Goblins, Goblins, Goblins

Today I'm going to talk a little about three goblin decks kicking around at the moment.

Here's the first, which went 4-0 in a recent MtGO daily event.

dbuchan's Goblins (4-0)
Constructed Standard Event #749420 on 12/06/2009 in Daily Events

4 Ball Lightning
4 Goblin Bushwhacker
4 Goblin Chieftain
4 Goblin Guide
4 Siege-Gang Commander
4 Warren Instigator

4 Burst Lightning
4 Elemental Appeal
4 Lightning Bolt

3 Arid Mesa
12 Mountain
3 Scalding Tarn
3 Teetering Peaks
3 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle

Sideboard

4 Goblin Ruinblaster
4 Goblin Shortcutter
3 Inferno Trap
1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
3 Volcanic Fallout

Points of interest:
* No less than 8 "elementals" in the mainboard. Although this minimised the impact of the Warren Instigator, it gives the deck some reach that other goblin decks don't have.
* Shortcutters in the sidebard. Personally, I really like Shortcutters, as a Shortcutter plus a Lightning Bolt almost guarantees a Warren Instigator hit. However, with 8 less goblin cards, Instigator is a little less important in this deck.
* 3 Valakut mainboard and one in the sideboard. I've been playing Goblins for a while with two Valakut mainboard, but have never dealt anyone damage with them - the game simply has never gone on long enough.
* 3 Volcanic Fallout sideboard. These are very punishing vs. Boros and help one of your worst matchups - but holding back your dudes is important.
* 3 Inferno Traps for those playing Turbo Fog.

I wonder if a Lavaball trap might not also get the job done against Jund. Regardless, a great deck and one to watch.

Here's a second Standard deck:

Tim's Green Goblins
4th Place - Magic Game Day (Standard) - Georgia - Carrollton

4 Goblin Bushwhacker
4 Goblin Chieftain
4 Goblin Guide
4 Goblin Razerunners
4 Siege-Gang Commander
4 Warren Instigator
2 Intimidation Bolt
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Path to Exile
2 Sarkhan Vol
2 Volcanic Fallout

4 Arid Mesa
9 Mountain
2 Plains
4 Rootbound Crag
3 Scalding Tarn

Sideboard

2 Day of Judgment
3 Goblin Ruinblaster
3 Pithing Needle
2 Qasali Pridemage
3 Vines of Vastwood
2 Volcanic Fallout

Tim takes the approach of splashing for Green and White, making it really Naya Goblins. Points of interest:
* 2 Sarkhan Vol maindeck. People hate on Sarkhan, but he really shines in this deck, able to pump tokens, remove a blocker for Instigator, or just win games long term.
* Goblin Razerunners. Very difficult to play around, but not a lot of synergy with Siege-Gang Commander
* 4 Path to Exile. This is the type of deck that doesn't care how many lands your opponent has, because they're already dead. Path seems like another good way of pushing an Instigator through.
* 3 Vines of Vastwood. Vines is an excellent "counterspell" vs. removal to protect your Siege Gang Commanders and Warren Instigators.
* 2 Qasali Pridemage. Very interesting choice, but I would of guessed difficult to play.
* 3 Pithing Needle. Needle deals with so much, but shutting down Planeswalkers would be my best guess at to it's main calling.

I think either splashing Red, White or Black are all doable with Goblins at the moment, but splashing two colours seems a little dangerous. Maybe a Boros Goblins deck is the way to go

And finally, here's a MtGO Classic goblins deck:

Chaos Goblins
MtGO Classic Deck

4 Goblin Warchief
4 Goblin Matron
1 Tin Street Hooligan
1 Goblin Chieftain
4 Gempalm Incinerator
4 Goblin Ringleader
1 Goblin Sharpshooter
4 Goblin Piledriver
4 Goblin Guide
4 Goblin Lackey
4 Æther Vial
2 Pithing Needle

4 Wasteland
5 Mountain
2 Scalding Tarn
2 Stomping Ground
1 Strip Mine
4 Wooded Foothills
1 Arid Mesa
4 Bloodstained Mire

Sideboard

1 Krosan Grip
1 Relic of Progenitus
2 Ravenous Trap
2 Tormod's Crypt
3 Seal of Primordium
4 Chalice of the Void
2 Pyrokinesis

Chaos has done a fair bit of testing with this build. He tried Instigator, but found it simply wasn't fast enough! Some notes:
* Goblin Guide is a tentative card. Mogg Fanatic may actually be better in the slot, as it can also shut down Bridge From Below maindeck.
* Pithing Needles maindeck are superstars and are a must keep.
* Tin Street Hooligan is tutorable via Matron and is a silver bullet vs. certain decks.
* The same goes for Sharpshooter vs. decks like Elves!
* The sideboard has some heavy play against Engineered Plague with 3 Seal of Primordium and a Krosan Grip.
* Chalice is a brilliant choice with Æther Vial and can shut your opponent down beautifully.

Goblins are alive and well in both Standard and Classic. Although many will always see them as a Teir 1.5 deck, the moment you forget about the Red Menace, is the moment they secretly have you by the short and curlies.

