Rakdos, Lord of Riots is a deck I've been playing since it came out, and this is the third iteration I've gone through with it. The first deck was your basic Griefer/big creature deck. Strong, but mostly boring after a while. I next tried to make it entirely artifacts so nearly every single creature comes out for free after Rakdos connects. While I don't think the initial idea was terrible, I just don't have the right cards to make it sing--mostly I didn't have a single Colossus-type creature.

Then, revelation. It might not be entirely original, but I was taking apart my Melek-Dragonstorm Combo deck a while back...and suddenly I realized I really needed to try out this same kind of thing in Rakdos. Dragonstorm, that is. I actually already have the perfect sleeve for Rakdos:


Without further ado, the deck:



I suppose I'm pretty good at making slow decks, it seems. This didn't use to be a slow deck, but I should probably make it a little faster at getting into the dragons portion of the show. Dragonspeaker Shaman would probably be a good card to have in here, but I don't know if trying to use it for early Rakdos damage would be stellar. Oath of Mages might be okay for that early damage, or also Words of War. I'm still contemplating whether or not I want to try Keldon Marauders for that early damage.
Enjoy! I can't say it's exactly original to have a dragon-tribal-like Rakdos deck, but a party is a party!

EDIT: Updated list 3/12/14.
EDIT: Updated list 3/25/14.

Hi, Segrus!

So, you finally got to the Rakdos list, eh? Haven't played against dragons in a long time, my only experience was with a friend in my LGS who ran Scion of the Ur-Dragon, but unfortunately his deck had gotten stolen and he stopped playing MTG afterwards

Your build seems slower than mine, but in a multiplayer game, that normally doesn't matter much. In the case of Rakdos, however, I wonder whether a slower build is possibly bad for him, since you don't get to use his tempo gain as much.

I'd like to see this in action someday

Cards:
If you like lifelink, how about Whip of Erebos?
Pestilence seems to catch people unprepared. Works great for me, too
I don't run Wound Reflection, actually, since it doesn't work with the party boss.

You've got a few sub-par dragons in this list, like Volcanic and Hellkite Igniter. Moonveil Dragon and Dragon Tyrant might be worth looks.

I really think any rakdos deck w/o burnt offering is doing it wrong. It is just so amazing. And, what other deck is that card any good in? That's a good reason to play it, right there!

but to your point about enabling an earlier rakdos:
plague spitter
lobber crew

those two are MVP damage dealers for enabling rakdos. Also I kinda like psychosis crawler, that works too, and can be played for 0 if rakdos is already out.

and your point about draw:
i think the next-best thing to try is memory jar. It fills the yard which is good with your recursion, and potentially fills your hand with a ton of stuff to play for cheap. Also I'm pretty much in love with dark prophecy, which is good anti-wrath bait, and not likely to get real out of hand since you're probably only going to have 3 or 4 dudes in play. This list probably wants faithless looting, too.

I agree that weaker / less synergistic cards are: wound reflection, exquisite blood, comet storm, dregs of sorrow, sorin's vengeance

maybe cut those + something else (i'd go with a weak dragon) for:

memory jar
faithless looting
burnt offering
yawgmoth's will
lobber crew
plague spitter

yawg's will really shines in this deck... it's wrath-recovery, you're filling the yard, you have explosive plays like burnt offering and disciple of bolas, and casting from the GY benefits from rakdos' discount. although if its too good-stuff-ish, I understand wanting to skip it. Although, really, it's not that great in most decks. I kinda like the opportunity to play it here.

It might be worthwhile to cut some of the non-dragon haymakers (looking at you, Wound Reflection and Sorin's Vengeance) for some lower end Rakdos enablers. Honden of Infinite Rage, Shepherd of Rot, Basilica Screecher, and Nether Traitor all spring to mind as cards that are good enablers for t4 Rakdos that still have value later.

The lack of Phyrexian Arena jumps out at me. It is just straight-up better than Underworld Connections, though you probably want both.

I think you may want Gilded Lotus more than you want Thran Dynamo. It comes down a turn later, obviously, but it is the same amount of ramp and is still useful when Rakdos pays for the colorless part of your creatures.

Main thing is this: I posted this last night before I went to bed. I was pretty certain about some of the cards I should be taking out, but didn't want to make a mess of things and be up until 3am looking through cards. I plan on looking at making changes tonight based on what I see here. Hopefully, I'll get a game in with it and see the changes.

