Much Abrew: Snoop Combo Goblins (Modern)
Hello, everyone! Welcome to another episode of Much Abrew About Nothing. Core Set 2021 is here and today we're playing one of the most exciting Modern cards from the set: Conspicuous Snoop. Goblins have been floating in the tier two or three range of the format since the received some new additions from Modern Horizons and Core Set 2021 about a year ago, but the tribe has one big issue: they struggle against unfair decks. Goblins are great at grinding out long, card advantage-based games, but if your opponent just combos off on turn three or turn four Goblins usually aren't fast enough to keep pace. Conspicuous Snoop changes the equation. While the two-drop is a fine value play all by itself allowing us to generate card advantage by playing Goblins off the top of our deck, it also opens up a now turn-three kill combo with Boggart Harbinger tutoring Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker to the top of our deck to allow Conspicuous Snoop to copy itself an infinite number of times before copying Boggart Harbinger again to put Sling-Gang Lieutenant on the top of our deck to we can sacrifice all of our Conspicuous Snoop to drain our opponent out of the game on the spot. In theory, this combo solves Goblins biggest problem by giving Goblins an unfair turn three win of its own. Does this mean Goblins are now tier one in Modern? How good and consistent is the combo? How good are Goblins in the format? Let's get to the video and find out, and then we'll talk more about the deck!
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Much Abrew: Snoop Combo Goblins
Discussion
- So apparently Goblins with Conspicuous Snoop combo is pretty insane. We played a league with the deck (a somewhat weird league, considering we played Dredge three times in a row to start, followed by Humans and Eldrazi) and cruised to a 5-0, only dropping two games along the way!
- It's hard to overstate what a big deal the Conspicuous Snoop is for Goblins. Nine of our ten game wins in the league came from the combo itself, while our other win came from the random backup combo of Murderous Redcap, Grumgully, the Generous and a sacrifice outlet for infinite damage. Especially considering we played one of the more unfair decks in the format in Dredge several times, having the ability to almost accidentally win the game on turn three was a huge deal. Without the combo we certainly wouldn't have went 5-0, and likely would have lost at least one or two matches.
- As I mentioned in the intro, the combo itself is fairly straight forward: turn two Conspicuous Snoop into turn three Boggart Harbinger wins us the game by putting Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker on top of our deck to make infinite Conspicuous Snoop (by Snoop copying itself with Kiki-Jiki's ability) and then finally using the last untapped Conspicuous Snoop to copy Boggart Harbinger again to put Sling-Gang Lieutenant on the top of our deck for infinite drain by sacrificing all of our Conspicuous Snoops.
- There are also a couple of fringe situations where we can't win with Sling-Gang Lieutenant (for example, we draw both copies or our opponent has Leyline of Sanctity). In these games rather than ending our combo with Sling-Gang Lieutenant we can go for Mogg Fanatic (basically a Sling-Gang Lieutenant that can ping creatures as well as players), Skirk Prospector (to sacrifice all of our Conspicuous Snoop for infinite mana and empty our hand of Goblins, while also possibly playing a bunch more Goblins from the top of our deck thanks to Conspicuous Snoop itself) or Krenko, Mob Boss (which can make a bunch of 1/1 tokens that stick around through the end of turn unlike our Conspicuous Snoop tokens).
- Thanks to Boggart Harbinger, Goblin Matron and Goblin Ringleader are deck is very consistent at finding the combo, and even if our opponent can kill the first Conspicuous Snoop our odds of finding another one to try the combo against are pretty high.
- Because we have a bunch of tutor and card advantage we can get away with playing a backup combo that only takes up a few slots in our deck. The main plan of the backup combo is to use one of our persist Goblins (hopefully Murderous Redcap, but occasionally Putrid Goblin if we have an extra combo piece) with Grumgully, the Generous and either Sling-Gang Lieutenant or Skirk Prospector (if we are combing with Murderous Redcap) to generate infinite damage or drain by sacrificing the persist Goblin, negating the -1/-1 counter with Grumgully, the Generous and then sacrificing it again and again until we win the game. While we're mostly focused on the Conspicuous Snoop combo, it is important to know that the backup combo exists, because there are games when it's better to try to assemble it than Conspicuous Snoop plus Boggart Harbinger.
- Maybe the most exciting part of the deck is that, despite two infinite combos, we're still a fairly solid Goblin tribal deck. While we don't have all of the best aggro Goblins because we don't have enough room, curving out with Goblins, playing a lord or two and Sling-Gang Lieutenant for reach offers a very realistic fair game plan for games when we can't assemble either combo.
- While our sample size was small - just a single league - Snoop Combo Goblins felt legit. I wouldn't be at all surprise to see the Goblin tribe be a legitimate top tier deck in the Modern format. The combo offers exactly what the tribe needed: a way to beat unfair decks that doesn't require playing a bunch of bad cards. Conspicuous Snoop is the answer, not only enabling a powerful, consistent turn three combo, but being one of the better Goblins in our deck even without the combo thanks to the card advantage that it generates!
- So should you play Snoop Combo Goblins in Modern? I think the answer is a resounding yes. As I mentioned a moment ago, I wouldn't be surprised to see the deck be a legitimate tier one archetype. The Goblin tribe was already close to being good enough for Modern, and that we before it could accidentally win on turn three with a cheap two-card combo! The day of Goblins in Modern might finally be here thanks to Core Set 2021 and the printing of Conspicuous Snoop!
Conclusion
Anyway, that's all for today. As always, leave your thoughts, ideas, opinions and suggestions in the comments, and you can reach me on Twitter @SaffronOlive, or at SaffronOlive@MTGGoldfish.com.
