[Deck] Goblins

[ScatmanX]

@Devran: swwt list 60card mirror from mine today =].

In my testing, Instigators should come out on the Draw against UW if you have something great to put in it's place. If you don't, keep them.
On the Play, always side them in again. They're must answer threats, and they trade with Stoneforge if it's their only out. Then something like 1 gempalm, 1 Chieftain, 1 something else could go to the SB.

And do not remove Stingscourger. He just buys the tempo you need to win the game, or the disruption + Dmg you lack. Bouncing germ tokens it's just great, and 2 seems like the number for me, because each one should buy you 2 turns (bounce+replay him), which is enough to win the game.

Keep rocking that list!

[Davran]

@Scatman:

Thanks for the encouragement and the list. Your last report inspired me to try out Kiki-Jiki and I was not disappointed. I'm pretty happy with the main deck, now I just need to mess with the sideboard some more.

[wert]

I actually like it when they go for Batterskull since it leaves me with the greatest number of potential answers. Plus, if I can get rid of the Mystic somehow the thing tends to get stuck in their hand forever.

U/W is just one of those decks that rolls over to some well-timed hate...but it also punishes your sub-optimal draws or play errors pretty heavily. It's frustrating to watch your opponent blunder their way into the win on the back of a pile of counter magic and 15 turns worth of draw-go before they find some sort of threat.

Totally agreed. I would take Batterskull any day rather than a Jitte. I am more afraid of a Mother of Runes + Jitte.

The planeswalkers are problematic too, a top deck elspeth or Jace can turn the tide in their favour.

I usually sided out 2 Instigators against UW, but again I am not sure it is the best call. Stingscourger is needed against them, or else a resolved batter would stop all offensive.

Blood Moon is a sideboard card I feel I had not been playing right. I used to side it in against UW Stoneblade too, but they usually have the minimum number of basics to operate and for their control nature, slowing things down isn't quite as bad for them. Now I used them only against maverick and those tempo based decks. The problem is that those very tempo decks are so fast that sometimes by the time Blood moon comes down, the damage is done.

I love the Kiki-Jiki and Sharpshooter main deck, if the opponent let you run free with them, both of them can win you games straight of the bat. However, sometimes I feel they are "luxury" goblins, something that is a bonus. I am experimenting with cutting them out for something more basic like MVM. I am going in this direction because I feel removal is lacking. Sometimes, I have Gemplams but not enough goblin count and it is very frustrating. I hope that would make better use of Gemplams as they are uncounterable good CA card.

[jrw1985]

I've been reading the tournament reports from GP Indianapolis and not a single Goblin deck has appeared anywhere. It looks like just about everyone played RUG, UW, Maverick, TES, Spiral Tide, Lands, or Dredge. I'm interested to see some stats on how many of which decks were played, cuz it seemed to be a more homogenous field than usual. And I know those are all the "good decks", but it still seems like a deck like Goblins could have done some serious damage.


Did anyone out there play Goblins at the GP?

[wert]

Decks that made day 2 @GP Indianapolis

UW Stone Blade – 22
GW Stone Blade – 22
Canadian Threshold – 15
High Tide – 9
Dredge – 9
Bant Stone Blade – 8
Ad Nauseum Tendrils – 5
Belcher – 5
Esper Stone Blade – 5
Reanimator – 4
Red Deck Wins – 4
UR Delver – 4
Zoo – 4
Elves – 3
Hive Mind – 3
43 Lands – 2
BUG Control – 2
RUG No Threshold – 2
Show and Tell – 2
Sneak and Tell – 2
Team America – 2
Tezzeret Affinity – 2
Thopter Sword – 2
White Weenie Stone Blade – 2
Affinity – 1
Aggro Loam – 1
Budget Bant – 1
BW Tokens – 1
Dark Aggro Loam – 1
Dream Halls – 1
Enchantress – 1
Goblins – 1
GW Stone Blade w/ Punishing Fire – 1
Merfolk – 1
Monoblack Control – 1
Naya Fire Control – 1
Painted Stone – 1
The Rock – 1
StifleNaut – 1
Tezzeret Thopter Sword – 1
UB Delver – 1

So, Just 1 goblin survived the cut.

