What’s up everyone, new to the goblins deck. Haven’t as of yet gotten to play with the deck, the legacy tournament I play in is in Thursday’s so that’s when I’ll be taking this for a run.
I’ve been on Spanish Inquisition for the last 3-4 months, to pretty great success (surprising, given the field consists of almost exclusively t1 decks - 10-4 and 2 intentional draws when undefeated in final round to split prizes.
I’m looking to change things up and jam a creature deck, I’ll likely play a Classic list (lot of grindy decks around) - have we made any new leaps forward in the last year or two?
New Leaps Forward? Ummmm.... no. There just hasn't been any printings to revitalize the lists. Something classic and consistent will be your best bet.
I would recommend this super grindy decklist hanni posted a few days ago....
R/b Vial Goblins
Lands (22)
3 Bloodstained Mire
3 Wooded Foothills
2 Scalding Tarn
2 Arid Mesa
2 Badlands
6 Mountain
4 Wasteland
Creatures (28)
4 Goblin Lackey
4 Mogg War Marshal
4 Goblin Piledriver
4 Gempalm Incinerator
4 Goblin Warchief
4 Goblin Matron
4 Goblin Ringleader
Spells (10)
4 AEther Vial
4 Tarfire
2 Warren Weirding
Sideboard (15)
3 Thoughtseize
3 Cabal Therapy
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Blood Moon
2 Tuktuk Scrapper
2 Goblin Sharpshooter
1 Stingscourger
Ran Hanni's list at a 4 round swiss the other night.
Only thing I changed was -1 mwm +1 seige gang which felt right since I landed it a few times off lackey and got it late game where mwm would have had a lot smaller impact.
R1 i played against a buddy of mine I've been trying to convince him to brew something with worldgorger dragon. So he did. Tinfins worldgorger combo.
Lost 1-2
G1 I won because I pressured him and then he fizzled going for the combo and only able to draw once with grissel and not finding more action from there. In the sideboarded games I didn't see any hand hate or surgicals. Mulled down to 4 game 3 to try and find something to interact and it was just abysmal.
R2 vs Rug Delver
Won 2-0
G1 he didn't seem to have any dazes and he didn't stifle my lands. He deployed a T2 goose while I head a board of a couple 1/1s, warchief, and piledriver. He killed 2 piledrivers that game, I drew 3. I just attacked into his blockers and killed the delvers and I had him quickly dead.
G2 I blood moon t3 after he stifles my t2 mwm. then I kill his delver and his goyf and surgical his bolts to which he scoops.
R3 vs Grixis Control
Win 2-1
Killed 4 TNN in the 3 games which felt really good. I hated that I fueled his DRS with my fetches. all the removal felt really nice here. Stingscourger bouncing tasigur gave me a couple turns to build my board one game. And then the last game I blood mooned him out. I ran into the awkward situation on T3 where I had Gempalm, Warren Weirding, and blood moon, MWM in hand and only 1 goblin on the board staring down DRS and TNN. I didn't want to jam blood moon even though he was tapped down because I wanted to be able to cast my warren weirding to take care of his true name. I ended up putting out MWM, and on his turn he jammed another TNN, but since I had 4 land I got to cycle gempalm to kill drs and then WW to make him sac 1 of his true name. Ended up winning that game when I jammed the blood moon on T5, luckily i had the extra 2 mana to pay for his spell pierce.
R4 vs OmniSneak
Lost 1-2
Game 1 he runs over me with sneak attacking in both fatties
Game 2 I run over him with lackey dropping in warchief and 2 piledrivers to follow it up while he fumbles with cantrips to find pyroclasm.
Game 3 I connect with lackey to put in seige gang, he answers with pyroclasm, then gets me with sneak attack and both fatties the next turn.
I landed 1 thoughtseize in game 2 in which I took his through the breach over his emrakul in hand. I believe now the emrakul was right I won that game 2 because I denied him mana with double wasteland.
All in all 2-2 record with the list breaking my positive since eternal weekend streak. I'm gonna try it a couple more times before I give my final thoughts on the whole thing and go back to my list that has done me nothing but good. I missed having ports in the combo matchups. I hated having to fetch. I like having a bunch of piledrivers that they needed to answer. I loved killing True Name.
Well, your two losses were to combo, which is the elephant in the room. Figuring out how to improve those matchups, without sacrificing the fair matchups, is the key to making Goblins successful going forward.
I think the playset of Piledriver's is a step in the right direction. There are some matchups where they aren't great, but they are solid in most matchups and critical in the combo matchups.
