Played Atarka Goblins at a 50+ person PPTQ this weekend. Started out 3-0 not dropping a game against Jund, Infect and Grixis Control. Needed to win the next round to double draw into top 8. Rolled over Jund game 1, then game two he Jund charmed my board and I wasnt fast enough. Game 3 he was at 10 life with a Goyf and Lili out so I decided to Grenade my lone Foundry Street Denizen to put him to 5 life with a land and another Grenade in hand. Next turn I discard the land to Lili feeling good and then his last card in hand is Kolaghan's Command to make me discard the Grenade booo. Just need to win the next one but I get paired against Soul Sisters, completely unwinnable. Last round I have a small chance to make it in if I win but I lose to my friend playing American Twin. Will post the list later when not at work.
P.S. Was completely unimpressed with Atarka's Command all day.
Game 1 boros slight went 2-0, i swarm him in both game
game 2 grixis delver 2-0, cavern of souls stop his counterspells. my creature is more efficient than his removal. spikeshot helps in getting rid of young pyromancer
Game 3 UG infect just kill all his creature and go for the win.
Some explanation on my card choice mainboard and sideboard. I choose not to run goblin guide because i give them too much advantage to smooth out their mana. i did not play foundry street denizen because even though he is aggresive, he force you to overextend to do more damage which open you up to sweeper. i am contemplating still on mogg fanatic but decide to go for spikeshot elder for few reason. first it is a mana sink, second i do not lose creature advantage, third, i run obelisk of urd which makes it ping more potent. i choose not to play shared animosity because it does not boost my toughness. it is more explosive, but at times without sufficient creature, it is a bad top deck. obelisk may be a bad top deck and may even cause me to skip 1 combat to cast it on turn 3, but it is better as it can somehow help my goblins get out of anger of god range with a lord. also subsequent creatures are more potent with it around. i choose frenzied goblin because ione problem that goblin faced in early days are tarmogoyf blocking our wat for attack. sometime kitchen finks as well which is a problem as it is bad trade. frenzied goblin solve that and it allow your piledriver to push in damage if they have only 1 creature. oblisk of urd solve some of the sweeper issue that goblin faced for a long time. it also allow us not to over extend yet dealing potent damage. Kolaghan's command might be a thing, but at times, they might side out is they didn't see it game 1 or it can be swap into blood moon. grafdigger's cage, relic of progenitus and torpor orb helps in the grixis match-up. torpor orb, spellskite and dismember are all for the twin match-up. against infect, the dismember and and spellskite helps. overall all, i find this build seeks to address some of the problem that goblin faced and also tried to optimise the piledriver in the deck. i hope the above information can help to progess the goblin rampage.
i run atarka's goblin last week without lord, don't really like it. somehow without the lord, i find it not sustainable. it does open some sideboard option but not enough to warrant the splash of green.
I would consider removing one or two lands and krenko to add at least one more goblin king. I know you don't play them but some tokens wouldn't hurt as well, maybe something like -land -krenko +mogg war marshal +king, or even two lands for two MWMs. If they feel clunky, play one of the spells instead (fodder and krenko's cmd). Mogg fanatic is also an option, and it acting as a pseudo spot removal is not to be overlooked as well (Bob, lavamancer, mana dorks, soul sisters, unflipped delver, snapcaster, pyromancer, infect, parts of affinity and even pestermite, etc.). I like the blood moon king in the main deck as well, and will try a similar list myself on the next modern fnm. Hope this helps. Cheers!
So is there a reason nobody seems to be playing Æther Vial? I've re-evaluated my list (pulled coco) and the 2 copies I managed to get a hold of seem to work quite well with our low cost creatures. Is it Kolaghan's Command or the cost or is it just bad?
So is there a reason nobody seems to be playing Æther Vial? I've re-evaluated my list (pulled coco) and the 2 copies I managed to get a hold of seem to work quite well with our low cost creatures. Is it Kolaghan's Command or the cost or is it just bad?
