BotBreaker: Joordan's IKO Quick Draft Rakdos Sacrifice Ultimate Primer

Metagame Analysis:

When it comes to the Lair of Behemoths, our mantra is really to avoid Green.

 For that matter, Blue cards aren't great either and the most important part of finding a successful archetype is to plant yourself in the Mardu color triangle, either with Black/White Humans, Red/White Cycling, or Black/Red Sacrifice— My personal favorite.

Outside of these three strong decks, you'll see Blue/Red Forbidden Friendship mutate/tempo decks that can come out quick, as well as Sultai, Temur, and 5-color Mutate builds which are base-green and play on Essence Symbiote, Poliwag Symbiote (or whatever the 1U 1/3 Uncommon turd is), and Migratory Greathorn... I think these Green-based mutate builds are truly atrocious. The idea of Mutating 2 cards into a 2-for-1 that the opponent can claim with a simple removal spell feels awful, especially in a best-of-one metagame when you don't know what to expect from your opponent.

What's the best way to take advantage of this 2-for-1 mechanic and the fact that many IKO bot-drafters tend to, in my experience, lean heavily into these Green-based Mutate decks? Let's take a look at a few synergies, and then we'll dive into the powerhouse Uncommon cards that are undervalued by players and bots alike that really set Red/Black apart.

Bots are significantly better than human drafters in one respect, they recognize that Whisper Squad is a mythic common in this go-around of the bot drafts, I tentatively believe. Across two drafts of this most recent iteration, I've seen a total of 1 or 2 Whisper Squads, none of which wheeled, and all of which arrived too late to dive in and take a gambit on the best Limited one-drop since Ramosian Sergeant (any boomers in the building)? Ramosian Sergeant was so good that I was able to get 12th place at Midwest Regionals, going 10-2, IN STANDARD NO LESS, as a 15 year old kid in 2001 that had no idea what in the actual hell they were doing— FeelsGoodMan.

Alas, that was my gateway to money-drafting at PTQs for years to come with some brilliant Magic minds and in the end, would heavily contribute, I believe to my rapid ascension in IKO draft when I picked Magic back up as quarantine hit and I grabbed a gaming computer last year. Why should you listen to me on this primer and/or format? Well, I don't think anyone should listen to me, of course! That being said, Ikoria is the best draft format I've ever had, maintaining about a 75% win-rate across all forms of drafting it rather easily.

Bot drafting in particular was somewhere I shined last December when Ikoria was available on MTG Arena. I had never bot drafted more than once or twice in a format previously and ended up getting to #1 Mythic for the first time ever, and was then able to get my 2nd account to #2 Mythic, all from Ikoria bot drafting across that month and finishing up with a few strong finishes in ZNR Premier Draft with RW decks full of Karghan Warleaders for good measure.

What was the key to my success? I was able to pinpoint the fact that, in bot draft, there is a great deal of repetition in the way drafts go, so the single most important part is to identify the common cards that are the most powerful that bots will allow you to wheel consistently in large numbers.

In Ikoria human draft, Cycling is an amazing deck because humans undervalue cards with Cycling: 1 and Cycling decks from tables that can take payoffs on the frontside and wheel the enablers are simply unbeatable if they're able to pick up a copy of Zenith Flare, let alone two or more, which is completely reasonable at most human Arena draft tables in the Lair of Behemoths.

In Ikoria bot draft, however, Cycling 1 cards do not wheel as regularly (last December) and my first two drafts of this iteration of the bots, I did encounter two alright Cycling decks, so this may have loosened up a bit from the December iteration, however, there's a simple way to farm the entire bot draft system and it really comes down to three common cards that bots routinely allow to wheel, both last December, and still today— Forbidden Friendship, Bushmeat Poacher, and Tentative Connection.

The beauty of Rakdos Sacrifice in the Lair of Behemoths is that there is simply no way to be forced out of the deck because it's so deep and there are so many variants, and also, nobody really knows how to put this deck together anymore. BeersSC and Spiraling were pioneers of this deck on Magic Online and I remember the first time my heart sunk when someone played Whisper Squad on turn 1.... yep, it was Spiraling... The master himself. Check out the Limited Level Ups episode with BeerSC for more great Whisper Squad stories! 

Anyways, this package of commons provides an amazing card advantage engine if Bushmeat Poacher goes unanswered. It's tough for any opponent to answer the amount of Bushmeat Poachers any form of IKO draft will allow us to enlist, though, as I'm frequently able to have 2-5 of them and recently played 6 as more of a meme and content creation point, than as an optimal build as 6 Giant Spiders without Reach may just be excessive— However, it goes to show that it's something the bots will allow, unlike 3 Zenith Flare decks that human pods of IKO will  often enable at lower-knowledge tables.

The beauty of this deck is that even if the Poacher is answered, we still have plenty of sacrifice outlets that're both wonderful cards and undervalued by tables both human and bot alike— Those cards are Mutual Destruction and Weaponize the Monsters. Let's take a moment to appreciate how amazing 1 mana spells can be. Tempo is a wonderful thing, and in the Land of Behemoths it's common that Mardu decks are playing 15 or 16 lands, so it's important that we can cast our spells and double-spell without committing too much real estate to the board in the form of Swamps and Mountains, but enough rambling-- Let's try to boil this deck down to a few key ingredients and then we'll expound on some individual synergies that should get you well on your way to gaining life, stealing behemoths, and lifting trophies.

