I started EDH about two and a half years ago now and skipped from deck to deck a fair bit, stopping only on Ghost Council of Orzhova for any length of time. Rafiq is the first general I got really fixated on. No matter how long I play with him and his Bant-aligned colours, I can always find new ways to make him fun and interesting and, probably most important, relevant to my metagame.
He started life as an exalted beatdown deck aiming for the general win before morphing into a voltron somewhere along the way still with general beats in mind. The next step was intended as a lesson to my metagame and was one which functioned very well as Hermit Druid, Golgari Grave Troll, Attunement and very aggressive Life from the Loams allowed me to Replenish my graveyard full of enchantments onto Rafiq or another of my creatures to slam in for the win in short order. Once graveyard hate became the mot du jour, Rafiq got to try on new armour into an early version of the deck that, after a few changes, became the following:
== General (1) ==
1x Rafiq of the Many
== Land (37) ==
3x Plains
4x Island
4x Forest
1x Maze of Ith
1x Riftstone Portal
1x Darksteel Citadel
1x Strip Mine
1x Wasteland
1x High Market
1x Flagstones of Trokair
1x Eiganjo Castle
1x Tolaria West
1x Tranquil Thicket
1x Lonely Sandbar
1x Secluded Steppe
1x Misty Rainforest
1x Windswepth Heath
1x Flooded Strand
1x Tundra
1x Tropical Island
1x Selesnya Sanctuary
1x Azorius Chancery
1x Simic Growth Chamber
1x Yavimaya Coast
1x Brushland
1x Adarkar Wastes
1x Breeding Pool
1x Temple Garden
1x Hallowed Fountain
== Artifact Mana (5) ==
1x Sol Ring
1x Darksteel Ingot
1x Selesnya Signet
1x Azorius Signet
1x Simic Signet
== Non-Mana Artifacts (8) ==
1x Tormod's Crypt
1x Relic of Progenitus
1x Sensei's Divining Top
1x Skullclamp
1x Lightning Greaves
1x Crucible of Worlds
1x Whispersilk Cloak
1x Sword of Light and Shadow
1x Behemoth Sledge
== Enchantments (5) ==
1x Survival of the Fittest
1x Aura Shards
1x Rhystic Study
1x Greater Good
1x Mirari's Wake
== Instants (11) ==
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Enlightened Tutor
1x Worldly Tutor
1x Swords to Plowshares
1x Path to Exile
1x Trickbind
1x Intuition
1x Krosan Grip
1x Capsize
1x Careful Consideration
1x Fact or Fiction
1x Opportunity
== Sorcery (8) ==
1x Life from the Loam
1x Regrowth
1x Kodama's Reach
1x Wrath of God
1x Catastrophe
1x Concentrate
1x Tidings
1x Spitting Image
== Creatures (23) ==
1x Coiling Oracle
1x Sakura Tribe Elder
1x Wood Elves
1x Trinket Mage
1x Mirror Entity
1x Eternal Witness
1x Knight of the Reliquary
1x Yavimaya Elder
1x Solemn Simulacrum
1x Academy Rector
1x Oracle of Mul Daya
1x Body Double
1x Karmic Guide
1x Mulldrifter
1x Reveillark
1x Acidic Slime
1x Genesis
1x Seedguide Ash
1x Blinding Angel
1x Krosan Tusker
1x Kederekt Leviathan
1x Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1x Woodfall Primus
I firmly believe the consistancy of the mana base is what makes or breaks an EDH deck first. Playing a tri-coloured deck, you need to make absolutely sure you have the mana you need early in the game whether it is WW, GG or UU. To this end the mana base is varied and as balanced as I could make it. It's very rare that I cannot pick and mix the availability of my coloured mana based on the requirements of my hand. To help me get there, outside of the lands themselves, I have 7 creatures that net me lands either directly on coming into play or though a tap or sac ability. In addition there's one sorcery, 5 mana artifacts and a metric buttload of direct or creature-connected card draw that is independant to the attack step.
Here's where we start theorising about Rafiq builds. I've now made Rafiq every which way from total control to damage triggers all the way up to and including a Rafiq combo-dredge deck. I've moved away from and argued against decks based around damage triggers in a multiplayer setting. The pervasive arguament for this style of deck is that "there's always someone to attack". Unfortunatly that's not any truer than "Your board will get wiped and their dudes will just be bigger than yours when you rebuild." Small beaters trying to take down three 40-life opponents don't get there. That leaves various renditions of Combo-Rafiq and Aggro-control Rafiq. My deck sits firmly in these two camps. It's an Aggro Control deck that can combo but there is a really important aspect to knowing when you can and can't combo. Very simply put: If somebody is going to Douchebag you, you put the DB trigger on the stack and destroy them in reponse. Otherwise the combo elements in Rafiq should only be used for their excellent CA properties. This health warning was brought to you by your friends.
So what can this deck do?
It can Wrath & Armageddon (Catastrophe). Seems simple but it's necessary. Use the 'Geddon effects sparingly for your continued health.
It can destroy trouble lands, enchantments and artifacts from a number of different sources.
