Over at Heroes and Fantasies in the hot, damp sponge of San Antonio, I shuffle up for a “casual” Legacy match against a nice guy named Brandon. Brandon is piloting a Survival Advantage deck, and asks me what I’m playing.
“Mogg Alarm,” I respond blandly.
“Mogg Alarm,” I respond blandly.
He gives me an odd look. “Uh-huh. Okaaaaaaaaay.” Within three turns, though, the game was over and Brandon was stunned. “Now that was unexpected,” he said, shocked. “Mogg Alarm, huh? Ouch.”
For those of you as deceived as Brandon and equally as stupefied, I wasn’t playing the actual card Mogg Alarm, but a deck of my own creation by that name:
Mogg Alarm, by njx
Creatures (32)
- 4 Mogg Fanatic
- 4 Goblin Matron
- 4 Goblin Lackey
- 3 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
- 4 Goblin Warchief
- 1 Goblin Sharpshooter
- 4 Goblin Piledriver
- 3 Gempalm Incinerator
- 1 Siege-Gang Commander
- 4 Goblin Ringleader
Lands (16)
Spells (12)
Sideboard
I would be surprised if I’m the first person to come up with the idea, but I’ve never seen anybody else talk about it or play it, and the deck is basically possible in Extended.
What happened during that first game with Brandon was simple. First turn, I played a Goblin Lackey. Second turn, Lackey came across to dump Kiki-Jiki on the table, and EOT of Brandon’s turn, I copied it. I untapped and sent in the Lackey and his clone, using one free Lackey trigger to dump a Goblin Matron on the table. The Matron digs up Mogg Fanatic from my deck and I play it for free using the clone’s trigger. I then played Intruder Alarm, cloned the Fanatic a million times, and sacrificed all of them aimed at Brandon’s dome.
Ah, the sweet taste of surprise. To quote Jamie Wakefield: “Say you love it!”
Mogg Alarm has several advantages going for it over other Goblin decks. For one, it has a solid combo finish that allows it to kill out of nowhere. Second, it doesn’t need to combo out in order to win — Legacy Goblins is brutal enough.
Third, you can play Hydroblast / Blue Elemental Blast out of the sideboard, which gives you a huge advantage in the mirror and against other Red decks. The ability to randomly destroy any Red creature on the table — Kird Apes, Grim Lavamancers, Goblin Lackeys — cannot be underestimated. If you’ve ever played the mirror match and blown up a lone Goblin Warchief the turn your opponent played three Piledrivers, you can’t deny the advantage. I would even consider running six of each color blast if I felt that I could get away with it.
As for the rest of the sideboard, Goblin King is good against Engineered Plague and against opposing Red decks; and the fourth Gempalm Incinerator is there along with two other toolbox Goblins, although they could certainly be more blasts or whatever else you think your metagame demands. I’m still thinking about the Welder and the Prospector and whether or not I want to make them blasts or not.
Mogg Alarm isn’t just a neat trick – Intruder Alarm gives Goblins a lot of dimension in areas that might have previously given it difficulty. It gives the deck an important out against cards like Reverence, Moat, and even Sphere of Law. You can make an arbitrary number of hasty Piledrivers and attack for four-hundred thousand points of damage more than a full playset of Sphere of Law could prevent, just burn out the opponent like I did to Brandon. The “Stasis Effect” of the Alarm is also not to go underutilized – occasionally, I’ve even used Intruder Alarm to keep The Game’s Darksteel Colossus from untapping. It can be even more disruptive to a topdecking aggro opponent, who may be denied their next attack phase. It also means that Goblin Sharpshooter could get several extra uses in a turn, which puts you at an additional advantage, especially against opposing creature decks — any creature they play could translate into a ping against them or their forces.
