.
I'm testing Nightshade Peddler to gain time against aggro. Soulbonded with Armored Skaab stops so much thing in the current metagame (until it completely changes).
I've to addmit that some card decisions were affected to let the deck block viable.
I just realized I own most cards that RG aggro runs, but I don't have any of the swords and I'm really not willing to invest on them. What do you guys think I could be running in that place instead, or do you think that the lack of swords would weaken the deck way too much?
21 lands are enough. Less may work, but you have to get 4 lands at late game to cast Grenade+Brimstone as a finisher if straight atacking didn't get the job done.
Faithless Looting is a great card, really.
But doesn't bellong to this deck, I'll be moving 2 berserkers and 1 Hellrider onto my deck again. Maybe add a single or two shrines also.
Arc trail still great and 4 of them is doing wonders. 4 galvanic blast/shock also seems right.
Since most of my wins come from Goblin Grenade + Brimstone Volley combination, I've been playtesting this version. Faithless Looting sometimes is great, but can be lame. As was Berserker, but looting adds late game power to deck, changing bad draws into good ones.
This version and the 22 land + Hellrider or Hero has almost all the same cards, but runs different.
I felt that the 22 land has more power against token-based decks, but the combo-ish version runs better against Ramp and Delver(UW and UWb).
There really are no answers in red aside from blasting our own creatures with Whipflare or Slagstorm. Ideal situation is to chump and follow with a Volley, but chumping will have to do.
So that will have to do, because we cant aford a Whipflare or Slagstorm killing our creatures as well.
I like Traitorous Blood personally. It's a swell card against U/B and Heartless Summoning.
I run 4x Mental Misstep. As strange as it seems, I like avoiding Delvers and Vapor Snags. It's mostly because I don't have another card that I really want in my sideboard.
Seems great against Delvers, but with 4 Arc Trail and 2 Galvanic Blast, they aren't that annoying to me, but having a answer to Vapor Snag seems nice.
But there is no answer for geist? Just trade him with one of mine creatures?
I've been running 22 Mountains and loving it, but I am running 3x Heros/Hellriders as a finisher, so I need to be able to hit 3 by turn 3 consistently and 4 by turn 5 at least. I haven't really gotten screwed or flooded at all.
At 22 I really got flooded. So I decided to decrease the mana curve and cut one land. Hero is great (much better than Hellrider IMO).
I put Shrine in the sideboard to start simply because of all the artifact hate. I really don't understand why it is mainboarded in a Goblin deck to begin with.
At game one, the hate is minimal and decks like Delver normally doesn't have answers to it. At game 2, they will side in hate, and I side out Shrine.
I also run a full suite of Grenades AND Volleys, but again, assembling both in hand with 4 lands at turn 4-5 is easier with 22 land. I have won many games at turn 4-5 by dealing 10-11 with a Grenade/Volley combo.
Also happens a lot here, but 2 Brimstones in hand are kinda tricky to make work. Most of times I cast one for 3 dmg and the other for 5 dmg.
But that's because I run 21 lands. At 22 should be fine.
Plus: Volley is a live card in your hand WAY more often than Reverberate. Not even close.
Minus: Grenade+Volley is 4 mana while Grenade+Reverberate is 3 mana. This is crucial for some decks, but not if you run 22 land.
Also, I need to improve my SB (Dragon's Claw" target="blank">Dragon's Claw and Traitorous Blood" target="blank">Traitorous Blood are not that good). I need a better game mostly against UW Delver/Human (agaist geist) and general control decks. Other matchups seems fine.
Creatures is pretty much what everyone have been using. I've cut a Stormblood Berserker in favor of a mountain since I get manascrewed a lot.
Shrine of Burning Rage is awesome at game 1. With all the artifact hate, it has to be taken off at game 2. At least gives room for sideboard.
Arc Trail does the dirty job and cleans the board early. Galvanic Blast also does the job, but can be changed for Gut shots.
Run 4 Goblin Grenade or don't run this deck. And 3 Brimstone Volley since 2 on hand is pretty much one dead card that will not have enough time to get cast.
