Rakdos the defiler (cuts help needed)

[schweinefett]

Decklist

DecklistCMCManaPricesChartsDraw 7

Commander

1 Rakdos the Defiler

Deck

1 Egon, God of Death

1 Magus of the Will

1 Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire

1 Abyssal Persecutor

1 Anger

1 Treasonous Ogre

1 Kardur, Doomscourge

1 Doom Whisperer

1 Phyrexian Delver

1 Master of Cruelties

1 Burning-Rune Demon

1 Demonlord Belzenlok

1 Hellcarver Demon

1 Sower of Discord

1 Scourge of the Throne

1 Malfegor

1 Sire of Insanity

1 Lord of the Void

1 Rune-Scarred Demon

1 Archfiend of Despair

1 Vilis, Broker of Blood

1 Culling the Weak

1 Dark Ritual

1 Demonic Consultation

1 Rain of Filth

1 Sacrifice

1 Burnt Offering

1 Cabal Ritual

1 Shallow Grave

1 Final Fortune

1 Thrill of Possibility

1 Corpse Dance

1 Insidious Dreams

1 Moonlight Bargain

1 Savage Beating

1 Skeletal Scrying

1 Bubbling Muck

1 Reanimate

1 Scheming Symmetry

1 Burning Inquiry

1 Faithless Looting

1 Demonic Tutor

1 Exhume

1 Cathartic Reunion

1 Tormenting Voice

1 Cruel Bargain

1 Doomsday

1 Infernal Contract

1 Pain's Reward

1 Victimize

1 Wheel of Fortune

1 Wheel of Misfortune

1 Dread Return

1 Temporal Extortion

1 Living Death

1 World at War

1 Repay in Kind

1 Damnable Pact

1 Torment of Hailfire

1 Mass Hysteria

1 Animate Dead

1 Necropotence

1 Lich

1 Havoc Festival

1 Chrome Mox

1 Mana Crypt

1 Mana Vault

1 Sol Ring

1 Rakdos Signet

1 Talisman of Indulgence

1 Arcane Signet

8 Snow-Covered Swamp

1 Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep

6 Snow-Covered Mountain

1 Spinerock Knoll

1 Badlands

1 Blood Crypt

1 Dragonskull Summit

1 Graven Cairns

1 Luxury Suite

1 Smoldering Marsh

1 Sulfurous Springs

1 Tainted Peak

1 Ancient Tomb

1 Arid Mesa

1 Bloodstained Mire

1 Cavern of Souls

1 Command Tower

1 Gemstone Mine

1 Marsh Flats

1 Polluted Delta

1 Scalding Tarn

1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

1 Verdant Catacombs

1 Wooded Foothills

Approximate Total Cost:

So I recently updated my deck, but I've no idea what to cut. Mana in general seems fine, the amount of recursion seems fine, and most of the big beaters have their own place. So I dunno. I've already cut some big beats like death gate demons, and others that don't do much aside from beat hard.

Any ideas? I also noticed that I don't have my

• yawgmoths will

in there. Seems like I gotta fix that at some point.

Anyone else have ideas of cards that I've missed/cards that I should cut? Ones like lich I know aren't amazing, but I like to keep the suicide aggro archetype-theme, just cuz people tend to like to see something that reflects the rakdos personality in the deck.

[RowanKeltizar]

Any ideas? I also noticed that I don't have my

• yawgmoths will

in there. Seems like I gotta fix that at some point.

Anyone else have ideas of cards that I've missed/cards that I should cut? Ones like lich I know aren't amazing, but I like to keep the suicide aggro archetype-theme, just cuz people tend to like to see something that reflects the rakdos personality in the deck.

I mean that's at least a $160 fix lol, but yeah it's a fantastic card. Underworld Breach might be a budget alternative if you can set it up. It works very well with your rituals. Main trick is to reliably fill your graveyard. Doom Whisperer is great for that though.

