[Deck] Goblins

[GoboLord]

@ P-AiR: Very good finish. Although your result got less attention than woodjt5's I still want to point out that 6-3 is a solid performance. Losing to TES, S&T and Esperblade is not a shame. Do you mind giving a detailed report of thise games? While I do like success-stories, I find that one can learn a lot more from the games we lose.

@ woodjt5: Awsome performance. P-AiR and you proved that Pyrokinesis in the MD is absolutely essential in the current, Delver-infested meta. Later, when I post my tournament report, I will drop a line or two on that topic.

Hello all.

Hello :-) and welcome.


It's reeeaaallllllyy creepy how well the following expresses my thoughts on the deck. When I first read this I double-checked to make sure that I wasn't the author of this posting (honestly).

Now i'm playing the instigator version (and loving it), and reached a few conclusions that i wanted to share and that i saw in the last forum pages.
This is my thoughts specially for the Instigator version, that i'm playing right now:

Mana base, DEFINITELY we need MOUNTAINS, the more, the better. Why? 1st we need the red mana, 2nd wastelands can do really big damage against us, and if you played against a Burn deck and them doing to you a price of progress of 10 damage (it hurts), 3rd Drawing almost "generic mana" will slow us down to defeat. So cutting off "generic mana" is a MUST! The obvious lands to cut (and that strategy stopped working most of the times) is Rishadan Port (don't get me wrong they are incredible good), but it will cripple our deck of red mana. Now the big issue, and about Wastelands???? Well, i played with 4/3/2/1 and none, and there are a lot of games (most of times) that we do not miss them, but the games that we do miss, those are games that WE WOULD WIN if we had one! Most of those games that i missed them, where against combo decks or for key cards that are put from sb against us (for ex. Engineered Plague, if we do not allow them to reach 3 mana, it's a useless card against us), gaining 1 or 2 turns in those games it's victory. So due to a lot of testing i think a very good number is 3 Wastelands mainboard. Yet, and despite i'm playing 3 Wastelands, sometimes i wished i had 6 Wastelands :( (or a way to get one, because Ringleador put them on bottom) and there goes Goblin Settler, and i'm watching that guy for years (had to buy a lot things first), and he is very good, remember that one the strongest cards that goblins have is Goblin Matron that can tutor any goblin, so Settler can be our 4 Wasteland that can be fetched at any time, and used in that crucial moment, or slowing our opponent down and putting pressure on the table on the same time.
Now the way to play wasteland is really simple... are you combo? if you are, the first good chance i have to waste a land i will, but always after i have a good position on the table having a Instigator, or a lackey because the important of our deck is not mana disruption anymore, but, gain advantage of 1 turn ou even maybe 2, but usually i almost never use it until turn 5.

Saying that, it takes me to another discusson ... Chrome Mox.
Do we need it? Well, NO, but at the same time it's a must! In a generic game we won't miss it, we don't need it, and we don't want it, because it's card disadvantage, but on the other hand, there are moments, that we need that small ramp. Knowing the opponent is what may trigger or not the chrome, imagine, that you are playing against a UR Delver, and in starting hand you have Chrome + Mountain + Instigator, and on the play you go for it on 1st turn and i would say what a waste, total card disadvantage! But now imagine against a SnT and splashing black you play Badland + Cabal Therapy + Chrome mox + Lackey, you're had a terrific start!!!! Usually if not combo, Chrome Mox goes for late game, unless in desperate situations for mana.

[...]

Another interesting theme, is Goblin Piledriver, should we run it? if yes how many? My belief is that YES we should run it , but at the ammount of 2. It can be a very powerfull creature that ends the game fast, but that can be stopped by a squire :( so, having enougth of them to make pressure on non-creature decks or blue creature decks is very good, but lowering the count we can increase our toolbox or even use Mogg War Marshal to act as a blocker for those grinder middle late games.

[GoboLord]

Hello fellow Chieftains,

On sunday I played on the Dutch Legacy Championship and finished 4-3 after 7 rounds. Let’s start with the list.

MANA [22]
4 Cavern of Souls
3 Wasteland
3 Chrome Mox
2 Pendelhaven
9 Mountain
1 Snow-Covered Mountain

CORE [32]
4 Aether Vial
4 Goblin Lackey
4 Tarfire
4 Warren Instigator
4 Goblin Piledriver
4 Goblin Chieftain
4 Goblin Matron
4 Goblin Ringleader

OTHERS [6]
2 Goblin Settler
1 Stingscourger
1 Goblin Sharpshooter
1 Tuktuk Scrapper
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker

Sideboard [15]
4 Chalice of the Void
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Grafdigger’s Cage
2 Pithing Needle
2 Pyroblast
1 Goblin Sharpshooter
1 Boartusk Liege
1 Tuktuk Scrapper


Round 1: Marco with Rw Vial Goblins (2-1)
GAME 1: I win the die roll. Opening hand: Mountain, Cavern, Mox, Lackey, Tarfire, Settler, Chieftain.
I quickly overwhelm him by connecting with my Lackey on turn 2 (into Settler for his only land) and turn 3 (into Tuktuk Scrapper for his freshly played Aether Vial).

- 2 Settler
+1 Sharpshooter, +1 Tuktuk Scrapper

GAME 2: He opens with Lackey, I play Winstigator on turn 1, which he circumvents next turn with Raging River. He is unable to close the game fast, but manages to overwhelm me later which includes some Ringleaders, Electrickery and Tuktuk Scrapper at my Chrome Mox.

GAME 3: I took mulligan to 6: 2 Lackeys, 1 Mountain, 1 Pendelhaven, 1 Ringleader, 1 Vial.
Pendelhaven gets my Lackey past his Lackey, On turn 3 two of my Lackeys connect into Matron and Kiki-Jiki, which seals the deal.


Round 2: Kasper with UWR Punishing Stoneblade Pyromancer Treasure Cruise (1-2)
GAME 1: He wins the dice roll. I take a mulligan
I cast Winstigator on turn 1, which meets StoP on turn 2. I cast another one, which connects into Ringleader and Settler on turn 3. My opponents concedes after casting Treasure Cruise on his turn 4.

- 1 Settler
+1 Sharpshooter

GAME 2: I take mulligan.
My turn 1 Lackey meets StoP again, so I play Aether Vial on turn 2 and pass. On his turn 3 he casts Brainstorm and SFM fetching a Jitte. It takes me forever to find a fourth manasource; at this point it was quite too late for my Tuktuk Scrapper. I did manage to shatter his Jitte (@ 4 counters), but he plays another SFM and Batterskull on his next turn whom I can’t beat with my only Tuktuk Scrapper already destroyed. ‘Luckily’ I saw Grove of the Burnwillows, otherwise I would have boarded out my 2nd Goblin Settler after that game.

- 1 Sharpshooter, -1 Piledriver
+1 Settler, +1 Tuktuk Scrapper

In GAME 3: I keep a risky hand with 2 Lackeys, 1 Aether Vial, 1 Tuktuk Scrapper, 1 Ringleader, 1 Mountain and 1 Wasteland. I chose to open with Aether Vial, however he played Engineered Explosives on his turn 1, which rendered my 2 Lackeys useless and bought him 2 turns. I was unable to find a third or even a fourth mansource and his Grove of the Burnwillows + Punshing Fire engine cleared the board for True Name Nemesis wielding Jitte. I lost the game with 3 lands in play and 2 Settlers, 2 Scrappes and 1 Ringleader in hand.


