I agree, Suffer is definitely a good card to have vs. spiders, possibly the best card to have. It is also not as bad as people sometimes say even against other decks. It does even better in an Orzhov heal/hurt type deck.

In a faster aggro deck like the one above I don't think it would work out very well at all and actually drawing it when you really need it would be very rare without playing at least 2 (without there being any extra draw or tutoring). It just wouldn't fit here.

Yeah, in a B/R aggro deck, Suffer doesn't really fit. With it your best bet against Golgari spiders is just to blitz and try to win before he can flood the battlefield with the bugs. (and yes, in an Orzhov deck with a Sanguine Bond out, Suffer is just brutal)

Just straight up destruction here. Critique welcome.

Land
9 x swamp
9 x mountain
4 x rakdos guildgate

Black

3 x quest for the gravelord
3 x ulcerate
4 x giant scorpion
1 x shadowborn demon
2 x indulgent tormentor
4 x flesh to dust

Red

4 x goblin arsonist
4 x shock
2 x anger of the gods
3 x rockslide elemental
1 x inferno titan

Other

3 x galvanic juggernaut
4 x auger spree


Simple strategy. If it's summoned, kill it. Gravelord, juggernaut, elemental and Titan are your winners. Auger spree works well with all of those.

Btw, this is the perfect deck against those pesky goblin and token decks. High percentage win against any weenie deck and good for the bigger critters too.

Here's the Rakdos deck I use. Not entirely original, but the Sac/Steal archetype is fun, so although I've avoided some of the other popular builds like RDW or Lifegain, I do use this. Thought I'd post it as It's got minor DLC updates, and It's the only deck I use I haven't posted before (mainly as it isn't really doing much new)



Not a huge amount to say here regarding strategy. Everyone knows how Sac/Steal works. This is just my prefered take on it. I've tried to give it additional depth as the sac/steal strategy can be inconsistent at times.

I wanted 5 dual lands, so chose Savage Lands over Crumbling Necropolis as on the very rare chance I steal something with an activated ability that I can trigger, I'd rather create tokens with a Jade Mage than tap a creature with a Nibilis of the Breath.

I've never played this archetype and I've never really had trouble playing against it because it's so slow and tends to quickly run itself out of cards. If they nut draw they can win quickly, but most times they just sit there with 1/1s doing nothing. That could be a function of the builds/pilots I've faced, though. How competitive is this list?

Have you considered a couple of copies of Fling, perhaps over Scavenger Drake? That card just doesn't seem worth four mana to me. Also why Dead Weight over Shock? Is the upside of shrinking big dudes worth losing instant-speed and the extra reach?

Scavenger Drake is a new addition that due to the 360's MP being offline for the moment I haven't been able to test, and may get removed. In previous games it was always a horribly underestimated card, and I anticipate it being the case here also.

I'm not a fan of Fling in these types of deck, as unless you're flinging to win, I don't want to 2 for 1 myself. Dead Weight does have a decent use in shrinking bigger dudes, as a lot of my creatures grow, so it allows me to attack into larger creatures without having to trade (Rabblemaster occasionally benefits from this as well) That's better than the instant nature of Shock for me.

I just see Fling as a Sac outlet that is more difficult for your opponent to interact with and it plays really well with Rabblemaster. I can see the argument against it, though. Any thoughts about Blasting Station as another sac outlet that's harder for your opponent to interact with?

The reason I say this is because these decks get a lot worse when the Connoisseurs get removed, which is very easy to do. I like Devouring Swarm here, I don't normally see that card and I think the evasion plus sac outlet is great.

The issue with Blasting Station is often I don't need another sac outlet. Just stealing and attacking often enough is enough to win. Treason effects are rarely dead cards in a deck that's also being quite aggressive elsewhere, while the Station alone isn't great.

As you say, once Bloodflow dies, so do a lot of the decks, which is why I balance my Sac and Steal effects, relying on neither fully, but also having alternate uses for them. Bloodflow can eat my own Goblins if I'm not stealing creatures (which also grows the Drake and Rockslide) and getting pressure by attacking with creatures that grow and early weenie damage means I can somethimes win with a steal without having to eat it afterwards as their life is so low (remember it effectively removes a blocker too)

If a straight steal doesn't kill, it often forces trades they don't want to make through necessity, and stalls their own aggro if you didn't kill them as they need extra block equity just in case, which gives you the freedom to grow. I use the Treasons as pressure cards as well as combo cards. Same with the Bloodflow (hence Dead Weight being better than Shock here). The failing most have is they go all-out on the combo and die as soon as it does.

