Rakdos the Defiler.
Legendary Creature – Demon
7/6
Flying, Trample
Whenever Rakdos the Defiler attacks, sacrifice half the non-Demon permanents you control, rounded up.
Whenever Rakdos deals combat damage to a player, that player sacrifices half the non-Demon permanents he or she controls, rounded up.
The unique part of his flavor makes total sense. If you want to play with a big Demon you have to pay a price. If you pay that price and your opponent does not have a solution you get to wreak havoc on their permanents. And chances are they won’t find a solution very soon. In fact if left alone for to long the Mighty Demon would be alone on the field. That made sense to me. It is the basic abilities that went against the grain. Trample works of course. As I read the book I vision Rakdos about 7 stories tall with plenty of mass to Trample over anything. It’s the Flying that doesn’t work. As with many Demons his wings are only vestigial. In fact he never even flies in the book. Considering the ways of the Rakdos cult he really should have Haste instead. That would have made The Defiler a perfect reanimation target. It didn’t stop me from building one then and now things are even better.
Now that Wizards of the Coast and made this card:
Torrent of Souls
4 {R/B}
Sorcery
Return up to one target creature card from your graveyard to play if B was spent to play Torrent of Souls. Creatures target player controls get +2/+0 and gain haste until end of turn if R was spent to play Torrent of Souls. (Do both if RB was spent.)
Now when we reanimate our little pet Demon he finally has the Haste he deserves. Sure it costs 1 more mana than our normal spells but for the flavor it is definitely worth it. Meanwhile we also get a nice little +2/+0 bonus. That also makes sense, shouldn’t a Demon come into play with more power right after his rebirth.
When building a reanimation deck we need a couple of good ways to discard our reanimation targets. There are many to discard in this game of ours but one truly fits the flavor of this deck.
Avatar of Discord
{R/B}{R/B}{R/B}
Creature – Avatar
5/3
Flying
When Avatar of Discord comes into play, sacrifice it unless you discard two cards.
Looking up the word Avatar we can see the following definition.
The descent of a deity to the earth in an incarnate form or some manifest shape; the incarnation of a god.
The Avatar of Rakdos is perfect in his Reanimation Deck. Sometimes the mere shadow of Rakdos is enough to win games.
But even four Rakdos the Defilers are not enough reanimation targets to consistently have something in hand to discard. So I went in pursuit of a bride for my powerful pet. I finally settled on not one but three beautiful brides.
These three Sisters are powerful enough and attractive enough to be in the same deck as Rakdos. Plus their ability gives us extra fodder to pay his price (if they are ever both in play together). The rest of the deck is composed of extra reanimation, mana acceleration and tutors.
Defiler Flavor
4 Rakdos the Defiler
4 Sisters of Stone Death
4 Avatar of Discord
4 Llanowar Mentor
4 Sakura Tribe Elder
4 Torrent of Souls
4 Vigor Mortis
4 Rampant Growth
4 Beseech the Queen
4 Demonic Collusion
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Stomping Ground
1 Blood Crypt
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Forest
3 Swamp
2 Mountain
Don’t be ashamed to look some of these up. Many of these cards are not highly played. Which makes them easy to pick up in trades and/or cheap to buy. The only real costly part of the deck is the Mana base which can be all basic if you can deal with it.
Normally at this point in a Classroom X article we would be throwing ourselves to some part of our gauntlet and show you the play by play results. We will not be doing that today since this deck isn’t meant for real competition. It is only for the flavor of Rakdos.
Next Classroom will probably begin our Block testing. Since most of us don’t have a California or Bust bumper sticker on our car.
