Auras is just a really bad matchup for Goblins, there's not really a lot you can do to improve it. You pretty much just have to board in Electrickery and hope to draw it and overload it before they get their guys past 1 toughness. Even that is not always fast enough though (if they're on the play and go Boggle/Scout into Ethereal Armor you're pretty hooped regardless). You could try Martyr of Ashes for a slightly higher toughness reaching sweeper though it also damages your own board
As for the MBC matchup, if this was paper Pauper am I correct in assuming the MBC player was using Hymn to Tourach and Sinkhole? If so the matchup is pretty fundamentally different from what it would like online. In any case, red doesn't have a ton of cards it can sideboard against MBC. You can try out Sylvok Lifestaff which at least lets your 1 power goblins fight through Chittering Rats and Ragers and gets you some value when they try picking off all of your guys. The incidental lifegain also isn't nothing as they're often trying to Crypt Rats you out. Other than that running the 4th Mogg War Marshal will help your chances out a bit (and really you should be running all 4 copies anyways, if anything you should be cutting a Sparksmith, not a War Marshal).
As for your deck, Goblin War Strike isn't really that great of a card, it's basically Lava Axe at the best of times and a near blank at the worst and that's just not something this deck needs. You're a lot better off running something like Fireblast if you want a far-reaching burn spell. Another card to consider is Death Spark which lets you really grind out other creature decks, especially something like Delver or White Weenie.
I'm not sure what you are trying to do with Skirk Prospector when you said you used 3, I've never really seen a use for the card in a Goblins deck outside of the "combo" goblins build that Shaffawaffa has been playing recently which basically tries to make really big Foundry Street Denizens and Kruin Strikers by sacrificing Goblins in play to dump a bunch of Goblins from your hand in at once. Speaking of Foundry Street Denizen, it's something I'd suggest trying as well. The downside is it makes you a bit more vulnerable to Electrickery, but it also makes your deck much faster (it's the one card capable of attacking for 3 on turn 2 without the help of a Bushwhacker).
Can't really speak to the effectiveness of Goblin Lookout but it seems a bit too slow to me, and only really good if you draw a War Marshal with it for some fuel. You could always try out a copy or two though yourself to find it.
Seems like you depict auras like an impossible matchup, but really the only problematic card in their deck is armadillo cloak. If they get to gain life, they win, if they don't we almost always kill them soon.
So the matchup looks like a coin flip to me: do you have the cloak or not?
Seems like you depict auras like an impossible matchup, but really the only problematic card in their deck is armadillo cloak. If they get to gain life, they win, if they don't we almost always kill them soon.
So the matchup looks like a coin flip to me: do you have the cloak or not?
It's not impossible, I've beaten it a decent amount of the time myself but it's around 60-40 in their favor (which is why I said "really bad"). Even just a big guy with Ethereal Armor can be a problem depending how fast they assemble it and while sometimes you might be able to eke enough damage past it with Sledders/Raiders that won't always be the case. Some lists also board in Lifelink (less good than Cloak since you can sac Goblins to get around the lifegain on defence but still can be effective with a Rancor) and/or Moment's Peace so Cloak isn't the only card you're worrying about.
I'd play just 2 Death Spark. Drawing 2 copies is just so bad, and that's much more likely with 3 copies than 2. It's also not a card you always need. In the matchups where you really want it, just board another copy or two.
Won my last 2 tournaments with goblins. Don't know why this deck isn't popular. Today i even beat hexproof twice. We don't really have bad matchups , except for hexproof and maybe white weenie. I win more with this deck than with any other deck in any other format.
Ah, i play in paper magic, but i don't think my success can be entirely justified with the fact that i can run 4 goblin grenade.
Regarding the third copy of death spark, i don't think there are decks that play enough x/1 to want 3 sparks.
Won my last 2 tournaments with goblins. Don't know why this deck isn't popular. Today i even beat hexproof twice. We don't really have bad matchups , except for hexproof and maybe white weenie. I win more with this deck than with any other deck in any other format.
Ah, i play in paper magic, but i don't think my success can be entirely justified with the fact that i can run 4 goblin grenade.
Regarding the third copy of death spark, i don't think there are decks that play enough x/1 to want 3 sparks.
On the one hand, you run Goblin Grenade, which is an absurdly strong card that combines with Lightning Bolt and Fireblast to enable insanely early game ends. On the other hand, you're playing in a paper metagame, which will tend to have a different composition than the online metagame.
You're right on about Death Spark, though - 2 is the right number. Add that to 3 Sparksmith and the usual burn package and you have plenty of control over opposing creatures.
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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!
Well , most of the decks i play against are identical or very similar to lists found in internet. Of course there isn't the variety of decks that i might face in mtgonline.
