Goblins wins Dual Fest on SJC!

[ScatmanX]

Report Time!
Finally something worth it.

There was going to be a big Dual Fest nearby that was announced quite some time ago, and me and some teammates decided to go. My deck, for a long time, was going to be Spiral Tide, since I was playing it for the last few weeks, and got good results with it. 3 days before the tournament, I decided to switch and go back to goblins, my beloved little green man, because it had been a long time since I haven’t played them, and missed it. The list was based on a played by myself last year, that had brought me a good result, and shaped to today’s meta.
This is what I came up with:

4 – Wasteland
1 – Rishadan Port
4 – Cavern of Souls
10 – Mountains
2 – Chrome Mox

4 – Aether Vial
4 – Goblin Lackey
4 – Goblin Matron
4 – Goblin Ringleader
1 – Siege-Gang Commander
1 – Kiki-Jiki Mirrorbreaker

3 – Goblin Warchief
3 – Goblin Chieftain
3 – Warren Instigator
3 – Goblin Piledriver

4 – Gempalm Incinerator
2 – Stingscourger
1 – Tarfire
1 – Goblin Sharpshooter
1 – Tuktuk Scrapper
SIDEBORAD
4 – Thorn of Amethyst
3 – Pyroknesis
3 – Relic of Progenitus
3 – Surgical Extraction
1 – Tuktuk Scrapper
1 – Chrome Mox

Explanation:
I wanted to be able to race combo. I think SnT decks are on the raise (got prediction right on scgo), and boarded to beat them. Thorn is an awesome hate against them, especially against Hive mind. The SB Mox comes in against matchs where CA don’t matter that much, and I need to be faster.
A friend borrowed me the Caverns, and they were great when they needed to be (and sucked otherwise).
6 two drops tried to maximize the aggression, and that was the reason for the 3/3 split Warchief/Chieftain. Don’t know if it is right, cut worked.
The rest was standard, with the miser Tarfire to kill flipped Delvers.

On to the game!

Round 1 – Merfolk
Game 1 – We both mull, with him starting with nothing and FoWing my Vial. Lackey resolves and connects due to Tarfire + Waste on Mutavault. I have a couple of Matrons, and search only for Gempalms to connect for some turns in a row and win.

SB: +3 Knesis, +1 Mox (because of Daze), -2 Sting, -1 Kiki, -1 Chieftain

Game 2 – I keep my 1st sketchy hand on the draw: Lackey, Tarfire, Warchief, Ringleader, Knesis, 2x Mox. The thought was: - If he counters the first Mox, he wasted a counter and the 2nd one is likely to resolve. – If he doesn’t, Lackey will probably connect with Tarfire + Knesis. – Every card I draw from this hand is good, because it is either a land, a Vial, or a red card (with 1 bad mox as a bad draw), which are all great.
It turns out he does nothing T1, I draw Mountain, but lead with Mox, imprinting Warchief, play Mountain + Lackey. Tarfire makes Lackey connect, and my Ringleader is good enough to win the game. I discover later he had Daze, so that was cool =]
1-0 (2-0)

Round 2 – Maverick
Game 1 – I mull on the draw and keep a slow Vial hand. He led with Mom, then Scryb Ranger, then Knight, then Jitte. I got rid of Jitte, but my draws sucked and my lands didn’t helped (2 Caverns, 3 Wastelands).

SB: +3 Knesis, +3 Relic, -3 Piledriver, -3 Instigator

Game2 – He T2 Zenith for Fight Bear, then a Qasali, then plays Noble and Dryad Arbor. Meanwhile I Matron for Ringleader and play it, getting some dudes so I could wrath his board with the Knesis I had. Game was over pretty soon after that.

Game 3 – I keep the sketchiest hand on the draw: Port, Waste, 2x Ringleader, SGC, 2x Mox. The thought was: Either screw his mana, or play a Ringleader T2, depending on what I drew. He leads with Zenith for Arbor. I Remove the Kiki I drew to Mox, play Port, and Port him his upkeep. He plays land and Sylvan. I draw a Relic (crap. Did not want to remove anything on my hand) and Waste his Arbor and tap the G source. He plays Noble. I draw a Mountain, and go for Ringleader, removing SGC. Sylvan doesn’t help him much, and he plays Maze. I draw Knesis and play Relic and something. He eot a Scryb, the plays a Knight on his turn using the bounce ability. I explode relic his turn, and clear his board. His next turn he concede.
2-0 (4-1)

Round 3 – Food Chain Elves
Game 1 – I know his deck (the Food Chains are mine), and mull accordingly. Unfortunately, I go to 5 o get a lackey or mox or Vial with good curve, but don’t get removal, so he just block Lackey T2, then his T3 plays Food Chain, yada yada, Emrakul.

SB: +3 Knesis, +1 Mox, -4 Vial

Game 2 – I keep Warchief, Sharpshooter, something, Mox + Lands. I play mountain, he plays Elf. I Play Mox, land and Warchief. He plays Quirion Dryad and that Insect. I kill them all with Sharpthooter. He then proceed to draw nearly half the lands on his deck and loses.

