this is a newer take on my previous rakdos midrange deck. i swapped enough cards that i thought it justified a new post. this deck has a lower curve and is a lot more explosive.
so the theme is obvious here -- we love burgers and fries and dudes with five strength.
the meat of the deck are all of our five guys paired with
Spiritweaver and
Mightweaver. you can easily end the game on turn 4 with decent draws (an unanswered
Darkblade Cutpurse on t2 with mightweaver follow-up on t3 is always 10+ damage).
card talk:
Murgo the Bone Guy -- as a unit, murgo doesn't do much. the AI decks have gotten better over the years, so his 2/3 body has become a lot worse. i find i rarely get to actually attack with him and if he does survive long enough to do so, he only hunts 1 so he scales VERY slowly. HOWEVER, his ultimate ability alone makes him worth running; turning a dead darkblade cutpurse into a 2 power 7+/1 weapon is game ending.
i haven't tried running other cards in his place because he does just enough that i justify keeping him in the deck, but other options may be something like
Xenan Lifespeaker,
Eris Beastbane,
Bladekin Apprentice,
Teething Whelp,
Maggot Swarm (or maybe
Bone Music?),
Centipede Keeper
Skullmarket Delivery -- this used to be
Kerendon Merchant but he was just too slow and felt too bad when topdecked. skullmarket's fast access also makes
Spiteful Strike and
Dangerous Gambit really good combat tricks.
Evening Hare -- 5 power overwhelm is basically the most ideal attack/battle skill combo to pair with mightweaver, nightfall is good for extra draw, and the summon ability is huge, making every single unit in the deck an immediate, must-answer threat. i've been testing a bit with
Old Scratch to decent success but he servers a totally different purpose than hare; scratch provides recursion/resiliency while hare provides explosive/aggressive power. this slot could also be
Impending Doom for a more consistent/evasive threat.
Akalur, Hecaton's Chosen -- another new "Chapter" card that is REEEALLY good. a 3/5 deadly is an extremely strong body that basically stops the AI in their tracks and his ability scales our units like crazy. we almost never care about reckless because we are always attacking anyway and +2 strength (usually +4 because of mightweaver) for 1 power every turn is just ludicrous value.
Raniya, Miviox Maniac is an absolute all star. i have no idea why she does so much for 4 power... her contract basically removes 2 blockers from combat (you steal 1 and they have to block it with another), usually letting you end the game on the spot. also, the AI don't differentiate between "your" units and "theirs" so they'll double block their own stolen unit in order to kill it, giving you a 2 (sometimes even 3) for 1. AND on top of it all, we gain
2 life per dying unit... bonkers card.
EDIT: after testing 241ackermans's suggestions, i decided to move raniya to the market... she's super powerful and i love the card but we just didn't need to play 4 copies. vine grafter took her place which i've been really happy with. regen on grafter plus on another card in hand massively boosts our survivability and it having market access basically makes them copies of raniya anyway.
Unstable Hellion is also insane. he attacks with at least 5 power, so he always benefits from our weavers. his entomb trigger also benefits from weavers so the AI will often die even if they block the hellion (if his death trigger targets their face).
a card i haven't tested that could potentially be very good is
Looming Fireshell. i can see it hitting 8 power and ending the game on the 2nd attack. however, it's a bit slow since it requires an attack to do anything but it does have 4 toughness so it'll survive most damage based removal.
market:
not much to say, just the usual staple cards. raniya and massacre are probably firm keeps but the rest can be swapped with whatever else you prefer.
and the market is already saturated with 4 cost cards, i don't want to add another one. saloon massacre is also our only board wipe so it's pretty much not replaceable. if anything i'd swap stronghold or statuary maiden for big wheel if you wanted to try it. i think wheel is a bit too slow as this deck often wins by turn 5 or 6 so there's not really enough time to get value out of wheel (on top of the fact that we have no synergy with the life gain where lifeforce/bolster lists massively benefit from it).
i do agree rumors not being immediate removal feels bad sometimes but i use that opportunity to get rid of any removal/damage spells from their deck. like i said, i tested with both torch and ignite and they're probably better, just currently enjoying rumors.
vine grafter is a solid suggestion but i've never liked how slow they are. i will definitely test them, though, probably swap 3x in for rumors.