Ingredients:
1-5 One-Drops
4-8 Two-Drops
3-6 Sacrifice Outlets
1-3  Premium Removal spells
1-6 Gamebreakers

What are One-Drops?

Let me tell you, they all cost B. We've really got Whisper Squad (Always play 2+, never play 1) and Serrated Scorpion as serious options for our deck. If you're playing Blisterspoon Goblin, congratulations, you've played yourself-- Literally. This is not where you want to be, if your one mana creatures aren't creating additional value, you don't want them. This being said, your one-drop creatures are very important to your gameplan, both in applying early pressure and also in providing additional sacrifice value for your Bushmeat Poachers so it's important to prioritize them, especially Whisper Squad (even speculatively), because these are truly the cards that can push your deck over the top, as strange as this may sound.

Two-Drops are very interchangeable and all serve different purposes in different matchups.

We've got Dwarven Stinger, which always makes the deck, but being a premium common, we'll likely only have this card if we took it early in Pack 1 trying to end up in Cycling, and fell back on the very safe Rakdos Sacrifice plan instead, where this card is also playable. Occasionally, you'll end up in a Rakdos build heavy on Stingers, Marmosets, and Spellgorger Wolverines and this deck wants offcolor Cycling 1 cards and can be played very similarly to a White/Red Cycling deck, although this is rare to occur and not the topic of conversation here.

The two drop that we really want to prioritize isn't the Boot Nipper, which many drafters love, however, it trades with a single Forbidden Friendship token, mitigating its aggressive presence. We want the unbeatable, the irreplaceable, the inevitable, the Durable Coilbug. The only way that most people are able to deal with the Durable Coilbug is through a Memory Leak, there aren't that many 'Remove from Game' effects in Ikoria Limited that see a lot of play, Dire Tactics would be another example, and this makes the Durable Coilbug the ultimate weapon for decks full of Bushmeat Poachers and Weaponize the Monsters. If someone is wasting premium removal on your 6th pick 2 mana 2/2, you're looking good in a deck that is primed to grind. Durable Coilbug can literally be a gameplan in-and-of-itself, allowing creature-light builds to still manifest sacrifice destiny!

The last two-drop, and one that can be prioritized but also wheels in bot draft, is Forbidden Friendship. Forbidden Friendship gets better in multiples, and going Friendship on 2 into Friendship on 3, on the play, can be tough for opponents to bounce back from, especially with a one-drop in the mix. Forbidden Friendship also provides two bodies, so it really plays like a divination that gains life in this deck, due to the undervaluation of Bushmeat Poacher from both bots and humans alike.

Sacrifice Outlets

Let's take a moment to talk about Bushmeat Poacher, the common that makes this deck, in all of its different configurations, truly tick. We've seen other forms of Poachers that just didn't quite get there, such as the card in Kaladesh that I tried repeatedly to make a thing, the 2/2 for 2B that didn't draw cards or gain life when you sacrificed a creature (or, noted bonus, an artifact)!

Bushmeat Poacher is a 3-and-D player. The Poacher is an absolute menace on both ends of the court, in every way except for the physical Magic: The Gathering ability. It certainly does play well with other Menace creatures, though, due to the ever-wheeling Tentative Connection-- This is the card that allows us to shine in the Rakdos Sacrifice archetype.



Premium Removal

Removal is at a premium in Ikoria due to Mutate and the fact that threats can spiral out of control in a top-wards manner-- IE: a 2/3 becomes a 5/6 (Glowstone Recluse) we might need a Blood Curdle instead of a Fire Prophecy to answer it. As creatures scale upwards, and they often do with Mutate running rampant, cards like Blood Curdle skyrocket to the top of the commons list.

While it has its limitations in terms of targets, Fire Prophecy is the actual best common in Ikoria draft and should be treated as such. Two mana instant-speed removal with a filtering effect is wildly powerful, and Fire Prophecy shines in any deck that can cast it, including Black/Red sacrifice. This is an ideal pick 1 pack 1 that opens the door to both Cycling and Sacrifice.

With cards like Mage Hunters Onslaught in the current format playing fine, it's interesting to look back at the Curdle. This card is an instant at 3B, and the Menace keyword granted allows us to apply pressure with our threats, but also enables a 'Killian-like' cost reduction on the flagship common in our little archetype-- Tentative Connection.

Gamebreakers: Tentative Connection, Bastion of Remembrance, Weaponize the Monsters, Obosh the Preypiercer (Maindeck— Do not Companion this!).

Weaponize the Monsters and Bastion of Remembrance both may look underwhelming but do not fret, simply snap them up over literally anything and play with them. Your eyes will be opened to the archetype and you will create downright oppressing board-states that opponents concede from at high life totals... trust me!

