[Interview] Austin Deceder and the $20K One-Shot Belcher Deck

Last updated on February 26, 2026

Tameshi, Reality Architect | Illustration by Scott M. Fischer

Magic would be nothing without its community of passionate players. This passion manifests in many ways; some players hit conventions, some players collect cards, and some brew fresh decks. Austin Deceder falls into all three categories, and is best known for creating the Mono-Blue Belcher archetype that won Pro Tour Edge of Eternities at the hands of Michael DeBenedetto-Plummer, and for owning the most blinged out version of the deck possible.

The deck uses all the mono-blue modal double-faced lands to technically play no lands, so Goblin Charbelcher can be lethal from a single activation. Draftsim sat down with Austin to learn how he kickstarted the archetype.

Q: Tell us about your history with MTG

A: I grew up with card games, mostly playing Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! in the early 2000s, but I found myself dissatisfied with their direction. I needed a bigger sandbox and found that when I discovered Magic in my early teens, around Scars of Mirrodin block.

I played for years before I touched Modern. I'm from a small town in Iowa with a thriving Commander crowd, but limited Constructed events. Commander is a blast with the right group, but it didn't scratch that competitive itch. Modern had the most open card pool while still being commonly played enough to find locals in surrounding areas, so I'd travel to get my fix. I'd sometimes travel 100+ miles to play in Rochester or Minneapolis.

Q: What are you most renowned for in MTG?

A: Some people know me for being active in the vending scene. Others know me for my collection of Magic oddities and giant Prize Wall cards. Most recently, I’m the Blue Belcher guy. I’m a guy with a lot of gimmicks who stumbled into being a name in the Magic community. But I always wanted to be a personality people remember for something unique.

Q: When did you first get the idea for Mono Blue Belcher?

A: Eventually, I had moved to Kansas City, where the average player's skill level was much higher than I was used to, so I had put the time in playing Modern locals 3-4 times a week. At the time, I was on a Temur () Nexus of Fate/[/card]Wilderness Reclamation[/card] deck. I was playing on Cockatrice when I encountered someone playing an old SaffronOlive Selective Memory deck.

The deck intrigued me, so I took a stab at it, but noticed it was clunky. I realized if you played 4 of each mono-blue modal double-faced land, you’d get 24 lands and make Force of Negation and Disrupting Shoal more consistent. The main drawback in 2023 was that you’d be playing 20 tap lands, so I added playsets of other free spells like Subtlety, Snapback, and even Commandeer. I got a consistent positive record at my locals and had to get this idea out there.

In November 2023, I made a Magic Online account and jammed leagues to get in the 5-0 Decklist Drop. I succeeded within a week, then joined the Oops All Spells/Charbelcher Discord for feedback. Some wrote it off as a fluke or a gimmick, but I believed in my deck, so I asked the server's owner, my now-friend Ashanti, if the archetype could have its own channel so people could keep innovating. He said he'd consider it if it put up another result.

The very next day, I 5-0’d again. By then, a few streamers had noticed Mono-Blue Belcher, namely Doomwake and DemonicTutors. As soon as the Discord channel was created, many great minds, such as my very talented friend and Charbelcher Discord moderator Amethyst Piltzer, started collaborating on the deck.

Q: What makes the deck so special?

A: Modern currently has multiple archetypes fed directly through Modern Horizons sets; Boros () Energy, Eldrazi, etc.. This deck is one of the last bastions of unintentional deck archetypes in the format. It doesn’t follow traditional deckbuilding and uses its resources completely differently than any other deck. The community cobbled it together with an amalgamation of cards from different eras of Magic that saw play nowhere else, and that resonates with people.

Q: When did you realize it had really caught on?

A: The deck caught people’s attention after my initial 5-0. But one of the biggest pushes was after Fabian Gollmann, a Belcher Discord regular, placed Top 4 with the Selective Memory version at the 4Season Summer Main Event in Bologna, Italy. After that, innovations even came from influential community members like AspiringSpike, who added the Flare of Denial plan, and Gabrial Nassif who performed well in a Challenge with it.

Q: How has it performed at tournaments?

A: I was working a booth at MagicCon Atlanta when another friend of mine showed me that Mono-Blue Belcher was the 2nd most represented deck at Pro Tour Edge of Eternities. I was surprised when I saw 2 talented players, Mikko Airaksinen and Michael DeBenedetto-Plummer (who won) made it to the Top 8 on Belcher. The deck had evolved from a brew I brought to my Modern locals to a real metagame threat.

As for myself, I won SCGcon Minneapolis’s Modern 5k event with the deck, placed 9th at NRG Chicagoland the next weekend, and got 11th in a recent Modern Showcase. It helped me get my first day 2 finish at SCGcon Vegas; I even took the winner of the event to game 3.

Q: How long did it take you to hone the archetype?

A: The deck caught its stride when Modern Horizons 3 printed two more untapped MDFCs. We started playing Whir of Invention and Tameshi, Reality Architect, leaving behind Selective Memory to optimize the Belcher line.

Q: Why is Mono Blue Belcher positioned so well in the Modern meta?

A: Whir/Tameshi made it the perfect answer for Boros Energy, which was a disproportionate percentage of the metagame at the time. You only had to disrupt one of their turns and hold up the turn 4 line to win. The deck feels like it has game into anything; it has efficient interaction, a reliable win condition, and is difficult to disrupt.

Q: How long have you been collecting cards for your incredible list?

A: My Belcher list has been a work in progress since its inception. I started foiling it out like I would any deck I enjoyed, then got a playset of Lotus Blooms signed by the late Christopher Rush. Friends would tag me in posts selling misprint MDFCs with the wrong backs. A friend had a foil misprint borderless Tameshi with a print line through the eyes that he sold me.

I’d get any card I could find signed by the artists, and plan to go to Amsterdam to get my 4 (almost) sequential serialized Charbelchers signed (#449, 450, 452 and 123).

After I ran out of cards to foil, I started chasing the limited Secret Lair Prize Card sleeves that were used for Promos, which sell for about $10/sleeve on Ebay. That took a year to complete.

I want to make this Belcher list the most unique version possible. This came to a climax when the most recent Pro Tour promo was announced to be Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student. Foils were only given out to the top 32 players in that event. Pro Tour winner Christoffer Larsen sold me his copy. Shuffling up the Pro Tour winner’s copy of the card brings me joy.

As for goals, I have a bounty on Charbelcher #451 to finish my set. I also have a few misprint Waterlogged Teachings I’d love to snag and, of course, get my gold foil Whir of Inventions signed by Brian Chippendale (of Lightning Bolt fame) someday. I’ll always look for the most unique versions of anything I can for this deck.