Hello awesome folks! I hope that you are having an awesome day today!!! Today is my second day building around a new legendary dork from Tales of Middle-Earth. Today we are building a Rakdos colored deck going in a very different direction than EDHREC.com, ready to see who I am building around?

It's this guy! EDHREC has a little less than 100 decks. This 7-drop 7/5 with haste has a reduced cost equal to permanents sacrificed this turn. That does include yours and others. This cannot be blocked by anything save a legendary dork, like an opposing Commander, so it's evasive, and can kill in just three hits and then one happens now with that haste, and just two more turns.

You could also build this around Aristocrats with self-sacrificing things like Gravecrawler to a Phyrexian Altar and recasting it over and over again for one mana with the Arena and then controlling another Zombie. Sure, those are in Rakdos colors and are popular archetypes in the Commander format; I get it. But we are going to be sacrificing our foes things as well as the occasional thing ourselves to own the battlefield and get a reduction in cost.

Consider the power of Innocent Blood here in a four-player game. One mana will force everyone to sacrifice one dork, you too. That should usually be three sacrifices this turn, since someone will have nothing to sacrifice. That's the power of Dark Ritual in effect while controlling the battlefield. And that's how we'll play, with controlling elements that force sacrifices to gain the power of the battlefield.

Mana, Ramp, Lands

Let's start with mana artifacts. So obviously, we'll need lands like Cabal Coffers and Urborg to make that mana. Enter the Map, a tutor for any land to your hand. Then the Sphere is a three-drop Manalith variant that'll tap for Rakdos colors and then sac for a card too! I like sacrifice mana rocks, so we dipped into a few here and there. Like Mind Stone and...

...the Crystal! This four-drop tapper of 2 colorless will drop a 7-drop on turn 5. Then you can tap it with two mana to sac for a card and to exile everyone else's graveyard. Nice graveyard control here. I also am running Bojuka Bog. The Elk costs three, sacrifices for three, and then fetches out two basics and puts them into play tapped, so it's ramp! Drop this turn 3, ramp turn 4, and then you can drop your Commander turn 5, and then it sacrifices too!

Now let's turn to lands! I added in some lands that self-sacrifice! Evolving Wilds one of the many fetchlands - I tossed in every other fetch from Terramorphic Expanse to Myriad Landscape.

Check out the Dust Bowl! This taps for colorless, taps with three to sacrifice a land and then destroy an opposing nonbasic land. That's very strong land control here! Don't sleep on it. I am also running Wasteland too. This pair will answer opposing lands that dominate like Volrath's Stronghold or that are keeping them alive, like Maze of Ith from your attacks. They are a great self-sacrifice tag team!

High Market taps for colorless and can be tapped with no mana to sacrifice a dork and gain a life! It's another sacrifice engine in my land base. I also have Phyrexian Tower in my lands that'll tap for a sac for two Black mana. Both free to use. Mines of Moria will usually arrive tapped here, but you can tap it with four mana to exile three cards from your graveyard to make two Treasures. I have recursion for dorks, so only use this on non-dorks. This is free Treasures to sacrifice in the land. I also am running Treasure Vault which sacrifices itself for Treasures.

Control

Now let's turn to my sacrifice based control! The four-mana sorcery is easy to cast. Every opponent separates their critters into two piles, one of which you choose to sacrifice. They'll lose half of their critters. Nasty board control! The five-mana sorcery is much harder to cast. One opponent sacrifices, in this order, a creature, enchantment and planeswalker. Three sacrifices for The Balrog. Then if they were unable to make those sacrifices, you draw a card and they lose 2 life for each one. Nasty board control here as well as card draw.

Torment says opponents must do one of three things for each X: lose 3 life, discard a card, or sacrifice a dork. It's often seen as a winning condition here with the aforementioned Cabal Coffers. The creature is a three cost 3/2 Human Shaman. On arrival to the battlefield, everyone sacrifices a planeswalker or creature. If they cannot, they discard! That's nasty here since in your sacrifice control people might be low on dorks, so it'll still impact them. Note that this will hit planeswalkers too. Also note that you can just sacrifice this to itself if you have nothing better to run around with. I am running most of this cycle of dork that ETB and force everyone to sacrifice.

