Goblins? Joblins!

Every magic player has a favorite deck. Maybe it’s won you many tournaments or clobbered your friends more times than you can remember. Anyone who has been in the legacy circuit for a bit probably has a favorite legacy deck that they bust out at tournaments when they really want to compete.

For me, that’s goblins. I like goblins because they are always a threat. When control is popular; they are a serious issue. When combo is big, Goblins stick it out. When everyone else is playing aggro, you’re playing one of the fastest and most feared. Some of you familiar with goblins may not feel the same way. Lucky for you I am going to tell you why I feel so confident about my particular variation on Goblins.

First off, the deck list:

Creatures

4x Goblin Matron
4x Goblin Warchief
4x Goblin Lackey
4x Goblin Ringleader
4x Goblin Cheiftain
4x Gempalm Incinerator
4x Goblin Piledriver
1x Goblin Lookout
1x Goblin Sharpshooter
1x Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
2x Siege-Gang Commander

Spells

3x Pyrokinesis

Artifacts

4x Aether Vial

Lands

8x Mountain
4x Wasteland
4x Bloodstained Mire
4x Volcanic Island

Now, I am not here to tell you about how this deck works or go through the cards in detail. Frankly, I am lazy and there are about a million variations of this deck to discuss. What I want to talk about primarily is two of the design choices I have made for this deck that are probably seen rarely at best.

Take a look at the cards in this deck. You’ll notice some oddities that are not found on most Goblins lists. Pyrokinesis is a strange choice, right? In the aggro on aggro match-up, this is a main-deck answer to decks like elves and merfolk. Just like Goblins, most aggro decks can’t do an effective job if you blast away whatever they spent turns 1 and 2 casting. Plus it’s free to cast.

Moving on.. Volcanic Island. What a strange choice. Blue sideboard? Well folks, I say yes. Blue opens you up to cards like Stifle, Annul, Alter Reality, Fire/Ice and some of the sneakier counterspells. In a future article we can talk about sideboarding for this deck but, for now, I hope to have given you an idea or two about Goblins and their capabilities.