Rakdos, Lord of EDH

Commander / EDH BR (Rakdos) Combo Competitive Eldrazi

evinjkill

LANDS (33)

• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Ash Barrens
• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Cavern of Souls
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Dragonskull Summit
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Foreboding Ruins
• 1x Luxury Suite
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 3x Mountain
• 1x Piranha Marsh
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Shadowblood Ridge
• 1x Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
• 1x Smoldering Marsh
• 1x Spinerock Knoll
• 6x Swamp
• 1x Temple of Malice
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Wooded Foothills

MORE DRAW (7)

• 1x Cathartic Reunion
• 1x Faithless Looting
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Night's Whisper
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Read the Bones
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top

Other (4)

• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Simian Spirit Guide
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Indulgence

PROTECTION (12)

• 1x Blood Moon
• 1x By Force
• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Kolaghan's Command
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Magus of the Moon
• 1x Pyroblast
• 1x Sire Of Insanity
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Terminate
• 1x Thoughtseize
• 1x Toxic Deluge

COMBO (8)

• 1x Ancestral Statue
• 1x Cloudstone Curio
• 1x Hangarback Walker
• 1x Nettle Drone
• 1x Priest of Gix
• 1x Purphoros, God of the Forge
• 1x Razaketh, the Foulblooded
• 1x Walking Ballista

ENABLER (7)

• 1x Chandra, Torch of Defiance
• 1x Cryptolith Fragment  ^Flip
• 1x Heartless Hidetsugu
• 1x Shepherd of Rot
• 1x Spear Spewer
• 1x Stormfist Crusader
• 1x Thermo-Alchemist

RAMP (7)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Cabal Ritual
• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Leaden Myr
• 1x Lotus Petal

Commander (1)

TUTORS (9)

• 1x Conduit of Ruin
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Gamble
• 1x Imperial Recruiter
• 1x Rune-Scarred Demon
• 1x Sanctum of Ugin
• 1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

BEASTS (7)

• 1x Emrakul, the Promised End
• 1x Knollspine Dragon
• 1x Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
• 1x K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth
• 1x Sneak Attack
• 1x Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
• 1x Void Winnower

REANIMATION (5)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Dance of the Dead
• 1x Goryo's Vengeance
• 1x Phyrexian Reclamation
• 1x Reanimate

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Maybeboard

Other (3)

• 1x Everlasting Torment
• 1x Piranha Marsh
• 1x Reanimate

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EDIT!!! Many changes to this deck have been make since the description, and a more centralized combo theme has been added. Detailed description to come.

If you look on EDHREC for BR commanders, you will find that Rakdos, Lord of Riots is indeed the most popular commander. My deck is a more combo based approach to the general that makes use of being able to cast colorless creatures for free in order to combo off, with a solid plan-B of slamming some giant eldrazis down. The deck is refined to protect our combo, find our pieces, and go off as early as possible, without being watered down with mediocre creatures, pingers, etc. I have to give a shout out to DoomBlade for a list that inspired mine, and really unlocks his full potential. We'll start off by going into the card selection, as every card in this deck has been carefully thought out, and then we will move into the details of playing the deck.

Combo

These are the cards that are the most relevant to comboing off with the deck. This list is fairly short because we are hoping to assemble the combo with the help of tutors, instead of just trying to luck into it. This saves a lot of room for protection pieces to make sure everything goes off smoothly.

Ancestral Statue: One of our main combo pieces. With Rakdos on the field, if opponents have lost at least 4 life, you can cast it for free and use its ability to target itself, returning it to your hand. This results in infinite ETB triggers, which you can use to win with either Nettle Drone, or Purphoros, God of the Forge.

Cloudstone Curio: Similar to the statue above, cloudstone lets you achieve the same effect with any two non-artifact, colorless creatures, resulting in infinite ETB triggers, as long as opponents have been dealt enough damage. Many of our creatures, such as Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, have powerful ETBs themselves, allowing you to close out the game or find a wincon.

Hangarback Walker: Works alongside Razaketh by coming down for free with counters thanks to Rakdos and creating more sac targets, allowing you to tutor up an entire combo.

Nettle Drone: One of the best enablers of the deck, plus combos with Ancestral Statue or Cloudstone Curio + two colorless creatures. Our main tutor target early game, and even later if we don't plan on winning with Razaketh.

Priest of Gix: With Cloudstone Curio and another colorless creature (or a black creature with one mana symbol), we can make infinite black mana. This is a good combo to assemble with Razaketh, as we can then sac the priest to tutor up and make an infinitely large Walking Ballista and ping down our opponents. Every deck needs a way to make infinite mana, right?

Purphoros, God of the Forge: Comes down for one mana once we have Rakdos out, and wins with infinite ETB triggers from ancestral statue cloudstone.

Razaketh, the Foulblooded: A new addition to the deck, and really brings it all together. Razaketh allows you to chain together tutors and cast them for free with Rakdos' ability. If you can get Razaketh down with one creature to sac and Rakdos out, you can easily win.

Walking Ballista: Can come down for free (and fairly large) with Rakdos, and either clear creatures or kill opponents. Is also a mana sink for the cloudstone + priest combo.

Tutors

Of course, the fastest way to assemble any combo is with tutors, and being in black gives us access to the best of them.

Conduit of Ruin: Comes down for free with Rakdos, and can find a card like Emrakul, Void Winnower, etc, that can help us close out the game. Also helps recasting Rakdos if he happened to die.

Demonic Tutor: Arguably the best tutor in the game, this card needs no explanation.

Diabolic Intent: Not the best tutor in the world, but is mostly used to combo off after we have already cast Rakdos.

Gamble: As the name implies, this card it pretty risky, but it is often worth it early game when we need to find an enabler or something like that.

Imperial Recruiter: As it turns out, we actually have a lot of targets that this card can find. It can grab one of our priests for a ritual effect, a Hangarback or Walking Ballista, disciple, or just an enabler. Also leaves a sac target behind.

Date added	7 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	16 - 0 Mythic Rares 41 - 0 Rares 16 - 0 Uncommons 18 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.11
Tokens	Emblem Chandra, Torch of Defiance, Thopter 1/1 C
Folders	rakdos list ideas, Bangin' Decks, Rakdos