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The Strongest Family In Magic || Krenko [PRIMER]

Commander / EDH* Aggro Combo Goblins Infinite Combo Mono-Red Primer Tokens Tokens

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Goblins (28)

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Commander: foil Krenko, Mob Boss

Combo (9)

Sacrifice (7)

Lord (5)

Token (5)

ArtifactRemoval (3)

Counter (1)

Maybeboard

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This deck has been on quite a journey. It all started out as a Purphoros, God of the Forge budget deck from the youtube channel: Budget MTG Decks. After a good while the deck has changed into the monstrosity it is today. If you plan on making this deck I have to warn you, both Krenko, Mob Boss and a few other cards in the deck will draw hate. The deck itself is a pretty standard aggro token deck, it does contain quite a few ways to go infinite both with and without Krenko. However, you do not need to go infinite to win. But if you don't find infinite combos fun you should probably look somewhere else.

This is my first primer so it might not be the best. That beeing said, I have put a lot of time into this so I hope that you will find it helpful. Feel free to leave a comment if there are something that you feel that is missing.

The Lords

These guys buffs the other guys.

The "Rampers"

These guys makes stuff cost less, cost nothing or makes mana.

The Dept Collectors

These are the guys that bring the hurt! Weirdly enough they're all named Tim.

The Rabbits

These guys provide the goblins.

Card Draw | Really Nothing Funny About It

Tutors and draw, pretty straight forward really.

The Cleaning Service

If something is in need of removing, these guys will do the trick.


The game plan for this deck is pretty straight forward. Make a lot of tokens and go wide or infinite.
The main problem with Krenko is that he is a pretty well known commander and the decks that he is usually piloting are on the stronger end. This deck is not an exception, so if your playgroup don't know to hate him yet they might after you play this a few times.
This makes it so that you will start with the handicap of being the arch-enemy in most games. Therefor it is important to hit the ground running with this deck. Where I'm of the belief that it is always smart to keep a ow profile when playing commander, I feel like this seldom works with this deck since it usually wins out of nowhere. So, where does this leave us?

HASTE:

The deck should have enough ways to go of fast where being a target shouldn't be to big of a problem. The things that you should look for early game is stuff that gives goblins haste early:

These all cost 3 mana or less, and are easy to get out fast. Ogre Battledriver, Urabrask the Hidden and Anger are also haste-makers but they are a bit slower and are therefore better as backups if any of the other cards are removed by pesky naysayers.

The reason you want haste is because haste is the fist thing you need to start doing degenerate things with Krenko. If you have Krenko, haste, a sac outlet and mana-generating you can "hard cast, infinite" Krenko. I will tell you how in the "Combo"-Panel underneath. And it helps with generating tokens and attacking faster. The keyword in this deck is fast if you haven't noticed yet.


MANA:

The next thing you need early is a way to make mana. Feel free to refer to the ""Rampers"" in the "Meet The Family"-Panel for this part. The two best cards for this will have to be Skirk Prospector and Ashnod's Altar in that order. This is because they are both low mana cost and they double up as sacrifice outlets. Skirk Prospector is easily the best card in the deck next to Krenko himself. It works as a combo enabler in many of the infinite combos of the deck.

You probably don't need me to tell you why mana is good to have early. This deck do needs it more than most decks however. The reason for this is that almost all of the combos needs a way to generate mana from the goblins you make with Krenko. It is also important to go fast since most eyes will be on you for the duration of the game, so need to go of is huge. Red is also one of the colors where ramp is hardest to come by. This is why we try to come by mana in other places. BTW! Sol Ring is obviously a snap-keep!


