Hello everyone! It's been a long time since my last real update, but I wanted to get in here and at least update the list. Primer update to come later!

Additions

Conspicuous Snoop: Pretty self explanatory, just a solid card for digging and comboing off.

Muxus, Goblin Grandee: Such a strong card that I focused on adding more goblins just so I could take advantage of this and Snoop more often. Combos especially well with Goblin Recruiter. The CMC is high, but we have a lot of ways to freecast it, especially with the recent re-addition of Goblin Wizard.

Skirk Fire Marshal: This is a card I feel like was in my first list, and I took it out really early on because I was new to Magic and getting my ass kicked all the time, so losing 10 life was a death sentence. Now with all the damage doublers (and a new tripler!), as well as having several years with the deck under my belt, I think I can take advantage of this again.

Fiery Emancipation: For 1 colorless more than Gratuitous Violence you get triple the damage and it effects all sources too, not just creatures. The thought of Ibsplosions for 12, or a Goblin War Strike easily breaking 100 damage is just exciting. Time will tell if the CMC is just too high. I think this is strong enough that I would probably add more ramp before I cut this due to cost. Maybe this will bring about the return of Mana Echoes?

Mind's Eye: Giving this thing another chance. It's a staple draw card in EDH for a reason. Again the cost of this is high, so it may be replaced by Thrill of Possibility or something.

Removals

Sensei's Divining Top: This is top tier filtering, I don't doubt that whatsoever, but as far as gameplay clunkiness it is also top tier. Mind's Eye took this slot so I wouldn't go down in draw sources.

Insult / Injury: The card that is always the easiest gap filler is also always the easiest card to remove.

Fervor: This is out simply because it is one dimensional. I'm really starting to get a lot of multi-use cards, and more haste sources than before (and a lower need for haste in general), so this unfortunately doesn't make the cut anymore.

Tectonic Reformation: Not as good in practice as I would have hoped. I built all of the deck to try to get as many cards as possible directly into play, and with the very low land count I hardly ever have lands in hand to actually use this. It probably does a lot more in the budget version of the deck then it does this one.

Wild Ricochet: Very fun card, but not something you can count on using because it relies so heavily on what other people play. Would definitely consider putting this back in after more testing.

Other Cards I Am Curious About

Goblin Charbelcher: Always wanted to have this in as an alternate wincon. Even when it doesn't hit hard, it is still consistent, targeted damage I don't often get. Looking for a slot for this ASAP.

Destructive Digger: This seems strong. Does anyone have experience with it? Especially with Goblin Welder or Crucible this becomes a very good draw engine. Also on the short list to be added.

Dockside Extortionist: I think this card has potential, but I am still leery about how it actually plays out. Potentially better than Mana Echoes though. Hilarious in decks with Mycosynth Lattice.

Molten Echoes: I initially misread this and was like AUTOINCLUDE, but after turning on my reading comprehension I realized it was nontoken only. However I do have quite a few gobbos floating around in the deck now, but the potentially they aren't cast is still high. Hmmmm.

Deflecting Swat: Thoughts on this? Seems like a really solid card all around.

Well that's it for now. Hopefully I get to play this again soon for more testing. I might have to buy into it on MTGO just to get a bunch of rounds in....

Let me know what you think about the changes!

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the modified build once it has had some run. I don’t play my Ib deck as often as I would like because it can be overpowered for my playgroup. The few times I have played Tectonic Reformation I didn’t get any value off it. Knowing it’s not just me, I probably have something else I’d like to try.

I haven’t tried Deflecting Swat in Ib but where I have played it, I have found it useful. Like Wild Ricochet, the usefulness depends on what your opponents do.

Thanks for sharing the update.

sdidonato: With how the deck is turning out in this iteration I think Goblin Ringleader may finally be a good fit. Going to try to find a place to test him in.

paytongamer: It will probably be a while before I can play it in person again, but as soon as I do I will definitely post my thoughts here

Liquidbeaver Yeah, I’ve been testing him out for some time. It’s happened where Goblin Matron + Ringleader allowed me to not get totally fizzled out by a board wipe, by keeping gobbos in the hand just in case.