It's just bad. We have no way of refilling our hand, it doesn't kill your opponent, we aren't using our mana for other purposes than to just jam creatures, and the deck just hopes to be faster than counterspells for the most part.
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One of these day I have to get myself organizized.
I run aether vial in my build. I haven't tested it against a lot of matchups but the ones I have I really like the results. It definitely helps you get around counterspells and what not if you haven't hit your cavern of souls.I also love hitting it as a turn 1 drop if I don't hit a goblin guide or if they drop a big one drop like wild nacatl or something of that nature.My build is a little obscure but I love how explosive it is with simian spirit guide.The big problem I was having with the deck was cards like pyroclasm. Mardu ascendancy can drop turn 2 and extra tokens it generates is amazing. Not to mention it saves your guys from most pyroclasmesque cards.an exra copy in the board alng with 2x boros charmshelp with it aswell.
I haven't had any problems with it yet,but I also have 4 spirit guides that can produce mana as a pseudo land(so kinda 23).I see what you mean about 4 caverns but 19 lands has just worked out so good so far.Its been pretty consistent in the 10-15 matches I have played so far,but you are right I need to test more.I have been debating on cutting mardu ascendancy for shared animosity in the mainboard and then putting mark of asylum in the SB for pyroclasm,firespout,etc.Since it is less stressful on the mana base. I just love getting the extra value off of ascendancy though and going wide witht he extra dorks lol
Seems like a cool idea,but I just think it would be to slow.Not to mention it kind of takes away from the main point of the deck.At least mine anyways.What does your list look like MrBurp?
I just realized I never linked to this: on my website () I wrote a bit of a primer for this archetype over three short articles. I know the deck pretty well, so you should check it out!
In other news, I think I'm playing this list at GP Pittsburgh this November. It's pretty exciting because it will be my first non-limited GP.
So I'm tweaking my list and redoing the sideboard right now. My mainboard right now is:
I think I'm going to cut a Rabblemaster or an Animosity (maybe one of each). I'm not sure what I'd replace them with yet, though. As for the sideboard, I have some slots filled for sure:
I'm considering adding in another rending volley, a grafdigger's cage, a rabblemaster, a pyrite spellbomb, and a guttural response, but none of those are set in stone. I have 9 slots left to fill counting the maybes I just listed and I figured I'd check in here for ideas. Of course, I'll probably redo my sideboard again before the GP, but you know... It's a long way off.
While I agree on most if not all of what you have said here (and in the articles as well), there is something I would like to talk about. You stated in your article, when talking about green splash:
Whether or not these decks play “Coco”, they tend to do a few things to shave down to the barest-bones, hyper-aggressive goblin deck. The biggest change of all is that they just cut most or all of the 3-drop ‘lords’ (cards that pump all your goblins, like Goblin Chieftain). Granted, I have fairly little experience playing with these builds, but cutting the top end of your curve for Atarka’s Command and Collected Company doesn’t seem worth it, not to mention the consistency of manabase you sacrifice when you play 2 or 3 colors.
This is probably the only thing I don't agree on, since lordless goblins (in whichever color, either monored, RB or RG) play differently than CoCo goblins. In fact, CoCo goblins stack 3cmc creatures and sometimes include Blood Moon, Vial, or even both. They want to hit Chieftains, Kings, Rabbles, War Marshals, Piledrivers and similar off their CoCo, and not Foundry, Frenzied, Guide (meh), Bushwhacker (bad times), so usually they don't run most if not any of them. CoCo is not hyper-aggressive, but because of the nature of goblins, it can goldfish fast.
On the other hand, Atarka Goblins is a version of no-lord (lordless) goblins, which is a deck that is just cutting lords from the established core (something similar to what you posted) in favor of smaller creatures to avoid mana screws and maximize efficiency. No-lord goblins is indeed a hyper-aggro deck, and splashing green gives two key cards: 1) Atarka's Command acting as a pseudo-lord, mainboard anti-lifegain hate and a Lava Spike; 2) Destructive Revelry gives us an enchantment hate in addition to being a smash to smithereens that shocks (same targets + bogles, twin, Ghostly Prison hate). It could just as well splash black for Spike Jester, or even both (going Jund), since ally-colors have fastlands, and we even have Auntie's Hovel. I'm not saying no-lords is the best goblin deck in the current meta, it's just a new aspect that worked decently enough in the past few months on more than one occasion to be considered a go-to modern goblin deck atm. Everything might change with BFZ, and I believe a lot will.
