Matt Hazard of Team Serious recently finished second at the Legacy Champs event at GenCon. In the final game of the tournament he activated Goblin Charbelcher targeting his opponent to win the 2010 Legacy Championship, only to have his [CENSORED] Taiga revealed 5 cards down! Check out his decklist(s), thoughts, and full tournament report of how he got there after the jump!
When considering what deck to play in the GenCon Legacy World Champs, I had to primarily consider that my experience with the Legacy format is limited. Last year at GenCon, I was able to pick up a Merfolk deck and Top 8 in one of the prelim events, but I just do not have the time to know the format well enough. Given this, at the Grand Prix Columbus, the week prior to GenCon, I chose to play a Goblin Charbelcher deck. I chose this because I have some experience with the deck in the Vintage world (with zero land instead of one) and I thought learning a few different cards would be easier than learning a new deck. My Team Serious teammate Nat Moes is the man to blame for me picking up Belcher in Vintage and also in Legacy. Nat has been playing the deck for years and constantly tinkering with the cards.
At Columbus, Nat Moes and I both ran our Belcher decks to a 4-2 start. Unfortunately, things went south from that point. Our lists were very similar with about eight cards different maindeck. Even with the poor showing at Columbus, I took the same deck to a Legacy Prelim event after I pooped out the Vintage Champs on Friday. Unfortunately, I also pooped out of the Legacy Prelim with this:
Matthew Hazard playing Charbelcher RG – Legacy Prelim deck
Business (11)
4 Goblin Charbelcher
3 Empty the Warrens
4 Burning Wish
Mana Sources (49)
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Land grant
1 Taiga
4 Lotus Petal
4 Chrome Mox
4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
4 Tinder Wall
4 Rite of Flame
4 Pyretic Ritual
4 Manamorphose
4 Desperate Ritual
4 Seething Song
Sideboard (15)
4 Guttural Response
4 Deus of Calamity
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Goblin War Strike
1 Goblin Grenade
1 Chain Lightning
1 Simplify
1 Shattering Spree
Semi-drunkenly looking at the deck that night, two things were foremost in my mind: once in Columbus and once in the Prelim on Friday, I had flipped my one Taiga too soon and lost because of it. The second thought was that Burning Wish was just too slow and circumstantial. If I wanted to use Burning Wish for the win (grabbing ETW or Tendrils), I almost had to have LED in play. The other Burning wish uses I had in my board were all one mana other…solutions to obstacles. Between Grand Prix Columbus and the Legacy Prelim at GenCon, I never cast Burning Wish.
With these two things in mind, I bounced ideas off all of my teammates and decided to drop the four Burning Wishes and add the fourth Empty the Warrens and three Street Wraiths. I briefly tested dropping the four Land Grants and the Taiga for something else (four Grim Monolith and the fourth Street Wraith), but it didn’t feel good in very limited testing. With that change, here is what I brought to the Legacy Championship:
Matthew Hazard playing Charbelcher RG – Legacy Championships
Business (11)
4 Goblin Charbelcher
4 Empty the Warrens
3 Street Wraith
Mana Sources (49)
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Land grant
1 Taiga
4 Lotus Petal
4 Chrome Mox
4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
4 Tinder Wall
4 Rite of Flame
4 Pyretic Ritual
4 Manamorphose
4 Desperate Ritual
4 Seething Song
Sideboard (15)
4 Xantid Swarm
4 Price of Progress
4 Guttural Response
3 Deus of Calamity
Throughout the day, I believe the only thing I sideboarded was -3 Street Wraith, -1 Manamorphose, +4 Guttural Response. Obviously this was done against Blue decks. In Columbus, I had brought in the Deus of Calamity and it even stole a game or three.
Here is what I remember from the Championship event at GenCon.
Round 1 vs. Dan with Burn (I think)
Game 1
Dan is on the play, but I don’t remember with what. I think he played a creature. On my turn one
on the draw, I cycled Street Wraith, play a few more spells, and Empty the Warrens for 14 goblins. I think he draws and plays a land. On my turn, I draw and swing with 14 and he blocks one, going to 7. On his turn, he plays a mountain and casts Flamebreak, dealing 3 damage to each non-flying creature and player. He drops to 4, I drop to 15, and all of my goblins drop to -2. On my turn three, I am able to Empty for 6 more goblins and they finish it.
