RedLegendary Creature — Goblin SoldierGeneral Kreat, the Boltbringer
Mana value3Rank#2,580
The Commander
Whenever one or more Goblins you control attack, create a 1/1 red Goblin creature token that's tapped and attacking.
Whenever another creature you control enters, General Kreat deals 1 damage to each opponent.
Guide
Gameplan
Flood the board with Goblins, swing wide, and snowball your attack step with free tapped-and-attacking tokens each combat. Meanwhile, every creature that enters pings each opponent for 1, so cheap creature spam, tokens, and ETB loops chip everyone down while you build toward an explosive alpha strike or a death-by-a-thous-cuts kill.
Strengths
- Two strong engines on one cheap commander: token generation in combat and direct, blocker-proof damage on every creature ETB.
- Extremely fast and resilient go-wide aggro that punishes durdling and stalled boards.
- Mono-red gives clean access to ramp rituals, Goblin support, and powerful redundancy/recursion.
- The ETB ping enables genuine combo finishes that ignore blockers and life-loss prevention from creatures.
Weaknesses
- A single board wipe undoes your whole game plan and Kreat himself contributes little defensively.
- Mono-red lacks efficient card advantage and struggles to refuel after a sweeper.
- Slow to interact—little removal for problematic permanents or counterspell coverage.
- Kreat's combat trigger requires you to commit creatures to attacks, exposing you to blow-outs and crackback.
Key Cards
- Krenko, Mob Boss — Doubles down on the token plan, generating armies that both swing wide and feed Kreat's attack trigger.
- Purphoros, God of the Forge — Turns every token and creature ETB into extra damage, stacking with Kreat for lethal token floods.
- Skullclamp — Mono-red's premier card engine—sac your 1/1 Goblins for two cards each to keep the gas flowing.
- Goblin Bombardment — A free sacrifice outlet that converts your endless tokens into reach and removal.
- Impact Tremors — Redundant ETB damage that combos with token doublers and Kreat for explosive, untargetable wins.
- Goblin Recruiter — Stacks your library to chain the best Goblins, setting up Goblin Ringleader draws and combo pieces.
Upgrade Path
Add resilience and refuel via Skullclamp, Goblin Ringleader, and Wheel of Fortune so a board wipe doesn't end your game, plus fast mana like Jeska's Will and Goblin rituals. Tighten the combo line by including reliable recursion (Mirror-Mad Phantasm style loops, blink effects, or Goblin Bombardment + a recursion engine) alongside Impact Tremors and Purphoros for redundant ETB damage. Finally, slot premium interaction—Chaos Warp, Dockside Extortionist, and burn-based removal—to protect your engine and clear blockers before the swing.
Core Cards
The most-played cards for this commander, built from aggregated deck data (the Mythic Graph). Build public decks to seed it.
Win Conditions
- ▸Alpha strike with a wide Goblin board buffed and multiplied by Kreat's attack trigger.
- ▸Infinite or near-infinite ETB damage via Kreat/Impact Tremors/Purphoros plus a creature-recursion loop.
- ▸Incremental damage from creature ETBs draining all opponents over a few turns.
- ▸Burst burn finishers like Goblin Bombardment or Massive Raid leveraging your token count.
Archetypes
- Goblin Tribal — Kreat is a payoff for attacking with Goblins and rewards flooding the board with the creature type.
- Tokens / Go-Wide Aggro — His combat trigger manufactures free attackers, snowballing token swarms into lethal alpha strikes.
- Combo — The ETB ping plus blink or sacrifice-and-recur loops with token makers can deal infinite damage to each opponent.
- Aristocrats — Sac outlets and recursion turn expendable tokens into card advantage, reach, and repeated ETB pings.
Combos
- General Kreat, the Boltbringer + Breath of Fury + Goblin Warchief
→ Infinite LTB, Infinite ETB, Infinite sacrifice triggers
- General Kreat, the Boltbringer + Breath of Fury + Goblin Chieftain
→ Infinite combat phases, Infinite untap of creatures you control, Infinite mana creatures you control can produce
- Storm Herd + General Kreat, the Boltbringer
→ Near-infinite ETB, Near-infinite creature tokens, Near-infinite damage
- The Locust God + Curiosity + General Kreat, the Boltbringer
→ Near-infinite damage, Infinite card draw, Near-infinite ETB
- Breath of Fury + Rising of the Day + General Kreat, the Boltbringer
→ Infinite LTB, Infinite ETB, Infinite sacrifice triggers
Combos via Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (R), by popularity.
