MTG Goad Explained: Rules, All 84 Goad Cards, the Impetus Auras, Why Goad Has Never Been Standard-Legal, the Best Goad Commanders and a Budget Nelly Borca Deck (2026)

Goad is a keyword action that forces a creature to attack someone other than you. When you goad a creature, until your next turn it must attack each combat if able, and it must attack a player other than you if able. It is Magic’s cleanest piece of multiplayer politics: you do not kill the biggest threat at the table, you point it at somebody else.

This guide covers the rule as the Comprehensive Rules actually word it (7 August 2026 text), the rulings players get wrong, and every card that says “goad” — 84 cards across ten years, pulled from Scryfall and read one by one, plus the two dungeon rooms that goad. Two numbers frame the whole mechanic. Not one of the 84 has ever been legal in Standard or Pioneer, and only one is legal in Modern. And on EDHREC, the goad archetype (filed under “Forced Combat”) runs to 16,773 decks, led by a commander most players have never heard of. We finish with a budget Nelly Borca deck you can buy in one click.

What is goad in MTG?

Goad first appeared in Conspiracy: Take the Crown in August 2016 — the same set that introduced the monarch. Both were designed for the same problem: in a four-player game, the safest play is usually to sit back, and the game stalls. The monarch gives players a reason to attack. Goad makes creatures attack, and makes them attack someone else.

The reminder text on today’s cards says it plainly: “Until your next turn, that creature attacks each combat if able and attacks a player other than you if able.” Three things are packed into that sentence:

• It lasts until your next turn, not until end of turn. Goad a creature on your turn and it stays goaded through every opponent’s turn in between.
• It must attack each combat if able. Its controller cannot keep it home as a blocker.
• It must attack a player other than you if able. In a multiplayer game that means one of your opponents; you are the one player it is steered away from.

That makes goad removal and defence at the same time. The creature is still on the battlefield, but on its controller’s turn it is tapped and swinging at a third player, which usually means it is not blocking on anyone else’s turn either — and every point of damage it deals is damage that did not come at you.

The rule, word for word

Goad is rule 701.15 in the Comprehensive Rules. The whole rule is four sentences:

701.15a Certain spells and abilities can goad a creature. Until the next turn of the controller of that spell or ability, that creature is goaded.

701.15b Goaded is a designation a permanent can have. A goaded creature attacks each combat if able and attacks a player other than the controller of the permanent, spell, or ability that caused it to be goaded if able. Goaded is neither an ability nor part of the permanent’s copiable values.

701.15c A creature can be goaded by multiple players. Doing so creates additional combat requirements.

701.15d Once a player has goaded a creature, the same player goading it again has no effect. Doing so doesn’t create additional combat requirements.

— Magic: The Gathering Comprehensive Rules, effective 7 August 2026

Two words in 701.15b matter more than they look. “Designation” means goaded is a status, like monstrous or suspected, not an ability — so a goaded creature that loses all its abilities is still goaded. And “if able” means goad is a combat requirement, which the rules for declaring attackers treat very differently from a restriction. That distinction decides almost every goad ruling.

Requirements versus restrictions: why “can’t” beats goad

When the active player declares attackers, the game checks restrictions first (effects that say a creature can’t attack) and requirements second (effects that say it attacks if able). The rule that governs the second check, 508.1d, says a declaration is illegal only if it obeys fewer requirements than it could without disobeying any restrictions. In other words: a restriction always wins, and the player obeys as many requirements as the restrictions allow.

508.1d also contains the sentence that makes goad and Ghostly Prison such good friends: “If a creature can’t attack unless a player pays a cost, that player is not required to pay that cost, even if attacking with that creature would increase the number of requirements being obeyed.” A goaded creature facing your attack tax is never forced to pay it. It simply attacks one of the other players, which is exactly what you wanted.

When a goaded creature does not attack

Scryfall’s official rulings (the same text appears on most goad cards, most recently dated 20 March 2026 on Coercive Impetus) list the exceptions. A goaded creature doesn’t attack if, during its controller’s declare attackers step, it is:

• tapped;
• affected by a spell or ability that says it can’t attack; or
• summoning sick — it hasn’t been under that player’s control continuously since the turn began and doesn’t have haste.

And if there is a cost to attack a particular player, its controller isn’t forced to pay it, so it doesn’t have to attack that player.

Who it has to attack

If the creature can attack, it must attack a player other than the one who goaded it. If it can’t attack any of those players but could otherwise attack, the rulings say it must attack a planeswalker an opponent controls, a battle an opponent protects, or the player who goaded it. That is why goad in a two-player game reduces to “attacks each combat if able”: there is no third player to send it at, so it attacks you.

