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The Portal of Pain *PRIMER*

Commander / EDH BR (Rakdos) Demons Eldrazi

NV_1980


Welcome to The Portal of Pain !

Hi there! Welcome to the primer of this Rakdos, pain-fueled battlecruiser deck; commanded by Rakdos, Lord of Riots. Get ready as his minions will overwhelm you and strap your writhing form to a firm, wooden surface. Fear grips you from a glance at wicked-looking knives and other (blunt) metal instruments on the surface next to your new home. As you notice your struggles to escape only seem to strengthen the bonds that hold you, your stress levels increase to heights heretofore not experienced (and potentially lethal). The winged-demon, awoken by your first screams of agony and terror, seems to feed of your distress. Even worse, it’s not just him. There are … other beings whose essence seem to be tied to him, acting as parasites who are nourished by his eldritch energies; probably absorbed from you. It’s like he’s a conduit of sorts, a portal of pain! Maybe it’s better to no longer prolong the inevitable coming of darkness and just … faint. It’ll undoubtedly be more pleasant than the alternative! This deck is meant to be played casually. It’s not meant to be used in a competitive fashion, but of course anyone is welcome to try! Feel free to comment on anything you (dis)like throughout this primer; hope you will enjoy it!

Featuring this demon friend has so many advantages, that one is almost tempted to reverse this question. His main power, the ability to generate a colorless-mana discount based on the total amount of damage done to opponents during a turn, is absolutely insane. Especially in settings that feature multiple opponents, this becomes crazy. With only a few cards in play, it becomes rather easy to generate enough of a discount to make the casting of some creatures (especially colorless ones) free. Aside from this insanity, Rakdos’s value for CMC is just enormous. We’re talking a 6/6 flying, trampling demon at CMC4; wow, just wow. His only disadvantages are the fact that opponents will need to be damaged during a turn, before he can appear in said turn (which is hardly a disadvantage in a deck geared for such damage) AND his incredible power (which paints a large target on his back and forces one to include cards that prevent his targeted removal).

The following ten parameters have been used to determine the strength of the deck. For each, a score of 5 (very good), 4 (good), 3 (mediocre), 2 (bad) or 1 (very bad) has been allocated; when totalized this score represents the power rating of the deck (maximum score is 50 points).

  • Mana: indicates the availability of mana sources within the deck.
  • Ramp: indicates the speed at which mana sources within the deck can be made available.
  • Card Advantage: indicates availability of filter- and draw resources represented within the deck.
  • Overall speed: indicates the deck’s potential for pace, based on resource availability and mana curve.
  • Combo: indicates the measure of combo-orientation of the deck.
  • Army: indicates the deck’s creature-army strength.
  • Commander: indicates how much the deck is commander-oriented/dependent (less dependency is better).
  • Interaction: indicates how much this deck can mess with opponents’ board states and turn-phases.
  • Resilience: indicates whether the deck can prevent and take punches.
  • Spellpower: indicates the availability and strength of high-impact spells.

Mana: 4

Obviously, the main source of mana is Mister Rakdos himself, but he can’t be summoned immediately so we need some other sources of energy to get him going. For this reason, the deck contains eight mana rocks, an enchantment that generates treasure tokens (in exchange for damage) and a second creature that generates mana based on opponents receiving damage.

Ramp: 1

Alas, not a single card in this deck ought to be considered as meant for ramping purposes.

Card Advantage: 4

This deck features various ways in which it can provide more casting options for myself. These can be divided into the following categories: direct draw (five non-permanents, two permanents), tutors (four options, two of which can be repeated), stealing (two cards), top-decking (two cards) and scrying (one card).

Overall speed: 3

Record of play shows that this deck can summon Rakdos, Lord of Riots as early as turn two (with a lucky draw), but on average he’s out by turn three or four. From this point forward, the deck has serious potential to gain momentum fast; both due to excellent access to resources as well as a decent average CMC (3,73 with all cards included; note that this average is brought up quite a bit because of the seventeen cards in this deck with CMC equal to/higher than 5 (the remaining 47 cards have average CMC 2,2)).

Combo: 3

A few pieces in this deck are actually insanely awesome at putting together some killer-combos; a number of them even feature its fiery commander. There’s enough draw- and tutoring in here to make it quite likely to pull one off. Possibilities include instant death (through the doubling of certain damage capabilities), infinite treasure tokens, infinite draw, infinite destruction of opposing permanents and infinite life-gain.

