Sideboard



"A bit of Insanity, a little bit of Panic; What we need here is a little bit of Madness."

I wanted something that screams mayhem, is unconventional, and downright annoying to play against. I wanted absolute chaos; so without further ado, I present my Rakdos Madness Midrange Control deck: A Little Bit Of Madness!

The main reason I built this deck was because I had so many cards laying around for Red and Black, I decided I wanted a Rakdos colored deck, prefurably something that played to my strengths, ie. removal and really sick Demons. Over time, this focus fell off as the deck became more black heavy, but as a result functions much more efficiently.

The strategy is to wear the opponent down using removal such as Away , Hero's Downfall, Dreadbore , and Bile Blight.

Then, proceed to smack them down the infamous Desecration Demon and Pack Rat combo (Pack Rat also helps make use of dead draws). Gray Merchant of Asphodel naturally fits in here with the black heavy devotion theme.

Our God supports the deck well, by pressuring the opponent every turn, with Mogis, God of Slaughter fitting in perfectly by placing our opponent on the executioner's clock.

Thoughtseize and Duress give early game hand distruption, while Rakdos's Return functions as a heavy discard cannon and/or game finisher.

Whip of Erebos gives some good fun Lifegain, as well as Reanimation for the dead and fallen, adding an extra dimension to how the deck plays.

Then of course, Underworld Connections gives some draw power.

For decks that opt for the really long game, there's Havoc Festival to force them to speed the game up. This, combo'd with Mogis, God of Slaughter really pressures the opponent to finish quickly.

Against Aggro decks, Mogis, God of Slaughter and Desecration Demon really shine. The built in Sacrifice mechanic along with all the removal mean cutting down their creature count drastically. Sideboard contains extra removal to help stem the flow. (Most notably of which is Pharika's Cure , as it heals you while dealing with early threats)

Slaughter Games takes care of anything the deck can't handle, while Pithing Needle helps with anything annoying like the Legendary Artifacts or Planeswalkers. Mizzium Mortar adds more removal options, while 2 more Devour Fleshs deal with anything that comes out fast or is hard to remove, such as Master of Waves (While it's ability is on stack), Blood Baron of Vizkopa, Obzedat, Ghost Council , or creatures that are out of reach of Mizzium Mortar and Bile Blight.

Sire Of Insanity, previously the star card in this deck's build, is now a Sideboard magic monster that hits any slow Midrange or Control deck hard. It's an instant win if he resolves on the battlefield and lasts until the end of turn in most cases against control. They never expect it either!

Noteable Mention: Far / Away is like a Devour Flesh that doesn't give life for 1 extra mana. Since this deck runs 4 Islands, it also has the capability to cast the Far portion of the card, adding double value and making for some really sick plays!

"Nothing is infinite to me."

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So I was running 4x Blood Cryptfoil, 4x Temple of Malice, and 4x Temple of Deceit. So far, Far / Away has been absolutely brilliant. I've made some great aggressive plays with it that have won games, like Far / Away'ing Gray Merchant of Asphodel back to hand and Hard Casting him for a win, or being able to Far / Away and opposing creature with the remaining 2 Mana after a big play for the finishing blow, while still having the Far / Away portion fulfill its role perfectly, especially as a last ditch top deck.


The issue is that now I'm running 12 Non-Basic lands that enter tapped, and this slows the deck down drastically against Aggro decks, so I need to cut it back to 8 taplands and the rest as Basics. The options were either remove the Blood Cryptfoil's and throw in 4x Mountain (on the premise that I don't often "shock" for the untap, but it can be essential to a big play), or removing 4x Temple of Deceit for Island's (thereby reducing my Scry options for increased flexibility).


I opted for the second option, because I felt that although Scry-Lands are extremely helpful, having the ability to untap a Blood Cryptfoil for necessary mana is far more rewarding in most instances.


As of yet, the 4 blue Mana sources have not at all obstructed my landbase, and I'm really happy with it.

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Date added 11 years
Last updated 10 years
Legality

This deck is not Standard legal.

Rarity (main - side)

6 - 0 Mythic Rares

28 - 8 Rares

9 - 2 Uncommons

2 - 5 Commons

Cards 61
Avg. CMC 2.86
Tokens Copy Clone
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