Burning Belcher

[GrandpaBelcher]

I've been working on a list of 2-Land Belcher that utilizes some new cards we've been given.  Now, with the spoiling of Simian Spirit Guide, I wanted to get people's opinions on it.

4x Land Grant
1x Bayou
1x Taiga
5x Moxes
1x Black Lotus
1x Lion's Eye Diamond
1x Chrome Mox
1x Lotus Petal
1x Sol Ring
1x Mana Vault
1x Grim Monolith
1x Mana Crypt
1x Channel

4x Dark Ritual
4x Rite of Flame
4x Elvish Spirit Guide
4x Simian Spirit Guide
3x Tinder Wall
4x Chromatic Star

1x Wheel of Fortune
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Demonic Consultation
1x Yawgmoth's Will
1x Necropotence
1x Memory Jar

4x Goblin Welder
1x Burning Wish

1x Empty the Warrens
4x Goblin Charbelcher

Notes on some choices:

Empty the Warrens - The numbers on this card go up and down, sometimes replacing Charbelchers even.  Essentially, I rarely have trouble making the required mana for a storm win, but I do have trouble with the storm count.  This allows me to go mana, mana, mana, ETW for 8 goblins and a fast enough clock on turn one without too much trouble when going mana, mana, mana, Tendrils would just empty my hand and put me at 28.  I liked having Tendrils in the main to tutor for, but this is often just as good.

Burning Wish - I was never very excited by Living Wish, and Burning Wish gives me everything I want except for a mana boost.  Its just as easy (easier now) to cast and it can get me Shattering Spree, Echoing Ruin, Duress, lots of cool stuff.  Regrowth or a tutor (Infernal Tutor, for example) can be found.  Better yet, if I do get a really gassy hand, it can get me Tendrils for the win.

Vampiric Tutor - This is, in my opinion, the 60th card.  It's difficult to use when going off because there are only six draw effects in the deck (4 Stars, Wheel, Jar).  It's nice for finding the win at end of turn, though, which is usually Necropotence, Lotus, or Belcher.

Rite of Flame - This is the card that originally inspired the revamping.  Essentially, having two of these in your opening hand with the mana to cast them is four mana, enough to put Belcher into play.

Chromatic Star - This card is great with Welder.  Welder and Star are a fragile draw engine, no doubt, but they work under Null Rod.  The most important color change is from red to black and vice versa.

Simian Spirit Guide - Goblin Welders are so much easier to cast now.  I dropped Duresses from the main entirely and went to four Welders.

The strategy really hasn't changed of course: make 7 mana, get at least the Bayou out of your deck, and go for the throat, ASAP.  With aggressive mulliganing, it's easy to get to at least four mana on the first turn to get Belcher into play or to play Empty the Warrens for attackers (a strategy that might be considerably worse if Echoing Truth comes around).  If your first threat isn't Forced, you have a good shot of winning either that turn or next.  If it is Forced, you hole up behind Tinderwalls and hope to resolve Welder or a second Belcher for the win.

Post-sideboard you have lots of options: Dark Confidant, Xantid Swarm, Tendrils, Empty the Warrens, red and green artifact control, red and black creature control, more lands, and Twaun's special friend, Phyrexian Negator.

Even before, Belcher had a fair turn-one kill chance, and the new cards have only increased that chance.  Now, with proper mulliganing the deck is generally faster than previous builds at least getting Belcher out, and extra mana in the deck give you a better chance at activation either that turn or the next.  That plan still folds to cards like Null Rod and Pithing Needle, but Empty the Warrens and Burning Wish give some defense against that, at least if they don't kill you first.  And the added Simian Grunts give you some more beaters/blockers as another possible path to victory.

[Scott_Limoges]

How does Chromatic Star work under Null Rod?

[GrandpaBelcher]

Sorry, I should have been more clear.  The Welding out of Chromatic Star will still draw you a card under Null Rod since you don't have to activate the Star.  So you can switch between a Star and a Mox to draw a card every other turn, or between two Stars to draw every turn, even under a Null Rod. 

It's not the fastest, most reliable, or hardiest draw engine (it doesn't even work under Yawgmoth's Will), but every little bit helps if you need to find something.  As before, it's mostly used for color fixing.

