#rakdos carnarium

[mtg-cards-hourly]

Rakdos Carnarium

Artist: John Avon TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

[raakdos-battlemap]

[Ravnica Battlemap]Rakdos Carnarium 32x56

Strips of flaming banners whipped violently around the Carnarium stage, threatening to catch the rafters ablaze. A half dozen goblin stagehands struggled for breath underneath a collapsed girder.

Other variations of this map:

[crowvn]

How well does Cinder get along with other Rakdos guild members?

Absolutely in love with any and all members. The carnarium is her home away from home, the cult a family she never got to have.

[foxgirlintestines]

So my friend got me to play a Ravnica setting MtG DnD campaign. its been silly so far, because he obviously is not a very strict or well planned DM. This is our current situation:

Our Party: A group of people who dodn;t truly fit in with our guilds who have met eachother through sheer circumstance and misadventure plot lines. A Hybrid Druid from the Simic who is the party’s healer. She is an eccentric doctor of sorts from the Combine who is researching how to improve the Guardian project by reaching out to other guilds and studying the fauna that the Simic do not usually encounter. She has zero moral compas and testing may mean setting loose krasis on citezens to see how efficient the traits of each creature are, or using unwilling subjects and altering their bodies or testing “medicines” on them. She is basically if an Izzet scientist was in the Simic instead. A Weird Mage from the Izzet, our primary ranged dps. Honestly, this weird is as greedy and corrupt as he could be and is trying to patent an invention to make himself rich. Despite that, he actually has a soft side and has gone through great lengths to save a NPC from bad dealings with the Orzov and free the litte goblin from a contract that would have claimed his soul. He is shifty and has stolen from the market and as a result has made an enemy of the Boros because his minor illusion was not enough for him to get away with it. His greed over his desire to pursue science for science makes him not quite a perfect fit within the rest of the izzet. An Elemental Barbarian from the Selesnya, our frontline fighter. The giant creature of crystal and vines is actually quite mild most of the time, but has no mercy and is very willing to pulverize anything in its path to a bloody smear on its body or hammer. The Elemental has a soft spot for animals, and has taken in both a feral makka found near the rubblebelt and a hellhound. The big kitty has since run away but it is very protective of the fiery doggo. The Elemental does not know common speak and has to gesture to communicate, or speak to the Druid. They get along well with the druid as they share a love for animals. The agressiveness of the elemental is contradictory to the serenity of the rest of the Selesnya, and the elemental might be better suited to be a Gruul. A Vampire Rogue from the Dimir who does whatever stelth things we need. We don’t know a lot about him as he hides his true alliance from the rest of the party. Only the Druid knows he is Dimir and she doesn’t particularly care enough to tell the others. He seems to be with the party because it furthers his ulterior motives, but none of us know what his true plans are. A Minotaur Bard from the Rakdos, our primary comic releif and in party antagonist. He is an actor in the Rakdos theaters who is a method actor trying to play the part of the gretest villain t murder people on stage more correctly. of course, being Rakdos, the on stage murders are not acting at all, they are the murder clowns reveling in exploding themselves. So far, he has made things worse with every situation that we have tried to handle delicately, especially when dealing with the Orzov and saving the NPC mentioned before, and the incident with the Boros. I have no idea how he hasn’t killed himself yet, and trust me, he has tried on several occasions. he takes his “perfomances” too seriously and doesn’t fully fit in with a lot of the choas of the other Rakdos. A Paladin from the Azorius who is our... lawyer. He is currently trying to argue with the Boros on our behalf, but we do not think it will actually work. The reason he is helping us is unknown since we are about as lawless as a party comes. he might be a bit underhanded and is possibly more of a fit for the orzov than the justice and order pursuing Azorius. And a huge pile of dead party members because we are not good at this. One of them tried to betray the party and they didn;t really make a good descision in doing so. One of them tried to escape from the Borors while swinging from a vine and well, he tarzaned off of a very high cliff in the Rubblebelt. Another was torn to peices by a fungus covered tyranosaur in the undercity. We ran into an unfortunate rolling of the encounter table there, and we had to run with some sacrifices. So far, we destroyed a market and angered the Boros and killed one of the soldiers who fought us and held the other two hostage. Visited the Rakdos Carnariums and somehow survived by instead of letting us be exploded and stuff on stage we gave them our Boros captives from the market incident to let them have their fun. We rescued a goblin from an Orzhov contract by trading a diffferent soul to pay the debt. We’ve explored the Rubblebelt and Undercity with not very good results. had a lot of continued conflicts with the Boros because people do not know how to chill. Found some strange chemicals that were a byproduct of the great “invention” the Weird was trying to make and also blew up a factory. Since learned that one of those byproducts is a highly adictive drug because the bard decided to eat some of it (it is also toxic, but his addiction overides his non-existant self preservation). And now, our Druid is going to help purify the poisons and test the chemical to produce a refined drug while the mege is planning on synthesizing more of it... We are a bunch of idiots from our respective guilds and we have ended up starting a drug ring. We basically have just ignored lore and stuff in exchange for fun and at this time we have our full cast of Breaking Bad rejects. So yeah, we are basically playing drunk DnD but we are just a bunch of dorks who don’t need the alcohol to completely derail this campaign.

[bacejelerenvorthos]

Ravnica Allegiance Flavor Spotlight: Blood Crypt

Flavor text: Life is a show, and death its final performance.

