Before the printing of Ponder and Tarmogoyf, one of the best decks in Legacy was Threshold; a U/G-based tempo deck featuring Nimble Mongoose, Werebear, and even Mystic Enforcer backed by Mental Note, Brainstorm, and Predict. Legacy has come a long way since those days, in large part due to the printing of powerful 1-drops like Deathrite Shaman, Thoughtseize, Gitaxian Probe, and more. These decks, fueled by powerful 1-drops and greedy mana bases, have given rise to Chalice of the Void stompy decks, of which there are many variants. SpaceGoblin has a particularly interesting one:

Goblin Stompy ? Legacy | SpaceGoblin, 5-0 Legacy League

• Creatures (23)
• 1 Goblin Settler
• 1 Goblin Sharpshooter
• 1 Murderous Redcap
• 1 Stingscourger
• 1 Tuktuk Scrapper
• 2 Siege-Gang Commander
• 3 Goblin Rabblemaster
• 4 Magus of the Moon
• 4 Moggcatcher
• 4 Simian Spirit Guide
• 1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Chandra, Pyromaster

• Spells (14)
• 4 Blood Moon
• 3 Chrome Mox
• 3 Trinisphere
• 4 Chalice of the Void

• Lands (22)
• 10 Mountain
• 4 Ancient Tomb
• 4 Cavern of Souls
• 4 City of Traitors

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Trinisphere
• 1 Boil
• 3 Ensnaring Bridge
• 3 Koth of the Hammer
• 1 Pyrokinesis
• 4 Sudden Shock
• 2 Tormod's Crypt

Buy This Deck

The idea behind this deck is to lead with fast mana in the form of Chrome Mox and Simian Spirit Guide, which puts you down cards and at a slight disadvantage. Fortunately, this disadvantage is overcome by playing a turn one Chalice of the Void, Blood Moon, Magus of the Moon, or Trinisphere. Resolving any of these cards shuts off a large portion of your opponent’s decks, which gives you a ton of virtual card advantage. Against decks leaning too heavily on greedy mana or 1-drops, you can just win the game on the first turn by resolving a Trinisphere or Chalice, but against other decks, you may still have to fight on.

That’s been the biggest issue with this style of deck: it has difficulty closing out games. Previous iterations have played cards like Rakdos Pit Dragon and Gathan Raiders, which are certainly lackluster. Instead, this deck gets to play something like Goblin Rabblemaster, which can quickly win the game on its own, particularly if your opponent can’t cast their spells. However, despite Rabblemaster’s power level, the title of game-changer goes to Moggcatcher.

Moggcatcher gives the deck a lot of flexibility and staying power, particularly against fair decks which don’t care as much about Blood Moon or Chalice of the Void. Moggcatcher can find powerful singletons like Goblin Sharpshooter against Elves or Stingscourger against Emrakul, the Aeons Torn or Griselbrand. You can even set up Siege-Gang Commander plus Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker to just flood the board with Goblins. The possibilities are endless, but give the deck a critical mechanism for improving the consistency of an especially volatile build. My favorite part is the singleton Goblin Settler, which can punish opponents who are conscientious enough to fetch up basics by destroying them and forcing your opponent under a Blood Moon lock.

If you’re looking for a deck as powerful as it is volatile, this deck offers the ability to win a substantial number of games before they really get started and play a wacky Moggcatcher toolbox. That sounds like a great time to me!