jlsatchwell13

You don't have a sideboard, but it should probably have some number of stasis cocoon. Helps deal with artifact decks.

Played a 3 round tournament. Beat a spirit based deck 2-0. Beat U/B Mill 2-0. Beat Jeskai Ascendency 2-1. I finished 3-0 with a match record of 6-1. I will try to include more details in future match updates.

We have a guy at my local store that has been playing this deck for several years. I watched several of his games and started piecing it together. Then I saw the mentioned TCGplaye article about it and was able to fill the rest of the list out. It’s a really fun deck and I definitely recommend it to anyone looking to just have fun. The best part is turning it into a big boy beat down deck and trying to kill my opponents with big creatures.

Belcher has been around for a long while in older formats. This version is one for modern. Works surprisingly well and can easily steal wins.

Mono Green Charbelcher.

Actually, Monk Green Charbelcher is pretty cheap and can pull off easy wins. I play it all the time.

With so many tutors, you don’t need as many copies of the combo pieces. The equipment is an alternate win condition as the combo isn’t always enough. With delver of secrets and dimir infiltrator it can end games rather quickly.

Yes, unless the opponent has achieved a crazy amount of life.

Very interesting budget build of this deck. I also play this same deck and have had really good success on MTGO. It’s under $10 on there. Paper is obviously more. I’ve tried taking different directions with my build, but the current version I run has been the most consistent and successful. I’ll post a link in case you want to compare.

https://www.mtgvault.com/jlsatchwell13/decks/dimir-combo-budget/

5-5-18 : 3 Round Modern Event : Overall record was 2-1 (5-2 in all games total)
R1: Some sort of land combo deck with Primeval Titan and Azusa. Lost 1-2. Plain and simple, I needed anything but two Reckless Bushwhacker which cost me the game.

R2: U/W/R Control. My easiest match of the night. I was much too fast for my opponent and Keld sealed the deal.

R3: R/G Land Destruction. Also a very easy match. Mostly because I top decked lands in game 1 to outlast my opponent. Game 2 he had what he called a god hand. Unfortunately for him, my god hand was a lot faster.

This deck is super fun and very competitive even though it is budget.

2-16-18: FNM
Round 1: U/W Approach —- Draw —- 0-0-1 —- Equally good Control player
Round 2: U/W Approach —- Win —- 1-0-1 (2-1) —- Sloppy Control Player
Round 3: U/G Merfolk —- Loss —- 1-1-1 (0-2) —- Fast Aggro with nearly no removal drawn

I would ditch Navigator's Ruin. Odds are, you will be blocking most of the time with your creatures instead of attacking. You could use those four slots for something more productive. I would replace them with a draw spell, something that can keep you from running out of steam like Heiroglyphic Ruins, Glimmer of Genius, or another spell. Your goal with mill is to stall and kill, so being able to get to your Fraying Sanity and Fleet Swallower combo should be plan one and you need card draw to get there. Instead of Revolutionary Rebuff, I would run 3 Supreme Will. You still have the option to counter something, but also have the choice to dig. Unsummon is fine and better than Take into Custody, but I would just run 3 Aether Meltdown. It gives you energy that can feed your Minister of Inquiries and deal with creatures that make it to play. If you run Meltdowns, Unsummons, and Supreme Will, then I would possibly go with Negate instead of Essence Scatter, but that would depend on your meta. Negate can also counter board wipe and spot removal i.e. protecting Fleet Swallower. If I ran a list it would be something like this:

4 Minister of Inquiries
4 Fleet Swallower
3 Aether Theorist

4 Compelling Argument
4 Negate
3 Supreme Will
4 Unsummon
3 Aether Meltdown

4 Fraying Sanity
4 Heiroglyphic Ruin
1 Search for Azcanta

4 Ipnu Rivulet
4 Desert of the Mindful

It would probably change as I played it, but that would be close to where I would start. You Have Search for Azcanta, Heiroglyphic Ruins, Aether Theorist, Desert of the Mindful (cycle to draw), and even Supreme Will to help dig and get what you want. You have Minister of Inquiries and Compellingg Argument to mill once Fraying Sanity hits play, plus Fleet Swallower to finish. You have 7 potential counters to stall your opponent and protect your board. You also have 7 ways to handle creatures in the early game.

Got in a single game last night at FNM before having to leave. Won the round 2-0. Played a U/B Cycle deck that had a God-Pharaoh's Gift theme. Game 1: Maverick Thopterist with an Inventor's Goggles and two tokens knocked my opponent down to 11. Followed that by casting Freejam Regent. Next turn I swung in for lethal. Game 2: I went T2 Heart of Kiran into a Turn 3 Weldfast Engineer and defeated my opponent before he could create any sort of real board presence.

This build uses Refurbish to resurrect God-Pharaoh's Gift. I can pull it off on Turn 4 which is usually good game.

I tested it out for the first time today at a modern event. I had the following matches:
U/W Mirror = Draw 0-0-1 (1-1 Went to time in G3)
U/W Geist = 1-0-1 (2-0)
Kiki-Jiki Combo = Draw 1-0-2 (1-1 Went to Time in G3)

I was rather pleased with the performance of the deck. I have no problem with aggro based decks or creature based decks.
The mirror match wasn't a surprise to end as a draw. We played to time in G2 and he won in the 4th turn after time in the round.
The second match was no challenge at all. I had answers to all his threats and Ratchet Bomb was an all-star.
The third match should have been a win, but I made a serious mistake. In G3, I accumulated a ton of lands and forgot that I had a Celestial Colonnade which I had mixed into my pile of like 11 lands and completely forgot. I could have killed him before time was called, but I din't realize I had mixed it in until it was too late. I got him down to 6 with Ugin in play on my last turn after time. That mistake cost me that game.

I was really pleased with the deck. I will be playing the build as it currently stands a couple more times before beginning changes, but the only thing that sticks out to me so far is Mana Leak. There are times where I would much rather have a Dispel or even another solid counter. Other than that, the is pretty resilient and a ton of fun to play. Ugin is definitely an All-Star. He just close down games.