Category: Upvoted

To that end, is there even a good Grixis deck right now? I’ve been trying Grixis control for a bit now, but it’s just turning out to be Jund that’s bad against the field and good against Jund. Grixis delver seems decent but delver doesn’t stand up well to anything in modern, plus there’s not that many good ways to protect him like there are in legacy. Is the Grixis Death’s Shadow deck any good? Shadow has gotten a lot of spotlight lately in Zooicide; my meta is full of aggressive decks like burn and affinity, which could make the Shadow a solid contender. What does reddit think about playing UBR in modern?

To that end, is there even a good Grixis deck right now? I’ve been trying Grixis control for a bit now, but it’s just turning out to be Jund that’s bad against the field and good against Jund. Grixis delver seems decent but delver doesn’t stand up well to anything in modern, plus there’s not that many good ways to protect him like there are in legacy. Is the Grixis Death’s Shadow deck any good? Shadow has gotten a lot of spotlight lately in Zooicide; my meta is full of aggressive decks like burn and affinity, which could make the Shadow a solid contender. What does reddit think about playing UBR in modern?

I wrote a tournament report recently about my trip to the MN SCG states, and had tacked on at the end a little bit about my experience at the SCG open in Milwaukee. I mention that I lost to titanshifts three time right in a row to end my day despite it being a good match up for me. I have been taking time to evaluate why I lost, and the answer I came up with was that I drew the slow half of my deck. Usually I’m pretty anger-proof, the tool the G/R decks use to bridge their way to the point of the game where they cast titans, but that day I was just totally vulnerable to it because all of my hands were leaning on [[mogg war-marshal]]. Since the start of my goblin journey I have never not had the token king in my deck. Way back in the day I played all twelve of the token spells, and despite cutting down to just the token boss himself I’d never considered him omitable from the core. I’ve been sitting at my computer, trying to start this sentence, for about fifteen minutes because typing it is like saying goodbye to an old friend. That said, war-marshal is slow. We’re running forward at full speed, and he’s dragging us back into the dust we’re trying to leave everyone else in. It’s time to further unify the theme of aggression us goblin players, and our summons, live by.

This is the list I’m playing right now if you wan’t to read it on tappedout, but I’ll post the updated primer below with an explanation of the changes. Since I changed the core of the deck I’ve lost three of about twenty competitive matches I’ve played with the deck, and this configuration is the one I’m going to be taking out for the foreseeable future.

Introduction: So the first and foremost question is why play this deck? Or as many people phrase it, “why not just play burn?” The main answer to both of these questions is the same: Goblin Grenade; more on that later. Aside from Grenade I believe this deck is a better choice than burn because it does a better job of playing around Leyline of Sanctity and incidental life gain. This deck isn’t burn. This deck is throttle down, foot on the throat fast aggression. This deck is pray you have Anger of the Gods then pray again I don’t have a hand full of burn spells, but I do. This deck is wrack your brain deciding what to take with Thoughtseize because there is no right choice; every card will kill you. This deck is goblins, and it’s fast.

Card choices: I’m going to explain each spot in the deck using my philosophy salt-inducing no-mercy unrelenting face beating. I know you’re reading these words in print, but I hope they can speak to you. Reach into your soul: if it feels like a dormant ember of rage and recklessness you better put on some oven-mits and get ready for it to be set ablaze.

Creatures: These guys! these are the guys. Notice the name of the deck, and then notice no three-drops. Well, they are all too slow. Trading a whole turn three to have your lord/rabblemaster bolted is so gutwrenchingly awful I tossed them out. Do you even aggro, lords? Didn’t think so, get outta here.

4 [[Foundry Street Denizen]]- This guy is the best turn one play you can make. If the deck isn’t a piledriver deck then it’s certainly a FSD deck. This guy’s flavor text should be a written apology to your opponents face for how hard he’s gonna smash it.

4 [[Vexing Devil]]- Devil is the turn one play you want to make if you don’t have an FSD. Ever since I tried this guy out I love him so much. He just works so well turn two behind a turn one FSD. I started with two, then went to three, and settled on four. He just represents so much damage that other goblin, or non-goblin, one drops can’t. Even if he sticks your opponent will never have enough removal for him and everything else. Just make sure you’re sniffing out anger of the gods if they seem happy he’s around.

