Since I have only played against it this is an outsiders view. But, can Courier be removed for more Grim Lavamancer? If not, is Snap Caster a possibility? And, why Gut Shot? Why not Forked Bolt or Lava Spike?
Just grabbed Legion Warboss for some games online and he works great with Rabblemaster.
I also threw in Krenko, Mob Boss and Shared Animosity and they both worked well when I was able to drop them i.e. turn one or late game for the win.
But, it has been a long time since I've played Pyro Prisons and it is all coming back to me. As I recall, two things happen when playing this deck. One, its a free win due to a rage quit turn one. It is nice in tournaments, but when playing casual online its not as satisfying. Two, they stick around and eventually break out of the prison and break you wide open. There is little in between. :/ Maybe there is a third thing where I sit there and draw mana resources for days and days and days then loose. lol
I think I could get more behind this deck if I dropped all the "control" like cards and just went all in on aggro, interaction, and ramp.
Gobots is a hyper aggressive deck comprised mostly Goblins and artifacts designed to quickly saturate the board state. Once saturated, haste and attack buffs are provided to carve out massive swaths of health from an undeveloped opponent.
JANK: Gobots is a synergy-like-deck; meaning, the whole is greater than the sum of its individual parts. Take indvidual parts away and the machine grinds to a halt. All synergy-like-decks have a percentage of jank; meaning, the deck lacks a certain percentage of consistency. Note, I started development of Gobots in 2014. Since then, it has been honed, like a fine stick of metal, sharpened and streamlined over hundreds if not a thousand matches in a four-year period. Over this period, the percentage of jank has been reduced as low as it can go while proportionally increasing its consistency. But in the end, jank is inherent to all synergy-like-decks and can never be reduced to zero.
INTERACTION: No reach. No Goblin Grenade. No Lightning Bolt. Full stop. Here is the deal. Gobots is a creature based deck. It requires a high density of low costing creatures and artifacts to maximize explosive opening hands. By adding reach the density drops. The lower the density the slower the opening hand. Slow starts equal quick losses.
A three-costing goblin with a 2/1 body and “surge” tax granting an attack buff and haste to the hoard. His surge tax is an issue; however, with 12 zero costing spells and 24 one costing spells it is typically not a problem.
A one-costing goblin with a 1/1 body and “kicker” enter the battlefield effect that grants a +1 attack buff and haste to the hoard. He will typically be cast for two; however, on rare occasion, you will need to cast him for one for the extra body followed by another whacker.
A one-costing goblin with a 2/2 body and haste. The drawback is that you can provide your opponent free land draws. On rare occasion, you will gain valuable insight on your opponent’s next draw i.e. sweeper or counter.
A one-costing goblin with a 1/1 body and “battalion” attack trigger granting first strike and trample to the hoard! Plus, tokens cannot block. That is huge. Because of this, LL will be targeted for removal.
A one-costing artifact with a 1/1 body and flying. Plus, it can also sack itself post combat damage to stop your opponent from casting any non-creature spells on their turn. It can be quite useful in control and combo matches to stay off a T3 combo, T4 sweeper, or exiled cards like Ancestral Vision. If you find yourself with multiple copies, you can chain them post attacking to lock your opponent for a period. HoG improves consistency i.e. helps activate Opal and is sackable to Rebirth.
A one-costing artifact with a 1/1 body and haste. Plus, you can stack, pop, and draw a pile of cards! Because of this, Courier is typically targeted for removal. From experience, do not count on drawing any cards off of Courier let a lone a stack, typically three cards, off of Couriers back. If he is not removed by your opponent you will typically be strapped for resources for a more important play.
A one-costing artifact with a 0/1 body and “battle cry” attack trigger granting a +1 attack buff to the hoard. Because of this, Pest is typically targeted for removal. An unanswered Pest can quickly overwhelm your opponent since the hoard can saturate the field quickly. You can lead with Pest turn one followed by two hast creatures or turn two or three following a whacker.
A zero-costing artifact with a 1/1 body. Like Robots, he is cog in a much larger machine at work. Memnite activates Reckless Bushwacker, adds to the hoard, often time used to activate Battalion early on, add value to Battle Cry, activates Mox Opal, or sacrificed for Kuldotha Rebirth. Memnite is critical for success.
A zero-costing artifact with a 0/2 body with flying. Similar to Memnite, but worse due to the 0 attack value. Though, Thopter is needed for the deck to work smoothly.