Game 2
I do not sideboard. I don’t have any real notes here, but I believe he plays a creature on the play. I had a turn one Belcher, but no activation mana. My life total drops to 17, then 14, then 11, and then 8. I believe that was due to several Lightning Bolts and Incinerates. . I was forced to rebuild my manabase because he played Shattering Spree and destroyed my turn one Belcher and one or two mana sources. Deep into the game (for this deck, more than three turns), I manage to get a Goblin Charbelcher down and Belch for the win
1-0 (2-0 games)
Round 2 vs. Ryan with something
Game 1
I have a turn one Belch on the play.
Game 2
Unfortunately, there are many games throughout the day when I win on my first turn without seeing what the other player is playing. Obviously, this takes away from any intelligent sideboarding. I do not sideboard. Ryan is on the play and fetches and casts a creature. On my turn one on the draw, I Empty for 12 goblins. I believe Ryan cast another creature because on my turn, the goblins swing in and he drops from 19 to 9. He is unable to find an answer and the goblins win it on my next turn.
2-0 (4-0 games)
Round 3 vs. Blaine with Doomsday Combo (I mostly just copied this from Blaine’s report here and changed the pronouns around – thanks to Blaine for taking better notes)
Game 1
On the play, I cycle Street Wraith, then go all in with just Land Grant, two Rite of Flame, and Empty the Warrens for 8 goblins. Blaine kept a hand of something like Island, two Brainstorm, Dark Ritual, Duress, Doomsday, LED, etc. He played Island, go. I attack to put Blaine at 12. Blaine draws, then Brainstorms, but doesn’t hit a black land, only another Island. He plays Island, Top, pass. On my turn, the goblins beat him to 4 life. On Blaine’s turn he goes draw, Brainstorm again, and gets a Swamp on the last card. Blaine wins with a standard Doomsday pile (Meditate, 2 LED,
Petal, Tendrils).
Game 2
On the play, I play LED, Land Grant, pitch ESG, Pyretic Ritual, Seething Song, Belcher, and activate for the win.
Game 3
Blaine mulled to 5 and kept two lands, Duress, Thoughtseize, and Infernal Tutor. He Duressed me and saw two Land Grant, two Belcher, Seething Song, Manamorphose, and LED, which he took. On his next turn he Thoughtseized away my Seething Song, but was stuck sitting with two Infernal Tutors and nothing else. Somewhere in here Blaine double fetched going to 16. We don’t do much for several turns, then I go all in pitching ESG, playing Pyretic Ritual, Manamorphose, needing to hit more mana on the cantrip. I rip another Pyretic Ritual, and Empty the Warrens for 10 goblins. Blaine can’t recover in time.
3-0 (6-1 games)
Round 4 vs. Dale with Bant (Tarmogoyf, Noble Hierarch, Ponder, SB Pithing Needle, Engineered Explosives)
Game 1
I win the die roll, cycle two Street Wraiths, play some spells, cast Manamorphose, and turn one Belch for the win.
Game 2
I think Dale fetches and casts a Pithing Needle on the play naming Belcher and I Empty for 14 goblins on my turn. I think he had a Noble Hierarch on the board also. He plays a land and a Tarmogoyf (I think) and I draw and swing in taking him down to 5. On his turn, Dale plays an Engineered Explosives for zero and swings with the Tarmogoyf dropping me to 13. On my turn, I swing and he pops the Explosives clearing out my goblins and a Petal and LED also. He plays a Rhox War Monk and I scoop after a turn of life totals going in opposite directions.
Game 3
On the play, I Empty the Warrens for 10 goblins and Dale is unable to find an answer.
4-0 (8-2 games)
Round 5 vs. Scott with Merfolk
Game 1
Scott is on the play and leads with a first turn Cursecatcher which makes my job hard. On my turn I cycle a Street Wraith going to 18 and draw into a Lotus Petal which can protect my instants and sorceries from the Cursecatcher’s ability. I play the Petal, an LED, and a few others and win with a turn one Belch.
Game 2
I am not looking forward to a game two against blue, I board out my Street Wraiths and one Manamorphose and bring in four Guttural Response. Scott again gets out a turn one Cursecatcher, but I again have the artifact mana to play around it. He Dazes a spell early when I try to go off and fetches a couple times. After a couple turns of drawing, Scott is mana-flooded and I draw the mana business I need. I build up a small Empty the Warrens and he plays Force of Will on one copy. Having seen small numbers of Goblins fall short of sealing the deal before, I break a Lotus Petal and play Guttural Response on his Force of Will giving me 10 Goblins. He chumps with the Cursecatcher, gets a Lord of Atlantis out next turn, but can’t stem the tide of goblins.