4 [[Goblin Guide]]- Still a 2/2 with haste. Still a boss. He’s not as good as FSD turn one, unless you have a silly hand with two or three of him. He sure is good turn two with FSD. Use his ‘downside’ to know what you need to play around, and what you should sideboard for after you stomp them game one.

4 [[Goblin Bushwhacker]]- By a mile the most objectively powerful creature card in the deck. This guy makes the deck a threat to win turn three. This guy punishes tapped out opponents hard. This guy makes your opponents feel silly for thinking letting you have vexing devil for a turn was a good idea.

4 [[Legion Loyalist]]- This dude’s battalion effect acts as an amazing sorcery in this deck. Did I also mention he’s a creature? Did I also also mention he has haste? Did I also also also mention he triggers FSD? I don’t think this guy could be any better. Just kidding, try kicking a Bushwhacker behind him.

4 [[Mogg Fanatic]]- This guy is the best utility spell ever printed. He has endless uses in the deck. Fanatic is the aggro mirror-breaker, the most salt-educing burn spell, fog, FSD trigger, beater, and pseudo hexproof. Fanatic is the best utility spell ever printed.

4 [[Raging goblin]]- The last guy invited to the party. Turns out haste is a better keyword than what the rest of the goblin crew can bring to the table for R.

2- [[Grim Lavamancer]]- This guy has great synergy with the way my deck is because it is built on the premise that, all spot removal is bad against me; no body isn’t expendable. My creatures die. A lot. My graveyard is always full, and lavamancer will always have fuel for his brand of magic. P.S. he triggers FSD, triggers loyalist, and beats.

So what are the changes I’ve made? Like I mentioned earlier all the war-marshals are gone. All the raging goblins are in. I just decided to drop the curve to the ground, and just rage on my opponents. Playing a game of magic in which you just make a guy for each available mana for the first three turns is very hard for most decks in modern to beat. Speed and synergy can pull raging goblins up beyond his ceiling, as a pretty lame body, he’d hit in any other deck. The other change I made was putting the two lavamancers in the main. They took over the spots of a flex spot, which was previously one raging goblin, and the spot of forked bolt. I started with two forked bolts after I put in the raging goblins, but they felt clunky. I’m already pretty good at killing the types of things I had forked bolt in for, and decided lavaman was better at killing creatures repeatedly. I also want something to shore up raging goblin’s weakness: running head first into larger creatures. Previously war-marshal allowed my to go around things I’d run into, but obviously he’s gone now. My plan of ‘block and draw burn spells’ has shifted a little away from blocking, and more towards burning with lavaman. Also he turns my, obviously chump, blockers into damage.

Spells: This deck is all creatures and burn spells; I give you, the burn spells.

4 [[Goblin Grenade]]- Goblins is a religion, and goblin grenade is it’s scripture. This card is the reason to play this deck, and that reason is: it wins games. This card lucksacks us turn three wins. This card is what gives the deck the ability to overpower decks when they stabilize the board with creatures. This card wins out of nowhere. This card keeps you young, and makes your opponent age. This card will aid your poor sleep. This card will cook you dinner. This card will gently let down that guy who thought your date went more well than it did. This card wins.

4 [[Lightning Bolt]]- The best spell in modern? Probably.

4 [[Atarka’s Command]]- Command almost always represents 5 damage, while having the option to bring some utility without much trade off. I very often answer why I play No-Lords instead of 8-whack; the parallel between the two decks is broken by atarka’s command, which I play over the reckless bushwhackers. Why commands or bushwhackers? First of all atarka’s command is instant speed. There are a lot more blue decks/control decks out there now, and being able to force action on their turn gives me more options in a game in which they’re trying to take options away, and opens up more sorcery speed plays. Secondly playing with command just lets me play a game as a burn deck, and sometimes that’s a winning proposition where playing a creature deck isn’t.

Lands: I made the splash to R/G for atarka’s command, and I love it. I thought I’d hurt my burn match up by splashing, but with only one green spell it’s not entirely non-negligible but overall pretty smooth.

8 Fetch lands- “I’m a fetch land girl, in a fetch land world.” -Abraham Lincoln. Honest Abe was right. Modern is a fetch land world, and we live in it. Literally any red fetch will work just fine since there’s no basic forest in the deck.

4 [[Copperline Gorge]]- Copperline is the reason the green splash works. Getting your colors painlessly can never be taken for granted in modern. Opponents always have to attack very, and rightfully, tentatively to avoid dying on the crack back. This makes closing games against my deck a slow process, and getting green for free can be the difference between one, two, or three extra draw-steps to find that lethal burn spell or combination of creatures.

