Mono red Goblins or U/R Thopters?
Standard Deck Help forum
Posted on July 22, 2015, 11:17 p.m. by syandell86
For Standard, I'm going to go with either U/R Thopters or mono-red Goblins.What are anyone's thoughts on either?Do Goblins need to splash green and run Atarka's Command to be legitimate? Can Thopters "win" with the new additions in Origins?Thank you.
I think Thopters will be a bit janky, so if you're playing competitively Goblins should be the choice. I think it would be best to splash Green, but it could still be competitive without it.
July 23, 2015 12:35 a.m.
buildingadeck says... #4
I would think that Goblins would be far more competitive. At least until Goblin Rabblemaster rotates. I, too, would advise splashing green for Collected Company and Atarka's Command.
July 23, 2015 12:48 a.m.
alanwescoat says... #5
Goblins. Definitely Goblins. U/R Thopters is good enough only for casual tabletop.
While Atarka's Command is a truly GREAT card, mana fixing is slightly problematic. Aside from Mana Confluence, the lands in Standard which fix both R and G come into play tapped, which is a bit of a tempo problem for the Goblins archetype overall. Temple of Abandon and Rugged Highlands have no place in such a deck of you are being competitive, and Evolving Wilds is even more problematic. After Mana Confluence, the next best card for mana fixing is Unknown Shores, which is a poor choice.
Standard Monored Goblins is strong. Look at what you have just in red:
Goblins
Frenzied Goblin
Goblin Glory Chaser
Foundry Street Denizen
Goblin Piledriver
Mardu Scout
Dragon Fodder
Goblin Rabblemaster
Hordeling Outburst
Goblin Support
Call of the Full Moon
Infectious Bloodlust
Titan's Strength
Hammerhand
Burn
Searing Blood
Lightning Strike
Wild Slash
Collateral Damage
Consider what happens when you play Goblin Glory Chaser on turn 1 and Call of the Full Moon on turn 2 when the entire metagame is stuffed with midrange decks. Turn 2, you attack with a 4/3 with Trample which then becomes a 5/4 with Menace and Trample. That is HUGE, and it puts your opponent on a VERY short clock, too short for a lot of midrange decks to deal with, and the 4 toughness is also really hard for many decks to deal with, putting it beyond the reach of Bile Blight and Lightning Strike. Even if you have to sacrifice Call of the Full Moon after a couple of turns, it gets you in some heavy licks, and Goblin Glory Chaser STILL has Menace once it becomes Renown.
While Atarka's Command CAN be worked in, when playing a deck like this, you CANNOT afford to have even ONE land come into play tapped, and you do not want to dedicate any of the 19 land slots to a Forest. however, even if I played this monored, I would use 4x Wooded Foothills and 4x Bloodstained Mire merely for deck thinning IF you have them. However, I DID take second place at a GPTQ a few months ago using a $25 version of RDW which contained only 19 Mountains for lands, but that was not Goblins (You can find that decklist here: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/fire-brigade-ver-20/ ). I also believe that had I been using fetchlands in that particular match-up, I would not have made it to the final round of top 8.
If you go monored, 1x Rogue's Passage is entirely respectable.
July 23, 2015 2:39 a.m.
Think about it this way - how many thopter cards do you think there will be on Zendikar? Answer: 0. can you make a deck consisting of just one set 2 months from now? Answer: Yes, but it won't be very good.
Conclusion: Goblins.
July 23, 2015 2:45 a.m.
alanwescoat says... #7
Also keep in mind that Zendikar block gave us killer Goblin cards like Goblin Guide and Goblin Bushwhacker, along with Goblin Arsonist, Goblin Tunneler, Tuktuk the Explorer, and Warren Instigator. Nothing in the U/R Thopters choices has a CMC of less than 3, save for Hangarback Walker and Ornithopter, which is going to rotate out in October.
July 23, 2015 3:13 a.m.
Ensoul Artifact has a CMC of less than 3.
Just saying.
Add Ornithopter.
(Flying 5/5 on turn two? YES PLEASE!!)
July 23, 2015 11:33 a.m.
HolyFalcon says... #9
alanwescoat: Wooded Foothills? There's a reason Atarka Red won PTDTK. Just go 4 FOothills, 4 Confluence, and 3 Forests. That allows for splashing CoCo which is awesome in Goblins.
July 23, 2015 11:53 a.m.
Mono red. No splash. Mono Red Goblins won the Hareruya God's of Standard event this week. Another 2 mono red goblins in the top 16. That's enough to shush the nonbelievers
http://www.hareruyamtg.com/article/category/detail/1414
HolyFalcon says... #2
Goblins need splash green for Command and CoCo.
July 22, 2015 11:26 p.m.