Hello and welcome to the first edition of Fun & Jank! My name is Plum, and each week I’ll be taking a deep dive into some of the weirdest, spiciest, and most interesting deck lists from across MTG’s different formats! Not only will you see brews from myself, but we’ll also review fun lists from other players and recent constructed events.
So strap in, buckle up, and grab your popcorn as we take a peek at a personal brew of mine, Rakdos Kami-Kaze!
Rakdos Kami-Kaze is a different take on the classic Rakdos Sacrifice decks from days past. Rather than trying to abuse creatures that ping our opponent, such as Mayhem Devil and Cauldron Familiar, our goal is to amass a critical amount of value via creature recursion. Once we start getting those synergies rolling, the deck can easily snowball out of control and “combo off” to kill our opponent.
Let’s start by taking a look at the name sake of the deck
Rakdos Kami-Kaze gets it’s name from Kami of Mourning, a forgotten 3 drop from Alchemy: Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty. It has decent stats, being a 3/2 for 3 mana. However, it’s ability is the heart of what makes this deck run. When Kami of Mourning enters, we get to choose a creature we control, or one in our graveyard and it perpetually gains the following ability:
“Whenever a creature you control with greater mana value than this card dies, return this card from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped.”
On it’s own that’s a pretty solid textbox. If Kami (or a creature with a higher mana value) dies in combat or gets removed, we get to bring back a smaller mana value creature to replace it. The fun part is when we start adding in some other value pieces.
Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger is our main win-condition. Kami of Mourning’s ability on Kroxa means that any time a 3-mana value creature on our side dies, Kroxa will return from the graveyard to the battlefield making our opponent discard a card and possibly drain them for 3 life. It also happens to sacrifice itself when it enters which means it can trigger Kami of Mourning’s ability that we have to smaller creatures such as Goblin Trapfinder.
Goblin Trapfinder is the bread and butter of this list. Not only is it great sacrifice fodder, netting 3 cards alongside Village Rites, but it also gives the card it seeks haste, a cost reduction, and it’s own sacrifice clause. That means if it seeks Kami of Mourning, it gains haste and only costs 2 mana, but the neat part is that Kami will also sacrifice itself at the end of turn if it doesn’t happen to die in combat. This means it gets to trigger it’s own ability and bring back something from our graveyard!
#valuetown am I right?
Support Cards
Now that we know how the engine of the deck works, let’s take a look at some of the support cards that keeps it ticking.
Priest of Forgotten Gods is our “alternate” win-con in Rakdos Kami-Kaze. In reality, it’s main purpose is to act as another engine that lets us chain multiple sacrifice triggers in a turn, netting mana and drawing cards as we do so. The life drain is just icing on the cake and helps speed up the clock presented by looping Kroxa.
Riveteers Provocateur is another overlooked alchemy card that happens to be an all-star in this deck. It plays a similar role to Goblin Trapfinder. It gives our creatures Blitz, which means they can be casted with haste and a sacrifice clause (which helps with Kami of Mourning triggers) while at the same time replacing themselves once they die. Other times it’s just a lightning strike that cantrips, but I’ll talk more about how it synergizes with other cards below.
Balduvian Atrocity is a cute little piece of the puzzle here. It’s kicker ability yet again does an awesome Goblin Trapfinder impression. We can return any other creature in the deck from our graveyard to the battlefield with haste and a sacrifice clause. He works well with Kami, Kroxa, Trapfinder, and even allows us to use a reanimated Priest of Forgotten Gods’ ability right away.
Skirk Prospector might seem like a bit of an odd inclusion, but he’s a necessary one. This guy allows us to keep the sacrifice chains going with Goblin Trapfinder. This seeks us more gas, gives us red mana (Priest does a pretty good job of supplying black mana), and provides an instant speed way to sacrifice Trapfinder (with Kami’s ability tagged on) to get multiple triggers while we’re going off in response to cards like Kroxa and Priest.
The rest of the list is made up of useful tools. Village Rites for card draw that sacrifices and Eaten Alive for removal that also happens to sacrifice creatures or dump something in the yard for Kami to give it’s ability to. Chthonian Nightmare has also been great as a 1-of to provide some extra utility.
2x Unlicensed Hearse – Graveyard hate that turns into a nice beater.
Gameplay Lines and Synergies
One of the reasons I adore playing this deck is the sheer amount of choices and options you have while going for that critical turn. Each game feels like you’re trying to solve a puzzle and no two games have the same path to victory. I’d like to highlight some interesting and powerful synergies below.
Riveteers Provocateur + Kroxa = Discard, possible life drain, and draw a card (Blitz Kroxa)
Prospector allows you to sacrifice and return Trapfinder multiple times if you have more than 1 sacrifice trigger on the stack (make sure you’re in full control!).
If you’d like to see how crazy a turn can get, skip ahead to 4:25!
Closing Thoughts
Rakdos Kami-Kaze was a pet project of mine in Historic for a couple seasons in a row before I got it to a spot where I was happy with it. The deck certainly has a powerful game plan as I was able to take it to Mythic in Bo3 multiple months in a row. It’s an absolute blast to play and like I mentioned earlier, every game feels like a puzzle. There’s so many different decisions you have to make and triggers to keep track of to help lead you to victory. Although it doesn’t play the classic Rakdos Sacrifice staples, I think this variant is a strong take on the archetype and I’m looking forward to revisiting it in the future! I hope you enjoy the deck.
Feel free to comment and leave any questions you have below! Make sure to come back next week for even more Fun & Jank!
Happy Brewing!
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Plum is the creator of the Jank Tank.
He started playing at the ripe old age of 12 and immediately fell in love with the infinite possibilities that deck building could lead to.
He truly understands that jank is a mindset, and spends most of his free time brewing and concocting new and exciting deck lists to help inspire and promote creativity within the MTG community.
