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This article is an update of the one posted in January 2025. While the archetype hasn’t changed since then, I reevaluated a few cards in the primer and added a few pro tips here and there. I hope you’ll like it!

If you like my work and are interested in more high-level Belcher content, consider checking my other articles, including the sideboard guide here!

Introduction

What is Belcher?

Belcher is an all-in combo deck that has one goal – to activate Goblin Charbelcher targeting the opponent. It uses the fact that double-faced lands are technically not lands, so after the activation deals damage equal to the number of cards in your library, which is more than enough to end the game instantly in the vast majority of cases. The rest of the deck is devoted to finding, accelerating and protecting the combo.

Decklist

You can download the decklist in the text form here.

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What are Belcher’s strengths?

Since it’s a one-card combo that can win out of nowhere, Belcher’s gameplan is quite easy to execute consistently. It’s a mix of a stable goldfish time backed up by multiple pieces of interaction, mainly countermagic. This, combined with eight virtual copies of its namesake card, thanks to Whir of Invention, makes the deck quite resilient to commonly played hate – overpowering discard, counterspells, or artifact removal isn’t a big problem. The deck also has maindeck answers to any direct hate, thanks to the playset of Sink into Stupor in the manabase. Since lands can often count as real spells, Belcher has more options to handle the hate or the opponent’s gameplan than a typical dedicated combo deck. It’s also well-suited to keep other combo decks in check, thanks to playing a bunch of free counterspells backed up by its own relatively fast and easy to assemble combo finish.

What are Belcher’s weaknesses?

In my opinion, the biggest problem is the deck’s manabase – since we are allowed to use only double-faced lands, the options are very limited. We end up with the mono coloured manabase that can’t support casting its spells very well, because of the amount of taplands we have to play.  Even the untapped sources are quite costly – three life per land is no joke. As a result, Belcher struggles against aggro decks with a fast clock. Another huge problem is attacking the mana with cards like Boseju, Who Endures or White Orchid Phantom, and we can’t do that much about it, outside of countermagic. Consign to Memory being one of the most played cards in current Modern also doesn’t help the archetype. Lastly, there are some hate cards that can turn Belcher’s main strength against it an end the game immediately: the most popular of those are various extraction effects, like Surgical Extraction and Extirpate.

The main gameplan and major deckbuilding decisions

Since Belcher’s inception as a deck, its gameplan was extremely simple – activate Goblin Charbelcher. In the past, depending on the format, the deck was all about speed. That’s why it was often paired with various fast mana, usually dipping in red. Blue Belcher tackles the problem differently – instead of trying to kill as fast as possible, it sacrifices a turn or two in speed in order to make it up with interaction that can either protect its combo or disrupt opposing plans. To be able to end the game on turn four, Belcher incorporates the Lotus Bloom, Tameshi and Whir trio – it provides the required speed, as well as flexibility to deal with hate more effectively. As a result, we can separate three lines of victory that Belcher can take:

• Tameshi Bloom: most combo-oriented plan that generates a ton of mana and can solve very complex puzzles simply by giving you a multitude of options while executing the combo. It’s capable of killing the opponent as early as turn four by generating enough mana and cards to safely land Belcher with multiple layers of protection, and it’s possible only with the use of Lotus Bloom. 
• Belcher Control: you simply slow down the opponent with countermagic and bounce spells for long enough until you can untap with Belcher in play. This usually means that we kill on turn five or later, after the opponent runs out of most of their resources. 
• Prison, a.k.a. Harbinger of the Seas cheese. Sometimes the opponent can’t do anything with it and you just win by attacking for two ten times. It happens rarely, mainly against decks that are extremely soft to it, like Amulet.

The two main gameplans have their pros and cons, and knowing which one to choose depending on the matchup and the board state we encounter is a part of mastering Belcher. 

Because of how limited the cardpool for Belcher is, the maindeck doesn’t change much. Even most sideboards look more or less the same – you can change a few cards for the expected metagame, but it’s more about which section of hate cards or answers to such you want to cover, not choosing one-ofs from among thirty playable options. 

The core of the combo

Goblin Charbelcher

A one-card combo card and the reason you’re reading this article. One activation means dealing around fifty damage which is enough to finish the game in the vast majority of situations. 

