Goblin Battle Jester
Creature — Goblin
Whenever you cast a red spell, target creature can't block this turn.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- R
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Magic 2013
- Price
- $0.08
- EDHREC rank
- #19620
Goblin Battle Jester taxes your opponents' attacks and blocks by forcing them to pay mana or lose the ability to assign their creatures — a real drag on combat math that punishes tap-out strategies. At three mana for a 2/2, the body barely matters; you run it for the ability, and only in dedicated Goblin shells where the tribal synergies justify the slot.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Goblin Battle Jester earns its slot almost exclusively in Goblin tribal decks, where commanders like Krenko, Mob Boss or Muxus, Goblin Grandee flood the board and the Jester's combat tax compounds into a genuine soft lock. Outside of tribal, three mana for a conditional combat deterrent is too low-impact in a 100-card format full of bigger threats. In Pauper, the common restriction keeps the competition narrower, but aggressive red decks rarely want a defensive speed bump at that cost. Legacy and Vintage have no interest — the power level gap is enormous. Goblin Battle Jester is a Commander card, and even there it's a role-player, not a staple.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.08 bulk tier
At $0.08, Goblin Battle Jester is deep bulk — you're paying for cardboard and shipping, not the card itself. It won't appreciate; pick it up only if you're actively slotting it into a Goblin build, not as a speculative grab.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.