Pioneer Goblins
Pioneer
SCORE: 16 | 10 COMMENTS | 10046 VIEWS | IN 5 FOLDERS
Gen Con & RCQ —Aug. 14, 2022
Goblins made an appearance at both Gen Con and another local RCQ in the past two weeks. The mana base change showed up and proved very worthwhile in those tournaments.
First, Gen Con Championship qualifier! Going 2-0-1 got free entry into the Double Masters sealed championship event. I was going to try three times to qualify using Goblins.
Round 1: Mono - G. The most important play of this match came in game 2, when I first used a Spikefield Hazzard to kill their turn 1 elf. OP didn't have another play until turn 3 and that was the match. Huzzah! New lands working out already!
Round 2: Bant Spirits. This has historically been a horrible match up for me. Game one I used some of the spell lands to pick off important spirits and they missed land 4 for a turn. This let me set up a lethal attack. Their CoCo whiffed and that was it. Game 2 I made a decent attack, but Rattle chains into more spirits was a bonkers block I didn't see coming and died to a 4 for 0 swing of creatures on the board. Oof. Game 3 the sideboard plan and lands came to fruition as I killed 4 spirits and just kept up the pressure. The first time I remember beating Bant Spirits. I was quite happy. Took the draw in round 3 to make champs. Long story short there, I got 16th, which wasn't bad considering the field.
RCQ #3
Another RCQ in the area. Capped at 32 people. No changes from Gen Con. I still like the current build and think it's well suited to the meta right now.
Round 1: Rakdos Sac. 1-0 Game one I was on the play and quickly beat down with my goblins. They were not expecting such blatant aggression. Game 2 I kept a slow hand and we grinded back and forth. I never found a Ringleader while they kept drawing extra cards off of their Unlucky Witnesses and Deadly Disputes. Eventually Cat/Oven put the game away. Game 3 was a bit closer, but they were never able to find a decent threat. Only having 1/1s to all my tokens and 2/2s makes a tough game and I was able to get in for decent chunks of damage before killing with a cast Twinshot sniper.
Round 2: Mono-G. 2-0 Fastest match of the day. They were on the play both games and missed on elves both times. Game one I put enough pressure on them to try and go infinite a turn too soon but they weren't able to get there. Game 2 was just a slaughter of goblins after they only found 2 mana dorks with their Storm the Festival.
Round 3: Rakdos Midrange. 3-0 Game one they had a removal spell for my first 5 plays. Two of which were Bonecrusher giant. Oof. Never able to make a board I just died to 4/3 beats. Game two I went off with my goblins and when they tried to use Reflections as a chump blocker I already had the Loyalist in play to stop it. Game 3 was a back and forth affair with a Graveyard Trespasser getting me to single digits. However they were never able to kill my turn 3 Warchief. I ripped a second Piledriver, slammed two other goblins, and attacked for 18 out of no where. Make sure to kill the warchief!
Round 4 & 5. Draws! Went to the bar next door and had some beers.
Top 8: Quarterfinals W/B Auras. I got wrecked. Game one they had turn one Hateful Eidolon. Turn 2 double Ethereal Armor. Turn 3 All the glitters. Even though I was on the play I had no way to get in without losing goblins every turn. So we packed it up. Game 2 was the same, but I had one removal spell, so I went for it when I could, but they had the Blessing and we scooped.
Still love the deck. It's still well positioned, but you never know what you will run into.