[Discussion] Goblins

[policehq]

AmbivalentDuck's most recent gobs list, last updated 7-22-2010
Mana
4 Badlands
2 Taiga
1 Bayou
4 Bloodstained Mire (strongly recommend frequently changing which fetchland is 4-of...whole point is to safely consult for basic mountain via fetch)
1 Arid Mesa
1 Scalding Tarn
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
0 basic mountain

1 Lotus Petal
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire

Creatures
4 Goblin Lackey
1 Goblin Vandal
1 Skirk Prospector
1 Mogg Fanatic
1 Goblin Tinkerer
1 Goblin Piledriver
2 Vexing Shusher
4 Goblin Matron
2 Gempalm Incinerator
1 Goblin Sharshooter
2 Wort, Boggart Auntie
1 Lightning Crafter
4 Earwig Squad
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker

Spells
1 Demonic Consultation
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
2 Warren Weirding
4 Nature's Claim
61 cards

[AmbivalentDuck]

Yeah, I'm sloppy.  I'll update that post with something appropriate for the meta once I get more time to test.  Nature's Claim was a failed experiment.  Having to fetch a splash color against stax blew and the Oath matchup didn't come up enough to compensate for that.  It seemed appropriate at the time.

This is close to what I'm testing right now.  No promises about playability or quality.  Mindbreaks reflect the need to not punt against combo g1 when t2 earwig doesn't happen.  They also randomly hit "broken" openings.  I'm also testing Jace since 1x Jace, 2x Weirding seems better than running possibly dead multiples of a card.  Mindbreaks might be out for 3x Jace, 2x Weirding.  No idea if 3 color will even bear out, but Ancestral and Time Walk are both considerably better here than in "fish."

// Lands
    4 Wasteland
    4 Badlands
    1 Bloodstained Mire
    4 Wooded Foothills
    2 Volcanic Island
    1 Strip Mine
    1 Mountain
    1 Scalding Tarn

// Creatures
    4 Earwig Squad
    2 Wort, Boggart Auntie
    1 Goblin Piledriver
    1 Goblin Sharpshooter
    2 Mogg Fanatic
    1 Goblin Tinkerer
    2 Gempalm Incinerator
    4 Goblin Matron
    4 Goblin Lackey
    3 Goblin Vandal
    1 Siege-Gang Commander

// Spells
    3 Warren Weirding
    1 Demonic Consultation
    1 Vampiric Tutor
    1 Mox Emerald
    1 Mox Jet
    1 Mox Ruby
    1 Black Lotus
    1 Mana Crypt
    1 Mox Sapphire
    1 Sol Ring
    1 Ancestral Recall
    1 Time Walk
    1 Demonic Tutor
    2 Mindbreak Trap

// Sideboard
SB: 4 Yixlid Jailer
SB: 3 Gilded Drake
SB: 4 Shattering Spree
SB: 2 Mindbreak Trap
SB: 2 [HOP] Relic of Progenitus

[chalywong]

Found this really interesting deck list. Might help people get ideas

Main Deck

60 cards
3  Barbarian Ring
2  Bloodstained Mire
2  Island
1  Mountain
2  Polluted Delta
1  Strip Mine
3  Volcanic Island
4  Wasteland
18 lands


4  Goblin Lackey
4  Goblin Piledriver
4  Goblin Vandal
4  Siege-Gang Commander
16 creatures    
1  Ancestral Recall
4  Brainstorm
4  Chalice of the Void
4  Daze
1  Echoing Truth
4  Force of Will
1  Misdirection
1  Mox Ruby
1  Mox Sapphire
1  Red Elemental Blast
3  Stifle
1  Time Walk
26 other spells
   

Sideboard

2  Fire // Ice
2  Pithing Needle
4  Pyroblast
1  Red Elemental Blast
3  Thorn of Amethyst
3  Tormod's Crypt
15 sideboard cards

Obviously brainstorm is restricted but I like the idea of having force of will in my goblin deck.  Kind of like a fish/goblin hybrid.  Anyone think this idea is worth testing?

