Hypothetically speaking, you could turn 2 mana dork, turn 3: land, Champion of Rhonas, turn 4: attack with Champion, exert it, and put Razaketh onto the battlefield.
Yeah, the more I think about it, if there's a UB or UBX(R?) control deck in Standard, this guy, Liliana, and The Scarab God could have some pretty powerful synergy.
I like this card overall. The effect is really, ludicrously strong in EDH. I intend to play this in Karador unless Razaketh gets banned. That seems somewhat unlikely, considering general attitudes toward bannings and the fact that this is, while powerful, certainly not Griselbrand. I dig its gameplay.
Flavorwise it isn't wonderful. The art is excellent and I like that Liliana's demon hunting is resembling the Fitness Gram Pacer Test. The name is odd. It sounds like a really elaborate way of saying "Razaketh, the bad guy." The flavor text is disgustingly bad. Unfortunately, it is probably too late for them to change it. Oh well. Good card overall... just needs a new flavor text.
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EDH Decks UWB Oloro, Ageless Ascetic's spring of life RUG Animar, Soul of the Elements and friends... lots of them WBG Karador king of two worlds (value and attrition) WRKalemne's Angels BRUG Yidris's Wild Party UWBR Breya's Terrifying Tinker Toys UBRThe Pretender
Pretty happy that they used the same art from 2 years ago in Magic Duels:
Indeed! The same face, the same pose. I can give them that. They had to graft them on the demonic crocodilian body and wings. I still hope that the closeup of his face, blood dripping to Luxa, will end up on a card. Too badass art to be wasted.
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100% Vorthos Spike and Storyline Expert
Former Fact Prospector of the Greek Alliance.
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
Let's face it, if you're playing mono-black in Commander/EDH, you're not going to have an 8-drop commander and if you manage to have 8 mana, you're gonna do better things with it than what Razaketh can offer.
I'd buy him just because I collect Legendary creatures, but other than that, he's jank.
Omg this is going into my Marchesa edh deck sooo fast. I've lowered the avg cmc enough to force this guy in. The only challenge is what gets dropped lol.
Well I was certainly impressed. But then I'm not looking for broken cards to use as crutches.
The life payment and sac costs can be useful enablers in, say, Marchesa Dethrone decks. Just saccing creatures is an opportunity for value.
So, Kothophed was a 6/6 for 6, Griselbrand was a 7/7 for 7, and now Razaketh is an 8/8 for 8. I see what you're doing, Wizards.
At any rate, I'd say Raz is the best commander of the trio so far, because he's a reusable tutor that can easily fetch the other two (a pity one of them is banned in the format) and ramping black mana is not hard thanks to cards like Cabal Coffers, Crypt Ghast, Nirkana Revenant, and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. And of course for real flavor you can run all three in a Liliana, Heretical Healer commander deck.
MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
As a fan of Demons from when I was a kid, I still have a soft spot for the tribe, but man that flavour text is bad, otherwise I'm pretty happy with it.
Shame they couldn't do anything with the "Blood Magic" he was showing in story. Pay life and Sac a creature to gain control of one, or something like that.
That only works on Liliana, because of their contract. Doesn't seem like something he can just do willy nilly.
He's also responsible for literally turning the entire Luxa River into blood. Like, Blood Magic is clearly a thing of his. Maybe he can't do it willy nilly, but nothing in story seems to suggest he tutors you.
The purpose of his spell was to awaken the 3 dormant gods. That's story equivalent for tutoring
Let's face it, if you're playing mono-black in Commander/EDH, you're not going to have an 8-drop commander and if you manage to have 8 mana, you're gonna do better things with it than what Razaketh can offer.
I'd buy him just because I collect Legendary creatures, but other than that, he's jank.
Almost every person goes negative on my comments
And I'm never giving in to he sticks not one bit I played edh for a long time this guy is in the catergory of game elder
He can guard himself someone tries to exile him sac a creature to tutor counterspell then just cast it.
And plus black does have some extremely decent ramps in commander
This is your new home and I am your new host. My name is Meren of Clan Nel Toth but you can call me "Mereanimother" like everyone else does. Let me introduce you to some of your friends: This is Mindslicer. I bet you will make a good team. This zombie person is called Phyrexian Delver. He will help you wake up early and prepare your breakfast. Avenger of Zendikar will serve your dinner. He will make sure everyone at the table is stuffed full. And these are, in order of obscenity, Gamekeeper, Sepulchral Primordial, and Sheoldred, Whispering One. Although she is a bit xenophobic and tends to victimize herself time to time, I am sure you will get along with Eternal Witness, too.
