I just love Goblins. My deck in Magic had Goblin Patrol and Goblin War Buggy in it. Those echo cost was a bit clunky but casting them on first and second turns felt really good. These little critters attracted me to become a red player in my early years in the game.

As I’ve noticed, it seemed that Wizards has not left behind Goblins in its Magic sets. You can just find a little crowd of them on each expansion. They were even introduced as a theme tribe during the release of the Onslaught and Lorwyn blocks, in which I made decks during those periods.

Anyhow, what I am introducing today is my latest variation of the Goblins archetype for Innistrad Standard. Here is the list:

With great power comes great risk
of getting yourself killed.

Creatures
4 Goblin Arsonist
2 Grim Lavamancer
4 Stormblood Berserker
4 Goblin Wardriver
4 Goblin Fireslinger
3 Goblin Chieftain

Spells
2 Shock
2 Brimstone Volley
3 Incinerate
2 Arc Trail
2 Gut Shot
4 Shrine of Burning Rage
3 Goblin Grenade

At first it may look like a “meh” typical Rdw list but here is a quick detail of my card choices.

Wardriver and Berserker – the first two turns is very important of your every opening match. Ten one-drops and eight two-drops is your solution for that. Curving into a blood thirsted berserker is a good start. Wardriver’s Battlecry can push additional damage early on.

Three chieftains – Only three? I think it’s the ideal count. You would not want them to clump up in your hand and they die easily. They just act as a pump support in case you’ve curved to turn three.

Brimstone Valley and Goblin Grenade – These two is you ideal burn compo piece. Combined with an arsonist, it can shoot a total of 11 damage in one turn, and pretty much a high percentage of an early kill if you got critters damaging as early as turn two. The other burn choices are based on the rdw list. Also, the shrine is very important to drop on turn 2 so as it is another threat needed to answer with.

Sideboard is basically the card choices to anti your local metagame. Since Standard has not changed much since Worlds, it is best to run generic sideboard components. My choices would look like this:

2 Act of Aggression
1 Arc Trail
2 Dismember
1 Doom Blade
1 Go for the Throat
4 Manic Vandal
4 Vulshok Refugee

2 Dismember, 1 Doom blade, 1 Go for the Throat – the Black splash is for these cards. Specifically to kill the current fatties like Hero of Bladehold, Sphinx, Primeval, Inferno titan, and also removal for the color-hoser Phyrexian Crusader.

Manic Vandals – your generic answer to artifacts. Wurmcoil Engine is pretty much a nuisance in the matchup but the right card combination is your key here.

Arc Trail and Aggression acts – the third Arc Trail is for other red decks, GW tokens, Illusions and other random aggro decks. One use of the acts except for “threatening” fatties’ is to answer Geist of St Traft. Get the Angel token and use it to block the Geist. Problem solved.

Vulshok Refugee – the pro-red against Slagstorm and rdw. Nuff said.

I am trying to experiment Olivia Voldaren on the board, though I’m not sure if the four drop will fit well with the 21 lands in the deck. For now she’ll just be under plan B. This is also the same with Koth, although I think he is quite good against control.

Your comments and suggestions are very much welcome (as always :)) for the improvement of the deck. Just hit it up below.

Until the next post and thanks for reading.

Here’s the updated version of the Black Red Goblins that I’ve created post M10 Standard. Dragon Fodder acts like Time Spiral’s Mogg War Marshall, producing tokens to benefit the Goblin lords’ passive ability. I’ve also added Redcap and 2 Fallout to deal with token decks.

