[Deck] Goblins

[ScatmanX]

Ended up playing monored today anyway. Next time might change it up.
8-man, went 3-1.
List:
4 Wasteland
4 Rishadan Port
3 Cavern of Souls
9 Mountain
2 Chrome Mox

4 Aether Vial
4 Goblin Lackey
4 Goblin Matron
4 Goblin Ringleader
4 Goblin Warchief
4 Mogg Warmarchall
2 Goblin Piledriver

1 Goblin Chieftain
2 Krenko, Mob Boss
1 Kiki-Jiki Mirror Breaker

3 Gempalm Incinerator
3 Tarfire
1 Stingscourger

1 Skirk Prospector

SB:
3 Confusion in the Ranks
2 Needle

2 Mindbreak Trap
2 Chalice of the Void
1 Chrome Mox

2 Boartusk Liege
1 Goblin Sharpshooter
1 Lightning Crafter
1 Tuktuk Scrapper

Match 1 monoblue control
Game 1: I mull, he FoW's Lackey, and get Shackles and Energy Field. I can't take it out. Luckly, he plays a Wurmcoil sometime, and died when I Gempalmd it.
Side in Crafter, Tuktuk, 2 Needle, 2 Confusion, for 6 removals.
Game 2: Pretty much the same. Slow rolled a Waste for if he played a Fecth. It worked. He died.

Match 2 TES
Game 1: He mulls to 5, I get him with Lackey+Port.
Side in Trap, CotV, Mox, Shooter, Crafter, Tuktuk, take removal and Krenko out.
Game 2: I Mull a Vial+CotV+Port+Mountai+dudes, into the same hand, but with Trap instead of CotV. He goes of T1, and I get him.

Match 3 AnT
Game 1: I mull to 4 and dia.
SB: Same as TES
Game 2: I mull 5 Mountains, Lackey, Matron, then mull Waste, Mox, MWM, Warchief, Ringleader, Trap, that maybe I should have kept, then mull a no lander into Vial + Trap. He therapies and I die.

Match 4 GBu NicFit (finally some magic)
Game 1: He gets a Pod online, after 1 or 2 Veteran died. I failed to find a Matron or a Ringleader, that might have turned the tables, so I die to Shriekmaw + Shaman 'beats'. Krenko bought me a LOT of turns. Unfortunately did not get more gas.

SB (take Deed into consideration): 2 Needle, 1 Tuktuk, 1 Crafter, 2 Liege, 1 Shooter, -3 Tarfire, -1 Piledriver, -Stingscourger (mistake, should have been a MWM) and -2 Mox.

Game 2: Kept a 1 lander, with Vial and Needle. after he plays Veteran, recap Therapy and cast Pod, I Needle it, and he Deeds them. Ringleader gets me 4 cards, and next turn Tuktuk handles Pod. He is left out of gas way sooner than me, and I get to overwhelm him this time.

Game 3: This one was great. Kept a weird 2 Port, 2 Mountain, MWM, Warchief, Matron. He Therapies and accelerates the game. I get Wahrchief and dudes, but he kills them all. Again, a natural drawn Tuktuk handles Pod. This time he has Ooz though, that with Shriekmaw and Shaman start eating my life. I chumpblock as good as I can, Gempalm Maw when I can, and the field ends up like this eventually: he has a GIANT Ooze (12 counters I guess), Explorer, Finks and Shaman, with lots of lands. I have a Vial@2, 2 1/1 guys, and 8 life. I block Explorer and Ooze, go to 5, and get more lands (13 now I guess). We shuffle, I up Vial to 3, and slam my draw without seing it: Ringleader. It gets Lackey and MWM. Crap. Cast both. Go to 3, but he doesn't has more spells to remove, neither do I (thank god for taking Tarfire out, and not taking dmg form my lands). Time is called. People gather around. Tension builds up. He attacks. I chump. My turn (1): draw Lightning Crafter, play it championing Ringleader. He attacks (T2). I trade Crafter with Finks, and chump Ooze. He goes up to 44. Ringleader reveals some dudes, he Therapies 2 of them up, leaving me with MWM. I draw (T3) a Kiki Jiki! Yey! EoT I make a Ringleader token - eot because if Ringleader don't reveal anything, I may be able to push the draw - but it reveals Krenko, Boartusk Liege, Lackey and Chieftain. He goes to 46. He didn't even attacks (T4). I Vial in Liege. My turn (T5), Play Chieftain, Vial Krenko, play Lackey, Make a Boartusk Liege token, make 9 tokens with Krenko, and attack with the 2 6/7 Lieges, 5/5 Ringleader, and 12 4/4 dudes. He blocks 2, and takes 50 dmg. That's how you win against NicFit.

