Hey all!

So today I went to my (first ever!) sanctioned Legacy event! It was a small group, just a pod of 8, with 3 rounds. We'll be picking some more numbers soon though, I know of at least 3 people who have near finished or finished legacy decks who are gonna start showing up. Another shop in the city closed down last week and they were the main place in the area for legacy, so many of those players are going to be migrating.

Regardless, the reason I'm excited is that I managed to take 1st in the event! I've made a somewhat radical change to my deck recently (the impetus of which was my recent acquisition of a Badlands). I'm curious what you all think of my reasoning for my changes, and would like some advice on some small changes I'm considering.

The List!

Artifacts: 6
4 Aether Vial
2 Smuggler's Copter

Creatures: 29
4 Goblin Lackey
4 Goblin Matron
3 Goblin Ringleader (!)
3 Goblin Warchief
3 Gempalm Incinerator
3 Mogg War Marshal
2 Krenko, Mob Boss
1 Piledriver
1 Goblin Chieftain
1 Sharpshooter
1 Skirk Prospector
1 Stingscourger
1 Tuktuk Scrapper
1 Grenzo, Dungeon Warden

Instants: 2
1 Tarfire
1 Pyrokinesis

Lands: 23
4 Wasteland
4 Mountain
4 Bloodstained Mire
3 Rishadan Port
3 Cavern of Souls
2 Wooded Foothills
1 Badlands
1 Plateau
1 Karakas

Sideboard
3 Thalia
2 Blood Moon
2 Pyrokinesis
2 Wear//Tear
2 Cabal Therapy
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Mindbreak Trap
1 Warping Wail

The Matches: I didn't take notes so I'm doing this write-up from memory. For the future, I'd be interested in advice on how you guys keep match notes for large events like GPs. Do you jot them down between games? Between rounds?

Sebastian on Grixis Thieves: On the draw
I know Sebastian as primarily a vintage player, but I wasn't really sure what he was on at the start of our game. He joked that he might be on reanimator, and I prepared to be savagely beaten. However, I could breathe a sigh of relief when he leads off with a ponder, and reveals himself to be on a grixis variant (I had first assumed Shardless BUG, then Delver).
Game one was quite a slog, eventually leading to a hardcast pyrokinesis on my end to kill a pyromancer that had accrued some significant value (my ringleader got Cabal Therapy'd)
However, I manage to pull it to a close with a healthy life total thanks to Krenko + Warchief. He also had flashed in a notion thief at some point to stop me from getting value from my Copter triggers.
I believe my boarding was: +2 Blood Moon, +2 Pyro, +1 Warping Wail (for presumed toxic deluge. Also kills all creatures in his deck) -4 Lackey, -1 Stingscourger

Game 2 was a massive grind as well. My ringleaders got therapied twice (once off of a cabal therapy he ripped with the git probe. That felt bad). We were both in top deck mode when he finds a pyromancer, and begins to build up a couple of tokens (which trade off with some of mine). At this point, our life totals are neck and neck (I believe he was on 8 and I on 7). I drop a sharpshooter that has my hopes and dreams pinned on it. He draws izzet staticaster, which makes me immensely sad. I draw ringleader, and manage to get into the board state where I have a ringleader (tapped) and a Krenko. I have a mogg war marshal in hand. He has a staticaster and a lone pyromancer. We are about to enter into turn 4 of turns, as time has been called. At the end of my turn, he cast Chaos Warp (which he had as a fun-of) on my Krenko; I get lucky and flip a chieftain off the top of my deck! He untaps, and swings at my face. I'm at 5 and he is at 4. I kinda punt here because I thought I had to play for the win, rather than the draw (I somehow failed to consider that I was up a game), and so I don't block with the Chieftain. His draw for the turn? Bolt, making me dead. We shake hands on a close match, and I'm at 0-1-0.

?? (terrible with names) on 4 Color-favoring bant/splash black Deathblade: On the draw
I knew he was on some sort of stoneblade variant because I saw him playing earlier. He ponders and I drop a vial off of a port, which thankfully resolves. He surprises me by jamming in a Jitte. I think "well, I'm in trouble now". Fast forward a few turns, I've managed to kill a stoneforge that pulled up a batterskull, and I have a sharpshooter on board. Unfortunately, we reach the state where his board is a batterskull with the germ, jitte (no counters), and DRS. I vial a ringleader, which saves me with a tarfire, a gempalm, and a grenzo. I tarfire + gempalm the germ, allowing sharpshooter to kill the DRS. Grenzo dies soon after. I do now reach the turn that I 100% need to win, because he has TNN about to equip the Jitte. He is at 11 and I'm pretty confident I'm dead, with only a lone Krenko. However, a top decked Warchief changes the math. I go cast Warchief, cast matron getting piledriver, and resolve all. 4 tokens plus a big swing from piledriver kills him on the spot.

