Cobra Cards Player Community ~ View topic

LotR TCG Wiki

→ Card Sets:

All

→ Forums:

TLHH

Cobra Cards Player Community Forum Index

Forum index » Magic: The Gathering » MTG Strategy Article Contest

Author

Message

Rate this article!

5 (Best)

[ 0 ] 0%

[ 1 ] 33%

[ 2 ] 66%

[ 0 ] 0%

1 (Worst)

[ 0 ] 0%

Total Votes : 3

La_Sin_Grail

Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2006 12:56 pm

Joined: 14 Aug 2005 Posts: 806 Location: Maryland

--- description ---
See the new Rakdos mechanic in all of its hellbent glory. Control the game, but do it at almost agro speed!
--- end description ---

Hellbent Abuse

Because of all the new mechanics emerging in the new set, the natural response is to find one you think has the most potential and run with it. From what I’ve seen, this is hands down the Rakdos mechanic, Hellbent.

For those of you who don’t know, the hellbent is the rakdos (B/R) Guild ability. When you have no cards in your hand, some cards have different effects. For example, when you have no cards in your hand, Rakdos Pit Dragon has double strike.

4 Seal of Fire
4 Shock
4 Lava Spike
4 Taste for Mayhem
4 Kill-Suit Cultist
4 Rakdos Pit Dragon
4 Gobhobbler Rats
4 Delirium Skeins
4 Rakdos Augermage
2 Avatar of Discord
4 Blood Crypt
8 Swamp
10 Mountain

Board- 4 Crypt Champion
4 Seal of Doom
4 Slithering Shade
3 Kindle the Carnage

Seal of Fire- I loved this card ever since it was printed in Odyssey. It’s a great first turn play because it can sit in the board- and most importantly for this deck out of your hand, it’s impossible to disenchant, and it’s one mana for two damage, without needing to leave mana untapped.

Shock- It’s like seal of fire, only you have a better element of surprise. Still, at 1 for 2 and instant speed, this is one nice instant.

Lava Spike- Three damage to head can really make it possible to lower your opponent’s life total in a hurry. In addition, you get to rid yourself of another pesky card in hand.

Taste for Mayhem- This is a great tool to use with any of your creatures, but especially Gobhobbler rats. Giving +4/0 and flying means they’ll have problems blocking and it gives +4 for one mana. The only thing to be careful with is they’ll tend to putrefy the creature on which you put this, so try to drop delirium skeins with this for hellbent and to insure that you won’t be card advantage duped.

Kill-suit Cultist- The cultist is great because he can blow up pesky watchwolves, burning-tree shamans, and scab clan maulers that may be a little too efficient for this deck to otherwise deal with. At 1 for a 1/1, he’s solid in his own right, as well, and of course will jump onto the board in a hurry.

Rakdos Pit Dragon- I absolutely adore this card because firebreathing with doublestrike is just broken. Once you have hallbent, you should be able to swing and take out a flyer every turn until they run out, then pump and jump for the win.

Gobhobbler Rats- The rats are a solid creature, as big as any guildmage, but adding in +1/0 and regen won’t be difficult. This is a very solid blocker against the Zoo, or a powerful offensive weapon with Taste for Mayhem.

Delimirium Skeins- This is flat out the best tool hellbent has. This gives hellbent abuse the power to eliminate control almost singlehandedly. Discarding three each is huge because you gain hellbent almost guaranteed, and they miss out on cards they need. Remember to try and play things and then use this, because sometimes you’ll only have to discard one or two.

Rakdos Augermage- This guys is good for getting hellbent. He’s great once you have it. Being able to make an opponent discard any card you want makes wildfires just plain lose. Any deck that relies on a card turn 4+ just plain loses when you dump augermage. He’s a great alternative to skeins if you don’t draw it, and he has the big 3/2 body to back up his ability.

Avatar of Discord- There are only two in here because as fun as this puppy is early, if you draw him late you can’t use him. You won’t have the two cards to discard, and you’ll end up wasting him because you’ll need hellbent more. However, if you can play him on turn three, this chap will be a mighty weapon- big enough to kill a dragon legend, but at hald the mana.

Land Base- Pains aren’t going to be very good here because with this deck, you’ll be a little color intensive as far as Rakdos Pit dragon, but not enough that you need to pull out all the stops. Four shocklands should cover any problems you have. There’s more red because of pit dragon being the only two of a color mana cost in the deck.

Crypt Champion is a beast against control, after they clasm off your creatures or shock etc. your augermage or rats.

Seal of Doom is good against Gruul and other non-black agro because it can deter attacking- you can take out a creature and block more, leaving not much damage in. If they do attack, you get to use fast effects, and if they don’t, you can outstall any agro because you’ll have more gas in the long run.

Slithering Shade- This is a total chump against agro. Being able to pump and kill things as they swing is great against creatures early, and late game, the hellbent makes it an ominous threat. Remember that having lots of instants can make your opponents second guess themselves and you can swoop in for the kill.