But seriously, what bad matchups goblins have in the current online metagame? (it's a serious question , i am just curious). And do you think the deck is not much played because it's bad or for other reasons ?
Goblin grenade is obviously strong, but in my opinion you can't run it together with fireblast because they compete for the "finisher" slot . I currently play with 4 grenades, 4 lightning bolt and 2 sparks.
With the advent of Gary, I'd say MBC is also a slightly unfavorable matchup, and Tron can be rough online (in paper, honestly with Goblin Grenade I can see you killing Tron more consistently before they stabilize, and you could potentially grenade a Fangren Marauder while burning him otherwise is very difficult. MBC with Sinkhole and Hymn to Tourach might be tougher).
MBC can blunt your attacks by either removing all your guys (Cuombajj especially sucks if you can't immediately burn it) and gaining life from Gary and/or having you discard your early threats with Wrench Mind post-board.
For Tron, its removal package and blockers early can usually keep it alive to land a Fangren; once it does, it can easily gain enough life to put you out of reach.
That's probably the largest reason Goblins isn't very popular online since MBC and Tron are big parts of the meta. Hexproof and White Weenie are a small part of the meta, so while they are worse matchups, they don't affect it as much.
IMO, Goblins does not have better matchups than MBC/Tron in this meta, and that's why it isn't as popular.
I never faced tron, but i faced posts a lot of times when it was legal and the matchup was 50/50 . And i suppose posts was a better deck than tron.
MBC was traditionally a good matchup for goblins, but yeah now that they run the witches and gary things may have changed. Still, i bet you can overrun them before they stabilize.
I don't want to talk like goblins is the best deck in the world, but i think it is severely underplayed for the potential it has.
Here is an article I wrote on Casting Commons about the Goblins variant I used to win a Magic Online Pauper Premier Event. Signal and I used to refer to it as Mono-Red Control half-jokingly, hence the title.
I think Goblins is always a fine choice. Like the article said you will have game against a lot of the decks out there while still being able to have a nut draw to beat even the bad matchups. That being said I consider the following to be fairly unfavorable for Goblins:
-White Weenie
-Hexproof
-Esper Sage Mill
These are all rough thanks to the lifegain/damange prevention and the Esper Sage Mill deck just operating on a completely different axis. But right now looking down the list of popular decks in the metagame I think Goblins is still going to be a solid choice.
Here is an article I wrote on Casting Commons about the Goblins variant I used to win a Magic Online Pauper Premier Event. Signal and I used to refer to it as Mono-Red Control half-jokingly, hence the title.
Good article. I disagree RE: Foundry Street Denizen. The card is good metagame dependent, unlike Jackal Familiar and Mogg Flunkies which just became bad all-around over time. In a slower format where you're forced to play for a longer game Denizen loses value for sure. I disagree with the notion that it's a bad card after turn 1 though, there are still many ways to utilize it beyond that point, especially if you have Bushwhackers lurking in your hand or Mogg War-Marshals and sac outlets. It's also one of the few ways you can attack through large blockers you see out of decks like Affinity. It doesn't really fit the plan the "control" build goes for so I can agree with not playing it there, but in the more aggressive variants it does the job well.
I agree Flame Jab is worse than Death Spark in pretty much every matchup except for one: The Goblins mirror. However Goblins rarely becomes so popular in the metagame these days that it's really not worth spending many sideboard slots on it (if any). Death Spark still covers you very well in any case even if Flame Jab is marginally more optimal (and obviously you would be running both cards post-board if you had access to both).
Lots of matchups will become worse without it, in particular Delver where it is an extremely important card for dealing with turn 1 Delvers and Spellstutter Sprites (additionally it can grind out damage in the face of their counterspells). It also tears decks like Elves and White Weenie a new one. At the same time, it's one of the weaker cards in your deck against control strategies (it can still grind out damage in the face of removal but that's about all it does) and not particularly awesome against stuff like Cyclops/Fiend (though there is some merit in combining it with a Lightning Bolt to strike down a Nivix Cyclops). To answer, I will say it depends on the decks you expect to face, but if there's lot of Delver opponents then it's going to be difficult to justify playing it. You'll still have a reasonable game against them thanks to having a low curve and being able to deploy several threats per turn backed by cheap removal, but Death Spark is pretty key in the grindy games against them.
You lose Death Spark but you gain Goblin Grenade. I'm sure there are some digital mages that would love to be able to play that card in their Goblins decks. Maybe you move more towards the aggro style rather than the control-deck-in-disguise.
