[Deck] Vial Goblins

[jrw1985]

Seems good against Equipment decks.

[ScatmanX]

Does a Duel Deck contain new cards? Because if they do, well... I'm hoping for something sweet

Nop. All reprints.

@Jon: It's decent, but ultimately I don't think it's too strong or flexible enough.

[crowe_1]

Maybe we'll get a Settler reprint. That would be alright.

Not looking good for Commander though...I really wanted one of the new Commander tribal decks to be Goblins so we might get some legit playable new cards. But I don't see us getting two Goblin-themed pre-cons in one year. Hope I'm wrong.

[Scott]

Josiah Skallerup is on the GP stream right now in round 9 playing Gobbos, at 8-0

[Chatto]

Awesome! Anyone already have a list? I heard it's a WInstigator-list, but couldn't find anything yet.

[Whitefaces]

Awesome! Anyone already have a list? I heard it's a WInstigator-list, but couldn't find anything yet.

Here you go! Winstigator indeed.

[Chatto]

@ whitefaces: thanks! Nice list, let's hope there will be a write-up somewhere on the internet.

[mistercakes]

From Josiah on the Facebook group

I played and beat mono red prison, miracles, 2 Sultai Delver, and 3 Grixis Delver. Hoping to nom on a bunch more Delver decks tomorrow!! ;)

[ScatmanX]

CoolJets lost to 4c Punishing Loam, lost to 4c Stoneblade, Won against Grixis Delver, lost to Elves, won against Monored Prison.
10-4, which is amazing.

[mistercakes]

that is a pretty impressive showing! it's also nice for new players to see a relatively budget deck do so well. hopefully this will increase interest in the deck for other players.

[diji]

Josiah Skallerup is on the GP stream right now in round 9 playing Gobbos, at 8-0

I saw 1 game with him ("that 8-0"), did he play more infront of the stream?
I could use some fun watching, not seen alot of goblins live lately.

[tarmogoat]

Played goblins again last weekend.

4x Aether Vial
4x Tarfire
4x Goblin Lackey
1x Skirk Prospector
2x Goblin Piledriver
2x Mogg War Marshall
2x Stingscourger
1x Tin Street Hooligan
4x Goblin Matron
3x Goblin Warchief
3x Gempalm Incinerator
1x Goblin Sharpshooter
4x Goblin Ringleader
1x Krenko, Mob Boss
1x Siege Gang Commander

4x Wooded Foothills
2x Bloodstained Mire
3x Mountain
2x Plateau
1x Taiga
3x Cavern of Souls
4x Wasteland
4x Rishadan Port

4x Surgical Extraction
3x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2x Containment Priest
1x Tin Street Hooligan
2x Mindbreak Trap
3x Pyrokinesis

----------------------------------------

R1: Manaless Dredge (2-1).
G1: I get rid of all his bridges through Prospector shenanigans but I run outn of gas and get killed by Ichorids while I flood.
G2: I win off Surgical on bridge + pressure.
G3: I win of surgical on Bridge + Surgical on Contagion to protect Containment Priest.

R2: Eldrazi (2-1).
G1: Lackey goes to town.
G2: Reality Smashers and Thought Knot Seers go to town.
G3: Lackey goes back to town.

R3: 4 Color Control.
G1: We grind it out for 20 mins and I lose.
G2: We grind t out for 20 mins and I win.
G3: We grind it out til time and 5 turns go by and we draw.

R4: BR Reanimator.
G1: Griselbrand goes to town T1.
G2: Surgical and Thalia go places.
G3: Surgicals seal the deal.

R5: RG Lands (ID).

Enter the top8 as 1st seed. An eldrazi player who made it to the top drops and thus I get paired against Br Reanimator instead of Burn.

T8: Br Reanimator (0-2)
G1: Griselbrand + Tidespout tyrant on T1.
G2: I surgical griselbrand, and drop a thalia. He still reanimates an Elesh norn and wins while I flood.

