At a glance
- Format: Brawl (100-card)
- Commander: Judith, the Scourge Diva
- Colors: Black / Red (BR)
- Archetype: Rakdos aristocrats sacrifice midrange
- Power tier: mid-high
- Competitive Brawl: ✅ Legal
Strategy
Gameplan. This is a textbook Rakdos aristocrats grind deck behind Judith, the Scourge Diva, who makes every sacrificed body and every removal spell hit for one extra and keeps your non-token attackers alive through combat math. You’re not racing — you’re assembling a death-trigger machine. Flood the board with cheap, expendable creatures (Shambling Ghast, Dusk Legion Zealot, Reassembling Skeleton, Bloodghast, Cult Conscript), then feed them to free sacrifice outlets and convert each death into damage, drain, and cards. The Morbid/“creature died this turn” theme is wall-to-wall: Bone Picker and Death-Rattle Oni come down for a song, Tragic Slip becomes -13/-13, and Brimstone Volley jumps to 5. Against a single opponent in Brawl that focus is brutal — you generate more incremental value per turn than most ladder decks can answer.
The engine. The win comes from stacking aristocrats payoffs on top of repeatable sacrifice. The drain package — Zulaport Cutthroat, A-Blood Artist, Bastion of Remembrance, Vengeful Bloodwitch, Etched Familiar, Susurian Voidborn, and the doublers Vraan, Executioner Thane and Vein Ripper — turns any board wipe (yours or theirs) into a life-total swing. Free outlets are the glue: Goblin Bombardment is the marquee card (sac-for-damage that also enables every Morbid trigger and dodges removal), backed by Mayhem Devil pinging on every sac, plus Deadly Dispute / Village Rites / Corrupted Conviction / Vampiric Rites to launder dying bodies into cards. The draw motor (Midnight Reaper, Morbid Opportunist, Phyrexian Arena, the Phyrexian ETB-draw creatures) refuels so you never run out of fuel, while Bloodghast and Reassembling Skeleton give you infinite sac fodder for the Bombardment loop. Massacre Wurm is a one-card blowout against go-wide boards.
How it wins. Three overlapping clocks. Most often you win incrementally — drain triggers plus Judith pings chip the opponent out over a few turns while you out-grind them on cards. The reach finish is Syr Konrad, the Grim: with a sac outlet and recursive creatures (Bloodghast/Skeleton) he machine-guns the opponent’s life total directly. Failing that, you assemble a real board and swing with evasive threats (Junji, Vein Ripper, Preacher of the Schism) under Judith’s anthem-on-death protection. The honest knock keeping this at mid-high rather than high: the curve leans low and grindy, removal is plentiful but the proactive threats are modest, and you lean on owned commons/uncommons over the bombs sitting in the upgrade menu (Ragavan, Blasphemous Act, Krenko). It punishes fair midrange and creature decks hard, but a fast aggro draw or a resolved haymaker you can’t interact with can get under you before the engine comes online.
Upgrade path
LAND REVAMP 2026-07-11: manabase rebuilt to kill taplands (cut guildgates/temples/gainlands); now runs shock + verge (+painland in Brawl) untapped duals + basics.
Cards
Decklist
Paste straight into MTG Arena (or Moxfield/Archidekt):
Commander
1 Judith, the Scourge Diva
Deck
1 Rekindling Phoenix
1 Junji, the Midnight Sky
1 Bloodghast
1 Riveteers Requisitioner
1 Tenacious Underdog
1 Arcane Signet
1 Mind Stone
1 Coldsteel Heart
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Feed the Swarm
1 Garna, Bloodfist of Keld
1 Zulaport Cutthroat
1 Syr Konrad, the Grim
1 Midnight Reaper
1 Kardur, Doomscourge
1 Lightning Strike
1 Burn Down the House
1 Tragic Slip
1 Fake Your Own Death
1 Shambling Ghast
1 Black Sun's Twilight
1 Cult Conscript
1 Hero's Downfall
1 Brimstone Volley
1 Hangarback Walker
1 Vraan, Executioner Thane
1 Morbid Opportunist
1 Dusk Legion Zealot
