What if I told you that you could win the game on Turn One with only one land in your entire deck?
Well, that deck is out there.
And its name is Charbelcher.
This particular Legacy deck focuses around the card Goblin Charbelcher (which, you may have noticed, was just reprinted in Eternal Masters).
This unassuming card looks fine enough, but a ruling on the card makes it very very powerful.
“If you reveal no land cards, Goblin Charbelcher deals damage equal to the number of cards revealed, and then you may order your library as you like.
– Wizards of the Coast, June 8th, 2016
The goal of this deck is to get the one land that it runs – some kind of Forest/Mountain – into its hand and then activate Charbelcher to go through the entire deck (or most of it, if the land iss unfetchable), which deals more than lethal damage to your opponent.
It may seem a daunting task to generate seven mana (four for the casting cost and three for activation) on such an early turn, and with one or no land in play, but there are ways to accomplish this.
Land grabbing:
Run Land Grant to fetch your only land out of the deck; then play it. Even with no land/Land Grant in hand, it’s very possible to win (though more risky, since it’s uncertain how much damage you’ll inflict on your opponent).
Free mana:
Free mana is an extremly important part of this deck – you have to get the ball rolling somehow. It’s also likely that you’ll only have access to either one or no mana because of your ability to play Land Grant.
Free, uncounterable mana is always a good thing in a deck like this, albeit the fact that it’s restricted to Red.
Another source of uncounterable mana – this one in Green – letting you cast Tinder Wall very early, which can net even more mana.
This is a classic free mana pick, giving you access to large amounts of mana on very early turns. A full playset, for sure.
This is a more recent addition to the deck, and though it does a pretty good job of providing free, reusable mana, the loss of card is quite off-putting.
This is a flex slot in the deck, but being able to play it makes activating Charbelcher much easier. The only downsides are that you have to discard your hand (which isn’t that bad) and they’re very expensive, since they’re on the Reserved List.
Mana ramp:
This is what most of the deck consists of. You need massive amounts of mana to be able to throw down and activate a Charbelcher in one turn.
Turning one mana into two is always good. Turning it into Red mana also enables more ramp spells.
This is a classic two-mana-for-three-more card. It’s not great, but it gets the job done.
This spell nets more and more mana with each subsequent cast, and it can become very good if you chain multiple copies together.
This spell costs a lot, but gives you a great return for your investment.
Another two-for-three. This has a slight upside with splice onto Arcane, however, which can be very useful if you have two or more in hand.
Cantrips and filtering:
This card gives you an idea of what your opponent is holding, and also gives you an essentially free card.
This gives you an uncounterable (excluding Stifle) card draw at the cost of only two life. You don’t really care about your life total in this deck (unless it’s at zero), so draws for life are always good.
This is a pseudo-cantrip; it’s mana-fixing, and it allows you to draw a card. It’s also quite good for Storm, if that’s your route.
Finishers and combo pieces:
Yes, you could run Taiga, but your opponent should know that you don’t care about shocking yourself. (This card is also much, much cheaper.)
This card is the deck’s big finisher. If you activate it with a land in your deck (assumig it’s a Mountain of some sort), you only need to go through ten (or less) cards to win the game. Due to the WotC ruling mentioned earlier, if there isn’t any land in your deck, you deal over one hundred damage and go through your entire deck. (Disclaimer: nothing is more awkward then activating your Charbelcher without getting the land out of your deck and dealing four damage to your opponent because it was only two cards deep.)
Another big finisher; resolving a spell like this with Storm of five or six can help you quickly win the game.
This deck has the ability to change a lot, so don’t feel like you have to play the same cards that we recommend. Below is an example decklist – feel free to use and modify it as you please.
Land (1) 1 Stomping Ground Creatures (16) 4 Simian Spirit Guide 4 Elvish Spirit Guide 4 Tinder Wall 4 Street Wraith Sorceries (14) 4 Land Grant 4 Rite of Flame 2 Empty the Warrens 4 Gitaxian Probe Instants (14) 4 Desperate Ritual 4 Pyretic Ritual 4 Seething Song 2 Manamorphose Artifacts (15) 4 Lotus Petal 3 Chrome Mox 4 Lion’s Eye Diamond 4 Goblin Charbelcher | Sideboard (15) 2 Empty the Warrens 4 Pyroblast 1 Reforge the Soul 2 Pyroclasm 2 Charbelcher 2 Reverent Silence 2 Infernal Tutor |
LooseWire
"He wished for knowledge, but not for the will to apply it" - Cunning Wish
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