Budget Build Series - Rakdos Sacrifice

Since we're all social distancing right now, I thought what better time to kick off another Arena Budget Build Series. For those who have not come across this before, what I set out to accomplish is a three-part build series across various budgets for a particular deck or theme.

The first version of the deck is a budget version, which looks to minimize the number of Rare and Mythic wildcards to as few as possible, often settling around 10 or so. Part of the constraint here is in 2 color decks, the dual lands typically account for 4-8 Rares, hence the reason we target around 10 Wildcards.

From there, I build out a mid-budget version using around 20-25 Rare/Mythic wildcards, followed by a non-budget optimized version. The intent of these guides is to provide a progression guide for you to work towards building stronger decks as you amass more cards. For each of the decks, I play a few matches with each, explaining lines of play and rationale for side-boarding.

The build today will focus on Rakdos Sacrice build centered around the Cat/Oven combo paired with Mayhem Devil 

[Budget Series] Budget Rakdos Sacrifice

• Visual
• CMC
• Compact
• Export

Main 60 cards (14 distinct)

Lands - 24

Side 15 cards (7 distinct)

Main 60 cards (14 distinct)

Lands - 24

Side 15 cards (7 distinct)

$€Tix

Main 60 cards (14 distinct)

Creature (25)
3 Slaughter-Priest of Mogis			$0.20€0.130.03
4 Footlight Fiend			$0.15€0.060.03
3 Woe Strider			$0.49€0.380.02
4 Mire Triton			$0.20€0.200.03
3 Midnight Reaper			$0.50€0.330.02
4 Mayhem Devil			$0.84€0.650.03
4 Cauldron Familiar			$2.98€1.370.03
Instant, Sorcery, Enchantment, Artifact (11)
4 Witch's Oven			$2.12€1.160.03
4 Claim the Firstborn			$0.25€0.170.03
3 Angrath's Rampage			$0.25€0.260.03
Land (24)
9 Swamp			$0.21€0.100.03
7 Mountain			$0.24€0.030.04
4 Blood Crypt			$15.36€14.820.92
4 Bloodfell Caves			$0.20€0.100.03

Side 15 cards (7 distinct)

2 Embereth Shieldbreaker			$0.250.03
3 Redcap Melee			$0.22€0.160.03
1 Epic Downfall			$0.23€0.130.03
4 Agonizing Remorse			$0.19€0.090.03
1 Act of Treason			$0.15€0.040.05
1 Pharika's Libation			$0.19€0.080.03
3 Scorching Dragonfire			$0.15€0.080.03

Export

MTG Arena Format MTG Online File download Text List Registration PDF

Gamplay for Budget Rakdos Sacrifice

First up is the budget version of the deck, clocking in at only 10 Rares. The nice thing with the deck is many of the core pieces are at common or uncommon rarity and can port over to a non-budget variant such as claim of the firt born. The rares I went with for the budget version are to help enable some of the synergies of the deck along with fixing the mana. Any multicolor deck needs to be playing a full playset of shocklands, so in this case, the inclusion of Blood Crypt. I also included Midnight Reaper which allows us to draw cards whenever a non-token creature we control dies, allowing us to grind out value. This is particularly good with cat/oven, as each turn you get an extra draw. Finally, the last rare we included was Woe Strider. This card is an unconditional sac outlet, which can allow us to combo kill the opponent with Mayhem Devil and a board of creatures. The escape is also relevant since we can hit it off of Mire Triton and repeatedly cast it from the graveyard in longer matches.

To fill out this budget version of the deck, I opted to go with Footlight Fiend as a one-drop that can ping for an additional damage when it dies. This works well at blocking decks like mono red or getting in the last few points of damage. I also added in Angrath's Rampage as a sac removal that can trigger Mayhem Devil while also dealing with opponent's planeswalkers. Finally, I filled out the creatures with Slaughter-Priest of Mogis which in theory could have some synergy with the theme of the deck. I didn't get a great sample of the effectiveness of this card, but I would consider any of the afterlife cards instead for this deck since they serve as two creatures.

[Budget Series] Mid-Budget Rakdos Sac

• Visual
• CMC
• Compact
• Export

Main 60 cards (16 distinct)

Lands - 24

Side 15 cards (7 distinct)

Main 60 cards (16 distinct)

Lands - 24

Side 15 cards (7 distinct)

$€Tix

Main 60 cards (16 distinct)

Creature (24)
4 Priest of Forgotten Gods			$1.77€1.820.03
2 Footlight Fiend			$0.15€0.060.03
3 Woe Strider			$0.49€0.380.02
4 Mire Triton			$0.20€0.200.03
3 Midnight Reaper			$0.50€0.330.02
4 Mayhem Devil			$0.84€0.650.03
4 Cauldron Familiar			$2.98€1.370.03
Instant, Sorcery, Enchantment, Artifact (12)
2 Tymaret Calls the Dead			$0.25€0.140.02
4 Witch's Oven			$2.12€1.160.03
4 Claim the Firstborn			$0.25€0.170.03
2 Angrath's Rampage			$0.25€0.260.03
Land (24)
4 Blood Crypt			$15.36€14.820.92
4 Fabled Passage			$5.69€4.040.15
8 Swamp			$0.21€0.100.03
6 Mountain			$0.24€0.030.04
2 Bloodfell Caves			$0.20€0.100.03

