This is strictly a "for-fun" experiment; I wanted to see how many creatures I could actually try and force into a deck. If you're looking for something that can compete, look elsewhere.
For one, my Olivia Voldaren deck got hated out too much. For two, I wanted a balls-to-the-walls, truly Rakdos-flavored deck that captured the feel of the most aggressive deck I could put forward. I like what Rakdos does, plain and simple. Plus, he's a 4CC 6/6 flier!
How does one play this deck?
Yeah she want a photo
You already know, though
You only live once
Das da motto bro, #YOLO
Basically, use one of the deck's 15 pre-4 creatures to hit your opponent, plop out Rakdos, and begin to dump your hand in a truly insane effort to swing things sideways with the hope of devastating your opponent's anus.
If you get Rakdos tucked or your opponent plops out Propaganda, laugh until you're a weeping mess on the floor and surrender.
Nuances of the Deck
-Remember to throw Stigma Lasher at the white, green or black player first. (If he's playing some combination of the two, smash his face in with the force of a thousand suns; suck a D, Storm Herd!
-I cannot stress this enough; SAVE Maga, Traitor to Mortals until you can deal upwards of 15 damage with its ability. It's pointless to play Maga unless you can pretty much kill someone with it.
BIG update. I've wanted to edit the decklist for a while and never really got around to it until today.
After a few games with this deck, I found the number one thing the deck wanted to do was utilize Utvara Hellkite. More than any other card in the deck, the Hellkite was the must-answer card. To utilize it better, I took out a few of the weaker spots in the deck to make room for more Dragons. For an example, Mindslicer had no way of dying on its own, and opponents would Wrath it anyway and still be ahead from the artifacts and enchantments they had on board. Malfegor was a Plague Wind that triggered Nihilistic Glee and Anthem of Rakdos, while fueling Bladewing the Risen and Artisan of Kozilek. Kilnmouth Dragon was the first addition, being the most obvious; being able to precombat drop fatties on the cheap was a great asset to this deck, something I felt the deck should be doing as often as possible.
The Skullclamp package wasn't pulling its weight, and I thus decided to remove it and its least aggressive creature to pair with. Bloodghast is still in the deck because it's a creature that can attack and not have to worry about dying, but if it continues to be unimpressive I'll remove it.
The manabase of this deck is admittedly awful, but you want duals that come into play untapped. (I don't own a spare Command Tower, before you ask, or a City of Brass in general.) I swallowed my pride and added Rakdos Guildgate, but if the taplands are a problem, I'll look at fiddling with the manabase a bit more.
Gatecrash brought this deck Sepulchural Primordial, a fantastic creature in its own right. Probably the best of the cycle, he just...lets you take the best creature in each opponent's graveyard. For an aggro deck, that's a freakin' dream. Just a brilliant card overall.
To be honest, I wanted to convince myself it was worth keeping Ghasty around when the deck took out Skullclamp, but it really isn't. Having a creature that can ping is much more important.
Dragon's Maze brings in Sire of Insanity and Master of Cruelties, two juicy Blood Speaker targets that both do different but amazing things for the deck.
Sire is -no pun intended- insane. The fact that he makes everyone discard on each end step is just fantastic. Makes it incredibly hard for opponents to answer you, which is the ultimate intention of the deck.
Master of Cruelties is just funny. Who knew you could give them the 1-2 punch with crappy pingers?
Spoiler alert: Eldrazi create unfun board states. This deck is just a walking Bribery target already, but I once had It that Betrays out and someone Rite of Replicationed it. Needless to say, that game was over rather quickly. :\
Aside from that, I felt that one of my artifact creatures needed the cut, so I cut what I felt to be the weakest one.
Basically, the more I tested this deck, the more I wanted the bombs I was casting to be Demons or Dragons. I know that makes the deck feel very "Kaalia Jr.", but I digress - I have a specific idea of how I want the deck to function, and I've been meaning to get around to updating it for a while now.
Also, I'd been meaning to get better party favors, because let's face it - the ones I put in were subpar at best. Toying around with my options for now, but I feel my party favors should focus on dealing with getting Wrathed out.
The Theory Builds - These EDH decks were things I came up with on a whim. Either really strange shells I made so that the decklist database had diversity, made for friends or by requests, made with the unfulfilled intention of building and playing the deck, or just in general a random idea I came up with (probably at some ungodly late hour)
I find Subversion too weak to take up a slot when the big theme is that the deck focuses almost entirely on creatures. It's a neat way to activate Rakdos or make creatures cost less pre-combat, but I think I'll stick with your suggestion of Leechridden Swamp for that, thanks.
