[Deck] GBu Trinket Goyf

[CynicalSquirrel]

I was looking at the combo summer thread in the Open Forum, and noticed a lot of people discussing how powerful Engineered Explosives currently is in the format. After seeing that, I immediately set out to make a deck that could use Explosives to its fullest potential. This is what I came up with:

// Lands
4 Bayou
1 Island
4 Forest
5 Swamp
2 Tropical Island
3 Polluted Delta
3 Wooded Foothills

// Creatures
4 Trinket Mage
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Dark Confidant
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Troll Ascetic

// Spells
2 Pithing Needle
1 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Duress
4 Cabal Therapy
2 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Engineered Explosives
3 Pernicious Deed

// Sideboard
SB: 4 Engineered Plague
SB: 2 Pithing Needle
SB: 1 Chalice of the Void
SB: 1 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 3 Diabolic Edict
SB: 4 Phyrexian Negator

I was originally going to make it more UB with a splash of green, but I ended up deciding the green was more powerful and there weren't enough good blue cards to make Force of Will worth it in the deck. It ended up being more of a GB Aggro list with a splash for Trinket Mage, which gives it a huge amount of versatility.

Card Explanations:
Mana Base - The mana base is pretty stable for a three color deck. The blue splash should never really be a problem with the six fetchlands, and with 10 basics plus the Birds of Paradise Wasteland won't be a huge problem either.

Trinket Mage - Probably the most important card in the deck, and worth splashing for. Can search for Top to lower the damage from Confidant, Engineered Explosives to nuke Goblin tokens or just regular Goblins, plus Chalice for 0 in the SB against LED decks and Tormod's Crypt against graveyard reliant decks. He also carries a Jitte and get be saced to Therapy.

Birds of Paradise - It looks out of place in such a low curve deck, but I really want the turn two Troll or Trinket Mage, and even a turn 2 Deed occasionally. Plus it can get additional sunburst on Engineered Explosives if I ever need to set it to 4 for some reason.

Dark Confidant - Nothing in the deck costs over three, and there's two Jittes and the Top for any life issues. It's pretty safe to say Bob is not a big risk in this deck, and the extra card drawing is huge.

Tarmogoyf - I've had a love affair with this card recently, because he's just so good. With the Deeds and Explosives plus the discard and fetchlands, it's pretty realistic that he can be a 4/5 or even 5/6 pretty early in the game. It's nice to get a fatty that doesn't kill you when topped with Confidant.

Troll Ascetic - Not much explanation needed. The double green isn't a big issue with Birds, and he's nuts with a Jitte on him. Plus he's nearly impossible to kill and can regenerate if you need to Deed with him out.

Pithing Needle - Standard Trinket Mage target. Such a versatile hoser that I'm running two if I ever want to tutor for another one.

Duress/Cabal Therapy - More combo hate. They also will pump up your Tarmogoyf by 2 or even 3 with Therapy a lot of the time, while disrupting your opponent.

Umezawa's Jitte - I wanted another card for aggro decks, and this is a pretty simple choice. The "oops I win" aspect the card has against aggro makes it worthy of a couple slots, and it's not really dead in any matchup.

Engineered Explosives/Pernicious Deed - These are really the two cards that make the deck strong, as they can just randomly sweep the board against any number of decks. Explosives will almost always get at least 3 counters if necessary, and sometimes even 4 or 5 if you ever need it. Most of the time it will just be taking out a bunch of Empty the Warrens tokens and/or Moxen. Both of these cards have a ton of versatility, which is really what this deck is about.

Sideboard:

Engineered Plague - Obvious choice against Goblins, which could be a problem matchup.

Diabolic Edict - This is just another card for any kind of aggro based decks.

Chalice of the Void - This hurts my deck a lot which is why it's in the SB. Most of the time I'll bring it in if I want to Chalice for 0 against a combo deck running LEDs and Moxen.

Tormod's Crypt - I don't think I need a ton of graveyard hate, so just one will probably work. I can find it with Trinket Mage and use it against Thresh or Loam decks.

Phyrexian Negator - Comes in against control and combo most of the time. He can come down turn 2 off a Birds and end the game really fast.

I'm hoping to get testing done soon, but I wanted to post the list first and see if it can be refined. I'm hoping the deck has a strong combo matchup and winnable aggro and control matchups, which doesn't necessarily seem out of the question.

[iOWN]

I would cut down some Pernicious Deeds to max out the Explosives. Engineered Explosives has better synergy with Confidant and doesn't force you to clear your own board.

You seem to be running a generous amount of basics. If you fear Wasteland, cut some basics and run two more Fetches. Also, I would run Brainstorm here. It's good with Goyf (you don't have any instants right now) and offers more consistancy. Other than that, this deck looks good.

