Goblin Stompy for Review

[Anonymous]

First off I want to give credit where credit is due.  While goblin lackey/grenade decks are nothing new, I give credit to Legend and Dave Kaplan for coining "Red Stompy".  

4 Goblin Piledriver
4 Goblin Cadets
4 Mogg Fanatic
3 Goblin Taskmaster
3 Raging Goblin
4 Goblin Lackey

4 Reckless Charge

4 Goblin Grenade
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
4 Fireblast

18 Mountain

SB:

4 Pyrokenisis
4 Price of Progress  
4 Rack and Ruin
3 Anarchy

I am at a 3/3 split between the taskmaster and the raging goblin.  I like the rager but the taskmaster is a one drop that can be pumped, which is never bad.  I do not and refuse to play the mogg flunkies.  They were never more than grenade bait.  I would just watch in horror as fire/ice nuked two critters leaving the mogg saying huh?

I am running fire blast for now the speed it has provided has been awesome.  It is also my fat removal.  If I do decide to drop the fireblasts I'll change the creature base.

4 Piledriver
4 Fanatic
3 Raging Goblin
4 Vandal
4 Cadet
4 Lackey
3 Goblin Taskmaster

I have played this against keeper, suicide, black control, and parfait.  So far it has been smashing them pretty well.  TNT and mask are my real worries since they are popular around here.  I am not running fetchlands because of the fireblasts.

Again I will not run Flunkies they are just too conditional.  And I am not a big fan of Barbarian Ring.  Giving your opponent waste targets and they are not good with the fireblasts.  And of all the arguements for fireblast I will not listen to the drain target arguments.  I have never had a fireblast drained.  If you are a smart aggro player (oxymoron eh!) fireblast is red's best friend.  It is almost always a game swinger for me.  And with four I often have two in hand with four lands out.  

You-tap 1, bolt you
Control-ok
You-tap 1, grenade
Control-drain
You-tap 2 price of progress
Control-Force of will
You-sac 2 mountains, fireblast
Control-crap
You-sac 2 mountains, fireblast
Control-double crap, dead.

Fireblast is great vs balance too.

Creature base is up for debate.  I have liked the taskmaster.  For the unfamiliar


Goblin Taskmaster  

Creature   R  

Goblin (1/1)      

1R: Target Goblin gets +1/+0 until end of turn. Morph R (You may play this face down as a 2/2 creature for 3. Turn it face up any time for its morph cost.)  

the ability to be played as a 2/2 colorless critter is invaluable vs COP and Story Sircle

And the pump is just gravy.

I was thinking about sparksmith as a creature removal slot but the fact that it can't hit your opponenet weakens the case for it.

[Anonymous]

Hmmm....

I'm assuming you've read the new "legend" article on the Red Stompy build, so I won't bring that up.

Have you looked over the MD and other websites to see if there any other Red Stompy articles that discuss the various builds and card choices of the deck?  I've always found that it never hurts to gain a little extra insight from a totally different perspective.

Other than that all I can say is that Flunkies truly are good in this deck, but I can see where you are coming from in making your decision not to run them.  Depending upon how your particular build runs, the goblin taskmasters might just be the right fit for you.

One other thing.....I know that you've probably been expecting this, but Mox Ruby is delicious in this deck, and if you have any way at all of attaining one, I probably would do so.

Again, what you feel is right for your deck is just fine. I like mountains too, and the fireblasts that your deck houses certainly likes them as well!

[Anonymous]

Thanks Arcanis
yes I have read all the post, most as they were coming out.  I even tampered with Mon's goblin circus, the problems with circus was it relied on the lackey too much.  

I played ankh sligh to top eight a few tourney ago, and I loved it, I just found that it did not have enough umph for me.  In red I like to kill fast, real fast.  And Ankh sligh like most sligh has problems with big fat critters.  

Jebus can back me up on this, he was helping me play test, and this deck killed many masticores.  A big fat regenerator should be slighs worst nightmare.  But I had enough pressure on to force him to drop them early and enough burn to fry it even when he had mana open to regenerate it.

I want to test Sparksmith in this build as critter removal.  The problem is if I have too many critters out, he really starts to hurt.

[j_orlove]

Quote The problem is if I have too many critters out, he really starts to hurt.

At that point, though, using it to hit your opponent should be pretty strong.  

[Jebus]

It is quite brutal, and I do not look forward to any future matches against this deck.

I still like Raging Goblin over taskmaster.  In a deck like this, it seems better to have mana open for other spells.  This may seem contradictory comming from me, as I love Nantuko Shade in black.  The thing is, black doesn't have many instant speed spells, so putting your mana into a shade isn't a big deal, and is much more efficient.  With this, you still have some instants you may need to pump out, and you need 2 mana to get a 1 toughness gain.  

True, he can do more damage than the raging goblin, but I think the haste of the rager has more synergy with other goblins backed up with Reckless Charge.

I think your main problem may be the relentless nature of TnT, but it is by no means as bad a matchup as it can be for other decks.  Perhaps Sparksmith can help in this slot, but for some reason, I don't like him in this deck.  I'm thinking you have enough burn to get through the majority of your problems.

You may want to consider Flaring Pain to get around Story Circle and CoP Red long enough to get the finishing blow through.

Other than that...Goblins Go Boom!!!

[Jebus]

Quote (j_orlove @ Feb. 11 2003,20:50)

Quote The problem is if I have too many critters out, he really starts to hurt.

At that point, though, using it to hit your opponent should be pretty strong.  

Do you mean just attacking or using it's ability?  If you meant the ability, it can't target a player (another reason I don't particularlly like the card outside of limited).  If you mean swinging with him...well he is a goblin so he goes well with the Piledriver.  

[Anonymous]

j_orlove: Sparksmith cannot hit players.  If it could, there would be no question, it would go in over the fireblasts.

Jebus: I got off for this sunday, so you will be facing me at some point... call me