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Jumpstarting Goblins

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Hello folks! I hope that your day is going well. Are you ready to see a fun Goblin combo deck built around the latest Goblin leader from Jumpstart?

Previously, the default Commander for leading a Goblin deck was Krenko, Mob Boss. Not only was he very popular, but over at EDHREC.com, he is the most registered mono-red leader running around! With 2,408 decks registered there as of this writing, Krenko dominates the mono-colored Red decks. In fact, Krenko is the highest charting mono-colored leader for any of the five colors! The next highest in Red is Torbran, Thane of Red Fell at 1,420 a full 1,000 decks fewer! No one else has even 1,000 decks registered. Also, according to Kyle Massa who writes for EDHREC.com Goblins are the fifth most-played tribe, and you can check out his column here about his guesses for the most popular leaders.

Krenko is an established force in the game, but Muxus may prove to be better. How so? Check him out.

Muxus, Goblin Grandee

Bow a knee to this Grandee! Muxus, Goblin Grandee is here and he's arguably better in every way to the current King of Goblins Krenko, Mob Boss save for mana cost. I argued this in my Top Ten Cards from Jumpstart last week. But basically, the argument boils down to Muxus always being good whereas Krenko takes a turn off and is bad on a naked board or top-deck mode, and card advantage is strong with this one as well in a color that needs it. Only casting cost goes Krenko's way.

Anyways, I have a combo I want to build around with Muxus.

Goblin Assassin

This is Goblin Assassin. He might have been relegated to the great dust bin in the sky, but he is super-secretly a powerful combo force at the kitchen table generally and Commander specifically. How so?

Well, let's unpack his power...

Whenever another Goblin arrives to the party, (including itself) then every own flips a coin and 50% of those are getting hit with a self-sacrifice effect for a dork of their choice. In a typical four-way Commander game, two of those are going to miss each flip on average. If this guy is on the battlefield, people won't wanna drop their stuff for fear that they'll be forced to kill it. But what happens if you have to sacrifice your own dork? Sad, right?

Enter Mogg War Marshal. Sacrifice it to the Assassin, and then you get another Goblin token. That forces another trigger of the Assassin, and if you fail that one then you just sacrifice the token. The goal here is to have enough generic bodies to take the hit in case the flip comes up tails. And you just forced two coin flips for your foes.

Here's a bigger version of this combo:

Goblin Marshal

Now he's too big to bring out for free with Muxus, but he's powerful with the Assassin. Imagine this:

Drop Goblin Assassin. Coin flip. You failed, sacrifice a minor creature you dropped earlier.

Next, drop Goblin Marshal. Make three coin flips across the table. Did you miss at least one? Probably! Now sacrifice Goblin Marshal to the ability and make two more dorks, with two more triggers. Result, you have forced foes to each sacrifice an average of two or three creatures per person, and you have 2 or 3 1/1 Goblin Tokens out.

How to ensure that I have enough of the right combos?

Muxus will dig for the Goblin Assassin, and other combo pieces save for Goblin Marshal. But let's meet up with my only non-Goblin in the build:

Moggcatcher

Meet Moggcatcher. A fourth turn Moggcatcher is a guaranteed fifth-turn Assassin and sixth-turn Goblin Marshal. It curves nicely! It'll also serve to shuffle your library, so cards tucked by Muxus's ability at the bottom are able to be regathered and redrawn. Nice!

My goal is to play into a similar space as Krenko with the going wide of my Goblins, but also feeling a little more midrange than aggro. Cards like Siege-Gang Commander and Beetleback Chief will play into this space nicely. They have lots of bodies to trigger Goblin Assassin and to add to the card flow as well as perfect digs and flips for Muxus. The value of Muxus is better if he is flipping and dropping four and five-drops rather than ones and twos. Hence the midrange feel of these Goblins. I do have a few special earlier drops like Goblin Lackey or Warren Instigator.

Goblin Sharpshooter
Boggart Shenanigans

There is another part to this combo: Goblin Sharpshooter! As something dies, such as to a missed coin flip, you'll get an untap trigger for this Prodigal Pyromancer. Tap it to shoot something for a damage and then untap it and keep it ready. I am expecting loads of deaths in this build to trigger the Sharpshooter. Note that it'll untap from opposing deaths as well your own, thus really ensuring its combo killing nature from the Goblin Assassin. To a lesser degree, that it also why Boggart Shenanigans is here, as it's a free point of damage from the death of your Goblins. Anything not named Moggcatcher in this build will ting for a damage somewhere when they die. Note that Muxus will only fetch Goblin creature cards so you cannot drop this for free, but it does have the synergy with cards like Moggcatcher proper.

Note that Goblin Recruiter can set up the top six cards of your build with Goblins, so Muxus nets a full sextant of sorrow for your foes as all of them will be Goblins and drops onto the battlefield. It's an amazing addition to your brew!

Brash Taunter

Muxus isn't the only addition from a recent set; say hello to Core Set 2021's Brash Taunter doing his best impersonal of Stuffy Doll. 5 mana for a 1/1 indestructible. That highly valuable ability is rare in this color and netting it here is very important. Like Stuffy Doll you can redirect damage and like Stuffy Doll you can tap to make sure damage happens. This is better because the fight can kill an opposing x/1 dork and you can absorb a ton of fight damage in one tap. Welcome to my deck, Goblin friend!

Welcome back Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker! You cannot target your leader - sad, I know! Instead you can target many other dorks including those made by Muxus triggers that bring them running on his arrival. You have lots of value here, and a free Kiki-Jiki off Muxus makes me smile in joy.

Look at how amazing Helm of the Host is in the build! Netting a second Muxus trigger each combat is amazing, and unlike other similar abilities, this creature won't die. It's also amazing on cards like Siege-Gang Commander to net a ton of bodies each turn, as well as increasing your Goblin Assassin triggers. This thing is nasty here!

Mogg Infestation

Check out the double role Mogg Infestation can do for this build! Given my ability to have a lot of creatures, being able to double them is potent and can push a victory. It's also targeted removal of a player's board, which is rare in Red and thus can serve as a brake to someone who went big. If they have an egregious board position overflowing with cards like Consecrated Sphinx and such you can dial them back to a few Goblins. Enjoy!

I'll also be adding in a certain pair of Krenkos to this fun time as well!

Are you ready for my build?

Muxus EDH | Commander | Abe Sargent

And there you have it! What did you think of my Muxus build? Anything in here that inspires you or that you wanna copy? Anything I missed? Just let me know! Have an awesome day and stay safe in our COVID-19 world!

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