A one costing spell for three 1/1 goblins minus an artifact. This is the heart of Gobots. To be able to go wide AND early is critical for the success in this hyper aggo deck. For example, T1 you cast Ornithopter and sack it to Rebirth netting three 1/1 goblins. T2, you cast Goblin Bushwhacker for a classic 8 points of damage. Or, on T3, after developing a board state, you cast Rebirth chaining Reckless Bushwhacker. But now, you have LL and/or Pest providing support. Rebirth tilts the deck into an “answer me or die” type of deck if the hoard cannot be stopped.
A zero-costing artifact that provides one mana if you have three other artifacts in the battlefield. If Rebirth is the heart, Opal is the lungs of Gobots. Early starts are critical for success and Opal aids in that initiative. That one free mana can be the difference between a win or a loss. Plus, it adds to all the benefits that the other zero costing artifacts add minus the body.
FAST LANDS:
A land that provides two colors with zero downside for an aggro deck i.e. Copperline Gorge. Color splashing is based off the Reinforcements making this deck incredibly flexible to the ever changing meta and card releases.
FETCH LANDS:
Sacrifice this land for 1 life to search out a land and put it into play i.e. Wooded Foothills. Note, I have always been hesitant about adding fetches due to the low land count, life loss, and fetch mechanic’s potential exploitation. However, quick access to a splash color is sometimes critical for success. You will need to determine your personal ratio of fetches to basics or desired quantity.
SHOCK LANDS:
A two color land for 2 life with the added benefit that it is searchable by Fetch Lands i.e. Stomping Ground. You will typically only need one of each desired splash color shock land so long as you have fast lands and fetches. Note, the life loss is a serious concern, so bear that in mind when adding more than one shock land per color splash.
MOUNTAIN:
A basic red mana that is searchable by Fetch Lands. Note, basic lands are becoming more and more profitable since a lot of other cards prey on non-basics, fetch abilities, or rely on life loss. Typically, four or more is the standard.
SAMPLE DECK #1: This is the list I used to rack a body count I was proud to mount my banner. Density, as you can see, it is essentially 40 creatures. Jank has been reduced to its lowest percentage. And, Kuldotha Rebirth and Mox Opal have been energized with 24 low costing artifacts. It also utilizes the coveted Cavern of Souls and multi colored lands to bolster reinforcement options of any color.
SAMPLE DECK #2: This list is a recent development that has yielded many victories even though the density is significantly lower. The reason for that is its consistent draw power. Because of its draw power, the resource base is changed out for the more common fetch land design. This reduces the amount of lands you will draw into while allowing you to make use of three colors without much drawback.
REINFORCEMENTS:
When sideboarding you want to add around three to four cards total. Artifact density is key to Gobots, so it is best to typically side out artifacts for artifacts and non-artifacts for non-artifacts. As for what to remove that is match dependent. But, this is a guideline not a rule. Below, you will find some of the best cards to help support Gobots.
I am not sure what you mean but not knowing about leagues, but there is not much to know. After you sign up wit a decklist you just need to play 5 games. You can play them anytime until the league closes (each leagues season takes a few months). You are matched with random players, so being 4-0 doesnt mean you will go against other 4-0.
My first findings:
- sideboard is outdated, not worth discussing, besides the fact that I really liked the bitterblossom idea
- darksteel citadel was awful
- the deck feels amazing with Rebirth on T1 and very mediocre without it
- deck is explosive but much less consistent then typical 8whack lists
- bomat was suprisingly a must-kill target
I really want to play in a league, but I don’t know much about them. :/
Ah, that’s Maurizio Savoia’s list...I have no idea how that list beat out 127 players. I can only guess he did enough damage on the ground to then sit back and lob reach at the opponent. But, that’s more 8Whack strategy than Gobots. More power to him though for making it work.
Just to let you know, CotV doesn't shut off terminus since the mana cost of terminus is always 6.
I just found that out while posting in the Stompy thread. Who knew casting Terminus for one was not countered by CotV. That card seems to get around EVERYTHING.
But, on a side note I got a few more videos created and this time I've added some music in the back ground.
And, I drafted a Gobots Primer. I need to discuss it with the mods, but if anyone wants to review it PM me so I can send it your way.
A Chalice that could stop Terminus would cost 12 mana (Terminus has CMC of 6 even when it's Miracled for W). I don't think that's where we want to be.
For the same reason, Gaddock Teeg does stop it, and is in the sideboard of many Stompy builds that splash white.
I don't know of a safeguard against that in monogreen. If your meta is really overrun with Miracles, you might sideboard Codex Shredder to mill away anytime they opt/jace/azcanta and keep a card on top?
Well, CotV would only cost two to stop all one costing spells since it is cast for one no? Teeg is too slow. And Shredder is a very bad SB card. :/ I was just now doing my own research and Warping Wail would be a good solution, but typically countering blue is not a good idea if you are not blue to begin with. lol I guess until you face a T1 Terminus you can't really feel the pain.
