Ghost-Spider, Gwen StacyGhost-Spider, Gwen Stacy | Art by Xabi Gaztelua

My favorite thing about Commander is that every player I know has their own thing. The vast array of strategies available in the format inevitably results in players latching on to a handful of archetypes that are distinctly them. Everyone I play with can easily identify cards or decks that I'd play. This leaves room for me to subvert their expectations by showing up with something that's wildly abnormal for me. Mono-red aggro is totally outside of my normal range, but Spider-Gwen isn't! In this deck tech, I'm going to build a sweet mono-red deck with Ghost-Spider, Gwen StacyGhost-Spider, Gwen Stacy.

What Does Ghost-Spider, Gwen Stacy Do?

Ghost-Spider, Gwen StacyGhost-Spider, Gwen Stacy is a five-mana 4/4 with menace. Whenever she attacks, she deals X damage to the defending player, where X is the number of attacking creatures. A deck helmed by Ghost-Spider has a clear incentive to go really, really wide.

I spent a while thinking about how I could put a lot of creatures into play, and it came to me almost instantly: Goblins!

From a flavor standpoint, I think Gwen Stacy and Goblins are a bit of an unusual pairing, but I don't think that'll bother me much as I'm attacking with a massive band of Goblins and dealing 30 damage with Gwen's attack trigger, though.

Key Cards For Ghost-Spider, Gwen Stacy

The first step in this deck's plan is making a lot of tokens. Thankfully, I know a certain Goblin who specializes in just that.

Gwen Stacy's... Goblin Army?

Krenko, Mob BossKrenko, Mob Boss is the best creature in the deck, hands down. Once he hits the board and starts exponentially growing the horde of Goblins, this deck becomes nearly unstoppable. It only takes one or two Krenko activations to run away with a game. He is to be protected at all costs.

There are a lot of two- or three-mana sorceries that just generate a few tokens, and these cards are often the best early game plays available to a deck like this. I'd take a turn-two Krenko's CommandKrenko's Command over Arcane SignetArcane Signet any day of the week. This deck doesn't even play Arcane Signet for that reason!

The only thing that really scares me when I think about what a game with this deck looks like is opposing board wipes. I don't think Gwen, Krenko, or their army of Goblins will take very kindly to a card like Wrath of GodWrath of God. Pashalik MonsPashalik Mons dissuades opponents from wiping away all of this deck's creatures with a very simple threat: every Goblin they kill is going to cause them to take damage. If it's just a few Goblins, that's fine. If it's 30, opponents might just decide to spend their mana doing something else.

One aspect of these Goblins strategies that I love is that it is very much quantity over quality. Most of the time, I don't actually care what the Goblin I'm casting does. It just needs to sit there and be a Goblin; if it can do something else for me, that's awesome! I've included a bunch of lords, like Goblin KingGoblin King, to do just that.

Burn

Ghost-Spider, Gwen StacyGhost-Spider, Gwen Stacy isn't the only way to deal damage directly to opponents. Purphoros, God of the ForgePurphoros, God of the Forge burns each opponent for two damage each time a creature enters the battlefield. With a token-generator like Krenko, Mob BossKrenko, Mob Boss in play, Purphoros is capable of killing the table all by himself.

HellriderHellrider effectively adds an extra point of damage to each attacking creature. The floor for this card is making 1-power creatures deal two damage, and the ceiling is having a Torbran, Thane of Red FellTorbran, Thane of Red Fell or City on FireCity on Fire in play and making those 1/1s do a lot more damage.

I like to think of Goblin BombardmentGoblin Bombardment as an insurance policy. If an opponent points a removal spell at a creature, I'm at least going to get one more point of damage in on that creature's way out. It can also serve as a way to dissuade opponents from casting removal spells, as it puts them on the hook for additional damage.

How Does This Ghost-Spider, Gwen Stacy Deck Win?

The easiest way to get a game over with is to slam a City on FireCity on Fire, go to combat, and start turning creatures sideways. City on FireCity on Fire triples the amount of damage that Ghost-Spider, Gwen StacyGhost-Spider, Gwen Stacy's attack trigger deals. In the later stages of the game, that can be more than enough damage to kill a player on its own. Torbran, Thane of Red FellTorbran, Thane of Red Fell is very much the same, although adding two damage is significantly less impressive than multiplying it by three.

For a deck that is constructed around taking advantage of an attack trigger, additional combat steps are best friend material. Full ThrottleFull Throttle, Overpowering AttackOverpowering Attack, and Combat CelebrantCombat Celebrant should each be able to quickly steal games out from under an opponent, no matter how commanding of a lead they have. There are even some neat tricks to be had with Fable of the Mirror-BreakerFable of the Mirror-Breaker being used to copy Combat CelebrantCombat Celebrant and causing mayhem.

Ghost-Spider, Gwen Stacy Commander Decklist

Conclusion

Despite it falling outside the sort of decks I would usually be drawn to, I love this deck. I'm so happy I was able to take Ghost-Spider, Gwen Stacy, a fairly underwhelming starter deck commander, and find a good, if a little bizarre, strategy for it.

This deck, much like Krenko, Mob BossKrenko, Mob Boss, is perfect to hand less experienced players. The overwhelming majority of the time, the player piloting this deck can just spend every turn casting all of the cards they have the mana for and attacking with everything and do pretty well for themselves. They might even learn a thing or two about proper sequencing along the way.