Grand Prix - Indianapolis

I must admit that GP Indy, although knowing about it months in advance, kinda snuck up on me. Suffice to say that my deck options were limited as Zack was also underprepared and didn’t get the cards he needed for mono-white Stax on Friday. He ended up holding a copy of Garret Young’s Goblin Charbelcher list courtesy of Martin Stanley. In hopes of just having ANY deck for the GP, I borrowed a Goblins list from Chris Michael and headed to Taylorville on Friday to play in the FNM and bring Zack back with me to Decatur so we could head out early Saturday from Decatur. En route to FNM I get a call from Devon Koepke from the St. Louis area who tells me they have a room in Indy plus the cards that Zack will need for his list. Dreams of not waking up at 4am and getting Zack his list trumped my desire to not drive so we packed up our gear and hightailed it to Indy. On the drive Zack offered to hand over Belcher to replace the (currently) underperforming Goblins tribe. I couldn’t resist and decided Belcher would be my deck for the weekend.

We arrived in Indy around midnight, met up with the southern crew and started prepping for a long Grand Prix. Next morning Zack and I got to the event site, registered our decks, and settled in for a Legacy tournament with 1211 participants. Day One consisted of 9 rounds with an X-2 or better record required for a bid into Day Two. Both Zack and I had round one byes so we took an extended smoke break in anticipation of round 2.

Main Deck: 4 Elvish Spirit Guide 4 Simian Spirit Guide 4 Tinder Wall 4 Burning Wish 4 Chrome Mox 4 Desperate Ritual 3 Empty the Warrens 4 Gitaxian Probe 4 Goblin Charbelcher 4 Land Grant 4 Lion's Eye Diamond 4 Lotus Petal 4 Pyretic Ritual 4 Rite of Flame 4 Seething Song 1 Taiga

Sideboard: 1 Empty the Warrens 1 Goblin War Strike 1 Hull Breach 1 Infernal Tutor 2 Pyroblast 2 Red Elemental Blast 1 Pyroclasm 1 Reverent Silence 1 Shattering Spree 4 Xantid Swarm

I win the die roll and open a hand that is one card short of a Goblin Charbelcher play and activation. He keeps as well and I immediately pass the turn with no play. My opponent is somewhat confused and laments that he got paired against Dredge. He plays a Misty Rainforest, searches for a Savannah, and plays a first turn Noble Hierarch before passing the turn. I make seven mana, cast a Goblin Charbelcher with no Taiga on board and aim the artifact at him. I reveal 10+ cards with no Taiga in sight and we scoop up for game 2. Vince elects to play first and opens with another Misty. I play a Chrome Mox imprinting a red card, cast 2 Rites, remove a Simian Spirit Guide, drop a Goblin Charbelcher paired with a Lion's Eye Diamond and Belch him again. It’s lethal and afterwards Vince reveals a Daze in his hand rendered impotent by the extra mana I had while going off.
2-0, 2-0

Eric won the die roll and started off with a Mountain followed by a Lava Spike. I smiled on the inside as I knew that he had no way to keep me from going off. I make 12 goblin tokens on turn 1 and ship it. Two turns later he succumbs to the onslaught and we’re off to game 2. He leads with a Rift Bolt and once again I start with a turn 1 storm count of 6 on Empty the Warrens. With a few blockers and some direct damage, Eric manages to get me to 3 life, but runs out of cards. My next attack step is lethal.
2-0, 3-0

