[Deck] Unpowered Belcher

[mort-]

Hi.

Yes, I know, this is not one of the decks you should play unpowered, but allthough I have no access to power, I really like the idea behind the deck and it was always my favourite

So, to the lists I got together (with the help of some mercadia.de members :

GRb Belcher:

Lands (2)

1x Bayou
1x Taiga

Creatures (13)

4x Simian Spirit Guide
1x Storm Entity
2x Goblin Welder
2x Tinder Wall
4x Elvish Spirit Guide

Artifacts (14)

2x Chrome Mox
1x Sol Ring
2x Chromatic Star
1x Lotus Petal
1x Mana Crypt
1x Mana Vault
1x Grim Monolith
1x Lion's Eye Diamond
4x Goblin Charbelcher

Enchantments (1)

1x Necropotence

Instants (10)

4x Dark Ritual
1x Vampiric Tutor
4x Manamorphose
1x Demonic Consultation

Sorcerys (20)

4x Rite of Flame
1x Demonic Tutor
4x Land Grant
1x Channel
3x Empty the Warrens
1x Wheel of Fortune
2x Living Wish
3x Duress
1x Yawgmoth's Will

= 60

Sideboard (15)

1x Tolarian Academy
2x Storm Entity
3x Xantid Swarm
2x Ingot Chewer
1x Goblin Welder
2x Tormod's Crypt
2x Planar Void
2x Shattering Spree


And second:

GRu Belcher:

Lands (2)

1x Taiga
1x Tropical Island

Creatures (15)

1x Storm Entity
4x Simian Spirit Guide
2x Goblin Welder
4x Tinder Wall
4x Elvish Spirit Guide

Artifacts (17)

1x Lotus Petal
1x Mana Crypt
1x Mana Vault
1x Grim Monolith
1x Memory Jar
1x Lion's Eye Diamond
4x Goblin Charbelcher
2x Chrome Mox
1x Sol Ring
4x Chromatic Star

Instants (8)

3x Seething Song
4x Manamorphose
1x Brainstorm

Sorcerys (18)

1x Ponder
4x Rite of Flame
4x Land Grant
1x Channel
3x Empty the Warrens
1x Wheel of Fortune
2x Living Wish
1x Tinker
1x Windfall

= 60

Sideboard (15)

1x Tolarian Academy
2x Storm Entity
3x Xantid Swarm
2x Ingot Chewer
1x Goblin Welder
2x Tormod's Crypt
2x Pyroblast
2x Shattering Spree


Well, what can I say, basicly both decks run pretty good, I do have 8+ Goblins or an activated Belcher in the first one or two round most of the time.
My question now is: Is there anyway I can optimize those decks (without power ofc ?
I can't playtest much here, so I'm just a bit insecure of what would be the better list. I think that the carddraw of the second list is better if some of my spells get countered, on the other side it's kind of random if I need a combopart -> hi tutors.
Also, maybe GR only would be a solution, but i do think that the little blue / black splash adds too much to don't get it.

Well, I hope there's someone here who can maybe help me with this choice.

Thanks for reading,

mort-

[GrandpaBelcher]

Both of these look like solid starts.  I'm still not sold on running blue in Belcher, since I think you end up struggling to splash for three cards (Twister, Tinker, and ACall) that don't help that much.  I'll make some suggestions for the RBg verision, though, and you can translate them to the RUg version as you see fit.

First, I think the closer you get to two colors, the better the deck gets just through consistency.  Playing red and green gives you everything you need; playing red and black and keeping Land Grants gives you everything you need plus some broken stuff like tutors and Yawgmoth's Will.

