Hello fellow Chieftains,
I played our monthly event yesterday and this is the short report.
Result: 4-1 after 5 rounds, 27 players
Changes to the decklist since my last event:
MD: -2 Blood Moon, + 2 Warping Wail (I boarded Blood Moon out every game and I still need to test Warping Wail)
SB: -1 Stingscourger, -1 Goblin Settler, -1 Relich of Progenitus, +2 Blood Moon, +1 Grafdigger’s Cage
MANA (23)
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Wasteland
4 Rishadan Port
1 Snow-Covered Mountains
10 Mountain
4 Aether Vial
4 Goblin Lackey
4 Goblin Piledriver
4 Goblin Matron
4 Ringleader
4 Goblin Chieftain
3 Gempalm Incinerator
3 Mogg War Marshal
1 Stingscourger
1 Krenko, Mob Boss
1 Skirk Prospector
2 Warping Wail
2 Pyrokinesis
Sideboard (15)
3 Pithing Needle
3 Blood Moon
3 Goblin Sharpshooter
1 Tuktuk Scrapper
2 Relic of Progenitus
3 Grafdigger’s Cage
http://magiccards.info/scans/de/ogw/9.jpg
R1: Amadeus with Eldrazi (2-1)
[on the draw]
G1: Amadeus goes first with Thorn of Amethyst on T1. I drop a Mountain on my turn and pass back. My opponent plays Eye of Ugin and casts Thought-Knot Seer – I respond to the triggered ability by casting Pyrokinesis (pitching Stingscourger). He removes Goblin Piledriver, leaving me with only Aether Vial, Gempalm Incinerator and a few lands. On my turn I draw Krenko, cast Aether Vial and pass the turn. On the next turn I draw Lackey and use RIshadan Port in his upkeep. Amadeus drops Cavern of Souls and casts Endless One for X=3. At EOT I put Lackey into play with Vial. On my next turn I put Mogg War Marshal into play, cycle Gempalm Incinerator to destroy Endless One, attack with Lackey and put Krenko into play and the game is decided.
W
-2 Warping Wail, -2 Goblin Piledriver, +3 Blood Moon, +1 Tuktuk Scrapper
G2: I mull to 5 without any R manasource. Amadeus goes for Eldrazi Mimic on T1 and Reality Smasher on turn 3.
L
G3: In game 3 I lock him out with Rishadan Ports and Wasteland. Blood Moon was useless in this game as he had 5 Basic Wastes on the table. At some point I cast Ringleader, Piledriver and something else and let him have his 5 mana for the next turn. He uses this opportunity to cast
Walker of the Wastes. Unfortunately Walker of the wastes dies to an attacking Piledriver + Gempalm Incinerator. The game is over on the next turn.
W
http://magiccards.info/scans/de/bfz/120.jpg
R2: Falk with bUrg Delver (aka 4c Delver) (2-1)
[on the draw]
G1: The first game is a real grindfest, where we deplete each other’s resources. It comes to a point where bioth of us are in topdeck mode, but Falk has Gurmag Angler attacking into chumpblockers. I lose the game when Falk resolves
Painful Truths.
L
-2 Warping Wail, +2 Relic of Progenitus
G2: I open with Lackey, Falk plays Deathrite Shaman. I cast Relic of Progenitus on my turn 2 which he seems to dislike a lot. On my turn 3 I cast Chieftain, attack with both and connect into Ringleader. The game ends shortly thereafter.
W
G3: Falk Thoughtseizes me on T1 and discards Piledriver, seeing 2 Lackeys and Mogg War Marshal. Multiple Mogg War Marshals take over the game.
W
http://magiccards.info/scans/en/ia/367.jpg
R3:André with bUrg Delver (aka 4c Delver) (2-0)
[on the play]
G1: I take one hit from his 4/5 Goyf before I can hide behide my Mogg War Marshals. At some point I cast Pyrokinesis for 3 damage on Goyf and 1 damage on Delver of Secrets, then cycle Gempalm Incinerator for 2 damage. From that point onwards it goes downhill for André.
W
-2 Warping Wail, +2 Relic of Progenitus
G2: The next game is a close one. I build up a boardposition with 2 Mogg War Marshal, but instead of chumping, I use the openings that his Goyf gives me to attack him. I am at 10 life when André casts
Fire Covenant for 6 life. At this point I still hold a Ringleader in hand, so I can quickly recover – stall the board and eventually overwhelm him.
