Standard Human Ratadrabik Combo Deck Guide: Destroy Opponents With Creature Combo!

Introduction

I present to you a deck that could be exhibited in a museum, a work of art. Exploring each card’s potential and deck building have always been my favorite things about Magic, and there’s no nobler sense of accomplishment than winning with your own decks.

Ratadrabik of Urborg card wasn’t just a revelation, it was a challenge that many took on. This Standard is very rich and the Standard’s Control and Midrange decks are ruthless with very strong cards against creature-based decks like Sheoldred, the Apocalypse or Liliana of the Veil. It therefore took me dozens of hours of testing with this legendary zombie to arrive at a more than correct result.

For the most curious among you, you can find all the different versions of the deck on my tracker profile. Now, I will now present to you the final version that satisfies me the most in the meta of the standard of this beginning of October.

Deck Tech

Here is the list composed of 30 creatures, 4 artifacts, and 26 lands. This deck is an aggro-combo deck. It uses creatures to put pressure on the opponent’s life total and finishes the opponent with crazy synergies. The deck looks quite simple, but is surely one of the most complex to play in current Standard.

The first reason not to put non-creature spells is the presence of Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. It is often a win condition to create an army of Thalia with Ratadrabik of Urborg and to lock the opponent out as you can make spells cost five or ten more mana to play. Therefore, we do not want to suffer the same fate with our cards, but that might be a little too fast for you, so I’ll walk you through how the deck comes together.

Once Ratadrabik of Urborg is on the battlefield, you play Jaxis, the Troublemaker with the Blitz ability, you’ll then use the activated ability to copy Ratadrabik of Urborg, and choose a legendary copy (the original or the copy, but it’s often better to keep the original).

The strength of this combo is that even if we kill your creatures, with 2 Ratadrabik of Urborg on the board, you will have zombies coming back. Once you untap with it, you can start by making two new Ratadrabik of Urborg and then make four copies of another legendary creature on the board, and that’s where the serious stuff begins.

Thanks to cards like Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, you can slow down and then prevent the opponent from playing spells for the rest of the game. The Jaxis ability allows you to create a board in combat that stops the biggest threats.

Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia and Old Rutstein will allow you to create tokens that are expendable for effects like Liliana of the Veil or Invoke Despair.

Dennick, Pious Apprentice is especially useful for protecting cards in your graveyard from threats like Graveyard Trespasser, and the Disturb ability lets you have creatures with flying, in addition to creating clue tokens that synergize with Old Rutstein and Ludevic, Necrogenius.

Do not hesitate to use Lagrella, the Magpie to exile your own creatures so that they come back stronger; it is particularly good with Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and Dennick, Pious Apprentice for the pressure and the Lifelink. Lagrella, the Magpie, in particular, is well positioned against opposing tokens.

Ertai Resurrected is there to prevent some disaster scenarios by killing a Sheoldred, the Apocalypse or countering a Farewell.

Finally, the last human power play of the deck is Jodah, the Unifier. It allows you to efficiently race by boosting all the other legendaries and allows monumental attack phases. He’s the reason there’s Errant, Street Artist in the deck, because any of your two drops will pick him up and give everyone else an extra +1/+1. If you have Jaxis, the Troublemaker, you will also have the opportunity to add one more attacker in order to find the lethal.

The Mana

The most important work done in this decklist is done on the mana. The deck needed Relic of Legends, and the win rate has increased dramatically upon its inclusion. The legendary curve on turn two, followed by Relic of Legends allows for a turn four with Ratadrabik of Urborg + Jaxis, the Troublemaker or a Jodah, the Unifier.

You can tap humans that have just come into play, and therefore use lands that have Channel abilities. Note that you can pay Raffine, Scheming Seer‘s ward 1 hit with Lagrella, the Magpie when she comes into play. Knowing when to use mana or keep mana available for instant effects is key to winning some matchups.

Not having a mana problem in a 5-color deck is luxury and success. The mana base focuses on Humans with four copies of Secluded Courtyard and Plaza of Heroes which are literally City of Brass that deals no damage in the deck.