Chrome Mox should be a four-of in any unpowered build.  With four Chrome Mox, four Land Grant, eight Spirit Guides and two lands you have a lot of zero-drop starter mana.  All of that and Manamorphose should be enough to get you the colors you need, so I would drop the Chromatic Stars for the extra Chrome Moxes.  I would also try to get the fourth Empty the Warrens in or a Tendrils of Agony, either of which is better than Storm Entity in the maindeck.  The two Tinder Walls seem sort of random (I'd prefer 0 or 4) but I can see where they would be useful in getting you to Manamorphose.  Have you considered cutting those and Grim Monolith for Cabal Rituals?  Grim Monolith is not very strong in a Belcher deck unless it has Goblin Welders to be tricky with.  Living Wish could also go if you're cutting green.  It's slow in a TPS environment, especially since your sideboard looks weak without Mishra's Workshop to grab.  That leaves your only green as Channel, which is okay because Channel omfgbbq awesome, especially with Memory Jar.

So in summary...

-2 Chromatic Star
-1 Storm Entity
-2 Tinder Wall
-2 Living Wish
-1 Grim Monolith
+2 Chrome Mox
+4 Cabal Ritual
+1 Memory Jar
+1 Tendrils of Agony or Empty the Warrens.


If I were going to build a Belcher deck without power it would look like this:

4x Empty the Warrens
4x Tinder Wall
4x Simian Spirit Guide
4x Rite of Flame
4x Elvish Spirit Guide
4x Guttural Response
4x Chrome Mox
4x Goblin Charbelcher
4x Goblin Welder
4x Street Wraith
4x Land Grant
1x Taiga
1x Grim Monolith
1x Mana Crypt
1x Mana Vault
1x Sol Ring
4x Manamorphose
1x Channel
1x Lotus Petal
1x Lion's Eye Diamond
1x Wheel of Fortune
1x Memory Jar
2x Storm Entity

Sideboard
2x Storm Entity
4x Tormod's Crypt
4x Pyrostatic Pillar
4x Desperate Ritual
1x Bogardan Hellkite

[mort-]

Thanks for the list, I'm going to run it a few times in apprentice when I come home from work.
What bothers me a bit is your sideboard choice.
Isn't Pyrostatic Pillar more working for my opponent then for me? And why the Hellkite? With no Living Wish's it's kind of random to draw one after boarding.

mort-

[GrandpaBelcher]

Pyrostatic Pillar is there for the storm combo matchup.  You bring in Pillars and Storm Entities in the hopes of slowing your opponent down and letting your creatures do the work.  Since you usually storm to four or so and can play the Pillar when it best suits you, it doesn't hurt you as badly as it does them.  Another option is Jester's Caps.

The Bogardan Hellkite is there simply because there's nothing else I want in the board.  Sideboarding with Belcher means doing as little as possible to impede your own aggressive combo, so changes are as small as possible.  I want my opponent to have to adjust to me, so I try to be active rather than reactive even out of the board.  The only things I take out are Goblin Welders, Guttural Responses, and Manamorphoses.  I would rarely bring in the 15th sideboard card, so it could be anything because I wouldn't use it.  If you want something with more playable potential, use REB or Tarmogoyf.

Take Ingot Chewer, for example.  It doesn't do anything against Shops.  Its effect is small and it eats up resources that you need to go into playing your win condition.  One Chewer won't dig you out against multiple spheres anyway, so what's the point?  Against Shops you're better off to just get your number 8 on and go racin'.

Xantid Swarm is a turn too slow and is easy to deal with.  The best outcome is that it turns off your opponent's countermagic for G.  You can usually do that just as easily a turn earlier with Guttural Response, which you can also play for R.

It's a different strategy, I realize, but I've been doing it for a while and it's worked.  You're rarely going to see more than 10 cards or so anyway, so bringing in one or two random answers rarely makes a difference.  Be brave, stay aggressive, and win the game.

[mort-]

Thanks

[zeus-online]

I'm not sure how good belcher really is without the restricted acceleration, since it's vulnerable to way too many cards.

You just need to be able to kill the opponent before he gets too many scary cards out.

We've been trying out a 4-chrome mox belcher build which has proven quite fast, but it still scoops to alot of cards, so i'm not even sure if it's any better then the old versions.

