Budget Commander: #79 - Getting Aggressive with Goro-Goro and Satoru

Posted on March 5, 2025

Hello happy folks, I hope your day is going as well as possible! This fun aggro take on Goro-Goro and Saturu which is also in my Budget Commander series that costs' around 31.12 from the Shaun one at #76 here, or my first Control one here at #77 here. This is a series that tries to keep cheaper than many Commander Staples under 40 bucks each. I thought it'd be great to try out Aggro after control since I've never done it in my budget series.

They arrive with a 3/4 body for three mana and then when someone punches face that arrived this turn with haste make a free game winning 5/5 flyer of the Dragon and Spirit tribe! You can invest two mana as soon as it arrives to give your team haste, and then with first or double strike you'll make two per combat not one. He's in that color with red too. He costs on other sites 75 cents.

Remember that all numbers are citied are from CoolStuffInc.com and near mint right now as of the writing of this article. Those prices shift from now until editing and you reading in the future, but the basic idea of a mega cheap thing is great too for the long term.

Let's get this thing started!

Mana, Ramp, Rocks and Lands

Costs:

75 cents:

1 Goro-Goro and Satoru

0.59:

1 Crumbling Necropolis

0.49:

1 Access Tunnel

1 Command Tower

1 Cursed Mirror

1 Cultivator's Caravan

1 Guardian Idol

1 Rogue's Passage

0.35:

1 Crosis's Catacombs

1 Darksteel Ingot

1 Izzet Locket

1 Grixis Panorama

1 Stonespeaker Crystal

0.29:

1 Bonder's Ornament

1 Commander's Sphere

1 Dimir Aqueduct

1 Dimir Locket

1 Izzet Boilerworks

1 Izzet Guildgate

1 Mind Stone

1 Obelisk of Grixis

1 Rakdos Guildgate

1 Terramorphic Expanse

1 Thriving Bluff

1 Thriving Isle

1 Thriving Moor

0.25:

1 Rakdos Carnarium

0.15:

1 Dimir Guildgate

1 Evolving Wilds

1 Fountain of Ichor

Let's start with the boring mana stuff since I want to ensure my deck can cast its stuff! This is very important in a Budget Commander to ensure we have the lands. The haste copying three-drop above taps for red and then when it ETBS you can copy a dork with haste to get in a swing now and trigger our leader! The Manalith taps for all three of our colors and spends three mana to turn into a 3/3 Dinosaur artifact great for turning into a dork and drawing too.

Rogue's Passage taps for colorless and with four to give my dork unblockable to trigger my team, I also tossed in Access Tunnel for the smaller stuff. Cultivator's Caravan is a crewable vee for three into a 5/5 you can crew and swing with on arrival for smashing the face and making a 5/5 flying token!

Answers

0.99:

1 Ertai Resurrected

0.49:

1 Avalanche Riders

1 Bedevil

1 Draining Whelk

1 Mizzium Mortars

0.35:

1 Hero's Downfall

1 Hinder

0.29:

1 Abrade

1 Bane's Contingency

1 Dissipate

1 Flametongue Kavu

1 Goblin Ruinblaster

0.15:

1 Negate

Now let's turn to answers to stop foe's stuff! Since we are in Blue, let's start with counters like Negate, Bane's Contingency, Dissipate, and Hinder. The first will scry 2 and draw a card on resolution if it protected your Commander. This three-mana middle one will counter and then exile it to end something permanently! Love it loads. The last one will tuck something on top or the bottom to stop them from recurring but then they can tutor for it or draw after a shuffle effect so I prefer the exile one first!

Now let's turn to targeted removal. Bedevil destroys three possible types that are commonly played and is a bulk rare here. Abrade will Bolt a dork or Shatter something. Then the flashing four-drop 3/2 Ertai Resurrected will either counter or destroy their stuff and then they'll draw a card too.

The two-cost sorcery has overload for six and shoots an opposing dork for four, and then all of them if overloaded. Great here! Then the flashing rare six-drop with flying counters and then grows by the size of what was countered, love it here much! I also tossed in dork removal where budget possible like FTK and Goblin Ruinblaster with its innate haste.

Card Draw

0.75:

1 Moon-Circuit Hacker

0.49:

1 Coastal Piracy

1 Read the Bones

1 Painful Truths

0.39:

1 Lu Xun, Scholar General

0.35:

Mulldrifter

0.29:

1 Concentrate

1 Tidings

0.20:

1 Thieving Magpie

0.15:

1 Risky Shortcut

Now let's turn to boring card draw. Coastal Piracy will turn combat damage into cards drawn, great with aggro generally and the combat damage we need already here. The horsemanship dork Lu Xun, Scholar General costs four for a 1/3 body with a combat damage trigger to draw, love it here much!