CotV is choice as it stops Terminus, Opt, Oust, Path to Exile, Serum Visions, and other spells. However, it shuts off a 16-20 cards in Gobots. lol So, I don't think trumping our opponent by trumping ourselves is a good idea.
WW is a colorless counter! So, we don't have to splash blue, but are we ever going to have two mana up? And, trying to counter blue is just asking to be slapped around like Robin.
RtS refills the hand, but so does his and we work of limited mana so the casting cost alone could cause some problems, but I like it better than the above two.
StM rips it out of their deck which is where its hiding. And, it works on combo decks. But, We would need to splash black to use it. :/
So, if I have Fecundity in play and my opponent casts Anger of the Gods do I draw any cards if my creatures wiped off the board?
Thanks
I also threw in Krenko, Mob Boss and Shared Animosity and they both worked well when I was able to drop them i.e. turn one or late game for the win.
But, it has been a long time since I've played Pyro Prisons and it is all coming back to me. As I recall, two things happen when playing this deck. One, its a free win due to a rage quit turn one. It is nice in tournaments, but when playing casual online its not as satisfying. Two, they stick around and eventually break out of the prison and break you wide open. There is little in between. :/ Maybe there is a third thing where I sit there and draw mana resources for days and days and days then loose. lol
I think I could get more behind this deck if I dropped all the "control" like cards and just went all in on aggro, interaction, and ramp.
This is where I'll be residing now. :]
INTERACTION: No reach. No Goblin Grenade. No Lightning Bolt. Full stop. Here is the deal. Gobots is a creature based deck. It requires a high density of low costing creatures and artifacts to maximize explosive opening hands. By adding reach the density drops. The lower the density the slower the opening hand. Slow starts equal quick losses.
RECKLESS BUSHWHACKER:
- A three-costing goblin with a 2/1 body and “surge” tax granting an attack buff and haste to the hoard. His surge tax is an issue; however, with 12 zero costing spells and 24 one costing spells it is typically not a problem.
GOBLIN BUSHWHACKER:- A one-costing goblin with a 1/1 body and “kicker” enter the battlefield effect that grants a +1 attack buff and haste to the hoard. He will typically be cast for two; however, on rare occasion, you will need to cast him for one for the extra body followed by another whacker.
GOBLIN GUIDE:- A one-costing goblin with a 1/1 body and “battalion” attack trigger granting first strike and trample to the hoard! Plus, tokens cannot block. That is huge. Because of this, LL will be targeted for removal.
HOPE OF GHIRAPUR:- A one-costing artifact with a 1/1 body and flying. Plus, it can also sack itself post combat damage to stop your opponent from casting any non-creature spells on their turn. It can be quite useful in control and combo matches to stay off a T3 combo, T4 sweeper, or exiled cards like Ancestral Vision. If you find yourself with multiple copies, you can chain them post attacking to lock your opponent for a period. HoG improves consistency i.e. helps activate Opal and is sackable to Rebirth.
BOMAT COURIER:- A one-costing artifact with a 0/1 body and “battle cry” attack trigger granting a +1 attack buff to the hoard. Because of this, Pest is typically targeted for removal. An unanswered Pest can quickly overwhelm your opponent since the hoard can saturate the field quickly. You can lead with Pest turn one followed by two hast creatures or turn two or three following a whacker.
MEMNITE:- A zero-costing artifact with a 1/1 body. Like Robots, he is cog in a much larger machine at work. Memnite activates Reckless Bushwacker, adds to the hoard, often time used to activate Battalion early on, add value to Battle Cry, activates Mox Opal, or sacrificed for Kuldotha Rebirth. Memnite is critical for success.
ORNITHOPTER:KULDOTHA REBIRTH:
RESOURCES:
- A zero-costing artifact that provides one mana if you have three other artifacts in the battlefield. If Rebirth is the heart, Opal is the lungs of Gobots. Early starts are critical for success and Opal aids in that initiative. That one free mana can be the difference between a win or a loss. Plus, it adds to all the benefits that the other zero costing artifacts add minus the body.
FAST LANDS:- A land that provides two colors with zero downside for an aggro deck i.e. Copperline Gorge. Color splashing is based off the Reinforcements making this deck incredibly flexible to the ever changing meta and card releases.
FETCH LANDS:- A two color land for 2 life with the added benefit that it is searchable by Fetch Lands i.e. Stomping Ground. You will typically only need one of each desired splash color shock land so long as you have fast lands and fetches. Note, the life loss is a serious concern, so bear that in mind when adding more than one shock land per color splash.
