Cards by sections, ordered by converted mana cost and then alphabetically. Lands are an exception, 0 is to denote the land's CMC but the number next to basic Swamp and Mountain indicate their numbers.
Introduction
I am a Timmy-Spike. That means between the original three recognized player types I like big effects and winning (the bizarre combo decks are part of Johnny's wheelhouse). When I play with big creatures, I acknowledge that I give up win percentage. After all, a big six mana beast easily gets answered with a Swords to Plowshares, Doom Blade or worse yet Counterspell. There's a reason, almost a meme, when it comes to creature evaluation that 'It dies to Doom Blade'. To win, I compromise my Timmy to satisfy my Spike. I thought I would be stuck with figuring out ways to cheat my creatures into play, bypassing their mana costs, or accept only mana efficient beaters. I did find a Tribe that would let me play big creatures and not compromise my Win % - Demons. Demons were originally removed from Magic due to the moral panic of the 90s and most of them were bad from a Spike's point of view. When Wizards printed Rakdos, Lord of Riots, they finally let the OG Black Tribe back into the game and this time Demons can get the job done.
Introducing... Staxdos:
But He Was Still a Demon Man
The idea of Staxdos came about from the original brewing of Grinning Demon's Rakdos list, though it would take a few years fermenting in my mind before it came to be. Aggro decks tend to falter in a Multiplayer pod because their win condition is dealing 120 damage. In Comparison, Control and Combo tend to win by assembling a few particular cards. Aggro, to compensate, either goes with a Ramp or Cheat strategy. Ramping is playing a lot of mana sources quickly to get to your haymakers; Cheating is typically done by putting a Creature into a Graveyard and then using a Reanimate-type spell or by using Spells that put Creatures directly into play. The vulnerability of Ramp is spending a few turns trying to generate a lot of mana. The vulnerability of Cheating is various effects that counter Creatures not being Cast or by Exiling Graveyards.
Rakdos solves the 120 damage problem by running very large creatures, as well as using global damage effects. The next problem is players with answers to your threats - Combo and Control players. Rakdos excels in an underdeveloped board state, he is very mana efficient as a 6/6 with evasive keywords that can come down on Turn 4. A single early threat can be answered, it is important to flood the board with multiple problems. A weakness then arises of massive card disadvantage and a massive tempo loss if someone is able to blow up the board. After a few years of brewing, I realized many of these big Creatures come with the ability to starve the table of resources.
If Rakdos excels in an underdeveloped board state, then by playing with a Stax-like strategy, Rakdos can continually deny resources to opponents. This 'Staxdos' uses Discard to ensure opponents lack answers, Creature Sacrifice to ensure they have no blockers and Annihilator to eat into other Permanents. If a 6/6 is impressive on Turn 4 then by keep the table's resources at that level regardless of what the actual Turn is. By forcing players to Discard their Hands, Sacrifice their Permanents or Destroy their Lands, Rakdos may not be something they can answer. Without Hands, opponents are not able to match our threats and Rakdos' collection of 5+ Power Creatures eat into 120 Life quickly.
Pros
You get to turn sideways with large creatures. Timmy Heaven!
Strong theme of commanding a demonic horde, lots of fun!
Many Rakdos decks are a generic 'good stuff' build, by intentionally using a Stax-like strategy, many of the dangers can fly under the radar until they've deprived your opponents of the ability to respond to Rakdos' threats.
Rakdos is unique for a Creature-based Strategy - by reducing the Cost of his Creatures he has a very high throughput of threats. Other 'Cheat'-type Commanders need to Tap to put a Creature into Play or go through the Graveyard which open themselves up to Hate as well as limiting how many threats they can play per turn.
There's no middle ground to this deck - it wins or loses spectacularly.
Cons
This deck is not competitive or resilient enough for a Competitive EDH environment, if the average game ends on Turn 4 to 6 then I recommend a different Commander.
The danger this deck poses is obvious, it's you versus the table.
Killing Rakdos is an obvious way to stall out the deck, the hope is that the redundancy of the deck will allow him to go off.
The lengths the deck goes to protect the strategy with either Mass Land Destruction or Mass Hand Discard can cause players to become very upset.
There's no middle ground to this deck - it wins or loses spectacularly.
Why Not Play...?
Rakdos is unusual in that no other Commander can be built for large Creatures with an eye towards Stax. They usually have to involve the Graveyard to skip around paying the full price for their creatures, which opens them up to Graveyard Hate as a vulnerability. If they skip large Creatures to focus on the Stax element, they lose out on the ability to close out the game with a Timmy-based Win Condition.
Stax-based Commanders
Mogis, God of Slaughter - Play Enchantments that eat into your opponents' resources, blow up the world with a Jokulhaups and watch them asphyxiate without any resources. Mogis does not play like Rakdos by not cheating in Fatties.
Rakdos the Defiler - This Rakdos can cause a massive self-death spiral if he is answered prior to connecting with a player. That is too risky to run in the main of this deck and something I am not interested in for consistency sake. If Lord of Riots gets killed prior to connecting, his mana cost went up by 2. If the Defiler gets killed, effectively his mana cost goes up by five (Assuming six mana sources, half get sacrifice for +3 to cast and +2 due to Commander Tax).
Malfegor - He comes in with a Wrath but that's all he does. Malfegor does not put more threats onto the table and it's even possible that his ability does nothing due to having no cards in hand or opposing creatures. This makes for too much of playing to your opponents' tunes while Rakdos can demand opponents to play to his, deal with his demons or die.
Brago, King Eternal - An excellent Stax Commander, Brago uses ETB Triggers on his Permanents and abuses them by Blinking when Brago connects with Combat Damage. Outside of Rakdos colours, Brago is a serious consideration if you wish to play at a Competitive EDH levels but does not fulfill Rakdos' ability to play large Creatures. Gromgrom has written a Brago Primer.
Meren of Clan Nel Toth - One of the most popular Commanders, ever, Meren gets value by repeatedly killing the board and Reanimating her Creatures via her End of Turn Experience-based Triggered ability. She's not the type to win by direct Combat Damage; instead, she places a lock into place and has the table concede over go through the motions. Vulnerable to Graveyard Hate, Meren keeps the Black but loses the Red in favour for Green. Gromgrom has written a Meren Primer.
Cheating Fatties-based Commanders
Feldon of the Third Path - Uses the Graveyard and loses Black, though it would be possible to use a lot of Nonbasic Land hate due to being a single colour. Rakdos' plan is to reduce costs, Feldon would need to go through the extra steps of putting creatures into his Graveyard. Granted, it is easy with many pitch effects in Red; however, the Feldon has a throughput problem of getting one creature cheated out when he can tap. When Rakdos taps with an attack, he could be putting down much more than one creature and they last longer than a single turn.
Kaalia of the Vast - She can cheat in fatties with an attack step which makes her quickly look like she's similar to Rakdos except she has a few faults. She has a tiny size, which makes protecting her and giving evasion more of a priority. Also, Rakdos is creature-type agnostic, we use the best creatures for the job to Stax while Kaalia can only use Demons, Dragons and Angels. While she does get access to White and Angels, the extra colour adds to instability in the mana base. Lastly, Kaalia has throughput problem of only one creature per attack step - Rakdos can dump his entire hand to seal the game. Blueram's Kaalia Primer has been Retired.
Grenzo, Dungeon Warden - Theoretically, Grenzo could use the same creature suite as Rakdos and have success, even ditching any Enablers; however, in practice Grenzo would be using utility creatures. It is possible to build a Stax-based strategy with him but I think it might be easier to just cheat out value creatures. Furthermore, Grenzo is infamous for being able to really utilize Doomsday to combo off. In my mind, that puts him into a different league of Magic than Rakdos - something for more competitive players.
Sheoldred, Whispering One - Sheoldred goes Mono Black which gives the advantage of Cabal Coffers and she does have a little bit of Stax available with her Triggered Abilities. Sheoldred is a combination of Graveyard Cheats and Ramp; which gives a bit more vulnerability on where to attack her. She's still amazing and frequently gets work done with her Swampwalk. Artaud was written a Sheoldred Primer.
Bladewing the Risen - Another threatening Black Red Commander, Bladewing is very scary just for putting out Dragons and pumping them all up. Unfortunately, a large portion of the Stax strategy uses non-Dragons and therefore would need to force the deck in a new direction. It would be fun punching your opponents with large, pumped up Dragons but that is not the aim of Staxdos.
Yisan, the Wanderer Bard - Yisan can work his way up to dropping Fatties into play by repeatedly using his Untap to put dangerous Creatures into play. Unfortunately for Rakdos purposes, he is outside of the Red-Black colour pie and his wins tend to be Combo-based over Combat Damage. Another Comepetitive EDH Commander, he's great if you wish to focus on beating your opponents.
Note: 'Staxdos' is more of a neat name than using the actual Stax Strategy. Stax, traditionally, is about using low cost Permanents that make it difficult for your opponents to accrue resources. This could be done with increasing the cost of spells, denying Untaps of Lands, early game Sacrifice or by disabling Activated Abilities of Mana Rocks. 'Staxdos' has no intention of interrupting your opponents' early game by denying early game resources - the aim is to destroy mid- and late- game for your opponents by making players Discard their hand, Sacrifice Permanents to our Eldrazi and blow up Lands. What makes Rakdos unique is his high throughput of Creatures you can Cast on very little mana; 'Staxdos' aims to accentuate the ratio of little mana spent for high impact creatures with resource denial. If you're looking for a real Stax deck, sorry to have led you astray - there are plenty of Commanders you could use. In fact, here is the MTG Salvation EDH Stax Primer.
Deck History
I have been playing Magic on and off for twenty plus years. When I was off, a friend of mine invited me to a Magic 2012 day where they were giving out boosters for free to draft and the winner got prizes. I'm not going to argue with free, especially with the shot at winning more cards. The store was new and starting up its Magic scene, I went, won and cemented good feels. I opened Rakdos, Lord of Riots in some of my packs. My friend had a few Commander decks and after playing with his occasionally, I decided to put Rakdos to use. I've been playing Rakdos for over five years now and this is a Primer on how to play him.
Yes, at one point I ran these
The first version of this deck, was the 'Rotten Rakdos, Pimping Demons'. It was rotten because it was a jumble of cards that kind of worked. Pimping people it ain't easy, and I was stunned with how efficient Chaos Imps were, considering the last time I played Magic was the first Ravnica block. Sure, the Imps are garbage but it started my build off with the foil copy I opened. I played my Rotten Rakdos on-and-off for a while, quitting Magic a year later.
The second version was when I started playing again, with a solid Rakdos deck. EDH had changed, it was much more streamlined, competitive and cutthroat. Sure, Rakdos could still survive and compete but he comes with a big target on his forehead. I made a Demon package because I had Blood Speaker but I was finding the deck to not be that competitive with my really high costed creatures. Rakdos would get answered or neutered and I would be sitting there uselessly for the rest of the game. I did notice a trend but it didn't come into being until a few months later: Rakdos Stax.
Instead of playing with really prohibitive cards if Rakdos got countered, killed or neutered, play with solid stuff that strips resources from your opponents. Rakdos came with a backup plan. Normally, it would be an all-in strategy on Rakdos to drop bombs on the board. With a Stax-based creature package, I could have Rakdos take a set back or two. He's powerful when the board is underdeveoped, with a Stax package the board is always underdeveloped which makes my big creatures even more threatening. The main goal at this point was to hit my opponents with a lot of Discard. Without cards, Combo couldn't go off, Control couldn't control and my big guys came out early enough to outsize Aggro.
Card Options
1. Creatures
Scaling Enabler, Beware the Damage
Rakdos is an Aggro-Control deck and so each creature falls into one of three categories - Enablers, Stax, Gas. Enablers deal damage to Players so that Rakdos may be Cast; afterwards, the damage can be redirected to Planeswalkers or just help cut into your opponent's 120 combined life total. Stax Creatures disrupt your opponents by eating into their resources; such as, making opponents Discard or Sacrifice Permanents. Gas is any Creature that helps Rakdos Draw Cards or put Cards into Play, the more cards drawn the more likely Rakdos draws a particular threat piece that seals the game for him. As an Aggro deck, it's important to keep pressure up with Card Advantage in case your board of threats do get answered. Some creatures are more than one category.
2 CMC
Shepherd of Rot - Enabler - Shepherd causes life loss, which means you can't redirect the tap to Planeswalkers; furthermore, Shepherd looks at all Zombies in play for its life loss Activated Ability. Normally, you would only need to worry about Graveborn Muse, a leftover Fleshbag Marauder, Corpse Augur and Gray Merchant of Asphodel to increase the life loss but if one of your opponents is going Zombie tribal, this two drop can cause a lot of damage.
Thermo-Alchemist - Enabler - Thermo-Alchemist is rarely going to get an Untap, he's just in because he hits every opponent. Due to the Thermo-Alchemist doing damage, you may redirect his ability to Planeswalkers. Overall, redundancy to the 'tap for damage' slot.
3 CMC
Fleshbag Marauder - Stax - Not a bad play to make each opponent Sacrifice a Creature for one Black after Rakdos' Cost Reduction. Fleshbag combos well with Demon of Dark Schemes for more Energy or Harvester of Souls for more Card Draw. Can also be played on Turn 3 to eat into a Speedy Opponent's Creature-based Setup.
Lobber Crew - Enabler - The Crew does Damage, which makes it another Enabler that can harass Planeswalkers. Rakdos himself causes the Untap Trigger, don't leave extra damage on the table. In a four Player pod, the double-tap means any colorless creature of six CMC or less has had their Cost reduced to zero. Dropping a free Wurmcoil Engine for Aggro or setup a massive Eldrazi turn with Conduit of Ruin's Cast Trigger. Otherwise, leave the Crew Untapped for Blocks and End of Turn Pings.
Nettle Drone - Enabler - Nettle Drone functions like Lobber Crew but Triggers from Colorless Creatures. With the multiple Eldrazi in Rakdos, the Drone is more likely to get Untaps. Don't be afraid to get in or block as the Drone has three power.
Pilgrim's Eye - Enabler, Gas - Pilgrim's Eye finds that extra Mountain you need before Rakdos comes down and then the Thopter can poke an opponent to get Rakdos into play. After Rakdos comes down, it's a free chump blocker that also provides fodder for the various creatures that kill in this deck.
Sin Prodder - Enabler, Gas - The Menace on Sin Prodder does a surprising amount of work, Enabling Rakdos to be Cast. His Upkeep Trigger either Draws a Card or Enables Rakdos prior to the Combat Step. If something scary did land in Rakdos' Graveyard, it is still possible to get that Creature back into play with the various Creatures that have a Reanimate Effect stapled onto them. At the very worst, the Devil mills a Land away that you would have drawn.
Stronghold Rats - Enabler, Stax - With Shadow, the Rats can push through Damage. Many Players will assume that is the only function of the Rats and they're wrong. The Discard Trigger starts eating into your Opponents' Strategies early. Unless an Opponent is running a dedicated Graveyard strategy, the Rats do a lot more damage than people realize.