Your deck is a relatively typical (and good) monored deck that works just fine, but there are some changes you could make. If you like your monored approach and don't want to splash (you don't have to remove lords hehe), I would look to switch mountains for at least two Cavern of Souls and maybe a few Mutavaults. I think Rabblemaster is very match-up dependent, so it may fit into the sideboard better. Speaking of which, I would gladly put two of Relic of Progenitus in the sb for all the snaps and delve running around, and it hoses other random or less popular 'yard strategies. Don't forget on Tron hate as well, if there are some tron players around where you play (for GP you have to have tron hate!). Mogg Fanatic are also a decent option in the 75, since they literally man-handle infect while also killing quite a few relevant creatures in modern. If you splash, you mostly splash for sideboard cards while keeping the core together (rare exception is Spike Jester which suits the core nicely). Only if you remove lords, or add more lords, you have to change more parts of the deck (for example, add CoCo and/or vial, even maybe Winstigator, in case of more lords; or Atarka's Cmd in lordless, etc).
All in all, I don't want to come out as a dick, and I enjoyed reading your blog, so please don't take this in a wrong way. I would encourage you to post more blog posts about goblin modern decks, the more information regarding this topic, the better. Anyhow, playtest as much as you can, try different cards or even approaches, and report back how the cards have performed. And good luck on the GP, go get 'em! (You have to let us know how it went on the GP btw!)
Thanks treach. Obviously we're allowed to have different opinions, so no hard feelings.
I plan on picking up at least 1 Cavern of Souls (although they're really freakin' expensive!), and I also reworked the sideboard today. Right now I have:
I'm not sure whether I like Tormod's Crypt better than Relic of Progenitus, and I may end up cutting the Shattering Spree for anoter Smash to Smithereens. I also will probably make room in the sideboard for Rabblemasters by taking out a skullcrack and a dismember, or something like that.
I do think the Rabblefather is probably too slow for the mainboard, so I'm thinking about trying a Mogg Fanatic and a Krenko's Command in their place in the main deck.
I've certainly entertained the idea of a black splash. The mana base is really nice what with Auntie's Hovels and Blackcleave Cliffs (and of course shocks/fetches). I just don't think that splash really adds all that much to the deck in the grand scheme of things.
Anyway, thanks for checking out my blog and for the ideas!
It has been a while since I have posted here and I have been brewing for almost six months on a BR list. Let me know what you think I dropped wort and a thoughtsieze for Night's Whisper to avoid hate and gain card advantage. This is more of a tempo deck to me. Any suggestions? I think black splash offers the best all around answers to getting a good alpha strike off and the burn quality/ card or turn advantage can give me a chance against things like cleic combo, America, Affinity, Infect.
Has anyone considered running a couple Flings in the main to throw a chump blocked Piledriver at our opponents face? Playing on MTGO I have found it to make for an amusing end to the combat step and the match.
Yeah Temur definitely feels better. Double strike probably makes sure he at least lives and if he had 2 other Goblins attacking with him, he will trample to boot.
My build is fairly token heavy and I run command to good results often being 6+ life swings. Piledriver is the bee's knees, especially paired with Larry (legion loyalist) I think the deck is best capping at 2 and with 20 or less lands so you're pretty much only pulling more steam.
