Trying to figure out exactly what to do with the Modal Double Faced Cards from Zendikar Rising has been difficult. From limited all the way to older formats players are trying to understand their place. Do they replace lands? Do they replace spells? Are they half a land?

While the minutia of these choices will take a long time to iron out, there's one deck that knows exactly what it is doing with them.

Goblin Charbelcher has been a major combo card since it's original printing in Mirrodon. With a deckbuilding restriction of "don't have lands in your deck," Goblin Charbelcher was often seen either alongside Mana Severance, or more commonly a bunch of rituals and artifact mana with one or zero lands.

*Cue Morpheus voice*

What if I told you that you could play over 20 lands in your Goblin Charbelcher deck and never hit a land?

Time Stamps:

00:05:34 - Match 1

00:09:15 - Match 2

00:27:44 - Match 3

00:48:15 - Match 4

01:05:12 - Match 5

Belcher | Modern | Rulleboren, 5-0 MTGO League

• Creatures (7)
• 3 Tangled Florahedron
• 4 Simian Spirit Guide

• Instants (20)
• 4 Desperate Ritual
• 4 Manamorphose
• 4 Pyretic Ritual
• 4 Spikefield Hazard
• 4 Valakut Awakening

• Sorceries (21)
• 1 Reforge the Soul
• 4 Bala Ged Recovery
• 4 Irencrag Feat
• 4 Recross the Paths
• 4 Shatterskull Smashing
• 4 Turntimber Symbiosis

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Blood Moon

• Artifacts (8)
• 4 Chalice of the Void
• 4 Goblin Charbelcher

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Thassa's Oracle
• 1 Undercity Informer
• 3 Leyline of Sanctity
• 4 Veil of Summer
• 3 Lightning Bolt
• 2 Wilt
• 1 Collected Company

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Well that was explosive!

Paying seven mana to win the game is extremely exciting and the deck building cost is heavily mitigated by the spell lands. You get to play a mostly normal manabase, with the bonus of having your lands be spells if you are flooded. Mana flood being a possibility for a Goblin Charbelcher deck... what a world to live in!

The prison package of Blood Moon and Chalice of the Void meshed perfectly with the deck as well. The biggest problem that Blood Moon/Chalice decks often have is actually having a good path to victory before your opponent can draw out of the prison cards. Killing your opponent on turn two or three is a nice path to victory! With the ritual effects playing so well with both sides, it's a natural fit.

Goblin Charbelcher decks will always struggle with heavily interactive decks, but being able to actual play lands and something resembling normal magic is a huge boon to the normally one-dimensional Goblin Charbelcher strategies. This makes the deck explosive, but not as "all in" as something like Neoform.

If you love combo, you've got a nice new one on your hands!