So enjoy your stay and welcome to our EDH deck!
Cult of the Succubi Eating Kitten and Brotherhood of Hamsters - Zombie One/Hulking One - Brotherhood of Hamsters disapproves of Damage on the Stack amputation, the corruption of Mythics, and the "Major changes to Extended" in July 2010. You aborted our cards., but we approve of the Modern format. Even if it doesn't ha ve Carrion Feeder or Caller of the Claw in it.
Dex: http://deckbox.org/users/Egementium_instructoid
Glad I bought into building my demon tribal EDH deck like a month ago when the C17 dragons were leaked. Keep 'em coming WoTC!
Seeing dragons in C17 makes me think that Angels will get their shot, and if we see Angels then I expect to see some Demons too. They may have strange additional creature types but I'm betting that there will be some demons.
I like Razaketh but I'm not sure if he will unseat Ob Nixilis, Unshackled as a better leader.. Ob is just sooooo nice in stopping my opponents from tutoring for responses to my boardstate... hard to give that up..
People are saying this is bad? Seriously? This card is insane in EDH, and it could quite possibly see play in standard if there's a deck that can ramp into it, reanimate it, or cheat it into play. No, it's not as good as Griselbrand, but if you thought that it was going to be then you need a serious reality check. Come on, people.
As for the flavor text, though, it's absolutely abysmal. I want to vomit when I read it. I reject the concept that this kind of blatant exposition belongs in flavor text. The people who care already know, and the people who don't know don't care (and probably won't read the flavor text anyway). If they do insist on printing this type of flavor text, they should at least put it on commons or uncommons like Fate Forgotten. If they're trying to educate the players who don't this already, then they should put it on a card that will show up more often than once in a few hundred boosters. And it's flat-out insulting for them to put this type of bs on a high-profile mythic legendary creature who deserves so much better.
This should have been an epic, badass quote or description that actually tells us about Razaketh and why he's so dangerous and powerful. We get this garbage instead. Why do you need to tell people something (that most of them already know) as if they're complete idiots who can't comprehend the extremely complex and deep storyline going on? Why can't they just give us any actual insight into the character? The story he was in certainly didn't do much in that area, and the flavor text didn't do jack *****. Worst of all, they're defining the entire character - this epic, legendary demon - through his relationship to Liliana. This is the problem with the entire story being centered around the Gatewatch: it's at the expense of everything else that should be important in the story.
Not just the gatewatch/meta plot of Magic. This could have been a REALLY cool demon, and he kinda is, but I want more characters that stand on their own, I dont care about the gatewatch or meta plot.
We used to be the stars of the show, it was our game, not the Gatewatch story that we just look at as it unfolds.
People are saying this is bad? Seriously? This card is insane in EDH, and it could quite possibly see play in standard if there's a deck that can ramp into it, reanimate it, or cheat it into play. No, it's not as good as Griselbrand, but if you thought that it was going to be then you need a serious reality check. Come on, people.
As for the flavor text, though, it's absolutely abysmal. I want to vomit when I read it. I reject the concept that this kind of blatant exposition belongs in flavor text. The people who care already know, and the people who don't know don't care (and probably won't read the flavor text anyway). If they do insist on printing this type of flavor text, they should at least put it on commons or uncommons like Fate Forgotten. If they're trying to educate the players who don't this already, then they should put it on a card that will show up more often than once in a few hundred boosters. And it's flat-out insulting for them to put this type of bs on a high-profile mythic legendary creature who deserves so much better.
This should have been an epic, badass quote or description that actually tells us about Razaketh and why he's so dangerous and powerful. We get this garbage instead. Why do you need to tell people something (that most of them already know) as if they're complete idiots who can't comprehend the extremely complex and deep storyline going on? Why can't they just give us any actual insight into the character? The story he was in certainly didn't do much in that area, and the flavor text didn't do jack *****. Worst of all, they're defining the entire character - this epic, legendary demon - through his relationship to Liliana. This is the problem with the entire story being centered around the Gatewatch: it's at the expense of everything else that should be important in the story.
So true. Agree with every word.
