"He displays a perverse charisma fueled by avarice. Highly dangerous."
Overview
Explosive aggro/combo deck. Relies on Krenko's doubling ability paired with Haste and Enablers, which generate ridiculous numbers of goblins to kill your opponent.
Why play this deck?
Because Goblins. Also because it's fun. And Goblins. It is a very aggressive and ruthless deck. It has the feel of RDW with an explosive combo finish. If you enjoy roleplaying as a firecracker or perhaps a piece of TNT, then you will probably like this deck. This is not your grindfest midrangy good stuff deck. This deck kills or is killed--quickly. Pretty simple stuff. Also, Goblins.
What is this deck good at?
Its good at killing a lot of opponents in a very short amount of time if they do not respect your Krenko or come prepared to interact. The deck can go from a very small boardstate to wiping out the entire playgroup in the span of a couple turns.
What is the deck's weakness?
It tends to struggle with board-wipes or if Krenko is targeted down a lot. It has some voltron qualities in that it relies on Krenko quite a bit to supply the power. If you cannot stick him, its threats are easily outclassed.
Is this just a combo deck?
It has elements of a combo deck. Given certain amount of time unchecked, you should be able to decisively end a game. However, I've tried to not make the deck a one-trick pony. I've included several layers of synergies so that you can play the game from several different angles.
There are a lot of budget alternatives to cards. There is a powershift of course, as the more expensive cards often stack bonuses within a single card. However, many of the budget alternatives are just on the cusp of getting a slot already, so it is surprisingly powerful nonetheless. I've tried to maintain the general structure of the deck, using similar cards in place of the more expensive options (essentially, anything worth more than $2).
We need as many cheap ways to give Krenko haste as we can get. If it also gives the tokens haste, that is even better. Preferably these methods cost 3 or less, so that we can cast them on curve before deploying the Mob Boss. Haste allows us to get value off of Krenko even if he is removed immediately.
The deck is mana hungry even though it's curve is fairly low. Getting Krenko online a turn early can also be pretty powerful. Medallion, Warchief, and Helmare quite good at letting us dump our hands quickly so that his activations are more powerful from the start. 2-mana rocks accelerate our mana. Nykthos and Caged Sun ramp us up in the later game, and let us power out a Krenko even at an expensive cost
The rituals are mainly there to enable explosive turns. This deck will often seem very non-threatening at first, however a couple activations and we will draw the group's attention. The rituals allow us to accomplish a lot in one turn. These are often the turns where we win the game by deploying a lot of pieces, activated Krenko, swinging in, perhaps finishing with a fireball effect. Indeed, Prospector and Altar are less ritual and more combo.
The equipment is fairly standard stuff. Chirurgeon is some great tech from the olden days. He can protect Krenko and our other key Goblins from most sweepers as long as we have a few expendable goblins handy. He synergizes quite well with some of our own tricks as well.
When you start doubling up on Kenko's activations in one turn, things go exponential quite fast. If you manage to get 2-3 of these cards on the board at the same time, it is not uncommon to produce hundreds of goblins from very little in 1 turn. Thornbite Staff has the ability to go infinite in conjunction with a sacrifice outlet.
It is tough to make room for some of the bread and butter spells, but getting a good number of Goblins on the board quickly is the name of the game here. I've picked out some of the best of the best when it comes to producing bodies. Having the token producers attached to a creature spell is good in case they are bounced. Having other useful abilities tends to be the benchmark.
The most basic way to win is to attack with goblins. Anthems like Door of Destinies, Coat of Arms, and Shared Animosity make our tiny 1/1s into some of the swolest bros on the board. Obelisk is a solid anthem that can be cast fairly early with our creatures. King provides a pump with an added evasion bonus. Chieftain pulls double duty with haste.
If attacking doesn't get the job done, there are a variety of ways to go directly to the dome using the tokens. Some of them don't even require you to sacrifice your goblins! Some of the other methods like Goblin War Strike and Burn at the Stake are just pure fireball.
Many of our direct damage payoffs can also be used as removal. However, it is good to pack some dedicated board control. Chaos Warp being the most flexible answer we have. Arms Dealer helps deal with specific threats.
