Hey, help me out with this.

[kicks_422]

Well see, I've thinking about this for a long time, but I just can't come to a definite answer all by myself. Since The Source is the best Magic forum around, I thought of asking help here.

I have an unpowered T1 UBG Oath deck half built (missing the manabase, mostly). I was so convinced on building the deck, since the T1 meta here is mostly unpowered, with only a few decks sporting the whole 9. I've also been working on the deck the past few months, tweaking it to be able to have a fighting chance and actually WIN even against fully powered decks. Obviously, I won't be able to adapt the deck to T1.5, but I'll be able to use the FoW and the blue fetchlands and duals for other decks at least, but with much more investments needed to create more decks - which might not happen at all since I'm kind of strapped for money, so that Oath deck might be the only one that I actually end up building.

However, the aggro player in me has been bugging me a lot. I've been thinking of selling off what I have so far with the Oath deck to invest in Goblins. What I like about that move is that with the Goblins base, I can create so many decks in varying formats - adding Food Chain gives me FCG for T1... adding Leyline of the Voids, Chalice of the Voids, and Thorn of Amethyst gives me a solid disruption package for regular T1 Goblins... adding Incinerators and Vials gives me Vial Goblins for T1.5... adding Rite of Flames and Empty the Warrens gives me Goblin Storm for T1.X... and the list goes on.

As a college student that can only spare around $50 every 3 months for cards, doing both isn't an option. I don't plan on joining tournaments until I graduate though due to not having enough time to do so, but I'd like to have a deck ready as soon as possible. There are Vintage tournaments than Legacy ones here though, which is a shame since I like Legacy more.

So there's my problem. Continue with the T1 unpowered Oath deck, or sell off what I have to start investing in Goblins. Help please? Thanks for reading, at least.

[Silverdragon]

As far as viability goes unpowered Oath and unpowered Goblins are about equal in power so for Vintage go with whatever you like more. For Legacy there's quite a big difference as you can not port Oath at all and with Tropical Island and Force of Will in your cardpool the best bet is to play UG Thresh but then you still need Tarmogoyf. Goblins seems to be a lot cheaper especially as you don't need blue duals. Of course the drawback here is that right now Goblins are struggling to keep up with the Tarmogoyf infested meta so if you're seeing lots of Threshold at your Legacy tournaments I'd recommend to go with UG Thresh as it should be favoured in the mirror.
From a pure monetary point of view you have Tarmogoyf + Forces + blue duals + Oath + fatties against Goblin Lackey + Piledriver + red duals + Waste and Port (although I assume you are playing some Wastelands in Oath and UG Thresh too). The rest should mostly be smaller stuff in the 1-5$ range.
Hope I could help.

[zulander]

Do the tournaments around you allow proxies? I know most t1 tournaments do allow proxies.

Also, between the two I'd go with Oath due to FoW/thoughseize. Both decks can combo out fairly fast but the control elements will help you steal a game here or there. The one drawback with Oath however is that the only way it wins is if it combos out, whereas goblins can just go ground and pound without having to resolve a Food Chain.

[SpatulaOfTheAges]

It would not be wise to sell your duals, FoWs, and fetches for Goblins cards. The former are the most enduring investments you can make in this game, and the latter are relatively narrow.

[ClearSkies]

I agree with Spatula, Goblins may go down in price further because Goblins seemed like it is fading away. However, there is always a need for Fetchlands and blue-based Dual lands.

I wish I had a Vintage Tournament around here too. Even a Legacy one would be good too...

[kicks_422]

Well, thing is I don't have the fetches and duals yet... Only the FoW's. Yeah, I know that if I'm going to spend on cards, it's wiser to invest in blue duals and fetches... However, I think I'll be able to build a Goblin deck (which I could use for three formats, as a bonus) much faster than Oath.

Is investing in FoW's, blue duals and fetches sound better than being able to build a whole deck right away?

Oh, and unpowered Goblins seems to be winning more (and is much more fun) than unpowered Oath right now. It feels much less broken though, which is kind of the whole point for playing Eternal, right?

[SpatulaOfTheAges]

That's different. It really depends on how much cash you have to throw down. If you can afford all of one deck that uses any blue duals and fetches, and you have FoWs, I would go that route.

If you can only afford a complete deck that doesn't have those things, then fuck it, buy Goblins and try to use whatever winnings you get to buy duals/fetches.

[JACO]

As a college student that can only spare around $50 every 3 months for cards, doing both isn't an option...There are Vintage tournaments than Legacy ones here though, which is a shame since I like Legacy more.If you already have Forces, but not the manabase for BUG Oath (assuming you're not playing Mana Drain, as it seems cost prohibitive in your situation, and not totally necessary in Oath), here is what you are looking at, roughly, in terms of the remaining big cards for each deck:
3 Tropical Island - $25 each
2 Underground Sea - $31 each
3 Polluted Delta - $14 each
2 Flooded Strand - $12 each
Total - US$213 (give or take how you decide to build deck)

If you are looking at Goblins, and have nothing, here are the main costs you are looking at initially for Legacy:
4 Goblin Piledriver - $44/playset
4 Goblin Lackey - $32/playset
4 AEther Vial - $10/playset
4 Wasteland - $30/playset
4 Rishadan Port - $30/playset
3 Wooded Foothills - $11 each
3 Bloodstained Mire - $11 each
Total - US$212 (give or take how you decide to build deck)

Blue duals and fetchlands will certainly be a good investment, and highly playable in Legacy as well (in Fish, Threshold, Landstill, and any other control or aggro control variants you decide to build). Prices above are a rough guide based on MOTL and eBay, but you can see that you're spending roughly a similar amount of money in either case, based on what you said you already own, and you could probably translate some of your existing Oath cards (Forbidden Orchards, Oath of Druids, Akroma, Forces) to cash to help finance the Goblins deck.

Goblins is a decent choice for both formats, and if you can make some money winning tournaments while having fun playing, that seems like a pretty good combination.

[Media314r8]

@ Jaco: You seem to be forgetting the $140 for a set of goyfs. 4x port is hardly ever played in conjuction with 4 wastes, unless you plan on mulling into vial EVERY game with goblins.

[JACO]

@ Jaco: You seem to be forgetting the $140 for a set of goyfs. 4x port is hardly ever played in conjuction with 4 wastes, unless you plan on mulling into vial EVERY game with goblins.What's interesting about your conjecture is that 3, and usually 4 Rishadan Port, has been standard in Legacy Goblin lists for quite some time. Tarmogoyf is a questionable inclusion in the main or sideboard as well.

If you don't agree with me, perhaps you can check the most recent lists from the last 3 months of qualifying 'large tournaments' on The Source, or the Legacy portion of Worlds 2007 (http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/deck_search_result.asp), where ZERO Pros playing Goblins had Tarmogoyf in their sideboard or main deck. All but 2 of them had 4 Rishadan Ports main (of the other 2, 1 had 3 Ports main, and the other played with Ghost Quarter instead, so the same 8 land destruction cards were still present).

In any event, what I wrote is accurate enough to give the questioner the best answer thus far, unless anybody else is willing to contribute anything relevant to the conversation.

[SpatulaOfTheAges]

@ Jaco: You seem to be forgetting the $140 for a set of goyfs.

Important point.

JACO - Goyf in terms of any deck that's planning on running blue duals + fetches. Thus, Goyf's cost has to be taken into consideration for any deck you hope to run with blue in it.

And going back to the Historical Top 8 thread, he's actually correct, most lists ran 2-3 Ports. I had initially thought he was wrong, but the evidence suggests otherwise.