Wand of Orcus

Legendary Artifact — Equipment

Whenever equipped creature attacks or blocks, it and Zombies you control gain deathtouch until end of turn.

Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, create that many 2/2 black Zombie creature tokens.

Equip {3} ({3}: Attach to target creature you control. Equip only as a sorcery. This card enters the battlefield unattached and stays on the battlefield if the creature this card is attached to leaves the battlefield.)

Tokens

• Zombie 2/2 B

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Alchemy	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (23)

77hi77 on Defile Me Daddy Rakdos

8 months ago

Rocketman988 thanks so much! I had a busy couple of weeks so am only just getting to digest everything you've suggested. This is fantastic, thank you again!

Originally I had most of the devil token sorceries you suggested, then I took them out for a similar reason to something we've talked about in your deck's discussions with big demons: it has to be able do something other than be a body. Burn Down the House was the only one that made sense after that, but I think now the deck is at the point where I don't have enough tokens. It's the bad middle ground between how you've built yours, where you're expecting a small board state, and how I was originally planning to go wide and sac things without disrupting my board state. So, you're right as always, I'll put those back in the deck. I had never heard of Carrion, that card is perfect! I love Wand of Orcus, it's in my zombie deck; I think I kept it out of this one because of some idea of theme (that it's devils serving demons), but I literally have Orcus in the deck and he's allowed to play with his wand.

You did break my heart a little bit with the Strionic Resonator news, it was there either as an insurance policy (whether I get to deal damage or not, you're going to sacrifice your permanents), or as a way to share the love and have everyone sac things. Now that I know it doesn't work that way, it's kind of a relief, it opens up space for more cards that lean into the deck's main strategies/more protection for the key pieces.

That's kinda the big issue, I have so many demon strategies I want to play, I have two demon decks, and even then a lot of things don't fit in either. It's the issue with every deckbuilding process, cool cards that don't lend to your main strategy. Originally I had the deck full of possibly inefficient cards with flashback costs to synergize with Lord of the Forsaken, because I wanted to do something similar to what your deck does with Treasonous Ogre (not a demon, so I'm iffy about putting it in this one), Doom Whisperer, and Repay in Kind. That enters life manipulation territory, which my other demon deck focuses on more, but then I can't use Cut / Ribbons because that deck is mono black. Similarly, your Hellcarver Demon combos are some of the coolest bits of synergy I've ever seen, but again it feels like it fits better thematically in my other deck, but yours benefit greatly from having access to extra combats and haste. I've been deciding whether a Pestilence Demon + Shriveling Rot play fits better in this deck or the other, currently it's in the other one because that deck was starting to get boring (ramp, ramp, ramp, ramp, cast Razaketh, the Foulblooded, tutor, tutor, you lose half your life, you lose that much life again. I win). It sounds like I'm going to look closely at both decks and do whatever rebuilding I need to do.

I just bought a box of Commander Masters, so I've spent the weekend upgrading 4 other decks. Today can be Daddy Rakdos day, I'll keep this thread updated as I do it

Rocketman988 on Defile Me Daddy Rakdos

9 months ago

Hey 77hi77! I love the angle you are going for with the deck, the "playing like a demon" role. I really like the token subtheme, and it feels like you could lean into that even more to give you more breathing room to swing with Rakdos. With more emphasis on a token subtheme, you wouldn't set your board back as much when you swing with Rakdos for "revenge" when your besties turn on you. Instead of resource denial, he'd play as incentive for others to leave you alone OR ELSE. Flavor wise, the legion of tokens would represent your minions that are sacrificed to get what you want.

Burn Down the House, Dance with Devils, and Devils' Playground would fill out the devil token subtheme you have going on, and Asmodeus the Archfiend, Fiendish Duo, Mayhem Devil, and Sin Prodder add even more devil synergy that aligns with the deck goals.

Army of the Damned, Carrion, Curse of Opulence, Dreadfeast Demon, Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder, Wand of Orcus, and Infernal Genesis are all great token cards that fit the infernal theme. Baeloth Barrityl, Entertainer plus pump effects means permanent goaded enemy creatures and treasures for you to ramp with or sac to Rakdos as long as he's on the field. Speaking of pump, Arterial Alchemy can increase the power of your creatures, makes 4 permanents to sacrifice, and gives the deck even more draw power. Bloodthirsty Blade is a great demonic artifact to gift to problematic creatures. Black Market Connections gives you ramp, card draw, or tokens depending on what you need at the moment. Bite of the Black Rose is a super fun "choose your doom' flavor card. Head Games is a terrific demonic deal- while searching their library, see what deals they're willing to give you in order to get what they want. If they don't make a deal with you, they pay the price.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Rakdos's abilities are not targeted abilities, so Wyll's Reversal cannot copy Rakdos's sacrifice triggers. Likewise, you can copy Rakdos's on attack ability, but it will just make YOU sacrifice half your permanents again. Since Rakdos's ability does not target, so new targets cannot be selected for it; copying his abilities just does it again to the same person it would already affect. Additionally, Rakdos's abilities have separate triggers- one that triggers on your attack and one that triggers on dealing damage to an opponent. So you do have to deal damage to an opponent to copy the opponent sacrifice ability with Strionic Resonator or Lithoform Engine. That being said, Maze of Ith is an ability that goes on the stack when activated, so it can be responded to with cards like Bolt Bend, Not of this World, Deflecting Swat, etc. Maze of Ith and instant speed interaction usually targets too, so Lightning Greaves/Swiftfoot Boots help a lot with that too.

