Hello fellow budget players my name is I@n DeGraff and my...

[i@n]

Hello fellow budget players my name is I@n DeGraff and my favorite type 1 deck is goblins.  I played this and other sligh decks for about a year before deciding goblins were best and taking the deck to Gen Con and finishing 7th place in the world championships. I feel that i can confidently discuss the archetype to everyone.

I feel i could write a tourney report if anyone is interested but instead ill just analyze the deck choices.

I started with Legends Ankh sligh and played that deck for a while it does very well in a heavy keeper and academy environment but isnt so good against combo or most of the artifact decks such as stacks.

For Reference This is the Deck I played at Worlds
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
4 Goblin Grenade
4 Reckless Charge
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk

4 Goblin Cadets
4 Goblin Lackey
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Goblin Piledriver
4 Raging Goblin
3 Siege Gang Commander

4 Barbarian Rings
4 Blood Stained Mire
4 Wooded Foothill
1 Mox Ruby
1 Volcanic Island
5 Mountains
SB
4 null rod
4 rack and ruin
4 scald
3 blood moon

The biggest mistake in the deck is that scald should not have been in the sideboard. It can often be played around the card that should have been there is pyrostatic pillar. It helps on one of goblins most impossible matchups the rectal agony deck.

Card by card analysis
Chain+ lightning bolt The 8 bolts in this deck are an auto in. No explanation Necessary.
Reckless Charge- This card is crucial to beating decks like keeper and hulk and the rare oath deck. So reckless charge becomes a pain to deal with because its hard to know when its safe for them. Reckless charge ensures that there is never a great time to tap out.
4 Goblin Grenade. This deals more damage then any other red spell ever will for one mana. There are times when they sit dead in your hand but they also give the deck a combo feel many games you just win because of goblin grenade or the dreaded double grenade. This card can't be cut from the main deck.
1 Ancestral Recall/Time walk I decided that fireblast was not cutting the mustard in my original deck. Often destroying all the lands i had for 4 damage. I only had 6 mountins in my deck so i was fearful of doing this. Usually the fireblasts would sit in my hand for most of the game anyways. I really didn’t like this card. I realized i could swap out the 2 blasts and simply making them blue cards by swapping one basic land for volcanic. Yes this makes you vulnerable to wasteland but it is rarely if ever a factor. Some opponents are caught entirely off guard when i sac my mire and grab volcanic island and ancestral on there end of turn.  I have been satisfied with both of these.

Goblins
4 Lackey Very powerful obviously belongs in the deck.
4 Cadets As bad as these are they must remain in the deck I really don’t like especially when i see creatures but they must remain because they speed the deck up so much.
4 Mogg Fanatic Makes the creature matchup winnable as good as always.
4 goblin pile driver  Thank you onslaught block for making this deck possible. The protection from blue is a VERY relevant ability this guy walks past morhpling fairie conclave and phid or can block phid in a pinch( i have never actually done this.)
Oh yeah and the obscene amount of damage is also helpful
4 Raging goblin I really like him however I could see this being the goblin that gets cut depending on ones metagame. If keeper is huge keep him in. If the artifact decks actually see play in your area try goblin vandal instead. It is possible to run jackal pup in this slot but it weakens the deck to much you really need a goblin here. If you insist on running the pup then you need to probably pull a grenade for a POP so the GG aren't dead cards. I do not recommend making this a pup.
3 Siege Gang Commander I knew this guy would be huge especially with lackey. He has given this deck a late game card that is actually castable and threatening. It gives one ways around tangle wire and smokestack. It powers up piledriver he provides grenade food. What is not to like about the gang banger.

Land
8 fetch essential if running ring or splashing other colors
4 Barbarian Ring- this card is the holy grail of the deck it has one me more games then any other card in the deck. It is the sacred cow and may never be cut from the deck list.
1 mox ruby it makes you faster
5 mountain
1 volcanic island powering up walk and ancestral.