[BreathWeapon]

I have been developing the deck in T1 and T1.5, and from experience, Tinder Wall and Chromatic Sphere have been awful; remove Tinder Wall for Seething Song and Chromatic Sphere for Bloodfire Egg and the deck should be faster and more consistent. Cut Burning Wish, Vampiric Tutor and Empty the Warrens for Spoils of the Vault, cards that make the deck wait a turn are out of the question, cut Chrome Mox for a 4th Seething Song, the Imprint cost is unacceptable, and consider cutting Channel for the 4th Spoils of the Vault, it's win more, IMO.

Edit: Add Yawgmoth's Bargain for anything, that card is amazing.

[Moxlotus]

Spoils of the Vault

That card is just awful in all formats.  There is no reason to randomly kill yourself 17% of the time.  This deck takes enough risk, giving your opponent 17% extra wins from one of your own spells is completely negating any statistical advantage you have by playing Belcher in the first place.

[BreathWeapon]

Spoils of the Vault

That card is just awful in all formats.  There is no reason to randomly kill yourself 17% of the time.  This deck takes enough risk, giving your opponent 17% extra wins from one of your own spells is completely negating any statistical advantage you have by playing Belcher in the first place.

It's 8%, regardless, not being able to draw or tutor for Belcher is the same thing as losing the game, so it doesn't matter. Use Infernal Tutor or Plunge into Darkness if need be, but the deck must have a card to find Belcher.

[Moxlotus]

Ok, I don't want this to turn into a math contest but

JD 02 (8:59:27 PM): before I run off to watch more basketball in about 30 minutes
JD 02 (8:59:33 PM): the odds of spoils killing you
JD 02 (8:59:46 PM): if you have 53 cards remaining in library, and all 4 belcher in there
JD 02 (8:59:48 PM): are 14%
moxlotus gws (8:59:56 PM): w/e.  its unacceptable
JD 02 (8:59:58 PM): right
JD 02 (9:00:05 PM): it's not 8% as that dude says
moxlotus gws (9:00:11 PM): i knew that was wrong
moxlotus gws (9:00:16 PM): i didnt remember
JD 02 (9:00:23 PM): it doesn't become 8% until....
moxlotus gws (9:00:24 PM): and didnt feel like math
JD 02 (9:00:42 PM): you have about 45 cards left in your library
JD 02 (9:00:49 PM): and all 4 copies in there
JD 02 (9:01:15 PM): with 3 copies and 45 cards, it's 16%
JD 02 (9:01:36 PM): 3 copies and 50 cards is 20.7%
JD 02 (9:01:41 PM): all this assumes you have 20 life
JD 02 (9:01:47 PM): if you want to post that crap, go ahead

I've never had a problem with Vamp or Imperial Seal.  Waiting to the next turn is not a big deal compared to a fairly high risk of killing yourself.

[BreathWeapon]

You are right, some one pointed out the math to me via PM, I've been using a quote from a bad source and never stopped to check the math for myself.

I still suggest Plunge into Darkness, it's about the same, and it puts the card into hand.

[Corvel]

When I use to play Belcher I used Tainted Pact with a list with slightly less 4of's.  This card always worked out well for me to find the Belcher, or something else that could.  The nice part about this card is it has no risk unlike Spoils.

[Prometheon]

I've been working on a similar deck myself. My list is almost identical, but I missed the Empty the Warrens. Excellent idea, as Belcher has always had a problem with finding it's win conditions, and adding a few extra ones that are synergistic with the gameplan is awesome.

The only thing is that you now have NO disruption. Could Xantid Swarm or Duress be worked in? Other combo decks are more consitant than Belcher, and if Stax or Fish drops a Null Rod, you're usually screwed.

Also, what does your board look like? Cutting Living Wish decreases your options somewhat, but you definitely want Shattering Spree. Maybe Leylines??

[GrandpaBelcher]

Sorry if this is somewhat out of order.  I did try to get to all the comments I felt hadn't been addressed.

Sideboard would look something like this, maybe:

4x Xantid Swarm
1x Echoing Ruin
2x Shattering Spree
1x Oxidize
1x Tendrils of Agony
1x Empty the Warrens
1x Chainers Edict
2x Pyroclasm
2x Duress

It's very meta dependant, as is the deck since you probably wouldn't take it into a field of Drain decks or Null Rod Fish.  Your big worries are things like Null Rod and Pithing Needle, hence the artifact destruction.  Most of the stuff can be Wished for the win.  And Xantid Swarms cover your opponent in bees.  I'm reluctant to use Leylines because they take up a large amount of space and the deck doesn't have enough tutoring to go around them.  That is, I don't want to find an answer when I'm digging for a win condition.  They definitely have their place against combo, Ichorid, and Stax though.  Another thing to consider would be Dark Confidants.  They increase your threatening blockers/attackers against Fish and they help you draw out of control-induced deadlocks.

