This deck is built for a multiplayer "75%" enviroment - competent, but not competitive. If an "obvious" card (
Sol Ring
,
Skullclamp
) is not in here, it's probably for power lever reasons. Also no Commander/Conspiracy set cards out of personal preference.
I call it "
Goblin Lore
Aggro" not because Goblin Lore is a particularly integral part of its game plan, but because I feel like that appropriately describes the type of deck it is. It takes a certain kind of deck to want to play Goblin Lore (or Control of the Court), and this is not just some silly randomness-themed pile, but a focused deck with an aggressive game plan, where Goblin Lore just frequently happens to be "draw 4, discard 1, put 2 cards in your graveyard that you wanted to be there anyway." And on an empty hand, a "mill 3, draw 1" is also a fine topdeck.
The deck prefers to be aggressive due to the lack of answers to things like enchantments, but usually pulls enough card advantage to keep up the fight in a longer game. It can even perform reasonably well under a Rest in Peace - obviously I'd prefer if my Squee came back after discarding it, but at least I'm still able to dump the bad cards to either draw better ones or pump my creatures.
The lack of "off-color" fetchlands (e.g.
Polluted Delta
) is about 50% not wanting to shuffle a bunch, and 50% not wanting to spend ton of currency because I have the whole deck in foil, except for cards that don't have booster foil versions (Badlands, Reanimate, etc.). I couldn't forgive myself for splurging on 6 additional foil fetches that make the deck less convenient to play.
Cards in the deck
Waste Not - I'm not trying to be a "discard deck" to the point of including Liliana's Caress and the like, but there's enough enablers for this to be good - or, worst case, I just loot it away. Geth's Grimoire is a bit too heavy for my liking, but 2 mana is a small enough commitment that I'm happy to embrace the value.
Sire of Insanity - While I understand that this isn't terribly fun to play against, it's just too perfect of a curve-topper to not include. There's enough terrible draft filler in the deck that that it's just fair to let me have this one good card, right?
Entomb - Speaking of Sire of Insanity being unfun (for everyone except me), a turn 2 or 3 Sire is especially unfun. Which is a shame, because I legitimately play this card as just an extra copy of Squee/Bloodghast, but can't resist going for the big demon if I have a reanimation spell in hand.
Dark Deal - This is my favorite enabler in the deck. It dumps my hand for value, and also takes cards away from the opponents but in a way that's not as in-your-face as something like Delirium Skeins. And of course it triggers Waste Not for tons of value.
Archfiend of Ifnir - This card is not fine. You're not supposed to be able to clear the board and swing for 6 so efficiently. And the cycling - irrelevant on such a strong card, right? Haha, no; even just being able to cycle + Animate Dead to reduce the cost by 1 so you can Faithless Looting afterwards is a play that keeps coming up, as niche as it sounds.
Greater Gargadon - Ever since its days in Standard, this has been one of my favorite cards. An uncounterable, unremovable sac outlet for three different card types (great with Zealous Conscripts), which also presents a sizable, looming threat on the horizon. Also a very reasonable creature to reanimate with Olivia on the board.
Humble Defector - Obviously you're not just passing this around. The main trick is to sac it in response to the activation (it's a delicious human for Aristocrat!), but you also have a few cards, such as Archfiend, that'll kill it for free. With Olivia, it's practically another Tormenting Voice, but it's also a reasonable turn 2 play which I like.
Bloodline Keeper - If you have Olivia and two cards to discard, this immediately makes a 3/3 attacker, which is already fine. And with Olivia turning everything into a vampire, this flips in a hurry and puts a ton of power on the board. Producing sac fodder for your other cards is a secondary but not irrelevant feature.
Murderous Redcap / Puppeteer Clique - Because Olivia removes the -1/-1 counters from these creatures, you can keep reusing them as many times as you're able to discard something. Redcap can go "infinite" with a sac outlet and Grim Haruspex/Smothering Abomination and probably kill the whole table (2 damage per card in my hand/deck), while Clique is more unpredictable but no less ridiculous. I don't really enjoy winning with combo, and prefer to play "life total matters" kind of games, but depending on mood / opponents / game state I've both used these combos and chosen not to use them when I could've (often people don't even notice 4-card combos unless you point it out), so it's worth mentioning that they're there.
Cards I haven't tried yet
Dark Confidant
- I'm interested, but not 60 euros interested, as anything less than the original printing in foil is not worth spitting at. Would slam dunk it into the deck if I happened to trip over one, but that hasn't happened as of yet.
Thought Gorger
- Discarding and redrawing my hand is already a thing I'd like to be doing at pretty much any given time, and this gets a free haste from Olivia. It's just that sacrificing a card after paying 4 mana for it and leaving nothing on the board doesn't sound very efficient - if I even have a sac outlet in the first place - and I'd kind of need to do so in order to keep curving out.
Hazoret the Fervent
- She looks strong, but the 4+ slots are actually fairly competitive, and a generic Dude Who Attacks isn't high on the priority list. It's possible that some testing could change my mind.
Hangarback Walker
- A 2-mana Doomed Traveler isn't the absolute worst when you're looking for sac fodder, and scaling up when you have nothing else going on sounds great. An Olivia trigger is effectively worth two extra tokens if you have a single mana to spare. Even playing this for 0 to draw off of Haruspex could be useful sometimes. I can see this replacing Mogg War Marshal when I get around to buying one.
Distended Mindbender - I'm looking at this as a 5-drop, mainly because of Bloodghast and Reassembling Skeleton. Not a great reanimation target obviously, but a nearly-uncounterable way to strip the biggest threat of their combos and/or answers sounds good to me.
Haunted Dead - A bit costly to bring back, but I think I could handle it most of the time, and it makes two bodies' worth of sac fodder. It doesn't even look like a bad turn 4 play if I feel like pitching two cards to make 5 hasty power.
Ingot Chewer
- Foils of this card used to be like $15 because of Vintage. They're a bit lower now, so I should probably get one and have more ways to interact with the opponents' plays. I like it more than other artifact destruction (except Kolaghan's Command) for... reasons.
Buried Alive - Something about this card just rubs me the wrong way. I can't even explain it. It's also slow to resolve, so there's that.
Cards I've tried, which may or may not return
(Not all of them, I have a pile of like 70 on a shelf.)
Mind Swords - WHY EXILE? Emptying my own hand before casting this would still be fine as is, but man, the card would be so great if it didn't exile my own stuff and/or triggered Waste Not.
Sidisi, Undead Vizier - I would usually fetch a Squee and immediately discard it to the Olivia trigger, and a 5/7 deathtouch is a respectable attacker. But I couldn't always guarantee cost-efficient sac fodder for this, and I value my tempo a whole lot.
Avaricious Dragon - Developed a hatred for this card. Not going back.
