As the title implies, I've never built a strictly BR Commander deck before. Plenty of BR/x decks, but never solely BR. I have a semblance of what I want the deck to do, or at least some cards I really want to include, but I'm not sure on the Commander.
I'm not wanting a voltron commander. I am going to run a couple of cards that support it being voltron, those being Homicidal Seclusion and Blood Mist. Those will be the ONLY cards in the deck that fully support the voltron plan and it will be, optimally, my secondary win condition. What I'm wanting to do is have a build around commander that also just so happens to be good at combat so I can make people chump and essentially sac their things to it. While I don't plan on going for a voltron win from the start, I do intend on attacking with my commander as much as possible unlike a lot of build around commanders in the game.
One of the reasons I'm insisting on building with a commander that is good at combat is because I've been playing a lot of Alesha, Who Smiles at Death lately, and she's tiny. Typically, by the time I have something in the yard worth rezzing with her, she can't attack into many people if at all. It's honestly kind of frustrating, but I've been playing around it. I like the deck, but sometimes her tiny body makes her not do anything. Hence, large bodied commanders that can swing into almost anything.
I'm looking at 3 options:
Rakdos, Lord of Riots - A big 6/6 flying trample for 4 that I've wanted to play since its release. He's big, evasive, aggressive, and has a build around theme. He can cast creatures into Cloudstone Curio for combos. He can just do a go wide play a bunch of creatures and quickly go for the kill. He can voltron if all else fails. It allows a couple of different themes to the deck: Artifacts/colorless creatures, Demon tribal, or just goodstuff. The rather glaringly large downside is that you have to run a multitude of abysmally bad cards just to be able to cast him as early as his cost allows. I'm very apprehensive about running a commander that requires so many bad cards, pingers and other exceptionally pointless small damage things just to make him castable, as they're all nearly useless when he's out and it takes up a lot of room in the deck. I really dislike having to waste card slots on enablers instead of having good, generally useful cards that'll actually help me win the game. And then there's the problem that my new group hates Annihilator, as most people should, which makes the Eldrazi titans less than optimal.
Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury - Smaller and a tad higher costing compared to Lord of Riots, but can drop sooner thanks to the generic cost. Mostly played for his Dash cost and keeping him in your hand rather than letting him die to sorcery speed removal. He has two build arounds: stuff like Confusion in the ranks and Dragon tribal. Optimally, you're always going to be Dashing it in. I think building him as a Dragon tribal would be fairly fun. Maybe runs some cards that make dragons cost less, helping Kolaghan's cost, and enabling dragons to come out easier. I think I could easily fit both themes in the same deck. Kolaghan also works fairly well as a voltron secondary win condition. It likes attacking, has evasion, and is big enough to go attacking.
Kaervek the Merciless - Below average P/T for its high CMC, but can dish out the damage. He's not especially aggressive, but can punish people for their splashy plays. Researching these 3, I came across DirkGently's Political-ish Kaervek is really what made me consider him, but I'll probably play him more Political than the list suggests. It also allows for some fun cards I've never had the pleasure of running like Everlasting Torment and some select punisher and hug cards. He also has the added benefit of working very well with the lifelink from Homicidal Seclusion.
Two good Suggestions I've received, but unfortunately don't own:
The Scorpion God - I like it. I hate the cost for his ability; 3 mana is a bit much for that effect, but whatever. He's big enough to attack, he draws cards, and he keeps coming back. I'd love to give it a shot as a Wither-based commander with things like Bloatfly infestation and other cards that interact with and make -1/-1 counters. It seems like a lot of fun and the theme wouldn't be so prominent that I couldn't run some of the typical Rakdos-colored good stuff.
Mogis, God of Slaughter - 4 cmc, Indestructible, and plenty big enough for combat. He hurts people or makes them sac things which fits right into the Rakdos color scheme. Not really build around at all, but black red already has a good amount of sacrifice effects and damage dealing.
