Re: [Deck] Vial Goblins 2.0
Back again in this Forum würg me Smartphone still in holiday.
Yes your answers all right. I made the mistake not to exclued cards like neither Mox nor or Instigator. In my 86, there were only Pilys, Krenkos, lackeys etc. Cards, I would also play actually so to speak. I also didn't think about drawing 4 more with Ringleader.
About Krenko: Why only playing one? He is legendary, but he has a huge impact. As soon as I can, I'll test lists with more than 2 copys of him. With Prospector, you can generate tokens, sac Krenko, play Krenko and generate tokens. I also think he is much better than SGC.
I won't cut Pyrokinesis in my meta. The reanimation of Goblins let me play many mirrors these days in which kinesis is a giant.
Re: [Deck] Vial Goblins 2.0
I am planning to play two Krenkos. Leaving Vial @ 4 is pretty good with six targets (4 Ringleader and 2 Krenko). Goblin Chirurgeon looks pretty decent now too. One of the favorite goblins, actually.
Quote:
Yes your answers all right. I made the mistake not to exclued cards like neither Mox nor or Instigator.
Yeah, I was wondering how you only got 86. lol
10 Cards: 2 Mountain, Lackey, Prospector, Warchief, Krenko, 4 Piledriver
Turn 1:
- Play Mountain, Lackey
Damage: 0
Turn 2:
- Attack with Lackey
- Cheat in Krenko
- Play Mountain, Piledriver
- Tap Krenko for 3 Tokens EOT
Damage = 1
Turn 3:
- Play Prospector
- Tap Krenko for 7 Token (10 Tokens total)
- Sac 5 Tokens for Mana
- Play Warchief, Piledriver, Piledriver, Piledriver
- Attack with Lackey, Prospector, Warchief, 5 Tokens, 4 Piledriver
Damage = 101
Total Damage = 102
Re: [Deck] Vial Goblins 2.0
So, what gets cut for Krenko?
Also, what support gets added for Krenko? Any updated list?
Re: [Deck] Vial Goblins 2.0
Quote:
Originally Posted by
L10
Turn 1:
- Play Mountain, Lackey
Damage: 0
Turn 2:
- Attack with Lackey
- Cheat in Krenko
- Play Mountain, Piledriver
- Tap Krenko for 3 Tokens EOT
Damage = 1
Turn 3:
- Play Prospector
- Tap Krenko for 7 Token (10 Tokens total)
- Sac 5 Tokens for Mana
- Play Warchief, Piledriver, Piledriver, Piledriver
- Attack with Lackey, Prospector, Warchief, 5 Tokens, 4 Piledriver
Damage = 101
Total Damage = 102
Your turn 2 Krenko has haste...
@nameless one: look at the last 2 pages of this threat.
Re: [Deck] Vial Goblins 2.0
Haha, woops, that's an oversight when I was copy and pasting different scenario. I knew something didn't look right.
10 Cards: 10 Cards: 3 Mountain, Lackey, Prospector, Warchief, Krenko, 3 Piledriver
Turn 1:
- Play Mountain, Lackey
Damage: 0
Turn 2:
- Attack with Lackey
- Cheat in Warchief
- Play Mountain, Prospector, Piledriver
Damage: 1
Turn 3:
- Play Mountain, Krenko
- Tap Krenko for 5 Tokens
- Sac 2 Tokens for 2 Piledrivers
- Attack with Lackey, Warchief, Prospector, 3 Tokens, 3 Piledrivers
Damage: 74
Total Damage = 75
Not over 86, but I don't this is optimized either. I will think more tonight after work. How did you get 86 PD2? I will probably just edit this page. I don't want to spam this thread with this "game".
Quote:
So, what gets cut for Krenko?
Also, what support gets added for Krenko? Any updated list?
I took out Kiki-Jiki and Lightning Crafter on my list. If you have artifact hate, you can try removing those. Otherwise, it's just taste. You can probably remove a SGC to help the mana curve.
An extra Chieftain helps for haste. Prospector is nice for extra mana. I might even use Chirurgeon. He is effective if the opponent only has burn spells and you can attack with Piledriver with really no drawbacks, as long as you have tokens to sacrifice. There are a lot of interactions you can do with a ton of tokens.
Re: [Deck] Vial Goblins 2.0
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Humphrey
Dont take it personally but I dont like how everybody is spamming selfmade cards all over the forum at the moment. Please use the creation thread.
Actually I see 2 cards missing atm. Tuktuk for CC2 and maybe a small Ringleader for 3
This post actually made me think, since red is getting more and more cards to draw a card. So how about a goblin between Silvergill Adept and Elvish Visionary:
Goblin Treasure Hunter - R1
Creature-Goblin
As an additional mana cost to play Goblin Treasure Hunter reveal a goblin card or pay 2.
When Goblin Treasure Hunter comes into play, draw a card.
