It's not in the same flavour but check mine out. (New user of tapped out so ill drop the URL

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/rakdos-midrange-control-post-theros/

I find Purphoros, God of the Forge to be odd. The 2 damage is heaps good, but I much prefer his Hammer of Purphoros . Haste is just too broken in this deck, and later on, the 3/3 golems will wreck it.

I know why Act of Treason is there, but I look at it and squirm. You've only got one sac outlet. And swap Shock for Magma Jet . Scry will help you pull through those mana rich draws or push past dead answers.

Maybe a Madcap Skills to secure more board control and damage along with the removal. Maybe even a Dynacharge to just be able to Overload pump in massive damage one turn.

well TheBawzz, and TEGHabibird. My initial thought is that by the time he goes out on the field (hopefully T5) that any of their creatures that have been burned will be no big deal to me. Any creatures I've lost in that time will most likely have haste and will come back swinging.

Plus I'm thinking that if it's not late in the game, they will still have cards in their hand. Which means they will have to discard most of the creatures where as I'll probably get 6-7 creatures. Hopefully one being Tymaret, the Murder King . Then I sack those creatures for huge damage. most likely game ending.

Even with this in mind do you think too much risk outweighs the benefits?

I like your creature list as it stands right now, seems well balenced and I'm not sure if Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch was in there previous to the change you made but that creature seems to tie everything in very nicely indeed.

Act of Treason Is probably fine, sometimes it's difficult to visualise the effect it can have because it depends so much on the game. Perhaps the answer is just to sideboard alternatives so that if you feel there could potentially be better options you can simply swap it out.

Maybe sideboard Madcap Skills or a few Dynacharge or other alternatives.

Dynacharge can be pretty fantastic at times in this sort of aggro deck I've found. By the time you play it overloaded you'll likely have 5 or 6 creatures and it can make an effective win condition, especially if you can play that with a legion loyalist First Strike Trample. The other perk is you can use it as a combat trick by allowing your opponent to work out combat damage and playing it on a creature who wasn't blocked to finish a game.

It's a really nice deck you've pulled together I must say, hope you have plenty of sucess and fun with it.

Yes. I reckon that about 50% of the time, you'll play Underworld Cerberus and that'll be the end. The other half of the time, you'll drop him, and he'll be destroyed, and they'll swing with all the white weenies or gruul hydras, or those pesky green white MONSTERS that you burnt out.

Why Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch ? Your only creature worth giving haste, that can get it, is Thrill-Kill Assassin and sure a 4/4 body for 4 is pretty good, with FS and haste, but I just don't see her being a win con like Master of Cruelties can be.

I think I might move back to Master of Cruelties . I used him previously and I just never had much sucess with him. But then again I was running 4 of him lol So he was always an early pull and I think two would be just perfect because then he will always be a finisher option and on top of that I can always bring my Tymaret, the Murder King back if I get him on the field.

The only thing I don't like is usually by the time I get him out their life total is usually below 10. He doesnt seem like much of a threat at that point.

Can you guys think of any other cards possibly? I might just stick with exava or MoC if not.

Thanks guys, I appreciate the input.

A creature that swings for 9 is good. How is that not good. It's good.2 copies of MoC is a good number.

As another finisher, consider Molten Primordial . And also, I can't think of anything of the top of my head, but you need another sac outlet. Preferable one that costs no mana.

TheBawzz, and TEGHabibird, what do you think of keeping Underworld Cerberus and replacing 3 Shock with 3 Rakdos Charm ? And use the exile all cards form graveyard for when cerberus dies?

seems like good synergy between the two I guess yup. Lord of the Void seems like a good card but I wonder how difficult/easy it will be to land those 3 black mana quick enough for it to serve as a finisher, depends how the games play out I guess.

If you play at a store perhaps a good answer would be to print of the cards to get a taste in some casual games for how they play out in practice :)

yea, I think its just making a decision at this point lol Thanks for the input ill post updates for my big tournament at theros release.

Yeah Underworld Cerberus and Rakdos Charm are a great combo. Just make sure you keep the mana up. You could even use it as a bait for your opponent to destroy it, then you cast charm, and you get all the stuff back and they don't.