While sweepers are generally good against us, sometimes we can take advantage of them ourselves. Chain Reaction has a nice little synergy with Mogg Maniac, which makes it worth it over something more standard. Mogg Infestation can deal with a specific problem or in a pinch double the size of our own board. Fire Marshal is probably the best of the lot, doing a bit of everything.
It's quite easy to run out of cards with this deck. Wheel of Fortune and Reforge being the classic red draw 7s to restock. Skullclamp is busted as ever with our tokens. The others are solid additions. Grenzo is an interesting new addition that seems to have a decent amount of play to it outside of its ability to give us cards. Lastly, I always like to include cycling lands in my decks to mitigate flood.
This is where we setup our combos and sculpt our gameplan. Recruiter is bonkers. It's good to have an idea of a few goblin stacks in mind that you might want to fetch up. Generally fetching a Ringleader is a given to go on top of the stack. Getting Matron can keep the chain going. Also, PSA, dont stack the entire deck. Takes way too long, is rude, and is unnecessary.
Just good stuff. Lacky helps establish a fast early game, Loyalist has the best attack trigger in the business, and Welder helps get our surprising number of artifacts back from the grave if needed. There are a lot of utility lands available, which are easy to include in this mono colour deck.
Some inclusions which are very synergistic with some of our other cards and as a result probably worth including. Kiki is probably the most obvious auto-include. Spikeshot plays well with anthems and Maniac with our damage based sweepers. Sharpshooter is extremely good along side Goblin Bombardment.
Perhaps the most obvious of the Synergies in the deck. Krenko likes making lots of Goblins, Purphoros likes seeing a lot of Goblins made. Similar effects from Pandemonium and Warstorm Surge
Once you have something to give Krenko haste, with enough mana or goblins it is possible to go infinite goblins/mana by repeatedly activating, sacrificing, and recasting Krenko.
Thornbite Staff equipped to Krenko allows us to activate the Mob Boss every time something dies. Therefore, if we add a sacrifice outlet to it like Goblin Bombardment, Skirk Prospector, or Phyrexian Altar, we can get infinite goblins and infinite damage or mana. Basically, Staff is a pretty quick way to end the game if we draw a number of our other enabler.
While not infinite, it is possible to get quite a lot of damage output from Sharpshooter when paired with a sacrifice outlet like Bombardment or Prospector. Add in Boggart Shenanigans for even higher thresholds.
As long as you have some spare goblins to feed to the Chirurgeon, Fire Marshal becomes a repeatable boardwipe that also hits players. If you have quite a few goblins, you can activate him multiple times by holding priority and setting up multiple layers of regeneration shields.
Repeatable tutor each turn that is fairly useful in setting up kills. Kiki can also be paired with Goblin Recruiter or Goblin Ringleader.
Potential for some very large Fireballs off the Maniac trigger. Even more interesting when the Maniac teams up with Fire Marshal & Chirurgeon.
Spikeshot with most anthems is going to be value. Once Door of Destinies is online with a few counters, it becomes more than just spot removal. This also works well with Shared Animosity and Coat of Arms.
Skirk prospector is likely the most important piece you're missing. With a haste outlet and enough goblins in play, Krenko can generate infinite goblins and red mana.
Skirk prospector is likely the most important piece you're missing. With a haste outlet and enough goblins in play, Krenko can generate infinite goblins and red mana.
Ahh, prospector. Can't believe I forgot about him. Took me a bit to think about the infinite combo, but that's a neat interaction. Those command zone abusing combos are pretty outside the box.
Also, the monument doesn't actually sound half bad. Though I find that many of my pump effects are mostly just win more. Was thinking of cutting some of the ones that don't have added bonuses. Indestructible is tempting, so maybe I swap Hall of Triumph out or something along those lines.
I'll concur on the monument. If you can stick it and keep it for even just a turn or two, you'll be well-situated to win. It is at the top of your curve, so you want to be careful with so many high CMC cards - but this one's definitely great.
I was looking at the primer contents to see if I could find some further ideas for the list and I've noticed that no one has one a Krenko Primer yet. While I don't think my build is the absolute best possible, I think it's fairly solid. I've updated the original post to be more of a primer. Will look at maybe setting it up properly. Until then, any feedback is appreciated.
