Intro:
Welcome to my guide on Raggadragga, Goreguts Boss! My build of Raggadragga has a combination of stax and combo pieces. The general gameplan is to slow other players down with some stax while setting up for one of the many combos in the deck. You can go for combo wins as early as turn 3 if you get the right draws, but you can also grind out long games by locking everyone under effects like Trinisphere and attacking with mana dorks. There are a ton of creature tutors so this deck functions as a creature toolbox, finding stax like Collector Ouphe or combo like Heronblade Elite depending on what the situation calls for. I am going to do a deep dive and break the deck down into segments to explain the selection of cards included in the deck.
Commander:
First off we have to start off with the commander himself, Raggadragga, Goreguts Boss. This is a pretty commander centric deck so you want to play Raggadragga as early as possible.
Raggadragga's first 2 abilities pump all your creatures with mana abilities by +2/+2, and whenever one of them attacks he untaps them. There are about 15 creatures with mana abilities in the deck to benefit from these two effects. Giving them a small pump and pseudo-vigilance is very powerful. You can get in for some chip damage to lower players life totals while also being able to use them for mana during combat or second main phase, or even just to keep them up as blockers.
Raggadragga's third ability triggers whenever you cast a spell using 7 or more mana: He untaps a creature, gives it trample and +7/+7. This is the point where most people look at this commander and discount him as just a casual card because casting expensive spells like that is not usually something most Cedh decks want to do, but this ability actually unlocks a lot of combos that go infinite. Important thing to note about this last ability is that you actually have to spend 7 mana for it to trigger. If you cast a spell with cost reduction like Great Henge or Chord of Calling and you don't actually spend 7 mana on it, you do not get the untap/pump trigger from Raggadragga.
Mana Dorks:
I break the mana dorks into different categories based on how much mana they can produce.
First off there are the regular dorks that produce 1 mana such as Birds of Paradise. These are good to have for your early turns of the game to accelerate you into faster starts. They are also a bunch of 1 mana 3/3's with pseudo-vigilance when you have your commander in play.
Next we have the dorks that produce multiple mana like Priest of Titania or Circle of Dreams Druid. The ability to tap for multiple mana unlocks your combos with Ashaya that I will talk about in more depth in the combo section.
Finally, we have the Power Tappers: Heronblade Elite, Selvala, Heart of the Wilds, Marwyn, the Nurturer, Viridian Joiner and Kami of Whispered Hopes. They all produce mana equal to their power and are the most important dorks involved in the most combos. You can use Raggadragga's third ability to untap and give them +7/+7 to produce very large amounts of mana. There are numerous ways to go infinite after just casting a single 7 mana spell. Notably, Cradle Clearcutter is another power tapper that exists but I did not choose to include in my list because it is an artifact creature and that has some friction with my own Collector Ouphe.
Combos:
The first combo pieces I am going to talk about is Ashaya, Soul of the Wild and either Quirion Ranger or Scryb Ranger. However, before I talk about the combo using them, I want to mention the general utilities they have in this deck first. Ashaya turns all your non-token creatures into forests, which gives them all mana ability and therefore they also get +2/+2 and pseudo-vigilance from Raggadragga. This alone would be a pretty good reason to include it in the deck. Quirion and Scryb Ranger both have the ability to return a forest to your hand to untap a creature. The land count of this deck is pretty low at 27, so the ability to pick up and replay the same forest can actually generate some extra mana whenever you miss land drops. Scryb Ranger also has flash, flying and protection from blue so it can block popular creatures in the format like Kraum, Ludevic's Opus. When you have Ashaya and a Ranger in play together, all your creatures count as forests so you can pick up any creature you want at nearly any time. This can be used to recycle effects that trigger when entering the battlefield or as protection in response to removal. To perform the actual combo, you can use the Ranger's ability to pick itself up to untap a mana dork. Then you tap the mana dork to replay the Ranger. As long as you have a dork that produces more mana than the Ranger costs, you can repeat this loop to generate infinite mana.
Up next, Umbral Mantle is an equipment that you can attach to any one of the power tappers to start generating infinite mana very easily. Lets say you have Viridian Joiner as your only creature in play. It has 1 power so it taps for 1 mana. You need 3 mana to play umbral mantle, it costs 0 to equip, then it costs 3 to untap the joiner. This means that with a power tapper and 5 other mana from any source to start a loop. Every time you activate the untap ability it gives the equipped creature +2/+2. On the second activation you can tap joiner for 3 mana, and use that 3 mana to untap it again. On the third activation you tap Joiner for 5 mana and from there each iteration of this loop generates progressively more and more mana.