Kindle the Carnage- If all else fails, go ballistic! You have the ability to clear a board on the other side, and when all else fails, that can be necessary. Just figure out how many point of damage are in your hand and use them wisely. Usually, that means killing the board and having pit dragon swing ftw.

Analysis

This deck is an incredible powerhouse because it has massive discard. When Hand in Hand made the T8, it was because discarding with hippie could sometimes end the game. Now, with skeins and augermage, you can cause far more problems than a lousy 2/2 flyer who had to not be blocked could ever cause. Augermage takes out their best combo card, gives you hellbent, or gives you free discard.

The main problem for this deck is the Zoo/Gruul beats. Unfortunately, the Zoo or Gruul tends to have big enough creatures that hellbent abuse can cause some problems even with discard. While the Zoo has no way to block your flyers, they are the only deck fast enough that they don’t have to. If you can just hope for no kird ape, shock isamaru to stop mauler from triggering, then you can set up shop, discard off their power, and move in with hellbent for the win.

Ghost Dad/Orzhov Agro have no chance here, with Rakdos making them discard those pesky ghost councils and blind hunters that cause other decks to cry. Hippies are no problem for you and your flyers, and the Ravenous Rats will actually help you. There’s little that lives through a shock, and you can wait for pit dragon with hellbent to end it. Remember to board out avatar of discord, though, because they will be making you discard, and if you run out of fire, that isn’t cool either.

Wildfires- Unless they can really put you in the slammer fast, you should have this match wrapped up. It’s pretty simple, really, if your opopnent plays blue and red, you play as much discard as you can as fast as you can. Augermage takes down fires or skeins makes them unable to refuel even if they can dump the board clearer.

Owling Mine- Typically, you should be able to beat mine by dropping one drops over and over, followed by anything other than avatar of discord (who they will bounce). Unless, of course, they’ve set oup a base where you draw in the ballpark of three card a turn, in which case avatar is your best friend as they are afraid to bounce him and take five a turn. Just play anything you can see and this shouldn’t be too big of a problem.

Overall, Rakdos has the potential to be the next gruul- the deck everybody plays. The question is are you ready to sacrifice your hand for glory?

Last edited by La_Sin_Grail on Tue Apr 25, 2006 7:59 pm; edited 1 time in total

Osion

Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2006 12:09 pm

Joined: 17 Dec 2005 Posts: 62 Location: MD

multiple things -

Quote:

Seal of Fire- I loved this card ever since it was printed in Odyssey.

this was a Nemesis common, not Odyssey *nitpick

Quote:

Shock- It’s like seal of fire, only you have a better element of surprise. Still, at 1 for 2 and instant speed, this is one nice instant.

Many important creatures in Standard right now are out of shock range (Kird Ape, Watchwolf, Ghost Council of Orzhova) I would recommend substituting Infernal Tutor or Ignorant Bliss instead

Quote:

Crypt Champion is a beast against control, after they clasm off your
creatures or shock etc. your augermage or rats.

I played 2 Crypt Champions in my Pre-release deck. It looked good on paper, but was bad in execution. Will most likely trade with Kird Ape or something.

Quote:

Slithering Shade- This is a total chump against agro. Being able to pump and kill things as they swing is great against creatures early, and late game, the hellbent makes it an ominous threat.

Slithering Shade needs lots of Black Mana to hold off attackers. You mention yourself that this deck is more red-heavy, and if you want to be getting rid of cards to get to hellbent you’ll need to use all that mana to play things on your turn. Not worth it as a 4 of. Try Cranial Extraction or something.

Your article doesn’t really tell how to play the deck. Once you get hellbent, this deck doesn’t cover itself very well. Imagine a Wrath or a Savage Twister blowing the board away while you’ve got no cards in your hand. Even though you can discard your opponents hand away, there is no guarantee that they won’t suddenly topdeck a card like that.

La_Sin_Grail

Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2006 12:38 pm

Joined: 14 Aug 2005 Posts: 806 Location: Maryland

A bunch of good points, Jason.

Sorry about the sets thing, I’ve never claimed to be into old cards.

As for shock, it costs one, making it better for grabbing hellbent than the cards you mentioned.

Crypt Champion with Mayhem is one sick puppy though. Remember there’s a trade-off for everything. Actually, turn five he can swing for over half their life if you have hellbent. I’ll agree he’s not great against Gruul, but against Orzhov agro, this guy kills everything except council without dying.

Shade isn’t in the maindeck for that reason. Plus, you’ll only need a little bit of black against any deck but Gruul. There’s a reason I said the main problem is Zoo/Gruul Beats. Many of the problems you’ve pointed out are very correct- but this deck isn’t built for facing the Zoo. It’s built for beating Orzhov Agro, Hand in Hand, Owling Mine, and Wildfires.