Tunnelling Geopede - Enabler - Landfall Trigger Damages every Opponent or Planeswalker. While the Insect might not swing in with the rest of Rakdos' horde, its' efficient power-to-cost means solid damage to defenseless Opponents.
Sneaky Card Advantage Engine
At this point, you'll notice a drastic shift in card selection. Almost every creature under 4 mana Enables Rakdos, this is to ensure Rakdos is played on Turn 4. Afterwards, anything bigger must be a Stax piece to strip Control and Combo of their answers. Opposing Aggro strategies probably don't feel the disruption as acutely; however, they lose the ground war via Rakdos' throughput of threats. Creatures with Gas are helped to seal the fate of our opponents by getting more threats or disruption into play.
4 CMC
Balthor the Defiled - Gas - A Living Death that doesn't put every single creature into play but only Red and Black ones. While this skips out on our Eldrazi, it makes a lot of the White, Blue and Green players sad that the toys they've been discarding or dying aren't coming back. Be careful to not use him against Red or Black decks that possibly begin trading blows.
Blood Speaker - Gas - Blood Speaker is deceptively good. Most of the time, the Ogre looks like a cute Tribal pick but when almost every Demon is a Stax piece, this is a repeated tutor to keep locking players out of the game. Typically, fetching Sire of Insanity is a good choice to lock out opponents and then keep the steady stream of Demonic threats rolling - Rune-Scarred Demon to tutor for anything, Demon of Dark Schemes to clear the board of weenies or Kothophed, Soul Hoarder/Harvester of Souls for more Gas. The 'return to hand' Trigger also makes him a great target for Disciple of Bolas' Sacrifice or just plain attack when you're down to the last opponent.
Disciple of Bolas - Gas - Most of the time, it is about drawing cards but sometimes the Life gain is important too. Rakdos does frequently draw the ire of the entire table. Disciple is tricky because you need to balance the needs to keeping a particular threat with living through crackbacks and drawing more threats.
Graveborn Muse - Gas - A sort of bulky second Phyrexian Arena that could potentially draw more cards and incur more life loss with other Zombies in play.
Tree of Perdition - Enabler - Absolutely dropkicks someone's life total, possibly making every Colorless Creature free to cast from Rakdos' Pain Mana. Giving a player 13 Life makes it easy for a small horde to kill them off which is what justifies its inclusion.
5 CMC
Archfiend of Depravity - Stax - Going wide fast is a way to slow Rakdos' attacks, use Blood Speaker to tutor for Archfiend and get rid of that problem. Archfiend also curves well as a Turn 5 play without Rakdos or as part of another card coming down from Rakdos pain damage. If Rakdos is answered on Turn 4, the Archfiend comes down on Turn 5 to allow Rakdos to get played again on Turn 6 with a swing.
Bloodgift Demon - Gas, Enabler - Another Phyrexian Arena, but could be used 'politically' to give an opponent a card. That loss of life is enough to get Rakdos back into the game.
Gray Merchant of Asphodel - Enabler - The Grey Merchant doesn't give us cards and he doesn't take away our opponents' so that automatically puts him in the Enabler category. And yes, while he does damage which could theoretically get Rakdos back onto the table, it is highly unlikely that will be the case. What the Gray Merchant does is end games and should be treated as just a really inexpensive big threat. To be honest, I evaluate this card as a mandatory card in any strategy that uses black permanents, much less one that delights in dealing massive damage.
Keldon Firebombers - Stax - The majority of the mana sources in this deck come from inflicting pain on our opponents. Rakdos only requires a few colored sources for each of its threats while the majority of the table is probably playing some variant on Battlecruiser Magic. The Firebombers don't cut deeply into Rakdos' mana production but severely hamper your opponents' and that's why these guys are in the deck. Rakdos has a high throughput because of the high colorless symbols on many of his Creatures; meanwhile, your opponents have to choose between playing answers or threats themselves and they may not be able to do either.
What the Deck's All About - Big Man Stax
6 CMC
Combustible Gearhulk - Gas, Enabler - The strength of the Gearhulk is every option your opponent chooses is wrong. Damage makes your creatures cheaper and brings people closer to death or they can give you three cards drawn which means you have additional threats. On top of this, a 6/6 First Strike body means the Gearhulk wins the majority of fights until you face supermassive bodies or utter swarms of creatures.
Conduit of Ruin - Gas - Conduit of Ruin is one of the few creatures that can come down for free with a Lobber Crew start. It's cost reduction is great for getting Rakdos back or making one of the Eldrazi Titans affordable. It's cost reduction ability does 'look backwards' so it doesn't make your the next Creature cheaper but does tutor any colorless Creature on to the top of your Library - which includes major lockpieces of Nullstone Gargoyle or Void Winnower. Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre can be tutored for spot removal, Kozilek, Butcher of Truth for Gas or just a Bane of Bala Ged if you want to fly under the radar.
Demon of Dark Schemes - Stax, Gas - Opponents going wide with chump blockers is a concern of the deck, this Demon is an answer by getting rid of swarms and provides Energy to Reanimate any Creature. If a lockpiece or Rakdos has been answered, the Demon is a way to get them back into play without a hitch.
Harvester of Souls - Stax, Gas - The Deathtouch guarantees trades unless your opponent's Creature is Indestructible. The card draw stapled onto the Harvester provides Wrath insurance and gives Gas when your opponents attempt to mount any feeble defense.
Kothophed, Soul Hoarder - Gas - A bigger and more evasive Harvester of Souls, also Kothophed provides Wrath insurance. Pay attention to Fetchlands and other Permanents you wouldn't normally consider leaving the field, they also trigger card draw.
Ob Nixilis, Unshackled - Stax - EDH uses tutors to maintain consistency in the singleton format, Ob Nixilis punishes your opponents for attempting to find solutions. He also can grow quickly with two forms of Evasion, in addition to his ability to make a player lose 10 Life, making Ob Nixilis an aggressive option for ending players. Making players Sacrifice if they tutor is just gravy, though it suits the 'Stax'-like strategy Rakdos is using.
Scythe Specter - Stax - The great part of this Specter is that opponents are aware that there are plenty of dangerous Creatures in Rakdos, making them loathe the idea of using removal on this Specter. The Specter gets you closer to casting Eldrazi due to the Discard and Damage Trigger. In fact, you can attack an open opponent just to make your primary target Discard. The Specter flies under the radar and is key to the strategy of removing answers from our opponents.
Sire of Insanity - Stax - Sire single-handedly causes rewinds because players not understanding its' End of Turn trigger, play him if you think you can risk running him out or wait for disruption in the form of Void Winnower/Nullstone Gargoyle. Sire makes the rest of the game into Topdeck mode, which Rakdos is fine with getting around and why I suggest Sire as a primary target for Blood Speaker.
Wurmcoil Engine - Stax - Another Creature that can come into play the same turn as Rakdos with Lobber Crew, Wurmcoil's Lifelink and Deathtouch make it an aggressive force for punching holes in your opponents' defense. It also comes with its' own Wrath insurance by making tokens that are good Attacking or Blocking.
7 CMC
Bane of Bala Ged - Stax - The first part of the 'Annihilators', Bane's Exile trigger is sometimes better than Annihilator. Either option is bad for your opponents, as they lose Permanents their ability to fight back is severely hampered.
Balefire Dragon - Stax - If they do not block this Dragon, they might lose their entire field. Also, by being a 6/6, it is unusually large for a Flyer, killing many 4/4 Angels or 5/5 Dragons.
Herald of Anguish - Stax - There's no intention of using its' ability to Sacrifice Artifacts to give creatures -2/-2. Herald strips the table of resources which makes it less likely for them to have Answers and does so on the turn that it comes down. The Creature Type also makes it tutorable with the Blood Speaker.
Kaervek the Merciless - Enabler, Stax - The primary purpose of Kaervek is to redirect damage into your opponents' Creatures, as they cast spells to try to stop Rakdos. If the spell is not large enough to deal lethal damage, direct it to an opponent's face. It is possible for him to Enable Rakdos but that's unlikely.
Knollspine Dragon - Gas - Playing this Dragon is often followed-up with a lot of colorless creatures and a few lock pieces.
Rune-Scarred Demon - Gas - The 6/6 Flyer is great at dealing with a lot of opposing creatures and the ability to search for the exact card needed means you've probably made your opponent's board states irrelevant.
Sheoldred, Whispering One - Gas, Stax - Sheoldred's Swampwalk comes up more than you think due to many players using Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. I wouldn't advise it but her Triggered Ability can get Rakdos back into play - it's much safer to have him go to the Command Zone but sometimes desperate measures are required. Realistically, she doesn't return too many Creatures but is more to force your opponents to Sacrifice Creatures.
8 CMC
Myojin of Night's Reach - Stax - Myojin, alongside Sire of Insanity, may cause a lot of saltiness. The best use is wait until the next player's Draw step and when they pass priority to their Main phase, remove the Divinity Counter to make the table Discard their hands. Afterwards, you have a 5/2 expendable body which is great for Disciple of Bolas to Sacrifice or just trade with many Creatures. With the stipulation of the Divinity Counter only appearing on Cast from Hand, the Myojin can never betray you from Bribery or Animate Dead.
Ulamog's Crusher - Stax - A no-frills Annihilator that must attack. Considering attacking is the main way for this deck to generate its mana, I've never had a problem being forced to turn this guy sideways.
Eldrazi for DAAAYS!
Since every creature after this point is colorless, it's important to stress how easy it is to cast these creatures despite their high mana cost. In a 3 man pod, a single Rakdos hit plus a ping to each player makes 9 CMC colorless creatures or less free to cast. Only one or two more damage is required to reduce the cost of the Eldrazi Titans. As you go into smaller pods, there is a larger difficulty in casting Eldrazi for free; however, there's less disruption.
Note that Rakdos' cost reduction is an ability that 'looks backwards' - Rakdoes does not need to be on the field during damage to get the discounts. If a recursion engine is in place, it might be worthwhile to swing into a 'bad block' to have Rakdos die, get returned to hand and played again to get enough damage pushed through to get one of these amazing lock pieces into play.
9 CMC
Artisan of Kozilek - Stax, Gas - The hardest lesson to learn with Artisan is learning to Cast it without benefiting from the Cast Trigger. It's still a high power Annihilator, it's something you want on the field as fast as possible to cut into your opponents' resources.
Nullstone Gargoyle - Stax - With the 'Staxdos' strategy of using Creatures as lockdown pieces, a Nullstone Gargoyle doesn't impact your own spells as much. Ideally, the Gargoyle is played when hands are light from all of the Discard. That way the Gargoyle can't be played around; combined with Sire of Insanity spells doom for most opponents.
Void Winnower - Stax - The other complete lockdown piece that turns half of your opponents' decks into dead cards. It is surprising the amount of answers that are even costed. Creature tokens can be a problem for Rakdos, as they let your opponent throw them in front of your big men to prevent Rakdos' cost reduction - too bad Void Winnower makes these 0 CMC creatures unable to block.
10 CMC
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth - Gas, Stax - Kozilek's Cast trigger is great for finding more threats. Annihilator 4 is also absurd. I find casting that Kozilek is a watershed moment; if you're allowed to get him into play, he'll probably draw you into enough additional threats that your opponents will be overwhelmed by the threat density.
11 CMC
Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre - Stax - Destroy on Cast is great to get rid of troublesome Enchantments, like Propaganda and its ilk. Ulamog's high power and Annihilator makes him a dangerous creature at any point of the game. In fact, large amount of permanent loss tend to demoralize opponents to the point of concession - this means the 120 damage needed to win a Multiplayer pod just got easier to do. Good sports would stick around, making Rakdos split his targets but not a lot of people can withstand seeing their hard earned board and hand get vaporized. The best part is his Indestructible means that if someone digs up an answer in the form of a Wrath, Ulamog sticks around and can swing into a clear board. If my opponents haven't put down more permanents, Annihilator 4 is eating into their Lands and effectively ending their ability to fight back.
2. Enchantments and Artifacts
The Artifacts in Rakdos are all to make mana. This isn't to accelerate him, as the list is lacking Sol Ring and other convenient fast mana. No, the purpose of the Artifact mana is to make sure that RRBB is available to cast Rakdos for when I do damage to opponents. Enchantments are much more interesting, used for card filtering, setting up Stax as well as enabling Rakdos.
Enchantments
Bring out your dead
1 CMC
Phyrexian Reclamation - For some two mana and life, you can return any necessary creature to your hand. This card is so good it should be seriously considered in any Black creature-based strategy.
Tortured Existence - There are two serious problems in Rakdos: drawing Enablers late and having your board wiped out. Tortured Existence solves both of these problems. If you need a particular piece in the Rakdos Stax engine, you discard what is undesirable in your hand for what you wish. Discard fatties for Enablers to get Rakdos back online; hell, let him hit the graveyard and discard a creature to get him back into your hand to avoid paying Commander tax. This also comes down on Turn 1, freeing up your two and three drops into either Enablers or a Stax piece.
2 CMC
Lim-Dûl's Hex - The first Enchantment Enabler card in Rakdos. A great deal of Enchantments that deal damage do it during your opponent's upkeep, which is undesirable, or like Palace Siege/Subversion cost a lot of mana. Lim-Dul's Hex can be played before Rakdos's desired 4th Turn debut and is therefore a useful Enabler. If the game goes late and you find yourself with excess mana, you can pay 1 to not take a ping while the rest of table could be tapping 3 mana to stop the free hurts.
3 CMC
Pain Magnification - Low opportunity cost force that causes Discard, a majority of the Creatures in Rakdos have at least 3 power and the ones with Trample probably can still deal 3 damage after a block. Considering how many of Rakdos' strategy can be stopped with a Counter or Kill, this forces your opponents' hand or they have to fight armies of Spectres for the rest of the game.
Price of Glory - Rakdos requires a response from your opponents - they cannot let Rakdos resolve, they cannot let Rakdos hit, or they cannot have so many of our creatures hit the field. Price of Glory lets them do this, once. The goal of the deck is to reduce your opponent's options back so far that they cannot stop the stream of demons and damage. Just one, or two at most, attempts to stop Rakdos seals them out of the game.
Retreat to Hagra - Another Enabler in the form of making opponents lose life on Turn 4 for Rakdos to come down. An interesting synergy is if Trample and Deathtouch are combined, such as on our Commander. Trample is defined as any excess damage past lethal is dealt to the defending player. Deathtouch makes any amount of damage lethal. Instead of worrying about larger Flying blockers or a slowdown on damage, give Rakdos the +1/+0 and keep punching through.
Tectonic Instability - Control decks need mana and this commits them to the choice of Ramp or Control, not both. Another card that forces your opponents to waste resources on not our primary winconcs or Rakdos himself; and if they let it resolve then they give plenty of blindspots that Rakdos can operate in.
4 CMC
Creeping Dread - This is a slow start for Rakdos, but if it sticks in a multiplayer pod it pays great dividends. The life loss enables Rakdos and his cost reductions but the discard feeds into the Stax strategy. Without cards your opponent cannot stop you. Try to discard Artifact Creatures, as that would cause life loss on anyone who discards a Creature or Artifact.