1/1
Re: [Deck] Vial Goblins 2.0
Played a 60+ tournament today with the following list:
Core (21)
-1 Siege-Gang Commander
Other (17)
1 Tuktuk Scrapper
1 Goblin Sharpshooter
1 Stingscourger
2 Krenko, Mob Boss
2 Goblin Chieftain
2 Mogg War Marshal
2 Tarfire
3 Goblin Piledriver
3 Gempalm Incinerator
Mana (22)
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Wasteland
14 Mountain
Sideboard (15)
1 Stingscouger
1 Tuktuk Scrapper
2 Pyrokinesis
2 Anarchy
2 Red Elemental Blast
3 Relic of Progenitus
4 Chalice of the Void
Went 4-2, losing to Esper Stoneblade (1-2, didn't find a Scrapper or Matron to get one) and to Dredge (1-2, never played against it, so didn't know what to expect untill it was too late)
Won against Merfolk (2-1, with the new Lord), Dredge (2-1, this time I knew what to expect), Rug Delver (2-0) and Sneak Attack (2-0).
Krenko was a beast and it seems that people recognize this fact. If your opponent doesn't have an answer, Krenko will win you the game. The best examples today were against Rug Delver and Sneak Attack.
Rug Delver:
Game one; he simply scoops after I resolve a Ringleader which gets me Matron, Ringleader, Krenko and Lackey. While I will admit I had some board-advantage, he still had a chance.
Game two: holding the fort with Krenko which gets removed, but I win in the end.
Sneak Attack:
Game one; he doesn't find land and I overwhelm him with Gobbo's and Krenko-tokens.
Game two; I have a vial @ 2, 1 Piley, 1 Warchief and three land in play. In my hand I have a mountain and another Warchief. It's his turn and he plays Show and Tell. He turns Emrakul, I turn Krenko (with haste of Warchief, but my opponent missed it at first). He attacks, annihalator 6 and he has a grin. I tap Krenko, put three tokens into play and sac those with three land, taken 15 damage and going to 5. His grin suddenly vaporised. On my turn I put vial@3 and put Warchief in play. Then I draw a Matron, playing it with my lone mountain. I activate Krenko to put five tokens into play and attack for the win. Total damage given; 26, total damage taken; 15, surviving annihalator 6. How I love the examples given by L10 and others; I was very happy with this result.
Some thoughts about Krenko:
- He has to have haste, so in order to give him haste I think the bare minimum of haste-lords is six (maybe even seven)
- Only play Krenko when you are sure you can use it immediately (hence haste-lords)
- I will keep playing two Krenko's main. You definitly want to have one and with FoWs, Plows, Paths, Dismember and Bolt etc etc in my meta (the Netherlands), chances are I will lose one Krenko every now and then.
- I took a SGC out and never really missed the second one all day. Krenko just gave me more tokens, period. When Krenko landed, I almost always ended up with 10+ Goblin-tokens within two turns... Which was really nice.
- Along with CoS Krenko has made Goblins a really tough match-up once again. I had some people talking about packing E.P., not only for us but Merfolk which seems to be on the rise again (I saw two of them, heard of one more and played against one, after being literally gone for almost two years)
I'm planning to change my deck:
-2 MWM (really nice combo with Krenko, usefull against Dredge -too slow though-)
-1 Mountain
+1 Goblin Chieftain (giving me a total of seven haste-lords)
+1 Skirk Prospector ( imagine what you can do with the tokens of Krenko, but I'm still thinking this one over, can be very usefull against Bridges from Below of course)
+1 Tarfire (while I still think Lighting Bolt is better, Tarfire keeps the synergy of the deck intact and kills Delver and all other x/2 too)
Re: [Deck] Vial Goblins 2.0
Watching SCG St Louis just now. Goblin deck with Krenko just exploded.
T1 Vial
T2 Thalia, Thalia eats burn, Eot Vial in Lackey
T3 Lackey attacks, puts Ringleader in, draws 3, Lackey gets burned, Eot Vial in Piledriver
T4 Cavern, Krenko, Vial in Chieftain, activate Krenko. Put 4 tokens in play. Attack for 27. W.
Heartwarming stuff, that.
Re: [Deck] Vial Goblins 2.0
Re: [Deck] Vial Goblins 2.0
Quote:
Originally Posted by
(nameless one)
So, what gets cut for Krenko?
Also, what support gets added for Krenko? Any updated list?
Not certain it's support for Krenko but Gempalm Incinerator is 4x in every list I play Krenko in, cycling to kill Griselbrand feels oh so rewarding. I also really want to try playing a list with 4 Sparksmith, I think he's a pretty underrated Goblin anyway.
Re: [Deck] Vial Goblins 2.0
Quote:
Originally Posted by
jrw1985
Watching SCG St Louis just now. Goblin deck with Krenko just exploded.
T1 Vial
T2 Thalia, Thalia eats burn, Eot Vial in Lackey
T3 Lackey attacks, puts Ringleader in, draws 3, Lackey gets burned, Eot Vial in Piledriver
T4 Cavern, Krenko, Vial in Chieftain, activate Krenko. Put 4 tokens in play. Attack for 27. W.
