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Legality
| Format | Legality |
| 1v1 Commander | Legal |
| Arena | Legal |
| Block Constructed | Legal |
| Canadian Highlander | Legal |
| Casual | Legal |
| Commander / EDH | Legal |
| Commander: Rule 0 | Legal |
| Custom | Legal |
| Duel Commander | Legal |
| Gladiator | Legal |
| Highlander | Legal |
| Historic | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Leviathan | Legal |
| Limited | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Pioneer | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
Archfiend of Ifnir
Creature — Demon
Flying
Whenever you cycle or discard another card, put a -1/-1 counter on each creature your opponents control.
Cycling (, Dicard this card: Draw a card.)
wallisface on
-1 Counters
1 month ago
pea_body All of your suggested changes sound great! Sounds like you have a pretty good idea of the changes to make :)
As far as the higher mana cards go, I think aiming to run 3x Skinrender and 3x Kulrath Knight (with no Archfiend of Ifnir) is probably a good mix. With your beforementioned killspells added, and around 24 lands, I think you'll be able to easily sustain 6 4-mana cards relatively well.
Black Sun's Zenith is a fine replacement for any of your cards, particularly a good replacement for Archfiend of Ifnir. It becomes an auto-win condition alongside Nest of Scarabs (just through the sheer number of scarabs you can generate from it).
pea_body on
-1 Counters
1 month ago
wallisface Thanks for the advice, I have been playing this deck with only Archfiend of Ifnir and often struggle to keep it in play long enough to trigger its ability and should have foreseen the problems of running twelve 4+ mana cost cards.
Obviously, I should change out the 4x Splendid Agony, but would replacing Archfiend of Ifnir with Black Sun's Zenith be an okay change?
In my actual deck at the moment I have Dismember and Tragic Slip to easily kill creatures. I assume that it would be okay if I replace Wasteland Scorpion and Nezumi Bone-Reader with those if I replace Archfiend of Ifnir.
Random card replacements
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Fatal Push over Tragic Slip? Or both??
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Less Skinrender and Sickle Ripper, 4x Fume Spitter and add more swamps.
Again thanks for the ideas! I'm just playing against friends so I can't make it too good if you know what I mean. :)
Necrosis24 on DePietro and Channel?
6 months ago
This has made me realize I’ve been reading Ghost of Ramirez DePietro wrong this entire time. I thought his trigger was tied to the player that was dealt damage.
Some high synergy cards would be:
darthvander on
Varina, Lich Queen
10 months ago
Awesome video and write up. Is there any reason you don’t run Archfiend of Ifnir
Mana_Mythic_Legendary on Pursuing Perfection, Part 8: Rakdos …
10 months ago
Brothers, sisters, and assorted non-binary siblings, welcome to the riot! You like throwing waves of frothing, hasty lunatics at your opponent AND profiting when said lunatics die? We got you! You like watching the world burn and don’t mind getting caught in the flames? We got you! You like anarchy? The purge movies? Gender reveal parties? We got you! Rakdos is the proud home of those who take pleasure at the expense of others, the sort of people who like to mix Skittles and M&Ms in the same party bowl. If that sounds fun, then just you wait: in the house of red and black, that sort of misbehavior is only the appetizer.
Haste and sacrifice. Vampirism and burn. Discard in both barrels. This is a beautifully synergistic color pairing that belongs in the same league as peanut butter and chocolate. Heath Ledger’s joker undoutably played a rakdos deck: things like Havoc Festival, Last One Standing, and Sire Of Insanity are all up the clown’s alley. There are a number of themes we can cover here, but as usual we’re settling for three: Discard, WAAAAGH, and Pain. As always, please bear in mind that the point isn’t a discussion of the competitive but rather as a celebration of the thematic.
Discard
This is both red’s primary draw resource and a uniquely black removal technique. Combining those aspects makes for a deck that both ruins opponent’s hands and digs through your own cards at shocking speed. Granted, you won’t have a big hand, but who cares? Suddenly you've got an overpacked graveyard at your black-hearted beck and call. Red self-mill and black reanimation, people, with just a naughty touch of haste. Discard a pile of hate and then pitch said pile straight into combat. You won’t be sorry.
A regular teddy bear, Chainer’s second coming is a real treat for anyone who left their graveyard hate at home. Haste on a stick is only a perk: suddenly your graveyard is only as full as you want it to be, and probably full of friendly, group-huggy things like Ravenous Chupacabra or Combustible Gearhulk. Yes, the table will certainly love you and your unending, undying deck of unbearable hellbeasts. Undoubtably.
Ok, this guy is horrifying, as you would expect of the king of Grixis. Anyone not running tokens is going to be mighty twitchy about seeing this guy hit the field, and who needs a hand anyway? Rakdos evidently loves empty hands, and rewards you for ensuring that particular misery has company. Consider, if you will, the fulsome, vicious suite of cards tied to poking those who discard. Consider Experimental Frenzy. Consider all the madness cards you could play (or, you know, just play Anje Falkenrath instead). And, if you get tired of the simple gains synergy can win you, you can always Demonfire someone.