Artifacts
The Best Best Enabler, Bar None
2 CMC
Rakdos Signet - The color filtering can be annoying; however, it's early play cannot be downplayed enough.
Talisman of Indulgence - Fixes mana on demand for only 1 life, a great addition to any Red/Black list.
3 CMC
Cryptolith Fragment - Color fixing is important when your Commander has so many mana symbols. Pain fixing is also required due to Rakdos' requirements. Cryptolith Fragment fixes both, I would argue this card needs to be in 100% of all Rakdos decks. It single-handedly makes a hand much better to keep because it only requires 3 Lands instead of 4 to cast Rakdos.
3. Sorceries, Instants and Lands
Instants
Get Rid of Problems
2 CMC
Terminate - Cheapest kill spell that gets around Regeneration.
3 CMC
Chaos Warp - Removes any problem permanent, I usually reserve this for an Enchantment or Artifact.
Hero's Downfall - Rakdos reduces costs by dealing damage to players, I am loathe to spend my attack step cleaning up after permanents they leave around. Instead of losing damage by swinging at Planeswalkers, remove them with Hero's Downfall. Hitting a creature is probably unnecessary but flexibility is nice.
Sorcery
1 CMC
Faithless Looting - Use this Turn 1 and Turn 3 with Flashback to dig for the required Lands or Enablers. This card attempts to save a slow start. You want pressure as soon as possible and Faithless Looting gets you digging for requirements.
2 CMC
Dreadbore - Another flexible means to destroy Planeswalkers or utility Creatures so your Creatures can keep swinging into players.
Night's Whisper - More ways to dig for Lands and Enablers to setup Rakdos.
3 CMC
Read the Bones - This Sorcery can see up to four cards, making it great to dig for the necessary mana and Enablers to setup for early game Rakdos. Afterwards, you might be too busy to spend three mana to see four cards considering the massive discounts Rakdos gives to many of our Gas Creatures.
Toxic Deluge - Sometimes you need to wipe out the entire board. What's great is that Deluge lets you set the number to exactly kill off the troublesome creatures. There are a surprising amount of X/5s that cause problems, kill them and leave Rakdos and company on the board.
Lands
The mana base is really simple. You might have noticed a lack of utility lands in comparison to many other EDH decks but that's because this deck needs to ensure that RRBB is generated on Turn 4. This means I am using as many of the good Enters the Battlefield Tapped (ETBT) lands, many of the conditional ETBT that may come untapped and as many dual lands as possible. This means I am even using Lantern-Lit Graveyard just to make sure that on Turn 4 Rakdos can come down. This means the utility lands are few and far between.
The Lands listed before are justifying their inclusion into Rakdos when they aren't dual lands.
Leechridden Swamp - Provides reach and inevitability if someone is hiding behind a Pillowfort like Propaganda or Crawlspace. Hits every opponent for a marginal cost of one Black. If you're trying to use Burn in your Rakdos to Enable Rakdos, consider this Swamp first.
Piranha Marsh - A possible Turn 5 or 7 play to deal one damage to a player, Enabling Rakdos to being Cast.
Spinerock Knoll - Dealing 10 damage is quite possible when many of the creatures in this deck come as 5+ Power Flyers. With that in mind, it has an easy Activation cost and can play whatever was under the Hideaway.
Temple of Malice - While this Land may constitute as the other mana fixers of dual types, it has Scry tacked on to smooth over a draw. Currently, I am on the fence of the utility of ETBT in exchange for a sneak peek of the next card and perhaps a fix as well. So far, Temple of Malice has been spared from the axe.
Using the multicolour lands, such as City of Brass will slowly be introduced, but considering some of the conditional ETBT check for Basics or land types, the amount of 'wrong-typed' multicolour Lands cannot be too much.
Notable Exclusions
Some cards, even considered staples, aren't in my deck for a variety of reasons. Here are different sections.
Tinkering
Tinkering are cards that I am currently toying with the idea of using.
Pathrazer of Ulamog - Another Eldrazi that kills opponent's resources with Annihilator and it's extra ability is nice to punch through a player who doesn't have enough creatures. What's separating the Pathrazer from inclusion is keeping my average CMC down. There are a few of the more expensive creatures that I'm eyeing as a potential cut but I don't want to increase the awkwardness of the deck.
Gonti's Machinations - I don't have enough self damage in the deck to warrant an inclusion, I believe; however,
it has minimal cost and can even be cooked like a Grenade to go off to fuel Rakdos or a Demon of Dark Schemes. In another way, it can make other players go elsewhere because they rather not give you Energy.
Myojin of Infinite Rage - He's Mass Land Destruction, which always carries a stigma, but he's something I've been considering. He would be worth the Triple Red.
Ob Nixilis, the Fallen - He curves perfectly into a T6 Rakdos rebound; if Rakdos is answered on T4, Ob Nix can be played on T5 and then with a land drop get Rakdos back in the game. If Nixilis then swings at an open opponent, that's nine Pain Mana to work with. Overall, I think he's a decent enabler.
Herald of Leshrac - Another way to quickly squeeze resources out of my opponents, especially since Rakdos ignores a lot of throughput and choking my opponents' ability to defend themselves is what I want. Unfortunately, I don't think the added mana I would get would improve my situation a lot.
Etali, Primal Storm - Provides me with more gas, and sometimes I'll hit something great off of my opponents.
Twilight Prophet - A way to drain the table if I go into long game, plus it pads my life total.
These are cards that I think are too expensive for me to want to include, and therefore could be considered a Wish List:
Urabrask the Hidden - Subtle Staxing of making my opponents' creatures come into play tapped, making it less likely that'll be able to mount of defense against my creatures and allows me to easily recast Rakdos. The problem is the utility compared to the dollar amount of the card. Usually, Haste is irrelevant because you turn sideways then drop bombs. Also, Rakdos wants players to have untapped creatures in a way - they're resources you eat up by having your opponent block to stem the massive tide of damage. Urabrask is an interesting five drop that fits in the others as a 'Plan B' when Rakdos becomes answered on Turn 4 and you need to prep for Turn 6 drop. So, in the end Urabrask's effects are nice but not worth spending the dollars to include him in the deck.
Budget Alternatives
Here are alternative cards for consideration that I think I have a better version of. If a card is too expensive, it would be under 'Wish List' of the Tinkering section.
Dream Pillager - As much as I like drawing lots of cards, getting potential free plays is even more exciting. With Rakdos possibly self-imposing a topdeck hand, Dream Pillager might be worth using to dig yourself out of that situation. If he was an Eldrazi, I would even most him up to considerations but with the current class of creatures I can't consider this Dragon even if he is interesting, perhaps if he was bigger. If you're going for a budget build, he's an excellent way to 'draw more' without having to break the bank with an expensive creature that draws a lot.
Indulgent Tormentor - Was cut from the main deck but isn't that bad, if unwieldy. His main problem is never giving you what you want, as people will pay life, give you cards or sac a creature when you want something else. As a 50 cent rare, he can slot right into a Budget build because he's still a 5 power flyer for five, allowing for a punch to reenable Rakdos for Turn 6.
Plague Spitter - This was removed my build because it caused too much awkwardness with my other Enablers who tended to only have one toughness as well, making me lose serious card advantage while dealing damage to Enable Rakdos. That's the whole point of some of these picks - to avoid CA loss like a burn build would do. With a lowered budget, beggars can't be choosers and so I could recommend the Plague Spitter.
Sepulchral Primordial - With the amount of Staxing that goes on, it's probably easy to grab some decent creatures from all of your opponents. Due to the randomness of what your opponents will have available and not full synergy of 'Staxing Out' your opponent as the majority of the 7+ drops do in this deck, I didn't include it in this build. With a lowered dollar amount available, the Primordial becomes more viable especially with Intimidate to help get more damage in.
Sandstone Oracle - A nifty way to draw more with evasion, can be played potentially for free and doesn't damage the wallet.
Mardu Shadowspear - I don't like how he can be Blocked and die no ability to re-use him. At first, the idea of using Raid seems great due to having repeatedable damage that is a Creature but also safe from Wraths; however, it suffers from the same problems as a Burn Build. Namely, if I need to recast Rakdos, I need to spend extra mana on this in addition to Rakdos. The deck does not have time to risk on Enablers that aren't reusable nor efficient in casting Rakdos - a budget deck might be able to forgive that and the Shadowspear is the best example of Creatures that deal damage to the Pod with an Attack.
Ruthless Ripper - Show a card to Enable Rakdos or swing in with a 1/1 Deathtouch that people won't want to trade with to Enable Rakdos. I'm fairly happy with my Enabler suite but if you're looking for a cheap option, he's one I've considered.
Myr Battlesphere - Hits hard, casts for free and is light on the wallet. I only removed the Battlesphere because I was upgrading my suite of creatures. The only fault is that it 'only does damage' - not bad for an 8/4 that does 4 on an attack.
Butcher of Malakir - A great Stax piece that punishes players who try to answer your huge threats. Each creature lost on your side costs them a blocker for future attacks. The evasion and cheap dollar cost make Butcher a great pick. The reason Buthcer was cut was for space consideration, until you're having trouble deciding on your game winners the Buthcer will be quite comfortable in your lists.
Failed Considerations
These are cards that I considered in the past but decided to not add to the deck or conversely, were part of the deck but were cut for one reason or another.
Vial Smasher the Fierce - It should be a no brainer, right? I want to do damage and the little Goblin that could does damage whenever you cast spells. Unfortunately, it would push me to play my expensive cards first, which may be free and eat removal, rather than play something more reasonable to test the waters for my true haymaker. I don't run a burn build or Winding Canyons, so it is unlikely that I would be casting anything out of turn to take advantage of Vial Smasher's triggered ability. In fact, she doesn't even Enable Rakdos which the majority of my cards under 4 CMC do, making her wash out of consideration for my Strategy.
Maga, Traitor to Mortals - Rakdos wants to do damage, Maga does lots of damage and could even take a player out of the game. I found that Maga made me make bad plays. Instead of pushing him out as a satisfied 8/8 that does 8, I would try to maximize his effectiveness which just made him even more inconsistent. I don't want to be chasing a dream that'll never come. Furthermore, his BBB mana cost is hefty when in comparison Myojin of Night's Reach and Demon of Dark Schemes are the only heavy costed creatures. I cannot justify 'mere damage' for such a heavy expensive, especially since the deck has moved towards a resource denial strategy which Maga does not fit.
Kokusho, the Evening Star - Kokusho is really good, so good that he was on the EDH ban list, including the 'Banned as a Commander' phase, but I didn't think he was that broken. With the removal of the X creatures in my list (i.e. Grenzo, Dungeon Warden/Maga, Traitor to Mortals), the life loss creatures stopped being so relevant unless they can do massive damage like Gray Merchant of Asphodel. Gray Merchant is a threat because his ability comes down right away, Kokusho's only occurs if he's killed. Sure, it's a nice ability but it's possible that his ability may never come into play in which case he's just a 5/5 Flyer.
Blightsteel Colossus - A case of failed opportunity cost. Colossus is expensive and ends games but does not push the Stax Strategy. The two other Titans have Cast Triggers that do something if they're answered immediately, Blightsteel does not. Blightsteel and the two Titans both win if your opponent has no recourse, but the Titans drain Resources if a player is trying to stop players from winning through a Combat Step. In other words, I wasn't always happy to draw Blightsteel because it never won me games I was having difficulty with and generally was overkill in every other situation.
Wheel of Fortune - As much as I love a full grip, my whole plan is to set the table into the topdeck mode and this wasn't very helpful. Also, with Nullstone Gargoyle as a lock piece, it was just very awkward.
Grenzo, Dungeon Warden - I had him in the deck but cut him because he caused the same problem as Maga, Traitor to Mortals of always trying to maximize his size. As the deck moved towards Stax based strategy, his value engine made me move away from him. I've also found that as the deck got more tuned, I had less of an opportunity to sit back and use his Activated ability. If I went with a more Combo-oriented win, I think Grenzo would be a better option as he's infamous for Doomsday Combos. Otherwise, he just kind filled enough holes to be a solid maybe but as the deck took a particular direction he got left behind.
Burn Build
Many Rakdos builds use Burn to Enable Rakdos and get his men going. The 'Staxdos' build does not. Reasons why are inside the spoiler.
The Burn Build is one of two other alternatives to my 'Staxdos Build'. Unfortunately, the Burn Build is incompatible with the disruption of the Staxdos Build. The problem is that the two are an antithesis of each other, including both halves significantly weakens your deck's build. Here's why:
A Burn Build maximizes colorless Creatures, which Eldrazi make a wonderful resource for, as they can disrupt your opponents. A Burn Build uses cards like Breath of Darigaaz and Flame Rift to deal a lot of damage, then you can play Creatures. Breath, as an example, does 12 damage to opponents if kicked in a 4 man pod: that's a free Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre or It That Betrays. It's imperative that these Creatures have Haste, so a great many of Burn Builds will use Fervor, Anger or Urabrask the Hidden. The idea here is simple: have Haste, nuke the board to generate a lot of pain mana, play big creature that now has Haste and turn sideways. With a Burn Build, it is even more important that Creatures have as few mana symbols as possible, as they've already spent mana on a burn spell to Enable Rakdos. It's important to spend 5 mana on Heartless Hidetsugu making a 60/60 Endless One than have two or three mana symbols available for Sheoldred, Whispering One. This is a much more aggressive build than the heavy disruption, it's endgame is using inevitability found from Subversion or Palace Siege's Dragon mode to finish the table off of its last few points of damage if your opponents stabilize.
Burn Build and Disruption is incompatible for three reasons: deck slots, mana and tactics.
There isn't enough room in the 99 to place Burn and Haste makers alongside Disruption. For every card put into Rakdos, another must leave. Burn Build has Subversion and Festering Evil for a late game re-enable, which cuts into late game Disruption and re-enabling of Staxdos. If Gut Shot, Breath of Darigaaz, Flame Rift, Syphon Soul and Cave-In are the utility options in Burn, what does Disruption have left? Regarding mana, Disruption uses colored sources to play their threats, like Herald of Anguish or Balefire Dragon. Disruption does so by attacking with the horde to get a discount, then play its bombs. Burn is the opposite, spending mana on a burn spell to get discounts to play its' creatures. If the Burn Build spent its mana first, then does it have anything left for these color required Creatures? No, which is why they use Colorless Creatures. Lastly, a great deal of the Disruption Build uses symmetrical Discard, such as Creeping Dread or Stronghold Rats. Without a Hand, Burn would be able to play its Enabling Sorceries.
