This is starting to feel like déjà vu. Remember the last time a Rakdos Deck was extremely powerful and the most popular deck in Pioneer? Interestingly enough, it is another midrange shell with a powerful combo. What's different this time, however, is that the cards are a lot more fair. This list is a little bit more well-balanced in my opinion. There is no broken turn three "deal with a Veinripper or lose" in this deck. It simply uses all of the best midrange value cards so well and with such synergy that most decks in the format cannot keep up. Nothing in the deck really feels broken to the point where you could pick out what card to ban. A lot of the cards that are good in the deck are played in other decks, so bans could have adverse effects that aren't good for the format. Nonetheless, the meta will either have to adapt to it, or we will need to see some new cards printed that make another deck good, or there will possibly end up being a ban. Rakdos Demons currently takes up 46% of the metashare, and it has plenty of top finishes in every tournament that it's in. To put things in perspective, the next closest deck in the format when it comes to metashare popularity is a few decks that have 6%. Rakdos Demons has consumed the format, and it would be hard to find someone who would tell you that it isn't the best deck. What's nice about it is that it is also playable on Arena, and because of Pioneer Masters, we aren't even missing any cards. You can jam this on MTGO, or Arena, or in paper. Either way you spin it, this deck kills!
What I find interesting about how this deck has developed is that the list only plays two actual demon spells now. We have moved past the other demons that were in the list that could make things a bit clunky. Now, the deck is much faster. It has a lot of plays on turns two and three, and plays threats on those turns that demand answers, as opposed to dropping bombs on turn four. This deck oddly enough, only has 2 four mana spells. It's astonishing how much the list has evolved, and also how aggressive it has become with the tweaks. You've likely seen a few of these lists floating around, as it has been a deck for a few months now, so I will go over a couple of cards that have been added to it recently that contribute to the aggressive nature of the deck.
New Additions
FOMO is great in the deck, as we have a lot of small guys that get in for damage early. This card demands answers and can help chew through removal so that our demons don't die. It also allows us to sculpt our hand a bit more, and ensure that we hit our land drops. Cards like Fable of the Mirror-Breaker also align with this, and help ensure that we see plenty of cards each game to find what we need to get it done.
Who needs extra demons when you can just make anything a demon? The Oni allows us to be much more versatile with our creature selection so that we aren't limited to playing the demons available in the format. Having Mutavault is also incredibly helpful. It makes it incredibly likely that we can almost always find a demon in the top 15 cards. This helps with Unholy Annex and ensures that we get proper value from it.
This is a sideboard card, but I wanted to mention the fact it is now showing up in the newer lists because there is an increase in decks that are trying to ramp up quickly with their mana between devotion lists, or Hidden Strings. I think you especially want to have this card if you play the deck on Arena, because Hidden Strings is the new obsession in Explorer.
How Do We Deal with This?
You guys have already seen the deck in action plenty - I will spare you gameplay analysis and strategies. What we need to figure out is a good strategy for beating it, and diminishing its metashare. I think personally that the Rakdos Prowess Deck has a good matchup against Demons. It is capable of killing the opponent on turn three, and if that deck is on the play, Demons will never get a chance to set up. Realistically, if any true aggro deck that kills on turn three or four curves out nicely against Demons, they have a decent chance. I think the reason that we don't see more Rakdos Prowess is because this deck realistically has the best matchups against the rest of the meta, and it was likely easy for those players to pivot to this list.
Another deck that can give this trouble is Azorius Control. That deck has definitely fallen off against the rest of the meta, and that is likely why Rakdos is doing so well currently. But a deck that plays that many board wipes and has a ton of planeswalkers is tough for Rakdos to deal with, because the only card in this list that deals with planeswalkers is Invoke Despair. As much as I love that card, if that is the only way that you plan to deal with the Azorius Planeswalkers that are also their win condition, you might end up falling too far behind. It will be interesting to see what happens with the Pioneer Meta after Aetherdrift comes out in a few weeks, and I'm confident that things will settle a bit, and there is a lot of conjecture that Greasefang will get even more toys to play with - that deck might end up making a comeback in early 2025.
Whether we get cards that make other decks more powerful, or the meta adapts, I am having a tough time finding any card that is ban-worthy in this deck. Usually it is pretty clear between 1-2 cards that are most likely to be banned, but I can't pick out any card in this list that appears unfair. They have just done a great job of slapping together all of the good Rakdos value cards, and a lot of them currently appear to pertain to demons.