I think my sideboard needs to be adjusted to fit 4 Thoughtseize and 4 Cabal Therapy. I'd probably cut the Stingscourger and 1 Goblin Sharpshooter to fit them in. The pinpoint discard is the best and most versatile option for addressing combo with the black splash, so a playset of each is certainly worth it.
I understand the frustration with fetching, but it's the best way to access the black mana for Weirding and discard without exposing the manabase to Wasteland.
I dislike Port in my list. I prefer the manabase stability against Wasteland decks. However, it's an unconventional way to build a Goblins manabase, so I'll just leave it at that.
I liked the numbers so I could clean cut removal for discard plus surgicals.
Played small local tournament and finally Goblins were the night menace
Finished 2nd place with 3-1
Round 1 - UR Delver: won 2-1
1st game on the play went pretty bad , took 2 price of progress for 6 and 8 damage, LOST
2nd Game, a bunch of basics, lots of fuel
3rd Game, lots of basics, lots of removal but no pressure, and everytime i played a creature died. Until MWM, Murderous Redcap and Ringleador come to turn the tide.
Round 2 - ANT: WON 2-1
1st game: on the play, played a mountain, and nothing else (the usual). LOST
2nd game: played mountain+lackey Go! Opponent thinking of white splash because he saw an Arid Mesa prepared for a 2nd turn win playing a infernal tutor for led. I attacked connected with lackey dropped a warchief played a MWM, fetched a badland for cabal therapy led (he had 2) and surprise surprise he had also 2 brainstorm... muahahahahaha
3rd game: weird very weird game, i had nothing because of mull to 5, my opponent also mulled to 5, i became land flood and Wasteland+Plus 2 Rishadan Port+ MWW to victory (only creature played). He never saw business spells even doing a lot of brainstorms.
Round 3 - Czech Pile: won 2-1
1st game: on the play, mull to 5, i started hard beating to 9 life, but... Hymn to Tourach twice emptying both times my refill of ringleader lost me the game. LOST
2nd game: grindy match, too grindy, half my deck in grave, until i top decked my blood moon with an empty board and my opponent tapped out.
3rd game: with 5min to play, ohhhh yeah...MWM, Ringleader and Murderous Redcap slaughtered!!! Im starting to like this guy a lot.
Round 4 - Turbo Depths: lost 1-2
1st game: on the play, mull to 5, played mountain Go. Played nothing else, Marit Lage on turn 1. Yahhh cool. LOST
2nd game: mountain+lackey Go. Opponent tries turn 1 Elesh, but i have surgical. WIN
3rd Game: Turn 1 Elesh, turn 2 Marit Lage
1) Was a great night, i won the die roll everytime and lost all the round 1 LOL.
2) lot of mulligans due to no lands or 1 land, and im playing 23 lands.
3) everytime i played Murderous Redcap changed the board state killing Shaman/Delver of Secrets, and putting my opponent in awkward position to use a removal but he would stay on table.
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I wouldn't normally bring discard against any deck that isn't combo. If your opponent has Bolt/Swords/Delver/DRS/Force etc then these can trade for a Thoughtseize or they can trade for a Goblin so why would you fill your deck with the one that can't be found by Ringleader? If a typical U/x deck can't be beat by grinding with Ringleader/Matron then Goblins has no place in the format anymore.
If your opponent is on a more controlling list where your own removal is basically never good (especially if they are on something like UW RIP Helm where they actually have inevitability in the matchup) then you have Goblins that are basically blanks off Ringleader anyway (WW/Tarfire etc) so boarding in discard is fine if you don't have anything else.
I think bringing in a small number of therapies (probably 2) is pretty reasonable against the UWx death/stoneblade decks. Stoneforge/equipment and TNN are really obvious names, and hitting multiples ever will probably just about win the game on the spot. Hitting snapcasters also really diminishes their ability to go toe-to-toe with you on cards. Obviously, you don't want to many because you want ringleader to be strong, but forcing them to respect the possibility of discard will help in those matchups. The fact that Therapy can be card advantage makes it soo much better than thoughtseize in these kinda matchups too. If they're straight UW stoneblade then you already want to board out some removal anyway, since the only valuable creature you can kill is Stoneforge.
