Goblins

General Plan#

The matchup against Goblins is often harder in Game 1, mostly because it depends heavily on the opponent’s opening.

Goblins can have relatively slow hands, built around cards like Goblin Piledriver, Goblin Matron, Goblin Ringleader, Rishadan Port, or Wasteland. These hands are dangerous in the long run, but they don’t always interact with your creatures right away. In those cases, it’s pretty realistic to win with Hermit Druid, especially if you can break the mana parity with a Wall or a Birds of Paradise. Sometimes all it takes is a small acceleration, dropping Druid on the board, and forcing the opponent to find a specific answer in a very tight window.

Survival of the Fittest is also an excellent plan, slightly less safe than it is against Sligh. The reason is that the versions of Goblins running green can play Naturalize. Survival always resolves, because Goblins doesn’t interact on the stack, but you never have full certainty about how long it’ll stay in play.

So the general plan is simple: in Game 1 you can quite often win with Hermit Druid if the opponent doesn’t have an explosive start or immediate removal. Survival is very strong too, but it has to be treated as a powerful engine, not necessarily a permanent one.

Game 1#

In Game 1 the game is tied closely to the quality of the opponent’s opening.

There are Goblins hands you can beat fairly well: hands with slow development, too many utility lands, Matron without immediate pressure, or hands that can’t remove your key creatures right away. In these scenarios, your walls are very important: they can buy enough time to let you reach the kill. If the opponent doesn’t have direct burn and can’t remove the wall with Gempalm Incinerator, it will stay on the board for several turns and blocks the 2/2s very well.

The critical point is that you always have to evaluate how quickly the opponent can convert from board presence into lethal damage. Goblins isn’t just a linear aggro deck: with Goblin Lackey, Goblin Warchief, Goblin Piledriver, Siege-Gang Commander, and Goblin Ringleader, it can go from a manageable board to an unmanageable position in a single turn.

Goblin Lackey#

The most important card to respect is Goblin Lackey.

Some Goblins openings are almost unbeatable, especially Game 1. A sequence like:

Mountain, Goblin Lackey Pass Wasteland, Mogg Fanatic Lackey connects, putting Siege-Gang Commander into play

is extremely hard to beat for your deck, especially pre-board, when you don’t yet have access to enough removal or sweepers.

This kind of start is particularly problematic because hFEB isn’t built to play a traditional board-control game in Game 1. You don’t have many clean answers to Lackey, and if the opponent can immediately turn it into a Siege-Gang Commander or a Matron/Ringleader chain, you can be overwhelmed before you assemble your line.

For this reason, when evaluating your opening hand against Goblins, you have to ask:

“Does this hand automatically lose to turn-one Lackey?”

If the answer is yes, especially on the draw, the hand should be evaluated very cautiously.

The Role of Survival#

Survival is one of your best cards in the matchup.

If it stays on the board, it lets you quickly build a kill line or find useful creatures to slow the board down. The main problem is that the opponent can have 2/3 Naturalize in the main deck, with 1/2 Naturalize and 1/2 Tranquil Domain in the sideboard, so you shouldn’t always set up the game assuming Survival will stay active for many turns.

Against Goblins, Survival often has to be used pragmatically: as soon as you have a window, you have to convert it into concrete value. That can mean assembling the combo, finding a wall, finding an answer, or building a line that closes before the opponent can remove the enchantment.

The question isn’t just:

“Do I have Survival?”

but also:

“What can I get out of Survival before the opponent finds Naturalize?”

Post-Sideboard#

In Game 2 and Game 3 the matchup changes significantly, because you have access to more removal and can interact better with the opponent’s aggressive openings.

Personally, the plan is to cut a number of Cabal Therapy, but not all of them. Therapy is stronger against Goblins than it is against Sligh, because it can hit revealed cards. For example:

• it can name the creature just fetched by Goblin Matron;
• it can hit the Goblins revealed by Goblin Ringleader;
• it can strip Naturalize before resolving Survival;
• it can strip Pyroblast or Red Elemental Blast before resolving Volrath’s Shapeshifter.

