Pointed Discussion

a good card to sacrifice for more combo's

Festering Dolphin!

Better if you play second, you get a free kill on their Llanowar Elves, BoP, etc.

Classic card, although i prefer Fume Spitter

Classic card, although i prefer blistergrub

Ah, Zombie Gobby, you will be missed.
You took a major fall when the new combat rules came out, and now with stuff like Fume Spitter running around you're practically worthless.
Although you still do a decent job in Zombie tribal as a one drop, to be fair.

Hey, look , in my opinion this still useful a lot, I remember how it got me on the finals against birds of paradise , few goblins and with the advantage of my Zombies deck, I loved that card and even the release cards with almost same ability , this one still the best zombie for one black to be cast.

I LOVE this little guy! I mean, he can take down 2/2's and he's still one mana. he's the only zombie i have four copies of in my zombie deck. works wonders with Quest for the Gravelord. i use a carrion feeder, then sac this guy or maybe even two of them and kill of some little piddly and get a 5/5! sure he's got drawbacks for the new combat rules, but he's still a great common 1 drop.

@GruesomeGoo

How, exactly, did this guy fall with the new combat rules? It's a death trigger, not a sac effect. Damage lasts until the Cleanup phase, meaning he still kills 2/2s when blocking. He didn't lose anything as far as I can tell. And he's hardly been obsoleted by Fume Spitter, as both will kill 1 toughness with ease. his creature types make him prime fodder for two very popular tribes. I'm just not seeing the worthless here.

Fume Spitter? Ok, I can see how you MIGHT prefer to make a creature smaller for the rest of the game, but with the new combat rules, this card IMO is actually BETTER than Fume Spitter. Fume Spitter has to sacrifice to put the counter on a creature, meaning he isn't doing his combat damage. This guy does his combat damage AND makes a creature smaller until end of turn. He can kill a 1/1 then take out another 1/1, or he can take out a 2/2 all on his own. If you have the mana to cast Lord of the Undead, that means you have the mana to bring him back to hand AND put him back in play. Not to mention at that point he can kill 3/3s. Sorry, but Fume Spitter fails to beat this guy.

I can't imagine many situations where I'd rather have this guy over Goblin Arsonist. The counter can set your opponent up for a two-for-one if you have the only creatures on the board. And with Bloodthirst, Arsonist is just that much better.

The toughest choice I had to make concerning my Legacy Zombie deck is wether to put Carnophage or this guy in my one-mana slot. A 2/2 for 1 with acceptable drawback is quite intimidating early-game, but Carnophage, especially if you have a playset, can get annoying, this guy has half the P/T, but can be used as removal and Recurring Nightmare fodder. What to do... what to do. 4/5.

Or you can sacrifice him to some other effect, and still get the benefit of his ability.

Sadly, Typhoid Rats is more effective in most cases. (but not all)

Still, if you're looking for a cheap Zombie, this is one of the best picks.

@GruesomeGoo How is Fume Spitter better, you don't have to sac, and not to mention, for black and red deck it fills both seats. It can be used as ammunition for Goblin Grenade AND it also combos with Endless Ranks of the Dead and comes back during the Zombie Apocalypse, and that's just the scratching the surface.

A 1-cost Zombie Goblin that gives creatures -1/-1 when it dies: Is it better than Mogg Fanatic? Well, with the new rules, it technically is. It can also be played in Zombie decks as a viable 1-drop, and that's exactly what I use it for.
I'd go as far to say that Festering is the second-best 1-drop zombie, although he's highly out-classed by Gravecrawler.

Also, it can destroy creatures which are indestructible (as long as their toughness is 1).

Also also, it is possible to conduct shenanigans if you play such spells as Innocent Blood or Demon of Death's Gate: ones that require you to sacrifice your own creatures.


Regardless, I think he is exceptionally versatile. 4.5/5

easily one of the top 5 best 1 drop zombies, if not the best. I would only concede his spot at number 1 to Gravecrawler maybe, but gravecrawler only gets it for being incredibly hard to keep dead, and if you're playing zombies right, ALL of your creatures are hard to keep dead.

Festering Goblin consistently shows up in my zombie decks. He's almost the perfect zombie. He's cheap, he has a good effect when he dies, and his flavor is text awesome for both a zombie and a goblin. Not to mention that my favorite zombie didn't get nerfed by the Tenth Edition rules changes, but his cousins Mogg Fanatic and (much later of course) Fume Spitter, did.

Overall one of the most solid zombie cards in the game. If you're playing zombies and don't run Festering Goblin, you're doing it wrong

It's like Goblin Arsonist
Seriously, almost the exact same card, but arsonist can hit players (+damagepoints), although this guy is a zombie(+tribalpoints)