Sideboard: +2 Blood Moon, +2 Pyro, +2 Wear//Tear, +1 Cabal Therapy (I liked the idea of snagging equipment tutored by SfM. Not sure if correct because it increases my vulnerability to wasteland. It is possible to cast the therapy off of flashback because I can loot it away with the Copter.

Game 2 was a solid grind, and he has a slow start with only a turn 2 containment priest as initial pressure. I'm disrupted significantly by a daze on my t1 vial, but my hand functions without it thanks to a topdecked land. The situation becomes much scarier when he drops a turn 3 Sword of Fire and Ice. Fortunately, I have the wear//tear in hand. Copter gets on board, and I managed to begin crewing. He lands a stoneforge, grabbing Jitte. The removal was really timely this game because of the reliability in killing stoneforge before it untaps. When he eventually puts the Jitte in play, he also casts a Jace and brainstorms (this was very late game, so we both have 8-9 lands, and I have a vial again). He has 1 card in hand, and I vial in tuktuk to blow up Jitte, and sail a Copter over a DRS to kill jace. My opponent does significantly misplay at this point, as they try to swords to plowshares the tuktuk in response to the crewing, thinking it would stop Copter from becoming a creature.
Aside; I feel bad for saying no to a rewind because he didn't know how crewing works, but the game was close enough that I felt like I had to hold onto the misplay. Perhaps it's kinda a dick move (after all, it's just a small low-stakes event), but he said I had the choice and I said no. Maybe it shouldn't, but I feel bothered enough by my decision to mention it here.

Anyway! Krenko eventually spells the end for him, and Copter plus a couple of 1/1s takes the match.

Gabriel on....ENCHANTRESS (oh god why): on the draw
This was the match I was dreading, and I was sure I was screwed. We both keep our 7s, mine on the back of a vial, double port, and a bunch of goblins including Krenko. I figured that the best way to win this match is through mana denial, and I was right. My vial starts to tick up, and I go ports into a wasteland. He gets stuck on mana for a bit this way, as he can't spam enchantments as hard, and only has 1 enchantress effect going. However, a Elephant Grass makes my life difficult, a leyline of sanctity makes a sharpshooter win impossible. However, this game teaches me the magic of Skirk Prospector + Krenko equaling approximately a million mana. With only an elephant grass as an attack tax, I manage to swing with some tokens and a massive 11 power piledriver for the win. Going into game 2, I know that this is my only path to victory.

Board: +2 Wear//Tear, +2 Blood Moon (mostly for Serra's Sanctum), +2 Cabal Therapy, +3 Thalia, +1 Mindbreak (if he chains off a ton of enchantments, I might be able to nail his win condition, be it RIP+Helm, Doomwake Giant, Emrakul, or Sigil of the Empty Throne
Out: -2 Mogg War Marshal, -1 Stingscourger, -3 Gempalm,-1 Pyro, -1 Tarfire, -1 Sharpshooter, (should have left this in, assuming he boards out Leyline of Sanctity as he did), -1 Grenzo (can't attack through Elephant Grass)

Game two is somewhat uneventful, in that I draw little and die easily. Not much to say much about this one. I do gain the info that he wins via angel tokens and Doomwake giant, which valuable.
I swap out a war marshal for a gempalm, as it gives me a way to kill Doomwake.

