Welcome back! This week, we look to beef up another “average” deck to make it more competitive. EDH offers several different avenues to attack. Last time, we looked at Karador, Ghost Chieftain where the objective was to quickly assemble a combo that leveraged our graveyard and kill all our opponents in one continuous loop. The deck played grindy, value-based creatures and spells that contributed to the overall goal. This time, we take a different route to bring death to our enemies.

Today we look at Rafiq of the Many. Rafiq is not known as a fun general to play against, because he hits hard and fast, and usually takes someone out by the fourth or fifth turn. As always, there are a few different directions that you can take, but we will focus on a Voltron-style build, aiming to create a giant, unkillable, unblockable monster out of Rafiq, similar to hexproof strategies commonly found in Modern or Standard decks of yesteryear.

Here's a list, pulled directly using EDHREC's Average Deck feature:

I believe that, while the original list was decent, this new deck is more streamlined. We trimmed some of the “cuter” cards, and mostly ditched the exalted sub-theme for a more consistent enchantress theme. Normally, “hexproof” style decks, such as GW Hexproof in Modern tend to be a glass cannon, since you run out of gas or threats a fair amount of the time. Since our best threat is our commander, we are always able to cast a threat and follow up with some more pressure in the form of evasion or protection. As for playing the deck, don’t try to be too political. When you are able to kill someone, kill him or her. Less players at the table means that there are less people who can stop what you are doing. If you can take out two people, obviously take out the person that looks like the biggest threat or in the best position to stop you.

Thanks for reading! Please feel free to give me your thoughts in the comments, and any ideas for my next deck to remake are more than welcome.