[Report] Split with FCG at Carta Magica

[Chiz]

Yes, I split again the final with Jean-Philippe Keable (playing Landstill). 39 players showed up this month. Here was my deck:

FCG

4 Goblin Lackey
4 Goblin Warchief
4 Goblin Ringleader
4 Goblin Recruiter
4 Goblin Piledriver
4 Goblin Matron
2 Skirk Prospector
2 Siege-Gang Commander
2 Gempalm Incinerator
1 Goblin Sharpshooter
1 Goblin Thinkerer

4 Food Chain

1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Chrome Mox
1 Mana Crypt
1 Lotus petal
4 Wooded Foothill
4 Taiga
6 Mountains
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine

SB: 3 Blood Moon
SB: 3 Artefact Mutation
SB: 1 Naturalize
SB: 4 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 4 Pyrokinetic

I made 3 changes in my decklist. I founded in the past the prospector to be not so effective: You need somes to tutor out too cast some Pildrivers with a warchief (and without Food Chain) or for the Sharpshooter and/or Siege-gang Commander combo, but i really feel that 3 was too much. I trade one for a 4th Matron, I find them to be too good to not be a 4 of in FCG. The other change was in my sideboard. I feel the Gempalm to be not so good against landstill and want to try something to beat him, but I didn't want to have no creature removal in the sideboard. I didn't play against landstill in the tourney, so I didn't know if Pyrokinetic works or not against landstill. The last change was a Mountain Instead of a Black Lotus, beacause my friend played this time in the tourney.

Here were my matchups. I didn't take note, so my report won't be as detail as my last report.

Round 1:  U-R stack
Game 1:  He started the game with Workshop for a sphere or resistance. I had 2 wasteland with 2 fecth and a lackey in my opening hand, so I tried to mana screw him. I waste his worshop, the next turn he casted a mox (with a volcanic island). I waste his volcanic in my second turn. But he drop 2 others land with another mox and a welder in the next 3 turns and a tangle wire, from there I did notthing good because

Game2:  I started with a first turn lackey. He start with a first turn Welder. He block my Lackey with his Welder and I cast recruiter for 3 lackey (because I had big goblins in my hand and no other land). He drop a land and welder on his turn 2th turn. I cast a lackey. He cast a tangle wire, followed next turn by Fire (kill my 2 goblins) and Sphere of resistance. I then did nothing worthy.

Matchs: 0-1
Games: 0-2

Round 2: Someone playing a type 2 deck with sol ring (Tooth and nail)
He did nothing but land drop in the 2 games. I wasted some Urza lands to be sur I wasn't able to have a lot of mana. I beat him twice with Food chain combo.

Matchs: 1-1
Games: 2-3  (I had a game lost because I forgot to mark my name in my registration sheet, but I wrote it in the deck designer's name.  A pretty big mistake that could have make me fall to go in top 8.)

Round 3: Goblin B-R
His deck wasn't near to be optimal... He played Black for Diabolic Edict and Oversold Cemetery. The only goblins I saw was Goblin Brigand, Goblin War Buggy and Reckless One. The first game I went Food chain combo, the next one beatdown (with first turn lackey! ). That was really nice to kill a 6/6 Reckless One with a single cycled Gempalm!  

Matchs: 2-1
Games: 4-3

Round 4: Dragon
Game 1: I cast lacky first turn, followed by a 2th turn Siege-Gang Commander and kill him before he could go off.

Game 2: I went first turn Lackey (for a 2th turn Warchief drop), I waste his Bazar, so he reanimate a Sliver Queen­. I casted a Matron (for Sharpshooter). The next turn I drop Sharpshooter and kill all his tokens (2) with him. He casted an EOT intuition for 2 dragons and an Ambassador Laquatus (he had enough mana to cast the Ambassador, so I give it a dragon in his hand). In his turn, He reanimated his dragon and tried to go off, but I kill him with my sharpshooter.

Matchs: 3-1
Games: 6-3

Round 5:  Lany offered me to make a draw, so we could possibly both pass into top 8. I made top 8, but he didn't. We played for fun and he would have won 2-1. Thanks Lany for your draw, it's because of you that I made the final for the second time in a row!