What I love about this version is that things like this actually happen in post-boarded games, and my Ringleaders don't reveal like, 2 lands, RiP and Wear/Tear. Still need to play Jons Rw list though, but will change the SB to make this strategy viable.

Always great to play goblins. Cheers.

[max_goblin]

Hi, I also played a small tournament this weekend.
I played monoRed and ended 2-1.

4 Port
4 Waste
4 Cavern
10 Mountain

4 Vial

2 Tarfire
4 Lackey
4 Pile
4 MWM
4 Gempalm
1 Sting
3 Warchief
2 Chieftain
4 Matron
4 Ringleader
1 Krenko
1 Goblin Pyromancer

SB
4 Relic of Progenitus
4 CotV
1 Liege
1 Tuk Tuk
3 Pyrokineis
2 Needle

Match 1 - AnT
G1 - no lands I mull. one colorless land no vial, I mull. waste, cavern, mountain, lackey and pile I kept. I go lackey, he go dual cantrip, i go waste hit pile go and draw another waste. He goes dual cantrip and i follow with another waste. He got mana screwed and I win.
In 4 CotV 2 Needle, Out 1 Sting 4 Gempalm 1 tarfire
G2 - I made a mistake and play CotV for 1, he goes LED, LED, LED, MOX and super combo! I am dead..
G3 - I got a CotV for zero turn 1 + waste and port, he cant get to me and I kill him easily.

1-0
Match 2 - Shardless BUG
G1 - Well, first match I mulled a lot because i had no lands, so I kept a hand with 3 lands, lackey and dudes. He goes first with shamam, lackey never connects cause everytime I am reaching the 2 dudes for Gempalm, he kills a guy...
In 4 Relic 2 Needle (shaman, liliana). Out 4 Vial + other stuff I dont remember.
I know vial is very good, but I was trying something different. If you depend on vial they will decay it, surely. They play not much counters, and should prob side them out. 10 Artifacts MD make ringleaders worst, and every removal would be so much worst for me.
G2 - I kept a so so hand.. Pile, relic, 2 waste, 2 port, cavern. I thought that I could easly keep him low on mana and try to win in the long game, wrong call, now I know. I go port relic go. He goes shamam again T1 without a mulligan to find it.. I draw land (wtf?) Play my second land, relic to take his fetch from grave and tap him at upkeep. He goes fetch, gofy go.. I play waste, take land off, and port him again, btw draw another land. Well, the game continues with me trying to stop his shaman, the goyf never gets big enought but he always have a fetch to get another land in his grave, I kept drawing mountains and caverns (got two lackey too). And got easly crushed them. I know it was a risky hand, but from 5 draws, get 2 lackey and 3 more land.. well, that is a bit of unlucky too.. =/
1-1

Match 3 - UW Geist

G1 - He got a delver online, kills my lackey and flip his delver. I kept putting cards in game and he kepts killing or bouncing them. When he is out of gas I kill his delver and go for the win.
In tuktuk, Liege Out Goblin Pyromancer + other stuff I dont remember a sting perhaps (geist, gaga are not good targets, just delvers). I took pyromancer out because he played 4 stifle, and I really dont want to se Pyromancer stifled..

G2 - He goes delver, I go vial that got FoW, his delver flips and he played another. I try another goblin that got dazed, he flips his another delver, and start hitting me for 6, he kills some other guys and I die right after.

G3 - Go with vial, lackey + dudes, go with lackey that got StP, vial got FoW, i start to waste him. Port soon comes online, the game goes to mid game and well, piles + ringleader gets the game.
2-1

The BUG player got this tournament, BUG is really a tought match, I guess I need more training against it, Shamam is really a powerfull card and my tarfires have never come out to see play. How would you guys play against it? Mana deny is not a valid strategy against BUG? I didnt played pyro against it because he had hymm and thoughtseize, too much discard to kill just shaman =/

Cya.

[jrw1985]

Edit: I'm dumb

[GoboLord]

I just read max_goblin's report and stumbled over Goblin Pyromancer. This might be just the card I was looking for when I wrote this:

* I’m still not content with Krenko, but I felt like the deck needs something dumb and powerful. So that’s where Krenko came into play. I’m still going to look for better cards with the same “oops I win” potential, but manacost of 4 or less. Any idea is welcome.

I can see me playing him - even more so alongside with Cabal Therapy out of the board.