I'm willing to take suggestions on other possible commanders for this, but I don't currently own any others that fit into this [Aggressive, Big enough to voltron, but also has possible build-around themes] suite. Right now I'm sort of leaning towards Rakdos, Lord of Riots, but only because I want to get it over with and see if all the bad cards I have to run will just ruin it for me or if I can circumvent all the bad cards entirely and find a different way to get him out reliably. One of those get it over with and see just how bad it really will be now rather than go another ~6 years wanting to play him just cause other things are on my radar.
Anyway, suggestions welcome and appreciated. Suggestions on Alternate commanders, cards to sway me toward a specific commander, or even just different themes for the commanders are all appreciated. Going to throw a poll up just for fun to see what people like more as end of the day I'll still play what I want.
Ha, glad to know people are still enjoying my decks. Obviously I'm voting political 'vek.
rakdos seems clumsy for this purpose as his biggest benefit is to help you ramp out big eldrazi or whatever, which is decidedly not keeping the aggression focused on rakdos himself. kolaghan is just boring, and also wants something other creatures to work best, namely more dragons and going wide in general.
Of course 'vek isn't exactly voltron material either, as his main function is to kill everything, and not to get too involved in combat. But he does work well with some equipment (namely lifelink, infect, deathtouch, anything that cares about dealing noncombat damage) and he's definitely a source of aggression.
I'd say Mogis if the devotion count required was lower. He does try to keep the board clean.
Olivia Voldaren tries to do that, too.
Scorpion God always costs 5 and draws. Don't need to build around its ability.
Dragonlord K has haste and stats but otherwise is vanilla.
Assuming you are only considering those three, I would say Rakdos. Jam a bunch of eldrazi and means to enable casting your commander, its a mean combo.
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I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
Of the three you mentioned, I've built and played against Rakdos, and I've played against Kaervek and run him in the 99 (in my Vial Smasher the Fierce deck), and personally, I think there are a few better options. While I have been crushed by Rakdos, my own attempt felt like a much worse version of my Animar deck. Karevek starts at 7 mana and will be hated off the board - in a non-green deck it's going to eat all your mana replaying him again and again. Of the three, I prefer Kolaghan because it can dodge commander tax and sorcery removal, but it's better in a tribal deck than a voltron deck.
Rakdos has some fun generals in Vial Smasher the Fierce and Mogis, but they're not great for Voltron. My suggestions for Voltron would be either The Scorpion God or Tsabo Tavoc. Scorps starts at 6 power (just needs a slight boost to the magic number 7), dodges commander tax, and provides removal and card draw in the command zone. Tsabo does cost 7, but at least it gives you 7 power and protection from legendary creatures, which can be highly relevant if you want to win through commander damage; plus, it offers removal for most problem generals.
Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
I appreciate all the replies and suggestions. Seems like some people are having misconceptions, though I will admit I phrased it in a way that would give those misconceptions.
I'm not wanting a voltron commander. I am going to run a couple of cards that support it being voltron, those being Homicidal Seclusion and Blood Mist. Those will be the ONLY cards in the deck that support the voltron plan and it will be, optimally, my secondary win condition. What I'm wanting to do is have a build around commander that also just so happens to be good at combat so I can make people chump and essentially sac their things to it. While I don't plan on going for a voltron win from the start, I do intend on attacking with my commander as much as possible unlike a lot of build around commanders in the game. Looking at this, I'm going to talk a little bit more about the commanders I'm looking at and also give some thoughts I've been having about the commanders since I posted this thread. I'm also going to try to update the op with all this I'm throwing out.
One of the reasons I'm insisting on building with a commander that is good at combat is because I've been playing a lot of Alesha, Who Smiles at Death lately, and she's tiny. Typically, by the time I have something in the yard worth rezzing with her, she can't attack into many people if at all. It's honestly kind of frustrating, but I've been playing around it. I like the deck, but sometimes her tiny body makes her not do anything. Hence, large bodied commanders that can swing into almost anything.
