The Marauding Spellraiser
Equalize, then have the last champion standing.
Dreadhorde Arcanist by G-host Lee
Here is a swift response to last week’s metagame. In a format where planeswalkers can hit the battlefield much sooner than normal and begin accumulating value early, this deck aims to efficiently answer them before overwhelming the opponent with snow-balling threats.
Equalizing Interaction
Cheap interaction suppresses explosive plays from the opponent
As planeswalkers are generally more expensive, they require more resources to deploy. Even a turn 1 Teferi, Time Raveler powered out by Mox Sapphire and Mox Pearl comes at the cost of playing three cards, plus the walker. Rakdos’s plethora of cheap answers allows it to break parity with the opponent’s explosive openings and even quickly flip the script. Price of Betrayal and Red Elemental Blast are great responses that eliminate most planeswalkers right away. On the play, Despise can totally disrupt an opponent that kept their hand on the strength of powering out a stand-alone, early threat. Angrath’s Rampage plays a similar role in keeping these threats in check, with the power of being able to clear the opponent’s payoff after they spend their mana on it.
Snowballing Aggression
Steady and resilient threats quickly end the game, even if partially answered
Planeswalkers require multiple turns to accumulate value through their activations. If the number of turns in the average game are reduced, planeswalkers become much weaker. Rakdos Arcanist indirectly overcomes the powerful card-type through its aggression. Dreadhorde Butcher and Lightning Bolt deal damage nearly immediately, surprising the opponent with burst. While it’s nice that these cards have the option to take down planeswalkers, the more efficient answers allow the Butcher and Bolt to focus on ending the game quickly. Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin also does a great job of ending the game swiftly if left unchecked. Even if the mob boss is answered after one swing, Kenko’s lackeys pressure the opponent and their planeswalkers to prevent them from accumulating an overwhelming advantage.
Outlasting Attrition
After trading 1-for-1, the deck will begin recasting spells and blanking removal
Krenko and the Butcher dodge most of the commonly played removal. They won’t be Red Elemental Blast-ed, can get out of Bolt range, and render Angrath’s Rampage subpar. When paired with Spellskite as protection, these threats quickly snowball out of control, especially Dreadhorde Arcanist. Arcanist takes every bit of disruption used on the opponent and does it again. Recasting the spells for free provides Rakdos Arcanist enough tempo to disrupt the opponent while maintaining its beatdown strategy. Arcanist is also one of the most synergistic cards with the Power 9. Being a single-pipped card makes it easy to power out with The Moxen, it can recast Ancestral Recall. Time Walk allows it, and the deck’s other creatures, to get extra attack triggers.
Closing
Balance by Mark Poole
Rakdos Arcanist looks to take full advantage of the powerful cards available to it while understanding that it is likely to be on the receiving end of them as well. It wisely plans to use efficient interaction to catch up to an explosive opening from the opponent and can deploy snowballing threats with a Mox start of its own. Congratulations to Jude for their metagame analysis leading them to a nearly flawless 4-0 victory.
