Card/Deck The Rakdos Cult (BR)

[Grillo_Parlante]

The other problem with it is that she gives haste, so you have to be fairly picky about the counter cards you select. It has to be a creature that either ETBs with a counter pre-combat, or pre-combat ETB recieves a counter from another source. It also shouldn't be a threat with haste already, and awkwardly a lot of those really good RB counter threats already have haste :/

Global haste is really strong though, so it wouldn't surprise me if she somehow played very well as an aggro curve-topper. Being able to toss top decked unleash creatures like burn spells should add some % points for those aggro games where you're floundering and resource tight.

But if you can run something like hellrider, or even a mini-anthem like bushwhacker that might be a lot better.

Where that card would be really strong would be if it could give instant haste to a big army-in-a-can producer like shrine of loyal legions, but sadly it cannot.

 

[VincePendrell]

This fits the curve and themes, if anyone wants to go down the rabbit hole:

I've had my eyes on this for a while. Maybe I should secure a copy


The creatures with Devour also seem like very good follow up plays, and more like actual finishers for midrange decks.

 

[RavebornMuse]

Devour tends to play really poorly because if Villain has a removal spell, you just scoop.

I have serious beef with Flesh Carver. What's going on in this card? Why can it only be blocked by black and artifact creatures? Does it not want to carve the flesh of the other colors? And why does it gain 2 +1/+1 counters? And why does it cost mana? And why is there no timing restrictions? I assume he's eating the flesh here, right? But like, really quickly, if need be? Okay, sure. But then why does he leave behind a Horror token? What does that even mean? Why isn't it a zombified version of himself, at least? Why does he leave a token behind at all?? He's typed as a Wizard, is this some kind of lich dealie? If so, why wasn't that flavor imparted in the (awful) flavor text or in the art?

Dang, I hate Commander cards. Can't believe I had that thing in my cube for so long..

 

[VincePendrell]

Devour tends to play really poorly because if Villain has a removal spell, you just scoop.

I have serious beef with Flesh Carver. What's going on in this card? Why can it only be blocked by black and artifact creatures? Does it not want to carve the flesh the other colors? And why does it gain 2 +1/+1 counters? And why does it cost mana? And why is there no timing restrictions? I assume he's eating the flesh here, right? But like, really quickly, if need be? Okay, sure. But then why does he leave behind a Horror token? What does that even mean? Why isn't it a zombified version of himself, at least? Why does he leave a token behind at all?? He's typed as a Wizard, is this some kind of lich dealie? If so, why wasn't that flavor imparted in the (awful) flavor text or in the art?

Dang, I hate Commander cards. Can't believe I had that thing in my cube for so long..

I don't see that as a problem. It is quite clear that the creature might die at any point if the opponent has removal anyway. It will just mean that it is a more skill-testing card to use, as it has a built-in high-risk-high-reward component. It's also not a card that gets shoved into any decks, rewarding deckbuilding skills. One might say that this is bad for a group of new players that are just getting in the game, and it could be true, but if you don't allow new players to risk a play and fail, they won't get the opportunity to learn better.

On the Flesh Carver: That dude/dudette is scary as fuck. No one but shady and/or mechanical folks want to mess with them. They would chew the hell out of everyone if they could, but out of class and finesse, they only carve flesh that is close to them if you pay them enough. And they can snack at any time. And they really clean their plate and make the best of it: One counter isfor the beef, the other one is because they use the same pots and frying pans to also fry the vegetables and make a brown sauce (with swamp water, because you pay black mana). And did I told you they were scary? If you manage to kill them, go around the back of their house and check out the state of their toilet, you will see why it makes a Horror token when it gets sent to the bin. Also, Mr./Ms. Carver took some courses at Uni that qualify them as a wizard, but they felt like it was better to go around the world and try new experiences before practicing their craft, as a sort of creepy gourmand.

 

[Chris Taylor]

She's still a 4/4 haste first strike

 

[Nanonox]

I'm trying my hands at a 1 vs 1 cube instead of a multiplayer cube and one of the appeals for me is creating distinct aggro decks that can be more than just 1 mana 2/1s. I am not reinventing the wheel, but just as with my Selesnya post, this is more of a thought organizing process than anything else.

So the direction I want to take this post is GY aggro decks. I think we are at a critical mass of payoffs and enablers that are not parasitic that this can work. I am building this with a high powered environment in mind, but this can probably be adapted to lower power levels.