Unlike Food Chain, which basically sits and does little without a Ringleader, Intruder Alarm can be used for all sorts of nastiness. Whereas a resolved Food Chain still requires you to fuel and draw until you win, Intruder Alarm basically wins on the spot. Food Chain combos assume that you can get a Recruiter/Ringleader setup (now illegal in Legacy), remember how to stack your deck correctly, and can chain through a bunch of spells. An opposing Chill can really halt that strategy — but Intruder Alarm requires no additional flurry of spells and doesn’t need much else besides Kiki-Jiki. That means that Orim’s Chant can’t interrupt your combo finish once you’ve gotten the pieces on the table.
It should be obvious by now that Mr. Mirror-Breaker is a key player in the deck. I would run four of him if he wasn’t a legend, even though he’s tutorable. Copy Mogg Fanatics, Piledrivers, Ringleaders, Sharpshooters, Matrons — it gets ridiculous. Copying Goblin Lackey is just stupid broken. Since you can copy it during your opponent’s end-of-turn step and it will last until the end of your turn, you can double-copy a Lackey to send in three at a time. Dumping two Piledrivers and a Siege-Gang into play on turn 3 is mighty broken. I can’t imagine why any modern Goblin deck wouldn’t run at least three KJMB mainboard; the ability to Lackey one out on the second turn is a remarkably demoralizing play.
Some have questioned the inclusion of triple Mirror-Breakers, claiming that extras just sit in your hand. What I want to know is how they aren’t dominating the game to the point of oblivion with an active K-Jeek in the first place. To me, it’s simple: Play Mista-2RRR and win the game. I don’t care about a clogged hand when I am creating crazy card advantage everywhere, copying Matrons to chump block or Shock-Token-Commanders to own the board. When Mike Zaun ran only two in his Vintage deck, I thought that maybe he didn’t test enough. When Gerry Thompson played only one, I thought I was dreaming, until I read The Source. Left and right, people were advocating the use of only one. I don’t mean to start a flame war or anything, and perhaps I’m an idiot or something, but it takes all of my spirit and soul to hold back the demon that wishes to include the fourth copy. When you’ve sideboarded in Goblin Kings for Alarms and 60% of your deck is goblins, cloning a Ringleader is like an Ancestral Recall each turn. I don’t know a single deck that can overcome that without some killer silver bullet.
Generally, when I play Goblins, I like playing with a Goblin Welder to tutor up, although this time it could only fit in the board. I also opted out of Goblin Pyromancer, since the deck has so many ways to blow the opponent out that I don’t need him, and I have BEB for the mirror match. Another mainboard Gempalm Incinerator would be awesome, but there’s just no room. The Sharpshooter can take extra advantage of the Alarms, so I want at least one of them; and cutting S.G.C. would be unthinkable. (Tongue Twister: Say “SGCs from SCG” ten times fast.)
As a deck, Goblins tends to have strong matchups against significant portions of the field, although it has its weak spots. Solidarity can be tough for Goblins, but the real threat is Landstill, due to its constant suite of removal. Unlike traditional Goblin decks, Mogg Alarm changes the dynamics of the matchup. On one hand, you aren’t running Aether Vial, so you are more vulnerable to counterspells. On the other, though, you’ve got more KJMBs, which means you will have an easier time recovering: copy Ringleaders and Matrons until you’re back in the game. Additionally, you’ve got the possibility of a combo finish. At the same time, the transition to Intruder Alarm loses little in its favored matchups.
Here are my general sideboarding strategies; and they aren’t matchup specific. Basically, you look at how the matchup went and sideboard accordingly. I know that seems rather amorphous, but since sideboarding with Mogg Alarm is more transformative than simply pulling in silver bullets, it’s important to understand how you’re changing your deck between games one and two.
Plan A: When you need to focus on board control
Against opposing creature decks like the mirror match, Intruder Alarm often isn’t as useful; particular if they have Aether Vial, which can surprise you. At other times, an opponent will have several utility creatures that will play an important part of ebb and flow of the game. In these situations, it may sometimes be best to forgo the combo finish in favor of a more traditional Goblin plan.
Your aim here is to focus on your transition from aggro-combo to either pure aggro or aggro-control. Sometimes, you will want to play the aggressor; in which case you would probably side in all four Goblin Kings in place of the Alarms, and quite possibly taking out the fourth Matron for an extra Gempalm to clear the way if your opponent will have chump blockers.