Oh well...

[Sandro95]

I wrote a report on my day one of Legacy at GP Vegas.

http://www.hipstersofthecoast.com/20...s-report-part/

[hystrodon]

Josiah Skallerup is on the GP stream right now in round 9 playing Gobbos, at 8-0

I found the archived stream, and made a timestamped hyperlink to the beginning of the round

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/152114515?t=05h16m10s

Haven't watched it yet...

[cooljets]

Hi everyone! You may remember me from my feature match last Thursday, and while I eventually turned a promising 8-0 into a disappointing 10-5, that first day was still a pretty great run, so I thought I'd put together quick tournament report.

Goblins have been my favorite tribe in Magic as soon as I picked them up during their glory days in Onslaught standard, and I've been playing them off and on ever since. You may remember my 12th place finish at a Star City Games open in 2014 (although if you don't, you can jog your memory here: http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...l=1#post801519). Since then, I've dropped the black splash in favor of a more streamlined mono red build.

//CORE [24]:
4 AEther Vial
4 Goblin Lackey
4 Warren Instigator
4 Goblin Chieftain
4 Goblin Matron
4 Goblin Ringleader

Every goblin deck always includes a playset of the these core cards: Vial, Lackey, Matron, and Ringleader. Vial and Lackey are instrumental in deploying our goblins. Winstigator lists run Warren Instigator as Lackeys 5-8, and Goblin Chieftain as the haste lord of choice over Goblin Warchief since letting Winstigator attack past ½ creatures is so crucial. Finally, the Matron / Ringleader setup is one of the strongest card drawing engines in Legacy. I'd say about 60% of the time I cast Goblin Matron I end up just getting Goblin Ringleader in order to keep the goblin train running smoothly. Another 20% I get Kiki-Jiki (usually after getting two triggers off of a Winstigator) so that I can just instantly copy Matron again and get whatever the situation calls for.

//REMOVAL [6]:
4 Tarfire
2 Gempalm Incinerator

Again, since connecting with Lackey and Winstigator is so important, we have Tarfire as our removal of choice since it can be cast with only one goblin in play and still take out a Deathrite Shaman or Stoneforge Mystic. Gempalms are still useful for later in the game, however, as they can take out larger creatures and keep our hand full. They're also uncounterable and even draw cards off of Leovold (since we can stack the damage underneath the cycle effect).

//TOOLBOX [8]:
1 Goblin Piledriver
1 Stingscourger
1 Goblin Sharpshooter
1 Tuktuk Scrapper
1 Goblin Settler
1 Krenko, Mob Boss
1 Siege-Gang Commander
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker

Goblin Matron is such a powerful card partly because we can run a great toolbox suite. We have Piledriver for blue decks, combo decks, or whenever else we feel like racing. Stingscourger does a decent job of bouncing Marit Lage, Griselbrand, Emrakul, and even any normal creature (like Goyf, for instance) that become problematic. Sharpshooter is an all-star against Elves, and decent against other creature decks (Young Pyromancer, Goblin Rabblemaster, and most things in D&T). Tuktuk Scrapper is clutch against Stoneforge decks in order to kill equipment and is rarely dead in other matchups to boot. Settlers is great in combination with Wasteland heavy hands, can take out basics that are fetched when we drop a Blood Moon, and can be backbreaking when combined with Kiki-Jiki. Speaking of Kiki-Jiki, copying Matrons and Ringleaders is one of the most powerful plays the deck has, and in a deck with 8 Lackeys, we want at least 3 big payoff cards to cheat into play, so Krenko with his Mob creating ability and Siege-Gang's combination of army + fling effect are also welcome.

