Meet the Rakdos Guild Leader

September 16, 2012 | Posted by Dee

Rakdos, the red/black guild, is one of the fastest guilds in Return to Ravnica so I was interested to see what their guild leader looked like.

I thought he would have to be pretty aggressive to fit the theme of the guild. For example, Rakdos’ new keyword mechanic, unleash, is all about attacking at the expense of blocking. This ability gives you the option to make a creature bigger in exchange for it not being able to block.

Today, someone posted a picture of the Rakdos guild leader on Starcitygames’ Facebook page. It’s an unofficial spoiler. It hasn’t been officially previewed by Wizards. However, it definitely looks like a real card.

Meek Rakdos, Lord of Riots.

Rakdos, Lord of Riots

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The first thing I thought when I saw the card was “Wow, what a big drawback.” But then, I thought about it some more and I realized that drawback wasn’t that bad in a fast Rakdos deck.

First, let’s go over a quick rules tip. The term “lost life” from Rakdos’ first ability includes combat damage. If you deal damage to your opponent by attacking with a creature, that damage counts as losing life so you would be able to cast Rakdos on the same turn.

With enough cheap powerful aggro creatures, it shouldn’t be very hard to deal combat damage to your opponent on turn four to cast Rakdos. Even if he has enough blockers, he may not have good blocks. He might have to chump block to avoid taking a hit.

In these situations, the threat of casting Rakdos puts your opponent in a tough position. If he takes a hit, then you can drop the guild leader on the battlefield. If he chump blocks, then his board position becomes weaker and you still have a very good chance of casting Rakdos on the next turn by attacking again.

So what’s the payoff for casting Rakdos? Well, you get a four mana 6/6 trampling flyer. That’s insane. Plus, you can also lower the casting cost of your creatures by causing your opponent to lose life.

The playability of Rakdos will depend on the power level of the cheap creatures in black and red. If there are enough strong aggro creatures in those colors, then Rakdos should see a lot of play in Standard.

If you want to play this card, look for these kind of creatures in Return to Ravnica as more spoilers from the set are revealed.

Rakdos is an excellent finisher for an aggro deck. Because of his overpowered stats and abilities, most creatures can’t block him effectively. Once he enters the battlefield, your opponent will need a removal spell right away. Otherwise, he’s probably dead in a few turns.

Filed Under Return to Ravnica Spoilers