Budget Modern Rakdos Hollow One Midrange

Modern BRG (Jund) Budget Creature Cheat Dice Discard Midrange

msimcoe

Aggro Time (3)

• 3x Vengevine

Cycling (7)

• 4x Street Wraith
• 1x Forgotten Cave
• 2x Takenuma, Abandoned Mire

Discard Payoff (9)

• 3x Containment Construct
• 4x Hollow One
• 2x Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar

Discard Targets (6)

• 3x Blazing Rootwalla
• 3x Ox of Agonas

Discard outlet (14)

• 2x The Underworld Cookbook
• 4x Burning Inquiry
• 3x Cathartic Reunion
• 2x Collective Brutality
• 3x Goblin Lore

Fixing Lands (14)

• 4x Mountain
• 3x Swamp
• 3x Dragonskull Summit
• 4x Fabled Passage

Removal (6)

• 3x Grim Lavamancer
• 3x Terminate

Utility Lands (1)

• 1x Hostile Desert

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Sideboard

Other (15)

• 3x Cathartic Pyre
• 3x Rakdos Charm
• 2x Anger of the Gods
• 2x Claim / Fame
• 3x Duress
• 2x Slaughter Games

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Maybeboard

Aggro Improvment (2)

• 1x Bloodghast
• 1x Flameblade Adept

Discard Outlet (3)

• 1x Diamond Lion
• 1x Haunted Dead
• 1x Geier Reach Sanitarium

Discard Target (1)

• 1x Ovalchase Daredevil

Midrange Improvement (6)

• 1x Dauthi Voidwalker
• 1x Seasoned Pyromancer
• 1x Kolaghan's Command
• 1x Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger
• 1x The Meathook Massacre
• 1x Inquisition of Kozilek

Removal (2)

• 1x Bone Shards
• 1x Terminal Agony

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Overview

Foiling and specific versions are personal preference

This deck has been through (and is still undergoing) hell and back with trying to find the right mix between cheap discarding and having cheap discard pay-offs to form a very midrange style deck (a strategy seemingly well supported in todays modern meta). The deck is simply trying to use discarding cards to its advantage, whether it is to cheapen a spell or cause an opponent to discard as well, this deck discards plenty and hopefully keeps up with card advantage off spells like Cathartic Reunion. As well, the deck uses these many discard spells to dig through the deck for relevant interaction lending heavily toward a midrange strategy. Hollow One, the decks namesake 4/4 beater who can be cast for free off discarding three or more cards in one turn and it brings with it Burning Inquiry and Goblin Lore to possibly turn one hollow one.

Though it isn't the most powerful thing you can do in modern, it certainly maintains the aggression and demands an early answer especially (even if you can turn two it with ragavan still running rampant). The archetype certainly isn't at a proper tournament power level, but since the banning of Faithless Looting, Hollow one decks haven't been in a great state. Though with the numerous supportive additions from Kawigama (Containment Construct and Takenuma, Abandoned Mire), the deck is definitely better than even a few weeks ago.

Card Choices

The deck has three main aggressive creatures in Vengevine, Hollow One, and Bloodghast who either benefit from dicard, or make a threat from casting many cheap creatures. The deck has a blanket removal spell in Terminate which can deal with pesky Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer's at instant speed or whatever threats the opponent may present. The rest of the deck is attempting to ensure that you don't run out of gas with effects like:

• Cathartic Reunion who isnt great for card advantage, but much like faithless looting still moves you through your deck toward effective cards,
• (*Sideboard*) Cathartic Pyre who serves a similar purpose to cathartic reunion but with the added benefit of removal for the current creature heave, very fast meta,
• Ox of Agonas which can either be hard cast or escaped from the graveyard to reload your potentially weak handsize,
• Containment Construct to benefit even more off of discarding cards like Barren Moor to get you your land drop guaranteed or even casting a hollow one off a mishapped random discard,
• lastly the creature land Hostile Desert as an untapped un-lightning-bolt-able creature land who benefits off fetchlands.