I started my Modern career with a 30 EUR goblin deck. Now that Goblin Piledriver was printed, I wanted to rebuild this for my second Modern deck when I'm too tired to play my grixis delver. I played my first FNM with my goblin deck today and finished 2-2. Not bad, but could have been better. Sideboard was something that I just smashed up together from cards I already own, so I need to improve it. Please toss me ideas on how to improve it? :3
Modern: BRG Griselbrand reanimator, BUR Grixis Control, UR Blue moon (with Possibility Storm sometimes) Legacy: BU Reanimator, BU Omni-tell, BUW Tin Fins, BUR ANT / TES, <> Eldrazi Stompy
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P.S. Was completely unimpressed with Atarka's Command all day.
4x goblin piledriver
4x mogg war marshal
4x legion loyalist
4x goblin bushwhacker
3x frenzied goblin
2x spikeshot elder
3x obelisk of urd
4x krenko's command
4x goblin grenade
4x lightning bolt
17x mountain
3x cavern of souls
2x goblin king
2x blood moon
3x dismember
2x pyrite spellbomb
2x shattering spree
1x relic of progenitus
1x grafdigger's cage
1x torpor orb
1x spellskite
Game 1 boros slight went 2-0, i swarm him in both game
game 2 grixis delver 2-0, cavern of souls stop his counterspells. my creature is more efficient than his removal. spikeshot helps in getting rid of young pyromancer
Game 3 UG infect just kill all his creature and go for the win.
Some explanation on my card choice mainboard and sideboard. I choose not to run goblin guide because i give them too much advantage to smooth out their mana. i did not play foundry street denizen because even though he is aggresive, he force you to overextend to do more damage which open you up to sweeper. i am contemplating still on mogg fanatic but decide to go for spikeshot elder for few reason. first it is a mana sink, second i do not lose creature advantage, third, i run obelisk of urd which makes it ping more potent. i choose not to play shared animosity because it does not boost my toughness. it is more explosive, but at times without sufficient creature, it is a bad top deck. obelisk may be a bad top deck and may even cause me to skip 1 combat to cast it on turn 3, but it is better as it can somehow help my goblins get out of anger of god range with a lord. also subsequent creatures are more potent with it around. i choose frenzied goblin because ione problem that goblin faced in early days are tarmogoyf blocking our wat for attack. sometime kitchen finks as well which is a problem as it is bad trade. frenzied goblin solve that and it allow your piledriver to push in damage if they have only 1 creature. oblisk of urd solve some of the sweeper issue that goblin faced for a long time. it also allow us not to over extend yet dealing potent damage. Kolaghan's command might be a thing, but at times, they might side out is they didn't see it game 1 or it can be swap into blood moon. grafdigger's cage, relic of progenitus and torpor orb helps in the grixis match-up. torpor orb, spellskite and dismember are all for the twin match-up. against infect, the dismember and and spellskite helps. overall all, i find this build seeks to address some of the problem that goblin faced and also tried to optimise the piledriver in the deck. i hope the above information can help to progess the goblin rampage.
i run atarka's goblin last week without lord, don't really like it. somehow without the lord, i find it not sustainable. it does open some sideboard option but not enough to warrant the splash of green.
creatures:28
4x goblin guide
3x legion loyalist
3x warren instigator
4x goblin piledriver
4x goblin chieftain
3x goblin rabblemaster
4x simian spirit guide
3x krenko,mob boss
spells:13
4x aether vial
3x goblin grenade
4x lightning bolt
2x mardu ascendancy
lands:19
2x arid mesa
4x bloodstained mire
3x mountains
4x cavern of souls
1x blood crypts
3x auntie's hovel
2x sacred foundry
SB
2x terminate
1x mardu ascendancy
3x rakdos charm
2x grafdigger's cage
2x earwig squad
2x boros charm
3x blood moon
Active thread contributor of Jeskai Prowess Tempo
In other news, I think I'm playing this list at GP Pittsburgh this November. It's pretty exciting because it will be my first non-limited GP.
