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Judge Worthy: goblins
Last week I talked about the goblins vs landstill match-up in legacy. Since that match, I’ve altered my deck a bit. For those of you who don’t play legacy, I’ll try and summarize the format as best as I can. Keep in mind, I’ve only played for about four years and this is one of my first attempts at the format. Legacy to me has always been playing with good cards, but not always the best. Think of the format as this, you get power so much that every deck is good, but there is no one best deck. Enough cards have been banned so that there is nothing that is truly broken. The vast card pool might seem a bit intimidating, but keep in mind that since so many cards are here and so many are powerful, hundreds if not thousands of cards just aren’t used since there are others that are better. Practically all blue decks use force of will because it is one of the best counter spells. Combo decks are everywhere in this format, but they aren’t broken. They do well and they can be beaten if you play right. Aggro decks generally play the best combination of creatures in this history of the game. Whether a loam strategy, zoo, or goblins, expect good creatures hitting you. I tend to see legacy as a format where you as a player have to play well rather than simply play powerful spells.
So why did I decide to play goblins? As I said last week given my choices, goblins was what I felt the best deck given our available card pool and testing time. While I have enjoyed combo decks in general, I have always felt that when entering into a tournament with no knowledge of the meta game, an aggro deck is one of the best choices because its play style does not differ greatly between match ups. The fact that I have judge promo goblin piledrivers had no bearing on this decision whatsoever.
So here is my current and most likely final version of goblins.
// Lands
18 [9E] Mountain (3)
4 [REW] Wasteland
// Creatures
4 [ON] Goblin Piledriver
2 [10E] Siege-Gang Commander
4 [AT] Goblin Matron
4 [AP] Goblin Ringleader
4 [SC] Goblin Warchief
4 [US] Goblin Lackey
4 [TSP] Mogg War Marshal
4 [M10] Goblin Chieftain
4 [LE] Gempalm Incinerator
// Spells
4 [DS] AEther Vial
// Sideboard
SB: 3 [PLC] Stingscourger
SB: 4 [LRW] Thorn of Amethyst
SB: 2 [CH] Tormod’s Crypt
SB: 2 [ALA] Relic of Progenitus
SB: 2 [ON] Goblin Sharpshooter
SB: 2 [MI] Goblin Tinkerer
First think I decided was mono red. The splashing of both black and green generally gives you good answers to certain cards, but the problem I ran into was that the mana base begins to become vulnerable. Letting my opponents have good targets for their wastelands and their other LD spells was not good. In fact having wastelands has been a slight problem. The list also no warren instigators. As good as I thought he was, two mana for a lackey is still two mana for a lackey. Doing good combos like matron finding siege-gang commander into siege-gang commander is cute, but like lackey, this card has a target on his head. Giving up your turn two play to drop him generally leads to defeat. Warren instigator is also the only goblin in this deck that has the least amount of gain from a warchief in the deck. While it gains haste, the fact that it does not gain a cost reduction means that hes harder to chain off of. Lackey already costs one, which already makes him threatening without the warchief. There is also no tool box that some goblin decks have. I had tried earlier with cards like the prospector sharpshooter combo, but I began to realize that cards like that were not good. Instead I opted for a more consistent build with lords. The sharpshooters and tinkers went into the board for certain match ups.
Matchups
Zoo
Zoo in legacy is very similar to zoo in extended. Simply put legacy zoo is extended zoo with a better mana base. There are a few cards different, but most of the creatures and spells are legal in extended and standard. Zoo can match you creature for creature with equally or lower costed creatures that are bigger. This isn’t an easy match-up.
- 3 goblin piledriver
- 4 goblin chieftain
+ 2 Goblin sharpshooter
+ 2 Goblin Tinkerer
+ 3 Stingscourger
Sharpshooters come in as they bring extra damage. The ability to kill off creatures against zoo is vital to winning. You can leave out the tinkerers and keep two lords if you know there are no jittes in your opponents deck, but otherwise bring them in.
Aggro Loam
So long as life from the loam and seismic assault are legal in the same format, someone will build a deck around them. This was the deck that won the St. Louis 5K and its good. There are two versions that I have seen. One with burning wish and one without. Either way this is another hard match-up. Game 1 be ready for chalice for 1 on turn 1 if on the draw. This can really mess you up if you don’t have the right hand.
If on the play board as such.
