Mono-Red Goblins is a red creature deck based around rushing the opponent with early waves of Goblins and finishing them off either with large alpha strikes or direct damage spells. While the cards in this deck are not individually powerful, together they have a lot of inherent synergies that make up for this lack of power. The goal of this post is to discuss the key cards and strategies of the Mono-Red Goblins deck and to help pass on my own experiences to others interested in playing Goblins in Pauper. I will be looking at the core set of cards used in Goblins decks, other (non-core) cards used in Goblins, sideboard cards used in Goblins, as well give an analysis and sideboarding advice for some of the most common matchups in Pauper.
The Core
First and foremost I would like to list and discuss the core cards of the deck. Keep in mind that Goblins is in fact a VERY refined list with little wiggle room in the first 50 or so cards. It is also built on a lot of redundancy, effectively playing 8 copies of two of the cards (if you do not know what I mean by this you will see shortly). Anyways without further ado, here is what I (and most other Goblin players) would consider the key cards that every list should be playing:
As you can see this is already over 30 cards, and adding in the 16-17 lands that are typically run you have very little room wiggle room for other spells. There are a few choices for filling out the remaining slots, but we will get to these later. First I would like to briefly discuss these core cards and the roles they play.
As you can see I have grouped these cards together. Why? Well let's refer back to what I said earlier - we are effectively playing 8 copies of two of our cards. A quick read of Goblin Cohort and Mogg Conscripts will reveal that, other than name, these are functionally the exact same card - a 2/2 Goblin for R. Now, of course there is a catch as a 2/2 for R is way above the curve. These 2/2s cannot attack unless you have cast a creature spell this turn. That sounds bad, however Goblins is a deck typically running in excess of 30 creatures (and often closer to 35 or so) so much of the time the drawback will be non-existant. These 2/2s are very important to the deck as they represent a very fast clock (especially in multiples) and generally having one of these guys to cast on turn 1 is your ideal start in Goblins.
This is the second pair of redundant cards in the deck. While a 1/1 for 1 mana may not seem like a lot given the 1 mana 2/2s we just looked at, these guys have a LOT of utility and their usefulness should not be underestimated. In fact you could probably write a whole article just discussing the interactions between the two sac Goblins and not only the Goblin deck, but the format as a whole. Some of the things these guys can do are:
Push through extra damage in the face of blockers/removal
Let you "trade-up" in combat (i.e trade a 1/1 to let your 2/2 survive against another 2/2, essentially trading the 1/1 for their 2/2)
One of the newest additions to the Goblins clan, Foundry Street Denizen has really proven his worth since his arrival in Gatecrash, featuring in a number of Goblins lists since that time. The fact that this guy can swing in for as much as three damage on turn 2 (with either two more 1 drops or a Mogg War Marshal hitting play) is pretty big for this deck as outside of running out a turn 2 Bushwhacker or playing a Teetering Peaks that previously wasn’t possible. The Foundry Street Denizen’s pump ability is obviously very relevant to a deck that plays upwards of 30 creatures and the fact that he is a goblin is another boon to running him. He is weak against some of the more popular creatures in the format (Young Wolf immediately coming to mind as something the Foundry Street Denizen absolutely hates to be across from, while Frostburn Weird and Sea Gate Oracle can also be annoyances) and not as good at defending as Cohort/Conscripts but for the aggressive Goblins variants the Foundry Street Denizen is about as aggressive as it gets and certainly a worthwhile option. At this point the Foundry Street Denizen has pretty much cemented its place as a core piece of the deck.
I often refer to this guy as the red Squadron Hawk. Making 3 bodies out of 1 card he combos very well with many of the cards in the deck and does a very good job of promoting the general swarm strategy Goblins likes to take. The 3 bodies he generates provide a lot of fodder for your Sledders/Raiders to use to your advantage, and in conjunction with Goblin Bushwhacker you can do a ton of damage fast. As far as the echo goes, I find that generally you want to be paying it as often as possible, especially against the removal heavy decks like Cloudpost. However there are situations where you want to just feed the War Marshal to a Sledder because you are tight on mana and have a spell or spells that you know in advance you will be playing next turn. A lot of whether to pay or not will come down to experience.
This guy is insane and in my opinion really brings together what the deck is trying to accomplish. In a swarm-style strategy such as this one, the Bushwhacker will often be pushing through upwards of 4-5 extra damage the turn he hits the board. Afterwards you're left with a 1/1 body which while not amazing or anything is still very relevant in a deck full of Sledders/Raiders and more Bushwhackers. The damage this guy does is absurd and if you can kick two of them in one turn, look out!
Sparksmith is a card that when he goes unanswered will make it extremely difficult for the other creature decks of the format to compete against you. There's a good reason you rarely see cheap, repeatable kill effects like this printed, and that's just because they are so oppressive. You don't necessarily want the full 4 copies since he's sub-optimal against Cloudpost but generally you want 3 of them at least. Some decks like Mono-Green Stompy and Mono-Green Infect have literally no answer to this guy in game 1, meaning if you draw him and get him into play in a timely fashion you are very likely to get an easy win. He's also very strong against Mono-Blue Delver decks should he resolve. One key thing to remember about Sparksmith is that he counts every Goblin in play, not just the ones you control. This is very important in the mirror match where activating a Sparksmith will often deal you somewhere in the ballpark of 5-6 damage (not a good idea in a matchup where both players are packing burn!).
You want to cast your spells of course, so some number of these is necessary. As the deck has such a low curve it can get away with running around 16-17 lands on average. As you can probably guess you will be keeping 1 land hands somewhat often with this deck, which is perfectly fine since so many of the spells cost just 1 mana with none going higher than 2. Whether you run all Mountains or also include some kind of land with upside is up to the pilot, however it cannot be argued that the decks with all Mountains will have the most consistent starts and more keepable hands overall then those running even a single non-basic land.
As you can see, these cards all serve key roles with regards to the gameplan of the deck, and hence are not really interchangeable. As for the remaining slots, there are a few options that I will go over and a few different routes one can take when constructing their Goblins deck.
Filling Out the Deck
So now that we’ve established the core you’re probably wondering how we fill out the last few slots. Generally speaking, there are three directions the deck can take from here. The first is a deck with a huge emphasis on low drops and a bit of extra burn to close out games. The second is a deck that uses Goblin Matron to give itself more of a long game plan. The third is a more combo-oriented list that looks to abuse Foundry Street Denizen and Kruin Striker with the help of Skirk Prospector. This third list has mostly fallen out of favor but I will mention it for posterity's sake. Here are samples of each style of list:
All of these styles are defensible options and which is better will often simply be a metagame choice. In previous metagames with Temporal Fissure decks the aggressive versions were favored as they were important to win quickly since playing any sort of long game against Cloudpost decks was often a losing strategy. With Temporal Fissure and Cloudpost as well as Esper Familiar decks all removed from the format it is possible the slower but grindier Matron-centric versions of the deck will get their time in the sun. There are a number of other creatures and spells that can be used to fill out the deck beyond the core that was discussed previously, and these will be outlined here.
Arsonist provides yet another 1 drop Goblin to the deck and while he doesn’t pack the raw power of Goblin Cohort / Mogg Conscripts or the utility of Goblin Sledder / Mogg Raider he can still be a useful addition to the clan. His death trigger has a lot of synergy with your Sledders / Raiders as they can sacrifice him for a damage in a pinch (and still even get a +1/+1 bonus to boot). This can be rather useful in taking out annoying utility creatures or helping one of your other Goblins kill something large and annoying (like a Myr Enforcer for example). His death trigger also means he can also attack into tow toughness creatures without any fear. If he gets blocked then he probably trades up or pings the opponent for one, and if not then he got a damage through which is win-win. Generally you don’t want to be playing Goblin Arsonist on turn 1 as your other cards are simply more effective, but he can fill in as your turn 1 play in a pinch. Something to keep in mind with this card is that when you have the option of playing it or a Sledder / Raider turn 1 it’s usually better to play the Sledder / Raider first. The reason being your opponent might spend their first turn casting a 1 toughness creature, in which case you can play and sacrifice the Arsonist to remove the creature and still attack for an extra damage with the Sledder / Raider pump. If you were to sequence the play the other way around (play the Arsonist first) you would only get to attack for 1 damage at best which is clearly worse. The obvious comparison with Arsonist is Mogg Fanatic, and while Fanatic does have some advantages (being able to sacrifice itself for a damage without the help of Sledder / Raider being the biggest) I find that Arsonist is generally the more useful option.
This is a very pricey Goblin at 4 mana to cast or 3 to Dash, however it's triggered attacking ability is very useful to the Goblins deck. Faltering your opponent's best creature is clearly very effective for an aggressive deck and it's doubly so in a deck that swarms like Goblins does. Dash, while effectively a repeated tax on your mana, actually does provide the deck some advantages. First of all it allows your creature to dodge sorcery speed removal. This includes some of the format's most commonly played removal such as Flame Slash and Chainer's Edict as well as sweepers like Evincar's Justice. Additionally, since Dash is still considered casting the creature you'll still accrue any of the related value for Goblins such as being able to attack with Cohort/Conscripts or pumping up your Denizens (should the Heelcutter resolve). This effectively means your Cohort/Conscripts can attack every turn without you having to worry about topdecking a creature.
Goblin Matron has a few good functions. First of all it can act as yet another pseudo-Squadron Hawk, fetching a Matron which fetches another Matron and so on. At the same time, it can also find you silver-bullet cards (i.e 1-of Goblins) or a specific card you might want like a Bushwhacker or a War Marshal. The fact that Matron itself is a 1/1 body is very relevant to a deck that aims to win by swarming and being an effective 2 cards in one can let you grind out other creature-based decks that don't have a form of card advantage while also giving yourself resiliency against decks like MBC, UB Teachings, and Kuldotha Jeskai. An important point to consider with Goblin Matron is what to fetch and when? The most common fetch targets are Goblin Bushwhacker, Mogg War Marshal, Sparksmith, another Goblin Matron, Goblin Heelcutter, and Goblin Sledder/Mogg Raider:
Goblin Bushwhacker is best to fetch when you will be in a position to win next turn, meaning you should already have a pretty sizeable creature advantage on the board and maybe another cheap Goblin or two in hand that you can play with it on that following turn.
Mogg War Marshal is best to fetch when you are behind on the board and need some additional bodies to help block. This can apply against a deck like Stompy or Slivers that can pressure you just as quickly as you pressure them.
Sparksmith is good to fetch against creature-heavy, removal-light decks like Slivers and Stompy again, or White weenie. It is particularly potent against decks like Elves that play a lot of creatures/little removal and don't actively try to pressure your life total. If you have already lost a lot of life however you won't get as many activations out of Sparksmith so it may be best to err on the side of caution and just get a War Marshal in those cases.
Goblin Matron tends to be the best fetch target against decks trying to attrition you out, which usually include Mono Black Control, UB Teachings, and Kuldotha Jeskai/Boros. The reason for fetching another Matron is that you can defer the decision to fetch another Goblin until later while still adding to your board and gaining a bit of value against these grindy opponents.
Goblin Heelcutter tends to be a good target when your opponent is still at a fairly high life total (i.e out of Bushwhacker range) but is sitting behind a single large blocker such as a Gurmag Angler that your burn cannot deal with. Heelcutter can create the opportunity you need to get a big attack through in the face of blockers.
Goblin Sledder/Mogg Raider are good targets to fetch when you need one of their useful utilities I mentioned earlier, such as protecting your team from sweepers. Additionally, if you have 4 mana you could fetch and play a Sledder/Raider immediately and then go for the win by fueling all of your Goblins into an unblocked attacker.
Intimidator Initiate
This little guy doesn’t have the greatest of stats, but his falter ability can give the deck repeated value in the face of blockers. It is very mana intensive however and adding a tax onto your spells may not be something you necessarily want to do. Goblin Heelcutter may just be better if you’re interested in this kind of effect. One interesting thing about the Initiate is that it triggers off of any red spell cast, including your opponent’s, though this only really matters if your opponent casts red spells on your turn.
Yet another 2/2 for a mere R mana but once again there is a catch! (there's always gotta be a catch :tongue:). The drawback this time is actually quite a bit more significant than with Cohort and Conscripts. In this case the Familiar cannot attack or block on his own. He operates under the buddy system and refuses to do anything alone. This means he is a very poor turn 1 play as outside of casting a kicked Goblin Bushwhacker (which is unlikely to ever be the correct play on turn 2) he will not be attacking next turn. In addition to this, if you are on the defensive he will flat-out abandon you in the moments you need him the most as your sole creature! At least Cohort and Conscripts are kind enough to still protect you if you don't have any creatures to cast and let them loose. Not only that, but he doesn't even have the decency to be a Goblin! Our Sledders can't ride Hounds down hills but Jackal just does not respect that fact.
Now by the way I'm talking about it you might think I hate this card but I actually think it's a very reasonable choice for the deck to play for a few reasons. First of all, you can sequence your plays such that it's very likely he will get to attack when you do have him in play. Often times what you will want to do is play a Conscripts/Cohort turn 1 and then on turn 2 you can play both the Jackal and another 1 drop assuming you've hit your 2nd land drop. With 3 creatures now in play your opponent will now need two removal spells if he wants to blank your Jackal for a turn. Running 4 of these guys gives you twelve 2 power 1 drops which leads to some VERY explosive nut draws. The triple 2 power 1 drop draw is not to be underestimated and is among the best starts this deck can have. As someone who loved B/R Zombies last standard season, this is the type of draw I'm very familiar with and rather enjoy an aggro deck that gives me access to this. Overall while the drawback of the Jackal is something to take into account, if you train him and use him correctly he will become a very loyal friend that only sometimes disobeys his master.
This card is only really used in the “combo” versions of Goblins that look to use Skirk Prospector to abuse its trigger. As can be seen it’s essentially a two mana version of Foundry Street Denizen with the upside an extra power and trample but the downside of costing an additional mana and not being a Goblin. It’s probably not something more traditional Goblins decks want to be using, however if for whatever reason you’d like additional Denizens it’s an option. It’s obviously at its best though in a deck using Skirk Prospector and token generators like Krenko’s Command to pump as many Goblins into play per turn as possible.
This Goblin has seen a small amount of play since its release. As a 1/2 body for 1 it has reasonably good stats for its cost and in any game going long its fire breathing-like pump ability makes it a considerable threat. Still, at a base of 1 power it's not particularly strong as an early play compared to Cohort/Conscripts or Denizen so you probably only want one or two of these for the late game (if any at all).
This is the smaller brother of Goblin Heelcutter, with the same Dash benefits applying. Other than Mogg Flunkies, this is the only 3 power 2 drop available to Goblins which makes it an option worth considering. However it is also much more fragile than Flunkies or even most other 2 drop Goblins as it has only 1 toughness. This can make it a very unpalatable card to have in your deck if your opponent has an abundance of 1/1 blockers (such as tokens). In a race situation where you just want to put as much damage into play as fast as possible (for example against control decks) this Goblin does the job well enough though.
This guy was pretty good in the days of old when damage used the stack (effectively allowing you to trade him with any X/2 creature in combat) but now he's mostly just an inferior version of Goblin Arsonist. If for whatever reason you want Arsonists 5-6 in your list then Fanatic could sort of fill that void but for the most part the Fanatic's best days are long behind him.
Mogg Flunkies is basically the 2 mana version of Jackal Familiar that comes with an increased body size (you can tell from the art that these guys lift!) while also having the decency to be a relevant creature type for your deck. Similarly to how the Jackal is not really an ideal turn 1 play, Flunkies will not usually be an ideal turn 2 play because you are opening yourself up to losing both tempo and damage to removal spells on your 1 drop that the Flunkies is relying on. That's okay though as a 3/3 is still often going to very strong well beyond turn 2 in this format and you will often have many other creatures you can cast anyways. You run only 3 copies mostly because drawing a bunch of them in your opening hand kind of sucks but it's still a card you're happy to see at least once per game as he can do a lot of damage fast and battle through most blockers.
This guy should be a 2/2 haste for 1R in this deck a majority of the time which is certainly very reasonable. As far as deckslots he's likely competing with Flunkies. Many like the raw size of Flunkies over the speed of this guy, but depending on the expected metagame I could see either being a good choice.
Skirk Prospector
Outside of the previously discussed “combo” Goblins list, the Skirk Prospector doesn’t have any apparent use to Goblins. Still though for those lists it provides the useful function of being able to quickly dump an entire hand of Goblins into play and make some huge swings with Foundry Street Denizen.
Spells:
While Goblins is primarily a creature-based deck there are a few additional spells that can be used beyond Lightning Bolt to round out the deck.
Chain Lightning
One of the closest comparable cards to the venerable Lightning Bolt in terms of mana-to-damage output. However this card has some very real drawbacks in comparison to Bolt. The first one is being a sorcery. While this doesn’t always matter (such as against decks like mono-green Stompy where you want to mainphase your removal anyways) it can be relevant against something like Spellstutter Sprite out of Delver decks. The other drawback is obviously the “chain” part of the card. Against many opponents this drawback is irrelevant as they don’t have red mana, however against the mirror match, Mono Red Burn, Affinity (occasionally), and Fiend / Cyclops decks it can come up, so it’s something to keep in mind. This used to be fairly common in Goblin decks as at least a 2-of but it has fallen out of favor in recent years due to Flame Slash's usefulness against decks like Affinity.
If you know me then you know I really appreciate a card that lets you get as much incremental value as Death Spark can. Goblins are dying all the time in this deck and it's very realistic to buy back and cast Death Spark 3 or more times in a drawn out game. Against the other creature decks this can be a very effective way to get ahead. A lot of playing with Death Spark is about using it at the right times. While it seems very simple to just cast it when something of yours is about to hit the bin it can still be difficult to do so every single time. I've been playing the deck for months now and even then I still miss the odd opportunity to get value out of Death Spark. It's a card that rewards tight play and I very much like that. Generally you will only want to run 1-2 copies since you can't easily get multiples of them back into your hand, and the 1 damage effect is a lot more narrow than something like Lightning Bolt. However in the right hands Death Spark can be used to generate considerable advantages making it a worthwhile option to consider.
In terms of straight-up damage, this is the best form of reach we have access to. 4 damage, essentially for free is a huge chunk of the opponent's life and if the game is over then it's not really a big deal that you're down 2 Mountains.
This is a very efficient red answer to large threats. The fact that it doesn't go to the face and also that it is a sorcery are limitations, but there are many key creatures in the format that this can clear out of the way. Some of the relevant 4 toughness cards this kills include: Spire Golem, Frostburn Weird, Myr Enforcer, Carapace Forger, Nivix Cyclops, and Razor Golem. If you expect to see a lot of these then having access to some copies of Flame Slash in your maindeck could prove to be quite useful despite it being unable to go upstairs.
4 damage for 1 mana is quite strong, and the cost of a Goblin is usually something you can afford to pay (especially with a War Marshal). The sorcery speed hurts, but as an answer to 4 toughness creatures and also a way to take out a large chunk of life from your opponent it could be worth a few slots. Remember that the creature is sacrificed as part of the cost, so if the spell is countered you are still down a creature.
This card is pretty weak on paper (functionally it is only a Shock) compared to the other burn we have access to, however being a tribal card can give it some relevance as a fetch target for Matron builds. Even then it is rarely used in Matron lists however, and typically just one copy at most since it is pretty underpowered compared our other burn spells.
For the Goblin decks running additional lands, sometimes you will want a way to mitigate flooding and Wild Guess is one possible way to do that. You probably won't want a ton of them since you'd prefer to be spending your early turns casting creatures rather than sculpting your hand but a couple copies can go a long way if you get into the lategame. Another option is Faithless Looting which will put you down a card but can be used twice over a long game. Both are options if you run higher land counts and want to play for a longer game, but neither see a lot of play.
Lands:
Disclaimer – I do not recommend running non-Mountain lands if you are running 17 or fewer lands in your list. If you do however want to run “utility” lands (hopefully in a list with 18 or more lands) there are a few options worth discussing. Another point to consider if you run Fireblast is that non-mountain lands cannot be sacrificed to its alternate casting cost so you would also want to limit your number of utility lands in lists with Fireblast.
While many decks will lean towards Teetering Peaks, another viable option is Forgotten Cave. The two damage from Peaks is obviously appealing to an aggro deck, however it’s not a guaranteed thing since it can still be stopped with removal or even just blockers. Some may prefer a land that can trade itself off for a random card over the temporary pump of Teetering Peaks making Cave a viable option.
In an aggressive deck, the +2/+0 pump of Teetering Peaks makes it an interesting utility land option. The +2 attack can be helpful either in pushing an attacker through a large blocker, or just in giving you a “free” 2 damage burn to the opponent’s dome.
Sideboard Cards
Despite the fact that Goblins is a mono-red strategy there is still a decent amount of diversity available in your sideboarding options. A lot of the options are additional (and usually more situational) burn spells, but there are also cards that go beyond that as well. I will discuss some of the more common sideboard cards seen from Goblins and where they will be most useful.
A fairly new addition from Return to Ravnica, Electrickery easily replaces Seismic Shudder as the red sweeper of choice in Pauper. It is especially useful to Goblins as unlike Shudder it is not killing your own guys. This card is of course most useful against other aggro decks that are running a lot of X/1 bodies such as Mono-Green Stompy (more list-dependent), Mono-Green Infect, White Weenie, and situationally in the Goblins mirror. It also provides a way for us to answer the various X/1s of the G/W Hexproof deck if cast quickly enough though that might not be the most reliable of plans. The other main use of the card was to beat Empty the Warrens out of Storm decks, but with the bannings of Empty and Grapeshot this is no longer necessary. Should Empty ever come off the banlist however it is worth noting. Another thing to keep in mind is that it's a card often used against us too. The effectiveness of it against us is often exaggerated however as a single Goblin Sledder/Mogg Raider can prevent much of the damage it would cause to our board.
This provides a cheap and efficient way to take out large artifact threats such as Myr Enforcer, Spire Golem, and Razor Golem. Other than being an instant though it's often outclassed Flame Slash which can do the same amount of damage to any target, while Electrostatic Bolt will just be a Shock against a lot of creatures.
This card is very narrow as far as removal/burn spells but as an aggro-hate card it can be quite effective. This is especially true in the Goblins mirror match where the player that draws more lands will often be disadvantaged. If you can turn each land drop past say your 3rd or 4th into a 1 damage removal spell for R then that's a great way to gain an edge.
This card is pretty narrow, but it has its uses. One of the primary ways you can use it is similar to how the Grapeshot Storm decks used to in order to counter Prismatic Strands out of the White Weenie decks. Additionally it can also counter Fog out of the Stompy and Infect decks and can give you a way to kill pro-red creatures such as Weatherseed Faeries and Crimson Acolyte should your opponent attempt to block with them. The biggest allure to playing Flaring Pain currently is as a trump to Moment's Peace out of the Simic Post decks which can be very difficult for Goblins to beat.
Another fairly new addition to Pauper, Frostburn Weird is a card that we don't really like to see on our opponent's board. However the fact that he can be cast for RR makes him something we're potentially interested in ourselves. Against other creature decks like Stompy and the Goblins mirror he could prove to be an effective blocker that can also go on the offensive in a pinch. It's possible that we just don't run enough mana/card draw to get as much usage out of him as Mono-Blue Delver decks do but as a defensive sideboard option he's still something to consider.
Affectionately known as Mox Monkey for his tendency to smash the power 9 Moxen to bits in Vintage play, this guy is a very useful card against one of Goblins' most difficult matchups in Affinity. Why is he useful? Well, Affinity's manabase is composed often entirely of artifact lands, so at the cost of a single mana each Mox Monkey can smash these lands to bits. Keep in mind he only hits non-creature Artifacts so you'll still want other ways to kill their Myr Enforcers (thanks to Tom the Scud for the correction), not that the 15 mana it would take to kill Myr Enforcer would ever be realistic. Simply shattering your Affinity opponent's lands with Mox Monkey will threaten to lock them out of the game completely if they do not find an answer, and even if they do it might set them back enough anyways to give you a big advantage. This makes the Mox Monkey something you should strongly consider for Affinity matchups.
Another artifact hate option, this guy has a few advantages compared with Mox Monkey. First of all he's a Goblin so he synergizes with you Sledders/Raiders. Secondly, he can take out high-cost artifacts like Myr Enforcer that the Monkey usually cannot. The disadvantages of course are that you have to wait a full turn to get a use out of him, and that he cannot destroy multiple artifact lands in a turn like Mox Monkey can when you have the mana.
These cards play largely the same role so I am lumping them together. Basically these provide you with a low mana answer to some of the more resilient creatures in the format. Some of the creatures these cards are good against include Loyal Cathar, Safehold Elite, Doomed Traveler, Young Wolf, Stinkweed Imp. They also can be useful against decks that play cards like Unearth, Tortured Existence, or Unearth creatures. The only difference between the two spells is that one is an instant while the other can go to the face. Personally I like it more when my burn spells can also be used as direct damage since it gives me more options, but which one is better will mostly come down to preference.
Another sweeper option, the Martyr can take out even very large bodies provided you have enough cards in hand. This could be a useful option in creature matchups where you want a bit more than Electrickery. It will however kill your own creatures as well so you have to be very careful when running it.
While this card is not exactly efficient as far as burn spell go, it has one important quality - the fact that it's colorless. While against much of the format our normal burn spell will work, there are some specific hate cards such as Crimson Acolyte and Weatherseed Faeries that we cannot kill with our Bolts, Chain Lightnings, and other regular burn. Pyrite Spellbomb provides an answer to those cards if you are in the market for that sort of thing. Additionally, if they don't draw the hate card you brought the spellbomb in for you can still always just throw it at their face or cycle it to draw a card.
Wait, a RED counterspell!? Well you see, long ago when Magic was a very new game Red actually did get counterspells from time to time, meant specifically to hose one of their most hated enemies in the color pie (Blue). Pyroblast goes beyond just being a counter though, also functioning as a Vindicate type effect for any blue permanents as well. At 1 mana this is an incredibly powerful and undercosted effect and I could even see arguments for maindecking a copy or two in the right metagame. With so many of the format's top decks being blue you will find many situations where you will want to bring Pyroblasts in, and it is almost always worthwhile to do so.
Historically, this has been used to set back decks like Storm, and possibly Cloudpost enough that you can win before they can combo-off or gain enough mana to stabilize. With Storm leaving the format it's less likely to be required but it could still serve some use in the Cloudpost matchups.