I would agree shock and shade aren’t very good against Gruul. It’s not a very good matchup for you, but those same cards take out hypnotic specters and savannah lions with power.

As for topdecking against hellbent, your opponent really shouldn’t be alive very long while you have hellbent. Typically you can grab hellbent around turn 5/6 and you typically swing for a lot the turn you get it. If they have a trick that makes you not win (in their non-existant hand) and then they topdeck WoG, they must be rigging something.

That problem also falls under the category of overextending, and is solved by the fact that they have nothing either. If they topdeck their only card and it’s Wog, it will help them a lot, but you have to remember that decks with WoG are slower than you. They’ll be at a lot lower life when they cast wrath, and it won’t be too hard to topdeck a few points of burn or a creature, to throw off seal of fire or something.

I suppose I should have said this in the article, but the turn you get hellbent, you should at least have a good chance of winning. I know you can’t account for everything your opponent may have, but your last play is typically a skeins, then swing with all.

Cobra

Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2006 1:23 am

Joined: 12 Jul 2005 Posts: 1202 Location: Austin, TX, USA

Since we’re dealing with new cards and a new mechanic here, I would have liked to see a section with the basic decktype info set out in a more straightforward way. How does the "hellbent" mechanic work? How does this decktype work?

Good stuff as always, though. If nobody else posts ( Shame on you

), should I give you 1st AND 2nd place? Laughing

http://cobracards.com -- Web's best deals on Trading Card Games.

La_Sin_Grail

Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2006 7:59 pm

Joined: 14 Aug 2005 Posts: 806 Location: Maryland

Nah, I’d feel bad. How about we avoid this by other people WRITING ARTICLES? Smile

I’ll add an intro saying what hellbent is

Cleston

Posted: Wed May 10, 2006 2:41 pm

Joined: 10 Aug 2005 Posts: 110 Location: Brasil

IMHO it deserves a 3, and I’ll explain why.

I see no reason for all those swamps in there. why not cut them by half, at least? Delirium Skeins is great and all, but I’m sure you could do better with mono-Red and more tricks from Ravnica set, like Char. There’s no need for going two colors when you can be so consistent, or even more, with one single color... but that’s my opinion, though. If you want RB, I’m sure there are nice cards to abuse from black too, since your best black cards are only in sideboard...

Another suggestion: the red Rusalka, guess it’s Scorched Rusalka, is a great one drop.

Rakdos Pit Dragon with Seething Song is pretty nice and fast too...

I’d also cut Taste for Mayhem for Volcanic Hammer or Glacial Ray. More removal and less vulnerable to putrefying movements.

- "If I die, your deck will crumble!"
Gandalf (any of them)

La_Sin_Grail

Posted: Wed May 10, 2006 9:56 pm

Joined: 14 Aug 2005 Posts: 806 Location: Maryland

Some good ideas.

As for the swamps thing, I could probably run six, but in general you shouldn’t expect to draw a color of mana unless you have at least ten of the sources for it (1 in 6 cards means it should very likely be in starting hand). If I only played four, I doubt that would be the case.

I dont like glacial ray, but hammer is a good idea, I’ll test it out.

I like song, too, I’ll tinker with that.

Rusulka isn’t needed here. Shock, spike, and seal are all far more useful, so I’d need a better reason than being a one-drop to add him.

Cleston

Posted: Thu May 11, 2006 9:04 am

Joined: 10 Aug 2005 Posts: 110 Location: Brasil

La_Sin_Grail wrote:

Rusalka isn’t needed here. Shock, spike, and seal are all far more useful, so I’d need a better reason than being a one-drop to add him.

I suggested that since I thought your deck would be way better as a mono red... burns and dragons, why in the world would anyone need black? Wink

- "If I die, your deck will crumble!"
Gandalf (any of them)

La_Sin_Grail

Posted: Thu May 11, 2006 3:11 pm

Joined: 14 Aug 2005 Posts: 806 Location: Maryland

I’m not sure how that relates.... even if the deck were mono-red, I still wouldn’t play rusulka most likely.

Felipe Musco

Posted: Fri May 19, 2006 8:12 pm

Joined: 18 May 2006 Posts: 2434 Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil

Hey, how about combining that red bomber guys, Kill-Suit Cultist, with Pyroclasm? This would torch away weenies and tokens in general, as would it scorch most accelerators, and sacrificing the little guy in advance would let you choose a REALLY BIG meanie to bomb, either. And having more of him on the field means bye-bye birdie for lots of flying pains-in-the-neck, and exceptionally large guys. Combining a nice Pyroclasm, the Cultists and those red Seals on the field should be more than enough to completly clear the table!

I don't like YOU.

Forum index » Magic: The Gathering » MTG Strategy Article Contest

All times are UTC - 4

Page 1 of 2 [11 Posts]

Goto page: 1, 2 Next