There are a lot of uses for this card:
1. As incremental gain in aggressive decks--get an extra damage out of your Hellspark Elemental, Keldon Marauders, or in response to removal--a la Greater Gargadon.
2. Trade your bad creatures for their good creatures--like Vendilion Clique, Snapcaster, Flickerwisp, etc.--to improve your attacks (especially good in a token-heavy strategy, where you might start taking out 2-toughness creatures)
3. As a finisher to get the last few points through a wall of blockers or Moat.
4. As a sacrifice outlet (Balance, Viridian Emissary, Yavimaya Elder, Living Death, Zealous Conscripts, Kiki-Jiki, Mimic Vat, etc. etc.)
The card is a useful cog in some decks and a build-around=me in others. Exactly the utility and versatility that cube cards require.
A good card but I think it lost too much of its power with the loss of damage on the stack. Aggro decks need tons of creatures which means this card has to fight for a place with cards like Bolt, Incinerate, Swords, Sulfuric Vortex, Koth and so on. Maybe before the loss of damage on the stack it could be an option in creature heavy decks, but nowadays I have my doubts.
It's weird: I love Mortarpod in cube, but wouldn't include Goblin Bombardment. The reason is that Bombardment is bound to one color and seems like a primarily aggressive card, while Mortarpod can go into any deck. And that means decks of any color and of any speed (though it is best as a defensive card). Also, 1 point of damage doesn't seem like enough to balance the cost of 2 for every shot after the first, but coming with a creature to sac is a huge boon for Pod.
Short answer: Mortarpod yay, Goblin Bombardment nay.
I loved the Bombardment before the removal of stacked damage. Now, I'd rather include Mortarpod, and I don't think the Bombardment does enough to justify the cost (mainly, the card); despite being a solid effect. I'd love one strapped to a creature.
I like the card and while it's better if you're doing something interesting with cards like Gravecrawler or mass token generators, I have to agree with most of the users here and say that Mortarpod is just better thanks to being colourless, easier to tutor (Stoneforge primarely), and coming with a free body.
There's been a lot of talk about this card in the Red tokens thread recently so I thought I'd revive the original thread. I added it to my Cube to test a few weeks ago after reading some positive reviews about the card. I had always dismissed it because it looks so bad & goes against what I want most of my red decks to do in my Cube (aka balls-to-the-wall aggro or burn support for other colors). New cards such as Xenagos, the Reveler and Purphoros, God of the Forge have forced me to look at the tokens subtheme that I'm now trying to do a little more in my Cube.
Here's the story of an 8-man draft I participated in last night. I P1p1'd Sword of Light & Shadow out of a mediocre pack. I was passed Garruk Wildspeaker & Mana Drain. Mana Drain is the correct pick but I had a notorious blue drafter on my right and wanted to try something different so I took Garruk (which put my left neighbor into blue). I then took Xenagos, the Reveler, Lightning Bolt, and Garruk, Primal Hunter and my R/G draft was off. I really tried to build around a tokens subtheme hoping that I would see Goblin Bombardment, Curse of Predation and Purphoros in the draft. I was able to snag Bombardment & Curse but someone else (incorrectly) took Purphoros before I could take it. They didn't end up running it. I assembled my deck and was very happy with how it turned out. R/G in any form is quite underdrafted in my playgroup and my build ended up as a midrange tokens build which can turn more aggressive with cards like Curse of Predation. For reference here's the decklist:
The point of posting this deck isn't to discuss the merits of the deck itself because I know it wasn't the best R/G deck I could build in the Cube but just to show the kind of shell that a tokens deck can have with Goblin Bombardment. The all-stars of this deck were Xenagos, Cruse of Predation and Goblin Bombardment because of the amount of pressure they exerted on the opponent. One game I looked like an aggro deck by curving out with Wild Nacatl, Fauna Shaman, Curse of Predation & my opponent was in trouble. I then dropped Goblin Bombardment before he cast wrath but my creatures enabled me to poke him.
I played another game against a tempo deck where my draws weren't the best and my opponent cast Blade Splicer multiple times. My lack of burn made this particularly bad. Both sides of the board were cluttered with creatures (I had around 8 & my opponent had around 6) but my opponent had the advantage & was going to win on the next turn. I drew a creature to discard to Fauna Shaman, which I did. My only out at this point was to get Goblin Bombardment so I fetched for Bloodbraid Elf which I cast, hit Bombardment off the Cascade, swung with everyone, then sacrificed enough creatures to win with Bombardment. It was admittedly a lucky cascade (I was 1/6 to hit it) but I played to the out and was fortunate. Not many cards would have won me the game in this instance. I went 4-0 (8-1) for the night with this deck.
Bottom line is that this is the first time Goblin Bombardment was in a Cube deck for us and it was insane. I know if I could have done the draft all over again with the exact same cards my deck would have been better but I was happy with how this first attempt turned out.
