I have had a fair amount of success with rakdos not leaning too hard into the sac theme and just picking up as much good removal and good red creatures as possible
It’s interesting. I’ve drafted about 25-30 drafts in this set and have yet to be red black even once. I think it’s exactly because of what you’re saying, it’s hard to get into and you kind of have to commit early and just hope it’s open. So often I’ll end up in something like gruul or golgari instead. Those feel a lot easier to pivot into.
Obviously true that this deck does not want to splash, but there is one more rare I'm happy to splash if possible, and that is the Balloonman, because the synergies are kind of absurd.
I suppose a potential pivot is a red aggresive draft that doesn't end up seeing boros but does see open black. I wonder if it's valuable to try and price into enabling delirium more like from commune with evil. Probably too far off the plan of reducing life.
BR's problem is that without mirth and a shitload of removal, every other more commonly picked combination of colours will curbstomp it if they miss a single beat. Because neither black nor red have many even remotely useful in the common creature slot. Curious to see how you adress the creatures in particular.
I think your reasoning on why RB should lean aggressive is missing something important, and you gloss over it when you say "final vengeance also lets you sacrifice enchantments, but mostly you need a creature". There is an entire suite of rooms that can work well as fodder for RB! The "creature or enchantment" thing is not just on final vengeance - it is on *every* sacrifice outlet in the set. This is how you compete with blue decks playing an attrition game - you still play things like percussionist and rats, so you gum up the board early, but then your card advantage is things like Derelict Attic, Ticket Booth, Glassworks, etc. to go with your sacrifice theme. This works well because these rooms can be sacrifice fodder (you've gotten at least a card's worth of value out of them before sacrificing them), but they are also high impact plays in the late game, because these rooms typically have an expensive side that gives you some form of late-game inevitability. I'm not saying an aggressive RB beatdown deck can't work, but I've had no issues with a more controlling, attrition-based strategy, and out-valuing blue decks has not been a significant issue for me.
I found success with a grindier version as well, taking advantage of Derelict Attic // Widow's Walk for card advantage despite it's low numbers on 17 lands. It's a card that goes very late which is great for the decks that want it and while it's a nice tempo swing to sacrifice it to Final Vengeance, I think it's also good to highlight it's synergy with Fear of Lost Teeth. A deathtouching Fear of Lost Teeth will kill any creature it pings, so you can safely attack an opponent threatening the ping if they block it, and then sac the Fear anyway after combat to any other sacrifice spell to murder their best creature.
@@EYPriest I never thought about that widows walk fear of lost teeth interaction! That's really cool, I'll have to try and set that up the next time I'm playing rb
I have had a fair amount of success with rakdos not leaning too hard into the sac theme and just picking up as much good removal and good red creatures as possible
The goat!!!!
It’s interesting. I’ve drafted about 25-30 drafts in this set and have yet to be red black even once. I think it’s exactly because of what you’re saying, it’s hard to get into and you kind of have to commit early and just hope it’s open. So often I’ll end up in something like gruul or golgari instead. Those feel a lot easier to pivot into.
Obviously true that this deck does not want to splash, but there is one more rare I'm happy to splash if possible, and that is the Balloonman, because the synergies are kind of absurd.
I suppose a potential pivot is a red aggresive draft that doesn't end up seeing boros but does see open black. I wonder if it's valuable to try and price into enabling delirium more like from commune with evil. Probably too far off the plan of reducing life.
BR's problem is that without mirth and a shitload of removal, every other more commonly picked combination of colours will curbstomp it if they miss a single beat. Because neither black nor red have many even remotely useful in the common creature slot.
Curious to see how you adress the creatures in particular.
Saaaaaaaaaaaaam Nice to catch the podcast since I missed while on twitch
- 3p
I think your reasoning on why RB should lean aggressive is missing something important, and you gloss over it when you say "final vengeance also lets you sacrifice enchantments, but mostly you need a creature". There is an entire suite of rooms that can work well as fodder for RB! The "creature or enchantment" thing is not just on final vengeance - it is on *every* sacrifice outlet in the set.
This is how you compete with blue decks playing an attrition game - you still play things like percussionist and rats, so you gum up the board early, but then your card advantage is things like Derelict Attic, Ticket Booth, Glassworks, etc. to go with your sacrifice theme.
This works well because these rooms can be sacrifice fodder (you've gotten at least a card's worth of value out of them before sacrificing them), but they are also high impact plays in the late game, because these rooms typically have an expensive side that gives you some form of late-game inevitability.
I'm not saying an aggressive RB beatdown deck can't work, but I've had no issues with a more controlling, attrition-based strategy, and out-valuing blue decks has not been a significant issue for me.
I found success with a grindier version as well, taking advantage of Derelict Attic // Widow's Walk for card advantage despite it's low numbers on 17 lands. It's a card that goes very late which is great for the decks that want it and while it's a nice tempo swing to sacrifice it to Final Vengeance, I think it's also good to highlight it's synergy with Fear of Lost Teeth. A deathtouching Fear of Lost Teeth will kill any creature it pings, so you can safely attack an opponent threatening the ping if they block it, and then sac the Fear anyway after combat to any other sacrifice spell to murder their best creature.
@@EYPriest I never thought about that widows walk fear of lost teeth interaction! That's really cool, I'll have to try and set that up the next time I'm playing rb