Faceless One Combo Finisher (EDH / Commander)

Welcome to the combo deck you didn't know you wanted! This is a deck that leverages Faceless One in a way that makes it not just a meme commander, it's legitimately the most optimal choice to lead the deck!

The Combo:

The combo itself requires 4 pieces, 2 of which can now be found in the Command Zone thanks to Commander Legends 2:

• Faceless One in the Command Zone
• An effect that drains life, either on a creature entering the battlefield or dying. Agent of the Iron Throne (hereafter AotIT) is now the ideal choice, since you have access to it at all times. Better choices for this exist in the deck, but they require being found: Purphoros, God of the Forge, Syr Konrad, the Grim, or Warstorm Surge
• Rakdos, Lord of Riots. He is the lynchpin of the combo and unfortunately is required for it to go off.
• Any free sacrifice outlet.

With all 4 pieces, get Faceless One onto the field and immediately sacrifice it. The life loss caused by your pinger of choice will cover any extra commander tax and allow you to continue recasting and sacrificing Faceless One over and over again. With your damage source on the field, eventually your opponents will all just die.

> The Nitty-Gritty (TW: Math)

In a perfect world, you begin the loop after your opponents have lost a collective 5 life or more so that Faceless One is just permanently free for the turn, but the combo itself actually is self-sustaining in such a way that the discount from Rakdos will actually catch up to the mana cost, as long as you're doing enough damage quick enough. 2 examples:

Case 1:

• Cast Faceless One for 5. Sac it to Viscera Seer. AotIT triggers, causing a total of 3 life loss.
• Thanks to Rakdos, Faceless One now costs 4 (5 base + 2 tax - 3 from Rakdos).
• In total, this combo will take 15 mana before it fully goes infinite.

Case 2:

• Cast Faceless One for 5. Sac it to Viscera Seer. Syr Konrad triggers, dealing 3 total damage when Faceless One hits the yard. When it leaves the yard to return to the Command Zone, he deals 3 more damage for a total of 6.
• Thanks to Rakdos, Faceless One now costs 1 (5 base + 2 tax - 6 from Rakdos).
• In total, this combo only needs 6 mana before it fully goes infinite.

This is part of the reason why redundant life loss options are included. It lowers the number of mana required to start the combo and gets you to higher reduction quicker. AotIT is only ideal because you always have access to it; the other damage options are all way better at closing out games if you can find them. If your sac outlet is Ashnod's Altar or Goblin Bombardment, you can get there even easier. Additionally, there are edge cases where if one opponent has too large of a life lead, the opposite effect can happen where the commander tax actually catches up (if, for example, you only have Faceless One and AotIT on the field, and you're down to only doing 1 damage per cycle). This is contingent on a game-by-game basis, so it's impossible to theorycraft all the numbers here. Just be aware that you probably want to cause at least 2 life loss per cycle to at least stay equal with the commander tax, otherwise the loop isn't actually infinite.

> The Support Pieces

The rest of the deck is largely a reanimator shell because Rakdos is 100% required, and if he dies, we need to get him back. Additionally, it's often easier to get him on the board through reanimation since he doesn't have the additional requirement as if you would cast him from your hand. The other reason for the reanimator shell is because the deck needs a backup plan. If things go south and your Rakdos finds himself exiled, you can always result to cheating out scary beaters from your graveyard and smashing face with them.

> Other Notes

This build in particular was made with what I had lying around. There are a lot of ways to power up the deck further (using an even more robust slate of tutors, having additional sac outlets like Phyrexian Altar, etc. The mana base itself also isn't fully optimized and could use some true fetches, more Swamp/Mountains to grab with them, and a Cabal Coffers.

> Alternate Builds

This exact deck can also be helmed in other ways. You can use the OG Prismatic Piper if you'd like for the memes, pairing him with a number of different options. Jeska, Thrice Reborn adds some level of redundancy (although probably isn't needed once you get the combo going anyway), and Tormod the Desecrator works with the reanimator shell. Personally, I ran Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools since he's a generically good commander with the color needed and helps fill in the gaps. If you run this with more traditional partners, do be aware that Rograkh, son of Rohgahh is strictly better than The Prismatic Piper, since the combo can fire off immediately without the need for any mana. However, thanks to the pairing of Faceless One / AotIT, 2 of the 4 combo pieces are accessible at all times, so the optimal build for the deck uses those as its commanders.

You can also opt for alternate win conditions using Underworld Breach. With Breach on the field and a large enough graveyard, you can ping down your opponents with any colorless creature and the Rakdos combo. If your sac outlet is Altar of Dementia, this becomes a bit easier as you only need as many cards in your graveyard as life that your opponents have (or less if you have one of the stronger pingers). You can also add in colorless token generators (like Myr Battlesphere or Myr Sire) to get extra bodies and ensure that you're milling yourself for at least 3. That way, you're only limited by the cards you have left in your library at that point (plus, you can use Breach as a way to just dig for the rest of your combo pieces at that point). If you have a really big graveyard and your opponents are really low, you can even start the combo without Rakdos or a sac outlet at all, just using Underworld Breach and something like Stonecoil Serpent or Endless One, casting them for 0 and letting them die immediately to just be recast again.