You can't run Crypt Ghast because of its extort cost.

Extort is in reminder text, not rules text, so Crypt Ghast still has a black color identity.

Crypt Ghast can be played, just as meecht said.903.4b Reminder text is ignored when determining a cards color identity.Can therefore be found in the rules for commander/EDH.

Kukushu the evening star is however banned in commander/EDH.

I should have posted in the description, but my playgroup follows the ban list at mtgcommander.net, not the Wizards ban list. It allows Kokusho, the Evening Star to be played, but not as a commander.

Oops sorry, thanks for the info tho. Otherwise, +1

Maybe I'm missing something, but why Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker ?

With him out, I can cast Black Sun's Zenith to wipe the board, and get all my guys back. When they die, they'll have powers of 1 or less due to the counters, so Shirei's ability will trigger.

Granted, I read his ability as "any graveyard" instead of "your graveyard," so it isn't as strong as I originally thought.

I'm not sure how exactly you want that to work, because Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker is a 2/2 and needs to survive the board wipe and last until the beginning of the end step.

You described this to me as an aggro/control deck. Could you elaborate on that for me?

Also, some of your creature choices seem pretty suboptimal. What is your budget?

Wow, I totally misread Shirei. He doesn't work how I thought he did.

I'm going for aggro/combo, not aggro/control. Aggro for big, scary creatures to beat face with, but some combo elements in case attacking is prohibited or not desirable. I plan to cause some amount of life loss on each turn, either to one opponent or all of them in order to maximize Rakdos's ability.

My budget is pretty low, but my playgroup allows up to 30 proxies in a deck, and I usually proxy the expensive stuff. Also, if it matters, we also usually split up into 3 or 4 person pods, so I'll rarely play this 1v1.

My first bit of advice is to pare down your creature list. How useful are creatures like Stalking Vengeance and Anathemancer ? They take up space in the deck and aren't really mana-efficient, so you need to be careful about including them.

Also, you don't take advantage of some of the stronger spells in BR. Terminate , Diabolic Tutor , Beseech the Queen , and other utility instants and sorceries are worth including.

It's all theorycrafting right now, so I can't vouch for anything. I have very few older cards, so I try to get insight before I start shopping around to buy everything.

Stalking Vengeance is leftover from when I was trying to build around that ability, which is why Blood Artist is also there. I was trying to build an infinite life loss combo out of Blasting Station and Summoning Station , but it ended up requiring too many parts. It can definitely go.

There aren't any mono-colored decks in my meta, so I thought Anathemancer might be able to do some damage. I could be wrong.

I'll drop those creatures to fit in your suggestions, and take another look at your EDH staples page for ideas.

I changed the mana base to include some useful nonbasics and replaced several other cards. The Sideboard cards are what I removed, in case I removed anything I shouldn't have.

I'm considering removing the Sorin Markov + Sorin's Vengeance combo. It's strong, but I think people prepare for it when Sorin hits the field.

Sorin Markov + Sorin's Vengeance is a quaint interaction, but it won't pan out during gameplay. Way too much mana, and one of the pieces is virtually useless until the other one hits.

Also, be careful about your mana curve. You have a lot of high-cost cards, but virtually no ramp. Even though your general provides a cost reduction for creature spells, you need to consider adding more mana rocks, such as Thran Dynamo , Caged Sun , etc.

Skull Rend , which you removed, could potentially be good. In multiplayer, it allows Rakdos's ability to do some serious work. It's the random discards that make this card playable, though. Then again, it's a 5-drop, so use your discretion.

I included Quicksilver Amulet as a backup for Rakdos's ability if he gets removed. Maybe I should also include Buried Ruin as a way to recur the Amulet in case it gets removed?

Would the Cabal Coffers + Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth combo also be worth pursuing for ramp? I could also include Magus of the Coffers for ramp since it interacts well with Rakdos.

I know redundancy is nice for EDH, but having both Backlash and Delirium seems too cute unless I can consistently cast them on huge creatures, which I don't think I will in my combo-heavy meta. One of them could probably go in place of something more useful, like Caged Sun .

You could try Urborg+Coffers, but you should also run Expedition Map as a way to find them.

Backlash and Delirium are really just burn spells, and they aren't great on their own. You could cut them for more relevant cards.

Dropped Delirium and a couple swamps for Expedition Map , Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth , and Cabal Coffers .

Is it starting to look a bit more viable than when I started?

I totally recommend Seal of Fire and Staggershock for an easy turn 4 Rakdos.

So many fatties! I'm having difficulty seeing how you ever cast Rakdos though; you have like 4 creatures with a CMC of 4 or less... Fat is good, but I think you have too much of it.

There are definitely creatures that cost less that still provide powerful effects late game: Doomed Necromancer and Apprentice Necromancer can recur your giant dudes & smack for the 1 damage needed to play Rakdos. Reanimator is also a solid backup strategy for any deck playing giant fatties. Undead Gladiator , and Body Snatcher also. Play some useful low cost creatures to cast Rakdos like Liliana's Specter maybe.

So far, I've only played a couple games with the deck. In both games I had little trouble getting Rakdos, Lord of Riots out and developing a decent board presence. I even cast him a total of 3 times from the command zone in one game.

I have various ramp options to help get the fatties out when Rakdos isn't on the field, and tutors to get anything I might be missing.

Of course, 2 games isn't a big enough sample size to effectively gauge a deck's worth. I would really like to squeeze in some graveyard hate, probably in form of my Withered Wretch which also give me a cheap creature to help enable Rakdos.

My playgroup is starting to discourage infinite combos, so I've removed the Exquisite Blood + Sanguine Bond combo.

In their place, I've added Cloudstone Curio to reuse ETB effects, and Withered Wretch to have some graveyard hate.

When do you get Rakdos out though? Not on turn 4 - Plague Bearer + Withered Wretch are your only creatures with CMC < 4... And Sol Ring /Rakdos Signet /Coalition Relic is the only ramp CMC < 4. I tried playtesting it a few times, and several hands basically did nothing until Turn 5 or 6. Admittedly after that I was laying down huge fatties every turn though! I guess it's a sacrifice of speed for power, but I think lowering the curve a little would be good.

I'm not trying to rely on Rakdos, Lord of Riots to get fatties out, hence the ramp effects. He'll be in more of a support role.

I think I rather like the look of this deck. Kind of makes me want to build a demon tribal. What makes this deck so expensive though? I don't see anything obscenely expensive besides Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre , and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth . Is it mostly the fact that a lot of the cards are $5 here, $5 there, and a few other cards like Necropotence ?

oh and since you have Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth , then i think Liliana of the Dark Realms could be something to consider.

The total price is a lot of "nickel and dime" stuff, which is real easy to do in EDH.