In light of Goblins' recent success, an analysis of it is well deserved. Historically Goblins has been one of the dominant Legacy decks, especially after major format upheavals and bannings. In addition to having linearly powerful draws and mana disruption to punish poor decks and mulligan decisions, it has a surprisingly strong long game. It is very beatable, and this article will break down not only why the deck works but also how to attack it.

[cardlist]

[Lands]

5 Mountain

1 Auntie's Hovel

4 Rishadan Port

1 Wooded Foothills

3 Bloodstained Mire

4 Wasteland

4 Badlands

2 Arid Mesa

[/Lands]

[Creatures]

4 Goblin Matron

4 Goblin Ringleader

4 Gempalm Incinerator

1 Goblin Chieftain

3 Goblin Piledriver

1 Goblin Sharpshooter

2 Siege-Gang Commander

3 Goblin Warchief

4 Mogg War Marshal

4 Goblin Lackey

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

4 Aether Vial

2 Warren Weirding

[/Spells]

[Sideboard]

3 Pyrokinesis

3 Leyline of the Void

3 Pyroblast

1 Goblin Chieftain

1 Stingscourger

3 Perish

1 Mindbreak Trap

[/Sideboard]

[/cardlist]

Goblin Ringleader and Goblin Matron

This card advantage engine is what sets Goblins apart from all of the other creature decks in Legacy. While a critical mass of spot removal can let a deck gun down all of a Zoo player's creatures, Goblins almost never runs out of gas. In addition to letting you chain Ringleaders, Matron lets you more easily double up on Piledrivers on early kills and have Siege-Gang Commanders ready for Lackey draws without flooding on them. The singleton toolbox it provides is also surprisingly deep: Stingscourger for decks that cheat fatties into play (conveniently you can Show and Tell in the Matron to get it for Emrakul), Earwig Squad if other combo decks are an issue, a random Lord to pump over Engineered Plague and creatues, Goblin Sharpshooter for tribal mirrors, and more.

Goblin Lackey, AEther Vial, and Goblin Warchief

Your card advantage engine is fairly mana intensive, even discounting that you will usually have more cards to use your mana on. These cards let you actually burn all your gas. Lackey specifically forces your opponents into a lot of awkward mulligan decisions as if they can't deal with a turn one Lackey on the spot they are usually dead. Without these cards, Goblins has a real issue functioning on a smooth curve.

Goblin Piledriver and Siege-Gang Commander

These are your finishers. While sometimes a swarm of random guys is enough, these let you crash through when it isn't. Commander is the absolute best thing to Lackey in, but as mentioned above running a large number of them leads to flooding with them. Piledriver can lead to fast kills even without Lackey, but unlike most of your other cards requires a board presence and already decent attacks to really get going.

Mogg War Marshal, Warren Weirding, and Gempalm Incinerator

One of the most important questions for creature decks in Legacy is how you beat a Tarmogoyf or Knight of the Reliquary. Goblins has access to a large number of efficient ways to do so. Incinerator does this at value, Warren Weirding also answers assorted Emrakuls and Ionas, and War Marshal provides resistance to large beaters while still being a respectable card against non-creature decks.

Rishadan Port and Wasteland

Due to the fact that Lackey and Vial set up games where you don't actually have to use your lands to play your spells, Goblins afford to trade it's mana for it's opponents profitably. Even in games without either of those cards, Goblins has a mana curve light on two that lets it squeeze in a Port activation to trade an early turn against some decks.

Sideboard

Most of the board options will be discussed later, but one large option is what your splash color is. Black gives you access to Warren Weirding, discard, Perish, and Patriarch's Bidding, but Green and White are considerable for access to enchantment removal. Depending on what you plan on supporting, both is also an option. As of now Black is the better option as it answers the actual strategies people are playing better, but Green and White are better against specific hate cards and answers people play against you.

Major Interactive Match Ups

Counterbalance

This is one of the main reasons to play Goblins. Between AEther Vial and your mixed mana costs, their lock is barely functional against you. Gempalm Incinerator is an uncounterable answer to Tarmogoyf, and they aren't necessarily well equipped to deal with your mana disruption. The UW Enlightened Tutor builds probably have the best chance due to Moat, but even then you are heavily favored as their answers don't line up with your threats. The key here is sticking one of the one drop mana sources.

Games two and three Pyroblast lets you stop their attempts to actually do something, but your main is good enough.