General thoughts:

This is a really neat idea for a deck actually, and I'm surprised I haven't seen it or never thought of it myself!

So, I make this suggestion to everyone posting their decklist for critique: organize your list by card function, i.e. Demons, ramp, card draw, recursion, removal/interaction/control, and lands. Additional categories might be advisable based on the needs of the deck.

This will help you make cuts since it is easy to see how much of a given card type you have in those categories.

I notice you aren't running any removal or interaction to speak of. Are you relying on your commander for this? Just seems like there might be a need for at least some artifact/enchantment hate, or even something like Deflecting Swat, Tibalt's Trickery or Imp's Mischief. While I agree with the sentiment, relying on combat damage from a high cmc creature without built in haste or protection seems... riksy to me.

Vandalblast might be something to consider just because it destroy common artifact stax cards that keep you from being able to attack. All Is Dust might be your best bet for enchantment removal aside from Chaos Warp

There are also a ton of black and red stax effects that might make your stategy more consistent. Not sure if that's a direction you want to consider though. I'm talking about things like: Stranglehold, Blood Moon, Aether Flash Contamination etc...

You can also remove problematic cards before they are in play with

• Jester's Cap
• Sadistic Sacrament
• Bitter Ordeal
• Praetor's Grasp

Possible cuts:

Your non-demon creatures. I know a lot of them might want to sacced, but I'm kind of a purist. An exception would probably be Anger.

Moonlight Bargain this seems a bit heavy costed for what it does, but maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Ad Nauseam would be better?

Scheming Symmetry I really don't like this tutor. The fact that your opponent gets to use their card first is a pretty big disadvantage in my experience. Also, you are going to be big threat with this deck and generally people are going to get cards that specifically protect them against your strategy.

Tormenting Voice Cathartic Reunion I know why you want to run these, but in my experience, in this kind of deck, tutors are always going to be better picks than small scale card draw. Reason being is that these looting effects aren't really card advantage. It's usually more efficient to tutor for your big card advantage engines.

Torment of Hailfire I know this is an autoinclude for a lot of players, but do you reliably do enough damage with it? I don't see a ton of ways to get lots of colorless mana

Final Fortune does this reliably win you games? I can just see this being a dead card a lot of the time.

Demonlord Belzenlok - i cut this a while ago. Wasn't consistent enough for his mana cost, even with an etb support theme.


Cards that I might suggest:

Patriarch's Bidding seems good....

Cover of Darkness might help Rakdos to connect?

Jeska's Will one of the best red rituals right now

Rakdos, Lord of Riots seems like an auto include, no?

Orcus, Prince of Undeath - seems to have good synergy

Archfiend of Depravity one of my personal favorite demons.

Blood Speaker this is some old tech, but my friend runs it to very good effect. I think it also combos with Deathrender

Kothophed, Soul Hoarder yeah, it can backfire but if you run sac outlets it's not so bad. One of the best draw engines in my Kaalia deck.

Fire Covenant I feel this to be pretty premium removal and would fit the decks theme very well. Instant speed is huge and for just 3 mana and some life it's a bargain to take out important threats.

Dragon Tempest having haste in this deck seems really important. I know you don't run dragons but most of your demons do have flying.

Heartless Summoning does wonders for getting those fatties into play. Because this is commander we care more about their effects than just losing 1/1. I know you want to stay away from non-demon permanents, but a few things like this might be well worth it.

Liliana's Contract - deserves a mention. I'm personally not a fan of alt-win cards and I know its probably not what you are going for... BUT it seems like it would be fairly easy to trigger in this deck.

Recoup Shreds of Sanity recurring some of your rituals, tutors, and reanimation spells might be a good thing.

[schweinefett]

Wow! Thanks for the quick response!
I realised now that I didn't sort the decklist. I think I did that now.

