Combos Browse all Suggest
Legality
| Format | Legality |
| 1v1 Commander | Legal |
| Archenemy | Legal |
| Block Constructed | Legal |
| Canadian Highlander | Legal |
| Casual | Legal |
| Commander / EDH | Legal |
| Commander: Rule 0 | Legal |
| Custom | Legal |
| Duel Commander | Legal |
| Highlander | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Leviathan | Legal |
| Limited | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Planechase | Legal |
| Quest Magic | Legal |
| Tiny Leaders | Legal |
| Vanguard | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
Demonfire
Sorcery
Demonfire deals X damage to any target (creature, player, planeswalker or battle). If a creature dealt damage this way would die this turn, exile it instead.
Hellbent — If you have no cards in hand, Demonfire can't be countered by spells or abilities and the damage can't be prevented.
mrweaselman on
Giggly Boys (EDH)
1 year ago
Blade of the Oni, Dream Devourer, Gibbering Fiend, Rakdos Firewheeler, Rakdos Headliner, Spear Spewer, Thermo-Alchemist, Witty Roastmaster, and Kardur's Vicious Return are not very good imo.
Scourge of the Skyclaves is just an expensive combo with Wound Reflection. Havoc Festival is slightly cheaper and better in most situations, especially in chaos.
Syphon Mind is better than Blightning. Banefire is better than Demonfire. Malakir Rebirth Flip is better than Demonic Gifts. Curtains' Call is better than Murder. Baleful Mastery is better than Doom Blade.
Epicurus on Card creation challenge
2 years ago
By "the original Tibalt," I'm going to assume that you mean Tibalt the Chaotic.
Tibalt the Hellbent
Legendary Planeswalker - Tibalt
Hellbent - When ~ enters the battlefield, if you have no cards in your hand, it enters with two additional loyalty counters
+1 Choose a card name at random from Demonfire, Cackling Flames and Twinstrike and create a copy of that spell. Until the end of your next turn, you may cast that copy (you must pay that spell's mana cost).
-1 Choose a card name at random from Tragic Fall and Infernal Tutor and create a copy of that spell. Until end of turn, you may cast that copy without paying its mana cost.
-4 Choose a card name at random from Cutthroat il-Dal, Rakdos Pit Dragon and Jagged Poppet and create a token copy of that card
3
Make a version of Garruk if he were to be made in Crimson Vow. Bonus points if he transforms.
Mana_Mythic_Legendary on Pursuing Perfection, Part 8: Rakdos …
2 years ago
Brothers, sisters, and assorted non-binary siblings, welcome to the riot! You like throwing waves of frothing, hasty lunatics at your opponent AND profiting when said lunatics die? We got you! You like watching the world burn and don’t mind getting caught in the flames? We got you! You like anarchy? The purge movies? Gender reveal parties? We got you! Rakdos is the proud home of those who take pleasure at the expense of others, the sort of people who like to mix Skittles and M&Ms in the same party bowl. If that sounds fun, then just you wait: in the house of red and black, that sort of misbehavior is only the appetizer.
Haste and sacrifice. Vampirism and burn. Discard in both barrels. This is a beautifully synergistic color pairing that belongs in the same league as peanut butter and chocolate. Heath Ledger’s joker undoutably played a rakdos deck: things like Havoc Festival, Last One Standing, and Sire Of Insanity are all up the clown’s alley. There are a number of themes we can cover here, but as usual we’re settling for three: Discard, WAAAAGH, and Pain. As always, please bear in mind that the point isn’t a discussion of the competitive but rather as a celebration of the thematic.
Discard
This is both red’s primary draw resource and a uniquely black removal technique. Combining those aspects makes for a deck that both ruins opponent’s hands and digs through your own cards at shocking speed. Granted, you won’t have a big hand, but who cares? Suddenly you've got an overpacked graveyard at your black-hearted beck and call. Red self-mill and black reanimation, people, with just a naughty touch of haste. Discard a pile of hate and then pitch said pile straight into combat. You won’t be sorry.
A regular teddy bear, Chainer’s second coming is a real treat for anyone who left their graveyard hate at home. Haste on a stick is only a perk: suddenly your graveyard is only as full as you want it to be, and probably full of friendly, group-huggy things like Ravenous Chupacabra or Combustible Gearhulk. Yes, the table will certainly love you and your unending, undying deck of unbearable hellbeasts. Undoubtably.
