Arena Standard - Rakdos, show off your cleavage....

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OK, time for an update to the Rakdos Embercleave list I posted as Theros was hitting. I actually didn't end up needing to change the main deck too much, but I've altered the sideboard quite a bit to better answer the current top meta threats. One of the biggest changes was to take out the Temples. Scry is nice, but the downside to playing a tapland in a deck that wants to dump things on the board in a hurry outweigh those benefits and the slightly easier time hitting colored mana thresholds.

As before, this is very very definitely an aggro deck. You generally want to go fast, smack face. Obviously, though, you *really* don't want to over-extend into a sweeper, so keep that in mind. You have big enough threats that you can often win with just 2-3 troops on the board, so have a good reason to extend further than that, as getting wiped without having a reload in hand can be game over.

 

Sideboarding/Play Guide:

Key: Bold text = Sideboarding cards to play or remove that are almost always hard and fast choices. Italic text = Sideboarding cards where some amount of judgment is going to be required, as there's differences depending on opponent's card/deck choices.

 

1) UW control. This is honestly not too bad of a matchup. They're going to try and stall as much as possible, sweep if you over extend, and try and close it out with trawlers. Given how many of your units have haste, Teferi doesn't slow you down anywhere near as much as many other decks. Giant nuke + almost any unit will get rid of one of the 0/4 walls from Birth of Meletis. Shatter the Sky is obviously the biggest thing to watch out for early, so over-extending is a big risk. Their single biggest threat is 100% going to be Trawler. Fortunately, Shadowspear is a main deck way of answering it. Ideally, you want to win before he can get Trawler into play, but since UW is very good at preventing that from happening, having a main deck answer to Trawler is obviously important. 

Sideboarding:

Take out: 4 Bonecrusher Giants. There's really not much a 2 point nuke is useful against, except Meletis walls, which are not exactly huge threats. 2 Ebon Knights. Yes, I know how good it is. But it gets way worse if it can never build up counters, which makes Teferi extra effective against it. There is some argument for removing Fervent Champions instead, so if you think he might be taking Teferi out (due to seeing tons of haste in G1), you could drop the Champions instead.

Bring in: 3 Agonizing Remorse, 3 Angrath's Rampage. Trawler is the single biggest threat to this deck, AINEC, so the 3 rampages give you a simple answer, as the sac effect bypasses the hexproof. (If you know he's running the full 4, it might even be worth it to bring in the 2 Libations as well, because trawler is *THAT* big a threat) For Agonizing Remorse, you're mainly looking for Trawler and his sweepers. Pretty much anything else he can have is going to be less of a threat to your game plan than those 2 things. 

 

2) Temur Reclamation. Game 1, save riders for Uro after it escapes, Nissa (if they run her), or potentially a big Krasis. Shadowspear is great here too, as the lifelink can buffer your life total enough that it becomes much harder for him to get the combo kill with the giant explosion. Be *very* careful about over-extending into Storm's Wrath. Note that Regisaurs can't be killed by just Storm's Wrath, so it's pretty safe to play them out, even if you think they might have a Wrath in hand. You can also safely play out Spawn or Tectonic Giant if you can put spear or Embercleave on them, as that gets them out of Wrath range.

Sideboarding:

Take out: 4 Stormfist Crusaders. Reclamation is in many ways a combo deck. Giving them more cards to assemble their combo is a Very Bad Thing. The other 3 cards to remove are going to depend on which version of Reclamation he's running. If he has Krasis or Nissa, you probably want to cut 3 Fervent Champions, as they line up poorly against land creatures and Krasis. If he doesn't, cut 3 Ebon Knights, since the only big creature threat is Uro, and as with Teferi, Brazen Borrowers are extra effective against the Knight. 

Bring in: 3 Agonizing Remorse, 2 Pharika's Libation, 2 Epic Downfall. Remorse should be obvious. The absolute main things you want to be stripping are Reclamation and Expansion/Explosion. If neither of those are there, Uro, Krasis, and Nissa are your backup choices. Pharika's Libation should also be pretty obvious. Their deck revolves around the extra mana from Reclamation, and Libation lets you get rid of them. Again, don't do a me and try and make them sac something if they have a Tamiyo out. I've definitely shame-conceded for doing that before. lol. Epic Downfall gives you an exile removal that gets rid of Uro, which is pretty darn useful. In a pinch it can also be used against a Borrower, but I'd really only do that if it's going to kill me in 1-2 turns if I don't. Note: Against the Nissa version, it may very definitely be advisable to bring in the 3 Angrath's Rampages, since you almost certainly lose if he gets to untap with a live Nissa. If you do bring them in, take out the 4th Champion along with 2 Bonecrusher Giants.

