So, Rakdos, Lord of Riots is the face card for the Rajdos guild kit: the art looks cool, I've always liked the guy, and he looks like he would interact well with Spectacle, and in general with a heavy damage/burn strategy. So yeah, I have decided to build a deck for him but, as a long-time Johnny, I'm kind of out of my element trying to build a deck that is all about dropping big fatties at a discount. Is "emptying the enemy hands then dropping big things and swinging" enough of a wincon with Rakdos, or are there any cool interactions/combos one could leverage to force a victory?
I used low mana pingers like Goblin Fireslinger and cheap burn spells like Gut Shot to be able to get Rakdos into play.
I'd then spend mana on cards like Exsanguinate to deal X damage to a table of three opponents.
If X equals 5 you've got 15 'free' mana.
Did someone order a Blightsteel?
Load the deck up with colourless creatures and anything with X in the casting cost and you're rolling!
if they're also colourless you've got some massive free creatures to play. Hangarback Walker and Walking Ballista are great value when you're not footing the bill!
As someone with a lot of experience with the lord of riots it goes like this:
1) Pick the biggest guys.
2) Ditch the ones with lots of color symbols.
3) Pick cheap guys with evasion or pingers.
4) Beat face.
4a) Be careful not to beat to much face with Rakdos himself so you can actually enjoy yourself without him killing them through commander damage.
Mix in some removal and board wipes and it really is that simple.
I have a thread going for Rakdos in my sig. In general, you want your "enablers" to be cheaper than 4 mana and free to activate, so that you can get Rakdos down on time if need be. You also want your enablers to be permanents instead of one-time effects like Gut Shot in case you need to re-cast Rakdos. Then, pick any number of the hundreds of fatties you want to cast at a discount and go to town.
EDIT: My personal favorites are anything with X in it. Grenzo, Dungeon Warden is awesome. Eldrazi are solid but kinda boring. Maga is good, as mentioned above. Hangarback Walker and Walking Ballista are also pretty solid.
He does! And t looks a lot cooler than the old one, at least in my opinion. The kit also includes his original Defiler incarnation, but I think that one won't get new art.
Damage doublers are also nice, but remember, they only double damage, not other life loss.
The other thing I should mention is removal. You might want to consider things like Lunge and Hideous End, just for the discount on all future creatures that turn. (As well as creatures with enters triggers.)
Private Mod Note
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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!
1. Ancestral Statue returning itself to hand. With Nettle Drone or Purphoros, God of the Forge, this is infinite damage to all opponents.
2. Cloudstone Curio combos. Two Eldrazi can loop for infinite cast triggers. Also works with Nettle Drone and Purphoros.
3. Cloudstone Curio with 2 morphs (or a morph and an eldrazi). I run Ruthless Ripper. As long as you have a black card in hand, you can drain the whole table for 0 mana.
Basically, it's a Animar, except you're going to be doing damage to opponents. Also, black's a lot better at killing things than blue or green. (When will my opponents learn, you should've gone for the head...)
Private Mod Note
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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!
Im also building a Lord Rakdos deck atm. What do you guys think of Myojin of Night's Reach and Dread Cacodemon. There aren't a lot of decks where you can justify playing these really strong creatures since they have to be cast, almost like Eldrazi. My problem with these guys is in here are the triple B mana costs. Is that a dealbreaker? Also wondering about Pestilence Demon
Im also building a Lord Rakdos deck atm. What do you guys think of Myojin of Night's Reach and Dread Cacodemon. There aren't a lot of decks where you can justify playing these really strong creatures since they have to be cast, almost like Eldrazi. My problem with these guys is in here are the triple B mana costs. Is that a dealbreaker? Also wondering about Pestilence Demon
Both seem good to me. I play Massacre Wurm. Your mana needs to be pretty decent to cast Rakdos consitently on turn 4, so triple black is not hard.
Just keep in mind that the more mana symbols you have, the harder it will be to play multiple creatures in a turn.
I also prefer to have more red mana symbols than black because of Neheb, the Eternal.
By the way, Bontu's Monument is another Cloudstone Curio wincon, which also helps you generally. If you go the combo route, Hazoret's Monument makes a great match, letting you dig deep. Both in addition make creature spells of the right color cost 1 less on their own.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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!
Im also building a Lord Rakdos deck atm. What do you guys think of Myojin of Night's Reach and Dread Cacodemon. There aren't a lot of decks where you can justify playing these really strong creatures since they have to be cast, almost like Eldrazi. My problem with these guys is in here are the triple B mana costs. Is that a dealbreaker? Also wondering about Pestilence Demon
Both seem good to me. I play Massacre Wurm. Your mana needs to be pretty decent to cast Rakdos consitently on turn 4, so triple black is not hard.
Just keep in mind that the more mana symbols you have, the harder it will be to play multiple creatures in a turn.