Heartwarming stuff, that.
Just in case anyone is thinking "Wow, Krenko > SGC and Chieftain > Warchief!!!!!" after reading this...here's the same situation with different cards
T1 Vial
T2 Thalia, Thalia eats burn, Eot Vial in Lackey
T3 Lackey attacks, puts Ringleader in, draws 3, Lackey gets burned, Eot Vial in Piledriver
T4 Cavern, Vial in Warchief, play SGC, put 3 tokens in play. Attack for 24. W.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Final Fortune
I also really want to try playing a list with 4
Sparksmith, I think he's a pretty underrated Goblin anyway.
Please let us know the results. I've tested him as a 2-of some time ago and I found him horrible. My results were that I could almost never afford the damage when you need to remove creatures. When you really can afford the damage he gets either countered/removed (often you have to pass the turn before he gets going) or is redudant (like in creatures-less MUs). In other situations you will find yourself targeting a */5 creature with exactly 5 Goblins in play, which is a risky move as your opponent can lower your Goblin count in response to the ability - same shit as with Gempalm Incinerator - only the costs of "failure" are much higher in Sparksmith's case.
So, wether your results are good or bad, please write some sentences about your findings and I will add them to the "To-be-tested-cards" parts of the primer. I'm looking forward to it.
Re: [Deck] Vial Goblins 2.0
I played in a small tournament in the weekend with a fairly standard list.
I went 3-1 beating Hive Mind, Hypergenesis and Maverick, losing to Esper Stoneblade.
Against Hive Mind and Hypergenesis, manadenial was key to getting the victory. (Especially ports against Hive Mind)
Against Maverick, Krenko was absolutely ridiculous. If you untap with a Krenko (obviously it has haste when you play it the first time) I can't see myself losing against any deck unless I'm already low and they have big fliers.
I definitely made a misplay in one of the stoneblade games, I feel like it was winnable if I played tighter.
Some thoughts on individual cards:
My one-of tech slots were Siege Gang, Mogg Fanatic, Stingscourger, Skirk Prospector, Sharpshooter, and Possibly something Else
-I wanted another Krenko (I could only find 1 but 2 is definitely the correct number. It's better than Siege Gang in most cases. If you're still playing 2 Siege Gang Commanders I recommend cutting one in order to fit Krenkos. Krenko is better pretty much all the time for token making so you only need Siege Gang for the activated ability, in which case it is usually outclassed by sharpshooter. I would even consider cutting siege gangs altogether but it has been a mainstay in the deck for a long time and sometimes it just does work.
-Skirk Prospector was win-more. If you naturally draw into it then often you wish it was something else, and you rarely ever search for it with matron because you would just rather have a card that impacts the board more. If I got it into play and it did absurd things that was likely already a won game anyway.
Sharpshooter and Stingscourger continue to be amazing.
Mogg Fanatic wasn't very impressive but its strength depends highly on what the opponents are playing and it has done better in the past.
I think that playing random 1-of tech goblins has a higher opportunity cost now - playing more copies of Mogg War Marshals and Piledrivers is now a more appealing move because of the synergy that these cards have with Krenko.
Also I played all 8 Haste Lords and as usual this configuration worked for me.
Both Warchief and Chieftain are great to have in multiples, they power up krenko, just strong cards in general I guess.
I played 4 Wastes and 4 Ports, 21 Lands total: I don't have any caverns.
In games that I lost to stoneblade and Maverick I got completely destroyed by bloody Jitte, I wasn't playing artifact hate mainboard (1 Scrapper in sideboard) but if I had caverns I might think about playing Tin Street Hooligan.
I looked at goblin tinkerer which is cool because if you have a chieftain out it can kill Jitte and live but I'd rather not be in the awkward situation of not having a haste lord and Jitte just killing it immediately.
Re: [Deck] Vial Goblins 2.0
Quote:
Originally Posted by
kombatkiwi
-Skirk Prospector was win-more. If you naturally draw into it then often you wish it was something else, and you rarely ever search for it with matron because you would just rather have a card that impacts the board more. If I got it into play and it did absurd things that was likely already a won game anyway.
[...]
In games that I lost to stoneblade and Maverick I got completely destroyed by bloody Jitte, I wasn't playing artifact hate mainboard (1 Scrapper in sideboard) but if I had caverns I might think about playing Tin Street Hooligan.
I looked at goblin tinkerer which is cool because if you have a chieftain out it can kill Jitte and live but I'd rather not be in the awkward situation of not having a haste lord and Jitte just killing it immediately.
Sure, Skirk Popper DOES enable ridiculous moves, but that's not where you should see him. Skirk Prospector (1-of) alongside with 2 SGCs is all you need to fight Jitte. If you are up against Maverick or Stoneblade just make sure you get one of them to stick on the board as soon as possible.
