Deck is a work in progress, but has some good things going for it. Now that Felidar Gaurdian is out of standard, we can take a look into midrange varieties of decks. One of my favorite midrange decks to play with is a rakdos one. This deck tries to take advantage of all the value cards that can either be considered 2for1's or just straight threats. Favorite additions from Amonkhet were Glorybringer and Cut / Ribbons . Another standout card I'm testing is
Liliana, Death's Magesty
. She acts as the decks 5 mana gideon in a way, making 2/2 zombies and being a threat for board wipe. she can also bring back cards like glorybringer for even more value.
I'm still testing the waters for good 1 and 2 drops to run in this deck, but right now I'm going with good ol' Scrapheap Scrounger and Glint-Sleeve Siphoner . With as much removal as we have, it will be nice to get one of these down turn 2 to begin the beat down/card advantage. 1 drops are still very iffy, but I'm doing some testing with Dragonmaster Outcast . Yes, the stipulation of needing 6 lands is pretty steep, but when you both have clear boards and you're starting to rely on top decks, hitting one of these can be the winner if they can't get it off the board.
The deck technically has 20 cards that are removal (if you include the 2 Liliana, the Last Hope ) . You're actual removal cards are Cut / Ribbons , Unlicensed Disintegration , and Fatal Push (playsets of all). These will consistently give you cards to keep the early board a little clearer for the 4 and 5 mana cards. One card that is in mind is Ruinous Path over the unlicensed, but having instant speed is nice and if I just so happen to have a scrapheap, I could get a little extra damage from it. The one downside is that I don't have more artifacts to enable this awesome card. Still does it's purpose very well.
Now this deck seems pretty well placed with what people like to play in the current meta. I'm not too sure what the free wins are, but it seems any deck that's plan is to play a creature every turn will not have a good time ith this. Control would be a lot harder of a matchup and you would have to go more reliant on planeswalkers for board presence and swapping out some removal for Transgress the Mind in the sb.
The games that feel like free wins are the ones that you get your 2 mana creature to stick and you just clear their side of the board or limit them to one creature. One card that gives me worries would be
Mindwrack Demon
because of its harsh penalty for not having delirium. We have 4 artifacts, 4 planeswalkers, 4 sorceries, 8 instants, and creatures and lands. This gives us 6 different card types to hopefully hit when you put the top 4 into your grave. Even if you can't hit delirium, you can always just use him to chump block unexpectedly for an extra turn.
Sideboard is a work in progress. One question you might have would be about the Sweltering Suns . My main reason for having those are the r/w human decks that want to play a bunch of creatures. if they play creature turn 1 2 and 2 creatures turn 3, your sweltering suns in hand is game-winning. after you board wipe, they are back to your plan of one creature at a time to deal with. even if they do get another creature on board, yours will greatly outstrength theirs and your Cut / Ribbons can be a helpful finisher for some extra damage. definitely would consider Ruinous Path over Unlicensed Disintegration for the fact that it can hit planeswalkers and can turn a useless land into a 4/4 haster. VALUE!!!
I really like rakdos colors and think this could get to a competitive level to possibly win. Any tips or suggestions are appreciated.
Add on 5/6/17: I've been playing this deck for a second and it seems pretty strong. Trying to figure out best sideboard for current meta.Vs. Control: Transgress the Mind and Gifted Aetherborn are put in in place of removal. The one of Lost Legacy is in for a specific reason. Second sun fog deck. if you can target second sun at some point, you take out their win con. I haven't found a time that unlicensed disintegration has been used as a proper instant speed removal, so Never / Return or Ruinous Path is probably suggested over it.
