MTG Salvation

[html] https://www.moxfield.com/decks/inHJnWx6GEq8c7QE_cFozA[/html]


Commander (1)
Rakdos the Defiler

Creatures (22)



Sorceries (16)



Instants (16)



Artifacts (9)



Enchantments (6)




Lands (36)· 38 including mdfc



I counted 106 cards, and need to cut 6 slots. The deck in general runs pretty well, but I’ve no idea what to cut!


Any ideas?

or possibly even if there are better cards to replace the existing cards in the deck?

It’s a bit hard to parse through that jumbled list so could you give us the winning combos/lines for this deck.

I see LED + Underworld Breach… but not the full combo that normally uses brain freeze to generate infinite mana and access your entire deck.

I see doomsday and consultation but there’s no Thoracle so I don’t know what you are going after.

At first blush, it looks like you mashed together a bunch of high end commander cards with every card you could find that has a chance to blow up in your face… which isn’t what “suicide” decks are about at all.


Edit: is this just a rakdos reanimator beat down deck that just so happens to use a bunch of tutors and apparent combo pieces.l?

Its been a really long time since ive been on these forums; dont exacltly recall how to auto-format the decklists and all. but ive sort of fixed it. ish.

But yea, underworld breach isnt part of a combo as such; more an easy way to get stuff from my GY if i flip it with hellcarver demon. There aren't really any infinite combos outside of very specific 0.01% of the time, where i flip say lichtreasonous ogre ad repay in kind. There are other ways to go, like hellcarver into world at war/savage beating, firey emancipation, some beater with a haste enabler, so on.

There aren't that many actual game-winning doomsday piles, but repay in kind plus lich or treasonous ogre works. or if the game is nearing its end, another attack step/final fortune plus some reanimation usually does the trick.


most of the wins with the deck comes from turn 2-3 villis or sire of insanity, via entomb into reanimate. or shallow grave into sacrifice/burnt offering into another big beater in hand/rakdos the defiler which hampers board growth. another synergy is Archfiend of Despair and sower of discord, which speeds up the game immensely. tergrid, god of fright and rakdos does good work together too. I used to run pox, but it didnt seem good enough, and i can't find my copy of it that betrays, so thats not in till i find it. oh yea doom whisperer into living death usually trades me up 3-5 beaters while removing a lot from the board.

The card tutoring is more to help build up, either finding a reanimation spell or beater. More often than not, consultation finds me fast mana, be it LED (to cast rakdos), crypt or vault, just for a sudden boost and keep the pressure up.

The deck is suicide in terms of sacrificing the typical value/snowballing cards that wotc prints these days for tempo/board presence/life total pressure. its like the old Bx aggro from the mid 90s, when id aim to go turn 1 ritual into necropotence/hypnotic spectre, and just tempo my opponent out.

i understand that this deck usually looks a heck of a lot scarier than it actually is, but its reportedly really fun to play against, especially if there isn't too much time left in the night, but you can squeeze one game in if you make it snappy. i mean, considering the number of tutors in here, its surprisingly random, the way the deck plays. I guess thats what keeps it fun to play against.

Thats the best i could do to fix up the decklist. No idea how to make it auto-organise.

Also, just recently picked up a few extra cards that could go well in the deck. Figured id pop them here and see what anyone thinks should be an add:

Apologies for the delay in this response. I'm going to be going over my general recommendations in a couple of steps, including a possible decklist:

Possible challenges with the list:
1. You play a lot of cards that require a high level of risk. Suicide decks that pay life work as you start with 40 but the idea isn't to be caught with an abyssal persecuter that you have no way to sacrifice (remember that Rakdos does NOT let you sacrifice demons)... or for your burning inquiry to rip the reanimation spell and tutor from your hand rather than dropping the demons you wanted to reanimate... or to instantly lose the turn you go off with repay in kind when someone uses generous gift on your lich... or for your opponents to get more use out of mass hysteria than you end up getting (remember that in a 4-player game, the majority of creatures on the board likely won't be yours unless you're a heavy token deck. Even a suicide deck can engage in risk management.
2. Your strategy is very feast and famine. Even when you succeed in bringing back a big thing on turn 2-3, it seems like a large part of your strategy kind of falls apart if any opponent draws one or two removal spells and you have packed no protection beyond a single Malakir Rebirth (unless you are counting the reanimation package as "protection", I gues).
3. Even when it works, the deck is slow. Several cards in your deck like sheoldred, whispering one, scourge of the throne, bloodspeaker, or your commander will often need to wait for a bit before they have paid themselves off... which again puts you at risk if your opponents are playing interactions. Also, nearly any reanimation target from this deck would take a good number of turns to wipe out three other players. While a reanimated sire of insanity may lead to a slow victory if no player draws what they need, you are otherwise giving your opponents quite a bit of time to respond.
4. You yourself have next to no forms of interaction in the entire deck. You need ways to stop opponents that extend beyond discard effects and Sheoldred/Pestilence Demon

Possible Recommendations for the Deck:
1. Adding a Protection Package: Rakdos is a very scary commander. If you get it on the board and it starts hitting players, you can quickly get players into a place where the game ends if none of them draw incredibly cheap answers... but it will often have to live a couple of turn cycles before you have devastated everyone. There is no worse feeling than having your Rakdos exiled with swords to plowshares after you have sacrificed half of your stuff and before you have hit someone. For that purpose, here's a couple of protection Recommendations:
Deflecting Swat: Is an absolutely free way to protect your stuff when your commander is out on the field. No reason not to use if you can afford it.
Bolt Bend: Will generally cost only 1 mana for a similar effect and gets that low cost when protecting most of your high-end creatures, whether or not Rakdos is on the field.
Not of This World: When protecting your commander, this is a free colorless counterspell.
Swiftfoot Boots/Lightning Greaves: Very cheap and long-term protection against targeted removal. It's also a pretty good as a haste provider as it is fairly rare that you'd be pushing out two big demons onto the battlefield in the same turn and you can simply equip this on the card most recently played or reanimated.