Army: 5

This deck’s main source of power. Nineteen of its creatures are what one should consider battle-cruisers. Aside from their pure combat strength, most of these behemoths excel at creature-(or other permanent) removal. Other excellent utilities they bring include draw, inhibition, recursion and tutoring. The remaining thirteen creatures are mostly utilitarian, providing energy, card-advantage and damage-enhancement.

Commander: 2

There’s a few ways for this deck to get mana available in solid enough amounts, that allows for the regular deployment of its battlecruisers. This energy becomes available a lot faster to the deck however, when its demon lord and savior is available to generate mana based on opposing pain. So, for the most part, not having him available decreases the deck’s speed substantially.

Interaction: 3

The main form of interaction with opposing board-states, comes in the form of resources included to destroy opposing permanents. More than half of these are permanent sources that can repeatedly use their destructive powers. The deck also includes a few options to steal, inhibit and counter opposing spells.

Resilience: 4

An aspect this deck is quite good at! Its wielder is a bit more resilient due to the deck’s life-gain potential (six options in total). Then there’s options included to keep Rakdos from harm (three options) and options to recur lost permanents from the graveyard (six options).

Spellpower: 5

Though this deck only has a few non-permanent spells on hand to whack the opposition with, it DOES have a vast number of ways in which it can deal copious amounts of non-combat damage to all opponents (seventeen options in total!).


Total power score: 34

Quite the powerhouse! In most cases, key to victory lies in the survival (and application) of Rakdos, Lord of Riots though. It’s basically over if he’s allowed to last for more than a few turns. Even without him though, this deck’s army is hard to surpass in terms of destructive capability and damage capacity. The deck’s resources are plentiful and cheap-to-cast, and it can really come out swinging fast if it’s given even a bit of leeway.

When playing this deck, one aims for a swift deployment of Rakdos, Lord of Riots, followed up by a bombardment of as much damage onto the opposition for the least amount of mana one can muster. Once that’s accomplished, Rakdos grants enough of a colorless mana discount to summon the deck’s battlecruisers and perform devastating attacks against whatever is present on the battlefield. In case attacks somehow prove ineffective, one can still deploy spells to combo-off and thereby win without attacking (Rakdos’ presence makes some of these combos easier to achieve, but he’s not required for most of them).

At least three cards in the starting hand ought to be lands (or two lands and a cheap-to-cast rock like Arcane Signet, Sol Ring or Talisman of Indulgence). It is recommended not to start a game without this hand (even if one has to mulligan down to three cards). The ideal hand would also contain some additional ramp and/or low-cost draw options.

In order to get Rakdos out quick, a good deal of resources at relatively high speed is needed; especially colored mana. When choosing land-drops, prioritize dual-lands (even if the ETB tapped), as this ensures faster casting of Rakdos. Rocks and mana-sources that gain particular priority in this phase include (alongside rocks mentioned in previous section): Black Market Connections, Fellwar Stone and Rakdos Signet. Using Dark Ritual early is highly recommended too, should the opportunity present itself. Early card-advantage in terms of permanents, could be cards like Keen Duelist, Phyrexian Arena and Stormfist Crusader. When it comes to non-permanents, Night's Whisper, Thrill of Possibility and especially Valakut Awakening   are each awesome at getting what’s needed. Now it’s time to summon magical ways to cause pain to opponents; preferably the cheap-to-cast stuff first. So that would be options like Creeping Bloodsucker, Impact Tremors, Night Market Lookout, Sanctum of Stone Fangs, Spear Spewer, Thermo-Alchemist and Vial Smasher the Fierce. With some of this present, the commander will find a way to join forces already present on the battlefield. This transfers us to the game’s next phase.

As the demon-purveyor of colorless discounts gets settled, it’s time to take care of his fuel required for summoning large creatures. Aside from the permanents mentioned in the previous section, this would be a good time to deploy more powerful (non-combat) damage enablers. For this purpose, one can choose cards like Descent into Avernus, Heartless Hidetsugu, Price of Progress, Sizzle, Tectonic Giant, Terror of the Peaks and Torbran, Thane of Red Fell. The fuel generated by these creators of pain, can be used to summon from a large array of battlecruisers, including massive creatures like Artisan of Kozilek, It That Betrays, Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, Rune-Scarred Demon, Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre and Void Winnower. This would also be a good time to get some behemoths online specifically to ruin opposing permanents that inhibit efforts to destroy you. This is a specific reference to cards like Cityscape Leveler and Steel Hellkite. Damage multipliers can also be added to this mix, to make creatures deadlier still. This would include options like Archfiend of Despair, Fiery Emancipation and Solphim, Mayhem Dominus.

