+1 for elder scrolls reference.

I love the Elder Scrolls (well DF and MW). :)

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I've been playing with this deck a lot, so I know which cards aren't helping me (Splatter Thug even though sometimes the first strike is helpful). I've implemented some suggestions, wish I could change some other cards, but I still need to trade for them.

I removed:

4x Splatter Thug

3x Dynacharge

2x Rakdos Shred-Freak

I've added:

2x Thrill-Kill Assassin

2x Bloodfray Giant

2x Deviant Glee (very useful when paired with Rakdos Cackler , I've had a consistent turn 2, 4 damage, sometimes 6 if I have another cackler or deviant glee in hand)

1x Annihilating Fire , 1x Street Spasm (I will soon receive some more efficient burn spells)

1x Cryptborn Horror (purely to test him out)

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I will soon receive 2x Dreadbore , 3x Desecration Demon , and some pillars of flame. I'll update the deck once i receive them.

Haven't received my cards yet, but I should receive them soon enough...

So, now that GTC is out, are there any cards that go with this deck? And if I had to splash another colour to make the new colours viable in my deck, which cards would you suggest? (although for now I'll stick with RB).

Thanks.

Bumping for that. :)

helllooooooo

first off congratulations for realizing the higher mana potential for rakdos decks

i would recommend replacing the 2 rakdos shred freaks and the 2 thrill kill assassins for 2 giant scorpions (a cheap common from M13) and the 2 splatter thugs. this is because at 1 toughness the shred freak will be lucky to hit once where-as the splatter thugs may hit later, but the keep hitting. and death-touch (although awesome) isnt really a good keyword with unleash as it is more defensive that offensive (if you have a death touch creature on the field your opponent will try and play around it, often not commiting their best attackers for fear of losing them).

other than that you may want to look in to some new boros cards in gatecrash for example boros reckoner can help against your enemy the thragtusk (even if it is quite red intensive)

other that all this i cant imagine you having any trouble at fnm tonight. good luck i suppose and tell me how it went. :)

I actually would swap the Rakdos Shred-Freak s for Lightning Mauler . Lightning mauler can give you haste on your bigger creatures. I personally, would not put Giant Scorpion in. A turn 3, with a power of 1 does not complement an aggro strategy at all. If you are going to consider replacing Thrill-Kill Assassin then at least go for Vampire Nighthawk which is Giant Scorpion but just far better.

oh yes and you mentioned help with a side board ummm i would recommend you bring 4 stab wounds (RtR Uncommon), 2 witchbane orbs (cheap rare from innistrad), 3 searing spears (M13 common), an ultimate price (RtR uncommon, 3 murders (M13 Common) and 2 rakdos charms (RtR uncommon).

this will give you versatillity for each possible match up, the stabwounds can cripple your opponents creatures early and (in the case of mono red aggro) can even kill them out right, it is also good against falkenrath aristocrat as her invincibility cant help her with -2/-2 as she will die anyway. the witch bane orbs are awesome against burning vengeance decks as they rely on burning their opponent down, and if you are hexproof you are safe from them. if you need to finish off an opponent there honostly is no better candidate than searing spear (well lightning bolt but that's not legal anymore). the ultimate price is there foe when burning your opponent wont kill their creatures (toughness 4 or higher), same with the murders. and the rakdos charm was designed to be your perfect support spell so it only makes sence to sideboard these.

i see your point those would be awesome picks if you can get your hands on themk go ahead :)

Thank you both for your replies! :)

I've weighted all your recommendations. Firstly, I've decided to swap the 2x Rakdos Shred-Freak for 2x Splatter Thug . I've always kept the shred-freaks because I really like haste, but cheesusalnighty is right, its 1 toughness means that at most I get to deal damage once with him, and then he's blocked/dead. I decided on the splatter thugs because their 3 power first strike is quite powerful (heck, he can take on a thragtusk and live to tell the tale).

I don't have any other deathtouch creature, so the Thrill-Kill Assassin will have to stay for now. I usually keep them for defence, unless I plan on dealing a final deathblow (in which case I attack with them).

As for the sideboard, I'll try to get Witchbane Orb , the other cards I do own fortunately.

The Boros Reckoner is one I would add to my deck if I had. I'll also try to get another Mizzium Mortars because it's a good 'removal' (it's not, but usually it works like one) spell, and sometimes functions as a board wipe.

