That is true but when i was looking at some decklist it didn't seem that hard to get a few creatures to sac. And while play testing a few of them i found a wincon the turn i played razaketh or the turn after.
And then you get Pithing Needle'd and it's over. He's seriously overrated, you aren't casting that win-con the turn you cast him which is a serious disadvantage. Telegraphing the strategy in the CZ also doesn't help. The thing with Griz was that he was his own engine. He refilled your hand, basically for free. You just dedicated your deck to BGoodstuff.dec, tutored up Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and Cabal Coffers ASAP and just cruise to victory. Razz is weak to grave-hate, the aforementioned needling, removal(for his fodder) and aggressive strategies. Sidisi, Undead Vizer, while still costly, is easily a better Commander for this strategy.
I remember seeing Griselbrand lists on here all the way back when he was released.
It basically worked like a mono-black storm deck with a ton of rituals. Once you hit 8 mana and resolved him, you essentially won off of all of the fast mana you inevitably end up drawing and then cards like Tendrils of Agony and Yawgmoth's Will help finish it up.
The benefits to this guy require far more input as you need fodder in addition to getting to 8 quickly. You can tutor for crazy stuff but your opponents will have extra time to deal with it as you have more of a mana constraint than with Griselbrand.
In the context of the 99, when it comes to cloning, stealing, or reanimating creatures, there was almost never a time where Griselbrand wouldn't be the correct target for any of these effects. A draw 7 for 7 life that you can easily get back simply by attacking someone? Also if you're really far behind it is quite the nice stabilizer and equalizer. I remember only playing one game with Grisel in the 99 and everyone collectively agreed that this card was stupid beyond belief.
Again, this new guy is a solid choice, but not every deck can abuse him if they decide to grab a copy.
Raz will have nowhere near the power level in competitive, storm decks. However, I think as you move closer to casual decks, the two end up having the same relative power level. That's why I would expect Raz to be banned. Not because he's too strong, but because he's too strong in casual decks. I think he's similar to PoK in that measure.
I was planning to record a Podcast on the topic of Razaketh vs. Griselbrand. This is pretty long since it was meant to again, cover an entire podcast.
Razaketh EDH/Commander Preemptive Ban Hysteria
Liliana Vess has conquered the third demon with which she made a pact signing away her soul. Razaketh the Foulblooded has fallen to Liliana on Amonkhet, but will the Demon also be a victim of the EDH Rules Commitee? His card was spoiled last week and there are clear parallels between Razaketh and the currently banned Griselbrand, causing some hysteria and fear of a nearly immediate ban. Let’s take a look, compare and contrast Razaketh to other cards and what sets them apart, and address the chances that Razaketh is banned for play in Commander.
The immediate parallel to be drawn is Griselbrand. The 7/7 Flying, Lifelink Demon has an activated ability that reads Pay 7 Life: Draw 7 cards. Life is just another resource to be used in Commander as players start at 40 life, but it should say something that even Reanimator players in Legacy and Modern play Griselbrand despite starting at 20 life, because drawing 7 cards puts you so far ahead of your opponents that it becomes nearly impossible to overcome such amazing card advantage. Reanimating Griselbrand is easy, and decks dedicated to the Reanimation kit can easily bring him onto the battlefield anywhere between Turn 1 and 3. Having a 7/7 Flying, Lifelink Demon that can draw you 7 cards then attack and gain back all of the life you just paid to draw those 7 cards is ridiculously powerful, and it’s no wonder that the card is banned in Commander.
Razaketh, on the other hand, is an 8/8 with Flying and Trample. He won’t be putting you ahead both in card advantage and life total in the turn after he enters the battlefield. He comes with the ability to pay 2 life and sacrifice another creature in order to get Demonic Tutor’s effect, searching your library for any card and putting it into your hand. Being in Black, it goes without saying that players will be able to reanimate him or find ways such as Sneak Attack in order to bring him onto the battlefield much sooner than it would be ramping up mana for him. So what are the advantages and disadvantages between the two?
Before we get into this, keep in mind that reanimation hopes for the best case scenario with it’s draws and in Commander you’re playing a 100-card singleton deck which creates high variance in the opening game. While large, fast mana ramp is common in Commander, many players assume “God Hands” when talking about bans, so we’re approaching this comparison with that in mind. It’s ultimately a ludicrous exercise which is why I’m still baffled to this day that so there are people that complain about Sol Ring and Mana Crypt in a format where variance is so dominant in the early game and you can go 9 out of 10 games without seeing either one in your opening hand. But that’s a debate for another time.
