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Rakdos the Defiler as your Commander. This is a very straightforward Demon tribal list.

The general idea is to play mana accelerants, then play a bunch of Demons. Use the disruptive cards in the deck when you need to. Get aggressive with your commander and reduce an opponent's board state to rubble. Once you play your general, you want to get very aggressive, since you'll sacrifice a whole bunch of lands and/or artifacts (most of which provide mana). You won't have a whole lot of plays left aside from closing out the game by swinging in with your Demons.

Let's have a look at the cards.

Creatures

  • Abyssal Persecutor: Its severe drawback is offset by the fact that it's a 6/6 with two keywords for only four mana.

  • Anger: It's very easy to get this into your graveyard, and once in, you'll be able to attack with your creatures immediately. This is pretty important because your opponents aren't likely to let Rakdos sit on the table for long.

  • Blood Speaker: Recurring tutor effect for your Demons.

  • Desecration Demon: A big, scary body for cheap. Pretty weak against decks that go wide with tokens, but otherwise it's usually good for opponents to feed him. He'll get bigger while reducing your opponents' board states -- which means your general will be more effective when he attacks.

  • Rakdos, Lord of Riots: Low cost, but requires an opponent to lose life before you can cast him. This isn't too hard to satisfy, though. This newer Rakdos provides explosive acceleration to allow you to dump the rest of the creatures in your hand into play, and also helps you cast your general. This is in addition to the fact that he's a solid threat in his own right. You can even use him as a passable backup general if you want.

  • Solemn Simulacrum: Commander staple, too beneficial to exclude.

  • Archfiend of Depravity: Helps keep opponents' boards controlled, very strong against "go wide" decks.

  • Bloodgift Demon: Card advantage Demon. You can aim his abilities at opponents if you need to.

  • Garna, the Bloodflame: Quite versatile. Need to recover from a wrath? Play her. Need to swing out next turn? Flash her in before the start of your next turn, then attack with haste. Discard two creatures with Faithless Looting? Put them into play. Garna is a very deep card, which is rare to see in RB.

  • Indulgent Tormentor: Card advantage Demon. Opponents can prevent you from drawing, but the price they pay to do so can also confer advantages on you.

  • Master of Cruelties: If you can make it unblockable, you can put somebody at death's door. Silver bullet against life gain decks. Double-tap somebody if you can get an extra combat phase or somehow deal an extra point of noncombat damage. It also blocks very well on the ground.

  • Demonlord Belzenlok: Card advantage Demon. The very high mana curve of this deck makes it likely that you'll get multiple cards in your hand from its ability.

  • Harvester of Souls: Card advantage Demon. Good with your general, or when anybody plays a wrath effect.

  • Kothophed, Soul Hoarder: Confers heavy card advantage on you when you swing with your general. Very strong with wrath effects, too.

  • Malfegor: Provides solid board control if you have a few cards in hand. Not always the best backup general, but you could use it if your opponents are playing creature-heavy decks.

  • Ob Nixilis, Unshackled: Severely punishes fetch lands and tutors, while getting steadily larger. It can get out of control quickly alongside your general.

  • Reaper from the Abyss: It isn't too hard for the deck to trigger morbid, so this Demon usually provides additional board control.

  • Sire Of Insanity: This will level the playing field if your opponents are burying you under card advantage.

  • Abhorrent Overlord: This list has a very heavy devotion to black, so this will usually spawn a ton of tokens when you play it.

  • Havoc Demon: Board wipe Demon. Sacrifice or kill him when you need to clear out some of the board. Most Demons have 6 toughness, so this might not even kill too many of your own creatures.

  • Lord of the Void: Demon with a spicy ability. Who knows what you'll get with it? Give it double strike for extra value.

  • Overseer of the Damned: Demon with removal attached to it. The ability to make some Zombie tokens is also fairly good, since they can block or be sacrificed to Rakdos's ability instead of lands.

  • Rune-Scarred Demon: Tutoring Demon.

  • Pestilence Demon: Direct damage Demon, can also wipe out small creatures. Useful for asserting board control or draining out opponents who are at low life totals.

  • Razaketh, the Foulblooded: Tutoring Demon, offers a sacrifice outlet as well, which can be useful.

  • Reiver Demon: Wrath a whole bunch of your opponents' creatures.

  • Dread Cacodemon: One-sided wrath.

  • It That Betrays: Devastating with your general. A virtual win condition in many cases.

Artifacts

Other Spells

  • Heartless Summoning: Discounts your creatures by , which is good considering how expensive they are. Giving them -1/-1 isn't too bad since most of them are already quite large.

  • Phyrexian Arena: Card advantage.

  • Sneak Attack: Cheat your big threats into play and attack immediately to gain some tempo. Works well with It That Betrays and your expensive Demons. Sacrificing the creature leaves it available for reanimation later.

  • Slaughter Pact: Deceptive removal, good for interacting with opponents who are trying to combo off with creatures.

  • Rakdos Charm: Artifact or graveyard hate. Also instantly kills opponents who are trying to go infinite with creatures like Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker.

  • Temur Battle Rage: Very strong with your general and several other Demons. Useful for helping close out games.

  • Terminate: One of the best removal spells in these colors.

  • Wrecking Ball: Hits either lands or creatures, so it's fairly useful.

  • Savage Beating: Entwine it to kill an opponent on the spot with your general. Usually quite devastating otherwise, if not game-ending.

  • Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath: Utility planeswalker that can make Demon tokens. His ultimate ability can confer immense card advantage if you can pull it off.

  • Faithless Looting: Efficient card selection. Putting things into the graveyard can be advantageous, too.

  • Reanimate: Get back a creature or grab somebody else's. Useful for cheating huge threats into play.

  • Vandalblast: Mass artifact removal. Format staple.

  • Rakdos's Return: Burn out an opponent or planeswalker; severely cut or entirely negate an opponent's card advantage.

  • Damnation: Staple black wrath effect.

  • Torrent of Souls: Reanimate something and Trumpet Blast your board.

  • Void: Selective wrath effect that also hits artifacts and attacks an opponent's hand (which also provides valuable information).

  • Insurrection: This will usually just let you win, but if it doesn't, it will probably give you a lot of non-Demon permanents to sacrifice to your general.

Utility Lands

Suggestions

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Revision 5 See all

(4 years ago)

Date added 5 years
Last updated 4 years
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

11 - 0 Mythic Rares

39 - 0 Rares

21 - 0 Uncommons

8 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 4.42
Tokens Demon 5/5 B, Emblem Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath, Harpy 1/1 B, Human Cleric 1/1 BW, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders Commander
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