Sideboard


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For the current ToE build, click here. For the original RNA build, click here. More budget-friendly version here.

As soon as Captive Audience was spoiled, I fell in love with it. It was so ridiculous, a seven mana enchantment in a traditionally aggro combination of colors. After a little thought, I resolved to build the most absurd of concoctions, a Black-Red control deck, wherein I would just lock-down the opponent until I could resolve Captive Audience. Ill-Gotten Inheritance quickly came to my attention, partially because I loved the card (It puts the opponent on a 16-turn clock all by itself!) and it provided some valuable life-gain, but mainly because it provided a very picturesque finisher - actually, let's do this in an orderly fashion.

Captive Audience

(CA) The win-con. You will often be tapped-out if you cast this, so the turn will immediately pass to the opponent, and they will be forced to choose the first trigger immediately, barring a Mortify or such. If the opponent does not choose to go to 4 life while you are tapped out from casting this card, and then immediately use some life-gain, then you can hold 6 mana open during their next two turns, threatening to istakill them the moment they go to 4 by sacking Ill-Gotten Inheritance. This is how you will usually win with the deck, as you can activate Ill-Gotten in response to a Fountain of Renewal trigger or an attempt to cast Revitalize. Occasionally I have beaten a control deck just with a couple Ill-Gotten Inheritances instead. Against creature decks you will usually use the zombies as blockers, but if you have controlled their board completely, you might either get a kill with the zombies or have them get Finality-ed or such. Against control you will very rarely use the zombies as a finisher, or indeed for anything, as the control player will usually be glad to finally have something to use their removal on, and will happily cast Ritual of Soot, or Cry of the Carnarium, or Kaya's Wrath or Cleansing Nova(Although they are likely to use the latter to remove Captive Audience.).

Ill-Gotten Inheritance

(I-GI) The finisher. The ideal curve would be to cast Theater of Horrors turn 3, and Ill-Gotten Inheritance turn 4. If you have cast Captive Audience, under normal circumstances you are guaranteed that you have at least 7 mana, and thus can activate Ill-Gotten Inheritance's activated ability, which is 6. Unless you are at 13 mana for some reason, (not impossible) the opponent can potentially choose the go-to-4 option on Captive Audience and immediately follow that up with some life-gain before you can untap from casting Captive Audience. Shock, Lighting Strike, The Zombies from CA, and the upkeep trigger of Ill-Gotten can help fix that. (Or if they played an Archway Angel or something, then you will likely have to wait for your next CA.) The life-gain can be very handy in some match-ups, and the drain can be a game winner in and of itself. Also triggers Theater of Horrors, and lets you cast Drill Bit for cheaper. Can be sacked in an emergency for 4 life. Acts as a 4-drop Fountain of Renewal against aggro.

Theater of Horrors

(ToH) The card draw. Effectively useless without Ill-Gotten Inheritance, killer with it. Feel free to throw it on the board before you draw into Ill-Gotten Inheritance, as it will start building up cards for you to use, and can be self activated with its own activated ability if the game drags on without you drawing or resolving an Ill-Gotten Inheritance. The opponent can see the exiled cards, so this can reveal CA or The Immortal Sun when you don't want the opponent to expect them. CA is not a common card, and can often catch an opponent off-guard. If you do play ToH before I-GI, just be prepared for the soul-crush of exiling the land drops you need and drawing cards you can't cast. If you want to be safe, don't attempt to resolve a ToH until you have at least a total of 4 lands in hand and on the board. Despite what you might expect, cards exiled with Theater of Horrors are individually based, so if an opponent destroys or exiles a copy of ToH, resolving a replacement will not give you access to any cards exiled by a previous ToH. An additional benefit of ToH is the fact that the cards are safely exiled, and cannot be Duress-ed, Thought Erasure-ed, etc. In most match-ups though, you will want to prioritize using the exiled cards, not only because the opponent can see them, but because if you lose ToH, I-GI, or both, you will lose either access or easy access to the ToH cards. Note also that cards exiled with ToH can only be cast on your turn. If you get 2 or 3 ToH out, you kinda just win, the card draw is insane, and the cards are safe from Emergency Powers or whatever. If you have literally nothing else to do, and the opponent has a Teferi or other planeswalker out, then you can deal 1 or more damage to them on the opponent's end step to prevent or slow ulting. Or just chip at the opponent for an extra damage or two. They'll die to I-GI eventually.