Underworld breach, o completely forgot about it existing. I played it for a month when it was legacy legal, and I just never thought about porting to over to edh! Cheers! I also happen to have my yawg will in my cube, which is already half-dismantled, so that goes back in!

Hate cards I've never really ever thought about. Maybe it's cuz my old playgroup doesn't do the likes of humility, island sanctuary (not that it affects me), or chains of Mephistopheles, ensnaring bridge, and so on. Maybe it's worth putting one or two in. But after chaos warp, I'm not sure what else is actually playable here. Preferably below cmc2, and is flexible enough to kill a Thalia, but also a glacial chasm. Not sure if such a thing exists. But anything like… cmc 4+, I'd guess, is getting a bit too much. The deck needs to pile on the pressure, in pretty intense couple-of-turns, and not spend all the mana to remove something. It's a deck that asks the table to show an answer… rakdos doesn't provide answers, just more questions!

And yea, I get what the stax can do,m (believe me, I've even played full on stax in legacy!), but I like to keep rakdos as an all-in, for funsies, try and stop me kinda deck. If they land a force of will on something critical, it's fine. I don't need things like god-pharaoh statue to make free spells harder to cast.

Cuts
Scheming symmetry and moonlight bargain I can def cut. The tutor I thought could be good cuz it's a 1 mana demonic tutor, but your points are taken. Bargain I've found good, cuz it pitches fatties into the yard for reanimating, and lets me pay life to keep the reanimation spells. But yes, 5 cmc is rough. Ad nauseum is a tad TOO painful for what it's worth. 5 mana AND lots of life. Gonna have to skip that. Peer into the abyss could be though, but 7 mana is really rough.

The red draw/loot effects I wanna keep. Digging into the deck to pitch demons to animate dead is a good thing for the most part. Especially since they cost so little mana wise, and I'd usually have enough to shallow grave something on the same turn.

Torment of hail fire I think I'm with you there. I've typically used sacrifice or burnt offering to make a lot of mana to pump into it. But I guess it's just not really good enough. I guess that's a cut!

Final fortune is there to enhance the all-in theme of the deck. You've not really experienced the deck till I've bashed in with hellcarver, sac everything, reveal and cast final fortune with a bunch of silliness like world at war, savage beating, repay in kind. Or, it might just end up killing me. But either way, it leads to funny gameplay situations.

Belzenlock yea, I can cut him. It's good, but not that good.

Patriarchs bidding seems fun. Great that it reanimates demons, and hopefully not my anger in the yard.

Cover of darkness I don't think is worth a spot. Rakdos has trample and flying. For the most part, he gets through. Adding double-strike enablers could be worth it though.

Jeskas will seems good. But 3 mana play the 3 cards this turn, and it stays in exile after seems a bit harsh. Also, it's usually black mana i struggle with, not red. But I'll see if I can find a copy and test it out.

Lord of riots was in the deck a while back, but it felt like it made the deck more methodical and 'boring'. Sure it means that I can more easily cast my beaters, but it became less explosive, somehow. Maybe I gotta readjust my play patterns and test it again.

Orkus looks fun. Not sure I'll ever be able to pump more than 2 mana into X though. Actually, since most my guys I reanimate into play, I'm not sure orkus would work well here.

Archfiend of depravity I think seems good. Don't remember why I took it out actually.

Blood speaker was good, but somehow, it made games a bit too samey. There was basically no reason to not find hellcarver demon, or villis if I had an cruel bargain in hand. Maybe I should go ahead and take out more of the tutors like demonic tutor too. I like demonic consultation though, since I exile usually half my deck (and sometimes I exile my entire deck).

Kothophed I think is similar to belzenlock. 6 power for 6, but draw cards for life. Dunno.. maybe I should give him a go again, but I'm sure I had him, then took him out at some point.

Fire covenant I think seems good. I'm not sure if removal is something that I actively want though, so it's a tentative hooray!

