Image courtesy of Scryfall.com
General Kreat, the Boltbringer: Crafting a Killer Commander Combo Deck
Red decks aren’t shy about screaming into the rallying cry of goblins, haste, and raw lightning efficiency. When you’re piloting General Kreat, the Boltbringer, you’re playing a spicy, high-octane blend of goblin swarm tactics and damage-forward leadership. Kreat’s two-sentence engine—“Whenever one or more Goblins you control attack, create a 1/1 red Goblin token tapped and attacking. Whenever another creature you control enters, Kreat deals 1 damage to each opponent”—gives you both a payoff and a threat in every combat step. It’s a deck built for chaos, tempo, and calculating risk, all wrapped in a 2-color red shell 🧙🔥💎⚔️. And yes, the flavor text about crossing swords with her hints at the cunning and ferocity you’ll lean on when building around the Boltbringer’s ability.
Why this effect begs for a goblin-centric combo shell
The combination of an attack-triggered token creation and a trigger on every entering creature gives you two kinds of value generators. First, the attack-trigger is a built-in incentive to push aggressive lines—when you declare attackers, Kreat coughs up a fresh goblin token and keeps the pressure on. Second, Kreat’s ETB trigger punishes your opponents every time a creature joins your battlefield, and you can stack those instances with enter-the-battlefield (ETB) engines that flood the table with Goblins at once. The result is a deck that scales from small, one-step plays to explosive, multiple-entrailiable boards in mid-game, with each step amplifying the next. It’s red in its bloodlust and goblin in its heart 🧙🔥🎲.
Core building blocks
- Goblin token engines—Krenko, Mob Boss is a natural fit, twisting your board from a few goblins into a blizzard of 1/1 red Goblin tokens. Other efficient token producers like Goblin Instigator or Goblin Rabblemaster help you stack multiple goblin wave triggers, feeding Kreat’s attack-token loop and feeding Purphoros-like payoffs.
- Damage payoffs—Purphoros, God of the Forge and Impact Tremors are classic inclusions that turn creature entering into direct opponent damage. Kreat’s ETB trigger loves these—every time a goblin or another creature enters, your opponents feel the burn as the red tide surges forward ⚔️.
- Haste and attack acceleration—Rally around haste enablers so your goblin army can swing the turn they enter. Cards like Goblin Warchief (which grants other goblins haste) or Fires of Yavimaya (older red staple) help you cash in Kreat’s attack-trigger tokens quickly, turning your next combat into a battlefield-wide spectacle 🎨.
- Additional goblin lords and support—Lords and tribal support keep your goblin army efficient and resilient. These pieces reduce the friction between hits and damage, ensuring you maximize Kreat’s two triggers when you need them most 🧙🔥.
- Card draw and value engines—Red card advantage helps you refill after sweeping removal or wiping boards. A steady stream of card quality keeps you from fizzing out mid-combat and ensures you’ll reach the combo angles you’re chasing.
Two practical combo threads you can pursue
Thread A: mass enters into big damage. You control a healthy goblin army, and you cast a spell that fills the board with goblins in one go—think a mass token spell or a goblin-focused tutor for a chunk of goblins. Each creature entering triggers Kreat for 1 damage to each opponent, and Purphoros-like effects tongue-lash every new body. The math compounds quickly: multiple goblins entering at once means multiple Kreat triggers and multiple Purphoros triggers. It’s a clean, brutal rhythm you’ll want to repeat until the battlefield resembles a red-flame sculpture 🔥.
Thread B: the attack-engine twist. You declare attackers, Kreat sees “one or more Goblins you control attack” and spits out a token. If you’ve stacked haste enablers, that freshly minted goblin contributes to the next attack phase, creating a rolling wave of attackers that keeps Kreat’s trigger feeding you both new tokens and more damage. It’s not a single infinite loop on turn one, but it’s a reliable escalation path that can collapse a stale board state under heavy pressure ⚔️.
A sample shell list and gameplay rhythm
Feel free to tailor this to your local metas, but a defensible skeleton looks something like this:
- General Kreat, the Boltbringer (your commander)
- Krenko, Mob Boss
- Goblin Rabblemaster
- Goblin Instigator
- Purphoros, God of the Forge
- Impact Tremors
- Fires of Yavimaya or other haste enablers
- Ramping options to accelerate your board—sol rings, mana rocks, or red staples
- Card draw and disruption to keep the engine turning
Turn-by-turn flow could look like this: you ramp into Kreat on the field, then cast Krenko’s Command to drop two Goblin tokens. Those goblins enter the battlefield together, triggering Kreat twice and Purphoros twice (and any other ETB-based effects you’ve welcomed). You swing with the goblins you already have—if you’ve given them haste, they’ll connect. Kreat sprouts a fresh Goblin token that’s tapped and attacking, compounding the assault. Each new entry checks your plan: more Goblins enter, Kreat triggers again, and the damage stacks. The board state climbs from manageable to overwhelming in a heartbeat 🧙🔥💥.
“To cross swords with her is a shockingly bad idea.”
Beyond the mechanical thrill, this deck lives on the storytelling of goblins: their chaos, their unstoppable energy, and their gleeful willingness to swarm. The flavor text on General Kreat nods to a commander who thrives on bold, aggressive action. With the right synergy and enough support in the 99, you’re not just playing a game; you’re staging a thunderous red spectacle that your friends won’t forget anytime soon 🎨.
As with any deck built around a standout card, you’ll want reliable access to redundancy—protective spells, countermeasures for mass removal, and ways to rebuild after wipes. You’ll also want to consider your meta: if your table is fond of quick answers, you’ll need a plan B that clamps down on opposition boards and opens a path back to Kreat’s lethal tempo. The payoff remains: a goblin battlefield that scales with every attack and every enter-the-battlefield moment, all while Kreat chips away at opponents through direct damage. It’s a neon-lit, goblin-filled joyride through red magic and chaotic synergy ⚡️🧨.
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Ready to dive in? Grab the pieces you love, tune the deck to your local scene, and get ready for a rampaging table of goblins that’s equal parts art, math, and pure, explosive fun 🧙🔥💎⚔️.