If you haven't tried Goblin Bombardment and you run run a Cube of at least 450 then you should give it a try. You can't slam it into every deck but I know I'm sold on its power and will look to build around it again the next time I see it.
Goblin Bombardment is a very strong card in the right environment. I have a heavy token/sacrifice theme in red and this card is great there. I've considered doubling up on it actually but that would probably be OP in my meta (which is low powered compared to most lists here). But even in a power max list, this could be solid if you have enough support for the effect. Sacrifice outlets I think are very powerful (and underrated) in cube because of all the shenanigans it can enable (not to mention making all your opponent's creature removal spells ping them for one damage). As with everything, YMMV but I would certainly encourage people to test this card.
I've run Mortarpod too and think it's good but it's not nearly as good as bombardment in the decks that want this effect because of the activation cost. My 2 cents.
As someone that almost exclusively glimpse drafts now, the stock on this card has not risen by enough to include it, IMO.
My experience has been very different, and we play glimpse at 450. GB definitely isn't a card with a million applications, but in a creature based deck it's almost always great. I don't plan on cutting Bombardment any time soon.
I was really excited to play it when I bolstered the Pox archetype and red tokens; the two decks where it should be the best, and it was a consistent disappointment. I didn't even re-include it with my rise to 540.
It has been decent to good in our cube. We support token quite heavily though. In a dedicated token deck it is very strong. I don't see it leaving soon.
In a normal creature based deck it is ok, but mostly loses out to burn and equipment and thus is often the 24th card.
The more cards you have that combo with it the better. And slowly cube is getting more and more. Ophiomancer, Bloodgast, Bloodsoaked Champion, Reassembling Skeleton and the like.
For Bombardement to be great your cube needs to support red tokens quite seriously. I think it also loses some power if your draft format produces less focused decks (less players, sealed,..).
I like Bombardment best when you think of it more as a combo/wonky utility card to trigger persist effects or combo off by other means. With Muzzio's Preparations, Bombardment and any persist creature you can kill'em dead.
That's the main reason I'm running Goblin Bombardment, it's a combo enabler that goes infinite with Muzzio's Preparations or Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit as well as Reveillark and Karmic Guide. It also combos wonderfully with recursive creatures like Gravecrawler and Blood-soaked Champion as well as Alesha, Who Smiles at Death. That's probably not really enough reason to run Goblin Bombardment all by itself, but a lot of people really get a kick out of making combo decks. Since it also gives some extra reach to token/aggro decks it's good enough to keep in.
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We run it because we run Muzzio's Preparations + persist creatures and it's the easiest version of supporting that combo w/o having to run bad/multicolored cards to support it, and it's clearly stellar/a lynchpin in those decks. It does other work too, but I don't know if we would definitely run it w/o conspiracies, though it can def be a brutal beating in the right shell.
I run it without conspiracies for use in token decks and it's definitely earned it's place. I've won so many games off the back of this card and, even more so, its great variety. No other effect in my cube does what this card can do.
I saw Goblin Bombardment die alongside Mogg Fanatic during the great damage on the stack massacre of 2009.
Only Sakura-Tribe Elder survived.
All kidding aside, it's still a decent card and can close out games. I tried it for a while and it almost never made any maindecks, I like Purphoros more in the red tokens support role.
Good point about Purphoros. Most cubes probably don't need both. At 540 unpowered it's doing good work for us alongside the red God though. When you can assemble both at the same time its totally gross.
I run it for the reasons mentioned above but also because it just finishes games in token decks when things might start to get gummed up for a bunch of 1/1s. Also it is fantastic against any sort of removal. I also love it with Scuttling Doom Engine!
GB has won me so many games, I can't see cutting it any time soon. It's great in aggro to push through the last few points of damage and combos great with cards like grave crawler and reveillark.
I play it and Purphoros both at 430 right now. Love Goblin Bombardment. I had one from C13, but was digging through a trade binder the other day and got the correct version from Tempest to replace it. I can't wait to use it in BR Pox decks.
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I added Goblin Bombardment when I added Purphoros, God of the Forge to get some redundancy. It is a fine card in the intersection of the token and the sacrifice archetype. Two archetypes that already work well together. It also prodives another two-card-blowout with Life, which is always good for some giggles.
I run Bombardment, and like it in tokens and Aristocrats type decks, as well. I also run Saffi Eriksdotter, which combos with Goblin Bombardment and Sun Titan or Reveillark.
There are a lot of uses for this card:
1. As incremental gain in aggressive decks--get an extra damage out of your Hellspark Elemental, Keldon Marauders, or in response to removal--a la Greater Gargadon.
2. Trade your bad creatures for their good creatures--like Vendilion Clique, Snapcaster, Flickerwisp, etc.--to improve your attacks (especially good in a token-heavy strategy, where you might start taking out 2-toughness creatures)
3. As a finisher to get the last few points through a wall of blockers or Moat.
4. As a sacrifice outlet (Balance, Viridian Emissary, Yavimaya Elder, Living Death, Zealous Conscripts, Kiki-Jiki, Mimic Vat, etc. etc.)