//MANA [22]:
10 Mountain
4 Cavern Of Souls
4 Wasteland
1 Pendelhaven
3 Chrome Mox

It shouldn't be any surprise to know that Wasteland is one of the best lands in Legacy and Cavern Of Souls helps invalidate counterspells like Force Of Will and Daze. Pendelhaven is there to give us another way to help Lackeys and Winstigators get into the red zone (not to mention stray Matrons or Settlers). Of course, we have the Chrome Mox, enabling our most busted starts, mainly turn 1 Winstigator and turn 1 Chalice on 1. Next, in a world where Deathrite Shaman is the most played card, eschewing a fetchland splash gives us a few more points by denying our opponents chances to make mana, as well as keeping our life total bright and shiny. Finally, I'm not gunna lie, part of the reason I enjoy a mono-red list is so I can play magic without shuffling every turn. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

//SIDEBOARD [15]:
3 Chalice Of The Void
3 Grafdigger's Cage
3 Sphere Of Resistance
3 Blood Moon
2 Pyrokinesis
1 Tuktuk Scrapper

If the main reason to play goblins is its great matchup against the fair decks, then of course, the main reason we have a sideboard is to shore up our games against the combo decks. We have Chalice which is good against almost everything (especially most forms of Delver, Storm, Elves, Reanimator, S&T, the list goes on...), Grafdigger's Cage against Elves and Reanimator, Sphere for Storm and other decks trying to cast lots of things (like Aluren, Food Chain, and Miracles). Blood Moon has probably never been better, as those mana bases become ever greedier and often times resolving one is game over. Finally, we have a couple cards for the fair matchups, where we can replace any unneeded toolbox goblins with Pyrokinesis when we're trying to kill creatures (Infect, Elves, D&T) and the second Tuktuk Scrapper for Stoneforge decks (since they generally are able to present two pieces of equipment in a game). When boarding out, it's generally best to first shave any toolbox goblins that aren't necessary first, then move on to removal and Ringleaders against combo decks (no need to refill the hand if the game ends quickly, and he can't get us sideboard cards anyway), then finally shave some number of Lackeys against decks that block, or Vials to ensure we aren't filling our deck with too many non-goblin cards.

Alright, with that said, let's get to the tournament!

Round 1 - Bye

1-0

Round 2 vs Blaine Johnson playing Mono Red Prison

Game 1: He kicks things off with a Chalice on 1 and a Trinisphere, however my deck mostly shrugs off these attempts at slowing things down and I just played Winstigator into Ringleader to out card advantage him.

Sideboard
In: 1 Tuktuk Scrapper
Out: 1 Goblin Piledriver

Game 2: This time he had a more aggressive start with Mox into Goblin Rabblemaster, however I had a Mox of my own that powered out Tarfire for his Rabblemaster and Lackey. Eventually a few more goblins joined the fray and while his Ensnaring Bridge did slow down my assault for a minute, he was stuck on 2 lands and wasn't able to empty his hand fast enough and he died shortly after that.

2-0

Round 3 vs Abraham Sloves playing Grixis Delver

Game 1: This was the first of many Grixis Delver decks I would face throughout the tournament. He played two Delvers, but my normal game plan of Lackey and Winstigator into Ringleader both out card advantaged him and made his countermagic pointless, leading to an easy win.

Sideboard
In: 3 Blood Moon, 3 Chalice Of The Void
Out: 1 Goblin Piledriver, 1 Stingscourger, 1 Goblin Settler, 1 Tuktuk Scrapper, 2 Aether Vial

Game 2: Abraham leads with Deathrite Shaman and then a Deliver to my Lackey and Chieftain. The Chieftain eats a bolt before the Lackey can get in while the Delver flips and starts taking chunks away from my life total. For the next few turns he plays a Ponder and two Brainstorms while I play two Ringleaders. I find two Tarfires (among other things) off my Ringleaders and use them to shut down his offense, and eventually take over since Ringleader is a better card draw spell than the 1 mana blue spells.

3-0

Round 4 vs Gregory Orange playing Azorius Control (Topless Miracles)

Game 1: I get the party started with a Lackey into Ringleader and then play Chieftain on turn 3 to set up a turn 4 kill. However, Gregory manages to mise a blind Terminus off of Predict to shut me down and steal the game.