Alternatively, you will want to play a more controllish route, often against opposing red decks. In the mirror match, I want a full set of Hydroblasts, since Goblins has a lot of threats that you will be obligated to remove before the opposing synergy overwhelms you. Remember that you have Kiki Advantage — you should have the upper hand if you can maintain pace.
Against more burn-oriented Red decks, Hydroblast is less important since it will most likely be used as simple creature removal; so I tend to only add 3x BEB and sub in the fourth Gempalm. If you are not playing against red at all, I tend to leave in the second Sharpshooter and a single copy of Intruder Alarm and side in the extra Gempalms and Prospector.
Plan B: Dodging Hate
If I fear my opponent is playing Engineered Plague, the Intruder Alarms come out for Goblin Kings. If I think my opponent is running Chill or Propaganda, I would side in the REBs in place of the Alarms. If I fear white, such as COPs or Sphere of Law, I tend to aim at comboing out, so I don’t do any real sideboarding. Unlike Plan A, these changes are meant to dodge the bullet rather than change your play style. If you are playing aggro against Solidarity, you aren’t going to suddenly alter into an aggro-control build aiming at countering their Resets. Rather, you will use your blasts proactively in order to force through your assault.
Plan C: Versus creature-light decks that don’t present other issues
In these circumstances, I tend to side in Goblin Kings in place of the Gempalms and the Sharpshooter and go with that. Since Mogg Alarm still aims to either race them or combo them out, shoring up the chances of either becomes the essential sideboarding strategy here.
Plan D: Maintaining tempo against permission-based decks and Fish
Against counter-heavy decks, Intruder Alarm will probably not resolve, so it’s important to take them out. You still play the aggressor in these matchups, so it’s important that you don’t shift too much responsibility to the four or five blasts you may be bringing in.
Pyroblast is particularly disruptive against Fish, where it can force through spells or be used as removal against many of their creatures; so they obviously come in. In the Fish matchup, I also tend to side out a Matron for the fourth Gempalm Incinerator. In general, I do the same against ATS; but it depends on the particular build and what is part of their particular toolbox.
Solidarity and Control Belcher tend to be more focused on working around you; REB becomes an important way for them to interact with you. I’ve found that a key to these matchups revolves around the mere threat of REB — you can often bluff the opponent into making bad decisions if they believe you may have a blast in hand. Solidarity can kill you quite early, but if they know you might be able to counter their Reset, they may be forced to play conservatively and give you enough time to get too far ahead. The same goes for other permission-based decks that may rely on Force of Will a bit too much in this matchup.
This deck has a lot of power, and I think it may have a chance in the upcoming Legacy GP. It has many of the same weaknesses as other goblin decks, with only a minor decrease in consistency; but it more than makes up for those weaknesses by all that it gains. I’m sure that it could use a few tweaks here and there, and the sideboard should probably reflect the latest trends in the metagame. You’re all going to write up your own playtesting results in the forums, right? (Don’t y’all love how I beg for your attention?) Extra attention to the Landstill matchup is probably warranted; I admittedly have only played about fifteen or so games pre-board against Landstill, although I did have favorable results.
To paraphrase everyone’s favorite T4 Aficionado “Crazy” Carl Winter, I can only say: “Enjoy your Joblins.”
Cheers!
-Nathan J
Props: Brandon, for being such a good sport. We played another two full matches, and I walked away 6-0 in games. Also, I give thanks to my pal Ben; who playtested the deck separately at the Neutral Ground in NYC, with good results. And to FrummyChick, who kept me laughing as she attempted to figure out what JP Meyer’s initials stand for while I was writing this article. (“Joblin Prince?” is one of the clean ones. I can’t say anymore.)
Slops: The #@%$ who hit my parked PT Cruiser and broke the taillight while I was playing against Brandon. Jerk. The least you could do would be to smash up the whole thing so my rental car company would have to give me something other than an oversized toaster oven with a lawnmower engine. Darn jerk.