[Deck] Vial Goblins

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kinda

Why do people run prospector? Outside of the extremely rare combo with sharpshooter it seems low value compared to other options like tarfire or another fatty goblin or something.

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I started writing about Skirk Prospector a while back, since I think it's one of the most misunderstood/underrated cards in the deck.
The text is not finished, but this is what I've got so far. :)

Skirk Prospector

Skirk Prospector is also one of the most flexible cards in the deck. This inconspicuous little goblin adds a lot of utility to the deck, and serves many important functions. It is also one of the most misunderstood and underrated cards in Magic. Today I aim to fix that.
Before we proceed further I want to make sure everyone is onboard with what the card does, so here is its text in full:

“Skirk Prospector [R]

Creature - Goblin

Sacrifice a Goblin: Add [R] to your mana pool.

1/1”

Essentially, Skirk Prospector plays three different roles; a Goblin creature, a sacrifice outlet, and a mana producer.

A Goblin Creature

Being a 1/1, its stats are not particularly impressive. In a synergistic deck such as Goblins however, synergy is often more important than raw power. Below are a list of things you can do (aside from regular attacking and blocking) with a 1/1 Goblin creature.

Increase the goblin count for Gempalm Incinerator.
Buff an attacking Goblin Piledriver.
Enable Prowl for Earwig Squad.

A Sacrifice Outlet

• The ability to sacrifice creatures is renowned Magic player Sam Black’s favorite mechanic for a reason. In this deck, as well as in Legacy in general, it can be a very powerful tool - if you know how to use it.
• Sacrifice an attacking or blocking creature, thereby preventing an opposing creature from dealing combat damage. This is one of your most important tools against decks with Umezawa’s Jitte, Griselbrand, or Batterskull etc. and mastering it will go a long way towards improving these matchups.
• Untap Goblin Sharpshooter. The ability to combo people with Skirk Prospector + Goblin Sharpshooters is very powerful. It can kill people out of nowhere, and serves as an important out to cards like Moat, Ensnaring Bridge, and Glacial Chasm (they often have to sacrifice it and then Loam it back).
• Sacrifice a Mogg War Marshal on your opponent’s end step in order for both tokens to be free of summoning sickness on your turn.
• Get rid of opposing copies of Bridge from Below.
• Get a creature in the graveyard for symmetrical reanimation effects such as Exhume or Living End.
• Decrease your goblin/creature count for when you want to use Goblin Sparksmith, the third mode on Rakdos Charm, or in the mirror when your opponent has a Gempalm Incinerator of their own for one of your larger creatures.
• Prevent your creatures from being put on the bottom of your library with a Terminus in order to make a follow-up Grenzo, Dungeon Warden hit the card you need that was already there.
• Prevent your creatures from being exiled by Swords to Plowshares to play around Wasteland Strangler.

Good post! I'm still not sure if I'm sold but I'm starting to warm up to blood pet :smile: .

^
To add to the post on Prospector:
- If you have one or more Warchiefs in play you can instantly turn Matron or Ringleader into any 1R Goblin in your deck, with Haste. A surprise Piledriver is the first thing that comes to mind, but in general Prospector plus Warchief allows many otherwise impossible tempo plays. If nothing else, Prospector naturally ramps into Warchief on turn two to set up a potential turn three kill.
- Prospector plus Siege-Gang Commander reads "Sacrifice three Goblins: deal 2 damage". Add Sharpshooter to replace the 2 with a 5.
- Prospector plus Krenko gives you an insane amount of red mana to cast all the Goblins you want, sometimes instantly setting up a perfect board if you're lucky enough to run hot off Ringleaders.
- Much less impressive than Krenko, but you can sac Kiki-Jiki tokens for mana after they've served their purposes.
- It's a one-drop in a deck that has a high curve, and provides extra mana to feed that curve in a pinch.

Prospector opens up a lot of versatility for the deck, even as a one of.