This post takes for granted that you will be playing some number of "classic" BR aggro cards such as cheap hand disruption (Thoughtseize, Inquisition of Kozilek, Kitesail Freebooter, ...) as well as cheap burn (Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, Magma Jet, ...). After all, those cards are universally useful in almost all decks of their respective colors!

Also read this Dom Harvey post on black aggro as it encompasses some of this.

Why even bother with this? Here are the payoffs I have in mind:

Spoiler: Payoffs

Kroxa does everything this archetype wants. It disrupts, it can be discarded and played from the GY , it is cheap and resilient. It even works as a signpost that there is an aggressive RB deck in the cube. Alesha works well with weenies, but it can also see play in more midrange decks that build around it.

For the red cards, I feel most of them are well known, but Anger is less played. A free global haste enabler is really good even if you have to work for it. It's great in green decks as well with Wild Mongrel, Fauna Shaman and Birthing Pod among others.

I know I said it wasn't going to be just 2/1s for 1, but the recursive black dudes give you both cards to press the advantage as well as cards you can discard for value. They also tie nicely into aristocrats which is another BR theme that has been well explored.

The payoffs are nice, but they are only have of the equation. The enablers make the deck tick just as much:

Spoiler: Enablers

Some of these are classics (and I would argue that if you don't mind breaking singleton, double Faithless Looting is excellent for it's rate and versatility), whereas Wheel of Fortune is a double-edged sword. It can fuel crazy turns (with Firestorm for example!), but you have to close the game out fast after that.

Pack Rat, Liliana OTV, Regisaur and Rankle are must answers that fuel the GY and synergize with everything you want to be doing. They are a great pull to the archetype, but they also work fine on their own. The other guys are solid role players that aren't embarrassing.

But wait, there's more! If you want the deck to smoothly integrate into your cube, you definitely need some GY support cards.

Spoiler: support

There are other powerful cards that I am not as sure about, but that can fit the aggressive build. Curious as to other peoples opinion on these!

Spoiler: Spice

Firestorm and Devastating Dreams are tough to crack and more controversial. They offer high reward and skill testing plays, but they are high variance and somewhat narrow. Not everybody is okay with that and to be honest, I haven't played with them enough to have a clear cut answer.

Cut // Ribbons is amazing in my usual multiplayer setting, but it can act as a nice finisher for these decks. Clear a dude and finish them off turn 7 when the board is stalled. Not very interactive, but it works (in slower decks too!).

I feel the demon is a little underrated. He fits as an aggressive dude in our GY aggro deck, he is a roadblock for control decks (GY or not) and has random synergies with counters. Finally, the Tombstone is like a second Living Death type card. Except that if you can somehow use the tokens every turn or have more creatures in the GY, you take over the game quickly.

The concept of Gy-centric aggro decks can be explored in other colors to make the draft more interesting.

Spoiler: Other colors

Green



These are just some solid dudes that can swing in hard or enable the GY strategies. They go perfectly with either the red or black cards. The GR decks being more aggressive and the GB decks more grindy and midrangy.

White



White can be an aggressive color, but not really an agressive GY color. I have hopes however that it will get there with cards such as Seasoned Hallowblade and Elspeth. There is probably a midrange GY white deck though with Sevinne's Reclamation, Lingering Souls, Reveillark[/c,

 

[Dom Harvey]

I was meaning to do a writeup on this myself but yours does it better! I've been inspired recently by the BR Pyromancer shell that's made some waves in Historic and Pioneer:

 

[Nanonox]

I completely forgot Dreadhorde Arcanist. He fits right in and branches nicely into spells matter.
Good call!

 

[Erik Twice]

So to recap all of this: You have some aggressively costed cards (aggro cards) that interact or care about the GY. There are enough of them to build an archetype and enough overlap for at least 4 strong and popular archetypes crossovers (Spells matter, Sacrifice, Self-mill and Reanimator). These span across multiple colors meaning you hopefully get a rich and diverse draft experience.

I'm not sure how much GY hate you need to play to keep things in check or if it is even necessary. I can't be the only one playing around with this, what are you experiences?

This deck exists in my cube and while it's difficult to draft into it, it's a very good deck.However it's not aggro, it's Pox.

It's difficult not to end up in actual BR Aggro or Aristocrats, though. The key cards are all you've mentioned plus Smallpox, Braids, Avalanche Raiders and the like. I run Death Cloud but I think I should replace it with Pox.

Running Devastating Dreams over a second copy of Wildfire did not hurt the big artifact deck much and it can fit in a lot of decks. I recommend it.