This compliments Mox Monkey as the go-to artifact hate cards for Goblins. Being able to not only remove a troublesome artifact but also deal a good chunk of damage to your opponent's dome in the process is clearly something Goblins is quite interested in. This is primarily used against Affinity but can also be brought in to deal with other cards like Spire Golem or Serrated Arrows that will cause you problems.
This is used primarily against other creature decks (most often the mirror) in order to allow you to win a race. The real synergy is that you can trigger the staff at will with your Sledders and Raiders to gain 3 life in a pinch. It can also be brought in against more rogue decks like Mono-Red Burn and U/R Kiln Fiend/Wee Dragonauts combo which attempt to burn you out very quickly. Additionally, I have seen it used against Grapeshot Storm when the deck was still around as forcing them to storm for 3 more cards can sometimes make all the difference.
Matchups Overview and Analysis
Now while knowing your own cards is important, of just as much importance is knowing your enemies. In this section I will go over some of the most common Pauper archetypes you will encounter en route to becoming a Goblin King and highlight some general strategies as well as sideboarding strategies and things to be aware of.
Affinity
Overall Matchup Analysis: Unfavorable (40-45%)
Affinity is an artifact aggro/combo deck that aims to play a critical mass of cheap artifacts and swarm the board with cards that take advantage of the Affinity mechanic such as Frogmite and Myr Enforcer. The combo-aspect of the deck comes from the fact that it can use Atog in conjunction with Fling and it's numerous artifacts or in conjunction with Disciple of the Vault and outright kill you from what would normally be a comfortable life total. Affinity is traditionally one of, if not the worst matchups for Goblins. While it is certainly possible to win, they have access to a number of cards that just straight-up trump everything we're trying to accomplish meaning it will often be an uphill battle.
This matchup is the very reason Goblins decks often have Mox Monkey in their board. Blowing up artifact lands for 1 mana is a way to lock Affinity opponents out of the game and in the process turn a difficult matchup into a laughably easy one should they not find an answer to the Shaman.
Against a deck like Affinity, Smash to Smithereens is at its best killing a large percentage of their cards and even being able to act as a Stone Rain and wreck their 5 color manabase. The fact that it will often do 3 damage (though not if they have Atog in play) is just gravy.
Flame Slash is very effective at taking out their 4/4s and allowing you to punch through with your Goblins. If they are only leaving one 4/4 back then this can provide a pretty big swing. Electrostatic Bolt can play a similar role, but it doesn't actually kill Carapace Forger which often makes it less optimal.
*Pyroblast is something that I don't think you will want to board in against them too often. Often their only blue card is Thoughtcast and while hitting that is pretty sweet, if they don't draw it you will have a dead card in your hand in a matchup where you really do need every card to do something if you're to stand a chance. If my opponent shows me Somber Hoverguard and Hydroblast after sideboared games only then will I consider bringing in Pyroblast.
Death Spark doesn't do a whole lot against them. Even if they're on the Disciple plan I still do not find that it's worth it to keep it around as Disciple isn't usually going to be the way they're killing you anyways (Atog and/or just overwhelming you on the board is).
Chain Lightning mostly only comes out if you have some Flame Slashes to bring in. The reach Chain Lightning gives can still be useful but as a removal spell I wouldn't expect a lot from it in the matchup.
Some number of Sparksmiths usually come out as you often cannot afford the life loss against Affinity. While they're a slower deck than you they also possess a LOT more reach in the form of Galvanic Blast and the Atog-Fling interaction.
If you need additional space it's possible some number of Flunkies can come out as they're slow and match up poorly to the 4/4s, but generally I find I want all of my creatures other than Sparksmiths from the maindeck.
Hydroblast is not something every Affinity player runs in their board, but if they have it they will most certainly be bringing it in against your Mono-Red deck. Outside of siding in Pyroblasts there's not too much you can do to stop it, so instead just try not to get blown out by it if you can avoid doing so.
As I've said before, Electrickery is simply ok against us, and not amazing as many would have you think. If we have a Sledder or Raider in play it can often be turned into a mere 1-for-1 trade or a 2-for-1 at worst. It is becoming fairly popular among Affinty players though, so just be aware of it and don't play too much into it if you don't draw a Sledder/Raider.
Krark-Clan Shaman on the otherhand is very good against us and will do a much more effective job of wiping our board than Electrickery will. All you can really do to stop this guy is just not overextend when you can help it. Sledder/Raider can somewhat mitigate him but they can always just sac more artifacts once you use Sledder/Raider so it's unlikely to matter too much.
Echoing Decay isn't something I see out of them too often but it's at least something to be aware of. Sledder/Raider can again stop it from being a blowout, and of course it is possible to play around by not playing more than 1 of the same guy if they do show you it. Generally I won't play around it too much against an Affinity opponent unless they've previously shown it to me.
Really though, as a 5 color deck Affinity has access to a TON of sideboard options so this is just skimming the surface. The best thing to do is expect the unexpected against their sideboard plan.
General Discussion and Strategies:
So this matchup is bad. Really bad in fact. But don't get too down on yourself if you get paired against Affinity as with the right strategy and the right sideboard cards it is possible to come out with the victory.
The most important thing I want to stress is that they generally have no way to gain life. This means that each and every point of damage you do to them is important and squeezing out as much from each individual Goblin you can is often the key to victory.
The biggest problem cards for us in the matchup are Myr Enforcer, Carapace Forger, and Atog. The 4/4s are both cards that are difficult for us to kill 1-for-1 (and often impossible in the first game). Not only do they play defence well, but they take huge chunks out of our lifetotal on offence and Affinity is capable of powering them out very quickly given the right draws. Killing them with Sparksmith is sometimes possible but dealing huge chunks of damage to yourself is often a liability unless you are already way ahead on life/on board. Atog is a problem for us because in a deck relying on damage-based removal he's pretty much impossible to kill. Also, when they have enough artifacts on the board he will literally become the Abyss on offence, forcing you to chump him every turn to stop them from just eating every artifact in play and killing you. There's not a whole lot you can do about Atog other than being aware of when you're in lethal range of him so your best bet is often hoping they don't draw it (or don't draw it too early).
They are slow out of the gate, often spending their first turn to play a Chromatic Star or Springleaf Drum to fix their manabase so it's important to keep a fast, aggressive hand and take advantage of this. If you can get them down to 10 or so life before they start flooding the board with 4/4s I find you often have a reasonable chance to win. Do not be afraid to throw away a Goblin or two on an attack if your unblocked Goblins would put your opponent within burn range. Sledder/Raider also contribute to this idea as even your blocked Goblins can still get through a single point of damage via these guys.
Another possible line you can take is to try and swarm the board with Goblins and kill them with a Bushwhacker plus alpha strike. While this can be successful sometimes you have to be wary as once they hit a critical mass of resources they can often times go off and chain a bunch of Thoughtcasts into a lot of free Myr Enforcers and Frogmites as blockers seemingly out of nowhere. In addition they may have Krark-Clan Shaman in the sideboard games which makes swarming a lot more risky.
Try to keep your life total high when you can since they do have a lot of reach via Galvanic Blast and Fling. Also make sure to keep track of their artifact count when Atog is in play so you know if you need to chump him.
Sometimes they can just straight-up kill you with Atog-Fling and there's not really anything you can do about it but that's just the way it is (things will never be the saaaame).
Do not be afraid to Smash to Smithereens one of their lands if you are ahead on the board. This disruption can not only color screw them (hitting their only red source for instance) but it also takes away one of the artifacts they might need to cast their Affinity cards at a discount.
One final point to touch on is how to play your Gorilla Shamans. Generally speaking you won't want to play it until you have at least 2 lands so you can get some guaranteed value off of it when it hits play. As far as which of their lands to go after, in order of importance I find it goes Great Furnace>Seat of the Synod=Tree of Tales>Ancient Den=Vault of Whispers>Darksteel Citadel (duh, can't destroy an indestructible land!). A lot of their colored mana requirements are red (Atog, Fling, Galvanic Blast, with Electrickery and Krark-Clan Shaman as possibilities post-board). Taking out a Seat or Tree will depend on which card you judge to be worse for you at the time (Carapace Forger or Thoughtcast) while I tend not to care about their black or white lands since they mostly only cast Disciple of the Vault off of those or the odd Auriok Sunchaser. If they have multiple red sources in play and only one green or one blue it is also likely you want to attack the one-of source rather than the red one in those situations.
Thankfully Affinity isn't one of the most popular Pauper strategies so you won't encounter it too frequently. When you do however you will be in for the fight of your life.
Izzet Blitz
Overall Matchup Analysis: Favorable (55-60%)
Izzet Blitz is an aggro / combo deck based around Kiln Fiend and Nivix Cyclops. Previous iterations of the deck used Wee Dragonauts, however it wasn’t until the release of Nivix Cyclops with Dragon’s Maze that the deck was really vaulted into competitive status. The deck aims to abuse a high-spell count as well as evasion-granting spells such as Apostle's Blessing to pump a Kiln Fiend/Cyclops and swing for huge chunks of life at a time, often dealing lethal to the opponent in a single attack thanks to Temur Battle Rage. Since the deck is so reliant on winning with a single creature, a deck with access to lots of cheap removal such as Goblins can really give them trouble.
Pyroblast is a very effective card against them simply because it can take out 8 of the creatures they run (Nivix Cyclops and Delver). Board in all the copies you can as even if you never see one of those creatures it will still at the very least be able to stop them from casting Preordain and Ponder which can be just enough disruption to get the win. Flame Slash is very strong here as well since it can take out every creature in their deck.
Death Spark only kills Delver of Secrets, and only before it flips so it’s not very useful here. After Death Spark your next weakest cards are usually Sparksmith and War Marshal. Sparksmith is weak because they’re often boarding in a bunch of spot removal and possibly Electrickery post-board so it’s rare that it will survive. It might work out okay game 1 when they often only have a playset of Lightning Bolts as removal, but don’t let that fool you into thinking it will be good after sideboarding. Mogg War Marshal is still okay but can be a bit slow at times and you don’t really want a slow hand with a bunch of them in this match up so boarding out a few copies is reasonable.
Hydroblast is something they can both use to destroy your goblins and also (more importantly) to protect their key creatures from your removal. Electrickery is often one of their go-to aggro hate cards, so keep that in mind. As usual just be sure to keep a Mogg Raider / Goblin Sledder on the board as much as possible and don’t play into it when you can help it.
General Discussion and Strategies:
It should go without saying that you want to kill their Kiln Fiend or Nivix Cyclops or on-sight. Allowing them to untap with either of these is a recipe for disaster and it’s quite likely you’ll be dead before their turn ends if you do.
Delver of Secrets on the other hand you can most likely ignore. It seems weird saying that, but Delver on its own is very raceable for Goblins in this match up since Blue Red Fiend lacks the disruption that Mono Blue Delver decks have to support Delver with. You’re really better off saving your removal for their creatures that actually matter, namely Kiln Fiend and Nivix Cyclops. Those are what usually win them the game, not Delver.
Game 1 the most likely way for them to beat you is with Nivix Cyclops since most Goblins lists don’t have many ways to kill it 1-for-1 before sideboarding. Your best hope is obviously that they don’t draw it, but failing that you can still kill it by combining burn spells. Obviously that’s not ideal, but if it keeps you from dying then it doesn’t really matter that you had to 2-for-1 yourself.
Depending on your sideboard you can bring in a ton of removal to bolster your starting arsenal. If you’re bringing in 4 Pyroblasts and 2 Flame Slashes to compliment 4 Lightning Bolts and 2 Chain Lightnings (for example) that gives you eight direct answers for Kiln Fiend and 6 direct answers for Nivix Cyclops which is pretty reasonable.
Keep in mind that they play a lot of spells that let them protect their key creatures from removal – Apostle’s Blessing, Dispel, Hydroblast being some of the cards you might see. In the case of Apostle’s Blessing it’s important to use a sorcery-speed answer first, so if they cast Blessing in response you can cast your instant-speed spell in response to that.
Leaving back blockers is often an effort in futility since they usually have many ways to give their Fiend / Cyclops evasion anyways via Apostle’s Blessing or just trampling over with Temur Battle Rage. It will also slow your own clock down, so generally you’re better off just attacking with everything that reasonably can attack.
This is more of a “veteran” move, but you can often bluff your opponent into not blocking your 1/1s that are attacking into their 1/2 or 1/4 creatures. The reason being that these creatures living are of utmost importance to their chances of winning, so it’s unlikely they’ll risk blocking and give you the chance to finish off their creature with a burn spell unless they would die otherwise.
This is a pretty favorable match up overall I find. Game 1 they might get you with a Nivix Cyclops that you can’t deal with, but post-board you get access to a lot more hate including some answers to the Cyclops. Just make sure to keep hands that let you interact with them as much as possible and you should have a reasonably good shot.
Mono-Blue Delver is considered by many to be one of the most consistent strategies in Pauper. The deck plays an aggro-control game aiming to stick a cheap evasive threat early and both protect it and disrupt the opponent with countermagic on the way to victory. Much of the deck's popularity is due to the fact that it has reasonable matchups pretty much across the board with any individual opponent being beatable. It can be a very intimidating deck to play against as it often feels like they "have it all" and sequencing your plays/playing around their countermagic is of utmost importance. There are two different directions the deck goes. One is the Faeries version that runs Faerie Miscreant and Spellstutter Sprite along with a more creature-heavy list and the other is a more permission-heavy version that plays mostly just Delver of Secrets, Spire Golem, and sometimes Sea-Gate Oracle or Frostburn Weird as its only creatures. This second build is often refered to as Mono-U Control, though it has largely fallen out of favor in recent years. Matches against Delver decks are always very close with a ton of decision trees and play to them, however the aggressive nature of our deck usually gives us a slight advantage overall.
Pyroblast is obviously very good against their mono-blue deck and gives you an inexpensive way to interact with every card in their deck outside of Spire Golem
Flame Slash is mostly useful for taking out their pesky 4 toughness creatures like Spire Golem and Frostburn Weird that make it very difficult for you to attack profitiably.
Smash to Smithereens probably isn't something you want in high quantities as it often will only hit Spire Golem but they do sometimes have Serrated Arrows against you after board as well.
Pyrite Spellbomb is an answer to Weatherseed Faeries should you deem such a thing necessary. They don't always play it and you can win through it even if they do, but Spellbomb can certainly make things easier.
Chain Lightning is mostly inferior to Flame Slash here other than being able to burn them out. Killing their 4 toughness blockers is something that you'll more likely need to do though, which Chain Lightning cannot do on its own.
Familiar can be a bit awkward if they use their tempo spells such as Snap or counterspells on your other creatures. Flunkies has the same problem, though the fact that he can take down a Spire Golem or Frostburn Weird with a Sledder/Raider's help is still useful.
Hydroblast gives them access to a catch-all removal against us in sideboarded games. This certainly does change things quite a bit, though having Pyroblasts of our own to counter back mitigates this to some extent.
They'll likely be bringing in additional Weirds against us. Pyroblast and Flame Slash give us a reasonable number of answers and you can also kill him with a timely Bolt should they try to pump his power. Otherwise treat him like most annoying blockers and swarm around him when it's reasonable to do so.
Piracy Charm is their other removal spell against us and something they also play maindeck at times. They'll mostly want to be using it on Sparksmith which gives them a very difficult time once active. Sledder and Raider as usual can do a very good job of countering this card and if you have a Mogg War Marshal in play alongside them it can look downright silly.
Weatherseed Faeries is obviously a very formidable blocker against us thanks to its pro-red. As I said before if you really want an answer then Pyrite Spellbomb is the best option available, however it is possible to just swarm around the Faeries if you've gotten them low enough, and most Delver decks don't put it in their sideboards at all these days.
General Discussion and Strategies:
They can very well be the aggressor in this matchup, especially when they are on the play. Often it's good to err on the side of caution and kill their turn 1 Delver on sight when you are on the draw, as should it flip you may never get that opportunity again.
If they play Phantasmal Bear in their list remember that Goblin Sledder/Mogg Raider can target any creature with their activated ability (even your opponent's). This means you can trade any one of your own Goblins off for the Bear at any point in time should you have a Sledder or Raider in play. If you have a Mogg War Marshal in play this gives you a great deal of value. Sparksmith can also kill the bear without causing you any damage in the process due to the ability being countered by the bear sacrificing itself.
Sequencing your plays is very important against this opponent as they are very permission-heavy. Do your best to ensure that your most useful creatures will resolve either by baiting them with another creature or waiting until they tap low to cast them.
Sparksmith is a very effective card against them, especially in game 1 where they likely only have bounce spells to stop him. If you can sneak him under their countermagic it will create a must-answer threat for them.
Their two most annoying counterspells for us are probably Daze and Spellstutter Sprite. Daze because they can use it even while tapped out (and we are typically tight on mana) and Spellstutter because it's a walking (or technically flying I guess) 2-for-1.
It's often not worthwhile to play around Daze in the early game as you lose a lot of tempo by doing so. Especially if you are on the draw it's likely they're going to get a chance to use it against you at some point so you're better off just hoping they don't have it rather than delaying your spells by a turn so you have extra mana. Them returning a land can often be a very real setback as well so it's not all bad if they Daze you. Especially if you are on the play since this means at least one more turn before they'll be able to drop a Spire Golem.
Spellstutter is something that you should actively try to play around when possible. Remember that its ability checks the number of Faeries they control upon resolution, so if the Spellstutter is their only Faerie and you kill it in response to its ability then your 1 drop will now be able to resolve. If you don't have an instant speed removal spell then playing a two drop is also a fine way to play around a Sprite should they have no other Faeries in play. If they play Cloud of Faeries and pass with Spellstutter mana open when you're on the draw then they will probably get a card out of you no matter what (outside of you having Pyroblast). If you have no way to stop them you probably just want to lead with your least valuable 1 drop and then play your better 1 drop after they Stutter the first one.
If you have the option to kill either Spellstutter Sprite or Faerie Miscreant, always kill the Sprite so they cannot return it to their hand with Ninja of the Deep Hours and use it against you again.
If you play Death Spark there are plenty of opportunities to get value out of it when they go for a counter on your creature.
Remember that Goblin Cohort and Mogg Conscripts only require that you cast a creature spell to attack. They don't say anything about the creature actually resolving, so if your turn 2 play gets hit by a counter you can still feel free to swing away.
Like Affinity, they often run no lifegain, so the more damage you can do before they try to stabilize behind Spire Golems and Frostburn Weirds, the better your chances.
Overall this is a very close matchup with a lot of play to it. The die-roll really does matter a lot here too as early Delvers and Spellstutter Sprites are significantly easier to overcome when we are on the play than when we are on the draw. If you can get an early edge make sure to press your advantage. Play around their countermagic when you can afford to do so, but also recognize when you just have to go for it and hope for the best.
White Weenie comes in two flavors. Usually it is either a midranged-aggro deck that focuses on playing resilient threats and fliers that can effectively carry Bonesplitter or a tokens-heavy build that runs lifegain creatures like Soul Warden and an abundance of token creating spells like Battle Screech. The creature-heavy build has mostly fallen out of favor to the tokens lists in recent years. Many of the cards normally run by White Weenie naturally matchup well to the cards run by Goblins which can make the matchup difficult at times. Additionally they also have access to many annoying sideboard cards against us. The matchup can be tough as White Weenie has many ways to outclass us on the ground and win a long game, but if we can be aggressive enough then their higher creature quality often won't matter.
Electrickery's usefulness here will depend on the exact composition of their list. Some White Weenie builds are very vulnerable to it, running cards like War Falcon, Icatian Javelineers, Suture Priest, Gideon's Lawkeeper, and Squadron Hawks while others are more focused on the top-end with larger threats like Razor Golem and Guardian of the Guildpact that largely or entirely ignore the card. Electrickery can be particularly effective against Tokens strategies due to all of the tokens being 1/1 soldiers/spirits/birds, however White tokens do often have Lumengrid Field which can effectively shut our Electrickeries off. They're still probably worthwhile despite that drawback though.
If they only show you Bonesplitter then you probably don't need to bring in Smash to Smithereens (since them trying to race is exactly what we want anyways in most cases). If however they run Razor Golem then you should probably strongly consider bringing in some Smashes as he can be quite the problematic card for us. Flame Slash is similarly useful for killing Razor Golem while also hitting most of their other creatures too.
If you do happen to run Pillar of Flame or Magma Spray in your sideboard then you can do worse than bring them in to take out Loyal Cathar, Safehold Elite, or Doomed Traveler without them getting anything out of it.
Against the creature-centric builds Sparksmith is very strong, however against the tokens lists it's not nearly as effective due to them having many creatures and all of them being of similar quality so sideboard them accordingly.
Pyrite Spellbomb is an answer to any pro-red cards they might run such as Crimson Acolyte but is still fairly effective against most of their other creatures as well.
Flaring Pain can let you take out pro-red creatures should they attempt to block your Goblins but more importantly it acts as a counter to Prismatic Strands.
Chain Lightning can come out mostly because we just have better options.
War Marshal is fine but a bit too slow for my liking and they have a lot of creatures that can block him and the Goblins effectively. A couple copies are still fine to set up for a Bushwhacker swarm but drawing a ton of them can really bog down your starts here so you'll probably only want 1 or 2 unless you're up against tokens.
Raider and Sledder are also fine but similarly to the War Marshal are easily dwarfed in combat. You still want some number of these guys as having one around is important for pushing damage through or trading up against a 2/3 or 3/4 blocker. In multiples they're fairly bad though as they can't attack into WW's blockers very well (especially vs tokens) so at least a few copies can come out.
Prismatic Strands is a very effective card against us that can lead to some huge blowouts for the unprepared. Flaring Pain is the only way for us to really counter it, other than that we just have to play around it as much as possible. Some WW lists even run it maindeck so you should be aware of it even before sideboarded games.
Crimson Acolyte can be an incredibly obnoxious card for us to play against. If you have Pyrite Spellbombs it's recommend you board them in for this reason as if they have enough of a board position they can just sit back and protect their blockers with the Acolyte, making profitable attacks near impossible.
Like the other 1 toughness sweepers you can play around Holy Light just by having a Raider or Sledder in play. However even with a Raider or Sledder your creatures are still losing 1 power for the turn so be careful if you decide to enter combat.
Sunlance is cheap damage-based removal that they might bring in against us. Sledder and Raider can possibly used as to counter it though that will usually require two Goblins which probabl won't be worthwhile. Mostly you'll just have to let it happen and move on from there.
General Discussion and Strategies:
Icatian Javelineers will usually pick up a free card against you if left alone so try to remove him before playing your 1 toughness guys when possible.
If they go for a Journey to Nowhere on one of your Goblins generally you do not want to sacrifice that Goblin to a Sledder/Raider. The reason being that they usually have Kor Skyfisher in their deck which can return the Journey to their hand to play again. If you sacrifice the goblin you are effectively giving them a free removal spell should they draw a Skyfisher. The one possible exception is if you have a Death Spark at the top of your graveyard that you can reuse but even then it may not be worthwhile.
If they ever suspiciously pass with 3 mana open you should always expect Prismatic Strands. Play around this card as much as you can as getting blown out by it is a very easy way for you to lose. Against the tokens build open mana could also indicate a Raise the Alarm
Conversely 3 mana could also represent Holy Light which also has the potential for blowing you out. Even if you have a Raider or Sledder to save most of your guys if you've attacked your 2/2s into their 2/2s things could still go poorly for you.
Try to hold off on playing Sparksmith until you feel like they've exhausted their removal spells. Non-tokens White Weenie has a very difficult time beating a Sparksmith if they don't have any removal left over.
Once they start dropping Guardian of the Guildpacts you're often best served to just flood the board with Goblins and wait for an opportunity to create a good Goblin Bushwhacker turn.
Similar to the Affinity matchup you want to get them on the backfoot as fast possible as they have a much better end game than you. Unlike the Affinity matchup however it is possible that they run lifegain with Suture Priest, Seraph of Dawn and Lone Missionary being the most popular lifegain options out of them. The Token decks can be especially annoying to play against due to having access to up to 12 Soul Warden type effects
Overall this can be a tough matchup due to their higher creature quality and numerous sideboard options. A fast aggressive start is very important here as once they start throwing down Golems and Guardians things will go south quickly. The tokens builds are especially problematic for us as they have a lot of card that make multiple bodies and trade well with our 1 toughness creatures.
Mono-Green Stompy
Overall Matchup Analysis: Even (50%)
Mono-Green Stompy is an aggro deck that relies on cheap green threats as well as an arsenal of efficient pump spells to support those threats. With a curve that's often even lower than Goblins' Stompy can have some very aggressive starts. The matchup is rather draw-dependent with both decks being able to take the role of the aggressor depending on how things go. The die-roll can also play a part in determining what role each deck will be forced to take.
Electrickery's usefulness will depend on their configuration but at the very least it should hit Quirion Ranger and may also have other targets such as Vault Skirge or Silhana Ledgewalker
If you are on the Sparksmith plan then Lifestaff can be very useful to helping you keep a nice life total buffer while still controlling their board. It can also make it very difficult for Stompy to try and race you, especially when Sledder/Raider can sacrifice a Lifestaff-carrying Goblin at a moment's notice.
Magma Spray and Pillar of Flame are the best ways for you to deal with Young Wolf and Safehold Elite 1-for-1. These are both typically problematic creatures for you to play against so these spells can help a lot in that regard.
Electrickery does basically the same job as Death Spark while also being able to hit Ledgewalker here so that's a fairly easy swap if you play the Spark.
Familiar/Flunkies are awkward blockers here as they can lead you into being blown out by a pump spell. They're fine on offence though so you don't need to take all of them out.
Foundry Street Denizen looks pretty embarrassing when your opponent plays Young Wolf and is also really weak on the defensive. If you are on the play it might be worth keeping them in, but on the draw you almost certainly want to take out some or all of them.
Epic Confrontation is their most common sideboard removal spell against us. Fortunately we have as many as 8 counters between our Sledders and Raiders so protecting a key creature isn't too tough provided we have enough Goblins to act as fodder.
Fog is something they like to board in to race us. There's not really anything you can do about outside of bringing in Flaring Pain so just play around it as much as you can by only attacking with as many creatures as necessary. Tangle and Moment's Peace can both effectively prevent two attacks from us so if they have a lot of these then Flaring Pain might be a necessary sideboard card.
Sandstorm is their 1 damage sweeper. Again, Sledder/Raider can mitigate it, and simply not attacking with all of your 1 toughness creatures is another way around it. This card has fallen out of favor since Empty the Warrens was banned so don't expect to see it too often.
