Budget Arena: Goblins of Calamity (Standard, Magic Arena)
This episode will require more than one human! We got a viewer submission and it's looking to be a goblin packed episode! Thank you to MadManMcCarty for submitting this list and Strictly Better MTG for originating the deck!
Gameplan
The deck is loaded with a bunch of one mana 1/1 goblins that have Haste. We're going to try to flood the board with them and SMOrc (Aka go for their face!)!
These don't seem like much when you look at it on paper but when it's backed up by Cavalcade of Calamity..things start heating up for our opponents as everything we play just immediately attacks and gets in for two damage.
After we chip away at a majority of our opponent's health we transition into our late game plan of closing out with our plethora of burn!
The four rare cards used in this deck also play very well with our Goblin theme
Legion Warboss not only is a goblin itself but it creates a 1/1 that plays with Calamity! The Siege-Gang Commander also helps us fling all of our goblins at our opponent's face if they set up a wall that we can't attack through.
Matchup Recap
Round 1 Esper Control (L): We ran out of gas towards the end. After getting them super low in health, they landed a Kaya, Orzhov Usurper which kept gaining them life and exiling anything we played. Also the fear of casting anything into Absorb is hard to beat.
Round 2 Simic Merfolk (W): Surprisingly, their deck is a bit slower than ours. They ended up having to block and trade their board to keep their life total high as they don't have any life gain. Cavalcade of Calamity did a ton of work for us towards the end of the match as we had a Siege-Gang Commander. We did draw a second Cavalcade to end the game on the spot.
Round 3 Esper Control (W): Our little goblins were able to get a ton of chip damage. We had a board of Torch Courier, Wily Goblin and a 1/1 token. The opponent had a Kaya's Wraith but they might've held onto it for a bit too long as our three goblins were able to bring our opponent down to 9. After tapping out, we had a hand of Shock, Lightning Strike, and two Skewer the Critics which closed out the game.
Round 4 Izzet Drakes(?) (W): We got to keep our turn three Legion Warboss, which we then followed up with a Cavalcade of Calamity. We still had an absurd amount of burn in hand and the opponent was at 5 life on turn 4. This one ends pretty quick.
Round 5 Izzet Drakes (W): We started with a double Cavalcade of Calamity hand and drew into a few one drops while holding a bunch of burn. The opponent and I were stuck on two lands for a while but they were stuck on blue. This one also ended pretty quickly.
Round 6 Izzet Phoenix (W): We had a pair of Fanatical Firebrand with a Calamity on board. They used a ton of removal on our early game and then stole our Legion Warboss with an Entrancing Melody. The opponent had us pretty much beat and things were looking grim as we had the opponent at 6 health with a Skewer the Critics in hand and a 1/1 goblin token on board but then we top decked another Cavalcade of Calamity to deal the remaining six damage. Heh better lucky than good am I right?
Round 7 Golgari Undergrowth (L): Our 1/1s just weren't able to hang with this deck as they had Reassembling Skeletons to continuously trade with. They also had Stitcher's Supplier which really helps them out whenever it dies. After getting them to nine health, a Kraul Foragers pretty much gains them too much health to burn them out. They followed this up with a Gruesome Menagerie to put the final nail in the coffin.
Conclusion
The deck was absurdly fast. It felt like the game was decided by turn three or four usually. This kind of reminded me of the deck Kuldotha Red of standard's past but well...not as powerful but significantly cheaper and absurdly fun. If I were to do anything to this decklist without a budget?.....I'd probably add the full playset of Legion Warboss and maybe one more Siege-Gang Commander but I'd have to sit down and see what we can cut. Because if we're cutting anything it might be burn or a few Wily Goblin. Either way thank you for the submission this week! I'll definitely look to do more Viewer lists in the near future!
See you at the next one!
-TheAsianAvenger