Yeah, in my paper list I run a more explosive build with Foundry Street, 8 cards that make 2-3 goblins for 2 mana, pump spells, and then Goblin Grenades and Fireblast for reach. Grenades I think rewards the more aggressive swarm build as opposed to the grindy online builds. If you run both Reckless Abandon and Grenade, you basically only need to deal 8-12 damage with your creatures before Grenades and Fireblasts end the game.
Probably too slow and clunky. 3 mana for a 1/1 that has to survive a full turn cycle before it pays dividends is fairly weak against a lot of popular decks.
The new Mardu scout may be a decent option for this deck. The very nice thing is that he can make mogg conscripts and goblin cohort always be able to attack by casting him with dash every turn.
The new Mardu scout may be a decent option for this deck. The very nice thing is that he can make mogg conscripts and goblin cohort always be able to attack by casting him with dash every turn.
The new Mardu scout may be a decent option for this deck. The very nice thing is that he can make mogg conscripts and goblin cohort always be able to attack by casting him with dash every turn.
Interesting, he certainly warrants some testing I think (as soon as FRF is online that is). He's also a 3 power 2 drop which the deck doesn't really have access to save the sometimes unreliable Mogg Flunkies. If you're playing Foundry Street Denizen he can also pump them every turn too which certainly isn't irrelevant given all the 2/2s in the format. My biggest concern with him is that he only has 1 toughness which can lead to some situations that are just awkward for him to attack (such as if your opponent has a Young Wolf, or in the mirror if they have a Mogg War Marshal), but the upsides might be worth it anyways.
Not sure I love this card in a non-combo situation - it doesn't make you make suicidal attacks like raid bombardment (and is cheaper) but it also only gets you one point out of each dude.
Impact Tremors is really great on the backfoot which, let's be honest, in some matchups the goblin token deck is. Creatures doing damage just by entering the battlefield actually speeds up this deck more, rather than less. Especially if that goal is to hit multiple creature tokens entering the battlefield per turn (which it is)
The new Mardu scout may be a decent option for this deck. The very nice thing is that he can make mogg conscripts and goblin cohort always be able to attack by casting him with dash every turn.
The dash mechanic is nice here, just like you said conscripts/cohorts can attack each turn, pumps denizens too and you don´t run out of gas that quick. The big problem comes during combat, any 1/1 can kill it and also dies to sweepers/electrickery. Goblin heelcutter is a way better choice imho (that 2 resistance is a huge bonus), it can pass through big blockers too (angler, gray merchant).
The new Mardu scout may be a decent option for this deck. The very nice thing is that he can make mogg conscripts and goblin cohort always be able to attack by casting him with dash every turn.
The dash mechanic is nice here, just like you said conscripts/cohorts can attack each turn, pumps denizens too and you don´t run out of gas that quick. The big problem comes during combat, any 1/1 can kill it and also dies to sweepers/electrickery. Goblin heelcutter is a way better choice imho (that 2 resistance is a huge bonus), it can pass through big blockers too (angler, gray merchant).
I think I would agree with this. You don't want to dilute this deck too much with high cost guys, but it does tend to stall when the opponant can drop a turn 2-3 blocker and Heelcutter helps with that. Is Grenade legal in pauper?
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As for the MBC matchup, if this was paper Pauper am I correct in assuming the MBC player was using Hymn to Tourach and Sinkhole? If so the matchup is pretty fundamentally different from what it would like online. In any case, red doesn't have a ton of cards it can sideboard against MBC. You can try out Sylvok Lifestaff which at least lets your 1 power goblins fight through Chittering Rats and Ragers and gets you some value when they try picking off all of your guys. The incidental lifegain also isn't nothing as they're often trying to Crypt Rats you out. Other than that running the 4th Mogg War Marshal will help your chances out a bit (and really you should be running all 4 copies anyways, if anything you should be cutting a Sparksmith, not a War Marshal).
As for your deck, Goblin War Strike isn't really that great of a card, it's basically Lava Axe at the best of times and a near blank at the worst and that's just not something this deck needs. You're a lot better off running something like Fireblast if you want a far-reaching burn spell. Another card to consider is Death Spark which lets you really grind out other creature decks, especially something like Delver or White Weenie.
I'm not sure what you are trying to do with Skirk Prospector when you said you used 3, I've never really seen a use for the card in a Goblins deck outside of the "combo" goblins build that Shaffawaffa has been playing recently which basically tries to make really big Foundry Street Denizens and Kruin Strikers by sacrificing Goblins in play to dump a bunch of Goblins from your hand in at once. Speaking of Foundry Street Denizen, it's something I'd suggest trying as well. The downside is it makes you a bit more vulnerable to Electrickery, but it also makes your deck much faster (it's the one card capable of attacking for 3 on turn 2 without the help of a Bushwhacker).