General Discussion and Strategies:
Be aware of Gather Courage as even when they have no mana it's still possible for them to pay for it via convoke. Mutagenic Growth can also act as a similar counter, though the cost of 2 life is more relevant against a fast deck like Goblins.
Watch your life total. While they don't really have burn spells per se they run 8 pump spells that act as "Fireblasts" between Groundswell and Vines of Vastwood. If you're not careful these pumps can kill you out of nowhere.
Due to their high volume of pump spells you'll often want to mainphase your removal. If you use your removal during their combat step they can just use a pump and hit you for even more damage.
Killing their Quirion Ranger is often a good idea as it will restrict their ability to play multiple creatures in the early turns.
Often you will want to block and trade as they have a bloodthirst creature in the form of Skarrgan Pit-Skulk. However they also run Hunger of the Howlpack which is a huge beating on a Ledgewalker.
If they are being suspiciously aggressive it likely means they have Fog in hand and are planning to race you. If you suspect they might have Fog be aggressive enough to make sure they use it but also leave some blockers back so as not to get completely destroyed on the backswing.
Protecting Sparksmith from Hornet Sting is generally a good idea, however if you are already on the backfoot it may be better to just let him die as it's possible you won't have the life to activate him anyways (and as a two mana 1/1 he's a very poor blocker).
Shinen of Life's Roar can be a pretty big problem when combined with a pump spell as he'll often wipe out most of our board. If they drop a Shinen you're going to have to either kill it, or get ready to race.
This matchup can go either way and will be draw-dependent much of the time. Just play around their pump spells as well as you can and know whether you're the beatdown or the control.
Mono-Black control was at one point the premier control deck of Pauper, and though its stock may have fallen it is still a noteworthy opponent. The deck works by playing numerous spot removal and edict effects as well as hand discard and value creatures like Chittering Rats and Liliana's Spectre that aim to 2-for-1 the opponent. Cards like Cuombajj Witches can be very tough for a deck like Goblins that relies on many 1 toughness creatures while the looming presence of Gray Merchant of Asphodel means that Goblins doesn’t want games to drag on too long. The matchup is usually a close one however they do have ways to pull ahead depending on their list configuration.
I don't make too many changes here but bringing in a Flame Jab is okay if they have a lot of discard. If they 1 toughness creatures like Liliana’s Specter then even better. Death Spark similarly has value against their discard too.
Sparksmith is fine since they do run value creatures as blockers but you probably won't need the full set here and they’re a 2 drop that’s vulnerable to Cuombajj Witches.
Flunkies and Familiar can be awkward since they pack a ton of removal and can often kill the creatures around them to neutralize them. Still though you probably want to keep most of them just so you don't become too threat-lite.
Crypt Rats is often their sweeper of choice so try to avoid overextending and getting blown out by one of them. Some lists play Evincar's Justice or Pestilence instead which are pretty good against us too. The good thing about these cards (for us) is that they deal players damage too so if we get them low enough on life it's possible they can't use them at all.
Shrivel is their 1 toughness sweeper and as usual Sledder/Raider does a good job of combating it.
Echoing Decay can lead to blowouts for the unprepared, but again Sledder/Raider can mitigate this.
Tendrils provides a lot of lifegain which can make it difficult for you to finish them off. Sledder or Raider can stop the lifegain by sacrificing the target though so keep that in mind.
General Discussion and Strategies:
While holding onto your last land to bluff may be fine in general, against a deck that runs Chittering Rats it is not. If you're in topdeck mode you'd much rather be empty-handed against a deck with Chittering Rats than holding a land you'd have to redraw.
Try not to play out too many multiples if you can help it as Echoing Decay is something they may run. If you have a Sledder or Raider to protect yourself from this you might be okay but they can still kill the Sledder/Raider first and Decay later.
Mogg War Marshal is obviously one of your best cards against them. Pay the echo as often as possible.
If they cast an edict when you have War Marshal in play you should be suspicious of a sweeper. Often just sacking a Goblin token will be the better play than sacking the War Marshal.
They have access to some decent lifegain effects between Tendrils, Corrupt, and Spinning Darkness. Sledder and Raider can counter these lifegain effects (other than if Corrupt is targeted at you).
Play around sweepers when you can, however if they are attacking your hand then often just playing everything out will be better. Being in topdeck mode isn't ideal but if you can get them down low enough then sometimes all you need is a burn or a couple of Goblins off the top to finish things off.
G/W Hexproof
Overall Matchup Analysis: Very Unfavorable (<40%)
G/W Hexproof is a deck that aims to abuse the Hexproof mechanic by way of playing Hexproof creatures like Slippery Boggle, Gladecover Scout, and Silhana Ledgewalker and arming them with efficient/powerful creature auras such as Ethereal Armor, Armadillo Cloak, and Rancor to create an unstoppable monster. This matchup will generally come down to a race and either hoping the Hexproof player doesn't draw Armadillo Cloak, or draws the wrong halves of its deck (all auras or all creatures). Armadillo Cloak will usually be a card you scoop to on sight but even just a big guy with Ehteral Armor + Rancor can be enough for them to race you without the Cloak.
Electrickery is only situationally good here, but considering that a lot of your other removal like Death Spark will do nothing other than go to the face it's not the worst idea to bring them in and hope it works out.
Martyr of Ashes is your best way to deal with a large hexproof guy with Armadillo Cloak should things go poorly, however it will also decimate your own board in the process so it might not always work out.
Raze (and possibly other land destruction) is mostly useful in that it can color screw them. Most lists rely on land auras such as Abundant Growth and Utopia Sprawl to provide their white mana (with just 4 Selesnya Guildgates as their other sources) so blowing up a land with one of these auras might be enough to keep them off of Armadillo Cloak and/or Ethereal Armor and give you a fighting chance.
Flaring Pain can be used to stop them from trying to Fog/Moment's Peace in a racing situation.
As you can see, our options are fairly limited in this matchup and not even guaranteed to work.
Since most of their creatures are hexproof (other than Aura Gnarlid) spot removal like Death Spark won't do much, and Sparksmith will be mostly a 2 mana 1/1. Keeping in some Bolts to throw at their face is reasonable and you probably want to keep in at least a few Sparksmiths just to trigger your Conscripts/Cohorts but for the most part these will be your weakest cards in the matchup.
Moment's Peace/Fog can let them race you. The only real counter to this is Flaring Pain which may just be too situational to warrant sideboard slots, but if you do play them then go ahead and bring them in.
Standard Bearer isn't something I'd expect them to bring in against us, but if they do it does turn off our Sledders/Raiders so that's at least something to be aware of incase they do bring them in.
General Discussion and Strategies:
This matchup will pretty much always devolve into a race since we just have so few ways to interact with their strategy.
By this token, the best thing you can do is just try to maximize your damage output each turn as much as possible.
Remember that you can sacrifice a goblin to a Sledder/Raider to prevent lifegain if they are trying to block with a Cloaked creature. This does not however work if they are attacking thanks to trample.
Elves
Overall Match Up Analysis: Even (50%)
Elves is a tribal aggro/combo deck that looks to capitalize on a critical mass of mana creatures to quickly fill the board and cast Distant Melody to find even more elves. While Goblins possesses a lot of pinpoint removal and Sparksmith which are all very effective against Elves, they still possess a number of annoying cards for Goblins and in any sort of drawn-out game they are likely favored.
Electrickery is obviously very strong against a deck filled with x/1 creatures such as Elves. The one downside is that it gets completely shut off if they play a Spidersilk Armor but the upside of killing 2+ Elves is strong enough that the downside of it being turned off is worthwhile I find. Even just killing the first two Elves they play with it can be a pretty big setback for them.
Flame Jab is likewise quite strong at picking off their manadorks and other numerous x/1 creatures and can even go to the face or kill a larger Elf if necessary.
I usually swap Death Spark for Electrickery straight-up. Both get negated by Spidersilk Armor, but Electrickery can straight-up blow them out while Death Spark is better when you’re trying to be the grindy deck (which you shouldn’t be here).
For additional space, some number of Mogg War Marshals, Denizens, or Sledders/Raiders can also go. I find you generally want to stay aggressive in this match up though so you should only be boarding out a few creatures at most.
Moment’s Peace is probably the biggest one here. Do your best to avoid playing a Bushwhacker into it, other than that there’s not a lot you can do unless you run Flaring Pain.
Spidersilk Armor is often maindeck anyways, but if they don’t have it maindeck they’re almost certainly boarding it in against a deck with access to Electrickery. Not a lot you can do about it, just try to get them low before it becomes an issue. The extra toughness is a real pain in the neck for Goblins to deal with.
Longbow is another card that gives them inevitability. You can potentially sideboard artifact hate for it, but it’s usually the only artifact they have (and only 1 or 2 copies) so that’s probably not a strategy you want to take. Just realize you’re the aggro deck and do your best to win before Longbow ever becomes relevant.
General Discussion and Strategies:
Elves can have a LOT of creatures that you need to deal with as soon as possible depending on their build. To name a few – Timberwatch Elf, Wellwisher, Priest of Titania, Lys Alana Huntmaster, Essence Warden. Because of this it’s important to ration your removal and use it correctly. While “bolting the bird” (killing their mana dork) might be the correct strategy against some decks, I usually find it’s not here because their deck is filled with 1 mana 1/1s that tap for mana. If you spend your only bolt on Llanowar Elves you will feel pretty silly when your opponent plays a Timberwatch Elf later that you can never kill.
Of these “must-kill” creatures, Timberwatch Elf is probably the highest on the kill list. The reason being, if they get to untap with it you’ll pretty much never get to kill it (especially if a Quirion Ranger is in play to untap it) since all of your removal is damage-based, and it being around will make combat a HUGE headache for you.
Priest of Titania is more something you need to kill early. If they play it as their last card in hand it’s probably not a big deal to let it stick around. If they get it early it can let them chain out Llanowar Sentinels which match up very well against your creatures. Even if it just lets them play out a few more mana dorks and Nettle Sentinels it’s still pretty annoying to see turn 2-3 so it’s usually worth killing it.
Similarly, try to save your Sparksmith activations (life) for the creatures that matter. You should get to activate Sparksmith quite a few times against them before you get too low on life but that’s still no reason to spew off activations on cards that don’t matter much to you.
Try not to get too greedy with Electrickery. If they have 2 guys in play it will kill that’s often fine enough – who knows, if you let them untap they might just cast Spidersilk Armor and then Electrickery will lose most of its usefulness.
As mentioned above, Moment’s Peace is something they might board in so try to time your Bushwhackers correctly.
This matchup is usually a close one I find. Elves has a lot of annoying creatures for Goblins to play against, but at the same time they’re prone to starts that don’t accomplish much against our deck and they can also be picked apart by spot removal and/or Sparksmith at times to. To hammer the point home, they have the inevitability here so you want to keep aggressive draws as much as possible. An ideal hand is probably something with a few 2/2s, a removal spell, a Sparksmith, another 1 drop and a couple of lands.
Burn
Overall Match Up Analysis: Even (50%)
Much like its Legacy and Modern counterparts, Pauper Burn is more or less a combo-deck trying to throw as many 3-4 damage burn spells at the opponent’s face as quickly as possible. Because of the fast clock Burn presents, this match up will often come down to racing situations and winning the die-roll can be a pretty big advantage for either side.
Sylvok Lifestaff is an obvious card to bring in as it really trivializes their strategy of trying to chuck 3 damage burn spells at your face when you have Lifestaff in play with a sac Goblin that can trigger it freely. It’s possible that they bring in Smash to Smithereens to blow it up, but at most you’ll have 1 or 2 Lifestaffs so if they want to do that it’s not the end of the world.
Flame Jab is mostly just to give you something to do with excess lands, it’s not necessary in this match up by any means though.
Against a deck that’s trying to burn you out using Sparksmith is a bit of a foolhardy plan. In addition to that, they don’t usually run any more than 12 creatures (4 of which are Keldon Marauders) so it has a minimal effect at best.
Chain Lightning can be a liability at times since they can Chain it back at you (giving them a free burn spell isn’t really ideal).
Martyr of Ashes is their best way to blow you out after sideboarding, so be sure to play around it as much as you reasonably can. If they’re suspiciously doing nothing on their first few turns then that could well mean they’re saving spells to reveal with a turn 3 Martyr.
Electrickery is not nearly as effective as Martyr against us but it’s still something to be aware of. Try to keep a Sledder/Raider around before you commit too many 1 toughness guys to the board.
Staggershock is another spell that can net them a 2-for-1, while also being able to just go to the face for 4 damage. Something to keep in mind if they try to target one of your creatures is that if the spell doesn’t resolve it won’t get to rebound. Meaning that if they target one of your goblins then you need only sacrifice it to a Sledder/Raider to stop it from coming back a second time.
General Discussion and Strategies:
Searing Blaze is probably their single most annoying burn spell to play against since it not only slows us down but also furthers their plan of burning us out at the same time. Unfortunately there’s not really anyway to stop it as even sacrificing the goblin in response doesn’t stop it from dealing you 3 damage. You mostly just have to hope they don’t draw too many of them (or if they do that they can’t landfall too many of them).
Unlike the Izzet Blitz it actually is realistic (and often correct) to leave back blockers for Kiln Fiend, since if you don’t they can essentially turn their random Bolts into 6 damage. Something else to consider is how many blockers you want to leave back. Leaving back only 1 will let them turn a Bolt into a Searing Blaze essentially so that’s not really any good either. Sometimes you will want to leave back 3+ Goblins depending on the board state and life totals.
It’s often worthwhile to chump block an attacking Keldon Marauders to “gain” 3 life. It’s obviously annoying to have to do so but the 3 life really is relevant (it’s the difference between them having to draw another Bolt or not). Depending on who is ahead it’s possible they can’t afford to swing with Marauders in some games anyways.
Ideally you want to play and equip Lifestaff when they are tapped out so they can’t counter the equip with an instant speed burn spell on the target.
As mentioned above, Martyr of Ashes is a very real concern post-sideboard so do not play into it when you can help it. If they’re not chucking burn at you the first few turns then it’s possible they’re holding back for a Martyr activation.
It’s always a good idea to compare your life total to the number of cards in their hand so you know how likely it is that you might just get burned out on their turn. 11 for instance is usually a safe life total when they have only 3 cards (although a hand of double Fireblast and a three damage spell could still get the job done).
This match up can be pretty die-roll dependent. Both decks are very capable of fast starts, though Burn will more-so assume the control role after sideboarding. The most important thing is knowing when to be aggressive and when to be wary of your life total when playing this match up.
Like MBC, Kuldotha decks play out as midrange value strategies looking to one-for-one their opponent and pull ahead with 2-for-1 creatures like Kor Skyfisher. However unlike MBC, these decks tend to have a lot more lifegain as well as cheaper removal via several 1 mana burn spells. The deck’s namesake card Kuldotha Rebirth can be especially problematic for Goblins to fight through. While sometimes a tough matchup, the deck is prone to some slow starts and if they stumble then Goblins is well positioned to punish them.
Artifact hate is pretty strong against Kuldotha strategies, though not quite as back breaking as it is for Affinity. Since they usually run 8 artifact lands, Gorilla Shaman can set back their mana quite significantly depending on their draw. Smash to Smithereens likewise can act as a Stone Rain effect, or it can destroy a Prophetic Prism, disrupting their mana fixing and their card advantage engine.
Since they play Ravnica bouncelands like Boros Garrison Raze can be a reasonable card against them, effectively setting them back on 2 land drops.
You could potentially sideboard in Pyroblast against the Jeskai versions, but it’s overall probably not worth it due to them only having Mulldrifters and maybe some Dispels to target.
Death Spark only has Goblin tokens and possibly Lone Missionary as targets so it’s not a particularly strong card.
You can also shave a Sledder/Raider or two since they have trouble attacking into Goblin tokens but since Kuldotha usually boards in Electrickery you still want some of these to help defend against it.
As is often the case for red decks, Electrickery is a common sideboard card you should expect to see. Some lists even have a copy in their maindeck!
Circle of Protection: Red is something you can swarm around if you get them low enough and/or constrain their mana with artifact hate.
General discussion and strategies:
They run a lot of taplands which can cause them to have some really slow/clunky draws. Come out fast and punish them for this as much as possible.
Like against White weenie, do not sacrifice Goblins that they target with Journey to Nowhere as they will just be able to bounce it with a Kor Skyfisher and use it again against you.
If they have only one artifact in play you can destroy it with a Smash to Smithereens in response to them casting Glint Hawk. This will mean the Glint Hawk has no artifact to return and they will be forced to sacrifice it. This doesn’t come up often but if it does it’s a huge swing for us.
Destroying their Prophetic Prism with a Smash to Smithereens can slow down their card advantage engine, though I would only do this if they have no lands to destroy.
Overall this matchup can be tough at times as they have a lot of lifegain lands and Lone Missionaries which make them tough to burn out. In addition they have an abundance of cheap removal and Kuldotha Rebirth can function as a 3-for-1 against us. Due to running a number of tap lands to fix their mana however, their deck is prone to some slow starts so while it’s not an easy matchup it’s definitely winnable if we get off to a quick start.
The Mirror
Overall Matchup Analysis: Even (50%)
So what happens when we're forced to fight amongst ourselves? Usually the case is that the Goblins mirror match is straight-up war of attrition with Goblins dying left and right and games often dragging on long.
Flame Jab is one of the best ways to get ahead in the Goblins mirror. Whoever draws more lands will usually be at a disadvantage, however the fact that Flame Jab ensures that every land you draw is at worst a 1 damage spell will put you considerably ahead.
Lifestaff is important here to ensure you won't get burned out in a war of attrition. Lifestaffing up your Goblins will make it incredibly difficult for your opponent to race you and also leads to some pretty ridiculous life totals if both sides have one.
Death Spark while probably not quite as good as Flame Jab still has a lot of value here, letting you pick off their Sledders and Raiders.
Electrickery is fine but you shouldn't expect it to be more than a 1-for-1 trade most of the time.
Martyr of Ashes can lead to pretty big blowouts against the unprepared.
Sparksmith is pretty much at his worst here as he counts all Goblins, not just your own. This means that every activation is going to take huge chunks out of your life total and unless you're already way ahead you usually can't afford this in the mirror. In addition he's a 2 mana 1/1 which is a terrible rate if you're on the defensive and not great on offence either.
Chain Lightning is only good early in the mirror as late game they will very likely have extra mana to Chain it back at you.
Cards to be aware of: See "cards to bring in"
General Discussion and Strategies
-There is some argument to be on the draw in the mirror since it's so based on attrition, however I generally trend towards being on the play as a start of multiple 2/2s can be very difficult to beat on the draw, especially if you don't draw your own 2/2s.
-Flame Jab is by far the best trump for the mirror. If you really want to have an edge in the mirror then bringing in some number of these will give you just that. The easiest way to lose the mirror is by flooding/running out of spells, and drawing Flame Jab ensures that will never happen to you. If you board in Flame Jab it's usually correct not to play out anymore than 3 or 4 land and hold the rest in hand in anticipation of drawing Flame Jab. We don't have any expensive spells so the extra lands aren't doing anything for us in play.
-If your opponent is playing the early turns suspiciously (i.e not playing guys out) then they could very well be running Martyr of Ashes in their list.
-Mogg War Marshal is among the best cards you can draw in the mirror. As I said the mirror is largely about attrition and what better than a card that can act as a 3-for-1?
-By this token it's possible the lists running Goblin Matron can get an edge in the mirror by way of having tutor effects for War Marshal. The Matron is however a 3 mana 1/1 and spending your turn to cast one could be risky if you are already behind on board and require more than just a 1/1.
-Be careful if you start trying to race as a Goblin Bushwhacker can quickly swing the race out of your favor.
-If you're on the defensive you generally want to be trading whenever possible so as to limit the number of Goblins they have in play to Bushwhack you with.
-While siding in artifact hate for opposing Lifestaffs might seem like a good idea you probably shouldn't bother. Lifestaff will be your only target so if they don't draw it you'll end up with a dead card boarding in Smash to Smithereens or a sub-optimal creature boarding in Gorilla Shaman/Goblin Tinkerer.
Overall the mirror leads to some very grindy, attrition-based games. Flame Jab is the best way to gain an edge and Lifestaff can help you survive when you're on the backfoot, however as with most mirrors it will be fairly draw-dependent and sometimes they will draw 3 Mogg War Marshals over the course of a game while you see none. That's just the way it goes sometimes.
Not really relevant basically ever, but the Gorilla Shaman actually can't kill a Myr Enforcer (or even the little 2/2 dude) at any cost - he kills non-creature artifacts.
Also, now that I've read everything - great job! I love the matchup analyses. If you want even more work, I can see a couple more that need analysis:
1 - Temporal Storm decks - Raze seems great (especially against the enchant land version), Sparksmith seems good especially against the familiar version; try to use instant speed removal to blank out their snap/flicker plays on their Cloud of Faeries (or should you just shoot it at their face and try to kill them before they go off?).
2 - The G/W Auras deck - I have a hard time seeing how this is not an auto-loss. Raze to mana screw them, electrickery to knock out their dudes before they get big, and just hope they don't get a big untargetable guy with first strike, trample, and lifelink out there?
Not really relevant basically ever, but the Gorilla Shaman actually can't kill a Myr Enforcer (or even the little 2/2 dude) at any cost - he kills non-creature artifacts.
Also, now that I've read everything - great job! I love the matchup analyses. If you want even more work, I can see a couple more that need analysis:
1 - Temporal Storm decks - Raze seems great (especially against the enchant land version), Sparksmith seems good especially against the familiar version; try to use instant speed removal to blank out their snap/flicker plays on their Cloud of Faeries (or should you just shoot it at their face and try to kill them before they go off?).
2 - The G/W Auras deck - I have a hard time seeing how this is not an auto-loss. Raze to mana screw them, electrickery to knock out their dudes before they get big, and just hope they don't get a big untargetable guy with first strike, trample, and lifelink out there?
Thanks! You are right about the Shaman for some reason I thought he could hit anything given enough mana (not that the 15 mana to kill an Enforcer would ever happen though).
As for the other decks, I didn't add them originally as they aren't overly common opponents but if there's interest I can discuss the matchups. Temporal Storm I haven't played very much but indeed Raze seems like it should be strong against them (especially the U/G version that puts auras on their lands). Whether you want to hit their Cloud of Faeries or burn their face will mostly come down to the situation I would think.
G/W Hexproof is indeed a terrible matchup. You pretty much just have to race them and hope they don't draw Armadillo Cloak. The other auras are manageable but an Armadillo Cloaked guy is pretty tough to race. Electrickery can possibly work but I wouldn't count on it (especially when they're on the play and can just go 1/1->Etheral Armor, blanking Electrickery before you hit overload mana). I do still board my Electrickerys in for 2 Death Spark and a Sparksmith but it doesn't always work. Raze might be an okay idea since even just keeping them off white mana by killing their Utopia Sprawled land would go a long way for our chances. Martyr of Ashes might be a potential answer if the deck becomes popular. She has the potential for a lot more damage than our other sweepers and can possibly kill their Hexproof guys before they go too big. The downside obviously being she'll kill our own guys too but if we have her in our deck we can at least play around that.
As my first foray into Pauper since GTC's online release I decided to run the following list through a Daily Event tonight to test out the newest edition to the Goblin clan (Foundry Street Denizen):
I've written a tournament report on the event for anyone interested in how the deck performed which you can see in the spoiler tags below.
Round 1 vs Affinity
This is certainly not the deck I want to be sitting across from in round 1 (or any round really) but you gotta make the most of it. I win the die roll and choose to go first (duh!) keeping a hand of 3x mountain, 2x Mogg Conscripts, 1x Jackal Familiar, 1x Death Spark. Not the absolute nuts but a very good opener to be sure. I lead with a Conscripts and pass. My opponent plays Great Furnace into Galvanic Blast on my guy and we're clear on who is playing what. I draw Mountain and drop my other two 1 drops. I really can't afford to draw many more lands at this point. My opponent spends his second turn paying 2 life to play a Porcelain Legionnaire (a very odd choice) which fortunately for me matches up poorly with the Deathspark in my hand. I rip Sparksmith and get to Spark his guy and play the Sparksmith to attack for 4. My opponent plays Frogmite and passes back. I draw a second Sparksmith and go for the kill with my first Sparksmith when I untap but my opponent has a Fling to throw it at the 'Smith. Not really a big deal as I play the second and swing for 4 again. My opponent plays Disciple and passes with 1 card in hand (probably a land I would guess). I get to rebuy my Death Spark and clear the Disciple out of the way + swing for 3 (no creature for the Conscripts) knocking my opponent to 7. My opponent draws and concedes.
Obviously the Shaman and Smash are great here but I really like Flame Slash too as their 4/4s are very real problems. Ideally I want to hold it for a Carapace Forger since Smash can kill the Enforcer but not him, though using it on Enforcer is fine too. Taking out Death Spark might seem like a surprise since he's already shown me Porcelain Legionnaire and Disciple, however I'm expecting that he'll be boarding the Legionnaire out since he can't really afford the life loss against me and Disciple isn't really a card I need to kill (it only becomes a problem when they play Atog beside it and Atog is already a problem regardless).