Why didnt these cards make the deck?
Fork- Fork is terrible in this deck, it requires leaving mana open not something a sligh deck likes to do. It is completely contrary to the theme of this deck.
Incinerate- Not terrible but it just cost to much mana for this deck. And reckless charge is just better.
Mogg Flunkies-these were the worst goblin in the original build they became the much better gang banger. Often these creatures would simply not attack they have no place in the deck.
Black Vise- Far to conditional of a card it usually only deals 2 damage and sometimes 3 not enough to warrant inclusion. Remember there are no ankhs or wastelands so it just doesn’t deal much if any damage.
Price of Progress- A very tempting card I don’t run it because so much suicide black is run in my area, but ultimately it just isn’t any better then the main deck cards.
Jackal Pup- previously discussed could be included, I do not support this idea.
SB Its really important to note that each person should individually tailor his or her sideboard to the metagame they play in. Do not simply copy what someone else played that’s a ticket for disaster.
Pyrokenisis – this could go into the board but only really helps in the mirror matchup thus making it to narrow of a SB choice.
Threaten- Worth a slot over blood moon if mask is heavily played in your area.
Red/Pyro Blast – I feel one has to give up to many main deck cards to play the 8 blast plan and currently the only deck that may even help with is hulk smash. I do not support this plan at all. There are better SB choices.

A budget version of this deck
-   3 power (walk ruby recall)
     +    Mountain 2 price of progress

Playing the deck
Some general Matchups
1.   TNT/stacks- this is all out war luckily you are about .5 a turn faster then they are. Hold nothing back. All burn should target the player except for goblin welder hopefully fanatic will be able to take him out.   Remember that bottle gnomes may be hiding in the sideboard. Time walk shines in this matchup and can be the card that really makes the difference.  + 4 null rod + 2 rack and ruin  - 4 cadets 1 grenade 1 reckless  stacks take out an additional goblin and put in one more rack and ruin.
2.   Rector decks both tricks and the agony version are bad news. The have the ability to gain huge amounts of life. If you realize you are playing against the black version fire as much burn off at them asap even use your grenades early it may hold down the amount of cards they draw off bargain.  This is certainly not a favorable matchup and boarding helps some but not enough.  + 4 Pyrostatic Pillar + 2 null rod (slows them down)  - 4 mogg fanatic –2 raging goblins
3.   Suicide Black – a favorable match up as negator is terrible, hymn has little effect on us , duress often misses, shade can be burned. The only threat is the occasional masticore that can be brought in and null rod comes in for cadets anyways to stop this. The rod also neutralizes powder keg.
4.   Phid- a long and boring war of attrition fire and ice means  and masticore means the game is in their favor as long as they can wish for at least one blast. I really think this matchup Is probably around 50/50 first game.  Board 2 null rod 4 pillar out go 4 charge and 2 grenade as fire and ice keeps the goblin count pretty low and can counter reckless charge.
I think everyone gets the idea on how to play the deck.
Remember Revise the sideboard for your area.

In my next article I will be exploring my testing on adding a third color to goblins and the success or lack of it I have been having.
Until then Keep Sending into the red zone

-I@n DeGraff

[jhaggs]

I@n,

  Congrats on the tourny and thanks for the great read.  I never considered playing Goblins in comp type 1 before, but your Gencon finish changed my mind.  

Quote Ancestral Recall/Time walk I decided that fireblast was not cutting the mustard in my original deck.

Not even Sligh can escape an appearence from blue.  I was suprised to see your build go away from the traditional mono scheme.  In fact, was there even a mono color build that finished in the top 16?  However, your results speak for themselves and cutting fireblast makes sense.

I have a couple of questions in relation to your post.  Now that you have had time to examine your Gencon performance, what would you have liked to have done differently in regards to your matchups, your SBing, and your MD?  Would you have made any changes at all?  Would you ever consider runnnig 5 strips?  Finally, would you ever consider running other blue cards in the MD/SB, possibly even cunning wish?

Thanks again for the thread.  I'll be looking for the tri-colored goblins!

[i@n]

Reflections after the con.