I love this deck lol. It looks like so much fun. Is Living Death something you might wanna run? I mean you run SO many creatures you could use it as a sort of anti-wrath wrath.
@Jake1991: I had the suggestions you made in the deck at first, but ended up cutting them. The mana-intensiveness is generally too much for the deck to deal with when it would rather put out constant threats to kill the opponent with. I want to also keep the party favors to an absolute minimum. :3
@XeroedFool: THAT, however, warrants inclusion. Thank you!
@Grinning Demon: Blood Speaker is a fantastic niche card I didn't even think of. Thank you very much for suggesting it!
Keep the input coming, guys, I really appreciate it
Been thinking about putting something very similar to this together myself. Have you considered any/all of Shimmer Myr, Vedalken Orrery, and Winding Canyons to let you benefit from even other players attacking each other on their turns, or abusing Kaervek even more?
Been thinking about putting something very similar to this together myself. Have you considered any/all of Shimmer Myr, Vedalken Orrery, and Winding Canyons to let you benefit from even other players attacking each other on their turns, or abusing Kaervek even more?
The Arcbound creatures are pretty interesting, but with little proliferate to work with it was difficult to work with. Contagion Engine is great but puts a target on your head.
I ****ing love your addition of Homura, Human Ascedant. Mark me a Kamigawa fan. Is he worth adding to any/all Rakdos decks?
Mine leans more Black and more Demon theme, but he's everything I want. Cheap to cast with Rakdos, cheap enough without and when someone Wraths, my game plan of getting Rakdos back is a lot easier with all my +2/+2 fliers.
The problem with all these different awesome Rakdos decks is that they really pull you in different ways...
The only card I can think of that you're flat out missing is Kokusho, the Evening Star. Nothing threatens the entire table on so many levels.
This is strictly a "for-fun" experiment; I wanted to see how many creatures I could actually try and force into a deck. If you're looking for something that can compete, look elsewhere.
4 Rakdos, Lord of Riots
Ones! - 5
1 Goblin Fireslinger
1 Kederekt Parasite
1 Signal Pest
1 Stonewright
1 Tormented Soul
Twos! - 4
2 Blightspeaker
2 Dwarven Miner
2 Shepherd of Rot
2 Stigma Lasher
Threes! - 5
3X Maga, Traitor to Mortals
3 Pilgrim's Eye
3 Viashino Heretic
3 Taurean Mauler
3 War Elemental
Fours! - 5
4 Anger
4 Blood Speaker
4 Desecration Demon
4 Disciple of Bolas
4 Rakdos Pit Dragon
Fives! - 5
5 Bloodgift Demon
5 Master of Cruelties
5 Scourge of Valkas
5 Shadowborn Demon
5 Urabrask the Hidden
Sixes! - 13
6 Grave Titan
6 Harvester of Souls
6 Hellkite Tyrant
6 Homura, Human Ascendant
6 Malfegor
6 Mana-Charged Dragon
6 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
6 Moonveil Dragon
6 Necropolis Regent
6 Reaper From the Abyss
6 Sire of Insanity
6 Steel Hellkite
6 Wurmcoil Engine
7 Abhorrent Overlord
7 Balefire Dragon
7 Bladewing the Risen
7 Butcher of Malakir
7 Dragon Mage
7 Furyborn Hellkite
7 Kaervek the Merciless
7 Kilnmouth Dragon
7 Knollspine Dragon
7 Lord of the Void
7 Rune-Scarred Demon
7 Sheoldred, Whispering One
7 Sepulchural Primordial
Eights! - 4
8 Avatar of Slaughter
8 Baleful Force
8 Bogardan Hellkite
8 Utvara Hellkite
Nines! - 1
9 Artisan of Kozilek
The Party Favors! - 5
2 Lightning Greaves
5 Living Death
5 Tempt with Immortality
5 Torrent of Souls
6 Cauldron Dance
Nonbasic Lands - 18
0 Akoum Refuge
0 Ancient Ziggurat
0 Blood Crypt
0 Bojuka Bog
0 Command Tower
0 Dragonskull Summit
0 Graven Cairns
0 Keldon Megaliths
0 Lavaclaw Reaches
0 Leechridden Swamp
0 Piranha Marsh
0 Rakdos Guildgate
0 Reflecting Pool
0 Shadowblood Ridge
0 Sulfurous Springs
0 Tainted Peak
0 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
0 Volrath's Stronghold
11 Mountain
10 Swamp
Why Rakdos, Lord of Riots?
How does one play this deck?
