MTG Salvation

Rakdos, Lord of Riots can be viewed as one of two things a) an efficient beat-stick or b) a crazy mana reducer.

I feel that a deck focused on view a) will be more consistent than view b).

my deck has many low costed high power creatures, pingers, and pinging enchantments that all enter play before turn 4. that way you can always (mana screw aside) cast turn 4 rakdos.

Rakdos is the lynch pin of the deck. the deck succeeds or fails based off of him connecting and remaining in play during second main phase. sadly, committing too much still leaves you without another attack step.

I have recently been testing and having fun and 'success' with final fortune, warrior's oath, and last chance. Saving 2 red mana can be tough though; but if you can the next attack should finish off your opponent. If it doesn't, you weren't going to win anyways.

With these new additions, I have decided that in addition to 1-1 play, rakdos makes a great assassin style guard for a game of emperor. you're basically guaranteed to take out the opposing guard, albeit at the cost of your life.

Is this deck pulled together proper now?

adjusted the deck to have less high mana cards that were never cast

added some more spot removal

changed the creatures around to include less color restrictive creatures

-1 doom blade
-1 goblin assault

+1 go for the throat
+1 sneak attack

So how's your matchups?

Quote from Acardus

So how's your matchups?

not sure; haven't played this deck outside of a 4-5 player game. usually get to kill one player before the remaining ones combo or knock me out.

my best guess would be

vs geist, grand arbiter, or zur it's bad, other blue control matchups

the counterspells can easily be saved for when you cast rakdos the first time and after that, i believe they could stabalize/have an easier time stopping damage coming in. or they will just have another counterspell.

I would say more discard effects would aid here or more enchantment based ping. Alternatively, you may be able to win with an early rush.

vs skullbriar, uril, other aggro matchups

i think these would go well. there isn't much removal, but you can pump out overpowered guys pretty fast. landing rakdos and getting one swing in should ensure the next turn win.

i'd love to get some actual matches 1-1 in.

Just try testing that deck on an actual 1v1... If you play this deck to a multiplayer deck for 1v1, it'll win. However, it'll be nice to see which deck you're weak against.

For example,

• Lilianna of the Veil
  
• Mind Twist
  
• Thoughtseize
  
• Demonic Tutor
  
• Fleshbag Marauder
  
• Hymn of Tourach

latest changes
+1 liliana of the veil
+1 bitterblossom

-1 dusk urchins
-1 savage beating

trying out - sire of insanities

findings with more 1-1 matches:
*if rakdos dies or gets countered you are set really far back
*opening hands are hit or miss
*still hard balancing over extending and securing a kill

has anyone tried cards like final fortune in this deck? I have been considering them as a means to get that final attack in.

issues I am finding with the deck:

building it more control isn't optimum - If i built a more control version of the deck, then I am under utilizing my general. A control list would be better suited for olivia valdoren or lyzolda, blood witch. While I feel the deck would benefit from more disruption/control elements, I feel the deck should stay focused on its aggro base.

the combo route - the whole cloudstone curio + priest of gix/priest of urabrask is too fragile and even with tutors hard to assemble (on top of getting rakdos in play). it's cute, but not for this format.

reanimation - this strat could be viable; but i feel mono black pulls it off better. it does give another way to get our big fatties into play that doesn't need rakdos. i feel like straight reanimation is more powerful than a mix of reanimation and aggro. straight reanimation nullifies rakdos, so again i feel his deck is an aggro based one.

broadcasting when to cast rakdos - opponents know the turn you are going to cast rakdos and can easily prepare for it.

the deck is color hungry - rakdos reduces the colorless portion of costs and there aren't enough good colorless creatures to make the deck MUD. suggestions on color creating creatures? i'm not sure if priest of gix/urabrask are good enough on their own for this deck but they would fix colored mana in some cases.

creatures enter play after combat - this is the real killer of the deck, i can play huge threats, but there has to be a turn of waiting before attacking (can't rely on a haste enabler and enough precombat damage). I am considering final fortune et al; or some kind of additional combat phase. just something that gets around waiting a turn before a might attack.

updated the list.

added more mana rocks and spot removal. also added in take another turn effects.

removed some of the clunky creatures that didn't "guarantee" damage. changed some of the higher mana cost creatures to ones that deal damage when they enter the battlefield.

for theros, there are 4 cards I was considering:

• read the bones
  
• hero's downfall
  
• grey merchant of asphodel
  
• fanatic of mogis

also for sideboard
dark betrayal

however, none of these seem better than what is already in there.

*also updated list to be alphabetical by card type for ease of reading

this deck is hilarious. its like magic fairy land such that you play rakdos, attack and dmg opp, then play creature from hand. after that, 4 chesty women enter the room one at a time while i watch the cowboys win the superbowl.

An arguably better take on rakdos is affinity creatures with sac outlets and draw with dark prophecy and the like. i saw such a build the other day but the post seems to have been deleted.

Have you considered Ebonblade Reaper, Tyrannize, Sire of Insanity, Spiteful Visions, Murderous Redcap, Skullclamp, Molten Primordial, Hamletback Goliath, Sorin Markov, or Sulfuric Vortex?

Also consider some Rak-defense! Lightning Greaves/Swiftfoot Boots! IMO drop Emrakul

Quote from sjd0020

this deck is hilarious. its like magic fairy land such that you play rakdos, attack and dmg opp, then play creature from hand. after that, 4 chesty women enter the room one at a time while i watch the cowboys win the superbowl.

An arguably better take on rakdos is affinity creatures with sac outlets and draw with dark prophecy and the like. i saw such a build the other day but the post seems to have been deleted.

You're correct that in a developed 1-1 meta, this deck would never face a deck that didn't counter rakdos or remove him before he hits. in my meta, it's basically all multiplayer (thus the emperor games) or another player who has teysa 1-1 and rhys the redeemed elfball 1-1.

this affinity take seems interesting. I'm also thinking of adding in more burn; a lightning bolt becomes a dark ritual that deals 3 damage.

Quote from Ixrixis

Have you considered Ebonblade Reaper, Tyrannize, Sire of Insanity, Spiteful Visions, Murderous Redcap, Skullclamp, Molten Primordial, Hamletback Goliath, Sorin Markov, or Sulfuric Vortex?

Also consider some Rak-defense! Lightning Greaves/Swiftfoot Boots! IMO drop Emrakul

i should use greaves, that's a solid call. helps the clock and protects. I may add in greaves and exploration map to help find cavern of souls.

if i started playing vs more control players, i think tyranny would be a good fit; but against the aggro decks i normally face, by that point they have small hands. For large drop creatures, I wanted more ETB effects that had immediate payoff. If I am paying full cost for them, then I am probably losing the match so I try and include things on the basic of reduced colorless cost.

i am testing out the extra turn cards; the next set of changes would be life gain prevention, in which adds erebos, god of death and probably sulfuric vortex. I didn't have emrakul in my first draft because even if rakdos connects, I am not guaranteed to cast emrakul (6 damage + 4 mana used to cast rakdos last turn + new land for turn = still 4 shy of casting).

i'm leary on spiteful visions, from the standoint that I have been trying to max damage dealt on my turn when i can take advantage of the discount, but that card may just be good enough in this deck to warrant a slot.

Also looking to add grim lavamancer.

thanks for the feedback.