Rakdos, Lord of Riots - He's big, evasive, aggressive, and has a build around theme. He can cast creatures into Cloudstone Curio for combos. He can just do a go wide play a bunch of creatures and quickly go for the kill. He can voltron if all else fails. I'm very apprehensive about running a commander that requires so many bad cards, pingers and other exceptionally pointless small damage things just to make him castable, as they're all nearly useless when he's out and it takes up a lot of room in the deck. I really dislike having to waste card slots on enablers instead of having good, generally useful cards that'll actually help me win the game. And then there's the problem that my new group hates Annihilator, as most people should, which makes the Eldrazi titans less than optimal.
Kolaghan, Storm's Fury. - He has two build arounds: stuff like Confusion in the ranks and Dragon tribal. Optimally, you're always going to be Dashing it in. I think building him as a Dragon tribal would be fairly fun. Maybe runs some cards that make dragons cost less, helping Kolaghan's cost, and enabling dragons to come out easier. I think I could easily fit both themes in the same deck. Kolaghan also works fairly well as a voltron secondary win condition. It likes attacking, has evasion, and is big enough to go attacking.
Kaervek the Merciless - Big enough to attack, but not reliably. He can be a good build around in both a political and punishing sense. He's interesting and I think I'd have fun playing him.
Some suggestions I've received multiples of:
The Scorpion God - I like it. I hate the cost for his ability; 3 mana is a bit much for that effect, but whatever. He's big enough to attack, he draws cards, and he keeps coming back. I'd love to give it a shot as a Wither-based commander with things like Bloatfly infestation and other cards that interact with and make -1/-1 counters. It seems like a lot of fun and the theme wouldn't be so prominent that I couldn't run some of the typical Rakdos-colored good stuff. Unfortunately, I don't own one and remembering people's trade stuff at my lgs no one else does. I'd have to buy one online and I typically don't buy things online or at least buying a bunch of cards at once.
Mogis, God of Slaughter - 4 cmc, Indestructible, and plenty big enough for combat. He hurts people or makes them sac things which fits right into the Rakdos color scheme. Unfortunately, I don't own one of him either. It's also old enough of a card that near no one at my lgs has any of the gods for trade, which is my primary way of obtaining new cards.
I'm excited to see what Ravnica 3 brings us for Rakdos and the Black Red group in edh.
I've personally always wanted to play a Black red deck but never knew what to play as I felt they were all lackluster. Anyway I'm eager to see what you pick. My first choice would have been The Scorpion God. Even with minimal -1/-1 counter shenanigans, hes a pretty strong card and can persist into the long game, drawing you cards and killing off things. I like cards that have versatility and survivability, and he does that well in RB.
I've got a Lord of Riots deck that does pretty much what you think - janky damage dealers, lots of Eldrazi, artifact and colorless creatures. It's fun to play and can be incredibly explosive, but it can fall apart really easily if the table is focusing you which tends to happen a lot when you start free casting Eldrazi titans on turn 4.
Depending on how casual a player you and your playgroup/LGS is/are, I would suggest looking at Grusilda, Monster Masher as a commander. Yes she's an "Un" card but in my experience I haven't had a single person object to my continued use of her and if someone truly did get upset I did build the deck to run an alternate commander (which I do enjoy switching up and using just for the shenanigans of it) in Tsabo Tavoc, who is a boss. Literally.
Both Grusilda & Tsabo deal in death, so cramming boardwipes & kill spells only helps either commander function better via Monstermashing or just swinging in with a beater (Tsabo).
I have found over the past 4 or 5 years of playing EDH that I'm extremely dissapointed in the Commander options for Rakdos and ironically Grusilda feels more Rakdos in concept & function than most B/R legends.
