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[Awaclus]

PS: One of Rakdos' clauses was supposedly the original guild mechanic, "paincasting". I'm not sure whether it was the reducing mana costs or the powerful effects that can only be cast if opponents have lost life, but both seem far more interesting than the godawful Unleash. Too bad Wizards got cold feet and replaced it at the last moment. Both would have been interesting, powerful, and much more in flavor.

Well, I can see why they changed it. Most likely it would've been the drawback, and keywords that are drawbacks aren't cool (even casual players don't want to build a "paincasting deck" when paincasting is a drawback). If it was the "spells cost less" ability instead, it would've been pretty crazy with multiple of those cards on the battlefield at the same time - "Bolt you, then I'll drop this Emrakul for free".

[Barook]

Just throwing in this idea:

What about using cards like Goryo's Vengeance and Shallow Grave as quick enablers? A hasty Rakdos can hit for 6, reducing creature CC by .

[rufus]

What about using cards like Goryo's Vengeance and Shallow Grave as quick enablers? A hasty Rakdos can hit for 6, reducing creature CC by .

In that case, Emrakul hits harder, and Griselbrand gets more cards.

[bowvamp]

Yeah, I'm not sure what you all see in Rakdos. He's a beater for four, which means you really want to play him at the top of your curve and not later. It'll be harder and harder for your creatures/sources of damage to make it the longer the game goes. That means he's just going to sit there the turn you cast him. Unless you play colorless creatures. In that case, why would you make your mana base cruddy enough to play this guy? How is he not the epitome of win-more?

This guy will see zero play. (Once again, not talking about limited/draft here).
Ramp decks don't want him because he decreases flexibility and has ridiculous requirements and they generally don't drop >1 bombs a turn. Other decks don't want him because he's a conditional fatty with a ridiculous mana cost.

[lyracian]

The four coloured mana is a bit difficult but Rakdos is a Abyssal Persecutor with no actual drawbacks (once you have the mana to cast him). Maybe a Red Death variant of "The Gate" could make use of him?

Rakdos Charm is looking good for Goblin Sideboard just because it is a Shatter with other options. It ends up reading -
Pick one; A) Beat Dredge or Reanimator; B) Destroy Batterskull or Jitte; C) Activate Lackey and/or beat Elves.

[Malchar]

Just throwing in this idea:

What about using cards like Goryo's Vengeance and Shallow Grave as quick enablers? A hasty Rakdos can hit for 6, reducing creature CC by .

You could try to chain brass heralds together or something like that. Emrakul and Griselbrand might be better win conditions, but perhaps if you could do some kind of instant-win combo, then Rakdos would have merit. I can't come up with anything that actually works in legacy though.

It will have amazing potential in standard of course.

[Valtrix]

Rakdos does not seem playable in legacy, but in general you don't need to have large creatures to take advantage of Rakdos in a deck. Any deck playing him is likely aggressive, so if you have access to BBRR to play him, it means next turn you will (almost certainly) make your opponent lose some life. This lets you accelerate out whatever is left in your hand. He doesn't really need to enable big creatures, since playing multiple 2-5cc creatures in a single turn is likely to put a ton of pressure on your opponent if they don't have a wrath effect.

[Roman Candle]

Just thinking, is there a way Goblins could be retooled slightly to play Rakdos and combo off? Dealing three damage with Rakdos in play, then chaining 1-mana Matrons and Ringleaders seems kinda sweet. Rakdos can also be Vialed in without having to deal the opponent damage, pre-combat so you can actually attack with the 1-mana Ringleaders/Matrons (the latter only if you have Warchief/Lord). It would probably take a serious retooling of the manabase, though, and I doubt it would be worth it, but it's at least an option.

The Vial thing in particular seems kind of sweet, is there a black/red midrange Vial deck? Probably not.

[Aggro_zombies]

Just thinking, is there a way Goblins could be retooled slightly to play Rakdos and combo off? Dealing three damage with Rakdos in play, then chaining 1-mana Matrons and Ringleaders seems kinda sweet. Rakdos can also be Vialed in without having to deal the opponent damage, pre-combat so you can actually attack with the 1-mana Ringleaders/Matrons (the latter only if you have Warchief/Lord). It would probably take a serious retooling of the manabase, though, and I doubt it would be worth it, but it's at least an option.

The Vial thing in particular seems kind of sweet, is there a black/red midrange Vial deck? Probably not.

Rakdos is competing with Abyssal Persecutor for the four-mana slot, though, and Persecutor is going to win on color requirements and ease of casting.

I'm assuming the original "paincast" mechanic MaRo mentioned was the Affinity for Damage part of Rakdos's ability. If that's the case, it's not hard to see why it was changed; it's not only very, very Spike-y, it makes the guild very awkward to design because you want to fill it with cheap aggro guys on the one hand and expensive cards with Paincast on the other. The guild would probably not work that will in Limited since the Paincast cards would be too awkward without the aggro guys and the aggro guys don't necessarily need the Paincast cards to win. Unleash is probably the better mechanic for people into optimizing/min-maxing.