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Cult of the Succubi Eating Kitten and Brotherhood of Hamsters - Zombie One/Hulking One - Brotherhood of Hamsters disapproves of Damage on the Stack amputation, the corruption of Mythics, and the "Major changes to Extended" in July 2010. You aborted our cards., but we approve of the Modern format. Even if it doesn't ha ve Carrion Feeder or Caller of the Claw in it.
Dex: http://deckbox.org/users/Egementium_instructoid
Razaketh's flavor text is like when I'm just trying to find a simple dinner recipe online and most of the links I click contain totally unrelated stories about how tough it is to balance work life with home life when you've a few kids and a hungry spouse.
Must we write flavor test to dryly explain the story for people who don't read the articles?
Of course. What other answer is there for that question? I hope you can forgive them for sacrificing a few cards' flavour text for the benefit of players less enfranchised than you.
I'm calling it right now- worst rare in the set. Even good limited players will find better bombs at common and uncommon no sweat. Worst. Episode. Ever.
I really do predict this to be our worst rare in set award winner. I'd be happier opening a jar of eyeballs, so I think anything worse is highly unlikely. This card wont just have zero constructed potential, but not be significantly better than a mass of ghouls in a draft.
Must we write flavor test to dryly explain the story for people who don't read the articles?
Of course. What other answer is there for that question? I hope you can forgive them for sacrificing a few cards' flavour text for the benefit of players less enfranchised than you.
This isn't just some throwaway common or uncommon creature; this is a legendary creature who we've been waiting for a while to see, and while his relatively brief depiction in the story was enough to make one take a liking to his character (IMO), we still don't know much about him beyond his connection to Liliana. This text didn't help in that regard.
Seems likely he'll get banned in EDH. The same type of cutthroat shells that could power out Griselbrand can do the same with Razaketh. While Griselbrand drowned your opponents in card advantage, Razaketh can cut right to the chase and fetch up a combo to kill the table, or whatever interaction you need. Killing him does nothing because you can fetch up either a combo or reanimation spell(s) to get him back. It would be weird if he didn't get griselbanned.
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That's really the only home for him right now, unless there's some way a token deck can cheat this guy out I'm unaware of.
EDIT: Cryptolith Rite decks keep trying to be a thing, maybe it fits in that.
Standard: BG Golgari Midrange
Modern: U Merfolk GWUBR 5 Color Humans UBW Esper Gifts GW Bogles
Like geez I feel like people hate this guy because he's not Griselbrand 2.0
Flavor text is still horrible though.
-Chandra Nalaar
Flavorwise it isn't wonderful. The art is excellent and I like that Liliana's demon hunting is resembling the Fitness Gram Pacer Test. The name is odd. It sounds like a really elaborate way of saying "Razaketh, the bad guy." The flavor text is disgustingly bad. Unfortunately, it is probably too late for them to change it. Oh well. Good card overall... just needs a new flavor text.
EDH Decks
UWB Oloro, Ageless Ascetic's spring of life
RUG Animar, Soul of the Elements and friends... lots of them
WBG Karador king of two worlds (value and attrition)
WRKalemne's Angels
BRUG Yidris's Wild Party
UWBR Breya's Terrifying Tinker Toys
UBR The Pretender
Indeed! The same face, the same pose. I can give them that. They had to graft them on the demonic crocodilian body and wings. I still hope that the closeup of his face, blood dripping to Luxa, will end up on a card. Too badass art to be wasted.
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
Let's face it, if you're playing mono-black in Commander/EDH, you're not going to have an 8-drop commander and if you manage to have 8 mana, you're gonna do better things with it than what Razaketh can offer.
I'd buy him just because I collect Legendary creatures, but other than that, he's jank.
The life payment and sac costs can be useful enablers in, say, Marchesa Dethrone decks. Just saccing creatures is an opportunity for value.
So, Kothophed was a 6/6 for 6, Griselbrand was a 7/7 for 7, and now Razaketh is an 8/8 for 8. I see what you're doing, Wizards.
At any rate, I'd say Raz is the best commander of the trio so far, because he's a reusable tutor that can easily fetch the other two (a pity one of them is banned in the format) and ramping black mana is not hard thanks to cards like Cabal Coffers, Crypt Ghast, Nirkana Revenant, and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. And of course for real flavor you can run all three in a Liliana, Heretical Healer commander deck.
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
Spirits
The purpose of his spell was to awaken the 3 dormant gods. That's story equivalent for tutoring
Grisledaddy cost 8.
