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Goblins in Oathbreaker

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Grab your cousin and grease up that Fodder Cannon. We're partying with Goblins in Oathbreaker! This most explosive of Magic tribes is bad at only one thing: surviving. But on the other hand, that means they're great at carrying a gob-full of explosives and hurling themselves at our enemy.

Goblin Grenade

If Goblin Grenade is your favorite spell, well, the new multiplayer format of Oathbreaker allows you to build an entire deck around it. Here, you play 58-card singleton decks, with the last two to make 60 in your command zone: a planeswalker and their signature spell. If your planeswalker is alive on the battlefield, you can fire off their instant or sorcery, commander taxed two more each time.

We're fielding Goblin Grenade with Angrath, Captain of Chaos, to gain access to Rakdos Goblins. It's no question they have the most fun. Spike Jester will lampoon opposing planeswalkers who take themselves too seriously, like Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God, and when the going gets tough Munitions Expert can always catapult a shark.

Spike Jester
Munitions Expert

Angrath, Captain of Chaos isn't here to play. Giving all your little green men evasion is powerful in a format where killing opposing planeswalkers is paramount. We've chosen him previously for Minotaur tribal with Deathbellow War Cry and paired in a budget list with Allure of the Unknown. He's a beat-down 'walker in a color pair without too many other options. Angrath is no Goblin, but he would approve of strapping them full of dynamite and blowing things up. And that's what you hope to do: cast multiple Goblin Grenades in one turn.

I say the art by Ron Spencer is the most badass, though the flavor text on the recent Goblin Grenade reprint wins at whimsy. The singleton format of Oathbreaker still gives you the opportunity to cast your signature spell multiple times. It would cost 4 mana (and two Goblins) to cast Goblin Grenade twice. Dealing 10 damage is half an opponent's starting life total in Oathbreaker. It can blow up popular 'walkers like Ugin, the Ineffable and Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God, while granting you a huge mana advantage. After you attack a few times with your hasty and scary Rakdos Goblins, your opponents will be in range of a few well-carried grenades.

Our signature spell gives our aggressive strategy reach, meaning that if our initial Goblin rush is stopped, we still can bring home the goat by deploying a Goblin or two with a backpack full of black powder and a fistful of fuses. Pow!

Now, that requires Angrath, Captain of Chaos survive. You can -2 him for an army chump blocker or keep his loyalty high by not activating any ability at all. This will be a better option if our opponent has fliers or threatens direct damage themselves. And speaking of blocking, that's the reason I did not include Goblin Rabblemaster. The phrase "Other Goblin creatures you control attack each turn if able" is very significant in this format. I would still play him in a mono-Red Goblins deck, with reckless abandon, but for this one I wanted to give more off-color Goblins a chance.

Earwig Squad
Grenzo, Dungeon Warden

Earwig Squad is also good at catching opponents with low life totals. Grenzo, Dungeon Warden can help house most every Goblin in the deck at his base power of two. We play all-star Goblin Warchief and his ugly sibling Goblin Chieftain for hasty smacking, but the deck's main theme is sacrifice. Knucklebone Witch, Pashalik Mons, and Goblin Sharpshooter all love to see Goblins pop.

Knucklebone Witch
Pashalik Mons

For sacrifice enablers, you have your signature spell itself, along with Sling-Gang Commander and other helpful Goblins who generously put their friends first. The deck has enough redundancy that I figure any draw can't go too wrong. At the worst, you can attack with your Goblins and force opponents to act. If you want to increase the power and consistency of the deck, you could add Goblin Recruiter and possibly Boggart Harbinger. I opted for only Goblin Matron because respect to your mother.

I do like my Oathbreaker decks to do something unexpected. To that end I hide two of the most powerful spells within the deck, instead of face up in the command zone. You may not remember, but long ago Patriarch's Bidding enabled Goblins to dominate Standard, and Living Death is powerful enough to start me cackling.

Patriarch's Bidding
Living Death

In Standard, a resolved Patriarch's Bidding would often win the game for Goblins on the spot. That can happen here too, if your haste and sacrifice enablers line up right. But even if these five-cost sorceries don't give you the win that turn, they can help turn the tables back in your favor. If you're losing a game, your graveyard is likely to be full of morose Goblins. If you are winning, the same is likely to be true because you've launched so many giggling green gobs. Either way, fear no sweepers. Go in with fuses blazing. The best part of Goblins carrying the explosives themselves is they get an up-close view of the enemies' surprised faces.

Because I'm leaning into sacrifice effects and other powerful five-mana spells, I felt comfortable excluding the conventional Coat of Arms from this tribal deck. For different reasons I excluded other enthusiastic Goblins. The mana isn't quite good enough for Warren Instigator. That card, along with Boggart Mob and Grenzo, Havoc Raiser all have unfortunate text in Oathbreaker. In a format where you want to attack opposing planeswalkers more than anything, you will often be forced to make feel-bad decisions. I still included Goblin Lackey, since that little punk is in a league of his own.

If you have the cards or the budget to buy them, you can include the lands Blackcleave Cliffs and Bloodstained Mire. At that point, Warren Instigator is more of an option. Cavern of Souls is also great, but it has to replace a Mountain to give you enough sources for Living Death. If you want to go the other direction and make the mana base more budget, swap in lands you don't have for Foreboding Ruins and Temple of Malice.

A note on land count: play more. I know Goblins players like to include as few as possible. I often see lists with as few as 19. That number seems suspect even in Modern. And, no, I don't mean that in a 58-card deck you should drop the count to 18. For the love of bombs bursting in the air, play more lands! The worst thing that can happen to you in multiplayer is to be stuck on two or three lands. If you flood out, just cast your Oathbreaker or signature spell a few more times. Add creature lands or cycling lands if you have to, but PLAY MORE LANDS!

No one knows better than Goblins that there's more than one way to explode. To close this article I wanted to include a bonus mono-Red decklist built around Brightstone Ritual. Though it has no way to get back Goblins lost to board wipes, even without them for a mana rush you can cast direct damage spells like Fireball, to toast opponents for the final few points. Like the previous decks, it doesn't play its greatest threats face-up in the command zone.

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