Maybe I missed it...but why no consideration of Goblin Guide?
I'm using him now in my newest version, along with lightning bolts main.
Alright I've done enough testing, I'm not entirely sold on this being a tier 1 or even 1.5 deck, but I can still keep the win rate up around 45% or so.
I don't know what the best direction to take is, I feel like the one I have now with all out speed is slightly better just because you can actually race combo. Believe it or not I'm 3-0 against UR storm combo with the current set up (all were Pyromancer's Ascension).
Land: 22
4x Arid Mesa
3x Scalding Tarn
3x Auntie's Hovel
2x Blood Crypt
2x Cavern of Souls
4x Mountain
4x Mutavault
Creatures: 29
4x Mogg War Marshal
4x Warren Instigator
4x Goblin Chieftain
2x Goblin King
4x Mad Auntie
4x Goblin Guide
2x Goblin Arsonist
3x Mogg Flunkies
2x Krenko, Mob Boss
Spells:9
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Goblin Grenade
1x Dismember
Sideboard:
2x Earwig Squad, because he's so good against the unfair decks
1x Dismember
3x Smash to Smithereens
2x Thorn of Amethyst
2x Grafdigger's Cage
3x Relic of Progenitus
2x Goblin Ruinblaster
So the best thing is being able to race Tron and UR Storm, and also the feeling of having 10 damage in your hand with only 2 cards is pretty awesome. The negatives are, as you'd imagine, the matchup against the grindy decks is worse, and a lot of control decks can stall for a long enough time to win (Path to exile -> Snapcaster +path -> Kitchen Finks -> Resto Angel).
That's probably all the testing I'm doing on this one for now, going on to other pet deck projects of mine.
That list looks great.
I wonder what Boggart Shenanigans or Fodder Launch can do to help against the grindy matchups.
Super Bizarros Team. Beating everything with small green dudes and big waves.
I went to the weekly modern event at my LGS with the below list, pillars were a last minute addition and I cannot say enough good things about it.
Land: 23
4x Arid Mesa
4x Auntie's Hovel
3x Blood Crypt
4x Cavern of Souls
4x Mountain
4x Mutavault
Creatures: 30
3x Mogg Fanatic
2x Spikeshot Elder
4x Mogg War Marshal
4x Warren Instigator
4x Goblin Chieftain
3x Goblin King
4x Mad Auntie
1x Krenko, Mob Boss
3x Murderous Redcap
2x Siege-Gang Commander
Spells: 7
4x Lightning Bolt
3x Dismember
Sideboard:
2x Electrickery
3x Pithing Needle
4x Relic of Progenitus
1x Rakdos Charm
2x Warren Weirding
3x Earwig Squad
Edited List, not what was played below
0-0 M1: Adam with rogue R/B discard synergy deck
G1: playing against heavy discard, he hits my removal x2 and a lord, lands Nezumi Shortfang followed by Liana which gets outdone by MWM and Mutavault. He plays Nyxathid which eats a dismember and I land liege which eats removal. Following turn I topdeck gorger, next turn it activates on my empty hand versus a fist of what I can only imagine is 3 discard spells, activation seals the deal on his second Nyxathid with a lord pumped swing and removal off gorger.
1-0
+2 magus
-2 lieges
I note that liege is awful with auntie and mutavault, it comes out. I notice he is rather nonbasic heavy for RB but I only see 1 burn spell and lots of BB casting costs.
G2: keep vault and MWM plus auntie liege. I play it out slowly, I see ratchet bomb that ticks up and he inquisitions a topdeck chieftain. I sandbag my liege and play it into Rachet Bomb with potential 4 counters. He takes the bait and I follow up with Wort and auntie. A second Rachet bomb is too slow and he's pushed out of the game, chumping with his creatures to stay in.
1-0
1-0 M2: Giles with Kikipod
G1: Takes considerable amount of damage from duals to get out Wall of Omens and Finks. Finks eats a pillar and Omens perma blocks Instigator but Fanaticx2 threatens his vital creatures, I drop a gorger first activation it whiffs but he can't/doesn't play combo elements. Gorger activates I end the game with my 5 cards drawn, laying Chieftain and a post combat bolt to the face.