Rakdos Charm can also be used well with Master of Cruelties in place of a Tymaret, the Murder King combo.

Maybe evaluate whether you have room for both finishers. It's always good to have an alt win combo

You've got to pick between aggro, shenanigans and midrange, man. This is firing in three different directions and is just slow enough to be ineffective as aggro and just weak enough to not be relevant post turn 7. Those two drops.

Normally I would agree fluffybunnypants, however, the system between these cards just seems to work. Maybe, aggro/burn/midrange isn't a good name for it because it doesn't specifically pick one of the three but it uses components of all three to come at a opponent with hundreds of different angles.

If I were to sub out cards though what's your opinion on a direction?

Master of Cruelties or feed

I feel like you picked a bunch of good cards but they don't play nice together. If you're going desssy/howler/murder king, why aren't you running Jund with Varolz, the Scar-Striped and Lotleth Troll ? Y'know?

I honestly thought this was good a few days ago. I think you've fallen out of your strategy and into a few different strategies.

TEGHabibird all I really did was I took out the Blood Crypt because of the cycle, Vexing Devil also because of rotation.

I swapped Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch for 2 Nighthowler .

Then I swapped out 3 Hellhole Flailer and 3 Thrill-Kill Assassin because i took out Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch and added another Ash Zealot , Ogre Battledriver ,and Purphoros, God of the Forge , and Tymaret, the Murder King . I swapped a few burn spells for more effective ones. And that's it.

I know it seems like a lot but I didn't take any haste out of the deck and the high creature base works great with Purphoros, God of the Forge and Ogre Battledriver . Burn spells/removal work great with Nighthowler along with my low drop creatures.

I'd love to take out Ogre Battledriver for another Purphoros, God of the Forge but these are just the cards I have.

What do you think, still move back a bit?

You could improve your mana curve... Seems like almost every card is a twodrop.

Nighthowler s work good here. There's always gonna be a few creatures and he's cheap as is. Good choice. Exava is crap.

Ash Zealot can go. He does about the same thing as spike jester, but doesn't trade up. And that dudes right. Your 2 drop spot is so crowded.

Ogre Battledriver pulls less than Purphoros, God of the Forge . Haste and crap is fine, but when you're pulling into the mid-late game, your little hasty dude are just gonna hit midrange threats. A guaranteed 2 damage is more versatile.

Let's be real here. If you're using tymaret and not Master of Cruelties then you're not making full use of him. It's just a powerful combo that swings this deck out nicely mid-late game. Possibly throw 2 Rogue's Passage in there just for that final nail.

And lastly man, you can put any cards you want in your deck. That's the point. Who cares if you only own 3 blood crypts or 1 purphoros. Put whatever you want in.

You don't want Slaughter Games mainboard, it's usually a dead draw game one.

Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch would work much bettertha Lilli's Reaver, especially if you're only running two. I also think Gore-House Chainwalker would work better than Chandra's Phoenix, so you don't have to deal with a double red mana cost.

In stead of Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch try Hammer of Purphoros

The hammer gives haste to all your creatures, plus late game when your hands empty, you might as well make some golems.

Your 2 drop spot is very tight. Maybe extend your curve by removing Thrill-Kill Assassin with a nice 4 or 5 drop. Master of Cruelties is my go-to 5 drop.

Or....Tymaret, the Murder King can work well with your high creature count especially Liliana's Reaver or Chandra's Phoenix if you've got a burn spell lined up

I'd love to throw in Agent of the Fates . personally he is a favorite of mine and I think if I could work his sacrifice mechanic it would do wonders with my deck. Any ideas on that?

He'd be really powerful with Nighthowler and later on Underworld Cerberus

I don't know how you'd actually work him in though. Sacrifice is tricky. You can't counter it by destroying the creature in another way, so you can't make use of some other sac affect.

However this doesn't play well with your current strategy. You don't have enough spells to enable heroic. You'd need stuff like Titan's Strength scrounge mark and Dragon Mantle

+1 from me. B/R is my favorite color combo.