However, my decklist is rarely featuring less than 7-8 spotremoval - this relatively high number adds up to the effectiveness of the aforementioned strategy against Jitte. So, fighting Jitte only with "block-sac" effects might not work out well for you if you are running less spotremoval.
Re: [Deck] Vial Goblins 2.0
I also use Sharpshooter against Jitte and Lifelink. Just block with a 1/1 goblin (Lackey, Matron, MWM, and Tokens) and ping the goblin with Sharpshooter. Does not work with a +1/+1 lord online though.
Re: [Deck] Vial Goblins 2.0
5-3 with Goblins at the SCG Open in St Louis.
List:
4 Goblin Lackey
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Gempalm Incinerator
3 Goblin Piledriver
1 Goblin Chieftain
4 Goblin Warchief
4 Goblin Matron
4 Goblin Ringleader
2 Siege-Gang Commander
1 Stingscourger
1 Goblin Sharpshooter
1 Tuktuk Scrapper
4 Aether Vial
4 Wasteland
4 Rishadan Port
15 Mountain
-------------------------------------
4 Pyrokinesis
3 Grafdigger’s Cage
2 Tormod’s Crypt
3 Pithing Needle
2 Stringscourger
1 Goblin Tinkerer
Round 1, Matt with MUD
Game 1: I played first and dropped Lackey, his first turn was a Sol land into Monolith into Metalworker. I played a fanatic, attacked with Lackey, he blocked, I shoot with Fanatic. He plays some more mana and some equipments but no dudes, I get Warchief into Piledriver, Matron into Piledriver and win.
Game 2: He plays first turn Chalice on a Sol land, I respond with a Waste. He plays another one and doesn’t do much with it, and I Waste again. He never recovers.
Round 2, Dan with Steve Black style BWR
Game 1: He hits a money turn 1 Therapy to snag my Vial (he saw me playing the night before in the grinders, that sonofabitch), he’s eventually able to cast all of the discard spells at the appropriate times, and I can just never get in the game.
Game 2: I forget how this one played out, but it was kind of grindy. He took 4 damage just from his fetches, then I was able to keep the board cleared with Pyrokinesis and Fanatics long enough to win.
Game 3: Darkblast is so good against Goblins. I almost lost game 2 to it, and there were a few times where it was almost bad for me in game 3, but I was able to control his board well enough, he dropped Bitterblossom, I didn’t care so much, and eventually got there.
Round 3, Alex with UW Stoneblade
Game 1: Game 1 is a slaughter. His life total goes 20, 19 (fetch), 17 (Warchief), 12 (Hasty Piledriver), dead (Matron into Piledriver).
Game 2: Another grindy game. He has an active COP: Red AND a Humility, but I still manage to get him down to 3 before he brainstorms into runner-runner miracle Terminus. Wtf can you do, right?
Game 3: I make a huge misplay here and don’t burn his turn 2 Mystic out with my 2 Fanatics, but it didn’t matter because he hit 5 mana anyway. I’m able to killed his Jitte, but active Batterskull is so harsh.
Round 4, Kevin with Esper Blade
Game 1: I think he has Batterskull, he gets me down to 11 and I kill it with Tuktuk, then I’m able to stabilize and grind him out.
Game 2: I forget exactly what happens, but I win. I think he had Jace, TMS and I kill it. Then he gets Jace, TMS, and I kill it again. He never draws anything else and I overrun him with gobos. I think I was on a mana denial play this game and he just couldn’t get gas.
Round 5, Nick with Esper Blade
Game 1: Turn 2 Mystic into Sword of Fire and Ice is pretty much unbeatable. He played well and I couldn’t ever get in the game. Also, I’m pretty sure he was able to stall me out with 3 copies of Lingering Souls that he played and flashed back. Fml…
Game 2: See above. I killed his Jitte and his SoFI, and he still just beat me down to nothingness.
Round 6, ??? with Merfolk
Game 1: I resolve vials and he doesn’t care. His dudes are bigger than mine and I never get Sharpshooter in time.
Game 2: His Blue Elemental Blasts are better than pretty much anything else I can do. His dudes are still bigger than mine. Can’t believe I lost this round 2-0, fml.
Round 7, Mike with Dredge
Game 1: Finally, a deck that I’m confident against. I remove 2 of his bridges with a Fanatic with Narc trigger on the stack. He beats in with Ichorids, I think I have multiple Incinerators and Fanatics this game. The first time he deals damage to me is from 1 Ichorid and 1 Griselbrand. I take it and go to 10, and I’ve been beating him down, he gets all the way back up to 18, and takes me to 3, but Warchief, 2 Piledrivers, and little dorks make minced-meat out of his 17 life.
Game 2: He decides to play, and passes. Eh…? I get turn 1 Lackey, he does nothing on his turn again but discards Stinkweed Imp, I connect with Lackey and plop down a Warchief, play a Piledriver, play my Tormod’s Crypt. I go ahead and use the Crypt because I know I’m a turn from killing him and don’t want anything funny to happen…. I untap, play something else that either gets him to concede or out-right kills him.
