[Deck] Goblins

[Davran]

I just don't like Tuktuk Scrapper enough against Blade and Vedalken Shackles sees so little play that it's hardly a convincing argument to put them in my 75.

I run a misers copy of Shattering Spree in my board for matches like this. I also run 2 Scrappers in the main, but that's mostly up to you. I like Spree because they need at least two counters to stop it, and it has the potential to hit multiple things which can be occasionally relevant.

Of course the downside is that it's not a goblin, but it has enough upside that it doesn't really matter.

Anarchy seems really slow and it doesn't hit any of the big metagame contenders. UW Control can just use Entreat the Angels at instant speed with Top anyway, so I think Anarchy is a bad choice.

I disagree with your statement that Anarchy doesn't hit the big contenders. It's often a pretty big blowout against Maverick, especially if you're struggling with an active mom. It's also mildly useful against U/W, depending on the build. Entreat the Angels is just one more reason to consider them for the board.

Engineered Explosives could be good against Entreat the Angels, we will have to see how the metagame evolves. I don't think we have enough reasons to justify EE other than Entreat the Angels right now.

Explosives seems questionable if only because our best form of reach is supported by the three tokens he brings with him. A more consistent approach might be to take advantage of our mana denial plan since they need quite a few lands to make Entreat worth it.

The trick with cards like Terminus is to not get greedy. Stick a couple threats and sit on the rest for as long as you can. It's not like the deck has you on any sort of clock until Entreat resolves, and we have so many ways to give our guys haste that we can easily force the 2nd Terminus after he's gone all in on the tokens plan.

[Talanos]

So the fact that Cavern makes black mana too started me thinking about ways to incorporated black goblins who might not have been consistently playables with just 3-4 Badlands. Previously, you might have avoided fetching nonbasics early. Now, it matters less since you have Cavern to run out there anyway.

The biggest canidate I have in mind is Earwig. Not only does he battle well with green creatures, but he's a potential main deck combo hoser. If you Lackey a Warchief, you can even Cap them on turn 2! This gives us more potential game against Tide, Hivemind, Storm, etc., as well as busting Jittes out of Maverick or Delvers, Goyfs, Bolts, Plows, or what have you against aggro and tempo decks.

I think you would also want 8 two-drops, likely MWM and Piledriver, to maximize connecting on turn 3. 4 Warchief is a must for turn 2 goldfish draws against combo. The rest is core and preference.

Anyone want to help me test this?

[GoboLord]

So the fact that Cavern makes black mana too started me thinking about ways to incorporated black goblins who might not have been consistently playables with just 3-4 Badlands. Previously, you might have avoided fetching nonbasics early. Now, it matters less since you have Cavern to run out there anyway.

The biggest canidate I have in mind is Earwig. Not only does he battle well with green creatures, but he's a potential main deck combo hoser. If you Lackey a Warchief, you can even Cap them on turn 2! This gives us more potential game against Tide, Hivemind, Storm, etc., as well as busting Jittes out of Maverick or Delvers, Goyfs, Bolts, Plows, or what have you against aggro and tempo decks.

I think you would also want 8 two-drops, likely MWM and Piledriver, to maximize connecting on turn 3. 4 Warchief is a must for turn 2 goldfish draws against combo. The rest is core and preference.

Anyone want to help me test this?

Test what exactly?

(1) The usefulness of Earig Squad in MD?
(2) How reliably we can cast him with only 4 {B} sources (CoS)?

I'd like to test several strategies with someone (either via Cockatrice or MagicWorkStation).

Apart from that:

Props to Mantis for 11 removal MD, you are my hero, sir Too bad you couldn't fit Piledrivers in there (which absolutely enable the plan vs U/W-Miracle control that Davran suggested)

Props to Davran for your MU analysis. I agree with you on both the "don't go all-in"-thing and about Anarchy in SB.

Lastly: People, c'mon! Squeeze Sulfuric Vortex into your decks. This card is a bitch! COntrol-MU usually play out like this: in turns 1-5 you do some damage - after that he is either dead or able to achieve board-control (stabilizing at ~10 life). Just how insane is Sulfuric Vortex in this scenario? Besides it blocks (1) recurring Punishing Fires, (2) Scavenging Oozes and (3) Batterskulls.

[ScatmanX]

I promisse I'll give Sulfuric Vortex a shot next time.
What are the MU's you bring it in?
Punishing Mav, UW/Esper blade, all controls. Am I missing something?