Round 3: Tristan with UR Delver (1-2)
In GAME 1 Tristan Bolted my Lackey, Countered both of my Vials and took his time to actually kill me. Since I was low on lands I was never actually a threat to his lifepoints.

- 3 Piledriver, -1 Scrapper, -2 Settler, -1 Stingscourger
+1 Sharpshooter, +4 Chalice of the Void, +2 Pyroblast

In GAME 2 I cast Chalice @1 on turn 1 and another Chalice @2 on turn 3. Tristan Concedes.

In GAME 3 Tristan opens with Volcanic Island and Delver of Secrets.

~~PuZzLe TiMe~~
My hand looked as follows: Caverns, Chrome Mox, Lackey, Lackey, Chalice, Ringleader, Piledriver.
How would you have played with that hand on turns 1 and 2? What card would you imprint here? And what are your thoughts behind that?


Round 4: Chatto with Mono Red Burn (2-1)
I lost GAME 1 with him being on 12 life. Not even close.

-2 Settler, -1 Scrapper, -1 Sharpshooter
+4 Chalice of the Void

GAMES 2 & 3 I take mulligans until I find Chalice of the Void. In Game 3 I draw and play a second Chalice (@ 2) just in time before he could find his fetchland that he needed to break the lock with Destructive Revelry.
During and after the game we are chatting a bit, about Goblins (surprise) and some private things, which I found really nice. Always pleased to meet one of you Goblin-lovers in real life.


Round 5: ??? with Solidarity (2-0)
In GAME 1 I go first with Mountain and Lackey. He plays an Island and passes. Next turn I connect into Goblin Matron which got me a Goblin Settler. I did so because (1) I had the impression he was on storm-combo, just a gut-feeling, nothing more, and (2) I had Ringleader + Piledriver on my hand, so I basically had anything I needed against an opponent who apparently didn’t have any spotremoval. After that I played my Piledriver which caught a Force of Will (pitching Flusterstorm, thereby confirming my gut-feeling). Neyt turn I connect into Settler which puts him too far behind to go off.

-4 Vial, -4 Tarfire, -1 Sharpshooter, -1 Tuktuk
+4 Chalice, +2 Relic, +2 Cages, +2 Pyroblast

GAME 2 goes pretty much like game 1, with the addition that I cast a Chalice @1 on turn 2 and that he takes mulligan to 5.


Round 6: ??? with Death & Taxes (0-2)
I take mulligan to 6 and keep a still-quite-risky hand with 1 Chrome Mox, Lackey, Vial, and three other non-manasource cards. I immediately get punished by a turn-2 Phyrexian Revoker naming Chrome Mox. It actually takes a long time until he finishes me off, but in the end I never came back from that early set-back, because I failed to draw any mana.

-3 Piledriver, -1 Settler
+1 Tuktuk Scrapper, +1 Sharpshooter, +2 Pithing Needle

For GAME 2 I keep a hand with Chrome Mox, Cavern of Souls, Winstigator, Tarfire, Ringleader, Matron and a Lackey. That hand looks like it would win through anything except for Swords to Plowshares (and even then, I had lackey as back-up), right? So I played Winstigator on turn 1 (imprinting Ringleader to my Chrome mox) and pass. He puts down Mother of Runes and passes. So my job seemed easy: Tarfire that Mother and connect into Matron and KJ ftw. After Tarfire resolves I decleared attackers and he was tanking for a while. I thought “come on, what kind of bluffing is that? you cant have anything to play now, just write down those 2 damage and lose already.”. Boy was I surprised to see Marrow Shards on the table a few seconds later… The rest of the game went pretty much like game 1: He Revoke’d my Chrome Mox and shut down my mana pretty good. I was never able to come back into that game.





Round 7: ??? with Burn (2-0)
There is not much to say about that match. My opponent was un-experienced, didn’t know any of my cards and made some horrible mistakes. The worst one was this:
His board was: 3 Mountains, 1 Eidolon
My board: Vial@1, two untapped Mountains
In his turn he did this: First he played a 2nd Eidolon (taking 2 damage), then he cast Chain Lightning, (taking 4 damage) which I bounced back at his Eidolon. All this in his first mainphase, before the combat phase…


Thoughts and take-home meassages:

Mana-issues: I troubles casting my spells several times on that day. This might be due to me keeping risky hands. Or maybe I’m just running too few manasources. I feel like the decks has an edge against anything the meta has to offer right now, as long as I am allowed to put my potential into action. That is my goal is to resolve Chieftain, Matron, Ringleader and maybe Kiki-Jiki. In order to do so I have Vial, Lackey and Winstigator (and Chrome Moxen to speed things up). However, when this route doesn’t work I actually need to CAST spells and in such situation missing landdrops/ having less than 4 mana available puts me out of competition immediately. I headed this path some months ago when I decided to play without a splashcolor, which I hoped would make the deck more resilient and stable in terms of mana. Now I feel like 22 mana sources is not enough to do what I want the deck to be doing. I had one attempt some time ago where I ran 23 manasources and it felt good. I will be heading there once again, maybe even going up to 24 lands.

Goblin Settler #2: As much as I like Goblin Settler, I have to admit that a 2nd copy has barely no value beyond the first. As soon as I resolved the first one, I can hardly think of any situation where I want to grab a second one. Instead I will oftentimes grab Kiki-Jiki to create a lock, or to protect myself from multiple Grove of the Burnwillows. So for the upcoming events I will put one copy in the SB. Maybe I will not stick to the Settler in MD as I frequently boarded it out today.

Pyrokinesis: Like I already mentioned above (and in a short talk to Chatto and dissy between the rounds) I find Pyrokinesis an excellent cardchoice for the MD right now. However, I don’t think that I can afford to run it alongside with Chrome Mox, because the card-disadvantage would hurt too bad. P-AiR and woodtj5 confirmed my impression that Pyrokinesis is a MUST-HAVE for any Goblin list right now, so I will take that route as well. This, unfortunately, means saying goodbaye to 1-2 Chrome Moxen. This might just be coincidence, but it really ate me that I lost to D&T because of that Revoke’d Chrome Mox in both games.
As my MD will undergo some major changes now I will have to work out the SB anew as well. I’d like to hear some opinions on what to cut from the MD in order to add manasources #23 and possibly #24 and 2 Pyrokineses.

MANA [22]
4 Cavern of Souls
3 Wasteland
1 Chrome Mox
2 Pendelhaven
11 Mountain
1 Snow-Covered Mountain

CORE [32]
4 Aether Vial
4 Goblin Lackey
4 Tarfire
4 Warren Instigator
4 Goblin Piledriver
4 Goblin Chieftain
4 Goblin Matron
4 Goblin Ringleader

OTHERS [5]
1 Goblin Settler
1 Stingscourger
1 Goblin Sharpshooter
1 Tuktuk Scrapper
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
===> TOTAL OF 59 cards
cards to add: 2 Mountains, 2 Pyrokinesis


Questions and comments are, as always, appreciated.

[woodjt5]

Hello fellow Chieftains,

On sunday I played on the Dutch Legacy Championship and finished 4-3 after 7 rounds. Let’s start with the list.