All other lands were selected so that (almost) any combination without playing Takenuma, Abandoned Mire and Otawara, Soaring City can cast Jodah, the Unifier on turn five. The exception being having only Adarkar Wastes / Caves of Koilos / Shattered Sanctum / Deserted Beach / Shipwreck Marsh.

Finally, your interactive spells are not numerous, but they are there, hidden in your lands. Otawara, Soaring City will allow you to manage an opposing creature or save one of your own. Takenuma, Abandoned Mire recovers key cards from your graveyard and finally Plaza of Heroes will give you defense against removal heavy decks.

Matchups and Sideboard Guide

The deck is very linear so sideboarding is often very minimal and serves to adapt to specific cards that make up the opposing deck. For you to understand, some copies are there to replace less impactful cards in the main deck:

• Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia and Old Rutstein are there against Liliana, of the Veil – Lagrella, the Magpie helps a lot against token strategies like Wedding Announcement and Fable of the Mirror-Breaker.

• Sheoldred, the Apocalypse helps well against match-ups Raffine, Scheming Seer – Geralf, Visionary Stitcher is used to give flight to your creatures in match-ups or it can be important – Kotose, the Silent Spider can be good against combo or reviver decks – Gisa, Glorious Resurrector is good in the mirror and against strategies that also play legendaries.

• Ertai Resurrected is important in very controlled matchups.

Mono Black Midrange

In	Out
+2 Old Rutstein	-1 King Darien XLVIII
+1 Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia	-1 Errant, Street Artist
	-1 Geralf, Visionary Stitcher

In this matchup, you are the control player. Your goal is to assemble a board that your opponent can”t deal with. It’s often comes with Ratadrabik of Urborg and other strong legendaries like Thalia, Guardian of Thraben that protect it from targeted removal. Jodah, the unifier often comes as a second win condition of for the final attack.

Orzhov Midrange

In	Out
+2 Old Rutstein	-1 King Darien XLVIII
+1 Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia	-1 Errant, Street Artist
+1 Lagrella, the Magpie	-2 Geralf, Visionary Stitcher

It’s basically the same game plan than the Mono Black Midrange deck, but your opponent as a way to deal with your creature with Farewell or The Wandering Emperor, so you’ll like to not all in on your resources and try to find a more midrange approach.

Lagrella, the Magpie is great to deal with the tokens of Wedding Announcement and also protect your creature from mass removal.

Esper Midrange

In	Out
+2 Old Rutstein	-1 King Darien XLVIII
+1 Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia	-1 Errant, Street Artist
+1 Lagrella, the Magpie	-2 Geralf, Visionary Stitcher
+2 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse	-1 Ludevic, Necrogenius
	-1 Ertai Resurrected

In this matchup, you’ll need to be able to block Raffine, Scheming Seer from attacking you. If the opponent manages to kill your creatures and filter their hand with Raffine, you are pretty much dead. So the plan is to not let them gain control of the game by forcing them to do something against your pieces. Sheoldred, the Apocalypse is specially good for the job and you can buy it back with Takenuma.

If they don’t play Liliana of the Veil, you can play Ertai Resurrected or Lagrella, the Magpie instead of Old Rutstein and Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia from the sideboard table.

Bant Storm the Festival

In	Out
+2 Lagrella, the Magpie	-1 Old Rutstein
+3 Ertai Resurrected	-1 Errant, Street Artist
	-1 Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia

I don’t think this matchup is problematic. Basically both deck play an all in plan with creatures and your board will always be better than theirs. Once again, the only thing to care about is Farewell or The Wandering Emperor, so you’ll like to keep interaction for these cards. Lagrella, the Magpie and Ertai Resurrected will help you take control of the board and prevent your opponent to clean it.

Mono Blue Tempo

In	Out
+2 Lagrella, the Magpie	-1 Old Rutstein
+3 Ertai Resurrected	-1 Errant, Street Artist
+ 1 Geralf, Visionary Stitcher	-1 Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia
	-2 Ludevic, Necrogenius
	-1 Jodah, the unifier

This matchup is not that easy, but if you manage to deal with their threats, you can run them out of counterspells. Your deck is full of creature and they might have problem finding enough counters for all of them.

