Deck Rating: 8 out of 10
Deck Strategy: Wither, Proliferate, Carddraw
When developing a deck for the Rakdos color space, I got a bit tired of seeing all the looting/sacrifice based commanders. Why couldn't have its cake and eat it too, I wondered? It was none other than The Scorpion God who answered my prayers. Oppressive to your foes' creatures, a mighty card-draw engine and bloody difficult to get rid of to boot? Hallelujah.
The commander is the core of this deck, and you should strive to have him out whenever you can. Thanks to his triggered ability, the only reliable way to put ScorpGod back in the Command Zone is exiling it, either from the battlefield or during its brief intervals in the graveyard. You will find few opponents willing to waste their removal on him once they realize the futility of it. Should one of your enemies acquire a means to repeatably exile your commander, they and their exile engine are now your #1 target.
This deck excels in keeping creature-based decks down while accruing value and attacking over your opponents' withered defenses. Opponents that do not rely on creatures to win are less vulnerable to this deck's main strength - however, if they neglect to defend themselves against your attacks, they will die all the same.
This deck operates in two steps, in order of priority:
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Get The God Out. The commander is the lynchpin of this entire deck. Without it, it is severely neutered. Your heuristic for spells should prioritize playing it at all times, even over value plays. The only exception to this is when you sense an incoming boardwipe, or must take drastic action to prevent a loss.
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Spread the Plague. Most of the cards in this deck either put -1/-1 counters on creatures, make more counters, or give benefits when the counters kill a creature. First and foremost among this is ScorpGod, who will draw you a card for each creature that dies with a -1/-1 counter on it. In four-player games, this can be very explosive - don't be shy to use some of your open mana to spread some counters around.
The key to winning with this deck is aggression. Your opponents' creature armies will wither in the face of this deck's -1/-1 counter strewing; use these unguarded moments to assault them with everything you have. Like all decks, running out of steam is your main weakness, though it is mitigated here by the commander's resilience and his card-drawing bonus. Nevertheless, ending up in lategame against a Simic/Orzhov/Golgari opponent is usually a losing battle for you.
This deck is supported by a number of pillars that help smooth out its performance against a variety of opposing decks. These are:
- Ramp, of course. At , our commander is not cheap (but also not that expensive, considering we'll rarely pay CDR tax for him). We run the standard EDH ramp complement: Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Fellwar Stone, Talisman of Indulgence and Commander's Sphere. In the exotic category, we have a Thought Vessel to help us hang on to all those cards we draw, and a Black Market that can give us insane mana if it isn't removed. To fix our colors, we also run most of the Rakdos dual-lands: Blightstep Pathway
, Bloodfell Caves, Canyon Slough, Dragonskull Summit, Drossforge Bridge, Foreboding Ruins, Haunted Ridge, Rakdos Carnarium, Shadowblood Ridge, Smoldering Marsh and Temple of Malice.
- Proliferate Effects allow us to multiplicatively weaken our opponents' creatures that we've plagued with -1/-1 counters, eventually killing them for value. Permanent-based effects are best, with Karn's Bastion, Contagion Clasp, and Contagion Engine providing this deck with repeatable and selective counter growth. Grim Affliction and Spread the Sickness serve as additional redundancies for this mechanic, while providing removal options. Though not a true proliferation effect, honorable mention goes to Blowfly Infestation, as it preserves a -1/-1 counter from each creature that dies to them, to put on yet another creature. An absolute scourge for weenie decks.
- Counter Spreaders & Redirectors help ScorpGod achieve his goals by placing counters at a more favorable rate, while shifting them around to where they are needed. Real superspreaders include Soul Snuffers, Carnifex Demon, Midnight Banshee, Cauldron of Souls, and Liliana's Influence, all of whom cover the board in counters. A few proliferate triggers later, your opponents' boards are decimated and you draw a flood of cards. Many other utility spells and creatures that the deck features either place -1/-1 counters directly, or provide them through wither. Counter redirection is provided by Grim Poppet and Chainbreaker. The former can dole them out to opponents' creatures at instant speed, while the latter keeps safe your own creatures that you don't want plagued (yet).
