This is everything Gempalm Incinerator wanted to be. I'm not sure Goblins has a place in post-London Vintage, but if it does it's because the two-drops are dramatically improving. With any luck, they'll print an insane hate card against Modern Affinity that will sufficiently damage Shops.
People will laugh, but Karn the Great Creator Goblins has a decent chance of being viable. Mind you the Goblins will mostly be Rabblemasters...
So the choice is
-Uncounterable
-Draw a card
VS
-1/1 body
-Hits Planeswalkers
With Cavern of Souls, the new guy will also be uncounterable a lot of the time, but even then, I think I still prefer the extra card over the rest.
@desolutionist Yeah, thats what Wagner was pointing out.
I have to think this is downgrade to Gempalm. How often is getting a french vanilla 1/1 going to be better than drawing another card in Goblins? I'm sure there are corner cases, but I think I'd rather draw a better Goblin and still get the burn.
As far as targeting planeswalkers, again, that's situationally good, but it seems like Goblins would already be particulary well suited to crash through Walkers just because they are attacking with so many bodies anyway.
I mean, add to the pros cons being mono colored or not and I think gempalm is likely still better, but then again Gempalm might be trash because of Narset.
Really you can also just use both. If one is decent enough to see play chances are both are worthwhile inclusions in your list. I think it is more likely that these are not players in the format than anything.
The huge difference is +1 damage. If you Gempalm on turn 2, you're not usually getting your Lackey past a typical Vintage turn 1-2 blocker. Being able to turn 1 Lackey, turn 2 this and actually get to use your lackey is a big deal. Consider that Gempalm doesn't even kill Baby Jace in its 0/2 form until after the block.
Also, and I know it hasn't been widely adopted yet, but this can hit Karn directly. I strongly suspect that Karn the Great Creator is secretly the most broken card in Vintage right now as it shuts down multiple archetypes game 1 either directly with its passive or indirectly by fetching a silver bullet. Unlike Jace's 0, which might or might not find something great, Karn finds things like Tormod's Crypt, Ensnaring Bridge, and Trinisphere with 100% accuracy. They aren't usually worth maindecking, but they can be absolutely brutal out of the sideboard. To take advantage of it, I think you just want something like Legacy 8 Moon with more Goblins and Karns and less Chandras.