Yeah she want a photoYou already know, though
You only live once
Das da motto bro, #YOLO
Basically, use one of the deck's 15 pre-4 creatures to hit your opponent, plop out Rakdos, and begin to dump your hand in a truly insane effort to swing things sideways with the hope of devastating your opponent's anus.
If you get Rakdos tucked or your opponent plops out Propaganda, laugh until you're a weeping mess on the floor and surrender.
Nuances of the Deck
-I cannot stress this enough; SAVE Maga, Traitor to Mortals until you can deal upwards of 15 damage with its ability. It's pointless to play Maga unless you can pretty much kill someone with it.
Changes Log
Shepherd of Rot
Avatar of Slaughter
Leechridden Swamp
-Removed:
Pulse Tracker
Living Inferno
Swamp
-Added the image at the top of the thread.
10/14/2012:
Blood Speaker
Living Death
-Removed:
Clone Shell
Ruination
12/03/2012:
Goblin Fireslinger
Tormented Soul
Taurean Mauler
Desecration Demon
Rakdos Pit Dragon
Malfegor
Mana-Charged Dragon
Bladewing the Risen
Kilnmouth Dragon
Bogardan Hellkite
Lightning Greaves
Ancient Ziggurat
Rakdos Guildgate
Reflecting Pool
Sulfurous Springs
-Removed:
Chronomaton
Reassembling Skeleton
Rix Maadi Guildmage
Hero of Oxid Ridge
Mindslicer
Kuldotha Phoenix
Malignus
Myojin of Night's Reach
Myojin of Infinite Rage
Pathrazer of Ulamog
Skullclamp
3 Mountains
Swamp
BIG update. I've wanted to edit the decklist for a while and never really got around to it until today.
After a few games with this deck, I found the number one thing the deck wanted to do was utilize Utvara Hellkite. More than any other card in the deck, the Hellkite was the must-answer card. To utilize it better, I took out a few of the weaker spots in the deck to make room for more Dragons. For an example, Mindslicer had no way of dying on its own, and opponents would Wrath it anyway and still be ahead from the artifacts and enchantments they had on board. Malfegor was a Plague Wind that triggered Nihilistic Glee and Anthem of Rakdos, while fueling Bladewing the Risen and Artisan of Kozilek. Kilnmouth Dragon was the first addition, being the most obvious; being able to precombat drop fatties on the cheap was a great asset to this deck, something I felt the deck should be doing as often as possible.
The Skullclamp package wasn't pulling its weight, and I thus decided to remove it and its least aggressive creature to pair with. Bloodghast is still in the deck because it's a creature that can attack and not have to worry about dying, but if it continues to be unimpressive I'll remove it.
The manabase of this deck is admittedly awful, but you want duals that come into play untapped. (I don't own a spare Command Tower, before you ask, or a City of Brass in general.) I swallowed my pride and added Rakdos Guildgate, but if the taplands are a problem, I'll look at fiddling with the manabase a bit more.
12/13/2012:
Akoum Refuge
Blood Crypt
-Removed:
Mountain
Swamp
Needed more manafixing. The deck was STILL having problems casting Rakdos turn 4 due to color screw. :S
1/6/2013:
Command Tower
-Removed:
Mountain
Guess what I got for Christmas?
1/23/2013:
Sepulchural Primordial
-Removed:
Hamletback Goliath
-Updated the format of the deck.
Gatecrash brought this deck Sepulchural Primordial, a fantastic creature in its own right. Probably the best of the cycle, he just...lets you take the best creature in each opponent's graveyard. For an aggro deck, that's a freakin' dream. Just a brilliant card overall.
1/28/2013:
Blightspeaker
-Removed:
Bloodghast
To be honest, I wanted to convince myself it was worth keeping Ghasty around when the deck took out Skullclamp, but it really isn't. Having a creature that can ping is much more important.
4/23/2013:
Lord of the Void
Sire of Insanity
Master of Cruelties
-Removed:
Thopter Assembly
Ulamog's Crusher
It that Betrays
-Updated the Nuances of the Deck section.
Dragon's Maze brings in Sire of Insanity and Master of Cruelties, two juicy Blood Speaker targets that both do different but amazing things for the deck.
Sire is -no pun intended- insane. The fact that he makes everyone discard on each end step is just fantastic. Makes it incredibly hard for opponents to answer you, which is the ultimate intention of the deck.
Master of Cruelties is just funny. Who knew you could give them the 1-2 punch with crappy pingers?
