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Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Rakdos, Lord of Riots



“Rakdos, Lord of Riots” is one of the “Paruns,” leaders of the 10 guilds of Ravnica, and our second returning Parun from the original Ravnica set (Niv-Mizzet, Parun of the Izzet guild, and Isperia, Parun of the Azorius (though she was only lieutenant in the first block) also received new versions). He’s an incredibly aggressively costed 6/6 for four mana, with some heavy beating abilities.

He flies, he tramples, he makes your other guys cheaper when he beats some faces. What could possibly be bad about this guy? Well, he’ll only come out if there’s a party, you see. You need the incredibly specific cost of double black and double red, which means that pretty much only red and black decks can support him. This isn’t the kind of color requirement you just splash for. Rakdos also can only be cast if your opponent has lost some life this turn, which is a taller order. If you’re curving out well with your red/black deck, this should be no problem whatsoever. But when you draw him in the late game, after the stalemate has set in against control, you may have to sacrifice some serious board position to let him come down. Or waste a burn spell prematurely to get him into play. A 6/6 for 4 is usually worth the stretch to get him on the field, though.

Good:
- Girl, look at that body. He works out. With fire scythes.
- Can help you get other creatures into play more efficiently. Things like Rakdos Hellsteed and Chaos Imps are a lot more reasonable when you take two to four mana off their costs.

Bad:
- Restrictive mana cost means he’ll only show up in one type of deck
- A restriction to being able to cast him means he’s a rough topdeck in the late game

Scully Rating: 7.0 out of 10

Projected Settled Value: $10-15 (10/09/12)