This was the last big tournament’s meta. Perhaps Firecraft isn’t such a bad idea looking at the control percentage. The other matchups are already just fine also without Palm, don’t need Palm to win vs this list.
Jund 18%
Burn 8%
Affinity 5%
Grixis Control 4%
UW Control 4%
Tron 3%
Ponza 3%
Storm 3%
DS 3%
Thanks for the update. Based on these results, this is what my sideboard would look like:
Path to Exile: Although other decks where this would be good against are falling off the map, Jund is at the top of the list. However, I would only bring 2 copies in the MU so as not to over sideboard. The 3rd copy doesn't seem necessary in my opinion.
Exquisite Firecraft: Control is more popular, so I believe this should also be more popular.
Grim Lavamancer: Small creature decks are less favored where control decks are more heavily favored (control decks being favored because of JTMS). This card is currently better than Searing Blood because it's also useful against other decks as well.
Destructive Revelry: Affinity is still very common (just under Burn). Tron is also still a thing too.
Rest in Peace: This slot might be better replaced with Relic of Progenitus for control. Often times the extra card will be worth more than the graveyard hate. I have still yet to decide what it should be.
Kor Firewalker: The mirror is very popular. I think we should be prepared.
Flex Slot: I honestly don't know what should replace what used to be the 3rd Path to Exile.
Feel free to tell me what you do and don't agree with.
Yes but it makes it much harder for them to go off. They either have to cast 20 blue spells, play 2 grapeshots, or remand their grapeshot. It doesn't win the match like Eidolon does, but it does a good job at stopping the opponent from just stealing the win.
I think we should also note that Collins Mullen was just brewing and trying some wacky things. I still think a regular person's experience playing 1000 games with a deck trumps a pro player trying a new approach on a well established deck. So yeah, I wouldn't go so far as saying Rakdos is taking over Boros because of one article.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, right now, it's that some of us want to be a bit more conservative about deck choices.
(But Dire Fleet Daredevil might be something I want to try in the side.)
MisterMuffin I want to share you that I thought about last days of playtesting Rakdos. This is the current list I run. Keep in mind that this Saturday I have an Open 140 players and I want to bring Rakdos list this time, because I fck the meta.
(I'm very sorry I'm on my phone so I give you the link instead) http://www.magic-ville.com/fr/decks/showdeck?ref=569919&decklanglocal=eng
So. I tested for many hours your version land hate. I really think that is funny however I do not find that competitive due to the potential of cont ground to be pretty a deaf card later in game. By not playing Sulfurous springs I guess it is the version I would go however because it just combines the strengths of Rakdos.
So talking about my list. I am certain that Rakdos is faster than Boros and may be better and under the radar. The deck has 30 drop-1. That is insane ! 18 is the most that Rakdos can afford to play and this is an upside over Boros.
Gonti's machinations (gm) is a card that everybody say is bad and I am quite agree with that because we need some support to works it as a helix. Sulfurous springs fix that ! It is a budget version of Black leave cliffs and for days I'm testing now it is a very good replacement because it allows to enable at wish energy faster that cause next Gm drawer to be a helix for one mana consistently. The downside is less important for two reason: we have fetches to catch Blood crypt to take no damage or less damages from land, then deck is faster.
This deck is basically the same as Boros, just for one mana less. There are 2 flexibles slots. I do not know what should use those slots honestly.
Grim lavamancer is not good in the current meta because he eats every removals while doing anything. This is typically the card that is win by itself if unchecked but this is not the case actually so I would not see any copy over the 75 because it is a bad topdeck.
Shard volley may be an issue. With 18 lands I am worried that this deck can afford only one copy, not two.
Thunderous wrath has 13% chance to be a deaf card. It is the definition of "high risk, high awards". However in this deck I would believe that its downside is less relevant because half of the deck costs one mana ! Mull to 6 you will have the same explosive hand even at one mana. That is 13%. If you draw it, it becomes, more in Rakdos than Boros, one of the best blast in the whole game. It really steals every games when you miracle this. This is why I would give a shot here, in Rakdos. However if you are not agree please tell me what would be your suggestion.
Sideboard.
Dragons claw against burn and storm
Exquisite firecraft ad it shows be very strong against blue decks.
Terminate over Go for the throat or Fatal push. I often want to remove some artifact creature and GftT do not do that. Terminate has an upside printed on it event it do not work unfortunately against Finks. Fatal push can not find every targets I want and requires fetches that Searing blaze are already bored me about. Dreadbore is fantastic but, man that is a sorcery it can not answer to creature land etc. I guess terminate is the best.
Searing blood is like an upgrade to Self-inflicted wound.
Tainted remedy. I saw Atarka's command deck running 2 other antu-lifefain card in side. I pick that idea with the upside of Black: deal back damage from his regain life. Bad position for opponent. This card is really strong. Why I do not choose Rain of Gore is thank to elconquistador1985's anaalysics that relates Wurmcoil's engine and Kalitas to be the most life link creatures played. I see last Open and I suspect on this one to see those creatures heavily played in the sideboard of Tron and BG decks so I think that taking the risk is 3 mana spell may be rewarded this time.
