[Deck] Goblins

[TossUsToLions]

If splashing blue, why not play Stifle? It's so good in the format right now, and goes along with the mana denial plan. I would difinitely play it over Daze main.

[GoboLord]

What would you bring Goblin Flectomancer in against? The way it's worded it doesn't seem like it would work against Tendrils. Sweet tech though.

It redirects only 1 copy of Tendrills, not all of them.

"You may change the targets of target instant or sorcery spell."

I tried blue-splash too. Back then I ran Kiki-Jiki + Pestermite. It's ...sweet, nice, whatever...it's not as strong as the more traditional lists.

[ScatmanX]

Flactomancer can 2for1 StP/Bolt/Path too. Or even Orim's Chant or Turnabout. It's applications are quite wide.

[Ziveeman]

If splashing blue, why not play Stifle? It's so good in the format right now, and goes along with the mana denial plan. I would difinitely play it over Daze main.

T1: Lackey.
Opponent: T1: Plateau/Fetch/Bayou etc
You attack, opponent Swords/Bolt/Ghastly Demise - Daze it!

Seems pretty sick to me :D

[Vandalize]

Hi

I haven't found many detailed explanations of sideboarding versus specific decks in here.

What would you sideboard with the following decklist:
RB goblins
Spells (37)
4 Aether Vial
4 Gempalm Incinerator
4 Goblin Lackey
4 Goblin Matron
4 Goblin Ringleader
3 Goblin Warchief
3 Goblin Piledriver
3 Mogg War Marshal
2 Siege-Gang Commander
2 Warren Weirding
1 Goblin Chieftain
1 Goblin Sharpshooter
1 Goblin Tinkerer
1 Skirk Prospector

Lands (23)
6 Mountain
1 Arid Mesa
1 Scalding Tarn
4 Badlands
2 Bloodstained Mire
3 Rishadan Port
4 Wasteland
2 Wooded Foothills

Sideboard:
1 Goblin Chieftain
1 Stingscourger
1 Tuktuk Scrapper
2 Leyline of the Void
1 Relic of Progenitus
3 Pyroblast
3 Pyrokinesis
3 Perish


I'm thinking something like:

Blue controldecks:
- 3 Incinerator, 2 Weirding
+ Tuktuk, Chieftain, 3 Pyroblast

Various green decks/Zoo:
- 3 Piledriver
+3 Perish

Combo (non-dredge):
- 4 Vial, -2 Weirding
+3 Pyroblast, 1 Tuktuk, 1 Relic of Progenitus, 1 Chieftain

Combo (non-dredge):
- 4 Vial, 3 Mogg War Marshall
+ 1 Relic of Progenitus, 2 Leylines, 1 Chieftain, 1 Stingscourger, 2 Pyrokinesis

Show and Tell:
- 4 Incinerator, 4 Vial
+ 3 Perish, 1 Stingscourger, 1 Chieftain, 3 Pyroblast

My problem lies with the mirror and Merfolk. What to sideboard out versus these decks?
I'm thinking to sideboard 3 Pyroblast, 3 Pyrokinesis and maybe 1 Chieftain, 1 Tuktuk in versus merfolk.
And 3 Pyrokinesis in the mirror.

What do you think?

Hmm, in my opinion, your list needs more warchiefs, more piledrivers, more chieftains, and less (almost) useless tricks.

People, Goblin Sharpshooter is a sideboard card... I can't see which matchups he would come in... Elves? Merfolk? They just run a lot of Lords. Killing Birds of Paradise and Noble Hierarch? They usually have done their stuff before you can land a Sharpshooter.

Goblin Tinkerer main deck is just as bad, since you only have 4 hasters (he'll be dead with summoning sickness 90% of the time).

I think people need to stop to see Goblins as a Aggro-Control deck (or sometimes just Control x_x). Jesus Christ! We have Lackey, Warren Instigator, Piledriver... Why not use these cards that DO SOMETHING instead of making silly tricks?

[GoboLord]

...and I think I should add another paragraph to the primer in which I write about different styles of playing the deck.
I was thinking about something like:

* Control vs. Aggro (vs. Combo)
* Quality vs. Quantity
* Toolbox vs. Straight
* Splash vs. Mono

What do you guys think? Is there another subdivison of play-style that I'm missing?
Maybe someone can come up totally different idea how to categorize playstyles. The one way or the other: I want to wrote about that, since this seems to be discussed frequently and can never be settled with arguments starting like "my style is..."; "I like to..." and "in my oppinion..."

[Nelis]

Hmm, in my opinion, your list needs more warchiefs, more piledrivers, more chieftains, and less (almost) useless tricks.

People, Goblin Sharpshooter is a sideboard card... I can't see which matchups he would come in... Elves? Merfolk? They just run a lot of Lords. Killing Birds of Paradise and Noble Hierarch? They usually have done their stuff before you can land a Sharpshooter.

Goblin Tinkerer main deck is just as bad, since you only have 4 hasters (he'll be dead with summoning sickness 90% of the time).

I think people need to stop to see Goblins as a Aggro-Control deck (or sometimes just Control x_x). Jesus Christ! We have Lackey, Warren Instigator, Piledriver... Why not use these cards that DO SOMETHING instead of making silly tricks?

Even without those silly tricks you have to play Goblins as aggro/control. Its just a matter of timing whether you go aggro or control. You still want your Lackeys, Instigators and Piledrivers to connect. I agree with the rest what you said.