Like several of the guilds on Ravnica, the Rakdos have undergone a bit of a facelift in Ravnica Allegiance. We saw the Golgari become much more regal and rise to a position of power under Vraska. The Azorius have become much more austere and intimidating under the control of Dovin Baan. And while the Rakdos haven’t had a change in leadership in millennia (they still serve and worship the same old party demon), they have fully embraced their role and purpose on Ravnica: to get people to stop being so damn serious. “Live a little,” the Rakdos would say! While everyone is running around trying to build stronger armies or gain footholds of power, the Rakdos really just sit back and laugh and mock. They satirize Ravnica’s leaders, party until the sun comes up or everyone dies (the latter is often more likely) and simply just refuse to take life too seriously. For the Rakdos, death is not something to be avoided or subverted; it is to be embraced and enjoyed! Blood Crypt gives us a beautiful and haunting glimpse into what the inside of a Rakdos carnarium looks like: lots of spikes, fire and torture devices. The rest of Ravnica can stress, worry, and prepare for some coming doom. If doom is truly coming, we might as well enjoy ourselves and indulge our hedonistic impulses until we get there....assuming we live that long.

[jones-friend]

An Updated Reference for Multi Lands (in Building a Budget Manabase)

Colorless of Note

Reliquary Tower

Geier Reach Sanitarium

Ghost Quarter

Tectonic Edge

Arch of Orazca

Detection Tower

Arcane Lighthouse

Field of Ruin

Zhalfirin Void

Buried Ruin

Sequestered Stash

High Market

Isolated Watchtower

Temple of the False God

Maze of Ith

Mystifying Maze

Dual

Orzhov - Orzhov Basilica, Orzhov Guildgate, Scoured Barrens, Foresaken Sanctuary, Tainted Field, Salt Flats

Isolated Chapel, Godless Shrine, Shambling Vent, Concealed Courtyard, Caves of Koilos, Fetid Heath

Dimir - Dimir Aqueduct, Dimir Guildgate, Dismal Backwater, Salt Marsh, Submerged Boneyard, Frost Marsh, Jwar Isle Refuge, Dreadship Reach, Tainted Isle, Waterfall Cavern, Rootwater Depths

Drowned Catacomb, Watery Grave, Choked Estuary, Sunken Hollow, Fetid Pools, Underground River, Darkwater Catacombs, Sunken Ruins, Morphic Pool

Golgari - Golgari Rot Farm, Golgari Guildgate, Foul Orchard, Jungle Hollow, Tainted Wood, Pine Barrens

Woodland Cemetery, Overgrown Tomb, Hissing Quagmire, Blooming Marsh, Llanowar Wastes, Twilight Mire

Rakdos - Rakdos Carnarium, Rakdos Guildgate, Urborg Volcano, Cinder Barrens, Bloodfell Caves, Akoum Refuge, Molten Slagheap, Tainted Peak, Lantern-Lit Graveyard, Cinder Marsh

Dragonskull Summit, Blood Crypt, Foreboding Ruins, Smoldering Marsh, Canyon Slough, Sulfurous Springs, Shadowblood Ridge, Graven Cairns, Luxury Suite

Boros - Boros Garrison, Boros Guildgate, Stone Quarry, Wind-Scarred Crag, Scabland

Clifftop Retreat, Sacred Foundry, Needle Spires, Inspiring Vantage, Battlefield Forge, Rugged Prairie

Azorius - Azorius Chancery, Azorius Guildgate, Coastal Tower, Meandering River, Boreal Shelf, Sejiri Refuge, Tranquil Cove, Calciform Pools, Cloudcrest Lake, Thalakos Lowlands

Glacial Fortress, Hallowed Fountain, Port Town, Prairies Stream, Irrigated Farmland, Adarkar Wastes, Skycloud Expanse, Mystic Gate, Sea of Clouds

Selesnya - Selesnya Sanctuary, Selesnya Guildgate, Elfhame Palace, Tranquil Expanse, Arctic Flats, Graypelt Refuge, Blossoming Sands, Saltcrusted Steppe, Tranquil Garden, Vecc Townships

Sunpetal Grove, Temple Garden, Fortified Village, Canopy Vista, Scattered Groves, Brushland, Sungrass Prairie, Wooded Bastion, Bountiful Promenade

Simic - Simic Growth Chamber, Simic Guildgate, Woodland Stream, Thornwood Falls, Skyshroud Forest

Hinterland Harbor, Breeding Pool, Lumbering Falls, Botanical Sanctum, Yavimaya Coast, Flooded Grove

Izzet - Izzet Boilerworks, Izzet Guildgate, Highland Lake, Swiftwater Cliffs, Caldera Lake

Sulfur Falls, Steam Vents, Spirebluff Canal, Wandering Fumarole, Shivan Reef, Cascade Bluffs

Gruul - Gruul Turf, Gruul Guildgate, Shivan Oasis, Timber Gorge, Highland Weald, Kazandu Refuge, Rugged Highlands, Fungal Reaches, Pinecrest Ridge, Mogg Hollows

Rootbound Crag, Stomping Grounds, Game Trail, Cinder Glade, Sheltered Thicket, Karplusian Forest, Mossfire Ridge, Fire-lit Thicket, Spire Garden

Triple Lands

Shards - Seaside Citadel, Crumbling Necropolis (Crypt of the Eternals), Arcane Sanctum, Savage Lands, Jungle Shrine