Check out the new Braids, Arisen Nightmare! This three-drop 3/3 will let you sacrifice a permanent and then each foe has to sacrifice that type! Wanna always get loads of triggers? Hit lands. It's also artifact sacrifice control too by the by. We only have three enchantments, so that's less likely to happen.

Why is Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast here? Isn't he designed for an artifact deck? This Rakdos colored 3-drop 3-loyalty Daretti is here to +1 and make a 1/1 colorless artifact with defender. That's for sacrifice fuel. Then you can -1 him to sacrifice an artifact to destroy target dork or artifact, so that's sacrifice, control and dork making all in one tight three mana package.

Synergies and Winning Conditions

Living Death is the first thing I thought of when I came up with the idea for this brew. This will, in one five-mana spell, swap all dorks in graveyards with those in play. This is why you don't exile your dorks with Mines of Moria and we can really push the mass exiling of graveyards too. The in play stuff is sacrificed, so that's a lot of triggers, and if you saved mana I'm sure you'll have enough sacrifices to drop The Balrog for two mana no matter the Command Tax. Then swing with haste on a naked board to get in that hit.

Check out Liliana, which many think of as one of the best planeswalkers ever printed for Commander. This 6-drop has four abilities for its starting six loyalty. When one of your dorks dies? Draw a card! Note that there is no nontoken brake there. She can +1 to make a 2/2 Zombie for fuel for sacrifices. Then she can -4 to Barter in Blood, which can easily be 5 or 6 triggers, and cast The Balrog again.

I mentioned before that I was running three enchantments. One of them is the multiplayer classic Grave Pact. This hard-to-cast four-drop will force my foes to sacrifice a critter when I lose a dork, thus pushing them really into a powerful place.

Consider this: cast Innocent Blood when you control this - Sacrifice three like we mentioned above, one of yours dies. Now trigger Grave Pact - Your foes each sacrifice another dork, let's say one has another.

That's four or five sacrifices for The Balrog from single one-mana sacrifice source. And you have really pushed the board in your direction. This is so strong in this deck that I am also running the other two effects that were printed that copy it, even the pricey Butcher of Malakir.

Rankle and Torbran are a key harder to cast 5-drop. They have flying for evasion, haste to hit now, and first strike which all work with their combat damage trigger. You can choose all three! The first is to give everyone a Treasure, which you will wanna do to give you and friends the ability to crack for mana and an artifact to sacrifice for Daretti. Then everyone will sacrifice a dork, which you will usually wanna do as well. Then your damage dealt this turn is increased by 2. Since it's in the first strike step, that means regular speed damage like The Balrog is increased by 2. I also tossed in the first Rankle for sacrifices or card flow for everyone. I also tossed in Ancient Copper Dragon to make 1d20 Treasures when you punch, neither of which have first strike, so they'll deal +2 damage in combat as well.

Let's turn to these two uncommons in my colors! The former is a win con since it'll shoot any target for damage when someone sacrifices anything! You probably won't need it for board control with all of your sacrifice-based removal getting past indestructible and hexproof stuff already. You'll likely turn it to opposing players. Although you can hit other targets. With the latter one, whenever a nontoken you control dies, you can make a 0/1 token that can sacrifice for a colorless mana without tapping. Sure, that has a brake on it for nontoken death only, but that should happen here quite a lot. Then you can sacrifice the Spawn for mana and accelerate The Balrog twice, or to Innocent Blood effects.

Planeswalker fun times here next! Zariel, Archduke of Avernus will give your team haste and then a boost to power. Very strong here in giving your team hasted fun times. Then her 0 will make a 1/1 Devil token that will ping when it dies. Feed it to your machine for damage.

Ob Nixlis, the Adversary is a three-drop with three loyalty and when you cast it you can sacrifice a dork and make a nonlegendary toe with casualty equal to its power. Then your tag team can +1 each to force your foes to lose 2 life unless they discard a card or -2 to make a 1/1 Red Devil just like Zariel. Then you can get +2 life if you control a Devil with either of these tokens or the Balrog a Demon when you +1. Also note that if you casualty your Commander it'll start with the 7 loyalty it needs to ultimate and draw 7 and lose 7 life. I think that's worth it.

