Let me preface my post by saying that your "question" is quite obviously not a question that you want answered, which leaves me wondering why you'd post it in the first place but I digress.Originally Posted by GoboLord
The reason to play 4 Port 4 Wasteland is because people play fragile manabases that can be easily disrupted or they play lands like Inkmoth Nexus or Gaea's Cradle that can easily fuck you up. There's no reason not to play Port, even if it's sometimes functionally a $120 Island in the deck. I don't know why I'm wasting my turn posting this because as you said in your original post, you're not open to having your mind changed, but that's why you play it.
I also love the synergy between Pendelhaven + 4 Goblin Chieftains. Sounds awesome.
Following up a lackey, or even better a vial, with ports is very potent. You are stunting their play while developing your board. You can also use it to shut down a maze of ith, or mutavault/mishra's factory from blocking something. It's also a way to cut you opponent off of a color, even if it's a basic land (where waste would not be able to). Also, compared to wasteland (which I think is incorrect not to play), it doesn't drop your own land count for later turns after use
Chrome mox eats two cards when you cast it, and I think that's only appropriate for all-in strategies or cards that prevent you from getting obliterated like force and pyrokinesis.
I'm new here and not sure how to tag cards/decks. So apologies in advance for that.
Anyways, I went to a small event last weekend. I brought goblins. Mostly because I'd been away from the game for about 10 years (Mirrodin Block), and only had 3 weeks of prep time. I figured my familiarity with goblins a long time ago would make picking them up much faster and easier than trying to master a completely foriegn deck like Dredge.
2 Wasteland
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Rishadan Port
12 Mountain
4 Goblin Lackey
4 Goblin Piledriver
2 Sparksmith
4 Warren Instigator
3 Goblin Chieftain
2 Goblin Warchief
4 Goblin Matron
4 Goblin Ringleader
2 Krenko, Mob Boss
1 Goblin Sharpshooter
1 Tuktuk Scrapper
4 Æther Vial
3 Trinisphere
Sideboard
1 Trinisphere
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Goblin Rabblemaster
2 Null Rod
1 Gempalm Incinerator
2 Pyrokinesis
1 Boartusk Liege
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Stingscourger
2 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Sulfuric Vortex
I'll make some notes on the build as well as some general observations after the tournament report.
Round 1: Death and Taxes (with red).
I really liked my first hand. Lackey, Sparksmith, Warchief, Ringleader, Vial, Mountain, Port. I was on the play, meaning that not only did I have an aggressive start, but I'd be able to curve out if I could draw a red source in the first two turns. If that didn't work, I could always slow things down with port and Vial my way out of trouble.
Without any removal, I opted for turn 1 lackey rather than vial. Getting counters on the vial early is guaranteed to be useful. Lackey Might be strong, or might be blanked entirely by a Deathrite Shaman or an STP.
He played a flooded strand and passed it back. I upticked the vial and played my sparksmith from hand. I figured he was on some variation of BlueCantrips.dec, so I was more than a touch surprised when on turn 2 he cracked the fetch for Plateau, and played a Stoneforge to find Jitte.
I wasn't worried about it though. During his EOT I vialed in lackey. On my turn I brought the vial up to 2, sparksmithed the mystic, and used lackey to get me a free Ringleader. The leader drew pure gas. Double Matron, Instigator, and another Ringleader. Yikes! What's more, I had all my land untapped. So I was free to port the Plateau during his upkeep.
My opponent played Phyrexian Revoker naming Sparksmith. Kudos for baiting me into tapping on my turn. It didn't matter though. During his EOT I vialed in an Instigator. On my own (4th) turn I vialed in a Warchief and cast a lackey from hand.
At this point, the board was my Lackey x2, Instigator, Sparksmith (revoked) and Warchief against his Revoker. I turned everything but the Warchief sideways, and he resigned. Good call.
Sideboarding -3 Trinisphere -1 Piledriver -1 Sharpshooter. + 2 Null Rod +2 Pyrokinesis +1 Gempalm Incinerator.
I mulled my 7 ( Port and Wasteland, but no red). but kept my 6. Vial, Piledriver, Matron Krenko, Port, Cavern. That six is still highly vulnerable to wasteland, but vial negates that slightly, and I'd almost certainly do worse if I mulled to five. Calculated risks...
