After extensive tweaks and testing, I took this sweet thang out to ranked play tonight with ridiculous results. I went from rank 18 to 34 with only 2 losses. One loss was to a Sphinx's Tutelage deck that hit all of his fogs and stuck 2 Tutelages by turn 5. Not too much you can do there. The other loss was a close one to Gruul hitting 2 Mwonvuli Acid-Moss when I decided to keep a spicy 2 lander and drew poorly. Otherwise, if you have patience and can rock a Control build without being tempted to blow your load and instead opting to pass turn and aim for 2-for-1s, this deck is as tier 1 as I've seen so far.

RAKDOS CONTROL

Creatures (14)
4 x Shambling Ghoul
1 x Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh
1 x Liliana, Heretical Healer
3 x Fleshbag Marauder
1 x Erebos's Titan
2 x Embermaw Hellion
2 x Kothophed, Soul Hoarder

Spells (23)
4 x Fiery Impulse
2 x Ravaging Blaze
3 x Reave Soul
3 x Twin Bolt
2 x Exquisite Firecraft
3 x Read the Bones
2 x Languish
2 x Chandra's Ignition
2 x Cruel Revival

Lands (23)
2 x Dragonskull Summit
4 x Rakdos Guildgate
8 x Mountain
9 x Swamp


Instead of an extensive and long winded card choice section, I'll just touch on the deck's main focus: deal with absolutely everything, but only if and when it's an actual threat. If your opponent says Turn 1 Child of Night or Elite Vanguard, you hold on to your instant speed removal until their next turn. Odds are they'll either play another 1 toughness chump or go cast an enchantment. With patience, as I said, the 2-for-1s abound.

You're not casting Exquisite Firecraft to their face as a rule, it's an out against a creature you can't kill with the rest of your huge removal suite. The goal is to put your opponent in top deck mode and drop your bombs/planeswalkers when the coast is clear. The 2 Ravaging Blazes are super finishers and usually go off for 10 or more by time you're ready to cast them.

Everything else is usual suspect type classic Rakdos. Embermaw Hellion makes Chandra and your burn package look like Modern Burn, and Erebos's Titan is usually indestructible due to your opponent's sad board state. OH, you'd like to Reprisal him? I'll shoot your board in response and you can make a sad face. Fleshbag Marauder gets rid of hexproof stragglers and flips Lily in a pinch. They're like best friends after that. Chandra's Ignition works amazingly as a board wipe, but also can gain you a butt ton of life if you target Lily with it.

Enjoy! Comments and suggestions are welcome.

I've spent the morning working on the Rakdos steal/sacrifice archetype and I've discovered that the stealing really isn't all that necessary. I have kept three copies of Act of Treason in my list, though, because it helps me remove blockers and power through damage to my opponent. This isn't an aggressive deck per se, but it is capable of some very large burst damage out of nowhere.

In the game I just played, my opponent was on 12 with me on 2 and he has lethal in the air. I have a Nantuko Husk in play alongside a Flameshadow Conjuring and only a Subterranean Scout in my hand (well I had a land, but you get the idea). I topdeck Graveblade Marauder like a champ and play it, getting a hasted copy via Conjuring. Then I play the Scout targetting my Nantuko Husk, get a hasted copy Via Conjuring, and target the Graveblade Marauder token. The Husk sacrifices the two actual cards, putting them in my graveyard, and I swing with an unblockable 6/6 Husk and an unblockable Graveblade with 6 creatures in my graveyard for lethal+1.

Anyway, I'm still tweaking so I'll probably have it up on YouTube tomorrow or the next day. I'll post the list now, though, just to generate some discussion:

4 x Rakdos Guildgate
2 x Dragonskull Summit
1 x Rogue's Passage
9 x Swamp
8 x Mountain

4 x Goblin Arsonist
4 x Bone Splinters

4 x Perilous Myr
1 x Subterranean Scout
1 x Shadows of the Past

1 x Liliana, Heretical Healer
2 x Graveblade Marauder
3 x Fleshbag Marauder
4 x Nantuko Husk
3 x Act of Treason

3 x Gravedigger
1 x Pia and Kiran Nalaar
2 x Flameshadow Conjuring

2 x Priest of the Blood Rite
1 x Cruel Revival


Some notes on the choices:

Goblin Arsonist - This cheap little guy is an easy sacrifice and turns on Bone Splinters for just one additional mana.

Bone Splinters - We have eight cheap creatures that we don't mind sacrificing early. Then later in the game, Priests and Flameshadow Conjuring tokens are excellent fodder for this spell.

Perilous Myr - This guy is the better Goblin Arsonist.

Subterranean Scout - One copy of this card can let us deal some serious burst damage through Nantuko Husk and Graveblade Marauder and we have no qualms about sacrificing it and picking it back up via Gravedigger to do it all over again. Flameshadow lets us double the EtB.

Shadows of the Past - Hard not to include a copy of this card in a deck that struggles to gain card advantage. Scrying is the main reason to play it but our graveyard will fill up so we can burn people out with it.

Liliana - Stuff dying all over the place makes her easy to flip and we don't mind chucking stuff in the graveyard because we can get it back or just power up Graveblade. I haven't gotten the chance to create a second copy via Flameshadow and keep it, but I want to to see if Stainless will let me flip a token into a Planeswalker.

Graveblade Marauder - An excellent early defensive creature that turns into a win condition in the late game.

Fleshbag Marauder - Just an Edict, but since it's a creature we can pull it back through Gravedigger. Flameshadow turns it into a one-sided Barter in Blood.