I dislike the Burn Build because it is trying to race the table and when you move to Multiplayer strategy the adage 'Multiplayer is a marathon, not a sprint' steps in. Burn does an impressive amount of fast damage, but has no real way to recover if Rakdos is stopped in his tracks. Gut Shot might be the easiest way to play Rakdos again; however, if you're relying on Breath of Darigaaz or another burn spell then you're going to have a bad time. You'll be spending two more mana to re-play Rakdos but are also taxed by whatever Burn Spell that is available to you. You could get lucky and have Lightning Bolt, while affordable it probably doesn't do much. Your Burn might be as costly as Cave-In which is 11 mana to replay Rakdos and Cave-In if you don't have a Red Card in Hand. Aside from requiring a Burn Spell in Hand, you need that to resolve. Disruption uses more affordable Creatures or small costed Enablers instead of the mega-sized threats in a Burn Build. One of these can sneak under Countermagic and then Rakdos is back on the table. Essentially, Disruption Build assumes things will go wrong and wishes to drain the table of resources so it will be unstoppable later. Burn Build assumes everything will be fine and wrecks so much of the table that opponents will be unable to fight back.
This is why certain cards work in a Burn Build but don't in Staxdos and vice-versa. Vial Smasher the Fierce makes perfect sense in a Burn Build. Pay 5 mana or Exile a Card for Cave-In - Vial Smashes for 5. Between the 2 damage to all opponents and Vial's trigger, you've Enabled 11 pain mana for your free Eldrazi. In Staxdos, you need to swing first, deal damage for a discount, play a Creature that then triggers Vial Smasher. Too many hoops for Disruption, just right for Burn. Or trying to chain a lot of damage before playing Maga, Traitor to Mortals. If you liked dealing lots of damage to then play huge fatties, you can but this guide isn't right for you.
Combo Build
There's an adage that the best EDH decks are all combo decks in disguise: they play normally until they assemble a win - unfortunately, the Combo build is incompatible with this Disruption Heavy Build.
The other set of cards not seen in the Disruption Build are for the Combo Rakdos. Combo Rakdos is using a bunch of ETB Triggers to kill the table. Very much like the problems with the Burn Build, Disruption cannot be used with Combo because of too often self-mutilating our Hand with symmetrical Discard. The Combo Build is clever because it also appears to be just a 'generic Rakdos deck' but then it just assembles a few cards to kill the table.
The Combo requires three things to work: sufficient damage to make the Colorless Creatures free with Rakdos on the board, a way to Bounce your own Creatures back to hand and then a way to kill the table.
Dealing Damage is easy enough, you're playing Rakdos. It only gets difficult if you need to hit as high as 10 to 13 depending on which Eldrazi Titan you're using if that's what you've drawn. Bouncing your own Creatures could involve a Cloudstone Curio or a self bouncer like Ancestral Statue. The final piece is either having a damage dealer in play, such as a Bontu's Monument, Impact Tremors or Purphoros, God of the Forge. Or it is possible to use Tendrils of Agony's Storm count from replaying these Creatures nigh Infinitely. Additional support could be Winding Canyons or Vedalken Orrery to wait for an opponent to deal sufficient damage to get a Pain Discount.
The reason I don't run a Combo Rakdos is I'm unwilling to spend money on the required Tutors to be able to assemble these, plus the amount of self-disruption would be counteractive to assembling combo. The one dedicated Combo list said that Combo is more of a backup, but it's something to keep in mind if your meta starts running a lot of Pillowforts - get cards that win you the game.
Strategy
Rakdos' Role
There's no other way to say this but admit that the deck revolves around Rakdos. Rakdos' goal is to deal as much damage as possible while disrupting your opponents to permit the damage. One thing of note: while Rakdos looks like he can Voltron very rarely does he. Six power ends the game in four swings at an opponent, with this deck's current speed and ferocity I usually deal lethal with the horde of creatures before Commander Damage comes into play. I've also designed Rakdos to assume that things won't go smoothly, which you can read more about in the 'Dealing with Hate' section.
Opening Hand
Does Amazing Work
An ideal hand is seeing an ETBT (Enters the Battlefield Tapped) Dual Land for Turn 1; a two mana enabler, such as Lim-Dûl's Hex or Shepherd of Rot; a Stax or Gas piece, such as Price of Glory or Phyrexian Arena for Turn 3; three lands that will guarantee the rest of the RRBB for a Turn 4 Rakdos; and large creature that can come into play on Turn 5 after Rakdos' swing. It is fairly easy to get such a hand but it is unlikely, you need to look for where you can compromise. It's not necessary to be married to this order but it is a good idea to keep that in mind - priority still exists with Enablers over Stax, at least in the beginning.
The highest priority is ensuring you have RRBB on Turn 4. You have three draws before then, so I would be comfortable with keeping a three land hand in the hopes that I would have the appropriate mana ready for Rakdos. If a hand is low on lands, I might be fine keeping it if I had a good suite of Enablers. Being mana screwed with Rakdos' large creatures means being screwed out of the game when we finally draw something to play. If you're mana screwed with Enablers, you still have a chance of getting Rakdos onto the field and then dropping bombs. Another thing to keep an eye open for is the draw spells - Faithless Looting, Night's Whisper, Read the Bones. These give mana light hands a little more leeway.
Starting with multiple Enablers isn't as bad of a problem as it seems. Almost every Enabler does damage to each opponent, so while individually they might not be doing too much damage, collectively they are paying massive dividends. For example, a Lobber Crew or Shepherd of Rot may only do 1 damage to an opponent, that's 3 damage to the table. With Rakdos hitting a single opponent, an Enabler makes any colorless Creature that is 9 or less free to play. Aggro's job is to deal 120 damage to the table, don't get fixated at how little each ping does to a single opponent but understand it is damage that scales with the table. The Cryptolith Fragment is a card you should be on the look out for and single-handedly raises the reasons to keep the hand, even if it is light on lands. If you get to three mana, you can cast the Fragment which color fixes you into casting Rakdos and does damage Enabling him.
If a hand is full of large creatures and lacks any Enabling, pitch the hand for a new one. An exception might be Bloodgift Demon or Archfiend of Depravity. The Bloodgift Demon can make an opponent lose life in a pinch to Enable a Rakdos play, plus it makes a short-time ally who wants the cards. If there is a mana-screwed opponent by the time Bloodgift Demon comes into play, it might be counter-intuitive but don't give them a card. Your goal is to Stax out your opponent, their bad draw has already done its job. Give the card to a medium threat opponent to play Rakdos. Archfiend is playable because it can swing to Enable but also makes sure that no one goes too wide.
Early Game (1-4 Turns)
Make That Mana
The goal here to setup for success. Ideally, you would have Rakdos in play with an Enabler and a Stax piece to leave yourself unmolested to begin attacking the board on Turn 4. If you have a late start, as in Turn 5 Rakdos, then a very punitive Stax piece or Enabler is required to excuse the late start.
For the first four turns, you have two objectives: have RRBB on Turn 4 and having a way of inflicting damage on Turn 4. Enters the Battlefield Tapped (ETBT) Land are importantly for the first turn or two. Some way of dealing damage or drawing cards to find what you're missing (Lands or Enablers) is then the next step. A great many of Enablers are Turn 3 for this reason, you've been given some breathing room for ETBT Lands. Turn 4 should be getting Rakdos into play. If it is looking like Rakdos is not going to be available for Turn 4, it is important to get some draw engine, good Stax piece or one of the slower Enablers into play.
Turn 4 proper mana is incredibly important, if a decision needs to be made regarding keeping Lands or an Enabler, keep the mana. You're only one or two mana short from hardcasting a variety of the threats Rakdos has, so you can then play him and begin a truly slow start to the 'Staxdos Strategy'. I cannot stress enough that the difference between Turn 4 Rakdos and Turn 5 is staggering. It determines whether he is the biggest threat on the board and can muscle his way past Blockers to get more damage. If Rakdos is going to die, you want it to be as fast as possible, so that you can plan to get him back into play as fast as possible. That way by Turn 6, Rakdos is back or has a commanding horde of monsters.
Mid Game (5-8 Turns)
Start Squeezing Those Resources
The Mid Game is split in three: whether Rakdos survived a swing to drop all sorts of Creatures, whether that was stopped or if you had a late Rakdos with a Turn 5 play. Not having Rakdos survive is easier to talk about so that'll go first.
If Rakdos does not survive to attack on Turn 5, the next decisions should be to getting to six mana, as you were able to cast Rakdos meaning you already have an enabler. This is a further point for this Staxdos build over a burn build because burn builds cause card advantage loss instead of gains. Essentially, the decisions of Turns 1-3 of drawing, filtering and assembling a way to get him onto the board still applies. The deck is fairly resilient in that there aren't any creatures with X CMC to try to hold onto; there are some nice 5 mana threats in the deck to guarantee you don't lose too much tempo. The hardest decision to make with the deck is learning to cast Artisan of Kozilek when there aren't any creatures for it to Raise; the second is learning to sacrifice your large beaters to Disciple of Bolas to draw more Gas and drop more bombs.
A late Rakdos is the worst option in the Mid Game. If Rakdos were answered on Turn 4, you can spend turn five setting up for his return on Turn 6. If he is played Turn 5 and gets answered, you may be lacking the Enabler if you were using a Creature-based Enabler and your opponent answered with a Wrath to reset the board. This might mean using Turn 6 to play an Enabler and getting Rakdos back into the action on Turn 7, assuming you hit a six mana drop. Also, if you decide to hard-cast any of the CMC 6-7 creatures, they may not be as impressive to the board state because everyone else has large creatures or lock pieces at that point. That means it is harder for Rakdos to connect and drop a horde, as he now has to fight past other creatures in his size category. Be cautious in keeping any hands that result in a late Rakdos for these reasons.
Find the Lock Piece
If Rakdos did survive and swung to get discounted demons, this is when you need to establish your Stax oppression through your creatures. The goal is to lock out your opponents out of the game. There is a controlled lock and an uncontrolled lock. A controlled lock is stripping opponents of their hands via tutoring Sire of Insanity. After Sire drops, any other bodies that come down can kill the majority of your opponents' options barring a lucky topdeck. Sire gets tutored either through Blood Speaker, Rune-Scarred Demon or mass card draw that nets you a tutor or the Sire himself. A quick answer, but not as final, is using Myojin of Night's Reach. Once you've removed a player's hand, you can remove the quality of topdecks with Nullstone Gargoyle and Void Winnower. Obviously, a controlled lock is much more superior than an uncontrolled.
An uncontrolled lock is when you don't get a tutor to strip players of their hands or when a large threat has emerged that needs to be dealt with. For example, if you have an opponent that is going very wide with dorks a Demon of Dark Schemes can sweep them away while setting up reanimation shenanigans. Archfiend of Depravity is another option of cutting down a wide opponent. If you don't have tutors, landing a card advantage engine of some kind is paramount. A setback would probably be a Wrath from an opponent. Kothophed, Soul Hoarder or Harvester of Souls refuel Rakdos after such a Wrath. Phyrexian Reclamation or Tortured Existence is a noncreature version, allowing for recycling creatures you need to play, at the very least minimizing Rakdos' Commander Tax.
This where the Stax agenda really kicks in. It's easy enough to surprise the table with a horde of Demons and Eldrazi but it is difficult to close out the game when the table is united against Rakdos. With the game lasting quite a few turns, it's possible someone has ramped into impressive an impressive amount of ramp and can hardcast their own dangerous creatures. Rakdos excels during Turns 4 to 6, as it tends to have the biggest boys on the board. Our goal is to reduce the game back to Turn 4. One of the easiest ways to accomplish this is via Keldon Firebombers. With every player being stuck on 3 mana, they won't be able to replay their Commanders, many of their large threats can sit in their hands that might get discarded to Rakdos' many discard effects and Rakdos' threat throughput is barely slowed down.
The other option of choking resources is via the Annihilating Eldrazi. Every option is bad for your opponents. If they Sacrifice Lands, they're setting themselves back in turns which is exactly the goal of the deck. If they Sacrifice Artifacts or Enchantments, then those are assets that will no longer be available. If they Sacrifice Creatures, then there are less blockers to stop the onslaught. Afterwards, they still need to make Blocks which could result in more Creature deaths - making future Annihilator triggers more devastating. Essentially, a player can weather one or two combat phases from Eldrazi before they lack a board state. The Eldrazi and other creatures in this deck force players to block or quickly lose life. If left unblocked and your opponent does decide to take the damage, that accomplishes the ultimate removal piece - player death.
Dealing with Hate
No Hand = No Hate
Rakdos immediately draws the ire of the entire table unless you're playing with high tier combo/control decks. If your opponents have never faced against Rakdos, they'll quickly learn to throw as much hate towards him unless someone is playing an even more punitive Commander. This is why the Mid Game section is the longest on how to pilot Rakdos and it is also why I designed the deck for Stax. The natural assumption of the deck is that Rakdos will be answered on Turn 4 and probably on Turn 6. If he is not, he wins. But this is the 'Dealing with Hate' section - we're going to assume Rakdos does get answered.
Luckily, for a deck that revolves around the Commander so much, Rakdos still feels like a great deal until he hits 10 mana. By which I mean that many Commanders that get hated out of the game start feeling less like great deals and more burdensome to recast, especially if they already start at the 6+ CMC. At 4 CMC, Rakdos is a hyper efficient beater with good abilities. At 6 CMC, Rakdos is mana efficient as a 6/6 Flying Trampler. At 8 CMC, Rakdos is a utility creature with beef. It is only at 10 mana does Rakdos' cost become untenable, as you can practically hard cast all of the dangerous threat. With that in mind, compare him to other frequently hated out Commanders and you'll see that their costs quickly become untenable. For expensive Commanders like Omnath, Locus of Rage, two deaths is frequently enough to make him not worth casting. For inexpensive Commanders like Meren of Clan Nel Toth, two deaths makes her an inefficient utility creature but more importantly, stops her value engine. The two recursive Enchantments of Phyrexian Reclamation and Tortured Existence don't hurt reducing Rakdos' cost either.
With Rakdos being worthwhile to cast for multiple stages means that a great many of the six and seven mana drops, who are Stax creatures, can halt the progress of your opponents' game plans. They might be without creatures or cards so that when Rakdos does get recast, they'll be unable to answer him. For example, an early Stronghold Rats might've enabled Rakdos on Turn 4 but took a few turns to be answered by a Wrath to reset Rakdos' board state. Three swings in and your opponents have three less cards to deal with Rakdos' return, including a Herald of Anguish, Scythe Specter or Sire of Insanity as later creature drops to reduce your opponents' hands further.
Thanks
Grinning Demon's original brewing of Rakdos when he came out. It was an exciting time, a lot of people came out of the woodwork to throw in their two cents. Grinning Demon's list and brew session can be found here.
Jusstice's sage advice on the original Rakdos brew thread including: pain permanents, an ode to Alcoholic's Anonymous' prayer and the value of Haste in Rakdos. He peppers in a lot of value but this post in particular is what got original idea in my head for a Staxdos build.
Prid3 has provided years of Multiplayer Analysis that is amazingly helpful. You should read his collection of colour analysis.
Rumpy5897 was so helpful in my Daxos Thread that I couldn't help but copy his Daxos Card Options style for this thread. He's a real scholar and gentleman, pointing out flaws in my deck building without saying "Oh god you scrub."
Wallabe for his awesome Commander Alter I used when I was updating the thread. He has a great Primer on Phenax, Mill Foreman and I lifted his Strategy section.