Tentative Connection is a card that is common and commonly wheels, yet we can turn it into an Uncommon-level game-breaking card with the myriad synergies our deck is comprised of— With one of our enablers (Poacher, Mutual Destruction, Weaponize) we can use this at 5 or 6 mana as a supplemental Curdle or Terminate, effectively removing a creature of any size and in the process, trading 2-for-1 by forcing a chump block with the Threaten effect + early pressure, or enabling a Mutual Destruction or Poacher sacrifice for added value in the form of cards, damage, or life, depending on the specific situation and desired outcomes of the combat at hand.

Look at Lukka calmly caressing that lion, that's a sign of good things to come. If we've got a Poacher out, let's take a look at an opponent curving into a serious threat-- Humble Naturalist into a turn 5 Ravenous Lindwurm, errrr... Honey Mammoth I mean. This threat gains life, stemming our beatdown, and is a body that is tough to move without a premium removal spell in Blood Curdle. Even a Rumbling Rockslide won't get the job done until turn 6, and it's slow, clunky, and sorcery speed. Rumbling Rockslide is a card we'll play as filler, but it's not premium removal and the longer you play with it, the more you'll see it's middling actuality. 

As you can see, the beauty of the Rakdos Sacrifice deck is that all of the enablers are commons that're readily available and actively fill multiple roles in the archetype, while the uncommons are incredibly powerful and undervalued by both bot and human drafters alike. This perfect storm of events allows Rakdos Sacrifice to excel in both bot and human draft, and I truly feel that if you simply play this deck repeatedly, you'll win at least 66% of your Ikoria Quick Draft Best of 1 games, which is a pretty absurd winrate, all things considered! Thanks for tuning in-- I'll detail the individual matchups so you have an idea of what to expect before wrapping this up.

Individual Matchups:

CYCLING: 65/35 This matchup is the most skill-intensive in the entire format I truly think,  other than, perhaps, the Cycling mirror... Our Bushmeat Poachers are an amazing resource if we're able to feed chump-blockers to them. The Cycling deck is able to capitalize on early pressure from Flourishing Fox and Prickly Marmoset to force poor chump blocks from even Mutate decks, presenting must-block 8-power First Striking threats as early as turn four, five, or six. Throwing random 1/1s in front of these threats and setting up situations where we can gain a life and draw a card off of them is one of the biggest things we can do to increase our chances of winning the lategame.

 Our lifegain typically means the Cycling deck will be forced to burn a Zenith Flare on one of our Bushmeat Poachers before they're able to close us out, so being able to establish 2 active Poachers against Cycling is an extremely desirable line of play. If we have Poachers that can sacrifice other Poachers, Zenith Flare can't gain life unless it targets our face, which our lifegain makes not a great target, making the Cycling deck's inevitability waver and oftentimes, we can even deck the Cycling deck by gaining so much life with our Poachers that they're unable to close the game out fast enough due to their threat-light constrution focused on buidling an engine, and our removal-heavy, answer-everything and keep-on keepin'-on archetypical plan.

BR MIRROR: 50/50 (rare because no one drafts this deck) Weaponize the Monsters and Bastion of Rememberence are so powerful that little else matters, whoever locates the most copies of their busted enchantments will inevetiably win the grind so this matchup is often won in the draft portion, though early pressure can tip the scales and amassing many Whisper Squads or Friendship tokens can certainly steal a victory.

BW HUMANS: 45/55 Our worst matchup, General's Enforcer can be a pain and if they're splashing an Offspring's Revenge, good luck if they draw it! Save threatens for Poachers, General's Enforcers, and other forms of card advantage since this matchup invariably becomes a boardstall. Much like the mirror, both decks have access to Weaponize the Monsters and Bastion of Remembrance, the two cards that will shift most boardstates beyond any state of repair for the opposing forces.

BASE GREEN DECKS: 75/25 Wait on Tentative Connections, don't spew them early since they have many large threats you'll need to answer and if you wait, you'll win the long game. Their gameplan plays into 2-for-1'ing themselves via Mutate, so the longer the game goes, the better. Remove cards that gain life (Alert Heedbonder), draw  cards (Thieving Otter that can't be blocked, Pollywag Symbiote), or create more token threats (Trumpeting Gnarr, Quartzwood Crasher). If you can stem their card-advantage creatures, you'll typically take this matchup down slowly but surely. The way that base-green decks beat you is by topdecking a random Ultimatum lategame and overwhelming the marginal advantages you repeatedly accrue throughout the game.

BLUE/RED: 60/40 This deck plays like a green deck with more evasion and interaction. As such, our Connections and gameplan are weaker because the deck presents multiple threats that are harder to chump block for incremental value across time and our threaten effects gain less life and are less reliably available. Removing anything with a Dreamtail Heron mutated onto it should be an absolute priority as this allows mutating at card parity and is also evasion, two things we're hoping to mitigate in the matchup.

I hope these tips and tricks help you to understand this riveting archetype that creates some horribly unpleasant situations for opponents, all while creating riveting board states with a pile of Black and Red commons from the Lair of Behemoths. Happy drafting, and happy sacrificing!

Leaving only good wishes behind,
Tajoordan