Let's finish my synergy section here. I wanted dorks to sacrifice to things like Ob Nixilis above, and in entered three of the Dragon Spirit cycle which can be sacrificed for big copies. Kokusho is a six-mana 5/5 with flying to swing over a ground defense and then when it dies you'll drain 5 life from each foe! In a four-player game that's 15 total life lost for them and 15 gained for you!

Mahadi, Emporium Master is an on-curve 3/3 in Rakdos colors. At the beginning of your end step, you make a Treasure for each creature that died this turn. Note that this does not say "your" or "nontokens" so you'll sacrifice triggers you are working hard on assembling for The Balrog will also work here to make Treasures on your end step.

Card Flow

Let's finish with my card flow section. First, I am running both Deadly Dispute and Reckoner's Bargain. One makes you a token Treasure, and the other gains life if you didn't sacrifice a token. That counts as sacrifices for your triggers and card flow. You'll wanna sacrifice a token like a 1/1 Defender for the first and a bigger one for the second. I am also running a few more in this genre like Village Rites. Remember to cast these in response to removal to get value from opposing removal.

The Study is nearly a must-run in any Black Commander with a commander that costs at least five, since drawing five or more for one five-mana instant is worth it. Sure, you'll lose that much life but here drawing seven cards in one spell will refill your hand quite ably. Four spells were printed that discard one draw two and then make Treasure tokens and all four are here, like the Score. You can crack the Treasures from cards like Big Score for double acceleration while also digging, and fill up your graveyard for Mines of Moria or Living Death. Good synergy here with the cracking and the discarding and the card flow.

And that's my deep dive! Decklist time!

Rakdos Balrog Control | Commander | Abe Sargent

• Commander (1)
• 1 The Balrog, Durin's Bane

• Creatures (21)
• 1 Ancient Copper Dragon
• 1 Atsushi, the Blazing Sky
• 1 Braids, Arisen Nightmare
• 1 Burnished Hart
• 1 Butcher of Malakir
• 1 Demon's Disciple
• 1 Fleshbag Marauder
• 1 Gravelighter
• 1 Junji, the Midnight Sky
• 1 Juri, Master of the Revue
• 1 Kokusho, the Evening Star
• 1 Mahadi, Emporium Masters
• 1 Mayhem Devil
• 1 Merciless Executioner
• 1 Morbid Opportunist
• 1 Pawn of Ulamog
• 1 Plaguecrafter
• 1 Rankle, Master of Pranks
• 1 Rankle and Torbran
• 1 Slum Reaper
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum

• Planeswalkers (6)
• 1 Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast
• 1 Lolth, Spider Queen
• 1 Ob Nixilis, the Adversary
• 1 Liliana, Dreadhorde General
• 1 Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools
• 1 Zariel, Archduke of Avernus

• Instants (9)
• 1 Big Score
• 1 Corrupted Conviction
• 1 Costly Plunder
• 1 Deadly Dispute
• 1 Malakir Rebirth // Malakir Mire
• 1 Reckoner's Bargain
• 1 Stinging Study
• 1 Unexpected Windfall
• 1 Village Rites

• Sorceries (10)
• 1 Barter in Blood
• 1 Diabolic Intent
• 1 Innocent Blood
• 1 Invoke Despair
• 1 Living Death
• 1 Make an Example
• 1 Mire in Misery
• 1 Pirate's Pillage
• 1 Seize the Spoils
• 1 Torment of Hailfire

• Enchantments (3)
• 1 Curse of Opulence
• 1 Dictate of Erebos
• 1 Grave Pact

• Artifacts (11)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Ashnod's Altar
• 1 Commander's Sphere
• 1 Expedition Map
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Rakdos Signet
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Stonespeaker Crystal
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 The Reaver Cleaver

• Lands (39)
• 7 Mountain
• 9 Swamp
• 1 Blood Crypt
• 1 Bloodstained Mire
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Cabal Coffers
• 1 Cabal Stronghold
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Dust Bowl
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Fabled Passage
• 1 High Market
• 1 Luxury Suite
• 1 Mines of Moria
• 1 Mount Doom
• 1 Myriad Landscape
• 1 Phyrexian Tower
• 1 Prismatic Vista
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
• 1 Sulfurous Springs
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 Treasure Vault
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1 Wasteland

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And there we go! I hope you enjoyed my different control-oriented take on this Treasure Tribal deck online!