W
http://magiccards.info/scans/de/avr/38.jpg
R4:Tobias with Miracles (0-2)
[on the play]
G1: Before the game starts I tell him that it’s about time for my loss against Miracles, just to keep the statistic just below the 90% winrate. I go first with Caverns, Lackey go (keeping Krenko, Vial and Gempalm and 2 lands in hand). On turn 2 Lackey connects into Krenko, I cast Vial and pass the turn. For the rest of the game I draw Chieftain and other than that only spells and lands. Entreat the Angels for 4 tokens was enough to beat that. During the game I tried to counter his Terminus with Warping Wail, but that just re-activated the otherwise dead Force of Will in his hand.
L
-2 Warping Wail, -2 Pyrokinesis, +1 Tuktuk Scrapper, +3 Pithing Needle
G2: We play the usual Goblin-vs.-Miracles game. At the relevant turn and @1 Life he finds Moat. At this point I have 3 Vials in play (@2,3 and 4 counter respectively) and a Matron in hand. I am about to concede, but instead I put Matron into play to search my library for a card that could still win me the game. I found Tuktuk Scrapper, but Tobias didn’t have an artifact in play, so instead I revealed another Matron and passed the turn. Now all I needed was an artifact that I could actually destroy. My opponent seemed to help me with my plan by casting Pithing Needle (naming Rishadan Port). At EOT I tapped Vial for Matron into Tuktuk Scrapper, then put Tuktuk Scrapper into play with Vial. Tobias responded by destroying his own Pithing Needle with Wear//Tear.
L
http://magiccards.info/scans/de/pc/114a.jpg
R5: Jona with Canadian Threshold (2-1)
[on the play]
G1: I don’t remember much from this game. I do remember though that Aether Vial sticks on turn 1 and MWM + Gempalm Incinerator take care of his Insectile Abberation. After that I don’t take any damage for the rest of the game, which speaks for the defensive potential of MWM.
W
-2 Warping Wail, +2 Relic of Progenitus
G2: I keep a hand with Lackey, Piledriver, Gempalm Incinerator and 4 lands. I draw another Piledriver and only lands for the rest of the game.
L
G3: The last game was quite intense. My turn 1 Vial sticks and my manadenial does some work. At some point Jona has 2 Nimble Mongoose, 2 Lands (Tropical Island + Volcanic) and is tapped out. I have 4 creatures in play (Ringleader, Lackey, Mogg War Marshal and a Goblin token) as well as 2 Mountains, 1 Wastelands and 1 Aether Vial (@4).
PUZZLE TIME: What would you do here?
W
Conclusions
* the best card on that day was Mogg War Marshal. The card is awesome against Delver decks. The biggest threat in their deck is whatever large creature they are playing (Tarmogoyf or Gurmag Angler) because we can’t trade 1:1 with these creatures so easily. Delver and Deathrite Shamen (and to some extent Nimble Mongoose) will draw your removal or die to blockers. Our best bet against these large creatures is thus buying time whith chumpblocks until we have gathered the resources we need to beat them (mana, mana, mana and creatures). MWM is a timewalk in the ace of Tarmogoyf and Angler, while its low manacosts make him castable even if your opponent attacks your manabase. In addition to that it activates Gempalm Incinerator really well, when you need to have 2 goblins on board (even taking their removal spells into account) to kill Insectile Aberration and DRS.
* second best card of the day was Goblin Chieftain. There were mor situation than I can clearly remember where it’s +/+ ability made the difference (Round 3, G2 is just one – pretty classic – example why I like him so much).
* just as last time, I got the feeling that the list had some pretty weak draws and was lacking gas. Maybe additional bombs, like Krenko, SGC or Kiki-Jiki can fix this.
* Rishadan Ports finally pulled weight by destroying Eldrazis basically on their own (this MU is exactly the reason why I am playing them in the first place). On the other hand, there were multiple situations where it’s drawback of not being a red manasource was relevant. I guess, as long as Eldrazi is around I need to stick to them. I will try to balance the number though – maybe 2 or 3 copies are enough.
* Warping Wail wasn’t performing well. Whenever I drew it it was either countered or it was irrelevant. Also I boarded it out in every game, and the only MU where I can imagine to not board it out is Infect. That’s too weak for a MD card.
* I am planning to make the following changes to the decklist:
MD: -2 Warping Wail, +1 MWM, +1 ??? (probably Tuktuk Scrapper) / -1 or 2 Rishadan Port +1 or 2 Mountain
SB: -1 ??? (probably Tuktuk Scrapper, +1 ???
Thank you for reading my report. Questions and comments are – as always – welcome.