MANA [22]
4 Cavern of Souls
3 Wasteland
3 Chrome Mox
2 Pendelhaven
9 Mountain
1 Snow-Covered Mountain

CORE [32]
4 Aether Vial
4 Goblin Lackey
4 Tarfire
4 Warren Instigator
4 Goblin Piledriver
4 Goblin Chieftain
4 Goblin Matron
4 Goblin Ringleader

OTHERS [6]
2 Goblin Settler
1 Stingscourger
1 Goblin Sharpshooter
1 Tuktuk Scrapper
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker

Sideboard [15]
4 Chalice of the Void
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Grafdigger’s Cage
2 Pithing Needle
2 Pyroblast
1 Goblin Sharpshooter
1 Boartusk Liege
1 Tuktuk Scrapper


Round 1: Marco with Rw Vial Goblins (2-1)
GAME 1: I win the die roll. Opening hand: Mountain, Cavern, Mox, Lackey, Tarfire, Settler, Chieftain.
I quickly overwhelm him by connecting with my Lackey on turn 2 (into Settler for his only land) and turn 3 (into Tuktuk Scrapper for his freshly played Aether Vial).

- 2 Settler
+1 Sharpshooter, +1 Tuktuk Scrapper

GAME 2: He opens with Lackey, I play Winstigator on turn 1, which he circumvents next turn with Raging River. He is unable to close the game fast, but manages to overwhelm me later which includes some Ringleaders, Electrickery and Tuktuk Scrapper at my Chrome Mox.

GAME 3: I took mulligan to 6: 2 Lackeys, 1 Mountain, 1 Pendelhaven, 1 Ringleader, 1 Vial.
Pendelhaven gets my Lackey past his Lackey, On turn 3 two of my Lackeys connect into Matron and Kiki-Jiki, which seals the deal.


Round 2: Kasper with UWR Punishing Stoneblade Pyromancer Treasure Cruise (1-2)
GAME 1: He wins the dice roll. I take a mulligan
I cast Winstigator on turn 1, which meets StoP on turn 2. I cast another one, which connects into Ringleader and Settler on turn 3. My opponents concedes after casting Treasure Cruise on his turn 4.

- 1 Settler
+1 Sharpshooter

GAME 2: I take mulligan.
My turn 1 Lackey meets StoP again, so I play Aether Vial on turn 2 and pass. On his turn 3 he casts Brainstorm and SFM fetching a Jitte. It takes me forever to find a fourth manasource; at this point it was quite too late for my Tuktuk Scrapper. I did manage to shatter his Jitte (@ 4 counters), but he plays another SFM and Batterskull on his next turn whom I can’t beat with my only Tuktuk Scrapper already destroyed. ‘Luckily’ I saw Grove of the Burnwillows, otherwise I would have boarded out my 2nd Goblin Settler after that game.

- 1 Sharpshooter, -1 Piledriver
+1 Settler, +1 Tuktuk Scrapper

In GAME 3: I keep a risky hand with 2 Lackeys, 1 Aether Vial, 1 Tuktuk Scrapper, 1 Ringleader, 1 Mountain and 1 Wasteland. I chose to open with Aether Vial, however he played Engineered Explosives on his turn 1, which rendered my 2 Lackeys useless and bought him 2 turns. I was unable to find a third or even a fourth mansource and his Grove of the Burnwillows + Punshing Fire engine cleared the board for True Name Nemesis wielding Jitte. I lost the game with 3 lands in play and 2 Settlers, 2 Scrappes and 1 Ringleader in hand.


Round 3: Tristan with UR Delver (1-2)
In GAME 1 Tristan Bolted my Lackey, Countered both of my Vials and took his time to actually kill me. Since I was low on lands I was never actually a threat to his lifepoints.

- 3 Piledriver, -1 Scrapper, -2 Settler, -1 Stingscourger
+1 Sharpshooter, +4 Chalice of the Void, +2 Pyroblast

In GAME 2 I cast Chalice @1 on turn 1 and another Chalice @2 on turn 3. Tristan Concedes.

In GAME 3 Tristan opens with Volcanic Island and Delver of Secrets.

~~PuZzLe TiMe~~
My hand looked as follows: Caverns, Chrome Mox, Lackey, Lackey, Chalice, Ringleader, Piledriver.
How would you have played with that hand on turns 1 and 2? What card would you imprint here? And what are your thoughts behind that?


Round 4: Chatto with Mono Red Burn (2-1)
I lost GAME 1 with him being on 12 life. Not even close.

-2 Settler, -1 Scrapper, -1 Sharpshooter
+4 Chalice of the Void

GAMES 2 & 3 I take mulligans until I find Chalice of the Void. In Game 3 I draw and play a second Chalice (@ 2) just in time before he could find his fetchland that he needed to break the lock with Destructive Revelry.
During and after the game we are chatting a bit, about Goblins (surprise) and some private things, which I found really nice. Always pleased to meet one of you Goblin-lovers in real life.


Round 5: ??? with Solidarity (2-0)
In GAME 1 I go first with Mountain and Lackey. He plays an Island and passes. Next turn I connect into Goblin Matron which got me a Goblin Settler. I did so because (1) I had the impression he was on storm-combo, just a gut-feeling, nothing more, and (2) I had Ringleader + Piledriver on my hand, so I basically had anything I needed against an opponent who apparently didn’t have any spotremoval. After that I played my Piledriver which caught a Force of Will (pitching Flusterstorm, thereby confirming my gut-feeling). Neyt turn I connect into Settler which puts him too far behind to go off.

-4 Vial, -4 Tarfire, -1 Sharpshooter, -1 Tuktuk
+4 Chalice, +2 Relic, +2 Cages, +2 Pyroblast

GAME 2 goes pretty much like game 1, with the addition that I cast a Chalice @1 on turn 2 and that he takes mulligan to 5.


Round 6: ??? with Death & Taxes (0-2)
I take mulligan to 6 and keep a still-quite-risky hand with 1 Chrome Mox, Lackey, Vial, and three other non-manasource cards. I immediately get punished by a turn-2 Phyrexian Revoker naming Chrome Mox. It actually takes a long time until he finishes me off, but in the end I never came back from that early set-back, because I failed to draw any mana.

-3 Piledriver, -1 Settler
+1 Tuktuk Scrapper, +1 Sharpshooter, +2 Pithing Needle

For GAME 2 I keep a hand with Chrome Mox, Cavern of Souls, Winstigator, Tarfire, Ringleader, Matron and a Lackey. That hand looks like it would win through anything except for Swords to Plowshares (and even then, I had lackey as back-up), right? So I played Winstigator on turn 1 (imprinting Ringleader to my Chrome mox) and pass. He puts down Mother of Runes and passes. So my job seemed easy: Tarfire that Mother and connect into Matron and KJ ftw. After Tarfire resolves I decleared attackers and he was tanking for a while. I thought “come on, what kind of bluffing is that? you cant have anything to play now, just write down those 2 damage and lose already.”. Boy was I surprised to see Marrow Shards on the table a few seconds later… The rest of the game went pretty much like game 1: He Revoke’d my Chrome Mox and shut down my mana pretty good. I was never able to come back into that game.





