Hi, my name is Mason Baker. I am a guest writer that has had the privilege to be offered a writing opportunity on roguedeckbuilder.com. I thought I would take this time to talk a bit about my Modern deck that I have enjoyed quite a lot recently.

Before The Goblin Piledriver Hype Train starts, and boy is it starting, I wanted to talk about my own Budget Goblin Brew. Keep in mind that this is not made to be a Tier 1 Deck it is meant to be A: Cheap and B: Fun. I initially spent about 40 dollars on the deck, after a few upgrades and several cards going up in price, the deck is now worth about 80 dollars.

Let’s start with the most underrated Goblin card in Modern, Quest for the Goblin Lord.

Once this card is active all of your creatures, yes even Memnites and Signal Pests see this, get +2/+0. Quest for the Goblin Lord only needs to see a miniscule five goblins to be active. Once Quest for the Goblin Lord is in play, it’s very easy to activate with Kuldotha Rebirths and Mogg War Marshal giving us the best value. Now, the worst thing about this card is when it is not drawn within the first few turns, but let’s face it, if your not gambling in mono-red, and especially mono-red goblins, then your just not doing right.

Ironically the card that helps this deck along in the late game, despite gambling with an early turn Quest for the Goblin Lord, is Dangerous Wager. That’s right, the best draw spell in Modern. For those of you crying “Serum Visions! Serum Visions!”, you would be wrong. Most of the time in this deck, Dangerous Wager is a pay two draw two which is outstanding in red. The few times you have cards in your hand to discard as this spell resolves, you don’t need those cards otherwsie you wouldn’t be playing Dangerous Wager, you would be playing the other cards.

Gut Shot is a card many may find to be out of place. I have found this card to be crucial against other Aggro decks like infect, but it’s useful enough in the mainboard due to the fact it can take out mana dorks and even a soul sisters before they start getting out of hand. It is however one of the first cards you sideboard out.

The worst matchups is any deck with life gain and any deck that can out race us. Leyline of Punishment takes care of lifegain while the other sideboard cards are dedicated to fast decks and cards that try to slow us down. Shattering Spreehelps with Affinity, though it is still the hardest matchup. Beating such a consistent turn 3 win can be hard to race. Tormod’s Crypt is great against Snapcaster and Tasigur. Since it is a zero costed artifact, it still combos with Kuldotha Rebirth, making it the least awkward card to add in. Frenzied Goblin is a new addition, as it used to be in the mainboard. This card is great against decks that provide a lot of early game blockers like Elves.

Something I was the most interested in talking is the Maybeboard. I never hear players talk about this, and I feel many miss out. Sideboard cards are what you swap inbetween games, but your maybeboard are cards that you add inbetween events. For me, this is also full of cards that used to be in the deck that didn’t quite make the cut, but feel that a slight change in the metagame, or a new card could make the cards useful once again. I feel that many players, even if they do not think of it formally, have a maybeboard. To me, players sharing their maybeboard is just the same as sharing their mainboard. It can show other players who are interested in building a similar deck, where your deck started or cards that you considered. The maybeboard can be useful reference for other players. They may want to take a different route than you did with your deck, making these cards more useful. I know I am often looking at my maybeboard after an event wondering if I should add in more copies of one card or adding a different card all together. I for one keep my maybeboard in the same box I keep my tokens.

Now I am far from a master deckbuilder, and I am always altering my deck and changing things. This is the current build and will undoubtedly be changed again soon. Maybe this will help and inspire people in their Modern deck building quests. With the arrival of Goblin Piledriver, it seems Wizards is once again giving some love to goblins. I hope to see many more goblin builds in the future and I would love to see it go the way of Elves and end up being a top tier deck.