/Zeus

[GrandpaBelcher]

As far as I can see, having four Chrome Mox makes Belcher more vulnerable to Chalice-0 and Null Rod, but that's really the only thing that's changed.  It's always had its problems (Null Rod, Pithing Needle, Force of Will, Sphere of Resistance), but people have played through them, ignored them, or lost to them anyway.  With four Chrome Mox, the only thing the deck really loses going powerless is Black Lotus, which is obviously big, but is still just a one-of.

[Anusien]

Blue isn't worth it when you can play Ancestral, Time Walk and Timetwister so it's certainly not without.

You absolutely need black; the black cards are just too good.  Each of them can just win.  You need Green for the mana stability (Land Grant, Tinder Wall, Channel) and Living Wish is really helpful.  (Channel is one of your best outs against Spheres, especially because you can cast it with ESGs).  And you really want red for Wheel and maybe Welder if you choose to go that route, and EtW is helpful.  Memory Jar should be included, but Tendrils shouldn't.  EtW is a reasonable win condition, I think the best Belcher player I know runs 3.

I don't understand your list though.  I don't understand some of your cards (Storm Entity is shitty). I'd start with a proven Belcher list and try and find substitutes for power.  The main loss is really Black Lotus, and I don't know what can be done about that.

[mort-]

Seems like I can't write PM's, so sorry for not answering to yours Lochinvar :/

I tried your list and it seemed pretty unstable without black, so I set up this list:

1x Taiga
1x Bayou

2 Lands

4x Tinder Wall
4x Simian Spirit Guide
2x Goblin Welder
4x Street Wraith

14 Creatures

1x Mana Vault
1x Sol Ring
1x Lotus Petal
1x Lion's Eye Diamond
1x Memory Jar
4x Chrome Mox
4x Goblin Charbelcher
1x Grim Monolith
1x Mana Crypt

15 Artifacts

4x Manamorphose
4x Guttural Response
4x Dark Ritual

12 Instants

3x Empty the Warrens
1x Channel
4x Rite of Flame
1x Wheel of Fortune
4x Land Grant
1x Yawgmoth's Will
1x Demonic Tutor
2x Living Wish

17 Sorcerys

I'm cutting Grim Monolith / 1 Chrome Mox for Vampiric Tutor and / or Necropotence eventually, I'll have to test that Playing only one land in an unpowered Belcher is not enough imho, therefor I added Bayou back in. Living Wish for Solutions from the Sideboard (Welder, fatty, Academy). I'm thinking about adding a Dragonmage Sideboard, but I'm not sure if it helps me or my opponent more ;D

mort-

[GrandpaBelcher]

You absolutely need black; the black cards are just too good.

We've had this debate before.  I honestly think it's just a matter of playstyle and preference.  Playing with one land and mostly one color makes the deck very consistent and all but impervious to color screw, though you miss the sheer brokenness of YawgWill and DT.  Playing with Bayou and Taiga leave your belches more prone to failing than I like, and Dark Ritual doesn't play well with Rite of Flame even with Manamorphose.  I'd rather draw win conditions; you're more comfortable drawing tutors to go get what you need.

I've tested lists with black.  They're fine.  They work.  I prefer two colors to three.  At least we agree that blue is a waste of time.

@ mort-

No worries on the PM.  Your new list looks pretty solid.  I'm glad you've kept Goblin Welder because that guy's amazing in Belcher.  I'd encourage you to keep four Chrome Mox in the unpowered build; it's very strong and surprisingly versatile.  I would still consider dropping the Living Wishes: they're slow for this metagame; playing two is unreliable; and the answers they get are usually underwhelming.  Necropotence and Vampiric sound good, and I encourage you to test Demonic Consultation as well and consider increasing the number of Goblin Welders.  I don't know if your testing is against actual opponents, but Goblin Welder definitely shines brighter in a real game than he does in goldfish mode.

