Rakdos, Lord's Downward Spiral

Commander / EDH Aggro BR (Rakdos) Demons Eldrazi

jpermar

Land (37)

• 1x Blackcleave Cliffs
• 1x Blightstep Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Cavern of Souls
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Dragonskull Summit
• 1x Flamekin Village
• 1x Graven Cairns
• 1x Luxury Suite
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 4x Mountain
• 1x Piranha Marsh
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Shadowblood Ridge
• 1x Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
• 1x Smoldering Marsh
• 1x Sulfurous Springs
• 13x Swamp
• 1x Tainted Peak
• 1x Temple of Malice

Ramp (9)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Coldsteel Heart
• 1x Cryptolith Fragment  ^Flip
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Pilgrim's Eye
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Talisman of Indulgence

Tutor (6)

• 1x Burning-Rune Demon
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Gamble
• 1x Rune-Scarred Demon
• 1x Vampiric Tutor
• 1x Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire

Haste (2)

• 1x Flamekin Village
• 1x Lightning Greaves

Draw and filtering (16)

• 1x Faithless Looting
• 1x Knollspine Dragon
• 1x Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
• 1x Light Up the Stage
• 1x Mask of Memory
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Night's Whisper
• 1x Painful Lesson
• 1x Painful Truths
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Read the Bones
• 1x Sandstone Oracle
• 1x Sign in Blood
• 1x Tectonic Giant
• 1x Thrill of Possibility
• 1x Valakut Awakening  ^Flip

Payoffs (15)

• 1x Archfiend of Despair
• 1x Blightsteel Colossus
• 1x Burning-Rune Demon
• 1x Combustible Gearhulk
• 1x It That Betrays
• 1x Knollspine Dragon
• 1x Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
• 1x Myojin of Night's Reach
• 1x Nullstone Gargoyle
• 1x Rune-Scarred Demon
• 1x Sandstone Oracle
• 1x Sire Of Insanity
• 1x Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
• 1x Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
• 1x Void Winnower

Discard (3)

• 1x Hypnotic Specter
• 1x Myojin of Night's Reach
• 1x Sire Of Insanity

Protection (3)

• 1x Deflecting Swat
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Tibalt's Trickery

The Downward Spiral (1)

• 1x Archfiend of Despair

Commander (1)

Rakdos Enabler (16)

• 1x Bitterblossom
• 1x Fanatical Firebrand
• 1x Goblin Fireslinger
• 1x Lobber Crew
• 1x Loyal Subordinate
• 1x Nettle Drone
• 1x Nullpriest of Oblivion
• 1x Pilgrim's Eye
• 1x Piranha Marsh
• 1x Plague Spitter
• 1x Shepherd of Rot
• 1x Spear Spewer
• 1x Tectonic Giant
• 1x Thermo-Alchemist
• 1x Tree of Perdition
• 1x Walking Ballista

Removal (8)

• 1x Abrade
• 1x Bedevil
• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x It That Betrays
• 1x Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
• 1x Terminate
• 1x Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
• 1x Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre

Anti Control (2)

• 1x Nullstone Gargoyle
• 1x Void Winnower

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Welcome to clan Rakdos! This deck is all about dropping your hand full of huge fatties into play and swinging for the fences. It's aggressive, reckless, and fun as hell! A sub-theme of the deck is "The Downward Spiral" of life totals, and the inspiration for the name is the NIN album The Downward Spiral.

You'll like this deck if:

• You love throwing down a ton of huge creatures all on the same turn for "free"
• You like to party!
• You're excited that you can "introduce a little anarchy, upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos" --The Joker
• You enjoy being the villain
• You like the thrill of an all-in strategy. Go big or go home!
• You want to play a fast game
• You want to play a fair (non-infinite) combo deck

You won't like this deck if:

• You like rules (Ghostly Prison), saying no (Counterspell), and planting trees (Kodama's Reach)
• You don't want to be a threat to other players
• You don't like combat
• You need a plan B when your commander is focus fired

I use Adam Styborski's philosophy of active mitigation to design this deck. The main goal of the deck is to make sure that everyone's life total spirals downward to make exciting and memorable games of Commander. It plays aggressively and recklessly as a fair (non-infinite) combo deck. I've organized the cards into categories to describe how the deck implements this philosophy. The core of the deck is two categories of cards: 1) Rakdos, Lord of Riots enablers (ways to make your opponents lose life so you can cast your commander) and 2) payoffs (huge fatties you can cast cheaply or for free, typically after you hit someone with your commander).

The PlayEDH mentors rated this deck at "mid power" per the PlayEDH discord deck guidelines

Note that the "effective CMC" of this deck is (much) lower than the listed average CMC, due to Rakdos's ability.

I'm always open to suggestions on how to improve the deck. If you comment, I would love it if you would suggest cards to take out for the cards you recommend.

Embrace the chaos and bring the pain!

Consider:

• Florian, Voldaren Scion

Top Ranked	Achieved #20 position overall 8 years ago Achieved #13 position in Commander / EDH 4 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH BR (Rakdos) 5 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Casual 5 years ago
Date added	10 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	15 - 0 Mythic Rares 35 - 0 Rares 13 - 0 Uncommons 20 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.78
Tokens	Faerie Rogue 1/1 B
Folders	EDH decks, EDH Options, EDH, Commander, Clever EDH Concepts, EDH - Rakdos, Red Black Commander, EDH Ideas, Decks, possibles
Based on	Embrace the Chaos jpermar EDH