His first play was turn 2 SFM for Sword of Fire and Ice. I cast the Piledriver from my hand, and he spent turn 3 casting Vial and leaving 2 mana open fo the mystic. On my turn I wastelanded his untapped port, which prompted him to tap it and activate mystic. I used my two remaining mana on Null Rod.
On the plus side, Null Rod completely shut down ALL his equipment, and without that D&T isn't a very impressive deck. On the down side, that weak mana I was hoping to Vial my way out of suddenly became a very big issue.
Things stalled out for a bit. I'm not sure why he wasn't casting stuff (he had 3 mana even after I ported him) while my hand of Matron, Ringleader, Pyrokinesis, Krenko was uncastable on a manabase of mountain - port!
I asked after the game, and he said he was hoping to make it to enough mana to Flickerwisp my Null Rod and equip his SoFI. I think trying to straight up race with the Wisp would have been smarter, although it wouldn't have made much of a difference since I'd have just Pyro'd his board.
My deck refused to cooperate and give me lands to play things. However it DID give me the second Null Rod to completely ruin his Flickerwisp dream. As soon as that happened, he played the Wisp and decided to race after all. I found a mountain on my next turn, and cast Matron finding Sparksmith. I figured he'd hit me for 6 over the next two turns, and Sparksmith would cause 6 more self-inflicted damage to kill the Flickerwisp and Matron. At the end I'd be at 8 life with a clear table for my Piledriver/Matron/Sparksmith to attack, and the Pyrokinesis still in hand. I'd equalize the life gap very quickly and come out way ahead on board position.
On his turn, he attacked (17), and pre-emptively cast Revoker naming Sparksmith. I fed Ringleader to Pyro, and ate his entire team. On my turn I cast the SS, and attacked for 4 with Matron/Piledriver (16).
He cast Sudden Demise to clear my team, and leave both players with an empty board. Not to worry. I had a pair of Lackey's in hand to quickly re-establish board position. Or at least they would have, had he not been sitting on a second Sudden Demise. Damn.
We went into a topdeck war. His mana advantage really paid dividends here, as Thalia and Serra Avenger both hit the board while I was sitting on Matron, 2 Ringleaders and a Krenko in hand, none of whom I could cast. (at some previous point I forgot to note, he had wastelanded my Port). Fortunately, I FINALLY started drawing enough mountains to get past his port and wasteland harassement. I went Matron - Warchief - Krenko on consecutive turns and threatened to end the game on the spot if I could tap Krenko again. However, he ripped STP off the top and my Krenko ate it. Fortuantely, double rigleader meant I had plenty of gas in the tank, and double warchiefs plus those mountains I drew meant I could afford to cast all of it.
He had knocked me all the way down to only one life before I Matron'd into Krenko, and tapped him for enough hasty goblin tokens to finish my opponent from 11 life, even with an untapped Thalia to block.
*phew*.
Match Notes
This deck and Stoneblade are the primary reasons why I brought Null Rod and not Pithing Needle. It was very frustrating during my testing to Pithing Needle whatever powerful equipment was on the table, only to have him SFM up a different powerful piece and smash my face with it instead. As an added bonus, it shuts down Ratchet Bomb, Engineered Explosives, and other useful bits of sideboard tech as well.
While D&T players will claim otherwise, this matchup slants strongly towards goblins. We have better creatures, more and better removal, and a much stronger clock. Their only trumps are flying, and SFM into equipment. Once you shut down the latter they have to aim for a race they're ill equipped to win.
Round 2. Omni Show.
My opening 7 was 2 Mountain, Wasteland, Lackey, Vial, Ringleader Warchief.
He won the roll and lead with Island, Probe, Ponder. I figured he was probably on Omni, so I played t1 Lackey to give me the fastest clock possible. His turn 2 was a fetch and nothing else.
I mized a trinisphere on turn 2, played my vial, and Lackey'd in a Warchief. He brainstormed at my EOT, then cracked the fetch to shuffle.
Turn 3 he played Show and Tell, with a smug grin on his face. I (even more smugly) chuckled when he saw my Trinisphere (he put Omniscience into play).
On my own turn 3, I cast Ringleader (Thank's Warchief!) flipping Warchief and Chieftan. I attacked for 5 with Lackey, Warchief, and Ringleader (11) and put a free Chieftan into play).