Sledder is like a better Denizen. Warren Instigator's second trigger was usually pointless, so it being a bit slower was generally worse. Beetleback Chief was a bit low impact, so it's slot was better spent on one of the newer cards. Pandemonium was in fact Pandemonium, good for a laugh, but I've gone back to the better Warstorm Surge. And otherwise, cut some mountains for a bunch of the new colorless lands, while also adding a couple more utility to get the colorless counts up for Sea Gate activations.
I liked Ben-Ben in theory as a way to discourage people from attacking you, but the deck plays at sorcery speed and almost always wants to tap out. He ended up being fairly lacklustre most of the time. Also, just picked up FTV Jitte, so hard to pass up.
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Hmm. Quest seems like it could swap out for Door of Destinies. Door is a bit slow, and somewhat awkward at 4 CMC, since generally you should have most of your force deployed by then. Quest could come down T1. It also gets activated by Tokens. I'll probably take you up on that. Thanks.
Thornbite seems cool essentially as another copy of Golbin Sharpshooter. The main thing I don't like about it is that the activation requires mana. It is also a bit expensive to equip.
Edit: Actually. Seeing the combo with Krenko and Thornbite. That's interesting.
Hmm. Quest seems like it could swap out for Door of Destinies. Door is a bit slow, and somewhat awkward at 4 CMC, since generally you should have most of your force deployed by then. Quest could come down T1. It also gets activated by Tokens. I'll probably take you up on that. Thanks.
Thornbite seems cool essentially as another copy of Golbin Sharpshooter. The main thing I don't like about it is that the activation requires mana. It is also a bit expensive to equip.
Edit: Actually. Seeing the combo with Krenko and Thornbite. That's interesting.
Quest is a lot faster than door and in ym playgroup it is actually seen as a tad more thrightening than a t1 sol ring.
And yeah, don't think I've activated the ping on thornbite once yet. But just slap it on krenko and with your multitude of sacoutlets you easily go bananas.
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Well, you've sold me on both, especially the staff. I'll update once I get a copy of each.
Funny interaction with the staff. If you don't have a sacoutlet you can get a few untaps by spending your mana to shoot your own goblins
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After some playing with the updated list a bit, I'm not sure where the right balance is between colorless value lands and red sources. However, mostly I'm noticing that the list seems a bit too heavy on payoff spells. Most of these are unnecessary when they are good. I cut some to make room for some mana rocks for faster and more consistent development in the early turns. Also added Phyrexian Altar as another Skirk Prospector.
Cut
1 Reckless Bushwhacker
1 Goblin War Strike
1 Five-Alarm Fire
1 Massive Raid
1 Burning Earth
1 Burn at the Stake
1 Warstorm Surge
Added
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Springleaf Drum
1 Coldsteel Heart
1 Fellwar Stone
1 Helm of Awakening
1 Prismatic Lens
1 Sphere of the Suns
1 Phyrexian Altar
Grenzo seems like an excellent way to gain card advantage in the situations where we are playing more of a fair value game, perhaps due to Krenko being targeted down.
Modern: R Skred -- WBG Melira Co -- URW Nahiri Control
Legacy: R Mono Red Burn -- UWB Stoneblade
Commander: R Krenko, Mob Boss -- WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon -- WUBRG Maze’s End
Other: R No Rares Red (Standard) -- URC Izzet Tron (Pauper)
Are all pretty decent too.
I'd strongly recommend:
and every haste outlet with CMC 3 or less you can find. I run 13, I believe - krenko coming out on turn 3 or 4 and activating immediately is crucial.
Neheb
Marath
Yidris
Sharuum
Yidris
Ahh, prospector. Can't believe I forgot about him. Took me a bit to think about the infinite combo, but that's a neat interaction. Those command zone abusing combos are pretty outside the box.
Also, the monument doesn't actually sound half bad. Though I find that many of my pump effects are mostly just win more. Was thinking of cutting some of the ones that don't have added bonuses. Indestructible is tempting, so maybe I swap Hall of Triumph out or something along those lines.
