Best Rakdos Cards for Commander EDH

Black and red don't play nice. That's the whole point.

Rakdos is the color pair that trades life totals, blows up permanents, and forces opponents into lose-lose decisions. If you're building a black-red Commander deck, whether it's Rakdos, Lord of Riots, Judith, the Scourge Diva, or Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger, these are the multicolor staples you should know about.

This list focuses on cards that require both black and red mana. Mono-color staples like Dockside Extortionist or Toxic Deluge are great, but you can find those in any black or red deck. The cards below reward you specifically for being in Rakdos.

Removal

Rakdos gets some of the most efficient removal in the game. Full stop.

Dreadbore

to destroy any creature or planeswalker. Sorcery speed holds it back slightly, but hitting planeswalkers at two mana is extremely efficient. In a format where superfriends decks pop up regularly, this card pulls serious weight.

Terminate

instant-speed creature removal with no regeneration. Clean, efficient, and never a dead draw in Commander. The instant speed makes this the go-to over Dreadbore when you don't need to hit planeswalkers.

Bedevil

to destroy a creature, artifact, or planeswalker at instant speed. The flexibility here is the selling point. Hitting artifacts gives you an answer to Sol Ring, mana rocks, and equipment that straight creature removal can't touch.

Rakdos Charm

Three modes, all of them relevant in Commander:

• Exile a graveyard (shuts down reanimator and Muldrotha, the Gravetide)
• Destroy an artifact (always useful)
• Each creature deals 1 damage to its controller (wipes out token armies)

That third mode is the reason this card shows up in so many lists. Someone makes 40 Saprolings with Tendershoot Dryad? They just took 40 damage. The look on a token player's face when you cast this is worth the two mana alone.

Value engines

Kolaghan's Command

Choose two: deal 2 damage to a target, return a creature from graveyard to hand, destroy an artifact, or force a discard. Every mode matters in Commander. Getting back a key creature while also popping someone's Sol Ring feels like cheating. The card is a two-for-one at worst and often better.

Theater of Horrors

Impulse draw that stacks up. You exile a card each upkeep, and you can play any of the exiled cards as long as an opponent lost life this turn. In Rakdos, triggering that condition is trivial. Pingers, combat damage, even your fetch lands with something like Polluted Delta paired with Blood Artist effects. The damage ability on the bottom is gravy, giving you a mana sink for when you're flooded.

Stormfist Crusader

A 2/2 menace for

that Howling Mines for everyone while pinging each opponent for 1. The symmetrical draw looks like a downside, but you're the one built to capitalize on it. Your opponents draw cards and lose life. You draw cards and use them to make opponents lose more life. The menace keyword means this actually connects in combat more than you'd expect.

Judith, the Scourge Diva

A lord effect (+1/+0 to your other creatures) stapled to a death trigger that pings any target. In sacrifice-heavy builds, Judith turns every dying creature into a Shock. She's a combo piece, an anthem, and a value engine rolled into one body. Three mana, no downside.

Haymakers and finishers

Rakdos, Lord of Riots

A 6/6 flying trampler for

that makes your creatures cheaper based on how much life opponents lost this turn. When he's online, you're slamming Eldrazi and demons for pennies. The catch is he can't be cast unless an opponent lost life this turn, so you need pingers like Lobber Crew or Plague Spitter to guarantee that trigger. When it works, it's disgusting. You'll cast Artisan of Kozilek for two mana and wonder why you ever played fair.

Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger

Kroxa does work from every zone. Cast it early to force a discard and drain for 3 if they can't pitch a nonland. Escape it later as a 6/6 that triggers the same ability on attack. It fills your graveyard naturally in Rakdos, and the escape cost is manageable in a deck running Faithless Looting and other self-mill. As a commander, it provides inevitability. As part of the 99, it's a recurring threat that opponents can never fully deal with.

Sire of Insanity

Every end step, everyone discards their hand. Brutal, unfun for your opponents, and extremely effective when you're ahead. Rakdos excels at dumping its hand fast, so by the time Sire hits the table, you've already deployed your threats. Your opponents? They just lost every answer they were holding. Pair it with Theater of Horrors or Outpost Siege for card advantage that doesn't use your hand.

Master of Cruelties

First strike, deathtouch, and an attack trigger that sets a player's life total to 1. It can only attack alone, so you can't swing in with a team, but any evasion or unblockability effect turns this into a one-shot kill. Give it Whispersilk Cloak or Key to the City and pick someone off. With Rakdos, Lord of Riots as your commander, the opponent drops to 1, then Rakdos's combat damage finishes the job.

Role players

Mayhem Devil

Pings any target whenever anyone sacrifices a permanent. That includes fetch lands, treasures, food tokens, and anything from your own sacrifice outlets. In a typical four-player game, this card deals an absurd amount of damage without you doing anything special. It's one of those cards that looks unassuming until you realize it's dealt 15 damage over two turn cycles.

Mogis, God of Slaughter

An indestructible enchantment that forces each opponent to sacrifice a creature or take 2 damage every upkeep. As devotion builds, it becomes a 7/5 indestructible creature too. The beauty of Mogis is that it's hard to remove and the choice it presents is always bad for opponents. Sacrifice their best creature or take consistent chip damage? Either way, you're winning that exchange.

Kardur, Doomscourge

When Kardur enters, all opponents' creatures must attack during their next combat, and they can't attack you. It's a fog effect, a political tool, and a way to force opponents into bad attacks all at once. Blink it or recur it for maximum disruption. People sleep on this card, but it's done more work in my games than cards twice its price.

Olivia Voldaren

: ping a creature and put a +1/+1 counter on Olivia. : gain control of a Vampire. The key interaction is that her ping turns any creature into a Vampire, so with enough mana, she just steals whatever she wants. She's slow, but if she sticks around for a turn cycle, she takes over the board.

Why play Rakdos?

If you like forcing your opponents into terrible decisions, Rakdos is your color pair. The removal is efficient, the threats are aggressive, and the disruption hits hard. You won't gain life, you won't counter spells, and you won't ramp into a million lands. But you will make everyone at the table respect your board state.

The best Rakdos decks lean into what the color pair does naturally: hurt people and break things. Build around that, and you'll have a deck that punches well above its weight.