He cast nothing on turn 4. Presumably he was going to Cunning Wish for Wipe away during my EOT and kill me turn 4. Not that it mattered. I cast the second Ringleader, Vialed in a Sparksmith, and attacked for 15.
As we shuffled up for game 2, he bitched about how stupid it is for Goblins to maindeck Trinisphere. I silently vowed to crush such a poor sport in merciless fashion. Instead, he killed me with a turn 2 Show and Tell. I should have known better than to tempt fate like that.
Sideboarding: -1 Tuktuk Scrapper -1 Goblin Sharpshooter -2 Sparksmith +1 Trinisphere +1 Goblin Rabblemaster +1 Stingscouger +1 Boartusk Liege.
I don't feel great about Boartusk Liege here. But he races a LOT harder than Scrapper or Sparksmith, and racing is definitely my plan.
He spent the first 3 turns doing the typical thing and playing brainstorm, ponder preordain etc. I went t1 lackey, t2 piledriver & matron (finding chieftan) (19 life) t3 Chieftan (5 life). He didn't have turn 3 S&T, so I killed him on turn 4.
2-0.
I'll have match notes after the final time I faced Show and Tell.
Round 3. Reanimator.
I have detailed notes, but honestly, I can tell you everything that matters in two sentences. In game 1, he got turn 2 Griselbrand turn 3 Iona. In game 2, he ripped turn 1 Elish Norn. Yikes!
Match Notes:
Reanimator is a really bad matchup for goblins. I'm even more vunlerable to it than the "Standard" list since I don't even have stingscouger in the maindeck. I was hoping that adequate GY removal would give me a chance in the post SB games, but it really doesn't. Any reanimator player worth a damn is expecting it and has designed his deck to function even through the hate.
2-1
Round 4. Omni.
I won the roll. Opening hand was 3x mountain, caverns, Instigator, Warchief, trinisphere.
I considered mulling that hand. It loses pretty badly to aggro. But I decided to keep since it's strong vs either combo or Control. When his first turn was Island - Preordain I smiled inwardly. Unfortunately, the only goblin I drew during the first 4 turns was another warchief. Still, T2 Instigator, T3 Warchief and swing for 4, (15) turn 4 swing for 6 (8) was a strong start, and left me threatening a turn 5 kill.
During my turn 4 EOT he brainstormed, fetched, and Dug through Time, leading to a him playing turn 4 Show and Tell. Fortunately, I had been saving the Trinisphere in my hand for precisely such an eventuality. Game Over.
SB, same as last time.
Great opening hand. 2 mountain, 2 lackey, driver, chieftan, rabblemaster. No Trinisphere, but a damned fast clock. I mized a turn 1 Cavern of Souls, and played Lackey. T2 I cast Piledriver and got a free Rabblemaster. T3 he had Show and Tell. I thought I was dead, but put the chieftan into play anyway. Fortunately all he had was Emrakul. On my turn 3 I played the second Lackey and turned all my goblins sideways. Emmy blocked the piledriver, and I hit for 15. He couldn't go off on turn 4. Counting my lands, I had 8 permanents in play and 20 life. Even after taking an Emrakul hit, I'd have Chieftan and Rabblemaster in play, and kill him with the counterattack. He scooped.
I find it odd that reanimator is such a terrible matchup, but I mostly find turn 3 Emrakul to be cute.
3-1.
Round 5. 4c Delver
I won the roll. My hand was 2 Caverns, Port, Vial, Sparksmith, Trinisphere, Ringleader. It's a slow clock, but I kept it anyways because of Trinisphere/Port. It's risky, but I figured I could handle a slower game.
I began with Cavern naming Merfolk, and played Vial. In hindsight, I really wish I wasn't stupid enough to have done that. Trying to screw with his head for a turn or two accomplishes nothing useful for me. Also, on turn 2 I topdecked an Instigator that I couldn't play, since my turn 1 Caverns wasn't naming Goblins. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Instead I ticked the vial up to 1, and played a Port.
He revealed Daze to flip his delver and attacked for 3 (17). Then he wastelanded my port. Pity. Had he wasted the Cavern instead I'd have felt much better about my earlier bluff. On turn 3 I upticked the vial to 2, and played a second port. (other than the unusual lands, I've still given him zero reason to believe I'm not on Merfolk!).
