Dear Bmoor,

 

I live in the Philippines and am a huge fan of your "garage." I have seem the decks you have fixed and they seem to work well enough. I was hoping that you could help me with my boggart deck. The thing is I'm trying to be on a budget. If you could help, it would really be great.

 

Deck List:

 

Lands:

11 mountain

11 swamp

 

Creatures:

1 Mad Auntie (Came with the Deck)

3 Mudbutton Torchrunner

4 Facevaulters

3 Boggart Harbringer

2 Festering Goblins

2 Squeaking Pie Sneak

1 Mogg War Marshal

2 Stingscourger

2 Hornet Harasser

2 Warren Pillfers

2 Emberwild Augers

 

Others:

4 Fodder Launch

2 Tarfire

2 Boggart Birth Rite

4 Incinerates

2 Boggart Schenanigans
1 Incindiary command

2 Terrors

2 Lash Out

2 Fists of the Anvil

2 Brute Force

 

Total: 69

 

My main goal is to put as many goblins down and sacrifice them for the greater good. When they are dead, I will ressurect them with Boggart Birth Rite or Warren Pilfers. I love the Torchrunner, Fodder Launch combo. They either kill 2 creatures, or kill 1 and 8 damage to an opponent. Awsome. If i cant get any of the goblins to do anything i use direct damagers like Incinerates' or Lash out. Terror is always a good creature removal. Also if I cant win due to sacrificing I try to pump up my little Facevaulter (it became a 25 21 once.)

 

With my friends there is a sliver deck, and orzov deck, a WU control which uses Spell Burst and Rule Of Law, a traditional mono B and other control decks, and i think we have all the tribes used up in Lorwyn.

 

Thanks in advance,

Felix (nickname)

Well, "Felix", I've mentioned before that I've never had a lot of luck with Goblin decks.  I think though that Lorwyn may actually have changed that, since I did fairly well at a recent FNM with a Boggart build.  So I'll give it a shot.

First of all, if you've got 69 cards in the deck, a few should come out.  Let's isolate the bottom eschelon.  Lash Out, while powerful, is probably not as versatile as Incinerate.  Or you could drop two Incinerate and run both if you want, but six burn spells for 1R plus Terror just seems excessive, especially when you also have Fodder Launch.  Tarfire can definitely come out.  Yes, it's a Goblin card, but why does that matter?  It doesn't trigger Boggart Shenanigans, Mad Auntie can't benefit it, and you can't sacrifice it to a Facevaulter.  The only card you have that recognizes a difference between this and Shock is Boggart Harbinger, and you'll usually be tutoring for Mad Auntie or something more potent than a Goblin Shock.

Incendiary Command can come out too.  If it were Profane Command, I'd leave it in, but Incediary is not the best one by a long shot.  It also kills quite a few of your own Goblins.  I know you're all about sacrificing them, but at least get an effect out of sacrificing them.

Finally, you can afford to pull Emberwilde Augur and Hornet Harasser.  There's better Goblins out there.

So, now we should add some better cards, right?  Well, Goblins are effectively just like any other tribe-- if you want a deck around them, you need plenty of tribal interactions.  As I explained with Tarfire above, bringing out the true strength of Goblins means more than just, "all my creatures are Goblins", it means "all my creatures are Goblins, so these cards give me bonuses".  You need cards that care you're surrounded by Goblins.  My first impulse is Wort, Boggart Auntie, but you said you were on a budget, so she's out.  Good thing there are other good ones out there.  Try Siege-Gang Commander, Boggart Mob, or Ib Halfheart, Goblin Tactician for some good times.  If even those are too costly for you, then Caterwauling Boggart is right up your alley.  And don't worry too much about getting a whole playset, since Boggart Harbinger lets you run a toolbox-style deck.  In that case, though, you do need a fourth Harbinger.

The other issue I have here is that you're focused on the boggarts' self-sacrificing side, but you don't have that many ways of bringing them back.  Two Birth Rite and two Pilferers?  Is that all?  It is a shame you can't afford Wort.  But no matter-- replace the Birth Rites with two more Pilferers.  Boggart Birth Rite is merely a fancy Raise Dead.  It doesn't do much other than turn into a decent Goblin card.  Warren Pilferers does all that and is also a 3/3 with haste, which will likely kill another creature or draw a removal spell.  It's recursion and card advantage.  And then if you add a Footbottom Feast or two, you can bring the Pilferers back a second time to bring back something else again!

The only downside to this is that now there's nothing in your deck that cares that Fodder Launch is a Goblin-- Birth Rite could bring it back, but the Pilferers can't.  That's okay, though, because the Pilferers can still bring back removal cards in the form of Mudbutton Torchrunner or Stingscourger... or Siege-Gang Commander or Ib Halfheart if you add either of them..  And Fodder Launch itself cares that you have Goblins, so it's not like you no longer have a reason to run it.

That's everything I can think of here, Felix.  But since you mention that your metagame revolves around some of the other Lorwyn tribes, here's some advice about how those matchups might go.

Elves-- This deck relies on having a critical mass of Elves in play to power up effects like Elvish Branchbender or Garruk Wildspeaker's ultimate ability.  Your best bet here is to kill Imperious Perfect or Lys Alana Huntmaster on sight, so they can't make too many Elf tokens for you to handle.  Sideboarded Nath's Buffoon might help, considering your Brute Force and Fists of the Anvil.

Kithkin-- These little white guys are FAST.  You need to play control here.  Maybe build a sideboard with Pyroclasm in it, or try and find some cheaper Goblins to come down early.  Festering Goblin can take down a 2/2, which is important here.  This is probably your worst matchup though.

Merfolk-- This, on the other hand, is your best matchup.  Even if they generate a school of fish, there's always one Merfolk who's the special one.  Maybe it's Judge of Currents, or maybe it's Drowner of Secrets, but if you know which Merfolk to point your removal at, you can leave them floundering.

Elementals-- This might not be too hard for you, since they're likely relying on Shriekmaw as creature kill and a lot of your creatures are black.  But if they run out Ashling and burn spells, you'll just have to race adn use your recursion to effectively have mroe Goblins than they have burn spells.

Treefolk-- This one could be difficult since Treefolk get big blockers out.  A few Deathmark in the sideboard could help, or you could go for the throat early before their big guys come online.  Punching through Treefolk Harbinger will be tough, but try to generate a few Goblin tokens to chump block ad you should be okay.

Faeries-- Dreamspoiler Witches can really spoil your day, as can Scion of Oona.  But as with Merfolk, the key here is being able to kill the right Faerie at the right time.  It's just harder here, since Faeries are more likely to have counterspell backup and play their threats at EOT.  Teh other good news is the average Faerie costs at least three mana for a 2/2 or smaller, so at least your creatures will outmuscle theirs.  Press that advantage.

Giants-- Race them.  Try to have them at no more than 15 by the time they can put out decent Giants.  Squeaking Pie Sneak is the MVP of this matchup, as is Fodder Launch.  You can win this matchup IF you do it quickly.

Good luck!

~BMoor