“Sent a message to the sky“
Art:Airdrop Condor
by Glen Angus
Table of Contents
Today’s Featured Commander Is:
Some would say this is a meme deck, and while I agree to a point, this deck is really fun to play. It can have some really strong games, I love the flavor aspect of being able to drop big goblins on our opponents heads and with a ton of buffs and support within the creature type and the deck we can dish out a lot of damage relatively quickly, one of my favorite aspects of this deck is being able to get in strong attacks with our goblins. After being able to sacrifice them for extra damage, this deck can output a crazy amount of damage and put a lot of pressure on our opponents. Meme or not, this deck is a blast and I am very excited to showcase this one today, without further ado, let’s get it!
The Deck:
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Airdrop Condor Goblins!
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Why Airdrop Condor?
Airdrop Condor is in a very interesting position, we can use it as a main damage dealer in our deck but if it keeps getting killed or targeted we can easily switch into full on goblin attack mode which is a pretty decent way to end games as well, no matter what we do its pretty strong, We of course would prefer that Airdrop Condor is used most often as it can be a really nice damage dealer but we can pivot as needed, I also am a big fan of cards like Brightstone Ritual
and Battle Hymn
as they allow us to activate our commander multiple times in a turn and maximize our damage. Airdrop Condor is a very strong commander and a great asset for our deck to have access to from the command zone.
Deck Matchups:
Since this is Pauper EDH, there are an absolute ton of things that can tip a game in your favor or out of it. While an archetype may seem favorable, there are absolutely good and bad commanders for our deck to go up against; I have included both these, which were all played among my testing groups using various decks, and I have included the sample size for clarity purposes. This is just meant to be a guide after testing a bunch of games with this deck!
The information below is notes about specific decks that were featured in our testing pods and how we fared against them. Naturally, Pauper EDH is a multiplayer game, so these are just a summary of my notes against different commanders and strategies. When we test these decks we try to test to its strengths and weaknesses to give a full spectrum of what the deck has to offer. Various commanders and archetypes/strategies are used to get the most accurate information.
Commanders, we have a good matchup against:
Bruenor Battlehammer
Record against Bruenor Battlehammer 3-0
Since they almost always have only one or two creatures, we can easily go wide against them and dish out damage and then use our commander to finish them off, I had no issues with this matchup and found it quite favorable.
Patchwork Automaton
Record against Patchwork Automaton 4-0
This is a very favorable matchup for our deck. They don’t have any real way to kill our commander or our creatures, and this is another matchup where we can easily go wide and use our commander for some extra damage and end this one pretty easily. During my testing games, I had no issues with this deck.
Record against Marauding Mako 3-0
Chump blocking really is the name of the game in this matchup, being able to chump block the Mako is key to staying alive, some early and cheap removal to kill their commander can slow them down, but isn’t entirely effective. Mako is a pretty easy matchup for our deck as long as we stick to our core gameplan, we should be good.
Commanders, we have a tough matchup against:
Balmor, Battlemage Captain
Record against Balmor, Battlemage Captain 0-4
This is a rough matchup, our lack of removal and their emphasis on flying makes this matchup really tough for us. We have almost no way to deal with flyers, and even with just a couple of turns of their commander being on the board it can be really tough.
Arabella, Abandoned Doll
Record against Arabella, Abandoned Doll 2-2
While going wide against them typically isn’t a problem as they typically swing out the lifegain is a real problem for our deck and can make them very hard to kill, because of that this matchup can be bad, if we and our other opponents can keep their commander off of the board we can typically steamroll them but that is easier said than done.
Yargle, Glutton of Urborg
Record against Yargle, Glutton of Urborg 0-3
There are two factors here that make this a very rough matchup, we are not faster than them in most games and while we can commit a lot of stuff to the board early, they have a lot of removal. Additionally, they have a decent amount of protection for Yargle, I found in this matchup that they kill our board and commander and just roll us over.
Strategy Overview:
Keep going wide:
In addition to our commander, going wide is a key part of our strategy, going wide and attacking as much as we can when combat situations are advantageous is key to winning the game.
Be proactive:
We don’t have enough reactive spells and cards to be reactive against our opponents. Because of that, we need to be proactive. For the most part, we focus on our game plan and think about what our opponents do as a secondary thought.