The card is a useful cog in some decks and a build-around=me in others. Exactly the utility and versatility that cube cards require.
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Short answer: Mortarpod yay, Goblin Bombardment nay.
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Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker R -- Maga, Traitor to Mortals B -- Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW -- Sliver Hivelord WUBRG
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Here's the story of an 8-man draft I participated in last night. I P1p1'd Sword of Light & Shadow out of a mediocre pack. I was passed Garruk Wildspeaker & Mana Drain. Mana Drain is the correct pick but I had a notorious blue drafter on my right and wanted to try something different so I took Garruk (which put my left neighbor into blue). I then took Xenagos, the Reveler, Lightning Bolt, and Garruk, Primal Hunter and my R/G draft was off. I really tried to build around a tokens subtheme hoping that I would see Goblin Bombardment, Curse of Predation and Purphoros in the draft. I was able to snag Bombardment & Curse but someone else (incorrectly) took Purphoros before I could take it. They didn't end up running it. I assembled my deck and was very happy with how it turned out. R/G in any form is quite underdrafted in my playgroup and my build ended up as a midrange tokens build which can turn more aggressive with cards like Curse of Predation. For reference here's the decklist:
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Wild Nacatl
1 Deathrite Shaman
1 Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
1 Fauna Shaman
1 Eternal Witness
1 Vengevine
1 Master of the Wild Hunt
1 Lodestone Golem
1 Bloodbraid Elf
1 Acidic Slime
1 Indrik Stomphowler
1 Wolfir Silverheart
1 Siege-Gang Commander
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Goblin Bombardment
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Curse of Predation
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Xenagos, the Reveler
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Wasteland
1 Taiga
1 Stomping Ground
1 Windswept Heath
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Raging Ravine
1 Black Lotus
5 Forest
3 Mountain
The point of posting this deck isn't to discuss the merits of the deck itself because I know it wasn't the best R/G deck I could build in the Cube but just to show the kind of shell that a tokens deck can have with Goblin Bombardment. The all-stars of this deck were Xenagos, Cruse of Predation and Goblin Bombardment because of the amount of pressure they exerted on the opponent. One game I looked like an aggro deck by curving out with Wild Nacatl, Fauna Shaman, Curse of Predation & my opponent was in trouble. I then dropped Goblin Bombardment before he cast wrath but my creatures enabled me to poke him.
I played another game against a tempo deck where my draws weren't the best and my opponent cast Blade Splicer multiple times. My lack of burn made this particularly bad. Both sides of the board were cluttered with creatures (I had around 8 & my opponent had around 6) but my opponent had the advantage & was going to win on the next turn. I drew a creature to discard to Fauna Shaman, which I did. My only out at this point was to get Goblin Bombardment so I fetched for Bloodbraid Elf which I cast, hit Bombardment off the Cascade, swung with everyone, then sacrificed enough creatures to win with Bombardment. It was admittedly a lucky cascade (I was 1/6 to hit it) but I played to the out and was fortunate. Not many cards would have won me the game in this instance. I went 4-0 (8-1) for the night with this deck.
Bottom line is that this is the first time Goblin Bombardment was in a Cube deck for us and it was insane. I know if I could have done the draft all over again with the exact same cards my deck would have been better but I was happy with how this first attempt turned out.
If you haven't tried Goblin Bombardment and you run run a Cube of at least 450 then you should give it a try. You can't slam it into every deck but I know I'm sold on its power and will look to build around it again the next time I see it.
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I've run Mortarpod too and think it's good but it's not nearly as good as bombardment in the decks that want this effect because of the activation cost. My 2 cents.
http://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/modular-cube-5-colors.800/
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My experience has been very different, and we play glimpse at 450. GB definitely isn't a card with a million applications, but in a creature based deck it's almost always great. I don't plan on cutting Bombardment any time soon.
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In a normal creature based deck it is ok, but mostly loses out to burn and equipment and thus is often the 24th card.
The more cards you have that combo with it the better. And slowly cube is getting more and more. Ophiomancer, Bloodgast, Bloodsoaked Champion, Reassembling Skeleton and the like.
For Bombardement to be great your cube needs to support red tokens quite seriously. I think it also loses some power if your draft format produces less focused decks (less players, sealed,..).
I feel compelled to repeat everything I hear
I like Bombardment best when you think of it more as a combo/wonky utility card to trigger persist effects or combo off by other means. With Muzzio's Preparations, Bombardment and any persist creature you can kill'em dead.
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Only Sakura-Tribe Elder survived.
All kidding aside, it's still a decent card and can close out games. I tried it for a while and it almost never made any maindecks, I like Purphoros more in the red tokens support role.
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Uril, the Miststalker RGW -- Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre C -- Vhati il-Dal BG -- Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer RW -- Animar, Soul of Elements URG
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker R -- Maga, Traitor to Mortals B -- Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW -- Sliver Hivelord WUBRG
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 50th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from OTJ!
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