My opponent's t3 was nothing but an attack (14), and I vialed in Instigator during his EOT. During my upkeep I left vial at 2, because I had both Sparksmith and Piledriver in hand. I drew a Ringleader, Instigated it into play (flipping Piledriver, Instigator, Matron), as well as a Piledriver.
T4 his attack put me at 11, then he fetched a Volcanic Island and used Forked Bolt to kill the instigator. When I tried to vial in Sparksmith at EOT he tapped his last land and Bolted the smith.
Ringleader and Piledriver attacked for 5 (11) and I cast a lackey. He had a wasteland for my port, and another bolt bolt for the Piledriver.
On t6 I tapped out for an uncounterable matron, and kept the Chieftan she found in hand. He dug through time and played Delver.
At EOT I vialed in Chieftan, then upticked the vial to 4. During my turn I cast Piledriver, and vialed in Krenko. I attacked with Lackey, Matron, Chieftan, Piledriver, Ringleader, and 6 2/2 tokens. No matter how he blocked, I was getting through for lethal.
Sideboarding
-1 Tuktuk Scrapper -1 Krenko -1 Goblin Warchief +2 Pyrokenesis +1 Relic of Progenitus
I'm not sure I boarded correctly. Delver generally runs light on land, so I wanted to keep in the trinisphere. Espescially because I suspected he'd be sideboarding out permission in due to the threat of my blanking it via Cavern/Vial/Lackey/Instigator.
I mulled the first hand. Vial, Trinisphere, Sharpshooter and 4 lands. My second hand was better. 2 Mountains, Cavern, Lackey, Piledriver, Ringleader. The lack of removal really sucks, but even a single hit from the lackey and I'm sitting pretty. Barring that, I can start slow and curve into Ringleader.
He dropped a turn 1 Delver, and I had turn 1 lackey. Turn 2 he flipped the Delver (Force of Will) attacked (17) and played another one. So much for boarding out his permission. I had a turn 2 Piledriver, but didn't want to trade my Lackey for his unlipped Delver, so I sat with it.
A turn 3 Gitaxian Probe showed him my hand. 2 Mountain, Trinisphere, Ringleader. That was enough information for him to decide to race. so he attacked with the 3/2 (14). A race it is! I attacked both goblins into the 1/1 and he traded for my Lackey and bolted the Piledriver. I cast Trinisphere, but he had Daze.
After 3 turns, here's the situation: I had 2 mountains and a Cavern of Souls on the table, 14 life, and a hand of Matron, Mountain, Ringleader. He had 2 lands, 19 life, a 3/2 flying Insect and a 3 card hand. I knew one of those cards was Volcanic Island (from Daze) and another was FOW (I saw it when he flipped the Delver).
He attacked. (11). I tapped out for Ringleader, flipping Sparksmith, Chieftan, and Lackey. The ringleader attacked for 2 (17).
He hit for 3 more (8) and played a land. I played a Chieftan he couldn't counter, and tapped out for a Lackey that he dazed. (my theory about him boarding out permission appears to have been very wrong). Chieftan and Ringleader hit for 5 (12).
He attacked for 3 more (5) and pondered. I played Sparksmith and a Piledriver. He bolted the chieftan to take away my haste (good call, Piledriver would have killed him) so I attacked for 5 more with Chieftan and Ringleader (7).
He cracked the last fetch he had in play during his own upkeep (6) and brainstormed during his main. Dunno what he found, but it wasn't enough. He resigned.
4-1.
I (barely) had the best tiebreaks of any 4-1 player, and thus survived the cut to t8.
Quarterfinals. Omni Show.
I lost the roll and mulled to 5. My first hand was 5 lands, Warchief, Ringleader. Too slow. My second was Cavern of Souls, and five three drops. Too slow, even if I lucksack the two lands in a timely fashion. I ended up keeping 2 mountains, vial, piledriver, matron. It's still a slow hand, and I'm in a bit of trouble if he counters the vial. But it's as good as I can hope for all things considered.
Fortunately, he didn't have a counter for t1 vial, nor did he have one for turn 2 Piledriver. Turn 3, he tapped out... for Monastary Mentor. I'm not crazy about Mentors maindeck in Omni, but according to him they were money all day long against the grindy blue cotrol decks, as well as in the mirror. He did make the top 8, so I assume he knew his stuff.