Modern: R Skred -- WBG Melira Co -- URW Nahiri Control
Legacy: R Mono Red Burn -- UWB Stoneblade
Commander: R Krenko, Mob Boss -- WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon -- WUBRG Maze’s End
Other: R No Rares Red (Standard) -- URC Izzet Tron (Pauper)
---
Current Commanders: Derevi, Empyrial Tactician (coming soon) | [Primer] Sedris, the Traitor King | Maelstrom Wanderer | Najeela, the Blade Blossom | Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow
---
Retired Commanders: [Primer] Jenara, Asura of War | [Primer] Ghave, Guru of Spores | Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury | Saskia the Unyielding | Sydri, Galvanic Genius
---
Current Commanders: Derevi, Empyrial Tactician (coming soon) | [Primer] Sedris, the Traitor King | Maelstrom Wanderer | Najeela, the Blade Blossom | Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow
---
Retired Commanders: [Primer] Jenara, Asura of War | [Primer] Ghave, Guru of Spores | Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury | Saskia the Unyielding | Sydri, Galvanic Genius
Changes:
-1 Frenzied Goblin
-1 Pyrewild Shaman
-1 Rummaging Goblin
-1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
-1 Tar Pitcher
-1 Barrage of Expendables
-1 Goblin Grenade
-1 Vandalblast
-1 Fling
-1 Mob Justice
-1 Goblin Offensive
-1 Goblin War Drums
-1 Hall of Triumph
-1 Helm of Possession
-1 Manabarbs
-1 Warstorm Surge
-1 Encroaching Wastes
-1 Kher Keep
-1 Thawing Glaciers
+1 Goblin Welder
+1 Skirk Prospector
+1 Beetleback Chief
+1 Hellrider
+1 Brightstone Ritual
+1 Goblin War Strike
+1 Battle Hymn
+1 Fire Diamond
+1 Mind Stone
+1 Shared Animosity
+1 Wheel of Fortune
+1 Mogg Infestation
+1 Cavern of Souls
+1 Flamekin Village
+1 Ghost Quarter
+1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
+3 Mountain
Mostly removing some low impact stuff for some better options.
Modern: R Skred -- WBG Melira Co -- URW Nahiri Control
Legacy: R Mono Red Burn -- UWB Stoneblade
Commander: R Krenko, Mob Boss -- WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon -- WUBRG Maze’s End
Other: R No Rares Red (Standard) -- URC Izzet Tron (Pauper)
Modern: R Skred -- WBG Melira Co -- URW Nahiri Control
Legacy: R Mono Red Burn -- UWB Stoneblade
Commander: R Krenko, Mob Boss -- WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon -- WUBRG Maze’s End
Other: R No Rares Red (Standard) -- URC Izzet Tron (Pauper)
-1 Foundry Street Denizen
-1 Warren Instigator
-1 Beetleback Chief
-1 Pandemonium
-6 Mountain
+1 Stoneforge Masterwork
+1 Reckless Bushwhacker
+1 Goblin Sledder
+1 Warstorm Surge
+1 Mirrorpool
+1 Sea Gate Wreckage
+1 Hanweir Battlements
+1 Geier Reach Sanitarium
+1 Strip Mine
+1 Buried Ruin
Sledder is like a better Denizen. Warren Instigator's second trigger was usually pointless, so it being a bit slower was generally worse. Beetleback Chief was a bit low impact, so it's slot was better spent on one of the newer cards. Pandemonium was in fact Pandemonium, good for a laugh, but I've gone back to the better Warstorm Surge. And otherwise, cut some mountains for a bunch of the new colorless lands, while also adding a couple more utility to get the colorless counts up for Sea Gate activations.
Modern: R Skred -- WBG Melira Co -- URW Nahiri Control
Legacy: R Mono Red Burn -- UWB Stoneblade
Commander: R Krenko, Mob Boss -- WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon -- WUBRG Maze’s End
Other: R No Rares Red (Standard) -- URC Izzet Tron (Pauper)
+1 Umezawa's Jitte
I liked Ben-Ben in theory as a way to discourage people from attacking you, but the deck plays at sorcery speed and almost always wants to tap out. He ended up being fairly lacklustre most of the time. Also, just picked up FTV Jitte, so hard to pass up.
