Grixis Gobbos

[MaximumCDawg]

Hey all.  So, I got bored with playing Oath and tossed together a deck full of Good Stuff in the first half hour before a tournament, and ended up doing pretty well.  Mind you, this was against: Kobold combo, Delver control, and a mono blue control deck, so, there's that.  I went 2-0-1 though against some pretty good opponents, and I sort of liked what this deck was doing.  I thought it was worth a little more discussion.

GRIXIS GOBLINS

Gobbos
4 Goblin Lackey
2 Goblin Welder
3 Goblin Warchief
4 Goblin Matron
3 Earwig Squad

Other dudes
2 Baleful Strix
1 Grim Lavamancer
2 Phyrexian Revoker

Disruption
4 Duress
4 Mental Misstep
2 Spell Pierce
3 Lightning Bolt
   
Good Stuff
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Mana
1 Mox Emerald
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
4 City of Brass
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Polluted Delta
1 Bloodstained Mire
2 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island      
1 Badlands
1 Island
1 Mountain
1 Swamp
3 B/R and U artifact lands

SB
1 Echoing Truth
1 Lightning Bolt
2 Stingscourger
1 Baleful Strix
1 Grim Lavamancer
2 Steel Sabotage
1 Bojuka Bog
3 Nihil Spellbomb
3 Graffdigger's Cage

Match 1 - (0-2 against Kobold Combo)

Game 1 - He forgets that Lotus Petal is restricted in Vintage, and remembers only when he draws it.  No one is upset, but he gets a game loss.
Game 2 - I'm fully stocked with Misstep and Bolts all game, so he is unable to ever get rolling.

Match 2 - (1-1-1 against Delver control)

Game 1 - I resolve a Lackey and, after thinking, he hits it with a Swords.  He duresses me next turn to learn I have no other Gobbos in my hand, and regrets it.  I resolve a Strix and he resolves a Delver.  After it flips, he offers the trade, which I am more than happy to take.  We trade removal back and forth, with him trying to figure out what the heck he's up against. Eventually I land a Jace and use it to keep pace with him on removal.  When I finally establish a board presence ahead of him, I switch into Fateseal mode and finish him off with Goblins.  The haste granted by Warchief is critical all  game, letting me explode out with large attacks as soon as he taps out each turn.

Game 2 - I draw four missteps and stop him from doing anything for four turns.  I get Strix/Welder going, and he gets Giest of St. Traft (!?) on the board.  We build up our forces, with me using the Welder to draw extra cards for awhile.  Finally we engage in some attacks, leaving the board empty with us both around 10 life in between lots of gobbos, bolts, Tiagos, and StPs.  He gets Moorland Haunt operating, and I answer with Lavamancer for awhile, but eventually cannot keep him away from me and end the game one attack step behind him.

Game 3 - Last game took so long we only have five minutes.  Which is too bad, because I run out a Lackey, protect it with Misstep, and vomit out my hand over two or three turns.  Turn 5 occurs one attack phase before I can finish him off.

Match 3 - (2-0 against mono blue control)

Game 1 - I mull to five and keep a hand with no land, but a Mana Crypt and two Revokers.  I know he's unpowered and his deck is a mill deck, so I figure the early beats might get there.  They do.  Both revokers slip under his countermagic and pressure him early.  I know the only artifact accel he runs is Sol Ring, so I blind call that and keep him off mana until he dies.  

Game 2 - We play draw-go until I have six lands, and then I Jace with multiple Spell Pierce backup.  Jace fateseals him out of the game and goes ultimate.

CONCLUSIONS

Random deck is random.  No doubt.  But I really enjoyed a few things about this deck.  First, no one could figure out what I was doing.  Second, everything I drew was gas and reliable; I did not miss the 20 one-ofs you usually run with Islands in Vintage.  Third, Matrons make it possible to support Goblins in a deck that actually has relatively few goblins in it. Fourth, it was AWESOME to run Lackey and Jace, TMS in the same deck!  Finally, I did not miss Force of Will, but that probably was because I did not run into Tinker at all.

I think I'll try this deck again, since it was so much fun.

[AmbivalentDuck]

Missing power is missing.

How was Duress over Thoughtseize?  I always found when playing gobs that Lodestone and Bob could be a tremendous PITA.

Third, Matrons make it possible to support Goblins in a deck that actually has relatively few goblins in it. Fourth, it was AWESOME to run Lackey and Jace, TMS in the same deck!  Finally, I did not miss Force of Will, but that probably was because I did not run into Tinker at all.

QFT.  I've been wondering for years whether 4x Matron, 1x Earwig, 1x Welder could be thrown into a fairly standard control shell.  Never got around to it, though.

[TheWhiteDragon]

I love innovation, and props on trying something new.  That said....

Match 1 seems really rough to count.  The guy DQd himself and you got the win.

M2 is a fair match, but the fact he duresses you to find no goblins for your lackey points to a weakness in the list, I believe.  16 goblins is really tough for lackey to be great.  Piledrivers might help speed the clock as well as give jace fits (pro blue).

M3 is really hard to count as well, since not only do you know what mana he runs, but you know what his deck does from G1.  That's like me knowing my opponent is on dredge, so I mull into double wasteland and count it as a win.  When players "have no idea" what you are playing, but you know their strategy and decklist - it's not an even level to judge the merit of a new deck.

[AmbivalentDuck]

When players "have no idea" what you are playing, but you know their strategy and decklist - it's not an even level to judge the merit of a new deck.

It's an argument in favor of rogue deckbuilding generally, but not in favor of the list itself.

[MaximumCDawg]

Oh, I know this isn't the new Best Thing.  But it's fun, and I posted here because I've never seen someone running a half-Goblin list like this.  Even A.Duck's goblin forum tends to focus on using 16 - 20 goblins and then splashing cards around them.  I had some modicum of success using Goblins as the aggro core in a much more diverse shell.  (Also, I think I misremembered the decklist; I definetly had a Wort, Boggard Auntie and a Seige Gang Commander in there somewhere too.)

I thought of using Thoughtseize instead of Duress, but swapped before we started when I determined the shop player wasn't playing shops that night.  So that's a thing. 

[AmbivalentDuck]

I thought of using Thoughtseize instead of Duress, but swapped before we started when I determined the shop player wasn't playing shops that night.  So that's a thing.

That's an argument in favor of scouting generally, but not in favor of the deck itself.