[Deck] Goblins

Has anyone else gotten frustrated with dorks like DRS pwning Lackey and Abrupt Decay pwning Vial and thought about ditching the Vial Goblins strategy for an all-aggro port from Modern?

I've been playing around with this tentative list. Numbers not perfected yet.

4 Goblin Guide
3 Goblin Bushwhacker
3 Mogg Fanatic
2 Legion Loyalist

4 Mogg War-Marshall
4 Goblin Piledriver
3 Stingscourger

4 Goblin Chieftain
2 Goblin Warchief

4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
3 Goblin Grenade

2 Mutavault
4 Cavern of Souls
14 Mountain (or some fetches, mountains and duals if splashing for SB cards)

Ideal Goldfish goes something like this:
T1 1-drop
T2 War Marshall/Piledriver
T3 kicked Bushwhacker+Loyalist/Guide or Chieftain --> lots of damage
And then you have a ton of burn to finish them off.

There are a number of permutations that allow that plan to happen, so it's not entirely Magical Christmasland, and you also have a number of tools to interact with the opponent:

Multiple MD Stingscourger gets pesky Goyfs and other blockers out of the way, screws with Jitte, and otherwise gives you a nice tempo boost. Also randomly gives game 1 outs against Reanimator and other cheatyface.dec. All the haste enablers and Goblin Grenade mean you can actually get some value out of the body too.

Loyalist's first strike+trample turns Piledriver into a serious threat again. No more Piledriver running into brick walls and imploding. Loyalist + Pile + anything else is generally amazing.

Mogg Fanatic hasn't seen play in a while, but there are a lot of x/1s in the format. Takes out Delver, Lavamancer, Bob, Clique, Mom, mana guys, Bridge from Below, Sharpshooter, first striking Thalia, and a number of other problems. Good utility and another 1-drop.

Warchief is borderline useless beyond enabling haste... Maybe the 4th Bushwhacker and some number of Goblin King is better? That also enables Blood Moon out of the SB for Blood Moon + Goblin King LOLOLZ.

Anyway, this is a really rough list. I was just wondering if anyone else has considered switching to an aggro Goblins strategy to adjust to the format?

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Originally Posted by FTW

Anyway, this is a really rough list. I was just wondering if anyone else has considered switching to an aggro Goblins strategy to adjust to the format?

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Yes, this discussin came up a few times already and nobody sticked to this approach - for reason, I'd say.
What you built there simply has no advantages over any other Sligh/Burn/Zoo deck. You are playing and Mono R Aggro Deck with underpowered, overpriced creatures. Goblins can generally afford those creatures for 2 reasons:
(1) taking advantage of synergies
(2) manacheating (Vial, Lackey, Winstigator, Warchief)

Well, you turned down your synergies to minimum of 2 interactions (Goblin Grenade + X and Chieftain + X) and literally kicked all of your mana-cheating cards.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying "dont try this at home" or anything like that, but in my oppinion you can't use Goblins for this this all-in-red approach. I mean: in a vacuum, if neither Aether Vial or Goblin Lackey or Goblin Matron or Goblin RIngleader would exist and you would present this deck to anyone...their advice would be like
*cut the chieftains for Grim lavamancer
* cut Warchiefs for vexing devil
* cut piledrivers for Hellspark Elemental
...

Some 2 months ago there was this guy who tested a similar approach. Maybe you can search the thread for this guy and PM him on that topic.
After all, this is the Vial Goblins thread, a deck that is built around Lackey, Vial, Matron and Ringleader. I don't see the point of discussing any decklist that contains neither of those cards - at least not in this thread.

Been tossing around an idea of late about adding Root Maze to the deck. The reasoning being that you can damage the tempo of any deck running fetch lands and damage some Artifact decks too. Would be a sideboard card with Stomping Ground and Taiga making up part of the mana base. What are others thoughts on this? I mean some of us already splash green for Krosan Grip so I am wondering how this might work out.

Fair enough. Only brought it up because I remember this discussion surfacing some time back and, at the time, there was more optimism about the potential of a Modern port. I'll search for the guy.

