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Krenko, Mob Boss

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Krenko, Mob Boss

At a glance

  • Commander: Krenko, Mob Boss (R)
  • Colors: Mono-Red
  • Archetype: Go-wide Goblin token swarm with aristocrat-style ETB/ping drain
  • Power tier: High

Cards

Gameplan

Krenko taps each turn to create a 1/1 red Goblin for every Goblin you control. After one activation off a modest board you have 6-10 tokens; the turn after, 12-20+. The deck is built to do three things with that board:

  1. Snowball bodies fast so the first Krenko tap is huge — cheap one-drop Goblins and instant token-makers (Dragon Fodder, Krenko’s Command, Hordeling Outburst, Empty the Warrens) flood the board before Krenko even untaps.
  2. Win without combat if Krenko gets removed — Impact Tremors, Molten Gatekeeper, Witty Roastmaster, and Reckless Fireweaver turn every token entering into 1 damage per opponent. With Krenko making a dozen tokens, that is 12+ to each opponent on the spot. This is the “removal on Krenko doesn’t end the game” insurance.
  3. Close with an explicit X-damage burst — Goblin War Strike and Massive Raid each deal damage equal to your creature/Goblin count straight to a player’s face, ignoring blockers. A 20-token board means 20 to the dome at instant or sorcery speed.

Key synergy lines

  • Krenko tap → Impact Tremors/Witty Roastmaster: doubling the board pings each opponent once per token created. Two ETB-drain effects on the battlefield doubles that. This is the primary inevitability engine for a non-control deck.
  • Krenko tap → Goblin War Strike / Massive Raid: the cleanest kill. Build the board, then point the X-damage spell at a player. Massive Raid is an instant, so it dodges sorcery-speed windows.
  • Go-wide haste pump: Goblin Bushwhacker (kicked), Goblin War Party, Burn Bright, and Path of Anger’s Flame give the whole team +1/+0 or +2/+0; Goblin Motivator / Torch Courier / Goblin Striker provide haste so a fresh swarm can attack the turn it lands. Goblin War Drums gives everyone menace so a wide board can’t be chump-blocked into oblivion.
  • Skirk Prospector + sac payoffs: Prospector turns excess Goblins into red mana to re-cast Krenko or power out an X-spell; Mogg Fanatic / Fanatical Firebrand / Goblin Arsonist convert bodies into reach damage and removal.
  • Sparksmith & Spikeshot Goblin: repeatable pingers whose output scales with the Goblin count — board-wipe insurance and a slow inevitability clock on their own.

Role breakdown (99 cards + commander)

  • Lands — 37: 31 Mountain + Great Furnace, Forgotten Cave, Smoldering Crater, Desert of the Fervent (cyclers for flood insurance), Teetering Peaks & Looming Spires (enter-tapped utility pumps).
  • Ramp — 7: Sol Ring, Fire Diamond, Mind Stone, Akki Rockspeaker, Goldhound, Skirk Prospector (Goblin → R), Springleaf Drum. Mono-red leans on rocks; the rest of the curve is so cheap that 7 rocks plays like more.
  • Card advantage — 8: Reckless Impulse, Wrenn’s Resolve, Experimental Synthesizer, Galvanic Relay, Seize the Spoils, Big Score, Goblin Matron (tutors any Goblin), Dark-Dweller Oracle (sac a spare token for impulse draw).
  • Spot removal / interaction — 17: Lightning Bolt, Burst Lightning, Shock, Magma Spray, Galvanic Blast, Fiery Impulse, Abrade, Torch the Tower, Tarfire, Skred, plus sac/ping bodies Mogg Fanatic, Fanatical Firebrand, Goblin Arsonist, Goblin Fireslinger, Blisterstick Shaman, Spikeshot Goblin, Sparksmith. Deep burn substitutes for the lack of board wipes.
  • Mass/pseudo-wipe: none true (mono-red commons), compensated by Sparksmith/Spikeshot Goblin scalable pingers and a heavy spot-removal suite.
  • Token engine / payoffs / enablers — rest: Krenko himself, ~10 token-makers, 4 ETB-drain payoffs, go-wide pumps, haste enablers, menace, and the two X-damage finishers.

Win conditions (explicit)

  1. Alpha strike: wide Goblin board + Bushwhacker/War Party/Burn Bright pump + haste/menace.
  2. Non-combat drain: Krenko doubling into Impact Tremors / Witty Roastmaster / Molten Gatekeeper / Reckless Fireweaver pings each opponent for the token count.
  3. Burst finisher: Goblin War Strike or Massive Raid for X = creature/Goblin count to face.

Pilot notes

  • Mulligan for a one-drop Goblin or a token spell plus a second turn-two play. You want Krenko down turn 3-4 with bodies already present so the first tap is lethal-adjacent.
  • Hold an ETB-drain (Impact Tremors etc.) before activating Krenko when the table has a Krenko answer up — that converts the tap into guaranteed damage even into a removal spell.
  • Skirk Prospector + a full board = a burst of red mana; use it to re-cast Krenko after a wrath or to fuel a same-turn X-spell.
  • Sparksmith/Spikeshot deal damage to you too (Sparksmith) — mind your own life, but they are your best recovery tool after a board wipe.

Weaknesses

  • Board wipes are the big one: no commons mass-recursion, so a well-timed wrath sets you back hard. Mitigate by holding back some token-makers and Krenko re-casts (Prospector mana), and by leaning on the ETB-drain plan to bank damage before the wipe.
  • No true sweeper of its own — relies on scalable pingers and spot burn to manage opposing boards.
  • Flying / large blockers can wall the ground swarm; Goblin War Drums (menace) and the X-damage finishers route around this, and burn handles key blockers.

Decklist

⬇ Download as .txt — paste into Moxfield, Archidekt, or MTG Arena.

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