Swamp. Ponza was very popular last Open 140 players and now with BBE, blood moon are more popular. Get me wrong but I honestly think to put main deck a swamp. At less I can put in in the sideboard. Last open I just died on turn 2 blood moon. This time it would not happens.
I want to win and on my test I continue to see positive ratio of a lot of hours spent on Rakdos version. Please give me your opinion about what I would miss, what I have wrong or any upgrade U can do.
I feel always ashamed to play a meta list on big event. Let's shape those guys that play a meta list on Open.
Be sure I would add my report of that event, in Quebec City. 2 weeks ago I finished 51th on 140 players. I lost to mull 4 with 0 lands opened against burn mirror, and 9 lands on turn 5 while fetching 4 turns in a row. Lost two times against ponza because Utopia+trinisphere+lifegain and Utopia+blood moon+ lifegain. Then lost affinity with God start.
Edit : I tested athemancer there. For 3 mana you deal most time between 2 to 4 damages and have a 2/2. I guess that is not a good solution.
Thank you in advance for your attention guys. You are the best
It's nice to see that people are playing around with Rakdos, but in my opinion, it's not as good as Boros. Clearly you know this and you are probably playing this for fun or to surprise people. I'll just go over your card choices and what I think about them.
You say Thunderous Wrath is a high risk high rewards kind of card. However, the odds are against you in this case. Your ideal game will last about 4-5 turns, so you will draw that many cards in a given game. That means that Thunderous Wrath has to be one of those cards. I guess you can see why these odds are stacked against you, because you start with 7 cards in hand, so you are more likely to start with it in hand than to draw it for its miracle cost. It will hurt you more often than you want. It gives you 2 extra damage when it works, but 3 less damage when it's a dead card in your hand and it could have been a burn spell. I thought about it, but when you look at the odds, it's pretty obvious that it's a trash card in the deck.
Dragon's Claw is sweet. It so good against Burn, and it doesn't get removed the same way Kor Firewalker get removed. But I think the latter is a better option, but because of your color constraints, go for it. Don't play it against storm though. The deck can just go overboard and storm way off. I'm not one hundred percent sure on how this works in the matchup though, I could be wrong about this particular point.
Exquisite Firecraft is fine. Bring it against Eldrazi Tron for Chalice of the Void as well and bring it against Death's Shadow too. There was a discussion about this further back on the forum.
If Rakdos is really is fast as you think, removal might not be entirely necessary. Unfortunately, you don't really have any good removal options in these colors. Terminate is your best option. Dreadbore is just too spicy though.
I don't know about Tainted Remedy. I can't really speak my mind on this subject though, I really have no experience with cards like this.
I hope my advice was of use to you. I'm really interested in seeing how competitively viable rakdos can be, so keep posting your results!
( Cool, MisterMuffin and you are from Quebec. I'm from Montreal myself.)
How are you guys boarding against red black hollow one?
I played it tonight. They are potentially faster than us. So I took the eidolons out on the draw.
I brought in searing blood and two copies of path to exile. I also brought in two Relic.
Relic feels wrong. It's a race. If you draw relic too late, it's basically just to cycle it. And in a race investing two manna to draw a card don't work. Path seemed Ok. searing blood also seemed OK. They have Phoenix and blood ghast.
Thoughts?
I too played against it once. Honestly, I boarded in Path to Exile and it didn't exactly feel right. I'm considering not sideboarding anything against them. It seems weird, but I think we just need to race. The one time I played against it I crushed my opponent racing, but I don't think one game is enough to identify how good the matchup is, and I may have been slightly lucky in my draws.:)
Destructive Revelry can kill Hollow One, but that's about it. Path to Exile is probably the only viable sideboard option (you're right about graveyard hate being useless against them), but I don't know what to take out. Some of the only cards Searing Blood takes care of will come right back from the graveyard, often with haste.
The same could be said about Rhonas. Black hand destruction is one of our worst matchups as it is so its important to keep that in mind. Why don't we just run 4x Leatherback? Because Rhonas has situational advantages and when we can pull them off, we can win games. The only decks I've had problems getting Ghalta out against were monoblue control and decks with hand destruction. The same is true of Rhonas, and frankly I have an equally hard time keeping Rhonas relevant because as soon as I drop him, my strategy is clear and my creatures just get picked off until Rhonas is nothing more than a statue on the battlefield. When I land Ghalta, its always a surprise and they have +/- a turn to deal with him or its GG. Also, for whatever reason Ghalta normally comes out at 2 mana or less for me, which saves me plenty of mana that turn to protect with hexproof pumps if I need to, rather than having to risk waiting another turn to drop Rhonas with a pump spell to protect him from Path, or hoping that if I activate Rhonas to pump another creature, I'll still have enough to hexproof if they Path.
Of course, its important to remember that I run more hexproof in my build than the norm, so I can counter most removal fairly consistently. It's always fun to drop Vines/Blossoming on their Path/Push.