Round 8, Nathan with Elves
Game 1: He gets turn 1 and 2 Glimpse, not sure why he played them. I guess he was concerned about my turn 1 Lackey. He only gets about 5 cards total off both but one of them was the Archdruid, I never really get anything to connect, and he eventually hardcasts Emrakul. Gotta love Elves…
Game 2: Fan open a 7-hander with 2 Pyrokinesis, 2 throw-away Gobos, and some board presence. I get the sick trades on Pyrokinesis, and he’s never in this game.
Game 3: Pretty similar. Lackey, clear his board with Pyrok, vomit my hand onto the board, he would have drawn Glimpse of Nature the turn after he died. Rough beats.
I need to take better notes during tournaments. I also need to start writing what I sideboard. I was 40-something-th place, so I used the prize for store credit and used it toward Cavern of Souls. Just some notes: I’m definitely replacing 1 SGC with 1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker. I let 4reak talk me out of it, but I think it’s so much better than the second Commander in the games you would go get your 5cc Gobos. Not entirely sure what to do about the sideboard. I expected to face Reanimator (which I crrrrrushed in the grinders), Maverick, Dredge (only once!), Sneak/Show and its variants, and RUG Delver. That’s pretty much what I prepared for and only faced one (fucking… one!) of those all day. Stoneblade was a rough match, even though the UW guy got ridiculously lucky. But good for him. I also just sided incorrectly for the matches that I lost (except Merfolk, that was a mulligan issue). I need a repeatable way to kill artifacts, though I probably could have recovered from any blade except something that gives pro-red. Oh, and eats literally any one of my guys. Oh, and draws him a card. Yeah…
I had a great time and met some great folks. There’s a shop where people play Legacy at on Wednesday nights here in town, so I can start getting some regular play time in, and that’s really cool. Shout-out to you cats here in the Metro East area and the guys from Indy. You’re great guys and I look forward to gaming in the future.
Questions, comments, criticism are encouraged.
EDIT:
Quote:
Originally Posted by
GoboLord
//Mana [21]
4 Wastes
2 Ports
4 Caverns
11 Mountains
//Core [22]
...
//Others [17]
4 Piledriver
3 MWM
1 Skirk Prospector
3 Gempalms
2 Stinger
2 Lightning Bolt
2 Dismember
What sideboard are you running and for what expected meta?
Re: [Deck] Vial Goblins 2.0
Quote:
Originally Posted by
GoboLord
Sure, Skirk Popper DOES enable ridiculous moves, but that's not where you should see him. Skirk Prospector (1-of) alongside with 2 SGCs is all you need to fight Jitte. If you are up against Maverick or Stoneblade just make sure you get one of them to stick on the board as soon as possible.
However, my decklist is rarely featuring less than 7-8 spotremoval - this relatively high number adds up to the effectiveness of the aforementioned strategy against Jitte. So, fighting Jitte only with "block-sac" effects might not work out well for you if you are running less spotremoval.
That's what I found: For spot removal I only play gempalm incinerator (and stingscourger, if you count that), not Tarfire or Warren Weirding or Pyrokinesis, so by the time I played Sharpshooter or Mogg Fanatic or Prospector or even Siege Gang Jitte would just kill it immediately anyway.
Re: [Deck] Vial Goblins 2.0
Is Rishadan Port still an auto-include in these decks? I'm seeing more and more lists that are skipping port altogether.
Re: [Deck] Vial Goblins 2.0
My actual List:
Lands
4 [TE] Wasteland
4 [AVR] Cavern of Souls
3 [MM] Rishadan Port
10 [IN] Mountain (4)
// Creatures
4 [LE] Gempalm Incinerator
4 [M10] Goblin Chieftain
3 [SC] Goblin Warchief
4 [7E] Goblin Matron
2 [ON] Goblin Piledriver
4 [AP] Goblin Ringleader
4 [US] Goblin Lackey
1 [M10] Siege-Gang Commander
1 [WWK] Tuktuk Scrapper
1 [PLC] Stingscourger
1 [ON] Goblin Sharpshooter
1 [CHK] Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 [ON] Skirk Prospector
1 [M13] Krenko, Mob Boss
1 [TSP] Mogg War Marshal
1 [TE] Mogg Fanatic
// Spells
4 [DS] AEther Vial
1 [LRW] Tarfire
// Sideboard
SB: 1 [PLC] Stingscourger
SB: 4 [ZEN] Mindbreak Trap
SB: 2 [AT] Pyrokinesis
SB: 1 [MI] Goblin Tinkerer
SB: 1 [5E] Pyroblast
SB: 2 [LRW] Thorn of Amethyst
SB: 2 [ALA] Relic of Progenitus
SB: 2 [NPH] Surgical Extraction
I wnet back to playing ports and no Winstigator, because they improve the combo MU.