During the final stages of games, (Eldrazi) behemoths flood the field and cause as much destruction and as many mass sacrifices as one can possibly cram into turns. However, in cases that such attacks are rendered impossible or countered, there’s still options to win through the application of combos. Some key cards needed for those (aside from the esteemed commander) that have not been mentioned yet, would include spells like Aetherflux Reservoir, Aggravated Assault, Cloudstone Curio and Exquisite Blood.

The following are infinite and/or game-ending combos:

  • Heartless Hidetsugu + Archfiend of Despair/Exquisite Blood/Solphim, Mayhem Dominus: Hidetsugu’s ability becomes an insta-kill against all opponents.
  • Heartless Hidetsugu + Platinum Emperion/Shadowspear/Whip of Erebos + Fiery Emancipation: Hidetsugu + Emancipation are enough to commit suicide, but when Emperion is on the field OR Spear is equipped to Hidetsugu OR the Whip is out, only opponents will perish.
  • Neheb, the Eternal + Aggravated Assault: perform an attack that causes at least 5+ damage to opponents. This ensures Neheb is able to generate 5+ during the post-combat main phase. Use that mana to activate Assault’s ability. Repeat for infinite attacks and infinite colored mana if the damage done to opponents is higher than 5.
  • Rakdos, Lord of Riots + Cloudstone Curio + at least two Eldrazi (one on battlefield, the other in hand): if one is able to deal sufficient enough damage to opponents (12+), Rakdos obtains that amount in monster-summoning discount. This is enough to summon an Eldrazi for free. Along with the ETB of the Eldrazi, Curio is triggered. Resolve the ETB of the Eldrazi that just entered the battlefield and use Curio to return the Eldrazi that was already there to hand. Now summon the Eldrazi that was just returned to hand. Repeat ad infinitum for benefits like draw, recursion, destruction of permanents, etc.
  • Aetherflux Reservoir + Exquisite Blood: how about using a strength-50 lightningbolt against players for free! Sacrifice 50 life to hit an opponent with 50 damage and immediately gain 50 life again through Blood. This can be repeated until everyone’s dead.

Reliable sources of mana, and some utility:

The cards used to accelerate mana-availability:

What is needed to draw, tutor or steal additional cards with:

  • Artisan of Kozilek: brings back a critter that was lost upon ETB; can be repeated to great effect in combination with Rakdos, Lord of Riots and Cloudstone Curio.
  • Dauthi Voidwalker: a wondrous, cheap-to-cast creature with the ability to steal a powerful addition to the creature-fleet from opposing graveyards.
  • Demonic Tutor/Vampiric Tutor: massively useful tutors to obtain key-components for the deck’s strategy.
  • It That Betrays: everything sacrificed (with the annihilator ability) gets stolen by this wonderful behemoth.
  • Keen Duelist: this kills when it top-decks a battlecruiser. Sure, it’s likely one receives some damage back, but one can be selective against whom one’s gambling (and thus who’s (un)likely to draw something big).
  • Kozilek, Butcher of Truth: provides massive draw when cast, and is an all-round menace against anything remotely resembling life.
  • Kozilek, the Great Distortion: excellent draw, massively strong and on top of it all, a perchance lucky counter engine against spells with the same CMC as the spells in my hand.
  • Night's Whisper: great for some draw in a pinch, though at the cost of some life.
  • Phyrexian Arena: an all-time favorite draw resource; relatively low-cost, dependable and thus reliable.
  • Reanimate: nope, it’s not dead.
  • Rune-Scarred Demon: fantastic tutor that doubles as a bruiser of significant proportions.
  • Sensei's Divining Top: its scrying powers by themselves are already pretty powerful; but add to that its draw ability (all for next-to-nothing costs) and we have a winner.
  • Sheoldred, Whispering One: fantastic recursion that keeps creatures from permanently dying, on top of which she offers strong combat skills AND forced sacrifices on the opposing side.
  • Stormfist Crusader: forced draw for everyone (though your pain while doing so benefits me greatly when Rakdos is around.
  • Thrill of Possibility: a low-cost draw spell with a tiny drawback of having to discard something first (a trade-off that in my experiences usually works out just fine).
  • Valakut Awakening  : powered-down version of Wheel, but still very handy in a pinch (and unlike a regular Wheel, this one just affects its caster).
  • Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls: synchronizes so well with all the pain-generation in this deck, that’s it’s about guaranteed to provide draw.
  • Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire: all he needs to do is attack, and his controller gets to tutor for whatever it wants at negligible costs.