The next combo card is Staff of Domination. This one is a little bit more difficult to start activating on its own because you need a creature that taps for at least 5 mana to get it going. This can work with any of the power tappers if you have your commander and cast a 7 mana spell this turn, or if you have Circle of Dreams Druid and 4 other creatures. You can pay 3 mana with Staff to untap your mana dork, then 1 more to untap the staff itself. This leaves you with 1 mana leftover and you can repeat the loop to generate infinite mana. The upside of using Staff despite the higher initial cost is that once you have infinite mana, the staff itself just wins the game. You can use the other abilities on the staff to gain infinite life and draw infinite cards.
The first couple combos I talked about required a single creature to tap for large amounts of mana, but the next one is a bit easier because you can use all your dorks to help pay for it. I am talking of course about Aggravated Assault. This enchantment has an activated ability that costs 3RR to untap all your creatures. This means if you have multiple mana dorks in play that can produce more than 3RR mana, you can activate it repeatedly to generate infinite mana. This also gives you infinite combat steps and usually just wins the game on the same turn you are able to start activating it.
Temur Sabertooth is another card that is great for value but also has a few ways to go infinite in this deck. For 1G you can return a creature you can control to your hand and if you do, the Sabertooth also becomes indestructible until end of turn. This lets you pick up and recast creatures with enter battlefield triggers to get repeated value. This can easily generate infinite mana with Dockside Extortionist as long as your opponents have 5 or more artifacts/enchantments in play. You can use 2 treasures to activate Sabertooth picking up dockside, 2 more replay dockside, and have 1 left over. Rinse and repeat for infinite treasures.
Now we finally have to talk about the Wurm in the room: Panglacial Wurm. Wurm is in my opinion one of the weirdest and coolest cards in the entire game of magic. Any time you are searching your library, if you have 7 mana available, you are able to cast the Wurm from your library. This breaks timing restrictions so for example, you can play the Wurm at instant speed while cracking a fetch land on your opponent's turn. With Raggadragga, 7 just also happens to be the magic number to trigger his third ability for an untap trigger and giving one of your creatures +7/+7. No one ever expects the Wurm so this this can be used as a very effective combat trick. Surprising your opponent with a 9/5 blocker and +7/+7 on another creature can absolutely blow someone out mid-combat if they ever try to attack you. But more importantly, the Wurm can also act as a combo piece simply because it's casting cost is the magic number of 7. To perform the combo you need Raggadragga in play, any one of the Power tappers, Temur Sabertooth, and the Wurm itself. You can pay 1G to pick up Wurm, then 5GG to recast Wurm, untapping and pumping your power tapper. Every time you repeat this process, your power tapper makes more and more mana. You can then proceed to keep picking up and replaying the Wurm to pump the rest of the creatures on your board and attack everyone for infinite trampling damage. I know that at first this sounds extremely janky because it is a 4 piece combo, but hear me out. Your commander being a combo piece is practically free since you always have access to it in the command zone. There are multiple power tappers in the deck so you have lots of redundancy there. Sabertooth is usually the piece you need to tutor for to get this loop going. There are lots of creature tutors in this deck to go find Sabertooth or your power tapper, but you can also find the Wurm any time you are searching your library for any reason. All your single creature tutors are practically a pseudo Tooth and Nail because you get to play the Wurm plus tutor another creature at the same time. If you include fetch lands and Crop Rotation, this means there are 19 ways to tutor for the Wurm. Wurm is by far the easiest card to find in the entire deck.
Next we have a few fun cards I need to mention that act as outlets for your infinite mana. A few of the combos mentioned earlier win just on their own, but some of the others need an additional outlet to actually spend the mana on. First up we have Walking Ballista. This one is straightforward. Just cast a huge ballista and remove counters from it to deal damage and kill all opponents. Leyline of Abundance can actually start the game in play as a pregame action, and it produces extra mana whenever you tap a dork for mana. This leads to some really explosive fast starts with the deck, but it also has an activated ability for 6GG to put a +1/+1 counter on all your creatures. With infinite mana this card lets you infinitely pump all your creatures. It is worth noting however that this does not give trample so it is not a guaranteed win if your opponents have enough blockers. Lastly there is Finale of Devastation. This is a creature tutor that can find the pieces you need to win the game, or it can also act as a giant pump spell if you spend enough mana on it. If you cast it where x=5 then it will cost 7 and you can use it for a pump/untap with Raggadragga, but if x is 10 or more, it gives your entire board +X/+X and haste. Again I have to mention that this card does not give trample so you may need to take your opponent's blockers into account when casting this.