I've tried the idea of Mind Sludge and it seems to be working out pretty well in the maindeck. I had the ability to play a MWS deck with it and needless to say the card singlehandedly gave me the ability to crush my opponent's hand and drop a Nocturnus the following turn to effectively win the game.
I'm not entirely sold on it yet, but it does seem pretty promising to keep Mind Sludge in the main. I think I'm going to do some more work with it and see how well it tests against Jund in the coming days.
Another version I've considered if Mind Sludge proves to be successful against many matchups is as follows:
This build is obviously a little more "gutsy" in terms of the Mind Sludge count, but one of the things I like about it thus far is that it creates an interesting scenario where Vampires do not necessarily have to fizzle like some other more Aggressive decks tend to do as the game goes on. By playing it, you essentially strangle your opponent into a win and that is one reason why I've considered this build using 3 of them. Once again, it's just testing right now but I think it'll be interesting to see what my results can bring about.
I was running almost the same deck, but with 3 Doom Blades and discard on the side. I'll test running Mind Sludge over the Blades. Discard has been tech against Mill, Cascade and made the first game against Jund a little bit more fair (40-60 maybe).
Anyway, Jund still seems the hardest matchup so far, with or w/o sludge. Any other ideas of what might work?
6 Island
8 Forest
4 Hinterland Harbor
4 Evolving Wilds
// Creatures (26)
4 Screeching Skaab
4 Armored Skaab
4 Boneyard Wurm
4 Splinterfright
4 Ghoultree
3 Nightshade Peddler
3 Ulvenwald Tracker
4 Tracker's Instincts
2 Gnaw to the Bone
2 Artful Dodge
4 Dream Twist
4 Sylvok Replica
3 Memory's Journey
I'm testing Nightshade Peddler to gain time against aggro. Soulbonded with Armored Skaab stops so much thing in the current metagame (until it completely changes).
I've to addmit that some card decisions were affected to let the deck block viable.
Can you post a list of what you already have?
I'm actually runing the following list:
21 Mountain
// Creatures
3 Spikeshot Elder
4 Goblin Arsonist
4 Goblin Fireslinger
4 Goblin Wardriver
4 Goblin Chieftain
3 Stormblood Berserker
4 Goblin Grenade
4 Brimstone Volley
3 Galvanic Blast
3 Arc Trail
3 Incinerate
3 Manic Vandal
3 Traitorous Blood
3 Vulshok Refugee
3 Corrosive Gale
2 Shrine of Burning Rage
1 Red Sun's Zenith
Dromaa, have a look at the thread: [Official][Developing] Goblins
Exactly. All in.
9 Mountain
11 Island
Combo Pieces
4 Immolating Souleater
4 Fling
4 Assault Strobe
4 Ponder
4 Faithless Looting
Ignore ALL the blockers
4 Artful Dodge
I see what you did there
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Turn Aside
Go home
4 Vapor Snag
4 Shock
Not competitive, but serious fun.
Edit: Look ma', I'm pauper! LOL
But doesn't bellong to this deck, I'll be moving 2 berserkers and 1 Hellrider onto my deck again. Maybe add a single or two shrines also.
Arc trail still great and 4 of them is doing wonders. 4 galvanic blast/shock also seems right.
17 Mountain
4 Copperline Gorge
Creatures
4 Goblin Arsonist
4 Goblin Fireslinger
4 Spikeshot Elder
4 Goblin Chieftain
4 Goblin Wardriver
4 Goblin Grenade
4 Arc Trail
4 Brimstone Volley
4 Galvanic Blast
3 Faithless Looting
3 Vulshok Refugee
3 Combust
3 Ancient Grudge
3 Ghost Quarter
3 Act of Aggression
Faithless Looting sometimes is great, but can be lame. As was Berserker, but looting adds late game power to deck, changing bad draws into good ones.
This version and the 22 land + Hellrider or Hero has almost all the same cards, but runs different.
I felt that the 22 land has more power against token-based decks, but the combo-ish version runs better against Ramp and Delver(UW and UWb).
Huntmaster of the Fells and Vault of the Archangel are cards that gives us some major trouble.
Huntmaster can be destroyed with our traditional removal package ASAP.
Ghost Quarter usually get the job done against Vault.