Drill Bit

(DB) The utility. Often cast on turn 3 for CMC of 3, Drill Bit can do great things, from forcing out or discarding a counterspell, to discarding a History of Benalia, to discarding a Vivien Reid, Teferi, or Carnage Tyrant. If you have Ill-Gotten Inheritance in play, then you can cast this for its spectacle cost, cheap as can be. A great tool against control decks, but also handy against midrange and combo, and even aggro can lose a Risk Factor, Benalia, or what have you. Just an all-around good card, hits anything which isn't a land.

Vraska's Contempt

(Vraska's) The removal. A Black standard staple, Vraska's does it all, exiling Adanto Vanguard, Gate Colossus, or creatures with death-triggers, preventing graveyard recursion, removing planeswalkers, and gaining life. Essential removal.

Bedevil

(Bedevil) More removal. Your reward for choosing to fly Rakdos Airlines. Combined with Vraska's, Bedevil gives you eight cards to remove Teferis or Vivien Reids, plus the 4 Drill Bits(which can either force out or discard a counterspell that could have been used on one of those eight, or can just straight-up discard a planeswalker). Also hits an opposing Immortal Sun or any other artifact you don't want your opponent to keep. Frequently castable on turn 3.

Lava Coil

(LC) Even more removal. Kills Shalai, Voice of Plenty, who would prevent the finisher with Ill-Gotten Inheritance, Drakes, Wildgrowth Walkers with one or fewer explores, Tempest Djinns, etc. The exile prevents recursion, undergrowth effects, and death triggers, such as Afterlife or Judith effects. Cheap and effective.

Cry of the Carnarium

(CotC) Yet more removal. Against tokens or aggro, Cry of the Carnarium can practically guarantee a win, as can Ritual of Soot. Kills Adanto Vanguards, and the exile effect prevents recursion, Undergrowth, Afterlife, etc. Can be combined with Shock, Lighting Strike, Lava Coil, or another CotC to kill and exile larger things. Great against Lotleth Giant decks, etc. Can provide massive card value, and deals nicely with History of Benalia.

Ritual of Soot

(RoS) It removes creatures. Hits everything Mono-Blue Tempo plays, Adapted or not. Can provide massive card value. Higher CMC than Cry of the Carnarium, but hits some things that it doesn't like Wildgrowth Walkers or Jadelight Rangers that have gotten out of control. Great against tokens and aggro.

Angrath's Rampage

(AR) Very handy against control, provides an extra card to deal with hexproof and indestructible, and usually can be cast on turn two for cheap early removal, or in the wake of a Cry or Soot. It's two mana planeswalker removal, and thus is good against control as it is much harder to Syncopate , Spell Pierce , or Quench , and can be easily cast on the same turn as another planeswalker removal spell in order to get one of them to resolve.

Shock

(Shock) Utility. Great early game removal, kills Llanowar Elves, Judith, the Scourge Diva, Merfolk Branchwalkers, Siren Stormtamers, Pteramanders, Ghitu Lavarunners, Viashino Pyromancers, turn 2 Steam Kins, knight tokens, etc. Can be used in a pinch to activate Theater of Horrors for 1 mana. Can be used to kill a Vivien Reid or Teferi who ETB-ed and used their minus ability, or to keep a planeswalker away from ult until you can draw or resolve a Vraska's or Bedevil. In a pinch can be comboed with Lighting Strike to follow up on CA for a kill. You could easily mainboard more of these.

Lightning Strike

(LS) Same as Shock, Except it also kills Wildgrowth Walkers, and Jadelights which have gotten to 4/3s. In a pinch can be comboed with Shock to follow up on CA for a kill.You could easily mainboard more of these.

The Immortal Sun

(TIS) Everything. Draws you an extra card each turn, lets you cast more spells per turn, (and if you have two or three ToH and at least one I-GI, then you can cast a lot of spells) and shuts down any and all planeswalkers. If you sideboarded in an Eldest Reborn or two, the +1/+1 might be slightly relavent. Can bait out a counterspell from an opponent who doesnt know they will need it next turn for Captive Audience. Kind of overkill, as the deck already draws cards rather well and deals with planeswalkers very well, but is just a good thing to have around.

