Last week, I was thrilled that the baby dragon had left the roost; 75% is taking on a life of its own, and people are adding their own spin to it. That’s last week’s news. I can’t keep acting as though I’ve seen Bigfoot every time someone makes a reddit post with “75%” in the title.

The second post was from u/dafinder1984, and he wanted a bit of feedback on what he called his “budget 75% Rakdos deck,” which I thought was intriguing. I especially appreciate his including both “budget” and “75%” in the title—he agrees with me that 75% doesn’t necessarily mean the deck is underpowered or “budget” by default. I’ve been so concerned with differentiating this philosophy from just casual, budget decks that I haven’t really taken too many swings at budget decks. This may be more of a challenge than I thought because the easy answer to making a deck 75% can be, “Have you considered putting a Bribery in there?” and this forces me to become creative within budgetary constraints. When I took a look at his list and asked him, “What about this list would you say makes it 75%?” because I didn’t see any particular card or synergy that stuck out, he said, “The goal of a 75% deck would be to win 1 ÷ X games based on the number of players. This deck is not a guaranteed win, but it will certainly make people frustrated and can win if I get the right first draw and I am lucky.”

Man, I almost forgot that this could be the most important tenet of 75% decks. Sure, it has nothing to do with how the deck is built, but it’s the best way to test if it’s actually working. I sometimes can’t see the forest for the trees, and combing through the list to see how many Threaten effects he ran and missing the fact that the whole point of a 75% deck is to not oppress your playgroup or lose every game to it was a little humbling. We can’t become caught up in the minutiae—the point of Commander is to have fun, and that’s what 75% is all about. My principles aren’t rules, they’re guidelines that, if followed, should result in a deck that wins 1 ÷ X games. Even I forget that sometimes.

Let’s take a look at what u/dafinder1984 was working with.

Rakdos, Lord of Riots ? Commander | dafinder1984

• Commander (0)

• Creatures (30)
• 1 Aether Membrane
• 1 Archetype of Aggression
• 1 Ash Zealot
• 1 Bloodfire Colossus
• 1 Bloodfray Giant
• 1 Bloodgift Demon
• 1 Chaos Imps
• 1 Cinder Elemental
• 1 Cryptborn Horror
• 1 Deathbringer Thoctar
• 1 Ember Swallower
• 1 Fate Unraveler
• 1 Flame-Wreathed Phoenix
• 1 Forgestoker Dragon
• 1 Galvanoth
• 1 Guttersnipe
• 1 Molten Hydra
• 1 Nekrataal
• 1 Rakdos Cackler
• 1 Satyr Firedancer
• 1 Slumbering Dragon
• 1 Spike Jester
• 1 Thundermaw Hellkite
• 1 Vampire Nighthawk
• 1 Vexing Devil
• 1 Young Pyromancer
• 1 Volatile Rig
• 1 Kamahl, Pit Fighter
• 1 Nefarox, Overlord of Grixis
• 1 Tymaret, the Murder King

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Koth of the Hammer

• Spells (31)
• 1 Culling the Weak
• 1 Dark Ritual
• 1 Delirium
• 1 Fall of the Hammer
• 1 Seismic Strike
• 1 Street Spasm
• 1 Volcanic Geyser
• 1 Anger of the Gods
• 1 Breath of Darigaaz
• 1 Cone of Flame
• 1 Diabolic Tutor
• 1 Ghitu Fire
• 1 Jokulhaups
• 1 Mizzium Mortars
• 1 Red Sun's Zenith
• 1 Slagstorm
• 1 Toil // Trouble
• 1 Wildfire
• 1 Blood Reckoning
• 1 Caustic Tar
• 1 Electropotence
• 1 Fervor
• 1 Grave Betrayal
• 1 Night Dealings
• 1 Spiteful Visions
• 1 Stab Wound
• 1 Dingus Egg
• 1 Pyromancer's Gauntlet
• 1 Rakdos Cluestone
• 1 Rakdos Keyrune
• 1 Wayfarer's Bauble

• Lands (37)
• 15 Mountain
• 7 Swamp
• 1 Crypt of Agadeem
• 1 Dragonskull Summit
• 1 Ebon Stronghold
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Forgotten Cave
• 1 Ghost Quarter
• 1 Rakdos Guildgate
• 1 Stensia Bloodhall
• 1 Tainted Peak
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 Hall of the Bandit Lord
• 1 Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
• 1 Shivan Gorge
• 1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
• 1 Forsaken Wastes

Buy This Deck

There is a lot going on here, and it mostly seems to be sticking to a budget. But what does budget mean, anyway? I have no idea, but if I am going to make any changes, the easiest way I make sure the resulting deck is still considered “budget” is by not including a total cost of cards that exceeds what is in here already. I can cut monetarily expensive stuff to make room for cheaper stuff, and I think that’s totally doable.

First of all, Vexing Devil is not really a budget card, and neither is Koth of the Hammer. They are okay in the deck, but they’re not amazing, and since we can make room for a lot of cheaper stuff, we can probably lose them easily. My other objectives are to focus more on Rakdos’s utility, and maybe we can add a few of our 75% signature cards to make it scale a little better. I won’t sweat it too much though—after all, I don’t want to lose sight of the fact that what matters most to u/dafinder1984 is winning 1 ÷ X games.

