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Yesterday we went over my Mythic Championship Goblins deck, as well as the finer points of playing the deck and today we've got even more Goblins stuff for you! However, let's quickly go over my predictions for Mythic Championship IV first and see how we did. Then we can get to the Goblin goodness.
Prediction One: There Will Be At Least 40 Total Graveyard Hate Cards In Top 8
Correct!
My rough count looking over the Top 8 lists was 47 pieces of graveyard hate between maindecks and sideboards, and that's not including ways to fetch them like Karn, the Great Creator or Whir of Invention. With Leyline of the Void being the most played card in the tournament by a wide margin, this one was breeze.
Prediction Two: No Player Will Have A Perfect 10-0 Record In Constructed
Correct!
While there's a ton of Hogaak decks among the 9-1 and 8-2 decklists from the event, no player managed a perfect 10-0 record. Considering the wildness of the Modern format, how swingy some matchups can be, and the wild amount of Hogaak mirrors hinging on Leyline of the Void, this makes a lot of sense.
Prediction Three: Jund Will Be Among The Top Four Most Played Decks
Partial Credit!
So close! While Jund came just two players shy of fourth place among most played decks at the event, it was still strongly in the running for most played decks in the event and put up a very respectable 52.3% win rate, second only to Hogaak decks among decks with at least 20 players. With Jund going from almost unplayed to one of the top played decks and a great win percentage, I'm going to give myself partial credit on this one.
Prediction Four: At Least Half Of The 6-0 Drafters Will Make Top 8
Correct!
Four players had perfect 6-0 records in Modern Horizons draft at the event: Jack Kiefer, Thoralf Serverin, David Mines, and Jacob Wilson, and both Thoralf and David would go on to make Top 8 (with Thoralf taking down the event). Count it!
Prediction Five: Izzet Phoenix Will Underperform With A Sub-50% Win Rate
Incorrect!
Very close, but Izzet Phoenix managed to swing a just above average 50.8% win rate over a large sample size of 48 players. Certainly not impressive, but just a smidge over the 50% line of my prediction. Better luck next time!
Overall a pretty good round of predictions!
Goblins Sideboard And Matchup Guide
As I spoke about in yesterday's article, Goblins is a deck where your game plan varies drastically depending on what you are playing against. Recognizing what your game plan and endgame is going to look like, and making all of your plays to work toward that endgame, is paramount to your success as a Goblins player. We're going to go over the major matchups in Modern right now, both with sideboard notes as well as a quick bit on how each matchup plays out. But first, our updated decklist:
Goblins | Modern | Jim Davis
- Creatures (32)
- 1 Pashalik Mons
- 2 Mogg Fanatic
- 2 Sling-Gang Lieutenant
- 3 Goblin Piledriver
- 4 Goblin Matron
- 4 Goblin Ringleader
- 4 Goblin Warchief
- 4 Mogg War Marshal
- 4 Munitions Expert
- 4 Skirk Prospector
- Instants (1)
- 1 Tarfire
- Artifacts (4)
- 4 Aether Vial
While I don't expect it to last past the next banned and restricted update, Hogaak is still legal so we are still going to have the full playset of Leyline of the Void clogging up our sideboard.
Two Mogg Fanatics make their way into the main deck to help slow down decks like Humans in the early game and more importantly try and delay a turn two Hogaak by killing the enabler creatures before they can convoke. If you can delay Hogaak by one turn you can often race it.
On to the matchups:
Hogaak
Unfavorable Matchup
Game 1 is tough. The Hogaak matchup is a pure race, and when your opponent is able to play an 8/8 trample on turn two it is pretty hard to race. Prioritize speed over everything and try to take advantage of the fact that they don't block well. If you have prior information to what they are playing before Game 1 mulligan aggressively to a fast hand.
