Brewer's Paradise - Completing a Deck: The Goblins of Urd Story [Daniel Pagan Murphy]
As an avid brewer and deckbuilder, spoiler season is always like Christmas for me. I love nothing more than scouring the web for new build around cards that might spawn new archetypes. However, sometimes it can happen that a brew that has been close to playable for a while gets exactly the couple of cards that it needs and suddenly dramatically improves. This is one such story.
The Origins
Khans of Tarkir had just come out. In one of my habitual, “review how it affects older sets” moments, I stumbled upon Obelisk of Urd, and realized some very good cards in standard were goblins. Being the red mage I am I set to work. The deck was looking good: Goblin Rabblemaster, Foundry Street Denizen, Frenzied Goblin, and now Hordeling Outburst were all good cards that synergized well with Obelisk of Urd and Stoke the Flames. You might have noticed the glaring problem: There were no decent two drops.
Not to be deterred, I went deep and tested with Goblin Kaboomist, which I found to be underwhelming but necessary. That being said, it wasn’t all bad with an Obelisk or Hall of Triumph out and it also gave me another idea. Since the tokens were artifacts, why not add Darksteel Citadel and play Shrapnel Blast? The deck was a blast (no pun intended) to play in the way only goblin decks can be, but wasn’t quite there competitively and I moved on to some other monstrosity (probably some infinite combo involving Durdle Turtle aka Meandering Towershell).
Deck Reforged
Two fairly innocuous Fate Reforged cards resurrected my interest in the deck: Goblin Heelcutter and, much more importantly, Mardu Scout. Here was the promised land, the elusive 2 drop! It was a good aggressive one as well, and great to dash with Obelisk out. The deck improved quite a bit, and I made some changes such as cutting Kaboomist and adding Outpost Siege whilst testing before the set came out. It all worked well but the deck still wasn’t quite there, especially once the meta started to settle. There were still not enough 2 drops and not enough ways to generate tokens before turn 3 to help cast Obelisk early. I once again dropped the deck (durdle turtle.dec returned with a vengeance and more durdle!).
Goblins of Tarkir
“Hmmm…that card seems good, yep that’s not bad. Whoooooaaaaaaa!!! They reprinted Dragon Fodder! Sweeeeeeet!” That was probably my reaction when I saw the Dragons of Tarkir spoiler. Dragon Fodder was the perfect card for the deck. Two goblin bodies that, when combined with a one drop, could allow us to get a turn three Obelisk of Urd in play (naming turtle of course). Apart from the obvious Dragon Fodder, there was also another sweet addition to the deck in Impact Tremors. This is the list I am currently working on which allows for some truly great starts and a powerful inevitability and strong mid to late game with Obelisk and Outpost Siege. I like that there is strong synergy but we are mostly just playing good cards.
Standard
Goblins of Urd - Daniel Pagan Murphy
Creatures (16) 4 Foundry Street Denizen Spells (22) |
Lands (22) Sideboard |
The numbers might need to be adjusted a bit, and that is where the testing comes in. Impact Tremors might be a sideboard card, Goblin Heelcutter might need to be in the main, who knows? The list is exciting and fun. Give it a spin and let me know what you think!
Thanks for reading,
Daniel
Disclaimer: I never actually made a Meandering Towershell deck. One hell of a limited blocker though!
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