Khans - Sandsteppe Citadel, Frontier Bivouac, Nomad Outpost, Opulent Palace, Mystic Monastery

Multicolor

Command Tower, Transguild Promenade, Rupture Spire, Gateway Plaza

Exotic Orchard, Forbidden Orchard, Reflecting Pool, Pillar of the Paruns, Primal Beyond, Mana Confluence, Ancient Ziggurat, City of Brass, Grand Coliseum, Haven of the Spirit Dragon, Ally Encampment, Rainbow Vale, Sliver Hive, Spire of Industry, Undiscovered Paradise, Unclaimed Territory, Path of Ancestry

Vivid Grove, Crag, Creek, Marsh, Meadow

Fetches

Basic Land

Evolving Wilds, Terramorphic Expanse, Myriad Landscape, Panoramas

Land Type

Bad River, Flood Plain, Grasslands, Krosan Verge, Mountain Valley, Rocky Tar Pit

[15-dollars-and-a-dream]

Budget MTGO, Lands [EDH]

[Detailed List Here]

This is the final part of my series in budget staples for Commander on MTGO. The goal of this series was to hopefully get some newer players into the Commander scene on MTGO, you can build some extremely powerful decks on extreme budgets. Previously we talked about card draw, we talked about ramp, and we talked about removal. In todays final part, we are talking about land choices. As with the previous 3 lists, the goal is to keep every card under 1Tix. However, as is always the case with lands, the blue ones are more expensive, as such a few cards do go over budget, but not by much. I didn’t want to break up the cycles and neglect blue players. There isn’t a lot to talk about when it comes to specifics here. Which is why I’m instead going to talk about making a mana base on a budget. 

Online i see a lot of people using Khans life lands, and RtR gates. You deserve better. With the exception of Evolving Wilds and Terramorphic Expanse, budget lands that come into play tapped tend to be awful. The reason being, you’re putting yourself a turn behind the rest of the table. The more of them you run, the more turns you’re effectively not playing a land. I find it better to run more basics, and compensate with cards like Burnished Hart, than to flood yourself with cards like this.

An easy way to avoid getting stuck on a colour while playing a lot of basics is to do some basic math. Count up the pips in your cards, find out a total of each one. In the above image I have a Blue Black Scarab God good stuff deck I’m currently tinkering with. I intend to run 38 lands, and my current distribution is 42 U (not counting metamorph, but counting Scarab God), and 24 B. So that’s 42:24 or 10.5:6 (I know you shouldn't use decimals in ratios, but its fine dw about it). So in my actual mana base, I will have a number of nonbasics that tap for both colours, and a number that tap for neither. In this specific case, I have room for 12 basics, and already have 2 nonbasics that already produce B. so if I run 9 Islands and 3 Swamps ill be a 9:5 ratio, which is as close as I can get to 42:24.

And you could stop there and be fine. But, lets take a closer look at this deck. Looking at 1-3 drops only, its 16 U to 14 B. So my early turns are more weighted toward black than my end game. By the time I’m casting 4-6 drops my mana will have had time to smooth out. So instead of going 9:5, I could go 8:7 and have closer to an even distribution. 

That’s a lot of rambly numbers with no clear and explicit point. So to clarify, If you look closely at your mana distribution, both in intensity of cost, and frequencey through curve, you can tune your mana base to increase the odds of getting exactly what you need, instead of just running more bad lands that slow down your game plan.

It might sound hypocritical to say that, and then post a list full of tap lands. The Cycling lands while giving you a tempo disadvantage early, can offset that problem by allowing you to cylce them away for cards that help with your game plan. I only recommend those for slower more mid range or control decks, as their first few turns often aren’t very exciting. 

The Check lands from BFZ are not great if you don’t have fetch lands, which you probably wont on MTGO if you’re reading this. However, as I am recommending you play more basics than the average tuned deck, while you cant fetch these, they’re closer to the Glacial Fortress cycle in this case. 

Finally, The tri lands from Alara and Khans. To be honest, I try not to play these. However, 3 and 4 colour decks are hard to build a mana base for on a budget. You cant as easily just run more basics, as you’re trying to hit too many colours in 3-5 turns. 

I hope this series has been useful. If you have any questions or suggestions please let us know!

[Detailed List Here]

Stay chill, stay hydrated. Love you. -IZ

Adarkar Wastes Arcane Sanctum Azorius Chancery Battlefield Forge Boros Garrison Bountiful Promenade Brushland Canopy Vista Canyon Slough Caves of Koilos Cinder Glade Clifftop Retreat Command Tower Crumbling Necropolis Dimir Aqueduct Dragonskull Summit Drowned Catacomb Fetid Pools Forest Frontier Bivouac Ghost Quarter Glacial Fortress Golgari Rot Farm Gruul Turf Hinterland Harbor Irrigated Farmland Island Isolated Chapel Izzet Boilerworks Jungle Shrine Karplusan Forest Llanowar Wastes Luxury Suite Morphic Pool Mountain Mystic Monastery Nomad Outpost Opulent Palace Orzhov Basilica Plains Prairie Stream Rakdos Carnarium Rootbound Crag Sandsteppe Citadel Savage Lands Scattered Groves Scavenger Grounds Sea Gate Wreckage Sea of Clouds Seaside Citadel Selesnya Sanctuary Sheltered Thicket Shivan Reef Simic Growth Chamber Smoldering Marsh Spire Garden Sulfur Falls Sulfurous Springs Sunken Hollow Sunpetal Grove Swamp Tectonic Edge Underground River Woodland Cemetery Yavimaya Coast

