[Modern] Modern Rakdos

[angorashi]

Modern Rakdos

[G. Moto]

   I'm seeing the deck and it looks like it can be shaped up a bit more. The defiler of souls can be used to your advantage. What I'm going to suggest is a small list of tweaks but it may help your deck run faster and hit harder:

1) remove the monstrous carabid -  you are filing your deck with a high drop only to discard it for something else. A better strategy would be to play cards such as act of treason in unison with vampiric rites or merciless resolve. This way your opponent loses out on a creature AND you still get to draw.

2) Whip of erebos - Even though the whip gives creatures life link and returns them, the creatures it returns don't stay. A better alternative would be to add cards such as macabre waltz, fiery temper and alms of the vein. This way you can still get your creatures back, your opponent will LOSE LIFE in the process, and then the creatures can be played for less due to Rakdos, lord of riots' effect.

3) Besides that maybe add some more hybrid creatures such as Rakdos shred-freak, carnage gladiator, carnival hellsteed, cryptborn horror, hellhole flailer, rakdos ragemutt, rix maadi guildmage (because her second effect can be repeated), spike jester, and other such hybrid cards. The thing about rakdos decks is that they are designed to be aggro and destruction based yet maintaining a strong board state is also important.

   Try keeping these things in mind and they should help you out. What do you think so far?

[Jabilac]

I would consider Terminate and Dreadbore for creature removal. Kolaghan's command doesn't have a bad mode and can always be useful.

Personally I like Whip of Erebos but I think to make it shine you need to use creature's with Enter The Battlefield effects like Swift Warkite or find a way to get value from the creatures before they are automatically exiled at End of Turn. As G. Moto suggested Vampiric Rites or Altar's Reap would get that extra value and if you couple that with Act of Treason like cards then you can use your opponents creatures to draw cards.

[angorashi]

Thanks for the input! What do you think about it now? I really like the act of treason / vampiric rites synergy- and vampiric rites, I think, does make whip of erebos more useful, getting a life/card draw in addition to a free smack. I've had a couple kolaghan's commands looking for a home lately now, and I think they'll do well here- and since there aren't really any card draw mechanics in this deck other than vampiric rites now, I think it's much better for retrieving creatures from the GY than the macabre waltz/fiery temper combo, as I'm extremely wary of drawing one of those two cards and then passing its optimal use point without having the other in hand. Thank you both!

I also switched most of the cards from 4-of to 3-of. What are your thoughts on that? What would be worth cutting and making creatures 4-of, if you'd consider that more optimal? I WOULD think having a 4-of would be much more beneficial in a deck with low card draw, but what to cut, what to cut, is always the question.

[G. Moto]

   Cut the hellhole flailer and Rakdos lord of riots down to 2-of and the Mogis down to 1-of. There's no need to have a bunch of legendary creatures in hand that you can't use. Also the objective for the flailer is to get big enough so that it can be sacrificed to deal damage. Now if you do want to keep all the multiples you may want to consider adding morgue burst. It's a great way to get back a high powered creature while also dealing damage.

[KouriNick]

Hi! Sweet deck and it looks its really coming together!

I like the whole Rakdos, Lord of Riots theme, and you could push that further by running Lightning Bolt in your main and adding something like Cryptborn Horror. To make room I'd pull the three Vampiric Link (since it isn't hard for your opponent to kill whatever you put it on and get 2 of your cards for one of theirs. Plus you have whip for lifelink anyway). Maybe pull a single Fists of the Demigod for the same 2-for-1 reason.

To fill the hole in your sideboard you could use Everlasting Torment (or Rain of Gore) and Rakdos Charm (super good against decks with graveyard shenanigans, can blow up artifacts, and can kill your opponent out of nowhere if they have enough creatures).

I hope you found this helpful! Good luck and Happy Hunting

[Jabilac]

Undying Evil might find a home in this deck. Combined with Unleash you could get 2 +1/+1 counters after it comes back from the GY of course that would require you not to Unleash when you first cast them. Also lets you sac a creature to Vampiric Rites and have that creature come back with a +1/+1 counter, lets you trade more favorably with your opponent while making your creature bigger, and gives pseudo-protection from removal.

[G. Moto]

 @Jabilac, that's a great way to use the mechanic for a new purpose.