1/2 split at Monster Den Minneapolis 10-17

[FoulQ]

So I have not gone to Monster Den in Minneapolis since the summer. Starting up school it has been hard. I almost didn't even want to go because of schoolwork. But I decided it was worth it. I think there was 46 people.

Anyways, if you know me on the Source, you know I basically play goblins, so here was the list:

// Lands
2 [MM] Rishadan Port
4 [TE] Wasteland
17 [b] Mountain (1)

// Creatures
2 [M10] Goblin Chieftain
3 [SC] Siege-Gang Commander
3 [ZEN] Warren Instigator
4 [AP] Goblin Ringleader
3 [ON] Goblin Piledriver
4 [US] Goblin Matron
4 [SC] Goblin Warchief
4 [US] Goblin Lackey
3 [PLC] Stingscourger
3 [LE] Gempalm Incinerator

// Spells
4 [DS] AEther Vial

// Sideboard
SB: 1 [M10] Goblin Chieftain
SB: 1 [R] Goblin King
SB: 1 [ONS] Goblin Sharpshooter
SB: 2 [AL] Pyrokinesis
SB: 2 [BOK] Umezawa's Jitte
SB: 3 [ALA] Relic of Progenitus
SB: 1 [CHK] Tormod's Crypt
SB: 4 [FUT] Magus of the Moon

A few explanations. First the sideboard: My sideboard was originally -4 magus +4 needle. But needle has often been lackluster for me, so I decided to try out the basically untested magus instead. This got rid of my jitte answer – but then again, is pithing needle really worth bringing in against speculative jittes? I felt lost without my tin streets, but at the advice of a friend I put 2 jittes in place of 2 pyrokinesis to basically combat jitte. (I would have considered tinkerer but I forgot all mine at home...) I also couldn't get 4 chieftains before, and the 1 extra in the maindeck (read below) screwed everything up so I hastily threw in 1 king (should be a chieftain) and 1 sharpshooter, one of the few remaining candidates I could put in my board that I brought with me.

Maindeck: I did not have 4 instigators in time for the tournament, so I ran 3 and put in a 2nd chieftain in its place. SGC is an auto 3 of. 3 stingsscourgers, which apparently people think is garbage, but I think everyone in the goblins thread has realized by now how awesome he is. The rest is pretty self-explanatory, I went down to 3 piledrivers because I usually only want one and I usually want it somewhat late.

Some of my matches are a little hazy but I'll do my best to fill in the details.

Round 1 vs. Ian w/ Crucible Rock BGW

Game 1: I win the die roll. He plays a lot of basic lands, okay. I just play out an instigator and some generic goblins. Eventually it appears that he is starting to turn the tide after vindicating my vial and then witnessing it back, but a chieftain that I've been saving surprises and wins it for me.

Boarding: Preemptively expecting plague or something, I go +1 Cheftain +1 King, and I think I went -1 Piledriver and -1 SGC or something.

Game 2: Yeah I mulligan to 5 and keep a one land (wasteland) hand with a vial and low costed goblins. I thought he was playing traditional rock but then he plays exploration, crucible, and magus of the tabernacle. It was a total beatdown but I knew what he was playing now.

Boarding: I try to fake boarding in graveyard hate but I decide to bring in 2 relics. I figure his list is pretty tight so I decide to risk him having plague and go -1 King and some other stuff. This is hazy.

Game 3: I start with double vial and he does some stuff like lose tons of tempo like rock lists always do. I play 3 ringleaders back to back to back for 3 turns and yeah.

1-0
2-1

(Personally I think rock decks aren't that great. They get outtempoed so bad by merfolk and goblins.)

Round 2 vs. Matt w/ Aggro Loam RGB

Game 1: I start by mulling to five. I play instigator and draw vial. I hold back a land and vial expecting dreams. Yes, I manage to draw it out, sucker. I play land vial and he is like “oh lucky lucky” and I'm just like whatever. Then I kill him as he is stuck on just a mox diamond for a while.

