Best Goblin Cards for Commander: 18 Budget Picks That Hit Way Above Their Weight

Goblins are the cockroaches of Magic. They've been around since Alpha, they show up in almost every set, and no matter how many times you think you've dealt with them, more keep coming. In Commander, that persistence translates into one of the most explosive and surprisingly competitive kindred strategies in the format.

The best part? Most of the good ones cost pocket change.

The Commanders Worth Knowing

Krenko, Mob Boss

Krenko, Mob Boss is the most obvious choice and honestly still the best for pure goblin tribal. Tap him, double your goblin count. Do it again next turn. The math gets stupid fast. Start with three goblins on the field, tap Krenko, now you have six. Next turn, twelve. The turn after that, you're swinging with twenty-four bodies and the table is trying to figure out what went wrong.

He costs around $3 for the cheapest printing, which is wild for how much he takes over games.

Muxus, Goblin Grandee

Muxus, Goblin Grandee plays differently. Six mana, flip the top six cards of your library, put every goblin with mana value 5 or less directly onto the battlefield. In a dedicated goblin deck, you're usually hitting three or four creatures off that trigger. Sometimes you hit a Goblin Chieftain and everything has haste and your opponents are just dead.

Muxus costs a bit more to cast but the payoff is so high that people will save removal specifically for him. That's fine. Your other goblins are still doing work.

The One-Drops That Actually Matter

Skirk Prospector

Skirk Prospector sacrifices a goblin for one red mana. That sounds like a bad deal until you realize this enables most of the broken things goblin decks do. Infinite mana with Gravecrawler and a way to get it back? Check. Saccing tokens to power out a big spell two turns early? Check. It's a combo piece, a ramp source, and a sacrifice outlet all in one card that costs a dime.

Goblin Lackey

Goblin Lackey swings in on turn two and drops a Muxus, Goblin Grandee onto the battlefield for free. Or a Siege-Gang Commander. Or whatever the nastiest goblin in your hand happens to be. The ceiling on this card is absurd and the floor is "they had to waste a blocker on your one-drop," which is still fine.

Goblin Chirurgeon

Goblin Chirurgeon protects your important goblins by sacrificing a token to regenerate them. Keeping Krenko alive through a Blasphemous Act is worth any number of 1/1 tokens.

The Lords

Goblin Chieftain

Goblin Chieftain gives all your goblins +1/+1 and haste. Haste matters more than the pump in most games. Krenko needs to tap the turn he comes down, and Chieftain makes that happen. Three mana, does exactly what you need. Simple.

Goblin King

Goblin King gives +1/+1 and mountainwalk. Mountainwalk is weirdly relevant because almost everyone at the table is running at least a few mountains, and if they're not, you're still getting an anthem for two cents.

Goblin Trashmaster

Goblin Trashmaster pumps your team and doubles as artifact removal. Sacrifice a goblin, blow up an artifact. In Commander, there's always an artifact worth killing. Sol Ring, Swiftfoot Boots, somebody's Skullclamp. Having removal stapled to a lord is hard to argue with.

Token Makers

Goblin Instigator

Goblin Instigator enters and brings a friend. Two goblins for two mana, no conditions, no hoops. Doubles your Krenko count for almost nothing.

Beetleback Chief

Beetleback Chief does the same thing but better. Four mana, three bodies. Every token matters when Krenko is on the field or when you're feeding Goblin Bombardment.

Siege-Gang Commander

Siege-Gang Commander brings three tokens and then lets you sacrifice goblins to deal two damage to any target. Five mana is a lot, but the card does everything. Board presence, removal, reach to close out games when the combat step isn't getting there. One of those cards that's been good since the day it was printed and never stopped.

Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin

Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin is the other Krenko, and he works differently. He makes tokens when he attacks, based on his power. On his own that's one token per swing, which is fine but not exciting. Slap an equipment on him or pump him once and the numbers start climbing. He's cheaper to cast than Mob Boss and doesn't need to tap, which makes him more resilient to removal.

The Combo Pieces

Goblin Bombardment

Goblin Bombardment is a free sacrifice outlet that deals damage. Sacrifice a goblin, ping something for one. With enough tokens, you just machine-gun the entire table. It's also your insurance policy against board wipes. Someone casts Wrath of God? In response, sacrifice everything and throw 15 damage at their face. It's an enchantment, so it's harder to remove than most of your creatures, and it costs two mana.

Goblin Recruiter

Goblin Recruiter searches your library for any number of goblins and stacks them on top in whatever order you want. This is how you set up Muxus, Goblin Grandee to hit perfectly. It's also how you guarantee a specific answer for the next few turns. Tutoring in red is rare. Take advantage of it.

Goblin Matron

Goblin Matron searches for one goblin and puts it in your hand. Less flashy than Recruiter but more consistent. Need the combo piece? Go get it. Need the lord? Go get it. Three mana to find exactly what you need is strong in any color, and red doesn't get this effect often.

The Finishers

Shared Animosity

Shared Animosity isn't a goblin itself, but it wins more goblin games than almost any other card. Whenever a creature attacks, it gets +1/+0 for each other attacking creature that shares a type with it. Swing with ten goblins and each one is hitting for +9. That's 100 damage on the board from creatures that were individually 1/1s.

Under a dollar. Genuinely unfair in any kindred deck, but especially goblins since you're almost always going wide.

Pashalik Mons

Pashalik Mons deals one damage whenever a goblin you control dies. That includes tokens. Board wipe your own team of twenty goblins and that's 20 damage spread however you like. It also makes a goblin token when another non-token goblin dies, so it keeps the engine running even through removal.

Impact Tremors

Impact Tremors deals one damage to each opponent whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control. In a deck that routinely puts ten or fifteen creatures onto the field in a single turn, this is often a faster kill than attacking. Two mana enchantment that sits there and turns every Krenko activation into a burn spell.

Building on a Budget

A fully functional goblin Commander deck runs about $30-40 if you're being smart about printings. Most of the cards listed here are under $1, and the ones that aren't are still under $5. That's one of the real strengths of goblins as a tribe. The expensive cards like Dockside Extortionist are nice to have but absolutely not required. The budget versions of these decks can hold their own at casual tables without breaking a sweat.

If you're building your first Commander deck or just want something that's fast, fun, and surprisingly powerful, goblins are hard to beat. Throw in some generic red staples like Lightning Bolt and Chaos Warp, a decent mana base of mountains and a few utility lands, and you're ready to go.