[GoboLord]

I promisse I'll give Sulfuric Vortex a shot next time.
What are the MU's you bring it in?
Punishing Mav, UW/Esper blade, all controls. Am I missing something?

Nope, I just bring it in against those ~60% of the meta - thats it.
(Well you might want have it against NicFit. Depending on their list they might have some Kitchenfinks and Scavenging Ooze. Besides you can from some point on just stall the game -they tend to be the ones to take early damage).

Besides, I'm pondering about my 15th SB slot, maybe you could help me out?

I'm preparing for THIS meta.

My current SB looks like:

4 Leyline otV
4 Chalice otV
3 Vortex
2 Anarchy
1 Tuktuk Scrapper
1 X

My maindeck has 21 lands feat. Caverns, Wastelands and Ports, 9 Removal spells (1 Sharpshooter) including the "classic" 26 Core's.

[Davran]

Besides, I'm pondering about my 15th SB slot, maybe you could help me out?

I'm preparing for THIS meta.

My current SB looks like:

4 Leyline otV
4 Chalice otV
3 Vortex
2 Anarchy
1 Tuktuk Scrapper
1 X

My maindeck has 21 lands feat. Caverns, Wastelands and Ports, 9 Removal spells (1 Sharpshooter) including the "classic" 26 Core's.

It seems like you're most likely to face Maverick and Canadian, with a random combo or control match mixed in. I assume your 9 removal spells contain some number of Pyrokinesis, so I won't suggest that.

Maybe you should go with something broad like Pithing Needle? There are plenty of relevant targets in most of the decks you expect to face.

Another option is a 1-of Red Elemental Blast/Pyroblast as a further hedge against base blue decks in general. If it were me, I'd probably go for the 1-of Needle over this (it seems more versatile), but I'm not sure of your play style.

My last suggestion is an additional piece of artifact hate...either another Scrapper or Shattering Spree. This one may be the least useful, but it really depends on which version of Maverick your expecting - sometimes they pack Sword of X and Y and/or Jitte for us.

[Talanos]

Test what exactly?

(1) The usefulness of Earig Squad in MD?
(2) How reliably we can cast him with only 4 {B} sources (CoS)?

I'd like to test several strategies with someone (either via Cockatrice or MagicWorkStation).

The first, primarily. I did not propose a complete list because I do not yet know what is optimal. I am assuming that there would be at least 11 black sources between Cavern, Fetch, and Badlands, perhaps more. It also depends on if Port is played. I suggested a handful of cards I think need to be in the deck but the variables are up to the tester.

I am also assuming that a proper test means that someone tries an Earwig list in a tournament, hence my query for any takers. If we want to start a discussion on tuning the list, I am game.

[ScatmanX]

My current SB looks like:

4 Leyline otV
4 Chalice otV
3 Vortex
2 Anarchy
1 Tuktuk Scrapper
1 X

My maindeck has 21 lands feat. Caverns, Wastelands and Ports, 9 Removal spells (1 Sharpshooter) including the "classic" 26 Core's.

There are so many few Dredger/Reanimator decks in your meta, do you think 4 Leyline are necessary? Imo, you should be fine with just 3 pieces of hate.
I guess your 15th card should be Pyroblast.
It could come in agains Canadian (7), UW Miracle Control (4), Spiral (3), BUG (3), UR (2), and some others. While not the best card against some, it is a usefull tool against a lot of decks, and may vary your hate opotions, which is always nice.

[jrw1985]

Tourney Report!

Got back on the ball today. Had a good showing and made some good plays tonight.
The List

4 Aether Vial
4 Goblin Lackey
3 Warren Instigator
3 Goblin Piledriver
4 Goblin Warchief
4 Goblin Chieftain
4 Goblin Matron
4 Goblin Ringleader
2 Tarfire
2 Mogg Fanatic
3 Gempalm Incinerator
1 Pyrokinesis
2 Seige-Gang Commander
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Wasteland
12 Mountain

Sideboard
3 Relic of Progenitus
3 Surgical Extraction
3 Red Elemental Blast
2 Anarchy
1 Tuktuk Scrapper
1 Goblin Tinkerer
1 Goblin Sharpshooter
1 Stingscourger

20 lands, 5 non-Gobbos, 35 Gobbos.

Before I say anything else: Relic of Progenitus
Holy. Fucking. Shit.
That card was amazing amazing amazing. Forget Perish. Forget Warren Weirding. Relic is the Goyf and Mongoose killer you've been waiting for.