[Skeggi]

I see you guys splashing blue for a more control build of Goblins. Actually, a couple of months ago, Team ADHD had a couple tournament successes with the following list:

Team ADHD's Merflins

// Lands
3 Bloodstained Mire
3 Arid Mesa
4 Mutavault
3 Wooded Foothills
3 Mountain
4 Volcanic Island

// Creatures
4 Goblin Lackey
4 Goblin Piledriver
4 Goblin Matron
2 Siege-Gang Commander
4 Goblin Chieftain

// Spells
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
4 AEther Vial
4 Standstill
4 Brainstorm
2 Fire / Ice

// Sideboard
SB: 2 Relic of Progenitus
SB: 4 Spell Pierce
SB: 2 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 3 Pithing Needle
SB: 4 Stifle

It's basically Merfolk, but with better creatures: Goblins.

Explanation on cardchoices:

• No blue fetch. The important thing in this list is that the opponent doesn't see the counters coming. Surprise effect is huge.
• Standstill over Goblin Ringleader: with such a low Goblin count, you need something else to draw cards. Plus it ups the blue count for Force of Will
• Fire / Ice: a multi-purpose card. Brilliant in making Goblin Lackey connect, also very good at shooting Grim Lavamancer. It's the only decent burn card that pitches to Force of Will.
• Mutavault over Wasteland: there's not really room for extra colorless land, and with the creature count being so low as it is, you require some manland. Also a must if you run Standstill.
• Brainstorm: probably the best legacy card ever printed. If you splash blue, you want this. Works pretty good with the 9 Fetches.

We have played tournaments with it and the results were well above expectation. The maindeck is pretty snug, so apart from fitting in Wastelands I can't imagine alot of improvements. The sideboard needs some tinkering.

[Nelis]

Which match ups are improved, which ones worsened?

[Skeggi]

All Vial Aggro match-ups are worse. So you have a disadvantage in the mirror and your match-up against Merfolk is slightly worse than it was, but still very positive. Basically all the important match-ups are better: the Zoo match-up is better, the (non-dredge) combo match-up is better, the control match-up is better. Now I think of it, I'm not sure about Dredge, because I haven't tested it or encountered it in tournaments with this list, but in theory you should be able to dig for Relic or Crypt with fetchland + Brainstorm.

[Merrin]

As a proud member of Team ADHD, I have piloted this deck several times into a t8. The best thing about this list is that you have multiple answers your opponents' answers to Goblin Lackey or Vial. The FoWs and Dazes give you lots of protection while you still have a big clock, which is something Merfolk doesn't. A Firespout will be to late if they have to expect a daze or a fow.

To answer Nelis' question:
- combo: 12 counters + 4 stifle post sideboarding, while you still can deal a huge amount of damage in little time.
- every card the usual goblin-deck dislikes: from spot-removal, to bigger creatures. I have run 4 Mind Harness in my SB and i really like that card to win against Zoo and Bant-decks.
- the deck became a bit more inconsistent, but the brainstorms deal with that. It hasn't become really worsened.

[Nessaja]

I see you guys splashing blue for a more control build of Goblins. Actually, a couple of months ago, Team ADHD had a couple tournament successes with the following list:

Good god that deck is ugly. I really don't see how it is in any way better then merfolk. Merrin claims it has a better clock, but I actually would want to contest that considering you run so few creatures. And what it lacks? Proper mana disruption, strong manabase and it has an amazing chance of drawing a terrible opening hand with 42 cards being non-business.

So.. I'm guessing it's a 1st of april joke >>

[GoboLord]

I agree with Nessaja. The RU-build I tested was 56 card the same as Skeggi's list and I don't know how you guys came to the result that any MU (except for combo-MUs) did improve.
Besides, making Top 8 isn't a very informative result when we don't know the size of the tourney. No offense intended but usually something like "5-2" or "3-3" is a better way to describe your results, because making Top 8 on an 12-players-events isn't good at all.

[TossUsToLions]

I also agree with Nessaja. How would this deck be faster than Folk, let alone better? The ONLY way that it could have a faster clock is if Lackey connects and brings a SGC. Otherwise, you're relying on your Piledrivers to get there, but their power becomes extremely diminished after taking out so many goblins, especially Warchiefs.

[bakofried]

Teehee. I think we've been had.

[Ace/Homebrew]

...and I think I should add another paragraph to the primer in which I write about different styles of playing the deck.

* Control vs. Aggro

I think this is a great idea!
A list of the cards that help in each role would be useful too. Some are obvious (Piledriver in aggro; Port in control), others not so much (for control: Mogg War Marshal, Skirk Prospector to a certain degree)...

Question for those of you that have tested Lightning Crafter. How playable is this card? It seems like a powerful control card, it even lets you re-use Matron and Ringleader after your board is cleared. But if the creature you are championing is killed then you are 2 for 1'd right? That means it would only be good against creature decks with no removal (Fish before boarding... are there others?). And it's a dead card to top-deck with an empty board. I dunno, I just want that card to be better...

I've been testing the Chrome Mox aggro list posted before with a few changes.
I'm mono-red still and I just can't bring myself to less than 6 removal cards... So WI and Chieftain are 3 of's.
I like it. WI is real powerful. It increases the likelihood of T2 SGC noticeably.

[Skeggi]

So.. I'm guessing it's a 1st of april joke >>

Teehee. I think we've been had.

Bah! Anyhoo, while being an april 1st joke, the list is actually quite fun against unsuspecting opponents

[Merrin]

And I actually have played the deck at a MWS-tournament. I believe there were around the 24 participants and I went into the top8. My funniest moment:

[GoboLord]

New part added to the primer:

7. The Goblin Guide: What kind of Goblin-player are you?


Like to hear how you like it.

[markbris]

I got the UR liist from the guy that got top 32 at GP madrid long while back. His was slightly different but from testing it does just seem like a worse merfolk.