Hey guys, I just wanted to report an interesting tidbit of testing I've found,

You know that RB Reanimator deck that's so scary? I've just tested about 8 postboard games with a friend of mine, and didn't drop a single one (though I definitely got lucky in one of them with a topdecked karakas to bounce a Iona naming red on the last possible turn). Granted, I have a sideboard set up to beat Reanimator, as I boarded in 10 cards, but most of it isn't especially narrow and all have purposes in other matchups. The deck is inconsistent, and has a sort of "beggars can't be choosers" attitude in terms of what they put into play. Frequently, you just have to race a 5/6 flier or a 6/4 on the ground, which too difficult.
*Disclaimer: He wasn't boarding, but even if he was, I don't think it would have changed that much. A couple of abrupt decays aren't that scary simply because it's very easy to stop them from casting it with wasteland and port, and their deck is already extremely mana light. The only especially powerful sideboard card they have is collective brutality, which admittedly is a beating a lot of situations.

I boarded like this;
+3 Thalia, +2 Wear//Tear (the weakest hate, but blows up animate dead and potentially sided sneak attacks), +2 Grafdigger's Cage (the most narrow hate, but still good against a decent number of decks), +1 Warping Wail, +1 Surgical Extraction, +1 Mindbreak Trap (the only card that really stops their nut draw). I should have boarded a pithing needle in too to name griselbrand, probably removing one of the Wear//Tears.

-3 Ringleader -2 Gempalm -1 Tarfire, -1 Pyrokinesis, -1 Copter (leaving one in just to block a flier, or get an extra turn through Iona) -1 Sharpshooter, -1 Matron (unsure about this, but she's usually too slow)

In short, the deck isn't nearly as terrible for us as I had been imagining. I will say that Stingscourger isn't as good as it normally is against "dump stupid creature into play.dek", simply because they will either unmask/thoughtseize it, or it'll get discarded to Sire of Insanity before you cast it (though getting it in the graveyard is nice, since it essentially turns off Exhume). You never will get time to get a vial to 2 unless you're already winning. I wish I had room for a second one in the 75 just to have as an out once the 1st one gets taken or killed, but I think Karakas pulls that weight even better.

EDIT: I've also just tested 15-20 games against a friend of mine online. We did most of it against RB Reanimator, but at least 6 with the UB version as well. In both cases, it felt like a little bit of a crap shoot. Karakas is phenomenal against both versions, though slightly better against UB because they are more Griselbrand focused. The general consensus we came to was that the matchups are fairly even in the aggregate, with the slightly easier matchup being UB because of the fact you can steal game 1 (which I did do). Against RB, it was fairly 50/50. Either he went nuts on turn 1 or 2 and I didn't have hate soon enough, or the game drags out because of Thalia and you can usually win from there. Unlike UB reanimator, if you stop the reanimator player from going off once, it's very unlikely he can do it again. The deck's filtering is quite bad, and will draw numerous dead cards before it can do anything again. Also, value wasteland somewhat highly, especially to destroy bayou. If the bayou is gone, it is exceedingly unlikely that they will be able to deal with a hate piece like Thalia or Grafdigger's Cage. Also an important thing to remember is to not get Stingscourger too early against RB. I think it's usually correct to hold onto a matron for it because it will otherwise get unmasked/thoughtseized, at which point it becomes much harder to win. Of course, you often don't have that luxury, but definitely be aware of the danger of just holding onto it while it's their turn. Wait for the fatty to come into play, then grab it.

I played in the finals of our local legacy league yesterday. There were sixteen players qualified for the tournament, and we played five rounds of swiss + a top 8.
I ended up going 3-1-1 in the swiss portion of the event, and then losing in the quarter finals.

I will be doing a short tournament report, but what I want to focus on here today is the process of preparing for such an unusual event.
There being only sixteen players, and everyone knowing who those sixteen players are going to be makes for some interesting metagame decisions.
What follows is a recollection of my preparations for the event. Going into the tournament, I had a pretty good idea of which decks most of the other players tend to play.
Below is a list of the decks I expected people to play if they were to play the same deck that they normally do, rather than try to play the metagame. One might call this their 'level zero' deck.
(Some of you have already seen this list, and might notice it looks slightly different. That has to do with one player not being able to attend, and the passdown that occurred as a result).

Miracles (Legend)
Miracles (Legend)
Miracles (Mentor)
Death & Taxes
Death & Taxes
Grixis Delver
BUG Control
Four Color Control
Esper Mentor (UBWg)
MUD
Stoneblade
Eldrazi
Junk
Maverick*
Tezzeret*

*Not Maverick per se, but some Green Sun's Zenith based deck with lots of juicy targets for it and probably KotR.
*Could be any artifact deck; Helm Combo, Thopter + Sword etc. You get the picture.

I knew I wanted to at least have a plan for all of these decks, while maintaining a sideboard versatile enough to adapt to other decks as well.
I started by noting patterns among these decks; cards and strategies that were overrepresented and/or absent.
I asked some friends for their input as well, and got some good ideas. Originally I had a list of key cards and the number of decks I expected to include them,
for brevity's sake however I've narrowed the list down quite a bit. This is what I came up with:

• No combo decks.
• No Tarmogoyf decks.
• A lot of Stoneforge Mystics/equipments.

The third observation was the clearest and most important in my opinion, and it prompted me to move a Tuktuk Scrapper back into the maindeck.
This is a change I was already considering anyways, since the addition of Smuggler's Copter allows me to loot the Scrapper away in matchups where it's not as good.

I began tinkering with my sideboard, making sure I hade a plan for each matchup, and enough cards to side in or out in each of them.
I'm already very happy with my Miracles matchup, but decided on having at least one Needle in the sideboard, in part because of how versatile it is, and it being a strong card against Death & Taxes as well.
I wanted the standard two copies of Pyrokinesis to help fight against Death and Taxes, Maverick, Grixis Delver, and Eldrazi.
I knew the second Tuktuk Scrapper in the sideboard would be a very good choice in the SFM matchups, so that got a slot as well.
Blood Moon has been a solid staple in my sideboard for quite a while now, and it's good against Eldrazi, Four Color Control, MUD, and Esper Mentor.
I really like the sideboard plan of bringing in Pyrokinesis + Chalice of the Void against Grixis Delver, and so I added two copies of Chalice to my sideboard.
Relic of Progenitus helps combat Knight of the Reliquary, and is also just a very versatile card. I put two copies in the board.

This left me with five more slots. At this point I felt that I had enough cards to bring in in most of the expected matchups.
I did want the third Chalice against Grixis however, and I liked the idea of Needle #2 in a metagame with that much Miracles and Death and Taxes.


I still needed a plan for the BUG Control matchup and the Four Color Control matchup, but other than that I was mostly satisfied.
I had limited experience with both of these matchups. I thought my BUG Control matchup was pretty good, and that the best plan would be to try to grind them out.
With regards to the Four Color Control deck I noticed that the mana base was a weak point of the deck, and figured that attacking it would be a good strategy.
Blood Moon already does a pretty good job here, especially in combination with removal for their Deathrite Shamans.
I decided on adding three copies of Rishadan Port to my maindeck to help improve the matchup, as I noticed Port would be good against many of the other decks as well.
I added two copies of Siege-Gang Commander to my sideboard to help me in the grindy games versus midrange and control decks.
I had no idea what the fifteenth sideboard slot should be, but decided last minute on a singleton Sudden Demise to further help improve my Death and Taxes matchup.

I ended up playing the following list.

