Pointed Discussion

Goblins just got yet another lord (sorta).

Ridiculously cost-effective.

Lovin' the art

Quite good, I'm happy wizards finally decided that red starts to get 2/2 + decent abilities for RR. See Ember Hauler for more of what I'm talking about.

I just love this little guy. I'll take two.

Another sweet goblin! Let's see if this guy can bring goblins into standard!

I wonder if goblins will ever truly get a lord of atlantis equivalent?

Mirrodin goblins are the best goblins. Phyrexia cannot hold against a wave of these furious little bobblehead dolls and their comically huge war scythes. AAIIIIEEEEEEEE

About time goblins got a 2-drop that's good. So far, it curves in at lackey/vial at 1, only piledriver at 2, then everything else at 3.
Wardriver here might favor a new aggressive goblin build.

Solid card.

A solid card.
It's just everytime I look at this card I'm thinking:
"If this would be a Rare it would have 'Haste'. And as Mythic it would probably get even one ability more tacked on like 'First Strike'".
Sad how much influence Rarity gained since Alara.

This is so retarded. Another perfect example of White stealing every other color's abilities because Wizards loves White. Red should be the one trading toughness for power, but instead it gets a 2/2 battle crier and White's the one that gets the 3/1 in Accorder Paladin. Those two cards' stats should obviously be switched.

This card is alright, IMO. In goblin decks that specialize in hoards of tokens and power-buffs (like mine), this guy seems a little lack-luster. Plus, he will probably only swing once before the blockers kill him. Battle cry is a good alpha-strike ability, which is why it is paired best with white and cards like brave the elements.

Not Bad. And Yeah Dragon Lord, Ember Hauler And Blood Knight They Are All Awesome! Plus The Art Is Spectacular!

I love this card so much.
With a few other goblins, you can do 15 damage by turn 3.

T1 R then play Accorder's Sheild (or a 0 costing artifact) then Kuldotha Rebirth

T2 R Goblin Wardriver (maybe atttack for 3 with the 1/1 goblins)

T3 R Goblin Chieftain, then attack with everything.

If your opp has no creatures by this point, you have done 15-18 damage.

GOBLINS ATTACK, ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!

i love this card with the way my standard deck is set up i have even more fire power than ever. i like being able to dish out alot of pain with my goblins.
turn 1 quest for the goblin lord
turn 2 cheap artifact/kuldotha rebirth
turn 3 pyretic ritual/goblin wardriver/goblin bushwhacker swinging for 25(5 each)
i love when i get to play rough.

Wow! What an awesome goblin!

He is unapologetically agressive - this goblin rewards you handsomely for doing one of the more gobliny activities: all-out attack! The thought of dropping Bedlam and swinging in with a couple of these and a couple of Goblin Piledrivers is almost more than I can take.

Hm... piledriver and wardriver... wonder if this guy's name is supposed to be a veiled reference to his Dominarian spiritual ancestor?

In all seriousness, though, I knew I would like this card as soon as they previewed the art. That is the biggest, scariest spiked hat I have ever seen! I hope we get to see other goblins out of the Secret Warren before our visit to Mirrodin is over!

this is a good card in standard (3.5/5) but in legacy i'd give it a 2/5.
if this card would cost 1C1R (not 2R) then this would be a good addition to legacy goblin decks, a Goblin Chieftain (with a Goblin Warchief on the battlefield) would have the same mana cost as this guy and all your goblins will get +1 +1 (not to mention haste) permanently whether your attacking or blocking (as long as Goblin Chieftain is in the field). i'd rather have Goblin Piledriver, Mogg War Marshal, Bloodmark Mention or even Goblin Lookout in my second drop in my legacy goblin deck.

Nice art work on an average card.

Red really gets the shaft... This is seriously red's best card for this cycle? Looks like I'll be taking another snooze for the Mirrodin cycle. My wallet will be happier for it though =D so thanks I guess.