[AmbivalentDuck]

With 4 Brainstorm and some fetches, you could shuffle away situationally dead cards...and that deck is full of them.  Without the Brainstorms, I'd say the idea is a non-starter.

[sassfactor4]

I ran goblins for the first time at the last superstars tourney, I went 2-3 in 5 rounds of swiss in a field of 18.  Don't remember my standings, I lost to dredge, jace control, and oath.  Won against noble fish and bob tendrils.  I tried a more disruptive "fishy" type list, and wouldn't play it again.

=-=-=
maindeck:

1 mountain
1 bojuka bog
3 taiga (proxy)
3 badlands (proxy)
3 wooded foothills
3 bloodstained mire
4 wasteland
1 strip mine

1 mox ruby (proxy)
1 mox jet (proxy)
1 mox emerald (proxy)
1 black lotus (proxy)
1 sol ring

4 earwig squad
2 warren wierding
4 goblin matron
3 goblin ringleader
4 goblin lackey
2 goblin piledriver
1 vexing shusher
1 tin street hooligan
1 goblin tinkerer
1 wort, boggart auntie
2 goblin warchief

1 demonic tutor
1 vampiric tutor
4 thoughtseize
2 shattering spree
2 pyroblast

sideboard:

Gempalm incinerator
Relic of progenitus
Vexing shusher
Yixlid jailer x2
Ravenous trap x2
Mindbreak trap x3
Artifact mutation x2
Nature's claim x2
Diabolic edict

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Changes I think I should make

-1 bojuka bog
-1 mox emerald
-2 shattering spree
-4 thoughtseize

+3 null rod
+2 pyroblast
+1 mana crypt
+1 seal of primordium
+1 nature's claim

and out of the sideboard -1 gempalm incinerator -1 nature's claim -1
mindbreak trap  +1 ravenous trap +1 yixlid jailer +1 seal of
primordium

I had fun playing the deck and wished I had more time to have playtested before the event. 

[AmbivalentDuck]

Green and Thoughtseize haven't impressed me recently.  This is a deck that loves dropping goblins and leaving up mana sources/using them to Thoughtseize is pretty much the opposite.  Totally agree there.  Also, Mana Crypt was a huge omission from the list, and clearly worse than Sol Ring.  No Demonic Consultation?

Also, what about Mindbreak Trap failed to impress you?

[sassfactor4]

Mindbreak trap is fine, my misplays with it were another matter :p  I dont think it needed to be a 3x of but thats debatable.

I didn't have a mana crypt with me and ran out of proxies is the only reason that was omitted.

Demonic consultation and I don't get along most of the time, can you elaborate on how you use it in this deck?  I am all for more tutors if I can get around my mental block of understanding the value of DC

[AmbivalentDuck]

Always Consult for the card that will win you the game or stop you from having an immediate loss.  It's kind of that easy.  Usually, that means Wasteland, Earwig Squad, Goblin Vandal, or Wort.  Sometimes that means Black Lotus or Bojuka Bog.  If you die consulting for a one-of, it's because you would have won (or lost slightly later anyways).  Ie. Consulting for Bojuka Bog against a full Dredge graveyard or Black Lotus to get turn 2 Earwig Squad against combo.

[AmbivalentDuck]

Current build updated in first post.  Jace and maindeck Mindbreak have proved solid, sideboard has some open slots.  I think they're probably Lightning Bolt for critters/Lodestone/Jace, but who knows.

