@Amon Amarth: Thanks man, I want to find room for the second SGC but going down too 2 Thoughtseize seems just weak.

@Nelis: Stronghold is just so strong I can't imagine not playing it, unless you run Wastelands. 2x Swamp has never really caused me a problem, but it would be smart to go down to 1 since it could potentially be a problem, but I haven't seen that yet. 22 Feels right, but play what you are comfortable with, if you think you need 23 then play 23, this is why I play no Wastelands and mostly basics, to avoid mana problems.

@ScatmanX: I don't advocate not playing Wasteland but I wanted to build the most rock solid manabase that I could get. I see Goblins win and lose a LOT of games just simply based on Wastelands. Color screw and/or Wasteland may be your 3rd land, you kill the opponents and don't draw another. I realize the game plan and acknowledge most people want Wastelands which is fine, but I want to make the deck as consistent as possible and aviod occassional losses to itself. True Wasteland wins a lot of games, but it also loses a lot of games. Probably more wins than losses, but my goal is to make my deck work like a machine everytime and aviod any kind of anamoly along the way. I don't think its wrong either way someone chooses to play the deck, in Mono-Red I would absolutely run it, but in 2-3 colors it can get iffy, and it allows me to play more basics and thus makes me even less vulnerable to an opponent's attack on my manabase.

A few of the card choices may seem awkward. The 3x Thoughtseize most likely stands out. I mainly run them because I want 10-11 1-drops in the deck so I always have something to do on the first turn. For a while I was considering the 2x Fanatic and the second SGC but I just find Fanatic worthless. I can't think of a time other than turn 1 I want Fanatic, and even then, he becomes more and more worthless as the game goes on. Thoughtseize helps out against basically everything but the mirror and is seldom a dead draw before turn 7. Late game Fanatic and Thoughtseize seem equally awful, so that seems a wash. For what its worth, Thoughtseize usually shows up in the first 1-3 turns and always did something useful. It just seems the most versatile 1-drop that I can think of. There are certainly times where I would like to go +1 Weirding and +2 Bolt though.

Instigator is ... I don't really like it. Personal preference, when he connects he is bad ass, but it just seems like another worthless weenie that Zoo is going to stomp all over. If it works for you absolutely play it, but Instigator seems very situational to me and dependent on board position. And when you draw him mid to late game .. its just another weak Goblin, this is my take on it, it seems more win-more too me.

Volrath's Stronghold just wins games. Recurring Ringleaders, Gempalms, and Piledrivers is just nasty. It gives this deck a slight kick in the ass in the mid-late game and I think adds a nice power level to the deck. Now I am not a fan of colorless lands in the deck, and I almost want to play 2 of these, almost. But I remember how often I got stuck with 2x Jitte and … throw that plan away. Stronghold adds to a very consistent manabase. If you play R/B you should certainly test it out. Now if you run Wasteland and Port … I wouldn’t but if you run just 4x Wastelands test it out. Again all preference, I don’t advocate playing the cards that I do, its all personal playstyle and what you are comfortable playing.

The SB was … eh, I wouldn’t change a thing in the main (except maybe Swamp #2) but when I play this again here will be the new SB:

3x Faerie Macabre
3x Pyrokinesis
3x Blood Moon
2x Powder Keg (give the deck some game against Enchantress, plus it shuts off multiple LEDs and kills Goblin tokens, as well as fucks up whatever shit Zoo has in play)
1x Goblin Tinkerer
1x Goblin Pyromancer
1x Warren Weirding
1x Thoughtseize

This is what I should have been playing, I have the most diverse metagame imaginable and this seems to cover all the bases (except storm combo which really isn’t played a whole lot). I really just want to ignore storm combo since it is such a rare occurrence in my meta and take it as an auto-loss, even with Mindbreaks, they just Duress it out then go off. I simply don't want to devote SB slots towards a matchup that, even after I bring in 5-7 cards, is maybe 35% in my favor, just seems like a waste.