[Koplinchen]

Hello,

this a miracle player. A friend of mine is stubbornly playing goblins deck and he keeps on loosing. I tried to play this deck a few times during a testing and I absolutely love it. So much potential! We have to relase it...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NU8C88UczmU

Is there any list that is considered to be the one to play now? I have read the primers and such. I do not like the double striker. I am thinking about the one with Thalia in the side or the black one with Cabal Therapy (one of my top 5 cards of all time :-) )
Which one is better? Four round tournament - I play combo at least once (that is OK with miracles)
I understand that the discusson here was: you do not want SGC since he is too expensive at 5cc and you dont want pump vial to 5. Correct? I always felt that the most outrageous things this deck doese involves SCG and Kiki...

Thank you for introducing me into discourse.

[GoblinSettler]

I know vial is very good, but I was trying something different. If you depend on vial they will decay it, surely. They play not much counters, and should prob side them out. 10 Artifacts MD make ringleaders worst, and every removal would be so much worst for me.

I have been thinking along the same lines as what you are on about here.

Versus decks with Abrupt Decay Vial is weak. You have to sacrifice an immediate early game threat only to have that time investment nullified before Vial ticks up to relevance. This is especially bad against Shardless when you are trying to keep up with them on cards. So, how about another play that gives them only one turn to find an answer, Warren Instigator. I started by swapping out Vials for Instigator. Then I sprinkled to taste, heavily inspired by Fowler's removal heavy list.

I ended up with something like:
4 Lackey
4 Warren Instigator
3 Tarfire
3 Stingscourger
2 Incinerator
12 Mountains
4 Caverns
4 Mana-disrupting lands*
2 Chrome Mox
Usual stuff you'd expect beyond that... 38 goblins total.

I took this to a tournament this weekend. I started the day 3-2, all 3 wins against BUG**. Then things turned south. I lost a few more then dropped to trade and hang out.

Overall, I think the deck showed promise. When everything was running according to plan it felt solid. I wouldn't recommend my exact list, but if you are looking to beat BUG, dropping Vial for more aggression gets there.

*I was on a 3/1 split of Ports and Wasteland. Port remains in play and can muck with basic Islands which, in testing, was very relevant against decks aiming both to Show and to Tell.

**OK, one of them was Aluren combo which looks quite like BUG in the early turns. See DRS, Decay, and Strix. This caused me to misboard and then get blown out by the combo game two.

[jrw1985]

@GoblinSettler: so you're suggesting siding out Vials and bringing in graveyard hate post board? I think you might be onto something. Vial is pretty weak against a bunch of cards in their list. Obviously it's bad against AD. But other Shardless synergies are great against Vial. Ancestral Visions mirrors Vial by exchanging turns for card advantage, except Cascade allows them to get an immediate advantage out of it. Hymn and Thoughtseize are both great against Vial because Vial becomes a blank once it has nothing to Vial in. And the Cascade mechanic in general allows Shardless to outpace Vial and build a better board. Jace and Lilliana also do a pretty good job of keeping Vial from being advantageous. So, if you can't get advantage from your cards you might as well board them out for something with more potential.

[GoblinSettler]

@GoblinSettler: so you're suggesting siding out Vials and bringing in graveyard hate post board? I think you might be onto something. Vial is pretty weak against a bunch of cards in their list. Obviously it's bad against AD. But other Shardless synergies are great against Vial. Ancestral Visions mirrors Vial by exchanging turns for card advantage, except Cascade allows them to get an immediate advantage out of it. Hymn and Thoughtseize are both great against Vial because Vial becomes a blank once it has nothing to Vial in. And the Cascade mechanic in general allows Shardless to outpace Vial and build a better board. Jace and Lilliana also do a pretty good job of keeping Vial from being advantageous. So, if you can't get advantage from your cards you might as well board them out for something with more potential.

I don't know about graveyard hate. I would be looking for more bodies and removal. Goblin shaped where possible to improve Ringleader triggers.

Instigator was a decent replacement for vial in most matches that I played. Thanks to eight pieces of removal to help clear the way.

What I actually brought in against BUG was Price of Progress. Everything else was already main decked (but I am not sure that main is the way to go.)

Price was nice. I wanted to try something other than Blood Moon to prey on the few basics meta. Last time I played Moon was in a stompy list where it was nice on turns one and two but kinda weak turn three or later. Goblins doesn't have a lot of ways to land an early Blood Moon. So, at a friend's suggestion I tried Price.

Edit:
Not having access to Vial hurt in the ways you would expect. I had no way to drop Stingscourger through Iona on red. I had no way to drop Stingscourger in response to a sneaky Attack.

My plan against Reanimator was to mull for grave hate, which I never saw.