Resolving Thalia, Guardian of Thraben is very good cause they lose the ability to easily interact with what you are doing. To succeed, you’ll need as many ways to kill or block flying creatures as possible.

Mono White Aggro

IN	OUT
+2 Lagrella, the Magpie	-1 Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia
+1 Ertai Resurrected	-1 Errant, Street Artist
+ 1 Old Rutstein	-1 Geralf, Visionary Stitcher
+1 King Darien XLVIII	-2 Ludevic, Necrogenius

The deck might be more popular after the banning of The Meathook Massacre. The game plan is the same as the plan for Mono-Black Aggro. Your goal is to assemble a board that your opponent can’t deal with. Your opponent will have less ways to make you sacrifice creature, so you can play more cards that make your board stronger like King Darien XLVIII.

Other Control Decks with Wrath Effects

In	Out
+3 Ertai Resurrected	-1 Errant, Street Artist
+1 Kotose, The silent Spider	-1 Geralf, Visionary Stitcher
+1 King Darien XLVIII	-1 Old Rutstein
	-1 Ludevic, Necrogenius

There are not than many control deck like this, but the one that you can encounter is Mono White. Like for the Orzhov matchup, your opponent has a way to deal with your creature with Farewell or The Wandering Emperor, so you’ll like to not all in on your resources and try to find a more midrange approach. If your opponent has few ways to finish the game, Kotose, the Silent Spider can be very useful to empty their library of win conditions.

Tips and Tricks

• You don’t always have to play Thalia, Guardian of Thraben on turn two if you have another legendary because she can block your Relic on turn 3. However, this can be the play in certain matchups.

• When playing against a matchup that can potentially play Liliana, remember to put your creatures that create tokens first before your essential creatures. Old Rustein has a very low chance of producing Blood tokens so you may get good edict fodder.

• You can use Ertai Resurrected on your own creatures to draw a card or trigger Ratadrabik of Urborg‘s ability.

• If you have Ratadrabik of Urborg in play, you can sacrifice King Darien XLVIII to get a token that will be a copy of himself, and his ability will give him indestructible and hexproof.

• If you have Ratadrabik of Urborg in play, you can use Geralf, Visionary Stitcher‘s sacrifice ability as an instant to make a creature come into play, like Ertai Resurrected to counter something or to create a blocker that has flying.

• If you have Ratadrabik of Urborg in play, making copies of the reverse side of Dennick, Pious Apprentice with Jaxis, the Troublemaker will not work as the creature is exiled.

• If you have two Ratadrabik of Urborg in play, you can start a value loop with Geralf, Visionary Stitcher, Jaxis, the Troublemaker, or by playing your duplicate legendary creatures from your hand.

• If you have Relic of Legends in play, lands like Takenuma, Abandoned Mire or Otawara, Soaring City become almost free to cast. Missing a land drop is sometimes more important than playing one of these lands.

• If you have Relic of Legends in play, you need five more lands to perform the Ratadrabik of Urborg + Jaxis, the Troublemaker combo in dash.

• If you have Relic of Legends in play, you need six more lands to perform the Jodah, the Unifier + Jaxis, the Troublemaker combo in dash.

• If you have Relic of Legends + Ratadrabik of Urborg + multiple Jaxis, the Troublemaker. You may make red mana with Ratadrabik of Urborg, copy it, and choose the copy, untap, draw a card, and repeat for each Jaxis, the Troublemaker in play.

• If you have multiple Ratadrabik of Urborg, you can protect yourself from Farewell by sacrificing Lagrella, the Magpie and exiling your own creatures.

• Copies of Ratadrabik of Urborg are not legendary, they do not produce mana with Relic of Legends and cannot be shielded by Plaza of Heroes

• There is a bug on MTG Arena with Secluded Courtyard and you cannot use red mana for Jaxis, the Troublemaker‘s ability when not the original.

• You can use Takenuma, Abandoned Mire and Ludevic, Necrogenius even with Dennick, Pious Apprentice in play.

Conclusion

The deck is really great to play and is filled with decisions that reward precision. It’s a deck I enjoy playing so you’ll have the opportunity to see me play it live and ask your questions on my Twitch channel or if you want to hang out and watch new decks in creation.

See you soon!