Sometimes you win, Sometimes you lose.
Sometimes you win because of a convoluted reanimation/sacrifice combo.
Sometimes you win because Rakdos' super-annihilator trigger ate your friends' boardstates.
Sometimes you win because you got Rakdos out on turn 2 and he only needs to hit someone three times to kill them because he's a flying 7/6 with trample.
Sometimes you lose because Rakdos ate your board.
Sometimes you lose because you accidentally Doomsday'd yourself to death.
Sometimes Demonic Consultation eats your deck.
Sometimes the blue player at the table is running a Talrand "Counters matters" deck and the table was doomed from the start.
Trust in the heart of the cards.
Gameplan options:
1) Rakdos. He is your priority. Hit people. Once he connects, the receiving player is screwed 9 times out of 10. Basically, hitting someone for any combat damage at all means that the person is good as dead - granted, you're also in a rough spot once you sacrifice half of your board, but the difference'between you and the guy you just smacked is that you have a 7 power, evasive commander with trample. To this end, you have haste enablers and lots of rituals/sac-lands to guarantee he's out and about ASAP. Pitch and Reanimate your It That Betrays, then Burnt Offering it for loads of money! Turn 2 Rakdos attacks are possible, and encouraged, even if you risk it all. Also,7 power means that in order to cause a commander damage casualty, you only need 3 hits! Math (and Savage Beating) is on your side!
2) Hellcarver demon. If he was legendary, I'd own an EDH deck for him. He might obliterate all the advantage and resources you own, but heck, if you were planning on going the Rakdos route, you probably wouldn't have had a boardstate anyway. Might as well cast your scary stuff and tutors for more stuff to top deck with him. Insidious Dreams is Hellcarver's best friend.
3) Casting expensive stuff. It That Betrays is good. Very good. If he's out, Rakdos steals your enemies' stuff! But even better, if you have a Sacrifice or Burnt Offering in hand, that's a free 12 mana. Reanimate, Animate Dead, or Exhume on this guy or Runescarred Demon = mana for days. Tutor up a Past in Flames. Tutor up a burnt offering. Idk it's up to you.
4) Repay in Kind + Lich ( or Necropotence/Hatred/Treasonous Ogre.) It's funny.
5) Stax. Most Stax decks depend on making yourself immune to global sac effects (or at least mitigate the pain). Rakdos is no coward. Rakdos embraces the pain. Aggro in EDH usually works best by playing big threats early, then slowing everyone down to stay ahead. Pox, Malfegor, or even your general can do this all for you. Don't be afraid, winning with nothing is the only way to do it.
6) Go fast. Be aggressive in spending your life total. If losing 39 life means that someone else is down for the count, it's worth it every time. Hatred other people's commanders if you want, Ad Nauseam for a gameplan. As I said before, reanimating big dudes and killing them for mana is a big, big boost. The goal to spending all your resources as fast as possible is that, hopefully, you can ruin someone's game before the nasty control player has enough mana to stop you. (Sidenote: GO FOR THE CONTROL PLAYERS FIRST. They're basically the only thing that can stop you. Unfortunately Chain of Vapor is only 1 mana, and if that's in someone's hand, your game is over. Kill whoever has the power to bounce/exile/kill your stuff.)
7) Doomsday. Yes, there is a Doomsday pile, and it only costs 1BR. It goes like this:
Faithless Looting, Hellcarver Demon, Shallow Grave, Lich, Repay in Kind.
Loot to draw Hellcarver and Shallow Grave, then discard Hellcarver and anything else. Cast Shallow Grave to hastily reanimate your newly discarded Hellcarver, and smack someone with him. Then, top deck (wow, surprise!) Lich and Repay in Kind. Stack it so that Lich resolves first. Everyone is now at 0. You win.
8) Tutor for any of the above. And always cast demonic consultation. It's fun.
9) All else fails, play Lich's Mirror. Restarting the game at 20 life isnt a waste of time for us. Rakdos believes in second chances, and he can lock someone down by turn four fairly consistently.
10) You lose. Despite your best efforts, it didn't work out - you got defiled by Rakdos (nothing personal, it's just his thing) and/or someone with one single piece of removal. Across the smoldering battlefield, your opponents exchange ragged sighs of relief and wipe cold sweat off their brow as they relish over their victory of your short lived brimstone wrath. Little do they know, your embered corpse is the true hero in this story: thanks to your sacrifice, this inevitable 4 hour, otherwise uninspired game of battlecruiser-style kitchen table Commander just got shortened by 3 and a half hours.
Night's Whisper > Cruel Bargain
Swamp > Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Swamp > City of Brass
Swamp > Lotus Petal
Bedlam > Glorious End
Swamp > Blood Crypt
Swamp > Tarnished Citadel
Swamp > Mana Confluence
Mountain > Mana Crypt