Nantuko Husk - This guy is tremendous, as long as he's not naked on the board he's immune to Reave Soul, Twin Bolt, and Fiery Impulse. He also hits pretty hard and we have a couple of ways to make him unblockable. Sometimes you'll Flameshadow this guy then sacrifice the actual card to get in for four out of nowhere. He's just great with Flameshadow in general because it keeps him well-fed.

Act of Treason - I dropped to three because it's really not an essential part of the strategy, but it still can deal a lot of damage and disable a key blocker. Killing the thing afterwards is just gravy.

Gravedigger - This is how we generate card advantage in this deck, we just keep fetching stuff back. Awesome with Flameshadow Conjuring to grab two things back and maybe get in for two.

Pia and Kiran Nalaar - It's not a core card, but it is a lot of value for four mana since you get three bodies and the ability plays very nicely with Perilous Myr, which we can recur through Gravediggers if we want to. Since it's just a value card and it's Legendary, we'll just play one. You can still Flameshadow it to get two extra artifacts, and on some boards you'll probably sacrifice the actual card and swing with the hasted copy, only to dig it back up later.

Flameshadow Conjuring - An overlooked card in this archetype, I think. It generates a tremendous amount of value for a very small cost. There are lots of synergies all across the board here and I'm sure I haven't even discovered half of them yet. The second copy isn't an actual dead draw, but it taxes the mana hard and if you have time to cast both of these then you're already doing well. There's so much value, though, that I think you have to run both. It's been that good.

Priest of the Blood Rite - Nice big flying body and we can rid ourselves of the drawback easily enough. Then we can dig it back up and do it again. Also amazing with Flameshadow Conjuring.

Cruel Revival - This card was almost Chandra's Ignition because I like how that card works with Nantuko Husk and Graveblade Marauder, but I'm not sure. Revival is obviously awesome here to kill almost anything and we have a lot of zombies in the deck, so we're almost always going to get a card out of it. It's entirely possible that this should just be land #25, but I need to play more games.

She's been on my mind because I really think Act of Treason can get cut completely. I also like Brodo's Avaricious Dragon becase we can sack it to turn it off then dig it back up later.

She's been on my mind because I really think Act of Treason can get cut completely. I also like Brodo's Avaricious Dragon becase we can sack it to turn it off then dig it back up later.

Treason can be a game winner, I was trying a version of this deck and had one game when I flooded out and just had a few chump blockers to stall, I was on 8 life and oppo on 20 he attacked with Outland Colossus and 2 other dudes which I chumped allowing the colossus through and getting him up to a 12/12 with me on 2 life. Next turn I stole his colossus and then used Ignition on it for GG

After extensive tweaks and testing, I took this sweet thang out to ranked play tonight with ridiculous results. I went from rank 18 to 34 with only 2 losses. One loss was to a Sphinx's Tutelage deck that hit all of his fogs and stuck 2 Tutelages by turn 5. Not too much you can do there. The other loss was a close one to Gruul hitting 2 Mwonvuli Acid-Moss when I decided to keep a spicy 2 lander and drew poorly. Otherwise, if you have patience and can rock a Control build without being tempted to blow your load and instead opting to pass turn and aim for 2-for-1s, this deck is as tier 1 as I've seen so far.

RAKDOS CONTROL

Creatures (14)
4 x Shambling Ghoul
1 x Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh
1 x Liliana, Heretical Healer
3 x Fleshbag Marauder
1 x Erebos's Titan
2 x Embermaw Hellion
2 x Kothophed, Soul Hoarder

Spells (23)
4 x Fiery Impulse
2 x Ravaging Blaze
3 x Reave Soul
3 x Twin Bolt
2 x Exquisite Firecraft
3 x Read the Bones
2 x Languish
2 x Chandra's Ignition
2 x Cruel Revival

Lands (23)
2 x Dragonskull Summit
4 x Rakdos Guildgate
8 x Mountain
9 x Swamp


Instead of an extensive and long winded card choice section, I'll just touch on the deck's main focus: deal with absolutely everything, but only if and when it's an actual threat. If your opponent says Turn 1 Child of Night or Elite Vanguard, you hold on to your instant speed removal until their next turn. Odds are they'll either play another 1 toughness chump or go cast an enchantment. With patience, as I said, the 2-for-1s abound.

You're not casting Exquisite Firecraft to their face as a rule, it's an out against a creature you can't kill with the rest of your huge removal suite. The goal is to put your opponent in top deck mode and drop your bombs/planeswalkers when the coast is clear. The 2 Ravaging Blazes are super finishers and usually go off for 10 or more by time you're ready to cast them.

Everything else is usual suspect type classic Rakdos. Embermaw Hellion makes Chandra and your burn package look like Modern Burn, and Erebos's Titan is usually indestructible due to your opponent's sad board state. OH, you'd like to Reprisal him? I'll shoot your board in response and you can make a sad face. Fleshbag Marauder gets rid of hexproof stragglers and flips Lily in a pinch. They're like best friends after that. Chandra's Ignition works amazingly as a board wipe, but also can gain you a butt ton of life if you target Lily with it.

Enjoy! Comments and suggestions are welcome.

dragon fodder in a control list? and you left one of the most efficient removals out cruel revival just sac your fleshbags to themselves then pull back with CR later rinse repeat, you also have enough creatures that you may want to consider at least a 1 of gravedigger

annd remember when in doubt perilous myr it out

THIS!!!!!!!!

I'm on my phone so I wish I could add a more detailed response, but I will totally be stealing the Avaricious Dragon tech from you, Brodo. Sometimes my deck removes all the things, but it has to sacrifice card advantage to do so and the topdeck wars are real. Dragon should help fight through that and with Conjuring we can get a pseudo-Stormbreath Dragon.

It's been on the shelf, I have to dust it off.....