Introduction

This is a Rakdos deck for the Standard format that uses the best cards from black and splashes red for the Chandra, Hope's Beacon and Light Up the Night combo. Rakdos also allows one to play Bloodtithe Harvester in the 2-mana card slot.

The deck is a work in progress.

Main Deck

1 Mana Spells

7 Cards

• 2 Cut Down — The best 1 mana black removal spell.
• 2 Duress — A great card discard spell. It's very important to have some card discard in the deck, when many opponents play with sweepers like Sunfall or Farewell.
• 3 Evolved Sleeper — Probably the best 1 mana creature in black.

2 Mana Spells

10 Cards

• 4 Bloodtithe Harvester — Perhaps the best 2-mana creature in red and black.
• 4 Go for the Throat — A great removal spell.
• 2 Tenacious Underdog — A great 2-drop that comes back from the grave.

3 Mana Spells

6 Cards + 2 Cards with 3 Mana Prototype Ability = 8 Cards

• 2 Graveyard Trespasser // Graveyard Glutton — Perhaps the best 3 mana drop for black. It has a great ward ability, can become 4/4 during night, can cause direct damage, can gain life, and can remove key cards from graveyards.
• 2 Liliana of the Veil — Liliana is very dangerous, when the opponent is playing with only a few big creatures. However, if the opponent has something like Skrelv's Hive, Wedding Announcement // Wedding Festivity, or Mirrex, Lily is not that great.
• 2 Phyrexian Arena — Good card draw against control decks.
• 2 Phyrexian Fleshgorger (Prototype) — A great artifact creature that has a 3 mana prototype ability. It goes around Cut Down and Go for the Throat and its direct removal costs life. It's great also for having lifelink and menace, which are useful both for attacking and for defense. You can also play it as 7/5 in the late game, when its direct removal costs 7 life.

4 Mana Spells

3 Cards

• 3 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse — Perhaps the best 4 mana creature in standard.

5 Mana Spells

2 Cards

• 2 Gix's Command — An excellent utility card. It can be easily a one-sided boardswipe.

6 Mana Spells

2 Cards

• 2 Chandra, Hope's Beacon — An extremely dangerous planeswalker that can copy all your instant and sorcery spells.

Spells with X in Mana Cost

2 Cards

• 2 Light Up the Night — The only Fireball type spell in standard. And it's pretty good! It combos well with Chandra, Hope's Beacon, being able easily to deal 16 damage to the opponent's face.

Lands

26 Cards

• 2 Mountain
• 8 Swamp
• 4 Blackcleave Cliffs
• 4 Haunted Ridge
• 4 Sulfurous Springs
• 2 Mirrex — A good land that produces 1/1 mites.
• 1 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance — A legendary land that creates 2 1/1 creature tokens with haste.
• 1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire — A legendary channel land that can be used to return one of your creatures or planeswalkers to your hand from your graveyard.