Deckspotlight #7: Rakdos the Defiler

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen, yet another time!

Easter break is over and so is the content pause. So here we go with another Deckspotlight! And not only is this deck reeeeally interesting deckbuilding-wise, it's also my current favourite deck to play just because it's both fun and challenging to play correctly.

Ever since I got into EDH I pondered with the idea of building a deck around this guy. And if it wasn't for the existence of instant speed removal I'd have built this deck a looooong time ago. For at least a year I wanted to make this deck a reality, thinking about how to make his trigger hurt me as little as possible, protect Rakdos as efficiently as possible, etc. etc. but never ever did I find anything that made me want to build this deck for real.

I kind of forgot about Rakdos for a while and built a bunch of other decks. Then, one day, I decided to buy a MTGO-account to draft a bit... which worked out so-so. Nonetheless I had some tickets left on the account so I built some low-budget EDH decks to goof around with. And that is when I realized that this was the opportunity to test Version One Rakdos in "real combat".

You can kind of tell how "testing" went, since I am now a fervent believer in "the ways of the cult".

Chapter 0 - The demonic theory

As I mentioned already, Rakdos can really mess up your game if you run into spot-removal. So there are a few things to keep in mind when playing this deck since deckbuilding just can't make up for that risk... You'll have to pilot your way through it.

How do you play around removal?

The nice thing is, in case you're actually playing a game where people try to win, attacking Player A with your general will only draw removal from Player A since why should anyone want Player A to NOT sacrifice half his permanents. While that won't mitigate the fact that you'll also have to sacrifice a lot of permanents, it will at least help get through the attack since attacking people that have tapped out puts you at very little risk.

How do you get the most out of your general?

The most important aspect I've discovered is that everybody should have the same picture of you: You're insane, you don't care about winning or loosing, you'll fuck up anyone's day if you get a reason even if you take a huge blow in the process. Statements like "If I get Rakdos to trigger on someone I consider this a won match on my part" etc. are your bread and butter.

That said there are two types of "Rakdi-in-play".

When you go for the first type, you're looking for blood. Your hand is able to operate one or two turns on low mana or you have a good recovery strategy involving card draw, additional lands in hand or even Crucible of Worlds. It's not really recommendable to go for an attack with your general if you don't have a plan for what happens afterwards.

The second type is a purely political Rakdos that will just sit there and look scary. Who would be stupid enough to attack into a 7/6 flying blocker that will obliterate your board on the backswing?!
Sometimes, when you're under too much pressure and need a few turns of breathing room, playing Rakdos and having him sit around is all you need to do to get those turns.

Chapter 1 - The architecture of my madness

Basically the deck consists of three types of cards: The insane haymakers of pure madness, cards to help me operate at low mana and utility cards that glue everything together. And when I'm talking haymakers I mean HAYMAKERS,...

...things that warp the game and make everyone "enjoy" the match. The funny thing is that since I tried to make the deck able to operate on very minimal ressources due to its commander each of these cards usually hits me less than everyone else... so they're actually somewhat good in the deck.

Actual synergies with Rakdos are rare but still there exist some...

... just in case someone asks "Do you even have a plan with that deck?!" But let's be honest here, the deck doesn't have a plan, doesn't need a plan and never had a plan.

Operating at low mana is also imporant...

Luckily when building the deck the color-distribution turned out heavy black. This allows me to run rituals like Dark Ritual or even Lake of the Dead to give me a boost in mana when I need it. But why trade cards for fastmana? After the first hit with Rakdos a single Ritual usually supplies me with enough mana to operate normally for an additional turn, helping me have somewhat of a board presence before Rakdos eats all my lands.
Reanimation effects are also a way to "cheat" on manacosts and especially in a deck like this where you want to be running such high impact cards, cheating them in with Reanimate and the likes is just awesome in case you're on 3 lands again on turn 10.

Chapter 2 - Engine play

What I really like about the deck is that there are a few combinations of seemingly "random" cards that will work super well together while still being very good cards on their own. That's what I usually look out for when keeping or developing a hand. If there is a tutor/carddraw spell in it that will help find the second piece once I naturally draw into the first one, the hand is pretty much perfect as long as I have enough lands.

Let's start with a more generic line and one of the really good examples of what to do with it...

