"Zada , Hedron Grinder : Pre Cursor Golem Style"

"Zada , Hedron Grinder : Pre Cursor Golem Style"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.

I love goblins and collect them whenever I can. There are tons of Red Goblin Decks in my Lab and all of them would be happy with the addition of this new card , Zada , Hedron Grinder.

Zada , Hedron Grinder is a finisher and all of my goblins are clamoring for him to be included in their decks. Several things instantly come to mind when I think about this card. First , Aggressive cards who love to instantly pump creatures  will get a kick out of him when he joins all the other goblins already out from the Khans of Tarkir Block and Magic Origins. The next thing in my mind are the different shells that Zada could fit in and here are a few.

Red Green Standard Shell:

Having Elvish Mystic around for a couple of weeks after Battle of Zendikar comes out was my main consideration for this R/G shell. I mean if you are able to power out Zada by turn three then you could set up a wonderfully wicked Turn 4 kill! 

Turn 1 Forest and then Elvish Mystic

Turn 2 Mountain and Rabble Master , He gives you 1 Goblin token.

Turn 3 Mountain or Forest  , Play Zada. Rabble Master Gives you another token.

Turn 4 Titans Strength Zada and you could target all the other creatures on the battlefield that you control. At this point you have 1 Elf , A Rabble Master and 2 Goblin tokens as well Zada Himself. All in all each creature gets a +3/+1 stat pump and You get to Scry 5 times as each copy of the Titan's Strenght resolves. 

If you look at the damage calculation at this point Zada with one spell has give you enough power to kill your opponent in this 4th turn. Elvish Mystic becomes 4/2 , Each Goblin token becomes 4/2 as well and Rabble Master attacks , counts the goblins in play and receive a +4/0 instantly(because of the 3 tokens and Zada in play) making it  a 9/3 monstrosity. Oh and Zada himself becomes a 7/4 pumped up Goblin!

If you do the math you could generate 28 points of damage on turn 4! And that is just with one Titan's Strength! Imagine if you had another one in your hand.Not everyone may want to play Goblins but heck this would be amazing to pull off in standard. 

Mono Red Goblin Modern Mob:

In Modern Zada could also be the kind of Goblin that you could be proud of. A Mono Red Pumping Shell is possible due to spells like Brute Force or my personal favorite Mutagenic Growth. 

All you have to do is get to a critical mass of creatures. Keep those one drops coming and those goblin tokens pouring in and by the time Zada comes in you could surprise your opponent by having a Mutagenic growth or two resolving. Sometimes because of the overwhelming creature count opponents scoop their decks and just prepare for the next battle.

EDH Red Frontier:

Pre-Cursor Golem would be proud of this new card since they could do quite a heavy number in EDH. Imagine Zada , Hedron Grinder side by side with this Golem and opponents would be in battle damage calculation mode in no time since all the spells would find new targets as they resolve. It might produce quite a headache doing all that math but practice makes perfect right?

Time to get my calculator ready. Battle Damage counting time.