[mort-]

I tested the new list and it's pretty amazing how stable it is.
I can't say something to goblin welder because I didn't need him in the games I goldfished, but I'd like to keep him anyway ^^ Same goes for the Living Wishes - maybe they are slow, BUT if I need them to get something from my sideboard, I'm allready in trouble and it's ok to play them - if not - I can imprint them to a Mox.
At this point I'd like to return to the sideboard (I'm going to test this list with necro / vampiric tomorrow, will post infos then ), specifically the choice for the fatty.
I looked through magiccards.info a bit and these are the creatures that i found interessting:

Bogardan Hellkite: As Lochinvar suggested, pretty solid to get the board clear and / or damage to the opponent , + flying | (6)(R)(R)
Tombstalker: 5/5 Flying with Delve, that's pretty good if I think about the cards that are in my graveyard most of the time Can be out for BB almost every time. | (6)(B)(B)
Dragonmage: Good or bad? Helps me regenerate, but also helps the opponent to find solutions against him, also flying | (5)(R)(R)
Demigod of Revenge: I have a lot of B / R mana regeneration, so the manacost should be ok - 5/4 with haste + flying | (B/R)(B/R)(B/R)(B/R)(B/R)
Grinning Demon: Cheap but he doesn't fly, nor has he haste, nor trample , -2 life per upkeep, but 6/6 | (2)(B)(B)

I do like the Stalker and the Demigod best, Dragonmage close second.

mort-

[forneus]

its a nice deck and i'm testing it out, the only thing that worries me is that esg wasn't in the deck, is playing street wraiths better than playing esgs? and i was wondering since the current format still doesnt allow the use of the currently unrestricted cards, could the deck run using esgs without the 3 other chromes? waht are your thoughts?

[mort-]

its a nice deck and i'm testing it out, the only thing that worries me is that esg wasn't in the deck, is playing street wraiths better than playing esgs? and i was wondering since the current format still doesnt allow the use of the currently unrestricted cards, could the deck run using esgs without the 3 other chromes? waht are your thoughts?

wtf, i totally forgot them oO don't ask me why

Edit:

1x Taiga
1x Bayou

2 Lands

4x Tinder Wall
4x Simian Spirit Guide
4x Elfish Spirit Guide
2x Goblin Welder
2x Street Wraith

16 Creatures

1x Mana Vault
1x Sol Ring
1x Lotus Petal
1x Lion's Eye Diamond
1x Memory Jar
4x Chrome Mox
4x Goblin Charbelcher
1x Mana Crypt

14 Artifacts

1x Necropotence

1 Enchantment

4x Manamorphose
4x Guttural Response
4x Dark Ritual

12 Instants

3x Empty the Warrens
1x Channel
4x Rite of Flame
1x Wheel of Fortune
4x Land Grant
1x Yawgmoth's Will
1x Demonic Tutor

15 Sorcerys

Testing this :> I'm thinking of cutting the last 2 Street Wraith's for 1 EtW and maybe 1 Tombstalker to have more threats.

[GrandpaBelcher]

Remember that anything you're planning on Wishing for will have 1G added to its cost.  That alone makes things like Dragonmage and Bogardan Hellkite all but unplayable.  Demigod of Renge is closer, but loses a lot of its allure since you won't have multiples to trigger off each other.  Tombstalker is a decent idea, and Storm Entity is cheap enough to be a first turn threat.  Mana, mana, mana, Wish, Storm Entity, swing for five is a pretty good clock in a pinch.

[mort-]

Remember that anything you're planning on Wishing for will have 1G added to its cost.  That alone makes things like Dragonmage and Bogardan Hellkite all but unplayable.  Demigod of Renge is closer, but loses a lot of its allure since you won't have multiples to trigger off each other.  Tombstalker is a decent idea, and Storm Entity is cheap enough to be a first turn threat.  Mana, mana, mana, Wish, Storm Entity, swing for five is a pretty good clock in a pinch.

nananana, now i cut the wishes, stop making them good again! ^^

[forneus]

I think the wishes should stay since they are probable solutions for main decked hate against belcher, street wraiths don't seem to help much, why no vampiric tutor?

[LordHomerCat]

I think the wishes should stay since they are probable solutions for main decked hate against belcher, street wraiths don't seem to help much, why no vampiric tutor?

All the hate other than Needle though will come in the form of either mana denial or counterspells.  How do you expect to get Wish active against either of those?