When several players goad the same creature, each goad is a separate requirement (701.15c). The rulings spell out the result: a creature goaded by multiple opponents must attack an opponent who hasn’t goaded it, since that obeys the most requirements. A creature goaded by every opponent must still attack an opponent rather than a planeswalker or battle, and its controller chooses which.

Thirteen goad rulings, checked against the card rulings

Every item below is taken from the official rulings Scryfall publishes on the named card, or from the Comprehensive Rules. The card in brackets is where the ruling is printed.

1. Goad lasts until the goading player’s next turn (701.15a) — not until end of turn.
2. Attacking doesn’t end it. If there is an additional combat phase that turn, the goaded creature must attack again if able (Agitator Ant).
3. Changing control doesn’t end it. If another player gains control of a goaded creature before it stops being goaded, it must attack again on their turn if able (Agitator Ant).
4. Losing all abilities doesn’t end it. Being goaded isn’t an ability the creature has (Acquired Mutation; 701.15b).
5. Goading twice does nothing extra. The same player goading a creature again is redundant (701.15d; Geode Rager).
6. Two different goaders stack. The creature must attack an opponent who hasn’t goaded it (Agitator Ant; 701.15c).
7. Costs to attack are never forced. A goaded creature facing Ghostly Prison doesn’t have to pay; it attacks someone else (Acquired Mutation; 508.1d).
8. Goading a blocker changes nothing. Goading a creature after it has been declared as a blocker won’t remove it from combat (Bothersome Quasit).
9. Goading attackers doesn’t remove them either. Take the Bait untaps and goads the attacking creatures; they stay in combat, even if they were attacking you (Take the Bait).
10. Mass goad is locked in on resolution. Creatures that enter after Disrupt Decorum or Marisi’s trigger resolves won’t be goaded (Disrupt Decorum; Marisi, Breaker of the Coil).
11. If you leave the game, your goad lingers. Creatures you goaded stay goaded until your next turn would have begun (Geode Rager) — and they still must attack one of the other players if able (Life of the Party).
12. Goad outlives its source. Creatures goaded by Marisi stay goaded even if Marisi leaves the battlefield before your next turn (Marisi, Breaker of the Coil).
13. Baeloth is the exception. Baeloth Barrityl’s static ability doesn’t goad until your next turn; creatures are goaded for as long as Baeloth is on the battlefield, has the ability and has enough power (Baeloth Barrityl, Entertainer).

Goaded is a permanent designation — one of seventeen

Goaded is one of seventeen designations the Comprehensive Rules define, and one of twelve that belong to a permanent (the others include monstrous, suspected, the Ring-bearer, saddled, harnessed and prepared). We counted all seventeen in our monarch guide, where the monarch is one of only four that belong to a player.

The two mechanics are designed as partners, and the combination is worth understanding. The monarch changes hands when a creature deals combat damage to its holder. Goad decides where combat damage goes. A table full of goaded creatures that must attack “a player other than you” is a table that cannot take your crown — which is why Queen Marchesa sits third on EDHREC’s Forced Combat commander list, and why Palace Jailer is in the deck at the end of this guide.

Suspect, from Murders at Karlov Manor (2024), is goad’s closest cousin: a suspected creature has menace and can’t block. Commander cards from that release combine the two constantly — Nelly Borca suspects a creature and then goads every suspected creature; Hot Pursuit and Incriminating Impetus do both to one target.

Ten years, 84 cards: where goad comes from

We pulled every paper card with “goad” in its Oracle text from Scryfall: 86 results. Two are dungeon cards — Undercity, whose Arena room reads “Goad target creature,” and Baldur’s Gate Wilderness from the Battle for Baldur’s Gate token set, whose Grymforge room goads up to one creature per opponent. That leaves 84 cards, every one checked for the word in its rules text rather than its reminder text. Scryfall’s keyword:goad filter finds 84 of the 86; the two it misses are Dack Fayden, Helping Hand and Serene Sleuth, which say “goaded” without goading anything themselves.

The shape of that table is the story of the mechanic. Goad launched with five cards in a draft set, then spent four years as a Commander-deck curiosity until the 2020 Impetus cycle put one goad Aura in each colour. 2022 is the peak — 24 new cards, 14 of them from Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate, the set that also introduced the initiative. Doctor Who added nine in 2023 and the Murders at Karlov Manor Commander decks eight in 2024. Three more are previewed but not yet released: Dack Fayden, Helping Hand (2 October 2026) and Balefang the Unslayable and Sifa Grent (9 November 2026).