R/b Goblin

CREATURES (27)
4 Goblin Lackey
1 Skirk Prospector
3 Mogg War Marshal
1 Earwig Squad
4 Goblin Warchief
4 Goblin Matron
4 Goblin Ringleader
1 Krenko, Mob Boss
1 Tuktuk Scrapper
2 Goblin Sharpshooter
2 Gempalm Incinerator

SORCERIES (1)
1 Warren Weirding

INSTANTS (3)
3 Tarfire

ARTIFACTS (6)
4 Aether Vial
2 Smuggler’s Copter

LANDS (23)
4 Wasteland
3 Rishadan Port
4 Cavern of Souls
3 Badlands
4 Snow-Covered Mountain
2 Arid Mesa
1 Bloodstained Mire
2 Wooded Foothills

SIDEBOARD (15)
3 Chalice of the Void
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Blood Moon
2 Pyrokinesis
2 Pithing Needle
1 Tuktuk Scrapper
2 Siege-Gang Commander
1 Sudden Demise


R1 Five Color GSZ 2-0
This was the 'Maverick' player.
G1: We played a tight game one where I ended up victorious after some back and fort grinding. At one point I managed to answer his Izzet Staticaster, and then when we were both low on resources I topdecked Krenko to acompany my Warchief.
G2: In the second game he took a mulligan to five and I had a Blood Moon.

R2 Mono Red Painter 0-2
This was the BUG Control player. I put him on BUG because he has been brewing a lot with it lately, but I also knew he was very proficient with many different decks, among them Painter.
G1: He has a fast draw and I die.
G2: He plays and activates Painter + Grindstone, but I have Pyrokinesis in response. He plays Painter #2 and I Tuktuk Scrapper it. When his Imperial Recruiter finds a third painter I'm out of answers.

R3 Four Color Control 2-0
This was the 4C Control player.
G1: Game one is quite grindy. He has a maindeck Marsh Casualties that he wipes my board with (kicked), but I'm able to outgrind him.
G2: He takes some damage early on, in part due to a Painful Truths. I hold a Smuggler's Copter in hand in order to play around Kolaghan's Command, electing instead to keep playing Matrons and Ringleaders and what not.
He lands a TNN, but my team of goblins is able to finish him off.

R4 Death & Taxes 2-0
G1: He plows my Lackey and play SFM for Jitte. Unfortunately for him however he no longer has a Swords to Plowshares for my Sharpshooter, and he keeps drawing one toughness creatures.
G2: He keeps a six card hand with Karakas as the only land, but with two Mother of Runes and a SFM among his other cards.
I keep a slow hand with Sudden Demise but no actual red sources.
He plays Mom > Mom > SFM.
I draw the red source needed to cast Sudden Demise, as well as a Needle top stop both of his moms.
I win from there.

R5 ID

Top 8
Ad Nauseam Tendrils 0-2
G1: I keep a greedy hand with Lackey and some mana denial but nothing to put into play off of Lackey. I get lucky and draw back to back Ringleaders, but it's too slow. In retrospect I think I should have mulliganed for EWS instead.
G2: I keep a six card hand with two lands, two CotV, a Matron and a Ringleader.
I play T1 CotV > T2 CotV > T3 Matron for EWS, but am blown out by Hurkyl's Recall.

Overall happy with my preparations as well as my plays, apart from the questionable keep game one against Storm.
Preparing for this tournament was a very interesting process for me, and I hope that by writing this I'm able to share some of these ideas with you.

Questions and feedback are, as always, welcome and appreciated.

Cheers!

/Sandro

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sandro95

I ended up playing the following list.

R/b Goblin

CREATURES (27)
4 Goblin Lackey
1 Skirk Prospector
3 Mogg War Marshal
1 Earwig Squad
4 Goblin Warchief
4 Goblin Matron
4 Goblin Ringleader
1 Krenko, Mob Boss
1 Tuktuk Scrapper
2 Goblin Sharpshooter
2 Gempalm Incinerator

SORCERIES (1)
1 Warren Weirding

INSTANTS (3)
3 Tarfire

ARTIFACTS (6)
4 Aether Vial
2 Smuggler’s Copter

LANDS (23)
4 Wasteland
3 Rishadan Port
4 Cavern of Souls
3 Badlands
4 Snow-Covered Mountain
2 Arid Mesa
1 Bloodstained Mire
2 Wooded Foothills