Whir of Invention + Tameshi, Reality Architect + Lotus Bloom

I like to name it the ‘fast mana trio’. These three cards are in the deck only because of how well they work together – that’s why I decided to group them. Lotus Bloom is the key card here – it’s solid on its own, since it lets you jump from four to seven, which is exactly what you need to cast and activate Belcher. Its existence made Tameshi a combo engine – with Lotus Bloom in play, you can essentially generate two mana for each land you have. That means that if you have Tameshi in play with Lotus Bloom in the bin and just one white mana, you need just three lands to get to seven. Compared to suspending Lotus Bloom, Tameshi requires fewer untapped lands, which in turn means less damage taken from the manabase – an important factor in aggro matchups. The more lands you have, the more mana you can produce – ideally you’ll have enough for the combo and some protection. It’s worth noting that the lands you bounce in the process can be the said protection – Sink into Stupor or Jwari Disruption come to mind. Whir of Invention is a glue that holds this engine together – it lets you find either Lotus Bloom to start the combo or Goblin Charbelcher once you generate a ton of mana. It can also be used just as a regular tutor for Belcher on turn four if you had Lotus suspended on turn one, or an interactive piece like Portable Hole or Tormod’s Crypt.

Thundertrap Trainer + Fallaji Archaeologist + Flare of Denial

Another important package in the deck is Thundertrap Trainer, Fallaji Archaeologist and Flare of Denial. The idea is simple – free counterspells are powerful, especially if your key turn requires you to spend seven mana on winning the game. That’s why Belcher relies on sorcery speed cantrips attached to small creatures, just to have enough bodies for Flare to work. Without Flare of Denial in the format, I wouldn’t even consider these creatures and would rely on cards like Preordain, to increase the odds of finding Lotus Bloom on turn one, or Impulse, as it works better with instant speed interaction that the deck is already full of. Aside from being a Flare fodder, these creatures can buy you more time by gumming up the ground. Trainer can also be a payoff in a pinch, thanks to its Offspring ability. Fallaji on the other hand makes Tameshi more impactful by milling cards, which grants extra looks for artifacts that might be rebuy later on. Remember that you can decline to pick a card from the Archaeologist’s trigger in order to grow it to a 1/4, which might end up being relevant on certain boards.

Interactive spells

Flare of Denial

I already covered it above, but for the sake of being thorough, I decided to mention it here as well. If you can pair it with cantrip creatures or Tameshi, it’s the cheapest and most versatile way to protect the combo or to disrupt your opponent – at least unless the opponent doesn’t have creature removal to not let you cast Flare for free when it will matter. That being said, don’t forget that you can also cast it for three mana. It’s not the most efficient if cast this way, but sometimes it’s all you need to prolong the game just enough to win.

Disrupting Shoal

Another free counterspell that’s played in Belcher. Unlike its alternative in Force of Negation, it can counter creatures and be pitch-cast on your turn as well, so it’s a perfect addition to the deck. Historically, Shoal wasn’t played much because exiling a blue card with a specific cost is quite challenging, but Belcher made it much easier with all the lands being spells as well. Because of how the curve lines up, it’s most often used to counter two and three drops. Keep in mind that you can also hardcast it – it’s quite good at countering spells like Living End or one drops in the midgame. 

Force of Negation and Subtlety

Since nearly all of Belcher’s cards are blue, it’s tempting to add more blue pitch spells than just Disrupting Shoals. The main problem with this strategy is that Belcher lacks any card advantage, outside of Tameshi, but I assume if you can use it, you’re already in a prime position to win. You can trade down on cards once, maybe twice per game, but that’s it in most scenarios. Both Force of Negation and Subtlety are well-known cards and they can be great reactive tools for certain metagames, I just don’t recommend playing too many pitch spells. I can see playing one or two copies of either of them, depending on the expected metagame and accept that you’ll often cut them while sideboarding, but I wouldn’t go further than that.

One mana countermagic – Spell Snare, Stern Scolding, Strix Serenade, etc.

Paying one mana for conditional countermagic is much worse than paying none – their window of usefulness is narrower, and since they require holding mana up, they’re much more telegraphed. Imagine a scenario when you’re on the draw and pay three life for an untapped land and pass – most Energy players will opt for playing a one drop and fetching a surveil land rather than running their two drop into an obvious Spell Snare. 

Despite their downsides, one mana counterspells have two major advantages – they don’t require additional resources past the mana to cast it, and they are bolstering otherwise close to non-existent one drop count for Shoal. I can see all of them being playable in certain metagames. Since Belcher has something around five slots for this type of interaction, it’s often correct to make a split between them and keep useful ones post sideboard while cutting others. Spell Snare is quite safe to play, mostly because most decks run at least one premium target for it. Stern Scolding and Strix Serenade are an elegant way to combat creature-heavy metagames. Spell Pierce can win counter wars and catch other combo decks off-guard, but since it’s quite soft to Consign, it doesn’t see as much play anymore. And there’s also Into the Flood Maw as a catch-all for permanents. 

