Cult of Rakdos

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So let's get a party going — Andrew W.K.

A Rakdos party is a flop if anyone lives to talk about it.

The Cult of Rakdos is the guild that likes to party. Rakdos and his followers just like to have a good time. Nobody parties harder than the Cult of Rakdos. Ain't no Party like a Rakdos Party. Imagine Slaanesh without the perfection. Unfortunately some guilds *cough* Azorius and Boros *cough* sometimes take it upon themselves to be the fun police (one of those guilds is, infact, the actual police). Massacre girl once said:

"You can always count on the Azorius to ruin a party."

And of course, nothing ruins a party like Boros

"killjoys bursting through the door and setting all the guests free."

Slaughter Games

The Dark Carnival is in town —Creature Feature.

This is event, is more or less a carnival with blood sports, hosted by the Cult of Rakdos. It is also the name of this card. The event is not annual [1]. If you are close enough you might be lucky enough to receive a free, and compulsory, invitation.

Structure

The Cult of Rakdos is a collection of loose groups called "rings" which are each led by a ringmaster.

Guild Members

Guild Master

Guild master and Parun, Rakdos is a fatass demon who's been around almost as long as Niv-Mizzet, but only got a fraction of his exposure. Likes to PARTY HARD and call for increasingly violent and sensual performances. Like Niv, Rakdos has a card from Ravnica and another from Return.

Cards

Ravnica Block

His first card printed was a demon tribal card in a set that didn't have a demon tribal theme [2]... then wizards at some point printed a legendary creature, that is a demon, plays well with Hellbent, and is in Rakdos Colors that, colors aside, has no connection to the Cult of Rakdos.

Return to Ravnica

His second card is a 6/6 flying trample legendary creature for 4 mana that basically gives your creatures the not key worded ability "pain cast". That being said, his fairly low CMC doesn't make him super easy to cast (on account of color restrictions) and the fact he can only be cast if an opponent has lost life this turn.

Others

Massacre Girl

She likes to have a good time. Fun police at your own (and your loved ones') risk.

Mechanics

Hellbent

Hellbent is an ability that turns on if your hand is empty. Saying someone is hellbent in mtg is slang for they have no hand, regardless if they have any benefits from being hellbent. For example, affinity players often become hellbent because of affinity's low mana curve. Lots of hellbent cards are at best barely above par even with hellbent active. Being hellbent is a pretty steep price as not only do you not have stuff to use in your hand, but only a careless opponent will buy a bluff that you have something useable in your hand, as the amount of cards in your hand is not hidden information. Also you can't lie about anything other than hidden information, which makes bluffing without cheating difficult.

Paincast

This mechanic was made for Rakdos's guild for it's return in the Return to Ravnica block. It was largely scrapped and hardly left R&D at all. It lost it's status as a keyword ability. Rakdos, Lord of Riots basically gave all your creatures paincast.

Unleash

A card with unleash may enter the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it. If a card with unleash has a +1/+1 counter on it, it can't block (while the origin of the counter is irrelevant, obviously this is usually from the enter the battlefield option). Originally the drawback was 'must attack if able', but MaRo thought having can't block instead would be more flavorful and play better [3].

Guilds of Ravnica
Azorius Senate	Orzhov Syndicate	House Dimir	Izzet League	Cult of Rakdos
Golgari Swarm	Gruul Clans	Boros Legion	Selesnya Conclave	Simic Combine