Originally Posted by ashent Originally Posted by

I run into Belcher playing this deck and many like it on xMage (never in paper, and infrequently on MODO) pretty often and always feel generally favored. Like all Blue vs Belcher matches, it is helpful to understand how to mulligan properly and also what spell(s) to counter and what to let resolve. It also helps to be a cautious player that understands the importance of keeping a blind hand with Force that may not look all that impressive against an unknown opponent because they could possibly be on some nonsense like Belcher.



Czech Pile runs 4 Force and (usually) 2 Counterspell main. I also tend to run 2 Thoughtseize main, giving my version a little more turn 1 interaction on the play and some nice help against all-in combo decks. Keeping a hand with Force and then killing the Belcher player with a single Snapcaster or Leovold is plan A. Plan B is to lose game 1 quickly because you kept an unprepared hand game 1 and then bring in your Flusterstorm, any Deluge or Marsh Casualties you have, taking out the slower nonblue cards in your deck, and then mulling to Force and killing them easily.