AmbivalentDuck's most recent gobs list, last updated 8-26-2010
Mana
3 Badlands
3 Volcanic Island
1 Mountain
4 Bloodstained Mire (strongly recommend frequently changing which fetchland is 4-of...whole point is to safely consult for basic mountain via fetch)
1 Arid Mesa
1 Scalding Tarn
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine

1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire

Creatures
4 Goblin Lackey
3 Goblin Vandal
2 Mogg Fanatic
1 Goblin Tinkerer
1 Goblin Piledriver
4 Goblin Matron
2 Gempalm Incinerator
1 Goblin Sharpshooter
2 Wort, Boggart Auntie
4 Earwig Squad

Spells
1 Demonic Consultation
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
2 Warren Weirding
2 Jace TMS
2 Mindbreak Trap
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk

Sideboard
4 Yixlid Jailer
2 Relic of Progenitus
4 Shattering Spree
2 Mindbreak Trap
3 ???  (I've got Lightning Bolt in the slot right now)

[Killane]

Current build updated in first post.  Jace and maindeck Mindbreak have proved solid, sideboard has some open slots.  I think they're probably Lightning Bolt for critters/Lodestone/Jace, but who knows.

It would be more helpful IMHO to preserve the orignal build and post new builds further in the thread, perhaps with a link-bsed index. Seeing the evolution of a deck helps us to understand how to evolve it further base don changing metagames.

[AmbivalentDuck]

It would be more helpful IMHO to preserve the orignal build and post new builds further in the thread, perhaps with a link-bsed index. Seeing the evolution of a deck helps us to understand how to evolve it further base don changing metagames.

Totally agree.  Complete miss in hindsight.  Thank you for pointing it out.

After doing some reading to write some posts I didn't bother making, I thinks it makes sense to lay out an argument that my gobs build is a "Wakefield" deck.  The motivation is pretty well summed up by Flores:

In a field of Broken Jar, High Tide, and Forbidian, Jamie was able to take the following deck to the #1 position, and got himself an invite to Pro Tour New York 1999.

4 Llanowar Elves
4 Fyndhorn Elves
3 Elvish Lyrists
4 Wall of Roots
3 Uktabi Orangutan
4 Spike Feeder
2 Spike Weaver
3 Verdant Force
4 Creeping Mold
4 Natural Order
3 Overrun

3 Gaea's Cradle
3 Wastelands
16 Forests

Or restated, Wakefield hit on a formula for beating control and combo using aggro decks without in turn folding to other aggro.

Elements of the Wakefield School
1. Never, ever, run non-interactive card advantage engines. I mean never. The R/W Jokulhaups Jamie used to qualify for Dallas had ZERO Thawing Glaciers. Every deck in that environment ran Thawing Glaciers! The *Necrodeck* I qualified with had 3 Glaciers. None for fatty R/W! Speaking of Necropotence, that is another non- interactive card-drawer. Never a 'potence in the Wakefield black decks.

Jamie claims that running card-drawing engines (non-interactive card advantage) glut a player's hand with too many fatties when he is running a Wakefield deck. Even with the huge amount of mana--and mana acceleration--the Wakefield decks run, they can't keep up with that, as many of their threats cost 5 or more mana. It is just better to top-deck and save the slots for actual answers, fatties, or mana, rather than cards that go and get mana or fatties or answers.

It appears to be all right to run interactive card advantage (destructive) engines. Jamie has killed many creatures with Nekrataal, Carrionette, and so on. His monkeys have smashed many artifacts, and his Weavers have held off a lot of rushes. Jamie even had Disrupting Scepters in one version of Black Fat, and he used them to good effect, by stripping hands in an even more traditionally Weissman way.

Interactive CA engines put you ahead while putting your opponent behind vs something like card drawing which only puts you ahead.  Sharpshooter, Incinerator, Vandal fit this description pretty nicely.  I'd argue that Fanatic and Weirding are also CA engines since they're mostly likely to hit Narcomoeba, Bob, and tinker critters, costing your opponent more than one card.

2. Make your deck really bad against Winter Orb. The high casting costs of the Wakefield decks make them particularly vulnerable to Winter Orb because they tap out a lot. (Tom Guevin pointed that out at Regionals 1998).

The closest thing is Stax, and frankly we're not bad against it.  The better comparison is Mana Drain and I think we fit that bill by running Earwig, Wort, and Jace.