The manabase

One of the Belcher’s most unique aspects is its manabase. Unlike any other deck in Modern, double-faced lands opened new possibilities while also limiting us in different areas. Below I wrote down all pros and cons of having this type of manabase.

Pros

• Having no actual lands makes Belcher lethal in close to every situation. This is obviously the most important argument for running such a manabase, and without it going as far as running exclusively MDFCs wouldn’t even be a consideration.

• Spell lands can act as spells. Luckily for us, each one that’s played in Belcher is at least somewhat impactful. Because of that, think twice before you make a land drop – maybe it could be a game-winning spell next turn?
• They increase the amount of blue cards for Disrupting Shoal, and offer a decent spread of various mana values. For example, thanks to Beyeen Veil and Jwari Disruption, there are enough two drops to consistently counter cards costing two with Shoal, which is extremely important against Energy or Prowess.
• Sink into Stupor acts as a maindeck answer to all permanent-based hate. That’s why Belcher doesn’t have to play as many answers to cards like Pithing Needle or Stony Silence as one would think is needed.

Cons

• It forces us to play taplands, which are obviously terrible in terms of playing our cards on curve. Having two or more in your starting hand can slow you down by a full turn, and there’s not much you can do about it.
• All non-tapland MDFCs cost three life to enter untapped on their land sides, which makes the manabase rather painful. If you want to play each turn on curve, you’ll most likely have to pay nine life to do so.
• It makes us soft to land destruction effects. Since we don’t have basics, we won’t find anything in the face of opposing Boseiju or White Orchid Phantom.
• Any splashes are off of the table. I wanted to add white cards, mostly because I already had Suppression Rays, but it just didn’t work, especially with Whir of Invention requiring triple blue to be cast.

In terms of what each spell land does for the deck:

• Sink into Stupor: costs three for Shoal purposes. Easily the best land we have access to. It’s mainly used to bounce problematic permanents or a threat to buy more time. It can interact with spells on the stack, which can be relevant in counter wars, especially after we generated a lot of mana thanks to Tameshi and Lotus Bloom.
• Sea Gate Restoration: costs seven, so it’s rarely used for Shoal, although sometimes it can counter Murktide Regent or a seven mana Eldrazi to buy more time. It can sometimes be a great source of card advantage once you have Tameshi and Lotus Bloom assembled. Since Tameshi returns lands to your hand, it fuels Restoration, which means you often end up drawing more than seven cards with it, giving you a good chance to find and protect your Belcher.
• Hydroelectric Specimen: costs three for Shoal purposes. It’s a creature, so it can’t be grabbed by Trainer or Fallaji. But it has its upsides too – it can act as a blocker, or be played end of turn to fuel Flare of Denial, essentially banking unspent mana for later on. Its triggered ability rarely comes up – sometimes you can protect your Tameshi from a removal spell, but that’s about it. 
• Jwari Disruption: costs two mana for Shoal purposes. Sometimes you can catch the opponent off guard with it and get some value from it. It’s still unclear to me whether I should play my land untapped on turn two and try to represent it or not – it depends on the matchup and who the starting player is.
• Beyeen Veil: costs two for Shoal purposes. Often acts as Fog, which is important against Energy. 
• Suppression Ray: costs five for Shoal purposes. While it doesn’t do anything when cast, it’s our only white source outside Lotus Bloom. Extremely important with Tameshi – it lets us start the combo with Lotus in the graveyard or even get back Belcher. It also casts Portable Hole.
• Waterlogged Teachings: costs four for Shoal purposes. Sometimes it’s played as an expensive tutor for countermagic in blue matchups or to indirectly find Belcher via Whir. Useful against Consign to Memory.
• Witch Enchanter//Razorgrass Ambush: I know it’s not a blue land, but the card is good enough to at least be considered here. It’s an untapped land with a very relevant ability, especially in postboard games. Most importantly though, it’s another white source for Tameshi. Unfortunately, not being able to cast Whir on turn three off of it makes it a bit too costly to run in my opinion, as otherwise I’d gladly include it in the deck.

Sideboard options

As I mentioned earlier, due to mana restrictions of being mono-colour and running numerous taplands, Belcher has a very limited range of sideboard options. These typically consist of various types of countermagic, one or two bounce spells, a basic Mountain, and three to five other cards such as Harbinger of the Seas, Whir targets, and so on.

