Best Rakdos Builds for MTG Standard: Comprehensive Analysis

We know that Rakdos is good, but which version of it is best for Standard?

Explore top Rakdos decks in MTG Standard with our guide. Learn which version outperforms in competitive scenes, and card tips to secure your wins.

Most Magic: The Gathering Players who have even a little bit of experience are aware that Rakdos archetypes account for a share of the meta in multiple formats. In some formats, it has multiple archetypes that are competitive and the decks themselves often differ vastly. Since we could probably write multiple articles for the different versions of Rakdos in various formats, we will stick to Rakdos Standard in this article.

Rakdos Ramp deck overview

Total Cards:

Rakdos Ramp is considered a heavy hitter in standard, as the deck relies on casting multiple cards that are considered bombs. Staying true to the ramp nature, it uses cards like Big Score and The Celestus to help get the deck to six and seven mana in order to cast the "bombs" such as Chandra, Hope's Beacon, Trumpeting Carnosaur, Breach the Multiverse, and Etali, Primal Conqueror.

It's no secret that Standard as a format in general has a lot of bombs with a mana cost of five or higher that can completely alter the outcome of a match just by resolving. I think there is also a certain value to that as a player when it comes to having fun playing the game that we love. Few things in Magic make one feel more powerful than resolving an Etali, and then casting a free Atraxa from our opponent's deck - especially when they were relying on casting that spell on their turn to have a chance at winning. This mindset of "go big or go home" with Rakdos Ramp can translate to some pretty big highs, but equally devastating lows. Yes, we do have Cavern of Souls to make our big dinosaurs uncounterable, but it still feels pretty bad to have A Breach the Multiverse met with a swift Make Disappear. The inconsistent nature of the deck is adequately demonstratedhere, and we experience many emotions throughout the match.

Gameplay analysis

Magic the Gathering Card - Etali, Primal Conqueror - MTG Circle

In Game one, we experience a very quick and easy win by simply resolving an Etali on turn six. The opponent concedes before we get a chance to see what spells we can cast from it. After sideboarding for the Rakdos Discover deck that we were facing, we definitely faced challenges while being on the draw. The opponent was also able to attack our hand pretty well, causing us to fall too far behind for game two and ultimately have to move to game three. In the final game, we see how the gameplan of resolving powerful spells to win can come back to haunt us. We are unable to ramp early, and end up falling behind again, hoping to draw our sixth and seventh lands. We end up falling too far behind and die to the plethora of threats that the Rakdos Discover deck has.

Rakdos Discover deck overview

Total Cards:

Discover is a new mechanic from Lost Caverns of Ixalan and allows us to exile cards from the top of our library until we find a nonland card that has mana value less than or equal to the discover number. We may then cast that card without paying it's mana cost, or put it into our hand. Most people consider it a form of an older mechanic called cascade, which works in a similar manner. If you think at all like me, you probably said something along the lines of, "Wow, that's value town" when you first heard how the mechanic works. That's the main point of this deck. We are going to out-value the opponent into submission. It's a proven method for winning, and although it isn't quite as flashy as resolving an Etali or Breach, it is highly effective.

When we think of the cards that have the discover mechanic in this deck, it's easy to conclude that they are the powerhouses of the deck itself, but oddly enough, there are some two and three drops that really allow the discover deck to do it's thing. Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor is an all-star in this build because it allows us to draw so many cards with creatures that are either evasive, or have deathtouch, so they are less likely to be blocked in combat. It really helps to ensure that we draw the cards that we need. Preacher of the Schism will also allow us to either draw more cards, or make some extra creatures, which most players would never turn down. Deep-Cavern Bat ends up giving us incredible value by attacking our opponent's hand early and ensures that they do not get the chance to get ahead of us, or clear the board before we have accomplished our goal. All of these cards lead into the discover cards such as Geological Appraiser and Trumpeting Carnosaur.

It quickly becomes evident that the deck has a unique way of gaining and accruing more value than the opponent's deck. We not only draw more cards, but we take away key cards that they might use to fend off our threats. We ensure that we can draw plenty of lands, and we have early and late game plays.

Gameplay analysis

We mainly use our two and three mana creatures to do the majority of the work in the deck. The finisher ends up being one of our four mana creatures, but we don't need much of the discover mechanic to get us the win. The early threats alone in this deck can be enough to win matches if unanswered. Game two allowed us to demonstrate even more versatility by attacking the opponent's hand, and having the right amount of removal at the right time. Then, we relied on our discover creatures to get us some value when they opponent had nothing on the board. The rapidly-advancing board state proved to be too much for the opponent, and we were able to defeat a high-ranked opponent two to zero.

Who wins this time?

While Rakdos Ramp has some of the most fun interactions in Standard at this time, I have to give the nod to Rakdos Discover due to the consistency and easy piloting that the deck provides. The ramp deck often had me feeling like I was waiting to topdeck that card that would help me regain control, while the discover deck made it much more simple to have a concise path to victory. I believe that anyone could enjoy playing either deck, and both would hold their own in a tournament setting. If I were to choose a deck to play in a tournament myself, I would have drop the big bucks on Rakdos Discover. Although the discover deck has some cheaper spells when it comes to mana, both decks will run players over $500 USD to acquire the respective lists.

