Intro
Originally a Snow themed "Krampus" deck that I received for Secret Santa years ago, I decided to redesign the deck and test its viability in a meta with decks like TT Flash Hulk, Gitrog Dredge, Helm Godo, Consultation Kess, Narset Turns, Scepter Circu, Baral Draw-Go, Lavinia Pool, and Meren Stax. Initially designed as battlecruiser deck, it has been updated to become a threatening combo deck. Just short of being primarily cEDH viable, it is now likely well in fringe cEDH territory. This is due to the fact that it has the ability to threaten turn 3-5 wins fairly consistently using an array of tutors and draw to reach the goal of ending the game using Rakdos' ability to make colorless creatures freely castable while impeding opposing gameplans with disruptive effects.
Why Rakdos?
As a player who has run Thrasios/Vial Smasher Divergent Control, Consultation Kess, Helm Godo, and Zur Stax for over a year, I wanted to push into more challenging territory and play a different way (outside of UBx).
As stated before, the redesign of the deck was initially intended as a personal challenge to push the upside of a non-competitive commander. However, after months of work and testing, I truly believe the deck has pushed into a very solid place. It is in no way a high tier deck, but it has more than a respectable winshare in our local meta.
A few things it has going for it are:
The beater nature of the deck pressures AdNaus/Necro decks extensively. The deck has enough combo lines that it ends up being very resilient to most of the cEDH Stax pieces and interaction. Similar to the way Tymna decks draw, there are many sources of onboard creature draw/loot effects that generate card draw while simultaneously enabling Rakdos. To that point, the creatures make it hard for prevalent Tymna decks to comfortably draw off of her effect.
Additionally, Rakdos is rarely countered because much of the cEDH interaction is aimed at noncreature spells and spot removal is often restricted to removing small-bodies.
And finally the deck is able to run a very disruptive Stax package that is further detailed in the primer.
Overall, this deck is for those who want to shake up a cEDH meta that potentially has grown stale and challenge themselves with what I believe is BR’s most viable list. The deck ends up playing out in a very anti-meta way and is very challenging and fun to pilot.
Wincons
Similar to old Animar lines, most of the efficient wincons involved Rakdos making colorless creatures free to cast. However, Rakdos has a significant advantage in having access to black for tutors and cheapened tutorsticks.
The leanest wincon involves Rakdos making Ancestral Statue free to cast and repeatededly casting it with Impact Tremors on the field. This works just as well with Nettle Drone on the field.
Also, using Cloudstone Curio and two Eldrazi or Ancestral Statue you can loop ETB or "on cast" triggers to win the game through mill, permanent destruction, or damage using Tremors/Drone to reach an infinite damage state.
Additionally, Razaketh is used to fetch Kozilek to loop Kozilek using his shuffle effect to draw a massive amount of cards (4 cards for every 2 life spent). This combo is very flexible as you can remove problem pieces by looping Ulamog (exile 2 permanents for every 4 life paid) to exile opponents’ boards, resulting in a winstate.
Typically just drawing by looping Kozilek will get you deep enough in to tutor for another wincon. If your health gets low while looping Kozilek you can cheap cast another creature you drew into and sac it to tutor for Disciple of Bolas which sacs Kozilek. You then draw 12 and gain 12 life. Then you sac Disciple to tutor for Kozilek. You can repeat this as long as you have a single (B) to pay.
Finally, a non-Rakdos backup combo involves using Neheb the Eternal and Aggravated Assault to generate infinite combat/red mana.
Note: If you are able to resolve Kozilek and Sire of Insanity, it makes for a high pressure situation for opponents, as they are mostly card-less while Annihilator 4 is swinging each turn. While not technically a wincon, this often leads to a winning situation.
Disruption
Listed is a suite of discard effects that help to disrupt many typical cEDH gameplans. Also, there are efficient board wipes, Toxic Deluge and Rolling Earthquake, that can disrupt dorks and slow gameplans.
Stax effects:
Blood Moon/Magus of the Moon make life difficult for some of the most dangerous decks in the competitive format (3+ colors).
Grafdiggers Cage, Leyline of the Void, and Yixlid Jailer disrupt Flash/Hulk, Reanimator, and Gitrog Dredge (Leyline/Jailer only) decks.
Thorn of Amethyst slows powerful storm decks like Shimmer Zur and Kess Storm while also slowing down fast rock play.
Plague Spitter globally wipes out dorks while enabling Rakdos.
Treasure Nabber disrupts fast play and IsoRev decks.
Codex Shredder stops topdeck tutors and can return a wincon from your yard.
Finally, the deck attempts to protect its combo attempts with the discard effects, Defense Grid, and Pyroblast/REB/Fork/Reverberate/Boil. Also, with a strange and unique effect, Void Winnower can protect your combo turn while demanding interaction itself. Finally, Blood Moon effects disrupt landbases for as cheap as one (R) when Rakdos is out which can stifle any potential disruption.
Conclusion
The deck has no self-imposed restrictions or limitations on its upside. It attempts to be as effective as possible with Rakdos at the helm. The end result is a viable competitive deck that is a fun change of pace from the higher tier deck lists that frequent cEDH metas. I hope you all get as much enjoyment out of this list as I have had brewing and playtesting it!
