If you're like me and you enjoy winning through obscure non-combat methods, you're probably familiar with the core combo of today's deck. It's leveraging the card Harmless Offering to hand our opponent a timebomb that we willingly set on ourselves just as the fuse is about to run out. The timebomb in question is Demonic Pact.
The Core Combo
These two cards have been mainstays of jank brewers for some time. Demonic Pact was clearly intended to be a huge value engine for three turns but once those turns were up, you are forced to select the only mode that hasn't been chosen: you lose the game. Fortunately, though, Harmless Offering gives us the chance to donate it to our opponent, reassigning the “you” in that sentence to them and then we watch as they die to a trigger on the stack during their upkeep. The combo doesn't even let them draw one last card.
Additionally, Arena gives players their first option of priority during the upkeep step, so even if they have an instant-speed way to sacrifice it, the game doesn’t give them priority automatically before the trigger is already on the stack. Even holding full control, unless a trigger occurs during the draw step, a player won’t be able to interact before it’s too late.
What a Bargain!
Between Wilds of Eldraine and Duskmourn, a strong theme of enchantments that want to be sacrificed has surfaced in Rakdos colors and this deck takes full advantage of them. Hopeless Nightmare is a fantastic card by itself that has an impactful enter trigger and leaves material behind for future effects like Disturbing Mirth.
Mirth isn't an amazing card if it isn't supported, but if it can sacrifice your Hopeless Nightmare or leftover Nowhere to Run to draw two cards, it ends up working like a Village Rites or Deadly Dispute effect. The ability to churn through your deck with this is very important to make sure you get your hands on the combo pieces and then it too stays behind to fuel future Mirths or other bargain effects like Beseech the Mirror.
Most importantly, though, all of these sacrifice effects let us destroy Demonic Pact before the final mode should the Harmless Offering be countered or not drawn.
The Toolbox
Beseech the Mirror is probably the most important part of our deck to make sure we can consistently fire the combo since both Demonic Pact and Harmless Offering can both be free cast off of it. Because it can search through our deck for us, it also gives us a toolbox that we can abuse as early as game one in some matchups.
Render Inert looks a bit awkward in a deck without any battles or overlords, but it serves a very special purpose in today's Standard meta. Ever since the pro tour, usage of Archfiend of the Dross has skyrocketed on the ladder. The card is immensely powerful and works well alongside Unholy Annex. It has one major downside, though, and that's its reliance on oil counters. If your opponent has an Archfiend of the Dross in play, Beseech up the Render Inert and you literally win the game on their upkeep.
It’s also a flavor win because we’re still executing a nontraditional wincon on their upkeep, our opponent just gives us an opportunity to fast track it a bit.
Brotherhood's End is a card that has become less important with convoke's popularity dropping off a bit, but there are still plenty of matches where a cheap sweeper can buy you a turn or two. The mode to destroy artifacts is also very useful against the occasional Simulacrum Synthesizer deck you see running around or Urabrask's Forge.
The End isn't particularly good these days aside from the occasional Hare Apparent brews out there, but denying your opponent a key engine piece like Mosswood Dreadknight or Atraxa, Grand Unifier for the remainder of the game can be a devastating blow. When your goal is to slow things down for a few turns to let the Demonic Pact run its course, this can get the job done.
Given that our opponent being low on resources is crucial to surviving long enough to pop off the combo, Rankle's Prank can really devastate our midrange opponents who find themselves with a small board and hand. It can be full blown lethal too as a lot of little pings add up throughout the course of a game.
Greed's Gambit offers a backup option that can refill your hand and be an additional target for Harmless Offering. It works best if the game has run long and you can refill your hand, make some bats, then hand it off right away to an opponent who is low on resources to have it slowly drain them. Given how specific that scenario is, it's only a one-of.
No Creatures?
The astute among you will notice there isn't a single creature in the entire deck. This isn't an oversight but a deliberate choice. I believe when you're designing your decks, you should build with the assumption that your opponents will come packing a lot of creature removal, given how common creature decks are in Standard these days. By not having any creatures aside from Restless Vents and the occasional Disturbing Mirth manifest dread 2/2s, we simply give our opponent nothing to target. Every Go for the Throat and Cut Down is simply useless in their hand. Unfortunately, Get Lost and Leyline Binding are still factors, but we can play around those.
Conclusion
This deck was first conceived as a meme to take advantage of a silly combo that shouldn’t be viable. Instead, the more I play it, the more real it feels. I intend to play this more on the ladder moving forward since it lines up so amazingly well with the black-based midrange value piles that are ubiquitous on the Arena ladder. If you’re looking for a control deck that doesn’t play like your traditional Azorius fare, I’d recommend this one.
Thanks for reading, and happy brewing!
