[Deck] Food Chain Goblins

[Eseph]

Hi, As I have virtually no posts on this site I may as well introduce myself right off the bat. I post primarily on MTGSalvation, but I do read through plenty of threads on here. I'm tossing this list up with as much info as I can in order to try and get some more interest. I've been having some pretty strong success with the list on MWS. But being nowhere near a regular legacy scene there isn't much in the way of tournament results to back it up. I apologize if my deck listings look odd, I'm unfamiliar with your system for including them. Or rather to used to salvations. Anyways:


A bit of deck history:
At least so far as I'm concerned anyways. This deck comes from a now seemingly defunct Type 1 deck of the same name. One which I was always fond of playing due to it's relatively low cost, and ease in proxying. The deck used Goblin Recruiter to build a stack of goblins to then chew threw using Food Chain as a mana source and Goblin Ringleader as it's in-set draw engine.
For reference sake my list looked a little like this:


Mana:
4x Taiga
4x Wooded Foothills
6x Mountain
3x Wasteland
2x Elvish Spirit-Guide
1x Sol Ring
1x Mana Crypt
1x Lotus Petal

Goblins:
4x Goblin Lackey
2x Skirk Prospector
4x Goblin Recruiter
4x Goblin Piledriver
1x Goblin Tinkerer
4x Goblin Warchief
3x Gempalm Incinerator
2x Goblin Sharpshooter
2x Goblin Matron
1x Zo-Zu, the Punisher
4x Goblin Ringleader
2x Siege-Gang Commander

Other:
4x Food Chain

Changes:
Now of course Goblin Recruiter is banned from Legacy, both for it's use in Goblins as well as with Goblin Charbelcher. So we've had to find ourselves a new engine to run-off of. And I think I've found a solid one in Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker. Now his standard use is as a 1-2 of in Vial Goblins as an excellent tech creature. But to get a full use from him he must be included as a 4-of, and his strengths really come out in this list. But I'll get into some of them later on. For now with Kiki as our engine the deck plays out a little differently. Though it's still capable of some very strong draws, we aren't capable of the same kind of guaranteed draws that Recruiter brought.

Card Selection:
I'll go through the card selection as I saw it starting from the creatures into the mana base, numbers in both areas still need tweaking to find the optimal list hidden within. But as I said I have been generating a decent amount of success with it as is.

The Creatures: (In reverse order of cost, as it lets me highlight Kiki-Jiki to begin with)
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
All on his own he's not much of a creature, 5 cost, meagre 2/2 body. But with virtually any other goblin he can generate a considerable amount of card advantage or board position. With a full compliment in the deck we tend to draw into multiples of him. But more often than not that's a good thing. Between having a very large target painted on his head, and being able to pitch him to food chain for large sums of mana only to replay him and reuse his ability... We get our money's worth. Even without Food Chain he provides us with one of our 3rd turn win scenarios, granted it's easy enough to disrupt (requires: 2 lands, Lackey, Kiki, and Piledriver).

Siege-Gang Commander
Another staple goblin. He Generates a large board position and provides an alternative means of damage. He also provides a large boost both to the aggro win through Piledrivers/Turning Sideways. And can become 5+ mana bost through food chain if necessary. And like his 5 cost bretheren he also provides us with a turn 3 win option (same requirements as previous substituting Siege for Kiki).

Lightning Crafter
Probably the least common choice in this deck this is the card that really put it over the top for me. And his part in the deck is the way I find myself going more often than not. Like Kiki-Jiki Lightning crafter can come in, and more or less duplicate a Ringleader or Matron (Champion then remove to food chain). With a Warchief out he can do so and take out a threat or get some extra damage in. But the real prize with this card is the win condition it provides. Someone else somewhere has to have noticed the way it works, but I never came accross it looking around. So here goes; All it takes is a Kiki-Jiki + a Goblin Sharpshooter/Skirk Prospector/Food Chain + one other goblin in play (or have the crafter in play and any of those missing, doesn't really matter).
You play the Lightning Crafter championing the random goblin, the copy the Crafter with Kiki, and have the duplicate champion Kiki. Then either ping them for 3 and remove it to Food Chain/Prospector, or ping them for 1 with a Sharpshooter and have the Crafter deal 3 damage to itself. Kiki-Jiki returns untapped, and the process repeats.

Goblin Ringleader
Our primary draw engine and more or less what makes the deck go. Plays nice with Kiki-Jiki, haste makes it a resonable play following a Piledriver, and can be reduced so far as a 1 cost with Warchief.

Gempalm Incinerator
The decks Primary removal card, but not the only one to deal damage. Subs in as a mana jump with food chain in a pinch. And still cycles away to dig when in dire straits. Excellent for clearing a chump to help a lackey get through.

