Judy Runs an Aggro Circus

Get ready, ladies and gentlemen, we are back at it again with Icon of Ancestry naming humans, this time doin' it to them in Rakdos colors. Judy is angry she isn't being run in any of the current Standard lists and brought her band of misfit rejects with her to beat some booty! This is one angry diva and she needs her damn coffee so let's close this out fast!

I simply love how strategies revolving around humans invariably end up being either very aggressive or very annoying. Ours is the former, and our commander does aggression better than most. We run a plethora of angry little dudes that are ready to give their lives for the cause, the beauty and grace of Judith, the Scourge Diva.

The Angry Humans:

We need to find ways deal damage to our opponent as often as possible, and these humans are here to help us do just that. Fervent Champion is our only one-drop, and gives us access to Spectacle activations early on to help us keep up in value. Cult Guildmage fulfills a similar role, allowing us a ping ability to the opponent's face for just one red mana. Blacklance Paragon gives us the ability to get rid of a threat at flash speed as well as being a good attacker. Smitten Swordmaster and Embereth Shieldbreaker should be cast for their creature spell on turn 2 most of the time, but they do add extra value if necessary and drawn later. Fireblade Artist is a pretty good haster, and gives us plenty of ways to send damage our opponent's way, while Orzhov Enforcer is just a good blocker that can be sacrificed for not much value lost later on. Finally we have the sizeable beater in Oathsworn Knight, which as a side advantage will be actually indestructible by damage if we have an Icon of Ancestry on the board. Finally we have the flashy human Rakdos Firewheeler which just has decent stats and a good, aggressive effect for its cost.

The Value Humans: 

One of the problem with humans is that the strategies tend to very all-in. Due to that, we have some humans that are less aggressive, but give us good ways to either keep up or close out the game. Rix Maadi Reveler is a fantastic card to cast for its Spectacle cost when we empied our hand, and Stormfist Crusader gives us and our opponent a steady stream of cards, while activating Spectacle on our turn. Order of Midnight is a decent threat and a way to recur our creatures form the graveyard, and Piper of the Swarm allows us to clog up the board and maybe steal something later. Robber of the Rich is a formidable threat as a two-drop, having both haste and a way to provide us with consistent value while draining our opponent's deck. Finally, we have our big, powerful knights in Syr Konrad, the Grim, which makes our big attacks even more threathening, and Syr Carah, the Bold to make sure we get to our finishers.

The 'Aristocrats':

This deck has a small sacrifice subtheme, known as 'aristocrats' in the magic community due to cards like Falkenrath Aristocrat. None of these cards are as good as that one, but they do some work, mostly as a way to 'protect' our board. Once we have empied our hand, keeping the mana open for the 'activation threat' in cards like Malevolent Noble, Priest of Forgotten Gods, and Elite Headhunter might dissuade opponents from casting their removal for fear of losing value or getting blown out. We also run a Plaguecrafter because he is a human and very annoying to go up against.

Non-human interaction:

There aren't that many humans in Rakdos colors, but there is plenty of pretty good interaction. Carnival // Carnage can chip away at tokens or a tapped Paradise Druid while activating Spectacle, and can be a big hit to our opponent later on if they're holding onto two cards. Bedeck // Bedazzle similarly acts as early removal, and later on can kill and important land like Field of the Dead. Angrath's Rampage is just a great way of getting around protctions, and Bedevil is excellent in this format, hitting some of the most dangerous threats as well as ramp. Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage is a way to drain our opponents of their options, and Drill Bit is one of our Spectacle payoffs as a way to surgically remove a threat from our opponent's hand. Price of Fame is once again amazing in Brawl, so of course we run that.

Keeping up:

As previously stated, human strategies tend to be a little all-in. Most of our cards can be pretty cheap so we will be emptying our hands a lot, and we need ways to keep up. Light Up the Stage and Chandra, Fire Artisan let us impulse our way through our deck similarly to Syr Carah, and Theater of Horrors provides us with a steady flow of cards if we can damage our opponents that turn. Finally, Icon of Ancestry tries to tie the deck together by buffing our humans and letting us dig to find more of them.

The Haymakers:

Due to the low amount of humans in Standard Rakdos right now, we have brought in some haymakers to help us out. Bolas's Citadel comes at a big cost, but can act as a better Experimental Frenzy in this deck. I thought abour running both, and you totally could, but I found this to be better. We also run Command the Dreadhorde as a way to create one massive swing in our advantage, and perhaps that could be what you replace for the Frenzy, but I found it too funny to kill my opponents with their own threats. Finally, we run an Embercleave, the Excalibur of Magic, to hopefully catch our opponents off-guard for one big swing.

The mana:

This deck runs pretty much what you'd expect in terms of mana. A pretty even split of Swamps and Mountains, we have two black value lands in Castle Locthwain and Witch's Cottage, which can help us in the likely occasion that we are running out of steam. Castle Embereth gives us the opportunity to buff our creatures even bigger when we swing our with all our anthem effects, and of course we have Arcane Signet, we aren't complete idiots. We just like stupid tribal stuff.