Heartless Rakdos - Fun Aggro On A Budget

Modern Aggro BR (Rakdos) Budget Casual Combo

AnonymousBadger

Creature (23)

• 2x Desecration Demon
• 4x Myr Superion
• 3x Perilous Myr
• 4x Priest of Urabrask
• 3x Shriekmaw
• 4x The Scorpion God
• 3x Tuktuk the Explorer

Land (22)

• 9x Mountain
• 13x Swamp

Enchantment (4)

• 4x Heartless Summoning

Sorcery (3)

• 3x Duress

Instant (8)

• 4x Shred Memory
• 4x Terminate

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Sideboard

Creature (5)

• 3x Avalanche Riders
• 2x Underworld Cerberus

Sorcery (3)

• 3x By Force

Artifact (4)

• 4x Tormod's Crypt

Instant (3)

• 3x Rakdos Charm

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Hello there. I'm your conscience. I see you there, sitting in that room surrounded by Draft Chaff and useless commons. How does one play so much Limited and open so few Constructed playable cards? I see your wallet is empty from all that FNM drafting, and more importantly all the bill paying, bad investing, and just general adult-ing you've been having to do. And yet - you REALLY want to build a new Magic deck. This game just causes this insatiable urge inside you to buy more cards and play a deck for a week, then never think about it again. Today you've got about 40 bucks available. But what are you going to buy for 40 bucks? More importantly, what are you going to do with all those useless Perilous Myrs and Priests of Urabrask from your latest Scars draft? And what is that bulk rare you just opened supposed to do?

The Enabler Show

Heartless Summoning: This is the card that makes the deck work. It's definitely a weird one. Your creatures cost 2 mana less, but they're worse? Well, as you'll soon see, this is a potent, synergistic card. And also, it notably gives all your x/1s Evoke. Huh.

Shred Memory: This is copies 5-8 of Heartless Summoning. Be careful - using this to tutor Summoning means you'll be playing it 2 turns later. It can also tutor for a couple of payoffs if you already have Summoning on the battlefield.

The Payoff Show

Myr Superion: Hey, look, it's Tarmogoyf! Once you play Heartless Summoning, this is a free 4/5. Because you're paying for Summoning on turn 2, this feels surprisingly like a Goyf. On top of that, it's tutorable with Shred Memory.

Tuktuk the Explorer: When I was a lot younger, Tuktuk was one of my favorite cards. I'm not sure why. I was dumb, I guess. Normally, this guy is not particularly good. But, with a copy of Heartless Summoning on the battlefield, it essentially becomes for a 4/4 Legendary Goblin Golem. Sick.

The Scorpion God: Whoa, that's 3 for a 5/4 now. And it never dies. And it puts -1/-1 counters on things. And it draws you cards. Did I mention it costs 3 mana if you have Heartless Summoning?

Desecration Demon: 5/5 flier for . Yeah your opponent can just pay to make it unable to attack, but then it's removal. A Sorin, Solemn Visitor emblem. For 2BB.

Support Show

Priest of Urabrask: I'll take Colorshifted Dark Rituals for 500, Alex. Has the added bonus of being able to cast Myr Superion if you don't have Heartless Summoning.

Perilous Myr: Hey look that's a free Shock. This means on turn 2 you can play an engine that fuels you for the rest of the game, get a 4/5, and kill your opponent's mana dork or Dark Confidant or whatever. That's pretty awesome.

Shriekmaw: Summoning effectively gives all your x/1s Evoke, but it also lowers real evoke costs too. This is either to kill something or to kill something and get a 2/1 Fear. That's pretty good value.

Terminate: We're in Rakdos colors, so why the heck not? Kills everything without the pesky restrictions other removal spells have.

Duress: Hand disruption is good and Thoughtseize is expensive.

The Sideboard Show

Yeah this is just something I threw together for the sake of having something written down. The sideboard is really very meta-dependent. I'd suggest making your own. Avalanche Riders is always a fun option, as it becomes ruthlessly efficient.

What If We Had More Money? Show

I don't really know what I'd change about the deck outside of the noncreature spells. There's probably tutors that would work better than Shred Memory. And of course Duress would go for either Thoughtseize or Inquisition of Kozilek. Fatal Push may be really good too. Obviously you should upgrade the landbase. And it opens many more sideboard options. Wurmcoil Engine is a cool option too. There's a version of the deck that runs Eldrazi. And of course there's always Myr Retriever, which can be used for an infinite combo.

What If We Had Less Money? Show

Let's say you're even more of a cheapskate and you want to build your deck for even less. You're in luck: the original version of the deck was under 20 dollars (would probably be slightly over now). It was for an under-20 deckbuilding challenge my friends put together, and it did pretty well. The original deck played Underworld Cerberus rather than The Scorpion God. The God hadn't been printed yet. However, it still serves a budget replacement for the God, giving you big stats for 3 mana. Doom Blade over Terminate is also fine. I also didn't play Shriekmaw back then because the $1.10 for each of them was going to put me over the price limit. I had a few copies of Boltwing Marauder in the mainboard, which is surprisingly good with the free and almost-free creatures that just die but now give you a little extra value.

Overall, is this deck competitive? Probably not. However, it's extremely fun to pilot and I'd suggest it to anyone with a more casual or budget-centered playgroup.

Date added	6 years
Last updated	5 years
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	4 - 2 Mythic Rares 13 - 3 Rares 14 - 10 Uncommons 7 - 0 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.76
Tokens	Tuktuk the Returned