So after roughly a year of trying to come up with a decklist, I've finally decided to jump into the deep end and see if I can make a playable Rakdos The Defiler deck, and by "playable" I don't mean that I'm just going to leave him the in command zone.
So I've gone back and forth with this decklist, my first attempt was to play Rakdos The Defiler at the head of a goblin tribal deck, and although the goblin horde did make Rakdos's downside a little easier to deal with, the deck just never "felt right". So now I've changed things up completely, where there once were goblins, now there's only demons, and corpses
It's been a while since I last updated this list, and there have been a lot of changes, the biggest changes have been in the mana rocks, and the cost reduction artifacts. With these changes its made it so my higher costing demons, Dread Cacodemon is not completely impossible to cast.
Also the next biggest changes have been the fact that a few other brave souls have been posting their deck lists for Rakdos the defiler. If you're interested in building with rakdos, do yourself a favour and check out zweiducks list on tapped out, and Silenciaco's list on this site. I'm not ashamed to admit that I've stolen a few ideas from both of them.
I will make sure to keep this thread as updated as I'm able to, please if you have any suggestions feel free to let me know
Decklist has been updated, basically a completely different deck to the original one, before it was a goblin tribal deck, now its demon tribal. Plays a lot better, will keep updating as I get more play time with it and make any more changes.
For Lists, Click Here EDH: GW: Selvala, Let us help YOU. UB: Mirko Vosk, when outmatched cheat BW: Vish Kal, The Arbiter of Reanimation UG: Prime Speaker Zegana, the science of sorcery RB: Malfegor, Traitor's Haven UW: Daxos, Control-Fort-Tron BG: Pharika, Goddess of Stax RW: Gisela, Boros Control RG: Ruric Thar, a Primal Surge deck RU: Niv-Mizzet the Firemind, Spellslinger?!?! B:(Pauper) Mikaeus the Unhallowed R: Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient: The Power of Engineering
So you have moved from Goblin tribal to Demon tribal! Yes, please keep us updated as I am a big Rakdos fan myself.
I am worried that opponents will have too much time to prepare an instant-speed response to Rakdos. What about Anger and/or Dragon Breath for a hasty Rakdos RKO out of nowhere?
Death Cloud might serve you well. It does a lot of the same things Rakdos would achieve, plus if you draw it in the late late game you can cast it for X=7+ and recast Rakdos from the Command Zone onto an empty board.
Hey Jakalova, thanks for the reply. Patriarch's Bidding and Urza's Incubator are both on my list of cards I'm looking to add into this deck, although I don't think I will make too many changes before I can get some more games in with the current deck, so I can get a better feel for what works and what can be cut. Its funny Rage Reflection was in the first build I had for this deck, but ended up cutting it for this build. I expect that it will get rotated back into the deck pretty soon, as its a huge upside, not only when Rakdos The Defiler is out, but also will have a huge impact with all of the other big beaters I've got.
Whip of Erebos this is another card that I've got on my list of potential additions, but I'm a little hesitant to add in any life gain, due to cards such as Havoc Festival and Rain of Gore. So I just looked it up and found that according to the rules, Havoc Festival and Rain of Gore won't prevent me gaining life with Lifelink. Since I have an extra whip gathering dust, I may add it in the next time that I'm out with my play group to test it out.
So you have moved from Goblin tribal to Demon tribal! Yes, please keep us updated as I am a big Rakdos fan myself.
I am worried that opponents will have too much time to prepare an instant-speed response to Rakdos. What about Anger and/or Dragon Breath for a hasty Rakdos RKO out of nowhere?
Death Cloud might serve you well. It does a lot of the same things Rakdos would achieve, plus if you draw it in the late late game you can cast it for X=7+ and recast Rakdos from the Command Zone onto an empty board.
Hey d0su, thanks for the reply, its nice to have another Rakdos fan adding their 2 cents.
You're right that with the current decklist it does give my opponents the potential to just durdle like me and set up their own boardstate, and it is something that has happened a few times, but luckily most of my playgroup is pretty aggressive, and eventually will start fighting each other. That's why its so important in the first few turns that I'm able to get out one or two of my low costing creatures, Abyssal Persecutor is my early game MVP. As soon as he comes out to play most people will stop coming at me because early game he is always the biggest creature on the field, so he acts as a big deterrent for people attacking me.
Anger and Dragon Breath are both good cards, but honestly I'm not too sure what to take out to make room for them, I will have to get some more games under my belt with the current build before I can determine how to fit them in, any suggestions?
