MTG Salvation

I find this deck hilarious to play. For some reason, people just let me have my general for a turn. When I swing in with him, I get to drop three huge demons on the cheap. Turns pass around again, no one draws a Wrath, and I win. This deck focuses on meeting the other prerequisite on Rakdos and then playing big fat dudes.



It's been a while and the deck is still around! People still just let me play Rakdos and hit someone. It's amazing.

I've made a lot of changes, a few of which I can see an immediate improvement on. I'll have to find a few more cards in my mess of a collection and become Strictly Better.

The basic strategy of this deck is simple: make the opponent lose one (or more) life in any manner possible. You can Staggershock on their turn, extort with Crypt Ghast, Flame Jab out of the 'yard, or just attack. Sin Prodder does work in this department as do the obvious options of the enchantments that ping every turn. The options are endless. You may, of course, season your list with more cards that poke your opponent, but I feel you'd be diluting your list. I am making a mental note to look out for Spawn of Mayhem as another enabler that also happens to be a demon.

Once you cast Rakdos, you will win very quickly. Rakdos will discount your demons for about 6 every turn, so you can cast the demons for BB or BBB because you've fetched Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth earlier. On the next turn, you've won.

Looks solid except for your Enabler suite. Here's the problem with it: Let's say you need to cast Rakdos, so he costs RRBB. If you have an Instant, let's say Lightning Bolt, you suddenly need to cast RRRBB. Can your manabase provide that, reliably? If you're going for a burn build, you need spells that do more damage, such as Flame Rift or Breath of Darigaaz. I don't recommend the burn build because you want people to not have hands, which seems to be your case with Hollowborn Barghest (which is pretty sweet, if you have more ways to make people Discard).

Instead, I would recommend: Lim-Dûl's Hex, Retreat to Hagra, Creeping Dread, Cryptolith Fragment, Shepherd of Rot, Thermo-Alchemist, Lobber Crew, Nettle Drone, Pilgrim's Eye, Stronghold Rats and Tunneling Geopede. This way you play these guys out on Turns 2-3 and then Rakdos on Turn 4 with your mana available. Also, unlike most of the spells you've listed, these do damage every turn instead of once via spell damage. In the case of your Inferno Titan and Staff of Nin, you might not have enough mana to cast those to get Rakdos back onto the board.

If you're looking for more ideas, I'm trying to get this Rakdos deck Primered when I have more time. Though I'm currently in the midst of drafting an overhaul, using more Discard to lock people out of countering or killing my stuff and then Raise Dead effects to get them back into the game.

Actually, my mana has never been a problem. I want "free" damage like Staggershock or Plague Spitter. Lightning Bolt usually takes out a creature, it's just there as an option if you're running thin. I don't like any of the listed creatures that deal damage. I have been looking for a few, cheap, automatic enchantments, though. Lim Dul Hex and Cryptolith Fragment sound like solid options, though.

Hollowborn Barghest is one of the weakest performers in the deck. He's really only there because he's a demon and probably the next card getting replaced.

That looks promising!

Some of your demons are better spent being better demons. Grinning demon into rakdos the defiler is a good start. Also, remember that guys like it that betrays works well with everyone has to sacrifice stuff (like old-school rakdos!).

I think like mentioned, you need more reliable lower cmc enablers to land rakdos.

Oh also, not sure how relevant this would be to your build, but treasonous ogre ALWAYS makes my rakdos deck go into overdrive. My mates always spend their removal on it if they have any, cuz it’s that game warping.

So just curious, is this a ‘win at any cost’ sorta deck, leaning on the win side or leaning on the ‘fun’ side? If you’re on the fun side, I’d remove some of the better tutors and replace them with some more risky ones like demonic consultation. It’s a card that gets my game group shouting and hollering, especially since they know the end game is coming soon; along with 2/3 of my library!

Wait a sec - you don’t have hellcarver demon??? Even in a build like yours where you’ve got lower threat density than mine, it’s very good (and extremely rewarding when it works). You can even set it up with a insidious dreams, so you’re more likely to just straight up win. Sometimes you don’t win, but it’s a demon deck, right? You gotta have the feeling of living on the edge to make it really feel like a demon deck!

I used to have Hellcarver Demon and Insidious Dreams. I took them out because they really under performed. I feel Insidious Dreams is much more useful in a deck that can handle Bolas's Citadel. I never got to resolve Hellcarver very often and, when I did, he either ate removal immediately or the game was over before I could use his text.

Treasonous Ogre is a great card! But not in this deck. I sway heavily towards black mana symbols and I've really taken the time to limit what red mana I really do need.

And...I know people really think I need more enablers...but I don't. Rakdos is real easy to play. If you feel otherwise, please tell me how your games went. It's possible that I'm just not having those same games. I feel I may remove Smoldering Tar because it costs 4 and replace it with Lim-Dûl's Hex or Retreat to Hagra. Cryptolith Fragment is another card, but it's just one of those odd uncommons I can't find in my thousands of cards.

Rakdos the Defiler is a suggestion. I don't play him because he's hard to cast, even with a discount, and he nukes all my own stuff. His other ability of nuking my opponent's board is also kinda meh because they're usually dead at that point. He's neither fun nor effective. Rakdos, the Showstopper is a much better version of the old, busted Dissension version.