[Malchar]

Just thinking, is there a way Goblins could be retooled slightly to play Rakdos and combo off? Dealing three damage with Rakdos in play, then chaining 1-mana Matrons and Ringleaders seems kinda sweet. Rakdos can also be Vialed in without having to deal the opponent damage, pre-combat so you can actually attack with the 1-mana Ringleaders/Matrons (the latter only if you have Warchief/Lord). It would probably take a serious retooling of the manabase, though, and I doubt it would be worth it, but it's at least an option.

The Vial thing in particular seems kind of sweet, is there a black/red midrange Vial deck? Probably not.

You can already "combo off" with goblin warchief. In fact, warchief is often better than rakdos:
1. You can play warchief a turn earlier than rakdos
2. Warchief gives haste
3. Reducing costs by more than suffers diminishing returns quickly because you get bottlenecked on colored mana.

In goblins, it's difficult to damage the opponent without attacking, so the only way you can get cost reduction with rakdos is to attack. If you play all your dudes after that, then you have to wait a whole turn before you get to attack again. With warchief, you can frequently cast everything in the same turn and attack immediately with haste.

Warchief is clearly one of the best cards in goblins. The question is whether or not it's worth it to run additional copies of a similar but weaker effect. Rakdos seems so much worse that I don't think it's worth it. It's not a goblin, and it doesn't really help to solve any problems that the deck is currently facing.

The problem with Rakdos in legacy is that it takes quite a bit of time and effort to get him into play. Once you accomplish that, all he does it make your other fatties cost less. You should probably just cut out the middleman and sneak the fatties into play directly. I mean, he costs 1 more mana than show and tell, and you have to do more work to "go off" with him. If there were some way to chain artifact creatures together and win immediately then he might have merit, but I don't see such a combo existing.

[rufus]

...
The problem with Rakdos in legacy is that it takes quite a bit of time and effort to get him into play. Once you accomplish that, all he does it make your other fatties cost less. ....

At 6/6 flying trample, Radkos can hit pretty hard. Why would you want to drop others if he's already on the table and hitting.

[Zand]

Rakdos is cool, shame he isn't legacy playable. Maybe if wasteland and karakas didn't exist, even then...

[baghdadbob]

I personally think the guy is playable at 4 mana. I'm going to be trying out red/black again for sure. I would definitely play him as a 1 of.

[Greenpoe]

He's not playable because black already has tons of fantastic 4cc creatures, such as Phyrexian Obliterator (if you're not running Wasteland), Abyssal Persecutor and Lashwrithe (if you want resilience over power). He's got a worse casting cost than Phyrexian Obliterator but without the "Moat" effect that Obliterator has.

[Gheizen64]

Rest in peace 1W
Enchantment
Exile all graveyard. Whenever a card would go in a graveyard from anywhere, exile it.

Probably the best of the crypt variants for your SB. Morningtide+planar void in a single card is pretty good.

Some other notable cards:

Eletrickery R
Instant
Deal 1 damage to target creature you don't control
Overload 1R

Green get a 3/1 vigilance for 1G
Red get a 3/2 can't block for 1R (2/1 unleash)
Black get a B enchantment that's a strictly better the Rack (deal 3 damage on 1 or less card in hand).
BG Regrowth, uncommon.

No really good card as of now is spoiled.

[Barook]

Rest in peace 1W
Enchantment
Exile all graveyard. Whenever a card would go in a graveyard from anywhere, exile it.

Probably the best of the crypt variants for your SB. Morningtide+planar void in a single card is pretty good.

To be fair: Planar Void is a triggered ability instead of an replacement effect. It's more like a Leyline of the Void for both sides.

That said, RIP is amazing, especially with E-Tutor.

[Gheizen64]

LMAO the Rakdos 1 mana hybrid drop is a 1/1 Unleash. Strictly worse than Diregraf Ghoul. Sry red, you have to suck forever. Meanwhile UW hybrid get amazing creatures, you suck

GB get also an amazing 1 drop hybrid

[alekill]

Deathrite shaman seems pretty nifty I don't think it's legacy playable but I do want to play it somewhere.

[rufus]

LMAO the Rakdos 1 mana hybrid drop is a 1/1 Unleash. Strictly worse than Diregraf Ghoul. Sry red, you have to suck forever. Meanwhile UW hybrid get amazing creatures, you suck

GB get also an amazing 1 drop hybrid...

While I largely agree with the color balance concerns, it's hardly fair to compare the Radkos common and the Golgari rare.

[Barook]

While I largely agree with the color balance concerns, it's hardly fair to compare the Radkos common and the Golgari rare.

Except the Rakdos rare also sucks ass.

Deathrite Shaman looks alright, if not really good. Think of it as a black BoP that can also nuke your opponent, Grim Lavamancer-style. Fetchlands and Wastelands on both sides should be enough to feed it. As for the green part, Ooze does a better job in terms of creature card hating in the GY.

Rule question: Is the Shaman's first ability instant or mana source speed?

Edit: The design of the Unleash cards is highly unimpressive. Even with such a bad keyword, more could have been done.