Round 7: ??? with Burn (2-0)
There is not much to say about that match. My opponent was un-experienced, didn’t know any of my cards and made some horrible mistakes. The worst one was this:
His board was: 3 Mountains, 1 Eidolon
My board: Vial@1, two untapped Mountains
In his turn he did this: First he played a 2nd Eidolon (taking 2 damage), then he cast Chain Lightning, (taking 4 damage) which I bounced back at his Eidolon. All this in his first mainphase, before the combat phase…


Thoughts and take-home meassages:

Mana-issues: I troubles casting my spells several times on that day. This might be due to me keeping risky hands. Or maybe I’m just running too few manasources. I feel like the decks has an edge against anything the meta has to offer right now, as long as I am allowed to put my potential into action. That is my goal is to resolve Chieftain, Matron, Ringleader and maybe Kiki-Jiki. In order to do so I have Vial, Lackey and Winstigator (and Chrome Moxen to speed things up). However, when this route doesn’t work I actually need to CAST spells and in such situation missing landdrops/ having less than 4 mana available puts me out of competition immediately. I headed this path some months ago when I decided to play without a splashcolor, which I hoped would make the deck more resilient and stable in terms of mana. Now I feel like 22 mana sources is not enough to do what I want the deck to be doing. I had one attempt some time ago where I ran 23 manasources and it felt good. I will be heading there once again, maybe even going up to 24 lands.

Goblin Settler #2: As much as I like Goblin Settler, I have to admit that a 2nd copy has barely no value beyond the first. As soon as I resolved the first one, I can hardly think of any situation where I want to grab a second one. Instead I will oftentimes grab Kiki-Jiki to create a lock, or to protect myself from multiple Grove of the Burnwillows. So for the upcoming events I will put one copy in the SB. Maybe I will not stick to the Settler in MD as I frequently boarded it out today.

Pyrokinesis: Like I already mentioned above (and in a short talk to Chatto and dissy between the rounds) I find Pyrokinesis an excellent cardchoice for the MD right now. However, I don’t think that I can afford to run it alongside with Chrome Mox, because the card-disadvantage would hurt too bad. P-AiR and woodtj5 confirmed my impression that Pyrokinesis is a MUST-HAVE for any Goblin list right now, so I will take that route as well. This, unfortunately, means saying goodbaye to 1-2 Chrome Moxen. This might just be coincidence, but it really ate me that I lost to D&T because of that Revoke’d Chrome Mox in both games.
As my MD will undergo some major changes now I will have to work out the SB anew as well. I’d like to hear some opinions on what to cut from the MD in order to add manasources #23 and possibly #24 and 2 Pyrokineses.

MANA [22]
4 Cavern of Souls
3 Wasteland
1 Chrome Mox
2 Pendelhaven
11 Mountain
1 Snow-Covered Mountain

CORE [32]
4 Aether Vial
4 Goblin Lackey
4 Tarfire
4 Warren Instigator
4 Goblin Piledriver
4 Goblin Chieftain
4 Goblin Matron
4 Goblin Ringleader

OTHERS [5]
1 Goblin Settler
1 Stingscourger
1 Goblin Sharpshooter
1 Tuktuk Scrapper
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
===> TOTAL OF 59 cards
cards to add: 2 Mountains, 2 Pyrokinesis


Questions and comments are, as always, appreciated.

I can confirm that Pyrokinesis is absolutely fantastic right now. It was never bad for me all weekend. I played 15 matches of Magic--almost 40 games--and never did I feel like the card disadvantage was enough of a detriment that I didn't want the card. That being said, Tarfire felt worse than it has in the past. It shines against the acronyms: DRS and SFM. Unfortunately, it NEVER kills Taylor Swiftspear if your opponent has Daze and does nothing against a horde of Elemental tokens. I had previously gone up to 3, but with the Pyrokinesis added to the main deck I feel that 2 is the right number. I also really like Gempalm Incinerator right now. Drawing a card is huge, and it doesn't trigger Eidolon against Burn. We no longer enjoy the same level of card advantage against the blue decks that we used to thanks to Treasure Cruise. Being able to play an uncounterable removal spell that replaces itself is even better now than it used to be.

[cooljets]

Some comments.

* Wow. Beating Oops All Spells with SPEED is pretty sick. Great job.
* No need to feel bad about that "misplay". I suppose the REL was Regular, so I'm pretty sure that a judge would have decided just like you did: your opponent announced the "counter" mode when cast REB and there we no legal targets. So actions will usually be reversed 'til the moment when he has REB on his hand. Besides: Would you have felt better knowing that you only WON because he wasted a resource for nothing?


* I like your all-goblin SB a lot. How would you board against the following decks?

(1) Death & Taxes
(2) BUG Delver Treasure Cruise
(3) Esperblade/Deathblade
(4) UR Delver

In all 4 of these match-ups I'd board mostly the same: Take out any toolbox goblins that aren't needed (Settler, SGC, Scrapper) while shaving core goblins that may not be optimal (Lackey on the draw, Piledriver vs non-blue, etc) and board in goblins that help, (Crafter, Sharpshooter, Scourger, Scrapper).

I played the exact same 75 last night at my weekly LGC's Legacy event and went 4-0, beating Lands, Landstill, Griffin Food Chain, and Kavu Predator Lifegain.

I see that you guys are really into Pyrokinesis, but I'm not sure my metagame has shifted enough to switch out my moxen and lower my goblin count. Speaking of moxen, I'm wondering if Lotus petal could possibly be better? Many times we only need the mana boost for one turn for our Winstigator, afterwards it would be nice to still have the goblin in hand. Something to think about.

[jonesypunk]

Hello fellow Chieftains,

On sunday I played on the Dutch Legacy Championship and finished 4-3 after 7 rounds. Let’s start with the list.

MANA [22]
4 Cavern of Souls
3 Wasteland
3 Chrome Mox
2 Pendelhaven
9 Mountain
1 Snow-Covered Mountain

CORE [32]
4 Aether Vial
4 Goblin Lackey
4 Tarfire
4 Warren Instigator
4 Goblin Piledriver
4 Goblin Chieftain
4 Goblin Matron
4 Goblin Ringleader

OTHERS [6]
2 Goblin Settler
1 Stingscourger
1 Goblin Sharpshooter
1 Tuktuk Scrapper
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker

Sideboard [15]
4 Chalice of the Void
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Grafdigger’s Cage
2 Pithing Needle
2 Pyroblast
1 Goblin Sharpshooter
1 Boartusk Liege
1 Tuktuk Scrapper

[ ... ]


Round 3: Tristan with UR Delver (1-2)
In GAME 1 Tristan Bolted my Lackey, Countered both of my Vials and took his time to actually kill me. Since I was low on lands I was never actually a threat to his lifepoints.

- 3 Piledriver, -1 Scrapper, -2 Settler, -1 Stingscourger
+1 Sharpshooter, +4 Chalice of the Void, +2 Pyroblast

In GAME 2 I cast Chalice @1 on turn 1 and another Chalice @2 on turn 3. Tristan Concedes.

In GAME 3 Tristan opens with Volcanic Island and Delver of Secrets.

~~PuZzLe TiMe~~
My hand looked as follows: Caverns, Chrome Mox, Lackey, Lackey, Chalice, Ringleader, Piledriver.
How would you have played with that hand on turns 1 and 2? What card would you imprint here? And what are your thoughts behind that?

Well, opening with a Delver and having that opening hand depends a bit of the draw.
But i would try to delay the max i can the Chrome Mox, Lackey is strong and he must answer with burn because of caverns, meaning that he would dump is hand of burn, and having a Piledriver strong if unanswered..

Now the problem, in second game and knowing that you had caverns, he should had sided out a few counters and sided in more burn and probably artifact hate, but after seeing a Turn 1 Chalice at 1, he would change again if his artifact hate cost 1 or if it is in few numbers he would had more counters... so .... and because you are in the draw...

