Mythic in Two Days with Rakdos Lizards in Bo3 Standard
Based on my metagame analysis of the lands of the new Standard format, I thought aggro would be a great choice if there were enough good one-drops.
The loss of slow lands was a big blow to midrange and control. If people played Fabled Passage as a replacement, I wanted to take advantage of its tapped nature on turns 1-3 by killing them quickly.
Before the release of Bloomburrow, I watched early access videos on YouTube to see how the new cards performed. LegenVD’s video on Rakdos Lizards stood out. He demonstrated the deck had powerful cards and good synergy so I was excited to try it out.
The deck proved to be a monster on the Bo3 ladder. I had my fastest climb to Mythic (two days). Also, I usually enter Mythic in the #200 to #700 range. This time my initial rank was #10.
Here’s my current decklist.
Decklist
For prices, wildcard requirements, and mana costs, check out the Scryfall decklist page.
For card images of the whole deck, go to the Scryfall visual page.
T1 (11)
4 Iridescent Vinelasher
4 Hired Claw
3 Ravine Raider
T2 (11)
4 Valley Rotcaller
3 Gev, Scaled Scorch
2 Flamecache Gecko
2 Fireglass Mentor
T3 (11)
4 Valley Flamecaller
4 Thought-Stalker Warlock
3 Laughing Jasper Flint
Removal (4)
Lands (23)
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
4 Sulfurous Springs
2 Thran Portal
6 Swamp
1 Mudflat Village
2 Mountain
4 Rockface Village
Sideboard (15)
4 Glistening Deluge
1 Laughing Jasper Flint
4 Obliterating Bolt
2 Anoint with Affliction
4 Duress
Deck Building Journey
The first version of the deck had 4 Flamecache Gecko, 4 Fireglass Mentor, 1 Ravine Raider, and 0 Valley Rotcaller. It had these 24 lands:
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
4 Sulfurous Springs
8 Swamp
6 Mountain
2 Rockface Village
I got out of Platinum pretty quickly but then I got stuck in the early levels of Diamond.
I was flooding a lot so I cut a land. Also, I added 2 Thran Portal to add more Villages without reducing the color consistency too much. These changes made a big difference. I was able to win games when I was slightly flooded because of the utility lands.
Flamecache Gecko and Fireglass Mentor were not pulling their weight. They were getting stonewalled by 2/3s and 3/3s. I looked for a replacement by searching for “lizard” on MTG Arena. I found Valley Rotcaller.
To make Valley Rotcaller even better, I tried a full set of Ravine Raider. To make room for the one-drop, I cut one copy each of Gev, Scaled Scorch, Laughing Jasper Flint, and Go for the Throat. Originally, these cards were all four-ofs.
With these changes, I won a lot more and quickly made it to Mythic.
Valley Rotcaller was the crucial missing piece. It makes your one-drops better and gives you a ton of life against other aggro decks. Versus midrange and control, the Squirrel Warlock is a must-kill threat.
Consider a board of 2 Valley Rotcaller and 2 Ravine Raider versus Sheoldred, the Apocalypse. This happened in one of my games. My investment was only six mana for the creatures. Yet, in the face of a big blocker, they dealt 4 damage and 6 life loss while gaining 6 life.
Usually in this situation, Sheoldred stonewalls the small creatures, and then the midrange deck wins by gaining a lot of time with Sheoldred’s lifegain. However, the Lizards just ignored the legend and attacked past it.
The latest change of going to 3 Ravine Raider and 4 Go for the Throat is purely theoretical. I have not played any matches with this configuration. It seems to be at least slightly better. You don’t want to draw multiples of the one-drop. Plus, the fourth copy was the worst card in the previous iteration of the deck.
Only Four Removal Spells?!
It’s interesting that I tore through Diamond with 3 Go for the Throat as the only removal spells in the main deck. This highlights the power of synergy. If the synergy is good enough, you can play fewer removal spells than is normally seen.