Oops I meant Goblin Recruiter, not Matron

-1 Snow-Covered Mountain

-1 Madblind Mountain

+1 Arid Mesa

+1 Scalding Tarn

With the addition of Conspicuous Snoop, and the successful trial of Experimental Frenzy, having control over my own topdeck has become more important. Madblind does a decent job, mostly because of the Mountain subtype, but coming in tap can be a real detriment, mostly because we are running very land lean.

-1 Daretti, Scrap Savant

-1 Goblin Trashmaster

+1 Dockside Extortionist

+1 Deflecting Swat

So in an effort to get more ramp and interaction, I have to start cutting good cards that are just simply not strong enough.

For Daretti, although he is a great engine, in dozens and dozens of games I have only activated him twice a few times, so for his cost and the slot he takes up at least in my meta he isn't good enough.

For Trashmaster, in this deck his first ability doesn't matter hardly ever, and his second ability is good, but not 4 CMC and on a stick good.

I also would like to add Treasonous Ogre for more ramp (or maybe Chrome Mox instead?), and for some recursion Underworld Breach. Opinions on the current list and what feels like the "weakest" cards? I think I'm past the point of having bad cards now, and have to judge things on which is the "least good".

I just ordered 2 Tawnos's Coffin because it was way below market value, but I'm wondering if it might go well in here. It would syngergize well with Dockside Extortionist, Imperial Recruiter, Muxus, Goblin Grandee, Purphoros, God of the Forge, Goblin Recruiter, etc... you could even "exile" one of your creatures then Skirk Fire Marshal the world.

sdidonato: I've thought about bounce effects before, but I've also never had this many ETB effects before so it would definitely be more impactful now. My first instinct would be to use Conjurer's Closet for that effect, but at least in my meta I'm not sure the game would go long enough for me to get enough use out of it. If the Coffin didn't tap after the first creature, if it was instead as many as I could pay for in one go, I would absolutely run it.

There are a several cards in Zendikar Rising that will probably make it into the deck! Just a really, really solid set all around. Here are the all the auto-includes for me.

Nahiri's Lithoforming: This card has so much potential! Not only is it decent draw when you only sacrifice a land or two to it, but if you have Crucible of Worlds out this becomes downright ridiculous. Also another rare land sacrifice effect that sets us up for Acidic Soil and Price of Progress.

Valakut Exploration: Just a very strong draw engine, and also the cheapest repeatable effect we have access to that isn't symmetrical. Adding damage to each opponent on top of that is just icing on the cake.

Valakut Awakening  ^Flip: Card filtering (to the bottom of your deck mind you!) with a bonus draw and backside land is very strong.

Lithoform Engine: I'm on the fence about whether this is too costly of an effect, but there is no doubt it is strong, and fun too. We have many, many things of each category that can take advantage of this.

Are there any others you think I should consider?

Liquidbeaver - What cards would you cut for these auto-includes?

Rasaru Here is what I took out for Nahiri's Lithoforming,Valakut Exploration, and Valakut Awakening  ^Flip:

• Mind's Eye - I think Lithoforming and Exploration are both stronger cards in this deck.

• Torbran, Thane of Red Fell - While strong, with the addition of Fiery Emancipation and this being a damage increaser on a body, I think this is the weakest damage amplifier at the moment.

• Snow-Covered Mountainx1 - I will have to see how big the impact this has on my mulligans and draws. I've been able to more than double the amount of draw the deck had even a year ago, but I'm not sure if that is enough to cut the land count down any further.

• I've decided against Lithoform Engine for now.

With the potential of a Commander Legends to add a few more cards to this deck, namely Jeska's Will, Jeweled Lotus, and maybe Wheel of Misfortune I am looking for a few cards to cut.

As always it feels impossible.