So the turn Griselbrand enters the battlefield, you have a 7/7 Flying, Lifelink Demon. As long as you have more than 7 life, you can use his ability and dig deep for 7 cards. If you’re doing this at the start of the game, you can use his ability and at most draw up to 7 times, leaving you at 5 life and having drawn 35 cards. One would imagine that after drawing a third of your deck, that you can probably play mana rocks and if you’re in Grixis colors you probably have ways to untap everything you used to ramp out or find a Thought Vessel or Reliquary Tower and it’s just absolutely ridiculous. On top of that, you can block any creature to gain 7 life back, and probably swing into the red zone unimpeded. For the record, we’re ignoring the “Dies to removal” arguments here, as both are clearly prime targets for any and all targeted removal as soon as they hit the battlefield. They’re equal opportunity targets for removal, so it’s not worth thinking too hard on.
Moving onto Razaketh, we have a Demon that is slightly larger as an 8/8 with Flying and Trample. He can run over small fliers and still get some damage through but isn’t gaining the player a massive amount of life as long as he’s on the board attacking or blocking. His ability requires setup. He can’t just get tossed out there and start finding all of the answers you need. The life loss is significantly less with Razaketh, but you need other creatures to sacrifice. So you need a creature somewhere on the battlefield to go use your Demonic Tutor and find an answer or combo piece. Then you have to cast that. You’re far less likely to chain into an unstoppable situation here, because you aren’t getting multiple cards per use of his ability. You’re finding exactly what you need or want, but you’re not potentially also drawing into every single way to keep playing more cards every time you tutor with Razaketh’s ability.
If we’re really being honest here, they actually don’t even really compare. No matter what point in the game you drop Griselbrand onto the board, whether it’s following a board wipe, you drop him in somewhere between Turn 1 and 3 or Sneak Attack him in. Whatever you do to get him on the battlefield, you’re going to draw an insane amount of cards to find answers or combo pieces or whatever you need at the time, or draw into more ways to find those cards.
Razaketh on the other hand, dropped onto the battlefield after a board wipe does literally nothing. He’s a big scary beater, that’s it. His ability doesn’t allow you to sacrifice himself to use it. After you get him out, whatever mana you spent means you have less mana to play the spells you’re looking for. If you have to spend mana to pop creatures onto the battlefield to use his ability, that’s even less mana to spend on whatever you’re tutoring for. Could you still win with that specially tutored card? In the right scenario, at the right time, with the right cards in place, yeah, sure. But does he have anywhere near the potential that Griselbrand has for abusive game play? No, honestly no he really doesn’t. I see myself tutoring with Razaketh just as much as I do with Rune-scarred Demon, a sac outlet and Nim Deathmantle. That’s a three card, mana-intensive combo, but so is keeping fodder on the battlefield you want to sacrifice to Razaketh. You aren’t always going to want to sacrifice what is already there, so you can’t even assume you can just drop him any time and go to town. He’s a card that will require calculated play, because while I said before it’s not worth discussing the “Dies to Removal” argument when comparing and contrasting Griselbrand and Razaketh, the fact of the matter is that you may not even get to use his ability before he gets removed. Griselbrand enters the battlefield and you can put multiple activations of his ability on the stack, so the damage is already done. Razaketh enters the battlefield, unless you have something you want to sacrifice to him, you have opponents waiting for you to spend resources to pop out a creature whether from another activated ability or casting it from your hand or whatever, and he gets removed in response to that going onto the stack before you even get it off.
So, we’ve pretty well determined that Razaketh, while an extremely good card, does not actually at all compare to Griselbrand, and a lot of the discussion about future bans is generally a bit hysterical. His assumed fate is greatly exaggerated. But, for those still not convinced, we can also compare Razaketh to another large creature with an attached tutor effect that recently game back from the Commander ban list graveyard, and you guessed it, that’s Protean Hulk.
