The problems with Earwig Squad are that the decks that he's good against tend to counter your threats until he's too late, and that it was best against combo assisted by Warchief's cost reduction off a Lackey trigger. Even so, it provides an extraordinarily small window to interact with most decks. Plus, you are usually only able to get a creature through by tapping some amount of mana to play creature/removal/mana denial/finding Squad, so Squad is just too damn expensive to be functional.
The black splash is great as ever if only for Perish, only when you resolve perish, you can swing for theoretical win with instigators rather than wait a turn to play your goblins. MD Thoughtsieze is an option, but I hate the idea of getting screwed by Wasteland/Stifle, but in certain situations either or both splashes might be necessary..
Edit - On the lost of Warchief stuff...Warchief is the best goblin to goldfish with. If Goblin Recruiter were legalized, Goblin Warchief would certainly be in that, because goblins would be more about goldfishing. Vial Goblins can gold fish, but for the most part it has to play aggro control with the Wastes and Ports, or win via removal or sideboard magic. You just can't ignore your opponents deck. With the assistance of vial, you can drop mustiple Lackey/Instigators turn after turn and continue porting and Wasting and win with suprisingly interesting "God hands" which just don't happen at all with Warchief anymore, for me anyways.
Without Warchief, you don't have to practically abandon mana denial to drop loads of goblins. If Instigator drops a matron and an instigator (edit - Ringleader, lol), that's seven mana worth of goblin tempo. How many matches does it take for Warchief to produce seven mana worth of tempo for the deck (most games, he costs three and trades for one).
With chieftain filling in as a haste lord, at least he makes the most of his time on this earth, writing sonnets and ballads, but mostly beefing the late game and synergizing with everything immediately.
Why only one Mogg War Marshal? He chumps all day long and represents four damage with Chieftain. Anyway, interesting build
I suppose if I didn't regularly play against Merfolk, I could go down to one Piledriver and up to three MWM (Which I think is great advice against decks like Maverick and Bant and any matchup I need gempalm to kill), but I'm not ready for that yet. :-(
Piledriver is still pretty good at killing fast though, sometimes.
I've also determined that Chrome Mox is too vulnerable to counters, is bad in the late game, and suffers card disadvantage in a deck that needs all of its card advantage to win.
EDIT: I admit, I'm not exactly the first person with this idea, I just think it is becoming more useful in the general meta.
MTG reflects capitalism and social Darwinism whether you're discussing the game or the external factors. The more I think about the dynamics of competition, the meta game, and randomness and all that, the less important the card game feels...
(and the DCI represents those ~socialist~ regulatory agencies and unions)
This is my goblin deck. I dropped Warchief a long time ago, and I feel more people will gravitate towards Instigator/Chieftain interactions in the future. Instigator poses unfavorable situations faster and with more explosiveness than Warcheif, the historic accellerant 9-12. Realistically, Goblins has no aggressive turn two play or turn two vial drop without Instigators, and the ports don't make WI much harder to play, if anything, WI is always easier to play that Warchief, and if you can't possibly make it good (connect, demand answer, trade), you can't possibly win that particular game anyways, to be honest. Warcheif is just so cumbersome, and Piledrivers to a similar degree, but Cheiftains, lords beef up lategame in hard fought attrition wars (every game we can possibly win), turn otherwise useless instigators into threats and give piledriver strikes a little bit of back up firepower (Cheiftain, Instigator, Piledriver together attack for 12 or more).
Especially now that porting on turn two isn't always a huge gain, dropping a freaky threat after your answered-mulled-to-one-drop as often as possible can be a game changer. Not enough for DTB, but good enough for me.
Warchief just doesn't fit into that scheme for me, anyways, why play a card that encourages you to hardcast creatures when you could build your deck around playing them for free?
If you have access to most or all of the cards in any particular format, it's significantly easier to make decks without explicitly net-decking. If you don't, you're better of finding out what you need to get in the singles market or through trades, with requires a little bit of net decking.
I've often got the impression that the people who most vehemently oppose net decking are those who would most likely benefit, as many of those who don't care at all have been net decking for years and have reaped the benefits.
In Standard, it is impossible to build a deck that isn't either a net deck, an inferior version of a net deck, or a random deck idea conceived by R&D to confuse less experienced players. You're better off with the net deck.
Even casually, shouldn't everyone be playing to win? I wouldn't feel good about myself if I wasn't, but as long as the competition is balanced it's all good. If I were smarter I would have force myself and others to buy more legacy cards when they were less expensive, because that's really the most engaging chessboard like experience that magic has to offer, not a deck that asks you to play nice.
Of course, a good magic deck IS NOT a net deck, but a meta-game weapon, so it's actually pretty stupid to copy paste a decklist and play it.
