“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)