Duskmourn: House of Horror is well and truly here, and we’re seeing its sinister influence creep into multiple MTG formats. Standard has seen the most change, with Leyline of Resonance powering a new combo deck, and Abhorrent Oculus sliding into Azorius Mentor. Other formats aren’t safe from its creeping tendrils, however. In Pioneer, the popular Rakdos Cauldron combo MTG deck has adopted Marvin, Murderous Mimic. Based on early results, this is looking like a very shrewd move indeed.
Fire Burn And Cauldron Bubble
For context, let’s break down the Rakdos Cauldron deck itself before we get into its new additions. While the deck is popular, it isn’t a top-tier strategy, so there’s a good chance you’ve never seen it before. Basically, the deck is a Midrange/Combo hybrid. It can win through bodies on the ground, or it can win by abusing Agatha’s Souls Cauldron.
The core combo is as follows. You use Cauldron to exile a Tree of Perdition from your graveyard and grant its abilities to another creature you control. You then grant the same creature the abilities of Voldaren Thrillseeker, either through Cauldron or Thrillseeker’s own Backup ability. Once this is in place you can tap the creature to swap its toughness with your opponent’s life, setting them to two or three. You can then pay one, sacrifice the creature, and finish them off.
The best thing about this combo is that it’s highly flexible. Even if you can only fulfill the Tree of Perdition part, you can probably finish your opponent off with a Bloodtithe Harvester attack. You can also use Thrillseeker as an expensive burn spell from hand if need be. Fable of the Mirror Breaker serves as a lovely bridge piece in this regard, copying whichever creature you need to round the corner.
The rest of the deck is typical Midrange fare. Removal like Fatal Push and hand attack like Thoughtseize round out the list, helping you disrupt your opponent’s plans as you pursue your own. As with all combo lists, the main issue here is consistency. Without the Cauldron combo, it can be difficult to win against the more streamlined decks in Pioneer. Thankfully, our new friends from Duskmourn help address this problem.
No Strings On Me
This is where Marvin, Murderous Mimic makes his competitive MTG debut. Just a quick glance at the card should be enough to reveal why he’s perfectly suited for the Rakdos Cauldron deck. Marvin inherits all activated abilities of all other non-Marvin creatures you control. This gives the deck another angle of attack. No longer do you have to use Cauldron to combo off; you can now do it directly on board.
In fact, you can curve right into it. Drop Marvin on three, Thrillseeker on four, and Tree on five and you can immediately end the game. Sure your opponent can remove your creatures, but then Cauldron can exile them and you can combo off the usual way. What Marvin adds is extra redundancy: something that combo decks love. Unlike Cauldron, Marvin also opens up new lines with Fable, since it can use the copy ability on the flip side. This can come in clutch when you’re trying to play a fair game.
Marvin isn’t the only Duskmourn card to find its way into Rakdos Cauldron. Fear of Missing Out has claimed a whopping four slots in the list too. This is a really interesting addition, and a less obvious one for the deck than Marvin. This card is seeing play in the deck more consistently than Marvin though, and at higher numbers. The reasoning behind this seems to be that it plays well with both sides of the deck.
On the combo side it loots on entry, thus setting you up your Cauldron combo turns. On the Midrange side, it can apply a ton of pressure with its ability, which can let you win through combat damage when needed. The card is flexible and powerful, and can also make a great Cauldron target when needed.
Cracks In The Cauldron
Even with the additions of Marvin, Murderous Mimic and FOMO, Rakdos Cauldron isn’t an unstoppable MTG deck by any means. It has plenty of rough matchups in Pioneer, which are well worth sideboarding for if you’re planning to try the deck out.
Chief among these difficult matchups is, funnily enough, another Rakdos deck. Rakdos Aggro is currently the top dog in the Pioneer meta, and it’s just as effective against Cauldron as it is against everything else. Both decks share the ability to go over the top with a combo win, but Aggro does so a lot more consistently. It also applies more pressure outside of the combo itself. Extra early removal like Feed the Swarm and Path of Peril helps a lot in this matchup, as do extra hand disruption spells.
Speaking of hand disruption, it’s also great to side more of this in against Azorius Control. The current heir to the Pioneer throne after Rakdos Aggro, this is a matchup you’ll see a lot. It can be tricky to land your combo against this deck since it packs so much removal. For that reason, you’ll want to pivot more into the Midrange side of the plan here. Bring in non-creature threats like Reckoner Bankbuster and Ob Nixilis, the Adversary, and side out a few copies of your combo pieces.
Finally, it’s important to be aware of the graveyard hate in the format. Leyline of the Void is very common, especially in the popular Jund and Rakdos Sacrifice decks. Bringing in Feed the Swarm can help to answer this early and clear the way for your combo. Marvin also helps a lot in this regard, since he lets you combo off purely on board.
Read More: Duskmourn Data Reveals Incredibly Underpowered Limited Color