R1 RUB
This deck was essentially RUG Delver without the G, but with discard and Tombstalker instead.
G1 I was on the play and mulled to 6 and cast a T1 Vial that didn't get Forced. He then lead with Delver but I Fanatic'd it my next turn. When he had Waste, Underground Sea, and Volcanic Island in play I Wasted his Volcanic. Keeping these Delver type decks off red puts a real beating on them. I also wasted because I was ticking up a Vial. When Vial hit 3 I had Matron and Ringleader in hand. I Matroned for a Seige Gang Commander. My opponent audibly muttered "That's weird..." but I told him after the game that grabbing Seige Gang then guaranteed that I would be able to Maximize my Vial activations. I'd already used it on 3 for Matron, on 4 the next turn for Ringleader, and on 5 the turn after that. Grabbing Siege Gang when I did guaranteed I could get the most juice out of the Vial. Even though he resolved a TOmbstalker and I was taking 5 a turn, the Ringleader followed by SCG made him scoop.
I sided in 3 REBs and a Stingscourger for some other pieces of removal.

G2 I was on the draw and played a T2 Vial to get around Daze. I then wasted my opponent's Volcanic Island again when it was clear he was short on mana. When he did finally get some more lands he played a Vendillion Clique and started beating me with it. I played a Chieftain and followed it up with a Lackey for the surprise swing. That got a SGC cheated in, but his tokens got Stifled. So, I through the Lackey at the Clique, since I had plenty of lands and I Vial ticking up anyway. Chieftain and SCG got there.
W

R2 RUG Delver
I actually had to run and help out a friend for a few minutes given during this round, so we only had time for 2 games.
G1 I was able to kill his T1 Delver before it even flipped, but he was able to quickly follow it up with a Goyf and 2 Mongoose with threshold. It was competitive, but he hit too many creatures this game. I lost after trying to setup one last-ditch-effort swing, but took a bolt to the face to finish me off.

I sided out a bunch of removal and shaved off a few Goblins to make room for 3 REBs and 3 Relics.
G2 I opened on a 1 land hand (Mountain) that also had Vial and Relic. Mmmmm, OK. Vial dodged Force and we were off to the races. I killed a Delver of his with Fanatic and started vialling shit in. He eventually had a Goyf and Nimble Mongoose out. I attacked into the Mongoose and Goyf with Piledriver, Warchief and Chieftain. It looked like an attack where I was trying to trade a Piledriver with Goyf, but when he Bolted Piledriver and blocked Chieftain it looked like he was going to walk away far better off after this combat phase. Except that I had a Relic in my hand, and 3 mana open. Just like that his board was cleared and I drew a card. I pretty much ran the board from there on out. A couple of Caverns helped me force more bodies through, and I drew into another Relic to off his second Goyf after a combat phase very similarly staged as the last one. I secured the win and time was called.
Draw

R3 Show and Food Chain
This is a new deck based off an old idea. It abuses Food Chain to hardcast Emrakul. What makes this deck so cool is that it also uses an alternate win con of Show and Tell. And it runs 4 Misthollow Griffin to generate infinite mana with Food Chain. The really cool thing is that it also runs Manipulate Fate, which turns the Griffins into and Ancestral Recall. It also runs a bunch of mana dorks to get the Food Chain running. Oh, and Force of Will, Daze, Brainstorm and Ponder. Cool deck.
Unfortunately, they guy playing it (who was 3-0 at the time) had what we might call a "greedy" manabase, which I just exploited the hell out of. Fanatics, Gempalms, and Tarfires kept his side of the board clear of mana dorks, so he couldn't rev up the Food Chain, and I smashed him repeatedly with tides of Goblins. We had declared to split anyway, so we just played for fun. 5 games. No sideboards. I won 4 of the 5 games. Three of those on the draw. My Stingscourger never left my sideboard. I just played too fast and had too much removal and too many uncounterable guys.

I'd write more but it's late. I had a very good night and felt like I was making good plays all night. I felt very present, if that makes any sense.

[Mantis]

He had a fetchland into play, and didn't realized his Knight of the Relicary would die to combat dmg, because of Chieftain's pump. I did not feel obligated to remember him that.

@Beating SnT: I guess Mantis list can rape SnT decks hard. It looks really good agains it. Maybe a B splash for Squad as he suggested himself might be a good option too. If you get to see his deck, might be quite easy t assume what combo piece he is missing (SnT/Sneak or big dude).
I just don't know if that list can handle Maverick, Esper, and other miscelanious agroo decks, like Goblins and Elves, very easily, giving the absence od Knesis, but 11 removal might be able to pull it off...

