Krenko, Mob Boss is a goblin from the esteemed plane of Ravnica. He is known for a "perverse charisma fueled by avarice." The fact that Krenko is charasmatic is obvious from his tap ability. Doubling the number of goblins you control is no small feat.
Krenko's Command reveals his secret to attracting so many goblins to his Konda's Banner. "Goblins are eager to follow orders, especially when those orders involve stealing, hurting, annoying, eating, destroying, or swearing." He is also a motivational speaker as seen in the flavor text for the card Fervor: "We won't sit like lazy gob-slugs waiting for death to come to us. We'll bring death, shiny sharp, to our enemies."
Now that you have an idea about Krenko as a character, lets look at the members of his Cartel and what they can do.
Lieutenants:
I think that you'll notice that most of our creatures are actually there to give passive bonuses to our troops. In the words of Ib Halfheart, Goblin Tactician, "Everybody but me, Charge!!" Even though Ib doesn't make an appearance in this deck, his motto still stands for Krenko and his Lieutenants. Goblin Chirurgeon is the official doctor of our cartel, his job is to cut up the unnecessary goblins so that the important ones can stay alive. Bloodmark Mentor has a little trick of poking before you get poked back, that he actively coaches the rest of our goblins with. Goblin King gives all of our goblins a little inspiration as well as showing them how to be sneaky in their favored environments. His ability works rather well coupled with Blood Moon.
Reinforcements: This is a function that Krenko adequately supplies on his own, but it actually becomes more effective with some of these other cards. Krenko's Command, Beetleback Chief, Dragon Fodder, Mogg War Marshal, Mogg Alarm, and Empty the Warrens each add a couple new goblins into the mix. Our flashiest rush of reinforcements comes in the form of Goblin Offensive coupled with the trickery of Brightstone Ritual to flood the battlefield with little stabby goblinoids.
Bruisers: What is a cartel without some big scary bruisers in the mix? These guys are pretty self-explanatory. Battle Squadron, Horde of Boggarts, and Reckless One will each have the opponents of the cartel shaking in their boots.
Battle Tactics: These come in the form of enchantments and artifacts that greatly shift the power of the battlefield in the favor of the hordes of goblins. Aggravated Assault, Fervor, and Heat Stroke are just some examples of the terrifying tactics our goblins can employ.
Shiney Bits: These artifacts are designed to make Krenko even more effective by doubling up and recurring his recruitment ability. Thousand-Year Elixir lets Krenko go off early and allows him an extra tap-per-turn. Illusionist's Bracers doubles the effectiveness of each of Krenko's activations. Sword of the Paruns allows a back-and-forth for as long as Krenko has mana ready for it.
Killing Strokes: Krenko isn't just good at getting goblins on his side, he is also excellent at the end-game. That is where our killing strokes come in. The idea of these cards is to do at least as much damage as goblins we control to the enemies of the cartel. Generally you want to hold off on these until you know that they can destroy your opponent in one swing. Our coup-de-grace machines are as follows(in order of least activated mana to greatest): Kyren Negotiations, Goblin Bombardment, Goblin War Strike, Mob Justice, Massive Raid, Roar of the Crowd, and Burn at the Stake.
So there you have it, Krenko's Cartel is a terrifying yet flavorful option for anyone who enjoys having LOTS of goblins at their disposal. Granted, he may be doing everything he is doing at the mysterious behest of "Mr. Taz"(Lazav, Dimir Mastermind), but at least he does it well.
