New MTG Merfolk Typal Legend Creates Wild Combos By Countering Your Own Spells

At this point, it’s absolutely no secret that Mystery Booster: Commander Edition contains some wild card designs. Even with only 60 new cards, Rulebreakers pushed at what’s possible in Commander, and Wizards didn’t stop there.

In creating cards like Grandmother Goby, for instance, Wizards really pushed the limits of what makes a good Commander. By countering all of your own noncreature spells, this Commander seems pretty terrible on the surface; however, it’s not all bad.

With the right support, you can easily turn Grandmother Goby into a unique Typal Commander that puts up a good fight. There are even some nuts infinite combos to exploit if you really want to end the game in a hurry.

MTG Grandmother Goby

At its core, Grandmother Goby is a pretty effective Merfolk Typal Commander that can quickly get out of hand. Even without any fancy tricks, every noncreature spell becomes a source of new Merfolk that makes going wide effortless.

Alongside classic lords like Master of the Pearl Trident Master of the Pearl Trident Other Merfolk creatures you control get +1/+1 and have islandwalk. (They can't be blocked as long as defending player controls an Island.) and Lord of Atlantis Lord of Atlantis Other Merfolk get +1/+1 and have islandwalk. (They can't be blocked as long as defending player controls an Island.) , you can easily make these Merfolk pack a punch. Namor the Sub-Mariner Namor the Sub-Mariner Flying
Namor's power is equal to the number of Merfolk you control.
Whenever you cast a noncreature spell with one or more blue mana symbols in its mana cost, create that many 1/1 blue Merfolk creature tokens. can effortlessly do the same in this deck, while creating even more Merfolk as an added bonus.

Beyond just dealing damage, lords like Seafloor Oracle Seafloor Oracle Whenever a Merfolk you control deals combat damage to a player, draw a card. and Vodalian Hexcatcher Vodalian Hexcatcher Flash
Other Merfolk you control get +1/+1.
Sacrifice a Merfolk: Counter target noncreature spell unless its controller pays {1}. can provide tons of utility. Using these, you won’t have to rely on regular spells for card draw or counterspells, allowing you to avoid Goby’s downside.

As much as you can avoid this downside, it’s equally easy to lean into it for additional value. With Lullmage Mentor Lullmage Mentor Whenever a spell or ability you control counters a spell, you may create a 1/1 blue Merfolk creature token.
Tap seven untapped Merfolk you control: Counter target spell. , for instance, you can get even more Merfolk for your mana, which is actually an important distinction. Since Grandmother Goby cares about the amount of mana spent on cast spells, sadly cost reduction and copy shenanigans aren’t great here.

Instead, the real trick with Grandmother Goby is to use spells that can’t be countered, like Last Word Last Word This spell can't be countered.
Counter target spell. . With these spells, not only can you cast them like normal, but you’ll still get Merfolk from Goby equal to the mana spent.

Thanks to this synergy, Grandmother Goby decks utilize tons of uncounterable cards, and Chimil, the Inner Sun Chimil, the Inner Sun Spells you control can't be countered.
At the beginning of your end step, discover 5. (Exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card with mana value 5 or less. Cast it without paying its mana cost or put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom in a random order.) , for good measure. With this artifact, or something like Lier, Disciple of the Drowned Lier, Disciple of the Drowned Spells can't be countered.
Each instant and sorcery card in your graveyard has flashback. The flashback cost is equal to that card's mana cost. , in play, Goby’s ability becomes all upside, supercharging her game plan.

With this problem solved, cards like Transcendent Message Transcendent Message Convoke (Your creatures can help cast this spell. Each creature you tap while casting this spell pays for {1} or one mana of that creature's color.)
Draw X cards. and Convoke spells such as Complete the Circuit Complete the Circuit Convoke (Your creatures can help cast this spell. Each creature you tap while casting this spell pays for {1} or one mana of that creature's color.)
You may cast sorcery spells this turn as though they had flash.
When you next cast an instant or sorcery spell this turn, copy that spell twice. You may choose new targets for the copies. really go the distance. The same is also true for Delve spells, like Dig Through Time Dig Through Time Delve (Each card you exile from your graveyard while casting this spell pays for {1}.)
Look at the top seven cards of your library. Put two of them into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in any order. , or even Improvise spells like Universal Surveillance Universal Surveillance Improvise (Your artifacts can help cast this spell. Each artifact you tap after you're done activating mana abilities pays for {1}.)
Draw X cards. .