3. Make your deck really good against control. We have already talked about the presence of main-deck spoilers like Scragnoth. But the Wakefield strategy is just really disruptive in general. A lot of the Wakefield cards are underused, and an opposing control player just doesn't know what to counter. An inoffensive"scrub" card like Natural Order will more often than not bring out something that your average deck will not be able to handle. (Jamie has many stories about this one). The huge amount of removal in the Wakefield deck can also make winning impossible for control decks that have few routes to victory. (Tom Guevin also pointed out this aspect of the Wakefield School at Regionals 1998).

Most people haven't tested this matchup and the flood of relevant 1cc critters is hard to counter.  In particular, a resolved Lackey can undermine the effectiveness of countermagic.

4. Crush Sligh. Just do it. Kill every single creature or gain more life than they can eliminate while beating them down with a toughness-4 creature that they can't bolt. If you have to run Lighting frigging Blast to have as many bolts as you want, do it.

We run the removal, but lifegain seems very far-fetched.  To follow this tenet, I guess I could run Tinker->Sphinx...but the tenet seems too dated to bother with.

5. Use only very bad library manipulation. This is where most critics of the Wakefield School (primarily myself and edt) come into conflict with Jamie. The Wakefield School will never run a card like Impulse, arguably the best cheap search card in modern Magic, but it WILL run a card like Sage Owl... basically a neutered Impulse that happens to put a 1/1 creature into play. The Wakefield School will not go find creatures with Survival of the Fittest, but it will sacrifice them to Natural Order (inherent card-disadvantage unless we are talking about an active Spike or Verdant Saproling token).

Jamie claims this is because his decks are so creature-heavy (even if Sage Owl isn't actually a fatty). I mean why have an Impulse if you can have a bad Impulse but also a relatively useless creature?

Matron, Jace.  We also run some very good library manipulation.

6. The rest of the stuff... win with fatties.

Earwig Squad and Wort are huge by vintage critter standards.

Don't make your deck more than one color. Play a huge percentage of mana-making cards (especially land).

Dated by the printing of fetches, but we still run a high mana count...particularly if you include Lackeys.

Have an answer or global reset button. Play with little kid cards that your opponent has to read. Have fun while casting Magical spells.

No real equivalent that's playable.  Jace is closest thing I can think of.  That said, Weirding, artifact kill, and Mindbreak answer most of the format's threats.

Also going back to Flores, "the best decks play the best cards," but card quality is conditional on the meta.  Flores cites:

During the modified (“Homedicapped”) Standard Qualifier season for Pro Tour Columbus, almost everyone played either Land Tax or Necropotence. It was thought that you could defeat Hymn to Tourach only if you had a powerful card drawing engine to offset that most fearsome of two-mana disruption spells. Worth chose a deck that looked kind of like the stock Erhnam 'geddon, and kind of like Erhnam and Burn 'em (a deck, incidentally, the Gruul could appreciate), but married to Howling Mine (his oblique answer to Hymn), Stormbind, and Storm Seeker.
“If Necrodecks want to draw seven, let them; they can take seven too.”

Worth's deck was a perfect choice for the metagame. His Storm Seekers punished the top tier decks and his overall card quality beat all the stragglers with sub-optimal archetype choices.

In that context, the questions are whether I have the most *effective* Goblins I can, whether or not I sufficiently address other "hate" decks, and whether or not the overall card power level is high enough.  Playing the best cards means playing broken blue, a slew of Moxen, and cards like Earwig Squad that are an undercosted way to prey on the format's poverty of wincons.  That said, do things like the singleton Piledriver, second Wort, and Tinkerer actually earn their slots?  Are they the best card that can fill that slot?  Probably not.  Everything else cleanly carriers its weight, those card may very well not and those slots are enough to add Mystical, Tinker, and a critter main making it truly a question of power.