T1: Play a Cavern + Lackey - Trying this way to or even stop is attacks (and wait for additional mana) and pass.
... after praying for a land
T2: if it arrived ... i would play Piledriver if not put lackey
.. after praying for a land
T3: Then try Chrome Mox (even being late, with or without mana, the game would be too difficult already to win, but ...)

For me, is almost ALWAYS ... delay Chrome mox (unless it it combo).

Round 6: ??? with Death & Taxes (0-2)
I take mulligan to 6 and keep a still-quite-risky hand with 1 Chrome Mox, Lackey, Vial, and three other non-manasource cards. I immediately get punished by a turn-2 Phyrexian Revoker naming Chrome Mox. It actually takes a long time until he finishes me off, but in the end I never came back from that early set-back, because I failed to draw any mana.

-3 Piledriver, -1 Settler
+1 Tuktuk Scrapper, +1 Sharpshooter, +2 Pithing Needle

For GAME 2 I keep a hand with Chrome Mox, Cavern of Souls, Winstigator, Tarfire, Ringleader, Matron and a Lackey. That hand looks like it would win through anything except for Swords to Plowshares (and even then, I had lackey as back-up), right? So I played Winstigator on turn 1 (imprinting Ringleader to my Chrome mox) and pass. He puts down Mother of Runes and passes. So my job seemed easy: Tarfire that Mother and connect into Matron and KJ ftw. After Tarfire resolves I decleared attackers and he was tanking for a while. I thought “come on, what kind of bluffing is that? you cant have anything to play now, just write down those 2 damage and lose already.”. Boy was I surprised to see Marrow Shards on the table a few seconds later… The rest of the game went pretty much like game 1: He Revoke’d my Chrome Mox and shut down my mana pretty good. I was never able to come back into that game.

Like in the Puzzle Time i would do the same thing, instead of getting greedy i would:

T1: Cavern + Lackey and pass
T2: Tarfire the Mother and attack with lackey (and he would probably do the same), then i would get greedy and (if you got a land) i would lower the Chrome mox and the land playing Winstigator.

Thoughts and take-home meassages:

Mana-issues: I troubles casting my spells several times on that day. This might be due to me keeping risky hands. Or maybe I’m just running too few manasources. I feel like the decks has an edge against anything the meta has to offer right now, as long as I am allowed to put my potential into action. That is my goal is to resolve Chieftain, Matron, Ringleader and maybe Kiki-Jiki. In order to do so I have Vial, Lackey and Winstigator (and Chrome Moxen to speed things up). However, when this route doesn’t work I actually need to CAST spells and in such situation missing landdrops/ having less than 4 mana available puts me out of competition immediately. I headed this path some months ago when I decided to play without a splashcolor, which I hoped would make the deck more resilient and stable in terms of mana. Now I feel like 22 mana sources is not enough to do what I want the deck to be doing. I had one attempt some time ago where I ran 23 manasources and it felt good. I will be heading there once again, maybe even going up to 24 lands.

Goblin Settler #2: As much as I like Goblin Settler, I have to admit that a 2nd copy has barely no value beyond the first. As soon as I resolved the first one, I can hardly think of any situation where I want to grab a second one. Instead I will oftentimes grab Kiki-Jiki to create a lock, or to protect myself from multiple Grove of the Burnwillows. So for the upcoming events I will put one copy in the SB. Maybe I will not stick to the Settler in MD as I frequently boarded it out today.

Pyrokinesis: Like I already mentioned above (and in a short talk to Chatto and dissy between the rounds) I find Pyrokinesis an excellent cardchoice for the MD right now. However, I don’t think that I can afford to run it alongside with Chrome Mox, because the card-disadvantage would hurt too bad. P-AiR and woodtj5 confirmed my impression that Pyrokinesis is a MUST-HAVE for any Goblin list right now, so I will take that route as well. This, unfortunately, means saying goodbaye to 1-2 Chrome Moxen. This might just be coincidence, but it really ate me that I lost to D&T because of that Revoke’d Chrome Mox in both games.
As my MD will undergo some major changes now I will have to work out the SB anew as well. I’d like to hear some opinions on what to cut from the MD in order to add manasources #23 and possibly #24 and 2 Pyrokineses.

MANA [22]
4 Cavern of Souls
3 Wasteland
1 Chrome Mox
2 Pendelhaven
11 Mountain
1 Snow-Covered Mountain

CORE [32]
4 Aether Vial
4 Goblin Lackey
4 Tarfire
4 Warren Instigator
4 Goblin Piledriver
4 Goblin Chieftain
4 Goblin Matron
4 Goblin Ringleader

OTHERS [5]
1 Goblin Settler
1 Stingscourger
1 Goblin Sharpshooter
1 Tuktuk Scrapper
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
===> TOTAL OF 59 cards
cards to add: 2 Mountains, 2 Pyrokinesis


Questions and comments are, as always, appreciated.

Mana-issues: Well, mana screw is my middle name, even if i play 30 Lands To add 2 mountains ... you could cut on 1x Chrome Mox and 1x Piledriver, i would keep a minimum of 2x Chrome Moxes (don't forget that they gave you the ability of playing a T1 Chalice at 1)
Goblin Settler #2: I agree, one is enough, and you have 3 Wastelands
Pyrokinesis: Now here is the "problem" for me. I definitely AGREE that Pyrokinesis is a MUST, but it's not a Goblin making if you don't have it on opening hand you won't get it, making it taking space most of times for nothing on mainboard i would choose a Goblin Card, and since you already have 4 Tarfires i would go for 2 Gempalms. Won't be good at the start of the game, but in grinder games, they will perform very well and granting you card draw, and they have legs. What to cut: 1x Goblin Settler and 1x Goblin Piledriver

Both of the cuts i suggested are related to the deck you played

[jonesypunk]

Hello :-) and welcome.


It's reeeaaallllllyy creepy how well the following expresses my thoughts on the deck. When I first read this I double-checked to make sure that I wasn't the author of this posting (honestly).

Thanks :)
I do really like Goblins, and try to read and observe, and this is why i like him working

[jonesypunk]

Report of Weekly Local Tournament (Every Thuesday night)
Standings: 4/10 with (2 Win / 1 Lost / 1 Draw)


This was an incredible awkward night
Liked the deck but really strange things happened



Game 1: Bug Delver whith Treasure Cruise (1-1)

* Round 1: i am on the draw, but can put real pressure on the table, everything going EXCELLENT, and i'm really gaining... even Tarmagoyfs and True Name Nemesis on table aren't scary , but then ... it starts the awkward situations.... he is low on life, and i'm advantage in table, i'm pushing in attack even loosing creatures, and i need "GAS", so i play Ringleador and show me (4 Lands, damn), but no problem, play Matron fetch another Ringleador and again revealing 4 Lands (WTF!!!!!), and then 5 consecutive turns drawing Lands!!!!! WTF!?!?!?!?! 13 Lands revealed consecutive!!!! and i had 5 on table, that means that i missed only 1 LAND!!!!! of course i Lost!

* Round 2: i'm on the play ... i start fast, overwhelm him, and even him playing CHILL and not having Aether i WIN (MVPs: Perish; Relic of Progenitus;)

* Round 3: PERFECT START FOR ME! He is mana screw, and i have lackey, and Winstigator and Wastelands coming (ohhh yeay) ... and then ... Ringleador revealing 4 Lands (AGAIN!!! nahhhh), since i had 2 Ringleadors in hand played on the same turn the second, and the result was (WHAT!!! IMPOSSILE, 4 LANDS AGAIN!!!!), next turn i draw a Ringleador, played it and WTF!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!! ... 4 LANDS, and the 2 next draws where 2 vials he recovered and my luck was, times up and he couldn't kill me!