Ok, this guy is horrifying, as you would expect of the king of Grixis. Anyone not running tokens is going to be mighty twitchy about seeing this guy hit the field, and who needs a hand anyway? Rakdos evidently loves empty hands, and rewards you for ensuring that particular misery has company. Consider, if you will, the fulsome, vicious suite of cards tied to poking those who discard. Consider Experimental Frenzy. Consider all the madness cards you could play (or, you know, just play Anje Falkenrath instead). And, if you get tired of the simple gains synergy can win you, you can always Demonfire someone.
THIS. This is neat. Leave aside the look on the face of that certain someone who steals everything on the board. Pay no mind that Seize the Day and all it’s red cousins can make Blim an unholy terror. Forget that you can pass off Demonic Pact, Grid Monitor, and whatever other obnoxiousness you can think of. None of that matters, no. This, for all you glorious nutters out there, is an excuse to finally play Nuisance Engine. That’s the takeaway here.
WAAAGH
Anyone can run tokens or big creatures, but only in Rakdos do you find the conjunction of boardwide haste and sacrifice. Harnessing right, proper WAAGH energy means not just drowning opponents in a tide of zippy little shits but also capitalizing on all that death to cause even more mayhem. Did you ever want to hold a bundle of fireworks, light them all at once, and watch whatever you point them at turn into a smoking, shredded pile of giblets? Here’s the lighter, fellas.
Treasure tokens. Nuff said.
There are a number of nasty combos here that I’d rather not spread. I’ll just say that long ago, I played many, many depressing games against a Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund deck. There was self-milling involved, and Living Death. Evidently, someone decided what the deck needed, rather than burning, was fewer moving parts. That someone deserves a long, interesting life in all the worst ways.
This guy makes me laugh. The idea of ruining the table’s carefully laid plans to off you and instead throwing them into combat with each other is absolutely hilarious. It’s like a Fog designed by someone with pyromania-by-proxy syndrome, and that second block of text the equivalent of throwing gasoline on an already burning house. Get a Conjurer's Closet in there and watch the fun.
Pain
Forget destroy effects. Those are too easy. Direct damage. -X/-X. -1/-1 counters. Life loss. All of the nastiness you can fling at opponents and creatures is under the umbrella of this color pairing. If you like blasting the unholy hell out of your opponents and their minions, this is the arsenal you’re looking to plunder. Stuff like Blasphemous Act, Toxic Deluge, or Orcus, Prince of Undeath will leave a smoldering crater of a battlefield, across which you’ll doubtless be stepping with appropriate gribbliness. Or launching that demonfire we talked about. Whatever works.
Ah, the original Mr. Stop-Hitting-Yourself. I’ve had my eye on this guy for over a decade. Do I own the deck? No. Do I intend to? Again, no. But the prospect here is so, soooo satisfying to think about. To hell with infinite combo fruitwaffles. Damned be those green jackasses ramming X cost spells down the table’s collective throat. Kaervek’s mean, but keeps it clean. Like, nuclear fire sterile clean, and the best part? It’s all self-inflicted!
We really can’t talk red-black without discussing demon himself (hehehe). This guy’s been piloting one of my decks for years, and for good reason. The lord of riots likes to pass out rewards for smacking people. Do you like to be rewarded for smacking people? I do. Rewarded with free things... Eldrazi things. Eldrazi things that tutor more things (Conduit of Ruin), reanimate more things (Artisan of Kozilek), or… well, you can always go for broke and just ruin someone else's things (Void Winnower). Run artifacts, like Hangarback Walker. Run X drops, like Maga, Traitor to Mortals. Run anything you like. Run everything you like. Just have fun running them for next to nothing.
-1/-1 counters, magic’s analogue for injury and agony. We really shouldn’t talk red-black without talking about Wither, the Everlasting Torment of a keyword that was a precursor to the dark days of Infect. It’s safe to say we all have opinions, for good or ill, about Infect’s place in commander. That said, if you want to play with -1/-1 counters and aren’t fond of green or dealing with those opinions, Scorpy’s first line of text makes this guy an overwhelmingly safe bet. Rocking crap like Black Sun's Zenith is the easy answer: let’s make this fun, discard a crapload of cards, and watch your opponent’s boards melt into obscene card advantage while your Archfiend of Ifnir giggles in the corner.