Of course I get paired against LSV, why not? I lose the die roll and keep an opener that is about one card shy of belching on turn one. He opens with a blue fetch land and passes. I draw a Burning Wish which is not really what I needed, but in lieu of discarding I play a Chrome Mox and imprint the Wish before shipping the turn. He lays another fetch land and passes. I rip a Gitaxian Probe and pay 2 life to have a look at his hand. He reveals a pair of lands, Swords to Plowshares, and Jace. Perfect. I can now safely go off against a blue deck. The only problem is that my hand is Chrome Mox, Goblin Charbelcher, Seething Song, Burning Wish, Lion's Eye Diamond. I can make a total of 2 mana, but not enough to cast the Seething Song and play the Goblin Charbelcher. I really just need any of the 4 Desperate Ritual, Rite of Flame, Simian Spirit Guide, Elvish Spirit Guide, Land Grant, Lotus Petal, or Pyretic Ritual still in my deck. I draw for Gitaxian Probe into another Goblin Charbelcher. Not it. I ship the turn knowing that I probably still have a shot as LSV has no card draw and limited options for keeping me from winning. He plays a land and passes. I untap and draw…another Goblin Charbelcher. This is not good. I pass back and he plays Jace, opting to brainstorm. He ships the turn and I draw….Empty the Warrens. I ship again, LSV brainstorms with Jace and passes. I untap and draw….ANOTHER Empty the Warrens! Now this is insanity. I move to discard and LSV stops me to play a Vendillion Clique, taking away my Seething Song. I draw from the Faerie into a Burning Wish, yet another dead card. With my hopes dashed, LSV starts crushing with the 3/1 and a Mishra’s Factory. Off to game 2. Game 2 I elect to play and proceed to make 10 goblins on turn 1. LSV checks his options and decides to head to game 3. Game 3 I open with a Chrome Mox imprinted with Xantid Swarm and try to cast a Xantid Swarm. LSV tanks for a moment, but then decides to Force it. The next turn I’m able to storm out for 10 more goblin tokens, but a turn later LSV has the Wrath of God. I putter around for the next few turns, casting Tinder Walls to block his Factories. I eventually find a Goblin Charbelcher, but he has the Mana Leak when I try to cast it. From there he goes on to an easy win. Sidenote: LSV was a super nice guy.
1-2, 3-1

I win the die roll and keep an opener with sufficient acceleration to go off turn one with Goblin Charbelcher while peeking at his hand with Gitaxian Probe. I pay 2 life and have a look at his opening grip to discover he is playing Burn. I get warm fuzzy feelings knowing this match up is so good and proceed to kill him on turn 1. Game 2 I keep a somewhat suspect opener as I am a bit shy of going off turn 1, but I am on the draw and decide to keep. With no help in my first draw phase I pass the turn and my opponent windmill slams a Pyrostatic Pillar. Damnit. A few turns later I do the math and realize that I am one spell too many from going off and keeping myself from dying. I scoop them up and go to game 3. I decide to draw, as the extra card is golden in a match up where counterspells are out of the equation. I end taking a mulligan to 5 and keep a hand that can go off with a couple of draw steps. He opens with Figure of Destiny and passes. I draw and do some math realizing I can’t yet go off with only 6 cards and begrudgingly pass the turn. My opponent drops a second land and I sigh in relief when he taps one to pump his Kithkin and get in for 2. Looks like he didn’t keep a hand with Pyrostatic Pillar. I draw another card and still don’t have what it takes to go off….but I’m real close. Any accelerant would get me there. I ship the turn on 18 life with the plan of going off next turn with almost any draw. He untaps, plays a third land and drops Pyrostatic Pillar. Nice. Top. Deck. He gets in for another 2, dropping me to 16 and passes the turn. I draw one of the cards I would need to go off, but realize that I once again need to be able to play one more spell to win. So much for easy match-ups.
1-2, 3-2

I win the die roll and Belch on turn 1 for the kill and we sideboard for game 2. I’m not even sure what he’s playing! Game 2 he opens with a Mother of Runes and ships the turn. I’m not quite at the point of going off so I drop a Taiga and pass. He plays a land and passes and on my turn I make 16 goblins off a large chain of spells. At the end of turn he Enlightened Tutors for an Engineered Explosives, draws it and sweeps my army. With no cards in hand, he quickly wins. Game 3 I once again make a large number of goblins, this time on turn 1. Jason is unable to locate an EE this time and quickly falls to my army.
2-1, 4-2

