I agree, Elspeth, Sun's Champion is a fantastic card

Have you tested it at any local tournaments? I'm VERY curious to see how it would work against something along the lines of my deck: 1st@FNM 3-0 Junk Token Lifegain. Good luck with yours! (and where is elspeth? :)

@kmcree: I think that maybe I'll give that a shot in playtesting and see how it does. Boros Reckoner is in there because this deck is weak against agro and he can 2-for-1 agro decks if they're foolish enough to attack into him (and if I don't draw an Anger of the Gods ), not to mention that he keeps Polukranos, World Eater at bay with turn 3 RG Monsters' mana acceleration. His mana colors aren't prohibitive for this deck because out of 25 lands, I only have 3 that don't produce a color in his cost. No, he doesn't win games but he fills a gap while maintaining a body, and when I need to start pushing damage, he rarely gets blocked for fear of the backlash. I'd rather have 6 copies of "fuck your aggro" than just 3!

@rorofat: This deck is untested as yet, but that will be happening this upcoming Friday. I had tried my previous Rakdos incarnation last Friday and did poorly, mostly because of the worst land draws you've ever seen - 25 lands, 1-2 land hands nearly every pull except for 1 match. I mulled to 5 three times and then STILL drew 1 land hands. It's not even a game when that happens, regardless what deck you're playing. When it worked properly, I owned the board up and down but did run into problems with a 5 color control and taking the last few points of life off. This new incarnation with splash white fixes nearly every hole I encountered aside from drawing 1-2 lands 75+% of the time (seriously, how is that even mathematically possible?), so I'm optimistic. My shop runs a lot of weird brews, though, so we'll see what happens. As I said, biggest problems with this deck are aggro decks, and Game 1 Control.

I'll playtest against yours and provide some feedback as to how it went. Thanks for the feedback and toss me a +1!

@rorofat: I just playtested against your deck and went 4-0. I'm obviously not as good at using your deck as you are, but I didn't feel my plays were unreasonable, as the deck plays fairly straight-forward. To be fair, one game you got absolutely flooded with mana and a timely Thoughtseize didn't help matters, but I drew well consistently and had an answer to everything you put down within 1-2 turns. You did sneak some damage in, but I was able to neutralize 2x Voice of Resurgence in a game, and you were left without much to play. Thoughtseize and especially Rakdos's Return hurt you tremendously, as your board relies on combos that cause huge problems when broken up. I do have suggestions for you, if you would like, but I will leave them on your deck page instead. Just let me know.

I expected that :) I might just have to switch over to a brew something like this! Well, good luck at FNM, and may the magic be ever in your favor! (+1 from me :))

Please see the questions posted in the update - FNM tonight! First time out, so any last-minute help appreciated.

@Regulus1010 regarding your FNM questions. For this deck I would run another blood baron vs ghost council. Here is why, if you ran a whip in the MB then I would say ghost hands down. Reanimating that thing from the graveyard is a nightmare for any deck especially for esper control. Seeing that 75% of the removal is black I'd add another Blood Baron.
Helix...If you MB'd 2 whips this wouldn't be a concern for you, You have enough removal in the deck where the 4 damage shouldn't be needed. The real question I feel is do you MB boros charm or not. Double strike or indestructible for the few creatures you do have is a huge advantage and normally not one seen coming. If you did go with the Helix then I would sub for the mortars in this case. If you have the need to overload a mortars with this deck then somehow an elspeth or assembly made it on to the board and you couldn't take it out fast enough.
As far as the sideboard goes I would take out one radkos's return and bump up lifebane to 3 total, remove the duress and look at either Sin Collector or Mindsparker . Sin Collector because it is a nice cheap way to look at their hands and remove an instant or sorcery spell, Mindsparker because of the advantage of a 3/2 firststrike creature and can deal damage to them also, plus it becomes a target for the control decks that can save your better win cons in the deck. I MB Slaughter Games just because it can be a devastating equalizer early in game one that could give me a quick win against any deck. Add in 3 lifebanes and 3 sin collectors that give you a look on turn 3 is a nice added bonus for the turn 4 slaughtering. The last thing I would suggest and it's only because I have had some great success with the card is High Priest of Penance . It is a very underrated removal card that some players don't see as a threat until it's too late. It stops the aggro decks and really throws a wrench in the 3-4 card mechanic decks that I have seen.

