R/g/b Goblins and Apocalyptic Storms

Have you seen the forecast for Sunday?

...WINTER STORM WATCH IN EFFECT FROM SUNDAY MORNING THROUGH
SUNDAY EVENING...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN MILWAUKEE/SULLIVAN HAS ISSUED A
WINTER STORM WATCH...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM SUNDAY MORNING
THROUGH SUNDAY EVENING.

SNOW AMOUNTS GENERALLY IN THE 6 TO 13 INCH RANGE ARE POSSIBLE
SUNDAY INTO SUNDAY EVENING...WITH THE HIGHEST AMOUNTS OVER
SOUTHEAST WISCONSIN. SLIGHTLY LOWER AMOUNTS ARE POSSIBLE TO THE
NORTHWEST. IN ADDITION...STRONG WINDS WITH THE LOW MAY CAUSE
BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW. THOSE WITH TRAVEL PLANS SUNDAY AND
SUNDAY EVENING SHOULD KEEP UP WITH THE LATEST FORECASTS.

I consider it highly unlikely I am gonna make it out to the tournament on Sunday. While fun, it's just not worth crashing. Maybe we could do EDH at my house on Saturday? Anybody interested?

Here's the list i would run if I were going.

4 Goblin Lackey
4 Mogg Fanatic
3 Tin Street Hooligan
4 Goblin Piledriver
4 Goblin Matron
4 Goblin Warchief
4 Goblin Ringleader
1 Stingscourger
3 Earwig Squad
4 Aether Vial
4 Thorn of Amethyst

3 Mountain
3 Taiga
3 Wooded Foothills
3 Bloodstained Mire
1 Strip Mine
2 Badlands
1 Lotus Petal
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Mana Crypt

Sideboard

1 Earwig Squad
4 Pyrostatic Pillar
3 Ancient Grudge
2 Gempalm Incinerator
1 Goblin King
4 Leyline of the Void

The maindeck Earwig Squads hopefully improve the Long matchup a little since they play so few win conditions. Capping them turn 2 doesn't help against the T1 win, but they don't always have the nuts, right?

I am not convinced the 4 Leylines in the board are enough to fight Ichorid. If I were to get a Squad against them, I am not even sure what i would take. Probably the GGTs, since I can kill their Bridges and the rest of their dudes are less than impressive.

I am really not convinced on Game 1 vs Workshop Aggro. I have the four Fanatics that can kill a Welder, which is nice, but it's hard to fight through fat butts, and if they land a SOFI, I am dead. It gets a lot better when I can Matron up Goblin King and combo kill after board. Unless of course they are playing MUD, rather than red.

The matchup vs. GAT is pretty solid I think. If I Cap them, I can get their Cunning Wish and if they can't get Berserk, it's almost impossible for them to fight through all the dudes.

PlatzPact is a problem, especially since Menendian wrote about it (including an Oath version) on Wednesday. I think I just scoop to a resolved Plat. Maybe those Grudges should be Krosan Grips. Hrm.

So why am I playing this deck if I think it's a dog to the whole metagame? A few reasons. It's cheap to build, I know how to play it, and if they stumble at all, Goblins just wins. Goldfishing this deck is insane. I have swung for 17 on turn four after a mull to 4. Yes, I know turn 4 is just a rumor in Vintage a lot of the time, but sometimes it's real, you know?

Oh! The metagame! Here was the field for the last tourney...

3 It’s Raining Men
1 Ichorid
2 Flash
1 UW Control
1 Bomberman
1 Counterbalance Goyf
7 Long
3 Fish
2 Dem Goyfs
2 SS Goyf
2 R/G beats
4 Empty Gifts
1 Red Burn
1 PlatPact
4 GAT
1 Goblins
3 MUD
1 Control Slaver
1 Affinity
1 Stax

Ichorid won. I expect MUD and Long to continue their high numbers, possibly with more PlatzPact due to Menendian's article. I have no idea why someone would play Empty Gifts instead of Long. GAT draws a lot of cards and then dies a lot. It's such a typical 'vintage' deck in that it dies to decks that use the attack step. So weird. Anyways, I think that's enough random ranting from a dude who has played in a single vintage tournament. Again, I don't think I am going to be there this weekend unless the forecast changes dramatically. Hope you guys have fun.

The Fugitive Wizards

Fugie and I are totally starting our own vintage team. No, you probably can't be in it. It takes a special (I mean that in every sense of the word) combination of play ability, bad ideas, roguishness, sense of humor, fatalism, self confidence, willingness to spill tech all over the internet and good hair to be on our team. So far, the big team organization focus has been t-shirt slogans. Here's what we've come up with so far...

http://thefugitivewizard.blogspot.com
Spilling tech since 2007

Knowing the format is loose.

Internet discussion is always preferable to testing

Turn 1. Take 13, go.

CBG's Basement=Tech

What do you think our t-shirts should say?