Modern: R Skred -- WBG Melira Co -- URW Nahiri Control
Legacy: R Mono Red Burn -- UWB Stoneblade
Commander: R Krenko, Mob Boss -- WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon -- WUBRG Maze’s End
Other: R No Rares Red (Standard) -- URC Izzet Tron (Pauper)
Thornbite Staff is probably one of the best cards in my krenkodeck. Any sacoutlet and you can easily go inf.
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Rules Advisor
Thornbite seems cool essentially as another copy of Golbin Sharpshooter. The main thing I don't like about it is that the activation requires mana. It is also a bit expensive to equip.
Edit: Actually. Seeing the combo with Krenko and Thornbite. That's interesting.
Modern: R Skred -- WBG Melira Co -- URW Nahiri Control
Legacy: R Mono Red Burn -- UWB Stoneblade
Commander: R Krenko, Mob Boss -- WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon -- WUBRG Maze’s End
Other: R No Rares Red (Standard) -- URC Izzet Tron (Pauper)
Quest is a lot faster than door and in ym playgroup it is actually seen as a tad more thrightening than a t1 sol ring.
And yeah, don't think I've activated the ping on thornbite once yet. But just slap it on krenko and with your multitude of sacoutlets you easily go bananas.
Did I write something useful? Leave a like.
Any new cool Daretti cards printed in the latest set? Tell me about it!
Rules Advisor
Modern: R Skred -- WBG Melira Co -- URW Nahiri Control
Legacy: R Mono Red Burn -- UWB Stoneblade
Commander: R Krenko, Mob Boss -- WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon -- WUBRG Maze’s End
Other: R No Rares Red (Standard) -- URC Izzet Tron (Pauper)
Funny interaction with the staff. If you don't have a sacoutlet you can get a few untaps by spending your mana to shoot your own goblins
Did I write something useful? Leave a like.
Any new cool Daretti cards printed in the latest set? Tell me about it!
Rules Advisor
Modern: R Skred -- WBG Melira Co -- URW Nahiri Control
Legacy: R Mono Red Burn -- UWB Stoneblade
Commander: R Krenko, Mob Boss -- WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon -- WUBRG Maze’s End
Other: R No Rares Red (Standard) -- URC Izzet Tron (Pauper)
Cut
1 Reckless Bushwhacker
1 Goblin War Strike
1 Five-Alarm Fire
1 Massive Raid
1 Burning Earth
1 Burn at the Stake
1 Warstorm Surge
Added
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Springleaf Drum
1 Coldsteel Heart
1 Fellwar Stone
1 Helm of Awakening
1 Prismatic Lens
1 Sphere of the Suns
1 Phyrexian Altar
Modern: R Skred -- WBG Melira Co -- URW Nahiri Control
Legacy: R Mono Red Burn -- UWB Stoneblade
Commander: R Krenko, Mob Boss -- WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon -- WUBRG Maze’s End
Other: R No Rares Red (Standard) -- URC Izzet Tron (Pauper)
Cut
1 Hellrider
1 Ogre Battledriver
1 Coat of Arms
Add
1 Mogg War Marshal
1 Hordeling Outburst
1 Beetleback Chief
Modern: R Skred -- WBG Melira Co -- URW Nahiri Control
Legacy: R Mono Red Burn -- UWB Stoneblade
Commander: R Krenko, Mob Boss -- WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon -- WUBRG Maze’s End
Other: R No Rares Red (Standard) -- URC Izzet Tron (Pauper)
Cut
Goblin Sledder
Mountain
Add
Thornbite Staff
Grenzo, Havoc Raiser
Grenzo seems like an excellent way to gain card advantage in the situations where we are playing more of a fair value game, perhaps due to Krenko being targeted down.
Modern: R Skred -- WBG Melira Co -- URW Nahiri Control
Legacy: R Mono Red Burn -- UWB Stoneblade
Commander: R Krenko, Mob Boss -- WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon -- WUBRG Maze’s End
Other: R No Rares Red (Standard) -- URC Izzet Tron (Pauper)