The colour pie is lopsided. 32 of the 84 are mono-red and 52 include red — goad is red’s version of politics, the colour of instigators, hecklers and brawls. Blue (21 cards) and black (20) trail far behind; green appears on just eight. Rarity skews high: 50 rares and 14 mythics against 10 uncommons and 10 commons, because most goad cards were printed in Commander products, where nearly everything is rare.

Never in Standard: goad’s legality

Not one goad card has ever been printed in a Standard-legal set. Scryfall returns zero goad cards from any expansion or core set: every one debuted in a Commander deck, a draft-innovation set (Conspiracy, Battle for Baldur’s Gate, Clue Edition), a Secret Lair, a Game Night box or a supplemental release. The single Modern-legal card is Glóin, Dwarf Emissary, because The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth was designed straight into Modern. On Arena, Scryfall lists two cards legal in Historic, Timeless and Brawl: Glóin and Killian, Decisive Mentor.

That is the same pattern we found for the monarch, and for the same reason: goad is a multiplayer mechanic, and Wizards has kept it out of the two-player rotating formats where it does little. Unlike the monarch — which lost Fall from Favor to a Pauper ban in 2021 — no goad card is banned or restricted in any format (see our full banned list and the Commander banned list).

The six things a goad card can do

Reading all 84 cards sorts them into six jobs. The split matters when you build, because a deck full of one-shot goad triggers plays very differently from one built on Auras that keep a creature goaded for good.

Goad one creature: the triggers

The biggest group, 23 cards, goads a single creature when something happens: an attack (Taunting Kobold, Goblin Racketeer, Karazikar, the Eye Tyrant), combat damage (Grenzo, Havoc Raiser, Alela, Cunning Conqueror), a creature entering (Jeering Homunculus, Oceanus Dragon, Taunting Sliver) or a spell (Bothersome Quasit, Bohn, Beguiling Balladeer). Vengeful Ancestor is the best of them in practice — it goads on entering and attacking, and pings the controller of every goaded creature that attacks. EDHREC ranks it #2,081 overall, and it sits in 51% of the Forced Combat decks that can play it.

Goad many at once

Twenty cards goad a group, and they are the ones that swing games. Disrupt Decorum (“Goad all creatures you don’t control”) is the most-played goad card in Magic, EDHREC rank #889, and in two-thirds of the Forced Combat decks that can play it. It sets up a turn where every opponent must attack every other opponent while you untap with the only blockers on the table. Taunt from the Rampart adds “can’t block” on top; Fast Forward gets cheaper for each opponent you attacked this turn. Marisi and Komainu Battle Armor turn a single connecting creature into a whole-board goad of that player’s creatures.

Keep it goaded: the Impetus family

Seventeen cards keep a creature goaded as long as they stay attached or in play. The Impetus Auras are the backbone — the five 2020 commons (Martial, Parasitic, Predatory, Psychic and Shiny) and three later additions (Ghoulish in 2023, Incriminating in 2024, Coercive in 2026). You enchant an opponent’s creature: it gets bigger, it is goaded every turn, and whenever it attacks, you get paid. Read them carefully — Shiny Impetus makes you the Treasure, Psychic Impetus has you scry, Parasitic Impetus drains its controller for you, and the rulings on each card say so explicitly.

Bloodthirsty Blade is the equipment version: it has no equip ability at all, only “{1}: Attach this Equipment to target creature an opponent controls,” and you still control the Blade while it rides on their creature. Baeloth Barrityl goads every opposing creature with less power than him for as long as he stays that big — the one goad effect that doesn’t wear off on your turn.

Goad on demand: the activated abilities

Twelve cards goad whenever you pay. Laser Screwdriver ({3}, T: goad target creature) is colourless and fits any deck; Glóin turns every Treasure into a goad; Sly Instigator also makes the creature unblockable until your next turn, so the goaded attack actually lands. These are the cards that let a goad deck act at instant speed on every opponent’s turn.

Hand an opponent a goaded creature

The strangest eleven cards give your opponents a creature that is already goaded — sometimes for the rest of the game. Life of the Party gives each opponent a token copy of itself, goaded permanently; Nettling Nuisance gives the damaged player a 4/2 Pirate that can’t block; Jon Irenicus hands a creature over with two +1/+1 counters and draws you a card whenever it attacks. The upcoming Balefang the Unslayable gives an opponent a Baneslayer Angel token that is goaded forever. It sounds like charity. It is a weapon pointed at the rest of the table.

Rewards and removes goad

One card does neither: Serene Sleuth investigates for each goaded creature you control at the start of combat, then un-goads all of them — the only card in Magic built to answer goad from the receiving end.