SAC OUTLETS:

The third thing you should have early is sacrifice outlets. The reasons for this are plentiful, the most prominent being combo. A few of the ways to go infinite requires a way to kill off one or more creatures. There is also always good to have a way to kill or remove your own stuff in any game of commander. This is because some people like to play theft effects, exile, etc. In these situations it would be better for you to kill your creature sending it to the graveyard and additionally generate some form of value, be that damage, mana or something else. These five sacrifice outlet cards are free and can be used instant speed:

You also have Siege-Gang Commander and Skullclamp, both of these cost mana to activate and will therefor be difficult to use to sacrifice a great number of creatures unless you have a way to make infinite mana. Note also that Skullclamp can only be activated/equipped sorcery speed


WINNING:

There are mainly two ways of winning which will occur consistently. Either you assemble one of the many comboes you have in the deck or you just power through and win by dealing a ton of damage. The comboes will be listed in the **COMBO** panel. When speaking about raw damage I will split it into making goblins and pumping damage, because you usually need both.

MAKING GOBLINS: There are a few cards that will make goblins or help Krenko make more goblins. First lets go over the cards that make goblins on their own.

Then there are the cards that will help Krenko to make goblins. These are cards that will help with activating Krenko's ability more than once each turn.



DEALING DAMAGE: These cards translate goblins directly into damage.



COMBO / GOING INFINITE: There are a few infinite combos in the deck that will win you the game. You will find these in it's own panel below titled _. These are combos that either makes it so that you can tap Krenko as many times that you please, combined with mass target-damage or mass haste. Or it will be some spescific combos like Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker or Conspicuous Snoop combos.


All of the Krenko combos in the deck lets you tap him to make goblins, then untap him, then tap him again.
This panel will be a little more broad and general rather than step by step combo tutorial.

The Sword, The Staff And... A Cape?:

These are the three equipment in the deck that you can equip to Krenko to let him untap. They are Sword of the Paruns, Thornbite Staff and Umbral Mantle. Sword of the Paruns and Umbral Mantle lets you pay to untap equipped creature while Thornbite Staff lets equipped creature untap when a creature is put in a graveyard.

These combos either require one of the two equippent that cost , equipped to Krenko and Mana Echoes, Skirk Prospector or Ashnod's Altar.
Or they need Thornbite Staff and any of the free sacrifice outlets such as Goblin Bombardment / Goblin Chirurgeon / Skirk Prospector / Ashnod's Altar.

Then you need a payoff, either something that gives mass haste or something that can let you trade goblins for damage. Goblin Bombardment, Purphoros, God of the Forge, Siege-Gang Commander (if you can generate mana) or Goblin Sharpshooter will do the trick.


Goblins Love To Brawl:

This one is a bit more tricky to actually make work, it uses Breath of Fury which lets you untap after combat and have another combat-step. This lets you untap Krenko and repeat this prosses. Breath of Fury says that you have to sacrifice the creature you attacked with but that's no problem when Krenko keep making more.

This combo has two requirements in addition to Breath of Fury. The first requirement is that if this is to go on you will have to have mass haste so that the new goblins can attack the same turn they were created.

The second requirement is that you will have to have a player to hit. This is were it gets troublesome. The creature with Breath of Fury attached has to deal combat damage to a player for it to trigger the untap. Since you will be attacking with 1/1 goblins without trample for the most part this means you will have to have a opponent without any blockers. But if this is the case you will have won.


Uno Mas:

This is not an infinite combo but it's fun so Im gonna mention it.
There are two cards that let you activate Krenko twice (++) each turn. In many cases this will be more than enough to win the old value race. The cards in question is Rings of Brighthearth and Helm of the Host

Rings of Brighthearth lets you pay to copy the activated ability of Krenko.

Helm of the Host makes a copy of Krenko at the start of combat. This means that for every turn Krenko is out with this equipped you will gain an additional copy of Krenko. This usually results in someone removing it straight away, or you winning. So quit dreaming about ten Krenko's... It's never gonna happen :(


Krenko Don't Need No Man:

THe title for this trick is very misleading, as it does indeed require quite a few men... or goblins in this case.
This combo will go infinite but it's not super reliable as it requires a good handfull of components, it is however very good to know about because it may pop up during longer games. The trick is to play Krenko, activate him, sacrifice him and play him again.

