The Commander
Flying, trample
Whenever Rakdos attacks, sacrifice half the non-Demon permanents you control, rounded up.
Whenever Rakdos deals combat damage to a player, that player sacrifices half the non-Demon permanents they control of their choice, rounded up.
Guide
Gameplan
Rakdos the Defiler is a 7/6 flying, trampling beater that forces brutal symmetrical sacrifice, but the catch is brutal: each attack costs you half your non-Demon permanents. The deck wants to weaponize that drawback—filling the board with expendable tokens and aristocrat synergies so 'sacrifice half' becomes a payoff, not a punishment—then connecting in the air to gut an opponent's battlefield before swinging for lethal commander damage.
Strengths
- Massive 7/6 evasive body that closes games fast with commander damage
- Turns its own mandatory sacrifice into value with death-trigger and aristocrat engines
- Disrupts opponents' boards on combat damage, stripping blockers and key permanents
- Lives comfortably in a sacrifice/tokens shell that recurs and reuses fodder
Weaknesses
- The attack trigger is mandatory and can wreck your own board if you can't capitalize
- Six mana for a commander that demands setup before it's safe to swing
- Vulnerable to removal mid-combat, leaving you down half your permanents for nothing
- No built-in card advantage or protection on the commander itself
Key Cards
- Blood Artist — Each forced sacrifice—yours and theirs—drains the table, turning Rakdos's drawback into a win condition.
- Pitiless Plunderer — Generates Treasure off every sacrificed creature, refueling mana while you feed the attack trigger.
- Bastion of Remembrance — A redundant, hard-to-remove Blood Artist effect that punishes both your sacrifices and your opponents'.
- Mycosynth Lattice — Combined with the combat trigger it makes opponents sacrifice half of everything—lands included—devastating their board.
- Goblin Bombardment — Free sac outlet that lets you bank death value and clear creatures before Rakdos's attack chooses for you.
- Mimic Vat — Imprints sacrificed creatures so your fodder keeps coming back, fueling repeated attacks.
Upgrade Path
Lean harder into free sacrifice outlets (Viscera Seer, Carrion Feeder) and Treasure/token generators so the attack trigger feeds value engines instead of crippling you. Add multiple Blood Artist redundancies and resilient recursion (Meren, Reassembling Skeleton) so your fodder is renewable. Top-end the curve with tutors and fast mana (Mana Crypt, Vampiric Tutor) to deploy Rakdos and a payoff in the same turn, and consider Mycosynth Lattice as a high-power finisher.
Core Cards
The most-played cards for this commander, built from aggregated deck data (the Mythic Graph). Build public decks to seed it.
Win Conditions
- ▸Commander damage via the 7/6 flier with a couple of evasion or pump effects
- ▸Aristocrats drain from Blood Artist effects triggered by mass sacrifice
- ▸Stripping an opponent's board with the combat trigger then alpha-striking
- ▸Mycosynth Lattice + combat damage to bankrupt an opponent's lands and permanents
Archetypes
- Aristocrats — The mandatory self-sacrifice pairs perfectly with death-payoff engines that drain life with every permanent lost.
- Tokens — Flooding the board with expendable tokens gives Rakdos cheap fodder to sacrifice so your real permanents survive.
- Voltron — Flying, trample, and 7 power make commander damage a fast clock once a few buffs land.
- Reanimator — Sacrificed creatures fill the yard, and big demons or value bodies can be cheaply brought back to keep attacking.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (BR), by popularity.
