Rock & Roll - Rakdos Toggo & Friend

[Guardman]

So now that things are starting to head in the right direction to start playing in person, I figure it's finally a good time to start brewing again. Especially since before the pandemic I was planning to take a part all of my decks except my beloved Etali, Primal Storm. Anyways, a deck that always tickled my fancy was doing a black/red Toggo, Goblin Weaponsmith deck using rocks and treasures to win either through grindy pinging, a massive Torment of Hailfire, or, preferably, Revel in Riches/Hellkite Tyrant .

Right now I am leaning towards Falthis, Shadowcat Familiar due to Toggo working well with deathtouch. But I am also considering Armix, Filigree Thrasher (madness synergies + some more removal), Keskit, the Flesh Sculptor (more draw), and Nadier, Agent of the Duskenel (can get real big real quick, plus built in wrath protection).

Rock & Roll

DecklistCMCManaPricesChartsDraw 7

Commanders 2

1 Falthis, Shadowcat Familiar

1 Toggo, Goblin Weaponsmith

Artifact "Creatures" 7

1 Burnished Hart

1 Solemn Simulacrum

1 Scaretiller

1 Conqueror's Galleon

1 Combustible Gearhulk

1 Wurmcoil Engine

1 Meteor Golem

1 Myr Battlesphere

"Treasure" Creatures 8

1 Impulsive Pilferer

1 Dockside Extortionist

1 Magda, Brazen Outlaw

1 Captain Lannery Storm

1 Gadrak, the Crown-Scourge

1 Ruthless Knave

1 King Macar, the Gold-Cursed

1 Pitiless Plunderer

Ping Creatures 7

1 Disciple of the Vault

1 Juri, Master of the Revue

1 Reckless Fireweaver

1 Mayhem Devil

1 Nadier's Nightblade

1 Fathom Fleet Swordjack

1 Marionette Master

Other Creatures 6

1 Feldon of the Third Path

1 Keskit, the Flesh Sculptor

1 Gonti, Lord of Luxury

1 God-Eternal Bontu

1 Hellkite Tyrant

1 Zagras, Thief of Heartbeats

Ramp-ish Artifacts 5

1 Sol Ring

1 Wayfarer's Bauble

1 Arcane Signet

1 Armillary Sphere

1 Veinfire Borderpost

Other Artifacts 4

1 Basilisk Collar

1 Nihil Spellbomb

1 Trading Post

1 Summoning Station

Enchantments 4

1 Phyrexian Arena

1 Retreat to Hagra

1 Shiny Impetus

1 Revel in Riches

Sorceries 11

1 Scheming Symmetry

1 Feed the Swarm

1 Finale of Eternity

1 Night's Whisper

1 Torment of Hailfire

1 Painful Truths

1 Yawgmoth's Vile Offering

1 Contract Killing

1 Brass's Bounty

1 In Garruk's Wake

1 Plague Wind

Instants 2

1 Bedevil

1 Chaos Warp

Planeswalkers 1

1 Daretti, Scrap Savant

1 Karn, Scion of Urza

1 Ugin, the Ineffable

Lands 40

10 Mountain

8 Swamp

1 Arch of Orazca

1 Arid Mesa

1 Blood Crypt

1 Bloodstained Mire

1 Castle Locthwain

1 Command Tower

1 Darksteel Citadel

1 Dragonskull Summit

1 Drownyard Temple

1 Fabled Passage

1 Field of Ruin

1 Great Furnace

1 Guildless Commons

1 Inventors' Fair

1 Memorial to Folly

1 Myriad Landscape

1 Prismatic Vista

1 Rakdos Carnarium

1 Smoldering Marsh

1 Sulfurous Springs

1 Vault of Whispers

1 Verdant Catacombs

Approximate Total Cost:

I am looking for suggestions, especially in regards to which would be the best black partner for Toggo. One other thing to note, I do want to keep this list on a budget for the most part since I am planning to put my money into updating my Etali deck. The expensive cards you see are cards I already have. I will say I am planning to get a Goldspan Dragon and Curse of Opulence if I can trade for them. But on the other hand, don't be afraid to suggest them, I just might have it squirreled away somewhere.

[Rumpy5897]

I can confirm that Falthis is probably the card for you. I personally run Toggo with Keskit, and the deck drifted off as more of a Keskit deck than a Toggo deck. It makes sense, really - Keskit incentivises you to pursue conventional board gum, which helps you stall the game out as you slowly pick people apart with Zulaport triggers. Also Keskit draws cards. The stuff he incentivises is just more all around impactful on the game state. I still cast Toggo every game, mind you, but the rocks serve as emergency Keskit food and fuel for silly things like Inspiring Statuary.

One thing that Toggo really likes is fetchlands. I run all the proper ones, a Crucible of Worlds, Rings of Brighthearth. It's good for making a stockpile of rocks, and helps ensure mana growth in the process. However, that is decidedly non-budget. For what it's worth, I own one set of fetches and feel fine proxying them wherever I want to.

Goblin Welder is cool, sac a rock, get something meaningful back. Clock of Omens is hilarious with Toggo and Scaretiller, and still pretty good with just Toggo if you have some decent tap artifacts around. Valduk, Keeper of the Flame holds rocks and out comes a torrential wave of garbage. Loyal Apprentice offers sky gum that's also artifacts. Cranial Plating, Ghirapur Aether Grid, Indomitable Creativity, Reprocess all care about a mountain of garbage.

[Guardman]

Finally able to come back and look at this deck (been distracted by work and other decks).

@Rumpy5897: A lot of good suggestions. Rings of Brighthearth is really interesting in the deck with Toggo and Fetchlands. (Luckily I have an old one lying around... And I just remembered I got a second one in the Lorehold commander deck).

While I like Goblin Welder, I don't think I am running enough artifacts to justify a slot. And only a few of them are what I would consider high-impact artifacts. In fact, I am sort of leaning towards cutting Daretti, Scrap Savant for the same reason. That is sort of the same problem with Clock of Omens.

I do like the suggestions of Valduk, Keeper of the Flame, Loyal Apprentice, Cranial Plating, and Ghirapur Aether Grid. Just have to figure out what I should swap for them... maybe.

Also a few questions I am looking for input on.

1. What are peoples' thoughts on Crackle with Power as a second copy of Torment of Hailfire? It deals 40 damage to eight targets at 26 mana, which seems doable in this deck and should probably kill the table. And with pings, and other life loss in general, it might consistently lethal at the 11 to 14 mana range.
2. In a similar vein, what do people feel about Temple of the False God? I know a lot of people feel its a trap since it is a dead card until you have five lands, but with deck running forty lands, plus a few ways to search for lands, this seems like it should be a small downside.
3. Jeweled Amulet - I found this card while searching through my old cards. It seems like it would work well in any deck that has a 3-mana commander that it would prefer to play on turn 2. But I never really see anyone play it.
4. Meteor Golem vs. Spine of Ish Sah - I don't know which I should be running in the deck as I have a few sac pieces which go well with Spine. At the same time, it's only a few sac pieces, which means I shouldn't expect to reliable have one. Also, I have a few ways to recur Meteor Golem that wouldn't work with Spine, such as Feldon of the Third Path.