SIDEBOARD (15)
3 Chalice of the Void
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Blood Moon
2 Pyrokinesis
2 Pithing Needle
1 Tuktuk Scrapper
2 Siege-Gang Commander
1 Sudden Demise

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Hi, Sandro. I think you got me as the Junk Player. :)

How do you feel about 2 Smuggler’s Copter? I think 2 is the right nummber to play with if you want to play it in Legacy. Has it done anything good for you?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sandro95

I played in the finals of our local legacy league yesterday. There were sixteen players qualified for the tournament, and we played five rounds of swiss + a top 8.
I ended up going 3-1-1 in the swiss portion of the event, and then losing in the quarter finals.

I will be doing a short tournament report, but what I want to focus on here today is the process of preparing for such an unusual event.
There being only sixteen players, and everyone knowing who those sixteen players are going to be makes for some interesting metagame decisions.
What follows is a recollection of my preparations for the event. Going into the tournament, I had a pretty good idea of which decks most of the other players tend to play.
Below is a list of the decks I expected people to play if they were to play the same deck that they normally do, rather than try to play the metagame. One might call this their 'level zero' deck.
(Some of you have already seen this list, and might notice it looks slightly different. That has to do with one player not being able to attend, and the passdown that occurred as a result).

Miracles (Legend)
Miracles (Legend)
Miracles (Mentor)
Death & Taxes
Death & Taxes
Grixis Delver
BUG Control
Four Color Control
Esper Mentor (UBWg)
MUD
Stoneblade
Eldrazi
Junk
Maverick*
Tezzeret*

*Not Maverick per se, but some Green Sun's Zenith based deck with lots of juicy targets for it and probably KotR.
*Could be any artifact deck; Helm Combo, Thopter + Sword etc. You get the picture.

I knew I wanted to at least have a plan for all of these decks, while maintaining a sideboard versatile enough to adapt to other decks as well.
I started by noting patterns among these decks; cards and strategies that were overrepresented and/or absent.
I asked some friends for their input as well, and got some good ideas. Originally I had a list of key cards and the number of decks I expected to include them,
for brevity's sake however I've narrowed the list down quite a bit. This is what I came up with:

• No combo decks.
• No Tarmogoyf decks.
• A lot of Stoneforge Mystics/equipments.

The third observation was the clearest and most important in my opinion, and it prompted me to move a Tuktuk Scrapper back into the maindeck.
This is a change I was already considering anyways, since the addition of Smuggler's Copter allows me to loot the Scrapper away in matchups where it's not as good.

I began tinkering with my sideboard, making sure I hade a plan for each matchup, and enough cards to side in or out in each of them.
I'm already very happy with my Miracles matchup, but decided on having at least one Needle in the sideboard, in part because of how versatile it is, and it being a strong card against Death & Taxes as well.
I wanted the standard two copies of Pyrokinesis to help fight against Death and Taxes, Maverick, Grixis Delver, and Eldrazi.
I knew the second Tuktuk Scrapper in the sideboard would be a very good choice in the SFM matchups, so that got a slot as well.
Blood Moon has been a solid staple in my sideboard for quite a while now, and it's good against Eldrazi, Four Color Control, MUD, and Esper Mentor.
I really like the sideboard plan of bringing in Pyrokinesis + Chalice of the Void against Grixis Delver, and so I added two copies of Chalice to my sideboard.
Relic of Progenitus helps combat Knight of the Reliquary, and is also just a very versatile card. I put two copies in the board.

This left me with five more slots. At this point I felt that I had enough cards to bring in in most of the expected matchups.
I did want the third Chalice against Grixis however, and I liked the idea of Needle #2 in a metagame with that much Miracles and Death and Taxes.