Sideboard
In: 3 Chalice Of The Void, 3 Sphere Of Resistance
Out: 3 Tarfire, 1 Gempalm Incinerator, 1 Stingscourger, 1 Goblin Sharpshooter

Game 2: My opening Chalice on 1 gets Forced, but I have a second one on the following turn. At this point it's fairly obvious his hand is filled with uncastable 1 drop spells leaving me plenty of time to finish things out with Piledriver, Winstigator, and Matron into Settler just for good measure.

Game 3: Gregory opens with a few Ponders and Brainstorms while I get a Vial down before dropping Chalice on 1 again (being very thankful for no Force Of Will). This game isn't so easy, however, as Gregory follows up with a Monastery Mentor. I was a little upset for forgetting about this card, as the only removal I left in my deck was a single Tarfire and Gempalm after making room for my sideboard cards. I take my time playing out goblins while he makes monks (occasionally using 1 mana spells just as monk/prowess generation) but just before I can overwhelm him, he resets with a Terminus and another Mentor. I build back up again while I dig for a way to kill his new Mentor, finally finding a Siege-Gang. It takes me even longer still for him to nearly tap out, leaving me an opening to actually go for it, since I wasn't keen on sacking a bunch of goblins only to have him prowess it out of range. But eventually I do, and I'm able to close out the game just as time is called. Whew!

4-0

Round 5 vs Raymond Maglunog vs playing Grixis Delver

Game 1: This game was a long attrition battle, as my Vial gets Forced, an early Tarfire on DRS gets Forced, my Chieftain gets Bolted, but eventually I find Mantron for Ringleader to fill my hand and take over the game.

Sideboard
In: 3 Blood Moon, 3 Chalice Of The Void
Out: 1 Goblin Piledriver, 1 Stingscourger, 1 Goblin Settler, 1 Tuktuk Scrapper, 2 Aether Vial

Game 2: This game highlighted something that can occasionally happen with the Winstigator build, which is to say that I got Lackey flooded. My early plays of Vial, Lackey, Winstigator, Winstigator without any payoff cards let Raymond's DRS, Ancient Grudge, Dismember and True Name Nemesis overpower my small army of 1/1's.

Game 3: However, game 3 highlighted something else that can happen with the deck. Playing Vial into double Wasteland left Raymond without any way to cast his spells, while I just continued ticking up Vial into all sorts of goblins, leading to an easy win.

5-0

Round 6 vs Michael Gerstner playing Grixis Delver

Game 1: I have my best turn 1 start of Mox into Winstigator but Michael opens with Probe into Therapy to strip me of my Ringleader payoff. He follows up with a Young Pyromancer, and has a Force Of Will to protect it from Tarfire. I spend the rest of the game trying to find another way to take it out, but I'm slowly overwhelmed by elementals while drawing nothing but useless Lackeys.

Sideboard
In: 3 Blood Moon, 3 Chalice Of The Void
Out: 1 Goblin Piledriver, 1 Stingscourger, 1 Goblin Settler, 1 Tuktuk Scrapper, 2 Aether Vial

Game 2: I start with the absolute best sideboard game opening of turn 1 Mox, Chalice on 1, turn 2 Blood Moon. Michael looks at his hand and shakes his head for about 5 seconds before scooping it up.

Game 3: I open with Mox, Chalice again, however this time Michael has Abrupt Decay to keep things interesting. I slowly curve Chieftain into Ringleader and we trade resources for awhile, but again, my draw engine is just better and I eventually overtake him in card advantage, and then board advantage to lock day 2.

6-0

Round 7 vs Zane Knapp playing Sultai Delver

Game 1: I get another Mox, Winstigator opening which powers out an early Ringleader, however the draw trigger is denied by Stifle. Zane drops a Leovold, however luckily for me, I had a backup Ringleader that gets around Leo's drawback and simply adds a Chieftain and Krenko to my hand. I get one down, and then the other, and it's not hard to finish it out after a few activations of the Mob Boss.

