There has been a lot of talk about the maindeck, and a LOT of talk about the possible 4th color.  But what I haven't heard a lot of talk about is the sideboard.  For reference, here are the top placing sideboards (with differences in bold):

JD @ STG:Chicago            Kyle leith@beanie exchange
1 Dark Confidant              2 Dark Confidant
1 Elvish Scrapper          1 Goblin Welder
1 Eternal Witness             1 Eternal Witness
1 Uktabi Orangutan          1 Uktabi Orangutan
4 Xantid Swarm                2 Xantid Swarm
                                      2 Overload
1 Artifact Mutation       1 Echoing Truth
2 Naturalize                     1 Naturalize
1 Oxidize                         1 Oxidize (one main)
1 City Of Brass                  1 City of Brass
1 City Of Traitors           1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Tolarian Academy           1 Tolarian Academy

It is obvious that the functional differences between the two are relatively minor, but does anyone have any suggestions?  Personally I've never wished for the Eternal Witness or Elvish Scrapper.  I almost always wish for the City of Brass (or equivalent), the Dark Confident, or for the Phyrexian Negator (which I choose to include) for more pressure.  Have any of you found the Witness/Scrapper to be underpowered?  Does anyone miss the Negator?  The crypt seems rather random to me, but I can see where it might be nice (especially if you are bastardizing your artifacts with Tinker).

As to Duress, it's a fickle bitch.  I don't like wasting my resources on something that doesn't accelerate my game plan, but it has saved me many games.  A thought that I've been tossing around is running 3 Dark Confidants instead of the Duress.  This serves a similar purpose to duress in that it helps negate your opponent's answers, the card advantage is amazing, and it also acts as an alternate win condition along with hardcasting ESG and wishing for Negator.  Has anybody dallied with running the confidant main?

I know this is a little off topic and the maindeck is pretty solidified already, but I have 2 questions that I haven't seen addressed yet.

1. Why run Ancient tomb over City of Traitors in the sideboard?  That 2 damage, especially if used over and over, can add up quite quickly.  On top of that, I prefer to use my life for either Channel or Bargain.  It's not exactly like we are going to be playing a lot of lands or anything.

2. Why isn't there a Chrome mox in the deck? Perhaps it would could replace one of the Cabal rituals or the 4th Welder (putting it in the side).  Assuming I've counted correctly, there are 37 (36 if you replace a rit/welder) colored spells in the deck.  By adding the additional mox you are upping the amount of reusable mana sources.  It also decreases the amount of potentially dead cards by giving you the option of another black mana source.

Back on topic, I agree that if anything is slowing us down it is the wish itself, but it IS necessary to add consistency and resiliency to the deck.

 
The Chalice for 2 problem is one of the main reasons that I put Gorilla Shaman in the Echoing Truth spot (and Vampiric Tutor for one Merchant Scroll).  Not only do you reduce the 2-mana spot by two cards, you have answers at Converted mana cost (CMC) 1 and CMC 3.  Another side benefit of Shaman over Rushing River is that you can get out of a Chalice 2 and Chalice 3 situation (Which is GG if you only run Rebuild and Rushing River).

Another card I've been toying with as a solution to the welder problem is Fire and Ice.  You can tutor it up with Merchant scroll and burn opposing goblin(s).  You also can use it to tap down an opposing permanant for a turn (like enemy DSC or Trinisphere) and gain some card advantage along the way.  Any thoughts?

The problem, however, is that casting those 3-4 spells against a slaver deck is much harder than having a single maindeck answer.  Also, it seems that many slaver decks are now packing lightning greaves, which unfortunately interferes with the bounce plan (albeit Lava Dart too).  Perhaps the problem is not with the Welder itself but relying on DSC too much.  I think the tendrils route is probably a better option in those instances. 

Here's my 2 cents...

1. The vampiric tutor is necessary if you stray a bit away from Mendendian's list.  If you add any non-blue, non-instant cards, the vamp becomes much more useful.  I've been trying out Gorilla Shaman main for example, and vamp is the only way to get him.  If you stick to the Meandeck list, then merchant scroll is probably better.

2. I really hate it when my opponent lays down first turn Goblin Welder.  It means I either have to Cast Y. Will and Tinker in the same turn, have to wish for an answer, or go the Tendrils route.  Is anyone else having this problem?  Is it worth putting a maindeck answer?  Perhaps Lava Dart or Engineered Plague?  I'd like other people's experience with this.  (Especially since welder is quite likely to be at STG Chicago).

