Landless Belcher — Modern Strategy Guide

Archetype Overview

Landless Belcher is a fast combo deck built around one artifact, Goblin Charbelcher, and one deckbuilding choice: the main deck has no cards that are lands on their front face. Every mana source you play is the back half of a modal double-faced card. That choice lets a single Belcher activation kill from any life total, and it is the reason this list took 2nd Place at the MTG SEA Championships Singapore Open (Oracle Events, 2026-10-18, 91 players), piloted by Christian Joriz Cruz.

Why "Landless" Matters

Goblin Charbelcher reveals cards until it hits a land card. It then deals damage equal to the number of nonland cards revealed. In your library, a double-faced card counts only as its front face. That means Pinnacle Monk, Shatterskull Smashing, Sundering Eruption, Legion Leadership, Witch Enchanter, Razorgrass Ambush and Valakut Awakening are a creature, sorceries and instants while they sit there, not lands.

• With no land card in the library, Belcher reveals everything you have left.
• It deals damage equal to all of it, which is far more than any opponent's life total.
• The revealed cards go to the bottom in any order, so you lose nothing.

One activation is the whole kill. You don't need a second turn, a second piece or a graveyard.

The cost is that you have 20 land drops in a 60-card deck, and each one is a spell you chose not to cast. Most of them either cost 3 life or enter tapped. You are trading mana reliability for a kill that cannot fall short on damage.

How the Mana Comes Together

Goblin Charbelcher costs {4} to cast and {3} to activate. Seven mana is the number you are building toward, and the deck has several ways to get there faster than its land count suggests.

• Irencrag Feat costs four and adds seven. Its restriction says you can cast only one more spell this turn. The Belcher activation is an ability, not a spell. So Feat into Belcher into activation is a complete kill off four mana.
• Ruby Medallion makes your red spells cost {1} less. With it in play, Pyretic Ritual and Desperate Ritual each net two extra mana, Manamorphose turns a profit while drawing a card, and Feat gets cheaper still. Belcher is colorless, so Medallion speeds up the setup, not the artifact itself.
• Strike It Rich banks a Treasure for a later turn, and its flashback gives you a second Treasure later.
• Manamorphose fixes colors and replaces itself while you dig.
• March of Reckless Joy and Valakut Awakening help you find whichever piece you are missing.

Protection and a Second Angle

Orim's Chant is your protection on the combo turn. Cast it first, and the opponent can't respond with spells while you assemble the kill. Kicked, it also stops a lethal attack, which buys a turn against creature decks.

When the opponent is ready for the artifact, the deck has a second route. Stormscale Scion has storm, so every ritual, Chant and cantrip you cast before it adds another copy. Each copy is a flying 4/4 that pumps the other Dragons. Bitter Reunion can be sacrificed to give them haste the same turn, and Legion Leadership doubles one creature's power. A chain that runs out of steam before Belcher can still end in a lethal swarm of Dragons.

The rest of the 60 gives you interaction that doubles as land drops:

• Witch Enchanter and Get Lost clear artifact or enchantment hate pieces.
• Shatterskull Smashing and Razorgrass Ambush handle creatures.
• Sundering Eruption can destroy a key land.
• Pinnacle Monk returns a spent Irencrag Feat or ritual from your graveyard to your hand.

Why the Plan Is Strong

• The kill is decisive. A resolved Belcher activation doesn't depend on attacking or on the opponent's life total. Lifegain and blockers do nothing against it.
• The deck doesn't touch the graveyard. Graveyard hate barely affects you. The exceptions are Strike It Rich's flashback and Pinnacle Monk's return.
• Your land drops are flexible. Late in a game, a Shatterskull Smashing is removal or a land, whichever you need. This deck almost never draws a dead land.
• It has two distinct kills. An opponent who prepares only for the artifact still has to deal with Stormscale Scion.

Where It's Fragile

Goblin Charbelcher is an artifact, and its kill is an activated ability. Orim's Chant stops spells, not abilities, so a removal ability or a static hate piece already on the battlefield gets through. That is why the anti-permanent cards and the Scion plan exist.

The deck also pays life for its untapped lands, which matters against aggressive decks. And with this few mana sources, mulligans and land-drop decisions carry more weight than in a deck with a normal land count.

Who Should Pick It Up

Play this deck if you are comfortable doing mana math under pressure. You need to count:

• rituals against Medallion discounts,
• Treasures and remaining land drops,
• exactly where Irencrag Feat has to sit in the chain.

It rewards players who enjoy deciding, every turn, whether a card is a spell or a land. It also suits players who would rather goldfish fast than out-grind a long game.

Skip it if you want a deck that stays steady through bad draws. Its starts swing from very fast to awkward, and piloting it well means knowing which awkward hands still win. At an estimated $311, it is one of the more affordable ways to play a combo deck that can kill from any life total in Modern.

Core Strategy & Game Plan

The deck is a combo kill with one target: resolve Goblin Charbelcher and activate it into a library that contains no land cards. Every "land" in the main deck is the back face of a modal card. In your library those cards are their front faces: creatures, instants, and sorceries. When Belcher reveals until it hits a land, it reveals everything you have left and deals damage equal to that count. Before game two, a single activation is lethal against almost any life total.

The Mana Math

Belcher costs {4} to cast and {3} to activate, so the whole kill needs seven mana. Belcher is an artifact, not a creature, so you can cast it and activate it on the same turn. The rest of the deck exists to reach seven mana as early as possible:

• Irencrag Feat turns four mana into seven red. The card says you can cast only one more spell that turn. Belcher is that one spell, and the activation is an ability, not a spell, so Feat into Belcher into activate wins by itself.
• Ruby Medallion makes your red spells cost {1} less. That includes Manamorphose, whose hybrid cost makes it red. It does not discount Belcher, which is colorless, or Orim's Chant, which is white. With Medallion out, Desperate Ritual and Pyretic Ritual each cost {R} and make {R}{R}{R}, a net gain of two mana per Ritual. Irencrag Feat drops to three mana.
• Strike It Rich leaves a Treasure you can bank for the combo turn. Its flashback turns the card into extra mana late in the game.
• Manamorphose, March of Reckless Joy, Valakut Awakening, and Bitter Reunion dig you toward the missing piece. Manamorphose also fixes white for Orim's Chant.

The Backup Kill: Storm Dragons

If Belcher gets answered, Stormscale Scion turns a Ritual chain into a lethal board. Each copy is a 4/4 flier, and each Scion gets +1/+1 for every other Dragon you control. Here is a concrete line:

• You have three lands, Ruby Medallion, and Bitter Reunion on the battlefield.
• Cast Desperate Ritual, Pyretic Ritual, and Manamorphose. That leaves you eight mana.
• Cast Scion for five. With three spells before it, you get four Scions, each a 7/7 flier.
• Pay {1} and sacrifice Bitter Reunion to give them haste.

