Here's a super sweet list that recently 5-0'd (10-0 in games!) an MTGO league. As a disclaimer, Sebastian Stuckl (@MTGMagus on Twitter) built the original 5-0 list, and the one above is basically the same with a few of my edits. I just want to share it with people here because I find it really cool!
The deck uses the new ZNR flip lands to cheat Goblin Charbelcher's land clause since they count as non-land cards until you play them. This gives the deck several benefits over traditional Charbelcher:
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Charbelcher always flips your entire deck on activation.
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You can avoid jumping through the land searching hoops that the previous iteration of modern Charbelcher did, which lets you play Rituals and Irencrag Feat for faster Charbelcher wins. (as early as turn 1 with Spirit Guides!)
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Since you don't have to dedicate your entire deck to finding lands, you have more flex spots to play removal and whatnot. This build features four maindeck Veil of Summer.
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Flip lands have additional utility as actual spells! In my experiences with the deck so far, I've won a few games by casting Akoum Warrior
on turn 2 with Rituals, killing a Meddling Mage on Charbelcher with Shatterskull Smashing
, and by shooting down random dorks with Spikefield Hazard
. Bala Ged Recovery
can be used to get back discarded or destroyed Charbelchers, and Valakut Awakening
helps you cycle through the deck to find the Charbelcher.
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Flip lands turn Recross the Paths into a spell that just stacks your entire deck, like Doomsday but on steroids. You'll usually use it to set up a literal Miracle hand for your next turn by putting Reforge the Soul and the Charbelcher + fast mana and protection on top. Recross also gives you the option of playing an alternate sideboard plan in Collected Company + Undercity Informer + Thassa's Oracle to get around artifact hate and Leyline of Sanctity.
The sideboard combo works like this: you cast Recross the Paths, then put Collected Company on top of your deck (or underneath a Reforge the Soul) with Informer and Oracle somewhere in the next 6. Then you draw and cast Coco, get the two creatures, and sac one of the creatures to Informer (doesn't matter which) to mill your entire deck while Oracle's ability is on the stack, winning the game on the spot! And the best part is that you can do it at instant speed for 5 mana, only 1 of which needs to be colored, and it totally dodges removal despite the fact it uses creatures. Pretty neat, right?
A couple other things I noticed about Recross the Paths setups:
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Miracle hands (as in, the hand you set up on top of your library underneath Reforge the Soul) are quite resilient. Depending on the number of lands you have in play, you don't always need to fill your hand with fast mana to play and activate Goblin Charbelcher. A lot of the time you have space to play 2-3 cards for protection (Veil of Summer, Pact of Negation), redundancy, and removal.
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You can guarantee a Clash win against most decks in the format by putting Turntimber Symbiosis
on top without losing out on a Reforge the Soul miracle the following turn since it lets you bottom the card you revealed.
There are a few downsides to the flip lands, though. For one thing, you often get slow hands with tons of taplands since there are only two flip lands in these colors that can come in untapped (Turntimber Symbiosis
, Shatterskull Smashing
). For another, Ghost Quarter and Field of Ruin do horrible things against this deck's manabase since it isn't running any basics. Also, opponents can actually Thoughtseize away your lands since they're non-land cards in hand.
But regardless of whether the deck is good or better than old Charbelcher or not, it's super fun! I definitely recommend you all try it out.
