Rakdos Infection

Modern* BR (Rakdos) Control Discard Infect Mono-Black UBR (Grixis)

Walrusyn

Creature (6)

• 4x Phyrexian Crusader
• 2x Phyrexian Vatmother

Planeswalker (4)

• 1x Chandra, Pyromaster
• 3x Liliana of the Veil

Land (19)

• 2x Blood Crypt
• 2x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Dragonskull Summit
• 2x Ghost Quarter
• 1x Graven Cairns
• 4x Inkmoth Nexus
• 5x Swamp
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Watery Grave

Artifact (2)

• 2x Runechanter's Pike

Instant (11)

• 1x Devour Flesh
• 4x Funeral Charm
• 3x Lightning Bolt
• 1x Surgical Extraction
• 2x Terminate

Sorcery (14)

• 1x Anger of the Gods
• 4x Inquisition of Kozilek
• 3x Night's Whisper
• 4x Rise / Fall
• 2x Thoughtseize

Unknown (4)

• 4x Blackcleave Cliff

---

Sideboard

Creature (2)

• 2x Spellskite

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Illness in the Ranks

Artifact (4)

• 2x Grafdigger's Cage
• 1x Pithing Needle
• 1x Ratchet Bomb

Instant (3)

• 2x Rakdos Charm
• 1x Surgical Extraction

Sorcery (5)

• 1x Anger of the Gods
• 1x Shattering Spree
• 2x Shatterstorm
• 1x Sowing Salt

---

Tier 1 decks are boring. Don't get me wrong. They are great, but predictable as almost everyone runs a tier 1 deck that someone else brewed.

So, meet Rakdos Infection. This is a "spin-off" of the traditional mono-black control infect deck but with a lot of personal twists. I decided to splash red to make the deck even more competitive and, above all, very funny to play. The idea of the deck is to use control and disruption cards to settle the board and then attack with infect creatures. And there are some options that you usually don't see in Modern or on an infect deck :)

Mana Base

At first glance, I thought that the mana base would not work but it works pretty well. One red mana per turn is normally more than enough and so Blood Crypt , Dragonskull Summit and Blackcleave Cliffs are pretty obvious choices. One Blackcleave Cliffs on turn one is awesome. I've also included a Graven Cairns to help me deal with lands entering the battlefield tapped. Also good to cast spells that need RR. Inkmoth Nexus is kind of mandatory on an infect deck and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth makes an excellent combo with Funeral Charm . OTOH, Ghost Quarter is great to slow down Tron and to destroy Manlands (better than Tectonic Edge for these purposes). Watery Grave is here so that I can use the Rise half of Rise/Fall . I've also included two Bloodstained Mire for mana fixing: can search for a Swamp, a Blood Crypt or a Watery Grave.

The creatures

• Phyrexian Crusader: it's a 4of, definitely. Protection from red and white makes Crusader invulnerable to most spot removal in Modern (Lightning Bolt, Path to Exile, Lightning Helix, etc) and first strike is a pretty good combination with infect, specially when fighting against creatures with power 3 or less
• Phyrexian Vatmother : Very decent creature for 4 mana. I also get one poison counter on my upkeep but, hopefully, when Vatmother enters the battlefield I'm already in control of the game.

The discard spells

• Inquisition of Kozilek: definitely a 4of. Discards almost everything relevant in Modern.
• Thoughtseize: costs 2 life, but discards the cards that are out of Inquisition of Kozilek range, namely Birthing Pod, Splinter Twin, Restoration Angel and Cryptic Command
• Rise/Fall: one of the main reasons of the red splash. Fall is awesome. Not Hymn to Tourach level of awesomeness, but better when comparing to Wrench Mind as your opponent doesn't choose which cards to discard. I can also use the Rise half, which is pretty good to finish a game. Thanks for the hint, Dutchmen ;) An awesome card that does not see its deserved gameplay.
• Funeral Charm : a great card. Can be used as removal, pump, discard and evasion. Pure awesomeness. When opponent has no hand, it's awesome to use on opponent's draw phase and force him to discard :) It's like a swiss army knife. One of my favourite cards ever.

