Pro Tour Qualifier - Honolulu - Portland, Oregon - October 29, 2005 - Report!

A pro tour qualifier where I can play Goblins for a plane ticket to Hawaii? Sounded too good to be true. I couldn't pass up another chance to play the little red men.

I chose to splash white for Goblin Legionnaire main, which is quite good against the mirror and against Madness, and I thought the Orim's Chants would be good against Mind's Desire and other wacky combo decks. Of course I didn't play combo all day.

Here was my build:

Creatures (36)
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2 Frenzied Goblin
1 Goblin Goon
4 Goblin Incinerator
2 Goblin King
3 Goblin Legionnaire
4 Goblin Matron
4 Goblin Piledriver
4 Goblin Ringleader
2 Goblin Sharpshooter
4 Goblin Warchief
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Siege-Gang Commander
3 Skirk Prospector
1 Sparksmith

Artifacts (2)
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2 Umezawa's Jitte

Land (22)
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12 Mountain
3 Plains
3 Sacred Foundry
4 Wooded Foothills

Sideboard (15)
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4 Blood Moon
4 Disenchant
3 Orim's Chant
4 Pithing Needle

Round 1 - Alex Luttman - Rg Goblins

Alex is a good player and I think he did well at States. I remember him sitting at the low number tables. We both dropped a Mountain on our first turns and the mirror match was on. The first game was back and forth but I was able to get a Goblin Sharpshooter out with a Warchief already in play to decimate three Goblins at once. He played his own Warchief but I used Frenzied Goblin to send an unblockable alpha strike.

I didn't board game two but made a point of taking some cards out of the board and going through my deck, bluffing the board so he wouldn't know what I was up to. My lack of board against the mirror cost me all day. The next time I play this deck I'll definitely have Sphere of Law in the board instead of the Chants. But I digress. I don't have a lot of notes on game two other than watching my life total decline. So on to game three. I boarded in the Chants in hopes of slowing him down and took out the Jittes and the Goon. I played some early Goblins but stalled on land as he kept playing Goblins. I had a hand full of Ringleaders and the like but couldn't get them out fast enough as he overran me. Stupid Goblins.

matches: 0-1
games: 1-2

Round 2 - Geoff Zeiger - mono red Goblins w/Burning Wish

Another round, another opening of Mountains. In game one I got him low on life and then used crazy Goblin Sharpshooter tricks to kill his guys and then swing. I love the Sharpshooter. Game two he got lots of land (I'm not sure he ever missed a land drop) and a quick Siege-Gang. I kept killing guys but he kept throwing them at my head for two and I couldn't overcome that advantage. Game three he stalled on one Mountain and one Swamp while I got an early Warchief and played a bunch of other Gobbo's and overran him. Did I mention this isn't really a complicated deck?

matches: 1-1
games: 3-3

Round 3 - Josh Lytle - Mono Black Control

Mono black can be very troublesome for me but fortunately I never saw an Engineered Plague or a Hideous Laugher in this matchup. Game one he was mana screwed, spending most of the game with two Swamps and a Cabal Coffers in play while I got an early Jitte equipped and a couple of Goblins swinging away. Game two took quite awhile, I kept getting him low on life and he kept playing land and casting huge Consume Spirits to kill my guys and gain life back. Eventually he Mutilated all my guys and swung with a huge Nantuko Shade. Game three I jumped to an early lead and was bashing with Goblins. He killed some of my guys but I still had three or four cards in hand when he played Haunting Echoes. Ouch. I lost a LOT of my deck in one fell swoop, but I had a Warchief, a Gempalm Incinerator and a land in my hand. Fortunately I kept drawing Goblins after that, the few Goblins in my deck, and I just played one a turn and attacked. I kept one in my hand to avoid being wiped out by Mutilate. Eventually I got him to five life and had two Incinerators in play. I had a Goblin King in my hand, he had one card in his hand. I top decked a Jitte. I thought about what to do and decided to play the Jitte, equip and swing. If I'd played the King and he didn't have a response I would have won that turn but I really didn't want to lose all my threats at once. I put him at 1. He drew and then conceded.

