Raise Havoc! And Let The Slip The Goblins Of War!

Verna: I suppose you think you’ve raised havoc.

Grenzo: Sister, when I’ve raised havoc you’ll know it.

I have a confession to make. Even though I’ve been kicked in the teeth by Goblin-themed Commander decks on more than one occasion – Krenko, Mob Boss, I’m looking at you – I’ve actually never built one myself and played it for any length of time. I did consider building a Krenko deck where Krenko was the only creature, just to see where that rabbit hole would lead me, but of course that wouldn’t actually be a “Goblin” deck.

Over the years Wizards has printed a lot of really, really good Goblins, to the point that Goblin tribal has been competitive in tournament formats for years. A lot of those cards can translate over into Commander if you want to build an aggressive deck that attacks and kills fast, but that style of play doesn’t generally call out to me.

Then I saw the spoiler for Grenzo, Havoc Raiser from the new Conspiracy set, thought through the play implications of his abilities… and started feeling aggressive in the most marvelous way!

It begins with Grenzo’s mana cost – just two mana, though double-red does make him a little tough to cast if you add too many mana sources that don’t produce red. Two mana makes you think you want to cast Grenzo early and often, but that’s not necessarily going to be the case. What’s cool about Grenzo’s triggered abilities is that they have “haste” of sorts—Grenzo doesn’t have to trigger on his own combat damage, so in practice you’d want to have at least one creature ready to attack already on the battlefield when you cast Grenzo. And since Grenzo’s triggered abilities scale the more attackers you can have deal combat damage to players, it gives you incentives to play more and more attackers to the battlefield.

The goad ability is kind of neat—so long as you can have more creatures deal combat damage than there are blockers, then all that player’s blockers will have to attack on their next turn. Which leaves that player open to more Grenzo triggered abilities. And they’ll have to attack other players, assuming you’re not their last opponent. What I love about this is how it encourages more and more attacks, which should mean that there will be fewer and fewer blockers to worry about.

Of course, the real gem of our Grenzo plan is that second triggered ability. By its lonesome it’s going to miss almost 40% of the time, given how many lands Commander decks typically play. Add to that spells that are too expensive for you to cast, and spells that you may not want to cast – say, mass removal – and you may be pushing a miss rate of 50% or more. So to really take advantage, you’ll want multiple triggers at the same time, with more triggers equating to more options.

While Grenzo doesn’t care what sort of creatures you’ve got dealing combat damage, it just so happens that Goblin decks can churn out lots of little Goblins, which could – fingers crossed and we build our deck right – translate into lots of little Grenzo triggers.

What’s nice about the choice between Grenzo triggers is that, if you’ve got a spell you want to cast from your hand, you can do the goad triggers, and if you don’t have anything you want to cast, then you can roll the dice with the exile triggers and see what’s lurking on the top of your opponent’s deck.

So let’s see what we can pull together!

Goblins

Lots and lots of Goblin cards, mixed with some spells that make multiple Goblin tokens! I like that a fair number of Goblins make it tough to block, including Frenzied Goblin, Legion Loyalist, Intimidator Initiate, Goblin Tunneler and Goblin Heelcutter. And if your opponent has really large blockers, then they probably don’t want to block Mogg Maniac. This all plays right into our plan to deal combat damage to opponents. Goblin Lackey and Warren Instigator will put more Goblins onto the battlefield, letting us save our mana to cast spells from our opponent’s deck.

Goblin Dark-Dwellers can do a pretty cool Siege-Gang Commander impression if you cast a Hordeling Outburst from your graveyard. Goblin Guide’s triggered ability helps us with our plan by potentially clearing a land off the top of our opponent’s deck and showing us if there’s something worth exiling and casting.

No Blocks

Even though we’ve got some Goblins that can make blocking difficult, we don’t want to stop there. Luckily there are plenty of cards to help reinforce this plan, especially since we’re a red deck. Falter and Seismic Stomp are great cards for ending games in Limited, but they play great in this deck by potentially getting a whole bunch of Grenzo triggers and still leaving lots of mana available. And then of course we have Goblin War Drums, a card that’s been giving our team menace before we knew it was menace, back in Fallen Empires.

