The fourth and final deck of Commander 2019 has finally been revealed. Based around madness mechanics, Merciless Rage gives a lot of new support (and some great reprints) for the Rakdos colors. There’s a ton of great cards to go through, so let’s get right into it!
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Reprints
Planeswalkers
Ob Nixilis is a great reprint in the planeswalker slot. Card draw and removal all in one is hard to beat. He’ll make a great addition to any black commander deck you add him to.
Creatures
- 1 Champion of Stray Souls
- 1 Geth, Lord of the Vault
- 1 Soul of Innistrad
- 1 Asylum Visitor
- 1 Doomed Necromancer
- 1 Overseer of the Damned
- 1 Flayer of the Hatebound
- 1 Magus of the Wheel
- 1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
- 1 Stromkirk Occultist
- 1 Bloodhall Priest
- 1 Solemn Simulacrum
- 1 Big Game Hunter
- 1 Gorgon Recluse
- 1 Grave Scrabbler
- 1 Nightshade Assassin
- 1 Plaguecrafter
- 1 Sanitarium Skeleton
- 1 Meteor Golem
All of these creatures have madness or ways to enable madness for the deck. Plaguecrafter is excellent removal, Squee is a great recurring card, and Magus of the Wheel is a great way to refill your hand while discarding cards. Very solid reprints overall that help to round out the deck.
Sorceries
- 1 Boneyard Parley
- 1 Beacon of Unrest
- 1 From Under the Floorboards
- 1 In Garruk’s Wake
- 1 Avacyn’s Judgment
- 1 Call to the Netherworld
- 1 Murderous Compulsion
- 1 Alchemist’s Greeting
- 1 Malevolent Whispers
The sorceries in this deck either work with madness or are just generically good. Beacon of Unrest is a great commander staple, giving you access to all your opponent’s creatures. I wish there were a boardwipe or two more in this section, but In Garruk’s Wake does the job well.
Instants
Chaos Warp is fantastic removal, so its always good to see another reprint of it. Fiery Temper is just a lightning bolt with madness, but it works with the deck’s theme so it’s fine. Overall not too bad.
Artifacts
- 1 Grimoire of the Dead
- 1 Key to the City
- 1 Armillary Sphere
- 1 Hedron Archive
- 1 Rakdos Locket
- 1 Sol Ring
Ramp and madness enablers fill the artifact slot, as expected. There’s not as much mana fixing here, since this the only two color deck of the cycle, but that’s to be expected. They’re a solid foundation to the deck, but if you plan on upgrading it, add more mana rocks.
Enchantments
The enchantments here do a nice job of rounding out the deck. Are they essential? Nope, but they help you build a solid deck base. These don’t have a ton of value either, but they’re nice to see either way.
Lands
- 1 Drownyard Temple
- 1 Exotic Orchard
- 1 Geier Reach Sanitarium
- 10 Swamp
- 10 Mountain
- 1 Akoum Refuge
- 1 Ash Barrens
- 1 Barren Moor
- 1 Bloodfell Caves
- 1 Cinder Barrens
- 1 Command Tower
- 1 Evolving Wilds
- 1 Forgotten Cave
- 1 Memorial to Folly
- 1 Mortuary Mire
- 1 Myriad Landscape
- 1 Rakdos Carnarium
- 1 Rakdos Guildgate
- 1 Rix Maadi, Dungeon Palace
- 1 Terramorphic Expanse
- 1 Temple of the False God
You want a good starter Rakdos mana base? This deck has it. Is it optimal? Absolutely not, but it will get the job done. There’s nothing super high value in here (like a Cabal Coffers) but it’ll get the job done. There’s some nice reprints of the battle for zendikar duals as well as Ash Barrens, so that helps the deck out quite a bit. Overall excellent.
New Cards
- 1 Anje Falkenrath
- 1 Chainer, Nightmare Adept
- 1 Greven, Predator Captain
- 1 Archfiend of Spite
- 1 Bone Miser
- 1 Curse of Fool’s Wisdom
- 1 K’rrik, Son of Yawgmoth
- 1 Nightmare Unmaking
- 1 Anje’s Ravager
- 1 Skyfire Phoenix
- 1 Wildfire Devils
- 1 Aeon Engine
- 1 Sanctum of Eternity
- 1 Mire in Misery
- 1 Hate Mirage
- 1 Bloodthirsty Blade
- 1 Scaretiller
As always, the new Commander 2019 cards always bring some new possibilities to the table and could warrant articles of their own. Instead, I’ll be brief about the few that stood out to me.
The new Chainer looks like a sweet way to cast your madness creatures and reanimate your creatures. He does grant anything that you didn’t cast from hand haste, so expect some sweet kills with Rise of the Dark Realms and him.
Will reversing the turn order win you the game? Probably not. Is it hilarious to do? Absolutely. Have fun scrambling everyone’s plans with this sweet new effect.
Everyone loves drawing cards in commander, but if you want to punish someone for it, this is the card for you. One player is going to slowly die and hate you with every card they draw. This will be especially sweet in decks that make everyone draw tons of cards.
Verdict
Overall, the Rakdos Madness deck is an excellent two-color addition to Commander 2019. It may not be the flashiest, but seeing all this new support for madness is bound to get the brewing juices flowing. There’s nothing super high in value here, but it’s a definite improvement from last year. Overall, it’s a fantastic product worth buying.
What do you think of the deck? Do you plan on brewing with any of the sweet new cards? Let us know down in the comments below!
Published: Aug 12, 2019 10:33 am