The rest of the list includes the following:

• Collective Brutality which fits very well in this deck with its versatility being four-fold in opponent discard, and/or kill or maim a creature, and/or lower opponents life-total and lastly as a discard outlet for hollow one.
• Again, Burning Inquiry and Goblin Lore serve to easily discard three cards to poop out a Hollow One and start beating down the opponent or at least forcing an answer.
• Street Wraith serves a similar purpose in guaranteeing a free cycle/ discard effect for Hollow One to again keep digging through that deck.
• Blazing Rootwalla gets you a free creature off discarding it which the deck can do consistently until as well as being hard-cast-able off of Containment Construct's ability or from the hand. Greatly helps with the free Vengevine activation,
• The final card choice is in Vengevine who can be an easy aggressive benefit off of casting two creatures in just one turn which the deck can do pretty easily.

Budget Drawbacks

The most glaring and harmful draw back to this budget version is its lack of great modern staple lands. Its missing good fetch land Bloodstained Mire, Blackcleave Cliffs and shocklands Blood Crypt that would really get the deck rolling quicker and more efficiently, getting more cards played in a shorter time. The decent budget substitutes require set up/ planning and a few turns to actually turn the deck on which really makes two or three mana investments required from a discard strategy almost impossible to pull off on curve. And finally, as with any red deck in modern right now, if it doesn't have four copies of Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer its not even tier three. (I'm not salty, you're salty)

Maybeboard

The maybe board grows and shrinks all the time so while maybe not up to date

Many items in the maybe board showed up in previous deck versions as I still am considering their possible synergies with any new cards I come across. Currently, Flameblade Adept and Bone Shards are the two cards that fit this category

Diamond Lion is a decent combo with Containment Construct similar to the combo of Lion's Eye Diamond with Yawgmoth's Will (play yawgmoth's will and in response crack LED to have effectively 6 mana with which to cast cards from your graveyard) where you crack diamond lion and use the mana to pay the madness cost of several cards you just discarded off containment construct. It's not the most powerful combo but to be fair neither is burning inquiry into turn one hollow one.

Haunted Dead could be used in stead of Flamewake Phoenix as it has a return to battlefield ability that granted costs one more, but isn't restricted by needing a 4 power creature to activate and with the added "benefit" of discarding two cards. Again not incredibly powerful and huge card disadvantage so maybe Hazoret or other Hellbent cards would be a good addition with this card to empty your hand as fast as possible.

Considering the mass of artifacts in this decklist, Ovalchase Daredevil may just be a strict upgrade to squee allowing multiple discards in one turn. I still dont know if there's enough of a mass of artifacts to accomodate this strategy though.

Lastly, and most interestingly, theres the utility land Geier Reach Sanitarium which is either a colorless mana source (so already not great in an 18 land two color list), but it also has the ability to make both players loot for two mana, giving late-game inevitability in a way as the discarded card will already pay for itself off of a hollow one but also again digging you and your opponents through your decks slowly but surely.

Format Drawbacks

Hollow one aggro isn't a great archetype in modern right now, just getting its small creatures killed, its hollow one chump blocked and having no other advantages gained from getting them on the battlefield. Hollow one is even still a weak creature to gain, though it does have plenty of cards in the deck to back it up. Sure, you can crap out a 4/4 onto the field on turn one with burning inquiry but thats all he is, a five mana 4/4, he can be chump blocked or murdered pretty easily and if not, the opponent can just run the deck over in fewer than 5 turns (the clock you start with your 4/4). Its not a great spot for Hollow one to be, but when it's good, it's really good.

Not Mono-Red

Rakdos brings an interesting spin to the deck-tech with discard effects stacking to a guaranteed turn-three Hollow One. Black splash also helps keep the deck in more of a midrange theater with cards like Collective Brutality and Terminate offering good lock down power.

Suggestions

Please feel free to tell me what you think! Too fast, too slow, are you angry about the current state of Hollow One decks as well? Whatever it may be, I'm welcome to hear it! (Especially possible midrange-y replacements for Grim Lavamancer who kind of n-ombos with stuff like Ox of Agonas, I really like seasoned pyromancer for this spot but he's very expensive so maybe just hand disruption?)

Date added	3 years
Last updated	2 years
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	6 - 0 Mythic Rares 21 - 2 Rares 16 - 8 Uncommons 6 - 0 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.55
Tokens	Food
Folders	budget decks