Commander Deck Tech: Raggadragga, Goreguts Boss
It seems like just last week we were still brewing Streets of New Capenna Commander decks. However, the next set is already out and it's time for some great Commander brews from Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate. Unfortunately I have not had the time to draft the set yet, but have seen a few of the 60 card drafted Commander decks. The decks all looked really good and seemed like a blast to play. I’m hoping to get a private group together for a 4 or 8 player pod in the near future. If you have not yet drafted this set yet and enjoy drafting I highly recommend it! Just make sure you get Draft Boosters and not Set Boosters though.
Onto this weeks pick,
As I was mulling through the set list most of the Legendary Creatures had the background feature. I think the background feature is cool, but better for the draft format vs the constructed format. The backgrounds also added several more choices for options and it became difficult to narrow everything down. After going through the non-background Legendaries I landed on Raggadragga, Goreguts Boss. The ability seemed kind of cool, but the name was just over the top! Who doesn’t like to say Raggadragga?
Raggadragga is a Human Boar, but most of his abilities are correlated to the Elf tribe. I’m guessing when R&D was designing the card they had an issue with him getting too many elf buffs making him better etc. His first ability gives +2/+2 to each Creature you control with a mana ability. The second ability says whenever a Creature with a mana ability you control attacks, you get to untap it. This acts sort of like vigilance for your mana ability Creatures, but does have some different interactions. Think of Zhur-Taa Druid when it initially attacks, it will deal a point from being tapped, but then untap. After or during combat you can then tap him again for mana while pinging each opponent a second time. For the third ability, if you cast a spell that costs seven or more mana you get to untap a Creature and five it +7/+7 and Trample until the end of turn. I see several instances similar to Zhur-Taa Druid where when you attack you will get to untap several mana Creatures. You can then tap them during combat to cast a seven casting cost instant and give one of the Creatures +7/+7, Trample, and also get to untap the Creature again. Keep in mind that you don’t have to cast the spell during combat, you can cast it during your opponent's turn, or at pretty much any time. This could potentially pump a Creature to save it versus a burn spell or something similar. You could also use it as a combat trick having all your Creatures tapped down, and being able to untap and block. It will definitely be interesting to see all the different interactions on when to use the third ability and how it will affect Commander games.
Mana dorks are the bread and butter of this deck. You need them not only to ramp up your mana, but to get the extra bonuses from Raggadragga. In this build I decided to run 17 mana dorks, most of which are elves. Another cool thing is that Birds of Paradise attacks as a 2/3 flier when your Commander is in play and most of your Elfs would be 3/3’s. This deck acts like an aggro deck, but can also just win outright if you have enough mana. Let's say you got a full board with 10 Creatures in play that produce mana, as well as a Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. It wouldn't be that hard, or uncommon to cast a large enough Banefire to just blast one of your opponents to death. Also keep in mind we are also trying to attack with a bunch of 3/3’s early on in the game, so most likely you’ll be putting damage on the board very early on.
Fitting the Aggro theme we have a bunch of different cards and abilities that act as an Overrun. There are seven distinct cards which I consider overrun type spells that can just win the game if you have a bunch of Creatures in play with mana on tap to cast the overrun spell, or activate the overrun ability. These cards are: Beastmaster Ascension, Ezuri, Renegade Leader, End-Raze Forerunners, Craterhoof Behemoth, Triumph of the Hordes, Finale of Devastation, Return of the Wildspeaker, and Unnatural Growth. If we expand a bit, Fires of Yavimaya can potentially be an overrun when sacrificed, but it’s mainly in the deck to give all your Creatures haste.
There is a possibility of a ninth card in Leyline of Abundance, but it costs 8 CMC to activate each time and only gets you +1+1 counters on each Creature. It's viable you may win games that way, but a lot less likely than the first few cards mentioned.
Card drawing or card advantage is definitely necessary for this type of build. We also should have a faster curve or mana acceleration, so spending some mana to draw cards shouldn’t hurt the deck much. We are however limited to what options we have. The best piece of card drawing is Sylvan Library, but we also run: Rishkar's Expertise, Shamanic Revelation, Genesis Wave, Return of the Wildspeaker, Ohran Frostfang, Toski, Bearer of Secrets, Selvala, Heart of the Wilds, Llanowar Visionary, Beast Whisperer, and Regal Force. There are also several other cards that are situational card drawings like a -6 from Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury, but I don’t think that will be activated very often.
We are running just a few pieces of protection spells in Heroic Intervention and Saryth, the Viper’s Fang. If it's an elf we can potentially regenerate if Ezuri, Renegade Leader is in play. We also have a lone Lightning Greaves which gives Shroud.
All in all with Raggadragga you’re either going to be attacking often and hoping to draw an overrun spell to blow out your opponent(s), or getting enough mana on the board to cast one of the higher CMC spells or one of the X spells to kill one or all of your opponents in one blow.
The potential downfalls to this deck are board wipes like Cyclonic Rift, Supreme Verdict, and other wrath effects. We do have some protection spells, and spells to bring cards back like Eternal Witness, and Bala Ged Recovery. My hope is that we build the pressure quick enough the wraths will be too late. For the late game we do have several things that give haste, and (man-lands) like: Den of the Bugbear, Lair of the Hydra, and Raging Ravine. That plus the amount of X cost burn spells we have will hopefully outweigh or get past the board wipes.
Overall I don’t feel that this deck is too expensive to build with just a few exceptions. Gaea's Cradle and Taiga make up more than half the cost of the whole deck. You could substitute this for basic mana, or something like a Rogue's Passage. Since it’s only a two-color deck the mana is less intensive especially with lots of mana dorks. Even lots of the X spells and overrun type spells can be substituted with cheaper variations.
I hope that this build can give you some ideas on how to build your own Raggadragga, Goreguts Boss Commander deck. If you find any crazy combos please drop me a comment below!
Until Next Time,