Merfolk

Another favorable match up. While your Ports and Wastelands line up poorly against their tempo strategy, your threat density overloads their answers (especially as their Standstills match up poorly here) and your one drops let you get off the ground before they can stop you. Your removal also lets you keep them from assembling a large number of Lords and your mana base is well situated to trump their Wastelands. They can have access to trumps like Umezawa's Jitte, but you always have one in the protection from blue on Goblin Piledriver. Not only does he brick wall their attacks, he often represents a way to kill them regardless of how set up their board is. The one card they have that can stop this him Mutavault, so manage your removal, Wastelands, and Ports wisely.

Out of the board you gain access to better removal in the form of Pyrokinesis and Pyroblast, but you don't really need the help.

Death and Taxes

This whole match up revolves around them upgrading their creatures. If they get a Sword of Fire and Ice or Jitte going, you will lose. Otherwise, your card advantage engine will overwhelm them. While there isn't much you can do about an in play Sword other than kill all of their guys, Jitte is a different story as you can do shenanigans involving killing your own guys to dodge the trigger. Mother of Runes is an issue as it prevents you from stalling for time once an equipment is in play and usually needs to be killed immediately. They can also use Mother as a pseudo-equipment and force through damage to kill you.

Post board Pyrokinesis is a disaster for them, as is any artifact removal. Just control their power ups and you will be fine.

GWB Junk

First off, their mana is shaky enough that you can punish them with Port and Wasteland. Secondly, they are threat light enough that you can line up your removal with their creatures. That said, if they actually get to cast a bunch of spells you will likely get ground out of the game. There isn't much more to say than that.

Post board Perish is a solid answer for their threats. Just keep being the beatdown and know to paly around Pernicious Deed.

Zoo

This is the nightmare game one. Unless you are fully active, their creatures trump yours at every point on the curve. Similar to the Merfolk match up for you, they have a critical mass of cheap removal to prevent you from building up an army. The removal can help you keep things manageable and try to give you time to get going, but usually you are out numbered there. Sometimes the mana disruption can get them, but only if you lock them as trading turns is not ideal against a deck that comes out of the gates faster than you.

Out of the sideboard, Goblins wins by gaining access to specific large effects. Perish is the most common for obvious reasons, but Patriarch's Bidding is also stellar and actually puts you into a winning position instead of sometimes only stopping a losing one. Pyrokinesis is also ok here, but not great as it doesn't stop the real threats.

Combating Goblins

First off, from a fundamental perspective, you need to not lose to Rishadan Port and Wasteland. Cheaper spells help here, but so does building a resilient mana base with minimal non-basics and more mana. If you plan on playing big spells, two color decks are the way to go against Goblins.

Once you have resolved this issue, you need a way to stop their early game. Stopping Lackey before it hits you is the main issue here, but depending on your deck AEther Vial can also be an issue. Know what cards you have to stop to get to playing the game against them and have answers.

Finally, you need a way to not get overrun by their end game card advantage. Either kill them before they get there, or play something that stops it from mattering.

In practice, these are the three main ways decks beat Goblins:

1. Taking a note from Zoo, you can just be the better beatdown deck. Trump their guys at every drop, play removal for their ways to make their guys matter, and play enough creatures that their removal isn't enough. Green is best positioned to do this, but White also has access to reasonable trumps such as Silver Knight if you are willing to skew your deck enough.
2. Race them on a different level. As you will notice, I only listed the interactive match ups above. Goblins really has no means of interacting with anything other than creatures and sometimes mana. Combo decks are not only immune to these lines but kill faster than all but Goblin's best draws. Goblins can go to the board for hate like Thorn of Amethyst, Mindbreak Trap, and Cabal Therapy, so make sure your combo deck is resilient.
3. Play some effect that provides a crushing advantage rather than just one for ones. Examples would be Engineered Plague, Moat, Humility, Ghostly Prison/Propaganda, Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale, Sword of Fire and Ice, Umezawa's Jitte, and to an extent sweepers like Wrath of God. One thing to notice here is that most of these cards are enchantments, which Goblins often lacks in answers for. You usually still need a closer as they can assemble mediocre beats through a lot of these, but certain combinations like Moat and Humility are hard locks.

Overall, Goblins is going to continue to be a strong option for years to come, but the tools exist for decks to take advantage of it. At the very least, after any major format change, consider strongly what happens when your opponent taps red mana for some little green men.

Special thanks to Vivek Soi for information in the match ups section.