Bloomburrow cards have now been available on Magic Online for almost a week, and we’re starting to see some powerful cards have a big influence on Standard. Midrange decks are as strong as ever, with cards like Zoraline, Cosmos Caller making their presences felt. Some innovative strategies, such as a unique Rottenmouth Viper shell, have started showing up in Challenge events as well.
Perhaps the most exciting deck that Bloomburrow has given rise to is none other than Rakdos Cruelclaw. Centered around The Infamous Cruelclaw, this archetype has an abundance of haymakers to reveal with the potent Weasel. The deck is heavily built around the namesake card, and if the opponent can’t kill it right away, they risk falling very far behind in short order. With a recent Magic Online Standard Challenge top four finish, this shell is nothing to scoff at. There’s plenty of room to build upon the ideas present, so let’s start by examining the role The Infamous Cruelclaw plays.
Building Around The Infamous Cruelclaw
- Mana Value: 1BR
- Rarity: Mythic Rare
- Stats: 3/3
- Text: Menace. Whenever The Infamous Cruelclaw deals combat damage to a player, exile cards form the top of your library until you exile a nonland card. You may cast that card by discarding a card rather than paying its mana cost.
The Infamous Cruelclaw is a very interesting card. The main objective is to hit with The Infamous Cruelclaw, and gain a significant mana advantage by “Cascading” into something huge and casting it for free. You have to discard a card to do this, so you aren’t exactly pulling ahead on resources in the exchange. However, you get a huge tempo boost by being able to add something big to the board without investing any mana.
The main issue with The Infamous Cruelclaw in most decks is that you really want a high density of big bombs to reveal when you connect in combat, but you still need ways to interact in the early turns to not fall too far behind. You also don’t want to be too reliant on your three-drop, since it can easily get killed and you won’t draw it every game.
Luckily, this deck does a good job alleviating both these problems. First of all, there are a bunch of high-end spells here that give you the option to interact early when necessary. For instance, both Harvester of Misery and Trumpeting Carnosaur can be discarded to kill small creatures. This helps prevent you from falling too far behind against aggro decks, even though your deck has a high curve. At the same time, though, they are elite cards to cast off of The Infamous Cruelclaw’s triggered ability.
Similarly, when you draw Virtue of Persistence naturally, you can use it as a removal spell to stabilize the board. If you reveal it off of The Infamous Cruelclaw, just cast it as a seven-drop instead and start to run away with the game.
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Elements of Consistency
- Mana Value: 2RR
- Rarity: Uncommon
- Stats: 3/2
- Text: When Geological Appraiser enters the battlefield, if you cast it, discover 3. (Exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card with mana value 3 or less. Cast it without paying its mana cost or put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom in a random order.)
Another cool aspect of this deck is that, by keeping your curve generally high, you make it more likely that Geological Appraiser can Discover into The Infamous Cruelclaw. Given how much stronger things play out when you have access to your main threat, it’s nice to be able to find it more consistently.
In this particular decklist, the only cards that Geological Appraiser can Discover into in game one are The Infamous Cruelclaw and Binding Negotiation. Binding Negotiation is undoubtedly a nice tool to have access to against Domain and other Sunfall archetypes. That being said, there’s a strong argument to be made for cutting Binding Negotiation, ensuring that Geological Appraiser will hit The Infamous Cruelclaw 100% of the time.
Then, in games 2 and 3, you can still bring in high impact sideboard cards like Brotherhood’s End and Urabrask’s Forge where needed. Keeping the deck as streamlined as possible for game 1 does have a lot of appeal, so it’ll be cool to see if players make any adjustments to this strategy moving forward.
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A Solid Plan B
- Mana Value: 4RR
- Rarity: Rare
- Stats: 7/6
- Text: Trample. When Trumpeting Carnosaur enters the battlefield, discover 5. 2R, Discard Trumpeting Carnosaur: It deals 3 damage to target creature or planeswalker.
Part of what makes this shell so sweet is that, even in games where your opponent removes The Infamous Cruelclaw on curve, you can always hard cast your big spells as the game progresses. Black midrange decks are extremely dominant in Standard right now. Cards like Trumpeting Carnosaur and Gix’s Command line up well in these matchups, generating a bunch of value.
Unsurprisingly, Gix’s Command and Harvester of Misery are also incredible against Boros Convoke. Boros Convoke remains a top-tier aggressive choice in the format.
Where things get a bit awkward is against Domain and control. This deck is very slow in games where The Infamous Cruelclaw doesn’t stick. As such, a good mixture of Counterspells, Sunfall to keep the board clear, and top-end spells to shut the door can be tough to beat.
The good news is that Urabrask’s Forge and discard spells like Binding Negotiation go a long way there. Given the shaping of the Standard metagame right now, Rakdos Cruelclaw seems like a very solid choice. If you’re looking to get an edge against other midrange decks, definitely consider taking this deck for a spin.
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