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Well, you turned down your synergies to minimum of 2 interactions (Goblin Grenade + X and Chieftain + X) and literally kicked all of your mana-cheating cards.

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While this deck may not be playable, let's not go all hyperbole and make stuff up either. Tribal interactions also include Piledriver + Loyalist + cheaper goblins --> lots of unchumpable damage, Goblin King + Blood Moon --> evasion + manadenial, and Warchief + 1-mana hasty Piledriver/Marshall. Bushwhacker + War Marshall, while not strictly a tribal interaction, is also pretty nice. Goblin Guide + Grenade is also 7 damage out of nowhere for 2 mana. Most aggro decks cannot do that without sacrificing two mountains (opponent unlikely to pay the 4 life for Vexing Devil if that low). Also, manacheating is less important with a 1-3 sligh curve.

Is this strategy better than Burn? Unlikely. Is it strictly worse than burn? No, there are still interactions that allow some more explosive and versatile plays than Burn can manage.

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Originally Posted by GoboLord

(2) manacheating (Vial, Lackey, Winstigator, Warchief)

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This was the other point of my post. How effective are you guys finding that manacheating lately? My Vial Goblins has been running into a fair bit of opposition lately.
(Core 26 -1 Pile +3 Gempalm +2 Chieftain +1 Sting +1 Tuktuk +1 Kiki + 1 War-Marshall + 1 Sharpshooter +1 Prospector + 2 Tarfire. 3 Caverns and 2 Ports)

The problem is that if Lackey/Vial/WInstigator get stopped, you get stuck with all this slow stuff in hand. Yeah, our card advantage and utility are amazing, but not so much when we're paying full mana for them....

Don't you find that, with Abrupt Decay everywhere, the format has more answers for Vial than it used to? Most decks did not run MD artifact removal before (aside from Pridemage and Deed), which made ticking up Vial to cheat out 3-drops and 4-drops a "vialable" strategy. But now it's becoming more likely that Vial will die before it gives much value.

As for Lackey and WInstigator, how often are they connecting on the first hit against decks that play fairly? Lately I'm getting most of my connections against combo/reanimator/etc where they don't really care about what you drop. It's been a while since I've stuck a turn 2 Lackey connection against a fair deck. DRS being a 1/2 is pretty ridiculous.

How are you guys dealing with this meta shift?

Pendelhaven is one idea, but it seems really anti-synergetic for everything other than forcing Cheatyface through.

Chrome Mox is another. @ScatmanX, have you thought about running more than 1 Mox MD?

I suppose 4 MD Bolt works too. Is that doing enough to clear away blockers?

On that note, how do you guys mulligan in game 1 against an unknown opponent? I have always mulled a 7-card hand unless it had red mana source + Vial/Lackey. Do you keep slower 7s now and rely less on sticking the turn 1 accelerant? Or is that still Plan A, despite the greater resistance?

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Originally Posted by FTW

Chrome Mox is another. @ScatmanX, have you thought about running more than 1 Mox MD?

I suppose 4 MD Bolt works too. Is that doing enough to clear away blockers?

On that note, how do you guys mulligan in game 1 against an unknown opponent? I have always mulled a 7-card hand unless it had red mana source + Vial/Lackey. Do you keep slower 7s now and rely less on sticking the turn 1 accelerant? Or is that still Plan A, despite the greater resistance?

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1 - 2 Chrome Mox MD:
http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...l=1#post658617
http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...City-(Goblins)
There were linked on the primer. Some questions you're asking are answered there.

2 - The deck also plays Gempalms and Stingscourger

3 - I tend to keep some hands without Vial/Lackey if it have a Bolt/Tarfire. On the Play, Instigator/Warmarchall are ok too, not Piledriver. (against unknown opponent)

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Originally Posted by FTW

On that note, how do you guys mulligan in game 1 against an unknown opponent? I have always mulled a 7-card hand unless it had red mana source + Vial/Lackey. Do you keep slower 7s now and rely less on sticking the turn 1 accelerant? Or is that still Plan A, despite the greater resistance?