This is very important because it means fewer mediocre or dead cards against midrange and control. In those matchups, you would rather have a creature instead of something like Cut Down.
Even a mediocre creature like Ravine Raider is better than removal.
It triggers cards like Fireglass Mentor and Thought-Stalker Warlock, which helps you win the all-important card advantage war. It triggers Flamecache Gecko on turn two, which allows you to kill more quickly.
The menace creature comes down on turn one. With more one-drops, you have more opportunities to play Iridescent Vinelasher for value with its offspring ability.
Ravine Raider only has one power but as an early threat with menace, it can deal pseudo-evasive double damage with Valley Flamecaller.
But what about aggro? Did you miss Cut Down against them?
Not really. It turns out you can just race them with Valley Rotcaller’s massive life loss and life gain and Valley Flamecaller’s insane damage output.
Quick aside regarding Valley Flamecaller. If it’s on the battlefield, Hired Claw deals four damage. Iridescent Vinelasher and its offspring deal eight damage including landfall. Gev, Scaled Scorch deals two damage with its cast ability.
I tried configurations with 6-7 removal cards. Those versions did not do well.
4 Thought-Stalker Warlock
This card is good against midrange and control.
It’s not good against aggro but it’s good enough, especially on the play. Sometimes you just win by discarding their Knight-Errant of Eos or Monstrous Rage.
Again this is where Valley Rotcaller does a lot of heavy lifting. It turns your mediocre three-drop into one life loss and life gain per turn, which is critical to winning the damage race.
There’s not much blocking at all in the aggro matchups.
Lizards has menace and landfall.
Boros Mice has Monstrous Rage.
Gruul Prowess has the flying Slickshot Show-Off.
Boros Convoke and Selesnya Rabbits go wide with creature tokens and then buff them up.
If you’re blocking against aggro, you’re losing.
In a world where blocking is very bad, Valley Rotcaller is very good.
Skill-Intensive Deck
There are a lot of options to consider with this deck.
Hired Claw, Ravine Raider, and Flamecache Gecko have activated abilities.
Iridescent Vinelasher can be cast for one or three mana.
Fireglass Mentor gives you two cards to choose from.
Thought-Stalker Warlock is a discard spell with no restrictions except nonlands. You will often have a lot of cards to choose from to discard. But wait, there’s another decision to make. Sometimes it’s correct to play it before dealing damage. For example, they only have one card, which could be a land.
With Laughing Jasper Flint, you can cast your opponent’s cards. If you have many creatures on the battlefield, the legend could give you 3 or more cards to cast. Plus, you still have the cards in your own hand.
Choosing attacking creatures requires careful counting on life loss and damage. This is tricky if you have Valley Rotcaller, Valley Flamecaller, and your opponent has a bunch of blockers. This situation is common against midrange.
Oh yeah, lest I forget. You have five utility lands with activated abilities.
With all these choices to consider, making the wrong one could cost you the game. With this deck, you will have many opportunities to misplay.
I recommend the following to make better gameplay decisions:
Record your games and then review them for mistakes.
Post board states and situations on r/spikes to get input from competitive players.
Vs. Domain
+4 Duress
-4 Go for the Throat
This is our standard plan against decks bringing in Temporary Lockdown. That card is so good against us. Fortunately, we have 4 Duress and 4 Thought-Stalker Warlock to beat it.
Vs. Golgari Midrange
+1 Laughing Jasper Flint
+4 Obliterating Bolt
+2 Anoint with Affliction
-3 Ravine Raider
-2 Flamecache Gecko
-2 Valley Rotcaller
We remove some small creatures because our opponent is boarding in -2/-2 mass removal like Choking Miasma. Hired Claw is solid in this matchup because it can easily become a 2/3. You’ll also want to make it a 3/4 to play around Gix’s Command second bullet point: “Destroy each creature with power 2 or less.”
With fewer creatures in post-sideboard games, we can also replace some Valley Rotcaller.