1-0
+2 Cage
+3 Earwig
-4 Liege
-1 Pillar
G2: I lead Fanatic. He Wall of Omens. Blocks my follow up Instigator, but He misses a land drop T3. I come in with vaultx2. The game stalls as he plays a second Wall. Next turn he Pods in finks from the second Wall of Omens. However I get a second instigator and a lord out, the instigator eats Redcap CITP as he pods it in from a finks, I pillar the redcap it on my turn. Another instigator blocked by Omen and vaultx2 Lord pump kills the finks. He untaps and passes, I Come in for a swing he flashes in Exarch to kill instigator which eats a bolt. Informing me that he top decked his 2 of Kiki post game that he could play with a Birds of Paradise postgame, I don't think he could have arranged blockers in a way that post combat bolt wasn't lethal.
1-0
We play a third game for fun, he finally combos out as I keep a shaky MWM heavy, removal absent hand.
2-0 M3: Matt with affinity
G1: I keep 2 fanatics and MWM with vault and singleton removal. T2 he comes in with Battle cry x2 Thopter. T3 my board is wiped with Whipflare and I never recover as he eventually plays an Overseer which gets dismembered, a second overseer, and Master of Etherium but more importantly a lethal Plating on Inkmoth Nexus.
0-1
-2 Liege
-2 Gorger
-1 Pillar
+2 Magus
+2 Shatterstorm
+1 Rakdos Charm
G2: I think we both mull to 6, I keep MWMx3 + bolt + vault + mountain. He opens with x2 thopter and battle cry critter. Turns into a slug fest with his thopters versus tokens and Mutavaults He played a Arcbound Ravager and puts tokens on a thopter to kill my vault. He gets plating and I get chieftain. Fanatic hits battle cry and come in with Goblin tokens. He gets an overseer but its too little too late as I come in for lethal, before combat life was 6 him - 9 me.
1-1
G3: I snap keep a hand with 3 lands shatterstorm and 2 bolts. He mulls to 5 and dumps his hand 2 thopters springleaf inkmoth. Drawing 2 more with thoughtcast. I play out MWM with the echo. On his play bolt a plated thopter. Repeat that play but on inkmoth pumped by a blinkmoth, but on my turn I'm trying to bait his last card in hand and also establish a board by laying chieftain with bolt mana, but he never plays it. I resolve shatterstorm on T5 and he concedes. After asking him I find out hes holding a second copy of Mox Opal, whoops.
2-1
3-0 M4: Andrew with JUND
G1: Total blowout, I see 3xLightning helix for my 2 lords, one being Liege which died from a blocking soul later on. I make a huge mistake by wasting 2 fanatics to kill 1 of his 2 Deathrite Shamans. I Concede after getting Wort Lightning Helix'd and he casts and flashes back Lingering Souls, followed by Casting a second Lingering souls the following turn.
0-1
-2 Gorger
-2 Liege
+2 Magus
+2 Electrickery
G2: This game grinds out, he opens Deathrite followed by Goyf. I dismember Goyf, he follows up with Geist. I have MWM or Vault to chump the swinging Geist, post combat he plays a second Geist. I play Liege on a naked board with a tapped Mutavault. He Bloodbraids revealing a third Geist, opts to not play it. He uses a Dismember on Liege and comes in for non lethal. I play Wort which gets killed by removal. I scoop.
0-2
Finish 3-1
Post tournament thoughts were that Liege is garbage with Mad Auntie and Mutavault, as almost every match Liege was in play and not interacting with one of those cards at some point.
Second thoughts were that modern combo is pretty soft to creature removal so I feel good about my creature pressure with vaults for extra reach and instant speed removal.
My third takeaway was, JUND is brutal, and I need to be more efficient to compete. So I opt to make the following changes, and the reasons for these changes is to improve value through CITP triggers in the face of heavy removal. I remove Liege's as they just don't work and add Goblin King to compensate, I also add SGC for a wicked top end of my curve and a killer trigger, I should note that both JUND games still got to 5 mana and beyond so SGC is very relevant there. Finally Wort is just too slow, every resolution a redcap would have been better and it works with lord effects and deals with their removal to an extent.
Finally I opted to swap Magus for moon as the RR is relevant with cavern never naming humans. I also have to consider that my lords can never save it from pyroclasm, I do have to say that under the mountain effect I'd rather have someone spot removal the magus versus my lords. I'll look into this whenever I actually see one of these cards in play on a larger test pool.
Last edited by saucy; 01-19-2013 at 02:39 PM.
Nice list. I'm interested how effective Sensation Gorger was for you. Is it relevant in majority of the matches that it warrants MD placement? Also, although this is in general, why no list with Goblin Bushwhacker? Haste and 1 less mana seems more effective than Goblin King.