It can accellerate land and fix mana. This would be a bit of a "Well, duh!" statement except that I am not simply referring to the start of the game. At any point where you can recur a Wood Elves multiple time in a turn you can go from 0 to 5-6 green sources, not to mention any additional colour those lands would produce. That extra land is an additional Rafiq, a hardcast Woodfall Primus or similiar accelleration.
It can kill individual creature threats either by removing them from the game or, in the case of Generals or other legends, just legend-rule killing them repeatedly with Spitting Image.
And what about winning the game? Well, there's Rafiq himself who generally gets the job done either by getting big and tramply, potentially unblockable in addition or by giving his bonus to a couple of big beaters, the Knight, Priums or Akroma. A few guys with Mirror Entity and a LOT of mana can also cause problems.
I do have one exception to my "No damage based triggers!" and that is the little pearl known as Blinding Angel. Now, a 2/4 is not going to win a 4 man pod all by her self (not today anyway, she may be finished before breakfast!) but with Rafiq she hits for 6 flying and the added bonus of shutting the defending player down for 2 turns. Sure, they can still play stuff but by the time they can attack again, you've attacked them again and they are down another 2 attack phases. Maybe this attrition war doesn't appeal to you but it's a great way of getting someone off your back while you deal with other players. It's also worth mentioning that, even if she's killed, the attack phases are still skipped so concentrating multiple double-Strike attacks on one player for a couple of turns will net you 4 non-attacking turns irregardless of whether someone deals with your little angel. Oh and she's a Reveillark target with her two power in addition, which is nice.
The deck is very focused on getting what it wants: More land, specific coloured land, more cards, specific cards through the various tutors and everything permanent tried to be a 2-for-1 or better. When you re-use these effects again and again, it starts to swing the game in your favour quite often.
Now this is never a finished work. There's a long list of cards that are in and around the deck and these two are on that list. I have Clone, Loxodon Warhammer, Glen Elendra Archimage, Garruk Wildspeaker, Armageddon, 3-4 more Wrath effects and a few others in the wings. As it is currently, I'm looking to stay away from a build where I always go straight for the kill. I'll generally not look for any other enchantment with Academy Rector than Mirari's Wake unless I need to clear a lot of artifacts/Enchantments (Aura Shards). Rhystic Study, Survival of the Fittest and Greater Good generally just get drawn.
Now, all of that was pre-Rise of Eldrazi and our friend Rafiq is looking to suit up against some unleashed gods. Basically we need more table control and the question is really down to how much of the rest of our deck do we want to cut back on?
Here's what I'm looking to add in:
+ Treachery, + Bribery, + Roil Elemental.
If you're going to run monstrously huge Eldrazi, I'm going to do my level best to steal them from you. All three of these are abusable and all work on each of the legends except for Treachery on Emrakul, that is unless you find it with Academy Rector which nicely circumvents the targetting requirement and protection ability from the largest of the Eldrazi. Bribery is for the sneaky early Eldrazi from your opponent's deck and Roil Elemental will probably make the cut despite it's fragility simply for the ability to take control of multiple creatures which will either form a wall or annihilator fodder against the Eldrazi. One of the many interesting tricks is putting the Annihilator trigger on the stack, cracking a fetchland or using Knight of the Reliquary to find a land (or, better yet, a fetchland), stealing the Eldrazi themselves and sacrificing them to their own Annihilator ability. Bazinga!
Two other additions, or rather one reappearance and one addition are:
+ Oblivion Ring, + Riftsweeper
Oblivion Ring is pretty much on the fence right now but I'm going to push it in there somewhere as it's effectively another Academy Rector target as well as being perfectly acceptable on it's own. The one reason it's currently out is that it's relatively poor in a Child of Alara enviornment which is where I find myself. Riftsweeper is to combat the afforementioned realisation that graveyard hate is good and to re-use Academy Rector if needed. She's currently a one-shot and that's a shame. Should a key card or a large portion of my deck/graveyard be exiled, looping Riftsweeper through Reveillark/Body Double/Karmic Guide can recover those cards into your library. As long as Riftsweeper itself isn't one of those cards! ;o)
What's likely to hit the cutting-room floor?
- Akroma, - Skullclamp
These are the first two as the focus of the deck shifts subtly towards other player's creatures, Akroma is not as important. As it stood, she was more likey to be Body Doubled or Karmic Guided into play rather than hard cast. Replacing a 6/6 Tea & Coffee for 5WWW with a 15/15 Tea & Coffee for 3UU seems like a much better deal. As long as Emrakul is sitting in a deck opposite, Bribery will be getting the "Fatty" nod in the deck. Skullclamp is a source of cheap card drawing that generally does too little in the deck as it stands. The hope is that this loss will be offset by the flashier plays that Treachery could provide.
Two of the remaining three slots likely to see play will take the place of Whispersilk Cloak (purely for the costs involved) and one of Sword of Light and Shadow / Behemoth Sledge and I'm currently on the side of the Sword for both the protection and recursion over the Trample and unchecked, unrestricted lifegain.
I have a feeling that the final cuts will be rather painful. Testing will see what works.
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