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By: Arctic_Ghost, Arctic_Ghost
Aug 21 2017 12:00pm
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Goblins is one of the oldest archetypes in Pauper. The deck is based around swarming the battlefield with 1 power goblin creatures, going wide around your opponent's defenses and attacking in one big turn. They might not be great or impressive by themselves individually, but when you bring them altogether, they can amass an army that any archetype would be scared to face.

 

This list is a bit different however as it includes Koldotha Rebirth and cards such as Ornithopter and Panic Spellbomb to compensate. You more copies of cards such as Dragon Fodder to build a huge army and either swing in for the win or a big Goblin War Strike to their face. Let's check out what we are working with and break the deck down piece by piece.

Goblins
- 75 Cards Total
Creature
4 Goblin Bushwhacker
3 Goblin Sledder
3 Mogg Raider
4 Mogg War Marshal
2 Foundry Street Denizen
3 Ornithopter
19 cards

Instant
2 Lightning Bolt
2 cards
Sorcery
4 Dragon Fodder
2 Goblin War Strike
3 Krenko's Command
4 Kuldotha Rebirth
1 Reckless Abandon
14 cards

Artifact
1 Darksteel Citadel
4 Great Furnace
2 Panic Spellbomb
7 cards
Enchantment
4 Raid Bombardment
4 cards

Land
14 Mountain
14 cards
 

Sideboard
2 Electrickery
3 Goblin Caves
3 Pyroblast
3 Gorilla Shaman
2 Sylvok Lifestaff
2 Flaring Pain
15 cards

 

The Creatures

Foundry Street Denezin – One of the best creatures you can play early on in the game, but the later the game goes, the worse this creature gets and that is why you only see a couple of copies in this deck.

 

Mogg Raider and Goblin Sledder – These are the best goblins you have because they allow you to survive cards such as Electrickery and Nausea. They also allow you to go wide against your opponents and they make your combat much better due to being able to use your goblins that are blocked and still get in for a good amount of damage or ruin your opponent's board state.

 

Mogg War Marshal – For 2 mana, you get 2 goblin creatures and if your Mogg War Marshal dies (this is the best part because not paying the echo doesn't hurt all that much), you get to replace it with a goblin token and still get great value.

 

Goblin bushwhacker – This is your big combo piece. Swarm the board with a bunch of creatures, player this little guy with kicker and go to town, never play less than 4.

 

Ornithopter – While the main use of this creature is to feed Kuldotha Rebirth, the fact that it flies is also great because with Goblin Sledder, you can use Ornithopter to fly over and get in the last few points of damage you need.

 

The Spells

Kuldotha Rebirth, Dragon Fodder and Krenko's Command – These are used to just create as many tokens as possible and they do their job very well.

 

Lightning Bolt – You know why this is here. There are few copies because you are based more on winning with creatures then burn and because you have a couple of Panic Spellbombs to take care of blockers for the turn.

 

Goblin War Strike – When you have a bunch of goblins on the board and need to finish your opponent off without using combat damage, here is your best way to do it.

 

Reckless Abandon – It costs only 1 mana and does not use your lands to cast it, making it better than a 1 of Fireblast in my opinion. It also only costs 1 mana to cast, which allows you to cast other spells in the same turn as well.

 

Panic Spellbomb – A great way to take care of a blocker for the turn and you get to draw a card off of it, even when you sacrifice it to Kuldotha Rebirth you also get to draw a card and get some extra value.

 

Raid Bombardment – This is one of your big win conditions because now you get through damage even when your opponents have creatures to block or your opponent uses a Fog effect. This allows you to assume a sort of combo like role in this deck and chip away at your opponent faster and speed up your clock considerably. The less turns you give your opponent, the better.

 

The Manabase isn't anything special. You play 4 Great Furnace and 1 Darksteel Citadel to help cast Kuldotha Rebirth and that is the main reasons you play them. You don't want any lands that come into play tapped because you always want to curve out and not lose any tempo. If you have to use a land that comes into play tapped between turns 1-3, you may lose enough speed on your curve out that you could lose the game right then and there.

 

The Sideboard

3 Gorilla Shaman – As always, Affinity can be a problem, this helps solve that problem.

 

3 Goblin Caves – This helps to give you protection against cards like Electrickery and Echoing Decay. It also helps you against other aggro decks by making your creatures a little bigger so you can block easier, hold down the fort and then build enough of a creature mass to swing for the win.

 

3 Pyroblast – This is to help fight counter magic and get key spells through such as Goblin Bushwhacker and Goblin War Strike when it is coming through for enough damage to be lethal. Do not use this card on just anything, always use it in a spot where it benefits you most and will give you the best chance of winning the game.

 

2 Flaring Pain – While Raid Bombardment may be good at getting by Circle of Protection: Red due to putting more effects of damage on the stack than your opponent can prevent, I still believe having the extra help of Flaring Pain is always a good thing.

 

2 Electrickery – A good way to fight tokens, the mirror and anything else that swarm the board with 1 toughness creatures. It also helps a lot against Spellstutter Sprite decks.

 

2 Sylvok Lifestaff – This card helps you fight other aggro decks by giving you life and time to amass a big enough board state to go wide and around your opponents defenses. It also helps that it pumps whatever it is equipped to so that you can fight in combat better or even against control decks it can be good to quicken the clock. The faster you are able to win and the less turns your opponents get, the better it will be for you.

 

The Videos

 

Verdict and Conclusion

I like what this deck is doing and I will always have a soft spot for Goblins in Pauper (it was one of the first decks I built). It's fast, it is mean and it can easily overwhelm your opponent before they even know what hit them and all of the sudden you have won the game.

 

I do however think that the regular Red Decks Wins Archetype is better to use right now. The swarm and go wide strategy isn't bad, but with all the Electrickery and Nausea effects that are being played these days, it is extremely easy to lose to just those cards alone. I also do not like how little burn you have in this archetype. The removal in Pauper has gotten much better and only gets better, so having a good amount of burn to go over the battlefield is very needed these days. Yes you do have Goblin War Strike but it does not do anything if you have no creatures. One big thing about Red Deck Wins as well is that all of your creatures have haste and hit for 2 damage, which makes much more of a difference than you may think when trying to go from 20 to 0 quickly.

 

So do I think you should play this deck? I think this archetype is fine and has potential to be even better, but I think that Red Deck Wins will be more consistent and will net you more wins in the long run over time. Do not take my word for it, try this archetype out for yourself and let me know how you do and what changes you have made.

 

Would you like to compete in a free Pauper tournament with some great prizes? Head on over to Gatherling.com on Tuesday nights at 8pm EDT and play in our weekly Pauper Classic Tuesday's event! Join the chat #PCT to chat with us and feel free to find most of the competitors on Discord!

 

Thank you so much for reading and watching! See you next time!

2 Comments

I love these decks and have by TheVlagh at Tue, 08/22/2017 - 17:07
TheVlagh's picture
5

I love these decks and have tried to use bombardment before, only issue is that whenever I do my opponent always has Shrivel or Electrickery, usually more than one!

I know your pain, you really by Arctic_Ghost at Wed, 08/23/2017 - 01:28
Arctic_Ghost's picture

I know your pain, you really need the Goblin Caves in order to protect yourself, but 3 mana can be very hard to get to and sometimes is just a little too slow.