Game 2 I keep 3 lands, Bolt, Gorilla Shaman, Conscripts, and Sledder. Not amazing but an okay hand and if by some rare chance he has no removal then the Gorilla could mise a win. He plays a land and a Chromatic Star and passes. I draw a mountain and play Conscripts. He plays a second land, a Prismatic Lens, and then a free Frogmite. I draw a second Bolt. Now I have a few lines this turn. Ultimately I decided to kill his Frogmite with a Bolt and play Sledder to swing for 2. Alternatively I could have played the Gorilla, swung for 2 and blown up a land. The disadvantage to this is he might trade and then I have very little offence left however it also has the advantage of possibly keeping him off a Myr Enforcer next turn (effectively taking 2 mana away from him casting it). I felt the damage was more important in this case and I could always just blow up two lands next turn and find another way to kill an Enforcer. He thoughtcasted and then did have the Enforcer annoyingly enough. I untapped, drew a mountain and cast Mox Monkey, blowing up two of his lands afterwards and passing. It's possible I could have attacked and offered the two-for-one trade of one of my guys and Bolt if he blocked but I didn't feel like that was ideal. He untapped and played land into Krark Clan Shaman sacking 2 lands, and the Star to do 3 to everything leaving me in a pretty bad spot with an empty board staring down Myr Enforcer (which attacked me to 16). I drew a Mogg Raider which I played and passed with the plan of trading it + my Bolt for the Enforcer. My opponent attacked and I snap blocked which I don't believe he was expecting. He Galvanic Blasted my Goblin after I blocked (realizing I must have had a Bolt). Not that I minded as my Goblin effectively gained me 8 life there. I drew a Goblin Sledder and ran it out there. My opponent was wise to my plans this time and Galvanic Blasted the Sledder before blocks and got in for 4 My opponent was stuck on 1 land (after I had killed two and he sacked two) so I did still have some hope. I drew Mogg Conscripts and played it hoping that the 3rd time would be the charm. It was in fact the charm as this time I finally got to 2-for-1 myself to get the Enforcer off the table. I untapped and drew Flame Slash (a little too late deck!) and passed. My opponent drew nothing relevant and passed. I played a Cohort, opponent played a Star. I drew a DEnizen next and got in for 2. Things started to unravel now as my opponent hit his land drop and cast CArapace Forger. I untapped, Flame Slashed it and played another Denizen to get in for 4. My opponent untapped, played a 3rd land and vomited out a couple of meaningless artifacts along with another enforcer. I drew Conscripts and played it plus passed. In hindsight it may have been right to get in for 4 and brick one of my guys (bringing my opponent to 8). My opponent attacked me to 8 (I opted not to block, playing to Bushwhacker as my out) and dropped double Atog. I drew a land and decided to scoop em up knowing both Atogs would have to be chumped just for me to survive another turn.
Game 3 I kept 3 lands, Sledder, Sparksmith, War Marshal and Flame Slash. Not the most ideal hand but I can answer his first 4/4 and it has a lot of room to become insane with a Bushwhacker being drawn. I play Sledder and my opponent follows up with a Star. I drop the Sparksmith (drawing a mountain) and smash for 1 while my opponent spends his next turn thoughtcasting. I draw another Sparksmith but opt to play the War Marshal to get more bodies on the board and hit for 2. My opponent Thoughtcasts again and then plays a Krark Clan Shaman (popping his Star to do so). I pay the echo on my Marshal and draw a land. I can try to force him to use the Shaman here but I opt instead to just swing all-out and see what he does - he just takes it. As playing more guys out is a bad idea I just pass back. He plays a Star and a Myr Enforcer, bashes me for 1 and then decides to use his Shaman (sacking 3 artifacts. After some consideration I decide to save my Sparksmith (I could only save one Goblin total). My opponent plays a Frogmite leaving me with a sole Sparksmith staring down his 4/4 and 2/2. I untap, draw a Conscripts and cast it. I then Flame Slash his Enforcer and Sparksmith his Frog while he was tapped out. I could have played the second Sparksmith but opted not to both to play around another Shaman and to give me a creature for Conscripts next turn in case I bricked. My opponent played a Carapace Forger which actually wasn;t too bad as any Goblin off the top or a Lightning Bolt would allow me to gun it down. I ended up drawing Bushwhacker and went all-in, playing the second Sparksmith, the Bushwhacker, Smithing his guy and swinging in for 7 bringing him down to 6. My opponent played just a Myr Enforcer and passed back and I could smell the blood in the water at this point. I ripped a Raider, Sparksmithed his guy down, played the Raider and bashed in with Conscripts, Whacker and the other Smith. As he only had a Tree of Tales open I went for the kill, sacking the tapped Sparksmith and the Raider to bring my damage up to exactly lethal.
All-in-all some close games. I've actually been faring fairly well against Affinity lately despite how bad of a matchup I think it should be but I think that's both due to a lot of experience playing against them, a lot of sideboard hate (many people don't play Flame Slash at all but I lean on it here) and some good draws on my part.
Round 2 vs Mono-Blue Delver
I lose the die roll and keep 1 land along with 2x Cohort, Sledder, Sparksmith, Bushwhacker, and War Marshal. This is a hand I would generally keep in the dark with this deck, especially on the draw. It has the potential to just sputter out but you have a few turns to hit a land drop and if you do you have some very good cards in Sparksmith, War Marshal and Bushwhacker to catch you up. My opponent leads with turn 1 Preordain leading me to believe he's either Delver or a Post deck. Either way my play doesn't change. I rip the 2nd land right away to take away any sweat I was feeling and drop a Conscripts. My opponent plays a Cloud of Faeries and passes, revealing himself to be Mono-Blue Delver. I draw a Conscripts. Suspecting a Spellstutter Sprite I opt to just play out a Sledder to bait it out as Spellstutter was getting me eventually this game regardless and I considered it my least valuable card at this point. My opponent did indeed have the Spellstutter (they always do!) but I shrugged it off, swinging for 2 and playing a second Cohort (though in hindsight this was incorrect - I should have played the Conscripts to play around Echoing Truth which he could be running). My opponent played another cloud, bashed me for 2 and played a Phantasmal Bear (missing his 3rd land drop). I drew another War Marshal and decided to get the Sparksmith down while his only counters could be Daze or Force Spike. He had neither. I opted only to send in one Cohort as I wanted to keep my life total high enough to use Sparksmith so I wanted to block his bear. He ended up blocking and trading so maybe that was incorrect (I could have killed the bear for free with Sparksmith next turn but would have taken 5 to do so, so who knows). My opponent had a Vapor Snag at end of turn on the Smith anyways. He bashed me for 3 in the air and passed with UU open. I drew another Bushwhacker and played the Conscripts which oddly resolved. I swung for 2 and opted to play an unkicked Bushwhacker. The rationale being that my opponent was trying to race me so I just needed to get as many bodies down as possible (also the second Bushwhacker made this decision easier). My opponent pulled the trigger on Counterspell now but I can;t say I was upset he countered my 1/1 instead of my 2/2. My opponent preordained into a 3rd land, bashed me for 3 (lifetotals 11 to 16 in his favor) and passed with UU up again. I drew a Raider and opted to play a War Marshal (since I had two of them) that was quickly met with a Counterspell. I bashed for 4 and passed. My opponent attacked for 3, played a Bear and passed with UU up again. I drew a third land and opted to go for the Raider which resolved. I sacked the raider to kill the Bear and swung for 4. I opted to play a second War Marshal (just to get as many bodies on the board as possible) which again met a counter. Opponent bashed me to 5 with three mana open and passed with 1 card in hand. I drew Marshal number 3 and slammed it down. My opponent had no response this time and I swung in for 4. My opponent untapped and drew before scooping to my board.
I opted to play more of a defensive game on the draw as he had shown in game 1 he wasn't afraid to try and race me. The Slashes are in for Weirds and Spire Golems (both hard to answer cards) while the Smashes hit Spire Golem and any Serrated Arrows that might find their way in.
I kept a hand of 1 land, Sledder, 2x War Marshal, Death Spark, Flame Slash and Bushwhacker. This isn't the most ideal hand but I do like having removal for a turn 1 Delver so I kept. My opponent had no turn 1 play so I got to draw and cast a Conscripts before my opponent EOT Brainstormed. My opponent played a second land and passed back. I drew a mountain which was pretty much the perfect draw here as it allowed me to play around Spellstutter Sprite. I cast Sledder and indeed my opponent had the Sprite which I quickly dealt with using Death Spark to save my Sledder. I got in for 2 with Conscripts and my opponent spent his third turn casting Spire Golem.
I drew a 3rd War Marshal and opted to play one of them instead of Flame Slashing the Golem as it used my mana better and I didn't mind trading the War Marshal plus his tokens for Spire Golem. My opponent indeed blocked my Sledder and I didn't hesitate to snap the trade off of War Marshal + 2 tokens for it. My opponent had Frostburn Weird but no land next turn. I drew a second Raider and this time opted to Flame Slash the Weird down and cast the Raider to get in for 3. My Conscripts got snagged so it only turned out to be 1. My opponent untapped and killed a Raider with Piracy Charm before Preordaining into land 4. I continued to ignore the Death Spark in my grave as my mana was too tied up at the moment and no x/1s were present anyways. I drew a third land and ran out War Marshal to play around Spellstutter Sprite and passed. My opponent passed with 4 lands open. I paid the echo on War Marshal and cast another War Marshal. My opponent evidently had nothing and decided to scoop.
Round 3 vs UGr Kaervek's Torch Post
I lost the die roll and kept 3 lands, Conscripts, Cohort, Familiar, and Sparksmith, a very good hand!. My opponent lead with Cloudpost narrowing the deck he was playing (to some extent). I drew a 4th land and cast a Cohort. My opponent played an island and a Prism leading me to believe he was just plain old U/R post at the time. I dropped my other 2/2s after drawing Death Spark and attacked for 2. My opponent dropped two Expedition Maps and then a Chromatic Star. The Maps aren't too uncommon, but the Star was weird and definitely indicated he wasn't just U/R post. I drew Sparksmith, played it, bashed for 6 and passed. My opponent played Glimmerpost, gaining a few life, and now dropped two Chromatic Spheres so now I really knew something weird was going on. I drew another Conscripts and bashed my opponent down to 7 but he now started searching up Glimmerposts with his maps. He played yet another map so now he could get all 4 GLimmerposts. He played another Star (and had been cycling the orbs and Stars all this time) and gained 3 off a post and passed with Cloudpost up. I drew a 3rd Sparksmith, cast it, and bashed my opponent to 1. I made what a mistake here trying to finish him with Death Spark and he just tapped Cloudpost for 3, made a blue with Prism and Flickered two Glimmerposts to go up to 7. Had I waited it's possible he would have went for it end step (though it's also possible he wouldn't to play around Bolt) so casting it mainphase was wrong I think. The game pretty well slid out of my reach at this point as he played a bunch of card draw through Mulldrifters and Compulsive Researches to find more Glimmerposts and just survive my attacks. It also didn't help that I bricked on creatures for a few consecutive turns meaning my Cohort and 2 Conscripts missed some attack steps. He finally got to enough mana and torched me for 15 (I took 5 earlier to Sparksmith a Mulldrifter) to put me out of my misery (but not before revealing a forest and crop rotation).
Sideboarding:
+3 Pyroblast
-2 Death Spark, -1 Sparksmith
I still wasn't completely sure if his plan revolved solely around Torch but I figured just bringing in Pyroblast would be sufficient. As he showed me green I suspected he would be bringing in Moment's Peace against me.
Game 2 I kept with 3 lands, Denizen, Cohort, Raider, and Sparksmith. I dropped Denizen first to maximize my damage. Next turn I dropped both Cohort and RAider (drawing another Raider for the turn) and hit for 3. My opponent was off to a slow start with just a Post turn 1 and then an expedition map on turn 2 which he couldn't even crack yet. I drew a War Marshal (ding!) and played it plus the Raider to get in for 7 (remember, the goblin token pumps Denizen too!). My opponent played tapped a tapped Cloudpost and passed with a forest and a post open (hmmm!). I opted not to pay the echo on War Marshal and instead sac it to pump a guy and pump the Denizen. I drew a second Denizen, played it and bashed with just Sparksmith in my hand now and my opponent cast a very expected Moment's Peace after I sacked the summoning sick token to go for lethal. My opponent untapped, played an Island and evoked a Mulldrifter before passing. I drew another DEnizen, cast it, and forced the Moment's Peace flashback. My opponent mapped for a Glimmerpost to go up to 13 and then cycled two cycling lands leaving just two mana open. I drew Bushwhacker, cast it and swung and my opponent had nothing and died.
I didn't really see anything new so I kept my deck the same and went to game 3. I kept a hand of mountain, Conscripts, Raider, Ramiliar, War marshal, Chain Lightning, and Pyroblast. I ripped a Denizen on my first draw step and opted to play him with the hope of drawing a second land. I did in fact hit my second land and got to play both my 2/2s and hit for 3. My opponent had only played lands and cantripping artifacts when he passed back for my 3rd turn. I drew a Bushwhacker but opted to play Raider and leave open Pyroblast, attacking for 6. My opponent untapped, thought for a bit and went cast Fade Away (!). I certainly am aware of the card's existence in the format but was not really expecting it out of him. He also had a blue mana open which represented a possible Hydroblast but I didn't have any choice but to go for the Pyroblast as I would lose almost everything otherwise. Luckily my opponent didn't have it and the day was saved. I untapped dropped Bushwhacker and went for the kill. My opponent cycled a Star making green (looking for a Fog maybe?) but didn't hit and died to my lethal attack.
This was an interesting Post deck to play against and something I'll take note of for the future.
Round 4 vs U/B Cloudpost Temporal Storm
I won the die roll and kept a hand of 3x Denizen, Sledder, 3x land. A hand like this seems like something that can get out of control fast. I lead with a Denizen and opponent had a turn 1 post (again leading me to believe he was U/R Post...I always expect that deck first when I see a Post). I draw Bolt and play Denizen and Sledder to play around a turn 2 Electrickery. This was perhaps a mistake looking back as really keeping one guy around probably wasn't going to make much of a difference compared to the (at least) 1 damage I was throwing away by not playing the 3rd Denizen. If he kills 2 of my guys I was already in a poor position to win anyways so I think I should have just moved in. My opponent had a map next turn making me wonder if I was facing the same deck as round 3 again. I drew a 2nd Bolt, played the other Denizen and bashed for 5. My opponent fetched island, played sea-gate oracle and passed. I end step killed the oracle, drew Conscripts and attacked for 7. Opponent had a second gLimmerpost and Mulldrifter now which I bolted, unfortunately I bricked on a creature and only got to hit for 4 to bring him to 6. My opponent played swamp and Nightscape Familiar revealing his true identity. He then went for a Snap on My Conscripts but sadly messed up on untapping his lands and scooped. He showed me a hand of Foresee, Snap and two Temporal Fissure along with maybe another card I'm forgetting. By the looks of it he could have at least bounced most of my creatures and maybe a land. In hindsight I think I should have sacked the Conscripts since my opponent was on just a Glimmerpost for mana at that point so I could prevent any potential combo shenanigans this turn by not letting him untap and drawing any goblin would give me a lethal attack next turn anyways, even without the Conscripts.
Sideboarding:
+3 Pyroblast
-2 Chain Lightning, -1 Mogg War Marshal
I want to keep in ways to interact with their Cloud of Faeries and other Flicker targets so I want Death Spark and Sparksmith here.
I mull a hand of 2 land, Familiar, 2x Bushwhacker, 2x Bolt. This hand seemed way too slow to me to have a chance and any disruption could prevent the Familiar from getting to attack even though Familiar into Whacker would be 5 damage on turn 2. I can see some arguments to keeping this but it didn't seem good enough to me. my 6 card hand had no lands so I had to send that back too before I settled on a 5 of Raider, War Marshal, Bushwhacker, and 2 lands. Not the best but this could at least curve into a lot of damage fast. I curved Raider into War Marshal and opted to pay the echo before drawing a another War Marshal. My opponent spent his early turns doing little of relevance to me - playing Prophetic Prisms and tapped Cloudposts + an Aqueduct. My turn 4 I played the second War Marshal into the Bushwhacker and smashed my down to a mere 4 life (not bad for a mull to 5 I must say!). My opponent untapped, evoked a Mulldrifter and Snapped it to his hand in response to the sack trigger (this time managing to untap his lands), however even with the 4 mana this generated he apparently had nothing and conceded.
Conclusion: I really like the explosive draws that the Denizen gives this deck. Attacking for 3 on turn 2 is obviously quite good and he can do that with a high level of consistency for us. I feel like the Denizen has definitely earned his keep and will continue to use him in the near future. The fact that he makes you somewhat more vulnerable to Electrickery is unfortunate but I think his upside out-weighs this drawback. The 3 Jackal Familiars are the slots I'm really debating over at this point. I do still like the Jackal quite a bit but also considered Goblin Arsonist as well here. Jackal being a 2/2 gives you some explosive draws but Arsonist actually being a Goblin and possible removal spell are good things too. Jackal can also be awkward at times like in that hand I mulled in round 4. I'll have to keep testing but I'm not sure yet either way. Round 4 game 1 was a bit unfortunate as things didn't really play out properly for my opponent with the MtGO interface screwing him out of possibly combo-ing off (and also my poor choice of not sacking the Conscripts) but the rest of the games went pretty well and I was mostly happy with how I played and sideboarded. Overall I learned some useful things and earned another 4-0 for the Goblin horde in the process so I am pretty pleased with the results!
what do you think of tarfire as a 1-of in the matron build?
Yeah Tarfire seems like a fine silver-bullet for the Matron decks. It's obviously not powerful on its own but the ability to let your Matrons fetch up a removal spell or direct damage spell is pretty useful to have access too.
Can Goblin Grenade be used in pauper ? it was common in Fallen Empires.
It cannot as Fallen Empires was never released online and the only online releases of Goblin Grenade have been as an uncommon in M12 and Masters Edition. The closest comparable card we have is Reckless Abandon which sees some minor play in some lists.
This is a bad new! I always play the playset of goblin grenades in pauper events at my local store (but i guess also other people are playing commons from fallen empires or other sets not legal online).
Aniway, just to talk about my experience with this deck, i did 4/5 tournaments since now with about 10/15 people each time. I always reached top4 and two times i won. I play the aggressive list (without matron)with 3 mogg flunkies in the flex slots and 4 lightning bolts, 2 chain lightning and 4 goblin grenades as removal ( i will now replace the grenades with two more chain lightnings and 2 fireblast/reckless abandon). I think the aggressive list is just better because for a deck running only 16/18 lands is often difficult to reach three lands. I personally run 18 lands also without matron because i find difficult to keep one land hands... our strenght is to play multiple threats every turn so we absolutely want at least two lands ( aniway i sometimes keep 1 land hoping to draw another one).
My metagame consist of cloudpost , faeries, U/R kiln fiend combo,affinity and monoblack. Kiln Fiend is an easy matchup because they have few creatures to hit and we have a lot of removal.... an active sparkmith often is game. Monoblack too is easy , while posts and faeries are always difficult... we absolutely need to race and win early or we lose. I would describe these two matchups as quite unfavourable ( 40 %). Affinity is obviously difficult but really everytime i drew a gorilla shaman i won... just hope to see him and, even if they have removal, destroying one-two lands in the early game can be lethal for them.
Recently, due to my very good performances a lot of player started to play g/w auras. This is not an easy matchup, but i found that we can race them a lot of times. they have slow starts because they also need to fix their mana... and if they don't see an armadillo cloak or other lifelink auras the games is very very easy.... if they manage to attack with a lifelink beast then we can never kill them. Sweepers are fine here.... i prefer martyr of ashes to elettrickery since the only flying creature they run is silhana and the martyr can kill also enchanted big creatures.
I end with a question: do you think that goblin offensive could be playable ? ( sorcery for one mana, you deal one damage to your opponent for each goblin in play) it doesn't target creatures but it can potentially do 4 and even more damages for only one mana.
Edit: why no one seem interested in this deck ? People, come and play goblins ! they are awesome in pauper like my results and results of big events show, in legacy where although they do not win often in the last years they are the only deck still alive from the beginning of the format, and even in edh where my krenko deck often stomps my opponents. Have some love for goblins !
Do the monoblack players run Hymn to Tourach? That one's not allowed, either, and it could be giving them a big edge against the blue decks.
Are you running Pyroblast in the sideboard to keep your blue opponents from doing whatever they feel like? It's not something you can really use in the early turns, when you need to be goblin-ing out as hard as possible, but it's the kind of thing you keep floating in your hand when you're trying to finish the game with beatdown.
Goblins are okay, but they're too easy to disrupt with creature removal, which is what Post does best. Stompy is usually better at surviving the kill spells, and occasionally profiting from them, i.e. Hunger of the Howlpack.
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Oh, you think the losers' bracket is your ally, but you merely adopted the scrub tier. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t 4-0 an FNM until I was already a man; by then, it was nothing to me but an extra pack to sell for store credit!
Why is Cloudpost considered a slightly favored matchup?
The reason goblins was killed off on MTGO and saw zero play in daily events was because the matchup was near unwinnable for goblins. This happened a couple months ago and has only recently got back some playability because Foundry Street Denizen was released and could give goblins an extra damage boost. But still the Post matchup is Horrid.
Your T1 dude won't live, they can sweep the board at instant speed and they maindeck those sweepers. They gain mass life by simply playing lands and they can restock their hands and teachings for more removal.
Because them getting the right cards to last long enough to get control is their issue. Weenie based strategies capitalize on durdle decks durdling for so long that they just die. Goblins also has burn to reach for the kill even if they manage to kill all your dudes. Mainboarded Electrickery isn't even a big deal because you run 8-12 creatures with >2 toughness and Goblin Sledders / Mogg Raiders to stop from getting completely blown out.
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This is a bad new! I always play the playset of goblin grenades in pauper events at my local store (but i guess also other people are playing commons from fallen empires or other sets not legal online).
Aniway, just to talk about my experience with this deck, i did 4/5 tournaments since now with about 10/15 people each time. I always reached top4 and two times i won. I play the aggressive list (without matron)with 3 mogg flunkies in the flex slots and 4 lightning bolts, 2 chain lightning and 4 goblin grenades as removal ( i will now replace the grenades with two more chain lightnings and 2 fireblast/reckless abandon). I think the aggressive list is just better because for a deck running only 16/18 lands is often difficult to reach three lands. I personally run 18 lands also without matron because i find difficult to keep one land hands... our strenght is to play multiple threats every turn so we absolutely want at least two lands ( aniway i sometimes keep 1 land hoping to draw another one).
My metagame consist of cloudpost , faeries, U/R kiln fiend combo,affinity and monoblack. Kiln Fiend is an easy matchup because they have few creatures to hit and we have a lot of removal.... an active sparkmith often is game. Monoblack too is easy , while posts and faeries are always difficult... we absolutely need to race and win early or we lose. I would describe these two matchups as quite unfavourable ( 40 %). Affinity is obviously difficult but really everytime i drew a gorilla shaman i won... just hope to see him and, even if they have removal, destroying one-two lands in the early game can be lethal for them.
Recently, due to my very good performances a lot of player started to play g/w auras. This is not an easy matchup, but i found that we can race them a lot of times. they have slow starts because they also need to fix their mana... and if they don't see an armadillo cloak or other lifelink auras the games is very very easy.... if they manage to attack with a lifelink beast then we can never kill them. Sweepers are fine here.... i prefer martyr of ashes to elettrickery since the only flying creature they run is silhana and the martyr can kill also enchanted big creatures.
I end with a question: do you think that goblin offensive could be playable ? ( sorcery for one mana, you deal one damage to your opponent for each goblin in play) it doesn't target creatures but it can potentially do 4 and even more damages for only one mana.
Edit: why no one seem interested in this deck ? People, come and play goblins ! they are awesome in pauper like my results and results of big events show, in legacy where although they do not win often in the last years they are the only deck still alive from the beginning of the format, and even in edh where my krenko deck often stomps my opponents. Have some love for goblins !
Well, it depends on your shop's Pauper rules with regards to Grenades. If they're playing by the online legality list then yes the Grenades are not around but if they are not (you said others are playing commons from Fallen Empires, perhaps like Hymn to Tourach?) then they are fair game. If they're legal then obviously they're a very powerful finisher that can also double as removal for everything outside of Ulamog's Crusher.
I should mention that Silhanna Ledgewalker only has pseudo-flying it doesn't actually fly.
I don't think Goblin Offensive is really that good. Sure sometimes it might be the nuts 5+ damage for R but the fact that it only ever goes to the face is a big concern. Sometimes you will be in a war of attrition where you don't get to keep that many goblins around and it will be very bad or there will be a big creature you can't attack into that another burn spell could help you remove. If you want a finishing burn spell I'd suggest Fireblast or Reckless Abandon. Both can function as finishers but can also be used as removal in a pinch (at a cost of course).
Goblins are okay, but they're too easy to disrupt with creature removal, which is what Post does best. Stompy is usually better at surviving the kill spells, and occasionally profiting from them, i.e. Hunger of the Howlpack.
I won't argue that Stompy has more resiliency to removal but to say Goblins are easy to disrupt with removal is pretty inaccurate. This is a deck that floods the board with creatures at a rapid pace and unless the Post deck is literally mono removal (not something I've seen often) it is difficult for them to keep up with Goblins making multiple creature drops per turn. Especially when they're spending the early turns casting draw/filter spells or playing tapped Cloudposts. There's also Sledder/Raider to mitigate Electrickery and Mogg War Marshal which offer some amount of resiliency for Goblins. A well-planned Bushwhacker turn will kill them out of nowhere too.
Why is Cloudpost considered a slightly favored matchup?
The reason goblins was killed off on MTGO and saw zero play in daily events was because the matchup was near unwinnable for goblins. This happened a couple months ago and has only recently got back some playability because Foundry Street Denizen was released and could give goblins an extra damage boost. But still the Post matchup is Horrid.
Your T1 dude won't live, they can sweep the board at instant speed and they maindeck those sweepers. They gain mass life by simply playing lands and they can restock their hands and teachings for more removal.
Cweaver explained it very well. Cloudpost certainly has their unbeatable draws against us but just as often (if not more) they are fumbling around trying to set up their mana and dig for their removal, etc. Goblins is a deck that puts them under the gun very quickly and any of this stumbling is severely punished. It is definitely not a horrid matchup as you suggest, and even before Foundry Street Denizen was released that was not the case (in fact there's an argument that Denizen makes us worse against them because we're more vulnerable to Electrickery by running it and it gets blocked by Sea-Gate Oracle). Also perhaps it might be more prudent for you to read what I wrote in the matchup analysis section rather than whether the match is slightly favored or unfavored or whatever. That's where the useful information is, the % numbers are something from my own personal experience (I find I beat Post more often than they beat me but the matchups are close) and may vary by player, but the stuff I've written in the analysis section is information that should be useful to everyone regardless of where they are with the deck.
How does the card Stingscourger sound? It sounds like it might be useful in removing big creatures.
Stingscourger is very bad at beating down, difficult to resolve if the opponent wants to stop him, and does little to stop a Post deck that has already reached inevitability. He has some peculiar advantages in a Goblin deck, by virtue of being a red goblin that dies to recover your Death Spark, but his abilities don't tie into the deck that well.
This as opposed to Legacy, where the Eldrazi you're bouncing usually came in on the back of a Show and Tell, and has Protection from Spot Removal.
Your best bet against post is, as always, to run faster.
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Oh, you think the losers' bracket is your ally, but you merely adopted the scrub tier. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t 4-0 an FNM until I was already a man; by then, it was nothing to me but an extra pack to sell for store credit!