I just tested the Krenkos and i think as part of the toolbox it's good, but if we go up to 3 or for we have to build or deck around it. This might be the way to go, but the problem i had with the tokens was that they don't fly!
This sound stupid, but vs delvers, or even affinity you can still lose with 10 tokens out just because you are one round too late.
I think having a 4 mana bomb is still cool, because you can just go Matron--Krenko explode.
I am not sure if i should play the War Marshall at all in my build. Perhaps adding my 2nd Pilie is better, but pilie is always the first card which gets boarded out.
So what do you think?
Re: [Deck] Vial Goblins 2.0
Quote:
Originally Posted by
_Fortune_
Is Rishadan Port still an auto-include in these decks? I'm seeing more and more lists that are skipping port altogether.
No, Rishadan Port is no longer and Auto-Include. The format has gotten so quick that Port just isn't strong enough to be an auto-include. I'm NOT saying Port is unplayable (it's definitely still playable) but your MD needs to be built considering your Ports.
I myself have mostly given up on running Ports for the time being. Here's why:
First and foremost, they don't do as much as they used to. Against a deck like RUG Delver (AKA the Best Deck in the format) they will either be Wasted or responded to with instant speed effects (BS, Bolt). Cutting down your manabase by 2 per turn when the only benefit is making your opponent cast spells in their upkeep instead of mainphase just isn't worth it to me. This same argument applies against decks with Top, Miracles, etc.
Secondly, running Port requires you to have a larger manabase (22-23 lands with Port, 21-20 without), which means less threats in your deck. When you're facing a deck like like RUG Delver you're going to need that mana to do more interactive things.
Thirdly, with the printing of Cavern of Souls, Goblin's manabase has become a little shakier when it comes casting non-Goblin spells and activating Gempalms/SGCs. You can't cycle Gempalm with Caver + Port on the board, which might just cost you a game.
I've become a fan of a build with no Ports, a lower curve, more threats, and Wastes as the answer to land plans.
That all being said, the last Goblins deck to win a major event was packing 4 Ports. They're entirely viable still. Results speak for themselves.
Re: [Deck] Vial Goblins 2.0
7.5k Tournament this past weekend. I sleeved this 75:
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Wastelands
2 Rishadan Port
9 Mountain
2 Chrome Mox
4 Aether Vial
4 Goblin Lackey
4 Goblin Matron
4 Goblin Ringleader
1 Siege-Gang Commander
2 Goblin Piledriver
3 Warren Instigator
3 Goblin Warchief
3 Goblin Chieftain
1 Tuktuk Scrapper
2 Stingscourger
3 Gempalm Incinerator
1 Tarfire
1 Goblin sharpshooter
2 Krenko
1 Skirk Prospector
SB:
3 Pyrokinesis
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Graffdigger's Cage
2 Fearie Macabre
3 Red Elemental Blast
2 Pithing Needle
1 Chrome Mox
1 Tuktuk Scrapper
From my last tournament the only changes MD are: -1 SGC, -1 Kiki, -1Gempalm, +2 Krenko, +1 Prospector.
66 people, so 7 rounds. Here we go:
Round 1 – Dredge
Game 1: I mull a 1 lander. He opens with Looting, discarding Dredgers. I play Waste + Vial. He dredges, then Breaktroughs. I see his deck for the next turn, and scoop.
SB: +5 Grave-Hate, +3 Knesis, +1 Needle, +1 Mox, -1 Tuktuk, -1 Sting, -2 Gempalm,-1 Krenko, -1 Tarfire, -3 Ringleader, -1 Vial.
Game 2: I keep Lackey, Relic, Krenko, Knesis, 3 lands. I lead with Lackey. He with Careful Study. I play Relic, but make the mistake of passing the turn and pop in his Draw step. Krenko comes down. He dredges 1 Bridge and 2 Narcomoebas, so with thir trigger on the stack, I remove them. He had Putrid Imp + Study to keep going his turn. Fortunately, I draw Chieftain, cast it, and win on the next turn. His other 2 Moebas were in his hand.
Game 3: I mull and keep Relic, Instigator, Matron, Mox, 2 lands. He plays Study discarding 2 ggt. I draw a Gempalm, remove it for Mox, cast and pop Relic, getting Sting I guess. He play a 2nd land, and a 2nd Careful Study, discarding a dredger. I draw Faerie Macabre. Thanks god. I activate it, and he taps for…. Wait for it… STIFLE! Fuck. I play Matron for Ringleader, because needed some gas. His dredge is bad, and he pass. I draw Krenko, and decide to play it. He dredges bad again, but getting Therapies and Darkblast, but no Moebas or Ichorids. I draw the Prospector for the turn (lucky as hell), cast it, tap Krenko for 3 tokens, sac 1 + pay 3 mana for Ringleader, getting Matron and Chieftain. He I think I should have sacked 2 Tokens + Matron for Chieftain, and swung, but I simply attacked and passed. His turn he has to Dredge Darkblast to kill Prospector, and had a Therapy for my Chieftain. But I’m lucky as hell, draw another, and swing for lethal In 2 turns.