I'm not building Rakdos, and probably never will. Having to play a bunch of junk cards just to make him castable sucks and I refuse to do it. I've always appreciated commanders that make oddball or subpar cards good, but He doesn't do that. I'd sooner put Vedalken Orrery and Winding Canyons in the deck with a boatload of tutors to get them out and wait for an opponent to take damage. I mean, I'd like to build him and I really wish he didn't have that ridiculous clause, cause this is the ticket for Demon tribal if there ever was one. Demon tribal, eldrazi, combo, voltron. He just has so many things you can do with him, but having to waste ~15+ card slots for enablers is just dumb and I'll never do it. I've played Phage as a commander before and I was excited about building her, while I feel a bit of dread just thinking about building Rakdos. Maybe, just maybe, somewhere down the line some cards will come out that make him far less of a pain.
Kaervek the Merciless seems like fun, or at least the DirkGently way of playing Kaervek. However, he's really high cmc, get's hated on, and isn't exactly a build-around commander.
So, I'm building Kolaghan, Storm's Fury. Definitely the least popular of the 3, but I think he's a solid build-around. I'm going to try to mix the Dragon tribal and Dash themes, mostly by trying to use Conspiracy. Going to run some really solid dragons and some dragon tribal stuff. Going to run Door of Destinies and Urza's Incubator to try and get extra value off casting Kolaghan and my other dash creatures courtesy of Conspiracy. It'll be fun to build and I think I can make it pretty solid while still being kind of wacky.
I'm going to try and obtain a copy of The Scorpion God, and depending on how much I enjoy Kolaghan I'll either convert it to the Scorpion god or save it for later. I'll post a decklist when it's ready and post a link here.
Thanks for all the replies and suggestions. They were fairly useful and greatly appreciated.
Kaervek the Merciless seems like fun, or at least the DirkGently way of playing Kaervek. However, he's really high cmc, get's hated on, and isn't exactly a build-around commander.
FWIW
-yes, he's high CMC, but the deck is like 70% mana. He comes out on 4 most commonly, 5 with a bad hand, 3 with fast mana.
-he IS a build-around commander, absolutely. mana to get him out early, equipment and enchantments to protect him and make his damage more potent. My deck has practically every card built to support him, and it works great.
-he sometimes gets hated on a little, but way more often, once I explain "the rules" people realize the utility in leaving him alive and abuse him instead. In the end, for their greed they all perish in flames...muhahaha.
Anyway, kolaghan is a way more interesting choice than rakdos at least. Rakdos is supes boring at this point.
Winning in commander is easiest when you circumvent normal restrictions on what power you should have on a given turn. Of the offerings in the original post, and honestly, in the entire pool of Rakdos legendaries, only Rakdos, Lord of Riots has the built in cheating mechanism that I've come to value in a deck. I currently play a take on Baral Polymorph that's legal for traditional commander, and it operates on a similar premise to what Rakdos would, albeit on more of a early game aggro/combo rush instead of the midrange/control that I imagine Rakdos would operate on. I think you'll have fun powering out high cost colorless creatures on the back of Pestilence or Pyrohemia.
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I'm not wanting a voltron commander. I am going to run a couple of cards that support it being voltron, those being Homicidal Seclusion and Blood Mist. Those will be the ONLY cards in the deck that fully support the voltron plan and it will be, optimally, my secondary win condition. What I'm wanting to do is have a build around commander that also just so happens to be good at combat so I can make people chump and essentially sac their things to it. While I don't plan on going for a voltron win from the start, I do intend on attacking with my commander as much as possible unlike a lot of build around commanders in the game.
One of the reasons I'm insisting on building with a commander that is good at combat is because I've been playing a lot of Alesha, Who Smiles at Death lately, and she's tiny. Typically, by the time I have something in the yard worth rezzing with her, she can't attack into many people if at all. It's honestly kind of frustrating, but I've been playing around it. I like the deck, but sometimes her tiny body makes her not do anything. Hence, large bodied commanders that can swing into almost anything.