Labels: analysis, classic, deckbuilding, goblins, magic, mtgo, standard

Standard Goblins :: The Most Fun You Can Have In An MtGO Window With Your Pants On

At the beginning of the week I plonked down enough tickets to buy a playset of Goblin Guides and Warren Instigators - about 20 tickets in total. I'm an old-time Classic goblins lover (I have the full deck on MtGO as well) so picking up Standard Goblins at some point was inevitable.

Here's the deck I've been running all week:

Main Deck

[28 Creatures (Goblins)]

4 x Goblin Guide
4 x Goblin Bushwacker
4 x Goblin Shortcutter
4 x Warren Instigator
4 x Goblin Ruinblaster
4 x Goblin Chieftan
4 x Siege Gang Commander

[10 Instants]

4 x Lightning Bolt
4 x Burst Lightning
2 x Punishing Fire

[22 Lands]

4 x Scalding Tarn
4 x Arid Mesa
14 x Mountain

Sideboard

4 x Hellspark Elemental
4 x Hell's Thunder
4 x Ball Lightning
3 x Elemental Appeal

General Sideboarding Technique

In:

4 x Hellspark Elemental
4 x Hell's Thunder
4 x Ball Lightning
3 x Elemental Appeal

Out:

4 x Goblin Shortcutter
4 x Warren Instigator
4 x Goblin Chieftan
3 x Siege Gang Commander

This is, without a doubt, one of the most fun decks you can play at the moment. It is fast, furious and frenetic. It most often wins on Turns 4 or 5, but is resiliant enough to win turns 10-12 as well.

It is the only deck in Standard I've ever felt completely comfortable about keeping a one-land hand with. Of the last ten games I played with a one-land hand, I won eight of them. If the hand is fast enough, mulliganing a one-lander is almost always the wrong decision.

It is, without a doubt, brutally fast. Here are some sample starts I've had:

T1. Mountain, Goblin Guide, bash for 2.
T2. Mountain, kicked Bushwacker, bash for 5.
T3. Mountain, kicked Bushwacker, Lightning Bolt the blocker, bash for 7.
T4. Win.

And

T1. Mountain. EOT, bolt the opponent's 1 drop.
T2. Mountain, Warren Instigator
T3. Mountain, kicked Bushwacker, Lightning Bolt the blocker, drop double Siege Gang Commander off the Instigator.
T4. Win

The deck sounds like it should just fold to Jund and Naya, but it can capitalise on Jund's terrible manabase and Naya's large creatures by simply winning before they go into action. Dropping your hand in turns 2-3 means discard is largley irrelevant. And I've yet to lose a single game to Vampires.

The deck sports a largely transformational sideboard, where the sweepers and maelstrom pulses your opponent sided in are suddently irrelevant. The sideboard slows the deck down slightly - you can't keep those one land hands any more - but it's pretty brutal.

The beauty of the deck is the ability to have 3-6 creatures out before your opponent knows what's happening, with a clutch of removal against anything they throw at you. I've managed to pull off the ungodly Instigator into double Siege Gang Commander twice, but often the better drop is Goblin Chieftan on the first strike trigger, allowing you to pump every goblin swinging for the normal combat damage, then dropping Siege Gang Commander afterwards.

Goblin Shortcutter is a surprise hero in this deck, often allowing Warren Instigator to pass some otherwise insurmountable blocker and gain an infinite advantage over your opponent.

Here's some matchups:

Jund

Jund is, of course, a dog of a matchup. However you can capitalise on their slowness, their self harm (Putrid Leech, occassionally Sign In Blood), and their terrible manabase. Ruinblaster is a hero if you can kill a lone Mountain or Forest. Knowing when to drop your hand or to sand-bag lands against Blightning is important, as is when to attack into Putrid Leech and when not to. The basic Elemental sideboard plan applies here.

Naya Lightsaber

Naya is, surprisingly, not that hard to beat. You make sure to Bolt any Noble Heirarchs you see and then get in before they stabalise. You'll want to keep as many Lightning Bolts and Bursts back as possible so that when the inevitable Baneslayer shows up, you can remove it and keep going. Unless you know they're running Day of Judgment, I'd largely stay as the core Goblin deck when sideboarding. But the gameplan really is to kill them before Baneslayer drops.

Boros Bushwacker

The only deck that can match up for speed, this is a cat'n'mouse game of who gets the best removal fastest. Their Skyfishers are brutal against you and deserve your Bolts, but in general their ability to block is terrible. Shortcutter is a superstar in this matchup, allowing you to avoid their first strikers and get your Warren Instigator in quickly. However, this is a terrible attrition war, with Seige Gang Commander sometimes your only out. If, for some reason, they board in Baneslayer, you'll have a very hard time of it.

Crypt/Dredge

This deck is stone-cold dead to you. Definitely bring in the Elemental plan, as you then also negate the effectiveness of their Rotting Rats and incidental removal Game 2.

Vampires

The deck has a surprising amount of game against Vampires, and I've yet to lose a match. They need to acknowledge that they are playing control to your aggro, or they just flat out lose. You rarely care about Gatekeeper (though you need to watch for T3 Gatekeeper vs your T2 Instigator, if it's the only goblin you've played), and almost never about Mind Sludge. Save your Bolts for their Nighthawks and your Blasts for kicking against their Bloodwitches.


As I've said, this deck is a bundle of fun to play, and very, very fast. I'm really looking forward to seeing what goblins Worldwake brings to add to this deck.

Labels: deckbuilding, goblins, mtgo, standard