URG goblins/hate, "Guided Passage.dec"

Hello,

It has been well over a year since I last posted or played competitive magic in person, but I recently got back into playing a lot online and would like to post what I have been toying with as well as give you some thoughts from about 200 games of playtesting.

The deck's focus came from the fact that Ive seen a lot of combo, and artifact based decks online (mostly stax, cs, strange mask builds, a lot of tendrils-based kill decks, and plenty of bazaars mixed in there).

I was busy reading around here to try and find some help with this new metagame Ive witnessed (I left during slavers dawn, and bazaar being thrown into restricted conversations), when i came across a couple of cards from the new blocks:

1
Pithing needle

Artifact

Errata: As Pithing Needle comes into play, name a card. ; Activated abilities of the named card can't be played unless they're mana abilities.

R
Raze

Sorcery

Errata: As an additional cost to play Raze, sacrifice a land. ; Destroy target land. [Oracle 1999/05/01]

1R
Tin Street Hooligan

Creature Goblin Rogue

Errata: 2/1. ; When Tin Street Hooligan comes into play, if {G}

was spent to play Tin Street Hooligan, destroy target artifact.

These cards all intrigued me in some way. Each seemingly dealing with some of the problems I was having playing in this new metagame online. I started fine-tuning a decklist (and have been ever since). The decklist centers on goblins, but has elements from other RG hate decks of days gone by, and some broken blue plays that people are familiar with.

Each card with a *** next to it will be discussed below

Guided Passage.dec In case you care about the name origin, Guided Passage is the only URG cc card in MTG

#Land#

1 Bloodstained Mire
4 Wooded Foothills

1 Mountain
1 Barbarian Ring
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland

1 Tropical Island ***
3 Volcanic Island
4 Taiga

#Jewelry#

1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire ***
1 Mox Ruby

#Broken#

1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk

#Land-kill#

3 Raze ***
1 Crop Rotation

#Hate and answers#

4 Fire-Ice
1 Echoing truth***
1 Chain of vapor***
3 Pithing Needle ***
3 Gorilla Shaman ***
4 Tin Street Hooligan ***

#Engine#

4 Goblin Lackey
3 Siege-gang Commander
4 Goblin Piledriver
4 Mogg Fanatic ***

60 Cards

Discussion:

1 Tropical Island:
Ive run into situations where i really, really, really need red mana, and this guy creeps into my top-deck. I'm seriously thinking this card has no place in my deck, but it was randomly good in a few situations early on in testing.

2 Bounce cards
These cards have both seemed to be worthwhile in the event of chalice hitting what i want to cast or fat, or welders, and the list goes on... I just wish it was more consistently there for game 1. Game 2 I use these with my oath killers against oath, but these are my only 2 answers game 1.

1 Mox Sapphire:
Why not lotus? I like the fact I can tap this more than once, but I've also run into situations, like with the tropical island, where red mana seems essential in the situation. This card is great fuel for fire/ice, but seems like it would fit better if i was using brainstorm as a filtering mechanism (more discussion on that later).

3 Raze:
Raze seems to be the card that pushes this deck beyond just being another aggro-hate goblins build. Raze takes care of a tough landstill match-up, helps a lot in the case where someone drops 1st turn academy, or even first turn island, and the casting cost is as good as I could have hoped for.

3 Pithing Needle:
These are dead on a number of occasions, but when they're not dead, they're bombtastic. They MUST be dealt with, and allow me to use my knowledge of other decks (which is growing slowly, but is catching up) to hurt those decks. Once again, the casting cost is great, and I cant help but enjoy dropping this turn 1 of game two and naming bazaar.

Which brings me to my point. Should these be strictly a sideboard option?? I rarely know exactly what to say game 1, and I have a tough time against most aggro decks currently. So would this card be better suited as something to stop aggro decks, and that way I could save the needles for the sideboard???

3 Gorilla Shaman:
He comes out for 1, and he eats moxen, but hes not a goblin, and he stinks at attacking. With tin street in my deck, shaman hasn't been the bomb I'm used to it being, but hes been good enough to hold his spot over vandal, tinkerer, heretic, or oxidize (for now).

4 Tin street Hooligan
This card has been outright nuts since I started playing it. Having a turn 2 answer to any sort of artifact drop is great in my book, and I really think these guys are an auto-include in any RG deck currently. The fact that it beats for 2, and is a goblin, is just that much more gravy on my pie.

4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Fire/ice haven't played out as enough DD to stop some decks. I feel by including fanatics I can at least have more pings around if/when I need them. This card used to be goblin grenade, but it really felt like a win-more card in most situations, and didn't have synergy with shaman at all of course. This card gives me more fuel to my goblin-crazed fire, and the cc is just right.

