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Top Ten Goblins for Commander

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Hello awesome Commander fans! Ever since Goblin King, Goblins are one of the most beloved tribes ever printed for casual tables. Even today, they are still a Top Ten creature types in Commander being the sixth most-played creature type over at EDHREC.com with a massive 22,550 decks registered as of the writing of this article. Goblins have been great at tournament tables, but what about multiplayer and Commander? What are the best here?

Here are my favorites! I'll be rocking 4 Honorable Mentions since this tribe is so deep with 444 members instead of my normal 3.

Honorable Mention #1 (#14 Overall) - Murderous Redcap

Murderous Redcap

Let's kick off our list with this fun Rakdos uncommon. This four-drop 2/2 deals 2 damage to any target. Then when it dies and comes back once with persist, another 1 damage is dealt, possibly being a two for one if you kill one X/2 or less first and one X/1. And you can rachet up its damage with instant power pumpers on the stack like Giant Growth or permanent pumpers like Goblin King or Glorious Anthem. But even without it's pretty strong here. It needs no infrastructure. But its two-color identity prevents it from hitting higher since you need two colors to run it, and therefore it's harder to run. But it's very strong there. It's very midrange-y with two ETBs on one card.

Honorable Mention #2 (#13 Overall) - Ignoble Hierarch AND Goblin Anarchomancer

Ignoble Hierarch
Goblin Anarchomancer

Check out these two Green Goblins from the same set! The first is a one-drop that taps for three mana in the Jund colors. Then it has exalted for your Commander to swing with a boost for a faster Commander damage kill. It's a very strong mana maker that can drop a three-drop Commander on turn two.

The second is a two-drop 2/2 in the Gruul colors, so it's on-curve and it drops your Red and Green stuff by one color each. That on the third turn will drop a four-cost Commander on turn 3 and swing too without tapping for mana, so it's combat relevant and a speedster. Some decks will prefer the Hierarch with a lot of stuff to accelerate, and some the two-drop since it's on curve and then gives you multiple mana reductions each turn with multiple plays. This pair shares mana making or reduction. But, again, color identity drops them to here.

Honorable Mention #3 (#12 Overall) - Goblin Matron

Goblin Matron

Welcome to this already printed in Portal and then reprinted in core sets later creature leader. On arrival to the battlefield you can search out a Goblin from your deck and put it into your hand. It's a Demonic Tutor for the tribe for one more mana. It's very strong here, for the winning fun times to commence, since it leaves behind a 1/1 Golbin in the tribe that cares about it. It's one of the best tribal tutor ever printed since it costs three and leaves that body around and you get the card in your hand rather than on top of your library.

Honorable Mention #4 (#11 Overall)

Grenzo, Havoc Raiser

Check out this fun 2/2 in mono-Red that's also legendary for Command Zone purposes. This has two combat damage trigger options for your team. Each creature smashing has one choice. Either goad a dork, or exile and cast the top card of their library this turn. Either way is pretty good from where I am sitting, card flow or goading to screw up the table and then get in another set of goads to form more and more attacks on an untapped battlefield. As a two-drop Commander, you can drop it early and then many times with Commander tax and still keep it coming!

#10. Pashalik Mons

Pashalik Mons

Check out another legendary beater! This time on a three-drop 2/2 with a Goblin Warrens on it. Sacrifice one Goblin, make two! Just spend mana and rinse! Then when Goblins die, you shoot a target for one damage each! It's a win con against foes and a board control against opposing dorks in one thing. Note it triggers for any Goblin, tokens or others. Nice way to jumpstart the top ten with!

#9. Goblin Lackey AND Warren Instigator

Goblin Lackey
Warren Instigator

This duo is our top 9 card! The one-drop dominated Standard when legal and would make my Top Spot at #1 if we just did tournaments. Drop it turn one, swing on a naked board turn 2, or burn defender, drop any Goblin from your hand to the battlefield. Nasty free Goblins over time! The Instigator is a two-drop 1/1 with double strike and the same combat damage trigger to get twice, but won't work until turn 3. In Commander, you'll wanna run both in your Goblin decks, but only there, they aren't as flexible.

