Welcome to our latest Commander deck-building guide, featuring the uniquely thrilling - and undeniably chaotic - The Infamous Cruelclaw. If you're a fan of high-risk, high-reward Rakdos strategies and love keeping your opponents on their toes, this 98-land list of The Infamous Cruelclaw is certainly for you!

How to Build a 98-Land Commander Deck

Infamous Cruelclaw Worldfire | Commander | audam, Moxfield

• Commander (1)
• 1 The Infamous Cruelclaw

• Sorceries (1)
• 1 Worldfire

• Lands (98)
• 30 Snow-Covered Mountain
• 10 Snow-Covered Swamp
• 1 Akoum Refuge
• 1 Ash Barrens
• 1 Badlands
• 1 Barbarian Ring
• 1 Barren Moor
• 1 Blasted Landscape
• 1 Blighted Gorge
• 1 Blinkmoth Nexus
• 1 Bloodfell Caves
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Branch of Vitu-Ghazi
• 1 Canyon Slough
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Cradle of the Accursed
• 1 Crawling Barrens
• 1 Den of the Bugbear
• 1 Desert of the Fervent
• 1 Desert of the Glorified
• 1 Dread Statuary
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Fabled Passage
• 1 Forgotten Cave
• 1 Frostwalk Bastion
• 1 Ghitu Encampment
• 1 Glittering Caves of Aglarond
• 1 Hidden Grotto
• 1 Hive of the Eye Tyrant
• 1 Immersturm Skullcairn
• 1 Jagged Barrens
• 1 Keldon Megaliths
• 1 Lavaclaw Reaches
• 1 Mirrex
• 1 Mishra's Factory
• 1 Mishra's Foundry
• 1 Mobilized District
• 1 Mount Doom
• 1 Mountain
• 1 Mutavault
• 1 Piranha Marsh
• 1 Polluted Mire
• 1 Ramunap Ruins
• 1 Rath's Edge
• 1 Raucous Theater
• 1 Restless Vents
• 1 Shivan Gorge
• 1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
• 1 Smoldering Crater
• 1 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance
• 1 Spawning Pool
• 1 Stensia Bloodhall
• 1 Sunscorched Desert
• 1 Swamp
• 1 Temple of Malice
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 The Dead Marshes
• 1 Urza's Cave
• 1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
• 1 Zoetic Cavern

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Core Strategy

Phase 1: Draw, Play Land, Go

Your sole objective in the early game is to not miss any land drops, and, on turn three, cast The Infamous Cruelclaw and have it resolve. Simple, right?

Phase 2: Light the Match

Now, if we assume The Infamous Cruelclaw miraculously lives to see an entire turn cycle, and there's an opponent unlucky enough to not have assembled two blockers, AND nobody in your pod is interaction-heavy; well then, it's time for us to get ready to commit some real crimes as we move into combat with the Weasel Mercenary.

Phase 3: What's in the Box?

As soon as The Infamous Cruelclaw applies combat damage to an opponent, it'll trigger, allowing you to exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a non-land card. Then, you may cast said card by discarding a card rather than paying its mana cost.

Now, as you dig through your deck, revealing land after land after land, you'll probably have your opponents on the edge of their seats. Are you simply flooding out? Is it going to be some crazy big Eldrazi from Modern Horizons 3? Or maybe you'll whiff and flip over a Lightning Greaves, or an Arcane Signet, or some other coveted Commander staple. Nope. We're here for one thing and one thing only: to watch the world burn with Worldfire!

As Worldfire resolves, all permanents, cards from all hands, and graveyards become exiled. And to top it all off, each player's life total becomes 1 as well!

Ah, perfectly balanced, as things should be.

Phase 4: Winning the Game

Now what? Everything's exiled, and nobody has cards in hand. Well, it's important to note that, unlike the numerous other land-destruction decks in the game, we're not just here to watch everyone restart from square one. We're here to win!

And how do we do that? By starting over from Phase 1: making our land drops.

Ping Lands:

• Barbarian Ring
• Blighted Gorge
• Immersturm Skullcairn
• Jagged Barrens
• Keldon Megaliths
• Mount Doom
• Piranha Marsh
• Ramunap Ruins
• Rath's Edge
• Shivan Gorge
• Stensia Bloodhall
• Sunscorched Desert
• Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle

Man Lands

• Blinkmoth Nexus
• Cradle of the Accursed
• Crawling Barrens
• Den of the Bugbear
• Dread Statuary
• Frostwalk Bastion
• Ghitu Encampment
• Hive of the Eye Tyrant
• Lavaclaw Reaches
• Mirrex
• Mishra's Factory
• Mishra's Foundry
• Mobilized District
• Mutavault
• Restless Vents
• Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance
• Spawning Pool

With 13 lands that can deal direct damage and 17 lands that can spit out or become creatures, we'll almost always have the upper hand as everyone races to rebuild!

And sure, I can admit that some relatively good RNG will likely be needed for our opponents to miss out on topdecking their premium Commander 1-Drops like Esper Sentinel, Llanowar Elves, etc. But remember, there's also a good chance they'll just proceed to miss their land drops for multiple turns as well!

Not to mention the one unlucky Green player who topdecks a land only to draw into their 0 power Birds of Paradise on the following turn. If that doesn't make a MTG player miserable in a game of Commander, I truly don't know what would.

Get Out There and Burn Some Worlds

Building a new Commander deck with The Infamous Cruelclaw is not for the faint-hearted, but for those who like to thrive in the chaos, it will definitely be an exhilarating experience for both you and your opponents (well, for your opponents' up for debate, but you get what I mean).

So, if you're looking to make a statement at your next Commander game with this brand-new Bloomburrow Legendary Creature, pick up the deck here today!