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Rakdos, Lord of Riots

Legendary Creature — Demon

You can't cast Rakdos unless an opponent lost life this turn.
Flying, trample
Creature spells you cast cost {1} less to cast for each 1 life your opponents have lost this turn.

CMC
4
Mana cost
{B}{B}{R}{R}
Color identity
BR
Rarity
rare
Set
Ravnica Remastered
Price
$1.79
EDHREC rank
#2548
Buy on TCGplayer
Rakdos, Lord of Riots card art
Rakdos, Lord of Riots turns every point of damage dealt to opponents into a cost reduction, letting you dump the top half of your mana curve into play for free or near-free as early as turn five. The tax — dealing damage before he can attack — is real, but payoffs like Ancestral Statue (infinite bounce loops) and the raw tribal synergy with Be'lakor, the Dark Master make that setup cost worth engineering.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Be'lakor, the Dark Master

Be'lakor, the Dark Master

68.3% of decks · synergy 0.65

Be'lakor, the Dark Master cares about Demons entering the battlefield, and Rakdos, Lord of Riots is the engine that makes those Demons free — cost reduction across an entire tribe converts what would be a clunky top-heavy curve into a single explosive turn.

02
Raphael, Fiendish Savior

Raphael, Fiendish Savior

53.9% of decks · synergy 0.47

Raphael, Fiendish Savior rewards flooding the board with Demons, Devils, and Tieflings, and Rakdos, Lord of Riots does exactly that by shaving mana off every threat in the 99 — the two together compress a full hand of expensive creatures into one combat step.

03
Abaddon the Despoiler

Abaddon the Despoiler

41.0% of decks · synergy 0.38

Abaddon the Despoiler cascades off spells cast when opponents take damage, and Rakdos, Lord of Riots converts that same damage into free creatures — the two abilities feed each other in the same combat phase, generating card advantage and board presence simultaneously.

04
Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls

Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls

35.8% of decks · synergy 0.29

Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls draws cards whenever opponents lose life, which means the ping that unlocks Rakdos, Lord of Riots also replaces itself — running both turns a mandatory combat prerequisite into incremental card advantage.

05
The Lord of Pain

The Lord of Pain

35.2% of decks · synergy 0.28

The Lord of Pain makes opponents pay life whenever you activate abilities or cast spells, generating the consistent damage triggers that Rakdos, Lord of Riots needs to stay online and swing freely every turn.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern legal
pioneer legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Commander is the natural home for Rakdos, Lord of Riots — three opponents to ping, enormous Demon and Eldrazi payoffs that benefit from cost reduction, and a 90-card pool deep enough to build consistent damage triggers. In Legacy and Vintage he's legal but rarely seen; a 6/6 flier with an elaborate condition struggles to compete with formats that win on turns one through three. Modern is similar: the cost-reduction payoff requires a critical mass of high-CMC threats that the format's efficiency ceiling doesn't reward. Pioneer is technically legal but he sees almost no play there for the same reasons. Oathbreaker could theoretically support him, but the 20-life starting total and smaller deck size make the engine fragile.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$1.79 cheap tier

At $1.79, Rakdos, Lord of Riots sits in the cheap tier — strong for a mythic legendary with genuine combo potential and top-tier Commander inclusion numbers. That price reflects reprint availability more than demand dropping off; he remains a staple in every deck that wants him.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.