About the no disruption in the maindeck: I had Duresses in there but they came out for the new Spirit Guides.  Welder is pretty good protection from counters since it's easy to resolve, and if it does counters become dumb.  Duresses can go in for Vampiric Tutor and Chrome Mox, I'd say.  Right now, though, you have a good chance of winning right off and cutting even the weakest of tutors and mana sources really hurts that a lot, especially when the Duresses are potentially dead.  Any of Duress, Xantid, or Shattering Spree could make the main deck, though, in the right area.

First things I would cut for disruption: Goblin Welder, Grim Monolith, Vampiric Tutor.

Plunge into Darkness and Tainted Pact are both interesting ideas that I will look into.  Have you done any testing with Plunge to suggest its being worthy?  Tainted Pact makes me leery since a lot of my cards are essentially the same: one or more mana for one card.  Is it worth reducing the number of four-ofs of my deck's power to be able to find something I can mulligan into?  Like I said, though, I'll look into them.

I'm not sure how Channel can be considered "win more" when it's "win right now" every time I've found it.  It's probably one of the last cards I would cut, ever.  It's probably the same thing with Yawgmoth's Bargain, actually; I really should find room for that guy.

I really don't know about cutting Tinder Wall since it's actually pretty good as a blocker.  It's the difference between one and two mana:  Seething Song costs three and nets two, but those three mana can sometimes be a hurdle.  Tinder Wall costs one and nets one--efficient and has a dual purpose.  I'm going to stick with Tinder Wall for now.

There's no point in cutting Chromatic Anything for Bloodfire Egg.  Sphere and Star both do exactly what they need to do in fixing mana and drawing a card, and their activation cost is one cheaper.  They can be played and activated off a Sol Ring or Mana Crypt, for example.  Another reason to use them over the egg is that they can produce green mana if need be, like if I need to cast a sideboard Xantid Swarm or the Channel for the win I talked about earlier.  Plus, like I said, Chromatic Star draws cards with Welder.

Chrome Mox is even better in this list than the last one since you can imprint either Spirit Guide on it. That's like drawing that particular Spirit Guide every turn, for free.  It's competing for weakest mana source with Grim Monolith, but I'd more likely cut the Monolith, I think.

[Prometheon]

I personally liked Desperate Research a lot better than Tainted Pact.

[BreathWeapon]

Tinder Wall being a blocker and generating an additional mana on the following turn are both red herrings, if Belcher is blocking the opponent then the game is over, and if Belcher is passing the turn for an additional mana, the opponent has Scroll for Force or UU for Mana Drain. Duress or UW for Meddling Mage, Null Rod or Wasteland etc. Tinder Wall also doesn't stack in multiples, which can be a serious problem for this deck.

Plunge into Darkness is a good tutor,  it's the same as Spoils of the Vault, accept it can be used as a set up card when Goblin Charbelcher is in hand.

I would SB 4 ETW, that card is so good against Fish, if Fish is SBing in hate for Belcher instead of ETW, it loses.

The B/R Egg is better than the Sphere in this deck, the amount of mana doesn't matter, and being able to produce R and B off the same filter is what facilitates the deck's ability to play both R and B Rituals on the same turn. It allows the deck to keep hands with out a SSG or Land Grant, Sphere can't do that. Test the Egg and Seething Song, both of them make the deck mulligan less and both of them speed up the deck; if you don't believe me, test the shit out of it, 100+ games, and take notes.

[GrandpaBelcher]

I did some testing last night pretending that my Tinder Walls were Seething Songs and you might be right.  At that point, it was actually the green mana that was holding them back.  Producing one or two mana more didn't matter; it was actually getting that mana.  I'll try a few more tonight because I'm still skeptical, but for now:  -3 Tinder Wall, +3 Seething Song.  I'd hate to use Seething Songs over Tinder Walls in a Fish-filled meta, but I don't think I'd take Belcher to a Fish-filled meta either.

The Chromatic Stars I'm still keeping over the eggs, though.  There was more than one game where the extra card I drew from Welding a Star made a difference, and in one game they helped me cast a Channel that powered out a Belcher, a Memory Jar, and a Empty the Warrens.

[BreathWeapon]

If the deck is taking the time to weld Chromatic Star, the deck is either too slow or kept a hand it shouldn't have. If Belcher sees turn 4, it's a miracle.