Rocketman988 on Demon Till Your Dreams Come True

9 months ago

77hi77, it makes me so excited to hear that you've caught the Rakdos bug and that my decklist and primer has helped inspire you to make Rakdos your own! You've made my day. He's such an unconventional powerhouse, and it's fun to watch players' faces when they realize the game state has suddenly shifted against them dramatically.

Your comment got me thinking about how to best verbalize the theory behind the deck, and when I began typing my response, I realized I had a lot more to say on the topic of "how the deck doesn't fall behind" when it attacks with Rakdos than I thought I would. So instead of replying with a book of text in the comments here, I created a new section in the primer called "Rakdos Game Theory". If you give it a read through, it should help you understand how I've attempted to solve the issue of how to survive attacking that you commented about.

I'd love to hear more about the direction you're taking your deck, but if you're not ready to share yet, send me a link to your deck when you are! The basics of not falling behind when you attack with Rakdos are mana density, card efficiency, and resource denial. If you want to build Rakdos on a budget, you'll want effects that packs as much mana onto each permanent as possible. Think Gilded Lotus, Everflowing Chalice, Chromatic Orrery, Sceptre of Eternal Glory, Dreamstone Hedron, Nyx Lotus, Rakdos Carnarium, Everglades, Dormant Volcano, stuff like that. That way, sacrificing hurts less because the bulk of your mana stays on a single permanent. Token producers like Wand of Orcus and Abhorrent Overlord are also excellent so that you can sacrifice the free value permanents instead of critical resources. Finally, play symmetrical table hate pieces like Pox, Shadowgrange Archfiend, Tectonic Hellion, Death Cloud, Insurrection, and Curse of the Cabal to keep everyone low on resources like you are. If you can afford them, the trio of It That Betrays, Tergrid, God of Fright  ^Flip, and The Reaver Cleaver are in my opinion mandatory in any list that wants to prioritize attacking with Rakdos.

bklounge on Zombie Tribal - Deciding My …

1 year ago

My three favorite zombie commanders personally are Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver, Grimgrin, Corpse-Born, and The Scarab God. Wilhelt is great because he gives you a nice bit of card draw with his sac ability. If you are trying to build a go wide deck, Wilhelt will be more of a value engine to get you running the first couple of turns. However, if you aren't making your deck a sacrifice deck the extra decayed tokens aren't quite as useful. My Wilhelt deck was built to drain my opponents through sac payoffs, and while it was definitely my highest powered zombie deck, repeating the same infinite combos with Gravecrawler became a little boring. Scarab God is really fun because it does a little bit of everything. The upkeep ability is nice when going wide because you should have quite a few zombies, which will drain your opponents over time and also allow you to grab your best cards depending on the situation. Add in cards like Paradox Haze and Wound Reflection and it really starts to add up. Being able to use the reanimate effect is really fun too and can make each game & wincon unique depending on whats in your opponents graveyards. Right now, I'm having the most fun with Grimgrin. He gives you removal in the command zone, and gives you versatility with your attack strategy. You can pump up your zombies with lords and go wide (and use Grimgrin to remove the biggest threats), or you can sac your zombies to him and go tall with commander damage. Most satisfying win I've had was pumping up Grimgrin, swinging with Wand of Orcus equipped to eliminate one player with commander damage, and then knocking out the other two players with the resulting zombie tokens. Overall I just think he's a blast to play, even if he's not the most high powered.

jarncards on Dead WOMan Walking

1 year ago

Fiend Artisan is green

I think Sidisi, Undead Vizier is awful unless you use a lot of reanimate effects, it's just so expensive to tutor. Geth, Lord of the Vault is crazy strong, but he's a totally different deck most of the time. I'd dump Liliana's Steward too. You and one other player go down a card, putting the rest of the table ahead of you by one card, but they also get to choose, so you're never going to get the card you want out of their hand.

Hobbling Zombie and other cards like it, like Putrid Goblin are excellent at keeping attacks away from you while you build up your board. and the pseudo revival effects let you abuse a lot of other zombie mechanics. Butcher Ghoul, and Geralf's Messenger or Doomed Dissenter are ok too. i wouldnt use Sightless Ghoul though. They are all better than Reassembling Skeleton though. Keep Relentless Dead. Im not sure if they make the cut, but they arent scary, but that means they are good at keeping a target off your back til youre readyfor one.