Conclusion: in 2 Rounds played 5 Ringleadors revealing 20 LANDS!!!!!!! IMPOSSIBLE! This game was mine and it should be 2-0; (This guy reached 1st place!)


Game 2: URW with Treasure Cruise (2-0)

* Round 1: i'm on the play, start hard with lackey and instigator (that he wipes), he counter attack playing 2 young pyromancer (that i get rid off) ... and the awkward moment arrives!!! What duhhhh!!!!! I was mana screw whith 1 Land and 1 Chrome, and he had 5 Lands in Play (and mana flooded), and then, i draw and pass, he draws and passes (for 5 consecutive rows we do this! i didn't get 1 land for the last 8 turns :( ) and at the 5th consecutive row of just passing my opponent stops with a face (like mine, completely STUPID of this awkward moments) and he even shows me, the result of is last brainstorm (3 Flooded strand), that he plays. I Won, because (only get one more land the rest of the game, a wasteland) i get 2 consecutive Vials that i tick to 3 and 4 speeding up and won (meaning that i won about Turn 20??!!??).

* Round 2: he plays Fetch and passes, (i'm mana screw, but get my 2nd land on draw. Oppening hand 1x mountain, 1x Lackey, 1x Instigator, 1x Chrome, 1x Tarfire... 1 Chalice), i play mountain lackey and said "Go", e plays second land, Stone forge (for Batterskull) and i tarfire him (expecting a Force, that he dind't play/have), 2nd turn Chalice at 1 ... he didn't play anymore and hell braked loose, Earwig squad removed is answers for Chalice! (MVP: Chalice of the void; Earwing Squad;)


Game 3: Reanimator (0-2)

* Round 1: i'm on the play, and stay with an hand of (1x Instigator; 1x Stingscorger; 1x Mountain; 1x Chrome Mox; 1x Ringleador...), i drop 1st turn Instigator, he ponders and pass, i attack and for my big surprise my Ringleador gives 2 creatures (ohhh yeay), he plays and reanimates a Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, my turn tried to return it to his hand, he Dazed i scoop.

* Round 2: i play first (my hand 2x Caverns, 1x Lackey, 1x Matron, 2x Ringleadors, 1x Warren Weirding ), T1 Cavern + Lackey, he plays SnT playing Grave Titan and i play matron get a Stingscourger and take Grave Titan to his hand on my 2nd turn, him ... SnT (again!!!?? on 1st and 2nd turn, really )... Grave Titan... i started filling my board with creatures, took 2 attacks from that beast, and when i was really recovering the impossible happens!!!! he has 2 cards in his hand, and he does careful study and the cards he gets 1x Gringstone and 1x Servant's Painter LOL REALLY!!!!! he had mana to play both and do the combo next turn, and i had no response for it, if it wasn't that, and had 2 more turns i had a chance to win.


Game 4: Elfs Combo (2-0)

Knowing that i took goblins he chickens out and scoops for me without even playing (I Want to PLAY??!!!???)


My Conclusion: 1st - Really awkward tournament night; 2nd - Side out a few wrong cards (that didn't make any difference anyway, but they where bad choices); 3rd - Against Reanimate side in next time Cabal Therapy; 4th - Treasure Cruise is playing in almost every deck that plays blue.

My friends conclusion (the player witch played Bug Delver whith Treasure Cruise): Damn, that is getting too strong. :)



Vial Goblins-Instigator V1

Artifacts [7 Cards]
.3x Chrome Mox
.4x Aether Vial

Creatures [30 Cards]
.4x Goblin Lackey
.4x Warren Instigator
.3x Goblin Piledriver
.1x Stingscourger
.4x Goblin Chieftain
.4x Goblin Matron
.2x Gempalm Incinerator
.1x Goblin Warchief
.1x Goblin Sharpshooter
.4x Goblin Ringleader
.1x Tuktuk Scrapper
.1x Siege-Gang Commander

Instants [4 Cards]
.4x Tarfire

Lands [19 Cards]
.4x Cavern of Souls
.3x Wasteland
.2x Badlands
.3x Bloodstained Mire
.1x Wooded Foothills
.6x Mountain

Sideboard (15 Cards)
.3x Relic of Progenitus (it should be 1x Relic of Progenitus and 2x Grafdigger's Cage)
.2x Chalice of the Void
.3x Cabal Therapy
.1x Mindbrak Trap
.2x Pyrokinesis
.1x Earwig Squad
.1x Stingscourger
.1x Perish
.1x Warren Weirding

[orcanmail]

If Treasure Cruise is too strong put 4 pyro blast/REB into SB. Good against all those brainstorms as well.

As for MD 3 chrome moxen & 3 pyrokenesis, as long as you have at least 2 copies of each card in MD so you can still matron it up if one was discarded, then it seems to work and adds a boost in the early game.

[Darkgobs]

Speaking of REB and Pyroblast: what would be your perfect SB number? I personnaly feel that 4 takes clearly too much space in the SB, but also, 1 random REB seems a bit loonely. It is actually awesome against any blue deck. I always ran 2-3 (depends on meta), and i was never disappointed. And as Orcanmail pointed it out, in this UR Delver meta it feels like pyroblasting their TC or Delver is always a very good thing. (and counter a TC will still empty opponent's graveyard, which will highly delay other TC and Pyromancer). I will definitely go for 3 right now. I would like to hear more about woodjt5's feeling about this since he only ran 1 REB in his SB. So woodjt5, didn't you miss the 2nd or even 3rd RED/pyorblast in some match-ups?

[Suitch]

No one has listened yet: Legion Loyalist as a one-of has won me MANY games I shouldn't have won. Piledrivers trample over tarmogoyf; Elementals are utterly useless; batterskull can't block; first strike affects quite a few board states. It is a card that not enough people have tested -- and for this particular board, I find that a surprising lack of imagination.

[woodjt5]

Speaking of REB and Pyroblast: what would be your perfect SB number? I personnaly feel that 4 takes clearly too much space in the SB, but also, 1 random REB seems a bit loonely. It is actually awesome against any blue deck. I always ran 2-3 (depends on meta), and i was never disappointed. And as Orcanmail pointed it out, in this UR Delver meta it feels like pyroblasting their TC or Delver is always a very good thing. (and counter a TC will still empty opponent's graveyard, which will highly delay other TC and Pyromancer). I will definitely go for 3 right now. I would like to hear more about woodjt5's feeling about this since he only ran 1 REB in his SB. So woodjt5, didn't you miss the 2nd or even 3rd RED/pyorblast in some match-ups?

I don't love REB, to be honest. Let's think about the match ups where you'd want it:

1. UR Delver: It kills a Delver or counters a TC. Both of these are good options, but I don't want to overload on the effect. It doesn't stop Swiftspear or YP, which are the deck's best threats. I bring in my 1 here. 2 would be fine. 3 or 4 would be overkill. Also, we want to be tapping out to stay on curve or port or play removal. It can be hard to leave a red mana up. This is the match-up where you want it most. Chalice, Sharpshooter, and Pyrokinesis are higher impact.

2. UWR Delver/Stoneblade: It doesn't kill SFM or any of the equipment, which are the problem cards. It can counter TNN, but is useless once it lands. I bring my 1 occasionally, but not all the time.

