Well hello, Cyberweb! It’s been a while, no? School will do that. I’ve been quite busy with my various things (mostly school and work), so I’ve not been able to do much in the world of the Magical cards, but today I shall post the deck I’ve been playing at FNM lately. So without further ado, I present RB Combo Gobbo!

4 Greater Gargadon
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Knucklebone Witch
4 Frogtosser Banneret
4 Squeaking Pie Sneak
4 Mogg War Marshal
4 Mudbutton Torchrunner
4 Marsh Flitter
3 Siege-Gang Commander

4 Boggart Shenanigans

4 Auntie’s Hovel
4 Sulfurous Springs
2 Graven Cairns
1 Pendelhaven
7 Mountain
3 Swamp

SB:
3 Wort, Boggart Auntie
3 Fodder Launch
3 Mad Auntie
1 Thoughseize
4 Extirpate
1 Pyroclasm

This is based on a deck from someone like Sam Stein or some such. Sam Black, maybe. Sam Someone. Anyway, the original deck ran Mad Aunties mainboard, as well as two Wort. It focused solely on powering out a ton of token producing dudes and swarming the opponent out with them. While I liked this idea, I thought that Shenanigans is really what makes the deck tick. The original list also ran zero Gargadons.

So I added in the Gargadons, and between them and the Marsh Flitters, you have a pretty decent supply of sac outlets. So then the goal is to attack in the early turns, amass a ton of dudes with a Shenanigans or two in play, then sac the board to Gargs or Flitters. Usually, this is a very fast win, say turn 4 or 5. (No, really.) Of course, this is with optimal conditions, e.g., not having an opponent across from you. In the real world, things are different.

The deck, naturally, has issues with early board sweepers like Pyroclasm, or with very large, cheap dudes (read: Tarmogoyf). And unless it wins quickly, it often gets out-tempo’d by Faeries.

So that means we have issues with RG Big Mana, UB Faeries, other Goblin decks that run lords, and any deck with green. Oh, and lifegain. So… it doesn’t really work against any deck in the local metagame, nor the global, it seems. So why would I advocate playing Combo Gobbo? Because I think it has the most raw power in the format. Unless your opponent screws with you in a major way (mostly countering things like Shenanigans), you have a pretty good chance to win game one, and with the recursion of Wort and Fodder Launch in games two and three, you can usually hold things at bay long enough to Get There. If you’re good at Magic. Which I am not. I have run the deck to a number of varying FNM records, 3-1, 2-2, and 1-3, but have never gone 4-0 or 0-4 with it. And it’s a blast to play.

Some side notes on the deck:

1. I don’t think that my sideboard is right, and if it is, I’m certainly not using it properly. I think a lot of the losses I have with it come from the inability to sideboard correctly. I actually got to the point at the last FNM I played it in that I decided to flat-out stop sideboarding, just to see what happened, and I seemed to at least be more consistent in game two. So maybe the main sixty is just that good. I don’t know.

2. Greater Gargadon is the best psychological mindfunk in Standard. You suspend it, and every aggro player (and most control players) shift all their attention to neutralizing it. With that plan you can usually sneak through damage from smaller creatures (while sacking any of the dudes they kill off to the Gargs), manage to resolve things you shouldn’t (like S-GC), and generally mess with your opponent’s head.

3. The deck is relatively similar to Affinity. No, really. I mean this in the “attack, sac everything to ______, oops, you’re dead.” I’ve won many games I had no business winning thanks to synergy and math. If Arcbound Ravager is the fairy godmother of Extended, I think Boggart Shenanigans is the fairy godmother of Standard. Of course, this isn’t AS good as Affinity, due to the lands not being of the type “Land – Goblin”, but hey. It’s pretty sick for Standard.

Well, that’s about it for this week. There’s a $200 tournament at my local shop this weekend, and the format is Block Constructed. I will post my decklist soon thereafter, and proclaim its awesomeness, even if I lose badly. Which I might. I AM pretty terrible at Magic, after all.