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 !
Surgical extraction is ok... but maybe even better is leyline of the void, which is better also against other grave-based decks. Sure you must have it in your opening hand, but if you're going to face the balustrade spy combo also surgical extraction must be in your opening hand or you're losing in two turns.
I'm thinking about building a creature-less list. I know that both goblin guide and grim lavamancer sometimes do 4+ damage, but they both are bad topdecks and in today's meta of fair decks they will often die to removals. I don't even consider other creatures because guide and mancer are the only worth running in my opinion... but i'm trying to cut them because i want to have all spells that deal "guaranteed damage" and minimize bad topdecks. Another reason to cut creatures is that two of most played cards that give us problems, deathrite shaman and scavenging ooze, both require to remove a creature from a graveyard to gain life: so if we don't run any creature we can just ignore them.
I thought about two lists, one mono red and one with splashes. Here is the monored one:
I think these are the best red burn spells available at the moment.
With skullcrack and searing blaze main deck we have the possibility to fight batterskull either by stopping life gain or by killing stoneforge mystic before she drops batterskull.
Fetches are here mainly to support searing blaze and barbarian ring. 21 lands are the right number with fireblast and shard volley in the deck... we always want to see three lands. Maybe it is still possible to cut the barbarian ring and add the 4th shard volley.
I chose not to run sulfuric vortex main deck because i want to have a low mana curve and be as fast as possible,but notice that 21 lands allow us to run in sideboard vortex, ensnaring bridge or sweepers without any problem.
Here is the list with splashes. It is stronger than the previous because it replaces the two worst spells (shard volley and skullcrack) with better ones.
-4 chain lightning
-4 lightning bolt
-4 lava spike
-4 rift bolt
-4 bump in the night
-4 flame rift
-4 searing blaze
-4 price of progress
-4 fireblast
-4 boros charm
-12 fetches
-2 plateau
-2 badlands
-4 mountain
I tested it and it is really strong, but obviously wasteland is always waiting for us.
Lands go down from 21 to 20 because there are no more shard volleys, replaced by bump in the night that does the same thing without sacrificing a land(and also has flashback,but we'll never use it); boros charm replaces skullcrack, but it might replace searing blaze instead if you want to have a main deck answe to lifegain apart from killing the equipped creatures.The problem with cutting searing blaze is that then there are only 12 spells in the deck that can target creatures, so i think is better with the blaze main also because , as i said before, scavenging ooze and deathrite shaman can be totally ignored and mystic can be killed with searing blaze.
playing white and black splashes allow us to have in sideboard discard spells against combo and disenchant against artifacts/enchantments.
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 !
I'm thinking about building a creature-less list. I know that both goblin guide and grim lavamancer sometimes do 4+ damage, but they both are bad topdecks and in today's meta of fair decks they will often die to removals. I don't even consider other creatures because guide and mancer are the only worth running in my opinion... but i'm trying to cut them because i want to have all spells that deal "guaranteed damage" and minimize bad topdecks. Another reason to cut creatures is that two of most played cards that give us problems, deathrite shaman and scavenging ooze, both require to remove a creature from a graveyard to gain life: so if we don't run any creature we can just ignore them.
I thought about two lists, one mono red and one with splashes. Here is the monored one:
-4 lightning bolt
-4 chain lightning
-4 rift bolt
-4 lava spike
-3 shard volley
-4 searing blaze
-4 skullcrack
-4 price of progress
-4 flame rift
-4 fireblast
-8 fetches
-12 mountains
-1 barbarian ring
I think these are the best red burn spells available at the moment.
With skullcrack and searing blaze main deck we have the possibility to fight batterskull either by stopping life gain or by killing stoneforge mystic before she drops batterskull.
Fetches are here mainly to support searing blaze and barbarian ring. 21 lands are the right number with fireblast and shard volley in the deck... we always want to see three lands. Maybe it is still possible to cut the barbarian ring and add the 4th shard volley.
I chose not to run sulfuric vortex main deck because i want to have a low mana curve and be as fast as possible,but notice that 21 lands allow us to run in sideboard vortex, ensnaring bridge or sweepers without any problem.
Here is the list with splashes. It is stronger than the previous because it replaces the two worst spells (shard volley and skullcrack) with better ones.
-4 chain lightning
-4 lightning bolt
-4 lava spike
-4 rift bolt
-4 bump in the night
-4 flame rift
-4 searing blaze
-4 price of progress
-4 fireblast
-4 boros charm
-12 fetches
-2 plateau
-2 badlands
-4 mountain
I tested it and it is really strong, but obviously wasteland is always waiting for us.
Lands go down from 21 to 20 because there are no more shard volleys, replaced by bump in the night that does the same thing without sacrificing a land(and also has flashback,but we'll never use it); boros charm replaces skullcrack, but it might replace searing blaze instead if you want to have a main deck answe to lifegain apart from killing the equipped creatures.The problem with cutting searing blaze is that then there are only 12 spells in the deck that can target creatures, so i think is better with the blaze main also because , as i said before, scavenging ooze and deathrite shaman can be totally ignored and mystic can be killed with searing blaze.
playing white and black splashes allow us to have in sideboard discard spells against combo and disenchant against artifacts/enchantments.
Any opinion ?