Wednesday, March 11, 2015

A Kobold Deck

Kobolds are those lovable 0/1 red guys for zero mana, from that great set of 1994, Legends.  And aside from Legends, they've barely been seen since.  In any case, I've had some kobolds lying around since pretty much forever, and thought I'd finally give this somewhat limited tribe a go of it.  After doing a handful of card searches, here's what I came up with:

Kobolds
60-Card Format
Red

Crimson Kobolds
Crookshank Kobolds
Kobalds of Kher Keep

Kobold Drill Sergeant
Kobold Taskmaster

Taurean Mauler
Browbeat
Obelisk of Urd
Shared Animosity
Mob Rule


Mountains
Kher Keep

I was going to put Bloodmark Mentor in instead of Kobold Overlord (both give first strike) but opted for Shared Animosity to make them bigger (which will help quite a bit once they have trample).  I only found Shared Animosity because I saw a guy that used Marton Stromgald with kobolds and then looked for similar things.  I also think shared Animosity might be used in other decks down the line, particularly because it only has one red mana in the casting cost.

I really liked Austere Command (blow up creatures with casting cost 4 or greater) but nixed it for Mob Rule.  Keeps the deck one color and $30-40 cheaper.  It doesn't kill my oppenents' biggies, but grabbing them for a turn is nearly as good.

I never got around to finding a use for Mana Echoes.  Fireball is ok, but Mana Echoes is an eight dollar card, and I've seen decks abuse the hell out of it with things like Mry Matrix or Sliver Queen.  Maybe someday, Mana Echoes, but not this deck.

I was pretty happy to find a use for Obelisk of Urd.  It's perfect with kobolds.  I'd been rather dubious about that card until now.  And I'm glad I finally found a place for Taurean Mauler, who got edged out of Sliver decks and goblin decks I've made.  

the way 90% of kobold decks go is out of my price range.  kobolds and other zero-drop creatures are used with Glimpse of Nature ($30 each) to draw half the library, then Cloudstone Curio comes out, and a card with a storm ability wins the game on the third turn.  I'm not against this type of deck, but again, it would cost substantially more, and besides, it could be done without kobolds at all.  There are lots of zero-cost creatures now.  I want kobolds to be the main event.

I think it'll be a fun little casual deck.  Half the cards are from Legends, while the other half give it some updated muscle.