Much Abrew: Raise the Goblins (Poineer)
Hello everyone, and welcome to another edition of Much Abrew About Nothing! We're heading to Pioneer this week to play some Raise the Past Goblins! The idea of the deck is super sweet. It can play like a Goblins aggro deck where we curve out with creatures and pump them with Rundvelt Hordemaster and Battle Cry Goblin to win by beating down. But it can also play like an aristocrats-style sacrifice deck where we use Skirk Prospector to sacrifice our board, deal damage with Fireblade Charger and Cacophony Scamp, draw more Goblins with Rundvelt Hordemaster, and then eventually reanimate literally every creature in our graveyard with Raise the Past to win the game on the spot! How good is Raise the Past in Pioneer? Are Goblins legit in the format? Let's get to the video and find out!
Much Abrew: Raise the Goblins
Discussion
- Record-wise, Raise the Goblins was great! We went 8-2 with the deck, giving us an 80% win rate and getting us all the way up to Mythic on Magic Arena!
- As I mentioned in the intro, the deck basically has two different, somewhat overlapping plans. The first is simply beating down with random Goblins, backed up by Rundvelt Hordemaster and Battle Cry Goblin to pump our team. The second plan is the aristocrats sacrifice plan, which can be super explosive. Thanks to the mana Skirk Prospector generates, we can go pseudo-infinite with the deck if we can get a Rundvelt Hordemaster or two on the battlefield for card draw, by chaining together Goblins until we eventually win with direct damage from Fireblade Charger or Cacophony Scamp, or by reanimating all of our Goblins with Raise the Past and using Battle Cry Goblin to give them haste for the lethal attack! This flexibility—being a solid aggro deck with a strong graveyard plan and a potential combo kill—makes the deck play so well.
- I'm not sure Brass's Tunnel-Grinder is really needed. While the plan of using it to fill the graveyard for Raise the Past makes sense, in practice, it was the card we sideboarded out the most. On the other hand, Fable of the Mirror-Breaker is hilariously good in our deck. It's a busted card in general but doubly so in our deck since the token it makes is a Goblin, so we get some bonus tribal synergies, and being able to rummage Goblins into the graveyard can be super powerful with Raise the Past.
- Oh yeah, Battle Cry Goblin is absurd. In general, I try to avoid running it out on Turn 2, but it deals a ton of damage once we get up to four mana so we can play and activate it right away. And being able to give our entire team haste is incredibly strong with Raise the Past, letting us build a huge board out of nowhere and use it to win the game right away!
- So, should you play Raise the Goblins in Pioneer? I think the answer is yes! The deck felt surprisingly competitive and flexible. If you like Goblins or synergistic aristocrats-style sacrifice decks, give Raise the Goblins a shot!
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.