Protean Hulk is infamous for the Flash Hulk combo. You cast Flash, sneak him into play for 2 mana, can’t pay the 2 mana Flash requires to keep him on the board, you sacrifice him and dig up two creatures to put the game to bed. This was mostly a thing in Legacy. Not surprisingly because there are comparisons to be made between Legacy and Commander, Protean Hulk ended up on the banned list in Commander, as well. In the most recent rules announcement from the EDH Rules Committee, Protean Hulk was unbanned. The biggest thing going against it was that you could reanimate Protean Hulk over and over again for continued value, and with just a way to sacrifice him, you could find up Karmic Guide for example, reanimate the Hulk, sacrifice him again, find Reveillark and then BOOM, infinite combo from there. That’s just one of several examples of ways you can abuse Protean Hulk.
Well if it’s that absurd, why did it get unbanned? The paraphrase Sheldon Menery, the father of Commander, graveyard hate has become more sophisticated. Players value it more now and have come to realize that graveyards are just as good of a resource as your library or life total, if not oftentimes better. It’s become common to run graveyard hate, which is easily accessible to any colors thanks to cards like Relic of Progenitus and Tormod’s Crypt, and because of that it’s easier than ever to stop potential abuse of Protean Hulk’s triggered ability. Is it still really good? Amazingly so. But since the announcement, players who aren’t running outright combo decks have actually been a bit underwhelmed by it, at least judging from reading several of the threads I subscribe to discussing decks on various Commander resources.
Now, there’s a precedent that’s been set. Protean Hulk by itself does not enter the battlefield and win games. It’s arguably worse than Tooth and Nail, which when cast, is more often than not the last card that is played in a game where it is cast. When it dies, even if it’s not instantly hit with graveyard removal, you at best find a couple combo pieces or maybe value. Maybe you’re finding a Reclamation Sage because there’s a really scary Enchantment or Artifact on the board that has to go. Players that I’ve seen include it since it was unbanned are more often than not trying to find answers rather than something to win the game, on the spot. And honestly, what you can do with it is pretty limited by what colors you’re playing. So you play Protean Hulk, you have to have a sac outlet, and it finds one or potentially several creatures and instantly puts them on the battlefield. And so far, at least as far as I’ve seen, it’s been fine.
But compare that to Razaketh. Razaketh gets you any card, and I get that. I’m not denying how powerful that ability is. But you have to have him on the board. If he dies, he doesn’t do anything when he dies. You have to have another creature on the board. You might have some creature tokens, but getting that creature on the board required an investment. You aren’t going to drop Razaketh on the board and instantly win the game with a sac outlet. So you have to have sac fodder. You have to be able to cast the card you just tutored for. You might win the game off of that. Someone could quite possibly have a response. If you need more combo pieces, or another answer or whatever you’re trying to setup requires more than one card, you need more resources. You need time, and resources, to really get the value out of Razaketh’s ability, and I think a lot of players over estimate that because they look at a cost that is really common in decks playing Black in Commander and they think “That’s stupid, I do that all the time”, but they aren’t really thinking about if it’s really better than things already happening out there in games every day. And honestly it’s not. It’s powerful, extremely powerful, but it has a cost. It’s slower, by comparison, and doesn’t win you the game when it hits the board. It doesn’t instantly draw a third of your deck, or put your win condition or answers right onto the board.
So there you have it, really. Is Razaketh an amazing addition to Black’s catalog of creatures with tutor and draw abilities attached to them? Absolutely. Absolutely. But is it worthy of the hyperbole that feels like it surrounds every other card previewed during preview season in Commander circles these days? Well… probably worth more than most, but still nowhere near ban worthy. It's just not. It’s going to be amazing to see used by players with the mind to set up longterm plans and that really know the game well. I’ll probably be getting 2 or 3 copies for my decks to feel him out. Honestly without a way to sneak him in for cheap, I see myself having a potentially deadly creature in my hand that can tutor, but that I’m holding to my chest waiting for the right setup to play such a big investment and to try and get the most out of him before he’s removed on the spot.
Razaketh has specific niche uses where he is stronger than Griselbrand. For the plan to function correctly, you deck needs:
- a respectably large creature base (ideally mana dorks or token generation in the command zone)
- a compact wincon (I feel FlashHulk is the best here)
Having those two things covered, you need ways to get Raz out early and reliably and reanimation does so the best. Example scenario:
Entomb -> Reanimate with 2 mana dorks on the table. Sac the 2 dorks to get Flash and Protean Hulk. Win while investing a total of 4 mana. If you can reliably have more bodies on the field, the lines get even easier, since you can incorporate acceleration (like Lotus Petal) and protection (like Pact of Negation) in your tutor chain. Another cute thing to do is tutor for Life // Death and use the Life part to get a bunch of fresh tutor targets, while also tutoring for Gaea's Cradle for acceleration.