Reasoning:

Green gets broken card, "Green Sun's Zenith"... while Red gets a 2-2 goblin unworthy of a paper shredder.

Red would rather have utility-burn spells (good cards like Smash to Smithereens, etc):
proposed example: Instant, 1(R) "Special Shock" Rare: "Special Shock" cannot be countered or prevented. "Special Shock" does 2 damage to target creature or player. Target player cannot gain life for rest of that turn (aka Flames of Blood Hand lite).

And if you want to make this example card really special:
Instant, (RR) "Special Shock" Mythic-Rare: "Special Shock" cannot be countered or prevented.
Choose one:
(1) "Special Shock" exiles target annoying/broken enchantment (aka CoP Red / aka Leyline of Sanctity /etc, etc)... bc a single card that disables an entire COLOR is just not fun to play against & makes one want to play something other than MTG)
OR
(2) "Special Shock" does 2 damage to target creature or player. Target player cannot gain life for rest of that turn. Scry 2 cards or draw a card / or something to improve red's card disadvantage without having to shuffle the deck (shuffling and shuffling gets old fast, I would ban the word 'shuffle' from getting printed if Wizards, I know many players that avoid such cards bc it makes casual games more tedious).

Now ^that^ would be an excellent unbroken card for red.. Something other than magmajet to slightly improve red's inherent enchantment & card disadvantage.. a way to get rid of annoying cards that single-handedly shut down an entire COLOR, no skill required. Would pay 5-10$ for a card like that. But would pay 0$ for another lame goblin or artifact card (not even galvanic blast will con Red into using clunky artifacts that guarantee a loss due to making Red's inherent card disadvantage from playing Bolts even worse).

Or Wizards could just be obnoxious and print a verson of this example awesome card that would NEVER get played by making it overcosted:
Instant, (RRR) "Special Shock" Mythic-Rare:
"Special Shock"... will never be played because it cost N mana too much to be considered worth playing.

This card needs more First Strike. Luckily we have Bloodmark Mentor to help with that.

Even without First Strike this is a great card.

Red deck for the win. Bushwhacker and Memnite madness.

a goblin version or Goldeen?

Question, I have a Red for the whole tournament on March 5 or something like that. Should I swap out Spikeshot Elder for 4 of these critters? I mean, the only buffs my creatures will are from Goblin Bushwhacker & Goblin Chieftain. I don't know, I have to go all 4 Wardrivers though, shouldn't split them. Right?

Cheap swing for 3 damage on turn 3, not too shabby.

Personally the combo I use is as follows;

T1: Goblin Guide, swing 2

T2: Goblin Wardriver

T3: Tap for 3 mana in the pool, cast a devastating summons for 2 3/3's, and a kicked bushwhacker, swing 20.

I mean I know you have no lands after that, but if they survived then kudos to them IMO. A more safe play would be a T3 Chieftain, then a T4 Hero of Oxid Ridge. I have both plays in my burn/beatdown deck.

@EternalLurker
Actually, to be honest, I think you're wrong.
Sure, red trades power for toughness a lot, (ie Ball Lightning),
But he isn't a "Red card" so much as a "Goblin"
Look at gobbies: a majority of them have pretty equal P/T ratios,
And most of them 2 or less.
White is in love with first strike, too, where high P to T ratios work best.
So, where I get the claim you're making,
This guy seems completely natural to me,
And simply doesn't need to trade with Accorder Paladin.

All together now: Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!

Baby you can drive my war, and maybe I'll love you.

I pulled 3 of these and 2 signal pests from my fat pack. And a contested war zone. I think I know what direction I'll spend my singles money on, although buying Mox Opals is going to kill me. (It'll be soooo worth it.)

EDIT: Scratch that part about building a Kuldotha Red clone. This guy shines in extended next to Ball Lighting. Which is exactly where he fits in my curve :)

Drew three of these in the pre-release for Mirro Besieged. Worked pretty damn well since my deck was all fodder.