Main change from the last list being 3 Goblin Arsonists over 3 Jackal Familiars. I've really been digging the Arsonist in the current metagame with Delver and Stompy decks so highly represented. His synergy with the Sledders/Raiders has proved quite valuable in many of my matches of late and I was finding the Familiars a bit too unreliable for my liking recently. So far two 3-1s and a 4-0 in Daily Events since making this change so it's working out well thus far.
Other than that I just made some minor sideboard changes, swapping a Flame Jab to get a Lifestaff back in my list (I do like to have a single copy for the Stompy matchup and the mirror isn't all that common so the second Jab isn't as needed) and swapping a Smash to Smithereens for a third Gorilla Shaman as Affinity is very popular since the bannings and I never find myself siding in all 3 Smashes other than the Affinity matchup anyways, so might as well make the third copy a card that just gives me free wins against them instead.
I like this deck, I mainly played stompy, some Delver and MBC. I think MBC is not really great in the current meta, and stompy was not really my play-style. I really liked delver, but it's played so much that I rather have a lesser played deck.
My question is, what do you like about this deck and how much play is there to it, also how versatile can it be in different metas, seems the core idea is pretty much always the same.
Some good questions.
What I like about this deck? There are a lot of things but a lot is personal preference - I've always excelled at playing Red-based aggro and I'd consider Goblins the top red aggro deck in Pauper. I love beating down with a swarm of red creatures and then being able to kill my opponent off with burn if the creature plan doesn't get there. In addition to that, I like that the deck is capable of many insane nut draws and aggressive starts that can overwhelm pretty much any of the other top decks in the format. I like the extra redundancy the deck has being able to run essentially 8 copies of two of its cards (Cohort/Conscripts and Sledder/Raider). I like the amount of play cards like Sledder/Raider, and Death Spark give the deck. I like that the deck has "free win" cards in the form of Sparksmith, Goblin Bushwhacker, and Gorilla Shaman (out of the board). I also feel the deck is fairly well situated in a meta where the most played decks are U/R Post, Delver, Stompy, and Affinity. Post and Delver I both consider to be at least slightly favored matchups while Stompy is fairly even. Affinity is a somewhat poor matchup but having access to Gorilla Shaman post-board helps things out and the fact that they don't run any lifegain means you can often swarm them early and burn them out before they stabilize behind their 4/4s.
How much play is there to the deck? There's a ton in my opinion. A lot of it is from the Sledders/Raiders which give you many options. I won't go too much into detail about these guys (you can see what I said about them in the primer) but they are very versatile little dudes that give you many lines of play. In addition to this, sequencing your plays properly is incredibly important to succeeding with this deck, especially in the face of countermagic from decks like Delver and Post where you'll want to hold your Bushwhackers back until you know they'll resolve whenever possible. This also applies to the Conscripts/Cohorts who need you to cast a creature before they may attack. Because of this it is sometimes correct to hold back a creature in hand even if you have the mana to cast it as you might not be drawing an additional creature next turn. Speaking of Bushwhacker, while he just looks like a big damage guy, once you hit 4 mana he has some nice "hidden" utility in hasting up a Sparksmith to let it ping something right away (it actually comes up more often than you would think). There are also many seemingly minute decisions that actually matter a lot like whether or not to pay for the War Marshal's echo, whether to buyback Death Spark, etc that change depending on the situation. Speaking of Death Spark, this card does a ton of work and in the hands of a good player I think it's a very strong source of incremental card advantage that can really let you grind out damage. Anyways without rambling on too much, I will say that the deck has a lot of play to it and it's very rare I feel completely helpless with an average draw (the few times being vs G/W Hexproof when they get Armadillo Cloak on a dude and against Affinity when they have their nutdraw of flooding the board with 4/4s really early).
How versatile can it be in different metas? Well, you're right there's not a ton of wiggle room in the maindeck and being a mono-color deck sideboard options are somewhat limited. There is some room for change (Jackal Familiar vs Goblin Arsonist for instance, whether to run Mogg Flunkies, whether or not to go more top heavy for Goblin Matrons, how many Sparksmiths you run main, etc) but the overall gameplan will mostly always be the same and there's not a ton of room to deviate from it. I can't see the meta changing too drastically from where it is at the moment but say the meta were to change to a field full of Affinity, White Weenie, and G/W Hexproof for some reason the deck probably would become very bad as it just doesn't have the resources to be good against these decks on a consistent level.
How's Foundry Street Denizen doing? I like the Denizen cycle a lot, but Shadow Alley Denizen doesn't really have a deck that needs it, and the others all cost so much mana that they're effectively combo-only.
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Oh, you think the losers' bracket is your ally, but you merely adopted the scrub tier. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t 4-0 an FNM until I was already a man; by then, it was nothing to me but an extra pack to sell for store credit!
How's Foundry Street Denizen doing? I like the Denizen cycle a lot, but Shadow Alley Denizen doesn't really have a deck that needs it, and the others all cost so much mana that they're effectively combo-only.
It's been pretty good so far, count me in as impressed. I'm still a bit hesitant to consider it a must-run but at least in the current meta it has done well for me and being able to attack for 3 on turn 2 is pretty awesome. They're also pretty great to draw in multiples of course and pair well with War Marshals. It's not the greatest on defence which leads to me boarding some of them out at times and it's another 1 toughness dude that gets hit by Electrickery but overall I like it.
Goblins isn't really a favorite against Stompy. The matchup is roughly even and very draw dependent on both sides. Stompy's got more evasive and resilient creatures, and Goblins just has more creatures. Stompy's pump spells are worth more damage, but Goblins has trumps like Bushwhacker and burn spells to end games out of nowhere. It's not a given for either side who will win.
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One more question, why do you not run vandalblast?
You probably mean Fireblast. It seems like it's only good at exactly one point in the game, when you could probably win with 'more beatdown', and it's not something you can afford to have countered.
Meanwhile, Goblins' best removal for things too big for Death Spark is Sparksmith. Sparksmith is a strong card but it's kind of dicey against a deck that 1) will try to race you and 2) has inherent resistance to spot removal.
Stompy is that deck, and Stompy runs plenty of stuff too big for Death Spark, and to make matters worse, runs load of pump spells to beat Sparksmith even when you do use him. So you wind up having to kill big stuff without Sparksmith or just outrace them, and neither of those things usually goes smoothly.
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Oh, you think the losers' bracket is your ally, but you merely adopted the scrub tier. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t 4-0 an FNM until I was already a man; by then, it was nothing to me but an extra pack to sell for store credit!
I've lost 2 matches to Goblins in Daily Events out of 6 I've played with Stompy. All save for 1 match was decided in 3 games. 2 games have been decided by them getting an early Sparksmith online. Sparksmith is very important in that matchup, as are tricks with Raider and Sledders.
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I think I might be more of a control player, but what I've seen from Delver and Post I didn't find it particularly hard to play.
Sequencing is probably something you mess up easier then countering the wrong spell.
So this sounds like a challenge.
Also nice to read that it's favored against stompy and delver, in my experience I didn't have too much problems against goblins as stompy, but I might not have played somebody as good as you.
Sparksmith can be annoying, but unless they want to stick with 2 or so creatures they cannot activate it that much, and hunger of howlpack as well as the pumps can end games pretty quickly in stompies favor.
Though I have lost due to deathspark...
One more question, why do you not run vandalblast? It's a free instant spell that deals 4 dmg! And you mostly want to use it to finish somebody off anyway.
Chain lightning is sorcery speed and it seems it's only good against stompy or maybe mirrors?
It's not favored against Stompy (at least not in my experience). If you reread what I said you'll see I referred to it as a "fairly even" matchup. It's really more draw dependent and who is on the play is important. Either side can be the aggressor so it's important to know what role you have to take more than anything (and when you need to switch roles midgame).
As for why I don't run Fireblast, more personal preference than anything. You ideally only want to be using Fireblast to finish the game (you can use it as removal but this is often going to be too big of a setback on your lands to be a good plan) It's a fine card as a 1 or 2 of but it's not something I've ever felt the deck needs to run. I more often use my burn spells to clear blockers out of the way than to dome my opponents anyways which makes something like Chain Lightning more appealing.
As for Chain Lightning, it's the worst card in the deck IMO (and if you look at my sideboarding advice it's often one of the first cards I board out) but 1 mana for 3 damage to anything is still a good deal as either removal or reach even as a worse Lightning Bolt so I don't mind having a couple copies game 1 and I can go from there after board.
Meanwhile, Goblins' best removal for things too big for Death Spark is Sparksmith. Sparksmith is a strong card but it's kind of dicey against a deck that 1) will try to race you and 2) has inherent resistance to spot removal.
Stompy is that deck, and Stompy runs plenty of stuff too big for Death Spark, and to make matters worse, runs load of pump spells to beat Sparksmith even when you do use him. So you wind up having to kill big stuff without Sparksmith or just outrace them, and neither of those things usually goes smoothly.
I actually board some number of Smiths out against Stompy often because you usually just don't have the time/life to get to use them much and they're really poor as blockers. They're okay on the play but often miserable on the draw and drawing multiples will really hurt you on the defensive.
I think one thing that people forget playing Sparksmith, especially against Stompy, is that you really need to activate him on your own turn. Make the Stompy player use his pumps to preserve creatures instead of damaging you with them. We've always been taught in our Magic education to wait til the last second to activate abilities or cast spells, but against Stompy using Sparksmith, this line of thinking is just wrong.
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Introduction
Mono-Red Goblins is a red creature deck based around rushing the opponent with early waves of Goblins and finishing them off either with large alpha strikes or direct damage spells. While the cards in this deck are not individually powerful, together they have a lot of inherent synergies that make up for this lack of power. The goal of this post is to discuss the key cards and strategies of the Mono-Red Goblins deck and to help pass on my own experiences to others interested in playing Goblins in Pauper. I will be looking at the core set of cards used in Goblins decks, other (non-core) cards used in Goblins, sideboard cards used in Goblins, as well give an analysis and sideboarding advice for some of the most common matchups in Pauper.
4x Mogg Conscripts
4x Goblin Sledder
4x Mogg Raider
4x Foundry Street Denizen
4x Goblin Bushwhacker
4x Mogg War Marshal
As you can see this is already over 30 cards, and adding in the 16-17 lands that are typically run you have very little room wiggle room for other spells. There are a few choices for filling out the remaining slots, but we will get to these later. First I would like to briefly discuss these core cards and the roles they play.
Goblin Cohort and Mogg Conscripts
As you can see I have grouped these cards together. Why? Well let's refer back to what I said earlier - we are effectively playing 8 copies of two of our cards. A quick read of Goblin Cohort and Mogg Conscripts will reveal that, other than name, these are functionally the exact same card - a 2/2 Goblin for R. Now, of course there is a catch as a 2/2 for R is way above the curve. These 2/2s cannot attack unless you have cast a creature spell this turn. That sounds bad, however Goblins is a deck typically running in excess of 30 creatures (and often closer to 35 or so) so much of the time the drawback will be non-existant. These 2/2s are very important to the deck as they represent a very fast clock (especially in multiples) and generally having one of these guys to cast on turn 1 is your ideal start in Goblins.
Goblin Sledder and Mogg Raider
This is the second pair of redundant cards in the deck. While a 1/1 for 1 mana may not seem like a lot given the 1 mana 2/2s we just looked at, these guys have a LOT of utility and their usefulness should not be underestimated. In fact you could probably write a whole article just discussing the interactions between the two sac Goblins and not only the Goblin deck, but the format as a whole. Some of the things these guys can do are:
Foundry Street Denizen
One of the newest additions to the Goblins clan, Foundry Street Denizen has really proven his worth since his arrival in Gatecrash, featuring in a number of Goblins lists since that time. The fact that this guy can swing in for as much as three damage on turn 2 (with either two more 1 drops or a Mogg War Marshal hitting play) is pretty big for this deck as outside of running out a turn 2 Bushwhacker or playing a Teetering Peaks that previously wasn’t possible. The Foundry Street Denizen’s pump ability is obviously very relevant to a deck that plays upwards of 30 creatures and the fact that he is a goblin is another boon to running him. He is weak against some of the more popular creatures in the format (Young Wolf immediately coming to mind as something the Foundry Street Denizen absolutely hates to be across from, while Frostburn Weird and Sea Gate Oracle can also be annoyances) and not as good at defending as Cohort/Conscripts but for the aggressive Goblins variants the Foundry Street Denizen is about as aggressive as it gets and certainly a worthwhile option. At this point the Foundry Street Denizen has pretty much cemented its place as a core piece of the deck.
Mogg War Marshal
I often refer to this guy as the red Squadron Hawk. Making 3 bodies out of 1 card he combos very well with many of the cards in the deck and does a very good job of promoting the general swarm strategy Goblins likes to take. The 3 bodies he generates provide a lot of fodder for your Sledders/Raiders to use to your advantage, and in conjunction with Goblin Bushwhacker you can do a ton of damage fast. As far as the echo goes, I find that generally you want to be paying it as often as possible, especially against the removal heavy decks like Cloudpost. However there are situations where you want to just feed the War Marshal to a Sledder because you are tight on mana and have a spell or spells that you know in advance you will be playing next turn. A lot of whether to pay or not will come down to experience.
Goblin Bushwhacker
This guy is insane and in my opinion really brings together what the deck is trying to accomplish. In a swarm-style strategy such as this one, the Bushwhacker will often be pushing through upwards of 4-5 extra damage the turn he hits the board. Afterwards you're left with a 1/1 body which while not amazing or anything is still very relevant in a deck full of Sledders/Raiders and more Bushwhackers. The damage this guy does is absurd and if you can kick two of them in one turn, look out!
Sparksmith
Sparksmith is a card that when he goes unanswered will make it extremely difficult for the other creature decks of the format to compete against you. There's a good reason you rarely see cheap, repeatable kill effects like this printed, and that's just because they are so oppressive. You don't necessarily want the full 4 copies since he's sub-optimal against Cloudpost but generally you want 3 of them at least. Some decks like Mono-Green Stompy and Mono-Green Infect have literally no answer to this guy in game 1, meaning if you draw him and get him into play in a timely fashion you are very likely to get an easy win. He's also very strong against Mono-Blue Delver decks should he resolve. One key thing to remember about Sparksmith is that he counts every Goblin in play, not just the ones you control. This is very important in the mirror match where activating a Sparksmith will often deal you somewhere in the ballpark of 5-6 damage (not a good idea in a matchup where both players are packing burn!).
Mountain
You want to cast your spells of course, so some number of these is necessary. As the deck has such a low curve it can get away with running around 16-17 lands on average. As you can probably guess you will be keeping 1 land hands somewhat often with this deck, which is perfectly fine since so many of the spells cost just 1 mana with none going higher than 2. Whether you run all Mountains or also include some kind of land with upside is up to the pilot, however it cannot be argued that the decks with all Mountains will have the most consistent starts and more keepable hands overall then those running even a single non-basic land.
As you can see, these cards all serve key roles with regards to the gameplan of the deck, and hence are not really interchangeable. As for the remaining slots, there are a few options that I will go over and a few different routes one can take when constructing their Goblins deck.
4x Goblin Cohort
4x Mogg Conscripts
4x Goblin Sledder
4x Mogg Raider
4x Goblin Bushwhacker
4x Jackal Familiar
4x Mogg War Marshal
4x Sparksmith
3x Mogg Flunkies
4x Chain Lightning
4x Goblin Cohort
4x Mogg Conscripts
4x Goblin Sledder
4x Mogg Raider
4x Goblin Bushwhacker
4x Mogg War Marshal
1x Sparksmith
2x Mudbrawler Cohort
3x Goblin Matron
4x Chain Lightning
2x Wild Guess
2x Fireblast
17 Mountain
4 Foundry Street Denizen
4 Goblin Bushwhacker
4 Goblin Cohort
3 Goblin Sledder
4 Kruin Striker
4 Mogg Conscripts
3 Mogg Raider
4 Mogg War Marshal
3 Skirk Prospector
2 Dragon Fodder
2 Fireblast
2 Lightning Bolt
All of these styles are defensible options and which is better will often simply be a metagame choice. In previous metagames with Temporal Fissure decks the aggressive versions were favored as they were important to win quickly since playing any sort of long game against Cloudpost decks was often a losing strategy. With Temporal Fissure and Cloudpost as well as Esper Familiar decks all removed from the format it is possible the slower but grindier Matron-centric versions of the deck will get their time in the sun. There are a number of other creatures and spells that can be used to fill out the deck beyond the core that was discussed previously, and these will be outlined here.
Creatures:
Goblin Arsonist
Arsonist provides yet another 1 drop Goblin to the deck and while he doesn’t pack the raw power of Goblin Cohort / Mogg Conscripts or the utility of Goblin Sledder / Mogg Raider he can still be a useful addition to the clan. His death trigger has a lot of synergy with your Sledders / Raiders as they can sacrifice him for a damage in a pinch (and still even get a +1/+1 bonus to boot). This can be rather useful in taking out annoying utility creatures or helping one of your other Goblins kill something large and annoying (like a Myr Enforcer for example). His death trigger also means he can also attack into tow toughness creatures without any fear. If he gets blocked then he probably trades up or pings the opponent for one, and if not then he got a damage through which is win-win. Generally you don’t want to be playing Goblin Arsonist on turn 1 as your other cards are simply more effective, but he can fill in as your turn 1 play in a pinch. Something to keep in mind with this card is that when you have the option of playing it or a Sledder / Raider turn 1 it’s usually better to play the Sledder / Raider first. The reason being your opponent might spend their first turn casting a 1 toughness creature, in which case you can play and sacrifice the Arsonist to remove the creature and still attack for an extra damage with the Sledder / Raider pump. If you were to sequence the play the other way around (play the Arsonist first) you would only get to attack for 1 damage at best which is clearly worse. The obvious comparison with Arsonist is Mogg Fanatic, and while Fanatic does have some advantages (being able to sacrifice itself for a damage without the help of Sledder / Raider being the biggest) I find that Arsonist is generally the more useful option.
Goblin Heelcutter
This is a very pricey Goblin at 4 mana to cast or 3 to Dash, however it's triggered attacking ability is very useful to the Goblins deck. Faltering your opponent's best creature is clearly very effective for an aggressive deck and it's doubly so in a deck that swarms like Goblins does. Dash, while effectively a repeated tax on your mana, actually does provide the deck some advantages. First of all it allows your creature to dodge sorcery speed removal. This includes some of the format's most commonly played removal such as Flame Slash and Chainer's Edict as well as sweepers like Evincar's Justice. Additionally, since Dash is still considered casting the creature you'll still accrue any of the related value for Goblins such as being able to attack with Cohort/Conscripts or pumping up your Denizens (should the Heelcutter resolve). This effectively means your Cohort/Conscripts can attack every turn without you having to worry about topdecking a creature.
Goblin Matron
Goblin Matron has a few good functions. First of all it can act as yet another pseudo-Squadron Hawk, fetching a Matron which fetches another Matron and so on. At the same time, it can also find you silver-bullet cards (i.e 1-of Goblins) or a specific card you might want like a Bushwhacker or a War Marshal. The fact that Matron itself is a 1/1 body is very relevant to a deck that aims to win by swarming and being an effective 2 cards in one can let you grind out other creature-based decks that don't have a form of card advantage while also giving yourself resiliency against decks like MBC, UB Teachings, and Kuldotha Jeskai. An important point to consider with Goblin Matron is what to fetch and when? The most common fetch targets are Goblin Bushwhacker, Mogg War Marshal, Sparksmith, another Goblin Matron, Goblin Heelcutter, and Goblin Sledder/Mogg Raider:
Intimidator Initiate
This little guy doesn’t have the greatest of stats, but his falter ability can give the deck repeated value in the face of blockers. It is very mana intensive however and adding a tax onto your spells may not be something you necessarily want to do. Goblin Heelcutter may just be better if you’re interested in this kind of effect. One interesting thing about the Initiate is that it triggers off of any red spell cast, including your opponent’s, though this only really matters if your opponent casts red spells on your turn.
Jackal Familiar
Yet another 2/2 for a mere R mana but once again there is a catch! (there's always gotta be a catch :tongue:). The drawback this time is actually quite a bit more significant than with Cohort and Conscripts. In this case the Familiar cannot attack or block on his own. He operates under the buddy system and refuses to do anything alone. This means he is a very poor turn 1 play as outside of casting a kicked Goblin Bushwhacker (which is unlikely to ever be the correct play on turn 2) he will not be attacking next turn. In addition to this, if you are on the defensive he will flat-out abandon you in the moments you need him the most as your sole creature! At least Cohort and Conscripts are kind enough to still protect you if you don't have any creatures to cast and let them loose. Not only that, but he doesn't even have the decency to be a Goblin! Our Sledders can't ride Hounds down hills but Jackal just does not respect that fact.
Now by the way I'm talking about it you might think I hate this card but I actually think it's a very reasonable choice for the deck to play for a few reasons. First of all, you can sequence your plays such that it's very likely he will get to attack when you do have him in play. Often times what you will want to do is play a Conscripts/Cohort turn 1 and then on turn 2 you can play both the Jackal and another 1 drop assuming you've hit your 2nd land drop. With 3 creatures now in play your opponent will now need two removal spells if he wants to blank your Jackal for a turn. Running 4 of these guys gives you twelve 2 power 1 drops which leads to some VERY explosive nut draws. The triple 2 power 1 drop draw is not to be underestimated and is among the best starts this deck can have. As someone who loved B/R Zombies last standard season, this is the type of draw I'm very familiar with and rather enjoy an aggro deck that gives me access to this. Overall while the drawback of the Jackal is something to take into account, if you train him and use him correctly he will become a very loyal friend that only sometimes disobeys his master.
Kruin Striker
This card is only really used in the “combo” versions of Goblins that look to use Skirk Prospector to abuse its trigger. As can be seen it’s essentially a two mana version of Foundry Street Denizen with the upside an extra power and trample but the downside of costing an additional mana and not being a Goblin. It’s probably not something more traditional Goblins decks want to be using, however if for whatever reason you’d like additional Denizens it’s an option. It’s obviously at its best though in a deck using Skirk Prospector and token generators like Krenko’s Command to pump as many Goblins into play per turn as possible.
Lavastep Raider
This Goblin has seen a small amount of play since its release. As a 1/2 body for 1 it has reasonably good stats for its cost and in any game going long its fire breathing-like pump ability makes it a considerable threat. Still, at a base of 1 power it's not particularly strong as an early play compared to Cohort/Conscripts or Denizen so you probably only want one or two of these for the late game (if any at all).
Mardu Scout
This is the smaller brother of Goblin Heelcutter, with the same Dash benefits applying. Other than Mogg Flunkies, this is the only 3 power 2 drop available to Goblins which makes it an option worth considering. However it is also much more fragile than Flunkies or even most other 2 drop Goblins as it has only 1 toughness. This can make it a very unpalatable card to have in your deck if your opponent has an abundance of 1/1 blockers (such as tokens). In a race situation where you just want to put as much damage into play as fast as possible (for example against control decks) this Goblin does the job well enough though.
Mogg Fanatic
This guy was pretty good in the days of old when damage used the stack (effectively allowing you to trade him with any X/2 creature in combat) but now he's mostly just an inferior version of Goblin Arsonist. If for whatever reason you want Arsonists 5-6 in your list then Fanatic could sort of fill that void but for the most part the Fanatic's best days are long behind him.
Mogg Flunkies
Mogg Flunkies is basically the 2 mana version of Jackal Familiar that comes with an increased body size (you can tell from the art that these guys lift!) while also having the decency to be a relevant creature type for your deck. Similarly to how the Jackal is not really an ideal turn 1 play, Flunkies will not usually be an ideal turn 2 play because you are opening yourself up to losing both tempo and damage to removal spells on your 1 drop that the Flunkies is relying on. That's okay though as a 3/3 is still often going to very strong well beyond turn 2 in this format and you will often have many other creatures you can cast anyways. You run only 3 copies mostly because drawing a bunch of them in your opening hand kind of sucks but it's still a card you're happy to see at least once per game as he can do a lot of damage fast and battle through most blockers.
Mudbrawler Cohort
This guy should be a 2/2 haste for 1R in this deck a majority of the time which is certainly very reasonable. As far as deckslots he's likely competing with Flunkies. Many like the raw size of Flunkies over the speed of this guy, but depending on the expected metagame I could see either being a good choice.
Skirk Prospector
Outside of the previously discussed “combo” Goblins list, the Skirk Prospector doesn’t have any apparent use to Goblins. Still though for those lists it provides the useful function of being able to quickly dump an entire hand of Goblins into play and make some huge swings with Foundry Street Denizen.
Spells:
While Goblins is primarily a creature-based deck there are a few additional spells that can be used beyond Lightning Bolt to round out the deck.
Chain Lightning
One of the closest comparable cards to the venerable Lightning Bolt in terms of mana-to-damage output. However this card has some very real drawbacks in comparison to Bolt. The first one is being a sorcery. While this doesn’t always matter (such as against decks like mono-green Stompy where you want to mainphase your removal anyways) it can be relevant against something like Spellstutter Sprite out of Delver decks. The other drawback is obviously the “chain” part of the card. Against many opponents this drawback is irrelevant as they don’t have red mana, however against the mirror match, Mono Red Burn, Affinity (occasionally), and Fiend / Cyclops decks it can come up, so it’s something to keep in mind. This used to be fairly common in Goblin decks as at least a 2-of but it has fallen out of favor in recent years due to Flame Slash's usefulness against decks like Affinity.
Death Spark
If you know me then you know I really appreciate a card that lets you get as much incremental value as Death Spark can. Goblins are dying all the time in this deck and it's very realistic to buy back and cast Death Spark 3 or more times in a drawn out game. Against the other creature decks this can be a very effective way to get ahead. A lot of playing with Death Spark is about using it at the right times. While it seems very simple to just cast it when something of yours is about to hit the bin it can still be difficult to do so every single time. I've been playing the deck for months now and even then I still miss the odd opportunity to get value out of Death Spark. It's a card that rewards tight play and I very much like that. Generally you will only want to run 1-2 copies since you can't easily get multiples of them back into your hand, and the 1 damage effect is a lot more narrow than something like Lightning Bolt. However in the right hands Death Spark can be used to generate considerable advantages making it a worthwhile option to consider.
Fireblast
In terms of straight-up damage, this is the best form of reach we have access to. 4 damage, essentially for free is a huge chunk of the opponent's life and if the game is over then it's not really a big deal that you're down 2 Mountains.