I vialed in lackey during his EOT, and promptly missed my 3rd land drop. Damn. Draw-go.
He topdecked either Show and Tell or Omni, because that was his turn 4 play. I survived it, because I had Trinisphere. EOT I vialed in Piledriver.
On my 4th turn, I kicked the vial up to 3, vialed in Goblin Chieftan, and attacked with the Lackey and double piledriver. He chumped the 2/2 lackey with a monk token and I dished out 12 (7) with the piledrivers.
My opponent didn't play anything on turn 5. I took a big risk, and upped my Vial to 4. Fate rewarded my daring, as I mized Cavern of Souls (my 3rd land).
I tapped out for Matron (finding Krenko) vialed in Krenko, and tapped him for 5 2/2 tokens. That was enough to kill him. Because he was curious, my opponent looked at his top 8 (he was going to Dig Through Time), and saw both a land and a Cunning Wish. Had I given him one more turn, Cunning Wish for Wipe Away would have let him go off.
Lucky me.
Sideboarding: Same as Above.
Given the presence of Mentor in the maindeck, I wasn't entirely sure that boarding out all my removal was correct. As with Delver, I presumed he was boarding out his ineffective permission to board in anything he had that could impact board position (Pyroclasm, Sudden Demise, Mentor, etc).
Mentor isn't a very good card against Goblins, but at least it impacts board position, which is more than can be said for Spell Pierce or even FOW.
I was embarassed by how long it took me to realize something that should have been intuitively obvious. I am the beatdown deck. I am the beatdown deck by such a large degree that even having removal in my deck to deal with his blockers is a case of misunderstanding your role.
I kept my 7. Caverns, Mountain, Wasteland, Piledriver, Chieftan, Krenko x2.
A 1 drop would be nice, but other than that I can't complain. I'm looking at a turn 4 kill if he leaves me unmolested. That probably won't be fast enough unless I can disrupt him in some way, but that's true of almost every goblin hand, especially on the draw. He mulled to 6, making this the first time all tournament I've begun a game with more cards in hand than my opponent.
He had turn 3 mentor again, confirming my guess about how he boarded. I went turn 2 Caverns, Piledriver; turn 3 Chieftan. I attacked with the Driver on turn 3 (he was tapped out), but kept the Chieftan home. Turn 4 I dropped Krenko, tapped for 3 goblins, and attacked with everything. Mistake. I probably should have waited one more turn, and/or held back the Chieftan. But he only had a mentor in play, and I badly needed to pressure his life total. He had Dig Through Time and Brainstorm. The 4/4 mentor blocked my Chieftan. The 2/2 token traded with my piledriver, and the 1/1 traded with a random token dude.
I was only able to hit with 2 tokens for 4 damage (14), and lost most of my board. Sheeeit. I felt a little better when he combo'd me off next turn. Even had I not misplayed I was going to lose.
I began game 3 with 2 mountains, Cavern of Souls, Goblin Matron, Goblin Chieftan, Goblin Ringleader, and Trinisphere. I had to talk myself into it, but I mulliganed that hand. Trinisphere in hand is the ultimate hate-tech, but that hand was too slow, and without the pressure on his life total he'd be able to handle my sphere.
My second hand was a lot better. Port, Wasteland, Mountain, Vial, Instigator, Ringleader.
I led with Vial, while he began the game with Tundra, Preordain. I took the tundra as an open invitation to Wasteland on turn 2. So I did.
Turn 3 I kicked the vial up to 2 counters (still with 0 goblins on the board) and decided that Porting his island was more important than playing my Piledriver. So I left my mana open, and ported him during every upkeep for the rest of the game. He paid mana for a Gitaxian Probe, and I vialed in an EOT Warren Instigator.
I upped the vial to 3 on turn 4. I didn't have a 3 drop (and did have a piledriver), but if the Ringleader I was about to instigate found a haste lord and a Krenko, I damned sure wanted both of them in play. Turns out, the Ringleader flipped 2 lands, a vial, and a ringleader. Rude. The second was far more considerate, locating Rabblemaster, Piledriver, and Chieftan.