Good luck tonight, I am looking forward seeing how you do!

Lets say you didnt have desecration demon. what would you run instead?

Just noticed, you have 61 cards listed. Do you run 61 cards?

impwks I would suggest going to eBay and buying a play set for 15-20 bucks. You could do a rakdos lord of riots but you have to be able to damage them as well to cast it, I tried to center a deck around The Lord but getting the creature combo on turn three was harder than I thought.

Hey bro, I really like this! +1 I'm running something really similar and have a few of the same difficulties with an excess of 4 and 5 drops. I haven't been able to take mine to FNM yet so I would really appreciate some feedback on my dega control deck. I typically don't like spamming my decks on someone else's page but I think you can really help me! Thanks!

Thanks, noobplayer17! Sure, I can leave you some feedback.

I have always wanted to go Dega (because of the love I have for Rakdos's Return . ) but never got around to it. I really like this deck. It makes me want to build one.. :P Instead I stick to Rakdos (The Return of the Nightmare from Hell) 1+ I like it but why the artifact thing. I never really liked the look of those. Maybe thats just me.

Aw yiss. Mutha. Fuckin. Dega control.

If your hardest matchup is Revelation decks, playing more Slaughter Games may be a bit much, but more Rakdos's Return . Remove the problem, remove Sphinx's Revelation . Also, spot hand disruption, like Thoughtseize and Duress , is the key. Play four of each after sideboard if needed. Thoughtseize should be a 4-of maindeck. I played my Orzhov Midrange with 7 hand disruption maindeck, and 10 after sideboard. I'd love to do that with Dega, but there isn't enough room for that, I fear. Another solution to that, would be Spirit of the Labyrinth or that card that pings for 1 each time an opponent draws a card I forgot the name. Not really control cards but I'm exploring and considering everything. Usually, some well-timed spot disruptions and a decent unanswered Rakdos's Return seal the deal. Usually.

As a control deck, what you need is card advantage. Against aggro decks, you do that by 2-for1ing them, with Anger of the Gods , Mizzium Mortars , and Bile Blight if you want (hell, even [[]]). Against control, you need to grind the game with Underworld Connections . I know your feel for Read the Bones , trust me, but against control, it can't grind the game. Another way of having card advantage against control, is Sin Collector . It doesn't seem like a control card, but I am not sure, versus potential Sphinx's Revelation topdecks, if you can afford spot disruption for an extended game. The body becomes relevant, because they have to answer it at some point. Drop a Sin Collector , support it with spot disruption, see what happens.

For win conditions, I feel Blood Baron of Vizkopa , after being better than Obzedat, Ghost Council for a long time, isn't doing the job anymore (overall), I put him in the sideboard of my midrange list, I'll see how it goes. On the other hand, I tried out for an FNM, Assemble the Legion + Purphoros, God of the Forge (+ Obzedat, Ghost Council ) as main win conditions, and these were satisfying. I feel Stormbreath Dragon is more of a planeswalker sniper than anything, more suited for aggressive midrange strategies. I removed him too.

The matchup that is problematic for me is Colossal Gruul, and Monsters in general. The turn 3 Arbor Colossus is a real pain in the ass. If it was only that, that would be ok, I have removal, but against me, maybe I'm just unlucky, they seem to have endless threats, and I end up fueling out. They have a very good top deck, and I don't know what we can do to solve that.

+1 for you, feel free to check mine out, even if it's midrange : Dega Scream.

We will make this work.

I'm not sure if someone has already suggested this, or if you've looked at it, but one of the best ways to deal with Sphinx's Revelation decks is Skullcrack .

I like to MB Slaughter Games just because every deck has its key component that needs to be destroyed. AEtherling on Control, Master of Waves for Mono-blue and so on. Since you have a lot of hand-disruption you can see what their deck is and what they have in their hand. Plus you have 3 prior turns to observe if you don't have any thoughtseizes. No More Sphinx's Relevation!

@Aytonday, lonewaer, kmcree and RobinScottsfield: Thanks for your comments and feedback! I didn't see any of your +1's if you left them, though.

