[Deck] Food Chain Goblin Choices

[sparticus216]

right now, inspired by the Waterbury FCG win, and more by the size of my wallet, I am constructing Food Chain Goblins. And while most FCG decks do not deviate from a basic build, i think that their is good room and need for discussion for appropriate builds, including (but not simply about, specific metagame options)

From what I see now this is at least a general skeleton that almost ALL builds should run

//Mana :11
4 Taiga
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Waste
1 Strip
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Black lotus

//Combo :12
4 Food Chain
4 Goblin Recuiter
4 Goblin Ringleader

//Beatdown 14
4 PileDriver
4 Warcheif
4 Lacky
2 Siege-gang


37 Cards


now for the purpose of this post in the general build i left out some other necessities of this deck b/c i think that the inclusion, and amount is still important to discuss.

Important Cards

Goblin Matron: I love this guy, with a food chain on the table you can drop him and your recuiter same turn and with food chain on table, can searh/play any goblin in your deck (except seigegang) by itself. I think that at least 2 if not 3 should be run.


Gempalm Incinerator: With no really good spot removal FCG has trouble getting rid of welders and other threts as well as clearing the board. And with no real drawing engine cycling is always helpful to speed through

Sharpshooter: I think he should be run w/ 2 in a heavy fish or welder metagame (however for welders a fanatic would probably work beter) Other wise I think he is only really effective if for some reason you cant attack and need to deal direct damage for the kill
Prospector: like I said, I don’t find any reason to run more than 1 for the alternate kill. I have never found him really usefull out side of sacking for sharpshooter

Mogg Fanatics: I think it should be used only under a heavy welder metagame and even then only 1 or 2 but otherwise I find him subpar to an incinerator or sharpshooter

Artifact accelerants: I think that mana crypt is a must, Because of the potential for a turn 1 food chain. As well as sol-ring for similar purposes.

Also

Goblin Tinker
Goblin Vandal

I haven’t done any testing w/ these and think that they have some merit. Perhaps as sticking in a single Vandal to search out w/ a matron. Ideas to as how they should be fitted in is up to discussion.


My build as it stands now:

//Mana    (25)
4 Taiga
4 Wooded Foothills
5 Mountain
4 Waste
2 ESG
1 Strip
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Sol ring
1 Mana Crypt

//Beat down    (14)
4 PileDriver
4 Warcheif
4 Lacky
2 Seigegang

//Combo    (12)
4 Food Chain
4 Ringleader
4 Recruiter

//Utility    (9)
3 Goblin Matron
3 Gempalm
2 Sharpshooter
1 Prospector




I’m not sure if ive missed out on any major components and would like to leave FCG which I believe is a very strong and viable deck open for discussion.

[SpencerForHire]

First and most important, there is a primer that Vegeta2711 and a few others have been kind enough to put out for FCG.
Linkage:
http://www.themanadrain.com/primers/fcg.htm

Second, my personal opinion as I am an avid [card]Food Chain[/card] Player.
- Vandal and Tinker are poor choices because in any instance where they would be good, just plain out winning is a better option.
- You don't need two sharpshooters, i find they are often usless as a ping for one doesnt do the trick, in your build you have a decent chance of getting ahold of one thanks to the matrons alone, having 2 in the deck is pointless IMO.
- Upping the prospector count will up your consistency with this deck.  They allow for low mana hands or even hands full of fast drops to turn into easy siege gangs or faster combo-outs.
- Some people run wheel of fortune, I personally love the card but I wouldnt guarantee using it is a good idea, you too often give a control player a much needed [card]Force of Will[/card].
- Although Fanatics may seem like a good idea in this deck, i would rather just Gempalm a pesky welder, incineration via gempalm also gets around pesky spheres of resistance compared to Fanatics.
- Mirri's Guile is another card many now consider running, I havent done extensive testing with this yet but I will be working with it more in the future, from what I have seen so far it is decent and in a lot of situations I would love to have this baby in play when I don't but it waters down the speed a little bit for a little upped consistency, and from my testing, the consistency doesn't need much upping.

Hope this helps, good luck on your build.

[Bobduh]

Are you sure you need the ESG's? They're only used for one card, and you already have ten mana sources to drop a food chain as is. Plus, whenever you don't have a food chain they're slightly more than dead cards which could be more goblins to smash your opponents face with, since goblins are very fast by themselves and with the other acceleration you provide. You won't drop a food chain every game, and in games where you don't drop it you need to have as much power as possible on the aggro side of your deck.

If you want to add something, I figure they'd be easily dropped anyway, compared to the rest of the cards in your deck.

[Chiz]

Are you sure you need the ESG's? They're only used for one card, and you already have ten mana sources to drop a food chain as is.

ESG are not only used for Food Chain. Look at the casting cost of the goblins: Pildriver, Warchief, Matron, SGC, Ringleader, Recruiter and Sharpshooter all have colorless mana. ESG helps to drop them earlier. But I don't think a powered version of this deck really need them. Personnaly I would cut the 2 ESG and add a Lotus Petal (which is strickly better than ESG) and something else.

[SpencerForHire]

Once again, the term Strictly Better refers to something that is better in every possible way, such as [card]Raging Goblin[/card] over [card]Mons Goblin Raiders[/card].  ESG cannot be countered although it only produces .  Also,  I have never needed when I use an ESG, it also helps if you need one quick mana under a [card]Trinisphere[/card].  I can keep going but the point of the matter is, you should not say it is strictly better.

[Jacob Orlove]

Tinder Wall is another interesting alternative to ESG.

[xthexpunisherx]

You shouldn't need to run ESG in a powered FCG deck.  I don't see it really helping the mana base much.  It would be better to play some more prospecters (they are useful and more importantly a goblin).  As for tinder wall, That would be an excellent suggestion but sometimes green mana is hard to come by and it would be better to drop a prospecter or another goblin early game to put the pressure of a piledriver on the board.

[Covetous]

Although I have heard rumors of people cutting the prospectors for more matrons/incinerators, I feel that the prospectors are a necessary or at least helpful part of the deck.  Also, I don't think the deck needs more than 3 warchiefs--at first, I didn't believe that but now I have learned that it's true.  On the idea of ESG--I run the lotus petal and a chrome mox in these slots.  The petal rules and the jury's not yet in on the chrome.  On tinder wall/ESG--I seem to recall that there aren't supposed to be and non-mana, non-food chain, non-goblin cards in the deck, with the possible exception of wheel.  On the subject of wheel--I'd rather get 7 new cards and fill an opponent's hand with a FoW than have an empty hand or only one lonely goblin.  But that's just me--the wheel is an emergency panic button to use if something bad happens and you really need 7 cards.  Cutting it for another incinerator/matron wouldn't really be a bad thing.  I like the idea of goblin vandal, but I think it wouldn't be that strong unless you ran 3-4, which would decrease your consistency.  The sideboard might have room for them, however.