3. RUG Delver: Only kills Devler, you have better cards here.

4. BUG Delver: Only kills Delver, this match-up is so favorable already that you'd rather do your thing than try to hold up a counterspell.

5. Miracles: Another good match-up. There's niothing relevant to counter. Even Counterbalance is going to be immune most of the time.

6. Show & Tell: you'd rather have Ashen Riders or another Stingscourger. I bring it in here, and it is just okay.

[jonesypunk]

I don't love REB, to be honest. Let's think about the match ups where you'd want it:

1. UR Delver: It kills a Delver or counters a TC. Both of these are good options, but I don't want to overload on the effect. It doesn't stop Swiftspear or YP, which are the deck's best threats. I bring in my 1 here. 2 would be fine. 3 or 4 would be overkill. Also, we want to be tapping out to stay on curve or port or play removal. It can be hard to leave a red mana up. This is the match-up where you want it most. Chalice, Sharpshooter, and Pyrokinesis are higher impact.

2. UWR Delver/Stoneblade: It doesn't kill SFM or any of the equipment, which are the problem cards. It can counter TNN, but is useless once it lands. I bring my 1 occasionally, but not all the time.

3. RUG Delver: Only kills Devler, you have better cards here.

4. BUG Delver: Only kills Delver, this match-up is so favorable already that you'd rather do your thing than try to hold up a counterspell.

5. Miracles: Another good match-up. There's niothing relevant to counter. Even Counterbalance is going to be immune most of the time.

6. Show & Tell: you'd rather have Ashen Riders or another Stingscourger. I bring it in here, and it is just okay.

I totally agree in all the analysis, and in all of matchups you mentioned, the only one that i missed and that i feel that it may be usefful is Show & Tell, that in my case i've been playing with a Reanimator that uses and abuses from. With a good SB toolbox i would say a 2x REB could be usefull. I'll try this in next tournament...

Sideboard (15 Cards)
.1x Relic of Progenitus
.2x Grafdigger's Cage
.2x Chalice of the Void
.3x Cabal Therapy
.1x Mindbrak Trap
.2x Pyrokinesis
.1x Earwig Squad
.1x Perish
.2x Red Elemental blast

[woodjt5]

No one has listened yet: Legion Loyalist as a one-of has won me MANY games I shouldn't have won. Piledrivers trample over tarmogoyf; Elementals are utterly useless; batterskull can't block; first strike affects quite a few board states. It is a card that not enough people have tested -- and for this particular board, I find that a surprising lack of imagination.

I've used him before and liked him. The Batterskull interaction is cute, but he's still swinging in to gain 4 every turn. I don't think he is bad, quite the opposite actually, but I think that your sideboard slots can be used more effectively.

[Olaf Forkbeard]

...Speaking of moxen, I'm wondering if Lotus petal could possibly be better? Many times we only need the mana boost for one turn for our Winstigator, afterwards it would be nice to still have the goblin in hand. Something to think about.

IF you run that, I would think Simian Spirit Guide as it's far harder to interact with and is a Gray Ogre.

[Humphrey]

ok i played around a bit and came to this list:


lands:
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Wasteland
4 Mountain
1 Swamp
1 Badlands
2 Pendelhaven (really nice addition)
4 Bloodstained Mire



Core:
4 AEther Vial
4 Goblin Ringleader
4 Goblin Lackey
4 Goblin Matron
4 Goblin Piledriver
1 Tuktuk Scrapper

3 Goblin Chieftain


1 Warren Weirding (TNN removal)


4 Mogg War Marshal (activates Incinerator, Piledriver and overwhelms the board)


1 Goblin Settler + 1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker (sounds neat)




3 Pyrokinesis + 3 Gempalm Incinerator (seems good in the meta)




This is pretty much my standard gobbo sideboard (-3 Kinesis+3Pyroblast):


SB: 4 Mindbreak Trap
SB: 1 Relic of Progenitus
SB: 2 Pithing Needle
SB: 3 Surgical Extraction
SB: 3 Pyroblast
SB: 2 Warren Weirding

[jrw1985]

The thread has really been hoppin' lately. I love it! Especially woodj's GP report. Well done to all. It inspired me to get off my duff and play some fucking Magic. I took my Rb gobbos to the Mead Hall for some Wednesday night Magic.

List

22 Lands
3 Wasteland
3 Port
4 Cavern
3 Badlands
4 Auntie's Hovel
1 Mountain
4 Fetch

4 Vial
4 Lackey
3 Frogtosser Banneret
3 Warchief
4 Matron
4 Ringleader
2 Piledriver
2 Mogg War Marshal

2 Tarfire
2 Pyrokinesis
2 Warren Weirding
1 Gempalm
1 Stingscourger
2 Earwig Squad
1 Krenko
1 Tuktuk

Sideboard
3 Ashen Rider
3 Grafdiggers Cage
3 Chalice of the Void
4 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Pyrokinesis
1 Tuktuk

Check out that pile of Awesome! The Ashen Riders and Cage were a recent addition. There is enough Omnitell in my area that Rider seemed totally reasonable. And Earwig Squad MD = The Sauce. You know you want to see exactly what your opponent is playing G1. Onto the report.

R1 - Storm
G1 I was on the play and led with Vial. My opponent played a Volcanic Island and cast Ponder. Cool. I ticked up Vial and played a land and passed. Opponent Played Bayou and Gitaxian probe. I had no clue what he was on. Maybe 4 Color Delver? Then he Cabal Therapied me and took my Earwig Squad. Definitely Storm now. I made a land drop, cast Warchief and attacked for 2. He tried to go off, but being new to Storm got a little too clever for his own good and tried to cast Infernal Tutor, maintain priority, and cast Infernal Tutor.... Uh, that's not how the game works. But I was polite about it. Always a gentleman. So he plays out all the Infernals in his deck and grabs Past in Flames with the final Tutor. He probably could have just Failed to Find with the first tutor and gone off that turn, but whatever. Anywho, I threw another attack or two at him and he lucksacked into a ritual to flash back all his shit and win. Bully to him.
G2 I sided in Chalice, Thorn and Cage. I don't remember how everything played out but I started with a Vial and landed a Thorn and Grafdiggers cage to slow his roll while also tapping him out with Port until I got the W. I attacked him with a bunch of guys and Piledriver for lethal and he tried to bounce my pro-U Piledriver. I'm such a nice guy I informed him how the cards work again, politely of course.
G3 On the draw this time I led with Chalice @ 0 and Vial T1. I believe T2 was another Chalice @ 1. That sealed it.
1-0

R2 - BUG Planeswalker Control
G1 I lost when he swept the board with Pernicious Deed then locked me out behind Jace and Lilly. Ooooo. That hurt. I did manage to resolve an Earwig Squad against him though and saw his MD had 4 Innocent Blood, 2 Golgari Charm, 2 Toxic Deluge, and Deed, plus 3 Lillys. That's just charming.
G2 I sided in Chalice to stop his BS. I chained ringleaders together while he durdled and I won this game.
G3 was exactly the same as G1. I should have chained Ringleaders together to overwhelm the board. That's what won G2 after all. I mean, he was playing a control deck. I should have overwhelmed him with CA and bodies. Yeah... Next time. I think I really just forgot about how fucking GOOD Ringleader is. You don't really need silver-bullets if you just have ALL THE GOBLINS.
Also, we're weak to planeswalkers, which is rough.
1-1

