Struggling with Rakdos, Lord of Riots
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on April 4, 2014, 3:47 p.m. by ArchVile
I've been having a lot of issues with my Rakdos, Lord of Riots EDH deck to the point that I'm considering scrapping the deck.
I've remade the deck three times now using a variety of different cards but the exact same problems keep coming up, first of all the deck is rather inconsistent despite having a pretty straight forward plan, secondly the deck gets shut down hard to control decks especially if they keep preventing me from getting Rakdos out, and lastly for some reason playing Rakdos, Lord of Riots seems to paint a bigger target on my head than when I play Zur.
So I'm not sure what to do, is Rakdos, Lord of Riots really that flawed or is it something I'm doing?
By the way my Rakdos, Lord of Riots is not currently up in my profile as it is in a state of disarray.
For one, It could just be your play group. If everyone you play against is using "control" then you would be pretty screwed if you're goal is to simply get Rakdos, Lord of Riots out. if you feel you must switch it up, I would suggest trying Animar, Soul of Elements or Karador, Ghost Chieftain . they both are based on creature interaction, which satisfies part of what you probably intend to do with Rakdos.
Another option (Though I would consider switching to Rakdos the Defiler for this, as it suits him better in some ways) is to build the deck in a voltron way. Most EDH games I've played don't run more than 5 wipes of any sort, and most of those are creature wipes. you could do a combination of enhancements and equipment and beat your opponents heads in.
As for Rakdos, Lord of Riots , I personally don't see anything wrong with him, he seems like he'd actually be pretty good. The best way to know would be seeing one of your deck lists.
April 4, 2014 4:04 p.m.
I have my own Rakdos, Lord of Riots deck. The important thing is to tend towards creatures that don't have insanely-high CMC for their effect so it's easier to hard cast them.
If you get shut out by control, you could include Pyroblast and Red Elemental Blast to help protect your board state.
Using Rakdos kind of skews you toward an aggressive play style, kind of like Zur the Enchanter . People don't like aggressive decks in EDH because that gives them less time to do their combo-y stuff.
Here's a link to my Rakdos deck, Hell on Parade. The list is somewhat outdated and geared towards French EDH (1v1), but you might get some ideas for what to include. My favorite play has always been to swing, play Rune-Scarred Demon for BB, then tutor and play an Eldrazi for free or super cheap.
April 4, 2014 4:20 p.m.
and what meecht said I think is the most important part. if you're playing your Rakdos, Lord of Riots super aggressively including artifact creatures, even if they seem subpar is great. because you can dump your hand out after just one attack
April 4, 2014 4:27 p.m.
Or just use the good ones :) There are plenty of big ones: Platinum Angel , Platinum Emperion , any eldrazi, all 3 colossuses (darksteel, blightsteel and akros), Wurmcoil Engine , Steel Hellkite , Bosh, Iron Golem , etc. Also, use X-cards like Maga, Traitor to Mortals and maybe even Rock Hydra
April 4, 2014 5:03 p.m.
The hard part is balancing the "activators" for Rakdos (the lingers), which must be cheap, vs the big guns for which Rakdos' ability is used for.
Matsi883 says... #2
Rakdos, Lord of Riots .
I don't play much EDH, so I can't really help you here.
April 4, 2014 3:49 p.m.