Death Cloud, this is why I love this website, I never even thought of this card when I was putting this deck together, will add it in as soon as I pick one up, I will likely sub it in for one of my smaller creatures, that don't really impact the game that much.
Thanks again for the suggestions, keep them coming.
Hi there. I don't post here often, but I lurk all the time and I was happy to see someone else taking a crack at "big Rakdos". I've been playing Rakdos successfully for around 3 years now. I don't have 5 posts on this forum yet so I can't share links, which is kind of annoying. If you go to tappedout and search for "Rakdos the Defiler: The first cut is the deepest", that's my deck.
I've got a long description at the link, but basically what I figured out was that the best strategy with Rakdos is to destroy as much of your opponents' stuff as possible in any way that you can and then just start sending him in. If you board wipe all of their creatures or Vandalblast all of their artifacts away before you attack, half your stuff is worth half of whatever they have left.
In a multiplayer game (what I typically play) you need to choose your moments better. Think of it like this: there's more stuff to destroy. Two green heavy players and one player without any green? Defile the player who doesn't control any forests then drop a Wake of Destruction naming forests in second main. Or better yet, leave yourself with 3 lands and a Sol Ring and drop a second main Keldon Firebombers. Now everyone has 3 lands!
Hi there. I don't post here often, but I lurk all the time and I was happy to see someone else taking a crack at "big Rakdos". I've been playing Rakdos successfully for around 3 years now. I don't have 5 posts on this forum yet so I can't share links, which is kind of annoying. If you go to tappedout and search for "Rakdos the Defiler: The first cut is the deepest", that's my deck.
I've got a long description at the link, but basically what I figured out was that the best strategy with Rakdos is to destroy as much of your opponents' stuff as possible in any way that you can and then just start sending him in. If you board wipe all of their creatures or Vandalblast all of their artifacts away before you attack, half your stuff is worth half of whatever they have left.
In a multiplayer game (what I typically play) you need to choose your moments better. Think of it like this: there's more stuff to destroy. Two green heavy players and one player without any green? Defile the player who doesn't control any forests then drop a Wake of Destruction naming forests in second main. Or better yet, leave yourself with 3 lands and a Sol Ring and drop a second main Keldon Firebombers. Now everyone has 3 lands!
Happy defiling!
Hey thanks for the reply. I just took a look at your list on tapped out, that is one impressive looking list, you've got a lot of cards listed there that I would love to add, but the prices make it a little difficult for me. The big problem that I've noticed with being so new to magic is that I've got none of the old awesome cards, and don't really want to spend a lot of money on one card like damination for example.
I really like your description for the deck and how you describe your game plan. Nothing is more enjoyable than making people realize just how powerful this "bad" commander can be when you build around him and play correctly.
I'm fortunate to have a big collection of old cards because I played from 4th edition to Time Spiral and then came back to the game when Innistrad came out. I remember buying dual lands for $10-20 a pop (which was still expensive at the time!).
There are plenty of budget options for some of the more expensive cards. You could easily play more swamps than I do and then run Urborg + Mutilate for a fraction of the cost of Damnation. I could see the argument that this is even better since it gets around indestructible creatures. Any of the other 5-7 mana black sweepers would work too. Until you start defiling, this is very much a "big mana" deck.
The good thing is a lot of the key cards in this deck are demons, which can all be had for pretty cheap. I've moved more and more towards a demon heavy build over time. Only key non-demon creatures like Dwarven Miner, Anger, Keldon Firebombers and Nether Traitor make the cut these days.
Many of the other expensive cards like Badlands, Wasteland etc are just "nice to haves", I could easily see a powerful version of the deck without them.
All in all, I like your deck a lot and I think you're going to have fun with it.
I'm fortunate to have a big collection of old cards because I played from 4th edition to Time Spiral and then came back to the game when Innistrad came out. I remember buying dual lands for $10-20 a pop (which was still expensive at the time!).
There are plenty of budget options for some of the more expensive cards. You could easily play more swamps than I do and then run Urborg + Mutilate for a fraction of the cost of Damnation. I could see the argument that this is even better since it gets around indestructible creatures. Any of the other 5-7 mana black sweepers would work too. Until you start defiling, this is very much a "big mana" deck.
The good thing is a lot of the key cards in this deck are demons, which can all be had for pretty cheap. I've moved more and more towards a demon heavy build over time. Only key non-demon creatures like Dwarven Miner, Anger, Keldon Firebombers and Nether Traitor make the cut these days.
