Spike Me #3, Rakdos, Lord of Riots

Poor Rakdos, he's always been one of the more interesting cards to brew around but with all his restrictions he hasn't really been viable in commander. I'm going to try and change that. He has a similar ability to a certain tier 1/2 general called Animar, not sure if you guys have heard of him but basically, he allows you to cheat in creatures and in certain cases combo. While Rakdos isn't as fast or consistent as good old Animar he follows a similar idea.

Another thing to note is Rakdos has access to black which makes comboing out with him far easier. Also, he has decent plan B and C for if things don't work out. Anyway, enough of that, let's get started with the list.

Just look at this adoreable fella

 LANDS!
Piranha Marsh
Badlands
Blood crypt
Cavern of souls
Command tower
City of brass
Mana confluence
Dragonskull summit
Smoldering marsh
Foreboding Ruins
Sulfurous Springs
Graven Cairns
Urborg, tomb of Yawgmoth
Sanctum of Ugin
Shizo, Death's Storehouse
Rogue's Passage
Eye of Ugin
Polluted delta
Wooded foothills
Bloodstained Mire
Verdant catacomb
Scalding tarn
Marsh flats
Arid mesa
Phyrexian Tower
4 Swamp
3 Mountain

 Not much out of the ordinary for lands. If they tap for black and red they likely made the cut. Piranha marsh also enables Rakdos to enter by itself so it's worth a slot. There are quite a few Eldrazi lands in here as well like Eye of Ugin. I'm not 100 percent certain on Eye gives you tutoring for Eldrazi for finishers and the two extra mana can't hurt.



Of course, Rakdos is difficult to cast with all colored mana so let's look at.....


RAMP!!

Even better than Sol ring.

No...not really

Mox diamond
Chrome mox
Talisman of indulgence
Rakdos signet
Cryptolith Fragment
Leaden Myr
 Iron Myr
 Crypt Ghast
 Sol ring
Mana crypt

Sadly we don't really have much mana sources here but we really only need to get to four mana. Once Rakdos is cast we're usually able to swing and do degenerate things and there really isn't much more ramp we can add that gives us colors.
It's important to note that Cryptolith Fragment can also enable Rakdos to be cast....speaking of which

ENABLERS
Chandra, Torch of Defiance
Retreat to Hagra
Nettle Drone
Plague Spitter
Lobber Crew
Shephard of rot
Thermo-Alchemist
Heartless hidetsugu

It's important to note that I went with Quality over Quantity. There are plenty of subpar pingers like Chandra, fire of Kaladesh or Goblin Fireslinger. All the Enablers we have here damage all the opponents.
Retreat can drain for 6 in total so Rakdos can cast pretty much any creature afterward easy. Nettle Drone untaps on all Eldrazi and is a combo piece. Lobber Crew also untaps with Rakdos entering so that's another easy 6 damage and Heartless will make all Eldrazi/Colorless creatures free and pretty much everything else super cheap.
It's important to have one of these early (I like Lobber Crew or Retreat with fetches) to make sure you have Rakdos out early and consistently.
Speaking of Consistency, what's a black deck without...


TUTORS!
Rune-Scarred Demon
Sidisi, Undead-Vizer
Conduit of Ruin
Demonic Tutor
Vampiric Tutor
Gamble
Grim Tutor
Imperial seal


Pretty self-explanatory here, if you need an enabler you can easily get it with one of these. You can also get combo pieces if you have Rakdos on board. Rune-scarred and Sidisi also come in at a discount via Rakdos so they're often two mana tutors as well.
Well with all these enablers and tutors I should probably mention some sort of...


COMBO!
Nettle Drone (Again)
Cloudstone Curio
Ancestral Statue
EVERY COLORLESS CREATURE

Probably the most important card in the deck

So Nettle Drone is the main thing in this combo, every time you cast a colorless spell he untaps allowing you to do more damage to players. With Rakdos + Curio you can cheat in Eldrazi for free, bounce another Eldrazi and ping players for 1. Recast that Eldrazi, untap the drone and repeat for game. You also can do Drone with Statute and skip curio entirely. As long as you have done at least 4 damage he's free and will bounce himself and untap the drone. The beauty is drone can do damage himself so he will often be free or super discounted at first. You can easily kill the table with Drone, Rakdos, and Statue with just one mana open.


So what happens if the combo doesn't work out? Let's look at Plan B


FAT JERKS:
Void Winnower
Ulamog, the Ceaseless hunger
Kozilek, butcher of truth
Ulamog, the infinite gyre
Emrakul, the Promised end
Artisan of Kozilek
Sire of Insanity
Sneak Attack

These guys can end games by themselves and with Rakdos + Enablers they can easily cost close to nothing. Emrakul can often kill a player by having them necro or toxic deluge for their own life total. The rest are just really good and work well with Rakdos.

 So in a deck that wants to play things as soon as possible and try and combo out we need tons of draw, and tons of draw we have


DRAW:
Disciple of Bolas
Sandstone Oracle
Dragon Mage
Knollspine Dragon
Night's Whisper

I always pictured the Eldrazi making
similar sounds to the Reapers in
Mass Effect
BWAAAA

Faithless Looting
Read the bones
Phyrexian Arena
Necropotence
Reforge the soul
Wheel of fortune

This may be too much but I'd much rather have too much draw than too little. Sandstone, Dragon Mage, and Knollspine all are decent things for Rakdos to cheat in as well and Disciple works very well in a deck with massive creatures. The rest are fairly self-explanatory.

And finally since we're running a deck that wants to combo out or swing with fatties it's important we need answers.

ANSWERS!
Pyroblast
Red Elemental Blast
Magus of the moon
Blood moon
Duress
Thoughtseize
Unmask
Rakdos Charm
Toxic Deluge
Fire Covenant
Lightning greaves
Swiftfoot boots
Chaos Warp
Phyrexian Reclamation
Go for the throat
Animate dead

Look at this like a preemptive counterspell

Reanimate
Vandalblast
Wildfire
Ruination


This may seem like a ton of cards to run for defense purposes but this deck is fairly fragile already. Without the general it's not likely you can win so we're running both red counters and the three black single discard spells to make sure the way is clear.
Blood moon and Magus just go in red decks (Much like every one I've published here)
Rakdos charm and Chaos Warp give you a range of answers.
Deluge and Fire Covenant give you controllable board wipes.
Greaves and Boots protect Rakdos and allow you to do more damage.
And finally, Wildfire and Ruination will often win you the game when you have Eldrazi on board, simple as that.


And I believe that brings us to 99 cards for Rakdos, other things you can consider are Lightning Bolt, Kolighans Command, Mass Hysteria, Dance of the dead, and more lands but I've been decently happy with how the list fairs in testing. It's not hard to get Rakdos out turn 3/4 with the ramp and tutors. After you use the enablers to either combo out or cheat in creatures. Use counters/discard to protect them and you can win from that.


Here's a full decklist:
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/spike-me-episode-3-rakdos-lord-of-riots/

 Let me know what you would like to see in the future for Spiking and I'll see you guys next time.


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