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Magic: The Gathering Commander (EDH) Rakdos, Lord of Riots (B/R) for Review - Let's...
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Switch to Forum Live View Rakdos, Lord of Riots (B/R) for Review - Let's start a riot!
9 months ago  ::  Oct 03, 2012 - 1:07AM #1
darklight_tr
Date Joined: Nov 30, 2011
Posts: 292
Updated 05/27/13

Commander
Rakdos, Lord of Riots

Planeswalker (2)
Chandra, the Firebrand
Liliana Vess

Lands (38)
Swamp x 8
Mountain x 8
Command Tower
Reflecting Pool
Meteor Crater
Thespian's Stage
Evolving Wilds
Terramorphic Expanse
Graven Cairns
Rakdos Carnarium
Shadowblood Ridge
Akoum Refuge
Auntie's Hovel
Blackcleave Cliffs
Blood Crypt
Dragonskull Summit
Lavaclaw Reaches
Rakdos Guildgate
Sulfurous Springs
Tresserhorn Sinks
Urborg Volcano
Piranha Marsh
Volrath's Stronghold
Temple of the False God

Creatures (36)
Kaervek the Merciless
Tsabo Tavoc
Sheoldred, Whispering One
Bloodgift Demon
Harvester of Souls
Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
Desecration Demon
Order of Yawgmoth
Wei Night Raiders
Blind Zealot
Avatar of Woe
Dread
Dauthi Horror
Dauthi Slayer
Rune-Scarred Demon
Scythe Specter
Dauthi Marauder
Tormented Soul
Necropolis Regent
Lord of the Void
Inferno Titan
Kamahl, Pit Fighter
Hellrider
Knollspine Dragon
Dragon Tyrant
Furyborn Hellkite
Balefire Dragon
Utvara Hellkite
Cunning Sparkmage
Magmatic Force
Scourge of Kher Ridges
Hateflayer
Flameblast Dragon
Psychosis Crawler
Darksteel Colossus
Blightsteel Colossus

Aura/Enchantment (2)
Painful Quandary
Honden of Infinite Rage

Sorcery (9)
Dreadbore
Damnation
Demonic Tutor
Blasphemous Act
Chain Reaction
Breaking Point
Aftershock
Shattering Spree
Vandalblast

Instant (2)
Terminate
Vampiric Tutor

Artifact (10)
Darksteel Ingot
Chromatic Lantern
Coalition Relic
Gilded Lotus
Sensei's Divining Top
Crystal Ball
Mind's Eye
Staff of Nin
Onyx Goblet
Scepter of Empires
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9 months ago  ::  Oct 03, 2012 - 1:13AM #2
EyeballFrog
Date Joined: Mar 18, 2012
Posts: 1,089
Some giant colorless things would probably be good with the Paincast ability.  Wurmcoil Engine is free whenever Rakdos connects, and the Eldrazi are always fun .

You missed Shadowblood Ridge and Tainted Peak , as far as lands go. Sulfurous Springs , too, although I can understand skipping the painlands.  Jund Panorama and Grixis Panorama are more fixing. Molten Slagheap isn't exactly fixing, but it does have some utility.
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9 months ago  ::  Oct 03, 2012 - 2:56AM #3
Disturbed185
Date Joined: Jun 15, 2006
Posts: 359
I'm not sure why you would skip the painlands actually. 1 life? In a format that starts with 40? I'd rather skip Shadowblood Ridge just because it's strictly worse than Graven Cairn . I'd also skip the Tainted Peak over Sulfurous Springs. At least Sulfurous Springs gives you the ability to not be mana screwed.
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9 months ago  ::  Oct 03, 2012 - 5:34PM #4
Odegrar
Date Joined: Jan 9, 2012
Posts: 172
I think 24 creatures is a little low for EDH, unless you're running something that works well with few creatures like Rafiq , Uril or Zur
I'd run bigger creatures, this is EDH after all. Scythe Specter instead of Guul Draz Specter for example. Rakdos ability actually helps you cast bigger creatures. 

You should run things that deal damage to everyone, like Exsanguinate . Say you are playing against 3 opponents. If you cast Exsanguinate for 3, you make them lose 9 life and then cast Artisan of Kozilek for free.
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9 months ago  ::  Oct 03, 2012 - 6:30PM #5
lechgame
Date Joined: Aug 18, 2007
Posts: 449
The Exalted mechanic is somewhat useless, so Nefarox, Overlord of Grixis isn't much good other than his rather conditional forced sacrifice. You could run other R/B creatures, or just more big fatties of either color. Demon of Death's Gate , Moonveil Dragon , Tsabo Tavoc , or any of a dozen other demons/dragons/etc. could fill that spot better. Go big, but make sure it fits better. Reaper from the Abyss , Rune-scarred Demon , and the under-appreciated Helldozer are all good options that do things other than be big and (maybe) hang around.
If I'm right, I'm right. If I'm wrong, I still believe I'm right. Think of it as religion. dubito ergo sum.
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9 months ago  ::  Oct 03, 2012 - 8:49PM #6
Tremor88
Date Joined: Feb 11, 2007
Posts: 1,620
I was thinking about this guy. I'm not sure yet if he's 'good', but he's certainly potentially powerful and a very interesting deckbuilding challenge.

Let's break it down.

1) He needs same-turn damage in order to be cast.