3. Misdirection is not working as well as I would have hoped.  It's fantastic in the control vs. control matcup, but that's only approx 1/3 the field (1/3 Workshop, 1/3 Fish).  The vein in my head also starts to pulse when I can't counter something crucial first turn when I have Mana Drain and Misdirection in hand.  Would Mana Leak be better maindeck?  Or how about Disrupting Shoal? The Misdirections could be put in the side if you really wanted them against the control mirror.

4. Gorilla Shaman is not as nuts against this deck as I first thought.  You can play a mox, let it resolve, then play tinker before you pass priority to your opponent.  They never get a window to eat the mox first.  Just a neat trick that some people may not notice.   

Any thoughts?

This is by far the most awesome gifts deck I've played with, and I've tried them all.  I took this list (with a minor tweak) to a local tournament and went 3-1.  The matches were sometimes close, but this deck can do absolutely crazy things, even when pushed to the wire.  The one loss I had was because my opponent was able to resolve an early Chalice for 2 both games.  This is a problem that everybody needs to be aware of and is probably the best reason I can think of to use Rebuild instead of Hurkyl's Recall. 

Another beautiful thing about this deck is that your sideboard is very open.  With 4 Merchant Scrolls and 4 Gifts maindeck, you have a very high probability of getting any sideboard business you bring in.

One last thing, Steve, I highly respect you open-sourcing this powerful deck.  I almost couldn't believe that you were actually giving the rest of us up to date tech.  :shock: 

Great job!  You've explained your card choices very well.  I just have a couple points though:

1. Don't you want to run at least one flooded strand?  I've had to gifts for delta, strand, volcanic, mox before to get red mana.  Sometimes (especially post SB) that red mana can be really hard to have on the table when you need it.

2. Go with the explosives. I've actually been using 2 Engineered explosives (EE) in the Phyrexian furnace (PF) slot ever since I saw the gifted.fr decklist.  Think about it for a minute.  What is PF useful against?  Dragon, Control Slaver, Birdsh*t, and other welder based decks.  EE gets rid of welders, chalices, phyrexian dreadnaughts, xantid swarms, moxes, gobins and man-lands oops ..  Combine that with the fact that you can pitch it to Thirst for Knowledge, and I wouldn't want it to be anything else.

I don't necessarily think that I would want to up the count to 3 though because having two in hand seems too much. It's more of a flexible answer than a necessary part of the backbone of the deck.

I've played against Steve a number of times (including way back when bdominia was the hot site).  He's pounded me flat almost every time, but I don't see how that or any of the other personal remarks are relevant to the content of his article.  He has made VERY good points concerning the future/needs  of Type 1.  I'd like to address a few of Steve's points:

I think it is important to notice that Steve is promoting unlimited proxies at the LOCAL level, not at the big tournaments; and I couldn't agree more.  Our weekly T1 tournament is unlimited proxies, it fosters innovation and a higher level of play.  You can try out a deck before you spend tons of money on individual cards that may or may not be crap.  And you get to try them out against the best decks.  The high profile tournaments can stay at a limited number of proxies, it forces people to actually buy/borrow the cards, while preventing somebody from just confusing everybody with 60 basic lands with scribbling on them. 

As a side note, I'm all for sanctioning limited proxy tournaments, the vintage rating is fun to look at.  Also, it would allow vintage players to accrue tournaments for the player rewards program.  The biggest problem with proxies could be alleviated by printing special blank proxy cards, maybe with a shiny border or something.  That way nobody would accidentally mistake an Ancestral Recall as an island while duressing for example.  My two cents.


While I agree with this, Combo is just to finicky to post well over and over.  The very nature of combo decks leads them to be fairly easily disrupted, IF the opponent plans for them.  I personally love my belcher incarnations, but I have to run at least 4 slots to something to protect (slow down) my combo in order to not be rolled over by any deck that runs Force of Will or Chalice of the Void (everybody).  The reason that control decks seem to dominate is they are much more able to do what they want to do than a combo deck.  Thus the only combo decks that seem to do well are the control/combo ones.

Those are the only sticky points I had.  But type one needs these sorts of articles by good type one players, this is where WOTC gets their reliable type one information from.

Does Tolarian Help you much?  It doesn't really help much early game, and if you make it to the late game, you usually need the wish for an answer.  Also, although I agree with your choice of blue cards   ,if you are playing only 3 blue spells, the extra blue does not make a large difference.  Wouldn't Mishra's Workshop or City of Traitors do better?  They help more against Trinisphere.