[chalywong]

looking to get my list prepared for this weekend. here is what I am at currently

4x goblin lackey
4x goblin piledriver
4x goblin matron
3x goblin warchief
3x gempalm incinerator
3x goblin vandal
3x earwig squad
1x stingscourger
1x mogg war marshal
3x warren weirding
3x null rod
4x cabal therapy
1x demonic consultation

1x mana crypt
1x sol ring
1x mox jet
1x mox ruby
1x black lotus
4x badlands
3x mountain
4x bloodstained mire
1x arid mesa
1x wooded foothills
4x wasteland
1x strip mine

board:
3x shattering spree
2x pyroblast
4x leyline of the void
4x greater gargadon
2x yixlid jailer

[AmbivalentDuck]

What kind of feedback are you looking for?  The only thing that's questionable without context is your choice of Greater Gargadon for 4 sideboard slots.  Once you start relying on it to not lose to Oath, you have little chance of winning before they assemble Vault-Key.  If you feel that 4 Gargadon is an appropriate use of sideboard slots for your meta, I wouldn't be running Goblins in the first place.

[RecklessEmbermage]

Chalywong: I like the deck. The maindeck anyway. It has a few issues though:

Your manabase is not great. Out of 23 mana sources, only 16 produce coloured mana. I would drop the sol ring and crypt to add two more sources of black mana, probably a swamp and a lotus petal. That would leave you at 12 solid sources and 2 expendable sources of black mana (lotus and petal) which is still low, but better than what you´ve got.

4 therapys and no other hand disruption looks wrong. Therapy gets better in combination with duress and you should consider running more overall. Something like a 3-3 split or 3 therapy, 2 duress. Do you know your meta extremely well? If you only play against known decks, 4 therapy may be warranted.

How good is the singleton war marshal? In what sircumstances do you tutor for it?

You could drop one incinerator and still consult for it relatively safely. If there are a bunch of x/1s in your meta, replace one with a mogg fanatic. It´s an eight guy to turn on second turn earwig and a maindeck tool against dredge.

Same goes with warchief and warren weirding. If you run one extra just to feel safe when you consult: Don´t. With two copies, the chance of it backfiring is very small (don´t know how small).

If you can support earwig, you may as well play 4. Whenever the cap effect is less important, the size will matter more (being able to trade with goyfs and golems is huge).

I agree with Duck that gargadons look strange. One more sensible way of combating oath is playing more hand disruption. You don´t want to be giving up your creatures with this deck. Once oath lands, you got no way to recover. I´d definitely drop jailers for fanatics, unless there are some reason other than dredge for having them in the side. 2 mana is a lot to pay for a creature that doesn´t further your own game plan. You have access to so many quality cards against dredge that you shouldn´t overdo the hate. Leylines are fine, since they don´t cost you any mana (some of the time).

We might give you better advice if you could tell us what you know about the meta.

[AmbivalentDuck]

I would drop the sol ring and crypt to add two more sources of black mana

I would never cut Mana Crypt from any Vintage gobs build.  He has plenty of questionable inclusions that would go first.

I've said many times that you have better things to do on turn 2 than play one spell that will likely get countered.  By removing Rods for Moxen, you open yourself up for more explosive openings and less dependence on a very soft mana denial strategy.

Also, Wort is solid if only because it attacks past Trygon and lets you recur your removal.  If there's any Fish in your meta, I'd strongly consider having at least one copy in the sideboard.

[chalywong]

well I play in the long island, NY area which is very MUD heavy.  I'm pretty sure tez being #2 and oath close behind in 3rd portion wise.  I definitely understand you guys are bringing up.  Thanks for looking at the list.  With your feedback I figure

-2 pyroblast
+2 thoughtseize
-1 sol ring
+1 swamp

The gargadon is in the board to overwhelm the oath player early on and have a fall back plan when they board in a sweeper (massacre, infest, etc).  It throws them off balance on which win condition they can go for in the early game.  I like the war marshal because he accomplishes many things for a very small price. He provides great chumps(gofys,lodestones), outlets for tangle wire and smokestack, easy way to boost gemplam dmg, busts a dredge players bridge, boosts up piledriver, provides more goblins to break through for prowl dmg.  All around I think he is pretty useful and better for vintage than say siege gang commander because of his super low cost and relavance in many matchups.