Every goad card in Magic

All 84, oldest first. The role column is our reading of each card, price is the cheapest ordinary printing on Scryfall today, and EDHREC rank is the card’s overall popularity (lower is more played).

The best goad commanders

There are two ways to rank goad commanders, and they disagree. By raw popularity, the goad commanders with the most decks on EDHREC are the ones where goad is a sideline: Alela, Cunning Conqueror is mostly a Faeries commander, and Jon Irenicus mostly a donate deck. Here is every released legendary creature that goads, ranked by its total EDHREC deck count (Baeloth’s count is split across his Background pairings, so it is left blank):

By what players build as goad decks, the order changes. EDHREC’s Forced Combat tag counts the decks players have actually labelled as goad, and its top twelve commanders are these:

Nelly Borca, Impulsive Accuser leads with 893 decks, ahead of Killian, Decisive Mentor (772) and Queen Marchesa (747). Three of the top twelve don’t say “goad” at all: Kardur, Doomscourge forces every opposing creature to attack someone else in its own words when he enters, Thantis makes all creatures attack every combat, and Queen Marchesa pays you for keeping the crown. That is a useful reminder that the archetype is bigger than the keyword.

• Nelly Borca (Boros, $1.54 on her cheapest printing) goads every suspected creature each time she attacks, and draws you a card whenever an opponent’s creatures hit another opponent. She came in the Blame Game precon with 13 other goad cards.
• Marisi, Breaker of the Coil (Naya) stops opponents casting spells in combat and goads a player’s whole board when one of your creatures connects.
• Karazikar, the Eye Tyrant (Rakdos) taps and goads a creature whenever you attack a player, then draws you and the attacker a card whenever one opponent attacks another.
• Firkraag, Cunning Instigator (Izzet) goads when your Dragons attack and draws whenever a creature that had to attack hits an opponent — goaded creatures qualify.
• Kardur, Doomscourge (Rakdos) is the no-keyword version: when he enters, every opposing creature must attack someone else until your next turn, and each opponent loses 1 life (and you gain 1) whenever an attacking creature dies. It is one turn of goad for the whole table, not a permanent effect.

What goad decks actually play

EDHREC’s high-synergy list for the Forced Combat tag shows what separates a goad deck from an ordinary deck. “Decks that could play it” is the number of tagged decks whose colours allow the card:

The goad cards everyone agrees on are Disrupt Decorum, Vengeful Ancestor and Shiny Impetus, each in roughly half or more of the decks that can run them. Kardur appears as a card in 59% of the decks in its colours, even when he isn’t the commander. Bloodthirsty Blade, as a colourless artifact, sits in 5,824 of the 16,773 tagged decks.

The payoffs that don’t say goad

Goad decks are built as much from pillowfort and politics as from goad itself. Each card below was checked against its Scryfall Oracle text before the note next to it was written — and each is Commander-legal. For the wider family of attack taxes, see our stax and pillowfort guide.

The logic is simple. Goad forces creatures to attack; an attack tax makes attacking you expensive; 508.1d means a goaded creature never has to pay it. Put the two together and every forced attack goes to someone else. Curse of Opulence and Duelist’s Heritage then turn the fights between your opponents into Gold tokens and double strike on your terms.

Goad in Pauper

Ten goad cards are commons and Pauper-legal — the five 2020 Impetus Auras plus five Conspiracy and Battle for Baldur’s Gate commons. None is a Pauper staple; goad does little in a two-player game, where the goaded creature simply attacks you. They are, however, the backbone of Pauper Commander goad decks, where the multiplayer logic returns.

Precons with goad on KrakenTheMeta

We matched all 84 cards against the card lists of the 174 Commander precons on the site, by exact name. 52 precons hold at least one goad card. Two are built around it: Draconic Dissent (Firkraag, 14 goad cards) and Blame Game (Nelly Borca, 14). Shiny Impetus is in ten precons and Martial Impetus in seven. Each row links to the full list in our precon browser.

Budget Nelly Borca goad deck

Nelly Borca is the Forced Combat tag’s most-built commander, cheap, and in Boros — the colours with the most goad cards and the best attack taxes. This list keeps the engine of her Blame Game precon and adds the pillowfort, the removal and the mana it lacks. It costs $88.04 at the cheapest ordinary printing of every card on Scryfall today, plays 34 goad cards, and every card was validated as Commander-legal and inside Nelly’s red-white colour identity.

How it plays

The deck wins by making the table fight itself while you stay out of reach. The early turns set up mana and a tax — Ghostly Prison, Sphere of Safety, Norn’s Annex, Windborn Muse or Baird. Then the goad starts: Impetus Auras on the biggest opposing creatures, Bloodthirsty Blade on the next, Nelly attacking every turn to suspect and goad. Nelly’s second ability is the card advantage: every time one opponent’s goaded creatures hit another opponent, you draw.