[forneus]

actually counterspells we have gluttoral for, i think wishes are good since you can use esg mana to put it out, and have creatures like ingot chewer deal with cotv and needles *actually needles are sideboard hate, almost nobody mains needles

[mort-]

I just think vampiric is too slow. I want this deck to kill round 1. Also, goldfishing showed me that I don't have the mana for Vampiric most of the time cause I'm either killing in round one or setting up a good manabase for a round 2 kill.
Also I don't think that we should overrate Gluttoral Response, it's our only counter and we only have 4 of it, so I don't think we have it on our hand most of the time.
I'm also thinking that we should maybe switch it against Pact of Negation - we do not have ANY protection against Null Rod / Chalice / Needle and without Wishes we can not hope to draw a Ingot Chewer from our sideboard.
Needle should be ok to deal with, with one Tombstalker (maybe two, don't know now).
I also don't think that Necropotence is good. I tested it a few times now and could almost never play it because I NEED a Dark Ritual for it. So there's the second Tombstalker oder maybe a Storm Entity.
Of course, Pact gets worse with every added Killoption other than Belcher, so I have to overthink that again.

mort-

[mort-]

Just giving you a bit of my information while goldfishing

Draw 1:
Chrome Mox, 2x Tinder Wall, Vault, Rite of Flame, Charbelcher, EtW -> EtW with 10 Tokens R1

Draw 2:
Land Grant, Sol Ring, Demonic Tutor, Chrome Mox, Manamorphose, Channel, Charbelcher -> Charbelcher Activation R1

Draw 3:
LED, Demonic Tutor, Yawgmoth's Will, SSG, Welder, Mox, EtW -> Mulligan: Bayou, Tombstalker, Vault, Mox, Land Grant, Manamorphose -> R2 Stalker

Draw 4:
Channel, EtW, 2x Belcher, Dark Ritual, Rite of Flame, Will -> Mulligan: 2x SSG, 2x Rite of Flame, Belcher, EtW -> EtW with 6 Tokens R1

Draw 5:
2x Manamorphose, Crypt, Demonic Tutor, Guttural, Rite of Flame, SSG -> Maybe with luck.. I hold and draw Tinder Wall + ESG, EtW with 14 Token R1

Draw 6:
2x ESG, Mox, Guttural, Welder, Crypt, Land Grant -> Mulligan: Bayou, Will, Belcher, EtW, Wheel of Fortune, Ritual -> Mulligan: Mox, TinderW, Belcher, Guttural, SSG -> Have to take it, draw Rite of Flame, EtW, ESG, SSG -> At least 8 Tokens in R5 with Counterbackup

Draw 7:
SSG, Dark Ritual, TinderW, Lotus Petal, Land Grant, Manamorphose, Vault -> Sadly no Killoption Mulligan: Rite of Flame, Lotus Petal, Tinder Wall, Dark Ritual, Land Grant, Goblin Welder -> Neeext: Bayou, Manamorphose, Land Grant, Channel -> Hold because of the draw7 -> I draw SSG and with Manamorphose Mox, can go off in R2 with Land Grant @Taiga, MM, Channel, Draw7 into Belcher, Land Grant, Dark Ritual, ESG, Demonic, Simian, ELD

Draw 8:
Bayou, Yawgmoth's Will, Guttural, SSG, Welder, EtW, Mox -> nope: Guttural Response, Channel, 2x Tinder Wall, EtW, Vault -> Worst hand in all my tests: 2x Tinder Wall, Crypt, Welder, Rite of Flame -> outch: 2x Ritual, Manamorphose, EtW -> keeps getting worse: Land Grant, Welder, ESG -> Taking it, Welder doesn't seem to be a bad idea with a Mulligan to 3 ^^ -> I can play a belcher in R5 and activate in R6.

Draw 9:
Taiga, TinderW, Channel, Belcher, Vault, Manamorphose, ESG -> Nothing more to say, Manamorphose gets me a welder, Belcher Kill R1

Draw 10:
2x Guttural Response, Manamorphose, Belcher, Channel, Tinder Wall, Rite of Flame -> I'm holding in hope that I draw a green manasource: R2 Draw SSG (that's ok too lol ^^), MM gets me Welder, R2 Belcher Activation.

