Rakdos, Supreme Lord of Riots (EDH / Commander) [Revision 35]

This is my Rakdos, Lord of Riots commander. The deck is built around dealing damage at nearly every turn, either via attack, or effects. Any point of damage is enough to begin flooding the board with huge, hopefully hasty boys. Every card I've selected falls into to one of five separate sections, all having a task that is pertinent to the deck's goals.

A) Deal direct damage, or amplify damage from other sources in order to allow Rakdos to be played, or to lessen the costs of other creatures due to Rakdos. (Nettle drone and pals, Warstorm Surge, Dictate of the Twin Gods, Mogis, Gratuitous Violence, Archfiend of Despair, Berserkers' Onslaught)

B) Have a large, impactful effect, either when entering the battlefield or while being on the battlefield while also having either a large colorless mana cost or an X mana cost to allow heavily amplified effects. (Blightsteel Colossus, Etali, Grenzo, Combustible Gearhulk, Steel Hellkite, Walking Ballista,)

C) Having some sort of utility to cause creatures to be more difficult to answer, such as graveyard recursion or haste abilities. (Phyrexian Reclamation, Palace Siege, Sheoldred, Lightning Greaves, Fervor)

D) Generate card draw or tutor to keep momentum and prevent stalling on turns where the entire hand can be played out at once. (Bloodgift Demon, Harvester of Souls, Immortal Sun, Phyrexian Arena, Belzenlok, Razaketh,)

E) Fall into another category while also creating a win condition when in the correct circumstance. (Mikaeus/Triskelion/Cauldron of Souls, Chandra's Ignition, Master of Cruelties, Neheb/Aggravated Assault)

It's been a while and a lot of new presents for our unholy Lord himself. I've tested quite a bit of the new cards in the last few sets to see exactly what fits and what doesn't and I think we've hit a new happy point.

To start, Zendikar brought a lot of fun and interesting cards, but nearly all of the ones I was excited for ended up falling short for Rakdos. Moraug was my real hopeful point for the set, but for the most part is just a winmore piece. At his worst he's just an additional body since overall land base is low for rakdos. Other than him though, monoblack enchantment removal! Feed the swarm is the exact card I've been wishing for and the additional cost isn't even that steep. We can finally blow up that dang Mirari's wake when the table asks if anyone has an answer.

Commander legends landed excellently for nearly all of my decks, but again Rakdos was just out of the scope of the pulls. Vampiric Tutor was an excellent reprint, and depending on the powerless of your meta makes for intense consistency. Jeweled lotus was fun to attempt but needed to draw a pinger and jeweled lotus ends up making the card just a lot of empty dream. If your meta happens to have someone else dealing damage per turn though I highly recommend it.

Kaldheim was a major bummer as the aesthetic was exciting but fell flat from the direction they took it. Burning Rune Demon is the winner for us though. Another body with a tutor and lucky it even comes with a free entombed. 100% recommended. Never had a bad draw on him.

Stryxhaven though. This set has been unimaginably killer. Incredible alt art demonic tutor for the additional flair win, and a lot of fun little treats.

For the smaller pieces, general purpose non-land removal is excellent. Introduction to Annihilation is a dream come true for Rakdos. Unconditional enchantment removal is so helpful even if it is at a steep mana price. Additionally, Wandering Archaic is such a powerful card. It doesn't always completely control the game but at the very least you generally get a free removal off of it. And for a free card thanks to Rakdos there's just no reason not to.

My personal favorite bonus from this set though has got to be Grinning Ignus. 2{R} for a 2/2 body which is pretty trash for what it is, but this card has incredible potential thanks to its ability. {R} Bounce it, gain 2{R}. So on its own in it converts 1 red mana into 2 colorless mana. This isn't awful for when we want to cast bigger spells but worthless for our creatures.
This is where the fun is though. Runaway Steamkin makes 3 red mana for every 3 red spells we cast. So with these two together for 3 red mana we obtain infinite storm, infinite etbs and infinite colorless mana. I'm not gonna devote any deckslots more than I already have to making this combo instant win, but it's definitely one to consider that Rakdos can make happen very easily. Should you want to turn this into a wider sweeping win condition, you can use impact tremors, grapeshot, Purphoros, Terror of the Peaks, or any x cost spells like torment of hailfire.
Personally, I'm only keeping what I already have and one more much more convoluted piece. So Warstorm Surge, and Walking Ballista already existed and I personally added in Prismite. This allows us to turn our infinite colorless into whatever we want. This doesn't necessarily win on the spot but it does make it possible to cast our large non-creature spells just the same which is more fun for the current meta.

My personal meta has shifted quite a bit in recent times and I now have a few cards that I alternate depending on which decks are at the table. Against the higher power level decks I slot in all of the 2 piece win combos. I keep Mikaeus in the deck since he's just so much value but triskelion is out except for high power level games. Sanguine bond and Exquisite Blood are the same idea. If you have the cards and your meta is strong enough, put in literally every tutor you have. If your meta is weak though, I recommend them as the first cards to go.

Keep an eye out for Modern Horizons 2 and the new DnD set. Who knows what all that will bring.

When I come into a sum of disposable income, I will update the lands with the entire Maybe Board.