Hey folks, it's me, Shdorsh and I am back... with a new deck! Today I thought: Let's continue with our delving into the ways of deathtouch abuse... then I ended up making a deck that does anything with counters. Let's check this deck out:

The main idea

A Rakdos deck with a strong creature base (19), and ways to bring them (and your opponents') back! This ought to be fun: we'll make the opponent think twice about blocking anything and all the spells cost only 3 mana at most!

The heartpiece of this deck was supposed to be Ornery Goblin, which would be given deathtouch either by being raised again with Call of the Death-Dweller or through our friend, the Ozolith. Also, Ashmouth Hound is just a dog version of it that we use to evade Ixalan's Binding. To be able to give loads of deathtouch counters, we've got enough Boot Nippers and even some Grimdancers, though you should know that you can only take all the counters off of the Ozolith and put it on one creature, so diversify your assets.

A returning threat: Making opponents regret

Now I thought, what would be a good way to complement this deck? Call of the Death-Dweller let's you raise a maximum of 2 creatures that total up to 3 mana, so we've got a 1 mana creature to spare. We want all the counters to be on the Ornery Goblin though. So Archfiend's Vessel actually makes the perfect companion!

He can't get counters from being returned, as he gets sacrificed directly (could be good with Ozolith out there still), but he turns into a nasty 5/5 flying demon. I even put in 2 Malakir Rebirth for a quicker way to get to that nice 5/5. Imagine the opponent destroying 2 of his creatures to kill both the goblin and the priest, only to find himself with a 5/5 flying demon and a goblin that kills *anything* (yes, that stupid anti-deathtouch shield Mirror Shield and the Ironscale Hydra too) without being killed. (Okay, Indestructible still exists...)

Yeah, you heard that last part correctly. Deathtouch 1 damage any enemy that goes into battle against it, and it means it dies. In order to sneak this in, I also added some Alchemist's Gift, but since the damage procs before you can cast instants when you attack, it only serves defensive purposes.

Embiggening your creatures

Now the creatures are kinda weak, so I tried adding in a slight little combo with Savage Gorger to get +1/+1 counters. While the last version had some Tormentor's Helm, I scrapped them because their role was far too minor. Instead, you fortify your creature base with one more Archfiend's Vessel and Call of the Death-Dweller, which is enough regret for blocking creatures. In case where this intimidates the opponent, just pull out your gorger, and there you go: +1/+1!

Stealing creatures and combat tricks

There's also some removal with Murderous Rider, which costs 2 lifepoints to use, but that shouldn't be a problem with all the lifelink options like Unexpected Fangs. Also works nicely to steal creatures with Minion's Return, though the combined mana cost can make it feel a bit clunky. Good thing that it has flash though, so you should be able to surprise the enemy with it.

Since we run deathtouch, a good old feature from my very first MTGA deck makes a return: First strike paired with deathtouch, through Heightened Reflexes, giving you free kills. Since you can always get everything back with Ozolith, we're in for quite some fun.

All in all, this is quite a fun little deck to play, though it might not be the best. After updating the deck multiple times, I came to a nice 10 rares and 14 uncommons, which should be really easily achievable after a week of play. Don't forget the free Play(insert booster name) promo codes for a quick grab, and have fun!