I'm really going to try forcing myself through getting sentimental with some of the cards, and therefore make better decisions about the deck in general. It's easy to remember the time I used Sorin's Vengeance to make Darksteel Colossus almost free, give it haste via another card, and pile 21 damage to a single player; however, this isn't that same deck. And I've got to remember that.

Thanks for all the suggestions so far!

Didn't see the Basalt Monolith on my first pass through. Definitely cut that over Thran Dynamo.

Dear me! Vedalken Orrery needs to be in here. I was trying to refrain from buying a single card for this deck (mostly because I'm refraining from buying any cards for a while), but...early damage needed? Let your opponents bash each other, and cast Rakdos on an their turn.

Nothin' beat surprise. 'Cept rock.

Sneak Attack would be good too, but it's on the same price level as Yawgmoth's Will of "Yes, it's nice. No, I'd rather not spend that much right now. Thank you." No, I absolutely will NOT pull cards from my Cube...

...but I want to so badly...I could totally justify it though...

I've had a rough time getting vedalken orrery to work in mine. Usually people just want to attack me. And they have to leave rakdos in play. It might work better in a slower, less threatening build.

but, the point of this post:

As a replacement for wound reflection & co, want to use warstorm surge? That's got a lot more synergy with rakdos (damage BEFORE combat!), and also with the dragonstorm plan.

Changes I'm making to the deck until I play it a few times:

- Crimson Hellkite
- Volcanic Dragon
+ Dragon Tyrant
+ Preyseizer Dragon

Not quite the dragons talked about above, but I have a feeling tapping down Crimson Hellkite and only using red mana for its ability isn't going to be worth it. In addition, it can only be used on creatures. Basically, just more bad news. I couldn't find a random Moonveil, but I'm going to try out Preyseizer since I'm adding more small creatures. Even just a little bit of extra damage could mean everything.

- Basalt Monolith
+ Gilded Lotus

Talked about, and makes sense.

- Exquisite Blood
+ Whip of Erebos

I still don't like this exchange much, but I'm willing to give it a try in order to find out whether or not it'll work better. Exquisite Blood is just so good...anyway, like I said, I'm willing to try.

- Toil // Trouble
- Wound Reflection
- Dregs of Sorrow
- Sorin's Vengeance
- Comet Storm
+ Pyreheart Wolf
+ Dragonspeaker Shaman
+ Lobber Crew
+ Vithian Stinger
+ Mogg Maniac

These are all of the small creatures I'm adding in to take the place of big spells. All of them have early and late game significance. Pyreheart helps deal early damage while also making the big creatures mostly unblockable later. Dragonspeaker is good at all points to make dragons come out quicker if I'm having trouble getting Rakdos to wake up. Lobber Crew, early damage and also deals a lot of damage just for tapping. Vithian Stinger comes back after a wrath for damage later. Mogg Maniac either blocks like a champ or people begrudgingly let it through.

- Snow-Covered Mountain x 2
- Snow-Covered Swamp
+ Command Tower
+ Cavern of Souls
+ Sulfurous Springs

Pilfered from some other decks to hopefully smooth the mana out. Also, Cavern will really help protect high-profile dragons.

EDIT: I gave some thought about Phyrexian Arena, Warstorm Surge, and Dark Prophecy. Dark Prophecy's triple black probably needs more mana fixing to really get out, so I'm going to wait on it. Warstorm Surge...well...I don't have any good reason not to include it other than having taken out Wound Reflection. Another one I'm keeping in mind, but not including at this juncture. I couldn't find my deck that might have Phyrexian Arena, so I couldn't add it. I'm going to keep looking. I know it's around, I just have to find it. Misplaced, really.

So after playing against this a couple times, I have some thoughts;

Stuff I thought was good;
Pyreheart Wolf - I was skeptical at first, but this proved to be a thorn in the side - being unable to just field a blocker and be done with it meant you got Rakdos down early, and made a boardwipe necessary... which the damn wolf survived.
Dragon Tyrant - I was terrified of this.
Whip of Erebos - The only reason I wasn't terrified of this is that I had bog'd you. The life gain is solid, but can be overcome. Having to worry about a second dose of whatever monstrosity just got removed is much more unsettling.