The trick requires a few goblins for Krenko to double. The number of goblins you need may wary depending on if you have Ashnod's Altar or not. But to be on the safe side I would say that you need seven goblins in total the first time you activate Krenko, or 14 if you have already activated him that turn. The idea is that you need to make a profit bigger than three each time you activate Krenko so that you can pay for commander-tax

Then you need a payoff and Skirk Prospector. The payoff can be in the form of direct damage such as Goblin Bombardment or mass haste such as Goblin Warchief. And Skirk Prospector so that you can make red mana to pay for Krenko.

You will need something that gives Krenko haste, this can be mass haste or just Krenko haste. Mass haste like Goblin Warchief etc. are better as they also work as a payoff, but Lightning Greaves will do the trick.

When you put all this together you will be able to, activate Krenko to get a number of goblins that will increase with more than two each time. Note that the number is tied to the cost of re-casting Krenko. Make sure that you have the right number of goblins before you start. Ironically math is a big part of playing goblins.
Now you can sacrifice Krenko and X amount of goblins to re-cast Krenko. Give Krenko haste and repeat the process. This is the combo that takes the most time to demonstrate but it is also maybe the only combo that won't make the rest of the table bitter over the fact that you play a Krenko combo deck.


There are a few combos in the deck that don't require Krenko himself, one of these are as fast as win turn 2. This however does not happen a lot so I would not classify this as a cEDH or anything like that. Cards to look out for when mulliganing however is Goblin Recruiter as this combined with three mountains or two mountains and Chrome Mox / Lotus Petal, as these will set up win turn 2 or 3. Another big combo-piece isKiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, there are a few combos including him. Now onto the combos.

THE FAST ONE:

This is the combo that draws the most hate, as this combo only really need one card to set up. And will at most take two turns, and can be excecuted as fast as turn 2. Im of course talking about the Conspicuous Snoop combo. This combo has two (ish) steps. Step 1: play Goblin Recruiter. Step 2: Win.
No but for real, its almost that easy.

The combo itself uses Goblin Recruiter, Conspicuous Snoop, Torch Courier, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and a payoff such as Skirk Prospector + Siege-Gang Commander. The combo requires five red mana in full, first two red then three red or five red if its done during one turn. NOTE: it is important that Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker is not in your hand when executing the combo.

STEP 1: Play Goblin Recruiter and stack the top of your deck with Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, Torch Courier and Conspicuous Snoop. So that the next card you draw is Conspicuous Snoop.

STEP 2: Draw Conspicuous Snoop and play it. Now you will show Torch Courier at the top of the deck, play this card and sacrifice it to give Conspicuous Snoop haste. This is important because now Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker will be the top card and Conspicuous Snoop will get it's activated ability but not it's haste.

STEP 3: Tap Conspicuous Snoop to make a copy of itself. The copy will also get Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker's ability and you can do this as many times you like. This is where you say "I do this infinite times!" and someone at the table says "Technically you can't do something an infinite number of times", so you go "... Ok, a million then". Now that you have a million (infinite) copies of Conspicuous Snoop, you then copy Goblin Recruiter, find Skirk Prospector and Siege-Gang Commander. Put Siege-Gang Commander first so that Skirk Prospector is the top card.

STEP 4: Win, use Skirk Prospector to sacrifice half of your million goblins to make mana, then play Skirk Prospector so that Siege-Gang Commander is the top card and use the sacrifice ability to kill your opponents, who most likely have already started a new game without you.


THE HAND OF A WINNER: If your starting hand lookes like this you will win on turn 3 (if no one can stop it).
Mountain, Mountain, Mountain, Goblin Recruiter and three random cards that are NOT Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker.

THE HAND OF A REALLY FAST WINNER: If your starting hand lookes like this you will win on turn 2.
Mountain, Mountain, Goblin Recruiter, Chrome Mox, a red card (to exile to Chrome Mox) and two random cards that are NOT Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker.

THE ONE WITH KIKI-JIKI:

The two other combos with Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker is pretty straight forward so Im gonna start with the "hardest" one. It's not that difficult to get going but it's easy to trip up if you havent seen it before.
This is the Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Lightning Crafter combo. The combo requires Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, Lightning Crafter, a random goblin that is not Kiki-Jiki and a free sacrifice outlet such as Goblin Bombardment / Goblin Chirurgeon / Skirk Prospector / Ashnod's Altar.

