Goblins in Standard

This Friday I took my Goblin deck out to the local Friday Night Magic, and battled it out over the course of four rounds. Here's the report.

First off, living where I am (Park Falls, WI), the local FNM is an hour away in Ashland, WI. It's a new store, opened up a couple months ago, granting a great improvement over the 2-3 hours I'd drive previously. Hopefully that means I'll be able to attend more often. But anyways, goblins. On to the list!

4 Goblin Guide
2 Quest for the Goblin lord
1 Forked bolt
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Goblin Bushwhacker
4 Dragon Fodder
4 Warren Instigator
1 Ember Hauler
3 Searing Blaze
4 Goblin Chieftain
2 Staggershock
1 Goblin Ruinblaster
2 Siege Gang Commander

2 Teetering Peaks
3 Smoldering Spires
1 Tectonic Edge
18 Mountain

It's a red deck wins, with goblin flavoring. It's very fast, aggressive and surprisingly powerful. But if you're making an aggressive deck like that, don't you want mostly four ofs? So why all the odd numbers? I'm a bit embarrassed to say this, but it's a card availability issue. I haven't been buying most of the cards I've wanted to in the past year, and so I don't have a lot of the commons and uncommons I'd like. For example, I'm pretty sure I could do with more taplands. Their effects are pretty powerful. Not sure I want the full eight but I might. The presence of playsets of the rares and mythics might give the lie to this statement, but I make sure to trade into new, good goblins when they're printed. But anyways, let's get into the cards one by one.

4 Goblin Guide
This guy is good. Really good. Dropping him turn one on the play is easily good for six damage when they're getting their taplands or mana elves online. Later in the game he's still decent with haste and the possibility of pump. His drawback isn't as terrible as I initially thought; you generate enough tempo by swinging with him that the card advantage is less relevant. And hey, if he draws them out of a mana screw you're officially playing a more fun game of magic because of it.

2 Quest for the Goblin Lord
Only own two of these. I'm still not sure about this card, I haven't played the deck nearly enough to decide if the effect is too powerful or too slow. Sometimes it just never seems to get above three counters, and other times it makes an already decent horde into a impressive strike force. It's one of the cards that makes Dragon Fodder playable, so perhaps it'll get better or worse as I acquire other cards as well.

4 Lightning Bolt
What's that? Some of the best burn in a deck that tries to win quickly? I don't think I've ever heard anyone propose that before. Genius!

1 Forked Bolt
Should be a Searing Blaze, I think. Still a decent spell in it's own right, especially if they're playing out mana elves.

4 Goblin Bushwhacker
Now this guy is amazing. Despite his converted mana cost, he's actually a two drop, regardless. Even in a hand with six mountains he does more damage if you kick him on turn two than if you just play him out turn one. He acts as one turn of a lord effect, he gives everything haste, so he's also great on turn four next to a dragon fodder or ember hauler or warren instigator. He goes a long way towards making you feel like you're playing with 30 haste creatures, which is a great feeling let me tell you.

4 Dragon fodder
Once I start getting more of the other playables, I'll probably end up cutting this card out. It's got it's high points; it interacts well with all the lord effects. one Bushwhacker or Chieftain is enough to make these guys into respectable damage, and it certainly helps to get quest for the goblin lord online, and yet every time I look at it I wish it was Mogg War Marshal. Sigh. Still, getting two guys for two mana makes him pretty resilient to removal spells; they've got a wrath or pyroclasm effect or nothing.

4 Warren Instigator
Now this guy is nuts. I mean, everybody and their mother looked at him and thought "Not as good as goblin lackey", but Goblin Lackey is pretty darn good. As it turns out, this guy can be pretty good while still not being Lackey. Moreso than just the whole drop goblins into play thing, double strike is a very powerful ability, especially on a two mana guy. Given the ten lord effects I'm running and the Teetering Peaks, he often gets in for more than just two damage.

1 Ember Hauler
Double mogg fanatic? Sort of. As good as two mogg fanatics? Maybe. Just being a bear with the goblin type on him is decent in the deck, and being able to shock creatures at will is a useful ability. I expect he'll also do a number on opposing planeswalkers, which is a great thing to look for in a creature. Unfortunately, as a one of he didn't come up very frequently, and none of my opponents ran much in the way of planeswalkers, so I didn't get much opportunity to evaluate him. Once I crack some more M11 I expect I'll get the other 3.