Cards that have been tested:

Forest/Island - In the face of wasteland lock - I didn't feel i needed either of these cards considering R is really what makes my deck go

Mana Leak - This card was very very good in some spots, but without a draw engine, i never seemed to have it when i needed it

Living wish - This card was getting me maze/kara/sharpshooter game 1, but that wasn't worth the tempo loss

Grim Lavamancer - no synergy with goblins, though he is a great card to think about if i ever wanted to move from goblins to a more balanced creature-based attack If i retool this deck so that its not goblins-based, this card will be going in. he works so well with raze.... Another Great choice if I go this route seems to be Dryad, which would lean toward a more control-ish deck. I think Mana leak, brainstorm, fow would be auto-includes.

Goblin sharpshooter - hes great against fish and small things, but i never see him when i want to, and his 1-turn lag time to be effective oft means hes gone off the table

Goblin Matron - I don't know why I tested matron

Goblin Medics - These guys weren't bad, and really seemed to help my tempo a lot. The cc made it so i could cast them if i needed, and the pinging ability was another plus. These might eventually creep back in.

Goblin Grenade - This card playtested like jank. It was never around when i needed to press the issue for the win, and was always at the top of my deck when i needed a land or creature.

Stifle -See mana leak

Cunning wish (with a sideboard that included mis-d, fow, stifle, reb, zerk, cov, r&r, shattering pulse, beb, etc)

Rancor *** Still seems like a great card to include, as it lets me run over opponents minis, and keeps coming back. How to fit it though and still have enough steam??

Fledgling dragon(MD) - Tempo loss from 4 cc was harsh.. but hes still a beast.

Brainstorm *** I still think that brainstorm or some form of search is needed... I looked at ninja of the deep hours as well, but just haven't found a good way to fit them in. I'm really looking for help by posting this, so if you have some good input, thanks in advance.

Now for what Ive been sideboarding:

Side:

3 Red Elemental Blast (This deck hates blue stuff)

3 Pyroblast

1 Rack and ruin (3cc artifact kill for chalice at 1 and 2)

1 Maze of ith (Oath, DSC)

1 Karakas (Oath)

3 Tormod's Crypt (Ground seal???)

3 fledgling dragon

Comments:

3 Fledgling Dragon
I get wrecked by random aggro. This guy evades, gets huge, and loves to munch on rootwater thieves. He also gets really big for that last swing of the game.

3 Tormod's Crypt: Many great matchups for this card currently. It drops for 0, and gives me time to work on my clock.

2 Lands : Karakas/ Maze: Oath still wrecks this deck, as does DSC, but with these 2, the two maindeck bounce spells, and crop rotation, I improve my chances on seeing an answer.

Other cards to keep in mind: Rushing river, Ground Seal, blue elemental blast, Goblin sharpshooter, artifact mutation, Cunning wish (MD) (with a sideboard that includes mis-d, fow, stifle, reb, zerk, cov, r&r, shattering pulse, beb, etc) ***as mentioned above***

Metagaming with this hate deck.

Waterfront bouncer.
This guy is a house. He puts DSC back where he belongs, punches dragon in the face, helps against stax, and is cheap control. He fuels up my yard, so I can cast a big dragon faster, or he helps fuel the grim lavamancer removal fire that is charring welders left-and-right.

Mana leak/Stifle: These cards arent proactive and totally change the focus of the deck, but are the correct choices in certain metagames. If you see a ton of bombs that you couldnt otherwise keep in someones hand/deck/yard with this deck, this might be the route for you.

Timmy, lord of the elves/bigger characters/sligh deck: The sligh player checks out to your removal and goblin assault. They also run out of steam much before you do, but have less dead cards game 1 (unless you name cursed scroll with pithed). The elf/random aggro player is something strange to watch out for, because you'll eventually run into someone who's goal is to create a 50/50 elf that gains him infinite amounts of life everytime it untaps/taps whatever... These green creatures are normally fatter than my lackey's, and tend to punch my deck in the face game 1, so if youre meta has alot of scrub aggro, you might want to be maindecking dragons to fly over the onslaught of elves, or at least some sort of reset button for his horde of tokens/elves whatever. This deck doesnt thrive on scrub aggro beatdown, thats the job of lesser decks, ie combo decks.

Control-heavy meta: Youre already playing 8 blasts in the sideboard, and have the strips to keep them short on mana, but what if your meta includes alot of mono blue/blue white??? The answer could of course be anything from maindecking blasts, to simply playing a tight game and getting your threats out early. Force of will doesnt stop this deck, and mana drain doesnt normally find fat targets, but decks that consistently have bigger creatures and can still draw (see phids, ninja, etc) are going to be a big problem. Even a turn 2 dryad would hurt this deck a lot if left unchecked. This sort of meta requires much preparation for the sort of game where a 20 turn clock can be the right decision. When pithings, needles, and shamans are all looking to be dead cards, is when you hope that the sideboard will bring you dominance.