[sassfactor4]

Is there a large negative to including Warren instigator as lackey #5-8? 
Are you ever hurting for a lackey enough to warrant CMC  version? 
Is being able to attack into bob and keeping the lackey effect on the board worth it?  T

hey would assist with chalice @ 
unblocked you could put more threats on the board quickly, and the possibility of double ringleader, or a nice army of siege gang + tokens seems very enticing.

However I haven't seen it in any builds, Is the extra so devastating?

[AmbivalentDuck]

Combo/Instigator Gobs is very viable in a format with no blockers.  I wouldn't describe the present meta as light on critters.

[RecklessEmbermage]

Is there a large negative to including Warren instigator as lackey #5-8? 
Are you ever hurting for a lackey enough to warrant CMC  version? 
Is being able to attack into bob and keeping the lackey effect on the board worth it?  T

hey would assist with chalice @ 
unblocked you could put more threats on the board quickly, and the possibility of double ringleader, or a nice army of siege gang + tokens seems very enticing.

However I haven't seen it in any builds, Is the extra so devastating?

In metas full of creatures, a lackey is still good if it can connect once. Same goes for instigator.

So if you can reliably cast it turn one and reliably clear out the first blocker, play it. That demands something like 8 red sources beyond land (SSG, mox ruby, lotus, petal, mox diamond, chrome mox) and maybe 7-8 1-2cc removal spells maindeck (lightning bolt, warren weirding....).

This combined leaves you with a somewhat dilluted deck. It is however also a deck that can reliably force through a second turn earwig (particularly since you can often run out a 1cc creature plus hand disruption turn 1).

[yellow_siomai]

I've been a goblin player and have read this thread over and over again for the wonderful insights offered here. I've tried almost all configuration from FCG, splash green, mono red with instigator and lately the Earwig black splash. Although the power to cap off your opponent is incredibly powerful, I sometimes experience delays since I only run an unpowered build. What I have are the usual second rate mana accelerators: lotus petal, chrome mox, mana crypt and SSGs, but sometimes they are enough for the scrub versions for vintage decks that I sometimes go against. I also ran null rod since most of the meta here run artifacts but what I want to ask is:

Can this build (B/R Earwig) run unpowered? Is there an acceptable list that can go toe to toe against powered decks?

Lately the meta here in our place has evolved into a Shop-dominated playing field with more than half of the top players playing such decks, although the usual culprits: Oath and Dredge, are still present. Another list has popped up recently too; Trygon-Tezz Time Vault and getting good plays from the field.

How can I combat these players, mainly Shop and Trygon-Tezz? Can you also suggest a configuration that can be built specifically against these decks?

Thanks for your help.

[BruiZar]

Against shop you could board in Pulverize. It allows you to pay for spheres easily and can reset the board at the cost of your lands, but with a little luck you opened with a Goblin Lackey. Workshop tends to overextend so I think that is the way to capitalize on it. This also ensures you connect with lackey.

Against Trygon Tez I like Mogg Salvage myself. It´s free, it´s instant, and it blows up part of the combo. It´s too bad it aint a tribal instant, because that would have been great. Especially when he plays Y.Will, Mogg Salvage is a blow out.

EDIT Perhaps a black splash just isn´t as good as a green splash. We´re all pretty much sold on Earwig and Warren Weirding, but I think it may be time to investigate other options. Green has Ancient Grudge, which is good in every match up and especially Workshop and Vault Key. Then there is Tin Street Hooligan, which at its worst is a Sink Hole against powered decks (taking out a mox).

[AmbivalentDuck]

Can this build (B/R Earwig) run unpowered? Is there an acceptable list that can go toe to toe against powered decks?