Flame Slash
This is a very efficient red answer to large threats. The fact that it doesn't go to the face and also that it is a sorcery are limitations, but there are many key creatures in the format that this can clear out of the way. Some of the relevant 4 toughness cards this kills include: Spire Golem, Frostburn Weird, Myr Enforcer, Carapace Forger, Nivix Cyclops, and Razor Golem. If you expect to see a lot of these then having access to some copies of Flame Slash in your maindeck could prove to be quite useful despite it being unable to go upstairs.
Reckless Abandon
4 damage for 1 mana is quite strong, and the cost of a Goblin is usually something you can afford to pay (especially with a War Marshal). The sorcery speed hurts, but as an answer to 4 toughness creatures and also a way to take out a large chunk of life from your opponent it could be worth a few slots. Remember that the creature is sacrificed as part of the cost, so if the spell is countered you are still down a creature.
Tarfire
This card is pretty weak on paper (functionally it is only a Shock) compared to the other burn we have access to, however being a tribal card can give it some relevance as a fetch target for Matron builds. Even then it is rarely used in Matron lists however, and typically just one copy at most since it is pretty underpowered compared our other burn spells.
Wild Guess
For the Goblin decks running additional lands, sometimes you will want a way to mitigate flooding and Wild Guess is one possible way to do that. You probably won't want a ton of them since you'd prefer to be spending your early turns casting creatures rather than sculpting your hand but a couple copies can go a long way if you get into the lategame. Another option is Faithless Looting which will put you down a card but can be used twice over a long game. Both are options if you run higher land counts and want to play for a longer game, but neither see a lot of play.
Lands:
Disclaimer – I do not recommend running non-Mountain lands if you are running 17 or fewer lands in your list. If you do however want to run “utility” lands (hopefully in a list with 18 or more lands) there are a few options worth discussing. Another point to consider if you run Fireblast is that non-mountain lands cannot be sacrificed to its alternate casting cost so you would also want to limit your number of utility lands in lists with Fireblast.
Forgotten Cave
While many decks will lean towards Teetering Peaks, another viable option is Forgotten Cave. The two damage from Peaks is obviously appealing to an aggro deck, however it’s not a guaranteed thing since it can still be stopped with removal or even just blockers. Some may prefer a land that can trade itself off for a random card over the temporary pump of Teetering Peaks making Cave a viable option.
Teetering Peaks
In an aggressive deck, the +2/+0 pump of Teetering Peaks makes it an interesting utility land option. The +2 attack can be helpful either in pushing an attacker through a large blocker, or just in giving you a “free” 2 damage burn to the opponent’s dome.
Despite the fact that Goblins is a mono-red strategy there is still a decent amount of diversity available in your sideboarding options. A lot of the options are additional (and usually more situational) burn spells, but there are also cards that go beyond that as well. I will discuss some of the more common sideboard cards seen from Goblins and where they will be most useful.
Electrickery
A fairly new addition from Return to Ravnica, Electrickery easily replaces Seismic Shudder as the red sweeper of choice in Pauper. It is especially useful to Goblins as unlike Shudder it is not killing your own guys. This card is of course most useful against other aggro decks that are running a lot of X/1 bodies such as Mono-Green Stompy (more list-dependent), Mono-Green Infect, White Weenie, and situationally in the Goblins mirror. It also provides a way for us to answer the various X/1s of the G/W Hexproof deck if cast quickly enough though that might not be the most reliable of plans. The other main use of the card was to beat Empty the Warrens out of Storm decks, but with the bannings of Empty and Grapeshot this is no longer necessary. Should Empty ever come off the banlist however it is worth noting. Another thing to keep in mind is that it's a card often used against us too. The effectiveness of it against us is often exaggerated however as a single Goblin Sledder/Mogg Raider can prevent much of the damage it would cause to our board.
Electrostatic Bolt
This provides a cheap and efficient way to take out large artifact threats such as Myr Enforcer, Spire Golem, and Razor Golem. Other than being an instant though it's often outclassed Flame Slash which can do the same amount of damage to any target, while Electrostatic Bolt will just be a Shock against a lot of creatures.
Flame Jab
This card is very narrow as far as removal/burn spells but as an aggro-hate card it can be quite effective. This is especially true in the Goblins mirror match where the player that draws more lands will often be disadvantaged. If you can turn each land drop past say your 3rd or 4th into a 1 damage removal spell for R then that's a great way to gain an edge.
Flaring Pain
This card is pretty narrow, but it has its uses. One of the primary ways you can use it is similar to how the Grapeshot Storm decks used to in order to counter Prismatic Strands out of the White Weenie decks. Additionally it can also counter Fog out of the Stompy and Infect decks and can give you a way to kill pro-red creatures such as Weatherseed Faeries and Crimson Acolyte should your opponent attempt to block with them. The biggest allure to playing Flaring Pain currently is as a trump to Moment's Peace out of the Simic Post decks which can be very difficult for Goblins to beat.
Frostburn Weird
Another fairly new addition to Pauper, Frostburn Weird is a card that we don't really like to see on our opponent's board. However the fact that he can be cast for RR makes him something we're potentially interested in ourselves. Against other creature decks like Stompy and the Goblins mirror he could prove to be an effective blocker that can also go on the offensive in a pinch. It's possible that we just don't run enough mana/card draw to get as much usage out of him as Mono-Blue Delver decks do but as a defensive sideboard option he's still something to consider.
Gorilla Shaman
Affectionately known as Mox Monkey for his tendency to smash the power 9 Moxen to bits in Vintage play, this guy is a very useful card against one of Goblins' most difficult matchups in Affinity. Why is he useful? Well, Affinity's manabase is composed often entirely of artifact lands, so at the cost of a single mana each Mox Monkey can smash these lands to bits. Keep in mind he only hits non-creature Artifacts so you'll still want other ways to kill their Myr Enforcers (thanks to Tom the Scud for the correction), not that the 15 mana it would take to kill Myr Enforcer would ever be realistic. Simply shattering your Affinity opponent's lands with Mox Monkey will threaten to lock them out of the game completely if they do not find an answer, and even if they do it might set them back enough anyways to give you a big advantage. This makes the Mox Monkey something you should strongly consider for Affinity matchups.
Goblin Tinkerer
Another artifact hate option, this guy has a few advantages compared with Mox Monkey. First of all he's a Goblin so he synergizes with you Sledders/Raiders. Secondly, he can take out high-cost artifacts like Myr Enforcer that the Monkey usually cannot. The disadvantages of course are that you have to wait a full turn to get a use out of him, and that he cannot destroy multiple artifact lands in a turn like Mox Monkey can when you have the mana.
Magma Spray/Pillar of Flame
These cards play largely the same role so I am lumping them together. Basically these provide you with a low mana answer to some of the more resilient creatures in the format. Some of the creatures these cards are good against include Loyal Cathar, Safehold Elite, Doomed Traveler, Young Wolf, Stinkweed Imp. They also can be useful against decks that play cards like Unearth, Tortured Existence, or Unearth creatures. The only difference between the two spells is that one is an instant while the other can go to the face. Personally I like it more when my burn spells can also be used as direct damage since it gives me more options, but which one is better will mostly come down to preference.
Martyr of Ashes
Another sweeper option, the Martyr can take out even very large bodies provided you have enough cards in hand. This could be a useful option in creature matchups where you want a bit more than Electrickery. It will however kill your own creatures as well so you have to be very careful when running it.
Pyrite Spellbomb
While this card is not exactly efficient as far as burn spell go, it has one important quality - the fact that it's colorless. While against much of the format our normal burn spell will work, there are some specific hate cards such as Crimson Acolyte and Weatherseed Faeries that we cannot kill with our Bolts, Chain Lightnings, and other regular burn. Pyrite Spellbomb provides an answer to those cards if you are in the market for that sort of thing. Additionally, if they don't draw the hate card you brought the spellbomb in for you can still always just throw it at their face or cycle it to draw a card.
Pyroblast
Wait, a RED counterspell!? Well you see, long ago when Magic was a very new game Red actually did get counterspells from time to time, meant specifically to hose one of their most hated enemies in the color pie (Blue). Pyroblast goes beyond just being a counter though, also functioning as a Vindicate type effect for any blue permanents as well. At 1 mana this is an incredibly powerful and undercosted effect and I could even see arguments for maindecking a copy or two in the right metagame. With so many of the format's top decks being blue you will find many situations where you will want to bring Pyroblasts in, and it is almost always worthwhile to do so.
Raze
Historically, this has been used to set back decks like Storm, and possibly Cloudpost enough that you can win before they can combo-off or gain enough mana to stabilize. With Storm leaving the format it's less likely to be required but it could still serve some use in the Cloudpost matchups.
Smash to Smithereens
This compliments Mox Monkey as the go-to artifact hate cards for Goblins. Being able to not only remove a troublesome artifact but also deal a good chunk of damage to your opponent's dome in the process is clearly something Goblins is quite interested in. This is primarily used against Affinity but can also be brought in to deal with other cards like Spire Golem or Serrated Arrows that will cause you problems.
Sylvok Lifestaff
This is used primarily against other creature decks (most often the mirror) in order to allow you to win a race. The real synergy is that you can trigger the staff at will with your Sledders and Raiders to gain 3 life in a pinch. It can also be brought in against more rogue decks like Mono-Red Burn and U/R Kiln Fiend/Wee Dragonauts combo which attempt to burn you out very quickly. Additionally, I have seen it used against Grapeshot Storm when the deck was still around as forcing them to storm for 3 more cards can sometimes make all the difference.
Now while knowing your own cards is important, of just as much importance is knowing your enemies. In this section I will go over some of the most common Pauper archetypes you will encounter en route to becoming a Goblin King and highlight some general strategies as well as sideboarding strategies and things to be aware of.
Affinity
Overall Matchup Analysis: Unfavorable (40-45%)
Affinity is an artifact aggro/combo deck that aims to play a critical mass of cheap artifacts and swarm the board with cards that take advantage of the Affinity mechanic such as Frogmite and Myr Enforcer. The combo-aspect of the deck comes from the fact that it can use Atog in conjunction with Fling and it's numerous artifacts or in conjunction with Disciple of the Vault and outright kill you from what would normally be a comfortable life total. Affinity is traditionally one of, if not the worst matchups for Goblins. While it is certainly possible to win, they have access to a number of cards that just straight-up trump everything we're trying to accomplish meaning it will often be an uphill battle.
Cards to bring in: Gorilla Shaman, Smash to Smithereens, Flame Slash, Electrostatic Bolt, Pyroblast*
This matchup is the very reason Goblins decks often have Mox Monkey in their board. Blowing up artifact lands for 1 mana is a way to lock Affinity opponents out of the game and in the process turn a difficult matchup into a laughably easy one should they not find an answer to the Shaman.
Against a deck like Affinity, Smash to Smithereens is at its best killing a large percentage of their cards and even being able to act as a Stone Rain and wreck their 5 color manabase. The fact that it will often do 3 damage (though not if they have Atog in play) is just gravy.
Flame Slash is very effective at taking out their 4/4s and allowing you to punch through with your Goblins. If they are only leaving one 4/4 back then this can provide a pretty big swing. Electrostatic Bolt can play a similar role, but it doesn't actually kill Carapace Forger which often makes it less optimal.
*Pyroblast is something that I don't think you will want to board in against them too often. Often their only blue card is Thoughtcast and while hitting that is pretty sweet, if they don't draw it you will have a dead card in your hand in a matchup where you really do need every card to do something if you're to stand a chance. If my opponent shows me Somber Hoverguard and Hydroblast after sideboared games only then will I consider bringing in Pyroblast.
Cards to take out: Death Spark, Chain Lightning, Sparksmith
Death Spark doesn't do a whole lot against them. Even if they're on the Disciple plan I still do not find that it's worth it to keep it around as Disciple isn't usually going to be the way they're killing you anyways (Atog and/or just overwhelming you on the board is).
Chain Lightning mostly only comes out if you have some Flame Slashes to bring in. The reach Chain Lightning gives can still be useful but as a removal spell I wouldn't expect a lot from it in the matchup.
Some number of Sparksmiths usually come out as you often cannot afford the life loss against Affinity. While they're a slower deck than you they also possess a LOT more reach in the form of Galvanic Blast and the Atog-Fling interaction.
If you need additional space it's possible some number of Flunkies can come out as they're slow and match up poorly to the 4/4s, but generally I find I want all of my creatures other than Sparksmiths from the maindeck.
Cards to be aware of: Hydroblast, Electrickery, Krark-Clan Shaman, Echoing Decay
Hydroblast is not something every Affinity player runs in their board, but if they have it they will most certainly be bringing it in against your Mono-Red deck. Outside of siding in Pyroblasts there's not too much you can do to stop it, so instead just try not to get blown out by it if you can avoid doing so.
As I've said before, Electrickery is simply ok against us, and not amazing as many would have you think. If we have a Sledder or Raider in play it can often be turned into a mere 1-for-1 trade or a 2-for-1 at worst. It is becoming fairly popular among Affinty players though, so just be aware of it and don't play too much into it if you don't draw a Sledder/Raider.
Krark-Clan Shaman on the otherhand is very good against us and will do a much more effective job of wiping our board than Electrickery will. All you can really do to stop this guy is just not overextend when you can help it. Sledder/Raider can somewhat mitigate him but they can always just sac more artifacts once you use Sledder/Raider so it's unlikely to matter too much.
Echoing Decay isn't something I see out of them too often but it's at least something to be aware of. Sledder/Raider can again stop it from being a blowout, and of course it is possible to play around by not playing more than 1 of the same guy if they do show you it. Generally I won't play around it too much against an Affinity opponent unless they've previously shown it to me.
Really though, as a 5 color deck Affinity has access to a TON of sideboard options so this is just skimming the surface. The best thing to do is expect the unexpected against their sideboard plan.
General Discussion and Strategies:
So this matchup is bad. Really bad in fact. But don't get too down on yourself if you get paired against Affinity as with the right strategy and the right sideboard cards it is possible to come out with the victory.
Thankfully Affinity isn't one of the most popular Pauper strategies so you won't encounter it too frequently. When you do however you will be in for the fight of your life.
Izzet Blitz
Overall Matchup Analysis: Favorable (55-60%)
Izzet Blitz is an aggro / combo deck based around Kiln Fiend and Nivix Cyclops. Previous iterations of the deck used Wee Dragonauts, however it wasn’t until the release of Nivix Cyclops with Dragon’s Maze that the deck was really vaulted into competitive status. The deck aims to abuse a high-spell count as well as evasion-granting spells such as Apostle's Blessing to pump a Kiln Fiend/Cyclops and swing for huge chunks of life at a time, often dealing lethal to the opponent in a single attack thanks to Temur Battle Rage. Since the deck is so reliant on winning with a single creature, a deck with access to lots of cheap removal such as Goblins can really give them trouble.
Cards to bring in: Pyroblast, Flame Slash, additional removal
Pyroblast is a very effective card against them simply because it can take out 8 of the creatures they run (Nivix Cyclops and Delver). Board in all the copies you can as even if you never see one of those creatures it will still at the very least be able to stop them from casting Preordain and Ponder which can be just enough disruption to get the win. Flame Slash is very strong here as well since it can take out every creature in their deck.
Cards to take out: Death Spark, Sparksmith / Mogg War Marshal
Death Spark only kills Delver of Secrets, and only before it flips so it’s not very useful here. After Death Spark your next weakest cards are usually Sparksmith and War Marshal. Sparksmith is weak because they’re often boarding in a bunch of spot removal and possibly Electrickery post-board so it’s rare that it will survive. It might work out okay game 1 when they often only have a playset of Lightning Bolts as removal, but don’t let that fool you into thinking it will be good after sideboarding. Mogg War Marshal is still okay but can be a bit slow at times and you don’t really want a slow hand with a bunch of them in this match up so boarding out a few copies is reasonable.
Cards to be aware of: Hydroblast, Electrickery, additional removal
Hydroblast is something they can both use to destroy your goblins and also (more importantly) to protect their key creatures from your removal. Electrickery is often one of their go-to aggro hate cards, so keep that in mind. As usual just be sure to keep a Mogg Raider / Goblin Sledder on the board as much as possible and don’t play into it when you can help it.
General Discussion and Strategies:
This is a pretty favorable match up overall I find. Game 1 they might get you with a Nivix Cyclops that you can’t deal with, but post-board you get access to a lot more hate including some answers to the Cyclops. Just make sure to keep hands that let you interact with them as much as possible and you should have a reasonably good shot.
Mono-Blue Delver/Faeries
Overall Matchup Analysis: Slightly Favorable (50-55%)
Mono-Blue Delver is considered by many to be one of the most consistent strategies in Pauper. The deck plays an aggro-control game aiming to stick a cheap evasive threat early and both protect it and disrupt the opponent with countermagic on the way to victory. Much of the deck's popularity is due to the fact that it has reasonable matchups pretty much across the board with any individual opponent being beatable. It can be a very intimidating deck to play against as it often feels like they "have it all" and sequencing your plays/playing around their countermagic is of utmost importance. There are two different directions the deck goes. One is the Faeries version that runs Faerie Miscreant and Spellstutter Sprite along with a more creature-heavy list and the other is a more permission-heavy version that plays mostly just Delver of Secrets, Spire Golem, and sometimes Sea-Gate Oracle or Frostburn Weird as its only creatures. This second build is often refered to as Mono-U Control, though it has largely fallen out of favor in recent years. Matches against Delver decks are always very close with a ton of decision trees and play to them, however the aggressive nature of our deck usually gives us a slight advantage overall.
Cards to bring in: Pyroblast, Flame Slash, Smash to Smithereens, Pyrite Spellbomb
Pyroblast is obviously very good against their mono-blue deck and gives you an inexpensive way to interact with every card in their deck outside of Spire Golem
Flame Slash is mostly useful for taking out their pesky 4 toughness creatures like Spire Golem and Frostburn Weird that make it very difficult for you to attack profitiably.
Smash to Smithereens probably isn't something you want in high quantities as it often will only hit Spire Golem but they do sometimes have Serrated Arrows against you after board as well.
Pyrite Spellbomb is an answer to Weatherseed Faeries should you deem such a thing necessary. They don't always play it and you can win through it even if they do, but Spellbomb can certainly make things easier.
Cards to take out: Chain Lightning, Jackal Familiar
Chain Lightning is mostly inferior to Flame Slash here other than being able to burn them out. Killing their 4 toughness blockers is something that you'll more likely need to do though, which Chain Lightning cannot do on its own.
Familiar can be a bit awkward if they use their tempo spells such as Snap or counterspells on your other creatures. Flunkies has the same problem, though the fact that he can take down a Spire Golem or Frostburn Weird with a Sledder/Raider's help is still useful.
Cards to be aware of: Hydroblast, Frostburn Weird, Piracy Charm, Weatherseed Faeries
Hydroblast gives them access to a catch-all removal against us in sideboarded games. This certainly does change things quite a bit, though having Pyroblasts of our own to counter back mitigates this to some extent.
They'll likely be bringing in additional Weirds against us. Pyroblast and Flame Slash give us a reasonable number of answers and you can also kill him with a timely Bolt should they try to pump his power. Otherwise treat him like most annoying blockers and swarm around him when it's reasonable to do so.
Piracy Charm is their other removal spell against us and something they also play maindeck at times. They'll mostly want to be using it on Sparksmith which gives them a very difficult time once active. Sledder and Raider as usual can do a very good job of countering this card and if you have a Mogg War Marshal in play alongside them it can look downright silly.
Weatherseed Faeries is obviously a very formidable blocker against us thanks to its pro-red. As I said before if you really want an answer then Pyrite Spellbomb is the best option available, however it is possible to just swarm around the Faeries if you've gotten them low enough, and most Delver decks don't put it in their sideboards at all these days.
General Discussion and Strategies:
Overall this is a very close matchup with a lot of play to it. The die-roll really does matter a lot here too as early Delvers and Spellstutter Sprites are significantly easier to overcome when we are on the play than when we are on the draw. If you can get an early edge make sure to press your advantage. Play around their countermagic when you can afford to do so, but also recognize when you just have to go for it and hope for the best.
White Weenie/Tokens
Overall Matchup Analysis: Slightly Unfavorable (45-50%)
White Weenie comes in two flavors. Usually it is either a midranged-aggro deck that focuses on playing resilient threats and fliers that can effectively carry Bonesplitter or a tokens-heavy build that runs lifegain creatures like Soul Warden and an abundance of token creating spells like Battle Screech. The creature-heavy build has mostly fallen out of favor to the tokens lists in recent years. Many of the cards normally run by White Weenie naturally matchup well to the cards run by Goblins which can make the matchup difficult at times. Additionally they also have access to many annoying sideboard cards against us. The matchup can be tough as White Weenie has many ways to outclass us on the ground and win a long game, but if we can be aggressive enough then their higher creature quality often won't matter.
Cards to bring in: Electrickery, Smash to Smithereens, Flame Slash Pilar of Flames, Magma Spray, additional Sparksmiths, Pyrite Spellbomb, Flaring Pain
Electrickery's usefulness here will depend on the exact composition of their list. Some White Weenie builds are very vulnerable to it, running cards like War Falcon, Icatian Javelineers, Suture Priest, Gideon's Lawkeeper, and Squadron Hawks while others are more focused on the top-end with larger threats like Razor Golem and Guardian of the Guildpact that largely or entirely ignore the card. Electrickery can be particularly effective against Tokens strategies due to all of the tokens being 1/1 soldiers/spirits/birds, however White tokens do often have Lumengrid Field which can effectively shut our Electrickeries off. They're still probably worthwhile despite that drawback though.
If they only show you Bonesplitter then you probably don't need to bring in Smash to Smithereens (since them trying to race is exactly what we want anyways in most cases). If however they run Razor Golem then you should probably strongly consider bringing in some Smashes as he can be quite the problematic card for us. Flame Slash is similarly useful for killing Razor Golem while also hitting most of their other creatures too.
If you do happen to run Pillar of Flame or Magma Spray in your sideboard then you can do worse than bring them in to take out Loyal Cathar, Safehold Elite, or Doomed Traveler without them getting anything out of it.
Against the creature-centric builds Sparksmith is very strong, however against the tokens lists it's not nearly as effective due to them having many creatures and all of them being of similar quality so sideboard them accordingly.
Pyrite Spellbomb is an answer to any pro-red cards they might run such as Crimson Acolyte but is still fairly effective against most of their other creatures as well.
Flaring Pain can let you take out pro-red creatures should they attempt to block your Goblins but more importantly it acts as a counter to Prismatic Strands.
Cards to take out: Chain Lightning, Mogg War Marshal, Goblin Sledder/Mogg Raider
Chain Lightning can come out mostly because we just have better options.
War Marshal is fine but a bit too slow for my liking and they have a lot of creatures that can block him and the Goblins effectively. A couple copies are still fine to set up for a Bushwhacker swarm but drawing a ton of them can really bog down your starts here so you'll probably only want 1 or 2 unless you're up against tokens.
Raider and Sledder are also fine but similarly to the War Marshal are easily dwarfed in combat. You still want some number of these guys as having one around is important for pushing damage through or trading up against a 2/3 or 3/4 blocker. In multiples they're fairly bad though as they can't attack into WW's blockers very well (especially vs tokens) so at least a few copies can come out.
Cards to be aware of: Prismatic Strands, Crimson Acolyte, Holy Light, Sunlance
Prismatic Strands is a very effective card against us that can lead to some huge blowouts for the unprepared. Flaring Pain is the only way for us to really counter it, other than that we just have to play around it as much as possible. Some WW lists even run it maindeck so you should be aware of it even before sideboarded games.
Crimson Acolyte can be an incredibly obnoxious card for us to play against. If you have Pyrite Spellbombs it's recommend you board them in for this reason as if they have enough of a board position they can just sit back and protect their blockers with the Acolyte, making profitable attacks near impossible.
Like the other 1 toughness sweepers you can play around Holy Light just by having a Raider or Sledder in play. However even with a Raider or Sledder your creatures are still losing 1 power for the turn so be careful if you decide to enter combat.
Sunlance is cheap damage-based removal that they might bring in against us. Sledder and Raider can possibly used as to counter it though that will usually require two Goblins which probabl won't be worthwhile. Mostly you'll just have to let it happen and move on from there.
General Discussion and Strategies:
Overall this can be a tough matchup due to their higher creature quality and numerous sideboard options. A fast aggressive start is very important here as once they start throwing down Golems and Guardians things will go south quickly. The tokens builds are especially problematic for us as they have a lot of card that make multiple bodies and trade well with our 1 toughness creatures.
Mono-Green Stompy
Overall Matchup Analysis: Even (50%)
Mono-Green Stompy is an aggro deck that relies on cheap green threats as well as an arsenal of efficient pump spells to support those threats. With a curve that's often even lower than Goblins' Stompy can have some very aggressive starts. The matchup is rather draw-dependent with both decks being able to take the role of the aggressor depending on how things go. The die-roll can also play a part in determining what role each deck will be forced to take.
Cards to bring in: Electrickery, Sylvok Lifestaff, Magma Spray/Pillar of Flame
Electrickery's usefulness will depend on their configuration but at the very least it should hit Quirion Ranger and may also have other targets such as Vault Skirge or Silhana Ledgewalker
If you are on the Sparksmith plan then Lifestaff can be very useful to helping you keep a nice life total buffer while still controlling their board. It can also make it very difficult for Stompy to try and race you, especially when Sledder/Raider can sacrifice a Lifestaff-carrying Goblin at a moment's notice.
Magma Spray and Pillar of Flame are the best ways for you to deal with Young Wolf and Safehold Elite 1-for-1. These are both typically problematic creatures for you to play against so these spells can help a lot in that regard.
Cards to take out: Death Spark, Jackal Familiar/Mogg Flunkies, Foundry Street Denizen
Electrickery does basically the same job as Death Spark while also being able to hit Ledgewalker here so that's a fairly easy swap if you play the Spark.
Familiar/Flunkies are awkward blockers here as they can lead you into being blown out by a pump spell. They're fine on offence though so you don't need to take all of them out.
Foundry Street Denizen looks pretty embarrassing when your opponent plays Young Wolf and is also really weak on the defensive. If you are on the play it might be worth keeping them in, but on the draw you almost certainly want to take out some or all of them.
Cards to be aware of: Epic Confrontation, Fog/Tangle/Moment's Peace, Sandstorm
Epic Confrontation is their most common sideboard removal spell against us. Fortunately we have as many as 8 counters between our Sledders and Raiders so protecting a key creature isn't too tough provided we have enough Goblins to act as fodder.
