[Deck] Goyf Sligh

[Wargoos]

Thanks for the fast answer.
Well, i think every ThreshThreshThreshThreshThreshThreshThreshThresh Variant is bad news for us, if they play counterbalance, isn't it?
They will shut us down or at least slow us down, which is both not good for a aggro deck.

Can i see your recent Beatz list P.R.?
I have no idea about a sideboard so far, just the standart stuff in there.
But i feel like i have sb cards which are good agains decks, i'm good against anyway.

As well, i'havent big standart experience and cannot tell how good the Figures are. Would you run them above the apes?

[Joon]

Against Counterbalance and Chalice, which are your biggest problems, the newest techs are Maindeck Krosan Grip and/or Maindeck Vexing Shusher.

The obvious pros and cons are that Grip can be a dead card but it FUCKING SOLVES YOUR PROBLEM NOW. Shusher is never dead as he can actually influence the board as he is a creature. But being a critter can suck, too. You know. Removal.

You can often enough race the Balance and finish with Blasts/Rift Bolts when it's set up. Chalice is the bigger bitch as it needs no setup.

I tested both, Grip and Shusher, and tend to like Grip more for the reasons I wrote above. The FUCKING SOLVES YOUR PROBLEM NOW part of it.

EDIT: Figure is imo > Ape, just because opponents tend to ignore Ape in the later game. Ignoring Figure can be devastating and opponents tend to aim removal on him immidetialy which lets your Goyfs and Mancers go for the dome.

[Peter_Rotten]

I'm starting to develop the controversial opinion that CounterTop is a bit overrated against us. Our critters come down early - and particularly a turn 1 FoD laughs at CB. Some typical good but basic plays against CB include the following:

Wait until the opponent casts something - the less available mana he has to spin Top, the better for you.

Cast your Burn spells in response to him spinning top. Do this when you have burn spells with differing CCs - like a Bolt, Jet, PoP, and a Fireblast.

A great set-up is to suspend Rift Bolt and to check next turn if Grip will resolve. If it get's countered with a 3cc spell, then obviously you need to Grip at a different time. In fact, suspended Rift Bolt is your friend in general against CB.

I've found that sometimes weaker players drop CB and Top and expect the GoyfSligh player to scoop-it-up-buttercup. It's not always easy, but is very possible to win through CB. Have I lost because of it before? Yes. But, I've also pulled out a win.

Here's close to my current list:

4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Grim Lavamancer
2 Figure of Destiny
3 Keldon Marauder

4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
4 Magma Jet
4 Rift Bolt
3 Fireblast
2 Price of Progress

2 Sylvan Library

2 Krosan Grip

Lands (19):
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Bloodstained Mire
4 Taiga
8 Mountain
1 Forest

Sideboard (15):
4 Pyroclasm
2 Krosan Grip
2 Shattering Spree
4 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Price of Progress
2 Vexing Shusher

I'm trying to fit in a 3rd FoD, but I'm unsure as to what to cut.

edit: I just want to point out that I completely agree with Joon's post above.

[Wargoos]

Why don't you cut a fanatic? Seems like a good trade.

I wanted to make about this CB thing because i used to play ThreshThreshThreshThreshThresh a lot. And i've lost to Beatz rarely, that was just my point.

Somehow it appear's that to make Beatz really good you have to be a skilled player and definitly know the deck. Sounds definitly good to me.
I'll try your build, just to see how the Libraries are doing.

[kicks_422]

This isn't "Beatz". This is Goyf Sligh. There's a fine distinction between the two, particualrly equipment/Rancor and bigger creatures on R/G Beats.

[Wargoos]

Well I just quote P.R. beginning post on page 1:

What is Goyf Sligh? Goyf Sligh is a traditional RG beats deck – little men and burn

[raharu]

This isn't "Beatz". This is Goyf Sligh. There's a fine distinction between the two, particualrly equipment/Rancor and bigger creatures on R/G Beats.

This reminds me of a discussion that was had in the old Dryad Sligh thread, IIRC, about Rancor, and, somehow by proxy, Blood Knight. Two questions:

1) is Rancor a bad idea? It makes just about everything threatening, but it suffers, to an extent, from the creature aura problem. I think that for all it does it'd be okay to try it, but I'm tinkering with BDW right now and hate the thought of 3c agro decks.

2) What about Blood Knight? I'd think that it would only be playable with Rancor, but still it's a question that has been bouncing around in my head to some extent or another for a while now.