STEP 1: Have a goblin on board that you can champion with Lightning Crafter when you play him. Have Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker on hand with enough mana to play both Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and Lightning Crafter. Or have Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker on board. Have a free sacrifice outlet on board.

STEP 2: Play Lightning Crafter and champion a random goblin, its important that this is not Kiki-Jiki or your sacrifice outlet.

STEP 3: Copy Lightning Crafter with Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and when the copy enters the battlefield, champion Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker.

STEP 4: Tap Lightning Crafter to deal 3 damage to a player and then sacrifice it to the free outlet. Now Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker will come back to the battlefield untapped.

STEP 5: Repeat the prossess of copying Lightning Crafter and championing Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker to deal enough damage to kill all your opponents.

STEP 6: WIN, usually you can demonstrate the loop and the table will conciede.

THE OTHER ONE WITH KIKI-JIKI:

Yup it's another one with Kiki-Jiki. After refining the deck I've understood why some tables simply ask "Do you play Kiki-Jiki in the deck?", and then refuse to play with you if you say yes... It's a good card.

This combo is pretty much the same idea as the last one but it is a little bit easier to set up. It's basically the knock-knock jokes of combos.
For this combo you will need Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, Zealous Conscripts and sometimes you will need Goblin Bombardment. This is needed if there is a card that stops you from attacking. Something like Ghostly Prison or Blazing Archon.

STEP 1: Have Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker on board and play Zealous Conscripts.

STEP 2: When Zealous Conscripts enters the battlefield gain control of Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, this will untap Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and you can keep making copies.

STEP 3: WIN. If your table havent scooped yet they must not have played against this deck before. However, you win by attacking with your infinite (yes infinite) Zealous Conscripts or by sacrificing them to Goblin Bombardment to deal direct damage to the face.


TIP 1: Be a nice guy

For real, alot of people bear a grudge over this type of deck and for a good reason. Don't make enemies over this dumb deck. It's not worth it.
It's a powerful deck with minimal amounts of interaction. So don't bring it to a low powered table where people play minotaur-tribal. It makes for boring games where one player steamrolls the rest of the table.

TIP 2: Talk with the table

Talk with the table beforehand. This is especially important if you play with new people or random people at you local gamestore. A lot of players have different oppinions on different gamestyles and one of the ones most people are against that I have encountered are combo and annihilator. So make sure that you tell people that the deck includes combos. This may make you the target that game, but its much better than making people mad and/or bitter and beeing the target for the rest of the evening. Trust me, it's not fun to try to make up for playing this deck. Just for everyone to gang up on you when you play your grouphug deck.

TIP 3: Be open for compromise

Me and my playgroup have gone through several iterations of trying to make games more balanced. This isn't always the solution but in some cases it lets you play the deck you want and lets the rest of the playgroup have fun with their decks. Examples of this is add "Cycle " to Ruination so that you don't have a dead card when playing against multicolored meme-decks. Another example can be to set a "cap" on loops per turn. Something like, if something is true infinite you can only repeat it three times each turn.

I know this isn't for everyone but it can be a way to have less feelbad moments with your friends.

TIP 4: Bring another deck

There is only a set amount of times people will want to watch you win turn two and three before they ask you to play something else, or just say they're tired and pack up. I have also more than once had people not letting me join if I play my Krenko deck, this beeing people who haven't seen the deck or played with me before. This also goes back to Tip 1, unbalanced games arent fun for anyone. So bring at least one other deck if you are unsure of who you are going to play.

TIP 5: HAVE FUN AND WIN SOME GAMES

Read the title again.

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Casual

93% Competitive

Date added 8 years
Last updated 1 year
Legality

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

6 - 0 Mythic Rares

36 - 0 Rares

17 - 0 Uncommons

6 - 0 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 2.95
Tokens Copy Clone, Enchantment Golem 3/3 C, Goblin 1/1 R, Treasure
Folders Mine Deck, Quest for the mono, Vaulted
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