A couple of weekends back now (I think that’s right) was Pro Tour Dominaria. For me with a playset of Goblin Chainwhirler already in my possession from when I was cracking boosters, the news coming out of the event was good. 7 of the top 8 decks had him in. That’s seen his cost shoot up from around $5 to $7 something. Plus there is speculation that WotC may have to ban the card sooner than later from standard.

But the burning question of the day is, “is Goblin Chainwhirler good enough to make my mono red Commander deck?” Followed by “if so which card does it replace?”

Ok before I ramble on about Goblin Chainwhirler, here is a LINK for those that want to refresh their minds of what cards are in my mono red deck.

So Goblin Chainwhirler is a 3 CMC for a 3/3 that has first strike, and an etb that does 1 damage to each opponent, Planeswalker and creature they control.

For my deck the reason this would be added is that etb. It’s a way to clear the board of 1/1 tokens. A second more expensive Blazing Volley. Ok not quiet because after playing I also have a 3/3 creature on the battlefield, but it achieves the same. It’s also been compared in podcasts I’v listened to, to Rampaging Ferocidon. Which is currently banned in Standard. I don’t see this as powerful as Ferocidon that had menace, stopped life gain, and every time a creature entered the battlefield the owner lost a life. Same CMC. However Ferocidon could be discounted, because it cost 2 any mana, and 1 mountain. Compared to Chainwhirler needing 3 mountains.

I think I do currently have a slot for this in the deck. I like Narnam Cobra, a 2 CMC 2/1 colourless artifact creature. But Chainwhirler is the ideal replacement for it. So that was a lot easier than I thought it would be.

My harder decisions I think will be how to fit the following 2 cards into the Scarab God deck and the mono red respectively.

But I’ll talk more about these in a future why did I buy these post. So letting you off the hook there.