So I'm tweaking my list and redoing the sideboard right now. My mainboard right now is:
4 Foundry Street Denizen
4 Legion Loyalist
4 Goblin Bushwhacker
4 Mogg war Marshal
4 Goblin Chieftain
2 Goblin Rabblemaster
4 Goblin Grenade
2 Shared Animosity
20 Mountain
I think I'm going to cut a Rabblemaster or an Animosity (maybe one of each). I'm not sure what I'd replace them with yet, though. As for the sideboard, I have some slots filled for sure:
1 Rending Volley
1 Dragon's Claw
2 Smash to Smithereens
I'm considering adding in another rending volley, a grafdigger's cage, a rabblemaster, a pyrite spellbomb, and a guttural response, but none of those are set in stone. I have 9 slots left to fill counting the maybes I just listed and I figured I'd check in here for ideas. Of course, I'll probably redo my sideboard again before the GP, but you know... It's a long way off.
Anyway, cheers guys, and happy gobbin'!
This is probably the only thing I don't agree on, since lordless goblins (in whichever color, either monored, RB or RG) play differently than CoCo goblins. In fact, CoCo goblins stack 3cmc creatures and sometimes include Blood Moon, Vial, or even both. They want to hit Chieftains, Kings, Rabbles, War Marshals, Piledrivers and similar off their CoCo, and not Foundry, Frenzied, Guide (meh), Bushwhacker (bad times), so usually they don't run most if not any of them. CoCo is not hyper-aggressive, but because of the nature of goblins, it can goldfish fast.
On the other hand, Atarka Goblins is a version of no-lord (lordless) goblins, which is a deck that is just cutting lords from the established core (something similar to what you posted) in favor of smaller creatures to avoid mana screws and maximize efficiency. No-lord goblins is indeed a hyper-aggro deck, and splashing green gives two key cards: 1) Atarka's Command acting as a pseudo-lord, mainboard anti-lifegain hate and a Lava Spike; 2) Destructive Revelry gives us an enchantment hate in addition to being a smash to smithereens that shocks (same targets + bogles, twin, Ghostly Prison hate). It could just as well splash black for Spike Jester, or even both (going Jund), since ally-colors have fastlands, and we even have Auntie's Hovel. I'm not saying no-lords is the best goblin deck in the current meta, it's just a new aspect that worked decently enough in the past few months on more than one occasion to be considered a go-to modern goblin deck atm. Everything might change with BFZ, and I believe a lot will.
Your deck is a relatively typical (and good) monored deck that works just fine, but there are some changes you could make. If you like your monored approach and don't want to splash (you don't have to remove lords hehe), I would look to switch mountains for at least two Cavern of Souls and maybe a few Mutavaults. I think Rabblemaster is very match-up dependent, so it may fit into the sideboard better. Speaking of which, I would gladly put two of Relic of Progenitus in the sb for all the snaps and delve running around, and it hoses other random or less popular 'yard strategies. Don't forget on Tron hate as well, if there are some tron players around where you play (for GP you have to have tron hate!). Mogg Fanatic are also a decent option in the 75, since they literally man-handle infect while also killing quite a few relevant creatures in modern. If you splash, you mostly splash for sideboard cards while keeping the core together (rare exception is Spike Jester which suits the core nicely). Only if you remove lords, or add more lords, you have to change more parts of the deck (for example, add CoCo and/or vial, even maybe Winstigator, in case of more lords; or Atarka's Cmd in lordless, etc).
All in all, I don't want to come out as a dick, and I enjoyed reading your blog, so please don't take this in a wrong way. I would encourage you to post more blog posts about goblin modern decks, the more information regarding this topic, the better. Anyhow, playtest as much as you can, try different cards or even approaches, and report back how the cards have performed. And good luck on the GP, go get 'em! (You have to let us know how it went on the GP btw!)
I plan on picking up at least 1 Cavern of Souls (although they're really freakin' expensive!), and I also reworked the sideboard today. Right now I have:
I'm not sure whether I like Tormod's Crypt better than Relic of Progenitus, and I may end up cutting the Shattering Spree for anoter Smash to Smithereens. I also will probably make room in the sideboard for Rabblemasters by taking out a skullcrack and a dismember, or something like that.
I do think the Rabblefather is probably too slow for the mainboard, so I'm thinking about trying a Mogg Fanatic and a Krenko's Command in their place in the main deck.