[pauperpedia]

Tuesday Brewsday 30: Rakdos Cult 101

It’s not often Pauper gets a card that screams BUILD AROUND ME. However, when I first saw the card First Day of Class and folks from discord and reddit pointed out that it works with persist creatures, I got hyped. No longer do you need to rely on green for Ivy Lane Denizen if you want to play a sacrifice deck with combo potential. SteelOsprei, MrMeatzombie, and myself from the same discord immediately began throwing some deck ideas around. We ultimately came to the untested realization that you could build a deck with three different ideas in mind based around Putrid Goblin & First Day of Class. You could channel your inner Caleb Gannon, famous combo deck and storm brewer, and build a glass “Gannon” version that could potentially win on turn 1 or 2. You could build a combination aggro-combo deck, but being 2 colors makes that difficult to pull off. The last option, which I like the best, is you could go more in on the potentially grindy value plan. There is even a Rakdos version of goblins being brewed out there being dubbed Moggwarts (be sure to keep your eyes open for that one). Although that deck looked tempting, I thought it was best to write about my original plan. Without further ado, here’s my carnarium!

MAINBOARD:

4 First Day of Class

4 Carrion Feeder

2 Skirk Prospector

1 Lampad of Death's Vigil

1 Thoughtpicker Witch

4 Putrid Goblin

2 Rendclaw Trow

4 Mogg War Marshal

2 Crypt Rats

1 Goblin Matron

1 Flamewave Invoker

4 Merchant of the Vale

2 Night’s Whisper

3 Unearth

2 Reaping the Graves

4 Chainer's Edict

4 Sulfurous Mire

10 Swamp

2 Witch's Cottage

2 Rakdos Carnarium

2 Mountain

SIDEBOARD:

3 Pest Summoning

2 Mesmeric Fiend

4 Red Elemental Blast

4 Trespasser's Curse

2 Flaring Pain

First Day of Class will become pauper legal once Strixhaven comes out. This card, which can be cast at Instant speed for one generic & one red source of mana, gives will creatures that enter the battlefield a +1/+1 counter and haste until the end of the turn. It also has the Learn mechanic which lets you grab a lesson from your sideboard and put it into your hand. Thanks to our persist creatures Putrid Goblin and Rendclaw Trow, we could take advantage of unlimited triggers. So what do we do with these unlimited triggers? Carrion Feeder can get unlimited +1/+1 counters, or Skirk Prospector can create unlimited amounts of red mana if we sac Putrid Goblin to it. With unlimited red mana you can use endless activations from Thoughtpicker Witch, Lampad of Death’s Vigil, Flamewave Invoker, or Merchant of the Vale to churn through your deck. I still don’t know if I prefer Thoughtpicker Witch or Lampad of Death’s Vigil, or maybe I just want more Flamewave Invokers. I would love to see and hear your thoughts about this one.

The one glaring pitfall with the deck is First Day of Class can only be used efficiently on your “combo” turn. I can see the problem where you have a hard time finding pieces for the combo in the face of removal and then get your FDoC countered when you finally have the creatures. This is why I went for more of a resilient grindy deck that can combo off out of nowhere if given enough time.

So the key for this deck to work is how often you can recur your creatures. The deck hinges on Unearth being able to bring a combo piece back to the battlefield so that it can go off, but sometimes just getting a huge Carrion Feeder early on can be enough. The deck is running 3 Unearth since it’s never a dead card thanks to its cycling ability, 1 Reaping the Graves to bring everything back and start over, and two Witch’s Cottage. Since I wanted to play Crypt Rats as an answer to go wide decks or as a finisher, I needed to play a lot of swamps which makes perfect sense to run Witch’s Cottage. It can be reused thanks to Rakdos Carnarium as well. Having this much creature recursion can help you win in the face of abundant creature removal. Sometime you just need to be patient and play the deck like a true combo deck, and sometimes you just need to apply as much pressure as you can.

Goblin Matron is a great value tutor and could possibly even deserve more spots in the deck. Most of the time it will grab a combo piece like Skirk Prospector, Putrid Goblin, or Flamewave Invoker and help you set up for a combo turn. It’s also Unearthable so don’t be afraid to discard it to Merchant of the Vale’s adventure mode in Haggle and gain value in a later turn.

Since I decided to run Merchant of the Vale over Faithless Looting purely for the upside of churning through the deck with unlimited mana to try and find a finisher, the deck needed some form of actual card draw. I could have gone with Village Rites, after all I’m running the appropriate creatures for it, but I wanted something I could always use in case I don’t have the right creature(s) out. Night’s Whisper will remain my card draw of choice, but if Village Rites is more your style, then I think that is perfectly acceptable as well.

One thing I hate losing to is Hexproof. That’s why you see the deck is running four copies of Chainer’s Edict. Alternatively you could run snow lands and play Skred since the deck is already utilizing Sulfurous Mire, or you could run Cast Down. However I don’t like leaving things up to being a race, which is what I foresee the Hexproof matchup being The combination having a playset of Chainer’s Edict & some Crypt Rats can help improve that matchup.