Has anyone played Therapies in the MB? I’m thinking I’d like 2 Lol
My list:
4 Goblin Lackey
1 Goblin Chirurgeon
3 Mog War Marshall
2 Goblin Piledriver
1 Stingscourger
4 Goblin Warchief
4 Goblin Matron
3 Gempalm Incinerator
1 Goblin Sharpshooter
4 Goblin Ringleader
2 Murderous Redcap
1 Tuktuk Scraper
4 Aether Vial
3 Tarfire
5 Mountain
4 Rishadan Port
4 Wasteland
3 Cavern of Souls
3 Wooded Foothills
2 Arid Mesa
2 Badlands
Sideboard
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Surgical Extraction
1 Earwig Squad
1 Stingscourger
1 Tuktuk Scraper
1 Blood Moon
2 Pyrokinesis
2 Confusion in the Ranks
Cabal Therapy is usually against combo (4), yet there are a few spots when they migth be usefull.
Against Stoneforge decks 2 may be a good addition to remove the equipment before entering table because you already now what to take out, and the information is very important.
Against Ux with TNN may be good 2 to slow that TNN entering in table, but just for that.
Against the mirror 2 to clean the resources brought by ringleader or by Matron to break their engine.
This seems to be fair deck spots that may be good to bring in 2 cabal therapy, but yet i havent tried, i always bring them to combo.
Yes you right, Sandro did. I also did tried 2 main deck therapy, but unfortunately im not like Sandro in depths of the game, so it was a useless resource main deck most of the time, because i didn't know what to name. In sideboard for me its better because after game 1 i know what to name.
So, if you know a lot of the meta , and what cards the decks use just for 1 or 2 turn in play, main deck therapy is pretty good, but if you don't follow (like me) the meta so intensively it may be better in the sideboard.
This is just my thoughts.
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I’m not sure if I like Kommand here, But I’m willing to test 1-2 of them to find out.
I’m going to play 2 Therapy MB and 2 SB, maybe a singleton Thoughtseize MB as well. The Card advantage with Therapy and MWM just seems OP, in two matches I tested against Belcher it was single-handedly the only way for me to win - to the extent I mulled to 4 and still won the game because I found the Therapy.
So my list so far is looking like this:
Creatures: 28
4 Lackey
4 Piledriver (lot of Delver and TNN decks in my meta)
4 Matron
4 Ringleader
4 Warchief
3 War Marshal
3 Gempalm (these are good against SFM right??)
1 Sharpshooter (2 elves decks regularly)
1 Siege-Gang (try to clock the non-interactive opps)
Spells: 9
4 Aether Vial
3 Tarfire
2 Cabal Therapy
Lands: 23
4 Port
4 Wasteland
2 Cavern
4 Mountain (15 R sources, 9 B sources)
2 Badlands
4 Bloodstained
2 Arid Mesa
1 Foothills
SB:
2 Therapy
3 Thoughtseize (is 7 too many discard?)
3 Blood Moon (this is just a house against Uxx decks right?)
2 Pyrokinesis (I feel like I want more of these TBH)
1 Stingscourger (not sure about this one)
1 Tuktuk (2-3 SFM decks, do I need 2?)
2 Mindbreak Trap (storm decks are always popular)
1 Surgical Extraction (?)
Gempalm Incinerator: is a power house in creature matchups.
Blood Moon: To powerfull to decks that run no basic lands or too few (BUG Delver, Lands,...).
Tuktuk: i prefer always to have 1 main, and 1 side, because there are always equipments, and many of the fair decks after sideboard have needle to stop our Vials.
You dont have no way to deal with grave (Bx Reanimator, Turbo Depths, Dredge).
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My only answer to GY strategies is Surgical, for Reanimator I basically roll over to it - a stingscourger can potentially mop it up but there’s no way to really slam it hard without multiple Surgical, which aren’t great in many other MUs. Most of the time against Reanimator, we just lose if we don’t get their Reanimator spells out of hand ASAP or Surgical the Target.
Tuktuk is fine but outside of stoneBlade decks, no one else really runs equipment. I’m happier with it in the side against the majority of MUs, that’s just how my meta is set up.
@jonesypunk nice job getting 2nd at your event! I have some doubts about redcap, but since you've had good experiences I'd like to hear more. Essentially, I'm concerned that there are just not many instances where I want redcaps in my deck as another 4 drop over something like Krenko, who will just win games by himself. Obviously, there are some benefits for Redcap: It's resistant to spot removal, and it immediately impacts the board. However, I feel like it's just too low impact for its cost. 4 mana is a lot for a shock + a resilient 2/2. Especially since you're running chirurgeon I'd want at least a 1-1 split with krenko, or perhaps lightning crafter.
Sparksmith is also a card I've become more interested in lately, since he's such a good value creature and can be very threatening with an active warchief.