Consign to Memory

In my opinion, it’s the most impactful card in Belcher’s sideboard and probably the best blue card in the format. I would never run fewer than three copies, and even playing a full playset is rarely a bad idea. Its primary purpose is to counter both spells and cast triggers against Eldrazi. It’s also strong in the mirror match, as well as against Amulet (where you can counter the namesake card, Titan’s trigger, and many other things), Storm (Ruby Medallion and, at times, a Grapeshot’s Storm trigger), Broodscale, and so on. If you’re in a tight spot, you can consider a few copies against opponents with various troublesome triggers, like White Orchid Phantom decks.

Flusterstorm

Flusterstorm on the other hand is probably one of the best answers to Consign to Memory – thanks to storm, it’s possible to counter the original + all of the replicate copies, assuming enough spells have been played earlier. If the opponent too heavily relies on Consign with one extra copy, it’s our way to break free for just one mana. It’s also solid against other spell-based combos like Neoform or Living End. 

Mystical Dispute

In my experience, it’s often more often used to stop the opponent than to protect our combo. It’s an excellent answer to Psychic Frog, Teferi, Time Raveler, Quantum Riddler, etc. It’s also solid in the mirror match, as you can play it early to counter their cantrip creatures, denying them access to Flare of Denial. And of course, there are many other juicy targets: Neoform, Force of Negation, Kappa Canoneer, etc. In my opinion, it’s safe to run two or three copies. 

Tezzeret the Seeker

It’s a one mana more expensive Belcher that can’t get countered by Consign to Memory, as simple as that. Its second ability can also tutor for Lotus Bloom – useful if you want to build mana, but don’t want to present Belcher into an obvious Boseiju or something like that. I’m a fan of playing the first copy, sometimes even the second one can be considered.

Stock Up

The best Divination we have access to (maybe Brainsurge can compete with it, but I don’t see strong reasons to play it instead of Stock Up). Great tool in slower matchups, helps you get all the combo pieces with interaction on time. Playing the first copy in sideboard is kinda free, in slower metgames I would even consider playing the second copy. 

Hurkyl’s Recall

If you really want to keep all heavy-artifact decks in check, Hurkyl’s Recall is a card for you. Great against Affinity, acceptable against Broodscale. 

Harbinger of the Seas

Harbinger doesn’t contribute significantly to our strategy, perhaps aside from smoothing our future land drops, as they will all enter untapped and painless, but it’s been included in the deck simply because it’s a powerful card against multiple popular archetypes and it doesn’t affect our own manabase whatsoever. It’s not the best three drop, as casting it reliably on turn three with twelve taplands in the deck is a tall order, it loses value when we’re on the draw, and it’s the only sideboard card that we can’t find with Trainer and Archaeologist. However, the card’s raw power is extremely high – it has the potential to disrupt our opponent’s draw while helping with our own development. That’s why it often gets two or three slots in the sideboard, and sometimes even finds its way into the maindeck as a one- or two-of if the metagame is favourable to it.

Into the Flood Maw

I’ve already mentioned it earlier, but if you’re concerned about anything that stays on the battlefield and bothers you, Into the Flood Maw is the best tool to answer them, aside from countermagic. Typically, players run two or three copies in the deck, but I can see adjusting that number depending on the expected metagame.

Suspend 

Another bounce effect for one mana. Unlike Into the Flood Maw, it’s quite narrow, but it can solve problems for more than just one turn. It’s probably our best tool against Prowess, although the matchup is still terrible. 

Unable to Scream

If you’re looking for a one-mana removal spell in mono-blue, Unable to Scream is a solid inclusion against aggro and Green Sun’s Zenith decks that run Collector Ouphe.

Portable Hole

Even though it’s difficult to hardcast, Portable Hole is played as a cheap tutor target for Whir of Invention, allowing you to answer some of the most problematic permanents for Belcher, such as Stony Silence, Collector Ouphe, Pithing Needle and so on. Four mana for a one for one answer might sometimes seem a bit overcosted, but we don’t have access to anything better.

It’s worth noting that you can use cheap artifacts like Portable Hole, Tormod’s Crypt or Clues that already in play to cheapen the Whir of Invention so it can get Belcher sooner.

Tormod’s Crypt

Another tutorable interactive card. This one can easily be fetched with Whir on turn three, which slots nicely into our curve. It’s solid against anything that relies on the graveyard to win, such as Goryo, Living End and so on. I’ve also seen some players bring it in for the mirror match to disrupt Tameshi combo, though I’m not the biggest fan of that.

Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student

Tamiyo is a powerful Magic card, and some players include it in Belcher as a way to generate card advantage over time and to help accelerate Whir of Invention by tapping Clues to Improvise. Personally, I’m not the biggest fan of it, mainly due to how cluttered our curve becomes starting from turn two. It’s quite difficult to find the time to crack Clues, so they often end up sitting on the battlefield for multiple turns. In my opinion, there are more pressing cards that should be prioritised in the sideboard before even considering Tamiyo.

A basic land

Firstly, let’s discuss the most unusual card in Belcher’s sideboard. It serves as our solution to mitigate the impact of land destruction, which is commonly played in Modern. These cards typically destroy a land, but allow its controller to search for a basic land card or a land with a basic land type. By adding a basic to the deck, we ensure that we can find something, meaning the first land destruction effect won’t affect our speed too significantly. Mountain and Island are two reasonable choices – first is considered due to doubling the output of Goblin Charbelcher revealing a land, so it decreases the odds of not killing the opponent. Island on the other hand supports casting our spells better, it’s quite important when you want to cast Whir X=0 for Bloom on turn three. In my opinion, Island is a safer bet overall. 

Important plays and tricks you must know

• Think twice about which land you should play, both in terms of what the spell side does and whether the land part is untapped or not. Sometimes a spell part will be more impactful than a mana source, or its cost will matter for Disrupting Shoal. The timing of playing a tapped land is often crucial: for example, if you need to win on turn four and you don’t have a suspended Lotus Bloom, maybe you should play a tapland on turn two instead of casting Thundertrap Trainer. This way, you can cast Whir for on turn three, and if you draw Tameshi you can go off on turn four. Always plan ahead.
• Whir of Invention is an instant. This often matters when your opponent wants to deal with your Lotus Bloom that just got off of Suspend. In response to their removal, you can sacrifice it and use the three mana from it to Whir for another copy.
• Whir of Invention has Improvise. This means that you can tap Portable Hole, Tormod’s Crypt, or Clues from Tamiyo (assuming you play them) in order to find Belcher ahead of the schedule.
• Be careful when attempting to cast Disrupting Shoal on an X spell. For example, Green Sun’s Zenith cast with X equal to two will have the mana value of three on the stack, while an opposing Shoal with the same X will have the mana value of four.
• It’s legal to hardcast Disrupting Shoal.
• Tameshi’s activated ability can only be used with an empty stack and in your main phase. Because of that, don’t try to float mana to activate Tameshi in response to Surgical Extraction targeting Lotus Bloom, as it won’t work.
• Tameshi’s triggered ability, on the other hand, doesn’t have the same limitation. Furthermore, it’s not only triggered by lands – you can draw a card off of your Into the Flood Maw and Sink into Stupor, or your opponent playing a bounce land or using Otawara on your Belcher – be careful and do not miss your draws.
• You can refuse to grab anything from Fallaji Archaeologist’s trigger. Sometimes having a slightly bigger creature will be more relevant than the card you can grab instead.
• With Harbinger of the Seas and other similar cards in play, every land will enter the battlefield untapped and won’t require any life to be paid.
• Consign to Memory can be a good answer to many different threats and hate cards, which includes opposing Consigns. You can counter the Replicate trigger, which only leaves you with the original to deal with. You can also counter Urza’s Saga’s chapters, so they won’t create constructs or tutor.
• If for some reason the opponent isn’t dead after Belcher’s activation, for example due to infinite life or Spellskite, you can stack your library. The cannon puts revealed cards back in any order, not a random one. 

Frequently asked questions

How hard should I mulligan?

This question is best answered by the three lines to victory I explained above. In theory, both the Tameshi Bloom and Belcher Control routes should be powerful enough to at least have a shot against any deck. However, in practice one of them is often clearly superior. For example, if you’re playing against another combo deck, it’s often better to stop them from winning rather than trying to race. Conversely, when facing an aggro deck, it’s much better to aim for a turn four kill and hope that a single piece of interaction in the early game will slow them down enough to win. Locking the game up with Harbinger can happen only in a few matchups, but if you think it’s unbeatable for your opponent, you can try to mulligan aggressively for it. The Tameshi plan can handle mulliganing quite well, as it can win off relatively low resources. Belcher Control requires more cards to handle the attrition battles. Try to take advantage of this in tournaments with open decklists. If I don’t know what I’m up against, I don’t tend to mulligan for my fastest hands, and I’m fine with keeping a solid but slower hand as well.