Any unpowered Goblins build is strictly worse than a powered one simply because of not having Black Lotus.  The question I think you're really asking is, "What unpowered Gobs build suffers the least from lacking power?"  Joe Tanner posted results with an excellent, polished Instigator list:

6. Joe Tanner - Goblins

3 Mountain
4 Badlands
4 Bloodstained Mire
3 Wooded Foothills
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Warren Weirding
4 Earwig Squad
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Warren Instigator
4 Goblin Matron
4 Goblin Lackey
4 Skirk Prospector
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Goblin Ringleader
2 Goblin Recruiter
2 Goblin Vandal
1 Goblin Warchief
1 Goblin Chieftan
1 Kiki-Jiki Mirror Breaker
1 Goblin Sharpshooter
1 Goblin Settler

SB:
1 Goblin Chieftain
1 Warren Weirding
2 Goblin Vandal
2 Red Elemental Blast
3 Null Rod
2 Planar Void
4 Leyline of the Void

Three pieces of power can become Lotus Petal and 2x Chrome Mox.  Yes, the deck will be worse for having done that.

Lately the meta here in our place has evolved into a Shop-dominated playing field with more than half of the top players playing such decks, although the usual culprits: Oath and Dredge, are still present. Another list has popped up recently too; Trygon-Tezz Time Vault and getting good plays from the field.

How can I combat these players, mainly Shop and Trygon-Tezz? Can you also suggest a configuration that can be built specifically against these decks?

Thanks for your help.

What you're now saying is, "I want my underpowered deck to consistently beat powered decks."  Good luck with that.  If you can't proxy and for some reason still want to play vintage, I'd invest in a set of Bazaars.

Against shop you could board in Pulverize. It allows you to pay for spheres easily and can reset the board at the cost of your lands, but with a little luck you opened with a Goblin Lackey. Workshop tends to overextend so I think that is the way to capitalize on it. This also ensures you connect with lackey.

I've tried Pulverize in the past.  It's not bad, but you hit the nail on the head when you reference connecting with Lackey.  Basically, you throw away most of your mana and need something like Lackey to keep producing threats.

Against Trygon Tez I like Mogg Salvage myself. It´s free, it´s instant, and it blows up part of the combo. It´s too bad it aint a tribal instant, because that would have been great. Especially when he plays Y.Will, Mogg Salvage is a blow out.

Don't run highly conditional hate main.  Trygon Tez can't find Tinker and Time Vault as easily as past "blue control" builds.  Find Earwig Squad, find it early, intelligently get it to resolve, then turn it sideways repeatedly.  If you want Salvage SB...it's a valid choice.

EDIT Perhaps a black splash just isn´t as good as a green splash. We´re all pretty much sold on Earwig and Warren Weirding, but I think it may be time to investigate other options. Green has Ancient Grudge, which is good in every match up and especially Workshop and Vault Key. Then there is Tin Street Hooligan, which at its worst is a Sink Hole against powered decks (taking out a mox).

The mana base can easily support a third color.  The question isn't black, it's a green or blue splash.  Consider that Ancestral Recall and Time Walk solve a lot of problems by simply letting you win.

[KoboldsRfun]

Instigator goblins is probably one of decks that suffers the least from losing power, it definitely is better powered but is still very playable unpowered.  The deck really shines in a meta light on storm, oath and creatures and is heavy on shop decks.

Quote from: BruiZar on Today at 04:48:10 AM
Against shop you could board in Pulverize. It allows you to pay for spheres easily and can reset the board at the cost of your lands, but with a little luck you opened with a Goblin Lackey. Workshop tends to overextend so I think that is the way to capitalize on it. This also ensures you connect with lackey.

I've tried Pulverize in the past.  It's not bad, but you hit the nail on the head when you reference connecting with Lackey.  Basically, you throw away most of your mana and need something like Lackey to keep producing threats.

Pulverize is definitely your best sideboard card vs shops with this build.  Having 8 lackey effects makes it easy for you to recover from the land loss faster than the shop player can after getting most of there board wiped out.  Another card that is a total house against shops in this build is Tuktuk Scrapper.  He is tutorable artifact hate and once Kiki-Jiki is online he destroys 2 artifacts and deals 8 damage every turn.

From how you described your metagame this is a decent unpowered list that you could run.