The sideboard is a work in progress for now, I’m still keeping an eye on what Strixhaven will grant us in the form of lessons. Till then I’m taking advantage of the Learn mechanic from First Day of Class. I’ve devoted 3 slots in the sideboard to grabbing a lesson, maybe even just 2 is the correct amount, but grabbing Pest Summoning from FDoC is perfectly acceptable. With Pest Summoning you put two 1/1 black and green pest tokens that gain you life when they die. Sounds like perfect sacrifice fodder to me.

Trespasser’s Curse is the deck’s tech against anything trying to do the same in the mirror, Elves, Flicker decks that are continually looping creatures, and go wide decks. The mirror will be an interesting matchup for sure and might just come down to who has the biggest Carrion Feeder or the most Curses on the battlefield. That sounds horrible actually, nonetheless it’s an important sideboard card to have in my opinion.

Mesmeric Fiend is this deck’s Castigate in creature form. I like Mesmeric Fiend in conjunction with sac outlets because it lets you permanently exile the card you ripped from your opponent’s hand, so long as you sacrificed Mesmeric Fiend with the ability trigger on the stack. Mesmeric Fiend can be brought back with all of our recursion made available to us which hopefully poses a constant pain for the opponent.

The more typical sideboard choices can be found here as well like Nihil Spellbomb and Red Elemental Blast. REB is there for anything running Counterspell or relying on blue cards resolving or staying around on the battlefield. Nihil Spellbomb can be brought in against a variety of decks like Cycling, TortEx, Exhume, Fog, Boros Bully, or the mirror.

It’s not often the Rakdos gather it’s cultist for lessons, but when they do you better believe it’s something about sacrificing the members for the greater good. So murder away and use those endless Putrid Goblin triggers to create some mayhem. I do hope you have enjoyed these blogs/articles. I’m always open to feedback and simply want to provide the best content I can. I’m always open to collaborate on a deck as well. Please visit and like/follow me at http://facebook.com/pauperpedia a fan page dedicated to bringing you links to daily articles, videos, and podcast from other content creators covering Pauper. You can also email me at Pauperpedia@gmail.com if you have deck submissions you want me to cover as well. Till next time folks, have a happy Brewsday!

[thetalesofthereneverwood]

Journal Entry 430: Odd Aether Winds

Sometimes the winds of the Blind Eternities take you places you’d never find yourself going.

I was going for a day trip to Kaladesh to look for some aether powered bagpipes for Gardonia. As I began to planeswalk, I could feel the pull of the aether as I stepped into the void. The trail to Kaladesh was a familiar one, and I felt myself moving there without a hitch, or so I thought. A fast moving aether current hit me, and soon I was falling uncontrollably. The current crash landed me on an unfamiliar plane.

I landed in a smoked choked ravine. Not a black smoke but a thick brown fog that felt grainy on my skin. At the edge of the pit I saw a group of three filthy matted humans staring at me and offered their aid in a strange tongue. The area around was filled with small huts seemingly raised whole from the ground. The smokey fog was ever present.

It was strange, the smokey fog, reminded me of the reek that I would find in a Rakdos Carnarium. Although dwelling in such a smell, the druids were friendly enough. Even with their friendliness, they were strange in their mannerisms, possessing far away eyes like many of the far seeing seers of Keranos, occasionally seeming to have magic coming from their eyes. Departing from them and the smoke I came to the fresh sea air and a very colorful bustling town. People of myriad cultures and voices populated this place. Great ships sit moored off shore and coxswains were in a constant procession.

I walked towards the docks, hoping to figure out where I was. I was told that this world was called Slyft. One of the sailors told be there was a port town, Donahue, that I could sail to which was a part of the mainland of Tiberoa. I happily obliged and gave him some zinos. He looked at me confused, but accepted my coin and soon we were sailing to Donahue.

When I arrived in Donahue, I found out I had to stay the night at the Dawn’s Light, due to the culture. The Inn was rather comfy, and enjoyed the ambiance of the tavern. I ran into an elf named Varan. He seemed rather nice and I grabbed a drink with him. I met his interesting compatriot, Gabriel, the half elf with many faces. He was drunk when I met him, and continued to change form each time he went to the bathroom. The man was narcissistic with his illusions. I soon went to bed, trying to wrap my head around how I got here.

The next morning, I decided to go with my new friends to a different Inn, one called the Flash of the Tail. It was a tacky place, with merfolk art plastered that looked like merfolk I had seen in scrolls I read about Dominaria at Tamiyo’s library. As Gabriel had spent the majority of his money on a new weapon, he suggested that we look at the job listings on the wall for some easy work to make some fast cash.

As we began to look, we spotted an ad that requested the following:

Help Needed: keen minds and sharp blades for an investigation in the city of Shroud.

Gabriel mentioned that the reward was far grander than what one might expect for a job so easy. I also found out by talking with a local gnome-like man that this city, Shroud, was the home of many a story. I got very excited at the venture once he said that.

As we decided to take on the quest, we were approached by another elf, who looked like a Kor, who began speaking to me in elvish. Her name was Kalista, and she was a Druid of the Moonseer clan. I thought to myself, what an interesting thing to revolve around. I introduced her to my friends and the next day we headed out of the Inn to prepare our journey.

As Gabriel and Varan got horses to ride to Shroud, Kalista summoned an elemental horse, much like the elementals of the Selesyna, and we headed off.