Can't really speak to the effectiveness of Goblin Lookout but it seems a bit too slow to me, and only really good if you draw a War Marshal with it for some fuel. You could always try out a copy or two though yourself to find it.
So the matchup looks like a coin flip to me: do you have the cloak or not?
It's not impossible, I've beaten it a decent amount of the time myself but it's around 60-40 in their favor (which is why I said "really bad"). Even just a big guy with Ethereal Armor can be a problem depending how fast they assemble it and while sometimes you might be able to eke enough damage past it with Sledders/Raiders that won't always be the case. Some lists also board in Lifelink (less good than Cloak since you can sac Goblins to get around the lifegain on defence but still can be effective with a Rancor) and/or Moment's Peace so Cloak isn't the only card you're worrying about.
Ah, i play in paper magic, but i don't think my success can be entirely justified with the fact that i can run 4 goblin grenade.
Regarding the third copy of death spark, i don't think there are decks that play enough x/1 to want 3 sparks.
On the one hand, you run Goblin Grenade, which is an absurdly strong card that combines with Lightning Bolt and Fireblast to enable insanely early game ends. On the other hand, you're playing in a paper metagame, which will tend to have a different composition than the online metagame.
You're right on about Death Spark, though - 2 is the right number. Add that to 3 Sparksmith and the usual burn package and you have plenty of control over opposing creatures.
But seriously, what bad matchups goblins have in the current online metagame? (it's a serious question , i am just curious). And do you think the deck is not much played because it's bad or for other reasons ?
Goblin grenade is obviously strong, but in my opinion you can't run it together with fireblast because they compete for the "finisher" slot . I currently play with 4 grenades, 4 lightning bolt and 2 sparks.
MBC can blunt your attacks by either removing all your guys (Cuombajj especially sucks if you can't immediately burn it) and gaining life from Gary and/or having you discard your early threats with Wrench Mind post-board.
For Tron, its removal package and blockers early can usually keep it alive to land a Fangren; once it does, it can easily gain enough life to put you out of reach.
That's probably the largest reason Goblins isn't very popular online since MBC and Tron are big parts of the meta. Hexproof and White Weenie are a small part of the meta, so while they are worse matchups, they don't affect it as much.
IMO, Goblins does not have better matchups than MBC/Tron in this meta, and that's why it isn't as popular.
MBC was traditionally a good matchup for goblins, but yeah now that they run the witches and gary things may have changed. Still, i bet you can overrun them before they stabilize.
I don't want to talk like goblins is the best deck in the world, but i think it is severely underplayed for the potential it has.
http://www.castingcommons.com/pauper-breakdown-mono-red-control/
-White Weenie
-Hexproof
-Esper Sage Mill
These are all rough thanks to the lifegain/damange prevention and the Esper Sage Mill deck just operating on a completely different axis. But right now looking down the list of popular decks in the metagame I think Goblins is still going to be a solid choice.
Good article. I disagree RE: Foundry Street Denizen. The card is good metagame dependent, unlike Jackal Familiar and Mogg Flunkies which just became bad all-around over time. In a slower format where you're forced to play for a longer game Denizen loses value for sure. I disagree with the notion that it's a bad card after turn 1 though, there are still many ways to utilize it beyond that point, especially if you have Bushwhackers lurking in your hand or Mogg War-Marshals and sac outlets. It's also one of the few ways you can attack through large blockers you see out of decks like Affinity. It doesn't really fit the plan the "control" build goes for so I can agree with not playing it there, but in the more aggressive variants it does the job well.
I agree Flame Jab is worse than Death Spark in pretty much every matchup except for one: The Goblins mirror. However Goblins rarely becomes so popular in the metagame these days that it's really not worth spending many sideboard slots on it (if any). Death Spark still covers you very well in any case even if Flame Jab is marginally more optimal (and obviously you would be running both cards post-board if you had access to both).
Interesting, he certainly warrants some testing I think (as soon as FRF is online that is). He's also a 3 power 2 drop which the deck doesn't really have access to save the sometimes unreliable Mogg Flunkies. If you're playing Foundry Street Denizen he can also pump them every turn too which certainly isn't irrelevant given all the 2/2s in the format. My biggest concern with him is that he only has 1 toughness which can lead to some situations that are just awkward for him to attack (such as if your opponent has a Young Wolf, or in the mirror if they have a Mogg War Marshal), but the upsides might be worth it anyways.
The dash mechanic is nice here, just like you said conscripts/cohorts can attack each turn, pumps denizens too and you don´t run out of gas that quick. The big problem comes during combat, any 1/1 can kill it and also dies to sweepers/electrickery. Goblin heelcutter is a way better choice imho (that 2 resistance is a huge bonus), it can pass through big blockers too (angler, gray merchant).