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Goblin Army

How we'd draft and play Goblin Army.
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Goblin Army is the best and the most played two-color deck in 17Lands data (57.6% over 85,459 games). Next come Ferocious Wolves (56.9% over 57,277 games), Removal Midrange (56.8% over 4,805 games), Dwarves & Equipment (56.5% over 52,797 games) and Draw Two (56.4% over 58,594 games). Its strength is depth at common and uncommon. Crude Bent Blade (61.5%) and Pinecone Strike (60.5%) are its two best commons, and Desolation Prowler and Bothersome Noisemaker are among its best . The usual way to build it badly is with too few creatures.

Deck win rate 57.6% +1.4 vs average 85,459 games

Compared with the set average (56.2%). Win rates from 17Lands.

How a game goes

Once Bothersome Noisemaker is on the battlefield, every Crude Bent Blade or Tidings of War you cast also grows your .

  1. Early turns

    Turns 1–2: play a cheap creature every turn. Nighthowl Pursuer goes on turn 1. On turn 2, play Desolation Prowler, Bothersome Noisemaker, Ravening Warg or Goblin Plate Mail (which makes your and attaches itself to it). Attack with anything the opponent can't block well.

  2. Middle turns

    Turns 3–5: kill whatever would block (Pinecone Strike, Crude Bent Blade while they have only one creature, Bilbo's Deadly Slice) and add a creature in the same turn when you can. Cheap noncreature spells keep growing the through Noisemaker, and Misty Mountains Raider adds 2 counters every time you attack.

  3. Late game

    Turn 6+: Spew Flame kills a blocker, and Smaug, the Great Calamity comes later from . Stone-Giant of High Pass and Gandalf, Spark Starter also end games, and Tidings of War can be flashed back for 3 counters. By now the opponent should be low. Count the damage, and spend on blockers, not on creatures that don't affect the race.

Amass

N means you put N +1/+1 counters on your . If you don't have an Army, first create a 0/0 black Goblin Army creature , then put the on it (it doesn't die as a 0/0, because the counters arrive right away). You normally have only one Army, so every later amass grows that same token instead of making a new creature.

Reminder text of Goblin Plate Mail
Goblin Plate Mail's reminder text spells out amass Goblins 1, including the 0/0 Army token you make first if you have no Army.

Example: on turn 2 you cast Goblin Plate Mail with no Army. You create a 0/0 Army, put one counter on it (1/1), and the Plate Mail attaches itself (+1/+0 and ), which gives you a 2/1 menace that can attack from your next turn (a new token can't attack the turn it is made). Next turn Rage into the Valley adds two counters, making it a 4/3 menace. If that Army , all its counters go with it, and the next amass starts again from a fresh 0/0.

The Army is also a Goblin, so The Great Goblin and Goblin-town's ability care about it, and it is the deck's favorite thing to (Stir Up Trouble, Rhovanion Rampager, Bolg of the North).

Opponent 20 life
You 20 life
Your hand

Key cards

How to tell it's open

Goblin Army is open when its cheap and come late: Crude Bent Blade, Pinecone Strike or Bilbo's Deadly Slice still in the pack at pick 5 or later, or Desolation Prowler and Bothersome Noisemaker passed to you. Seeing Gundabad Opportunist, Tidings of War, Stony-Voiced Goblins, Goblin-town or Dori, Bearer of Friends late says little, because drafters let those go late even when someone else at the table is drafting Goblin Army. Black is the deeper color. If only black is flowing, Ferocious Wolves (black-green) is the other good home for it.

Common mistakes

  • Too few creatures. This deck's is so good that beginners end up with a pile of kill spells and nothing to attack with. Aim for 15–17 creatures, five or six of them , and count spells (Tidings of War, Rage into the Valley, Goblin Plate Mail) as half a creature, because they only make a new body when you have no .

  • Drafting by name or rarity. Bolg of the North (the gold uncommon made for this deck), Fearsome Goblin Pair, Snowslope Hunter and the rare Azog, Moria's Ruin all read well, but each wins less often here than most of the deck's plain commons. Check a card's win rate in Goblin Army, not its rarity or a pre-release review.

  • Mixing up the Smaugs. Smaug the Magnificent is the 4-mana mythic . Smaug, the Great Calamity // Spew Flame is a 7-mana common Dragon whose 5-mana is . The 5-mana gold (black-red) rare is Smaug, Wicked Worm. Desolation of Smaug and Smaug's Fury are not Dragons at all. Read the cost and rarity before you pick.

  • Ignoring the . Several of the deck's commons are (Dori, Bearer of Friends; Gollum, Silent Slinker; Smaug, the Great Calamity), and you can't keep two with the same name on the battlefield. Two copies in the deck is fine, but a third is worth less than a different card.

  • Putting everything on one . Every card stacks on the same , so one spell, or an opposing Crude Bent Blade when the Army is your only creature, wipes out several cards of work. Keep a small creature next to it, and block with the Army when the damage it stops is worth more than the counters you lose.

  • Counting on triggers against . Pinecone Strike, Gnashing of Teeth's -5/-5 mode and Head of the Hunt exile a creature instead of letting it die, so Fearsome Goblin Pair, Rhovanion Rampager and Front Porch Sentries get nothing from them.

Better or worse in this deck