Dragon tempest sounds good actually. 2 mana haste enabler, enchantment, and for the most part ignorable for my opponents. Though for a whole cards worth of effect, it sure feels a bit lackluster. I removed the 3 cmc red enchantment that gives all my guys haste recently cuz it's too much mana for too little.

Heartless summoning I think could be workable, but something about making my guys smaller… hmm. I have one, just never got to use it. Maybe it's worth giving it a shot. Aside from rakdos though, there isn't any other way to get rid of it in case I need the damage.

Lilianas contract I've seen, but like you, I wanna play a crazy all-in game, where I presssure my opponents to answer my things, lose a lot of life, and so on. I don't really wanna suddenly win out of the blue, when my opponents can't react to it. The card draw is good though!
I had a mizzix mastery before, but it just never did enough. I'm not sure I want more than underworld breach and yawg will for that purpose.

As it stands, it looks like I need to add more than remove!

For now, I'll try just
Removing: demonic tutor, belzenlock, scheming symmetry, torment of hail fire, midnight bargain.

…still gotta remove 3 more cards before I can start adding some back in.
I'm considering removing one or more of the 2cmc mana rocks. They're ok, but not that great. Also considering shaving a land for a city of traitors. Sol land mana ramp can be good!

Anyone else with ideas as to what cards to remove?

[weltkrieg]

I like the deck, it reminds me of my own rakdos the defiler list. Unless you're going for the idea of lich+repay in kind, I would remove the lich. You have no ways to gain life though the synergy with vilis could be broken. Same with havoc festival. I don't see what it does for you. It's basically a 6 mana do nothing enchantment.

If you want a cmc 2 spell that is helpful, how about Feed the Swarm ?

Alternatively, it's a good stuff card, that completely fits your theme: Bolas's Citadel

Damnable pact seems very slow and mana intensive. I am more intrigued that with all those goodies I don't see an Entomb . One of my favorite plays (that I have gotten off twice in several years) is Swamp, dark ritual, entomb sire of insanity, reanimate/exhume, etc.

There are a lot of ways to take it, but I removed lich and similar from my list and went more demon tribal/pox. If you want to discuss this strategy, I can post some of it.

[Ruiner]

I've enjoyed playing my Rakdos the Defiler suicide deck over the years and actually have a number of similar cards and strategies involved. My decklist is in my signature if you feel like checking it out.

[schweinefett]

I like the deck, it reminds me of my own rakdos the defiler list. Unless you're going for the idea of lich+repay in kind, I would remove the lich. You have no ways to gain life though the synergy with vilis could be broken. Same with havoc festival. I don't see what it does for you. It's basically a 6 mana do nothing enchantment.

If you want a cmc 2 spell that is helpful, how about Feed the Swarm ?

Alternatively, it's a good stuff card, that completely fits your theme: Bolas's Citadel

Damnable pact seems very slow and mana intensive. I am more intrigued that with all those goodies I don't see an Entomb . One of my favorite plays (that I have gotten off twice in several years) is Swamp, dark ritual, entomb sire of insanity, reanimate/exhume, etc.

There are a lot of ways to take it, but I removed lich and similar from my list and went more demon tribal/pox. If you want to discuss this strategy, I can post some of it.

Havoc festival is indeed a 6 mana do nothing, but it's also a card that effectively shortens the game (which is a lot of what the deck mechanically does). Also, being an enchantment makes it slightly harder for some decks to deal with there and then. Also, brings up the brinksmanship game of who's gonna spend a card to help the table… but then the ones who already lost life to it might actually wanna see the others lose life to it too. It leads to funny situations. I will keep an eye the next time it lands and see how much work it actually does. Maybe it's gonna be a cut after all.

Bolas citadel is a good card. In fact, I even have it in my legacy deck, and it has won me games. I'm not so sure I want it here though, since I don't have a lot in the way of manipulating the top deck. And I generally have kinda high cmc cards.

But yea, I took out pact already. Thanks for the reminder!