[Moxlotus]

If the deck is taking the time to weld Chromatic Star, the deck is either too slow or kept a hand it shouldn't have. If Belcher sees turn 4, it's a miracle.

You don't run into counterspells?  Sometimes you have to Weld Stars to get back into the game if your tutor/Necro/whatever got countered. 

[BreathWeapon]

If the deck is taking the time to weld Chromatic Star, the deck is either too slow or kept a hand it shouldn't have. If Belcher sees turn 4, it's a miracle.

You don't run into counterspells?  Sometimes you have to Weld Stars to get back into the game if your tutor/Necro/whatever got countered. 

I've never been able to use Star/Welder in order to get back into a game after a counterspell; if the Welder can't return the Belcher after a counterspell it's GG, combo-control is two turns slower than Belcher, and Belcher top decks like ass. I just think the Star/Welder vs Egg argument is being way too optimistic.

[GrandpaBelcher]

Happy with the combo and acceleration parts of the deck, I've been working on the maindeck disruption. 

Goblin Welder should, in theory, be an answer to counterspells.  In addition to Welding Belcher and Jar in, he can also help fix mana with Chromatic Stars, moxes, and other mana artifacts.  He's pretty much an auto include, though the numbers change periodically.  I like three right now.

Pyroblast can be maindecked as well, and as has been mentioned before, pitching Simian Spirit Guide to play it as a Force of Monkey is a surprising but viable (and very cool) option.  Unfortunately, like I said, I feel like I have maindeck answers to counterspells, and it would be hard to run enough Blasts to make it reliable.

The big worry, I feel, are artifacts like Null Rod and Pithing Needle.  Welder helps with these as well, but against a competent player (i.e. one who won't first-turn land, Petal, Null Rod, go) he's clown shoes.  Duress is an all-purpose answer, but I have a very difficult time deciding what number is correct.  Duress would have to hit before Rod or Needle, which would indicate a four-of, but that's too many as it clogs the deck's combo engines.  Lately, I've had two Ancient Grudge in the maindeck.  They're a narrow answer, but they're completely in-color and easy to use.  Other similar options include Shattering Spree, Mogg Salvage, and Echoing Ruin, but I feel Grudge is slightly more flexible because it can be played from the graveyard after Wheeling or Jarring.

So, I'm currently +2 Ancient Grudge, -1 Goblin Welder, -1 Chromatic Star.

Of course, this deck could (as was pointed out earlier) easily become an Empty the Warrens combo.  Right now I have four Belcher and one EtW maindeck, but I had three and two maindecked in earlier versions, and after sideboarding it can be one and four.  Warrens is easy to play and makes quick work of decks that aren't prepared for it.  It's not much of a transformational sideboard, but it's incredibly simple and powerful since EtW and Belcher aren't much affected by the same disruption.

[OfficeShredder]

I've been testing this (goldfishing mostly, plus some games vs. gifts on MWS), and can say with certainty that duress maindeck is absolutely necessary.  I find it doesn't really hurt my goldfishing time, but can really save your ass vs. countermagic... I was testing the OP with seething songs in for the tinder walls, and decided to take out vampiric tutor , necropotence and grim monolith for 3x duress.  Also, I switched out a charbelcher for another ETW, since I like having that option.  Now, I know someone's going to yell at me about how awesome necropotence and vampiric tutor is, and I might agree with them on the vampiric tutor.  But necropotence never got into play, and when it did, I usually wish I had something different, because I could have went absolutely broken.  Indeed, during the gifts matchups I found the single most important card to resolve was really wheel of fortune (assuming you don't win turns 1 or 2).  They spend the first couple turns sculpting their hand, so what you really need to do is just wheel, and you'll have an inherent mana/card advantage off that, since you've either put out a couple rituals or you've dropped artifact mana.  I'll probably switch out a chromatic star to get vampiric tutor back in (I wasn't specifically thinking wheel is the bomb when I did the switch, I was thinking vampiric tutor and necropotence don't win fast enough), but I think the switch to maindecked duress is definitely worth it

[GrandpaBelcher]

So are you at 3 Belcher, 2 Empty now?  I was running that for a while and really liked it.  Now I'm even considering going to 3, 3 or 4, 2, just to see how it goes.  It's great to be able to switch gears quickly when someone plays a Null Rod.  I'm just not sure whether the extra win conditions will affect my mulligans to the positive or negative.  Still, playing a small Empty (for 4-8 tokens) still puts the opposing player on the defensive, giving you some time to set up for another attempt.

