Commander Deck Inspiration: Patron of the Akki

“Magictating” is defined as getting into the zone with your Magic the Gathering collection--thinking, planning, organizing, reminiscing about past games, and imagining future games. It is a combination of hard thinking about the game and calm meditation, reveling in the joy it brings you.

Goblins have lots of Commander options available to them. My brother has a Krenko deck that he's bored with, and I'm sure many others run many of the other big, bad Goblin bosses. I am here to suggest some nostalgic inspiration for you. Seeing as Kamigawa Neon Destiny is the current flavor of the month, I thought we might enjoy a throwback to a legend of old: Patron of the Akki. If you know this particular series at all, then you know I'm about to tell you about why and how an under-played and often forgotten Commander can be a fun and viable option. It may seem surprising I'm focusing on a super popular tribe today, and yet we'll be peeking into a few ways to help make your Goblin Commander deck a little more inspired. Let's start with our flashy Commander—Patron of the Akki.

Patron of the Akki is a fantastically fun non-Goblin Commander. It clearly tells us to build a tokens based strategy because it buffs all our attackers with a +2/+0 buff each time it attacks. We need to go-wide with this particular Goblins build. Patron is especially powerful with lots of tokens, as we put more power on the board this way. Since Patron of the Akki triggers each time it attacks, then multiple attack phases in a single turn mean multiple power buffs to our entire team of gobbos! While Patron doesn't have haste, it has pseudo-haste. You can sacrifice a Goblin to help pay the cost and flash it in before your turn begins. This means we should look to find payoffs for sacrificing our stuff, and perhaps even look to include plenty of Goblins that have death triggers as well. This helps us mitigate Patron's 6 mana cost likewise alleviating any future Commander tax issues that crop up. The core of this deck will need to center on token creation, death triggers, multiple combat phases, and a bit of spice to surprise everyone.

One of the beautiful parts of Patron's flashy “Goblin offering” is that you can cast it as an instant by sacrificing a Goblin and paying the difference in mana cost between Patron and the sacrificed Goblin. If the difference in cost is zero, then you still get to cast Patron as an instant. This means any Goblin token can be offered up to allow us to flash Patron in on our opponent's end step. This effectively gives it haste and can make combat math miserable for our opponents. Of course, this is basically the point of playing a deck like this.

Speaking of making combat math miserable for our opponents, let's examine a few great pieces that help make this possible. Patron of the Akki loves being able to have multiple combat steps, so let's start by considering the following options to pump up the team to truly ridiculous proportions. It really is all about extra attacks, so we may as well break the whole Goblin theme up a bit and add in Moraug, Fury of Akoum. It synergizes beautifully with Akki's ability and gives additional power boosts plus attack phases. It just feels like it fits so nicely that I figure we can allow this big angry minotaur to lead a few charges with our enraged Goblins. While we're on the topic of breaking themes a bit let's also consider running Scourge of the Throne. It doesn't ask us to offer up our Goblins to feed its hunger, so that is the type of Dragon these Goblins need on their side. Tearing down the highest life total happens in short order when you've got Parton of the Akki hanging out with Dragons that give us multiple attack phases. There's one last Creature with some interesting potential that Kamigawa Neon Dynasty gave to us—Akki Battle Squad. That card is a sure-flavor win, but also can enable some gross combat steps if you manage to squeeze a few fun Enchantments or Equipments into your list. Along the lines of Enchantments you can also consider using Breath of Fury as a last ditch effort to completely destroy an open opponent or two. Using that Enchantment with a board full of tokens and Patron can lead to a game ending turn out of nowhere. You can also use Patron's Offering ability to stop the loop as well, by sacrificing the new target in response to Breath of Fury resolving, so that you don't have to lose your entire army.

It's not just Creatures that offer extra attack steps either! One of my favorite ways to access this effect is by using Aggravated Assault. This little Enchantment is pretty ridiculous. Being able to pump ten mana into it can allow you to pump your entire team +6/+0, and that is after hitting hard twice before that. Relentless Assault is a classic and affordable option for snagging an additional combat as well. One of my favorites is Savage Beating. When you pump your team, give them double-strike, and then enable an additional combat in which they all get pumped up again and you can easily eliminate two opponents in a single turn. People may even calculate that you're nothing more than a threat of 20 or so damage, but then you cast Savage Beating and suddenly you're dishing out 80+ damage (it really depends on how many Creatures are getting doubly pumped and dealing double damage). Furthermore, World at War gives you two extra combat phases for only one card. That's nasty value for five mana. Seize the Day is OK, but it pales in comparison to the surprise value offered by Fury of the Horde. However, I wouldn't blink twice if you decided to run one over the other, or both!

So, how do we fill the board with Goblins? I guess that's up to you. I recommend a variety of options for doing this. Beetleback Chief is nice as it gives you three Creatures for only four mana. Additionally, it can be offered up to Patron for flashy plays. Goblin Marshal is really an amazing card in this deck. You pay six mana, get two Goblins initially, sacrifice it to cast Patron, then get two more Goblins. This lets you untap with your powerful Commander and four additional bodies. It's really pretty excellent. Ib Halfheart, Goblin Tactician is another token generator that can also be popped to drop the Patron in and even avoid letting the ability trigger if it's not the route you want to take. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Krenko, Mob Boss. However, I like casting Krenko when I still have two or more mana open. Krenko is a removal magnet, and being able to offer him up to the Patron helps you win in the card advantage long-game. Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin is also an interesting option for building up your tokens as well. It happens to synergize really well with Patron's pumping ability and gives you two extra Goblins off the trigger. The big daddy of tokens and grinding out value from old tournament days—Siege-Gang Commander should also be on your radar.

Additionally, you should also take advantage of spells that generate Goblin tokens. Empty the Warrens, Goblin Offensive, Goblin Warrens, and Goblin Scouts are some of my favorite Goblin token spells. While Empty the Warrens leans into casting multiple spells in a turn, Goblin Offensive asks you to play one big spell. Meanwhile, Goblin Scouts is something most choose to skip, but that Mountainwalk can be annoyingly relevant when you are pumping them up with the Patron and slipping in nine damage or more unblockable Goblin tokens that are all suddenly 3/1's or even 5/1's! Goblins of the Flarg would be proud. Hordeling Outburst is more mana efficient, but it's not nearly as cool. Now, while you are building up a massive army of Goblin tokens you can utilize the old classic Goblin token generator that is Goblin Warrens. Forget emptying the warrens; we're filling them up. This Fallen Empires classic is what helped launch Goblins into being a serious tribe to consider (that and the Goblin War Drums).

I think by now you've probably got enough to get excited about putting a brand new spin on your approach to playing Goblins. I know that building out a deck based on Patron of the Akki definitely gives away your plan from the onset, but Goblins don't care—Goblins just smash whatever their giant Goblin devouring overlord tells them to smash. Thus, may your Goblin offerings and the cards be ever in your favor!