Ah, I hadn't even considered that Earwig Squad lets you know the contents of their hand as well which can be quite crucial to determine what you should REB, set Needle to, how to spend those Wastes and what to get with Matron. It does mean that I will have to memorize every major decklist including the manabases...

What would you change to get a better matchup against UW Blade or EsperBlade?
I am not sold on Pyrokinesis and don't think it's a very good card against Blade. It's obviously very strong against Maverick, but I feel like I can beat that deck already and the mana dudes generally don't concern me as much. The mirror match has always felt pretty random, but with 4 Instigators, 4 Lightning Bolt and 4 Chieftain the matchup shouldn't be horrible and you should have an advantage against decks packing Piledriver + Warchief instead. In order to have a better mirror matchup I would like to max out on Gempalms, but Pyrokinesis would help here as well.

[Steamflogger]

There are so many few Dredger/Reanimator decks in your meta, do you think 4 Leyline are necessary? Imo, you should be fine with just 3 pieces of hate.

When you play LotV you should play the full playset to increase the chance of drawing at least one in your starthand to the max. Drawn later on they are nothing but dead cards. That's the backside of this card. But the clear advantage is, that it is uncounterable and keeps dredge and reanimator from putting down early creature (-theats) so that we can use this time to run them down. That's my reason for playing LotV instead of other gy hate cards.

[Davran]

Back again with another report. First things first...the list:

4x Wasteland
17x Mountain

4x Goblin Lackey
4x Goblin Piledriver
4x Goblin Matron
4x Goblin Chieftain
4x Goblin Ringleader
2x Stingscourger
2x Siege-gang Commander
2x Gempalm Incinerator
2x Mogg War Marshal
1x TukTuk Scrapper
1x Goblin Sharpshooter

3x Tarfire
2x Pyrokinesis
4x Aether Vial

Sideboard:
3x Relic of Progenitus
3x Red Elemental Blast
1x TukTuk Scrapper
1x Shattering Spree
1x Boartusk Liege
2x Anarchy
4x Chalice of the Void

Round 1: Some sort of life gain home brew.

I'll spare you the details here - he gets me one game by gaining "infinite" life, otherwise Wasteland keeps him off mana while I swing in for large chunks.

Round 2: The Rock (W/G/b)

This deck is mostly like maverick with a black splash - as far as I can tell it's running some discard spells over mom.

Game 1: I keep an aggressive hand of Lackey, Matron, Piledriver, Pyrokinesis, Wasteland and a couple mountains. I lost the die roll, so my opponent leads off with Dryad Arbor. I draw Mogg War Marshal, cast Lackey, and ship it back. He drops a basic plains and casts Stoneforge Mystic, fetching up Jitte. I Pyro his Arbor and Mystic at his end step, exiling the War Marshal. Lackey connects into Matron, and I grab Chieftain figuring on the long game and to hedge against Jitte. Turns out the Arbor was his only green source, and I win a couple of attacks later.

Sideboarding: +1 Shattering Spree +1 Anarchy, -2 Piledriver Sideboarding was actually pretty difficult here. I wanted to bring in the 3 Relics (he plays Goyf, Knight, and Ooze) but I liked every card in the main against him. I ultimately settled on an additional piece of artifact hate and the miser's Anarchy.

Game 2: I mull to 6 and keep a mediocre hand of War Marshal, Matron, Shattering Spree, 2x Wasteland and a Mountain. I figure the Wastelands will pay off for me, and the artifact hate will stop any early Mystic plays. He drops a fetch and passes. I rip Lackey off the top, and suddenly my hand is looking a whole lot better. He fetches a Scrubland on my end step, and hits me with an Inquisition of Kozilek, taking Shattering Spree (I scratch my head and decide he must have Mystic). Lackey connects into Matron, and I grab a Chieftain as a hedge against Jitte. I waste his Scrubland and ship it back. We go back and forth for a couple turns, him taking damage from a pair of Horizon Canopies while I bounce his Ooze with a Stinger. At one point he has a 5/5 Knight in play and casts an Ulvenwald Tracker. Lucky for me I'm holding my other Stinger, so I bounce the Knight and he's forced to block Lackey with the Tracker. It's over from there.

Round 3: LED-less Dredge

Game 1: He goes off turn 2 with a breakthrough. Two bridges and Iona are more than enough.

Sideboarding: +3x Relic of Progenitus, +1x Anarchy -4x Aether Vial I reached for the Anarchy here figuring he brings in Elesh Norn vs. goblins.