#8. Siege-Gang Commander

Siege-Gang Commander

Hitting our eighth spot is everyone's favorite Goblin token maker! Your five mana nets you this fun 2/2 with three bodies, so five power total for five mana. It's also a sacrifice engine for Goblins for two mana each to Shock something. Nice! It's heavily played in Token, Aggro, Blink, Goblin, and more brews. I run one in my Commander Cube as an example.

#7. Muxus, Goblin Grandee

Muxus, Goblin Grandee

This six-drop is hitting our halfway spot! Your one more mana than a Siege-Gang Commander nets you a fun 4/4 with a pair of abilities. It'll dig 6 and put Goblins cheaper than it onto your battlefield for free. Free drops from the Command Zone? We know how nasty that can be is rough. Know what else is rough? It's attack trigger to pump it for your Goblin count so it's a faster Commander Damage kill than you would expect normally. This thing has all of the power from the Command Zone, and feels like a Goblin midrange leader with its powerful ETB ability. It's here at the 7-spot due solely to cost!

#6. Wort, Boggart Auntie

Wort, Boggart Auntie

Our highest gold and Rakdos card is this four-drop 3/3 legendary from Lorwyn. She has fear to swing. Then in your upkeep, for free, you can Raise Dead and return a Goblin card in your hand, so it's free recursion in your hand each turn, but not mana free to the battlefield. Strong, and it recurs, and that can recur a non-creature Goblin like Tarfire to recast over and over again! Nicely done, but she's not a top 5 card.

#5. Squee, Goblin Nabob

Squee, Goblin Nabob

Squee is! This is the most powerful card in existence that never got cast. In your upkeep you can raise it to your hand from your graveyard. That makes it ideal with being discarded to things like Wild Mongrel, Survival of the Fittest and Compulsion. Survival made this thing broken in Standard with this getting discarded over and over and over and over again and never got, you know, played. It's very strong at getting recursion, but then you really want it alongside broken engines. It's very strong at the synergies it unlocks, just like Norin the Wary.

#4. Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker

Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker

Ah yes, he had to be here, Kiki-Jiki, Breaker of Formats. This five-drop with haste arrives with a 2/2 body and tap to make a copy of a target nonlegendary dork with haste for this turn. This combed with Pestermite to kill in one turn by untapping this, or Splinter Twin to twin it, or with many other things as well. This is the Goblin that all of the Johnnies and Jennies in the world love! It's very strong in any Commander brew dense with dorks and began the "tap and make a Clone copy with haste with a limitation" love affair of Red. Everyone loves Kiki-Jiki. He's beloved in any Commander deck than afford the triple red in the cost!

#3. Goblin Welder

Goblin Welder

And this guy is the other top Johhny/Jenny Goblin. This 1/1 dominated many formats with his simple ability. You could do it on turn 2 and sacrifice a mana land for a key card you discarded with your two cost like a sorcery that discards and then draws, such as Cathartic Reunion. This thing loves early drops with both ETB and leaves play abilities like the Wellspring duo of Ichor Wellspring. It's also a beloved fan of self-sacrificial artifacts that own casual and multiplayer like Mindslaver and Memory Jar. But this is not my top two spots. What clearly dominant ones made it and beat this?

#2. Dockside Extortionist

Dockside Extortionist

I think that the top 2 are pretty interchangeable and either could be tops. Your milage may vary. But this two-drop 1/2 dominates powerful tables where everyone has powerful mana rocks and early drops of the artifact or enchantment nature like Sensei's Divining Top and Skullclamp or Sylvan Library or Land Tax. When this ETBs, you get Treasures equal to the artifact/enchantment count for all of your foes. And unlike other mass makers, these do not ETB tapped, so they happen as soon as this arrives. It's very strong fun times. It really speeds up your stuff and is massive ramp that gets better the longer you drop it, but just four or five on turn 2 or 3 when you drop it is still pretty good. Nice stuff.

#1. Krenko, Mob Boss!

Krenko, Mob Boss

Let's finish our list off with this fun powerhouse 1/1 tapper who makes Goblin tokens equal to the Goblins you control! How many decks are running this as the leader over at EDHREC.com? 12,307! That is the 12th most-played Commander overall and the top red and mono-colored leader ever run, so you have to get here on my list and make it really high on it too. Its place here is pretty "duh" since it's so beloved. Love Krenko loads leading a Goblin tribal deck!

And there you are, I hope that you enjoyed my Top Ten Goblins for Commander! See you next week!

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