[PowrDragn]

I wouldn't mind having Blood Knight over the Marauders. You're giving up a couple of points of damage though.

Interesting decision.

[Phthisisity]

i have to agree with rotten. i have found that counter-top is insufficient to ensure a victory against us. we have alot of odd casting cost that cheats right around it. i have also gotten in those last points in more with barbarian ring than with anything else.

the one thing i have been testing to moderate success is the inclusion of burning-tree shaman in the krosan grip slot. i found that while grip was a asset in most matchups i found it to be dead sometimes. my search for something that was good against counter top but still not dead in other matchups turned this up. i have been liking this alot. the simple effect of making fetches cost 2 life has been awesome.

[Wargoos]

How many BTS do you run then? I think you need at least 3 copies.

[PowrDragn]

Under that logic to esae some concerns, would it be worth playing:

2 Barbarian Ring
1 Keldon Megalith

OR

2 Barbarian Ring
1 Shivan Gorge


Either setup would give you some consistent options against countertop.

[Phthisisity]

i have been running 3 bts myself.

also i have not been running either megaliths or shivan gorge, i found that 3 barbarian rings is the number. even though it lacks synergy with lavamancer, fireblast gives you quick threshold that ends games in a hurry.

the reason i don't play megaliths is that you almost never have no cards in hand. you hold fireblast till the last second. so at most you will get one activation out of it.

[Muradin]

So lately I played Peter_Rotten's old Goyf sligh list in a 27 participants tournament and got 3rd in it.
I won against Dreadstill, Cephalid Breakfast and Counterslivers and had intentional draws with Aggro Loam and another guy to get into top 8.

In the Top 8 I defeated an other Aggro Loam player 2-1 (Dreams ftw.) and after that lost 0-2 to the Dreadstill variant I had beaten 2-0 before.

What I experienced is, that Figure of Destiny is really good in this deck, because it can be used to apply early pressure and is still a threat later on.
Then I think, that 19 lands is actually not enough. I had to mulligan 6-7 times in the tournament because I didn't draw a land at all or a hand with one land but several cards costing 2 mana. While I even kept those with not more than one cc2 card and a fetchland or mountain I still got annoyed by having to mulligan so often because of manabase issues. 20 lands should be played imo.
Then for me Price of Progress has been the best burn in this deck, because most of the time it dealt a minimum of 4 damage, even if my opponents were trying to make it less harmful by fetching basic lands and so on. Therefore I can't see why one should only include 2 of them in the latest list posted.

About the sideboard I think that Smash to Smithereens is probably better in this deck compared to Shattering Spree, as the goal of the deck is to kill your opponent quickly. Of course some cards like chalice must be handled as well, but if there is a card doing that while still lava-spiking your opponent that really should be played.

Otherwise for me this deck was real fun to play and many of my opponents underestimated it and saw it more or less as a pile of crap.

[tyrcho]

I've been playing goyf sligh in a major french tournament (>200 people), expecting few combos to come.

Here is the list I played and I am totally convinced by it :

20 lands
8 red fetches
8 mountains
4 taiga

(the basic forest was more often a hindrance than some help in my tests, especially after replacing kird ape with figure)

20 critters
4 figure
4 tarmogoyf
4 grim lavamancer
4 mogg fanatic
2 keldon marauder
2 crusher

20 burn
4 fireblast
4 lightning bolt
4 chain ligthning
4 magma jet
2 rift bolt
2 flame javelin

I was always almost satisified during my tests with the 20 lands manabase but was feeling I was lacking some late game against some control decks which stabilized around 4 life, or against other aggro decks.
Figure was already a great replacement for kird ape especially against control.
So I also added 4 cards at 3 mana (I tested with more and found it too slow) which replace the weakest cards in my opinion. Crusher with 4 fireblast and 8 fetches is still quite good. It also combines nicely with magma jet. And flame javelin can be a great finisher, a goyf killer in some cases, and is not a target for CB.

I went 5-3 at the tournament, placing 38th. I think I could have won the last round against landstill but got overconfident and made a misplay (krosan grip twice the mishras instead of keeping it for a later humility).

I lost against counterslivers (he finished top4, was sligthy more aggro than me and got 2-1 thanks to dice, 3 very close games) and red thresh (my friend playing the deck I built for him, he got 2 perfect hands with all answers and fast threshed mongooses).
My wins were against eternal garden (1950 player, his friend with similar deck made top8), goblins, rock, eva green, its the fear, all quite easy except eternal garden who almost locked the first game but was 1 mana short.

