Devil's Dilemma

Noble Aggro BR (Rakdos) Burn Midrange Reanimator

gnikrul

Creature (21)

• 2x Anger
• 2x Archetype of Aggression
• 1x Blind Zealot
• 1x Crypt Rats
• 1x Dauthi Marauder
• 3x Hissing Iguanar
• 4x Keldon Marauders
• 3x Lava Zombie
• 1x Liliana's Specter
• 1x Manic Vandal
• 1x Vexing Devil
• 1x Wakedancer

Instant (10)

• 2x Brimstone Volley
• 2x Death Denied
• 4x Lightning Bolt
• 2x Undying Evil

Sorcery (8)

• 4x Faithless Looting
• 4x Unearth

Land (22)

• 11x Mountain
• 4x Rakdos Carnarium
• 7x Swamp

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Maybeboard

Creature (20)

• 1x Abyssal Gatekeeper
• 1x Ashenmoor Gouger
• 1x Blood Ogre
• 1x Bloodrage Vampire
• 1x Bogardan Firefiend
• 1x Cadaver Imp
• 1x Crossway Vampire
• 1x Fervent Cathar
• 1x Goblin Bushwhacker
• 1x Goblin Deathraiders
• 1x Hellraiser Goblin
• 1x Imperial Recruiter
• 1x Inner-Flame Acolyte
• 1x Lightning Mauler
• 1x Monastery Swiftspear
• 1x Priest of Gix
• 1x Stormblood Berserker
• 1x Swift Warkite
• 1x Viashino Racketeer
• 1x Zulaport Cutthroat

Instant (3)

• 1x Cauldron Dance
• 1x Spontaneous Combustion
• 1x Terminate

Land (1)

• 1x Barbarian Ring

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Tortured Existence

Sorcery (3)

• 1x Postmortem Lunge
• 1x Reckless Charge
• 1x Stir the Grave

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Vexing Devil famously looks amazing at first glance but sees almost no play among the Spikes of the world. Noble sweetens the pot a bit, however; we can reliably cast it every first turn as long as we have a Mountain, and then never draw it late.

With our 1-drop slot taken care of we're free to focus on a slightly higher mana curve without sacrificing early aggression. Additionally, since we're offering our opponent the choice of direct damage or building our board, we need a deck that can win equally well with direct damage or board advantage. This suggests a flexible strategy capable of either an aggro push or a block-and-burn based approach; a traditional "race to 20" creatureless burn plan is untenable with Vexing Devil since a key strength of that archetype is rendering enemy creature removal useless, whereas the Devil gives them quite a good target for it indeed.

We're not going to be as fast as a deck dedicated fully to direct damage or to aggro, but the ability to adapt to our opponent's strategy could make up the difference. More importantly, it's more interesting to play!

Core

First we're going to need some creatures that can beat down and deal direct damage. Hissing Iguanar is a start, and if left unchecked can get out of hand. Keldon Marauders is the real star here, and has great interactions with most of the cards in our deck: Haste, Trample, self-bounce, reanimation, and death triggers all love these angry dudes.

Then we've got a suite of ways to capitalize on our core creatures. Lava Zombie happily lets us re-use Keldon Marauders after they get their swing in, though returning Vexing Devil isn't bad (not because of his ETB trigger - we'd rather not give our opponent the choice again, actually - but because he's only one mana to replay). Unearth essentially acts as acceleration, again letting us re-use Keldon Marauders or get back any of our three-drops for . Undying Evil does much the same. Anger and Archetype of Aggression further support our ability to apply pressure on-board, but if we're being out-developed then Death Denied can give us the kind of late-game advantage necessary to force a direct damage win.

Brimstone Volley and Lightning Bolt can remove blockers if we're the aggro deck, or just dome our opponent when we aren't.

Support

Faithless Looting helps us find land and the key creatures while conveniently filling our graveyard for Unearth and Death Denied . With that dynamic in play, we're free to run a bunch of singleton creatures that support the main strategy reasonably well while increasing the variety of effects available to us for adapting to our opponent, so long as they all remain at three converted mana or less:

Crypt Rats gives us a tool against more dedicated aggro decks, especially token decks. Dauthi Marauder gives us evasive damage against decks looking to block and gain life. A well-timed Liliana's Specter can really solve a lot of problems in multiplayer and gives us another evasive damage dealer. Sometimes you just need a Manic Vandal to break combo pieces or slow down Affinity. Wakedancer gives us the option to go a little wide if our opponent is flush with spot removal.

Date added	11 years
Last updated	7 years
Legality	This deck is Noble legal.
Rarity (main - side)	1 - 0 Rares 10 - 0 Uncommons 32 - 0 Commons
Cards	61
Avg. CMC	2.13
Tokens	Zombie 2/2 B