Remember to +1 this and give feedback below!
Project Z.A.D.A.
Project Z.A.D.A is my attempt to keep Goblins in standard throughout Magic. While goblins have dominated modern and even legacy, they have not been enforced in standard. The goal of this deck is to rush out an army of goblins swinging in with lethal damage as early as turn four. The win condition are swings with piledrivers (best against blue), bushwhacking an army of goblins, or using zada to pump up your 1/1's into 4/2's. Fast is the mindset, and with that in mind - you want to swing in as much as possible. Unless it is an easy block for your opponent, holding back may lose the game.
Pros
Very fast burn deck; Goblin Piledriver makes matchups versus most blue decks a sweep; giant board of weenies to chum-block. Great synergy/tribal deck.
Cons
Bad hands will be game losing, especially if you are planning to win with Zada, Hedron Grinder; board sweeps like Languish can set you behind; hard to win without building a board; Awkward against other aggro decks.
WHY I USE WHAT I USE:
Mainboard
Goblin Freerunner
- Definitely a much different card; I feel like it is very powerful in the deck. Casting it for 4 mana is very painful but its surge cost is 2 mana! It also is easy to trigger on turn three by using Titan's Strength or any of the other 12+ one drops.
Goblin Glory Chaser
- Solid one drop goblin with a chance at having menace and is a surge enabler. Everything you can possibly want. Unless against a control deck though, it can be relatively weak.
Goblin Piledriver- If you want to make a goblin deck, it is worth throwing down $16 for a playset of this card. It is one of three game winners for this deck, making it a must have.
Lavastep Raider
- This is used as a solid one drop to block against cards like
Dragon Hunter
or
Village Messenger
. The other option is
Lightning Berserker
, but in my opinion, the goblin sub-type is too valuable to pass up.
Reckless Bushwhacker
- Give me one good reason to not run this card. It has the goblin sub-type, has haste, gives your other goblins haste, and gives all creatures you control +1/+0 until end of turn. This is easily the most common game winning card of the deck and is a must have.
Subterranean Scout
- Evasion is very strong in this deck, with Titan's Strength and Goblin Piledriver. It is only a 2 of though because there is not enough room and against specific match ups, the evasion is useless.
Zada, Hedron Grinder- Goblin sub-type is the main reason I run this card. Goblin Dark-Dwellers is another strong option, but I personally feel like an additional win condition is always nice.
Zada's Commando
- The parts if the card I look at here is the first strike and goblin sub-type. A 2/1 first strike goblin for 2 mana is very threatening to the opponent, and a great blocker versus aggro if need be. The cohort is also useful if you need to pick of straggling tokens.
Titan's Strength/ Rush of Adrenaline- Both are good pump up spells that do the same thing: make my goblins bigger and enable surge.
Expedite- A 2 of to either give Goblin Piledriver haste or draw cards with Zada, Hedron Grinder. Its a great card but can be replaced by any one mana card you personally like. I think that a sudden turn 3 Goblin Piledriver with haste after having
Goblin Glory Chaser
and
Dragon Fodder
casted is hilarious.
Dragon Fodder
- These annoying tokens are what help me gain a huge creature advantage fast. If you prefer, you can replace some cards with Impact Tremors to get extra burn damage.
Skin Invasion
- Yes. I say yes to this card in every way and welcome it into the MAINBOARD! This card is amazing against languish, leaving 1 or 2 giant bugs. The only way they can deal with it is either use more removal or being patient to block the targeted creature. This card also forces aggro deck win condition creatures to attack into a
Lavastep Raider
. Once in the sideboard due to limited match ups, the extra one mana surge enabler onto a
Goblin Glory Chaser
wins games.
UPDATE 4-30-2016:
Went 2-2 at its first FNM, not the strongest performance. It was great against izzet goggles and eldrazi swarm, being fast enough to beat them, but struggled vs izzet thing in the ice and mono white humans. Therefore, I will try removing the blue splash, improve the sideboard, and improving the consistency.
Mainboard
-4 Slip Through Space; -4 Highland Lake; -2 Zada, Hedron Grinder; -2 Uncaged Fury; -2
Outnumber
; -4
Lightning Berserker
; +2
Subterranean Scout
; +1 Titan's Strength; +3
Zada's Commando
; +4 Mountain; +4
Goblin Freerunner
; +4
Lavastep Raider
.
Sideboard
-2
Subterranean Scout
; -2
Magmatic Chasm
; -4
Zada's Commando
'; +2
Structural Distortion
; +2
Sure Strike
; +2
Skin Invasion
; +2
Outnumber
.
UPDATE 5-10-2016:
After a BUNCH of games with friends and just testing (mainly against my RG Werewolf deck [Decklist soon to be released]), I have found two problems. 1) I am very unlucky with my draws. 2) I have been drawing way too many mountains when I only need 4 to win. In one of my matches, I said "Screw it, I am taking two mountains out for two sideboard cards." It actually ended up winning consistently. 18 mountains will be my next change if I get ore inconsistencies with land, but generally I don't think that is enough. Therefore, I settled with a simple 19 lands and a few card changes to compensate.
Mainboard
-1 Mountain; -1
Goblin Freerunner
; +2
Skin Invasion
.
Sideboard
-2
Skin Invasion
; +1 Zada, Hedron Grinder; +1
Stensia Masquerade
.
UPDATE 5-20-2016:
After a while of tests with some of the most ridiculous cards, I have settled on a few specific changes. The first noticeable change is the Goblin Free runner, a card I fell in love with, is being replaced. One reason is because I did not get him out for his surge cost reliably. Not to mention, I burnt through my hand way too fast. To counteract, I decided to add
Avaricious Dragon
. It may be no goblin, but this mahchine is a 4/4 flying hand refiller. The other giant change is Project Z.A.D.A has no more Zada, Hedron Grinder (R.I.P.). While Zada is great, it did jot synergies with the goblins enough for me to keep it. Was a quick target for removal and was way too slow. It didn't even support my win condition. Overall, the project and will go without Zada, Hedron Grinder for now. The last thing I want to say is there will be a description update.
Mainboard
-2 Zada, Hedron Grinder; -3
Goblin Freerunner
; -3 Rush of Adrenaline; -2 Expedite; -2 Mountain; +2
Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh
; +3
Avaricious Dragon
; +3
Fiery Impulse
; +3 Looming Spires; +1
Subterranean Scout
.
Sideboard
-1 Zada, Hedron Grinder; -2
Sure Strike
; -2
Subterranean Scout
; -3
Twin Bolt
; -2
Structural Distortion
; +1
Stensia Masquerade
; +3
Sparkmage's Gambit
; +3 Smash to Smithereens; +3
Magmatic Chasm