Removal

• Lightning Bolt: 1 mana removes most threats in Modern. Also very good against Planeswalkers. One of the main reasons of the red splash.
• Terminate: This one is better than similar mono-black spells (Go for the Throat, Doom Blade, Smother and Victim of Night) and kills some creatures that Lightning Bolt can't.
• Devour Flesh: Additional removal, good against hexproof. Better than Geth's Verdict on an infect deck (1B against BB) as I don't care if opponent gains life.
• Anger of the Gods: mass removal to stop some decks. And the cool thing is that Phyrexian Crusader has protection from red.

Planeswalkers

• Liliana of the Veil: What can I say? It's Lily :) When Lily joins the game, she immediately becomes the center of attention.
• Chandra, Pyromaster : Chandra is quite cool and a very underrated Planeswalker in Modern. Not as cool as Liliana, but all her abilities are great and can be useful against a lot of threats. It's one of the "wow effects" of the deck. Pretty cool to lock the board with both Liliana and Chandra.

Other spells

• Night's Whisper: excellent for game acceleration. Better than Sign in Blood (1B against BB).
• Runechanter's Pike: awesome to equip any of my creatures. Slower than Vampire's Bite but remains attached to creature and it's a killing machine. Awesome in a deck with 25 instant or sorcery spells. Sometimes, an equipped Inkmoth Nexus is enough to win a game.
• Surgical Extraction: normally not used on main decks, this card is useful against 3/4 of the decks in the current metagame. Perfect to combine with discard, removal or even land destruction :)

The sideboard

• Illness in the Ranks: great against tokens based decks. Particularly awesome to lock Bitterblossom.
• Grafdigger's Cage: just 1 mana but useful against a lot of threats in the current metagame (Zombies, Snapcaster Mage, Undying, Persist, Flashback, etc).
• Pithing Needle: awesome against Planeswalkers, affinity, manlands, Exarch Twins, Kiki Pod, etc.
• Anger of the Gods: good against fast aggro and to kill Voice of Resurgence and friends for good. The best thing about Anger of the Gods is that it can't damage my creatures.
• Ratchet Bomb: good against Affinity, GW Auras and tokens.
• Rakdos Charm: great against Affinity and as Grave Hate. Also awesome against infinite tokens, like Exarch Twins and Kiki Pod.
• Surgical Extraction: additional extraction, to combine with discard or land destruction. Good against Tron, UWR Control and Twins, for instance.
• Sowing Salt : Goodbye Tron :) If I can slow down Tron with Rakdos Charm and some discard and then play Sowing Salt and remove one of the Urza lands from the game, it's game over. Also very good against Scapeshift. Thanks Dutchmen for the hint ;)
• Shatterstorm : Goodbye Affinity :) A couple of folks started playing Affinity in my meta. Some artefacts are hard to deal with, namely "that pesky Etched Champion", but Shatterstorm does the job. Thanks Leonato for the hint :)
• Shattering Spree: More artifact hate. Wider range than Rakdos Charm.
• Spellskite: love its versatility. Good against Burn, Storm, Bogles, Infect, Twin and Tribal.

The future

• Will tweak the mana base, replacing one Dragonskull Summit by a Bloodstained Mire to reduce the probability of lands entering tapped on the battlefield
• Want to add "wow effect" card. Don't know which yet, though :)

Suggestions and comments are really appreciated.

Top Ranked	Achieved #52 position overall 11 years ago
Date added	11 years
Last updated	10 years
Legality	This deck is not Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	6 - 0 Mythic Rares 22 - 8 Rares 17 - 7 Uncommons 6 - 0 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.22
Folders	Infect, Modern, rakdos, modern decks, more modern, Favorites, I'm Gonna Build This, Cool Decks, possible decks, cool stuff