In response to your inquiries jhaggs yes there are some things i might have changed.
Sadly and this does not bode well for budget players out there i would add a black lotus.
Black lotus by itself isn't a terribly great card for the deck but it helps out on several specific "unwinnable matchups"

Staxs and Rectal agony can seem unwinable largerly because agony can win on turn 2 and if staxs plays speher of resistance then its almost game over. The lotus gives goblins a fighting chance. If goblins can get some bolts out and then a pillar then they have a chance against agony (its still an uphill battle)  Getting that first turn null rod or having access to rack and ruin asap is crucial to killing staxs.  Basically lotus gives us access to our powerful sideboard cards before we could normally play them. Lotus also gives us more mana that sometimes we need to play gang banger. Honestly 3 gangbanger without lotus is to many, 2 with lotus is to few. There must be some middle ground.  Sadly i dont own a lotus but my friend sometimes loans me his cards. Alot of budget players need to learn to borrow cards from friends, its sometimes the only way.
The 5 waste approach would slow the deck to a crawl, there simply isnt room in the mana base one would have to swap out the barbarian rings and they win to many matchups and they actually tap for red mana.

After playing this for a while you can't really sideboard out more then 6 cards because each card has such synergy with everything else the deck sorta colapses.

What would i have done differently well my sideboard would have had no scald and + 4 pillar. One or 2 less rack and ruin and go up 2 pyrokenesis. WARNING DO NOT PLAY THIS DECK IN A METAGAME FULL OF RED GREEN BEATS OR STOMPY this deck does not like creature decks its hard for us to beat them. Pyrokenesis can turn the tables on that.

Things i would have done better at gen con. Well hmm lots of things. I would have not payed 70 dollars for a hotel i slept 2 hours in. I was so tired i had trouble registaring my deck.  I would have gotten at least 5 hours of sleep.  That sounds really silly but its something that is simple that one can do to stay on top of their game. I did drink alot of water during the day and  that helps a recent study has shown that even minor dehydration interfers with the math part of the human brain.  I would have one the matchup that i played in the semis by just sacing my gang banger and ring my opponent on my upkeep. I would have at least gotten 4th place in the world instead of 7th very dumb. Why did i make this mistake well at one point i thought his life was one point higher i had misrecored his life and when i ran the above scenario through my head it didnt work. SO lesson one pay closer attention to life and lesson two (the much bigger lesson) learn how to play under pressure. I have never had 20 people watch me play (of those 6 being my friends who have all gotten eliminated and im the last hope for my state) and dont get distracted by what people are saying around you. I just cracked i guess and made mistakes. It happens to everyone i suppose.  Im not saying i would have won worlds but at least i would have had a chance.  Granted the next matchup seemed to be in my opponents favor goblins seem to sometimes pull out the impossible.

My final piece of advice for the moment is this take out raging goblin and replace with vandal if your area is full of staxs and tnt.

The three color version i will be testing will be trying out cabal therapy or duress. My instincts tell me the therapy is much better but testing will show.

Hope that helps

[Tripps]

Nice thread, I agree with the blue completely.

The jackal pups are really hard to cut, being a 2/1 for 1, but the fact that they aren't a goblin makes it odd like you said.

Siege gang seems a little odd, even with the lackey, it seems like it may cause some awkward draws, but I guess the piledrivers make up for it. Did you ever feel like there was a different card to go in this slot?

[wuaffiliate]

why not splash black? for more disruption instead of ancestral that u really cant protect? 8x duress would work much better.

[calm like a bomb!]

I think the entire concept of the deck would be too diluted if you were to splash black for 4 Duress and 4 Cabal Therapy. However, they are excellent cards. The other problem besides splashing 8 off-color cards that completely ruin your deck's strategy by shutting down it's blazing speed is that control is not a weak matchup for this deck, and the disruption won't help you win vs. control as often as the speed will. All this being said, why not have the best of both versus combo, and splash for 2-3 Duress and 2-3 Therapies? Perhaps Yawgmoth's Win could find it's way into the deck too then?