R/g/b Goblins in Vintage

I have no idea what I am doing playing Vintage. Just thought I'd put that out there. Here's the list I came up with.

4 Goblin Lackey
4 Mogg Fanatic
3 Tin Street Hooligan
4 Goblin Piledriver
4 Goblin Matron
4 Goblin Warchief
4 Goblin Ringleader
2 Stingscourger
2 Earwig Squad
4 Aether Vial
4 Thorn of Amethyst

3 Mountain
3 Taiga
3 Wooded Foothills
3 Bloodstained Mire
1 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Badlands
1 Lotus Petal
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Mana Crypt
1 Swamp

Sideboard

2 Earwig Squad
4 Pyrostatic Pillar
3 Ancient Grudge
2 Darkblast
4 Goblin King

A couple points before you all tear me apart. (1) This isn't tested. (2) Yes, I completely gave up on the Ichorid matchup. I don't think 3 Crypts is gonna make the difference. (3) Comments suggesting the G should be dropped will be deleted and ignored and expunged from consciousness. The "I won a Lotus" Captain is right. Tin Street is the nuts.

I am down to only 1 Wasteland, 1 Strip Mine. I think they stay because they are still randomly good.

Goblin King is for aggro matchups. I can still combo Workshop Aggro out if I can swing unmolested. He also makes R/g Beatz burn worse.

No Banneret. What do you wanna cut? You still have a ton of ways to T2 a Warchief. And multiple Warchief effects aren't that great, I don't think. Though I do get a little emotionally erect thinking about Matron for R.

Darkblast is for Confidant and Welder and to make it so I can occasionally attack into things. Combat tricks in Vintage! FTW!

Okay, tear me apart. I'll be testing this tonight, but if you have suggestions (possibly for how to stick Banneret in there) I'll test those too and report back. I am planning on going again on the 17th. Because I like torturing myself.

Vintage thought

Hey Captain! I realize G is so much better for Gobs than B, but wow. This seems like, rilly good. Prowl is 1B with Warchief on the table. Or am I reading the rules wrong? Judge!

A Vintage tourney report. Also. Kraj rulez!

As mentioned earlier, Fugie convinced me to go to a vintage tournament this Sunday. I had a fair amount of fun and my opponent's weren't total asses. So that was nice. I played R/g Goblins. This would be the fastest "fair" deck in the format. Unfortunately, there are a lot of "unfair" decks.

Round 1-I win the die roll and start on Wooded foothills, without a one-drop. Not sure why I kept. My opponent leads with fetch into Taiga/Mogg Fan. So he's R/G Beats and I am a little bit of a dog to him. Anyways, Goblins does what it does and I am ahead the whole game. I think the only point I took game one was the Foothills activation. Game 2, he is first and I keep a broken hand of lackey, Tin Street, Mountain, Emerald, Ruby, and something else. Unfortunately, he also kept a broken hand of mox, lotus, Taiga, Kird ape, kird ape, seal of fire. Couldn't fight through it, though I did get him down to 7. Game 3, he gets down double Goyf off a Strip, Wasteland and Taiga. The crucial play comes when I stingscourger one Goyf and fail to Waste his Taiga. I failed to recognize it was his only green source. he was able to play defense with the goyfs pretty effectively and eventually pulled it out on the 3rd extra turn. That's right, Gobs vs Beatz went to time. Oof.

Round 2-I lose the die roll and my opponent leads with Delta into Underground Sea, Brainstorm. Of course he takes like 2 minutes to resolve it. "I can't just put back one, hunh?" "Ha ha. No." Anyways, he's playing GAT and while he holds me off for a bit with a well timed Force on Will on a lethal Siege-Gang Commander, I eventually killed him after giving him a whole extra turn, in which he Yawg Willed and still didn't win. Game 2 is a little dicier since he gets 2 Dryads out, but I Wasteland, Wasteland, Strip Mine, which is handy, since I have 2 Aether Vials out. He concedes on one land.

Round 3-I win the die roll and keep a hand of mountain, ruby, vial, lotus, lackey, matron. I drop my hand on the table and say go. Then he kills me. Oh good! Storm Tendrils. I go first again the second game, but fail to mull to a turn one Pyrostatic Pillar. Then he kills me. Vintage rulez!

I dropped and almost bailed but our little playgroup wasn't doing so hot and we had enough for a four man EDH. Kraj Action Force! Kick Butt!

I got a Gemstone Caverns with a luck counter on it. Turn one Signet. Turn 2 land. Turn 3 Magus of the Future. Turn 4 start going nuts with the Magus and various and sundry. I get to the point where Fugie is very concerned about my board seeing how he has a Dimir Infiltrator and I have like 5 creatures. So he drops a Disk and swings at Tabasco. Now, Fugie could have swung at me, but he'd hurt in the crackback and he could have swung at Major Luck, but he'd hurt in the crackback, so he chooses to poke Tabasco for one. This upsets Tabasco, because Hot Sauce has done little but play a Megrim at this point. So despite the fact that I am the one whom a Disk would cripple, Tabasco cacks it on Major Luck's EOT. I proceed to get really silly with El Mago del Futuro and Life from the Loam and Fathom Trawl. Fugie is dead by the time Major Luck realizes he can Citanul Flute for Wrath of God (via Dimir House Guard) and my hand is so far beyond gas as to be comical.