Game 2: I mull a no lander into a 6 with Lackey, Relic, Wasteland, Mountain and a couple other Goblins. I run out the Relic, but he has Nature's Claim. He goes off turn 3 this time, flipping Elesh and Iona into the grave with enough creatures and dread returns to reanimate both. I scoop.

Round 4: U/W Miracle Control

I playtested with this guy prior to the tournament, so I'm feeling pretty good about this match. I'll share some thoughts after the report.

Game 1: Lackey resolves, connecting into Siege-gang. Unfortunately for me he is able to take a couple extra turns and cantrip into a Terminus on one of my end steps. I'm holding on to plenty of back up gas in my hand (Ringleader and Chieftain) but my Ringleader looks really sad vs. his 4 angel tokens. I have him at 8 life before he can overwhelm me.

Sideboarding: +2x Anarchy, +3x Red Elemental Blast, -1 TukTuk Scrapper, -2 Mogg War Marshal, -1 Tarfire, -1 Goblin Piledriver

Game 2: Lackey connects into Siege-gang again, and I Matron for Chieftain. My opponent says "what, no Piledriver?" (it's in my hand) and we have a laugh when I say "Piledriver would be pretty good if I didn't have to play around Terminus". Sure enough, he hits the Terminus that draw phase. Lucky for me I am again holding plenty of gas, and I'm able to throw a token at him for a couple damage in response. The game goes very long with him taking 2 extra turns in a row at one point, and flipping another Terminus. I eventually get him down to 3 life, and struggle for a few turns to close it out through 2x Propaganda. He eventually miracles into Entreat, netting him 4 tokens. Lucky for me, I draw a Pyrokinesis, and am able to kill a token to buy the turn I need to close it out.

Unfortunately, time is called and we don't get a game 3.


Some thoughts on the U/W Miracle Match-up:

1. Play around Terminus. You'll definitely be tempted to slam your goblin horde on the table and win quickly (the deck puts up no clock for the first 5+ turns), but a single Terminus can easily take you from winning to losing for the low low cost of W. If you find yourself getting hit with Terminus and you have an active Siege-gang, throw the tokens before you throw your "real" goblins. Terminus puts them back in your library, setting up Matron for later.

2. The deck is very counter-light. They essentially run Force of Will and Spell Pierce. Of the 5 games we played, I had a vial pierced and an extremely relevant Siege-gang Forced. Cavern of Souls would go a long way here (no Wastelands that I saw). The nice thing about this deck is that he doesn't really want to pitch his blue cards to Force your guys. He'd much rather cantrip and set up miracles.

3. I'm confident Anarchy would be a blow out. By the time they make angels they'll have blown through most of their cantrips setting up the extra turns and Terminus. This minimizes the chance that they'll have a Force of Will, and maximizes the chance that you'll be able to cast Anarchy and also pay for Spell Pierce if necessary.

4. Lastly, miracle is a stupid mechanic...especially in this format. Remember that he can Brainstorm on your end step and miracle the top card.

[ScatmanX]

Ah, I hadn't even considered that Earwig Squad lets you know the contents of their hand as well which can be quite crucial to determine what you should REB, set Needle to, how to spend those Wastes and what to get with Matron. It does mean that I will have to memorize every major decklist including the manabases...

What would you change to get a better matchup against UW Blade or EsperBlade?
I am not sold on Pyrokinesis and don't think it's a very good card against Blade. It's obviously very strong against Maverick, but I feel like I can beat that deck already and the mana dudes generally don't concern me as much. The mirror match has always felt pretty random, but with 4 Instigators, 4 Lightning Bolt and 4 Chieftain the matchup shouldn't be horrible and you should have an advantage against decks packing Piledriver + Warchief instead. In order to have a better mirror matchup I would like to max out on Gempalms, but Pyrokinesis would help here as well.

You don't get to see the oponents hand with Squad, but yeah, if you assume they have 4 SnT, 4 Sneak Attack, 4 Emrakul and 4 Grizzlebrand, you can count the ones on his library, and guess which one is missing, removing that one. Then count FoWs and stuff important.
You don't actually have to do it that fast (of course, don't stall), because despite that the rule says you have to resolve the abilitie in less than a minute,if you take a littel more, thats fine.

Against UW I just miss a Scrapper there, and against Esper, and Scrapper and a Sharpshooter...

Against the mirror, you might be well positioned G1, but Knesis and Sharpshooter may turn the tide against you G2-3, even against the Warchief build. It's more a gut feeling, but might be wrong here.

