Welcome back, lore seekers! Today I'm going to be talking about one of my favorite characters in all of Magic, and one of the most tragic: Slobad, Iron Goblin. Slobad was one of the heroes of the original Mirrodin block, and like Glissa Sunseeker has been turned in service of New Phyrexia. Let's dive in!

Who is Slobad

Slobad, Iron Goblin by Chris Seaman

Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer was Glissa Sunseeker's very first ally in her fight against Memnarch. When her home was destroyed by Levelers, she gets caught in one of the machine's blades and dragged back to their cave. Hiding out in the cave is a timid, but friendly goblin named Slobad, who helps heal her wounds and brings her to the Taj-Nar, the Ancient Den for proper healing (at great personal cost, he was not treated well by the leonin, and that's an understatement). We learn he was born under the Eye of Doom, the goblin term for Mirrodin's Blue sun, and was ordered by the goblin shamans to be put to death. Abandoned instead, he was adopted by the leader of the Krark-Clan, a group of outcasts branded heretics for believing the account of Krark, a goblin who ventured into Mirrodin's core.

Slobad would go on to be Glissa, most stalwart ally and loyal friend, and they were joined by Bosh, Iron Golem, a disassembled golem from before Memnarch took control of Mirrodin. Slobad repaired the golem (as seen in his original art), but eventually Bosh was destroyed by the minions of Memnarch. Slobad himself is captured by Memnarch and forced to help construct a device that would transfer Glissa's nascent planeswalker spark to Memnarch, but in the final battle both Glissa and Memnarch are destroyed, and the spark (along with the souls of everyone on Mirrodin... it's a long story) were instead transferred to Slobad.

With Memnarch defeated, Karn, Silver Golem was able to return to the plane he had originally created. Rather than accept Karn's offer to be shown the ways of a planeswalker, Slobad gives up the spark, and the souls, to bring everyone back to live and return the original generation stolen by Memnarch to their home planes. In the aftermath, unfortunately, Slobad is eventually captured and compleated by New Phyrexia, viewing it as being with his friends now.

The Deck

When building this deck, I obviously wanted to include Mirran Goblins, but there was a hitch: my memory of how many goblin cards that might be useful in an artifact focused-deck wasn't reflected in reality. While I was able to find a lot, I needed something else to fill out the deck. Given that Slobad wants a steady supply of artifacts to crunch up with his ability, I ended up latching on to Modular. I wouldn't be doing any big sweeping combos in this deck, so Modular seemed like a good way to make the most of Slobad's ability, shifting counters from one creature to another while slowly building up mana for a few big drops.

Modular

There are around 11 cards in this deck with Modular. For those of you not around during the original Mirrodin, this is an ability that lets you shift +1/+1 counters from a creature with Modular to another artifact creature when it dies. Ideally, you want to shift between creatures with Modular, so you can build up a large number of counters. There are plenty of sacrifice outlets to let you do so in this deck, so don't be afraid to blow up your Modular creatures on a whim... or better yet, as a combat trick!

Slobad Engines

You may find yourself building your own little Rube Goldberg machine out of this deck. Let's talk a little bit about the finicky things! Ichor Wellspring and Mycosynth Wellspring are in here to be fodder for sacrifice outlets and provide a little value in exchange. They should be dying quickly. Any token goblins made by this deck are going to be targets for Skullclamp. Mimic Vat exists to create copies to be sacrificed - remember, token copies share the original's mana value. Get a high mana value artifact creature into the vat for value. Goblin Charbelcher should be activate whenever you can manage. Energy Chamber gets more counters on your modular creatures. Core Prowler is mostly a distraction, you're not going to win through infect here (although you might kill someone with Blightsteel Colossus), but proliferation on death is what we've after here. Furnace Celebration gets you value out of artifacts being destroyed, but remember Slobad mana can't pay for it. Act of Aggression is here to steal you a troublesome opposing creature

Pyramid Schemes

Some of the cards in here are purely as get rich quick schemes. Cathodion gives you six mana when it dies to Slobad for a three mana investment. Similarly, Oxidda Golem and Sojourner's Companion should almost always be dirt cheap to play with high mana values for Slobad.

The Heavy Hitters

The purpose of this deck is to ramp up to big creatures quickly using Slobad's ability. Darksteel Forge makes all your artifacts indestructible, so that they only die when you want them to. Artificer's Dragon can provide a surprise overrun-like effect on your artifact creatures. The uses of Darksteel Colossus and Blightsteel Colossus are obvious big threats when they hit the board, which with the right set-up can happen on turns 5 or 6 in this deck. Phyrexian Triniform can hit the board, be sacrificed to Slobad, and encored on the same turn for a surprise twelve 3/3 Golems.

Wurmcoil Engine is great as part of the deck's recursion engine for value. Spine of Ish Sah can be sacrificed to pay for itself to double the fun. Note that while I don't include any infinite combos here, there's definitely potential if you can untap Slobad repeatedly. Bosh, Iron Golem is here to Fling that last bit of damage through. Steel Hellkite is here both as a sink for big mana made by Slobad, along with its ability to remove more troublesome permanents.

The Flavor Breaks

I couldn't build an artifact-focused Slobad deck without Slobad's spiritual successor, Daretti, Scrap Savant. Similarly, the goblin-artifact-reanimation package of Goblin Engineer, Goblin Welder, and Scrap Welder is impossible to pass up in a deck like this. The first two are even from Dominaria, so I give them more of a pass. Artificer's Dragon and Thran Spider are also both Dominarian artifacts, and provide useful mana sinks for Slobad, so I let them slide as well. The last break is Animation Module, which triggers every time a modular creature enters the battlefield or dies, allowing us to get some additional tokens in there. It's too much value to pass up.

The Decklist

Slobad, Iron Goblin | Commander | Jay Annelli

• Commander (1)
• 1 Slobad, Iron Goblin

• Creatures (36)
• 1 Arcbound Crusher
• 1 Arcbound Fiend
• 1 Arcbound Hybrid
• 1 Arcbound Overseer
• 1 Arcbound Ravager
• 1 Arcbound Reclaimer
• 1 Arcbound Slasher
• 1 Arcbound Stinger
• 1 Arcbound Tracker
• 1 Arcbound Whelp
• 1 Arcbound Worker
• 1 Artificer's Dragon
• 1 Blightsteel Colossus
• 1 Bosh, Iron Golem
• 1 Cathodion
• 1 Core Prowler
• 1 Darksteel Colossus
• 1 Duplicant
• 1 Exuberant Fuseling
• 1 Goblin Engineer
• 1 Goblin Welder
• 1 Junk Diver
• 1 Kuldotha Forgemaster
• 1 Myr Retriever
• 1 Oxidda Golem
• 1 Phyrexian Triniform
• 1 Scrap Trawler
• 1 Scrap Welder
• 1 Scrapyard Recombiner
• 1 Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer
• 1 Sojourner's Companion
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Steel Hellkite
• 1 Thran Spider
• 1 Workshop Assistant
• 1 Wurmcoil Engine

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 1 Daretti, Scrap Savant
• 1 Karn, Living Legacy

• Instants (1)
• 1 Act of Aggression

• Sorceries (7)
• 1 Gleeful Demolition
• 1 Kuldotha Rebirth
• 1 Mana Geyser
• 1 Red Sun's Zenith
• 1 Scrap Mastery
• 1 Trash for Treasure
• 1 Whipflare

• Enchantments (1)
• 1 Furnace Celebration

• Artifacts (13)
• 1 Animation Module
• 1 Churning Reservoir
• 1 Darksteel Forge
• 1 Energy Chamber
• 1 Goblin Charbelcher
• 1 Ichor Wellspring
• 1 Krark-Clan Ironworks
• 1 Mimic Vat
• 1 Mirrorworks
• 1 Mycosynth Lattice
• 1 Mycosynth Wellspring
• 1 Skullclamp
• 1 Spine of Ish Sah

• Lands (39)
• 38 Mountain
• 1 Great Furnace

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March On!

This will be it for my Phyrexia: All Will Be One content, but except to see a LOT of flavor articles relating to March of the Machine as we near release!