Blood Speaker searching up a Demon isn't anything new buuuuut there's still a very neat interaction going on here. First of all, Malfegor is a very strong and reliable massremoval I can tutor for that will also leave behind a 6/6 Flying body. And with Blood Speaker returning to my hand I'll be able to tutor for more gas later on. But the neat thing hidden here is that I can stack the triggers the "improper" way, returning the Speaker to my hand before discarding in order to have my opponents sacrifice an additional creature. This line is especially good if I plan to cast my general the next turn since he's also a demon which will return the Blood Speaker to my hand anyway.

NOTE: Blood Speaker is probably one of the best cards in the deck so try to have one as often as possible!

Not crazy enough? How about this then?!

When Kothoped was spoiled I even wrote a post about his options as a general and how much I'd love to play Pox/Death Cloud in that deck. Here's a quote:
"Now some Pox-Math: In the average four player game, if you've cast your commander on time (turn 6) and follow it up with a Pox the next turn, your opponents will have about 6 lands on average + the occasional creature which makes for a total of 4 to 5 permanents (3-4 lands + 1 creature) sacrificed by each player. That equals to you loosing a third of your life and then an additional 12 to 15 while drawing that many cards, so if you were at 40 life you would now be at 14 ( = 40 x 0,66 - 12) or even lower. But you drew 12-15 cards so it's worth! (probably not)
Same applies to Death Cloud, even though I think it's a bit stronger just because your opponents will loose their whole hand while you just reload from the huge amount of triggers you'll get. In the above mentioned pox scenario, if you want them to discard all cards, you'll need to cast a cloud for about X = 5. With that you'll draw an amount of cards somwhere between 18 and 30 cards depending on how many creatures they had. All that will sum up for a lifeloss of 23 to 35 so even at 40 life casting a Deathcloud can be dangerous. But hey, who doesn't like to live dangerous?!"
'Nough said! #KothophedOrKohome

And for those of you who want to win sometimes (crazy people I tell you...)

Step 1: Cast Hellcarver Demon, pass the turn.
Step 2: Cast Doomsday, stack the deck with Lich and Repay in Kind in the pile.
Step 3: Attack someone who can't block with Hellcarver Demon.
Step 4: Cast Lich for free setting your life to 0, cast Repay in Kind setting everyone elses life to 0.
Step 5: ...
Step 6: They loose, you don't.

Just be careful to not have someone kill Lich with Repay in Kind on the stack... other than that you're at very low risk... except maybe you'll be left with a 5 card library if someone kills your demon... LOW RISK I SAID!

Chapter 3 - The aggressive core

Behind the insane insaneness that is this deck, I run a few cards that actually get stuff done. Surprising isn't it...

All these Demons have something in common: They're very cheap for the pressure they can put down. Yes, they have drawbacks but those are ignorable... For example what do I care for Demonic Taskmasters trigger if he's the only creature out. And believe me, if I'm just smashing face with a 4/3 without doing anything else, people will mostly ignore me, which in return will allow your Taskmaster to do 20+ damage in a single game if played early. Abyssal Persecutor is an awesome early beater without anything worth calling drawback and Bloodgift Demon even has an upside while providing considerable damage at rather cheap mana.
"But Master of the Feast provides so much free value to your opponents, that's just not worth it!" You're wrong. Compared to each other they don't pull ahead on cards since they all get the card in my upkeep. The only one that's not getting a card is me and I trade that for being able to beat them down for 5 each turn. And if anyone is trying something crazy with all the cards he got the others on the table will likely have to tools to stop him... because they have "all the cards" aswell... and while this is happening I'll happily continue to put out damage because who would kill "so much free value"?!

Chapter 4 - Gameplay

Be crazy, get crazy, do crazy things... as long as it's crazy anything goes! Oh and have fun... crazy fun of course.

Starting Hands: 3+ lands plus any cheap spell is usually an autokeep. Also there are opportunities to discard something big to handsize very early (Rakdos Carnarium, Sign in Blood) in order to Reanimate something huge. Those hands sometimes look a bit wonky but are worth a shot in some matches (if you know the enemy decks are low on interaction the first few turns).
Also 2+ Lands and a Blood Speaker is ALWAYS a keep, regardless of the other cards.

Early-Mid-Late-game: In the words of Heath Ledger... Smash them with Demons, destroy their lands, make them discard their hands and most importantly: Noone gets to have fun! All the fun to be had is the insane giggling that only a maniac can produce when he imagines casting Pox with Kothophed out.

Outro

MUST. RESIST. URGE. TO. SACRIFICE. HALF. THE. WORDS.
(Decklist link = click Rakdos the Defiler Image at the top.)

See y'all 'round!