- Counter and Death Value Engines. It wouldn't be a deck with black in it without some nasty death triggers. Shadows of the Past fixes draws, Bastion of Remembrance drains your opponents life for you, Necroskitter steals everything you kill with counters, Nikara, Lair Scavenger enhances the card-draw from your own counter-stricken creatures, Black Market ramps your mana enormously and Sangromancer floods you with life for every opposing creature's death. On the side of counter-based triggers, Kulrath Knight locks down enemy armies, Crumbling Ashes helps you pick off weakened targets every turn, and Nest of Scarabs gives you armies of sacrifice/chump-block fodder.
- Redundancies, Protections and Hate effects make this deck more reliable. We run Spellbook, Thought Vessel and Reliquary Tower simply to provide redundancy for our hand size expansion, as card-draw is one of the deck's greatest strengths. Rogue's Passage lets us swing in our commander (for reliable damage) and nasty things like Stigma Lasher (to put a ceiling on their life total). Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger is this deck's nasty hand-and-lifetotal-draining creature that keeps on coming back. Did you know that you can interrupt Kroxa's ETB sac-trigger with your commander's activated ability to give him a -1/-1 counter before he dies, drawing you a card? Good times.
Combos and Interactions
This deck runs a number of value-enhancing combos, and some of our cards interact with each other in interesting ways. Let's take a look:
- Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger + Phyrexian Reclamation is an excellent way to oppress your opponents' hands and life totals. Add in a Sangromancer for net gains.
- Nest of Scarabs plus any of the -1/-1 counter superspreaders results in a tidal wave of Insect tokens at your disposal - all of which reliably die to counters for value. Popping off this one with Carnifex Demon and Bastion of Remembrance will have your opponents' life totals dwindle in the space of a heartbeat.
- Kulrath Knight + Liliana's Influence locks down every single creature your opponents' have that doesn't immediately die to the counters. This simple combo is an excellent way to set yourself up for victory.
- Sangromancer is a spectacularly effective card in this deck (and thus also a prime target for removal spells). However, if you can keep it on the board, you will be insulated by a flood of stolen life as your foes' creatures die in droves.
Pet Cards
To me, Commander is a format where fun is first, and competition second. As such, almost every deck I make will have some cards that are probably not the best choice for inclusion. They're there to stay, though, for no other reason that I like their art/flavor/design.
- Thieving Amalgam - This is a fun disruption card, though it can net you even more value in a pinch. With a free 2/2 every turn that life-drains if it dies, you can use the Manifests as blockers or plague them with -1/-1 counters for the card-draw.
- Valki, God of Lies
- This god (and more so, the Tibalt planeswalker on the other side) are excellent disruptors for your opponents' plans. Cheerfully stealing all their best tools has never been so fun before.
- Stigma Lasher - Initially included as a situational wither-creature pick, this has proven excellent at countering lifegain and battlecruiser decks, especially as the effect does not go away if the creature dies. Hit an opponent with this, and they can forget about lifegain for the rest of the game. With the amount of creature removal in this deck, hitting your opponents with it is not difficult.
- Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger - Tremendously oppressive. This deck regularly ends up with cards in the graveyard, enough so for an early Escape. Repeatedly running Kroxa roughshod into your opponents with a counter on him is just a piñata of value.
- Cauldron of Souls - Enabling reanimation shenanigans across the board and netting you value, this artifact is your insurance against boardwipes, and also allows you to selectively recur enemy creatures with a -1/-1 counter on them (provided they died without one already on them). Never let anyone deny you your card-draw!
Maybeboard Musings
As ever, I have my thoughts on which cards would be perfect for this deck. However, I do not own (spare) copies of these cards to use...yet.
- Grave Pact. The sheer power of this enchantment to disincentivize opponents killing your creatures should not be underestimated. Should I ever come into possession of this one, it's going in the deck.
- Nesting Grounds. Another great counter-mover. The two that I own currently already live in EDH decks, though. This would be an opportunity pick-up, replacing a basic land.
- Psychosis Crawler is almost a win condition on its own in this deck. Would love to have this one.
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