On our journey, we saw a pod of whales off shore in the ocean, which was perplexing to me as I had only seen sky whales. When I told this to my friends, they were rather confused. I need to remember that I am not with planeswalkers all the time.

After seeing the whales, we soon ran into another adventuring group. There was a large giant like creature, a halfing, and a scrawny looking human. The poor boy looked like he’d blow away in the wind (and that’s saying something from me). We went continued along as a larger group, talking and enjoying the ride. We soon arrived in a town across the strait from Shroud, called Kafun. We all split up for the evening, each of our groups going to different taverns.

In the morning we walked through an underground tunnel under the sea floor to arrive in Shroud. We arrived in a bustling market place, full of gnome like people. Out the corner of my eye, however, I spotted a booth being ran by a human. He was the only merchant who wasn’t a gnome, and as I approached I caught the glimmer of a familiar winding tree pattern.

“You know of the Simic?” I asked the man inquisitively. The man responded playfully, like a Izzet chemister. He mentioned the Orzhov, which sent chills down my spine and I soon walked past a large eye in a jar. My brain hurt while walking by the eye so I quickly caught up with my comrades.

We then met with a pompous gnome who sent us to the basements, where we found a very unpleasant creature. It looked like a baloth, ready for battle, adorned in both metal armor and different colored quartz crystals. We chased the beast the down, where I realized that I really need to learn how to defend myself. My friends defeated the beast, however, I could’ve swore I heard an explosion go off when it died.

The rest of the evening was a blur. I was very battered, but the gnome-like people of Shroud helped my friends and I heal. After getting the reward for killing the beast who caused the damages to their city, we split our lot and I found myself remembering why I had left in the first place. I left down an alleyway where I planeswalked to Kaladesh, Leaving the strange unknown world of Slyft behind me, an aether powered set of bagpipes my next goal.

Credit of the narrative of this story goes to the dm who ran a one shot campaign on my birthday. Thanks to him!

[mtg-brokentoken]

Murder by Numbers

Took a few tries to find the right deck, but final deck for the Commander League is $50.19. There’s some reason to swap Kresh as the commander, but he works well with Soul Separator or God-Pharoah’s Gift (though to “exile” him to command zone so...)

Anyway, here’s the list. It’s all about creatures dying. Preference is for it being your opponents, so better with more people, but many of your own creatures are also expendable. If budget wasn’t a limitation, Parallel Lives is about $10.

Sek'kuar, Deathkeeper $0.39 Kresh, the Bloodbraided $2.71 Koskun Keep $0.22 Gutless Ghoul $0.16 Altar's Reap $0.14 Scavenger Drake $0.21 Hellion Eruption $0.34 Gutter Grime $0.33 Deathbringer Thoctar $0.48 Death's Presence $0.37 Typhoid Rats $0.16 Korozda Guildmage $0.20 Demonmail Hauberk $0.19 Creakwood Liege $3.30 Akoum Refuge $0.23 Skirsdag Cultist $0.18 Torrent of Souls $0.26 Essence Feed $0.15 Viscera Seer $0.90 Rakdos Signet $0.42 Soul Separator $0.29 Assassinate $0.14 Pawn of Ulamog $0.26 Mitotic Slime $0.39 Reassembling Skeleton $0.21 Yoke of the Damned $0.15 Lumberknot $0.19 Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs $0.92 Deathgreeter $0.31 Evolving Wilds $0.18 Haunted Fengraf $0.15 Gobbling Ooze $0.19 Death Cultist $0.16 Jund Panorama $0.22 Doomed Necromancer $3.80 Grave Pact $13.97 Scarland Thrinax $0.20 Rakdos Carnarium $0.26 Savage Lands $0.74 Golgari Signet $0.22 Sprouting Thrinax $0.23 Rage Thrower $0.18 Undercity Informer $0.21 Terramorphic Expanse $0.23 Falkenrath Noble $0.19 Barter in Blood $0.29 Predator Ooze $1.93 Corpsehatch $0.20 God-Pharoah's Gift $1.22 Doomgape $0.74 Rupture Spire $0.21 Rampant Growth $0.18 Dragon Appeasement $0.21 Dying Wish $0.17 Feed the Pack $0.37 Devouring Swarm $0.15 Necromantic Thirst $0.15 Artisan of Kozilek $0.48 Skirsdag High Priest $0.40 Gate to the Afterlife $0.24 Disciple of Griselbrand $0.16 Butcher of Malakir $0.54 Ambush Viper $0.17 Carnage Altar $0.20 Naturalize $0.14 Pristine Talisman $0.16 Dictate of Erebos $5.06 Claws of Gix $0.25 Mortician Beetle $0.70 Tukatongue Thallid $0.16 Shimmering Grotto $0.15 Fallen Ideal $0.23

If you enjoy these deck posts, please let me know. I’ve found a format Tumblr accepts (my Maze’s End deck timed out Tumblr a few times), and I have plenty of decks to fill some of the non-spoilery season. It also helps me review the decks that are gathering some dust to put new stuff into. So feel free to comment, send me a message, or whatever!

[mtg-cards-hourly]

Rakdos Carnarium

Artist: John Avon TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

[selesnyapokemonprofessor]

Ormos, Demon Born

Again, sorry I don’t have a picture. 

Age: 24

Gender: Male

Sexuality: Gay

Height: 5’7”

Weight: 130”

Skin Color: Light grey

Hair Length: Mid back length

Hair Style: Layered, with the back often pulled up.