 

3) Jeskai Fires. This is kind of a strange matchup in a lot of ways, and requires the most extensive sideboarding of really any matchup. If they don't see fires, or you get a fast hand, you can just roflstomp them before they can really do anything. If they get T4 Fires into Kenrith + Cavalier, odds are high you probably just die. Unfortunately for us, most of our creatures die to Clarion. Boo. So be very careful over-extending into one with the smaller things. Just remember that the longer the game goes on, the bigger their advantage gets, so you may need to risk *some* over-extending in order to drop him before you get locked out.

Sideboarding:

Take out: 4 Stormfist Crusaders. As with Temur, Fires is akin to a combo deck, so giving it extra draws to find its set of game winning cards is a Very Bad Thing, so out they go. 4 Bonecrusher Giants. There is literally nothing in Fires that is vulnerable to a 2 point nuke, apart from a teferi post-downtick. The giants only having 3 health, and therefore die to Clarion, is the final nail in their coffin against Fires. 1 Ebon Knight and 1 Fervent Champion. You could do 2 of one of these and none of the other, obviously. They're both vulnerable to clarion (especially Champions), and I've covered Ebon Knight's issues with Teferi. (and with cheap sweepers, if you play one early, you probably won't have the free mana to pump it to save it). However, they both have important uses (champion against teferi, ebon knight against resolved cavaliers or Kenrith), so my choice is to just trim 1 of each to give me still reliable-ish access to both.

Bring in: 3 Agonizing Remorse, 2 Pharika's Libation, 3 Angrath's Rampage, 2 Epic Downfall. For remorse, your #1 target is Fires, obviously. Kenrith or one of the Crusaders are your backup choices, as those are how they're going to ultimately win the game. As in the Reclamation matchup, Libation gives you a way of getting rid of their key enchantment. Rampage and Downfall are both going to be needed against the big creatures he's going to play later in the game. Trying to depend on just the 3 Riders is not going to be enough, you need more direct kill spells. Epic Downfall is particularly useful vs Cavaliers, since you deny their on-death triggers, so try and save them for those, though Kenrith is just about as big a must-kill, so don't hesitate to use them on him.

 

4) RDW. Hey! An aggro on aggro matchup for a change! lol. As with many aggro mirrors(-ish), who goes first is going to matter a lot. Shadowspear is an absolute all-star in this matchup. Not only does it let things like Regisaur trample through chump blocks, the lifelink buffering your health is *huge*. One important thing about Shadowspear: The lifedrain effect will *NOT* help you vs your Crusader's damage, since it specifies "loses life", not does damage. However, it DOES work on Spawn, so it means you will no longer lose HP to your own spawn. Do note that by and large your troops are bigger than the ones RDW is running, with some obvious exceptions. As a result, it's often not the worst plan to act as the more controlly deck and leave stuff back to block. Fervent Champions are great for this, as they can often block and kill a significant percentage of their creatures without dying itself. (especially combined with something like a Bonecrusher Giant nuke to suppliment the first strike).

Take Out: 4 Stormfist Crusaders. In this case it's not so much about the draw (though helping RDW draw more gas is obviously sub-optimal), but about the impact of the self damage, along with the fact they die to shock/Bonecrusher nuke. 1 Spawn. Again, this is about the self damage being a problem. The fact that Shadowspear allows you to negate that as a problem means we don't need to lose all of them, and they trade with anything RDW runs, so pretty useful.

Bring In: 3 Shock, 2 Scorching Dragonfire. RDW runs lots of little things, therefore you need lots of cheap removal to keep up. I considered Disfigure instead of Shock, but there's no current equivalents to Adanto Vanguard that's commonly played which needs -Health to get rid of. So, since Shock can go face to help close out a match, that was the choice. Dragonfire is also cheap removal, and given that it exiles, it's especially good against Anax, since you can remove him cleanly without leaving tokens behind. Additional note: Some versions of RDW are running Cavalcade. Against those lists, you probably will want to bring in 2 Libations, as Cavalcade is what will ultimately kill you, especially if they also drop Torbran. Unfortunately, given the variations of RDW, I can't give a hard and fast guideline on what 2 other cards to take out to get them in, so you'll have to use your own judgment there, based on what the opponent is running.

 

Well, that's all the main Meta decks right now. Any other decks you run into are likely to be similar enough to one of those that the guidelines will still largely apply. Hopefully people found this useful, and have fun playing the deck. As usual, please feel free to leave comments, insults, suggestions, brickbats, marriage proposals, etc. lol. Good luck!

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limekiller70
Last Updated: 18 Feb 2020
Created: 17 Feb 2020
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Mainboard - 60 cards (16 distinct)

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