I'm looking at 3 options:
Rakdos, Lord of Riots - A big 6/6 flying trample for 4 that I've wanted to play since its release. He's big, evasive, aggressive, and has a build around theme. He can cast creatures into Cloudstone Curio for combos. He can just do a go wide play a bunch of creatures and quickly go for the kill. He can voltron if all else fails. It allows a couple of different themes to the deck: Artifacts/colorless creatures, Demon tribal, or just goodstuff. The rather glaringly large downside is that you have to run a multitude of abysmally bad cards just to be able to cast him as early as his cost allows. I'm very apprehensive about running a commander that requires so many bad cards, pingers and other exceptionally pointless small damage things just to make him castable, as they're all nearly useless when he's out and it takes up a lot of room in the deck. I really dislike having to waste card slots on enablers instead of having good, generally useful cards that'll actually help me win the game. And then there's the problem that my new group hates Annihilator, as most people should, which makes the Eldrazi titans less than optimal.
Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury - Smaller and a tad higher costing compared to Lord of Riots, but can drop sooner thanks to the generic cost. Mostly played for his Dash cost and keeping him in your hand rather than letting him die to sorcery speed removal. He has two build arounds: stuff like Confusion in the ranks and Dragon tribal. Optimally, you're always going to be Dashing it in. I think building him as a Dragon tribal would be fairly fun. Maybe runs some cards that make dragons cost less, helping Kolaghan's cost, and enabling dragons to come out easier. I think I could easily fit both themes in the same deck. Kolaghan also works fairly well as a voltron secondary win condition. It likes attacking, has evasion, and is big enough to go attacking.
Kaervek the Merciless - Below average P/T for its high CMC, but can dish out the damage. He's not especially aggressive, but can punish people for their splashy plays. Researching these 3, I came across DirkGently's Political-ish Kaervek is really what made me consider him, but I'll probably play him more Political than the list suggests. It also allows for some fun cards I've never had the pleasure of running like Everlasting Torment and some select punisher and hug cards. He also has the added benefit of working very well with the lifelink from Homicidal Seclusion.
Two good Suggestions I've received, but unfortunately don't own:
The Scorpion God - I like it. I hate the cost for his ability; 3 mana is a bit much for that effect, but whatever. He's big enough to attack, he draws cards, and he keeps coming back. I'd love to give it a shot as a Wither-based commander with things like Bloatfly infestation and other cards that interact with and make -1/-1 counters. It seems like a lot of fun and the theme wouldn't be so prominent that I couldn't run some of the typical Rakdos-colored good stuff.
Mogis, God of Slaughter - 4 cmc, Indestructible, and plenty big enough for combat. He hurts people or makes them sac things which fits right into the Rakdos color scheme. Not really build around at all, but black red already has a good amount of sacrifice effects and damage dealing.
I'm willing to take suggestions on other possible commanders for this, but I don't currently own any others that fit into this [Aggressive, Big enough to voltron, but also has possible build-around themes] suite. Right now I'm sort of leaning towards Rakdos, Lord of Riots, but only because I want to get it over with and see if all the bad cards I have to run will just ruin it for me or if I can circumvent all the bad cards entirely and find a different way to get him out reliably. One of those get it over with and see just how bad it really will be now rather than go another ~6 years wanting to play him just cause other things are on my radar.
Anyway, suggestions welcome and appreciated. Suggestions on Alternate commanders, cards to sway me toward a specific commander, or even just different themes for the commanders are all appreciated. Going to throw a poll up just for fun to see what people like more as end of the day I'll still play what I want.
WBG Karador, Ghost Chieftain
B Toshiro Umezawa
BG Pharika, God of Affliction - Necromancy and Politics
WWW The Church of Heliod
WBR Zurgo, Helmsmasher
RG Wort, the Raidmother
UBR Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge
UG Vorel of the Hull Clade
rakdos seems clumsy for this purpose as his biggest benefit is to help you ramp out big eldrazi or whatever, which is decidedly not keeping the aggression focused on rakdos himself. kolaghan is just boring, and also wants something other creatures to work best, namely more dragons and going wide in general.
