A Guide to Goad Decks in EDH | How to Build a Goad Commander Deck  

Babe wake up new trinket mage video dropped

Trinket mage and snail literally carrying niche mtg rn

Goad is one of the best keywords ever made. I snatched up that Nelly deck to spread +1 counters on everyone's stuff. Just the right mix of chaos but with a game plan still attached.

A personal favorite pet commander that've I've been think about building a goad deck around is Tahngarth, First Mate. All you have to do is give him menace and goad a couple creatures and he becomes an unblockable force threatening commander damage on all your opponents every turn around the table. My only wish is that he had text that simply read, "Can't be sacrificed."

Queen marchesa is a good goad commander. It helps you keep monarch and if you do lose it the 1/1 deathtouch guys she makes can get it back and help defend yourself when it’s down to the 1v1.

A guy I play with a lot at my LGS has a Nelly goad deck (pretty sure it's one he built himself, not the precon) and it's super fun to play against. He doesn't even play to win, he just wants to see everyone else swing at each other and see what happens

I absolutely love Nelly as a goad commander, her card draw ability really incentivizes people to not swing at you even if you don't really have goad effects up. I don't run Xantcha primarily as a goad deck, its more of a subtheme. But, I do have some goad/goad-ish bangers in there, my favorite being Season of the Witch. You can "shut it off" by sacking it on your upkeep, and it has a crazy interaction with cards like Crawlspace where it destroys all creatures a player didn't attack you with at the end of their turn.

Firkraag is my goadmander. Slapping a lot of protection spells and a few cheap dragons, and it’s a fun tribal/theme fusion deck that doesn’t need to worry about card draw.

I built Nelly immediately. The first night at FNM, between Delney, Roaming Throne, and Nelly's original trigger, I was drawing an absurd amount of cards and getting great value with Smothering Tithe. Convenient Target is also surprisingly good.

Blast Hellkite and Dictate of the Twin gods. You can flash in dictate after blockers are declared which often leads to kills. Plus its the perfect setup card for finishing the last man on your next turn.

Galea, Kindler of Hope is actually a great goad commander. You're in Bant, so you already have 3 impetus cards, 3 vow of cards, bloodthirsty blade, and other enchantments like Kenrith's Transformation, Eaten by Piranhas, and Petrify. All of these can be cast from the top of your library! I include a lot of protection/evasion like Unquestioned Authority and Winged Boots. Last weekend, I was playing her in a game against a Gargos, Vicious Watcher. When I enchanted one of his scary hydras with Vow of Duty, he got a fight trigger but couldn't target Galea because she had protection from creatures! Making the Gargos player even more of a problem for everyone else while I just chipped away at life totals consistently was hilarious and fun for everybody =)

Kros defense contractor is my personal battle cruiser pod deck. He's been very interesting and challenging to build around as the table Dynamics have been wild

I prefer the one time goad effects because they don't tip your hand, act like pre-emptive fogs, and stop opponents from durdling. Simply cut 1 or 2 board wipes for cards like disrupt decorum and watch how you suddenly have time to squeeze in another game that night.

Queen Marchesa is my goad deck :)

I have actually been brewing a Kitt Kanto superfriends deck since goaded creatures basically cannot attack planeswalkers. Since a lot of planeswalkers in Naya colors tend to make tokens, there's some decent synergy with the commander as well. I also have an Izzet goad deck built around Alora, Merry Thief with the Popular Entertainer background. I do love goad decks, and I really like that you pointed out that it is a bit of a control archetype despite looking like an aggro archetype.

I have a lot of goad synergies in my Kamber and Laurine deck, lots of fun.

I play Goad in my Queen Marchesa Monarch deck. And i will make a new goad deck with the new grixis Marchesa from otj. But i like the idea from using The Rani from the Doctor Who precons too. Goad is the Goat for me.

Great video! I love Baeloth + Noble Heritage running many of the best Boros cards and Living Equipment / For Mirrodin! equipment cards to voltron up Baeloth.