Those ten draws are an example of what I drew yesterday all the time, like here, every 6- 8  draw was crap, for the rest I was going off almost every time in R1 or 2.
That leaves just the question with the sideboard.
I would do it like this:

2x Tormod's Crypt
2x Planar Void
3x Xantid Swarm
2x Darkblast
4x Pyrostatic Pillar
1x Dragon Mage
1x Goblin Welder


Oh and here is the (pretty much) final decklist:

        1 Bayou
        1 Taiga

        2 Goblin Welder
        4 Simian Spirit Guide
        4 Tinder Wall
        2 Tombstalker

        1 Mana Crypt
        1 Mana Vault
        4 Goblin Charbelcher
        4 Chrome Mox
        1 Memory Jar
        1 Lion's Eye Diamond
        1 Lotus Petal
        1 Sol Ring

        4 Manamorphose
        4 Dark Ritual
        4 Guttural Response

        1 Wheel of Fortune
        4 Rite of Flame
        1 Channel
        4 Empty the Warrens
        1 Yawgmoth's Will
        1 Demonic Tutor
        4 Elvish Spirit Guide
        4 Land Grant

[forneus]

good arguments, but i think pacts aren't worth it unless your actually putting blue in as a color, it can't be fed to chrome mox and since etw is a very used kill option, i think it would do more harm than good.

as for necropotence, i think it has to go too, why not plop in demonic consultation or a burning wish maybe?

and as for generic sideboards what do you think should be in the deck? i'm thinking welder, tolarian, storm entity, 2 ingot chewers, taiga, bayou and.. i couldn't think of anything else maybe demigod of revenge could get a slot?

[mort-]

good arguments, but i think pacts aren't worth it unless your actually putting blue in as a color, it can't be fed to chrome mox and since etw is a very used kill option, i think it would do more harm than good.

as for necropotence, i think it has to go too, why not plop in demonic consultation or a burning wish maybe?

and as for generic sideboards what do you think should be in the deck? i'm thinking welder, tolarian, storm entity, 2 ingot chewers, taiga, bayou and.. i couldn't think of anything else maybe demigod of revenge could get a slot?

i don't think that you need a tolarian academy / stormspirits / ingot chewers sb without wishes. If there is a Null Rod / Chalice out allready you have to hope for tombstalker

[forneus]

ok i played belcher today at a vintage tournament, right now its still pre-unrestriction of chrome mox so i had to revamp my decklist, played with a black lotus though so it kinda offsets that fact anyway here's the decklist

4 elvish spirit guide
4 simian spirit guide
2 goblin welder
4 tinderwall
1 tombstalker

15 creatures

4 dark ritual
4 manamorphose
4 gluttoral response

12 instants

4 rite of flame
4 land grant
2 living wish
1 demonic tutor
1 yawgmoth's will
1 tendrils of agony
3 empty the warrens
1 wheel of fortune
1 channel

18 sorceries

4 goblin charbelcher
1 chrome mox
1 black lotus
1 grim monolith
1 solring
1 manavault
1 manacrypt
1 lion's eye diamond
1 lotus petal
1 memory jar

13 artifacts

1 taiga
1 overgrown tomb (yes i know, i wasn't able to get my hands on a bayou so i had to play with this)

2 lands

sideboard

2 tormod's crypt
2 ingot chewer
2 xantid swarm
2 naturalize
1 goblin welder
1 taiga
1 overgrown tomb
1 tolarian academy
1 tombstalker
1 storm entity
1 ancient grudge

i finished with a record of 3-3 in 6 rounds of swiss, it was a bad record but they deck showed consistency in first turn plays, its just that i was outplayed on some games and on some just belched out a land too early. anyway i plan to play this again this time adjusting for the 3 other chrome moxes what are your thoughts?

btw tombstalker was a stroke of genius, i played it on the first turn and beat my opponent down with it, it was totally unexpected and a real great tech

[mort-]

Can you maybe tell a bit about the matchups?
Also, I'm curious, with 2 wishes, are 3 lands in your sideboard really that good?