Maindeck
Lands
8 [ALA] Mountain
4 [SHM] Mountain
4 [M10] Dragonskull Summit
4 [SHM] Graven Cairns
4 [LRW] Auntie’s Hovel

Creatures
2 [LRW] Wort, Boggart Auntie
3 [M10] Siege-Gang Commander
4 [M10] Goblin Chieftain
4 [LRW] Squeaking Pie Sneak
3 [SHM] Murderous Redcap
4 [CFX] Goblin Outlander
4 [LRW] Mad Auntie

Spells
4 [ALA] Dragon Fodder
2 [CFX] Volcanic Fallout
3 [M10] Lightning Bolt
3 [M10] Doom Blade

Sideboard
SB: 4 [M10] Deathmark
SB: 2 [EVE] Chaotic Backlash
SB: 4 [LRW] Thoughtseize
SB: 2 [ARB] Thought Hemorrhage
SB: 3 [ALA] Infest

The sideboard is concentrated on beating white token decks, and the Thoughtseizes and Thought Hemorrhage for control and combo decks.

An ideal play would be:
Turn 2 – Dragon Fodder
Turn 3 – Chieftain
Turn 4 – Another Fodder or Pie Sneak *haste-beating action*

Let me know what you think.

The arrival of the Magic 2010 core set and the rotation of Tenth Edition in Standard shaped up the current metagame and introduced us to new strategies in deck building. This also meant the return of Lorwyn favorite tribal decks and one of which is the goblins or boggarts in the Lorwyn world. M10 introduced new cards to tune up the deck. Here are some of the choices.

Lightning Bolt – everybody’s favorite burn spell is back. I’m sure this one will get a spot in the deck.

Goblin Chieftain – this goblin will surely become one of the backbones of the deck. Combined with the other Goblin lord black version (Mad Auntie), the deck can have a very explosive start like the scenario below:

Turn 2 Frogtosser Banneret, attack (1 damage)
Turn 3 Goblin Chieftain, attack (4 damage)
Turn 4 Siege-Gang Commander, attack (13 damage)

Goblin Artillery – the exact version of Orcish Artillery, this card gets pretty good use with a chieftain in play.

Doom Blade – this black spot removal deals with the pesky pro-red guys like the forge-tender and Vedalken Outlander.

The Returnees

Some of the forgotten Lorwyn block cards may have a comeback in post-M10 Standard.

Squeaking Pie Sneak – this fear Goblin can effectively do early damage and gets more effective with the eight lord copies.

Mad Auntie – the pre-Shadowmoor goblins that I made had been using this card so there’s a high rate this will get a slot in the deck.

Wort, Boggart Auntie – this Goblin legend gets good use in post-mass removal situations and also reloads the gas of the deck.

Marsh Flitter – I’m thinking of this card as a pseudo-card advantage version of Spectral Procession plus it can also benefit with a lord in play.

Frogtosser Banneret – The deck’s accelerator also speeds up the cost of Marsh Flitter.

The Worth Mentions

Siege-gang Commander – The big guns of the Goblins and the finisher of the deck. Just don’t let this guy untap.

Goblin Outlander – this is definitely a default part of the deck to take care of white guys like the Rhox War Monk (well, a third of it is white) in which big ass err toughness and life gain give trouble to the deck.

Terminate – this instant takes care of critters that Doom blade can’t handle. Yes, I’m looking at you, Putrid Leech and Doran.

The Deck

With all the stuff mentioned now, here’s my initial list of the deck:

Maindeck

Creatures (26)
3 Frogtosser Banneret
4 Goblin Chieftain
4 Goblin Outlander
2 Mad Auntie
3 Siege-gang Commander
4 Squeaking Pie Sneak
3 Wort Boggart Auntie
3 Marsh Flitter

Spells (10)
3 Doom Blade
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Terminate

Lands (24)
4 Auntie’s Hovel
4 Dragonskull Summit
4 Graven Cairns
7 Mountain
5 Swamp

The sideboard is still under construction as the meta hasn’t evolved that yet. I’m actually waiting for decklists from upcoming big tournaments online and offline. Still looking to playtest this on MWS or maybe try some proxy version for actual card testing. Stay tuned for part two of this article as I discuss some matchups and sideboarding guides. Till next time.