Army Loyalist R
Haste
Batalion - Whenever ~ and at least two other creatures attack, all creatures you control gain first strike and trample until end of turn. They cannot be blocked by tokens this turn.
1/1
Nice Lingering Souls bro...
Wow, this would actually be really good in either of the lists I posted. I'll commence testing once this set is released on MTGO, since that's the only place I can find Modern without a GPT (and the decks I posted weren't good enough for GPTs).
I'm loving the haste though, how unnecessary but still awesome is that?
I had the same thought...something like:
4x Army Loyalist
4x Goblin Guide
4x Mogg War Marshal
4x Warren Instigator
4x Goblin Chieftain
Seems like a pretty good start. Goblin Bushwhacker might actually be worth it too...
Went to another Modern event this time 2-2, I updated the list and sb in my above post.
White/Red landfall aggro
1-2: game 2 I won through 3 resolved Lightning Helix's, game 3 I lose to a top deck of the 1/1 that pseudo levels up into a huge flier while he's dead on board, this game went to 30~ cards in graveyard.
Blue/Black mill
2-0: got pretty hairy when Hedron Crab double landfall'd, into a mill for 10 instant, into double surgical extraction on Chieftain and Auntie. Consistency in creatures closes out both games.
Splinter Twin
0-2: game 2 sees a Snapcaster come down to flash block Mutavault against a lethal next turn with a topdeck of Chieftain, later he saves dispel mana to stop Lightning bolt on Exarch with 2 Mogg Fanatics for the last point of damage in play.
U/W control
2-0: Overwhelm him both games with 2 for 1's against his removal, threatens a Verdict game 2 but it does nothing with a Redcap MWM in play for a lethal counter swing.
Gorger, while very cool doesn't have a place in a world with low-mid range aggro decks and pod/twin redundant combo lists. To compete, Gorger didn't even make it into my sideboard overhaul.
I'm not a fan of bushwhacker at least in my pre-Gatecrash lists, while Goblin King is the weakest card maindeck a Bushwhackers haste often isn't relevant as I'm playing T2 it only hastes himself and trades with mana dorks(sometimes). In a later gamestate scenario I'm dropping Bushwhacker and swinging with one more body versus not swinging with King but offering better trades on the +toughtness. As for the mana cost, the list has a comfy curve at the moment when considering that Dismember is a 2 drop most of the time, the lords still push the curve to 3 CMC bias which I'm fine with.
The Boros goblin looks good with the modern goblin staples, I'll try and pick some up at my prerelease!
Also in modern a card which you may have missed because it doesn't have the word goblin in the rules text is the 2R 2/2 "All your creatures have haste and attack if able" goblin, which is huge, I know from playing the deck in legacy that having a large number of haste-lords to speed out krenko activations is very important/useful.
Unfortunately, without access to matron and ringleader, and with people in the thread dropping sensation gorger, I can't see a reason to play this deck.
It seems like a burn deck deck that is capable of more explosive starts but is less consistent a la Kuldotha Red, why not play Affinity or something else over it?
Cheers
Last edited by kombatkiwi; 01-16-2013 at 12:21 PM.
Haste is a great quality, but I'm not sure the "always attacks every turn" is worth it. The creatures that do see play in Modern are generally larger than any specific Goblin, and having the ability to sit back and stockpile until you can alpha strike is important in a lot of matchups. Having a Goblin Arsonist on defense is great against a lot of decks.
If this is a serious question and not rhetorical I'll take a stab at it (well, I'll take a stab at it even if it is rhetorical).Unfortunately, without access to matron and ringleader, and with people in the thread dropping sensation gorger, I can't see a reason to play this deck.
It seems like a burn deck deck that is capable of more explosive starts but is less consistent a la Kuldotha Red, why not play Affinity or something else over it?
Cheers
Playing any swarm deck gives you different advantages, but to compare it to just 2 options (burn and affinity):
Burn:
I'd rather play goblins than burn because of Kitchen Finks. There are enough decks that play KF, Jund and UW midrange, that it is something to consider, and often for each activation they get on KF you lose 1 card. Burn in Modern isn't as fast as it is in Legacy, and every time the opponent gains life you're one step closer to for sure losing. Burn has games it can't come back from, and sadly, in Modern, they MUST play creatures to be competitive. That means you aren't blanking the opponent's removal anymore, like you can in Legacy. It's just balls to the wall aggro that loses when it reaches turn X.