I also prefer to have more red mana symbols than black because of Neheb, the Eternal.
ya, the not being able to cast multiple per turn is more the issue I have with triple coloured spells. Its not the fixing I'm worried about
I would recommend making the deck appear to be the typical rakdos deck (described above) but include a combo that somewhat compliments the deck (meaning it includes cards that are already good for your deck).
Sorry for not coming back at you here in a while, but my health conditions are really getting worse lately, so I haven't been spending much time on this forum.
Anyway, I tried putting together a list, which you can see here. How does it look?
Here is my decklist. It’s aimed at being as competitively viable as Rakdos LOR can be by using Stax effects to slow and stop the common competitive wincons while winning as early as turn 3 through efficient combo.
Anyway, I tried putting together a list, which you can see here. How does it look?
Not a bad start, but there are a couple things I would look to shore up:
- Only 35 lands is probably not enough. Rakdos "can" make your creatures dirt cheap, but there will also be many times when he doesn't do that, either because he's not on the table or because you don't have an enabler. I'd look to add 2-4 more lands.
- Make sure your enablers can be used more than once. Vicious Rumors might be good for a turn, but then the rest of the table will respond, and you'll need to go through the motion again. Think of Vicious Rumors as Dark Ritual, and Lobber Crew as Rakdos Signet.
- Just because you can play something at a discount doesn't mean it's good enough to make the cut. Abundant Maw might be cheap/free, but it's still a vanilla body with a weak ETB trigger. Rix Maadi Reveler is a small body with a drawback...and something like Bloodgift Demon or Demonlord Belzenlok would be much stronger.
I used to run a Rakdos, Lord of Riots deck.
I used low mana pingers like Goblin Fireslinger and cheap burn spells like Gut Shot to be able to get Rakdos into play.
I'd then spend mana on cards like Exsanguinate to deal X damage to a table of three opponents.
If X equals 5 you've got 15 'free' mana.
Did someone order a Blightsteel?
Load the deck up with colourless creatures and anything with X in the casting cost and you're rolling!
if they're also colourless you've got some massive free creatures to play.
Hangarback Walker and Walking Ballista are great value when you're not footing the bill!
EDH:
[Primer]C Kozilek, Butcher of Truth C
RGNikya of the Old WaysGR
1) Pick the biggest guys.
2) Ditch the ones with lots of color symbols.
3) Pick cheap guys with evasion or pingers.
4) Beat face.
4a) Be careful not to beat to much face with Rakdos himself so you can actually enjoy yourself without him killing them through commander damage.
Mix in some removal and board wipes and it really is that simple.
EDIT: My personal favorites are anything with X in it. Grenzo, Dungeon Warden is awesome. Eldrazi are solid but kinda boring. Maga is good, as mentioned above. Hangarback Walker and Walking Ballista are also pretty solid.
Yeva (88/92 foils)
Raff
Scarab
Rakdos
Wort ($50 budget, 94/97 foils)
Trostani
BChainer, Dementia Master(Big Mana/Reanimator)
BRRakdos, The Showstopper (Mass Life Loss/Ramp)
BUThe Scarab God (Zombie Tribal/Control)
BWKarlov of the Ghost Council (Life Gain)
BGJarad, Golgari Lich Lord (Stompy/Dredge)
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher (Tokens/Non-infinite Combo)
Damage doublers are also nice, but remember, they only double damage, not other life loss.
The other thing I should mention is removal. You might want to consider things like Lunge and Hideous End, just for the discount on all future creatures that turn. (As well as creatures with enters triggers.)
On phasing:
BChainer, Dementia Master(Big Mana/Reanimator)
BRRakdos, The Showstopper (Mass Life Loss/Ramp)
BUThe Scarab God (Zombie Tribal/Control)
BWKarlov of the Ghost Council (Life Gain)
BGJarad, Golgari Lich Lord (Stompy/Dredge)
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher (Tokens/Non-infinite Combo)
1. Ancestral Statue returning itself to hand. With Nettle Drone or Purphoros, God of the Forge, this is infinite damage to all opponents.
2. Cloudstone Curio combos. Two Eldrazi can loop for infinite cast triggers. Also works with Nettle Drone and Purphoros.
3. Cloudstone Curio with 2 morphs (or a morph and an eldrazi). I run Ruthless Ripper. As long as you have a black card in hand, you can drain the whole table for 0 mana.
Cryptolith Fragment is one of the best enablers, by the way.
And Neheb, The Eternal generates a ton of mana for you.
8.RG Green Devotion Ramp/Combo 9.UR Draw Triggers 10.WUR Group stalling 11.WUR Voltron Spellslinger 12.WB Sacrificial Shenanigans
13.BR Creatureless Panharmonicon 14.BR Pingers and Eldrazi 15.URG Untapped Cascading
16.Reyhan, last of the Abzan's WUBG +1/+1 Counter Craziness 17.WUBRG Dragons aka Why did I make this?