[jpmeyer]

It's mostly because you cannot race Academy at all and can't always race Trix.  I doubt it actually makes any control matchups better or worse, though.

[i@n]

to me it is unknown if the addition of black and
some duress/therapy will help in some combination of these cards. Maybe the deck could be called suicide goblins. But im really not sure if this will be an effective strategy or not.  I really would like to develop this deck further.  

So i will attempt the black splash the only problem is will it water down the deck to much or will the deck simply evolve into a new more synergystic deck like suicide black but is suicide red.  I feel that for this deck to work it will require a radical alteration of the deck.  IE trying to fit wasteland and strip mine in the deck.  THis seems hard to next to near impossible. However there is hope.

Mirrodin has a rumored card  that single handledly may vault this deck into tier 1 status.  But it is largely unknown. Currently i can see 3 different goblin builds being viable in type 1.
THe rumored card is

CC R
Instant

As an additional cost to this spell sac a mountain
Add RRR to your mana pool

ITs reds ritual. Keep in mind that red is now the color of fast mana. THis card could be true.

Well its nice to dream.

If anyone is working on the black splash or would like to post a possible build (with or without blue ) please say so and share.

Ill be posting my first draft of it tommorow.

[wuaffiliate]

i run 7 duress and it doesnt dilute the deck, it makes combo winable and gives nice SB cards. the deck loses nearly no speed, the mana base is not affected in consistancy so i cant imagine the argument for the duress' diluting the deck is. aggro isnt as previlent so burn is not as needed, combo and control are more previlent so disruption is needed, quite simple.

check out the thread in the T1 forums.

[WhiteTrash]

i@n: congrats on making top 8 at worlds with goblins!

I have always found raging goblin and cadets to be lacking.  I have found goblin vandal to be invaluable especially in conjuction with Goblin welder, to shoot and swap artifacts.  Welder and Vandal have been much better than rager and cadets in my experience.  The haste of the rager is easily copensated for with the haste granted by charge.  The extra damage of the cadets is not worth the added tech of the vandal or welder in my opinion.  Welder is a weapon to be used against deck that run them

Red Stompy

4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
4 Goblin Grenade
4 Reckless Charge
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk

4 Goblin Welder
4 Goblin Lackey
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Goblin Piledriver
4 Goblin Vandal
3 Siege Gang Commander

4 Barbarian Rings
4 Blood Stained Mire
4 Wooded Foothill
1 Mox Ruby
1 Volcanic Island
5 Mountains

i@n: what are your thoughts?

[Smurfie]

First, props to you i@n for showing the world that you don't need $4000 decks to top 8.

Second, I would like to ask on your opinion regarding some goblins and their spells.

A goblin deck which I recently developed did quite well in an unsanctioned tourney. Perhaps you could lend your expertise on this?

Goblin bombs
4 Goblin Lackey
4 Siege Gang Commanders
4 Goblin Cadets
3 Goblin Sharpshooters
4 Raging Goblins
4 Goblin Fanatics
2 Goblin Warchiefs

4 Lightning Bolt
2 Fireblast
3 Goblin Bombardments
4 Goblin Grenade
2 Sulfuric Vortex

4 Barbarian Rings
16 Mountains


The deck aims to rush the opponent at the beginning, using quick goblins and burn to wear the opponent down. Usually, by 3rd turn, I would stall, since the opponent should have a threat bigger than mine. That's where I would cast Goblin Bombardment, then continue to throw goblins at my opponent. Goblin Sharpshooters are gravy since if they do come out, they are treated as "deal an additional damage for any goblin sacrificed to deal damage to target opponent".

Any ideas that can help make this deck better?

[wollblad]

I will start by mentioning that I havn't played the deck myselfe, just played against it. So some of my questions can be from lacking insight in how the deck preforms when not playing against Tendrils or Hulk Smash which are the decks I run for the moment.

You say that Suicide black is a favorable match up. What if they run Sinkhole? Cannot that make you mana-fizzle?