Standard: BG Golgari Midrange
Modern: U Merfolk GWUBR 5 Color Humans UBW Esper Gifts GW Bogles
Almost every person goes negative on my comments
And I'm never giving in to he sticks not one bit I played edh for a long time this guy is in the catergory of game elder
He can guard himself someone tries to exile him sac a creature to tutor counterspell then just cast it.
And plus black does have some extremely decent ramps in commander
This is your new home and I am your new host. My name is Meren of Clan Nel Toth but you can call me "Mereanimother" like everyone else does. Let me introduce you to some of your friends: This is Mindslicer. I bet you will make a good team. This zombie person is called Phyrexian Delver. He will help you wake up early and prepare your breakfast. Avenger of Zendikar will serve your dinner. He will make sure everyone at the table is stuffed full. And these are, in order of obscenity, Gamekeeper, Sepulchral Primordial, and Sheoldred, Whispering One. Although she is a bit xenophobic and tends to victimize herself time to time, I am sure you will get along with Eternal Witness, too.
So enjoy your stay and welcome to our EDH deck!
Meren
Cult of the Succubi Eating Kitten and Brotherhood of Hamsters - Zombie One/Hulking One - Brotherhood of Hamsters disapproves of Damage on the Stack amputation, the corruption of Mythics,
and the "Major changes to Extended" in July 2010. You aborted our cards., but we approve of the Modern format. Even if it doesn't ha ve Carrion Feeder or Caller of the Claw in it.Dex: http://deckbox.org/users/Egementium_instructoid
Seeing dragons in C17 makes me think that Angels will get their shot, and if we see Angels then I expect to see some Demons too. They may have strange additional creature types but I'm betting that there will be some demons.
I like Razaketh but I'm not sure if he will unseat Ob Nixilis, Unshackled as a better leader.. Ob is just sooooo nice in stopping my opponents from tutoring for responses to my boardstate... hard to give that up..
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/magic-fundamentals/magic-general/334931-what-is-the-most-pimp-card-deck-youve-seen-or?comment=5361
Commander
RGOmnath, Locus of Rage Grenades! EDHGR
UWSygg's Defense, EDH - Voltron & ControlWU
BUGMimeoplasm EDH ft. Ifnir Cycling-discard comboBUG
WBTeysa, Connoisseur of CullingBW
BWSelenia & Recruiter of the Guard suicice combo EDHWB
UBRWGO-Kagachi - 5 Color Enchantments - EDHUBRWG
As for the flavor text, though, it's absolutely abysmal. I want to vomit when I read it. I reject the concept that this kind of blatant exposition belongs in flavor text. The people who care already know, and the people who don't know don't care (and probably won't read the flavor text anyway). If they do insist on printing this type of flavor text, they should at least put it on commons or uncommons like Fate Forgotten. If they're trying to educate the players who don't this already, then they should put it on a card that will show up more often than once in a few hundred boosters. And it's flat-out insulting for them to put this type of bs on a high-profile mythic legendary creature who deserves so much better.
This should have been an epic, badass quote or description that actually tells us about Razaketh and why he's so dangerous and powerful. We get this garbage instead. Why do you need to tell people something (that most of them already know) as if they're complete idiots who can't comprehend the extremely complex and deep storyline going on? Why can't they just give us any actual insight into the character? The story he was in certainly didn't do much in that area, and the flavor text didn't do jack *****. Worst of all, they're defining the entire character - this epic, legendary demon - through his relationship to Liliana. This is the problem with the entire story being centered around the Gatewatch: it's at the expense of everything else that should be important in the story.
We used to be the stars of the show, it was our game, not the Gatewatch story that we just look at as it unfolds.
Spirits
So true. Agree with every word.
Cult of the Succubi Eating Kitten and Brotherhood of Hamsters - Zombie One/Hulking One - Brotherhood of Hamsters disapproves of Damage on the Stack amputation, the corruption of Mythics,
and the "Major changes to Extended" in July 2010. You aborted our cards., but we approve of the Modern format. Even if it doesn't ha ve Carrion Feeder or Caller of the Claw in it.Dex: http://deckbox.org/users/Egementium_instructoid
Of course. What other answer is there for that question? I hope you can forgive them for sacrificing a few cards' flavour text for the benefit of players less enfranchised than you.
This isn't just some throwaway common or uncommon creature; this is a legendary creature who we've been waiting for a while to see, and while his relatively brief depiction in the story was enough to make one take a liking to his character (IMO), we still don't know much about him beyond his connection to Liliana. This text didn't help in that regard.