Pattern Recognition #342 - Goblins, part 1

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berryjon

17 October 2024

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Hello Everyone! My name is berryjon, and I welcome you all to Pattern Recognition, TappedOut.Net's longest running article series. Also the only one. I am a well deserved Old Fogey having started the game back in 1996. My experience in both Magic and Gaming is quite extensive, and I use this series to try and bring some of that to you. I dabble in deck construction, mechanics design, Magic's story and characters, as well as more abstract concepts. Or whatever happens to catch my fancy that week. Please, feel free to talk about each week's subject in the comments section at the bottom of the page, from corrections to suggested improvements or your own anecdotes. I won't bite. :) Now, on with the show!

Hello, and welcome back! After the seriousness of last week, I decided to take a break from that and do something more light-hearted and fun and one that didn't need me to break into my economics text books. Because they were dusty, but still relevant.

Today, we're going to talk about one of the Typals in the game that has been here since the first pack was cracked, and will never really go away. And if you skipped the title of the article, well, I'm talking about Goblins!

Goblins, from a real-life mythology stand point, is a massive clustercluck (no, that's not a mis-spelling) of myths, fables, stories, tall tales and convoluted connections between multiple mythologies, cultures and societies that even beginning to grasp them as a whole would be a doctoral level thesis in English Literature.

And then everything got poured through the filter of Tolkien and Dungeons and Dragons because it was the mid 90's. And everything even remotely fantasy had that in its blood somewhere, so this wasn't a new or particularly odd choice.

So let's try to keep this focused to Magic, shall we?

Back when the game started in Alpha, there were only three Goblins! For such a ubiquitous creature type nowadays that not seeing more in each set is a case of a very specific design goal, they started very simply. Mon's Goblin Raiders, Goblin Balloon Brigade and Goblin King were it. That was it.

Part of this was that the game was a smattering of ideas, sources and other things that meant that the set design of Alpha was a far cry from what we would get today. What I find interesting though, is what we see represented here. We have a very generic one drop in the Raiders. Then we have a follow-up with a creature that can pay mana to fly.

The Balloon Brigade deserves some interest as it was one of 's early fliers. It is weirdly out of place when compared to Dragon Whelp, Granite Gargoyle, Roc of Kher Ridges and the mighty Shivan Dragon. For one, it is the only one that needs to pay to Fly, rather than having it as an innate ability, and it isn't a dragon! The Gargoyle is a weird creature type given that this is the only one in this colour. It's mostly now.

And then we have Goblin King. One of the first Lords, and probably the most well known over the course of Magic's history. Yes, it was at the same time as Lord of Atlantis, but the two existed in that weird state where the colors were more directly opposed to one another. I could have sworn there was a third for , but that was later. And the Lord of Atlantis was cheaper because it only had one creature it could affect, rather than two! Merfolk of Pearl Trident!

But moving on, Goblins ... existed. There were none in Arabian Nights as that creature type simply didn't appear in that mythos. Goblin Artisans appeared next in Antiquities, but it was a gimmick more than anything else.

The Dark finally gave us seven new Goblins, making their Lord much more powerful and viable. Well, relatively speaking. No one is going to stand here and tell me that Goblin Hero was anything more than filler. Though we did get our first two multi-colored Goblins in Marsh Goblins and Scarwood Goblins. It's curious that Swampwalk as an ability was judged to reduce a creatures power and toughness by one each compared to an equivalent creature without a Landwalk ability.

But this set also introduced the first Anthem effects for Goblins. Much narrower in scope than Glorious Anthem or rather their now-image-banned confederates, Goblin Shrine and Goblin Caves boosted your Goblins though at a small cost. And if someone decided to hit your Mountain with a Stone Rain? Well, them's the breaks and the chances you take.

Though given the utter revulsion a lot of people, formats and playgroups have for land destruction, these can become more viable than not.

But in my opinion, it was Fallen Empires that really made Goblins into a proper force to be reckoned with. As the game advanced and developed over time, they had slowly moved to take over the space left by other creature types as they were reduced. Dwarves were being slowly phased out of the game, though that process would take years. Orcs as well. This left space for the creatures to grow and flesh out their reach and to find their own identity. And here is where I think the break-point was where they went from "... and goblins" to just "Goblins".