Combust is great against UW Humans, UW Delver, UW Illusions and variants.
Vulshok Refugee against mirror and RDW.
Act of Aggression" target="blank">Act of Aggression for Ramp/Chappin control (replacing the dead Arc Trail slot)
Ancient Grudge" target="blank">Ancient Grudge for Sword of War and Peace, Batterskull, Wurmcoil Engine and uncountable artifacts threats nowadays.
Out:
Shrine of Burning Rage
Stormblood Berserker
In:
Faithless Looting
4 of all removal package and "combo"
So that will have to do, because we cant aford a Whipflare or Slagstorm killing our creatures as well.
Seems great against Delvers, but with 4 Arc Trail and 2 Galvanic Blast, they aren't that annoying to me, but having a answer to Vapor Snag seems nice.
But there is no answer for geist? Just trade him with one of mine creatures?
At 22 I really got flooded. So I decided to decrease the mana curve and cut one land. Hero is great (much better than Hellrider IMO).
At game one, the hate is minimal and decks like Delver normally doesn't have answers to it. At game 2, they will side in hate, and I side out Shrine.
Also happens a lot here, but 2 Brimstones in hand are kinda tricky to make work. Most of times I cast one for 3 dmg and the other for 5 dmg.
But that's because I run 21 lands. At 22 should be fine.
That's what I also think.
After all this considerations, I'll playtest a little with
- 2 Shrine of Burning Rage
+ 1 Mountain
+ 1 Brimstone Volley
Also cutting the Stormblood Berserkers for 3 Hero of Oxid Ridge. I'm not sure about Berserker. If I change 2 Galvanic Blast for 2 Gut shot, it will probably get better.
Also, I need to improve my SB (Dragon's Claw" target="blank">Dragon's Claw and Traitorous Blood" target="blank">Traitorous Blood are not that good). I need a better game mostly against UW Delver/Human (agaist geist) and general control decks. Other matchups seems fine.
21 Mountain
Creatures
4 Goblin Arsonist
4 Goblin Fireslinger
4 Spikeshot Elder
4 Goblin Chieftain
4 Goblin Wardriver
3 Stormblood Berserker
4 Goblin Grenade
4 Arc Trail
3 Shrine of Burning Rage
3 Brimstone Volley
2 Galvanic Blast
4 Vulshok Refugee
4 Manic Vandal
3 Traitorous Blood
3 Dragon's Claw
1 Ratchet Bomb
Shrine of Burning Rage is awesome at game 1. With all the artifact hate, it has to be taken off at game 2. At least gives room for sideboard.
Arc Trail does the dirty job and cleans the board early. Galvanic Blast also does the job, but can be changed for Gut shots.
Run 4 Goblin Grenade or don't run this deck. And 3 Brimstone Volley since 2 on hand is pretty much one dead card that will not have enough time to get cast.
Sideboard is on development. Dragon's Claw" target="blank">Dragon's Claw does wonders on mirrors and against RDW. Also Vulshok Refugee" target="blank">Vulshok Refugee.
Traitorous Blood against ramp decks and Manic Vandal for the mandatory artifact hate nowadays.
Ratchet Bomb replacing Shrine of Burning Rage on game 2 when I don't have to side many cards. Shrine of Burning Rage has to be taken off on game 2 or it will get destroyed.
Also, I've tried Reverberate. It's nice when it works, but most of the times it will be just a dead card.
MWS Nickname: [MTGS]Yuork375
Country: Brazil
Time Zone: UTC -3:00
Availability: Night mostly.
Currently Testing:
Standard
Red Deck Wins
Mono Black Control
Budget Decks [I'll advise when playing one of those]
I was running almost the same deck, but with 3 Doom Blades and discard on the side. I'll test running Mind Sludge over the Blades. Discard has been tech against Mill, Cascade and made the first game against Jund a little bit more fair (40-60 maybe).
Anyway, Jund still seems the hardest matchup so far, with or w/o sludge. Any other ideas of what might work?
Bad, just bad... useless most of the times.
Quest for pure flame works so much better as a turn 1 drop.
And don't forget, hell's thunder is a great card for MonoRed Aggro.