Many of the other expensive cards like Badlands, Wasteland etc are just "nice to haves", I could easily see a powerful version of the deck without them.
All in all, I like your deck a lot and I think you're going to have fun with it.
Thanks again for the positive feedback, it's nice to get that from someone with a lot of experience playing with Rakdos. I do like the suggestion of adding mutilate into the deck to be used as a board wipe, will definitely try this out the next time I get to play.
So far I'm really having a blast with this deck, the more I get to play the more I'm realizing just how punishing it can be, I really like having the ability to lock down the board when either when I need to slow my opponents down to get back in the game, or when I'm going into beat down mode and don't want my opponents to get back into the game.
So after my most recent evening of EDH it's become painfully clear that I am in serious need of mana rocks. So far the cards that are on my radar to add in are Sol Ring, Thran Dynamo, Gilded Lotus and Jet Medallion. Along with those cards I'm also thinking about adding in Crypt Ghast and Magus of the Coffers. There are some cards that I am considering picking up to add in, so I'm looking for some feedback.
Stone Calendar, Planar Gate and Urza's Incubator all seem like good fits in this deck, since there are a lot of high casting cost creatures so lowering the colourless part of their cost always seems like a good idea.
Now I'm also thinking about adding in the Urzatron, Urza's Power Plant, Urza's Mine, and Urza's Tower, but I'm not too sure about adding them in, my main concern is I defiantly don't want to be running more colourless lands then I currently am, so that will limit what I would take out (likely Rix Maadi, Dungeon Palace, Jund Panorama and one more) and there is the potential for 7 mana from only 3 lands, which seems pretty good.
So as always if anyone has any suggestions for the deck, please feel free to let me know.
Last Laugh would be hysterical, considering your commander forces so many sacrifices. While not a demon, It That Betrays also plays nice with your commander.
Although mana rocks will take you far into the long game, both red and black provide rituals for one-shot bursts: Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Seething Song, Geosurge, and Pyretic Ritual all can provide oomph quickly, which might be useful after sacrificing your non-Demon lands to Rakdos. Speaking of sacrificed lands - Crucible of Worlds is a bit pricey, but goes the distance when mass-killing lands.
Cheers!
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Last Laugh is a trap. In my early days of playing this deck I used it, thinking I would be getting the... last laugh on my playgroup. The first time I attacked with Rakdos while it was in play I started sacrificing permanents to Rakdos' trigger, then started responding to Last Laugh's trigger and immediately realized that Rakdos was going to die to Last Laugh damage before combat would resolve. So I sacrificed half of my own permanents and lost my commander for nothing.
Last Laugh is a trap. In my early days of playing this deck I used it, thinking I would be getting the... last laugh on my playgroup. The first time I attacked with Rakdos while it was in play I started sacrificing permanents to Rakdos' trigger, then started responding to Last Laugh's trigger and immediately realized that Rakdos was going to die to Last Laugh damage before combat would resolve. So I sacrificed half of my own permanents and lost my commander for nothing.
That's a good point, wouldn't have thought of that.
So I've gone back and forth with this decklist, my first attempt was to play Rakdos The Defiler at the head of a goblin tribal deck, and although the goblin horde did make Rakdos's downside a little easier to deal with, the deck just never "felt right". So now I've changed things up completely, where there once were goblins, now there's only demons, and corpses
1x Rakdos The Defiler
Creatures
1x Anger
1x blood speaker
1x crypt ghast
1x demonlord of ashmouth
1x Rakdos, Lord of Riots
1x Archfiend of depravity
1x bloodgift demon
1x Halo Hunter
1x Magus of the coffers
1x Master of cruelties
1x woebringer demon
1x harvester of souls
1x malfegor
1x Nefarox, Overlord of Grixis
1x Reaper from the abyss
1x sire of insanity
1x abhorrent overlord
1x lord of the pit
1x lord of the void
1x overseer of the damned
1x Rune-scarred demon
1x pestilence demon
1x reiver demon
1x demon of death's gate
1x Dread cacodemon
1x Akoum Refuge
1x Arcane Lighthouse
1x Bojuka Bog
1x Cabal Coffers
1x Command Tower
1x crypt of agadeem
1x Evolving Wilds
1x grixis panorama
1x Jund Panorama
9x Mountain
1x nykthos, shrine to nyx
1x Rakdos Carnarium
1x Rakdos Guildgate
13x Swamp
1x temple of the false god
1x Terramorphic Expanse
1x thawing glaciers
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Sorcery
1x dreadbore
1x death cloud
1x pox
1x Diabolic tutor
1x ruination
1x seize the day
1x diabolic revelation
1x living death
1x jokulhaups
1x wake of destruction
1x decree of pain
1x obliterate
1x curse of the cabal
1x heartless summoning
1x oversold cemetery
1x fervor
1x phyrexian arena
1x price of glory
1x war's toll
1x curse of death's hold
1x gratuitous violence
1x rage reflection
Instant
1x Burnt offering
1x dark ritual
1x rain of filth
1x insidious dreams
Artifacts
1x Expedition map
1x sol ring
1x jet medallion
1x ashnod's altar
1x bloodstone cameo
1x urza's incubator
1x worn powerstone
1x Kormus Bell
1x Thran Dynamo
1x Gilded Lotus
It's been a while since I last updated this list, and there have been a lot of changes, the biggest changes have been in the mana rocks, and the cost reduction artifacts. With these changes its made it so my higher costing demons, Dread Cacodemon is not completely impossible to cast.
