Pavel the Mighty, Hero We Deserve

Commander / EDH DreadKhan

SCORE: 36 | 2 COMMENTS | 5202 VIEWS | IN 10 FOLDERS

Vorthos Adjustments? —June 5, 2023

Considering tossing in Kiku, Night's Flower, Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief and Gift of Doom, but I'm most interested in Gift of Doom. It works with many other things in the deck that are already in, even if I almost never use it with Morph it's not a terrible ability for 5 mana, and at least Enchantments are reasonably sticky. It works well with a plurality of creatures in the deck, which is a good sign, and it's got huge Vothos energy that the deck could use. Kiku also has tons of Vorthos energy, way more than Drana, but Drana is often the better card. Kiku's removal can be much cheaper to use, but is much more limited in what it can hit, and Drana offers an extremely aggressive body vs opponents with limited flying blockers. Downside for both is that neither deals damage to kill, but at least Drana can hit like a truck, Kiku suffers from limited target options but can kill some pretty huge stuff because WotC loves creatures with power > toughness, but Kiku is notably sub-par at killing some utility creatures that Drana could. Drana has a big upside that she doesn't tap, so if I have 15 mana because I'm using 2 Battery lands, then Drana is WILDLY better, and might catch an opponent very much off guard and finish them off, but I'm not sure that Drana really has the Vorthos this deck needs. I do like that Drana has a higher MV. Technically, I could run both of them, both are impactful removal that can warp a board state.

Edit: Well, not sure if I'll actually cut them yet, but I'm thinking I can pull Illicit Auction for Drana and Hurl Through Hell for Kiku, then maybe (big maybe!) Citadel of Pain for Gift of Doom. Gift has gobs of synergy I think, so throwing it in and removing Citadel of Pain seems fine because I'm adding more creatures that might hold up their abilities until the last minute. I'd definitely miss Citadel, so we'll see, but I think the other two will be a solid improvement for the deck.

Edit: Since I already have them both, I switch out Auction and Citadel for Drana and Kiku, hopefully Drana is good for some damage and both remove some problem creatures!

Edit: Took out Ogre Slumlord, Hurl Through Hell, Dredge the Mire and Fevered Suspicion are all out in exchange for Humble Defector, Wake the Dragon, Too Greedily, Too Deep, and Gift of Doom. So far very happy with Drana (as I knew I would be), but Kiku does a fair bit of work if she sees play, and I cannot wait to have Jaya out with Gift of Doom on her! Then I just need Lifelink, but Indestructible is a pretty good start for a wipe-on-a-stick! I also worked on the deck's description, hope it's easier to figure out what's going on here!

Edit: ...any ideas of what I could/should pull for Blood for the Blood God!? It seems like it'd fit with some of the wipes (especially the Red ones that don't use much mana), but this deck can also just hit 11 mana sometimes and I get to draw 8, I feel like it'd be a good hit for my Protection Racket too. I'm also wondering about Diabolic Revelation. I'm considering pulling Ophiomancer, but she's a heck of a blocker, and this deck likes that kind of thing, though it'd also like having one of (if not the) most clunky tutors ever printed, but there are some solid synergies in here and I really, really like the idea of spending like 10 mana to tutor up a hand. Not sure if/when I'll make those changes, but they are there to think about.

Edit: Huh, thinking about pulling Ophiomaner got to me and I pulled it for Grave Betrayal, because who cares if you've got blockers when your deck has this many ways to kill a critter, this will let me steal it and make it bigger, which seems pretty relevant. It also has Liliana synergy, since she cares about Zombies fwiw. I think this might be the best card in the deck, but it can also be dead in some situations, so I think that combined with it being 7 mana will feel pretty good. Also, like Ophiomancer it can make bodies, but this can make an actual board out of a board wipe that I'm running anyways.

Edit: So, Boiling Seas for Olivia Voldaren, Olivia is much more versatile, Boil effects only hurt mono-Blue decks that run a ton of Islands, and I'd still have Omen of Fire? is there a janky way to make a land into a creature in Rakdos? Big upsides to Olivia is that she has mega synergy with the things this deck is already doing, and she offers creature theft as a potential path to victory (if you play her after several wipes have cleared everyone out).

I'm very strongly considering throwing in There and Back Again, it seems like the kind of deck that should be running it, I think each aspect of the card is useful to the deck, I run a few cards that offer benefits to Legendary creatures and this can make anything Legendary, I still need to be ramping at 5 mana and I have some non-Basic Mountains, my Commander would love to be harder to block all the more since he can pump his power after blocks are declared, the deck likes a 6/6 Dragon for 5 mana and it can cast a wipe to kill the token if it's not relevant, giving me resources to rebuild right away. I guess that's another card for the Dwarves sub-theme, should Rakdos decks run a few Dwarves at this point like Green decks often sneak some Elves of some sort in?

Edit: Out goes Fateful Showdown for Diabolic Revelation, this card is very on theme, paying 6 mana to tutor up a card is embarrassing, but paying +10 to build a hand is pretty scary late game, if I've got enough battery mana stored up I might even be able to go off that turn, but it's worth noting I could always Emergence Zone it out and have held up activated abilities.