Post-board your best bet is to London Mulligan to a Leyline of the Void and let it rip. They can't beat you if a Leyline is in play, as 2/1 beatdown can't ever beat a Mogg War Marshall, but they are fairly resilient at finding an answer to Leyline. Try to use the time they waste answering Leyline to race. If they have Plague Engineer too you're in a world of hurt as you can't afford to leave in answers to it and board in all your graveyard hate. Board in Thoughtseize on the play to try and nab their Nature's Claim and don't be afraid to go down to 3 or 4 cards looking for Leyline.
On The Play:
In:
- + 4 Leyline of the Void
- +2 Relic of Progenitus
- +3 Thoughtseize
- +1 Pashalik Mons
- +1 Goblin Chainwhirler
Out:
- -3 Goblin Ringleader
- -1 Tarfire
- -2 Goblin Piledriver
- -3 Munitions Expert
- -1 Field of Ruin
- -1 Skirk Prospector
On The Draw:
In:
Out:
- -3 Goblin Ringleader
- -1 Tarfire
- -1 Goblin Piledriver
- -2 Munitions Expert
- -1 Field of Ruin
Izzet Phoenix
Even Matchup
Izzet Phoenix is a very swingy matchup. For a tribal deck we are surprisingly good against Thing in the Ice; an active Aether Vial means the Awoken Horror will rarely get that first attack in, we have Goblin Piledriver to block and attack through it, and many of our creatures like Goblin Matron and Ringleader like being bounced anyway. However, we are not as good against quick Arclight Phoenix draws that can cheese us out before we can get our card advantage online. Aria of Flame can also combo us sometimes before we can kill them.
If the game gets grindy or slow we are in great shape, but the faster they are the harder it can be for us. Do whatever you can to not get cheesed out via damage and don't be afraid to use real removal on the Phoenixes to save life. Post-board we gain access to Relic of Progenitus to help contain the Phoenix draws and they don't gain a ton. Play grindy but try to recognize when you are going to need to turn the corner quickly to beat multiple Phoenixes or Aria of Flame.
In:
Out:
- -2 Mogg Fanatic
- -1 Pashalik Mons
Eldrazi Tron
Favorable Matchup
Most of what Eldrazi Tron is doing isn't relevant against you. Chalice of the Void is already unimpressive, and that's before you factor in that Cavern of Souls can allow you to play your 1-drops anyway. Ensnaring Bridge merely slows us down, and big Eldrazi idiots don't battle with us too well. Large Walking Ballista can be annoying, but with four Field of Ruin we can usually keep them off Tron. Just be aware of All Is Dust, play a grindy game, and kill everything with your Munitions Experts.
Post-board they don't gain a ton as most of their sideboard is Karn, the Great Creator targets, but you do need to watch out for Torpor Orb if they have it. We gain some nice tools and this matchup is great for us barring some very early Reality Smashers.
In:
Out:
- -2 Mogg Fanatic
- -1 Tarfire
Humans
Even Matchup
On paper I would think Humans would be a very good matchup. We have a similar strategy but have a ton of card advantage and removal, and their interactive elements like Meddling Mage and Kitesail Freebooter don't do much. However I've found the matchup to be a little harder than I expected if they can have a fast draw. Play defensively and focus on picking off evasive creatures, taking as little damage as possible, and moving into the midgame so you can out draw them with Goblin Ringleader. Pashalik Mons can be big here as a machine gun.
Post-board Auriok Champion is a major annoyance and why I'm not willing to say this is a firm "good" matchup. One Auriok Champion isn't that bad, but if they are able to start copying it with Phantasmal Image and pumping with Thalia's Lieutenant things can get difficult. You can usually overcome the lifegain if you can gain board control as they won't interact with Goblin Warchief at all, but you may die to the unstoppable attackers before you can kill them. If they have Plague Engineer as well you may need to shave more 1-toughness creatures.
In:
Out:
U/W Control
Highly Favorable Matchup
The 
Control matchup is every Goblin player's dream. They have no clock, worthless counterspells, and no way to stop the onslaught of card advantage coming from Goblin Ringleader. It requires careful play on the Goblin player's part, but is an excellent matchup. Make sure you pace yourself and put just enough threats in play to deal damage and stop planeswalkers without walking into Supreme Verdict. Try and hold onto your Goblin Warchiefs and haste creatures so you can follow up a Supreme Verdict or planeswalker with a haste threat, and protect your Cavern of Souls from Field of Ruin when you can.
