The Turn 1 Kill… it’s an achievement as celebrated as it is derided. No deck in Vintage, despite many attempts, has ever been truly successful at executing a consistent turn 1 kill. Many have achieved a turn 1 goldfish, but that is hardly the same thing.
The fastest viable deck in the last five years of Vintage history, aside from decks that are no longer legal, is the infamous Belcher deck.
Goblin Charbelcher is a kill that was widely used in the Extended of old, when four Tinkers were roaming land. Those decks used Mana Severance to ensure that a single activation of the Belcher ended the game.
In Vintage, such contrivances are beneath us. Instead, we simply decided to only run two lands.
Take a look at Michael Simister’s Belcher deck from early 2004, a deck with which he managed to climb and claw his way to third place at the second Vintage Championship, despite a sea of Trinisphere’s powered by Mishra’s Workshop.
Michael Simester
Columbus, Ohio, Feb. 7th, 2004
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
2 Cabal Ritual
4 Dark Ritual
1 Black Lotus
1 Chrome Mox
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Land Grant
1 Lion’s Eye Diamond
1 Channel
4 Tinder Wall
1 Bayou
1 Tropical Island
2 Barbed Sextant
4 Chromatic Sphere
4 Goblin Charbelcher
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth’s Bargain
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Ancestral Recall
2 Brainstorm
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Timetwister
1 Tinker
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Memory Jar
2 Living Wish
2 Goblin Welder
Michael Simister found a way to use Belcher in Vintage, by skimping on the one card that everyone else plays: land. Since Vintage has a critical mass of acceleration, and since Land Grant is legal, Michael had a way to play a couple of lands and make it work.
This deck has so many insane plays. Michael loaded the deck full of restricted cards, put the Welders into the deck so that you could recur the Belcher if it got countered, and uses Living Wish to find cards like Mishra’s Workshop (to power Belchers) and to find solutions to cards like Null Rod with Scavenger Folk.
The idea, however, was to play a turn 1 Belcher and activate it. Barring that, activate it on turn 2. You can read about this deck in action in a matchup analysis article of Belcher versus Psychatog that I wrote three years ago.
Others picked up where Michael left off, including some clever Germans and players like Justin Droba and Ray Robillard – both who enjoyed success with Belcher, in various forms.
The deck has disappeared in the last year, as combo has taken on new form and aggressiveness with the printing of Grim Tutor.
Meanwhile, the card pool has been growing and growing. Each new set has brought some potential upgrades and improvements to the Belcher deck. Chromatic Star can replace Barbed Sextant. Empty the Warrens can replace the lone Tendrils of Agony.
However, much more than minor improvements are now possible. Recent printings, topped off by Simian Spirit Guide and Empty the Warrens, have made possible an entirely new approach to Belcher.
Nat Moes and others on the Mana Drain have put their heads together and collectively come up with a new R/G Belcher list:
Burning Belcher
Nat Moes
4 Goblin Charbelcher
4 Empty the Warrens
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Rite of Flame
4 Tinder Wall
4 Land Grant
3 Seething Song
4 Chromatic Star
3 Goblin Welder
4 Pyroblast
2 Living Wish
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Memory Jar
1 Lotus Petal
1 Lion’s Eye Diamond
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Channel
1 Chrome Mox
1 Black Lotus
5 Moxen
1 Taiga
Sideboard
4 Xantid Swarm
1 Bazaar of Baghdad
1 Mishra’s Workshop
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Tin Street Hooligan
1 Uktabi Orangutan
1 Ancient Grudge
2 Shattering Spree
1 Gorilla Shaman
1 Goblin Welder
1 Taiga
So what’s going on here?! This deck is missing the two best colors in Magic!
It’s true. But the trade-off is a net positive. Previously, it was inconceivable that you could play Belcher without Dark Ritual. But now with Seething Song, Rite of Flame, and Simian Spirit Guide, you have enough Red to support the Belcher and provide greater synergy with Empty the Warrens than the Dark Ritual could. Also, previously Tinder Wall was a random accelerant in providing Red. Now the Red and Green feed into each other. Tinder Wall supports Empty the Warrens, and is supported in turn by Elvish Spirit Guide. Most importantly, before Empty the Warrens, the deck only had 4 Belchers and restricted cards as threats. Now with four Empty the Warrens you don’t need the restricted Blue or Black spells for either consistency or power.
Objective
The objective of this deck is simple: play Goblin Charbelcher or Empty the Warrens on turn 1. An Empty the Warrens on turn 1 will, by necessity, have at least a couple of storm, putting your opponent on a very short clock. For example, here is a hand I drew when I was testing this deck:
Elvish Spirit Guide
Tinder Wall
Simian Spirit Guide
Land Grant
Chromatic Star
Mox Pearl
Empty the Warrens
This hand produces a virtually unstoppable Empty the Warrens for at least eight goblins, and probably ten. If your opponent is foolish enough to play a spell, you’ll have even more.
Your opponent will be finished in no time.
Here is another hand I had:
Taiga
Mox Jet
Mox Emerald
Seething Song
Goblin Charbelcher
Pyroblast
Living Wish
I played Taiga, Mox, Mox, into Seething Song.