Fog is something they like to board in to race us. There's not really anything you can do about outside of bringing in Flaring Pain so just play around it as much as you can by only attacking with as many creatures as necessary. Tangle and Moment's Peace can both effectively prevent two attacks from us so if they have a lot of these then Flaring Pain might be a necessary sideboard card.
Sandstorm is their 1 damage sweeper. Again, Sledder/Raider can mitigate it, and simply not attacking with all of your 1 toughness creatures is another way around it. This card has fallen out of favor since Empty the Warrens was banned so don't expect to see it too often.
General Discussion and Strategies:
This matchup can go either way and will be draw-dependent much of the time. Just play around their pump spells as well as you can and know whether you're the beatdown or the control.
Mono-Black Control
Overall Matchup Analysis: Even (50%)
Mono-Black control was at one point the premier control deck of Pauper, and though its stock may have fallen it is still a noteworthy opponent. The deck works by playing numerous spot removal and edict effects as well as hand discard and value creatures like Chittering Rats and Liliana's Spectre that aim to 2-for-1 the opponent. Cards like Cuombajj Witches can be very tough for a deck like Goblins that relies on many 1 toughness creatures while the looming presence of Gray Merchant of Asphodel means that Goblins doesn’t want games to drag on too long. The matchup is usually a close one however they do have ways to pull ahead depending on their list configuration.
Cards to bring in: Flame Jab
I don't make too many changes here but bringing in a Flame Jab is okay if they have a lot of discard. If they 1 toughness creatures like Liliana’s Specter then even better. Death Spark similarly has value against their discard too.
Cards to take out: Sparksmith, Jackal Familiar/Mogg Flunkies
Sparksmith is fine since they do run value creatures as blockers but you probably won't need the full set here and they’re a 2 drop that’s vulnerable to Cuombajj Witches.
Flunkies and Familiar can be awkward since they pack a ton of removal and can often kill the creatures around them to neutralize them. Still though you probably want to keep most of them just so you don't become too threat-lite.
Cards to be aware of: Crypt Rats, Evincar's Justice, Pestilence, Shrivel, Echoing Decay, Tendrils of Corruption
Crypt Rats is often their sweeper of choice so try to avoid overextending and getting blown out by one of them. Some lists play Evincar's Justice or Pestilence instead which are pretty good against us too. The good thing about these cards (for us) is that they deal players damage too so if we get them low enough on life it's possible they can't use them at all.
Shrivel is their 1 toughness sweeper and as usual Sledder/Raider does a good job of combating it.
Echoing Decay can lead to blowouts for the unprepared, but again Sledder/Raider can mitigate this.
Tendrils provides a lot of lifegain which can make it difficult for you to finish them off. Sledder or Raider can stop the lifegain by sacrificing the target though so keep that in mind.
General Discussion and Strategies:
G/W Hexproof
Overall Matchup Analysis: Very Unfavorable (<40%)
G/W Hexproof is a deck that aims to abuse the Hexproof mechanic by way of playing Hexproof creatures like Slippery Boggle, Gladecover Scout, and Silhana Ledgewalker and arming them with efficient/powerful creature auras such as Ethereal Armor, Armadillo Cloak, and Rancor to create an unstoppable monster. This matchup will generally come down to a race and either hoping the Hexproof player doesn't draw Armadillo Cloak, or draws the wrong halves of its deck (all auras or all creatures). Armadillo Cloak will usually be a card you scoop to on sight but even just a big guy with Ehteral Armor + Rancor can be enough for them to race you without the Cloak.
Cards to bring in: Electrickery, Martyr of Ashes, Raze, Flaring Pain
Electrickery is only situationally good here, but considering that a lot of your other removal like Death Spark will do nothing other than go to the face it's not the worst idea to bring them in and hope it works out.
Martyr of Ashes is your best way to deal with a large hexproof guy with Armadillo Cloak should things go poorly, however it will also decimate your own board in the process so it might not always work out.
Raze (and possibly other land destruction) is mostly useful in that it can color screw them. Most lists rely on land auras such as Abundant Growth and Utopia Sprawl to provide their white mana (with just 4 Selesnya Guildgates as their other sources) so blowing up a land with one of these auras might be enough to keep them off of Armadillo Cloak and/or Ethereal Armor and give you a fighting chance.
Flaring Pain can be used to stop them from trying to Fog/Moment's Peace in a racing situation.
As you can see, our options are fairly limited in this matchup and not even guaranteed to work.
Cards to take out: Death Spark, Sparksmith, other spot removal
Since most of their creatures are hexproof (other than Aura Gnarlid) spot removal like Death Spark won't do much, and Sparksmith will be mostly a 2 mana 1/1. Keeping in some Bolts to throw at their face is reasonable and you probably want to keep in at least a few Sparksmiths just to trigger your Conscripts/Cohorts but for the most part these will be your weakest cards in the matchup.
Cards to be aware of: Moment's Peace/Fog, Standard Bearer
Moment's Peace/Fog can let them race you. The only real counter to this is Flaring Pain which may just be too situational to warrant sideboard slots, but if you do play them then go ahead and bring them in.
Standard Bearer isn't something I'd expect them to bring in against us, but if they do it does turn off our Sledders/Raiders so that's at least something to be aware of incase they do bring them in.
General Discussion and Strategies:
Elves
Overall Match Up Analysis: Even (50%)
Elves is a tribal aggro/combo deck that looks to capitalize on a critical mass of mana creatures to quickly fill the board and cast Distant Melody to find even more elves. While Goblins possesses a lot of pinpoint removal and Sparksmith which are all very effective against Elves, they still possess a number of annoying cards for Goblins and in any sort of drawn-out game they are likely favored.
Cards to bring in: Electrickery, Flame Jab
Electrickery is obviously very strong against a deck filled with x/1 creatures such as Elves. The one downside is that it gets completely shut off if they play a Spidersilk Armor but the upside of killing 2+ Elves is strong enough that the downside of it being turned off is worthwhile I find. Even just killing the first two Elves they play with it can be a pretty big setback for them.
Flame Jab is likewise quite strong at picking off their manadorks and other numerous x/1 creatures and can even go to the face or kill a larger Elf if necessary.
Cards to take out: Death Spark
I usually swap Death Spark for Electrickery straight-up. Both get negated by Spidersilk Armor, but Electrickery can straight-up blow them out while Death Spark is better when you’re trying to be the grindy deck (which you shouldn’t be here).
For additional space, some number of Mogg War Marshals, Denizens, or Sledders/Raiders can also go. I find you generally want to stay aggressive in this match up though so you should only be boarding out a few creatures at most.
Cards to be aware of: Moment’s Peace, Spidersilk Armor, Viridian Longbow
Moment’s Peace is probably the biggest one here. Do your best to avoid playing a Bushwhacker into it, other than that there’s not a lot you can do unless you run Flaring Pain.
Spidersilk Armor is often maindeck anyways, but if they don’t have it maindeck they’re almost certainly boarding it in against a deck with access to Electrickery. Not a lot you can do about it, just try to get them low before it becomes an issue. The extra toughness is a real pain in the neck for Goblins to deal with.
Longbow is another card that gives them inevitability. You can potentially sideboard artifact hate for it, but it’s usually the only artifact they have (and only 1 or 2 copies) so that’s probably not a strategy you want to take. Just realize you’re the aggro deck and do your best to win before Longbow ever becomes relevant.
General Discussion and Strategies:
This matchup is usually a close one I find. Elves has a lot of annoying creatures for Goblins to play against, but at the same time they’re prone to starts that don’t accomplish much against our deck and they can also be picked apart by spot removal and/or Sparksmith at times to. To hammer the point home, they have the inevitability here so you want to keep aggressive draws as much as possible. An ideal hand is probably something with a few 2/2s, a removal spell, a Sparksmith, another 1 drop and a couple of lands.
Burn
Overall Match Up Analysis: Even (50%)
Much like its Legacy and Modern counterparts, Pauper Burn is more or less a combo-deck trying to throw as many 3-4 damage burn spells at the opponent’s face as quickly as possible. Because of the fast clock Burn presents, this match up will often come down to racing situations and winning the die-roll can be a pretty big advantage for either side.
Cards to bring in: Sylvok Lifestaff, Flame Jab
Sylvok Lifestaff is an obvious card to bring in as it really trivializes their strategy of trying to chuck 3 damage burn spells at your face when you have Lifestaff in play with a sac Goblin that can trigger it freely. It’s possible that they bring in Smash to Smithereens to blow it up, but at most you’ll have 1 or 2 Lifestaffs so if they want to do that it’s not the end of the world.
Flame Jab is mostly just to give you something to do with excess lands, it’s not necessary in this match up by any means though.
Cards to take out: Sparksmith, Chain Lightning
Against a deck that’s trying to burn you out using Sparksmith is a bit of a foolhardy plan. In addition to that, they don’t usually run any more than 12 creatures (4 of which are Keldon Marauders) so it has a minimal effect at best.
Chain Lightning can be a liability at times since they can Chain it back at you (giving them a free burn spell isn’t really ideal).
Cards to be aware of: Martyr of Ashes, Electrickery, Staggershock
Martyr of Ashes is their best way to blow you out after sideboarding, so be sure to play around it as much as you reasonably can. If they’re suspiciously doing nothing on their first few turns then that could well mean they’re saving spells to reveal with a turn 3 Martyr.
Electrickery is not nearly as effective as Martyr against us but it’s still something to be aware of. Try to keep a Sledder/Raider around before you commit too many 1 toughness guys to the board.
Staggershock is another spell that can net them a 2-for-1, while also being able to just go to the face for 4 damage. Something to keep in mind if they try to target one of your creatures is that if the spell doesn’t resolve it won’t get to rebound. Meaning that if they target one of your goblins then you need only sacrifice it to a Sledder/Raider to stop it from coming back a second time.
General Discussion and Strategies:
This match up can be pretty die-roll dependent. Both decks are very capable of fast starts, though Burn will more-so assume the control role after sideboarding. The most important thing is knowing when to be aggressive and when to be wary of your life total when playing this match up.
Kuldotha Jeskai/Boros
Overall Matchup Analysis: Slightly Unfavorable (45-50%)
Like MBC, Kuldotha decks play out as midrange value strategies looking to one-for-one their opponent and pull ahead with 2-for-1 creatures like Kor Skyfisher. However unlike MBC, these decks tend to have a lot more lifegain as well as cheaper removal via several 1 mana burn spells. The deck’s namesake card Kuldotha Rebirth can be especially problematic for Goblins to fight through. While sometimes a tough matchup, the deck is prone to some slow starts and if they stumble then Goblins is well positioned to punish them.
Cards to bring in:: Gorilla Shaman, Smash to Smithereens, Flaring Pain, Raze
Artifact hate is pretty strong against Kuldotha strategies, though not quite as back breaking as it is for Affinity. Since they usually run 8 artifact lands, Gorilla Shaman can set back their mana quite significantly depending on their draw. Smash to Smithereens likewise can act as a Stone Rain effect, or it can destroy a Prophetic Prism, disrupting their mana fixing and their card advantage engine.
Flaring Pain is an answer to Circle of Protection: Red which some lists sideboard in.
Since they play Ravnica bouncelands like Boros Garrison Raze can be a reasonable card against them, effectively setting them back on 2 land drops.
You could potentially sideboard in Pyroblast against the Jeskai versions, but it’s overall probably not worth it due to them only having Mulldrifters and maybe some Dispels to target.
Cards to take out: Death Spark
Death Spark only has Goblin tokens and possibly Lone Missionary as targets so it’s not a particularly strong card.
You can also shave a Sledder/Raider or two since they have trouble attacking into Goblin tokens but since Kuldotha usually boards in Electrickery you still want some of these to help defend against it.
Cards to be aware of: Electrickery, Circle of Protection: Red
As is often the case for red decks, Electrickery is a common sideboard card you should expect to see. Some lists even have a copy in their maindeck!
Circle of Protection: Red is something you can swarm around if you get them low enough and/or constrain their mana with artifact hate.
General discussion and strategies:
Overall this matchup can be tough at times as they have a lot of lifegain lands and Lone Missionaries which make them tough to burn out. In addition they have an abundance of cheap removal and Kuldotha Rebirth can function as a 3-for-1 against us. Due to running a number of tap lands to fix their mana however, their deck is prone to some slow starts so while it’s not an easy matchup it’s definitely winnable if we get off to a quick start.
The Mirror
Overall Matchup Analysis: Even (50%)
So what happens when we're forced to fight amongst ourselves? Usually the case is that the Goblins mirror match is straight-up war of attrition with Goblins dying left and right and games often dragging on long.
Cards to bring in: Flame Jab, Sylvok Lifestaff, Death Spark,Electrickery, Martyr of Ashes
Flame Jab is one of the best ways to get ahead in the Goblins mirror. Whoever draws more lands will usually be at a disadvantage, however the fact that Flame Jab ensures that every land you draw is at worst a 1 damage spell will put you considerably ahead.
Lifestaff is important here to ensure you won't get burned out in a war of attrition. Lifestaffing up your Goblins will make it incredibly difficult for your opponent to race you and also leads to some pretty ridiculous life totals if both sides have one.
Death Spark while probably not quite as good as Flame Jab still has a lot of value here, letting you pick off their Sledders and Raiders.
Electrickery is fine but you shouldn't expect it to be more than a 1-for-1 trade most of the time.
Martyr of Ashes can lead to pretty big blowouts against the unprepared.
Cards to take out: Sparksmith, Chain Lightning
Sparksmith is pretty much at his worst here as he counts all Goblins, not just your own. This means that every activation is going to take huge chunks out of your life total and unless you're already way ahead you usually can't afford this in the mirror. In addition he's a 2 mana 1/1 which is a terrible rate if you're on the defensive and not great on offence either.
Chain Lightning is only good early in the mirror as late game they will very likely have extra mana to Chain it back at you.
Cards to be aware of: See "cards to bring in"
General Discussion and Strategies
-There is some argument to be on the draw in the mirror since it's so based on attrition, however I generally trend towards being on the play as a start of multiple 2/2s can be very difficult to beat on the draw, especially if you don't draw your own 2/2s.
-Flame Jab is by far the best trump for the mirror. If you really want to have an edge in the mirror then bringing in some number of these will give you just that. The easiest way to lose the mirror is by flooding/running out of spells, and drawing Flame Jab ensures that will never happen to you. If you board in Flame Jab it's usually correct not to play out anymore than 3 or 4 land and hold the rest in hand in anticipation of drawing Flame Jab. We don't have any expensive spells so the extra lands aren't doing anything for us in play.
-If your opponent is playing the early turns suspiciously (i.e not playing guys out) then they could very well be running Martyr of Ashes in their list.
-Mogg War Marshal is among the best cards you can draw in the mirror. As I said the mirror is largely about attrition and what better than a card that can act as a 3-for-1?
-By this token it's possible the lists running Goblin Matron can get an edge in the mirror by way of having tutor effects for War Marshal. The Matron is however a 3 mana 1/1 and spending your turn to cast one could be risky if you are already behind on board and require more than just a 1/1.
-Be careful if you start trying to race as a Goblin Bushwhacker can quickly swing the race out of your favor.
-If you're on the defensive you generally want to be trading whenever possible so as to limit the number of Goblins they have in play to Bushwhack you with.
-While siding in artifact hate for opposing Lifestaffs might seem like a good idea you probably shouldn't bother. Lifestaff will be your only target so if they don't draw it you'll end up with a dead card boarding in Smash to Smithereens or a sub-optimal creature boarding in Gorilla Shaman/Goblin Tinkerer.
Overall the mirror leads to some very grindy, attrition-based games. Flame Jab is the best way to gain an edge and Lifestaff can help you survive when you're on the backfoot, however as with most mirrors it will be fairly draw-dependent and sometimes they will draw 3 Mogg War Marshals over the course of a game while you see none. That's just the way it goes sometimes.
1x Teetering Peak
4x Goblin Cohort
4x Mogg Conscripts
4x Goblin Sledder
4x Mogg Raider
4x Goblin Arsonist
4x Mogg Fanatic
1x Jackal Familiar
4x Goblin Bushwhacker
4x Mogg War Marshal
2x Sparksmith
1x Chain Lightning
3x Death Spark
4x Pyroblast
4x Raze
2x Sylvok Lifestaff
2x Goblin Tinker
2x Sparksmith
1x Ingot Chewer
4x Goblin Cohort
4x Mogg Conscripts
4x Goblin Sledder
4x Mogg Raider
4x Jackal Familiar
4x Goblin Bushwhacker
4x Sparksmith
4x Mogg War Marshal
3x Mogg Flunkies
4x Chain Lightning
3x Electrickery
3x Flame Jab
3x Gorilla Shaman
3x Pyroblast
2x Smash to Smithereens
4x Goblin Cohort
4x Mogg Conscripts
4x Goblin Sledder
4x Mogg Raider
4x Foundry Street Denizen
4x Goblin Bushwhacker
3x Goblin Arsonist
4x Sparksmith
4x Mogg War Marshal
2x Chain Lightning
2x Death Spark
2x Electrickery
2x Flame Slash
3x Gorilla Shaman
3x Pyroblast
1x Sylvok Lifestaff
2x Flaring Pain
2x Smash to Smithereens
Watch Channel Fireball's own Pauper connoisseur Chris Davis run a (somewhat unconventional) Goblins list through a Daily Event:
http://www.channelfireball.com/videos/channel-cdavis-pauper-daily-event-25/#1
Another Goblins Daily Event by Chris Davis, this time featuring Foundry Street Denizen:
http://www.channelfireball.com/videos/channel-cdavis-pauper-daily-event-26/#1
Compiled data from Pauper Daily Events and the cards played by the most popular archetypes:
http://www.mtgo-stats.com/stats/Pauper
Goblins Page on MTGO Stats. Check here for decklists and to see what the most popular cards for the archetype are:
http://www.mtgo-stats.com/archetypes/Pauper/R2
Pauper's Cage Podcast. Specifically check out Pauper's Cage #2 which discusses Goblins. The information is somewhat dated but still useful:
http://www.mtgcast.com/topics/mtgcast-podcast-shows/active-podcast-shows/pauper-cage-podcast
Alex Ullman (SCG Pauper Writer) on Goblins:
http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/misc/24834-Goblins-In-Pauper.html
Also, now that I've read everything - great job! I love the matchup analyses. If you want even more work, I can see a couple more that need analysis:
1 - Temporal Storm decks - Raze seems great (especially against the enchant land version), Sparksmith seems good especially against the familiar version; try to use instant speed removal to blank out their snap/flicker plays on their Cloud of Faeries (or should you just shoot it at their face and try to kill them before they go off?).
2 - The G/W Auras deck - I have a hard time seeing how this is not an auto-loss. Raze to mana screw them, electrickery to knock out their dudes before they get big, and just hope they don't get a big untargetable guy with first strike, trample, and lifelink out there?
Thanks! You are right about the Shaman for some reason I thought he could hit anything given enough mana (not that the 15 mana to kill an Enforcer would ever happen though).
As for the other decks, I didn't add them originally as they aren't overly common opponents but if there's interest I can discuss the matchups. Temporal Storm I haven't played very much but indeed Raze seems like it should be strong against them (especially the U/G version that puts auras on their lands). Whether you want to hit their Cloud of Faeries or burn their face will mostly come down to the situation I would think.
G/W Hexproof is indeed a terrible matchup. You pretty much just have to race them and hope they don't draw Armadillo Cloak. The other auras are manageable but an Armadillo Cloaked guy is pretty tough to race. Electrickery can possibly work but I wouldn't count on it (especially when they're on the play and can just go 1/1->Etheral Armor, blanking Electrickery before you hit overload mana). I do still board my Electrickerys in for 2 Death Spark and a Sparksmith but it doesn't always work. Raze might be an okay idea since even just keeping them off white mana by killing their Utopia Sprawled land would go a long way for our chances. Martyr of Ashes might be a potential answer if the deck becomes popular. She has the potential for a lot more damage than our other sweepers and can possibly kill their Hexproof guys before they go too big. The downside obviously being she'll kill our own guys too but if we have her in our deck we can at least play around that.
4x Foundry Street Denizen
4x Goblin Cohort
4x Mogg Conscripts
4x Goblin Sledder
4x Mogg Raider
3x Jackal Familiar
4x Goblin Bushwhacker
4x Mogg War Marshal
4x Sparksmith
2x Chain Lightning
2x Death Spark
3x Pyroblast
3x Electrickery
2x Gorilla Shaman
2x Flame Jab
2x Flame Slash
3x Smash to Smithereens
I've written a tournament report on the event for anyone interested in how the deck performed which you can see in the spoiler tags below.
This is certainly not the deck I want to be sitting across from in round 1 (or any round really) but you gotta make the most of it. I win the die roll and choose to go first (duh!) keeping a hand of 3x mountain, 2x Mogg Conscripts, 1x Jackal Familiar, 1x Death Spark. Not the absolute nuts but a very good opener to be sure. I lead with a Conscripts and pass. My opponent plays Great Furnace into Galvanic Blast on my guy and we're clear on who is playing what. I draw Mountain and drop my other two 1 drops. I really can't afford to draw many more lands at this point. My opponent spends his second turn paying 2 life to play a Porcelain Legionnaire (a very odd choice) which fortunately for me matches up poorly with the Deathspark in my hand. I rip Sparksmith and get to Spark his guy and play the Sparksmith to attack for 4. My opponent plays Frogmite and passes back. I draw a second Sparksmith and go for the kill with my first Sparksmith when I untap but my opponent has a Fling to throw it at the 'Smith. Not really a big deal as I play the second and swing for 4 again. My opponent plays Disciple and passes with 1 card in hand (probably a land I would guess). I get to rebuy my Death Spark and clear the Disciple out of the way + swing for 3 (no creature for the Conscripts) knocking my opponent to 7. My opponent draws and concedes.
Sideboarding:
+2 Flame Slash, +2 Gorilla Shaman, +3 Smash to Smithereens
-2 Death Spark, -2 Chain Lightning, -2 Jackal Familiar, -1 Sparksmith
Obviously the Shaman and Smash are great here but I really like Flame Slash too as their 4/4s are very real problems. Ideally I want to hold it for a Carapace Forger since Smash can kill the Enforcer but not him, though using it on Enforcer is fine too. Taking out Death Spark might seem like a surprise since he's already shown me Porcelain Legionnaire and Disciple, however I'm expecting that he'll be boarding the Legionnaire out since he can't really afford the life loss against me and Disciple isn't really a card I need to kill (it only becomes a problem when they play Atog beside it and Atog is already a problem regardless).
Game 2 I keep 3 lands, Bolt, Gorilla Shaman, Conscripts, and Sledder. Not amazing but an okay hand and if by some rare chance he has no removal then the Gorilla could mise a win. He plays a land and a Chromatic Star and passes. I draw a mountain and play Conscripts. He plays a second land, a Prismatic Lens, and then a free Frogmite. I draw a second Bolt. Now I have a few lines this turn. Ultimately I decided to kill his Frogmite with a Bolt and play Sledder to swing for 2. Alternatively I could have played the Gorilla, swung for 2 and blown up a land. The disadvantage to this is he might trade and then I have very little offence left however it also has the advantage of possibly keeping him off a Myr Enforcer next turn (effectively taking 2 mana away from him casting it). I felt the damage was more important in this case and I could always just blow up two lands next turn and find another way to kill an Enforcer. He thoughtcasted and then did have the Enforcer annoyingly enough. I untapped, drew a mountain and cast Mox Monkey, blowing up two of his lands afterwards and passing. It's possible I could have attacked and offered the two-for-one trade of one of my guys and Bolt if he blocked but I didn't feel like that was ideal. He untapped and played land into Krark Clan Shaman sacking 2 lands, and the Star to do 3 to everything leaving me in a pretty bad spot with an empty board staring down Myr Enforcer (which attacked me to 16). I drew a Mogg Raider which I played and passed with the plan of trading it + my Bolt for the Enforcer. My opponent attacked and I snap blocked which I don't believe he was expecting. He Galvanic Blasted my Goblin after I blocked (realizing I must have had a Bolt). Not that I minded as my Goblin effectively gained me 8 life there. I drew a Goblin Sledder and ran it out there. My opponent was wise to my plans this time and Galvanic Blasted the Sledder before blocks and got in for 4 My opponent was stuck on 1 land (after I had killed two and he sacked two) so I did still have some hope. I drew Mogg Conscripts and played it hoping that the 3rd time would be the charm. It was in fact the charm as this time I finally got to 2-for-1 myself to get the Enforcer off the table. I untapped and drew Flame Slash (a little too late deck!) and passed. My opponent drew nothing relevant and passed. I played a Cohort, opponent played a Star. I drew a DEnizen next and got in for 2. Things started to unravel now as my opponent hit his land drop and cast CArapace Forger. I untapped, Flame Slashed it and played another Denizen to get in for 4. My opponent untapped, played a 3rd land and vomited out a couple of meaningless artifacts along with another enforcer. I drew Conscripts and played it plus passed. In hindsight it may have been right to get in for 4 and brick one of my guys (bringing my opponent to 8). My opponent attacked me to 8 (I opted not to block, playing to Bushwhacker as my out) and dropped double Atog. I drew a land and decided to scoop em up knowing both Atogs would have to be chumped just for me to survive another turn.
Game 3 I kept 3 lands, Sledder, Sparksmith, War Marshal and Flame Slash. Not the most ideal hand but I can answer his first 4/4 and it has a lot of room to become insane with a Bushwhacker being drawn. I play Sledder and my opponent follows up with a Star. I drop the Sparksmith (drawing a mountain) and smash for 1 while my opponent spends his next turn thoughtcasting. I draw another Sparksmith but opt to play the War Marshal to get more bodies on the board and hit for 2. My opponent Thoughtcasts again and then plays a Krark Clan Shaman (popping his Star to do so). I pay the echo on my Marshal and draw a land. I can try to force him to use the Shaman here but I opt instead to just swing all-out and see what he does - he just takes it. As playing more guys out is a bad idea I just pass back. He plays a Star and a Myr Enforcer, bashes me for 1 and then decides to use his Shaman (sacking 3 artifacts. After some consideration I decide to save my Sparksmith (I could only save one Goblin total). My opponent plays a Frogmite leaving me with a sole Sparksmith staring down his 4/4 and 2/2. I untap, draw a Conscripts and cast it. I then Flame Slash his Enforcer and Sparksmith his Frog while he was tapped out. I could have played the second Sparksmith but opted not to both to play around another Shaman and to give me a creature for Conscripts next turn in case I bricked. My opponent played a Carapace Forger which actually wasn;t too bad as any Goblin off the top or a Lightning Bolt would allow me to gun it down. I ended up drawing Bushwhacker and went all-in, playing the second Sparksmith, the Bushwhacker, Smithing his guy and swinging in for 7 bringing him down to 6. My opponent played just a Myr Enforcer and passed back and I could smell the blood in the water at this point. I ripped a Raider, Sparksmithed his guy down, played the Raider and bashed in with Conscripts, Whacker and the other Smith. As he only had a Tree of Tales open I went for the kill, sacking the tapped Sparksmith and the Raider to bring my damage up to exactly lethal.