I’m gonna tell you right now…these were some weird games. I win the die roll, keep an opener that can Belch on turn 1 and begin with a Gitaxian Probe. Jason reveals a hand of reanimation spells and a Force of Will. I make 7 mana before announcing my intention to cast Goblin Charbelcher. Jason Forces the artifact and with the 3 remaining mana I hard-cast a Simian Spirit Guide. I knew his hand didn’t have much action so I was hoping I would get lucky and just beat him down with the Grey Ogre. Several turns went as I suspected. He was digging for creatures to toss in his graveyard, but to no avail. I beat him down to 8 life by the time I had enough mana to make another Goblin Charbelcher. This one resolved and he once again spent his turn looking for some action. It was fruitless and on my next turn I topdecked a Rite of Flame with 2 others in the yard to make enough mana to Belch him out. Game 2 was almost identical to game 1.
2-0, 5-2

Jacob is on BW tokens of some kind and wins the die roll. I take a look at my opening hand and decide to keep a very suspect (should have mulled) hand with tons of acceleration, but no win condition. Figuring I was on the draw and had a Gitaxian Probe, I thought I would soon draw into one. I didn’t. Jacob quickly casts Lingering Souls, Stoneforge Mystic, Dark Confidant. It takes him a while to finish me off which gives me outs with any win-con, but alas I fall. Game 2 my exact play was, drop Taiga, remove 3 Spirit Guides, play Goblin Charbelcher, play Lion's Eye Diamond, sack LED, Belch you. I love turn 1 wins. Game 3 I keep a storm opener that I’m a little worried about as I know he is playing some number of Zealous Persecution which would easily handle an army of 1/1’s. On the draw I decide to keep and hope for the best, as my hand is quite good, and I suspect that if he opens with Cabal Therapy he’ll name Goblin Charbelcher. Sure enough he Therapys for Goblin Charbelcher and I reveal a hand of acceleration and Burning Wish. He ships the turn and I make 12 goblins leaving him forced the find his Zealous Persecution to counter. He doesn’t find one and I’m now just one win from making day 2!
2-1, 6-2

I win the die roll and keep a belcher friendly, turn 1 hand with Gitaxian Probe. I open with Probe to discover a reanimator hand including Force of Will. Well then. I have flashbacks of my previous reanimator match and decide to bait the Force with a belcher and play a critter to start beating. Things go as planned and I pass the turn. He opens with a Hapless Researcher and pops it, discarding an Elesh Norn. Next turn he reanimates it and starts beating me down. A turn later a Jin-Gitaxias hits play and I scoop them up. Game 2 is not too dissimilar as he keeps another opening hand with Force of Will and proceeds to make a turn 2 Iona naming red. Good games Mr. I Have the Nuts Reanimator Player.
0-2, 6-3

So I miss day 2 by a game and lament my bad draws against LSV and the Burn player. Overall I really liked playing Goblin Charbelcher. There’s nothing quite as satisfying as killing your opponent on turn 1 in a format where that rarely happens. My only real problem with the deck is how difficult it is to win through a Force of Will. The upside, of course, is that if you’re opponent is not playing blue – the match feels un-losable.

Garrett Young, creator of this version of belcher, did make day 2 (narrowly missing top 8 with a 10th place finish) and I got a chance to watch a few of his matches. Highlights include a close loss in game 3 to Hive Mind wherein his opponent landed Hive Mind and cast Summoner’s Pact followed by Pact of Negation. Garret copied the Summoner’s Pact and got an Elvish Spirit Guide and during his upkeep was only one green mana away from paying for both pacts! He even had the right amount of mana, he just needed to turn a red into a green, but could not. The look on his opponents face when Garrett almost pulled it off was priceless. I also witnessed a game 3 vs. High Tide where Garrett managed to push a third turn belcher through a Force of Will with Red Elemental Blast, leaving a tapped Taiga and a Lotus Petal on board with no cards in hand. Next Turn the High Tide player played a 4th land, cast High Tide, cast Turnabout to untap his lands and then played Time Spiral. Garrett opens a new 7 containing 2 Spirit Guides and in response to the next spell removed them, sacked the Petal and pointed the Goblin Charbelcher at his opponent for lethal! Good Times.