Post-board your goal is not to let them cheese you out with some sort of fast win condition like Monastery Mentor. Pace yourself, don't play into counterspells when you can, and make them squirm as they use Path to Exile on your 1/1 Goblin tokens. Avoid fetching for basic lands whenever you can so you can get maximum value from their Path to Exile and Field of Ruin, even if it means fetching a Blood Crypt when you don't need to.
In:
Out:
- -1 Mogg Fanatic
- -1 Tarfire
- -2 Skirk Prospector
Jund
Favorable Matchup
The "favorable" tag here assumes they don't have 3-4 Plague Engineer after board, but all and all you grind with Jund very well. Liliana of the Veil looks embarrassing against Mogg War Marshall and Goblin Ringleader, and their best path to victory is cheesing you out with fast Tarmogoyf and Bloodbraid Elf attacks. As long as you don't get cheesed out by a fast double-discard aggro draw, you should be in good shape. If they want to play cards like C and extra removal they can beat us if they want to, but that's not what Jund currently looks like.
Post-board we cut down on many of our 1-toughness creatures to lessen our vulnerability to Wrenn and Six and Plague Engineer and continue to grind. Icon of Ancestry is our ace in the hole, as both a preemptive answer to Plague Engineer and Wrenn and Six and a card advantage tool. Relic of Progenitus helps to keep Tarmogoyf in check, and once we can cut the Leyline of the Void and play more this matchup will improve.
In:
Out:
Tron
Even To Unfavorable Matchup
The good news against Tron is that they aren't really going to interact with you at all. You can fire off a turn two Goblin Warchief off of a Skirk Prospector and get super aggressive going for that turn four kill, which is not a luxury you usually have. The bad news is that if you don't kill them fast their late game vastly outpowers your Goblin Ringleaders. Field of Ruin helps, but it's a pure race.
Thoughtseize helps after board, but realistically we're not super prepared for classic Tron. Again, once the Leyline of the Void go we can make room for something like Alpine Moon to improve the matchup. Goblin Trashmaster can help contain Wurmcoil Engine.
In:
Out:
- -2 Goblin Ringleader
- -2 Munitions Expert
- -1 Tarfire
Urza Thopter Sword
Favorable Matchup
Most of what the Urza Thopter Sword deck is good at, finding Ensnaring Bridge, hating people out with maindeck silver bullets, or assembling Thopter Foundry/Sword of the Meek isn't very good against us. The Thopter/Sword combo is slow in the early turns and Goblin Piledriver gets to rumble through untouched for easy kills with protection from blue. We have tons of ways around Ensnaring Bridge and they don't interact with us very well. Their best chance to win is to cheese us out with a fast Thopter Foundry/Sword of the Meek/Urza, Lord High Artificer combo kill, but that is difficult to assemble early.
Post-board we gain access to the all powerful Goblin Trashmaster, as well as getting to shave some of our stinkers. Play aggressively but carefully and do what you can to keep them from comboing.
In:
Out:
- -2 Mogg Fanatic
- -1 Tarfire
- -2 Goblin Ringleader
Other Matchups
Those were the eight most played decks at the Mythic Championship, but obviously there are about 20 more viable decks in Modern and we can't cover them all. However, this has been a great spread of different decks ranging from very slow to very fast and all ranges in between.
Your goal is to follow a similar paradigm to sideboard as you do to your matchup assessment - Think about how the game is going to end and what sort of plan you need to play for and sideboard accordingly. Against medium to slow decks Goblin Ringleader is usually your best card, but against the faster and more linear decks of the format it is often Goblin Warchief. They won't be interacting, so punish them and kill them as fast as possible.
The deck is difficult to play and rewards knowing your matchups, so make sure you get as much practice in as possible. Hedge around Plague Engineer when you can, play tight, and enjoy Goblining people!
