Wake and Bake

Modern RUW (Jeskai, America) Zirda, the Dawnwaker

NobleRooster

Land (23)

• 1x Academy Ruins
• 1x Fiery Islet
• 4x Flooded Strand
• 2x Glacial Fortress
• 2x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x Mountain
• 1x Mystic Gate
• 1x Raugrin Triome
• 4x Scalding Tarn
• 3x Snow-Covered Island
• 3x Steam Vents

Instant (17)

• 4x Consider
• 4x Fire / Ice
• 2x Pact of Negation
• 4x Remand
• 3x Unholy Heat

Planeswalker (7)

• 3x Gideon of the Trials
• 4x Teferi, Time Raveler

Artifact (5)

• 1x Goblin Charbelcher
• 4x Proteus Staff

Enchantment (4)

• 4x Myth Realized

Companion (1)

Sorcery (4)

• 4x Expressive Iteration

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Sideboard

Instant (10)

• 2x Celestial Purge
• 2x Ceremonious Rejection
• 2x Intervention Pact
• 2x Mystical Dispute
• 2x Wear / Tear

Creature (2)

• 1x Archon of Cruelty
• 1x Zirda, the Dawnwaker

Artifact (1)

• 1x Engineered Explosives

Planeswalker (2)

• 2x Ashiok, Dream Render

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Previously featured in an MtGgoldfish Deck Tech: https://youtu.be/-u-7sz_-Ay0

Behold, Zirda+Staff+Belcher AKA "Wake and Bake!"

The Combo

Proteus Staff + Zirda, the Dawnwaker -- Using Proteus Staff to put decks in any order has been a combo for a while, but the challenge to them was always consistency; how do you find the 1 creature in your deck? The answer to this has traditionally been tokens, but that has weaknesses too, most notably taking up card slots.

Enter Zirda.

Because Zirda is the only creature in the 75, we can hit it with staff, put it on the bottom of our library, then reveal the entire library and get Zirda back, putting the revealed cards back in any order.

Enter Goblin Charbelcher.

Charbelcher made a huge comeback with MDFCs, and is arguably one of the strongest modern combos at the moment. In this deck, however, we can play just one copy and a normal amount of lands. When we stack the deck with Zirda+Staff, we can put Belcher on top followed by at least 10 nonland cards and a mountain. On the next turn, play Belcher and activate it to deal 20 damage to your opponent's face.

This combo technically works with most of the companions, but Zirda reduces our activation costs, making Staff and Belcher's activations 1 each.

You can also simply stack your deck every turn for 1 mana, effectively tutoring whatever the situation calls for until the time is right.

The Support

See Updates

As I mentioned, this combo has technically existed for a while, however nobody played it (to my knowledge) because it was too slow (a turn 6 Goldfish isn't very good) and required an all-in deckbuilding approach. Thanks to Zirda, however, we only have to commit 5 mainboard cards to the combo, and the activation costs are more efficient so we don't spend an entire turn activating Staff and doing nothing else.

Academy Ruins gives our artifacts some resiliency. If Belcher gets blown up, discarded, or milled, Ruins puts it right back where it belongs.

Tips and Tricks

When you stack your deck, it's still a good idea to put the nonland cards after belcher in an order you'd need them in case the combo falls through.

If Zirda is killed or exiled before you can stack your deck, you can target Myth Realized with Staff instead, it’ll just be more expensive.

It's also worth noting that Charbelcher is not a dead card even when you can't combo. It's obviously slow, but you can widdle someone's life total down with some lucky activations if you're desperate.

I posted an identical version with an abbreviated description on MtGGoldfish: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3021898#paper

If you like the deck, hit me with the +1! As I play test more I'll post match results here.

Date added	4 years
Last updated	2 years
Exclude colors	B
Key combos	Proteus Staff + Zirda, the Dawnwaker
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	3 - 1 Mythic Rares 38 - 4 Rares 8 - 10 Uncommons 7 - 0 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.16
Tokens	Emblem Gideon of the Trials