I feel like the two weakest may be Goblin War Drums, and I never thought I would say this but Disrupt Decorum. Thoughts anyone?

I am also considering adding Goblin Engineer at that point to capitalize on Lotus, Crucible of Worlds for the interaction with Nahiri's Lithoforming, and all the artifacts I am likely to get with Dockside Extortionist.

Additionally, I completely forgot Cavalier of Flame was a thing. Might be a good finisher, especially with Fiery Emancipation in the deck.

Goblin War Drums feels like an appropriate cut. 3 mana and a spot in the 99 to give the field menace? Nothing wrong with it. I ask you (because you've shuffled up the deck a heck of lot more times than I have), how often was Menace the deciding difference in a game? The deck seems to be shifting a little more towards burn and if that is the case. . . .

I am excited to try out many of these new cards myself.

Boggart Shenanigans might be good. Can't tell if you've considered it.

paytongamer: In the last several revisions of the deck since I've added Goblin War Drums the Menace hasn't really been impactful because I am winning through something else that uses the Goblins as fuel. Along the same lines I barely get to use Goblin King's evasion, but he has a higher impact potential. It's rare that the damage being dealt by an unblocked Goblin is actually killing someone, it's more likely the Impact Tremors, Raid Bombardment, or Repercussion is doing it.

This is even more the case now with the recent additions of Skirk Fire Marshal, Valakut Exploration, and Massive Raid. I think if the deck focused more on Krenko, big mana with Goblin Warrens, and prioritized combat step damage, then Goblin War Drums becomes much more impactful. That has definitely been this deck at multiple times since I first built it, which just goes to show how flexible Ib is that you can tailor the deck to focus on so many different styles of play.

DBCooper: Shenanigans is good, especially because it can be tutored like any Goblin creature can, and can be freecast off of everything except Muxus, but I think the larger the table gets the less effective Shenanigans is. The same deck I was describing to paytongamer would do well with Shenanigans, a deck that just makes an obscene amount of tokens so it doesn't really matter than you are only hitting one player at a time because you have 250 Goblins to feed into it.

I like the deck but I recommand running a copy of Throne of the God Pharaoh, it inflicts damage directly to your opponents and its a card of good value

Hey there, I've been playing a deck inspired by this for almost 2 years now, and I was wondering what you thought about Toralf, the red god from Kaldheim, for this deck? Splashing the non-combat damage from Ib around seems very fun, as we're running repercussion anyways. What do you think?

TheApexHat That is awesome! It always makes me happy to hear that people have made their own Ib decks and that I had anything to do with inspiring it.

Toralf is exactly the type of card I love running. On top of potentially double-dipping with Repercussion you get to trigger Toralf with:

Pashalik Mons

Skirk Fire Marshal

Goblin Bombardment

Blasphemous Act - BIG one here

Massive Raid

Mizzium Mortars

Not to mention how much more likely we are to overkill a creature due to the damage doublers (and the one tripler).

Not sure what I will drop for it, but it is definitely making its way in. I haven't been able to review Kaldheim for includes yet, so thanks for the idea!

Hey Liquidbeaver,

First of all I love all this hahah. Ive played Krenko for years and at the end I was so fucking done with him. Seeing this list makes my heart go faster and in the mood to build goblins again.

I think the list is overall really solid, the only thing what worries me is you seem to rely HEAVILY on Crucible of World. What do you do when it gets exiled or even destroyed? It seems like if they just take out your crucible they basically take out your Ib.

Would really like to know this before I even start building :)

Thanks!

Ripwater

I can't speak about what Liquidbeaver does, but at least for me. I've learnt that sac'ing mountains (using Ib) is your game finisher/last resort or else you can be left with nothing while everyone is going off.