My sideboard is still the same :
4 price of progress
4 krosan grip
3 shattering spree (did not use them since I avoided stax, dragon stompy and affinity)
4 sulfuric vortex (deadly against any control deck)


Btw, I won a smaller tournament (17) with a similar list (was testing the 3 mana cards), winning against goblins, painter (with maindeck forcefield), elves, red thresh (he made top 8 at the big tournament with his same deck) and losing only to belcher.

[Frid]

You guys should add dark confidant and magus of the mooon...

Here is list, in my meta there are a lot of landstill thats why i use so much non basic hate.

Burn

4 Lightning bolt
4 Chain lightning
4 Incinerate
3 Price of progress
2 Magma jet

Creatures

4 Dark confidant
4 Kird ape
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Mogg fanatic
4 Magus of the moon

Other

4 Rancor

Lands

3 R/B Fetch
4 R/G Fetch
4 Taiga
1 Swamp
2 Forest
1 Badlands
4 Mountain

SB= Depends on your meta i use to add krosan grip, street hooligan Pyrostatic extirpate pilar etc

You guys should add black for dark confidant, ah and imo lavamancer is the shit

[proraptor]

My list
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Quirion dryad
3 Grim lavamancer
4 mogg fanatic

4 lightning bolt
4 chain lightning
3 fireblast
4 magma jet
3 seal of fire
4 lava dart
3 tarfire
2 incinerate

4 taiga
4 wooded foothills
2 bloodstained mire
7 mountain
1 forest

the only thing I might change is swapping to 3 incinerate and 3 lava dart, because there is a little to much mana screw.
I am now playing 3 grim lavamancer and I'm liking it because you only need 1 on the board the second one is mostly a dead card.
I'm playing tarfire, because my gameplay is to play for example a dryad in turn 2 and pumping him up with a lava dart and by this gameplan I also use tarfire low cost spell to pump up dryad and goyf plus throwing in 2 more damage from the spell it self.
it works perfect because if you play dryad early game and goyf mid you have 2 5/5 critters give or take in the mid game beating the opponent.
Seal of fire is also a good card mid and late game to give your goyf more power and keeping the treat of removal for your opponent!

[manugl84]

This list won a 47 people tournament in Madrid (Spain) on September, 21.

4 Figure of Destiny
4 Kird Ape
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Grim Lavamancer
3 Mogg Fanatic
4 Price of Progress
4 Rift Bolt
4 Magma Jet
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
2 Fireblast
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Windswept Heath
4 Bloodstained Mire
1 Taiga
7 Mountain
1 Forest

Sideboard

3 Smash to Smithereens
2 Scald
2 Krosan Grip
1 Mogg Fanatic
1 Gaea's Blessing
2 Pyrostatic Pillar
3 Pyroclasm
1 Vexing Shusher

I think it´s very well balanced
Thoughts?

[Illissius]

Hmm. Scald. Did everyone just forget about this card? It seems pretty good.

[sligh16]

hi, i tested the deck, and heres my build:

4 mogg fanatic
4 figure of destiny
4 grim lavamancer
4 tarmogoyf
4 ball lightning

4 lightning bolt
4 chain lightning
4 magma jet
4 flame javelin
4 fireblast

4 wooded foothills
4 bloodstained mires
4 taiga
8 mountains

the ball lightnings are simply great imo. they put the pressure on your opponent, and the are unlikely to be countertoped. many times, they will go in for 6 damage, because your opponent wiil not exchange their tarmogoyf in the early game. in the late, they will killa tarmo or a crusher, and deal 1 point to your opponents head.

the only sad thing for me is to leave out the cuttest card of all Magic: Jackal pup (i just love the ambientation text)

[Happy Gilmore]

Umm...no kird ape or PoP? Epic fail. If this was in the open forum that would be one thing, I would probably let this go. However, because this is in the DTB forum I have to say that the list your proposing is bad for the same reasons that Goyf Sligh is good. You have not taken advantage of anything that running just RG provides; Kird Ape, PoP being the #1 reason to run this deck in a legacy format. Your also not running a basic Forest which is neccessary. 4 Fireblast is too many for sure, and Flame Javelin is too slow. If you want to suggest Ball Lightning do so, but give your reasons and feedback of any testing you have with it. A list is not neccessary to illustrate your point, and in this case makes your suggestion look bad.

Oh, and welcome to the source. Glad you joined? Sorry to be so harsh.