I do have a biased opinion that the archetype is terrible simply because I've faced it a lot and never had any real trouble with it. To be fair, though, I did say I thought it was because of bad builds/pilots.

The other thing I've noticed about the archetype is that it runs out of cards quickly and can't compete in the lategame. Did you consider Graveborn Muse as a source of additional card draw for those games where you get disrupted? I think it should be in almost every black deck and certainly feels like a better use of four mana than the Drake. Additionally, the Rockslides and Connoisseurs require quick answers before they get out of hand, meaning you'll likely be able to stick a Muse if your first wave gets answered.

I second Muse as a replacement.

I never have personally cared for the archetype either. Never seems to do much in the games I have played against it. The games that I have ran the archetype (long ago, Mobius created one), I felt it was too heavily reliant on the enemy creatures.

Eh, I've had the opposite experience. It's always been really solid. I mainly don't play the archetype much as there's not a lot of nuance. It's doing a relatively straightforward thing.

I've no interest in the Muses though. The deck doesn't really need draw, and they'd take the place of a threat (Tormentor, Drake, Rockslide) which all have a good impact.

Technically Jund, but I think it goes in here... (Jund is just for one card)

Would appreciate help, but I think there are tons of potential, as this deck does all of the steal deck things, without much of the card advantage losses...



edit: the curve on this deck is currently terrible... but it seems to be okay in testing.

Here is my current take on a Rakdos aggro based on unearth creatures/w blasting station!



My concern with steal/sac as a MAIN theme is that it is too reliant on enemy creatures. I prefer it kept in sub at most and decided to go on a heavy focus of aggression. Thoughts/recommendations are appreciated as it is still fairly new, but it is seeing a good amount of wins on random 1v1 so I am comfortable posting here for tweaking.

EDIT: Decided that the steal/sac themes that people generally gravitate toward with Rakdos just isn't good enough for my tastes. This deck originally began as a JUND but I later decided that it was better to drop the green and make it focused on aggro in b/r colors. Unearth is great and has nice synergy with blasting station. This deck can be pretty nasty at times. I wouldn't say it is final yet but it is shaping up nicely I feel.

So it seems that the steal/sac theme everyone has a crush on right now so here goes..

I feel it is best left as a subtheme

I really don't like Bloodghast, especially since you can never curve T1 Arsonist into T2 Ghast. He's a great SB card against control but I don't think he's good enough otherwise. Maybe cut them for the pair of Banefire? With all the little guys I can see you getting your opponent low but then stalling out. Banefire could give you the reach you need to close some games and you can still just pick off utility creatures with it if necessary. You are playing 24 land, so X=5 should be well within reach.

Those have been thoughts but I wanted to test it in depth here because of all the other recursion. It has been really awesome a NUMBER of times. and to be honest with all the recursion and token spawning it doesn't generally stall out. I want to test him further because he has been so helpful previously. I could probably get behind banefire recommendations though as removal/finisher. But recursion is what this deck is built around and plays very nicely with blasting station.

Well, you have me on the Blasting Station synergy but I still think I'd like to see some Banefire in here just as a mana sink in case you flood out or fall just short of lethal on a potential alpha strike. Hard to say what to cut, though.

I do like the Blasting Station plus Unearth, though.

Why Savage Lands over Gates? Mind games?

Yes, mind games pretty much. Does the same so I thought why not? I actually run two savage and two necroplois I dunno why it says rakdos.

Recursion has been awesome though and I win many games with it and unearth when blasting never shows.

I am still not 100% sold on Act of Treason but I do feel it is best used in an aggro build. Just too reliant on your opponent so I am up for considerations on alternatives for those spots too. I feel like warstorm would love to be here too I just hate how expensive it is. I may drop one Treason for it but usually it just sat in my hand a number of times once I went the strong aggro route.

I think banefire may replace two of the Treasons

I just had an INSANE comeback for a win! Brimaz trumped me all game and he ended up with more creatures then me in a black/white lifegain deck but luckily I swapped in one surge.. I am deff bringing in at least one surge here. That win would have been IMPOSSIBLE without it.