VashBishmark of the EDH Primer Committee for very hepful feedback on my previous attempts to get an EDH deck Primered.
The detail has helpful for focusing on what to write in this EDH strategy guide.
Sir Malkin's Combo Rakdos - it reminded me of another way to take the party, I even toyed with an overhaul. While I couldn't use the lessons in his deck, they might be useful for you.
I really revamped this with adding some more medium game and a bit more end-game. My card draw seems a little weak but that could because my goldfishes are staying alive longer than they would in reality.
I'd probably want to add in a few more Demons so that my Blood Speaker has something to do. I am a fan of Ob Nixilis, the Fallen as a way to power out a Rakdos. Land Drop FTW.
If I had one, it would probably be in the deck but I am using Lobber Crew in the mean time. Also, it has hilarious synergy with Rakdos and is actually able to stop some of the more aggressive advances.
Dread Return -> Artisan of Kozilek - Dread sometimes didn't have a target to get because of how quickly I could pile on the beats or I just didn't have targets. Artisan is a creature in of itself, it is possible albeit not probable I can hard cast him and is entirely colourless for Rakdos. It is also an awesome critter.
Carnival Hllsteed -> Geth, Lord of the Vault - Hellsteed is terrible and while I don't know how much of Geth's X ability I will be using, it is probably a better drop post-Combat than Hellsteed.
Avatar of Fury -> It That Betrays - I was choosing between Bloodfire Colossus or Avatar, and while Avatar is much more likely to be cast; Bloodfire actually does something by sweeping the board or finishing off wounded players. It that Betrays is another "Rakdos Mana" castable, so in he goes.
Coldsteel Heart -> Iron Myr - Mana Rock for Mana Man. Pre-Rakdos Mana Man is credit to team!
Goblin Bombardment -> Triskelavus - I really like Bombardment, but it does nothing by itself. Triskelavus is free after a Rakdos swing but also brings Pingers for me to enable Rakdos in the later game. Its colourless so I don't need to worry too much about colour fixing.
Fireball -> Avatar of Fury - I don't use Fireball that often, as I'd be too busy doing something else. Avatar can become cheaper through numerous ways, has evasion and Firebreathing. That's like Fireball, amirite?
Pyroclasm -> Shepherd of Rot - I shouldn't be worrying about dorks, but enabling Rakdos and Shepherd of Rot does so. Being able to drain the table is fantastic! Plus Pyroclasm would be killing a lot of my enablers...
Nekrataal -> Solmn Simulacrum - Nekrataal is small dork in comparison to what bombs I can drop. The other 187s are bigger or have alternative ways to kill. I needed to focus more on setup, which the Sad Robot lets me. Free after a Rakdos swing and this guy is just pure card advantage.
Geth, Lord of the Vault -> Carnival Hellsteed - I took Geth out because he would suit another deck much more, I'm looking for another copy to place in here. Hellsteed is the one that is overall just a general solid beater.
I've given my front page a face lift in accordance to the new power level plateau that Rakdos has hit. He's probably still not the most viable General, but whatever. He's awesome fun.
Avatar of Fury -> Steel Hellkite - Avatar seems to be my go-to guy when I want to make a cut. Hellkite does a decent job replacing the Avatar, being easy to cast, free with Rakdos and is another Firebreather. What makes Hellkite awesome is I have the ability to deal with permanents of my opponents that aren't creatures.
Carnival Hellsteed -> Kaervek the Merciless - They're the same size! Actually, its more of I'm a fan of Kaervek and can use my opponents to kill themselves. Incredibly cheap with Rakdos.
Havengul Vampire -> Taurean Mauler - Vamper that ain't going to stay small forever and is able to be efficient in the early game. The Mauler is cheaper, is able to be efficient and is also going to get big.
Dark Hatchling -> Duplicant - In a complete boneheaded maneuver, I forgot about Duplicant. He Exiles his targets, is a colourless Artifact which makes my life easy. Hatchling, in comparison, looks full of restrictions.
Phyrexian Rager -> Wheel of Fortune - I am a fan of the little guy, I won't lie. Rakdos enables him to be a 2/2, lose 1 life and draw 1 card. Sweet deal. But that is when I am in magical Christmas land. Wheel lets me dig myself out when I am low on fuel and that is quite often a necessity when I am playing Aggro in Multiplayer.
Grafted Wargear -> Skullclamp - I am a fan of Grafted Wargear. I think it is a subtle gem. It makes my big guys bigger, my small dudes big. That doesn't do much when I am already dropping Demons and Dragons. Skullclamp lets me draw cards, which is something I am vitally short on. It was a painful, necessary cut.
Nefarox, Overlord of Grixis -> Harvester of Souls - Yes, I am cutting a Demon but I am putting in one that I think is far more useful. I am short on card draw and the only CA Nefarox provides involves me jumping through hoops - Souls will provide when I just turn sideways. He just might be my auto-search when I looking for Demons.
Phyrexian Gargantuan -> Geth, Lord of the Vault - I found another copy of Geth. The pseudo-CA he provides is far greater than what the Gargantuan could provide. Bigger with evasion on top of that, Geth was an easy fill-in.
Shred Memory -> Swiftfoot Boots - Protecting Rakdos is paramount. The stupid **** this deck can do is because of the general, not because the creatures are riduculous. I got rid of maybe utility for something I know I would need.
Urborg Volcano -> Akoum Refuge - Strictly superior. Didn't want to get a basic because I have found myself too ETBT screwed at times.
Swamp -> Graven Cairns - Forgot the Cairns even existed. Swamp because there are more swamps, though with Blood Moon I should make more cuts into Mountains. Will keep an eye if I have too much Red in the future.
Thrill-Kill Assassin -> Bloodgift Demon - Bad card for something better. The Assassin theoretically enables Rakdos by swinging and scoring a hit because no one wants to block. Demon, on the other hand, actually does this with evasion and at worst, I can give them a card to cast Rakdos.
Squealing Devil -> Graveborn Muse - Another poor "enabler" for something more solid. I need to draw cards badly, at any cost, and the Muse is not a bad deal.
Bloodfire Colossus -> Blightsteel Colossus - Colossus for Colossus? I figured one big man for another. Also, Sneak Attack is hilarious with either - though I like the version where I win much more.
I found that I would draw perhaps a bit too much land. I looked around and saw that I had the most lands out of all the Rakdos decks. I decided to remedy that.
Swamp -> Mikaeus, the Unhallowed - He's Mike. Now I just need a Trike. I was tempted but I don't want to infinite combo, unless I keep finding myself on the receiving end of one. This is EDH! We should be swinging with big beefy men!
Is Subversion really that big of a deal? I see it randomly.
Shivan Gorge was an excellent spot. Yeah, that's great with or without Rakdos (I am trying to make the deck somewhat not so reliant on Rakdos, as people really hose the **** out of him). Thank you very much for that one.
The others, I don't find I have the time to use either. Pestilence can really suck, as I need to leave something on the board to use it. I don't want to have to slam down Pestilence, pay for a ping, and then try to figure out how I can afford Rakdos.
I am beginning to suspect that I am a little heavy on mana, as I still find numerous land draws as I pilot the deck.
I also made one change tonight, as after a few games Innocent Blood was never what I wanted. Black Sun's Zenith is scalable and if I want to Blood, I probably want to wrath. And if I Zenith, my guys tend to be bigger, so I am find with killing the board and having a few more dorks about.
You mention you want to add Ob nixilis, so I suggest cutting Geth for him, adding another demon in the process. Some other creatures you chose seem weird to me as well. Why not add Dragon Mage and Knollspine for Vampiric Dragon and for instance Taurean Mauler?
Reanimation as in bringing creatures back from the grave: Corpse Dance, Reanimate, Diabolic Servitude, etc. They can be used to get the guys you played back after your opponents dealt with them. You get a nice discount and you don't need Rakdos for this, so it adds some resilience to the deck.
With odd picks I mean that you included some non-demon creatures that seem to be less powerful than even some demons you could have chosen.
I really like the Goliath, because he gets huge fast and becomes a must deal with threat - leaving my more 'dangerous' men alone - Eldrazi, Rakdos, etc. But Pestilence Demon does drag my opponents life down and makes re-casting Rakdos quite viable. I'll have to look at other potential cuts, I really like the Goliath as well because he's just one R after Rakdos swings unimpeded.
Kagemaro is a good call, I forgot he even existed. I also recalled the other day that the Taurean Mauler is in fact a Demon. Its another way to wipe the board, even if it is just weenies, so I can get my big men in.
Nether Traitor is on my mind, the problem is getting one.
I am really enjoying the Diabolic Servitude suggestion, as I have found that I do not have the graveyard package to support Corpse Dance but my men are big enough that they're not going to randomly trade with something. I like the incidental reanimation support suggestion.
I may be taking out Sneak Attack for it, because that card has not been doing much for me.
I really like the Goliath, because he gets huge fast and becomes a must deal with threat - leaving my more 'dangerous' men alone - Eldrazi, Rakdos, etc. But Pestilence Demon does drag my opponents life down and makes re-casting Rakdos quite viable. I'll have to look at other potential cuts, I really like the Goliath as well because he's just one R after Rakdos swings unimpeded.
Kagemaro is a good call, I forgot he even existed. I also recalled the other day that the Taurean Mauler is in fact a Demon. Its another way to wipe the board, even if it is just weenies, so I can get my big men in.
Nether Traitor is on my mind, the problem is getting one.
I am really enjoying the Diabolic Servitude suggestion, as I have found that I do not have the graveyard package to support Corpse Dance but my men are big enough that they're not going to randomly trade with something. I like the incidental reanimation support suggestion.
I may be taking out Sneak Attack for it, because that card has not been doing much for me.
Sneak Attack is brilliant with recursion, especially to hand recursion like Phyrexian Reclamation which really wants to be in your deck. So if you're not going to include a hefty reanimation package, I think your decision to take out Sneak Attack is probably pretty good.
A good argument for recursion in a Rakdos deck is that when your explosive start does get stomped, you have a late game.
Iron Myr -> Diabolic Servitude - I needed more sustain than burst and the Myrs have been weak for a while.
Sneak Attack -> Strands of Night - Again, needed more sustain than burst. I've been playing MOBAs too much, I guess. I don't have problems getting my men on the field, its having them stick.
Flametongue Kavu -> Disciple of Bolas - FTK sadly didn't do much useful removal, as most things I wanted to kill have an ass of 5+. Disciple gives me life, cards and clean up my board. It has allowed for some ridiculous plays.
Chaos Imps -> Psychosis Crawler - Imps are awesome but they're not as much of an enabler as the Crawler, who can come down for free and the Crawler is decently sized (if not sometimes huge). Plus blocking is sometimes a big deal.
Mindclaw Shaman -> Balthor the Defiled - I didn't find Mindclaw that impressive, most of the time I'd fish for a Wrath which is a bit counterproductive with Rakdos. Card draw also felt a little weak. Balthor lets me come back from Wraths, which is very much appreciated.
Triskelavus -> Dusk Urchins - Triske is the least impressive big dude, Dusk Urchins curves out into Rakdos and will provide card draw. I found this gem in multiple lists and I'll give it a whirl.
Overall, I think is a lot smoother. Now, I just need to hunt down a few choice cards and I'll be pretty satisfied with Rakdos so far. I know its all in balls deep but having some good life gain would be great.
Hamletback Goliath -> Sepulchral Primordial - I said I liked the Goliath because he gets huge and its OK if opponents kill him because they're not targeting my more dangerous men. If he isn't dangerous, or less so than others, then its the wrong card to play. There have been times when sacrificing him due to his hugeness would've been unreasonable with Disciple of Bolas because I didn't want to draw that many cards I'd have to discard. The Primordial may not have as big of a target on its head once it is in the Red Zone (which is nice with Evasion), but getting their best dead creatures is worth the play.
Vampiric Dragon -> Kokusho, the Evening Star - I found that I couldn't hard card the Dragon, I found his cost irritating to play around even with Rakdos' full discount and I rarely found his ping to be worthwhile. Sure, Vampire Dragon is a pretty neat concept but I got a real life draining Dragon in Kokopuffs. Much more dangerous.
Dauthi Horror -> Tortured Existence - Easy way to hit an opponent but wasn't that necessary. Someone has vulnerable. Not in the closest for similarity but the Horror was the weakest card in the deck, so I'm adding the ability to sift for a creature I need right now. Should allow for some silly sacrifice abilities.
Mountain -> Swamp - I just added a bunch of Black while withdrawing Red. I might even need to swap another Mountain for Swamp but I'm uncertain at this point.
I haven't played in a bit. Is there any new cars that have come out that are a no-brainer for this sort of build for Rakdos? The only one I can see is Mogis.
Promise of Power -> Homura, Human Ascendant - Frequently I couldn't reduce the cost of Promise of Power, making it a pain in the ass to deal with. Homura was added as I felt a little screwed over by Wraths, he's Wrath insurance where all of my creatures now fly at +2/+2 and Firebreathing.
I decided to change gears with Rakdos, slightly. If it was under 3 mana, it should be used to get Rakdos into play. The various Landfall to deal damage cards is nice, but I got to say that the Cryptolith Fragment has got to be the best find. Does damage, provides mana. Victimize is a way to get powerful creatures back by pitching late game arriving weenies. Feldon of the Third Path adds more to the re-animator package.
If it cost more than 3, then it should be used to either Stax my opponent or give me more gas. I am still looking at Indulgent Tormentor as a way to get Rakdos, Lord of Riots into play; however, he's not priority as much as say a Combustible Gearhulk.
Quick Update: Knollspine Dragon went in for Mask of Memory. The Mask was under 3 and didn't really help Rakdos get into play, and damn, I've been chasing down a Knollspine Dragon for a while. It's a creature that should be in each Lord of Riots decks.