Boarding: +3 Relic, +1 Crypt, -2 SGC, -1 Something

Game 2: I start with a vial I think, he starts with an explosives or something. Anyways he starts loaming it up and I relic. He eventually becomes strangely obsessed with pumping his countryside crusher. I guess it was his only hope, as I out-tempo the deck so bad with 2 back to back stingscourgers on fat crushers. I gempalm the other one he plays. He's got a confidant or something, I attack and kill him at some point.

2-0
4-1

Round 3 vs. Nick w/ GBW Rock??

Game 1: He mulls to five and plays two wastelands. I just play out goblins, I think first turn lackey.

Boarding: None, I wasn't going to risk anything.

Game 2: I finally figure out what he is playing. I play first turn lackey. He sinkholes a land. Okay, whatever, lackey connects SGC. I start tapping down his swamps, I think, to stop a potential plague, but AGAIN, the chieftain comes up and wins the game.

3-0
6-1

Round 4 vs. Luke w/ UGBW Counterbalance

I know what he is playing. I feel pretty good going into the match, since we are only playing 5 rounds but 46 people we figure out we have to play it out. I see he is a great player. His deck plays pernicious deed, otherwise looks like pretty standard nassiftop. At this point I have lost one game to a terrible hand and otherwise crushed the opposition. So I'm feeling great.

Game 1: Warren instigator and some other dorks go the distance without much difficulty.

Boarding: I had a really difficult time deciding what to board against him. Mainly, what to board out. I realize that I think this is the guy who plays pernicious deed in countertop, based on some recent posts on the source. I don't remember exactly what I did, but I brought in +1 Chieftain, +1 King, +4 Magus, and I think I went like -2 Piledriver (mistake), -2 Gempalm (mistake), -1 Instigator (mistake), and -1 SGC.

Game 2: I start to realize how important it is for him to have a resolved confidant in the matchup. It really helps him win. He casts threads of disloyalty on warren instigator (is this really worth it vs. goblins) and vedalken shackles bullcrap goes the distance. He countered magus twice this game. Very depressing, as it probably would have won it for me.

Game 3: Yeah, we have about 50 seconds left in the round, I start off strong with lackey, he blasts it, I play instigator. Whatever, we draw, we thought about drawing anyways.

3-0-1
7-2-1

Round 5 vs. Jade w/ RGW Zoo

So this guy is 4-0. We figure it out and the three 3-0-1's and the 4-0 can draw, so we do, but I still play Jade for fun.

Game 1: I manage to hold him off long enough with port tapping taiga. I slowly start to whittle away at his army of pridemage x2, nacatl x1, ape x1, and thoctar x1, with a well placed siege-gang commander. All the sudden I topdeck piledriver and being faced with probably lethal next turn and, with Jade's creatures all tapped, I win with piledriver and some guys.

Boarding: I have tested this matchup and I believe this to be correct here. -3 Piledriver, -3 Instigator, +1 Chieftain, +2 Pyrokinesis, +2 Jitte, +1 King. This is the one matchup I felt very confident about with my new build since I tested the shit out of it.

Game 2: Yeah, he leads with taiga – nacatl – savannah – ape. Uh oh. Too bad my opening hand had double waste + port. He can't manage to draw lands (he was playing 20) and I eventually just play out goblins. Still, we drew and auto make top eight so whatever.

3-0-2
7-2-1

Quarterfinals vs. Kobie w/ Merfolk MonoU (12 lord version)

After a while I decide not to prize split with him. I know he is playing merfolk so I feel pretty good about my chances. However, I played pretty damn poorly, especially game 3, so I feel a little lucky here.

Game 1: HahaHA, mull to five and get stomped by three lords + mutavault. But I don't go on tilt.

Boarding: +2 Pyrokinesis, +2 Jitte, +1 Chieftain, -1 Stingscourger, -1 SGC, -X don't remember.

Game 2: This game is basically the opposite. He has no answer to turn 1 vial, which leads to pretty much absolute nuts of lackey-piledriver-warchief-win. I think I win on turn 5 or something.