MOUNTAIN:SAMPLE DECK #1: This is the list I used to rack a body count I was proud to mount my banner. Density, as you can see, it is essentially 40 creatures. Jank has been reduced to its lowest percentage. And, Kuldotha Rebirth and Mox Opal have been energized with 24 low costing artifacts. It also utilizes the coveted Cavern of Souls and multi colored lands to bolster reinforcement options of any color.
SAMPLE DECK #1
4x Reckless Bushwhacker
4x Goblin Bushwhacker
4x Goblin Guide
4x Legion Loyalist
4x Gingerbrute
4x Bomat Courier
3x Hope of Ghirapur
4x Signal Pest
4x Memnite
1x Ornithopter
4x Mox Opal
4x Kuldotha Rebirth
RESOURCES: 16
4x Cavern of Souls
4x Gemstone Mine
4x Prismatic Vista
4x Mountain
REINFORCEMENTS: 15
3x Pithing Needle
3x Abrade
3x Shapers' Sanctuary
3x Genesis Chamber
3x Grafdigger's Cage
SAMPLE DECK #2: This list is a recent development that has yielded many victories even though the density is significantly lower. The reason for that is its consistent draw power. Because of its draw power, the resource base is changed out for the more common fetch land design. This reduces the amount of lands you will draw into while allowing you to make use of three colors without much drawback.
SAMPLE DECK #2
4x Reckless Bushwhacker
4x Goblin Bushwhacker
4x Legion Loyalist
4x Gingerbrute
4x Bomat Courier
4x Signal Pest
4x Memnite
SUPPORT: 16
4x Mox Opal
4x Mishra's Bauble
4x Kuldotha Rebirth
4x Light Up The Stage
4x Wooded Foothills
1x Stomping Ground
4x Bloodstained Mire
1x Blood Crypt
1x Castle Embereth
5x Mountain
REINFORCEMENTS: 15
2x Pithing Needle
3x Abrade
2x Rakdos Charm
2x Dragon's Claw
2x Shapers' Sanctuary
2x Genesis Chamber
2x Grafdigger's Cage
REINFORCEMENTS:
When sideboarding you want to add around three to four cards total. Artifact density is key to Gobots, so it is best to typically side out artifacts for artifacts and non-artifacts for non-artifacts. As for what to remove that is match dependent. But, this is a guideline not a rule. Below, you will find some of the best cards to help support Gobots.
SIDEBOARD OPTIONS:
Oh okay that clarifies it up a bit.
Yes
I really want to play in a league, but I don’t know much about them. :/
Ah, that’s Maurizio Savoia’s list...I have no idea how that list beat out 127 players. I can only guess he did enough damage on the ground to then sit back and lob reach at the opponent. But, that’s more 8Whack strategy than Gobots. More power to him though for making it work.
I just found that out while posting in the Stompy thread. Who knew casting Terminus for one was not countered by CotV. That card seems to get around EVERYTHING.
But, on a side note I got a few more videos created and this time I've added some music in the back ground.
And, I drafted a Gobots Primer. I need to discuss it with the mods, but if anyone wants to review it PM me so I can send it your way.
I did not know Chalice of the Void could not stop Terminus when it was cast for one mana.
And, I always though Teege was a three costing creature.
Well, CotV would only cost two to stop all one costing spells since it is cast for one no? Teeg is too slow. And Shredder is a very bad SB card. :/ I was just now doing my own research and Warping Wail would be a good solution, but typically countering blue is not a good idea if you are not blue to begin with. lol I guess until you face a T1 Terminus you can't really feel the pain.
It is very frustrating to set up a lighting fast T3 clock to be smacked down by Terminus T1.
That card breaks aggro.
So, my question to you guys is how do you deal with it?
Are there any cards in our arsenal of Red that can deal with it?
Edit:
So, I've found these cards to help out:
- Chalice of the Void
- Warping Wail
- Reforge the Soul
- Stain the Mind
CotV is choice as it stops Terminus, Opt, Oust, Path to Exile, Serum Visions, and other spells. However, it shuts off a 16-20 cards in Gobots. lol So, I don't think trumping our opponent by trumping ourselves is a good idea.WW is a colorless counter! So, we don't have to splash blue, but are we ever going to have two mana up? And, trying to counter blue is just asking to be slapped around like Robin.
RtS refills the hand, but so does his and we work of limited mana so the casting cost alone could cause some problems, but I like it better than the above two.
StM rips it out of their deck which is where its hiding. And, it works on combo decks. But, We would need to splash black to use it. :/