I still needed a plan for the BUG Control matchup and the Four Color Control matchup, but other than that I was mostly satisfied.
I had limited experience with both of these matchups. I thought my BUG Control matchup was pretty good, and that the best plan would be to try to grind them out.
With regards to the Four Color Control deck I noticed that the mana base was a weak point of the deck, and figured that attacking it would be a good strategy.
Blood Moon already does a pretty good job here, especially in combination with removal for their Deathrite Shamans.
I decided on adding three copies of Rishadan Port to my maindeck to help improve the matchup, as I noticed Port would be good against many of the other decks as well.
I added two copies of Siege-Gang Commander to my sideboard to help me in the grindy games versus midrange and control decks.
I had no idea what the fifteenth sideboard slot should be, but decided last minute on a singleton Sudden Demise to further help improve my Death and Taxes matchup.

I ended up playing the following list.

R/b Goblin

CREATURES (27)
4 Goblin Lackey
1 Skirk Prospector
3 Mogg War Marshal
1 Earwig Squad
4 Goblin Warchief
4 Goblin Matron
4 Goblin Ringleader
1 Krenko, Mob Boss
1 Tuktuk Scrapper
2 Goblin Sharpshooter
2 Gempalm Incinerator

SORCERIES (1)
1 Warren Weirding

INSTANTS (3)
3 Tarfire

ARTIFACTS (6)
4 Aether Vial
2 Smuggler’s Copter

LANDS (23)
4 Wasteland
3 Rishadan Port
4 Cavern of Souls
3 Badlands
4 Snow-Covered Mountain
2 Arid Mesa
1 Bloodstained Mire
2 Wooded Foothills

SIDEBOARD (15)
3 Chalice of the Void
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Blood Moon
2 Pyrokinesis
2 Pithing Needle
1 Tuktuk Scrapper
2 Siege-Gang Commander
1 Sudden Demise



Overall happy with my preparations as well as my plays, apart from the questionable keep game one against Storm.
Preparing for this tournament was a very interesting process for me, and I hope that by writing this I'm able to share some of these ideas with you.

Questions and feedback are, as always, welcome and appreciated.

Cheers!

/Sandro

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Hey Sandro! Congrats on the solid run, and I'm especially happy to see someone else trying out Copter. Any feedback you can give us on that front? You mention holding on to it in one game, but not much else.

Some thoughts on the maindeck; I like avoiding piledriver here, as your meta looks super bad for him. However, it seems to me that you're lacking enough finishers in the maindeck with only the single Krenko. I would have been inclined to put one of those Siege-Gangs into the main deck and swap with the Warren Weirding, which seems a little...weird (heheh). I normally see WW as a way to kill giant creatures out of Reanimator or Sneak and Show. What made you include it in your main deck?
With this extra sideboard slot (assuming you'd remove WW) I'd add a 3rd Pyrokinesis. It's just so strong against D&T, Delver, Eldrazi, and Mentor (I'd imagine). I can see how double sharpshooter makes you not need it as badly though.

Your mana puzzles me a little bit, as 3 badlands seems quite excessive and overly vulnerable to wasteland. You only have 2 black cards in the 75, and EWS can be cast off of cavern of souls. I'd definitely want to increase the mountain count. On the flip side, if you wanted to utilize the black splash more (as the manabase seems to indicate), I'd suggest Cabal Therapy in the sideboard. It lets you deal with cards you might have trouble with otherwise (and can effectively "shatter" an equipment before it comes down). T1 Therapy into T2 War Marshal, flashback Therapy rips apart a lot of hands. To fit it, you might be able to shave the Relics. Since there aren't any Goyf decks, I don't see relic doing too much other than making DRS and Snaps marginally worse.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ganfar

Hi, Sandro. I think you got me as the Junk Player. :)

How do you feel about 2 Smuggler’s Copter? I think 2 is the right nummber to play with if you want to play it in Legacy. Has it done anything good for you?