R3 - Nic Fit Planeswalkers Control
G1 I'm on the draw and he leads with Veteran Explorer but no sack outlet. That worked fine for me as I led with Vial and had a hand that curved out beautifully. He played another Veteran Explorer but still had no sac outlet to ramp his mana. I just kept playing Goblins and ticking up Vial. He played a Pernicious Deed (third Deed I saw this tourney) but only had 2 mana open. My board at that point had a Kenko and about a dozen Goblin tokens + Piledriver. I attacked with everything to force him to blow the Deed to take near lethal. He opted to take the damage so he could clear my board next turn, but I had the Tarfire to burn him out and win that game.
G2 was pretty smooth. I had all the Ports and was able to keep him off Black mana and he never really got into the game.
2-1

R4 - Reanimator
Gentleman I am, I offered to split. My opponent was a scoundrel and declined. Then he won the dice roll. Most un-gentlemanly.
G1- The scoundrel I played is usually on BUG decks of late. I am always on Goblins. So I kept a hand with Tarfires that seemed totally decent against a midrangey deck. The scoundrel played Lotus Petal, Lotus Petal, Careful Study discarding Grizzelbrand. Then he Ponders off the other Petal and plays a land. I play a land and a Vial, pass. He digs for another land and sculpts. I tick up the Vial to one and Tarfire his face. He sculpts T3 some more, and I EOT Vial in Lackey. T3 I tick up Vial to 2, then I attack with Lackey bringing in a Matron which grabs Stingscourger. See what I did there? I Tarfire his face again. He Exhumes Grizz on his turn. He draws 7, but thanks to 2 Fetches, 2 Tarfires, and a Lackey hit he is at 13, so activating Grizz takes him to 6 life. So no third hand for him. He plays a Lotus PEtal and passes. I Stingscourger Grizz EOT. My turn I hit with Lackey and Matron and drop Tuktuk which forces him to blow up Lotus for a BS or Entomb. I then Waste one of his lands and am able to Port his only Black source on his upkeep and he scoops.
G2 I side in Cage and Ashen Rider and Chalice. He leads with Island and Careful Study, discarding Empyrial Archangel. I have Vial and Cage and Ashen Rider in hand. But he has an Island so I need to consider whether I can play around Daze. Had he discarded a better fatty like Grizz I probably would have jammed Cage to try and stop that shit from happening, but I can let an Archangel hit play cuz I run Weirding. So I cast Vial and he lets it resolve. OK, no Daze. He Reanimates Archangel T2. T2 I play another land and cast Cage, which gets Forced. He hits me for 5 next turn. Then I'm able to do something silly and Wierding away his angel and I'm able to drop a bunch of stupid gobbos and win next turn.
3-1

The format has shifted away from aggro and back towards control a little bit. I think the GP results reflect this too. This is great for us that just can't kick this Goblin habit.

I know I didn't mention it much in this report, but Frogtosser is pretty baller. So is black splash. So is weirding. So is Earwig squad. It's pretty cool that basically 1/5th of my deck can produce R/B. I did not run into any issues with the manabase or curve this time around, so I'm either blessed or too big to fail.

That's all for tonight. I need to get my rest so I can day-drink with coworkers tomorrow. Get a career in Sales, kids.

[OlegtheSuper]

jrw1985 , it is yours 900th post :)

[Sandro95]

The thread has really been hoppin' lately. I love it! Especially woodj's GP report. Well done to all. It inspired me to get off my duff and play some fucking Magic. I took my Rb gobbos to the Mead Hall for some Wednesday night Magic.

List

22 Lands
3 Wasteland
3 Port
4 Cavern
3 Badlands
4 Auntie's Hovel
1 Mountain
4 Fetch

4 Vial
4 Lackey
3 Frogtosser Banneret
3 Warchief
4 Matron
4 Ringleader
2 Piledriver
2 Mogg War Marshal

2 Tarfire
2 Pyrokinesis
2 Warren Weirding
1 Gempalm
1 Stingscourger
2 Earwig Squad
1 Krenko
1 Tuktuk

Sideboard
3 Ashen Rider
3 Grafdiggers Cage
3 Chalice of the Void
4 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Pyrokinesis
1 Tuktuk

Check out that pile of Awesome! The Ashen Riders and Cage were a recent addition. There is enough Omnitell in my area that Rider seemed totally reasonable. And Earwig Squad MD = The Sauce. You know you want to see exactly what your opponent is playing G1. Onto the report.

I know I didn't mention it much in this report, but Frogtosser is pretty baller. So is black splash. So is weirding. So is Earwig squad.

Could you elaborate more on Frogtosser Banneret and Earwig Squad maindeck. How good were they? When were they good? What did they do for you?

[jrw1985]

jrw1985 , it is yours 900th post :)

Milestones! Back in my day I had to walk up-hill both ways through 5 feet of snow to post on the Source. You kids these days don't know how easy you have it.

Could you elaborate more on Frogtosser Banneret and Earwig Squad maindeck. How good were they? When were they good? What did they do for you?

Frogtosser is pretty sweet because he lowers your curve while still being a Goblin. He doesn't really accelerate your board on his own, but paired with Warchief I have 6 cost reducing Gobbos in my list. This means I can cast Ringleader T3 more consistently. I can also Prowl Earwig for 2 more consistently. Frogtosser is not a worldbeater, but he lowers the curve (being a 2-drop himself) and he makes it easier to fill your hand and the board. Being Black isn't a problem either because he can be cast off of 15 lands in the list.

Earwig Squad is pretty good and is just a fun card. He can beat Combo decks G1 on his own. He's a totally decent beatstick once on the field, and his Prowl cost makes him Uber affordable. And he's totally OK against non-combo because you can nab those maindeck sweepers, equipment, or even just 3 of the 12 win conditions in your standard midrange deck. And we're Goblins, so his Prowl is easy to pay, and thanks to Auntie's Hovel we have the best manabase for black splash. Earwig squad let me get perfect information on my opponent's deck three times that tournament. You do need to be careful with him though, because his ability isn't that strong against non-combo. I wouldn't recommend tutoring for him unless your opponent is only playing a few win-cons that matter. Ringleader is still generally a better tutor target.

[Sandro95]

Milestones! Back in my day I had to walk up-hill both ways through 5 feet of snow to post on the Source. You kids these days don't know how easy you have it.



Frogtosser is pretty sweet because he lowers your curve while still being a Goblin. He doesn't really accelerate your board on his own, but paired with Warchief I have 6 cost reducing Gobbos in my list. This means I can cast Ringleader T3 more consistently. I can also Prowl Earwig for 2 more consistently. Frogtosser is not a worldbeater, but he lowers the curve (being a 2-drop himself) and he makes it easier to fill your hand and the board. Being Black isn't a problem either because he can be cast off of 15 lands in the list.

Earwig Squad is pretty good and is just a fun card. He can beat Combo decks G1 on his own. He's a totally decent beatstick once on the field, and his Prowl cost makes him Uber affordable. And he's totally OK against non-combo because you can nab those maindeck sweepers, equipment, or even just 3 of the 12 win conditions in your standard midrange deck. And we're Goblins, so his Prowl is easy to pay, and thanks to Auntie's Hovel we have the best manabase for black splash. Earwig squad let me get perfect information on my opponent's deck three times that tournament. You do need to be careful with him though, because his ability isn't that strong against non-combo. I wouldn't recommend tutoring for him unless your opponent is only playing a few win-cons that matter. Ringleader is still generally a better tutor target.

Thanks for your reply, I will playtest with 2 Earwig Squads maindeck and see how they work out for me.