I'm not sure if I should add more burn spells to my mainboard...

Also, I wasn't referring to tonight's FNM, so I have like 2 weeks before the FNM I was referring to.

As a side note, I kinda miss not including Bloodfray Giant or Cryptborn Horror . The former I really like the trample affect, and the latter is a hit and miss...but it's so awesome when you put in a 6/6+ trampler on turn 3!

Thanks again for your advice. :) If anyone wants to weigh in more advice, please feel free to do so! I need all the help I can get, hah. Still a new player, been playing for 2.5 months.

Do you know what you're going to do for Gatecrash? You could add Boros for Borakdos. Would be sweet.

Honestly at the moment I don't feel like this deck is fast enough. Most people running aggro decks have about 12 or so 1 - 2 drops. They hit super, super fast. You really want to be ending the game by turn 4 every time, if you stall and don't end fast enough you lose to more powerful creatures. I understand why you've added things like Carnival Hellsteed and they are good but really, what I think will happen is that the aggro decks will beat you in terms of speed and the control decks will establish a dominant board position because you won't have enough stuff hitting hard in those first 3 turns or so.

I have some ideas for GTC, but I need to actually play with the set more. Although the ideas I have are more on control/milling. I played with Dimir during the prerelease, and I really enjoyed it.

Anyway, as for this deck, I also have speed concerns. But I sort of want to test where this deck takes me. I could always remove the hellsteeds for faster creatures if my plan doesn't work.

Thanks for your opinion though, I always need advice from the more experienced players.

Btw, how does one create a sideboard? It's like...how can 15 cards have all the answers!

So you need to think about what will screw up your plans most and plan how to solve it. What if somebody wipes the board of all your creatures. What if somebody has an enchantment that stops you attacking. What if somebody has loads of flying tokens. Think about situations and how you could deal with them. Use gatherer (google it) to look through all the cards printed by wizards and see if you can find solutions.

I came up with a quick sideboard.

Madcap Skills - thinking of adding it to my mainboard...it's got potential I think.

Hellraiser Goblin - giving haste to everyone seems like good synergy with aggro. I only have 1 though, got it in the prerelease.

Homing Lightning - effective against tokens.

Smelt ,Vandalblast - I don't know if there are any powerful artifacts used in my meta. I guess I'll find out soon enough.

The rest are filler for now, apart for the stab wound.

Yeh that's not a bad start at all.

Well, glad I'm getting better. :)

you know dude i dont think you nee our help, you seem a good enough player as it is. however if you feel like you need a hand with a decklist or idea message me and il be glad to help :)

I'm still a newbie man (soon 3 months under my belt), but thanks. :) And thanks, I'll message you for your opinion on other decks in the future then!

Guttersnipe . Oh Searing Spear deals opponent 3 for 2 drop, nope make that 5 damage for a 2 drop

I love Guttersnipe, one of my favourite cards, but I think he suits burn decks better. Right? Or?

Definitely more for burn than aggro.

I don't have enough sorceries or instants here. He used to be a major asset in an Izzet deck I had.

Rakdos Charm is decent sideboard material. I would sideboard the 2 Murder s for 2 more Brimstone Volley because there's more utility there. Keep the murder's sideboard against big scary creature decks.

I am actually responding to your forum post and I prefer Madcap Skills to Deviant Glee if you're going to run one or the other. And again, it's been said, Lightning Mauler and Vampire Nighthawk are both fantastic. I would take out the 2 Carnival Hellsteed s for either another Rakdos, Lord of Riots and another Desecration Demon or 2 Hellrider s.

Here's my rakdos deck Rakdos Guild . I love it! Rakdos is great fun and all my friends hate playing against it.

Dragonskull Summit

If you plan on getting Rakdos out, you HAVE to use Tormented Soul . Also, for 1-drop creatures, the Souls compliment Goblin Arsonist very well. For putting them out on turn one, you can make sure you are able to cause the life loss to play Rakdos.

For two-drops, Thrill-Kill Assassin and Lightning Mauler work best. 2 of each.