Sideboard
In: 3 Blood Moon, 3 Chalice Of The Void
Out: 1 Goblin Piledriver, 1 Goblin Sharpshooter, 1 Goblin Settler, 1 Tuktuk Scrapper, 2 Aether Vial

Game 2: Zane leads with Delver, but I start with a Vial and quickly follow up with a Tarfire to keep his offense in check. He starts Pondering and Brainstorming while I find a Chieftain. Liliana forces me to sacrifice my Chieftain, however I topdeck another one to haste down Lili. My next draw is a Blood Moon, which once resolved, is effectively game over for the Zane's 3 color deck.

7-0

Round 8 vs Arne Huschenbeth playing Sultai Delver

Game 1: Arne leads with an early Delver. I play Winstigator but Arne has a Tarmogoyf which forces me to leave my goblin at home. Arne follows up with Hymn To Tourach which hits a land, and then Wasteland on the next turn. This strands me on two mana and prevents me from mounting any sort of defense. I lose to the Delver and Goyf a little while later.

Sideboard
In: 3 Blood Moon, 3 Chalice Of The Void
Out: 1 Goblin Piledriver, 1 Goblin Sharpshooter, 1 Goblin Settler, 1 Tuktuk Scrapper, 2 Aether Vial

Game 2: I start with Vial and drop a Winstigator, but he quickly gets Fatal Pushed. My next Gator gets Forced, and then Hymn empties my hand. Arne then drops two Goyfs in quick succession and I start to feel my undefeated run quickly slipping away. Two turns before I'm dead, however, I topdeck Krenko. I'm able to Vial him out at the end of Arne's turn and even though I started with an empty board, I take one more set of Goyf beats in able to get a second goblin on the board. The turn after that I'm able to start chump blocking while still increasing my goblin count, and eventually things spiral out of control, leaving Arne shaking his head, cursing my very timely Mob Boss topdeck.

Game 3: I get a great start of Vial on turn 1 and Chalice on turn 2, and even though Arne plays two Hymns to empty my hand, I refill with Ringleader that hits the full 4 goblins (including another Ringleader) and he's stuck with a bunch of 1 drops in hand.

8-0

Round 9 vs Jacob Haversat playing 4-Color Leovold

My feature match! You can watch the whole thing here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/152114515?t=05h17m20s

Game 1: As many of you know, mistakes were made. While it wasn't my first feature match at a GP, I was still slightly nervous. It didn't help that my deck wasn't very cooperative. Game 1 found me with Tarfire in hand but unable to cast it due to my awkward Pendelhaven, Cavern Of Souls, Wasteland draw. I should have abandoned my plan of connecting with Lackey once Jacob played his second DRS, and instead focused entirely on preventing myself from getting burned out. I did eventually draw a Mountain and start Tarfiring away his Shamans, but unfortunately, I realized this a turn too late and died with a full hand.

Sideboard
In: 3 Blood Moon
Out: 1 Stingscourger, 1 Goblin Settler, 1 Tuktuk Scrapper

Game 2: I'll let the video speak for me here. Going off on a mull to 5 to finish the game in spectacular fashion felt incredible. Yeah, yeah, I should have just Kiki'd Chieftain to finish the game a turn earlier, but let's forget about this and just bask in the fact that we got to show the world the true power of our favorite tribe. :)

Game 3: There's not much to say here. I made a huge mistake by keeping an obviously terrible hand (Kiki-Jiki, 2 Vial, 4 Mountain) and was punished big time when I just kept drawing more Mountains. I did eventually stick a Siege-Gang, but it just wasn't enough.