My plan against Show was to race them while disrupting their mana. It worked a fair amount in testing, but only half the time at the tournament.

[jrw1985]

Rx decks run about 3 basics. I will not be siding PoP anytime soon.

[jrw1985]

So, if Identity Nemesis actually starts tearing up the format like many folks are predicting it to (Temporal Mastery redux?) should Goblins run Rb for Warren Weirding or Rg for TSH? We're not really afraid of the body of Nemesis, but put a Jitte on it and we're in trouble.

[GoboLord]

So, if Identity Nemesis actually starts tearing up the format like many folks are predicting it to (Temporal Mastery redux?) should Goblins run Rb for Warren Weirding or Rg for TSH? We're not really afraid of the body of Nemesis, but put a Jitte on it and we're in trouble.

I'd say we should start with playing 4 Piledrivers. That's really the best way to deal with that one specific card: outrace it.

[jrw1985]

I'd say we should start with playing 4 Piledrivers. That's really the best way to deal with that one specific card: outrace it.

Fighting Nemesis in a Merfolk deck? Sure, four drivers. But what about Nemesis in a Stoneblade build? Drivers won't beat a Nemesis holding a Jitte, unfortunately.

But, I'm getting ahead of myself. We've yet to see what kind of impact he makes.

[GoboLord]

Fighting Nemesis in a Merfolk deck? Sure, four drivers. But what about Nemesis in a Stoneblade build? Drivers won't beat a Nemesis holding a Jitte, unfortunately.

But, I'm getting ahead of myself. We've yet to see what kind of impact he makes.

Agreed on both statements you made. I have not invested much time thinking about that, but for me the card reads

no interaction, blue, Merfolk

I don't think that we can do much about the "no interaction" part. We just have to wait and see what people do with it. I mean we don't even know what existing decks (except Merfolks of course) will include it; or which decks will be added to the format (the most exciting question) featuring this card.
My approach would be more in dealing with the cards that make Nemesis really scary (e.g. include Shattergoblins against equipments; or include massremoval to deal with every creature standing next to Nemesis; or possibly bring in enchantment hate to kill cards like Pariah or Entangler).

Time will tell.

[Potdindy]

If Merfolk plays it and does better, it could be good for us since we have a good MU verse them. Also, how does pro-player work with cards like gempalm or stings which we dont cast. Isnt stings at least the one that targets and not you?

[liamb]

Drivers won't beat a Nemesis holding a Jitte, unfortunately.

If Merfolk plays it and does better, it could be good for us since we have a good MU verse them.

Basicly this and this.

I think that Jitte is one of the best weapons against goblins that fair decks can ever have. That’s why we should never leave home without 1 maindeck and 2 sideboard answers for artifacts (having in mind a growing popularity of UWR decks). This will be even more obvious if UWx decks will start playing Nemesis.

As for the impact on the metageme – time will tell. I’m not so sure if it will improve the problematic matchups for Merfolks and even more – I doubt it. And if my predictions are wrong? Well, then the whole shift toward mono blue aggro decks will be good for us.

[ScatmanX]

Also, how does pro-player work with cards like gempalm or stings which we dont cast. Isnt stings at least the one that targets and not you?

Since Gempalm and Sting are both your cards, TNN has protection from them, end they can't target it.

@TNN: Don't think we should worry about it too much right now. If it does became a thing, just adapt the decklist a little, like we did when Survival was a thing, when Mental Mistep was a thing, when Stoneforge was everywhere, like we aways do.

[Dice_Box]

If Name becomes an issue I say we just go back to 4 Piledrivers and add in a touch of control in the sideboard. Something like Meekstone works.

Sent from my mobile, forgive spelling and grammatical errors.

[Tokugawa]

Port just has a significant rise in price (nearly 100%), during the last weeks. What is happening? Did other decks, other than us and DnT, began to use it?

[Aether_lackey]

Port just has a significant rise in price (nearly 100%), during the last weeks. What is happening? Did other decks, other than us and DnT, began to use it?

Yeap, D&T grew in popularity enormously. Can't say I'm sad about it, since I'm playing more with jund atm.

[jrw1985]

I played Rw goblins again last night. I did very well with it. Same list I've posted many times before. 3 Thalia, 3 Warchief, 2 chieftain, 2 Tarfire, 3 Gempalm, 2 Piledriver, Krenko, sharpshooter, prospector.

R1 Punishing Nic Fit
G1 I'm on the draw and mull to 6. He keeps 7. I have double Vial. I slow play around Veteran Explorer to deny him ramp. My plan is to build a huge board and alpha strike in one swoop. Well, he plays a Phyrexian Tower, sacs his explorer for BB, grabs some lands, and clears my board with deed. I scoop a turn or two later when my top decks are shitty.

