“In your scrying mirror, and I’m tryin’ to break through.”
Table of Contents
Today’s Featured Commander Is:
Now let’s start off with a sad and quick disclaimer: there are sadly no rats in red at common for this commander, but I love this commander’s effect and think it’s really unique, which is why we are running it in a goblin’s shell. This is a casual goblins deck that is mostly meant for fun and some interesting commander damage kills. Charging Hooligan is a really strong commander for an aggro deck. While we aren’t able to take full advantage of their ability, they are still able to present a ton of pressure, and we have quite a few ways to stop our opponents from blocking. I chose goblins for the shell for this deck because they are just so good at filling up the board and being aggressive. Being able to combine that with Charging Hooligan’s ability allows us to present a ton of damage. This is a wacky one, that’s for sure! Without further ado, let’s get it!
The Deck:
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Charging Hooligan Aggro Goblins!
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Why Charging Hooligan?
Charging Hooligan is a huge part of our deck and is what we are built around, they are a great damage dealer for our deck and are how we most often end the game, we have a ton of different ways to stop our opponetns from blocking and with some goblins out and Charging Hooligan we can put a shocking amount of pressure on our opponents, while we sadly cant take advantage of their second abilyt they are still a really strong attacker and work very well with cards like Crash Through
. Charging Hooligan is an amazing attacker for us at pretty much any stage of the game.
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:
General Kreat, the Boltbringer
Record against General Kreat, the Boltbringer 2-2
This is pretty much a mirror match for our deck, we are running a ton of the same cards, while Kreat is the better commander for sure they cant present as much damage as we can with Hooligan, because of that building up our board and going for a huge attack where your opponents creatures cant block or our creatures have trample is key to this matchup. This is a decent matchup for the deck. We did split the games, but I still think it’s favorable.
Mowu, Loyal Companion
REcord against Mowu, Loyal Companion 3-0
I found this matchup to be very favorable, we just go much wider than they can handle and when we use spells like Cosmotronic Wave
to take away their ability to block they just cant do much, they don’t have much in the way of interaction so this is a great matchup for us.
Bloodbraid Elf
Record against Bloodbraid Elf 3-1
A classic aggro v aggro race, whoever is fastest typically wins, they can get a lot of value out of their commander and sadly there is really nothing we can do to stop that but if we go super wide and stick to your gameplan overall this is a great matchup for us overall although sometimes we can just lose the race.
Commanders, we have a tough matchup against:
Cynette, Jelly Drover
Record against Cynette, Jelly Drover 1-3
The flying creatures aren’t a huge problem for us in this matchup; it’s mostly being able to stick our commander. They have quite a bit of countermagic and bounce effects since they are mono-blue. I did win a game against Cynette. That was a game where I was really aggressive, and they were unable to counter our commander. This is a tough matchup overall; we have no hope of blocking their creatures.
Aegar, the Freezing Flame
Record against Aegar, the Freezing Flame 0-3
Aegar is basically a spellslinger/control style deck, and that is not great for us. They either counter or bounce the best of the best we have; we just aren’t set up to beat decks like this. This is a very rough matchup for our deck.
Noxious Ghoul
Record against Noxious Ghoul 2-4
If we are able to kill them before they get the Ghoul out this is a pretty good matchup, if we stumble and are slow they just devastate our board, they are just very good against our deck, when a Noxious Ghoul is in the game I tend to full target them with everything I have to get them out of the game. This is a winnable bout overall, though it’s a tough matchup.
Strategy Overview:
Fill up the Board:
We are an aggro deck through and through, filling up the board not only tempo within the game but also to make our commander hit like a truck is key to the strategy.
Await the big swing:
We can fill up our board quite cheaply and quickly, I typically don’t like to go super aggressive till we have our commander out and can get their trigger, it can really change combat!