Game 3 – Don’t really remember the first 2-3 turns, but I remember that I Port him, get Warchief and Sharpshooter again, while “stuck” on 4 lands, with Ringleaders and SGC being drawn. There were 2 turns that I could have played Ringleader, to increase my clock and draw me some other possibilities. I decided to go for it when he had 4 lands already, and had just played an Archdruid. He untapps, plays a 4th land, Quirion ranger, Elvish Visionary, Archdruid and that one that makes 4 Squirrel tokens. I get a land from the top, that allows me to Matron for Gempalm, ping the 1st Archdruid with Sharpshooter, Gempalm the 2nd, untap Shooter, kill the 2nd Archdruid, the obliterate his board. Gotta love Sharpshooter. He dies on my next turn.
3-0 (6-2)

Round 4 – Reanimator
Game 1: I know what he is playing again, and go to 5 to find either Lackey, Mox or Vial, keeping Vial, Waste, Port, Chieftain, Mountain. He studies, then Dazes Vial. I Port his black source next turn, and Waste the next one he draws + Port again. I Port him for 6 more turns, while he is unable to find another B source. Meanwhile I get a Vial, that get Piledriver, Then Chieftain, Then Ringleader into play, and he dies. Cheers for inconsistent decks =]

SB: +3 Relic, +3 Surgical, +1 Mox, -4 Gempalm, -1 Tarfire, -1 Scrapper, -1 Shooter (he played Elesh, not that "creature's can't attack you" guy)
*I really wanted to play Thorn here, at least on the play, but don't knoe if I'd cut another 4 cards for it if there was a G3...

Game 2 – I mull a Lackey hand with no hate into: Vial, Lackey, 2x Surgical, 2x Mountain. He passes. I rip Caver of Souls, and play Vial from it. His turn he passes again. I hit, dropping nothing, then plays land and Vial. He counters it with Foil, discarding dal and Gingitaxias, the cast Exhume his turn. I Surgical. He FoWs. I surgical again. He had only 1 card, that was a Daze, but I had 1 mana up. I take 6 turns to kill him because am unable to find goblins, but he does not get to combo again.
*If I hadn’t drawn Caverns, I’d have lost, since he would Foil my Lackey, then Exhume T2 with FoW + Daze backup for my 2x Surgicals. Nice topdeck for me.
4-0 (8-2)

Round 5 and 6 – ID

Top 8: Lands
Game 1 – I keep Mountain, Cavern, Mox, Piledriver, Vial, Kiki, Matron o the draw. H leads with Exploration, and Turn 1 I make a mistake, going for Piledriver instead of Vial.I wanted to get Pile T1, Matron T2, Chieftain T3, to be able to kill him fast. The problem is, playing Vial first, I’d have lost only 1 dmg from that start. The worst thing is: id didn’t work, because he had Waste-locked me by turn 2. Crap. He does plays lands next turn, and I play a 2nd Vial. He plays Mindslaver. My turn I have Gempalm, Chieftain and Matron. I decided to Matron for Ringleader and pass. Otherwise he would have wasted all the advantage I could get from Matron, and killing Piledriver wasn’t that huge. He uses Slaver next turn, and gempalms Piledriver only. Then puts Mindslaver on top again, not having the time to play it his turn.
Here the tides change, since Ringleader resolves from another land I find, and gets me a few goodies.while Chieftain came down from Vial. He Strongholded a Witness, to get back and play Ensnaring Bridge, but I had Gempalm for Witness and Tuktuk for Bridge, and won the game on the last turn I could have won.

SB: +3 Relic, +3 Surgical, +1 Mox, +1 Tuktuk, -4 Gempalm, -1 Sting, -1 Tarfire, -1 Kiki, -1 ??

Game 2 – He leads with nothing, me with Lackey. He plays Mox + Knight. I play Instigator. He plays Metamorph copying Knight. I play Chieftain and make one of the worst attacks on my life, going all in. He blocks Instigator and Chieftain, taps Relicary and get a fetch. I see what the stupid thing I did, but he don’t crack his fetch. I ask if all dmg can resolve, and if I can put a goblin from the Lackey trigger. He said “yes”. His knight was still 4/4, and died to Instigator. When he realized that, tried to crack the fetch, but it was too late. Lackey gets something into play, and he plays Ensnaring Bridge. I draw and play Relic of Progenitus. He didn’t had an answer for Relic now, and I didn’t had one for Bridge. We were both tired, and he was already happy with his top8, so he scooped them up for me. Great guy. I was really happy for that.
I asked to play a “forfun” game, and he crushed me twice while we waited for the rest of the top8.
5-0 (10-2)

Top4 – BUG
Game 1 – Weird Game. He plays first, and Pierces my Vial. He cantripped. I Waste his G source and play Mox + Piledriver. He had removal. I play waste, and use it for Warchief. He kills it. I play Chieftain. He kills it. The I untap, still with 3 lands, but with 2 Ringleaders and SCG on hand, drawing another Ringleder next turn. Luckly he was flooding like hell, and didn’t offer any clock or anything. I found a 4th manasource, and get Ringleader, then play the next one. It turns out he didn’t have anything, and ended the game with 7 lands into play, and nothing on his hand but some removal.