My sideboard will be:
3 Blood Moon (against Zoo, Maverick, Stoneforge, Team America, Natural Order)
3 Pyrokinesis (against Merfolk, Maverick)
3 Tormods Crypt (against Reanimator, Dredge)
3 Perish (against Zoo, Maverick, Natural Order)
3 Thorn of Amethist (against ANT, TES, Stoneforge, Team America)
ANT/TES will be an auto-loss for me because they will duress Mindbreaker Trap. I'm going to focus on other match-ups.
I think that the metagame will be:
++: Maverick, Stoneforge, Team America
+: ANT, TES, Reanimator, Dredge
+/-: Zoo, Natural Order
-: Merfolk
If you expect so few merfolk decks, why not replace the 4th Piledriver with a Mogg War Marshal to shore up the Tarmogoyf matchup, or a third Instigator? Three Piledriver ought to be enough, especially since it's pathetic against all your '++' decks.
You probably shouldn't play any fewer than three Gempalm, especially with only 22 lands (Gempalm kills creatures and is your only card to dig for lands and sideboard cards). Gempalm should be availible in abundance against decks like merfolk, gobins, and certain aggro control decks, not restricted as a matron target. Also, you are a bit heavy on 3-5 mana creatures. That kind of curve demands 23-24 lands, or to be reduced. That's another person's random opinion.
you can probably
-1 Chieftain
+1 Gempalm
Or cut the the Auntie and add another, if not auntie number one is better than cheiftain number three, especially with four Warcheifs and three Instigators along with them.
That's the list I'm trying to build: (Mono-B Reanimator)
In a developed meta, you need to play blue to protect the combo from blue. You could play Inquisition of Kosilek or you should play Thoughtsieze to try and compensate, but it probably wouldn't so well against tier 1 decks (or the mirror), which goblin, elves, and burn currently aren't.
I think that if wizards reprinted Legacy staples in a meaningful enough way to decrease the price of duals by as little as 20% (which would be outrageously difficult to do), they could jump the shark on their own game (after the hysteria dies down).
By doing to, the damn themselves in some combination of the following:
a) advertise the fact known to legacy players that legacy is a superior format to Standard since the cards never rotate and it's just more fun. Most standard player just block it out since they always have a bunch of teenagers to dominate at Wizard's precious little board game called standard, but if Wizards handed them Legacy cards and their buddies started showing off their Legacy decks, they create a bandwagon effect against the game that they advertise.
b) discourage people from buying pack/boxes/cases/shipping crates of magic cards to keep up with standard, but instead to find Legacy staples, which would be more easily obtained on the secondary market.
c) the price of other Legacy staples that weren't reprinted suddenly skyrocket, making both Standard and Legacy kind of lame. The allure of magic would be damaged by the reprints. People will no longer be interested in new releases, but waiting for the next Legacy reprints.
d) New players to the game of Magic might be intimidated by the game if they are introduced directly to Legacy. This is more likely to happen if they create more legacy players. Legacy is for hardcore magic players who understand the game very well. Wizards respects Legacy players and prints them new cards now and then, since most Legacy players bought a large amount of cards years ago before the format existed as it does today. While Wiz wants the game to be as fun as possible, they don't necessarily need more legacy players to keep magic successful.
Either way, it's a huge mixed message to the player base at large, the collectors, and the vendors.
In all likely hood, reprints would not change the high prices of Legacy cards. When SCG started buying up staples and raising prices, they determined that you must pay $X000 to participate in their game, and I don't see the secondary market allowing Dual Lands to go from Wizards to the consumer without a significant mark-up.
The black splash is great as ever if only for Perish, only when you resolve perish, you can swing for theoretical win with instigators rather than wait a turn to play your goblins. MD Thoughtsieze is an option, but I hate the idea of getting screwed by Wasteland/Stifle, but in certain situations either or both splashes might be necessary..
Edit - On the lost of Warchief stuff...Warchief is the best goblin to goldfish with. If Goblin Recruiter were legalized, Goblin Warchief would certainly be in that, because goblins would be more about goldfishing. Vial Goblins can gold fish, but for the most part it has to play aggro control with the Wastes and Ports, or win via removal or sideboard magic. You just can't ignore your opponents deck. With the assistance of vial, you can drop mustiple Lackey/Instigators turn after turn and continue porting and Wasting and win with suprisingly interesting "God hands" which just don't happen at all with Warchief anymore, for me anyways.
Without Warchief, you don't have to practically abandon mana denial to drop loads of goblins. If Instigator drops a matron and an instigator (edit - Ringleader, lol), that's seven mana worth of goblin tempo. How many matches does it take for Warchief to produce seven mana worth of tempo for the deck (most games, he costs three and trades for one).
With chieftain filling in as a haste lord, at least he makes the most of his time on this earth, writing sonnets and ballads, but mostly beefing the late game and synergizing with everything immediately.
I suppose if I didn't regularly play against Merfolk, I could go down to one Piledriver and up to three MWM (Which I think is great advice against decks like Maverick and Bant and any matchup I need gempalm to kill), but I'm not ready for that yet. :-(
Piledriver is still pretty good at killing fast though, sometimes.
