Goblin Bidding has been wreaking a lot of havoc in standard since Scourge became legal. It combines the early game power of Onslaught block goblins (accelerated by their new leader, Goblin Warchief) with the late-game bomb Patriarch’s Bidding.
The deck first emerged in Euros, where it was piloted by its creator, Eder Wolfgang, to an impressive but simultaneously disappointing 13th place.
Eder Wolfgang
Topdeck Goblins
1 Siege-Gang Commander
4 Sparksmith
4 Goblin Grappler
4 Goblin Warchief
2 Goblin Goon
4 Goblin Piledriver
4 Goblin Taskmaster
3 Goblin Sledder
4 Gempalm Incinerator
3 Skirk Marauder
1 Raging Goblin
4 Patriarch’s Bidding
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Shadowblood Ridge
4 Sulfurous Springs
3 Swamp
9 Mountain
Sideboard
4 Sulfuric Vortex
4 Duress
2 Smother
2 Goblin Sharpshooter
1 Threaten
2 Engineered Plague
Despite missing the spotlight of the top 8, Eder’s creation did not go unnoticed. Eder’s run for the top 8 got him two Feature Matches.
This coverage must have caught the eye of Tsuyoshi Fujita as he prepared for Grand Prix: Bangkok. Three – count ’em, three! – Goblin Bidding decks made top 8 there. Now that on it’s own would be impressive, but what makes it more impressive, is that all three were the same build, and everyone playing that build made the top 8! From the sideboard coverage:
Tsuyoshi made some alterations to his Block Constructed goblin deck after seeing a Goblin Bidding deck do well at the European Championships. He merged the two decks together and he brought it to the Grand Prix. Two friends – Fujita Osamu and Tsutomu Yamada – also brought card-for-card copies. All three players advanced to the Top 8.
With so many impressive finishes, it’s abundantly clear this Onslaught block laden Standard deck has what it takes in the current Standard environment. The pertinent question for Pro Tour hopefuls is,”Can this deck be effectively modified for use in Block Constructed tournaments?”
The first step in answering that question is to look at the Block legal portion of the deck. I will start with Fujita’s more recent version as a template.
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Swamp
12 Mountain
Eighteen out of twenty-three lands are block legal. The deck loses five Black/Red land in the conversion.
4 Skirk Prospector
4 Goblin Sledder
4 Sparksmith
4 Goblin Piledriver
4 Goblin Warchief
3 Goblin Sharpshooter
1 Gempalm Incinerator
2 Siege Gang Commander
Twenty-nine spells out of thirty-seven are block legal. The deck lost four Goblin Matrons and four Firebolts in the conversion.
Looking to Wolfgang version we can find more Onslaught block cards which Fujita decided to cut or move to the sideboard:
3 more Gempalm Incinerator
3 Skirk Marauder
2 Goblin Goon
1 more Patriarch’s Bidding
Simply by combining the Onslaught Block cards from these two successful builds we end up with thirty-eight spells, and that’s without upping the number of Goons, Commanders, Marauders, Sharpshooters, or even adding Shocks. Clearly, from a spell prospective, there is plenty of raw material to work with here.
The real dilemma for the conversion to block is not the spells, but the mana. Wolfgang had twenty-two lands, with nineteen red and thirteen black sources (counting the fetchlands as both black and red). Fujita had twenty-three lands with twenty-one red and eleven black sources. Both builds are loaded with sources of Red to insure that that the decks early game comes out smoothly. Fujita upped the total mana count, but cut down on the Black sources. He also went down to three maindecked Biddings, reducing his need for black mana (though he did have a black mana-producing land he could board in if the need arose).
It will be impossible to match their mana numbers without access to Standard’s multitude of multi-mana lands. Obviously, the Block version’s mana can’t be as good… But can it be good enough?
We have the four Bloodstained Mires as a starting point for the decks mana, but after that the only Black/Red land Onslaught Block has to offer is Grand Coliseum. The pain from this land is no more a problem for the Block version of Goblin Bidding than the pain from Sulfurous Spring is to its Standard counterpart.
You could get a close approximation to the Standard version’s mana base by running:
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Grand Coliseum
12 Mountain
3 Swamp
That would give you eighteen sources of red and eleven sources of black. It’s not perfect, but it’s close enough to the live, fire-tested versions that the color balance should work out fine.