Dragon heavy/Oath metas: I wouldnt be playing this deck in either meta, rather a deck more like the mana leak/stifle build talked about above. Stifle is a house against alot of decks, but nothing gets hurt more than dragon, and oath hates seeing waterfront toss-akroma. In either case, youre going to have to make some changes to your deck in order to stay competitive. Completely removing the win condition for something else is a legit decision in both of these cases, and modifying the disruption to include spells that stop bombs from going off (force) would also be the correct call. I can give plenty of pointers if youre thinking of running this brand of hate in an environment full of oath/dragon, and I hope you wouldnt worry to still pilot something like this.

Shopland: Welcome home. Shops are everywhere in the midwest, and because of this fact... this deck was born. Shaman, tin street, even shattering spree could all make their way into your maindeck, and opposing welders just means you know where your fanatics/ fire/ices will be heading. Early lackey => gang bang stops the tanglewire beatdown, and your ld becomes that much more important in the early game. Shop players will still go broken on you from time to time, and theyre also going to drop chalice for both 1 and 2 which halts much of this deck. Its then that you need rack and ruin to the rescue, and less red blast answers.

CS: very different from Stax in the fact that those 6 blasts help alot post board. TfK kneels before the powerful red blast, and with no mana to hardcast their precious beats, no welders on the table, and pithing needled bazaars, players with really expensive decks get really frustrated. =) =) =). Its those times when you sit back, relax and rip ancestral off the top of your deck, just to add insult to injury.

Edit: Thanks kelp, improvement is probably best for this list/discussion

**Also if someone could point me to a thread that specifically gives pointers on playing pithing needle I'd appreciate it. I have searched, and there are just so many posts that discuss this card, its very hard to find the content I'm looking for**

Some Playtesting Notes:

My mana base so far has been great, though I recently took out the sapphire for a lotus, and have seen much more explosive starts to my games. Early game is so important against decks like stax and cs, and even gifts with their great drawing mechanisms that I felt I needed to get out early and at least maintain some semblance of the tempo they thrive off. Tin Street Hooligan is still nuts, and even when hes not eating moxen/null rods/smoke stacks, he beats for 2 and pumps my piledrivers. He is the engine that makes my deck not suck so bad. Fire/ice have started to show up a lot more now that I'm playing all 4 fanatics rather than 3 welders. The replacement has really helped a lot, and given me answers to pesky 1/1s that kill my deck (mancer, welder, etc).

Having 5 strips, 3 Raze, and 1 crop rotation has worked wonders for my deck so far. Ive seen plenty of LD to disrupt my opponent's until i can lackey out a big gobbo and gain some control. Though sometimes the momentum shift isn't enough to win the game (tangle wire really hurts my deck sometimes).

Gorilla shaman still seems to be overshadowed in my deck. Turn 1 he is still a nice drop, though sometimes with a hand (playing first) of lackey, tin street, shaman, 4 cards - I tend to push out the lackey, and then drop the turn 2 tin street to kill their moxen. The tin street is much more of a surprise because his ability lies in casting rather than on the table, and his momentum swings have been more powerful. I still like shaman a lot when playing second because he allows me to wipe the table as quickly as possible. There have even been game 1's against dragon where they're able to get all their components into the graveyard and still not win because of the constant assault of their mana base.

One of the toughest matchups for me thusfar has been fish and other aggro/control decks. Fish and Landstill have been very tough because my deck wants to cast spells and their fat is bigger and comes out just as fast. Post board I get a lot of help with REb/pyroblast and dragons if needed, but game 1 my results are TERRIBLE.

Oath decks are a very very hard match up game 1, and get slightly better game 2, but i still wouldn't call it a homerun at all. Its a very tense match for me everytime, and it seems to always be a close match of my slow clock eating them up, and their quick clock, kicking my ass.

Not having any search/ redundancy:

I have no search in my deck. Ancestral might count, but its used to refill most of the time, so I'll avoid it. fire/ice can be cycled (and are quite often), but for the most part, my deck is an adventure in redundancy and the art of the mulligan. Throwing back a 6,7 card hand to establish a much better 5 card hand is essential with my deck, where using so many 3 and 4s I see stupid hands occasionally. This same redundancy though allows me to anticipate my next move, and means I'm drawing steam more often that filler in my deck. My solid mana-base and early threats really comes out against decks that need a lot of mana to thrive, and even against decks with similar mana curves, sometimes my early disruption is enough to outright WIN the match.