In my opinion, this is the strongest way to utilize Razaketh in EDH. As we can see, this is very deck dependant and not at all broken like Griselbrand's ability was. In the future, when more people have put in work with Razaketh, we may get even stronger interactions, but I sincerely doubt they will surpass Griselbrand's raw power.
Razaketh would need 42 life and 21 creatures to achieve the same thing. Sure, it tutors, but still.
(Also known as Xenphire)
It basically worked like a mono-black storm deck with a ton of rituals. Once you hit 8 mana and resolved him, you essentially won off of all of the fast mana you inevitably end up drawing and then cards like Tendrils of Agony and Yawgmoth's Will help finish it up.
The benefits to this guy require far more input as you need fodder in addition to getting to 8 quickly. You can tutor for crazy stuff but your opponents will have extra time to deal with it as you have more of a mana constraint than with Griselbrand.
In the context of the 99, when it comes to cloning, stealing, or reanimating creatures, there was almost never a time where Griselbrand wouldn't be the correct target for any of these effects. A draw 7 for 7 life that you can easily get back simply by attacking someone? Also if you're really far behind it is quite the nice stabilizer and equalizer. I remember only playing one game with Grisel in the 99 and everyone collectively agreed that this card was stupid beyond belief.
Again, this new guy is a solid choice, but not every deck can abuse him if they decide to grab a copy.
The Unidentified Fantastic Flying Girl.
EDH
Xenagos, the God of Stompy
The Gitrog Monster: Oppressive Value.
Marchesa, Marionette Master - Undying Robots
Yuriko, the Hydra Omnivore
I make dolls as a hobby.
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
Razaketh EDH/Commander Preemptive Ban Hysteria
Liliana Vess has conquered the third demon with which she made a pact signing away her soul. Razaketh the Foulblooded has fallen to Liliana on Amonkhet, but will the Demon also be a victim of the EDH Rules Commitee? His card was spoiled last week and there are clear parallels between Razaketh and the currently banned Griselbrand, causing some hysteria and fear of a nearly immediate ban. Let’s take a look, compare and contrast Razaketh to other cards and what sets them apart, and address the chances that Razaketh is banned for play in Commander.
The immediate parallel to be drawn is Griselbrand. The 7/7 Flying, Lifelink Demon has an activated ability that reads Pay 7 Life: Draw 7 cards. Life is just another resource to be used in Commander as players start at 40 life, but it should say something that even Reanimator players in Legacy and Modern play Griselbrand despite starting at 20 life, because drawing 7 cards puts you so far ahead of your opponents that it becomes nearly impossible to overcome such amazing card advantage. Reanimating Griselbrand is easy, and decks dedicated to the Reanimation kit can easily bring him onto the battlefield anywhere between Turn 1 and 3. Having a 7/7 Flying, Lifelink Demon that can draw you 7 cards then attack and gain back all of the life you just paid to draw those 7 cards is ridiculously powerful, and it’s no wonder that the card is banned in Commander.
Razaketh, on the other hand, is an 8/8 with Flying and Trample. He won’t be putting you ahead both in card advantage and life total in the turn after he enters the battlefield. He comes with the ability to pay 2 life and sacrifice another creature in order to get Demonic Tutor’s effect, searching your library for any card and putting it into your hand. Being in Black, it goes without saying that players will be able to reanimate him or find ways such as Sneak Attack in order to bring him onto the battlefield much sooner than it would be ramping up mana for him. So what are the advantages and disadvantages between the two?
Before we get into this, keep in mind that reanimation hopes for the best case scenario with it’s draws and in Commander you’re playing a 100-card singleton deck which creates high variance in the opening game. While large, fast mana ramp is common in Commander, many players assume “God Hands” when talking about bans, so we’re approaching this comparison with that in mind. It’s ultimately a ludicrous exercise which is why I’m still baffled to this day that so there are people that complain about Sol Ring and Mana Crypt in a format where variance is so dominant in the early game and you can go 9 out of 10 games without seeing either one in your opening hand. But that’s a debate for another time.