Goblin Matron
Our secondary draw card, though more often than not used to find our pirmary (Ringleader) as it is the perfect cost to turn into one with food chain. It reduces well with Warchief, and it can ramp mana if necessary just by finding more matrons. It finds whatever happens to be missing from the equation regardless of what kind fo win you're going for.

Goblin Sharpshooter
Another of the big damage dealers, I'm sort of on the fence for his inclusion, though he has yet to really let me down. He does a number on any elf strategy, and helps a fair amount against Ichorid. His part in the combo with Lightning Crafter isn't the most necessary, but combined with Siege-Gang Commander he does provide an additional out.

Goblin Warchief
As far as auto-includes go, this one is right up there. He does everything for the deck, enables the combos to go by more smoothlty. And ramps out goblins for the aggro, or when missing a food chain.

Goblin Piledriver
Our primary beater when it comes to Aggro. Still one of the best 2 drop goblins in existence, he may not be essential to a combo win, but he still provides an aggro out. And there's nothing to stop us from pulling out an aggro attack through food chain.

Goblin Lackey
He enables just about every other goblin, what more really needs to be said.

Skirk Prospector
Helps build into 3-4 mana on turn 2, and provides a combo piece for lightning crafter. He's in as a 3 of in my current list, though I'm unsure whether to increase or drop that number.

Food Chain
Primary combo piece and mana accelerant. Allows for explosive finishes, and gives the deck a namesake...

Mana Sources: Aside from the required (Mountains, Taiga, Wooded Foothills), the only important cards to note are:
Ancient Tomb
The damage can be annoying, but it's easy enough to work around. And the benefits are outstanding. The deck has a much higher curve than your average goblins list. So having access to more mana, specifically 3 mana on turn 2 tends to be a large aid.

Chrome Mox
This one I'm unsure of. I run it as a 2 of currently, because I can't stand to see them come up after the first turn or 2, and hate drawing more than 1. But the mana boost can be a strong aid. Maybe a one time use spell like Lotus Petal, or Simian Spirit Guide might be a better option.

All in all that gives us a list that looks like this:



Craft Dinner
Mana:
8x Mountain
4x Taiga
4x Wooded Foothills
3x Ancient Tomb
2x Chrome Mox

Goblins:
4x Goblin Lackey
3x Skirk Prospector
4x Goblin Piledriver
3x Gempalm Incinerator
4x Goblin Matron
1x Goblin Sharpshooter
4x Goblin Warchief
2x Lightning Crafter
4x Goblin Ringleader
4x Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
2x Siege-Gang Commander

Other:
4x Food Chain

Sideboard: (as it stands)
4x Blood Moon
4x Krosan Grip
3x Goblin King
2x Zo-Zu, the Punisher
2x Vexing Shusher


The sideboard is a temporary thing, as I'm still working out the best cards for it. I find the Blood Moons help when Food Chain comboing is not an option. And the decks only really troublesome matches tend to be 43 land and Enchantress variants. The deck is capable of winning by turn 2 (though rarely), and has many different outs to win on turn 3 or shortly after. Either through a Lackey, or Food Chain. And just as often after the attack as during.

I don't have any specific matchup analysis, as testing online tends to find me playing against everything under the sun. But what I have found is that the deck has a relatively easy ride vs Counterbalance, as the core cost of the deck is at 3. It has an excellent mirror (vs Vial Goblins) and can find it's way out of most tight spots. I will be adding Matchup standings as/when I can, but for now I would love any and all input anyone can give me on the list. Even if it's just what you think of it. So long as I can pull something constructive from it then you have my thanks. Also if anyone was interested in either helping me test this, or simply just testing the list I would be very grateful.

[Nihil Credo]

This looks pretty interesting. I have actually seen once a singleton Lightning Crafter being put to good use as a Sharpshooter replacement.

I'm no Goblins expert, so I can't provide comprehensive deck analysis, but one thing jumps up when I look at the list: shouldn't you be playing 4 Matrons? Regular Goblins can't get enough of that card, and it seems it should apply twice to a combo-oriented build. Both Food Chain and the KJ-Crafter combo have no better friends.

[rufus]

I was looking at this sort of thing when 'Champion' came out - didn't get very far though:
http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7851

[Eseph]

You're absolutely right on the Matron front. I think it started as 4x prospector 4x matron, and they both dropped to 3 to bring in Crafters. But with Food Chain there really is no reason not to run a full compliment, so I think it's going to be -1 Sharpshooter, +1 Matron. I can probably relegate the second shooter to a board position. As I've not yet borken the habbit of needing 2x shooter for safety's sake. Though in this deck it may not be necessary, we'll see.

