Goblin Grenadier (PDH) (EDH / Commander)

Pauper EDH is an alternative 100-card format that uses any uncommon creature as the commander with the remaining 99 as commons.

Welcome to Grezkrick’s Emporium!

This mono-red deck has Arms Dealer as the commander. The idea is to churn out goblins on the board, apply pressure with combat damage and keep opponents in check with the commander.

The backbone of the deck is just a whole lot of goblins, appeals to some people, doesn't appeal others. Besides that there's a smattering of card draw, efficient removal, buffs for the gobbos as well as some disruption — mainly to combat combo decks.

I have yet to try the deck but I imagine playing Arms Dealer on curve is just going to get it removed before it can threaten removal in response. So establish a board of goblins first, deal damage where you can and then drop Arms Dealer once opponents have something to lose. But as mentioned the deck's untested, maybe you need Arms Dealer out earlier than I expect, whatever the case I think timing will be key.

For combat you can likely swing in, especially if you have menace through Goblin War Drums or Caterwauling Boggart. Whatever's blocked and won't trade can be sacrificed to the commander / Goblin Lookout / Goblin Chirurgeon / Goblin Sledder / Mogg Raider.

At the moment I've included cards like Prying Blade, Goldvein Pick, Seize the Spoils and Unexpected WIndfall as having treasures to threaten an activation of the commander strikes me as ideal, they may prove clunky in testing.

To close games out there's cards like Volatile Claws / Trumpet Blast, Crown of Fury and Burn Bright. Maybe the deck doesn't need it / can't afford win-more cards with the lack of card advantage. Testing will tell!

I'm also a bit unsure about First Day of Class, Tuktuk Rubblefort, Flame Rift, Burning Inquiry and Goblin Shrine.

Weaknesses of the deck are first and foremost boardwipes (Crypt Rats / Pestilence / Fiery Cannonade etc), our best hope is Goblin Caves but that's about it. Consider focusing whatever player's likely to have wipes in their deck. Another weakness is the form of removal we can't activate our commander in response to - counterspells. The final concern is the low card quality & low card advantage in the deck, throwing out 1 mana 1/1's is fine if you have the draw to support it but if you run out of steam there's not a lot that can get you going.

Thank you very much for reading! If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to leave a comment.