Now that Spider Man preview season is over, we’re in that exciting lull where players can brew with the new set before its full launch. Despite early misgivings, Spider Man is actually looking like a pretty powerful set. There are plenty of cards in here that will do work in constructed, and even more in Commander. Among all these spicy additions, however, one card in particular stands out. Norman Osborn/Green Goblin isn’t just an efficient, flexible threat: it’s also a deadly MTG combo engine.
Players were quick to grasp this card’s potential back when its back half was leaked. Now that we have the full picture, it looks even better. The combination of granting all your nonland cards Mayhem and the two-mana discount on cards cast from graveyards give this card a ton of scope for shenanigans. Whether you’re playing in Standard or Commander, there are plenty of ways to abuse this iconic Villain.
Green Goblin Combo In MTG Standard
New MTG cards enabling infinite combo lines isn’t particularly rare, but doing so in Standard is, and Green Goblin does exactly that. While it’s convoluted, there is a way you can engineer an instant win with the card in the format.
For starters, you’ll need a few key cards in play. You’ll need Green Goblin himself, naturally, as well as fellow Villain Electro, Assaulting Battery. You’ll also want Artist’s Talent, and you may need to get that up to level two. Alternatively, you can use baseline Talent alongside Stormcatch Mentor. On top of all this, you’ll need a copy of Sorceress’s Schemes in your graveyard, and two in your hand to kick things off. You’ll also need four total mana to work with.
Once you’ve set all this up, cast Schemes for three, targeting the other Schemes in your graveyard. Talent will trigger, allowing you to discard the other Schemes in your hand. You’ll also get an Electro trigger, and gain a red mana.
Once the first Schemes resolves, you’ll gain another red, bringing you to three red mana total. Once this is complete, you’ll have a Schemes in your ‘yard which you can cast via Mayhem for just one red thanks to Green Goblin, allowing you to repeat the loop and gain a red mana each time. This will also dig you through your entire deck via draw/discard triggers.
To close things out, you’ll need a removal spell that can kill off your own Electro, to turn that huge stock of excess mana into lethal damage. There are plenty of options in Standard for this, including Abrade and Obliterating Bolt. Flick a Coin may be the best of these, however, since it also plays nicely with your other combo pieces.
While a combo this complicated sounds like a long shot, most of its pieces are pretty solid cards in an Izzet Spellslinger deck in their own right. If we finally escape our current Vivi Cauldron nightmare, a list ‘splashing’ this combo could have a chance.
Oddly Familiar
Naturally, the combo potential of Green Goblin extends far beyond MTG Standard. There are many fewer convoluted combos available with the card, in both Modern and Commander.
In Modern, you can pair the card with Skirge Familiar and Acererak the Archlich for a reasonably easy infinite. Discarding Acererak with Familiar will get you a black mana, which is conveniently how much it costs to cast it from the ‘yard via Mayhem with Goblin out. When you do, venture into Lost Mine of Phandelver, since looping through it 20 times will kill your opponent outright via life drain.
While this combo can kill on-curve on turn five, that is far too slow for current Modern. Keeping Green Goblin alive until Familiar drops is an obstacle as well, but between Force of Negation and Flare of Denial there are plenty of tools in Modern to help you out. This won’t be competitively viable by any means, but it could be a fun deck to bring to a Friday Night Magic event.
This combo is much more viable in Commander, where there are plenty of other avenues you can pursue with Skirge Familiar. With forgotten enchantment Equilibrium, for example, you can endlessly loop two creatures that cost two generic mana or less. This creates infinite enters, leaves, and discard triggers, which allows for a win via Impact Tremors or Glint-Horn Buccaneer. Any colorless creatures will do here, really, but Containment Construct is particularly good due to its standalone discard synergy.
Skirge Familiar also allows you to generate infinite mana by discarding, replaying, and self-bouncing Palinchron. It’s not particularly hard to go infinite with this card, but it is another easy include in a Green Goblin Commander deck.
Making The Big Leagues
Green Goblin will definitely be unleashing some of the above combos at casual Commander tables, but it has real legs in cEDH to boot. While it doesn’t create any new cEDH-level combos, it does add a lot of resiliency to some of the best ones that already exist.
Take Underworld Breach lines, for example. Typically these involve looping Lion’s Eye Diamond and Brain Freeze with Breach out to win via mill. Demonic Consultation/Thassa’s Oracle aside, this is probably the most popular, powerful combo in the format. With Green Goblin out, you can execute it much easier.
All the cards you discard via Diamond can be cast again cheaper via Mayhem, which saves on your mana costs. Wheel of Fortune, another common piece in these combos, plays brilliantly with Goblin, too. Casting it via Mayhem for a single red is great, and it helps set up additional Mayhem plays.
Plenty of cEDH decks also run Retraction Helix combos, whether it’s with Valley Floodcaller or Rona, Herald of Invasion. Typically these require zero-mana artifacts to pull off, but Green Goblin lets you be a little more flexible. With a cheap discard outlet like Putrid Imp, you can pull off this combo using your Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, or any other one to two-mana artifact, too. It’s not revolutionary, but in CEDH every tiny edge matters.
Overall, Green Goblin is one of the better MTG combo enablers we’ve seen in a while. Expect to see a lot of it at competitive tables in the coming months.
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