Hair Color: Black

Eye Color: Red, with black Sclera

Distinguishing Features: Large, curled horns protruding from the sides of his head and a large, prehensile tail.

Clothing: Ormos always wears form-fitting clothes, often under a cloak large enough to hide his tail in.  He prefers black and red clothing though will wear white on occasion.  His favorite outfit is a pair of black leather pants with a white tunic and a fitting red vest.  

Favorite Place: Rakdos clubs

Favorite Plane: Alara, Jund to be specific.

Least Favorite Place: Vitu-ghazi.  It’s too peaceful.

Least Favorite Plane: Innistrad

Mother: Former priest of the Skirsdag cult, deceased.

Father: Former priest of the Skirsdag, deceased.

Friends: Aspen

Allies: Aspen

Enemies: The Skirsdag, and most demons

Lover: None

Color(s) of Mana Used: Red and Black and sometimes White

Type of Magic: Fire

Ability One: Hellfire: Ormos’ fire burns hotter than typical fire, and is therefore more difficult to put out through conventional means.  The flames are typically darker than normal fire as well.  He can extinguish the fire magically as well as produce it.

Ability Two: Power Transferring:  When Ormos kills a being, he gains some of their power.  The amount of power he gains is limited by how much mana his body can physically contain, and how much he can channel without burning himself out, both of which are a fairly large amount.  The more powerful the being killed, the more power gained.

Ability Three: Purge: By concentrating, Ormos can manifest his fire inside a being, which will slowly burn them from the inside.  While gruesome, it deals with most enemies that cannot be burned through conventional means.  Maintaining the spell takes a few minutes of concentration, and can be interrupted, so he uses it as a last resort.

Bio(Prior to spark igniting): was an acolyte of the Church of Avacyn, where his parents were priests. But his parents were also high ranking in the cult of Skirsdag, and in an attempt to gain the favor of griselbrand, tried to sacrifice Ormos. While he was dying, He plead to a higher power to save himself, but it wasn’t the angels he worshipped that answered. He inadvertently made a pact with The demon they were trying to summon, causing his already adept control over fire to go out of control. As the cultists, including his parents, burned, he became more powerful, and his body became a demonic version of himself. The fire he created turned black, horns grew from his skull, and a long, smooth tail grew from his spine. The trauma to his body caused his spark to ignite, taking him to Jund.p>

Bio(After spark ignited):

After his spark, Ormos wandered the multiverse, collecting power and wealth from people he felt wronged those less fortunate than them or those who took advantage of people for personal gain. He also holds a very strong vendetta against demons, and will kill any he is able to. He currently resides on Ravnica, maintaining a position at a skeevy club in the rakdos carnariums. Planes Visited: Alara, Ravnica

Birth Plane: Innistrad

Part of a Guild or Clan: Unaffiliated

Trivia: Despite their differences, Ormos and Aspen get along fairly well.  

[holypupper]

Alright!

Now, let’s go out for a drink! Maybe even raid a Rakdos Carnarium!

[cthulhuofficial]

I’ve come up with a lot of fake information about the Gruul writing my backstory for Sija, and while I made no forward progress on that story tonight, I did get a lot of it in writing, as well as a synopsis for the rest of the story:

Farra Tarmikos is the leader of a performing troupe that worships Rakdos, although Sija doesn't know that when she accepts her offer. It also probably wouldn't stop her even if she knew, since the Rakdos Cult's goals aren't incompatible with how she's been raised/what she's been told all her life. Farra wants Sija to use her fledgling magical ability to do special effects for their performances - scatter a few Rays of Frost here and there for wintry scenes, throw up some Dancing lights to imitate a magic spell being cast, or Minor Illusion up an unusual prop, etc. In exchange, Sija gets a cut of their earnings.

Sija agrees and she and Ishi, her baby brother, starts touring with them. Thus far, she has had no reason to contemplate cultural differences between the Gruul and the rest of the world, so that's why there are some questions out there. I want to use her introduction to the performance troupe to answer some of those questions organically, but if I don't finish that:

1. The Nine are what the Bolrac call the other Ravnican guilds. Cobble-roaches, the canon name that the Gruul have for non-Gruul, is a little banal for the Bolrac - it's probably used by the Burning Tree, Ghor, or Gravel Hide. "The Nine", on the other hand, has just the kind of melodramatic flair that the Bolrac would appreciate (one cannot be a glorious victor if one does not have glorious enemies).

2. Ishi is not a real name, but a word in the Giant language meaning "little". Sija felt weird about naming her own brother when that right is usually reserved for the mother, so she just refers to him as Ishi.

Sija's introduction to the Rakdos Cult comes when the Tarmikos troupe performs at a private carnarium thrown by a noblemen. This includes torture and a sacrificial murder. Sija is not too thrown off by this, she grew up Gruul after all, and Farra gives her some background on the Cult of Rakdos, including that Farra has performed for Rakdos (Farra is a very high-level bard). At a future performance, Farra calls Sija out on the stage and puts a knife in her hand to make the final cut in the sacrifice. Having felt powerless all her life, both as a member of the Gruul among the rest of Ravnica, and as a runt among the Gruul themselves, Sija finds she enjoys having that kind of power over someone. She joins the cult, grows in her powers as a sorcerer, and eventually ends up at the very Rakdos Carnival that started it all.