Last thing I want to talk about in the combo section is cards that trigger when entering the battlefield. These are all included for their normal utility, but can also be repeated infinitely once you get some loops with Sabertooth going. Manglehorn and Reclamation Sage let you destroy any number of artifacts/enchantments. Eternal Witness returns any number of cards from your graveyard to your hand. The Great Henge, Regal Force, and Beast Whisperer can all draw infinite cards. Craterhoof Behemoth is usually just lethal on its own, but you can loop it with Sabertooth if needed. Imperial Recruiter can tutor every creature creature with 2 or less power to your hand, usually finding Walking Ballista for an easy win.
Protection:
Now that I have talked about all the combos, I need to mention all the interaction you might need to protect them from your opponents counter spells or removal.
Allosaurus Shepherd is a creature that can't be countered and also makes it so your other green spells can't be countered either. It also has an activated ability for 4GG to give all your elves base power/toughness of 5/5. This can be used as a finisher on its own if you have enough elves in play, or potentially as a combo piece because 3 of the power tappers also happen to be elves and can now produce a ton of mana after activating this ability.
Rhythm of the Wild is an enchantment that makes your creature spells uncounterable, and also gives all your creatures riot. Riot lets you choose to give your creatures either a +1/+1 counter or haste when they enter the battlefield. Most likely you will be choosing haste to enable faster combos.
Vexing Shusher is another creature that can't be countered, and it has an activated ability for 1 mana to make another spell uncounterable. Usually this just lets you force your combos through all your opponents disruption, but this can also be used on opponents spells which can be situationally useful. If two opponents are in the middle of a counter war, this little unassuming goblin lets you choose which spells can be countered or not. It can be a fantastic political tool.
Deflecting Swat is a spell that you can cast for free when your commander is in play. It lets you choose new targets for any spell or ability. Redirecting a counter or removal spell to something else is often devastating for your opponents.
Red Elemental Blast can counter a blue spell or destroy a blue permanent for 1 mana. Notably I chose to play REB but not Pyroblast in my list because opponents can not redirect REB if they use their own Deflecting Swat against us. When you change targets with Swat, you still have to choose a legal target. If there are no other blue spells on the stack, then REB can't be redirected while Pyroblast could easily be made to target something else and fizzle. There is an argument for running both REB and Pyroblast if you play in a blue heavy meta, but if you have to choose one based on limited deck space, then REB should be your first choice.
Veil of Summer is fantastic because you can cast it in response to a counterspell, draw a card, and then for the rest of the turn your spells cant be countered by blue/black spells. This card can singlehandedly protect your entire combo from most counters for the low cost of one mana, and it even replaces itself with a draw. It also protects against targeted removal because your permanents gain hexproof from blue and black until the end of the turn.
Heroic Intervention gives your whole board hexproof and indestructible for 2 mana. If you play in a meta with a lot of permanent based removal then this card can be clutch at protecting your combo pieces. If your meta is more focused on counterspells, then this is probably what I would swap out for Pyroblast.
Tyvar's Stand can only protect a single creature, but it is also a spell has X in its mana cost so you can cast it as a 7 mana spell to get an untap trigger from Raggadragga.
Stax:
The Stax package in this deck is small and meant to slow opponents down for a few turns while you are free to keep attacking them with your mana dorks. This is not a control deck by any means. You still need to progress your board state while hindering everyone else.
Collector Ouphe is the real MVP when it comes to green decks in Cedh. So many decks rely on fast mana from artifacts or treasures from Dockside Extortionist, shutting them down really just disrupts their whole game plan. Even though I am using Dockside/Ballista as some of my own combo pieces, I still choose to play Ouphe because it will hurt my opponents far greater that it hurts me.
Manglehorn not only destroys an artifact when he comes into play, he also makes it so all future artifacts your opponents play enter the battlefield tapped. This buys you an extra turn when someone else tries to make big amounts of mana with dockside.
Magus of the Moon is an annoyance for most opponents. The Cedh meta is full of 4-5 color decks that can be shut down pretty hard when their lands only tap for red. The only real weakness of Magus is that whenever you play against opposing red decks, your opponents are still able to easily cast dockside and produce other colors of mana from their treasures.
Thorn of Amethyst makes non-creature spells costs 1 more mana. This usually hurts your opponents way more than yourself because this is a very creature heavy deck. You will often have more than enough extra mana to pay this tax if you do need to cast non-creature spells.
Winter Orb makes it so that each player only untaps 1 land during their untap step. This is a symmetrical effect that slows the game down significantly, but you can usually pull ahead of everyone else because your mana dorks all get to untap, and you have some lands like Gaea's Cradle or Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx that can still produce large mana from of a single land.