On his own turn 4, my opponent was still on 2 mana, having been hit by the turn 1 Wasteland and my port during the upkeep. During his EOT I vialed in the Rabblemaster. On my own turn I vialed in the Chieftan, cast a Piledriver and attacked for 37. Suck it.
Match Notes:
I went 3-0 against Omni on the day.
I'm built to race, with 4 Piledrivers, 4 Instigators, and 3 chieftans. On the play I've got decent enough odds of winning even without seeing a Trinisphere, although on the draw I pretty much need to either mess up his mana or hit a Trini. The extra half turn is that important. Overall, this matchup feels close to 50-50 for me, which is considerably better than can be said about most variations of goblins.
Semfinals. Vs MUD.
This and the Reanimator deck from round 3 were the only two decks in the top 8 I felt I had a bad matchup against. I was not excited by this pairing.
I forgot to make note of my first hand, but I remember I mulled it for mana reasons. I believe I didn't have any red sources. I kept my second. 2 mountains, 2 instigators, Ringleader, and Krenko. Not a great hand on the draw, but I'll almost certainly win if Instigator can hit even once.
His turn 1 was City of Traitors, Grim Monolith, Metalworker. Balls. My turn 1 was Mountain, Vial.
Turn 2 he tapped metalworker for 8 (Hellkite, Forgemaster, Wurmcoil, Loadstone), and tapped CoT to make it an even 10. That was enough for Loadstone Golem and Wurmcoil Engine. I played it out just to see if he'd reveal any tech. He didn't. I got blown out hard.
Sideboarding: -3 Trinisphere, -1 Goblin Sharpshooter, -2 Goblin Warchief. +1 Stingscouger, +2 Null Rod, +2 Pyrokinesis, +1 Gempalm Incinerator.
I'm not very excited by the thought of Pyrokinesis in this matchup. It doesn't do much. But I absolutely CANNOT let an early Metalworker start tapping for mana. Null Rod is the best solution, but Pyro at least gives me two additional outs.
We both mull to 6. I tossed yet another hand with no red sources, and kept 3 mountains, piledriver, pyro, null rod. A fairly bad hand to be honest, but if I could topdeck an early goblin or two I'd be in good shape. With over 30 goblins in the deck, I felt pretty safe making that bet.
He played turn 1 Glimmerpost, so I opted for turn 2 Piledriver. He played turn 2 Cavern of Souls, Grim Monolith, Metalworker.
I learned my lesson from game 1. My turn 3 Null Rod shut down whatever turn 3 shenanigans he was hoping to accomplish.
Unfortunately, my Piledriver was stalemated by his Metalworker, and I didn't draw another goblin until turn 7. Turn freaking 7. Unbelievable. On turn 8 I attacked with two Piledrivers for 6 (14). My only saving grace is that he'd been dumping artifacts into play that did nothing. Staff of Domination, Grim Monolith, Etc. On his turn 8, he managed to empty his hand completely, including one Ensaring Bridge.
My goal was to build up large board position, Matron for Tuktuk and kill him. His bridge would actually help me hide from all those bigass artifacts he was playing.
What happened instead is that two turns later he topdecked Ugin. Ugin ruined my board, and ghostfired me to death.
Match Notes
Getting blown out in the Semis with a large crowd watching is NOT how I wanted to bow out of the tournament. Then again, I was playing in the semis while the crowd was spectating, so screw it.
I'm a little surprised I couldn't find a goblins for 7 turns, but this is Magic and sometimes that happens. Had I ripped that Prospector on turn 3-4 I'd have at least forced a game 3 and recovered some of my dignity.
MUD is a pretty terrible matchup for my goblins though. Even Null Rod only partially slows him down. I've still got to worry about the Sol lands powering out guys who are just plain bigger and badder than mine. Also, Platinum Empirion with a Lightning Greaves on is a nightmare. Need to Tuk-Tuk the greaves and Stingscouger the Golem. Possible, but now we're talking a pair of 1 ofs, and all it does is buy me a 1 turn window.
General Notes:
I'm sure the maindecked Trinispheres are likely to draw the most interest. I got the idea from seeing the deck that won a trial at Kyoto with 3 Chalice of the Void. 3sphere just seems like a better disruption card. It's rough on anyone who's running light on mana, which is most of the format, and interacts very well with Port/Wasteland.