5-0 (10-2 games)
Round 6 vs. Tyler with New Horizons/Bant Tempo
Game 1
I win the die roll, but for the first time of the day have to mulligan – twice. I cycle a Street Wraith, but can’t find any gas. Tyler breaks fetches, plays a Knight of Reliquary and he runs me over in short order.
Game 2
On the play I have to mulligan once, and find six worth keeping. I believe I pass the turn without playing anything. Tyler draws, plays Tundra and passes the turn. I draw and play a Chrome Mox which resolves, but Tyler Stifles the Imprint ability. I actually called a judge because of my inexperience on this; I had never had an Imprint ability Stifled before. I go to play something else – it must have been LED, Petal, or Land Grant – but Tyler also has the Daze and this game is effectively over for me. He drops a Tarmogoyf the next turn and beats in from there.
It was a little disappointing to start 5-0 and then drop two games for the match in round six, but I still felt pretty good about my play and the deck. I was aiming for prize placement at the least.
5-1 (10-4 games)
Round 7 vs. Brandt with Zoo
Game 1
I win the die roll and Empty for 12 goblins on turn one. They go the distance.
Game 2
Brandt mulligans once and plays a Steppe Lynx I think. I have a Belcher with activation on my turn.
The zoo matchups aren’t that fair. I am reminded of how Nat Moes sometimes annotates his tournament reports: “my opponent does not play Blue.”
6-1 (12-4 games)
At this point in the tourney, I am wondering if I will be able to draw in or if I will have to play. There were two 18 pointers at the end of round 6 and they drew round seven. Brandt won his round 7 match to go to 19 points also. After round 7, there were three 19 pointers, and then I was in 4th place with the highest tiebreakers for an 18 pointer. There were seven more 18 pointers, six of which would be playing each other, and the last getting paired down. I got paired with Tim Hunt, one of the 19 pointers and was able to draw into the Top 8. I ended up in 7th place after the Swiss.
The deck lists for my three Top 8 opponents are here.
Top 8 vs. Adam Yurchick with CounterTop
Game 1
I win the die roll and Empty for 14 goblins on my first turn. Adam draws his card and scoops.
Game 2
As was the case a few times earlier in the day, I had no idea how to sideboard. Adam starts building his mana base and I Empty on my turn for either 8 or 10 goblins. He lets them swing in once, but has the Engineered Explosives. I cannot remember if he had Needle also – I might be getting this one confused with an earlier match. He lands a Vendilion Clique, takes something, and then lands a Tarmogoyf later and they beat in for the win.
Game 3
I have just few notes here, but Adam fetches twice and I win with a Belch on turn three.
7-1-1 (14-5 games) (I’m not counting the ID games)
Top 4 vs. Stephen Schoppe with Aeon Bridge (Show and Tell/Mosswort Bridge)
Game 1
Steve and I are moved to the ‘feature match’ area so we can play this one out on camera.
Steve plays first after a mulligan. He plays a Polluted Delta, which he immediately breaks fetching an Underground Sea. He taps this and plays Thoughtseize. My hand is LED, Desperate Ritual, Land Grant, Empty the Warrens, Street Wraith, Goblin Charbelcher, and Lotus Petal. After much thought, he takes Land Grant. I draw a Simian Spirit Guide and then decide to go for a Goblin Charbelcher. I cycle Street Wraith, and see another card, Elvish Spirit Guide. I drop the Lotus Petal and LED. I break the Petal for one red mana, pitch the ESG for one green mana and cast Desperate Ritual. This resolves leaving me with three red mana. I pitch the SSG for the fourth and cast Goblin Charbelcher. I played this over the Empty the Warrens because it just wins. I did not know what my opponent was playing and I figured after a mulligan and a Thoughtseize, the odds were not incredible that he would be playing Force of Will (or Daze) and have that and another blue card in his four card hand. But he did have the Force of Will which he played, pitching something. This is normally game over for a Belcher player, but my opponents hand was almost as ‘Empty’ as mine.
Steve drew, played an island, and Duressed me taking my Empty the Warrens while my board was still just the LED. We both played draw-go for three more turn with Steve hitting no business and me trying to rebuild and find a win condition. I pitched an ESG and played a Tinder Wall, keeping a Simian Spirit Guide and a Pyretic Ritual. Steve drew and played a swamp. On my next draw, I drew Goblin Charbelcher. I sacrificed the Tinder Wall for tow red mana, played the Pyretic Ritual gaining me one red mana. I pitched the SSG and cast Goblin Charbelcher and this time it came onto the battlefield. I cracked the LED to activate it and Steve was about to scoop. I went ahead and started revealing cards. He stopped me at twenty for forty damage and the win.