Trinisphere adds a tax to all spells and makes them cost a minimum of 3 mana. This is great at shutting down fast decks that use rituals, cantrips, storm, or all the free interaction spells like force of will, etc. This deck can produce so much mana that the tax on our own spells is often just nonexistent.
Lastly we have Void Winnower. This thing is a huge 11/9 creature for 9 mana, and when it is on the battlefield, your opponents cant cast spells with even mana costs. All the 0 mana spells like Mana Crypt or Pact of Negation, 2 mana spells like Underworld Breach, 4 mana spells like Mindbreak Trap, all will just rot in their hands. This shuts down half of all your opponents cards while also being a huge body that can get in for some serious damage. And on top of that it also makes it so their creatures with even mana costs cant block. Combat gets way easier when half their creatures can't block.
Removal:
I'm going to start this section off with the classic card Lightning Bolt. 3 damage for 1 mana to any target can take out a lot of different creatures that would be an annoyance for this deck. Stuff like Opposition Agent or Archon of Emeria can shut us down but this answers them efficiently. It is also included in the deck as a combo piece. If you have infinite mana, you can return it to your hand repeatedly with Temur Sabertooth/Eternal Witness loops and kill all your opponents with burn damage.
Delayed Blast Fireball is an instant speed board wipe that is one-sided and very flexible. You can cast it for its normal cost to kill small creatures, or you can foretell it and cast it on a later turn to kill bigger creatures. This also does damage to your opponents, so it can be used to kill your opponents using the same method as Lightning Bolt.
Nature's Claim and Force of Vigor are both cheap efficient removal for your opponents artifacts/enchantments. Not much needs to be said about these.
I usually include Noxious Revival and Endurance in my removal section when sorting my decks because they can both act as a form of graveyard hate. If your opponent is playing any type of Reanimate effects, or if they try to win with Thassa's Oracle, you can put cards from the graveyard back in their library to disrupt them. They can both also be used on yourself to get back any cards from your own graveyard that you might need to recycle.
Last card I am going to talk about in this section is Berserk. You can sort of use it as a creature removal spell when an opponent attacks with a creature. For 1 mana you can pump the attacking creature and it will get destroyed after combat. If they decided to attack you with the creature then this has the downside of dealing some extra damage to yourself, but is usually worth a few points of life to get rid of a problematic creature. If they are attacking another one of your opponents then that extra damage on another opponent is actually an upside. Obviously the intended use of berserk is to pump your own attacking creature to get in for some big damage. Raggadragga starts with 4 power, if you cast any 7 mana spell he can pump himself to 11 power, and then berserk doubles him to 22. This is shockingly easy to do and can kill a single player with trampling commander damage. Sometimes the best type of removal is just player removal. Finally, you can use Berserk as a ritual spell if you target one of your power tappers. Doubling their power means they tap for twice as much mana. It can give you a nice burst of mana and you don't have to worry about the downside of them dying if they don't declare an attack.
Draw Engines:
Sylvan Library is a divisive card in Cedh lately. The Cedh meta is getting faster all the time with each new set putting more broken cards into the format, however I am still running Library because the game plan of this build is to slow everyone else down with some Stax before going for any combos. Library can sit there for a few turns and accrue value. If you are playing a more turbo variant of this deck then I would not include library, but it is still a fantastic card in midrange or stax builds.
Toski, Bearer of Secrets is an uncounterable, indestructible squirrel, and whenever one of your creatures deals combat damage to an opponent you get to draw a card. The whole point of playing Raggadragga is to get aggressive with your mana dorks and Toski just gets you even more value whenever you hit someone.
Beast Whisperer and The Great Henge both draw you cards from casting creatures. With the sheer amount of creatures in the deck, these both accrue a lot of value the longer they remain in play.
Regal Force is usually just free value in this deck. He costs 7 mana so you get to untap and pump a creature with Raggadragga while also drawing the cards.
Wheel of Fortune is kind of a necessary evil in this deck. I don't really like giving my opponents 7 fresh cards, but when you produce a ton of fast mana, you tend to empty your hand very quickly in the first couple turns. A hand refill from wheel can often get you the gas you need to keep going for a win.
Professional Face-Breaker is a hybrid card that can either produce mana in the form of treasures, or let you sacrifice your treasures to draw cards. This is an outlet so you can still use your treasures for card advantage when they can't be used for mana because of Collector Ouphe.
Acceleration:
On top of all the mana dorks, this deck also plays a few mana rocks and Carpet of Flowers. Jeweled Lotus is an extremely broken card that lets you cast your commander on turn 1. Mana Crypt and Sol Ring let you play your commander on turn 2. Mox Diamond and Chrome Mox both add some minor acceleration for 0 mana. Yes, Collector Ouphe shuts these artifacts down, but if you can get Ouphe into play on turn 1/2 then the rocks have already served their purpose.
