Daze on top that he might have Force of Will. So if you wait another turn more, the possibility is now that he might be able to cast simultaneously 3 counters on the same turn. So the thing you can understand from this is, you know how much resource you have. You should do it when he has the least resources, or a time when you are confident that you have more resources than he do.
Baiting
The best skill that you can have. Though it's not really legal, or I should say, appropriate... Facial expression, talking, often leads to hints that will let you know what is do-able, what he might have. Starting small conversation, random statements that helps loosen up tense tournament atmosphere often lead to replies from opponent's facial expression, confidence, and replies. Making use of this human nature, you can also use this to help make opponent fall for baits, and of course, reverse psychology to prevent him from countering important spells. This skill is utmost important for a combo player to master, the best weapon you can have against opponent. Things that you can usually do is casting spell in seemingly wrong sequence to test water, float mana that looks dangerous and casting spell seemingly to bait counter when you have more cards in hand.Sideboarding
This deck seldom need to sideboard cards. You are the fastest of all combos. Aggro decks gives you 2-3 games of goldfishing. Against Control deck, Xantid Swarm is your card to side in. Against Stax/Dragon Stompy/Any-decks-with-chalice/spheres you side in Ingot Chewer. The Tormod's Crypt isn't really useful though.Previously I've stated that the deck is essentially running on 57 cards. And yes! That's the 3 cards that I usually side out. You don't really touch your main components in order not to affect your chances. And I've build the deck this way anyway. The last card I'll side out is usually Seething Song, which is the most useless of all the mana accelerator. You'll never touch costless mana source, neither would you touch the 1cc mana sources. Hence I doubt sideboard is ever a problem. Tweet this!
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