I've been really enjoying my Thantis the Warweaver goad/forced combat deck, can confirm that it makes for much faster (and IMO more exciting) games. Similar to playing pillow fort effects, I can't understate how helpful fog effects are in a goad deck. When someone has no choice but to swing at you, being able to fog and then win on your next combat is fantastic. Also, consider a few "If you do get to attack me, horrible things will happen" cards. Things like Dread are great for discouraging attacks against you. Also for a cheap and unexpected enchantment to discourage flyers coming your way in green decks, try Raking Canopy.

i cant believe i just watched the trinket mage calling me goated for ten minutes

My goad deck is actually my favorite deck ! It uses Karona, the False God. Playing Karona and immediatly goading her with something like a Sly Instigator feels so good, it's kinda like you're tripling the value of your goad since Karona is attacking 4 times per turn cycles, and goad last until your last turn. Also, having your opponents creatures disincentivized to attack you (with pillowfort or whatever) and dropping a Karona that buff everyones board immensely feels very powerful. There is almost always a tribal deck who will very much appreciate the Karona, which allows you to strike tactical deals and temporary alliances.

i have a saskia goad deck, even though she doesn't deal with goading/forced combat directly. but she does have the best color identity for goading (other than 5 color ig), and her ability lends itself to spreading the damage as you were describing

i found this vid at the perfect time, i recently found the desire to build a thantis goad deck purely because thantis itself gives access to a lot of the goad cards and is forced combat on legs in my command zone

At some point, I might remake a Goad deck around Firkraag again. His precon was my first deck, and I've still got his card from way back then in my binder. He's not the best Goad Commander, but I've still got a soft spot for him for being my first Commander.

I'm running a Gahiji goad deck with a Maze End + Scapeshift wincon. Totally love this deck !

Built an Aurelia, The Law Above goad deck and it slaps! My new fav mechanic

At first, i had a cascade chaotic deck, but i realised if I was the only one doing chaotic stuff the game isn't fun enough. So to incite everybody to do it, I went for a baeloth / raised by giants leaning on group Hug and the deck is glorious : play a lot of protection and removal while doubling everybody mana is awesome. It really help you playing your 11 cmc commander and even with a lot of mana available to your opponents, baeloth can easily keep everything in check Of course all of your removal are transmo effect for maximum chaos

The best goad deck commander in my opinion is Firkraag Cunning Instigator this is because firkraag rapidly becomes a commander damage threat, blue has some shockingly good protection when combined with red. unlike most forced combat decks he counts your creatures as well as your opponents' creatures and unlike a lot of the other forced combat decks that give you card advantage Firkraag doesn't give your opponents more cards when you get cards.

I love goad, it is my favorite mechanic because it forces players to talk and interact earlier than the last turn. However, goad is disliked. I really think that you can inadvertently become the arch enemy of the table without a good board if you apply multiple constant goad to targets (Baeloth fof example). If you goad 3/4 of the creatures, rest assured the rest will go to your face, eventhough it might not be the best solution. I do not recommend going off with goad to be honest : goad is not a powerful mechanic so to say. I advise people to always sandbag and be at best, second place on the table. Hide in the shadow of the first player, and force him to attack the others, you are "helping" them dethrone the menace. Or goad the unblockable creature of the other players while saying "you will attack the arch ennemy with it anyway". Indeed, goad connects the card part and the social part of the game in my opinion, you can play politics with goad ! Saying things like "I can help by forcing its value creatures to attack you, and you kill them." (eventhough it rarely matters, in the grand scheme of things lol), these ideas can help your case. Personally, I play Firkraag. It is really fun, my favorite deck ! It is composed of goading cards in red, removal, pillowfort, blue tomfooleries... However ! Do not forget "goading" was first a blue and black mechanic. Many clunky old cards can be great sometimes, look them up in scryfall, things like Dulcet Siren ! Also, funny tech for just Firkraag : Goblin Diplomats ! First, the card is referencing Monty Python, so you need it. An secondly, you know you do not need to anger people with forced combat here, let them declare their attackers, and only after, force the attackers to attack by tapping your diplomats, triggerring Firkraag if it connects ! Have a very nice day

I just built a goad deck. This is very good information to have

Disrupt decorum is a fun finish potential in casual, play it & swing out only having to worry about hasted beaters, turn cycle comes back to you and clean up the table on the next round of combat

It absolutely blows my mind that it took the community this long to realize how good goad it

I've been fiddling around with Aurelia, the Law Above as a goad commander! love the idea of goading everything and just getting to dome people for 3 every turn as well as drawing a card each time. Trickiest part is making the more chaotic theme of goad fit with the vibe of the boros legion lol

Like group hug and stax, I always wanted to learn how to build goad. Thanks for this.

I think we would all like to see your goat deck.