I have four main deck Duresses to help deal with the FOW problem.  I also have the Colossus backup and I run 4 Welders main.  That being said, Xantid swarms are good for the sideboard.  The reason I do not run them is two-fold:

1.  Most blue control decks have a way to deal with Goblin Welder, unfortunately these same tactics usually work against Swarm.  Examples are Fire/Ice, Lava Dart, Trike, and Swords to Plowshares

2.  Against counter heavy decks, I prefer to have more threats rather than more answers.  To use the old adage, I am the beatdown.  Thus I put in my 4 Negators.  Game 2 against a control deck I therefore have 4 Duress, 4 Belcher, 4 Phyrexian Negator and 1 Colossus.  That is a lot for a counter deck to deal with, especially when they are often Turn one or two.

I hope that helps a bit.

It really is a sort of madness to remove the chromatic spheres, the cantrip is VERY important.  I've used it to draw my vamp card to win the game before.  Also, in a pinch I've used them to draw a bunch of cards by welding out usless artifacts to draw more beef.  

To contribute to the belcher deck in general, I'd like to post my sleight modifications.  I run the Bayou/Taiga version with the following changes:

1. I run the Colossus main over memory Jar, I want to tinker for a win, not to draw more spells.  Also, it gives me an out vs. Null Rod/Ivory Mask/Stifle/etc.

2. I run 2 spoils instead of 3 so I can use Chrome Mox, most Taiga Belcher decks do not run it.

3. My only blue cards are Ancestral Recall, Tinker, and Timetwister.

4. I don't run Living Wish.  Instead I run my 4th Goblin Welder and 1 Oxidize Main.  The Oxidize has almost come out many times for the third spoils, but for now it remains.  It also allows you to win games you really should not win occasionally.

5. Since I don't run Living Wish, my sideboard is much more free to explore realy sideboard opportunities.  Here is my current Sideboard:

2 Oxidize
3 Artifact Mutation
4 Phyrexian Negator
3 Lightning Bolt
1 Taiga
2 City of Traitors

As you can see, with 4 Duress main, it is easier to survive against FOW, and after sideboard, Trinisphere is manageble.  The bolts are there for Mox monkeys and random stuff.  Mox monkey is still one of our worst threats.  A R/G metagame deck wrecks most combo and trinisphere decks, and it isn't pretty.  

All in all, Belcher is a great deck, but it has two weaknesses: FOW and Trinisphere.  By using less blue for Duress and having a strong sideboard, our consistancy increases and our bad matchups are responded to more adequately.

As a side note, I prefer city of traitors over Workshop because it can tap to activate belcher and spheres too.  Also the drawback is almost inconsequential.

I've played 2 land belcher since I first saw it, including it's various forms. My current build is pretty tight, and it has some nice things against Trinisphere and FOW.  I'll PM a decklist if you want.  As for the Colossus, I run him main over Memory Jar.  Memory Jar never really seemed to do the things I wanted it to, why Tinker for Jar when you can get Colossus or Becher?  Why weld in Memory Jar when you can usually weld in Belcher?  I like the colossus main because it gives me another route to victory.  I hate it when my opponent plays Null Rod and I just poop out.  They usually let the Tinker resolve because they don't expect Colossus.  

That being said, sometimes he just likes to sit in your hand.  Luckily, you also have Timetwister and Wheel of Fortune to dump him back in your library.

My build also does not run Living Wish, I found it too slow for the toolbox it offers.  I also found it was very annoying to have tinker in hand and REALLY wanting to just lay out the colossus and win the game, but you can't.

@Gandalf_The_White_1
I guess I hadn't really thought of Slaver, I guess I can see why Null Rod is better then.  It's just a shame because back to basics wrecks people apart and I don't like my moxes staying tapped.  

@kirdape3
I agree that Gilded Drake is a must in the side, he's a house against 4cc.  He's also not bad against TNT.  I was wondering about B2B main instead of Null Rod because of the prevalence of decks with lots of non-basics, there is not really room for both, if you run B2B, you can't run Bazaar very effectively and if you run Null Rod, it hurts playing with all 7 SoLoMoxen.

On a related note, what about waterfront bouncer?  He's a madness outlet and he does great things when combined with the drake.  I've seen some people also using him against TNT to get rid of platinum angel.  Granted he's just another 1/1 dork, but I was wondering how he's been working for people.

-Travis-

I was just wondering if anyone had tried running back to basics instead of Null Rod.  As a U/G player, It isn't too difficult to asdjust the mana base to not only prevent mana screw from your opponent, but also to screw the best decks out there.   If you are certain that you don't want the bazaar engine, B2B might not be a bad way to go.   It seals the nail in the coffin against Fish and 4cc.  It also helps against Dragon if you get it early enough and hurts TNT/Stax in a similar way to Null Rod by attacking thier mana base.