Black Midranges are widely known in Premodern, both in Mono Black versions — very popular for being easy to build and pilot — and in variants with green (The Rock) and white (Deadguy Ale).
Machine Head, the 
variant, is a less popular version but equally capable of posting good results. Adding red provides a mix of cheap interaction and threats that allow attacking more angles of the opponent's game plan: Avalanche Riders becomes much more consistent as mana disruption when we have Dark Ritual to accelerate its cast, and we can still take advantage of Cabal Therapy to generate value from the card before paying the Echo cost, while Lightning Bolt remains one of Premodern's most flexible cards.
As a bonus, this version also gains Grim Lavamancer as an alternative win condition and recurring board interaction, plus excellent Sideboard pieces like Anarchy against white enchantments and Pyroblast against blue decks.
The Decklist
Rakdos Midrange is built around three pillars of disruption. The first is hand pressure, with Duress, Cabal Therapy alongside the "combo" with Ravenous Rats and Hypnotic Specter ripping key pieces from the opponent.
The second is attacking the mana base, where Choking Sands and Avalanche Riders ensure the opponent never gets to stabilize their resource production, with both cards being easily accelerated through Dark Ritual.
Finally, there's board interaction, with Lightning Bolt, Terminate, and Diabolic Edict keeping the board clean. These axes ensure the opponent stumbles on some part of their game plan and is eventually outpaced in resources and card advantage through Phyrexian Arena and Skeletal Scrying.
Maindeck
Dark Ritual is the most important card in this version. Having it in your opening hand considerably advances any of the lines, whether to play a Hypnotic Specter on turn one, sequence Cabal Therapy with Ravenous Rats and remove three cards from the opponent's hand, or start mana disruption with Avalanche Riders and Choking Sands early.
It's also possible to use it for a turn-one Phyrexian Arena, which can be quite risky against unknown opponents if we discover, afterward, that the match is against Sligh or Goblins.
Hand disruption.
Duress, Cabal Therapy, and Ravenous Rats have a synergistic relationship: Duress provides information to use Therapy more accurately, and Ravenous Rats provides a body that serves as fuel for Therapy's Flashback, ensuring a bit of everything we need to extract maximum value from the card.
Hypnotic Specter works as both a threat and a recurring discard source. It can be cast early with Dark Ritual and demands an immediate answer to avoid exhausting the opponent's hand resources.
Mana disruption.
Choking Sands deals with any non-Swamp land a Dark Ritual away on turn one and also punishes the opponent for running non-basic lands.
Avalanche Riders is LD on a threat with haste that helps pressure the opponent's life total. The Echo cost is relatively high, but we can extract value from it even without paying the additional cost if, after combat, we sacrifice it to Cabal Therapy.
Board control.
Lightning Bolt is the most flexible red removal in Premodern, functioning both to deal with small and medium threats at the lowest possible cost and to close out games.
Terminate is an excellent addition from the red splash and deals unconditionally with any creature at instant speed. We complement it with Diabolic Edict to handle creatures that have protection from black and enough toughness to not die to Lightning Bolt.
Grim Lavamancer doubles as recurring removal against small creatures and a slow but efficient finisher in attrition games.
Card advantage source.
Phyrexian Arena provides an extra draw every turn for the low cost of one life and three mana, being a constant stream of resources each turn. Skeletal Scrying has a more "one-shot" effect, but it provides multiple draws in a single card, feeding off our cheap disruption to reward us with more resources.
Bloodstained Mire and Sulfurous Springs provide consistency and mana fixing for a two-color deck, complemented by Shadowblood Ridge, a land that doesn't generate mana on its own on turn one but helps guarantee both colors in hands with Mishra's Factory.
Sideboard
Pyroblast is mandatory interaction against blue decks, and these are still very present in the Metagame. It can counter a Counterspell, Stifle, Intuition, or destroy Psychatog.
Overload is the dedicated answer to troublesome artifacts. We could use Mogg Salvage in its place, but we have a very high priority on having Swamps to ensure Salvage will consistently be a free spell.
Earthquake is the tool to clear go-wide boards from Elves and Goblins, and can also close out games in Control matchups where we typically see our creatures disappear one after another to pinpoint removal.
Anarchy clears the board against white decks, destroying enchantments like Solitary Confinement and Humility.
Duress comes in during games where we know we need more hand disruption, since the maindeck copies can be quite bad against more go wide archetypes like Elves or Goblins.
Tormod's Crypt deals with graveyards for free, being an effective answer against Psychatog, Reanimate, and Replenish.
Sideboard Guide
Mono Blue Stiflenought
IN
OUT
Mana efficiency is our focus in this matchup and Avalanche Riders is easily answered with a Hydroblast. Our plan should revolve around preventing the combo at all costs, so focus the discard on the enabler pieces or on cards that can protect Phyrexian Dreadnought from removal.
Sligh
IN
OUT
Not an easy matchup, as the opponent can play well with few lands and discard effects lose value quickly. Earthquake can come in if the opponent uses more creatures, but most Sligh variants today behave more like a Burn deck.
Goblins
IN
OUT
Goblins is quite resilient against mana disruption with cost reducers and Skirk Prospector, but four sweepers in the Sideboard help keep our trades favorable. Don't leave a Goblin Lackey on the board under any circumstances.
Elves
IN
OUT
Grim Lavamancer is the best card in the matchup. Focus the LDs on Gaea's Cradle given the opponent's ease in generating mana, and try to keep cards like Priest of Titania off the board.
Enchantress
IN
OUT
Use the LDs on enchanted lands or Serra's Sanctum and prioritize key enchantments with Duress and Cabal Therapy. The matchup is manageable if we can keep the most absurd cards off the board.
Azorius Standstill
IN
OUT
There are a few routes we can take in this matchup: respect Exalted Angel, keep the Terminates and play without Earthquake, or prioritize Decree of Justice and a more efficient clock with Earthquake as a finisher. Either way, the plan remains the same: hand disruption followed by a threat or two on the board to pressure the opponent.
The Rock
IN
OUT
We're unfavored in this matchup if the opponent plays with Haunting Echoes as a finisher for the mirror. We can include Tormod's Crypt and remove Ravenous Rats if we want to respect Recurring Nightmare.
Mono Black Midrange
IN
OUT
The game against Mono Black is extremely dependent on who can keep one or more creatures on the board. Choking Sands is a dead card, so we complete a set of Duress and add Earthquake, which can cause two-for-one effects against most of their threats at X = 2. Save Terminate for Nantuko Shade.
Gruul Sligh
IN
OUT
The matchup against this version is much easier than against Mono Red. Gruul Sligh is much more centered on keeping threats on the board than using Burn spells, so take advantage of Earthquake to avoid unfavorable trades against Call of the Herd and other cards that can force a two-for-one.
Gruul Oath
IN
OUT
The opponent executes the LD plan much more easily and cards like Avalanche Riders cost too much if a Sphere of Resistance resolves. Additionally, Mox Diamond prevents the opponent from running out of resources and their potential for better draws is greater than ours. The best route we can take is to use the discard aggressively for disruption in hopes of keeping a threat on the board before they recover, but our clock is quite slow for this game.
Wrapping Up
That's all for today!
If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!
Thanks for reading!
Sign in and join the conversation
— Comments 0
, Reactions 1
Be the first to comment