When you play LotV you should play the full playset to increase the chance of drawing at least one in your starthand to the max. Drawn later on they are nothing but dead cards. That's the backside of this card. But the clear advantage is, that it is uncounterable and keeps dredge and reanimator from putting down early creature (-theats) so that we can use this time to run them down. That's my reason for playing LotV instead of other gy hate cards.

I understand that. That's why I didn't said "play 3 grave LofV", but "you should be fine with just 3 pieces of hate". I know that GobboLord is a true beliver of Leyline, and probably won't change that, but thought I might suggest it either way.

Before I say anything else: Relic of Progenitus
Holy. Fucking. Shit.
That card was amazing amazing amazing. Forget Perish. Forget Warren Weirding. Relic is the Goyf and Mongoose killer you've been waiting for.

It's the tits, right?
Did running only 12 Mountains was ever an issue with Gempalm and Tarfire?

[Mantis]

Has Sharpshooter really been that good for you? It seems so slow to set up without Warchiefs as it takes 3 turns before you can start shooting. First Matron, then Sharpshooter and wait for his haste to wear off then finally start shooting. During that time you could have set up SGC as well. Chieftain could speed it up a little, but they usually send him farming ASAP.

The same applies to Tuktuk, I feel like again it's very slow to set up using Matron. You might as well get SGC into play and kill the Batterskull that way or use the chump and sac tactic against Jitte. Tuktuk is obviously a more permanent and better solution to artifacts but SGC has way more applications and is extremely strong against every deck out there. I'd prefer to play additional SGC and actually did up the count back to 3 just today. Do note that Stingscourger deals with Batterskull as well, bounce that Germ and then they need 5 mana to get it back up, in the meantime find another way to deal with him.

Going to test my list in a GP Trial tomorrow, will keep you guys updated about how it goes. If I lose to equipments and Mavericks dorks too often I will for sure try an approach with more hate.

[ScatmanX]

@Devran: I think you made some mistakes on some of your decisions, so would like to discuss somethings:

GBW
Game 1: I keep an aggressive hand of Lackey, Matron, Piledriver, Pyrokinesis, Wasteland and a couple mountains. I lost the die roll, so my opponent leads off with Dryad Arbor. I draw Mogg War Marshal, cast Lackey, and ship it back. He drops a basic plains and casts Stoneforge Mystic, fetching up Jitte. I Pyro his Arbor and Mystic at his end step, exiling the War Marshal. Lackey connects into Matron, and I grab Chieftain figuring on the long game and to hedge against Jitte. Turns out the Arbor was his only green source, and I win a couple of attacks later.

Sideboarding: +1 Shattering Spree +1 Anarchy, -2 Piledriver Sideboarding was actually pretty difficult here. I wanted to bring in the 3 Relics (he plays Goyf, Knight, and Ooze) but I liked every card in the main against him. I ultimately settled on an additional piece of artifact hate and the miser's Anarchy.

1 - G1, you Knesis his Arbor + Stoneforge on his EoT. There was no reason you shoudn't have played Knesis on your mainphase. The card is an instant, but you don't have to play it like that. You'd have another drawstep, that could maybe change your play, like drawing a worse card than MwM, like Lacky at that time, or drawing a 2nd Knesis or a Tarfire (that could leave you to Tarfire the Stoneforge, and next turn Knesis the Arbor and whatever card he plays).
2 - Piledriver is quite bad against them, so siding 3-4 is an option for the 2nd Anarchy.

Round 4: U/W Miracle Control

Sideboarding: +2x Anarchy, +3x Red Elemental Blast, -1 TukTuk Scrapper, -2 Mogg War Marshal, -1 Tarfire, -1 Goblin Piledriver

Game 2: Lackey connects into Siege-gang again, and I Matron for Chieftain. My opponent says "what, no Piledriver?" (it's in my hand) and we have a laugh when I say "Piledriver would be pretty good if I didn't have to play around Terminus". Sure enough, he hits the Terminus that draw phase. Lucky for me I am again holding plenty of gas, and I'm able to throw a token at him for a couple damage in response. The game goes very long with him taking 2 extra turns in a row at one point, and flipping another Terminus. I eventually get him down to 3 life, and struggle for a few turns to close it out through 2x Propaganda. He eventually miracles into Entreat, netting him 4 tokens. Lucky for me, I draw a Pyrokinesis, and am able to kill a token to buy the turn I need to close it out.

3 - Why did you kept Knesis in? Just to kill a token? Every goblin you took out here seems better than Knesis agaist UW. I'd even bring in the Liege for a Tarfire.