Kitt Kanto is underrated. Goaded creatures often can’t get through if they don’t have evasion. Giving something trample deals with that, especially if you’re doubling its power or giving it double strike elsewhere. Plus Kitt Kanto has a token theme too to close the game with your own army.

I can't believe I haven't seen anyone mention Kros. He is such a unique spin on Goad.

I've had a lot of success with Marisi, Breaker of the Coil, Naya is the best colors for goad in my opinion and disabled spells in combat just makes combat steps much smoother.

LETS GOOOOO MR MAGE BACK 2 BACK UPLOADZ

I'm really happy they made Goad an evergreen keyword. I love turning creatures sideways, I want other people to appreciate it as well. Karazikar goblins was my first goad deck, and it's pretty effective.

I use Nelly as my goal commander. I put a small initiative/monarchy sub theme which has worked pretty well so far.

I run a kros defense contractor goad deck from the new capenna brokers precon. I find it super fun and works along a second control axis by tapping down creatures when you put counters on them to goad things. I have had multiple turn cycles where every player had to full swing at everyone else. I dont win much but i love forcing everyone to make the best of a bad situation.

I have a slightly upgraded Nelly Borca precon that I really love playing, but I still need to find a coherent subtheme. My first thought was planeswalkers, though the influence of a certain unknown YT channel made me want to tinker with Sunforger and spellslinger-ish/control strategies. It might be trying to fit too many eggs in one basket, but it feels fun!

Baeloth with Clan crafter is my goad deck. Still working to find that balance of goad/voltron/pillow fort/artifact value. But I reliably end up myself and 1 other opponent with it. So I think it's going in the right direction.

I got a Khârn the Betrayer Goad deck. It's pretty funny to move your voltron around and to goad creatures, including your commander lol

I built karona, false God as a goad commander. Now she gets to attack every turn cycle and I get all her nice combat trick enchantment like songbird blessing and armadillo cloak while she also spreads the love with visions of brutality and treacherous link. I went with that enchantresses theme mentioned in the video too.

Marisi, Breaker of the Coil is my personal choice for a goad commander. He is very strong and I really like his color identity.

A fun idea: burn/group slug deck with a Goad sub-theme to keep the pressure off of you and allow you to enter the late game at an advantage.

I adore goad decks! Though I much prefer to go an aggro route with little defenses, beyond goading itself, over any pillow forting as it aids in speeding the game even more significantly. Karazikar the eye Tyrant is a truly underrated commander for an aggro goad deck.

Combining Goad + Politics with my favorite commander Varchild, Betrayer of Kjeldor.

I really love Bothersome Quasit in artifact or spellslinger decks. People don’t expect it to do much so they leave it alone and thats when it shines.

Currently working on a budget Kazuul forced combat/goad deck. Adding a token subtheme to take advantage of the fact that people will be tapped down most of the time, and because I wanted the deck to still do something if the commander gets knocked out too often

I just built Aurelia, The Law Above and I'm definitely running Nelly and some of the more impactful goad finishers (Spec. Showdown, Disrupt Decorum, Taunt from the Ramparts, etc) and it's a lot of fun! I tried not to lean too heavily into the goad since it can feel a little too annoying sometimes to play against but I like running at least a little as pseudo fogs/protection

I've got a varchild, betrayer of kjeldor goad/voltron deck that I love. Give everyone tokens and force them to attack with em, otherwise they just let them sit until a wipe happens

This is perfect timing! I’m editing my Mazzy, Truesword Paladin that I built around the goad enchantments since the enchanted goaded creatures get +2+0 when attacking my opponents. It’s heavily leaned into enchantress effects and I find Yenna, Sun Clasp, Duelist’s Heritage, Lure, Nils, Mirri and Benevolent Blessing are great includes besides goad all-stars

Breena Strixhaven precon. Best deck ive played out the box, learned how to play thanks to that deck. Leans into the politics part of commander heavily, makes for very entertaining games ❤

I use Isshin as a soft goad commander, having some forced combat and goad, and then running a ton of effects that profit off of any creature attacking which I double.