Side 15 cards (7 distinct)

1 Embereth Shieldbreaker			$0.250.03
3 Redcap Melee			$0.22€0.160.03
1 Epic Downfall			$0.23€0.130.03
4 Agonizing Remorse			$0.19€0.090.03
2 Noxious Grasp			$0.25€0.140.03
1 Pharika's Libation			$0.19€0.080.03
3 Scorching Dragonfire			$0.15€0.080.03

Export

MTG Arena Format MTG Online File download Text List Registration PDF

Gameplay for Mid-Budget Rakdos Sacrifice

The mid-budget version adds 10 more rares and looks to improve some of the mainboard card quality and the manabase.

Priest of Forgotten Gods

Priest is a must answer threat in the deck that allows us to control the opponent's board while drawing cards and potentially ramping. The deck has a lot of throw away creatures which can be used for fodder for Priest, while potentially also triggering multiple Mayhem devil activations. Priest also presents an option to get around troublesome permanents like Dream Trawler by forcing them to sacrifice it if no other creatures on board.

Tymaret Calls the Dead

Calls of the Dead can help us pull Cauldren familiar or Woe Strider into our graveyard while also creating tokens that can later be sacrificed for value. In later builds, this also fuels the graveyard for Kroxa. Of note as well, when the saga ends on chapter 3, it gets sacrificed which would also trigger Mayhem Devil.

Fabled Passage

Fabled Passage serves a couple purposes in this deck. It is both mana fixing for the deck with the potential of it being an untapped land, while also serving as another sac trigger for Mayhem Devil.

[Budget Build Series] Rakdos Sacrifice

• Visual
• CMC
• Compact
• Export

Main 60 cards (16 distinct)

Lands - 24

Side 15 cards (7 distinct)

Main 60 cards (16 distinct)

Lands - 24

Side 15 cards (7 distinct)

$€Tix

Main 60 cards (16 distinct)

Instant, Sorcery, Enchantment, Artifact (10)
2 Tymaret Calls the Dead			$0.25€0.140.02
4 Witch's Oven			$2.12€1.160.03
4 Claim the Firstborn			$0.25€0.170.03
Creature (26)
4 Woe Strider			$0.49€0.380.02
4 Priest of Forgotten Gods			$1.77€1.820.03
4 Mire Triton			$0.20€0.200.03
3 Midnight Reaper			$0.50€0.330.02
4 Mayhem Devil			$0.84€0.650.03
3 Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger			$2.77€3.460.43
4 Cauldron Familiar			$2.98€1.370.03
Land (24)
4 Blood Crypt			$15.36€14.820.92
4 Temple of Malice			$0.42€0.260.02
6 Swamp			$0.21€0.100.03
4 Mountain			$0.24€0.030.04
4 Fabled Passage			$5.69€4.040.15
2 Castle Locthwain			$3.31€3.582.03

Side 15 cards (7 distinct)

1 Embereth Shieldbreaker			$0.250.03
3 Redcap Melee			$0.22€0.160.03
1 Epic Downfall			$0.23€0.130.03
4 Agonizing Remorse			$0.19€0.090.03
1 Pharika's Libation			$0.19€0.080.03
2 Noxious Grasp			$0.25€0.140.03
3 Scorching Dragonfire			$0.15€0.080.03

Export

MTG Arena Format MTG Online File download Text List Registration PDF

Gameplay for Non-Budget Version

The final version of this deck looks to increase the quality of some threats while completing our manabase for color fixing and utility lands. Woe Strider is upped to a 4-of in this particular version compared to previous versions playing 3. 

Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger

Kroxa is a super powerful card that contributes to the deck in a variety of ways. Early game, it can attack the opponent's hand, potentially throwing them off curve. When it is cast from the hand, it gets sacrificed, which would trigger Mayhem Devil if you have one on board. Mid to late game Kroxa can be escaped from the graveyard if you run out of resources in hand, presenting a formiddable clock. Mire Triton and Tymaret, calls of the dead can both fuel the graveyard to find Kroxa, while also having cards to use for escape.

Temple of Malice

Temple is added to the deck to provide additional dual lands with the upside of scrying to smooth out draws.

Castle Locthwain

Great ulitity land that allows us to refill our hand when we run out of resources or the game goes on long.

That pretty much wraps up this build. Let me know what you think, and if you have any recommendations to swap out cards. As always, you can catch all my content live on Twitch or achived videos on YouTube at MTG_Joe.