And for my personal favorite...
There is an unfortunate element of “screw you in particular” to Xantcha: declaring open season on somebody’s life total sends a particularly unpleasant message. This is another commander that, laying aside the card advantage, doesn’t bolster your deck, which makes for an interesting challenge. I’ve said it before, one hallmark of a good deck is the capability of functioning without its commander… though if you build this hateful beast, I suggest you pack lots and lots of ramp. Just ‘cause.
That's it for this round. Thoughts and questions are welcome. I hope you enjoyed it, and will come back next week for Gruul!
Prior Articles:
rb701 on
Self-Deprecating Hunger
2 years ago
Delirium Skeins, Geth's Grimoire, Megrim, Pain Magnification... depends on how crazy you want to go. Demonfire might be good as well
MagicMarc on What is the best card …
3 years ago
Banefire is one of the best, if X is = or >5, then Banefire cannot be countered and the damage cannot be prevented. Very sneaky and even in casual Commander with all kinds of fort and protection cards in play it can still get a win.
Death Cloud: Honorable mention. Go infinite, Cast it with X of 10000, say "I lost as well, but what a great finisher!"
Death Grasp: You gain as they lose.
Rocket Launcher: Like Goblin Festival or Goblin Cannon.
Molten Disaster: If Kicked it has split second. Very hard to disrupt. But you need support to live through it.
Demonfire: With no cards in hand, it's just like Banefire.
Diabolic Revelation: It lets you get all of your other x cards so you can win with all of them at the same time.
Mindshrieker: This is an odd one, and it's mill, but it gets a +x/+x boost and you can activate it for lethal as well as milling the entire table. It can also win without going infinite if you land on something spicy on an activation.
Golem Artisan: It needs a number of artifact creatures in play equal to your # of opponents, but it cnm grant +X/+X flying, trample and haste to x number of artifact creatures. This can be a game winning blowout very easily.
ElTacoDude on
Mizzix - The Pimp
5 years ago
There are some better red X spells than Red Sun's Zenith and Demonfire in my opinion. I prefer Rolling Earthquake , Rolling Thunder and Devil's Play .
Darth_Savage on
X Midrange
5 years ago
I'll admit to having a similar reaction to xyr0s. Pyromancer Ascension is a better card than Pyromancer's Goggles, it's probably better than Furnace of Rath most of the time too, I probably prefer Insult / Injury too. This deck needs Faithless Looting, Cathartic Reunion, heck even Tormenting Voice would be an improvement since right now your only draw is Manamorphose. I'm guessing your plan is to play Chalice of the Void on one to mess with your opponent then, wait until casting an X spell makes sense...
On the subject of the X spells Banefire and Demonfire are just better, due to the fact they can't be countered and the damage can't be stopped. It's good to have a theme, most efficient decks do, but having a theme only helps if the card choices are also efficient. The simple fact is that non X spells tend to deal damage more efficiently, take Skullcrack or Flames of the Blood Hand, there damage to cost ratio is better than an X spell, here's another Pyroclasm, it's a nice neat little board wipe. I don't mean to be overly negative, I'm just not sure this deck idea works that well, still I wish you luck and hope my com
Darth_Savage on
too easy
5 years ago
First the bad news Avatar of Slaughter isn't modern legal, so unless you are just playing casually you can't really use it. Second your deck is sitting at 67 cards, which isn't ideal and some of those cards aren't that efficient, when you are playing a burn deck the idea is to deal as much damage as quickly as possible. To that end something like Quest for Pure Flame, The Flame of Keld or Pyromancer Ascension are better options than Guttersnipe or Embermaw Hellion. Cards like Lightning Greaves, Crimson Wisps, Renegade Tactics, or Citanul Flute don't really fit and Myr Welder is a worse Necrotic Ooze.
You might also want to use Koth of the Hammer as your plansewalker of choice here and Fireball, while an iconic name, isn't as good as Banefire, Demonfire or even Devil's Play. A last thought is something like Molten Vortex, since ideally your deck has a lower curve and you have spells to produce mana. I hope this is of some help, good luck with your brew.
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