Game 3: Now this was a truly ridiculous mess. I have a solid hand of Thalia and lands to cast her, a vial, a cabal therapy, and some gobs. I run into a bit of a conundrum here, as I have the option of turn 1 fetch for therapy. However, I only have 1 fetch in hand. I opt to cast the vial first, and fetch plateau. I figure that landing Thalia ASAP is more valuable than a blind therapy. I get slightly punished by not drawing another fetch for quite awhile, but I think I made the right choice.
My opponent here has a very strange draw. He lands many many utopia sprawl effects, and I have little way to stop him because I only draw a single port as land disruption (over the course of the whole game). My turn 2 thalia does prompt him to journey to nowhere thalia. At the end of his turn 2, I vial in lackey, which connects along with a warchief, dropping a krenko into play. On his turn 3, he drops even more utopia sprawls and a mirri's guile. At this point, all I want to see is a wear//tear to free my thalia and some wastelands. Neither come to me. I get one big swing for 6 in, but not much else to do. Soon after, he drops a sphere of safety with 6 enchantments in play, leaving me little hope at this point. Krenko continues to pump out tokens. Each turn, I cannot do much other than make another set of tokens and port down the most heavily enchanted land, trying to cut as much mana as possible. However, I do get lucky here in a way. My opponent cannot seem to find any pieces of the draw engine, and it playing off the top 3 cards of his deck. A doomwake giant eventually comes down, and wipes all the 1/1s, leaving krenko to start up the horde again. I figure I will lose on the next turn, as I draw nothing but lands and he just needs 2 doomwake triggers to wipe board of anything but the krenko. However, he bricks as well, giving me a shot! I peel a matron, which puts me in the tank for a bit. I really want to grab prospector to start being able to attack, but with Doomwake and mirri's guile in play, I'd have to be extraordinarily lucky to have him miss another turn on an enchantment, and I cannot win if Prospector dies. So I matron for the singleton gempalm that I thankfully had put back in the deck, and kill the giant, which (because I gotta be lucky sometimes) draws me into Prospector! Score! I do the math, and I still don't have enough to attack profitably. I pass. He fetches, and then StP my Krenko! Noooo! Impending doom encroaches on my mind at this point.

I have about 14 goblin tokens, a warchief, a matron, and a prospector and cabal therapy in hand. I play prospector (probably incorrect) and pass to port. Curiously, after he resolves the Guile trigger, he simply draws and passes. I think "what could he possibly have that he wouldn't or couldn't cast?" After evaluating his mana, I come the conclusion that it has to be either Sigil, Emrakul, or another Doomwake. I draw a tuktuk, and cast therapy. A leyline of the void is in play, so I don't get a second chance. I take a guess of Sigil of the Empty Throne...and my opponent looks at me in disbelief as he reveals the sigil. We and the group around us cannot help but laugh with the ridiculousness of it. There are a few more turns of little happening, but at last I find my second krenko. I do some math, and with him at 6, I find I have lethal. I sac 28 of my 36 goblin tokens to pay for an attack of warchief, tuktuk, matron, and a token. My opponent scoops his cards and shakes the hand, and I put my hands in my face in disbelief. I've never seen a skirk prospector do more work in my life!

The Goblins tribe is victorious! It was a small event, but beating enchantress felt like no easy feat. I dodged BR reanimator like a champ too

Some analysis & oddities about the decklist: I know I'm killing some sacred cows by playing only 3 ringleaders, but I believe it's okay for a couple reasons. My main goal in building the deck this way was reducing the curve and overall clunkiness of the deck, and that meant cutting a 4 drop. Somewhat inspired by suicidesteve on the Legacy Goblins FB page saying on someone else's post about Smuggler's Copter that cutting a Ringleader could be correct, and I went looking for ways to compensate. Grenzo has been described as kind of "5th ringleader" before, and I took that somewhat literally. Between the 2 Copters and the Grenzo, I think that my list's grinding capabilities are not too adversely affected by shaving the ringleader (Which still has exactly 30 hits). It's just much easier to cast grenzo in a game without vial than ringleader, and I was sick of having hands that did nothing until turn 3. More two drops is a necessity for the deck. I also liked that I can reset my grenzo with my own karakas, so casting it early as a 2/2 is just fine. A niche synergy, but a synergy nonetheless. Cabal therapy was a last minute addition in the sideboard, but I liked the interaction with Copter, and wanted some additional game against some of the combo decks around, as well as stoneforge decks.

A change I want to make for the future: Earwig Squad. I'm definitely gonna try to find a place for it in the maindeck, I'm just not sure what to take out. Advice?
As far as my sideboard goes, I'm pretty happy with it. I'd love to play a second cage over the extraction but I don't have one and no one around me has one for trade. Same deal with mindbreak. Not sure what to replace for mindbreak x2 though.

On manabases: I had the option of playing the 4th port over the karakas or the 4th mountain. I decided against it because 1. I like being able to cast my spells, and 2. The wear side of wear//tear is very relevant in my meta so having extra white mana is quite handy. Also a lot of people dumping griselbrands into play, so that seems invaluable. Perhaps the 4th mountain is unnecessary; I'll defer to more experienced players in this matter. Also, there's the eyesore of only 3 Cavern of Souls, but I'm waiting for MM 2017 to reprint them.

That's just about all I have to say about my event! I had a fantastic first time here in legacy land, and was really happy to put a notch of Goblins' belt for once. Opened some decent prize packs (ballista, aethersworn harvester, and a fatal push all deece), and the deck felt more functional than all of my previous builds. Hope this was an enjoyable read!