4 Rakdos, Lord of Riots
Creatures - 39
1 Spear Spewer
2 Rix Maadi Reveler
2 Shepherd of Rot
2 Thermo-Alchemist
3 Lightning-Rig Crew
3 Lobber Crew
3 Nettle Drone
3 Pilgrim's Eye
3 Stronghold Rats
3 Tunneling Geopede
4 Blood Speaker
4 Erebos, God of the Dead
4 Graveborn Muse
4 Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion
4 Spawn of Mayhem
4 Tree of Perdition
5 Archfiend of Depravity
5 Bloodgift Demon
5 Chainer, Dementia Master
5 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
5 Keldon Firebombers
6 Combustible Gearhulk
6 Demonlord Belzenlok
6 Etali, Primal Storm
6 Harvester of Souls
6 Kothophed, Soul Hoarder
6 Ob Nixilis, Unshackled
6 Rakdos, the Showstopper
6 Sower of Discord
6 Sire of Insanity
6 Wurmcoil Engine
7 Balefire Dragon
7 Knollspine Dragon
7 Meteor Golem
7 Overseer of the Damned
7 Rune-Scarred Demon
7 Sandstone Oracle
7 Sheoldred, Whispering One
8 Archfiend of Despair
8 Myojin of Night's Reach
8 Razaketh, the Foulblooded
9 Artisan of Kozilek
9 Nullstone Gargoyle
9 Void Winnower
10 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
3 Cryptolith Fragment
Enchantments - 8
1 Phyrexian Reclamation
1 Tortured Existence
2 Lim-Dûl's Hex
3 Necropotence
3 Phyrexian Arena
3 Price of Glory
3 Retreat to Hagra
3 Tectonic Instability
Instants - 6
1 Undying Evil
1 Vampiric Tutor
2 Imp's Mischief
3 Chaos Warp
3 Hero's Downfall
4 Bolt Bend
Sorceries - 2
3 Pox
3 Toxic Deluge
Lands - 37
0 Blood Crypt
0 Command Tower
0 City of Brass
0 Dragonskull Summit
0 Foreboding Ruins
0 Graven Cairns
0 Leechridden Swamp
0 Luxury Suite
0 Mana Confluence
0 Path of Ancestry
0 Piranha Marsh
0 Rakdos Carnarium
0 Reflecting Pool
0 Shadowblood Ridge
0 Smoldering Marsh
0 Spinerock Knoll
0 Sulfurous Springs
0 Tainted Peak
0 Temple of Malice
8 Mountain
11 Swamp
1 Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion
1 Silverclad Ferocidons
1 Spawn of Mayhem
1 Rakdos, the Showstopper
1 Sandstone Oracle
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Undying Evil
1 Imp's Mischief
1 Bolt Bend
1 Sin Prodder
1 Ulamog's Crusher
1 Disciple of Bolas
1 Geode Golem
1 Bane of Bala Ged
1 Stoneshaker's Mischief
1 War's Toll
1 Rix Maadi Reveler
1 Spear Spewer
1 Corpse Augur
1 Plague Spitter
1 Geode Golem
1 Demon of Wailing Agonies
1 Sower of Discord
1 Sunbird's Invocation
1 Mana Confluence
1 Mountain
1 Luxury Suite
1 Mountain
1 Sunbird's Invocation
1 Outpost Siege
1 Meteor Golem
1 Talisman of Indulgence
1 Plague Spitter
1 Rakdos Signet
1 Archfiend of Despair
1 War's Toll
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Demon of Dark Schemes
1 Neheb, the Eternal
1 Lantern-Lit Graveyard
1 Stoneshaker Shaman
1 Aggravated Assault
1 Demonlord Belzenlock
1 Sandstone Oracle
1 Erebos, God of the Dead
1 Read the Bones
1 Pox
1 Dreadbore
1 Aggravated Assault
1 Chainer, Dementia Master
1 Faithless Looting
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Overseer of the Damned
1 Demon of Wailing Agonies
1 Etali, Primal Storm
1 Outpost Siege
1 Terminate
1 Fleshbag Marauder
1 Scythe Specter
1 Night's Whisper
1 Silverclad Ferocidons
1 Herald of Anguish
1 Sandstone Oracle
1 Dire Fleet Ravager
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Necropotence
1 Dire Fleet Ravager
1 Lightning-Rig Crew
1 Path of Ancestry
1 Conduit of Ruin
1 Pain Magnification
1 Balthor the Defiled
1 Creeping Dread
1 Swamp
1 Razaketh, the Foulblooded
1 Neheb, the Eternal
1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
1 Kaervek the Merciless
1 Pain Magnification
1 Tectonic Instability
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Animate Dead
1 Tree of Perdition
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 City of Brass
1 Swamp
1 Herald of Anguish
1 Kokusho, the Evening Star
1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
1 Swamp
1 Guild Fued
1 Rocky Tar Pit
1 Ulamog's Crusher
1 Foreboding Ruins
1 Myr Battlesphere
1 Swamp
1 Balefire Dragon
1 Guild Feud
1 Mountain
1 Noxious Gearhulk
1 Staff of Nin
1 Swamp
1 Thermo-Alchemist
1 Animate Dead
1 Noxious Gearhulk
1 Artisan of Kozilek
1 Blood Crypt
1 Command Tower
1 Leechridden Swamp
1 Tainted Peak
1 Kyren Sniper
1 Black Sun's Zenith
1 Maga, Traitor to Mortals
1 Blightsteel Colossus
4 Swamp
1 Creeping Dread
1 Blood Speaker
1 Quicksilver Amulet
1 Indulgent Tormentor
1 Lim-Dûl's Hex
1 Price of Glory
1 Kyren Sniper
1 Keldon Firebombers
1 Archfiend of Depravity
1 Combustible Gearhulk
1 Bane of Bala Ged
1 Nezumi Graverobber
1 Keldon of the Third Path
1 Grenzo, Dungeon Warden
1 Shriekmaw
1 Butcher of Malakir
1 Banshee of the Dread Choir
1 Steel Hellkite
1 Temple of Malice
1 Spinerock Knoll
1 Phyrexian Reclamation
1 Night's Whisper
1 Read the Bones
1 Nettle Drone
1 Stronghold Rats
1 Quicksilver Amulet
1 Banshee of the Dread Choir
1 Kothophed, Soul Hoarder
1 Sire of Insanity
1 Scythe Specter
1 Demon of Dark Schemes
1 Butcher of Malakir
1 Nullstone Gargoyle
1 Void Winnower
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
1 Akoum Refuge
1 Swamp
1 Mogg Fanatic
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
1 Tormented Soul
1 Skullclamp
1 Swiftfoot Boots
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Viashino Heretic
1 Murder
1 Plague Spitter
1 Scourge of the Throne
1 Duplicant
1 Geth, Lord of the Vault
1 Sepulchral Primordial
1 Artisan of Kozilek
Changes 12/10/16
1 Dreadbore
1 Hero's Downfall
1 Chaos Warp
1 Plague Spitter
1 Chill to the Bone
1 Rend Flesh
1 Wrecking Ball
1 Victimize
1 Myojin of Night's Reach
1 Diabolic Servitude
1 Piranha Marsh
1 Indulgent Tormentor
1 Myr Battlesphere
1 Smoldering Marsh
1 Swamp
1 Strands of Night
1 Homura, Human Ascendant
1 Rakdos Guildgate
Changes 10/24/16
1 Scourge of the Throne
1 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
1 Knollspine Dragon
1 Mask of Memory
1 Cryptolith Fragment
1 Retreat to Hagra
1 Tunneling Geopede
1 Feldon of the Third Path
1 Corpse Augur
1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
1 Victimize
1 Sin Prodder
1 Ob Nixilis, Unshackled
1 Conduit of Ruin
1 Loxodon Warhammer
1 Dimir House Guard
1 Psychosis Crawler
1 Blood Speaker
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 It That Betrays
1 Slum Reaper
1 Taurean Mauler
1 Dusk Urchins
1 Blood Moon
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Fleshbag Marauder
1 Grenzo, Dungeon Warden
1 Homura, Human Ascendant
1 Talisman of Indulgence
1 Fire Covenant
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Tephraderm
1 Promise of ower
1 Rakdos Keyrune
1 Sepulchral Primoridal
1 Kokusho, the Evening Star
1 Tortured Existence
1 Swamp
1 Hamletback Goliath
1 Vampiric Dragon
1 Dauthi Horror
1 Mountain
1 Swamp
1 Faithless Looting
1 Pilgrim's Eye
1 Diabolic Servitude
1 Strands of Night
1 Disciple of Bolas
1 Psychosis Crawler
1 Balthor the Defiled
1 Dusk Urchins
1 Rogue's Passage
1 Agonizing Demise
1 Lead Myr
1 Iron Myr
1 Sneak Attack
1 Flametongue Kavu
1 Chaos Imps
1 Mindclaw Shaman
1 Triskelvaus
1 Steel Hellkite
1 Kaervek the Merciless
1 Taurean Mauler
1 Duplicant
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Chromatic Lantern
1 Skullclamp
1 Harvester of Souls
1 Geth, Lord of the Vault
1 Swiftfoot Boots
1 Akoum Refuge
1 Graven Cairns
1 Bloodgift Demon
1 Graveborn Muse
1 Blightsteel Colossus
1 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Avatar of Fury
1 Carnival Hellsteed
1 Havengul Vampire
1 Dark Hatchling
1 Phyrexian Rager
1 Talisman of Indulgence
1 Grafted Wargear
1 Nefarox, Overlord of Grixis
1 Phyrexian Gargantua
1 Shred Memory
1 Urborg Volcano
1 Thrill-Kill Assassin
1 Squealing Devil
1 Bloodfire Colossus
2 Swamp
1 Mountain
1 Leaden Myr
1 Triskelavus
1 Avatar of Fury
1 Shepherd of Rot
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Rune-Scarred Demon
1 Carnival Hellsteed
1 Bloodstone Cameo
1 Coldsteel Heart
1 Goblin Bombardment
1 Fireball
1 Pyroclasm
1 Nekrataal
1 Dauthi Marauder
1 Geth, Lord of the Vault
1 Artisan of Kozilek
1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
1 Geth, Lord of the Vault
1 It That Betrays
1 Dread Return
1 Silent Specter
1 Carnival Hellsteed
1 Avatar of Fury
1 Shadowblood Ridge
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Blood Moon
1 Viashino Heretic
1 Avatar of Fury
1 Bloodstone Cameo
1 Fire Covenant
1 Dark Hatchling
1 Swamp
1 Leaden Myr
1 Iron Myr
1 Krovikan Horror
1 Myojin of Infinite Rage
1 Spectral Searchlight
1 Sulfurous Blast
1 Phyrexian Plaguelord
Introduction
Why Play this Commander?
Deck History
Deck List
Card Options
Notable Exclusions
Strategy
Thanks
Changelog
I am a Timmy-Spike. That means between the original three recognized player types I like big effects and winning (the bizarre combo decks are part of Johnny's wheelhouse). When I play with big creatures, I acknowledge that I give up win percentage. After all, a big six mana beast easily gets answered with a Swords to Plowshares, Doom Blade or worse yet Counterspell. There's a reason, almost a meme, when it comes to creature evaluation that 'It dies to Doom Blade'. To win, I compromise my Timmy to satisfy my Spike. I thought I would be stuck with figuring out ways to cheat my creatures into play, bypassing their mana costs, or accept only mana efficient beaters. I did find a Tribe that would let me play big creatures and not compromise my Win % - Demons. Demons were originally removed from Magic due to the moral panic of the 90s and most of them were bad from a Spike's point of view. When Wizards printed Rakdos, Lord of Riots, they finally let the OG Black Tribe back into the game and this time Demons can get the job done.
Rakdos solves the 120 damage problem by running very large creatures, as well as using global damage effects. The next problem is players with answers to your threats - Combo and Control players. Rakdos excels in an underdeveloped board state, he is very mana efficient as a 6/6 with evasive keywords that can come down on Turn 4. A single early threat can be answered, it is important to flood the board with multiple problems. A weakness then arises of massive card disadvantage and a massive tempo loss if someone is able to blow up the board. After a few years of brewing, I realized many of these big Creatures come with the ability to starve the table of resources.
If Rakdos excels in an underdeveloped board state, then by playing with a Stax-like strategy, Rakdos can continually deny resources to opponents. This 'Staxdos' uses Discard to ensure opponents lack answers, Creature Sacrifice to ensure they have no blockers and Annihilator to eat into other Permanents. If a 6/6 is impressive on Turn 4 then by keep the table's resources at that level regardless of what the actual Turn is. By forcing players to Discard their Hands, Sacrifice their Permanents or Destroy their Lands, Rakdos may not be something they can answer. Without Hands, opponents are not able to match our threats and Rakdos' collection of 5+ Power Creatures eat into 120 Life quickly.
Stax-based Commanders
Cheating Fatties-based Commanders
Note: 'Staxdos' is more of a neat name than using the actual Stax Strategy. Stax, traditionally, is about using low cost Permanents that make it difficult for your opponents to accrue resources. This could be done with increasing the cost of spells, denying Untaps of Lands, early game Sacrifice or by disabling Activated Abilities of Mana Rocks. 'Staxdos' has no intention of interrupting your opponents' early game by denying early game resources - the aim is to destroy mid- and late- game for your opponents by making players Discard their hand, Sacrifice Permanents to our Eldrazi and blow up Lands. What makes Rakdos unique is his high throughput of Creatures you can Cast on very little mana; 'Staxdos' aims to accentuate the ratio of little mana spent for high impact creatures with resource denial. If you're looking for a real Stax deck, sorry to have led you astray - there are plenty of Commanders you could use. In fact, here is the MTG Salvation EDH Stax Primer.
I have been playing Magic on and off for twenty plus years. When I was off, a friend of mine invited me to a Magic 2012 day where they were giving out boosters for free to draft and the winner got prizes. I'm not going to argue with free, especially with the shot at winning more cards. The store was new and starting up its Magic scene, I went, won and cemented good feels. I opened Rakdos, Lord of Riots in some of my packs. My friend had a few Commander decks and after playing with his occasionally, I decided to put Rakdos to use. I've been playing Rakdos for over five years now and this is a Primer on how to play him.
The second version was when I started playing again, with a solid Rakdos deck. EDH had changed, it was much more streamlined, competitive and cutthroat. Sure, Rakdos could still survive and compete but he comes with a big target on his forehead. I made a Demon package because I had Blood Speaker but I was finding the deck to not be that competitive with my really high costed creatures. Rakdos would get answered or neutered and I would be sitting there uselessly for the rest of the game. I did notice a trend but it didn't come into being until a few months later: Rakdos Stax.
Instead of playing with really prohibitive cards if Rakdos got countered, killed or neutered, play with solid stuff that strips resources from your opponents. Rakdos came with a backup plan. Normally, it would be an all-in strategy on Rakdos to drop bombs on the board. With a Stax-based creature package, I could have Rakdos take a set back or two. He's powerful when the board is underdeveoped, with a Stax package the board is always underdeveloped which makes my big creatures even more threatening. The main goal at this point was to hit my opponents with a lot of Discard. Without cards, Combo couldn't go off, Control couldn't control and my big guys came out early enough to outsize Aggro.
1. Creatures
2 CMC
3 CMC
4 CMC
5 CMC
7 CMC
8 CMC
Note that Rakdos' cost reduction is an ability that 'looks backwards' - Rakdoes does not need to be on the field during damage to get the discounts. If a recursion engine is in place, it might be worthwhile to swing into a 'bad block' to have Rakdos die, get returned to hand and played again to get enough damage pushed through to get one of these amazing lock pieces into play.
9 CMC
10 CMC
11 CMC
Enchantments
2 CMC
3 CMC
4 CMC
Artifacts
3 CMC
3 CMC
Sorcery
1 CMC
2 CMC
3 CMC
Lands
The mana base is really simple. You might have noticed a lack of utility lands in comparison to many other EDH decks but that's because this deck needs to ensure that RRBB is generated on Turn 4. This means I am using as many of the good Enters the Battlefield Tapped (ETBT) lands, many of the conditional ETBT that may come untapped and as many dual lands as possible. This means I am even using Lantern-Lit Graveyard just to make sure that on Turn 4 Rakdos can come down. This means the utility lands are few and far between.