As for the Champions list, I saw that when I searched for existing food chain lists. And I believe someone on MWS talked to me about it when I was first getting underway on testing this one. To me the biggest advantage Food Chain has always has is with Ringleaders, and keeping as many non-goblin cards out of the deck is of the highest priority. Though I do like the idea of using chain to help just the chalice/trinisphere range.

Edit: Side note, I think I'm calling the deck "Craft Dinner"... just gives it a bit of variety from the standard.

[rufus]

Have you tried Imperial Recruiter? I know it's not a goblin, but it's hugely versatile for you otherwise.

Changeling Titan and Changeling Berserker could be interesting for you as well.

Thorn of Amethyst, Trinisphere, Magus of the Moon, SSG, ESG...

I think that Aether Vial is going to be better than Vexing Shusher in this sort of deck.

[raharu]

Shusher doesn't ensure Food Chain's resolution. I'd recomend running some number of both, but with the Shushers in the Side, perhaps.

[toodumbtopost]

I would just like to point out that for the infinite with kiki and lightning crafter you don't need a random goblin on the table. You can go off entirely with the champion trigger on the stack. :)

[Rush]

Hi there. I played this deck for several years. I actually used to have a Primer for this deck on several forums. Long story short, this deck doesn't belong in Legacy for a reason. The only reason the deck ever did well was, in the hands of an expert player, you could choose to play the deck in any of the three types (Combo, Control, or Aggro) depending on the deck type your playing against. It was really hard to run mainly because you had to figure out what kind of deck you were playing against in the first turn or you could seriously screw yourself. That being said, without being able to actually go Combo or Control (well, you can do Control, but in Vintage, the point was to only play Control vs. Blue and Artifact based decks). I actually tried this deck in Legacy, but it didn't work at all. I like the idea of the Combo in here, but I just don't have faith in it without the Recruiter. It was banned for a reason, you know.

[DeathwingZERO]

In testing (if there was any), have you noticed any really distinct differences in the overall speed of this deck, vs say it's main Goblin counterpart of Vial-Goblins? The biggest reason the deck was axed in Legacy (which if I recall correctly is where it started) was due to Recruiter going away, thus killing off the combo aspect entirely. A lot of people went straight to Vial just because it cheats in the same way Food Chain does, and requires little investment.

Also, how often have you drawn into hands that were just bad? I know a lot of times with the 1.5/pre Legacy version that you pretty much need to draw into Food Chain, Recruiter, and mana sources to combo off, otherwise you were just a bad aggro deck. Does it still have these same problems, mulligans needing to happen more often than they should, for instance?

[toodumbtopost]

If the manabase can support it I would be strongly tempted to run black in this version for earwig squad replacing the incinerators. I mean incinerator is decent against goyfs and such but isnt your plan against dudes to attack them with half of your deck on turn 4? I mean either that or run vial but it just seems like incinerator is kind of dead most of the time.

[Eseph]

Bah, I had most of this response done before my laptop battery fell out... anyways:

Good call on not needing a random dude, I hadn't caught that, but it works perfectly. Adn simplifies the combo down a fair bit.

As for Shusher vs Vial, I only run the shushers because they create a similar use against counterspells, and they are still goblins so they can be fetched through ringleader and matron. Plus they keep the goblin count up. They just seem more usefull if I keep Food Chain in. The problem with vial in this list is the time it takes to build into it. There is very little below 3 cost, with Ancient Tomb it's easy enough to make that jump on mana alone. Granted I can see where Vial would be useful, and instant speed championing would be pretty fun. There was a time when the board for this list was a transformational one (4x Port, 4x Vial, 4x Fanatic, 3x Wasteland). But it just took away my ability to respond to decks like Enchantress. Of the cards in the current board only Krosan Grip should never really leave it. Maybe Zo-Zu, meta dependantly.

As far as bad hands are concerned... Well they come up. But they come up only slightly more than a regular goblins deck gets them, and I think that's a tuning issue more than anything else. This is what makes me want to try running a fourth Ancient Tomb, just for that extra nudge over the gap. So long as you've enough mana the draws tend to work themselves out, as the higher cost cards are all relatively strong plays.

And as to splashing Black. That one I've been looking at myself. Food Chain certainly helps support the idea, but I don't know that Earwig Squad would be my first choice. It's easily the most useful of the black goblins (Wort not really fiting for this decks purposes), but do I really want to up the number of 5 cost creatures? I understand prowl offers a large advantage to playing it sooner. And with a food chain on table it can provide some serious mana (after the swing only). But dropping the Gempalms seems like it would only worsen those sometimes bad draws, and replacing them with another 5 cost creature... I guess testing would tell.

[Rush]

If you add Black, you also get Boggart Harbinger and an added Control cards in your side (Duress/Thoughtsieze). The added Control cards would be great going up against Control based decks.