Should I always wait for seven mana to cast Belcher and activate it on the same turn?

If possible, you should always try to cast Belcher when you have the option to activate it once it hits the battlefield – by doing so, you don’t let the opponent destroy it before you get to fire. However, in some cases, the risk is worth taking. For example, if your opponent is playing blue and tapped out, if you don’t have time to wait for the seven mana, if you have a turn four Lotus Bloom with two lands on the battlefield, and so on.

How to maximise the impact of my counterspells?

It obviously depends on the matchup, but in my opinion we can differentiate two main ways of using countermagic, each suiting one of Belcher’s main plans. In Tameshi openings, I tend to save my counterspells for combo turns, and in control ones I often counter the first meaningful threat that my opponent presents. Obviously, it comes down to the matchup you play, but generally speaking, when deciding whether to cast a counterspell, ask yourself three questions:

• What do you want to achieve?
• What are the consequences of the opponent resolving the spell?
• Is there a more threatening card that might put me in an even worse spot if I use  

Is beating down with creatures a reasonable backup plan?

During my testing, I only had one situation when combat damage from Belcher’s side actually mattered: I locked the opponent with Harbinger of the Seas and it killed them before I could find any copies of Belcher. Suffice to say, it doesn’t happen terribly often. Your creatures are either fuel for Flare of Denial or chump blockers to buy you a bit more time. 

How do I handle the hate?

Since Belcher is a one-card combo, it leaves plenty of free slots that can be used either to accelerate its own gameplan or to interact with the opponent. This is why Belcher has tools to combat a wide range of threats – countermagic covers everything, from discard and opponent’s counters to permanent-based hate and enemy combos. The biggest challenge is finding a way to answer all the hate cards in time – this is where the deck struggles most, especially against decks with a fast clock like Energy or Domain. To combat hate, we should choose cards that are as cheap as possible, so the opportunity cost of weaving them into our setup is kept to a minimum. It’s also essential to understand the most efficient ways to neutralise the opponent’s key hate cards. I won’t cover the obvious, such as countering their counterspells, but I’ve compiled a list of unorthodox play patterns you may find useful:

• Consign to Memory can seem difficult to answer when playing Belcher, but there are multiple ways to neutralise it. The easiest approach is to use Whir instead of Belcher, and sneaking it into play with Tameshi is another common tactic. Both of these will most likely require Lotus Bloom to function, but either getting it off of Whir or simply suspending it and then waiting three turns lets you get one fairly reliably. Another way to deal with Consign is simply to counter it – if they don’t replicate it, it’s relatively straightforward to do, but if they do, you can counter their replicate ability with your own Consign, leaving you with only the original to deal with.
• Pithing Needle, as well as other effects that prevent you from activating the cannon, can be overcome by bounce spells. The Tameshi Bloom combo really helps here, as it allows you to generate a significant amount of mana for cards like Sink into Stupor, Whir for Portable Hole, etc. It’s more problematic against hate cards that also affect Lotus Bloom, such as Stony Silence, Collector Ouphe or Karn – if you encounter these, try to keep countermagic for them, and once they’re played, simply bounce them at the end of the turn.
• Haywire Mite is quite effective at preventing you from getting to seven mana during your main phase. The most common play pattern is exiling Lotus Bloom after it has been tutored at the end of turn three via Whir, or on turn four after it has been cast from Suspend, but still during the upkeep. The easiest way to play around this is to use the mana from the first Lotus to cast Whir and get another copy. Alternatively, you can try bouncing the Mite and attempting to go off during your turn. Another option is to play Whir for Lotus Bloom on turn four, sacrifice it to get three white mana immediately, play an untapped land, cast Tameshi, and combo off this way. It yields more than enough mana to cast Belcher and activate it, leaving Haywire Mite with no opportunity to interfere with the combo.

Is graveyard hate good against Belcher?

Some players bring in graveyard hate against Belcher because it stops the Tameshi Bloom combo. While it can occasionally be relevant, it’s generally marginal, as Lotus Bloom can still do a lot of work even without Tameshi. Additionally, the Moonfolk can still be used as fuel for Disrupting Shoal. It’s also possible to push through one-shot graveyard hate by having two Lotus Blooms. Because of that, you don’t have to be overly concerned about graveyard hate, and if your opponent brings in heavy hitters like Leyline of the Void or Rest in Peace, consider cutting Tameshi.