The Lands listed before are justifying their inclusion into Rakdos when they aren't dual lands.
Some cards, even considered staples, aren't in my deck for a variety of reasons. Here are different sections.
Tinkering
Tinkering are cards that I am currently toying with the idea of using.
Here are alternative cards for consideration that I think I have a better version of. If a card is too expensive, it would be under 'Wish List' of the Tinkering section.
These are cards that I considered in the past but decided to not add to the deck or conversely, were part of the deck but were cut for one reason or another.
Many Rakdos builds use Burn to Enable Rakdos and get his men going. The 'Staxdos' build does not. Reasons why are inside the spoiler.
A Burn Build maximizes colorless Creatures, which Eldrazi make a wonderful resource for, as they can disrupt your opponents. A Burn Build uses cards like Breath of Darigaaz and Flame Rift to deal a lot of damage, then you can play Creatures. Breath, as an example, does 12 damage to opponents if kicked in a 4 man pod: that's a free Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre or It That Betrays. It's imperative that these Creatures have Haste, so a great many of Burn Builds will use Fervor, Anger or Urabrask the Hidden. The idea here is simple: have Haste, nuke the board to generate a lot of pain mana, play big creature that now has Haste and turn sideways. With a Burn Build, it is even more important that Creatures have as few mana symbols as possible, as they've already spent mana on a burn spell to Enable Rakdos. It's important to spend 5 mana on Heartless Hidetsugu making a 60/60 Endless One than have two or three mana symbols available for Sheoldred, Whispering One. This is a much more aggressive build than the heavy disruption, it's endgame is using inevitability found from Subversion or Palace Siege's Dragon mode to finish the table off of its last few points of damage if your opponents stabilize.
Burn Build and Disruption is incompatible for three reasons: deck slots, mana and tactics.
There isn't enough room in the 99 to place Burn and Haste makers alongside Disruption. For every card put into Rakdos, another must leave. Burn Build has Subversion and Festering Evil for a late game re-enable, which cuts into late game Disruption and re-enabling of Staxdos. If Gut Shot, Breath of Darigaaz, Flame Rift, Syphon Soul and Cave-In are the utility options in Burn, what does Disruption have left? Regarding mana, Disruption uses colored sources to play their threats, like Herald of Anguish or Balefire Dragon. Disruption does so by attacking with the horde to get a discount, then play its bombs. Burn is the opposite, spending mana on a burn spell to get discounts to play its' creatures. If the Burn Build spent its mana first, then does it have anything left for these color required Creatures? No, which is why they use Colorless Creatures. Lastly, a great deal of the Disruption Build uses symmetrical Discard, such as Creeping Dread or Stronghold Rats. Without a Hand, Burn would be able to play its Enabling Sorceries.
I dislike the Burn Build because it is trying to race the table and when you move to Multiplayer strategy the adage 'Multiplayer is a marathon, not a sprint' steps in. Burn does an impressive amount of fast damage, but has no real way to recover if Rakdos is stopped in his tracks. Gut Shot might be the easiest way to play Rakdos again; however, if you're relying on Breath of Darigaaz or another burn spell then you're going to have a bad time. You'll be spending two more mana to re-play Rakdos but are also taxed by whatever Burn Spell that is available to you. You could get lucky and have Lightning Bolt, while affordable it probably doesn't do much. Your Burn might be as costly as Cave-In which is 11 mana to replay Rakdos and Cave-In if you don't have a Red Card in Hand. Aside from requiring a Burn Spell in Hand, you need that to resolve. Disruption uses more affordable Creatures or small costed Enablers instead of the mega-sized threats in a Burn Build. One of these can sneak under Countermagic and then Rakdos is back on the table. Essentially, Disruption Build assumes things will go wrong and wishes to drain the table of resources so it will be unstoppable later. Burn Build assumes everything will be fine and wrecks so much of the table that opponents will be unable to fight back.
This is why certain cards work in a Burn Build but don't in Staxdos and vice-versa. Vial Smasher the Fierce makes perfect sense in a Burn Build. Pay 5 mana or Exile a Card for Cave-In - Vial Smashes for 5. Between the 2 damage to all opponents and Vial's trigger, you've Enabled 11 pain mana for your free Eldrazi. In Staxdos, you need to swing first, deal damage for a discount, play a Creature that then triggers Vial Smasher. Too many hoops for Disruption, just right for Burn. Or trying to chain a lot of damage before playing Maga, Traitor to Mortals. If you liked dealing lots of damage to then play huge fatties, you can but this guide isn't right for you.
There's an adage that the best EDH decks are all combo decks in disguise: they play normally until they assemble a win - unfortunately, the Combo build is incompatible with this Disruption Heavy Build.
The Combo requires three things to work: sufficient damage to make the Colorless Creatures free with Rakdos on the board, a way to Bounce your own Creatures back to hand and then a way to kill the table.
Dealing Damage is easy enough, you're playing Rakdos. It only gets difficult if you need to hit as high as 10 to 13 depending on which Eldrazi Titan you're using if that's what you've drawn. Bouncing your own Creatures could involve a Cloudstone Curio or a self bouncer like Ancestral Statue. The final piece is either having a damage dealer in play, such as a Bontu's Monument, Impact Tremors or Purphoros, God of the Forge. Or it is possible to use Tendrils of Agony's Storm count from replaying these Creatures nigh Infinitely. Additional support could be Winding Canyons or Vedalken Orrery to wait for an opponent to deal sufficient damage to get a Pain Discount.
The reason I don't run a Combo Rakdos is I'm unwilling to spend money on the required Tutors to be able to assemble these, plus the amount of self-disruption would be counteractive to assembling combo. The one dedicated Combo list said that Combo is more of a backup, but it's something to keep in mind if your meta starts running a lot of Pillowforts - get cards that win you the game.
There's no other way to say this but admit that the deck revolves around Rakdos. Rakdos' goal is to deal as much damage as possible while disrupting your opponents to permit the damage. One thing of note: while Rakdos looks like he can Voltron very rarely does he. Six power ends the game in four swings at an opponent, with this deck's current speed and ferocity I usually deal lethal with the horde of creatures before Commander Damage comes into play. I've also designed Rakdos to assume that things won't go smoothly, which you can read more about in the 'Dealing with Hate' section.
The highest priority is ensuring you have RRBB on Turn 4. You have three draws before then, so I would be comfortable with keeping a three land hand in the hopes that I would have the appropriate mana ready for Rakdos. If a hand is low on lands, I might be fine keeping it if I had a good suite of Enablers. Being mana screwed with Rakdos' large creatures means being screwed out of the game when we finally draw something to play. If you're mana screwed with Enablers, you still have a chance of getting Rakdos onto the field and then dropping bombs. Another thing to keep an eye open for is the draw spells - Faithless Looting, Night's Whisper, Read the Bones. These give mana light hands a little more leeway.
Starting with multiple Enablers isn't as bad of a problem as it seems. Almost every Enabler does damage to each opponent, so while individually they might not be doing too much damage, collectively they are paying massive dividends. For example, a Lobber Crew or Shepherd of Rot may only do 1 damage to an opponent, that's 3 damage to the table. With Rakdos hitting a single opponent, an Enabler makes any colorless Creature that is 9 or less free to play. Aggro's job is to deal 120 damage to the table, don't get fixated at how little each ping does to a single opponent but understand it is damage that scales with the table. The Cryptolith Fragment is a card you should be on the look out for and single-handedly raises the reasons to keep the hand, even if it is light on lands. If you get to three mana, you can cast the Fragment which color fixes you into casting Rakdos and does damage Enabling him.
If a hand is full of large creatures and lacks any Enabling, pitch the hand for a new one. An exception might be Bloodgift Demon or Archfiend of Depravity. The Bloodgift Demon can make an opponent lose life in a pinch to Enable a Rakdos play, plus it makes a short-time ally who wants the cards. If there is a mana-screwed opponent by the time Bloodgift Demon comes into play, it might be counter-intuitive but don't give them a card. Your goal is to Stax out your opponent, their bad draw has already done its job. Give the card to a medium threat opponent to play Rakdos. Archfiend is playable because it can swing to Enable but also makes sure that no one goes too wide.
For the first four turns, you have two objectives: have RRBB on Turn 4 and having a way of inflicting damage on Turn 4. Enters the Battlefield Tapped (ETBT) Land are importantly for the first turn or two. Some way of dealing damage or drawing cards to find what you're missing (Lands or Enablers) is then the next step. A great many of Enablers are Turn 3 for this reason, you've been given some breathing room for ETBT Lands. Turn 4 should be getting Rakdos into play. If it is looking like Rakdos is not going to be available for Turn 4, it is important to get some draw engine, good Stax piece or one of the slower Enablers into play.
Turn 4 proper mana is incredibly important, if a decision needs to be made regarding keeping Lands or an Enabler, keep the mana. You're only one or two mana short from hardcasting a variety of the threats Rakdos has, so you can then play him and begin a truly slow start to the 'Staxdos Strategy'. I cannot stress enough that the difference between Turn 4 Rakdos and Turn 5 is staggering. It determines whether he is the biggest threat on the board and can muscle his way past Blockers to get more damage. If Rakdos is going to die, you want it to be as fast as possible, so that you can plan to get him back into play as fast as possible. That way by Turn 6, Rakdos is back or has a commanding horde of monsters.
If Rakdos does not survive to attack on Turn 5, the next decisions should be to getting to six mana, as you were able to cast Rakdos meaning you already have an enabler. This is a further point for this Staxdos build over a burn build because burn builds cause card advantage loss instead of gains. Essentially, the decisions of Turns 1-3 of drawing, filtering and assembling a way to get him onto the board still applies. The deck is fairly resilient in that there aren't any creatures with X CMC to try to hold onto; there are some nice 5 mana threats in the deck to guarantee you don't lose too much tempo. The hardest decision to make with the deck is learning to cast Artisan of Kozilek when there aren't any creatures for it to Raise; the second is learning to sacrifice your large beaters to Disciple of Bolas to draw more Gas and drop more bombs.
A late Rakdos is the worst option in the Mid Game. If Rakdos were answered on Turn 4, you can spend turn five setting up for his return on Turn 6. If he is played Turn 5 and gets answered, you may be lacking the Enabler if you were using a Creature-based Enabler and your opponent answered with a Wrath to reset the board. This might mean using Turn 6 to play an Enabler and getting Rakdos back into the action on Turn 7, assuming you hit a six mana drop. Also, if you decide to hard-cast any of the CMC 6-7 creatures, they may not be as impressive to the board state because everyone else has large creatures or lock pieces at that point. That means it is harder for Rakdos to connect and drop a horde, as he now has to fight past other creatures in his size category. Be cautious in keeping any hands that result in a late Rakdos for these reasons.
An uncontrolled lock is when you don't get a tutor to strip players of their hands or when a large threat has emerged that needs to be dealt with. For example, if you have an opponent that is going very wide with dorks a Demon of Dark Schemes can sweep them away while setting up reanimation shenanigans. Archfiend of Depravity is another option of cutting down a wide opponent. If you don't have tutors, landing a card advantage engine of some kind is paramount. A setback would probably be a Wrath from an opponent. Kothophed, Soul Hoarder or Harvester of Souls refuel Rakdos after such a Wrath. Phyrexian Reclamation or Tortured Existence is a noncreature version, allowing for recycling creatures you need to play, at the very least minimizing Rakdos' Commander Tax.
A controlled lock tends to quickly end the game. Late game usually occurs when you've got an uncontrolled lock. Other Stax pieces to consider is Ob Nixilis, Unshackled, Myojin of Night's Reach or Herald of Anguish.
The other option of choking resources is via the Annihilating Eldrazi. Every option is bad for your opponents. If they Sacrifice Lands, they're setting themselves back in turns which is exactly the goal of the deck. If they Sacrifice Artifacts or Enchantments, then those are assets that will no longer be available. If they Sacrifice Creatures, then there are less blockers to stop the onslaught. Afterwards, they still need to make Blocks which could result in more Creature deaths - making future Annihilator triggers more devastating. Essentially, a player can weather one or two combat phases from Eldrazi before they lack a board state. The Eldrazi and other creatures in this deck force players to block or quickly lose life. If left unblocked and your opponent does decide to take the damage, that accomplishes the ultimate removal piece - player death.
Luckily, for a deck that revolves around the Commander so much, Rakdos still feels like a great deal until he hits 10 mana. By which I mean that many Commanders that get hated out of the game start feeling less like great deals and more burdensome to recast, especially if they already start at the 6+ CMC. At 4 CMC, Rakdos is a hyper efficient beater with good abilities. At 6 CMC, Rakdos is mana efficient as a 6/6 Flying Trampler. At 8 CMC, Rakdos is a utility creature with beef. It is only at 10 mana does Rakdos' cost become untenable, as you can practically hard cast all of the dangerous threat. With that in mind, compare him to other frequently hated out Commanders and you'll see that their costs quickly become untenable. For expensive Commanders like Omnath, Locus of Rage, two deaths is frequently enough to make him not worth casting. For inexpensive Commanders like Meren of Clan Nel Toth, two deaths makes her an inefficient utility creature but more importantly, stops her value engine. The two recursive Enchantments of Phyrexian Reclamation and Tortured Existence don't hurt reducing Rakdos' cost either.
With Rakdos being worthwhile to cast for multiple stages means that a great many of the six and seven mana drops, who are Stax creatures, can halt the progress of your opponents' game plans. They might be without creatures or cards so that when Rakdos does get recast, they'll be unable to answer him. For example, an early Stronghold Rats might've enabled Rakdos on Turn 4 but took a few turns to be answered by a Wrath to reset Rakdos' board state. Three swings in and your opponents have three less cards to deal with Rakdos' return, including a Herald of Anguish, Scythe Specter or Sire of Insanity as later creature drops to reduce your opponents' hands further.
Grinning Demon's original brewing of Rakdos when he came out. It was an exciting time, a lot of people came out of the woodwork to throw in their two cents. Grinning Demon's list and brew session can be found here.
Jusstice's sage advice on the original Rakdos brew thread including: pain permanents, an ode to Alcoholic's Anonymous' prayer and the value of Haste in Rakdos. He peppers in a lot of value but this post in particular is what got original idea in my head for a Staxdos build.
Prid3 has provided years of Multiplayer Analysis that is amazingly helpful. You should read his collection of colour analysis.
Rumpy5897 was so helpful in my Daxos Thread that I couldn't help but copy his Daxos Card Options style for this thread. He's a real scholar and gentleman, pointing out flaws in my deck building without saying "Oh god you scrub."
Wallabe for his awesome Commander Alter I used when I was updating the thread. He has a great Primer on Phenax, Mill Foreman and I lifted his Strategy section.
VashBishmark of the EDH Primer Committee for very hepful feedback on my previous attempts to get an EDH deck Primered.
The detail has helpful for focusing on what to write in this EDH strategy guide.
Sir Malkin's Combo Rakdos - it reminded me of another way to take the party, I even toyed with an overhaul. While I couldn't use the lessons in his deck, they might be useful for you.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
-Honden of Infinite Rage, +... wait... honden isn't on your list in the first place...