For the mana base, shouldn't it be worth cutting one fetch for one more Volcanic Island? As it is now, you can play one of the two blue spells and then get your Volcanic Island destroyed having the second blue card as a dead in your deck (or even, worse in your hand). One more Volcanic would give you one more chance. The last thing this deck want is to have dead cards. As I see it, the biggest problem for this deck is to fast enough get threshhold so Barbarian Rings become active. This can be a motivation for not cutting one fetch since they help you to get to the 7 card limit. Another way is to fit in Lotus (as mentioned before). What is then best to cut, a fetch or a Mountain?

As you pointed out before, Goblin Granade is somtimes a dead card. At the same time, I have a feeling that the deck have a tendecy to "run out of gas". A card you havn't mentioned is Wheel of Fortune. Now this is a questionable card, specially against decks like Tendrils and Stax, but can it be worth playing anyhow. Of course it requires the Lotus. On the plus side is that it fills up your hand (which you probably empty much faster than your opponent) and it can get you somewhat closer to threshhold. Or is there anything else that can give the deck a boost when you for example get all your goblins balanced or deeded away?

[i@n]

First off Ill respond to some Inquiries.

wollblad -
Wheel of fortune has been tried and it just gives the opponent far to many cards and usually gives them an extra turn as well because you tap almost all your mana. Wheel just usually powers up combo.
Achieving threshold is remarkably easy and is usually done on turn 4. The fetch lands , goblin grenade and the remarkably short lifespan of goblins ensure threshold. If the goblins are left unchecked your opponent will be dead.
Suicide Black- Yes back to back sinkholes can make life difficult. Goblins do have a fragile mana base ( i have sorta strechted it to its near limits) this is really why the deck has no room for another Volcanic Island, im much more concerned about getting wastelanded then not being able to cast my blue spells. As i fetch the volcanic island only when i need the blue mana at that moment. The only time  i have had problems is when i ignored my own rule.

Smurfie-
I think the fetchlands will help your barbarian rings activate much more ofthen. Ofcourse the mox, and lotus will speed up your mana base but you already know that and the deck can run fine without these costly($) artifacts.  I would like to see chain lightning fit into the deck somewhere.  I would probably drop a gang commander or add more warchiefs and possibly add prospector, anything to speed the deck up. Well actually that makes it look to much like a block deck. If you dont want to try the blue splash then maybe you would be the perfect person to try out the new black/red goblin build.

A *BUDGET* list for you  
Creatures
4 Goblin Cadets
4 Goblin Lackey
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Goblin Piledriver
4 Goblin Raging/Vandal ( i would recommend raging in this deck because cabal therapy requires the sac although this is your personal preference based on your metagame)
3 Siege Gang Commander
23 creatures
Spells
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
3 Duress
3 Cabal therapy (im unsure of the correct configuration perhaps 4/2 ?)
4 Goblin Grenade/charge its really hard making this call, if control is very heavy in your area run the charge if not the grenade is probably the right call.
Lands
4 Barbarian Rings or wastelands
8 Fetch lands
3 Badlands (to many and they will start getting wastelanded)
4 mountains
Same SB as before remember that I highly recommend people build their own sideboard.

White Trash-
I have given this a fair amount of thought. I guess im not sure if the welders will just be FUN or if they will actually help the deck. The point of this deck is just to smash asap, its really not designed to disrupt the opponent. I probably wouldnt run the welders maindeck as the cadets 2 power is critical in the control matchup.  And im not sure how switching someones emerald for the lotus they just sacked is going to help. I understand this could workin the stacker or tnt matchup. I dont think it will  HOWEVER try it out as a sideboard plan. Put the welders on the side and see howthey work. My friend andy gave this a shot ina tourney and they didnt work but he never hit any heavy artifact decks at dreamers last month. I just dont like to readily dismiss ideas because theyare new(otherwise i wouldnt have been playing goblins in type 1!) Try it and tell us how it works.