I've also determined that Chrome Mox is too vulnerable to counters, is bad in the late game, and suffers card disadvantage in a deck that needs all of its card advantage to win.
EDIT: I admit, I'm not exactly the first person with this idea, I just think it is becoming more useful in the general meta.
(and the DCI represents those ~socialist~ regulatory agencies and unions)
Especially now that porting on turn two isn't always a huge gain, dropping a freaky threat after your answered-mulled-to-one-drop as often as possible can be a game changer. Not enough for DTB, but good enough for me.
Warchief just doesn't fit into that scheme for me, anyways, why play a card that encourages you to hardcast creatures when you could build your deck around playing them for free?
15 Mountain
3 Rishadan Port
4 Wasteland
3 Lightning Bolt
4 Aether Vial
4 Goblin Lackey
4 Warren Instigator
3 Goblin Piledriver
1 Mogg War Marshal
1 Stingscourger
4 Gempalm Incinerator
3 Goblin Cheiftain
4 Goblin Matron
4 Goblin Ringleader
1 Boartusk Liege (or the fourth Port)
2 Siege-Gang Commander
3 Blood Moon
3 Pyrokenesis
3 Tormod's Crypt
2 Relic of Progenitus
3 Chalice of the Void
1 Tuktuk Scrapper
BTW, me and Warchief have been best buds since '03, so my decision is based on sheer pragmatism.
I've often got the impression that the people who most vehemently oppose net decking are those who would most likely benefit, as many of those who don't care at all have been net decking for years and have reaped the benefits.
In Standard, it is impossible to build a deck that isn't either a net deck, an inferior version of a net deck, or a random deck idea conceived by R&D to confuse less experienced players. You're better off with the net deck.
Even casually, shouldn't everyone be playing to win? I wouldn't feel good about myself if I wasn't, but as long as the competition is balanced it's all good. If I were smarter I would have force myself and others to buy more legacy cards when they were less expensive, because that's really the most engaging chessboard like experience that magic has to offer, not a deck that asks you to play nice.
Of course, a good magic deck IS NOT a net deck, but a meta-game weapon, so it's actually pretty stupid to copy paste a decklist and play it.
If you expect so few merfolk decks, why not replace the 4th Piledriver with a Mogg War Marshal to shore up the Tarmogoyf matchup, or a third Instigator? Three Piledriver ought to be enough, especially since it's pathetic against all your '++' decks.
You probably shouldn't play any fewer than three Gempalm, especially with only 22 lands (Gempalm kills creatures and is your only card to dig for lands and sideboard cards). Gempalm should be availible in abundance against decks like merfolk, gobins, and certain aggro control decks, not restricted as a matron target. Also, you are a bit heavy on 3-5 mana creatures. That kind of curve demands 23-24 lands, or to be reduced. That's another person's random opinion.
you can probably
-1 Chieftain
+1 Gempalm
Or cut the the Auntie and add another, if not auntie number one is better than cheiftain number three, especially with four Warcheifs and three Instigators along with them.
In a developed meta, you need to play blue to protect the combo from blue. You could play Inquisition of Kosilek or you should play Thoughtsieze to try and compensate, but it probably wouldn't so well against tier 1 decks (or the mirror), which goblin, elves, and burn currently aren't.
By doing to, the damn themselves in some combination of the following:
a) advertise the fact known to legacy players that legacy is a superior format to Standard since the cards never rotate and it's just more fun. Most standard player just block it out since they always have a bunch of teenagers to dominate at Wizard's precious little board game called standard, but if Wizards handed them Legacy cards and their buddies started showing off their Legacy decks, they create a bandwagon effect against the game that they advertise.
b) discourage people from buying pack/boxes/cases/shipping crates of magic cards to keep up with standard, but instead to find Legacy staples, which would be more easily obtained on the secondary market.
c) the price of other Legacy staples that weren't reprinted suddenly skyrocket, making both Standard and Legacy kind of lame. The allure of magic would be damaged by the reprints. People will no longer be interested in new releases, but waiting for the next Legacy reprints.
d) New players to the game of Magic might be intimidated by the game if they are introduced directly to Legacy. This is more likely to happen if they create more legacy players. Legacy is for hardcore magic players who understand the game very well. Wizards respects Legacy players and prints them new cards now and then, since most Legacy players bought a large amount of cards years ago before the format existed as it does today. While Wiz wants the game to be as fun as possible, they don't necessarily need more legacy players to keep magic successful.
Either way, it's a huge mixed message to the player base at large, the collectors, and the vendors.
In all likely hood, reprints would not change the high prices of Legacy cards. When SCG started buying up staples and raising prices, they determined that you must pay $X000 to participate in their game, and I don't see the secondary market allowing Dual Lands to go from Wizards to the consumer without a significant mark-up.