Other Gruul trivia that I just made up (but thoughtfully, and I have textual evidence pulled from the MTG wiki):

The Gruul do not call themselves the Gruul. That's actually an old Ravnican word meaning "wild" or "feral", given to this disconnected group of clans by the other Ravnican people. What most Ravnicans think of when they think of the Gruul are the Burning Tree clan, although each clan is culturally distinct and they don't consider themselves one body. Borborygmos accepts this because it suits him.

Regarding the cyclops Borborygmos: Borborygmos is not officially recognized as a leader anywhere outside of the Ravnican Guildpact. His Burning Tree Clan is the largest and most skilled group among the Gruul, so he is a powerful ally - but, while the Gruul have followed his orders in the past, but it is less a matter of respecting his authority and more that his orders aligned with their existing goals.  In fact, many Gruul speak of him as a traitor who sacrificed the principles the clans have always held dear for a taste of power: Niv-Mizzet's pet cyclops.

I was going to write out excerpts from a fake treatise about the Gruul written by a scholar of the Simic Compound to use as section introductions, but discarded the idea because the way I write, I'd end up with a disquisition about the Gruul and no actual backstory. But he was going to discuss "the Sleeping Boar" - this idea that if the Gruul clans banded together against the other guilds, the sheer numbers of them could take a toll. Luckily for Ravnica, the clans are also too politically tumultuous and disjointed in their cultures and belief systems to work together - so for all intents and purposes, the current setup is actually fairly stable and a united Gruul is not a remotely likely threat. He hypothesizes, however, that if a leader did ever come along who could unite the clans, Ravnica could be in some trouble.

Why are the Gruul such a hot mess?

They never recovered from this blow to their purpose. They couldn't keep up, they lost their lands, they were pushed further and further out of civilization and society, forced to battle with each other for meager resources, scraping to survive. They splintered into a bunch of clans and developed this tribelike mentality of "us versus them" (because how else do you justify slaughtering entire villages for food or space if you can't compartmentalize?). The different tribes developed cultures to allow them to cope with their violent reality - the Bolrac cling to the past and worship their ancestors, the Zhuur-taa pray that the Old Gods will awaken to take back the wilds, the Burning Tree capitulated, the Scab mutilate themselves as if to emphasize the differences between them and the rest of Ravnica (sour grapes - we didn't want to be part of your society anyway), the Slizt, the Ghor, and the Gravel Hide all resorted to violence (and therein, there are differences in the preferred styles of combat and strategies/tactics).

Another one of the Bolrac hero-ancestors is Ilharg, the Raze-boar, cus I figure giants wouldn’t mind so much having a boar for an ancestor. I am also toying with the idea of a prophecy among the Bolrac about Ilharg being reborn and bringing about the End-Raze.

[mtgbracket]

Round of 8192 - Batch 29

You can now vote in Batch 29!

Currently open batches:

Batch 29 Batch 28 Batch 27 Batch 26 Batch 25 Batch 24 Batch 23

Batch 22 results will be up shortly.

Feature match: Standard UW Spirits counterstick Spell Queller vs basic land Snow-Covered Mountain.

Full list of matchups:

Savor the Moment vs Tymaret, the Murder King Cerulean Sphinx vs Sift Through Sands Wizard Replica vs Mage Slayer Prairie Stream vs Warren Instigator Loreseeker's Stone vs Wear // Tear Jori En, Ruin Diver vs Nekusar, the Mindrazer Jet Medallion vs Barrage Tyrant Mizzium Mortars vs Tainted Aether Ghitu Slinger vs Druid of the Anima Ranger of Eos vs Conjured Currency Goblin War Strike vs Savage Lands Clutch of the Undercity vs Duskdale Wurm Bearscape vs Channel the Suns Sporeback Troll vs Irrigation Ditch Death Grasp vs Balduvian Horde Gemini Engine vs Thawing Glaciers Stormscape Battlemage vs Magma Sliver Seed Spark vs Gatekeeper of Malakir Savage Gorilla vs Karplusan Forest Planar Gate vs Magus of the Future Rakdos Carnarium vs Call the Skybreaker Mortivore vs Silver Drake Dread Reaper vs Trail of Evidence Jarad's Orders vs Mana Confluence Crookclaw Transmuter vs Ad Nauseam Mana Tithe vs Hunter of Eyeblights Briar Patch vs Nantuko Cultivator Ogre Resister vs Sapphire Drake Flying Crane Technique vs Drana's Emissary Walk the Aeons vs Bloodbraid Elf Spell Queller vs Snow-Covered Mountain Burn at the Stake vs Arashin Foremost

[the-foxwolf]

Most- and least favorite ravnica guild??

My favorite Guild? Probably the Rakdos. I know what you're thinking. But listen. The Rakdos portrayed on the cards are SO unrepresentative. The Carnarium style Rakdos might count as 1% of the guild- if we round generously. But the truth is that the Rakdos are the manual laborers of the world. They're the artisans. The construction workers. Some are artists. But all of them work with their hands to make something for someone. I can respect that. I am the son of one such laborer. And I know the value of that life. The vast majority of the Rakdos are just normal people like you and me.Which is my least favorite? The Boros. Don't get me wrong though. Every single guild plays an important role on Ravnica. I would do away with none of them. But if I had to give an answer, there you go. The Azorius could pick up the law enforcement side of the guild and the Gruul could handle the riot and animal control. Sorry @actualborossoldier. Not personal. I promise.