Of course 'vek isn't exactly voltron material either, as his main function is to kill everything, and not to get too involved in combat. But he does work well with some equipment (namely lifelink, infect, deathtouch, anything that cares about dealing noncombat damage) and he's definitely a source of aggression.
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Thrasios+Bruse - Pang - Sasaya - Wydwen - Feather - Rona - Toshiro - Sylvia+Khorvath - Geth - QMarchesa - Firesong - Athreos - Arixmethes - Isperia - Etali - Silas+Sidar - Saskia - Virtus+Gorm - Kynaios - Naban - Aryel - Mizzix - Kazuul - Tymna+Kraum - Sidar+Tymna - Ayli - Gwendlyn - Phelddagrif 4 - Liliana - Kaervek - Phelddagrif 3 - Mairsil - Scarab - Child - Phenax - Shirei - Thada - Depala - Circu - Kytheon - GrenzoHR - Phelddagrif - Reyhan+Kraum - Toshiro - Varolz - Nin - Ojutai - Tasigur - Zedruu - Uril - Edric - Wort - Zurgo - Nahiri - Grenzo - Kozilek - Yisan - Ink-Treader - Yisan - Brago - Sidisi - Toshiro - Alexi - Sygg - Brimaz - Sek'Kuar - Marchesa - Vish Kal - Iroas - Phelddagrif - Ephara - Derevi - Glissa - Wanderer - Saffi - Melek - Xiahou Dun - Lazav - Lin Sivvi - Zirilan - Glissa
PDH - Drake - Graverobber - Izzet GM - Tallowisp - Symbiote Brawl - Feather - Ugin - Jace - Scarab - Angrath - Vraska - Kumena Oathbreaker - Wrenn&6
Olivia Voldaren tries to do that, too.
Scorpion God always costs 5 and draws. Don't need to build around its ability.
Dragonlord K has haste and stats but otherwise is vanilla.
I'd pick Rakdos of the ones you mentioned.
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Rakdos has some fun generals in Vial Smasher the Fierce and Mogis, but they're not great for Voltron. My suggestions for Voltron would be either The Scorpion God or Tsabo Tavoc. Scorps starts at 6 power (just needs a slight boost to the magic number 7), dodges commander tax, and provides removal and card draw in the command zone. Tsabo does cost 7, but at least it gives you 7 power and protection from legendary creatures, which can be highly relevant if you want to win through commander damage; plus, it offers removal for most problem generals.
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On phasing:
I'm not wanting a voltron commander. I am going to run a couple of cards that support it being voltron, those being Homicidal Seclusion and Blood Mist. Those will be the ONLY cards in the deck that support the voltron plan and it will be, optimally, my secondary win condition. What I'm wanting to do is have a build around commander that also just so happens to be good at combat so I can make people chump and essentially sac their things to it. While I don't plan on going for a voltron win from the start, I do intend on attacking with my commander as much as possible unlike a lot of build around commanders in the game. Looking at this, I'm going to talk a little bit more about the commanders I'm looking at and also give some thoughts I've been having about the commanders since I posted this thread. I'm also going to try to update the op with all this I'm throwing out.
One of the reasons I'm insisting on building with a commander that is good at combat is because I've been playing a lot of Alesha, Who Smiles at Death lately, and she's tiny. Typically, by the time I have something in the yard worth rezzing with her, she can't attack into many people if at all. It's honestly kind of frustrating, but I've been playing around it. I like the deck, but sometimes her tiny body makes her not do anything. Hence, large bodied commanders that can swing into almost anything.
Rakdos, Lord of Riots - He's big, evasive, aggressive, and has a build around theme. He can cast creatures into Cloudstone Curio for combos. He can just do a go wide play a bunch of creatures and quickly go for the kill. He can voltron if all else fails. I'm very apprehensive about running a commander that requires so many bad cards, pingers and other exceptionally pointless small damage things just to make him castable, as they're all nearly useless when he's out and it takes up a lot of room in the deck. I really dislike having to waste card slots on enablers instead of having good, generally useful cards that'll actually help me win the game. And then there's the problem that my new group hates Annihilator, as most people should, which makes the Eldrazi titans less than optimal.