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I have only been running it for a couple of weeks, so I do not have a definite answer yet. Despite not getting to use it much this tournament however my general impression of the card is quite positive. I really like the fact that it's a twodrop, and one that impacts the board at that. It seems like a good way to break a board stall, by attacking for three every turn. Having an actual way to block fliers is also quite helpful against Marit Lage, Serra Avenger, and Delver of Secrets, all of which can be quite scary otherwise.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 1GoblinLackey

Hey Sandro! Congrats on the solid run, and I'm especially happy to see someone else trying out Copter. Any feedback you can give us on that front? You mention holding on to it in one game, but not much else.

Some thoughts on the maindeck; I like avoiding piledriver here, as your meta looks super bad for him. However, it seems to me that you're lacking enough finishers in the maindeck with only the single Krenko. I would have been inclined to put one of those Siege-Gangs into the main deck and swap with the Warren Weirding, which seems a little...weird (heheh). I normally see WW as a way to kill giant creatures out of Reanimator or Sneak and Show. What made you include it in your main deck?
With this extra sideboard slot (assuming you'd remove WW) I'd add a 3rd Pyrokinesis. It's just so strong against D&T, Delver, Eldrazi, and Mentor (I'd imagine). I can see how double sharpshooter makes you not need it as badly though.

Your mana puzzles me a little bit, as 3 badlands seems quite excessive and overly vulnerable to wasteland. You only have 2 black cards in the 75, and EWS can be cast off of cavern of souls. I'd definitely want to increase the mountain count. On the flip side, if you wanted to utilize the black splash more (as the manabase seems to indicate), I'd suggest Cabal Therapy in the sideboard. It lets you deal with cards you might have trouble with otherwise (and can effectively "shatter" an equipment before it comes down). T1 Therapy into T2 War Marshal, flashback Therapy rips apart a lot of hands. To fit it, you might be able to shave the Relics. Since there aren't any Goyf decks, I don't see relic doing too much other than making DRS and Snaps marginally worse.

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Regarding Copter, check out my post above this one. :)

A lack of finishers hasn't been a problem for me. If you can deal with their creatures a couple of 1/1s and 2/2s on your side of the board should be able to get you there most of the time, and Sharpshooter is very good at clearing an opposing board. It's true that I have only been running this list for a few weeks now, and my old list had two more earwig squad as finishers as well as the second prospector to further enable sharpshooter combo. So maybe with time I will find I need more finishers, but as of right now I don't believe that to be the case.

Warren Weirding is the sixth removal spell and an out to TNN, Marit Lage etc.

I usually play three copies of therapy in the sideboard as you suggested I should, but made a metagame call here not to play it. The three copies of badlands is in part a leftover from my usual mana base, but I think I like it here as well. Seven fetchable lands feels like a reasonable number, and I don't want to go lower on black sources, especially if I am to play therapy, for which you often need the black mana on turn one. Having three copies also protects against wasteland a little bit since it makes it difficult for them to waste you off of a color. Although to be fair that is not as important with only one WW.
I don't think I need more than four basics, as I can cast all of my (red) spells off of four lands anyway, except for SGC, which is a sideboard card and one that is not there for wasteland decks. I chose to cut a fetchland for the third port (rather than cutting a badlands that is) in part because I wanted to make their Deathrite Shaman worse, something I felt would be important if my plan was going to be to attack their mana.

The third pyrokinesis was on my shortlist of cards for the fifteenth sideboard slot. As I didn't have access to it I elected to try out Sudden Demise instead.

Hello everyone.

So a bit back 1GoblinLackey had mentioned using Meekstone as a way to answer larger creatures. Having tried it against Reanimator, Show & Tell, Eldrazi, and Shardless (I was hoping), I can confirm that it's pretty meek. It is at it's most powerful against Eldrazi, an already positive match-up. Reanimator cared about the card, but they cared as much as they do about all of our relevant interaction (so it's a more narrow card with a similar effect). Show & Tell just kind of hit me anyway. And Shardless cares WAY more about Rest in Peace, unsurprisingly. That's the result of initial testing, which is enough to deter me to try more.