Rate this article

I am a Magic The Gathering competitive player, and streamer. I specialize in homebrew decks. My favorite formats are: Standard, Pioneer (Explorer on Arena), and EDH. I first started playing MTG in 2001, and have played on and off since then.

numb_skull_

Check out more content by Numbskull

Explore the best color combos for aggro decks in MTG with our Mardu Combo deck. Discover key cards, strategies, and new mechanics like Mobilize!

It's Time to Mobilize the Aristocrats with Mardu Combo!

There is an ongoing argument in both Standard and Pioneer currently. What color combination is the best for aggressive decks? We have seen people try out Jeskai Aggro to try and incorporate the best of both worlds between Azorius Aggro, and Boros Aggro. Some like to stick with Gruul Aggro because of the high rolls that it allows for, and there is also an argument that sometimes all you need is mono red - and the results have proven as much in major events. There has been a bit of a surge of some Mardu Aristocrat/Sacrifice decks, and today's list will follow that to some degree. We went a little bit more aggro-based, but there is a combo element to it, along with a healthy sideboard that should provide for balanced gameplay. We will look to get a bunch of creatures onto the board, and then create a bunch more based on the amount that we have, while punishing the opponent when they die. If that isn't enough, the go-wide strategy should also allow us to swing for ample damage at an ample pace. A new ability called Mobilize that is being brought to us in Tarkir Dragonstorm is going to allow us to pull off some pretty powerful swings in combat. Mobilize allows us to create a bunch of tapped and attacking 1/1 tokens based on either the number behind it, or circumstances that pertain to "X." Something that is particularly fun is that we can benefit from our creatures dying, because the mobilize ability requires us to sacrifice the creatures that we get from mobilizing at the beginning of our end step. This is yet another deck that can allow us to win on the end step which is always fun. Another fundamental reason why I think the deck is good is because we are rewarded for something that would normally be considered a setback. If you find enough ways to turn negatives into positives, it usually can translate into the small margins that win you a match. Enough of me blabbing. Let's take a look at the cool new cards! Key New Cards

Demons Are Getting New Toys, and This Deck is ROTTEN

We have seen the vast majority of the cards that will be released in Tarkir Dragonstorm, and the excitement is definitely building. Magic players are expecting this to meet the hype that Duskmourn brought us, and hopefully more. We were left a bit underwhelmed with Aetherdrift, but this is proving to be all but a filler set. It's something that is so easy to be excited for. Who doesn't love dragons?! Anyone with an ounce of nerdiness is interested as soon as they hear the word. Although I don't have a dragon deck for you today, I am going to do my obligatory Mono Black Deck for the new set. If you have read my articles in the past, you know that I do one every set - and this one is no different. We finally have enough cards from Tarkir to give me what I needed to make a new-and-improved Demons list for you. We have a new one that will let us pull off some combos on earlier turns, and hopefully have a better body early on to put pressure on aggro decks. I think that should give us a better shot against the meta, since the threat of a 5 damage crackback can definitely give someone extra things to consider in combat phases. He also isn't a bad creature to discard, as he has an ability to activate from the graveyard. This will help us against the bounce/pixie decks. We have ample graveyard hate and removal for the graveyard combo decks, so I like most of our matchups against the current meta. The only thing we will have to see with time is if the meta shifts with this monster of a new set. We really have some fun cards to add here, and we are adding another type of threat to the deck. We have historically not used our graveyard for much, but now we are able to get additional value from it with a new addition. Our sideboard even has a dragon with an adventure that reads like The Meathook Massacre! I've said enough, let's check out these cards. Relevant New Cards

Free Dragons = Turn 4 Wins!

We are officially in the perpetual spoiler season of the MTG year, and Wizards has not been disappointing us. Most people can get behind a set centered largely around dragons, and it definitely helps that the plane itself is one that we have wanted to see them bring back for a long time. Over a decade later, we are going back to Tarkir. I played a good bit of Magic and did a lot of deck building the last time we had some fun dragons on Arena, and I knew that this set was going to call me back to those days. My favorite archetype a couple of years ago was Boros Dragons. I largely played that in the Alchemy format, but I am going to bring you a Boros Dragons Standard Deck today. We are going to take advantage of a combo that is used in Standard currently, but we are going to use a different payoff this time. We are going to cast dragons for FREE and then either they will have the opponent dead just from entering, or we will hopefully have a way to give them all haste! We will take a look at the new cards that are awesome. Then I'll let you know about the combo that will help us get there. We want to keep the board as clear as we can for our dragons and then slam them all on the board at once to clean things up. We also have some smaller creatures that we can use to chump block earlier in the game. When needed, we also have board wipes to deal with other creatures. New Cards from Tarkir Dragonstorm