Building: The Gitrog Monster lands, Glissa the Traitor stax, Muldrotha, the Gravetide Planeswalker Combo, Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix + Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa Clues, and Tribal Scarecrow Planeswalkers
Basically, it's a Animar, except you're going to be doing damage to opponents. Also, black's a lot better at killing things than blue or green. (When will my opponents learn, you should've gone for the head...)
On phasing:
BChainer, Dementia Master(Big Mana/Reanimator)
BRRakdos, The Showstopper (Mass Life Loss/Ramp)
BUThe Scarab God (Zombie Tribal/Control)
BWKarlov of the Ghost Council (Life Gain)
BGJarad, Golgari Lich Lord (Stompy/Dredge)
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher (Tokens/Non-infinite Combo)
Both seem good to me. I play Massacre Wurm. Your mana needs to be pretty decent to cast Rakdos consitently on turn 4, so triple black is not hard.
Just keep in mind that the more mana symbols you have, the harder it will be to play multiple creatures in a turn.
I also prefer to have more red mana symbols than black because of Neheb, the Eternal.
8.RG Green Devotion Ramp/Combo 9.UR Draw Triggers 10.WUR Group stalling 11.WUR Voltron Spellslinger 12.WB Sacrificial Shenanigans
13.BR Creatureless Panharmonicon 14.BR Pingers and Eldrazi 15.URG Untapped Cascading
16.Reyhan, last of the Abzan's WUBG +1/+1 Counter Craziness 17.WUBRG Dragons aka Why did I make this?
Building: The Gitrog Monster lands, Glissa the Traitor stax, Muldrotha, the Gravetide Planeswalker Combo, Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix + Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa Clues, and Tribal Scarecrow Planeswalkers
On phasing:
BChainer, Dementia Master(Big Mana/Reanimator)
BRRakdos, The Showstopper (Mass Life Loss/Ramp)
BUThe Scarab God (Zombie Tribal/Control)
BWKarlov of the Ghost Council (Life Gain)
BGJarad, Golgari Lich Lord (Stompy/Dredge)
BRGProssh, Skyraider of Kher (Tokens/Non-infinite Combo)
An example I run in my Lyzolda worldgorger dragon deck is to run kiki-jiki, mirror breaker+zealous conscripts, along with goblin fanatic + necrotic ooze + buried alive to combo with kiki (necrotic explosions bypass situations you can't attack), and also the heatshimmer+twin flame and dualcaster mage. All of these cards are generically good on their own with typical rakdos creature strategies that use some reanimation.
Links to my most current deck lists;
Primary EDH; Rakka Mar Token Perfection, Crosis Mnemonic Betrayal, Cromat Villainous, Judith Gravestorm, Rakdos Empty Storm, Exava Artifacts, Bant Trash, & Fumiko Voltron!
EDH kept at home; Ruzzian Isset & Rakdos LoR!
EDH (nostalgic/pimp/retired) in storage;
Latulla Burns, Akroma Smash, Jeska Voltron, Rakdos Storm, Bladewing Darghans, Lyzolda Worldgorger, Xantcha Steals your Heart, Jori Storm, Wydwen Permission, Gwendlyn Paradox, Jeleva Warps, & Sigarda Brick!
Legacy Showanimator and High Tide!
Anyway, I tried putting together a list, which you can see here. How does it look?
Here is my decklist. It’s aimed at being as competitively viable as Rakdos LOR can be by using Stax effects to slow and stop the common competitive wincons while winning as early as turn 3 through efficient combo.
Not a bad start, but there are a couple things I would look to shore up:
- Only 35 lands is probably not enough. Rakdos "can" make your creatures dirt cheap, but there will also be many times when he doesn't do that, either because he's not on the table or because you don't have an enabler. I'd look to add 2-4 more lands.
- Make sure your enablers can be used more than once. Vicious Rumors might be good for a turn, but then the rest of the table will respond, and you'll need to go through the motion again. Think of Vicious Rumors as Dark Ritual, and Lobber Crew as Rakdos Signet.
- Just because you can play something at a discount doesn't mean it's good enough to make the cut. Abundant Maw might be cheap/free, but it's still a vanilla body with a weak ETB trigger. Rix Maadi Reveler is a small body with a drawback...and something like Bloodgift Demon or Demonlord Belzenlok would be much stronger.
Yeva (88/92 foils)
Raff
Scarab
Rakdos
Wort ($50 budget, 94/97 foils)
Trostani
I think there are some cards like gut shot that might be good too, since you can power out rakdos a turn earlier.
Legacy - Solidarity - mono U aggro - burn - Imperial Painter - Strawberry Shortcake - Bluuzards - bom