SB: +3 Relic (Goys and Snaps), +2 Surgical (because there were a lot of cards to take out), -1 Sting, -1 Tarfire, -1 Tuktuk, -2 Gemapalm.

Game 2 – I resolve a Vial and decline to play Piledriver and Matron into possible counters. He plays Finks and Pernicious Deed. Vials go to 4 and land Ringleader while he had 2 lands up. He untapps then with 4 and passes. I up Vial and attack. He doesn’t know what I have, but decided to do not blow Deed this turn, and play his 5th land. He does. I eot Vial Kiki, and attempt to copy Ringleader. If he blew Deed, I’d play a bunch of guys my turn and probably overwhelm him. He doesn’t do it. I attack my turn again, and pass. He blows Deed. Fortunately next turn he doesn’t do much. I play Warchief and Chieftain and hit. He plays Explosives @3. I play Ringleader and something. He blows E.E. He gets Goyf. I play Warchief, Chieftain, Stingscourger and Piledriver, and kill him.
6-0 (12-2)

Top2 – Lands
Game 1 – I attempt to go fast. He does nothing much for 3 turns, while I beat him a little. I had 2 Caverns and Mountain. On his turn, he desperately needs Maze and Tabernacle, and says his next 3 cards contains them both. His turn, he dredges Loam, and get Maze and Tabernacle… With Exploration and Manabound, he plays them all, and waste 2 of my lands. I get stuck on 1 Mountain. Then draw another Cavern to get a Lackey through, but it doesn’t matter much. I concede with him at 6 life, and me with just 1 land…

SB: +3 Relic, +3 Surgical, +1 Mox, +1 Tuktuk, -4 Gempalm, -2 Sting, -1 Tarfire, -1 Kiki

Game 2 – I keep 2 Waste, 2 Surgical, Mountain, and another card for my 6. Mountain pass. He plays Tropical. I draw a Mox, and decided to make a crazy play, just because. On his drawstep I Waste his Tropical, and Surgical it. Lucky for me, he had another on his hand, along with 2x Maze, Relicary, Port, Tolaria West (useless now), and something else. He play land, I play Instigator. He plays Knight. I play Relic, and hit, trading Instigator with Knight When I Pop Relic. Too bad because I wanted to Surgical his Maze, because I knew he had another. With Relicary as the only card in his grave, I decided to Surgical that. Turns out he had just drawn another. Some turns later I win the game after he offered not much more control.

Game 3 – He leads not much explosive, but I have a T1 Vial. He plays Knight. I had more lands, 2x Lackey, Relic and something else. I decided to play Lackey + Relic. That opened me to be blown by Explosives, but otherwise I could just lose to Relicary and his double LftL hand (which he showed me later. He simply passes, and I get Lackey and Instigator into play, when he makes a mistake of playing Glacial when it was not 100% needed, and sacking his only W producing land to play it. Next turn he played a Tabernacle. I pay for my guys, and search for Sharpshooter, to ping him on my upkeep when I had to sac my guys to Tabernacle. He kept Glacial for 2 more turns, then sacked it. Shooter started getting in there while he could not control the board, and won me the game.
7-0 (14-3)

And that’s how I won 2 duals. A mix of luck, weird plays, and questionable plays by my opponents. I guess that it is always the case though.

Chrome Mox was used more times than described, being good versus Bug, Mav and Merfolk, and sucking against Lands when I had nothing to pitch.
Caverns of Souls won me the Reanimator game, and haven’t shown up against BUG and Merfolk, but flooded me against Maverick and both Lands players. Still think it is worth running 4. Just need to learn to draw them on the right turns.
Maybe 10 Mountains was a little greedy, but that singletown Port won me 2 games, and helped on others. Would like to play more...

All and all, was pretty pleased with everything.
Any comments on decklist, plays I made, or anything, please fell free.

Props for:
Goblins.
Super Bizarros Team, for making 4 top 16 and being awesome.
Older for lending me Caverns.
Maurão for Lending me Mox (foil ones =]).
Luck as hell.
Tournament starting on the time they said it would.
Winning a Venser vs. Koth duel deck!

Slops:
Everyone who didn’t go there. Hoped there would be more players. Shame on you.
That’s it.

[GoboLord]

You, my friend are greedy as hell with your mana-base :-D
19 Lands + 2 Chrome Moxes? You crazy guy. I love it. I'll runn 20 +1 next tourney. with 2 Rishadan Ports.

GZ on the finish!

[Final Ritual]

Nice report. I love the idea of speeding the deck up by a turn with the moxes.

[ScatmanX]

You, my friend are greedy as hell with your mana-base :-D
19 Lands + 2 Chrome Moxes? You crazy guy. I love it. I'll runn 20 +1 next tourney. with 2 Rishadan Ports.

GZ on the finish!

Thanks.
And yes, it was quite greedy.
But well, if I'm going to play a "fair" deck like goblins, maybe that little loss on consistency against fair decks can help me achieve an edge against the unfair ones. It can pay out sometimes.