Rakdos, Lord of Riots ? Commander | Jason Alt

• Commander (0)

• Creatures (34)
• 1 Aether Membrane
• 1 Archetype of Aggression
• 1 Ash Zealot
• 1 Bloodfire Colossus
• 1 Bloodfray Giant
• 1 Bloodgift Demon
• 1 Chaos Imps
• 1 Cinder Elemental
• 1 Cryptborn Horror
• 1 Deathbringer Thoctar
• 1 Ember Swallower
• 1 Fate Unraveler
• 1 Flame-Wreathed Phoenix
• 1 Forgestoker Dragon
• 1 Galvanoth
• 1 Inferno Titan
• 1 Knollspine Dragon
• 1 Lobber Crew
• 1 Magmatic Force
• 1 Molten Hydra
• 1 Nekrataal
• 1 Plague Spitter
• 1 Satyr Firedancer
• 1 Slumbering Dragon
• 1 Thundermaw Hellkite
• 1 Myr Battlesphere
• 1 Stuffy Doll
• 1 Volatile Rig
• 1 Heartless Hidetsugu
• 1 Kaervek the Merciless
• 1 Kamahl, Pit Fighter
• 1 Maga, Traitor to Mortals
• 1 Nefarox, Overlord of Grixis
• 1 Tymaret, the Murder King

• Spells (28)
• 1 Delirium
• 1 Fall of the Hammer
• 1 Seismic Strike
• 1 Volcanic Geyser
• 1 Anger of the Gods
• 1 Diabolic Tutor
• 1 Ghitu Fire
• 1 Jokulhaups
• 1 Mizzium Mortars
• 1 Red Sun's Zenith
• 1 Slagstorm
• 1 Toil // Trouble
• 1 Wildfire
• 1 Blood Reckoning
• 1 Electropotence
• 1 Grave Betrayal
• 1 Polluted Bonds
• 1 Spiteful Visions
• 1 Honden of Infinite Rage
• 1 Honden of Night's Reach
• 1 Dingus Egg
• 1 Gorgon Flail
• 1 Gorgon's Head
• 1 Pyromancer's Gauntlet
• 1 Rakdos Cluestone
• 1 Rakdos Keyrune
• 1 Vedalken Orrery
• 1 Wayfarer's Bauble

• Lands (37)
• 15 Mountain
• 7 Swamp
• 1 Crypt of Agadeem
• 1 Dragonskull Summit
• 1 Ebon Stronghold
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Forgotten Cave
• 1 Ghost Quarter
• 1 Rakdos Guildgate
• 1 Stensia Bloodhall
• 1 Tainted Peak
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 Hall of the Bandit Lord
• 1 Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
• 1 Shivan Gorge
• 1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
• 1 Forsaken Wastes

Buy This Deck

I really don’t like to see Wildfire and Jokulhaups in a 75% list, but I don’t know how much of that is personal bias and how much of it is the fact that cards that do things like that contradict our principle to avoid preventing our opponents from doing things. I decided to leave them in because u/dafinder1984 said he wants to be able to compete with decks that ramp out of control.

If we’re making our creatures cheaper, why not jam a Maga, Traitor to Mortals? Hurting opponents a lot only to hurt them more is fun. With Orrery coming in at around $6 to $7, we didn’t have financial room to jam a Wound Reflection as I’d prefer, but Heartless Hidetsugu is a bulk rare, so let’s jam him. He’s pretty good with Maga, I hear. You should be able to play some cheap dudes after that.

Stuffy Doll is too much fun not to run.

Lobber Crew is too good in this deck, as is Plague Spitter. Giving Plague Spitter deathtouch can be dangerous, so use your new Gorgon Flail and Gorgon's head judiciously. Perhaps equipping a Deathbringer Thoctar or Inferno Titan is a good plan.

I cut a few cards I didn’t think worked, but I checked the prices and kept the price of the two decks to within a buck or two of each other. When money is no option, a lot of things can be tightened up, but this is a better deck in my opinion and costs about the same. I like Basilisk Collar for a deck like this, but you know that if you read my Godo article. Still, you can get by with a cheaper alternative.

Is this deck going to be able to take on stronger decks and therefore pass the true 75% test and win 1 ÷ X games against a stronger group? It actually might. A good draw, some luck, a little bit of being left alone, and this deck has the potential to surprise people. Now, if you’re just playing with a group of casuals, you don’t need to build your deck 75% because you can just tune the deck to that group. However, as more people give me feedback on the project, the more I realize that a lot of 75% principles have utility as guidelines on how not to be a menace to the playgroup. 75% isn’t a budget philosophy. It’s not a way to build a durdle deck to jam with casuals. But if that’s your goal and you want to follow the 75% guidelines to get there, who am I to say that’s wrong?

Special thanks to u/vephyrthune and u/dafinder1984 from reddit for the inspiration. This deck looks like a riot, and I hope this will help both of you.