Well thats probably it for today as im moving into another house. Ill be able to post comments perhaps tommorow or friday morning.
I'll rethink the powered blue/black/red goblins and tell everyone my recommendation ASAP.

Best of luck

[Uncle Istvan]

Hey I@n, we met at misty a few weeks ago and you asked if I had any questions about goblins, now I do.  In Madison, type one is really non-existent; there is a tournament about once a month that gets four to 10 players on average.  90 percent of the metagame is utter crap aggro--type 2 decks etc--the other 10 percent consists of one good sui deck and one good EBA deck with a less-than-good player running it.  Would you run goblins confidently in this metagame?  With all of the   bad aggro running around would you swap out that cadets for flunkies?  If I were running this deck I would go one taiga in the board and use artifact mutation against the artifact decks, as it is such a bomb against stax.  Have you given thought to that?

[jhaggs]

I@n,

   Thanks for responding to all of these questions.

Quote The 5 waste approach would slow the deck to a crawl, there simply isnt room in the mana base one would have to swap out the barbarian rings and they win to many matchups and they actually tap for red mana.

I see your point.  I think I have the "herd" mentality of whenever I see a mono color build (or all most mono in your case) I instantly think of main decking 5 strips.  Alas, it is too bad that you build is that tight where you couldn't attack your opponents mana base in addition to your outright smash attack.  However, slowing the deck down, even for a pause would fly in the face of your theme.  Hopefully, we'll see the "red ritual" make an appearance.

Interesting theory on lotus, in regards to it helping out "unwinable matchups".  I had simillar thoughts of adding Black lotus into my fish build.  With these two types of builds, a simple basic land is preferred, sometimes you jsut can't be without that additional mana acceleration.

Finally, I just wanted to second that pillar is a freaking house!   Great job on the deck, the tournament, and I can't wait to see how you incorpate cabal therapies into this build.  Mad props.

[Ablistical]

Just thought I would run this build by you. It is more of a controlish goblin deck that uses main deck Null Rods and 5 strips. Reason for thinking this is more than likely if you are playing in a type 1 tourney that is competitive you will likely see decks using power. Also as a long time combo player myself I know that the one thing I hate to see is mana disruption. It may slow the deck a little since you would have to miss a goblin drop and/or sac a land but if it can stall out your oppenant for 3-4 turns while they goldfish for land it may be worth it. Take this all with a grain of salt though as I have not yet got to play this deck or do any testing. Still waiting for my chain lightnings and lackeys to arrive in the mail Anyways here is the list. Let me know what you think...

x4 Goblin Lackey
x4 Raging Goblin
x4 Mogg Fanatic
x4 Goblin Piledriver
x3 Seige-Gang Commander

x4 Bolt
x4 Chain Lightning
x4 Goblin Grenade
x4 Reckless Charge
x4 Null Rod
x1 Fork

x1 Strip Mine
x4 Wasteland
x4 Wooded Foothills
x11 Mountains

[Shivan Knight]

I'm not a big fan of Gang-bang commander. Without Lackey, it's a dead draw. 5 mana is hard to reach.

Have you tried Goblin Goon ? It gives the deck another beef in addition to the Pildedriver. And it doesn't die with a lone Fire/Ice or Bolt.
It isn't too hard to cast, especially if you play the excellent Goblin Warchief.

[WhiteTrash]

i@n: With welders I have swapped out sacced lotus for dreadnoughts, fresh keg's for spent ones so that they never get to one counter, and blocker opposing welders from getting out key cards like trike and fresh wires.

Opponent: welder mox into the graveyard to get out tangle wire
Me: In response I'll welder your mox into your graveyard to give you back a mox from your graveyard.  

Tangle wire doesn't come into play...

Remember that as fast as green stompy ever was it failed because all it could do was smash, it had no ability to control board conditions.

[HollyWood]

I first off would like to say congratz on making it to the Quaterfinals and that it was fun playing against you even though you should have beaten me(Ryan Austin).
I know this is tech from extended but just wondering if you have ever tested Goblin Recruiter. I think it would give the deck something that it is lacking, a great tutor. I understand that it would slow you down for a turn but the next few turns should easilly make up for it.