If you are playing white, Righteous Aura is a good 'We have Forcefield at home'.

i fucking love Goad, i play Aurelia, the Law above, Nelly Borca, Queen Marchesa and Kit Kanto as goad commanders lmao

I love all your videos!! I don’t know if you’ve already answered this but will you ever post gameplay videos?? Thanks again for all the dope content! 🤙🤙

I have a rakdos reanimator deck, the commander is the red and black chainer card. One of the wind conditions for that deck is just a reanimate kardur over and over

I play Kitt Kanto as my goad Commander. It foregoes the classic pillowfort cards for go-wide token makers, which plays triple duty as fuel to goad things, protects my life total, and provides a win condition once all the opponents have brought each other low. Plus, it's the PERFECT deck for Gahiji, Honored One, which I've been trying to get working in a forced combat style deck long before "Goad" became a mechanic.

Two things to recommend if you wanna discover that goad is the best mechanic in EDH: Hot pursuit turns the greatest weakness of goad into a 2 mana "i win if i end up in a 1v1". And the best goad commander if you wanna rely in hot pursuit is The Rani, repeatable-permanent goads with it's token auras and then investigate out of goaded hits. Run transmutate cards for the hot pursuit and you get a powerful and reliable deck.

I run tetsuo umezawa, one thing no one has seemed to mention is the curse players cards like curse of opulence and curse of verbosity. they make people swing at your enemies every round. the problem with goad is that it's very good at getting you second place so you need to do a lot of policing. Iv'e found individual goad to work best at stopping the problem player, often you make weak players easy target for the guy to your right with beefy blockers. One great card i run is caverns of despair which makes says 2 attackers per combat, hilarious when you goad 2 of their creatures imo

I'm currently rocking a dong zhou the tyrant goad deck and it's pretty sweet

my fave goad commander is Marisi. just run flyers and unblockables :D

Can’t believe my boy Jon Irenicus didn’t even crack a mention

Karona false god is the best creature to goad. It’s my signature deck.

Someday I would like to build a Marchesa goad deck, it sounds fun

The rani has been an absolute Menace at my LGS. I built the deck with the idea that I was trying to play for second and it has won more games than my casual alela anthems. Goading other people's stuff can be good but goading your own stuff can also be fun!

I had a Tibalt Cosmic imposter deck that was accidentally a goad deck. I have the Fircraag precon, and Blame Game precon. I'm not sure why when I see goad precons I immediately buy those decks, but it is a fun thing to have and in diverse colors.

i play myself baeloth and noble background. having goat in my commandzone, means i dont need much more in the 99 so there is alot of space for protection and for giving enermies creatures to punch each other. that also means most of my removal spells give creature tokens: Mogg Infestation or Descent of the Dragons are my "boardwipes" i love to give enermies stuff and punish them for having those its a very unice playstyle so ofc i also play cards like Suture Priest :D i feel like thats not really possible with other goat commanders

When I got into magic, I was goaded, and ever since I have been obsessed with the Idea of making my opponent go berserk. Problem was that I thought Goaded creatures couldn't attack me on 1v1, so you can imagine how stupid I felt when I goaded my friends just to find out they could just beat the living f### out of me. Man, it was the greatest disappointment... I'm glad you made this video.

My Kitt Kanto deck was fast asleep until Nelly Borca came along and then Kitt said “😎 wanna goad with me?”

I haven't specifically made a Goad deck (yet) but I do run a chunk of Goad cards in my chaos deck because ya know... Making everyone punch eachother in the face is pretty chaotic. I will say playing AGAINST a Goad deck is a wild time. My buddy ran the Fairie goad precon fresh outta the Box while everyone else in the 5 player game ran Thier favourite decks. By the time we were able to get the Fairie deck outta the game, one player was already knocked out and the highest life total at the table was 9. Goad is probably one of, if not THE, best keywords they've introduced in the last decade.

I like goad, the only downside I see to the strat is how some commanders (like the background pair you suggested) end up saying "every opponent creature is goaded always" which removes a lot of player and play decision making and become unfun for the table

Started brewing Thantis, the Warweaver defender goad. This is the sign to finish it.

Kardur is the best Goad commander. I love him!

I have a 5 color goad deck and it is so much fun. Players have to interact with each other and the games are definitely faster. It wins quite a bit as well.