Matchs: 3-1-1
Games: 6-3

Round 6: a deck B-G-W (with land tax, I didn't see much of his deck...)
Game 1: 2th turn Recruiter for 4 lackey (I had 1 SGC and 2 Matron in hand). I beat him savagely with goblins. All he did was a zuran orb, a crop rotation for a Maze of It and land tax, but I had 2 lands into play.

Game 2: I won with Food Chain Combo before he did something.

Matchs: 4-1-1
Games: 8-3

I entered top 8 as the 8th seat.

Quaterfinal: Jonathan Mailloux (Control Slavery)
Game 1: I Started the game, but I had to take 3 mulligan, since I didn't draw any lands in my hands (except for a wasteland). I keep a and of: Mountain, Fetch, Lotus petal, Recruiter. I was pretty happy about that.  So, first turn I played Moutain (yes, mountain), Petal + Recruiter. I stack ALL my goblins in the top of my library begging with 1x lackey, Ringleader, 3x Lackey, etc. I thought that if my lackey pass, it will drop a Ringleader and I will cast a Lackey and frome there, I will be in a big shape. If I get stop, I had a Fetch to reset my library.  Anyway, He went first turn Land + Mox + CoTV for 1. That was really bad for me, so I fecth the next turn, but still drew 2 lackey in a row, he beat me with a pentavus.

Game 2: I started with first turn lackey, which gets FoW (removing brainstorm).  Mailloux did nothig from the rest of the game, all he had in his hand was mana acceleration and lands (he kept his hand because he already took a mulligan and he had a brainstorm).

Game 3: He hardcasted a 3rd (maybe 2th turn, not so sure) Platinium Angel. The next turn he cast a welder and a CoTV for 2, shutting down y 2 pildrivers I had in my hand and the Artifact Mutation I drew te next turn. That was really hard to deal with. I was a 7, with 4 lands into play and a warchief. I cast a Matron and search for an answer in my deck to deal with his Angel. I opt for a lackey, which I cast the same turn and attack with my 3 goblins. He didn't block my Lackey with his welder, so I droped a Siege-Gang Commander. He attacked my in his turn. From now, I was at 3, but was able to kill his angel when he will attack me and that was what happen. He weld in his platinium angel, but I attack with all, leaving him at -2 lives, and kill his angel again with my SGC.

That's was very close... Mailloux was very disapointed that he loose with a 3rd (or 2th?) Platinium Angel and he was sure that he did a mistake, that he shouldn't have lost this one. Well, when the game just finished, I said to him that I saw nothing that he did wrong, but when I look it back, he lost because he didn't block my lackey with his welder. That way, I would have never be able to deal with his Angel and he will have won easily. First rule against any Goblin deck: Never let pass a Lackey!

Matchs: 5-1-1
Games: 10-4

Semi-Final: W-G enchantress with Soltary Confinement
He did pretty much nothing in the 2 games... First game was a Food CHain Combo when he has just cast an Argotian enchantress and enchantress presence.  2nd game I beat him with a lot of goblins.

Matchs: 6-1-1
Games: 12-4

Final:  Split with Jean-Philippe Keable playing Landstill
Congrats to JPK for his 2nd prize split in the final in a row

The metagame was very strange this month: A lot of Powered players didn't showed up and I saw a lot of new faces. The top 8 was (in no particular order):

FCG
Landstill
Control Slavery
White Wennies
Suicide black with blue (for recall and walk)
U-G madness (Unpowered!)
Enchantress G-W with Soltary Confinement
Don'T remeber

That's the strangest top8 I saw at Carta Magica.

I see a lot of FCG doing well in report these time. That's really nice: FCG is a really good deck!! Good luck for all FCG player!!  

[wuaffiliate]

Congrats on the split .
I just had a few comments.

I always wanted to cut down on prospectors, But.
They speed the game up way too much.
Not to mention its synergy with sharpshooter.
I've found prospector allows for consistant 2nd turn food chains.

I dissagree with the ammount of Matrons.
FCG has the flexibility to go aggro or combo.
Matron is really just to smooth the combo out.
Using too many of them is slow and clutters your hand.
Not to mention makes going aggro harder.
Prospector atleast helps cast SGC earlier.