Hot Soup is a card design that I’ve loved ever since it was previewed for Magic 2015. The art, the flavor text, the rules text – a goblinoid carrying a huge vat of hot soup through combat, with everyone getting out of the way, and if it happens to take damage, it gets crushed by the huge vat and dies. I’ve never played with it in Commander because I’d rather not have my creatures hitting the opponent die to a random Lightning Bolt, but in this deck I should have no shortage of expendable Goblins around. Skeleton Key works perfectly too, since your Goblins will often be the smallest things on the battlefield. Basilisk Collar and Skullclamp certainly make your attacker much less attractive to block. Nim Deathmantle and Sword of Feast of Famine can make a creature unblockable against the right colors.

Power Matrix gives a creature flying and trample, which will often be enough evasion to get a Grenzo trigger. And the classic Icy Manipulator can join in with some of your Goblins to neutralize blockers.

Attack Step

Since we’re all about attacking and we’re playing red, we can enjoy cards like Shared Animosity and Aggravated Assault. Aggravated Assault is a mondo combo with Sword of Feast and Famine if your opponent can’t block, and if you’re getting Grenzo triggers, you can keep exiling cards and with enough mana potentially casting them… or just chew through their library and exile the deck if the damage doesn’t kill them. It’s possible that you don’t want to deck them if you’re getting a bunch of sweet spells from their deck you can use against your other opponents. Speaking of, Blade of Selves can help you get Grenzo triggers from all your opponents—it’s good to have options!

Mana Boost

Even though our mana curve is relatively low compared to a lot of Commander decks, we still want plenty of mana so we can take advantage of our Grenzo exile triggers and cast spells from our opponents’ decks. In addition to the ubiquitous Sol Ring and the oft-used mana rocks like Commander’s Sphere, I’m dipping into Mana Vault, my newly-traded-for Mana Crypt, and even Lotus Petal.

How horrible would it be to exile Seedborn Muse from your opponent’s deck but only have four mana available? Red also has plenty of one-shot mana infusion spells like Brightstone Ritual, Battle Hymn, Seething Song, and Mana Geyser, and since you’re converting extra mana into powerful spells exiled from your opponents’ decks, those cards are worth running here. Mana Echoes can even turn your cheap Goblins into “Rituals” of sorts with enough other Goblins on the battlefield.

Pyromancer’s Goggles will double the mana spells, and since I’m running spells that make Goblins I wouldn’t mind doubling too, it seems like a good card to include. Sometimes you may even get to double red spells from your opponent’s deck!

Shenanigans

Since we’ll be playing spells from our opponents’ decks, I thought it could be fun to copy them even if they’re not red, so I’ve included Mirrorpool and Reverberate. Since we’re a deck that wants to put lots of creatures onto the battlefield, we’re going to be susceptible to mass removal, so I’m including Cauldron of Souls and Eldrazi Monument to help with that.

Here’s a different kind of Goblin deck, submitted for your review:

Grenzo, Havoc Raiser

Bennie Smith

Test deck on 09-09-2016

Commander

Creatures (23)

Lands (39)

I really like all the cool things going on here. If you’re playing against slow decks, you can just simply play like an aggressive Goblin deck and dish out early damage, but once the battlefield gets complicated, you can shift gears and play with more finesse. When’s the last time you’ve heard finesse and Goblins mentioned in the same paragraph?

Kudos to whoever cooked up the name Grenzo, Havoc Raiser. Like many people, when I hear the word “havoc,” I think of Shakespeare and the quote from Julius Caesar: “Cry ‘Havoc!’ And let slip the dogs of war.” The military order “Havoc!” was a signal given to the English military forces in the Middle Ages to direct the soldiery to pillage and create general chaos. The goad trigger for Grenzo certainly can provoke chaos, and the exile trigger does a fair impression of pillaging.

How would you go about building a deck around Grenzo, Havoc Raiser? Any big cards I may have overlooked?

New to Commander?

If you’re just curious about the format, building your first deck, or trying to take your Commander deck up a notch, here are some handy links:

Commander Primer Part 1
(Why play Commander? Rules Overview, Picking your Commander)
Commander Primer Part 2
(Mana Requirements, Randomness, Card Advantage)
Commander Primer Part 3
(Power vs. Synergy, Griefing, Staples, Building a Doran Deck)
Commander Starter Kits 1
(kick start your allied two-color decks for $25)
Commander Starter Kits 2
(kick start your enemy two-color decks for $25)
Commander Starter Kits 3
(kick start your shard three-color decks for $25)