To respond in specific (and sorry for the delayed response on my end:

@Aytonday: I chose Rakdos Keyrune for a few reasons. Firstly, I dropped Mutavault to speed up/smooth out my mana, so I needed something that stayed on the board as a threat and avoided board wipes. Spare mana? If I can spare the 1 mana to attack with a Mutavault for 2 damage, I can almost certainly spare another and attack for 3. Plus, first strike isn't bad. Also, when I'm getting slightly land-screwed, it provides acceleration same-turn and a small degree of mana fixing. I was running 2x up until recently but getting a 2nd one was never something I wanted.

@lonewaer: Love your deck! I gave it a +1 last night. I loved the enthusiasm in your comment on this deck :) I would love to have a 2nd Slaughter Games or a 3rd Rakdos's Return in my SB, but there just isn't room for it with everything else I need to jam in. I like your read on the control matchup which is essentially the same as mine, but I'm still having a tough time with it. Maybe it's bad draws or I just need to learn to play against it better, but I just don't have room for more than 5x hand hate spells MB between Rakdos's Return and Thoughtseize . I do definitely side in all the hand hate I can against control, though, including Duress and Sin Collector . Also, I don't want to be shocking myself for 2 more than I already have to with this deck, and drawing a late game Thoughtseize when you need removal is BRUTAL. So, those went down to 3x.

As far a card advantage, between 12x Temples and 2x card advantage spells, I have plenty to filter/draw. I was running 2x Read the Bones and 2x Underworld Connections , but too many of the former hurt too much, and too many of the latter was causing me to draw 2 in a game too often (shitty luck), which I never want in a deck that's already painfully slow. I know that there are reasonable arguments against what I'm saying here, but it's a playstyle choice on my part.

I've chosen to MB more Blood Baron of Vizkopa over Stormbreath Dragon exclusively for the lifegain aspect. I take a lot of self damage and early damage very often, and if I haven't drawn Warleader's Helix or Whip of Erebos out with a creature that's dealt combat damage, I was hurting quickly. I've found Stormbreath Dragon to be far better against control due to haste and their inability to answer right away, but only for that matchup is it better than Blood Baron of Vizkopa . I basically find myself wanting to draw Obzedat, Ghost Council every game I play, so he got bumped to 2x and I even thought about 3x although I don't know where that copy goes in MB or SB.

@kmcree: You're right, Skullcrack is great against Sphinx's Revelation but I'm far less concerned about the life gain since if you give me enough time with this deck, I'm absolutely going to kill you. I'm more concerned about their drawing 5+ cards on me. That's something this deck can rarely come back from. It was suggested to me up a few posts to use Spirit of the Labyrinth , which isn't a bad idea but again, I already have so much control hate in the SB that I'm not sure what would make more sense to take out. I think with control, this deck needs to hope to Godhand and have control draw shit.

@RobinScottsfield: I did have Slaughter Games MB when this deck first started out, and not that I don't completely agree with you because your comment is precisely why I started on that path, but other matchups made it clear that Slaughter Games needed to come in games 2/3 to produce better game 1 results for me.

Love the feedback - please keep it coming!

Sorry, I thought I did +1. Fixed now

Okay I have playtested similar Rakdos control with a group of my friends to prepare for tomorrow's FNM. I have found out that this deck, eventhough I maindeck 3 Anger of the Gods , loses life very, very quickly against Aggro and Burn decks. The problem is that I lost so many life from Thoughtseize s and Shock lands. Azorius and Esper has Sphinx's Revelation but all we have are slow life-link creatures and a Whip of Erebos which is very dependant on others to gain life. And Yes I agree R/W Burn is a nightmare for this deck, too bad so many players in my area play that...

Yes, Dega lists shock themselves very aggressively. Last week I got myself down to 10 with a shockland, 3 Thoughtseize , 2 Read the Bones , and one of the Thoughtseize got countered.

Against aggro, if you stick a blocker or resolve an Anger of the Gods , it's over. Side in all the Anger of the Gods , side out Thoughtseize .

Against burn, we most likely lose game one either way. Side in Duress , side out Thoughtseize if you want (I don't), side out most of your draw engine, you won't need it.