1-0
Round 2: NO RUG
Game 1: I mull on the play, keeping Piledriver, Chieftain, Matron, 3 lands. He plays noble, I pass. He Brainstorm, plays another land + Noble. I play Piledriver. He passes. I play Chieftain. He kill my 2 dudes with P.Fires, and passes. I play Skirk Prospector + Matron for Ringleader. Here I had Port untapped. He had 2 lands + 2 Nobles. I knew he was playing NO. The right move would be, in his upkeep, sac Matron and tap one of his lands with Port. I didn’t, and he played NO, not having a 3rd land. Had I done that, I would probably be able to race it, because my Ringleader next turn was pure gold.
SB: +3 Kinesis, +2 Relic, +1 Cage, -1 Gempalm, -1 Sting, -1 Prospector, -1 Tuktuk, -1 Chieftain, -1 Instigator.
Game 2: I keep I risky hand because wanted to know how it played out. 2 Ports, Piledriver, Shooter, Chieftain, Matron, Cage. T1 Cage. He plays land and pass. I draw Waste and Port him. He pass. I draw Mountain, Waste + Port him. He misses a land drop. I draw Cavern and play Chieftain, that is burned, then Matron for Ringleader. He start to hit every landdrop, even though another Waste, but his Brainstorms are bad, and he don’t find a shuffle effect (other than GSZ, that he cannot use).He manages to get a Goyf down, and hit me 2 or 3 times, but I have a Vial out that was ticking up, and keeping him of red now. My 1st Ringleader shows me nothing. Despite that, him + Chieftain + a Piledriver brought him down to 5 while Goyf was tapped. We reach a point where there were no good attacks, so we both pass. He kills some guys, and I play other dudes. When I had Ringleader, Lackey and Instigator, I draw a Ringleader, that gets me: Tadaaaa! Tarfire. 1 card. Well, that was actually enough. I attack, and he had 1 Goy and 1 Clique to block only, while all R sources were tapped, so he has to take at least 5 dmg. He show me his hand with a burn, GSZ and NO…
(this game I actually waste my Krenko, opening it for removal. There was an alternative, where I’d force removal on a Piledriver or Warchief, while still having Chieftain on hand, so bad play for my part. It would have been MUCH easier)
Game 3: I keep a Vial hand that resolves. Port T2, Port +Waste T3. With Vial@3 I decide to play Chieftain on his turn. He had a R source open, that my Port could not hold back. My turn I attack, and he burns it. I Matron safely for a Gempalm to kill his Dryad Arbor, and proceed to kill him slowly with a chain of ringleaders.
2-0
Round 3: Sneak and Show
Game 1: On the play, I keep an awesome hand of 2x Mountain, Cavern, Lackey, SGC, Ringleader, Chieftain. I cast Lackey. He plays Tomb, Petal + SnT. Nice. He gets Emmy. Ringleader from SnT reveal 2 useless guys. My draw? Stingscourger!!! Uncouterable due to Caverns. Hit with Lackey to get SGC, then he dies next turn I guess. He had counters and another SnT, but did not had another U source.
SB: +3 ReB, +2 Needle, +1 Mox, -1 Tuktuk, -1 SS, -1 Tarfire, -2 Gempalm, -1 Vial
Game 2 : He Ponders of basic Island. I play Vial. He play Tomb and SnT, getting Emrakul again. I had the Sting in my hand already this time. I draw a Pyroblast, play my 2nd land, and pass with Lackey on hand. He plays Petal, Petal, Sneak, attack for 15. I sac all my permanents. My turn I manage to get a Mox like a boss, and play it + Lackey. He passes. I hit and get Warchief, passing with Port. He passes. I hit, and a Matron finds Piledriver. He passes again. I found a Caverns, play Driver, and hit him to 1. He draws, and show me a hand with FoW, Fluster, Emrakul and a Scalding Tarn, that he just drew, but could not crack. Fuck I’m lucky.
3-0
Round 4: Teammate with Punishing Maverick. We decide to ID, but play 3 games for fun. I lose all 3.
3-0-1
Round 5: Canadian
Game 1: He plays Delver of Volcanic. I play Vial, that sticks. He blind flips it, and play Brainstorm + Waste. I decided to Waste. He did not had another land. Sting gets rid of Delver, and Goblins does what it can do with Vial.
SB: +2 Relic, +3 Knesis, +3 Pyroblast, -3 Instigator, -1 Krenko, -1 Scrapper, -1 SS, -1 Gempalm, -1 Piledriver.
Game 2: He plays a Mangoose. Mull andI play Lackey from Caverns. He offers the trade, and I take it. He plays another. I draw a bunch of bad cards: Gempalm, Vial, 2x Knesis, Pyro. His goose eats me. I never had a chance to properly block the thing without getting screwed for Bolt or Fire/Ice.