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I don't think that's a luxury that goblins you can afford in Legacy. Last six round tournament (+one top eight match) I've played resulted in me taking 16 mulligans. If you can't force them to interact with you during the first couple of turns you are often too far behind. (free Time Walks anyone?)

Played my Rgw list in another local last night. Went 3-0

4 Vial
4 Lackey
2 Warren Instigator
4 Piledriver
1 Stingscourger
2 Tarfire
3 Gempalm
1 Sharpshooter
3 Warchief
1 Chieftain
4 Matron
4 Ringleader
2 SGC

3 Rancor

4 Waste
4 Cavern
4 Mountain
1 Karakas
2 Taiga
2 Plateau
5 Fetch

SB
3 Chalice-o-the-Void
3 Thalia
3 Pyrokinesis
3 Rest in Peace
2 K-Grip
1 TSH

R1 BW TinFins
My opponent is new to Legacy, but says he plays a lot of Standard. He seems deliberate in his shuffling and nearly shouts "Cut!" when presenting his deck after shuffling, so he seems to be taking this fairly seriously. He wins the dice roll and contemplates his 7 while I look at a pretty shitty 7. He announces "Do nothing. Pass." Whoa there buddy. Ya gotta give me a chance to mull first. Maybe he's a little nervous. The game's a gimme. He does nothing, and I have T1 Lackey. The only cards I see from him are Swamp and 2 Raven's Crime. I would have put him on a recursive gy deck, something with Worm Harvest and LftL, but I noticed him counting out loud while he looked at his hand that game. That's a tell-tale sign of combo. I don't really know what kind of combo he's playing so I side out the Rancors and bring in Thalias.
Game 2 Starts with him discarding Grizz t1. I have an opening hand with Karakas, which I obviously play T1. I also have Vial and Stingscourger in hand. He reanimates Grizz T2 and draws 14 cards. I bounce Grizz. He reads Karakas. I then play Vial and click it up to 2 and leave it there so i always have the Stingscourger backup and I take my inevitable win.
1-0

R2 UR Delver
G1 we both mull to 5, so I win. It's always fun getting in hand-pissing matches when you're on goblins. You generally have many more ways to refill your hand than your opponent. I was on the play and led with Land, Go. My opponent played a Delver. I played T2 Land, Piledriver. His delver didn't flip T2 but he played a land. T3 I had the Gempalm in hand and knew it was now or never to kill the Delver. I attacked, baiting out the Fire removal on Driver, and I Gempalmed Delver in response to the Fire. I wound up playing a LAckey with nothing in hand to cheat in, but played a Rancor on the Lackey that helped me actually put on a clock. W. For game 2 i decided I really needed Pyrokinesis more than Rancor.
G2 I mulled to 5 but he kept his 7. He played 2 Delvers and I Pyro'd them. but I was stuck on lands and he got there.
G3 I kept a 1-land hand with a T1 Vial. Vial resolved and I rode it the the W.
2-0

R3 UB Tezzeret Control
G1 I Mulled to 5 again! I was on the draw. My opponent played t1 land, Relic. I played land. He played a mana-artifact T2. i played land, Winstigator. He played T3 Tezz and turned Relic into a 5/5. I had Rancor and SGC in hand, so I was going to Rancor my Winny, attack through this 5/5 Relic, cheat in SGC, and shoot Tezz with SGC to off the planeswalker, then re-play Rancor. Of course my oppoenent had to be a jerk about it and Force my Rancor in the first place then win the game. Jerk.
G2 I sided out the Rancors and brought in 2 KGrip and 1 TSH. This game was prety stupid. i played a bunch of goblins. He started getting going too. I played a Warchief and was attacking away. Then I drew a now useless TSH. I was bummed that I couldn't play him for value due to the Warchief, but then I thought 'Fuck it- I'm on the beat-down plan anyway, not control.' So I just cast TSH for R and won by attacking more.
G3 Was pretty tricky. He had me at 4 life with a couple 5/5 artifacts and a Baleful Strix and Tezz @ 1 AND that stupid 0/4 that lets you pay 2 life to redirect an effect to him from another target. I couldn't let him go to the next turn in that position because he'll just make Strix 5/5 and kill me in the air. But I can't hit Strix with removal because he of the 0/4 redirect fellow. But, Strix and the 0/4 are his only blockers and I've built a decent horde. I Matron for TSH and cast it and target Strix. He redirect the effect to the 0/4. 1 blocker. No spot removal in his deck that I've seen, so I attack him with Lackey and Tezz with Piledriver. I have SGC in hand. Strix trades with Lackey, Pile kills Tezz. His turn. I have enough blockers so he can't attack. He casts Jace and brainstorms. He puts back his 2. Time is called on the round. He passes the turn. I hardcast SGC and Vial in a Chieftain. I move to swing with everything since that will be enough to kill him and I don't fear instant speed spot removal, but I hesitate because this means I'm dead to his 5/5's if he has an effect that keeps him alive until next turn. My opponent sees my hesitation. "It's only T1, " he says (of extra turns). Fuck it. I swing with everything. He dies and shows me the Damnation he put back on top with Jace.
3-0