1 Phyrexian Rager
1 Phyrexian Gargantua
1 Gravelighter
1 Dreadhorde Butcher
1 Annihilating Glare
1 Infernal Grasp
1 Bone Picker
1 Death-Rattle Oni
1 Overwhelming Remorse
1 Reassembling Skeleton
1 A-Blood Artist
1 Deadly Dispute
1 Chandra's Incinerator
1 Vampiric Rites
1 Corrupted Conviction
1 Eaten Alive
1 Susurian Voidborn
1 Etched Familiar
1 Vengeful Bloodwitch
1 Village Rites
1 Mayhem Devil
1 Bastion of Remembrance
1 Vein Ripper
1 Massacre Wurm
1 Preacher of the Schism
1 Goblin Bombardment
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Dismember
1 Command Tower
1 Blood Crypt
1 Blazemire Verge
27 Swamp
7 Mountain
1 Krenko, Mob Boss
1 Blasphemous Act
1 Bitterbloom Bearer
1 Qarsi Revenant
1 Foreboding Ruins
1 Dark Fortress
Ideal build (upgrade target)
Ideal keeps Judith’s Rakdos death-trigger grind but stacks the best legal payoffs and free sac outlets: Bloodletter of Aclazotz doubles all drain, Mayhem Devil/Syr Konrad/Judith Carnage Connoisseur turn each sac into direct damage, and Grave Pact + Dictate of Erebos convert your fodder into a hard board lock. Adds free outlets (Goblin Bombardment, Ashnod’s Altar, Priest of Forgotten Gods, Woe Strider), premium removal (Bedevil, Terminate, Go for the Throat, Sheoldred’s Edict), grind bombs (Sheoldred, Kroxa, Ob Nixilis, Fable), and an untapped BR manabase with sac lands. Top craft priorities: Bloodletter of Aclazotz (mythic), Sheoldred, the Apocalypse (mythic), Grave Pact (mythic), Goblin Bombardment (rare), Blood Crypt + the untapped BR duals.
Crafts to reach the ideal: 22 (4 mythic, 14 rare, 4 uncommon)
- Mythic: Grave Pact, Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger, Mount Doom, Ob Nixilis, the Adversary
- Rare: Ashnod’s Altar, Bedevil, Blightstep Pathway // Searstep Pathway, Bloodstained Mire, Dictate of Erebos, Fable of the Mirror-Breaker // Reflection of Kiki-Jiki, Haunted Ridge, High Market, Judith, Carnage Connoisseur, Phyrexian Tower, Priest of Forgotten Gods, Reckoner Bankbuster, Sulfurous Springs, Woe Strider
- Uncommon: Fell Stinger, Juri, Master of the Revue, Pitiless Plunderer, Terminate
Full ideal list (paste into Arena):
Commander
1 Judith, the Scourge Diva
Deck
1 A-Blood Artist
1 Zulaport Cutthroat
1 Vengeful Bloodwitch
1 Bastion of Remembrance
1 Vraan, Executioner Thane
1 Marauding Blight-Priest
1 Bloodletter of Aclazotz
1 Vein Ripper
1 Etched Familiar
1 Syr Konrad, the Grim
1 Mayhem Devil
1 Judith, Carnage Connoisseur
1 Juri, Master of the Revue
1 Chandra's Incinerator
1 Goblin Bombardment
1 Ashnod's Altar
1 Priest of Forgotten Gods
1 Woe Strider
1 Vampiric Rites
1 Village Rites
1 Corrupted Conviction
1 Pitiless Plunderer
1 Fell Stinger
1 Deadly Dispute
1 Morbid Opportunist
1 Midnight Reaper
1 Preacher of the Schism
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Reckoner Bankbuster
1 Bloodghast
1 Cult Conscript
1 Tenacious Underdog
1 Reassembling Skeleton
1 Shambling Ghast
1 Dusk Legion Zealot
1 Riveteers Requisitioner
1 Undead Butler
1 Dreadhorde Butcher
1 Rekindling Phoenix
1 Junji, the Midnight Sky
1 Kardur, Doomscourge
1 Garna, Bloodfist of Keld
1 Phyrexian Gargantua
1 Fable of the Mirror-Breaker
1 Ob Nixilis, the Adversary
1 Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger
1 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
1 Grave Pact
1 Dictate of Erebos
1 Lightning Strike
1 Brimstone Volley
1 Terminate
1 Bedevil
1 Go for the Throat
1 Infernal Grasp
1 Hero's Downfall
1 Sheoldred's Edict
1 Feed the Swarm
1 Dismember
1 Black Sun's Twilight
1 Languish
1 Massacre Wurm
1 Burn Down the House
1 Command Tower
1 Blood Crypt
1 Haunted Ridge
1 Sulfurous Springs
1 Blazemire Verge
1 Blightstep Pathway
1 Foreboding Ruins
1 Mount Doom
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 High Market
1 Dark Fortress
15 Swamp
9 Mountain
Card images & data via Scryfall.