I've certainly entertained the idea of a black splash. The mana base is really nice what with Auntie's Hovels and Blackcleave Cliffs (and of course shocks/fetches). I just don't think that splash really adds all that much to the deck in the grand scheme of things.
Anyway, thanks for checking out my blog and for the ideas!
4 auntie's hovel
4 bloodstained mire
2 cavern of souls
2 graven cairns
3 mutavault
3 mountain
2 swamp
1 urborg, tomb of yawgmoth
Creatures
4 Goblin Bushwhacker
4 Goblin Piledriver
3 knucklebone witch
4 legion loyalist
3 mad auntie
3 mogg fanatic
4 spike jester
3 goblin grenade
4 lightning bolt
3 night's whisper
3 terminate
3 thoughtsieze
2 blood moon
3 obelisk of urd
2 rakdos charm
2 rending volley
2 roast
2 spellskite
2 warren weirding
Active thread contributor of Jeskai Prowess Tempo
Follow the link for nice cheap clothing.
Playing:
Death's Shadow Jund
Played:
Kiki Chord, Zoo variants, Goblins, Burn
I started my Modern career with a 30 EUR goblin deck. Now that Goblin Piledriver was printed, I wanted to rebuild this for my second Modern deck when I'm too tired to play my grixis delver. I played my first FNM with my goblin deck today and finished 2-2. Not bad, but could have been better. Sideboard was something that I just smashed up together from cards I already own, so I need to improve it. Please toss me ideas on how to improve it? :3
4x Foundry Street Denizen
4x Goblin Bushwhacker
2x Goblin Chieftain
4x Goblin Guide
4x Goblin Piledriver
2x Goblin Rabblemaster
4x Legion Loyalist
2x Mogg Fanatic
4x Atarka's Command
4x Lightning Bolt
Sorcery (7)
3x Dragon Fodder
4x Goblin Grenade
Land (19)
4x Bloodstained Mire
4x Copperline Gorge
5x Mountain
2x Stomping Ground
4x Wooded Foothills
1x Destructive Revelry
2x Dismember
2x Electrickery
1x Grafdigger's Cage
1x Molten Rain
2x Combust
2x Relic of Progenitus
2x Smash to Smithereens
2x Pithing Needle
2-1 vs Jund.
First game I won by aggro. Second game he won with Tarmogoyf and Grim Lavamancer. Third game I won by... top deck Lightning Bolt.
Sideboard plan: +2 Pithing Needle, +2 Dismember, -2 Mogg Fanatic, -2 Goblin Rabblemaster
1-2 vs Merfolk.
First game I won by 2x Goblin Piledriver aggro. Second and third game I lost because he could flood the board faster than me. :/
Sideboard plan: +2 Smash to Smithereens, 2x Combust, -2 Goblin Rabblemaster, -2 Goblin Chieftain. I believe sideboarding Chieftains out was a mistake.
2-0 vs Landfall Zoo.
First game pew pew keep him out of creatures with bolts and hit his face with Goblin Piledriver and Legion Loyalist. Second game was a bit closer, but going 2x Dragon Fodder and then kickin Goblin Bushwhacker sealed the deal.
Sideboard plan: +2 Dismember, +1 Grafdigger's Cage, -2 Goblin Rabblemaster, -1 Mogg Fanatic.
0-2 vs Junk (Abzan).
First game he game me hard time with Tarmogoyf and Vault of the Archangel. Second game he resolved 2x Thragtusk which sealed the deal. Ugh.
Sideboard plan: +2 Pithing Needle, +2 Electrickery, +2 Dismember, -2 Goblin Rabblemaster, -3 Dragon Fodder, -1 Mogg Fanatic.
BRG Griselbrand reanimator, BUR Grixis Control, UR Blue moon (with Possibility Storm sometimes)
Legacy:
BU Reanimator, BU Omni-tell, BUW Tin Fins, BUR ANT / TES, <> Eldrazi Stompy