Their main card advantage engine is Mosswood Dreadknight. We’re bringing six removal spells that exile the creature so it doesn’t keep coming back and drawing them cards.
Obliterating Bolt is also nice against their five mana Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal.
Vs. Boros Convoke
+4 Glistening Deluge
+4 Obliterating Bolt
+1 Anoint with Affliction
-4 Thought-Stalker Warlock
-3 Ravine Raider
-2 Fireglass Mentor
We don’t want to kill our creatures so we board out our one-toughness creatures whenever we bring in Glistening Deluge.
Knight-Errant of Eos has four toughness to dodge Glistening Deluge but we can exile it for two mana with Obliterating Bolt.
We generally want to keep our mana curve intact in post-sideboard games. Thought-Stalker Warlock is an easy cut. It costs the same as Glistening Deluge. Also, making them discard one card does not match up well against Knight-Errant of Eos, which puts two cards into their hand.
Boros Convoke has a lot of cheap spells. They can empty their hand pretty quickly. There will be situations where they have no cards in hand, making Thought-Stalker Warlock pretty useless.
Also, the Knight can come down on turn two. So we can’t even discard it on the play.
Vs. Boros Mice
+4 Obliterating Bolt
+2 Anoint with Affliction
-4 Thought-Stalker Warlock
-1 Fireglass Mentor
-1 Mudflat Village
Heartfire Hero is the biggest threat. We’re bringing in six removal spells that don’t trigger its death ability.
We’re lowering the mana curve by cutting Thought-Stalker Warlock so we can afford to board out a land.
Vs. Gruul Prowess
+4 Obliterating Bolt
+2 Anoint with Affliction
+4 Duress
-4 Thought-Stalker Warlock
-3 Ravine Raider
-2 Fireglass Mentor
-1 Mudflat Village
Duress might look like a curious addition. It’s there to hit their one-mana protection spells like Royal Treatment. Running a two-mana removal spell into their one-mana protection card is a big tempo loss.
With Duress, we don’t need more discard with Thought-Stalker Warlock. With too many discard spells, we run the risk of drawing one when they have no cards in hand. Plus, the Lizard Warlock is too slow against aggro.
Ravine Raider is not aggressive enough at one damage per turn. It’s also an ideal cut because costs the same as Duress.
Fireglass Mentor is better against midrange. Against aggro, you’re not in a card advantage war. You’re racing to deal damage faster than your opponent. Card advantage takes a back seat to monitoring life totals and setting up alpha strikes.
Vs. Azorius Control
+4 Duress
-4 Go for the Throat
Vs. Selesnya Rabbits
+4 Glistening Deluge
+4 Obliterating Bolt
+2 Anoint with Affliction
-4 Thought-Stalker Warlock
-3 Ravine Raider
-2 Fireglass Mentor
-1 Flamecache Gecko
One-sided Day of Judgment on the cute little bunnies is so mean. 😈
Vs. Rakdos Lizards
+1 Laughing Jasper Flint
+4 Obliterating Bolt
+2 Anoint with Affliction
-4 Thought-Stalker Warlock
-3 Ravine Raider
Three mana discard is not good against an aggro deck that can empty their hand quickly. Also, Thought-Stalker Warlock is not good against the never-ending card advantage of Laughing Jasper Flint.
We could cut a land because we’re lowering the mana curve. However, I think you want all the lands. You need mana to cast the spells from Laughing Jasper Flint.
Ravine Raider is not good. They have a lot of cheap small creatures to nullify menace.
Vs. Orzhov Bats
+4 Glistening Deluge
+4 Obliterating Bolt
+2 Anoint with Affliction
-4 Thought-Stalker Warlock
-3 Ravine Raider
-2 Fireglass Mentor
-1 Flamecache Gecko
Our exile removal spells get around the death trigger of Essence Channeler.
I really enjoyed this theory crafting and the explanation. Thank you very much and please continue to do so :)