2. A Haste Package: Similarly, Rakdos does it's best work when he's able to come down and swings right away. Mass Hysteria has the chance to blow up in your face as mentioned above and anger, while fine, may feel bad if you are putting it into the graveyard instead of using that opportunity to shove a reanimation target there. I've already mentioned the boots and greaves above but another two possible candidates include:
1. Herald of Slaanesh: All of your demons not only gain haste but cost 2 less. This card makes hardcasting and swinging with Rakdos on turn 4 a fairly simple manner.
2. Chainer, Nighmare Adept: This card does a surprising amount. It gives haste to your commander and to reanimated targets, it lets you cast creatures from your graveyard, and it's a discard outlet to boot.

3. An Interaction Package: Doing your own thing is all well and good but you still want to have ways to interact with foes if they get a fast start, get down stax pieces to slow you down, or threaten to combo off. Possible Recommendations include:
1. Deadly Rollick: Free exile removal if your commander is out.
2. Feed the Swarm: One of the few pieces of enchantment removal you have access to.
3. Hagra Mauling + Shatterskull Smashing : Removal that can double as a land is awesome.
4. Chaos Warp: A risky card but it can potentially remove anything.
5. Tibalt's Trickery: A red counterspell as an emergency panic button.
6. Vandalblast: A specialized artifact removal spell.
7. Toxic Deluge + Blasphemous Act: The best mass removal options in these colors, in case someone else is swarming the board.

Mana Production: Just a couple of pieces that may have been missed:
1. Dockside Extortionist: The best piece of red ramp in the game.
2. Jeska's Will: The second-best piece of red ramp in the game.
3. Black Market Connections: One of the best black cards out there. It draws cards, adds mana, creates 3/2 creatures that count as demons. This thing does it all.
4. Bolas's Citadel: While not "mana production" in the traditional sense, this card lets you pay life instead of mana costs and plays very well into the type of strategy that you have been going for.

Recommendations for Rakdos: a few specialized recommendatiosn for this deck:
Thrilling Encore Another way to get back what your opponents have sacrificed other than Tergrid.
Mayhem Devil: A way to turn all of those sacrifices (yours and your opponents) into damage that might sweep the board or knock the few life opponents have left.
Bloodthirster or Balor: Mono-red demons with fairly bit impact that are both designed for multiplayer.
Raphael, Fiendish Savior + Shadowspear: Convenient ways to gain back some of the life you've been paying that aren't named "Gray Merchant".
Liliana's Contract: An outright win condition for any deck with a demon subtheme.
Crucible of Worlds: The only way for you to replay those lands you are doubtless sacrificing to your own Rakdos Triggers.

A sample decklist



The land count may seem low but the deck is packing a bunch of cards that can be played as lands in a pinch.

Cheers!


Sorry for the slow response. I’ve picked up a few of the cards like jeska will, Jerald of slaanesh.


In terms of interactions, I’m kinda wary about it, mostly cuz I don’t wanna spend mana to answer things; I kinda wanna just pressure the table, and hope that it’s enough. It’s a very weird play style the deck kinda likes. I’ve played not of this world and bolt bend and imps mischief, and I’ve never had them work out. Protecting my cards are not what I wanna do; removing/neutering things like propaganda/board-based tax/stax effects are what I need.

I’m def gonna keep my eye out for deadly rolicks, thrilling encore, and some other pieces like that, as well as Raphael.

Quote from schweinefett »

In terms of interactions, I’m kinda wary about it, mostly cuz I don’t wanna spend mana to answer things; I kinda wanna just pressure the table, and hope that it’s enough. It’s a very weird play style the deck kinda likes. I’ve played not of this world and bolt bend and imps mischief, and I’ve never had them work out. Protecting my cards are not what I wanna do; removing/neutering things like propaganda/board-based tax/stax effects are what I need.

That opinion is fair enough, though I’d likely recommend against using your specific choice of Rakdos as commander if you don’t want protection. If your opponent react to the sacrifice trigger with a Swords to Plowshares/Path to Exile/Generous Gift/Beast Within/Chaos Warp/Cyclonic Rift/Deadly Rollick/Pongify/Rapid Hybridization or other instant speed removal even one time (and that’s a fairly obvious thing for them to try), you are likely losing half of your lands and your chances of winning absolutely plummet.

If you want a “suicide aggro” deck in the sense that you are taking gigantic all-or-nothing chances every game, that’s an acquired taste. Most people use the term to describe a deck that pays life as a resource and doesn’t mind getting hit on the backswing.

Haha acquired taste is the way to put it. I grew up thinking dark ritual into erg raiders turn 1 was way op!


But yea, the deck is built this way mostly so I can actually sport all the broken cards in the deck, having the best of the best, and still be considered ok by the playgroup, cuz it’s weak to a well-timed piece of interaction.


On the losing all my lands thing, I’ve never thought that to be a major detriment to the game. The deck can function well on 4 lands, and can even do some really scary things with just 2 permanent mana sources.


But thanks for your input anyways. I’m probably still gonna still tweak it to include more broken FIRE design cards, even though it feels like it’s pushing out all those ‘risky’ demons!