[Galroth]

While I think this deck nees ALOT of tweaks 'n' testing, I think your deck is an excellent idea for the current meta (on whole). It has an answer to just about everything and a reasonable method of findnig those answers. Good luck Squirrel. Hope to see this turn into something that puts up some numbers!

[Nihil Credo]

Put in one or two artifact lands, to be fetched with Trinket Mage. Probably a green or black one, but you might also consider a Darksteel Citadel, since you'll be wanting to fetch a land when facing mana denial strategies.

Troll Ascetic is an expensive card. I'd go down to a 3-of, possibly with a fourth in the board against decks with a lot of sweepers.

A single AEther Vial is probably worth a slot, since it's a beating against all the blue-based control or aggro-control decks around.

With 26 mana sources in the deck, Chainer's Edict is probably better than Diabolic in the SB: your chances of flashbacking it are a lot higher than zero.

Ghastly Demise should be worth consideration as a faux-StP, although I'm not sure what I'd cut for it.

[dre4m]

If your curve tops at 3, it is a very bad idea to maindeck Pernicious Deed. That being said, why not just put Trinket Mage in Threshold and sacrifice discard for countermagic?

[CynicalSquirrel]

I've already cut Deed and tinkered with the mana base a bit and added 4 Brainstorms.

The reason I'm not just adding Trinket Mage to Thresh is that I prefer discard over countermagic right now in the current metagame, and wanted to try a vaguely similar deck with a more aggro approach.

[Maveric78f]

I don't get the interest of the trinket concept in such a deck. Trinket is good only when you can abuse it, i.e. with a chalice based deck or with a way to recur it (blinking it, or playing it with cavern harpy). Here, you have no killer card to search for. EE is cool but it's not enough. Needle and top are almost completely useless in late game. Moreover, in the meta, the best play of EE is @2 and your best cards are 2CC (jitte, goyf and confidant).

I need to mention too the stupidity of deed in a deck with that much low CC permanents.

However the deck is based on a good idea (even if it's common these days) : tarmogoyf+discard. This is fairly sufficient to justify the use of tarmogoyf. No need to include crappy artifacts or enchantments.

Autoinclude :
4*confidant
4*tarmogoyf
4*duress
4*brainstorm

You need 4 more discard spells. I would prefer hymn than cabal therapy because you count a lot on your creatures.

I love to play 4*daze too in discard decks. The opponent needs to play fast because of discard and daze is fully effective in such conditions.

You need 4 more big threats or 8 small such as mongoose or werebear or ascetic troll or river boa. That mainly a question of curve and of the including of equipments or not in the build. I don't like to be too much reliant on the grave neither and 2 green mana could be difficult to obtain, so I would go for something like 3*boa + 3*werebear + 2*jitte.

Some more cantips are good too : 4*serum visions.

And as a board sweeper 4*EE is the best I think.

Creatures (14) :
4*confidant
4*tarmogoyf
3*boa
3*werebear

Sorceries (12) :
4*duress
4*hymn
4*serum visions

Instants (8 ) :
4*daze
4*brainstorm

Artifacts (6) :
2*jitte
4*EE

3*metagame slots (sweepers, additionnal creatures, random slots such as counterbalance, bounce, additionnal jittes, ...)

Lands (17) :
4*polluted delta
2*bloodstained mire
1*flooded strand
3*underground see
2*bayou
2*tropical island
1*island
2*swamp

SB : even less defined that the MD metagame slots.

[Zilla]

I have to agree that Trinket Mage seems questionable. The reason people were saying that Engineered Explosives was very strong in the current format is because it answers a turn 1 EtW for 8 or more, often before their goblins get an attack phase. Trinket Mage won't hit play until turn 3, and Explosives won't get activated until turn 4, at which point you'll already be dead.

Basically Trinket Mage is too slow in this format unless you're running Chrome Mox and/or Ancient Tomb.

[264505]

@maveric-I dont like the idea of using a manabase with 17 lands, im sure thresh runs sumewhere around there but you have about 4 less dig spells and a creature curve situated at 2. Not hitting land #2 in the first couple turns=losing the game. I also thing with the largely green creature base, a basic forest would go a long way to not losing you games due to color screw. Ss for the metagame slots, FoW might want to get considered as you do have the bare minimum blue for FoW inclusion.

[CynicalSquirrel]

Now that I think about it Trinket Mage does seem pretty slow. I'll try working on the deck later with some of Maveric's suggestions. I just kind of threw it together in a hurry the first time.