Also the next biggest changes have been the fact that a few other brave souls have been posting their deck lists for Rakdos the defiler. If you're interested in building with rakdos, do yourself a favour and check out zweiducks list on tapped out, and Silenciaco's list on this site. I'm not ashamed to admit that I've stolen a few ideas from both of them.
I will make sure to keep this thread as updated as I'm able to, please if you have any suggestions feel free to let me know
Rakdos The Defiler: A Zero-Sum Game
Varolz, The Scar-Striped
Thanks,
MattHonkylips
Rakdos The Defiler: A Zero-Sum Game
Varolz, The Scar-Striped
Thanks,
MattHonkylips
For Lists, Click Here
EDH:
GW: Selvala, Let us help YOU.
UB: Mirko Vosk, when outmatched cheat
BW: Vish Kal, The Arbiter of Reanimation
UG: Prime Speaker Zegana, the science of sorcery
RB: Malfegor, Traitor's Haven
UW: Daxos, Control-Fort-Tron
BG: Pharika, Goddess of Stax
RW: Gisela, Boros Control
RG: Ruric Thar, a Primal Surge deck
RU: Niv-Mizzet the Firemind, Spellslinger?!?!
B:(Pauper) Mikaeus the Unhallowed
R: Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient: The Power of Engineering
I am worried that opponents will have too much time to prepare an instant-speed response to Rakdos. What about Anger and/or Dragon Breath for a hasty Rakdos RKO out of nowhere?
Death Cloud might serve you well. It does a lot of the same things Rakdos would achieve, plus if you draw it in the late late game you can cast it for X=7+ and recast Rakdos from the Command Zone onto an empty board.
Draft my Mono-Blue Cube!
lichess.org | chess.com
Hey Jakalova, thanks for the reply. Patriarch's Bidding and Urza's Incubator are both on my list of cards I'm looking to add into this deck, although I don't think I will make too many changes before I can get some more games in with the current deck, so I can get a better feel for what works and what can be cut. Its funny Rage Reflection was in the first build I had for this deck, but ended up cutting it for this build. I expect that it will get rotated back into the deck pretty soon, as its a huge upside, not only when Rakdos The Defiler is out, but also will have a huge impact with all of the other big beaters I've got.
Whip of Erebos this is another card that I've got on my list of potential additions,
but I'm a little hesitant to add in any life gain, due to cards such as Havoc Festival and Rain of Gore.So I just looked it up and found that according to the rules, Havoc Festival and Rain of Gore won't prevent me gaining life with Lifelink. Since I have an extra whip gathering dust, I may add it in the next time that I'm out with my play group to test it out.Rakdos The Defiler: A Zero-Sum Game
Varolz, The Scar-Striped
Thanks,
MattHonkylips
Hey d0su, thanks for the reply, its nice to have another Rakdos fan adding their 2 cents.
You're right that with the current decklist it does give my opponents the potential to just durdle like me and set up their own boardstate, and it is something that has happened a few times, but luckily most of my playgroup is pretty aggressive, and eventually will start fighting each other. That's why its so important in the first few turns that I'm able to get out one or two of my low costing creatures, Abyssal Persecutor is my early game MVP. As soon as he comes out to play most people will stop coming at me because early game he is always the biggest creature on the field, so he acts as a big deterrent for people attacking me.
Anger and Dragon Breath are both good cards, but honestly I'm not too sure what to take out to make room for them, I will have to get some more games under my belt with the current build before I can determine how to fit them in, any suggestions?