I think if you're going for a goad-theme, then voltron (commander damage) isn't synergizing much besides your opponents potentially having less blockers. Like, if you're forcing your opponents via goad to damage each other, going for commander damage feels a bit like running posing/infect or milling with goad. You're "wasting" the normal damage your goad cards are forcing on your opponents and kind of just use it as a tool to remove blockers and to keep you alive a bit longer since you're less likely to get attacked. So since goad is also increasing the damage done to your opponents it feels to me like you want to build your strategy and card choices on top of that regular damage from goad and then it doesn't matter where your damage comes from, commander or otherwise. So I'd possibly run a couple of cards like Earthquake (XR - deal X damage to all non-flyers and players) it deals damage to all players and can really clean the table up because there's a good chance that you're the player with the highest life total. But also at x= 2 or 3 it can clear the board of smaller creatures -> a lot of really good goad cards target only one creature. A token army deck might still overwhelm you if you can't goad everything all the time, plus newly created tokens, even if goaded can still be used as blockers for your other opponents goaded creatures. So any card like earthquake in my mind is an excellent addition in goad decks. Even goad decks probably want board wipes, but earthquake and co. also provide the means to finish off opponents and lastly, you have a lot of control over which creatures will die to it (and goad the survivors).

No one hates the goad deck more than those big durdly deck players. It's wild to see the whole rest of the table insist they don't want the +1/+1 counters from Agitator Ant until the one player finally breaks and is like, "...well I if have to attack with this creature anyway..."

No love for Jon Irenicus, Shattered One? Giveaway and goad is just amazing

I can't vouch for whether it is a good choice, but I play Karona, the False God as a Goad commander and taking her out for a turn is usually hilarious

I would love a Mirisi deck tech

Make a video about Group Slugs and shenanigans decks pls!

Y’all sleeping on Thantis. He can regenerate from a land!

Tldr Goad forces the table to play better, because everyone should attack at every reasonable opportunity

I feel different about goad, i played a uh marisi breaker of coil goad deck and it was just forcing them all to attack and they tapped out while i was sitting back and doing nothing the whole time like won both games because it wasn’t an interactive experience for everyone else. I broke the deck apart because the gameplay experience wasn’t interactive at all for the opposing players. And they didnt like playing against it at all. They tried removing it but i ran protective spells cuz i know thats what ppl will do. It is strong, but for them its impossible for them to build a boardstate since small creatures will get picked off. i agree with you saying its strong for sure but idk like its not the gameplay experience i liked omthey would want to play again after they kinda seen what it does and it’s probably the like a lazy way to win. I guess its hard to describe

What do you think about Isshin as a goad commander? I thought of having the best goad cards in Mardu, then having a "do more" card in the command zone. In my playgroup Isshin is always taken out first if I take the usual attack triggers route so I thought makin a goad deck with him could work

I didn't know a goaded creature cant attack a planeswalker. Itd be really cool to get a planeswalker commander that was goad themed!

I have a question with using Pramikon, Sky Rampart. When you goad the creatures from the enemy that has to attack you, what happens? He still needs to attack you because Pramikon has priority? Or he has to attack another person?

I use Kaima with an aura subthema. Not to powerfull but exactly my taste

I did a Marisi cat tribal goad deck

I'm a fan of Baeloth with Agent of the Iron Throne as the background. This way you can stockpile the treasures you earn to help ping the last opponent once in the 1v1. Hopefully they will be low enough from the other players attacking them back since they shouldn't have many blockers to work with. Rakdos also has a small package of effects similar to agent of the iron throne such as Marionette Master, which is especially potent, since part of the gameplan with Baeloth is to boost his power, so once he is sufficiently big enough to goad all of our opponents' creatures, we can start pumping the Marionette Master instead to turn our treasures into really potent finishers. Not to mention cards such as Blood Artist and Revel in Riches which will allow us to further capitalize on our opponents' creatures dying!

It might be lame but I want to build a Goad deck with Isshin for both value and color identity.

The best Goad Commander in my opinion is The Rani from Doctor Who

Firkraag Dragon tribal?

I think that the commander of that boros deck is probably the best boros commander ever printed. Something not talked a lot about is that white and red cards are extremely high on the "card quality" end of things. Red at least is highly efficient on rate at the lower end of the curve, while white has unilaterally the most powerful cards in the game. Yes, yes, I know what you're saying. Dark ritual, razaketh, black has some monsters, and blue has counterspells. But white has day of judgement/wrath of god. There is not a single more powerful tempo and card advantage swing in the game not named black lotus. White does this all the time. Think about it. And now Nelle borca draws more cards than toski. Seems good.

Ah combat damage, that good old 3/10 power at the max strategy

Is there a good Selesnya Goaddeck?