4 - You searched for Chieftains with Matron imo way too much. Against UW and Rock, from my expirience, those should have been Ringleaders. You do not want to be blown out by a Terminus, a StP, or an Inquisition...

Other than that, how much do you like the Piledrivers on that list?
Have you tested Instigators instead?

Has Sharpshooter really been that good for you? It seems so slow to set up without Warchiefs as it takes 3 turns before you can start shooting. First Matron, then Sharpshooter and wait for his haste to wear off then finally start shooting. During that time you could have set up SGC as well. Chieftain could speed it up a little, but they usually send him farming ASAP.

The same applies to Tuktuk, I feel like again it's very slow to set up using Matron. You might as well get SGC into play and kill the Batterskull that way or use the chump and sac tactic against Jitte. Tuktuk is obviously a more permanent and better solution to artifacts but SGC has way more applications and is extremely strong against every deck out there. I'd prefer to play additional SGC and actually did up the count back to 3 just today. Do note that Stingscourger deals with Batterskull as well, bounce that Germ and then they need 5 mana to get it back up, in the meantime find another way to deal with him.

Yeah, Shooter been kind of lackuster on the 0 Warchief build. With 2-3 he gets extremely better. But Tuktuk has never disapointed. Maybe in your build with 4 Caverns, you can handle Equipament carrers better with 3 Stings. Anyway, I don't always count on them, and can't leave home with a Tuktuk on te 75.

[Davran]

Has Sharpshooter really been that good for you?

Yes, yes it has. You have to keep in mind that decks like Maverick will send something farming long before you resolve a Sharpshooter. Once he sticks, they have a very tough time beating it. On top of that, you have the opportunity to trade favorably in combat, turn an echo trigger into extra damage and/or removal, and generally just keep X/1's off the board.

Plus, Sharpshooter going farming means a more threatening goblin gets to stick around.

[jrw1985]

Did running only 12 Mountains was ever an issue with Gempalm and Tarfire?

Yes, but only once, and I was able to play around it. It was during my games against the Food Chain deck. He had a Noble Heirarche in in play that I NEEDED to kill or else he would combo off and win next turn. I had Cavern, Cavern, Waste in play and a Lackey. I had 2 Gempalms in hand, but obviously couldn't cycle them. I played around my mana situation by attacking with Lackey who got through to cheat a Matron into play. Matron found me Fanatic, which sealed the deal.

[Davran]

1 - G1, you Knesis his Arbor + Stoneforge on his EoT. There was no reason you shoudn't have played Knesis on your mainphase. The card is an instant, but you don't have to play it like that. You'd have another drawstep, that could maybe change your play, like drawing a worse card than MwM, like Lacky at that time, or drawing a 2nd Knesis or a Tarfire (that could leave you to Tarfire the Stoneforge, and next turn Knesis the Arbor and whatever card he plays).

This is true. The way I figured it, MWM was the worst goblin in hand, and I wanted the Mystic gone. Hitting Arbor and keeping him off green was just a bonus.

2 - Piledriver is quite bad against them, so siding 3-4 is an option for the 2nd Anarchy.

My thinking at the time was that Piledriver forces a block, and he is often large enough to kill a Goyf or Knight, two cards which I otherwise have problems dealing with. There was never really a time in either game where Anarchy would have killed more than one creature (most of his guys were green), so Piledriver would have been a more relevant draw if I hit one.

3 - Why did you kept Knesis in? Just to kill a token? Every goblin you took out here seems better than Knesis agaist UW. I'd even bring in the Liege for a Tarfire.

Yes. The thing I found in testing is that by the time he hits Entreat, he'll be at low life. At that point, he has to decide between putting me on some sort of clock or leaving back blockers. His line would be to leave 1 or 2 angels back, and swing in with the other 2. Pyro messes with his combat math, allowing me to close out the game despite the angels. This was actually relevant in our game 2 - he swings with three angels, leaving Geist of St. Traft and a token back to block with. I was able to Pyro the token and finish him off at 4 life.

Also, Pyro is relevant due to the other creatures they play. I saw Snapcaster and Vendilion Clique out of him in testing.

4 - You searched for Chieftains with Matron imo way too much. Against UW and Rock, from my expirience, those should have been Ringleaders. You do not want to be blown out by a Terminus, a StP, or an Inquisition...