- 3 piledriver
- 4 chieftain
- 4 ringleader
- 2 gempalm incinerator
+ 3 stingscourger
+ 2 relic of progenitus
+ 2 Tormod’s crypt
+ 4 Thorn of Amethyst
+ 2 goblin tinkerer
Thorns are for disruption. This deck while playing a lot of lands, tends to play mostly non-creature spells. Delaying a life from the loam or a seismic assault for one turn can generally win you games. Ringleaders go because you board out 13 goblins and only bring in 5. This means that less than 50% of your deck is goblins which makes you wiff more on ringleaders. Also you end up loosing cards that you need.
If on the draw however you need to shift your strategy
- 4 goblin lackey
- 4 aether vial
- 3 goblin piledriver
- 2 gempalm incinerator
+ 3 stingscourger
+ 2 relic of progenitus
+ 2 Tormod’s crypt
+ 4 Thorn of Amethyst
+ 2 goblin tinkerer
Your opponent can eliminate your ability to make an effective turn one play. This means certain hands that are amazing in certain games, become useless if your opponent goes Chalice for 1. Instead keep the lords and play disruption before playing creatures.
ANT
Ad Nauseam tendrils is the new storm deck of the format. Combo in general is a bad match-up for this deck. Don’t hesitate to drop guys down. ANT will generally ignore your plays until you go off, but if you can put enough pressure on them, the Ad nauseam might kill them. The lower their life total, the less effective the Ad Nauseam
- 4 gempalm incinerator
+ 4 thorn of Amethyst
Removal is useless, thorn makes everything in their deck cost 1 more. Even if they can cast Ad Nauseam, they can’t play their 0 costed spells for free. This buys you time that you can use to kill them.
Ichorid
Dredge only more broken. LED can go off turn 1 the others are a bit slower, but you can still win.
- 4 gempalm incinerator
- 4 ringleader
+ 2 relic of progenitus
+ 2 Tormod’s crypt
+ 4 Thorn of Amethyst
Ichorid does not play many lands. So paying 1 for dread return or 2 for chain of vapor can be hard at times.
My advice against combo is this. Try, but know that there are times where scooping preemptively might be the best move.
Dragon stompy
For those of you who play extended, this is similar to All in Red, just with better cards. I tend to describe this deck as turn 1 stupid. Generally they will play multiple spells and cast a huge threat hoping that it goes through. This is where tactical concessions are effective. If you opponent manages to go turn 1 chalice for 1 arc-slogger and your hand is one drops, don’t show your deck. Certain cards like blood moon and magus of the moon are useless against you. If you don’t show them your deck at all, then you can sideboard and win game two. Since this deck can also go turn 1 chalice for 1, your boarding changes accordingly.
If on the play
- 4 gempalm incinerator
- 2 goblin warchief
- 3 goblin ringleader
+ 3 stingscourger
+ 2 goblin tinkerer
+ 4 thorn of amethyst
Again this deck relies a lot on non-creature spells and has a generally low land count, making things cost more is never bad.
On the Draw
- 4 aether vial
- 4 goblin lackey
- 1 goblin ringleader
+ 3 stingscourger
+ 2 goblin tinkerer
+ 4 thorn of amethyst
Again having a hand of one drops when your opponent goes chalice for 1 is not good. This also has the added bonus of making your opponent waste turns and resources on a play which has no effect on you.
Merfolk
This match-up is favorable if its mono blue. Both decks operate under similar principles. Both use vial and other effects to cheat creatures into play that gain benefits for having other creatures of the same type. Merfolk has the advantage of having 8-12 lords and counter magic. The key to this match-up is piledriver. Getting this spell to resolve can swing the entire game. Merfolk do not have a creature like this. The cards that need to be dealt with are merfolk sovereign and mutavault. Hold wastelands until absolutely necessary and if given the choice in killing lords, kill sovereign. His ability to make creatures unblockable can kill you. Jitte is also dangerous as it along with mutavault can kill piledrivers. Simply keep jitte from becoming active and the moment you have a lethal piledriver, the game ends. The sideboarding is pretty simple.
- 4 goblin Chieftain
+ 2 goblin tinkerer
+ 2 Goblin Sharpshooter
Fighting over lords will not win you the game. Tinkerer helps you win the vial fights and a resolved sharpshooter can end the game.
There are a bunch of match-ups I’m not covering, but Legacy has so many decks, that there are some match-ups that will become repetitive to explain. Wish me luck in the 5K.
That’s all for now, and remember when in doubt give a shout.