@StampedingRhino
"Red really gets the shaft... This is seriously red's best card for this cycle? Looks like I'll be taking another snooze for the Mirrodin cycle. My wallet will be happier for it though =D so thanks I guess.

Reasoning:

Green gets broken card, "Green Sun's Zenith"... while Red gets a 2-2 goblin unworthy of a paper shredder."

Oh? I didn't know the cycle was Green Sun's Zenith, White Sun's Zenith, Blue Sun's Zenith, Black Sun's Zenith, Goblin Wardriver. Thanks for pointing out; I totally would have missed it otherwise.


Putting that god-awful comment aside, this card really breaks some face. Or rather, Battle Cry really breaks some face and this happens to be a pretty good card with Battle Cry on it. RR hurts as opposed to 1R, but everything about it just screams "Kuldotha Red!" so I can't see that being a hindrance in most cases. Having a 2/2 Battle Crier on turn 2 to go along with your 3 1/1s from your turn 3 Kuldotha Rebirth, your turn 1 Signal Pest, and your turn 4 Goblin Wardriver and kicked Goblin Bushwhacker (or Hero of Oxid Ridge) is pretty damn solid.

To put it more plainly, the main benefit of Wardriver is this: its ability scales as the game progresses; while its bonus is static, it gets better with every creature you play. It's great on turn 2, great on turn 3, and great on turn 6 if you get stalled out – and it fits right into your mana curve. This is something Kuldotha Red desperately needs, since most of its creatures are going to struggle as the game progresses and its enemies either ramp up or get their combos out. It's true that the above applies to just about any creature with Battle Cry, but the two pitch-perfect tribes are what really make this one of the best fit in my opinion (having a Goblin Chieftain and putting down a surprise 3/3 battle cry haste does ugly things to your opponent). And since there are only 7 battle criers right now, and three are white while one's a vastly inferior Minotaur, it should be a pretty easy auto-include in just about any modern Goblin deck.

Is it better than Goblin Guide? No. Is it an auto-4-of in every red aggro deck? Probably not. Is it about the best 2-drop you can find for a Standard goblin deck? Absolutely! Well, until they give us back Goblin Piledriver at least!

For the Horde!!!!!!!!!!!!

Solid card

My favorite art

This guy has been a lot better than I first thought. I thought...meh, +1/+0 is not that much. But now when I can attack on turn 4 almost every game for 20+ damage, my thinking has changed. Add in Goblin Chieftain and you have a surprise guy that can add in a whole ton of damage that an opponant might not prepare for.

Good card in mono-red Goblin tribal. Why? Replaces Goblin Piker in my deck for starters. Now with Krenko, Mob Boss, you can swing with those and one of this for X+1 times 2. Epicness.
@stampedingrhino You are what I like to call a Goldilocks player. You want Wizards to print powerful cards (And btw Scry is a BLUE, not a red ability) (and also "disables another entire color" seriously? There are no cards that do that. None. At all. Ever.) but you also don't want them to be "OP" or "Broken". Of course, the moment they print a decent card like this for {R}{R} you say it sucks, and compare it to an entire other class of card. Compare cards within cycles for balance, outside of a cycle, at a different rarity, at a different mana cost, is completely different. Apples to Goblins here, fella. and finally, you want them to print a card to benefit you, and you want it cheap. Also known as, broken. You're just a massive hypocrite. And also, this isn't meant to be "special" it's made to be a unbroken, yet okay, uncommon. comparing it to rares like Green Sun's Zenith is like saying Brainstorm sucks because it's worse than Jace, the Mind Sculpter. And also, you hate cards that shut down other strategies but you want a red card that stops lifegain. For that, go with Flames of the Blood Hand.

I picture him as King Leonidas' goblin counterpart.. hahah

"Kuldothans...!! What is your profession??!!"

"AWOOOH!! AWOOOH!!"

"WHY IS MY FACE SO BIIIIIIIIIG!?"

A 2-drop goblin with ZERO DRAWBACKS! Yes, please.