@Kodieyost There's a couple things I really like about your list: 4 warchiefs, 3 war marshal, 3 gempalm. I like the maindeck therapy plan as well, I think a big portion of the matches we lose we lose because of a failure to interact.
In your manabase, I feel like 3 ports and 3 caverns is better than 4-2. Maybe just a preference thing though, I value 3 caverns pretty highly because I recall my delver matchup getting significantly better when I went from 2 to 3.
Some suggestions: To complement the black splash and maindeck therapy, why not try Grenzo, Dungeon Warden over the 4th piledriver? Grabbing therapies bottom'd by ringleader is a nice bonus, since you can just flash them back immediately. Grenzo is also sometimes just nice as a big ol' dude to drop if there's a lot of -1/-1 effects in sideboards (which there appears to be right now).
In your board: 7 discard spells could possibly be too many, but it's pretty reasonable and should make your combo matchups a lot better overall. Blood moon hasn't seemed as impressive to me as usual, I've preferred Relic of Progenitus lately (it comes in in a lot of the same matchups, and has some nice utility against Goyf decks like RUG delver, which seems to be making a comeback). Czech pile has evolved enough in its manabase that blood moon isn't lights out by a long shot, so I've liked relic to mess with DRS, Snap, and K Command in particular. All of their value generation comes from the graveyard.
2 Pyro is standard at this point, seems right to me. I'd tick your surgical number up to 2 if you shift the blood moons to relics in order to help more against Lands/Loam decks. Also has some nice potential against stuff like sneak and show, since extracting show and tell really leaves them a lot of dead draws.
Mindbreak trap is okay, but with 7 discard spells, you probably would be better served using other cards. 1 Earwig Squad would do you a lot of good for Storm specifically, and I always play a squad if I'm playing black, it's just a powerful creature against a lot of the format. Decks relying on push and decay for removal also can't kill it! Your anti-equipment package seems too light, since if a jitte gets on a TNN, you're almost stone cold dead. I'd supplement the tuktuk scrapper with an abrade or a K command. Abrade is nice to have against delver to kill just about any non-gurmag creature, while also giving you outs against a pithing needle on vial. K command goes a bit bigger and really grind like hell against the creature and control decks. It can be a liability against Daze decks though. I've also found K command to be pretty good in combo matchups where I have a specific goblin I really want to resolve (ie squad against storm, since it's a bit likely to get therapied away early on, rebuying stingscourger is valuable against reanimator/lands, and sharpshooter against Elves).
Overall, the changes I would be inclined to make to your board would be:
2 Therapy
2 Thoughtseize
3 Relic of Progenitus
2 Pyrokinesis
1 Stingscourger
1 Earwig Squad
1 Tuktuk Scrapper
1 Abrade/K Command
2 Surgical
Hope this is helpful feedback!
Regarding the general state of the format: How is it for us right now? Based on all the metagame data I can find, it seems exceptionally fair, but extremely saturated with Deathrites, and I feel like the Grixis Delver matchup should be something we focus on really nailing. What's our best trump moving forward? A card I keep trying to sneak into my sideboards is Minister of Pain, have yet to cast it though. I love the idea of an instant speed way (via vial of course) to nuke a delver board of Pyromancer, tokens, unflipped delvers, and TNNs. Splash damage against Elves and D&T is also quite nice, D&T especially because it dodges Mom protection AND Thalia taxes. I've had my builds develop towards manabase resiliency, mostly just by playing a full 24 lands. I just wanna be able to cast my spells and have them resolve. The plethora of discard spells has me maindecking warping wail as well, I haven't actually played my current configuration yet though, so I'm unsure how necessary that is.
I also think Redcap is a good card right now as I wrote a couple of months ago.
Activating abilities is very hard in a meta full of spot removals and Redcap is resilient to that thanks to his etb effect. Moreover legacy is now dominated by 2 for 1 decks (4c, grixis) and Redcap is great in doing many things! Cc4 isn't a thing to underestimate, but in one single card we have:
-1x tarfire
-1x lava spike
-1x 2/2
-1x 1/1
not many card in the format are as effective as Redcap.
If he can etb with a chieftain on the field (not that easy, I know) is also way better (3+2 damage)
sgc is my favorite finisher since onslaught block, but consider how much mana he requires:
5 mana = 5 body
7 mana = 5 body + shoot 2
9 mana = 5 body + shoot 4
Red cap
4 mana = 3 body + shoot 3
Of course is a lot less powerful, but on the other hand it looks incredibly efficient to me
Jeff Hoogland on Gobbos...
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