[jrw1985]

I want to shake that guy's hand.

[Avatara]

UW Stone Blade – 22
GW Stone Blade – 22
Canadian Threshold – 15
High Tide – 9
Dredge – 9
Bant Stone Blade – 8
Ad Nauseum Tendrils – 5
Belcher – 5
Esper Stone Blade – 5

Is it just me or is Stoneforge Mystic simply more dominant/broken than Vengevine ever was!?

[Davran]

Is it just me or is Stoneforge Mystic simply more dominant/broken than Vengevine ever was!?

It was bound to happen...you've essentially got a Demonic Tutor in white that also happens to let you dodge counter magic with whatever it is you just tutored up.

That said, while Mystic is pretty prevalent, it's not all that hard to deal with. In our case we're answering it with a fancy Shock...so I can't imagine blue decks are having any problems. Let's be honest...Mystic searching out Batterskull is pretty linear and very predictable. The problem is that Snapcaster Mage is pushing those decks over the top, which is why we're seeing so much U/W/x played right now.

Vengevine on the other hand dodges all of that because you actually want it in your graveyard. As a 4/3 with haste it's not all that spectacular, which is why we're seeing zero of them played now that Survival is banned.

[jrw1985]

Is it just me or is Stoneforge Mystic simply more dominant/broken than Vengevine ever was!?

I think the difference in perception comes from the way that Stoneforge has slowly ramped up in power and popularity, while Survival kinda took the whole format over after one GP and a few SCG 5Ks.

Also, you didn't go through the whole Day 2 list. There were like another half-dozen SFM decks you missed.

Anywho, SFM is ridiculously overpowered. I don't think it would be banned though, just because resolving it doesn't guarantee a win (unlike, say, Survival).

[Mantis]

While I don't think Batterskull and Jitte are impossible to beat, they sure do complicate things for me. If I lose to StoneBlade or Maverick it's generally due to these equipments. My idea is to sideboard 4 copies of Tower of the Magistrate and board them in for the Wastelands when facing a deck with Stoneforge Mystic. What do you guys think about this? Is losing Wasteland against these archetypes a big deal at all?

[wert]

Timothy Thomason
7th place at a StarCity Dallas, 2012-03-11

//Artifacts
4 Aether Vial
//Creatures
3 Gempalm Incinerator
1 Goblin Chieftain
4 Goblin Lackey
4 Goblin Matron
4 Goblin Piledriver
4 Goblin Ringleader
1 Goblin Sharpshooter
3 Goblin Warchief
3 Mogg War Marshal
2 Siege-Gang Commander
1 Stingscourger
//Tribal Sorceries
3 Warren Weirding
//Basic Lands
4 Mountain
//Lands
4 Badlands
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Rishadan Port
4 Wasteland
3 Wooded Foothills
//Sideboard:
1 Tormod's Crypt
4 Engineered Plague
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Chaos Warp
4 Cabal Therapy

He is still staying with Warchiefs and pile drivers, skipping out Instigators totally. Still running mana denial with Rishadan Ports.

No Tarfire either but at least he has Warren Weirding. Looks outdated, only thing interesting is Cabal Therapy.

His interview
His featured match....which he lost :P
Quaterfinals....and again.

Too be fair, combo is not a good match up at all.

[ScatmanX]

Goblins top4 on SCGO!
Sweet, and the list is actually nice.
Just don't know why he didn't killed his top8 opponent 1 turn before he did, but thats fine.
He featured Round4 to.

[Steamflogger]

Woopwoop! I'm also still watching.
True, I think he was just a bit afraid of swords or countermagic. I'm curious how he'll do in the first game and right now he is mulling. Let's see let's see. The thing I'll definitely take from his games is that Kiki is a pimp.

