Courtesy of Wizards of the Coast (WotC) and Ondrej Strasky, check out Core Set 2021‘s latest Goblin facilitator — Conspicuous Snoop.
Part Future Sight, part who knows what, part Goblin equals quite the value/combo two-drop. Conspicuous Snoop will slot right into existing Goblin decks and even might spawn some new combos. Let’s break it down.
Play with the top card of your library revealed.
An ability found on many cards ranging from Courser of Kruphix, Oracle of Mul Daya, Vampire Nocturnus, and even a previous Goblin card — Goblin Spy. Of course, for all of these cards except Goblin Spy, there’s usually more text to take advantage of the ability to see your top card.
You may cast Goblin spells from the top of your library.
Most cards that let you play with the top of your library revealed either let you play creatures or lands from the top, but Conspicuous Snoop is a little different. It’s mostly going to be Goblin creatures, but you can’t forget about Tarfire, Boggart Birth Rite, Fodder Launch, Boggart Shenanigans, and Warren Weirding.
As long as the top card of your library is a Goblin card, Conspicuous Snoop has all activated abilities of that card.
This is where things get weird. This unique ability allows Conspicuous Snoop to impersonate your Goblin cohorts for value and fun. While there aren’t a ton of Goblins in Standard with activated abilities (and the ones that do are mostly pump effects) Destructive Digger, Goblin Smuggler, and Goblin Cratermaker all have some utility.
Once you dig deeper into older formats, the possibilities grow substantially. Skirk Prospector, Goblin Trashmaster, Goblin Engineer, and Kiki-Jiki Mirror Breaker all start opening up plenty of shenanigans. Even if all the value you get from Conspicuous Snoop is a Goblin or two off the top, that’s nothing to scoff at.