Resources that fuel Rakdos’ ability:

  • Archfiend of Despair: the most excellent feature about this card’s ability, is that it works in every single turn; double trouble!
  • Bloodletter of Aclazotz: doubles your pain from whatever harmed you this turn.
  • Creeping Bloodsucker: damages everyone by just being, while granting life to its controller!
  • Fiery Emancipation: because three times as much damage is three times the fun!
  • Heartless Hidetsugu: apply some life-link and/or damage doubling to this and it becomes the most terrifying force on the battlefield.
  • Impact Tremors: play groups usually consist of 4 players, which means every creature-ETB results in at least 3 damage done (in total), which by itself is already a nice discount to be used by Rakdos.
  • Night Market Lookout: a little gnat that does damage all around when attacking.
  • Price of Progress: non-basic land owners beware; the tax collector is coming!!
  • Sanctum of Stone Fangs: just the one Shrine in this deck, but still useful at damaging everyone!
  • Sizzle: nice damage to deal to opponents with a single, relatively cheap spell.
  • Solphim, Mayhem Dominus: another great damage-multiplier, and a nice combatant in a pinch.
  • Spear Spewer: tap to ping!
  • Tectonic Giant: so much damage (or even card-advantage) with every attack; perfect Rakdos fuel!
  • Terror of the Peaks: ow yeah, Warstorm Surge with wings, teeth, claws and fire! Incredibly strong when combined with large creatures ETB’ing.
  • Thermo-Alchemist: tap to ping AND rinse and repeat after casting an instant/sorcery.
  • Torbran, Thane of Red Fell: just a nice addition to most sources of damage in this deck.
  • Vial Smasher the Fierce: the first spell had better be low-cost, otherwise someone is going to get hurt … badly.
  • Ulamog, the Defiler: massive exile- and annihilator potential.

Cards that stop or empower:

  • Aetherflux Reservoir: casting brings life not to mention strength-50 zapping!
  • Cityscape Leveler: your permanents are no longer safe when this attacks.
  • Cloudstone Curio: combined with the lord and a few Eldrazi, this card utilizes a multitude of useful ETB effects that in some cases are strong enough to outright disable opponents entirely.
  • Cryptborn Horror: in a deck that’s filled to the brim with ways to hurt the opposition, this guy’s juggernaut potential becomes rather obvious.
  • Deflecting Swat: just a great, multi-functional deflector that’s potentially free to cast.
  • Dreadbore: just a cheap removal option.
  • Exquisite Blood: together with all the pain-generation abilities of this deck, this card is simply gold at getting one a generous life-bonus.
  • Lightning Greaves/Swiftfoot Boots: even demons need some additional protection against opposing spells.
  • Platinum Emperion: let’s not receive damage anymore (stops life-gaining too, but that can be taken for granted).
  • Shadowspear: great bonuses for any creature in this deck, but an even greater ability to completely disable spell/damage-protection from any opposing creatures.
  • Steel Hellkite: a board-wipe with wings, and incredibly versatile at that!
  • Void Winnower: an incredible spell-casting inhibitor that completely disables tokens from blocking AND is a fearsome combatant on top of it all.
  • Whip of Erebos: a pretty great tool for life-gain as well as one-shot recursion of valuable stuff.

Appreciate the time you took to read this primer. Hopefully it was entertaining and useful to you. If so, feel free to leave a +1 and/or feedback of any kind in the comments below. Thanks again!

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Casual

93% Competitive

Revision 2 See all

(1 month ago)

+1 Chrome Mox main
-1 Dockside Extortionist main
-1 Florian, Voldaren Scion main
+1 Valgavoth, Harrower of Soulsfoil main
Date added 1 year
Last updated 1 week
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

29 - 0 Mythic Rares

37 - 0 Rares

12 - 0 Uncommons

10 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.81
Tokens Powerstone, Shapeshifter 3/2 C, Treasure
Folders Nifty Builds
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