Game 3: This game is close. I have a chance to use a pyrokinesis on a cursecatcher to connect with lackey. I decide to trade with his guy, I thought it was the right decision before because I figured I have inevitability and want to draw the match out long enough where SGC and Ringleader start to pwn noobs, but I should have just connected with lackey. I was thinking to much into magic theory and not enough into how to win the freaking game. Anyways, I use pyrokinesis later on silvergill adept + lord of atlantis, cracking standstill. He hydroblasts it. I do another pyrokinesis, levaing only a warchief in my hand and two lands and a piledriver in play. He forces that one. Oh shit. Anyways I get lucky when he draws a bunch of islands and I draw a bunch of mountains (thank god). I start to play stuff out, including warchief, ringleader. Eventually I have a piledriver just antsing to come out and surprise the shit out of him (I had one in play). I get the lethal damage on the field: He is at 18 life and I have two piledrivers that are each 9/2. I bounced the wrong guy but I was already freaking out that I probably just won some duals. I won anyways, thank god.

4-0-2
9-3-1

Semifinals vs. Luke w/ UGBW Counterbalance

Game 1: Same guy as before. I keep a threat light hand. I should have mulliganed probably. Vial, Gempalm, Mountain, Mountain, Wasteland, Wasteland, Rishadan Port. I felt like Vial followed by some mana denial would stop him well. It would have on the play but I was on the draw. I get destroyed.

Boarding: Did not board in Magus this time. Not worth it. +1 Chieftain, -1 SGC.

Game 2: I keep a similar hand as last time, except I have 3 spells and 4 lands this time. This time he kept a land light hand. The mana denial does its business and I win.

Game 3: So this was my best game of the night by far. I kept a hand like lackey, mountain, wasteland, port, warchief, piledriver, ringleader. I lackey, he blasts. I start mana denialing him and I think I drew another wasteland or something. He eventually starts to play some stuff out. But then I resolve a ringleader. At one point I have 6 cards in hand (two instigators, one chieftain, and one piledriver for a very long time) and he has 1. He continually has to put his top back on top of his library to keep up with me. He starts to sound depressed which cheers me up. If he had just faked it and pretended to be cocky I think that might have affected me, sadly. So anyways the game stretches on forever, he eventually plays sower of temptation on my SGC and we have a staring contest with his pernicious deed. Some stuff happens I don't remember, I have a tough time deciding what to get with matron. I eventually decide on stingscourger to return my SGC to my hand. I swing with some stuff and pretty much everything ends up dying on both sides, but I vial in that SGC I got back with scourger. The initial ringleader card advantage he just can't get over. I keep playing out goblins sort of slow rolling trying to play very conservatively and not blow the match to another deed or something. Instigator + Chieftain was key in this matchup. It won me the matchup. You NEED 2 chieftain minimum in every goblin maindeck now. Sorry folks, it's truth.

Finals vs. ?? w/ Tempo Thresh

The way the prizes worked out we didn't really need to play. I am sad that I didn't get to play him, he mentions how he will beat me more than likely. I can't say I disagree with him,especially my mono red version. I've had a very difficult time against this deck in the past.

SO, the top eight was...
UG Faerie thing def. RGW Zoo
Tempo thresh def. RGW Zoo (my round 5 opponent)
Mono R Goblins (me) def. Mono U Merfolk
UGBW Counterbalance (round 4 opponent) def. Mono U Merfolk

Tempo Thresh def. UG Faerie Thing
Goblins def. Counterbalance

Goblins draw Tempo Thresh


So I got tundra/tundra/bayou for my efforts. There was probably a better pile with underground sea, but it had taiga as well, and I was not in the mood to have 4 taigas. I am probably going to trade them off anyways, and I think double tundra and bayou are easier to trade off than the taiga. But I don't know. Whatever, either way I got three duals.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Funny thing is, I scrapped this build together (especially the sideboard) close to last minute and I didn't even play what I wanted to.