All is not Grand with the Coliseum, however. It has the little drawback of coming into play tapped. For some decks that’s no big deal… But it’s a serious problem for a tempo-based deck like this one. You want to come rushing out of the gates with a turn 1 Prospector, turn 2 Warchief, turn 3 more stuff than they can handle. A”comes into play tapped” land can really throw a monkey wrench into the works of what would otherwise be a perfect tempo draw.
If we abandon the Grand Coliseum, we are left with only four fetchlands… And a still-critical need for red mana in the opening hand and a mid-to-late game spell that requires double-black.
Given that any hand without red mana must be mulliganed away, the number of no-red starting hands must be kept to a minimum. My personal feeling is that I would like around 90% of my opening hands to have red mana. Having to mulligan 10% of the opening draws is not good, but I feel it’s acceptable, provided my deck is powerful enough the other 90% of the time.
I would, of course, also like to be able to cast Bidding on the turn 5 in most games.
Using the handy-dandy Magic Online statistics tool, I found that with:
6 Swamp
4 Bloodstained Mire
13 Mountain
You have a 91% Chance of a Mountain or Mire in your opening hand, and have access to two Black on turn 5 60% of the time and by turn eight 73% of the time. That mana mix is a bit shaky, but acceptable – at least for playtesting purposes.
With the difficult job of sorting out the land out of the way, the next task is one I find much more enjoyable; narrowing the field of playable cards down to the optimal thirty-seven.
Given the impressive success of Fujita’s build, I’m going to continue to model the block version on his list.
Block Goblin Bidding
6 Swamp
4 Bloodstained Mire
13 Mountain
4 Skirk Prospector
4 Goblin Sledder
4 Sparksmith
4 Goblin Piledriver
4 Goblin Warchief
3 Goblin Sharpshooter
1 Gempalm Incinerator
2 Siege-Gang Commander
4 Goblin Goon
3 Patriarch’s Bidding
4 Shock
In porting Fujita’s build over to Block, there were eight cards to replace; four Firebolts and four Goblin Matrons. Replacing Firebolt with shock is an easy replacement, as the spells are so similar in effect. Replacing the Goblin Matron is more problematic.
The Matron is amazing in Fujita’s deck. She is another warm body to go with Prospector, Sledder, Sparksmith, Piledriver, and Siege-Gang Commander, her ability works again when you bidding Bidding, and she can get you any goblin you need to up the pressure.
There is no card in Block that can cover all those bases… But I feel the most important thing to cover is the pressure. My choice to provide that pressure is Goblin Goon. The Goon really shines in Block, where there are so many Lightning Rift-based, creature-light control decks. The Goon shrugs off early Starstorms, Shocks, and Rifts while putting your opponent on a very tight clock.
Siege-Gang Commander is so amazing in this deck, I considered adding more of him, but in the end I decided five spells that cost five mana is enough.
The Sideboard
I will again use Fujita’s deck as a starting point when looking at the Sideboard. Of Fujita’s fifteen sideboard cards, eleven are Block-legal:
1 Patriarch’s Bidding
1 Siege-Gang Commander
1 Gempalm Incinerator
3 Smother
4 Sulfuric Vortex
1 Stabilizer
All of these cards transfer well to the Block environment, so we are left with four spots to fill. The cards we lost in the translation were one Shadowblood Ridge, two Flaring Pain, and a Coffin Purge.
Shadowblood Ridge is another black source that could come in if you were upping your count of black spells like Smother or Bidding. Given that bringing in the Black spells slows the tempo of the deck down a little, I feel a Coliseum would make an adequate replacement for the Ridge.
The lack of cards like Moment’s Peace and Circle of Protection: Red make Flaring Pains sideboard roll irrelevant, so no replacement is necessary. Similarly, reanimation decks are not the force in Block that they are in Standard, so Coffin Purge dose not need a direct replacement. That leaves us with three open spots.
Stabilizer is much more powerful in Block than it is in Standard. You already have four Sulfuric Vortex and a Stabilizer to bring in against Slide/Rift decks, so I don’t want to use all three spots on Stabilizers, but one more will help.
The last two spots I’m using on Gempalm Incinerators. Gempalms are great in this deck, and it is very possible they should be in the main deck over Shocks. Either way, I want access to four of them between deck and sideboard.
Those changes make the following sideboard:
Block Goblin Bidding Sideboard
1 Grand Coliseum
1 Patriarch’s Bidding
4 Sulfuric Vortex
1 Siege-Gang Commander
3 Gempalm Incinerator
3 Smother
2 Stabilizer
As always, I recommend doing your homework and playtesting the deck and its sideboard before running it in an event. Good luck and happy Bidding!