I split and went home. Fun night.

@ Dice_Box:
I added Root Maze to the "to-be-tested" section in the opening post, since I think that card has high potential. However, I don't find it good enough as a SB card against any deck that we currently want to beat. The problem I see here is that after T4 the card is a blank draw. Well, maybe someone can test that one out and tell us what'S the deal with it.

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Originally Posted by Avatara

I don't think that's a luxury that goblins you can afford in Legacy. Last six round tournament (+one top eight match) I've played resulted in me taking 16 mulligans. If you can't force them to interact with you during the first couple of turns you are often too far behind. (free Time Walks anyone?)

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THIS is so true, my friend.

@ Jon:
Congrats on the great finish. Nice to see (or rather: know) you playing magic again.
Could you share your thoughts on Rancor with us?

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Originally Posted by ScatmanX

1 - 2 Chrome Mox MD:
http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...l=1#post658617
http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...City-(Goblins)
There were linked on the primer. Some questions you're asking are answered there.

2 - The deck also plays Gempalms and Stingscourger

3 - I tend to keep some hands without Vial/Lackey if it have a Bolt/Tarfire. On the Play, Instigator/Warmarchall are ok too, not Piledriver. (against unknown opponent)

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Thanks for the links. I've read the primer and many of the tournament reports. It is a great primer, no doubt, but it's more of how to play the deck in general than how to tweak it to address the current meta (what I'm asking about), particularly all the BGx decks.

Turn 2 Gempalm does not kill DRS or SFM :(. Stingscourger works but is awkward (especially on SFM) unless you're cheating out a SGC or Ringleader with that attack. I suppose that's where Tarfire/Bolt come in.

Basically, you guys are saying it is not worth doing any radical shifts to the strategy and some of you are still putting up decent results with these lists. Ok.

I really like the potential of Rancor for forcing those triggers through. JRW, how do you find that card? I notice you sided it out every time.

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Originally Posted by FTW

Thanks for the links. I've read the primer and many of the tournament reports. It is a great primer, no doubt, but it's more of how to play the deck in general than how to tweak it to address the current meta (what I'm asking about), particularly all the BGx decks.

Turn 2 Gempalm does not kill DRS or SFM :(. Stingscourger works but is awkward (especially on SFM) unless you're cheating out a SGC or Ringleader with that attack. I suppose that's where Tarfire/Bolt come in.

Basically, you guys are saying it is not worth doing any radical shifts to the strategy and some of you are still putting up decent results with these lists. Ok.

I really like the potential of Rancor for forcing those triggers through. JRW, how do you find that card? I notice you sided it out every time.

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- If you think you'll face a lot of bug/jund/junk decks, than Mox is a bad idea, since the CA disadvantage will hurt you a lot.

- Didn't realised you were talking about 1cc removal. Well, I don't think the deck need them. Bolts/Tarfire/Dismember/StP are great, but goblins don't really NEED it to win, otherwise there would be no succesfull lists without those. I just like having that cheap removal and reach right now. You don't have to kill a T1-2 DRS or SFM, but sometimes it does help.

- Radical shifts are nice. We welcome them. But the sligh approach of goblins have been tested a lot already, and concenssus is that it is not worth it. You lose the part that makes goblins good, and end up playing a slightly worse tier 2 deck...

- I too like Rancor and would like to see Jon playing more with it. He sided them out because: 1 - TinFins. Rancor does nothing; 2 - UR Delver. The deck has ton of removal, and the possibility to get yourself 2-1ed is huge. Also, his creatures don't usually block, so Rancor would be just a +2/+0 card. 3 - Tezz. Rancor does next to nothing again, though is good against Strix. I'd consider leaving a couple in considering he doesen't have much spot removal. Maybe in place of the Tarfres in his list.

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Originally Posted by GoboLord

@ Jon:
Congrats on the great finish. Nice to see (or rather: know) you playing magic again.
Could you share your thoughts on Rancor with us?

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Originally Posted by FTW

I really like the potential of Rancor for forcing those triggers through. JRW, how do you find that card? I notice you sided it out every time.

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Originally Posted by ScatmanX

- I too like Rancor and would like to see Jon playing more with it. He sided them out because: 1 - TinFins. Rancor does nothing; 2 - UR Delver. The deck has ton of removal, and the possibility to get yourself 2-1ed is huge. Also, his creatures don't usually block, so Rancor would be just a +2/+0 card. 3 - Tezz. Rancor does next to nothing again, though is good against Strix. I'd consider leaving a couple in considering he doesen't have much spot removal. Maybe in place of the Tarfres in his list.

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Scatman is pretty much on the money about why I decided to side it out each round. R3 I also sided it out because i was siding in 2 KGrip and 1 TSH against an Artifact deck, so I was pretty much getting 3 pieces of spot removal.

Rancor has been interesting. I like it in the MD, but it does get sided out all the time. I really like the surprise value it adds G1. I like that it turns Winstigator into a game-breaking brute. But when I see it getting flipped by Ringleader I gotta think 'That could have been a Tarfire or Legion Loyalist'. That gives me some doubt about running it at all.

I started running Rancor because I wanted a tool to get Lackey past Squires, specifically T1 DRS. However, DRS has taken a huge dip in popularity of late. I saw more combo decks on Thursday night than DRS decks (3:2) which begs the question "Why am I running Rancor MD instead of Thalia?" I think an argument for running Rancor over Thalia is that Rancor gives you more game against more of the field. While Thalia is only going to make your deck better against Combo, Rancor makes it better against Aggro AND Control, so Rancor seems like the better MD option.

After SB though things get strange, because Rancor is supposed to improve your game against decks like Jund and RUG Delver G1. Unfortunately, you have Rest in Piece in the SB which is much better against DRS and Goyf and Goose than Rancor is. And RiP and Rancor are very dissynergistic. You don't ever want to be running both at the same time. Rancor also isn't great with Pyrokinesis. Pyro makes you board out bodies you could connect Rancor to, and Rancor cannot be pitched to cast Pyro. Rancor and Chalice don't get along either. A lot of your best SB cards make Rancor worse, so it's natural to side Rancor out. It also makes sense to side out Rancor a lot just because you don't want to dilute your Goblin count, which starts to happen when you leave Rancors in.

But Rancor still seems like a pretty good card G1. I'm going to keep playing it for a while. I like they way my deck is currently configured. I've yet to even resolve rancor on a T1 lackey. It keeps coming down T3 on Winstigators (which is indeed awesome). There are many game-1's where I hope to topdeck it.

I can't say for certain yet whether or not Rancor should be in the deck because I just don't play enough Magic. 6 rounds a week is not enough playtesting to come to a proper decision.

This past week I played...
Lands 2-1
Death and Taxes 0-2
Rock 1-2
TinFins 2-0
UR Delver 2-1
UB Tezz 2-1

Tinfins and Lands were the only decks where Rancor didn't matter. In all the creature decks i thought it was a good addition. Ultimately it needs more testing, I think.

I've been testing the 4 badlands/4 hovel build online and its nice not having to fetch but with wastelands and caverns i really find myself wanting more basics. I might just drop the number of hovels to like 2 and add in a couple fetches. Running 22 land total at the moment.

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Originally Posted by markbris

I've been testing the 4 badlands/4 hovel build online and its nice not having to fetch but with wastelands and caverns i really find myself wanting more basics. I might just drop the number of hovels to like 2 and add in a couple fetches. Running 22 land total at the moment.

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I have seen this done in a mirror match. It does not work as well as you would think. The issue is not that you don't benefit from having the land, you do, the issue is that half your mana is at risk to Wasteland. If your playing against Pox or a mirror goblins your going to have a hell of a time keeping your mana in the table. Hell it will make taxes harder to play against than they are already. But if it works go for it. But I have seen that mana line up bite a player quite hard. Just keep that in mind.

Props to Scatman's latest list, the one with one Chrome Mox main.

Made a couple tweaks to fit my preferences and ended up on top of the swiss after 5 rounds today. Went 4-0-1 then lost immediately the top 4.

Swiss
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Goblins: 2-1
UWr Miracles: 2-0
UBr Storm: 2-1
Hive Mind: ID (2-1 played out for funsies)
Reanimator: 2-1

Top 4
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Hive Mind again: 1-2
Dead Guy: 1-2 (3rd & 4th played out)

List was -1 Mountain, +1 Port. -3 Instigators, +2 Goblin Settler, +1 TukTuk Scrapper. Different SB.

Learned the hard way that Chalice does not do what I wanted against Hive Mind Pacts. Oops! :eek:

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Originally Posted by GoblinSettler

List was -1 Mountain, +1 Port. -3 Instigators, +2 Goblin Settler, +1 TukTuk Scrapper. Different SB.

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Why would you take our Instigator in a deck with Goblin Settler? Settler is not a good card on its own. It needs to be combined with Kiki-Jiki for the win, and the best way to do that afak is Instigator + Matron.

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Originally Posted by Hof

Why would you take our Instigator in a deck with Goblin Settler? Settler is not a good card on its own. It needs to be combined with Kiki-Jiki for the win, and the best way to do that afak is Instigator + Matron.

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I agree that Instigator + Matron is a great way to grab Kiki-Jiki and something to combo with it. On the other hand, I have not had many good results while running Instigator and rate it as one of the weaker cards in the deck. So, given that I somewhat recently picked up a second Goblin Settler and really wanted to play two, Instigator is where I made the cut.

I would not take my usage of it as an endorsement. It is kind of a pet card.

I do see that by running Chrome Mox, you have a chance of turn one Instigator which is clearly better than a turn two Instigator. Also, they're kind of bonus Lackeys in a meta with lots of removal and blockers. If I had more opportunities to play, I would have run the three Instigators to test them out. They do seem good right now. In the event today, there were several games where I was trying to race combo. An early Instigator could have been the real deal.

On the Goblin Settler side of things, there were two games where hitting Goblin Settler mattered. There were one or two where I had it in hand, but it would not have mattered. You could make an argument for other forms of resource denial being just as effective. Wastes, Ports. But Settler was what I had in hand. I often run Settler as a one-of. Having a second meant it was drawn naturally more often. Fitting two meant making cuts elsewhere though. I don't think two is the right number in an optimal list. But it is fun. For me.

Hey there,

I'm just back from a small GPT (~20 people) in Nijmegen

No detailed report this time, sorry. But here are the facts and some toughts on my decklist:

//Mana [22]
4 Cavern, 4 Waste, 4 Ports
9 Mountain
1 Snow-Covered Mountain

//Core [22]
-4 Warchiefs

//Others [16]
4 Goblin Chieftain
3 Mogg War Marshal
3 Gempalm Incinerator
4 Tarfire
1 Stingscourger
1 Dismember

//Sideboard [15]
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Mindbreak Trap
3 Relic of Progenitus
2 Boartusk Liege
1 Goblin King
1 Tuktuk Scrapper

Round 1: Steven with RUG Thresh [2-0]
Round 2: Ture with RUG Niv-Magus-Elemental/Kiln Fiend.dec [2-0]
Round 3: Alan with BUG-Ctrl [2-0]
Round 4: Bas with Homebrew-Ctrl [1-2]
Round 5: Aniel with BW Aggro [2-0]
Top 8: Roy with RUG Thresh [1-2]

Rounds 4 & 5 were officially "I.D."s for strategical reason - we played the games out for fun though. I ended up 1st after swiss, getting 5 boosters only to get kicked out of T8.