THIS. This is neat. Leave aside the look on the face of that certain someone who steals everything on the board. Pay no mind that Seize the Day and all it’s red cousins can make Blim an unholy terror. Forget that you can pass off Demonic Pact, Grid Monitor, and whatever other obnoxiousness you can think of. None of that matters, no. This, for all you glorious nutters out there, is an excuse to finally play Nuisance Engine. That’s the takeaway here.
WAAAGH
Anyone can run tokens or big creatures, but only in Rakdos do you find the conjunction of boardwide haste and sacrifice. Harnessing right, proper WAAGH energy means not just drowning opponents in a tide of zippy little shits but also capitalizing on all that death to cause even more mayhem. Did you ever want to hold a bundle of fireworks, light them all at once, and watch whatever you point them at turn into a smoking, shredded pile of giblets? Here’s the lighter, fellas.
Treasure tokens. Nuff said.
There are a number of nasty combos here that I’d rather not spread. I’ll just say that long ago, I played many, many depressing games against a Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund deck. There was self-milling involved, and Living Death. Evidently, someone decided what the deck needed, rather than burning, was fewer moving parts. That someone deserves a long, interesting life in all the worst ways.
This guy makes me laugh. The idea of ruining the table’s carefully laid plans to off you and instead throwing them into combat with each other is absolutely hilarious. It’s like a Fog designed by someone with pyromania-by-proxy syndrome, and that second block of text the equivalent of throwing gasoline on an already burning house. Get a Conjurer's Closet in there and watch the fun.
Pain
Forget destroy effects. Those are too easy. Direct damage. -X/-X. -1/-1 counters. Life loss. All of the nastiness you can fling at opponents and creatures is under the umbrella of this color pairing. If you like blasting the unholy hell out of your opponents and their minions, this is the arsenal you’re looking to plunder. Stuff like Blasphemous Act, Toxic Deluge, or Orcus, Prince of Undeath will leave a smoldering crater of a battlefield, across which you’ll doubtless be stepping with appropriate gribbliness. Or launching that demonfire we talked about. Whatever works.
Ah, the original Mr. Stop-Hitting-Yourself. I’ve had my eye on this guy for over a decade. Do I own the deck? No. Do I intend to? Again, no. But the prospect here is so, soooo satisfying to think about. To hell with infinite combo fruitwaffles. Damned be those green jackasses ramming X cost spells down the table’s collective throat. Kaervek’s mean, but keeps it clean. Like, nuclear fire sterile clean, and the best part? It’s all self-inflicted!
We really can’t talk red-black without discussing demon himself (hehehe). This guy’s been piloting one of my decks for years, and for good reason. The lord of riots likes to pass out rewards for smacking people. Do you like to be rewarded for smacking people? I do. Rewarded with free things... Eldrazi things. Eldrazi things that tutor more things (Conduit of Ruin), reanimate more things (Artisan of Kozilek), or… well, you can always go for broke and just ruin someone else's things (Void Winnower). Run artifacts, like Hangarback Walker. Run X drops, like Maga, Traitor to Mortals. Run anything you like. Run everything you like. Just have fun running them for next to nothing.
-1/-1 counters, magic’s analogue for injury and agony. We really shouldn’t talk red-black without talking about Wither, the Everlasting Torment of a keyword that was a precursor to the dark days of Infect. It’s safe to say we all have opinions, for good or ill, about Infect’s place in commander. That said, if you want to play with -1/-1 counters and aren’t fond of green or dealing with those opinions, Scorpy’s first line of text makes this guy an overwhelmingly safe bet. Rocking crap like Black Sun's Zenith is the easy answer: let’s make this fun, discard a crapload of cards, and watch your opponent’s boards melt into obscene card advantage while your Archfiend of Ifnir giggles in the corner.
And for my personal favorite...
There is an unfortunate element of “screw you in particular” to Xantcha: declaring open season on somebody’s life total sends a particularly unpleasant message. This is another commander that, laying aside the card advantage, doesn’t bolster your deck, which makes for an interesting challenge. I’ve said it before, one hallmark of a good deck is the capability of functioning without its commander… though if you build this hateful beast, I suggest you pack lots and lots of ramp. Just ‘cause.
That's it for this round. Thoughts and questions are welcome. I hope you enjoyed it, and will come back next week for Gruul!
Prior Articles:
GrimlockVIII on
Muldrotha "Super Budget" The Gravetide [Updated!]
1 year ago
Yo, since you kind of have a cycling/discard sub-theme going on, would it be possible to fit in Archfiend of Ifnir by any chance, or is there not enough stuff going on for him to work?
I dunno, I just like the guy lol.
BlackoutX on
Kathril, Aspect of Nightmares
1 year ago
Stitcher's Supplier instead of Crystalline Giant , It's cheaper to play and doesn't care about being removed, chances are you will dump something with a keyword immediately making it better.
Valentin, Dean of the Vein Flip instead of Nullpriest of Oblivion , cheaper to play with the same keywords while also stopping creatures from staying in the graveyard and potentially making your blockers. You may even play the flip side in this deck so that's added value.
Gurmag Swiftwing is worth considering since you don't have many first strikers.
Tortured Existence is amazing in this deck especially if you decide to run cards with cycling like Pale Recluse or Archfiend of Ifnir
Unearth is just good
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