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Ib Halfheart and The Expendables

Commander / EDH Aggro Combo Goblins Mono-Red Tribal

Ashen0ne

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Creature (22)

Sorcery (10)

Artifact (14)

Land (33)

Planeswalker (1)

Commander (1)

Commander: foil Ib Halfheart, Goblin Tactician

Enchantment (13)

Instant (6)

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Creature (1)

Hello and welcome to the madhouse!

Before I begin I want to give a big shout out to Liquidbeaver and his Ib Halfheart, Goblin Sac-tician deck. If you haven't seen it yet do yourself a favor and go check it out. It's one of the most entertaining primers I have ever read. Give it some love with an upvote and, while you're at it upvote this one too if you like how it looks!

Ib Halfheart, Goblin Tactician is perhaps one of the most unorthodox choices to head a goblin army. In fact you might even say he's downright bad at first glance. Any time a goblin of yours is blocked he detonates and deals 4 damage to every creature that blocked it. Alternatively we can also sacrifice two of our lands to create two 1/1 Goblin minions to serve in our suicidal cause. Impressed yet? No?

I'll admit he isn't as good at making a huge token army as Krenko, Mob Boss . He can't dish out damage as quickly as a Purphoros, God of the Forge . Being overly aggressive like a Grenzo, Havoc Raiser isn't wise because we can't rely on combat tricks or even first strike to keep our little friends alive when they explode like grenades the moment they are blocked. (There are other goblin commanders out there but those are the 3 I see most often)

So looking at our other options its easy to think that Ib can't stack up. At 4 cmc he is double the cost of Grenzo, and equally costed when compared to Krenko and Purphoros. All 3 of those have more obvious pay offs for the investment and so we have to ask ourselves: Why choose Ib Halfheart, Goblin Tactician at all? Allow me the opportunity to show you.

Ib Halfheart, Goblin Tactician s triggered ability that kills every goblin that becomes blocked can be a serious bummer... until we embrace that fact and build the deck accordingly. If you've read Liquidbeaver's primer than you might already understand the interactions between that ability and the stack. You don't just lose your little goblins automatically once blockers are declared, no no no. You have an opportunity in that moment, a window in which you've got options depending on what's on board.

Goblin Sledder is perhaps one of the funniest of those options. Your opponent might not be willing to allow a 1/1 to deal 4 damage to one of his precious creatures so he could make the mistake of leaving one unblocked, assuming that taking 1 damage is better than losing his own critter. Ib's ability goes on the stack as your fearless monsters are declared blocked but that's not all. Goblin Sledder can still respond and you can instead sacrifice those who would die anyway to buff the one that got through. If he happens to have an Illusionist's Bracers attached that means that he can give a +2/+2 buff for every goblin sacrificed this way.

It hasn't happened yet but I dream of the day I can kill someone with commander damage because they left Ib unblocked... It will happen. I'm sure of it.

Everything is Expendable

Hopefully by now I've at least piqued your interest in Ib as a commander. You're still reading so I must have done something right. Now lets talk about something FUN

Repercussion has been a powerhouse in Red EDH decks for a while now. Burn their creatures, deal damage to the opponents at the same time. Literally no downside there. It's place in this deck is obvious. If our opponent blocks even 1 little 1/1 goblin they would take 4 damage. Those kinds of options usually lead to them not blocking at all... But we can't be having that. Our Goblin's want to die with glory!

Enter Nemesis Mask a nifty little equipment that sees very little use in combat decks. Not much to be gained from forcing everything to block 1 creature. Unless that one creature explodes and deals 4 damage to each of the opponents creatures because of it. Attach this to one of our 1/1 Goblin Badasses and swing. If your opponent has 5 creatures repercussion will deal 20 damage to him by the time the smoke from our little grenade clears. That's half an opponents starting life total. With a 1/1

It's not just our creatures, however. Our lands are no exception to this rule and we run Crucible of Worlds for this very reason. Blowing up lands to make Goblin's isn't nearly as bad when you can replay those lands from the graveyard. Should Ib have Illusionist's Bracers on you'll get 4 tokens for every two lands. if Rings of Brighthearth is out you can float the mana from the two lands to pay for its ability to copy Ib's and sac them to make 4 as well. If both our out you can get 6! Do that with an Impact Tremors or a Purphoros, God of the Forge out and a lot of times you can just win.