The two-drop enchantment dork with ninjutsu 1 on a 2/1 body is next. Since ninjutsu will trigger Goro-Goro and Satoru they are here too. This has a combat damage trigger to draw and then discard unless it arrived this turn. Then the flying four-drop uncommon 1/3 has a combat damage trigger to draw and you'll keep it.

Risky Shortcut will draw you two and then each player loses two so you can use that to help push your aggro deck! Painful Truths has converge and draws and loses life equal to the colors spent, so if you spend one each color you'll draw three and lose three life for a three-cost bulk rare, nice!

I have used up $19.58 and I have left 25 cards and $11.54 left.

Synergies and Winning Conditions

1.49:

1 Archetype of Imagination

0.99:

1 Daring Piracy

0.79:

1 Berserkers' Onslaught

0.49:

1 Kaito, Dancing Shadow

1 Rising of the Day

0.29:

1 Alora, Merry Thief

1 Dokuchi Silencer

1 Goblin War Drums

1 Hazardous Blast

1 Moonblade Shinobi

1 Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive

Now let's turn to synergies and backup win cons! This planeswalker in Dimir colors with four-cost and 3 loyalty is first! When you've dealt damage you can bounce it and then activate this twice. The first is +1 to make a dork of your foes unable to block or 0 to draw a card. Or you can -2 to make a 2/2 dork with deathtouch and then leaves play for 2 life lost by your foes and you can gain it too. Then you can ninjutsu this four-drop 3/2 for three and it's got a combat damage trigger t make a free 1/1 flying Illusions. Nasty with the flying making of our leader.

Berserkers' Onslaught costs five and then gives our attackers double strike to trigger damage triggers twice like my leader or Lu Xun. Alora, Merry Thief costs three for a 3/2 uncommon with an attack trigger to bounce an attacking dork this turn but it'll be unblockable so you'll be ensured of that hit!

How about this three-drop mono-Red uncommon enchantment pair? The former gives our stuff haste and then our legendary stuff another power boost too. Nice backup haste here. The latter one makes a free hasted menace 1/1 Pirate for the turn in your combat for getting in that hit and then it leaves.

Then let's finish with a mono-Blue dork duo! The two-drop 1/3 legendary Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive gives your one power stuff or toughness too unblockable, like herself. The enchantment dork Archetype of Imagination costs six for a 3/2 and gives our team flying and then drops it from your foes so they are basically unblockable.

Fun-Aggro Stuff

0.49:

1 Loyal Apprentice

1 Schema Thief

0.35:

1 Biting-Palm Ninja

0.29:

1 Gingerbrute

1 Phantom Ninja

1 Triton Shorestalker

0.20:

1 Phantom Warrior

0.15:

1 Tin Street Dodger

1 Tormented Soul

Now let's turn to what our deck is built around! The ninjutsu three-drop and with it too 3/3 Black rare is first with an ETB to drop a menace counter on it! Then when it smashes face you can pull the counter for a Coercion effect that exiles but not lands. The one-drop hasted artifact dork is with 1/1 size is next great first turn play. Then you can spend mana to make it unblockable save by haste stuff and it's a Food too. Love this the turn you drop your leader since you don't need to spend two to speed it up.

The two-drop Loyal Apprentice with haste on a 2/1 size is first; haste is awesome here! Then at the beginning of your combat make a free 1/1 colorless flying Thopter with haste too to trigger your Commander. Drop him turn two and then turn three and swing with your token and make a token too. The one-drop hasted common 1/1 Tin Street Dodger cannot be blocked by most folks for a Red mana. Only defenders can.

Now let's turn to this bulk rare four-drop 3/3 flyer body with a combat damage trigger to make a token copy of an artifact they control to keep up the pressure, from Sol Ring to Skullclamp to Steel Hellkite there are many to copy! Love that loads and it's on a Phantom Monster cost and size.

I got 28.27 used up with 5 cards left and I have space for 2.85!

The Last Five

+1 Bident of Thassa, $0.99 - 29.26

+1 Slither Blade, $0.49 - 29.75

The first thing I wanna do is to add in another card draw from combat damage machine that costs 99 cents. Bident is pricier than the Coastal Piracy above but great here too. I could add in 49 cent mass bouncer Perplexing Study, but I like here Slither Blade. We need cheaper unblockable one-drops.

+1 Crashing Drawbridge, +.60 or .49. * 30.24

+1 Mist-Cloaked Herald, +$0.49, 30.73

The Drawbridge is an 0/4 body with defender for two colorless and taps to give the team haste so that's mana free if you drop it two turn and then the Commander turn three. Also, a backup haste. Then the next one-drop is here unblockable too.

Finally, our last card!

+1, +.0.29. 31.13 spent!

This four-drop uncommon 2/3 Artificer is last. In your combat make a free flying, hasted Thopter dork, and it also dies, but flying this time over menace on the enchantment. Love that much here.

Here's my deck!