Thoughts
* Tarfire > Lightning Bolt
* Wanted to have Relic #4, but I don't own it. Filled this slot with Goblin King
* Goblin King was admittedly good. I might stick to him
* Chalice + MBTs were not sided in once (due to lack of combo-MUs). However, I won't kick them since I really don't need the SB-slots anyway
* I'm thinking about cutting Dismember, don't know what I should run instead. Maybe a Lightning Bolt?
* I did a last-minute change and replace my original Dismember #2 with a Stingscourger, which was a good idea.

I could be missing something but your decklist is only 56 cards? What were the other 4? Piledriver?

I see 22 mana, 18 core with the 4 warchiefs out, and 16 others.

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Originally Posted by GoboLord

//Mana [22]
4 Cavern, 4 Waste, 4 Ports
9 Mountain
1 Snow-Covered Mountain

//Core [22]
4 Vial
4 Lackey
4 Piledriver
(-4 Warchiefs)
4 Matron
4 Ringleader
2 Siege-Gang Commander

//Others [16]
4 Goblin Chieftain
3 Mogg War Marshal
3 Gempalm Incinerator
4 Tarfire
1 Stingscourger
1 Dismember

//Sideboard [15]
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Mindbreak Trap
3 Relic of Progenitus
2 Boartusk Liege
1 Goblin King
1 Tuktuk Scrapper

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//Edit:
@markbris: Don't quite get your point, but I edited the decklist.

//Edit#2:
Now I understand what you meant. I counted Piledrivers as being part of the 26 core cards. So 26 core cards - 4 Warchief makes 22.

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Originally Posted by GoboLord

Tarfire > Lightning Bolt

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I think it is wrong to state this. It is especially wrong if it's based only in the few rounds you played last tournament. Probably you have playtested it a lot, but I'm saying this because I often see tournament reports ending with "this is better than that" or "this is useless", and so on. It's only to remind that every card needs to be playtested a lot and against different decks, and some cards can't even be compared, such as (this is my personal opinion) tarfire and lightning bolt. Neither of them is strictly better than the other, because sometimes you could need to tutor for tarfire or you'd be happy to draw it off ringleader, but other times you just need that one more damage from lightning bolt. I think in the end it's just a question of personal taste ( I prefer tarfire aniway ).


Speaking about removal spells, I was thinking about our deck these days. Over the years it has almost reached perfection, because we have almost all the cards we need for every casting mana cost. The 2 drops and 3 drops slots are filled,as well with the 4+ slots where we have several choices.
I just think it would be nice to have another one cost drop, because we now have only lackey, vial and possibly a single prospector.

I also think we need a better removal spell,because we all know the pros and cons of cards like gempalm,tarfire,bolt, and so on. In particular,we all know that our deck needs a high goblin count to work, but I understood that it also needs a high CREATURE count. The less removal i can play, the more i am happy, because every creature in the deck make the other work better. Assuming this, the only very good removal we have at the moment is Gempalm, since it is a goblin and It replaces itself when used, so that we can draw other creatures from it. For the same reason, in the past i used to run mogg fanatics over tarfire/bolts, but I have to admit that only one damage is not enough.

So,according to the statements I made ( need a one drop, need a better removal), I really would like wizard to print an upgrade of mogg fanatic. They printed the upgrade of raging goblin with legion loyalist, but we really don't need loyalist in the deck. It can be useful in some situations with piledriver, but most of the time it's a bad card.
So wizard, why don't you print this?

Shocking Goblin :
R
Sacrifice shocking goblin to deal 2 damages to target creature or player.
1/1.

Or , if it would be too broken (which I don't think):
R
Sacrifice shocking goblin to deal 2 damages to target creature.
2/1.

They recently printed bombs like deathrite shaman and thalia, so I'm not asking too much. And god knows how I wish thalia was a goblin :)