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BMoor's Magic The Gathering Deck Garage
Goblin Rushing
February 12, 2007

Ladies and gentlemen, I have a small confession to make.  For all my deckbuilding prowess, I do struggle with one type of deck: Goblins.  I've got a Goblin deck I've tinkered with for a while, but for the longest time it never workd as it should.  Maybe Goblins are just too single-minded and aggressive for my "thinking man's" playing style.  Maybe my playgroup was too suspicious of Goblin decks and ganged up on me in multiplayer.  Or maybe, just maybe, there's something about the fine intricacies about a proper Goblins build that I just never understood.
 
So, for the longest time, I'm avoided fixing Goblin decks.  Luckily I haven't received many, but the few I do receive make me feel guilty, because I never had enough confidence in myself to fix them.  But today I'm putting that behind me.  The principles of deckbuilding should apply to all archetypes, and Goblins are no exception.
Hi Bmoor, I recently made a red/green beatdown deck, and it quickly turned into a goblin deck. It revolves around Ib.  I usually get out a lot of goblin tokens, attack, use goblin war strike, or Soulblast.  Soulblast is my trump card if something isn't going well. I actually win quite a few games with the unexpectancy of things. I looked around on your site for help, and I hadn't seem any goblin decks. I hope you decide to help me with mine, thanks anyways for looking over this e-mail.
 
Cards: 60

Creatures: 27
Boros Recruit x4
Mogg War Marshal x4
Goblin Furrier x4
Thick-Skinned Goblin x3
Skirk Commando x4
Goblin Warchief x1
Akki Coalfinger x1
Zo-Zu, the Punisher x1
Ib Halfheart, Goblin Tactician x2
Ben-Ben, Akki Herrold x1
Kikki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker x1
Patron of the Akki x1
 
Sorcery/Instants: 10
Lava Spike x4
Goblin War strike x1
Empty the Warrens x3
Dogpile x 1
Soulblast x1
 
Enchantments: 4
In the Web of War x2
Gratuitous Violence x1
Pandemonium x1
 
Lands:
Mountain x23
Well, it looks pretty straightforward.  Fill the board with Goblins, then win through either Goblin War Strike, Soulblast, or straight-up attacking.  My own Goblin deck relies on War Strike as well, so this shouldn't be too hard....
 
First, there's your selection of Goblins.  There are currently 161 Goblins in Magic, and since you made no mention of format, budget, or banned cards, we can assume any one of them is fair game, right?  Well, first let's look at your current roster.  The Thick-Skinned Goblin/Mogg War Marshall combo is nice.  I've had very little luck with Skirk Commando, though, so you may want to rethink that one.  Akki Coalflinger is nice in a deck that does a lot of attacking, and most of your legendary Goblins are decent.  Ben-Ben, however, requires you to leave too many Mountains untapped and is only useful against creatures attacking you-- it's far too defensive.  And while Kiki-Jiki is an excellent card, it's awfully expensive and it really needs a lot of strong creatures around to copy.  If you're running mostly 1/1's who cares about another one?  But leave him in, if only for the endless stream of 1/1's you get by copying a Mogg War Marshall.
 
As far as other Goblins you could add in, the list is exhaustive.  But there are a few that pop out immediately.  Goblin Grappler makes a great answer to Wellwishers, Archivists, Birds of Paradise, and any other X/1 annoying utility creature your opponent might have.  More Warchiefs (Warchieves?) or some Goblin King would help greatly.  There's also Skirk Fire Marshall, who would be excellent in clearing the board, delivering the killing blow, or even forcing a draw.  He also goes great with Thick-Skinned Goblin.  After all, so what if your 1/1's all die if you've got the only creature on the board and your opponent just got bought down to 4 life?  And if you need fliers, Utvara Scalper is a great way to fly over for a point each turn.  granted it won't be blocking, but you're supposed to be the aggressor anyway.
 
Now, your other spells.  Dogpile is a terrible card all around, and the only reason to play it is if you're going for a flavorful and thematic experience and you want to play it because the artwork is of some poor schmuck getting wailed on by a group of Goblins.  But really, there's just no reason for this to not be the fourth Empty the Warrens.  And your Lava Spike are almost as useless.  Here you'd be better off with Rite of Flame or Seething Song, allowing you to take better advantage of Empty the Warrens by building up the Storm count. 
 
Incidentally, the best way to play Warrens is probably to play it after your combat phase, after you attack with nearly everything.  That way, you get a bunch of blockers while your opponent probably blocked expecting to be able to swing unimpeded next turn, and you get the benefit of any combat tricks your opponent might have played increasing the Storm count-- and if they had any tricks, the pressure of your attack must've forced them out.
 
Other than that, this deck looks pretty good as is.  Hopefully my advice has been helpful to you and will allow you to deliver the gruesome beatdown you've been dreaming of.  Good luck.
 
~BMoor
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