Affinity:
Although affinity has a few cards to keep it in the late game, Cranial Plating, Inkmoth Nexus, and the pro-color dude, it also has been very well known in the metagame, and as a result has dedicated sideboard slots in most matchups it plays against. This means that in a specific meta you can get absolutely crushed in every game 2 and 3 because everyone was scared of your deck. Basically losing to both creature and artifact hate is suboptimal.
With goblins you get a niche position of having access to extremely quick victories (Turn 3 is extremely possible if your Instigator connects, which isn't that unlikely given the amount of non-creature decks) and being able to grind out late game wins based on card advantage. You don't lose by any means to life gain, and sideboards usually don't have a ridiculous amount of extra sideboard hate. Late game gives you access to Krenko, Mad Auntie, or Siege-gang Commander, who even allows you to win through random things like Ensnaring Bridge, and swinging in for 30 damage isn't at all ridiculous if it gets to late game.
When I was playing this deck I was able to race combo, while still having game against things like UW midrange. People's litmus test of "But does it race burn and affinity while goldfishing" is just ridiculous. If you ever play a game against anyone that's the same as a goldfish, you probably would have beat them with either deck.
I get that you can get fast starts via instigators and such but the point that I am challenging (which i thought I made clear in my post) was the "grind them out with card advantage" aspect which seems questionable in the builds people are currently promoting which don't have any way of actually gaining extra cards
Lead the Stampede has been tested or not?
Do you know what assuming does? It makes an ass out of you and me.
Get it...? Ass, u, me?
... ffs I was trying to be funny...
Went to another modern event this week and went 2-2. I was quite sick right before the tournament (even brought a kleenex box to the event) and my decision making just wasn't at a good place as a result, because at least 1 game in each match I lost rode on an awful keep, but I suppose its part of the learning experience.
Technically, its card advantage through unfavourable combat. It is quite possibly a fools errand, but I'm going to try and tune the deck for Toronto's PTQ's x2.
I have no experience with it, but I'm really intrigued as it would be more like legacy goblins.Originally Posted by Qweerios
Also fun fact, in paper I've had Instigator connect once in 3 events. I still love the card and wouldn't dream of cutting it.
Went to FNM last week with this particular list that went 4-0 in a daily event last month.
19 Mountain
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Goblin Grenade
4 Goblin Guide
4 Goblin Cohort
4 Goblin Wardriver
4 Mogg War Marshal
4 Goblin Bushwacker
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Goblin Chieftain
4 Simian Spirit Guide
1 Krenko, Mob Boss
4 Magus of the Moon
3 Thorn of Amythest
3 Spellskite
2 Stingscourger
2 Smash to Smithereens
1 Shattering Spree
The maindeck I didn't modify at all but I did an overhaul of the sideboard since there was a lot of combo when I was playing at the GPTs earlier last month. I went 2-2 with the deck which I thought was pretty good considering I hadn't even goldfished the deck before FNM and had no idea what to board out so I'm pretty sure I was sideboarding incorrectly all the time.
Round 1: B/G Zombievine (W:2-1)
- There was no dredge cards in the deck but it played a bunch of gravecrawlers and bloodghasts which CAN'T block which meant that I just kept on attacking without abandon and he was always on the backfoot.
Round 2: Tribal Zoo (L: 1-2)
- I lost games one and three pretty handily but game two was a crazy slugfest. Nothing much I can say about this matchup except that Lightning Helix is so backbreaking. There's no way you can win a game where the opponent manages to cast Lightning Helix three times no matter how much damage they're taking off their shocklands. This was also the game where I realized that Magus of the Moon was not the right sideboard card as I was able to land a turn two Magus and he had the red removal for it. Magus really needed to be Blood Moon since it's a lot harder to remove and if the Magus was a Blood Moon instead, I would have stole game 3 as he had no basics in play at all.
Round 3: Jund (L: 1-2)
- I don't think the Jund matchup is that bad. It's all about how aggressive your opening hand is and there are definately hands where you can just overwhelm them since all their removal are one for ones. That being said, I lost game three because I had to mulligan to three since my previous four hands contained ZERO lands. Maybe playing only 19 lands is not enough.
Round 4: WUR Delver (W: 2-1)
- I had been boarding out the Mogg War Marshals all night because I didn't understand why they were good and this time, I boarded out the Goblin Cohorts instead since they were inconsistent attackers. Plus this deck's removal is all one for one and that's where the War Marshal shines. Spellskites and Thorns shined in this matchup as they are so removal heavy and the majority of the removal are damage based so usually to get rid of Spellskite, they'll need to use two pieces of removal to get rid of which is key. I just ended up out grinding him as he ran out of removal at the end for my creatures.