Opponents damage themselves (eg: fetchlands) and each other all the time. So vedalken orrery probably takes care of that when you get to play it. Winding canyons too...but at that point you're tapping 7 lands to play him so canyons iss not actually that helpful. Orrery's kinda good for these colors because they're heavily sorceried....but it's only 1 card in the deck. You *could* play burn effects for the damage, but you don't really want to be paying extra mana and throwing away extra cards just to cast your general. So we want repeatable/delayed sources of damage that we can rely on and that can hit the board before rakdos himself. Cheap evasive damage-dealers like dauthi horror , bitterblossom and shepherd of rot don't generally care what's on the board while getting damage in. And they'll help increase the discounts offered by rakdos after he's in play. Utility bodies like pilgrim's eye , phyrexian rager , imperial recruiter , and goblin welder can get rakdos online quickly as long as at least one player lacks blockers, and still give some value aside from that purpose. I think you need a lot of cheap (yet worthwhile) creatures and damage sources to ensure reliable access to rakdos, because let's face it...you have to be aggressive. Other colors are going to be better control decks than you, and the discounted mana costs offered by rakdos lose their lustre as the game wears on.

So let's assume you've included a sufficient quantity of cheap repeatable damage to reliably get rakdos online. Now you have to consider

2) How you're going to benefit from his discount ability.

There are cards (like earthquake , heartless hidetsugu , exsanguinate , etc) that can turn the discount monstrous. And if you find a maga, traitor to mortals in your hand...well that's a pretty big game. But there aren't many creatures like maga that can really take advantage of a -24 mana cost deduction. And keep in mind that rakdos himself is a 6/6 flampler, and whatever damage source allowed you to cast him can probably work again. Hitting with a 2 power shadow guy and flying in for 6 with rakdos lets you play Ulamog for 3 mana, or blightsteel for 4...and that's more than good enough. I don't think you need to build the deck around 'going big'. Just include a sufficient number of fatties to reliably have 1 or 2 big follow-up plays once rakdos goes live.

So now we've got a gameplan. We want early critters that are either evasive, or just chumps that can give value. We want so fat to make use of rakdos's discount. And including sufficient quantities of both to make this gameplan consistent will probably take up the bulk of our deckspace, and the bulk of our early turn development.

Interestingly, I think this is one deck type that doesn't really care about mana acceleration. At 4 mana, rakdos already IS accelerated...kinda. What you need isn't a signet to speed him up further, you just need ways to deal damage (without costing mana that turn) so that you can cast him period.

I'd still probably include maga and a few earthquakes...and some tutors to help make it happen when you get the opportunity to go for it. But that's not something you expect every game... More realistically you're just trying to go turn 2 dauthi slayer turn 3 cunning sparkmage , turn 4 rakdos, turn 5 swing swing ping, myr battlesphere + wurmcoil engine + bogardan hellkite . And hopefully you have a tutor to find necropotence or wheel of fortune or memory jar or whatever to keep the beats pumpin'. The card draw options in these colors are few but powerful, and you want pretty much all of them ( dragon mage ? Yeeeeah!)
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9 months ago  ::  Oct 03, 2012 - 9:05PM #7
Tremor88
Date Joined: Feb 11, 2007
Posts: 1,620
Another interesting thought is that a rakdos deck doesn't really care about haste effects. You're generally going to be casting your high-impact creatures after combat, so as to benefit from the discount offered by attacking for damage. So cards like anger and urabrask, which would normally be autoincludes in a color combination like this, won't make the cut here.

And some 'normally' good colorless-only lands also have to hit the chopping block, due to rakdos' greedy mana cost.

So here's an aggressive general that doesn't want sol ring/mana rocks, doesn't want temple of the false god or (bl) inkmoth nexus/c], doesn't want [c]anger , probably doesn't even want lightning greaves ...and definitely doesn't hall of the bandit lord ...

Like I said...interesting deck-building challenge.
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9 months ago  ::  Oct 04, 2012 - 8:36AM #8
niheloim
Date Joined: Feb 3, 2008
Posts: 6,408
For the long game I was thinking on repeatable non creature damage sources. Rod of ruin, or arc blade, pestilence and pyrohemia (kinda).
When playing Commander, before you add a card to your deck, you have to ask yourself:
"Is this card better than Rings ?"
If you play commander and don't have your deck[s] in the Decklist Compendium, maybe you should. Or if you're new or looking into the format, the compendium has some good advice for beginners as well as decklists.

3DH4LIF3

We should all have one of these playable from our sideboards
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9 months ago  ::  Oct 04, 2012 - 8:51AM #9
John_Q._Mayhem
Date Joined: Jan 22, 2005
Posts: 552
I would strongly consider running Piranha Marsh and Shivan Gorge to enable Rakdos -casting
Rules Adviser, casual tournament organizer, lover of EDH and MtG evangelist.
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9 months ago  ::  Oct 04, 2012 - 2:45PM #10
lechgame
Date Joined: Aug 18, 2007
Posts: 449
Along the line of lands, Leechridden Swamp is useful for causing opponents to lose life. I once used that with Sanguine Bond and Exquisite Blood in an "I hate everyone else at the table" B/U deck, and didn't realize it until everyone complained that I had an instant win. But hey, it worked!
If I'm right, I'm right. If I'm wrong, I still believe I'm right. Think of it as religion. dubito ergo sum.
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Magic: The Gathering Commander (EDH) Rakdos, Lord of Riots (B/R) for Review - Let's...
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