Without the Reunion haste ability, the Dragons are a turn slow and exposed to sweepers, so treat Reunion as half of the backup plan. Pinnacle Monk serves as a second backup: it returns a spent Irencrag Feat or Ritual from your graveyard so you can try the combo again.

Posture: Proactive With a Shield

You are the beatdown in every matchup. Your interaction exists to clear the way for the combo, not to grind:

• Orim's Chant stops the target player from casting spells this turn. Cast it on your opponent before you start the chain, so they can't counter Belcher or kill you in response. Cast it before Irencrag Feat, because Feat leaves you only one spell. Chant does not stop activated abilities.
• Kicked Orim's Chant also stops creatures from attacking that turn. That buys you a turn against creature decks.
• Witch Enchanter and Get Lost remove the artifacts, enchantments, and creatures that shut you off. Use them on hate pieces, not on random threats.

The Land-Drop Tension

Twenty cards can serve as your lands, and every one you play is a spell you give up. Read which face each card will be most useful as:

• Usually lands: Shatterskull Smashing, Sundering Eruption, and Razorgrass Ambush do little for the combo, so play them as lands.
• Keep as spells when you can afford to: Witch Enchanter and Pinnacle Monk are worth holding while you have enough land drops elsewhere.
• Play the tapped lands first: the land sides of Legion Leadership and Valakut Awakening always enter tapped, so play them on turns when you won't use the mana.
• Watch your life total: most other land faces cost 3 life to enter untapped. Against aggressive decks, those payments add up fast.
• White sources: the land sides of Witch Enchanter, Razorgrass Ambush, and Legion Leadership are your natural white mana for Chant, kicker, and Get Lost. Play one before your combo turn if Chant is in your hand.

The Ideal Game, Turn by Turn

1. Turn 1: Play a land and cast Strike It Rich, or play a tapped land if you have no one-drop.
2. Turn 2: Play a land and cast Ruby Medallion.
   • The fast version: with the Treasure plus two lands you have three mana. Desperate Ritual leaves you four, Pyretic Ritual five, and Irencrag Feat eight.
   • Belcher and its activation use seven of those eight, so you win on turn 2. This takes a lot of cards, but the hand exists.
3. Turn 3: Play your third land.
   • With Medallion out, Irencrag Feat costs exactly what you have, and it pays for Belcher plus the activation.
   • Without Feat, two Rituals at {R} each get you from three mana to seven, which is the same kill.
   • Cast Chant first if your opponent has mana open and you have the spare white.
4. Turn 4 and beyond: If something went wrong, rebuild.
   • Use Pinnacle Monk to get Feat back.
   • Flash back Strike It Rich.
   • Switch to the Stormscale Scion and Bitter Reunion line if Belcher is gone.

Your default is the turn-3 kill with Medallion. Before you commit, add up every mana source, then check what your opponent can do with open mana: that tells you whether to cast Chant first. Avoid casting Belcher without enough mana left to activate it unless you have no better play. A Belcher that sits on the battlefield for a turn gives your opponent a free window to destroy it.

Card Choices & Breakdown

The Kill: Goblin Charbelcher

Goblin Charbelcher is the deck. It costs {4} to cast and {3} to activate, so you need seven mana to win in one turn. Every card in the main 60 has a nonland front face. That means a Belcher activation never stops early on a land card: it flips your whole library, and every card revealed counts as damage to any target. Four copies is non-negotiable, because every other slot exists to cast it or protect it.

Two details matter. First, Ruby Medallion does nothing for Belcher, since Belcher is colorless. Second, effects that exile or draw from your library lower the damage number, so on a thin library late in a long game, count before you fire.

Fast Mana: Rituals, Medallion, Feat

• Ruby Medallion (4): This is the engine. With it out, Desperate Ritual and Pyretic Ritual cost {R} and add {R}{R}{R}, and Irencrag Feat drops to {R}{R}{R}. It also cuts Stormscale Scion to five and Pinnacle Monk to four.
• Desperate Ritual / Pyretic Ritual (4 each): Eight copies of the same effect. Desperate gets the nod for splice: it is Arcane itself, so a second copy can splice onto the first. You get the extra {R}{R}{R} and keep that copy in hand for later.
• Irencrag Feat (4): Seven red mana in one card. The "only one more spell" clause doesn't hurt the main line. Casting Belcher is your one spell, and the activation is an ability, not a spell. Feat into Belcher is the cleanest win the deck has.
• Manamorphose (3): It costs one mana under Medallion, adds two of any color, and replaces itself. It is also a white source for Orim's Chant. It sits at three because its job is smoothing, and a fourth copy competes with land faces for space.
• Strike It Rich (3): It is mana-neutral on cast. Its value is the Treasure, which makes any color, so it is often your Chant mana. Flashback gives you a second Treasure on a later turn, and the flashback cost does shrink under Medallion. Three copies keeps it as filler rather than a core piece.

Protection and Interaction

• Orim's Chant (4): Cast it on the opponent before you go off, and they can't cast spells for the rest of your turn. That shuts off instant-speed answers to the combo. Kicked, it also stops attacks, which buys a turn against creature decks. This is the main reason the deck plays white at all.
• Get Lost (2): Flexible removal that hits enchantments as well as creatures and planeswalkers. Giving the opponent two Map tokens rarely matters when you plan to win soon.
• Witch Enchanter (2): Usually a white land. When you need it, the front face destroys an opposing artifact or enchantment, which is your main-deck answer to a hate piece.
• Razorgrass Ambush (2): Mostly an untapped Plains-equivalent. The front face is an emergency answer to an attacker.
• Shatterskull Smashing (4): Your best red land face, since it can enter untapped. The front face is scalable removal for one or two creatures when the game drags.
• Sundering Eruption (4): Another untapped red land. The front face is real against utility lands. All 82 Broodscale Bloodchief Top 8 lists ran 4 Urza's Saga and 4 Eldrazi Temple (source: MTGTop8 deck exports, 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-18). The opponent gets a basic back, but it enters tapped. The "can't block" clause turns it into an alpha-strike enabler for Pinnacle Monk.

Backup Threats

• Stormscale Scion (4): This is your second axis when Belcher is answered or exiled. A mid-combo Scion copies itself once for each spell cast before it that turn. Every copy is a flying Dragon, and each one buffs the others. Off Irencrag Feat, Scion can be the one allowed spell.
• Pinnacle Monk (4): A red land that can enter untapped. Late, it returns Irencrag Feat or a ritual to hand to extend a turn that fell short.
• Legion Leadership (3): Its land face taps for either color but always enters tapped, so play it on turn one. The front face doubles a Scion's power for a kill. Three copies is the ceiling for a tapped land in a deck that wants to go off by turn three.
• Bitter Reunion (2): It trades extra lands or dead interaction for two fresh cards. Later, you can sacrifice it to give haste to Scions cast that turn.

Card Flow

• March of Reckless Joy (2): Exile spare red cards from hand to cut its cost, then play two of the top X. Those cards can include a land face or the Belcher you're missing. Remember that it shrinks your library.
• Valakut Awakening (1): A tapped red land that becomes a mulligan-in-place late. Cards go to the bottom, so your Belcher damage count is untouched. One copy is enough, given that the land face enters tapped.

The Mana Base

There are twenty land faces, all on double-faced spells:

• Red (16 faces): four Pinnacle Monk, four Shatterskull Smashing, four Sundering Eruption, three Legion Leadership and one Valakut Awakening.
• White (7 faces): three Legion Leadership, two Witch Enchanter and two Razorgrass Ambush.

Legion Leadership counts toward both colors. Manamorphose and Treasure from Strike It Rich cover the white gaps.

The cost is life. The untapped faces each charge 3, so against aggressive decks, play the tapped faces early and save your life total for the turns you actually need speed.

The Decklist

This is the 75 Christian Joriz Cruz registered for 2nd place at MTG SEA Championships - Singapore Open - Oracle Events (91 players, 2026-10-18). At TCGplayer market prices it costs about $311.

The main deck has no basic lands and no card whose front face is a land. Every mana source is the back face of a spell: 20 of them across seven card names. Each land drop is a choice about which spell you give up, so every note below that says "land first" reflects that cost.

Main Deck (60)

The core of the deck is the 4-ofs: rituals, Ruby Medallion, Irencrag Feat, both finishers and Orim's Chant. The flex slots are where you tune the deck. They trade off land count, white sources and interaction.

Sideboard (15)

Before you board in either basic, weigh that tradeoff against Goblin Charbelcher. The 60 contains no basic lands, and a basic in your library is a land card that ends an activation. Only the Mountain pays you back by doubling the damage.

Mulligan Guide

Every land in this deck is the back face of a spell, so each land drop costs you a card. A keepable seven balances three things: enough land faces to cast your first plays, enough acceleration to reach the kill, and the kill itself or a real way to find it. Two of the three is a mulligan unless the missing piece is cheap to dig for.

What a keepable hand needs

• Two land faces minimum. One land face is a ship almost every time, because the rituals turn mana into more mana but cannot create it from nothing. Three land faces is ideal when one of them is a spell you were happy to give up as a land.
• A path to seven mana in one turn. Irencrag Feat produces exactly enough to cast Goblin Charbelcher and activate it. Without Feat, you need rituals plus Ruby Medallion to get to that same number.
• A payoff or a dig spell. Goblin Charbelcher is the kill. March of Reckless Joy, Valakut Awakening (as a spell), Bitter Reunion and Manamorphose can stand in for it if the hand is otherwise mana-rich.
• Tapped versus untapped land faces. Legion Leadership and Valakut Awakening always come in tapped as lands, so play them on turn 1. The other land faces cost 3 life to enter untapped, and against aggro that life is part of the hand's real cost.

Example hands

1. Shatterskull Smashing, Sundering Eruption, Ruby Medallion, Desperate Ritual, Irencrag Feat, Goblin Charbelcher, Orim's Chant — Snap keep. Play both lands, then cast Medallion on turn 2. On turn 3, Ritual costs only {R} and makes {R}{R}{R}. Add your second land and you have four red. Feat costs {R}{R}{R} with Medallion, leaving eight mana total: enough to cast Belcher and activate it. That is a turn-3 kill on two lands. Orim's Chant has no white source here, so treat it as dead weight.
2. Goblin Charbelcher, Ruby Medallion, Desperate Ritual, Pyretic Ritual, Manamorphose, Strike It Rich, Orim's Chant — Ship. It looks explosive, but there are zero land faces and nothing is castable. Don't keep a no-lander hoping to draw lands.
3. Pinnacle Monk, Goblin Charbelcher, Strike It Rich, Pyretic Ritual, Desperate Ritual, Manamorphose, Bitter Reunion — Ship. Count the best case on turn 2: Mystic Peak plus a Treasure, chained through both rituals and Manamorphose, gets Belcher onto the table with no mana left to activate it. After that you are stuck on one land face. The hand needs two specific draws to function.
4. Shatterskull Smashing, Legion Leadership, Ruby Medallion, Pyretic Ritual, Desperate Ritual, March of Reckless Joy, Valakut Awakening — Keep.
   • Turn 1: play Legion Stronghold tapped.
   • Turn 2: pay life for Shatterskull to come in untapped, then cast Medallion.
   • Turn 3: the discounted rituals fund a large X on March. You can also exile red cards from your hand to cut its cost further.
   You have no kill yet, but the mana is excellent and March lets you play two of the exiled cards. You also have a third land face in Valakut if you need it. Going to six costs more than the extra turn this hand might take.
5. Witch Enchanter, Shatterskull Smashing, Ruby Medallion, Orim's Chant, Desperate Ritual, Irencrag Feat, Goblin Charbelcher against control — Premium keep. Play Witch-Blessed Meadow and Shatterskull, then Medallion on turn 2. On turn 3, Meadow pays for Chant on your opponent. Shatterskull then pays for Ritual, which is exactly enough for Feat, then Belcher plus activation. Chant adds one mana to the kill turn, so in matchups where you need it, value hands with a spare mana.

On the play vs. on the draw

On the play, the two-land, Medallion-plus-ritual hands are what you want. A turn-3 kill comes before most opponents have set up. On the draw, your seven gets an extra card before turn 3. That makes the slower "mana plus dig spell" hands, like Hand 4, comfortable keeps. One-land-face hands stay mulligans either way, because the extra draw is not reliably a land. On the draw against aggro, cut back on paying 3 life for untapped lands where you can. Favor hands that kill by turn 3 over hands that need to survive to turn 4.

Against known matchups

• Broodscale Bloodchief. This was the most-represented archetype, at 82 of 460 Top 8 slots (source: MTGTop8, 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-18).
  • Game 1: keep for speed and prioritize hands that kill on turn 3.
  • Post-board: every one of those lists carried Grafdigger's Cage, and 79 of 82 carried Trinisphere in the sideboard (source: MTGTop8 deck exports, 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-18). Per its text, Cage only stops you from flashing back Strike It Rich, so don't mulligan to fight it.
  • Count Witch Enchanter as a live answer to an opposing artifact rather than just a land face. Treat Untimely Malfunction the same way if you board it in.
• Aggro (UR Cutter Prowess, Boros Aggro). Keep hands that win by turn 3. Two white sources plus Orim's Chant is worth a lot: kicked, it stops creatures from attacking for a turn. A hand that needs every land to come in untapped is a liability, because the life payments add up.
• Control (Dimir Control, UW Control). Speed matters less here than resilience. Prefer hands with Orim's Chant and a white land face over faster hands with no way to protect the kill turn. Repeated dig spells like March of Reckless Joy and Valakut Awakening improve as the game goes longer.

Sequencing & Key Lines

Every land in the main deck is the back face of a modal double-faced card. In the library those cards are their front-face spells, so a Goblin Charbelcher activation reveals your entire library and deals damage equal to all of it. Once the activation resolves against a near-full library, the game is over. Sequencing therefore comes down to two problems: reaching seven mana in one turn (four to cast, three to activate), and getting through that turn without being disrupted.

The Kill Turn, in Order

1. Orim's Chant first, targeting the opponent. If they counter it, you find out before you spend rituals. Chant stops spells only. It does nothing against activated abilities already on the battlefield.
2. Cantrips and mana-neutral pieces next. Manamorphose and Strike It Rich show you more cards and can fix for white before you commit.
3. Rituals. With Ruby Medallion out, Desperate Ritual and Pyretic Ritual each cost {R} and net two mana.
4. Irencrag Feat last. After it resolves you can cast exactly one more spell. That includes Chant, a ritual or Manamorphose, so finish all of those first. The one spell you cast afterward is the Belcher.
5. Cast Belcher only with three mana floating for the activation. When Belcher resolves you receive priority first, so activate immediately. The opponent's first chance to respond comes with the ability already on the stack, and destroying the artifact at that point does not stop the damage.

Standard Lines

• Turn 3, Medallion plus Feat: Play Medallion on turn 2. On turn 3, Feat costs {R}{R}{R} off three lands and makes seven, which pays for Belcher and the activation exactly. To add Chant, tap your white source for it, cast Desperate Ritual off a second land, then cast Feat. You end with one spare mana.
• Turn 3, Medallion plus two rituals: Three lands, Desperate Ritual, then Pyretic Ritual gives you seven. Without Feat you can keep casting spells afterward, including Chant.
• Turn 4, no Medallion: Feat off four lands makes seven. For Chant on the same turn, tap one land for Chant and two for Desperate Ritual. Add the fourth land and you have four mana, which is exactly enough for Feat.
• Banking with Strike It Rich: On turn 1, Strike It Rich turns your only mana into a Treasure. That Treasure carries a mana into the combo turn, and it can make the white for Chant.

Land Drops and Life

Play Legion Leadership and Valakut Awakening as lands on turns where you have nothing to cast, since they enter tapped either way. Pay 3 life for an untapped land only when you will spend the mana that turn. Against aggro those payments add up fast.

When deciding which faces to give up as lands, Sundering Eruption and Shatterskull Smashing usually go first unless the opponent has creatures worth killing. Have a white source on the battlefield before the combo turn: Witch Enchanter, Razorgrass Ambush or Legion Leadership played as a land, or a Treasure in reserve.

Branch Points

• Belcher is off the table: This applies when artifact hate is on the battlefield or your Belchers are gone. Switch to Stormscale Scion as the one spell after Feat. Storm copies aren't cast, so Feat's restriction doesn't stop them. Each Scion is a 4/4 flyer that gets +1/+1 for every other Dragon. With three spells cast before it, you get four Scions at 7/7 each.
  • Haste requires Bitter Reunion already on the battlefield plus {1} to sacrifice it, so cast Reunion on an earlier turn when the discard is cheap.
  • Count opposing flying blockers before committing.
• The turn fizzled: Pinnacle Monk returns Feat or Chant from your graveyard and sets up the next attempt. With Medallion it costs four.
• Hate is on the battlefield: Clear it the turn before you go off. Witch Enchanter destroys an artifact or enchantment, and Get Lost handles enchantments. Chant cannot touch permanents.
• Digging: Cast Valakut Awakening at the end of the opponent's turn. Keep the X on March of Reckless Joy modest so most of your library stays in place as Belcher damage.

Playing Around the Format's Interaction

• Counterspells: UR Cutter Prowess sideboarded Spell Pierce in 25 of its 30 Top 8 lists (source: MTGTop8, 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-18). Lead with Chant every time. If they counter it, decide whether to continue based on whether you hold a second Chant or enough resources for another attempt.
• Aggro: Cast kicked Chant during their upkeep. For that entire turn they can't cast spells and their creatures can't attack. That is worth far more than spending it on your own turn.
• Broodscale Bloodchief: Grafdigger's Cage appeared in all 82 Bloodchief Top 8 sideboards (source: MTGTop8, 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-18). After sideboarding, don't count on Strike It Rich flashback in your mana math, because Cage stops spells cast from graveyards. Vexing Bauble was in 78 of those 82 main decks (source: MTGTop8, 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-18). Every spell in this list requires mana to cast, so Bauble's counter trigger rarely applies to you.
• Basics after sideboarding: If you bring in Mountain or Plains, Belcher stops at the first one it reveals. A basic near the top can leave you short of lethal, so count your outs before relying on the activation.

Matchup Matrix

Broodscale Bloodchief

This is the deck you will see most. It held 82 of 460 Top 8 slots across 59 events (source: MTGTop8, 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-18). Game 1 is a race, so keep hands that kill fastest rather than hands that interact.

Two of their common cards do less against you than they look:

• Vexing Bauble: it sits in 78 of the 82 main decks. It only counters spells cast with no mana spent, and every spell in your 60 costs mana, even with Ruby Medallion out.
• Grafdigger's Cage: it is in all 82 sideboards (source: MTGTop8, 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-18). It stops only the flashback on Strike It Rich. Pinnacle Monk returns cards to your hand, and March of Reckless Joy plays cards from exile, so neither is affected.

Their sideboards also run Trinisphere in 79 lists, Nature's Claim in 76 and Pithing Needle in 61 (source: MTGTop8, 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-18), so after sideboarding expect permanent-based hate aimed at you.

Your counter is a second axis. Stormscale Scion cast after a ritual chain makes a flock of flying Dragons that pump each other, and Bitter Reunion gives them haste. That kill doesn't depend on Goblin Charbelcher surviving. Untimely Malfunction answers their artifacts at instant speed, and Witch Enchanter handles any artifact or enchantment they land.

UR Cutter Prowess

They are fast, and they get more interactive after sideboarding. Consign to Memory is in 29 of 30 sideboards, Spell Pierce in 25 and Spell Snare in 24 (source: MTGTop8, 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-18).

• Game 1: goldfish. Spend your interaction only when it buys the kill turn. Kicked Orim's Chant cast on their turn stops both their spells and their attacks. Razorgrass Ambush kills an attacker. Shatterskull Smashing splits damage across two creatures.
• Games 2 and 3: open your combo turn with Orim's Chant targeting them. They get exactly one window to respond, to the Chant itself, before your rituals start.

Rakdos Delirium

This is graveyard-fueled midrange that wins over several turns. Your speed is the edge.

• Never fire off rituals into open mana if you can cast Orim's Chant first.
• When the white mana isn't there, dig with Manamorphose and Valakut Awakening rather than going off naked a turn early.

Boros Aggro

Kicked Orim's Chant cast in their upkeep is close to a skipped turn: no spells, no attacks. You want to interact once and then kill.

• Get Lost and Razorgrass Ambush handle the first threat.
• Don't durdle on removal past that point. The Map tokens from Get Lost and the basic from Erode matter less than the turn they buy you.

Scepter Chant

The archetype is built on the same effect printed on your Orim's Chant. A player who can't cast spells this turn can't combo, and you need to cast many spells in a single turn.

Their engine permanent is the namesake Scepter, an artifact, and destroying it is the matchup:

• Main deck: Witch Enchanter.
• Sideboard: Untimely Malfunction and Wear/Tear.
• Fire Untimely Malfunction on their end step so your own turn starts clean.

In game 1, race them before the lock assembles.

The rest of the field

Artifact aggro: Witch Enchanter, Untimely Malfunction and Wear/Tear all line up against artifact threats.

Creature combo: Get Lost, Shatterskull Smashing and Erode kill key creatures. If their engine is a creature's activated ability, Cursed Totem shuts it off. Check that it doesn't hurt you first: none of your creatures has an activated ability.

Graveyard combo: Grafdigger's Cage stops creature cards from entering the battlefield from graveyards. Surgical Extraction exiles a key card from every zone. Land the Cage before they are ready.

Big mana / ramp: decks that spend early turns building mana give you the goldfish turns you need. Sundering Eruption can also knock out a key land.

Interactive control: resolve Orim's Chant before anything else. Keep Stormscale Scion as the backup line when they are holding answers for Goblin Charbelcher.

Sideboard / Tech Guide

How to Board With This 75

• Count your land faces. Twenty main-deck cards are spell/land modal cards. Cutting Razorgrass Ambush, Shatterskull Smashing, or Sundering Eruption for a sideboard spell also cuts a land drop. When you take out more than two of them, bring in Mountain or Plains to keep your mana steady.
• Basics change Goblin Charbelcher. A Mountain or Plains is a real land card in your library, so a Belcher activation stops when it reaches one. Mountain hurts less because the damage doubles when Belcher stops on a Mountain. Plains simply ends the reveal. The trade is worth it when you need an untapped land without paying 3 life.
• Your own hate pieces cost you almost nothing. Cursed Totem doesn't affect your creatures, because none of them have activated abilities. Grafdigger's Cage stops only one card in your 75: the flashback on Strike It Rich.
• Vexing Bauble and Surgical Extraction don't mix. Without a black source you pay for Extraction with 2 life and no mana, so your own Bauble counters it. Pick one per matchup.

Broodscale Bloodchief

Broodscale Bloodchief is the deck you'll face most. It took 82 of 460 Top 8 slots (source: MTGTop8, 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-18). Their sideboards are where the danger is. Trinisphere showed up in 79 of those 82 lists, Pithing Needle in 61, and Grafdigger's Cage in all 82 (source: MTGTop8 deck exports, 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-18). The Cage only turns off Strike It Rich flashback, so ignore it. The artifact hate is what decides post-board games.

They also run Vexing Bauble main in 78 of 82 lists (same source and dates). Every spell in your main deck has a colored mana symbol that cost reducers can't remove, so you always spend mana and their Bauble rarely counters anything. Don't play around it.

• In: 2 Untimely Malfunction, 2 Wear/Tear
• Out: 2 Razorgrass Ambush, 2 Bitter Reunion

Combined with Witch Enchanter, Untimely Malfunction gives you instant-speed artifact removal for whatever lock piece lands. Wear/Tear is your second anti-hate slot. Ambush only hits attacking or blocking creatures, and this matchup is decided by whether you can resolve your spells, not by combat. If the land count feels thin after losing the two Ambushes, swap one Bitter Reunion for Mountain.

UR Cutter Prowess and Boros Aggro

Here you're racing, and paying 3 life for an untapped land is a real cost. UR Cutter Prowess sideboards carried Spell Pierce in 25 of 30 lists, Consign to Memory in 29, and Meltdown in 22 (source: MTGTop8 deck exports, 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-18). Expect counterspells and artifact removal after game one.

• In: 1 Erode, 2 Untimely Malfunction, 1 Mountain
• Out: 2 Bitter Reunion, 2 March of Reckless Joy

Erode is one-mana creature removal. Untimely Malfunction can redirect a single-target burn spell or removal spell. It can also make blockers unable to block on a Stormscale Scion turn. Keep Razorgrass Ambush, Get Lost, and kicked Orim's Chant to buy turns. Against Boros, swap Plains in for the second Untimely Malfunction if you would rather have the life buffer.

Living End and Instant Reanimator

For Living End:

• In: 2 Grafdigger's Cage, 2 Vexing Bauble
• Out: 3 Strike It Rich, 1 Razorgrass Ambush

Living End's plan relies on casting spells without paying mana. Vexing Bauble counters exactly that kind of spell, and Grafdigger's Cage stops creatures from entering from the graveyard. Strike It Rich comes out because your own Cage blanks its flashback.

For Instant Reanimator:

• In: 2 Grafdigger's Cage, 2 Surgical Extraction
• Out: 3 Strike It Rich, 1 Razorgrass Ambush

Extraction answers their reanimation target at instant speed for 2 life. Leave Bauble in the sideboard so it doesn't counter your own Extraction. Keep Get Lost in, since it handles anything that does come back.

Scepter Chant

• In: 2 Untimely Malfunction, 2 Wear/Tear
• Out: 2 Razorgrass Ambush, 2 Get Lost

The archetype's namesake is an artifact. Your answer suite becomes Witch Enchanter, Untimely Malfunction, and Wear/Tear. Get Lost can't touch artifacts and they rarely give Ambush a target, so both come out. If you're on the play, you can also hold Orim's Chant to protect your own combo turn.

Devoted Combo

• In: 2 Cursed Totem, 1 Erode
• Out: 2 Razorgrass Ambush, 1 Bitter Reunion

Devoted Combo's engine runs through creature activated abilities. Cursed Totem shuts those off and costs you nothing. Erode and Get Lost give you creature removal at instant speed. Ambush comes out because this deck isn't trying to win through combat.

Control and Big Mana (UW Control, Dimir Control, UrzaTron)

Your sideboard has no dedicated anti-counterspell cards. Against control you board lightly: swap 2 Razorgrass Ambush for 2 Untimely Malfunction, which handles artifact hate and redirects single-target answers.

The real adjustment is sequencing. Bait with March of Reckless Joy and Valakut Awakening, then go off when they're tapped low. Use Orim's Chant in their upkeep or end step to clear a window for your combo turn.

Tech Choices & Variations

Most of this 60 is locked: the rituals, Ruby Medallion, Irencrag Feat, Goblin Charbelcher and the red modal spells are the engine. The real decisions sit in roughly a dozen slots: the white interaction, Witch Enchanter, the card-flow pieces, and how many basics you let into your library. Each modal card is also a land face, so every swap changes your mana as well as your spells.