Gobin Warrens is an enchantment that allows you to build a massive horde of Goblin Tokens - as long as you have the mana to pay for it. And you typically did. Goblin War Drums was a way to ensure that your wider horde of Goblins - made by the previous card - got through better because they all had Menace. Though it wasn't Menace at the time. It was spelled out for players.

But no, the real card that pushed them over the edge, and perhaps made Sligh or Red Deck Wins what it is today, was this little gem of a card.

Goblin Grenade

When your opponent starts at twenty life and is already facing down a rapidly depleting life total thanks to Lightning Bolt and Goblins getting around their blockers, the ability to just close out the game for - though at Sorcery Speed. Five damage was nothing to sneeze at, and losing a Goblin was an easy price to pay. Especially when this was played on the second main phase, and the goblin that died was tapped because it had just attacked and dealt damage.

That it was reprinted in M12 and JumpStart 2022 of all things still boggles my mind, because I remember the first time that card rocked up and made an archetype. But the times do change and so must Goblins.

Goblins became a mainstay of for a while, and the next major development for them was when they got their first Legend, and... well....

OK. So a bit of a backstory about everyone's favorite set to claim was the worst ever. No, not New Phyrexia or March of the Machines: Aftermath. Or Murders and Karlov Manor. Or Chronicles. Mercadian Masques. Between the Rebels and the general ... lax development standards, one of the concepts for the set was a turnabout on how the supposed 'natural' order of things were. And because of that, the city of Mercadia was ruled over by Goblins, while it was the Humans who were driven to the outskirts and looked down upon. And due to a series of unfortunate but hilarious events - or so I am led to believe - Squee, the 'cabin boy' and part-time mascot of the Weatherlight Crew was elevated to the status his ego insisted on. Squee, Goblin Nabob.

I never said he was good. Just that he was the first.

Moving on from that, Goblins were one of the chosen tribes to be represented in Onslaught/Legions/Scourge, where they got quite a few creatures to help maintain their presence in the formats at the time, but also got their first Land! Goblin Burrows was nothing to write home about, and if you can be forgiven for thinking that it never existed in the first place.

Kamigawa gave us our first non-traditional Goblins with the Akki. I won't delve too much into the culture and mythology except to say that they fall under the general catch of 'Oni'. These Goblins were visualized as more turtle-like, with hard backs and a much more hunched over posture. One of my favorite Goblins was printed in this block, Zo-Zu the Punisher, but for most people a little guy named Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker was far more popular and combo-tastic.

This alternate take on Goblins resurfaced with Lorwyn, where because of the Irish Mythology themes of the set, they were interpreted as Boggarts. No, not from Harry Potter. In the first half of the block, they were , representing their destructive tendencies, while in the back half they moved to to show how they became more a force for natural chaos, unpredictable rather than directed.

It was fun! Though they were facing Fairies, and that was never fun.

Goblins were part of Alara, Jund to be precise, where they were literally fodder for other, more powerful creatures and were probably the most common sacrifice outlet for the Devour mechanic. They were a background creature type for our visits to Ravnica, but Guttersnipe is a core card in many Spellslinger decks, while Krenko, Mob Boss is just a ridiculous card in general.

From here, the sheer variety of Goblins grows exponentially. While Merfolk Looter created the phrase of Looting, it was Rummaging Goblin that gives us Rummaging which reverses the order of operations on the draw and discard. Empty the Warrens is a Storm card that can get ridiculous with the number of Goblins it can make, and I'm sure everyone can list their favorite Goblins of all time.

Anyone who doesn't answer Ib Halfheart, Goblin Tactician is wrong.

Join me next time when I talk about Goblins as concepts, their ups and downs and how they relate to the game. You know, the back half of this sort of thing.

Thank you all for reading! Please leave your comments below, and I look forward to talking with you about my subject matter. Join me next week when I talk about something! What? I don't know yet!

Until then, please consider donating to my Pattern Recognition Patreon. Yeah, I have a job (now), but more income is always better, and I can use it to buy cards! I still have plans to do a audio Pattern Recognition at some point, or perhaps a Twitch stream. And you can bribe your way to the front of the line to have your questions, comments and observations answered!