[superscrub]

I@n you keep forget to metion how this deck deals with Hulk Smash.  The tog would give this deck a tough time once they drop a Tog.

[calm like a bomb!]

Goblins actually runs over Tog/Hulk more often than you would expect. It is just too fast for Tog to deal. Once they drop a Psychatog it *can* get tough.. but by that time you're swinging with 3 or 4 guys and you can always finish them with burn if need be. Unless Hulk drops a tog turn 3, they should lose really.

[jpmeyer]

Actually, if they don't have the turn 1 Lackey it isn't that tough for Hulk to beat them.

[VassiliZaitsev]

Just thought I open my mouth for a second, have you tried a green splash for naturalize? Also I play Quirion Dryad maindeck and before i get executed let me explain. Lackey sligh is one of the few decks i have experience with, and what i noticed 1. It runs out of steam quickly, where as a second turn dryad can get big fast (8/8 hehehe) and          2. Sideboard can give lackey sligh a bitchslap, so naturalize can really help in the matchup. Any thoughts on the matter (please be gentle).

[MadManiac21]

Hey I@n, quick question. Did you ever consider running a mystical tutpor, maybe not only to go find the blue power, but also a goblin grenade for 5 pts of damage instead of possibly a bolt?

I also would like to ask for you to post a tourny report. Do you find you love playing this deck because smashing face with goblins is fun, or any other reason in particular? Did 3 gang-bangers also turn out to be too many? Thoughts of moving them to the board to only side in during Stax matches?

[Ablistical]

hey, I finally got the deck put together and I have to say while it is pretty fun it gets owned by combo BIG TIME. How are you guys dealing with Rector and friends?

[wuaffiliate]

to help with rector based combo, duress, therapy and 5 strips have been added. also if you get an explosive start you can have them down to 10 cards off bargain very quickly.\n\n

[kooaznboi1088]

I have some questions:

1. Would Threaten help in the Hulk match? If so how many should I side in?

2. What is the strategy versus Mirror? Stompy? etc.

3. Janky mana-base... How often do you have to mulligan because of a one land hand?

4. The rings seem to make the aggro/mirror matchup very difficult, what do you say about this?

5. How about FEB or Mask? how does this play against that?

5. I know that this might not be a concern to you guys, but how does this deck play agaisnt WW? With the 8 Pro red creatures and such I don't think things would look good...

[gianL]

I@n, with the deck that you ran at the worlds, how did you beat combo? I tested it out against Rector-Trix and it lost (put up a good fight though.) Any particular SB tips? Pillars maybe?

[Hyze]

Hi all, this is my first post here so you are gonna have to bare with me.
First off I play test with I@n and I run pretty much the same deck as him but without the blue splash.
At any rate some of the questions here really caught my interests.  Like "How do you deal with combo?"  Well in my humble opinion I have never had a real problem with combo i.e. Rector trix, just ask Jon Tschida.
As for Hulk smash.....well I have yet to see goblins have a problem against it, goblins is just that much faster.
Oh and welders should always be in the side its hilarious messing around with TNTs artifacts.

[wuaffiliate]

the problem is that hulk just goldfishes when playing vs goblins. if you dont get an insane hand you will not win, they can just go off, or get a deed then go off.

illusions is a horrible match for goblins, they should be fast enough to drop illusions by the time they have ~5 life. its happened so many times its not funny.

tendrils is a different strory, but the same thing can happen the smart tendrils player can just get off 5-7 spells and gain mad life and just draw into the 2nd tendrils rather easily or just balance your dudes away and have a field day with bargain.

long.dec is just too fast for goblins, a deck with zero disruption just loses. dont get me wrong goblins can get a deadly hand and just drop lackey/driver/SGC for a 3-4th turn kill. but long.dec is just plain faster and doesnt rely on life as much as rector based combo.

just my experience with it, but adding 7-8 duress and 5 strips gives you the needed disruption to improve the match a hell of alot.