The white interaction package

Get Lost, Razorgrass Ambush and Orim's Chant are the slots most worth retuning for your field.

• Get Lost vs. Erode: Erode costs one mana instead of two and still kills creatures and planeswalkers, but the opponent gets a basic land instead of two Map tokens. Get Lost is the only one that also hits enchantments. In a creature-heavy room, moving Erode into the main for a Get Lost gets you a cheaper answer. Ramping a fair opponent by a land matters less than spending your one-mana turn on interaction instead of development.
• Razorgrass Ambush: It only hits attacking or blocking creatures, so against combo and control it is effectively a land. That is not dead weight, though. Razorgrass Field is one of only seven white-producing land faces in the main, alongside the two Witch-Blessed Meadows and three Legion Strongholds. If you cut Ambush for a red card, bring in the Plains or accept a thinner white count for Orim's Chant and Get Lost.
• Orim's Chant at four: Chant is your shield against interaction on the combo turn and, kicked, a full turn of no attacks. Keep it at four.

Witch Enchanter and the artifact-hate question

Two main-deck Witch Enchanter is a bet that you'll face permanents you need gone before you can win. The most-played archetype in the brief is Broodscale Bloodchief, with 82 of 460 Top 8 slots (source: MTGTop8, 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-18). Those lists ran Vexing Bauble in 78 of 82 main decks and Grafdigger's Cage in all 82 sideboards (source: MTGTop8 deck exports, 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-18). Enchanter answers both.

Of the two, Cage hurts you more. "Players can't cast spells from graveyards" shuts off Strike It Rich's flashback. That makes Enchanter better and the third Strike It Rich worse in those games.

If your room is light on artifacts, you can cut one Enchanter for a third Get Lost or keep it in the sideboard. You lose a white land face and an answer to Goblin Charbelcher-adjacent hate. Against artifact-heavy fields, Untimely Malfunction is the cheaper complement: it destroys an artifact for two mana at instant speed. It can also redirect a single-target spell or ability aimed at your combo turn.

Card flow: Bitter Reunion, Valakut Awakening, March of Reckless Joy

These five slots smooth draws, and you can trade them against each other.

• Bitter Reunion: Turns a dead card into two fresh ones. Its sacrifice ability grants haste, which lets a storm-copied Stormscale Scion attack the turn it lands. Cutting it weakens your Scion kill.
• Valakut Awakening: The best fix for a hand of the wrong half of the combo, plus a red land face. It is a one-of because it costs three on a turn you'd rather spend comboing.
• March of Reckless Joy: Exiling red cards from hand makes it cheaper, so it scales with the redundant rituals. You can only play two of the exiled cards, so treat it as dig, not card advantage.

Against slower control or combo, lean toward Bitter Reunion and Valakut Awakening. Against aggro, these are the first slots to shave for Erode or interaction.

The basic land question

The main deck contains no basics. Goblin Charbelcher reveals until it hits a land card, so a basic in your library gives the reveal a stopping point. The sideboard Mountain cuts both ways: if Belcher stops on it, damage doubles, but only the cards above it count. The Plains stops the reveal with no doubling at all.

Board in a basic only when your plan for that matchup is less about Belcher and more about casting white spells on curve. Typical cases are games where you expect to win through Stormscale Scion or need reliable white for interaction.

Tuning for your local field

Two friction notes:

• Vexing Bauble costs you almost nothing. Every spell in your 60 requires mana to cast, even with Ruby Medallion out, so it never counters your own spells.
• Your own Grafdigger's Cage does cost you. It shuts off your Strike It Rich flashback too, so trim Strike when you bring Cage in.

For regional context, the MTG SEA Championship Final in Bangkok on 2026-10-17 was won by Devoted Combo, with Rakdos Delirium in 2nd (source: MTGTop8, 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-18). If your local scene follows that region, graveyard and combo hate deserve more of your sideboard than the aggro package.

Budget Options

The full 75 comes in at about $311 (TCGplayer market prices; approximate), which is already modest for a competitive Modern list. Very little of the main deck can be cut without breaking the combo, so most of your savings come from buying in the right order and building the sideboard last.

Where the Money Likely Sits

Check current prices before you buy. The cost is most likely concentrated in two places:

• The modal double-faced package. Twenty main-deck cards have a land on the back: Pinnacle Monk, Witch Enchanter, Legion Leadership, Razorgrass Ambush, Valakut Awakening, Shatterskull Smashing and Sundering Eruption. These are your entire mana base, and the four-ofs add up quickly.
• The engine playsets. These are Goblin Charbelcher, Ruby Medallion, Orim's Chant and Irencrag Feat. Each one is a four-of, and none has a substitute in this list.

The rituals, Manamorphose, Strike It Rich and Bitter Reunion are unlikely to be the expensive part. Confirm that before you assume it.

The Swap You Must Not Make

Replacing a costly double-faced card with a basic Mountain or Plains looks like a free saving. It isn't. In your library, these cards are their spell faces, not land cards. That is why Goblin Charbelcher can reveal your whole deck. Every basic you add is a place where the reveal stops early.

A Mountain doubles the damage, but only on the nonland cards revealed before it. If a basic sits near the top, the Belcher activation fizzles into a small hit. A budget build with basics in the main deck is a different, worse deck.

The Mountain and Plains belong in the sideboard as tools for specific matchups. They are not a way to save money.

Swaps That Work, and What They Cost You

If one double-faced card is out of reach, replace it with another double-faced card from this list. That way the library stays landless.

• Short on Shatterskull Smashing or Sundering Eruption? Run more Legion Leadership or Valakut Awakening. You keep your land count, but their land faces always enter tapped. Shatterskull, the Hammer Pass and Volcanic Fissure can enter untapped for 3 life. On combo turns that tempo matters.
  • Losing Sundering Eruption also costs you the "creatures without flying can't block" effect for your creature finishes.
  • Losing Shatterskull Smashing costs you creature removal.
• Short on Pinnacle Monk? Run extra Razorgrass Ambush or Witch Enchanter. Their land faces can still enter untapped for 3 life, so your mana barely changes. What you lose is the Monk's ability to return a spent Irencrag Feat or ritual from your graveyard. That ability is what lets you go off a second time after a disrupted turn.
• Short on Witch Enchanter? Run more Razorgrass Ambush. The land face is identical: untapped white for 3 life. You only give up main-deck answers to artifacts and enchantments.
• Flex spells. Bitter Reunion, March of Reckless Joy and Get Lost can trade places with each other at roughly even power. Pick whichever copies you already own, and save the extra buys for later.

Sideboard on a Budget

Buy sideboard cards for the matchups you will actually face, not all 15 at once. If your local Modern field matches the larger events, the brief's numbers point to the most common opponent. Broodscale Bloodchief took 82 of 460 Top 8 slots (source: MTGTop8, 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-18). Living End and Instant Reanimator took 17 and 14 (source: MTGTop8, 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-18).