I played the Belcher with Pyrobast backup. I easily won on turn 2.
Red Force of Will
With the deck’s streamlined color support and with the printing of Simian Spirit Guide, Pyroblast now becomes much more powerful and synergic in the deck. The increased sources of red make it much easier to play Pyroblast. Have Tinder Wall in play? You can play Pyroblast. Seething Song into Belcher? That leaves one mana left over to play Pyroblast if they counter your Belcher. Pyroblast can also be played just to up the storm count (unlike Red Elemental Blast, which cannot). Finally, the printing of Simian Spirit Guide makes it possible to play it like Force of Will.
Imagine your opponent plays turn 1 Ancestral Recall. You are holding Simian Spirit Guide and Pyroblast. You can “Force of Will” their Ancestral, and they may not even see it coming.
Using Empty the Warrens
Most of the time you will probably be aiming to play Empty the Warrens rather than Belcher. This is partly because Empty the Warrens is, in most respects, uncounterable and cheaper. Belcher requires seven mana total – four to play and three to activate. Empty the Warrens only require a four mana. Thus, if you have a choice between Empty the Warrens or turn 1 Belcher, ETW will seem like the safer play.
In the original Belcher deck, Goblin Welder was a more critical backup card, providing some needed resilience in the face of Force of Will. Empty the Warrens naturally fills some of that role. Nonetheless, the synergy with increased presence of Red, the Belchers and Memory Jar means that Welder still earns a slot in this Burning Belcher deck. It should also be noted that Welder functions even better with Chromatic Star than it did with Chromatic Sphere.
As with all aspects of this deck, Living Wish is now a more flexible card. Tin Street Hooligan is available as artifact kill. Living Wish also has the ability to find mana with Mishra’s Workshop, Tolarian Academy, or even Ancient Tomb.
Learning to Bait
The real trick with this deck is learning how to bait. The fact that you have an effectively uncounterable win condition means that opposing players wielding Force of Will will have to be more judicious in their use of it. They will try to cut you off at the bottleneck, since achieving four mana means that you can drop Goblins on the table, which they can’t stop. You need to be aware of this, and play into and around their fears when the circumstances require. If you have an opportunity, you should try to take advantage of this fact by throwing mana out there with the expectation that it will get countered. Alternatively, you just need to be careful when you decide upon courses of action, weighing the risks of a key mana source getting countered. Black Lotus is one of your key cards. A lot of the time, the correct play will be for your opponent to counter Black Lotus. You can use this to your advantage by playing it with the intention that it gets countered, baiting out a Force of Will.
Adding a Color
Ironically, I think that if you were to add a color, that color should be Blue, not Black. The transfer of mana acceleration in the color pie to Red has given Red plenty of acceleration to replace the loss of the rituals. Instead, this deck could use more threats. Blue provides a suite of threats that don’t require intensive Black Ritual mana. For example, Blue provides cards like Ancestral Recall, Tinker, and Windfall, all of which are easily playable on turn 1.
Creatures (12)
Lands (2)
Spells (46)
- 1 Mana Vault
- 1 Wheel of Fortune
- 1 Sol Ring
- 1 Ancestral Recall
- 1 Channel
- 1 Mana Crypt
- 1 Windfall
- 4 Land Grant
- 1 Timetwister
- 1 Memory Jar
- 4 Goblin Charbelcher
- 3 Seething Song
- 2 Chromatic Sphere
- 2 Pyroblast
- 1 Tinker
- 1 Black Lotus
- 1 Mox Diamond
- 1 Lotus Petal
- 1 Lion's Eye Diamond
- 1 Mox Emerald
- 1 Mox Jet
- 1 Mox Ruby
- 1 Mox Sapphire
- 1 Chrome Mox
- 4 Rite of Flame
- 4 Chromatic Star
- 4 Empty the Warrens
To add Blue, I cut two Pyroblasts, the Goblin Welders, and the Living Wishes and I added a Tropical Island, two Chromatic Spheres, Ancestral Recall, Timetwister, Tinker, and Windfall. Further changes may be advisable after further testing. For instance, you may want to add more Chromatic Spheres to ensure that you find Blue when you need it. Alternatively, you may want to find a way to squeeze Brainstorm into the deck.
Matchups
I tested this deck against Meandeck Gifts, and found that Mean Gifts faces an unfavorable matchup. Most of the Gifts wins came from countering key mana acceleration such as Black Lotus, Seething Song, or a second Rite of Flame. Most of the time, however, the Belcher kill is unstoppable. Meandeck Gifts has trouble executing a kill before the Goblin tokens kill it.
I also tested against Fish that ran Black. The combination of Duress, Force of Will, and Null Rod proved problematic and I was not able to take more than 40% of our games. On the other hand, it’s hard to imagine a more difficult matchup.
In short, you have a favorable control matchup, a weak Fish matchup, and an even Stax matchup.
This deck is great fun to play. Throw it together on Magic Workstation and see how many opponents quit before you’ve even finished the game.
Enjoy Belching your opponent on turn 1!
Stephen