It very much depends on your deck and what you are trying to do. Yes, Rune-Scarred is immediate and costs 1 less, but it's also a one shot deal.
Well, it's 1-shot normally, but this is a Karador deck. It's going to be sacrificed and re-cast multiple times, most likely.
On the flip side, most of the time if you're sacrificing and recurring Rune Scarred, you could just be sacrificing to Raz and recurring some other creature, getting you both the benefit of tutoring and also whatever ETB effect that creature has, likely at lower cost.
It very much depends on your deck and what you are trying to do. Yes, Rune-Scarred is immediate and costs 1 less, but it's also a one shot deal. Razaketh is way more explosive in the right scenario, with a much higher ceiling, but also could just be nothing more than a big body if you don't have another creature to sacrifice or another 2 mana. If you are trying to assemble multiple pieces he can do it all by himself and you can even set your deck up to chain things together (I have put almost no thought into this but I'm sure there are some shenanigans you could arrange). He's definitely more build around though.
All that said, I took a look at your deck and I do think Rune-Scarred Demon is the better choice for it.
Well thanks! Yeah I'm really not sure, I do like being able to recur RSD for multiple tutors, but having a sac outlet + tutor in Razaketh seems very strong as well. I may end up cutting Sheoldred and playing both potentially, depends on their inherent usefulness. If you've got a minute, I'm also looking to put Azusa, Lost but Seeking and Hour of Promise in the deck. Could you give me your two cents on what cuts should be made, if any? Thanks!
Your list looks pretty solid to me so it's hard to make too many suggestions. I don't think Azusa is worth it though. You really need to be able to draw a lot of cards to take advantage of her and I'm not seeing that here. Hour of Promise (aka cabal coffers and uborg) is great of course. You probably need to base what you are cutting, if you decide to cut something, on how the deck has played out for you. You do have a lot of ways to cheat creatures onto the battlefield so maybe you don't even need all that mana. Do you have issues filling your graveyard with creatures? What is your backup plan if your graveyard gets removed? Are you emptying your hand really fast and not finding good ways to draw more cards? Actually I'm thinking card draw might be an issue. You might be better served by adding Greater Good, Momentous Fall, Garruk, Primal Hunter, and/or Disciple of Bolas.
I have a Karador deck as well, and I actually prefer Razaketh over RSD. I just think that an 8/8 tramply flyer that has the potential to end games with floods of tutors makes it better and easier to abuse than RSD. 2 life and a creature is nothing, really, and as someone else mentioned, him being a sac outlet is actually an upside many times.
Also a Karador player, also would play Raz over RSD. Big reason is because it works with Loyal Retainers. I also like being able to put it into play, and then sac the relevant hate-bears on my last OPs end step to combo off the next turn. Also let's me, say, tutor for the exact right flash hate bear.
Your list looks pretty solid to me so it's hard to make too many suggestions. I don't think Azusa is worth it though. You really need to be able to draw a lot of cards to take advantage of her and I'm not seeing that here. Hour of Promise (aka cabal coffers and uborg) is great of course. You probably need to base what you are cutting, if you decide to cut something, on how the deck has played out for you. You do have a lot of ways to cheat creatures onto the battlefield so maybe you don't even need all that mana. Do you have issues filling your graveyard with creatures? What is your backup plan if your graveyard gets removed? Are you emptying your hand really fast and not finding good ways to draw more cards? Actually I'm thinking card draw might be an issue. You might be better served by adding Greater Good, Momentous Fall, Garruk, Primal Hunter, and/or Disciple of Bolas.
I actually already have Greater Good in the deck! I was also advised against playing Disciple of Bolas, told it was a bad card to cut when I was moving from my Meren deck to Karador. I think I may try to find a way to slot it back into the deck, because I could use both the card draw and the incidental lifegain, as I find that I am paying a lot of life to do things with this deck. If you have suggestions on what else I could cut, I'm open to ideas.
I am personally swapping out RSD for Raz in my Grimgrim list. The list is tailored to feeding my commander creatures making Raz very easy to abuse. On the flip side I rarely get more than one trigger out of RSD. I have reanimated him a few times, but sometimes it is more important to get your Hexmage mage back.
Disciple of bolas is a very solid card just difficult to time. You have to know when to eat your own fatty or when to just sac a 1/1.
I decided to run both. I probably need more sac outlets, and the fact that I also run Necrotic Ooze and stuff like buried alive won me over. I can buried alive, have ooze, sac a zombie token to get something like loyal retainers, use that to reanimate it. Plus its helpful I can "at worst" sac and undying rune scarred demon to it for double tutor. I dont think I can lose with a double tutor.
Ended up cutting Dark Petition, because realistically... I run like 5 spells...
I decided to run both. I probably need more sac outlets, and the fact that I also run Necrotic Ooze and stuff like buried alive won me over. I can buried alive, have ooze, sac a zombie token to get something like loyal retainers, use that to reanimate it. Plus its helpful I can "at worst" sac and undying rune scarred demon to it for double tutor. I dont think I can lose with a double tutor.
Ended up cutting Dark Petition, because realistically... I run like 5 spells...
Sounds like a good decision. I would also encourage others to run both if they have space for it. I just decided that in my list I didn't need more than one "tutor creature", and Raz is the one I determined should work best in my list. I may find space again for RSD yet.
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Your list looks pretty solid to me so it's hard to make too many suggestions. I don't think Azusa is worth it though. You really need to be able to draw a lot of cards to take advantage of her and I'm not seeing that here. Hour of Promise (aka cabal coffers and uborg) is great of course. You probably need to base what you are cutting, if you decide to cut something, on how the deck has played out for you. You do have a lot of ways to cheat creatures onto the battlefield so maybe you don't even need all that mana. Do you have issues filling your graveyard with creatures? What is your backup plan if your graveyard gets removed? Are you emptying your hand really fast and not finding good ways to draw more cards? Actually I'm thinking card draw might be an issue. You might be better served by adding Greater Good, Momentous Fall, Garruk, Primal Hunter, and/or Disciple of Bolas.
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Disciple of bolas is a very solid card just difficult to time. You have to know when to eat your own fatty or when to just sac a 1/1.
Ended up cutting Dark Petition, because realistically... I run like 5 spells...
Sounds like a good decision. I would also encourage others to run both if they have space for it. I just decided that in my list I didn't need more than one "tutor creature", and Raz is the one I determined should work best in my list. I may find space again for RSD yet.