Ghalta still seems like something you might get to cast every now and then if you live in magical christmas land, but otherwise it should be kept as a sideboard card. You say sometimes you land it and it's almost GG for them. Well compare the amount of times you were able to cast with the amount of times it was stuck in your hand. You should also be aware of decks that are just going to use Path to Exile or use a Supreme Verdict that they were going to use anyways.
And why would you choose Mardu over Naya?. If you're just trying it for fun, I get it, but it seems like that deck doesn't have much competitive potential.
I understand all of this. I think an important thing to factor in is that unbannings were not put in place until after the GP. I think for that particular GP, it may have been a good meta play. But yeah, the current decks in the meta where Bridge would matter are the decks that are running answers to them.
I think you can just make changes to your sideboard every now and then. Even the metagame at an LGS will change every now and then. If your LGS's metagame isn't ever changing, take advantage of this and position your sideboard to make your matchups more favorable. If it does change, your sideboard should be changing with it as well.
Thanks for the update. Based on these results, this is what my sideboard would look like:
My choices and my opinion.
Path to Exile: Although other decks where this would be good against are falling off the map, Jund is at the top of the list. However, I would only bring 2 copies in the MU so as not to over sideboard. The 3rd copy doesn't seem necessary in my opinion.
Exquisite Firecraft: Control is more popular, so I believe this should also be more popular.
Grim Lavamancer: Small creature decks are less favored where control decks are more heavily favored (control decks being favored because of JTMS). This card is currently better than Searing Blood because it's also useful against other decks as well.
Destructive Revelry: Affinity is still very common (just under Burn). Tron is also still a thing too.
Rest in Peace: This slot might be better replaced with Relic of Progenitus for control. Often times the extra card will be worth more than the graveyard hate. I have still yet to decide what it should be.
Kor Firewalker: The mirror is very popular. I think we should be prepared.
Flex Slot: I honestly don't know what should replace what used to be the 3rd Path to Exile.
Feel free to tell me what you do and don't agree with.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, right now, it's that some of us want to be a bit more conservative about deck choices.
(But Dire Fleet Daredevil might be something I want to try in the side.)
It's nice to see that people are playing around with Rakdos, but in my opinion, it's not as good as Boros. Clearly you know this and you are probably playing this for fun or to surprise people. I'll just go over your card choices and what I think about them.
You say Thunderous Wrath is a high risk high rewards kind of card. However, the odds are against you in this case. Your ideal game will last about 4-5 turns, so you will draw that many cards in a given game. That means that Thunderous Wrath has to be one of those cards. I guess you can see why these odds are stacked against you, because you start with 7 cards in hand, so you are more likely to start with it in hand than to draw it for its miracle cost. It will hurt you more often than you want. It gives you 2 extra damage when it works, but 3 less damage when it's a dead card in your hand and it could have been a burn spell. I thought about it, but when you look at the odds, it's pretty obvious that it's a trash card in the deck.
Dragon's Claw is sweet. It so good against Burn, and it doesn't get removed the same way Kor Firewalker get removed. But I think the latter is a better option, but because of your color constraints, go for it. Don't play it against storm though. The deck can just go overboard and storm way off. I'm not one hundred percent sure on how this works in the matchup though, I could be wrong about this particular point.
Exquisite Firecraft is fine. Bring it against Eldrazi Tron for Chalice of the Void as well and bring it against Death's Shadow too. There was a discussion about this further back on the forum.
If Rakdos is really is fast as you think, removal might not be entirely necessary. Unfortunately, you don't really have any good removal options in these colors. Terminate is your best option. Dreadbore is just too spicy though.
I don't know about Tainted Remedy. I can't really speak my mind on this subject though, I really have no experience with cards like this.
I hope my advice was of use to you. I'm really interested in seeing how competitively viable rakdos can be, so keep posting your results!
( Cool, MisterMuffin and you are from Quebec. I'm from Montreal myself.)
I too played against it once. Honestly, I boarded in Path to Exile and it didn't exactly feel right. I'm considering not sideboarding anything against them. It seems weird, but I think we just need to race. The one time I played against it I crushed my opponent racing, but I don't think one game is enough to identify how good the matchup is, and I may have been slightly lucky in my draws.:)
Destructive Revelry can kill Hollow One, but that's about it. Path to Exile is probably the only viable sideboard option (you're right about graveyard hate being useless against them), but I don't know what to take out. Some of the only cards Searing Blood takes care of will come right back from the graveyard, often with haste.
Ghalta still seems like something you might get to cast every now and then if you live in magical christmas land, but otherwise it should be kept as a sideboard card. You say sometimes you land it and it's almost GG for them. Well compare the amount of times you were able to cast with the amount of times it was stuck in your hand. You should also be aware of decks that are just going to use Path to Exile or use a Supreme Verdict that they were going to use anyways.
Anyways, I noticed more decks running Ensnaring Bridge at GP Lyon. Any thoughts?