1 [[Blood Crypt]]- I am making a splash for one black card out of the sideboard to help me in my most desperate match-ups, and adding one blood crypt makes all my fetches into black sources.

1 [[Stomping Ground]]- One can’t play fetch lands without something to grab, right? The fixing is good enough that we don’t need the full set, and even if we miss green this deck plays as mono red most games anyways. It’s not worth the life loss to run more than one or two.

1 [[Blackcleave Cliffs]]- One extra black source for my sideboard cards. This could be another fetch land, but it’s nice to be able to get my colors painlessly sometimes and the fastlands are great in general in this kind of deck.

3 Mountain- More fetchable lands that add the most relevant color! And they always come in untapped; overpowered.

Sideboard: Like most sideboards mine is usually fluid. Even the things I thought would always be concrete I’ve taken out when they under-perform. You can see my whole sideboard at any given time, but for the explanation I’ll stick to the odd out-layers that need explanation, the things I’ll always have for effect, and the over-performers.

4 [[Goblin Fireslinger]]- What? What does this guy even do better than any goblin in the mainboard? Well, this guy is here to shore up the fact that Raging goblin has a weak body, and some games he’s just going to run into a wall. Fireslinger does all the regular goblin stuff, but can hit my opponent every turn regardless of if he attacks or not.

1 Grim Lavamancer- Plays a similar role as goblin fireslinger. I have the third one for match-ups in which I really want him to kill creatures like elves or merfolk.

3 [[Rain of Gore]]- This card is just a hail Mary against decks like junk and kitchenfinks.dec. It’s stolen me so many games I should have lost. Definitely worth the splash.

2 [[Gruul Charm]]- Mono red goblins decks are running [[Frenzied Goblin]] and [[Magmatic Chasm]], and Charm is just an instant version with another mode. I’ve never been sad to see it when I bring it in. This card constantly over-performs.

[[Tin street Holligan]]/[[Shattering Spree]]- Some artifact destruction to always want some of in modern.

2 [[Pyrite Spellbomb]]- Just a way to kill [[Kor Firewalker]] and master of waves.

The big change I made to the sideboard that I can’t go without talking about is the total removal of Goblin Piledriver. Without more lands in my deck Piledriver wasn’t speeding me up the way I hoped he would against decks with no removal, and was basically a card I only brought in against merfolk. He wasn’t versatile enough so I decided to toss him to fit in the Fireslingers, and just made sure to squeeze in some other things that were decent against merfolk, like lavaman and gruul charm, so I wasn’t dead in the water against fish.

Like always I appreciate you taking the time to read my content I post here, and am glad to answer any questions you may have, about match-ups or anything else, for me here12÷r, over PM, or on my tappedout.

I wrote a tournament report recently about my trip to the MN SCG states, and had tacked on at the end a little bit about my experience at the SCG open in Milwaukee. I mention that I lost to titanshifts three time right in a row to end my day despite it being a good match up for me. I have been taking time to evaluate why I lost, and the answer I came up with was that I drew the slow half of my deck. Usually I’m pretty anger-proof, the tool the G/R decks use to bridge their way to the point of the game where they cast titans, but that day I was just totally vulnerable to it because all of my hands were leaning on [[mogg war-marshal]]. Since the start of my goblin journey I have never not had the token king in my deck. Way back in the day I played all twelve of the token spells, and despite cutting down to just the token boss himself I’d never considered him omitable from the core. I’ve been sitting at my computer, trying to start this sentence, for about fifteen minutes because typing it is like saying goodbye to an old friend. That said, war-marshal is slow. We’re running forward at full speed, and he’s dragging us back into the dust we’re trying to leave everyone else in. It’s time to further unify the theme of aggression us goblin players, and our summons, live by.

This is the list I’m playing right now if you wan’t to read it on tappedout, but I’ll post the updated primer below with an explanation of the changes. Since I changed the core of the deck I’ve lost three of about twenty competitive matches I’ve played with the deck, and this configuration is the one I’m going to be taking out for the foreseeable future.

Introduction: So the first and foremost question is why play this deck? Or as many people phrase it, “why not just play burn?” The main answer to both of these questions is the same: Goblin Grenade; more on that later. Aside from Grenade I believe this deck is a better choice than burn because it does a better job of playing around Leyline of Sanctity and incidental life gain. This deck isn’t burn. This deck is throttle down, foot on the throat fast aggression. This deck is pray you have Anger of the Gods then pray again I don’t have a hand full of burn spells, but I do. This deck is wrack your brain deciding what to take with Thoughtseize because there is no right choice; every card will kill you. This deck is goblins, and it’s fast.

Card choices: I’m going to explain each spot in the deck using my philosophy salt-inducing no-mercy unrelenting face beating. I know you’re reading these words in print, but I hope they can speak to you. Reach into your soul: if it feels like a dormant ember of rage and recklessness you better put on some oven-mits and get ready for it to be set ablaze.

Creatures: These guys! these are the guys. Notice the name of the deck, and then notice no three-drops. Well, they are all too slow. Trading a whole turn three to have your lord/rabblemaster bolted is so gutwrenchingly awful I tossed them out. Do you even aggro, lords? Didn’t think so, get outta here.

4 [[Foundry Street Denizen]]- This guy is the best turn one play you can make. If the deck isn’t a piledriver deck then it’s certainly a FSD deck. This guy’s flavor text should be a written apology to your opponents face for how hard he’s gonna smash it.

4 [[Vexing Devil]]- Devil is the turn one play you want to make if you don’t have an FSD. Ever since I tried this guy out I love him so much. He just works so well turn two behind a turn one FSD. I started with two, then went to three, and settled on four. He just represents so much damage that other goblin, or non-goblin, one drops can’t. Even if he sticks your opponent will never have enough removal for him and everything else. Just make sure you’re sniffing out anger of the gods if they seem happy he’s around.

4 [[Goblin Guide]]- Still a 2/2 with haste. Still a boss. He’s not as good as FSD turn one, unless you have a silly hand with two or three of him. He sure is good turn two with FSD. Use his ‘downside’ to know what you need to play around, and what you should sideboard for after you stomp them game one.

4 [[Goblin Bushwhacker]]- By a mile the most objectively powerful creature card in the deck. This guy makes the deck a threat to win turn three. This guy punishes tapped out opponents hard. This guy makes your opponents feel silly for thinking letting you have vexing devil for a turn was a good idea.

4 [[Legion Loyalist]]- This dude’s battalion effect acts as an amazing sorcery in this deck. Did I also mention he’s a creature? Did I also also mention he has haste? Did I also also also mention he triggers FSD? I don’t think this guy could be any better. Just kidding, try kicking a Bushwhacker behind him.

4 [[Mogg Fanatic]]- This guy is the best utility spell ever printed. He has endless uses in the deck. Fanatic is the aggro mirror-breaker, the most salt-educing burn spell, fog, FSD trigger, beater, and pseudo hexproof. Fanatic is the best utility spell ever printed.

4 [[Raging goblin]]- The last guy invited to the party. Turns out haste is a better keyword than what the rest of the goblin crew can bring to the table for R.

2- [[Grim Lavamancer]]- This guy has great synergy with the way my deck is because it is built on the premise that, all spot removal is bad against me; no body isn’t expendable. My creatures die. A lot. My graveyard is always full, and lavamancer will always have fuel for his brand of magic. P.S. he triggers FSD, triggers loyalist, and beats.

So what are the changes I’ve made? Like I mentioned earlier all the war-marshals are gone. All the raging goblins are in. I just decided to drop the curve to the ground, and just rage on my opponents. Playing a game of magic in which you just make a guy for each available mana for the first three turns is very hard for most decks in modern to beat. Speed and synergy can pull raging goblins up beyond his ceiling, as a pretty lame body, he’d hit in any other deck. The other change I made was putting the two lavamancers in the main. They took over the spots of a flex spot, which was previously one raging goblin, and the spot of forked bolt. I started with two forked bolts after I put in the raging goblins, but they felt clunky. I’m already pretty good at killing the types of things I had forked bolt in for, and decided lavaman was better at killing creatures repeatedly. I also want something to shore up raging goblin’s weakness: running head first into larger creatures. Previously war-marshal allowed my to go around things I’d run into, but obviously he’s gone now. My plan of ‘block and draw burn spells’ has shifted a little away from blocking, and more towards burning with lavaman. Also he turns my, obviously chump, blockers into damage.

Spells: This deck is all creatures and burn spells; I give you, the burn spells.

4 [[Goblin Grenade]]- Goblins is a religion, and goblin grenade is it’s scripture. This card is the reason to play this deck, and that reason is: it wins games. This card lucksacks us turn three wins. This card is what gives the deck the ability to overpower decks when they stabilize the board with creatures. This card wins out of nowhere. This card keeps you young, and makes your opponent age. This card will aid your poor sleep. This card will cook you dinner. This card will gently let down that guy who thought your date went more well than it did. This card wins.

4 [[Lightning Bolt]]- The best spell in modern? Probably.

4 [[Atarka’s Command]]- Command almost always represents 5 damage, while having the option to bring some utility without much trade off. I very often answer why I play No-Lords instead of 8-whack; the parallel between the two decks is broken by atarka’s command, which I play over the reckless bushwhackers. Why commands or bushwhackers? First of all atarka’s command is instant speed. There are a lot more blue decks/control decks out there now, and being able to force action on their turn gives me more options in a game in which they’re trying to take options away, and opens up more sorcery speed plays. Secondly playing with command just lets me play a game as a burn deck, and sometimes that’s a winning proposition where playing a creature deck isn’t.

Lands: I made the splash to R/G for atarka’s command, and I love it. I thought I’d hurt my burn match up by splashing, but with only one green spell it’s not entirely non-negligible but overall pretty smooth.

8 Fetch lands- “I’m a fetch land girl, in a fetch land world.” -Abraham Lincoln. Honest Abe was right. Modern is a fetch land world, and we live in it. Literally any red fetch will work just fine since there’s no basic forest in the deck.

4 [[Copperline Gorge]]- Copperline is the reason the green splash works. Getting your colors painlessly can never be taken for granted in modern. Opponents always have to attack very, and rightfully, tentatively to avoid dying on the crack back. This makes closing games against my deck a slow process, and getting green for free can be the difference between one, two, or three extra draw-steps to find that lethal burn spell or combination of creatures.

1 [[Blood Crypt]]- I am making a splash for one black card out of the sideboard to help me in my most desperate match-ups, and adding one blood crypt makes all my fetches into black sources.

1 [[Stomping Ground]]- One can’t play fetch lands without something to grab, right? The fixing is good enough that we don’t need the full set, and even if we miss green this deck plays as mono red most games anyways. It’s not worth the life loss to run more than one or two.

1 [[Blackcleave Cliffs]]- One extra black source for my sideboard cards. This could be another fetch land, but it’s nice to be able to get my colors painlessly sometimes and the fastlands are great in general in this kind of deck.

3 Mountain- More fetchable lands that add the most relevant color! And they always come in untapped; overpowered.

Sideboard: Like most sideboards mine is usually fluid. Even the things I thought would always be concrete I’ve taken out when they under-perform. You can see my whole sideboard at any given time, but for the explanation I’ll stick to the odd out-layers that need explanation, the things I’ll always have for effect, and the over-performers.

4 [[Goblin Fireslinger]]- What? What does this guy even do better than any goblin in the mainboard? Well, this guy is here to shore up the fact that Raging goblin has a weak body, and some games he’s just going to run into a wall. Fireslinger does all the regular goblin stuff, but can hit my opponent every turn regardless of if he attacks or not.

1 Grim Lavamancer- Plays a similar role as goblin fireslinger. I have the third one for match-ups in which I really want him to kill creatures like elves or merfolk.

3 [[Rain of Gore]]- This card is just a hail Mary against decks like junk and kitchenfinks.dec. It’s stolen me so many games I should have lost. Definitely worth the splash.

2 [[Gruul Charm]]- Mono red goblins decks are running [[Frenzied Goblin]] and [[Magmatic Chasm]], and Charm is just an instant version with another mode. I’ve never been sad to see it when I bring it in. This card constantly over-performs.

[[Tin street Holligan]]/[[Shattering Spree]]- Some artifact destruction to always want some of in modern.

2 [[Pyrite Spellbomb]]- Just a way to kill [[Kor Firewalker]] and master of waves.

The big change I made to the sideboard that I can’t go without talking about is the total removal of Goblin Piledriver. Without more lands in my deck Piledriver wasn’t speeding me up the way I hoped he would against decks with no removal, and was basically a card I only brought in against merfolk. He wasn’t versatile enough so I decided to toss him to fit in the Fireslingers, and just made sure to squeeze in some other things that were decent against merfolk, like lavaman and gruul charm, so I wasn’t dead in the water against fish.

Like always I appreciate you taking the time to read my content I post here, and am glad to answer any questions you may have, about match-ups or anything else, for me here12÷r, over PM, or on my tappedout.