4 Earwig Squad
3 Mogg Fanatic
4 Goblin Ringleader
4 Goblin Lackey
4 Skirk Prospector
4 Warren Instigator
4 Goblin Matron
1 Warren Weirding
1 Gempalm Incinerator
1 Wort, Boggart Auntie
1 Lightning Crafter
1 Goblin Warcheif
1 Tuktuk Scrapper
2 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Lotus Petal
2 Chrome Mox
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Badlands
6 Mountain

SB:

2 Shattering Spree
2 Pulverize
1 Warren Weirding
2 Yixlid Jailer
4 Leyline Of The Void
2 Bitter Ordeal
2 Greater Gargadon

[AmbivalentDuck]

From how you described your metagame this is a decent unpowered list that you could run.

Is there a reason why you omit Mana Crypt?  At some point, it's nice to be able to hardcast a Ringleader or Scrapper...  First turn Matron is also a solid play in most cases.

[KoboldsRfun]

Is there a reason why you omit Mana Crypt?  At some point, it's nice to be able to hardcast a Ringleader or Scrapper...  First turn Matron is also a solid play in most cases.

  That was just an oversight on my part, I have a tendency to lump crypt into the power category and omit it from unpowered lists.  I'd put crypt in for a prospector or maybe the second Kiki-Jiki.

[yellow_siomai]

In the last tourney I attended, I ran this configuration (as far as I could remember):

4 Goblin Lackey
4 Warren Instigator
4 Goblin Warcchief
1 Goblin King
4 Goblin Ringleader
4 Goblin Piledriver
1 Siege-Gang Commander
3 Gempalm Incinerator
1 Stingscourger
4 Goblin Matron
4 Magus of the Moon
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Null Rod
1 Lotus Petal
16 Mountains
1 Strip Mine

I had considerable game against most creature-based and slower decks but got massacred by Oath (Iona naming red) and Time-Vault decks, that's why I'm very interested in running splash black Earwig configuration to strip opponents of their win-con. And as always the main concern is that I run an unpowered version so I'm asking for a way if it could be feasible. We don't run proxy events here in our place, so maybe I'll try if I could borrow from a team mate.

@BruiZar: Pulverize does indeed sound a good advise. From what I could observe, Shop decks do sometimes over-extend so they lock the game, and Pulverize is a nice way to clear the board of their artifacts.

@AmbivalentDuck and KoboldsRFun: Thanks for the decklist, especially to KoboldsRFun! I will try that configuration (with the suggestion of adding mana crypt) and try that next tournament. Thanks guys for the input. I will continue reading this thread for updates.

[AmbivalentDuck]

Another goblins top8  Despite the creative naming, Ben's tourney report confirms that the contents are the "traditional" goblins package.  Decklist forthcoming.

[RecklessEmbermage]

Another goblins top8  Despite the creative naming, Ben's tourney report confirms that the contents are the "traditional" goblins package.  Decklist forthcoming.

Could you link to the tourney report too?

Is it common to go ahead and give your deck a name common to a completely unrelated archetype? It could mess up statistics.

[sassfactor4]

I 'top 8'ed at superstars yesterday in a field of 15, with the list & changes I posted above, save adding a lightning bolt and removing a pyroblast.

[AmbivalentDuck]

Another goblins top8  Despite the creative naming, Ben's tourney report confirms that the contents are the "traditional" goblins package.  Decklist forthcoming.

Could you link to the tourney report too?

Added above.

Is it common to go ahead and give your deck a name common to a completely unrelated archetype? It could mess up statistics.

I doubt that the name choice comes from David.  When the Duck flaming "NuVintage" subforum was created, some full members decided it would be a good extension to the flame Duck meme to change all instances of the word "Goblin" to "Tarpan."  This is apparently sanctioned or at least tolerated.

With the huge amount of loose reasoning, flames, and ad hominem attacks that go down in these threads, I was under the impression that "nobody takes them seriously."

Enforcing a culture of respectful debate appears to be considered a lost cause.