It is time to conclude the tale of Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer and his journey from being a simple lowly goblin to becoming a grand artificer and commander of his own army.
Of course, a Commander’s work is never done. I will continue to improve, adapt and play with Slobad’s deck as time goes on. But were I to continue writing pieces relating to the evolution of the deck then I fear all they would contain from here on would be battle reports and lists of deck modifications. This isn’t the most exciting thing in the world to read, or indeed to write, and so I feel it is right that I bring this tale to a close.
I started this project back in April of this year, with the intent of creating myself an EDH deck all of my own, from scratch, trading lots and spending as little money as possible. And I think you will agree, it’s been a fantastic success. I would like to thank all of you who took the time to read any or all of my Slobad posts over the last 4 months. I have really enjoyed writing this series and I just hope it made for a good read!
Incase you missed any of Parts 1-5, here are the links:
Part 1: Of Generals and General Plans
Part 2: Grand Trading
Part 3: Testing the Metal
Part 4: In Hindsight
Part 5: Goblin Games
And to finish, here is the full decklist as it currently stands. This list will be kepy fully up-to-date, so if you were to check back in the future you will be able to see all the changes that have been made since!
General:
Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer
Artifacts:
Creatures – Pilgrim’s Eye, Solemn Simulacrum, Kuldotha Forgemaster, Thopter Assembly, Myr Battlesphere, Pentavus, Platinum Angel, Bosh, Iron Golem, Darksteel Colossus, Blightsteel Colossus, Myr Retriever, Mycosynth Golem, Arcbound Reclaimer, Duplicant
Ramp – Everflowing Chalice, Wayfarer’s Bauble, Expedition Map, Sol Ring, Mycosynth Wellspring, Pristine Talisman, Darksteel Ingot, Gilded Lotus, Dreamstone Hedron
Removal – Oblivion Stone, Lux Cannon, Spine of Ish Sah, Goblin Charbelcher, Predator, Flagship
Draw – Ichor Wellspring, Temple Bell, Seer’s Sundial, Chromatic Star, Staff of Nin, Howling Mine
Equipment – Darksteel Plate, Argentum Armor
Other – Clock of Omens, Cloud Key, Mimic Vat, Unwinding Clock, Myr Turbine, Mirrorworks, Salvaging Station, Darksteel Forge, Crystal Ball, Voltaic Key, Trading Post, Mindslaver, Rings of Brighthearth, Sculpting Steel
Red/Other spells:
Trash for Treasure, Chaos Warp, Magmaquake, Blasphemous Act, Chain Reaction, Earthquake, Slagstorm, Mizzium Mortars, All is Dust, Hellkite Tyrant
Planeswalkers:
Karn Liberated
Lands:
12 Mountains, Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle, Smoldering Crater, Forgotten Cave, Ghitu Encampment, Madblind Mountain, Great Furnace, Keldon Megaliths, Temple of the False God, Phyrexia’s Core, Inkmoth Nexus, Grixis Panorama, Jund Panorama, Naya Panorama, Mystifying Maze, Buried Ruin, Reliquary Tower, Tectonic Edge, Darksteel Citadel, Vesuva, Glimmerpost, Cloudpost, Urza’s Factory, Urza’s Mine, Urza’s Tower, Urza’s Power Plant, Thespian’s Stage
The thing I really love about this deck is that, even after having it for some time, I still find myself discovering new combos.
The deck does suffer from being vulnerable to attacks from swarms of smaller creatures in the early game, but I usually have some long-game plan to work with and once I get going I’m usually able to get an overwhelming number of artifacts into play.
There aren’t really many specific cards I feel I need to talk about here, the deck is more about the numerous interactions. Listing each potential combination would be tedious at best, so I’ll leave it to you to look and imagine. But there are a couple that could possibly benefit from a few words…
I’m fairly certain that Rings of Brighthearth may well be the most breakable card not yet banned in the format, here alone it enables so many powerful plays.
There is often debate over whether Blightsteel Colossus is a “fair” card to use in EDH. As far as I’m concerned, he can be exiled, he can be blocked, and if I manage to drop him and kill every single person at the table with this one creature over a number of turns, then thats a perfectly reasonable way to win a game.
I’ve promised my usual playgroup that I will never use Karn Liberated‘s ultimate ability. He’s here for two reasons, first because I like having a planeswalker in each of my EDH decks (and the red ones are all pretty terrible given the format!) and secondly he is an excellent source of (potentially repeatable) colourless removal.