The best card in my deck against both control and combo was Instigator. Cheating goblins into play for free massively speeds up the clock, and Matron + Goblin of Choice is always a good turn. I spent a few days working with Mogg War Marshall and just couldn't get the deck to run as quickly or as consistently as it seems to do with Instigator.
Along the same lines, I *really* like Sparksmith, and might try to find room for 1 more of them in the main. Being able to natural draw them against aggro and save your Matrons is huge. I vastly prefer this to Subterranean Scout or Tarfire.
I never did board in that Sufuric Vortex, although I probably should have done so against MUD.
On a related topic, I wish I had cut Sharpshooter. I drew him multiple times, and he was never useful. This is probably specific to my variation rather than to goblins in general. Without prospector and/or MWM I couldn't force any untaps and use him to dominate the board. Also, I didn't see a single elf deck at the tournament. Not that I didn't play one. I didn't see ANYONE playing one at any of the other tables either.
With regards to the fellow above talking about lands, I had 16 red producing lands, 12 of which were basic mountains. I still had to mulligan aggressively to avoid color screw. I could see dropping as low as 21 lands, but I don't think I like the idea. Especially in a build without Instigator to cheat in the top 1/2 of the mana curve in games where you'd otherwise be mana screwed.
Ow ok, I see misinterpretated your words. So essentially we're saying the same thing?
EDIT: no we don't, I'll ask some friends to explain the details in Dutch.
"Be it ever so crumbled, there's no place like home."
RGCL (GQ)
Youtube-playlist dedicated to RGCL
Let's say you pass the turn with port and a mountain up, your opponent untap and has top and 2 islands. It is his upkeep now.
If they ask you if you want to port any of his lands, that means he is giving you priority. If you decide not to port him, you're ending the upkeep. He doesn't get priority back until his draw step.
The first thing the opponent must do in his draw step is to draw a card. That means he missed the opportunity to top in his upkeep. That's what we were trying to accomplish. Then you can port him during his drawstep or whenever you think is better.
Alternatively, if he uses one of his islands to use top in his upkeep, you can port the other one. This way he would get to use top, but would have 2 less mana.
These are some of the tricks we can do with port.
Another one I like doing is, if they have only a W source out, porting them during my drawstep. This way you prevent being hit by terminus during your attack, and you can play or vial hast dudes in your main fase to bash the same turn. Quite useful sometimes.
@medling mage
Welcome to the source and thanks for the report. Very fun read during my travel to work.
Interesting trini main. I'll think about that one too.
Against mud, drop Null Rod before Piledriver. Mox, top, monolith and many others can ruin your day fast. It's not worth the 1 dmg.
Will comment more when have more time.
Super Bizarros Team. Beating everything with small green dudes and big waves.
I'm playing Goblins with control style. So, I rarely close a match very fast (always with help of connected lackey)
I prefer an alpha strike with matroning-matroning-pliedriver or Chieftain
I think it's a start of answer to Gobolord
I'm boarding complete mana denial pack for disturbing weak manabase.
+ tempo increasing vial
+ buying turn versus Show&Tell..
@Gobolord few weeks ago you wrote
I did the same dream in monored with Scroll Rack
Gobolord: I don't think that port is awesome, but i think it is still better than playing a basic mountain if your manabase can afford it. The main problem with port nowadays is that most decks have very low mana curves and cards like deathrite shaman and delver laugh in the face of port. However, deathrite shaman is not so popular anymore ; delver is still popular and port is not good against delver decks ; but port is a good card to have against miracles and omni, sometimes it can still wins. Other than this, like other people said, turn 1 vial into turn 2 port is a good play against any opponent.
I don't know if pendelhaven over port is a good choice, and it probably is in instigator builds. However i like playing just 1 pendelhaven because it is legendary. Chrome mox is not in contention here, because it occupies the spot of a coloured source, while port/pendelhaven fight for colorless land slots.
Either way, i believe the most important thing is to have more than enough coloured sources. It is better to not lose game randomly to color screw than to play more ports/pendelhaven.
Thanks ScatmanX! Really usefull information.
"Be it ever so crumbled, there's no place like home."
RGCL (GQ)
Youtube-playlist dedicated to RGCL
I couldn't make it to SCG DC this weekend so I loaned my deck to a friend. He started off 6-1 and finished a respectable 10-5. He didn't make any changes to the list I finished Top 16 with in Richmond.