Memorial to War

(MtW) Because screw Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin.

Detection Tower

(DT) Without this the deck loses to Carnage Tyrant almost guaranteed.

Blast Zone

(BZ) A very tidy little control option. Our one way to destroy enchantments. Can clear up a lot of the enemy's board sometimes. Cannot be discarded with Thought Erasure type effects, nor can the activated ability be countered. Just all-around good. (Except by Repudiate / Replicate )

Blood Crypt

Less great mana fixing. Not great against aggro, but great against control.

Rakdos Guildgate

What with the colorless utility lands and the hard color requirement of Bedevil , plus just lots of color requirements in general, including the guildgates provides a lot of consistency and color-fixing. You might just run two, or leave them out entirely, feel it out for yourself.

Swamp

So we can cast spells. Also good if the opponent uses Assassin's Trophy.

Mountain

Useful for casting things. Not much use if the opponent uses Settle the Wreckage, as we have no creatures.

Notes:

People tend to not like Ill-Gotten Inheritance, and Theater of Horrors is clearly card draw, so these cards can often bait out counterspells or enchantment removal which the opponent should save for Captive Audience. Inversely, in game two or three they may try to do just that, and thus let you get your draw engine up and running away with the game. If you have already played ToH, and are attempting to cast I-GI, the opponent will usually realize that they combo nicely, and will attempt to counter or remove I-GI where they wouldn't otherwise, again clearing the way for CA.

This deck tends to do surprisingly well against control, what with 8 things they need to counter to keep their planesalkers alive, as well as 4 Drill Bits mainboard and 4 Duress-es in the sideboard. In theory it does fine against aggro, and great after sideboarding in 4 Moment of Cravings, 3 Fountains, and probably another Ritual and Cry. Midrange usually gives this deck time to set up a draw engine and fill our hand with pertinent removal.

Honestly this deck very much comes down to card draw. It has answers to almost anything, and lots of them, both creature-based and control, it's just a question of drawing the wrong ones at the wrong time. A Vraska's Contempt is nice, but there are times you would much rather you had drawn a Ritual of Soot. Honestly adding Treasure Map would be a great idea, as it would not only provide deck sifting and card draw, but would also ramp us up to perhaps dropping Captive Audience a few turns early. You could perhaps replace Theater of Horrors and Ill-Gotten Inheritance with Treasure Map and Trove of Temptation. Another alternate take would be to put in 2 Angrath, the Flame-Chained instead of the 2 Immortal Suns.

If you want to go more competitive and less jank, than going Mardu is honestly the best change you can make to the deck. White gives you access to the great and powerful control options, such as Ixalan's Binding and Cleansing Nova, and since you already have Black, you get Kaya's Wrath for free. Most importantly, going Mardu gives us access to Mortify, as, of course, Rakdos cannot deal with enchantments whatsoever. If an opponent uses Ixalan's Binding on one of our enchantments it can be a bit of problem.

As is, the deck is a lot of fun, and usually sideboards very well. It is very unique, which is what I look for in a deck, as well as being reasonably simple and fun to pilot. The toughest part is often trying to make a value judgement of whether to take some damage to get one of your enchantments (or your artifact) down, or kill something to prevent that turn's damage. Part of the fun is also that the opponent has to choose their own poison, up to eight times. It is delightful to watch a control player discard their entire hand, or watch a player try to decide if they can possibly go to 4 life versus Black-Red rather than choose another option they don't want either. (If you do go Mardu, some graveyard hate could be good to hit Chemister's Insight, or against Golgari or Sultai.)

One could argue that the landbase should have at least slightly more Black, but you need to make sure that you are able to cast turn 1 Shocks and/or turn 2 Lava Coil. The real deal here is that Memorial to War enters tapped, and thus reduces our chance of having turn 1 and/or 2 Red in our starting hand, and thus effectively, we are running more Black, as far as our starting hand is concerned. Also if we end up using MtW to war to destroy Azcanta, push a land advantage, or color-screw an opponent, we will reduce our Red mana. Thus, the current mana base.

You should adjust the sideboard (and indeed, even the mainboard) according to your local meta.

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(6 years ago)