Necropotence is very hard to get into play with this list since it lacks Cabal Rituals.  It's a huge bomb that usually wins you the game in a turn, but sometimes it really does clog the hand.  I would not be surprised if consistency increased without it.

Are you running any tutors besides Demonic and Consultation at this point?  Consultation has been bugging me at this point because I find that the must-have card I want to bring up 4 times out of 5 is (surprise, surprise) Black Lotus.  I haven't decked myself doing that yet, but it often means I can't win in one turn as there are fewer than 20 cards in my library or there's a land stuck in the middle of the stack.

I need to get some more testing in on this (I've been slacking), but it's nice to know someone else has been 'fishing as well.

[meadbert]

I have a deck like this and you should be running 4 Belchers and 4 Warrens.

[OfficeShredder]

I've tried out 3-2, 2-3 and 3-3, and they all seem to work pretty well.  Honestly, I find running 3 belchers to be ideal with consultation, because if you draw it, you can consult for belcher after grabbing mana, and still have enough cards left to reasonably expect to win the game (i.e. play 3 or 4).  I suppose I could consult for warrens instead, but usually I would rather just win the game, than put 8 goblin tokens in play.  Especially when other decks can just fire 8 goblin tokens right back at me. 

Also, I've definitely cast necropotence and gotten nowhere with it. It's always a question of how many cards to draw... draw too many, and you have to hope the seven you keep win the game, and one counterspell absolutely ruins your deck.  Just draw to fill your hand, and it can easily take 3 turns to win the game, which is unacceptable.

I'm gonna try this out at the vintage tournament on the 25th here in Oxford; I know someone's going to come on and say "Dude, take a proven deck!", but it's not for a mox or anything, so I won't feel that bad if I scrub out.  And if I win, I can say it's 'cause of my mad tech  :lol:

I think 3/3 has been working out fine enough with burning wish for the fourth ETW if need be; 4/4 seems like it would really clog up the deck.  It should be interesting to try

[GrandpaBelcher]

Yeah, 4-4 seems like a lot.  My feeling is that you want to see a win in your opening hand, but you don't want more than one.  That is, either Belcher or Warrens, but not usually not both or multiples.

Usually if I'm in a position to Burning Wish for a win, I'm in a position to Tendrils out of the board.  That's when everything's gone perfectly.

Also, good luck at the tournament!

[xycsoscyx]

Can you post the latest deck list that you've been working on (since it sounds a bit different than your initial post)?

[Scott_Limoges]

If your running 3-4 welders, it makes since to add more tutors to find belcher and take advantage of welder.  As you know, often welder is worthless because of the lack of bomby artifacts - tutors fix this.  Tutors like plunge also find lotus or LED with can be abused with welder.  If you do decide to take this route, adding cabal rituals may be necessary to supply the required black requirement.

Maybe some weakest links that can be replace are buring wish, channel, and grim monolith.

Bargin would also be nice with so much mana available and easy to cast.

[GrandpaBelcher]

I'm so disenchanted with black cards right now.  I keep ending up with them in hand and no way to cast them, especially Necropotence which necessitates finding Dark Ritual too.  Right now it seems like Yawgmoth's Bargain would be so much easier to cast, despite costing six, just because it takes one fewer black mana.  I feel like there's no way to cut Rituals, tutors, or YWill because they're so good, but wow.  And right now I have no desire to add Duress because getting things kickstarted with black is so hard.  Maindeck Pyroblast seems so much easier, but I haven't tried it.

I've been winning more and more games with Empty the Warrens and using a 3:2 Belcher to Warrens ratio, and that's against a Fish deck running 4 maindeck Stifles and 2 maindeck Echoing Truth.  It's like Belcher gives you a game against combo, but Warrens gives you everything else.

A list will go up later this week as I figure some more things out.

[OfficeShredder]

Here's the deck I'm currently using:

1 Bayou
1 Taiga
4 Land Grant

4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Rite of Flame
3 Seething Song
4 Dark Ritual
1 Channel
1 LED
5 Moxen
1 Chrome Mox
1 Mana Vault
1 Mana Crypt
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Lotus Petal
3 Chromatic Star

1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Memory Jar
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Demonic Consultation
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Burning Wish
1 Yawgmoth's Will
3 Goblin Charbelcher
2 Empty the Warrens

3 Goblin Welder
4 Duress

SB:
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Goblin Charbelcher
2 Empty the Warrens
3 Xantid Swarm
3 Shattering Spree
1 Goblin Welder
1 Regrowth
1 Mind Twist
2 Ancient Grudge

Some notes:

Mulliganing - this is a really key skill with this deck (I would say more than most).  Hands can look really gassy, if only you topdeck the right card, and usually I find a lot more cards do the trick than I initially think of.  If you don't have a threat to play, mulligan, but if you have a threat or tw but not as much mana as might be wanted, keep in mind most of the deck can get you mana, so you can probably rely on the topdeck.  I haven't perfected the skill yet by any means, and it's certainly an important one, because mulling can kill you, as can not mullling.