[NecroYawgmoth]

...and he mulls to 2 in game 1 against combo... WTF

[ScatmanX]

...and he mulls to 2 in game 1 against combo... WTF

I just can't stand those commentators speaking all that crap.
I mean, grab a Ringleader from Matron?
C'mon!!!
(I'd probably take Chieftain, to make Nauseam worse, but Instigator is fine)

[Steamflogger]

Hmm.. very eager mulls. It would have been great to know which hands he put down.

[ScatmanX]

Hmm.. very eager mulls. It would have been great to know which hands he put down.

Nice to note that Faerie Macabre would have won the 3rd math, while Relic did nothing...

Either way, congrats to the guy.

[fimo]

glad to see that there are some goblins are performing well!

guys, I have a kinda of blasphemous question... has anybody tried to put in a goblin list a few of those ridiculous non goblin cards? I m referring to unfair things like tarmogoyf/stoneforge...
I m not saying that s actually a good idea, never playtested it myself, but I m curious to hear if anybody has actually had something out of it. Especially stoneforge... I mean we play 1-2 MD artifact hate + 1-2 SB artifact hate only because we fear of what comes out of the opponent's stoneforge... around 4 anti-equippment in the 75 cards. In my experience batterskull is totally doable but jitte creates some problems both because comes out early and because it puts you far behind in board position once it gets counters on. Also, against maverick it doesn t really matter if you tarfire stoneforge because they have plenty of dudes to equip and it is relativelly cheap. However, jitte is legendary...Playing jitte means having an equipment hate + a very strong weapon against non stoneforge decks for which our goblin equipment hate (tuktuk/TSH) would be dead anyway.
I would keep a single tuktuk/TSH no matter what in the 75 cards but after all a couple of stoneforge and 1-2 equipment (of which at least 1 jitte) MAY do something fun. They are good both in the opening hand and as top decks.
Would ringleader become so bad? we are talking about 4 cards after all and I usually don t side ringleaders out when I side 4 cards.

[jrw1985]

Brett Parise's Goblin Deck

Maindeck:

Artifacts
4 Aether Vial

Creatures
3 Gempalm Incinerator
4 Goblin Chieftain
4 Goblin Lackey
4 Goblin Matron
2 Goblin Piledriver
4 Goblin Ringleader
1 Goblin Sharpshooter
2 Mogg War Marshal
2 Siege-Gang Commander
1 Stingscourger
2 Tuktuk Scrapper
2 Warren Instigator

Instants
2 Lightning Bolt
2 Pyrokinesis

Legendary Creatures
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker

Basic Lands
16 Mountain

Lands
4 Wasteland

Sideboard:
3 Chalice of the Void
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Zuran Orb
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Pyroblast
1 Pyrokinesis
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Surgical Extraction
2 Anarchy
1 Shattering Spree

4th Place!

If anyone was watching the coverage, Brett was featured a couple times and played the deck very well, in my opinion. He used Kiki-Jiki like a madman, and I think I might have to make a cut or two to get a copy of Kiki and Sharpshooter into my deck again (especially Sharpshooter since that silly spirit token flashback spell is gaining in popularity).

I'm not a huge fan of the 20 lands build. I've always found 22 to be more my speed, but then I use Port too, so my builds are a little more mana hungry. The Zuran Orb in the sb seems like too large of a concession to the Burn MU, but if Brett is on the Source I'd be interested to hear from him how they worked out. I also think that if yuo're going to run 4 pieces of GY hate just go for broke and play Leylines. Then again, I just hate spending mana on non-goblin spells. Brett did use Surgical Extaction very well Game 2 against Storm, but the low land count seemed to catch up to him Games 1 and 3 as he mulled into oblivion in both. Still, I liked his G1 mull to 2, because he knew his opponent was on Storm and was probably trying to mull to an explosive Lackey start, which was the only chance he has to win anyway.

Anywho, congrats to him. Goblins seems to have found a home in the Top-8.

[Ace/Homebrew]

has anybody tried to put in a goblin list a few of those ridiculous non goblin cards?

YOU should try it and let us know!
I know Jitte was considered too slow when the Warchief list was used. Spending a turn playing and equipping instead of filling the board with 2 or 3 more goblins wasn't considered good enough. But times have changed!