• Artifact hate. Untimely Malfunction destroys an artifact and also redirects a single-target spell or ability. That flexibility makes it the strongest first purchase.
• Graveyard hate. Buy Grafdigger's Cage and Surgical Extraction if graveyard decks show up locally.
  • Surgical Extraction can be paid with 2 life, so you never need black mana.
  • Grafdigger's Cage also turns off your own Strike It Rich flashback. Remember that when you decide how many copies you need.
• The rest. Cursed Totem, Vexing Bauble, Wear/Tear and Erode fill narrower roles. Pick them up once you know your field.

Upgrade Path

1. Engine first. Get four each of Goblin Charbelcher, Ruby Medallion, Desperate Ritual, Pyretic Ritual, Irencrag Feat and Orim's Chant, plus the Manamorphose and Strike It Rich copies. The deck cannot function without these.
2. A complete double-faced land base. Get all 20 slots filled with double-faced cards, even if the mix leans toward the tapped-land options above. A full landless library matters more than which specific cards make it up.
3. Swap toward the optimal mix. Replace your stand-ins with Shatterskull Smashing, Sundering Eruption and Pinnacle Monk until you match the 4/4/4 counts. This is where your consistency improves the most.
4. Sideboard by matchup. Start with Untimely Malfunction and graveyard hate. Fill out the rest as your local field becomes clear.

Common Mistakes

1. Shrinking your library before the Belcher fires

Every land in the main deck is the back face of a modal double-faced card, so Goblin Charbelcher reveals your whole library and deals damage equal to its size. Your library is your damage total, and every card you draw or exile lowers it. Manamorphose costs you one point. Bitter Reunion costs two. Valakut Awakening costs one, because the cards you bottom stay in the library. March of Reckless Joy costs X. Before any cantrip on a combo turn, count your library against the opponent's life total. If the margin is tight, skip the dig and use the mana you already have. This matters most in long games, where the library is already thinner.

2. Casting Irencrag Feat out of order

Irencrag Feat makes exactly seven red mana. That covers casting Goblin Charbelcher and activating it, since the activation is an ability and not a spell. It also leaves you only one more spell for the turn. Two mistakes follow from that:

• Feat before Orim's Chant. Once Feat resolves, Chant would be your one remaining spell, and Feat's mana can't pay its white cost anyway. Cast Chant first, then Feat, then Belcher.
• Feat before you need it. Any ritual or Manamorphose you still meant to cast is locked out. Cast Feat last, once the only spell you still need is the Belcher or Stormscale Scion.

3. Casting both Desperate Rituals instead of splicing

Desperate Ritual is Arcane, so you can splice a second copy onto the first. You pay both costs, get six red, and the spliced copy stays in your hand to be cast afterward. That nets more mana than casting the two copies one after another, and you still have a Desperate left to use.

The trade-off is storm. Splicing counts as one spell, not two. If the kill is Goblin Charbelcher, splice for the mana. If the kill is Stormscale Scion, every spell cast adds a copy, so cast them separately when the mana allows it.

4. Wasting Orim's Chant

Orim's Chant stops spells only. It does nothing against activated abilities, and the opponent can respond to the Chant itself. Fire it on your own turn before you commit the key pieces, so the opponent's last chance to act comes while you still have options.

Players also forget the kicker. Kicked Chant on the opponent's turn means creatures can't attack. Against aggro, that is a Fog that buys the extra turn you need to assemble seven mana. Don't throw a Chant away as a sorcery-speed shield when the opponent is about to kill you.

5. Casting Stormscale Scion without haste

The Scion copies are tokens that can't attack the turn they arrive. Without a way to give them haste, you have handed the opponent a full turn to sweep the board or kill you first. Bitter Reunion is your haste source. Two habits keep it working:

• Leave it on the battlefield. Don't sacrifice it early for value.
• Budget the {1} activation into your mana count before you start chaining spells.

Activating it doesn't count as a spell, so it still works after Irencrag Feat. Sundering Eruption's "creatures without flying can't block" clause lines up with the flying Dragons, so cast it before Scion when a ground blocker could otherwise matter. Legion Leadership doubles a Dragon's power for the final points.

6. Playing the wrong land face

Every land drop costs you a spell, so choose which spell you give up.

• Find white early. Your white sources are Witch-Blessed Meadow, Razorgrass Field and Legion Stronghold. Get one down before your combo turn, because Orim's Chant, Get Lost and Razorgrass Ambush all need white.
• Play tapped lands early. Legion Stronghold and Valakut Stoneforge always enter tapped, so play them on turns when you weren't using the mana.
• Don't pay life you don't need to. Paying 3 life for an untapped land is free against slow decks. Against aggro, that life is a real cost.
• Remember what Ruby Medallion doesn't reduce. It discounts only red spells. Goblin Charbelcher, its activation and Witch Enchanter all cost full price.

7. Not stacking your library after a Belcher activation

Belcher puts every revealed card on the bottom in any order. Because it reveals your entire library, you get to reorder all of it. The activation fails to kill when the opponent has gained life, when you aimed it at a creature or planeswalker, or when your library is too thin. In any of those cases, stack your next draws deliberately: ritual, Irencrag Feat, Orim's Chant, or whatever your next turn needs. Dumping the pile back in random order throws away a free tutor.

8. Sideboarding against your own engine

The basic Mountain and Plains are real land cards in the library, so they change Belcher math:

• Plains stops the reveal early with no bonus.
• Mountain stops it early too, but doubles the damage from the cards above it.

Bring basics in only when the mana fix is worth a weaker Belcher. Expect to lean more on Stormscale Scion in those games.

Your own Grafdigger's Cage also stops players from casting spells from graveyards, which turns off the flashback on Strike It Rich. Opponents use the same card against you. Grafdigger's Cage appeared in all 82 Broodscale Bloodchief Top 8 sideboards (source: MTGTop8, 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-18). Against that deck in sideboarded games, don't count flashback mana in your plan. Save Witch Enchanter or Wear/Tear for the Cage when you need that mana.

Tournament Prep & Final Notes

What to Practice

• Mana math with and without Ruby Medallion. Medallion turns Pyretic Ritual and Desperate Ritual into one-mana spells that make three, and drops Irencrag Feat to three mana for seven. Goblin Charbelcher is colorless, so Medallion never discounts it. Goldfish until you can count a turn's total mana before you commit the first spell.
• The Feat line. Irencrag Feat makes exactly enough to cast Goblin Charbelcher (four) and activate it (three). The activation is an ability, not a spell, so Feat's "only one more spell" clause doesn't stop it. Drill this until you never spend that one spell on anything else.
• Choosing the land face. Every land in the 60 is the back of a spell. Practice deciding which spell you can most afford to lose as a land drop, and when to pay 3 life for an untapped land versus taking it tapped.
• The Scion turn. Stormscale Scion copies itself for each spell cast before it, and the copies are tokens that pump each other. Only Bitter Reunion's sacrifice gives them haste on the turn they arrive. Count the lethal damage in practice, including the anthem, so you don't fire a Scion turn that falls one copy short.