Magus of the Bridge is great for a non-zombie. Probably use it over Tainted Adversary, i feel like that one just costs way too much before its good. Dreadhorde Invasion is incredibly good, as is Mikaeus, the Unhallowed. i'd put those in for sure.Tormod, the Desecrator is still really good. Zombie Trailblazer is devastating to the person sitting to your left in particular or anyone playing five colors/ not black. When you REALLY need someone to not cast a spell. make all their lands swamps during the upkeep. almost every board wipe is a sorcery.

I think you might want to dump Thought Vessel for Mind Stone or even Blood Pet. In many cases discarding is beneficial to zombies. If you want to keep infinite hand size, Zombie Infestation and discard at will cards are pretty helpful.

I think Noxious Ghoul is the single best zombie card in the game, in this deck it basically says, tap your commander, wipe everyone else's boards. Use it.

Sutured Ghoul is runner up. If you include it and other high power zombies like Rotting Regisaur you can put him out as a 20+/xx easily, and then get 2/2s. HE doesnt play nice with mass reanimate, but he's an alternate win condition on his own. also its a great tool since youre probably gonna sac the dino and Phyrexian Soulgorger pretty quickly. If you sacrifice him on the end step before your turn i think you will almost always have a game ending horde.

Gray Merchant of Asphodel is utterly stupid. The absolute best reanimate target you could hope for. and since your card draw is gonna cost a ton of life, hes always going to be valuable. Whip of Erebos is probably the only other reasonable lifegain choice.That one makes aggressive attacking suddenly super safe

Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia is really cheap at making zombies if you dont have any other sources of decayed zombs. they cant block, but you get so many death triggers

Graveborn Muse is great card draw.

Hatred is usually better than Endless Scream

I think Gempalm Polluter is fantastic. its card draw, puts a big zombie into your graveyard, and hurts a player if things are going well.

I don't think Endless Ranks of the Dead is that great, but it certainly is cool. Wand of Orcus is really cool too. I'm not sure if its good though.

Board wipes will shut you down as you have things right now. Crowded Crypt and Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, that way, even if there's a board wipe you still have a whole army of zombs to multiply even after everything is dead. Rise of the Dread Marn is another fantastic option that you can abuse if you run things like Carrion Feeder too. Run Carrion Feeder, period. It lets you loop gravecrawler and saves yourself from control magic and exile spells.

Consider Toxic Deluge and STRONGLY CONSIDER Nevinyrral's Disk. Single target removal like tragic slip is ok because you can choose when things die, but other cards like Malicious Affliction are going to miss a lot of key targets. And you absolutely need to have a way to clear artifacts and especially enchantments.

Dark Salvation is pretty cool. not sure if it is good enough, but i'd use it rather than some of your spot removal.

Liliana, Dreadhorde General is really absurdly strong if you can get it out, and even if it dies the next turn you can draw a bunch off of it. Liliana, Heretical Healer  ^Flip you already know is great.

If you diversify your black lands, Field of the Dead is the best land. its silly how good it is. I'll start you off with the autoinclude Unholy Grotto. Malakir Rebirth  ^Flip is too.

I'll see what you make and see if i find anything else. later

SilencedDax on Phylactery lich: a Rule 0 …

1 year ago

More ideas!

Zombie Trailblazer to be unblockable

Soul Separator it's an artifact and when the lich dies we could create 2 more and 2 more phylactery counters

Wand of Orcus if we take the zombie route

Unholy Grotto, Relentless Dead, Rot Hulk, Nim Deathmantle to return ti to the battle

king-saproling on The Newspaper

1 year ago

Sure thing Benjimain! I think you picked a great partner pair. They offer the late-game resilence that Orzhov (WB) decks are known for while also enabling big combat damage which is rare in WB.

Here are some other swaps I would make:

Quag Sickness -> Plaguecrafter
Underworld Dreams -> Bitterblossom
Forever Young -> Black Market
Pick the Brain -> Grand Crescendo
Artificer's Hex -> Lightning Coils
Duress -> Rootborn Defenses
Pit Keeper -> Captain's Claws
Triad of Fates -> Haunted Library
Deathpact Angel -> Mardu Strike Leader
Mark of the Vampire -> Blight Mound
Confront the Assault -> Veteran Soldier
Primevals' Glorious Rebirth -> Spirit Bonds
Soul Salvage -> Militia's Pride
Alchemist's Gift -> Oketra's Monument
Lash of Thorns -> Wand of Orcus
Village Rites -> Grim Haruspex

Coward_Token on Experience Absolute Power

1 year ago

haha, it was a pretty throwaway suggestion so I don't know. I would hesitate to cut the Bastion since it gives some wrath detterence. Expedition Map seems the most out of place in the deck, I don't see any lands really worth tutoring for.

Also not helpful but Wand of Orcus also scales with Minthara's anthem