So the turn Griselbrand enters the battlefield, you have a 7/7 Flying, Lifelink Demon. As long as you have more than 7 life, you can use his ability and dig deep for 7 cards. If you’re doing this at the start of the game, you can use his ability and at most draw up to 7 times, leaving you at 5 life and having drawn 35 cards. One would imagine that after drawing a third of your deck, that you can probably play mana rocks and if you’re in Grixis colors you probably have ways to untap everything you used to ramp out or find a Thought Vessel or Reliquary Tower and it’s just absolutely ridiculous. On top of that, you can block any creature to gain 7 life back, and probably swing into the red zone unimpeded. For the record, we’re ignoring the “Dies to removal” arguments here, as both are clearly prime targets for any and all targeted removal as soon as they hit the battlefield. They’re equal opportunity targets for removal, so it’s not worth thinking too hard on.
Moving onto Razaketh, we have a Demon that is slightly larger as an 8/8 with Flying and Trample. He can run over small fliers and still get some damage through but isn’t gaining the player a massive amount of life as long as he’s on the board attacking or blocking. His ability requires setup. He can’t just get tossed out there and start finding all of the answers you need. The life loss is significantly less with Razaketh, but you need other creatures to sacrifice. So you need a creature somewhere on the battlefield to go use your Demonic Tutor and find an answer or combo piece. Then you have to cast that. You’re far less likely to chain into an unstoppable situation here, because you aren’t getting multiple cards per use of his ability. You’re finding exactly what you need or want, but you’re not potentially also drawing into every single way to keep playing more cards every time you tutor with Razaketh’s ability.
If we’re really being honest here, they actually don’t even really compare. No matter what point in the game you drop Griselbrand onto the board, whether it’s following a board wipe, you drop him in somewhere between Turn 1 and 3 or Sneak Attack him in. Whatever you do to get him on the battlefield, you’re going to draw an insane amount of cards to find answers or combo pieces or whatever you need at the time, or draw into more ways to find those cards.
Razaketh on the other hand, dropped onto the battlefield after a board wipe does literally nothing. He’s a big scary beater, that’s it. His ability doesn’t allow you to sacrifice himself to use it. After you get him out, whatever mana you spent means you have less mana to play the spells you’re looking for. If you have to spend mana to pop creatures onto the battlefield to use his ability, that’s even less mana to spend on whatever you’re tutoring for. Could you still win with that specially tutored card? In the right scenario, at the right time, with the right cards in place, yeah, sure. But does he have anywhere near the potential that Griselbrand has for abusive game play? No, honestly no he really doesn’t. I see myself tutoring with Razaketh just as much as I do with Rune-scarred Demon, a sac outlet and Nim Deathmantle. That’s a three card, mana-intensive combo, but so is keeping fodder on the battlefield you want to sacrifice to Razaketh. You aren’t always going to want to sacrifice what is already there, so you can’t even assume you can just drop him any time and go to town. He’s a card that will require calculated play, because while I said before it’s not worth discussing the “Dies to Removal” argument when comparing and contrasting Griselbrand and Razaketh, the fact of the matter is that you may not even get to use his ability before he gets removed. Griselbrand enters the battlefield and you can put multiple activations of his ability on the stack, so the damage is already done. Razaketh enters the battlefield, unless you have something you want to sacrifice to him, you have opponents waiting for you to spend resources to pop out a creature whether from another activated ability or casting it from your hand or whatever, and he gets removed in response to that going onto the stack before you even get it off.
So, we’ve pretty well determined that Razaketh, while an extremely good card, does not actually at all compare to Griselbrand, and a lot of the discussion about future bans is generally a bit hysterical. His assumed fate is greatly exaggerated. But, for those still not convinced, we can also compare Razaketh to another large creature with an attached tutor effect that recently game back from the Commander ban list graveyard, and you guessed it, that’s Protean Hulk.
Protean Hulk is infamous for the Flash Hulk combo. You cast Flash, sneak him into play for 2 mana, can’t pay the 2 mana Flash requires to keep him on the board, you sacrifice him and dig up two creatures to put the game to bed. This was mostly a thing in Legacy. Not surprisingly because there are comparisons to be made between Legacy and Commander, Protean Hulk ended up on the banned list in Commander, as well. In the most recent rules announcement from the EDH Rules Committee, Protean Hulk was unbanned. The biggest thing going against it was that you could reanimate Protean Hulk over and over again for continued value, and with just a way to sacrifice him, you could find up Karmic Guide for example, reanimate the Hulk, sacrifice him again, find Reveillark and then BOOM, infinite combo from there. That’s just one of several examples of ways you can abuse Protean Hulk.
