I don’t have a new commander to talk about this week, but that’s OK because I have an older Commander that’s new to me to talk about this week. The impetus for the commander I picked is a silly one because it’s not even really justified by facts.

It’s no surprise that I’m excited about Unstable giving us sweet new tokens. In fact, my article last week was all but predicated on the fact that there would be Squirrel tokens in Unstable and with new, sweet-looking Squirrel tokens to play with, people will rediscover one of my Top 10 favorite Magic cards — Deranged Hermit. As excited as I was about squirrels, I was even more excited about the new, full-art Goblin tokens that will come in Unstable packs. I googled “Full Art Unstable tokens” to get a shot of the killer goblin token to include in this article.

Ruh Roh. It appears I have blundered. While it’s possible that there will be Goblin tokens in Unstable, they’re not among the full-art versions that will be in the set. I could pivot and write about Elementals or Saprolings but at this point I was really digging how you can make a great 75% deck around a certain Goblin creature from an older set and I felt committed. So while you’re not necessarily going to have new Goblin tokens to celebrate, we can teach an old Gobbo new tricks, especially with some of the cards that have been printed in the mean time. We want to go both big and wide with Goblin tokens but we also want to build 75%. While Krenko is tempting (remember this crazy deck we made based on chaos and randomness? Good times!), I think the best way to go is to play their spells the best we can and the best we can is to threaten them with the most threatening Goblin of all - Grenzo, Havoc Raiser.

This isn’t a new card by any stretch but perhaps we’re be getting some new cards to improve the deck and help us go tall as well as wide and perhaps some goblins we might not have had access to before due to budgetary restrictions are now a bit more affordable due to the Merfolk vs Goblins deck.

One card that’s very exciting for a deck like this was just spoiled, albeit accidentally, this week and it’s going to make attacking with Goblin tokens a lot more interesting.

Keeping your hand full, making your spells cheaper, even the ones of theirs you play with Grenzo (I think, right? I feel like you need to be an L3 to grasp every potential interaction that will come up in this format), keeping their walkers offline and making your gobbos bigger all seem worth the investment.

Hitting them with a lot of Goblins means we get to select a lot of cards and cast the best one(s). I think getting their mana rocks is a good play, letting us cast a larger and larger selection of spells. The mana can also fuel our aims — giving us the mana to play more spells and untap Krenko with Paradox Engine or use Goblin Warrens to turn tapped Goblins into more untapped ones. We’re going wide and there are plenty of ways to make sure we also go tall. Caged Sun and Vanquisher's Banner and other similar cards cost a lot of mana, but with us ramping a ton, it won’t be a problem. We’re going to play a lot of artifacts in this deck but we’re going to have a lot of fun doing it.

Let’s take a look at how we’d build a 75% Grenzo “Big and Wide” deck with lots of mana ramp, threaten effects and Goblins on Goblins.

Greatest of All Dominaria ? Commander | Jason Alt

• Commander (1)
• 1 Grenzo, Havoc Raiser

• Creatures (24)
• 1 Beetleback Chief
• 1 Captivating Crew
• 1 Chancellor of the Forge
• 1 Frenzied Goblin
• 1 Goblin Chieftain
• 1 Goblin Chirurgeon
• 1 Goblin King
• 1 Goblin Matron
• 1 Goblin Piledriver
• 1 Goblin Rabblemaster
• 1 Goblin Recruiter
• 1 Goblin Spymaster
• 1 Goblin Tunneler
• 1 Goblin Warchief
• 1 Goblin Welder
• 1 Grenzo's Ruffians
• 1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
• 1 Krenko, Mob Boss
• 1 Legion Loyalist
• 1 Mogg War Marshal
• 1 Neheb, the Eternal
• 1 Purphoros, God of the Forge
• 1 Siege-Gang Commander
• 1 Skirk Prospecter

• Sorceries (7)
• 1 Blasphemous Act
• 1 Disrupt Decorum
• 1 Empty the Warrens
• 1 Insurrection
• 1 Mob Rule
• 1 Tempt with Vengeance
• 1 Vandalblast

• Enchantments (10)
• 1 Aggravated Assault
• 1 Bedlam
• 1 Berserkers' Onslaught
• 1 Curse of Opulence
• 1 Fervor
• 1 Goblin War Drums
• 1 Goblin Warrens
• 1 Mana Echoes
• 1 War Cadence
• 1 Vance's Blasting Cannons

• Artifacts (23)
• 1 Ashnod's Altar
• 1 Blade of Selves
• 1 Caged Sun
• 1 Crawlspace
• 1 Dolmen Gate
• 1 Dreamstone Hedron
• 1 Fire Diamond
• 1 Gauntlet of Power
• 1 Gilded Lotus
• 1 Hazoret's Monument
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Mana Vault
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Paradox Engine
• 1 Phyrexian Altar
• 1 Ruby Medallion
• 1 Skullclamp
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 Sword of Feast and Famine
• 1 Thran Dynamo
• 1 Vanquisher's Banner
• 1 Worn Powerstone

• Lands (35)
• 30 Mountain
• 1 Forgotten Cave
• 1 Hanweir Battlements
• 1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Temple of the False God

Buy This Deck

I included Paradox Engine because I like how it pairs with mana rocks to cast more spells and how it pairs with Krenko. In fact, I excluded a lot of durdly spells like Hordeling Outburst and Krenko's Command because every spell is a Krenko's Command with Krenko and Paradox Engine. Play spells, untap rocks, play more spells — you really benefit from having a ton of mana post-combat. If you don’t like the Engine, there’s actually nothing really devoted to it and nothing else so stripping it out doesn’t force a partial rebuild like it would in other decks. You’ll still play Gilded Lotus regardless and you’ll still play Krenko. Paradox Engine is gravy in this deck rather than the main course and I like that.

I could have included a lot more Threaten effects than I did but I included a lot. Mob Rule is an Insurrection half the time and Insurrection is Insurrection all the time. Without a way to copy or buy back Threaten spells, I hate to waste a whole slot on something I will use once (Captivating Crew is my favorite 75% Ixalan card! Do you see me leaning on it a lot? I love it.) so I tend not to play ones that don’t reach far like Mob Rule, but Kari Zev's Expertise is worth a slot if you must run a Threaten. Getting a free mana rock is very tempting early since We want to be ramping big.

I don’t have having more Altars in the deck, but there aren’t a ton. Add Skullclamp to turn Gobbos into cards instead or Altar of Dementia to punish Blue players for drawing a ton of cards. You know how much I love Trading Post so jam that if you want to. The sac subtheme is mostly there to fuel our other aims and not give back borrowed creatures. Goblin Bombardment is calling my name. Got room for it? Bombs away!

Did I forget something major or include something terrible? Let me know in the comments section. I love ideas on how we can cheat — which triggers can we double and how? How do we steal more creatures, more spells, wipe more of the board? Are you adding any new cards when they come out to a build like this? Thanks for reading, everyone. Until next time!