Haha. Awesome.
@ medling_mage: Fantastic report! Beautifully written. I really enjoyed reading it. You made one hell of a meta call with 3 MD 3Ball on a day where you faced 3-of-7. Well done. It doesn't go without saying though that your loss against MUD was against a bigger SnT hoser than yourself. I think your deck was pretty impressive for how few pieces of removal you ran. And a couple Stingscourgers would have made a big difference too I think. Very well done, and thank you for the excellent report.
@ mededeling_mage: so sorry, I wasn't paying attention. First of all: welcome back! Really like the list, and very good read :-) Too bad for the MUD-MU, your plan was solid: too bad Ugin came by and wrecked the (otherwise pretty good) day.
"Be it ever so crumbled, there's no place like home."
RGCL (GQ)
Youtube-playlist dedicated to RGCL
@ mededeling_mage: well done! But i think that null rod is bad card vs D&T because if he already equip a SoFaI, null rod is a dead draw. On the other hand he can cast equips and then destroy rod. Rod kill your own vials, this is really critical in this MU. So i think that shatter>rod.
About MUD. This is the one of the best MU for gobs. I lose only 1 per 8 games preSB.
@jrw1985: please don't quote so much words.
The trinispheres md are quite neat...winstigator looks difficult to cast though. I'm all for md'ing something to help with the horrid storm/Omni matches. I feel like this list really wants chrome Mox though. Helps get instigator and sphere down.
I was bored at work and looking at old extended Goblins lists and noticed some used Rite of Flame + Chrome mox to power out turn 1 warchiefs and so on.
I don't know that I would recommend 4x Vial, 4x Chrome Mox and 4x Rite of Flame, but some variation of the 2 could be an idea for those of you just trying to slam a winstigator through on turn 2.
saw Rabblemaster in your list. Say smthing about this goblin. I'm testing 2 in main right now, just want to hear third-party opinion.
If it dies before you go to combat it's like a chieftain (and has achieved nothing), and if you get to combat you win the grand prize of a free hasty goblin! I like to think of it as half a bad Siege Gang, or a really good Krenko.
In all seriousness, it's just another value creature that can generate virtual card advantage whilst also killing very quickly.
Turn 1: Rabblemaster, Goblin token: 1 Damage
Turn 2: Rabblemaster, Goblin Token, Goblin Token: 6 Damage (7 total)
Turn 3: Rabblemaster, Goblin Token x3: 8 Damage (15 damage total)
Turn 4:
The drawback of everything else having to attack can be very real, so that's why I'm hesitant to play 2, but I think it's something to try out. That guy that beat Gerard Fabiano on SCG a month or so back had 4 in his maindeck I believe so it can't be all that bad.
fabiano lost to it's topdecks.If it dies before you go to combat it's like a chieftain (and has achieved nothing), and if you get to combat you win the grand prize of a free hasty goblin! I like to think of it as half a bad Siege Gang, or a really good Krenko.
In all seriousness, it's just another value creature that can generate virtual card advantage whilst also killing very quickly.
Turn 1: Rabblemaster, Goblin token: 1 Damage
Turn 2: Rabblemaster, Goblin Token, Goblin Token: 6 Damage (7 total)
Turn 3: Rabblemaster, Goblin Token x3: 8 Damage (15 damage total)
Turn 4:
The drawback of everything else having to attack can be very real, so that's why I'm hesitant to play 2, but I think it's something to try out. That guy that beat Gerard Fabiano on SCG a month or so back had 4 in his maindeck I believe so it can't be all that bad.
i think that rabblemaster is very imputation. if we face combo or control he is a king, but if there a deck with creature often we could not cast it
It has the potential to be good in every matchup (from my experience), you just have to play it right. It has been excellent for me in grindy creature based matches, because you get to play the attrition game which is obviously where Goblins wants to be and where other creature decks (e.g delver), don't want to be.
"Play it right"...my tests say that it can be a dead draw even more dead as TSH because of the board position you cant cast it. In creatute MU he is good when everything is good already. You cant safety put it on the board with Lackey connection on turn two if no removal in your hand. So i think in classic list the right number is no more then 1.
Edit:"Dead" means that you cant play in your second main.
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