[Mordenkain]

I must agree Maveric78f, playing Trinket Mage in this deck seems a bit, well, suboptimal. Playing Tarmogoyf + Discard is good synergy, and I think that strategy should be persued more.
Playing b/g you should maybe try to use Pernecious Deed. Im not so sure it fits in here, but it's really a strong card. Also, its an enchantment for Goyf, so thats also a bonus.
Furthermore, playing a strategy that puts cards in graveyard has natural synergy with threshold cards, so that should be included too.
As Maveric78f pointed out, using cantrips are also very nice with Goyf, but since we play discard too, I don't think we need to use sorcery cantrips to feed Goyf. Brainstorm is autoinclude and we should use at least 4 more cantrips. We could use Portent or Serum Visions but I would use (laugh if you want) Mental Note. It puts a instant in your graveyard, plus 2 other cards, that also fuels Goyf and threshold creatures.
Lets look at how I would do this:

4 Dark Confidant (This card is super good in these kind of decks)
4 Tarmogoyf (Duh...)
4 Nimble Mongoose (Best threshold creature ever printed, period.)
3 Werebear
15

4 Duress
4 Hymn to Tourach/Cabal Theraphy
4 Brainstorm
4 Mental Note
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
3 Pernecious Deed
27

18 Lands (Fetches, duals, abit of basics, etc.)

Maybe the list needs more lands, maybe cutting a Daze and/or Mental Note. Anyways, thats how I would do it.

- Mordenkain

[iOWN]

I disagree that Trinket Mage isn't worth it. Of course it is slow against combo. All creatures are. Trinket Mage is good in any aggro (a little slow against Goblins also, but having a blocker and a sweeper in one card is fantastic), control (Sensei's Divining Top keeps you finding the cards you need), or aggro-control match-up. That means it is great around roughly 80% of the field, or 60% if you exclude Goblins.

He is also mildly useful against combo, seeing as you have eight early game discard cards, which does a job of slowing them down significantly. In this case you'll need all the bodies you can get to put pressure on them, and Trinket Mage gives a decent one and follows itself up with an EE or Chalice.

[Maveric78f]

I agree that an instant cantrip may be better. The problem is that your cantrips are most of all here to guarantee that you touch your second land by the second turn. The best for that (even better than brainstorm) are serum vision and portent and are sorceries. You already play 8 instant cards (daze and brainstorm) and even more if you realize that deed is definitely not the board sweeper you need.

And I don't like being too much dependant on my grave, that's why I did not want to play more than 4 thresh creatures. As I wanted jitte to deal with creatures, I removed the "best one" : mongoose.

Playing 8*discard + 8*counterspell is really really disruptive. We are not anymore in a flash metagame. Gob is gonna be the big threat soon and you may want better anti aggro cards. FoW does not enter in my plans for this deck because I dont want to play more than 15 blue cards and I don't want to make card disadvantage. Daze is far better as a 1for1 counterspell very synergic with hymn and duress. The loss of tempo of daze is not a big deal as our curve is at 2.

[TheInfamousBearAssassin]

Here's a list I've been testing for a few days;


Mana (19)
1 Vault of Whispers
1 Tree of Tales
4 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand
3 Underground Sea
1 Island
3 Tropical Island
1 Bayou
4 Chrome Mox

Creatures: (17)
4 Trinket Mage
3 Psychatog
4 Dark Confidant
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Trygon Predator

Card Manipulation (7):
4 Brainstorm
3 Sensei's Divining Top

Control Elements (16):
2 Pithing Needle
2 Engineered Explosives
3 Counterbalance
4 Force of Will
2 Umezawa's Jitte
3 Daze

Additional Trinket Targets: (1)
1 Bonesplitter

Sideboard
2 Tormod's Crypt
4 Engineered Plague
3 Diabolic Edict
3 Stifle
3 Krosan Grip


Card choices:

Chrome Mox is absolutely necessary in this deck, because otherwise you're as slow as balls. You want to be able to get the Counterbalance-Top lock online as fast as possible.

Dark Confidant & Trinket Mage provide card advantage beats.

Psychatog and Tarmogoyf provide really huge beats.

Trygon Predator is an additional evasive beater that serves as an answer to numerous potential problems, like Solitary Confinement, Jitte, Vial, etc., etc..

Jitte is a powerful answer to creature-based decks and gives you additional speed.

Bonesplitter lets even your wimpiest guys become threats and is tutorable, unlike Jitte.

Engineered Explosives and Pithing Needle should deal with the vast majority of cards you have to worry about. If not, grab some land or a Top and find another answer.

Counterbalance-Top is an amazingly strong soft lock where all the cards happen to be good by themselves.

[Bane of the Living]

Trygon Predator is an additional evasive beater that serves as an answer to numerous potential problems, like Solitary Confinement, Jitte, Vial, etc., etc..


While I agree Trygon is worthy of some spots, he's got nothing on Solitary Confinement.

Can Tog ever get big enough to be worth it? You dont have any madness friendly cards for him. What about Shadowmage Infiltrator or Negator?

[TheInfamousBearAssassin]

Tog gets decent sized, although not excessively large. But the fact that he's impossible to take down in creature combat is what makes me want to run him more.