Duress, on the other hand, is generally less interesting, because it hits a narrower set of cards. In Game 1 it can basically grab Naturalize if it’s there, while post-board it can find Pyroblast or Pyrokinesis, but overall it’s less flexible than Therapy.

What to Bring In#

Post-board you want to bring in all the removal available.

Depending on the list, this can include:

• Swords to Plowshares;
• Ghitu Slinger;
• Pyroclasm;
• other removal or sweepers available;
• Uktabi Orangutan, since you expect Tormod’s Crypt.

Pyroclasm is one of the best cards in the matchup post-board. Goblins can develop very wide boards, and often your goal is to let the opponent add resources to the board and then punish them with a sweeper. It’s not uncommon for a Lackey to connect once or even twice, but if the opponent overcommits, you can answer with Pyroclasm and turn the game around with a 3-for-1 or 4-for-1.

This is an important difference from Game 1: post-board you don’t necessarily have to prevent every single point of damage or every Lackey connection. You can let the opponent extend, as long as you have a way to clear the board and then win from that position.

Uktabi Orangutan#

Uktabi Orangutan is an interesting card because it has two roles.

The first is removing hate artifacts, particularly Tormod’s Crypt, which is a card you can expect post-board from Goblins.

The second is very practical: it’s a solid body that can block several problematic Goblins. Against a deck that tries to win through the board, even a utility creature tutorable with Survival can become relevant if it buys a turn or absorbs pressure.

It’s not just an answer to Crypt: it’s also a piece that lets you stay alive while you build your line.

How to Evaluate Hands#

Against Goblins, especially post-board, you want to keep hands that have one of these two traits:

• enough removal density;
• a concrete plan to win by turn 4.

This doesn’t necessarily mean forcing a super-aggressive hand with Elvish Spirit Guide and turn-one Hermit Druid. Especially post-board, the opponent knows your plan and can have more ways to punish a key creature played too early.

It means, instead, having a coherent plan. For example:

• a removal spell for Lackey;
• a wall to stabilize;
• Pyroclasm to punish a wide development;
• Survival as an engine;
• Hermit Druid with enough protection or time.

A good hand against Goblins doesn’t have to be explosive. It does, however, have to do something concrete against the opponent’s first threats and have a realistic way to win before Goblins rebuilds with Matron or Ringleader.

Walls and Defensive Creatures#

Walls are very important in the matchup. A 0/5 body blocks most of the opponent’s basic creatures very well. Unlike Sligh, Goblins doesn’t always have direct burn to remove a wall. If the opponent doesn’t have Gempalm Incinerator or a way to push through combat, the wall can stay in play and buy several turns.

This time is critical, because it lets you use Survival, assemble Hermit Druid, or simply reach the mana needed for a safer line.

It serves a perfect dual role: it slows the clock and accelerates your plan.

Cards to Respect Post-Sideboard#

Post-board you have to expect Goblins to improve its interaction.

The main cards to consider are:

• Naturalize and Tranquil Domain, against Survival;
• Pyroblast and Red Elemental Blast, against Volrath’s Shapeshifter;
• Pyrokinesis, against your small creatures;
• Tormod’s Crypt, against graveyard lines.

For this reason Cabal Therapy stays important. It shouldn’t be seen as just generic discard, but as a tool to protect your line on the key turn.

The ability to turn the opponent’s information into precise discard is one of the reasons Therapy is stronger here than against Sligh.

Pyroclasm and Board Management#

With Pyroclasm in the deck, the way you play changes.

In Game 1 you often want to prevent the opponent’s board from getting too big. Post-board, however, you can sometimes let the opponent commit more creatures, knowing you have a card that can rebalance everything.

The important thing is not to use Pyroclasm too early if you aren’t under immediate pressure. A Pyroclasm that kills only a Lackey can be correct in certain spots, but if you can afford to wait and turn it into a 3-for-1 or 4-for-1, the game often changes completely. Remember to hold your land producing in hand to prevent it to get hit with Wasteland.

After an effective sweeper, Goblins can still rebuild with Matron and Ringleader, so you have to use that window to advance your combo plan. Pyroclasm doesn’t just have to keep you alive: it has to buy the turn in which you start winning.