I often had Ringleader in hand when I searched out a Chieftain. For whatever reason I drew into plenty of Ringleaders and turn 1 Lackey last night...a very nice "problem" to have. I did make a mistake fetching the first Chieftain against Rock - I should have grabbed TukTuk or a Gempalm and dealt with Jitte that way. Lucky for me he really needed that Arbor, otherwise the game would have gone poorly.

Other than that, how much do you like the Piledrivers on that list?
Have you tested Instigators instead?

Piledriver was replacing Instigator and a TukTuk last night as a test. I expected to face faster decks this week, and I wanted to try and maximize my kill speed. It didn't turn out that way.

Pliedriver was relevant exactly once, and only because his protection was enough for the kill. I'll probably be back on the Instigator plan next week.

[jrw1985]

@GoboLord
I feel like writing a tutorial on the little green men. I've been noticing some changes to my play I've been making that are helping me win and generally improving my MUs. In brief...

Turn 1 Play (on the play): Lackey v Vial
There's been a lot of discussion about whether to lead with Vial or Lackey when you're on the play and have both in your opening hand. It's my professional opinion that leading with Vial is correct in every MU except Combo. Leading with Vial allows you much greater flexibility than Lackey.
Leading with Vial allows you to...
- Play more free creatures at more advantageous times than Lackey.
- Where Lackey can be easily dealt with (Force, Bolt, Plow, blocker) Vial is much more difficult to answer (Force... that's about it).
- Lackey can only cheat a guy in if it connects with an attack. This is great if you have a SGC in hand, but loses its luster if you are only cheating in a Matron and don't have the mana to cast what you tutor off of it.
- Vial also allows you to "curve out" the goblins in your hand. This basically means that if you have a 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 drop (or a similar hand) then you can activate Vial for maximum value every turn.
- Vial also lets you play silly tricks like Vialing in a Stingscourger on your opponent's turn, Vialing in Chieftain after blockers are declared, or even Vialing in Lackey EOT when your opponent taps out their creatures (i won a game aginst Belcher this way. I led with Vial, he made 10 Goblins T1. I ticked up Vial and cast Piledriver. He attacked with everything. I blocked 1, took 9, then Vialed Lackey in. I attacked with Lackey, cheated in Warchief, cast Sharpshooter, and won. Leading with Lackey would not have allowed me that line of play).
- Vial lets you use Wasteland and Port more freely. Because Lackey is more easily answered you will more likely have to hardcast your Gobbos. Also, because Lackey needs to connect you will have to spend mana hardcasting removal spells. When you need to hardcast spells you need to have Waste in play for mana production. Vial allows you to play free spells AND use Wasteland to disrupt your opponent's game.

Leading with Lackey-
-It's just faster than Vial, but is much less reliable since Lackey needs to connect across an open board. Lackey is excellent at doing this against Combo, and actually allows you to race combo decks. A T3 kill is easy when the board is open for Lackey to do broken things. Lackey+Cavern of Souls is the stone-cold nuts against permanent based combo decks with counterspells (Sneak and Show, High Tide, Dream halls).

Combat Tricks-
I used to be of the opinion that just getting damage through was justification enough for attacking. This has lead to me attacking into Goyfs with Piledriver+Cheiftain only to see the Piledriver bolted and the Cheiftain eaten by Goyf. I've come to realize that what you really need to be aware of in the combat phase is combat tricks. If you are going on the attack you need to have a response up your sleeve for WHEN (not IF) your opponent has a trick to play as he blocks. Using the same logic, if you're going to block attacking creatures you need to have something on hand to alter the combat math in your favor. Even if you're in an already advantageous position you need to be aware that your opponent generally isn't just going to run his creatures into yours so they can all trade. Your opponent is going to try and use spot removal to 2for1 you (he attacks with Goyf, you double or triple block to kill it, he bolts one of you blockers and the others die to Goyf, goyf survives). You need to have a trick of your own, or the block isn't even worth it (you cycle Gempalm in response to the Bolt, doing enough damage now to kill the Goyf after combat damage). Remember the old saying "He who laughs last laughs best?" This applies strongly to Magic. Combat, interactions, and Games are won by the player that plays the last card. You need to have a response before getting involved in any situation, whether it be combat, counter-wars, or the like.

That's all I got for now. I should write something more structured when I have more time.

[GoboLord]

I'm not sure if this is a reply to my invitation (a few pages back) on writing a blog on Goblins (with like weekly or once-in-two-weeks entries)?
If so, welcome on board :-D What you just wrote is the kind of things that I'm planning to "blog" about.

I've had several ideas lately that don't seem to fit in the primer but that I wanted to share with people (you know...the exchange-of-apple thing from my signature).