Death Cloud, this is why I love this website, I never even thought of this card when I was putting this deck together, will add it in as soon as I pick one up, I will likely sub it in for one of my smaller creatures, that don't really impact the game that much.
Thanks again for the suggestions, keep them coming.
Rakdos The Defiler: A Zero-Sum Game
Varolz, The Scar-Striped
Thanks,
MattHonkylips
I've got a long description at the link, but basically what I figured out was that the best strategy with Rakdos is to destroy as much of your opponents' stuff as possible in any way that you can and then just start sending him in. If you board wipe all of their creatures or Vandalblast all of their artifacts away before you attack, half your stuff is worth half of whatever they have left.
In a multiplayer game (what I typically play) you need to choose your moments better. Think of it like this: there's more stuff to destroy. Two green heavy players and one player without any green? Defile the player who doesn't control any forests then drop a Wake of Destruction naming forests in second main. Or better yet, leave yourself with 3 lands and a Sol Ring and drop a second main Keldon Firebombers. Now everyone has 3 lands!
Happy defiling!
Hey thanks for the reply. I just took a look at your list on tapped out, that is one impressive looking list, you've got a lot of cards listed there that I would love to add, but the prices make it a little difficult for me. The big problem that I've noticed with being so new to magic is that I've got none of the old awesome cards, and don't really want to spend a lot of money on one card like damination for example.
I really like your description for the deck and how you describe your game plan. Nothing is more enjoyable than making people realize just how powerful this "bad" commander can be when you build around him and play correctly.
Rakdos The Defiler: A Zero-Sum Game
Varolz, The Scar-Striped
Thanks,
MattHonkylips
There are plenty of budget options for some of the more expensive cards. You could easily play more swamps than I do and then run Urborg + Mutilate for a fraction of the cost of Damnation. I could see the argument that this is even better since it gets around indestructible creatures. Any of the other 5-7 mana black sweepers would work too. Until you start defiling, this is very much a "big mana" deck.
The good thing is a lot of the key cards in this deck are demons, which can all be had for pretty cheap. I've moved more and more towards a demon heavy build over time. Only key non-demon creatures like Dwarven Miner, Anger, Keldon Firebombers and Nether Traitor make the cut these days.
Many of the other expensive cards like Badlands, Wasteland etc are just "nice to haves", I could easily see a powerful version of the deck without them.
All in all, I like your deck a lot and I think you're going to have fun with it.
Thanks again for the positive feedback, it's nice to get that from someone with a lot of experience playing with Rakdos. I do like the suggestion of adding mutilate into the deck to be used as a board wipe, will definitely try this out the next time I get to play.
So far I'm really having a blast with this deck, the more I get to play the more I'm realizing just how punishing it can be, I really like having the ability to lock down the board when either when I need to slow my opponents down to get back in the game, or when I'm going into beat down mode and don't want my opponents to get back into the game.
Rakdos The Defiler: A Zero-Sum Game
Varolz, The Scar-Striped
Thanks,
MattHonkylips
Stone Calendar, Planar Gate and Urza's Incubator all seem like good fits in this deck, since there are a lot of high casting cost creatures so lowering the colourless part of their cost always seems like a good idea.
Now I'm also thinking about adding in the Urzatron, Urza's Power Plant, Urza's Mine, and Urza's Tower, but I'm not too sure about adding them in, my main concern is I defiantly don't want to be running more colourless lands then I currently am, so that will limit what I would take out (likely Rix Maadi, Dungeon Palace, Jund Panorama and one more) and there is the potential for 7 mana from only 3 lands, which seems pretty good.
So as always if anyone has any suggestions for the deck, please feel free to let me know.
Rakdos The Defiler: A Zero-Sum Game
Varolz, The Scar-Striped
Thanks,
MattHonkylips
Although mana rocks will take you far into the long game, both red and black provide rituals for one-shot bursts: Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Seething Song, Geosurge, and Pyretic Ritual all can provide oomph quickly, which might be useful after sacrificing your non-Demon lands to Rakdos. Speaking of sacrificed lands - Crucible of Worlds is a bit pricey, but goes the distance when mass-killing lands.
Cheers!
Krichaiushii on PucaTrade.
That's a good point, wouldn't have thought of that.
Rakdos The Defiler: A Zero-Sum Game
Varolz, The Scar-Striped
Thanks,
MattHonkylips
Rakdos The Defiler: A Zero-Sum Game
Varolz, The Scar-Striped
Thanks,
MattHonkylips