Well if it’s that absurd, why did it get unbanned? The paraphrase Sheldon Menery, the father of Commander, graveyard hate has become more sophisticated. Players value it more now and have come to realize that graveyards are just as good of a resource as your library or life total, if not oftentimes better. It’s become common to run graveyard hate, which is easily accessible to any colors thanks to cards like Relic of Progenitus and Tormod’s Crypt, and because of that it’s easier than ever to stop potential abuse of Protean Hulk’s triggered ability. Is it still really good? Amazingly so. But since the announcement, players who aren’t running outright combo decks have actually been a bit underwhelmed by it, at least judging from reading several of the threads I subscribe to discussing decks on various Commander resources.
Now, there’s a precedent that’s been set. Protean Hulk by itself does not enter the battlefield and win games. It’s arguably worse than Tooth and Nail, which when cast, is more often than not the last card that is played in a game where it is cast. When it dies, even if it’s not instantly hit with graveyard removal, you at best find a couple combo pieces or maybe value. Maybe you’re finding a Reclamation Sage because there’s a really scary Enchantment or Artifact on the board that has to go. Players that I’ve seen include it since it was unbanned are more often than not trying to find answers rather than something to win the game, on the spot. And honestly, what you can do with it is pretty limited by what colors you’re playing. So you play Protean Hulk, you have to have a sac outlet, and it finds one or potentially several creatures and instantly puts them on the battlefield. And so far, at least as far as I’ve seen, it’s been fine.
But compare that to Razaketh. Razaketh gets you any card, and I get that. I’m not denying how powerful that ability is. But you have to have him on the board. If he dies, he doesn’t do anything when he dies. You have to have another creature on the board. You might have some creature tokens, but getting that creature on the board required an investment. You aren’t going to drop Razaketh on the board and instantly win the game with a sac outlet. So you have to have sac fodder. You have to be able to cast the card you just tutored for. You might win the game off of that. Someone could quite possibly have a response. If you need more combo pieces, or another answer or whatever you’re trying to setup requires more than one card, you need more resources. You need time, and resources, to really get the value out of Razaketh’s ability, and I think a lot of players over estimate that because they look at a cost that is really common in decks playing Black in Commander and they think “That’s stupid, I do that all the time”, but they aren’t really thinking about if it’s really better than things already happening out there in games every day. And honestly it’s not. It’s powerful, extremely powerful, but it has a cost. It’s slower, by comparison, and doesn’t win you the game when it hits the board. It doesn’t instantly draw a third of your deck, or put your win condition or answers right onto the board.
So there you have it, really. Is Razaketh an amazing addition to Black’s catalog of creatures with tutor and draw abilities attached to them? Absolutely. Absolutely. But is it worthy of the hyperbole that feels like it surrounds every other card previewed during preview season in Commander circles these days? Well… probably worth more than most, but still nowhere near ban worthy. It's just not. It’s going to be amazing to see used by players with the mind to set up longterm plans and that really know the game well. I’ll probably be getting 2 or 3 copies for my decks to feel him out. Honestly without a way to sneak him in for cheap, I see myself having a potentially deadly creature in my hand that can tutor, but that I’m holding to my chest waiting for the right setup to play such a big investment and to try and get the most out of him before he’s removed on the spot.
(Also known as Xenphire)
- a respectably large creature base (ideally mana dorks or token generation in the command zone)
- a compact wincon (I feel FlashHulk is the best here)
Having those two things covered, you need ways to get Raz out early and reliably and reanimation does so the best. Example scenario:
Entomb -> Reanimate with 2 mana dorks on the table. Sac the 2 dorks to get Flash and Protean Hulk. Win while investing a total of 4 mana. If you can reliably have more bodies on the field, the lines get even easier, since you can incorporate acceleration (like Lotus Petal) and protection (like Pact of Negation) in your tutor chain. Another cute thing to do is tutor for Life // Death and use the Life part to get a bunch of fresh tutor targets, while also tutoring for Gaea's Cradle for acceleration.
In my opinion, this is the strongest way to utilize Razaketh in EDH. As we can see, this is very deck dependant and not at all broken like Griselbrand's ability was. In the future, when more people have put in work with Razaketh, we may get even stronger interactions, but I sincerely doubt they will surpass Griselbrand's raw power.