[GodzillA]

I was about to say some things, but then Wu said them first. I'll add to that that it wouldn't be a bad idea to find room for a second Sharpshooter also. They work exceedingly well in pairs, and make the direct damage win condition a lot more viable.

From the above list I'd cut 2 Matrons for a Sharpshooter and a Prospector. I'd probably also replace the 4x Pyrokinesis in the board with 4x REB, because Pyrokinesis is essentially for aggro, which FCG already applies massive beats to. Control, on the other hand, can be a bit more difficult. REB goes a long way there.

Congrats on the split.

[Chiz]

From the above list I'd cut 2 Matrons for a Sharpshooter and a Prospector. I'd probably also replace the 4x Pyrokinesis in the board with 4x REB, because Pyrokinesis is essentially for aggro, which FCG already applies massive beats to. Control, on the other hand, can be a bit more difficult. REB goes a long way there.

Well, I wanted to have something to beat landstill. Does REB help really against this matchup? I didn't test Pyrokinesis at all against Landstill, but I feel that it can open the path for your lackey and others goblins, but that rest to be tested. Also, they aren't so many control decks around here.

For your 2th sharpshooter, i'm not really sure about it. How does are you going to get a sharpshooter out? Sure, you have twice the chance to draw one, but you have 2 less tutor to get it. In addition, Sharpshooter needs a prospector to be very effective, alone he won't do the difference in the game (except against dragon or a lot of wennies). The way you will get both Prospector and Sharpshooter will be via a Recruiter (I think), so having 1 or 2 sharpshooter won't change anything. And you lost the versality that the Matrons offers.

I dissagree with the ammount of Matrons.
FCG has the flexibility to go aggro or combo.
Matron is really just to smooth the combo out.
Using too many of them is slow and clutters your hand.
Not to mention makes going aggro harder.
Prospector atleast helps cast SGC earlier

Yes, FCG has the flexibility to go aggro or combo. I think that I won a little more than the half of my games with the aggro side. Matrons help for the combo part, that for sure! But they help for the aggro part too! When you have a warchief in play with 3 mana, casting a Matron for a pildriver that's really good, you beat for alot! Matron has good synergy with Lackey too! Casting a Matron before attacking with a lackey or dropping him into play with a Lackey is really good too! It's not so hard to get to 3 mana int he 2-3 firsts turns with this deck with Crypt, Petal and the 3 Moxes.

[GodzillA]

Yes, REB really helps the Landstill matchup. Much much moreso than Pyrokinesis. It stops FoW, Drain, Standstill, Response, and kills Conclaves. Landstill's only available blockers first turn are going to be Factories, which are removed much more efficently via Wasteland. What you really want is a way to slow their control elements long enough for your goblins to do their job. REB is priceless in this regard.

Aside from REB, many feel that Blood Moon is another good choice against Landstill, but after a great deal of testing I've found this not to be the case. The reason that this is so is because it is easily removed via BEB or Chain of Vapors (requiring only a single blue) or a Disk (requiring only colorless). Due to its 3cc, it's also exceedingly difficult to resolve in the first place, and is a big Drain target. Moon is a speed bump at best and a liability at worst in this matchup.

From my experience, a combination of 4 REB backed by 3-4 cheap artifact removal cards (Oxidize, Mogg Salvage, etc.) for removing Disks and Factories is by far the best strategy for winning this matchup. Incidentally, Oxidize and Salvage both provide blocker removal, but without the card disadvantage, and they can remove Disk, which is by far the biggest threat Landstill has in the MD for FCG. In the side, Chill is an equally potent threat, but is answerable with REB.

With regards to the second Sharpshooter, it simply makes the first one twice as potent. As for needing a Prospector to be truly effective, this isn't entirely true, particularly if you have multiple Sharpshooters in play. You'll notice I also suggested upping the Propector count to 3, so you're much more likely to draw one early either way.

Wu and I definitely agree on the Matron issue - they're simply too expensive and slow (even with accelleration) to be included as a 4-of. Yes, they occasionally speed up the combo or find you just what you need when you need it, and that's why there are two of them. Along with Recruiters, you have 6 ways to search out the exact tools you need. Extensive testing has proven that this is enough. Other times, Matron costs you a turn when you'd rather be drawing an actual threat, and is a substantial Drain target. Two Matrons is the ideal number.