Crazy Countering Combos

While Grandmother Goby is very capable of playing a strong fair game, there are a few combos to exploit. The easiest of these is undoubtedly Goby’s combo with Guile Guile This creature can't be blocked except by three or more creatures.
If a spell or ability you control would counter a spell, instead exile that spell and you may play that card without paying its mana cost.
When Guile is put into a graveyard from anywhere, shuffle it into its owner's library. , which goes infinite with any other noncreature card.

With Guile in play, any noncreature card you cast that gets countered goes into exile, where you can cast it for free. Since casting it again will make Goby counter it, you can keep doing this process infinitely.

Notably, since Grandmother Goby cares about the amount of mana spent, you’ll only get Merfolk tokens the first time around. While this does dampen the combo’s potential somewhat, you still get infinite Magecraft triggers and Storm count.

Sadly, neither of these effects will win a game on their own; however, with Archmage Emeritus Archmage Emeritus Magecraft — Whenever you cast or copy an instant or sorcery spell, draw a card. , you can draw your entire deck. Alternatively, using Brain Freeze Brain Freeze Target player mills three cards.
Storm (When you cast this spell, copy it for each spell cast before it this turn. You may choose new targets for the copies.) , you can Mill out each opponent after removing Goby so it won’t be countered.

While you won’t find it in our sample deck, Grandmother Goby also has another, rather convoluted combo. With Invocation of the Founders Invocation of the Founders (As a Siege enters, choose an opponent to protect it. You and others can attack it. When it's defeated, exile it, then cast it transformed.)
When this Siege enters, search your library, graveyard, and/or outside the game for an instant or sorcery card you own, reveal it, and put it into your hand. If you search your library this way, shuffle. , Bond of Insight Bond of Insight Each player mills four cards. Return up to two instant and/or sorcery cards from your graveyard to your hand. Exile Bond of Insight. , and Phyrexian Altar Phyrexian Altar Sacrifice a creature: Add one mana of any color. , you can also get infinite Mill alongside infinite enters and leaves the battlefield triggers.

To make this combo work, you first need to flip Invasion of Arcavios Invasion of Arcavios (As a Siege enters, choose an opponent to protect it. You and others can attack it. When it's defeated, exile it, then cast it transformed.)
When this Siege enters, search your library, graveyard, and/or outside the game for an instant or sorcery card you own, reveal it, and put it into your hand. If you search your library this way, shuffle. , though an army of Merfolk should be able to handle this. After that, casting Bond of Insight will create two triggers: one from Grandmother Goby to counter it, while Invocation of the Founders copies it.

With Goby’s trigger going first, you’ll create four Merfolk, which can be sacrificed to Phyrexian Altar for four blue. After this, the copy of Bond of Insight will resolve normally, since Goby only counters spells that are cast.

Using the copied Bond of Insight, you can bring back the original to recast using your floating blue, alongside another card. From here, you can simply recast Bond of Insight, while being up one recurred spell and having milled each player for four.

Fun Now, Better Later?

Right now, Grandmother Goby is already a fantastic Commander to build around. Even if you’re not using either of the combos, this Merfolk Typal deck has tons of potential.

Beyond just being strong, Grandmother Goby also gets bonus points for being interesting. Having a downside that can become an upside is just plain neat and makes the gameplay experience deeply entertaining.

Currently, while prices are a bit all over the place, Grandmother Goby isn’t even that expensive, either. On TCGplayer, you can pick up a copy of this card for under $3, which feels like great value.

For better or worse, as more boxes of Mystery Booster: Commander Edition get released, this price should fall even further. While this could make Goby a great budget pick going forward, it’s worth noting that Merfolk should be getting more support too.

While we don’t know much about it yet, Nauctis: The Sunken Realm’s underwater theme will surely contain some new Merfolk. This, in turn, could give Grandmother Goby a significant boost in power, making it even more enticing.

For better or worse, this power spike early next year is by no means guaranteed. Even if it doesn’t materialize, however, this is still a great Commander that’s well worth building around.

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