Rakdos SignetRakdos Signet | Art by Martina Pilcerova

For a long time, I was trying to figure out where I fell, color-wise. My natural inclination had been something with red and/or green. Was I white-aligned, like my old bio? Maybe a dash of blue? Heliod forbid I was into black!

When the first Ravnica block hit its 20th anniversary a few weeks ago, Bennie Smith published this article. I delved into that article, and my past, going all the way back to the first time I played Commander (then, it was called EDH). I had a Wort, Boggart AuntieWort, Boggart Auntie deck, followed by Kalitas, Bloodchief of GhetKalitas, Bloodchief of Ghet. Then, Tariel, Reckoner of SoulsTariel, Reckoner of Souls came around.

Then I was in Boros, with mono-black soon after. Do you see a pattern yet? While a bit late for the Ravnica 20th anniversary festivities, I'd like to honor my new color identity with this deck tech.

Who's Our Commander? Funny You Asked

Locke Cole hails from Final Fantasy VI as one of the main protagonists of the game. He set out, joining the main team, searching for a treasure that was said to undo death. He had feelings for someone, but her memories were wiped because of an accident he felt terrible about.

While he does find the treasure, his love interest died. That said, you'll find me as one of those people who'd ship him with Celes, Rune KnightCeles, Rune Knight (like, seriously, those two were made for each other).

When building this deck, I mostly threw in some of my favorite cards, and called it a day. However, I realized that there was a major Reanimator slant (sound familiar? It's a theme I've covered more times than I should have in this series). With that, I focused harder on it, but some of my favorite Rakdos () cards are still in there.

Locke, Treasure HunterLocke, Treasure Hunteris more of a theft card, but he does pull his weight here on top of being a favorite.

A Personal Touch

Strong and weak cards can be a selfish perception. As Commander players, we should be winning with our favorites. An old favorite of the series returns in The Spear of LeonidasThe Spear of Leonidas. While we'll likely choose the double strike option, its Faithless LootingFaithless Looting (also in today's deck list) impression is on point.

Though we might end up milling Wake the DragonWake the Dragon, we can always pay the flashback cost to get a decently-sized beater. Meanwhile, The Ruinous PowersThe Ruinous Powers will steal a card from a random opponent each turn.

On the other hand, Lidless GazeLidless Gaze lets us cast the top card of everyone's library. Like Wake the Dragon, it has flashback, so we can do it again.

There's some other cards I've come to grow fond of. Descent into AvernusDescent into Avernus makes for some quick games. While its red brother Creative TechniqueCreative Technique isn't in the Universes Beyond card pool, Incarnation TechniqueIncarnation Technique fills our yard, and bring back up to two creatures.

Lastly, Death in HeavenDeath in Heaven gives us ample blockers while wiping out opponents' graveyards. There can be only one graveyard deck at a table, after all.

Unearthing Some Beef

As I said earlier, this is a Reanimator deck at its heart, so I had to make sure the deck acted like one. Both The Balrog of MoriaThe Balrog of Moria and Rampaging War MammothRampaging War Mammoth discard themselves for a benefit, then we can bring them back later on.

Speaking of discard, we have plenty of ways to do this, including the recent Ultimate Green GoblinUltimate Green Goblin, and the likes of Unexpected WindfallUnexpected Windfall. While it doesn't discard, Stitcher's SupplierStitcher's Supplier mills us cards, so we can start using necromancy to revive old forum posts...I mean big creatures.

One of the best creatures to bring back (and a new favorite of mine as of this year) is Kefka, Dancing MadKefka, Dancing Mad. Who doesn't like to rob opponents' graveyards of some juicy stuff during the end step? Just beware that he's a removal magnet, and will be taken out faster than you can say "in response."

Outside of him, and the other mentions, we have our usual Reanimator suspects, like Combustible GearhulkCombustible Gearhulk and Cavern-Hoard DragonCavern-Hoard Dragon.

The same goes with our reanimation suite. Nothing too out of the ordinary, except Too Greedily, Too DeepToo Greedily, Too Deep, for being a favorite of mine. It's reanimation and a wipe in one. What's not to love outside of that high casting cost?

Locke, Treasure Hunter Commander Deck List

A Carnival of Horrors

Reanimator, yet again - but I digress. To assist with pummeling our opponents until they bleed, we have BloodthirsterBloodthirster and Scourge of the ThroneScourge of the Throne. The more extra combat steps we get, the easier we can achieve our goal.

However, to get there, we're going to need more than just one of those creatures (or both if we're lucky). And that's where the reanimation spells come in, with ones reviving multiple at once being premium. Rise of the Dark RealmsRise of the Dark Realms and Sepulchral PrimordialSepulchral Primordial achieve exactly this.

On the other hand, Living DeathLiving Death can do it too, but it's also a board wipe, so it's a card that needs to be played when the time's right.

If we could repeatedly reanimate creatures, Gau, Feral YouthGau, Feral Youth will trigger, whittling down opponents to soften them up. Granted, he has to attack for that ability to gain some mileage. Fortunately, we have cards that grant haste like Gimli's Reckless MightGimli's Reckless Might, which also doubles as creature removal. Our creatures will be big enough to eliminate something a lot of the time. Surely, though, our horizons will broaden when we look to add in-universe cards.

The Multiverse is a Playground

Looking at Rakdos as a whole, there's a lot going for it, theme-wise, besides Reanimator: Kindred, Burn, Spellslinger, Artifacts, Sacrifice/Threaten, and more. As of the writing of this article, I'm on the verge of having 12 Rakdos decks to my name (one's a precon), all doing different things. It was all part of a deckbuilding waltz I haven't had in many years. Like I just found my spark again. But I digress - back to the deck list.

According to EDHREC, the go-to for Reanimator in Rakdos is Chainer, Nightmare AdeptChainer, Nightmare Adept, a list I fortunately have (and willing to share in a little bit). It's not Reanimator in the traditional sense, where we bring back big, beefy monstrosities. Instead, we have an assortment of low-end creatures to bring back with Chainer's ability.

That said, since he requires you to discard a card to use the ability, there's also a bevy of cards that exploit this cost, including the madness mechanic. However, it wouldn't hurt to throw in a big creature or two if they help with the game plan.

To transition the above list to a Chainer deck will require a massive overhaul, like I'll demonstrate below.

Chainer, Nightmare Adept Commander Deck List

The Party's Aftermath

All of this said, this is just one color combination. An in-depth look into any other color combination will reveal the same story, which is an overarching theme with quirky ones beneath the surface. You could mainly find this trend with two-color combinations. That said, I can't speak for the three-color ones.

So, this is where I'm curious to hear from you, the reader. Do you have multiple decks of a given combination? If so, how many themes are you covering?

Right now we're wrapping up previews for the upcoming Avatar: The Last Airbender set, so we should be getting even more toys to play with (don't worry; I'm tired too).

Tune in next time, where we return to some normalcy, possibly covering one of these new options. I know I got a couple of characters on my to-cover list.

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