I did do one game against Esper Stoneblade with it, and it was once again, narrow. I held back a True-Name, but equipment can be put on anything with legs. It's also hilariously bad in the face of a Batterskull.

It's playable, and has niche uses, but overall it's pretty weak. I will be keeping it in the back of my mind as a SB card for some more narrow metas.

@Sandro gratz! Looks like you ended up swiss 3-2 not 3-1-1

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Originally Posted by OlegtheSuper

@Sandro gratz! Looks like you ended up swiss 3-2 not 3-1-1

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Thanks!

Where do you see the 3-2 result btw?

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Originally Posted by Sandro95

Thanks!

Where do you see the 3-2 result btw?

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Sorry:(

@GoboLord, how do you feel with no relics in meta with lands decks, reanims and goyfs?

In the past 3 relics was a no brain decision and now i see for 2 to 0. Please explain me why? I see a lot or reanims, still some storms and goyfs in BUGs or i mistake

I think Relics dont help to beat reanimator, because the matchup is just too bad to fix.
That leaves me Lands and "goyf-decks". For lands I already have enough SB cards that are more effective (Moon, Needle, Stingscourger, Karakas).
Against Goyf decks my plan is to grind my way through with my 4 Mogg War Marshal and eventually take the game with Krenko. In fact my problems in those MUs are unbloclable damage (Delver. TNN, DRS) or Goyf + boardsweep. Relic certainly helps with the latter , and I thought about including it in the SB again, but that affects other SB choices as well. So far I havnt found another SB configuration that I liked , except the one that I posted last time.

So tl;dr
Relic might be a good choice right now, but not in my list.

Quick Question:

Should I add Sharpshooter as card #61 to the maindeck today?

I put my deck and sideboard together and was pretty happy, but then Sharpshooter was sitting there on my desk, already sleeved up, looking so dejected...

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Originally Posted by jrw1985

Quick Question:

Should I add Sharpshooter as card #61 to the maindeck today?

I put my deck and sideboard together and was pretty happy, but then Sharpshooter was sitting there on my desk, already sleeved up, looking so dejected...

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My gut-feeling says yes, but truth to be told: I have Sharpshooter in my sb for a long time. What's your build right now?

I think you need a good reason not to run sharpshooter. But if your meta has no bug delver or dnt or elves maybe?

Throwing together gobos again and wondering if going red white is good? I know Thalia are nice but does anyone have a build to work with? I don't really like losing out of cards in mono red since the splash of green doesn't take too much from the deck

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Originally Posted by Cringe

Throwing together gobos again and wondering if going red white is good? I know Thalia are nice but does anyone have a build to work with? I don't really like losing out of cards in mono red since the splash of green doesn't take too much from the deck

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The reasons to go Red/White over mono-Red nowadays (besides Thalia, which you can replace with chalice) are (for my money): The Tear side of Wear//Tear, Containment Priest, and RIP, though Relic is probably better in most situations for our purposes.

I find having access to a way to blow up enchantments to be pretty premium (though it might just be my meta, admittedly). Its most common target is probably Sneak Attack, though I find myself blowing up Pernicious Deeds out of NicFit, Moat out of miracles, Aluren, Sulfuric Vortex/Eidolon of the Great Revel, Explorations and Manabonds out of Lands...the list goes on! It also gives outs to some of the niche but occasionally played hate cards that are normally crippling, like Chill or Engineered Plague.

Also, I think it's pretty nice to have something to do with the Karakas that I find is phenomenal in the format right now. It's fantastic against all the "dump giant monster into play.dec" archetypes of Reanimator and S&S, while also having extra game against a large portion of the fair decks, which all seem to be in love with Leovold right now. Bouncing Thalia can be pretty nice against D&T too, keeping their equip options a little more limited is always good, and the 2/1 first striker can be really annoying.

Anyone else have solid reasons for the white splash? I've often wondered if those of us on the white splash should consider siding Path to Exile or StP (though I'm sure it's been tried before and decided against).