Ib finisher moves includes:

Attacking with a sea of globins using: Shared Animosity (self-explanatory) Goblin Sledder (pump up goblins that don't get blocked) Krenko, Mob Boss (moar goblins)

ETB effects / sac for damage: Impact Tremors Purphoros, God of the Forge Goblin Bombardment

Avoid dying Acidic Soil (Sac all your mountains, cast A. Soil, watch your opponents lose 7+ life [without any Fiery Emancipation type of multiplier]) while you only lose 1 or 2 life.

Ripwater: sdidonato is exactly right, saccing mountains is really only for when you make your final big move. 90% of the games I win aren't even through combat, they are through the ETB and sac effects either all at once, or by grinding everyone down.

The addition of Skirk Fire Marshal and Massive Raid on top of the core of Goblin War Strike , Impact Tremors , and Purphoros, God of the Forge really help to bring down several people a turn, which is especially important when you go all in on saccing your mountains.

Crucible is still a strong play, but I like to use it either slowly, or all at once with the amazing new Nahiri's Lithoforming . I still haven't gotten it off, but those two plus Valakut Exploration seem like a dream combo. Also Lithoforming/Crucible into Acidic Soil / Price of Progress and recovering all your lands is really strong and an absolute blast.

I think the the biggest thing that a lot of us that have some variation of the current deck would agree on is that one of its biggest strengths is that you just form a strat depending on what you draw, which is absolute must with mono-red because you have such a poor ability to fetch or tutor compared to other colors. Trying to build a precise combo sets you up for being slow and getting disrupted, so we just don't really do it.

It is also flexible enough to take it a different route and go infinite goblins/mana with things like Mana Echoes , Goblin Warrens , and the like, but as long as Ib is your commander you are a lot harder predict.

Recent Changes:

Vandalblast out for Jeska's Will - In an effort to make sure every card in the deck has something to do with either strengthening the battlefield or preserving my position on it, this one is just a bit weak, especially when it is the only effect out of 99 cards. So add more you say, then the effect won't be so rare! Then the combat strength is further diluted. Definitely a meta call, at the moment my meta doesn't have a lot of artifact heavy decks so this just sits in my hand a lot.

Experimental Frenzy out for Cavalier of Flame (TESTING)- I think that the need for Frenzy has lessened with the last few releases bringing so much draw that we can take advantage of. On top of that, I always dismissed Cavalier as just a dumb standard card which was a mistake because it is perfectly built for a deck like this. The only real test here is whether Frenzy is the card I cut for Cavalier, not whether Cavalier has a spot. Thoughts on a better cut?

Pending Changes:

Treasonous Ogre out for Toralf, God of Fury  ^Flip - I've cut and re-added this poor ogre so many times, and I've said that many times before, but when I feel so much of the deck is so solid than it is not about identifying which cards are weak, but which ones are the least strong (or just not fun enough!). Again, any better ideas for this cut?

I didn’t pay close attention to Kaldheim spoilers either. I saw there had been some chatter about Ib here but hadn’t taken the time to see what was up. I had the chance to really meet Toralf, God of Fury  ^Flip and then I knew what was up.

I love the changes.

I feel the same way about the improvements for card advantage in red. There are so many options available and if you going to add one it makes sense to cut one and see how it goes. You cut Frenzy and you add Jeska’s Will.

I struggle to find room for Vandalblast in a lot of my decks lately and I don’t remember the last time I was wishing I had one in hand. I think this is the right cut. I played my Nin, the Pain Artist ( Stuffy Doll / Brash Taunter ) deck tonight and was facing a deck running Sai, Master Thopterist and I was salivating as his board grew because I played Dockside Extortionist . Needless to say, I won this one.

I only run Ib occasionally with my current playgroup but I have yet to play a game where I have done anything gross with Treasonous Ogre. I WANT TO! It seems like a reasonable cut though.

I just got my copies of Tibalt's Trickery and Toralf, God of Fury  ^Flip. I am thinking about the revisions I will make and I am curious; how has Conspicuous Snoop been working out for you? I planned to give this card a go right away and then I didn't put in. Maybe because I am not running Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker .

Have you found good incidental value in having the Snoop out? Any specific interactions of note?