In preparation for Reid playing in the Invitational, we decided to playtest one of the most common matchups, Goblins versus W/U miracle control.

"Legacy Goblins"

• Creatures (29)
• 1 Goblin Chieftain
• 1 Goblin Piledriver
• 1 Goblin Sharpshooter
• 1 Mogg War Marshal
• 1 Siege-gang Commander
• 1 Skirk Prospector
• 1 Stingscourger
• 1 Tuktuk Scrapper
• 2 Mogg Fanatic
• 3 Gempalm Incinerator
• 3 Goblin Warchief
• 4 Goblin Lackey
• 4 Goblin Matron
• 4 Goblin Ringleader
• 1 Wort, Boggart Auntie

• Spells (7)
• 1 Tarfire
• 2 Warren Weirding
• 4 Aether Vial

• Lands (24)
• 3 Mountain
• 2 Arid Mesa
• 2 Wooded Foothills
• 3 Badlands
• 3 Cavern of Souls
• 3 Scalding Tarn
• 4 Rishadan Port
• 4 Wasteland

• Sideboard (15)
• 4 Cabal Therapy
• 3 Perish
• 1 Gempalm Incinerator
• 3 Goblin Piledriver
• 1 Stingscourger
• 1 Warren Weirding
• 2 Pyrokinesis

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Reid played the following list:

"Legacy W/U Miracle Control"

• Creatures (2)
• 2 Trinket Mage

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

• Spells (34)
• 2 Counterspell
• 2 Daze
• 4 Brainstorm
• 4 Force of Will
• 4 Swords to Plowshares
• 2 Entreat the Angels
• 4 Terminus
• 2 Land Tax
• 3 Counterbalance
• 1 Engineered Explosives
• 2 Relic of Progenitus
• 4 Sensei's Divining Top

• Lands (20)
• 3 Plains
• 5 Island
• 3 Polluted Delta
• 4 Flooded Strand
• 4 Tundra
• 1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Path to Exile
• 1 Tormod's Crypt
• 1 Pithing Needle
• 2 Vendilion Clique
• 2 Blue Elemental Blast
• 3 Oblivion Ring
• 1 Engineered Explosives
• 1 Moat
• 1 Ethersworn Canonist
• 2 Envelop

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Later on, Goblin Ringleader and Siege-gang Commander are extremely important to attrition him out with, since Ringleader lets you reload from Terminus.

Two of the lands are extremely important here: Cavern of Souls and Rishadan Port. Cavern of Souls ensures that all of your Goblins go through unmolested.

Rishadan Port messes with his early development and can lock down enough white sources so he can’t cast Terminus on our turn.

Reid tends to play very a basic-land-heavy deck (because of Land Tax), so Wasteland isn’t nearly as good against him as it is against other miracles variants that might splash colors.

There are a ton of decisions to be made every turn here involving Rishadan Port, Aether Vial, and how many creatures to commit into a Terminus.

For the record, I am still not sure of the best way to play against an active Land Tax (I suspect treating it like Standstill and just playing into it might be the best for Goblins since you have so many expensive spells in Goblins).

In post-boarded games, you can cut your dead removal spells (Gempalm Incinerator, Warren Weirding, Tarfire) and Mogg War Marshal for Cabal Therapy and Goblin Piledriver.

Goblin Piledriver is not at its best here, but it is a good way of pressuring a miracles player to Terminus when he would rather sandbag it on top of his deck.

Also, I would almost always Cabal Therapy for Sensei's Divining Top on turn one since the card is so important to the miracle player’s game plan—unless you have turn-one Cavern of Souls into Goblin Lackey.

Anyway, onto the games:

Moat is a huge problem in his sideboard, and with only one in his deck, it’s hard to Cabal Therapy him for it; plus, he can hide it on top (via Sensei's Divining Top) or Brainstorm. With a Moat on the board, you can only kill him with Siege-gang Commander or Goblin Sharpshooter (both of which I left in).

On balance, I think Reid is slightly ahead, but the matchup seems very intricate and can be won by either player through tight play and decision-making.

Overall, I think both miracles and Goblins are solid choices for Legacy at the moment.

Please let me know if there are any other matchups or types of videos you are interested in seeing, and I would also appreciate any comments here or on Twitter @jkyu06.

Thanks for reading and watching!