8-1

Round 10 vs Satoshi Ogawa playing 4-Color Punishing Loam

Game 1: My notes for this game have "P-Fire" written down on nearly every one of Satoshi's turns. However, through the power of Goblin Ringleader (and the fact that he never drew a Knight Of The Reliquary), I eventually powered through about 10 shocks to slowly whittle Satoshi's life total down to zero.

Sideboard
In: 3 Blood Moon, 3 Chalice Of The Void
Out: 1 Goblin Piledriver, 1 Goblin Sharpshooter, 1 Goblin Settler, 1 Tuktuk Scrapper, 2 Aether Vial

Game 2: This game I wasn't so lucky, as Satoshi had a Knight down on turn 3. I was hoping to stall the game with a Krenko, but Satoshi saved up his mana to use a Punishing Fire twice in the same turn to take it out before the Boss could start mobbing. I quickly died to a giant Knight soon after.

Game 3: This game went similarly, with Satoshi finding and growing a Knight quickly, while I drew mostly air.

8-2

Round 11 vs William Leach playing 4-Color Stoneblade

Game 1: I lead with Vial while William uses his Stoneforge Mystic to find some equipment. I Tarfire the Mystic and drop a Wasteland on one of his lands to slow him down. William Abrupt Decays my Vial, but I don't mind hard casting two Chieftains over the next two turns and being taking 6-sized chunks of his life total three times in a row to quickly finish things out.

Sideboard
In: 3 Blood Moon, 1 Tuktuk Scrapper
Out: 1 Goblin Piledriver, 1 Stingscourger, 1 Goblin Sharpshooter, 1 Goblin Settler

Game 2: Sadly, this game went about as badly as possible. William leads off with a Deathrite Shaman on his turn 1, Dazes a Vial on my turn 1, and then drops Stoneforge on his turn 2. Jitte comes down shortly thereafter and starts ticking upwards. Meanwhile I can't find a third land, let alone a Matron or Tuktuk scrapper. I hold creatures in my hand, hoping to draw lands and then my shatter goblin, but I'm dead before either thing comes to pass.

Game 3: Game three is also fairly disappointing. I keep a hand with four lands on the strength of Blood Moon, however when I go for it on turn 3 it gets Force Of Willed. Meanwhile William plays Thoughtseize taking a Ringleader, and then twin Deathrite Shamans who eventually shock me to death before I'm able to find any more gas.

8-3

Round 12 vs Michael Sommercorn playing Grixis Delver

Game 1: I begin with a Lackey while Michael blind Therapy's away a Matron. This means my Lackey connects, however all I can drop is a Sharpshooter (still, better than nothing). My next draw is a Piledriver, but Lackey and Sharpshooter eat a Forked Bolt, leaving my Piledriver a simple 1/2. Young Pyromancer is summoned next, and without removal I offer up a chump attack into the Pyromancer and he takes it! Of course, this means he just has another one, which he plays next turn. This leaves me casting about for removal, however I have no Cavern and my Ringleader gets Dazed. Over the next few turns, Young Peezy steadily makes Elementals with the help of Brainstorms, Cabal Therapys, and Bolts, which is finally enough to overwhelm me.

Sideboard
In: 3 Blood Moon, 3 Chalice Of The Void
Out: 1 Goblin Piledriver, 1 Stingscourger, 1 Goblin Settler, 1 Tuktuk Scrapper, 2 Aether Vial

Game 2: This game goes much better, as my opening Lackey is able to punch through Michael's DRS thanks to Tarfire and drops a Ringleader to refill my hand. The card advantage is good enough that even though my Chalice for 1 gets Forced I still win easily.

Game 3: Michael starts off with Probe into Delver, while I begin with a Vial. Michael spends the next few turns Pondering and Brainstorming, while I Tarfire his Delver and Matron up a Ringleader. Young Pyromancer hits the table, however Ringleader flips a Gempalm Incinerator to take Peezy out before he amasses too many tokens. The rest of the game slips away from Michael as his deck isn't able to keep up with the Ringleader card advantage.