Game 2
I sideboard out the three Street Wraiths and one Manamorphose for four Guttural Response. Steve is again on the play and I have to mulligan once. He Thoughtseizes me again, but I Empty for 12 goblins who beat in. On his next turn, he can Show and Tell with Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, but it’s a turn too late to stop the goblin horde.
8-1-1 (16-5 games)
Legacy Championship match vs. Ryan Messick
Game 1
Ryan wins the die roll and plays an Auntie’s Hovel (which I have to read) tapped on turn one. On my turn, I draw, cycle Street Wraith, and pitch an ESG to cast Tinder Wall. I play LED, sacrifice Tinder Wall to cast Desperate Ritual and turn that into Seething Song. This gives me five red mana to play Goblin Charbelcher. I pop the LED, discarding my hand and activate Belcher. My 46th card is Taiga, doing critical damage to my opponent.
Game 2
I believe I sideboarded in Guttural Responses here because it was possible my opponent may be bringing in Mindbreak Trap. Ryan keeps his hand on the play and I mulligan once. Ryan plays Mountain and I draw and then play a Chrome Mox imprinting Simian Spirit Guide. I then play Land Grant, revealing my hand of Rite of Flame, Pyretic Ritual, Desperate Ritual, and Goblin Charbelcher. I decide to try to go for it playing Rite of Flame, Pyretic Ritual, and then Belcher, which is met with a Mindbreak Trap. This is bad, but I do have another ritual in hand and two permanent mana sources. He plays an Auntie’s Hovel and Warren Instigator on turn two. I draw and he draws and plays a Wasteland, activating it and destroying my Taiga. The Instigator attacks and for its first hit brings in Siege Gang Commander (and his three token friends) and the second hit brings in a Warchief, I believe. I draw and at the end of my turn, he uses the Siege Gang ability to ping me with a token for two. On his turn, he plays two Goblin Piledrivers and swings for lethal. It strikes me as funny how fast both of our decks are.
Game 3
I consider bringing in my Xantid Swarms, but decide to roll with the Guttural Responses. Ryan mulligans once (presumably to find one of his four Mindbreak Traps) and I am on the play. I keep a decent hand and proceed to slow roll the Goblin Charbelcher, trying to play around the Mindbreak Trap. I lead with LED and pass the turn. Ryan lands a Lackey off a Badlands and passes the turn. I draw and have the mana to play Belcher, but not the mana to cast Guttural Response and protect it so I pass the turn. Ryan plays another Badlands, swings with the Lackey which then brings a Siege-Gang Commander to the party, along with his three friends. Ryan plays another Goblin Lackey and an AEther ViaI and I get the feeling that I have to try and win. I draw for the turn and start by playing Lotus Petal. I think long and hard, doing the math, and I think I can live through one more turn of attacks. I do not yet have the extra mana I need to protect Belcher if my opponent has Mindbreak Trap. I pass the turn. Ryan untaps, and swings with everything dropping me to 12 life. I draw a Chrome Mox and have to go for it. I lead with Chrome Mox, Imprinting a Guttural Response. I follow with Rite of Flame, and then Manamorphose. This puts a Tinder Wall in my hand which I play, leaving me with one red mana floating. I sacrifice the Tinder Wall, pitch an SSG, and try to cast Goblin Charbelcher. Ryan again has the Mindbreak Trap, but I am able to crack my Lotus Petal on board and cast Guttural Response (for the first time today), countering the Mindbreak Trap. The Charbelcher hits the board, I crack LED, discarding a third Guttural Response, and activate Belcher. I begin flipping over cards, and for the first time in the tournament I flip over my Taiga before hitting ten cards. It was just the fifth card from the top. Great cut Ryan! At the end of my turn, after my only non-lethal Belch of the day, Ryan activated the Siege Gang and tosses a token at me for two damage. Ryan draws, swings with all of his goblins and then pings me with another to win the game and match.
Final results:
8-2-1 (17-6 games)
I had a great time throughout the tournament. I did not play a single douche bag the entire day and to me, that is a very important part of playing this game we play. I walked away with ten Revised lands for the 2nd place prize. Many thanks for my friends, teammates, and opponents.