Tendrils of Agony - I put this in the sideboard after using a memory jar to get burning wish, and ETW for 24 tokens.  My opponent proceeded to tendrils me for 20, using the cards I dumped off the jar.  I find myself not wanting to sideboard anyway, and that tendrils can let you win a turn faster is huge in some matchups.  I haven't missed the slot yet

Post-counter recovery - The deck definitely has the ability to just win even after you seem to have been shut down.  The key is to get permanent mana on the board... especially when considering mulligans, consider, if things go wrong, how much mana can you use next turn.  Goblin welder is huge, between cycling out chromatic star (which is definitely relevant, especially with the duresses to slow down the opponent) and cycling in charbelchers.  Duress is also important for the ability to slow down your opponent by several turns for every duresss you cast (in terms of them killing you), at least if they're holding cards capable of doing the deed

The Mind Twist and Regrowth haven't been tested yet, but they definitely look cool.  Though that may be all they do

[OfficeShredder]

So anybody else have comments or decklists?

[GrandpaBelcher]

That looks just like my deck!  Except I have one Duress replaced with a maindeck Shattering Spree.  In testing against Fish I realized that Null Rod was not the problem thanks to Empty the Warrens.  So now I have to be able to Duress the Echoing Truth/Tividar's Crusade/Echoing Decay instead. Still, Null Rod sometimes kills the ability to play, well, anything.  The maindeck Spree is the longshot out against that.  It could probably be Duress number four or Regrowth easily and I'd never notice.

Regrowth was actually really good in testing for me, even just for mana fixing with Lotus.  It was still weak enough to get cut for Duresses, but it could easily come back for me.  I don't know how well it would work out of the sideboard, though.  The effect isn't very powerful when it costs 2RG and doesn't net mana with Lotus.

Mulliganing is as important now as it was with previous Belcher lists.  Michael Simister, the innovator of the 2-Land Belcher archeytype, advised me to "just look for hands with mana; you'll draw into threats."  I think that still holds true, but that the mana density is high enough and startable enough to actually mulligan to a threat:  EtW, Belcher, Wheel, Jar, or one of the tutors.  I've been doing that and haven't mulled past five yet in fifty hands or so.  Unfortunately, Yawgmoth's Will isn't as much of a threat in this deck as in other combos because you can end up with a hand that makes 20 or so mana but nothing to do with it.

Another thing I've found is that if my first threat gets countered, bounced, or fizzled, my opponent is so back on cards and resources that time is actually on my side.  It usually only takes three or four cards to find something else that will get me back into the game.

Tendrils definitely needs to be there, especially so it can come in with the fourth Belcher against combo for another possible turn one win.  It's just not quite castable enough to use maindeck without more reliable ways to find it.

What have your experiences been with Channel?  I still think it's great because there are so many times that resolving it is game over, but I know other people hate it.

[OfficeShredder]

Honestly, the only times channel is a dead draw is when I could win the game without it.  Is that really so bad?

I've found it to be useful on rare occasions, but it never hurts any other time, and usually any other card wouldn't let me win the game.  So I find it to be quite useful.

I agree muliganning is huge here... it's not just look for a hand with a threat, or a hand with mana, it's look for a hand that can cast a threat with mana..  Iff you keep a hand with no ability to get red mana, you deserve to lose when you draw ETW.  If you keep a hand with ETW, you deserve to lose when you draw no red mana.  Look for hands that can get you red and black mana, and you'll be fine (green really is inconsequential, although channel is awesome, I usually cast it off a tutored for black lotus anyway).  Contrary to what makes sense, I find you are better off mulliganing a bit more aggresively if you're on the play; even though the card disadvantage should hurt you more, going first with nooooothing to do is bad, since your opponent gets a chance to go for FOW.  At least have a thought out plan as to what threat is going to be cast.  I'm almost tempted to say I prefer going second with this deck