Thousand-Year Elixir lets you activate abilities of creatures as if they had haste and also gives you an extra untap for one of them. This speeds up your ability to start going for combos with all the power tappers.
Final Fortune is a dangerous card that is usually worth the risk. Taking an extra turn is one of the most powerful things you can do in a game of Magic. You just really need to make sure that you win on that turn.
Tutors:
This deck plays a lot of creature tutors to find whatever you need for any situation. Green Sun's Zenith, Finale of Devastation, Invasion of Ikoria
, Chord of Calling, and Tooth and Nail are the most powerful tutors because they put creatures directly into play. Importantly, they can all cost 7 or more mana to give you an untap/pump trigger with Raggadragga.
Summoner's Pact is a free tutor that gets whatever green creature you want, just don't forget to pay the upkeep cost.
Eldritch Evolution is a cheap way to tutor a creature directly into play. It does require a sacrifice but it is very strong. You can find a creature with a mana value of 2+ the sacrificed creature's mana value. Most of the combo pieces are 3-4 mana value so you can sacrifice a cheap creature to upgrade it into something that will often just win the game.
Natural Order requires you to sacrifice a green creature, but it tutors ANY green creature from your library right into play. You can find big bombs like Craterhoof Behemoth or whatever other combo piece you might be missing.
Worldly Tutor is probably the weakest because it puts the creature on top of your library and you either need a way to draw it or you have to wait a turn cycle to tutor on an opponents end step. Still powerful despite all that.
The list of creatures that Imperial Recruiter can't find is way shorter than the ones he can find. Very powerful tutor and repeatable with Temur Sabertooth.
Crop Rotation usually just finds Gaea's Cradle, but sometimes Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. There is also a Cavern of Souls that can be relevant if you need to force a creature through a counter spell.
Gamble can get any card you want but you randomly have to discard a card afterward. Sometimes this one can backfire, but it is usually worth the risk.
Among the lands, there are 7 fetch lands like Wooded Foothills that can find either Mountains or Forests, plus Prismatic Vista to find Basic Lands.
Every tutor mentioned in this entire section can also find Panglacial Wurm in addition to whatever it normally searches for. You pretty much always have access to the Wurm whenever you have the mana to cast it.
Manabase:
Obviously Gaea's Cradle is the MVP of the lands. Nothing can beat Cradle when it comes to the Sheer amount of mana it produces. Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx is the second best option.
You want to play as many fetchlands as possible to let you play Panglacial Wurm more consistently. Dryad Arbor is also a fetchable 3/3 when Raggadragga is in play. Putting 12 power into play just from cracking a fetch land can seriously catch people off guard.
Boseiju, Who Endures is a another removal spell in the mana base. The flexibility of it is very powerful.
Lastly, I need to mention the MDFC cards Turntimber Symbiosis
and Shatterskull Smashing
. These are both lands that can come into play untapped by paying 3 life, but they are also both spells you can cast for 7 or more mana to get Raggadragga pump/untap triggers. Turntimber lets you dig for a creature, but I mostly just play that one as a land. However Shatterskull is actually a really strong removal spell and I have probably cast it to kill 2 creatures way more often than I have played it as a land in this deck.
Weaknesses:
Mindbreak Trap is a blue spell that can be a huge pain for this deck. It circumvents Allosaurus Shepherd, Rhythm of the Wild, Vexing Shusher, and Veil of Summer because it exiles spells instead of countering them. Also, because the combos in this list involve playing multiple spells, your opponents will pretty much always be able to cast their trap for free.
Opposition Agent or anything else that prevents searching the library is brutal. This deck heavily relies on tutors for its various toolbox of effects.
Torpor Orb effects can shut down a bunch of the creature's abilities in this deck.
Cursed Totem or other effects that stop activated abilities stops all our mana dorks and Sabertooth.
Rule of Law effects stop all of the combos that require casting multiple spells or loops.
Conclusion:
I hope this guide gives people a better idea of just how powerful this deck can be. At first glance most players will probably discount Raggadragga, Goreguts Boss as a casual Timmy deck, but that is far from the case. This deck can produce wins out of nowhere or grind through long games. It has all the tools it needs and tons of ways to find them. It can win through combo or combat equally effectively. Despite being susceptible to a bunch of different forms of hate, this deck can still power right through them all. You can use your big creatures to keep attacking at everyone until they are no longer an issue. Never forget that player removal is the best form of removal. I would love to see more people give this commander a try.
