For many years, Goblins was a deck that defined Legacy. It’s ability to shift roles between hyper aggression with Goblin Piledriver and Goblin Lackey or a more attrition-oriented game with Goblin Ringleader and Gempalm Incinerator made it a dominant presence in the format. At least until faster combo decks invalidated much of what the deck could do. People tried splashing white for Thalia, Guardian of Thraben or black for Cabal Therapy and Thoughtseize, but it never really amounted to much. However, we’ve recently seen a shift in the metagame. We’re seeing more Blue-based tempo decks and Miracles variants and fewer fast combo decks. That might mean it’s time for Goblins to shine:

Goblins - Legacy | CHITOSE88N, 5-0 Legacy League

• Creatures (30)
• 1 Goblin Chieftain
• 1 Goblin Sharpshooter
• 1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
• 1 Krenko, Mob Boss
• 1 Siege-Gang Commander
• 1 Stingscourger
• 1 Tuktuk Scrapper
• 2 Gempalm Incinerator
• 2 Mogg War Marshal
• 3 Goblin Piledriver
• 4 Goblin Lackey
• 4 Goblin Matron
• 4 Goblin Ringleader
• 4 Goblin Warchief

• Instants (3)
• 1 Pyrokinesis
• 1 Tarfire
• 1 Warping Wail

• Artifacts (4)
• 4 Aether Vial

• Lands (23)
• 11 Snow-Covered Mountain
• 4 Cavern of Souls
• 4 Rishadan Port
• 4 Wasteland

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Tuktuk Scrapper
• 1 Pyrokinesis
• 3 Chalice of the Void
• 2 Ensnaring Bridge
• 2 From the Ashes
• 1 Pithing Needle
• 3 Relic of Progenitus
• 2 Sudden Demise

Buy This Deck

This deck doesn’t look like much on the surface. After all, who wants to play Mogg War Marshal in Legacy? You’ve got a giant pile of three-mana 1/1s and four-mana 2/2s, and your curve goes all the way up to five? What’s going on here?

There’s two important means of cheating on mana in this deck: Aether Vial and Goblin Lackey. Goblin Lackey is the less reliable of the two, given the density of one-mana removal spells in the format. Aether Vial, on the other hand, is really what allows this deck to dominate creature matchups. It allows you to start putting Goblin Matron and [cardGoblin Ringleader[/card] into play, and still cast your real spells in the same turn, all while using Wasteland and Rishadan Port to prevent your opponent from interacting favorably.

The big changes in this deck since the last time it was popular is the addition of Krenko, Mob Boss as a way to break through stalemates and Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker to let you do all manner of tricky things in stalled out games (like copying Goblin Piledriver to break through or Siege-Gang Commander to go wide).

The quiet superstar in this deck is Gempalm Incinerator. This is a card that can easily kill most creatures that you care about while netting a card for two mana. Oh, and it’s also can't be countered except via Stifle. Having a removal spell that can't be countered is an enormous boon against Counterbalance and Delver of Secrets, two of the more popular strategies in the format.

All told, as long as the format is all about efficient, low-to-the-ground creature decks, Goblins seems like it could be poised for a big comeback. Fast combo decks are still a giant problem for the archetype, but there’s plenty of space in the sideboard to try to fix some of that. Chalice of the Void certainly helps, while Ensnaring Bridge and Relic of Progenitus certainly help to contain the likes of Emrakul, the Aeons Torn and Griselbrand from various Show and Tell or graveyard strategies. In a format as big as legacy, there’s a Goblin for almost every occasion, and if you can predict the metagame right, Goblins seems like a great choice.