I side out Thalias, sharpshooter, and 1 MWM and side in 2RiP, 3 Wear // Tear.

G2 I keep a solid 7 with Vial. My opponent has a slower opening with Top. His slow start allows me to get Chieftain and Krenko online and he couldn't find a Deed in time.

G3 I'm on the draw and keep my 7 which is a 1 lander (fetch) but has Lackey, RiP, Tarfire, Gempalm, and gas. Seems good. My opponent leads with VE, I with Lackey off of Plateau. T2 he plays a second VE but doesn't have any CTs to get his ramp going. I rip a land T2 and cast RiP. I don't attack this turn because I have 2 pieces of removal to get Lackey through next turn while denying my opponent his precious ramping. He doesn't have a big play T3, so on my turn I begin by Gempalming one VE. He responds by casting Abrupt Decay on my RiP. Touché, sir. VE dies and I draw off Gempalm and grab my lands. At this point I've drawn a Krenko and my hand is pretty stocked so it makes plenty of sense to Tarfire his remaining VE to get my last Mountain and force Lackey through. My opponent didn't have anything super relevant on his turn, so I overran him and took the match.

R2 RUG Delver

G1 he has ALL THE TEMPO. I die quickly to Double Delver.

Side boarding is pretty well known at this point. Bring in 2 RiP, 2 Relic, take out 3 Thalia, Sharpshooter. I also brought in a Chalice of the Void for a MWM.

G2 I take some delver hits before I can burn out the bug, then I take the game over with Chalice at 1 and Waste + Port.

G3 we both mull to 6. My opponent leads with Goose, I with lackey. T2 he does nothing relevant. On my t2 I run Lackey into the goose for a trade. If you can't connect with Lackey you might as well use him as spot removal. I land a RiP later and it's game.

2-0

R3 Explorer Pod
G1 this is the deck that top 8'd Milwaukee with VE, Birthing Pod, and Plainswalkers. I'm on the draw and mull to 6. I draw 3 goblins and 9 lands and scoop em up once its obvious I'm getting nowhere. That'll happen in this game.

I side the same as I did against Nic Fit R1.

G2 was long and grindy, but I managed to assemble a late game Krenko + Chieftain + Prospector + Karakas. So I played and activated Krenko, then bounced him with Karakas, then recast him with Prospector, then reactivated Krenko and turned everything sideways. W

G3 we started with 2 minutes on the clock. Neither of us could win in turns. Draw

2-0-1

R4 Shardless BUG Control

G1 I won very quickly thanks to Piledriver.

I boarded out sharpshooter and Thalia and brought in 2 RiP, 2 Relics.

G2 I took a couple Goyf hits, but was able to take the game over with Piledriver and a haste lord.

3-0-1

What a great night! I finally had some game against VE. I decisively beat Shardless BUG. And despite being on the draw and losing g1 of rounds 1-3 I still managed to win/draw the matches. Pretty good if you ask me.

What I took away from last night:
Krenko is boss. I really want to run a second since he's just sooooo good against discard and removal. He's better than ringleader against discard because he doesn't put cards in your hand. He's too big to Punishing Fire or Abrupt Decay. If you've already drawn out a bolt or two from your opponent then he's going to survive. He was an absolute powerhouse last night.
Blood Moon is bad. I ran 2 in the sideboard to fuck with greedy manabases. Then, when I had those matches, I wanted nothing to do with Blood Moon and never sided it in. Perhaps Pithing Needle will replace it.
I'm still asking Santa for a Shatter-on-a-Stick Goblin for Christmas. There are more and more Artifacts being played that provide marginal utility or CA (Strix, Shardless, Pod) and it would be great to have a Maindeckable artifact hating goblin to deal with them. TSH and Tuktuk are just too lousy to MD. TSH isn't worth the splash when you're already MDing Thalia. And Tuktuk is too expensive.
MWM is the shit against Lilliana.
Tarfire is great.
Running 5 haste lords is awesome. Hastey Goblins are happy Goblins.
Rest in Peace is such an amazingly good card. Aside from turning off Goyf it also eats Abrupt Decays, which is actually really good when you're trying to build your board. If they AD a RiP they can't AD a Vial.
Pernicious Deed still sucks to play against though.
Having access to Wear // Tear is pretty great. There are a whole slew of MUs that card is great against. The fact that it can hit Top or Deed or Plague or E Bridge or Batterskull or Jitte or Energy Field is all huge. Great card.