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I was sitting around the day after Regionals trying to decide what deck shows promise for the upcoming Nationals. I was looking around and Goblin Bidding sort of caught my eye. I was thinking, man I wish this deck could be made a little better in the mirror and against White/X, I mean after the board I was definitely having problems with Circle of Protection: Red as well as Damping Matrix.

So me and my teammates playtested for a long time to figure out if there was a way we could beat White/X control nearly all of the time. After a bit of sideboard changing we were having very little problems with Affinity, unless their draws were godlike, and Tooth and Nail barely ever beat me. But we were still having the same old problems.

Then a little thought popped into the head of a teammate of mine. He says, "I think it would be a good idea to try and fit Naturalize into the deck somewhere." This sounded a bit far fetched at the time to me. I mean throwing green into a deck that already looked like it was having substantial mana problems? But we wrote up a decklist based on an American Top 8-er and then decided to throw in some cards and take others out and try to make this green thing work.

Main Deck:
Creatures:
4 Goblin Piledriver
4 Goblin Warchief
4 Siege-Gang Commander
3 Gempalm Incinerator
4 Skirk Prospector
2 Sparksmith
3 Goblin Sharpshooter
4 Goblin Sledder

Other Spells:
3 Skullclamp
2 Sulfuric Vortex
3 Patriarch's Bidding

Land:
2 Swamp
1 Forest
3 City of Brass
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Bloodstained Mire
10 Mountain

This maindeck looked pretty janky. The mana base looked like it could crumble at any second but after playtesting against every deck in the format the scores looked like this:

• Affinity: 6-4
• White/X: 7-3
• Tooth and Nail: 8-2
• Goblin Bidding: 5-5
• Rock: 6-4

I know there are going to be some new decks coming out with the Fifth Dawn release but I suggest if you were thinking of playing Goblins then perhaps you should look into playing this version. It doesn't lose a lot against other aggressive decks and seems to beat the control variants with Wrath, and such, much easier. The most important part is definitely the sideboard.

1 Sulfuric Vortex
3 Razormane Masticore
1 Skullclamp
1 Sparksmith
3 Oxidize
3 Detonate
3 Naturalize

This sideboard is so good against every other deck in the format. Against control, in come the Naturalizes, the Vortex and the clamp. Against Affinity you have Oxidize, Detonate, and Naturalize as well as possibly the Masticores. Against Goblins the Masticores give you a strong edge if you can Prospector them out quickly. Although they are likely to be the target of board removal they are still worth running for their sheer power.

I found this deck did well and I know there will be sceptics who will say the deck has problems, but give it a try for yourselves. This is, in my mind, the most efficient way to make Goblins beat control easily. Feel free to play this deck. Maybe I'm not the first to tell people about it but I certainly haven't heard about it anywhere.

If you do well with it maybe even give a little shout out to me or come have a chat at Nationals if you like the idea. I'm always into a bit of criticism so if you find a way to make a better build let me know for sure!

Props:

• "Team Essence.au"
  • Grant Brown
  • Nathanial O'Connor
  • Tom Gartner
  • Aaron Barnes
  • Tom Pettus
  • Myself
  For helping me to build this deck well and playtest it.
• Also to Jarrod Scriven for constantly helping me to understand this stupid format!

Slops:

• Headstone (so much flame)
• Oliver Oks (Who goes to Japan these days?)

Thanks Everyone!

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