Still not impressed with Hellkite Igniter. Too vanilla, you don't have enough artifacts to consistently use its ability for value, and the haste is ironically kinda irrelevant, since hitting someone with Rakdos and dropping it for cheap means you've already attacked... maybe Forgestoker Dragon? The ability to keep things from blocking while you smash might come in handy. Stormbreath Dragon is neat too, though I think he's probably got a bit of a price tag, since he's played in the R/G monsters standard deck. Imperial Hellkite also might be worth a look. The morph cost is high, but being able to field a turn 3 beater -> turn 4 Rakdos is decent, and later on you can use him to tutor stuff. (also remember if Rakdos is "on" then you can play it face-down for free and just pay the morph cost).

Some additional yard hate to supplement Bojuka Bog might be in order. Leyline of the Void seems like a good choice, since it doesn't affect you. One of the cheap artifact options like Relic of Progenitus or Tormod's Crypt would also be handy.

I'd say most situations where you'd want to cast Chain Reaction, you'd rather have Blasphemous Act instead. Also you seem really light on removal. Have the Pestilence cards worked out? You could swap them for some decent spot removal like Hero's Downfall, Terminate, Dreadbore, Murder, Gild, Sever the Bloodline,etc.

I notice you have basically no tutors. Conscious choice or just don't have any handy?

I'm still torn over Tyrant, actually. The RRRR upkeep cost is dreadful to the max, and showed me that the best response for it isn't removal; however, land destruction--even basic land destruction--is the best and most correct answer. If I continue to see this pattern of response, I don't think I'll keep it. It's not worth losing a creature AND getting Time Walk'ed a couple of turns.


I actually noticed I have a Stormbreath Dragon left over from a RG Hyper-ramp deck I built just before the big Dublin tournament. I think I'll make the switch later today. I still like the haste, because it gives me the opportunity to surprise attack someone if I need to; however, Stormbreath will probably do that better. I don't own a Forgestoker Dragon, so that's out for the moment. I have considered Imperial Hellkite, but my problem is I'm forced to always play him face down first and then waste an entire turn flipping it just for a tutor. If it wasn't only a 6/6 Flier or if I could reduce the cost of flipping, I'd give it more consideration.


Since last night was literally the first real game with this deck, I agree with you about all of this. Much more removal and/or tutors need to be in here, instead of just relying on dominate board position. I'm going to see what I have and work from there on both points. Pestilence effects totally dominate the game when I draw them and they aren't removed quickly. With all my guys usually having 5 or greater toughness, I can normally blow up everything everyone else has without caring about what I have.

I'm thinking about taking out these cards first:

- Hellkite Igniter
- Dragonspeaker Shaman
- Chain Reaction
- Dragonstorm
- Syphon Mind
- Hammer of Purphoros

Dragonspeaker Shaman was in my hand a long time, and I never saw a chance to use it. Without evasion, he's going to suck late game when I'll only have a couple cards in my hand (and I'll likely have the full mana I need to cast a dragon). In the early game, I'm going to want to play Rakdos instead of a dragon. Mid game, Rakdos reduces WAY more than this guy ever will. Dragonstorm, Syphon Mind, and Hammer are all great cards, but I have to cut something in the deck to get more removal and/or tutors. A regular tutor will probably be better for the deck than either Dragonstorm or Syphon Mind. Hammer is cute, but I think sac'ing a land is going to hurt the deck too much even in a pinch. I know I said I wouldn't every take out Dragonstorm, but for the sake of the deck performing better I have to do it.

Why not other cards? Well, the creatures in the deck are pretty set in stone. I don't want to cut back on dragons, and if I cut back on other small creatures I'm in danger of never getting Rakdos out on turn 4. That leaves me with ramp/mana fixers, draw cards, and recovery--or other removal. I really can't skimp any more on all of those. This is getting to be a tight list.

EDIT: as low amounts of tutors as I can muster has been my goal for decks I construct, honestly. I don't want to be tempted towards the same kind of game plan every game--for instance, Utvara Hellkite plus Scourge of Valkas every game would get boring really fast.

Ya, I felt guilty about that one. The flip side of course is that it represents a ridiculous amount of damage and must be answered. If Mr. Cool had managed to stick his general for a turn cycle, there was no way I could survive if that thing hit me (7 power with your extra R x 4 = OW, and that's assuming you didn't rip another red source.)

You were afraid of 28 measly damage?

My name clearly says I'm chicken.