Some observations about the deck:
- Mogg Fanatic vs Deathrite Shamans: Sigh. There were so many times where my early Fanatic did nothing since my opponent had a turn one Deathrite Shaman. I'm really not sure what to do about this other than maybe not play four Fanatics. They do kill a bunch of other useful creatures though like Confidants, Lavamancers, pre-flipped Delvers, etc so I think they should be in the deck.
- Goblin Bushwacker: Initially I thought this guy sucked since it's not really a one drop and I felt like I had a bunch of two drops. But then I got into situations where I had like three 1/1s on board and the opponent had a couple of Deathrites holding off my team. I then cast a kicked Bushwacker and all of a sudden attacked for eight and they really had to think of they wanted to chump with the Deathrites. I didn't realize how it could turn a game around by itself and neither did the people I played against until they saw what it could do. This guy's like a two drop Chieftain. Insane.
- Goblin Cohort: I believe that these are the first cards that come out when sideboarding as you are putting in more non-creatures. I also ran into situations where I dropped a Cohort onto an empty board but could not draw another creature in the next two turns so it couldn't attack for two turns which was extremely frustrating.
- Krenko, Mob Boss: I only drew him twice and one of the times, I couldn't cast him. The other time, it made two goblin tokens and then promptly died to a removal spell. I'm really not sure if it's worth it in a deck with only 19 lands.
- Goblin King: I found that I really wanted Goblin King in the deck somewhere. It seems that the majority of the decks are playing mountains and to have a creature who gives all of my other creatures mountainwalk seems like a good thing. The problem is what to cut for Goblin King? Maybe a Krenko and a Fanatic?
- Simian Spirit Guides: My opponents were also making fun of the Simian Spirit Guides and I kind of doubted them myself until I was able to make the following play. Turn 1, play a one drop. Turn 2, play a war marshal. Turn 3, don't pay echo, make the 3rd land drop, play another war marshal, exile spirit guide and play bushwacker with kicker, attack for 10+. Sometimes you'd also get hands like fanatic x2, spirit guide x2 and mountains x3 but I think the potential explosiveness that spirit guides can give you offset those weird hands.
- Magus of the Moon: I had copied the list from the daily and found that everytime that I played it, my opponent would be able to remove it immediately with some red removal spell. I feel that Blood Moon would be a much better play as it would be harder to remove.
- No fetchlands: Do you really want to help fuel Deathrite Shaman? There's also no need to thin out the deck as you play less lands than other people already.
I was really pleasantly surprised by the power level of this deck as I didn't think I would have a chance against any of the tier 1/1.5 decks at all. I really enjoyed seeing people's faces drop when they realize that they're losing to a virtual pauper deck.
Lastly, when Gatecrash comes out, I can imagine putting in some Legion Loyalists in the deck. My guys were getting chump blocked by spirit tokens a lot and this creature would help a lot against that.
Here's a list I'm going to be experimenting with:
4 Goblin Guide
4 Goblin Bushwhacker
4 Army Loyalist
4 Goblin Cohort
4 Tattermunge Maniac
4 Goblin Arsonist
4 Goblin Wardriver
4 Mogg War Marshal
4 Goblin Chieftain
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Goblin Grenade
16 Mountain
Other cards I'm messing around with are Mudbutton Clanger and Lightning Bolt. I know Bolt seems like a no-brainer, but I want to push this as far as possible first and then start cutting back.
Also, I'm sure I'm cutting it dangerously close with 16 lands, but I'm hoping the extra explosiveness that Loyalist and extra one-drops bring justify it. Besides, I don't plan on playing anything more than 3, like Affinity decks. I'll let you guys know my results.
Last edited by Pltnmngl; 01-23-2013 at 02:19 PM. Reason: Sorry, forgot tags. More cleaning up.
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I have to say 16 lands is too few. You don't want to just cast 1 spell per turn, and you lose without hitting at least 2 lands.
The chance of your starting 8 cards getting at least 2 lands is only 69.1%. That's 3/10 hands that you don't get enough resources to overrun people. If you're worried about drawing too many lands late game just throw in 8 red fetches. yes, you'll take some extra damage, but not nearly as much as multi colored decks.
Yeah. Ill probably go to 18 by getting rid of 2 Maniacs. Not interested in fetched since Deathrite Shaman is a thing.
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"The game is not worth the candle."
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