The turn you want is a mass goad — Disrupt Decorum, Taunt from the Rampart or Fast Forward — the turn before a board wipe or a big attack. Opponents must attack each other with everything, leaving themselves open. Take the Bait turns an opponent’s alpha strike at you into an extra combat in which those creatures, now goaded, must attack someone else. Death Kiss doubles the power of every creature attacking another opponent, and Duelist’s Heritage gives the biggest one double strike. You finish with your own creatures, Spectacular Showdown, or whatever is left standing.

Upgrades

• Take the Bait and The Sound of Drums are already in; the next step up is Baeloth Barrityl ($15.02), Bothersome Quasit ($13.81) and Life of the Party ($11.38) — the three most expensive red goad cards.
• Lands: Sacred Foundry, Inspiring Vantage and Plateau are the usual upgrades over the tapped duals.
• Protection: Teferi’s Protection and Boros Charm keep you alive through the one attack that goes wrong.

Want the same deck built around a different commander, or tuned to your collection? Our AI deck builder can generate a goad list for any of the commanders above in about a minute, and the community deck gallery has players’ own builds to compare against.

How to play against goad

• Remove the Aura, not the creature. An Impetus goads for as long as it’s attached; enchantment removal frees the creature and denies the goad player their Treasure, scry or card.
• Tap your own goaded creatures. A tapped goaded creature doesn’t attack. Crewing a Vehicle, convoking or a tap ability in your main phase keeps it home.
• Use the “can’t” cards. Anything that says a creature can’t attack beats goad outright.
• Pick your target. The goaded creature has to attack someone other than the goader — but its controller chooses which of those players. Send it at the player whose board it can actually hurt, and make the deal in the open.
• Kill the goader. Removing the source doesn’t un-goad anything (the goad outlives Marisi), but it stops the next round.

Goad FAQ

What does goad do in MTG?

Until your next turn, a goaded creature attacks each combat if able and attacks a player other than you if able (rule 701.15).

How long does goad last?

Until the goading player’s next turn begins. Attacking doesn’t end it. A few cards goad for longer — Life of the Party’s tokens and Rendmaw’s Birds for the rest of the game, Baeloth for as long as he stays on the battlefield with enough power, the Impetus Auras for as long as they are attached.

Can a goaded creature attack the player who goaded it?

Only if it can’t attack any other player. In a two-player game there is no other player, so it attacks you.

Does goad work in 1v1?

Partly. In a duel goad simply means “attacks each combat if able” — useful to force a creature off defence, but none of the redirection works. That is why goad lives in Commander and has never been printed into Standard.

Does a goaded creature have to pay for Ghostly Prison or Propaganda?

No. A player is never required to pay a cost to attack, even to satisfy a requirement (CR 508.1d). The creature attacks another player instead, or doesn’t attack if every option costs something.

Does a goaded creature with summoning sickness have to attack?

No. A creature that hasn’t been under its controller’s control since the start of the turn can’t attack unless it has haste, and goad doesn’t change that. The same goes for tapped creatures.

What happens if two players goad the same creature?

Each goad is a separate requirement. The creature must attack an opponent who hasn’t goaded it. If every opponent has goaded it, it must attack one of them — its controller picks which.

Does goad stop a creature from blocking?

No. Goad only forces attacks. In practice a goaded creature is usually tapped from attacking, but if it has vigilance or was untapped some other way it can block — which is why Taunt from the Rampart, Coronation of Chaos and Bothersome Quasit add “can’t block”.

Is goad a keyword?

It is a keyword action (701.15), and “goaded” is a designation a permanent can have. It isn’t an ability, so a creature that loses all abilities stays goaded.

What was the first goad card?

Five cards introduced goad in Conspiracy: Take the Crown on 26 August 2016: Besmirch, Coveted Peacock, Goblin Racketeer, Grenzo, Havoc Raiser and Jeering Homunculus.

Is any goad card banned?

No. Scryfall shows no goad card banned or restricted in any format.

What is the best goad card?

By play rate, Disrupt Decorum: EDHREC’s most-played goad card (#889 overall) and in two-thirds of the goad decks that can cast it. The best cheap one is Shiny Impetus, a common that makes you a Treasure every turn.

Which is the best goad commander?

Nelly Borca, Impulsive Accuser is the most-built goad commander on EDHREC’s Forced Combat tag. Marisi, Karazikar and Kardur are the classic alternatives, and Firkraag is the pick for Izzet and Dragons.