All-in-all some close games. I've actually been faring fairly well against Affinity lately despite how bad of a matchup I think it should be but I think that's both due to a lot of experience playing against them, a lot of sideboard hate (many people don't play Flame Slash at all but I lean on it here) and some good draws on my part.
Round 2 vs Mono-Blue Delver
I lose the die roll and keep 1 land along with 2x Cohort, Sledder, Sparksmith, Bushwhacker, and War Marshal. This is a hand I would generally keep in the dark with this deck, especially on the draw. It has the potential to just sputter out but you have a few turns to hit a land drop and if you do you have some very good cards in Sparksmith, War Marshal and Bushwhacker to catch you up. My opponent leads with turn 1 Preordain leading me to believe he's either Delver or a Post deck. Either way my play doesn't change. I rip the 2nd land right away to take away any sweat I was feeling and drop a Conscripts. My opponent plays a Cloud of Faeries and passes, revealing himself to be Mono-Blue Delver. I draw a Conscripts. Suspecting a Spellstutter Sprite I opt to just play out a Sledder to bait it out as Spellstutter was getting me eventually this game regardless and I considered it my least valuable card at this point. My opponent did indeed have the Spellstutter (they always do!) but I shrugged it off, swinging for 2 and playing a second Cohort (though in hindsight this was incorrect - I should have played the Conscripts to play around Echoing Truth which he could be running). My opponent played another cloud, bashed me for 2 and played a Phantasmal Bear (missing his 3rd land drop). I drew another War Marshal and decided to get the Sparksmith down while his only counters could be Daze or Force Spike. He had neither. I opted only to send in one Cohort as I wanted to keep my life total high enough to use Sparksmith so I wanted to block his bear. He ended up blocking and trading so maybe that was incorrect (I could have killed the bear for free with Sparksmith next turn but would have taken 5 to do so, so who knows). My opponent had a Vapor Snag at end of turn on the Smith anyways. He bashed me for 3 in the air and passed with UU open. I drew another Bushwhacker and played the Conscripts which oddly resolved. I swung for 2 and opted to play an unkicked Bushwhacker. The rationale being that my opponent was trying to race me so I just needed to get as many bodies down as possible (also the second Bushwhacker made this decision easier). My opponent pulled the trigger on Counterspell now but I can;t say I was upset he countered my 1/1 instead of my 2/2. My opponent preordained into a 3rd land, bashed me for 3 (lifetotals 11 to 16 in his favor) and passed with UU up again. I drew a Raider and opted to play a War Marshal (since I had two of them) that was quickly met with a Counterspell. I bashed for 4 and passed. My opponent attacked for 3, played a Bear and passed with UU up again. I drew a third land and opted to go for the Raider which resolved. I sacked the raider to kill the Bear and swung for 4. I opted to play a second War Marshal (just to get as many bodies on the board as possible) which again met a counter. Opponent bashed me to 5 with three mana open and passed with 1 card in hand. I drew Marshal number 3 and slammed it down. My opponent had no response this time and I swung in for 4. My opponent untapped and drew before scooping to my board.
Sideboarding:
+3 Pyroblast, +2 Flame Slash, +2 Smash to Smithereens
-2 Chain Lightning, -3 Jackal Familiar, -1 War Marshal, -1 Mogg Raider
I opted to play more of a defensive game on the draw as he had shown in game 1 he wasn't afraid to try and race me. The Slashes are in for Weirds and Spire Golems (both hard to answer cards) while the Smashes hit Spire Golem and any Serrated Arrows that might find their way in.
I kept a hand of 1 land, Sledder, 2x War Marshal, Death Spark, Flame Slash and Bushwhacker. This isn't the most ideal hand but I do like having removal for a turn 1 Delver so I kept. My opponent had no turn 1 play so I got to draw and cast a Conscripts before my opponent EOT Brainstormed. My opponent played a second land and passed back. I drew a mountain which was pretty much the perfect draw here as it allowed me to play around Spellstutter Sprite. I cast Sledder and indeed my opponent had the Sprite which I quickly dealt with using Death Spark to save my Sledder. I got in for 2 with Conscripts and my opponent spent his third turn casting Spire Golem.
I drew a 3rd War Marshal and opted to play one of them instead of Flame Slashing the Golem as it used my mana better and I didn't mind trading the War Marshal plus his tokens for Spire Golem. My opponent indeed blocked my Sledder and I didn't hesitate to snap the trade off of War Marshal + 2 tokens for it. My opponent had Frostburn Weird but no land next turn. I drew a second Raider and this time opted to Flame Slash the Weird down and cast the Raider to get in for 3. My Conscripts got snagged so it only turned out to be 1. My opponent untapped and killed a Raider with Piracy Charm before Preordaining into land 4. I continued to ignore the Death Spark in my grave as my mana was too tied up at the moment and no x/1s were present anyways. I drew a third land and ran out War Marshal to play around Spellstutter Sprite and passed. My opponent passed with 4 lands open. I paid the echo on War Marshal and cast another War Marshal. My opponent evidently had nothing and decided to scoop.
Round 3 vs UGr Kaervek's Torch Post
I lost the die roll and kept 3 lands, Conscripts, Cohort, Familiar, and Sparksmith, a very good hand!. My opponent lead with Cloudpost narrowing the deck he was playing (to some extent). I drew a 4th land and cast a Cohort. My opponent played an island and a Prism leading me to believe he was just plain old U/R post at the time. I dropped my other 2/2s after drawing Death Spark and attacked for 2. My opponent dropped two Expedition Maps and then a Chromatic Star. The Maps aren't too uncommon, but the Star was weird and definitely indicated he wasn't just U/R post. I drew Sparksmith, played it, bashed for 6 and passed. My opponent played Glimmerpost, gaining a few life, and now dropped two Chromatic Spheres so now I really knew something weird was going on. I drew another Conscripts and bashed my opponent down to 7 but he now started searching up Glimmerposts with his maps. He played yet another map so now he could get all 4 GLimmerposts. He played another Star (and had been cycling the orbs and Stars all this time) and gained 3 off a post and passed with Cloudpost up. I drew a 3rd Sparksmith, cast it, and bashed my opponent to 1. I made what a mistake here trying to finish him with Death Spark and he just tapped Cloudpost for 3, made a blue with Prism and Flickered two Glimmerposts to go up to 7. Had I waited it's possible he would have went for it end step (though it's also possible he wouldn't to play around Bolt) so casting it mainphase was wrong I think. The game pretty well slid out of my reach at this point as he played a bunch of card draw through Mulldrifters and Compulsive Researches to find more Glimmerposts and just survive my attacks. It also didn't help that I bricked on creatures for a few consecutive turns meaning my Cohort and 2 Conscripts missed some attack steps. He finally got to enough mana and torched me for 15 (I took 5 earlier to Sparksmith a Mulldrifter) to put me out of my misery (but not before revealing a forest and crop rotation).
Sideboarding:
+3 Pyroblast
-2 Death Spark, -1 Sparksmith
I still wasn't completely sure if his plan revolved solely around Torch but I figured just bringing in Pyroblast would be sufficient. As he showed me green I suspected he would be bringing in Moment's Peace against me.
Game 2 I kept with 3 lands, Denizen, Cohort, Raider, and Sparksmith. I dropped Denizen first to maximize my damage. Next turn I dropped both Cohort and RAider (drawing another Raider for the turn) and hit for 3. My opponent was off to a slow start with just a Post turn 1 and then an expedition map on turn 2 which he couldn't even crack yet. I drew a War Marshal (ding!) and played it plus the Raider to get in for 7 (remember, the goblin token pumps Denizen too!). My opponent played tapped a tapped Cloudpost and passed with a forest and a post open (hmmm!). I opted not to pay the echo on War Marshal and instead sac it to pump a guy and pump the Denizen. I drew a second Denizen, played it and bashed with just Sparksmith in my hand now and my opponent cast a very expected Moment's Peace after I sacked the summoning sick token to go for lethal. My opponent untapped, played an Island and evoked a Mulldrifter before passing. I drew another DEnizen, cast it, and forced the Moment's Peace flashback. My opponent mapped for a Glimmerpost to go up to 13 and then cycled two cycling lands leaving just two mana open. I drew Bushwhacker, cast it and swung and my opponent had nothing and died.
I didn't really see anything new so I kept my deck the same and went to game 3. I kept a hand of mountain, Conscripts, Raider, Ramiliar, War marshal, Chain Lightning, and Pyroblast. I ripped a Denizen on my first draw step and opted to play him with the hope of drawing a second land. I did in fact hit my second land and got to play both my 2/2s and hit for 3. My opponent had only played lands and cantripping artifacts when he passed back for my 3rd turn. I drew a Bushwhacker but opted to play Raider and leave open Pyroblast, attacking for 6. My opponent untapped, thought for a bit and went cast Fade Away (!). I certainly am aware of the card's existence in the format but was not really expecting it out of him. He also had a blue mana open which represented a possible Hydroblast but I didn't have any choice but to go for the Pyroblast as I would lose almost everything otherwise. Luckily my opponent didn't have it and the day was saved. I untapped dropped Bushwhacker and went for the kill. My opponent cycled a Star making green (looking for a Fog maybe?) but didn't hit and died to my lethal attack.
This was an interesting Post deck to play against and something I'll take note of for the future.
Round 4 vs U/B Cloudpost Temporal Storm
I won the die roll and kept a hand of 3x Denizen, Sledder, 3x land. A hand like this seems like something that can get out of control fast. I lead with a Denizen and opponent had a turn 1 post (again leading me to believe he was U/R Post...I always expect that deck first when I see a Post). I draw Bolt and play Denizen and Sledder to play around a turn 2 Electrickery. This was perhaps a mistake looking back as really keeping one guy around probably wasn't going to make much of a difference compared to the (at least) 1 damage I was throwing away by not playing the 3rd Denizen. If he kills 2 of my guys I was already in a poor position to win anyways so I think I should have just moved in. My opponent had a map next turn making me wonder if I was facing the same deck as round 3 again. I drew a 2nd Bolt, played the other Denizen and bashed for 5. My opponent fetched island, played sea-gate oracle and passed. I end step killed the oracle, drew Conscripts and attacked for 7. Opponent had a second gLimmerpost and Mulldrifter now which I bolted, unfortunately I bricked on a creature and only got to hit for 4 to bring him to 6. My opponent played swamp and Nightscape Familiar revealing his true identity. He then went for a Snap on My Conscripts but sadly messed up on untapping his lands and scooped. He showed me a hand of Foresee, Snap and two Temporal Fissure along with maybe another card I'm forgetting. By the looks of it he could have at least bounced most of my creatures and maybe a land. In hindsight I think I should have sacked the Conscripts since my opponent was on just a Glimmerpost for mana at that point so I could prevent any potential combo shenanigans this turn by not letting him untap and drawing any goblin would give me a lethal attack next turn anyways, even without the Conscripts.
Sideboarding:
+3 Pyroblast
-2 Chain Lightning, -1 Mogg War Marshal
I want to keep in ways to interact with their Cloud of Faeries and other Flicker targets so I want Death Spark and Sparksmith here.
I mull a hand of 2 land, Familiar, 2x Bushwhacker, 2x Bolt. This hand seemed way too slow to me to have a chance and any disruption could prevent the Familiar from getting to attack even though Familiar into Whacker would be 5 damage on turn 2. I can see some arguments to keeping this but it didn't seem good enough to me. my 6 card hand had no lands so I had to send that back too before I settled on a 5 of Raider, War Marshal, Bushwhacker, and 2 lands. Not the best but this could at least curve into a lot of damage fast. I curved Raider into War Marshal and opted to pay the echo before drawing a another War Marshal. My opponent spent his early turns doing little of relevance to me - playing Prophetic Prisms and tapped Cloudposts + an Aqueduct. My turn 4 I played the second War Marshal into the Bushwhacker and smashed my down to a mere 4 life (not bad for a mull to 5 I must say!). My opponent untapped, evoked a Mulldrifter and Snapped it to his hand in response to the sack trigger (this time managing to untap his lands), however even with the 4 mana this generated he apparently had nothing and conceded.
Conclusion: I really like the explosive draws that the Denizen gives this deck. Attacking for 3 on turn 2 is obviously quite good and he can do that with a high level of consistency for us. I feel like the Denizen has definitely earned his keep and will continue to use him in the near future. The fact that he makes you somewhat more vulnerable to Electrickery is unfortunate but I think his upside out-weighs this drawback. The 3 Jackal Familiars are the slots I'm really debating over at this point. I do still like the Jackal quite a bit but also considered Goblin Arsonist as well here. Jackal being a 2/2 gives you some explosive draws but Arsonist actually being a Goblin and possible removal spell are good things too. Jackal can also be awkward at times like in that hand I mulled in round 4. I'll have to keep testing but I'm not sure yet either way. Round 4 game 1 was a bit unfortunate as things didn't really play out properly for my opponent with the MtGO interface screwing him out of possibly combo-ing off (and also my poor choice of not sacking the Conscripts) but the rest of the games went pretty well and I was mostly happy with how I played and sideboarded. Overall I learned some useful things and earned another 4-0 for the Goblin horde in the process so I am pretty pleased with the results!
Yeah Tarfire seems like a fine silver-bullet for the Matron decks. It's obviously not powerful on its own but the ability to let your Matrons fetch up a removal spell or direct damage spell is pretty useful to have access too.
It cannot as Fallen Empires was never released online and the only online releases of Goblin Grenade have been as an uncommon in M12 and Masters Edition. The closest comparable card we have is Reckless Abandon which sees some minor play in some lists.
Aniway, just to talk about my experience with this deck, i did 4/5 tournaments since now with about 10/15 people each time. I always reached top4 and two times i won. I play the aggressive list (without matron)with 3 mogg flunkies in the flex slots and 4 lightning bolts, 2 chain lightning and 4 goblin grenades as removal ( i will now replace the grenades with two more chain lightnings and 2 fireblast/reckless abandon). I think the aggressive list is just better because for a deck running only 16/18 lands is often difficult to reach three lands. I personally run 18 lands also without matron because i find difficult to keep one land hands... our strenght is to play multiple threats every turn so we absolutely want at least two lands ( aniway i sometimes keep 1 land hoping to draw another one).
My metagame consist of cloudpost , faeries, U/R kiln fiend combo,affinity and monoblack. Kiln Fiend is an easy matchup because they have few creatures to hit and we have a lot of removal.... an active sparkmith often is game. Monoblack too is easy , while posts and faeries are always difficult... we absolutely need to race and win early or we lose. I would describe these two matchups as quite unfavourable ( 40 %). Affinity is obviously difficult but really everytime i drew a gorilla shaman i won... just hope to see him and, even if they have removal, destroying one-two lands in the early game can be lethal for them.
Recently, due to my very good performances a lot of player started to play g/w auras. This is not an easy matchup, but i found that we can race them a lot of times. they have slow starts because they also need to fix their mana... and if they don't see an armadillo cloak or other lifelink auras the games is very very easy.... if they manage to attack with a lifelink beast then we can never kill them. Sweepers are fine here.... i prefer martyr of ashes to elettrickery since the only flying creature they run is silhana and the martyr can kill also enchanted big creatures.
I end with a question: do you think that goblin offensive could be playable ? ( sorcery for one mana, you deal one damage to your opponent for each goblin in play) it doesn't target creatures but it can potentially do 4 and even more damages for only one mana.
Edit: why no one seem interested in this deck ? People, come and play goblins ! they are awesome in pauper like my results and results of big events show, in legacy where although they do not win often in the last years they are the only deck still alive from the beginning of the format, and even in edh where my krenko deck often stomps my opponents. Have some love for goblins !
Are you running Pyroblast in the sideboard to keep your blue opponents from doing whatever they feel like? It's not something you can really use in the early turns, when you need to be goblin-ing out as hard as possible, but it's the kind of thing you keep floating in your hand when you're trying to finish the game with beatdown.
Goblins are okay, but they're too easy to disrupt with creature removal, which is what Post does best. Stompy is usually better at surviving the kill spells, and occasionally profiting from them, i.e. Hunger of the Howlpack.
The reason goblins was killed off on MTGO and saw zero play in daily events was because the matchup was near unwinnable for goblins. This happened a couple months ago and has only recently got back some playability because Foundry Street Denizen was released and could give goblins an extra damage boost. But still the Post matchup is Horrid.
Your T1 dude won't live, they can sweep the board at instant speed and they maindeck those sweepers. They gain mass life by simply playing lands and they can restock their hands and teachings for more removal.
Fires :symr:f Salvation
Well, it depends on your shop's Pauper rules with regards to Grenades. If they're playing by the online legality list then yes the Grenades are not around but if they are not (you said others are playing commons from Fallen Empires, perhaps like Hymn to Tourach?) then they are fair game. If they're legal then obviously they're a very powerful finisher that can also double as removal for everything outside of Ulamog's Crusher.
I should mention that Silhanna Ledgewalker only has pseudo-flying it doesn't actually fly.
I don't think Goblin Offensive is really that good. Sure sometimes it might be the nuts 5+ damage for R but the fact that it only ever goes to the face is a big concern. Sometimes you will be in a war of attrition where you don't get to keep that many goblins around and it will be very bad or there will be a big creature you can't attack into that another burn spell could help you remove. If you want a finishing burn spell I'd suggest Fireblast or Reckless Abandon. Both can function as finishers but can also be used as removal in a pinch (at a cost of course).
I won't argue that Stompy has more resiliency to removal but to say Goblins are easy to disrupt with removal is pretty inaccurate. This is a deck that floods the board with creatures at a rapid pace and unless the Post deck is literally mono removal (not something I've seen often) it is difficult for them to keep up with Goblins making multiple creature drops per turn. Especially when they're spending the early turns casting draw/filter spells or playing tapped Cloudposts. There's also Sledder/Raider to mitigate Electrickery and Mogg War Marshal which offer some amount of resiliency for Goblins. A well-planned Bushwhacker turn will kill them out of nowhere too.
Cweaver explained it very well. Cloudpost certainly has their unbeatable draws against us but just as often (if not more) they are fumbling around trying to set up their mana and dig for their removal, etc. Goblins is a deck that puts them under the gun very quickly and any of this stumbling is severely punished. It is definitely not a horrid matchup as you suggest, and even before Foundry Street Denizen was released that was not the case (in fact there's an argument that Denizen makes us worse against them because we're more vulnerable to Electrickery by running it and it gets blocked by Sea-Gate Oracle). Also perhaps it might be more prudent for you to read what I wrote in the matchup analysis section rather than whether the match is slightly favored or unfavored or whatever. That's where the useful information is, the % numbers are something from my own personal experience (I find I beat Post more often than they beat me but the matchups are close) and may vary by player, but the stuff I've written in the analysis section is information that should be useful to everyone regardless of where they are with the deck.
Stingscourger is very bad at beating down, difficult to resolve if the opponent wants to stop him, and does little to stop a Post deck that has already reached inevitability. He has some peculiar advantages in a Goblin deck, by virtue of being a red goblin that dies to recover your Death Spark, but his abilities don't tie into the deck that well.
This as opposed to Legacy, where the Eldrazi you're bouncing usually came in on the back of a Show and Tell, and has Protection from Spot Removal.
Your best bet against post is, as always, to run faster.
4x Goblin Cohort
4x Mogg Conscripts
4x Goblin Sledder
4x Mogg Raider
4x Foundry Street Denizen
3x Goblin Arsonist
4x Goblin Bushwhacker
4x Mogg War Marshal
4x Sparksmith
2x Chain Lightning
2x Death Spark
3x Electrickery
3x Gorilla Shaman
3x Pyroblast
2x Flame Slash
1x Flame Jab
1x Sylvok Lifestaff
2x Smash to Smithereens
Main change from the last list being 3 Goblin Arsonists over 3 Jackal Familiars. I've really been digging the Arsonist in the current metagame with Delver and Stompy decks so highly represented. His synergy with the Sledders/Raiders has proved quite valuable in many of my matches of late and I was finding the Familiars a bit too unreliable for my liking recently. So far two 3-1s and a 4-0 in Daily Events since making this change so it's working out well thus far.
Other than that I just made some minor sideboard changes, swapping a Flame Jab to get a Lifestaff back in my list (I do like to have a single copy for the Stompy matchup and the mirror isn't all that common so the second Jab isn't as needed) and swapping a Smash to Smithereens for a third Gorilla Shaman as Affinity is very popular since the bannings and I never find myself siding in all 3 Smashes other than the Affinity matchup anyways, so might as well make the third copy a card that just gives me free wins against them instead.
Some good questions.
What I like about this deck? There are a lot of things but a lot is personal preference - I've always excelled at playing Red-based aggro and I'd consider Goblins the top red aggro deck in Pauper. I love beating down with a swarm of red creatures and then being able to kill my opponent off with burn if the creature plan doesn't get there. In addition to that, I like that the deck is capable of many insane nut draws and aggressive starts that can overwhelm pretty much any of the other top decks in the format. I like the extra redundancy the deck has being able to run essentially 8 copies of two of its cards (Cohort/Conscripts and Sledder/Raider). I like the amount of play cards like Sledder/Raider, and Death Spark give the deck. I like that the deck has "free win" cards in the form of Sparksmith, Goblin Bushwhacker, and Gorilla Shaman (out of the board). I also feel the deck is fairly well situated in a meta where the most played decks are U/R Post, Delver, Stompy, and Affinity. Post and Delver I both consider to be at least slightly favored matchups while Stompy is fairly even. Affinity is a somewhat poor matchup but having access to Gorilla Shaman post-board helps things out and the fact that they don't run any lifegain means you can often swarm them early and burn them out before they stabilize behind their 4/4s.
How much play is there to the deck? There's a ton in my opinion. A lot of it is from the Sledders/Raiders which give you many options. I won't go too much into detail about these guys (you can see what I said about them in the primer) but they are very versatile little dudes that give you many lines of play. In addition to this, sequencing your plays properly is incredibly important to succeeding with this deck, especially in the face of countermagic from decks like Delver and Post where you'll want to hold your Bushwhackers back until you know they'll resolve whenever possible. This also applies to the Conscripts/Cohorts who need you to cast a creature before they may attack. Because of this it is sometimes correct to hold back a creature in hand even if you have the mana to cast it as you might not be drawing an additional creature next turn. Speaking of Bushwhacker, while he just looks like a big damage guy, once you hit 4 mana he has some nice "hidden" utility in hasting up a Sparksmith to let it ping something right away (it actually comes up more often than you would think). There are also many seemingly minute decisions that actually matter a lot like whether or not to pay for the War Marshal's echo, whether to buyback Death Spark, etc that change depending on the situation. Speaking of Death Spark, this card does a ton of work and in the hands of a good player I think it's a very strong source of incremental card advantage that can really let you grind out damage. Anyways without rambling on too much, I will say that the deck has a lot of play to it and it's very rare I feel completely helpless with an average draw (the few times being vs G/W Hexproof when they get Armadillo Cloak on a dude and against Affinity when they have their nutdraw of flooding the board with 4/4s really early).
How versatile can it be in different metas? Well, you're right there's not a ton of wiggle room in the maindeck and being a mono-color deck sideboard options are somewhat limited. There is some room for change (Jackal Familiar vs Goblin Arsonist for instance, whether to run Mogg Flunkies, whether or not to go more top heavy for Goblin Matrons, how many Sparksmiths you run main, etc) but the overall gameplan will mostly always be the same and there's not a ton of room to deviate from it. I can't see the meta changing too drastically from where it is at the moment but say the meta were to change to a field full of Affinity, White Weenie, and G/W Hexproof for some reason the deck probably would become very bad as it just doesn't have the resources to be good against these decks on a consistent level.
It's been pretty good so far, count me in as impressed. I'm still a bit hesitant to consider it a must-run but at least in the current meta it has done well for me and being able to attack for 3 on turn 2 is pretty awesome. They're also pretty great to draw in multiples of course and pair well with War Marshals. It's not the greatest on defence which leads to me boarding some of them out at times and it's another 1 toughness dude that gets hit by Electrickery but overall I like it.
Fires :symr:f Salvation
You probably mean Fireblast. It seems like it's only good at exactly one point in the game, when you could probably win with 'more beatdown', and it's not something you can afford to have countered.
Meanwhile, Goblins' best removal for things too big for Death Spark is Sparksmith. Sparksmith is a strong card but it's kind of dicey against a deck that 1) will try to race you and 2) has inherent resistance to spot removal.
Stompy is that deck, and Stompy runs plenty of stuff too big for Death Spark, and to make matters worse, runs load of pump spells to beat Sparksmith even when you do use him. So you wind up having to kill big stuff without Sparksmith or just outrace them, and neither of those things usually goes smoothly.
Fires :symr:f Salvation
It's not favored against Stompy (at least not in my experience). If you reread what I said you'll see I referred to it as a "fairly even" matchup. It's really more draw dependent and who is on the play is important. Either side can be the aggressor so it's important to know what role you have to take more than anything (and when you need to switch roles midgame).
As for why I don't run Fireblast, more personal preference than anything. You ideally only want to be using Fireblast to finish the game (you can use it as removal but this is often going to be too big of a setback on your lands to be a good plan) It's a fine card as a 1 or 2 of but it's not something I've ever felt the deck needs to run. I more often use my burn spells to clear blockers out of the way than to dome my opponents anyways which makes something like Chain Lightning more appealing.
As for Chain Lightning, it's the worst card in the deck IMO (and if you look at my sideboarding advice it's often one of the first cards I board out) but 1 mana for 3 damage to anything is still a good deal as either removal or reach even as a worse Lightning Bolt so I don't mind having a couple copies game 1 and I can go from there after board.
I actually board some number of Smiths out against Stompy often because you usually just don't have the time/life to get to use them much and they're really poor as blockers. They're okay on the play but often miserable on the draw and drawing multiples will really hurt you on the defensive.
Fires :symr:f Salvation