-Shock troops, +Reiver Demon or some other wrath variant. You don't have much in the way of wraths.
-Seal of Fire, +Tormented Soul? I figure a 1 mana unblockable is reasonable here. Gut shot could work here as well.
Thoughts on Fling for this deck?
I'd probably want to add in a few more Demons so that my Blood Speaker has something to do. I am a fan of Ob Nixilis, the Fallen as a way to power out a Rakdos. Land Drop FTW.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
Silent Specter -> Sheoldred, Whispering One - Sheoldred is just awesome. Silent Specter was a card a friend just piled on to make the deck.
Carnival Hllsteed -> Geth, Lord of the Vault - Hellsteed is terrible and while I don't know how much of Geth's X ability I will be using, it is probably a better drop post-Combat than Hellsteed.
Avatar of Fury -> It That Betrays - I was choosing between Bloodfire Colossus or Avatar, and while Avatar is much more likely to be cast; Bloodfire actually does something by sweeping the board or finishing off wounded players. It that Betrays is another "Rakdos Mana" castable, so in he goes.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
Bloodstone Cameo -> Leaden Myr - Mana Rock for Mana Man. Post-Rakdos Mana Man is free!
Coldsteel Heart -> Iron Myr - Mana Rock for Mana Man. Pre-Rakdos Mana Man is credit to team!
Goblin Bombardment -> Triskelavus - I really like Bombardment, but it does nothing by itself. Triskelavus is free after a Rakdos swing but also brings Pingers for me to enable Rakdos in the later game. Its colourless so I don't need to worry too much about colour fixing.
Fireball -> Avatar of Fury - I don't use Fireball that often, as I'd be too busy doing something else. Avatar can become cheaper through numerous ways, has evasion and Firebreathing. That's like Fireball, amirite?
Pyroclasm -> Shepherd of Rot - I shouldn't be worrying about dorks, but enabling Rakdos and Shepherd of Rot does so. Being able to drain the table is fantastic! Plus Pyroclasm would be killing a lot of my enablers...
Nekrataal -> Solmn Simulacrum - Nekrataal is small dork in comparison to what bombs I can drop. The other 187s are bigger or have alternative ways to kill. I needed to focus more on setup, which the Sad Robot lets me. Free after a Rakdos swing and this guy is just pure card advantage.
Dauthi Marauder -> Rune-Scarred Demon - Marauder doesn't offer much utility. RSD lets me find card draw, chains with my Blood Speaker and is much more threatening as a 6/6.
Geth, Lord of the Vault -> Carnival Hellsteed - I took Geth out because he would suit another deck much more, I'm looking for another copy to place in here. Hellsteed is the one that is overall just a general solid beater.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
Avatar of Fury -> Steel Hellkite - Avatar seems to be my go-to guy when I want to make a cut. Hellkite does a decent job replacing the Avatar, being easy to cast, free with Rakdos and is another Firebreather. What makes Hellkite awesome is I have the ability to deal with permanents of my opponents that aren't creatures.
Carnival Hellsteed -> Kaervek the Merciless - They're the same size! Actually, its more of I'm a fan of Kaervek and can use my opponents to kill themselves. Incredibly cheap with Rakdos.
Havengul Vampire -> Taurean Mauler - Vamper that ain't going to stay small forever and is able to be efficient in the early game. The Mauler is cheaper, is able to be efficient and is also going to get big.
Dark Hatchling -> Duplicant - In a complete boneheaded maneuver, I forgot about Duplicant. He Exiles his targets, is a colourless Artifact which makes my life easy. Hatchling, in comparison, looks full of restrictions.
Phyrexian Rager -> Wheel of Fortune - I am a fan of the little guy, I won't lie. Rakdos enables him to be a 2/2, lose 1 life and draw 1 card. Sweet deal. But that is when I am in magical Christmas land. Wheel lets me dig myself out when I am low on fuel and that is quite often a necessity when I am playing Aggro in Multiplayer.
Talisman of Indulgence -> Chromatic Lantern - Decent mana rock for a strictly superior mana rock because it mana fixes for me.
Grafted Wargear -> Skullclamp - I am a fan of Grafted Wargear. I think it is a subtle gem. It makes my big guys bigger, my small dudes big. That doesn't do much when I am already dropping Demons and Dragons. Skullclamp lets me draw cards, which is something I am vitally short on. It was a painful, necessary cut.
Nefarox, Overlord of Grixis -> Harvester of Souls - Yes, I am cutting a Demon but I am putting in one that I think is far more useful. I am short on card draw and the only CA Nefarox provides involves me jumping through hoops - Souls will provide when I just turn sideways. He just might be my auto-search when I looking for Demons.
Phyrexian Gargantuan -> Geth, Lord of the Vault - I found another copy of Geth. The pseudo-CA he provides is far greater than what the Gargantuan could provide. Bigger with evasion on top of that, Geth was an easy fill-in.
Shred Memory -> Swiftfoot Boots - Protecting Rakdos is paramount. The stupid **** this deck can do is because of the general, not because the creatures are riduculous. I got rid of maybe utility for something I know I would need.
Urborg Volcano -> Akoum Refuge - Strictly superior. Didn't want to get a basic because I have found myself too ETBT screwed at times.
Swamp -> Graven Cairns - Forgot the Cairns even existed. Swamp because there are more swamps, though with Blood Moon I should make more cuts into Mountains. Will keep an eye if I have too much Red in the future.
Thrill-Kill Assassin -> Bloodgift Demon - Bad card for something better. The Assassin theoretically enables Rakdos by swinging and scoring a hit because no one wants to block. Demon, on the other hand, actually does this with evasion and at worst, I can give them a card to cast Rakdos.
Squealing Devil -> Graveborn Muse - Another poor "enabler" for something more solid. I need to draw cards badly, at any cost, and the Muse is not a bad deal.
Bloodfire Colossus -> Blightsteel Colossus - Colossus for Colossus? I figured one big man for another. Also, Sneak Attack is hilarious with either - though I like the version where I win much more.
I found that I would draw perhaps a bit too much land. I looked around and saw that I had the most lands out of all the Rakdos decks. I decided to remedy that.
Swamp -> Mikaeus, the Unhallowed - He's Mike. Now I just need a Trike. I was tempted but I don't want to infinite combo, unless I keep finding myself on the receiving end of one. This is EDH! We should be swinging with big beefy men!
Mountain -> Wurmcoil Engine - Just super solid.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
Some help on this, fellow Rakdos men, would be pretty helpful.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
subversion
shivan gorge
festering evil
pestilence
Also, Blood moon is a decent hoser but I doubt that Rakdos is the deck to play it since you need that slot for better stuff.
Shivan Gorge was an excellent spot. Yeah, that's great with or without Rakdos (I am trying to make the deck somewhat not so reliant on Rakdos, as people really hose the **** out of him). Thank you very much for that one.
The others, I don't find I have the time to use either. Pestilence can really suck, as I need to leave something on the board to use it. I don't want to have to slam down Pestilence, pay for a ping, and then try to figure out how I can afford Rakdos.
I am beginning to suspect that I am a little heavy on mana, as I still find numerous land draws as I pilot the deck.
I also made one change tonight, as after a few games Innocent Blood was never what I wanted. Black Sun's Zenith is scalable and if I want to Blood, I probably want to wrath. And if I Zenith, my guys tend to be bigger, so I am find with killing the board and having a few more dorks about.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
If not you van definitely put Kozilek, Butcher of Truth and Ulamog the Infinite Gyre in. Your deck could use alternative discount options as well: Heartless Summoning, Quicksilver Amulet and/or Belbe's Portal.
You mention you want to add Ob nixilis, so I suggest cutting Geth for him, adding another demon in the process. Some other creatures you chose seem weird to me as well. Why not add Dragon Mage and Knollspine for Vampiric Dragon and for instance Taurean Mauler?
BRGWTana and TymnaBRGW
RTeneb, the EternalR
UBRNekusar, Mind RazerUBR
Rakdos, Lord of Riots
BGWGhave, Guru of SporesBGW
Aurelia, the Warleader
BDrana, Kalastria BloodchiefB
WBROros, the AvengerWBR
What do you mean by re-animation?
What are some odd picks?
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
Reanimation as in bringing creatures back from the grave: Corpse Dance, Reanimate, Diabolic Servitude, etc. They can be used to get the guys you played back after your opponents dealt with them. You get a nice discount and you don't need Rakdos for this, so it adds some resilience to the deck.
With odd picks I mean that you included some non-demon creatures that seem to be less powerful than even some demons you could have chosen.
You could go: Hamletback Goliath --> Pestilence Demon for instance.
Or Flametongue Kavu --> Kagemaro, First to Suffer
Or from non-demon to better non-demon: Dauthi Horror --> Nether Traitor
BRGWTana and TymnaBRGW
RTeneb, the EternalR
UBRNekusar, Mind RazerUBR
Rakdos, Lord of Riots
BGWGhave, Guru of SporesBGW
Aurelia, the Warleader
BDrana, Kalastria BloodchiefB
WBROros, the AvengerWBR
I really like the Goliath, because he gets huge fast and becomes a must deal with threat - leaving my more 'dangerous' men alone - Eldrazi, Rakdos, etc. But Pestilence Demon does drag my opponents life down and makes re-casting Rakdos quite viable. I'll have to look at other potential cuts, I really like the Goliath as well because he's just one R after Rakdos swings unimpeded.
Kagemaro is a good call, I forgot he even existed. I also recalled the other day that the Taurean Mauler is in fact a Demon. Its another way to wipe the board, even if it is just weenies, so I can get my big men in.
Nether Traitor is on my mind, the problem is getting one.
I am really enjoying the Diabolic Servitude suggestion, as I have found that I do not have the graveyard package to support Corpse Dance but my men are big enough that they're not going to randomly trade with something. I like the incidental reanimation support suggestion.
I may be taking out Sneak Attack for it, because that card has not been doing much for me.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
Sneak Attack is brilliant with recursion, especially to hand recursion like Phyrexian Reclamation which really wants to be in your deck. So if you're not going to include a hefty reanimation package, I think your decision to take out Sneak Attack is probably pretty good.
A good argument for recursion in a Rakdos deck is that when your explosive start does get stomped, you have a late game.
WUBRG Some of these decks can actually win games...WUBRG
How I know I should build a deck:
Rogue's Passage -> Swamp - I made this change a while ago but for some reason didn't notice until now.
Agonizing Demise -> Faithless Looting - I needed more Gas and that hoops Demise asked for the full pay off were rarely worth the trouble.
Lead Myr -> Pilgrim's Eye - Colour fixing with evasion versus static colour choice.
Iron Myr -> Diabolic Servitude - I needed more sustain than burst and the Myrs have been weak for a while.
Sneak Attack -> Strands of Night - Again, needed more sustain than burst. I've been playing MOBAs too much, I guess. I don't have problems getting my men on the field, its having them stick.
Flametongue Kavu -> Disciple of Bolas - FTK sadly didn't do much useful removal, as most things I wanted to kill have an ass of 5+. Disciple gives me life, cards and clean up my board. It has allowed for some ridiculous plays.
Chaos Imps -> Psychosis Crawler - Imps are awesome but they're not as much of an enabler as the Crawler, who can come down for free and the Crawler is decently sized (if not sometimes huge). Plus blocking is sometimes a big deal.
Mindclaw Shaman -> Balthor the Defiled - I didn't find Mindclaw that impressive, most of the time I'd fish for a Wrath which is a bit counterproductive with Rakdos. Card draw also felt a little weak. Balthor lets me come back from Wraths, which is very much appreciated.
Triskelavus -> Dusk Urchins - Triske is the least impressive big dude, Dusk Urchins curves out into Rakdos and will provide card draw. I found this gem in multiple lists and I'll give it a whirl.
Overall, I think is a lot smoother. Now, I just need to hunt down a few choice cards and I'll be pretty satisfied with Rakdos so far. I know its all in balls deep but having some good life gain would be great.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
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Anyway, the question is what do I cut?
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Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
Vampiric Dragon -> Kokusho, the Evening Star - I found that I couldn't hard card the Dragon, I found his cost irritating to play around even with Rakdos' full discount and I rarely found his ping to be worthwhile. Sure, Vampire Dragon is a pretty neat concept but I got a real life draining Dragon in Kokopuffs. Much more dangerous.
Dauthi Horror -> Tortured Existence - Easy way to hit an opponent but wasn't that necessary. Someone has vulnerable. Not in the closest for similarity but the Horror was the weakest card in the deck, so I'm adding the ability to sift for a creature I need right now. Should allow for some silly sacrifice abilities.
Mountain -> Swamp - I just added a bunch of Black while withdrawing Red. I might even need to swap another Mountain for Swamp but I'm uncertain at this point.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
1 Knollspine Dragon
1 Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
1 Overseer of the Damned
Fire Covenant -> Toxic Deluge - Does the same thing but much more efficiently.
Diabolic Edict -> Fleshbag Marauder - Rather hit the whole table with a recurrable effect than one person, even if at Instant speed.
Tephraderm -> Grenzo, Dungeon Warden - Tephraderm is a pet card, I like the effect, especially to anybody playing Earthquake but Grenzo is a scaling threat.
Promise of Power -> Homura, Human Ascendant - Frequently I couldn't reduce the cost of Promise of Power, making it a pain in the ass to deal with. Homura was added as I felt a little screwed over by Wraths, he's Wrath insurance where all of my creatures now fly at +2/+2 and Firebreathing.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
1 Cryptolith Fragment
1 Retreat to Hagra
1 Tunneling Geopede
1 Feldon of the Third Path
1 Corpse Augur
1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
1 Victimize
1 Sin Prodder
1 Ob Nixilis, Unshackled
1 Conduit of Ruin
1 Loxodon Warhammer
1 Dimir House Guard
1 Psychosis Crawler
1 Blood Speaker
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 It That Betrays
1 Slum Reaper
1 Taurean Mauler
1 Dusk Urchins
1 Blood Moon
With the changes to the Tuck rule, Dimir House Guard and Bloodspeaker become less important and were cut.
I decided to change gears with Rakdos, slightly. If it was under 3 mana, it should be used to get Rakdos into play. The various Landfall to deal damage cards is nice, but I got to say that the Cryptolith Fragment has got to be the best find. Does damage, provides mana. Victimize is a way to get powerful creatures back by pitching late game arriving weenies. Feldon of the Third Path adds more to the re-animator package.
If it cost more than 3, then it should be used to either Stax my opponent or give me more gas. I am still looking at Indulgent Tormentor as a way to get Rakdos, Lord of Riots into play; however, he's not priority as much as say a Combustible Gearhulk.
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs
Mid-Tier: Marchesa Aggro Rose Asmadi Get Dire Tymna Ikra Woke Women Tiana Aura Angel Ruric Thar SMASH Smasher Kraum Mana Positivity Zur Slides
Filthy Casual: WUBRG Jodah WUBRG WUBRG Fatties WUBRG Gahiji Vigilant Vengeance Ezuri Mysterious Morphs