9-3

Round 13 vs Robert Smith playing Elves

Game 1: Game 1 involves me playing a few Goblin Lackeys that can't attack while Robert plays out about 6 elves before Natural Ordering up his Craterhoof Behemoth. Yikes.

Sideboard
In: 3 Grafdigger's Cage, 3 Chalice Of The Void, 2 Pyrokinesis
Out: 1 Goblin Piledriver, 1 Stingscourger, 1 Goblin Settler, 1 Tuktuk Scrapper, 4 Goblin Ringleader

Game 2: This time I have basically the dream hand against Elves and play Mox, Chalice for 1 on turn 1, the backup Chalice for 1 on turn 2, followed by a Goblin Sharpshooter on turn 3. The Shooter eats an Abrupt Decay and Robert plays out a few 0 and 2 drops, but I have the Pyrokinesis to kill 4 creatures and he scoops.

Game 3: The final game doesn't go as well, as I'm able to Tarfire Roberts first two creatures, but I'm left without much to do and he quickly assembles critical mass into Natural Order again before I can find and activate Sharpshooter.

9-4

Round 14 vs Wilson Wong playing Mono Red Prison

Game 1: Wilson uses a Sol-land to power out a turn 1 Rabblemaster, but I have the Tarfire. He follows up with Chandra, Torce Of Defiance, however after a few turns I use a combination of Warchief, Winstigator to take her down. However, he clears my board with a Confluence (A Commander card? What?!) and his second Rabblemaster sticks and eventually overtakes the game.

Sideboard
In: 1 Tuktuk Scrapper
Out: 1 Stingscourger

Game 2: I lead with a Lackey while Wilson Sol-lands out… Sulfur Elemental? I take it out with Tarfire and Lackey drops Siege-Gang. The game doesn't last long after that.

Game 3: Again Wilson starts out with an early Rabblemaster and follows with Sin Prodder. I get a turn 1 Vial but have to take beats for awhile until I manage to get counters going and stabilize at 2 life with a Winstigator, Ringleader, and finally Siege-Gang. I use the SGC to shot his Rabble and Prodder before the get any further out of control, and then the nature of Wilson's deck catches up to him and I'm able to keep drawing good stuff while draws Chalices, Trinispheres, and Magus Of The Moons.

10-4

Round 15 vs Felix Tse playing Jund Midrange

Game 1: I start with Lackey but Felix has Dismember. My second play is a Winstigator, but Felix plays a Dark Confidant and starts drawing cards (lands, of course). On turn 3 I Matron up Gempalm and turn 4 I point it at Bob, then follow it up with Ringleader into Ringleader while Felix does a whole lot of nothing.

Sideboard
In: 3 Blood Moon
Out: 1 Goblin Piledriver, 1 Goblin Sharpshooter, 1 Tuktuk Scrapper

Game 2: I lead with Vial while Felix plays a turn 2 Tarmogoyf. My turn 2 is Mox, Matron finding Ringleader, hoping to go for the long game, but my flip is meager and Felix slams an Engineered Plague on the table. I start hoping to draw another Matron, Ringleader, or Chieftain, but Felix is able to start Punishing Firing the small board I have out and I don't recover before a Goyf kills me.

Game 3: My early Winstigator eats a Fatal Push. I start getting in with a Chieftain but Felix starts sorting his draw steps with Sylvan Library which leads to a 2 damage/discard Kolaghan's Command. This is followed up by a Deathrite Shaman and Tarmogoyf as well as fetchlands that find basics. This makes my Blood Moon less effective, and my final hope to stabilize against Goyf with Krenko is dashed by another K-Comm + P-Fire.

10-5 for a final finish of 196th place out of 2644 competitors.

