Commander Deck Tech: Rakdos, the Muscle

Rakdos, the creator of the Guild that takes his very name, has always been devastating as well as popular. Rakdos, lord of Riots, for instance, is still the second most popular version in his colors ever since it was released - Prosper, Tome-Bound takes first place.

Rakdos, the Muscle is simply another version of this old demon!

Its ability gives you resources again and again, which, in turn, makes the already scary Rakdos Sacrifice even more aggressive and popular. This archetype is already widely popular in Standard, Pioneer, and Modern, so it was just a matter of time until it became more popular in Commander as well.

Unlike Prosper, which works with impulsive draw, that is, it exiles cards so you can play them, Rakdos simply lets you cast cards from the exile, including yours and your opponent's. Oh, and it also lets you cast a lot of them.

With this list, your goal is to play spells and permanents from the exile as many times as you can. You can use two different strategies:

1. Control the battlefield and limit how many resources your opponents can play.

2. Create a lot of mana, and eventually play a lot of cards one after the other.

With this in mind, I decided to add lots of sacrifice to this list, either as spells or creatures that force your opponents to sacrifice their permanents. This will create a mana or card draw advantage for you whenever you lose your own creatures.

We also added Evoke (you can play spells with this mechanic for their Evoke cost. if you do, it will be sacrificed when it enters play). However, I avoided cards with Blitz because, despite interesting, they only sacrifice cards at the end of the turn, which will often make us lose important resources.

As this deck includes multiple interactions, it needs a solid mana base.

Decks that can't access green typically use many artifacts to get more mana, and, if they also use black and red, they play rituals. This build includes a somewhat "lean" mana curve, around mana, which makes it competitive and budget-friendly.

To calculate how many lands I should use, I used our land calculator, which has never disappointed me!

Accelerators

Low-cost mana rocks and cost reducers make this deck even faster. As we were working with a budget, we had to use a few rocks that go in play tapped.

Bontu's Monument discounts the cost of black creatures, so it enables many interactions and lets us save some extra mana that makes all the difference in the world when we have to play several spells at once. Furthermore, its drain ability can be a finisher in some combos.

Cards that create tokens also make this deck quite fast. Together, Grim Hireling and Professional Face-Breaker can create up to extra mana after combat, for instance.

Rituals form a solid mana base because they're versatile, and you can reuse them with your commander. They heavily impact the game, as they tip the scales in your favor considerably.

Furthermore, Ashnod's Altar, Pawn of Ulamog, and Pitiless Plunderer are the main mana engines in this list, particularly if you play them with stolen enemy tokens or creatures.

Rakdos, the Muscle's ability lets you trade creatures for impulsive draw, so it basically gives you resources constantly. You might just get to draw your entire deck with him.

However, as you can't plan everything, you need to play a few strategic cards as you draw. That's the best way to play your cycles successfully.

Poxwalkers and Golgari Thug, for instance, are always available whenever you need to sacrifice something, albeit in different ways.

You'll also need any card with an activated ability or a triggered ability that creates mana when you sacrifice something. You can boost their effects with Bontu's Monument.

Other sacrifice engines, whether they trigger occasionally or constantly, are critical and can replace Ashnod's Altar. Cards like Greater Gargadon and Goblin Bombardment also play this part efficiently.

Creatures and spells like Dargo, the Shipwrecker and Plumb the Forbidden sacrifice multiple cards at once, so they're an alternative as well.

Golgari Thug | Ashnod's Altar | Rakdos, the Muscle

1 - Activate Ashnod's Altar to sacrifice Golgari Thug and get .

2 - Golgari Thug's and Rakdos, the Muscle's abilities trigger as it dies.

3 - Resolve Golgari Thug's trigger and put it on the top of your deck.

4 - Resolve Rakdos, the Muscle's trigger, and exile Golgari Thug and the next card in your deck.

5 - Cast Golgari Thug from the exile with .

6 - Repeat this process as many times as you want.

This Combo Will Lead To

- Infinite death triggers.

- Infinite ETBs/LTBs.

- Infinite sacrifice triggers.

- Infinite Storm counter.

After all your cards are in the exile, you'll just have to pick a finisher to end the match. You can use Bontu's Monument, which drains your opponents' lives constantly, simply exile all the cards in their decks, or use Goblin Bombardment, Torment of Hailfire, and Exsanguinate. You might also just be able to cast a Thassa's Oracle from an enemy deck.

The combo above isn't listed on most platforms, but you can find a brief description of all variations here.

Our commander is a powerful card draw engine, as he constantly gives us new resources. So, I decided to prioritize card selection instead of traditional card draw. The only exception is Plumb the Forbidden, which draws multiple cards at once and also triggers Rakdos, the Muscle's ability at the same time.

Insolent Neonate is an interesting cantrip with Rakdos, and can easily be replaced. As for Servant of the Stinger, it was surprisingly efficient when I was testing it. It is a very reliable -cost tutor.

Florian, Voldaren Scion is also critical as a tutor, considering this deck deals a lot of damage constantly. Furthermore, our commander has a strong body, evasion and trample, so you'll easily be able to deal damage attacking with him.

We explored Transmute a bit more in this article about Kaervek, the Punisher.

Your main targets for tutors that interact with the graveyard, like Entombs, are pieces that accelerate your combo, anything that interacts with Poxwalkers and Golgari Thug, and any card that can disrupt your opponent. For instance, Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger will break down your opponents' hands in no time.

Recursion

We included as recursion:

- Victimize, which is a cheap way to return two creatures to your board and get a huge card advantage. It is great with our commander.

- Chainer, Nightmare Adept is incredible with Rakdos, as it lets you cast creatures from your graveyard and also gives haste to any creatures you cast from exile.

- Unearth interacts really well with some of our most essential creatures, and is not that expensive.

The main way this deck interacts with your opponents is by getting answers in their decks, all while you permanents as an answer to spells and effects. Most of our interaction work with the graveyard, so artifact and enchantment removals, the most common graveyard hates, are critical.

We added hand destruction with Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger and Mindslicer. That's how you'll prevent your opponent from playing their most disruptive interactions.

Spot Removals

Black and red have many removals, so we selected a few cards to deal with the most diverse types of permanents around. From triggered abilities that take advantage of our creatures' Evoke cost, to cards that, for one mana , destroy a permanent and let us impulsive draw up to five cards.

Mass Removals

Because we play a lot of sacrifice-based interaction, we decided to add edicts so we can remove multiple cards at once - that is, cards that force our opponents to sacrifice multiple permanents. That way, we'll play around most protection all while we draw even more cards.

Protection

Artifacts are our main way to avoid interaction. Hope of Ghirapur is our Silence, whereas Conqueror's Flail is our Grand Abolisher.

A peculiar, yet efficient protection is attacking our opponents' hands with Mindslicer and Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger, as this will certainly limit their options. As for Dimir Machinations, it can work as an anti-tutor, considering it removes cards returned to the top of the deck through different effects.

This is an optimized version of the strategy we explained above, but this time with no budget. With just a few adjustments, we were able to turn it into a fast combo list.

Rakdos, the Muscle drew me in because of the explosive turns he creates, as well as memorable matches. He is also quite resilient, which I have been looking for in this color combination for a long time.

Rowan, Rakdos, and many other commanders that discount costs are fun in the first few matches, but creativity and diversity are essential in riskier matches.

When I wrote this article, my budget for this list was approximately US$100. However, you can adapt this list to your local meta, tables, or even any cEDH tournament you compete in.

What did you think of this list? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!