Rules Interactions to Know Cold

• Belcher damage equals your library. Goblin Charbelcher reveals until it finds a land card. The main deck's lands are all back faces, and the front faces are creatures, instants and sorceries. With the main 60, the reveal runs through your whole library. Every card you draw or exile first lowers the damage by one. That includes Manamorphose, Bitter Reunion, Valakut Awakening's extra card and March of Reckless Joy's exile. Check your library count against their life total before you activate.
• A failed Belcher stacks your deck. You put every revealed card on the bottom in any order. If an activation doesn't win, you have just chosen the order of your entire library. Set up your next draws on purpose.
• Sideboarded basics change Belcher. A revealed Mountain doubles the damage from the cards above it. A Plains ends the reveal with no doubling. If either is on top, the activation deals zero. Every basic you bring in turns a near-certain kill into a variance roll, so board them in deliberately.
• Orim's Chant stops spells, not abilities. Cast it on the opponent before you go off to turn off instant-speed answers they would cast. Activated abilities still work through it. Kicked, it also stops creatures from attacking that turn, which buys a turn against aggro.
• Graveyard casting. Grafdigger's Cage stops players from casting spells from graveyards. That includes your own Strike It Rich flashback, whether the Cage is theirs or yours. Pinnacle Monk avoids this because it returns a card to your hand. Rebuying Irencrag Feat or a Ritual is its best use.
• Vexing Bauble only counters spells cast with no mana spent. Every spell you cast still costs at least one mana, because Medallion only removes generic mana and March of Reckless Joy's discount can't touch its {R}. A Bauble on either side of the table doesn't counter your combo.

Time Management

Your long turns happen in a few moments: a full Ritual chain, a Scion storm count, or a whole-library Belcher reveal. Keep these fast:

• Announce mana totals as you go. Use dice or a pad for floating mana and storm count, so a judge call never has to rebuild the turn.
• Reveal Belcher cards in a counted stack, then reorder them in one motion. If you already know the activation is lethal, say the count clearly and let the opponent verify it.
• Decide your land faces and mulligans quickly. Save the clock for combo turns.

On a non-lethal Belcher, take the time to order the bottom well. That ordering is real equity, not stalling.

Preparing for the Field

The brief points at a clear first opponent to test against. Broodscale Bloodchief took 82 of 460 Top 8 slots in counted Modern events (source: MTGTop8, 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-18). Grafdigger's Cage appeared in all 82 of those sideboards, and Vexing Bauble in 78 of the main decks (source: MTGTop8 deck exports, 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-18). That makes two practical points:

• Treat Strike It Rich flashback as unreliable after sideboarding. Count your mana without it.
• Don't fear Bauble against your own spells. As shown above, it can't counter anything you cast.

Trinisphere was in 79 of those 82 sideboards (same source and dates). Practice your post-board games against it specifically rather than guessing.

UR Cutter Prowess was the second-most-common archetype, with 30 Top 8 slots (source: MTGTop8, 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-18). Its sideboards were built around cheap interaction, with Spell Pierce in 25 of 30 and Consign to Memory in 29 (same source and dates). Against it, Orim's Chant cast before the key spell is worth more than racing.

No Modern bans or unbans came in the 2026-10-12 announcement, and the next one is scheduled for 2026-11-30 (source: Wizards of the Coast, 2026-10-12).

Final Assessment

This list asks you to do arithmetic under pressure and rewards you for it. Its strengths:

• Belcher is close to a guaranteed kill. The landless build makes the activation lethal as long as your library outnumbers their life total.
• The plans are redundant. Irencrag Feat, eight Rituals and Ruby Medallion give you many ways to assemble the turn.
• It has a second route. Stormscale Scion wins through artifact hate.

Its weaknesses are just as concrete:

• Every land drop costs you a spell.
• Life payments hurt. Paying 3 life for untapped lands is costly against aggro.
• Graveyard hate blanks a mana source. It switches off Strike It Rich flashback.

A 2nd-place finish in a 91-player field shows the deck can win a real event. Whether it wins yours depends on whether you can count your library, your mana and their life total without hesitating. Practice that first.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does Landless Belcher win games?

It resolves Goblin Charbelcher and activates it into a library with no land cards, because every mana source is the back face of a modal double-faced card. The reveal flips your whole library and deals damage equal to all of it, so one activation is the whole kill.

How much mana does the Belcher kill need, and how does the deck reach it?

Goblin Charbelcher costs four to cast and three to activate, so you need seven mana in one turn. Irencrag Feat makes seven by itself, and with Ruby Medallion out, Desperate Ritual and Pyretic Ritual each cost {R} and make {R}{R}{R}.

Does Irencrag Feat's one-more-spell restriction stop the combo?

No. Casting Belcher is your one allowed spell, and the activation is an ability, not a spell. Cast Orim's Chant, cantrips and rituals before Feat, because Feat locks out anything else you still meant to cast.

What is the backup plan if Goblin Charbelcher gets answered?

Stormscale Scion copies itself for each spell cast before it that turn, and every copy is a flying Dragon that pumps the others. Bitter Reunion must already be on the battlefield so you can sacrifice it to give them haste, and Legion Leadership can double a Dragon's power.

What are the hardest matchups for Landless Belcher?

The guide lists UR Cutter Prowess and Scepter Chant as unfavored. Prowess pairs a fast clock with countermagic after sideboarding, and Scepter Chant's artifact engine can lock you out of casting spells, so destroying it decides the matchup.

Can I save money by replacing double-faced cards with basic lands?

No. A basic in your library is a land card that stops the Belcher reveal early, which the guide calls a different, worse deck. If a double-faced card is out of reach, replace it with another double-faced card from the list, such as more Legion Leadership or Razorgrass Ambush.

What should I practice before taking this deck to a tournament?

Practice mana math with and without Ruby Medallion, the Irencrag Feat into Belcher line, choosing which land face to play, and counting lethal on a Stormscale Scion turn. Also check your library count against the opponent's life total before you activate Belcher.

How should I mulligan with Landless Belcher?

Keep hands with at least two land faces, a path to seven mana in one turn, and either Belcher or a dig spell. One-land-face hands are almost always a mulligan, because rituals can't create mana from nothing.

Metagame Context

Built from Christian Joriz Cruz's 2nd Place list at MTG SEA Championships - Singapore Open - Oracle Events (91 players, 2026-10-18), via MTGTop8. Metagame context comes from a research brief dated 2026-10-19 covering 2026-10-01 to 2026-10-19, drawn from MTGTop8; Wizards of the Coast. Card text and prices: Scryfall.

Source: tournament results. Decklist and placements as reported by the event organizer.