Spoiler alert: Eldrazi create unfun board states. This deck is just a walking Bribery target already, but I once had It that Betrays out and someone Rite of Replicationed it. Needless to say, that game was over rather quickly. :\
Aside from that, I felt that one of my artifact creatures needed the cut, so I cut what I felt to be the weakest one.
6/5/2013:
Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
Hellkite Tyrant
Reaper From the Abyss
Torrent of Souls
Cauldron Dance
-Removed:
Precursor Golem
Myr Battlesphere
Stalking Vengeance
Nihilistic Glee
Anthem of Rakdos
-Updated the Nuances of the Deck section.
Basically, the more I tested this deck, the more I wanted the bombs I was casting to be Demons or Dragons. I know that makes the deck feel very "Kaalia Jr.", but I digress - I have a specific idea of how I want the deck to function, and I've been meaning to get around to updating it for a while now.
Also, I'd been meaning to get better party favors, because let's face it - the ones I put in were subpar at best. Toying around with my options for now, but I feel my party favors should focus on dealing with getting Wrathed out.
7/5/2013:
Scourge of Valkas
Shadowborn Demon
-Removed:
Goblin Wardriver
Shriekmaw
M14 brings us THE MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL OF ALL DRAGONS SWEET LORD YES. I want a foil so bad you have no idea.
Shriekmaw becomes a demon.
Goblin Wardriver basically did nothing that Signal Pest couldn't do better.
9/23/2013:
Abhorrent Overlord
-Removed:
Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
10/18/2013:
Kederekt Parasite
Baleful Force
Tempt with Immortality
Swamp
-Removed:
Goblin Welder
Decree of Annihilation
2 Mountains
-Updated the Nuances of the Deck section.
Input is appreciated as always!
(Read: Tap: All your things cost 3 less.)
That is all.
Pristaxcontrombmodruu!
Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur
Seizan, Perverter of Truth
Yeva, Nature's Herald
Krenko, Mob Boss - Planechase
Bruna, Light of Alabaster
Isperia the Inscrutable
Sygg, River Cutthroat
Rosheen Meanderer
Krond the Dawn-Clan
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
Aurelia, the Warleader
Brion Stoutarm
Sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper
Mayael the Anima
Animar, Soul of Elements
Doran, the Siege Tower
Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief
Sliver Overlord
The Mimeoplasm
Norin, the Wary as inspired by Gaka!
I find Subversion too weak to take up a slot when the big theme is that the deck focuses almost entirely on creatures. It's a neat way to activate Rakdos or make creatures cost less pre-combat, but I think I'll stick with your suggestion of Leechridden Swamp for that, thanks.
Conquering Manticore is a beefy flier with an ETB Act of Treason trigger.
It takes a bit of mana, but a fully leveled Lord of Shatterskull Pass devastates like Balefire.
Add Gratuitous Violence and Aggravated Assault in the party favours. More damage and combat phases.
GWUBAtraxa, Praetor's Voice PrimerGWUB
GWURoon Bant Blink WhateverGWU
BRGLord Windgrace LandsBRG
Add Dimir Houseguard and Bloodspeaker to make tuck more bareable. You have to include them: they are creatures!
BRGWTana and TymnaBRGW
RTeneb, the EternalR
UBRNekusar, Mind RazerUBR
BGWGhave, Guru of SporesBGW
BDrana, Kalastria BloodchiefB
WBROros, the AvengerWBR
@XeroedFool: THAT, however, warrants inclusion. Thank you!
@Grinning Demon: Blood Speaker is a fantastic niche card I didn't even think of. Thank you very much for suggesting it!
Keep the input coming, guys, I really appreciate it
UWRasputin DreamweaverUW
UWBSen TripletsUWB
In a deck with this many creatures?
Repercussion is good when you have very few creatures. It's the old Rolling Earthquake GG! trick.
UWRasputin DreamweaverUW
UWBSen TripletsUWB
I have, but the artifact/colorless creatures I added to the list were exorbitantly expensive budget-wise (Mycosnyth Golem, Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre), so I scrapped that idea in favor of silly $0.50 bombs.
The Arcbound creatures are pretty interesting, but with little proliferate to work with it was difficult to work with. Contagion Engine is great but puts a target on your head.
Mine leans more Black and more Demon theme, but he's everything I want. Cheap to cast with Rakdos, cheap enough without and when someone Wraths, my game plan of getting Rakdos back is a lot easier with all my +2/+2 fliers.
The problem with all these different awesome Rakdos decks is that they really pull you in different ways...
The only card I can think of that you're flat out missing is Kokusho, the Evening Star. Nothing threatens the entire table on so many levels.
Mid-Tier:
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG