Gardens of the Van Rensselaer Manor House by Thomas Cole.

Saheeli, the Gifted by Ryan Pancoast. Thopter Token by Svetlin Velinov.

Anyone who's played Commander for any decent length of time has probably come across a Krenko, Mob Boss deck. If you want to play goblins, you usually go with Krenko, Zada, Hedron Grinder, or even one of the two Grenzos. I often just cut straight to the heart of the matter and would run my goblin decks with Purphoros, God of the Forge at the helm.

Old Krenko taps to double your Goblin army. Zada is more of a combo General, using cantrips to draw you a ton of cards so you can dig to a wincon. Grenzo, Dungeon Warden and Grenzo, Havoc Raiser are fun but are less goblin-focused than Krenko and Zada. Purphoros usually uses instants and sorceries to churn out creature tokens and he does love Goblins.

These guys are often found in each others' decks, but with War of the Spark we're about to be introduced to a new Krenko.

Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin seems to have a markedly different approach to creating Goblins. When New Krenko attacks, you put a +1/+1 counter on him and then create a number of Red Goblin creature tokens equal to his power. He starts out with 1 power and 2 toughness, so you've got some work to do if you want to build yourself the kind of army that could impress Old Krenko.

The 10,000 Foot View

Before we jump into specific cards, it's worth looking at what we're going to want to do with Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin. We'll start with the premise that you want to create as many Goblins as possible. That's usually what you want to do with Old Krenko, and New Krenko seems to have the same kinds of life goals.

We're going to want Krenko to attack. We'll want him to be as big as possible before he is declared as an attacker so we can make as many goblins as possible. That means we'll want him to be able to survive combat, which was never much of a concern for Old Krenko. Since we'll be trying to make Krenko big, it stands to reason that we'll want to give him evasion so that he can actually deal out some damage and maybe even kill an opponent with Commander Damage.

It's unlikely that Krenko is going to become your go-to choice for a deadly Commander Damage deck. When compared with the likes of Uril, the Miststalker, Bruna, Light of Alabaster or Narset, Enlightened Master, Krenko isn't going to seem that impressive. Today's column is a look at how to make the most of him, even if he probably isn't going to be the next great Voltron commander.

Gettin' Swol

Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin makes Goblins equal to its power when he attacks, so we're going to need to make him as big as possible. The bigger he gets, the more Goblins we'll get.

To pump him up, there are two things I'm not going to recommend. I'm not including any instant or sorcery spells as ways to pump up Krenko. Commander games can go long. An aura or a piece of equipment might be around long after the turn on which it is initially cast, but instants and sorceries usually only impact your game on the turn they are cast. For something like removal or a boardwipe, that's understandable, but for pump we can do better.

Hero's Blade is included because it will equip to Krenko automatically. The +3/+2 will give us an extra three Goblins, which isn't bad either, but the real benefit is its convenience. Tenza, Godo's Maul will also give Krenko +3 power and will give him trample. Trepanation Blade will mill our opponent until they reveal a land when we attack and we'll get +1/+0 for each card revealed that way. We could get a pump of +1 or a huge increase in power and if we're smart and stack this attack trigger before Krenko's attack trigger we'll also get an equal number of token Goblins on our battlefield.

Cards that will pump us a little in the early game and a lot in the late game are especially good in Commander. Blackblade Reforged will pump Krenko equal to the number of lands we control. Strata Scythe is also in the list and will count every Mountain on the battlefield. We'll benefit even more by caring about the number of creatures we control, so the last two pieces of equipment can really help out. Pennon Blade will give us +1/+1 for each creature we control and Stoneforge Masterwork will pump Krenko for each other creature we control that shares a creature type with him.

Firebreathing is an effect based on an aura of the same name that allows us to pump a creature +1/+0 for 1 Red mana as many times as we like. While we might not normally consider the "Firebreathing" effect to be a good use of our mana each turn, if we could pay a Red mana to pump a creature and get a 1/1 Goblin token it starts looking much better.

Stonewright has the Soulbond keyword and will pair with another creature as it enters the battlefield, giving both of them Firebreathing. We're also running the OG Firebreathing aura as well as Ghitu Firebreathing, but the best of these effects happens to be stapled to a Dragon. Moonveil Dragon will allow us to pump mana into it to pump all of our creatures +1/+0. With a big enough army, that can probably be a game ender.

Surviving Combat

Krenko doesn't come with the built-in Hexproof of Narset, Enlightened Master or Uril, the Miststalker, he isn't indestructible like Zurgo Helmsmasher and he's only got a toughness of two. If we want Krenko to survive combat he's going to need a little help.

Not only does Darksteel Plate indestructible, it will make Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin indestructible as well. Hammer of Nazahn will not only pump Krenko +2/+0 and make him indestructible, it will also let us cheat on our equip costs. Getting this Hammer out early could lead to some pretty big Goblin Armies if we draw into the right equipment. Shield of Kaldra is a bit of a pet card because it comes as part of a three card cycle. The Shield gives its bearer indestructible, Sword of Kaldra will give him +5/+5 and the Helm of Kaldra will give him first strike, trample and haste. With all three on the field, you can pay one mana and create a 4/4 colorless Avatar Legend creature token named Kaldra and attach all three pieces of equipment to it.

Being indestructible isn't the only way to survive combat. Fleetfeather Sandals, Cobbled Wings, Kitesail, and Magebane Armor can all give Krenko flying. Usually there will be an opponent without a flyer they're willing to block with. Hot Soup is an odd little piece of equipment that will keep Krenko from being blocked, but if the equipped creature is dealt damage, he'll be destroyed. We'll also usually have an opponent with at least one nonbasic land, so Trailblazer's Boots should let us swing freely at somebody.

Even if we're found a way to make Krenko indestructible and give him evasion, we've still got the issue of having opponents who would rather burn through some targeted removal than let us build our Goblin army. That's where hexproof comes in. If he can't be targeted, he won't soak up any Swords to Plowshares or Path to Exile. Swiftfoot Boots and Mask of Avacyn will help us out. One last resort will be Maze of Ith. We can use it to protect ourselves, or we can pull Krenko out of combat and keep him from taking damage from a blocker he can't deal with.

Closing Out Games

We may try to kill some of our opponents with commander damage, even if that's going to be a challenge, but we also need ways to close out a game with our army.

An army of ten to fifteen Goblins isn't unreasonable, though we'll be hoping for much more, but if they stay at 1 power they're not going to easily finish off a table. Goblin Chieftain, Goblin King, Goblin Trashmaster, and Metallic Mimic can each help pump up our army by +1/+1. Coat of Arms will turn an army of Goblins into a win but we'll need to be careful to not use it if there are any other tribal decks at the table. Purphoros, God of the Forge, Impact Tremors, and Warstorm Surge can all help to churn out some damage when our Krenko brings Goblin tokens into play.

With a haste enabler like Goblin Warchief and Urabrask the Hidden on the field, if we can get Aggravated Assault out, we can launch into extra turns and have our new Goblins attack. With a mana engine like Mana Echoes in play, we'll probably be able to swing until we've won the game. Mana Echoes can also be used to pump out damage with one of our Firebreathing auras.

The Decklist

While a little heavy on equipment, I think this list could wind up being a lot of fun to play in a casual meta. You'll live or die based upon your ability to swing with Krenko, but that's not uncommon with a deck like this.

Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin | Commander| Stephen Johnson

• Commander (1)
• 1 Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin

• Creatures (17)
• 1 Bloodmark Mentor
• 1 Brass Squire
• 1 Burnished Hart
• 1 Goblin Chieftain
• 1 Goblin King
• 1 Goblin Trashmaster
• 1 Goblin Warchief
• 1 Humble Defector
• 1 Iron Myr
• 1 Metallic Mimic
• 1 Meteor Golem
• 1 Moonveil Dragon
• 1 Ogre Battledriver
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Stonewright
• 1 Purphoros, God of the Forge
• 1 Urabrask the Hidden

• Instants (5)
• 1 Battle Hymn
• 1 Fork
• 1 Reiterate
• 1 Reverberate
• 1 Wild Ricochet

• Sorceries (3)
• 1 Blasphemous Act
• 1 Mana Geyser
• 1 Vandalblast

• Enchantments (7)
• 1 Aggravated Assault
• 1 Firebreathing
• 1 Ghitu Firebreathing
• 1 Impact Tremors
• 1 Madcap Skills
• 1 Mana Echoes
• 1 Warstorm Surge

• Artifacts (31)
• 1 Blackblade Reforged
• 1 Caged Sun
• 1 Coat of Arms
• 1 Cobbled Wings
• 1 Darksteel Plate
• 1 Extraplanar Lens
• 1 Fellwar Stone
• 1 Fleetfeather Sandals
• 1 Hammer of Nazahn
• 1 Hazoret's Monument
• 1 Helm of Kaldra
• 1 Hero's Blade
• 1 Hot Soup
• 1 Kitesail
• 1 Magebane Armor
• 1 Mask of Avacyn
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Pennon Blade
• 1 Prowler's Helm
• 1 Ruby Medallion
• 1 Shield of Kaldra
• 1 Skullclamp
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Stoneforge Masterwork
• 1 Strata Scythe
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 Sword of Kaldra
• 1 Sword of the Animist
• 1 Tenza, Godo's Maul
• 1 Trailblazer's Boots
• 1 Trepanation Blade

• Lands (36)
• 30 Mountain
• 1 Buried Ruin
• 1 Inventors' Fair
• 1 Maze of Ith
• 1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle

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I've included a bunch of Fork spells in this list because they're both useful as ways to deal with counterspells and as a way to hijack some of the more powerful spells your opponents might cast. If you find you're stuck dealing with a lot of Blue control decks, you might want to add in Red Elemental Blast, Pyroblast, and Burnout. Adding some wheel effects like Reforge the Soul might also be worth consideration.

Final Thoughts

If going to the Red zone and pumping your commander to make a ton of goblins sounds like a good time, this deck is for you. It's worth noting that I haven't included the original gansta, Krenko, Mob Boss, but if you aren't trying to focus as narrowly on New Krenko's line of play, Old Krenko would be an auto-include. He'll turn a meager Goblin army into a huge Goblin army, but if you include him you'll be tempted to include Umbra Mantle and Sword of the Paruns, and the next thing you know, you'll basically just have built Old Krenko instead of New Krenko.

I've built plenty of decks that went in too many directions at once, so with this list I've tried to stay focused. What would you do with Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin? Would you run a mix of Old Krenko, Zada and New Krenko tech or would you try to focus on one gameplan? Would you run Eldrazi Conscription and lean on your Mana Echoes or Skirk Prospector to make the mana to get it equipped?

Let me know if you see anything you I've missed in today's article. I'm far from a Goblin expert, and your comments often shed light on strategies and cards that I've left out, passed over, or wasn't that familiar with.

Thanks for reading and I'll see you next week!