After the dust clears, I Kraj and Major Dromars only to have them both Decree of Pained. So Tabasco has filled up his hand with gas thanks to Mind's Eye (which yes, should be in every deck) and my Ancestral Visions. And I have a Doubling Season in play. So on Major's EOT, I Gifts for Golgari Grave-Troll, Triskelavus, Regrowth, and Eternal Witness. He gives me the Regrowths, which I can use on anything in my graveyard, due to GGT having dredge and Triskelavus comboing with Academy Ruins. So I cast a 26/26 GGT, a 4/4 Phantom Nantuko, pump them both with my 8/8 Cytoplast Root-kin and say go. Tabasco plays Mindslicer and says go and Major Luck casts chumpies (to go with his Vedalken Shackles (5 islands) and passes to me at 2 life and with a single card in hand. I Ruins Triskelavus on my upkeep and cast it (as a 7/7) with 3 mana up. Major tells me I should win this turn and I couldn't figure out how. Until I attacked him with the Nantuko and Tabasco with the others. Then Major steals the Mindslicer to block with. I didn't see this solution at first because it depended on what the Major did. But there was a better solution which didn't require his involvement. I could have just created Triskelavite tokens and shot the Mindslicer so we all blow our hands. Then Major dies from the Megrim and I swing with the team to kill Tabasco. I am a bad player. The B&R team for CBG's basement has a close eye on Doubling Season. Have fun out there.

I <3 EDH and a vintage update

So the constructed flavor of the month is Elder Dragon Highlander, that most casual yet powerful of formats. Wanna play Nath of the Gilt-Leaf and Unnerve together? Now you can. I have played against Fugie's Dakkon deck several times. It seems really really good, though extraordinarily susceptible to Jokulhaups. He plays a bunch of powerful nonbasics, in-color planeswalkers and the best cards from 3 colors. He has smoked the group with it every time I have failed to resolve Jokulhaups. The other day, he won a 6-man, having been Black Braids-ed down to a single permanent. It's that good. The thing that makes it really good though, is the deck doesn't stick its neck out. One of the decks was recursing Black Braids. Everybody ganged up. I cast a 14/14 GGT and got my head cut off. Somebody else cast Austere Command, Profane Command and Damnation. Gang tackle. I thought it was a fun demonstration of why the most powerful deck rarely wins in multiplayer.

I was playing Experiment Kraj that day. I had managed to misbuild the deck. Apparently, Experiment Kraj only gets activated abilities of each creature with a +1/+1 counter on it, not all abilities. Thank goodness for my neighbors Triskelion (and holy crap, do I need to get me one a doze...). I think it needs a little more of a toolbox approach, but man oh man, I think I played every Simic card from Dissension except maybe Simic Initiate. Also, random Keiga is just randomly good. The deck probably needs more Spikes. Those are all activated right?

Interest in the Wort deck has waned a bit. The goblin theme is a little random. The giant dragons are fun, and boy does B/R have a ton of massive board affecting spells. For whatever reason, I haven't enjoyed playing it nearly as much as the Kraj deck. Probably because Kraj has a bunch of neat, Johnny-ish interactions, with a very Timmy endgame. Giant Trolls! Oozes the size of your living room! See, here I am talking about Experiment Kraj in a paragraph ostensibly about Wort.

Anyways, so I am going to dip my toe in the Vintage waters this Sunday. I am going to a mox tourney with a simple to play if underpowered deck. It'll be fun to try something new but my expectations are low. I am going to be running R/g Goblins. Should I post my list? I guess it doesn't matter. It's not like people will metagame against me.

4x goblin lackey
4x mogg fanatic
4x goblin warchief
4x goblin piledriver
4x goblin ringleader
3x tin street hooligan
1x gempalm incinerater
1x stingscourger
4x goblin matron
4x aether vial
2x wasteland
1x strip mine
4x wooded foothills
2x bloodstained mire
3x taiga
4x mountain
4x thorn of amethyst
1x mox emerald
1x mox ruby
1x black lotus
1x lotus petal
1x mana crypt
2x siege-gang commander

I don't know if I should say who gave me the list. What is the protocol here? Anyhoos, testing tomorrow! Woohoo!

Trifecta

Our poster "The Captain" (not to be confused with "Captain Bondage Goth," who would never play Vintage) has a Type I trifecta; He won a Black Lotus, had his cool tech mentioned in an online article and beat young Turts in the T8. Congrats, Captain.
99% of the time, if you overhear a person at a game store saying card X is awesome in Vintage, it's nothing to get excited about. Who would have thought Stingscourger was the exception?
T