While they ruled the roost in the old days of the format, big, stompy creatures aren’t nearly as ubiquitous in current Commander. With how fast games play out nowadays, and how efficient low-cost cards have become, there’s little reason to bring in the big guns. That said, Commander is broad enough for cards of all stripes, and Magic’s big bads certainly have homes available. In Rakdos, Lord of Riots decks in MTG Commander, for example, you can power out the game’s scariest creatures for basically nothing in many cases. With the card’s low price tag right now, doing so will save you money as well as mana.
Rakdos, Lord Of Riots MTG
While Rakdos has had five different incarnations over the years, Lord of Riots sticks out as the forerunner among them. Playing into the ethos of his self-named Cult perfectly, this Rakdos draws advantage from dealing damage to your opponents. Said advantage comes, terrifyingly, in the form of a scaling colorless mana discount that can reach truly absurd heights.
Before we get too carried away with Rakdos’s powerful passive, however, there’s a small hurdle to overcome. Rakdos, Lord of Riots can’t be cast unless an opponent has lost life on the turn you want to cast him. Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to achieve this, like attacking with an evasive creature or using a repeatable pinger. The key is that you’ll want your damage source active on turn four, so you can get Rakdos down as soon as possible.
Once Rakdos is unleashed, you can start earning that tasty discount. Burn spells that hit each of your opponents, like Boltwave and Flame Rift, are the best setup pieces here. You can also use global ping effects, like Impact Tremors, for more gradual results.
With setup complete, casting powerful threats, especially explosive colorless creatures, becomes a breeze. Most of the powerful Eldrazi in the game, like Emrakul, the Promised End and Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger, are ideal picks here. Top-end Eldrazi are fairly expensive, however, so if you want to keep things budget, you can opt for cheaper alternatives like Artisan of Kozilek or Desolation Twin.
Fiends And Family Discount
Played as a strange pseudo-ramp Commander, Rakdos is a force to be reckoned with. While that ability immediately gets you thinking in terms of big creatures, there’s plenty of value to be had with the little guys, too. Cheaper colorless creatures like Solemn Simulacrum and Scrawling Crawler are perfect pickups. Crawler, in particular, offers a ton of synergy with its incidental player ping.
Cheaper creatures also open the door for a number of infinite combos with Rakdos. Get your discount to at least four, for example, and you can drop Ancestral Statue for free. Statue can then return itself to your hand with its enters ability, letting you replay it infinite times for a win with Impact Tremors or Altar of the Brood.
With a sacrifice outlet like Phyrexian Altar in the mix, you have even more options in this area. You can loop Myr Retriever and Junk Diver in and out of your graveyard, for example. This is also possible with Oathsworn Vampire if you have some lifegain going. This opens up wins with Blood Artist, which also handily handles the life gain for you.
In the 99 of other decks, Rakdos’s combo capacity extends even further. It’s particularly good with repeatable sources of Airbending, like Monk Gyatso and Lightning Greaves. You only need a discount of two to cast an Airbent creature from exile for free, which makes it easy to loop any creature infinitely this way. If you end up in Grixis, Rakdos can also go infinite with Primordial Mist, exiling and re-casting a Morph creature as long as you have a discount of three or more.
A Surprise Budget All-Star
What’s really surprising about Rakdos, Lord of Riots is just how affordable it is as an MTG card. Thanks to numerous reprints, including a very recent one in the Duskmourn Commander decks, near-mint copies of this legend can be had for just $0.51. All of the card’s past printings can be had at a similar price point, too, so you can go for the original art if you prefer it. Unless you really need that Serialized Retro Frame version, Rakdos will barely cost you a dollar.
Rakdos is also the ideal starting point for a powerful budget deck. While his ability may push you towards some of Magic’s biggest, priciest creatures, there are plenty of cheap alternatives available. Throw in a few ever-accessible pingers and burn spells, and you have the perfect brew to take to your next mid-bracket Commander night.
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