In a meta full of aggressive strategies, I would probably drop Rakdos's Return , and replace it with Purge the Profane . Plain and simple. Damage to the opponent is irrelevant in those matchups, but life gain is. If you can Anger of the Gods on turn 3, and Purge the Profane on turn 4, you win. Also, in such a meta, drop Desecration Demon , and play Alms Beast instead. People don't like those choices, but they actually work, in a meta full of aggressive strategies.

@RobinScottsfield: Yes, that's precisely what I've found as well. The matchup against any deck playing a Sphinx's Revelation , due to the speed of our deck, isn't in our favor in game 1 whatsoever, although we do have a better shot post-board.

@lonewaer: Those are some really interesting choices, and to be honest, I've never even considered Purge the Profane . My meta has become largely control from what I've seen lately, and if it's not that, it's Boros Burn or something similar enough to essentially be the same thing. 4 CMC seems steep for that card but it certainly has its uses. I have no idea what I'd take out to make up for it, though. I've been more worried about control.

Hey man, what do think about the new card Nyx-Fleece Ram ? I'll probably try boarding these in against white weenie, rakdos haste, burn, and RDW. It blocks most of the key cards in these strategies, it doesn't die to any individual burn card other than Fated Conflagration (which doesn't see near as much play), and it helps gain back the life from shocks and thoughtsieze!

@noobplayer17: I saw that and considered it. Recurring life gain certainly has it's appealing points, but I'm not sure that just having Anger of the Gods , a plethora of spot removal and fatties to throw out can beat many lifegain decks. I'm more considering putting in Deicide than anything else right now! That card...holy shit, talk about Wizards partially breaking an entire block! Still in shock of that card.

Just a curiosity, I saw you said above that you used Revoke Existence as attackers were declared...this isn't instant speed so how was this done during that game at FNM?

I like this deck and I've been a big fan of RBW control decks even before "The Aristocrats" deck from last season's standard meta.

You mentioned that you were having some problems vs control decks, and I think I know why:

You are only running 11 threats really (10 creatures + 1 x Elspeth, Sun's Champion . This means that they can sit back ALL DAY and wait to counter your threats before going on. Esper gets to Thoughtseize you before trying to land one of their win cons, and seeing black will make them leave countermagic up to counter your Thoughtseize or Rakdos's Return . These are good cards against them, but I think we need some more threats that can also mess with them.

What I mean is something like Sin Collector . You've only got one in the sideboard and he is AWESOME at gaining the advantage vs control decks. They're either forced to use their spot removal on it or else lose it. and if they don't have a counterspell and are holding onto Supreme Verdict , well it goes bye bye.

If you decide to put more creatures in the main deck I would up Blood Baron of Vizkopa to x4 as he's SOOO good right now against esper), Then putting in another Boros Charm or two in either the maindeck/sideboard would be good.

Assemble the Legion is also a great win con vs a variety of midrange/control decks as it puts things out with haste each turn. Monoblack fears it as they can't remove it, and frankly if you come across an opponent not running green or white they're in big trouble against it.

You probably have a great game vs aggro seeing as you run 13 removal spells maindeck, but this is probably hurting you against control decks. I see nothing wrong with running Lifebane Zombie maindeck as any green/white deck is going to get pummeled by him. At the very least he allows you to peak at your opponent's hand.

Another thing that could give you some "reach" would be a 1 or 2 of Angel of Serenity . She rebuys your previously fallen guys, and has built in removal against opponent's creatures anyway...kind of like an insurance policy in case she dies. She has won me SEVERAL games due to my opponent's not being able to deal with her and I usually end up getting my 2nd one in long games that just recycle each other along with 1-2 other creatures

@Regulus1010 : If you are more worried about control, then keep Rakdos's Return . Purge the Profane is aimed towards surviving only, and against control you are better shocking yourself under 10 life for card advantage anyway. Control is tough... I have 3x Underworld Connections , I think this is the solution.

I also played a lot Pharika's Cure against aggro, it does wonders.

Hey, it just hit me : or, you maindeck Slaughter Games , because why not after all ? They maindeck Sphinx's Revelation , an eye for an eye.