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 so many awesome goblins in this deck, let’s go over some of the best! Goblin Matron
is probably one of the best goblins in the deck, tutoring is something that does not come easy within mono-red or within the format in general so being able to grab situiatonal goblins like Goblin Chirurgeon
or Goblin Lookout
is very good for the overall gameplan. Goblin Heelcutter
is another goblin that I’m a big fan of because they work really well with our commander and can allow us to take the best of the best our opponents have out of combat allowing us to hit like a truck with Charging Hooligan. Intimidator Initiate
is another very strong card that we can stack their ability multiple times in a turn. In testing, I was able to take out opponents’ entire board; them not being able to block allows us to deal ridiculous damage. Another thing we really value in this deck is helping to fill up our board which is why we are running cards like Mogg War Marshal
as well as Goblin Instigator
at any stage of the game being able to increase our board presence for our commander is always good. They also work very well with Molten Gatekeeper
and Witty Roastmaster
which are some of the few non-goblins we play in the deck, if our commander keeps getting killed or we cant even resolve them onto the board this non-combat damage pairs very nicely with our combat damage.
Instants:
Our instant package mostly consists of pump spells and ways to buff up the Charging Hooligan, some of my favorites are Uncaged Fury
and Temur Battle Rage
if an opponent doesn’t have a blocker this can allow us to have a very easy one-shot, it also works really with Brute Strength
which is a nice cheap buff and more importantly gives Hooligan trample which is key since there are no rats in red. If we get Charged Hooligan all buffed up and they just get chump blocked we do have Fling
and Soul's Fire
which can be a nice way to deal some damage even if we get blocked, its also really good if we are able to hit an opponent as a nice way to finish them off. We do have a small amount of removal at instant speed in Lightning Bolt
and Abrade
, These are nice to have but don’t do much overall. I often use lightning bolt just to whittle down an opponent. Mono-Red can struggle with card draw and while we don’t have a ton we do have Crimson Wisps
which is a nice cheap cantrip for the deck.
Sorceries:
Our sorccey package is key to the function of our deck, it contains pretty much all of the ways we can stop our opponents from blocking which is the primary way we kill opponents and deal a ton of damage. Cosmotronic Wave is one of my favorite spells that achieve that affect since it deals one to all opponents creatures which can really hurt other aggressive decks or token strategies. Hazardous Blast
has an extremely similar effect and is another great card for the deck. Ruthless Invasion
is another card that clears the way, unless we are playing artifact-focused decks that have a lot of artifact creatures. To be fair, that doesn’t occur that often, so it’s not something I really ever pay attention to.
Artifacts:
Since we want to hit hard with our commander, we are running my pet card in Wedding Invitation
as well as Whispersilk Cloak
, which are both great ways to guarantee that we hit with Charging Hooligan and hit like a truck. While certainly not as effective as the other two, we also have Haunted Cloak
, which gives trample, vigilance, and Haste, which is perfect for our commander!
Enchantments:
We are a mono-red aggro deck, we are basically forced to run Impact Tremors
and Raid Bombardment
and would arguably be throwing if we didn’t run these, all jokes aside these cards are extremely effective ways for us to whittle down our opponents and allow us to go crazy. We finish out our enchantment package with Goblin War Drums
. Being able to give our commander and all of our creatures menace makes us considerably harder to block, especially when we have a big board allowing us to do a ton more damage and really just make combat a nightmare for our opponents.
Strengths of the Deck:
- Its very easy for us to get commander damage kills.
- We are extremely aggressive and can do quite a bit of damage in the early game.
- We are great at chump blocking, especially against other aggressive strategies since we have quite a bit of creature/token production.
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- This is a glass-cannon deck in every way. We have one goal, and that is to swing big with our commander and our goblins. A ton of resistance or control magic can be very rough for us.
- We are very weak to creature hate.
- We can struggle with late-game boards as they are often just much bigger than us.
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Conclusion:
As someone who is a true consiesuour of meme decks and just old fashioned casual fun, this deck really is a blast to play, no its not the most efficient goblins build or the must tuned dcek, but its a cheap glass cannon that can have some really strong turns and also raises the fun factor up to ten. I hope you all enjoyed this one as much as I did!