I See a Monument and I want it Painted Black

It's been a few weeks since Aetherdrift came out, and we are starting to see the cards that are standing out in the meta. We didn't expect the set to change things too much with regard to what we have been seeing. What we did get from it is a nice supplement to many other decks. Although we did not get a ton of format-shaping cards, we have seen a couple that have lit up fringe archetypes. What I've brewed for today plays off of a familiar archetype, and it was one that we kind of already had, but it allows us to pivot in a certain way and get additional value from it that we may not have gotten in the past. One of the biggest things that our deck can do is have plenty of action on the end step/cleanup step. It's an interesting scenario because usually when we think of the cleanup step at the end of each turn, we remove damage, and we discard to hand size. Usually discarding to hand size is pretty much the final step, and there aren't any triggers... until now. We will be using Monument to Endurance to have triggers when we discard to hand size, and get additional value from it. Now we don't care if we end the turn with nine or ten cards in hand, because we are going to benefit from it. This will help us possibly get in some finishing damage against our opponent, or get extra value. It is worth noting that this will cause triggered abilities on the cleanup step, and this is something that our opponents can respond to. This has historically been a point in the turn where no player can respond to actions. We'll take a look at the relevant cards in the deck, and then I'll detail a few fun combos that we may see during gameplay. Relevant Cards

We've had a Couple of Weeks to Try Achievements on MTG Arena, and I have Opinions

The economy on MTG Arena has always been a pain point, and a grand debate over how far a digital version of a card game should go to ensure players feel as if they are getting proper value for their time. Wizards has two different versions of its beloved game on the internet, and they both seem to have their benefits and drawbacks. On February 11, Arena launched the Achievement System to reward players for hitting milestones in-game, and completing specific tasks. While it is always fun to do these kinds of things in each game, something that gamers always do is assess whether the reward for doing so in-game is worth putting forth the extra effort for the task. While there are some things in the achievement tab that I believe to be kind of fun, and certain things that I know people will want, I view the entire thing as largely a waste of time. Today we will look at why the new feature on Arena simply isn't enough for what the game should have, and what it could be. The Good and The Bad There are plenty of things that we love about Arena, with how it is the easiest way to play our favorite decks from Standard, and not spend thousands of dollars in doing so. It is probably the most efficient way to try out decks. We also love the wildcard system. Although it is not the easiest to obtain them, it is great that a rare/mythic wildcard could buy a rare/mythic card that is of any value and it still just costs one wildcard. This was especially helpful in getting a play set of Sheoldred, the Apocalypse. I still don't have a play set in paper simply because I don't want to spend that much money on it, but on Arena it was easy. I had the wildcards to do what I needed. The only part where this may be lacking is the economy itself. What if we could earn wildcards for hitting certain achievements (I.E. the achievement tab giving us wildcards instead of sleeves, etc.)? I believe that the rewards from this new feature being solely cosmetic underscores the ongoing issue of the economy on Arena simply not being enough for us.

Recapping the Pro Tour and Examining the Deck that ALMOST Obliterated Us All!

Pro Tour Aetherdrift has concluded, and it was no surprise that Domain is still the best deck in the format. It is too powerful, and the high amount of mana availability simply provides too much value for other decks to consistently have a chance against it. Matt Nass was able to secure the win in the mirror match, as Domain Overlords were the most popular deck in the top 8. Since we have a new set that just came out, that calls for innovation and some overall spice. The deck that we will examine today isn't exactly a new concept in the meta, but it certainly is something that nobody previously has had the stones to enter as a list in a Pro Tour Event. There were a couple of well-known pro players with this list, including Javier Dominguez, who has been known for having some unique decks in the competitive circuit. Although Javier didn't do as well as we normally see this past weekend, Christoffer Larsen nearly made the top 8 with this list. The deck went 9-1 in Constructed, and it's safe to say that it was one of the top performers on that side of things. Had Larsen maybe won one more match in Limited, he would likely have been in the top 8. It goes without saying that this deck has a spot in the current meta, and probably has some legs in Standard. It was something that was rather unexpected in the event, sure, but the high roll of the combo within the deck is undeniable. Even without the combo that the deck has, outside of that, it is simply a Golgari Midrange Shell. Those decks always carry a competitive win rate, so everyone has to keep it on the radar either way. We will take a look at the deck, and then I'll go over the combo, then see if we can figure out why the deck is seeing a resurgence. Obliterator is an incredibly fun card. Everyone wants it to have a home in some format, because there are few things more satisfying than watching your opponent sit there trying to figure out which land(s) they are going to keep, or deciding if they want to keep playing after they were just forced to sacrifice all of their permanents. We historically think of this interaction happening during combat. What makes this deck fun is that it can happen during combat, or with a simple one - mana fight spell. Something else that is noteworthy is the fact that this deck plays only 23 lands. My best explanation for it is that the spell that allows you to fight for one mana also allows you to get any basic land from the deck for the same price. I think that this almost treats it as having 27 lands, and in turn helps figure out what cards to remove in order to squeeze in the extra spell. Let's take a look at the relevant cards, then we will see why it's back and better than before.

It's Time to Mobilize the Aristocrats with Mardu Combo!