Rakdos Midrange [advices]

[VlaeKD]

Hi again,

Let me come back to you for the third time as i need your knowledge about that deck.

But first, let's back up a little bit.

I built a reanimator deck, and here's the tierlist :

Deck: Reanimator

//Main
4 Animate Dead
2 Archon of Cruelty
3 Atraxa, Grand Unifier
4 Brainstorm
4 Careful Study
4 Dark Ritual
1 Demonic Tutor
4 Entomb
3 Gitaxian Probe
4 Grief
1 Griselbrand
5 Island
3 Lotus Petal
4 Reanimate
1 Serra's Emissary
10 Swamp
3 Thoughtseize

//Sideboard
1 Massacre
1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
1 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse

The thing is, i just destroyed our last tournament and some people came to me asking me to elaborate something a little less ... spicy!

So, as i already tried to build a Mishra deck and as i already broke my bank to buy some expensive cards (for me!) here we are for that new Rakdos midrange. Let me know your thoughts!

Deck: Mishra

//Main
1 Anger
2 Blackcleave Cliffs
2 Dark Ritual
1 Dauthi Voidwalker
1 Demonic Tutor
4 Dragonskull Summit
4 Fable of the Mirror-Breaker // Reflection of Kiki-Jiki
2 Feign Death
1 Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor
2 Grief
3 Invoke Despair
2 Kolaghan's Command
2 Mishra, Claimed by Gix
6 Mountain
3 Phyrexian Dragon Engine
1 Reanimate
4 Seasoned Pyromancer
3 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
3 Sulfurous Springs
8 Swamp
3 Terminate
2 Thoughtseize

The idea is to have a good midrange thanks to Sheoldred and gaining life with Fable, Mishra and Pyromancer.

Anger is here to be discared and seems quite fun to play in that list.

Little bonus, there is a reanimate (or 2) to bring back a member of Mishra+Dragon combo or a Sheoldred.

Dauthi is here for fun (kek!) and Feign death felt quite good in it too.

Aswell, that last list seems to be quite interesting as i'll be able to adapt it to standard mode if needed!

PS: We do not have a ban list at all .. YET!

[Weapon X]

No ban list? Play flash hulk

[VlaeKD]

No ban list? Play flash hulk

The thing is that i'm looking for a no-too-much overpowered deck close to what i sent at first.

Here, you guys, already gave me amazing ideas about no ban list, but i already broke too much asses and i wanna keep the last friends i have..

[FTW]

Sheoldred, the Apocalypse is very strong with Wheel of Fortune or Reforge the Soul. But that may be overpowered for your friend group.

The Reanimator deck is too powerful. In the second deck, the reanimation theme is not strong enough for the draw/discard cards to make sense. I would cut the Reanimating stuff and move in a different direction. That will be more fun for your friends too. They must be sick of seeing cards like Reanimate.

The Mishra theme looks fun to build around! You could build it around Pyre of Heroes. Phyrexian Dragon Engine & Mishra, Claimed by Gix are both creature type Phyrexian. You can sacrifice Dragon engine to Pyre to find Mishra, then next turn Unearth the Dragon Engine and meld them into Mishra! That's fun and consistent without being too overpowered for kitchen table Magic. Sheoldred and Gix are also type Phyrexian! Pyre works with much of your deck.

If you want to go in that direction, I would start with 3-4 Pyre of Heroes, plus your Dragon Engines, Mishras, Sheoldreds and Gix. Then you can add other Phyrexians at different mana costs to round out the deck. Pyre lets you play with a toolbox of cool 1-ofs but still see them with consistency. Then you don't need to run 4x all the good cards, if that is something that annoys your friends. And you get variety in your games.

Some fun Phyrexians at 2 mana: Gixian Infiltrator, Grafted Butcher, Vraan, Executor Thrane, maybe Shrapnel Slinger.
At 3 mana, maybe: Bone Shredder, Activated Sleeper, Charforger. There are other good ones that don't have "Phyrexian" written on the physical card, but that may be confusing for your friend group and lead to arguments, so I would avoid them.
At 5 mana: Phyrexian Delver, maybe Argentum Masticore or Nimraiser Paladin.

See what cards you would like playing with.

I would still keep the powerful spells like Terminate, Kolaghan's Command, Demonic Tutor, Thoughtseize. Those are staples that can go in any deck. You can manage the deck's power level through the creatures. The Phyrexian/Mishra theme allows for a casual game that's not too powerful.

[VlaeKD]

Thanks a lot for your answer mate, you already understood the situation and your idea is very interesting, as always!

What would you do about Pyromancers and Fable tho?

Imo thoses cards fit well for Mishra and the Anger

PS: Would you put Phyrexian Obliterator in?

[FTW]

I'd keep the Fables but cut Pyromancer. Fable's a versatile card, good for many reasons.

Pyromancer is more narrow. It's good in a Reanimator style deck. It's good with Anger. But you don't have many other cards that you want to put in the graveyard. Most cards you want to keep. So if you are moving away from Reanimator to make your friends happy, I think you don't need both Fable and Pyromancers.

Phyrexian Obliterator looks good as a 1-of.

[VlaeKD]

The more i looked about Sheoldred/Pyromancer/Fable, the more o was thinking about Empty the Pits to generate tokens.
My win conditions were about : Big Gix, Sheoldred ability, Lot of tokens + Big Mishra.

The Phyrexian idea looks great, but i'm a bit scared about playing it correctly with Pyre of Heroes, or failing my gameplan.

You told me about Reanimate being boring, it can be true with a pure combo deck, but do you think my initial idea is overpowered as well or will not work the way i plan it?

What archetype would be the better middle-one between fun and strong?

Sorry if i push a bit my first thoughts, but i wanna understand where i could miss a point.

[FTW]

The more i looked about Sheoldred/Pyromancer/Fable, the more o was thinking about Empty the Pits to generate tokens.
My win conditions were about : Big Gix, Sheoldred ability, Lot of tokens + Big Mishra.

The Phyrexian idea looks great, but i'm a bit scared about playing it correctly with Pyre of Heroes, or failing my gameplan.

You told me about Reanimate being boring, it can be true with a pure combo deck, but do you think my initial idea is overpowered as well or will not work the way i plan it?

What archetype would be the better middle-one between fun and strong?

Sorry if i push a bit my first thoughts, but i wanna understand where i could miss a point.

The original idea, without Pyre of Heroes or Phyrexians, looks good too.

However I would still cut back on Seasoned Pyromancers. That deck doesn't have enough cards that want to be in the graveyard. Seasoned Pyromancer is meant for more dedicated graveyard decks. Fable is still good in non-graveyard decks though.

You could run a card like Night's Whisper instead. That draws you cards and triggers Sheoldred, without discarding good cards from your hand. Young Pyromancer makes 1/1 tokens without discarding good cards from your hand.

I would cut the 1 Reanimate (not consistent enough to justify discarding creatures). I would also cut down to 1 Invoke Despair. The card looks fun sometimes, but the 1BBBB mana cost will be difficult to pay.