I hope everyone enjoyed reading my report. It was an absolute thrill to get on camera with the deck, and while I'm sad I wasn't able to get the W, the game 2 destruction ultimately made it #worth. Feel free to ask me about the deck or the tournament, I'd be happy to answer any questions you have. Here's to many more years of Cavern, Mox, Winstigator, Go! Thanks for reading. :)

[mistercakes]

Thanks for the report. Big takeaways for me here is that chalice did some great work and that blood moon could easily be magus of the moon (potential for uncounterable or using Vial).

[jrw1985]

@cooljets:
That report is a thing of beauty. Thank you for posting it!

Chalice of the Void -
You sided that card in 9 of the 15 rounds you played. This is why I've been mainboarding it lately.

Manabase -
Do you feel like your manabase could fit a couple Ports? You have 13 R sources + 4 Cavern. I could see shaving a Cavern and a Mountain to jam a couple Ports for some extra control. But maybe your RR cards require 0 Ports.... Thoughts?

Punishing Fire -
I notice you lost both of the Punishing Fire MUs.... Any regret about running Grafdiggers Cage over Surgical Extraction? Or was the plan just to use Blood Moon + Chalice @ 2 to lock out PFire?

At the end of the tournament, what did you wish you had done differently with your build?

[cooljets]

Thanks for the report. Big takeaways for me here is that chalice did some great work and that blood moon could easily be magus of the moon (potential for uncounterable or using Vial).

Chalice and Moon both did some great work. I feel like the ol' Moon vs Magus debate can still go either way. Magus has the advantage of being Vial'd in or uncounterable when cast off of a Cavern, however Blood Moon is harder to remove once it's on the field. Right now I'm sticking with Moon, mostly because I don't own any Magus yet. ;)

[cooljets]

@cooljets:
That report is a thing of beauty. Thank you for posting it!

Chalice of the Void -
You sided that card in 9 of the 15 rounds you played. This is why I've been mainboarding it lately.

Manabase -
Do you feel like your manabase could fit a couple Ports? You have 13 R sources + 4 Cavern. I could see shaving a Cavern and a Mountain to jam a couple Ports for some extra control. But maybe your RR cards require 0 Ports.... Thoughts?

Punishing Fire -
I notice you lost both of the Punishing Fire MUs.... Any regret about running Grafdiggers Cage over Surgical Extraction? Or was the plan just to use Blood Moon + Chalice @ 2 to lock out PFire?

At the end of the tournament, what did you wish you had done differently with your build?

You're so very welcome! :)

I did bring in Chalice a lot throughout the day, however part of the reason for that is the matchups I faced. There are still a lot of decks (especially in an unknown meta like a GP) where Chalice would be bad. Don't forget, it also turns off Tarfire and Vial (which we want 4 of during game 1). I also don't like diluting our goblin count (which is important to keep as high as possible for Ringleader) when we're not positive that the non-goblin cards left in the deck will be haymakers.

I don't think the mana base can fit any ports. If you watch game 1 of my feature match, I get punished by being unable to cast Tarfire because I don't have a non Cavern red source. Getting RR by turn 2 is important and I don't think the added mana denial of Port is worth making the mana base less consistent than it already is.

My plan was to put Chalice on 2, which would stop both Punishing Fire and Loam. I have done this to win games against Lands decks in the past, but it is sad that it didn't work out this time. I haven't tried Extraction before, my main concern would be losing percentage against Elves, where Grafdigger's Cage helps keep them from using their 8 tutor spells.

At the end of the tournament, I actually still felt really great about the deck. Going forward, the only change I want to make is to replace Piledriver with something more meaningful (I haven't needed him in what seems like forever). Right now I'm thinking about a Grenzo, Havoc Raiser, or a 3rd Gempalm Incinerator. I'm totally open for suggestions though. :)

[tarmogoat]

Thanks for the report. Big takeaways for me here is that chalice did some great work and that blood moon could easily be magus of the moon (potential for uncounterable or using Vial).

I don't think you would want to expose your moon effect to the only card an opponent can cast under it (Bolt) against like Grixis Delver.