Within this deck there is a wide array of path's with which you can win. This is by design because lets face it, Red is unpredictable. It lacks the tutors to be consistent and even with some artifacts and looting for card draw you might never see some of our more singular win conditions. With Ib Halfheart, Goblin Tactician you cant just play goblins and go. You have to think, you have to adapt. He's a goblin... with intelligence. Crazy I know.

Now lets look at some of our other options for winning, shall we?

Acidic Soil punish the green player for ramping so hard! Of course I say that when I frequently end up with more lands than they do... but that might just be their deck. If you don't want to hurt yourself you can always sacrifice your own lands in response.

Massive Raid can be used to a similar effect as Goblin War Strike Except it can be done on an opponents turn in response to them trying to win. Every tell someone who is about to go off that you'll kill them in response? It's hilarious.

Vicious Shadows is a late game play but man can it do work. Our Goblin's die. Like... a lot.

Goblin Goliath Not only looks like a beast but also has a great ability that allows you to double all damage done for the turn. And its activated so you control when that benefit is going to happen. I've even done it when two people swung at each other with big creatures so Repercussion would kill them. >.> Sometimes a goblin just has to finesse it, you know?

Shared Animosity makes our little goblins into big goblins. There's some nifty interaction here with Cavalcade of Calamity and Raid Bombardment . The moment your goblins are declared as attackers they are still 1/1's. Which means both of those enchantments can trigger to drain your opponents life totals away. Then Shared Animosity comes in and makes them huge!!!

Purphoros, God of the Forge and Impact Tremors are an option as well. Its the most expected play for a goblin deck for a reason. It friggin' works.

There's more but I encourage you to play the deck and find some of them for yourself. Like any good carnival ride simply explaining it isn't enough. You gotta saddle up and get on that thing yourself to truly understand

Goblins are great but sometimes you need utility. Below are a few of the creatures who, while not technically Goblin in shape or form, have been accepted at Ib's fire.

Imperial Recruiter : Tutors in red are hard to come by. He's too good not to have.

Burnished Hart because we need mountains, man. This guy can fetch us 2 with a minor investment. Give him Illusionist's Bracers and he gets us 4. Copy it with Rings of Brighthearth and he can get us 6!

With that in mind we also have Surveyor's Scope If all 3 opponents don't have two more than you sac your mountains to make goblins until they do and go get more. If you happen to have a fetch land out you can even crack that and have it floating on the stack when you activate it. It can be copied with Rings of Brighthearth too, which means you can go get up to 7 lands if you also cracked a fetch! Oh AND they come in untapped. In case you weren't sold already. Who said red can't ramp?

Moggcatcher is a human that cares about making sure our goblins come to the party. They can be cowardly by nature after all. Ib needs assuarances.

Magus of the Moon because our opponents should learn that red is awesome anyway. He's here to educate.

And that's all for now folks! This was my first attempt at writing up anything even remotely similar to a primer so I hope I didn't bore you too much! Please post any suggestions or comments and if you enjoyed the deck, or the read leave an upvote! Suggestions are always welcome. Teamwork makes the dream work. We improve by embracing one another's ideas.

Currently working on acquiring Snow-Covered Mountain s so that I can run Glacial Crevasses for some political shenanigans. Also debating on re-adding Mycosynth Lattice for the lulz. Goblin Wizard is a test right now to see if she might be useful in getting around Experimental Frenzy 's no playing cards from hand clause.

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Revision 4 See all

(4 years ago)

Top Ranked
Date added 5 years
Last updated 4 years
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)

6 - 0 Mythic Rares

39 - 0 Rares

22 - 0 Uncommons

11 - 0 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 2.84
Tokens Emblem Daretti, Scrap Savant, Goblin 1/1 R
Folders My builds
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