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Ovika Dirty Kitty | V-BLB

Commander / EDH Aggro Combo Goblins Primer UR (Izzet)

Beebles

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Commander: foil Ovika, Enigma Goliath

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Inspired by an old Combo Aggro deck

Hello there and welcome to my Ovika, Enigma Goliath Dirty Kitty build.

Origin

A good portion of my decks are driven by nostalgia. Taking a deck I used to play during the early days of my MTG career and building an EDH deck with a similar feel. Often these decks stem from the Extended format, which was my favorite format at the time. Examples include my Roon deck that mimics Astral Slide decks and my Mina and Denn list being inspired by Aggro Loam. However, there's one archetype I probably played more during that era than any other: Goblins.

Goblins had always been a viable aggro build in extended, but really became something extraordinary with the creation of "The Red Storm" AKA "Dirty Kitty" back in 2006. Combining classic Goblin aggro with rituals such as Seething Song as well as these three key cards: Empty the Warrens, Skirk Prospector and Fecundity. The result was an explosive aggro deck that could also win through combo. It was a blast to play, and although I once quit the game and sold my collection, that deck was part of the small selection that I still held on to.

I had never tried to build something like that in EDH, until it dawned on me that Ovika, Enigma Goliath basically is an Empty the Warrens in the command zone. And once I realized it could mimic Dirty Kitty gameplay while becoming an on theme home for old school classics such as Force of Will, Dream Halls, Mana Echoes as well as some of my favorite old goblin cards, I knew I was onto something worth exploring.

By the way, if you want to know why it's called "Dirty Kitty" and learn a little bit more about the history of the original deck, check out this MTG Goldfish video.

Premise

Ovika, Enigma Goliath is a phyrexian badass nightmare that spews out hasty goblin tokens for casting noncreature spells. And those phyrexian goblins are going to zerg rush our opponents and spread the phyrexian creep in all sorts of nasty ways.

It’s a glass cannon-type of approach: the deck commits to ramping out Ovika and then trying to threaten a win shortly afterwards with one big explosive turn. By storming off we churn out a waterfall of goblin tokens that can lead to the win in several ways: they can be turned into damage through a card like Purphoros, God of the Forge, we can give them pseudo-infect through Strixhaven Stadium, or we can just aggro our opponents out with regular combat damage, using pump spells like Shared Animosity. And if all else fails there are also a few infinite combos here that can close out the game.

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To get this plan going, we need to get Ovika out ASAP. And although the land count may seem on the lower side, the majority of the cards in the deck are mana producers. A multitude of which allow us to get Ovika out early. Then, because almost all cards in the deck are noncreature spells, anything we do after that is going to feed the phyrexian goblin storm.

But we aren't just going to play random noncreature spells. We'll be looking to compleat the Dirty Kitty engine by getting massive mana and massive carddraw. For mana, we can rely on our mana sac outlets Skirk Prospector and Phyrexian Altar, rituals like Brightstone Ritual, Mana Echoes, our Goblin Cradle Three Tree City and the dirtiest kitty of the format, Displacer Kitten (especially together with Trinket Mage). For carddraw we can make good use of engines like Skullclamp, Kindred Discovery and the closest card we have to Fecundity: Weatherlight Compleated. Complemented by mass draw spells such as Distant Melody.

Mana Value for Value

What makes Ovika kick things into a higher gear are the tricks you can do with alternative casting costs. Ovika is looking at the mana value of the spells that we cast. The rules around mana value are quite interesting, as the mana value of a card is always what it says on the card on the top right, no matter how that card was paid for during casting (except when it's an X-spell, then the mana put into X influences the mana value of the card while it's on the stack). So obviously in this deck we're interested to find quality noncreature spells with an alternative casting cost that's cheaper than its mana value.

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This is where certain classic staples such as Force of Will, Dream Halls and Frantic Search, become extra valuable. And lesser known ones such as Volcanic Salvo become great value pieces in this deck, because we can get storming right after Ovika has hit the table. Cards we can play at a discount, such as Dig Through Time, and cards that copy spells while specifically mentioning that those copies are cast, like Surge to Victory, are also great for this purpose. These cards serve a similar role as Goblin Warchief-discounted Mogg War Marshals did in the original build: giving you new sac fodder at a cheap price to maintain your explosive turn.

Goblin Synegies

It wouldn't be a real dirty kitty deck without some goblin synergies. The star of the show (not just because of the OG flavor text) and probably the best card in the deck is Skirk Prospector as it turns our goblins into red treasures, is easily cast on the same turn as Ovika and can be tutored. Goblin Matron is great for fetching the prospector. Other tutor targets include the interaction pieces Goblin Trashmaster, blowing up all nasty artifacts, and Goblin Assassin, a one-sided board wipe (just choose to sac Goblin Assassin once all opponent's creatures are removed). Dockside Extortionist can be the thing we need to accelerate into Ovika or continue our storm turn, and Goblin Chirurgeon provides a nice protection option. Lastly there's Shared Animosity as a tribal synergy card to close out the game through combat and Cultural Exchange as a means to familiarize an opponent with the goblin ways (while not caring about hexproof or shroud).

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Combos

Intended Power Level

The deck is looking to threaten a win as fast as possible. In testing this usually occurred between turn 5 and 8. Making this build fit comfortably in the high category.

Category (Jank - Low - Mid - High - Competitive)

High

Closing Thoughts

Brewing this deck has been a lot of fun, but I can imagine this won’t be a deck I’ll bring out often or in succeeding games. I still think I will assemble it mainly for the nostalgia points and for the occasional spice. It also helps that I already own most of the expensive pieces. I do expect there’s still a bunch of unexplored potential for turning Ovika into an EDH Dirty Kitty deck, so please let me know if you’ve got some sweet tech for me to consider.

Upvote & Support This Deck!

GL & HF

Beebles

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Revision 35 See all

(2 months ago)

+1 Untimely Malfunction main
Top Ranked
Date added 1 year
Last updated 2 days
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)

8 - 0 Mythic Rares

44 - 0 Rares

23 - 0 Uncommons

21 - 0 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.35
Tokens Bird 2/2 U, Construct 0/0 C, Phyrexian Goblin 1/1 R, Spawn 3/3 R, Treasure
Folders Things I Like, Deckos, Decks By Others, +1 Decks I Want to Emulate
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