Kolaghan, Storm's Fury. - He has two build arounds: stuff like Confusion in the ranks and Dragon tribal. Optimally, you're always going to be Dashing it in. I think building him as a Dragon tribal would be fairly fun. Maybe runs some cards that make dragons cost less, helping Kolaghan's cost, and enabling dragons to come out easier. I think I could easily fit both themes in the same deck. Kolaghan also works fairly well as a voltron secondary win condition. It likes attacking, has evasion, and is big enough to go attacking.
Kaervek the Merciless - Big enough to attack, but not reliably. He can be a good build around in both a political and punishing sense. He's interesting and I think I'd have fun playing him.
Some suggestions I've received multiples of:
The Scorpion God - I like it. I hate the cost for his ability; 3 mana is a bit much for that effect, but whatever. He's big enough to attack, he draws cards, and he keeps coming back. I'd love to give it a shot as a Wither-based commander with things like Bloatfly infestation and other cards that interact with and make -1/-1 counters. It seems like a lot of fun and the theme wouldn't be so prominent that I couldn't run some of the typical Rakdos-colored good stuff. Unfortunately, I don't own one and remembering people's trade stuff at my lgs no one else does. I'd have to buy one online and I typically don't buy things online or at least buying a bunch of cards at once.
Mogis, God of Slaughter - 4 cmc, Indestructible, and plenty big enough for combat. He hurts people or makes them sac things which fits right into the Rakdos color scheme. Unfortunately, I don't own one of him either. It's also old enough of a card that near no one at my lgs has any of the gods for trade, which is my primary way of obtaining new cards.
WBG Karador, Ghost Chieftain
B Toshiro Umezawa
BG Pharika, God of Affliction - Necromancy and Politics
WWW The Church of Heliod
WBR Zurgo, Helmsmasher
RG Wort, the Raidmother
UBR Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge
UG Vorel of the Hull Clade
I've personally always wanted to play a Black red deck but never knew what to play as I felt they were all lackluster. Anyway I'm eager to see what you pick. My first choice would have been The Scorpion God. Even with minimal -1/-1 counter shenanigans, hes a pretty strong card and can persist into the long game, drawing you cards and killing off things. I like cards that have versatility and survivability, and he does that well in RB.
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Commander: Allies & Adversaries
Modern:R 8Whack R|W White Knights W
Both Grusilda & Tsabo deal in death, so cramming boardwipes & kill spells only helps either commander function better via Monstermashing or just swinging in with a beater (Tsabo).
I have found over the past 4 or 5 years of playing EDH that I'm extremely dissapointed in the Commander options for Rakdos and ironically Grusilda feels more Rakdos in concept & function than most B/R legends.
Plus there is always the hilarious face your opponent will make when you swing at them with a Territorial Hellkite and Rakdos, Lord of Riots Mashed together! Or a Sheoldred, Whispering One & Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite Monster Mashed together is fun, I've done that once to great effect
GL!
EDIT: And now that Archfiend of Despair is out the Monstermashing shenanigans get even more hilarious with flying hasty dragons!
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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
I'm not building Rakdos, and probably never will. Having to play a bunch of junk cards just to make him castable sucks and I refuse to do it. I've always appreciated commanders that make oddball or subpar cards good, but He doesn't do that. I'd sooner put Vedalken Orrery and Winding Canyons in the deck with a boatload of tutors to get them out and wait for an opponent to take damage. I mean, I'd like to build him and I really wish he didn't have that ridiculous clause, cause this is the ticket for Demon tribal if there ever was one. Demon tribal, eldrazi, combo, voltron. He just has so many things you can do with him, but having to waste ~15+ card slots for enablers is just dumb and I'll never do it. I've played Phage as a commander before and I was excited about building her, while I feel a bit of dread just thinking about building Rakdos. Maybe, just maybe, somewhere down the line some cards will come out that make him far less of a pain.