Nathan Saunders, 2005 Oregon State Champion, along with lots of other people watched our match. Nathan couldn't believe I didn't play the King and just go for the win, reasoning that I'd already lost most of my threats to the Haunting Echoes and that letting Josh stay alive was just giving him more time to draw an answer. He was probably right as I thought about it but fortunately it didn't cost me.

matches: 2-1
games: 5-4

Round 4 - Nathan Saunders - Rb Goblins

And Nathan's reward for helping my strategy was to play me in the next round. Game one I was stupid and kept a one land hand. I had a Jitte, a Prospector and a Piledriver so I figured if I drew a land I'd be fine. The most dangerous phrase in Magic, I'm convinced, is "If I just draw one land." Naturally I didn't for several turns. I sacrificed the Prospector to play the Piledriver on the second turn, much to Nathan's surprise. "I think you made a play mistake there, Roy," he said and it turned out he was right. I drew land soon but it was too late as he overran me with Kiki-Jiki powered craziness after a turn three Ringleader. Game two I didn't board, I just went with what I had. Normally I would board out the Goon in the mirror match but I left him in too. That turned out well because I got him out on turn three and used Incinerators to keep Nathan's side of the board smaller than mine. The Goon smashed. Game three I got two quick Piledrivers in play and swung for 14 in one turn. He chump blocked my Warchief and a Prospector to try to cut down my numbers, but the two Piledrivers were too much and he was down to four.

matches: 3-1
games: 7-5

Round 5 - David Conachan - Wake

A feature match?!? Unexpected but kind of cool. I started off well, two land and five Goblins. But then I missed seven land drops in a row. Seven. SEVEN! I had at least two Warchiefs and two Ringleaders in my hand just waiting to be played, but when you give a Wake deck that much time you're just destined to lose. Game two I boarded out the Incinerators and Jittes for Blood Moons and Disenchants. I got an early Blood Moon out but couldn't force a Goblin King through. I had him down to nine but he Cunning Wished for a Pulse of the Fields to get his life total back up to 16. I kept getting threats into play but he stalled me with Moment's Peaces and eventually got a couple of Wakes, then a huge Decree of Justice for the win.

matches: 3-2
games: 7-7

Round 6 - Jeremy Yuse - Wake with Mirari

Again with Wake! I started fast again but then missed a couple of early land drops. He had double mulliganed but still had time to come back and win after stalling with Moment's Peace. Unbelievable. Game two I started very fast and played an early Ringleader. Whiff! I got three land and a Jitte. Ugly. I finally got him down to 10 and was able to kill him off with crazy Goblin Sharpshooter tricks powered by Skirk Prospector. I almost blew it though. I had him down to one. I pinged him, then sacrified my Warchief, untapped my guy and tried to ping him for the last point of life. He reminded me that the Sharpshooter had just come into play and now had summoning sickness since I had sacrificed the Warchief. Fortunately I had three red mana floating so I played a Warchief from my hand and killed him. I did ten damage in one turn without attacking. Did I mention I like Sharpshooter?

Game two took forever so we were running short on time for game three. I had a good army building but he played Gifts Ungiven to find Pithing Needle and Wrath of God. We ran out of time before anything could be resolved so we drew.

I forgot to mention the stupid thing I did in game one. I played another Ringleader and wound up with nine cards in my hand. I forgot to discard down to seven at the end of my turn and he didn't catch it. On my next turn I untapped and went to draw but realized I hadn't discarded and said, "Oops, I forgot to discard." I had seen the card I was about to draw too, a Mountain. Ugh. He called for a judge, rightly, and the judge finally decided it would just be a warning. I discarded down to seven (I discard a King, since I had two in my hand, and a Siege-Gang Commander. If I would have known a Mountain was coming I probably would have kept the Siege-Gang but I tried my best not to let that knowledge influence my decision.) As it turned out it didn't matter because he went on to win that game but I couldn't believe I did that. I was getting pretty tired by then and it was starting to show. I don't think I've even done that in a casual game before.

matches: 3-2-1
games: 8-8-1

So I wound up 16th out of 53 players, good enough for four packs including the challenge round. Unfortunately my run of opening dual lands ended but at least I got some rares I didn't have four of already. I did have fun and I beat Nathan, which was good for the ego. It wound up keeping him out of the Top 8 as he finished 9th.

I will make a few changes before playing this again (I hope to go to the PTQ in Seattle in December---we'll go up the day before and have some family fun before I play on Saturday).

I'll put four Chrome Mox in the main and take out some land in order to get the fast starts. A second turn Warchief is huge. I'll also put in one or two Goblin Sledders to help protect against Sharpshooters and Gempalm Incinerators. Last I'll take the Chants out of the board and put in Sphere of Law. That will be great in the mirror, especially with Chrome Mox to get it out faster.