3 Searing Blaze
That's right, I haven't been doing enough to crack myself a playset of Jace, the Mind Sculpter. Searing blaze has a significant drawback in that you need to play a land in order to get the most use out of it. So it's mostly a sorcery. That said, it worked wonders for me all night, clearing blockers and letting my goblin guides get in another two damage. And three damage to the player? For only two mana? Are you kidding me?

4 Goblin Chieftain
This guy is also really, really awesome. 1) He gives all your goblins +1/+1. That dragon fodder looks a lot better next to it. So does instigator and his double strike. 2) he gives everybody haste. On turns four and five that's significant if you're dropping your dragon fodders or siege gang commanders. 3) He himself has haste. No matter how clear your board is you can topdeck him and clock your opponent for two, threatening more on the next turn if you topdeck literally any creature in the deck.

2 Staggershock
This card I'm on the fence about. On the one hand, it's 4 points of burn for only 3 mana. Char and Flame Javelin were both excellent cards, so why not this? Well, staggering the damage out over two turns is less effective when you're trying to burn down their creatures and get your guys through. It's fine when you need to clear out a Wall of Omens after it blocks, but if they've got anything with power as well you're trading a card and a half to kill their guy, which isn't a good place to be. It does go well to their face (or their Jace), as those don't lose damage with the simple passage of a turn.

1 Goblin Ruinblaster
Could've used three more. As a 2/1 haste goblin for 3, he isn't bad. At four mana though, what with killing one of their nonbasics he's got the potential to be much better. While I'm not expecting to actively mana or color screw my opponent with this, it does set their gameplan back by a turn, whether that's laying a Sarkhan the Mad or a Sphinx of Jwar Isle. Either way, I'd prefer to lay some cheap dudes early and kill them before the game gets that far.

2 Siege Gang Commander
Another insane character. So sad that he's rotating in three months. Anyways, beyond the fact that he gets you four bodies for five mana, and that he lets you fling your team at those who would oppose you, this guy also interacts well with a goblin chieftan the turn before or a quest for the goblin lord; finishing the quest and making an impressive strike force with the boost. Oh, and did I mention being able to drop him with Instigator on turn 3?

1 Tectonic Edge
Again with the slowing down the opponent, although I'd prefer more ruinblasters to more edges. The edge makes colorless, which leaves you more vulnerable to Spreading Seas (the deck is mono colored, but most of the spells cost RR. Bushwhacker, Chieftain, Searing Blaze, Siege gang, so on.). It also is worse if you get an on curve hand.

2 Teetering Peaks
Worked out very well for me. Yeah, it's sorcery speed pump, but that comes with some pretty good stuff. Stick it on an instigator for four damage. Stick it on a dragon fodder token and force them to use their removal on it instead of your Chieftain, or take two damage. Very playable on turn three since the deck has many more two drop creatures than three drops.

3 Smoldering Spires
Makes a creature unblockable? Nice. Again, very good on turn three, especially with an instigator on the table. Why yes I'd like free goblins. I don't like including taplands in aggressive builds, but in this case I think the extra damage they offer justifies it. Not sure about playing with the full eight though.

18 Mountains
Dave Price tells me this is the best card in Magic. Who are you to argue with Dave Price?

So those are the cards. Allow me to lay out a couple lines of play with the deck; hands that came up when I was playing it.

Turn 2: Warren instigator. Turn three, Smoldering Spires making his creature unable to block, Goblin Bushwhacker. Swing in. On first strike damage, drop a goblin chieftain, pumping both attacking creatures. You do a total of eight damage on turn three, you can easily make that lethal on turn four.

Or Turn 3 Goblin Chieftain. Turn Four Dragon Fodder, Dragon Fodder, swing in for ten. That's only three cards!

Or one game, off a mull to five, on the draw: Turn two Instigator, Turn three bolt his Hypnotic Specter, use Instigator's ability to drop for free Siege Gang commander and Siege Gang commander. That got a concession.

Or one game, turn one quest, turn two bushwhacker, burned out. Turn three bushwhacker, burned out. Turn four Goblin chieftain, turn five Goblin Chieftan, Goblin Bushwhacker, activating the Quest. Swing in with three 6/3 goblins.

Quite literally more than half the creatures in the deck have haste, and more than half of that more than half give your other creatures haste. The deck can drop a nasty hand even after a board sweeper with just one or two cards, and hit you with it before you get a chance to untap. It'll steamroll you before you get a chance to do anything, unless you come out fighting and fighting hard. It's a real joy to play.