My Rakdos Deck:

4x Tormented Soul , a must-have4x Goblin Arsonist , great one-drop2x Thrill-Kill Assassin , good defensive or offensive, trades off often2x Lightning Mauler , hasty4x Hellhole Flailer , bomb3x Rakdos, Lord of Riots , theme3x Galvanic Juggernaut , this one is so over-looked. I used this for two reasons: 1) being a two color deck, you WILL run into some instances where you don't have the color mana you need. This offers a GREAT creature no matter your mana, but more importantly, 2) because I found many times where I could attack with the Hellhole Flailer on turn four, cast Rakdos, Lord of Riots , then cast Galvanic Juggernaut FOR FREE. It is a game changer.

4x Pillar of Flame , good cheap damage/removal4x Tragic Slip , a must-have removal card. One of the best for its cost2x Rakdos Keyrune , good mana fix/ramp, great creature1x Dangerous Wager , refills empty hand. Only one, so you never discard another4x Bump in the Night , this is my non-creature over-looked wild card. This thing is SO POWERFUL. It marries the two colors flawlessly. Great for turn one when you have no creatures, turn five when you have 5 mana, want to cast rakdos, but can't get damage through. But more importantly, I have flashed this thing back so many times on turn five or six for the win. People often forget about it. But it is perfect for a Rakdos deck. You will ALWAYS be able to cast it at least once, and if the game drags on, its always there when you run out of any other card to play.

Sideboard: Whatever you want, but I ALWAYS included 4x Undying Evil , because as hard as Rakdos is to get out, it sucks when he just dies to a simple spell shortly after.

My setup was good because I never ran out of ways to hurt my opponent. With what you have now, you will either be wrecked by mass removal or unable to get through big blockers, even with Rakdos out. Your non-creatures spells are too expensive and all over the place.

Try my setup, and you will find its curve is perfect. Get out small guys like Souls to chip away and cast Bumps, use strategic Pillars and Tragic Slips (cheap cheap removal) when you need to snipe creatures, the keyrune will ramp you or be used as an additional creature, and mana never becomes redundant because by the time turn 5 and 6 come around, you can use excess mana to flashback Bump or bomb with the Flailer.

Good luck!

@tristenbruce: Good shout on having Rakdos Charm sideboarded. I'll need to get my hands on that. I'll add that to the sideboard.

You have a point that I should keep 2 more burn spells instead of Murder , whilst keeping Murder against opponents with fatties. A burn spell like Brimstone Volley is more versatile.

With regards to Madcap Skills vs. Deviant Glee , I think I've decided to swap 2 MS for 2 DG. I'll still keep 2 DG though because they're good, cheap, permanent pump spells (well, until the creature is toast).

Lightning Mauler is similar to Hellraiser Goblin . I think I prefer the latter though. Vampire Nighthawk I would use instead of the Thrill-Kill Assassin , although I don't even have 1 of those. I'll need to find a trader first.

The Carnival Hellsteed , whilst costly, is usually a game finisher from my experience. I always unleash him and attack for 6 damage. His firststrike is very powerful. I think I like him enough that I'll keep him, although I do have another Desecration Demon in case I change my mind.

I'll take a look at your deck. Thanks heaps for your help man, I greatly appreciate it. :)

@FalconKommando: If I could I'd get a playset of that and of the shocklands, but alas, they are too costly for me right now.

@Psychonautical: Before I updated my deck, I had a playset of Tormented Soul . I used to pump them up and they could become quite deadly. I had swapped them for the Rakdos Cackler . I guess I could remove the 2xSplatter Thug for 2x Tormented Soul .The Galvanic Juggernaut is quite good, but because it's colourless I feel it doesn't quite fit with the flavour of a Rakdos deck. Your Rakdos, Lord of Riots / free Galvanic Juggernaut combination is pretty smart though.

Pillar of Flame , Tragic Slip - whole heartedely agreed. I need them.

Bump in the Night - cheap burn spell, with flashback. And I don't think there are a lot of cards in standard which can prevent loss of life.

Undying Evil - another good card I overlooked.

I'll think about how I can include some of these suggestions. Some good cards here I completely missed. What I need to fix in my deck is speed. It needs to be faster.

Thanks a lot for the advice man. You've given me a lot to chew! I appreciate it. :)

PS: I won't update the deck here for now, I'm adding the changes on a paper. Once I get the cards I'll update the deck. Due to examinations, I don't think I'll be able to trade before the tournament on the 17th of February. Hopefully, I'll be able to trade after the tournament. I'll put the changes in the maybeboard for now.