Props
Warren Instigator, Stingscourger, Goblin Cheiftain, x3 SGC
People who respect Stingscourger
People playing Zoo (I think it was the right meta choice personally)
Not having to play the supposedly abundant combo
Steve for the ride home
Nyles for helping me get there
Playing controllish decks that I can so easily out-tempo all day
The guy who had an extra tarmogoyf to trade me. You have no idea how grateful I am.
My college owned 3/8 or 37.5% of the top eight. We also had a 100% top eight success rate and a 50% top four success rate, since the other two besides myself had to play each other.

Not Props
Magus of the Moon
People who blame luck
Terrible phone service
I am really hungry
Contradicting myself about Zoo being the best choice, then mentioning abundant combo
Because not prop ever: People who say goblins takes no skill. While not as skill intensive as many decks in the format, you can tell who doesn't know a thing about goblins by who says "yeah goblins takes no skill."

[Joe_C]

very nice performance man. Ive been toying with instigator quite a bit and cant justify him as a 4 of in the deck either. Ive also dropped my chieftain count down to 3 but I only run 2 piledrivers since most of the time when I want him I can matron for him anyways...But I also run 3 SGC since he is boss with 7 "lackeys" in the deck..... I had to cut the double red cards so I could fit port back in there since port/wasteland is our really only prayer against zoo

[Malchar]

I'm glad to see this because I had started to give up on my Goblins deck. In fact, I probably should have played it instead of Armageddon Stax. For the record, I faced:
1. zoo (win).
2. zoo (draw, stupidly let it go to time).
3. aggro loam (loss, inexperienced in the matchup).
4. enchantress (loss, couldn't get a good enough hand).

[FoulQ]

Don't give up! I think it was a good choice today because there were many merfolk and rock decks, and I feel that with the right playstyle and practice goblins can overcome sweepers such as pernicious deed, firespout, and engineered explosives, to name a few. People seem to be very confident that sweepers will wreck goblins, but if they don't apply extremely quick pressure afterwards (such as zoo can do with pyroclasm), then their sweeper will be easily overcome within the next few turns with goblins. It also has game against almost every deck packing counterbalance. I played a counterbalance deck twice. The only thing was that Luke was an obviously better player than me so that probably negated some of the matchup advantage I felt I had.

I think it is important not to splash, because that gives you a better chance against the loam and rock decks in the field. Plus, if you play black, you probably won't play stingscourger, and I think he is pretty much the bomb against every pernicious deedish deck (non-blue board control sorta thing) like in my first 3 rounds.

Honestly though, I think there are probably better choices, as goblins folds to combo pretty hard and these new versions can have trouble with landstill. But, a positive counterbalance and merfolk matchup, along with a decent one against pernicious deed decks (and zoo with practice), I think it can be a good choice to play. It is also much more consistent than most other aggro decks.

[ScatmanX]

Nice to see goblins here again! Your list is solid, but sb is confusing. Have you used Jitte at all? What about King?

Don´t give up on Magus. I haven´t used in my last champ also, but it won games before, and I think will win again.

Also, Rb goblin don´t scoop to combo. Check out my report. (I was lucky, I know, but stil...)

Congrats!

[FoulQ]

About Magus, I just have a tough time deciding what to board out against nassiftop lists. 4 magus along with 2 preemptive chieftains is already a lot, and the lists vary a lot that simple testing and figuring out isn't going to be enough: I'm going to have to make my sideboard strategies against countertop decks on the fly because some things you just can't test (such as: how highly does the countertop player value their dark confidants?)

The sideboard is confusing, I agree. I've changed it since then a little bit, and frankly my sideboard was practically a hindrance at this tournament. I've always disliked king but wanted 2 lords in my SB for plague, and jitte was primarily because I thought there would be a TON of jitte in the meta (can't say I was really wrong) and because I was NOT going to randomly lose to some dork merfolk carrying one.

[Humphrey]

Id prefer Needle against CTop-decks, also u sometimes can just name their Fetchlands