Kaervek the Merciless seems like fun, or at least the DirkGently way of playing Kaervek. However, he's really high cmc, get's hated on, and isn't exactly a build-around commander.
So, I'm building Kolaghan, Storm's Fury. Definitely the least popular of the 3, but I think he's a solid build-around. I'm going to try to mix the Dragon tribal and Dash themes, mostly by trying to use Conspiracy. Going to run some really solid dragons and some dragon tribal stuff. Going to run Door of Destinies and Urza's Incubator to try and get extra value off casting Kolaghan and my other dash creatures courtesy of Conspiracy. It'll be fun to build and I think I can make it pretty solid while still being kind of wacky.
I'm going to try and obtain a copy of The Scorpion God, and depending on how much I enjoy Kolaghan I'll either convert it to the Scorpion god or save it for later. I'll post a decklist when it's ready and post a link here.
Thanks for all the replies and suggestions. They were fairly useful and greatly appreciated.
WBG Karador, Ghost Chieftain
B Toshiro Umezawa
BG Pharika, God of Affliction - Necromancy and Politics
WWW The Church of Heliod
WBR Zurgo, Helmsmasher
RG Wort, the Raidmother
UBR Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge
UG Vorel of the Hull Clade
-yes, he's high CMC, but the deck is like 70% mana. He comes out on 4 most commonly, 5 with a bad hand, 3 with fast mana.
-he IS a build-around commander, absolutely. mana to get him out early, equipment and enchantments to protect him and make his damage more potent. My deck has practically every card built to support him, and it works great.
-he sometimes gets hated on a little, but way more often, once I explain "the rules" people realize the utility in leaving him alive and abuse him instead. In the end, for their greed they all perish in flames...muhahaha.
Anyway, kolaghan is a way more interesting choice than rakdos at least. Rakdos is supes boring at this point.
EDH Primers
Phelddagrif - Zirilan
EDH
Thrasios+Bruse - Pang - Sasaya - Wydwen - Feather - Rona - Toshiro - Sylvia+Khorvath - Geth - QMarchesa - Firesong - Athreos - Arixmethes - Isperia - Etali - Silas+Sidar - Saskia - Virtus+Gorm - Kynaios - Naban - Aryel - Mizzix - Kazuul - Tymna+Kraum - Sidar+Tymna - Ayli - Gwendlyn - Phelddagrif 4 - Liliana - Kaervek - Phelddagrif 3 - Mairsil - Scarab - Child - Phenax - Shirei - Thada - Depala - Circu - Kytheon - GrenzoHR - Phelddagrif - Reyhan+Kraum - Toshiro - Varolz - Nin - Ojutai - Tasigur - Zedruu - Uril - Edric - Wort - Zurgo - Nahiri - Grenzo - Kozilek - Yisan - Ink-Treader - Yisan - Brago - Sidisi - Toshiro - Alexi - Sygg - Brimaz - Sek'Kuar - Marchesa - Vish Kal - Iroas - Phelddagrif - Ephara - Derevi - Glissa - Wanderer - Saffi - Melek - Xiahou Dun - Lazav - Lin Sivvi - Zirilan - Glissa
PDH - Drake - Graverobber - Izzet GM - Tallowisp - Symbiote Brawl - Feather - Ugin - Jace - Scarab - Angrath - Vraska - Kumena Oathbreaker - Wrenn&6
https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/commander-edh/multiplayer-commander-decklists/794959-kolaghan-dash-dragons
WBG Karador, Ghost Chieftain
B Toshiro Umezawa
BG Pharika, God of Affliction - Necromancy and Politics
WWW The Church of Heliod
WBR Zurgo, Helmsmasher
RG Wort, the Raidmother
UBR Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge
UG Vorel of the Hull Clade