SB: -3 Knesis, +3 Instigator.
Game 3: I kill an early Delver, and get to resolve and Instigator due to Caverns. It dies to Fire/Ice, and Caverns get Wasted. 2 tunrs later, He foW’s a Matron, then FoW’s a Ringleader next turn, emptying my hand. He does not find a creature though, so I tick Vial to 3, and hold a Cavern on my hand. By this time I draw Warchief, having Krenko in my hand. I play Krenko of Cavern, and pass. If he has removal I can at least get 2 goblins from it. He doesn’t, and play Delver. I make 2 tokens, and hit. He plays Goose. I make 4 Tokens, and manage to win the race next turn with some more.
4-0-1
Round 5: SnT
I give a dumb ID. Don’t ask me why.
4-0-2
Round 6: Goblins
G1: I mull and keep 2x Lackey, SGC, Krenko, 2x lands. I play Lackey, he Tarfire’s it. I play the 2nd. He plays Vial, and Lackey connects. I decide to get SGC 1st. He plays a Chieftain (I had drawn a Gempalm, but had Cavern+Waste as mana). I draw a Mountain like a boss, use SGC to kill Chieftain, connect and get Krenko. Next turn he scoops to the beast.
SB: +3 Knesis, -1 Sting, -1 Piledriver, -1 Instigator.
G2: I keep 2x Ringleader, Kinesis, 3 Mountains (6). He just passes. I draw Vial. He plays Instigator. I draw a Mox =(. He plays Warchief, I kill them both with Kinesis. I draw a Sting, and decide to remove it for Mox, and get Ringleader faster. It gets some juice. He Matron for Ringleader. I play Krenko, with Vial @3, and only Matron in hand. He plays Ringleader, finding Warchief, SS and SGC. Crap. I Matron eot and think hard. How do I kill him? I could get Ringleader, for more gas, Gempalm, to get his Shooter and find more cards, but decided to go for Chieftain. I draw Lackey, Vial Chieftain, make 5 tokens, and hit. He goes to 7. He plays Warchief and SGC, getting tapped out. I draw another Chieftain, and crush him with 2x Chieftains, Ringleader, Lackey, and 14 tokens. He said “yeah, I have to buy some of those now…”
5-0-2
Top 8: GW Maverick.
Game 1: I mull to 6, keeping 2 Mountain, Instigator, Chieftain, Gempalm, Warchief. He T1 GSZ for Arbor. I play Gator (drew Piledriver). He plays Stoneforge for Jitte, with Dryad still up. I draw Wasteland, and think I made a mistake. I had some options here:
1 – Attack, and see how he blocks. If he chose to block with Arbor, I could play Warchief or Waste a Savana, leaving him with 1 mana only. If he blocked with Stoneforge, I could Kill stone with Gempalm, and leave Instigator alive, or trade gator for Stone, Gempalm Dryad, and Waste dual or play Warchief.
2 – Play Chieftain and hit with both. This way he would block Instigator with either Dryad, which should be fine, since he would not be able to equip Jitte next turn, or block with Stone, leaving him with only 3 lands, one being dryad, me with 2 guys, and him not being able to equip + swing next turn.
I made the crappiest decision: Attacked. He blocked with Stoneforge, and I gempalmed it, drawing something bad, then I Wasted the Dryad. He untapped, played land + Relicary, and I did not found a 3rd land again. Damn. What would you guys have done in this situation? (his other 2 lands by then were Forest and Savahna).
SB: +3 Knesis, +2 Relic, +1 Tuktuk, +1 Needle, -1 Sting, -2 Piledriver, -2 Chieftain, -2 Instigator.
Game 2: I mull to 5, keeping Lackey x2, Cavern, Warchief, Knesis. I lead with Lackey, him with Mom. I drew Matron, Kinesis the mom with Warchief, hit, and Matron for Krenko, playing Lackey #2. He plays Stone I guess. I hit and get Krenko, playing Vial. He plays Noble. I pass. He gets that Flashy elf, then Jitte gets some counters. He remove both for the 2nd and 3rd lackey I drew, but I get to 6 tokens, and hit him. He gets +2 counters, and I make more tokens. The turn jitte got to 3 counters, he also played and Engineered Explosives to wipe my board. Crap. Oh, and Waste for my lone Caverns, and Qasali for Vial, so I ended up basically with nothing. He did, however went to 2 one turn of the game. Quite good for a mull to 5, with only 1 land.
5-1-2
This last match was the only match I got to activate Krenko and lost, and mainly due to E.E. (well he did cast a Ghostly prision later, so that’s that…). I completely loved him.
This list was awesome, and there are only 2 things I want to do for the next tournament:
1 – Put another Basic Mountain in there. 9 is Way too greedy.
2- Put a 2nd Cage on the SB. Got impressed of how good it was against NO RUG, and how good it could be against Dredge.
Other than that, thanks for reading. Any comments are appreciated.