Deck Overview:
This section contains information about cards in the deck and how they function within the deck! I also highlighted some of my favorite cards in the deck!
Creatures:
We have a lot of really good goblins in this deck, we have some goblins that are great utility pieces, we have some strong attackers, and we have some goblins that are just good for our gameplan, now lets get right into it with some non-goblins! Some of our best creatures are actually non-goblins like Witty Roastmaster
and Molten Gatekeeper
which are both great additional damage dealers for the deck and allow us to whittle down our opponents slowly. We have some goblins that work really well with our commander like Goblin Blast-Runner
which is almost always turned on and can be a nice aggressive piece for the deck. Goblin Chirurgeon
is the best way that we have to fight against single-target removal which is absolutely everywhere in the format and being able to take care of that allows the overall gameplan to go considerably smoother. Foundry Street Denizen
is another great attacker for the deck and if an opponent is caught tapped out or without a lot of creatures this one can hurt a lot.
Instants:
Battle Hymn and Brightstone Ritual are arguably the two best spells in our deck, this mana production can be used for a variety of things but I really like to use to activate our commanders ability and use it a ton of times in a turn, with how many goblins we typically have on the field this is quite easy to do. Since we love to sacrifice our goblins and go to combat we have quite a few instant speed buffs we can use for combat and for sacrificing like Titan's Strength
, Antagonize
and Brute Force
, if we are more invested in the go-wide plan and just want to swing hard we can use both Path of Anger's Flame
and Goblin Surprise
which is a nice big buff for both of our creatures. While we struggle at removing enchantments, we are pretty decent with removing artifacts and getting some extra damage in with cards like Smash to Smithereens
and Siege Smash
.
Sorceries:
Cosmotronic Wave
is one of my favorite sorceries in the deck, being able to stop our opponents from blocking can get them to a really low life total which is exactly what our deck wants to do. I also like both Goblin Grenade
and Reckless Abandon
which are both pieces of single-target removal for creatures and commanders, being able to hit opponetns in the face with them is nice and five and four damage go quite a long way especially in a thirty health format. We of course have some additional token production to help us go even more wide like Krenko's Command
and Hordeling Outburst
both of which are just cheap and efficient token producers for the deck, and perfect for our extra damage dealers like Witty Roastmaster or Impact Tremors
.
Artifacts:
We are pretty light on artifacts and the artifacts we do have help us with two things, mana ramp to get Airdrop Condor out much easier and card draw which is something that an aggressive mono-red deck always needs. Being able to draw cards off of ramp like Mind Stone
and Commander's Sphere
is really good for the gameplan and can help us maintain the tempo we create with our creatures. You know I had to include what is arguably my signature card at this point in Wedding Invitation
and while the unblockable isn’t always amazing we go to combat quite a bit and sometimes an extra three or four damage can go a really long way.
Enchantments:
Impact Tremors and Raid Bombardment
are arguably two of the best damage dealers in our deck. They can make our opponents considerably easy to kill, and they fit in very nicely with the goblin strategy overall. We have to run both Goblin Shrine
and Goblin Caves
as the attack and toughness buff is really strong and also a good way to keep our goblins on the field especially if we are going to combat a lot. Since we have so many creatures I do like Furious Assault
as an additional source of damage but it is absolutely not better than Impact Tremors or Raid Bombardment.
Strengths of the Deck:
- We are great at non-combat damage and combat damage, allowing us to maximize our damage and be a threat for a good majority of the game.
- If combat damage isn’t an option, being able to fall back on our commander and sources of damage like Impact Tremors
and Witty Roastmaster can allow us to end games without much difficulty. - We are decent against most aggressive strategies since we can chump block very well especially in the early-game.
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- We have very little removal outside of a few spells.
- The deck can be considerably slower if our commander doesn’t stay on the board.
- It can be rough against decks that are heavy on removal.
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Conclusion:
Thanks so much for reading to the end! I hope you all enjoyed this deck, this is a deck that is really underplayed and while it likely falls into the meme deck/ just strictly casual its a deck that can be put together quite cheap and really is a lot of fun to play, it just feels so on flavor to be throwing goblins around at our opponents. Stay tuned and TAP IN!