[forneus]

well i went up against dragon stompy on the first round, had no difficulty with this one, but i might've been just lucky since i got insane hands, i was able to warrens out turn one in the first game for 10 and killed him the next turn, and i got him to mul to four on the next game and just belched him on my turn.

the second round was against a mono blue type fish deck i think, its kinda rogue since it uses wizards n ol for control, but it did have forces drains n stifles so it was kinda tricky, it was in this game that the wish for a tolarian academy got me the win.

the third round i paired up against oath, i lost badly to that one due to hand disruptions and counters, i just couldnt get anything to go my way. the 2nd game i was able to belch on the first turn only to flip land at the very first flip. so needless to say i lost that one.

the fourth round was against stax, the deck has a bit of a difficulty coping with stax especially turn one spheres, with thorn of amethyst its easier to maneuver around it but with sphere its kinda difficult to build up the right amount of mana to go off with anything. i lost badly both games.

fifth round was against ichorid, no difficulty on this match up, i might cut tormods because of this but well i think its just a fail safe anyway. ichorid is not a problem for belcher decks, we're hella lot faster and they usually can't get a first turn therapy out since what they'd wish for is bazaar, and although unmask just rapes you, its usually just one card you can recover from draws.

6th i was against blue white fish. i won the first game with a first turn tombstalker i was so lucky he didnt draw an stp or a bounce spell but tombstalker just rocks!
i lost the next two games because he had meddling mages, counters and needles that blocked my way.

anyway i really think i goofed with my sideboard for this tourney but i can say living wish really bails you out a lot, its like having an instant extra mana source, extra welder and suddenly a xantid swarm, having those two other lands in my sideboard was a fail safe for me since a lot of people ran wastelands so in the event that i need it i still had a means to get one into play.

[mort-]

Thank you for the matchups

I'm also going to test a bit with living wish, allthough I do think that I will only play Tolarian Academy SB.
For your sideboard: Maybe swap Naturalize / Ancient Grudge against Oxidize / Shattering Spree. Against chalice 1 you have still your Ingot Chewer, but 2 is is 1 too much if you can have the same effect - but that's just my thoughts on that.
Also I would change Tendrils to another EtW, it's just easier to afford without power.

Still have to wait two weeks to my next tournament :'(

[GrandpaBelcher]

My testing with Tolarian Academy in the board showed it to be not that good.  To net mana, you have to have three artifacts in play, which is no small feat.  Not to mention that if you do have three artifacts in play, you're probably already well on your way to playing a win condition, in which case Tolarian is either overkill or not worth risking Living Wish for.  Ancient Tomb was almost always as good if not better than Tolarian Academy.

My top three choices for lands in the board are Workshop, Ancient Tomb, and an extra colored source--Taiga for me, probably City of Brass for you--in that order.  Bazaar isn't bad either since it combos with Welder and helps you dig for what you need.  Workshop always nets you mana toward playing Belcher.  Tomb is even on mana, is a permanent source of mana, and allows you to activate Belcher.

Just to clarify... mort- and forneus, are you both playing in no proxy, mostly unpowered metagames?  The Tombstalker tech is pretty slick.

[mort-]

I don't know anything about the metagame here, I think that there will be a bit power, but not too much (maybe 20% of the players? don't know).
No proxys also

[forneus]

yes i'm playing in non proxy tournaments, sadly its not really power deprived. a lot of people pack power and do have the cards to make tier 1 decks, there are decks such as stax, grim long, ichorid which are all fully powered. I just really don't have the money for the power 

ancient grudge does seem like a good land to put in the sb, i'll take note of that tombstalker is a very good call since people SHOULD be taking out their stps after game 1 ^^

oxidize and shattering sprees are good too, i also considered them but I just thought I might need a way to deal with enchantments in case the game drags along. BTW what can i remove from my list to make way for the 3 chrome moxes? any ideas?

[mort-]

I'd go with 2 wishes and the monolith ^^